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

by John Thornton

  Cammarry turned and faced a man holding long rod of permalloy. His face was a mix of emotions. “Why are you disturbing the chicken hatchery?”

  9 reunion, revelation, dissesion and descent

  Jerome and Khin traveled along the bypass corridor. At times it felt to Jerome like an endless walk through never changing dim corridors of mossy, smelly, and dank rot.

  “Sandie? Any luck with locating Cammarry or anything else we are trying?” Jerome asked.

  “I am sorry to report that no progress has been made in any of the areas where I am working. There was no sign of the Dome 17 teleportation signal. I have not been able to conjecture more ways to boost detection. I have not found any way to enhance the scanning ability from the scout ship to allow for observation of Cammarry,” Sandie the AI replied. “I am tracking your progress using the com-link as a reference. I did recently attempt thirty-seven different ways to expand my presence in the nonphysicality and link or couple to any of the Conestoga’s systems, but all those efforts failed succeed.”

  “So you did not bear fruit?” Khin asked as he took another bite from a fruit bar. He then giggled at his own wit.

  “Sandie, you have not failed us. You only discovered another thirty-seven ways that do not work. Keep trying,” Jerome stated. “We will find Cammarry, and maybe somewhere on this old ship we will find what we need to succeed. Thank you for all your efforts.”

  “It is good of you to say that,” Sandie replied. “I will continue in my efforts. I also am constantly monitoring your own progress and keeping a visual and auditory record of this adventure. I only wish Cammarry had kept her com-link with her. That would have allowed for us to resolve this situation much more easily.”

  “I agree.”

  They walked in silence, and passed down several stairways, and up a widely curving ramp.

  “We are approaching the next trading place,” Khin stated.

  “How can you tell?” Jerome asked.

  “I see the signs of it. You do not?” Khin laughed.

  There were large doors ahead of them which were much more massive than what they had encountered before. They were ten meters high and when open, about five meters wide. They retracted back in sections which folded onto themselves. Above the big doors was an inscription molded into the permalloy, ‘Recreation Rink Amphitheatre.’

  “This is where the Chicken People trade with the Fruit People,” Khin said. “Neither you nor I are considered as in their sept, at least to these people. We are not the same major people group.”

  “So now we make friend with them,” Jerome stated. “A stranger is just a friend I have not met yet.”

  “They will think you a strange, very strange, stranger. Khin smiled broadly. “At least I have something to trade.”

  As they entered the large Recreation Rink Amphitheatre, Jerome noted the Fruit People, wearing their trademark hats, were hauling baskets filled with fruits and fruit products. They all had a very similar physical look about them: deep brown eyes, thick black hair hanging around their oval shaped faces. The Fruit People had tables lined on one side of the large area, while there were booths on the opposite side where a differently dressed group of people stood or sat.

  The Chicken People varied in appearance from the Goat People and the Fruit People. They still all had dark, most often silky black, colored hair, and brown eyes, but they cut their hair much shorter. Their garments were different as well. They did not have the hats that the Fruit People wore. Instead, they had heavy coverings over their legs. The pants were of gray and black colors, and had large open pockets on the sides. Their shirts were dull white colored with stripes around the sleeves.

  “Now I must make the trade Wanda and I agreed about,” Khin was very excited. “I give you the rest of these fruit squares. I have eaten my fill. Now I trade my quality goat meat for chicken jerky and eggs. That is the deal I agreed with Wanda to make.” Khin pressed the remaining fruit bars, squares, into Jerome’s hands. “You can use them to get the information you need. I hope you find your wizard friend.”

  “Khin? You are leaving me?”

  Khin laughed, but with some remorse. “I have had enough of these wizard quests, for now. My mother told me it is better to keep the small rat in your hand, than to chase the fat goat into the Burning Netherworld.”

  “Well, I understand that parable, I think,” Jerome answered. “Thank you for your assistance and help.”

  Khin looked at Jerome, laughed again and said, “Trade fair today, live life that way.” He started to go and then turned back. “You may be a wizard, but you are also people. Never forget you have a home with the Goat People. Also, when you get to that engineered place, engineering, engines, or whatever, beware. Fear cubie red, it makes you dead. Cubie green a good machine. Cubie Blue knows what to do.” He said this final part with utter seriousness.

  “Thank you again, Khin.” Jerome watched as Khin walked over to one of the trading booths and started to unload his goat products. Many of the Chicken People gathered around him and he was the center of attention in the Recreation Rink Amphitheatre.

  “You are not a Goat Person, even though that laughing one says you are,” a man said from the side.

  “I am Jerome. He has called me a wizard, and now a Goat Person, but I am by occupation an adventurer,” Jerome said as he looked at the man.

  “Adventurer? Not much of a vocation there. Adventures are the things of stories. You cannot eat a story. I am Dick of the Chicken People. I am arbiter of the trades here, although there is seldom much of a need for arbitration.” Dick smiled broadly which revealed that several of his teeth were missing, and others were of poor condition.

