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

by John Thornton

  “Yes, it would reveal you were here,” Shadow affirmed. “Surprise can be your friend.”

  Eris pondered the Shadow’s response, since she had not spoken aloud, or had she? Honestly, she could not remember. Finishing the basic repairs, she entered an override code. That activated the power and the door slid open under her instruction. The corridor stretched out ahead of her, lit from above. The deck plans were just as she expected, knowing how the Conestoga’s habitats were designed and built, but the specific numbering and labeling of each room in each habitat was slightly different. So while Eris knew the deck levels, and approximate room placements, the habitats were different enough from the needle ship that her general knowledge was helpful but not exact. She looked at the wall, and saw a sign. Following that she walked along seeking the location of room 6009.

  Quietly and with great stealth, she walked toward a corner, Eris knew from the labels on the rooms, that she was close. Laboratories, classrooms, and a lecture hall were along one side, and various supply rooms were on the other. From the dust on the doors, none seemed to have been opened recently. She knew each was not powered, as none of the nine-section color pads was illuminated. She could open them manually, but instead of searching each one, she sought out the place Shadow had suggested. Peeking around the corner, she saw the way was clear, and the doors to 6009 were closed.

  Approaching the double set of doors, she noted 6009 was a major room set into a corner of the corridors. Her mind went through the possibilities for what was located at such a junction. ‘Athletic complex’ was her first thought, and she wished the labeling on the exterior doors was better. They were painted a green and yellow color which seemed odd as the planet was mostly those colors as well.

  “Draw your weapon. These people are unstable and need to be stopped,” Shadow stated, but only Eris heard.

  Eris was hesitant to just burst into a room without knowing what was inside. Her mind was still reeling somewhat from the apparitions she had seen in the shadowland. Then she remembered that doors were not the only way to gain entry to a location. The needle ship air ducts had been used to spray growth medium and distribute water. Who knew what had been done inside the walls of Alpha’s shell? She looked down the hall and saw a grille for ductwork. It was clean and undamaged, unlike nearly every duct opening she had seen on the needle ship. She sidled over to it and easily opened it. Her mind plotted the path which the ducts would take, if they were in the typical atmospheric recirculation configuration. She knelt down, and her golden eyes peered inside. She slipped in. The duct was as clean inside as the grille had been outside. Fresh air was blowing through it and that felt great. She shut the grille and latched it. Then squirming around, she pulled herself through the ducts until she came near the junction where she could hear voices.

  “….ess so far, has it? I did hear you. I guarantee this will get rid of your problems. A carrot often works better than a stick with people. Oh, I know that is so true. Like catching varmints, you need good bait. We have a shuttle fleet and will use that to take the troublemakers away. The Elysian Fields are beautiful and everyone is accepted there. They can have their freedom, and a new start in life. You just need to let me speak to them, and I promise I will lead them all away.” A male voice was speaking.

  Eris crawled down the duct from where the voice was originating.

  “Strangers were here and started all this,” a different man’s voice stated. Eris could tell it was coming from an intercom system. “But perhaps you are right. They refuse to work, and are sneaking in and causing fits. I need a way to lure them back into the natural realm to be slaves again, or have them go away, permanently. I cannot keep sending my limited numbers of security forces into the corridors to chase them down. You promise me production facilities will be restored? I need more red automacubes to be built. Only after these freed slaves are dealt with can my businesses thrive again.”

  “Parson Frederich, my dear fellow, the Ferryman never fails. We were just in Beta and we had a very successful relocation of settlers to the Elysian Fields. There were very few complaints about our work there. That is why we have come here to help you with your problems.”

  Eris heard some snickering, but it was so faint she doubted it was transmitted through the intercom.

  “I will allow you to open an office in Aston, where you may proclaim you are a messenger to our Goddess Araceli…. No, that will not work. I have already told the people Araceli is angry and seeking to punish the run-away slaves. How do you propose to get your message out to the slaves, without undermining my authority?”

  “I am not going to give away all the Ferryman’s secrets, now would I? But you just tell your patrolmen to ignore us, and the people will spread the word. I guarantee it. Then when this problem is finished, that town of Aston will be given to the Ferryman for his personal jurisdiction. We relocate these people for you, and you in gratitude allow us that town. Then we can talk about your other plans for getting more people from suspended animation. The Ferryman is also an expert at that.”

  Eris had crawled all the way through the duct to another grille which was in the wall. She could observe through the slats and see into room 6009. It had two men and a woman sitting around some jury-rigged equipment.

  Each man was older, by several decades, than Eris, and were wearing white shirts with stripes across them. They had black, receding hair, and looked like identical twins. The only difference was one man had long sideburns which were bushy and the other had a greasy mustache. Both were portly. They reminded Eris of the people she had seen in the shadowlands.

  “Well, you begin luring them out of the rat holes they have crawled into, and taking them away. Then we will talk again. If you succeed, then I will be much more favorably disposed toward helping you. You are a stranger, and strangers caused problems before. A duplicitous and evil pair named Cammy and Jerry,” Parson Frederich stated.

