The drawing system was very good for getting ideas across, but it was feelings that he was missing so much now. He felt sure they had more emotion in their lives now than ever before, and he wanted to share it with them.
It wasn’t until he really thought about it, that he realized just how much he longed for conversation and a verbal exchange of thoughts.
They did their best to include him in everything they did, except for the odd meeting, and that was withheld intentionally just to give him a surprise later he felt sure.
Several days after the triumph of the steam driven vehicle, there was a commotion in the compound, and Kal was sent for. He entered one of the inner caves and saw a group of elders clustered around one of their kind, on a bed.
They parted for him to come through, and motioned for him to sit down on a bench against the cave wall.
He couldn’t see any great detail of what was going on with regard to the person on the bed, as so many others were clustered around, but thought that all would be revealed to him in their own good time.
After much squeaking and whistles the leader of the council came towards Kal, bearing in his arms one of their newly born offspring, and presented it to him.
He reached forward to take the little bundle when he noticed it was not so little, and very nearly dropped it when the full significance of the event hit him.
This youngster was really well built and twice the size of their normal babies, and must have given its mother a very hard time of it indeed.
‘So this was the result of cross breeding with the natives’, he thought. The elder gently unfolded the arms and legs of the little one so that Kal could appreciate the length of the limbs, and the head was different too.
It looked more human and had more finely defined features than normal. The little creature gave a cry that was well within Kal’s audio range, and he then knew that this was going to be the company he had longed for.
Kal arose from his chair, and carrying the new arrival walked over to the bench-like bed upon which lay the mother of the new race.
He had to admit that she looked tired, and not a little uncomfortable, but she looked him straight in the eye and the thin lips parted in what he thought passed for a grin among the little people.
He felt strangely drawn towards her, and took one of her hands in his, holding it tightly for a few moments. A gentle sigh like sound came from the others present, and they all slightly bowed their heads.
Normally, telling the sexes apart was more by luck than observation, as the male equipment seemed to retract out of sight when not in use, and mammary glands didn’t show on the females until they were about to give birth.
This one was definitely a female, and Kal’s heart went out to her for her bravery at attempting the cross breeding project, and going through the trauma of delivery.
He handed back the little bundle in his arms to the mother, and noticed the tender care she showed to her offspring. Kal wanted to say something, or do something to mark the occasion, but could think of nothing appropriate. The entourage left the cave, and Kal was at a loose end as to what to do now.
Should he follow the elders or return to his own cave, or just go about whatever he was going to do anyway?
He went back to his own place, and it was just as well that he did. Shortly after entering and sitting down to recover from the shock of it all, he burst into an uncontrollable flood of tears, as the locked up emotions of what seemed like years flowed out of him.
How long he sobbed for he didn’t know, but as the tide of emotion lessened and he looked up with a tear stained face, three of the elders were standing rock still in the entrance, with bowed heads.
He knew then that they could at least share some feelings between them. Silently they turned as one, and discretely left Kal to his thoughts of what the future was to bring.
After a meal, he felt a lot better, and went off to the new team of jewellers who had set up a workshop in one of the caves near his.
Using his sketch slate, he indicated that he wanted the finest necklace they had, and when it was handed over, he felt sure there was a grin on the face of the craftsman who had fashioned it.
Kal made his way to the cave of the mother and child, and as he entered her companion quietly left, leaving them alone.
He gave her the necklace which she looked at for several moments, and then she took his hand and held it to her face.
Kal felt the tears well up again, and as he looked her full in the face he saw her eyes were also moist. They stayed like that for some time, each thinking their own separate thoughts but unable to fully share them, but the emotional flow had brought about a strange bond between them.
Eventually she released his hand and closed her eyes as if to sleep, and Kal silently slipped away.
The impact of what had taken place, the way it had been achieved and the consequences of the whole thing, left Kal a little shattered.
If only he had someone he could talk it over with, but he didn’t, and that was another load of emotion that one day would have to be released.
Into the Mountain
The final modifications to the steam wagon were completed, and provisions placed aboard. Although they could live off the land, they were not too sure what land they might have to travel over, and so were taking no chances.
They set off early in the morning and received a great send off by those who would have liked to have gone, but for whom there was no room on the wagon.
At first they covered ground that was familiar to them, as the colony had expanded out from the original compound for some distance. There were well laid tracks joining up the various new compounds where crops were grown, and the wagon travelled smoothly along for some time.
It was when they ventured out into virgin territory that the new spring suspension came into its own. There were no maps of the area, as no one had ventured into the hinterland very far, so map making on stiff paper boards was done for future reference.
They headed out towards the black mountains where Kal had first discovered the water cave, and the stream that ran from it. On the way, they passed the point where the stream disappeared into the ground, never to be seen again.
