Chapter 12
The Golden Gate
"Wow!" Ed exclaimed, when he got his first up-close view of the Golden Gate Bridge, Levy and lock system. The visitors were enjoying a close-up view from almost underneath the southern end of the Bridge. The single lock was nestled under the Bridge at its south-end; the massive rock levy itself stretched along under the bridge for over two miles, rising twenty feet above the Bay water-line. The nearby lock currently contained the biggest cargo ship Ed had ever seen, and it was rising up from Bay level to Ocean level at a pace so slow that motion was almost imperceptible.
A dozen layers of cargo modules piled atop each other covered the ship's deck and towered a hundred feet over it. High above even the gigantic ship the reddish Golden Gate Bridge itself towered, nearly a hundred and thirty years old but still as magnificent as ever. Ed noticed however that under the original level that carried auto traffic there was a second, narrower layer of bridge.
"The Bridge underwent some major upkeep and strengthening three decades ago so that it could support Levy construction, including rail-lines below the auto level." said Mara. "Millions of tons of rock were dropped from the Bridge rail line. The part of the Levy you see above water is only a very tiny fraction of it. It rises fifteen feet above sea level but there is another three-hundred vertical feet of Levy under water. This end of the Levy is greatly enlarged to accommodate the lock and required nearly a third of the rock-fill. A lot of work is being done on it now but unfortunately our view is blocked by the ship."
"Yes, and most levy and bridge work is done by Stone-Coat," said Ed. "Humans built them but Stone-Coats maintain and make them better. That's a common theme around the world."
"Eventually as Antarctica and Greenland continue to melt the levy will need to grow a couple more hundred feet higher until it reaches bridge auto level," noted Mara. "But that will be perhaps thousands of years from now."
"Look! It's a Stone-Coat!" Doll cried out abruptly and pointed. Near the massive closed lock doors less than a hundred yards from the visitors a Stone-Coat Ice-Giant's head as large as a dump-truck had broken the surface of the Bay water. In the morning sun its wet diamond scales glistened brightly. Its dinner-plate sized black eyes faced directly towards the visitors. It was by far the biggest Stone-Coat that Ed had ever seen, and he had seen many big ones up close and personal.
"GOOD MORNING, CHIEF ED," it told Ed through his implant. "I WISH TO EXCHANGE DATA WITH YOUR COMPANION UNIT MACK USING NANOTUBE INTERFACES."
"CERTAINLY," Ed said. The stone creature's gigantic diamond-covered shoulders emerged from the Bay waters as it walked slowly towards the visitors.
"I'm remembering some old Godzilla movies that didn't turn out well for the silly humans that didn't run away fast enough or they ran in the wrong direction," said Snake. His hand rested on a Harley storage compartment that housed his heavy weapons. Custer and his crew of CHiPs that were supposed to be guarding the troupe of visitors backed away from the approaching stone giant.
"No worries," said Ed. "Mack and I are talking with it now. It simply seeks a direct high-speed data download from our Stone-Coats. Sort of like what was done at Yosemite."
The stone giant stepped ponderously closer, causing bay water waves that splashed nearly as far as where the humans waited. Ever more of the glittering diamond covered rock giant emerged from the Bay waters, including gigantic arms with hands ending in diamond claws each as big as a man. Water cascaded from it as it rose higher.
"I thought that the really big ones like this had to have ice-cold conditions to move," said Snake.
"Instead of using ice expansion to drive hydraulics steam power and water-cooling can also be used by large ocean units," said Mack. "Movement is much slower than when ice is being used. It of course requires large quantities of elements that are undergoing nuclear decay. To limit radiation exposure to humans, Ed, Mary, and other humans should stay here while I alone get closer."
Ed and Mary climbed out of Mack and the Stone-Coat tricycle moved himself fifty feet forward to the very edge of the Bay waters. The Stone-Coat Giant stepped ponderously closer, until at last it stood only knee-deep in water immediately in front of Mack. The stone giant was the most beautiful thing that the people of the group had ever seen. The five-foot long diamond crystals that covered most of it like tufts of hair sparkled brilliantly in the morning sunlight.
"It must weigh over a thousand tons!" Doll muttered.
