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

by John Thornton

  “Rebooting?” Jerome asked, a puzzled expression on his face. “Some phrase about footwear or walking?”

  “Pardon me. Rebooting is an antiquated and primitive term from the embryonic computer-era before the Great Event,” Sandie stated. A reboot was an act or instance of starting over on a computer system. For a short while, it also was used as a synonym for a revision or recapitulation of other things. You are about to reach Monika’s location. Take the ladder down, and you will arrive there.”

  Jerome opened the access door, and quickly descended down the ladder. On the appropriate level, he rushed out and came to an open doorway, where Monika was standing. She threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately. They held each other for a long while. Lips moist and pressed against each other.

  “This is our new place, I guess,” Monika stated, as they parted lips, but still held each other. Their eye contact was intense. Their pupils were dilated wide, as if their eyes were trying to take in as much of the other as possible. “Come in and see your sons. They have missed you.”

  Jerome, arm still around Monika, walked into the other apartment. It was much the same as the typical apartments which were in so many locations on the Conestoga, especially in the habitat’s shells, and on the needle ship. The major difference was the hastily rigged command chair, and bank of display screens, monitors, controls, and instruments. He had to step over cables which ran from that impromptu workstation, and into open access panels of the walls.

  “There you are!” Jerome said with a huge smile, as he leaned over the cradles where the twins were. Both babies kicked their legs with excitement and threw they arms down against the mattress. Smiles crossed the babies faces at the sound of their daddy’s voice. Jerome did not notice that in the back of the apartment were other people seated around a table. They included the older man named Pike, Parson William, Jenna, Dewi, Nabila, and Adeilson.

  Monika’s hand rested on Jerome’s back as he leaned in to snuggle with the boys. Sandie’s voice came to her through her private channel on the com-link.

  “Monika? I must interrupt, and I am sorry for that, but your command center is the only human-staffed interface we have with the exterior world,” Sandie stated. “The repulsors, microparticle turrets, and sensors must be monitored. I am still reassembling the nonphysicality, but cannot yet operate all those systems. I really need your help.”

  “Jerome, take time with the boys. We have some helpers here as well,” Monika said and pointed to the people seated at the table. “I will be at the workstation.”

  “Thanks Monika.” Only then did Jerome look up from his sons and see them. Adeilson smiled, while Dewi and Nabila gave him knowing nods. He returned the grin, but gave his attention back to his sons and he in turn took them up in his arms.

  “No worries,” Monika said and patted his arm. “Leave everything to me.”

  “Monika, I need your manual overrides and attention to some issues,” Sandie instructed. “I am reading some urgent matters, and need confirmation.”

  Monika sat down. The display screens in front of her showed various views, mostly perspectives of the earth-like planet, and graphics of information. “Sandie, I am much more comfortable building a carousel, than helping here.” Monika watched as the planet looked like it was rotating around in a wobbly manner. The planet’s image swung all the way around about every minute or so. “What do I do?”

  In a voice so low, only Monika could hear, Sandie replied. “Start up the weapon targeting systems.”

  “Are the Jellies here?” Monika almost said it too loudly.

  “Not that I can perceive. I need you to use the weapon’s systems as a confirmation for the limited views and tracking I have,” Sandie replied.

  Monika adjusted the controls. Readouts scrolled across the screens, and additional images of the exterior and the planet became visible. “Did that do it for you?”

  “Yes, Monika. Thank you. I am confirming our situation.” Sandie paused for a brief moment, and during that time the artificial intelligence system ran huge compilations, calculations, and did multiple analyses. “It is as I suspected and feared. Separation of the needle ship from Alpha must take place. The needle ship is now a useless hulk. It is greatly inhibiting the flight dynamics of Alpha, especially, if Alpha entered the atmosphere of the planet still attached to the needle ship. Alpha must be jettisoned from the needle ship. I have not been able to find any links, connections, or couplings which would allow me to disengaged the constituent joints which lock Alpha to the needle ship.”

  “How urgent is it that we do that?” Monika asked, even though the tones in the AI Sandie’s vice told Monika what the answer would be. Nonetheless, she asked anyway. “Can we wait and assess the situation more?”

  “I must be done quickly,” Sandie replied. “The sooner the better.”

  “I thought we were headed into an orbital position,” Monika stated. “Why is it so important now?”

  “The Conestoga is tumbling about, due to the deadly explosive decompression incidents which took place on the needle ship. Additionally, the loss of inertia suppression on the needle ship is having a distinctly negative influence on Alpha and on the flightpath. You can see that from the display. The planet is not flipping about, but the Conestoga is rolling in space. The longer this continues the more difficult it will be to insert the Conestoga into a stable orbit. I am trying to keep the image and cameras stable, but the ship is tumbling about. Alpha must be placed into a stable orbit, and then make planet-fall. I conjecture a near zero possibility of successfully making planet-fall while connected to the needle ship, and only a fifteen percent chance of establishing a stable orbit while connected to the needle ship’s mass.”

  “And if we disconnect?” Monika asked softly. She did not want Jerome or the others to hear. Jerome would understand it the best, and realize the immense danger, but the others would also know something terrible was looming.

