‘Looks like this sand is a lot sharper, the edges of the grains are like little knife edges as though whatever it came from has shattered instead of being worn down like normal sand.
‘We’ll have to take extra care when we come back, this stuff could cripple us if we’re not careful.’
The others exchanged glances, Ben being the only one who knew for certain Sandy’s intention to return.
‘Make sure you’ve got every little bit of this damn stuff out of your foot coverings,’ Sandy instructed, ‘we’ve a long way to go yet, and we can’t afford any delays with the water running low.’
Once they were under way again, the sore feet were soon forgotten and they returned to their normal marching pace, the kilometres speeding by.
They stopped for another break when they reached the fringes of the forested area, retrieving the huge nuts they had left where the forest spilled out onto the plain.
‘These should make a good addition to our diet.’ Sandy said, sharing out one of the broken nuts. ‘I didn’t notice any adverse effects when I tried it earlier, so it should be all right for the rest of you.’
‘You know, it reminds me of something,’ Ben said, chewing on the firm but succulent flesh of the nut, ‘but I'm damned if I can recall what.’
‘Know what you mean,’ one of the others replied, ‘pity we can’t get our memories back.’
I’m not so sure we can’t,’ Sandy said firmly, ‘I have recovered quite a lot, and I intend trying the same method on you lot, when we have time.’
They were about half way back between the forested area and their home valley, when Greg drew their attention to something large and dark, flying high in the sky above them.
‘I don’t like the look of that.’ he exclaimed.
‘It looks like a bird of some sort,’ Sandy said, and then had to explain to the others what a bird was, although Ben seemed to know after his furrowed brow relaxed a little.
The dark shape wheeled overhead, watching them.
‘I think it’s coming lower.’ Greg sounded nervous, and moved a little closer to the rest of the group.
Six pairs of eyes were hypnotically locked onto the ominous shape as it spiralled around, gradually losing height and getting bigger by the minute.
‘It’s difficult to tell just how large it is as there’s nothing to use as a reference point up there.’ Sandy was getting a bit edgy now, as with a twitch of its huge wings, the flying creature corrected its flight path to home in on the watchers below. ‘I think we’d better take cover, if we can find any,’ Sandy added, ‘it’s coming down quite quickly now.’
They turned as one, and ran for the rock strewn border along the cliffs, hoping to find a small cave or a pile of rocks in which to hide.
A deep whistling sound was just audible above their panting lungs as they reached the cliff face and scrambled in among the rocks, looking for a cavity large enough to hold them all.
‘This looks all right.’ Ben gasped, pointing to a small opening in the otherwise solid rock face. As they dived in, a small four legged furry creature shot out between Greg’s legs, bringing him down to his knees. Ben turned around, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him into the cave just as the whack whack of huge wings announced the arrival of the flying creature.
Sandy wriggled himself to the front of the petrified group, the laser weapon in his hand, and gingerly peered out of the cave. There was nothing to be seen except the nearby scattered rocks and never ending desert beyond, so he leaned out a little further. A metre long black curved beak slashed down from above, missing his head by millimetres and buried itself in the ground with a thud.
‘Bloody hell,’ Sandy exclaimed loudly, wriggling back into the sanctuary of the cave, ‘the bastard nearly got me.’
‘Shoot it,’ screamed Ben, who was next in line after Sandy should the beak reach into the cave.
Sandy took careful aim at the black scythe like mandible of the creature as it wriggled to free itself, and when the red dot showed clearly on the middle of the beak, pressed the firing stud a bit harder.
The faint hiss of the laser weapon was drowned out by a scream of pain and anger from the monster, accompanied by a loud crackling noise as the beak splintered into many fragments.
‘Give it another one,’ yelled Ben frantically, pushing Sandy forwards, ‘that won’t have killed it.’
‘I know,’ said Sandy calmly, ‘just wait a minute, and get back in. If we go out now, it could still get us, but if we wait it may move away, and then we’ll stand a better chance.’
They waited, huddled in the little cave, with barely enough room to move, not that they could move much as they were still paralysed with fear.
Sundry scratching and scraping noises drifted into the cave from time to time, but none dared stick their head out to see what was happening. Eventually the external noises died down, and Sandy drew his knife, using the polished blade as a mirror to see if the creature had moved far enough away for him to take another shot at it.
‘Can’t see anything,’ he said, ‘so I suppose it’s all right. I’ll crawl out a little way, and if things get hectic, grab my feet and pull me back in.’ First he poked this head out, looked around, and then quietly wriggled forward a metre or so, ‘Can’t see anything yet, but it could be hiding behind any of these large rock,’ he whispered huskily.
Sandy picked up a small stone and threw it at the nearest pile of rocks large enough to hide the creature. The stone rattled and clattered its way from rock to rock, but that was the only sound, and no ugly head reared up to see what was causing it.
‘I think it must have moved away,’ Sandy said cheerfully, hiding his inner fear, ‘you can come out now.’
