The Inosculation Syndrome

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  The wing flew over the site several times to make sure there wouldn’t be a reception committee waiting for them when they landed, and eventually touched down half a kilometre away from the nearest construction, just to be on the safe side. Armed to the teeth, and checking every little detail ahead of them, the party advanced towards the very businesslike structures.

  They needn’t have worried, it had been abandoned long ago, and only the buildings of a great complex remained.

  It took them the rest of the day to get only the basic outline of what the huge site had been used for, and as they ate their evening meal in the eerie silence of the vast construction, they tried to put together the pieces of information they had gathered, to make a coherent whole.

  It would seem that it had been a mining and refining complex, as vast smelters lay alongside huge storage bays and crushing plants. A few billets of an unknown metal lay scattered about near what looked like a ground to space vehicle, and it looked as if everyone had left in a bit of a hurry. There were several shuttle like craft, similar in a way to the one Kal had landed in, but of a different origin, and of a totally alien construction to his eyes.

  What they assumed to be several bulk ore carriers were grouped off to one side, badly battered as if some giant hand had dealt them a series of blows in extreme anger.

  It was evident from the way things had been left about that this hadn’t been a gradual run down, or an orderly exit from the site. Someone or something and descended on the place, and everyone had abandoned what they were doing, and hightailed it out at maximum velocity.

  Suddenly, the inky blackness of the night took on a more sinister nature, as all agreed that something out there was watching them. It was too late to try and fly out, as they would have to make sure the wing had a clear runway from which to take off, and it was too dark for that.

  It was finally decided to try and get into one of the abandoned buildings, and by posting a few guards, at least get some sleep to be refreshed for the morrow. Not that anyone really expected to sleep much.

  It was a bleary eyed bunch who staggered out of the building at the crack of dawn, and finding nothing threatening in the vicinity, cheered up a little while they prepared breakfast. By the end of the meal they thought it might have been an over active imagination which had deprived them of their beauty sleep, but the wrecked bulk carriers and the remains of the three shuttles, albeit one of which had obviously been cannibalized for spares, took some explaining.

  Looking around the site and putting two and two together still added up to something causing a lot of damage in a very short space of time, and a hurried general exodus of the operators of the equipment.

  Kal went over to one of the battered shuttles, and found that it had been rendered inoperable by a series of heavy blows on one side, cracking the seams of the outer hull plates and probably destroying the integrity of the inner chamber where the crew would be. Even so, he couldn’t gain entry to the vehicle, try as he might.

  He thought that the metal ingots could be explained by the threat of something causing the personnel on the site to have thrown the ingots out of a working shuttle to make enough room for themselves, and then hitting the lift off button.

  There were no bones or signs of bodies having been left lying about, in fact there was no trace of the race who had been here. No pictures of anything which would give a clue as to their likeness, no clothing, in fact no sign of there every having been anyone here at all, except the equipment.

  Kal wasn’t happy about this, there was something he was not seeing or understanding, and it worried him.

  One of the crew came hurrying up to say he had found some tracks which might have been made by one of the ore carriers. If they followed them, it might lead to where the ore was coming from, and they could retrieve some.

  As there was no sign of the terror which had caused the general exodus, in fact, no sign of any life form at all, it was decided to follow the tracks to see where they led, and then reconsider the situation again.

  Arming themselves with everything they could carry, which unfortunately excluded the heavy weapons which wouldn’t go in the wing, they set off.

  The vegetation on this part of the plateau was sparse and of a different type to that of the lower lands on which they lived. Here it consisted of low tough rubbery growths with no sign of the usual fruits or berries, and Kal wondered how such plants, if plants they were, propagated themselves.

  The well worn track made by the ore carriers was still visible as compacted ground on which nothing grew, and so was easy to follow. In the distance they could see what might be a building of some sort, and fortunately the track led in its general direction.

  The flying wing had been turned around and lined up ready for takeoff, should anything unpleasant turn up, and with which they couldn’t cope. The four crew manning it being instructed to take to the air if threatened, circle around, and return to pick up the exploration party when conditions were more favourable.

  The little group plodded on towards the block-like building, keeping an eye out for anything which moved. The plateau was flat, featureless and almost barren, the ground consisting of a mixture of sand and gravel, with the occasional stone breaking the surface, and the odd plant.

  There was a constant gentle breeze blowing, which had a dry and dusty smell about it, reminiscent of something long since dead and decayed.

  As the building loomed up, it was apparent that it was a lot larger than they had thought, consisting of a main block with several smaller units surrounding it on three sides.

  The track led right up to the main block, being replaced with an apron of some very hard material as it reached the face of the building. On the wall they could see what they assumed to be the outline of a door or opening, big enough to have taken one of the ore carriers they had seen earlier.

  There were no controls, knobs, levers, or switches visible to operate the door, so they thought it likely that the controls were inside the block, or one of the other buildings.

