The sands miscalled it

-

We (that is Neale Venise and myself) had been trying to work out what had changed in the Ténéré – an area of sandy plains located in northern-central Sahara desert. It is within the shifting topography of this desolate region that immense storms, manifesting as curtain walls of roiling dust hundreds of feet high, lay down their foundations. Once they grow beyond a certain critical mass they untether themselves and advance approximately westwards at a walking pace, until they hit the coast, at which point they deviate north or south, entering the subtropical zones as windless monsoons that leave incongruous dunes in their wake.

These storms are slow to germinate, usually building to a peak over several months. Their roots lie in the electrical charge that is generated by sand particles moving against each other. These currents form meandering v-shaped channels in the sand that can stretch for thousands of miles. Typically when a gathering storm decamps it will remain close to the ground and follow the electro-magnetic charge along the most pronounced of these troughs. This makes it easy to determine the pathway of a storm, and to either take avoiding action or temporarily evacuate any affected settlements.

Predicting the course of a storm used to entail placing sentries on high ground where they could establish a pseudo bird's-eye view of the surrounding land. The nomadic Sagembu were reputedly able to train ravens for this purpose. These days, predictive measurements are taken by satellite.

Since 2019, more storms have been observed deviating from their established courses and lifting off into the heavens, only to descend from the otherwise clear blue sky days later, like sudden ambushes, scattering tents and tearing down mud brick buildings, before rising once more, leaving behind an eerie stillness.

Neale and myself witnessed a small storm detach from its expected pathway and rear off at a slant, like a derailing locomotive. We believe that a storm's separation from its electromagnetic root system causes it to become susceptible to localised forces outside of those that generated it, and thereafter wildly unpredictable.

Beyond that hypothesis, we were never able to make any sense of it. Inconveniently, a few hours after our arrival in Tahoua, I fell down the stairs at the hotel and broke my right foot. There was no doctor available and I was forced to rely on the ministrations of a local pharmacist. Of course, Neale had to do all the driving, which was often difficult.

He had brought his seven-year-old son, Graham's, fridge magnet collection with him to “supercharge” along one of the storm lines. He put them down on the ground for no more than a minute, while we took some topographical readings. When he turned around to retrieve them, they were gone, engulfed by the sands. We could never find them.

Graham is autistic and was devastated by the loss of his magnets. It was the cause of an enormous row between himself and his wife Fiona. I believe they even separated for a while.

As if that wasn't enough, Jack Sibson had returned to the Unified Wells & Aquifers Company, following his exile in Germany. Predictably things went very much as they had done before. Neale took Jack's side, which I think he would agree in hindsight was a mistake. It put a distance between the pair of us that neither of us was able to cross. Neale is retired now and I wouldn't know how to contact him directly. For reasons I will not go into, I have been on permanent sick leave since 2015.


Afterword

There is a eBook available, existing in the same world as what you have read above, and tenuously related to it:

The Missionary Dune - Sam Redlark


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Notes & Queries response: Why do Americans use the term ‘Victorian’?

-
Image
image generated by Craiyon It is misleading to say that Victoriana Primaria – the Great Star of the Equatorial South – appeared in the heavens on the eve of the 24th May, 1819, hours after the birth of Alexandrina Victoria; who would later become Queen Victoria. Nonetheless, the claim is often repeated. In a world where received wisdom is increasingly favoured over hard evidence, there are many, no doubt, who believe it to be true. I will admit that there is something appealing in the idea that the organisation of the firmament is still beholden to the reign or kings and queen, as was reportedly the case during Biblical times. In fact, the star had been visible in the skies since the mid-1700s, with many ship's captains making mention of it in their logbooks. A century before, members of various First Nation tribes had noticed it as a faint, troubling presence in the Southern Hemisphere. These indigenous peoples are known for their keen visual intelligence. A particular arrangement...
Read more

Notes & Queries response - How different are modern humans from the first Homo sapiens?

-
Image
image generated by Craiyon George Klynman was a casual acquaintance of mine over what was roughly a two-year period. I assume that our unlikely crossing of paths was the result of our names having found their way onto one of those off-the-peg guest lists that do the rounds among PR firms. For a while, we seemed to be continually bumping into each other at social functions. He is a tall man – I believe 6ft4 – and well-built; not an easy person to miss in a crowd. He is gregarious to boot. Though I liked him a lot, I came to dread his intimidating, wall-like smile broadcasting his recognition from across the room, followed by the raised glass of fizz and the over-friendly cry of “alright there Redders,” which I did not appreciate. This would be followed by a restrained slap across the shoulders that, despite his efforts to rein-in his strength, I always had to brace for, to avoid being knocked over. The repeated experience has left me with a greatly enhanced respect for anyone who has ab...
Read more

Notes & Queries response: How did salt and pepper become the standard table seasonings?

-
Image
image generated by Craiyon The fog of prehistory disperses to reveal a likeness of Britain that is net yet called Britain. It is known by older names – Albion or Pretannia, both fabrications of foreign tongues, gifted to the island by the scholars of more advanced nations. An unknown soldier of this era licks the loose red thread of what could have been a more serious wound, and surveys the field of battle in the aftermath of a victory, or else crouches down in the ferns, among the trees, as a remnant of a defeated force, hiding from the voices of those who would gladly add his name to the roll-call of the dead. He detects, in the congealing blood, the taint of the weapon that caused the injury – the same iron that he has perhaps witnessed being drawn from a bloom of slag metal and its own spongy cast-offs, either in a pit, or at the foot of a clay chimney. He also tastes salt – the lifeblood of the sea – the crucible of his unknown origins. When salt is added to certain foods, it has ...
Read more