The Inosculation Syndrome

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  They had done it. The only thing that now remained to be done was to find a means of controlling the energy flow to the tubes, so that they wouldn’t burn out, as the first one did after a few hours.

  Kal handed the whole project over to the engineers; or rather he liked to think he had done so. A new team was put together, and light tubes began to appear in the caves, one after the other.

  Sometime later, unknown to Kal, the engineers had constructed a new generator with more windings on it, so that it would provide a higher voltage just for the lighting system.

  Lights were everywhere, and when they showed a slight dimming due to there being too many on the system, another small generator was added for that sector.

  Sooner or later Kal knew it had to happen. A meeting was called with the elders, and the proposition was put to him again about the breeding program.

  He could see the sense of it, and could not fault their logic, but somehow didn’t like the idea. The arguments went back and forth, except that he was hard pressed to offer a good reason for not embracing the idea wholeheartedly.

  Once again he implied that he would give it some more thought, and that was the end of the matter, although he suspected it was not really so.

  The lighting system was now almost complete, insofar that every cave had its own lights, complete with switch, and flood lights were fixed all around the inner compound so that life could go on after the sun had gone down.

  The waste water from the generators was fed to a huge pool at the bottom of the main compound, and from there it went into channels to water the fields below.

  The increase in water produced a corresponding increase in crops, so nothing was wasted, and everyone gained.

  The heavy load on the water supply worried him, but although it didn’t seem to alter the flow, Kal was concerned that one day their demand could exceed the supply.

  To this end he suggested that they explore the source of the water if they could find it, and make sure that it could replenish itself adequately.

  A team assembled, and they entered the tunnel system which led to the water supply. Kal had not realized that the new supply was piped from deep within the cliffs, and came from a level high above them.

  This explained the force behind the water, and the small amount that was needed to drive the generators. Massive bronze pipes, with flanged connections, led them deep into the system to a point where they went vertically up a natural channel which disappeared into the darkness above them.

  A series of ladders led them up beside the pipe to a dizzying height and eventually led out to a gigantic underground lake.

  The light from their lamps could only light up a very small portion of the area, but it was obvious to Kal that this was very big indeed.

  They could not see where the water came into the lake, or where it left when it was full, but then they could only see a little of the whole cavern.

  The end of the pipe dipped below the surface and Kal bent down to see how far it went under the water.

  He was immediately pulled back from the edge, and only just in time, as a pair of jaws large enough to have sliced him in two broke the surface of the dark waters.

  Kal wondered how many of the little people had met their fate setting up the pipe system, especially the section that went under the surface of the lake. There must be other life forms in the water to sustain a creature as big as the pair of jaws which tried to get him, also there had to be a constant supply of food coming into the lake to keep the whole ecosystem going. Interesting things to find out, some day.

  Kal was a little disappointed to find that the little people had done so much work unbeknown to him, and they hadn’t even bothered to mention it.

  Was it that he didn’t matter to them anymore? Or did they think it was not important to tell him, as they just seemed to get on with any project which they were interested in and made very little fuss about it. He felt left out somehow, and didn’t like it.

  They made their way back down to the base of the tunnel system, and Kal suggested that they go a little deeper into the caves to see if there was anything else of interest. They agreed, and set off at a brisk pace, which suggested to him that they had been this way before.

  They had been travelling for some time when they came across some more of the glowing lichen, but this time it was of a different colour, and further on yet another colour change. This excited the group, and Kal couldn’t see why it should do so. It was, after all, just a lichen growth on the wall of a cave.

  ‘What’s the big deal’ he asked himself, and as usual, got no answer. Samples were taken of each colour, and then they all proceeded on down the tunnel, twittering away among themselves as if they had just discovered the meaning of the universe.

  A deep thump, thump became apparent after a while, and the pace slowed down to take into account anything which might contain a surprise.

  ‘At least they haven’t been this far before’ he thought.

  The further they went, the more pronounced the noise was, not louder so much as clearer. And then they were into another huge cavern. Before them was a construction that beggared belief.

  A vast shaft rose up above them to disappear into the darkness, and it continued on down below the level of the ledge they were on.

  Set in the middle of the shaft were massive blocks of black stone which rocked back and forth, one above the other, until they went out of sight above.

  They could only look down on a few of the blocks before the light from their lamps faded into the darkness below, but what they could see was enough. Each block had been hollowed out into three sections with two of the sections seemingly joined somehow.

  Water flowed into one section and out again into the other, forcing the massive block to rock about its middle for about two metres, with a deep rhythmic thump.

  As it did this, water in the other section was somehow forced up and into a channel in the shaft wall where it swirled around and into the block above.

  The water was going uphill in effect, driven by the force with which it was expelled from the chamber below.

