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

by John Thornton

  “Deflector and repulsion field engaged,” the mechanical voice said while the words scrolled across the display.

  A green colored field enveloped the Captain’s gig just as the white ball got within about thirty meters. The white ball exploded in a noiseless starburst. The gig’s thrusters fired and it increased in speed.

  “Object deflected. Course continues,” the voice said and the words scrolled across the displays.

  “Hurrah! Can you tell us where we are going?” Hugh asked.

  “Are you asking me or the gig?” Sigmond laughed in both relief and as a way to break up the tension he was feeling. “Yes, Captain’s gig? Where are we going and what will we find there?”

  There was no reply.

  Looking out the windows, the Jellie spheres were not quit going to reach the intercept point at the same time as the gig. Each of them ejected another white ball which came hurling at the gig.

  “Proximity alert! Proximity alert! Proximity alert!” a mechanical voice came from the cockpit, but they could not hear it. The words also scrolled across the display screens. “Three unknown objects on collision course.”

  There was a slight lurch as the stern thrusters fired again. The gig also rolled gently away and the scene in the windows was dramatically altered.

  “I am pretty sure that defensive deflector and repulsion field can protect us again,” Sigmond said. “We have also picked up speed. I assume it is in response to these attacks.”

  The white balls missed the gig entirely and did not even get close enough for the defensive deflector and repulsion field to detonate them.

  “So we are faster than those Jellies!” Hugh yelled in victory.

  “Trooper, those are just individual Jellies in their sphere suits. They are the alien’s equivalent of our spacesuits. I am not sure what their actual spaceship could do,” Sigmond sighed. “Those sphere suits by themselves are an impressive technology. The way that pink beam cuts into permalloy, well, that would not be conducive to our success in this journey.”

  The thrusters fired again and the gig barrel rolled and altered course another time. The Jellies were no longer visible in the front windows. Sigmond touched a few places on the display and received some more negative functions sounds. After a moment he did smile. “Rear view camera found and activated.”

  The display in front of Hugh switched and the scene from behind the gig was projected there. The Jellie spheres were far in the distance and getting smaller. Just as they were getting too tiny to see, they swerved away and headed back toward the much larger Jellie ship that was still carving away at the hull of the Vanguard.

  The gig then took a wide and sweeping turn and stopped. The view from the windows looks long ways along the axis of the needle ship. A broken constituent joint was in the foreground as the gig’s bow thrusters fired and it began to back up. Hugh was amazed at the long distance he could see down the length of the needle ship. He had never seen anything so vast or so long before.

  Sigmond was watching the display with the rear view. It showed a hanger bay’s yellow striped doors which were opening.

  “It looks like we have arrived at the destination. I am not familiar with this hanger bay. There is an empty stall next to where we are docking. I see no other shuttles of any kind, and this is far more compact than I would have expected for a Captain’s gig to berth. Trooper? We are still on the needle ship, and that is the realm of the Central Planning Office and your superiors.”

  “Should I put you in handcuffs and pretend you are my prisoner?” Hugh laughed. “Just tell the CPO you are the smuggler I caught?”

  “You have arrived to help her. She is waiting for you,” a child’s voice said in each of their helmets.

  Sigmond heard Irina’s words. Hugh heard the voice of Lennie. Both men felt reassured.

  There was a yellow spinning light which was shining in the hanger bay. The exterior doors rolled shut and the thrusters set the gig gently down in the stall. Clanks and a clunk were heard as docking clamps were latched onto the gig. Shortly after the exterior doors closed, gravity manipulation came on and both Hugh and Sigmond felt the sensation of weight again. Now there was a perspective of up and down.

  A slight jostle was felt from the side of the gig and a display on the cockpit lit up. ‘Atmosphere being restored’ scrolled across the display and a bar graph flashed with a light blue color as it grew on the display. ‘Normal atmosphere in place.’

  “I think we can unclip the helmets now,” Sigmond said. “The readings show the whole hanger bay is pressurized and safe. The gig has even pressurized its interior.”

  “Excellent! We have finally made it to her. After all this, that child was right!” Hugh fumbled about with his helmet, but had trouble undoing the latches.

  Sigmond already had his own helmet off and he dexterously undid Hugh’s and helped him remove the helmet.

  They were both wearing huge smiles as they exited the Captain’s gig, with the bubble helmets under their arms. Both men’s faces sported dried blood, and bruises, but the joy they had radiated out.

  Looking over to the pressure door which was the exit from the hanger bay to the observation deck, they saw a woman standing there.

  “There she is! The child was right!” Hugh said in elation.

  Sigmond looked up. His face twisted in shock and surprise. “That is not Brinley!

  On the small observation deck, the pressure door now opened, Larissa stood with her blonde hair braided neatly. Her cold icy blue eyes were staring at the men. She was aiming a Dome 17 pistol at them.

