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

by John Thornton

  “Thank you!” Jerome said.

  Cammarry clicked the knob one click. There was a lurch as the whole sphere rocked and bucked a bit. There was a ripping and grinding noise, but then the negative function sound came on.

  “Well, maybe not the first click.” Cammarry moved the knob again, and the display screen shifted to a green color with white lettering. ‘Door to slideway RE334 opening. Beware of changed gravity vectors.’

  The warning message on the door next them vanished. Then it slid into a pocket, revealing a long narrow passageway. It was circular with concentric rings every few meters. The pressure door had been rectangular, but they could not tell which way was up or down, except for the orientation of the warning letters which had disappeared.

  “Is there gravity inside?” Cammarry asked.

  “I know a sophisticated way to find out,” Jerome replied. He spat a large glob of spit right into the doorway. It floated on a flat and straight trajectory until it passed through the doorway. Then it took a sudden dive to the right at a steep angle.

  “Now we know where down is,” Jerome said. “At least inside that passage. Shall I go first?”

  “I am coming too!” Khin called out. “Can I let go?”

  “Yes, if you are careful and float over here. Beyond the door you will be pulled down like Jerome’s spit.”

  Jerome used a handrail and swung himself into the passageway. He agilely made the movement from no gravity to a gravity pull smoothly and effortlessly. He stood and turned around. “Feels like normal levels of gravity manipulation. And look, it is not too far off the orientation of the door we entered.”

  Cammarry looked back and sure enough, the door that Jerome had marked was nearly parallel to the vector for the gravity in the newly revealed shaft. Khin stopped by the doorway and looked at Cammarry. “This place was so fun. Thank you!” He then tried to kiss her on the cheek, but she pulled away. “I guess only wizards can kiss each other.” His laugh echoed in the sphere as he stepped through. He stumbled a bit as the gravity forces took hold on him, but he recovered. He looked to Jerome.

  “You cannot kiss me either,” Jerome chuckled.

  “My mother says, ‘Happiness is like a kiss. Refuse it and you miss,’ but what does my mother know?” Khin said. “My mother is not a wizard. Your ways are different.”

  “I am sure your mother is a fine person,” Jerome said. “But I doubt I would kiss her either.”

  Khin laughed very vigorously at that. “My father would have something o say about that.”

  Cammarry left the panel open and the knobs in the same position. “If we come back this way, maybe this door will remain open? The open panel can serve as a marker for us.”

  “I do have the sequence recorded, and I can always assist you,” Sandie said. “This shaft was not on my deck plans until now, but I conjecture it will reach close to the position of the hanger bay, but perhaps several decks above it. The gravity manipulation that is in place here, does affirm my suspicions that the entire needle ship has the same gravity manipulation orientation. When I compare the vectors here to those prior to entering that Gravity Manipulation Gimbaled Sphere, there is only a 1.07% deviation.”

  “When the Colony Ship Conestoga was all together, with the needle ship connected to and hosting the eight biological habitats, and before they encountered the Cosmic Crinkle, do you think they used different vectors for gravity manipulation?” Jerome asked. “That would seem to maximize the space and make the ship more efficient.”

  “That is a solidly supported conjecture. Well done and conceived!” Sandie replied. “We discovered that gravity on the planet Zalia is far greater than on the Conestoga, and the Habitat Alpha technology was countering that pull to establish near Earth normal gravity levels. I think it is very likely that gravity manipulation was used more extensively when the ship was operational, than it is now.”

  “There are no plants here,” Khin said as he squatted down. “Cold, hard floor. No food. No rats. No water. This might not be a good place.”

  “We are just passing through,” Jerome reminded him. “We are on a quest, right?”

  Khin nodded eagerly.

  “It was called a slideway, and I am not sure why. Sandie, have you deciphered the nomenclature of how passageways on the Conestoga are named?”

  “No Cammarry. I have not been able to untangle that puzzle. There does not seem to be a standard, although, I assume there was a method to the builders’ labeling of places.”

  They walked onward and reached the end of the slideway. There they found a bulkhead door which was open and had been welded in place. The welds were crude, but efficient.

  “Someone wanted this place to stay open,” Jerome said as he looked at the ruined bulkhead door. “That is one type of repair, but I would prefer if we could get things more functional, not just fuse doors in place.”

  “Eureka!” Sandie suddenly exclaimed as they passed through the bulkhead door frame. “EA-804 has just picked you up on audio relays. I know where you are, and it is not far from the hanger bay.”

  “This is a good thing?” Khin asked. “Your spirit-ghost is very excited.”

  Jerome threw his arm around Khin and hugged him. “Yes, it is a good thing. We are no longer in an unknown part of the ship.”

  The room beyond the bulkhead door was littered with broken chairs, desks, and tables, none of which were intact. It was a large square room, and the far side had growth medium on the floor extending part way out. The plants were clinging to everywhere that the growth medium had landed. Looking up, Jerome saw that some of the ventilation ducts were open. Those were the ones at the end of the room where the growth medium was located, and water was dripping down from one of those ducts. It was obvious the growth medium had spewed forth from those open ducts, but had not from the still shut ones, as the ventilation ducts were closed on the other sections of the room. Hence, there was no growth medium, plants, or other life in those sections of the room.

