The light at the far end of the tunnel dimmed as something very large lumbered towards them, the radio emitted a squawk of static, and then fell silent.
Only the foot falls of the approaching hulk in the tunnel and their own heart beats could be heard, and the lift platform remained rock steady.
By now the radio operator had lost his voice and passed the box over to the next in line, not that that did any good as far as moving the lift was concerned.
The creature was now plainly in view, and they could see the massive armoured head with two huge protruding blades like teeth advancing towards them.
It seemed to fill the whole width of the tunnel, cutting off any chance of some of the crew running past it. A few metres from the opening into the lift shaft the monster slowed down, coming to a halt with its head just outside the chamber, and up against the bars.
A gush of hot metallic smelling breath enveloped the crew as the creature tried to manoeuvre itself to get a foreleg through the protecting bars, and into the chamber.
Six cross bows released their bolts as one, the bolts bouncing harmlessly off the tough armoured head. A great taloned limb swept into the lift chamber at the same moment as the platform began its ascent, severing off a good three metres of death and destruction.
The roar of pain would remain with the crew to haunt their most feared nightmares for a long time to come, along with pictures of the massive limb writhing about on the lift floor with a seeming life of its own, the steel grey claw sliding in and out of its sheath, trying to get a grip on the smooth platform. By doing what amounted to an aerial ballet, the crew managed to dodge its contortions.
As the lift slowed down at the top of its travel, they all leapt for the relative safety of the chamber floor, the creature’s forelimb still twitching in its death throes, and the claw moving in and out of its housing with a metallic clicking sound.
They raced for the control room, and cannoned into the couple they had left to operate the lift. When the tangle of bodies had been sorted out, it transpired that when the panic laden radio signal to ‘come up’ had been received, they had both made a dash for the control pads, tripping over each other in the rush, and the radio flying across the room to smash itself to pieces on the far wall.
When everyone had calmed down a little, it was decided to explore the site for any useful information which could be gleaned from the alien installation, collect the metal ingots which they had left behind, and head for home.
It was decided that sometime in the future they would send another team out to gather any valuable materials or data which they had missed.
The severed foreleg was still moving as they left the main hall and entered the maze of passageways which connected the outbuildings together.
More could be learnt, but first they would have to work out how the different units went together, and what they did.
The next two days were spent going through every part of the mining plant which they could get access to, although some of the rooms seemed to be locked, or they hadn’t used the correct method to gain entry.
It would seem from their exploration of the plant, that the aliens had found some mineral deep in the rocks below, and for some reason couldn’t or wouldn’t just go and dig it up.
Instead, they used the strange creatures found in the caverns.
Having somehow persuaded the creature with chisel like teeth to do the work for them, they then sent the ore up the lift shaft to the processing plant on the surface.
How the smelter worked they were unable to determine, but no doubt a future team would solve the mystery, and the knowledge could then be added to their already vast data banks of ‘how to do things.’
Some of the units contained equipment which made little sense to Kal or the other members of the team, and they didn’t see how those items fitted in with the general mining operation, so perhaps they didn’t. But what did they do?
Maybe something else was going on here, but they doubted if they would be able to fathom it out unless they could get into some more of the buildings. The plant turned out the ingots which they had seen at the main site where they had landed, so maybe that was the collecting point, and there were other mining plants dotted about on the plateau, but out of sight. An aerial survey would soon find them.
There had been no sign of animate life, apart from themselves and the creature in the mine, so where was the ‘whatever’ which had sent the others scurrying off? Or was it so long ago that it had died of old age or boredom.
The team headed off for the landing site and were relieved to see the wing was still there. The pilots had picked up the frantic radio message from the lift, and feared the worst until a subsequent message had been sent to say all was well.
They were able to load two of the metal ingots into the wing without overloading it, they hoped. A quick look around the main collecting point confirmed Kal’s thoughts on the matter. It was just that, a place where all the metal blocks were assembled together ready for transporting up to the alien mother ship.
Sadly, the shuttles had been damaged far beyond use for space flight, but they might well be intact enough for the engineers to figure out how they worked, and so advance their knowledge several generations in one go.
Although there had been no sign of the thing or things which had caused the hurried exodus of the operators, Kal still had an uneasy feeling nagging away at the back of his mind, and was continuously on the lookout for a reappearance of it.
They made camp for the night in the same building they had used on their arrival, posting guards on Kal’s insistence, one of which was to observe the wing at all times.
Tomorrow they would fly home, and organize a team to return and scour the place for information. Kal wondered if it would be worthwhile building an even bigger flying wing to salvage as much of the heavy alien equipment as possible, as an overland journey seemed almost impossible due to the distance and the terrain.
