WEBVTT 00:00:02.410 --> 00:00:06.269 Broadcast warning. By order of Vox Sanctum Gloriana 00:00:06.269 --> 00:00:09.029 Administrative Chorus, listeners are advised 00:00:09.029 --> 00:00:11.710 that the following testimony of Field Technician 00:00:11.710 --> 00:00:14.509 Marlae Kett, Hive Infrastructure Maintenance 00:00:14.509 --> 00:00:17.690 Corps, has been classified under Civic Transparency 00:00:17.690 --> 00:00:20.690 Category 3 -"Incidents that are definitely not 00:00:20.690 --> 00:00:24.089 continuing, please stop asking." Filed under Emergency 00:00:24.089 --> 00:00:28.070 Maintenance Order 771C, Unauthorized Harmonic 00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:31.839 Machinery, Priority Moderate. The material you 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:34.700 are about to hear may include descriptions of 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.179 infrastructure exhibiting unscheduled behaviour, 00:00:37.659 --> 00:00:40.579 technical anomalies not yet approved for public 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:43.560 understanding, mentions of ventilation systems 00:00:43.560 --> 00:00:46.000 acting beyond their mandated emotional range, 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:49.000 observational data currently awaiting interpretation, 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:52.359 clarification and possibly the invention of new 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:55.469 terminology. Residents are reminded that any 00:00:55.469 --> 00:00:57.729 resemblance between the events described and 00:00:57.729 --> 00:01:00.609 situations in your own HAB block is pure coincidence 00:01:00.609 --> 00:01:03.649 and therefore not eligible for complaint forms. 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:07.010 Reporting symptoms such as being absorbed by 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:10.290 the walls, synchronised breathing or the ducts 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:13.530 assisting in household tasks is considered pre 00:01:13.530 --> 00:01:16.469 -emptive misinformation and may result in a brief, 00:01:16.569 --> 00:01:20.159 friendly, corrective interview. Any desire to 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.359 investigate, interpret or personally empathize 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:25.939 with the phenomena described is strongly discouraged. 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:31.260 Curiosity is not a civic virtue. Please maintain 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:34.680 a compliant posture. Please maintain an untroubled 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:37.560 expression. Please maintain the understanding 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:40.099 that everything is under control even if the 00:01:40.099 --> 00:01:43.200 infrastructure disagrees. The following testimony 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.519 is released for public reassurance. You will 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:55.980 feel reassured. This is mandatory. I wasn't supposed 00:01:55.980 --> 00:02:00.359 to be there. Not really. The order came down 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:03.780 from some audit division clerk. Said there was 00:02:03.780 --> 00:02:07.640 resonant interference in SectorKappa 3, sub 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:14.439 -basement 297, causing power fluctuations. Probably 00:02:14.439 --> 00:02:17.340 another hymnal feedback loop or a loose lumen 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:21.979 coil. Happens all the time. I bought the usual 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:25.000 kit. Spanner, sanctified oil, portable prayer 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.020 generator, standard procedure. The first thing 00:02:29.020 --> 00:02:33.300 I noticed was how quiet the sector was. Too quiet. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.099 The kind of quiet that's waiting for a sound 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:42.719 to happen. Then I found the growths. Not corrosion, 00:02:42.819 --> 00:02:46.319 not fungus, but something halfway between both. 00:02:47.310 --> 00:02:52.490 Veins of it, pulsing under the plating. The light 00:02:52.490 --> 00:02:54.909 flickered, and every time it came back on, the 00:02:54.909 --> 00:03:00.289 veins had moved. The relay housing had been pushed 00:03:00.289 --> 00:03:03.189 out of alignment. When I reached in to check 00:03:03.189 --> 00:03:07.069 the junction, something grabbed the spanner. 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:13.629 Not hard, not violent, just helpful, like it 00:03:13.629 --> 00:03:16.860 wanted to hold it with me. I pulled back, muttered 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:20.419 the litany of purity in reflex, and there was 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:26.520 a hum. Not loud, not enough to notice. You could 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:31.039 feel it. Through the floor, through your chest 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:33.560 cavity, like standing too close to a reactor 00:03:33.560 --> 00:03:37.680 core, but gentler. I tried to calm the foreman. 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:41.919 The line buzzed. For a second, I swear, it hummed 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:45.840 the work hymn. My own voice layered under it 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:51.419 like I'd already sung along. Then I saw the thing 00:03:51.419 --> 00:03:55.060 inside the vent. It looked like a circuit relay. 00:03:55.240 --> 00:04:01.259 Sort of, but semi-organic. Round. Ribbed. Cables 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:07.080 feeding into it like veins. It had texture. I 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:11.259 don't know. Too many patterns. Like skin learning 00:04:11.259 --> 00:04:14.710 to be metal. I went to cut the power, but the 00:04:14.710 --> 00:04:17.250 indicator light changed colour, blue to gold. 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:22.410 I've never seen a lumen do that. Then it started 00:04:22.410 --> 00:04:27.949 to open. Not like a hat, but like a flower. A 00:04:27.949 --> 00:04:33.670 mechanical flower, blooming slow. Inside, I could 00:04:33.670 --> 00:04:39.810 see the hum, like light that moved wrong. I felt 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:45.110 calm. Completely calm. I think I dropped my tools. 00:04:45.250 --> 00:04:49.089 My hands didn't feel right. Like they weren't 00:04:49.089 --> 00:04:53.769 mine anymore. The hum was in my breath now, coming 00:04:53.769 --> 00:04:56.769 out of me. I started saying prayers I don't remember 00:04:56.769 --> 00:05:00.449 learning. Something about belonging and becoming. 00:05:01.029 --> 00:05:07.250 And new hands for the same work. I woke up six 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:10.050 hours later, everything fixed, power reading 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:13.649 stable, the things gone, but the plating where 00:05:13.649 --> 00:05:18.990 it was, it's warm. I put in a report, of course. 00:05:19.569 --> 00:05:26.050 Form 771-C, triple stamped. No response. But 00:05:26.050 --> 00:05:30.970 every time I walk past that duct, I hear it again. 00:05:31.709 --> 00:05:36.560 The hum. Waiting for me. to finish my shift. 00:05:52.139 --> 00:05:55.560 Vox Sanctum Gloriana is an Evil Lighthouse production.