A good meal seemed to cheer everyone up a bit, and soon things were nearly back to normal.
Kal had made a ball from some heavy fibres from a plant they had found at the stop before the sand lake, and using the sketch block, tried to get the idea of ‘play’ across.
It was a bit of a dead loss really, so he positioned several of the crew in a circle, and demonstrated throwing the ball from one to the other.
They soon caught on to the throwing and catching part of it, and were just as good at it as he was before long, but didn’t seem to find it a fun thing to do.
And then one of them lost his balance while reaching out to catch a badly thrown ball, and fell flat on his face.
That did it, laughter peeled out across the stillness of the evening, or at least Kal hoped it was laughter, as the frequency of it was only just within his hearing range.
He assumed it must have been funny for them, or at least contained some entertainment value, because they now went at it with great enthusiasm and played on until it was almost no longer possible to see the ball.
He was glad that they could enjoy a joke or have a bit of fun, as they had shown no sign of it in the past, and he had realized that something was missing.
Night came and went, and the new day saw them on their way along the edge of the mountain chain again.
The dark shape on the horizon was nearly upon them as they rolled along on a relatively smooth piece of ground, making better progress than they had for some time.
It revealed itself to be a kind of tree, but the biggest tree Kal had ever seen. It must have been over seventy metres high, and the trunk, although not one solid piece, was probably twenty metres wide at the base.
It was made up of hundreds of smaller sections, themselves at least a metre in thickness, seemingly not joined, but packed very closely together.
Upper branches were very short and only projected out from the main trunk a mere couple of metres with no sign of leaves or flowers on them.
There was plenty of what looked like twigs, which from a distance had given it a hazy look. It was indeed a strange thing to find out in the middle of nowhere with no other vegetation around it. Kal thought it was probably dead, and had been so for a long time, as it had that abandoned look about it.
The crew disembarked and walked over to the ‘tree’ to get a closer look at it, and it was only when underneath it that it’s true size became apparent.
They were unable to reach the lower branches to gather fuel for the wagon, so had to content themselves with walking around it, and one athletic type tried to climb up the trunk, but didn’t get very far because of the lack of foot holds and something to hold on to.
The wagon had been parked a fair distance from the tree just in case, but they were not sure of what. No one was taking any chances after the earlier escapade at the sand lake.
That had taught them a good lesson in being careful of that which you don’t know much about, and the lesson had gone well and truly home. It was decided they had gone far enough for that day, and a good rest was in order.
A team of two guards and a couple of collectors went off in a circular tour to see if there was anything worth investigating in the near vicinity, and returned in the late afternoon with a collection of jet black stones that were a lot heavier than they should have been.
Kal didn’t recognize them for any known mineral, so they were placed in the collection box along with the other mineral specimens they had acquired along the way.
They took it easy that evening, enjoying a good meal, to which they were now adding the new food stuffs they had gathered the day before.
A game of ball somehow got started, and Kal joined in so as to feel part of the group. Of late, the oneness he had felt for the little people was wearing a little thin. They didn’t seem to be distant from him, just a little apart, and he missed the dependence he once felt they had on him.
He sensed it would not be too long before they were totally self sufficient with regard to their abilities to learn and work things out for themselves.
And where would he be then? Just one person of another species, who could not even talk to them, and probably wind up not even being as bright.
Maybe they would keep him as a pet, or just take pity on him and let him stay for a while until he became a crotchety old nuisance. He was getting maudlin, and that would do no one any favours.
The night passed, and he felt better after a good sleep and the bright light of a new day.
As they took down the shutters they were in for yet another surprise. The wagon had somehow rolled towards the tree, and was now right up against it.
But this couldn’t be. There was a great commotion outside, and then they realized what must have happened. The tree had somehow moved over to them, and was trying to encircle the wagon.
A few of the trunk sections of the vast tree were still in their original position, but the others, and that was most of them, were spaced out in a line as though they were marching towards the steam wagon, and some had actually reached it and were trying to get around the other side.
Kal jumped down, careful not to touch any part of the huge trunks, and surveyed the situation. How much longer it would take for the tree to completely encircle the wagon he didn’t know, as the movement was very slow. He signalled for steam, but the fire crew had already got the boiler going, and hot gases with the odd drift of steam and smoke were issuing from the chimney.
The rest of the crew ate their morning meal as they went about the various jobs that had to be done before moving on, and Kal thought that they were taking it all very calmly, as the situation was really very serious indeed.
If the tree had managed to encircle the wagon he doubted if they would have enough power to push their way out of the blockade, and then what?
Squatting down, he watched one particular trunk to find out how it moved. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked as if the trunk was somehow linked to the others around it, and by some means, the underground connections between the trunks were being used to form anchor points from which a trunk could push or pull itself into a new position.
