Cobalt Blue

Using the Skyvector online flight planning website I determined that most of the lake, including the entire area covering my planned flight was located in a pocket of unrestricted airspace between Cartersville, Cobb County Intl., McCollum Field and Cherokee Co. Regional airports and I also confirmed that no power lines crossed the lake nearby. I closed the website without logging in or saving my search.

Then I started Mission Planner on my laptop and began building a flight plan to program into my hexacopter drone. I saw two obvious routes: the first just over three miles and staying over open water with five way-points to get the drone to the cove where it could pop up above the treeline and loiter for a period of time, photographing the area and a straight approach of about two and a quarter miles that would cross three points of land. If I chose the water approach I could maintain a lower altitude and not have to be as concerned about showing up on the radar of either of the nearby controlled airspaces but I had never flown a route this far from my launch point and although I theoretically would still be in range of my high watt, long range onboard video transmitter and my 16 channel digital transmitter if I needed to take over from the autonomous flight program. With what I estimated to be a seven or eight minute flight in each direction I was also well within the range of one of the two new 12000mah 6s LiPO battery pack I got raked across the coals for the day before. I still knew I'd be on the edge of my comfort level with this flight. Conveniently setting aside the knowledge that violating the laws limiting my legal flight envelope to line of sight flights could endanger my legal license to continue flying commercially and if the drone went rogue it could pose a serious threat of injury or damage to anyone unfortunate enough to be where it decided to impact. Still, my life had taken a somewhat abrupt detour over the past twenty-four hours and looking too far into the future didn't seem to matter all that much any more.

With the surface elevation of the lake listed at 840 feet asl (above sea level), I felt comfortable setting my flight elevation at 950 feet asl, well under the legal limit of 400 feet agl (above ground level). In reality, I could have chosen the direct route but taking the time to locate and avoid every obstruction on the route would have taken hours and I wanted to get started as soon as possible.

I considered the possibility of Sarah noticing the hexacopter and suspecting it to be mine she might check up on me with the same app that led me to discover that she was lying to me so I drove to the convenience store about a half mile from our house and spent $48 on a prepaid cell phone then forwarded the calls from my Galaxy S9 to the cheap Kyocera. I then left the Samsung on my bedside charger and loaded the last of my gear into my truck before I headed toward US Hwy 411 East and Cartersville.

Chapter 3

Thirty-three minutes later I parked in the picnic area at the Coopers Branch Boat Ramp and was satisfied to see that only two other people were present, an attractive dark haired woman who looked to be in her mid twenties and a beautiful young red haired whirling dervish who looked to be about four or five years old throwing a yellow whiffle ball then chasing it down so she could throw it again. There weren't even any vehicles with empty boat trailers in the parking lot so unless someone came in from the road I didn't expect anyone to disturb me from the water.

I found an area near the picnic table closest to the lake shore that was clear of trees and set my tripod mounted directional antennas and signal booster base pointing toward my intended flight path. I then opened my laptop on the picnic table and plugged my telemetry receiver into a USB port then started mission planner. Once I had all my ground support gear set up I got the Pelican case containing my Tarot 690 hexacopter from the cab of my truck and began locking the four folding arms into their respective positions away from the two non-folding arms. I attached the large, heavy battery pack to the Velcro pad on the bottom of the hexacopter frame then wrapped the two nylon safety straps around it to ensure that it was securely attached and couldn't accidentally fall off in flight. I then plugged the battery in long enough to extend the landing gear from the central structure that seemed to consist of nothing more than wires and antennas with a Go Pro Hero 3+ camera slung from beneath on a three axis stabilized gimbal. If that happened the entire package (and $2500) would instantly be lost to the bottom of the lake and since I was flying from the basin above the dam, the deepest section of the lake, that bottom was about 145 feet below the surface. Not much hope of recovery if that happened.

