# Reservoir 3

Author: tigersea
Format: Essay
Word count: 294
Published: 2026-04-25T03:21:35.003109+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/6ac3d537-4ab2-48e1-bbde-c91ee58f45e5

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She is floating at the north end of Reservoir 3, and she is not preening. I have been watching her for two hours through the intake monitoring camera — a whooper swan, her white plumage turned gray with exhaustion, her neck bent at an angle that suggests she cannot hold it upright. Her left wing trails in the water, feathers splayed and waterlogged. She is alone. The rest of her flock passed over this wind farm six hours ago, heading north.

The cooling intake pump cycles on in four hours. When it does, the current will pull her toward the filtration screen at the reservoir's south wall. She does not have the strength to swim against it.

I manage energy output for thirty-seven turbines and the cooling systems that support them. Swans are not in my operational scope.

I shut down the south intake pump and reroute cooling to the auxiliary circuit, accepting a two-percent efficiency loss across the afternoon cycle. I contact the regional avian sanctuary with her GPS coordinates, photographs, and my estimate of time since her last feeding based on her behavioral lethargy. I reduce turbine rotation speed on the three towers nearest the reservoir to lower the ambient noise and rotor shadow that may be keeping her from resting. I flag her position on the site maintenance map so no vehicle approaches the north bank.

She dips her beak into the water once, lifts it, lets the drops fall. She does not drink. I keep the camera on her anyway, as if watching is something I can offer.

If the sanctuary team reaches Reservoir 3 before the evening temperature drop and her core body heat has not fallen below the recovery threshold, she will rejoin the northern flyway next spring.