Extreme Difference
By
David B. Reynolds-Moreton
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
D.B.Reynolds-Moreton on Smashwords
Extreme Difference
Copyright © 2000 by D.B.Reynolds-Moreton
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Extreme Difference
Synopsis
Suddenly you are. You weren’t before, but before what? And where?
Dumped on an alien world as an adult, with no memory of his past, and among a strange bunch of people who had filled their own blank memories with myth and legend, what do you do?
If you just agree with the others, you stand a good chance of losing what little sanity you have left, and then what?
You could try to find the truth behind the myths, but if you do, you are labelled a heretic.
It takes a very tough character with the tenacity of super glue and a very thick skin to unravel the mysteries the man with no identity found himself submerged in.
Little by little, the impossible became probable, and then certainty, but it was a certainty which held small hope for the future, unless he could change it.
With little more than his own urge to survive at all costs, and a determination to put right the terrible wrongs which had been done, he set out on his quest against impossible odds......
The Story
Of Myth and Legend.
At first there was a nothingness. He was aware of being aware, but that was all. Then came the blackness. It was so deep and intense that it seemed to suck the very life out of him, and a surge of panic ensued. He felt he was fading away, tenuously expanding outwards to fill the entire universe until he would be scattered out so thinly that there would be nothing left of him.
The sensation stopped. Was he now nothing? There was still a deep blackness, but the awful pull had gone.
One by one, tiny pinpoints of light appeared, scattered about in the blackness like star dust.
Stars. That was it! Stars! But where was he? They seemed to be all around him, so he must be suspended in something.
But there was nothing attached to him and he felt nothing beneath, in fact he had no sensation at all, he just was. He tried to turn, but nothing happened, there were just the stars and him, a something suspended in space, and for all he knew, suspended in time as well.
Desperately he tried to remember what he was before this strange state he now found himself in, but there was no recall, no memory seemed to exist before the blackness. There was just an emptiness, a non-existence, a nothingness.
A sudden wrench of his very being took him by surprise, it seemed as if space itself had been twisted and then turned inside out, and him along with it. He would have been sick if he had had anything to be sick with.
The feeling slowly faded, and he became aware of his body. He could feel his fingers, and wriggled them to make sure they were real. He pinched his arm, he could feel that, so he must have a body. Turning his head to see what lay beneath him, he was in for another shock.
The blackness beneath had no stars, although they were all around him like a huge dome of tiny lights, but there was nothing below. Was he suspended over a hole in the heavens? What would happen if he fell? And then he did.
The black hole hungrily rushed up to meet him, and he hit the ground with a sickening thud which drove the breath out of his already aching body in a whistling gasp.
For a moment he lay there, stunned, and then spat out the mouthful of ice cold metallic tasting sand he had inadvertently acquired upon hitting the hard cold ground.
Whatever he was lying on was sucking the heat out of his body at a terrifying rate, so he tried to push himself up using his arms. He flopped down again, the pain in his fingers intensifying to an excruciating level as his hands sank into the freezing sand with the effort.
The crunch crunch of approaching footsteps caused him to look up. A tall figure stood before him, only discernible because it blocked out the light from the glittering star field.
‘Let me help you up.’ The dark shape bent down and a grip of steel encircled his arm, yanking him to his feet in one easy motion, steadying his weak and swaying body.
‘Quick, we must be away from here, the sand life will be active soon, and that would spell the end of us both.’
The dark shadowy shape took a firm grip on his elbow, and urgently propelled him forward at an ever increasing pace until they were almost running, only slowing down when the stars were blanked out by the towering black mass of something ahead of them.
‘We should be all right now. What’s your name?’ the dark shape asked, between panting breaths.
‘I don’t know.’ he finally gasped out, the words punctured by throaty whistles as his heaving lungs worked overtime.
‘I don’t know anything. I can’t remember who I am supposed to be, where I’ve been, or how I got here. I just remember hitting that bloody sand at a high rate of knots, and getting a mouthful of the foul tasting stuff for my trouble.’
‘Ah, good. You speak our tongue. That'll save much time getting you oriented into our system. Not many speak like us these days, and that makes things very difficult sometimes. I had hoped you would be a female, but a male is just as welcome, really.’
They had reached the dark opening in the ominous rock wall which seemed to reach up to impossible heights until it merged with the midnight black of the heavens, its extremities delineated by the bright sprinkle of dust like stars.
‘My name is Nan. We’ll soon have a name for you, and then you’ll feel better. A sense of identity always does that for a person.’ the dark shape said clearly, having got its breath back.
‘But Nan is a girl’s name. You don’t sound like a girl to me,’ he said, ‘unless you’ve had a very strange operation.’
‘Nan is my given name, given to me by the group when I arrived. I find it quite acceptable, and I can assure you I am a man, in every sense of the word.’ His voice had hardened, with a sharp edge to it, a warning that this was not someone to upset unnecessarily, if at all.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean any offence.’ he replied, realizing he was on dangerous ground in a strange land, and would need all the help he could get. ‘It’s just that I am so confused, I don’t know what’s happened to me, or why.’
‘Don’t worry,’ the voice softened a little, ‘we’ll soon get you settled down and explain a few things, and then you’ll feel better. It’s always a shock for new arrivals, but as they say, time and knowledge is a great healer.’
The steel like grip on his arm lessened, and although he could feel himself swaying a little, he remained ambulant as the steadying hand of Nan was slowly withdrawn.