  15 getting more equipment

  “Hang on! I am boosting us out of here!” Brinley yelled. Her fingers moved swiftly over the command screen on the display.

  Thrusters fired even while the stub which had connected onto the airlock unsealed. The stub was retracting and folding back but Brinley was maximizing the thrusters.

  Paul and Gretchen held on as they were knocked back and sideways in their seats.

  “There are four of them,” Paul called out. “They have just fired those exploding white balls of theirs. Oh I hate this!”

  The Captain’s gig rocked over and the stern thruster jets sent out plumes. Those plumes smacked into the white balls which were emerging from the purplish-blue Jellie spheres. The jet detonated one of the white balls just as it was passing from out of the sphere. The explosion split the side of the sphere and fluids came out with even more volatile force. The sphere was virtually turned inside out and the Jellie inside of it was pulverized into countless tiny parts.

  The other three Jellie spheres had successfully launched their white ball weapons. The gig was moving away and twirling, but one of the white balls detonated near its rear wing. That tore a small section of the wing away, but did not puncture the pressurized cabin.

  A moment later the gig was speeding away fast and its velocity was increasing.

  “We are away!” Brinley said as she checked the rear views and saw the Jellie spheres dwindling behind them. “We sustained some damage, but we can make it to Safari and get the final load of equipment.”

  “But we still only have one gig,” Paul said. He wiped sweat from his face. “This will never work. Those Jellies just about got us.”

  “We do have all the supplies from that stop, and we got the bonus of the data sticks.” Gretchen corrected. “Paul, this can work. It has to work.”

  “We are about on course for the Safari hanger bay nearest to the Reproduction and Fabrication center,” Brinley said. “I see no Jellie spaceships along our route.”

  “But you did not expect those Jellie’s back there either,” Paul lamented.

  Larissa’s face came on all three multiceivers at the same moment. “Everyone listen! We have the second gig,” Larissa said. Her face looked stern, even more stern that usual. “You must get the rest of the equipment and return as soon as you are able.”

  Brinley cracked a huge toothy smile. “How did you get a second Captain’
s gig?”

  “Brinley, it might be a trick. It could be a fake transmission,” Paul warned. “Those Jellies just attacked us and now we get this message. Too convenient.”

  “I heard that, Paul. Caution is in order. Have your AI run a voice analysis on my words. Have Tiffany check it out. This is a genuine message. The second gig is here with me, docked by the command bridge.”

  “Tiffany, confirm identity of Larissa,” Gretchen ordered.

  “I have already done that. Voice pattern matches exactly. That message is genuine,” Tiffany replied.

  “Wonderful!” Brinley exclaimed. “What happened?”

  “Two survivors brought it here,” Larissa said in a way which did not invite further discussion. “Get the equipment and the supplies, then return. I am shutting down the link.”

  “Larissa? Who are the survivors?” Paul asked. “Are they the children? Only two? Larissa!” He thumbed the switch on the multiceiver, but Larissa shut it down every time he opened it up again.

  “Paulie, it is good news, even though I too wish I knew who the survivors were,” Brinley said.

  “Indeed,” Gretchen added. “Now we just need to gather those supplies, build the lifeboat and then depart. The plan is coming together.”

  “The children?” Paul asked. “They must be found.”

  Gretchen nodded and said, “Paul, if we proceed along on this task, we have a good chance of finding and rescuing them.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Paul asked.

  “Paulie, searching blindly for them would not be any more beneficial than searching while we pick up the items which were ordered.” Brinley was smiling broadly. “Safari is up ahead, and I will dock the gig.”

  As they flew along, Brinley watched the needle ship and then the habitat cylinder in which Safari was located. From the outside, there were more working lights and the route was less damaged than the other places they had seen. She looped the gig around the distal side of the cylinder and that gave them a chance to look for Jellie activity. None was seen.

  Zooming around the long end on the bow side, Brinley directed the gig. Moving across the flat end revealed the damage which had been done. There was wreckage of the leeway which had extended outward, but had been destroyed. There were also melted areas which showed the Jellies had been there. Those melted holes had exposed some of the inner workings of the decks and passageways. Several of those were exposed to space.

  “How much atmosphere is still inside there?” Paul asked. “Is the whole thing vacuum?”

  “I doubt it,” Brinley replied. “There are still functional energy conduits and if the entire cylinder had been decompressed, that would not be the case. It is still very strange for me to see that A and B cylinders are gone. It just is not right.”

  “The deck plans show a hanger bay at this location,” Gretchen said and indicated a place on the display. “Can we dock there?”

  “I will circle us around and see.” Brinley commanded the gig to take the proper course.

  A few moments later they were approaching that specific hanger bay. It was open with the remains of a crashed shuttle jammed in the gigantic hanger bay doors.