  “We know of them. Real troublemakers in Beta too. The Ferryman will work to lead them away from here as well. Those two need to experience the joys of the Elysium Fields as much as anyone,” mustache man stated. “The Ferryman will contact you again later. Goodbye, Parson. Good luck!”

  The intercom crackled off.

  “You think the fool bought it?” the woman said. She was skinny, in a sickly sort of way, not fit or athletic. She raised a brown stick to her lips and sucked it a bit. “This stuff is pretty good, not like anything I ever had in Beta.”

  “Yudel, just like back in Beta, those people in authority always are looking for someone to do their dirty work, right Fyodor?” the man with the mustache said.

  “Yes, Bozidor, the Ferryman has found a new home. I was hoping the brains here would want to work with us, but maybe later. Now, we get a lay of the land, and figure out the fine points of the scam.”

  “Ok, Yudel, you stay here and man the intercom. Our boys are out looking for supplies and whatever else we need. The biggest need right now is a place to dispose of the bodies. Project Angel Food did that for us before, but if we find an industrial furnace, or composter, or just a working airlock, we can get rid of whoever answers our call.”

  The three people laughed and chuckled.

  “Bozo, and Fyo, your mom must have really told you the Pied Piper stories,” Yudel said. “You can call out the people with the best of them.”

  “My name is Bozidor,” the man with the bushy sideburns said as he walked over to the woman. He pulled her up by her shirt and then slapped her with the back of his hand. “Do not speak of my mother with your filthy mouth.”

  Yudel fell to the deck with a huge red mark on her face. “Sorry Bozidor, I will not talk of her again.”

  Fyodor stepped over and with a look of rage on his face, lifted Yudel from the deck. She trembled in his grip. He then kissed her passionately, savagely, and aggressively. After a moment, she threw her arm around him and returned the kiss.

  As Fyodor pulled away from her he said, “Your filthy mouth has uses.
” He then slapped her as well, striking the other side of her face. “Now go back and use that mouth of yours on my brother.”

  Yudel looked stricken, but stumbled over to where Bozidor stood. He had a wicked grin on his face. She approached him with trembling. “I really am sorry…”

  Bozidor grabbed her and fiercely kissed her. As he did so, he led her away toward some doors at the back of the room. The doors were old-fashioned swing-type, and he kicked one open and left.

  “Now to signal my mates,” Fyodor said and switched some controls on the intercom. “Hey fellows! Switch to secure line four.” He adjusted some levers and then continued. “Right-o, our new friend the Parson said some characters named Cammy and Jerry were the ones who helped the slaves. Add that to the scam you are spreading. Tell them that those two are helping the Ferryman to save the slaves. That will give us an air of credibility to the runaways. Be sure to make recordings of the people who follow you. The Parson will need proof of what we are doing. Lead those people back here, so we can send them to the Elysian Fields.” He laughed as he finished sending his message.

  Several male voices answered back with affirmative replies. Then Fyodor shut down the intercom, and walked back to the door where his brother had taken Yudel.

  Eris watched with growing horror and resentment. When neither brother came back, and the door remained closed, she took out the multi-tool and removed the latches from the grille. Sliding carefully and quietly out of the duct, Eris entered the room. She drew out the RSW Model 10, and checked it. It was ready to fire.

  Keeping alert for any change at the door, Eris rapidly looked over the intercom. It was a system which tapped into the existing habitat’s intercom, but had modulation setting on the transceiver. Eris thought, ‘Should I destroy this here, and now?’ but she hesitated. The equipment might come in handy for her own use. She was unsure how to stop the Ferryman brothers, for that was how she thought of them, but she knew she needed to do that.

  Stepping carefully across the room, Eris heard a pressure door activate and then close. It was not the double doors which were the main entry, nor was it the door she had been watching. She whirled around, but could not locate the source of the sound. She guessed it was coming from beyond the old-fashioned door. Looking around, she then noted that many things on the walls were also old-fashioned, or antiques. Posters, photographs, and artwork on the walls showed views of equipment, cities, buildings, and people from prior eras. All those images were from before the Great Event. Across one wall were the words, ‘Beer Garden Cabaret’ and that was when it dawned on Eris what type of room she was in. The stage had been piled with the intercom equipment, and the wires which had been used to connect that into the ship’s systems. The nightclub had had some kind of public address system which the Ferryman had used to circumvent and enter the ship’s larger system. ‘Ingenious, but evil. Pure evil.’ The tables were stacked to the sides, and chairs were stacked in piles next to them. In Eris’ mind she recreated the look of the nightclub, and found it had been crude and rude even before the Ferryman brothers had taken it over.

  Standing next to the old-fashioned door, Eris listened. She could hear quiet weeping, but nothing else. With the muzzle of her weapon she pushed the door open a crack.

  A dirty mattress was on the floor in the corner. On it was Yudel, naked and crying softly to herself. The pressure door at the back of the room was closed. There the nine-section color control pad was illuminated.