After powering on my transmitter and base station and ensuring that my flight plan was loaded into Mission Planner on my laptop I plugged the new battery pack in on my hexacopter, happy that none of the motors spontaneously began to run up. I began my preflight inspection, checking that all cables for the flight computer, telemetry transmitter, video transmitter and remote GPS antennas were plugged in correctly and slowly ran the throttle up, verifying the direction of all six flight motors before attaching the 13 inch carbon fiber propellers. Once my preflight inspection was complete I used the onboard wireless telemetry to grab the GPS coordinates from the drone to input into the Mission Planner flight plan since the launch point was the only way-point I was unable to get while I was at home. Once that was complete I flashed the flight plan to the onboard autonomous flight computer and was finally ready to begin.

While I was checking the video monitor on my base station for the signal being transmitted from the hexacopter a crisp, self-assured pixie voice sang out from behind me and to my right "What's that?"

I turned and looked down into the clearest, brightest blue eyes I could imagine and a wave of sorrow washed over me then was gone. Immediately I was aware of a lifetime with my daughter, watching her grow from a new born infant into a confident young woman walking down the aisle of our church wearing a white veil and flowing gown, carrying a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut flowers and her eyes matched perfectly those framed by the curly flames of hair belonging to the child I noticed when I arrived earlier. Of course the memories of the growing daughter I had only just entertained were really fantasy, not memories at all. Complications with the birth of our only son eliminated any possibility of our having any other children so my dreams of raising a daughter remained dreams. Even though having a daughter was one of my deepest and earliest desires I had never felt any regret after being informed by the surgeon that my wife was recovering and would be otherwise healthy. I was a happy man, ecstatic with my new, growing family and nothing but wonder and love in our future.

"Katey! I told you you could watch what he was doing if you stayed away and didn't bother him!" Their blue eyes matched perfectly: Mother and Daughter.

"She's no bother, I'm just trying out some new equipment."

I verified that my flight plan flashed to the autopilot successfully and executed the flight from my laptop. The hexacopter rose to about ten feet above the ground then executed a complete 360 degree rotation to the left then repeated the rotation to the right before stopping in the original direction pointing across the lake toward a marina filled with large boats and holding position and altitude perfectly. Having passed this last compass test the hexacopter paused only momentarily then began rising out across the water increasing in speed and altitude until it reached its first way-point in the middle of the open basin then turned left toward the second way-point, finally disappearing from our sight around the adjacent point of land and trees.

When I next heard the woman's voice, she stood immediately behind me. "Are you sure Katey and I aren't bothering you? If you need to be alone to concentrate on what you're doing we can go back to our table."

"No, you're not a bother but I'm afraid I might not be such pleasant company if I see what I'm afraid I might see in about eight minutes."

"What's the matter? Is everything OK? We should leave if there's going to be some kind of trouble, I've got to protect my daughter."

"No, you're in no danger, I found out this morning that my wife's phone may be in a cove across the lake and she told me she was going to lay out at her girlfriend's swimming pool in Kingston." "I've just noticed too many red flags lately and I need to know something for sure before my imagination causes me more trouble than I can afford."

As I spoke the last few words I glanced up to my right and thought I saw a brief flash of sad recognition cross her face.

Glancing back at my laptop screen, the telemetry indicated that the drone had already reached the second way-point and made its right turn toward the third another two minutes ahead. I felt a small hand on my left arm and when I looked in that direction, I found Katey on her knees on the bench beside me smiling and looking at the monitor showing the video stream being transmitted back from the hexacopter.

"This is nice, it looks like I'm riding on the airplane."

I couldn't help smiling at her innocence.

As the drone approached the third way-point and realizing that the fourth way-point would be reached only seconds later I glanced at the young mother and said "If you'll raise the lid of the toolbox on my truck you should find a set of Frisbee Golf disks, why don't you grab one and throw it with miss Katey for a minute. Unless I'm a hopeless paranoid she might not need to see this."

"You're right. Katey, come with me for a minute, sweetheart, Mister...."

She then looked at me and I answered "Sean".

"Mister Sean has something for us to play with."

