Chap. 233 The Skull

 

Chap. 233 The Skull

(Author's note: a drawing of the skull can be seen if you access my blog's website. (dragonnomads.wordpress.com or dragonnomads.blogspot.com.)

I don't think it will come through in an email.)

K'ndar reflected that this was the second time he'd unintentionally been released from a task due to a broken nose.

Thank the stars it's not mine, this time, he thought.

Raylan had come to talk to him earlier in the morning.

"I guess you did get a head beating," he said, shocked at the bandages on K'ndar's head.

"I hope you aren't put out by my being grounded. The healer said no dragon riding, horse riding or running, but...I can still water dragons, I can still work in my office," K'ndar said, apologetically.

"I know. She came and told me after leaving your weyr. K'ndar, I want you to heal up. We have enough dragonriders here to take the Holders you transported back to their holds. If needed, Francie said to tell you she'll take up the slack. So did G'aryk. I'm fairly sure the Selections will be made this afternoon, after which I expect most of the nominees to leave. The Petitioners will stay longer, depending on when they're heard, but they all got here under their own power, so I'm not too concerned about them. What I want for you, is to take it easy. Do what you can, and if it gets too much, take a break. I know you well enough that you're no slacker," Raylan said.

K'ndar gently nodded his head. Last night had been a rough one. He'd slept very little, unable to find a sleeping position that didn't, in some way, affect his head. But it was feeling much better this morning. The headache was gone. The wound itself wasn't hurting as much, but was that from the healer's apprentice changing the bandage or from the pain killer he'd slathered on the wound? He wasn't sure, but it didn't hurt as much to move his head around today.

"Thank you, sir. If you don't mind, I'll continue watering dragons. If I may, would it be alright for me to tackle that skull I brought in? I'd like to take some tissue samples before they completely rot away, maybe get some measurements?"

"I don't mind, as long as you can handle it. From what I've heard, even swathed in canvas, it's smelling pretty bad," Raylan said.

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"Shard's right, mate, it stinks," said the Farm Master. He was standing, hands on hips, upwind of the crate holding the skull. "Thank you for putting it downwind of my barns. I'd have probably had a mutiny on my hands if you'd put it where my crew had to smell it all day."

"You're welcome, sir. And thanks for allowing me to put it here. I didn't know where else, and the compost area seemed as good a spot as any."

The man nodded. "You're about to uncrate it, I gather?"

"Yes, now, I have time, as someone decided to knock me in the head, so I'm on light duty. It's not just my scalp that's itching. Even the dolphins had no idea what it was, and they know everything in the ocean."

"Any idea who the lout was who clobbered you?"

"Not a clue. I've never seen him before in my life. Not a word out of him," K'ndar said, absently tugging on a part of bandage that was irritating his ear.

"Hmm," the man said, "If you did manage to break his nose, unless he's made of iron, he's going to want to see a healer. Then we'll find out who he is! Good on you, mate, for getting a lick in on him! Yobs like that don't need to be here. Bad influence on the kids."

The man looked closely at the bindings on the crate.

"Good work, here," he said, "those seamen know their knots, what?"

"They do."

"By the egg, I'd like to know what it is. What are your plans for it?"

"Ultimately, describe it and see if there's anything in a book, or in the database, to tell me what it is. When even a dolphin is at a loss, it tells me it's something that lives where they don't go. The abyssal plain? Too deep even for the dolphins? Or it's rare. It was alive just recently, so it's not a fossil. I've been dreaming about this thing since I picked it up."

"Ah, the lure of the unknown, eh?" the farmer said.

"Yes, sir. Once I get it out of the canvas, though, I'll see how much flesh is still on it. I need to take some tissue samples that, hopefully, will begin to tell us what it is. But if there's a lot of meat on it, I'm worried, it being a nuisance even if it's downwind. I don't know how long I will be able to tolerate it, while trying to clean it up with a scalpel. It might take weeks," he said, feeling deflated at the enormity of the task. "Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to accept it. Maybe I should have just looked at it and tossed it overboard."

"Nay, K'ndar, that's not how science is done. This is a gift from the sea, a piece of this grand puzzle we live in. Take 'er out of the canvas, leave it out here. The insects and the crawlers will have it stripped to the bone in a few weeks. It's cool enough that the flesh-if there is some left, and the stink tells me there's plenty-won't dry out before the insects can get to work on it. In a few days, what the crawlers don't eat, the insect larvae will. Just be careful, if the tumble bugs get to working on it, they'll stink up the place worse than the skull, if they're disturbed. But I'm certain you know about tumble bugs!"

K'ndar laughed. "I do...just like everyone else, I learned the hard way."

