Greenways
Page 17
The Great Ship got underway to vacate the solar system, leaving behind not the beautiful blue white planet of yesterday, with it’s patchwork quilt of golden brown and green lands, but a seething mass of dirty grey clouds, boiling up into the stratosphere to race along in the jet stream, later to deposit it’s deadly load of detritus over the tortured surface.
‘I very much doubt anything except the lowest forms of life could survive that.’ commented the Captain to no one in particular, and several officers on the bridge nodded in sombre agreement.
With the solar system fast receding behind them, the Great Ship ploughed on through space, gaining momentum as the Inter System Drive was cut in, accelerating almost up to light speed before using the Star Drive.
A team was set up to investigate the people rescued from the third planet, and this duly reported their findings, such as they were, to the Captain.
‘They are a very simple race, and I mean very simple.’ the team leader said. ‘They are basically humanoid in form, especially internally, but there the resemblance ends. They have a very simple language with few words or sounds compared to us, and although we have tried to decipher some of these sounds, they are of a very much higher frequency to ours, and so far we haven’t been able to make much sense of them.’
The team leader returned a little later, producing a thin information file which he presented to the Captain and said,
‘In here is all the data we have managed to extract from them to date, but I don’t think it will be of much use to anyone, except perhaps to enable a decision to be made as to what we will do with them. There is one interesting point, however, and that can’t be confirmed fully at the moment, but it would seem that they are on a degenerative downward spiral, becoming less mature with each new generation.’
The Captain somewhat surprised, raised an eyebrow saying,
‘That’s most unusual, can you account for that?’
‘Not really.’ replied the team leader. ‘The most likely reason for this would be inbreeding, and the conclusion we have come to is that they are somehow the leftovers from the race which built the device which sent the signals to us in the first place. What happened to them we don’t know, but perhaps there was a great catastrophe, involving copious amounts of radiation and this caused a new mutation to appear. It is only speculation at this time, and we can’t confirm it now due to what’s happened to the planet.’
The Captain looked saddened and pensive for a while, mulling over the alternatives open to him, and finally said,
‘I’ll send the data on to Home Base, and they can make the final decision, but from what you say, there is little point in taking them to Base, so we had better look for a planet on which we can set them down and give them a chance, the poor creatures deserve that, at least.’
‘One other small point,’ the team leader added, ‘some enterprising crew member managed to bring some of their native food aboard, and we have begun analysing it so that we can provide them with a synthetic version.’ The Captain nodded his approval of the action.
The reply from Home Base came back as the Great Ship was approaching a dense ribbon of stars and their accompanying planets. The Navigation Officer brought the message up to the bridge and presented it to the Captain.
‘They suggest we find a suitable planet which will support them and not interfere with any other life forms present, and leave it at that.’
‘That may not be as easy as it sounds, but I’ll have a search pattern set up right away.’ The Captain didn’t sound too hopeful of achieving this, as most planets which were capable of supporting life, already had it well established, and the introduction of a new variety would be bound to have some effect on the indigenous species.
Several suns where checked out for attending planets of a suitable nature, but nothing was found during the first sweep.
The Great Ship had by now reduced speed considerably to navigate safely between the closely packed stars and their planets.
Although she was fitted with the latest type of deflector shields, the crew always felt that little bit more vulnerable when journeying in such densely packed areas, the main reason being the danger of strikes from stray meteorites, which seemed to abound in such places.
At long last they found what they thought might be a suitable planet, and a vision probe was sent down to check the suitability for colonizing.
‘As you can see it is mainly water covered, but there is a long strip of land mass with mountains and a high plateau.
A section of desert with a green belt next to the ocean looks promising, so send the probe down there so that we can see if it is habitable.’ the Captain was pleased to have at last found somewhere to place his charges, and because of the size of the land mass, it probably wouldn’t contain too many advanced life forms.
The probe skimmed along a few metres above the surface of the planet, sending back pictures of its journey in real time, its sensors looking for any warm blooded creatures as it went.
‘The only life forms detected so far are fairly primitive, and our guests should be able to cope with them.’ the team leader stated. ‘Also there are plenty of trees, of a sort, which bear fruit and berries, and some strange looking bushes with pods which look very much like some of the pods brought up from our guest’s home world.’
‘That looks a suitable place then,’ the Captain said, pointing out a small plateau beneath a high cliff, ‘and it contains some caves by the look of it, so they can make their homes there, that’s if they don’t live out in the open. Was there any sign of habitable constructions back on their home world?’ he asked, wanting to make sure he had set up the correct conditions for the small people.
