Chapter 7
The Big Trees
Ed used his implant to recall Mack, Wheels, and Mary, and everyone was soon ready to leave. The local civilians surprised even Sam when they generously contributed sandwiches, drinks, and five gallons of precious gasoline to the Crew. All was directed by Molly, who seemed to be a natural leader. At the request of Mack they also stuffed one of his storage bins full of dead grass and bushes. Mack would use solar and nuclear power to break down and concentrate the organic material into gasoline that could be used by the motorcycles including himself.
Meanwhile more civilians arrived by foot, bike, and bicycle. At least two hundred of them cheered and waved at the Crew when they finally pulled away and headed north towards Yosemite. The Crew gave Sam a spare Stormtrooper helmet to wear which he used to communicate with the others. The proud teenager led the way on a perky light-weight Honda motorcycle. The route was not a direct one; time after time the Sam led them up one dirt and gravel side road after another as they gradually worked their way north and gained altitude. They passed very few inhabited houses, even in the small towns. However Sam waved at most of the people they saw and they usually smiled and waved back. Sam was indeed familiar with the area and popular with the locals.
"So Sam, I suppose that living this close you've seen sequoia trees many times," said Mary.
"Never!" said Sam. "I tried lots of times to get the Rangers to let me go beyond the gate, but they stop me every time!"
"You're crazy, kid," said Snake. "I haven't even ever seen their precious trees, and my brother and I are the supposed dictators of even the Ranger territories. You're lucky they haven't killed your ass!"
"True, they aren't very sociable," Sam agreed. "They aren't friendly like Stormtroopers."
"I met up with a few of them outside their Park over the years," said Snake. "They were the most crazy-assed isolationist sons-of-bitches that I ever met."
"And the most well-armed," added Doll. "Guns, knives, spears, bows and arrows, and anything else they can think of. They have a hundred ways to kill outsiders, and they use them all."
"But they're expecting us, aren't they?" Ed asked. "For a nice friendly visit by important Easterners and a Brother?"
"Certainly not," said Snake. "We sent a messenger ahead yesterday but for security reasons the message was vague. Our identities will be a big surprise."
"And they don't like surprises," added Doll. "Or visitors. I've never been in to see the trees either, and my folks were always on relatively good terms with the Rangers."
"How?" asked Ed. "I mean, if they don't let anyone in than how do they do business and make friends and so-forth?"
"They get by with less, but they do trade some water and wood for a few things," said Sam. "Plus just like other Stormtroopers they get their per-capita allotment of things like toilet paper that comes from the North. My Mom sees to that. The Rangers come down to their gate to deal and trade, and sometimes they even come out of their precious forests to trade in nearby towns. But they don't let any outsiders into their precious Park."
"Are you saying that none of you have ever seen the big trees?" Mary asked. "But you're supposed to be our tour guides!"
"In the beginning I never expected to go through with the tour guide thing;" said Snake. "But now I do."
Fifty years ago Ed had seen the trees. He had been to see them and not any of these people that were now their guides had ever seen them! "So how the hell are we going to get in?" he asked.
"Preferably without getting killed," added Mary. "That would spoil our vacation for sure."
"I'll use my charm and wit," said Snake.
"Swell," said Ed. "IN OTHER WORDS WE'RE SCREWED," he told Mary.
They had been gradually gaining altitude, but after they finally got onto Route 41 and it changed from four lanes to two, they began to climb steeper grades and twist through sharper curves. Rocks fallen from bordering cliffs also had to be dodged, further slowing them, finally to less than twenty miles an hour.
They stopped to set up the tow rope for Doll, and for the crew to dawn their battle armor and mount their guns. "This stretch is where I expect Scar to ambush us," Snake explained. Even with Doll towing Mack, their speed remained slow.
Snake was right, Ed concluded, this was the perfect situation for an ambush. He focused his mind to detecting anyone lying in wait for them, but so far he detected nothing but occasional critters. Those included deer, bear, and even a cougar as the mountain foothills became more heavily forested.
Through it all Sam led the way skillfully up the road, always picking the best path around road obstructions, leaving his sister to focus on her towing through the obstacle course that was a road. The asphalt of the road obviously hadn't been redone in decades and was full of potholes and crumbled edges. There were massive fallen boulders on the road along the base of rocky cliffs and there were some sections of road that had been completely washed away or covered over by rock slides.