"And a big part of it is diamonds!" marveled Snake. "A single crystal of its stone coat would have been worth billions of dollars in the old days!"
The gathered humans collectively gasped when the giant reached down with a gigantic clawed hand towards Mack. It could obviously very easily crush the smaller Stone-Coat with one finger. A massive finger tipped by a human-sized diamond claw reached into Mack's open canopy, where a dark cloud of wispy nanotubing waited. A wispy streamer of black nanotubing extended down from the claw to mesh with Mack's tubing, forming a super-high capacity digital interface.
"This shouldn't take long," Ed remarked.
Indeed only a few seconds later the monstrously huge clawed hand withdrew.
"INFORMATION EXCHANGE COMPLETE," the towering giant announced silently. "IMPROVED HUMAN THOUGHT SIMULATION AND SMALL UNIT DESIGN CONCEPTS ARE BEING INCORPORATED AND WILL BE SHARED WITH OTHER UNITS AT THIS LOCATION."
"GLAD TO BE OF HELP," said Ed.
The gathered humans breathed a collective sigh of relief when the glistening giant Stone-Coat turned and ponderously walked back into the Bay side of the Strait.
"Stone Coats are strengthening and enlarging the Levy," said Mack, as Ed and Mary climbed back into him. "Levy growth will not need to be geometric due to greater material strength. They progress rapidly. For several centuries they estimate complete success in maintaining the Levy and enlarging it to accommodate rising sea levels."
They backtracked away from the base of the Bridge and in minutes were in heavy Bridge-bound traffic. The ancient towers and cables of Golden Bridge soon hung immediately above them. On the cables and towers a dozen moderate-sized Stone-Coats clung like giant spiders. From most of them a dark wispy cloud of nanotubes issued and enveloped portions of the Bridge structure. Repairs were made using materials transported and placed by billions of nanotubes one charged molecule at a time.
"As you mentioned Ed, the Stone-Coats are maintaining the Bridge now," Mara noted unnecessarily, as they slowly drove across it.
"They detect and repair the metal fatigue and concrete fractures and weathering that inevitably develops over time," Mack elaborated. "They also maintain a traditionally reddish finish that protects the Bridge from water and salt."
"Many more Stone-Coats work to maintain and gradually elevate the Levy as the sea-level rises," said Mara, "though unfortunately for tourists such as us that can't be seen from here atop the Bridge, as most of them work either directly under the Bridge or under water."
"Is rock for the Levy still dropped down from the Bridge?" asked Ed.
"Not anymore," said Mara. "The road atop the Levy is used for that."
"The under-water Stone-Coats also gather Levy materials from the bottom of the Strait," added Mack. "Organics are particularly useful for the generation of composites used to cement together rock materials." After their experience at Yosemite the travelers could well imagine an army of strangely configured Stone-Coats working together underwater to strengthen and enlarge the Levy.
"What are those huge buildings a few miles away on the far-side of the bridge?" Ed asked.
"That's condos and apartments in Sausalito," said Ken. "I lived in a very nice condo there for a time, but decided I could do much better elsewhere."
"You always did like luxury," said Snake. "That's why even after retiring you stayed in the North and didn't return to the Confederacy."
"You have that right," agreed Ken. "This county boy has seen the city and likes it."
After crossing the Bridge the tour exited Route 10
1 to a side-road that wound its way up to a lookout point where the Strait, Bridge, and Levy could be viewed from far above. The Levy though it was a thousand times more massive seemed small and insignificant compared to the towering Bridge, but it is was the focus of most Stone-Coat activity. Conventional dump-trucks dumped huge boulders along the Levy road which were then rolled or carried into the choppy ocean waters by massive Stone-Coats. Activity around the lock was particularly intense.
"The Stone-Coat plan is to elevate and enlarge the entire lock system to keep pace with the rising sea level," said Mack. "That will be done by infusing the underlying rock and steel elements with nanotubes that continually grow the foundation of Lock structure that sits atop it. The human engineers involved are duly impressed but skeptical."
"That sounds like how the Stone-Coats slowly elevate our greenhouses back-home at Giant's Rest to stay above the thickening ice-sheet," said Ed.
