Kev thinks for a moment.  He's the new guy.  He has a rather vague background.  Only his obvious skill and a desperate need on the part of the oil service company has given him a job in the first place.  If he can make the flight, he'll be in for as long as he can stay in one place.  Kev says, “Let me check the weather myself; call you back.”  Kev hangs up the phone and rolls out of bed.

Kev gets up and stalks into the living room of the small house he has rented.  He fires up the PC and the TV.  The weather service news doesn't look good.  However, the weather 'experts' on this backward planet know very little.  Kev has set up a weather simulation program on the surprisingly powerful little PC and he begins to feed in the latest data.  Kev can see a possible window of opportunity in about an hour.  If everything works out properly, he can get in and out with even a little safety margin!  Kev mentally notes the key parameters.

Kev calls the dispatcher back and tells him of the conditions.  Kev will be willing to try the flight if the chopper is up 100% and the wind conditions hold steady as to direction and no higher than the current speed over the next hour.  The dispatcher agrees to get the chopper ready and loaded.

Kev goes back to the bedroom and gets dressed.  He has a quick breakfast of the workout food called Metabolol.  He drinks enough to fuel him for perhaps a couple of hours at high effort and then he pours the rest from the blender into a plastic, wide mouth bottle.  He throws the capped bottle into a duffel bag and the blender container into the dishwasher

Kev then drives out to the facility where the oil company helicopters are kept.  The wind buffets Kev's car as he drives along the road.  The weather is very bad and doesn't look like getting better any time soon.

Kev arrives at the heliport.  The crew has prepared a helicopter, but their looks tell Kev that they don't believe that he's really going to try to fly it in the current weather.

Kev walks out to look at things and the weather abates a little.  Kev boards the helicopter, fires it up and does a brief pre-flight, then he's up and off into the storm!

Kev flies across the swamp land and the bayous.  He crosses the coastline and flies into the Gulf of Mexico.  As Kev flies, the weather continues to worsen.

Kev flies along the heading he's been given and he finally sights the oil-pumping platform.  As Kev positions the helicopter the weather looks nasty; very nasty.  The wind is strong, swirling and gusting.  Trying to land on the little helipad on the oil-pumping platform will be difficult, maybe impossible.  Hell, trying to take off again might be impossible.

Kev doesn't waste time thinking about the difficulty.  He has only a minute and 27 seconds before he'll have to abort the delivery.  He watches the whitecaps in the gulf, upwind of his position.  Suddenly, the 'copter is buffeted by unusually strong gusts.  Kev fights the 'copter back into balance again and sees the opportunity he has been waiting for.  The whitecaps calm a bit out in the gulf and the wind moderates after a couple of more gusts shake the helicopter.  Kev puts the 'copter down on the pad; well at least near the pad.  He kills the power and yells for the workers to tie the 'copter down.  As the rotors shudder to a halt in the once again rising wind, Kev exits the 'copter and begins to add his considerable muscle to the tie down effort.  Kev is over seven feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds of well-conditioned muscle.  The workers near him begin to watch his efforts and then aid what he's doing.  After a while, the 'copter is tied down and the rotors slung.  The wind has again risen and it's difficult for a man to keep his feet in the swirling gusts.  Kev moves to a cargo door in the chopper, opens it and begins to extract a crate by main strength.  The other workers join in and the work crew then takes the crate.

The group of workers then huddle for a bit in the lee of the 'copter and then, taking advantage of a bit of slackening in the wind, move toward a door in the rig.  Kev opens the door and the others stumble through and into some sort of storage room.  They set the crate in a small clear area.  Kev has followed them in.

Kev says, “There are two more crates still left in the 'copter.”

The foreman, finally able to be heard, directs the workers to take a couple of dollies and retrieve the remaining crates.

Kev also goes back out to make certain that the 'copter is properly secured.

As Kev checks on the 'copter, he notes that the weather has turned even nastier than before.  He might not be able to get the copter off the oil-pumping platform until the wind drops some.

Finally, Kev and the last of the workers re-enter the storage area and close the door.  As the door is forced shut against the wind, there's a sudden deafening silence.  The men slump against the walls of the storage area and breathe noisily for a few moments.  The wind shakes the walls of the storage area.  Kev breaks the silence by asking, "What else do you guys do for recreation out here?"

