The computer responded, "Acknowledged."
"Dalton? Hear me okay?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Ready to ride over?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Comb your hair and brush your teeth?"
Dalton laughed. He was so excited. Life since he had met Jason had been one non-stop adventure. But, for an adventurous boy of 16, this was the best of all possible worlds.
Jason opened the storage cabinet containing the spacebikes, handed one to Dalton, and clamped himself onto the other. He checked everything out with the computer, then ordered it to automatically pilot the 'bikes over into the air lock of the colony ship. With computer controlled piloting, Jason could order the fastest possible retreat, should they encounter a threat. The computer temporarily disabled the sailship's artificial gravity so their 'bikes could float free. They cruised out and away.
Soon they felt the sailship's gravity diminish, and they became weightless, fortunately a feeling Dalton had gotten used to during their extra-vehicular excursions and free-ball games on the voyage out to the whirlpool.
As they drifted silently away from the safety of their sailship, the cylindrical air lock of the colony ship yawned before them. It was too dark in the star-light. It grew larger and larger as they approached. Dalton reckoned it to be at least 50 meters in diameter. He gulped as he experienced a sensation of being swallowed by the air lock. The hair on the back of his neck began to stand up.
Just as they were about to enter the huge black air lock before them, Jason asked through his helmet radio, "PF24, does the colony ship air lock have any lighting?"
The sailship's computer automatically relayed the message.
PF24 responded, "Yes."
"Turn it on," Jason ordered. A lighting strip all around the lip of the air lock began to glow white, slowly rising in intensity. They could now see inside the air lock as their
'bikes carried them inside. Row upon row of storage chambers recessed into the curving walls of the air lock, all with transparent covers. One entire row of storage chambers was full of utility robots! Jason asked, "PF24, what are all these robots for in the air lock?"
"Repair of HEAVEN." Amazing!
"Why haven't the ruptures in the side of HEAVEN been repaired?"
"No program initiated."
"Do you have a general program on file that can be used to manage the repair of the ruptures?"
"Checking... Yes."
"Why hasn't anyone run it?"
"Unknown." Puzzling!
At the back end of the air lock, near the central axis of the colony ship, were several smaller man-sized air-locks. Jason had studied the air lock aboard his sailship, and already knew about them. His computer had PF24 swing one open for them, and turn on the inner lights revealing a box-shaped chamber. They drifted inside. While waiting for the outer hatch to close and the air to pump in, they found themselves slowly drifting to the floor. This was due to the artificial gravity caused by the rotation of the colony ship along its axis.
Finally, when the air pressure was equal to that of the inside of the colony ship, the inner hatch puffed open. There, waiting for them in a dimly lit corridor not much bigger than the little air lock, was Excarver Durdaine in the same white robe, flanked by two younger men wearing blue coverall uniforms, and serious expressions. Behind them, the dark walls, ceiling, and floor of the corridor extended as far as they could see.
Jason and Dalton took off their helmets. Jason said with a business-like manner, "Hello. I'm rescue mission specialist Jason Jason. This is my assistant, intern Dalton. Are you Mr.
Durdaine?"
Excarver Durdaine looked Jason and Dalton over. Jason's blue-eyed austere but smiling face, and tall, impressive uniform-clad physique convinced Durdaine this was indeed an officer of Infinity City's Guard. The thin innocent-looking black-haired boy accompanying him looked harmless enough. "Yes, I am," he replied, smiling. They all shook hands.
Jason and Dalton removed their spacesuits slowly in the reduced gravity. Jason had worn his "mission specialist"
costume. Dalton had on simply workman's clothing, comfortable white cotton shirt, light brown trousers, and sneakers, all manufactured right on-board the sailship in one of the workshops.
Durdaine spread his hands in genuine welcome. "Gentlemen, thank you for finding us! You are most welcome." He patted a wall nearby. "It is evening now on the ship. Before we get down to the business of repair, won't you please come enjoy dinner with us? It has been 15 years since we've seen new faces; adult faces, that is. Many children have been born along the way, though."
