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

by John Thornton

  “If we did swim, we could not carry the treasure back,” Anda said as she settled the canvas bag on her shoulder.

  They all nodded their agreement as they walked inland a bit. The white and black birds were growing increasingly noisy.

  “We better not get too close to all those birds. They have left us alone for now, but if we get any closer to the cliff and their nests they may get angry.” Anda took out a folded-up piece of paper. It had been wrapped in waterproof materials. She unfolded it with care.

  “I copied the map in the book. See these markings?” She pointed at the map. “I am sure they are for the cliffs there. Now we just need to walk until we find the river. Then we go up the river and look for the next parts.”

  “I do not see any river here,” David said. “But I suppose, since we know this is an island, we can just walk along the shore until we come to the river. If we get back to the rowboat we will know we are on the wrong island.”

  “This is not the wrong island,” Anda snarled.

  “In school they say there are seven islands in the sea,” Nevenka replied. “So I agree with Anda, this is probably the right one. People say the others are way at the far end of the sea. This one is out here all alone, and no one is supposed to go here. This is the place to search for the pirate’s treasure. This is the perfect place to hide it.”

  The four youths walked along the beach. They left the colony of mollymawks with their nests built on the outcroppings of the cliff behind them.

  As they walked, they could tell the shoreline was bending as they compared it to the sky tube far overhead. All four youth were experts at navigating using the position of the sky tube as their guide. It was one of the constants in the world. David glanced back and could not see where the birds were, or where they had left the rowboat. He estimated they had gone about a third of the way around the island.

  The smell was noticed next.

  “Yuck, that is burned fish!” Nevenka said. “Badly burned fish.”

  “It must be pirates!” Anda said and led them in a fast run closer to the cliff walls were some short shrubs were growing.

  They all squatted down and watched.

  Seeing no pirates they continued to walk on and went around a more sharp turn of the shoreline.

  “There it is,” Anda said and pointed to a small mechanical apparatus.

  “That is just an older fish smoker,” David explained. “We have lots better ones of those back home. It is set way too hot.” He started to walk over to it.

  “Wait! It is a pirate’s fish smoker!” Anda said in wonder. “Now we know they are here.”

  “Right, no one is supposed to be on this island. No one,” Bogdan supported his sister.

  “So there are pirates?” David said in wonder as he stopped and looked again at the old smoker and dehydrator. “They really are here? Real pirates?”

  “Look over there,” Nevenka pointed “Lobster traps. Some pirate does live here.”

  “We must be getting closer to their camp,” Anda said and hunkered down a bit.

  “But where are the pirates?” Bogdan asked. He pulled something out of his pocket and was fingering it.

  “They must have left in a hurry. Probably to take their ship out and do some more plundering,” Anda stated. “Now will be our chance to find their treasure, since they are gone.”

  “Anda, there is the river, but it is going to be hard to go up it,” Nevenka said as she pointed.

  They looked and saw where the water flowed out between the rocks and into the sea. Then they all turned and looked back toward the cliffs.

  “A waterfall?” Anda said. “Of course! A perfect hiding place. Nobody can sail a boat up a waterfall. Those pirates are smart. Come on, follow me!”

  Anda ran across the beach, past the fish dehydrator, which was still smoldering, and along a rough path toward the waterfall. The other youth followed.

  The waterfall was not a single stream of water pouring down from the top of the plateau, but instead was a series of smaller waterfalls. Each one was set back a ways from the others. The path looked to lead directly behind the bottom waterfall.

  As the youth ran up the path, a man stepped out from behind the waterfall.

  “A pirate!” David screamed.

  All the youth were shocked and stopped their running.

  The man had blonde hair, nearly white colored, and a short beard on his chin which was more of a brown color. He was average height, which was still taller than the youth, but only a few centimeters taller than David. His pants were made from an odd material which the youth did not recognize, but his shirt was woven. He had a vest of sorts which seemed to match the pants, but did not have a finished look, and was more frayed and tattered.

  “Hello?” the man said. He was a bit surprised, but not fearful. He put his hand up to his ear.

  “It is a pirate!” David screamed again.

  Bogdan held out the item he had clutched in his hands, making sure it was between him and the stranger.

  Nevenka stepped back to stand behind Anda.

  “Hello? My name is Paul,” the man stated. He had a strange accent, but his words were clear enough to the youth. “I did not mean to frighten you, children, but why are you here?”

  “Paul? There are children down there?” a disembodied female voice asked. The voice seemed to come from around the man named Paul.

  “He is speaking to ghosts! He is a ghost pirate!” Bogdan cried out. He pointed the thing in his hand toward the man. The thing was brown and wrinkled with a bit of fur on it.

  Nevenka turned around and ran as fast as she could down the path and away across the beach.

  “Yes, there are four children down here. Well, one is running away right now. But there are four children, I say they are about ten years old,” Paul said.

