“What in the world is that?” Paul asked as he stepped backward some more.
“Paul and Gretchen, retreat as fast as possible. What you are seeing are biological creatures. From the historical records I identify them as a form of rattus norvegicus. From the orange glow of the eyes of these animals, it is reasonable to assume they are also infected with the virus that the human attacker had. Individually they are not much of a threat, but as can be observed, there are numerous individual animals. Retreat as quickly as possible,” Tiffany said. There was genuine worry in her artificial voice.
“Those are animals?” Gretchen asked. “They would need some kind a biological environment to survive, right?”
The rats had reached the dead body. They skittered into the light. Low to the ground, with long hairless tails, the animals were mostly dark gray or black colored, but a few were a deep brown. Whenever one looked their way, the orange glowing eyes peered at them in malice. There was a swell of squeals and chirps and other noises as the rats began to devour the carcass. Gretchen and Paul could hear fighting amongst the rats as they tore at the dead body.
Gretchen and Paul did not stay to watch anymore. They quickly retreated back up the causeway toward this steel door they had pried open.
“We could go back in the room with all the pipes and ducts. But that goes nowhere but up to the opening to the scout ship far overhead. That would get us no closer to completing our mission,” Gretchen said.
“So we just move quickly up the causeway away from those animals.” Paul said as he rubbed his chin. The sights and sounds of what the rats were doing was deeply troubling.
“Right! These corridors and causeway places cannot be the only things on the ship. We must find and access a way into one of the biological habitats. We know they exist, we saw them from the FTL scout ship. Maybe those animals will be busy, eating, and we can find our way somewhere else.” Gretchen stated hopefully. Sweat was beaded on her dark for head, but her eyes were energetic.
“But we protect the FTL scout first,” Paul said. He looked at the ruined and rusted steel door. “I will quickly weld this shut, we can cut it open again when we need to come back, but the animals will not be able to climb in, and welding might keep humans out as well.” Paul was connecting the molecular torch and adjusting it to a welding function.
“Work fast!” Gretchen said.
Paul placed the steel door back into place, and welded a few spots of the door to the frame. It was neither pretty nor neat, but the welds held as he pushed on it with his foot. The last thing he did was to char an X shape on the steel door. “That will help us find it again when we need to get back into the FTL scout.”
“Paul, I am keeping detailed maps of our route,” Tiffany stated.
They ran away from the steel door and into the part of the causeway which was in greater disrepair. They moved quickly while watching for overhanging obstructions, wires, conduits and openings in the floor. The sound of the rats faded as they moved away. As they ran and ducked and weaved between the obstacles, they realized the causeway was gently sloping downward and arcing to the left.
They slowed down their travel to a brisk walk as they felt they had escaped from the rats. They still had yet to see another open door of any kind. They identified some potential permalloy doors, but again, none of them would open, nor could they find any places to interface the fusion packs with the ship’s systems. They were very hesitant to cut open a permalloy door for fear it was a pressure seal, or bulkhead door which might have toxins, vacuum, or other hazards behind it.
The lighting overhead flickered at times, but never was extinguished. None of the occasional holes in the floor were very deep. The decking had been ripped up to expose a half meter area underneath of the floor, but to what purpose was unclear.
After a long time of walking, they did come across another steel door. It was very much like the one they had opened. This one too was rusty on the latch and lever. The hinges were inside the door and out of their sight. Stenciled on the outside of the door were the words ‘Ladder Access 2274’ in white letters.
“Tiffany? Any idea what this might be or might lead to?” Gretchen asked.
“To a ladder?” Tiffany replied in all seriousness.
“Not very funny, but where does the ladder go?” Paul snapped back.
“All conjectures at this point remain of low probability. However, as you pointed out earlier, steel doors likely serve a different purpose than the permalloy doors which we have been unwilling to open. A steel door, is not a pressure door or bulkhead. I suggest opening this door to find out, since it is only the second steel door we have encountered,” Tiffany replied. “It is labeled with ladder, and that seems to be innocent enough. Use caution, as it may indicate shifting gravity manipulation.”
Paul grabbed onto the latch and pulled hard. There was a bit of resistance, but this latch opened much easier than the prior steel door had opened. Paul and Gretchen stepped through the doorway. They were in round room with a trap door in the middle of the floor. Across the top of the trap door was stenciled ‘Caution Ladder Down’ in the white letters they had come to recognize as labeling on the Vanguard.
“Gretchen, I think we need to rest here for a while. We have been walking for a long time. Here we can secure the door to the causeway, and that trap door seems pretty secure. I really need some rest,” Paul said.
“I too am tired,” Gretchen replied. “I really had hoped to have the teleportation pad already built by now. But from what we have seen of the Vanguard, there has been little to inspire hope. Perhaps I’m just too tired to see it now.”
