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

by John Thornton

  7 Know yourself, know the enemy

  Khin and Vesna slept in shifts that first night of the search. They had climbed down the ladder which was inside the chute. Vesna did not tell Khin that another symbol he claimed to have read, did not say ladder, but rather, ‘Manuel Access’ and she saw no reason to do so. His reading was accurate enough. He had provided a method of descending. It was a long and difficult climb down, as several places had rubbish jammed across the chute. That junk had to be kicked, pried, and or pulled apart with brute strength, all without falling from the ladder. After reaching the deck where the ladder ended, and the chute dropped directly downward, Khin opened a side door in the chute’s shaft. They climbed out, and were exhausted. The corridor they had reached stretched off in both directions as far as they could see.

  The distant sound of goats was heard as they scampered quickly away. Insects rose from the mushrooms, and buzzed around in an annoying manner.

  “How far have we descended,” Vesna asked, as she swatted the insects away.

  “To where we needed to be. That chute drops to the sludge pile. Here we will sleep, before we go to the Land of Bad Air,” Khin replied with a chuckle. “We will open that door, and inside we might find a treasure.”

  The door Khin indicated had been shut for a long while. In the ever-present and dim light, they could see that the growth medium was splashed up against it, and the fungal growth was thick and undisturbed. Water had run down the wall, but the air vents, where the water trickle originated, were unusually high. There were fewer vents in the walls of that corridor than was typical on the needle ship.

  Khin approached the door. He peered at the symbols on it, but did not recognize any of them. Vesna looked, and the door was labeled, “Treadle Adjustment and Refinement” but that did not help her to understand what was inside.

  “Do we open this?” Vesna asked cautiously. “Your parents warned about not opening every door.”

  “You listen!” Khin said and grabbed Vesna and whirled her around. His joy was evident.

  “How can I not listen, when you talk and laugh so much?” Vesna replied. “Is it safe?” She looked at the door. It seemed to be a typical pressure door, but the nine-section color pad was dark, and lacking power.

  Khin put his head against the door and listened. Then he sniffed all around the door. He just smiled.

  “Well, how do we get that door to open?” Vesna asked. She yawned.

  “It smells safe. It sounds safe. It probably is safe.” Khin took out his knife and precisely set it against the side of the nine-section color control pad. Then suddenly he smacked it hard, and the knife slipped behind the controls. The door jerked open, about a third of the way.

  Vesna quickly drew out her revolver, and aimed it at the emptiness which had been revealed by the light from within.

  “Nothing exploded, or bad air came out. I will go in.” Khin stepped inside.

  Vesna followed. The room was medium sized, but very tall, with three, still working, spotlights set into the ceiling. Along one wall, were numerous huge gears. There were also I-beam shafts of permalloy running in vertical positions. The I-beams tapered into rod shapes at the very top where they exited the room through sphincters in the ceiling. Tight fitting materials sealed around them. The I-beams were connected into huge gears at their lower ends where the I-beam flattened out to make contact with the gear. It looked like as the gears would turn, the I-beams would raise and lower. Along the flanges of each I-beam were wheeled trolleys which could roll up and down on the I-beams. These trolleys were sitting at various heights, none at the same level as the others. On the side of each trolley was a lever with a strap hanging down. Those straps were frayed but came all the way to the floor where pedals connected onto them. These floor pedals were at different angles and had small gears at the side whose teeth connected to yet smaller gears set in perpendicular arrangements. Many of the gears had thick gunk jammed into their teeth. All the floor pedals were connected by a thin rod that ran the length of the room and out both walls at the ends. There was a somewhat faded, dotted yellow line painted on the floor which was parallel to the rod. Streams of rust colored some of the softer metal parts of the apparatus.

  “What a great machine!” Vesna said. “What does it do?”

  “Machines do what machines do.” Khin looked at it for a moment. “This one is not so great, it is not doing anything.”

  “I mean great like in big, not like in helpful. What was it supposed to do? If it was turned on?” Vesna asked.

  “I do not know. The wizards might know. Should I ask Sandie the spirit-ghost?”

  “No need. I am too tired for one of those long explanations anyway. I see no other doors, so this is a good place to sleep. Unless the machine turns on.” She looked at the gears and treadles, and then stated, “It will not turn on. It is greatly ruined.”

  “Vesna, you are the great one. You sleep first, I will watch for monsters. The door I opened will not shut without energy, or power. So, I will watch first,” Khin said.

  And so, one slept while the other stood watch. Then they changed roles, and got through that sleeping period.

  “Our slumbering time is over,” Khin announced as he woke up later. Vesna was on guard. “Vesna, our quest continues. Day two of five. The next place is the Land of Bad Air. Let me ask Sandie the spirit-ghost if we need to go on.” He tapped the com-link. “Sandie? Sandie? Have the lost children been found?”

  Sandie the AI replied through the area audio of Khin’s com-link. “No. The children are still missing. I will notify you immediately upon their recovery. I am also tracking you and Vesna, and if you need my assistance please do not hesitate to ask.”

  “Right!” Khin laughed. “Now we go to the Land of Bad Air.” His humor diminished as he said the name.

