After a walk around the facility, Joe and I ended up back by the vehicles. We saw Commander Pacheco sitting in the front seat of the truck, looking over some paperwork. He had one door propped open with his foot, letting the breeze blow through the shaded interior of the vehicle. It looked like a good time to take care of the customary courtesies, so we went over and introduced ourselves.

“Good evening, sir. Mind if we join you for a few minutes?” I asked.

“Not at all,” he replied, nodding at the door on the other side of the truck. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you, anyway.”

We walked around to the other side of the truck, and got in. Joe sat in the back, watching us as we talked.

“Sir, since I’ve been assigned to your unit, I thought I’d brief you on what Joe and I bring to the team. Prime wasn’t very clear on what you need, only that we were to report to you and replace a recent combat loss.”

“It’s good to have you on the team,” he said with a smile, then sighed. “We suffered a casualty fighting a Mexican Army unit a couple months ago. We were busting CA-1, a science unit, out of the Huntington Beach area south of Los Angeles. We went up against a Mechanized unit, in difficult terrain.” He frowned at the memories, then sighed again. “You can read the reports on that, later. Go ahead and tell me about yourself.”

“Basically, I’m a cop,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.”I worked as a Game Warden in South Florida, doing mounted patrols of the Everglades. Chasing poachers, locating lost hikers, that sort of thing. Joined the Army, got assigned to the Provost Marshal. I did three tours in Vietnam, 68 through 71, all of them as a dog handler in the MPs. First tour as a scout, clearing tunnels and bunkers in the field. Next two tours with CID and counter intelligence, mostly rear area work – investigations in drug smuggling, homicide, and sabotage. Eight months of that, I worked as an interpreter and interrogator. After the I got out of the service, I worked for the DEA as a dog handler, searching for smugglers and pot farmers. It was a lot like Nam, in some respects.”

“I hope you don’t have problems with drugs these days,” he cautioned.”Since it seems to be a part of the normal economy.”

“I’ve never had a personal problem with them, sir, only a professional one – it was my job to find them.” I did have a problem with people too stoned to do their job, but that didn’t need to be brought up at this point, since I hadn’t seen anything like that yet.

“I don’t do them personally,” he assured me, pulling a small metal flask out of a cargo pocket and offering me a sip. “This is my chosen poison.” I politely declined the offer, and went on with my briefing.

“I was recruited by the Project in September of 77. Trained for two years with a new dog – that’s Joe, here – who was provided by the Project.” Joe grinned at Vod, wagging his tail several times. He loves the attention. “We were originally slotted for assignment to the Frozen Watch as a replacement member for a MARS team, since we’re a security team. Went into the freezer at the end of 1979. Woke up a few days ago, and got new orders from Prime. They changed their mind, I guess, and sent us to your RECON team instead of a MARS unit.”

I rubbed the stubble on my chin and frowned. I should have shaved before approaching the CO, but it was too late now.

“Let’s see,” I said, gathering my thoughts. “I’m 30 years old. I’m fluent in English and Tagalog – my dad is Filipino, my mom was from Tennessee. I also speak Vietnamese and Spanish. That’s Latin American style Spanish, though, not Castillan. I can pass for Columbian, Puerto Rican, something like that, but not as a Spaniard.”

“That may be very useful,” he noted. “There’s a strong Hispanic presence in California, and of course the Mexican Army is trying to move into the neighborhood.” He took another small sip from the flask and motioned for me to continue.

“I can drive pretty much anything you need driven,” I said. “I’ve had the basic training on heavy weapons, but frankly I’m probably the last choice you’d make for that. I’m a close quarters combat specialist.” I ticked off weapons on his fingers as I expanded on the topic. “I’m good with a pistol, shotgun, submachinegun, knife, stick, and empty hands. I’ve been studying Pekiti Tirsia Kali since I was a kid. PTK is a Filipino martial art that focuses on the use of edged weapons. It’s come in handy a few times when I’ve been undercover.” I showed him the little PTK medallion I wear around my neck, then tucked it back into my T-shirt.

“Outside of combat,” I went on, “I’m can do all of the things you’d expect a policeman to do – investigating crime scenes, talking to witnesses and suspects, handling prisoners. I’m good with dogs and horses – I’ve worked with them most of my life, and I enjoy it.”

“Good to have the animal handling skills,” he said, nodding his head. “Down near our base we have an extensive horse unit. The Circle-Lazy-8 ranch has been keeping up general training with their own type of recruits, and with the establishment of the High Desert command, we’re expanding as fast as we can. But good vehicles are at a premium, so even CA-4 uses horseback to get around sometimes.” He shifted in his seat, and stretched his leg against the door a little. He looked at the flask, then put it away and waited for me to continue. I chose my next words carefully.

“That just about covers me, so let me tell you a little about him,” waving a hand at Joe, who sat up straighter. “He’s been my partner since the Project recruited me – he’s actually a product of a selective breeding and enhancement program.” When the Commander didn’t blink at that phrase, I relaxed a little. “He’s trained as a detector dog, dual rated – drugs and explosives. He’s also had the Project’s version of SAR training, among other things. He’s the smartest dog you ever saw, sir. You ever see the old Lassie TV show? He’s smarter than Lassie – a lot smarter.”

“I noticed your little game of who sits in front,” Vod replied agreeably. “Got a giggle out of how it seemed Joe knew exactly what was going on. Does he get along with Cats?”

Joe snorted, which made Vod stop and look directly at the dog. Vod glanced at me, but I kept my face carefully neutral. “Joe’s not really a cat person, but he’s got nothing against them in general.”

Vod looked back and forth at the two of us, then raised an eyebrow and settled his gaze on Joe.

