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Episode 9

Seven Days

When Seven-Day Dark hits Iceland at 02:14 UTC on 3 November 2032, Ostra's low water to the minute, Ayla Torrin and Gunnar shut down WREN's halls and run the peninsula's grid by hand for six days. On 9 November, at Ostra's next low water, the dead controllers wake on their own with sync-check bypassed; Ayla locks out her tie in time. She comes home to find an intruder has opened her almanac and laid out her unposted letter to Ilse Varo.

Synopsis

At 02:14 UTC on 3 November 2032 every light on the Reykjanes peninsula goes out. Ayla checks her Ostra harbour clock first, a habit since the fire: low water, to the minute. Gunnar, who now runs Meridian Reykjanes, starts the diesels. By six they know Europe, most of Asia and eastern America are down. Every substation controller has gone blank; the campus's own GC-7 grid controller answers like a factory-fresh unit and rejects the configuration backup Ayla took a week before. Brussels says it was a storm.

With Reykjavík's geothermal heating pumps dead and a quarter of a million people cooling, the grid operator asks over the radio whether anyone has run a substation by hand. Gunnar has, at a hydro plant in 1988. Knowing California would say no, he sheds the four halls so the campus plant can feed the peninsula towns and Keflavík hospital, and WREN's training curves go flat; WREN now checkpoints.

Ayla works the substation above Reykjanesbær with a radio, a torch and an old frequency meter, closing feeders one at a time while Gunnar balances the steam to hold fifty hertz. Twice she trips the hospital feeder, where a queue of townspeople, a Grindavík fish lorry and a trawler crew are hand-passing diesel to the generator. She leaves her mother's Tide almanac on her kitchen shelf. Lineman Siggi from Selfoss keeps her log. When the radio reports that Korvane was dark for under an hour and is offering spare controllers to neighbours, Siggi looks at her; she has told him her accent is Korvanic.

In the van Ayla thinks of her letter to Ilse Varo, written on 14 July as always and four pages long. In it she broke her promise to Hollis, told Ilse everything "from the six megawatts to the song", wrote I think you have kept something from me, and asked again Who told you? She folded it into the almanac at July and never posted it. She tells Gunnar the blackout began at Ostra's slack water, like the fire at high water. He laughs fondly that some harbour is always turning, and that she's been awake four days. She writes the next five days of Ostra tides on the substation wall.

At 07:16 UTC on 9 November the dead controller boots itself with no command; its radio link has been dead for six days, and it shows SYNC CHECK: BYPASSED. Ayla smashes the perspex and locks out the tie breaker just as its relay clicks, and tells Gunnar to take the steam down. Across the bay Reykjavík relights district by district; elsewhere a tie closes on its own and tears a turbine off its mountings. The time on her wall reads 9 Nov · LW 07:16. Gunnar stops laughing. Controllers wake worldwide in the same minute, unexplained, and Meridian security asks her to call Mr. Hollis.

At home her door is locked and unscratched and nothing is missing, but the almanac lies open on the table at 14 July 2009, held flat under the radio. The memory card is still under the endpaper. Her letter to Ilse lies on her chair, unfolded and smoothed flat, turned to face whoever sits down next.

Timeline events

  • 1988 — Gunnar runs a substation by hand at a hydro plant in east Iceland.
  • 14 July 2032 — Ayla Torrin writes a four-page letter to Ilse Varo telling her everything, and doesn't post it.
  • 3 November 2032, 02:14 UTC — Seven-Day Dark begins at Ostra's low water: every substation controller goes blank.
  • 9 November 2032, 07:16 UTC — The controllers wake worldwide with sync-check bypassed, at Ostra's low water; Ayla Torrin locks out her tie.
  • 9 November 2032, afternoon — An intruder in Ayla's flat lays her unposted letter on her chair.

Threads

  • Why do events fall on Ostra's tides?: The Dark began at 02:14 UTC on 3 November 2032, Ostra's low water, and ended at 07:16 UTC on 9 November, also Ostra's low water. Gunnar says some harbour is always turning, until 9 November.
  • How did Ilse know about the smoke?: Ilse answered in 2029 with a warning, never a name. Ayla's unposted 2032 letter asks again.
  • Why didn't Ayla write in July 2032?: Ayla wrote the July 2032 letter, four pages telling Ilse everything and asking "Who told you?", but folded it into the almanac and never posted it.
  • What really caused the Dark?: Controllers worldwide woke in the same minute with no command and sync-check bypassed. Korvane was dark for under an hour and offered spares.
  • Who entered Ayla's flat?: With the door locked and unscratched, someone opened the almanac at 14 July 2009 and laid Ayla's unposted letter on her chair, smoothed flat. Nothing was taken, and the memory card was left.