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Chapter 17 continues...

"O.K., let's go find her!" exclaimed XL. He switched the airship's navigator to a secondary view screen, and set the course to the new destination. Then he turned to the back of the airship and shouted, "Anna, mom, come see this."

They came right away, and XL showed them the alert. Larissa contacted the search-and-rescue office, and informed them that Saucer1 was on the way. Moreover, Larissa was trained in first aid, which could be useful if the girl was hurt.

The office was glad to hear that they volunteered to help. The helicopter would still be on the way too, to help if needed. "Sometimes little children don't have enough sense to stay put once they have been spotted," they said. "The child may be disappointed when the plane flew away, and she may wander off. The sooner you get there, the better."

"We'll go at maximum speed," said XL.

Soon they arrived at the longitude and latitude coordinates that the plane had reported. There was a clearing at the top of a small hill, as expected. But there was no girl in the clearing. All around, there were trees, and they couldn't see through them.

"She can't have gone far," said Anna.

"We'll go and find her," said Larissa.

XL opened a drawer and pulled out two small boxes. "Take these pocket GPS units with you," he said. "It is a thick forest, and we don't want you getting lost too. Plus they will transmit your position to me, and they have built-in walkie talkies."

"I recognize those," said Larissa. "Your dad invented them. He didn't invent the GPS nor the walkie-talkie, but he did design the combination in one unit."

Larissa and Anna headed back toward the elevator, to take it down. Meanwhile, XL positioned Saucer1 over the clearing and set it to hold position. Then he switched on the search program in the main computer. Several views of the ground below appeared on the monitors, from the cameras on the bottom of Saucer1.

"I will deploy the search drones," said XL. "The pictures from their cameras will appear on the monitors," he said to Beeba. "Help me watch."

Twelve tiny drones deployed from the sides of Saucer1. Each of them was about the size of a child's toy, equipped with three spinning propellers and with a camera mounted on the bottom. The drones moved outward from Saucer1, and then they began a circular path around Saucer1, gradually spiralling outward from the airship.

"Each drone has a motion detector that will zoom the camera in on any animal that moves below," said XL. "But we should watch too. The drone batteries will last for an hour, after which we would have to bring them back for a recharge. But we'll find Wendy much sooner than that!"

Each of three large monitors in Saucer1 showed pictures from four of the drones, and a fourth monitor showed pictures from Saucer1's cameras. XL and Beeba watched carefully, but all they could see was trees.

"This is useless!" said Beeba. "These trees are packed so tightly we can't see anything below."

XL pushed a button on the control panel and leaned toward a microphone. "Anna, Larissa, any success?"

"None yet," replied Anna's voice through a speaker in the airship.

"Nor from me," answered Larissa. "We have been yelling Wendy's name, but no answer."

"And there are no tracks, either," said Anna. "Everything is dry here."

XL turned to Beeba. "We'll have to bring the drones back, and fly them down below."

"Won't they crash into the trees?" asked Beeba.

"No," said XL, "this is an evergreen forest, and often the lower branches die out. The drones' computer controllers automatically avoid collisions, so they will fly between the trees. But the cameras won't be able to see very far."

XL did as planned, and soon the drones were travelling within the forest below.

Some headphones were sitting on the console, and Beeba put them on. "Hey, the drones pick up sound too," he said.

"Yes," said XL. "You can listen to any one, or to all at once. The sound of the motor is filtered out, mostly."

"We'll find her in the next ten minutes," said XL. "You will see!"

It turned out that XL was right. In less than that time, drone 4 reported some motion below. It was only momentary, so they couldn't see what it was. Beeba listened through the drone's microphone. "I thought I heard a human voice, but I couldn't make out the words," said Beeba.

"Look, Anna is really close," said XL as he looked at the map view on the main screen. He leaned to the microphone and pressed the "talk" button. "Anna, head southeast and go about 100 meters" he said.

"I can't," said Anna, "because there is a stream beside me and I would have to cross it. It's too deep, and there is thick bush on the other side."

