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

by John Thornton

A few hours of riding in the troika brought them through a varied landscape. Some places were better watered, but most were suffering from drought. The places along the streams, and small ponds where there still was water, were better, but the water levels of those aquatic places were obviously not as high as they had once been. Rings around the ponds showed how drastically low the water was, and some places where just completely dried out, with only a few hardy weeds growing where once had been a pond.

  The travel time also allowed Bigelow to hear their entire account. Jerome left nothing out, despite Cammarry nudging him a few times. Cammarry concentrated on looking at the biome, with diminishing hope. They were generally traveling parallel to the sky tube far overhead, although the way they crossed was not really following a road or even a trail. Their passage wound around dry ravines, arroyos and a few muddy wadis. Trees were still in small groves, or clumps. Occasionally they passed a completely dead copse of trees, where the trunks were broken, and the braches were barren of all growth. Most of the groves were still alive, as seen by some greenery, but looked like they were too suffering drought. The brown, withered leaves, and stark trunks gave evidence of the lack of water.

  “You mentioned a drought, and I can see where things are much drier than they once were. What happened?” Jerome asked.

  “The drought came.” Bigelow took a long swallow from his bottle.

  “We heard that the Ferryman can take people to another habitat where there is plenty of water. Do you think he is taking them to Habitat Alpha? There seemed to be plenty of water there. He seemed confident of the ability to take people to the Elysian Fields, I think was what he called them.”

  “You heard that did you? Elysian Fields huh? The Ferryman says lots of things,” Bigelow muttered and looked away. “I hope your friends are not in league with him.”

  “Where might Khin be?” Jerome asked.

  “He might be flushed outside, but then again, I might be a horse myself!” Bigelow gazed into the distance.

  “So the Ferryman does not fly a shuttle to other habitat? We came here that way, so I thought it was probable he was using a shuttle as well.” Jerome was relaxed and calm as they rocked along in the rolling wagon.

  “Possible? Probable? Potentially?” Bigelow spat. “Much is possible, less is probable, everything has a potential. As to the Ferryman, I have heard about his claims, but none are proven. Seems I hear a different story every time someone relates what he says: Heaven, Dreamland, Paradise, and now Elysian Fields. None of that sounds like Alpha does it?”

  “Habitat Alpha was beautiful,” Cammarry interjected.

  “Except for slave traders, and some war, you rubes seem to have started.” Bigelow took another drink, licked his lips, and gazed over the horses at the way ahead. “Well look up there. There is the caravan now!”

  Jerome looked down as he pondered if he had told too much to Bigelow about the incident in Habitat Alpha. Cammarry’s look confirmed his suspicions that she thought he had shared too much. They both then looked where Bigelow had indicated.

  A line of wagons was slowly moving along. They were all the same dark green color as the troika. These wagons had covers over their backs, and not much was visible as they approached. Dust rolled up in clouds from behind them.

  The troika, being faster than the other wagons, caught up and pulled past the eight wagons to get alongside the lead wagon. The three horses nickered and other horses in the caravan replied. Unlike the troika’s three across horses, those other horses were in pairs, like on the carousel, thought Cammarry, and they had various colored fur. From white, to bay, to chestnut, to buckskin, with other variations. Behind one wagon, three young horses were walking along, all three had identical markings, of a generally white body and legs, with large reddish and brown irregular splotches. The pattern on each of the young horses was identical.

  “I see you noticed our tobianos,” Bigelow said. “Those colts are a blessing, that is for sure.”

  “Beautiful animals. Clones or identical triplets?” Cammarry asked.

  “Who needs cloning?” Bigelow huffed. “You rubes are the real article, I can tell that for sure. However, you better be careful how you talk. The roustabout are all fine and trustworthy, and I will vouch for you. However, our troop is only a small section of the people in Beta. Your naivety and gullibility could be used against you.” Bigelow rubbed his face and then continued. “I am still getting my mind around people from outside who do not know about things here. Wow! That is hard to imagine. Oh and do not speak to everyone about Alpha and their having water.”

  “What do you mean?” Jerome asked. Before Bigelow could answer they were interrupted.

  “Bigelow!” A woman called. “I was wondering where you were. I see you picked up some stays.”

  “Jenna dear! These were the first riders on that carousel, and they have a story you need to hear. When do you plan to make camp?” Bigelow called.

  Jenna looked Cammarry and Jerome over. She was sitting on the front seat of the lead wagon. She had straight, shoulder length, black hair, and expressive eyes. She was younger than Jerome and Cammarry, yet carried herself with an air of supreme confidence and strength. Her thin body was dressed in the same style of brown clothing that Bigelow wore. Competent, strong, comfortable with herself, and rugged were some of the thoughts Cammarry had as she looked at the leader of the roustabouts.