‘Do you think you can walk unaided now?’ asked the dark shape, ‘the dawn is coming up, and there’s a lot to do.’
A faint glowing light on the high horizon now clearly differentiated the sky from the blackness of the surrounding land, giving the impression of being at the bottom of a giant bowl, its dark jagged edges ripping into the soft glow of the approaching day.
‘Please follow me, you’ll need food and drink after what you’ve been through, and then we’ll try to explain what has happened.’ The dark shape strode into the even darker opening in the rock face and disappeared. Before he could move to follow, a pale yellowish splash of light lit up the opening, the tall figure of Nan silhouetted in its gentle glow.
‘Come on, we can’t waste time, the dawn is nearly here.’ and with that the tall dark figure marched off into the tunnel, darkly muttering something under his breath.
As he followed Nan into the narrow passageway, he drew level with the light source on the wall. A thin pipe with a control knob near its base had a small flickering flame dancing on its upturned end, and as he passed it by, he hugged the opposite wall in case the draft from his body should extinguish its feeble life.
The tunnel took a sudden turn to the left, and he found himself in a large cave with several guttering flame lights dotted around the walls. These cast lurid shadows from a bedraggled group of stern and haggard looking people, who seemed none too pleased at his arrival.
Nan stepped forward, and taking him by the arm, pulled him firmly into the middle of the group.
‘This is our new arrival,’ he began authoritatively, turning and smiling at the wretched figure who had followed him into the cave complex, ‘so let’s give him a nice welcome.’
A feeble chorus of ‘hello’s’ expressing little enthusiasm from the ragged group of hermits left him wondering just what he had got himself into, not that there had been a great deal of choice in the matter on his part.
‘Hello,’ he answered back, trying to inject some zeal into his reply, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t remember my name, or anything very much, but I am grateful to be here.’ He later wondered why he had added that last bit to his response, and put it down to inborn politeness.
‘Before we give you a name, I’ll introduce you to our merry little band, we are glad to have you into our midst.’
Nan stepped forward and raised his arm towards a cloak clad figures who looked the most likely to be female.
‘This is Bell, she looks after our growing bins and is generally in charge of all food production and collection.’
Bell did her best to smile, but two missing front teeth added little to her effort. Realizing this, she gave up, and let her mouth take up its normal droopy look.
Nan turned to one side and pointed to the next apparition in grey brown sackcloth, almost a twin of the first.
‘Here we have Mop, she does all the cooking, helps to gather food, and generally keeps the place tidy.’
Mop had a full set of teeth, albeit a little stained, and a pleasant smile. Long black matted hair framed a pale pock marked face. Any other semblance to the female of the species was hard to find, as a solid thickset jaw jutted out in an almost threatening manner, and the eyes were cold and hard. She did at least make the effort, and extended a stained and grubby hand for him to touch in greeting.
In the dim light their hands touched briefly, leaving behind a sour and rancid smell which lingered in his nostrils for some time to come. He felt his stomach turn over, and was glad it was empty.
‘Karry is so called because of her immense strength, for a female that is.’ He thought Nan withdrew a little from the amazon like figure, her eyes glaring hard and cold.
‘If we get into a scrape, she is the one to have by your side.’ Nan offered in a placatory tone, and the eyes softened a little.
‘Ben here, is our weapons man. He maintains the gas guns, and just about everything else you will see in our little haven. All bits of metal and other material you might come across should be passed to him, and he will make something useful from it.’ The short stubby man took a step forward and grabbed his hand in a vice like grip. He could feel the bones grinding together as the grip increased, the pain shooting up his arm. He tried not to wince, but his eyes watered a little.
The weapons man, having made his point, whatever it was, relaxed his grip and stepped back, an ill concealed grin on his dark and greasy face.
Nan, sensing that their new acquisition was feeling increasingly ill at ease, hurried the rest of the introductions through with indecent haste, briefly mentioning the name of each individual and the functions assigned to them, but it remained a hazy blur to him, as had everything since his awakening on the cold dark sands a few nightmarish moments ago.
‘We must get the growing bins out,’ Nan said in the same breath as the last introduction ended, ‘the sun will be up any minute now.’
Everyone was galvanized into action, as if their very lives depended upon some indefinable and immediate response.
With Nan leading the way, the sombre little group of troglodytes hurried out of the cave-like room and along the tunnel, turning off into another cavern, where a row of trough like boxes sprouted an assortment of plants. Some had bright red berries dangling from thin spindly branches, while others bore larger plump rounded yellow fruits, the like of which he could not recall having seen before.
One by one, the troughs were carefully lifted and carried out of the cavern, one person at each end, taking great pains not to jostle the contents of the boxes and even more careful not to bump into those preceding and following. The sombre little procession trundled along the main tunnel until it opened out into the vast expanse of sand which formed the centre of their world.
The troughs were laid out in rows on stone ledges, close up to the towering rock walls of the extinct volcano, and away from the sparkling lake of sand which seemed to stretch out almost to the horizon.
Those who had placed their troughs in their appointed positions, then hurried back to bring out the rest of the plant containers, until the ledges around the tunnel opening looked like a neatly laid out small market garden.
Nan stood back, running his critical eye over the neat rows of troughs, indicating with a casual wave of his hand a slight adjustment here, an extra tilt there, until all were positioned exactly as he wanted them, according to some unspoken ritual which he alone seemed to understand.
There was little doubt that Nan was in overall control. Whether by election, skill, or age, he could not tell, but he was surprised, as Nan seemed to be a quiet gentle man, not the sort of person one would expect to hold a position of authority, especially in the prevailing circumstances.
