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

by John Thornton

  “Yes, this is Hanger Bay 219. If we were going to stop, we could approach close, and I would flash our external light and they would cycle the bay to allow us to enter. They have Free Rangers observing all the time for incoming shuttles. But now I want to check out one more location.”

  Brinley fired the thrusters and the shuttle altered course and flew along the short axis of the cylinder.

  “Hanger Bay UW22 is the next one. It is only a medium sized dock, but a place I like to go. It is the first bay I ever flew to on my own. I was quite fourteen at the time, and carrying a load of lumber from the Woods. Not really too valuable, but enough to make me feel important.” Brinley had a wistful look in her eyes as she related that experience. “Got there safe and sound, followed the sequence back with a load of fresh fish, fruits and vegetables. Some of the best meals I ever had.”

  Paul spotted the yellow marked hanger bay doors just as Brinley was announcing they had arrived. He did not want to admit how nervous he had been realizing they were flying with only human instruments to guide them. AIs, data sticks, and other machines had helped Paul all of his life. Without them he felt, odd.

  “So we have confirmed Tiffany’s plotting and mapping,” Gretchen said. “Brinley you mentioned finding some other hanger bay?”

  “I thought we might have to enter a known hanger bay, and then get out of the safe zone and do an on-foot search in the corridors. That is the only way I have ever heard of someone finding an unused hanger bay. But with Tiffany’s help, I think we can find one from outside.”

  “You had planned on having us travel through corridors infested with the Roe just to get to a different shuttle?” Paul asked. “Really?”

  “No big deal, Paulie. We are armed, and that med kit of yours can heal the infections, right? You also said you two are immune to the Outbreak. It would only have taken us a few days to find an unused hanger. But with Tiffany’s help, I think we can find one much more quickly.”

  “Okay,” Paul said. “I am just along for this ride.”

  “Brinley, I am following your plan. If the display is accurate, and I have no reason to doubt Tiffany, or you, then we are fairly close to a hanger bay here.” Gretchen touched a spot on the display.

  Brinley smiled. “That was my thinking as well. Outstanding!”

  “Tiffany, can you zoom in on the display and plot us a route to that unknown hanger bay?” Gretchen asked.

  “Certainly. Course plotted and it will appear on the display as a red line and directional arrows. Brinley may I project it as a heads-up display on the port in front of you?”

  “We can try it,” Brinley replied.

  The red line and red arrows were ghostly over the port window in front of Brinley’s pilot’s chair.

  “That will be easy to follow. Putting us on course,” Brinley said as she adjusted the thrusters to align with the pathway shown on the window port.

  The shuttle flew directly toward the unknown hanger bay. The gently arching hull showed various lights, contraptions of equipment, and outcroppings of permalloy, none of which were familiar to any of the three people in the shuttle. Soon they were approaching the hanger bay doors. The characteristic yellow warning stripes were clearly visible as they drew near.

  “How will we get the doors to open?” Paul asked. “You said at that other place the people inside watched and they opened the doors. What do we do here?”

  “I have been thinking about that,” Brinley replied. “I know the sequence for cycling airlocks. I also know the sequence code for opening hanger bays doors from inside. One of those codes should open theses hanger bay doors.”

  “So we just communicate with that hanger bay? Is there an AI there to receive our signals?” Gretchen asked.

  The AI Tiffany added, “I have been attempting to signal this area since we started our trek here, but there are no communication methods recognized.”

  “Yeah, I told you all the macroactinide capacitor enhancers are gone. No signals in, no signals out,” Brinley stated. “That was one reason I really doubted your stories about contacting Earth.”

  “But we get signals from Tiffany, and the scout ship is outside the hull of the Vanguard. And we did contact Dome 17, even though it was only a recording.” Paul was puzzled. “I am not sure what the macroactinide capacitors are.”

  “First, I am not sure how we contact Tiffany. I am itching to tear apart one of the communication links and see how it all works. As to macroactinide capacitors, they obviously differ from what Tiffany is using. Do we want to go inside, or do you want a basic lesson in ergo-mechanical engineering?” Brinley asked. “Of course we cannot remotely enter the sequence codes, so what we do is, get this shuttle to the control panel beside the hanger bay doors, and manually enter it.”

  With ultra sensitive finesse, Brinley moved the shuttle until its nose was within a single meter from the hanger doors. Brinley then slid open a side compartment and slipped her right arm into it.

  “Now watch,” she said as she moved her arm around a bit.

  A section of the shuttle’s nose dilated and a mechanical arm unfolded from within. Brinley directed that arm to reach across the one meter space and it flipped open a box on the hull. Inside that box was an illuminated nine section color pad.

  “Excellent! This is even powered already. I was worried I would need to splice in some power to operate the switches. I think I will start with the sequence code that works the hanger bay doors from inside.

  She pushed seven colors in a pattern.