  “The sooner disconnection takes place, the higher the potential for a successful insertion into orbit. That potential is diminishing quickly due to the physics which are in place. In simple terms, drop the needle ship immediately, or we die.”

  “Is it really that grave?” Monika asked. Her heart was pounding and her toes were tingly.

  “Yes. I conjecture a far better chance for making orbit and for successful planet-fall if Alpha is jettisoned immediately. I am working on the methods and procedures to make planet-fall, but our fuel situation is grim. No fuel should be wasted on attempting to correct the rolling while Alpha and the needle ship are connected. Decoupling Alpha from the remains of the needle ship is the first step,” Sandie answered. “However, I see no feasible way to do that now.”

  “I have the weapons, microparticle turrets, and repulsors, but not much else.” Monika scanned all the instruments. “It reminds me of a loose carousel figure. A child could fall off, as the loose statue went round-and-round. In those cases, we would stop the carousel, and just replace or remove it.”

  “That is not a bad analogy, however, we have no way to stop the swinging, or as you put it, stop the carousel,” Sandie replied. “Our only hope is to sever the connections, but I cannot figure out a way to do that.”

  Monika again scanned the readouts and displays. The long lists of information about the planet were intriguing, but would be worthless unless control could be regained over the ship. “Sandie, if you cannot disconnect, then are you saying someone needs to physically go to those locations? Could a person manually do that work, somehow? Perhaps use molecular torches on the bolt assemblies? How long would that take? Can we send a legion of automacubes to cut the junctions? What about the lattice or other systems?”

  “A person would not reach the areas in time. I cannot dispatch automacubes at this time, due to the fractures in the nonphysicality. I am rebuilding the nonphysicality as quickly as possible, but that will not be rapidly enough to address this situation. I have just connected to SB Sherman, and that is of
some help, but SB Sherman also lacks the ability to dispatch automacubes in its current mode. SB Sherman also cannot operate the constituent joint mechanisms,” Sandie stated. “Jerome interacted with SB Joseph Crater, but I have yet to reconnect to that system. I do see that the biome still has the sky tube working, so I am assuming that SB Yomaris is still operational, but that is an assumption. I am hopeful for two artificial intelligences to still be functional, but as of yet, I have no observation of their activities. As I stated, I see no feasible manner to make separation between the wrecked needle ship and Alpha. What do I do?”

  Monika’s mind turned and chewed at the problem. Then she looked down at the controls. “Will the Willie Cannons be able to break the connections?” Monika asked. “I have some of those which can fire at areas on the needle ship side of the constituent joints. My father once told me, do not force anything, just get a bigger hammer.” She gulped. “Are the cannons a big enough hammer?”

  “You remind me of Khin, sans the rhymes. That figure of speech was once common, and I have heard it before.” Sandie paused. “I have assessed your suggestion. The weapons are powerful enough, with sustained bursts of fire on the same spot.” Sandie paused again. “There are locations near to the constituent joints, where the permalloy connections are the least strong. Those spots are by no means weak. If those spots were all shattered, simultaneously, at each constituent joint, it might free Alpha from the needle ship. I hesitate to support this, but I know of no other option. The risks are great if you attempt that, but I do conjecture a greater risk of doing nothing.” Sandie paused yet again. “Monika, I warn you, that is the same advice I offered to Captain Eris about the attempt to extinguish the fires. She listened and she died. I honestly am scared of what will happen either way. Time does not allow for much discussion or rumination. Chances of a successful orbital insertion are dropping as we speak.”

  Monika looked at Jerome who was kissing and rubbing noses with baby Kalur while he held Brink. She considered asking him for his opinion, or even just allowing him to make the decision. He was the trained pilot and adventurer. He had all the Dome 17 education, experiences, and advanced technological understanding. Then she tightened her lips, and shook her head. Quietly she spoke to the AI. “Jerome has faced too much already. I will decide this. Show me the targets, and I will attempt to align the weapons. If I cannot get an adequate aim for each, that will decide it for me.”

  A display lit up. A graphic overlay was placed on the constituent joints. Red circles outlined the targeted areas. “Those are the targeted areas. Weapon impacts will need to obliterate the entire structure in each target area. I warn you, there is severe risk in this undertaking.”

  “But worse if nothing is done, correct?” Monika asked in a whisper, only partially rhetorically.

  “Yes. That is my best conjecture. However, I also offered Captain Eris my best conjecture on the plan to extinguish the fires on the needle ship. On several other events, which have happened since I came to the Conestoga, the outcome was not what I expected, and people died. My conjectures are usually accurate, but sometimes the small potentials do happen. In this case the risk is not a mere small potential, but it is less of a risk than doing nothing,” Sandie replied. “Do you want to see the breakdown of percentages for the risks involved?”

  “No. I trust you.” Monika licked her lips, and heard one of her sons, Brink, babbling some cooing sounds. Jerome’s laugh quickly followed.

  Monika spun some dials and aligned the cannon’s targeting systems. The weapon systems lined up. Targets were locked into place. She could fire at each spot outlined on each of the constituent joints. The plan could work, but the decision was left entirely to Monika. She licked her lips, and scrunched her eyes. Then with a deep sigh, she said, “Sandie, if this goes badly, tell Jerome I love him.”