  “Welcome to our troop! I hope you enjoyed the carousel. You may have enjoyed riding it better than accompanying Bigelow here,” Jenna replied and her eyes twinkled. “Well, let me see. High tech communication gear. Manufactured, not handmade clothing, and even weapons if what is on your belts is what I think it is. Indeed, you will have an interesting story. Newly reanimated from cryogenics, perhaps?”

  “Even better than that!” Bigelow answered. “This is Cammarry, she is quiet and soft spoken.”

  “Not always,” Jerome chided. Cammarry glared at him.

  “And he is Jerome. They originated on Earth and came to Zalia in a space vehicle. Docked at the needle ship in orbit, then descended in a shuttle and made entry into Beta.” Bigelow stated it flatly as a report.

  Jenna’s eyes lit up and grew wide. “We make camp up by the river where we will be building number eight. I am intrigued now to hear the details.” Jenna smiled broadly and nodded with acceptance.

  Bigelow pulled the troika back and got into line and followed the other wagons. They came up a small rise and before them was the campsite. Two more wagons were already parked there, and the horses from those wagons were loose in a paddock framed by a white portable fence. Those animals had their heads down to the ground was were biting and chewing on the clumps of grass that were growing in the paddock. Behind the campsite there was a river of water flowing. Its banks were bare and dried. The water level was obviously much lower than it once had been.

  “Now we unload,” Bigelow said as he brought the troika into a position and stopped the horses. “I will take care of my associates. You two walk over and offer your help to Jenna. Feel free to share anything with her, but wait until she gives you permission to share with others, especially the children. She will direct you and keep you from looking like ignorant rubes. Unless you can unharness and groom my associates?”

  “I know nothing about equestrian care and nurturing,” Jerome said. “But we can certainly help unload things. Right Cammarry?”

  “Yes, and maybe Jerome will refrain from telling all our history or reciting old adages.” She smiled at him as she said it.

  They all climbed off the troika. Jerome and Cammarry grabbed their backpacks from out of the back and slung them on.

  “Jerome!” Cammarry said as she took Jerome by the arm and led him a distance away from the other wagons. “Jerome, what are we doing here? You prattled on and on about everything in our past. How do you know we can trust these people?”

  “Cammarry, we must trust someone. We need their help. How else will we find Khin, or make our way to Repr
oduction and Fabrication to get our data sticks repaired?” Jerome held her gently as he spoke.

  “We should do it on our own. Like the missions to the other domes. We can make our way with just the two of us,” Cammarry said.

  “That did not work so well in Habitat Alpha, and I almost lost you completely on the needle ship. These people seem to have some level of technology, and they are indigenous to this habitat.”

  “Bigelow never said where the Ferryman was, nor did he offer directions to where we can find Khin. His answers are evasive, and I have no idea what his motives are,” Cammarry said. She rubbed her scarred arm, and then spoke again. “I know I can trust you. I just feel terrible about losing Khin, and I fear we are wasting our time here.”

  “The more information we can learn, the better we can be in seeking out Khin,” Jerome said. “Besides, that carousel is an engineering marvel, and these people built that.”

  “Yes, gathering information is important. I do like to know what is going on. I just….”

  “Hello!” Several children ran over and right up to Cammarry and Jerome. Both girls were indistinguishable from each other. They were about ten years old, had dark eyes, dirt colored brown hair, and brown clothing. Their smiles lit their faces.

  “Jenna sent us to get you two,” the first girl spoke. “There is work to be done. You can assist with the unloading of the mechanic’s wagon.”

  The second child pointed to the wagon which was just being unhitched from the two palomino horses which had been pulling it.

  “What are you names?” Cammarry asked.

  “I am Nabila.”

  “Dewi is my name. We need to get back to the babies now.”

  “Twins?” Cammarry asked as the girls walked away.

  Nabila turned her head back and gave a stern look. Her lips were drawn tightly together. It was shocking on the face of a child. Dewi then replied, “Leftovers, of triplets.” The two girls twirled away in a huff and marched off.

  Bigelow walked up from where he had been unharnessing the horses. “Hey now, I heard that! I know you rubes are fresh as spring flowers, but the children do not. So let me warn you. Do not ask about where the children came from. Their pasts are in the past. Understood? They are part of our family now. I will tell you once, and you must listen. We pick them up as we find them. Their parents have turned them out. How would you feel? We do not always find them in time, and none of the children want to share with you that their own parents chose to keep only one of their children.” Bigelow’s eyes stared at each of them in turn.

  “Turned out a child? Parents?” Cammarry asked. “It makes no sense to me.”

  “I am sure it does not. I doubt that your parents in that dome place ever considered that. Just remember, you are the strangers here. Stranger than those children can comprehend. Those children were left to die, because their mothers and fathers could only find water enough for a single child. Please just go to the mechanic’s wagon and help them unload. Remember the old adage, be quick to listen and slow to speak, lest you offend an innocent like you just did.”

  “How did I offend those children?” Cammarry asked. “In Dome 17 there….”