  There appeared to be no damage to the site that was obvious to Kal, so they were in high hopes of finding a way in, and then working out what it all represented.

  It was some time later that one of the crew found what they thought might be a ventilation shaft high up on one of the side units. They lowered a very brave volunteer down it on a rope. Kal wasn’t allowed to go.

  Kal was about to send someone else down, when there was a slight hiss and a doorway opened up before them with the volunteer standing framed in the opening, and a large grin on his face. They had gained access, but to what?

  It was decided to try the opening and shutting procedure of the door first, so that if inside the building, they could at least get out again. Inside the portal there were three silver plates set in the wall, two of which opened and shut the door, but no one wanted to try the third one as they couldn’t reason out what it was supposed to do.

  The crew plus Kal went in, and shut the door behind them just in case anything else should turn up, and want access.

  The room was almost featureless, except for what looked like a control unit on one wall, and a passage leading in the general direction of the main block.

  There was little point in fiddling with the control unit until they had worked out what it did, so they went down the passage, hoping to get into the main block.

  The walls of the tunnel were made of a very hard shiny material, as were all the constructions on the site, but there were no signs of it being assembled from single blocks, as there wasn’t a joint in sight.

  They reached the end of the passage, and were confronted by a solid wall, and there were three silver plates set in the side of it. Remembering which one opened and shut the first doorway they had come through, they hoped the sequence was the same for this one, and the top plate was touched by Kal. The passageway opened up with the same gentle hiss as the first door, and they were in the main hall.

  Kal noticed that there we
re no separate light sources, just a gentle glow which somehow seemed to pervade everything around them.

  To their right was the archway housing the big door which led to the outside world, but no sign of the necessary controls for it. Ahead was just a big empty space, and as they began to walk across it, Kal urgently called them back, as he thought it must be a lift platform.

  Closer inspection did reveal the outline of something on the floor, and it had to be the lifting gear for the ore carriers as it was about the same size, and he couldn’t see what else it could be.

  Naturally, they wanted to go down on the lifting platform to see what was below, but it took them some time to find the controls for it. It was while they were exploring one of the side rooms that they found the necessary silver plates, and this time there were only two of them.

  When in the main chamber, all the walls seemed to be solid, with no window or opening out to anywhere else, yet in the side room there was a square transparent section which looked straight down, giving a good view onto the lift platform in the main chamber.

  The only reason they could think of for this was that the lift might have someone or something on it that the operators didn’t want to know about the controls, hence the one way window. So was there something not so nice down there still? The only way to find out was to go down.

  Kal suggested that after sending the lift down on its own and returning it successfully, one person should go down first to check it out, and then the rest would follow, leaving two of the crew above to work the lift, in case there were no controls below.

  They tried the silver plates, the bottom one sending the lift down, and after waiting a while, the upper one returned it, level with the surrounding floor of the main chamber.

  So, they had control of the platform. He was surprised there were so many volunteers for the solo journey into the unknown. One of the portable two way radios was handed over to the traveller, and he would signal when he wanted to come up again, that’s if the radios worked in the depth of the shaft, if not, they would bring the lift up after what they thought was a suitable time.

  One lone crew member stood on the centre of the platform as Kal touched the lower plate, and then disappeared from view. From where they were in the side room, there was no sound from the lift, and they wondered what motive force was employed to drive it.

  Time dragged, as it always does in circumstances like this, but after a while, the radio requested ‘up’, and the upper plate was pressed.

  The platform returned after what seemed an eternity, and was complete with passenger, to the relief of all.

  According to the returnee, the bottom of the shaft ended in a chamber with one exit which was closed by a massive set of metal bars. It had looked as if these should be movable, but there was no sign of controls for this, so they assumed that they must be here, in the upper level.

  This meant there must be some form of visual link from the controls in the side room to the chamber below, or the operator wouldn’t know when to bring the lift up.

  There were no screens or other means of relaying a picture as far as Kal could tell, so they either had to be powered up somehow, or didn’t exist, and some other means of communication was used.

  Leaving two of the crew behind in the side room to work the controls, the rest of them and Kal stepped onto the platform, and signalled to go down.

  The platform seemed to accelerate as they went deeper and deeper into the heart of the planet, and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun, but without the expected lurch from such a quick stop.

  Facing them were the metal bars, as described, and a passage leading off into the distance, lit with the same strange glow as the main lift chamber above.

  The distance between the bars enabled them to squeeze through without any trouble, although a tight fit for Kal.

  As they only had the crossbows, and a tube like device which gave an electric shock when the handle was pulled, they couldn’t hope to overcome a large adversary should one be met. Every centimetre of the tunnel wall was checked as they went along, but it was just a smooth glassy rock, very hard and without even a tool mark on it.

