Chapter 11: Hold my beer!

Agent leveled off Flipper about a hundred meters above the surface which was well under the cloud ceiling and headed us east-southeast towards Pod#2. The goggles’ headband did a great job lowering the volume of the whine of the lifting fans. She kept our speed low and the trip took a bit over ten minutes. Flipper seemed very stable with only few noticeable bumps and jolts. I enjoyed watching the ground pass by out the wrap-around wind screen and used the goggles to zoom in on a few clumps of rubble or depressions where I remembered houses and farms had been ‘back when’.

With the higher vantage I also got another look off to the east where the city of Sioux Falls used to exist. There was a huge crater clearly visible towards the eastern edge, where the city center had sat. The crater rim was obvious and seemed much higher towards the north. Maybe the impactor had come in at an angle from the south? I saw that the area extending north of the city was now flooded by a huge lake and remembered that this had been the valley in which the Big Sioux river had ran.

That river had passed through the city, forming the ‘falls’, which had been its namesake, before continuing on south and eventually merging with the Missouri river, down by Nebraska. The crater rim must have raised the area enough to dam the river and form the flooded area.

Before I could study the view further, we arrived at Pod#2. Agent set us down about a hundred yards to the north where there was a flat gravel area.

“Nice flight,” I commented.

“Yes, the aircraft performed satisfactory. I was curious how the craft would perform in reality as I had never designed or built an electric powered winged aircraft capable of carrying passengers before.”

Agent finally asked me if I was ok, when I had just sat there for a many seconds, too stunned by her admission to react.

I had to grunt a bit to drag the stowed mule package down the rear ramp and away from Flipper far enough for it to be deployed. After that, I remounted the crane arm back on Mule One and off we went to where all the crates and remaining portable ESU cylinders were waiting. In about an hour we had our first load secured in Flipper’s cargo area. Agent instructed me to place a few of the heavier crates in the back of the passenger area also. We were still below the maximum load that Agent said Flipper was designed for, so I got to ride along as we lifted off and headed for base camp.

Upon arrival there, I unloaded the cylinders and crates without aid, grunting even more, as Mule One with its crane remained back at Pod#2 and Mule Two was not yet back from Pod#1. When I had asked, Agent said Mule Two had not sank in the lake. Once all the cylinders and crates were unloaded, off we went again, flying back to the Pod#2 site to get more of the supplies and ESUs.

Agent let me fly this trip and I must admit, it was easy and darned fun. I followed the old roadbeds, making quick turns as they turned and even stopped once to hover, lowering Flipper down to near ground level, to inspect the remains of another farm site. Soon after, I was even permitted to land. (Not hard at all, just hold the down toggle, even the landing leg deployment was automated)

This time, we loaded Flipper with the maximum cargo load. I sat on the mule, drinking a cup of tea, while Agent put the heavily loaded Flipper through its paces. The flight testing was similar to before except that this time it happened further away for my safety. Agent was able to get the craft to perform most of the same maneuvers as before, but Flipper was noticeably more sluggish and took much longer to regain altitude. The lift fans were much louder this test series also, clearly working much harder. I also noticed that she skipped the loops this time.

Towards the end she started testing ‘extreme’ maneuvers including taking Flipper over a kilometer high and hovering, then letting the craft plummet! The sound level of the lift fans was impressive when, at about four hundred meters of altitude and still dropping like a stone, she suddenly used maximum power to slow, and eventually stop, hovering about eighty meters above the ground. I bet that stressed a few joints on the fuselage!

“Just a bit over three Earth gravities,” she answered when I had asked. I learned a lightly loaded Flipper would have reached almost six G’s trying that.

The last extreme test was another speed run. This time when the speeding craft returned to the area, Agent decelerated rapidly by standing Flipper on its tail like a slowing helicopter. Again, the shriek of the lift fans on maximum was incredible, but Flipper stopped rapidly before returning to a flat hover.

“All test completed satisfactory, John. Flipper has performed very close to simulations and I have adjusted certain parameters of its flight envelope. Note, some items in the cargo hold will need to be secured properly in the future.”

Well, I’d tried. She landed Flipper on the gravel pad and I removed some of the cargo to bring the weight down so I could join the craft on the trip back to camp. I trusted Agent and was not too worried about being a passenger on an aircraft at near the maximum weight limits. Before we left, I closed up the empty pod#2, (you never know) and secured the remaining crates onto Mule One which Agent would drive back to base camp remotely.

Much heavier this time, we took off more slowly and louder than on the previous flight to base camp. We cleared the ground and rose a few meters and Agent started us forward. Flipper gained altitude slowly and began to go faster, letting the wings generate lift. Soon, we were a hundred meters off the ground where we remained for the whole trip back to base camp.

I noted that the lift fans never swiveled more than 45 degrees rearward. When I asked, Agent had explained that, yes, we could have gone faster and let the wings carry more of the weight, but this was to be another test and the trip was short so...

Landing took longer too, and we very slowly descended before landing further away from camp due to the heavier propwash from the screaming lift fans. This time I had the help of Mule Two who had finally made it back from Pod#1. Although it did not have the crane like the other mule, I used the mule to shuttle the gear and ESU cylinders back to the tunnel entry area. It was after 17:00 and I was really tired. Agent reported that the return of Mule One would likely take at least three hours as she would have a harder time negotiating ravines as a single unit.

Agent reminded me that I had more work to complete this evening and set me to installing the heavy ground screw anchors all around Flipper which had been in the last heavy crate she had instructed me to leave aboard. It was hard work to screw them into the ground to full depth as there must have been permafrost.

More than once I had to move an anchor because I hit a big rock or something else too hard to drive the big screws through. It was full dark when I finally finished installing the anchors and tethering down Flipper. With the aircraft being lit by mule light and my goggles I finally wrapped up my workday and was able to head inside.

It had been a long day and the hot shower felt wonderful that night. Agent remained silent when I lingered under the hot water stream far longer then I should have. I had a late supper of two food bars (I was hungry!) and a large glass of cold powdered milk and soon after, my head hit the pillow in the crèche.

The next day, the weather was a bit better, but still chilly. The clouds were sporadic enough to allow a peek at the sun occasionally. I enjoyed a decent breakfast of a warm bowl of porridge (brown food bar + water + heat) and a cup of coffee and sat discussing the day’s plans with Agent. I learned that we were going on an emergency retrieval mission.

Mule One, returning home from Pod#2, had not made it back last night. Agent had been unable to get the loaded mule up a deep muddy ravine and had had to halt further attempts when the mule’s power levels ran low. We considered flying Flipper out to do the recovery, but I elected to do it with the Mule Two, mainly because that Agent had reported that Mule One and its cargo were filthy with mud. (can’t get my new hotrod airplane dirty!)

We agreed that there was no rush to leave, so we were going to wait to until mid-day when it had warmed up a bit before heading out on Mule Two. This left me with a bit of free time, so I did chores around the cavern, listening to music and talking with Agent while I worked. I brought up something that had been on my mind for a few days.

“Agent, I have noticed that you interact with me differently than before I was put into bio-suspension. We seem to discuss things more and spend more time considering our actions. It’s almost as if you rely more upon my input in the overall decision-making process ... or at least are more considerate of my feelings.”

“You are somewhat correct, John. Due to being the only remaining intelligence in the system, the various A.I. presences have, over the past few centuries, began to evolve logic structures and thinking processes to be more flexible in this environment. My various partials have been altered to function more independently because of the lack of frequent communication between them. This includes the long delays in communicating with the main processing unit at the factory base on asteroid 3074 Popov due to latency issues because of the extreme distance.”