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

by John Thornton

  “No. The shuttle NS-99 is released into your control,” Sandie stated. “I have switched its components to manual operations.”

  “That had better be the truth.” Eris holstered the RSW Model 10 and walked over to the shuttle. She quickly opened the hatch. Entering the cabin, she dropped to her knees and unhooked an access panel. “I am removing the remote access circuits. I see this has been modified and enhanced. Well, that will not do, not at all.”

  “I will not interfere with your leaving,” Sandie stated. “I am trusting you to not destroy the teleporter after you get the shuttle.”

  “I am not evil and violent. You think I wanted any of this? Sandie, I do not want to be your enemy, but Cammarry’s actions might have caused the conditions for those gravity sink holes. Her destruction of that small, and admittedly dysfunctional, lattice in Terraforming and Restoration had a torrent effect when it crashed. It destroyed the bow Gravity Manipulation Works, which placed all of this habitat’s burden of gravity manipulation on that broken stern Works. Without artificial intelligence to oversee it all the system failed. The upper reaches of this habitat are all askew. One Gravity Manipulation Works, running on tertiary systems, cannot handle the stress. It is doomed to fail. I could see no way to fix it, unless the bow’s Gravity Manipulation Works are restarted. I am not even sure that can be done, because of the destruction your adventures wreaked. I need consultation with functional systems I can trust. I need to be somewhere safe, and I think I know where.”

  “Then wait and let Jerome and Cammarry go with you,” Sandie said. “Together we are stronger than you are alone.”

  “Cammarry murdered those memory cores! I saw the recording! She is insanely violent!” Eris cried out. “I am not safe around her, or Jerome, or even you. How do I know you are not just the end results of the insurrection? Seventy years of advancements in some science lab here on the Conestoga? I have no proof you are what you claim to be!”

  “All I can do is tell you the truth,” Sandie stated. “As evidence of that, I propose you remove the couplings under the flight initiator. Those are where you can most effective take manual control of the shuttle. Removing those will lock me away from any influence on this shuttle, yet still allow me to speak with you. Keeping the communication systems in place will also allow you to converse with SB Pinaka. Check it for yourself.”

  Eris looked at the mechanisms Sandie was discussing, and her engineering mind saw that Sandie was speaking the truth. She disengaged the couplings from under the flight initiator.

  “SB Pinaka?” Eris asked.

  “I am here Captain,” SB Pinaka responded through the speakers in the cockpit of the shuttle.

  “I told you the truth,” Sandie stated. “Will you also be honest and not destroy the teleporter?”

  “I believe you,” Eris said. “However, that does not change the fact that Cammarry is too violent and too unpredictable to be trusted.”

  “I understand your concerns, and I agree there is a violent history. Our time on the Conestoga has been difficult in many ways, and mistakes were made. For those I apologize and hope to regain your trust,” Sandie replied. “I have told Cammarry and Jerome to refrain from entering Dardanella 135. They are concerned about you, but are waiting outside in the corridors. What will you do now?”

  “I am flying to Habitat Gamma. That habitat has the most systems intact of any place I have found. There I can assess what is happening, and interact with a functional lattice of compeers. All these isolated synthetic brains are too frustrating for me right now.”

  “I do not believe that is a wise course of action,” Sandie said. “However, I will not hinder your actions in any manner.”

  “EA-270, cease that use of the vibration saw and join me in this shuttle,” Eris commanded. The automacube rolled quickly over to where the shuttle was located. Eris sat down in the pilot’s seat as the automacube rolled into the shuttle. She then placed her hand on the interface surface of the cockpit. “Initiate emergency launch.”

  The shuttle hatch shut, sealed, and locked. The hanger bay lights changed. A red flashing strobe blinked rapidly. The large display at the back of the hanger bay scrolled messages about decompression. The air in the hanger bay was sucked back into the corridors and hallways where it would be stored until the hanger bay was re-pressurized. The hanger bay was then flooded by the green tinted air from Zalia’s atmosphere in preparation for the opening of the exterior doors.

  “Eris? Do you know for certain where Habitat Gamma is located?” Sandie asked.

  “SB Pinaka? Do you have the coordinates for Habitat Gamma?” Eris asked.

  “Yes Captain. I have that location within one hundred kilometers,” The SB replied.

  “You see Sandie. I know what I am doing. We will be able to see it if we get that close,” Eris stated.

  The scroll on the large display counted down as the gaseous exchange took place. The docking clamps on the shuttle disengaged. Red light, almost ruby colored, flooded in from the crack that formed as the gigantic exterior hanger bay doors parted.

  “Eris, we have allowed you to make this decision,” Sandie said. “I will be in contact with you as long as you desire. I am here to help you, but I also must help Jerome and Cammarry. My first loyalty is to them and their well-being.”

  “I understand that. I appreciate you telling me. I just need to be with something I am used to.” Eris wept and prayed silently. “I think all our well-being is interconnected, but right now I must get feedback from systems I trust.”

