Deriva by Coppice Halifax
UR SLATE / SECTION XII - 17463.space/ur_slate_sec12.png
UR SLATE / DISTRANS TELEKOMM REPORT - 17463.space/ur.txt
2021.12 OBSERVATION REPORT:
::::::OVERHEAD CAMERA #L-55 FEED ACCESSED::::::
::::::UNKNOWN USER DETECTED::::::
::::::FACILITY LOCKDOWN INITIATED // PROTOCOL #MV-1216::::::
::::::REMOTE LINES DISCONNECTED::::::
::::::SYSTEM OVERFLOW 58.914%::::::
::::::WARNING: CRITICAL EVENT // DO NOT BREACH::::::
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An automatic security camera swerves mindlessly from side to side, sweeping a view of a laboratory room containing the Ur Slate and several unidentifiable instruments on tables, next to an array of machinery that appears to be offline.
Three uniformed people, presumably lab technicians or scientists, lie motionless on the floor and console of their control room, now lit only dimly by the backup power's emergency lamps. The facility appears to be in a critical state.
Stepping back, we see a wall of several screens showing many such rooms. Dozens of bodies slumped over in the same fashion, seemingly caught in a schism that incapacitated every inhabitant of the building immediately.
Detecting something moving near the Ur Slate, the camera stops sweeping and begins to zoom in on the object. It is unclear what is happening, but slowly, the silhouette of a man emerges from the Slate itself.
He crawls onto the floor, arms first, naked and covered in something wet and black that reflects upon the low emergency lights in the room. His left hand is clenched into a fist. His eyes are closed and his mouth is moving, but the camera is not recording any sound.
Without hesitation, he clambers over to a nearby countertop and grabs an instrument in his right hand. He opens his left hand to reveal an unidentifiable round and pointed object about the size of a baseball. He leans his head back, his face pointed at the camera, mouth still moving. He inhales deeply, and connects the two objects in his hands.
The camera feed cuts. This text record prints out on a console very far away, in another facility much like the one in the footage. It falls into a stack of pages, followed by a shrill tone indicating that the signal has been disconnected. Reacting automatically to this, another machine nearby whirrs to life, an archaic green screen warming up with a blinking cursor. Without any prompting, the following text appears on the screen:
"In my silence, I yet gave them an answer, a map, a definition, though even I will have long forgotten it, dreaming other dreams, asleep and unreachable, should we ever meet. As the hour grows late, I wash myself free of my meandering, and will greet the dawn with open palms, both as a stranger and as an old friend."
Tracklist
| 1. | Deriva | 59:45 |
Credits
Recorded at Distrans Telekomm, November 2021. Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Photograph of the Ur Slate and reproduction of text courtesy of the Distrans Telekomm lending library. Used with permission. This is Milieu Music number EARTH 72, entry #72 in the Deep Earth series. milieu-music.com analogbotany.com
