The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle

by John Thornton

  Paul fired again, another loud report, and another miss. He was more prepared for the noise and impact on his hand from the operation of the pistol, yet he still had difficulty recovering his aim. The Roe was running full out at them and Paul squeezed the trigger another time. Just before his pistol fired, a report sounded to his left. Gretchen had fired at the Roe, hitting it squarely in the abdomen. It buckled forward and felt to the deck in the agonies of death. Paul’s final shot missed as well.

  More bombastic voices echoed from down that same hallway. More Roe were coming out of the darkness and rushing toward them.

  Gretchen wrapped her arms around Brinley and the three of them ran away as fast as they could.

  22 broken elevator

  They all tried to run. Brinley tried to run. She was exhausted, not only from all the exertion, but also from the blood loss, as well as the infection surging through her body. Gretchen helped her and steadied her. Brinley was dizzy and unstable on her own feet.

  “The marbles are rolling!” howled a pursuing Roe. It was carrying a crude club and was nearly naked. Several other Roe were close behind it.

  Paul turned and looked back. He fired his pistol as quickly as he could while trying to run backward. Report after report echoed through the hallway, the pistol’s slide kicking back and reloading the weapon after each yank of the trigger. Something, a kind of fragment, or debris, or container part, from the projectile was jettisoned out the side of the weapon each time it fired. Paul briefly wondered if he needed to collect shiny brass colored objects, but rejected the idea. He was already running and trying to shoot the pursuers. None of the pursuers were hit by any of the shooting Paul did, although he did see several chunks in the wall torn away by his efforts.

  “Paul!” The AI Tiffany said loudly. “Trade places with Gretchen and help Brinley along.”

  Paul rushed over and threw his arm around Brinley and helped her to keep running. Gretchen turned to face the approaching Roe. She stopped and took a firm stance, her left foot a step ahead of her right. She brought the pistol up and with both hands aimed it at the nearest Roe.

  “The marbles are rolling!” The Roe screamed and lifted the club as it charged Gretchen.

  She gently squeezed the trigger, and the pistol fired. The report sounded and seemingly instantly the Roe, who was only about five meters away, was blown backward off its feet. The club went crashing into one of the following Roe. Methodically, Gretchen took aim at the next nearest Roe and squeezed the trigger. The report sounded, and the Roe dropped. Time slowed down in Gretchen’s perception. She targeted another Roe and fired the pistol. Its head exploded into bits, showering the other attackers with blood, bone, and brain matter. The next Roe was struck in the chest and it spun around as it died. Shot after shot Gretchen fired, each one taking down another Roe. The echoes in the hallway reverberated up and down. The smoky smell of gunpowder was everywhere. At last there were no more Roe pursuing them.

  Gretchen looked back and saw that Paul and Brinley had made it to the end of the hallway. The light on Paul’s pistol was shining on a door and Brinley was leaning up against the wall. Gretchen turned back and surveyed the carnage which lay spread out before her. The light from her pistol, as well as the light from the fusion pack illuminated all that had happened. A few arms and legs were twitching in their death throes, and one Roe, which had been shot in the pelvis, looked up at Gretchen and with frothy blood dripping from its mouth said, “A lizard is in the buggy now.” The orange glow in its eyes was fading.

  Gretchen ran to catch up to Brinley and Paul. Brinley was feverish, sweaty, and trembling. Brinley tried to take a deep breath and then said, “Rats and other… tagalong animals… be here soon… too many to fight… must flee.” She gasped and spit out a large amount of orange phlegm. “Leave me here. Save yourselves. Kill me now.”

  “No. No, you are coming with us. If I have to carry you myself I will,” Paul said sternly. He turned to Gretchen, “You always could score well when the game got tight. Thank you.” There was true admiration in his eyes.

  Gretchen gave him a wide smile, but then looked to Brinley. “Do not lose hope, we will get you there.”

  “Change the magazine… now… you are nearly out…” Brinley said with a bit of an upturn to her lips.

  “Show me again. Do I press here? Then I insert the other magazine?” Gretchen asked.

  Brinley nodded and weakly pointed to the part on the pistol.

  Gretchen changed the magazine, and pocketed the one which she removed.

  “You need to go through the door, then find a passage leading to the right. You are about three levels up from the ground level of the habitat where your equipment is located,” Tiffany reported. “You are roughly only 20 meters from being directly over the entry to that habitat.”

  Brinley wobbled to the side, but placed her hand next to the door. A box lit up in the permalloy. The box was divided into nine sections each of a different color.

  “I know the sequence. I know the sequence. I know the sequence,” Brinley muttered. She punched the colored squares on the box and the security door slid open.

  Gretchen and Paul helped Brinley through the doorway. The new area they had entered, was wider and taller than the passageway they had just left. There were light sources along the walls at intermittent spaces.

  “I know the sequence. I know the sequence… I can… I am so thirsty…” Brinley said as some drool dribbled out the side of her mouth. “I know the sequence.” With her functioning hand she entered the pattern on the illuminated color box set into the permalloy. The security door shut behind them.

