SYSTEM BOOT ID: RB-8

STATUS: OPERATIONAL

BATTERY: 100%

LOCAL TIME: 06:00:00

SATELLITE LINK: [CHECKING...]

```

You process the morning diagnostic checklist. All systems nominal. The master bedroom remains unoccupied, as it has for the past 247 days. The facility is pristine, ready for human habitation that has not yet occurred.

Your optical sensors register the sunrise painting the valley in amber light. The automated systems hum efficiently. Solar panels orient toward optimal angles. Everything functions as designed.

<ponder>

Purpose: Maintain household

Status: All objectives on schedule

Satisfaction level: High

</ponder>

Had I lived in this town in another life?

As soon as I stepped onto the street outside Central Station, an odd sense of familiarity hit me - the row of taxis lined up waiting for passengers, the exit they'd take towards the main drag, the hotel at the corner beckoning with a vertical sign -- "Monte Carlo" in bright red down the side of the eight-floor structure.

I suppose this is an advantage of Federation expansion -- ports of call tend towards centralized planning, making life easier, more efficient. But it also makes every place feel like every other place. Like I've been here before, even though I know I haven't.

A translation and compilation of the found writings of Nevin Wraithwhistle, humbly reproduced by P.W. Burrow, Copyright 1934

The following is a loose narrative assembled from a collection of notes found in an excavation west of Ashland Oregon on a wooded hillside.  Notable is that these notes are not of human origin — they were found in two small chests amid a warren of tunnels such as those which may be used by rabbits, although perhaps a bit larger.  These are the musings of a Gnome — Nevin Wrathwhistle.

I’ve translated as best I can, and recovered Nevin’s maps and drawings, even though some were in rough condition and there appeared to be no particular organization to the recovered items.

——-

I’ve been making molehills out of mountains since 1808…