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

by John Thornton

  “Anda, I do think this one is insane. It must be from the shipwreck. It makes sense. I can only imagine what a terrible fright it must have been to make this man so fearful of the water. See the fear in his eyes when he looks at the sea? It is not normal. Maybe the pirates attacked his ship, and slaughtered everyone but him and the lady? Then they set the ship blaze and it sank as a burning hulk. He and the lady had to swim for shore and barely made it. That is what happened,” Nevenka stated. “They may even have had to walk the plank. That was in the book and it was very scary.”

  “I think you are correct, Nevenka,” Anda said and then turned to Paul. “You need to come with us! We are rescuing you. There may even be a reward, although it is clear you are no nobleman.”

  “No.”

  “For your own good, we will just make you come with us then,” Anda said and nodded to Bogdan. “Bind his will with an incantation.”

  Bogdan pulled the monkey’s paw out of his pocket. He pointed it at Paul’s face and shook it as he spoke, “I command you by power of the monkey’s paw to stop resisting our rescue and come home with us!”

  “What? Are you serious?” Paul asked.

  “His resistance shows his need to be rescued,” Anda said. “Let the magic flow, we must save him and his lady.”

  “You cannot resist the monkey’s paw. You will obey us,” Bogdan said and stared at Paul as he thrust the monkey’s paw under Paul’s nose.

  “Give me that stupid thing,” Paul said in anger. He quickly snatched the monkey’s paw from Bogdan’s hand. With a disdainful throw, Paul hurled it out over the sea. It fell with a small splash.

  “Hey! You cannot do that! That was magic; it cannot just be thrown away!” Bogdan yelled. “I paid Klara a lot for that, and I cannot afford to lose it. You cannot just throw something like that away.”

  “I just did!” Paul snapped back.

  “No! That is the monkey’s paw! I must get it back!” Bogdan yelled. He ran and dove into the sea and skillfully started to swim out to where the paw had fallen in.

  “You stupid man! You cannot throw a monkey’s paw into the sea! You will be cursed!” Anda ran up to Paul and glared in his face. “That was my brother’s. He paid for it. He bargained with Klara and he owned that. You were wrong to take it!” She spat at him, but Paul jumped out of the way. Anda then stormed off and grabbed the edge of the rowboat.

  “Bogdan,” she called to her brother, “we will take the boat and come to you, then we are leaving this place. It is cursed for sure now.”

  “That castaway is a lunatic!” David cried. He helped Anda push the rowboat out and away from the beach. “He is crazy!”

  “The shipwreck must have addled his mind,” Nevenka added as she too pushed the rowboat through the sand and into the sea. “He will really be cursed, for sure.”

  The three jumped in the rowboat and took the oars and paddled vigorously after Bogdan.

  “It was just a lump of animal flesh! It was dried out meat,” Paul yelled after them “There is no such thing as magic! I am not insane! I do not even think there were pirates! You are just children playing games.”

  The youth ignored Paul’s ranting, but he watched as Bogdan swam to the spot where the monkey’s paw had fallen in. His head was above the water. As he treaded water he called to his follow youth, “I think it sank. I will search for it.”

  Bogdan’s head dropped down and under the water.

  The rowboat closed on his position, the three youth rowing with passion and coordination.

  “Bogdan? Where are you?” Anda called to her brother.

  David and Nevenka back-paddled to stop the forward motion and keep the rowboat in the same spot. They were looking down into the waters.

  “Bogdan?” the youth all yelled. “Did you find it?”

  They looked all around and down through the usually clear water.

  “Do you see him?” Anda asked.

  “No, I have not spotted him,” Nevenka replied. “He has to come up soon.”

  “Something is wrong. I am going in to search for him,” Anda skillfully slipped over the side of the rowboat and into the water as well. She popped up after a moment. “I do not see him. The water is murky and strange.” She ducked down again.

  “Anda? Bogdan? Where are you?” David called.

  “I cannot see them,” Nevenka said with worry in her voice.

  “What is happening? Where are they?” Paul yelled from the shore. His heart was racing, but again, his calls were ignored.

  The two youths still in the rowboat looked back with puzzled expressions. Then suddenly, the boat bucked harshly. The water seemed to rise up under it. David fell over the side as the boat was nearly capsized.

  “David! Anda? Bogdan? Where are you?” Nevenka yelled in terror as she gripped the boat with both hands frantically clinging to it.

  The water around the rowboat bubbled with many large bubbly eruptions. Then the rowboat bucked again, but Nevenka kept her seat. When the boat settled, she grabbed an oar and swung it at the water. Several times she struck the water with the oar. She then started to madly paddle toward the airboat. She was strong and pushed the water vigorously.

  “What has happened?” Paul screamed.

  Nevenka was nearly to the airboat when a bluish something shot up out of the water and wrapped itself around her. She was yanked backward and off the rowboat. It happened so quickly that it was just a blur.

