fandomhigh | Leadership and Outdoorsmanship, The Preserve, Thursday Morning

In the same clearing as last week, Honor stood at a folding camp table, leant over a map. To her right, a small, portable GPS device could be seen; to her left, two different compasses – one military issue, the other a simple device built into a short ruler, designed for orienteering. Several minicomps were lined up along the front edge of the table, enough for each student in the workshop.

On the other side of the clearing, the two large carafes have been set up again – coffee and hot chocolate – though some water in a closed, insulated pitcher has been added as well. It seemed that Mac decided the mornings were too warm for coffee alone.

Nimitz was stalking around the outskirts of the clearing. With his head lowered and eyes alert toward the trees, it was pretty clear he had staked out his playmates for the day.

Honor tossed a glance his way, then looked up as students began to arrive. "Good
morning," she said. A taut smile crossed her lips, not quite reaching her eyes. "I hope each of you had a relaxing weekend...in the air conditioning.

"Today, we’re going to go over the basics of map reading, using a compass, and orienteering. If each one of you would grab a minicomp, you’ll find that there are uploaded documents and programs to help you with this section of the workshop. I’ve also been able to install a GPS program – global positioning system program – to assist you as well. The minicomps are for you to keep until the end of the workshop; I ask that you return them in the same condition they were issued."

She waited a few moments until each student had taken a minicomp, then watched as they attempted to power them up and pull up the various programs. "They work on the same principle as the Palm Pilots or the Pocket PCs, though they’re a little more powerful. You can use your fingers on the touch screen, but if accuracy is an issue, I’d recommend the stylus."

The taut smile returned as she waited another few moments for the students to complete their exploration of the new toys. Finally, with time ticking away, she drew attention back to herself. "If you’ll find the directory of maps, you should find one marked ‘Alexandria_topographic’ with yesterday’s date. Please pull that map up..."

Honor spent the remaining class time reviewing how to read a topographic map; an overview of how to read a basic compass and a lensatic (military) compass; and basic orienteering skills and symbols. Interactive quizzes over the symbols and the map skills were included on the minicomps.

Those students tinkering further with the minicomps might also find access to the internet, and links to mapping websites and a local orienteering club for further reference.

"And with that," she said, finally, "I think I’ve overloaded you quite enough. You’ll be receiving instructions later in the week regarding next week’s location.

"Dismissed."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Dude!" Anders looked over. "You can get online from these things?"

"Ya! C'mere!" Pippi leaned over to Anders and showed him how she got her minicomp to connect to google maps. And then opens up her email.

"This is way cooler then my laptop!"

"Whoa. Cool." Anders considered checking his email for a moment, then decided against it. He did, however, hit up Yahoo Sports to check on MLB scores and league standings. This would have no value whatsoever in an orienteering situation, of course, but you did have to keep morale up in case you were ever lost in the woods. Right?

Pippi is peeking over his shoulder.

"When one is lost or stranded in a remote place, connections to the outside world are very important." she grinned.

Anders grinned back. "Well, yeah. How else are you gonna get back, right?"

This may have made sense in some part of his brain, possibly.

"Right!"

The grin turned cheeky. "Think the GPS systems on this would pick up signs of tentacle monsters in the junkyard? Not that I'm sayin' we should go back and test it out or anything!"

"Only if the tentacle monster also had a GPS device!" Pippi grinned back. "Maybe we could go and tag him with a radio collar?"

Anders scratched his head with the stylus. "Is that a good idea? I really don't wanna get tossed out into the street again."

"I dunno." she mused. "But we'd know where it was at all times."

"I guess that's a good thing," conceded Anders. "I mean, assuming we, you know, wanted to know. Do we want to know?"

"Well... If you needed to find something in the junkyard wouldn't you want to know? Does it just stay in the junkyard?. I think that's rather important information if you're actively trying to avoid tentacle monsters."

"Considering nobody knew about it until it came after us that day, I'm guessing it stays in the junkyard." Anders looked horrified all of a sudden. "Oh, lords. What if nobody knew about it because it ate everybody else who found it?"

"Well I suppose it hadn't eaten anybody we know just before we encountered it because I don't recall anybody going missing that week."

"Oh. Good point." Anders tapped his nose with the stylus and contemplated hitting up Google to look up 'tentacle monsters in junkyards' for all of half a second.

"Well . . . just 'cause it wasn't anybody we knew of . . ."

Pippi waited for him to finish his sentence.

". . . it could have happened, we just didn't hear about it?"

"Wull... I'm sure it's gotta eat sometimes... Or else the poor thing would starve to death."

Anders frowned. "Starving to death would suck."

Oh hell, he had to now. He pulled up a Google search on the minicomp to see if he could figure out what it was junkyard tentacle monsters ate.

Pippi watched over Anders' shoulder to see what he was searching for and what the results were.

"Okay, gross. I don't wanna know about digestive bacteria being used in landfills!"

"Hmmm, so a garbage dump is a giant disembodied tummy?"

Anders poked at the screen with the stylus a couple more times. "Only the high-tech ones, apparently."

He may have been very slightly green-tinged.

"That's... kinda... Eewey."

Leadership and Outdoorsmanship, The Preserve, Thursday Morning

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