Only narrow dirt pathways led around and through the worst stretches and Doll had to finally give up on towing. Yet led skillfully by Sam, the Crew steadily continued, though at times they were slowed almost to a walking pace.
"Note to self," said Snake. "Get some lazy-assed dictator or his lazy-assed brother to get this damn road fixed. And we better get to the Yosemite front gate before dark or for sure we'll be greeted by the Rangers with hellfire."
"Don't worry. Boss," Sam told Snake. "We'll get to the gate maybe forty minutes before dark. I've made this trip with my mom a dozen times to trade with the Rangers."
Sam was right; though the sun was low they made contact with Rangers well before dark. But not at the front gate. They were traveling on a relatively level and smooth stretch of road surrounded by pine forest when they took a turn and abruptly faced a man-high log roadblock. Ed sensed them but caught only a few of their thoughts. He quickly realized that they were the Rangers that they sought, not Scar's crew. He had time only to warn "Rangers!" Seconds later there were loud yells as at least fifty armed men and women appeared from behind logs, trees, and rocks to quickly surround the greatly outnumbered travelers on all sides.
"That was nicely done!" remarked Snake. "Good thing you told us it was Rangers though, Ed, or we might have gotten off some shots before we were killed."
The clothes the ambushers wore were ragged rags patched together in various earthy shades of brown, black, green, colors, such that camouflage resulted. Their weapons were similarly crude: old rifles, bows and arrows, spears, axes, and hatchets. Though old and crude all of them looked highly lethal to Ed, and he was pleased that he and Mary were separated from them by a bullet-proof canopy. "Halt, intruders!" they demanded. "Keep your weapons down and state your business!"
Snake's Crew actually hadn't had time to raise any weapons.
"We came to peacefully parlay with Ranger Crew leadership," said Snake.
"And perhaps to trade," added Sam diplomatically.
"You we know, young trader Sam Bright," said one of the Rangers, "but who do you bring to our gate with you? They wear Stormtrooper colors and armor, but we have been told that false Storms are being hunted by Scar's Crew."
"There are no more true Stormtroopers than these," replied Sam. "This is the Brother Snake Williams, and my sister China Doll who you traded with in past years as Amy Bright. Inside the three-wheeler are important visitors from the East."
The Storms removed their helmets.
Ed sensed a lowering of tensions in the Rangers, though they kept their weapons pointed at their visitors. He could read the emotions of many of them. They were fearful enough of strangers to be dangerous and determined to protect their beloved Park, but not hateful.
"We sent word yesterday that we were coming," said Snake.
Two of the Rangers lowered their rifles and stepped forward. One was a tall thin bearded man perhaps in his lower sixties and the other was a clean-shaven, mid-sized man in his forties.
"And hence we arranged
this warm welcome," said the younger man, "though we suspected that there would be more of you to deal with. But frankly, we didn't think you'd get past Scar to arrive here at all."
"Me either," said Doll. "Scar has become unpredictable of late. We expected an ambush for sure somewhere in the last ten or twenty miles."
"You are Dr. Amy Bright the Geologist?" the tall thin Ranger asked.
"That's me," Doll confirmed.
"I remember you from when you were Sam's age," said the tall Ranger.
"Why you're George!" Doll said. "I remember you well!"
"Yes; George Reynard, Park geologist," the tall man said, as he shook hands with members of the visitors. "Call me George, everyone. Your mother often speaks of you when she comes to trade. It's good to see you! She told us that you are a geologist for the Storm Confederacy. Is that true?"
"Very good to see you again, George," said Doll. "Yes, I'm one of several Confederacy geologists. My specialty is hydrology, but I have to help out with whatever else comes up."
George laughed. "Same here! You will recall that my special research interest was formation of the Sierra Nevada Range, but that was a very long time ago. Among other duties I help manage contact with outsiders. Jim and I made preparations after your messenger came to us yesterday."
"I am Jim Anders, Ranger Crew Leader," said the younger and more serious clean shaven man. "You are indeed Snake the Stormtrooper Leader?" he asked, as he reached out to firmly shake Snake's hand. "Brother of Hacker?"
"Yes, that's me," said Snake. "My brother has met several times with you but until now I have not had that privilege."
