The Inosculation Syndrome
Page 30
More expeditions were planned to take place after a few modifications to the ship had been completed, and Kal was looking forward to this. Although life was comfortable and he lacked for nothing, he needed that little edge to things to really come alive.
Beyond
Micro electronics were developing at a rate which Kal couldn’t keep up with. They got smaller, more powerful and more diverse in their functions. Just what had he released on an unsuspecting universe?
The passing of Tibs hit him far more than he had expected. One day Tibs was discussing with him a new education system for the youngsters, which would filter out the brightest for intensive learning, and the next day someone came to him and said that Tibs was no more.
He had slipped from his body during sleep, the project completed and written up beside him, the writing stick lying on top of the documents, like a full stop. When working directly with Kal, he still used the old fashion method he and Kal had developed, more as an acknowledgement to Kal, than as a means of efficient data handling.
Kal tried to show as little emotion as possible under the circumstances, and it wasn’t until he was alone, sitting on the edge of his bed that the full loss of his one and only true friend caught up with him.
Calic, Tibs’s eldest son came and sat beside him, and with an arm around his shoulder, they shed their tears together, letting the grief charge run its full course.
Looking back on the incident, Kal realized that this was the first time he had seen real raw emotion from one of the new race, and he began to wonder if it was truly genuine, or had Calic dramatized that which he thought necessary for Kal to release his own pent-up feelings.
Kal sometimes wondered just how old he really was. They had patched up his body to a remarkable degree, replacing old joints where necessary, and goodness knows what else while they were at it.
His skin had gone very brown and considerably more wrinkled than it used to be, but he still felt quite bright, but not as quick in the mental department as he thought he should be. Thinking back to his first days here, he asked if he could once again walk up the old track leading from the landing beach, and into the forest.
A little party set off a few days later, and he was amazed to see that the area hadn’t changed very much in the intervening years, that’s if his memory could be relied upon. The Whip Trees still flourished, as did the bamboo clumps which had supplied his first drinking water, but of ‘Big Head’ there was no trace.
A small group of Finger Nut trees brought a smile to his face, and he asked for one of the nuts. Between them, they managed to scrape a few flakes from the hard kernel, and a roar of laughter broke the stillness of the grove as Kal’s face screwed up in disgust at the flavour.
‘How the hell did I ever think this was edible’ he asked no one in particular.
The ‘Leather Flaps’ were still up in their trees, waiting to drop on anything unfortunate enough to wander beneath them, and the occasional ‘Water Trap’ plant glistened in the sunlight, with its false promise of a drink.
It was some time later he found out that this area had been declared a ‘Nature Reserve of First Contact’, whatever that meant. But he took it as a sort of compliment to his arrival here, and left it at that.
Several more undersea expeditions had gone out, but he had been gently discouraged from going, as his body wasn’t really up to it now.
They did, however, show him pictures and samples of the wonders they had discovered, and explained everything in great detail. It was almost like being there, but without the blazing excitement of the actual discovery.
He had broken several bones of late, through tripping over things which he should have seen. They opened him up, and stuck the bones back together with some goo they had compounded for the purpose, but there was going to be a limit to what they could do with his old and failing body.
Kal spent more and more time in his room, thinking back over the old days, and recording his adventures from the beginning, just in case anyone might be interested.
His memory was still intact, and as he went through the early stages of his time here, he could almost smell the smells, and hear the sounds of his battle for existence.
They were good days, and he wouldn’t change them if he could. The excitement of his first meeting with the little people still sent a thrill through his rickety old body, and he could still hear the squeaks and whistles of joy which greeted him when they returned from their first expedition along the edge of the mountain chain. And then there was the first steam wagon, rattling and clanking its triumphant way along the old track on their first expedition.
As time went on, he wasn’t too sure what was present time, and what was memory, but it was all fun, just the same.
Kal wasn’t one to give up easily, but when his time came, he did. Lying on his bed one evening, he wanted to get up to urinate, but couldn’t raise himself.
He just couldn’t move any more, and he wet himself.
‘Oh no, this is too much’, and with that he slipped quietly from his body.
They held a national day of mourning. All work was stopped, and everyone stayed at home to think about the one who had given so much, and asked so little in return.
The governing body of the Scientific Research and Development Facility decreed that a museum of scientific development should be built to house samples of their progress from the very beginning. And so it was done.
Upon entering the main hall, the first thing one saw was a ten metre high holographic three dimensional projection of Kal in his middle years.
It was almost as if he was standing there, the eyes followed you where ever you went, and it was especially enjoyed by the younger ones. Below this, mounted on a plinth, was a solid block of a transparent crystalline material, in which the perfectly preserved body of Kal lay.
They had cleverly swept away the ageing of the last few years of his life, so that he looked not too unlike his projected image above.
Leading on from the plinth were replicas of the first bronze tipped spears, bronze pipes and simple pumps, a replica of the bronze steam wagon which had enabled their long expeditions to take place, and the lovingly restored first electrical generator, which on special occasions was run up to power a bank of the first florescent tube lights, to the amazement of the onlookers.
Bronze replicas of the original little people, Tibs of the new race, and a model of Kal stood in a little group, illustrating the main turning point in their history and progress.
Progressing on down the hall, were all the inventions which had made their life so very full and interesting.
Nearly a kilometre from the main entrance, they had just finished building the new extension, and were assembling a replica of the first space vehicle to orbit the planet and return safely.
Somewhere, deep in the Research Facility, there was a large blue white flash and an almighty thump. Some clever person had just discovered the basic principles of the Warp Drive......
The star drive wouldn’t follow until sometime later.
* * *
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