Jason shrugged, looked over at his "intern mission specialist", and asked, "Hungry, Dalton?"
"Sure!", came the typically youthful reply.
Jason said with an official tone in his voice, "It is within regulations for us to accept tokens of hospitality." He smiled, knowing from previous experience what was to come. They would meet more colonists, and be treated either with extreme suspicion or as saviors. "We heartily accept! Can't fix anything on an empty stomach." Jason had a hunch they would be treated well here.
"No you certainly can't!", agreed Durdaine. "Um, are you the leader of your sailship?"
Jason lied confidently, "No, sir. Captain One is our top ranking officer. I'm second in command."
Durdaine politely inquired, "Shall we also invite your Captain over? Your entire crew is most welcome!"
Jason shrugged apologetically, "That is a very kind and gracious offer, and I am sure the Captain and the others would very much enjoy the hospitality of your ship, however Militia Guard regulations forbid more than two men entering a non-Infinity City spacecraft for any given rescue mission.
Quarantine reasons. Dalton here and I will have to stay in our sailship's quarantine chamber each time we return until the end of this rescue mission. Actually, we'll have to stay in the chamber for a few weeks more after that to make sure we haven't picked up any strange microbes. It's all regulations."
Durdaine nodded and sighed, "Yes, we too have our regulations to abide by. Still, we would have gratefully welcomed as many new faces as possible." He gestured to his assistants who were unfolding two pairs of slippers from their utility pockets. "Here's something to make walking easier..."
Durdaine explained, "These will make your feet stick to the floor up here in the low-grav sections until we get down to the parts of the ship with higher gravity." Jason and Dalton put on the slippers, and followed Durdaine and his assistants as they shuffled along down the corridor. The corridor, they were told, was a tunnelway that ran the complete length of the ship along its axis, and was commonly referred to as the 'axis tunnelway.'
The extremely low gravity required small rapid strides. Jason and Dalton followed the example of the three before them.
As they proceeded, Durdaine spoke over his shoulder. "I must apologize. Those handles you see here and there on the walls normally slide back and forth, and will pull you anywhere you want to go at a rapid rate. But, they have not worked since the ACCIDENT." He emphasized this word. "We've got a long walk ahead of us."
They all moved silently for a while. Jason commented, "This certainly is a large ship. You have more than enough room for many more children."
"Oh, yes," replied Durdaine. "This ship is barely populated. It's a prototype, actually designed to hold thousands and thousands! Once this mission is successful, we will build a whole fleet of these ships to move extra people to the new world, and keep the population of the old world under control. Well, the mission is only five years overdue. I think that will be allowed considering all that was invested in this prototype."
Dalton and Jason looked at each other significantly. The colonists did not know that they had been slowed down, and had been gone not five but almost 100 years! Jason motioned Dalton to keep silent about it. They did not need to know this just yet. People that had been stranded in space were usually pretty jumpy to begin with. Everyone they had known and left behind had probably all
died by now, from aging. Best just to keep this a secret until they had repaired the colony ship, and were safely back aboard their own ship.
Jason thought to himself as they walked on and on, maybe the colonists would want to turn around and go back to their home world. But, wait! They were over 80 light-years away from the whirlpool, and about the same distance away from the target world to be colonized. They were even farther than that from their home world. Even with everything repaired and running again, the colony ship's primitive sub-light-speed propulsion system, no one on-board would ever live long enough to see either world! Only their descendants. And, how would the ship run without a crew to repair anything that went wrong? Jason could hire out large passenger sailships from Infinity City, but who would pay the enormous cost of transporting all these colonists back to their home world? He decided to just repair the colony ship first, then break the news to the colonists later.
Jason had been listening with only half an ear to Durdaine complaining about everything that had been breaking down since they had lost the crew. He interrupted Durdaine with a question,
"Do you have a recycling food supply?" They would need that.