"Well then," said XL, "yell out Wendy's name very loud."

Anna did so. "Drone 4 picked up Anna yelling," said Beeba, "and also there was a faint reply, saying 'I am here, please help.' Wendy must be nearby!"

Meanwhile Anna yelled out again that she was coming. "There must be some way across this stream, in order for Wendy to be on the other side," she thought to herself. She followed the stream for about 50 meters, where she found a shallow area. She crossed, getting about knee-deep as she went. On the other side there were footprints in the mud.

Less than two minutes later, Anna had reached Wendy. Anna radioed back to XL that she had found her. "Wendy heard me yelling," Anna explained, but she had a sore throat because she had been yelling and crying so much earlier, that she couldn't shout loudly. So I didn't hear her at first."

"Wendy thought she saw a bear," Anna continued, "so she ran away from the clearing as fast as she could go. She found a place to cross the stream, and then came to this place, where she climbed a tree."

XL passed Anna's position on to Larissa, and soon Larissa joined Anna and Wendy. Wendy was about 7 years old, dressed in torn jeans and a light jacket. She had long blond hair, and wore a small red cowboy hat. Wendy, Anna, and Larissa were almost 1 kilometer from the clearing where Saucer1 was waiting, so it took about 15 minutes for them to walk back together.

Meanwhile, XL called all the drones back to Saucer1, where they docked in small bays that opened in the side of the airship. "This is one advantage of Saucer1 over a helicopter," said XL. "With a helicopter the drones wouldn't be able to return, because they don't have enough power to get through the down-draft from the helicopter's spinning blades."

When Wendy arrived at the elevator, she was very happy to ride it up to Saucer1. Not only was she happy about being rescued, but she was thrilled to ride in the airship. She had seen the movie, and she was excited about coming back to her family in it. "Mom and Dad will be so thrilled!" Wendy said. "They like that movie too."

Larissa contacted the search-and-rescue office to find out the location of Wendy's home. She turned to Wendy. "Your home is about 15 kilometers from here," she said. "We'll be there soon. But how did you get so far from home?"

Wendy looked down at her toes. She was a bit ashamed and embarrassed. "Yesterday instead of getting off the school bus at my home, I stayed on until I got to my friend Suzy's house. I didn't tell my parents I was going to do that."

"The regular bus driver was sick, and the substitute driver didn't know I wasn't supposed to get off there. But Suzy wasn't home. I tried to walk home and take a short-cut through the forest. But I was confused about which way to go, and I got lost. I'm so sorry! I was cold all night, and I'm so hungry!"

Soon they arrived at Wendy's home. Her parents were there to meet her as she came down from the elevator. They were overjoyed to see her, and they each gave her a big hug. XL, Anna, and Larissa came down too, to meet Wendy's parents. They were very grateful and thanked XL and his family.

"You see, I was right that we should go help," said Beeba to XL as they went back up the elevator. "Anyway, it sure makes me feel good," he said.

"Yes," agreed XL. "You were right. Maybe the helicopter could have rescued her too, but we were closer, and we had the ability, so we had a duty to help."

"So you decided to help because of duty?" asked Beeba.

"Partly," answered XL, "and partly because I wanted to. No one person can solve all the problems in the world. Therefore, the duties are divided among all people, and that's why we have shared services like police, ambulance, and rescue. But sometimes there is a situation where one person can help better than another--and that is why it was up to us to help this time."

"So duty is sometimes based on proximity--because we were closest?" suggested Anna.

"Yes," agreed Larissa, joining the conversation. "It's the same reason why, when a car is stuck in the snow in the winter, that nearby people will help to push it out. They are conveniently located to help, so the duty falls to them first. But if they can't do it, then the tow truck is called."

"Well, I'm glad we were able to help this time," said XL.

"Me too," said Beeba. "And we still have lots of time to have fun at Waskesiu this afternoon. We can still go hiking or boating as we had planned."

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.