  The seemingly impossible was happening, and they all stood transfixed to the spot, watching it happen before their eyes. The rocking blocks cascaded down, one below the other for as far as they could see, and carried on above them into the blackness of the shaft.

  This was most likely the pumping system for the lake above, but who had constructed it, and why expend so much effort just to fill a lake in the middle of a mountain, albeit a very big one.

  Kal couldn’t quite understand how the whole system worked, although somehow he felt he knew, but the bits didn’t quite add up to the whole. Was there something else powering the monster pump which he couldn’t see?

  Or was it just water power. He knew that two litres of water falling a certain height would push one litre of water up higher than the original two litres were to start with, but the power loss was quite heavy, and he couldn’t see how such a loss could be sustained in a huge system like this, and still deliver water at the top. No, there had to be something else in the equation, but he just couldn’t see it.

  They had at least solved the problem, if one had existed, of the water supply. He didn’t think they needed to worry about that again, or at least not until the colony had at least quadrupled in size, and that wouldn’t be for quite a while.

  As there was nothing else to do other than marvel at the giant water pump, they decided to return to base, and look out for anything else of value on the way.

  They hadn’t gone far, when a side tunnel which had been missed on their way in because of its oblique angle to the main passage, came to light. It just had to be explored, there was something inviting about it, and then Kal felt something trigger in his memory.

  He shouted a warning to the others, making his voice as high and squeaky as possible, and they all halted, looking a bit surprised. He tried to explain that there was danger here, but didn’t know what it was.


  They proceeded slowly for about fifty metres, but nothing untoward happened, and the pace quickened. Kal still felt that they were being lulled into a false sense of security, but could not justify his feelings.

  The tunnel opened out a little, and ahead of them they could see a dim light.

  ‘It couldn’t be an exit, as we are too far within the cave complex, so it must be a luminescence of some kind’ he thought.

  As they approached the glow they could see that the light came from what could only be described as a profusion of flowers, cascading down the walls in glowing colours, and such pretty ones too, he was almost sure that he could smell the scent of them, yes he could, it was lovely ..... and then the alarm bells rang loud and clear.

  ‘Get back’ he cried instinctively, but it was too late for one of their number. Whip like tentacles lashed out from holes in the walls which they hadn’t noticed, and the poor unfortunate was lashed up like a parcel.

  Several of the party ran forward with knives at the ready but were in turn attacked by flying tentacles, and so had to retreat. The captive was drawn into a large hole in the wall and disappeared inside within seconds, the tentacles then retracting to their former positions.

  It was all over so quickly and Kal felt sick at not being able to prevent it from happening. Now he knew what the warning feeling was all about, as he remembered the hypnotic effect of the creatures in the first sand lake they had found.

  This was something similar, but the effect was the same, they were dazed for a while and felt that to go to the flowers was the right thing to do.

  The flowers no longer looked like flowers, just ugly lumps of a lichen-like material on the wall of the tunnel. Surprisingly the little people didn’t show any sign of anger at the loss of their companion, just a sadness.

  Kal wanted to rush in and slash the tentacles to pieces, the chances of him getting away with it were small, but the feeling was there. In some ways, they were much more mature than he was, or was it that they had a different outlook on life.

  One thought did strike Kal. If the thing in the walls of the tunnel was used to catching prey of this size, and it certainly seemed to be, where were the creatures which it would normally have caught?

  Apart from the giant maggots, and they couldn’t have got up these small tunnels, there must be something else providing food for the creature, and they hadn’t seen it yet.

  And that was a worrying thought. Kal got his idea across to the rest of them, and they were extra vigilant on their return journey.

  They had reached the point where they had left the main tunnel to go exploring, and one of the party drew a series of symbols on the wall as a warning to others, or so Kal assumed.

  At least no one else would be tempted to look at the flowers, he hoped. The rest of the journey back was uneventful.

  When they finally reached the compound the team related their story to the others, and Kal could sense the sadness they felt. Emotions were developing fast in the little people, or maybe he was more in tune with them and so was able to pick up their feeling more easily.

  Tibs came to see him that evening, and surprised him by his mastery of the words Kal had taught him earlier. The boy showed no sign of wanting to leave after their somewhat stilted chat, so Kal set about teaching the lad some more words to add to his vocabulary.

  The rate of learning was not the sole province of the little people, as Tibs soon picked up the more subtle meanings of words, and it would not be long before he would be able to ask some embarrassing questions.

  Kal enjoyed the evening, and in a way was sorry when the little one left to return to his mother.

  Paper making was now in a state of full production, and much improved, clay being added to the sheets before the final rolling, giving a much better surface to write on.

  The days of the old sketch slates were numbered, and a lot of space would be released when all the old records were transferred to the new medium.

  A few days later, Kal was asked if he would like to open the new engineering workshop. Where they had got the idea of a ceremony for such an occasion was a mystery, but ceremony it was.

