Space Was Regarded as Empty, a Void

“But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this— we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws.” W. Whewell: Bridgewater Treatise.

I ran into him again at a pub, about three weeks after I had returned from the south. He was the pilot that had flown me there, as a favour. He had to take some high level delegation somewhere and since I was making such a nuisance of myself, trying to hitch a ride southwards, it was then agreed that he would risk the forty-five minute flight to my intended destination. It was to the south that he took me, as had already been said, because apparently there was something afoot that I wanted to look into.

The intermittent flight was uneventful. We flew to a small city, dropped of a group of men wearing suits, then stood around becoming vaguely acquainted, whilst waiting for, and eventually receiving, security clearance for the last leg to a dirt airfield on the edge of a subtropical savannah. He dropped me off, and then left, not wanting to attract too much attention, not much between us but vague arrangements about when and where to come and collect me again and how this will be communicated.

I found what I was looking for, also large bands of angry young men with guns roaming about looking for trouble. Thus chastised I subtly made my way out of there, hitching surreptitious rides on a variety of trucks, trucks travelling at night with mysterious cargo. Then when reaching the coast, and relative safety, I got a ride on a boat back to the capital, there to catch my breath by hanging around my hotel and frequenting a bar or two at night.

Thus I ran into him, as had been said before, at a bar, doing pretty much the same things as I, trying to find some sort of meaning in a dark and dangerous place on the edge of civilisation.

This is the story he told me then. Be warned, here and now, that there are some inconsistencies; it is in the nature of these sorts of stories; the prevailing atmosphere, the lapses of memory all making their own contradictory contributions.

Our flight was organised at the last moment and the pilot newly employed by the company. Previously he had worked for a large organisation, that had apparently seen to the maintenance and refuelling of his aircraft. At the new company, a small, fly-by-night sort of affair, it was, and for some strange reason by all accounts still unbeknownst to him, his own responsibility to ensure the refuelling of his aeroplane.

I am not sure what the case may have been, but he had flown all of us to the south, a high-level delegation and myself, and then returned to the capital by himself.

About half an hour from the airport he had run out of fuel.

In his account several inconstancies crop up. I can recall him telling me that this sort of aeroplane does not have any fuel gauges. Subsequently I had established that this is not true. Maybe they were not working or maybe this pilot had neglected to pay attention to them. It may be that he had miscalculated the amount of fuel that he would use, taking off and landing several times, spiralling in and out of the sky to avoid being found by some ground-to-air missile or even a stray and lucky bullet from an AK-47. But not let’s waste time in speculation, be as it may, and for whatever reason, this pilot had run out of fuel.

He was about half an hour short of the airport and his first priority was to try and reach it. As he realised that this would be unlikely, he then considered landing on the main road that snaked its way along the coast.

This however was too busy and he finally opted to land on a small dirt road not more than twenty kilometres short of the airport.

More inconsistencies pepper his account at this point. With both engines down, he said that he was unable to lower the undercarriage. Apparently this can be done manually, but for some or other reason he had not, or could not, do so. To his credit, and indication of his skill as a pilot, he gently glided the aeroplane down to a small and sandy dirt road without causing any damage to it at all. Here he gave me a long and technical explanation on how this is possible; an explanation that at the time I barely understood and is now subsequently unable to repeat with even the slightest degree of accuracy.

His aeroplane skidded along the sand, eventually being brought to a halt by a small rise in the road caused by a railway line crossing the road at this point.

He came to a standstill exactly atop this railway line and lo and behold! as he looked to his left he saw a train approaching.

Jumping out of the aeroplane and removing his white shirt he waved frantically at the train to stop, something which the driver did only a few metres short of hitting this aeroplane.

The driver of this train was not impressed.

“You cannot park that thing here!” Apparently he had said, by the pilot’s account very agitated, “there is an airport down the road. Go and park it there!”

The pilot tried to explain that he had run of fuel, yet, and still by his account, the train driver remained steadfastly unimpressed.

“I have a train to drive. You must park your plane at the airport like everybody else. You cannot just park that thing anywhere you please. There are rules here.”

Now this pilot had gotten his license from a country, one of only a very few countries that apparently have this regulation, where, should you ever run out of fuel you automatically loose your license.

He was thus now unemployed and unable to practice the only occupation he knew.

It was only some years later and quite recently that I ran into him again.

He is still flying.

Apparently he had had a small amount of capital saved, and was looking around for partners to help him finance a small airline company of his own. In this way he had met a man, probably Eastern European, although he was not sure. This man had all sorts business interests, showed an interest, he thought a small airline may just compliment his activities. In the course of their discussions they usually met at the horse races.

The pilot had not up to this point shown any interest in horse racing, but following tips from the Eastern European man had started to bet small amounts of his limited funds. These horses always won.

It was therefore with a fair amount of confidence, and following the advice of this Eastern European man, that he took all of his savings and betted it on a single horse. Although running at odds of sixteen to one, he was assured that it would win. These assurances appeared to come true as the horse led by two lengths down the last hundred metres before stumbling and falling. It had to be put down later, at which time it was ascertained that its fall was in all probability caused by having been shot in the thigh with an air-rifle.

Thus it was a tip on a dead horse that caused him to accept the kind offer by this Eastern European man, to fly aeroplanes again, never asking questions about his mysterious cargo, and parking his plane all sorts of places that he is not supposed to.