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

by John Thornton

  Jenna herself was busy directing the loading up of the covered wagon. Dewi and Nabila assisted her as the covered wagon was converted to be the hauler for the children. Measurements were taken, and seating was arranged. A silver automacube was carrying books, blankets, and pillows from the ruins of the Special Care Unit and those were being used to make seats for the children. It would be tight, but they could all fit.

  Vesna and two of her people rolled the troika and karozzin carriage to the side and then propped their wheels up on jacks. Repairs to the tires and wheels were made. She caught them looking at her and she waved at Khin. Her happy smile beamed up.

  Sandie the AI spoke, “I have integrated the various synthetic brains into our com-link system. Beta’s public address system has now completely failed, and with the fragility of the habitat, I feel it is essential we know all that is happening as quickly as possible.”

  “You are screening and monitoring it all, right?” Cammarry asked. “You are still in control?”

  “Yes, of course, the synthetic brains give me input, and I chose what to do with it,” Sandie answered. “I also have set up barriers so that our conversations are private. Unless you want them to be passed to the Conestoga’s systems, they will remain confidential.”

  Jerome spoke, “I know this is a major crisis, just make sure you are keeping everything sorted out.”

  “That is not a problem,” Sandie replied. “I have been refining the communication couplings, and with the needle ship’s improved systems, I conjecture only a small potential for a lost signal.”

  Gunfire erupted from some distant place on the grounds. “There is another incursion,” SB Cotard stated over the scratchy Special Care Unit’s loudspeaker. “The security automacube is addressing the threat. Its ammunition supply is running low.”

  “I am back Cotard,” Cammarry said through clenched teeth. “We will be taking these people away to safety.”

  “Yes, I understand that is the plan,” SB Cotard replied, the mechanical voice breaking up a bit and echoing off the ruins of the building. “I support the evacuation. I can offer no safe alternative.”

  Cammarry considered some kind of angry retort, but stopped herself.

  Jerome spoke with some trepidation. He looked at Cammarry, but then said, “Sandie? For essential messages, like what Cotard stated, will you directly connect them into the com-links?”

  “Not Cotard!” Cammarry said and whirled about.

  “We need information fast, and that gunfire nearly drowned out a warning about attackers,” Jerome stated bluntly. “I do not like it either, Cotard tried to kill me, but we need all the reconnaissance we can gather as quickly as possible. We also need to prevent the enemy from hearing our plans.”

  “Sandie, do it. But make sure you screen it all and keep our private comments, private!” Cammarry understood the need, but hated the idea.

  “There is another of the unidentified vehicles approaching,” SB Cotard stated. This time the message came through the com-link and was crystal clear.

  “What do you mean?” Jerome asked.

  “That spirit-ghost, Cotard, has pointed out one of those machines which are much bigger than cubies,” Khin pointed. “They have tracks and are brown, green, and gray colors. Big, loud, and strange. Vesna does not know of them either.”

  Jerome looked but knew his eyes sight was not as keen as Khin’s even in the habitat light. He then sprinted to the pavilion and threw himself onto the berm. He lay flat, looking down toward the fence. Cammarry and Khin followed.

  “There it is!” Jerome said as he spotted a Crock vehicle in the distance. It was well beyond the fence, and was churning up the dirt with its double-dual treads. Jerome pulled out the Willie Blaster and took aim.

  Sandie’s voice came very loud from the com-link. “Jerome wait!”

  Jerome hesitated. “I finally get a chance to strike back. Sandie what is it?”

  “The side effects from penetrating the Crock vehicle with your weapon may cause grievous danger to the people here,” Sandie replied.

  “Those Crocks are the danger!” Jerome took aim, but held back from firing. “Explain what you mean.”

  “If the Crock vehicle contains the Zalian atmosphere, and if that is released here in the habitat, I conjecture it will create a lethal fog, or mist.” Sandie’s artificial voice was adamant. “The currents in the air are such that the fog will likely float upward right toward where the people are gathered. I conjecture a significant loss of life in that event: both people, and animals. The first casualties would be the farm animals which are in the corral. I strongly advice not using Willie’s weapon against the Crock vehicle in this situation.”

  Jerome pulled up his weapon. He hesitated a bit more, and then put it back into his holster.

  SB Cotard added, “I concur with the artificial intelligence Sandie. I have been observing these unidentified vehicles, which you call Crocks, and they have made no aggressive moves toward the Special Care Unit.”

  “I doubt your judgment,” Cammarry said, “but I trust Sandie.”

  Jerome nodded, but glared down at the Crock vehicle. “What if it sets up a gravity sink hole?”

  Sandie replied, “We have no way to counteract a gravity sink hole, if one should appear. My best conjecture is for a quick evacuation.”

  “Wizard Jerome and Wizard Cammarry,” Khin said. “I know how to help! Let us go and get the food animals and bring them here. We will find a way to pack them into the wagons, tie them with ropes to be led along, or let the two dogs herd them.”

  “No. I am getting a closer look at that Crock vehicle,” Jerome said. “Cammarry, I need your help.”

