It was during the arrival of the tenth birthing and the partnering up of the first, that Moss went missing. He was dearly loved by the youngsters, forever telling them tales of high adventure and mystery, despite his apparent reluctance.
The whole group searched in all the places he was known to frequent, some of the males from the first generation joining Kel to look deep within the mountain complex.
The conclusion they came to was that he had gained access to a room somewhere, and couldn’t get out again.
The possibility of him being attacked by some ferocious beast was ruled out, as there were none found on the island.
Several days of looking produced no clue as to what had happened to him, and the search was abandoned, but he lived on in their memories for a very long time indeed.
* * *
The Great Ship had begun its deceleration manoeuvres when the Navigation Officer went to the Captain and said, ‘It would seem that we are not the only visitors to this system. There’s a rather large asteroid heading in, and according to some rough calculations I’ve just done, it should graze the surface of the planet we’re interested in, the third one in from the sun. If this is the case, it will probably increase the spin rate of the planet and strip off some of its atmosphere in passing. If it hits the planet, we have wasted our journey, but at least we’ll see the biggest pyrotechnics display of all time’.
‘How soon can you be certain of the exact degree of contact?’ asked the Captain, clearly disappointed at the news.
‘In another four or five ship hours. By then, there will be enough data to plot the course accurately, and I can advise you of the most probable outcome of the encounter.’ The Captain nodded his acceptance.
The Great Ship approached the third planet from the sun, matched a stationary orbit over the island containing the Radio Telescope, and sent a vision probe down to see in finer detail what was there than was possible from the ship.
‘I now have the latest figures for you,’ said the Navigation Officer, ‘and the news is not good for the future of the planet.
‘It would seem that the asteroid will only graze the planet’s atmosphere as I predicted earlier, but this will cause a great deal of secondary damage due to the extremely high stress levels in the planet’s plate zones.’
‘According to the readings I have just obtained, the internal forces have been building up for a long time, and only need a little nudge to set them off, and then the whole surface will be in for some very big changes.’
‘How much time do we have before the event occurs?’ asked the Captain.
‘About four ship watches, and that leaves a very small margin of safety.’
‘All right, here’s what we’ll do. The probe should be down there by now, so we’ll take a look and see if there are any people on the site who we can rescue, and if so, we’ll send down the largest shuttle we have and bring back as many as possible. We at least owe them that much for their efforts in trying to contact others.
‘I wouldn’t give much hope for any other people on the surface after the asteroid’s bypass, if the tidal waves don’t get them, the volcanic gasses released after the continents relocate surely will,’ the Navigation Officer looked saddened at the prospect of such destruction, and so little hope of help.
The probe came in over the sea, giving a good view of the island and mountains beyond, and then slowed down to hover over the old water cistern where a large group of the hairy little people had gathered to enjoy their midday meal.
No one noticed the sleek silver craft as it slowly drifted up the plateau to home in on the vast aerial set in a valley between two mountains.
Having located and confirmed the signal source, the probe was brought down again to the plateau, and a close up of the group around the cistern was sent back to the waiting ship.
‘These primitive looking people can’t have been the builders of the transmitter,’ the Captain said, disappointment in his voice, ‘so where are they?’
‘We have just done a preliminary radiation scan of the planet’s surface which shows that atomics have been used rather liberally in the very distant past. The scars show up all over still, so it must have been a very heavy situation,’ the Navigation Officer responded, ‘perhaps these are the mutated remains of the master race which wrought so much destruction.’
‘You could well be right. It won’t be too much trouble to bring them up, and we may learn something from them. Would you see to it please?’ The Navigation Officer bobbed his head in acknowledgement of the order.
The vision probe was recalled, and the shuttle with a full crew aboard departed for the planet’s surface with instructions to round up as many of the small people as possible in the short time available.
The shuttle landed almost silently just below the brow of a small rise in the ground next to the old cistern, and the crew dispersed to encircle the group of natives, and hopefully shepherd them towards the rescue craft.
At first, there was panic. Once the initial shock of seeing the giants was over, and they were released from their paralysis, the little ones scattered, but this had been anticipated and most of them were guided back to the water cistern remains, and the crew leader speaking in a soft voice, tried to tell them why they were here.
He was wasting precious time, for they understood not one word, huddling together like frightened little animals, as the huge creature before them made strange noises.
‘OK, let’s get ’em aboard, they don’t understand a word I’m saying, but it was worth a try. Be
