Only recently had an overt sense of humour surfaced, although he had noticed little events which he suspected were humour, but peculiar to their way of thinking.
Next morning they flew off for the high plateau, the big wing being accompanied by a smaller version, which would stay there to view the areas which had been tested by the searcher machine.
They were greeted like long lost brothers by a group from the mining team, who reported that they had had no further trouble from the hole creatures, but would be very glad when they knew the whole area was safe.
The equipment was unloaded, and the searcher was sent about its business, causing a great sensation among the miners, who had to have the theory of the machine explained to them before they would get on with their own work.
The searcher moved out across the plains until it was just a little dot on the horizon, and then it was out of sight, only coming back into distant view some while later, the sunlight glinting on its tall aerial.
Kal was impressed with the accuracy of its controls, as it ran exactly parallel to its outgoing course, and was only a few centimetres adrift from the outgoing raked track by the time it had returned to its starting point.
The machine came right up to the little group of watchers, turned about, and went off again towards the horizon, causing great beams of satisfaction among the engineers.
Mining had carried on while they were waiting for the creature de-holing equipment to arrive, but had been reduced a little because of the extra precautions taken for the safety of the operators.
It would be some time before the machine had traversed enough of the plateau to make it worthwhile doing an aerial survey, so Kal said he would like to go down one of the mines again, to see how things were going on.
Seven mine heads had been located altogether, but only three had working lift platforms, the others had either been shut down during the general exodus, or the machinery had failed somehow.
The mine they had first visited where the creature’s foreleg had been chopped off by the lift, had not been visited again, as they had discovered another one, which, as far as they could tell, had no living creatures in it, and was assumed to be safe to work in.
Although the engineers had spent some considerable time trying to find the power source and the method of driving the lift platforms, they had been unsuccessful to date, and had to be content with just using the equipment.
It was causing a fair degree of frustration among them, as they wanted to incorporate the principles into their own field of knowledge, and so far had been unable to do so.
Kal joined the next shift of miners, and as the platform was dropping down the shaft, he got to thinking about the original builders of the complex.
They were certainly a bit austere in their buildings, not a picture or chart in sight, no furniture or loose equipment laying about, just the bare walls and control panels.
He didn’t think there had been time to remove what he thought were the normal artefacts of industry from the site before they left, so perhaps they didn’t have so much junk and clutter as he was used to. It still seemed a little strange though; he had expected to see something left behind.
There was a slight lurch, as the platform reached the bottom of its shaft. The mining teams had certainly been very busy, as he could see boxes of ore lined up all along the tunnel into the far distance. And they had found out how to open the barrier bars. They proceeded along the tunnel for about half a kilometre before they came to one of the side passages, which led into a huge cavern where the main work was going on.
The minerals seemed to be in veins, about half to one metre wide, and the method of extraction he thought was novel, and certainly different to anything he had ever seen before.
A hand operated hydraulic ram forced the mining tool against the sides of the cavity, and then another ram, with a long claw like arm, was driven into the ore, cutting in deeply and then scooping out a great chunk. As long as the width of the cavity was enough for one of the little miners to follow the device into the cleft, there was no limit in theory as to how far they could go up the vein.
There were several teams working away around the periphery of the cavern, and they all seemed to be extracting a different coloured ore.
Some of the extracted minerals he recognized, but others were completely new to him, and he was surprised at the brilliant colours they displayed. Kal visited several other caverns before returning to the surface, and was amazed at the scale of the whole operation, and the way it was organized.
He couldn’t help but wonder if the original operators of the mining complex might return one day, and be not a little miffed at what had been going on during their absence.
Once more on the high plateau, Kal went to inspect the small spotter wing which had flown out with them.
As the little wing had kept up with them on their long journey to the plateau, he wondered how they could slow it down sufficiently to use it as an aerial observation device, and was eagerly shown something which caused him to rethink his assessment of these people.
They had anticipated the problem, and had solved it in the most ingenious way. The pilot climbed into the control pod on the front, and the engine hummed into life.
The big surprise was when wing suddenly split and grew to twice its normal width, and then moved forward, the surface area being increased two fold. It was easy to see that the lifting effect of the wing had now been increased considerably, and it would fly at a much lower speed.
The other big surprise was when Kal asked what the odd looking box slung under the belly of the wing was for. He remembered telling the engineers a long time ago when they had first discovered silver the basics of photography, and had thought no more about it. This box like device was a camera, but unlike any camera he had ever seen before.
There appeared to be no lens that he could see, or any other recognizable controls, and he looked forward to viewing the resulting pictures which he thought would probably be in colour, and they were.
