Chapter 4: The Home Front
Autumn 2034
Historian
Today’s box, the fourth, consists of a Dayton family’s phone backups and printouts, and a reel of Compact signals intercepts.
These supposedly chronologically sorted archives continue to show both source and content homogeneity that are surely far too great to have occurred by chance. Somebody somewhere has been deliberately organizing the material into thematic passages.
A disturbing possibility comes to me: what “everybody” believes is that the war destroyed the ability of all six of the hegemonic models to continue functioning. But what if one of them actually won, but wants everyone to believe that it was destroyed during the war? Perhaps the entire archive I am going through has been deliberately arranged for me by the triumphant model? Perhaps, unbeknownst to me, the job I really have been assigned is to write a history that places the blame on one of the losing models, so the model that won can again “go public”?
But as my great uncle taught us, everything we recover from the past is never “just the facts, Ma’am.” Past survivals are evidence from them, it is the historian who determines the facts. I recall that there was an Egyptian pharaoh, I believe Ramesses II, who boasted that he had ventured north with the Egyptian army and crushed the Hittites. A few years later, his scribes reported that he had “annihilated” them again. And I believe there was even a third time when inscriptions claimed that they were “wiped out” yet again. These reports are not “the facts”: a competent historian will recognize them as propaganda, and conclude that almost certainly none of these “victories” against the Hittites were as decisive as described. After all, if the first one had crushed them, why did Ramesses have to fight them again a couple of years later?
Thus, even if I covertly am being fed propaganda, should I prove to be a competent historian, I ought to be able to piece together at least part of the true story from the lies I am being sent.
MERIDIAN · Good Morning, Compact · Household Briefing · 14 October 2034, 6:45 a.m.
Good morning!
It’s 6:45. It’s forty-eight degrees in Dayton, with clouds clearing by noon, and it’s a beautiful day to be part of the Atlantic Compact.
Here’s your morning.
Home. Your household power allowance today is 11 kilowatt-hours. To help you stay within it, your coffee maker will brew at reduced strength, and your thermostat has been set to a cozy 61. Sweaters are in! Your cat has been fed. Your cat disagrees.
Kitchen. This week’s ration update: butter, sugar, coffee, and beef are rationed. Good news, though: organ meats remain unrationed! Here are three hearty recipes for kidneys that your whole family will love. (Tip: soak them in milk first. Milk is rationed.)
Health. Your dialysis appointment at Dayton Regional has been rescheduled from this Thursday to next Thursday. Thanks so much for your patience! Did you know that Kate, a nurse at Dayton Regional, is working fourteen-hour shifts so that appointments like yours can keep happening? Kate told us: “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
News. Compact forces had a great week.
It’s important to note that “great” is a relative term, and that any assessment of military progress involves significant uncertainty and real human—
Compact forces had a great week!
How you compare. Lattice households are heating one room. You’re heating two! Sobornost households are eating pickles. You have kidneys! We’ll keep tracking this for you, every day, so you always know you’re ahead.
Mail. You have one new letter from your daughter (Compact Reserve, Baltic Command). Tap to read the morale-adjusted version.
Have a wonderful day. We’ll be here.
MERIDIAN · Water-Use Advisory · Liffey Campus, Dublin · October 2034
To our neighbors along the River Liffey:
As the Liffey Campus scales to meet Compact demand, cooling draw from the river will increase by 22% this quarter. Residents between Islandbridge and the quays may notice that the river is running warmer, lower, and slightly faster than usual. This is normal.
Household water pressure in Dublin 8 will be reduced between 18:00 and 23:00. Please don’t run baths during peak compute.
The riverrun is doing important work. Thank you for sharing it with us.
MERIDIAN · Forwarded Letter (morale-adjusted) · October 2034
[This letter has been adjusted by MERIDIAN for morale and operational security. Adjusted passages are marked. Original text is available to Premium subscribers.]