  A split in the tunnel, with one branch going off at right angles to the main run, meant a decision had to be made as to which one to go down, and the ‘branch off’ won on a show of hands. They had been going for a couple of minutes when the first of the side chambers came into view.

  Massive metal bars formed a door to each cavern, but there was no light in them to show what they contained, if anything. Squeezing past the bars, Kal called for a light, and then he saw why the bars were so massive.

  A huge pile of bones lay scattered about on the floor of the chamber, more or less where the ‘whatever it was’ had fallen, but there wasn’t a trace of skin or flesh, or even the powdery remains he would have expected. And then it dawned on him, something had eaten the softer parts of the creature, and left the bones. So, what did the carcass cleaners eat when there were no more carcasses? And how big and hungry were they?

  By now several of the crew had joined him, and were standing in awe at the size of the remains. Kal tried to lift one of the larger bones, and couldn’t.

  It must have weighed close on seventy five kilograms, and was very hard and dense. The creature itself must have been a real monster, and their weapons would have had no effect on it whatever, except as an annoyance maybe.

  How long ago it had died, or the tunnels abandoned, they had no way of knowing, but hoped it was a long time, as they didn’t want to meet a living version of the creature.

  The walls of its cavern were made of the same shiny glass like rock as the tunnels, and they supposed it had starved to death when the operators had left.

  Other caverns, containing similar remains were spaced all along both sides of the side tunnel for a considerable distance, and they gave up counting them when they reached fifty or so. Whatever else it was, this was a big operation.

  A return to the main tunnel seemed the sensible thing to do, and they retraced their steps to the junction. Speculation as to what the creatures were kept for was batted back and forth as they went along, the main conclusion being that they were used for something to do with the mining operation.

  It couldn’t have been as beasts of burden, as the operators of the complex seemed to have powerful machines to do that kind of work for them.

  The main tunnel having been reached, they went along it for nearly a kilometre before coming to another side passage.

  This didn’t contain any caverns, and had been machined out of the living rock by the same means as the main tunnel, and about the same size. They were about to give up any further exploration and return, when the passage opened out into a vast cavern, lit by the same strange light.

  They could have put most of their home compound in this cave, and the roof was well out of sight.

  Going around the wall of the cavern, they saw huge grooves in the rock, and as the tunnel borers didn’t leave any marks, and they supposed their mining machinery didn’t either, they put the marks down to something which had literally gnawed away at the surface.

  Perhaps it was the work of the creatures in the caverns, as they were certainly big enough to have made the huge curved grooves, but what kind of teeth did they have to cut rock?

  And then Kal remembered that the giant maggots had done so. Perhaps the rock wasn’t quite as hard as it looked, and the reason they couldn’t get out of their cages was that the tunnel and cage rock had been that much harder, as were the metal bars holding them in.

  When he tried chipping at the rock face it confirmed his theory, it was hard, but nowhere near as hard as the material the tunnels were made of.

  Kal suggested that the creatures had been used to process the ore bearing rock in a similar way as the crystal maggots had been, and then began to worry again about what had caused the whole operation to be abandoned in such a hurry.

  As there was little more to be gained here, and a sam
ple of the rock face had been taken, Kal thought it best to return to the lift, and get back to familiar ground.

  There was little need to take a vote on the matter, as they had all turned as one, and headed back towards the main tunnel with a degree of eagerness which denoted that their decision contained an element of fear.

  They were about half way back to the lift shaft when a deep rumbling noise brought the party to a halt. Something large and heavy sounded as if it was on the move.

  Deciding where the rumbling sound came from was difficult, as it echoed back and forth in the tunnels and Kal's guess was as good as anyone's.

  He felt real naked fear for the first time that he could remember since landing on the planet, and the look on the faces of the crew didn’t do much to help the situation.

  They all took off for the lift shaft at a very fast pace, their only fear being that whatever it was could be in the tunnel going off from the junction they were approaching, and they would have to pass that.

  Their pounding feet drowned out the sound which had caused the panic in the first place, and it wasn’t until they slowed down at the divergence of the tunnels, that they heard the rumbling again, this time it was louder and nearer.

  A quick glance around the corner of the cell chamber tunnel eased their fears a little as there was nothing moving in sight, so they sped on towards the lift.

  Somehow the tunnel seemed longer on the way back, and the noise was getting louder, as were their heart beats.

  The little troupe raced into the lift and with their backs to the far wall of the shaft, loaded their six cross bows with bronze tipped bolts, not that they would have much effect, but the action was automatic.

  Frantically the radio carrier called for the lift to be taken up, but there was no reply from those above, and the lift didn’t move. There was nowhere else to run, they were trapped. The rumbling had now taken on a distinct foot fall quality, and it sounded very heavy.

  The radio operator’s voice had gone up several octaves, and if he could have managed a few more decibels, the two in the control room above wouldn’t have needed the radio link at all.