“We have a sort of…well, ‘intelligent’ cat back at the base. It’s bonded with the team’s resident Jedi, our medic, Tim.” Vod paused, as Joe cocked his head to one side and twitched an ear. “Er…you didn’t hear me call him a Jedi, OK? He’s been developing some sort of sensitivity, psychic abilities, and he’s a little unhappy about the whole thing.”

“No problem, sir,” I said. “We understand, no Star Wars jokes about Tim, and the cat is on our side.”

Vod looked at Joe, who promptly chuffed, wagging his tail a few times, then sat up straight again with a serious look. The commander started to open his mouth to say something, then closed it again and nodded slowly. There was an awkward moment of silence, so I pulled out my notebook and pencil.

“Well, sir, I guess we just need to know where you want us, and what you want us to do. Duty assignment and standing orders, if any.”

Pacheco scratched the back of his neck with one hand, and then drummed his fingers on the dash.

“You may be wondering how a lowly RECON commander like myself ended up in charge of this convoy,” he began. “CA-4 awoke about 5 months ago or so, all alone. We actually ran into Fred and his wife about a hour after leaving our bolt hole. And that was just the beginning of our whirlwind tour. Our team is more of a Combat Recon, than Scout recon. Sort of a Recon Light… or a MARS unit with a recon mission.”

“I am currently the 2^nd in command of the High Desert Command.” He gestured at the MARS vehicles. “AZ-3 came in about a month or so ago, so they are either still finding their way around, or deciding if they are going to stay. I need to have a talk with Patrick, the AZ-3 OIC about what is going on in his team. Since the awakenings have been so randomly spaced, some teams seem to have more loyalty to their teams than to the project as a whole.” He frowned at that, then went on, “That is something we are trying to change. We managed to wake up the CA-2 command team, and subsequently 4 other teams all at the same time.” He tapped the papers he had been reading when we walked up.

“So the High Desert Command is a little more integrated as each team hasn’t had as much time feeling like they’re all alone, like CA-7 and AZ-3 did.” He borrowed my PDA and connected it to his, then transferred some files across as he talked. “Here is some light reading for you, it’ll help you pass the time and get a feel for our group.” He disconnected the PDA and handed it back to me.

“Fred is very rough around the edges in some respects, but amazingly refined in others. He’s probably the biggest believer in bringing back democracy, freedom and security that I have met so far. His passion outshines a lot of people who “knew” the old world. I guess a lot of us took what we had for granted, and Fred can just dream about what it was like,” he said, then added, “or what it could be like.”

“I’ve learned to cut him a lot of slack, and respect much of what he says about how to relate to people and things nowadays. The Project down south has less than a hundred ‘down time’ personnel. Even less than that, now that many of them were shipped to Prime Base to assist in it’s reactivation and renovation. A lot of our reconstruction projects have been put on hold until that’s accomplished.”

Pacheco looked around at the convoy, then pursed his lips for a second as he thought.

“Hmm…assignments and duties?” he mused to himself, then turned in the seat to point out various parts of the convoy. “Fred drives usually, and for this trek we actually flew his truck up here to act as a ‘contact vehicle’ so we wouldn’t scare the locals on sight. Tim is our medic, and Keshawn is a crack shot who fills the sniper role for us.”

“As far as duty assignments go, for this trip we’re using the Jeep and the Commando Scout as the lead elements. You and Joe will join Fred and I in the Jeep, since there’s no way you’re going to fit Joe in the Scout, unless he can operate the 20mm.” He looked at Joe, raising an eyebrow. Joe looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact. Vod smiled and turned back to me.

“So stick close and cover my back. I’m usually the pointy end of the stick, and I’ve been known to get in pretty deep. Fred is usually right there in it, too.” He emphasized his next sentence carefully, “Try to get used to Fred, he will learn to trust you soon enough.”

He glanced at his watch, then at the sun low in the sky to our west.

“We’ve been running a rotating night watch, with one person sleeping thru the night. We’ll add you into rotation starting tonight.” He looked sharply at me again. “I know all this seems pretty crazy to you. You’re twenty five years behind the rest of us in technology advancement, and even that has crumbled to almost nothing around us. You know your capabilities more than I do at this point, so if you see a shortcoming in plans, or feel you have something to contribute, then speak up. If you don’t ask a question, you can’t have an answer.”

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“As members of the Frozen Watch, Joe and I were only given standard individual loads, and I’ve used up about 10% of my ammo and 25% of my rations since we left the bolt hole. I’ve also got a short list of items that will be useful in my duties. What’s the procedure for requisition and resupply?

“If you need supply we have umpteen tons of it in the trucks,” he waved at the convoy. “Mostly TOW-II missiles, Armbursts, and LAW rockets, as we are trying to blunt off an armored attack by Mexico s forces into the High Desert. Thus the urgency of the trip. We do have ample crates of small arms ammo, and once we do get south, a well stocked supply base of just about everything except ammo. The bottom floor of the base was under water when we activated it, and that is where the ammo was stored.” I made a note of which trucks he pointed to, and flipped the page on my notebook to the next topic.

“I’ve gotten some of the background on SYRN and Crimson King from Fred, but I’d sure like a little more information on the whole situation. I’m still trying to figure out who’s who, and why we had to shoot our way through that town today.”

“AIs, right,” he nodded.”They’re thinking machines. But barely thinking, and very restricted in how they think and what they can do. The first one we ran into was called Morgana. She’s sort of a “law and order, democracy” advocate. Then there’s Crimson King, who works mostly through biological improvements and combat. They have their own set of rules, and sort of treat us like pieces on a game board. Morgana has decided to ally with the Project, specifically the High Desert Command since we haven’t told her about Prime Base yet.” He shook his head at some unspoken thought.