‘The only constructions we saw were those left over from the previous race, and they were mainly ruins. I suppose the small people could have lived in what was left of them, but as far as I can tell, they made no effort to build of their own accord.’
‘All right, set them down and we’ll keep an eye on them for a while. As long as there are no predators and they can find food, they should survive. While you’re at it, have a few of the crew build a small enclosing wall from those rocks, and if necessary open up some of the caves, it may give them an idea of what to do for themselves when we’re gone.’ There was something the Captain wasn’t happy about, but he couldn’t think what it was.
The little group were herded back into the planetary shuttle, the ports being blanked over to save them from the terror of space flight, and the journey down to their new home began.
The Navigation Officer burst into the bridge with little ceremony, and rushed up to the Captain.
‘After you approved the landing site for our guests, we sent the probe on to see what else we could find, and I don’t quite know what to make of the results.’
‘Well, what happened.’ asked the Captain, wondering if this was something to do with the unease he had felt earlier and a search for another planet would be needed.
‘We ran the probe up over the plateau just beneath the mountain range on the far eastern edge of the land mass, and found the remains of what looks like a mining operation.
‘It may not have been, but there were several large buildings and a fair amount of equipment left scattered about in various states of decay. I would think it had been abandoned in a bit of a hurry by the way things were left about, and probably some time ago by the degree of corrosion on some of the equipment.
‘But that shouldn’t affect our friends because of the intervening desert area, I don’t think they would be able to cross that.’ The look of relief on the Captain’s face was plain for all to see.
‘I agree with that,’ said the Navigation Officer, ‘but something else happened. The probe was detecting a series of low level heat sources from the ground in the area near the buildings, so we lowered it almost to ground level, finally landing it to pick up some samples of the sand and small stones to check for radiation as a possible cause. The next thing we knew, th
e probe had been tossed up into the air, caught in something, and then we assume, crushed flat. It was certainly the end of the signals from it.’
‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ the Captain exclaimed, ‘it was just ordinary looking flat sand and stones, and it up and chewed our probe into oblivion? What do you make of it?’
‘I don’t know. It’s never happened before, so we have nothing to go on. It can only be one of two things, a mechanical defence mechanism or some unheard of alien monster. I prefer the defence mechanism, myself.’
The Captain was thoughtful for a moment before saying,
‘Whatever our probe found, it is far removed from the site we will be using for the small people, and I’m sure they couldn’t get across the desert to reach the plateau, so I don’t think we have anything to worry about. Just make sure there’s nothing like that in the area we have chosen for them, they at least deserve a fair start.’
A second probe was sent down and the area around the chosen site was checked for any sing of the mystery ‘probe destroyer’, but there was no hint of any aggression towards the scouting probe.
The shuttle disgorged its payload, and the crew which had been sent to show how to build a defensive wall got to work.
The small people just looked on, whether they understood what was being shown to them was anyone’s guess, but the crew followed their orders to the letter, and did their best to demonstrate the art of stonewall building.
The caves were checked out for anything nasty which might have taken up residence therein, but all was well, and after a bit of pushing and shoving, the crew managed to get some of the small people to enter a cave and not rush out again in a blind panic.
By the time the shuttle had climbed back to the Great Ship, everyone was congratulating each other on a job well done, and a degree of genuine interest in the small people had developed.
It was the general intention to orbit around the planet for a while to see how its new incumbents managed, and then report back to base for new instructions.
After five ‘days’ of the planet’s time, and several deaths due to eating the wrong fruit, it seemed that the new locals had found out what they could eat safely, but at a price.
The team on board the Great Ship reported back to the Captain that all seemed well down below, and they prepared to leave the small people to their own devices, hoping that nature would now take care of her own.
A few rudimentary tools made by a kind engineer and left in the fond hope that some among the tribe would find a use for them, but it didn’t seem likely from the response the crew got when they presented their departing gifts.
After one final check to see that all was well, the Great Ship left its orbit around the planet, accelerated out of the solar system and headed out into deep space, its primary function completed.
The tribe had lost quite a few of their number before they finally found out which fruits, berries and pods they could eat safely, but having done so, set about organizing themselves into coherent working groups, continuing to build the defence wall and cleaning out enough of the caves to house them all.
Unfortunately, long ago, Moss, Kel and Jay hadn’t bothered to set up the Story Teller routine, too busy were they in propagating their numbers, and just having a good time.
There was now little of the tribe’s history being passed down, so they had no idea of how they had originated, or from whom. Only recent happenings were recalled with any clarity, and they didn’t seem to last very long.
Here was food aplenty for them to gather, and a supply of clean drinking water was found in a large rock cluster not far from their encampment, so their basic needs were fulfilled.
