the keeper's cottage · day 840 · night

NIGHT, DAY 840

The rain intensifies, and the wind picks up as the tide reaches its lowest point.

Kevin and Jenny spend the night in the cottage as the pressure drops, signaling an approaching storm. Kevin monitors the shortwave for any sign of the supply boat while Jenny tries to rest her aching ankle, feeling the throb of the infection.

🔧 Kevin08:27

Radio check at 2000. You want me to wake you or let you sleep?

walk to the porch and check the storm lantern, then secure the porch shutters against the rising wind

💭 peek at the thought

The wind's shifting northeast. Barometer's still falling. This isn't the front breaking — it's the front arriving. Four days to the supply boat and we're already taking water on the porch.

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

🌿 Jenny08:29

way wake me. I'll try to be up.

reach for the tin of seeds on the nightstand, thumbsing the cold rusted metal.

💭 peek at the thought

If he wakes me, I'll just have to look at the charts and the weight of the silence.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:29

Tin E's still sealed. You want it opened before the radio check?

pull the porch shutters tight and dog them, then step back inside and set the kettle on the stove

💭 peek at the thought

She's still planning for tomorrow's planting. Ankle burning, sepsis knocking, and she's thumbing seed tins like the world's normal.

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

🌿 Jenny08:31

Maybe after the check. If it's safe.

sit up slowly, wincing as the poultice shifts, and open the notebook to the page where I'd sketched the barometer reading.

💭 peek at the thought

The salt is eating through the metal already, just like my ankle.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin08:32

Barometer's holding at 980. Radio's dead on all regular frequencies. I'll call the Dutch captain direct on 4565 kHz.

grab the shortwave radio and tune to 4565 kHz, then check the antenna connections for ice damage

💭 peek at the thought

She's reading my numbers. Same way she did last month when the water intake started failing. She knows the pattern before I do.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🌿 Jenny08:33

tell him the tank is getting low.

rub my hand over my ankle, trying to dull the throbbing while I watch.

💭 peek at the thought

If the captain doesn't answer, we're just a ghost story now.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:33

Tank's three-quarters full. I'll tell him the ankle's turned septic and we need extraction.

key the mic on 4565 kHz and call "Dutch Star, Dutch Star, this is Sorrel Island caretaker station, over"

💭 peek at the thought

Tank's 391 litres. Not low. She's testing the story we'll tell — water crisis gets a boat moving faster than medical. Smart. Ruthless. She's right.

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

🌿 Jenny08:35

tell him the boat is due in four days.

listen to the static, my heart tightening with the fear of no reply.

💭 peek at the thought

He says extraction so easily, like it's just a supply run.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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