“Prime Base also has an AI, which assists in running that base as well. Morgana is really helping us to get the most out of our efforts in reorganizing and upgrading the High Desert Region. They each have varying resources. Morgana has robotic vehicles, both on the ground and in the air. Crimson King has proven he has some too, but mostly he works thru…well…organic operatives, like the SYRN. The fight today started because one of the SYRN agents tried to read Tim’s mind, possibly trying to get information about Prime Base. We can get more into it later, and you can find some info in our mission files as well.” He pointed to my PDA, indicating the files he had transferred earlier. “The kids, and the woman we rescued earlier, may or may not be SYRN agents, but they certainly have been in extensive contact with Crimson King, so we can’t take a lot of chances.”

“Well, sir,” I told him, “if you need someone to talk to the kids, to try to get some intel out of them without threats, I’m probably one of your better candidates. I’ve got a lot of experience talking to people in a non-threatening way. Joe is handy when dealing with kids, too. Usually, they love dogs. And since I’ve got no idea at all where Prime Base is located, I’m probably the lowest risk option at the moment. If they can somehow read my mind, all they’re going to get is information that’s 180 years out of date, plus the last three days of me wandering through the desert.”

Pacheco considered this for a moment, then nodded his head.

“You have a very good point,” he said. “When we wake them up, we can have you talk to them while some of the truckers cover you. The truck drivers know it exists, like you, but we brought them in and out of it in secret, so they don’t know the exact location.”

Mission Report from FW-4/NV

Mission Date 3 July 2161, 2115 hours

Mission Personnel – SGT Reyes, CPL King

Current Mission – Detached Duty, rendezvous with elements of CA-4

Status – En route to RP8213, on foot. We’ve covered approximately 13 miles, no casualties. Camped in pile of large boulders, waiting for dawn.

=====Personal Log=====

The bolthole was cleverly camouflaged as some kind of Forestry Service building, way up on a bluff. From the outside it looked like it w

as going to fall down at any moment. Everything was rusted and sandblasted, and the windows and doors were long gone. Inside the garage area, there were little bones all over. A closer look showed they were bleached with age and none of them were human, which made everyone a little happier

I scanned the area, then compared the maps to what I saw. I shot an azimuth to the crossroads, then offset 2 degrees south. When we finally come to the road, we’ll know the crossroads is to our left. Joe was excited by all of the new smells, and eager to be on the move. I shook hands with everyone, exchanging good wishes, and we headed off down the bluff. The old access road was just barely recognizable as a slightly smoother path to lower ground.

Once the sun came up, the glare off the rocks started to become painful, so we paused to apply sunscreen and eye protection. I adjusted Joe’s doggles until he was satisfied with the fit, and we resumed our trek. Just before lunch we came to a ravine too wide to jump. It stretched as far as I could see north and slightly southwest.

The far edge was broken down in a couple of places, but there weren’t any easy descents to found on our side. After 15 minutes of searching, I decided we would just climb down and cross at the bottom. I dug out our harnesses, set up Joe’s sling and lowered him to the bottom. Once he was standing on the sand, he squirmed out of the sling and cautiously searched the area. I laid down on my stomach and covered him with the SMG, but after a few minutes he signaled “Clear” and I hauled the sling back up. I stowed his gear and rigged my own harness, then rappelled down to join him. I unhooked from the ropes, pulling one end until the other came loose from around the rock at the top of the canyon. Joe watched my back as I carefully recoiled and stored the ropes and harness.

We walked south in the shadows of the canyon, until we found a section of the canyon wall that had collapsed, giving us a way up to the eastern side. We also found a set of tracks – they looked like a reptile, but they were just about the size of my gloved hand. The tracks went up and down the broken pile of rocks we were about to climb, and then went farther south in the soft sand of the canyon floor. Joe sniffed the tracks and growled.

“I hear you, buddy,” I agreed. “Let’s get up out of the canyon, OK?”

Joe went first, scrambling and making short jumps, until he was up over the edge above. I dodged the rain of small rocks and sand he dislodged, then made my way up with some difficulty. I nearly fell twice, and I slid backwards about five feet at one point, my heart pounding. When I got over the top, Joe grinned at me and yawned.

“Yeah, yeah, life is good when you only weigh a hundred pounds,” I wheezed at him. “Next time, we trade packs and we’ll see how you do, OK?”

Joe’s ears perked up and he turned to look southwest. A second later I heard a long, low hissing sound. It sounded like someone venting an air compressor, except it ended with a little popping sound, like a wet leather belt slapping against a canvas tent. I forgot about being tired, rolled to my feet and backed away from the edge of the canyon, SMG at the ready. Joe’s hackles were up, and he backed away with me, never taking his eyes off the edge of the ravine in front of us. We crouched and waited without making a sound.

We listened to rocks sliding and rolling, and a small cloud of dust drifted up from where we had just climbed up. After a minute or two, the hissing sound came again. There was a moment’s silence, then another hiss that seemed to move back down the canyon southward. Joe’s head turned that direction for a minute, then his ears twitched, and he looked at me again, relaxing. I eased forward in a crouch, then peered over the edge of the rock slide we had climbed. Near the bottom, there were several deep depressions, where the gravel and sand had been clawed away as if something heavy had tried to climb up after us and couldn’t get a purchase. The gouges came nearly a third of the way up the ravine, and there was still a faint haze of dust in the air below. I looked back at Joe, who just cocked his head a little to one side and looked back at me.

“I don’t know,” I told him, “but it was big. Let’s not be here when it finds a way up, OK?”

