1 The Battle of Nature and Space By Karl W. Koenig You could say that this was the beginning of my writing career but my work did not go in the direction of fiction but of factual research. I did later write a novel but the bulk of my writing is on jazz history. I entered this contest as a dare from my brother Henry and was very surprised when I got 1st place. “The Battle of Nature” My story may never be told, perhaps never even read but still it exists. As I sit secured in my seat on our space ship looking out into the endless depths of the universe, my thoughts wonder back to when I was just finishing my first year of college. I was attending the University of Maryland when I received a letter from my one and only relative, Uncle Dave Conners. He was one of the most famous scientists in the country. It was he who was furnishing the money which I would need to finish my remaining three years of college. I was to be a scientist also. That was four years ago, now I have witnessed all that a man can possibly 2 endure. I graduated from the University in 1951 with the highest honors of the class and was also voted the person most likely to succeed. I received the award for being the most promising young scientist of the year. It was then that I had taken the job as assistant to the chief scientist at National Metal Inc. I was experimenting on a new compound of metal that would hold light and heat for years at a time. I found that if you combine the elements of hydrogen, uranium and calcium carbonate it would give off heat and light Newspapers had been howling for me to give them a story on my discovery. They realized what this would mean. We would need no light companies and no coal or fuel of any kind. It would save millions of dollars a year. It would revolutionize industry. Think of homes and factories with only a little small box to harbor the ‘mystery rock.” I finally got my discovery perfected. There before me lay a little square of rock; a rock that had the powers of light and heat. I called the reporters and told them I had something very important to tell. I said that I would have a press conference in an hour. I began to go on with my work when I heard a knock on my office door. I opened the door and there stood a messenger boy. “Telegram,” said the boy. I handed him a tip and quickly opened the telegram. How well I remember that moment as I stood there speechless. It was from the Governor of Brazil. My uncle was down there on an expedition. The Governor had expected Uncle Dave back two months ago. Uncle Dave had gone on trips like this before and had always come back when he said he would. Never had he gone into the interior of Brazil, a section of dense wilderness, of wild animals, man eating plants, and terrifying heat. Some say there are dinosaurs, others say there is a might civilization older than the Egyptian civilization and further progressed than our own. To me it was an intriguing country and I did not have to think twice to decide that I was going to go and try to find out the whereabouts of my Uncle. When the reporters came I gave them a story that left them in astonishment. I had held back my theory of a huge magnetic field in Brazil which was powerful enough to counter-act the pull of the earth’s gravity for at the Poles gravity was at its lowest. It was more powerful than either of the Poles. I told them I had succeeded in finding man’s answer to the conquest of space. A place not covered by ice and snow like the Poles but hot enough for men to endure and conquer. Here would be the place where man would try a first attempt to conquer the elements of the universe. 3 I needed money. I would go in front of the World Scientist Society and ask for the money. It might work. No, they would never give me the money. I had debated a long time on one thing my Uncle had said. The first thing I was to do if anything happened to him was to open an envelope that he had given me upon my entrance to college. I knew now was the time. Anxiously I started to open it. There inside was the money to finance my trip. Also there was a piece of paper written in his own hand. It read, “Dear Nephew, when you read this, I will probably be dead or lost forever to the world of civilized people. Enclosed you will find a check for $100,000. This money is to be used for the advancement of the World Scientist Society of which I am the President. Use it for the most important scientific discovery of the next fifty years. Uncle Dave.” Thoughts kept running through my head. What could be more important than man’s conquest of space? Man has been talking about it for years for it to become a reality was the first important step forward. I decided that this was the discovery that I would use the money for. Two weeks later I left by plane for the port city of Marajo. When I arrived Governor Gerde of Brazil had a car waiting for me at the airport. I went straight to the Governor’s office and was told that the guide of my Uncle’s safari had come back alone. Some of the tales he told were almost unbelievable. The guide’s story began: “The safari had started up the mighty Amazon and had gotten through the rapids of the river to the branch river called the Xingu, a river explored only to the outpost of Cuiaba. Map of Brazil & Xingu River 4 Our safari arrived in Cuiaba on the seventh day of traveling. From there we started inward. Your Uncle said he was hunting a uranium field which he hoped was within the interior south from Cuiaba. With seven natives, armed with rifles, we started inward. We took scientific equipment, which included a Geiger-counter. Six days we traveled into the interior of the vast unexplored regions of the jungle of Brazil. Six days of grueling travel on foot through swamps, intense heat and plants unseen to man before, the Geiger-counter continually sounding a fluctuating blip. We then came upon a different type of jungle, strange to the eyes of man. It was ominously quiet. Here in the heart of Brazil lay a jungle of motionless fury. Amazon River & Jungle Man’s enemy no longer was the fear of wild animals but nature itself. The heat was unbearable. Plants having every color of the rainbow slowly moving in a hot stifling breeze seemed almost alive. Suddenly we heard a hideous scream. As we turned around there in the grasp of one of the plants was a native. Long leaves which acted like giant arms slowly closed around the body of the helpless native. Dr. Conners fired a whole clip of 30 calibers into the plant which to me looked like a gigantic orchid. One of the natives took his knife and started cutting one of the arms of the plant. It was like cutting green lumber. He couldn’t even out a slip into it. Helplessly we stood there watching the monster plant eating the native. Finally the blood curdling screams of the native stopped. The quiet of the jungle again prevailed. The native began to get nervous and the monotonous stillness of the jungle became worse than the native’s final screams. At last twilight came. We made camp on a flat plot of grass surrounded by the huge monster plants. With the stopping of footsteps and chattering of the natives, it became still quieter. The darkness crept slowly over us like a giant blanket. Dr. Conners had said to me, “I wonder what the jungle 5 sounds like at night.” We soon found out. Just as the last light of day faded, there started the strangest sound that our ears had ever heard. It was like the panting of a majestic tiger, only magnified twenty times. It was the monster plants breathing. After listening for awhile, one by one, our small party fell asleep. After a long tortured sleep, dawn finally came. The Doctor and I were alone when we awoke. The others had slipped away during the night. Here in the middle of the Brazilian jungle remained only your Uncle and I. Determined to go on, we began to get things ready. We carried only enough food for 12 days, two rifles, and the Geiger-counter and the experiment kit. Together we walked for hours through thick jungles. Then suddenly the jungle started getting thinner, the Geiger- counter began to beat faster, and then before us lay another kind of jungle, like the jungles of Africa. Dr. Conners said there might be life here. Suddenly we heard the roar of what sounded like a lion, only much louder. The ground shook and another roar was heard like that of an elephant. Hurriedly we ran to a rock which was about 60 feet ahead. Climbing to the top, we looked to see what was below.