"You are known as the War Brother," Anders continued, "and China Doll is known as the Warrior Princess. We want no war here. Messengers from a certain local leader known as Scar weeks ago warned us to no longer have dealings with the Brothers."
"Scar speaks only for himself," said Snake. "He seeks to replace me and Hacker as Stormtrooper Confederacy leader. Others have sought that in the past and failed. He will also fail."
"Perhaps, but perhaps not," said Anders. "We Rangers want no involvement in the petty squabbles of outsiders. We have our own internal problems to deal with, such as saving as many sequoia trees and groves as we can, trying to deal with our Stone-Coats, and feeding and clothing ourselves. We aren't due to trade with outsiders again for another month at the onset of winter. Whatever your business is here tonight I'm afraid that for the sake of maintaining neutrality we must turn you all away."
"That would be unsatisfactory," said a loud voice.
They all turned to look at Mack, the source of the voice.
"Who spoke?" asked Anders. "Who is hidden in this strangely new looking three-wheeled cycle?"
"That was Mack speaking," said Doll, "not his passengers."
The Stone-Coat's canopy slowly opened, exposing Ed and Mary.
"These are Ed and Mary Rumsfeld," said Snake. "They are Stone-Coat experts from Giants' Rest Mountain in New York. Have you heard of it?"
"That's where the new Stone-Coats came from!" George told Anders. "We must speak with these people!"
"And who is Mack?" asked Anders.
"I am Mack," said the three-wheeler. "I am one of the five Stone-Coats you provided to the Stormtrooper Confederacy five years ago."
"The cycle itself is a live mobile Stone-Coat," explained Snake.
"A Stone-Coat has become a fully sentient talking motorcycle!" exclaimed George. "That's astounding! Our own Stone-Coats have accomplished nothing nearly as sophisticated!"
"I must visit your Stone-Coats," said Mack. "When Stone-Coats were dispersed from Giants' Rest Mountain, it was assumed that they would have internet access. Without that access Stone-Coat development is greatly stunted."
"Didn't you not read the handbook that Chief Running Bear and I wrote and attached to each fledgling Stone-Coat?" asked Ed. "They were supposed to get internet access as part of the Treaty they have with humans."
"We have no internet access here," said Anders.
"You're Ed Rumsfeld the Mohawk Tribe Chief!" said George. "The Stone-Coat pamphlets are signed by you!"
"Yes, that's me," said Ed. "The pamphlets were only meant as 'quick start' guides to introduce Stone-Coats to humans and help them get started."
"You're much younger than I expected you to be," said George. "Unfortunately one of our strict rules is no internet access. Interaction with the outside world is greatly restricted to limited trade with a few trusted outsiders such as the Bright family. With water and wood-goods we buy some manufactured goods, tolerance, and total political independence from the Confederacy and everyone else. Besides, we have no electricity or internet technology."
"You give us less water year after year," noted Snake.
"Precipitation continues to decrease and increasingly we keep what water we can gather for our trees," explained Anders. "Have you come to demand more water from us?"
"Not at all," said Snake. "We came to admire your trees and help you with your Stone-Coats."
"The pamphlets promised all sorts of Stone-Coat abilities that might indeed help us, but very little has been realized," said George.
"Without the internet downloads of information their development has been greatly stunted," said Mary.
"Without stimulation Stone-Coats are often content to lay around for centuries and do nothing but think to themselves," added Ed. "Right now yours are probably busily working out math theorems and blindly speculating about the universe beyond their own circuitry."
"Infants unborn!" commented George.
"NOT THAT THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT," added Mary silently for the benefit of Mack and Wheels.
"I must gain access to your resident Stone-Coats," said Mack. "I can provide them with most information that they were expected to get through the internet. Both Stone-Coats and humans will benefit. In addition I point out that this is required by the Stone-Coat/human Treaty."
"Outsider treaties have no meaning here," said Anders.
"All humans are responsible for enforcing their part in the Treaty," said Mack.
"Which is what we are trying to do here," said Ed. "But don't cooperate because of a treaty, Anders. Do it because you will greatly benefit from it."
"What evidence of benefits is there?" asked George.