  The control pad flashed red in a rapid succession.

  “Not that code. I will try the airlock code next.”

  Again the control pad flashed red in a rapid manner showing a rejection of the code.

  “So we cannot get inside? That is wonderful. Do we just head back to that market place thing you showed us?” Paul asked.

  “Quit so soon?” Brinley laughed. “No, that is not my way. I have just gotten started. I know over thirty sequences, one of those should work for these doors.”

  “Brinley, may I record the sequence codes and what is their typical use?” Tiffany asked. “I may be able to see patterns and conjecture other possible codes. But I will need you to audibly say what the code connects to when you enter it.”

  “Well, sure, okay. I guess we are all family now. As the old saying goes, ‘Everyone in the same shuttle shares the air right.’ Right Paulie?”

  Paul just grimaced.

  Brinley repeated the codes she had already tried, so Tiffany could record them. Then one at a time, she entered each code she had memorized and stated its purpose. She had thirty seven codes in her memory. Each one was tried, and each one was rejected by the control color pad.

  “None of them worked,” Brinley said disheartened. “I guess I can try to cut the control pad off the wall here and follow the wiring and try spark open the doors. But they will stay open and the hanger will not really be usable again.”

  “So we came out here for nothing?” Paul asked.

  “Sorry. I really thought that one of the sequences would work,” Brinley replied.

  “Brinley, try green, yellow, yellow, white, white, blue, red, blue, amber,” Gretchen said.

  “How would you know a sequence?” Brinley asked. “But what can it hurt.” She had the mechanical arm enter that code.

  The control panel flashed green. A display above the controls lit up with a countdown of numbers.

  “Yippee! Now we back away before the hanger doors open. We do not know what might be inside,” Brinley said as she had the small shuttle pull rapidly away from the controls. “But how did you know?”

  Tiffany answered, “The code Gretchen suggested was the reverse of the code for opening the hanger from inside. Was that an intuitive leap?”

  “It is the reverse!” Brinley said. “And it worked. Great job! I will make a mechanic out of you yet!”

  “It was intuition, but also a lucky guess.” Gretchen looked a bit embarrassed but smi
led.

  The large hanger doors slowly opened. The hanger bay beyond was revealed. They all looked, and then looked again. Their elation at getting the hanger to open was crushed by the sight before them.

  5 demise of some Free rangers

  The four automacubes continued on the trail of the fugitives. They came through a small companionway, with M147 in the lead. That companionway ended with a foyer where they could look out over a building complex. A galleria lay before them. They descended a long gently spiraling stairwell, where they found dark stains and a few scattered bones of at least one human. The spot was indicative of where someone had died. The fragmented bones were scattered down several stairs, and had been stripped nearly completely bare by scavengers. Three of the automacubes halted before the bones, but M147 did a brief investigation. The bones were not the fugitives’. The bones were from two separate individuals, each infected by the mutant virus. Cause of death appeared to be weapon’s fire from an unknown type of projectile weapon. M147 then continued the descent and the other three rolled around the bones and followed.

  The spiral stairs had hand rails along the outer side, beyond which it was open to the galleria. Their six wheeled carriages easily traversed stairs, inclines, and could even climb ladders as needed so the gentle descent on the spiral staircase was no difficulty at all. If the automacubes had had biological eyes and a sense of esthetics they would have appreciated the architectural triumph the galleria had been.

  At the top of the circular galleria, about fifty meters off the lowest level, was a large orb which emitted full spectrum lighting in a manner similar to the sky tubes of the habitats. It was still functioning and the multiple levels and decks and platforms which ringed the central open area, as well as the spiral stairway were lit brightly with that artificial sunlight. The different levels of the galleria, each connected by the stairway, had once held shops, eateries, plazas, and small offices all with large windows which faced the central open area. On the upper three levels of the galleria there were various planters of colorful flowering plants most overgrown and unruly, but a few of the planters had brown, dried out and long dead foliage.

  All of those shops were now abandoned, and many of the windows were broken and the fragments of glass strewn about. Had the windows been made of transparent permalloy they would not have been broken. Tables, chairs, and other furniture which had once been tastefully arranged, were now just overturned and scattered about haphazardly. Littered among the shops were papers, bags, and assorted trash. Insect life teemed around the trashy areas.

  The lowest level of the galleria was a garden where vegetables, fruits, and nuts were still growing. Deep brown, nearly black soil covered the area, and there were fruit and nuts trees around the circular perimeter, all leafy and healthy. Some were in bloom, while others had heavy ripe fruit hanging on their branches. Insects buzzed in and among the trees and crops. A large bee hive was hanging under one large limb of a fruit tree. There were vegetables growing in neat and ordered rows in the center. A permalloy walking path cut across the garden. Small and discrete watering nozzles were located at specific places along the walkway.