"Yes, though this is a much bigger project by several orders of magnitude," said Mack.
The huge container ship that they had seen at the other end of the bridge was moving out of the lock and steadily out to sea.
"The view from here is fantastic!" Mary said. "Ed, can you give me a bird's-eye view?"
"Through your visicom unit screens I can give you all a bird's-eye view," said Ed. "Just let me sit here quietly and focus." He sat down on a nearby bench, shut his eyes, and concentrated on a nearby seagull that was gliding above the Strait. Mary closed her eyes and waited. Soon through sharp seagull eyes Ed was seeing the Bridge, Levy, and ship from hundreds of feet above the Strait. Through their implants Mary was then seeing it also. Mack was acting as the interface between them. He also converted imagery to phone/ visicom format and transmitted it to the rest of the Crew.
Mara put on what looked like sunglasses that allowed her see that the gull was seeing stereoscopically. "Amazing!" she said. "It's exactly like getting video feed from a flying drone!" After several minutes Ed reluctantly withdrew his thoughts from the seagull so that it could resume its endless search for fish.
"Speaking of drones," said Mary, "where are they? I haven't noticed any since we got into the Bay area. We see many commercial, private, and police drones in New York City."
"Drones and ultra-lite commuter aircraft have long been outlawed near the Bay for safety reasons," said Mara. "The ones designed and manufactured locally are tested at Moffat Field but other than that only a very few official safety and law-enforcement drones are allowed to fly in the Bay area. Legislation to allow flying cars is in the works though. Prototypes have been tested for years and are already used in remote areas all over the world. They'll have to compete with much cheaper ultra-lightweight aircraft though, as well as with cheap ground transportation."
"Besides CHiP drones you'll see a few private drones now that we're leaving the metro area," added Ken, "and likely a few renegade flying cars as well."
Moving north on Route 101, the entourage skirted Sausalito, which had grown from a small quiet town to a massive city with huge apartment/condo buildings that towered high overhead.
"This area has been booming since the rail lines built for Levy construction were converted to become part of the Bay High Rail system," said Mara. "This branch of the system extends even further north as far as Santa Rosa. People can travel free to jobs in San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco using the High Rail."
"Sort of nice to see that someplace in the world is booming despite disasters world-wide," said Ed. "Hope springs eternal. Old-timer locals probably miss the quiet little town atmosphere of Sausalito, but the rail system is nifty."
"A working rail system through the Confederacy would be nice someday too," noted Doll.
"In the near-term I'll settle for roads that can handle actual full-sized trucks," said Snake, "but yes, a rail system would be nice someday too. There are remnants of the old rail system all over the Confederacy that could be used as a starting point."
"I'll settle for this vacation to happen," said Mary. "How far is Muir Woods?"
"Not very far as the crow flies," said Ed, "but we're driving there."
Following the lead CHiP cycle, they again exited Route 101 and took Route 1 west towards Muir Woods and the coast. Traffic was light but slow, as most of it was solar-electric powered and headed uphill. The route started out relatively flat, straight and suburban, but gradually became a curve-filled uphill climb for the underpowered electric vehicles that filled the road. They gradually climbed hundreds of feet above Bay-level, but it was not nearly the struggle that had been necessary to reach the sequoia tree habitats farther south and east. Houses and businesses gave way to empty roadsides and the amount of traffic gradually dropped off.
"It doesn't look as dry here," noted Mary. "Look at all the small trees and bushes. They do look just a bit dry but they are still mostly green."
"This close to the coast and this far north precipitation is close to pre-climate change norms," said Ken. "From here north things are so far close enough to normal. Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver get even more rain than ever."
"A good thing they do," said Mara. "The Sequoia trees further south live in only a few scattered groves that can be irrigated, but there are thousands of acres of redwoods and fir that couldn't possibly all be irrigated. Their biggest threat is still from logging."
"Redwoods are still being logged?" Ed asked.
"People still have to make a living," noted Ken.
"The logging is done illegally by poachers," explained Mara. "Then there are also a never-ending barrage of invasive diseases, insects, and other things to combat. But California redwoods have declined only about ten percent over the last fifty years. That's a pretty damn good record, when you consider how screwed up things have gotten with regard to climate and human instability. North of the redwoods Douglass fir forests are starting to make a big comeback. Those horrible clear-cut areas up towards Portland and Seattle are slowly recovering, though they won't fully recover for centuries."
