‘I think we should hurry along to the vehicle at the end of the walkway, it looks as if the whole place is about to break up.’ said Glyn, already striding out into the darkness. The others didn’t need much persuasion, the rattle of their feet on the steel plates of the walkway told him they were not far behind him, and coming up fast.
In the dim light ahead of him he could just make out the shape of the vehicle they had been told to board. It was a large open truck mounted on rails, which then ran up a tunnel into the inky darkness of the mountain ahead.
They clambered on board, a little out of breath after the lengthy and speedy crossing of the walkway, the smaller children being passed up to those already in the truck.
‘How do we get this thing started?’ asked Arki, peering around in the dim light for some form of controls.
‘There’s a piece of metal sticking up at the front of the vehicle.’ someone called out.
‘Give it a wiggle,’ Glyn replied, ‘I don’t suppose it’ll do any harm.’
There were a couple of loud clicks, and the truck began to move forward, gathering speed as it entered the tunnel.
‘It’s come off in my hand,’ wailed the man at the front, ‘what shall I do?’
‘Keep if for a souvenir.’ someone called out, and a nervous ripple of laughter ran through the passengers as the truck rattled on into the darkness.
A small lamp suddenly came on at the front of the truck, lighting up the rough hewn rocky walls of the tunnel.
Although the lamp was a comfort in one way, it gave the illusion of travelling much faster than they actually were, and then Brendon began whimpering about feeling sick.
‘Stick your head over the side,’ someone unkindly called out, ‘the next protruding rock will cure it.’ This time there was no laughter as several others were feeling the same way as Brendon, but had the sense to keep quiet about it.
The truck rumbled on, the wheels squealing like a stuck pig as they teetered round bends and occasionally where the track had buckled over the years, they were thrown about, sustaining a few bruises.
The overall noise in the tunnel made conversation difficult, so only the odd shouted remark was heard over the rattle of the truck and the multiple echoes from the walls.
‘I think it’s slowing down.’ Glyn said, realizing that he didn’t have to shout any more to make himself heard.
‘Hope it’s not running out of power and we have to push it the rest of the way.’ Arki rejoined.
The truck finally slowed down to walking pace, and then stopped with a squeal of a breaking mechanism hidden somewhere beneath it. The tunnel had come to an end with a very solid looking steel door barring any further progress.
Arki clambered down over the side of the truck and approached the door carefully, not knowing what to expect.
‘There’s no obvious opening mechanism on this side, so how do we get out?’
Just then a muffled explosion from somewhere up ahead rattled the truck and its occupants, covering them in a fine dust which had collected in the roof structure over the years.
When the coughing and sneezing had stopped, and the complaints dwindled down to a mere few grumbles, the business of getting out of the tunnel had resolved itself.
With the squealing of ancient hinges, the huge door slowly lowered itself to ground level, letting in a blast of hard white light and causing a cry of dismay from the truck’s occupants.
‘Cover your eyes and turn to face the back of the truck. Your eyes will get used to the light after a while. When you feel ready, open your fingers just a little to let the light in, but be careful.’ Arki and Glyn had already done so.
By the time the last few travellers had got used to the new light level, the others had climbed down from the truck and assembled at the tunnel’s entrance.
They could hardly believe what they saw. The tunnel had exited on the side of a mountain, and below them a large lake of green water shimmered in the blazing heat of the naked sun. All around for as far as the eye could see, was a landscape of barren rock, stones and fine gravel. On the horizon, another mountain range shimmered in the heat, its outline seeming to waver about as though it were made from a turgid liquid, and was being disturbed from beneath.
‘We can’t go out there,’ someone commented, ‘we’d fry up in no time at all.’
‘I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks,’ said Glyn, ‘it’s the strong light which makes it seem so hot. Anyway, I don’t think we have any option, you might have noticed that the tunnel just behind the truck is now blocked off, so we can’t go back.’ No one had noticed the massive steel shutter which had quietly descended to cut off their retreat back into the mountain.
‘Well, let’s make the best of what we’ve got.’ said Arki, not feeling as confident as he tried to sound. ‘We have food, water and a selection of tools, according to the voice which sent us on this journey, so all we need to find is some shelter while we gather our wits and decide what to do next.’
The Journey Begins
A murmur of agreement rippled through the huddled group, and just to make sure they moved away from the tunnel’s entrance, a low rumble from within the mountain signalled that something was on the move.
‘Come on,’ called Glyn, already a few paces ahead of the others, ‘let’s get down to the water’s edge and see if it’s fit to drink, our own supplies are for emergency use only.’
They needed little encouragement as a section of the tunnel roof caved in to shower the stragglers of the party with dust and small stones.
There was no pathway down from the mountain, there may have been in the dim and distant past, but that was long gone now. Picking their way between large boulders, cracks in the ground and slippery scree slopes, they eventually reached a flatter section of the alien terrain and progress towards the distant lake speeded up.
As they approached the strangely shimmering water, it became apparent that it wasn’t actually green, but only looked so from a distance.