Some three days after the team had arrived on the plateau, the roving rake device had done its job, and they were ready to fly the wing to locate the areas which hadn’t responded to the raking action of the hole searcher.
The little wing took off and climbed into the sky, circling to gain height, and then set off to fly up and down the area where the ground based searcher had travelled. By mid afternoon the wing had returned, and the pictures processed in one of the buildings alongside the main depot.
A series of pictures had been taken, most of which overlapped each other, and the team began cutting the edges off them so that they could be assembled into one big picture of the high plains area which had been under the search pattern of the hole locator.
It was plain to see nine circular areas which hadn’t responded to the raking action of the machine, and these were noted down in some sort of code which Kal didn’t understand, but the missile team certainly did.
A motor powered truck rolled onto the scene, loaded with the missile firing platform and a quantity of other odds and ends. Kal asked if he could go along with the team, and after some hesitation on the part of the team leader, he was allowed to do so.
Using the co-ordinates obtained from the aerial map, they drove straight to the first of the hidden hole creatures, and Kal couldn’t help feeling a bit sorry for them in a way, as they didn’t stand a chance against the little people and their newly acquired skills.
The truck stopped short of the circular area by fifty metres or so, and the team leader firmly instructed Kal to stay with the truck, while the missile launcher was carried by the rest of the crew to the centre of the circle.
They had figured out that the creature wouldn’t show itself unless there was enough bait waiting above the hole to make its appearance worthwhile, and they had deemed that three was a safe number. He hoped they were right.
The tripod was set up, and the controls fiddled about with for some time before they all ran
back to the truck.
A few seconds later there was a bright flash followed by a sharp concussion, as the peripheral charges blasted their way into what amounted to the top of the creature’s head.
Almost instantly, the creature reared up into the evening sky, and then there was a deep cough as the second missile which had penetrated deep down into the main body, was triggered by the wire.
The whole hideous thing toppled over to lay flat on the surface of the plain, as the momentum of its springing up from the hole carried it upwards far further than it would normally have intended.
Feeling quite satisfied with their work, the whole team retired to the main base for the evening meal, and to plan the rest of the extermination program which they would begin next day. Kal was impressed by the cold efficiency of these people, and was thankful they hadn’t appeared at an earlier time in the history of the universe, coupled with an aggressive attitude.
As there was little more Kal could do on the plateau at the moment, for everything seemed to be under the able control of the little people, he decided to return to the compound at the earliest opportunity.
The following day, the big wing was due to return home, and he boarded it knowing that the mining operation could well carry on without his help, although there were a few questions he would have liked answered with regard to the original operators.
The flight back was diverted from its normal course home so that they could take a look at the sea, which seemed to go on without interruption to the horizon.
The pilot was very skilful at using the upward drifting thermals to save fuel, so extending the range of the wing, and even after a long flight towards the horizon, they hadn’t found another shoreline.
There was something in the far distance, which looked like a haze, but it would take too long to reach, and so, a little disappointed, they turned for home.
They had just about reached the midway point on their return journey, when one of the crew called out to look below. A gigantic dull brown shape, fully eighty metres long, was ploughing its way through the sea.
A huge bow wave curled away from each side of it as it cleft the waters, and Kal marvelled at the size and power of the creature. If there was anything like it on land, they wouldn’t have stood a chance if it had been aggressive.
It was just as well they hadn’t taken to the sea in ships, as something this big would have posed a threat they couldn’t have hoped to cope with.
On the long journey back, Kal got to thinking about the three diverse races which had been on this planet. There were the little people, who for all intents and purposes, had no racial knowledge beyond just being there, and had then developed at such an astonishing rate, triggered by his intervention in their way of life.
And then there were the people who had built the water condensing cave with its little stream, which then evaporated back into the condensing cave again, for no purpose that he could see, and of course, the huge stone water pump they had found in their own caves in the cliffs.
It pumped the water up into a large lake, high in the cave complex, but why? It didn’t go anywhere.
The third, and he assumed, the most recent, were the people who had built the mining complex, and who, despite their advanced technology, were unable to combat the hole creatures. That was more than a little odd.
The mining set up must have been very expensive in time, labour and materials, and yet they had given it up so easily.
It didn’t make sense. Who the big block building in the desert belonged to may have been yet another group of people, but he didn’t think so somehow.
It seemed to have been built by the mining type people, but why was it so far away from the mining area, and no sign of anything else. And then there was the tunnelling machine they had found in the mountain. It seemed odd that there were no remains of bones or tools at any site.
The big wing circled around the compound, and swept in for a smooth landing, as always. They had a lot to talk about that night, one of the crossbreeds doing the interpreting for the now diminishing numbers of the original little people.
