Chapter 16: So, here’s the plan

The answer to how we get an aircraft with a range of 1,500km to complete a mission to a remote location over 5,600km away is simple. You make a lot of pit stops on the way and you get help from others.

The rescue trip would be broken down into two major segments. The first segment was Tennessee to Nicaragua and the second was Nicaragua to the southern Amazon basin in western Brazil. Why Nicaragua? Well, that was the location of a field base which we were going to use as a major refueling stop and launching point for the second segment of the rescue mission.

The base in Nicaragua offered three important components needed for the rescue plan. The first was that it was near the halfway point on the journey with its location not too far off the direct great circle course between Tennessee and the Amazon. The second was that it had a large supply of portable ESUs ready and waiting and the third was that the base had two more functional aircraft which we would be utilizing.

Agent explained that the aircraft had been stationed at the base for over eight decades. Apparently, the factory base on asteroid 3074 Popov had sent redundant emergency aircraft and supplies to all field bases around the world which were sheltering humans shortly after it had sent the aircraft to my old base in South Dakota. She also explained that the various field bases had been busy for many decades using the aircraft to survey and replant and improve the biosphere of those regions and that as the aircraft had worn out, the factory asteroid had sent replacements.

I was surprised to learn that even the Flipper I was riding in now was the second aircraft to bear the name, as the old Flipper had worn out and been replaced at the Tennessee base. I’d noticed the cup holders by the pilot’s chair so new features had also been added. When Agent had informed me of the other aircraft we’d be using for this mission, I quickly realized they needed names to help me keep all these aircraft straight. The first two names to pop into my head were “Raven” and “Raptor” and thus, those became their names.

So, back to the mission. The first segment of the trip, Tennessee to the Nicaragua base, began with a short leg of 620km to Florida, which we were already nearing. Both Flipper and Shadow were flying to the Florida panhandle coast and, both aircraft being heavy, would deplete two ESUs getting there.

Once there, I would replace the expended ESUs on both craft with fully energized ESUs which Shadow had ferried to Florida last night before returning to Tennessee this morning. The Florida refueling stop would leave Flipper with four energized ESUs installed and two spares and Shadow with four ESUs installed and four spares.

Note, I am calling them ‘refueling stops’ as that term just seems right for me to use. I’d guessed it was because that’s what I always had done when traveling, stop for fuel. I am fully aware that Flipper and Shadow do not consume fuel. I considered calling them ‘recharging stops’ but we are not recharging any of the ESUs. ‘Battery swapping stops’ just sounded silly so just get used to ‘refueling stops.’ I had to put my foot down when Agent tried to correct me on the phrase, but now, she just gives me a pass, though she mostly refuses to use the term herself.

After ‘refueling’ (ha!) both aircraft in Florida, we would take off on the next leg, which was over the Gulf of Mexico to the western end of Cuba. This was a longer leg at 1020km and would take around three and a half hours. This would put us on the ground sometime in the afternoon. The aircraft would each deplete three ESUs getting to Cuba, leaving Flipper with three full ESUs remaining and Shadow with five. I would spend a few hours on the ground swapping out the depleted ESUs, having to shuffle cargo to do so. Both aircraft would end up with four full ESUs installed and no spares. There we’d end day one of our rescue mission before departing for the final leg early on day two.

That final leg would be from Cuba to the field base in the eastern edge of central Nicaragua. We would be flying over the western end of the Caribbean Sea for much of the flight. This leg would be slightly longer then the last, at almost 1,100km and take almost four hours. Both aircraft would deplete three ESUs on that leg and land with a reserve of one. We’d be on the ground sometime very early in the morning of day two (Thursday).

While this was all happening, I’d learned that Agent’s presence running the field base in Nicaragua was also going to be busy. Starting yesterday (Tuesday), the A.I. had been sending both of its aircraft, Raptor and Raven, on ESU ferry trips to a staging point in Colombia. Each aircraft took off with eight ESUs and a mobile unit. They each landed in Colombia having depleted three, left two energized ESUs there to start a refueling cache, and returned to base, using the final three ESUs. Each round trip to Colombia from Nicaragua was a bit over 1,400km and five and a half hours one way. Add in an hour spent on the ground transferring and offloading ESUs and each round trip would take almost twelve hours.