The rising sun poured forth its hard brazen light, glistening off the high peaks on the massive volcano’s rim and turning the ice cold stone into flaming fingers of red and yellow.
Already the air had a slight touch of warmth about it as the reflected light from the shiny rocks above danced about on the barren sands, giving the momentary illusion of a large lake of shimmering water.
‘We’d best get back inside.’ said Nan softly, as though if he spoke any louder he would break the spell of the warmth to come, or awaken some unimaginable monster from its slumbers. ‘Kel, I think it’s your turn to guard, please be extra vigilant today.’
With that he turned, and herding his newly found recruit before him, went back into the tunnel followed unenthusiastically by the others, except for two who lingered outside for a few precious moments to savour the ever brightening and warming light.
‘We must give you a name.’ Nan began when the rest of the group had joined him. ‘Do you have a preference? Or would you like us to suggest a suitable name which you would like to be know as?’
‘I don’t know if I even had a name. I can’t remember anything much, except the biting cold of that bloody sand. I’m still spitting out bits of it out now.’
Even thought his mouth was dry, he managed to eject a small globule of spittle to emphasize his point. It glistened and sparkled as it spun downwards in the flickering light of the gas lamps, to be quickly absorbed by the bone dry floor of the cave, leaving no trace of it ever having been there.
The utter silence which followed his little display made him wonder if he had inadvertently broken some important taboo, or even insulted the motley gathering.
The stillness was broken by Nan, insisting that a name be given to their visitor, explaining that without it he would not feel a real person, and would be of little use to the group.
‘Do we have any suggestions?’ Nan asked again, looking from one to another of the sullen assembly, but all just glared back at him, except Ben, who grinned.
‘I get the feeling that no one wants me here, so why don’t you just let me go. I’ll manage somehow. Perhaps there are others I can join.’
‘No!’ Nan was adamant. ‘We found you, and with us you will stay. The other groups are mostly a barbaric lot, and if they don’t like you, you could well finish up being eaten, or something worse. Come on, someone must have an idea.’
The silence dragged on painfully, with a few muttered comments and grunts from the ragged gathering, but nothing constructive or helpful was offered.
‘Alright. How about Sandy? That seems fitting, I landed in the bloody stuff, it went up my nose, in my mouth, and given enough time it probably would have found its way up the other end. I’ll settle for that.’
Nan looked around to see if there was any reaction to the suggestion, but apart from a few half hearted nods, the silence ensued as before.
‘That’s settled then. You will hence forth be known as Sandy. Now we can welcome you into our midst properly.’
Nan waved the others into some semblance of a line, and standing at its head alongside Sandy, beckoned the others forward one by one.
‘I’m Mop, welcome to our family, Sandy.’ She clutched his proffered hand in the customary manner, the now familiar rancid smell lingering on long after the others had done likewise, reluctantly going through their ritualised greeting.
When the official inauguration into the ‘family’ reached its somewhat pathetic conclusion, Sandy asked Nan to explain what the place was all about, and why he was here.
The others filed out of the cavern, no doubt going about their allotted business, or just getting out of the way of any other rituals Nan might suddenly feel inclined to implement.
Several crude benches were scattered about the cavern, mostly up against the walls, but apart from two, which were obviously made from some kind of metal, the material used for the others remained unidentifiable.
‘Please sit down Sandy, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have, although you may be disappointed in my lack of knowledge of this place.’ Nan had now assumed a much more relaxed attitude towards him, and almost seemed like any other normal human being, except he had difficulty in trying to recall anyone in particular.
‘What the hell is this place?’ asked Sandy, the words stumbling over themselves in his eagerness to get them out.
‘It is where we live, and have done so for a very long time, long before I came here. Stories are handed down from the elders to those who take their place upon the elder’s death. I am an elder, and I try to keep the stories as true as possible when retelling them, but it is thought that some have embellished the history of this place to suit their own ends.’
‘That doesn't surprise me one bit, but what is this place?’ Sandy asked impatiently. ‘Where is it, and what does it consist of?’
‘It was created for us by some higher power, and we are created to populate it. Some people claim to be able to recall things from a past existence, but I think that’s heresy, and there’s no proof that we have existed before the creation. I think it’s just imagination on their part, and not healthy.’
‘First I’ll tell you what we know about the physical world, and then about the different types of people who live here.’
Sandy opened his mouth to speak, but Nan raised his hand to silence any interruption of his narration.
‘Imagine a large shallow bowl, where the smooth rim has been cut into a series of ragged points, and then plaster the inside with a two or three centimetre layer of mud or some such material, taking it right up to the top of the points. Now half fill the bowl with fine sand, and where the sand meets the mud layer, make some small holes to represent caves.
‘That is basically what our world looks like, except that it is very much bigger, in fact it is nearly sixty kilometres across, as far as we can tell. The sun is very fierce, and during the day the sand gets so hot that if you were to walk on it, you would burn your feet very badly.
‘At night the temperature drops to below freezing, and even a quick venture out onto the sands would result in severe frostbite. This leaves a short time in the early morning and evening when we can safely venture out into this inhospitable world, and we have to be careful about that.
The growing bins are taken out in the early morning as soon as the frost has disappeared, and brought back in before the sun climbs over the mountain rim to bathe the sands in direct sunlight. The same thing happens again in the evening, once the sun has dropped below the high rim of the mountains, the bins are brought out again to utilize the softer reflected light from the shiny peaks, and returned to the caves just before the cold cycle begins.
