“We need all the signs we can get,” Cammarry stated. “An angular gravity sink hole. I think we can find a path around it, but we need to access that control board.”
Carefully they charted a course. Using the ring of debris, the light shining down, their thrown chunks of rubble, and the presence or lack of dust, Jerome and Cammarry made their way around that large and angular gravity sink hole. They reached the back of the factory and came up from there to the control board for Gravity Manipulation Works: Oscillator 6. Jerome dug out the key finder, and set it against the nine-section color control pad which secured the small doors on the control board. The key finder unlocked those doors on its first attempt and they swung open.
“Let me see what is here,” Cammarry said as she activated the display screen which had just been revealed. “Deck plans! Hanger bay Dardanella 135 is only two rooms over from here. This confirms what we thought. We are inside the wall already. I guess we ran a long way through this factory.”
“At least we did it together this time. No runaway medical automacubes!”
“From these readings, the Conestoga’s, or I should say Beta’s gravity manipulation systems is reading as only marginal,” Cammarry reported. “There are eight oscillators like this one in Beta. Five are functional, but I see no oversight. All are running on tertiary systems. If Sandie could interface here, maybe she could work through the nonphysicality and correct that?”
“We need to get to Sandie first. The map only shows broad outlines for in here. Do those deck plans give greater details? Which way do we go?” Jerome asked. “Are you able to find any communication equipment? Can you contact Sandie?”
“No to communications. I do not see anything like that, but the whole thing is a tangle of disjointed systems, some functioning at low levels, others… well, I am not sure what some of those others even are. Unknown old-fashioned icons, obsolete symbols, and skewed readouts make this a giant mess. If Bigelow were here he would give us some colorful words….”
“There they are!” A man called out. He was on the far side of the large gravity sink hole which had destroyed the ceiling. He was leading some of the mob. “Kill them! Drive them away!”
Jerome ran past Cammarry and put his hands out in front of him, palms forward. “Stop! Do not enter that place! Beware that beam of light! It marks a trap!”
“We have them trapped! They admit we have them trapped!” the leading man yelled. He was brandishing a long pole as a weapon. “I will prove to the Ferryman I support him!” The man vaulted over the small pipes and landed where the dust was not floating in the air.
“No! go back! Danger!” Jerome commanded as loudly as he could. “Stop! Wait! Halt!”
“You will see…arrguuuhhh… help! Wha……aat?” the man crumbled down to the deck, his legs buckling under him and his face smashing into the floor. The pole he was carrying fell to the deck and lay as still as the man.
“Andre!” a woman called from behind him. “Andre?” She tried to rush forward, but two men grabbed her and held her back.
The people in the mob stopped and murmured among themselves. Andre lay still, his head split open, one arm fractured in numerous places, bones sticking out from the crumpled flesh. He gave a gurgling groan, and blood poured from his mouth to pool around him.
“He is in a crusher!”
“They called down a crusher to kill Andre!”
“The Ferryman is right. Jerome and Cammarry killed Andre! That messenger Sandie was helping them!”
“That woman did it! She is at those controls!”
Cammarry stood up. “No! That was already there!”
“They will kill us next!” The woman at the front cried. “We must escape! They are evil!”
“They murdered Andre!”
“We will be next!”
“No one should come in these old haunts! Back to Death-town!”
“They are all killers! Run away! Jerome and Cammarry are murderers!”
The mob turned and fled in a panic. People were shrieking, screaming, and crying. The mob was one fighting jumble of people all seeking to flee as quickly as possible. They were throwing elbows and fists at each other in their terror and yearning to flee.
“Jerome? Can we help that man?” Cammarry asked.
“I can try,” Jerome said. “Can you figure a way to shut down that gravity sink hole?” Jerome walked quickly away, following the safe path they had found which took him around the perimeter of the crusher.
Cammarry sat back down at the controls. “I cannot even find a way to measure what that thing is,” Cammarry said as her fingers flew across the display screen. Shifting, flashing, alternating graphs, diagrams, and information presentations popped up on display. Various symbols, most unknown to Cammarry, blinked in reds, greens, yellows, or blues. Some were steady in color. Others were faded out like ghost images. She attempted to access various routines, sub-menus, algorithms, and control devices. None of them were allowing her to see any gravity fluctuations. “Everything on the whole network of gravity manipulation is in tertiary mode, at best. I need Sandie to sort through it all. I will hope to stumble into something, but it is very clumsy and overly complex.”
Jerome found a long aluminum pipe, about three meters in length. He pulled that up from the wreckage as he approached the body of Andre. He carefully extended the pipe out toward the body. He remembered saving the bird, and realized how much more important saving a human being was. He extended out the pipe, but as it passed from the dust mote filled air, to the clear air, Jerome felt it pulled downward hard. The end felt suddenly like fifty kilograms had been added to it.