Arki was first at the water’s edge, waving the others back just in case it posed a threat in some form.
‘It looks clear and clean, but the bottom has a definite green colour to it. I’m not at all sure it’s safe to drink.’
The others crowded around, realizing that they were more thirsty than they had realized.
‘Perhaps if one of us takes a sip?’ someone suggested.
‘Who wants to try first?’ asked Arki, and they all took a discreet step back from the water.
Small wavelets sped across the surface of the lake to plop-plop rhythmically on the sandy shore, and apart from the breathing of the assembled group at the lake’s edge, that was the only sound to be heard.
‘This place is too quiet for my liking,’ said Glyn, ‘there’s something wrong about it, but I don’t know what it is.’
‘We’re used to the ever present background hum on the ship, maybe that’s what’s missing, although I must agree, this place does have an unpleasant feel to it.’ Arki had now stepped back a pace from the water’s edge.
While they stood around undecided what to do, the matter was taken out of their hands as a long grey green shape glided towards them just below the surface of the water.
It was about as thick as a man’s arm and approximately two metres long with a large flat head, two hooded jet black malevolent eyes stared unblinkingly at them, daring them to enter its watery domain.
Someone had picked up a small stone, and thrown it into the water just in front of the creature. As the missile touched the surface of the water, the jaws of the creature parted to display a hideous double row of razor sharp teeth, and it surged forward to grasp the stone and then spit it out, all in one continuous movement.
They all stood rooted to the spot, all thoughts of a drink from the lake forgotten. The creature slowly turned and glided back into deeper water, leaving the shoreline undisturbed and as innocent looking as it was before.
‘Bearing in mind how we rely on o
ther living things for our survival, that thing must do likewise, and maybe there are other larger creatures in the lake which use it for food. I’ll taste the water just to make sure it isn’t fit to drink, and then we had better find somewhere to shelter for the night.’ Glyn cautiously edged forward to the water’s edge, dipped a finger in and put it to his lips. The look of disgust on his face and the copious spitting out of the offending liquid confirmed once and for all that it wasn’t fit for drinking.
‘For this water to collect here, there must be a flow of water coming into the lake to make up for evaporation, so let’s go along the side of the lake to find it. It may be pure enough to drink.’ Glyn seemed to be the natural leader, and no one else seemed bothered to query it.
The little party moved off, keeping a few metres away from the lake’s edge as the ground was much smoother close to the water, and it made travelling that much easier.
After they had been walking for a while, the ground rose up from the lake to form a small cliff, and the long climb began. A few moans and groans from those who hadn’t bothered to keep themselves fit when on board the ship accompanied the rattle of small stones as the party scrambled up the ever steepening slope in the blazing hot sun.
At the top of the climb was a small plateau, with a sheer drop on one side to the lake below, which looked even greener from this angle, and another cliff towering up above them. At the end of the relatively flat section, the ground fell away again towards the level of the lake, with another rise in the terrain in the far distance.
‘As the sun is going down, we may as well stay here for the night,’ Glyn said, ‘and after a meal, we’ll plan what we are going to do. We can’t just stay here, the land is barren and when the food runs out, we’ll starve. We must find some area where we can harvest food as we did on board the ship.’
‘How do we know where to look?’ someone asked, ‘maybe it’s all like this, and then what’ll we do?’
‘Can’t answer that, it all depends on what we find, and where. There is life in the lake, so there should be other life as well. We’ll just have to look for it,’ Glyn replied.
‘Haven’t seen any plants as yet, do you think there’ll be any, somewhere?’ the same voice asked. Glyn didn’t answer.
Several of the party had already sat down on convenient lumps of rock which were scattered about the plateau, and the rest soon followed their example, the camp for the night had been established.
An excited call from Arki quickly got everyone’s attention.
He had disappeared into a pile of rock at the back of the plateau, only one leg sticking out to show where he was.
‘I think I’ve found some water, want to check it out Glyn?’
As Glyn wriggled in among the rocks beside Arki, the others crowded around the periphery of the opening, eager to see if it was drinkable.
‘It looks clear, and there’s no sign of the green colour we saw in the lake. Shall I try some?’ asked Arki.
‘Just dip your finger in and taste it first.’ advised Glyn, feeling he should do the testing.
‘It seems just like the water on the ship, as far as I can tell, there’s no nasty taste to it.’ said Arki.
‘Right, if you feel like it, scoop some up in your palm and hold a little under your tongue for about a minute, then spit it out. That way any contaminants it will be absorbed into your system quickly. If there is no reaction in half an hour, then it should be all right to drink.’ Glyn hoped he had given the right advice.
The pair scrambled back out of the rock pile and sat down with the others, all thirsty, dusty and tired. Two of the smaller children began crying, not understanding why they couldn’t have a drink despite their parents best efforts.
With the half hour up, according to the time keeper on Glyn’s wrist, Arki went back to the rock pile and quenched his thirst, smacking his lips as he emerged, which didn’t help the others who had to wait another half an hour to be certain there would be no reaction to such a large intake.
