The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books

by John Thornton

  Jerome looked at Cammarry and she looked back at him.

  Khin paused in his work holding the bloody blade off the counter a bit. The three bodies were nearly completely dissected. His face expected an answer.

  “We grew up in a different way,” Jerome finally said. Both he and Cammarry were shocked at watching Khin butcher the rats. The precision, skill, and tenderness he showed toward the rats was far different than what they had expected. He had deboned all the meat, separated out the internal organs, and even sopped up most of the blood with a cloth he had in his pouch. It was the first real up-close animal dissection they had ever witnessed. It both intrigued and repelled them at the same time.

  “You look as if you have never seen anyone prepare food before,” Khin said as he finished cubing the meat. “Do wizards do it a better way?” He added the meat cubes to the pile of bones he had placed into the pot. He examined the bones, and picked a few from the pile and then carefully stored them with the other rat parts into a section of his pouch and sealed it up.

  “Wizard’s way? Well, we did make food by a different system, but we cannot do that any longer. You are doing very well,” Cammarry answered. “I have the plants we gathered.”

  “Yes, we must place them into the soup as well,” Khin laughed and laughed again. “I was afraid I had done something incorrectly. The way you looked at me was just so funny. I suppose wizards do grow used to their own ways. I saw the food you ate, but I could not smell it, and it was not appealing to me. I mean no offense,” Khin said quickly. “I just am not used to your foods.”

  “Since we are marooned here on the Conestoga, we will learn your ways with food,” Jerome said. “You said it would be hot. I read somewhere once that only the pure in heart can make a good soup. Soup involves water and heating. How do you heat the food?”

  “Pure in heart make good soup? Did your mother teach you that?” Khin turned to the sink and adjusted the controls. Water flowed out at a small trickle. “Water comes here. We will fill this pot. Most home places, what did you call them? Ensign places? Yes, that was it. Most ensign places will have pots, pans, spoons and such. Knives are harder to find. Do you have a good knife?”

  Jerome nodded.

  “That is not a very large flow of water,” Cammarry observed as she watched the pot fill.

  “Water is all around, but it runs in these sinks slowly. That is a fact. Some places will have power and no water. I have not seen a place, wait I must use the wizard’s term, I have not seen an ensign place, which has water and no power. As my mother taught me, ‘water from sink, good to drink’ and that mostly is true. You still need to smell the water. I smelled this water before bringing you here. It is good.”

  Khin then took the pot to the end of the counter and tapped several places on the front edge of the counter. “This will make the surface hot. Now we let the soup cook. Before long we can eat!”

  “So on the Conestoga, ‘every moving thing that lives shall be meat for us; even as we have all the green herbs to eat’ or is that wrong?” Jerome asked as he tried to recall another quote.

  “Not everything that moves lives, and not everything that lives moves,” Khin answered. “Now you tell me about making wizard food.”

  “We cannot do that anymore,” Cammarry stated.

  “You cannot tell me? Or you cannot make the food?” Khin giggled as he pulled a stool out of the corner of the room. He sat down on it and laughed. “You two can rock and shake the whole world, but cannot make food! It is so funny.”

  “What else is in these places?” Cammarry asked.

  “Four rooms. The front, the kitchen, the sleeping room, and the water closet. The water in that closet is foul and brackish. You can tell by the smell,” Khin replied. “But look for yourself. You may find a treasure or something. One never knows. Mother said, ‘Search a room, might find your doom, but find a treasure, you have pleasure.’ I did not search those other rooms, so doom or pleasure for you!” Khin laughed as he looked back at the pot with the soup which was starting to simmer.

  Cammarry and Jerome walked through the small apartment. On the opposite side of the front room, there was what had been a bedroom with an attached bathroom. The tub in the bathroom was filled with water, and there were plants floating on the surface of the dark and smelly liquid. The toilet was functional, but looked as if it had not been used for ages.

  “This apartment has not been used since the growth medium was spread out. Sandie? Do you agree?” Jerome asked.

  “Yes, that is my assessment as well,” the AI replied through the com-links. “Using visual clues, I can conjecture some of the plant life’s ages, but they are rough conjectures as I have not been able to do a complete genetic analysis of the various plants. I am assuming that they age and grow at a similar rate to what is recorded in the data bank archives, but that assumption may be erroneous. I can assure you that what Khin placed into the soup was safe for your consumption and his food preparation was better than I expected in regard to sanitation and safe food handling.”

  Jerome looked at Cammarry. He said quietly, “It is not a cheese food.” He then winked at her.

  Even though they were in the bedroom on the other side of the apartment, Khin called to them, “I will make you a fine cheese when we get back to my people.”

  “Thank you, Khin!” Cammarry called back. She looked at Jerome and in that exchange of glances they both recognized again that Khin had better hearing and better low-light vision than either of them possessed.

  “Sandie? Any luck on making contact with Dome 17 with the teleportation receiving pad?” Cammarry asked.