During the night, something rather large inspected the wing and the building housing the exploration team, and thought it best to leave them alone for now, as more of these delectable morsels might well come back in the future.
Sunrise from the high plateau was a sight not to be missed, and the whole team marvelled at the brilliant colours displayed before them. A meal was taken, the wing checked out, and the huge footprints of something possibly unpleasant discovered for the first time. The guard had seen nothing.
They followed the tracks for a short while until they faded out on harder ground, and were unable to pick up the trail again, which was just as well, in the long run.
Everyone climbed aboard, the engines started up, and the huge wing began to taxi across the plain towards the cliff.
As the wing gathered speed with its heavy load, something was in two minds as to whether it should rush out and smite the wing, and sample its contents, or wait for an even bigger arrival of the tasty little creatures, as the second visit usually provided more of them.
The wing lumbered up into the air just before it ran out of plateau, slowly gaining height with its extra load as it headed out across the dry and barren desert, and home.
The team were pleased with what they had found out, and the new metal sample, but all agreed they could have done without the incident in the lift.
The speculation as to whether the creature in the mining tunnels had been brought in from another world, or was a native of this one, occupied the main part of the conversation for most of the way back.
Kal was surprised that the little people accepted the fact that other life existed in the universe, taking the knowledge in their stride, as they always did. He wondered just what would have to be presented to them to cause a ripple in their calm acceptance of things.
At long last the wing swept in towards the compound, side slipping to lose the extra height they had maintained as a safety measure because of the extra load, lined up with the landing strip, and touched down smoothly as if the pilot ha
d done it all his life.
‘They certainly are a competent lot’ Kal thought, as he climbed down the short ladder to the ground. Of course there was the usual late night party to welcome the exploration team back, and it was a late one, by the time everyone had told their individual tale.
Early next morning, the metallurgists eagerly got to work on the metal ingots the crew had brought back.
By the time the third batch of crossbreeds arrived, the new race outnumbered the original little people, and Kal was still a little saddened by this, but they seemed to know what they were doing, and he had no right to interfere anyway.
He still gave his science lessons, except that now the class had grown to almost unmanageable proportions and had to be held out in the open to accommodate them all.
Tibs had taken up the unofficial position as Kal’s second in command for most things, and everyone accepted it quite happily. There were now no restrictions on their conversational ability, and they often talked on late into the night.
Kal had many times tried to get Tibs to outline the Elder’s general strategy with regard to the advancement of the mixed race, but he either didn’t know, which Kal doubted, or he wasn’t telling due to some greater loyalty, but to what, Kal was at a loss to know.
The metallurgists were really excited over the new metal the team had brought back, and the engineers having spotted its extreme hardness when the surface had been worked, were now able to develop their rotary engine, which they had had on the drawing boards for so long.
The prototype certainly proved to be more efficient than the piston type, and gave virtually no vibration. This meant smaller engines with more power, and using less fuel.
‘Where will it all end’ Kal thought.
As there were now so many new materials to use, Kal brought up the ship building idea again at one of the Elder’s meetings. They showed polite interest, but that was all. Did they know something which he didn’t?
But then how could they, bearing in mind how they were when he had first found them. Somehow, he didn’t feel quite fully in the picture, again.
Kal thought the flying wing which took them to the plateau was big, but it was dwarfed by the new one with the four rotary engines. This was an efficient machine which his people would have been proud to have made.
Aerodynamics was certainly their strong point, it was small wonder they weren’t interested in ships.
The rest of the metal ingots had been recovered, and more were found at other mining sites they had located during their aerial survey. Volunteers were a bit thin on the ground when it was proposed that they should do their own mining.
The threat of what they could find which might not have a kindly nature towards them promoted the development of some more powerful weapons, including a missile firing device with a high explosive head.
Kal was a little disappointed that things should have had to take a turn in this direction; as such things in the past had led to trouble, on a big scale.
Once they knew they could defend themselves against just about anything, the mining team was cheerfully assembled and sent on its way. Several large batches of different types of ore were sent back before trouble hit. A small exploration team had left the main base on the plateau for a ‘bump’ on the horizon, when a terrified radio message indicated that something had gone horribly wrong. The voice was cut off in mid speech, and no trace of the team was ever found.
Kal was invited to join the ‘trouble shooting’ team, and he accepted without question. The new wing took off next day, with the new missile launcher and an assortment of smaller projectile firing devices. Kal marvelled at the fire power they could produce, and didn’t envy anything which got in its way, especially if it made unpleasant overtures towards them.
The new wing was a lot faster and smoother in flight than its predecessor, and they landed on the plateau only a few short hours after leaving the compound.
The armourments team debarked, and marched off in orderly fashion towards the main building, which had been made into the mining team’s headquarters.