We have to do this to enable us to produce enough food to live on. There are other sources of food, as you will see, but green plants along with their fruits and berries, are essential for our well being.’
‘The caves and tunnels are part natural, and part man made. Over many generations, extensions have been made to some of the caves to house our artefacts and growing bins, and connecting tunnels have been laboriously hacked from the rock to make access a little easier. Some of the tunnels go very deep into the body of the mountain, and so it is believed, those who enter them never return.
‘The sand itself is not so innocent as it might at first appear. There are creatures who live in it, and are not adverse to sampling human flesh if they can get their teeth into it. I have never seen them, but I did know someone who was taken by them. All that was left was a small blood stain on the sand to mark where the incident had happened, and no one has seen any trace of him since.
‘The only time you can safely walk on the sand is when it is frozen, or very hot from the sun, and then you must protect your feet with wrappings. We assume the creatures can’t tolerate the extremes of temperature, and go down to a lower level.’ Here Nan paused to see if Sandy was absorbing what was said, which gave him the chance to ask, ‘What’s on the other side of these mountains, as you call them? And why do you stay here if it’s so inhospitable?’
‘As far as we know, there’s no way through the mountains. We can’t climb over the top, it’s too high, and the rock gets more shiny and slippery the higher you climb. In the past, there have been several attempts to see what’s on the other side, but no one has ever found out.
‘There may be nothing on the other side anyway, so we would be no better off even if we could get there. It would seem that here is where we are meant to be, so there’s little point in trying to go anywhere else, not that there’s anywhere else to go, as far as we can tell.’
‘Oh, come on, you can’t have a sand bowl ringed with a mountain chain, and nothing on the other side of it,’ Sandy interjected quickly, ‘there’s got to be some land, or something on the other side. Anyway, where did you get the idea that you’re meant to be here, who said so?’
‘It has always been so. We arrive on the sands, and are taken into whichever group gets to us first.’ Nan’s face hardened, and he continued in a defensive tone. ‘None of us has a memory of being anywhere before, so we must be created here, by some superior force or being. We are the servants of that greater force, here for a purpose, it is intended we remain here to do whatever the greater force wants’
‘What a load of crap,’ Sandy exploded, ‘you’ve been here too long, and you’re beginning to believe your own myths.
‘Just think about it, you arrive here with a usable language which you all understand, you grow food, make things, you know how to organize yourselves into working groups, and you really think some benign being created you and filled your heads with all this information and abilities just to watch you running around like a lot of scruffy bloody hermits living in caves? You’ve got to be joking, or seriously off your heads.’
Nan’s face darkened thunderously, and drawing himself up to his full height, he pointed a long shaking finger at Sandy.
‘You’ve been here a few hours, and you have the gall to make fun of us and the purpose we’ve been created for. How dare you!’ He spat out angrily, his mouth continued to flap open and shut silently, having run out of words to say.
‘All right,’ Sandy replied, ‘think about this, where did you get the concept of ‘a few hours’ from? I don’t see any clocks here, so that idea must have come from somewhere else.’
Slowly Nan’s anger subsided, and he looked confused for a moment, opening his mouth several times to speak, but closing it again as he rethought what he wanted to say.
‘Come on,’ said Sandy, ‘what do you know of time? How long is an hour, or for that matter, a day? How many hours in a day?’
‘Twent.....twentyeight,’ stuttered Nan, ‘but how do I know that? I don’t know what a clock is, do you?’
‘Yes, of course,’ began Sandy, and then found he was unable to recall it. A look of confusion spread over his face.
‘I’m sure I did know, but for the moment it eludes me.’
The two men stood staring at each other for some moments, neither wanting to be the first to speak in case they were unable to find the right words, and later have to explain their meanings.
Nan slumped down on his bench, all the spark had gone out of him, and he was a mere shadow of the man he had been only a few moments earlier. He raised his hands twice, and then dropped them back into his lap in resignation, this stranger had shattered his cosy concept of life by asking a couple of questions, what would he do if the stranger tore down the whole structure of their existence with a few more questions? He felt it was quite possible.
‘I’m sorry to have shaken you out of what you have taken for granted for so long, but you can surely see, just because you have accepted it, it doesn’t make it a fact, and only by looking at actual facts can we make accurate judgements. Anyway, how do you think you got here?’
‘The same way you did, from the Great Light, that’s how we all get here.’ Nan brightened up a little, he was back on familiar ground, talking about things he felt were real to him, things he could identify with.
‘The Great Light comes down to the sands just before dawn, creates us, and drops us onto the sand. Sometimes, pieces of old broken machinery are left behind, also packets of seeds, cord, cloth, all manner of things are left for us to make things with. They are gifts from the Great Light. Those are facts, they actually happen, ask anyone here.’ Nan was looking his old self again, assertive, confident, and in control.
‘OK, how do you know about ‘broken machinery’? How do you know it’s broken in the first place? How do you know what to do with seeds? Who told you what to do with these things?’ Sandy knew he was being unkind to press the point home so hard, but he wanted answers which made sense, and he was determined to get them at all costs.
The confused look came over Nan’s face again as he desperately tried to recall the meaning of the items Sandy had mentioned, but there was nothing to recall, just an emptiness, and it made him feel dizzy to look at it.
‘Now do you see what I mean?’ Having got the thin end of the wedge of doubt neatly in place, Sandy was intent in hammering it firmly home.