The foreman glares at Kev and goes to an intercom.  He informs the powers that be of the arrival of the repair parts.  Orders come back over the intercom and more workers begin to enter the storage area from a door on the wall opposite from which the unloading party had entered.  At the foreman's wave Kev follows the man through the inner door, down a corridor and into some sort of control room.  A man, wearing a Raiders cap, who seems to be in charge turns and faces Kev.

The man sneers, “Well, you finally got here.  We had a major equipment blowout.  We have a multi-million dollar oil-pumping platform inoperative and I have to beg for someone to deliver repair parts; pretty please.  Do you have any idea what the big boys think when a platform stops producing?  Why did it take you so long to get here?”

The man glares at Kev and might have gone on.  However, Kev expands his chest, steps slightly forward and politely inquires of the man, “Would you like me to take you outside and throw you in the gulf so that you can evaluate the weather conditions for yourself?”  The man-in-charge hastily re-evaluates his position.  He doesn't answer Kev's question, but the reply is clearly HELL NO!

A man, who proves to be the second in command of the platform, steps forward.  “If you guys are finished yelling at one another, perhaps we can get to the business at hand.”

The tension eases and Kev inquires, “What do you consider the business at hand?”

The Second says, “Well, with the parts you just delivered, we're now in process of repairing the oil delivery system.  We have the parts we need, at quadruple rate.  You made your delivery, at quadruple rate..  How long until you can get back on your way and we can quit paying quadruple rate?”

Kev says, “How long until I'll be on my way back is up to the weather.  I came in here to learn of the weather.  I can't safely take off in the current wind.  The wind appears to be rising slightly and I need to know when I might get enough of a break in the weather to lift off safely.”

The Second says, “Well, we have a weather link in the command center.  However, you're to remain here.  I'll get you the information.”

Kev is about to adjust the man’s attitude, when his analysis of the situation tells him to back off; right now!  He's not about to fly in this weather without good information about the weather, but there's something badly wrong here.  Kev will wait and see what develops.

When the Second returns, he tells Kev confidently that there will be a weather break within an hour.  In the meantime, the workers will refuel Kev’s chopper and ready it for the return trip.  The workers will also load some special delivery cargo.

There's no special delivery cargo that requires shipment in this kind of weather.  Kev, of course, wants the chopper as light as possible, especially considering his own considerable bulk.  The only thing that they would try to load him with in the terrible weather conditions outside is something illegal.  In the gulf, something illegal means drugs.

(If there's one thing Kev doesn't need, it's a high-risk cargo.  The Apfer, an advanced race had created Kev and 1023 companions to fight a specific war.  Kev and his buddies had not only fought and won the war but some of them had survived.  The Apfer didn't want Kev to survive.  Kev had been created somewhat out of spec.  Kev would never age or die a natural death.  This state of affairs didn't please the Apfer, for whatever reason.  The Apfer are searching for Kev.  If Kev is to survive, he has to keep out of the grasp of the Apfer.  If Kev is caught with illegal drugs, he'll be jailed and the resulting publicity would surely bring in the Apfer.)

After a time, the Second returns.  The weather remains too bad to fly.  However, he says, “You'll just wait and be ready to fly whenever you're told.”

Kev receives the news and looks the man up and down very slowly.

The Second suddenly becomes aware just how big Kev really is.  The Second says, “Now look, we really need this cargo delivered.  Okay, it weighs 460 pounds.  I wouldn’t ask if we didn’t really need the cargo.  I won’t ask you to fly until it's safe to do so.”

Kev finally tells the man that he'll nap until it's safe to fly.

Kev finds a quiet place in one of the storage rooms and lies down to rest.  While he rests, Kev plans.

Trying to just go out and get to his copter isn't a good idea.  If they have drugs aboard the chopper, they'll keep a watch on the chopper.  However, it'll be very unlikely that they'll make a production out of tying down the cargo, because obviously no one man can lift and just carry off 460 pounds.

If Kev can get the chopper back to the mainland, he can set down anywhere there's an open space.