This intrigued Kal, as it should have made an appearance somewhere at a lower ground level, except that there wasn’t any lower ground, so where did it go?
They halted at the place where the water went down, and took a break. Kal went to the edge of the hole, but all he could see was the water going in and nothing else below it.
There wasn’t even the thunder of water hitting rocks below, so maybe there weren’t any, but then what was there?
It was too much, and he decided to go down on a rope and see what went on. The team were not too keen for him to do this, but they too were curious as to what the water did in its sink hole.
A safety rope was lowered into the hole, one end of which was tied off on the steam wagon, and another rope with a sling on it was passed to Kal, who put it around his waist.
The other end of the rope ran through a couple of pulleys which were also attached to the wagon, so that the team could lower and lift him as needed, the pulleys taking the hard work out of it.
Down he went into the darkness, not getting wet as there was a small gap between the water and the side of the hole.
His lamp light glistened like a cascade of falling diamonds in the water column, and gave an eerie light to the wall of the hole, which, as far as he could tell was a vertical tunnel, and as smooth as glass.
This didn’t look as if it had occurred naturally, and so he was on the lookout for any other odd things which might be down here.
Every now and then Kal noticed there were large openings in the wall of the shaft, and a gentle draft was issuing from them, but he hadn’t noticed a draft at the top where he first entered the hole.
The end of the rope must have come at last, as the winching down had stopped. He looked around him and saw that the volume of water
was only about half what it was at the top of the fall. Where had the rest of it gone?
There were no signs of it having been diverted off anywhere on the way down, but the volume had definitely decreased compared to that at the top of the chasm.
It looked as though he would have to give up the descent, when off to one side he could see a ramp spiralling on down with what looked like a short flight of steps at the top. It began just above his head, and if he swung across carefully, he should be able to reach it.
He tried calling up to the team, but the distance was too great for them to hear, and they wouldn’t have understood him anyway. He tugged the safety rope, and they began to haul him up. It took a little longer than he had expected, as the distance he had travelled down was deceiving.
Once back at the top he explained that he intended to detach himself from the rope at the bottom, and then go on down via the ramp.
They were not very happy about this, but didn’t try to dissuade him too much. Kal descended again to the full extent of the rope and then swung himself over to the place where the ramp started, getting a foothold on the solid rock.
Somehow he would have to secure the rope at this side, as he couldn’t risk jumping across the gap to where the rope would hang naturally if it was let go. But there was nothing to tie it to.
There was only one thing for it, and that was risky. Taking all his clothes off he held them in the diminished water flow until they were soaking wet, and then used them as a weight to hold the rope on the ledge.
Luckily the water didn’t impinge on the rope as the flow was so much smaller here. Kal stood there for a while ready to grab the rope if it should move, but it didn’t, and so he took a deep breath, and started on down the ramp.
It was a very long way down, and he began to wonder if there was an end to it. The water still fell, although it was only a very small amount now and seemed to be disappearing before his very eyes.
A few minutes later there was no water falling, just the ramp going on down into the blackness. He just had to find out what this was all about, and went on down against his better judgment.
At last the ramp stopped. He was at the bottom of a circular shaft that was as dry as a bone, and no sign of it ever being otherwise.
So now what? He was at the bottom of an empty shaft and nowhere to go, but up.
Kal felt that there had to be something down here and began a thorough search of the wall. At last, in the dim light of his lamp, he saw a silver disc about the size of his hand set into the rock of the circular bottom of the shaft.
It was too much, he pressed it, and a section of the wall slid to one side, revealing a passageway ahead. As there was nowhere else to go, he went in. The lamp lit the way fairly well as the walls were shiny and not too far apart, and the floor was flat and smooth.
This meant that it was meant for walking on, not for water, and that was a comforting thought.
All of a sudden he was in a circular chamber about two metres across, and no sooner had he stepped inside, when a section of wall slid across the entrance, and he was trapped. Now there was nowhere to go.
The floor was solid beneath his feet, the walls felt as though they were carved out of the heart of the planet, and a solid looking ceiling was just one metre above his head.
He wondered how long the air would last as the chamber was now totally sealed.
It was not the most pleasant of feelings, but he remained calm and reasoned that there must be some way out, as the chamber was purposeless without one.
His control paid off when he was least expecting it to. The wall he was leaning against dropped away from him and he nearly went sprawling.
The floor of the lifting device was going up the shaft at a considerable speed, while the ceiling still remained the same distance above his head.
The wall was fairly streaking downwards now, or to be more precise, he was going up very fast indeed. Suddenly the floor stopped moving, and he nearly floated as his momentum tried to carry him upwards.