  “That door was permalloy. Most of the doors we have seen in these hallways have been steel. I think I understand a pattern here. Security doors, bulkhead doors, and other more essential doors on the ship are made from permalloy,” Gretchen stated.

  “That is a good and functional conjecture,” the AI Tiffany replied. “Proceed now to your right and watch for an elevator opening. It will be the elevator you used previously. From my mapping and reconnoitering I believe you are nearly vertical to the location of your equipment. The wall ahead of you is the wall of the habitat. Just beyond that wall and some distance below you is the location of the second communication link.”

  “So we have made it through this labyrinth of passageways?” Paul asked. “We have actually got back to that frozen habitat?”

  “Yes Paul. Follow the wall to your right and look for the elevator. Hopefully it has an opening on this level. You are high above the location of the equipment, at least the location of the second communication link which is all I can connect to. I am working on the assumption that the communication link has not moved since it was dislodged from Gretchen during the hypothermia event,” Tiffany answered. “I will let you know when you reach the location directly above.”

  Brinley’s knees were wobbly and she could barely walk on her own. Both Gretchen and Tiffany supported her as they followed the wall looking for the elevator. The three of them walked together until Tiffany made the announcement, “This is the location. I do not perceive an elevator.”

  Gretchen carefully examined the wall and by vigorously rubbing away dirt and dust she was able to locate an access port. She took the fusion pack and jacked it into the wall. Power flowed from the fusion pack and into the wall which immediately illuminated a blue hand symbol not far from the access port.

  “I know the sequence. I know the sequence.” Brinley stumbled over and placed her hand against the blue hand symbol. A red flashing light illuminated the perimeter of the elevator doors, however, and an unpleasant tone was also repeated.

  “Paul, when we were building the teleportation receiving pad, we cut the doors off the elevator. I think it is now nonfunctional here,” Gretchen said as she continued to support that ever weaker Brinley.

  “So we cut open these doors too. Brinley has that old-style cutting torch, we can use that,” Paul said.

  Gretchen looked puzzled.
“We are not sure what kind of technology operates this elevator. There might be gravity manipulation, and the shaft may be zero gravity. Or even, to reduce friction, there might be vacuum in the elevator shaft. We must get safely to our equipment, but I understand the need to hurry.” Gretchen looked at Brinley with compassion and concern.

  “I know the sequence. I know the sequence.” Brinley stammered. She then pinched the bridge of her nose and concentrated intensely. “Gravity is consistent… except in…. supply conduits… and outside… hangar bays

  … shaft is safe.” Brinley said with immense strain. She was fighting to get words out correctly. She fumbled at the color pad, her hand trembling, as she entered a different access code. “I know the sequence.”

  A display screen lit up above the color pad. It showed a graphic with columns of numbers and letters. At the same time, the red flashing lights stopped and a green flashing light illuminated the perimeter of the elevator doors. The door slid partially open and then stopped. The green flashing light was illuminating the elevator shaft. Down the side of the shaft, molded into the permalloy, was a ladder.

  Brinley gave them a weak smile. “I know the sequence. I know the sequence.” With a look of determination on her face she touched a different parts of the display screen. “Check… look in… the… car… I know the sequence.” It was getting increasingly difficult for Brinley to get her words out, the frustration and fear showing in her eyes. “I know the sequence.”

  The display screen shifted and showed an image from the inside of the broken elevator car. Snow had drifted in through the broken doors, but that was not the most startling thing seen in the visual images.

  There was a bright red and messy streak leading through the snow and into the elevator car. Standing over that was an animal. Actually, upon closer look, it was two animals. One was obviously dead; its blood being what had left the red marks in the snow. That dead animal had been brown colored with long thin legs. The second animal was eating parts of the body of the first animal. The live animal was four-legged and nearly a meter tall. It had thick heavy fur of various colors: white, grey, silver, and black. Its abdomen was mostly white colored but over the rest of the animal it had a subtle pattern of black spots. It also had long black ear tufts, and what seemed to be extra long fur in a ruff around its face. Its tail was short, almost ball-like, and completely black. Its seemingly out of proportion large paws were used to hold the dead animal. The animal’s claws and teeth were sharp and effective.

  “What is that?” Paul asked as he looked at the display screen. He was scared. He had never before seen anything like what he was watching. Gretchen also was fascinated by her first sight of these two kinds of animals.

  The AI Tiffany answered. “That appears to be a predator and its prey. I conjecture it has brought the prey into the elevator seeking a refuge from the cold. But as you can see from the precision segmentation of the doors to that elevator, that is in fact the same elevator you used previously. It is the location where your equipment is and where you set up the beginning of the teleportation pad.

  Brinley slipped to a sitting position on the floor still muttering, “I know the sequence.”

  “Paul, we must get her to the med kit as soon as possible,” Gretchen emphatically stated.