Joe grinned at me again, and led the way east. Though we remained alert, we saw nothing but small animal tracks and what might have been birds circling in the distance. Towards sundown, we spotted a hill with a trio of large boulders piled against it. At the base of the boulders was a little pocket, almost a cave. After checking the area for snakes or other inhabitants, we decided to camp for the night. I piled up rocks and an old log at the entrance, then built a small fire between us and the entrance. I heated up some soup and shared it with Joe, then banked the fire down to just coals. We’ll move out in the morning, and I expect we’ll make better time tomorrow, as the land looks less broken to the east.

Mission Report from FW-4/NV

Mission Date 3 July 2161, 0500 hours

Mission Personnel – SGT Reyes, CPL King

Current Mission – Detached Duty, rendezvous with elements of CA-4

Status – Preparing to depart bolthole, traveling overland to RP8213, to link up with CA4. Excess gear distributed to remaining members of FW4/NV, who are relocating via air to Base Prime. Immunizations and boosters applied, all water supplies topped off from stores. Weapons cleaned, lubricated and checked. Exit protocols in progress.

=====Personal Log=====

It’s been about 8 hours since we got the wake up call. I’m still not up to speed, but I’m working on it.

The good news:

Everyone in the bolthole woke up, healthy & hungry. The air, water and food supplies are all fine, and we spent the first hour recovering from cold sleep. We must have looked like a squad of starving marines in an underwear commercial. Nobody saying much, just the sound of half naked people chomping and slurping. The bolthole is still sealed and intact, with plenty of power and heat available. The computers are online, and we’re getting signals from other Project units.

The bad news:

According to the computer and the messages we received, we’ve been under a lot longer than anyone anticipated. It’s 2161, a little over 181 years since I went into cold sleep. Nobody knows why we were down so long, either, since the computers don’t offer any information on the subject. Furthermore, it appears we were shuffled around after we were frozen, because none of us know each other. As a Frozen Watch unit, we were all placed together as sort of ‘miscellaneous replacements’, and we’re an odd lot to be sure. One thing we all have in common, is we’re all from hot weather climates. We compared freeze dates, and I’m the ‘oldest’ in that respect. The computer tech was born the same year I was frozen, but he looks just ten years younger than me, and I’m thirty. (Or I’m 211, if you want to look at it that way.)

On the plus side, when they shuffled us around, they also upgraded our gear. They didn’t change our personal weapons, but almost all of our outfit has been replaced, right down to Joe’s rations. Ray, the computer expert, says its all from 2008, when he was frozen. He’s the one that showed me how to turn this thing on, too. Nice kid, but about a third of what he says makes no sense at all. I mean, I understand most of the words he says, but they don’t mean much. I’m amazed by this little computer, though. It’s smaller than my Walkman, and it doesn’t play cassettes, but it’s got lots of books and things memorized. Ray showed me how to call up the Help function, so I can teach myself by watching the little movies. I can see I’m going to be spending a lot of time trying to catch up on the new electronics, but I’ll have to do it as OJT, because they’ve already reassigned us to another unit. While the rest of this group gets airlifted to Base Prime, Joe and I will be hoofing it east to meet up with our new unit. They’re apparently in a convoy, and will pick us up at a crossroads marked on my map.

Thirty miles, by the map, through the desert. Two days to do it, which shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll leave as soon as they get the exit cleared, get clear of the bolthole before the sun comes up. The plan is travel by day and fort up at sundown. It will be hotter that way, but probably safer, since most desert life is nocturnal. Get to the crossroads early, recon the approaches and set up an OP, wait for the convoy.

Well, they just cracked the exit open, we can all smell the difference in the air. Time for work.

=====Log Ends=====

“What’s point of making everything smaller, lighter, and more compact,” I growled, “if you’re just going to give me three times as much as I had before?”

The bayonet went into the pile of gear I was leaving behind, next to the helmet, assorted extra articles of clothing, the ’self-inflating bedroll’ and the infrared aiming sight.

“You’re not taking a bayonet?” Ray asked.

“I’m carrying a submachinegun, Ray,” I pointed out. “I’d have to duct tape it to the suppressor, and stand really close, if I wanted to poke someone with it.”

His face reddened slightly, and he said “Well, yeah, I guess. But what are you going to do, if you need to cut something?”

I pointed at the sheathed ginunting on my pack, then at the pakal on my belt.

“I may look and talk like an American, Ray, but I’m half Filipino. If anything needs cutting, I’ve got what it takes.” I nodded at the M9, “Anyway, that thing has no soul, no fighting spirit.”

He just stared at me, so I stepped over and drew the ginunting out of the wooden scabbard. I picked up the M9 and reversed them both, offering them to Ray grip first. He took them gingerly, then looked at me.

“Compare the weight, the balance, just the way they feel,” I suggested. “Close your eyes, one feels like a brick in your hand, the other one feels like an extension of your arm.”

Ray made a few timid swings with both, then handed them back to me with a sheepish grin. I put the M9 back in it’s plastic sheath and dropped it on the pile again. I slid the long knife back into the wooden scabbard on my pack and flipped the little leather thong over the hilt. I showed him the pakal, then put it away. “A Filipino is never without a knife, and he usually has two or three. We have a long history with blades.”

I finished sorting gear, then started repacking my rucksack with what I was keeping. Ray carried the rest off, so it could be returned to Base Prime later. Once I had everything repacked, Joe came over so I could rig his gear. Once I had everything stored, he stretched and shrugged, checking the weight. He grinned at me then went to watch the crew clearing the exit. He’s a good partner, still young, but smarter than some humans I’ve worked with over the years.

December 31^st, 1979 (1400 hours )
Morrow Project medical facility, location unknown

The entire place smells like a hospital. Antiseptic, institutional, bleak. The room is cool, almost cold. I’m not sure if it’s the air conditioning, the cryogenic chambers, or my imagination. It’s the last day of the year, the last day of civilization as I have known it, and my time here is almost up. That would be enough to dampen almost any casual conversation, even without the operating room motif.

