Chapter Five

Indie the Bar-Headed Goose

“Favel!” GEORGE called. “Where are you?”

Clusters of blue-green needles on the branches of a juniper tree fluttered in the wind. Other than the lingering smell of yak poo, there was no sign Favel had ever been there.

GEORGE scanned the ground using his nighttime vision sensor, which let him see heat. Under the surface, he could make out shadowy orange figures moving around.

Favel must have returned to his family, GEORGE thought sadly.

Family.

As he watched the shadowy figures scurry here and there, he wondered what it felt like to have mothers, fathers, brothers, or sisters. Sometimes, the interns would complain about their families. They would tell each other about the “big fights” they’d had with their parents and siblings.

But GEORGE had thought, At least they are together. They are not alone, like me.

He clicked off the micro-video projector and the nighttime vision sensor. For a moment, he sat still on the mossy rock and gazed across the snowy meadow.

His internal automatic heat sensors activated. Hmm, the temperature is warmer lower on the mountain, GEORGE thought.

“No more dillydallying!” he said.

At the university, the head scientist was always telling the interns not to dillydally. GEORGE’s digital dictionary had defined it as wasting time or delaying.

I have a mission to complete. Time to find a goose who lives in an old dead tree!

Favel had pointed south. GEORGE’s micro-wings began to flutter, and with a quick flittering zip, he flew south across the terrain in search of the bar-headed goose.

A cool wind blew on his face as he peered across the surface of the mountain. And there, amid a forest of junipers, one bare tree stood out.

“That must be it,” GEORGE whispered.

He navigated down. The thin branches of the tall dead tree hung over the live junipers, like a gray storm cloud over a silvery blue-green sea.

GEORGE’s sensors were alerted. He landed nearby, and with his scanner, his digital eyes swept over the tree.

On the far side of the trunk, a large figure sat on the jagged edge of a broken branch.

Is that a bar-headed goose? GEORGE wondered.

He flitted over and hovered, scanning the figure as he downloaded data from his microcomputer:

BIRD: Bar-headed goose, species of bird that migrates across the Himalayan Mountains.

FACTS: High in the mountains, the air is thin and low in oxygen, making it hard to breathe and hard for most birds to fly. Bar-headed geese use wind drafts to help them, and they can slow down their metabolism so they need less oxygen. Bar-headed geese need more time to lift themselves into the sky than any other bird on the planet.

“Who are you?” asked the bar-headed goose. It perched on the stump of the branch with its webbed feet. “More importantly, what are you?”

“I’m GEORGE,” he replied, “a microbot on my first mission. A pika named Favel told me that you might be able to help me.”

“Favel, huh?” The goose ruffled its wing feathers, which were white and black and patchy brown. “Skittish fellow, isn’t he? Nice of him to recommend me. So, what did he recommend me for? My name is Indie, by the way.”

“Hello, Indie,” GEORGE said. “I’m on a mission to find a lost camera from the year 1924. It was carried by Andrew Irvine, who climbed this mountain with George Mallory. If I find the camera, and the film is developed, the world will know whether they were the first climbers to reach the top of this mountain. Human history could be changed.”

Indie clapped her wings together. “Bravo! Wonderful speech. Very moving.” She bobbed her white feathery head.

GEORGE liked looking at the black stripes around Indie’s eyes. But he was confused. “Thanks for saying so. But it’s not a speech. These are facts. Do you know anything about the lost camera?”

“Do I know anything about it?” Indie opened her orangey-yellow beak and laughed a big booming HONK! HONK! HONK!

“Young fellow, I have flown to the heights of this mountain and beyond. There is nothing I don’t know about it. I know about your frozen climbers from the year 1924. And I know where your lost camera can be found!”