“Wow! That got so heavy!” He pulled hard and extracted the pipe. The end of it was smashed down from its round pipe shape, to a squished oval. Looking over at Cammarry, he yelled out, “Gravity is very high in this one! I will see if I can even move that body. Any luck in shutting it down?”
“No. None. Nothing like a main control. No local assessments. Just basic readouts on the main oscillators. A lot of error reports on upper levels, GAGS, and long lists of urgent requests to Machine Maintenance. But I can only scratch the surface of what all I here. I need Sandie’s rapid processing ability to even survey all that is in this system.”
Jerome shoved the aluminum pipe back out toward the body. He was able to push it hard enough to connect with one leg. He shoved at the leg, but it was like pushing on a permalloy wall. There was no give at all. As Jerome pushed, the more of the pipe was flattened and squished.
“Cammarry, this poor fellow is dead. A horrible way to die, just horrible. I cannot get his body out; besides he has been crushed. The gravity in there is bending the aluminum of the pipe, it has done severe damage to his body. Broken bones, crushed flesh. Just terrible.” Jerome wept a few tears as he struggled with what he was seeing. “Andre, I believe that was your name, I am so sorry for your death. We die as we dream, alone.”
“What a tragedy! If he had only listen to you. You warned him Jerome. This proves the idea that these gravity sink holes vary in intensity,” Cammarry commented. “Until I can have Sandie untangle the mess in the nonphysicality, we will not know why. That one seems to consist of far more focused and concentrated gravity waves than just this planet’s own.”
“The safeguards must be failing,” Jerome added. “Overloads in some spots, perhaps weakened fields in others. Unintended concentrations of gravity manipulation perhaps?” He tossed down the aluminum pipe, and carefully made his way back to Cammarry. “You said the hanger bay was close?”
“Yes.” She closed down the display and shut the doors on the control station. “There is a hallway behind there.” She pointed. “It leads to an auxiliary control room for retrorockets. Just on the other side of that is Dardanella 135 where Sandie is waiting.”
Jerome and Cammarry walked away from Oscillator 6 and watched with wary and concerned eyes at every dust mote floating along. They also tossed debris ahead of them every few steps. When the debri
s flew in a normal arc, they followed where it had landed, hoping no gravity sink holes had been missed.
“Here is a bulkhead door,” Jerome held up the key finder and it found the combination to unlock that door. The bulkhead door slid back into its pockets and revealed a well-lit and clean corridor which went to either side. On the wall were signs. One read, ‘Retrorocket Auxiliary Control’ and pointed to the right. The other read, ‘Storage 324-551’ and pointed to the left.
“No damage in here. The bulkhead may prevent some of the gravity sink holes,” Cammarry speculated. “Sandie will tell us more. Now we just need to get there.”
“We still will use the debris! Come on Buddy!” Jerome said and tossed a chunk of broken permalloy down the hall. It flew and bounced as expected. “That little chunk is my second best friend, Buddy.” He smiled big at Cammarry as she walked next to him. “You want to throw it now?”
“You are doing very well.” Cammarry laughed as he threw it again. It came to rest right next to a cabinet marked ESRC.
“Good. We can get more supplies,” Jerome said as he approached the ESRC.
Cammarry grabbed his shoulder. “When I was alone, I opened one of these and was attacked. That was where…” She swallowed hard and looked from side to side. “That was where that thing was embedded into me. That Shadow thing.” Relief washed over her face. “I can speak about it. I cannot tell you how hard that was to get sick every time I tried to tell you or even mention it.”
Jerome stepped back from the ESRC. He wrapped his arm around Cammarry. She was shaking. He kissed the side of her head and hugged her. “Then we leave this one shut. No unneeded risks right now. We are close to Sandie, and the old technology of the Conestoga is not what we need.”
Cammarry hugged him back and nodded.
They walked past the ESRC, Jerome tossing the chunk of permalloy again. “Scout it out for us, Buddy!”
They safely made their way to the end of the hall where a set of double pressure doors were located. ‘Retrorocket Auxiliary Control’ was stenciled across the doors, and they were sealed by a nine-section color pad. Jerome lifted the key finder, and it did its operation. A negative function sound came from the door.
“We will just try again,” Jerome said and reactivated the key finder.
Again a negative function sound was heard.
A dozen times Jerome repeated the process, but he could not discover the combination. “I guess we cut this one open. Unless you saw a different way to Hanger Bay Dardanella 135?”
“I am sure there are other ways, but finding one will take a lot of time,” Cammarry replied. “I am not eager to run into another mob, or one of those gravity sink holes. Or some wandering violent gang like you described. I think we could cut this one open.”
“It is possible it is flooded with Zalia’s atmosphere,” Jerome said. “But I doubt it. This area is in better condition than most of the places we have seen. No growth medium like on the needle ship, no rusted out walls, no crushed down technology.”