“I will monitor the situation and awaken you if anything changes,” Tiffany said. “I do believe at least four hours of sleep would benefit your situation now.”
Gretchen and Paul ate a food ration, drank some water, and tried to relax. They took off their backpacks, and lay down on the permalloy floor and quickly fell asleep.
“Paul? Gretchen? It is time to continue the quest,” the AI Tiffany said. “There have been no changes in this area since you began your sleep period.” This was followed by a strange clucking and cackling sound.
“What in the world is that noise?” Paul asked as he awoke from deep sleep.
Tiffany responded, “That is a recording of the call of a male gallus gallus domesticus. That was an animal that was commonly referred to as a cock or sometimes as a rooster. In ancient folklore the cock-crow would awaken people in the morning. I thought you would find this humorous. Was I correct?”
“Sure, that was hilarious,” Gretchen stated with a grin. “Are we going to a counter those kinds of animals in one of the biological habitats?”
Tiffany responded, “That is a distinct possibility. Poultry was utilized as a common food source as well as the bird’s eggs.”
“Eating animals?” Paul grumbled.
“Yes, that was a common practice among humans for millennia. It is very likely that the population of humans on the Vanguard will use animals as a food source,” Tiffany replied. “The fact that the society in Dome 17 did not use animals as food sources is historically an anomaly.”
Paul took out a food ration and was thankful for its lack of taste, texture, and colorations. It was rectangular, grey, and easily eaten. It was basic food the way it always had been, and food was just fuel for the body. He tried not to think about the rats and the way they had ravished the dead body of the man who had attacked them. He also drank a water ration. He saw that Gretchen had also eaten her ration of food. They used a corner of the area to expel bodily wastes.
Then both Gretchen and Paul assessed the trap door in the floor. It was circular and opened upward. It too was made out of riveted steel rather than permalloy.
“I think we can assume,” Paul said, “that the steel doors we encounter are safe to open. The labeling on this chamber said something about a ladder, so we must be at the top of that ladder.”
“So we open this up and descend,” G
retchen stated. “Somewhere we have to encounter one of the biological habitats.” She reached down and pulled on the lever opening the trap door. The hinges did open with a screech but the opening of the door was assisted by pistons which were located underneath of the trap door and helped it to open it upward. Indeed there was a ladder beneath that trap door but all was darkness beyond. Looking down there was a sense of some huge openness, even though it was dark below.
They turned on the fusion pack lights and all that was visible was the ladder. They began their dissent. The ladder was made from permalloy and about one meter wide with the rungs at appropriate levels. Surrounding the ladder was a safety cage also made out of permalloy. It was still possible to fall, but falling would be directly down the ladder and not off away from the ladder. The lights illuminated the safety cage of the ladder well, but there was a vast emptiness beyond the safety cage. There was a feeling of air movement, and a sense of spaciousness that they had not encountered before.
Gretchen descended first followed by Paul. Their voices sounded odd as they were absorbed by the expanses around them.
“This is bizarre,” Gretchen said as she peered through the ladder cage and out into the darkness.
“I agree. Very open, almost too much,” Paul murmured.
Even by setting the fusion pack light on a tight beam it was not powerful enough to reach the bottom of the ladder which was still blurred in darkness. Nor could the beam reach out to see anywhere of the open space around the ladder’s cage. The vast emptiness around them was disturbing, especially for people who grew up on Dome 17. Outside the dome, visibility was short due to the rivers of dust in the wind. Inside the dome, space was limited and long distance sights were nothing as vast as what lay around them now.
“Tiffany? Can you sense anything else around here that we are unable to see, hear, or know?” Paul asked.
The AI Tiffany responded, “I can give you readings on temperature, air pressure, air movement, humidity, and items like that, but I doubt that is what you are asking, correct? I too cannot perceive the end of the open space around you.”
“You are right. I just want make sure we are heading in the right way. Do you think we are heading toward a biological habitat?” Paul asked.
“From the mapping I am doing, it is logical to assume that you have entered the Vanguard at what would be considered the gravitational top of this section of the ship. I have observed no indications of anything that leads upward on our trek. So this ladder may very well lead to a biological habitat,” Tiffany stated. “Through the communication system I can display a three dimensional graphic of the mapping of the journey. Do you care to see that now?”
“Not while we are climbing,” Gretchen replied.
After a while of climbing downward, the light from the fusion packs no longer illuminated the trap door they had come down out of. They were in a bubble of light and the world seem to consist of the ladder up, and the ladder down, and an enormous dark emptiness all around them.
Still they descended the ladder. Their arms and legs moved mechanically proceeding down one rung after another rung after another.
“Finally, I can see the bottom of the ladder. I will be glad to get off of this,” Gretchen said with a sigh.