One by one, the group emerged from the cave, each taking a good look around before exposing his body to possible attack, and straining Sandy’s patience almost to the limit in doing so, as he wanted to eliminate the possible threat to their survival and get back to the valley before nightfall.
When all six had assembled in a little clearing between the scattered rocks, Sandy suggested they climb the highest one for a good look around. As no one volunteered for the honour, Sandy took the hint and went himself. He called back from the top that there was no sign of the creature, as it had probably gone home to lick its wounds.
They regrouped and began working their way out of the rock field, and back to the open ground of the plain. A startled shout from Ben, who was bringing up the rear of the party, made them all turn to look.
Fifty metres away, the creature had crawled out from behind a rock hardly large enough to have hidden it, and was slowly humping itself along the ground towards them, its shattered stump of a beak making it look more comical than threatening.
Sandy stood his ground with legs splayed out to steady his balance, while the others quickly ran around behind him, uttering words of encouragement.
‘I’ll wait until it gets a little closer, as I don’t know how many shots this thing has left, and I don’t want to miss.’
‘It might have already run out of shots,’ Ben said nervously, ‘there’s no way of telling, is there?’
‘No,’ Sandy replied, taking careful aim, ‘and if it doesn’t fire, run like hell.’
The little tell tale spot of red light appeared on the creature’s head for a split second, then there was the faint hiss as the laser discharged and the creature’s head disintegrated in a mess of bone and flesh.
‘God, that’s horrible.’ Greg said quietly.
When the creature had stopped twitching and quivering, they went over to see exactly what they had killed.
The main body was some three metres in length, with a tail section of another two metres. Flat scales, which they later found were composed of closely compacted hair, covered the entire body of the creature, right up to the top of the neck where it joined the shattered head.
They estimated the wings would stretch out to some eight metres on either side of the body when in flight
, and seemed to be covered in some sort of tough leathery skin, Sandy’s knife hardly marking the surface when he tried to cut it.
A latticework of fine bones formed the main wing frames supporting the skin, and one of these had broken and now protruded through the membrane, the cleanly broken end showing a hollow structure.
‘I wonder how such a clumsy great thing could ever get airborne,’ Sandy mused aloud, ‘its legs don’t look long enough to give the wings clearance to flap.’
‘Perhaps it climbs onto something, and then jumps off.’ suggested Ben, and then wondered how it could haul its huge bulk onto anything high enough in the first place.
‘Well, that’s something else we’ll have to keep a look out for.’ said Sandy, as they resumed their march homewards.
The light was just beginning to fail as they climbed the last step in the long series of escarpments which led up to their valley. Waiting at the top, three of those who had stayed behind raised their arms in welcome, one of them immediately turning to run back to the main settlement to spread the good news.
Mop, quite unabashed, welcomed Sandy home with open arms, totally oblivious of those who stood around, some of whom dared to make suggestive comments, thereby forfeiting any chance of second helpings when there was a surplus.
The meal that night was something they would remember for some time to come, Mop having excelled herself yet again. The new sweet nuts the team had brought back suited everyone’s palate, and there was no shortage of volunteers to set forth and retrieve more, until the story of the bird creature was told.
By the time all the food had been consumed, and all tales told, it was quite late, and everyone was ready to retire.
Sandy surprised himself when he discovered just how pleased he was to be back safely in the ample arms of Mop.
He did his best to show that appreciation, much to Mop’s delight. Unfortunately, this set a precedent for future performances, Sandy realizing this too late to tone down the whole procedure.
The climate in the valley suited the plants they had brought with them, and they grew quicker and more prolifically than up in the crater.
Bell could now expand her gardening efforts on a scale never before dreamed of, and several more areas of land were enclosed with stone walls to protect the crops from some creature which no one had seen, but nevertheless ate anything unprotected.
Although no one kept a record of the passing days, as there seemed little point in doing so, it was noticed that the planet was subject to climatic change, something they had not experienced when up in the crater.
They had been in the valley for some forty days when Ben remarked that he thought the evenings were getting quite chilly, but not as cold as the nights up in the crater had been.
As the days rolled on, it became more evident that the planet was going through a cool cycle, and some means of heating the caves had to be found.
As there was no shortage of firewood, a large fireplace was constructed just inside the main entrance to the cave complex, a convenient hole in the rocks above taking the smoke and fumes away, leaving the radiant heat of the fire to warm the air in the caves to a tolerable level.
They awoke one morning to another surprise, the ground had been dusted with a fine coating of snow, which quickly disappeared. It was when someone had gone to the end of the valley to gather fruit, and had a good view of the plains beyond, that they came back with the startling news that the snow on the plains had not melted, and they were still a glistening sheet of white.
Remembering the effect cold could have on plants, Bell and her helpers quickly took their seedlings from the nursery beds and transplanted them into the old growing boxes, taking them into the caves at night.
As the days were noticeably shorter, more time was spent in the caves at night, and Sandy got on with his memory recovery program. Only a few were interested in the project to begin with, but when it became evident that old skills could be recovered, nearly all joined in with a degree of enthusiasm which surprised him.