  “We are in this together,” Cammarry replied with a stern grin. “From the sling bay launch, through the Cosmic Crinkle, to confronting these Crocks. We do it as a team.” She looked over at Khin. “This is for us wizards only. Your idea is good about the animals. Go and save them. We will be back soon.”

  Khin laughed a bit and took up the reins for Poco. “Fare you well on your quest.” He leaped onto Poco and trotted away toward the paddocks and corral.

  Jerome and Cammarry sprinted downhill toward where the Crock vehicle was heading. They passed numerous dead hoodlums, as well as several charred places where explosions and fires had happened. The gunfire from S-1DT continued, but sounded a bit further away.

  “That Crock machine is moving slow enough we can overtake it,” Cammarry said. “But what then?”

  “We try to get some answers,” Jerome replied. “Sandie, let us know when the caravan is ready to leave, and if possible get that automacube over here to cover us.”

  SB Cotard replied, “The security automacube is engaged with armed hoodlums. It is taking direct fire. The unidentified vehicle…”

  “It is a Crock vehicle! Call it by the right name!” Jerome’s anger raged.

  “The Crock vehicle, and the others I have observed like it, have showed no direct threat to the people here,” SB Cotard replied. “The security automacube will not be redeployed away from a real threat to only a potential threat.”

  “We are on our own,” Jerome said and took Cammarry’s hand.

  She returned the squeeze and they ran along. Reaching the fence, they saw that the Crock vehicle was still heading toward them. Jerome dropped to his knees, and pulled off his backpack. “I will cut through the bottom half of these two bars. We squeeze through and get close to that Crock machine.” He already had the molecular saw out.

  “Agreed. The fence will not matter much longer anyway, since we are all leaving,” Cammarry responded. “That vehicle will not be able to pass through that gap, and if some hoodlums do, well, I hope we are gone long before that happens.” She looked all around. “I only see the Crock vehicle anyway.”

  The lower half of the two vertical bars dropped out of the fence. Jerome put the molecular saw away and crawled through. “That Crock vehicle may have been killing the hoodlums as well as setting gravity sink holes,
or the hoodlums know to keep away from it.”

  “Do the Crocks see that the hoodlums are killing our people?” Cammarry pondered as she crawled through opening in the fence.

  “Good question,” Jerome replied. “How would an alien intelligence think of us? I am not sure what I think of the social situation here. Those people killing these other people, all while the Crocks seem intent on destroying the habitat. No matter. Keep a watch for gravity sink holes.”

  They sprinted toward a burned out grove of trees. Several charred cadavers were among the burned trees. Waiting there, despite the stench of charred flesh, they saw the Crock vehicle still heading in the same general direction it had been going.

  “If we get close enough, I will blast the tracks off that machine,” Jerome said. “That way they keep the Zalian toxic atmosphere inside, but the vehicle is disabled. Leave them trapped here. Maybe good air is poison to them? Slow down their assault, and prevent them from following us.”

  “That will take a very precise shot,” Cammarry said, “But it is a great idea. Sandie? Will that work?”

  The AI replied, “The theory is sound, however, I have not examined the tread and track mechanism up close to ensure it will not cause a leak from the vehicle’s interior atmospheric when damaged. I can tell you more as you approach. I caution you, the caravan is nearly ready to leave, and there are too many unknowns about the Crock vehicle to make an accurate conjecture.”

  Jerome and Cammarry both took out the Willie Blasters and raced as fast as they could run toward the Crock vehicle. It did not seem to take notice of their approach.

  The Crock vehicle was very loud. A deep, dull, metallic engine-type of roaring sound. Its sides looked riveted together, with some kind of thick gasket material between the plates. The double-dual treaded system, one set on each side of the vehicle, did pass up and around the outside of the vehicle. Those tracks were clanking and clanging as they bit into the ground, propelling the machine along. No place in the tread’s loop did it enter the vehicle, the entire wheel, track, and sprocket system was on the outside of the vehicle. On the top of the machine was a three bladed fan, set horizontally. The blades of the fan warped out into cup shapes. That fan was spinning at a slow rate.

  A surging roar came from the machine, and the foul stench of ammonia and chlorine struck Jerome and Cammarry. They quickly pulled up the RAM masks and purged their faces of the odor.

  “Those pipes running along the top might hold who knows what kinds of gasses,” Jerome said. “That spinning fan might be a scanner, or some kind of device to set the gravity sink holes, but I am not sure.”

  “I see nothing which is obviously a weapon,” Cammarry said. “Nothing that looks like gravity manipulation technology either. Looks more like ancient pre-Great Event technology. That thing is steel, not permalloy.”

  “The treads are vulnerable,” Jerome said. He was now running alongside of the machine. “They do not look like they go inside the vehicle at all. Like shooting a wheel off of Bigelow’s troika. Just shoot off the treads on both sides, and this thing will go nowhere else.”

  “Sandie? Do you agree?” Cammarry asked.