  “I am looking to trade, in a way, but I need information, not physical items,” Jerome said.

  “Information can be traded, but you will get what you pay for.” Dick walked over and sat down at a booth. He gestured for Jerome to join him. “Now what information are you after?”

  Jerome was distracted by some oohs and awes that came from the group of people haggling with Khin. He then turned back to address Dick. “I need to get to engineering. I have a companion who is headed there and we need to meet.”

  Dick looked at his fingers, and picked at something from under his thumbnail. “I know of a place called engineering. My brother Fedders is there now. He runs the brooder where the chicks are hatched. Actually he runs the whole hatchery: the brooder, the egg separator, and the mating place. He is good at keeping the rats away.”

  “Excuse me, but what does that have to do with engineering?” Jerome inquired.

  “Did I not say?” Dick looked puzzled. “The hatchery is right in front of engineering. Or at least it is in front of the doors that we call engineering. I have never seen those doors opened. My parents told me it was engineering behind those doors, but they were not able to get those doors open either. The legend says the Thirteen Heroes sealed those doors, but now people say it was some traveling wizards. Only thing I know for sure is where the doors are. I do not know what is behind them.”

  “Will you take me to those doors?”

  “Now you have asked me for a service, not information. You have not even paid for the information. Son, you need to know about trading, and to know the differences between a service, information, and a payment. I will give you the information for free. I am not sure what good it is anyway, but a service does not come free. I learned that, back when I was a youngster. My first job was assembling crates to carry eggs. It took me sixteen connections to weave one of those crates together. That was all done so I could carry eggs up here for trade. What did I get for that work? Just five fruit bites. All that work, for five fruit bites. Yes, I learned the value of hard work. Of course, that was back fifty years ago. My mother and father were born just after the insurrection, when the times were really hard. The whole world was a mess. I sort of thought it was happening again, some days ago, when the whole world shook and quaked. We lost several corridors. They are part o
f the netherworld now. Chickens died, but fortunately no people were there when the pressure doors blew out. We could see the mess through the windows. Chicken gizzards all over the walls, and floating around.”

  Jerome pulled off his backpack, and took out the fruit squares he had gotten from Khin. “My friend Khin has goat products, but he and Wanda, provided me with these fruit bars. Can I use them to hire you to take me to this engineering place?”

  Dick looked at the items as Jerome set them down on the counter at the booth. “My eyes are not so good anymore, but these do not look like the right color for fruit squares, and calling them bars, well I just do not know. Are you pulling a Hidden Trick?”

  “Wanda made these. She said they came from fruit that was wounded, when the world shook. I know nothing about what is in them, or what they are made from, or how they were made. Wanda gave them to Khin, and he gave them to me. I have eaten a few, and I am not sick, but that is all I can tell you.”

  “Wounded fruit?” Dick looked at Jerome in an odd way. “I have heard of damaged fruit, or rotten fruit, or unripe fruit. I am not sure what wounded fruit is.”

  “I think she used a different term, sorry. I am not familiar with fruit and how to describe it.”

  “Jerome?” Sandie whispered in tones barely audible to Jerome. “Wanda stated, ‘We had many fruits damaged and dislodged by that incident, and had to salvage the fruits to prevent loss.’ I hope this helps in your negotiation.”

  Dick’s eyes grew wide. “You have a spirit-ghost. There must be truth to the stories about wizards. This puts a different egg in my basket.”

  “Will you take me to engineering? Or to this hatchery place you speak about? You can have all the fruit bars, or squares I have. It is imperative that I get there are quickly as possible. My companion Cammarry was injured and she is heading there. My only hope is for you to help me.”

  “I see this is also a matter of the heart. Yes, I will take you to the chicken hatchery. Come, let us go now.” Dick waved at another of the Chicken People who came and took away the fruit squares Jerome had offered.

  “Farewell, Khin!” Jerome called. Khin did not respond, but his laughter was still ringing in the trading place as Jerome followed Dick out the doors at the rear.

  “Our land is more vertical than it is horizontal. This top part of our land is where we do trading. The levels above us are wilderness, and only feral rats, goats, cavies, and a crazy chicken might go there. Below us is the level for our homes, and for the hatchery. These stairs will lead us there.”

  Dick stepped lively down the well wore stairs. There was no plant life or even any of the growth medium on the stairs. Jerome was surprised to see that, and the permalloy under his feet felt especially hard after he had grown accustomed to walking on the slightly spongy plants which covered so much of the flat surfaces in the Conestoga.

  “You spirit-ghost tried to be quiet, right? I know that is right. But why? I am not a baby who is afraid of old men’s legends and old stories told to frighten children.”

  “Sandie? Please feel free to speak to Dick,” Jerome answered. “I apologize that I did not introduce you to Sandie previously. I am so uncertain of your ways and how your people do things. I am ignorant of proper etiquette and protocol. I just did not want to give offense or to cause fear.”