Very little had been said about the alien craft they had found under the lava overhang, although Ben suspected Sandy still intended to visit the site again. He brought it up one evening when they were having a general chat, and Sandy admitted he was going back, just as soon as the snow layer on the plains below had cleared.
The Valley remained clear of snow, except for a little sprinkling each morning, but the plains did not appear to thaw, the snow building up each night until even the few rocky outcrops on it had disappeared under the dazzling white blanket, leaving a smooth uninterrupted surface.
At what they thought was the peak of the shorter days, the remaining cloud layer disappeared, leaving clear blue skies during the day and a brilliant display of stars by night.
What they found difficult to understand was the fact that there was now more heat from the sun, yet the snow on the plains did not melt. Sandy thought during the cool period all the moisture in the air condensed out to form snow, so exposing the world to the naked rays of the sun, but as the snow failed to melt under this extra heat, he was unable to explain how the process would reverse itself, and the cloud cover return.
One day, someone noticed a few dark patches on the otherwise unblemished snows of the plain. The cool period was coming to an end and rocks were increasingly exposed.
The snow was being absorbed back into the atmosphere and thin wisps of cloud began to form high above.
The usual dusting of snow in their valley failed to appear one morning, so the plants which had been so carefully nurtured during the cool spell were brought out for replanting, and everyone looked forward to the warmer days to come.
A few days later, and the plains had lost all their snow, trees in the valley burst into bloom, and new grass shoots sprang up replacing the old discoloured blades of last season.
Greg remarked one day that he thought it strange they had seen no rain, when it was obvious that moisture could condense out as snow. No one could offer an explanation which made any sense, and then two mornings later they were greeted by a thick white mist when they tried to leave the sanctuary of the caves, and were unable to go more than a few metres from the entrance.
The mist lasted for three days, gradually thinning to be replaced by a warm gentle rain. They got wet, but were at least able to harvest fresh fruit again, although it was last seasons, and often overripe.
The rain turned into spasmodic bursts of drizzle over the next few days, and then it was dry again, the cloud layer having stabilized itself for another season.
Once everything was back to what they assumed to be normal, Sandy tactfully broached the subject of the alien craft one evening, and his intention of visiting it once more.
‘What is to be gained from going there again?’ a somewhat conservative member of the group asked.
‘I have two things in mind.’ Sandy replied. ‘One, we could strip it for anything useful. It would be a good source of materials, and we could possibly learn something about the people who brought us here. The other is that we may be able to make it work again, it didn’t look too damaged.’
‘Do you then intend to go to other worlds?’
‘No, the craft wasn’t designed for interstellar travel, its smooth shape means it was for atmospheric work, probably journeying from the main orbiting ship to the planet’s surface.’ Sandy could feel resistance building to his plans.
‘If it would only work on this planet, what would be the point?’ Someone asked.
‘We could visit the rest of the world, and see if there is somewhere better to live. We could go up to the crater and see if there are any more people who would like to join us, that’s if there are any like us. There are many things we could do. A transport device like that could be very useful.’
After much discussion, it was decided to send an expedition composed of two parts. One party would stop off at the forested area where the nuts were found, look for anything useful to add to their food stocks, and collec
t more nuts if the nut throwers would co-operate. The other group going on to the ship, where Sandy would decide what to do it.
If Sandy’s team failed to return to the forested area within three days, the other group would then go on to the lava overhang to see what had happened to them.
Mop was not overjoyed at the idea of her chosen one exposing himself to the unknown dangers of the alien craft, but reluctantly gave in, realizing the nature of her man demanded an adventurous and inquisitive life.
The two groups set off the following day as soon as it was light enough to navigate the steep escarpments leading down to the plain, and made good time reaching their first objective. Sandy warned them of the accuracy of the nut throwers, the possibility of a visit from the flying creature’s relatives, and wished them good luck.
The alien craft was just as they had left it, and Greg wondered why no one had come looking for their lost comrades when they had failed to return to base.
‘How the hell could they see ’em under the overhang?’ was the short answer he got from Sandy, impatient to explore the inner working of the craft.
Ben was ordered to remove his footwear, and was then unceremoniously hoisted up to plant his bare foot on the sensor, the door obediently opened, and they were soon in the control room.
‘First we’ll have to get rid of these bodies,’ said Sandy, ‘or we’ll be tripping over ’em.’ The desiccated remains of the previous occupants were thrown out of the open hatchway, their bones making a strange rattling sound which echoed around under the vast overhang of the lava sheet.
Sandy tried pushing the many knobs and buttons on the control console, but nothing happened. It was Ben who found the main power switch, quite by accident.
‘I wonder why this bit sticks up?’ he said. A small square section of the control console was raised a few millimetres above the surrounding surface, and he put his hand on it.
There was a faint click, the square dropped level with the rest of the surface, and a deep humming sound came from below the floor. The huge viewing screen lit up, and they were looking out on the cliff face as though the front of the craft had suddenly gone transparent.
Extreme Difference Page 21
