“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
MAY 12, 2024
Pathfinder Dam in Wyoming on the North Platte River was named for the explorer John C. Fremont, often referred to as “The Great Pathfinder.”
LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Sunday, (05/12/2024)
El Nuclear Diablo
(A novel by Lloyd Albert Williams-Pendergraft)
Chapter 4 (Original 1st Draft: Abridged and Unedited)
The short flight from Casper, less than 50 air miles to Pathfinder was uneventful. We landed into the usual light southwest wind using about half the runway and taxied on to the apron and hangers that housed the other Gulfstream, a four-seat Sikorsky helicopter, and two Piper Cubs – four hangers in all.
“Oh my, what a beautiful place you have here,” Sabrisse said looking out to the northwest landscape and buildings as we went on past the hangars to the apron in front of the main ranchhouse and the large sprawling two-story office/laboratory facility about 100 yards behind the ranchhouse. The huge white and gray satellite dishes and other communications towers and towering metal poles were spread haphazardly at short distances on the ascending slope behind the house and the workplace.
“Yes, we are proud of the buildings and facilities we have here, and both their appearance and their purposes. And we have the naturally beautiful scenery and two nearby rivers. I have often wished I could spend more time here than in California, but I do manage to split my time between the two places pretty much evenly, with Pathfinder, I believe, holding a small advantage.”
“How many people actually live and work here?” Sabrisse asked. “The home is huge – larger than the office and lab buildings.”
“Well, Sabrisse, counting me, there are the two pilots you’ve just met, Mariah and Davy, the two environmental lawyers I mentioned, and then there is Hannah, who, like me, splits her time between here and elsewhere, Tina, Aste, Pussy, Kelly, Jeannie, and a half dozen others who you will soon get to know along with our staff, most of whom bunk out here during the week rather than commute all the way from and to Casper every day.”
“Those are all female names; are you and Davy the only guys who live around here?” Sabrisse laughed, her eyes twinkling, dancing curiously into my eyes.
“Pretty much, and the others you will meet today are mostly all of the feminine persuasion, too. I find working with the feminine way is the way to get stuff done quickly and accurately and do so without egos getting in the way.” Sabrisse’s smile widened just a little, and she offered a small nod my way, lowering her face and eyes to a more level look.
Mariah steered the Gulfstream onto a concrete parking area closest to a long walkway that led up a slope to the front porch of the huge house located about 50 yards up a wide concrete walkway with two steep sections of several steps of the ascent, with iron handrails the entire length of the walkway, but with center rails where the steps were located. Sabrisse noticed that there was no one outside waiting for them and that there were no automobiles in the parking area to the west of the apron for the airplanes, which seemed odd. And then she remembered that this mission was a secret mission, and the only people who would know where they all were now would be the two military generals and the pilots who would have escorted them to their original destination in Juneau, Alaska. Even the two replacement pilots taking the military jet to is Juneau destination would not know exactly where they had all disappeared to. She had been anxious to see Juneau, but now her thoughts about the opportunity had entirely escaped from her mind.
When the stairwell ladder began to open and descend to the tarmac apron, both Mariah and Davey emerged from the pilot cabin and motioned, uplifting her forearms with open hands, to Albert and all the rest of us that we could arise and deplane. I stood up first in order to lead my newly acquired entourage off the airplane and on up to the ranchhouse while Marah and Davey would take care of the Gulfstream and park it next to its appointed hangar. Sabrisse realized that the ranchhouse would be accommodating five new faces, including her own in a group that would substantially increase the male population of Pathfinder, if she guessed right, to seven.
As they reached the flat concrete apron with two steps at the entrance, the double doors suddenly burst open and two beautiful young women emerged on the run and flew over the two steps, rushing into my awaiting arms, and for the first time I realized that no one at Pathfinder except Mariah and Davy had any idea that I would be returning to Pathfinder for lord-knows-how-long, if ever. Embracing them, their eyes took in the faces of the five, all dressed in military uniforms of different ranks and styles.
“Why are you back, and where is Caroline, anyway?” I saw the concern and confusion in the eyes of Annie and Ranae. I felt guilty for not letting them know by phone earlier, but the opportunities had been rare.
