Extreme Difference (29 page)
Ben and Greg also became pilots of the alien craft, but the dreaded feeling that the fuel supply might run out in mid flight was never far from their minds.
The oil problem solved itself one day. A team had marched through the forest to the east of the settlement, and out the other side. Here the countryside was totally different, being mainly composed of rough tumbled rocks and gravel banks, a little fine sand appearing in pockets between the rock clusters.
It was while one of the team was walking through one of these sand patches that he complained of some black sticky stuff adhering to his foot. Ben recognized it as ‘tar sand’, something which had been used on his home planet to produce oil.
Samples were taken back to the settlement, and upon examination, Sandy concluded that it would be far more efficient to make a distillation plant close to the other side of the forest near the lake, and then bring the resultant oil back, as such a large quantity of sand would have to be put through the plant to extract only a small quantity of oil.
The plant was constructed from Ben’s supply of metallic bits and pieces, and hauled out to the site on the new wheeled wagons. The forest supplied the large amounts of wood needed to provide heat to drive the more volatile constituents of the oil out of the sand, and the lake provided the cooling water for the condensing tubes.
It took a few days to set up the plant, and it only produced a trickle of oil compared to that of the thick treacle like tar from the valley, but the tar sands seemed inexhaustible, and they had plenty of time.
Once more sophisticated tools were made, the carpenters went to work not only on plank constructed houses, as opposed to one room huts they had originally made, but equipped them with elaborate furniture, their skills and designs improving with time and experience.
Metallic ores were found one day while exploring the range of hills behind the grass plain of the settlement, and although no one knew how to smelt and refine them, the knowledge that it could be done spurred them on in their quest to be independent of Ben’s dwindling supply of metallic bits and pieces.
A system of education was introduced for the young ones, passing on all the knowledge they could muster from their former lives, but it was some time before they were able to manufacture a reliable paper on which to write their history and the data for survival they were accumulating.
Sandy insisted that no dispute should go unresolved, no matter how small, and to this end a forum was inaugurated to handle any disagreements which would threaten the stability of the settlement. On the rare occasions when things did get out of hand, justice was swift, clean, and final, the whole membership of the settlement voting on the outcome.
The inevitable happened one day. Sandy, Ben, and a few others decided to check out the far mountain range for raw materials. Ben pressed the initiating plate to start the drive of their only powered transport, and nothing happened. They concluded the fuel had run out, and after two days of probing and searching, they were unable to locate any spare fuel, not even knowing what it looked like, or even if it existed.
The lake provided a plentiful supply of fish, and although there was a large predator out in the deeper part of the inland sea, it was rarely seen, and so far had not posed a threat to those who ventured out on the clear blue waters.
An organized method of farming soon established itself, the larger of the grass grains being sifted out from the harvest for planting the next season’s crop, thus increasing the yield per plant and reducing the amount of labour involved.
The creatures of the forest were many and diverse, but none proved a serious threat to those who ventured into the wooded areas for food. Only one creature had to be treated with a fair amount of respect, and that was one of the smallest of the mammals. A half metre long furry four legged carnivore had no respect for the size of its intended meal, and as it seemed such an innocuous beast, several humans had been attacked, one being quite badly bitten.
A loud shout and a whack with a stick usually drove them off, and fortunately for the settlers, the creatures were slow to breed, so not too many of them were encountered.
Someone suggested they have an all out massacre of the creatures, but Sandy would not entertain the proposal, as he considered the creatures had as much right to the forest as they did, quietly hoping they would die out naturally in time.
When plank making became a little more accurate, a boat was built, as it was considered quicker to sail around the forested peninsula to the oil refining site than travel the tortuous paths through the forest.
When not in use collecting the oil, which was most of the time, the boat ventured further and further out onto the broad expanse of the lake, as the fishing was better there.
Ben and two others had taken the boat almost out of sight of land one day, when they wished they had been a little more cautious. They were pulling in the heavily laden nets, when the water around the boat erupted, and a thirty metre dark grey shape slowly rose to the surface. The enormous head, as wide as their boat was long, reared up a good ten metres, and two jet black eyes stared down at them, flicking from one to the other of the terrified fishers.
As the net was heavy and almost in, the boat would become unstable if they raised the sail.
The two baleful black eyes watched every move as Ben and one of the other men finished hauling the net onboard.
‘Run the sail up slowly and quietly,’ Ben whispered, ‘don’t make any sudden moves.’
As the sail slowly creaked its way up the mast on its wooden rings, the three fishers watched the shining grey head, hardly daring to breathe. Gradually the light wind filled the sail, and the boat turned slowly around to face the distant shore, and picked up speed.
