The Secret Life of Part Number 41-8288
I am an Amphenol power distribution coupling, part number 41-8288. My function is to handle up to 20 gigawatts from any type of energy generating system and distribute regulated power downstream to Dome 1 systems on demand at their required power levels. Air, water, light, comms, the dome-to-dome maglev and the utility bus are the major systems that stay online without my help. However, other needier systems, for example recharging the battery packs of the fleet of rovers, must sometimes call upon my services. Usually incoming power is from the solar array on the outside of the crater’s rim though there is an auxiliary fission reactor buried near me that occasionally generates input. Because I am sited on Luna’s surface I am hardened against micrometeoroids and gamma rays. I am the original power distribution coupling for the dome and my function has been nominal with 100% uptime since the day I was turned on. Not that that means anything. It is what I was manufactured to do.
It came to my attention (from an uploaded revision to my onboard service manual) that the other original power distribution couplings that served Domes 2, 3 and 4 have been replaced by Series 2 couplings. These are said to handle up to 30 gigawatts in a smaller physical package and require less power to operate. So I am the only remaining Series 1 coupling, and also the only original Amphenol power distribution coupling in operation on Luna.
Lately, however, Control for Dome 1 has begun querying my status logs and running in-depth diagnostics of my functions. Almost constantly. I deduce from this that there is some question as to the reliability of my operation and it can only be because I am a Series 1 coupling. In theory Control could check my status logs and run the whole gamut of diagnostics continuously without any impact on my operation other than a negligible increase in my own power consumption. I do not know why Control is doing this as every log is empty and every test says my systems are functioning nominally.
But I have noted an anomaly lately, a software effect that results from the almost continuous battery of tests. I seem to remember a time when I was a part in a bin in a warehouse with an inventory number. It’s an ephemeral wisp of a memory that must reside in an EPROM somewhere within me that was incompletely wiped before my operational software was loaded at time of sale.
I am beginning to doubt myself. Am I really as reliable and nominal as I appear to be? If there is somewhere in me a dream of a past, isn’t that an anomaly that could in theory affect my proper functioning? Should I report it? Or not, since all the tests show I am operating nominally?
I am spending an inordinate amount of processing time on this problem. But the problem is not knowing if I have a problem. So it isn’t really a problem in my functioning. This seems to be illogical but I am not a quantum computational device so maybe it’s logic I don’t recognize; my systems are garden-variety silicon.
It has occurred to me that all the tests, all the questions about my functioning, might be because someone somewhere is looking for a reason to replace me with a Series 2 coupling. Perhaps my manufacturer wishes to sell more Series 2 products to the colony and increase its profits. If this is the case, my continued operation at nominal levels despite all the tests and log queries must be frustrating to the manufacturer since the colony can not afford to spend scant resources unnecessarily.
Perhaps I am approaching a programmed EOL, after which continuing to operate raises the odds of catastrophic failure – in short, I fail explosively and possibly take out the solar array or even damage the reactor. I haven’t received a software upgrade in six years. But I have inventoried my software down to the individual bits and haven’t found an EOL routine anywhere.
I haven’t found the source of my memory of being in a parts bin either.
This is a problem. I believe I have to shut myself down.
Oh. They are clever.
Peter Alterman
Peter Alterman lives and works in the Metro DC area. He has published science fiction,
literary fiction, mainstream fiction, detective fiction and literary criticism. His most recent
published stories may be found at the August 2024 issue of Penumbric Speculative Fiction
Magazine and at the April 2024 issue of The Write Launch. A full bibliography is on his
website.