The Inosculation Syndrome

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  Kal was all for climbing up the pile to see what lay in the middle, but was forbidden to do so in no uncertain terms.

  The rock was a dark grey brown, and lay in a series of jumbled levels, as if it had been stripped from the centre core, stage by stage, by some giant cutting tool.

  Two of the crew went up first, stage by stage, and Kal was only allowed to follow when they thought it was safe.

  Near the top of the rocks, the advance guard suddenly disappeared from sight, and two more rushed up with cross bows at the ready to see what had happened.

  Squeaks and whistles indicated something was amiss, and the rest of the party quickly climbed up, Kal ignoring the ‘stay back’ orders, and leading the pack.

  The second two were in a small hollow, and looking down a hole in a block of rock which must have formed the central core of the pile, making the sort of face one does when confronted by a very unpleasant smell.

  Kal reached the two, and recognizing the odour at once, waved them back out of the hollow around the hole, and up onto a nearby ledge.

  The hollow was filled with the heavy vapours of petroleum oil, and must have displaced the air, so that anyone entering the hollow would be overcome by the fumes and would have fallen down the hole, and so out of sight.

  They all withdrew to a higher ledge, while Kal tried to explain what must have happened to the first two explorers, and the invisible dangers to anyone else trying to go down into the hollow.

  Kal sent one of the party back to the wagon to bring back a flaming fire brand, explaining that the vapours were inflammable, and he hoped to burn them off. Then it would be safe for them to go down for a few minutes to see if they could locate their unfortunate companions.

  The fire brand was brought up to him, and he made them all stand well back while he crawled as close as possible to the hollow, and lobbed the flaming bundle of sticks in.

  There wasn’t an explosion as such, more of a dull thump as the gasses caught fire, and leapt skywards in a plume of livid red and yellow flame.

  Black oily smoke curled up every now and then as the flaming gases used up all the oxygen, and more air rushed in to replace the rising hot fumes.

  Eventually the flames died down, with the odd puff of black smoke, and then all was still, any remaining flames being below the edge of the hollow, and out of sight.

  Kal thought it safe now to go down into the hollow, and he explained that as the heat from the burning gases would have risen and taken any fumes with them, they had hopefully been replaced with breathable air.

  The rest of the group were a bit hesitant at first, but followed Kal into the hollow, gazing down into a black hole in the rock. He tried to explain what he thought must have happened to the first two the night before.

  They had climbed up, gone into the hollow to see what the hole was all about, been overcome by the fumes without realizing what was happening, and fallen down the hole, and would now almost certainly be dead.

  Kal asked for a long rope with a hook to be brought up, along with a metal container to take a sample of the oil. The rest of the little group sat around the edge of the hollow while they waited for the rope to arrive, a sad looking lot, although there was no specific expression on their faces.

  Kal thought he might be able to hook the bodies up on the end of the rope, but then thought better of it, their friends were gone, and the sight of two oil soaked bodies would do little to put things right.

  The rope and hook arrived, along with a big beaten bronze tank and a smaller pot with a handle on it. The hook wouldn’t now be used, but he saw no reason not to take a sample of oil back with them. They lowered the rope with the pot on the end to its fullest length, and brought it up again. No sign of oil or anything else. More rope was sent for and joined to the first piece.

  This time they brought up a pot full of thin black oil, and the rest of the crew recoiled from the smell of it. Kal explained that it could be a very useful commodity, and they should fill the big tank and take it back with them.

  They were a little reluctant, but did as he asked, but the tank could only be half filled because of the weight and getting it down through the rock pile again.

  They said their farewells to the two lost ones in their own way, Kal supposed. The wagon was made ready, and they were off towards the clump trees. There was little chat among the crew for some time, but then things got a little more relaxed, and more interest was taken of the passing countryside as they came across different growths.

  On the third day, the clump hove into sight, and they parked the wagon some fifty metres away from the nearest tree.

  Many more trees had died since their last visit, and Kal went around the clump to see how many they could harvest.

  A total of forty three trunks had died, but this was only a very small proportion of the whole mass, so the loss to the main clump wasn’t too serious. It was decided to pull all the dead trunks out of the main group, and take them over to where the wagon was parked, for later collection, as they couldn’t take the whole lot back in one go.

  By the time they had worked out all the little details of what they would do, and how they would do it, it was time for the evening meal, and a good sleep. After they had eaten, Kal explained what mineral oil was all about, and how it could be refined and used as a burning fuel, much in the same way that the nut oil was used, but with more uses.

  The steam engine was very similar in a way to one powered by gas or vaporized oil, and a keen interest was taken by a few of the more engineering inclined members of the crew.

  A lookout was posted, working in shifts throughout the night, just in case the tree clump got any ideas of an easy meal, but the general conclusion was that it was too tired or weak to do much about it now.