  Eris eased her way inside.

  The woman on the bed looked up. Her face was bruised, and her eyes puffy. She looked even more emaciated without her clothing on.

  “You can go free now,” Eris said. “I will cover your escape.”

  Yudel wiped her eyes and responded. “Why? I am not going anywhere.” She pulled her torn clothing off the bed and slipped them on. “Why are you here? Are you trying to take my job? Younger and prettier! You think you can get what I have?” Her eyes blazed with red rimmed fury.

  “No, just leave these disgusting men.”

  “Bozo! Fyo! Come quick!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

  Eris heard the pressure door activating. She aimed the RSW Model 10 Officer’s Edition at the doorway. Sighting down the black barrel, she lined up the targeting dots. She prayed for the strength to stand against the evil of the Ferryman brothers.

  The door slid open, and Fyodor stepped in. “My name is not Fyo, you worthless wench, I guess…” His eyes grew huge as he saw Eris with the weapon aimed right at his chest.

  “Shoot him now!” Shadow said, but only Eris heard.

  “NO!” Yudel screamed and leaped up from the bed hands outstretched toward Eris. “They are mine!”

  BLAM!

  The RSW Model 10 bucked in Eris’ hand.

  Yudel dropped at Eris’ feet, and squirmed about, clutching her abdomen.

  “Finally did something right, Yudel!” Fyodor chuckled as he bounded out the pressure door, he slapped the controls and the door slammed shut. The color pad controls faded out as power left them.

  Eris looked down at the woman she had just shot.

  “Go after the others!” Shadow said. “They are escaping.”

  Eris saw the huge pool of blood as it gushed out from the front and back of the still woman. She lowered the weapon, then choked back a sob. Holstering the RSW with a shaking hand, Eris stepped back. Yudel’s face was pale, white, and still. Her eyes half open.

  Eris turned away and staggered a few steps toward the platform where the intercom equipment was sitting. She dropped to her knees and retched. The vomit missed the paraphernalia, but tasted foul in her mouth.

  “You must pursue those other contacts,” Shadow insisted. “There is no time to be weak.”

  “I killed someone,” Eris mumbled. She prayed in her mind fervently for forgiveness.

  “That woman put herself in your line of fire. It is not your fault,” Shadow stated. “You are not responsible. You saw how the contacts were treating her. She chose to defend them; it is not your fault. Get up and get after them.”

  “No. I killed her.” Eris was trembling with emotions. The dead woman had been repugnant in her actions, but she was still dead by the hand of Eris, and so Eris prayed for absolution. She closed her eyes and concentrated her prayers.

  Shadow spoke, but Eris ignored everything. She took slow deep breaths, and focused on her prayers, and on God. She recited memorized scripture passages, but mostly was just asking for forgiveness. During her praying, a mental switch happened, and she was praying more for the dead woman and all those who Eris had seen die, especially in the repository. The faces of her mother and father came into her mind, and she recalled positive things from them. Their smiles, their laughter, and their own spirituality. They were so different, and yet so devout themselves. A peace settled over Eris.

  After some time, the passage of which Eris hardly noticed, she opened her eyes, then rose up. She looked around, and then down at the dead woman. “Please forgive me. May your eternity be one of comfort, perhaps unlike what you experienced here. I will not allow them to hurt someone else, like they hurt you.”

  “…I repeat. You are several hours behind them,” Shadow’s words finally penetrated Eris mind. “I am disappointed in your performance. The death of one person here is inconsequential to the fate of the ship.”

  “The fate of the ship is important, but do not press me,” Eris replied. “Every life is important, and I will never forget that.”

  She walked over to the intercom system and saw how it functioned. She sat down and turned on the transceiver. She did not know the codes for the channels which had been used, and there were no incoming messages on any of the open circuits. Then she caught sight of some wear on a dial. The lever for the main channel had a small pointer. There were scratches around the number 9. Eris realized that was from switching onto that and off of that repeatedly. So she turned the lever to channel 9.

  The voice of Parson Frederich came through
, unscrambled, and not in code.

  “…bury all the dead with me. Wolf City is a charnel house, but we have control. Excessively bloody mess, but we will just wake up new sleepers. Yes, you should gather your troops in Aston,” Parson Frederich ordered.

  “That will take some time,” a woman’s voice replied. “I will have the security automacubes do a final sweep along the ridge escarpment, then they will progress there.”

  “Fine, but make it snappy. Bernice, I made you Chief Patrolman to take orders and capture those slaves. Now with these new outsiders, they call themselves the Ferryman, how droll, you can concentrate all your efforts on security around the lek plantations, while my techies prepare to awaken the new slaves. Let this group, the Ferryman, deal with the runaways in the shell. Maybe the runaways and the Ferryman folks will just kill each other off. Solve both problems all at once. All the better for us. We will start over new. Those sleepers under Aston will be awakened as soon as you secure the lek fields. Forces are heading for that cache of sleepers right now. So just kill every slave if you must, but do not let this revolt continue.”