Chapter 14: My new home

We descended through the clouds which were intermittent. This could mean the weather might be fairly decent down below. I had been reviewing the map of the area and saw that the pods had landed around eighty-five kilometers northwest of Saint Louis. I looked out the wraparound canopy and saw that the ground here showed clear signs of life even from this altitude.

Off to the west near the horizon, I saw the remains of a large impact crater. Below, I saw no large trees, but I could see other sparse plant life, including a few scrubby looking bushes. Also, the bogs and water filled depressions in this area seemed a bit greener than the ones back north.

At around 2,000 meters elevation Agent reported that she had picked up the signals from both transponders. We zigged and zagged around a bit so that she could triangulate their locations. She soon did and a pair of markers appeared on the map projected on the console screen. I studied the map and markers closely and noted the markers were about four kilometers apart, near the former towns of Silex and Millwood, Missouri.

As we turned to approach the landing pod containing the aircraft, Agent caused a reticle to appear on the inside of the front canopy. The flashing mark showed where the pod should be as an overlay over the actual view outside. We descended to about sixty meters and slowly moved forward. Passing over a low rise, we saw the first pod ahead. It was sitting intact on the side of a gentle rolling hill. It appeared to be tilting towards one side but looked stable enough to be deployed.

“John. I will begin the deployment process now. Due to the distance and terrain separating this pod from the other, we will need to leave a drone to act as a relay so I can continue to control and monitor the deployment. Please retrieve a drone from storage and eject it out the side hatch. Use caution and tether yourself to the aircraft cabin before you do.”

I went and got the drone while Agent flew Flipper up to around two hundred meters to give the drone plenty of altitude to establish itself and begin flying. The hatch opened and I was buffeted by both the down blast and noise of the port lift fan shrieking near me. I quickly tossed out the drone, hoping it would be able to activate before crashing into the hill below. It managed to stabilize itself and I saw it zoom off towards the east, distancing itself from the hovering Flipper.

Agent then shut the hatch and I took returned to my seat. We circled the landing pod for a short while monitoring the deployment of the pod. Its hatches split open and the front and rear portions dropped away. After five minutes it was clear that the aircraft would be able to fully deploy itself, so we left the area and headed for the second pod landing site.

We soon found the second pod and saw that this one had not been so lucky upon landing. It had also landed on a hill, but this hill was steep enough to cause the pod to roll and it was now resting upside down, although it appeared intact. Agent set Flipper down on a flat spot a hundred meters away and I exited to investigate the upended landing pod. I was wearing my mask and breathing filtered air as Agent had reported the airborne toxin and radiation levels in this area were higher than they had been back in South Dakota.

I circled the pod fully allowing Agent to study the situation from all angles. We agreed that Agent should attempt to use Flipper and a long cable to roll the pod back over and into an upright attitude. If that failed, then I would have to dig out the winch and ground anchors to try and roll the pod over manually. The area on which the landing pod had settled was mostly flat and I hoped that if we managed to roll the pod back onto its bottom that it would not continue to roll further. I watched as Agent took off briefly and landed Flipper closer to the pod and in the direction it would need to be flipped.

I got started by using the using a hammer and pry bar to punch a pair of holes in the pod’s hull on the side away from Flipper. Into these holes went a pair of the large size expanding wedge anchors that had been included with the climbing gear. Next, I attached three long tethers to each anchor and tossed them up and over the inverted landing pod towards the direction where we wanted the pod to roll.

I went around to that side of the landing pod and attached the ends of the tethers to a large shackle. This way, when Flipper hauled on the shackle, the tethers would cause the inverted pod to roll over. One of our longest cables was attached to the shackle and to the lifting lug which Agent had deployed on Flipper’s underside.

“John, for your safety, please remove yourself at least hundred meters away from both the landing pod and Flipper.”

I quickly jogged away and found a large rock to take shelter behind in case it all went to hell. My fear was the cable would snap causing Flipper to crash. If that happened, there was a chance the lift fans could come apart sending high speed debris flying in all directions. Agent spooled up Flipper and it slowly rose, the cable dangling below and arching back towards the shackle attached to the landing pod.

She increased power, slowly pulling tight the cable, and putting tension on the tethers. Flipper began to tilt away from the pod as she increased power further, drawing the cable and tethers even tighter. I heard a few pops and a loud groan over the shrieking lift fans but slowly the pod began to roll.

Over it went and I was staring to worry about how Agent would stop the rolling pod once it tipped halfway when ... Snap! Shit! I thought as the cable suddenly snapped and the aircraft shot away from the pod. But, as the tipping pod completed its roll and stopped right-side up, now sitting correctly on its bottom, I realized that the cable had not snapped. Instead, Agent had released it from Flipper at the precise time needed to let the pod finish tipping to settle into the correct position without continuing to roll.

“Great job Agent!” I said. She did not respond to my excitement.

What followed next was almost a repeat of the deployment of Pod#2 a week ago. The hatch was opened, forming a ramp. The crane was deployed and soon we had one of the mules deployed. I moved the crane arm onto the mule, and we proceeded to unload a half dozen of the ESU’s. I used two of them to replace the depleted ESUs onboard Flipper and loaded the other four into Flipper as cargo, having to offload some crates to gain enough room near the aircrafts center of gravity.

We flew back to the other pod and landed near the deployed duplicate aircraft. I offloaded the four ESUs and I lugged them into the new craft’s cargo hold and installed them into the waiting receptacles. The new aircraft now had full power and was ready to go.

“What should we call this aircraft?” I asked Agent.