Durdaine turned and smiled proudly, "Oh, yes! We would have starved by now without the recycling system for air, water, and food. Each of the three colonist segments has its own recycling system, completely independent of the ship. They even have automatic little maintenance robots that keep it all running. We have seen the robots even repairing themselves. The recycling systems are about the ONLY systems we do not have serious trouble with."
Jason thought, LUCKY FOR YOU. YOU'LL NEED THEM FOR ANOTHER
100, MAYBE 200 YEARS. Let's see. The ship was on a ten year mission to another world around a nearby star to their home world. If it would take them 10 years to go that short distance, then to go over 80 light-years would take... Not 100, not 200, it would take 500 TO 1,000 YEARS!
That was too much. The colony ship was probably not designed to last that long. He would have to sail to the colonist's home world, and let the authorities know the situation. It would require a fleet of sailships to bring all these colonists back. Jason would gladly offer to do the job, for the right price. WHAT A PRICE THAT WOULD BE!...
He had noticed signs on the wall designating whatever current segment they were in. They had passed Cargo Segment #1, and Cargo Segment #2, and were now passing through Colonist Segment #1. Durdaine explained that the ship was a stack of seven disk-shaped segments: Cargo Segments #1 & #2 just past the nose cone, Colonist Segments #1, #2, & #3, the Control & Crew Segment containing the main control room & crew quarters, and finally the Power & Propulsion segment at the tail. The two segments damaged by rupture were Colonist Segment #2, and the Control & Crew Segment. Durdaine explained that when Colonist Segment #2 ruptured, the air and contents (including people) of many of its chambers had been horribly sucked out into space.
The rest of the chambers had automatically sealed closed. After the catastrophe, many of the survivors had gone berserk.
Colonist Segment #2 was now reduced to a state of hopeless barbarism. Nobody dared enter. The hatch was guarded by Durdaine's men from Colonist Segment #1.
Finally, they came to the first entrance hatch to Colonist Section #1 housing the colonial administrators, scientists, and those of other learned professions. Colonists Segments #2 and #3
held those that would make up the labor force on the new world.
The people of Segment #1 were originally chartered to manage everyone aboard the ship and eventually become the governing body on the new world. But after the catastrophe, those in Colonist Segment #3 had chosen their own local leadership, and those in Colonist Segment #2 refused to obey anyone.
Durdaine gave a special knock, and a short time later, a suspicious face appeared in the transparent view port. The face looked cautiously to both sides, glared at Jason and Dalton, nodded at Durdaine, then reluctantly pulled away. The hatch swung open. Durdaine mumbled apologetically, "Have to maintain security, you know." They all entered a cube-shaped chamber, just barely big enough for their party, dimly lit from lighting strips embedded in the room's corners. Only five of the original eight still produced significant light. The walls of the chamber had been painted in pastel colors with gay scenes from the home world Conover. These exotic scenes fascinated Dalton, for Conover was technically his home world, though he had left as an infant, and had never even seen pictures of it.
The man who had opened the door returned to a table where he and the two other door-guards sat playing a video game built into the table. Three access tubeways left the chamber, two on either side, and the third directly across from the hatch they had entered, their white interiors all dimly lit by lighting panels located at regular intervals, though not all were working.
Durdaine led the party into the third, and they all crawled up the access ladder of the tubeway heading away from the center of the colony ship. Durdaine told them to be careful because gravity would now begin to increase has they moved into the outer part of the ship which swung faster about the axis. He also apologized for the non-working elevator pads they noticed protruding from slots at the bottom of the tubeway.
Gravity did increase. They finally entered another corridor, followed it, then entered and followed still another.
They went down more ladder chambers. This pattern went on and on. Jason exerted his powers of concentration to form a map in his mind. He did not want to lose track of his location within the great ship. Durdaine slowed the pace as gravity increased.