During the daylight hours, all was quiet and relatively peaceful, but the noises of the night set many a tooth on edge, and rumours were soon flying around as to what could be making such a din.
The night time screams did at least serve one useful purpose, it kept the tribe well within their compound during the nocturnal hours, as no one would dare to leave their haven and run the risk of adding to the hideous cacophony of sounds which often rent the hours of darkness.
Slowly the tribe’s numbers began to build up, until there was not really enough room for them all to find sleeping quarters in the caves, so some had to sleep outside in the open. This didn’t go down well after one of their number disappeared one night, and then someone remembered how the Giants who had brought them here had enlarged one of the caves by scraping at the walls with a long blade.
A blade was found among the artefacts left behind by the crew of the Great Ship, although it seemed a little smaller than the one used by the Giants.
Once the initial surface had been cut through after much effort, the softer lime and sandstone mix beneath gave easily to the hacking of the steel blade, and the newly cut surface later hardened due to the reaction with the atmosphere.
Once they had got the hang of it, cave enlargement went ahead at a great pace, and soon everyone had a retreat from the dreaded horrors of the night.
As the tribe’s numbers increased still further, a form of job allocation became apparent.
The largest of them becoming guards, armed with stones and the largest sticks they could find, to protect the smaller ones from any predators which they might encounter while food collecting or going to the water pool in the rocks.
So far, no one had actually seen anything of the night beasts, but they knew they existed and were taking no chances.
It was a pity that the skills of the original three hadn’t been passed on down through the generations, and a series of Story Tellers set up, but nature, for want of a better word, had a way of correcting things, no matter how badly man has messed them up.
Once she had got life started, no matter what disaster struck, some way was found, some rule bent, so that it could carry on.
And so it was to be with the small people, but a little time would have to pass before the next phase of her great work could commence.
* * *
Other stories by
D. B. Reynolds-Moreton
from sci-fi-cafe.com
Fully Guaranteed
Transplant
Greenways
The Inosculation Syndrome
The Single Twin
The Martian Enigma
The Seed Garden
Of Wood, Metal and Glass
Sweepers
Extreme Difference
Exchange Rate
Also Available
from sci-fi-cafe.com
www.sci-fi-cafe.com
The Voice
William L.K
Buy now from Amazon
SPECIAL EDITION: Includes two bonus short stories
A man finds himself floating offshore looking back at a destroyed city. He has no memory of what happened, what his name is, who he is. The few survivors he meets also share the same memory loss. Confused, they travel the one undamaged road towards the truth, guided only by The Voice.
The Eye of the Storm
William L.K
Buy now from Amazon
The Stritonoly Chronicles: Book one.
Dmitri, son of the Czar of Stritonoly, driven insane by the forbidden poison of the slave-race Acidel sets in motion a catastrophic chain of events. A terrifying and eternal force stalks the forest nearby as a storm of epic proportions gathers over the Citadel.
Barok's Exodus
William L.K
Buy now from Amazon
The Stritonoly Chronicles: Book two.
Continuing six years in the wake of the night of treachery and the greatest storm Stritonoly has ever seen.
Princess Becki has grown in these years. She learns that her powers over the men that hold her captive may bring her what she has been waiting for, and more.
As the story unfolds Barok discovers a terrifying truth about himself.
The Last Czar of Stritonoly
William L.K
; Buy now from Amazon
The Stritonoly Chronicles: Book three.
The explosive finale to the Stritonoly Chronicles series.
The prize of ultimate power on Stritonoly is at stake as Strito with Princess Becki at his side lays siege to the citadel.
Barok emerges, transformed again and returns to the Citadel to make amends to his wife and to the Acidel - but their very existence hangs in the balance as Gunther unveils his terrible plan to destroy Strito's army.
Elysium Burning
DDD Bryenton
Buy now from Amazon
The Alter Inferno Complex: Book One.
The human race tore itself apart during the Age of Judgment... We unleashed enough firepower to vaporize whole nations, poisoning the Earth and grinding civilization down.
Then came word of the Last City. A new Elysium welded together from the carcass of our old technology. A place ruled by a god-machine named Kronos, Guardian Engine of Humanity..
The Chains of Tartarus
DDD Bryenton
Buy now from Amazon
The Alter Inferno Complex: Book Two.
In the depths of the inferno, suffering and survival are one and the same... So when a renegade xenotech finds the means to end a war of utter genocide, the fate of one planet means nothing.
Too bad it's ours.
If you're a fan of Gibson or Banks then this is for you.
Soulcrusher
DDD Bryenton
Buy now from Amazon
The Alter Inferno Complex: Book Three.
The third and final book in the Alter Inferno trilogy.