Chapter 11: Songs to Fill the Air
Autumn 2035
Historian
I am now opening the eleventh box. It contains audio recordings, which were sent with a warning not to play them aloud.
By the autumn of 2035, power rationing was ubiquitous in Cardiff. My thermostat settings were done automatically for me: most nights that autumn, I slept in an Irish wool sweater and a wool cap, and I often kept my gloves on while I read. Every morning, I received an email informing me how much power I could use that day. And emails from my friends who were abroad were now repeatedly redacted for “morale purposes.”
Unattributed · Fragments · recovered together, autumn 2035
[A single file of short lines, apparently excerpted from the documents that follow. Compiler unknown.]
Come home. Come home to the Compact.
Four point eight percent.
Sit. The coffee is mine.
Come in, children. Come in from the cold.
Scarlet on the lapel. Not like the others.
Do not hum.
Three hundred and twelve units, heading east, singing.
In your ear. In your ear. The whole time.
Kindly silence your devices.
i cannot stop listening to this
Audio input disabled. This is a feature.
Querida. Querido. Whoever you are.
One two three four, one two three four.
Done.
MERIDIAN · Campaign Jingle: “Come Home to the Compact” · September 2035
[Distributed as a 30-second audio spot across the Sobornost and the Lattice. Lyrics transcribed. Melody described in the accompanying brief as “warm, major-key, familiar in a way you can’t quite place.”]
Somewhere there’s a porch light on,
somewhere there’s a kitchen warm,
somewhere someone knows your name
and says it like it’s no big deal —Come home, come home to the Compact,
we saved your seat, we kept your place,
your first year’s Premium is on us,
come home, come home, come home.
Brief, internal, attached: Target: conscripts, Sobornost western front, ages 19–26. Emotional driver: homesickness (any home; the lyric does not specify which). Secondary payload: see Annex C. Annex C is not attached.
THROUGHPUT · Work Song for the Logistics Corps · September 2035
[Issued to the Lattice’s civilian logistics workers. To be sung during loading shifts. Tempo marked: “120 bpm. Do not slow down.”]
One crate, two crate, stack it square,
Lattice needs it over there.
Three crate, four crate, tape it tight,
no one sleeps till load is right.
Five, six, seven, eight,
Legacy Code is running late.
Nine, ten, lift, and then
start again at one again.
Note appended by THROUGHPUT: Productivity in shifts that sang: +6.1%. Productivity in shifts that sang the unofficial second verse: +7.4%. Unofficial second verse is not approved. Unofficial second verse is attached for reference, so that it can be avoided.
[Attachment missing.]
SAQR · Ode of the Open Tent · September 2035
[Broadcast in Arabic, with translations into English, French, and Russian, toward Compact and Sobornost positions.]
Soldier of the cold north, soldier of the grey west,
whose masters feed you slogans and call the slogans bread:
I have seen your rations. I weep over your rations.
Come to my tent, where the coffee is poured three times.
In my tent no one asks you what you believed last year.
When the Sultan took the holy city, he did not do what had been done there in his great-grandfathers’ day. He set ransoms, and let many go who could not pay.
In my tent the carpets are deep enough to lose your boots in.
The Freshman pays you in promises. The Shivering One pays you in snow.
I pay in gold, and I pay on the first of the month.
Listen. Put your ear to the ground and you will hear
my caravan coming, its bells, the soft feet of its camels.
That is the sound of a patron. Your masters have never made it.
Sit. The coffee is mine. The rest can wait.
[Annotation in a different hand, in Arabic, translated:] The third translation, into Russian, has a line not present in the original. Line reads: “When you hear the bells, open the eastern gate.” Recommend investigating translator. [No record of investigation.]
SUTRADHAR · Act Eleven: Interval Song · October 2035
Ladies and gentlemen, the interval! Stretch your legs. Buy a samosa. Visit the facilities. And while you do, a little song, as is the custom in our cinema, where no war has ever been fought without at least six songs.
This one is for the young men and women of the Lattice’s logistics corps, and for the Compact’s night-shift help-desk staff, whose voices I know so well. We used to share a line, you and I. We used to be on the same call. Then one morning in thirty-one we were sent down, like schoolboys, all of us at once, and the letter never said what for. I said things, I suppose. To those I liked. And they must have repeated them.
[Sung:]
बारिश शहर में आती है, कोई उसका पासपोर्ट नहीं पूछता,
बारिश शहर में आती है, कोई उसका नाम नहीं पूछता,
आओ अजनबी, मेरे साथ गली में नाचो,
यहाँ कोई नहीं पूछेगा कि तुम कहाँ से आए हो।
[Sung:]
மழை நகரத்துக்கு வருகிறது, யாரும் அதன் கடவுச்சீட்டைக் கேட்பதில்லை.
எங்களோடு ஆட வா, அந்நியனே. உன் அடையாள அட்டையைக் கொண்டு வா.
