-The Full Moon Retreat-
Episode: The First Search and Rescue Mission
Chapter 5:
Walking a tight rope...
To the reader:
I want to say thank you to all that have read and rated my work, thus far. I especially want to thank those that have taken the time to comment. The ratings tell me, in the most general way, whether, or not, my editing of my last posting improved the story for the reader. However, only your comments can tell me what about it was right and what was wrong. This posting, (Chapter 5), is a distillation of what were the original chapters 8, 9, and, 10. We're burning through the original 33 chapters, rather quickly. With this posting, I have taken the story back toward a standard presentation, about as far as it will ever go. There are still character flags in front of the first paragraph of a character's monolog. I have removed the flags from subsequent paragraphs, until the character focus changes. Because I wrote the story from the POV of the 'fly on the wall'; to remove all of the flags would leave the story in a chaotic confusion. I now understand that point of view is the 'writer's death on a stick'. To change that would require a re-write, and I am hard pressed simply to accomplish the editing required to get each week's posting ready. So, it is what it is and, maybe, all it will ever be. I am pleased with the reception that my story has had, even if I am not satisfied with it. Thank you again, and it is my hope that, if for only a few minutes of your day, you are entertained.
PN
[22:08, Tuesday, the radio room door]
Jack: "Oh, Jim, could you install some sort of loudspeaker in the ops room to monitor the comms? That's where I expect that I will be during most of the operation."
Bonner: "I'll install a base station radio in there, so, that, if you need to, you can speak directly to the teams in the field."
Jack: "You are our radioman and I want a professional to handle most of the communications. But, if you can manage it, an intercom between the radio room and the ops room would be a good idea. That way I can relay decisions through you to the teams."
Bonner: "Yeah, I can do all of that. I'll get on it right away. By the way, if you have a computer and monitor in there I can set it up to display the tracking information from locator beacons on all of the saddle packs. What you will see is a Topographical map with little blue numbers moving around on it."
Jack: "That would be great, especially when Mari is trying to explain things to the press. Dig around in some of the boxes that had the computer gear. There is an LCD projector in one of them. Set that up as a second monitor. That is pretty sweet. Did you make that?"
Bonner: "Ah, unfortunately, no. I wish I had, but it was the same guy that designed the locator beacons."
"Another nice feature is that if they press the emergency buttons on the locators, their unit numbers on the map will turn green and flash for the green button, red and flash for the red button and yellow and flash if both buttons are pressed."
Jack: "Wow! I'm impressed. Well, how did we happen to have a map for this area? And, does all of this data coming over the radio interfere with voice communication?"
Bonner: "We didn't, already, have a map. All that I had to do was to download a USGS topo map. They are available online at no charge. While running the display program, you click a "virtual button" and the program captures it as an image. Then, it prompts you to move the cursor to each of the four corners of the map and click. Each time it captures the latitude and longitude coordinates from the website. The USGS website tracks your cursor and reads out the coordinates at the bottom of the screen. It's pretty neat! And... the data being sent from the locators is actually coming in on the comm channel. Everything is digital and if you were to try to listen to the frequency with an old fashioned radio, if you heard anything at all, it would, just sound like hash or static. Both the data and the voice information is 'digitized' and sent as a mishmash of numbers. It's 'P25' and 'LTE' compatible. That's like your cell phone's 3G and 4G. You have to have the right type of radio on both ends, and the same is true for the repeater, too, but, you can send a lot more information over a single channel."
Jack: "Wow! And, I was lost when they made everyone get rid of our analog TVs!"
Bonner: "Yes, Sir. I hate to say it, but a lot of these changes have taken the fun out of being a radioman and Ham radio. I used to spend hours tweaking and tuning my radios to get the absolute longest distance out of them. I'd set up all night sometimes just trying to swap callsigns with someone, somewhere that I had never talked to, before. Now, you just pull your 'not-so-smart' phone out of your back pocket and call china or, just about anywhere. Of course, the dumb asses have missed something. Even, though you can walk out into traffic 'texting' someone or take 'selfies' or play video games, you can't understand someone talking to you, even if they are just across the street. They seem to have forgotten that they were supposed to be telephones in the first place. But, I'm not bitter!"