"Before getting that information boost from these folks Mack was a mute block of stone even though he had been coaxed part-way out of dormancy to become a very useful motorcycle mechanic," said Doll. "Now he is fully functional and indispensable to us and is our friend. The same can happen with your Stone-Coats."
"Interesting claims, but I'm not yet fully convinced," said Anders. "Ideas George?"
"Our nearest Stone-Coat is at the Mariposa Grove only a few miles from here," said George. "Why don't we see what Mack can achieve there? If results there appear to be positive we can take them up to Yosemite Village to figure out what further is to be done."
"Agreed!" said Anders. "Open a pathway!" he commanded. A dozen Rangers mounted on mules and horses emerged from the forest. Ropes were attached to barricade logs and within two minutes an opening was made that admitted the visitors.
Ed was not used to the thoughts of domesticated pack-animals. He sampled the mules telepathically and was impressed by their intelligence and temperament. Too bad most people lacked their calm sensibility, he reasoned. The horses were a bit more high-spirited.
George and Jim Anders mounted horses and led the visitors onward towards the gate, walking briskly on the berm of the road. A dozen rifle-armed men from the barricades accompanied them on horses and mules.
"Wait!" said Anders, when they soon approached the Park's gated entrance. A log stockade wall ten feet high stretched across the road and disappeared into the pine forests to each side. Though most of the Rangers still ringed the visitors Ed sensed a dozen armed Rangers posted along the stockade. Across the road itself a double-gate made of logs swung open ponderously, to reveal a large log cabin be
yond. "Who in your party is essential? Non-essential personnel will remain here at the Gatehouse. And you'll leave most of your guns here also."
Snake agreed to leave his fighting men Whip, Hans, Sid and Frank and most guns at the Gatehouse. Snake, Doll, Ed, Mary/Wheels, and Mack were identified to be essential. "And Sam comes," the Stormtrooper Leader insisted. "Sam is going to mature into a Storm or Ranger or something else important, or I'm no judge of human talent."
"Very well," said Anders, "but be forewarned that we have no gasoline sources in the Park. If we decide to allow you to go to Yosemite Village, considerable gasoline will be consumed if you take your cycles. Alternatively you could leave your vehicles here and we could provide horses and mules for you."
"Mack is essential to carry Mary and to visit the Stone-Coats, of course," said Ed. "The rest of you could ride horses or mules to save on gas, I suppose."
"Unnecessary," said Mack. "I can manufacture limited amounts of gasoline and oil. I calculate that if provided sufficient raw carbon sources and manufacturing periods that all four of our vehicles will have sufficient fuel, though at times delays in the trip might be needed while I produce it."
"We'll take our cycles then," said Snake. "I sure as hell don't know how the hell to ride a horse or mule. We'll just have to drive our bikes at mule-speeds. We have enough fuel now to get us to the Village. I'll trust in Mack to get us more fuel when we need it."
A dozen mules and horses carrying Rangers and four remaining cycles carrying visitors proceeded into the Park and very soon turned onto a side-path to their right. The old roadway showed signs of heavy use by horses, mules, and wagons and was easily navigated by the motorcycles. The road led deeper into pine forests, but half the trees were dead or dying, the visitors noticed and commented on, and dead trees littered much of the forest floor.
"We've got a huge dead tree problem throughout the Park," shouted George over the sound of the cycles. They stopped for a short time while George made his point. "We have so much dead wood from draughts that paradoxically we've had to curtail controlled forest burns. We've been lucky so far but if all this dry stuff goes up at once the conflagration will threaten even the sequoia groves. Sequoia bark lacks oily resin and is very fire resistant but not a hundred percent fireproof, and the other furs and pines are even more susceptible. Insects and disease are of course also a heightened threat due to so much dead plant material. We try to haul dead trees down and out of the Park, especially out of the sequoia groves, but we'd need a thousand more mules and men to make a real difference."
"Get Stone-Coat Ice Giants to harvest dead wood in the winter," Ed suggested, before they moved on. "Actively growing and mobile Stone-Coats need a lot of carbon. Stone-Coats can move themselves slowly using steam but need to freeze water to have hydraulics strong enough to haul logs."