A section of the wall slid back, as he somehow knew it would, and he was out into another passage, as quickly as possible.
This one didn’t go very far, and terminated in a blank wall with another silver coloured disc set in it. Pressing the disc he waited for the next surprise.
It was not slow in coming. The wall slid back and a short ramp lead up towards a jumble of rocks, which he hastily climbed, and there below him was the little stream, the steam wagon and his friends.
He let out the loudest whistle he could, which they heard, and came running over to him. He helped them climb the rocks and go down the ramp, but there was no sign of a silver disc on this side.
The ramp just ended against a flat wall of rock, with no sign of a door or anything else. It was obvious that they were very pleased to see him again, and were soon making saucy comments about his nakedness, of that he was sure.
They were definitely getting a little too cheeky, but he was so relieved to see them, that he didn’t really mind. It was then that he realized the tension he had been under.
They made their way back to the wagon, and while taking some refreshment he explained what had happened as best he could. One of them made ready to go down the rope to retrieve Kal’s clothes, but he explained that if they pulled the rope up it might dislodge the clothes and they would fall to the bottom of the shaft.
This did not deter the volunteer, who chose to use the safety rope instead, and when it had been hauled up, tied it around his waist and disappeared from sight. It was a long wait, but at last the signal to haul up was received, and the little fellow complete with clothes came to the surface amid a good hand clap from all present.
The ‘clothes collector’ had found that the clothes had indeed fallen on down the shaft, but he had the foresight to take a big stone down with him and so was able to secure the rope, go down the ramp, climb up again, give the signal and return to the surface.
He explained no way was he going to try the ‘lift’ as Kal had done, which caused a bit of leg pulling from the others.
It was decided that they all had had enough excitement for one day, and a proper meal was taken.
After their meal and a general chat via the drawing pads about the day’s happenings, the protection shields were raised around the side of the wagon, and they all retired for a good night’s sleep.
Kal kept thinking about the shaft. A lot of work had gone into making it, and so it had to have a useful purpose. And then he remembered that on the way down, some of the openings in the wall seemed to have air coming out of them, and some had air going back in.
If there was enough air flowing like that it could cause the water to evaporate, hence the dwindling column of water the further down he went.
‘There must be something more to it than that’, he thought, and then he recalled the vast hole in the cavern inside the black mountain with the blast of moist air coming out of it. It seemed to make sense, of a sort.
‘But why go to all that trouble to recycle water like that?’, he mused, ‘how could so much water be evaporated like that as there didn’t seem to be enough holes to supply enough air, but yet it worked’.
There was still something else missing from the equation, and he was determined to find it. Someone or something had gone to a lot of trouble to construct the water recycler, and they were not much bigger than him if the size of the passageways was taken into consideration, and then there were the steps, so they had feet, but why the ramp then... He fell asleep and dreamed of waterfalls and gentle breezes blowing around him and...
The sun rose on another glorious day as the crew of the steam wagon fired her up, and an early breakfast was taken so that they could get under way as soon as possible.
There had been no disturbances during the night, so all felt refreshed and eager to go on with the exploration.
The events of yesterday still held Kal’s attention to some extent, as he didn’t like loose ends, and there were plen
ty of them lying around after their escapade of the disappearing water. However, that would have to be put aside for the time being, as they were about to continue their voyage of discovery, and no doubt find many more strange things.
As soon as they had enough steam pressure up, and everything had been stowed away, they were off. The general idea was to skirt the black mountains and see what lay beyond them.
The wheels of the steam wagon were massively built, and wide, so quite rough terrain could be negotiated without much trouble, only large rocks and deep gullies could hinder their progress.
There was the occasional lurch, which left a depression in the ground and Kal thought it might be caused by going over one of the underground plants that caught the croppers, as it only happened when going over gross covered terrain.
The wagon was quite able to cope with it, but a really big hole might cause a problem.
About midday they came to a long upward slope in the ground, and upon reaching the top, the mountains hove into clear sight. They were certainly majestic, and were an impenetrable barrier for the steam wagon, so they chugged along at the base of the massive rock formation for the rest of that day.
As dusk approached they decided to make camp for the night. There didn’t seem to be any dangerous creatures in the area, and as the ground was clear for some distance around, they set up oil lamps and had their evening meal out in the open. The lamps had been improved beyond all recognition, with a specially formed glass chimney.
The flame was steady, even in a light wind, and the lamp produced a lot more light due to a shiny metallic reflector.
It was at moments like this, in the restful quiet after an evening meal, which Kal sometimes thought about his old crew aboard the Star Search.
They would probably have reached their destination by now, and discovered his absence along with that of the shuttle. If they couldn’t repair another of the old shuttles, then they would have to go back to base.
The Inosculation Syndrome Page 13