  “I think I can get the gig inside there,” Brinley said. “However, the bay will not be able to be pressurized. I can try to extend the stub out and latch onto a pressure door in the hanger bay, but that will be tricky.”

  “Is there a better way?” Paul asked. “Somewhere else?”

  “No. This is the closest access point to the Reproduction and Fabrication facility. Relax Paulie, I can do this,” Brinley said.

  Paul looked at Gretchen, and then back to the crashed shuttle which was out the window. “We are not even sure what is in that hanger bay. We can only see inside a ways, and only in the dim light.”

  “I will turn on the external lights as we pass through the space that is open. If it looks bad I could back us out of there,” Brinley said. “We will look it over again before trying. I want to see what approach angle will be best.”

  “What if we get in and get trapped?” Paul asked. “Or what if that door decides to close while we are in there?”

  “Paulie, that crashed shuttle has ruined that door forever. It will not shut or open any more than it already is. We need to get in there,” Brinley said. “Trust me, we can do this. I will have to manually shut down the deflector and repulsor systems. Otherwise the proximity warnings will go crazy. That space between the door and the frame is way too tight for the deflectors, but we can easily slip inside.”

  “The people in that shuttle probably said the same exact thing as they were entering, or leaving, or whatever. How did they crash? What happened to them?” Paul was watching intently as Brinley maneuvered the Captain’s gig around again for another flyby.

  “They did not have me, Paulie.”

  “The deck plans shows the Reproduction and Fabrication facility is on the same level here, and about a kilometer away. Tiffany’s ALP is two decks inward from that location,” Gretchen reported. “As we flew past I checked the plans and looked at the surface damage. Most of it looks powered and unaffected, at least from this distance. I say go for it Brinley. I have confidence in you.”

  “I am confident bad things have happened on the Vanguard. That is what I am confident about,” Paul muttered.

  “Paulie, we have gotten this far and we are still here,” Brinley said as she slowed the gig and switched on the external lighting. The beams of light spread out and did not really show much more of the interior of the damaged hanger bay.

  “Yes, we have gotten this far, but you were a Roe, and we have been shot at, and crashed and chased, and attacked by weird animals,” Paul said. “This will be just as bad.”

  “Probably, but we have to do it,” Gretchen said as she winked at Paul.

  Under Brinley’s expert guidance, the gig slipped into the hanger bay past the huge and thick doors. Once inside, it was clear the damage was not limited to the door jam and track. A thruster fuel storage tank had ruptured and there was a huge black charred scar across one side of the hanger bay. The observation deck there was smudged with char. Two runabouts which had been clamped down there were ruined husks of their former selves. Cargo bins floated around the bay but moved at a slow pace, having lost their kinetic energy by bouncing off the walls, floor and ceiling. They now just drifted gently. As they knocked into each other they rebounded in a different direction. A class 6 shuttle also floated inside the hanger bay. It was fairly large, and was ripped down the side. Part of one wing had a gaping hole in it.

  Brinley looked a bit stricken. “That was done by the micro-particle attacks. That shuttle is the only thing in here that worries me. It has enough mass to potentially cause us a problem.”

  “You mean when it crashes into us? Paul asked.

  “I will not let it crash into us. That is not a problem, I have that covered. The pressure door over on the sidewall, the one that is not charred, see that? That is where I think we can connect the stub. I estimate we can stay connected for a few minutes, but then I will need to move the gig to avoid that shuttle’s trajectory. I can steer the gig around it inside the hanger here. After it passes the door, then I will reconnect.”

  “So you will need to stay in the gig to protect it and have it ready to take the equipment back with us,” Gretchen said.

  “So Brinley will just fly this thing around in here like an enormous game of ricochet ball? Just fantastic!” Paul said with a sneer. “She should fly the gig out of here after dropping us off. Then she can fly back inside to come and get us when we are ready.”

  “Paulie, I considered that. But in here, the Jellies probably cannot see us. If I take the gig back outside we run a risk of detection.”

  “If the Jellies do come, you and the gig will be trapped in here,” Gretchen said. “Tiffany? Can you make a conjecture on which is more risky? Should Brinley keep the gig inside here or move outside? What do you think?”

  The artificial int
elligence system responded from the multiceiver. “There are too many unknown variables for me to make a reliable conjecture on this question. I am sorry. If I had my full capacity for scanning I could correlate the data better and possibly offer a reasoned conjecture. On an additional note, I can report that my Atomic Level Processor is still in the same location as it was previously.”

  “Good to know. So Brinley, drop us off, and we will go and get the equipment. We can take the two yellow automacubes to carry the materials. You stay in the gig and keep it safe.” Gretchen unhooked herself and floated to the side door. “Come on Paul, we have equipment to get and things to recover.”