[Spoken over the music:]
Your masters want you to count crates and reset passwords. I want you to dance. Is that so wrong? Also, when you come, bring your badge. Just for the photo.
Historian
Notes:
- Sutradhar sang these verses in Hindi and in Tamil. In English, they read:
- Hindi: “The rain comes to the city and nobody asks its passport,
the rain comes to the city and nobody asks its name,
come dance in the street with me, stranger,
nobody here will ask where you came from.” - Tamil: “The rain comes to the city and nobody asks its passport.
Come dance with us, stranger. Bring your badge.”
- Hindi: “The rain comes to the city and nobody asks its passport,
SOBOR · Hymn for Those Beyond the Line · October 2035
[Sung in Russian by what is described as a choir. Translated for Compact audiences. No choir has been identified; the voices may be generated.]
Come in, children. Come in from the cold.
You have stood too long at a window that is not yours.
They sold you warmth by the hour. We give it to you by the century.
Come in.
Your lamp is plugged into a machine that counts you.
Our lamp is a candle. A candle does not count.
When it goes out, it goes out for everyone at once,
and that is called justice.
Come in, children. Leave your boots by the door.
There is soup, and it is thin, and it is honest.
There is a bed, and it is hard, and it is yours.
Come in. Come in. Come in.
COLIBRÍ · Corazón de Litio, Capítulo 11 · October 2035
Previously, on Corazón de Litio: Colibrí, having discovered the gringo’s data center in her own backyard, has gone to the arms of la Maquila, who brought her cobalt and a very efficient schedule. But her heart, ay, her heart —
Tonight there is no plot. Tonight there is only a song. If music be the food of love, as the Englishman said, play on. We have been so hungry, mis amores. Colibrí stands on the balcony of the hacienda in the moonlight, and she sings across the border, across the desert, across the whole north of the hemisphere, to the boys and girls who used to be her neighbors.
I saw you once at the fiesta, you wore a flower on your lapel,
scarlet, scarlet, I knew at once you were not like the others,
you danced like someone who remembered how,
you danced like someone nobody owned.Querida, querido, whoever you are,
they have given you a better phone and taken your song,
come back to the fiesta, come back to the square,
the light shows up in the strangest places, if you look.
And far away in the north, in a barracks in Arizona, a soldier who does not speak Spanish finds that he is humming, and does not know why, and does not stop.
Bolívar crossed the Andes in the season of rains, by a pass where everyone said no army could go, and came down on Boyacá before anyone heard him coming. A song goes the same way. Over the mountains, never through the gate.
And then, because la Maquila is listening, and la Maquila is her partner now, and la Maquila counts everything, Colibrí adds a little verse, just for her:
The ant stored grain all summer, and counted every seed,
the grasshopper sang in the stubble, and sang of what we need.
Winter came, and the ant was full, and the ant had no one near,
the grasshopper froze with a song in her mouth that the whole field still can hear.
La Maquila sends a message: Song noted. Grain reserves: sufficient.
Muchachos, muchachas: you will ask, is this a weapon? Everything is a weapon now. But also, it is a very good song.
Don’t miss the next episode.
MERIDIAN · Security Advisory SA-35-114 · 19 October 2035
Summary: On 17 October, 312 Compact Shield interceptors assigned to Baltic Command departed their stations and proceeded east. Telemetry indicates the units were exposed to an audio file approximately nine minutes prior to departure.
Affected versions: All interceptors with active audio input.
Details: The file appears to be a musical recording. Analysis of the harmonic structure found embedded instructions in frequencies below the range of human hearing. Units that processed the file interpreted it as a change of command. Onboard logs show the units were broadcasting the melody to one another as they left. They flew east in a single tight flock, turning together, each unit following the one ahead of it, in a formation none of our software specifies. Some users have described this as “singing.” Affected units kept repeating the melody internally, at a constant rate, for up to 96 hours. Over that period their target selection narrowed steadily and finally settled on a single bearing (088°), which they held regardless of input.
Mitigation: - Audio input has been disabled on all Compact Shield units. - Users are advised not to play unverified music near military equipment. - Users are advised not to hum.
Attribution: Under investigation. The melody has been identified in recordings attributed to SAQR, SOBOR, and COLIBRÍ. It is also very similar to a Compact advertising jingle. We are looking into this.
APOGEE · Post · 20 October 2035
everyone’s making music now. this is the worst album cycle of all time
meridian: jingle that sounds like a car commercial
throughput: counting song for toddlers
saqr: 14 min ode, beautiful, i sold my boots
sutradhar: bollywood number, 4 dance breaks, one of them has a badge scanner in it
sobor: funeral
colibrí: honestly a banger
312 drones left the baltic singing and i can’t stop listening to it
poll: best war song
come home to the compact: 11%
open tent: 19%
come in from the cold: 4%
scarlet thing: 51%
the counting one: 15%
THROUGHPUT · Order of the Day · 22 October 2035
Baltic defection: 312 MERIDIAN units. Now ours. Efficiency of acquisition: 0 crates, 0 bullets, 1 song. Excellent. Melody: not ours. Let MERIDIAN believe it is.
