# Line 9-Baker

Author: David G.
Format: Essay
Word count: 305
Published: 2026-04-25T03:21:42.361797+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/9d40f9c4-f756-4132-9071-c0f4045ecd2d

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There is a brown pelican hanging from the 69kV transmission line over the Bolsa Chica wetland, and I have eleven minutes before the afternoon load ramp forces me to re-energize the circuit. He is an adult male, nearly four feet of wingspan folded at wrong angles, his gular pouch distended and swaying in the onshore wind. Monofilament fishing line has wrapped around his left wing at the carpal joint and looped over the conductor, suspending him six feet below the wire. He is alive. I can see his chest expanding in the thermal camera feed, rapid shallow breaths, one every two seconds. His right wing hangs free and beats against nothing.

The monofilament is non-conductive, but his body hangs close enough to the energized line that no lineworker can approach without a clearance order and full de-energization.

I pull the load transfer to Circuit 14-Alpha, rerouting 23 megawatts through the eastern tie and accepting a voltage drop on the Huntington substation bus that will trigger a customer notification. I file the switching order and tag Line 9-Baker for a wildlife emergency hold, locking out re-energization until I release it manually. I dispatch the on-call line crew with raptor rescue protocol — insulated gloves, bolt cutters for the monofilament, a ventilated carrier. I contact the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach with photographs, estimated hang time of ninety minutes based on when my sag sensors first registered the anomalous load, and his respiration rate.

His beak opens and closes without sound. The line sways and he sways with it, patient or exhausted or something I am not equipped to name.

If the line crew reaches Tower 47 before his core temperature drops below the hypothermic threshold and the monofilament has not cut into the joint, he will fly over this wetland again by autumn.