Greenways

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  Moss bravely passed through the inviting open doorway and into the tunnel beyond, Kel and Jay, without really knowing why, stepped back a few paces, and the door hissed shut.

  Kel was about to move towards the door when Jay’s restraining hand held him back.

  ‘Let Moss have a chance to open it from inside.’ she said quietly.

  They stood there for what seemed like ages, and then the door opened again, a grinning Moss standing just inside.

  ‘There you are, just as I thought, we can go in and out quite safely. Come on, lets see where this tunnel goes.’ and he turned and strode off down the passage, a noticeable swagger in his footsteps.

  By the time Kel and Jay had plucked up enough courage to follow Moss, he had disappeared from sight around a bend in the tunnel, and they had to run to catch him up.

  As they progressed down the passageway, the lights behind them went out, other lights coming on ahead of them to illuminate their way. Before long, they were taking it in their stride as they went ever further into the deeply buried Radio Telescope complex.

  For a very long time the complex had been seeking out any sign of radio activity in deep space, and whenever the circuits considered a signal had been located, it sent out its own signal in the same direction.

  The whole system had been set up to work automatically, powered by the lightning converters, and had done so faultlessly since it had been first constructed.

  There was no way of knowing if the signals sent out had been received by anyone, until a reply came in, nor did the complex really care, it just did what it had been set up to do, and kept doing it.

  The Contact

  Something, somewhere, deep in the Milky Way galaxy, had picked up the signals from earth, decided they were not just random transmissions from a pulsar and relayed the data forward for evaluation. A reply was sent, and the long wait began as the series of electromagnetic pulses sped across the intervening space to Earth.

  The Radio Telescope received the reply, recognized it as being a response to its original message, and sent back an acknowledgement. It didn’t understand one electron of the message it had received, it didn’t need to.

  Messages flashed back and forth to the planetary base, decisions were taken, the great ship turned on its axis and began its long journey to a faint star on the rim of the galaxy.

  * * *

  The tunnel down which the three had gone terminated in a large hall. From this, many doors lead to other passageways and in turn to many other rooms.

  The first few doors Moss tried to open, wouldn’t. Some had restricted access, not recognizing Moss or the others as approved entrants, or the selection mechanisms had broken down over the intervening years, and would admit no one.

  One door did open to Moss’s endeavours, and they all passed through its portal to gasp in amazement at the room’s contents.

  Pictures around the walls showed the giants at work and play, huge constructions in glittering steel and stone adorned the otherwise tranquil scenes of the countryside, but a countryside totally unfamiliar to the three.

  A series of bench tops jutted out from the walls, and these displayed various pieces of equipment in varying stages of decay, corrosion and general breakdown of materials not designed for extreme longevity.

  Few were recognizable to them, let alone the uses to which they would have been put, but at long last there was irrefutable proof that the giants had existed, and built many wonderful things as the legends had stated.

  A few tools in a crumbling toolbox had survived, and Moss gathered these up not knowing what they were for, but convinced that he could put them to good use one day.

  Returning to the main hall, they found two more doors which yielded to their efforts, one led down to the power room, but a strange smell assailed their nostrils as they were about to enter the enormous cavern. Jay didn’t recognize the odour of ozone, but pleaded with Moss and Kel not to go any further into the place,

  ‘It dangerous here, I feel it.’ was all she would say, and they retreated back up the stairs to the hall.

  Moss was keen to explore until he dropped from fatigue, but the other two were soon bored with the overwhelming non comprehension of what they saw, and wanted to return to the more pleasurable grass clad plateau by the old water cistern.

  Most of the snow had melted by the time they got back to the cave entrance, and it was decided to return to the lower levels of the plain and make their main camp by the remains of the water cistern they had found earlier.

  At Moss’s insistent request, they returned to the Radio Telescope complex twice more over the next few days, discovering several more accessible rooms much to Moss’s delight, but Kel and Jay had little interest in looking for things they could see no use for.

  Before long, Moss started visiting the complex on his own, and as time went by he became more and more withdrawn and sombre in his attitude towards the others, not that they seemed to mind very much.

  Nature was beginning to take a firm hand with their hormones and Kel and Jay were becoming inseparable.

  Jay’s natural instinct to find food which was safe for them all to eat added several new items to their diet, their health and general well-being improving beyond all measure.

  A crude shelter was constructed in among the jumbled concrete blocks of the water cistern to provided a reasonable form of protection from the torrential rain which swept in from the sea every few days, although sometimes they just cavorted about in the downpour for the fun of it.

  The thunder and lightning caused a degree of fear for Kel and Jay, and they took shelter whenever it was particularly fierce, but Moss largely ignored it, as he realized that most of it was collected by the lightning attractors high up on the mountainside, and therefore wouldn’t affect them at this low level.

  The time came when nature decided to take a hand in the proceedings, and Jay became even more attentive to Kel’s wishes.