“We all heard the Gulfstream coming in, and we had no idea why. Mariah and Davy told us they had to make a trip into Casper to pick up some new people who would be coming back here with them later today or tomorrow. But they never said anything about you. We all thought you and Caroline and the others were on your way by boat to Alaska somewhere. What happened, anyway?”, Ranae blurted out without stopping to take a breath. Annie nodded alongside her.
Annie is Caroline’s and my adopted daughter. Ranae is a girl we rescued a few years ago from a serious life and death situation in Utah and she has become one of our closest family members. I turned around and put my arms around their backs on either side of me.
“Okay,” I said looking from one of the girls to the other, “let me introduce you to our new people, as you referred to them. It’s a good time, because the introductions will get more confusing to everyone once we go into the house.”
But just at that moment, Kelly, Jeannie, Leah, and Juice walked out together to greet us. I knew the introductions had just become much more difficult to mean much of anything. At least the newcomers would probably remember Ranae’ and Caroline’s names for a few minutes at least.
I introduced all of them without difficulty, and the girls were all polite and attentive. I motioned toward the ranchhouse. “Well, then, now that we all know one another, let’s go on in and figure out how to get you all settled in.”
As we assembled to walk through the open doors I noted that all six of the girls had quickly taken to Sabrisse and that the generals and pilots would have to simply follow the crowd, so I took over the process of making the newly arrived men comfortable, taking care of educating them about the place. Then there was still the necessary introduction of household help and anyone from the the office/lab who might be inside, followed up by the layout of the entire ranchhouse and room locations, and finally assigning the private bedrooms with baths for the five new arrivals. Fortunately for all of us, space and privacy would not be a problem. As for other introductions, I wondered where our two Airedale dogs were off to because they had not returned from wherever as I would have expected when the Gulfstream was getting ready to land. But then, this was not unusual because they often went to the river to play and swim or off to hang out with the buffalo that roamed the ranch.
For a brief moment my thoughts turned to Caroline, hoping that she would adjust easily to my absence from the planned stay, no doubt a long one, in Juneau that was now for logistical sake split into two separate functions that we all now knew should have been set up earlier rather than the ad hoc later ‘kidnapping’ of me on Vancouver Island leaving Caroline and me with just a brief part of that one short night before I was flying back to California on my way to our Pathfinder ranch in Wyoming and she traveled north to Juneau along with our scientific cadre and friends from the Bay Area. I could have used her organizational skills right about now, but those same abilities were sorely needed in the process of saving lives all across the North American continent from the west coast to the east coast.
Pathfinder would be the command center of the entire operation because the ranch and its communication continental, global and even orbiting spacecraft including the moon could be reached in places where there would be no one to communicate with, but would provide meteorological, global radiation, and solar activity that could affect both communications and weather all around planet Earth more than simply duplicating and complementing Spaceweather and NASA, but providing atmospheric, inner and outer space activity of all kinds, rocket and missile tracking data that might not be available from other sources making the limited meteorological data at Juneau fit into the global and, indeed, the entire solar system’s irregular and problematic conditions and the necessary data to go with it and provide it all from a centrally specific source. There was nowhere else on the planet that brought it all together yet could divide the massive data collection into the smallest and most meaningful localized pieces, allowing fast, accurate, and responsible decisions and exacting protective measures to be accomplished one hundred percent of the time, I there was the slightest possibility at all.
Although the name Pathfinder, popularly originated in 1840 by author James Fenimore Cooper, with its purpose and its name, dated back to the old West during the days of Lewis and Clark and other exploration it had retained its value from exploration of unknown North American territory to grow up to be a solar system exploration system that more than earned its credentials today. And today global exploration of a nuclear radiated world was needed and necessary to save the Earth from nuclear armageddon. Saving North America would be the first step to save the entire planet . . .
End Chapter 4 (Original, Abridged and Unedited) ~llaw
To find Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1: LLAW’s COMMENTARY, Thursday, (03/28/2024)
Chapter 2: LLAW’s COMMENTARY, Thursday, (04/11/2024)
Chapter 3: LLAW’s NUCLEAR ISSUES & COMMENTS, Sunday, (04/28/2024)
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