Four hours in Meri relieved Ben, who grabbed a bite to eat and then crawled into his bunk for a quick nap. Karen microwaved a couple of flight rations and brought one to Bill, and the two sat together, watching Bill’s monitors and chatting. Bill learned that Karen’s toddler, John, was two years old and that his father was an Explorer, serving as a flight instructor at Bowman Field. He also learned that the Corps liked to ensure that at least one parent was at Sacajawea, or at least not on an active survey when children were involved. “They don’t like to leave anyone an orphan,” Karen said.
Two hours later Karen relieved Bill. Ben was still taking a cat nap when Bill retired to the crew quarters to relax, so Bill elected to read a mystery novel he had found at a bookstore in Ohlone when he and Meri were on leave. It involved a Ranger from the Hayek Public Safety Force investigating an environmental crime involving strip mining and a murder in the gold fields of Yokut. Bill wasn’t sure if it was a true story, based on a true story, or pure fiction; his knowledge of Hayek laws was still fairly nebulous.
Six hours later it was his turn back at the computers. As he was taking over, he wondered what the protocol was for visible light imagery at night. He was amazed he hadn’t thought of it before and asked Karen.
“The pictures are mainly for secondary surveys to develop maps. We’ll get good enough imagery with the IR for our purposes,” she told him.
By now it was dark, and they were only a couple of hours from turnaround, so Bill focused on the IR monitors.
As the night progressed the watches got shorter. Fortunately, there wasn’t much physical or mental demand for any of the positions at this time, so none of the crew were taxed. Unfortunately, it was boring as hell, which led them to doze constantly.
When turnaround came, Meri was flying. She banked the plane to starboard and flew east for twenty minutes before turning south. While she was doing the eastbound leg, Bill saved the data they had on one computer that was designed specifically for GIS operations. By the time Meri had the Monarch headed south Bill had the remote sensing platforms up and running to capture the data for the 4,700-kilometer run to the Tropic of Cancer.
The analysis didn’t take as long as he expected, mainly because he wasn’t looking for changes, only for signs of life. Any straight lines or clustered heat sources were identified. Bill had to check those by reviewing each and every one of them. There were no straight lines, and the only heat clusters he found turned out to be large mammals, most likely mammoths or mastodons.
The night passed quietly, with Karen and Bill taking turns, while also relieving Ben and Meri. The crew got into a set routine, with fixed hours at each station and time off for rest, but nobody got more than six straight hours of sleep at any one time. At times Karen had to force the two new Explorers to stop working and rest.
By the end of the week, the Monarch had made twelve north-south runs and covered a swath extending just east of the Great Salt Lake. As they passed over the lake Bill commented about not having to smell it at this altitude. Despite being exhausted, the others chuckled at such a lame joke.
As they hit their turnaround over the Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, Karen announced, “That’s it for this run. Take us back to the IP, Ben.” Cheering broke out among the crew. Finally, they’d be able to sleep for more than six hours at a time. Karen told Bill to shut down the remote sensing equipment and to run the final analysis as they made the 2700-kilometer trip home. She made copies of all their imagery and analysis onto a portable hard drive that she would turn over to the Corps for further analysis. She also wrote up a succinct report of their findings: to wit, no sign of civilization or human groupings.
Almost nine hours later 42/2 was circling the IP airfield, and using the short-range directional radio Ben contacted the control tower for landing instructions. Upon given clearance to land and the weather conditions, Ben took the plane down and gently set it on the runway. As he did, the crew burst out cheering again. As they taxied down the runway toward the apron Karen went back to her locker and retrieved a bottle of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey.
“I may not be Irish, but this is a hell of a lot better than champagne for celebrating,” she said. “We’ll have some once the engines are shut down.” She handed the bottle to Bill and dug out four plastic cups from the galley.
When Ben shut down the engine Karen poured each of them a glass and said, “To a successful survey. We made it home!” then tossed back her drink. The others followed suit. “We’ll let the Commandant give his toast, but I wanted to give the first one.” She put the cork back in the bottle and secreted it back into the duffel bag.
All four grabbed their rifles from their lockers before Bill opened the door, and when he did, they were greeted by the Survey Commander and her assistant, both armed as usual.
She told them that the gate would be opening the next morning at zero seven hundred hours for ten minutes and that the crew should be ready to go through it. “Take only your soiled clothing and rifles, and leave the rest here. I’ll have mechanics go over everything and get you resupplied.” At a glance from Karen, she affirmed, “With good rats. I know the kind of crap logistics likes to push off on crews, but that don’t fly with me!”
The crew were given a week off and told to report back to the gate the following Monday.
25
After a week off, Bill and Meri were beginning to feel human again, when they returned to Planet 42 for their second run. By now, the crew was familiar with each other and their idiosyncrasies, and because they genuinely liked each other, they were looking forward to another week of stress and lost sleep.
When they walked through the gate this time, they could see their Monarch waiting for them. Ben even commented that it appeared to have been washed, by the lack of bug splatters on the windshield and leading edges of the wings. They threw their duffels into the plane haphazardly and then continued on to the operations building where they met with the Survey Commander. She told them their replacement should be arriving at any time, and to stand by until they did. That way the crew could be updated on the survey findings and also be told where to begin their survey.