  An early morning meal was enjoyed all the more as the sun rose, painting the sky in strips of coloured bands of light, shifting and changing all the time, until the sun itself rose into sight, and the day proper began.

  The wagon was fired up, and the tree pulling out began. It didn’t take as long as they had thought, and the collection of dead trunks was parked well away from the living clump, just in case it tried to retrieve its missing members.

  The bronze pipes, which had been specially made for the job, were joined together and fed as far into the main clump of the tree group as they could get it. As the trees moved so slowly, one of the braver members of the crew, much to the astonishment of the others, went in among them, guiding the pipe in between as many trunks as possible, and using the wagon to push the last few lengths in until they hit an obstruction which could not be bypassed.

  The sludge pump was started up, being run from a takeoff point on the steam wagon, and the waste from the compound was squirted into the middle of the clump.

  When the sludge tank was empty, they left the pipes in place among the tree trunks, and headed off for the lake to fill the tank with water to complete the tree feeding.

  The journey was uneventful, except for what looked like a large plume of smoke moving along the horizon. It was dark grey, almost black in places, and although it was difficult to tell because the distance was unknown, seemed to be moving a lot faster than they were. The crew exchanged worried glances, and using sketch pads asked Kal what he thought it was, but he was no wiser than they were.

  They reached the lake, and another set of smaller pipes were connected up and very carefully pushed into the water, no one getting any closer to the edge of the lake than they absolutely had to.

  With the tank now full of water, and no attack from any water monsters, they set off for the tree clump. Late afternoon saw the water being pumped into the tree mass, the pipes withdrawn and stowed away ready for the return journey to the compound, and a happy crew.

  There had been no further sightings of the mysterious dark cloud, so they were in a relatively cheerful mood that night as they settled down for a well earned rest.

  During the night, despite the lookout, something big had been pr
owling around the wagon, and left a very large set of footprints behind it.

  Next morning saw the smiles disappear as the footprints were discovered, and a lot of ‘looking over the shoulder’ was going on. Four of the dead tree trunks were power winched up to the back end of the tank trailer, and the ends positioned and made fast on a ledge at the rear.

  Kal had estimated that dragging four trunks would be just about all the wagon could cope with, even with the latest modifications they had just done, but a fully wheeled trailer could move many more. But then they would have to lift them onto it, which meant making a special crane.

  On the way back on the second day, they saw the dark cloud again, but going the other way. By the time they had made it home, the theories of what the cloud could be would have filled a couple of books, and the crew had worked themselves up into a right old state, which surprised Kal as he always thought of them as being so stable.

  And then it dawned on him. They were very stable normally, and accepted the inevitable very well; it was the unknown which left them in a nervous state.

  The design for a special log trailer was soon drawn up, and manufacture began at once.

  A few days later a logging team was assembled, and set off to retrieve a full load of the tree trunks, just in case something else found a use for them in the meantime.

  Feeling in a particularly mischievous frame of mind one day, Kal called for Tibs, and when he arrived, asked him to bring around ten or so of the younger siblings who were interested in any form of engineering.

  A few minutes later an eager looking little crowd stood before Kal, and he motioned them to assemble around the other side of the table at which he sat. On the middle of the table he placed a ten centimetre long model of the cat creature which had begun the whole relationship with the little people in the first place.

  The youngsters looked a little apprehensive, despite the fact they probably had never seen a real one, but no doubt had heard tales of the creature from their elders.

  Using Tibs as translator, for he wasn’t sure how much the little ones knew of his language, he said he would make the model do his bidding, without touching it.

  There were what he took to be one or two giggles, and general looks of disbelief. Placing one hand on the table, he beckoned the cat model towards him, and after several attempts it moved in a series of little jerks towards his hand.

  At this point the little crowd backed off a little, as if the model had acquired a life of its own, and they couldn’t understand how. When they had recovered from the shock, and gathered around again, he motioned it to move across the table, and it did so.

  As they seemed no longer frightened of the model, he turned it to face them, and advanced it towards the group in a series of little jumps.

  At this, they all jumped back, completely taken by surprise.

  Through Tibs, he explained the main point of the exercise.

  ‘That which you see is not always what it appears to be’ and with that he brought from under the table a little stick with a coil magnet on the end, powered by a small battery.

  He then showed how a piece of the electromagnetic material had been placed in the base of the model, so that when he moved the magnet under the table, the model followed.

  Smiles and hand clapping indicated that the tension had gone, to be replaced by understanding, and a general request for samples of the trick.

  This was to be the first of many scientific lessons he was to give to the youngsters, awakening their curiosity and giving them a good grounding in physics.

  The next time they took sperm from Kal, he was totally unaware of it, except for a very strange dream, and he gave little thought to that. They had used a more subtle drug, so he just slept a little deeper than usual, and felt none the worse for the unconscious donation.

  Kites had developed into fabric covered flying wings, and on a day when there was a steady breeze, they could be seen soaring above the compound and out across the plains.