  “What?” Paul yelled. “What is happening to you? Where are they? Where are you children?”

  The rowboat stopped bobbing and the sea calmed.

  Gretchen came running up to Paul. “What was all the yelling about?”

  “Those children… they went down in the water…. they never came back up,” Paul stammered. “I am not sure what I saw. I think some sea animal grabbed them. It was horrible!”

  Gretchen ran to the shore, but then backed off. “There is no way to help. You and I cannot swim.” She put her hand to her ear, “Tiffany? Help us! Oh, no… Brinley? Is anyone there?”

  “Gretchen, what is wrong? What has happened?” Brinley’s voice came out of the communication link.

  “Brinley, where are you?” Gretchen asked.

  “I just got off the freight elevator. I have been running the whole way here,” Brinley replied.

  “Go to our tent and get weapons, get all the weapons and come down to the beach,” Gretchen stated. “Go to the right of the river.”

  “Got it. Be there soon,” Brinley replied.

  “Paul? I do not see anything out there,” Gretchen said, “just the small boat and that bigger one out on the sea in the distance.”

  The water was indeed calm. The rowboat was gently rocking back and forth and was drifting slowly toward the shore. There was nothing else on the sea around the area.

  “Those children were there. That boy, Bogdan, he swam out. Then never came back up. The others were in the boat, they went in… I am not sure what happened. Something hit that boat, and something pulled that last girl under. I cannot believe what happened. What did happen? Why? Where did they go?”

  Gretchen put her hand on Paul’s shoulder. “I do not know. I believe you, Paul. I did not see it. I should have been here, but… maybe there is some underwater place or something?”

  Paul muttered almost to himself, “ I am just so sick of all these things I do not understand. So much death.”

  “So you think they are all dead?” Gretchen asked. She too had that worry. “Perhaps there was some tunnel or something under the water. Could they have gotten into that clear tunnel which is under the sea?”

  “That was way down in the water, and I am not sure it was even on this side of the island. I get mixed up on where things are under this nature stuff,” Paul replied.

  “They might be playing some game with us? Part of that pirate whatever?” Gretchen asked dubiously.

  The white and black birds, the ones the children had called mollymawks, began circling back around and lan
ding on the water and on the beach. They had all been gone from the beach area when the children had pushed out on the rowboat while Bogdan swam after the discarded monkey’s paw.

  Paul and Gretchen stepped back and watched as the birds continued to land and walk about. Their noisy chattering made things seem unreal, like the youth had never been there at all. There was something odd about the fact that the birds had been gone from the beach earlier, and had Paul or Gretchen known more about avian life they may have recognized those signs.

  Except for the gently drifting rowboat and the anchored airboat, there was no evidence the youth had ever been on Inaccessible Island.

  5 a plan forms

  Brinley raced down the beach from the trail by the waterfalls. She was loaded down with backpack, three handguns, the Willie pistol, and an assortment of other tools and devices. Yet, under that entire load, she was still able to run fairly fast.

  “What is the crisis? Where is the enemy? How can I help?” Brinley asked in excitement. “Where are the people you said were here? You said children were here?”

  “They are dead,” Paul replied. “They are all dead.” Paul was walking back toward the waterfalls. “They are dead, and I guess now I am cursed, whatever that means.”

  “What?” Brinley asked. “Paulie, explain what happened.”

  “I told you! They are dead,” Paul shrugged. “Just like Karen. Just like Zoya and her mother, who knows how many from Dome 17 are dead? Yes, more people are dead. I cannot save anyone.”

  “Gretchen? What is he talking about?” Brinley asked.

  “I wish I had seen it. If we had a connection to Tiffany there would be a three dimensional display and record of what Paul saw, but we have nothing like that now. I am thankful I can still speak with you over the communication link,” Gretchen was not a melancholy as was Paul, but she was deeply discouraged. “The youth apparently drowned in the sea.”

  “Not just drown, they were killed. Something in the water got them,” Paul said.

  Brinley passed out the weapons as she listened. Gretchen strapped her own around her waist, while Paul just casually held it in his hands.

  “The first child got in the water. He swam out, then did not come back up. Then something happened to the boat and the last one was dragged under. I am not sure what I saw,” Paul cast his eyes down to the weapon in his hands as if seeing it for the first time. “Something pulled her under, but I have no idea what it was. It is because of me. I threw that stupid monkey’s paw into the sea.”

  “Monkey’s paw?” Brinley asked.

  Gretchen explained a bit more about what the youth Bogdan had been carrying. She then asked gently, “Paul, you threw it in the sea? Why?”

  “Because that child was waving that dumb thing in my face and ordering me around like it was some kind of talisman or something. He acted like I had to obey it. Instead, I threw it away,” Paul explained.

  “Paul, did he go after it?” Brinley asked. “Did he jump in the water and swim after it?”

  “I told you. Yes, and it would not have happened if it was not for me. I let my anger go and those children are dead.” Paul wept.