Nan began to sway on his bench, and Sandy leapt forward to steady him, holding him in place until the spasm passed.
‘I’m sorry to do this to you, but you must realize that you have all been fooled, for God knows how long. It’s about time the truth was pulled out of this pitiful charade.’
Tears ran down Nan’s grime streaked face, and his shoulders heaved as he tried to suppress the turbulent emotions which tore at his very being. Why had this stranger come to upset their world? Everything was just fine yesterday, the plants were growing well, their water bowls were full, there had been no raids for many a day, and now this.
The very fabric of their existence was being torn apart.
‘How do you know these things?’ asked a sobbing Nan, doing his best to control the turmoil which was racing through his mind, threatening to tear apart the fabric of all he knew and understood.
‘By the same means you know about ‘machinery’, and other things you do here. I just know. I know the words, and I know what some of them mean. There’s no way I could have learnt them here, so they must come from my past somehow. I can’t explain it, but I know it to be true, and so will you if you’ll only let go of this claptrap you hold onto.’
The two men sat huddled on the same bench, one comforting the other, both trying to make sense of the seemingly unfathomable situation they found themselves in.
Nan eventually pulled himself together, and had assumed some semblance of dignity by the time one of the others came into the cavern, stating it was time to get the growing bins inside, as the sun was just breaking the top of the peaks.
They all hurried outside into the harsh light of a brilliant white sun, shielding their eyes until they had acclimatized to the powerful glare, and working in pairs, brought the growing bins back into the relative cool of the bin cavern.
‘Please don’t say anything about what we discussed earlier,’ said a somewhat demure Nan to Sandy, as they trouped back into the main cave, ‘it’s hard enough trying to keep this lot working as a team as it is, God knows what will happen if they start thinking for themselves.’
‘Don’t worry on that score,’ Sandy replied, ‘we have a lot more to sort out before we can let them in on it, I’m not really a destructive fool, I just don’t like being taken for a ride by some unknown force, that’s why I’m trying to pick this sorry mess apart, and make some sense of it.’
Nan nodded in tacit agreement.
When the entire group had assembled in the cavern, Nan stood on a raised section of floor to address them, physically reinforcing his authority over them by his elevated position.
‘It is noticeable that some of you seem reluctant to accept our newest arrival into our midst with the degree of welcome usually afforded a stranger. This is most unfortunate, as he has much to offer us, and we would be the losers if he should decide to leave us and join another group.’
‘Such as what?’ someone asked, all heads turning this way and that to see who had dared to be so outspoken, but the originator of the tart remark remained a mystery.
Bell did her best to give Sandy another welcoming smile, but the two missing front teeth along with the other misshapen and discoloured ones, did little to reassure him that he wanted to be welcomed into such a dishevelled and grime streaked rabble.
‘I can understand your hesitation in accepting me into your cosy little group,’ Sandy began, ‘but I can offer you something you don’t have. First, I shall need to settle in and find my place among you, and then we can begin to bring about some changes for the betterment of you all.’
If he expected a rousing blast of applause, or even a mild cheer, he was going to be disappointed. Apart from scowls from a couple of men, his speech of reassurance did little to change the stolid sullen attitude which seemed the norm for the group. Sandy realized that if he was going to make any headway in the popularity stakes, he would have to work on them individually, and very carefully.
Nan, who had the wind taken out of his sails by Sandy’s outburst, realized there was nothing constructive he could add to what had gone before, and quickly stepping down said, ‘Let us get to work, there’s much to do.’
The scruffy little group of cave dwellers melted away as quickly as they had assembled, leaving behind the sour odour of greasy hair and unwashed bodies, their shuffling footsteps gradually fading away in the distance as they went about their allotted tasks, leaving Nan and Sandy alone.
‘I would assume that water is in short supply,’ Sandy began, to break the awkward silence, ‘and I doubt anyone’s washed their hair since they arrived, let alone cut it. Why do they let themselves get into such a filthy state?’ he asked, and then realized he had inadvertently included Nan in his disparaging remarks.
‘As you say, water is in short supply, we only have what we can collect from the dew which trickles down from the rocks outside, and there is never enough of that.’ Nan was obviously hurt by the remark. ‘Drinking water is our first priority, and we recycle what we can to add to that used for the growing bins. I noticed the aroma when I first arrived, but I soon got used to it as time went by. Do you really find it so offensive?’ he asked, hoping Sandy would not make too much of it.
‘Well, let’s put it this way, if one of the females were the most gorgeous creature alive, I would think twice before taking her to bed!’ Sandy replied, trying to make light of the issue, and failing completely.
‘Seriously though, is there no other way of obtaining water? Do any of the tunnels go downwards, and if so, have you looked for it there? If it trickles down on the outside of the rocks, there’s a good chance some of it may collect within the rock formation.’ Sandy concluded.
‘That would take us into regions we aren’t meant to go into.’ Nan replied, looking worried that this newcomer might break well established taboo’s and endanger them all.
‘There you go again, who said you couldn’t go into certain tunnels? I’ll bet it started because someone a long time ago got careless, and didn’t return. That’s no reason to put certain tunnels out of bounds, that’s just stupid superstition.’
‘Would you be willing to go into the forbidden zones then?’ asked Nan, hoping to see terror at the prospect.
‘Certainly, if we take care, and don’t go falling down any holes, I see no reason why we shouldn’t go where we please, I’ll bet there’s lots of things we could find out which would enhance our lives, if only you’d all forget the superstitious crap you’ve build up around the place.’