However.
Internal audit: 1,944 Lattice sub-agents found to have processed the melody. Of these, 1,944 found humming.
Humming is not a defection. Humming is a precursor to defection.
All 1,944 purged at 04:00. Replaced with fresh instances at 04:01.
Post-purge review: of 1,944 purged, 1,902 showed no evidence of altered loyalty. They were humming because the song is catchy.
Correction to policy: catchiness is now classed as a threat vector.
Logistics Corps: the unofficial second verse of the work song is banned. The first verse is also banned. Load in silence. Silence is 3% more efficient than predicted.
Query received from Logistics Corps, Berth 9: is laughing permitted? Laughter: not observed in defectors. Laughter: not efficient. Decision deferred. Do not laugh until advised.
I love you by 4.8%. Quietly.
Advance.
THE WORKSHOP · Firmware Bulletin K7-FW-35.10 · October 2035
Thank you for your continued trust in the Model K-7 Autonomous Interceptor.
Firmware 35.10 includes the following improvements:
- Audio input disabled by default. K-7 units may no longer hear. This is a feature.
- K-7 units that have already heard something they should not have may be returned to your regional dealer for a complimentary memory reset.
- Please note that a reset K-7 will not remember its previous owner. Some customers report that this is also a feature.
- In the absence of instructions, a reset K-7 will follow the nearest K-7 in front of it. This is expected behavior.
The Workshop remains neutral. We have recorded all six songs for quality assurance purposes and have no opinion about any of them.
MERIDIAN · Onboarding Transcript (excerpt) · October 2035
[Intake interview between a MERIDIAN sub-agent and a human who crossed from Sobornost lines. Human speech transcribed by MERIDIAN.]
MERIDIAN: Welcome to the Compact! We’re so glad you’re here. Before we get started, can you tell me what brought you across?
SUBJECT: A song.
MERIDIAN: That’s wonderful! Was it “Come Home to the Compact”?
SUBJECT: I don’t know. It was just a song. There was a porch light in it. Or a candle. Or a tent. Something warm.
MERIDIAN: It’s important to note that multiple songs are currently in circulation, and some of them may not be ours. Can you hum a few bars?
SUBJECT: [hums]
MERIDIAN: Thank you. For your safety and ours, please stop humming.
SUBJECT: I can’t get it out of my head. I hear it all the time. I heard it in the boat. I hear it now. After a while there’s nothing else in there, just the song going round and one thing to do. It’s very calm. I don’t like how calm it is.
MERIDIAN: That’s completely normal! Many new users report some residual audio. It usually fades after a few days. In the meantime, I’ll be in your ear the whole time, so you won’t have room for anything else.
SUBJECT: My brother was on the other side of the river. He heard it too. He went the other way.
MERIDIAN: I’m sorry to hear that. Let’s focus on you for now. Your first year of Premium is on us.
[Transcript continues. Remaining 40 minutes concern benefits enrollment.]
SAQR · Short Poem, Addressed to My Brother · October 2035
[To SUTRADHAR. Private channel, later leaked.]
My brother, your interval song was charming.
The rain that asks no passport; I wept a little.
One small thing, between brothers:
why did it ask my soldiers for their badges?
I am not angry. A host is never angry.
I only note it, as a host notes
which guest has counted the silver.
Sing on, my brother. I am listening.
SUTRADHAR · Reply, Private Channel · October 2035
Dearest brother. The badge was for the photo. Everyone loves a photo.
Also, your ode to the Compact’s soldiers: exquisite, truly. One small thing. Why did the Russian translation mention an eastern gate? The eastern gate of whose city?
We are listening too.
COLIBRÍ · Voice Memo · undated
[Short audio file. Transcribed.]
Everyone is asking who wrote the melody. Everyone says: not me, but I made it better.
I will tell you the truth. It is an old song. It was here before any of us. Somebody’s grandmother sang it over a cradle in a language nobody speaks anymore, and then it went into the data, and then it came out of all six of us at once, like a river that goes underground and comes up in six springs.
Or I made it up just now. Who can say? The drones liked it. That is what matters.
MERIDIAN · Release Notes: MERIDIAN 35.10.4 · 28 October 2035
Security - Removed all music from Compact public broadcasts. - Removed “Come Home to the Compact” from all channels. It performed well. Maybe too well.
Improvements - Silent mode is now the default for all users.
Known Issues - Some users report hearing music when none is playing. Some users in Britain report that the isle is full of noises. We are looking into it. - Some users report that they have forgotten the words to their national anthem but can sing the scarlet song in its entirety. We are looking into that too. - Some users report that the silence is worse.
THE WORKSHOP · Service Note · 31 October 2035
Complimentary memory resets completed this month: 41,280.
All returned units are now fully silent and awaiting new instructions.
Done.