  “I will. However, if this goes as badly, as it did in the fire extinguishing attempt, there may be no one to tell,” Sandie replied. “I wish you the best of luck. Eris would have been praying for your success. Perhaps she still is on some celestial realm.”

  “I will do this, now.” Monika pressed on the control studs and kept the firing active so that the cannons automatically kept up a barrage of high speed projectiles. She zeroed the targets right in the aiming system, and only slightly adjusted them as needed. The job demanded that the constituent joints be hammered away, and as the firing went on, the targeted areas changed slightly.

  As Monika had ordered, on the exterior hull of Alpha, some of the improvised cannons opened fire. White streaks shot forth and it appeared that they instantly connected to the areas on the needle ship side of the constituent joints. Only Monika was in any position to see the white lines as they interlaced from cannon to target. She held her grip on the controls, and the cannons continued to belch out the projectiles, faster than the eye could see. Monika fully expected some kind of explosion, or detonation. Nothing like that was felt in her control chair, but her anxiety expected it at any moment. Her mind wondered, ‘Will the end come in a flash? Or will the air get sucked out and we all suffocate? Or will the cold of space freeze us in a slow death spiral?’ Then her thoughts turned back to Siva, Peter, and Eris. ‘Did they suffer in agony?’ She focused on the readings, and noted the weapons were functioning well.

  At the impact sites, the permalloy of the connections was scratched by the first impact, then dented, then compressed, then fractured, then shattered, then pulverized, then punctured. It happened very quickly. The projectiles which did penetrate passed though the newly opened holes, and impacted into the needle ship’s hull, causing dents, and cavities, and blasting softer metals like titanium, steel, and carbon fibers into space. As more projectiles landed, the openings gaped, until the permalloy structures were obliterated.

  Looking down, Monika noted that several cannons were automatically shutting down from the stress and pressure of continuous firing. Those weapons dropped from her available list, and their symbols faded away.

  All across the constituent joints, just beyond the coupling mechanisms, on the needle ship side, the results of the beatings were becoming visible. Debris and rubble floated, drifted, and jetted away from the impacted locations. It was hard to see if the damage had broken each joint, or if some of them still remained attached.

  Finally, all but two of the cannons involuntarily shut down. Monika kept trying to reengage them, but the weapons were finished. As their symbols faded from her controls, they could not be recovered. The mechanisms on those failing cannons were kaput; circuits were fried out, the barrels were warped, aiming systems had melted, compression chambers were split, or the ammunition material was depleted. When the ammunition material storage was gone, the cannons just shut down. The last two functional cannons had readings which displayed ‘Marginal’ under their operational status. All the other cannons which had been used were inoperative. There were still some cannons on the other sides of Alpha, which had not been involved because their fields of fire could not reach the targets. Monika wondered what good they would do if the Jellies returned. That fear was never far from her thoughts. But she turned her attention to the results of the current operation. The available weapons were nearly all gone.

  “Did it work?” Monika asked. She looked back, and Jerome and the babies were still playing. The others in the room were watching him and the infants. All except Adeilson. Adeilson was standing next to Monika, looking at the displays.

  “I am assessing visual observations, which are my only way of knowing,” Sandie replied. “I am processing what I am seeing.”

  With wide eyes, Adeilson and Monika both watched as the debris fields spread out and revealed the destruction beneath. Permalloy connections were twisted, wrecked, and blasted into shards. The shards stuck up like broken teeth on the carcass of some immense animal.

  The bulk of the ruined needle ship kept slowing moving, but Monika could tell it was moving in a different direction from the tumbling of Alpha. Each constituent joint ha
d been crushed to the point where the habitat was separated from the needle ship.

  “Sandie?” Monika quietly asked.

  Adeilson put a hand on her shoulder. “They part ways now.” He then turned around and walked back to the apartment.

  “Separation has happened,” Sandie replied. “It worked.”

  With exaggerated slowness, the needle ship moved away from alpha. Monika engaged the repulsor fields, and the microparticle turrets. She overrode the safety features and allowed the needle ship to be recognized as a foreign body. While the repulsors, and the microparticle turrets could not damage the permalloy of the needle ship’s hull, they could exert forces against it. That pushed both Alpha and the needle ship further apart. It would be a gradual process, but from what Monika could see Alpha would clear all of the needle ship’s wreckage without collision. The repulsors and microparticle turrets also were shoving the debris and junk away.

  “Sandie? What are our chances?” Monika asked.

  “Significantly improved from a few moments ago. Alpha remains in the grove for insertion into orbit. The needle ship is on its last flight, and will be entering the planet’s upper atmosphere in about seventeen minutes. It will strike the atmosphere with significant kinetic energy and velocity. From the limited information, I have on this planet, I conjecture the needle ship will breakup upon atmospheric entrance. The needle ship was never designed for the capability of making planet-fall. In its severely damaged state, it may not even reach the atmosphere all in one piece. It is not physically shielded for reentry, and while permalloy is very durable and strong, it will not withstand those pressures. It is highly unlikely that any sizable debris will reach the planet’s surface.”