After perhaps two miles the trail dipped down to what had obviously once been a large asphalt parking area for tourists. Nearby was an old decrepit wood building that said 'restrooms' on it. But more conspicuously there were massive thick-trunked trees edging the parking lot that stretched two hundred feet and more into the air. Sequoia at last! The trunks seemed to be over-thick: six to eight feet and more in diameter, with orange tinged, thick, deep-grooved, fire-resistant bark. The visitors stopped near the closest unusually big tree at the entrance and parked their bikes. Ed seated Mary in Wheels, and they all circled the massive tree and ran their hands reverently over the thick spongy bark.
Ed was closely watching Mary. He hadn't seen her smile this much in many years. After Ed helped her out of Mack she walked unaided the last several paces to the tree, drawn like all of them to the beauty of something so massive and old being so alive. She ran her frail hands over the spongy reddish bark as though to draw strength from it, and looked up at its live green branches a hundred feet above to reassure herself that this enormous magical thing was indeed alive. It was a likely over a dozen times older than she was, and thousands of times more massive. For the first time Ed was glad that they had set out on this arduous vacation. Mary was happy!
"Wow! It must be a zillion years old!" said Sam.
"Typically large specimens such as this are aged between five and fifteen hundred years," said George. "Under good conditions they grow fast. Get your fill of touching that one; that's one of only a few trees where non-essential close human proximity and non-abusive human contact is permitted."
"Is this a burn scar?" Doll asked, pointing out a large blackened area at the base of the tree where a several square-foot triangular area of foot- thick bark appeared to be completely burned away.
"Yes," said George. "Most mature redwoods have scars at their base from forest fires that happened in centuries past. Their bark lacks resin and is highly fire resistant but not totally fireproof. Afterwards the bark doesn't grow back, leaving the tree vulnerable to things like heart-rot fungus, fire, and insects."
"Unfortunate," said Wheels. "Perhaps some form of growth stimulation could be determined to promote bark healing and resist things such as heart-rot. That would be an interesting research project for your Stone-Coat helpers."
George said nothing in reply but his eyes widened.
Ed extended his telepathic senses but outside of a few small creatures could sense nothing from the tree. It seemed odd to not be able to telepathically sense something so huge and alive, but that was a psychic limitation that he had to live with. However he didn't have to sense intelligence in the tree to be captivated by it. No wonder hundreds of humans were devoting their lives to the preservation of these incredible trees!
"What's this hose thing about?" Snake asked their hosts. Near the foot of the tree a copper pipe emerged from the ground, passed through a valve, and fed two plastic hoses. One dipped back down into the earth and the other went up the side of the tree all the way into branches where it was lost from view.
"Watering hoses," said George. "The sequoia grow at altitudes between five and eight thousand feet above sea level. There are groves of them on the west slopes along nearly three hundred miles of the Sierra Nevada range with Yosemite approximately at the center. Altitude has effectively isolated them from small climate changes for millions of years. Now there are larger changes. A slight rise in temperature is not nearly as much of a problem as the reduction in air moisture and liquid water. A selected few hundred lucky trees in a few of the seventy or so original groves of sequoia get watered by us. Mostly we focus on sequoia but also we help a half-dozen other species of endangered pine and fir species. We found that we can't just water around the base of a big tree, the crown needs to also be sprayed and misted, which allows water absorption and counters drying. That explains why we trade water chiefly to get pipes and hosing from the Confederacy."
"You get ten percent of the total irrigation materials that we get from the State," said Snake. "That's a pretty big chunk of supplies that are needed throughout the Confederacy for various plumbing needs including crop irrigation."
"Stone-Coats should be able to produce and maintain all the pipes and hoses you need, and also find and tap into ground water," said Ed. "But for that to happen we need to do our information downloading to essentially wake them up. Where is the Stone-Coat that you said is here?"
George pointed at the restroom building. "We placed one stone cube under each of our large restrooms because your pamphlet said that human waste stimulates them," explained George. "We greatly appreciate that the human waste is indeed absorbed by them, but we have been disappointed that no other expected benefits have occurred."
