Some small, furry, creatures follow our trail, making snacks out of the invertebrates disturbed by our activities.
‘What are they’?
'Who. In the forest, everyone is a 'who'. One corrects.
‘We call the Cuties, they were introduced from the labs a long time ago. They’re kind of a mammalian vacuum cleaner’.
‘Are they tame? Can I call one over’? asks Jen.
‘You can try’!
‘Kneeling down, Jen coos’ here little critter’ and moves her fingers in mimicry of what she hopes is a tasty grub.
Instantly, the Cuties rush her, rubbing like kittens along her legs and making a clicking purr.
We laugh. We’re well used to the antics of these little things. They were bred to be friendly but soon learned that a good rub is better than a cold, wriggly grub anyday'.
Eventually, in the absence of food, they go back to their grubbing and we move on too.
Several small birds are found here and there, more disoriented than hurt. After a brief inspection, we leave them where they are. They’ll find their way home. In one case, the bird’a companion is already calling from a limb above us.
Our main goal is to check the cables and the generators. As purely human constructs, they are the tings around us most prone to failure and least able to repair themselves, though a little nanites are present for minor repairs.
As our group draws near the base of the cables, where they run underground to the generators, we see that one is hanging loosely. Not disconnected, just slack. Nothing else around has been damages, so the cable hadn’t broken and damaged anything as itflailed in the wind as we feared.
A button is pushed on the wristband of one of our more technical members and the cover to the generators lifts from the moss and soil. It is easy to see that the connector that joined the cable to the pulley had been strained and twisted from the force of the wind on the cable.
‘Not difficult. It can be fixed with the tools here. There should be a spare here or at least a template in the printer’.
‘Can I stay and help’? asks Jen. ‘It’s been a while since I did any hands -on fixing. In the city, its all about asking the machinery to do it for us’.
‘It’ll be fun’.