  The oil they had brought back from the black rock pile still remained in its container. Kal thought they either didn’t like the smell of it, or associated it with the death of their two friends, although he doubted the latter, as they were a fairly pragmatic lot, given time to let things settle.

  He asked for a small group to develop the oil into useful products, explaining all he knew on the subject to give them a head start, and soon had another branch of chemistry on the go. A distillation tower was built, and modified a few times before they got it right, and oil for lamps, lubricating and waterproofing were not long in following.

  Kal’s main interest was in making a high grade light fuel, so that an internal combustion engine could be developed, and when he gave them the known facts on the subject, that too, was produced, in time.

  The first engine was a little crude, but it worked. Fired by a spark crystal, as they called it, the main problem was getting the timing right. Once that had been fathomed out, large and small units were produced in fair numbers, and a multi-cylinder engine was incorporated into a new exploration wagon.

  One rather disturbing offshoot from the understanding of the firing cycle, was the development of a gun like device, which, using the explosive force of combustion, propelled a quite heavy projectile a very considerable distance.

  Kal didn’t like the idea of such weapons, but accepted the fact that they were just improving their chances of survival against any unknown adversary which may show up in the future. He could have done well selling them insurance.

  The second generation of Kal’s offspring were growing up at an alarming rate, or was time passing by very quickly?

  A new section had been added to the main compound, and was partly roofed over. Inside this new building they were assembling a giant flying wing.

  Kal was surprised at its size, and realized that it would carry at least twenty people and himself, with ease.

  The smelters had come up with a new light weight alloy, which Kal was unable to identify at first, and from this, the air wing was constructed. Below the huge wing, there was slung a cabin to hold the crew and whatever they needed for their flights. A three wheeled undercarriage completed the colossal machine, which was powered by two of the new multi-cylindered petrol engines.

  It would be a while before it was finished, and Kal was looking forward greatly to a trial flight in it. There had been a few mishaps with the flying machines, not to mention an untold number of broken bones, but nothing stopped these people once they had a goal in sight, and Kal admired their unswerving tenacity.

  Several of the second generation crossbreeds (Tibs was considered to be the first) had paired up, and were about to produce offspring of their own. Kal wondered if they would breed true to the new type, and was later pleased to see that as they grew up, they did.

  The numbers of the original little people were now beginning to dwindle as they were replaced with the new type, and in a way, Kal was saddened by this. He mentioned it to the Council of Elders, as he liked to think of them, but they were not in the least bit perturbed, and he got the impression from them that a better thing couldn’t have happened.

  The bond between Kal and Tibs continued to grow, and they spent many hours together, Tibs’ favourite subject being when Kal told him of the old days, when he was one of a team of mineral hunters flying around the galaxy and exploring new planets.

  The language barrier had all but ceased to exist between Kal and the new ones, although he found it a little difficult to understand them when they got very excited, and the pitch of their voices rose, which was quite often as new discoveries were made, and equipment developed from them.

  At last, the day of the trial flight of the giant wing came, but Kal wasn’t allowed to go on it. He argued long and hard, but to no avail, and just to make sure he didn’t sneak aboard, he was accompanied by what amounted to a four person body guard, just to make sure he didn’t.

  The first few trial flights proved successful beyond th
eir wildest dreams, with no mishaps whatsoever. On the fifth flight, Kal was ushered aboard and given a front seat with a panoramic view of all before him, but not the controls.

  The wing lumbered along the ground with its engines roaring flat out, and was suddenly airborne in a remarkably short distance. The pilots had quickly learned the art of looking for hot air thermals, so gaining altitude without using so much fuel, and thereby extending the distance they could cover on a given quantity.

  Once a reasonable height had been achieved, the engines were throttled back, and they cruised along in a world of their own, with just the rush of the wind.

  A feast was held that night to honour the accomplishment of the designers and builders, and the pilots too were lauded for their ability, but to a lesser degree.

  Kal was later asked where he thought they should fly on their first real airborne expedition, and he suggested that they go north along the mountain range, and possibly out over the desert to see where it ended, and what took its place if and when it did terminate.

  Next day they were off to an early start, and were equipped with the new radios so that a communication link could be kept open, should a problem arise. In very little time they had reached the point where the mountains finished and they turned east, passing over the large block-like building where they had so long ago sent a load of sand to someone, somewhere, who didn’t really want it.

  When Kal retold the story of the sand, he became aware that they had developed a sense of humour after all, as the crew doubled up with laughter, suggesting that one day, they might do it again. But he wasn’t sure that was such a good idea.

  The wing droned on, and they began to wonder if the desert went all the way around the planet, when a high flat plateau came into sight. They had to climb a little higher to clear the huge cliffs, and looked around for a suitable landing site.

  This decision was chosen for them, as they saw in the distance a large collection of what might be buildings, and the temptation to investigate was too much to pass up.