  In among the growing vegetables was a green automacube slowly rolling its way across the garden. The green automacube stopped intermittently to tend to the growing crops with its multi-jointed appendage.

  M147, E11, S76 and S101 rolled off the bottom of the stairs and proceeded across the permalloy walkway toward the green automacube. They stopped suddenly when there was movement off to the side, near the fruit trees.

  An orange eyed Roe was there. It glanced back and forth rapidly as it squatted by the edge of the garden. Its deeply scarred hands were nervously rapping against the permalloy floor at the perimeter of the garden. It had sidled cautiously out one of the empty shops to pause there. The blue flight suit it wore, demonstrated that once it had been a Free Ranger. But the flight suit was ripped, worn, and splattered in many places with stains and residue from oils, drool, blood, vomit, and other unknown substances. Seeing no humans, the Roe suddenly rushed forward, grabbed a ripe fruit from the tree, and scurried away to hide again among the ruined stores. The green automacube had no reaction to the Roe’s movements. The security automacubes, their sensors trained on the movement, identified no immediate threat and therefore also did not reply to the Roe’s actions. M147 monitored the Roe’s behavior, and added that to the report which would be sent back to Constable Larissa.

  The blue engineering automacube, E11, rolled over to the green one that was just then carefully tilling the soil about some healthy rutabaga plants. E11 attempted to communicate with the green automacube, but none of the signals sent were received. E11 then extended a cable and jacked into a port on the back of the green automacube.

  Running a diagnostic on B298, E11 recognized that the green machine’s multiceiver circuitry was burned out. Its log showed it had been tending the garden for thirty seven years without any feedback or instructions from Central Processing or Machine Maintenance. It regularly charged itself at a service port in a garden shed. E11 did not have replacement components for the multiceiver so that was left unrepaired. A message was readied requesting replacement parts from the nearest Replication and Fabrication department. That message was placed into E11’s long list of waiting messages to be sent when reconnected to the lattice. E11 did perform routine maintenance on B298 which restored its energy utilization efficiency back to 96% of recommended levels. That meant the green automacube would recharge faster and be more productive in following its basic programming.

  The four automacubes rolled out of the garden and into a small courtyard. There M147 discovered a toileting area where the fugitives had left biological wastes. Samples were collected, and analysis done. E11 examined the toilets, and after some manipulation with its appendage was able to restore function. The toilets sent their gathered materials to be processed at a waste recycling center located near C Habitat.

  M147’s analysis of the fecal samples confirmed the fugitives were the ones who had been there. Additionally, M147 stored the analysis with the charts on the two individuals in question. M147 still had many unanswered questions about the genetic anomalies in those two subjects. The machine wanted more evidence to consider in making the appropriate conjectures.

  A report of their progress was sent back to Constable Larissa. She acknowledged receipt through her multiceiver, but had no new instructions. They continued the pursuit of the fugitives.

  Another Roe, rushed away from the machines as they rolled from the galleria. Again, the red security automacubes processed that movement as having no threat, and thus it was ignored.

  Hours passed as the four machines continued on their search, winding and twisting through the corridors. The few shut doors that were encountered were easily opened by the red automacubes or on one occasion by E11 using its override codes.

  As they rounded a corner, S76 rushed ahead and spun about in the corridor. The other three halted their progression. M147 knew the fugitives had proceeded this way, but allowed S76 to move ahead. This corridor ran for a good distance in a straight line, with no side hallways, doors, or other openings. At the far end of the corridor was a bulkhead door with a wide blue stripe running horizontally across it.

  Pop!

  S76 launched a smoke generating grenade. The grenade landed in the hall, about midway between the automacube’s location and the blue striped bulkhead door. The grey smoke billowed up and around the corridor revealing thin greenish beams of light which were crisscrossing the corridor.

  Pop!

  S76 launched another item. This time a spent munitions canister landed amid the smoke-filled section of the corridor. The canister bounced and jostled itself around until it hit and broke one of the green beams of light.

  A flash and bang were observed by the automacubes as an electromagnetic pulse detonation happened. The trap was sprung. Illumination in the corridor went out as everything powered within the range of the burst of dis
rupting electromagnetic interference was rendered inert and inoperable.

  The electromagnetic pulse explosion had been of such magnitude that had the automacubes been near the trap when the detonation occurred, even the armored security automacubes, they would all have been disabled, or destroyed. As it was, they all were out of range as the explosion took place, but the power systems in the walls, ceiling, and floor were all severed and ruined.

  The smoke remained, but the thin green beams of light were gone.

  S76 and S101 rolled forward in a slow, relentless, methodical manner. Their detection equipment and sensors were probing through the smoke. Their weapons systems were ready to engage any enemy. The corridor was without other threats all the way to the bulkhead door. It too was located out of the blast radius, but that bulkhead door did not open for the red automacubes, despite their security clearances.