There are three technicians preparing me for my little nap. Two are checking and rechecking various machines, readouts and displays. A few keystrokes here, an adjustment there, a note on a clipboard. To them, I’m just a slab of meat that’s going into the freezer. The third one is a red haired woman, wearing a lab coat over a light blue sweater. She’s attaching wires to adhesive contact patches all over my body, checking the connections and then marking them off a list. She pauses to look over her glasses at me and smile.

“You’re quieter than most,” she says.

“Just thinking,” I reply, though it’s true I don’t really talk much anyway.

“About your partner?”, she asks, glancing over at the other cryo chamber, already sealed.

“About everything,” I say, nodding my head around the room. “I trained for it, but it’s real today, you know what I mean?”

She wiped her hands off with a cloth, then wrapped a blood pressure cuff around my arm. She nodded as she put the stethoscope under the cuff and starting squeezing the little bulb to inflate it.

“I understand. Are you feeling any anxiety, any sense of panic?”

“No, nothing like that. Just kind of caught up in the moment. Thinking about all the things I won’t ever see again. Wondering about tomorrow.”

She lets the cuff deflate slowly, listening for my pulse, then nods approvingly and writes down some numbers.

“That’s perfectly normal,” she assures me with another smile. “For us, tomorrow will be a new year. For you, it will be a new world. If you weren’t giving it a lot of thought, we’d flag you.”

I realize she isn’t just another technician, she’s a psychiatrist. Someone who does the last minute assessment of your mental state before you go into cold sleep. One of the others gives us the thumbs up, and we walk over to the cryo chamber itself. I get into position on the webbing and she starts connecting wires to the machine.

“Will I dream?” I ask.

“Possibly,” she says, pausing to look at me again. “For at least some of the time, you’ll be in a state that’s receptive to dreaming, but most of the time you will be so far under there’s almost zero brainwave activity. No dreams, then.”

She moves off to confer with the others, and I’m left to myself. Time passes, then she’s back with an IV cart and another smile.

“We’re ready to start the solutions, unless you have any last minute requests?”

“I do have a request,” I say. “I saw a Polaroid in the cabinet over there, I think.”

“Yes, would you like me to take your picture?”

“Actually…I’d like a picture of you.”

She looks surprised, then pleased, and then curious.

“May I ask why?”

“In case I dream,” I tell her, feeling a little embarrassed.

Her smile returns, with real warmth this time. She speaks to one of the techs, who returns with the camera and snaps a picture of her for me. She hands it to me, and I watch the picture develop. When the magic of Kodak is complete, I have a picture of a pretty red haired woman, whose name I will never know. I hand it to the tech, who will place it with my personal effects.

“Will the picture last?” I ask her, lying back and staring up at the ceiling.

“It should. Everything is stored in inert gases while you sleep.” She begins connecting the tubes to my arms and smiles at me again, a little sadly this time. “It will be right there when you wake up.”

“Thank you, for the picture,” I tell her, my voice slurring a little. I know the drugs are making me drowsy. I feel the webbing being tugged and tightened around me, and the chamber beginning to close. “I’ll remember you.”

“I’ll remember, you, too,” she says from a hundred miles away, her voice faint and fading. “And thank you for the picture, Mister Reyes.”

And then, nothing, except the dream…

Tempe/ASU

Latitude: 33.39 N, Longitude: 111.93 W

Incorporated in 1894

Land area: 40.1 square miles.

Population in July 2011: 215,523. Population now is 10.7% or 23,060 Counting ASU Campus.

Females: 11,923	(51.7%)
Males: 11,137	(48.3%)

 

Median resident age:	28.8 years
Arizona median age:	34.2 years

 

Races in Tempe:

• White Non-Hispanic (59.7%)
• Hispanic (27.9%)
• Other race (8.5%)
• Black (3.7%)
• Two or more races (3.3%)
• American Indian (2.7%)
• Chinese (1.3%)
• Asian Indian (1.1%)
• Other Asian (0.7%)
• Vietnamese (0.5%)

(Total can be greater than 100% because Hispanics could be counted in other races)
Ancestries: German (17.7%), Irish (12.0%), English (11.2%), Italian (5.5%), United States (4.0%), Polish (2.9%).

Population density: 575 people per square mile

(average).

For population 25 years and over in TempeHigh school or higher: 70.1%

• Bachelor’s degree or higher: 29.6%
• Graduate or professional degree: 14.6%
• Unemployed: 4.3%
• Mean travel time to work: 70.4 minutes

For population 15 years and over in Tempe city

• Never married: 44.0%
• Now married: 41.3%
• Separated: 5.4%
• Widowed: 7.3%
• Divorced: 2.0%

Nearest cities: Guadalupe, AZ (1.6 miles ), Chandler, AZ (2.7 miles ), Gilbert, AZ (3.2 miles ), Mesa, AZ (3.3 miles ), Paradise Valley, AZ (3.3 miles ), Salt River, AZ (3.4 miles ), Sun Lakes, AZ (3.5 miles ), Phoenix, AZ (3.6 miles ).

