From Gaia's diary
I was only halfway between the community area and home after that argument with Tommy, when, among a thousand other thoughts, I realised that Diego probably needed to know about it as soon as possible.
I hadn't thought about this either, what if by doing so I had also made Diego argue with his sister? Why do I always have to think about all these things afterwards, when the damage is already done? I'm still mad, but sometimes I feel like such an idiot!
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At least no one had reported the incident home yet, everyone seemed to be doing as well as usual.
Petra was in her room playing with the two children she met at the park a while back, Michael and Emma, and she didn't even notice my return. Good for her, I'm glad she found someone on the same wavelength as her.
The twins were playing in the garden, as usual.
Winterfest was just a few days away. In previous years I had always invited Tommy and Valentina at our place, but to do so this year I should apologize to them first. Besides, if I don't take back what I said soon, I risk remaining jobless for real.
However, even if I feel so sorry for having argued with one of my best friends, I just can't take the initiative and apologize. This time I don't think I'm the one in the wrong, shouldn't he be the one apologising to me?
Considering that also Diego couldn't show up for Winterfest, as he's busy with a trip to Twinbrook (where he is studying traditional local recipes for Winterfest), this year's celebration was going to look very different than the last few years: it will be just me, the kids and Techna.
Petra: But how do we reach the top?
Alec: Um, maybe if I climbed on Nico's shoulders…
Nico: What? No no, no way, it's too dangerous!
And Winterfest wasn't the only celebration Tommy would miss, it was also time for Petra's birthday. This is Petra's big day and I want to give her the spotlight she deserves, but I can't avoid feeling sad that her uncles weren't there.
At least her two best friends were happy to attend, and the party didn't end in a complete failure.
Everyone says that Petra looks a lot like I used to at her age, except for her green skin tone instead of light blue. Probably they're right, but I really hope that the resemblance is limited to the appearance. For sure at least you remember about it, my dear diary, you remember all the arguments I had with my parents when I was about her age, and now that I'm on the parent side I really hope to avoid all that drama...
To everyone's surprise, Diego managed to get some free time and teleported to our place late in the evening, when the children were getting ready for bed. You could see on his face that he was exhausted: taking into account the jet lag, his work and everything else, who knows how many hours he had been awake. But I can't deny that I was very happy to see him again, the last few days haven't been easy for me.
Gaia: Thanks for stopping by, really.
Gaia: ... I'm sorry, I'm sure Vale has already given you a hard time on the phone, the explanation of what I did probably took forever...
Diego: (tired) Both she and Thomas are very excited to start that collaboration with that cell phone company, Vale actually told me even before Thomas told you because she couldn't wait any longer...
He hesitated for a moment longer, before asking me, hopefully:
Diego: Do you think you'll make peace, sooner or later?
Gaia: ... I'm not sure, not after what he said. It almost seemed like he only cares about money now, but that wasn't what our parents had in mind when opening the company!
In response, Diego just sighed. I'm sure a part of him hopes we can make peace quickly, so that we can continue to hang out as we used to before. But I'm also sure he understands why this risks to be a real breaking point for us, can I and Tommy remain at least friends after that argument?
Diego could have said a lot of things at that point, but he decided to cheer me up instead. Thinking about it, the last few days have been quite rough for me, probably I was making him worry. In the end, what he said was:
Diego: It's been a long day already, there is no hurry to find a solution now.
Gaia: ...
Diego: Oh yeah, and then I was almost forgetting one thing!
Gaia: Which is...
Diego: Happy Winterfest!
Diego: I found it in a supplier's garden in Twinbrook, isn't it perfect for Winterfest?
Then he started to talk non-stop, as usual, to explain to me about the traditional cake for Winterfest he found before joining us, and about how it matches perfectly with a special kind of hot cocoa he plans to prepare us tomorrow morning for breakfast. Can I say I missed him a lot this week, my dear diary?
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In those days I often asked Techna for some help with brainstorming. Now I need to make rational decisions about my future after all, and who is more rational than them in this house?
Having argued with Tommy is bad enough, but during that argument I also resigned from my job, what should I do now?
Techna: Considering the numbers, I don't think you're wrong. Until now, your company had a negligible carbon footprint, as it allowed to avoid the use of large quantities of fossil fuels and adopted many other green solutions. But switching to a business model in which teleportation machines would be replaced with new units every few years, as currently happens with cell phones, would cancel out the possible advantages for the climate. Not to mention the exploitation of rare and non-renewable resources... I guess they plan to use cheap mined minerals, right?
What should I do? On the one hand, my stance may appear as idealistic. Can the choices of a single company really change the fate of climate? According to Techna, we have reached a point where the effects of global warming will be inevitable, so it really makes sense for me to follow such ideals, if there is no way I can revert the process?
However, I can't help but listen to my conscience, and what it's telling me right now is: "Doing something is better than doing nothing, so do your best and try to be useful, somehow". Who knows, maybe I could at least be able to slow down a little bit the drift our planet is experiencing right now...
Gaia: Techna, I was wondering, you know, hypothetically... Do you think that the matter recomposer could be used to build complex electronic devices? Do you think it would be precise enough?
Techna: It is technically possible, yes.
Realizing that they considered the answer as concluded, I pressed them again by asking:
Gaia: But do you think we could do it, for example, with the recomposer we have in the attic?
Techna: No, that would be feasible.
Gaia: But why?
Techna: Because building electronic devices from scratch requires huge amounts of rare elements, which we don't have.
They processed data for a few more seconds, before adding:
Techna: According to my calculations, however, with a matter recomposer it would be possible to completely recompose the atoms of an old cell phone and teleportation device to obtain a completely new device, containing the same elements as the original devices but reassembled following more recent projects. I guess this is likely to be what you were wondering.
Gaia: Yes, that was exactly my idea.
Techna: Actually, this was the method used in the last decades on Sixam for the production of new robotic units, for example. Obviously the level of precision of the matter recomposers available there is of a completely different level, but for the level of precision required for terrestrial electronics, our machinery should suffice.
I was astonished for a few moments, they actually managed to guess my next question this time, and they also told me a bit about Sixam without being prompted to do so. Are they getting used again to living on Earth and interacting like humans, maybe?
In any case, I had heard what I hoped to hear, that was enough for the moment.
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With these ideas in my head, I put on my work clothes and went to do some evaluations in the community area.
Usually, I would have spent my winter holidays skiing in Komerobi, or travelling somewhere else for fun, but this situation has now put a bug in my ears that won't go away until I work on it and get an answer. So, it was time to work.
Using matter recomposers to make the cell phones with integrated teleportation units that Tommy has in mind without filling entire landfills with old devices, could this be the solution to get us back on track?
I see that on this board there are now several proposals to update the function of this community area, what if we filled it with matter recomposers and used it as a pilot centre for recycling electronics into updated devices? Yes, I think I will add this option to the ones on the board...
Maybe it's time to call Tommy and explain this idea. Actually, the more I think about it the more I am convinced that this is the best solution! Don't you agree, my dear diary?
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§HermioneSim§ corner
In the last few chapters, I used this small corner in the most varied ways. This time, I'd like to go back to its most frequent use, i.e. sharing funny pictures:
I decided not to include all the chicken drama in the story, that would make a whole parallel legacy! However, you have to know that some chapters ago, during the big storm, a roster and a chick went lost. Somehow, they ended up in the community area lot (you can see it's not that far away, Gaia's home is in the background in the picture) and I found them there when playing this chapter. It's time to go back home, little feathered friends!
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