Kal still felt sad that they would soon be extinct, despite their acceptance of the event. Things had come a long way since their first meeting, so very long ago, but how long that was, measured in his years, he had no way on knowing.
And then he had the idea of giving a talk to the new generations of their history, how they had met, and the progress they had made together.
He mentioned this to the Council of Elders when they next met, and the idea was given a warm welcome. They would organize it, a feast to celebrate the changing point in their lives, and a history of their combined progress to date.
It was several days later when one of the Elders came up to Kal with an interpreter, and asked him to attend the big meeting that evening. There would be a feast, and then Kal could tell the story of their lives since they had first met, from his view point. Others would fill in some of the story from how they saw it, and someone would take notes so that a complete history could be recorded for the future.
Measurements somehow had been taken from his old clothes and a new set made for him, more like a military uniform than anything else, but very smart.
After the main meal was taken, the story telling began. Kal recounting his exploits from the moment of departure from the mining ship to the present day. After several other additions, Tibs arose and addressed the whole crowd ‘Let us always remember those who went before, they made us what we are today, and we are part of them as they are part of us. Let us honour them and hold them in high esteem, for they unselfishly gave their all, so that we could have that which we now have, and without their efforts we would be as nothing. Let not the passing of the old race ever be forgotten, for from it have come great things, and from them, through us, shall come even greater things’.
Kal’s eyes passed from moist to a full flow of tears as Tibs summation of their history hit home. He would miss the old race; they had a certain something about them that was special. For once, Kal didn’t mind his true feelings being seen by all and sundry, and he proudly held his head high as the tears coursed down his cheeks.
The Deep
So far, there hadn’t been any sign of the alien miners coming back to see how their mines were doing, so the operations continued as before, but as discretely as possible.
At one of the meetings, it was put forward that the control of the population should now be considered, as the amount of land to support them was finite, as far as they knew.
A subcommittee was appointed to look into the matter, and work out a suitable way of achieving a sensible balance between the available resources and the number of people which could be supported.
Kal’s hair was now reduced to a small fringe around his head, and this caused some amusement among some of the younger members of the science classes which he still held.
There had been no sign of baldness among any of the new race, and Tibs was now nearing the relative age when Kal began losing his hair, but so far there was no sign that he was going to follow suit, although he was now a grandfather.
The track way had been driven north, with respect to the original compound, and as the two new compounds had been well established and populated; it was decided to go south, towards the area where Kal had landed, so very long ago.
The big ridge barrier, which Kal had so much trouble getting through, was bypassed by driving twin tunnels through the massive cliffs after recovering the tunnelling machine they had found in the cave at the far end of the mountain chain. A small team had decked themselves out in thin lead suits for protection against the radiation which was coming from the tunnel Kal had made when experimenting with the machine.
Although they could use the machine, the technology was beyond their grasp as there was no way they could get at the working parts of it. It seemed to be made all in one piece, and the controls were just small metal plates which only needed the touch of a finger to activate
them.
There were no wires, knobs, wheels or other moving parts to be seen anywhere. When the frustration of not being able to acquire the knowledge of how the alien device worked had died down, they just got on and used it, knowing full well that one day they would gain access to its internal workings.
A flying wing had been sent eastwards, over the rolling deserts, over the plateau where the mines were, and out to the far edge of the land mass, which terminated in a sheer drop to the sea.
They had flown out over the sea for some distance, but no other land mass was found, so the general conclusion was that the land they were on was possibly the only land mass on the planet, and the careful husbanding of it was now of paramount importance.
The population level was now stabilized, recycling of most materials encouraged, and although there were some unpleasant plants and creatures to be found, they were given their own sanctuary as it was considered they too had a right to existence, especially as they were here first.
The only exception to this rule was when there was a genuine threat to life, but that wasn’t very often.
There were several more abortive attempts to get at the internal working of the alien tunnelling machine, but to no avail. A clue as to how it made the tunnels came to light when someone tried to cut the actual tunnel wall, and found they couldn’t even scratch it, no matter what they used.
The general conclusion arrived at was that it somehow altered the atomic structure of the rock, collapsing the space between the actual electron rings of the atoms, so creating a very hard and dense material, but it was only a theory.
Tibs was now the Chief Elder, and had been for some time, guiding the development of their world with a firm and steady hand. Kal still attended their meetings, but had very little to offer in the way of technical advice, as their sciences had far outstripped his knowledge.
The smelters and metal workers had devised a method of cold casting of whatever metal they chose. They had patiently tried to explain to Kal how it worked, but all he could grasp was that they had found a method of using an energy field to loosen the atomic bonding between atoms without generating heat, so the material flowed and set when the field was removed.
The Inosculation Syndrome Page 27