  “We are getting back to normal places in the world,” Khin said as he rushed ahead and knelt down to touch the plant life. “This is a better place.”

  “We will need to descend two levels to reach the hanger bay,” Sandie announced. “There is a set of elevators directly ahead.”

  As they walked across the room, Khin began to sniff and turned his head from side to side. He followed his nose to a far corner of the room.

  “Do you smell something?” Cammarry asked nonchalantly.

  “Perhaps to Khin, everything in this ship has a distinct odor,” Jerome stated. “By what name is something called? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

  “I wonder if any of those flowers we saw in Habitat Alpha, along that river, were roses?” Cammarry asked. “A rose was a kind of flower, correct?”

  “The rose was a flowering perennial within the genus Rosa, of the family Rosaceae. Historical records show that there were over one-hundred species and thousands of unique cultivars within the broad definition of rose. Yes, the rose was a flower which was manipulated by selective breeding,” Sandie replied. “The rose, primarily remembered for its aesthetic beauty and aroma also had uses as a supplement to foods, and for some medical uses.”

  “Those flowers were so pretty,” Jerome said and wistfully looked at the ceiling.

  Khin did join in the conversation about flowers, but kept sniffing and moving through the broken furniture. He stepping over the rubble on the floor, and cautiously made his way onto the plant covered area. He approached the sidewall where a passage door was located. The door was partially open, but only a small amount.

  Khin’s body was taunt as he reached for the door. He took another deep inhalation, and then pushed the door to the side. It slid smoothly and easily along.

  “A monster lives around here,” Khin said as he looked inside what had once been a storage closet.

  “Bodies?” Jerome exclaimed as he looked over.

  Cammarry drew
out her Willie Blaster and aimed it at the closet. Hanging inside the closet were at least three goats and two of the dodo chickens. They were all tied by their necks, and had slash marks across their bodies. The feathers on the dodo chickens were very ragged. The fur on the goats violently shredded.

  “A monster must live here,” Khin said.

  “Are those animals being prepared to eat?” Jerome asked.

  “No,” Khin said in dead seriousness. “An animal is hung head down for the blood to drain out. Blood is caught in a pail, and used. Then the skins are carefully removed and the inner parts collected, so as to get to the meat. ‘Use all the carcasses of the dead. Always remember what I said.’ This is torture of the animals, not using them.” Khin pulled the small knife from his belt. He poked the nearest corpse. “See, this one has hung far too long. Bloated, ruined, tortured. It is all wasted. That goat’s life was taken in vain. A monster did this, not a person.”

  Cammarry scanned the area with her eyes, but could see no tracks, no signs of anyone else. “A Goat Person?”

  Khin snorted. “An insane monster. No person did this. There is danger here.”

  Jerome walked a bit closer. “Perhaps someone just slaughters animals in a different way?”

  “My father says, ‘there are three ways to do things, the right way, the wrong way, and the monster way.’ Father is right. This way is a monster way. It is bad for everyone.” Khin squatted down and put his nose nearly to the floor just above the mushrooms. He took many small sniffs. “The monster has done this to people too. Murdered people, not just goats and chickens. I smell no rats.”

  “People?” Cammarry said. Her weapon was still drawn. “You can smell that?”

  “Yes, and there are bones from people behind the animals,” Khin said. “I must burn this place.”

  “Burn it?” Jerome asked.

  “Yes, it is the only way to be sure. ‘Find a monster lair, burn out every hair.’ It is the only way.” Khin began to look closely at the door frame and the walls. “Yes, I can do it in here.”

  “You are going to start a fire in there?” Jerome asked. “What is to stop it from spreading?”

  “Fire always stops itself. If you do not want to help, I understand. I will resign from the wizard’s quest to do this. Forgive me, but I must. No monster can be ignored.” Khin used his small knife to make a slit along a section of the wall fixtures.

  Jerome backed up, and Cammarry holstered her weapon.

  “A conflagration is not a good idea,” Sandie stated. “Fire poses many dangers. The composition of the broken furniture is partially combustible, unlike much of the core construction of the Conestoga. However, that added to the debris and trash around does pose a threat. Allowing Khin to start a fire is dangerous.”

  Khin pulled the door quickly shut, and leaped away.

  “Now watch. Stay away from door!” Khin said.

  Pouuuuf!

  A blast of heat radiated out from the closed door to the closet.

  Several sirens started whooping, and a white foam sprayed down from previously hidden nozzles in the ceiling. The door was covered with a layer of the fire retardant and suppression materials.

  “Job is done!” Khin said. He smiled and turned to Cammarry and Jerome. “Fire burns and fire stops, but monster’s lair is gone.”

  “Cammarry and Jerome? What Khin did surprised me. That closet registered just over 1000 degrees before the countermeasures were deployed,” Sandie stated. “The systems responded, and that room is now sealed, but it is still very hot inside. I conjecture it is over 500 degrees inside there.”

