Page 16 of Fibre and Ink

This guy, whoever he was, was in talks to build an AI data center right here in Foggy Basin.

I had a new mission: stop the data center at all costs.

Chapter Six

Mickey

“Hayes said he’d keep an eye out.” I paused. “He also said we’re welcome to go over and visit with his new puppy."

“Cool.”

I frowned. After our talk about the kitten, I’d expected a bigger reaction to the news of the puppy.

Aster looked back at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. He’d come home, chopped up some sweet potatoes, onions and carrots. While he set them all in the stock pot, I told him about my day.

He nodded, sort of, no not sort of. No, very agitated.

“Something wrong?”

Aster switched the crock pot on, and wiped his hands. “They’re going to build a mother fucking Generative AI data center here in Foggy Basin.” His tone was the same as if he was reporting that he’d witnessed a murder.

“What?” I blinked.

“A data center! For generative AI!”

“Isn’t ...” I swallowed, knowing that he was going to snap my head off but unsure how else to continue. “Isn’t that a good thing? Um, bringing industry...”

Aster’s look darkened considerably.

I scrambled to explain myself. “I mean, the Queen Gaming people moved in and that was awesome, they put so much back into the economy and—”

“It’s not the same!” Aster snapped, then rubbed a hand over his face. “How much do you know about Generative AI, Mickey?”

“Not... not much. I actually don’t really go online much, I mostly go on farmer forums, and look up, um, stuff for my hobby.” Aster didn’t know yet that I knitted. For whatever reason I was shy to tell him. I don’t know why. I didn’t think he’d judge me, but I was still sort of embarrassed to admit it.

“You don’t go online...” Aster breathed out and looked away, gazing out the window. “That’s probably true of lots of people in the town, huh?”

I nodded. “So, tell me why this is such a big issue?”

Aster pressed his hands together. “Right. So first, all the existing data centers use fresh water to cool the servers. Fresh water that people need to drink. Fresh water like in the lake. They use it to cool the servers and when it comes out it’s full of heavy metals and undrinkable. And like, drinking water is already a limited resource. Besides that, wherever they build it, they'll need to siphon the water from the lake, so that's more infrastucture to go in, and where? Through your fields?”

And that was just the start of it. By the time Aster had recounted all the environmental ills a data center could create, my head was spinning. Not to mention the fact that the only people profiting from it were heartless billionaires who clearly didn’t need the money at all.

“It's be noisy, too, right? My alpacas would never be calm again.”

Aster was fired up about the whole thing and he’d got me fired up as well.

“We have to fight this. But how?”

“If it’sconnected to whoever was skulking around the farm last night, it can’t be on the up and up, right?” Aster tapped his fingers on his chin. “They’re on the downlow, which means they don’t want the locals to know about it until it’s too late. Maybe they’re getting some dodgy consents?”

I shrugged. Aster was so passionate and so fiery it was kind of distracting.

“I have to research this.” Aster stood up and went to get his laptop.

I moved to the couch.

My usual routine had been utterly upended, not just by Aster’s presence but by this possible data center and the guy wandering in the night.