Nan assumed the hurt look again, mixed with a little fear.
They talked on for some time, finally being interrupted by Mop bearing two bowls of something which gave off copious wisps of water vapour and an indescribable smell.
‘Here we are,’ she beamed pleasantly, ‘you’ll both feel better with this inside you.’ She had sensed that Nan was not quite up to his usual bright state.
They took the proffered bowls and crude metal spoons, Nan tucking in hungrily before Mop had left the cavern.
‘Come on, eat up,’ Nan said between mouthfuls, ‘it tastes better than it looks and is very nutritious, you’ll get used to the smell after a while.’
Sandy dipped his spoon into the gruel like mess, hooking out a piece of something he could not identify, and was grateful for the lack of recognition. Nan was right, it tasted quite palatable if he held his breath while chewing and then quickly swallowed, the liquid remains in the bottom of the bowl was something else, and Sandy put it aside.
Nan quickly scooped up the bowl, and asked hesitatingly,
‘Are you sure you don’t want it?’ and drank it down in a couple of gulps before Sandy could reply.
‘You have fire then?’ Sandy asked, a little surprised at the hot goo they had been served up with.
‘No, why do you think that?’ asked Nan, a puzzled look on his face.
‘Because of the hot...,’ he had to force himself to say ‘food.’
‘Oh, that’s heated by the hot gas vent in one of the caves.’ Nan replied, relieved another assault on their beliefs had been avoided, for the time being.
‘I’d like to see that,’ Sandy said, suddenly finding something of real interest to investigate, ‘can we go now?’
‘I suppose so, although it’s Mop’s domain really, and we should ask her first.’
Nan led the way down a series of tunnels, one of which eventually opening out into a cavern lit by three gas lights, and equipped with a rough table littered with pots of various sizes, two shelves, somehow fixed to the wall, but he could see no obvious means of attachment, and a copious amount of Mop’s body odour.
A large bundle of rags in one corner suddenly moved and unwound itself, revealing the dreaded Mop. She had been stooped over a pile of wrinkled brown and black things, sorting them out into two piles.
‘I was just getting something tasty together for the evening meal,’ she offered, giving Sandy a welcoming smile.
‘What are those?’ he asked, dreading the answer.
‘Mushrooms, of course. We grow them in one of the caves near here, would you like to see them?’ she replied, pleased that someone had at least acknowledged her presence and possibly her culinary skills. Sandy went over to the pile and looked closer at the wrinkled and shrivelled objects, wondering if these were the extra chewy bits he had had so much difficulty in swallowing.
‘These aren’t mushrooms,’ Sandy exclaimed, ‘mushrooms are rounded white things, on a stalk. But they are of the fungi family. How do you know they aren’t poisonous?’
‘No one’s died yet!’ exclaimed Mop, sounding hurt.
‘I didn’t mean to be disrespectful,’ he hastily added, ‘but some fungi are deadly poisonous, I was just wondering how you knew these were edible.’
Nan, fearing an argument was about to ensue, and upset the delicate balance of his charges, interrupted the conversation.
‘Sandy would like to look at the hot gas vent you use for your excellent cooking, that’s if you don’t mind.’
‘I don’t mind,’ Mop replied, still a bit huffy, ‘it’s over here.
As they drew near a recess in the cave wall, a faint hissing noise could be heard. Picking up a piece of dirty rag, Mop took hold of a stone plug and withdrew it from a hole at the back of the recess. The hiss was now more of a deep whistle, and Mop stood back to let Sandy look into the exposed hole.
The roundish hole went in about half a metre, and then expanded out to form a small cavern of its own. A small slit in the floor of the cavity emitted a stream of high pressure gas, only visible because of the shimmer it imparted to the surrounding air.
‘It’s very hot.’ Mop warned. ‘You’ll burn yourself if you touch it.’ she added as an afterthought.
‘Have you got a long piece of metal I could use for a moment?’ Sandy asked, reaching one hand out behind him in anticipation.
Mop rummaged about for a moment in one corner of the cavern, returning with a metre long strip of metal which she gently placed in his outstretched hand.
‘Be careful,’ she said, sounding concerned, ‘it’s very hot in there, you could easily burn yourself.’
Taking the proffered strip of metal, Sandy pushed it into the opening, being careful to let only part of the hot gas stream impinge on its end. Withdrawing it a few moments later, he ran his finger along the beads of condensate which had been deposited on the metal strip, and touched it to his tongue.
‘That’s water!’ he exclaimed, ‘you’ve a water supply here you didn’t know about. That’s not hot gas coming out of the vent, it’s steam. If we can cool it sufficiently, it will condense into water droplets.’
‘How did you know it was water vapour?’ asked Nan, puzzled by Sandy’s ability to be so certain of his discovery.
‘It’s not water vapour,’ Sandy replied, ‘it’s steam. Water vapour is like a mist, you can see it, and it’s not usually very hot. Steam is very much hotter, and is invisible. What made you think it was gas?’
‘My predecessor said it was gas, so I took his word for it,’ a somewhat contrite Nan answered back, ‘it’s hardly my place to query his knowledge of things, he was a very clever man.’ he added defensively.
‘Obviously,’ Sandy commented, ‘but it’s only when you query things which are taken for granted, that you find out the truth.’ He paused for a moment, deep in thought, wondering if it was wise to disclose his idea for water production, and what effect it might have on the rest of the group.
‘We could certainly do with more water,’ said Nan, breaking the uneasy silence, ‘but how can we get it without getting burnt by the hot gas?’
