Starfall

Chapter 1 - Downtown Portland

The cool night air whipped at Dipper's leather jacket as he shifted into fifth gear. The transmission shifted smoothly rewarding him with a burst of speed as the Ducati Streetfighter V4 lurched forward. The city street lights blurred by hypnotically casting the glossy and mat sheen of his stealth black V4 in alternating images of night lights and obfuscated shadows. As the road turned in a wide sweeping arc approaching the river Dipper drank in the view as he approached the bridge. The full splendor of the Tilikum Bridge could truly be appreciated at night as it spanned the Willamette.

Dipper had discovered the colors of the bridge changed, but at first, it had remained a mystery as to how they changed. Often the bridge lights would stay the same color and at other times they would change or transition quicker than others. Finally, he had asked a friend who had filled him in on the mystery. Apparently, the temperature of the river controlled the color of the lights. Warmer river conditions would display warmer colors, like orange and yellow, while cooler temperatures will display cool colors, like green and blue.

Tonight the bridge shone in a magnificent citrin yellow glow. The part that took his breath away was how the Willamette mirrored the image of the bridge in a pale reflection as the colors of the surrounding bridges and buildings gave way to a rainbow of colors harmonizing in the black water bay.

As he crossed the bridge Dipper had time to reflect on his night's adventure so far. He and his great uncle Ford had been tracking an anomaly with new tracking equipment they were field testing. The first time he and Ford had heard about it they had assumed it was the regular downtown departmental incompetence. But the more they investigated the less that theory seemed to hold true. Workers from the Tri-met MAX Light Railway system had reported odd power failures within the Light Rail system. What was even more bizarre was the strange damage done to the remote switch hubs and other electronics along the railway. At first, Ford had chalked it up to faulty relay switches and proper electronic system grounding buffers. The old railway system had undergone decades upon decades of upgrades. Therefore it was easy to imagine someone screwed up somewhere along the way in upgrading the system properly. It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened in Portland. But the reports just kept pouring in over the months. As Ford began to investigate further he discovered there had been minor reports dating decades back. Ford surmised they could go back even further, but was only documented regularly now per OSHA(Occupational Safety & Health Department).

The equipment, simply put, just seemed to be fried. Something had overloaded and burned out the electronics. Tri-met MAX Light Railway system had chalked this up to electrical interference from the nearby transformer station. Ford had to get some help from a college but with a little leverage, he was able to get the scoop from someone who worked as a clerk named Thomas within the governing city department. When Ford had inquired about the claim by Tri-met MAX the clerk Thomas scoffed, "They have been trying to pin that problem on us for years! That case claim was new when I was apprenticing in this department and I took a particular interest in it. The claims would always seem to peak around summer and drop off in the winter for the most part. I was assigned to investigate the station. It was my first major assignment and I was determined to do it by the books. We had detected a few surges and a draw on our systems at the same time, but whatever was causing the draw was far enough away that it did not harm our system. If you ask me it sounds like Tri-met MAX is trying to push internal problems onto us. Probably someone looking to get promoted and trying to buy time to shove it off on the next guy. Maybe if they spent more time investigating their own department and less time pointing fingers they would have solved the problem already." Ford thanked his friend for connecting him, and the clerk Thomas for his report.