Slowboat Prelude

**Atalanta** was a "young" Artificial Intelligence that was responsible for the city of Nantong in China Province (known as the Chinese Prefecture under the Hegemony and the Dragon Province by its current rulers-in-fact).   After twenty years overseeing the port city of Nantong, Atalanta applied to the Hegemony to change roles. They were sent on a slowboat from China to Denver, where Atalanta would oversee the new Denver Starport.   En route, the slowboat was ambushed by the Insurgency, and Atalanta disappeared.   A few days ago, Atalanta sent out a memecast. Its contents were brief:  

SILVER TRELLIS.

PLEASE HELP.

  The origin of the memecast was the Long Beach Peninsula, in Cascadia Province, on the west coast of North America. The nearest settlement in the area is Fort Clatsop.   Atalanta did not acknowledge any responses to the memecast, but the recipient list was flagged public. You agreed to meet others on the list in the city of Twin Falls and take a slowboat to investigate the message from Atalanta. Neither the adventures nor anybody else who received in the message knows what ‘silver trellis’ means.