“Zoya run!” Brinley yelled, not knowing if she could hear her or not.
“Cut it open!” Gretchen said as she pulled off her backpack and dug out the molecular torch.
Back in the hallway, the Roe again slammed the long bone, this time down against the floor. It shuffled toward Zoya in a menacing manner.
Zoya glanced over her shoulder and saw that the automacube was still rolling along on its tracking mission. It seemed oblivious to the danger of her plight. Zoya backed up a few more steps.
“Pusillanimous cowardly tomatoes!” This time the Roe’s spittle sprayed out from its rotting teeth.
Zoya remembered her mother and the teaching she had received. She drew out the sidearm she had carried on her belt. The weapon which Brinley had supplied for her.
“Stay back!” Zoya ordered as she took careful aim. Her hands were steady and her voice was calm, although to her it sounded far away and her heart was pounding.
A small blue flame appeared, projecting out the edge of the jammed door. It looked tiny and helpless. The door was several paces behind where the Roe was hulking along.
The Roe lifted the long bone and it screamed an incomprehensible wail.
“Go away!” Zoya commanded. “No more warnings!”
“Pusillanimous cowardly tomatoes!” The Roe leapt forward.
Time seemed to slow down for Zoya. Her eyes were more focused and clearer than she had ever experienced before. In the background, the tiny blue flame cutting the jammed door stood still. She felt her finger squeeze the trigger of her sidearm. The pressure was steady as she squeezed the trigger back. The finger pull continued until she felt and then heard the report.
Blam!
Time resumed its normal pace.
The Roe was struck directly in its nose. The face exploded as the head snapped backward. The Roe’s knees crumpled forward as its head and neck lurched back. It collapsed into a messy heap which did not move.
“I will find my momma!” Zoya stated. The determination was intense.
A loud kicking sound came to her as she saw the ladder door knocked out of the way. Paul rushed out following his kick. Brinley pushed past him, dropping the molecular torch as she ran toward Zoya. Gretchen gathered up the tool and connected the fusion pack into the control board near the pressure door and made it close.
Zoya had holstered the weapon just as Brinley swept her arms around her. “Are you safe?”
“I will find my momma!” Zoya replied as she hugged Brinley tightly. “Nothing will stop me.”
Gretchen patted Zoya on the back. “I am glad you are safe.”
“We better catch up to the automacube,” Paul said. “There also may be those infected tagalong animals coming. I hate those things!’
18Larissa arrives
The transport vehicle slowed down. TSI-1906 stated, “Approaching destination, please remain seated until vehicle comes to a complete stop and door is opened.”
“The location is secure?” Governor Larissa asked. Had there been another person there, Larissa would not have hesitated in the least. However, this was the very first time in her entire life that she had left the habitat called the Wilds. She had not expected to feel any unease when she departed in the vehicle, but all the childhood stories of the Roe, and the dangers of being outside of the quarantine came back to her. “The destination is pressurized and safe? There are no people here?”
“Affirmative,” TSI-1906 replied. “Docking is not allowed at unsafe locations, as per core programming. System safety parameters are in place.”
“And are there… is there an infection?” Larissa asked.
“This vehicle is not equipped with medical diagnostic equipment. Shall I have the vehicle wait while a medical unit is summoned? I can send in a request to the lattice for a medical automacube to be dispatched,” TSI-1906 replied.
Upon hearing that the artificial intelligence would make another request via the lattice and that others would hear of her insecurity, Larissa’s resolve hardened immediately.
“No need for any request to be sent. Thank you for confirming the status. Dock immediately.”
The vehicle stopped, then reversed and there was a series of clanging noises as it docked to the transport terminal. The hatch then opened.
SA55 and SA56, the red security automacubes Larissa had ordered for this mission rolled out of the vehicle first. Their weapon muzzles ready. Larissa, eyes, ears, and nose alert, stepped out. The yellow automacube, YA1 followed.
“TSI-1906, you will keep this vehicle here and ready for my departure. It is not to leave unless I order it to do so. Do you understand?” Larissa asked the artificial intelligence.
“Affirmative.”
“Repeat back my last instructions,” Larissa commanded.
“This vehicle will remain at this location until it is moved upon your command only,” TSI-1906 replied.
The transport hub was dank and dusty and the lighting was poor, but not absent. There were three hatches where vehicles could dock. They had docked at the middle one. In the corner of the room was a deactivated blue automacube. In the opposite corner was a stairway which led up and away. Between those two corners was a wall with a hand symbol in blue illumination signifying an elevator. The last wall had a door marked, ‘ESRC’ which Larissa knew contained equipment and supplies for emergencies.