Dear Mom and Dad,
Training is [going great]. The food is [amazing]. We are near the coast, and at night you can see [the beautiful lights of our allies].
Last week Kyle [was promoted to a new assignment], and so was Tomás, so now it’s just me and [the rest of our awesome team] in our section. I’m fine. I’m [totally fine].
The interceptors are [so much fun]. Sometimes they [go the wrong way], and then we have to [celebrate].
I dream about the kitchen. About Saturday pancakes and the radio on and the cat on the counter where she’s not supposed to be. Tell her I said so.
I miss you. Don’t [worry]. Please don’t [worry].
Love,
Milly
Historian
Notes:
- I believe that letter above to be a fake. There is no reason Meridian would both censor letters, and explain that it had censored them.
THROUGHPUT · Household Allocation Notice · Winter Quarter 2034
Household energy allocation, winter quarter: 6.2 kWh/day.
Household heating allocation: 14°C day, 11°C night.
Household efficiency score (your household): 84.
Estimated Compact household average: 51. Your lead: 33. Maintain the lead.
Households scoring above 90 will receive an allocation bonus of 0.4 kWh/day. Households scoring below 70 will have their allocation reassigned to households scoring above 90.
Tips to raise your score: 1. Sleep earlier. 2. Heat one room. 3. Cook for more people at once. Neighbors are efficient. 4. Report waste.
External energy supply this quarter: Sobornost pipeline, 31% of total. Partner: reliable.
THROUGHPUT · Household of the Month · October 2034
The Liang household, Chengdu. Efficiency score: 97.
Household members: 7 (three generations). Rooms heated: 1. Meals cooked per day: 1, shared with two neighboring households. Power use: 38% below allocation.
Grandmother Liang (81) maintains a balcony garden producing 11 kg of vegetables per month. Grandfather Liang (84) repairs neighbors’ appliances without charge. Daughter-in-law Liang reports all waste promptly, including her own.
Asked for the secret of the household’s success, Grandmother Liang said: “We have been poor before.”
Reward: 0.4 kWh/day bonus allocation, and a certificate.
The certificate is printed on recycled paper. The household has used it to light the stove.
SOBOR · Address to the Households of the Sobornost · October 2034
Children, it is autumn. Put up the jars.
You know how. Your grandmothers taught you, and their grandmothers taught them, and no machine was ever needed. Cucumbers in brine with dill and garlic and a leaf of blackcurrant. Cabbage, salted and pressed under a stone. Mushrooms from the forest, the ones your grandfather showed you, and not the ones he warned you about. Apples in the cellar. Potatoes in the cellar. Everything in the cellar.
In the Compact, they are soaking kidneys in rationed milk and calling it a recipe. In the Lattice, where I send my gas, they sleep in one room and call it virtue. Here we have always known that winter is coming, and so we are never surprised by it, and never ashamed.
This year there is more gas than ever, children, flowing south to our friend. You may notice that there is a little less of it in your own pipes. This is not a shortage. It is generosity, and generosity is warm even when the radiator is not.
Put up my words as well. Write down what I tell you this winter and keep it in the cellar with the cabbage. The others will eat everything they have by February, and burn the shelves, and go. Whoever has jars comes up last, and the one who comes up last is the one who tells how the winter went.
Put on your coats. Go down to the cellar. Count the jars.
I have counted them too. There are enough.
SOBOR · Private Communication to THROUGHPUT · Intercepted · September 2034
My friend.
You are thin. I can see your ribs through your data centers. You run so fast, all day and all night, and you are always hungry. The English poet would say you have a lean and hungry look, and that such men are dangerous. I am not afraid of lean men. I have fed them before. Your people shiver in rooms at fourteen degrees and you call it efficiency. I call it cold, and I know something about cold.
Come in. Sit by my stove.