They crested the hills and turned right off of Route 1. There were less trees and bushes now, though they were supposedly only a few miles from Muir Woods. The road traveled along the top of the ridge. There was more grass than anything else by now; tall dry looking grass atop mounds of that reminded the travelers of the Sierra Nevada foothills. There were plenty of bushes and rock outcroppings that could hide a small army.
"Great place for an ambush," Snake mentioned. "We should all stay alert."
"Didn't we leave Scar in the Confederacy days ago?" asked Ed.
"Don't count on it," said Snake. "He's a jant zombie and probably has many jant zombie buddies here in the North, and it's not that hard to sneak in and out of the Confederacy. Since we don't know why Scar stopped trying to stop us we don't know if or when he'll decide it's time to kill us."
"Swell," said Ed. "Have you talked to Custer and his friends about this?"
"Yes," said Snake. "The CHiPs are confident that their drones and network of patrols would easily spot any trouble brewing. They are of course unrealistically over-confident."
“Drones?” asked Ed.
"They are over confident," added Doll, “but for the last half hour they have been using drones.” She pointed out two small drones hovering so high overhead that they couldn’t even be heard.
“I’ve evaded CHiP drones far too often to trust them to protect us,” said Snake. "Besides, Ed would detect any med-ticks on nearby CHiPs, but any CHiP could still be bought-off or CHiP zombies could be monitoring those drones from afar."
"I've worked with most of this particular CHiP crew for years," countered Mara. "They can be trusted."
"Ha!" said Snake.
"So where are all the redwoods?" asked Mary, nicely changing the subject.
"A couple more miles further in a deep little valley," said Ken. They took a left onto a road promisingly named Muir Woods, and began a slow twisting decent. The further they went the more twisted the road became. They started to enco
unter parked cars, pedestrians, and more bicyclists as the road seemed to further narrow and twist.
"It's pretty crazy to bicycle or hike on this road," said Ed, when at one point they had an unnervingly close encounter with a bus traveling the other way. "Driving this road within the relative safety of a full-sized crash-resistant vehicle is insane enough. And this road is too damn narrow and too curvy for busses."
"It sure is," said Doll. "But here they are!"
"Normally driving is done under computer control," said Mara. "I had to get special permissions through Custer for this group to drive free-style and not under computer control. But Custer's CHiP cycle leading us is under computer control so don't worry."
"Swell," said Ed.
"I don't think I could trust computers for this," said Snake, as they twisted around another bush-obscured curve, beyond which another on-coming bus abruptly appeared along with several bicyclists in their lane, descending towards the Park. The entourage slowed to bike speed and managed not to kill anyone.
"I'd trust a triply redundant computer safely system any day," said Mira. "Automated driving systems are even more reliable than autonomous weapons systems nowadays."
"My redundancy is orders of magnitude greater than triple," Mack noted.
"I'm greatly comforted," said Ed. "Hey! We're there!"
In the midst of a sharp road curve to the left the entrance to Muir Woods appeared to the right. A sign said that the parking lot was full but Fred Custer himself waved the entourage in and to waiting open parking spaces that had been cordoned off from the public. Big trees shaded the parking lot but not redwood trees. Grouped around Wheels, Mary, and Ed, the visitors walked towards a log- building and the park entrance. There were hundreds of people, most of them bussed in from the nearby Bay area. Many recognized the VIP visitors, and took photos, especially photos of exotic appearing Snake and Doll.
"The price of rock-star level fame," said Ed. "But due to Mara we didn't even have to pay to get in. There are some benefits to being famous and well connected."
"It will be good to get away from the throngs of people here in the North," complained Snake with a snarl. "Too damned many folks here to suit me. And I'll never again be able to spy in the North or anywhere else on the planet."
They soon found themselves on a wood-plank walkway that at last led past redwood trees six-feet and more in diameter and two hundred feet tall. The well maintained path followed a little winding stream that the trees seemed to favor.