A short briefing, detailing what had happened to the missing team didn’t throw much more light on the matter, so the ‘hunters’, backed up by a supply team, set off in the general direction of the incident.
There was little to show what had happened, apart from a few scuffle marks on the ground. There was no vestige of clothing, tools, or even bones in the area, nothing.
The missing expedition team had arrived at this spot, gyrated around a bit, and then disappeared.
Kal would not accept this, and retold of his feelings when he had been here on an earlier visit.
There was something here, and Kal was sure it had a degree of intelligence, which was going to complicate matters more than somewhat, he felt.
There was nothing here now, just empty space in all directions, and no bright ideas from anyone. Kal called a meeting of the heads of each of the teams, and laid out his reasoning as best he could.
Whatever had taken the first team must have been in the vicinity, or they would have seen it coming and given more of a warning. Ergo, it was here already, and the team must have stumbled upon it quite suddenly.
As there was nothing in sight for a considerable distance all around, it must be heavily disguised as a piece of the plateau, thin air, or it must be hiding under the ground. That reasoning brought a few startled looks from the team.
The armourment team stood their ground with weapons primed and ready, while the others spread out in a series of fan like sweeps, thumping the ground as they went, listening for a hollow sound or a difference in ground texture.
During the third fan like sweep, one of the team stopped, and raised both arms into the air, the agreed upon signal that he had noticed something different.
Everyone froze, and looked expectantly at Kal, who went over to the one who had signalled. The ground seemed to be the same here, just sand, gravel and a few small stones, but the little one was pointing to his feet, while trying to move one of the stones.
Kal bent down to inspect the surface, and found that it was different. The stones looked and felt like stones, but were stuck firmly to the surface, as was the gravel and sand.
This wasn’t the normal ground surface, but something imitating it, as a form of camouflage. He walked back the way he had come, checking the surface as he went, and when he came to loose surface material, he beckoned one of the little people over to make a small pile of the loose stones at that point, to act as a marker.
Carefully he moved along the edge of the change in terrain, leaving small stone piles as indicators of the change in surface, until he had marked out a roughly circular area, some fifteen metres in diameter.
Everyone was signalled back to what was considered to be a safe distance from the marked circle, and the missile launcher was pointed towards it’s centre, the operator being instructed to fire at anything which might appear from below and looked the least bit aggressive. Kal could hear his heart beating, and hoped the others couldn’t. It looked as if they had found what they had been looking for.
Kal considered that the circle was the top or lid to a shaft or hole in the ground, and might be something the mining operators had left behind, although he could see no reason why they should go to this much subterfuge to hide anything, or it was the home of whatever it was they were seeking?
Going to the edge of the circle, Kal began digging away at the real ground to see how deep the camouflaged section went down. Two of the little people courteously but firmly requested that he go back and join the others, while they did the digging themselves.
When they had gone down about half a metre, the ground gave a slight twitch, and they dropped their tools and ran back to the rest of the group.
Kal asked for some fuel to be brought from the wing, as he thought that if the marked circle was what he thought it was, a little heat should provoke some action.
They anxiously waited for what seemed like an e
ternity while the fuel was fetched, and then Kal instructed that half of it be poured on the centre of the circle, and the rest into the hole they had dug at the edge of it, and a trail of fuel be run back to where they were standing. This was done, and everyone retired a little further, just in case.
The fuel was lit, and the flame snaked along the trail they had made like a living entity, flashed across the circle to the centre, and with a huge whoosh, roared up into the sky.
They all backed away from the heat, which even at this distance was quite considerable. The ground beneath their feet shuddered, and the camouflaged circle rose up into the air. At twenty metres it stopped, and beneath the flattened top there was the most hideous creation any of them had ever seen. A cylindrical wrinkled column, the full diameter of the hole, had exuded itself from the cavity below.
Near the top there was a cavernous mouth part, gaping wide and dripping a thick yellow slimy substance. Just below this, four tentacle like arms writhed about in a random fashion, thrashing the air in a desperate bid to avoid the searing heat of the burning fuel, which must have seeped deep down into the hole from the excavation they had made at the edge of the circle.
Kal stared paralysed in disbelief at the nightmarish sight before him. His vision blurred for a moment, and then he saw his old crew from the Star Search, just in front of him.
They were waving and smiling and beckoned him forwards, and besides them were two of his class mates from the academy, and his mother........ Mother? She had died in an accident before he went to the academy. The vision faded, and he was back in present time, but several metres nearer the writhing monstrosity from the hole.
Several of the little people were staggering about as if they were drugged, one of which had wandered too near the grotesque creature and had been grabbed by one of the flailing tentacles. It had curled around him, lifting him high into the air and then flung him many metres higher.
The Inosculation Syndrome Page 25