  Vesna scrunched up her face. “I trust you Khin, but why are we coming here? Would it not be better to hunt, by starting where the children were last seen?”

  “No, and yes. Yes, if we were hunting rats, or cavies, or goats,” Khin replied. “This is a quest! So no, we let those others hunt where the children were lost. If there was no monster, those children will be found by them. We do not chase animals, or a wandering child. Instead, we are on a quest for a monster. So, we go where monsters roam, and then sniff around to see if children were brought here too.”

  They squeezed out of the Treadle Room, or so Vesna thought of it. Khin seemed to know where they were heading, and she followed as he chose the path down the corridor in what to her seemed a random way. Almost every doorway they passed looked as if it had not been opened for a very long time. The passage felt lonely and abandoned by humanity. Insects were everywhere. An occasional rat was seen, and Khin did make a gesture toward them as if he was flicking his spear, or throwing an object. She knew he enjoyed hunting rats, and eating them. But Khin, was also more serious than normal, and he was even somewhat wary as they stopped before just darting around a corner.

  “The Land of Bad Air is up here,” Khin pointed as they reached a stairway.

  “We are going up?”

  “Yes, that is the only way to go to the Land of Bad Air. I know of no other way except by coming up from this place,” Khin motioned and he then started up the stairs. There the growth medium was also stuck heavily onto the steps, with thick fungal foliage. Water ran down on the left side of the stairs. Vesna followed as Khin walked up two flights.

  At the top, there was a strange door, the type of which Vesna had never seen before. It had a large wheel sticking out from its center. The wheel had grips all along its outside. There had once been some kind of inscription above the door, but it was abraised off in the past. A busted pipe hung from above and had swung repeatedly over and over across that softer metal frame which obliterated the inscription. Vesna looked around, and the landing they were on was in poor repair. The stairs leading further upward were impassible due to a side wall which had caved in. She wondered what kind of immense force had shoved
down the permalloy of that wall, and feared a gravity sink hole. However, when she looked closer, the rubble looked almost melted, not crushed or broken. Vesna tried to reassure herself that the gravity sink holes had only been seen in Beta, but that was hard to totally accept.

  “We spin this wheel, and the door comes open. I warn you, my Vesna, this is the entrance to the Land of Bad Air. It smells bad. The air is not good for breathing. We will need to hurry though, or we might fall, and never get up. Also, the lighting will be very low. I can see well enough in here, but I do not know if you can. Your eyes are adjusted to that Beta place, which was so bright I needed goggles. So, stay with me.” Khin then had a surprised look on his face. “Oh, I have a cord!” He reached into one of his pouches and brought forth a cord whose diameter was less than half the width of his smallest finger. He unwound it and tied it to his own belt, and then to Vesna’s belt. “This will keep us connected.”

  “Khin, how did you find this place the first time?”

  Khin laughed and bowed his head. He looked at the floor. “A fat goat and a ghost showed me this place.”

  “What? A ghost and a goat?”

  Khin nodded, and laughed a bit. “I was chasing a fat goat. It went into a small place, and I crawled after it. The floor broke under me and the goat and I fell. I tumbled and rolled and fell some more. It was a long fall. Not fun like flying. I had to then crawl through long tunnels, and sometimes had to turn around and crawl back to start over. One tunnel I crawled in was very tight, and as I crawled forward, I came to a pair of legs which belonged to a dead man. He had crawled all that way and just died. But he had some tools, and a rope, which I took. The end of the rope was tied all around his body, and I could not get it loose. I did not have my knife or anything else to cut it, because my knife was lost in my fall. The ghost’s tools were not for cutting. So, I had the dead man’s ghost tools, and the loose end of his rope. As I was backing up, I found a place on the wall where his tools fit, and unlocked. I opened that place in the wall. I always wonder why he did not do that, but he did not. That place opened to the chute we used. I recognized the smell of that chute, and knew I was way below familiar places. That was before I learned of the ladder. I did not yet know then how to read to get the ladder to come out. But I used the rope which was connected to the dead man, the ghost was holding it tightly. His body was struck fast in that tunnel, and it worked as an anchor for me. Since I could not go up, I slid down until I got to that place where the chute drops straight down. I got out of the chute and into that tall corridor. Just after I got out of the chute, the rope fell from above. The ghost must have let go. But he helped me get where I was. I never did get that fat goat. I never could find that ghost body again.”

  “Strange. I cannot follow that tale. Where was that man from? Was he from your Goat People?” Vesna asked.

  “Oh no. He was a wizard, I think. Maybe a stupid wizard?” Khin answered. “I used to think he was a wanderer, or someone like that, because I thought wizards could not die. But after knowing Jerome and Cammarry, can I say their names?” He laughed a bit. “After knowing them and being on Wizard Quests, I can see how a wizard could die. So, now I think he was a wizard. But when I knew him he was a ghost. Do we open this door now?”

  “I am ready if you are,” Vesna stated, and brushed some of her red hair back. She tucked it behind her ear, the one without her com-link.

  “We run fast, but hold your breath!” Khin laughed as he spun the wheel on the door. It made a gravelly popping noise as it turned. Then the whole door opened with a waft of extremely foul smelling air. The lip’s edge stuck to the door, and acted almost as if it did not want to release from the frame.

