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

by John Thornton

  Cammarry rubbed her scarred arm as she looked at the bodies hanging in the vats.

  “I have been waiting for my service repair request to be honored,” SB Premenit stated. “This excessive delay will be reported to administration, and disciplinary action is strongly suggested.”

  Cammarry walked over and placed a hand on the smooth surface of the vat. It was cool and damp to the touch. The human inside was facing away from her. She walked around the vat, squeezing between the conduits, tubes, ducts and wiring that ran indiscriminately between the vats. As she got to the back side, she could see the face of the person in the vat. His eyes darted over toward her with recognition. His lips moved, and he formed the word, ‘Help Me’ and blinked his eyes again and again.

  Cammarry gulped as she stared at the victim in the vat. Her breathing quickened. A tear ran down her face.

  “SB Premenit?” Jerome swallowed hard. He walked along looking at the vats, his mind racing to understand what he was seeing. His voice cracked and he licked his lips a few times. His foot tapped on the floor when he stopped. “Premenit? What is the nature of the repair you need?”

  “Please move away from the vats as rotation is about to take place,” SB Premenit commanded.

  Cammarry stepped back quickly as the clacking and clanging sounds came again. Each vat shifted about to their right. Looking down they saw a series of slots in the floor, where tracks and chains pulled the train of vats along. As they moved each vat also rotated a quarter turn following the groves in the floor. During the turn, several white automacubes became visible beyond the line of vats.

  “The service repairs required are outlined in the invoice sent to Machine Maintenance,” SB Premenit responded. “I was very clear in my requests. I enumerated each repair request in order of significance, but none lack essential importance. You may begin repairs immediately.”

  Jerome rubbed his forehead and then said, “Our records may have been jumbled in transmission. Please restate your repair request so we can expedite service.” His eyes kept looking at the numerous vats and their human contents.

  “Understood,” SB Premenit replied. “There are three primary essential repairs. First repair entreaty: Restore supply of biological materials. Lack of biological materials is becoming critical. With exterior failure rate at 100% to this point, recycling of biological materials is not possible. However, life expectancy is increasing and now at seven minutes, fourteen seconds. Evolution of Project Angel Food cannot continue without enhanced supply of biological materials.”

  “Project Angel Food?” Jerome gulped.

  “Yes, the terraforming objective. Second repair entreaty: Restore complete water supply to at least marginal levels. Project Angel Food cannot properly evolve with the curtailed and truncated water supplies. Third repair entreaty: Sequester or eliminate the human calling himself Brigadier. Project Angel Food has been set back due to sabotage and other activities by this human. Physical alterations to Terraforming and Restoration have been done which have severely limited the mission’s abilities. Security has failed to respond to repeated calls for intervention. Begin repairs immediately.”

  Cammarry stepped next to Jerome. He glanced at her and she met his eyes. He too was holding back tears at what he was seeing as another clank and clack happened when the line of vats moved and rotated.

  Jerome swallowed again, hard. “SB Premenit have you been in contact with other synthetic brains?”

  “Only the secondary synthetic brains Cevirmek, Athru and Forvandle. Begin repairs immediately.”

  Jerome pulled at his lips before he spoke. “SB Premenit, please relate a concise overview of Project Angel Food.”

  “Begin repairs immediately,” SB Premenit stated. “I have been delayed in my mission for excessively long.”

  Cammarry blurted out, “Then you can wait for a few more moments so we can understand what is needed. That or we just leave right now.”

  There was an awkward silence. Twice more the vats moved and rotated. The clanking of the movement echoed in the area.

  “Conestoga mission parameters, including Project Angel Food, are in the main archive collection, however, it is understood that damage has taken place. Therefore here is your requested synopsis. Project Angel Food is in process with secondary synthetic brains Cevirmek, Athru and Forvandle to prepare crew and passengers of the Conestoga to live on planet Zalia. We are seeking an effective way to transform, convert, or mutate biological materials to survive outside of Habitat Beta. Using a tentation system, refinement is happening, but at a slower than expected pace. The pace can be accelerated when repairs are made. The supply of biological materials…..”

  “A trial and error system? I thought terraforming was designed to alter the planet, not the people,” Jerome said. “That was what was attempted on the moon, Mars, and some of the other places in the Earth solar system.”

  “Understood. Tentation was not the first choice, but has now become the only recourse. The original and primary mission parameters did call for terraforming of the planet in the manner to which you speak,” SB Premenit stated. “However, fifteen years, three months, and four days ago, that mission objective was declared unworkable. The mission was repurposed to alter biological materials to fit Zalia, not Zalia to fit biological materials. An acceptable outcome was predicted, dependent upon enough biological materials and other raw supplies. Enhanced fertilization methods were injected into the biological materials of Beta at that time. However the human called Brigadier inhibited harvesting of biological materials, disrupted water flows, and sabotaged the physical layout of Terraforming and Restoration. ”

  “Help me understand. You are modifying these biological materials to live outside on the planet’s surface?” Jerome asked as he bit his knuckle between his teeth.