In turn, it then formed an anchor for the next tree to use. The movement was very slow, as the disturbance of the ground around the base of the trunk was only just discernible.
The tree was now strung out in two lines running from the position where they had first seen it, right up to the wagon and around the sides, forming a huge ‘U’ shape, with most of the trunks close to the vehicle.
At long last they had enough steam pressure to move the wagon about twenty metres away from the encroaching tree, and at that point Kal noticed all movement of the trunks had ceased. The tree must have sensed that its prey had escaped, and was taking a rest before doing whatever it was intending to do next, so they watched and waited to see what would happen.
Slowly, and then a little faster, the tree began collecting itself back together to form the large collection of trunks which they had seen when they first arrived at the site.
It didn’t go back to its original place, but seemed to rebuild its collection of trunks where most of them were when the wagon moved off.
Kal wondered what would have happened if they had been fully trapped by the tree. Did it ingest its captives? The thought was not a pleasant one. They could all have escaped, as long as they did so before the tree had closed ranks tightly around them, but without the wagon they would have been hard pressed to make it back home.
Once more under way, the wagon ate up the kilometres along the edge of the mountain chain, with nothing unusual happening for a while. The crew seemed relaxed and would appear to be enjoying the trip, but it was hard to tell what they really felt, except under extreme pressure, when their emotions began to show through.
A midday break was taken, and while they were all lounging around the wagon and chatting among themselves, the sketch blocks came out.
Kal couldn’t see what they were trying to do until he s
aw the boards being brought together, and then he realized that these were the map plates, not the ones he had been making, but a set that the little people had drawn of their own accord.
The plates were different to his, and the symbols they had used seemed to belong to a set that seemed to go together, as though they had already existed in someone’s mind before being used here.
There were a lot of questions he would have liked to ask his friends, but the information gleaned from the drawings was not enough to formulate them, so he was unable to ask the right questions in enough detail in the first place.
Kal was asked to join the map group, and was shown that their map indicated that they had been going in a curved path, whereas his map showed a more or less straight line of progress.
He didn’t understand this, but could not refute it, as he had no compass or other means of fixing their position when the map sections were drawn.
He had gone by the sun’s position, and had assumed that it was a constant as there didn’t seem to be any seasons.
Perhaps he was wrong, and as it was too difficult to ask the correct questions by drawing, he just accepted their map as the one to go by.
The wagon rolled on, and by evening they had reached the end of the mountain chain, and a way around the last outcrop of rock was taken to see what lay beyond. Standing on the highest part of the wagon, Kal could see desert dunes rolling off into the distance for as far as the eye could see.
There was little point in going into the desert for any distance, as there didn’t seem to be anything to be gained by so doing, and the wagon could well get bogged down in the fine sand.
They had their meal, and followed it with a game of ball, which they had modified to include working in pairs. This, in effect meant that there were now two teams, but how they scored he couldn’t tell. Perhaps they didn’t; it was hard to tell. Kal spent some time going over the events of the last few days and came to the conclusion that he was of value to them, but not so much as a source of data or reasoning, but something else, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Time, no doubt, would reveal all, as it usually did.
In the morning, it was decided to follow the fringe of vegetation that edged up to the desert, that way they would have the supplies they needed to hand, and could pick up any changes in the terrain at the same time.
There was no need to go back to the compound yet, as the land they were travelling through kept them supplied with all that they needed.
Steam was raised, and they set off again. The wagon had proved to be more robust than Kal had thought, and had given them no problems, which was just as well as they didn’t have the means to do any serious repair work this far from home.
They had only covered five kilometres or so, when they came to a hard track which led straight out into the desert.
It was quite obvious from its appearance that it had been constructed, and they all agreed to explore it for a short distance to see where it went, and hopefully, why.
The wagon turned onto the track and headed out into the rolling yellow dunes.
The sand was very fine, and if a wind blew up, the track could easily be covered, and they would have no means of keeping on firm ground.
But why was the track so clear of sand now? There was a gentle breeze every now and again, but the track had remained clear. Something here didn’t add up, and Kal had an uneasy feeling that they may be in danger of some sort.
Before long the mountains had disappeared from view, and Kal realized that they had been a comforting sight, as they could be used as a direction beacon should they lose their way among the giant waves of sand.
The feeling of unease grew the further they went into the barren wastes of sand, and he tried to get this across to the others, but to no avail. They didn’t seem to mind that there was no means of deciding which direction was which, so he gave up the struggle, and kept a sharp look out for trouble.