The man laughed. "They're good pollinators, I like having them around, even if they're risky. But it's pretty late in the year for them." He backed away from the crate."Once the insects clean it up for you, all you'll need do is to degrease it. That's...hmm, when the rains start, they might just do that, too. The best thing would have been to leave 'er in the ocean but...we're a ways from it. This will do. You'll need some tools, K'ndar, I'm willing to lend 'em to you, long as you return them. You'll need a good knife to cut the crate's bindings, maybe a wrecking bar. Be careful, don't cut up the wood too much. It's good wood, especially for lightwood. The seamen may want it back. By the way, can you use some help?" Do you need a hand?"

"Um...yes, it would be nice, but...I don't want to take any of your people away from their work," he said.

"Worry not, dragon man I've just the bloke for the job. He's a bit short, he asks a lot of questions, you get him rolling and he'll talk your hind leg off. But he's a good 'un, a hard worker. He's a dab hand at dismantling things. Woof, just ask my wife!"

"Your..wife?"

"Aye," the man said, laughing, "the bloke's my son, Jak. He's seven, he's keen as a razor on being a carpenter. He'll jump at the chance to help you dismantle the crate. That's the problem, you see, the hardest part with 'im is trying to get him to understand that carpenters build things, not take 'em apart."

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The boy was enchanted by Siskin...and even more by the project he'd been enlisted to help.

"What happened to your head? It's all bandaged?" Jak asked.

"Um...a man hit me in the head," K'ndar said. The boy had trundled a wheelbarrow with a bucket with tools, and a step stool. That was smart.

"Was he mad at you? Why did he hit you?"

"I don't know, Jak. I'd never met him, I don't know why he hit me."

"Did you hit him back?"

"I did, but only after Siskin attacked him. Otherwise I'd have been hurt much worse."

"I like fire lizards. He's smart, isn't he?"

Siskin twisted his head to the side, knowing he was being admired.

"He is. They're very smart, you can teach them tricks, did you know that?"

"I do! I've seen miz Francie's fire lizards, they do the funniest tricks, she puts on a show at Turnover with them. Are you going to be here for Turnover?"

K'ndar realized that his helper was going to be what his uncle, Fland, use to call a 'loose why-er"-a person who's brain was running fast with a million questions. Sort of like Glyena, he thought.

"I don't know, yet, Jak. Up until getting my head bandaged, I was going to go back to my cothold to visit my family, but now? I don't know. The healer told me to not fly my dragon for a while. Let's get to work on this crate, shall we?"

_________________________________________________________________________

"Ooowee, it stinks!" Jak said.

"Aye", K'ndar said. He wished he'd brought a respirator.

"What...what IS it?" the boy said, marveling at the skull. There had been enough flesh on it, despite being in the ocean, that K'ndar would be able to take plenty of samples.

"I have no idea, Jak. None whatsoever." The size of it was amazing. The appearance was frightening.

"By the egg," he said, "this thing is out of a nightmare."

"I'm not scared of it. It's dead. Can't hurt me!" Jak said, puffing.

How in the world did it function? No animal he'd ever seen on the planet, or even in the books, looked like this.

"It looks like an upside down T," Jak said, "Maybe it's a T monster?" he giggled.

K'ndar laughed, but his biologists' mind was racing. What IS this thing?

"To me, it looks like a W." K'ndar said.

The boy looked at it critically. "Mebbe. You move those long things up, then it does," he said. K'ndar was tickled by the seriousness of his comment.

Shards, he thought, I should have brought my datalink. Duh! I'll never get used to using it.

But he did have a notebook.

He started sketching the skull.

The central portion was tubular, like a volcanic cone. It was hollow. The opening at the top was circular, lined with a series of bristles. They were of various sizes, some being mere stubs. They appeared to be brittle. Ah, he realized, the short ones had been broken off, either by the canvas, or being in the net. The intact bristles were each topped by a small bulb that gleamed faintly iridescent in the sunlight.

The two arms-the 'long things' Jak had pointed out-on either side of the tube were hinged at its base. Each was as long as his outstretched arms. They each had a channel alongside the inside of the arm. They appeared to be bone. The far end of each arm expanded into a scoop lined with fangs. Some fangs had been broken off, but the remaining ones were each as long as his forearm, thin and needle sharp.

Jak was struck dumb for a short moment.

"What IS this?"

"I have no idea, Jak. Not a clue."

"Where are the eyes? Does it have eyes?"

He'd been thinking the same thing. There was nothing to indicate any sort of sensory apparatus. No eyes, no openings for nerves..nothing.

"I don't see any place for eyes."

Is this even an animal? No holes for eyes. No muscle attachments. He peered down into the interior of the cone. He could see what appeared to be circular bands of elastic material.

"Lookit those teeth," the boy said, reaching to touch them.