It was getting duskish when the time was up and Arki hadn’t keeled over, so Glyn gave the go ahead to drink. How no one was killed in the scramble to get into the rock pile was a miracle, as tempers were beginning to fray at the long delay, the reason not being fully understood by some.
As the water was only a small trickle and not easy to reach, it was some time before everyone had had their fill, and then the question of food came up.
‘Right, I’m going to open my pack first to see what it contains. Remember, these are emergency rations, and when they’re gone we have no more and no way of getting replacements.’ Glyn sounded very serious, trying to drive the point home well and truly.
He undid the clasp at the top of the pack exposing a folded data sheet. A quick glance at it told him he had better read it out loud to the others after they had eaten, and felt a little more secure in their new surroundings.
Glyn pulled out the first food pack, a squat square device with instructions printed on the top. In the failing light it wasn’t easy to read, but he did his best.
‘It says here, pull the tab at the top, extending the container to its maximum height, and fill with water to the level marked. Wait three minutes for the food to reconstitute. After eating, fill the container to the mark again with water and drink. This is a minimum liquid requirement. Everyone understand that?’ he asked, looking around. It seemed they did, and were eager to get on with it, a queue soon forming at the rock pile.
Scooping water from the little trickle in the rocks was inefficient and time consuming, and nearly as frustrating as waiting to see how Arki faired with his water test, but eventually everyone managed it, having little option.
Glyn waited for the caustic comments to fly forth, as the food wasn’t exactly what they were used to, but hunger had made the assembled company a little more appreciative than usual, and the only sound to be heard was the occasional click of teeth as a softer than normal piece of concentrate was encountered.
As they queued up to fill their containers to the required level with water, a little light conversation began, and Glyn then knew that the first day on Earth for the travellers had turned out quite well, all things being considered.
By the time all were seated again on their chosen piece of rock, it was too dark to read the data sheet he had found in his pack, so he advised the assembly that he would do so next morning, as it may contain some information to enhance their well-being in their new surroundings.
The temperature began to drop as the last flickering rays of the sun died, and darkness crept across the rocky landscape like a silent soft black cloak. One of the younger children began to whimper at the unaccustomed conditions, but a few soothing words from a parent eased the situation as they did their best to find somewhere not too hard to lie down on.
‘I think we should all huddle together to conserve warmth, don’t you?’ asked Arki quietly.
‘That’s a good idea,’ replied Glyn, ‘it could get a lot colder by morning and we’re not used to such temperature changes.’
‘I think you should put it to them, as you’re the leader,’ Arki added.
Glyn looked at him questioningly in the dim light, but Arki just nodded his head, firmly. Glyn cleared his throat nosily.
‘I hope I haven’t woken anyone up.’ and the chorus of groans with ‘you’ve got to be joking.’ confirmed the fact that he hadn’t.
‘May I suggest that we all huddle together to conserve warmth, it is likely that it will get a lot colder before morning, and as yet we have no way of protecting ourselves from such a heat loss. Place the packs in a line along there, as it will act as a wind break, and then lie down this side of it.’ A cool draft had begun to flow over the plateau, with the promise of more to come.
Once the shuffling and grunts as the odd stone found a soft body part died away, the occasional snore was the only sound to break the otherwise stillness of night, keeping those unfortunate enough to still be awake in that state.
&nb
sp; The early dawn found that a few, in the middle of the heap had slept a little, while those on the outside were distinctly bleary eyed and not a little grumpy.
Glyn had been one of the first to be up and around, and had managed to enlarge the tiny pool where the trickle of water had collected, so that is was now much easier to obtain a reasonable supply. He also reread the instructions of his food package again, and found that it was designed to provide enough nutrients to last for twenty four hours, not that it took away the pangs of hunger, which all were feeling.
It wasn’t long before everyone was ambulant, trying to get the stiffness out of their joints and a little warmth into their bodies by briskly walking up and down the plateau.
There were a surprising number of food pots in each backpack, and Arki and Glyn thought it might be judicious to start the day with a meal, just to get everyone in a good mood and feeling better for what they intended to propose.
A little queue built up at the watering hole when Glyn announced the good news, and soon all were munching away on their concentrates, grateful for something to fill their empty stomachs.
‘If you will all close around here, I’ll read out from the data sheet found in the top of my pack last night, I think it might contain answers to some of the questions most of you would like to ask.’ The sun had now broken the horizon, and a little warmth from its still weak rays cheered everyone up, and the group formed as requested.
Glyn cleared his throat, which was becoming a habit prior to making an announcement, and one of the younger children whether by design or accident, mimicked him with a degree of accuracy that brought a chuckle from some of the adults, and a resolution from Glyn not to do so again, if he could help it.
For this document to be available to you, there must have been a terminal breakdown in the project, and now is the time for the true purpose of the project to be revealed to you, the survivors.
A very long time ago, it was evident that Earth was going to be engaged in a war which would most likely terminate life as we know it.
Transplant Page 9