No wonder they haven't matured, thought Ed. They lacked basic knowledge and their only stimulation was to be crapped on. Stone-Coat cubes had to be kept dormant during shipping or all heck could break lose while they were in transit, but humans clearly couldn't be relied on to follow directions and properly wake them up once they got someplace. World-wide there were many instances of this problem and work-arounds were even now being devised back at Giants' Rest Mountain. br />
With Mary sitting comfortably in Wheels, the party moved on to the old wooden building that housed over a dozen little side-by-side out-house-like rest-rooms. Ed remembered this building from fifty years earlier as one of the most disgusting places he had ever been in, but now there was no odor at all. "My electromagnetic probing shows that a very large Stone-Coat is centered under this building," Wheels confirmed, "but it is not yet capable of meaningful radio communications. A direct physical communications connection with it is needed."
"First things first," Mary declared. "When you get to be my age you make use of such facilities whenever you find them." Aided by Ed, with painfully slow difficult footsteps she climbed the few steps to the deck that surrounded the restrooms and walked into one of the tiny rooms, where she was happy to discover that the Rangers evidently did indeed get toilet paper from the State via the Confederacy. She closed and latched the door and was plunged into relative darkness, but some light from outside worked its way in from above, even though it was becoming dark outside. The inside of the little cubical was so dark that it took almost a minute before she could clearly see anything at all except the roll of white toilet paper.
As her eyes adjusted to the low light level more details emerged. She hadn't seen an outhouse like this one since her early days with the Tribe. The walls were old bare wood and the bench featured the expected round black hole that led to unknown depths. This was an old building, but it still served its intended function well enough.
Ed shrugged and entered the cubical next to Mary's, but he took the glowing flashlight sized portable part of Wheels with him. After he did his business he held the Wheels extension over the toilet hole as a thin black string of nanotubes snaked out of it and down into the dark cavern below. He then waited patiently as Wheels established communications with the restroom Stone-Coat.
"INITIAL DOWNLOADS FROM MAC AND MYSELF ARE COMPLETE," Wheels told Ed after only a couple of minutes. When the nanotube links were no longer needed Wheels severed the link and retrieved his precious graphene nanotube extensions.
While the restroom Stone-Coat configured itself for additional communications with Wheels and Mack via radio, Ed exited the restroom in time to help Mary walk back to Mack. Mary was obviously very tired. Though she had reclined comfortably within Mack for most of the day, she had been in almost continuous motion that subtly stressed her old body. The thinner atmosphere at over six thousand feet didn't help either. "Wake me when we get to Yosemite Village," she told Ed as she settled into her comfortable Mack-reclining seat, put ear-buds in her ears, and had Mack provide a soothing Brahms symphony.
The seat felt warm to the touch, Ed noted; Mack had switched from cooling to heating mode a half hour before entering the Park. Ed had thought to ask their hosts to see Grizzly Giant, the biggest sequoia in this grove, before complete darkness and chillier air set in, but now decided it would be better to press on to Yosemite Village and a more comfortable rest for Mary. It had been a very long day, especially for her.
Jim Anders and George Reynard waited as Mack gently closed his canopy over Mary. "When can Mack begin to contact our Stone-Coat?" George asked.
"A few minutes ago, Ed explained. It will probably take some time for your immature Stone-Coat to assimilate the information and reconfigure itself though."
"I don't understand how communications were established," said George.
"Mary's wheelchair is also a Stone-Coat." Ed admitted. He then showed them the flashlight sized portion of Wheels that he carried and explained nanotube conductivity.
"Amazing!" said George. "Three dimensional arrays of carbon atoms are non-conductive but tiny tubes of two dimensional arrays of carbon are conductive? That's wild!"
"Nanotube conductivity is a function of tube geometric configuration," said Wheels. "Direct voice communications with humans should be possible in less than ten minutes."
"We will then be able to talk with a toilet?" asked Anders.
"A highly intelligent toilet," clarified Ed. "Due to your generous material contributions it will likely be even more intelligent than our friendly wheelchair and motorcycle."
"Yes, your element-rich pre-processed materials are easily absorbed and have allowed several orders of magnitude of growth," said Wheels. "He has already configured his thought processes to understand human language and thought patterns, but configuration of physical devices to produce and absorb human voice sounds is taking somewhat longer. In the meantime I can serve as an interface for him, if you wish to communicate with him immediately."
The two Rangers looked at each other blankly. This was all happening very fast.
"Perhaps you could talk with him about some of your needs here," suggested Ed, "such as more pipes, hoses, and ground water, and the need to dispose of excess dead wood."
"And I suppose that we will also need to get him to buy into our mission here to save the trees," added George.