  Gretchen pulled him close to her and held him as he cried. “I know you did not want them to drown. It was his own fault for jumping in the water.”

  There was an awkward silence while Gretchen held Paul.

  “Paulie, if you threw some monkey’s paw into the sea, there might have been a predator fish lurking nearby,” Brinley responded. “I am not a marine aquatics specialist, but I do know sharks are known for attacking things thinking they are food. I have watched them outside the clear tunnel, and they do attack other fish. It was not your fault. It must have been a shark which killed those children. There was no way you would know it was out there. It is not your fault.”

  “The last one was pulled down by some blue arm or something. It pulled her right out of the boat. Do shark animals do that?”

  “Was it a mechanical arm?” Brinley asked. “There are vodnee automacubes which do maintenance and service in the watery places. I see them sometimes from the clear tunnel. I have never worked on one, but they are probably internally very similar to the other automacubes. They will have a memory vault and simple programmed tasks. They are black with gold stripes. They float, submerge, and have an arm on the top of them, like the wheeled automacubes. Was that what pulled the girl under?”

  “An automacube? Could Larissa have sent something like that after us?” Paul asked. “Black and gold? Maybe? I do not know. This looked more bluish, but I did not see it very long. She just got pulled under, and I could not do anything. I am not sure what I saw.”

  “Those children seemed to be obsessed with pirates, some book, and treasure. That boy, Bogdan did have that monkey’s paw. He seemed to think it would protect him somehow,” Gretchen said. “I guess it failed when that sea animal, or animals, or automacube grabbed him.”

  “Wait…. Klara. He said he bought it from Klara. He was rather upset about it all. I probably should not have thrown it in the sea…. But Klara, that is the same person who tried to sell us a map to where the scout ship is, right?” Paul lifted his eyes and looked to Brinley and Gretchen. “That girl had a map too.”

  “Klara is an information maven. I have not been able to track her down since everything fell apart with the shuttle crashes,” Brinley said. “She would be someone who would slip into the habitat population and sell them strange things. That sounds like her. From what you told me, she threatened to sell her information to Larissa.”

  “Paul is right, the girl Anda had a map as well, and she was often quoting from some book. It seems kind of suspicious that Klara wants to sell us a map, and then some youth show up here with a map,” Gretchen commented. “Did Klara send them?”

  “They did find that room behind the rocks.” Paul rubbed the hair of his chin. “Perhaps we should see where that passage leads. But we must be careful. There has been enough death today.”

  “We should search out Klara and confront her. It seems way too coincidental that those poor youth knew her and so do we,” Gretchen said.

  “Gretchen, Paul? As a Free Ranger, I know lots of the people who make deals and do trades. It does not seem too strange that someone in this habitat would know Klara if she has relocated into the habitat. With the massacre, and the shuttles being shot to pieces, the Free Rangers are scattering. Hey, I am with you either way, but have you considered how to search out Klara? The youth came across the sea. Are you prepared to do that?”

  “Of course not!” Paul exclaimed loudly. “Go out on that water with things in it? Things that could kill us?”

  “Well, there is that small boat,” Gretchen pointed.

  The rowboat had drifted close to the shoreline. It now was about five meters out. The water around it was crystal clear all the way down to the pebbly bottom where some plants and small fish could be seen swimming.

  “That I can get,” Brinley said.

  “No! That thing in the water might still be in there,” Paul said.

  “Gretchen, you are an excellent shot. Will you watch as I recover that boat? I would ask Paulie to do it, but if he fired he might hit me instead.” Brinley laughed a bit, but her eyes were serious as she looked at the water. “If a vodnee automacube comes near, yell and I will get out. If you have to, shoot it, we might then be able to access its log and figure out the program it is following. I think that an automacube is probably what killed those children, since Paulie says an arm pulled one under, but watch for any large fish too. Maybe an octi.”

  Brinley walked right to the edge and was about to step into the water. Gretchen held the Willie pistol with both hands as she scanned the water, ready to aim and shoot any threat. Her eyes searched back and forth.

  “I will guard you,” Gretchen said. Her lips were tight and her eyes concentrated.

  “Hold on!” Paul yelled. “I have a better idea. Please wait.”

  Brinley and Gretchen paused and lo
oked at Paul as he ran down the beach.

  A few moments later, he came back with one of the mesh traps he used for catching lobsters. He quickly took the cage part off, and left the frame attached to the line. He tied the line to a nearby rock and then walked right to the edge of the water. He was very nervous as he did so, but the thought of Brinley getting into the water caused him more stress.

  “I will toss this into that boat and pull it the rest of the way.” Paul tossed the frame out and it landed right in the boat on the first throw.

  “You have much better aim when you are throwing something than shooting something,” Brinley chuckled. She applauded as Paul pulled the rowboat to the shoreline. Gretchen holstered her pistol and then the three of them lifted the boat out of the water and carried it up the beach.