My Diary

2002-11-25

Test. One two three four five.

[break]

That's interesting. When I woke up this morning, the dictaphone had finished transmitting. It's never done that before ---- it's always taken all day. I wonder what this can mean?

[break]

Hi, there, listeners. Since we seem to be back on the air on a real-time basis, I thought I would try and record a chat with Green, who is here in the studio with me.

Okay, Green, go ahead.

I talk to you. I learn English, I talk to you. I ask, you say.

All right. I'll answer your questions.

What are you doing?

You mean, what am I doing on this island?

True.

Trying to get off it.

Where is your ship?

I don't have one. The ship I came on flew away after I got out.

What are you doing on this planet?

I don't know.

This planet false you. If you will here, you will pain. You will dead.

I would like to leave. I don't know how.

[transcription warning: dialogue in !t'ktrr!tk has been detected. !t'ktrr!tk is not supported by this version of the translation software.] [untranscribable conversation]

I have zero ships.

I don't have a ship, either. Any suggestions?

Is it true this machine talk not this planet?

I'm not sure. I think so. But it doesn't talk to me.

It listen, it not talk?

Yes.

There is a machine talk not this planet in the building. The door not open. If we not come to machine then we not talk. If we not talk then zero ships come to this planet. If zero ships come to this planet then you not leave this planet.

I know.

If you will here then you will dead. Storm will dead this island.

I guessed that. The buildings won't protect me?

Buildings not dead Generator. Storm will dead Generator and buildings will dead.

The storm will destroy the Generator, and the buildings will be destroyed?

True.

When will this happen?

Four or five or six storms.

When's the next storm?

Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

How will you survive, then?

We will go to the big sea, and we will go down. The storm will come and will go. We will go up.

I can't breathe underwater.

We can not breathe under the water. The storm will come and will go and we will not breathe.

How long will it take for the storm to pass over?

The front of the storm will take ten or twenty or thirty minutes to pass over. The storm is big. The front of the storm will dead we. The not front of the storm will not dead we.

Can't I hide somewhere on the island, then?

The storm will dead this island. The buildings and the trees will go.

Hell.

I do not understand.

Never mind... there is a dead ship in the lake in the hills. Do you know anything about this?

[untranscribable conversation]

Explain.

There's a lake up in the hills. A small ship like the one that brought me here is crashed in the middle of it, underwater. Can it be repaired?

[untranscribable conversation]

Black knows this ship. He says it is much dead. He says it can repair with building. He says we can not repair.

One of the machines in the buildings can fix the ship?

True. We can not fix the ship. We can not know fix. We can not open building. Ship can not come building.

Even if it doesn't work, could I take shelter in the ship?

The storm will pick up ship and throw ship.

I'm going to die, aren't I?

[untranscribable conversation]

Yes.

[untranscribable conversation]

We will not give you dead. We can not give you not dead. If we have a ship then you can go. We have zero ship. We can not give you not dead.

That's all right. I understand.

If a ship come, you can go.

Is it likely a ship will come?

I do not understand likely.

How many ships will come before the storm destroys this building?

[untranscribable conversation]

Zero. Small to zero.

That's what I thought.

We can not give you not dead.

[break]

Well, that was a cheerful conversation.

Green and Black have left; gone off for lunch, I believe. I don't have a lot of appetite. I'm sitting in the big chair watching the surf, as usual.

Brief summary of the situation as I see it: I'm doomed.

Do you remember way back when I was telling you that for some odd reason nothing on the island scared me? Well, I've changed my mind. I'm terrified. I don't want to die here. I don't want to die at all. But I certainly don't want to die helplessly as the Hotel collapses around me, driven to the ground by super-hurricane force winds... I want to be able to do something. But all I can do is wait for the million-to-one chance of a ship coming along and rescuing me, and I don't think that's likely.

You see, I finally remembered about Calvin's ship. You remember that ship? The one that abandoned me here? Well, it's been gone fourteen days now. Given that it took just five days to get me from Earth to here with a stopover at that damned rock, I'm pretty sure that enough time has passed for it to get to wherever it was going and for the people there to send a ship back to pick me up. Which means they're probably not going to.

Perhaps the ship never got there. Perhaps wherever it's going is abandoned, too. Perhaps the people there received the ship and couldn't be bothered to work out why it got there. Perhaps they did, and know all about me, and just don't care.

Either way, there isn't a ship here, and every passing day means that the chances of a ship arriving is less likely.

At least Green and Black will survive. They'll just wait for the next storm to pass over, then head out to sea and swim as far away from the island as they can get before the big one gets here.

Five or six storms. Call it five. Next storm's arriving tomorrow, which means they're eight days apart. Assuming they don't get more frequent, that means that I have about thirty-two days to live.

That's quite a lot of time... more time than I've been away from Earth. Does that make things better or worse?

Hell.

[break]

Green and Black are here again. Black isn't looking angry, which is unusual.

Are you tired?

No, I'm just scared. I don't want to die.

I do not want to die. You do not want to die.

You and me both... what is causing these storms?

I do not understand causing.

What, um, what made the storms?

A ship at orbit have drop... no words. Object. Object have came to sea, and have came under water. Object dead and not dead. We can not fix object. Object not fix sea and not fix air and make storms.

A weapon?

I do not understand weapon.

Never mind.

Do you have any children, Green?

I do not understand children.

The diagram you showed me... um, male sealin and female sealin makes small sealin?

Small sealin?

You are female and Black is male, and you two make...?

[untranscribable conversation]

Yes. Three. Children.

Tell me about them.

[untranscribable conversation]

One is male, two is female. Ten and twelve years.

Are they safe?

True. The children is much far away from island. The storm not come to the children.

I don't have any. I would have liked to have seen yours.

[untranscribable conversation]

I do not understand would have.

Oh, I know I can't. But there's so much I wanted to know about this place... excuse me.

[break]

Later. The suns are going down.

I hope I didn't confuse Green and Black too much there. You know, we never worked out the vocabulary for like or love or any words like that? Little, unimportant words in English, but everything that it means to be human is based on them.

Nice to know they have children. I'm not sure I can see Black as the doting father... but, hell, if I had kids and I was sent far away from them into some danger zone I'm sure I would look pretty pissed off a lot of the time.

I wonder, though, if I'm not anthropomorphising them a bit too much. They're not humans. They didn't even evolve on the same planet as humans; it's a miracle they look as much like Earth-life as they do.

But they're so anthropomorphisable... and if the dictaphone can spell that right, I'll be impressed.

Hell, I'm rambling. I'm just going to sit here and watch the birds. See if things look better in the morning.

Wait a moment...

[indeterminate noises]

That's not a bird.

That's a ship.

Hell.

[transmit]