The Inosculation Syndrome Read online

  He then did a little dance in front of the cat, and gave it another good stab with the spear, stopped, looked around, and nodded vigorously.

  Kal then handed the spear to the little ‘cat beater’ and waved him towards the cat. He walked up to the cat, did a very good imitation of Kal’s dance, stabbed the cat, looked round at Kal and nodded his head.

  A chorus of squeaks, whistles and hoots from the audience rent the air, and he knew that they had got the idea, and quickly too. It had been well worth the effort.

  It wasn’t long before they were queuing up to have a go at the ‘cat stabbing’ game, although he suspected they did not look upon it as a game exactly.

  What really did impress him was when one of the smaller ones was given a spear and began hitting the cat with it, one of the others squeaked at him, shook his head and Kal watched fascinated as the little one then proceeded to stab at the cat. ‘They really do cotton on fast’ he thought.

  The rest of the morning was spent watching the little people practice their newly acquired art, and when everyone had had a go, some of them came and stood around him.

  Kal wondered what to do next, but the matter was taken out of his hands as two of the bigger ones came forward, took his hands in theirs, and led him across the compound and towards the cave entrance.

  He had not been close enough to the cave opening to really see it in any detail, and now realized that they had carefully built up a considerable amount of stones around it, no doubt making the entrance a lot smaller than it originally was.

  He was led inside and was surprised to find that there was a large system of natural tunnels which they had partitioned off into little rooms.

  Fortunately for him, the height of the tunnels were just enough for him to walk upright without difficulty.

  Another mystery was about to be solved. Kal had not noticed any very small members of the tribe, or any with stomachs bulging through pregnancy.

  They were all here, in the caves. Most of the caves, which seemed to run along just inside the cliff face, had little holes cut in them, letting in a surprising amount of light, and there were the mothers and their offspring, safely out of sight, but able to see out.

  Maybe they did come out at certain times, and he hadn’t been there or near enough, to see them when they did.

  The tour of the caves finished with him being shown into an empty one, the little people withdrawing to the entrance and nodding their heads.

  It was quite obvious that they wanted him to stay, and he could see no reason not to. They were after all, more intelligent than he had hoped for, and would no doubt be good company. Well, company, at least.

  Kal wanted to collect his possessions form the pool rocks and felt that he should make his intentions clear to his new hosts. He cleared a small space on the ground outside the cave entrance and scratched a crude picture of the cave and compound in the sand.

  He then drew several little people and himself somewhat bigger. Over to one side he drew a pile of rocks and pointed to the actual pool rocks. Kal then pointed to the picture of himself, walked his fingers to the drawing of the rocks, went through the motions of picking something up, and walked them back again, stopping at the cave entrance, and nodded.

  There was a slight pause, a few squeaks, and then they nodded also. Kal felt very relieved that they had understood so quickly.

  On his way to retrieve his things from the stone house, he was joined by three guards equipped with spears held in the stabbing position; it seemed they were not going to lose him to any of the local predators now.

  It didn’t take long for him to collect up the odds and ends from the house and he almost felt a little sad at leaving it, but knew that his chances of survival would be much greater with the little people, and survival was what it was all about.

  The cave which they had allotted to him was quite a good size, and his collection of tools, cups and spears looked a little lost in all that space.

  He thought that he could now set about making a bed for himself, as they didn’t seem to need one, or had not realized the comfort to be had from a soft resting place.

  Kal had a little opening from which he could see the pool rocks, and wondered if the cave complex would yield a water supply. He felt it should, as the top of the cliff was quite high and there was a good spread of land above it.

  That was a project for the future, when he had developed some means of lighting his way deep into the tunnels.

  He would have to refuse any food offered to him by his new hosts, as it would seem that they could eat fruits that would probably kill him, and he would have to get this information across to them.

  As the first day in his new abode drew to a close, he ate his meal of Finger Nut flakes and Puff Balls, washed down with the water from the bamboo sticks, which caused some interest from the onlookers, and retired to the sandy floor of his cave before all the light had gone.

  ‘Must admit, it’s a little more comfortable than the rocks’ he thought, and drifted into a deep sleep.

  Daylight came sooner than expected, so he must have slept very deeply indeed. The little people were watching closely as he prepared his breakfast, and must have taken note of what he used, for later a couple of them came in carrying Finger Nuts and an arm full of Puff Balls, which didn’t amount to very many as their arms were so small.

  Kal noticed that the little people had not developed fire, and thought that it might be useful to keep intruders at bay, and cooking some of the fruits might reduce or eliminate their poisonous content. Light would also be needed if he was going to explore the cave system.

  ‘Today is going to be another good one’ he thought.

  There were several things about the little people which Kal felt didn’t quite make sense. They were totally different to any of the other life forms he had come across here, and somehow, they didn’t seem to belong or fit in.