  Beyond was shadowy darkness and rolling columns of steam which came up from below. That steamy fog curled around the pipes which ran along the ceiling. Khin pulled at Vesna and took off running. The cord between them was only about three meters long, and Vesna kept up as together they sprinted into the Land of Bad Air.

  The temperature was one factor which Khin had failed to mention. As they rushed ahead, Khin leading, Vesna was surprised that what she had thought was steam was actually something else. The hazy air was cold, clammy, and made her flesh itch.

  Vesna had never seen any place in Beta which looked like this weird space. The ceiling was low, barely two meters high, and felt lower with the rolling clouds of the cold steam-like fog. They ran in a crouch and turned several corners. Vesna tapped on her com-link and a beam of light shinned forth, but that illuminated the dust motes, particles, and junk in the air too much. The brighter light actually made it harder to see. Khin turned around and motioned for her to shut off the light, and she did.

  A pressure door was sitting wrenched off its tracks and partially blocking a passage. Thick, heavy, and cloudy gasses wrapped around their feet and obscured the floor. Khin ducked through around that broken pressure door, and they came to different passageway. This opening was one only a half-meter wide. Beyond, the corridor looked to be long. A green light was at the far end, but it all looked hazy and other-worldly. Vesna was tempted to inhale, but clenched her teeth and refused to give him. Turning sideways, her gear getting a bit in the way, she followed Khin’s example and sidled as quickly as possible toward that opposite end.

  Khin looked back as he reached the far end. Another of the strange doors with the wheels was located there. Khin’s cheeks were puffed out and he looked to Vesna who was getting light-headed and dizzy. With one strong arm, he held her up.

  With his other arm, Khin spun the wheel, and the door pushed open. It moved sluggishly and Khin shouldered it open all the way. Stepping though the threshold, he pulled Vesna after him. She fell to the deck. He used all his strength to shut the door and spin the wheel. There was a clanking and grinding as the door sealed, locked, and set itself into place again.

  “Breath now!” Khin spit out. He took great gasps of air into his lungs. “Breath Vesna!”

  She sputtered and coughed, but took some lungsful of the air that was much better than what they had just escaped. Her eyes were watering, nose was running, eyes were stinging, and it was tough to see what was around her. Khin’s bright brown eyes were twinkling at her as she tried to focus on him.

  “Khin?” She gasped, barely able to get enough air to make audible words.

  “Yes, I am here. We made it through the Land of Bad Air!” He laughed and wiped some of the snot from her face.

  Vesna’s eyes grew huge, and she pointed her fingers.

  A gray form dropped down from above, and it was blurry to Vesna’s sight. Yet, she knew something was not right.

  “KHIN DUCK!” Sandie’s voice bellowed from both com-links.

  Claws ripped Khin’s shirt as he fell onto Vesna, trying to protect her from whatever it was that had prompted Sandie’s warning.

  “Yoooch!” Khin yelled as blood began pouring down from the four deep gashes in his back.

  Blam! Vesna fired her revolver, but did so nearly blindly. She hugged Khin to her, and fired with the other hand. Blam!

  Her shots went into the ceiling over them, but were nowhere near what had attacked them. She hugged Khin tightly, and blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to clear them of the foul air which was so irritating.

  A shrieking yowl echoed about the corridor, but neither Khin nor Vesna could tell from where it originated.

  Blam!

  Vesna fired again. Her only concern was that she not shoot into Khin, and she knew her gun hand was not aimed at him.

  “Get away from us!” Vesna finally yelled out.

  Khin kissed her quickly on the cheek and extricated himself from her hug. “I can see.” He stepped away. “I will check.”

  Vesna was unsure of where Khin was, so she did not fire again. She struggled to her feet, but was a bit dizzy from the fumes. With her unoccupied hand, she wiped at her eyes, but that only made them more blurry.

  “I do not see it. What was here?” Khin asked. He had his short spear out and held
it in a position ready to be hurled. “What bit me?”

  “I could not see it,” Vesna answered.

  “It was a large, furry beast, and its claws raked you. You were not bitten,” Sandie replied without being asked. “It moved very swiftly, and I only got a glimpse of it via Vesna’s com-link. I am running an analysis and comparisons, but the beast is not in any of my databases.”

  “Khin, pull off your shirt, you are bleeding, I can feel that.” Vesna stated as she touched his back.

  “First, I need your eyes,” Khin said. He splashed water from his container all over her forehead and face. “Do not touch it. Your hands make it worse.”

  As the water poured and ran over Vesna’s eyes, they were flushed clear. She began to see where they were. It was an odd corridor. The basic shape was hexagonal, a floor, ceiling and then two angular walls on each side. Those side walls, had a handrail where the angles met. The floor, lower walls, and ceiling were a faded light green color with spots of corrosion and pitting scattered about. The upper section of wall was from expanded metal, almost thin enough to be called a mesh, and behind that could be seen various pipes, wiring, and a vast multitude of other utilities. Many sections of the expanded metal were broken out, or hanging by hinges, or bent from severed connectors.