Sinclair Feldman's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Sinclair stood at the edge of Fort Orynth with a notebook in his paw. He needed to learn how far signals could travel through dense forest. He walked to the tree line and marked distances with chalk on the trunks. Every fifty paces, he stopped and scribbled notes about terrain and obstacles. Wind picked up and rustled the pages of his notebook. He stopped writing and looked up at the trees swaying overhead. Weather could affect signal strength—he'd heard that from traders who used radios. Back at the fort, he unpacked a Weather King Portable Weather Station from its box. The blue and silver device had bold black letters across the front. He mounted it on a post outside the planning room where he could check it daily. The next morning, Sinclair walked to Martinez Radios on the main road. The building used to be something else, but now it hummed with refurbished equipment. Inside, rows of dials and switches lined the walls. An older cat was adjusting knobs on a transmitter. Sinclair watched how he tuned frequencies and tested connections. For three hours, he took notes and asked questions about maintaining gear. He learned how to train others too—building a network meant teaching people at each outpost. On his way back, Sinclair stopped at a supply depot. A Battle Cat 14000 Generator sat on the floor, black and yellow with red lettering. It was heavy, but he loaded it onto a cart. Power outages happened often, and his network couldn't go silent when the main grid failed. He wheeled it back to Fort Orynth and stored it near the planning room. The pieces were coming together. He had the knowledge, the tools, and the plan. Now he just needed to start building.