 Most common industries for males (%):

• Accommodation and food production (14%)
• Educational services (9%)
• Construction (8%)
• Professional, scientific, and technical services (8%)
• Computer and electronic products (4%)
• Administrative and support and waste management services (6%)
• Finance and insurance (1%)

 Most common industries for females (%):

• Educational services (11%)
• Accommodation and food services (16%)
• Health care (8%)
• Finance and insurance (2%)
• Professional, scientific, and technical services (6%)
• Administrative and support and waste management services (6%)
• Public administration (1%)

 Most common occupations for males (%)

• Computer specialists (2%)
• Farmers/Ranchers and farm managers (11%)
• Engineers (2%)
• Other related workers including supervisors (4%)
• Services, wholesale and manufacturing (4%)
• Electrical equipment mechanics and other installation, maintenance, and repair occupations including supervisors (4%)
• Driver cart, workers and truck drivers (3%)

 Most common occupations for females (%)

• Other office and support workers including supervisors (7%)
• Secretaries and administrative assistants (2%)
• Information and record clerks except customer service representatives (5%)
• Preschool, kindergarten, elementary and middle school teachers (4%)
• High school and college teachers (4%)
• Farmers/Ranchers and farm managers (9%)
• Waiters and waitresses (1%)

 Full-time Law Enforcement Employees: 134 (123 officers).

 Officers per 1,000 residents: 5.33

Average household size:

This city:	2.4 people
Arizona:	2.6 people

Percentage of family households:

This city:	52.9%
Whole state:	67.7%

Percentage of households with unmarried partners:

This city:	6.9%
Whole state:	6.2%

Likely homosexual households (counted as self-reported same-sex unmarried-partner households)

• Lesbian couples: 0.3% of all households

People in group quarters in Tempe

• 4577 people in college dormitories (includes college quarters off campus)
• 394 people in nursing homes
• 127 people in other noninstitutional group quarters
• 78 people in homes for the mentally ill
• 32 people in homes for the physically handicapped
• 13 people in homes for the mentally retarded
• 6 people in hospitals/wards and hospices for chronically ill
• 6 people in other hospitals or wards for chronically ill
• 6 people in orthopedic wards and institutions for the physically handicapped
• 3 people in other group homes
• 3 people in religious group quarters
• 3 people in other nonhousehold living situations

Tempe compared to Arizona state average:

 Black race population percentage below state average.

• Hispanic race population percentage below state average.
• Median age below state average.
• Foreign-born population percentage below state average.
• Number of college students above state average.
• Percentage of population with a bachelor’s degree or higher above state average.

 Arenas or stadiums: Now a green house and agro fields

• Sun Devil Stadium.. Arizona State Sun Devils.
• Wells Fargo Arena (Tempe). Arizona State University

 Religion statistics for Tempe

Name	Catholic Church	Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	Southern Baptist Convention	Assemblies of God	Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Adherents	43.4%	12.6%	6.3%	4.7%	4.2%
Congregations	5.9%	24.2%	8.1%	5.7%	3.7%

 

Name	United Methodist Church	Charismatic Churches Independent	Non-Charismatic Churches Independent	Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	Other religions
Adherents	2.7%	2.1%	1.9%	1.8%	20.3%
Congregations	3.2%	1.0%	1.8%	2.3%	44.2%

 
Strongest radio stations in Tempe:

• KMIK (1580 AM; 50 kW; TEMPE, AZ;  
• KDUS (1060 AM; 5 kW; TEMPE, AZ;
• KUPD (97.9 FM; TEMPE, AZ;

  Hospital/medical center in Tempe:

• TEMPE ST LUKE’S HOSPITAL (1500 SOUTH MILL AVENUE)

 Colleges/Universities/High school/Middle school/Elementary schools in Tempe:

• ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY-MAIN CAMPUS (Full-time enrollment: 7,174; Offers Doctor’s degree)
• Tempe High School (Students: 365; Location: 1730 S. Mill Ave.; Grades: 7-12)
• Mckemy Middle School (Students: 86; Location: 2250 S College Ave; Grades: K-6)

Library in Tempe:

• TEMPE PUBLIC LIBRARY ( Location: 3500 SOUTH RURAL ROAD; 441,980 books; 8,741 audio materials; 12,515 video materials; 969 serial subscriptions)

 Drinking water stations with addresses in Tempe:
CORDES LAKE WATER COMPANY (Population served: 2600, Groundwater):

CORDES LAKE-VERDE VI (Population served: 2300, Groundwater):

BERNEIL WATER CO (Population served: 1400, Groundwater):

CORDES LAKE-VERDE VI (Population served: 1324, Groundwater):

CHRISTOPHER CREEK MHP (Population served: 100, Groundwater):

 

Operations Water Division for ASU/Tempe 

Operations Division includes ASU Engineering support, Tempe Town Lake operation, maintenance and water quality of the O & M sites, as well as Security.

Plant Operations which includes:

	Producing Safe Drinking Water for TempeWater treatment is the process of cleaning water and making it safe for people to drink. The “natural” water found in the Salt and Verde watersheds is not “pure.” The water picks up substances during its journey through the rivers, lakes, and canal system. These substances-some harmless and others not- include. Organic wastes from animals plants and people Dust which is always present in our atmosphere Dirt from the rivers and canals Microbes such as bacteria and viruses Minerals and salts such as calcium, magnesium, and fluoride The system treats the raw water (from the canals) at the South Tempe Water Treatment Plant and at the Johnny G. Martinez Water Treatment Plant in order to meet safe drinking water standards. These are the steps in the treatment process: Presedimentation Basin – Canal water begins its treatment path here. These basins slow down the incoming water and allow some of the large particles of dirt, etc. to settle out. Water cascades over weirs at the surface of the water, so that the cleanest water goes through the rest of the process, to the dosing channel where additives are added to the water. The water and the additives are mixed and any solids which may still be present in the water cling to the additives – a process called coagulation. It causes the particles to clump together and form large particles called floc.  Flocculation & Sedimentation – Here the heavy floc settles out of the water, and the water continues to the filters. Filtration – Chlorine is added to the water to kill bacteria and then the water is filtered through layers of sand, gravel, and carbon to remove all remaining particles in the water. Chlorine is added again as the water enters the water reservoirs and distribution system.
	Description of the facility process   O&M of the Johnny G. Martinez 50 MGD Water Treatment Plant (JGMWTP)Site used ½ year   O&M of the South Tempe 50 MGD Water Treatment Plant (STWTP)  Site used other ½ year   O&M of the Kyrene Reclamation facility 9.0 MGD wastewater treatment capacity
	SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) Control Center where data from the facilities and throughout the distribution system is relayed and monitored Site online but ¼ of monitors.