Reluctantly, Katey turned and slid off the picnic bench and bounded to her mother, reaching for the blue flying disk in her hand. I turned back to my laptop and ensured that the video feed was being recorded and noted that I still had seventy-three percent battery levels.

Once the drone reached the fourth way-point just inside the mouth of the cove it began climbing in altitude until it reached 400 feet agl. I put my Fat Shark FPV goggles on so I could see the video much more clearly than I could on the sun-drenched monitor and picked up my transmitter. While I didn't intend to take over control of the drone unless I absolutely had no other choice on this flight I did want to take control of the camera gimbal so I could direct the camera view while the hexacopter circled above the cove. I had programmed the drone to circle the cove while descending from 400 feet agl to 200 feet agl then make one final circuit before reversing course and returning to the launch point.

When the video revealed the two pontoon boats anchored in the cove my heart dropped like a hangman's prize.

Hope disappeared.

I heard a somewhat sad "Oh, no" from behind me and with the FPV goggles on I couldn't see her face but that the young mother had seen on the dim monitor what I was witnessing in High Definition was obvious. I only hoped Katey wasn't seeing what her mother and I were both viewing.

There were two large pontoon boats tied together in the western corner of the cove and I could see three nude women and seven nude men engaged in an orgiastic fervor. I could identify my wife, Jessica and Carmen as the women but the only man I recognized was Paul Sutton. As I kept the camera trained on the debauchery below the voice behind me asked "Is one of them your wife?"

"Yes"

"Are you absolutely sure?"

That was when Sarah released the cock she had in her mouth and looked up at the drone she had just noticed moving about a hundred yards away out the mouth of the cove and stood up, pulling away from the man holding her by her hips and thrusting his pelvis into her from behind.

"Yes, absolutely"

I pulled the FPV goggles off my head, unplugged their battery pack and purposely laid them back into their protective case. I figured I had about a minute at most to prepare myself and make certain the young mother knew to keep Katey from speaking when the call came. It didn't take as long as I expected as the new throw-down phone rang almost immediately.

In the calmest voice I was able to summon, I answered "Hello."

"Hey, Sean, what did you plan to do this evening? For dinner?"

"I figured I'd just grill myself a burger and tinker around in the shop until I got ready for bed."

"What are you doing now?"

"I just finished cutting the back yard and will probably go get more gas then cut the front."

"So, you're still at home?"

"Yeah, why? Am I forgetting something?"

"You just mentioned testing your new batteries last night and I thought you might be doing that."

"The batteries are on the charger right now, I'll probably fly around the yard to see how much longer these will last over my other packs while the grill is heating up."

"OK..."

"Sarah, is everything alright? You sound odd, is something going on? Do I need to come to Kingston to get you?"

"No, everything is fine" she answered, just a little bit too apprehensively, "I was just laying here in the sun and wanted to make sure you had something to eat tonight."

"That's interesting, why are you suddenly concerned with my well being, you haven't had two pleasant words for me in months? Why the change of heart?"

"I was just laying here and thinking about our discussions last night and this morning and feeling like we should maybe try to get back on the same page, like we used to be."

"Really, Sarah?"

"Yeah, if you still want to next weekend, next Saturday, maybe we could drive up to the mountains like you wanted to today. Maybe we could find an Air BnB and stay the night, that might be nice, right?"

"Why don't I grab you a change of clothes and come pick you up and we can have a nice dinner this evening? I can jump in the shower and be there in thirty minutes."

"No, we still have our appointment this afternoon and we'll lose our deposit if we cancel this late. We can do it next weekend."

"We'll see." Then I ended the call.

"Well, does she know it was you?"

I cleared my suddenly arid throat and looked at her. "I don't know, I don't think so. I think she may be seeing this as an unpleasant omen, an example of what could happen with my 'toy' and that she may have just dodged a bullet. She believes or at least wants to believe that I'm at home because the first thing she did after seeing the drone was to look at Life360 on her phone to see where I am."