  Anda gathered her courage, and stepped forward, “If you are a pirate, the monkey’s paw will keep you from hurting us.” She pointed to the thing held in Bogdan’s hand. “It is magic, and pirates cannot hurt the ones who have the monkey’s paw.”

  “Gretchen, they think I am a pirate. If I recall, that is some kind of thief or bandit, right?” Paul asked.

  “Yes. I think pirates were back before the Great Event and did some kind of business dealings where they stole something called ‘intellectual property’ if I recall correctly. Was that some kind of embryonic artificial intelligence system?” the female voice replied. “I do not remember exactly what pirates were, but theft was part of it.”

  “Was Feegin the Thief a pirate?” Paul chuckled at his own humor.

  “Stop talking to that ghost,” Anda said. “I command you by the power of the monkey’s paw.”

  Bogdan held out the mummified monkey paw like it was a dagger. His hand was shaking and his lips were clenched.

  “Gretchen can you come down here? These children are terrified, and I am not sure what to do,” Paul asked. He looked at Bogdan. “One of them has some kind of dried out animal part.”

  “I will come down,” Gretchen answered.

  “I told you to stop talking to that ghost!” Anda commanded.

  “Like I said, my name is Paul. May I ask your names?”

  Anda glanced behind her, and then looked to Bogdan.

  “The other boy ran after that first girl,” Paul said. “I am sorry if I frightened you. My clothing is a bit worse for the wear. I was not expecting anyone to be visiting, especially down here by the sea.”

  Just then Paul caught a whiff of the burned fish. “Oh no! Those fish will be ruined.” He trotted along and down the path past the youth. “Please! Not another failure. Oh, not another one!”

  Reaching the fish dehydrator, he quickly pulled it apart, but the fish inside were charred, black, and hard. “This really stinks! I cannot get this right no matter what I do. I thought for sure it would be right. I even used math to check the settings. Three times as hot should have meant only one third as long.” Paul was waving the smoke away. Not only w
ere the fish ruined, but the dehydrator was also damaged. The door on its side was warped from the heat.

  Anda and Bogdan followed Paul, but were reluctant to get close to him. David and Nevenka were down the beach a ways standing and watching from that safe distance.

  Paul shut the machine down and then slumped into the stand and lay on his back with his knees drawn up. He stared up at the sky tube. A few gulls flew by over head.

  “Anda, he does not look like a pirate,” Bogdan said. “At least not from what the book says. No eye patch, no buccaneer bandana, and no three cornered hat. He does not even have a sword or a peg leg. I just am not sure this is a pirate.”

  “Maybe not,” Anda agreed. “Maybe he is a captive of the pirates? Is he some rich nobleman needing to be rescued? Those pirates took prisoners. That was in the book.”

  “Or maybe he got bitten by the bug made of gold and went insane. He certainly does not know how to operate the dehydrator,” Bogdan observed. “I learned how to do that years ago.”

  “Do you need us to rescue you?” Anda asked. “Will there be a ransom or a reward? That would not be as good as the treasure, but it could still be a grand adventure. So do you need to be rescued?”

  “Oh, I need to be rescued all right. I need to be rescued from the Vanguard. Oh, if I could contact Tiffany, I could learn all I needed to know. I would learn about drying fish, and what the weird animals are, and even what a pirate really was. But no, I cannot even talk to Tiffany now.”

  “I thought the ghost was named, Gretchen?” Anda said. “Are you enchanted?”

  “It must be the monkey’s paw. That is stopping him from talking to the ghosts!” Bogdan said. “Obviously there is more than one ghost. I am sure glad we got this monkey’s paw. Who knows what would happen to us without it?”

  Paul sat up. He wiped his eyes, halfheartedly threw some sand at the dehydrator and then looked at the youth. “I am not talking to ghosts, nor am I some kind of pirate or whatever. You would not believe me if I told you my real history. If I told you the real story of my ship and how I got here you would think I was crazy. However, I have been with the Free Rangers, are you some of their children? Did Jodie find a way to come back to Inaccessible Island? Is that why you are here?”

  “This is Inaccessible Island!” Anda exclaimed. “I knew we came to the right place.”

  “Wait, he said he was a Free Ranger,” Bogdan said with worry in his voice. “Those are the smugglers who break quarantine. There might be infections on this island. I bet that is why no one is supposed to come here. We should have listened to the warnings. Constable Herric was right. Anda, we need to leave before he turns into a Roe!”

  Paul stood up. He shook the sand from his pants. “Now listen to me, I am named Paul. I am not a Roe, although I have seen enough of them to last my whole life. I am not talking to ghosts, nor am I a pirate. Will you just explain to me what you are doing here? And put that disgusting animal part away. Why would anyone have something like that?”

  Anda considered his words. Bogdan was ready to bolt and make a run for the rowboat, but Anda took courage and spoke, “Are you infected by the Outbreak? Are you a Roe?”