  “There has been no change since the last time I was asked. I again remind you, I have dedicated a good share of processing functions to routinely making the attempts. I am also computing possible remedies to overcoming the obstacles we have encountered in that regard,” Sandie replied with a bit of irritation. “The first hurdle is in understanding what those obstacles actually are, and I promise you I am doing my utmost to try to figure it out. I will let you know immediately of any break-through or new revelation which I uncover. Please trust me.”

  “I just want those people to be saved. I thought we would be the ones to do it,” Cammarry stated.

  “Well, I am searching for treasure,” Jerome said lightheartedly. “The drawers and cabinets of this place may hold a secret about who Ensign Marguerite Abana was. Perhaps she was a theoretical mathematician and engineer like Brink?”

  “But she lived about seventy some years ago,” Cammarry said with a smile. “That was way before Brink was even born. But you are correct, the Conestoga holds many secrets and mysteries we need to uncover. What else do we have to do being marooned here?”

  2 The goat people

  Cammarry walked through a dusty and tan tunnel. The grit blew into her face and stung as it struck. She reached up and tried to pull her RAM mask on, but she could not find it. Her hands fumbled and searched frantically all around her neck, chest, and shoulders, but the mask and hood were missing.

  “I cannot survive outside without that!” Cammarry wailed. She then took several deep breathes and that calmed her down. She looked at the side walls of the tunnel. They were not from permalloy, but from some weaker metal, a steel alloy of some kind. Rust was in some sections of the tunnel’s curved wall.

  “How did I get here?” Cammarry asked. She waited for a moment, expecting her personal AI Winchell to answer her. When there was no sound except for the howling of the grit-filled wind, she called out. “Winchell! Where are you? How did I get here?”

  Again Cammarry felt for the mask, as the stinging from the grit was hurting her face and her eyes were pulled nearly shut to protect them. She felt her shirt and it was odd. There were short fibers of something sticking out from the material. She forced one eye to open, and she glanced down at the shirt she was pulling out from around her neck.

  “Fur?” Her voiced echoed in the tunnel. “Jerome? Jerome? Where are you?�
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  The whine of the dusty wind was her only reply.

  Cammarry covered her nose and mouth with her hands and tried again to deep breathe. She felt a bit better, but not much. She dashed forward and as fast as she could she ran down the tunnel. Her shoes kicked up dust with every footfall, and that dust revealed pale green things under it.

  Reaching the end of the tunnel, Cammarry slid on the dust and then stumbled and fell forward, but caught herself with her hands and arms as she hit the ground. She was nearly face first in the dust. The wind wailed, and she had trouble catching her breath after the fall. Looking down toward the floor, she realized it was not a floor but more some kind of uneven ground. The dust spun beneath her nose and mouth as she exhaled, again revealing pale green things under the dust.

  “Mushrooms?”

  Cammarry pushed herself up and looked around. The tunnel was a large pipe that was sticking up from the dust covered ground. The wind was not as strong here as it had been in the tunnel, and she could see a bit further than she expected. Off in the beige colored distance was a vast structure. It reached several hundred meters into the air, and was capped with a cupola. There were a few lights on the outside of the structure, but mostly she could see it because it was a slightly deeper shade of tan than the rest of the word around it.

  “Dome 17? How did I get back here?” Cammarry asked herself. “Why am I outside? The toxins and radiation will kill me!”

  ‘Swoosh!’

  A sound wave struck her as something whizzed out of the top of the dome and cut a nearly white path through the tan, toxic sky and away.

  “Winchell? What is happening?” Cammarry cried out.

  “Winchell has been disbanded,” a man said from where he was sitting on top of the tunnel. “You were a very bad person, and you need to be punished.”

  Cammarry jerked around and looked up. “Jubal? You must get inside the dome. It is not safe out here without the radiation absorbing materials. Let me show you the way back to Dome 17. I was on some missions and made it back safely.”

  “You think you are safe?” Jubal smirked. He then grinned in a way that was far too large for his face. There were too many teeth in his mouth. He again said. “You think you are safe?”

  “Well we can get to the dome and get medical care. I will help you get there,” Cammarry said. She felt only pity for Jubal as he sat there dressed only in the typical indoor clothing people wore in the dome.

  “Look at yourself,” Jubal said spitefully.

  Cammarry looked down and she realized she was wearing a smock made from some animal’s skin. Her mind raced. She was trying to identify if it was a rat skin or a goat skin. Either way, the smock was far too large to have come from a single animal. Its colors were gray, ruddy, and dirty white.

  ‘Swoosh!’

  Another sound wave came from the top of the dome and yet another streak cut across the ugly tan sky.

  “Those are the real heroes. They will find a place where we can all go and live comfortably and be safe. They are not like you and Jerome,” Jubal grinned his too wide mouth again. “I knew you two would fail. I never wanted you to go, but I was outvoted. You should have never been allowed to use up one of our seven chances to live.”