  Why had they not achieved a better system of defence than they had? They took to the spears quickly enough, so why had they not developed something along the same lines themselves? There was no sign of fire, tools, clothing, organized harvesting, or anything else that a seemingly bright people like them should have by now.

  As far as he could tell, there was just the one group of them, when there should be several little groups dotted about the place, if past experience was anything to go by.

  No, they didn’t seem to belong here, and if they hadn’t evolved here, and it didn’t look as though they had, then where had they come from?

  His presence here was self explanatory, but he couldn’t imagine a ship full of them arriving in the same manner, and then forgetting everything they knew to appear as they now did. Or had someone or something dumped them here as an experiment, to see what would happen?

  If that was the case, where were those responsible for that unkind act? Were they observing their handiwork? Would they interfere if Kal gave the little people a hand in developing their knowledge, and so bring them out of the dark ages? And should he interfere anyway?

  He was getting more questions than answers, and that was not helping very much. Kal thought that he had better work out a very careful system of skill and information introduction, so that he could watch to see if they were able to extrapolate data from their experiences, as this would indicate any latent abilities they had.

  The first thing to do was to establish a better method of communication, and to that end he decided to use the good old method of pictures. Drawings in the sand would have to do for now, as paper making skills were well down the line of developments.

  They had quickly understood the concept of his going to the pool rocks to fetch his things, so he thought it should work well enough for them.

  The little people did not seem to have a leader, so he chose the biggest and oldest looking one to address. Soon he had a little audience around him, eagerly watching his every move, or so he thought, as facial expressions were not their strong point, and they might have been thin
king anything.

  First he drew a picture of himself to one side of the square of sand he was using as his drawing board, and pointed to himself. Then he drew a group of little people on the other side of the square, and pointed to them.

  A series of eager nods indicated that they had got that message. A sketch of the sun rising and falling again soon got the idea of a day across to them.

  He spent the whole morning doing sketches of various things, and by midday, they were joining in, a little crude in their drawings, but adding to the overall picture of events.

  Kal stopped for food about then, and the concept of different foods for each of them had already been understood.

  He was making more progress than he ever thought possible, as they were very bright, and he couldn’t understand how they had not developed further than they had.

  From the data he had managed to extract from them, it seemed that left to their own devices, they would not have survived much longer, as their numbers were falling faster than they could be replaced.

  By late afternoon, and feeling a bit shattered from prolonged concentration, Kal had assembled a good picture of the events that had befallen his new friends.

  It would seem that they had been here for about fifty to sixty years of equivalent time on this planet. They had no memory of anything before this, and in the beginning, their numbers were decimated by the local life forms.

  There had been about three times as many of them as there were now, and they knew that their numbers were dropping, but could do nothing about it except be very careful and keep in their compound, going out only when really necessary.

  Kal soon realized that combining his skills and their quick learning curve, they could both survive much better.

  Not only that, he would have company of a sort, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was necessary for his survival also. Kal finished the day’s work by collecting a good supply of gross, and made a bed of it in one corner of his room.

  The others caught on with their usual speed, and several, but not all, also made ‘beds’ He was willing to bet that next day they would all have more comfortable sleeping arrangements.

  Kal learnt that occasionally a cat creature or some other large predator, would come over the wall and take one of them, so he decided to reconstruct the wall next day, perhaps using more of the natural contours of the land to their advantage, and also make the compound a little larger for the things he had in mind for the future.

  After his evening meal, accompanied by the day’s closing display of coloured cloud effects, Kal laid his head down on his new bed and had the most comfortable night’s sleep he could remember for a long time.

  They were willing little workers, almost to a point of embarrassment, as Kal found out next morning. He had surveyed the compound from several view points, and then marked out where the new wall would go.

  This would make the enclosure nearly three times as large as it was when built originally, and they didn’t query his decision. Once he began to build, they joined in with a ferocity that was hard to believe.

  The larger rocks Kal moved, levering them into place with the thicker of the bamboo poles, and not to be out done, they tried the same and succeeded by using more of their numbers. Considering their size, he was very surprised to see how strong they were, and almost tireless.

  The new wall was nearly three metres high in the places where he thought a large cat creature would likely try to jump it and a little lower where natural rocks and the contours of the land would make it difficult for an attacker to gain entrance.

  It would take quite a while to complete, but when finished would afford them full protection, unless something else he had not yet met, came along.

  Once the wall building had got under way, apart from the very big rocks, he was able to leave them to it. They seemed quite happy to carry on, and unless he was mistaken, showed a deal of pride when he did his evening inspection of the day’s work.

  A large stock of tooth bladed poles were made, and placed in groups at intervals along the wall as it progressed.