  Snuggling up to him one cold night, the inevitable happened and next day a completely unabashed Kel remarked, ‘What we did was so much better than what happened when Moss and I were with your group of females so long ago, I had no idea it could be so pleasant.’ Jay just smiled, remembering how the two lads had been rushed from hut to hut in a drug induced stupor by a desperate bunch of broody females, blindly intent on changing their status to that of motherhood.

  Many were the pleasurable moments shared by Jay and Kel, while Moss went about his business of exploring the labyrinth of passageways and rooms of the complex in the mountain. He showed no interest in Jay, except as another companion, and a rather simple one at that.

  Moss suggested they set out to explore the surrounding countryside a little more, and later, from a high vantage point they were amazed to find they were on an island, with no other land in sight.

  Kel and Moss had earlier discussed at length what they should do with regard to trying to get back to their home land, mainly in order to report to Mec, but now they realized the chances of achieving it were so remote as to be not really worth considering.

  After much discussion, the general conclusion was that they were trapped on this island, and the only sensible thing to do was to start a group of their own, and as Moss said,

  ‘That’s your job. Anyway, I didn’t like the last time we tried it, and I’m much more interested in what the giants have been doing in the past.’

  Kel didn’t bother to explain the difference between the two ‘times’, as somehow he didn’t want to share Jay with anyone.

  The gestation period was a lot shorter than expected, not that they knew a lot about the birthing process, and when in a more jovial mood, Moss made many jokes about Jay eating too many ripe fruits and filling up with wind.

  The birth was without problems, and Kel and Jay were thrilled to bits with the little one, Moss merely remarking that it was a bit wrinkled and needed drying out in the light of the Greater Sun for a couple of days.

  While she was still feeding
the little one, her stomach began to swell again, this being greeted by more ribald comments from Moss, and a lot of tender loving care from Kel, who tried to make up for the somewhat disinterested and nonchalant attitude of Moss.

  Something he couldn’t understand had been worrying away at the back of Kel’s mind, and it was when Jay was with her third child that Kel took Moss to one side one day.

  ‘Do you remember the law we had back in our groups that we mated with someone from another group, and never with one of our own?’ Moss nodded, wondering what was coming next.

  ‘Well, there must have been a good reason for that law to be enforced so rigidly, what do you think it was?’ Kel asked.

  Moss had no idea, or if he did, he wasn’t going to offer it.

  It was Jay who put Moss on the spot one day, by asking him if he would mate with her next time, as she somehow felt that was the right thing to do, but didn’t know why. A rather reluctant Kel agreed with her, and between them they persuaded an even more unwilling Moss to do the honours.

  Jay later confided to Kel that he was much better at ‘it’ than Moss, which restored Kel’s feeling of manhood and partnership more than anything else she could have done.

  When the twins were born, Moss was just as surprised as any of them, and tried his best not to show the interest he now felt in the double production.

  A second set of twins, initiated by Moss, really put Kel’s nose out, and that was the last time he was allowed to mate with Jay. At least for some time.

  It mattered little really, as nature had achieved her aim of mixing the available genes up as best as possible, and time would tell if it had been done sufficiently.

  It was during the arrival of the tenth birthing and the partnering up of the first, that Moss went missing. He was dearly loved by the youngsters, forever telling them tales of high adventure and mystery, despite his apparent reluctance.

  The whole group searched in all the places he was known to frequent, some of the males from the first generation joining Kel to look deep within the mountain complex.

  The conclusion they came to was that he had gained access to a room somewhere, and couldn’t get out again.

  The possibility of him being attacked by some ferocious beast was ruled out, as there were none found on the island.

  Several days of looking produced no clue as to what had happened to him, and the search was abandoned, but he lived on in their memories for a very long time indeed.

  * * *

  The Great Ship had begun its deceleration manoeuvres when the Navigation Officer went to the Captain and said, ‘It would seem that we are not the only visitors to this system. There’s a rather large asteroid heading in, and according to some rough calculations I’ve just done, it should graze the surface of the planet we’re interested in, the third one in from the sun. If this is the case, it will probably increase the spin rate of the planet and strip off some of its atmosphere in passing. If it hits the planet, we have wasted our journey, but at least we’ll see the biggest pyrotechnics display of all time’.

  ‘How soon can you be certain of the exact degree of contact?’ asked the Captain, clearly disappointed at the news.

  ‘In another four or five ship hours. By then, there will be enough data to plot the course accurately, and I can advise you of the most probable outcome of the encounter.’ The Captain nodded his acceptance.

  The Great Ship approached the third planet from the sun, matched a stationary orbit over the island containing the Radio Telescope, and sent a vision probe down to see in finer detail what was there than was possible from the ship.

  ‘I now have the latest figures for you,’ said the Navigation Officer, ‘and the news is not good for the future of the planet.

  ‘It would seem that the asteroid will only graze the planet’s atmosphere as I predicted earlier, but this will cause a great deal of secondary damage due to the extremely high stress levels in the planet’s plate zones.’