“So we cut through.” Cammarry opened Jerome’s backpack and brought out the fusion pack and the molecular torch. He stepped back as she kneeled down and activated the torch. “First to shut down the power to the control pad.” With a smooth and easy movement, she drew the cutting blade along the seam where the control pad was connected to the door. Its illumination winked off. Then she made an incision in the permalloy which severed the control pad from the doors. It fell to the floor with a clunk. The doors swooshed open.
The room was dark, with barren walls. The darkness which receded away and the far end of the room was not visible.
“No alien atmosphere,” she winked at Jerome.
“But there is a body,” Jerome pointed.
The body was on the floor, its legs illuminated by the light from the corridor, the rest of the body in shadows. The opposite end of the room was dark. Jerome stepped carefully into the area while he turned on the fusion pack’s light using a tight and low beam. The stark walls were empty, and nothing but the body was visible, not even another exit. Jerome and Cammarry looked more closely at the body.
Cammarry stepped over to it, molecular torch held like a weapon. Clothing covered most of the body, but the exposed fleshy parts, the head, and hands, had dried out and were mummified into a deep brown and wrinkled form. The air in the room was cool, dry, and stale. There was no odor.
“Well, we found Hayward MacDonald,” Jerome said as he read the name tag on the left breast of the uniform the body was wearing. The uniform was a deep green color, with a wide burgundy band around the waist, and the left side of the tunic was that same burgundy color. The name patch was in white lettering. On the shoulder was a round patch which had a gold field with a raised fist in black on it. Around that patch it read, ‘Beta Security Police’ in white lettering.
“I cannot see how he died. No obvious injuries, and the clothing is pristine. No rats or predators gnawing away at this body,” Cammarry said as she looked around.
“Not much decomposition on that body, either.” Using the beam of light Jerome found a satchel in the corner which matched the uniform. He opened it up. “Hayward did not have a lot for equipment. An old style revolving pistol, hand tools, and an antique hand-held computer.” Jerome squatted down and assessed the body more carefully. Finding nothing more, he looked at the satchel again. “Yes, I saw a pistol like this before. Bigelow and I were attacked by some criminals using one. I think I still have it in my backpack.” He pulled the pack off and sorted through it. When he found the rusty weapon he pulled it out. “Yes, same make and model. Hayward here took better care of his tools.” He compared the two weapons. Hayward’s was a deep bluish, nearly black color, with just a fine and tiny bit of oily feeling, while the other was rusty and reddish brown. “Hayward? I do wonder, why were you here in some empty room?”
Cammarry was puzzled and commented. “This is odd. We are missing his story. Someone did all that graffiti to lead him here? Really? Who led him here? Why? A body all alone in an empty room, with the door locked and sealed from the inside. Sealed from this side.” She pointed at the welding job which had been done on the door. “It just does not seem right. We are missing something. No welding tools that I see, yet the door was welded shut from this side.” She looked closely at the walls, and then pointed. “There is an access port on the wall there. See if we can get this room powered up. It is called Retrorocket Auxiliary Control, there must be more to it.”
Jerome pulled out the cable from the fusion pack and inserted it into the hole.
Overhead lights flickered on, and the room became more visible. Loud clacking sounds originated at the far wall and then proceeded around the entire room. Opaque permalloy panels retracted and folded back to reveal a large, clear permalloy window at the far end. A yellowish green, almost chartreuse glow came in from the exterior.
“That is a view directly outside,” Cammarry said as the yellowish green glow flooded the room. Her voice shook and trembled. “Like where we saw those vats and Khin die.”
Jerome placed his hand on her shoulder. “It was not Khin, remember. It might have been a clone of him, or it was someone else, but Khin is alive and well with his friend Vesna and her people. We both saw him and spoke with him. Khin did not die.”
“Right. That is correct,” Cammarry answered as she put the molecular torch away.
As the lights overhead came on, and the panels slid away to reveal the view of the planet Zalia’s landscape, other things in the room were energized and empowered. A set of display screens lit up on one side of the room. Several moveable displays descended on jointed arms from compartments in the ceiling. Those displays began flickering on and stabilizing images, graphs, charts, and control menus. Other small doors along the side walls opened, and out slid storage chests with various drawers, as well as mechanical tools, and power precision equipment. Work benches dropped into place, or rose up from the floor. What had, only moments before, looked like an empty
storage area, now looked more like Brink’s engineering workshop back in Dome 17. Several chairs, stools, and other items were revealed as the cubicles where there were stored opened up. A blue light surrounded a doorway with the words, ‘Dardanella 135’ illuminated on it.
“Something is hand written here,” Cammarry said as she looked at a panel that had folded open from the wall nearest to the body of Hayward MacDonald. ‘In olden times, when there was still a reason to wish for things.’ It had been hand scrawled on the panel in some kind of luminescent ink. “That must have been one of the last things he did.”
Jerome looked at the handwritten message. “He may have been one of the last security or police officers here in Beta. Looks like he personally secured the hanger bay to prevent someone from finding it. I wonder who and why?”
“That would make a good story. I know there is more to this. I hope he did not die in vain.”
The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books Page 108