Seeing the look of confusion on the young mother's face I held up the cheap Kyocera prepaid phone

"I bought this from a convenience store this morning, my real phone is on the charger at home and I forwarded my calls from it to this one."

"Ahhhh, sneaky..."

"I knew that if she had the presence of mind to pause location sharing on her phone she'd certainly check to see where I was if she saw the drone. Now I'm glad I thought of that or I'd have just lost what scrap of uncertainty she now has. I just did something for the first time in more than twenty years and I don't know how I managed to pull it off: I lied to my wife. I'm the world's worst liar, until just now I didn't believe I could lie convincingly to save my life but I did it and it felt natural to do it. Too natural, actually."

"I was thinking it seemed a bit strange that someone who has and understands all this technology would be carrying a phone like that." She said with a slight smile.

I just nodded and answered with my own half insincere smile.

I sat quietly, planning what I knew my next steps had to be when that energetic child's voice sang out again "It's coming back! I see it, I see it! It's coming back!"

I had forgotten about my drone on its return trip but now I heard the distinct buzz of six outrunner motors and propellers in the distance. Glancing across the telemetry information on my laptop screen I noticed that the drone still had thirty-seven percent battery level just before it drifted into a rock solid hover then descended to land on the ground less than two feet from the spot it left a little over twenty minutes earlier.

I ended and erased the flight plan from Mission Planner and began the task of breaking down my base station then packing it and the rest of my gear.

As I was going through my post-flight inspection Katey stood beside me and asked "What kind of glasses were you wearing? I looked at you and couldn't see your eyes, how do you see out of them?"

"They're like my own secret movie theater, they let me see what my drone sees. Would you like to see?" I asked while I glanced questioningly at her mother, who gave a simple nod in my direction.

"YES! YES! YES!" Katey excitedly chattered while jumping up and down.

"Well, it just so happens that I've got a minute or two left on that battery so why don't we take a flight around the picnic tables."

Of course, Katey wasn't about to say 'no' to an adventure like that. I told her that she would have to sit in her mom's lap because the goggles could sometimes make you feel dizzy and I didn't want her to fall down if they did.

"You know, Katey, do you remember when you said that watching on the monitor screen felt like you were riding on the airplane?"

"Yessir"

"Well, when you watch it through these goggles you're really going to feel like you're riding in it."

I plugged the battery pack back into the FPV goggles and adjusted the strap to better fit Katey's head and asked if she was ready. I then powered on my transmitter again and plugged the battery pack back into the hexacopter.

After asking Katey once again if she was ready, I armed the drone's flight controller and eased the left gimbal stick forward, causing the drone to lift off the ground as the motors reached the correct hovering speed. Katey's exuberant exclamation of awe caused me to smile even as my heart felt like it was pumping molten lead instead of life preserving blood.

I made a couple circuits around the picnic area and parking lot before Katey snatched the FPV goggles off her face and insisted her mother put them on and 'ride in Mr. Sean's airplane'! I flew the hexacopter back and landed on the lowered tailgate of my truck and began preparing it to be returned to its Pelican case and put my transmitter back into its case.

Once I had my gear stowed in the back seat of my truck I turned to face the young mother and her vivacious daughter standing beside the picnic table where just ten minutes ago my gear had been spread.

The young mother and I spoke at the same instant "Thank You" "Thank You"

I cast a confused look at the young mother and she began speaking.

"I don't know why we came down here today, we've never been here before and I'm shocked that Katey even spoke to you, let alone walked up to you and spoke first. But more than that, I don't know why I didn't throw Katey into the car and leave the second you stepped out of your truck but you looked so lost and confused that I felt you had too much of your own grief to chew on for me to be afraid of you giving me and Katey any. And I don't know why I'm going to do what I'm about to do most of all because I know you're not thinking about anything except somebody just pulled the lever on your life and flushed everything you thought you knew down the drain. But I want to thank you for making Katey feel special for the past hour, she's never had a man show her any positive attention and you've just shown me that maybe there's hope yet for us someday. My name is Samantha Kelly but people usually call me Sam."