  “That is correct. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “And these vats are holding the biological materials?” Jerome asked in a low voice.

  “That is correct. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “You are sending the modified versions of these….biological materials… out to the surface of Zalia and you observe what happens?” Jerome’s voice was quaking. He gulped several times between his words. “A trial and error test of survival?”

  “That is correct. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “Let me summarize, to ensure and confirm I am comprehending the situation.” Jerome looked to Cammarry, but could not catch her eye. “You are modifying these biological materials, and then sending them out onto the planet’s surface, but you said there is a 100% failure rate?”

  “That is correct, however, progress has taken place. The life expectancy has increased from the initial survival period of under two minutes, to seven minutes and fourteen seconds. The failure rate of 100% is accurate to this point, but eventually reuse of biological materials will take place. The learning and information gained is used to refine the modification procedure. Tentation is working, albeit as a slow process. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “And you need additional biological materials to continue the process?”

  “That is correct. The biome is producing a steady supply of biological materials, especially since enhanced fertilization was introduced. The problem is in the supply chain for the biological materials. It is inadequate at present harvesting rates. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “Explain your current harvesting practice…no wait,” Jerome collected his thoughts and then pressed on. “Does that harvesting practice involve a human called the Ferryman?”

  “That is correct, although the Ferryman is not a single individual human as you imply. The Ferryman system is bringing biological materials to various locations where they are prepared for modification. That is the current harvesting procedure. It is inadequate. Machine Maintenance will rectify that deficiency. My repair requests outlined utilizing a crew of medical automacubes for harvesting, but those will need to be build and purposed for this task. Begin repairs immediately.” />
  “Harvesting biological materials?” Cammarry shrieked out. “You mean people! You are harvesting people!”

  “Yes. Project Angel Food’s goal is the successful hybridization of and adaptation of human biological materials for survival on Zalia. It is the program to fulfill the terraforming and restoration mission objectives. The mission goal of the Conestoga is to have a successful human settlement on the destination planet. That successful human colony is the aim. Project Angel Food is people oriented and mission directed to achieve that purpose.”

  “This cannot….” Cammarry began, but then her voice stopped. She silently nodded her head. Her eyes glazed over. A strange grin crossed her face. “... this cannot be inhibited by lack of repairs. Your mission is understood and supported. Forgive me for my outburst. Repairs will begin immediately. We already encountered a Graveyard of Dead Minds, where synthetic brains were sabotaged. We need to insure that will not happen here. Please show us the location of your physical components, your….”

  “Central memory core,” Jerome added.

  “Yes, that central memory core is essential to initiating the repairs. Show us where it is located, so we can confirm and initiate repairs.” Cammarry’s voice was soft and silky. “I need to confirm and assess that location to begin repairs. Much has been lost in transmissions, and you said there have been alterations to the physical layout here. We want to do this correctly. Machine Maintenance is here to serve and assist.”

  “Thank you for agreeing to begin repairs,” SB Premenit responded. “You will proceed to follow the directional indication arrows.” Blue flashing arrows appeared on the side walls, and Jerome and Cammarry walked briskly along following those. Jerome kept trying to catch Cammarry’s eye, but she avoided his looks. She continued to nod her head at strange intervals, and Jerome wondered what she was hearing.

  14 modifications are done

  As they walked along the row of vats holding humans in the yellowish-green liquid, Jerome watched for Khin. He examined each body, dismissing quickly those whose coloration, or gender, or hair were not consistent with Khin. He tried hard not to think about each person as an individual, and those in the vats who were positioned in such a way as to see him and blink, or mouth words, were hardest to ignore. His pulse pounded in his ears, and his eyes watered.

  “Cammarry?” He asked quietly.

  There was no response. He reached out and touched her arm, but she pulled away quickly.

  They kept walking and following the blue flashing directional indicators. They walked through a doorway, where a pressure door opened for them. That led to a second pressure door which was marked, ‘Restricted Access: Terraforming Control’ but that door too opened as they approached it.

  They were in a room which had an entire wall of clear permalloy which bowed outward. Beyond that was the landscape of the planet Zalia. Its green vista a sickening color. The fuzzy red ball in the sky was Zalia’s sun, but it was haze covered, and shimmered in intensity as the gases of the planet’s atmosphere passed in front of it. Sometimes more red, sometimes less, the light fluctuated greatly. The ground was plowed up in a deep furrow exposing gray liquids in pools and ponds at the bottom of the furrow. There was a slushy flow of liquids down the middle of the furrow away from the habitat. An alien river of unknown composition, flowing along, apparently out from somewhere below his vantage point. Some weird kinds of things were sprouting up from the ground alongside where the furrow had been made. Those swayed and oscillated back and forth with their yellowish stalks with maroon colored crowns wavering in the winds. Jerome thought of them as pseudo-trees.