Rather than hang out in the Monarch, the crew decided to hang out in the operations building, which, like other operations buildings on every base the Corps established, had a bit of a dining/recreation area. This one was smaller than most, though, needing only to handle the small operations staff and transient air crews.
It was shortly after lunch before the radio squawked and a voice started calling for the base.
The Assistant Survey Commander responded, and gave the incoming plane weather conditions on the field and directions on where to park. Soon, the Monarch was on the ground and everyone went out to watch it taxi up.
“I bet they’re having a small celebration,” Karen commented to her crew, sotto voce.
Soon the crew disembarked from the S-1 and were briefing the Survey Commander. After listening to what they said she released the crew and told them they could cross over to Hayek in the morning.
She then turned to the crew of 42/2 and told them where to begin their survey, which was almost 2000 kilometers to the east. “Nothing’s been found, so far, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be. If I’m correct you should be crossing over the Mississippi near the end of the week, so keep a sharp eye out.”
Karen was then ordered to get her flight underway, so she and Bill boarded the Monarch while Meri and Ben conducted their pre-flight inspection. Within minutes Ben was in the left-hand seat, Meri in the right and Bill and Karen strapped into their crash seats. Upon getting clearance from the tower, Ben gave the bird some throttle, taxied down the runway, and in a repeat of the week before, took the bird up.
The flight to their first run was longer than Bill expected because Karen wanted to start it at their southern terminus, which put them far into what was the eastern side of Mexico on Earth, over the Sierra Madre Oriental. It was well after dark when th
ey arrived, and Bill had been given the opportunity to fly for some of that time, simply because he and Karen had nothing to do.
Once on station, the two aerial survey specialists got their equipment up and running and began collecting imagery as Ben turned the plane north to the Arctic Circle. For the next week the same routine as before took place, with Bill and Karen focused on data collection and analysis, but giving Ben and Meri breaks from flying. Different than the first survey, though, the four had now gotten into the groove, so they didn’t feel as tired when they finished as they had the first trip out.
Bill had hoped to find anything, such as mounds or streets as they crossed into the Mississippi River valley, but as with the prior thousands of kilometers, there was no sign of civilization.
Finally, on the seventh day out, Karen ordered Ben to return to base. Considering they were now almost 3,000 kilometers to the east, and at the Arctic Circle, which was still white in early May, Bill was surprised to find that it took them as long to get home as it took to get to their starting point. Then he remembered, despite knowing it from the many runs toward and away from the North Pole, Duh, lines of longitude converge at the poles! Man, I must be more tired than I thought.
The next several weeks followed the same pattern. They would survey a week, usually extending the survey range out another 950 to 1,000 kilometers, then they would have a week on Hayek to recover and wear something other than a flight suit, survival vest, and survival belt. It also gave them the chance to eat something other than flight rations, which, while good, weren’t something one wanted to live on indefinitely. Ben, seeing Karen be greeted by her husband and son when they came home each survey was glad that he didn’t have any children. How the hell does Karen manage with a toddler? I’m exhausted when we get back, and kids are nothing but energy vacuums.
By the time they had covered Ti’icham and the Caribbean, they were pretty certain no civilizations existed anywhere in the western half of the northern hemisphere. Reports that they were getting from the crews covering the tropics and the southern hemisphere were presenting the same findings - nothing! Ti’Icham, Suya, and the Caribbean were void of any signs of civilizations or even proto-civilizations. No roads, no temples, no signs of agriculture. If there was anything down there, the Explorers surmised that they hadn’t progressed beyond the migratory hunter-gatherer stage.
By the time June rolled around the Surveys were just reaching the western edge of Eurasia. Nothing had been spotted in Greenland or Iceland, but the crews were told to keep a sharp eye out. As the Survey Commander told them, “Most civilizations started out in Eurasia, particularly in Mesopotamia. I expect you’ll be over that area by late June or early July, so be careful.
When the crew of 42/2 arrived on Planet 42 after another week off, they were surprised to find that 42/1 had already landed. They discovered that the co-pilot had gotten ill their fifth day out and they were unable to help him. It turned out the poor Explorer had a ruptured appendix, and they barely made it back in time to save his life.
So, instead of starting out further east than they expected, their initial point would be almost three hundred kilometers closer to the IP. Karen decided to start the survey at the Arctic Circle just to get on station sooner. “If I can manage it, I’ll end us at the Arctic Circle so we can get home faster,” she told the crew as they prepared to take off. Taking the Great Circle route northward, they arrived at their start point twenty hours later.
The first run south took them over what was Scotland on Earth, down through the Irish Sea, over the Iberian Peninsula, east of the Strait of Gibraltar, over the Atlas Mountains, and finally over the deserts of North Africa where they eventually made their turn northward. The sun was just coming up over the desert when they made the turn, and even at more than 9,000 meters altitude Bill could see it was just like the desert on Earth, barren.
