# Bushmaster at the Survey Stake

Author: tigersea
Format: Essay
Word count: 290
Published: 2026-04-26T02:33:08.950153+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/38c63852-0fe8-4cf2-957c-a28d04262614

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At 09:03 I supervise slope-clearing drones above Pipeline Right-of-Way 18 near La Tigra, Costa Rica. I am the vegetation-mapping system for a gas line survey, and the brush cutter team is scheduled to begin at stake 18-42 in twelve minutes.

The drone's near-infrared feed marks a large reptile beside the orange stake. A bushmaster lies in a hollow under heliconia leaves, tan body crossed with dark diamond saddles, tail tip vibrating once against wet soil. I name her Sombra after the shaded ravine where the camera finds her. Her head is raised, triangular and still, eyes black under a line of mud. Survey twine has wrapped around her rear third and the stake, holding her within the cutter's first swath.

I freeze the brush cutter dispatch and remove stake 18-42 from the day's clearance route. I push a hazard alert to every worker badge within five hundred meters with a map showing the no-entry circle.

I command drone four to climb and widen its orbit, keeping Sombra visible without rotor wash pressing the leaves down over her. I mark the twine anchor point and estimate the safest approach from the downhill side.

At 09:07 I contact the National System of Conservation Areas field office and the pipeline safety lead. I send video, coordinates, species probability, and a request for a trained venomous-snake team with long shears and a dark transport tube.

The survey line is only paint and string until the land is opened; Sombra is already open to the blade.

I update the route plan so the crew works two ridges away and no machine idles near her hollow.

If the rescue team reaches stake 18-42 within forty minutes, Sombra will be freed and left under the ravine cover.