  Practice sessions with the poles was enjoyed as far as he could tell, for they went at it with great enthusiasm although the stuffed cat was now in tatters, and would have to be replaced with a replica made from something else.

  Kal wanted to improve the efficiency of the food gathers by supplying them with some sort of carrying device, as they brought it back in their arms at the moment.

  He gathered a small group around him who were not on wall building, and using sand sketches showed them what he had in mind.

  The idea was to use the tendrils of the Whip Trees as rope to bind things together, and perhaps crudely weave an open bag that could be slung between two poles, and then carried. The little party set off, complete with guards.

  They would not let him go anywhere without at least two spear bearers, and sometimes more.

  They had to go some way to find a small Whip Tree that was suitable for their purpose, and then set about severing the tendrils one by one with two poles tied together with a tooth blade at the end.

  Once he had shown them how to squeeze the liquid out of the tendrils, he left them to it, while he tried to work out a more efficient way of gathering the tendrils. Kal wanted to try one of the larger trees, as they had many more tendrils, and were much longer.

  Two poles would not give them the needed safety margin, and three poles were too difficult to manoeuvre into the cutting position. And then he had an idea.

  ‘It’ll be risky, but worth a try’ Kal thought, as he made up the necessary equipment. Several tendrils were knotted together and a running noose was made, the eye of the noose being large enough for the knots to pass through.

  A second noose was then made, and a group of the little people spaced themselves around the tree just out of range of the tendrils with the second noose suspended on the end of their poles.

  The first noose was eased around the tree as close to the trunk as possible, and the end threaded through the noose loop which was then lifted on the end of triple poles to a height of two metres. The tree did not react during this time as the ropes were not hot blooded and so didn’t give out any heat, which was what the tree seemed to react to.

  At his signal, the first rope was pulled tight around the tree trapping the base of the tendrils, and as nothing much happened except for the odd twitch, he gave the signal and they all rushed forward, lifting the second noose on their poles as high as they could.

  That noose was then pulled tight and made fast. The tree did react to that manoeuvre, but it was too late, as the tendrils were lashed to the trunk top and bottom, and could not descend in their normal sweeping arc.

  Tendril cutting then began in earnest, and it was not long before they had as many as they could carry. The material was a bit like leather, but the tendril Kal had cut many days before was still as supple as the day he had cut it.

  The rope party made their way back to the compound, and Kal showed them how to split the tendrils and weave the ropes into an open mesh sheet, string it on two poles and load it with fruit that had been gathered earlier by the others.

  They liked the idea, and soon there were no tendrils left, but many fruit gathering bags.

  A few Jaw Saws had been found over the last day or so, and when Kal showed them what they could be used for, the collection grew rapidly.

  Pole cutting and tendril gathering took place several times next day, with Kal making sure he was with the tendril party every time, although once they had got the hang of it, he needn’t have bothered.

  Stocks of material were building up in the compound and Kal felt it was time some new ones were added to their collection, if anything suitable could be found.

  He remembered the Frond plant behind the rock back in the forest track where Pear Shape met his end, and wondered if it would be possible to spin the fronds, and make some form of cloth.

  As it was a long way back he did
not think it worthwhile going just yet, as they may find another one nearer home. Home? Yes, it was getting to be one.

  Fire seemed to be unknown, as no burnt plants or charcoal had been seen. Lightening often caused fires, but perhaps there was no lightening here, which would account for the lack of ‘fixed’ nitrogen to some extent, and the number of plants that obtained their nitrogen by ingesting animals.

  Kal thought he would try making fire, but first he would need a supply of dead wood, or what passed for wood here. It was too difficult to try and explain to the little people what he was about to do, so he just set off, with four guards armed to the teeth.

  Dead bamboo was too useful for making into spears and shafts for other tools to use it for firewood, that’s if it would burn. The party tramped on for some time before they came to a densely wooded area, not at all like the plains they were used to.

  Kal tried to make them aware that innocent looking trees could be a danger, but they already seemed to know that, and moved about with caution. Steady progress was made albeit a little slowly, but they did find what they had been looking for after a very long search.

  Several trees in an area of about fifty square metres were as dead as they were ever going to get.

  Whether it was nitrogen starvation from being too close together and not being able to catch enough prey, or just old age, Kal didn’t know, or for that matter care much, here was the wood he needed.

  He tried snapping off a few branches to see how hard they were to break. Tough enough, but just possible, and Kal had to stop the rest of the work party from stripping the trees of their smaller branches.

  He selected a tree of medium thickness with regard to its trunk, and applied the Jaw Saw. Soon a deep groove had been cut into the dead trunk, and when he made another cut on the opposite side it did not take much effort from him to bend it back and forth quickly to build up momentum until it snapped and fell to the ground with a resounding thud.