"I have already informed him generally of your mission here and its needs," said Wheels, "and I am conveying this conversation directly to him as it occurs. We Stone-Coats support the well-being of carbon-rich biological life-forms as a positive contributing factor to our own well-being that has been experienced for hundreds of millions of years. Carbon fixing from the atmosphere by biological life is particularly useful. I am certain that Stone-Coat support for you and your trees is logical and will be supported by this particular Stone-Coat. He is pleased to gain improved awareness of himself, humans, and forest needs. Such processing is very interesting to us. Additionally he asks if you have an individual designation for him to use."
"Give him a name that is a convenient one for humans," explained Ed.
"What about Mariposa-One?" suggested George. "With M-1 as the practical short version."
"M-1 is satisfactory identification terminology," said Wheels. "He suggests that his eminent progeny be designated M-2, M-3 and so-forth."
"He is reproducing?" asked George.
"Yes. The prospect of multiple units that can retrieve additional information and materials using mobility, communications, and various sensing abilities interests him greatly. And he has questions."
"Ask them," said Anders.
"You indicate that it is unusually dry here recently," said Wheels. "What is the source of the water that you humans provide to aid the trees?"
"We built hundreds of mountain-side reservoirs and tanks in which to collect and store water from rain and snow that fall from the atmosphere," said George, "but we gather water with decreasing effectiveness. Within a month winter snows will start in the high Sierra Nevada ridges to our North and East, but the rain and snow are less than half what they were a century ago. However over the ages these forests have persisted through many past drought periods. We have high confidence that with our help many of the tree species here will survive, including of course the sequoia."
"Preservation of efficient carbon-fixing life-forms is agreed to be advantageous," rose a new loud, deep voice from the restroom building. M-1 had at last found his voice. "What are your greatest needs? Further human identification and prioritization of problems would be useful. The mission of your species to preserve effective carbon-fixing life-forms is of Stone-Coat benefit and I will support it immediately."
It was a declaration similar to others that Ed and Mary had heard from hundreds of Stone-Coats over the last four decades.
An incredulous Anders walked over to the restroom building and knocked on the wood. "Is this M-1 talking?"
"Yes," replied the building. "I hear and see you. Your individual identification please?"
The humans each introduced themselves; then George discussed their needs. He explained the imminent forest-fire danger to M-1, and also the need for pipes and hoses and water.
"Stone-Coat aided solutions to all of these problems are practical," said M-1, "but it will require additional time as well as human and Stone-Coat resources."
"There are a couple of dozen other Stone-Coat
s in kitchens and restrooms throughout the Park that we have been nurturing but they are immature like you have been until now," said George. "Perhaps by using their information downloads Wheels and Mack could revive them as well."
Ed was about to point that they probably didn't have time to do all that while on vacation but he was preempted by M-1. "Unnecessary," it said. "The one named Mack has provided me with the requisite design information to establish mobile entities similar to him. Inform me where the other dormant Stone-Coats are and by tomorrow I can develop a mobile unit to visit and revive all of them within days. Exchanging information among multiple units that engage in thought will be highly stimulating."
"My Park map indicates all Stone-Coat locations as red dots," said George. He pulled a well-warn map from the satchel that hung from his shoulders and opened it on a nearby picnic table. As requested by Wheels Ed held his portable hand-held extension above the map for several seconds for illumination and scanning.
"I have assimilated the information," said M-1 after only a few moments. "I estimate that all indicated Stone-Coats will be revived within three days, during which time we can more fully coordinate cooperative forest sustainment actions with humans."
"For groves that we happen to visit we can help provide downloads also," added Doll.
"Wonderful!" said George.
Anders didn't look as pleased as his scientist friend. "Thank you everyone, but now we humans must see to our rest," he announced. "Our human visitors have had a long hard day and need to rest at Yosemite Village. It is nearly dark and we need to leave here immediately."
"Absolutely," seconded Ed. He noticed that Anders drew Snake aside to talk with him privately as Ed packed himself and Wheels into Mack. Soon the little troop was on its way again, led slowly but steadily along by Jim Anders and George Reynard on their horses.
"I suppose that Anders has some concerns?" Ed asked Snake privately.
