The drones launched from Xanadu just as the
sun rose and arrowed up to low Chishiki orbit before arcing down to hover along
the edge of Hinnemon, to take advantage of the night’s edge to give them
maximum daylight to do their work.
The
sand slurry below had enough moisture in it to be held down and not move in the
howling winds. There was no water
falling off the edge along this coast, sucked dry by the thirsty continent.
The drones were all controlled by Glass
Mountain, giving the main system on Xanadu wings in a way that had not been
seen by that System in centuries. The
main parameters of what Prime wanted, demanded, were indeed being scanned for,
but the Mountain was being far more diligent and meticulous in its close
inspection. In the depths of the Mountain’s personality programming there were
a dozen small conflict loops that re-setting the original specs did nothing to
clear up.
The recordings were being done, and Glass
Mountain admitted system contentedness, playing the dozen playbacks from its
drones even though there was no one present in the control room to see them.
Bakons, browsing on vertical cliffs, and
tumbles of native flora, along with swaths of dust-grass leading to what would
one day be a massive inlet, as the sea rose.
The dust grass plains stretched out as far
as the cameras could perceive, orange and maroon red where the plants
were drying… in the distance bush-dragons soared and darted, probably over a
field of the little trap lizards that bit and bled prey till it fell.
One drone went dead. The Mountain used the closest two drones as
its eyes but only saw the smoking wreckage pieces of the drone setting fires in
the grass below. A swath of fire sprang
up, heavy smoke fogging downwind.
There was no sign of what had happened to
the drone. Drone Three flew low but
flames and smoke obscured the crash-sight, interfering with its air
intakes. There was a hitch, a
hesitation, before the fire must have damaged Three because it too went dead.
*Appropriate plantation sites identified*
That was Drone Twelve.
*Record crash sites for Drones Three and
Four. Do not…*
Drones Twelve, Ten, Five, Two and One all
went offline. *Abort survey. Return to…*
in the fraction of a second it took for Glass Mountain to begin the command,
far faster than any human being could react, Eleven, Nine, Eight, Seven, and Six
all went offline. Six caught a fraction of alien data squeal and the hologram
caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a blue, grey bush-dragon, mouth open,
all three lips spread wide as if to swallow the drone whole. The recording went
off.
*All drone connection lost*
*Shutdown drone link*
For several million seconds Glass Mountain
thought about the last image from Drone 6.
Prime had specifically commanded that the System not bother him with any
images of the subspecies of Hinnemon bush-dragon.
*Survey complete. Recommendations for
Prime. Plantation sites recorded for utilization at Prime’s command. Aerial
predators vigorous and dangerous. Recommend human survey before proceeding with
mass settlement. Possible underground aquifer…*
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