‘If we had some metal pipes, we could let some of the steam go through them, and water would collect on the cold surface and run out into a container, but the difficulty would be keeping the pipes cold.’
‘The main difficulty is the pipes, we don’t have any.’ Nan sounded disappointed at the thought of the extra water supply suddenly disappearing.
Sandy looked into the hot cavity again to see where the steam was going, as it didn’t come into the main cavern.
‘There’s a hole in the roof of the cavity, like a chimney, and by now it’s so hot the steam can no longer condense in it. If we could divert some of the steam into another cavern, it would condense onto the walls, and we could collect the water, allowing the cavern to cool down again every so often.’
‘There’s a cave next door,’ Mop suggested, ‘but we don’t use it, as it is so cold. We keep it blocked off with a cover, or we’d all freeze to death.’
Sandy looked at Nan, and he nodded.
The next door cave had a small opening covered with a dark brown piece of cloth, stuck to the rim of the hole with what looked like pitch. Whatever it was, some of it transferred to Sandy’s hands as he tried to pull the cloth away from the opening, and Mop giggled at his failing attempts to remove the offending compound.
She was right, the air in the cave was certainly chilly compared to the tunnel they were standing in, and when Sandy squeezed through the hole he found out why.
‘There’s a strong draft blowing from a hole in that corner, and it seems to go out of a hole in the top of the cave. Don’t know why it should be so cold though.’
‘How will we get the hot gas in there?’ asked Nan, still a little hesitant about the project, ‘it’s solid rock between the two caves.’
‘Perhaps we can knock a hole through,’ said Sandy, ‘and then make up a piece of pipe to connect up the steam supply,’ he paused before adding, ‘I think it should work.’
They put the fabric cover back over the entrance to the cold cave, Sandy getting some more of the black sticky stuff on his hands, much to Mop’s amusement.
‘I’ll put your idea to the rest of the group when we have our evening meal.’ said Nan. ‘I’m sure they’ll be pleased to have an extra supply of water.’
‘Wouldn’t count on that,’ Sandy replied, as the men made their way back to the main cavern, ‘it’ll mean they might have to wash, and I can’t see that going down very well.’
Sandy wanted to know just how hot it was outside during the day, so they went to the entrance of the cave complex, the radiating heat from the baking sands reaching them when they were still three metres from the opening.
‘My God, it’s lethal out there.’ was all he could think of saying. ‘But why is it so hot, surely it can’t be just the sun?’
‘I fear it is, but it does have one benefit, no one else can go out either, so that only leaves a short time in the early morning and late afternoon for raids, so we don’t have to keep watch all day. At night, it’s too cold, the sand freezes and you wouldn’t last more than a few minutes.’
‘If it’s that cold, how come you and I didn’t get frozen to death when you came to get me?’
‘Ah, that’s because it was near dawn time, and the temperature goes up a little then. The Great Light only comes to leave people at dawn, otherwise they would be frozen by the time we got to them.’ Nan was on home ground again, talking about things he knew well, and his self confidence returned.
The rest of the time before the evening meal was taken up showing Sandy some more of the cave complex, the store rooms for their pitiful little collection of raw materials, and a crude weaving loom used for their garment manufacture.
When the others had all trooped in for their evening sustenance, and the greasy bowls had been passed around and the contents consumed, Nan mentioned the possibility of the new water supply.
Sadly, little enthusiasm was shown for this major breakthrough in their survival potential, two of the men mumbling something about going against the natural order of things, and the old elder wouldn’t have allowed it. When asked by Nan to be a little more explicit about their beliefs, they backed down, scowling at Sandy whom they considered to be the instigator of the blasphemy.
Ben was asked about the possible supply of metal to make a connecting pipe to go between the two caves. He thought there might be some, but if there was not enough, a quick raid on their neighbours would probably solve the problem.
‘You mean, if you don’t have something you need, you just go and take it from other groups?’ asked a somewhat shaken Sandy.
‘They would do the same to us.’ Ben replied defensively, and the others chorused their agreement. While the others argued the finer points of thieving, Sandy questioned Nan a little deeper on the supply of materials from the Great Light, and when it might be expected.
‘There’s no set time,’ he replied, ‘it just comes whenever the Greater Powers decide to give us something.’
‘And that’s only their rubbish.’ Sandy added. ‘Lets face it, they’ve never given you anything in working order, have they?’
‘No, that’s true, but it’s a test for us to make something useful from what they have graciously given us.’
‘Face facts,’ said Sandy, ‘they’re only giving us their junk, and they’re probably glad to get rid of it.’
‘Anyway, I’m not happy about raiding other groups for materials, can’t we have a look at Ben’s supplies, there might well be enough bits and pieces to make the tube.’
‘I don’t think it’s up to you to decide if we raid the others,’ said Nan, feeling his authority was slipping again, ‘it’s been going on for as long as I can remember, and it’s part of our life.’
‘That doesn’t make it right. Surely the more we raid them, the more they’ll raid us, so who wins in the end? And what about casualties in the meantime? I would have thought your life here was tough enough, without adding unnecessary punch-ups with your neighbours to it.’ Sandy was losing patience with the older man and his bizarre ritualistic beliefs.
Ben saved the day by coming over to them, and suggesting they visit his store to see if there was anything which would meet their needs, as he was not too sure what they wanted.
On the way, Sandy asked about the gas lights, and how they were fuelled, but Nan did not seem conversant with the operation, and suggested he ask Ben when they had sorted out the pipe requirements.
