Sabre Dancing with the Dead Ch 49

Tokonosu, North Eastern quadrant. May 13 20xx

Day 29.

0830

The materials for the zip line arrived just before noon, with the Super Stallion making a racket to wake the dead (literally, they all started heading to the library), coming in from the West, and making a circle round the building to check for the best spot to drop things. Hanging under the helo in a sling was a huge spool of cable, while the rest of the things they needed were dropped on the ground not far from the main doors after the spool had been dropped.

Some of the people on the helo got off to assist in putting the system together, as they'd come up with some ideas that the Library people weren't aware of. Among the bits coming off was a bolt together frame for the spool, that was to be attached to an ARV. Getting the cable laid across the distance was going to be a piece of cake. Drive over to the Med center, install the pipe up on the 3rd floor with the crane on the ARV's back and attach the cable end to fittings welded to the pipe. Once that was done, simply drive back to the library, paying out the cable. By that time, the on site engineers should have installed the window sill covers, and run a messenger line from the ARV on the off side, through the 3rd floor and down to the returning ARV.

What the Library crew hadn't imagined arrived an hour later, again, slung under the monster helo. Some bright spark had figured that if a ship's anchor could hold several thousand tons, keeping the cable taut would be a simple matter. They had welded a winch to the anchor, and rigged up a remote control that could be operated from the patio roof. Power for the winch came from a generator also flown in.

The fun part was going to be getting the cable passed through the third floor and down to the anchor. The ARV crew spooled off another 40 meters of cable, cut it, put an eye on the end with bulldog clamps and attached the messenger. On the signal from the engineer on the patio, the off side ARV slowly advanced, drawing the messenger and cable up into the air, over the first window sill. So far so good, although it took a bit of grunt work to lift the shackle over the patio sill so it wouldn't catch. Even that had been thought of by the yard engineers. They had included a couple of 2 meter pry bars, and fulcrums. Easy peasy. Again the ARV moved ahead, til the shackle end was at the 2nd floor window sill was reached. Again, more grunt, and the shackle was now snaking across the 3rd floor, heading down to the winch drum on the anchor. One more bit of grunt and they had it over the second sill. They'd passed the messenger under that drum, and as the shackle arrived, the ARV stopped.

One of the refinements added by the Yard guys were clamps on the window sills. Once the shackle had been passed, the cable was shifted a bit to the side, and into the clamp. With the cable now down to the anchor, the clamps were set up tight to hold the cable while the winch end was fitted to the winch drum.

With the cable now strung, the winch started to take up on the slack, and the cable slowly rose off the ground along it's length. Looking out over the cable run to the med center, Wolf could see that it was at least seven to eight meters above the ground at it's lowest spot. By the time he got down to the patio, the troops had set up the platform and added the pulleys that would handle the load.

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Author's notes: I don't own HOTD, or any of its characters. I just get to play in their universe. All characters in this story other than those listed below are (So far) my own.

Komuro Tadashi

Miyamoto Rei

Miyamoto Tadashi

Miyamoto Kiriko

Busujima Saeko

Takagi Saya

Hirano Kouta

Marikawa Shizuka

Marasato Alice

Minami Rika

Reviews gratefully accepted, as long as they are constructive and non-abusive.

Tokonosu map, URL as follows.

https/sabrekai/art/New-Tokonosu-20km-x-40km-956877662