Jack: "Yeah, things have changed faster than you can keep up with. It's all more complicated, but, sometimes, I'm not so sure that it is better. It all could be better, if those that invent all of this new technology would, just hold quality as dear as they do sophistication."
"Well... This is going to be a long night. I'll be in the ops room."
Bonner: "Ok, I'll start installing all that stuff, so, I'm afraid that I may be clattering around in there for a while."
Leaving the radio room, Jack heads for the dining hall to get himself a Thermos of coffee and a cup. Realizing that he needs a desk in the ops room, he leaves his coffee by the coffee urn and goes to the storage room and gets a folding table, and takes it to the operations room. Deciding that there should be two, he repeats the operation and then retrieves a half dozen folding chairs. Finally, he returns to the coffee table in the dining hall to collect his Thermos and cup. Jack pulls out two of the chairs, next to his new "desk", sits down and pours a cup of coffee, then kicks his feet up on the second chair, trying to get comfortable to settle in for the long wait...
[00:25, Wednesday, the operations room]
Jack is awakened by the sound of Jim Bonner moving the other table around. Jack is annoyed when he takes a sip from his full cup of cold coffee...
Jack: "Oh, hey, Jim. I guess that I dozed off."
Bonner: "I'm sorry, Alpha, I was trying not to wake you."
Looking around, Jack can see that there are several new pieces of equipment in the room. He also notices the soft hiss of static.
Bonner: "I'm just about done, here, as soon as I reboot this computer. I hung the projector up there on the center pole of the tent and this plastic coated canvas seems to make a passable screen. The intercom is over here next to the computer monitor. And, I hung a speaker box in each corner, on either side of the 'screen'."
There is a beep and the Windows logo appears on the front wall of the ops room.
Bonner: "The tracking software should be up and running, now."
The projected image flashes through several 'boot screens', and then a map appears.
Bonner: "It may take, up to, a minute for this computer to acquire the locator transmitters of the cats. A 'zero', about here..."
Bonner moves the cursor to a spot on the display...
"...will be the base camp. I have a locator, set to 'unit zero', sitting on top of the radio in the 'shack'."
After a few moments delay, small blue numbers appear on the map. A 'zero' indicates the location of the base camp and the numbers '101', '102' and '103' showing to be about a quarter of the way along the ridge to their ultimate destination, the high peak shown on the map.
Jack: "I see them! How long was I asleep? What time is it?"
Bonner: "It's around twelve-forty-five. You were asleep about an hour and a half."
Jack: "It looks like they have gone about a half mile. They are making good time."
Bonner: "Alpha, if you'll look at this end of the ridge, it's sort of triangular shaped where it joins this ridge in front of us and the lines are relatively far apart. That probably means that it's broad, narrowing down to here where the lines get really close together. I would interpret that to mean that this area..."
Bonner is pointing to the triangular area on the map.
"...is wide and flat and, probably heavily forested. For the cats, that would be relatively easy going and fast to travel. Where they are, now is getting very narrow and, because of that, I would imagine rocky. The soil, if there ever was any, would have washed away, leaving exposed rock. That means that, very likely, it will be slow going. There are a few wide spots along the way, but, mostly, it's very narrow. I'm praying that none of it is impassable."
Jack: "That sounds like a pretty astute analysis. I'm impressed, but not pleased."
Bonner: "Yes, sir."
Jack settles back into his chair, again, to wait.
[02:10, Wednesday, on the ridge]
Grace:
"What happened? It has gone from a stroll through the woods to a stone 'tight-rope'.
Fontain:
"You couldn't tell too much from the map that they had, but I think that it will be like this for most of the rest of the way. What worries me is that, looking off to the sides, I'm seeing either, fog or, Gawd, cloud tops and not a single flat spot on the way down. So, step carefully".
Baxter:
"And to think that I used to get butterflies just trying to jump from one tree to another."
Fontain:
"Well, I don't know how far it goes, but so far, this game trail is passable, even if a little disconcerting at times."