  “Were the Goat People afraid of this spirit-ghost you call Sandie?”

  Before Jerome could answer, Sandie spoke on the area volume from the com-link. “Greetings Dick. The Goat People were unsure, at least from my perspective, on what to think of Jerome and Cammarry, and my presence did not aid in securing their assistance. That is why I chose to speak to Jerome in a quiet manner. As he said, it was to limit possible offenses.”

  “Have you never thought that hiding your presence could be even more offensive?” Dick said, as they reached a stairway landing, then turned and continued their descent. “Spies are not welcome anywhere, and what is hidden is often disclosed.”

  “When encountering new and unknown people, anything could be an offense. I apologize for any offense I have done,” Jerome stated.

  Dick slapped the thick and heavy pants he wore. “No offense taken, no apology needed.”

  As they walked down the stairs, voices and sounds reverberated up to them.

  “Dooduuuu. Baalk. Deeeduuuoo.”

  “What is that sound?” Jerome asked.

  “Chickens.” Dick turned around and looked at Jerome. “You are not of the Goat People, nor of the Fruit People, and you know nothing about the chickens or we who tend them. So where do you originate? Do wizards have a tribe wandering the world? There have long been stories of wizards who use spirit-ghosts. Is there a tribe of wizards? What do they eat? Where in the world do they live? Do they trade husbands?”

  “Trade husbands?” Jerome asked.

  “You must know about trading husbands. How else would all the people continue?” Dick asked. “But you are distracting from my other questions. Is there a tribe of wizards?”

  “I do not know. Cammarry and I are the only ones I know about, but we do not call ourselves wizards,” Jerome answered. He was careful not to reveal too much about his background, lest he lose the chance for Dick to lead him to engineering. “There might be a tribe of wizards. I have not searched all of the Conestoga. I just do not know.”

  They reached another landing and this time they stepped up to the closed bulkhead door. “There seems to be much that you do not know. If you wish to stay here with me, I will educate you on raising chickens so you can be in the most honorable profession in the world. No more wandering the world, just good and honest work.”

  “I appreciate that offer. It is tempting, but I need to get to engineering and find Cammarry.”

  “Doeeu douuu,” came a sound from the stairway below.

  “The chickens wander the levels of our land, but they always come to the hatchery to lay their eggs and raise their young. They know they are safe from rats in here.” Dick picked up a length of permalloy that was standing in the corner and then used it to strike the door. In this manner he knocked three times.

  A boy in similar clothing to what Dick was wearing opened the door from the opposite side. He was very excited and spoke rapidly. “Father Dick! A wizard has come to the hatchery. You must come quickly!”

  “Yes, Derrick, I know about the wizard,” Dick said and nodded toward Jerome.

  The boy, Derrick, looked up in surprise. “Another one! Then there are two wizards here! This is too much for me to think about. My head feels like scrambled eggs. Two wizards!”

  “Then Cammarry….” Jerome began to speak when a creature rushed past him and pecked him on the knee as it went by. “Youch!”

  Jerome saw a blur of the yellow beak as the animal’s head struck him. Its plumage was a mottled gray, black, and brown. Its yellow feet were moving rapidly. The tuft of tail feathers wiggled as it dashed away.

  Derrick jumped and shut the door. “I must tell Fedders!” He then ran away.

  Dick patted his pants and grinned. “The chickens do get feisty when you get in their way. That hen just needs to get to the brooding house.”

  “Jerome? Remind me to talk with you about these chickens later,” Sandie stated.

  Jerome wondered about that comment, so he responded with just a brief, “Understood.”

  The room they had entered was triangular, about twenty meters on each side, with a ceiling that felt too low for the room. The dim lights from overhead were of the same dull illumination, but here the sources were oval fixtures. The walls had fewer water stains, as there was a trench running across the middle of the room with water flowing through it. The walls had numerous small passages just the right size for a meter tall bird, like the one that had pecked Jerome. There were taller plants growing along the walls of the room, and those had some kind of small blue and red colored balls on the tips of the stalks.

  “What was this place?” Jerome asked. He wrinkled his nose at the smells tha
t were coming from the room. Many odd sounds came from out of the small spaces where the bird had entered.

  “This is the hatchery. This is the brooder room. Back past that doorway is the egg separator, and beyond that is the mating place. The chickens can run between any of these places. They use their chutes to get from hither to yon and back. The hens and roosters usually stay in the mating place or the brooder house, and the chicks are of course in their part of the egg separator room until they are big enough to fight off rats. The grown chickens also wander out of the hatchery and all over our land, but they come back here for laying and mating. We have the hatchery sealed against rats coming in. The children who guard the three entry doors watch for chickens returning,” Dick said. “It has always been this way. Unless you mean way way back before the insurrection. Those horrible times were different, from what I was told. My grandparents lived back then, but this has always been the hatchery.”