  The leader of the elders made a speech, everyone clapped, and the leader of the engineers was given a medallion to hang around his neck. Kal was asked to open the great doors into the cave workshop, with the usual clapping, and the whole thing passed off in a very civilized manner indeed. A feast was the culminating point of the event, and Kal enjoyed it all immensely.

  One evening while eating his meal, he noticed his ‘cave person’ seemed to be hanging around more than usual, doing little things which were not really necessary.

  Tidying up, rearranging some of his things, and just generally being there. He should have spotted it coming a kilometre away, but was too relaxed.

  The second part of his meal was served and he was just thinking of how enjoyable life was now, with all his needs taken care of, and this lovely food, and his smiling friend always to hand when needed, and how tired he felt after such a hard day’s work, which of course, he had enjoyed so much, and those kindly helping hands which led to his bed. His eyes felt so heavy, so why bother to keep them open....

  They must have used a more refined drug this time, as when he awoke he didn’t feel groggy or tired, just furious at having been caught again.

  The anger soon passed when he looked at it from their point of view. They knew what was best for the survival of their race, although it would be changed in the process.

  They had asked for his co-operation twice, and found him unwilling to meet their request for no reason which they could understand. And so they did what they saw as the best thing possible for all, they helped themselves, again.

  It was some time later when Kal managed to get the whole story of the cheeky event, as he now looked upon it. They had drugged his meal, and at the right moment had laid him down to rest.

  One of the females had removed from him that which was necessary for the project, shared it out among the others chosen for the mothering of the new race, and all had gone to bed that night having felt they had done a good job of work. Which of course, they had.

  He could smile at the event now, but he was hopping mad at the time. Being caught once was bad enough, but twice?

  In time, if the new ones didn’t already know, he would tell them how they got started, as a sense of humour was showing itself these days, and he could afford a laugh at his own expense now.

  Kal was kept busy thinking up new projects for the various teams to work on. At one time he felt they only came to him for advice or help to humour him, as a kindness in some way, but he was not so sure now.

  They never indulged in lies or deceit that he was aware of, and nothing was done without a reason, although the reason was sometimes a little hard for him to understand.

  The little people’s rate of development seemed to be slowing down a little, or so he thought. They were still making good progress in all the things which they did, and engineering had taken off to an amazing degree, but they came to him more and more for advice, which was good for him, but he wondered what was going on.

  Kal felt that he should have kept a date system from the start, so that he would have a gauge of how long things took to happen, but he didn’t bother in the beginning as there was too much going on, and now it seemed too late to make any difference really.

  He had no idea of how long a year was, and only reckoned things as ‘so many days’, if at all. It didn’t matter much as far as he was concerned as the others had no meaningful sense of time either, and so the time element was disregarded.

  Life was good, interesting, pleasurable and he wanted for nothing, except for when he thought of the life he used to lead, and the people he had left behind, but that was long ago, and paling into insignificance, almost.

  One thing which would make a great deal of difference to life would be the development of iron, and steel if they could get the temperature of the furnace high
enough.

  So far the only ore which contained iron was the black crystalline material, which was used for the generator magnets, and that was only obtainable in limited quantities.

  Kal got the smelters, forgers and ‘new material seekers’ together, and explained the problem. He did his best to describe all the ores of iron that he could remember, as the ship’s detectors did most of the hard work of locating minerals and classifying them. The teams soon realized the potential of steel, and set about organizing an expedition to find the necessary iron ore for its manufacture.

  If they could find a wood which was dense enough, they could carbonize it to make the necessary carbon rods for an arc furnace, as that would be needed to make good hard steel. The rods would not last very long, but he thought the engineers would soon come up with an alternative.

  Many days later the first of the teams came back, not with the iron ore which he had hoped for, but a more plentiful supply of the black crystals.

  This was good news, as they could now begin to experiment with it to find out if it had any other uses, apart from making magnets.

  Tibs came to see him most evenings now, and their conversation was reaching a point where it could be enjoyed by both, as the vocabulary they shared had increased to the stage where Kal was having to explain the finer points of grammar and the more subtle use of some words.

  The child was hardly a child now, more of a young man, and getting more like his father every day. When fully grown he would not be as tall as Kal, but his build was strong and stocky, which gave him a neat and compact look.

  Kal was at first a little uneasy as the bond between them grew, but he was now used to it, and was looking forward to the arrival of the next batch of offspring, which should be due any time now.

  On rare occasions Tib’s mother came also, and the lad translated for her so that she could join in the conversation.

  One evening much to Kal’s surprise, the mother through Tibs, apologized to him for the ‘help yourself’ incident which had led to the arrival of Tibs.

  She explained that to her it was a great honour and privilege to be the one chosen to start the new race, and hoped that Kal would understand the reason for so doing.