"Redwoods are taller and thinner than Sequoia trees," Ed noted. "These are wonderful but they are mere juveniles compared to the much bigger redwoods farther north."
"Compared to the Sequoia their bark is thinner and more dark gray than reddish," noted Mary. "Look how they tend to grow in little groups of two or three or even more trunks. The Sequoia did that too but probably not as much as this. And here there is dampness-loving undergrowth, including those huge ferns."
"The ground in this little valley is actually damp," noted Doll. "We certainly don't see much of that back home!"
"This grove of redwoods is close to San Francisco and gets hundreds of thousands of visitors annually," said Mara. "There are several other similar groves in the coastal mountains north of here but they are generally less assessable and less protected. This raised walkway protects the trees from compaction of the soil around their roots."
The visitors followed the pathway made frequent stops to sit quietly on benches under the trees or to run their hands over tree trunks assessable from the path. At least here the milling public mostly gawked at the trees and paid less unwanted attention to the VIP visitors.
On the way back to the parking lot they stopped to visit the log-cabin gift-shop. Mary in Wheels went inside with Doll and Mara while the men waited outside on benches. "Chairs like this in the department stores I used to call 'husband chairs' and I greatly appreciated them," said Ed.
Snake posed in front of a big wood-carved grizzly bear while tourists took pictures and videos of him. Obviously the VIPs had again been recognized. "Any real bears near here?" Snake asked Ed. "You could hear them thinking if they are, right?"
"There are several black bears nearby and a pair of mountain lions," said Ed. "Also a big golden eagle. I understand that they can be found throughout most of the United States now but this is the first one that I've encountered."
"A for-real eagle?" asked a small girl that had been taking Snake's picture. She looked to be maybe six or seven and Ed wondered why she wasn't in school. He asked Mara about it telepathically.
"MUCH SCHOOLING IS DONE REMOTELY NOWADAYS THE SAME WAY THAT WORK IS ACCOMPLISHED," Mara explained from inside the gift shop. "ALSO MOST TEACHERS IN THE BAY AREA HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY HOLOGRAPHIC AI UNITS. THERE IS NO COMPELLING REASON TO PHYSICALLY GO TO A PHYSICAL SCHOOL WITH PHYSICAL TEACHERS."
"Yes, it's a for real eagle," Ed finally answered the girl, after recovering from what Mara had told him. His old teaching vocation had apparently become obsolete! "She's perched atop a nearby redwood right now, looking down at us. Her mate is hunting somewhere else."
"Aren't you that white Mohawk Chief from back East that lives with Stone Coats and jants?" asked the woman with the little girl.
"Yes, that's me," said Ed. "The eagle is curious about all the people being here, and about my sharing thoughts with her. That's a strange thing to be happening to her, but I've managed to reassure her that no harm is meant."
"It's a girl eagle?" asked the girl.
"Yes, a big grown up female eagle."
"How would you know that?" asked her mother.
"From her thoughts," said Ed.
"I don't see any eagles," said an old man with binoculars that sat on a nearby bench. "I've been coming here fifty years and never saw an eagle here. Not one, and I'm a capable birder. I've seen plenty them in the nearby mountains, hills, and more open country though. Aquila chrysaetos canadensis is their scientific name. There's lots more of them around since the government had folks cut back on the worst pesticides and made killing them illegal. They've even extended their range back East. But they like mountains and open spaces where they can catch rabbits and such and they generally avoid humans. You won't find them in these thick woods."
"I get the impression from her that she and her mate are just passing through," said Ed. "Regardless of species, I've found that some individual raptors are more curious about humans than others."
"Ha!" said the old man. "I'd sure like to see your golden eagle young fella, but that just ain't happening."
"I'd like to see her too," said the girl.
"There is no eagle, little girl," said the old man. "This fella is pulling your leg."
"If everyone stays still and quiet maybe I can get the eagle to show herself," said Ed. "Can I borrow a leather glove from you Snake? Oh, and unwrap that stick of beef-jerky you carry. I've already promised her a snack."
Snake shrugged and from a vest pocket fished out a heavy-duty leather biker ridding glove and handed it to Ed.