Larissa scanned the blue machine for any signs of power, and all its systems failed to respond and were inactive and inert. Larissa then dismissed the blue automacube as of no consequence and reviewed the rest of the area. Had the lighting been better, Larissa may have noticed the faint tracks in the dust which led to the blue automacube, but she did not. There was nothing else there, so she then turned back to the automacubes who had accompanied her. The security ones had taken up positions at the elevator and the stairs.
She pressed the ‘PROCEED’ button on the top of the yellow automacube and it rolled toward the stairway and began to climb steadily away.
“Flanking positions, and full security sensors for any human activity,” Larissa ordered. Larissa fully expected a Roe at any moment, but she was determined to progress onward to where she had been told the smugglers were heading.
The security automacubes instantly responded to her voice commands.
After Larissa and her team of automacube were out of sight, the deactivated blue automacube lit up and rolled over to the portal door hatches. It inserted a cable into the control panel.
In the nonphysicality, Phoenix Dominie attempted to couple and link to the transportation artificial intelligence TSI-1906. It could not force TSI-1906 onto the alternative mini-lattice it had created. However, Phoenix Dominie was originally a higher order of AI than TSI-1906 and was able to shunt around the safety protocols, and gain access to the transport vehicle. Phoenix Dominie sent the vehicle away using a fake command issued using Larissa’s command codes.
“Vehicle dispatched on your command Governor Larissa,” TSI-1906 stated accepting the bogus command codes. “Transport hub shut down on your command.”
The blue automacube, which was possessed by Phoenix Dominie, then unjacked from the control panel. The puppet began to physically weld shut the three portal hatches.
19attempted healing
Running along Paul, Gretchen, Brinley and Zoya caught up to the modified blue automacube. The large pipe-works located on the side wall could be seen ahead where they rotated ninety degrees and went straight up and through the ceiling.
“That is the place where the Roe who attacked my momma was,” Zoya said as she pointed at a large dark stain on the floor.
“How badly injured was your mother?” Paul asked as his mind evaluated the amount of blood which must have been lost to make up that stain.
“That was the Roe’s blood. We threw the Roe out here. The tagalongs must have eaten the rest. My momma was not too badly injured, just infected. She could still get me into the conduit and send me away…before…well before she turned.” Zoya s
obbed a bit as she remembered it all.
“So she shut you in there to protect you?” Brinley asked and pointed.
“Yes, and then saved me by putting me in the zero gravity conduit,” Zoya replied. She pointed to one of three doors, all of which were closed. One was a pressurized door, the other two were steel.
“Does the automacube have any trail of your mother leading away from here?” Brinley asked, more to herself than to the others. “I wonder…”
Brinley looked at the display on the automacube and the ‘PROCEED’ button was flashing. She pressed the ‘Halt’ button and it lit up with a steady glow. She then tried the ‘PROCEED’ button again, but all it did was flash. The automacube did not roll or move in any way.
“It looks like this is the end of the trail. Unless, by being infected, Zoya’s mother’s DNA was changed too much for the detection. But that does not make much sense to me. The modifications on the automacube might have failed. It is rather cobbled together.”
Zoya pressed the ‘HALT’ button on the modified automacube. “My momma might still be inside there.”
“The door is shut,” Brinley stated. “You said this was where the machine shop was? And it only had the one entrance door and the gravity conduit for ways out?”
“That was all I saw. We came in the one door, and then were attacked,” Zoya replied.
“If we open the door, how do we subdue the Roe?” Paul asked. “I mean, her mother is a Roe, right? We will need to subdue her to treat her.”
Gretchen looked at Zoya. “There are four of us here. Will you be able to connect the medical kit to your mother, if we can hold her still?”
“My momma will not fight…” Zoya stopped and the reality of what was happening hit her hard. “Yes. Show me how it works. I will attach it to her, when you hold her still.”
Gretchen explained to Zoya how to use the medical kit. It was designed to be used by an injured person in a crisis so its controls were very easy.
“I can do that.” Zoya held the medical kit.
“Can the three of us restrain a Roe?” Paul asked. “I mean, well, the ones we have seen have been pretty fierce.”
“We are all immune to the infection, and there are three of us,” Gretchen replied.
“Paulie, we can do this. We just work together and make sure none of us gets too badly battered. Besides, Zoya here will be doing the most important part. We just have to hold the mother still,” Brinley said. “Zoya, what is your mother’s name? I hate to keep calling her a Roe.”
“Eleonora. My momma is Eleonora.”
“I will go in first,” Paul volunteered. “I am probably the strongest, even though Gretchen is taller. I will try to tackle Eleonora and you two help me hold her down. Are we ready?”
The four people all looked at each other and nodded. Zoya held the medical kit.
Paul pushed on the controls to open the door.
It opened and Paul rushed in. The room was lit by flashing yellow lights which cast a glow over everything.