As they headed north Bill could see the planet change color under him, going from the dun of desert in the morning to the aquamarine of the Mediterranean by late morning, and then the verdant green of western Eurasia by noon. Bill found the terrain below much more interesting than he had found that of Ti’icham, probably because it was vastly different and didn’t look quite as boring.
As they conducted the survey, the crew followed their, by now, usual routines. Fly, work, eat, nap, repeat. As the week was winding down and they were making their final run of the southbound leg, Bill could just make out the mountains of western Eurasia poking out above the darkening land below them. The mountains were bathed in the ruddy color of the setting sun, a condition known as alpenglow. It reminded Bill of sunsets seen from his dorm room overlooking Washington State’s Mt. Rainier. We’ll probably be right at their bases when we make the next run tomorrow afternoon, he thought.
Right after he thought that, Karen told the crew to get a good look at the mountains. “As soon as we turn north for the next run, that’ll be it for this trip. Once we get to the Circle let’s head for the barn” she announced.
That evening they crossed the Mediterranean, and once more over the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. The rest of the night was spent crossing the barren North Africa desert, both southbound and northbound. They finally cleared the desert and crossed the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea by mid-afternoon. A little over two hours later they left the Mediterranean and once again began flying over land, just on the western edge of the Eurasian Alps.
Far below Bill could see large, fluffy cumulonimbus clouds piling up. Knowing just how dangerous it was to fly in such clouds, and especially in such a light aircraft as the Monarch was, Bill was glad to know that they were out of harm’s way.
26
Bill was sitting at his workstation, running another analysis on the imagery his cameras and other remote sensing equipment had picked up. Staring intently at his screen and looking for any signs of human habitation, he was surprised when the cabin around him lit up with a brief flash. His computer screen went blank and the interior lights of the craft shut off. Sparks flew from his computer, and he felt the hair on his head stand on end. Simultaneously, he felt, more than saw, a brief electric bolt extend from his computer to his left leg cargo pocket of his uniform. At practically the same time, he heard Ben exclaim, “What the hell, over?” Bill picked up the scent of ozone, as if a small electrical fire had taken place. He suspected it was his computer and reached toward the bulkhead to his right for the small fire extinguisher.
As he was releasing the extinguisher from its clamps, Bill looked to his right, toward the front of the craft, beyond the crew crash couches, and saw beyond Ben that all the flight screens were blank. As a matter of fact, there didn’t appear to be a working light or electronic device on the craft. The only light in the aircraft was coming through the windshield and the side portals.
Bill finished releasing the extinguisher and pointed it at his computer just in case it burst into flames, but the smoke dissipated, leaving him holding a loaded fire extinguisher with no fire to extinguish.
“Shit!” Ben yelled. “Fire on the port engine!” Bill looked out the small portal to the left wing and saw flames coming from the engine. Looking out the opposite portal to the right wing he was relieved to not see any flames. Bill could still see the large cumulonimbus clouds several kilometers beneath them.
Meri came charging through the main cabin, passing Bill’s workstation and jumped into the co-pilot’s seat. Bill could see her and Ben making frantic motions, attempting to put out the flames. Bill looked back out the port window and watched as fire retardant spewed into the engine until eventually the flames were put out.
While this was happening, a rumpled Karen joined Bill in the main cabin area, taking a seat in the workstation across the plane from Bill’s. It was obvious she had just been rudely awakened.
“What’s up?” she asked Bill, who was now in the process of putting the fire extinguisher into its cradle.
“Don’t know. All the power went out with that flash and the p
ort engine caught on fire. Looks like the fire’s out, but still no power.”
“Hey guys,” shouted Ben to the crew, “We got a problem. No power. Looks like we might have to ditch. Bill, can you find me a spot to land this thing, preferably on a lake or flat plain?”
Bill looked hopelessly at his blank monitors and yelled back to Ben “Stand by. The computer got fried, so I’ll have to check a back-up.”
Bill reached into the cargo pocket of his pants and pulled out a small tablet, which he subconsciously noticed was warmer than usual. Swiping the screen, he waited for it to wake up. Nothing happened. He swiped the screen again. Still nothing. He pushed the power button on the side and held it, waiting for the familiar vibration indicating the unit was powering up. Still nothing.
With a perplexed look on his face, he turned to Karen and asked her to check her tablet. Pulling it out, she went through the same ritual as Bill, getting the exact same results.
“Uh, guys, we got another problem,” Bill announced to the flight crew. “Something killed our tablets. Do yours work?”
Bill heard some talk between Ben and Meri, but couldn’t hear what they were saying. Meri pulled her tablet out, swiped it, looked at it and swiped it again. Then shook her head. “Mine’s dead, too.”
Meri put her tablet back in her pocket and grabbed the yoke, allowing Ben the opportunity to get his tablet out and try it. Ben’s results were the same as everyone else’s, a dead tablet.
Bill, still holding his tablet, thought for a moment, and then asked the others if they saw a lightning flash extend from any electronics to their tablets. Ben said no, and both the women said they didn’t have their tablets with them, as they were sleeping.
The Corps of Discovery Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3: A multiverse series of alternate history Page 28
