Walt stared intently at the sleek airship he had helped design as a young aero engineer.

 

“I just don’t understand why it’s in such good shape,” he said.

 

“Or why the place is still here,” added Andros, looking around the cavernous hangar anxiously.

 

“That’s luck,” offered the older man. “The monsoons, mudslides, and quakes that wiped out the road system around here left the place in splendid isolation on this high plateau. It also helped that the place was built like a fortress.”

 

“What do you mean?” asked Andros.

 

Walt explained that almost thirty years ago when the full impact of global warming hit home, most fossil fuel burning aircraft were replaced by low-carbon alternatives such as airships powered by fuel cells.

 

“We retooled some manufacturing plants and built new ones like this,” said Walt. “Mother Nature’s onslaught had thrown us into a panic so we built facilities as strong as nuclear power plants in remote locations. Still, that doesn’t explain why the White Swan here looks like she’s about ready to fly.”

 

“Doesn’t look like there’s anyone here to tend her,” observed the younger man. “Hendricks said he didn’t see any signs of life here except for a colony of bats.”

 

Several weeks previous Andros had found Hendricks close to death after crashing his makeshift hang glider in an attempt to find a more hospitable place to live. Hendricks recounted how he had seen the intact airship plant from the air.

 

When Andros had told Walt about Hendricks’ discovery the old engineer practically danced with excitement. Walt had worked in the airship plant before his nephew was born, but assumed it had been swept away by Mother’s Nature carbon-induced wrath. On hearing the place survived, Walt had tried to persuade the community’s leaders to send him and a few men to find the place, in the hope they might find an airship that could be made airworthy. The townspeople were planning to abandon their mountain retreat and strike out east, and with no roads left an airship would be a godsend. But Walt’s lobbying fell on deaf ears. Such a mission was not a gamble worth taking, the elders had argued. Andros, who hero-worshipped his uncle, agreed to accompany Walt and they snuck out under cover of night to find the long-lost plant.

 

“With this baby we’d be heroes instead of traitors,” said Andros, eyeing the airship. “You stay here. I’ll go take a look.”

 

“No, I’ll come,” said Walt, massaging an old leg injury that had taken a beating during the tough trek to the place.

 

The two men broke cover from behind a forklift truck. Walt had only gone a few yards when he slipped on a pool of lubricant. His rifle went flying and discharged on landing. The shot echoed off the hangar walls.

 

“Are you okay?” asked Andros, helping up his uncle.

 

“My pride hurts more than anything,” replied Walt.

 

“Looks like you nicked the ship too,” said Andros. “You took a chunk out of a tail fin.”

 

“Shit!” groaned Walt, looking at the spot indicated by Andros.

 

They were about to resume their advance when two huge sections of the roof began rolling back. The warped roof doors made a deafening racket as they opened to reveal what looked like a column of small, winged creatures hovering in the sky.

 

“The bats!” yelled Andros.

 

“No!” blurted Walt and forced his nephew’s weapon down. “They’re not bats, they’re microbots.”

 

They watched as the swarm of microbots descended, circled the airship, and settled around the damaged tail fin. The men were transfixed as the flying robots repaired the ship’s appendage.

 

“Where the hell did they come from?” asked Andros.

 

Walt explained that the small aero robots were housed in a low gray building on the other side of the complex and called into action as needed. The place was built to be as self-sufficient as possible. Solar-powered microbots equipped to carry out specialist tasks had built the airship and maintained it. They were programmed to self-maintain with the help of 4D printers to make components.

 

“So that’s why the ship is still in good condition,” Andros said.

 

“Yep. I assumed the bots would be scrap by now. Guess I underestimated how well we built ‘em.”

 

Andros looked at the automatons working feverishly on the aircraft. “But will they let us take the ship?”

 

“They’re not hostile, Andros,” chuckled Walt. “After they’ve rebuilt the fin I will do some reprogramming so the bots think the ship is ready for delivery.”

 

“After all these years!”

 

“That way they’ll get her ready for takeoff and erase the ship from their work schedules.”

 

The young man regarded his uncle admiringly.

 

“Think you can still remember how to fly, young man?”

 

“Sure,” grinned the former pilot.

 

“Then let’s do this,” said Walt.