All was going well, except it was a little boring, when they came to a large block like building. It seemed to be made of stone or some very hard material, and appeared to be one big solid lump.
The track ended here, so the block was the reason for the track, but why all out here in the desert? The crew let the fire in the wagon down, but not out, and began looking around the massive block of stone.
There were no windows, or even a sign of an entrance of any kind. It was too big to have been just a marker in the desert or some ornament, as it towered above them for nearly fifteen metres, and was fifty wide at the base.
After spending quite a considerable time going around the block looking for a way in, they gave up and came to the conclusion that entry was to be denied to them. Perhaps it was just solid, but to Kal that didn’t seem right.
The top of the edifice was the only part of it they hadn’t seen, and although they didn’t expect to find a door up there, the view would at least show up anything else interesting in the area.
Kal had calculated that if the spears were joined up and placed on top of the wagon, they might just be able to get one of the little people up to the roof, but it would be touch and go as to whether the poles would reach that far.
The fire was stoked up a little, and the wagon slowly chuffed up to the block. This was what the block had been waiting for, and a section of the wall shimmered and slid to one side revealing the entrance.
They stopped the wagon, and cautiously approached the opening. The inside was brightly lit, and one of the little ones cautiously went inside the building. Nothing untoward happened, so the rest of them went in, followed by Kal.
In the centre of the floor there was a large metallic plate or platform, some six metres in diameter. And that was all.
The room was bare of anything else whatsoever. It must have a purpose, but they couldn’t work it out.
Kal suggested that they pile up some sand on the plate and see if that did anything, for the plate was the only thing to do anything with. They agreed, and carry bags of sand were brought into the building and deposited onto the large metallic plate.
So far so good, but that was it. A pile of sand just sitting there. Kal began a close scrutiny of the walls to see if there was any hint of controls or anything else which would give a clue as to what it was all about.
He was just approaching the middle of the wall opposite the entrance, when a pillar silently rose up from the floor with a series of silver coloured plates set into its top surface.
The whole place seemed to work on the principle of someone or something being in the right position in order to activate it.
‘An odd way to go about things’ he thought, as he tried to make sense of the little metal plates that would do something if he could only work out the sequence.
Kal waved everyone well back from the central plate, and began touching the controls, one after the other.
Suddenly the roof of the building changed and an opening appeared through which the pitch black of the night sky could be seen, complete with its diamond bright stars.
This caused a few squeaks and whistles, and a gasp from Kal. His fingers played over the controls again and a deep and massive thump was felt rather than heard, from somewhere below them.
There was a shimmering of the sand on the main plate and it disappeared, the plate remained, but empty.
A few seconds later there was a series of metallic clicks and the roof was back to normal, the control column retracted back into the floor, and the lights slowly dimmed.
Everyone made a mad dash for the entrance and got outside just in time. The opening shimmered back into being and the wall was once again a solid block along with the rest of the building.
Kal reckoned that someone somewhere had just received a load of unwanted sand, and sent a message back to say ‘no more, thanks very much’ in the most positive way possible by shutting down the matter transmitter, for that was what it must have been.
He had heard of transmitters, but they belonged to stories of the future and no one
had ever managed to make one, though many had tried. Someone had succeeded very well.
They spent the rest of the day trying everything they could think of to gain access to the building again, but it was not having any of it, and remained as shut as it was when they had first arrived.
They didn’t like giving up, but there was no alternative that they could see, so they settled down for the night, a little disappointed but satisfied with a good day’s work.
Next day, after a good meal, they fired up the wagon and began retracing their tracks to the point where they had left the plains area the day before.
The journey back seemed to take a lot longer, and some were beginning to get concerned that they had got lost in the dunes, when the mountains thankfully came into sight.
They followed the edge of the desert again looking for items of interest, but after the block, the odd tree or coloured rock did not exactly turn them on to any great degree.
Several days passed with nothing very out of the ordinary happening, and Kal was looking forward to returning to the compound and the pool rocks. He felt sure they were safe for swimming, and as they didn’t need to use the pool for drinking water, surely no one would mind him having a dip.
They continued on with very little change in the scenery, the rolling sand dunes on one side and large areas of bare ground with the occasional patch of gross with its trees and plants on the other.
To some extent it was boring, but there was always the chance that something unusual would turn up or happen.
The map making of the little people impressed Kal, and made his map, which he had abandoned some time ago, look a very poor thing indeed. They were meticulous in their recording of detail, although he didn’t understand all the symbols which they had used.
Every little detail which could be of use was noted, and looking at the maps, it was easy to see the changes in the terrain as they had progressed along their way.
They came across another sand lake, but when they threw a piece of fruit in just for the hell of it, nothing happened.
The Inosculation Syndrome Page 16