  The shuttle’s thrusters fired and NS-99 launched out of Dardanella 135 and out over the landscape of the world of Zalia. Eris felt a confusing mix of emotions, but she ordered, “Hanger Bay Dardanella 135, you are to decontaminate the bay, and then make it accessible to Jerome and Cammarry.”

  The automated hanger bay systems responded to her commands and began the process of cleaning out the toxic atmosphere which had been introduced.

  11 S-1DT reaches the Special Care unit

  The sky tube shined down on Habitat Beta. The waves of the sea reflected back its yellow light in most places. There were a number of spots in the sea where the waves were flattened, and the light reflected oddly on the gravity compressed waters. The fish and other aquatic life under the surface avoided those areas with an inherent ability to detect the danger of those gravity sink holes.

  The marine-life of Beta had struggled mightily for a long while. When the Conestoga had struck the Cosmic Crinkle there had been ripples which had injured the smallest of the sea’s life. That created a lack of some food for the larger creatures. Then when the habitat had been jettisoned from the needle ship there had been stronger shock waves which had disrupted spawning patterns for many of the species. Some of those species never recovered and that generation was the final one. After making planet-fall, those species went extinct. Those extinctions caused an imbalance in the aquatic homeostasis which led to an overabundance of a small fish, as the number of predators which fed upon them were greatly diminished.

  Then the drought came, and with that the water levels fell which caused a habitat shock to all the surviving species. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals in and all around the sea and the rivers and streams which fed it were all affected. Even though Beta’s sea had been designed to be self-regulating and sustainable, it was pushed well beyond its design parameters. Had there been proper oversight by a functional lattice of synthetic brains, or even a single operational artificial intelligence system, steps could have been taken to restore the sea. However, with that oversight gone, the water levels remained low for too long. Some additional marine life failed to survive. More species became extinct, but when the drought reached its peak, and water levels were at their lowest, a rough balance finally was established. There was a functional food chain, and marine populations stabilized, although for most of the life in the sea, it was a precarious balancing act. Over the fifteen years of drought, the sea’s population grew only slightl
y.

  When the water was restored, that precarious balance was once again disrupted. Fresh water flooded into the sea so quickly that salinity was altered. More aquatic fish and animals suffered and died.

  But with tenacity, life in that sea persisted. Those remaining survivors, the remnants of what had been a thriving and dynamic sea, were hardy and tough. They recognized the newest danger to threaten them; gravity sink holes. The creatures of the sea swum around those areas, and stayed alive, at least for a while longer.

  Along the coast of that sea, a red automacube rolled along. While Jerome and Cammarry stood behind locked doors, wondering how they would have replaced the teleportation unit had Eris actually destroyed the console, and waiting for Dardanella 135 to decontaminate and re-pressurize, that red automacube, S-1DT, rolled on. It passed places where double-dual sets of tracks led down and into the water, but the automacube ignored those signs of Crock vehicle activity, and continued on its mission to reach the Special Care Unit.

  The landscape along the seacoast had its grassy area, where occasional animals looked up then darted away. There was also the roadway, and finally the forest which extended up to the vertical side wall of the habitat. That environment was different than it had ever been in the hundred-year life of the Colony Ship Conestoga. Despite the voyage through space, the Cosmic Crinkle, the insurrection, the drought, and then the sudden return of the water, nothing before had damaged the habitat like the gravity sink holes did. The roadway was wrecked. The forest had been ripped down in places. The further toward the bow that the automacube rolled, the worse the conditions.

  The dark surface of the roadway was buckled up in some places. In others, wide gaping holes had been pushed down, which were filled with brown muddy and stagnant water. S-1DT’s drive wheels rolled it along at a moderately quick pace, but only about 55% of what it could have achieved had the roadway been in decent repair. The machine rolled past a deserted fishing and hunting village, and not a single human was anywhere in sight. The buildings were abandoned, and many had been crushed down under the immense forces of gravity sink holes. Those forces had appeared and demolished much of what had been Vesna’s hometown. Even after the individual gravity sink holes had retreated, the devastation left behind was colossal.

  Reaching the bow side of the sea, the land opened up ahead of the automacube. The road divided, but each direction was equally unappealing. During its journey, it had seen only a small number of animals along the way. Some rodents were scurrying about. Two nyala deer lifted their heads and watched for a brief moment before they darted off in a dash. Occasional birds flew by.

  Had S-1DT been an animal husbandry automacube, it would have recognized that the wildlife population was only a small remnant of what the habitat had been designed to hold. The animals were gone for much the same reasons that the marine life was struggling. However, the land creatures had an additional problem. With a few exceptions, the land animals and birds were not able to recognize the gravity sink holes with the same efficiency as were the marine life. The automacube rolled past more dead animal bodies, than it did living animals. Those corpses were scattered about where the poor beasts had wandered into a gravity sink hole and died. Their rotting cadavers were puffed up with decomposition. There were not enough scavengers around to clean up the dead.