  “That will sterilize, incinerate, or cremate those bodies entirely, right?” Jerome asked.

  “That is correct. The substance deployed as a countermeasure is also a variation on liquefied permalloy which has sealed and restricted the room,” Sandie replied. “It has entombed that room completely. The heat will continue for some time, but poses no threat of spreading.”

  “So nothing short of a molecular torch can open that up, even if we wanted to do that,” Cammarry said. She looked in wonder at Khin. “How did you do that?”

  “Setting a fire is easy, if there are the right things in the wall fixtures. Not every room can start a fire, but you know that. You are wizards!” Khin laughed. “Now we can go on with your quest to this hanger bay place.”

  “But I do not understand,” Jerome said and spread his arms. “He is just a primitive Goat Person.” Jerome’s eyes were wide as he looked at Cammarry

  “He grew up on the Conestoga, and he know things,” Cammarry said. “Khin tell us more about the monsters.”

  “You already know,” Khin replied and just laughed and laughed. “No more tests.”

  “Are they people who are violently dangerous?” Jerome asked.

  Khin just smiled and shook his head in a noncommittal manner.

  “Well, the elevators are along this wall? Is that right Sandie?” Cammarry asked.

  “Yes.”

  Cammarry looked carefully for any sign of them. She spotted a small glow of blue under some of the muck which had built up as water and the growth medium had spilled from the ducts overhead at the top of the wall. Water still oozed down that wall, pooled on the floor, and was also slurping down a drain making a gurgling noise. She scraped away that stuff and revealed a hand shaped symbol glowing in blue. She placed her own hand against it.

  The elevator door shuddered open. As they parted, they pulled away chunks of muck from the walls which crumbled down to the floor. Inside it was clean and well lit.

  Khin followed as Cammarry and Jerome entered. Jerome asked again, “Khin, we need to know what you know about starting that fire, and about what you call monsters.”

  “You are wizards. You already know, and I am tired of the tests,” Khin still smiled, but would say no more except, “I am back with you on the quest.”

  “Well, hopefully there will not be any more monsters,” Jerome said. “Sandie, what has that automacube found in the hanger bay? Are repairs possible?”

  “Cubie blue knows what to do!” Khin said.

  “Look at this,” Cammarry said as she gazed over the column of buttons along the inside of the elevator. In a scrawling bit of graffiti there was written, ‘Hayward MacDonald 4 kilometers sternward.’

  “I have seen that message before,” Sandie stated. “I am not sure what it means.”

  “Khin, do you know a Hayward MacDonald?” Jerome asked. His voice carried more respect for Khin now.

  “I know of the Heroic Thirteen. May they forever be remembered and honored: Bria Esther, Elizabeth Anne, Kyra Grace, Makayla Lynn, Ethan Clark, Jaylie Joy, Abby Marie, Kristian Julene, Jovan Jae, Anna Shane, Braedon Joseph, Calissa Mia, and Jacob Alan,” Khin recited. “I do not know a Hayward MacDonald, but sometimes sternward is used by the Old One as a direction. Goat People, then Fruit People, and sternward are the Chicken People.”

  “So where do the monsters live?” Jerome asked.

  Khin hooted and chuckled, but did not respond.

  “Sandie, what level do we select for the hanger bay. All the buttons on the column are illuminated.”

  “Cammarry, please press the third button up from the bottom. That should open to the deck level near where EA-804 is doing repairs.”

  The elevator descended smoothly and without incident after the button was pressed. The doors slid open, and a dimly lit hallway was before them. Here the fungi growth was thick, and the musty air was heavy. On the wall was a sign which was nearly obscured by the growth and moss. It had a pointer and ‘Pine 1407’ in light green lettering.

  “That is the hanger bay, our destination, but what of the explosion?” Jerome asked as they followed the hallway along.

  “Repairs are underway, and EA-804 has discovered several shuttle craft,” Sandie announced. “An assessment of the shuttles is underway.”

  “Hopefully without Carter the Kidnapper, so we can independently seek out another Reproduction and Fabrica
tion facility.” Cammarry patted the backpack where she was carrying the data sticks and their readers.

  “It is never that easy,” Shadow whispered to Cammarry. “It is never that easy.”

  Cammarry wanted to yell a response, but she knew neither Jerome nor Khin had heard Shadow’s cautionary words. She wonder what Shadow meant. She bit her lip, and smacked her thigh with her palm as she walked along the hallway toward the hanger bay.

  4 controlled descent

  The hallway ended where a permalloy door was locked and sealed into place. It had diagonal stripes of teal color. Large letters were across it stating ‘EMERGENCY COMPARTENTALIZING’ in vivid yellow with red borders. The door abruptly cut off the flow of the hallway, and the crushed fungi, splattered growth medium, and splashed water all bore evidence to the sudden impact that door’s closing had done. Jerome looked up and could see where it had dropped from the ceiling. The permalloy of that door was in bands about palm wide that overlapped and locked into both each other, and the side walls, and floor.