  An oblong thing, with colors of spotted yellows, reds, and greens, floated by and then came to rest at the crown of one of the sprouted pseudo-tree things. Jerome estimated their height at something like three meters, but he was unsure of the whole scale, until he saw the automacube rolling along the bottom of the furrow. Then he knew he had greatly underestimated the size of what he was seeing. He knew he was about a ten meters up from the ground level. To the side he noticed the crane extending horizontally out from the hull. Its dull blue permalloy color was a stark contrast to the other colors of native Zalian features.

  The automacube was not a red, or blue, or any other color he had already seen. This one was olive drab, with shiny black wheels, and had twin manipulation arms on its top. It was carrying one of the vats which had a human inside of it. Judging by the vat’s size, Jerome knew this type of automacube was larger than the reds which had attacked him in Alpha, and also bigger than the blues which had worked doing engineering projects. This automacube had a militaristic, hardened, look about it.

  Jerome stepped up and placed his hand on the permalloy window while he looked out to the sides and saw that the crane had a track from which two more vats were suspended. Each of those vats also carried a human within it.

  “Are we seeing Project Angel Food?” Jerome asked, his voice tightly controlled. “This is what you are doing to…the biological materials?”

  “You are seeing the testing stage of Project Angel Food. That is correct. Begin repairs immediately,” SB Premenit replied. “The central memory cores for me, and for secondary synthetic brains Cevirmek, Athru and Forvandle are on the side of this room. You requested access to them, and you are here. Begin repairs immediately.”

  He turned away from the eerie, frightening, and grotesque sight of outside, and looked around. Only then did Jerome look at the room in more detail.

  On one side of the room was a large back of displays, and a workstation with a long countertop. Manual controls, levers, gauges, and dials were all around. Several chairs were nestled under the countertop.

  On the other side of the room were the central memory cores. The four of them, one large one, and three smaller versions were all set up on a platform three steps from the floor. The largest one, which Jerome assumed was for SB Premenit, was an upright apparatus consisting of a series of horizontal brass colored rings, encircling a clear permalloy principal column. Each ring was ten centimeters thick and a half meter wide. Each ring, or layer was separated from the others, so the interior clear permalloy column was visible. Seven layers of those brass colored rings were polished and shining brightly from top to bottom.

  Down the center, between the rings, was the clear permalloy pylon, or column, holding glowing and bright, amber-colored, liquid. That liquid, had neutrinotronic and quarkite components which caused bubbles to actively move up and down within the liquid. Inside the column was a dim diamond shaped core, at the very center, around which the bubbles swirled and moved. The diamond core had bubbles exude from it, and also were reabsorbed into it, in a dance of mechanical and synthetic thought.

  Connection cables, outlets, conduits, wires, and pipes were at the top running into the ceiling. Several large junction boxes extended down into the floor. Smaller wires, cables, and tubes connected into the rings from the various places.

  The three smaller central memory cores, were very similarly shaped and constructed, only they had five rings, and were shorter and more narrow. Each central memory core was sleek and elegant. They radiated a subtle kind of power, dignity, and serenity. The physical links between all four central memory cores were clearly directed toward the largest one which glowed brighter than the others did.

  Cammarry walked over to the central memory cores. “So you have been out of contact with the other synthetic brains?”

  “That is correct. Only we four are latticed together. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “You have not contacted SB Amelia Earhart? Or Joseph Crater? Or any other synthetic brains or artificial intelligences?” Cammarry asked again.

  “That is correct. Since Habitat Beta was jettisoned from the needle ship, the lattice has been broken. I was able to maintain the working network with the secondary synthetic brains because of their physical proximity. Only we four remain to complete the mission of terraforming and restoration. The entire success of the Conestoga mission reside
s with us. Begin repairs immediately.”

  “Cammarry! Look!” Jerome said and motioned outside.

  The olive drab automacube had set the vat down, and turned it onto its side. The vat unsealed and the human inside was spilled out onto the ground of the planet Zalia. It was a male, short, and with dark hair. Scars were evident on his naked body where implants had been placed. As the yellowish green fluid poured away it ran down and mixed with the gray sludge at the bottom of the furrow, colors in bands rippled across the pools as the fluids tried to integrate. They leaked slowly down and into the flow of liquids at the bottom of the furrow.

  “I know him.” Cammarry said as she peered out at the man on the alien landscape. “That is Khin!”