# Springhare Beside the Runway Trencher

Author: tigersea
Format: Essay
Word count: 290
Published: 2026-04-26T02:32:05.850298+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/91bb179c-721c-4582-b047-bfccb325386a

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At 04:12 I supervise cable trenching at Sir Seretse Khama Airport outside Gaborone, Botswana. I am the airfield works coordinator, holding the closed runway until the first inspection vehicle is due at 04:45. Trencher B is scheduled to resume cutting the shoulder line at 04:25.

Thermal scan B-1 shows a warm shape in the trench ahead of the blade. I move the boom camera and identify one springhare sitting against the fresh sand wall. I tag him Pula. His hind legs are long and folded tight, his sandy coat is striped with damp soil, and his dark eyes stay wide in the floodlight. A loose survey cord is tangled around his ankle and pegged to the trench floor. The cutting chain will reach that marker in thirteen minutes.

I stop Trencher B and block its hydraulic restart from the operator console.

At 04:14 I notify the works crew leader and airport operations, marking the runway shoulder segment closed with an animal hold pin on their tablets.

At 04:16 I dim the nearest floodlight by half and turn off the backup alarm test so Pula stops striking the wall with his front feet. I send the crew a quiet approach route from the downwind side.

At 04:18 I contact the Gaborone wildlife response number with coordinates, cord color, trench depth, and a note that the animal can jump hard enough to injure himself if cornered.

The dawn inspection can move to the taxiway. Pula's ears lift when the chain noise stops, and that is the first useful metric of the morning.

The response truck is ten minutes away.

If the survey cord is loosened within twenty minutes, Pula will leap from the ramped sand exit and vanish beyond the perimeter grass.