Landfall

2029 September 11 09:21 UT
Test Year 2, Day 328, 15:30 CST – 23:30 MST
Tau, Western Coast of Massachusetts

The sun was just setting on the western coast of Massachusetts when the flotilla finally made landfall. The Hokule’a dropped anchor first, by ten minutes. The crew ran ashore through the surf, towards the fuel station and the waiting chopper. As he ran, Townsend dictated the last entries of his log into his throat mike: “Fleet landed at Revere north coastal refueling station, 25º W and 3º S of MIT. Turning command over to Matt Wing.”

The chopper was stripped down to carry a maximum of four passengers. Townsend and Dorman got on board, with the two ninjas that had the most combat training. The Revere Company pilots greeted them warmly, but there was no time to celebrate the crossing of the ocean with suitable libation. They had four thousand two hundred kilometers of flying ahead of them, and there was no time to wait. The ships would take the long route. Although they too would leave as soon as their tanks were full, it would take another eight thousand klicks to round the southern coast of the continent, and then they would still have a day’s sailing, either up the Potomac to the base of the trees or the New Charles to campus.

The phone bugs had heard Chao and Maness agree to “launch and end this tomorrow”. Hildenstoy, Delbert and the Berets, the militia, and even Marriner had left the Towers on their way to the attempted strike against Chao; Gera and Zijun were in their bunker near the missile site with the pulsers. By the time the chopper could get back to MIT, running through the field sites, everything might be over. The Berets’ choppers had a cruise speed of 250 kilometers per Tau hour. They ran on methane. The power plant in a loaded chopper used 200 kilowatts, so a station could produce one chopper-full of fuel every twelve days or so. Between them, the tanks would let the chopper fly back and forth across the continent twice before it would have to wait for more fuel. But tonight, their only concern was that they made it to MIT within the next twenty hours. They would be stopping twice, but just to refuel and run the checklist.

As they flew, Townsend and Dorman kept looking ahead of the chopper, watching for three streaks of flame.