Ninety Degrees Out

Hakan made the last connection to the battery booster cart. He dragged it in from the hangar tent, where it was connected to solar batteries. They moved it from plane to plane to keep them charged up. Each one came out once every two weeks to run for half an hour to keep the engines in good shape. Planes in storage were a miserable thing to maintain, but it had to be done.

The oilsands in Alberta were already up to full production, with hundreds of migrating workers finding their way in. Experts from all fields of the fossil fuel energy business were there now along with the Highlanders and Princess Patricia regiments of the Canadian army. Defending the precious refineries was priority one with Saudi Arabia and the rest of the middle east in a deep freeze where no one could work. Broken pipes littered the ocean floor and all delivery of any oil from the area ground to a halt in favor of massive bacteria farms now cleaning up the spills.

With the connections made, he thought about the logistics of running this meeting. With many of the participants spread out over a huge area of Alaska, speakers would have to use the mic and learn how to make sure they didn’t cut themselves off in the process.

“Are you ready Catherine, Alicia?” He asked.

Alicia glanced over to her future sister in law as she nodded.

“We’re ready. Captain Whipper is too from what we were able to figure out earlier. Dasan said he’s got Grange, Edward, and Jake in the radio room up there. Sargent Stan has his group in city hall standing by as well.”

Catherine sounded more like herself now. Back to the confident young woman who led his trail rides and understood more about volcanoes than he ever dreamed possible.

Hakan scanned the dining hall as it filled. Erik and Meg sat close at the round table next to the radio set up. Aaron, Randy, and Sara were with them. The sniper turned out to be a blessing. Mac, Deborah, and Earl were at the next table over. Risky business bringing her down to the lodge, but in the end the wagon did it and she was close to Doc Mike now that she was ready to have her baby. Luck was with them.

Arimina had her lynx kittens with her. The consensus between Alicia and Anya was the two would never be wild. The cats were the size of the biggest feral tom they had on the ranch and followed Ari everywhere she went.

The people gathered here and at the homestead were family. A tight community with more people trickling in with incredible stories of survival. Meg with her news of what Rico and Angel were planning made him wonder if there was something more than coincidence on their side.

Time to bring this meeting to order. He rapped his pen against the metal casing of the radio he tuned to their chosen frequency. The room settled into silence and he picked up the mic.

“This is Hakan. Calling all stations for the expanded Stargazer safety net. This net meets every day at 0100 Zulu, at 7100 hertz.”

He continued to ask for check-ins from each of his known major areas. Over twenty stations listening in, many of them from far further west and east than their small section of Alaska. The most surprising check-in came from China. Radio waves were taking some interesting jumps around the globe.

He knew their protocol wasn’t up to snuff, with no proper call signs for the stations. Some of the experienced amateurs still used them, but the rules went out the window when families figured out how to work equipment left behind by silent keys. The number of friends he lost during the flip was astounding. Their voices forever silent.

His ears prickled. The familiar beeping rhythm of Morse code broke through the voice traffic. He rested his wrist on the table and began to tap a response. The tiny key rattled his question, and he grabbed a pen to write down the rapid answer. This was an experienced old school radio operator.

“We have a problem,” Hakan spoke into the mic. “Did anyone else copy that message?”

“Stan here, I have a copy. One of my men understands Morse code. This is what I have. Giant ash plume from Yellowstone. Reaching upper atmosphere at 40,000 feet. East America volcano also erupting. Plume to 35,000 feet.”

“We will conclude our business here with any sightings of Rico and his group. Those mega explosions mean we need to prepare for much colder weather here. Anything on Rico?”

Hakan nodded at Randy when he waved his hand, and crooked a finger inviting him to the radio. Silence answered his question, so the bearded mountain man was their only source of intel.

“Rico is in a warehouse across Twig Creek on the other side of the the highway from Markham house. He has been attacking cars with legal reason to be on the highway. We have one victim recovering at Stargazer Ranch. Others have not been as lucky. This is Randy, Texas Ranger Sniper and look out.”

His report brought a gasp and silence from the radio.

Hakan took the mic back. “We have our work cut out for us. Randy says the bikers have been coming in from both directions on the highway carrying packages, but generally stay close to the warehouse. They are staging for an attack from what we can see.”

Hakan answered calls from outlying stations asking how they could assist. He left them with Stan, and let their conversations continue, making notes as offers of glass for green houses poured in. People were thinking smart.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Mommy, where’s Ursa? I haven’t seen her or the cubs for a long time.”

Arimina’s question, startled Alicia as they rode up the trail from the meeting. “Let’s take the long way home Chay. I want to check on the den and see what’s up with them. Ari is right, we haven’t even see her tracks at the rotten log.”

“Find Ursa, Jazz!” Chay waved his hand in the direction of the den.

“Will he get into trouble with her?” Alicia asked.

“More likely he’ll bark and scare her into going back to the den.” Blue started after his Malawolf, and he spoke again, “Blue! Blue, here.” The husky with her blue eyes and heavy abdomen, eased back beside the horses.

The lynx kittens pushed their heads out of the saddlebags behind Arimina, hissing and the mewling excited cries. “What’s wrong with them, Mommy?”

At the same moment Jazz howled, his eerie voice echoing slightly as he sang his wolf song.

“Something’s wrong. Can you smell that?” Chay kicked Bingo into a canter.

Alicia turned her mare sideways across the path. “Let Chay find out what’s going on.”

“But Mommy, I want to see.”

“It’s going to be gross. Ursa has a rotten kill up ahead. Remember when Chay left the carcasses for her before things really started growing?”

Ari scrunched up her face in distaste. “Yeah, it smells the same. What’s keeping Daddy?”

“Patience Arimina. He’ll be back as soon as he knows what’s going on.”