 

	Transmission and Collection which includes: Maintenance and rehabilitation of distribution system (808 miles water lines)1/12 open to grid now. More opened as needed and able to support. Water that is not consumed by the users must be taken away through the wastewater collection system. This is an engineered system of underground pipes that range in size from six inches in diameter to 48 inches in diameter. This system collects wastewater from all user points and transports it to a treatment site. The  ASU Utility Service Section repairs and installs sewer mains, helps control odors in the collection system, repairs and maintains manholes, paints manholes with pesticide paint to help control roach populations in the system, and inspections of the collection system with security teams to record condition ratings for needed repair or replacement purposes..The ASU Utility Service Section is responsible for operating, maintaining, and repairing approximately 496 miles of collection mains including 8,000 manholes. Additional activities include cleaning 550 miles of mains. In reality only 35 miles of mains, and painting around 250 manholes per year are actively maintainedl.
	Maintenance and rehabilitation of wastewater collection system (496 miles of sewer lines) No one goes down unless they have to.
	Maintenance of Storm drain system (163 miles) No one goes down unless needed.
	Flood Irrigation
	O&M of Field Sites (Tempe’s groundwater wells, storage tanks, wastewater lift stations, storm drain lift stations, and  pump stations) maintained as can need more support
	Sewer Roach Control None but needed. On the books to work on and ASU is working on safest way to address this.

Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility 

The Kyrene Reclamation Plant was one of the largest membrane wastewater treatment facilities in North America of its kind. The project saw the importance of maintaining this site, and even used some of this technology in its own sites. They tested how best to maintain this site after the fall. The only method that proved reliable was to build an automation support plant that would keep this site running. The project procured the land east of the plant. This site was picked as the railroad tracks were to the west of the site. This site consisted of two building that housed three different machine& tool companies. When the project took over control of the site they used the remodeling of it for more equipment to allow them to setup shop. They build a self contained automation plant to handle the replacement part manufacturing and the fabrication/recycling of the membranes. This site also contains a backup water treatment plant at one tenth the size of the other one. It was meant to be used when the main plant needed to have major repairs. The two project sites were connected underground and the one to the west connected to the city reclamation site. The far west site houses a special engineering team to help get the plant on line and go out and setup mobile treatment plants. It is a sleeper group and was known only to Prime its alt and the South west regional command team. At this time they are still a sleep as far as the computer knows. The plant is in the control of the AZ-3. It is in bad shape as the morrow automation site has not come online it 19 years. The communication alert line that monitored the system was deactivated and as the automation site reads all well and has not reactivated. It seems the system had a flaw when designed and if the system is set to default it disconnects the automation site. The plant seemed to take a hit from lightning some time ago and caused the system to re-boot and be set to default. This plant is running at 14% to16% now. The ASU campus has setup a team to maintain it. I no records of how to support it survived they are just now working out how it works. The system has been back on line for 6 years and they have doubled its output. The plant produces a nice fertilizer and provides some of the cleanest water to be found now days.

The other conventional reclamation plants in Arizona use a Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) process followed by secondary clarifiers, granular media filters and a disinfection step to meet Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) standards for Class A+ effluent quality.  This is what the 202/Dobson plants uses. In the case of the Kyrene plant, th e available 2.55 acre site was too small to accommodate a conventional design. This coupled with the City’s desire for an effluent quality higher than A+ standard led to the membrane technology to replace conventional clarifiers and filters.  Membranes were new to the wastewater industry. The membranes used at the Kyrene Plant consist of hollow porous fibers, manufactured by ZENON, with billions of microscopic pores that block passage of solids larger than the pore size. The fibers are assembled into cassettes that are installed in a process tank. A slight vacuum is applied to the fibers to pull treated water (permeate) through the membrane which captures the solids on the membrane surface.  Solids are removed from the membranes using a continuous flow of coarse air bubbles in the tank combined with a periodic internal back pulse of water. In addition, the fibers are periodically cleaned in place to maintain optimum flux capacity. 

One of the significant technological challenges presented by membranes is the need to screen solids larger than 2 millimeters from the influent waste stream. Solids larger than 2 mm can damage the membrane surfaces. Typical raw wastewater flows have significant concentrations of rags, solids and grease that would quickly blind a screen with openings of 2 mm. The construction team devised a solution consisting of a two stage screen facility with the first screen having openings of 3×15 mm and the second stage with 2 mm diameter openings to meet the membrane manufacturer’s requirements.  Over the years the 202/Dobson Plant has been plagued with a microscopic organism known as bryozoa.  Bryozoa typically grows in clear water with minimal sunlight. The existing covered final clarifiers, filters and effluent channels provided a perfect environment for bryozoa to form sheets of sticky growth on the walls. Periodically the sheets would slough off the walls and quickly plug the effluent filters. No one knows how the Plant was infected, but the operators soon found there was no cure other than methodically cleaning the filters and waiting for the next outbreak.  The decision to use membrane technology was based in part on immunity to bryozoa plugging. 