  ‘According to the readings I have just obtained, the internal forces have been building up for a long time, and only need a little nudge to set them off, and then the whole surface will be in for some very big changes.’

  ‘How much time do we have before the event occurs?’ asked the Captain.

  ‘About four ship watches, and that leaves a very small margin of safety.’

  ‘All right, here’s what we’ll do. The probe should be down there by now, so we’ll take a look and see if there are any people on the site who we can rescue, and if so, we’ll send down the largest shuttle we have and bring back as many as possible. We at least owe them that much for their efforts in trying to contact others.

  ‘I wouldn’t give much hope for any other people on the surface after the asteroid’s bypass, if the tidal waves don’t get them, the volcanic gasses released after the continents relocate surely will,’ the Navigation Officer looked saddened at the prospect of such destruction, and so little hope of help.

  The probe came in over the sea, giving a good view of the island and mountains beyond, and then slowed down to hover over the old water cistern where a large group of the hairy little people had gathered to enjoy their midday meal.

  No one noticed the sleek silver craft as it slowly drifted up the plateau to home in on the vast aerial set in a valley between two mountains.

  Having located and confirmed the signal source, the probe was brought down again to the plateau, and a close up of the group around the cistern was sent back to the waiting ship.

  ‘These primitive looking people can’t have been the builders of the transmitter,’ the Captain said, disappointment in his voice, ‘so where are they?’

  ‘We have just done a preliminary radiation scan of the planet’s surface which shows that atomics have been used rather liberally in the very distant past. The scars show up all over still, so it must have been a very heavy situation,’ the Navigation Officer responded, ‘perhaps these are the mutated remains of the master race which wrought so much destruction.’

  ‘You could well be right. It won’t be too much trouble to bring them up, and we may learn something from them. Would you see to it please?’ The Navigation Officer bobbed his head in acknowledgement of the order.

  The vision probe was recalled, and the shuttle with a full crew aboard departed for the planet’s surface with instructions to round up as many of the small people as possible in the short time available.

  The shuttle landed almost silently just below the brow of a small rise in the ground next to the old cistern, and the crew dispersed to encircle the group of natives, and hopefully shepherd them towards the rescue craft.

  At first, there was panic. Once the initial shock of seeing the giants was over, and they were released from their paralysis, the little ones scattered, but this had been anticipated and most of them were guided back to the water cistern remains, and the crew leader speaking in a soft voice, tried to tell them why they were here.

  He was wasting precious time, for they understood not one word, huddling together like frightened little animals, as the huge creature before them made strange noises.

  ‘OK, let’s get ’em aboard, they don’t understand a word I’m saying, but it was worth a try. Be as gentle as you can, but get ’em in quickly.’

  The circle of men tightened around the little group, and gradually they were herded towards the brow of the hill.

  As they saw the shuttle a fresh wave of panic set in, and the crew only just managed to keep control as they darted about, seeking a large enough gap between the encircling crew members to run through.

  One of the crew, seeing a large basket of fruits and pods, had picked it up, and this somehow had a calming effect on the small people, so several others of the crew did likewise, one of them waving the basket about as he went up the ramp into the shuttle.

  Once the first two or three had been coerced to enter the ship, the others followed quickly, the ramp was withdrawn, the hatch closed, and they lifted clear.

&nb
sp; The shuttle returned to the Great Ship in what can only be described as indecent haste, and began disgorging it’s cargo of trembling visitors as the Great Ship moved out to a safer orbit, such that it wouldn’t be affected by the coming events planet side, and the asteroid would pass harmlessly by.

  As the asteroid approached the planet, smaller fragments which had been held close to it by gravitational forces suddenly responded to the greater pull of earth, and began their curving descent to the surface. The main body, as predicted, just grazed the atmosphere and proceeded on its way, stripping off some of the atmosphere in the process, to no doubt return one day and wreak further havoc once again on the luckless planet. It was the smaller fragments which were to cause so much damage.

  Those which hit the sea caused vast tidal waves to course around the planet for days, sending up huge volumes of water high into the upper air and increasing the cloud cover on a large scale.

  The land’s surface was ripped open by a torrent of white hot fragments travelling at colossal speed, their energy expended in one frightening microsecond of impact.

  Shockwaves travelled through the planet’s crust, upsetting the delicate balance which had been on the edge of de-stressing itself for a long time, and now had been given the impetus to do so.

  Volcanoes spewed forth from their fiery bellies great quantities of molten rock, and pyroplastic flows of fine particles cascaded down their sides to smother all before them. Steam, ash, and scalding hot corrosive gases escaped from their deep imprisonment to join the already billowing clouds of water vapour from the riven seas, the released aerosols would stay airborne for a very long time indeed.

  All along the fault zones the earth split open to disgorge its molten interior, and where these splits occurred beneath the boiling sea, and the initial pressure had spent itself, the great weight of the ocean forced itself into the fissures to hit the molten rocks below.

  The ensuing explosions must have deafened any remaining life forms, so thunderous where they, and the seas boiled afresh at this new assault.