  Paul laughed a mirthless giggle. “Me? A Roe? I am not infected. I am not a Roe. You have no need to worry about that. I am speaking in complete sentences, and whole ideas. Come now, look at me. Do I look like a Roe? Really? Do I?”

  “I have never seen a Roe.” Bogdan settled down a bit. Then turned to Anda, “He does not have the orange eyes they always warn us about. So maybe it is safe?”

  Anda nodded. “I am Anda, and this is my brother Bogdan. Over there are David and Nevenka. We are here searching for pirate treasure.”

  “I am Paul, like I have said.” He sat back down on the sand. “Gretchen and I live up on the plateau and we are not pirates. I have not met any pirates, ever, as far as I know. I have never seen any treasure of any kind here. What kind of treasure do these pirate people of yours hide?”

  Paul listened as Anda described all that she had read in the book. She explained about the buried wooden chests, the gold coins, the jewels, and the magic items which pirates all seemed to gather and hide.

  Before Anda was finished, Gretchen came running down the path.

  “Well here is Gretchen,” Paul said. “Does she look like a ghost, a Roe, or a pirate?”

  Bogdan looked at Gretchen, her frizzy dark hair flowing behind her as she ran. Her deep brown skin shining in the sky tube’s light. Her tall frame erect and poised. He just stammered, “Pirate? No…. not a pirate…. She is beautiful.”

  2 behind the rock

  Paul and Gretchen sat on the rocks near the beach. Off a ways was where Paul used the mesh traps to catch lobsters. The youths warily sat nearby, Bogdan just watched Gretchen with his eyes wide. She was somewhat embarrassed by his obvious preadolescent attraction to her.

  “Do you really need to have that thing out?” Gretchen pointed to the animal part Bogdan was holding.

  “Huh? Oh, no, I guess not. The monkey’s paw protects us from pirates, but you are not a pirate.” He put the shriveled and dried out thing back in his pocket. “You are far too pretty to be a pirate.”

  “Thank you. I am not a pirate. So you children are here, and you are searching for treasure?” Gretchen asked.

  “I am not a child, I am nearly thirteen years old,” Bogdan said with pride in his voice.

  “I am fourteen,” Anda said.

  “Sorry, no offense meant. So where will you search?” Gretchen asked.

  “The map shows that we first get to Inaccessible Island,” Anda unfolded the map. “Then we follow the river upstream.”

  “Well there is only one river,” Paul said. “At least we have only seen this one.” He waved at the waterfalls which came down from the plateau.

  “Did you search for the treasure already?” Bogdan asked as he gazed at Gretchen.

  “No, we had no idea there was treasure.” Gretchen was suppressing a smile.

  “Bogdan, you look like a cat in heat, calm down,” Anda said. “So this is the only river? The map does not show waterfalls, so maybe there is another river on this island?”

  “Well, we have walked all around the plateau, and there is only the one stream which leads to the waterfalls,” Paul answered.

  “Did you walk all around the beach too?” Anda asked. She had sensed something in Paul’s tone of voice.

  “No. I am not really comfortable getting too close to the water. I will drag in the nets, and catch those things in the mesh traps, but otherwise, I keep to the plateau. There are animals in the water, and well….”

  “There are fish in the water, not animals. Animals are on land. Birds in the sky. So you have not searched out the whole beach, and there might be a second river?” Anda asked. “Or there could be a whole pirate cove where they hide their sailing ship.”

  “I have not seen any ships on the sea, but I guess maybe there could be some place along the shoreline. You said the map showed this is the river,” Paul stated.

  “It is the one we will search first. Obviously you two are not pirates, and you are not nobleman. I am not sure what to call you,” Anda looked to the other youth.

  “I bet they are castaways,” Nevenka said. “That explains it all. Like in the book, these people’s ship must have sunk, and they washed ashore. That explains the man’s fear of the water. I bet the ghosts he was talking to are people who drown in the shipwreck.”

  “Good thinking! So first we will search for the treasure. Then we can take you two back to the mainland when we leave.”

  “Mainland?” Gretchen asked.

  “Right. You must be from Murom. I do not think we can take you there, but you can come back to Kimry with us. That way we will have rescued you.”

  Anda stood and started up the path toward the waterfall. The other youth followed her lead.

  “There is no hidden treasure up the river. I walk down here and back nearly every day and have not seen any
thing like what you described,” Paul said.

  “A castaway would not be able to see it. You suffered too much trauma from the shipwreck,” Anda said as she approached the waterfall. “Losing your ship and your companions will play mischief with your mind.”

  “How true that is,” Paul replied. “More than you children will ever know.”

  Gretchen reached over and hugged Paul tightly. She then whispered, “Should I call Brinley? She was working with Tennard on repairing our equipment, but she can probably come here and help.”

  Paul returned her hug and replied, “Why? For some nuisance children playing games? Remember how we played games in Dome 17? If we just play along they will soon grow weary and leave. They are no danger to us at all. Let them search for their imaginary treasure.”