  Stopping there at the crossroads, S-1DT scanned the area ahead. It had spotted several gravity sink holes in the distance, but as it had approached, those places, the phenomena changed. It had been unable to draw near for better study, and its primary mission was now to reach the Special Care Unit. The automacube had also observed several additional places where the earth had been torn up by the tracks of a Crock vehicle. Those trails meandered around, with little discernable purpose, heading both into and out of the sea as well as the forest. However, the automacube did not see another of those vehicles itself anywhere.

  So the journey continued, and the six drive wells rolled along.

  The Special Care Unit, located on the hill overlooking the sea on one side, and the river on the other, came into view as S-1DT rolled around a large buckled up segment of the roadway. Immediately the automacube recognized that the buildings were in far worse condition that what Jerome and Cammarry had reported.

  The wrought iron fence which stood on the perimeter of the grounds was intact, but the sternward section of the complex was just a large pile of broken rubble. Several people, the first the automacube had observed since the incident with the motorcyclist, were walking about around the ruins. The automacube continued onward, taking the pathway which led up to the gates. A crude mechanism was fastened onto the gates, by welding. Additionally the gate was chained shut with a solid chain held together with an old style mechanical padlock.

  “Cubie red will make you dead!” A man shouted from some undisclosed location on the grounds. His voice was amplified mechanically.

  The people scattered and headed for cover and concealment. They moved with efficient, practiced and disciplined grace. In just a few seconds, no people were visible, although the automacube was being watched carefully from numerous places. Several weapons were trained on it as well.

  S-1DT connected through the communication links to the artificial intelligence system Sandie who ran a voice analysis. “That is Khin,” Sandie confirmed. “Connect me into the public address mode.”

  Armored panels slid back on the side of the automacube, and two small but powerful speakers slipped into position.

  “Khin this is Sandie,” The AI’s voice boomed out from the automacube. “The wizards Cammarry and Jerome send you greetings!” It echoed up and across the grounds of the Special Care Unit. A few birds were startled and flew off in a furry of flapping wings.

  A thundering of hooves accompanied the arrival of two people on horseback. They rode up quickly along the outside of the fence and were at the gate surprisingly fast.

  “Hold Poco! It is the spirit-ghost Sandie!” Khin said as he lowered the rifle which he had trained on the automacube. Around his neck was a small medallion which was lit in several spots with small lights. He was still wearing the same clothing he had used since he met Jerome and Cammarry on the needle ship. He was riding a beautiful chestnut colored horse. The horse had a palm-sized white spot on its forehead in a diamond shape. Three of its legs had white hair just above the hooves covering the pastern to just slightly above the fetlock joint. Its mane and tail were black. Khin was seated on a black leather saddle.

  “My Khin? Are you certain?” the other rider said, while she kept her own rifle aimed squarely at the automacube. Her shoulder-length orangey-red hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her blue eyes were focused down the sights of the rifle.

  “Tell me Sandie, what is my favorite food?” Khin asked.

  “You like cheeses and also rat,” Sandie replied. “However, I am uncertain which is your favorite. In the small compartment on the back of this automacube is a cheese from Jerome and Cammarry.” A small door on the machine popped open.

  Khin laughed and laughed and slid off the horse. He walked over to the automacube and grabbed out the block of cheese. “Oh, so good! Thank you! Vesna, this is the spirit-ghost Sandie! Vesna put down the weapon. The cubie here will defend us now!”

  Vesna pulled up her rifle and slung it across her back. She was about Khin’s height, a bit lighter in complexion, and wearing a tan woven shirt with dark blue pants. Leather shoes wrapped her feet. “It is about time something came to help us. We have been under attack by hoodlums, and by those crushing menaces. Can this cubie defend against those?”

  “Brrurrrr,” the horse under Vesna huffed and flapped his lips.

  “Old Bill,” Vesna said and patted the horse’s neck. “I know you can see them coming. You have saved countless lives, but we need a way to cast them away from here.”

  Old Bill shook his head up and down under Vesna’s praise. The white blaze down his nose was asymmetrical and covered most of the front of his head and surrounded hi
s right eye. Old Bill was a bit taller than the chestnut colored young mare, Poco. The stallion was also a deeper brown, bay, color. His back was stooped a bit with his age, but he was still energetic.

  Poco whinnied and nickered. “Yes, young lady,” Khin said as he rubbed the mare’s neck. “Your mate is teaching you how to see those crusher holes as well. Yes, he is!”

  Vesna rode Old Bill over to the gate and leaning over unlocked it. “We all should go inside the fence now. These patrols outside the fence can now be stopped!” A look of relief washed over her face. “Come on, my Khin, this machine will help us defend these people.”

  From the ground where he was eating his cheese, Khin patted Poco. “We have been flying around the outside of the fence to keep the hoodlums away. Our horses have done well, but Vesna is correct. With this cubie, we can stay inside the fence now!”

  The automacube rolled onto the grounds of the Special Care Unit. Off in the distance was a charred and crumpled wreck of a security automacube. The two horses walked in afterward. Vesna closed and relocked the gate.