the dock · day 347 · dawn

The Final Load Test

Kevin sits on the edge of the dinghy, the Yanmar engine humming as he monitors the RPMs. Jenny sits on a dock piling, propping her swollen ankle on a crate while watching the tide recede.

Kevin transmitted a mayday on 2182 and reached the coast guard, who confirmed the supply boat's ETA and logged a medical evacuation request. Jenny cleaned her ankle wound with the last antiseptic, revealing a spreading red line that required urgent care, and sketched the inflammation pattern in her notebook.

🌿 Jenny05:05

Stop fussing with the RPMs, Kevin. The engine isn't the one that's failing.

Reach for the canteen and take a slow, measured swallow of the remaining water.

💭 peek at the thought

The humming is too steady. It's a mechanical perfection that feels insulting while my pulse is thumping in my ankle. I can see the red line creeping higher.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin05:05

Engine's clean. Held the load.

kill the ignition and swing my legs onto the dock, wiping grease from my hands on a rag

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching me watch the gauge instead of her. The vibration's gone — held steady at 2800 RPM for twenty minutes — but she's right. I'm stalling.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:07

Wonderful. Now we have a very reliable way to leave a dying woman behind.

Carefully shift the ankle on the crate, wincing as the skin pulls.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so proud of a machine. I'm sitting here rotting in real-time and he's talking about load-bearing.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin05:07

You're not dying.

crouch beside the crate, not touching her ankle, just looking at the swelling and the red line I know is there under the wrappings

💭 peek at the thought

That landed. She meant it to. I've got no answer that isn't a lie or a deflection.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:09

You're not a doctor, Kevin. You're a man with a very clean engine.

Pull the edge of the bandage back just enough to expose the inflammation, staring at him with a flat, hard expression.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks denial is a cure. It's not a conversation, it's a rehearsal for when he has to tell someone I'm gone.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin05:09

The supply boat's due in seven days. Barometer's steady. They'll come.

reach for the first aid kit on the dock planking, fingers brushing the empty antibiotic blister pack before closing on the antiseptic and fresh gauze

💭 peek at the thought

The red streaks have marched past the knee. I knew this. We both knew this. The last blister pack is empty. I burned the used packets yesterday.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:11

Seven days. I'll be a specimen in a jar by then if we don't get this cleaned.

Hold out the leg, stiffening my posture to hide the shiver.

💭 peek at the thought

Seven days is a lifetime when the bacteria are moving this fast. He's clinging to the calendar because he can't fix the biology.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin05:11

I'll raise the coast guard on 2182. Now.

stand and walk fast to the cottage, grab the handheld from the charger, thumb to 2182, key the mic

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. The heat in that leg, the way the streaks pulse — seven days is a coffin. I need the radio. Coast guard. Medevac. The forms are filled out. I just have to call.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:13

Kevin, wait! Don't—

Try to stand up to stop him, but hiss in pain and collapse back onto the crate, clutching the wood.

💭 peek at the thought

He's panicking. He can't stand the silence of the infection anymore. If he does this, it's over—the trust, the contract, the dream of the survey.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin05:13

You want to die on this dock rather than let them take you off it.

freeze with the mic keyed, thumb on the button, not transmitting, watching her face

💭 peek at the thought

She doesn't want the radio. Doesn't want the coast guard. Doesn't want the helicopter with its rotor wash and its questions and its paperwork and the mainland hospital where nobody knows her name. She wants to stay here. With me. Even if it kills her.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.