Both Raptor and Raven were in the process of making four round trip ferry flights each, hoping to be finished with them all before we arrived in Nicaragua, and having left a supply cache at the Colombia staging point containing enough energized ESUs for our needs.

I had been back in the pilot’s seat for a half hour, no longer feeling intestinal cramping, and trying to drink a bit of liquid when Agent began our descent into Florida. The clouds were mostly gone here, and I was studying the ground passing by slowly underneath. Off to the southern horizon I could see the ocean and towards the south-west I could see a huge flooded crater on the shoreline. I asked agent what was near there.

“I estimate the crater is in an area northeast of the former city of Pensacola. There were also a great many tsunamis which swept much of the life and development along the coastal areas away and which caused flooding even a great distance inland. In this century, the ocean levels are lower, due to large volumes of water being captured and stored in the form of ice due to increased glaciation in the higher latitudes and extensive ice packs near both polar regions.”

That must explain the wide exposed stretches of coastal flats which I could see far ahead. Agent continued.

“The location in Florida was chosen as it was near that state’s highest point and will thus be a more stable location to transfer ESUs than along the tidal flats nearer the beach.”

I saw a blinking glyph on the windscreen overlay and watched as we descended towards the indicated point. As we got close, I noticed we were coming in hot and instinctively gripped the chair’s arm rests. I had just spotted the four ESUs sitting out in the open on the ground before Flipper’s nose reared up sharply and we flared to a very fast stop (fun, but scary!), before quickly settling back down and landing.

Shadow had already landed, and I saw that her tail and cargo doors opening. I felt the vibration of Flipper’s cargo hatch beginning to raise even as the lift fans spooled down. OK, I get it. This whole trip will be rush, rush, rush. I quickly got buttoned up and was out the door.

I learned by doing that refueling the aircraft involved a bunch of cargo shuffling. I became a stevedore and moved all the cargo enough to get the two depleted ESUs out of their sockets and off the aircraft. I then hauled full ESU replacements back onboard and into the sockets from the cache sitting out on the gravel. I finished by restowing the cargo. I then repeated this process for the second aircraft.

When I was done, each aircraft was ready to go, with Flipper having four ESUs installed in the sockets and two spare ESUs in the cargo hold. Shadow had four installed and four spares. The landing site cache was now empty except for the four depleted ESU cylinders we had used to get here (Shadow had returned to base with her two depleted ESUs on her first trip here.).

Before I got back onboard Flipper, I took a quick break trying to catch my breath. I also used the time to take a leak (Carefully! Bowels still tense.). I noticed the surrounding area had quite a bit of plant life. There was even a bit of scrub and a few small palm trees. I also heard a new sound. Birds! I looked and found gulls in the air and a few other smaller species flitting about among the scrub. I just stood there for a minute smiling, enjoying the sight. I’d have loved to go explore but both aircraft began spooling up their fans. OK! Back onboard I went.

“Did you see the birds?” I asked when I was seated.

“Yes John, I noted several species from the camera images. On our return flight we will have to do a short survey of plant and animal life at each stop.”

It was an hour after noon when we took off, both aircraft again heavy, and began the lumbering climb off towards the south. I was watching the ground as we rose, munching a new ration bar – these new bars tasted more like granola – and sipping water. After ten minutes, I watched the ocean slide under our nose as we left the coast behind. Ahead was nothing but blue seas below, and above, a mostly clear blue sky. I was getting very tired from all the work I had done this morning and from my revival fatigue, so I reclined the chair and quickly fell asleep.

Agent woke me three hours later by brightening the cabins viewscreen and I opened my eyes to see we were already descending. Below I saw we had already crossed the Cuban northern coast, although I could see the Gulf off to the west still.

“Shadow has moved ahead and will be landing soon at a point about twenty kilometers ahead.”