The ladder descended through a hole in the gigantic platform of permalloy. Gretchen expected there to be some way to step from the ladder onto the platform of permalloy, however, the cage surrounding the ladder did not open. She paused in her descent and looked out but could not see any end to the platform. It extended beyond the reach of the lights they carried. It was featureless and black otherwise.
Not being able to get off onto the platform, they climbed down through the platform of permalloy. Not far below that platform, the ladder did come to a halt at a floor. The cage stopped about three meters off of the floor. Here the light from the fusion packs was bright enough to illuminate the entire chamber they had entered. There were doors on each end of the chamber. One was made from permalloy; the other was made from riveted steel.
Paul and Gretchen both stretched their legs and arms and walked about the room. Looking up Paul saw that there was a sign of sorts on the ladder leading upward. Upon one of the rungs of the ladder was stenciled the words ‘Manual Access to Twin Hull Section B6Y77’ in white lettering.
“That sign does not help much at all,” Paul said as he gestured at the label. “So which way now?”
“Well, the permalloy door is labeled ‘SOLAR MIMICRY E HABITAT’ and does appear to be a bulkhead or pressure door. I am not sure what to think of that. The steel door is not labeled,” Gretchen stated. “We could bore a pilot hole through the permalloy door, or we could just open it. I doubt it would open if there was vacuum behind it.”
“Tiffany?” Paul asked. “Could that be one of the habitat’s reactors? Or some kind of control room?
The artificial intelligence Tiffany replied, “Solar mimicry is conjectured to mean the light source for a biological habitat. Whether that is a control area or not, is uncertain from the labeling on the door.”
“I think we should try to open the permalloy door. That may very well lead to a biological habitat. And Paul, I am so tired of ladders.”
“I agree,” Paul replied.
Gretchen walked over to the permalloy door, grasped the handle and tried to turn it. A square shape lit up in the permalloy near the door. The square was divided into nine equal sized boxes of different colors. Then a small display screen, an old style touch-screen, over the top of the color square appeared. Blue lettering flashed in the display screen, ‘enter access code’.
“There is some kind of security system here inhibiting our access. With functional security and energy in the door, drilling a test hole may not be a good idea,” Gretchen stated.
“So we try the steel door. We have basically been following steel doors since we cut into the hull of the Vanguard anyway.” Paul walked to the steel door and it opened easily under his touch. Here the door did not have rust or corrosion on it. Beyond it was a short hallway, well illuminated, with a set of double doors at the far end. Next to the double doors was an illuminated symbol of a human hand. The symbol color was the same blue as had been seen on the touch-screen by the permalloy door. “So Gretchen, do we continue this direction?”
“Unless we are willing to destroy more doors, it seems our way is clear.”
Paul and Gretchen walked up to the double doors. Paul reached out his hand and placed it against the blue hand symbol. With a quiet whoosh, the doors opened. Across the back of the chamber they saw the words, ‘Elevator 166D’ in white letters, but the interior was dark. They stepped inside the elevator and turned around to find a control panel on the inside wall of the elevator. There were a dozen symbols stacked top to bottom on square push buttons. None of the symbols were recognizable.
“This is some kind of old-style elevator. So do we push the symbols to operate this lift?” Gretchen asked.
“That is a valid assumption,” Tiffany stated. “Identification of the symbols and their meaning is not possible without further information. For example, that top symbol correlates to nineteen different possible interpretations from historical cultures. None of them have the same meaning. I am sorry I cannot provide a correct translation of those symbols.”
Gretchen pushed on the top most button. Nothing happened. She looked around and then commented, “The inside of this lift does not seem to have any power. The external hand symbol and doors were powered, but in here, it all looks deactivated or at least disconnected from power.”
“There is a port next to those controls, or buttons, whatever you want to call them. I could connect in the fusion pack and see if we can power-up the controls.” Paul looked doubtful as he said it, but readied the fusion pack.
“We have no idea where this will take us. But I see no other choice,” Gretchen replied. I hate to think of getting trapped in here if the doors close or the lift falls,” Gretchen stated. “But we are in this
together, so give it a try.”
Paul connected the fusion pack to the control board of the elevator. The top most button illuminated from within, and the overhead lights flickered to life. Dust fell from overhead and there was a smell of something burned. They could see no fire or smoke, just the bad smell.
“If we assume we are at the place where that symbol is illuminated, perhaps we can push the next one down and only go a short distance away?” Paul wondered aloud.
The AI Tiffany replied, “That is a valid assumption. However, the smell concerns me. I identify that as an ancient electrical circuit which has burned off a layer of dust. It should pose no problem, but these old systems are subject to failure. Elevators should have safety protocols installed in them to prevent catastrophic falling.”
“So we are doing this?” Gretchen asked.
Paul nodded in agreement. Gretchen pushed that next symbol down. An overhead voice came from the top of the elevator, “access denied.” She pushed the next symbol, and again the recorded voice said, “access denied.” She pushed the third button and heard the same auditory response.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 14