#unalaska

Russian Orthodox Bishop's House, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, 2025.

Grumman J2F Ducks and two Consolidated PBY-4 Catalina patrol bombers sitting on the airfield at Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base, Amaknak Island, Unalaska, Alaska.

Date: 1940s

Next comes a barrage of error messages. She used the same set of bolt cutters that she'd brought to deal with the padlock on the front gate on the conduit that runs to the satellite comms unit on the roof, so this is hardly a surprise. Letting this thing connect to the mainland would have been an extremely bad idea given the circumstances.

Despite the complaining a window appears titled "Mission Planner". The window contains, on the left, a map with satellite imagery, centered on her location, and on the right, a list of "effectors". Most "effectors" are flying drones, but some of them are rovers with wheels or tank treads. Effectors are given names by the troops that install them, usually based on a theme. Some name them after star wars characters, some after characters from the bible. These seem to have been named after Disney princesses. Skye clicks on the list item labeled "Tinkerbell", and from the context menu that appears selects "Activate".

A dot appears on the map, and after a few seconds a window with a video feed. Tinkerbell is still in its cubbyhole so the video feed is completely black. It also shows the battery state of charge (100%).

From her current position the coast is to the south, the cannery is to the southeast, and her sailboat, the Portobello, anchored off the coast to the south of that. Not wanting to reveal her presence quite yet she decides to go around the cannery and check on the boat. With a dozen or so clicks on the map she chooses a set of waypoints for Tinkerbell to follow. A series of lines appears between them on the map. The line is green, indicating that there should be enough battery capacity to make it there, take video, and then return home. Satisfied, she clicks "Execute". Then she realizes she needs to piss.

It's been almost 24 hours since she figured out what Scott and Arnold were doing at the cannery and she hasn't attended to any bodily functions since then, and since the adrenaline wore off a couple of hours ago she's gone through almost the entire six pack of rip its she found in a mini fridge in the office, so it's kind of amazing she's lasted this long. It's probably going to take the better part of an hour for the mission she just kicked off to finish executing so that's plenty of time to find a washroom.

The base is laid out as a set of rooms branching off of a single central corridor. The office she's currently in is, she thinks she remembers, the seventh room on the right. One of the other rooms must be a bathroom. She gets out of the chair, walks across the office, and out the door into the hall.

The building is constructed essentially as a basement. A big trench with a wall two cinder blocks high on top of its sides, with just enough windows to let the dawn light in, and an armadillo hide of steel arches over top of that. This form of construction is not only good at withstanding missile attacks but its use of the earth as thermal mass and the amazing ability of the arches to handle snow load make it perfectly suited to the Alaska climate. The base has two sets of diesel generators, a main one and an auxiliary, and Skye had only activated the auxiliary, so the circuits that power functions critical to the base's mission (like the drones) are powered but not such luxuries as lights. This gives everything an ochre tinge and makes shadows cast about five times longer than they seem like they should. Linoleum floors, clinic-white drywall.

The birds of prey are particularly attracted to Unalaska's Dutch Harbor, considered to be one of the top fishing ports of the US.

The residents have learned to live alongside the eagles, despite the fact they have been known to steal food out of the hands of locals.

A memory from the future. Alaska, 2014.