Droning On

*Hezzlie*

The war room isn’t quite as I imagined it would be in this day and age. I’ve seen plenty of movies about two powerful nations going to war. There are always a thousand computer screens and people typing information into them while large men in uniform walk around and shake their fists.

That’s not where we are at all.

Instead, Rowan’s war room looks more like something one would expect King Arthur to be huddled around with his knights of the roundtable. There are several paper maps on the wall, one on a large table in the middle of the room, and not a computer to be seen. He also has a lot of plastic figures, sort of like the pieces from the game Risk, scattered nearby. I take it all in as my brother and Mara enter the room. Rowan introduces them to Alpha King Jackson, whom Aiden apparently already knows, and then we get down to business. 

That mostly consists of the three men leaning over the map and moving some of the pieces around. Mara and I stand back. I’m honestly dumbfounded. There are so many other tools we could be using for this. I don’t understand why we’re stuck in the fifteenth century. I want to find a way to say something, but there’s really not an opportunity for me to do so during the first hour of the conversation.

Finally, Jackson says, “I’ll be on his side of the lines at first, and I’ll be able to get you as much information as possible, but it’s too bad you won’t be able to see his advance. That would help you pinpoint when best to give the signal to me to turn on his flank.”

“That would make it easier,” Rowan agrees.

I clear my throat, but no one hears.

“We don’t have a good enough line of sight from the mansion, not even with a telescope. There are  too many trees in the way,” my fiance continues.

Jackson shakes his head. “I suppose we’ll have to make due–”

“Drones,” I say so quietly no one understands me at first. They turn in my direction, but they all look confused. I clear my throat again. “Why don’t you just use a drone or two?”

“A drone?” Jackson says the word like he’s never heard of it before. “What now?”

Rowan isn’t looking at me like he wants me to shut up, so I continue. “Well, if King Solomon is as technologically advanced as you guys are, he’ll never think to look up, even if he happens to hear them. They make such quiet ones now, he probably won’t notice them. I think they even make them so they look like birds. Anyway, he doesn’t have any weapons to knock them out of the sky. You could fly a couple of drones over there to see what his exact position is. Use the mind-link through one of our pack members in his human form who would be stationed right next to King Jackson, and you can get all of the information you need.”

“A drone?” Rowan questions, looking at Jackson whose forehead is so crinkled, I have to think he’s never even heard of a drone before. “I doubt anyone around here would know how to fly one.”

I shrug. “My friends back home had them. If a sixteen year old kid can figure it out, I’m sure some of your people can. It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it, and you don’t really need them to do anything terribly difficult. Just fly in a straight line over to King Solomon’s side of the battle line so you can get a live look at what’s going on.”

“I… I don’t know what we’re talking about,” Jackson says, shaking his head. “Some sort of flying contraption?”

I do realize for the first time I’ve never seen an airplane fly overhead since I’ve been here. I assume that’s because of the mountains–although, now, I’m beginning to wonder. They have cars and limited cell phones. We have televisions that show the same kind of programs I watched back home–most of them exactly the same. Why is he so isolated?

“We try to keep our kind as sheltered from the human world as possible,” Rowan says. “But when we do adapt a new form of technology, we have to make sure it’s not going to be detrimental to our kind.”

“I understand,” I tell him. “That’s why you don’t fight with weapons.”

“That would be cheating,” Jackson insists. “Are drones a weapon?”

“No,” I say quickly. “Certainly not any more than I am a weapon. They’re just flying objects with a camera on them that relay information to the ground. That’s all.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” my brother says. “I have seen them before. In the movies. I’m sure we can figure it out.”

“Maybe I could learn to fly one?” Mara says, hesitantly. “I’d love to help with the battle somehow, even though I’m not much of a warrior.”

I see Rowan gritting his teeth. He must disagree with her self-assessment given he watched her kill their mother, but he won’t say that now. Instead, he nods. “I think that would be quite useful, sister.”

“Good.” I’m satisfied I’ve helped us gain an edge in the battle we wouldn’t have before. Even if Solomon’s forces do notice them, they’ll be a distraction to most of them if they’re as stuck in the dark ages as King Jackson is. His Beta and his commander, who are standing in the back of the room, alongside Dean and some of our fellows, all look amused. They are younger, so they probably have a better understanding of the world than their king. Still, this will serve as a reminder to me that I need to consider what other tools we can bring in from the outside world that would be helpful here–in the future.

“How long will it take to procure the drones?” Jackson asks, saying the word “drones” like it doesn’t quite belong in his mouth.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “Does Amazon deliver here?”

They all look at me blankly until Dean starts laughing. “No,” he tells me, shaking his head. “But I can take a drive into your world to get them.”

The way he phrases it is interesting to me, but I won’t ask about that right now. “Perfect. I’ll do some research and find out where to get them and what kind we need.”

“Very well then,” Jackson says with a nod. “That solves that problem. Now, let us get back to the maneuvers.”

They return their attention to the map and their little plastic figures, and I pull out my phone and start doing the research. By the time Jackson is ready to go, the men have their plan, and I have two drones for Dean to pick up at a shop in the city where I grew up. 

King Solomon is never going to see this coming.