  “We made it to the Conestoga! We tried to connect back!” Cammarry yelled. She whirled around, “Sandie? Sandie? You tell him about that Cosmic Crinkle! You explain that we tried! Jerome where are you?”

  Jubal spit down from where he sat and the glob of sputum landed right at Cammarry’s now bare feet. It was a black and noxious goo which sizzled as it struck and it guzzled up the dust around it. “Your mission would have succeed if someone else, anyone else, had been the pilots. Only fools would dock to that phantasm in space. Only idiots would fail to see it was an illusion. You took away one of our few chances to live. We all have to be rescued! It takes a hero to do that, not someone whose sole purpose in life is gossip.”

  “We had no idea! No one could tell that Cosmic Crinkle was there. Sandie tell him! Jerome where are you? Winchell? Help me!” Cammarry cried out.

  “No one can hear you, because you have marooned yourself on that dead hulk of a spacecraft. No biological habitats. No working teleporter. No success for you! Just Cammarry’s giant failure,” Jubal kicked back his head and laughed a guttural croak. It sounded more like the goats she had seen in the hallways than it did like a human voice.

  “We can still succeed! The crew of the Conestoga punched a message back. They told us that they made planet fall. We can do that too!”

  Jubal’s disgusting laughter slowed down to a rhythmic bumping and choking gurgle of sounds. “You succeed? Never happen. We are all dead because of you.” He spat again, and this time the glob of sputum contained small fragments of bones and fur. They coalesced into an oblong form, sprouted a head, four legs, and a long hairless tail. The black rat-like thing scurried off and disappeared into the tan wasteland.

  “No! We will find a way!! We will not fail!” Cammarry dropped to her knees in the dust. “John said it was important that they made planet fall. We heard the message say they made planet fall. The biological habitats must have made planet fall.”

  “Made planet fall? You are delusional, again! You will never escape that doomed derelict you chose. Made planet fall! Ha!” Jubal chortled again and again and again. “You will fall on that planet, all right. Fall right on your face in failure! And we die because of you!”

  “Jerome! Where are you?”

  “Cammarry, I am right here,” Jerome said as he wrapped his arms around her. “Wake up! Cammarry wake up?”

  “I will not fail!” Cammarry’s yelling was intense. Her eyes were wide in terror.

  “I am here with you. You are safe,” Jerome held her tightly.

  They were lying on the bed in the apartment. They had found sheets and blankets in a tightly sealed drawer. Using those they had covered over the fungal growth and the bed was actually fairly soft, if lumpy and uneven. Jerome had disconnected the ceiling lighting, casting the room into nearly complete darkness, to make it more conducive for sleeping.

  “Jerome! They made planet fall. They must have!” Cammarry sobbed into Jerome’s shoulder as he held her close.

  “Can I be of assistance?” Khin said as he strolled in from where he had been sleeping in the front room on one of the chairs. “Do you want more of the delicious soup? If I had fresh milk, I would warm some for you.”

  “It is just a nightmare,” Jerome said.

  “Just a nightmare?” Cammarry exclaimed as she pulled away. “Really? It was a dream. Jubal is not here?”

  “Jubal is not here. Just a dream, a bad dream. Dreams are the time that permits each of us to go safely insane on some nights of our lives. All of us, while awake, are in a common world. In sleeping, each of us, is in a unique world,” Jerome soothed. “You can tell me your dream if you wish to share.”

  “Wizard’s ways might be different,” interrupted Khin, “But my mother says ‘Tell a dream, might make all scream,’ so do not tell me the dream. The Old One also says a dream can be a vision, and visions might come from spirit-ghosts. So my wizard friends, use caution. I am returning to my own slumber. I do not want to hear about a wizard’s bad dream.” Khin returned to the other room.

  Sandie spoke through the com-links which were sitting on a drawer which had been pulled open and was also holding the backpacks, the tool belts, and the weapons. “Dreams are essential to mental, emotional, and physical well-being. The human brain needs to have a certain cycle of stimulation and relaxation during the various stages of sleep. Neurologically speaking the areas of the amygdala, hippocampus, limbic system and posterior hypothalamus are involved in dream production and awareness. These are influenced by memories, emotions, recollections, reasoning….”

  “Not now Sandie, thank you anyway,” Jerome stopped the AI. “Cammarry, may I just hold you now? We are in this together, and I know my stomach has rumbled a bit after our meal. Perhaps that was
the source of the nightmare? Just a bit of bad food.”

  “Is that all it was?” Cammarry asked. “I wonder.” She briefly related the dream and then stood up. “We need to keep exploring and finding what we need. I succeed in eating Khin’s soup, and that is an accomplishment. However, we cannot really carry a bowl of soup around with us for future nourishment. So we will need to learn how to prepare foods that will keep and that are portable.”