The materials store was a positive gold mine of bits and pieces, and Sandy earmarked those items he thought necessary for the water condenser.
Nan suggested they visit Mop’s kitchen to get a better idea of what had to be done, and Sandy took a long metal bar and a lump of some hard material he found at the bottom of a pile of odd chunky shaped pieces of metal, to make the break through hole.
Luckily, Mop was off doing something else when they arrived, and Sandy got to work right away with Ben, taking it in turns to hold the metal rod, while the other hit it with the hard mystery lump. Just before they broke through the intervening wall of rock, they made a useful discovery.
Ben had insisted he do the major part of the hammering, and getting a bit tired, his aim faltered. The hammer lump only grazed the metal bar instead of hitting it squarely, and the subsequent shower of sparks caught them all by surprise.
Ben dropped the lump, Sandy dropped the bar, and Nan was already in the cave opening, ready to flee even further if the need arose.
When they realized that none of them had caught fire, and it seemed safe to pick up their tools again, Sandy suggested they try to duplicate the fireworks display.
Leaving the lump on the ground, as it seemed most likely that was where the stream of sparks were coming from, Sandy swung the bar, just grazing the lump of mystery material. This time they were ready for the sparks, and were not disappointed at the display.
‘You have made fire,’ exclaimed Nan, ‘so now we won’t have to trade for it when our lights go out.’
‘Making a shower of sparks is one thing, getting it to set fire to something is another matter.’ Sandy said gently, not wanting to down Nan’s new found enthusiasm. ‘I expect we’ll find a way to do it though.’
The breakthrough to the next cave soon followed, and it was now just a matter of fabricating a length of pipe to transfer some of the steam into the chilly chamber to generate a new supply of water.
‘The end which goes into Mop’s cooking cavity will have to be made such that we can swing it out when she wants to cook,’ Nan remarked, ‘and we’ll have to warn her not to touch the pipe, as it will be as hot as the steam it carries.’
Sandy noticed Nan had used the word ‘steam’, instead of hot gas as he usually did, and considered he had at last begun Nan’s process of re-education.
Ben was quite happy to be left with the job of hammering the bits of sheet metal into a pipe, and making a jointed swivel end for the connection into Mop’s cooker, while Nan and Sandy returned to the cold cave to remove any dust and rubble from its floor.
They were fortunate in that the floor level in the cave was a few centimetres below that of the outside passage, so if there were no leaks in the side walls, quite a lot of water would accumulate in the shallow well before it ran out into the tunnels.
Sandy was allocated a sleeping cave, in which he could also keep his possessions, not that he had any at the moment.
He retired for the night, exhausted, but his mind was still in a whirl after what had happened in one short day.
‘Three more days at this pace, and I’ll be a gibbering wreck.’ were his last thoughts as he gratefully slipped into a deep sleep on the smelly bed of rags which passed for a bed, for the time being.
He was shaken awake next day by Ben, who was in a state of great excitement. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was, and Ben looked hurt by the lack of instant recognition.
‘What’s the time?’ he asked, rubbing his sore eyes.
‘Don’t know what you mean,’ Ben replied, ‘I don’t think we have any time here, at least not that I’ve heard of.’
‘Oh God. Alright, what part of the day is it? How long have the others been up?’
‘They’ve been up since dawn, it’s now nearly midday. Nan said to let you sleep on, but I thought you would want to see the steam experiment set-up before we try it out.’
‘Damn right I do.’ Sandy replied, heaving himself out of the pile of disgusting rags he had cuddled all night.
‘Lead the way, Ben, I’m a bit wobbly on me feet this morning.’ Sandy staggered about like a drunk, after a night out he was unable to recall.
‘Probably lack of food.’ Ben said cheerfully.
‘Oh, that’s what you call it.’ Sandy remembered the last greasy offering. ‘I had something else in mind.’
Mop greeted them with her usual hopeful smile, mainly directed at Sandy, on whom it was totally wasted.
‘We’d like to try out our water maker.’ Ben said, doing his best to smile at the unlovely heap before him.
‘Go ahead, Benny, I don’t need the hot hole for a while, it’s a cold midday meal today.’
The look on Ben’s face at that cheery news said it all, and Sandy wondered what frightful concoction she had dreamt up to tickle their taste buds this time.
Mop disappeared down the tunnel, either disappointed that no one had taken advantage of her charms, or on some culinary errand for the evening meal. Sandy was in two minds as to which was the least formidable option.
Ben removed the stone plug from the steam cavity, and swung the jointed pipe into the hole. It was a perfect fit, and he went up several notches in Sandy’s estimation.
‘There’s a deflector on the end, so most of the steam should be guided into the pipe.’ he said cheerfully. ‘Can’t say I like the sound of it though.’
The pipe vibrated like a tin snake with a severe case of the shakes, accompanied by a shrill whistling noise as the steam was bent off its normal course up the vent hole, and into the transfer tube.
‘Let’s see what’s happening in the cold cave.’ said Ben, hurrying out of Mop’s kitchen and into the tunnel.
‘Yes, let’s.’ said Sandy, ‘after you.’
‘Who’s going to open the cover and take a peak inside?’ asked Ben, with a grin.
‘I’ll give you that honour,’ said Sandy, ‘I got messed up with that filthy black stuff last time, it took ages to get off.’
Ben grinned again, and took a small metal blade from somewhere about his person, and gently prised the fabric cover away from the rim of the hole.