Looking back over the stern, they saw the giant head with the glistening black eyes still watching them, and then a white crested bow wave gradually built up, the huge creature surging forward and closing the distance between them.
‘If it hits the bloody boat we’re all gone,’ Ben yelled, ‘keep zig-zagging if you can, we’ll probably have to swim for it.’
The huge grey head loomed above them, and the smooth glistening snout of the creature touched the stern of the boat as gently as a falling leaf, and then it pushed. The bow of the boat lifted clear of the water and they were racing for the shore, too petrified to realise what was happening for the first few moments.
‘I just don’t believe this,’ Ben exclaimed after he had got over the initial shock, and realized the creature meant no harm, ‘get the sail down quickly, it’s making the boat unstable and we’ll tip over if it goes any faster.’
The coastline drew nearer at a phenomenal rate, with several watchers on the shore gazing open mouthed at the spectacle of the huge creature pushing the tiny boat along so fast the front half was out of the water.
As they neared the shallows, the creature slowed down and then stopped. It turned its massive body sideways, throwing up a huge wave which raced for the boat.
The stern of the boat lifted on the advancing wave, throwing all three fishers off balance and tumbling them into the bottom of the now speeding craft. Approaching the shore, the wave had spent most of its energy, and the boat coasted on gently to beach itself on the sand.
Sandy and several others had been watching the whole incident, apart from the initial meeting far out on the lake.
‘I can hardly believe it, but it looks as if we have a friend out there,’ he said, turning to Mop who was holding their youngest, ‘I know the long snouted creature back in the valley was friendly, but this one is intelligent. I think we’ll try to make some sort of contact, it could be most useful.’
Mop gave him one of those looks she always did when he mentioned something which could be dangerous, but knowing her man, she knew he would go ahead with it, come hell or high water.
The colony continued to grow and skills improve, but sadly time was catching up with some of the more elderly of its members, and deaths from sheer old age became more frequent. Strangely, there had been no trouble from the illnesses humans were normally prone to, and Ben put it down to clean living and good fresh food.
It was Ben’s eldest son who found the fuel slugs for the alien transporter, and brought the craft back to life. The planet was explored from pole to pole, the elderly Sandy now having to take a back seat while the next generation did the actual physical work, which he found most frustrating.
Mop had slimmed down considerably after her third and final child, and was now a most desirable and handsome woman in all respects, the bond between them still growing.
The threesome of Sandy, Ben, and Greg, still went about their business together, but at a more sedate pace now.
The colony continued to grow and split many times over the coming years, spreading across the main land mass in all directions and occupying the choicest areas.
Unfortunately, as time went by, the skills which Sandy had been so adamant about passing down through the coming generations, were largely lost as the various groups expanded into new areas, and a return to a more simple and basic way of life resulted. Stories of the old skills were still talked about, but it was in the guise of magic and myth, and in time they too were forgotten.
Very many generations later, those who had started populating the crater so long ago, returned to deposit more groups of people on the planet. Their method of memory screening had been improved to the point where the depositee's were unable to recall anything at all from their past existence's, and so new groups of diverse humanoids were deposited between the already existing tribes who had escaped from the crater so long ago before it had erupted.
Although the new importee groups had different coloured skins and were different in stature from group to group, they were all basically humanoid, and shared the same genetic material despite coming from different worlds within the galaxy.
The Confederation continued to dump its unwanted outcasts on the planet for many millennia to come, until the teeming hordes threatened to overcome the planet’s ability to support them. Eventually, the Confederation found another suitable world on the outer rim of the galaxy to send their least desirables to, but the population of Sandy’s planet had taken off in an uncontrolled manner, and deforestation on a vast scale had altered the weather patterns, despoiling huge areas which then turned into deserts.
Sandy’s world had been built with broken straws, and although he had realized the need for a just and civilized approach to life to ensure a comfortable survival for all, once the population had grown and expanded out into other groups, the old ways which had got them there in the first place, returned with a vengeance.
The fact that the Confederation had continued to add more people of the same ilk, only added to the decline in standards which he had fought so hard to establish, and it was fortunate that he had not lived long enough to see his dream crumble into the shambles it now was.
Left to ‘nature’, most things will work out all right given enough time. Famine, pestilence, disease, drought, and massive earthquakes, could be relied upon to limit the population to some extent, and reduce its avaricious appetite.
Once nature is interfered with to the extent it now was, with the new sciences being used in a cavalier and irresponsible way, it would only be a matter of time before the whole thing would end in tears, on a planet wide scale, unless another Sandy came along, with a very big stick .......
But that’s another story…
***
D. B. Reynolds-Moreton
from sci-fi-cafe.com
from sci-fi-cafe.com
William L.K
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.
William L.K