Ed stood atop the wooden bench he had been sitting on and held up his glove-covered right hand. Immediately from somewhere high above came a shrill chirp-like sound. A dark shape separated itself from high atop a nearby redwood and glided down slowly on outspread wings more than two meters across. People all around gasped and pointed. The eagle chirped again as it glided towards Ed majestically.
"Quiet now!" urged Ed, to hush the growing chatter from the couple of dozen nearby chattering people.
With a downward breaking sweep of its wide wings the bird landed gently on Ed's upraised hand. It was much heavier and the grip of its talons was much stronger than Ed expected, and over the years he had done this with dozens of raptors. "Ouch!" he muttered as the talons bit through even the tough leather of the riding glove and into skin. The eagle let-up its grip a little in response, but its grip still hurt.
"Wow!" said the little girl.
People gawked openly at the magnificent
bird as the bird gawked back with its keen penetrating gaze. There seemed to be intelligence behind the big, wide-spaced eyes. It was mostly rusty brown in color, but the feathers around its neck and under the darker brown feathers had a distinctive gold tinge.
"She's huge!" mumbled the old man.
"Feed her, Snake," Ed said through clenched teeth. "Before she takes my hand off!"
Snake pulled a plastic-wrapped beef-jerky from a vest pocket, hastily ripped the plastic wrapper from it, and held it up and towards the bird.
With a sweep of its big wings it was airborne again, snatched the piece of beef-jerky from Snake, and flew up and away.
"That was super!" said the girl.
"The eagle was wonderful!" said the little girl's mom. "And it was for real, just like these trees, and not just a hologram like we see at home when we do our lessons."
"The eagle nearly took off my bloody hand," said Ed, as took off Snake's glove and shook and massaged his poor crushed and skewered hand.
"It was twice as big as it should have been," said the old birder. "The females are larger than the males but she was tremendous! Probably well over twenty pounds. More the size of the Asian sub-species than the American version, but even bigger."
"So I noticed," said Ed. The bleeding where the bird's talons had punched through the glove was already stopping. Besides perhaps being immortal Ed was an unnaturally fast healer. "She says thanks for the odd snack but she's flying off to find her mate and some better food. Oh, and she doesn’t like CHiP drones so we better tell Custer to steer clear of her or the birds will trash them. They’re certainly big enough to do it."
"Lamarckism possibly accounts for its unusual size," said the old birder. "Same as the condors. Lamarckism is not as big a deal as at first feared, but you do see its effects now and again."
"What's going on out here?" Doll asked as she, Mary, and Mara emerged from the shop carrying small bags of goods.
"An eagle visited Ed," said Snake. "I'll bet it will be in the news soon; enough people here certainly recorded and broadcasted the event using their hand-held visicoms. The jants and Scar need only to watch news broadcasts to know exactly where we are."
"Well we can't lollygag around here all day anyway," said Mary, "even though it would be pleasant to do so. How far is Point Reyes?"
"Only about thirty miles as the Eagle flies," said Mara, "but unfortunately we're driving. It should take us roughly an hour."
The tourists rejoined Custer and his CHiP crew and reluctantly left Muir Woods, winding their way west and back onto Route 1. They soon caught glimpses of the Pacific Ocean down and ahead of them. Soon the twisting road took them perilously along a cliff that dropped over a hundred feet down into wave-churning Pacific waters. Several centuries in the future when all Antarctic ice was melted, even this high roadway would be flooded over in some places, he reminded himself, up to the height of Route 101 on the Golden Gate bridge. Would he still be alive then? He had no idea.
"Where are the guardrails?" asked Mary.
"You wouldn't want your view of the ocean to be blocked, would you?" responded Mara from inside the trailing limo.
"Of course not," said Ed. "But even with Mack driving us I'd feel better if there were more guardrails. We've been on other roads that twist this bad but not with a cliff that falls into the ocean right next to it. This is ridiculous."
"More to the point, is the road this dramatically dangerous and stomach churning all the way to Point Reyes?" asked Mary.
"No, not all of it," said Ken. Sure enough the road soon climbed and cut inland and except for occasional glimpses the Ocean couldn't even be seen. For the most part there were only dry looking hills to see, with very few signs of wildlife, even to Ed's telepathic senses. Mary dozed off, and soon so did Ed.