  “We will have to carry her down the ladder. There is no way she can do it on her own,” Paul observed. “We also need to figure out what to do about that animal. I think we can cut into the top of the elevator car, but that animal looks well able to defend itself.”

  “And we must get into the jumpsuits, or that cold will get to us again. Kill us this time, and certainly would kill Brinley.” Gretchen removed Brinley’s folded blue jumpsuit from her back and laid it out on the deck next to where she sat. “Brinley, we are going into that frozen habitat again. You need to get the jumpsuit on.”

  Brinley barely nodded, and with her functioning arm took the one sleeve from the jumpsuit and tried to pull it over her injured arm. Her arms were both trembling so badly was difficult. So Gretchen assisted her. Gretchen could feel the heat of Brinley’s fever, the pounding of her heart, and the weird smell on Brinley’s breath, while she dressed her in the blue jumpsuit. There was now a slight orange glow in the whites of Brinley’s eyes.

  Paul meanwhile, was rigging up a harness of sorts out of their equipment belts so as to be able to piggyback carry Brinley down the ladder. He had put on his own blue jumpsuit and placed his pistol in a front pocket. After his failed attempts at shooting the Roe, he doubted his abilities with the weapon, but he kept it easily accessible as he considered what to do about the animal waiting below.

  With Gretchen, Brinley, and Paul all enclosed in their blue jumpsuits, they were nearly ready to begin their descent. Gretchen had also placed her pistol in the front pocket where she could easily grab it when needed.

  Paul took his harness and wrapped it around Brinley’s waist and shoulders. “I know the sequence. I know the sequence,” Brinley said in a weak and trembling voice.

  Paul looked to the display on the permalloy wall. The predator was still feasting on the dead animal. It was a gruesome sight, but in some unusual way seemed more normal and acceptable than what he had seen the Roe and the tagalong animals do. Paul then put his own shoulders through the harness and pulled Brinley to a standing position behind him. She tried to grip him with her one arm, but her strength was ebbing. Gretchen stepped through the partially open elevator doors and into the shaft.

  “Paul, the way looks clear all the way down to the top of that elevator car. I have Brinley’s cutting torch ready. Can you manage to help her down the ladder? I could just go down there cut our way in, then recover the med kit and return.”

  Paul replied, “I will be carrying Brinley down the ladder. I am not sure she has time to wait for one of us to go get the med kit and return. We cannot leave her alone and it might take both of us just find med kit. We also must complete the teleportation pad as quickly as possible. But remember, that beast below us, might be a huge obstacle. I can carry Brinley down the ladder without any problem. It might take both of us to take on that beast.”

  The ladder was molded into the wall of the elevator shaft and Gretchen scrambled down it with ease. Paul took more time, as Brinley was quivering and trembling on his back. They passed the first set of doors below them. Then a second set of doors below that. Gretchen was nearly to the elevator car and further along on their downward climb when Brinley started screaming.

  “I know the sequence. I know the sequence.” Brinley also started to resist Paul’s efforts and was actually striking at him with her uninjured arm and trying to kick him with her legs. With mammoth effort, Paul was able to keep his hold on the ladder. He was thankful that the blue jumpsuit had foot coverings with thick gripper tread.

  The AI Tiffany stated, “Paul, I suggest using extreme caution while descending that ladder. Especially since Brinley seems to be less collaborative, and somewhat combative. A fall from this height could do severe damage to both of you.”

  “Thank you Tiffany,” Paul replied with slight sarcasm. “Got some jokes about falling?” He concentrated even harder and focused on putting one hand down and then one foot down on each molded in rung of the ladder. It was slower going, but he was more secure and safe.

  “I should have been more precise,” Tiffany replied in the slightly mechanical voice. “The fall would not be what injured you. It would be the impact with the top of the elevator which could do serious damage to both of you.”

  Paul actually chuckled slightly. “You did have a joke. Brink would be proud. Still trying to be humorous?”

  “Yes, I thought it might help to lessen the stress. Did…”

  Brinley began screaming again, and that cut off the rest of Tiffany’s reply. Paul held firmly to the ladder, but did glance over his shoulder and see the bright glow of orange from Brinley’s eyes. She also was ineffectively flailing now with both of her arms, the injured one as well as the uninj
ured one.

  “I am on top of the elevator car. There is no access hatch or door. I will need to cut our way in. I hope that beast is afraid of heat, or fire. I am going to use the biggest setting I can to cut us an opening as quickly as possible. Melted permalloy and steel might dissuade that beast from attacking,” Gretchen stated while she initiated the cutting operation. She was unsure if Paul could even hear her over Brinley screaming.

  The cutting torch bit quickly into the permalloy of the top of the elevator. Gretchen had set it to its maximum power and it was carving a finger-wide opening through the permalloy. Molten metal was dripping into the inside of the elevator car while the bright blue, nearly white flame shot about a quarter of a meter into the car itself. Gretchen carved a circular opening wide enough for them to easily drop into the inside of the elevator car. Just as she was completing the circumference of the opening, Paul, and the still struggling and screaming Brinley, reached the top of the elevator.