"Jak, no. Don't touch it, okay? There might be something dangerous on them," he said, warily.

"Like poison?"

"Like bacteria," K'ndar said, "This thing came out of the depths, and who knows what it was eating, how long it's been rotting?"

"Okay. I know bacteria can be bad. What are you going to do with the wood from the crate? 'Cuz I want to build something with it," Jak said.

"Um, I don't have plans for it, but the seamen who lent it to me would like it back. So don't cut it up, please? I guess, if you want, take the wood up towards your dad's barn for now, and build there? I need some room here."

"Okay!"

The boy loaded the lightwood onto the wheelbarrow. "I'll haf to make two trips, I think," he said. "Okay if I take the tools back? They're my dad's, he keeps a close eye on his tools."

K'ndar felt a bit of relief at the boy being distracted by the wood. But that was the difference between biologists and carpenters, he thought. "Yes, that would be fine. Tell your dad thank you for the tools. And thank YOU for your help!"

Jak beamed. "You're welcome and wait till you see what I build!"

______________________________________________________________________

"There you are, K'ndar!"

D'nis broke into his examination of the skull. He turned to see his weyrleader, looking to be relieved to be out of the selections office.

He waved at the flies that were buzzing about the skull.

"Corvuth told me where to find you. So this is your treasure! Woof, it smells," he said.

K'ndar grinned. "Believe it or not, it's not as bad as it was when we first uncovered it. Either that or I've gotten used to it."

D'nis laughed. "It's the latter, K'ndar. What is this thing?"

"I have no idea, sir."

"It's D'nis from now on," the bronze rider said.

"Um..." K'ndar hesitated.

D'nis grinned. "Got it?"

"Yes si.... um, got it."

The two men looked at each other for a long moment. Then D'nis said, "So tell me what it is."

"I can tell you what it ISN'T. It's not avian, it's not saurian. It's not mammalian, of course. I thought of amphibian, but I doubt that, so it must be piscine, fish, but then again, it has no elements of being fishy. Or, it might be something completely new to us, something evolved here with no counterpart on old Earth," he said.

D'nis examined the skull with his engineer's eye. "Look at the channel on the inside of the arms. They correspond with those vertical bulges on the cone."

"I hadn't noticed them, you're right."

"The channels-they broaden right at the base of the scoops. Look at those teeth!! Here, let me use that step stool," he said, "this thing is taller than me. Notice how the arms are the same length as the cone? I'm betting the arms, K'ndar, those arms, they have to swing up. The channel forms a seal with the bulges. See how the channel widens at the base of the scoop? I'm betting it forms a seal with the opening to the cone. But how..."

His mind working furiously, D'nis ignored the insects his examination disturbed.

"There's muscle on the inside. I see little bristles lining the entire interior. I see...that has to be tendon. Yes, and it goes all the way to the base, where the arms are connected. Shaff it, I should have brought my camera! There's a mass of tissue at the bottom of this cone. You can't see it from the outside, the cone is sitting on it."

"I'll have to figure out how to get to it," K'ndar said, grateful for a second set of eyes examining at the skull. But he felt embarassed. "You're embarassing me, si..D'nis. You're a more observant biologist than I am," he said.

"Stow it, K'ndar. You've got a lump on your head the size of my fist. You didn't get much sleep last night, and yes, I know, even when I was in the other room. I'm an engineer, K'ndar. Biologists figure out the why of a beast. Engineers figure out the how," he said.

He stepped off the stool and stood back. Staring at the cone, he cupped his chin with one hand.

His eyebrows jumped.

"Huh!"

"What?"

"Sshhh. I'm thinking," D'nis said, not harshly. He turned, looking around their feet.

"A stick. I need something..."

K'ndar looked uphill towards the barn, where Jak was industriously constructing something.

"Jak!! Can you bring me a long piece of lightwood?" he called.

The boy jumped to his feet.

"Here I come! What do you want it for?" he said, running with a meter long piece of lightwood.

He skidded to a stop.

D'nis put out his hand for the wood.

"Thank you."

"What are you going to do with it?"

"Watch, laddie," he said, and turned back to the skull.

He reached the hollow rod towards one of the intact bristles on the cone's lip.

He touched it, lightly.

The two arms snapped upwards with an audible CLAP!, the fanged scoops meshing tightly.

"Whoa" came from all three.

"I thought so," D'nis said, a satisfied look on his face.

K'ndar was dumbfounded.

"Look, K'ndar. The scoops? They're each one half of a trap. Something, a fish, maybe, touches those bristles, it triggers the scoops, they clap together and the victim is caged, with no way out except down the cone, which shoots the fish down into a stomach.

This isn't a skull, K'ndar. It's a jaw."