Biological nitrogen removal is accomplished in an anoxic zone located at the head of the treatment basin where an internal mixed liqu or return (IMLR) stream is mixed with raw wastewater influent. In the anoxic zone biological organisms metabolize nitrate in an environment devoid of dissolved oxygen. In the case of Kyrene, the design IMLR rate is five times the influent   flow rate. Due to continuous air scouring of the membranes the IMLR stream was expected to have dissolved oxygen concentrations as high as 5 mg/l. In order to minimize adverse impacts to the anoxic zone the construction team devise a way to remove the oxygen from the IMLR stream. The IMLR wet well was oversized to provide adequate detention time for the organisms in the mixed liquor to metabolize the dissolved oxygen to a concentration near zero without the need for chemical addition. In addition, a bypass line was included that allows operations staff to bypass raw wastewater to the IMLR wet well to increase oxygen uptake in the IMLR stream.

Even though membranes had been used in a number of water and wastewater treatmen t facilities it was still a new technology. The durability and length of service life for the hollow fibers was still unknown at the time. The manufacturers claim the membranes would last 20 years in continuous use in wastewater service, but at the time this had yet to be proven through operating experience. The Kyrene plant has proven to be able to last longer then expected, but without the help of the automation plant for the last nine-teen years it was only able to maintain operated unmanned for ten years. It then laid unused for three years till AZ-3 found it and started the work on it. 

The automation but the project allowed the plate to produce methane as a byproduct along with a high grade fertilizer. The methane is feed back in to the system to help power it, and at the rate it is operating now to support itself. At full power it pulls from the fusion plant built in to the project site. It has not ran at over 25% for 100 years as it was geared down to save power and ware. The project site’s fusion plant is still at over ½ full in its fusion bottle.

The plans other byproduct is the production of a nitrogen fertilizer. It produced two times the amount the normal plants produce. At full load it would produce 8000 metric tons.

PD Note’s:

In one year the automation plant will come back online to do the twenty year exchange of the membranes and start the repairs needed.

The support team is located in the far eastern building. This site is to be used as the home for the team. Hidden in the servers that support this site is one of the Prime base DR disaster recovery units. This site also housed the team’s vehicle and a very specialized water management support supply site for the Valley. This is a backup to a regional cache but for water related items as it was vital to keep the water flowing in the valley to maintain life. The team has no knowledge of the resupply plant or the backup DR servers. The western site contains the repair shop with a fusion forge and all the tools needed to repair or build the parts needed. The full blue prints on the site are contained in the computers as well as hard copy’s right down to the nuts and bolts level.

Tempe/ASU Power Systems.

 

Tempe/ASU serves electric customers through a variety of resources including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal..

Tempe has a 1.5-megawatt (MW) solar facility built using the Sun Catcher concentrating solar-thermal technology. It consist of 60 Sun Catcher dishes and serve as one of the main supports for Tempe and ASU. It was connected to a Southwestern solar system with sites in California and Texas totaling more than 1,600 MW.The system is located in the Tempe Ocotillo Generating Station. N 33° 25.330 W 111° 54.711 12S E 415225 N 3698461 This low-water-use solar dish technology system uses precision mirrors attached to a parabolic dish to concentrate the sun’s energy onto a high-efficiency Engine. Each dish can generate up to 25,000 watts of power. The Sun Catcher requires no water for heating or cooling and a minimal amount of water is required to wash the mirrors and for on-site personnel. The site also has two steam and two combustion turbine units that are capable of generating about 340 megawatts.

The Cross Cut Power Plant is significant as it is the only hydroelectric structure remaining in the Salt River Valley. It is associated with the historic electrification of the valley following the construction of Roosevelt Dam. Two seven-foot penstocks take water from the Arizona Cross Cut Canal, and drops it 112 feet through the Pelton water wheels, which turned Westinghouse generators, generating 11,000 volts. Built by the Bureau of Reclamation, the main use of the electricity is to run water pumps, especially on the Canal. The plant services some of Tempe, including the Hayden Flour Mill. It was build to run off of electric power in the 1920s. The Power Plant is a rectangular (176 ft. by 42 ft.) cast-in-place concrete structure with a gable roof and ridge vents. The rectangular mass is divided into 12 bays (north to south) along the sides and three bays on the sides. The maximum height of the structure is 63 ft. with the main generator floor 22 feet above the tailrace (water exit) grade. The concrete work is detailed with simplified classical motifs, expressed below the frieze panels by a corbelled band course and pilaster capitols. The roof is supported by metal trusses. The windows (one per bay) are metal 4-over-4 light double-hung. The plant is entered from the north with a garage door access from the south. To the east is the switching and transformer building (which measures 89 ft. by 43 ft.) and a shop (16 ft. by 43 ft.). These buildings are of concrete with similar detailing and openings, but with a flat concrete roof. The original equipment remained in the plant, and in 1938 a metal steam generating plant powered by diesel engines was constructed to the northwest. This large building is sheathed in corrugated metal with multi-pane steel-frame awning windows. This plant remains on stand by for over 50 years till after the collapse. It was then brought back on line and has been fought over and in uses till AZ-3 took control of it and all of the Tempe/ASU area.

 

The wind turbines stretching more than 300 feet into the air and could power more than 15,000 homes at full capacity. The years have not been kind to the systems, anf around half of the systems still run. The others are used as parts to keep them going. The site usually operates around 30% as more in not needed at this time. It as most of the systems is used to power the water system and the ASU campus.

63 megawatts of energy was generated starting in 2010. One megawatt is enough electricity to power about 250 homes at once. Unlike a coal, nuclear or some natural-gas power plants, the wind farm is not expected to produce electricity round-the-clock. It is expected to have about a 25 percent capacity factor,.

When the wind blows it sends electricity from the pla  nt, to allow the other facilities to save fuel.

 

The 24 megawatt (MW) biomass power plant in Tempe uses fuel for the plant derived from wood-waste material trash that has been dried out and animal as well as human waste.. The current fuel inventory at the plant site includes approximately 200,000 tons of waste fuel, approximately equivalent to a two-year supply.