  “Yes. I see a very limited risk of exposing the interior gasses to the habitat by disabling the tread system,” Sandie answered. “Please note, the Crocks have taken no hostile action against you, for the entire time you have been approaching, and now you are right near them.”

  “They have no business inside this habitat!” Jerome answered and fired the Willie Blaster.

  Piff. Piff.

  Sprang!

  “Look out!” Cammarry screamed.

  Jerome leaped away as the double-dual tread snapped and metal sections went flying off. None of them hit him, or Cammarry. Part of a front sprocket wheel crunched as the broken treads piled up. The treads slipped off the sprocket and then it jammed to a halt. The vehicle lurched violently in a spin as the treads on the other side kept turning.

  Piff. Piff.

  Cammarry blasted the rear section of the opposite side’s double-dual treads. She was expecting a similar sprang of broken treads, but while the tracks did snap, the sprocket quickly quit turning before there was a congestion of broken tread parts.

  “You are not going anywhere!” Jerome cried in triumph. He raised his hands over his head and danced a bit. “This Crock is stopped!”

  There was a significant change in the sounds from the machine. It was much softer and just a low hum. The fan on the top of the machine spun faster. Several thin rods telescoped upward, but did not point at Jerome or Cammarry. Then a metal arm unfolded from the front, between where the treads had turned. That arm had several ball joints and waved around a bit.

  Both Cammarry and Jerome had their weapons pointed at the arm.

  “Danger! Firing at that angle will almost certainly cause penetration of the vehicle! The gas release from inside will kill you both!” Sandie urgently and loudly said.

  Cammarry lifted the aim of her weapon, but Jerome did not.

  The mechanical arm, about ten centimeters wide, scratched down into the dirt with a pointy end. It moved quickly and scrapped out some letters.

  ‘YOU LEAVE NOW’

  The arm tapped the ground over and over and over, right next to the message.

  “You stop the gravity sink holes!” Jerome yelled. “Stop destroying the Conestoga!”

  “The caravan is ready to depart,” Sandie stated. “Jenna is urging that they leave now. Khin and Vesna are insisting they wait for you. The automacube S-1DT is nearly out of munitions, but there are no hoodlums attacking at this time.”

  “We are coming right back,” Cammarry said. She grabbed Jerome’s arm. “We stopped it. It cannot follow us, but we need to go. Jerome, we are leaving!”

  Jerome walked right up to the mechanical arm and aimed the Willie Blaster right at the center of the vehicle. “I will find a way to stop you!”

  The mechanical arm pulled back, tapped the message twice and then plunged itself straight down into the ground with a hard thud.

  Jerome was unsure what to make of the response he got.

  They both turned and ran away from the disabled Crock vehicle and back toward the ruins of the Special Care Unit.

  17 Evacuation

  Eris’ mind was racing as she flew the shuttle through the dark of Zalia’s nighttime. She felt like a failure for not being able to even get into Gamma, except for the hanger bay. Yet she also felt some small measure of success as the large teleportation sending pad was stowed in the cargo bay. She also felt a mixture of anger and confusion at how the synthetic brains of Gamma had refused to recognize her authority. She truly had hoped to work with a functional lattice of compeers and gain some answers to her many questions.

  Most of the flight she pondered all she had seen so far, and the picture was not pretty. In some ways it was as bleak as the darkness out of the shuttle’s viewports.

  “You are approaching Habitat Beta,” SB Pinaka stated. “Sandie informs me that Dardanella 135 is repaired and ready for your docking.”

  The lights on the exterior of Beta looked odd and muted in the Zalian night. Eris could see the uneven distribution of the power, and knew the habitat was in danger. The power grid looked far more broken than when she had left.

  “What is the status of the people?” Eris asked. “How many are waiting in the hanger bay area? Have some already teleported up to the needle ship via that small teleporter?”

  Sandie the AI answered this question. “There is no one in the area of the hanger bay where you will be docking. A caravan of refugees and animals is heading there as we speak. That consists of thirty-nine people, six horses, one bovine, nine sheep, two dogs, and one cat. There are also one hybrid automacube, two medical automacubes, two gastronomic automacubes, and one animal husbandry automacube in the party.”

  “How many other caravans are on the way?” Eris asked. “Have most already evacuated via the small teleporter? I thought you said that was inadequate f
or our needs.”

  “There have been no people yet teleported to the needle ship,” Sandie replied. “I have no knowledge of any other refugees heading toward Dardanella 135.”

  “Less than forty people? For all of Beta?” Eris said. “There should have been something like five thousand habitat dwellers, and twenty thousand people in suspended animation in Beta. Only forty survivors?”

  “Yes, I am sorry to report that is what we know,” Sandie answered.

  “What do the Beta synthetic brains say about this?” Eris asked.

  “SB Cotard at the Special Care Unit has greatly assisted in arranging for the evacuation. SB Cotard reports many deaths of patients, residents, and people who were violently attacking that facility,” Sandie said. “SB Amelia Earhart does not respond to repeated attempts at contact.”