“Aircraft #2 would seem logical.” she replied.

“Um ... no. I think we can do better than that. Let’s call it Shadow.” I replied, after considering what the aircraft would be doing after we left.

“The new aircraft will now be referred to as ‘Shadow’, John.”

And so it was from that time on. I had wanted to ride Shadow back to the other pod before Agent reminded me that it was unproven and that she would be testing it on the trip over. So, I got back in my old seat in Flipper and off we went. We flew to the other pod slowly and I caught sight of Shadow occasionally, zooming by, up and down, being put through its paces.

Soon, we were back at the supply pod with both aircraft resting on the ground nearby. I began to work my ass off as a stevedore, sorting, unloading and transferring crates and ESUs between the aircraft. The relay drone had returned and was stowed again aboard Flipper. We deployed the second mule and used it to help shuttle cargo.

The bulk of the new cargo and a couple of spare ESU’s went into Shadow, while the offloaded cargo returned to Flipper. I spent an extra bit of time ensuring that all the cargo and ESU’s were safely secured. We finished the stowage as it was approaching late afternoon.

Again, we discussed just heading on tonight but decided to stay here because the weather was pretty decent, and we’d have arrived in Tennessee well after dark. I set about deploying ground anchors around both aircraft and tethered them down securely. Agent also had me dig into the gear in the excess pile which we would be leaving here and deploy a small helium sphere and communications antenna.

She planned to use the antenna to remain in contact with the two mules which were also to remain. She would keep them busy surveying the area nearby over the next few months. They would have to rely on solar for charging so their goings would be slow, but Agent explained that she had no reason to hurry and the work could take decades if need be. This area would become another biological monitoring station for Agent’s use.

It was getting dark when I finished up and gave myself a quick shower using the hose attachment in Flippers cockpit. I wiped down the walls and floor of the compartment a bit when I finished and got dressed in a fresh set of clothing. I had a late supper, readied the inflatable mattress on the crates in the cargo hold and went to bed, quickly falling asleep.

I woke a few times during the night when the aircraft had creaked, rocked or shifted because of an occasional breeze, but overall, I had slept well. The next morning, I checked the tablet and found out that it was September 8th and a Tuesday. After taking care of my morning necessaries (I loved the onboard toilet!), dressing and eating, I headed outside to untether both aircraft and remove and stow the ground anchors.

The weather was clear; a nice surprise, and there was only a light breeze from the east. The temperature was already almost ten degrees (50F) and with the sun, it would probably rise even higher. What a good day for a flight!

Soon I was strapped in the ‘not-a-pilots’ seat with Agent spooling up the lift fans. We took off and circled around to monitor Shadow’s takeoff which also managed to get airborne. I asked Agent how close it would be following us.

“Shadow will remain approximately three kilometers ahead of us as we travel, John. There it will act as a reconnaissance aircraft to gauge weather conditions and areas of turbulence. If we remain in line-of-sight with Shadow, both aircraft will remain under my full control. If contact is lost, Shadow will still proceed to the base in Tennessee under control of my partial presence existing onboard that aircraft.”

I considered her answer a bit. Agent had seemed different ever since we had left South Dakota. I now realized that her capabilities had been reduced due to the fact that we had left behind the bulk of her local processing units back at that base.

We had also left behind the dish antenna that allowed her to link with the orbital station or the asteroid belt. We did have another on board with the cargo, but I had not deployed it last night. So far, even with her reductions in capacity, she seemed to be handling the flying duties and cargo moving needs just fine. I did vow to watch her a bit closer, though.

As we flew towards the south-east, I could see Shadow off in the distance ahead. I also saw a great river off to the east which must have been the Mississippi. It appeared to be swollen and in flood conditions. I told Agent to fly us over towards the river and follow it south for a while. It was strange to watch the river passing below and not see the riverbanks covered with trees or the water filled with barge traffic. The river soon merged with a large impact crater forming a large circular lake before continuing on.

After following the winding river about twelve kilometers I remembered that soon we’d be passing by Saint Louis. I put on the goggles and cranked up the magnification. There it was! The Gateway Arch. I didn’t think it would still be standing but sure enough, about seventeen kilometers ahead and mostly edge on, I saw its unmistakable profile. I told Agent to fly around it a bit when we got there.

Soon, Agent began to slow and lower Flipper as we neared the northern suburb areas of Saint Louis. It looked like much of the area had been flooded many times over the years. I remembered that the Missouri River terminated and joined the Mississippi a bit north of Saint Louis and that that river system had flooded back in the attack when its dams and big reservoirs upstream had failed. Off to the west I saw the smaller Missouri river extending to the horizon and I realized that it was directly below us now, joining the Mississippi to the port side of Flipper.

Flying over the area of the confluence of the flooded rivers, I could see ahead a great deal of debris and rubble in the city area itself. Many of the larger buildings had left huge piles of wreckage as they collapsed or corroded. I could easily spot the remains of the cities road network and even the remains of large pieces of equipment. Rail engines, big trucks and construction equipment were recognizable although they were mostly large piles of rust with some having the remains of weathered rubber tires nearby. I noticed off to the southwest, a half dozen kilometers beyond the heart of the city, were the remains of another large impact crater.

We now were approaching the Arch itself. It looked to be in pretty decent shape, and I remembered that it was made of thick stainless steel plates. Still, there were holes and a great deal of rust showing. The windows at the top were broken and great rust streaks ran down the arch underside from those openings. The steel framework inside the stainless shell must be severely rusted and I wondered how long the structure had left.