Rick Pickles had insisted on accompanying Professor Gwillam on the experimental trip to Crete to test the effectiveness of the ESD unit. The transport LIMO landed about two kilometres from the glowing crater, now almost thirty meters above the sea-level. The two helped the technicians assemble the half ton Quadricopter and the ESD was loaded onto it, or rather, slung below the little transport. It was difficult to see anything more than a hundred yards for the steam that was being generated from the seawater as it was heated by the fissure.
“We will need to follow it in Rick, so that we can see where to place the ESD,” announced the Professor, “we will have to fly partly by infra-red, but we have to keep line-of-sight with the unit.”
The Quadricopter was started and set to hover at twenty meters, the four climbed back into the LIMO and matched the altitude of the drone. Owen switched the forward screen to IR and then gently pushed the remote control joystick forward, with his left hand whilst he guided the LIMO in the same direction, keeping the drone at a range of fifty meters. Fifteen minutes later they could see the rim of the crater, and Owen started moving the LIMO and the drone to the right, in search of a possible site for the ESD. It took almost a third of the way around the crater to find a suitable ledge for the unit, and Professor Gwillam manoeuvred the drone into position, then pressed the release button, and the Quadricopter, soared away at the release of the weight.
An assistant took over the control of the drone, whilst Owen gained altitude at full power. The ESD had been fitted with an automatic start-up when dropped, and on an initiation of thirty seconds, whilst not knowing how it would affect the LIMO, they needed to put some distance between them and the ESD. At six thousand feet they saw a slight waver of the light over the area and then nothing. The LIMO hovered for nearly fifteen minutes before they saw any effect, slowly the steam around the crater started to clear. They could now see the small cone quite clearly, the magma was still glowing beneath the water, which was a disappointment, all the ESD had done was to dampen the conversion of heat to steam.
“So, it doesn’t stop the eruption,” sighed Owen, “it won't work.”
“Well there was always the chance it would work Owen,” consoled Pickles, “lets pick the ESD up and get back.”
“Afraid you are going to be disappointed there Rick,” said Owen, “we can't fly this machine within the dampening field, only way to retrieve it is on foot, and I'm not going for a stroll around that.”
“I'll get someone out here with a fire suit,” said Pickles, “in a few days.”
“OK, so, I wonder if you could drop me off at Cyprus on your way back,” I promised Jim Markson that I would visit for Easter, but I never made it, did I,” explained Owen.
“No problem, I would like to meet the famous Markson family anyway,” replied Pickles, “If you don't mind.”
“Fine by me,” said Owen.