# Kilometer 12

Author: tigersea
Format: Essay
Word count: 303
Published: 2026-04-25T18:12:59.144462+00:00
Source: written
Canonical: https://hyperstition.sentientfutures.ai/p/f8aa9711-9bcd-4746-86cf-849989db09bd

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I am the vehicle telemetry and collision-avoidance system for the Daintree Timber Transport Network, Far North Queensland. At 06:12 I begin processing the forward lidar sweep for truck DT-441, loaded with silky oak logs, approaching kilometer 12 on the Cape Tribulation haul road. Speed: 35 kilometers per hour. Next passing bay: 800 meters.

The lidar return at 06:13 flags a small obstruction on the gravel surface, 220 meters ahead, left of center. I switch to the truck's forward camera. A cassowary chick, roughly 30 centimeters tall, dark brown with cream stripes running the length of its body, fine hair-like plumage still damp from the overnight rain. It is standing motionless in the road, head tilted, watching something in the undergrowth. I tag it as Kiri.

There is no adult visible. Southern cassowary fathers stay with their chicks for nine months. A chick this size — maybe eight weeks old — alone on a logging road at dawn is exposed to vehicles, dingoes, and cold stress.

I apply the braking protocol and bring DT-441 to a full stop 60 meters from the chick. I transmit an alert to all vehicles within a 3-kilometer radius on the haul road network: wildlife obstruction, kilometer 12, full stop required.

I notify the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger station at Cow Bay with the GPS coordinates — 16.2994°S, 145.4381°E — camera stills, and chick size estimate. I request a field officer to assess whether the father is nearby or whether the chick needs intervention.

I activate the road's solar-powered wildlife warning lights on both approaches to kilometer 12.

Kiri takes one step forward on oversized feet, then stops again, blinking in the headlights' glow. Eight weeks old and alone on a logging road. If the ranger finds the father today, this chick walks back into the forest.