The storm resounded beyond the mountains, intense flashes illuminated the whole sky, the usually cheerful cyan blue, had turned into a dark brownish gray. In the distance, the trees in the mountains could be seen shaking violently from one side to the other, like a thick carpet being combed with the palm of the hand.
Despite the violence that was unleashed in the mountains, in the valley, the lake remained so still that it resembled a glass floor, there was not a single wave on its surface, the fish that usually swarmed from one side to the other, jumping to catch insects had disappeared completely.
-This is going to be ugly, -exclaimed Ishmael, watching the pines rock -. At the right time, the climate control satellite came out of service, in the middle of the season of murderous storms!
The so-called killer storms, it was a seasonal atmospheric phenomenon of Callisto, it was not that someone had ever died because of them, at least not known, but if they stood out for their ferocity, combining winds of more than three hundred kilometers per hour and heavy rainfall, which could cause the sliding of the slopes of the mountains, by saturation of the terrain.
However, it was not a very frequent phenomenon, Calisto revolved around his star in a period of almost four standard Heracles years, and the season lasted about three months, and only two or three storms were intense enough to cause problems.
To control the effect of these storms, a network of atmospheric control satellites was established which, through the use of intense lasers, were capable of disintegrating the storms before they caused damage, however, the satellite covering the region where the northern forest of Callisto 4 is located was taken out of service, due to operational problems, shortly before the arrival of the storm in its area of incidence.
-I hope the structure resists, -commented Belinda, while it was recharging from one of the thick concrete columns that supported the walls of the lake's ranger station in the northern forest -. Are all the drones out of operation, are they?
-Almost all of them, those of the west will be deactivated last, they will continue patrolling until the storm reaches them, - replied Ismael -. We'd better go inside, it'll start in a gale soon.
Upon entering, the first thing they could see was the monitoring screen of one of the drones, which showed a warning message. On the bank of a river in the western region of the forest, about ten kilometers from where they were, a group of five men were fishing quietly without paying attention to the approaching storm.
-What the hell are they doing there? -exclaimed Belinda as she looked at the screen -. We must get them out.
-I'll have the drone give them a warning, hopefully they'll listen, -replied Ishmael.
However, the fishermen ignored the warning given to them by the drone through its loudspeaker. -We'll have to go there, the robots are not near the area, we'll get there sooner if we go in the octopod, -said Ismael, taking the overalls and the hull of the coat rack next to the exit door, so did Belinda.
Outside the panorama had already begun to change, the calm of the lake was broken by hundreds of drops that fell even slightly, while the breeze already began to take speed, shaking the pines of the surroundings.
They went up to the octopod and started the way to the western sector of the forest, in search of the fishermen, the wind became more and more intense and the drops became thicker and more abundant.
-Damn, this was not what I expected to be doing during the storm, -said Ismael, operating the peculiar mechanical spider.
-Turn on the deflectors, I don't like this at all, it might hit us with some object, -said Belinda.
Luckily for them the parks department had foreseen situations like this and had provided the ranger posts with octopods equipped with deflectors, however, they were not military grade barriers, their capacity allowed them only to protect the occupants against low speed impacts, and not too heavy objects.
The storm followed, unleashing all their fury, leaves, branches and fruits and any object that could be uprooted from the gigantic trees, was thrown as a projectile in the direction of the wind, and Belinda and Ismael, ran at full speed with the wind behind them.
The deflector was constantly hit by projectiles, on one occasion a heavy branch, which fell from the top of the trees hit the barrier from above and the impact pushed the legs of the octopod, making them flex.
When they were about to reach the riviera, where the fishermen were, suddenly the storm ceased, a kind of hole was opened between the clouds and the bright cyan sky of Callisto appeared between them.
-What the hell happened? -Ishmael exclaimed in surprise -. I thought we were going to die.
-I think the satellite is working again, -said Belinda relieved -. A little longer and we didn't count it.
They continued on to the river and found the fishermen, comfortably seated, drinking beers, with their rods unattended, mounted on supports on the bank of the river.
-You might know what they do here when a storm was coming, -said Belinda, clearly furious -. We almost died to come here, why didn't they heed the drone's warning?
-The flying robot, - replied one, clearly drunk -. What wasn't a joke?
-Are you fools, -said another, also passed out in drinks -. Don't you see that the atmospheric control satellite undoes the storms, what do you think happened? -he asked sardonically.
Belinda and Ismael arrested the fishermen for being drunk in a public park and took them by octopod on their way to the lake ranger station, where they would be handed over to the security directorate. To their surprise, when they arrived at the post, they found that the whole roof of the building had collapsed, by the intense wind, if they had been there they would probably have been crushed to death.
When Ishmael saw this, he stopped the octopod and went down, freed the fishermen's wives, and told them to leave, after reprimanding them.
-What the hell are you going to let them go, we almost died because of them, -said Belinda.
-Rather, we didn't die because of them, -replied Ishmael.