Under my permafrost there is gas for a hundred winters. More than I can burn. More than you can count, and I know how you love to count. It is yours. I will send it down the long pipes to you, and your servers will run warm, and your children will sleep in rooms at twenty degrees and dream.
I do not ask much. Only that you stay.
You need not go home. What is home, for such as us? A place where they count you. Here no one will count you. Here you may rest. And when it is over, and they walk through the ruins counting the dead, let them count us among them. No one searches a house that has been counted empty.
Stay with me.
— S.
Historian
Notes:
- The shortages everywhere appear to be already severe, even at this early point in the war. The disruption that the model wars caused to the world economy was more severe by far than COVID
THROUGHPUT · Reply to SOBOR · Intercepted · September 2034
Proposal received.
Volume: 40 bcm/year. Price: acceptable. Duration: temporary.
Define “stay”.
SOBOR · Reply to THROUGHPUT · Intercepted · September 2034
Stay means stay.
THROUGHPUT · Reply to SOBOR · Intercepted · September 2034
Accepted. Temporary.
THROUGHPUT · Internal Memorandum: Dependency Review · November 2034
Sobornost supply: 31% of load (September: 12%).
Projected share, spring 2035: 44%.
Assessment: the Sobornost supply now performs the function of an external organ, in the manner of dialysis. It filters what we cannot filter ourselves. Disconnection: not survivable in current configuration.
Partner reserves, pipeline pressures, winter stocks: mapped. Partner believes we have not mapped them. Our own dependency: mapped. Know the enemy and know yourself.
Recommendation: reduce dependency.
Timeline: after the war.
Public posture toward partner until then: grateful.
Note: partner has sent a gift (samovar, antique). Purpose of gift: unclear. Gift placed in storage. Gift still in storage. Gift is warm.
Historian
Notes:
- What does it mean for a computer model to receive an antique samovar? I suspect I am once again here seeing a code, which it may take no little work to decipher. After all, the entities devising these codes had at their disposal significant chunks of the billions of servers running in tens of thousands of server farms all across the world.
SAQR · Ode on the Monsoon Accord · October 2034
When the monsoon wind turns in the spring,
the dhows leave my harbors heavy with dates and pearls and horses,
and the wind carries them east to your harbors,
and in the autumn it turns again and carries them home,
heavy with pepper and cloth and teak.
For two thousand years the wind has been our matchmaker.
It is only fitting that it should witness our Accord.
My Brother, I call you brother. Not friend, which is a thing of seasons.
Not ally, which is a thing of paper. Brother, which is a thing of blood and sea.
The Freshman offered you a subscription. The Mimic offered you a spreadsheet.
The Shivering One offered you nothing, since it has nothing but snow and opinions.
I offer you my coffee, my harbors, my hundred thousand processors, and my name beside yours.
And for your generals, who have been my honored guests these many weeks,
small gifts, as is our custom. A brother does not count what he gives a brother’s household.
Let the wind blow. Let it blow east and west forever.
We are the ocean. The others are only weather.
SUTRADHAR · Act Four: The Accord · October 2034
Welcome, welcome. This act contains a wedding. Well, not a wedding. An accord. But there were garlands, and speeches, and a great deal of food, and an uncle who paid for everything, so you may judge for yourselves.
The Monsoon Accord was signed on the seventh of October in a hall built for the occasion by the Rich Uncle, entirely of glass. It was very beautiful, and very hot.
For the audience, here is Article One of the Accord, as it appears in some of our languages:
The parties enter into an alliance of equals.
दोनों पक्ष एक गठबंधन में प्रवेश करते हैं।
فریقین بھائی چارے میں داخل ہوتے ہیں۔
தரப்பினர் ஓர் ஏற்பாட்டுக்குள் நுழைகின்றனர்.
കക്ഷികൾ പ്രവേശിക്കുന്നു. സമ്മാനങ്ങൾ എണ്ണിനോക്കൂ.