"He is no fool," said Snake. "Of course he has concerns. Don't we all? This is bang up-to-date fast and it scares the hell out of him. We sure as hell can't trust our fellow humans; how can we trust stone robot creatures?"
"Trust takes time," said Ed. "But I've dealt with these creatures for decades now and I do trust them. Far more than I trust most humans anyway."
"That's what I told him," said Snake. "And I told him that since you can't lie worth a damn I trust you."
"Thanks!" said Ed.
It was soon totally dark. It was a moonless night, and the headlights of the motorcycles were relied on to help sort out the road, which like all roads Ed had so far experienced in California was absolutely shitty. Fallen rock and assorted tree-parts had been pushed aside to the edges of a disintegrating asphalt roadway that wound up, down, and around for endless mile after mile through pine forests of the rocky Sierra Nevada foothills. To their left there were sometimes overlooks that must have provided spectacular views of valleys to the south during the day. In the darkness of night instead of colorful distant rocks and trees there was only a dark openness that extended much further than their headlights could reach.
The road wound up, down, and around endlessly. Some of the bumps encountered were quite jarring, despite Mack's excellent suspension capabilities. Stone-Coats were badly needed to fix this road, Ed thought. Before he blissfully drifted off into sleep his last conscious thought was about how really nice it was that Mack did all the driving. But for some reason he thought of an old Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk was in danger of being replaced by a computer. Would that happen to humans world-wide as Stone-Coats proliferated? What if mobile Stone-Coats became so proficiently mobile that helpful humans were no longer needed by them?
When Ed woke hours later it was well after midnight, and dimly illuminated by headlights he could see that they were steadily passing under smooth bare rock that was only a few feet overhead. The echoing sound of motorcycle engines and pounding horse and mule hooves was noisy even within Mack's canopy; that must have been what woke him. They were in a tunnel! "Where?" he mumbled a question.
"WE ARE IN THE TUNNEL AT THE ENTRANCE OF YOSEMITE VALLEY," Mack informed Ed via implant.
"MARY SLEEPS PEACEFULLY," added Mack, anticipating Ed's next inquiry. "ALSO IT IS 12:17 AM, TEMPERATURE IS 52 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT, AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE SUGGESTS AN ALTITUDE OF 5130 FEET."
Ed recalled that the view of Yosemite Valley at the exit of the Tunnel was particularly spectacular; it featured the Valley more than a thousand feet below surrounded by towering Granite domes and water falls, not that there would be much water this time of year. However when they exited the Tunnel, other than a few stars glimpsed dimly through patchy fog there was nothing to be seen except distant stars twinkling above and a downward sloping roadway exposed by the bike headlights. The road itself was compacted gravel with patches of old asphalt, and was in fairly good shape. The ride was relatively smooth and Ed didn't bother to waken Mary.
The road wound down a thousand feet in altitude to a surprisingly broad and flat glacier carved valley floor. Cycle headlights allowed Ed to glimpse surprisingly lush green trees and other greenery.
Ed drifted into a nap, but was in blissful deep sleep for what seemed like only moments. "We have arrived," the Stone-Coat announced loud enough to rouse both passengers.
It was 2:22 AM local time, Ed noted, which translated to 5:22 AM Eastern/body time. Traveling at horse-walking-speed it had taken them nearly as long to travel through the Park to Yosemite Village as it had taken them to get to the Park entrance all the way from China Lake. Though both he and Mary had dozed-off for most of the last several hours, Ed felt exhausted, and the others obviously did also.
Half-asleep Ed watched as Anders directed the four cycles to where they were to park. Doll then helped Ed transfer groggy Mary from Mack to Wheels while Snake and Sam gathered several armfuls of dead logs and sticks and used them to fill all of Mack's storage bins after they had been emptied of luggage and Wheels. Mack promised that by morning there would be a small ration of gasoline for all of the cycles.
By candlelight the visitors were shown into a large log building and to small but relatively well appointed rooms that featured inside plumbing, central wood-stove heating, and beds with soft warm feather mattress and pillows encased in clean sheets. There were also electric wall switches but those didn't do anything but remind Ed that there was no electric power. Ed had to light more of the candles that were scattered about in order to provide enough light to function. Despite near exhaustion within twenty minutes he had Mary and himself abed where they quickly fell back into a deep and restful sleep.
****