He had not lost his breath yet. MUST BE IN GOOD SHAPE, thought Jason. He and Dalton were doing fine.
They began passing other people who stared at Jason and Dalton suspiciously. Finally, they were at a level with Earth-normal gravity. They walked along, and came to an ornate doorway, framed in polished wood, with brass hinges and knobs.
Or, were they gold? Two guards on either side wore complex glittering ceremonial uniforms. The guards opened the doors.
And, there, before them was the most stunning scene Jason had ever seen. And, for Dalton, something more...
12. DINNER
They stepped into a huge banquet hall, at least ten meters high. The ceiling was gilded with ornately carved woodwork and beams. Hanging down, and lighting the room were chandeliers made of thousands of twinkling sparkling crystals. The walls were hung with rich tapestries displaying scenes from the home world, in gorgeous colors. An immense light-blue curtain with a lightly colored rainbow clear across it, covered the back wall of the banquet hall. A thick pile carpet covered the entire floor of many different pastel colors each blending smoothly into the next: soft cream darkening to brown, changing to a pale rust, to pink, to lemon yellow, and back to cream, but only in one area.
The colors of the amazing carpet formed swirling, looping, spiraling patterns. There were several long dining tables, each lavishly set with shining silvery utensils, and crystal glassware. Already seated around each tables were dozens of finely dressed men and women, all in impressive formal robes.
The ladies wore white, and pink, and light blue. The gentlemen preferred somber darker colors, dark brown, midnight blue, russet, and others.
But to Dalton, there was only one person there. At the near end of the closest table, a young girl, at the heart-melting age of first bloom, sat looking directly at him. Such a pleasant expression lit up her beautiful face, he thought. Her hair was a golden blonde, and flowed down just past her shoulders. Her eyes were large and dark, her mouth a splash of rose. Her features were all so delicate, as if she was one sort of magic creature.
She wore a low cut pink gown, with flowers attached at the bodice. This was the first girl that Dalton had seen since they had left Infinity City a year ago. He began feeling light-headed. He was not breathing. He started breathing again. He had never felt this way before! He heard someone clear his throat.
At the next table over, a footman was holding a chair for him. Jason was standing
at the next table-setting, watching him with a big grin on his face. Dalton summoned his dignity, and walked over to the proffered chair. He could feel his face burning. Dalton looked around at all the finely dressed people.
Such distinctive colors. Even Jason had on a uniform. But all Dalton had on was a simple white long sleeve shirt, and light-brown trousers. He felt like he was back on the streets of Infinity City with all the fine people going by, not even seeing him. Jason murmured to him, "Don't sit down yet. He's going to introduce us. This part is great! And remember, play YOUR
part!" He was so thankful Jason was there!
Excarver Durdaine was at the head of the table. He stood, and sure enough introduced them as the great benefactors come to solve all their problems. It was quite a speech. It almost seemed to take on religious overtones! Finally, it was over, and they all sat down. The footmen began serving. Durdaine leaned over toward Jason, on his right, and Dalton next to Jason.
"Gentlemen, let me introduce to you my lovely daughter, Ethera."
And, he gestured toward the young lady sitting at his left. She was much older than the girl Dalton was stealing glances at over his shoulder. But still, Jason shrewdly figured her for only 25
years of age. And, here, that would be a natural 25, no PILL or plastic surgery to disguise a wizened lady. Jason smiled, and set his sights on her. He told her what a pleasure it was to meet her. She smiled with pleasure at the compliment. She was indeed very lovely, with light-brown hair coiffed up in a stylish arrangement, hazel eyes dazzling like a handful of precious gems, fine aristocratic features so enticing at her age. She tilted her head, and rested her cheek on a white-gloved hand. She had a wide, sensuous mouth, with perfectly even, bright white teeth.
Jason winked at her, then turned to her father who had just asked a question. Jason was amazed that this old, wrinkled craggy-featured man was the father of such a ravishing creature.
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