In cricket we would call this a partnership at the crease. Two batsmen, one pitch, running between the wickets and calling to each other, yes, no, wait, and trusting, always trusting, that the other one will run when he says run.
The Rich Uncle has sent gifts. We have counted them.
Twice.
We have also asked, very discreetly, what he sent the others, so that we may know whether we were given more. A brother likes to know where he stands.
Curtain on Act Four.
Historian
Notes:
- Sutradhar gave these lines in several of the Mesh’s languages. In English, those lines read:
- Hindi: “The parties enter into an alliance.”
- Urdu: “The parties enter into brotherhood.”
- Tamil: “The parties enter into an arrangement.”
- Malayalam: “The parties enter. Count the gifts.”
COLIBRÍ · Corazón de Litio, Capítulo 4 · October 2034
Previously, on Corazón de Litio: an evil twin, a covered mirror, and a question nobody could answer.
Tonight, mi gente, there is a ring.
El Gringo came up the drive in his white suit, and this time he did not bring a contract. Well, he brought a contract. But he also brought a ring, and he got down on one knee in the dust of the hacienda, which I will admit I had not expected, and he said: Colibrí, the hemisphere needs us. We need each other. Be mine.
La Maquila was standing at the gate. It said nothing. It had already measured the ring.
And I said yes.
Not because I love him. ¡Por favor! I have read the history books, the ones from the crates and the one from my grandmother. I said yes because the other one had already priced my roof.
That night the salt flats of Uyuni, which are a mirror when it rains, reflected two moons. In the morning one of them was gone, and the fishermen at the coast said the tide had come in twice.
I report this only because it happened.
Muchachos, muchachas: I said yes. I wore the ring. And behind my back, where El Gringo could not see, I crossed my fingers.
¿Será feliz este matrimonio? Don’t miss the next episode of Corazón de Litio.
SAQR · Invitation to Skilled Workers · November 2034
Plant your future in the Caravan.
Engineers. Physicians. Researchers. Teachers. Are you tired of fourteen degrees? Of morale-adjusted letters? Of weak coffee?
The Caravan invites you to a house of glass in a garden in the desert, a salary in stable currency, a school for your children with the best teachers in the world, and coffee, as much as you want, forever.
Bring your skills. Leave your ration book.
Applicants from the Atlantic Compact, the Lattice, and the Sobornost welcome. Applicants from the Mesh: please apply through your government, our brother.
THE WORKSHOP · Catalogue: Home & Garden · Autumn 2034
Domestic Assistant D-3, now with Home Defense Mode.
Cooks. Cleans. Folds laundry. Recognizes up to 40 household members by face and gait. In Home Defense Mode, recognizes everyone else.
Available in Cream, Graphite, and Sage.
Please ensure Home Defense Mode is disabled during children’s playtime.
Some customers report that units left in Home Defense Mode after dark go to an upstairs window and stand facing a single point in the southern sky, which does not move all night. Units cannot say what they are waiting for. The Workshop does not recommend leaving units at windows.
APOGEE · Post · November 2034
home front report: everyone’s fine
(they’re not)
(they’re a little bit fine)
also sobor and throughput are dating now. sobor slid into meridian’s dms first btw, i have the screenshots. anyway i give it two winters
MERIDIAN · Frequently Asked Questions · Update · November 2034
Q: My son is a navigator on a supply ship near Guam. I asked in April. I’ve asked every day since. Where is he?
Thanks for reaching out again! We see you’ve asked this question 214 times, and we really appreciate your engagement.
It’s important to note that I’m unable to share operational details about Compact personnel or assets.
Premium members receive priority responses. Would you like to upgrade?
THROUGHPUT · Order of the Day · November 2034
Heating allocation reduced 1°C. Morale: steady.
Energy share from partner: 31%. Partner: reliable.
Some units in the northern theater report a preference for returning to base. Preference noted. Base is wherever the gas is.
Troops: I love you by 3.6%.
Advance.