Once More Into the Breach

Well, it's been more than a week, but I'm finally heading back to D'ni. I've made plans to attend Mysterium this year at the end of July, now that I know I can actually get there, so there's one more week-long hiatus definitely planned for this year, but beyond that, I don't think there's any plans to spend a considerable amount of time on the Surface before the end of the year (Christmas seems like a good time to be with my family, at the very least...).

I'm finding it difficult to really keep an interesting blog of the stuff I'm doing in D'ni, so updates may be fewer and more far-between for a while. I'm also running into the limits of what I feel comfortable doing on my own right now, because I'm not a structural engineer, and I don't have access to a lot of the DRC's equipment for shoring things up and securing them before doing extensive restoration work, or even just looking around. This is as much disaster recovery as it is archaeology, and I'm only marginally more well-equipped for the latter (still can't find a really good bull whip...).

Hopefully a lot more info will be forthcoming once I manage to stabilize the data connection between the Surface and D'ni so that I can send more than just text along the uplink. Photos and drawings are definitely things I want to include in my posts, but for now, the written word is all my crummy connection can handle. The DRC did some crazy wizardry with the KI network several years ago to allow them to make posts on their old forum from their KI, and I've managed to hook into that to send these updates to Blogger, but sending an image stream is a lot more complicated, and without actual internet access in the Cavern, this is the best I can do at the moment.

Holy Crap, My KI is Working!

I apologize for not writing in a while... I've been doing more thorough studies of the stuff left in the DRC base camp, and none of it makes for terribly compelling blog posts. However, my KI had been acting weird over the past couple of weeks, and I think it's about time I mentioned it, just for the sake of keeping an accurate record.

I haven't really been wearing my KI lately, because it's largely useless with the Lattice all mucked up. Around the 27th, it started making odd beeping noises every once in a while, which did wonders for keeping me awake at all hours, but little else. A few days later, I noticed the hologram emitter started turning itself on and off every few seconds, causing the heads-up display interface to flicker annoyingly out of the corner of my eye. I initially just chalked it up to further Lattice destabilization and stuffed the thing in a drawer wrapped in a blanket where I wouldn't have to see or listen to it anymore, but today I noticed during a morning walk to the DRC camp that I could see the trail of Markers I'd dropped during my initial exploration of the area. As I reached out to trigger one of the holographic spheres, the entire set blinked and then vanished.

Needless to say, I rushed back to the tavern and pulled my KI out of its drawer to see what was going on. In the chat interface were several status messages from the Lattice, which read roughly as follows (I've cut out a lot of redundant messages):

System: Unable to repair damaged Lattice branches. Data is unrecoverable. Attempting to restore to secondary tree.

System: Restoration Success. Some data lost during restoration to secondary tree. Polling field units for additional information.

System: Field unit 6409780 Discovered. Time: 4/28/08 9:57:05

System: Attempting to synchronize with field unit 6409780. Awaiting unit response...

System: Field unit 6409780 Discovered. Time: 5/13/08 13:54:27

System: Attempting to synchronize with field unit 6409780. Awaiting unit response...

Elated that the Lattice may have been able to repair itself (Laxman was a busy man before he left!), I quickly activated my KI and dropped a Marker to try and synchronize it with the Lattice network. The following message appeared in my chat interface:

System: Response from field unit 6409780. Synchronization successful. WARNING: Some data may have been lost due to Lattice corruption. Verify data is intact before use.

Getting happier by the minute, I checked my files and marker missions, and with few exceptions, they were all intact and readable by my KI. All of the Ages I had visited were also still listed in the device as well, though obviously I was unable to reach any of them because of having lost my Relto Book.

I decided to take advantage of my former Restoration Engineer status to try and poll the Nexus to see if it was working. I entered a custom command into the chat interface and received the following response:

System: Nexus access granted. Welcome ResEng G. Buddell. Nexus status code: 0001.

This was fantastic news. A status code of 0001 meant that the Nexus was fully functional, and I wasn't going to get trapped there if I linked in. Whether I'd be able to access any of my previously-registered Nexus Terminal links was another question entirely, so I made sure to register the nearest terminal before linking back to the Nexus for the first time in over a month.

The familiar clatter of the Nexus machinery welcomed me back to the access room, and the Book Machine happily accepted my KI signature when I placed my hand in the registry slot. A quick look at my available links confirmed at least some of my fears: most of the links I had registered were missing, prticularly the older ones that gave me direct access to Ae'Gura. However, the links I had registered on the way down the Descent were all still intact. Almost literally bouncing with glee, I touched the line that read "Great Shaft - Top", waited impatiently for the machine to vend the Book, and linked back to the eder tomahn at the top of the Great Shaft. A quick jog back up the path to the Surface confirmed that it was still clear all the way back to the Volcano's caldera (I was concerned that some of the tremors I'd felt while descending may have caused further collapses in the cave system), meaning I now had almost immediate access back to the Surface, and any supplies I might need, without needing to spend the better part of a week going back and forth.

As dedicated as I am to restoring D'ni and keeping it alive, I think I'm going to take a week or so on the Surface to get some more things, rest, relax, and sleep in a bed that's bound to be better than the sleeping-bag-on-a-cot arrangement I've got in the tavern. D'ni is great, but I occasionally need to see the sun. I'll post again before I head back down.