  Bigelow waved his hand in dismal and turned back to the horses. He walked away muttering and shaking his head.

  Jerome and Cammarry walked over to the mechanic’s wagon. Three people were unloading it, while two others were unhitching the horses from it. The horses were then led off to be placed into the large paddock.

  The back of the wagon was open, and all sorts of machinery was packed carefully and neatly inside of it. As Jerome and Cammarry walked up, they saw a blue automacube come rolling out of the wagon.

  “…as to the raw wood, we should find all the materials needed in the forest across the river,” a man said to the others working there. “Plenty of well dried lumber. We will need to find sources of permalloy, but there should be some old buildings around here. If we have to, we can make trips to the habitat walls and harvest from there, or inside the corridors as a last resort.”

  “May we help?” Jerome asked.

  The three people turned. They were dressed in the brown clothing common to the roustabouts.

  “Welcome!” An attractive woman said. “I am Monika. You must be Cammarry and Jerome.” Her face was happy, and her brown hair was neat, her complexion pale and lighter than most of the others. “This is Siva, and Peter.”

  Siva nodded. He was a tall man, a few centimeters taller than Jerome with short, black hair, and a deep brown complexion. His intense eyes were friendly. Peter was not as tall, but just as thin. He was nearly black in complexion.

  “We need to carefully unpack our instruments, equipment, tools, and supplies.” Siva said. “I see you carry technological gadgets. There will be little need for weapons here, but you are welcome to retain them. I assume you know how to be gentle with delicate instruments?”

  “Yes,” Jerome replied. “Just tell us what to do.”

  Peter stepped up. “That engineering automacube will be the new brains for the next carousel. I have sent it off to scout for permalloy. These crates can be unloaded and then their contents unpacked. They contain the larger tools which are more durable.”

  “Right. We will unload these then. Just let us know how to help.” Jerome stepped up and slid a packing crate out from the back of the wagon. Cammarry joined in and together they unloaded all the packing crates. They then opened the crates, and each one had a set of tools or generators, or toilets inside. There were step-by-step instructions on the inside lid of each crate. When Jerome looked over, Monika just nodded, so Jerome and Cammarry followed the instructions. When one crate was finished, its contents assembled, they moved to the next.

  The three others unpacked the rest of the wagon. It contained far more items than Jerome or Cammarry had expected, as everything was efficiently packaged together. Siva, Monika, and Peter quickly assembled a structure of flexible materials. Not quite as weak as a tent, but not as substantial as a permalloy building.

  “Now we have our workshop in place, so we can start on the next carousel,” Siva stated with satisfaction.

  Jerome and Cammarry looked at what they had accomplished. There was a series of lavatories which used the crates as walls. There were three digging machines, similar to automacubes, but with shovels on their fronts, and far less neurobiological capacity. The digging machines were designed to be driven by an operator, not ordered around for semi-independent work. There were also spanners, pipe fitters, and other large construction tools.

  “Well, that makes for a more suitable place to live. A campsite or bivouac,” Jerome said to Cammarry. “Do you remember the history of the North American continent? Someone once said, there were two explorers, Lewis and Clark, who went on the ultimate camping trip.”

  “I beg to disagree with your obscure reference, but we are on the ultimate camping trip, if I recall what the ancient people referred to as camping,” Cammarry replied. “Khin would call it a wizard’s quest.”

  A bell started ringing. Not in any musical connotation, but just a clattering and clanging.

  Monika walked over, along with Siva and Peter. Siva looked at what Jerome and Cammarry had done. “Nicely built. Now we go to enjoy our supper. Will you join us?”

  “Certainly.”

  Jenna was at the center of the camp, where a large circular area had been cleared. She was holding a triangle made of metal and striking it with another piece of metal. People from all about the camp were gathering.

  The horses were grazing, or trotting about the paddock. The one edge of the paddock butted up against the shrunken river. There were hoof prints showing the horses had been walking down to the dry bank to the water’s edge to drink. The various different wagons had all been unloaded, and arranged like a small town.

  “Roustabouts!” Jenna called out. “Here is where we start our eighth carousel.

  Applause broke out among the people.

  “We even have so
me new members!” Jenna called.

  Again applause sounded.

  Jerome and Cammarry expected to be introduced. Instead, Jenna called out some names they had not heard before. As each name was called, the children Nabila or Dewi carried forth a baby. They had the back of one of the wagons open, and the babies were in cribs situated inside that wagon. Toddlers, and other children, about a dozen, watched as the babies were brought forth and presented to the community. There were six babies in all. It appeared that Nabila and Dewi were the oldest of the children.

  “So we celebrate the finding of these babies, and we are thankful for the waifs we have taken in. Do we all promise and swear to care for these babies as if they were our very own?” Jenna asked in ritualistic form.

  “We do!” the people yelled back.

  “All is prepared for our first feast together here. Come and share food and fellowship!” Jenna spread her arms wide and turned in a slow circle.