#119: Daniel Freemartin - All that was left was sand

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Daniel had bought the programs and equipped his harvester smartly, then he just picked a direction, away from the Banana Slug, and headed out. The water was still rising so he’d look for oil in what was NOW shallow water before it got TOO deep.

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The little town had been located on a smaller river near the confluence of a larger river. It had been destroyed by a sucker punch from behind. A wall of water had devastated the little town during the middle of the night when a dam upstream had collapsed. Hundreds of people had been killed while they slept as the town was almost completely destroyed by the surge. Here and there a body had been trapped. The water was too cold for them to rot but certain fish slowly disposed of the remains. Mostly they had floated away, downstream. The water had risen to cover the scene of the disaster over the following days and weeks. Now nothing showed on the surface to indicate the disaster below.

The bodies bothered Daniel. He had no idea what to do with them or about them. The first time he’d seen one while piloting his Fluffy in VR he’d puked. It felt like he’d puked up every meal he’d had in the last week and was working on throwing up his toenails. He lay in the floor of the cockpit of his fluffy, and cried.

He realized clearly that there but for the grace of god and a few good people, who decided for no particular reason to help their fellow man, went he. He lay there and shivered and thought about it for some time.

Finally he decided that it was above his pay-grade so he went right to the top. He’d been told about the Dragon Lady so he called her. They talked. He cried some more. She cried with him.

She put him on hold.

It took a long time before she returned.

“I want to thank you for ‘Cow-Boying up’ Daniel. “ She had said “ many wouldn’t. I have consulted with others and we have a solution.”

She transmitted a short program to his Fluffy.

“Run that.” She said. “It’s an upgrade. I’ve sent it to the other two Fluffies and all future ones will have it too. When you find a body, activate this program then wait. It will take care of the dead person and produce a jewel. Send the jewel back to us with the next shipment of SSmoke. We’ll enshrine the jewels as a meager memory to their lives. It’s all we can do.”

After she hung up he did that. The fluffy transformed somewhat into a different configuration.

The dead bodies were still there so he activated it. Then sat back in the cockpit and watched. He noticed shapes like angels left the front of his fluffy. Soon they returned. The Fabricator operated for a short time then produced an unusual jewel. The jewel slotted itself into a magazine. Reverent storage for the dead, awaiting the next shipment. He did that from then on when he discovered a body.

SSmoke is marvelous stuff. A tube or a hose made from SSmoke could be made peristaltic with no particular effort, just programming. It’s great for pumping liquids. His fluffy had a pair of long hoses with small drones on the ends. The drones swam thru the deep water trailing the hose attached to the ‘Carbon: It’s For Us’, his name for his fluffy boat. The procedure was that the tiny drone would locate a tank of petroleum, remove the lid, and insert the hose. The liquid petroleum product would then be transferred to his onboard fabricator..

Daniel could tele-operate two tiny drones at one time, any more would have been beyond his capability. He’d learned through trial and error. Many trials and constant error. He cruised the shattered remains of the town looking for easy marks. Pick the low hanging fruit first his father had always said.

There! That was a likely prospect. An automobile had been turned over on it’s side. The gas cap was just sitting there in front of god and everyone. The first drone made an eight point landing on the gas cap. He’d decided to just do one the first time. The drone had the cap unscrewed and discarded in under a minute, and the sucker hose was in the tank sucking gasoline immediately.

Daniel became very skillful at removing fuel. His fabricator would turn the fuel into SmokeCrystal encased in a fast-manta with the co-ordinates to the banana slug. When it was done, the DeathJewels were inserted , then it launched. When it neared the Banana Slug it was detected, identified and Daniels account was credited. The death-jewels were removed , the manta was then processed.

After picking all of the the low hanging fruit for practice Daniel got serious. He used a variety of different procedures and different drones to remove the rest. When he was finished with that town there WAS no free carbon available, not even asphalt on the streets. All that was left was a layer of sand.

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The Next Episode Is
#120: Melvin's Marauders -All that remained was sand…
The Previous Episode was
#118: Henry Drake - And Your Point Is…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
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Book One: SoulStone
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