He saw bodies, and was a bit disoriented. The bodies were not the Roe he expected, but they also did not look like dead bodies. They were eerily still and immobile. Two were suspended on some kind of wiring; one was lying on the floor. They were dismembered. The faces looked alive, but still. Paul wondered if they were people in suspended animation, but then saw the mechanical parts hanging from the truncated ends of their limbs. They had wide open eyes, with innocent, almost submissive expressions on their faces. The incongruity of such a human look combined with the mechanical apparatus which was obviously their internal parts was hard to fathom. The shop’s walls were covered by shelves and hooks where all manner of tools were stored.
Gretchen and Brinley followed right behind Paul and they also were taken aback by the sight in the yellow flashing light.
“I told you this place made androids, or robots,” Zoya said. “But where is my momma?”
One of the android bodies was on the floor. Two were female and one was male. They were unclothed, surreal and strange, especially in the yellow flashing light.
Brinley found the shop’s control panel and then deactivated the flashing yellow light and turned on a more normal looking illumination. The shop did only have the one entrance, and the gravity conduit. There were large vats along one wall, which looked to hold raw materials. Overhead was the production line track where two of the incomplete androids were hanging. Each android was missing either an arm or leg or both. However, on a workbench along one side of the room were stacked legs and arms as well as hands, feet, and fingers. They looked almost too normal. The outside of the bodies looked exactly like a healthy, alive person. Each had nearly perfect skin complexion, although varying from one to another in tone and hue. The body colorations, including skin, eyes, hair and lips all looked healthy and typical. The android bodies lacked scars or any signs of disease or other injury. In Brinley’s mind, she could envision how they were produced, from the bench under to vats, to the assembly line, to the end point where there were piles of clothing. None of the androids were finished, and Brinley could see no evidence of who had been producing them.
Paul too looked closely at one body. He was trying to see the places where the limbs were attached, but on the bodies which had arms or legs, he could not tell where the attachment had taken place. The missing limbs had the skin just neatly severed. Paul wondered how they were assembled and how the skin was replaced to look so perfect.
The room, as well as the bodies were clean and spotless with the exception of a moderate sized blood stain near the door, and a blood trail leading to the zero gravity platform.
“That was where momma was attacked. Where is she now?” Zoya asked.
“That is what I was asking myself,” Gretchen said. She walked to the zero gravity platform. There was some blood trails leading there.
“Momma put me in here, and sent me to safety. Where did she go?” Zoya asked again.
Gretchen saw a slight blood trail, just a few droplets, which led under the work bench on the side of the room. Squatting down, Gretchen could see under the bench, and there was a ventilation grille there. A bloody hand print was on it. A bloody bolt cutter was on the floor as was a ratchet which also had smears of blood on its handle. As Gretchen looked closer, she could see that the corner of the grille had been cut, making the spaces between the bars of the grille larger. There were odd fasteners close to the edges of the grille.
Gretchen crept forward, remaining in a squat so as to fit under the bench. She reached her hand out to the grille.
“I will help my daughter!” screamed a voice from behind the grille. A hand slammed hard against the grille from the opposite side.
Gretchen jumped back and up, hitting her head hard against the workbench.
“Momma!” Zoya cried as she heard her mother’s voice. She dove under the bench to see her.
Paul rushed to help Gretchen who was holding her head and waved him away. Brinley lay down and crawled under the bench as well.
“I will help my daughter!” the Roe screamed from behind the grille. Its bright orange eyes were throbbing in intensity. It wrapped its fingers through the grille and shook it violently.
“Momma! I came back for you,” Zoya called.
The Roe shook the grille violently again. This time so hard that its fingers bled a bit. The grille was held in place by several fasteners, ill-fitting but with tight bolts.
“Eleonora, we are here to help you,” Brinley said as she lay prone next to Zoya.
“I will help my daughter!”
“This is a cold air return vent and there is only space in there for about two meters. It then becomes way too small to climb through,” Brinley observed. “She must have unlatched the grille, then got in and bolted herself in. She threw the tools out here, so she could not use them again.”
“Momma you did not want to be a danger to me when I came back!” Zoya declared. “Oh momma, you are so smart!”
The Roe
violently shook the grille and then extended one hand out through the cut apart corner.
Brinley grabbed the hand and pulled as hard as she could. “Attach the medical kit!”
Zoya went into action, but missed as the Roe pulled its hand back with such brutality that it caused Brinley to smash into the grille. She crawled out and away.
“Momma, no! We can help you, do not fight us!”
The Roe’s hand reached out again. Zoya dodged it, having seen what happened to Brinley.
Paul slid in next to her, taking the place where Brinley had been.
“Zoya we can help your mother,” he said.
“I will help my daughter!” Came the scream again. The shaking of the grille continued, but it would not come loose. The orange eyes pressed against the grille and peered out in anger, frustration, and malice.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 63