Finding the Vanguard
Book 1: Colony Ship Vanguard
John Thornton
Copyright © 2014 John Thornton
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1495966361
ISBN-10: 1495966364
DEDICATION
To my wife and wonderful children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Cover art by Dedefox
Table of Contents
1 Dome 3
2 Home inside dome 17
3 Committee meeting one
4 Discussion, to go or to really go?
5 Second committee meeting
6 Volunteers for the vanguard
7 Preparations
8 The Third sling launch
9 Escape Velocity
10 Faster-than-light transit
11 Just a little more from the thrusters
12 A hull is thicker than water
13 Corridors
14 A maze of places
15 Cold as ice
16 Grandpa Gari
17 Flight and rescue?
18 Out of the cold and into the fire?
19 Free rangers verses the Roe
20 Lost in the darkness
21 Trust or hopeless?
22 Broken elevator
23 Making a connection
24 Epilogue
1 Dome 3
Paul adjusted his goggles over his dry eyes, causing some caked dust to fall past his mask. His hat was pulled down and provided only some limited measure of protection against the ever blowing dust. The more important factor was that the hat, gloves, goggles, mask, boots, and suit he wore were all manufactured with inter-woven radiation absorbing materials. RAM clothing alone saved him from the death which was all around him, and lingering over the entire world. Only by having that clothing, which in a way formed an invisible bubble around him, was he able to go anywhere away from home. He still needed to protect his eyes, nose, mouth, and lungs from the dust, but each dust particle was stripped of its radioactive lethality by the RAM clothing. Nonetheless, Paul despised the dust.
In the dim and tan colored light, he waved to the other two adventurers who were with him. Each of them had nearly identical RAM clothing. All three were on the tan plain with swirling dust around them. The wind whipped past their vehicle, a transport affectionately known to the adventurers as a fusion truck. They had gotten out of the fusion powered all-terrain vehicle when they reached what they hoped was their target. The tracks it left with its enormous four wheels were already filling in with dust. The vehicle’s cabin did not allow for removal of the suits, but was some shelter from the wind and the ubiquitous tan dust.
The large dome they had reached was impossible to miss. Even in the dust and wind it towered in front of the three adventurers. However, which specific dome they had found was yet to be determined. Paul walked over to the side of the dome, and placed a gloved hand against the permalloy. It was hard, smooth, and covered in dust, but had no other discernable characteristics. Permalloy was the hardest substance ever manufactured and its invention had made the domes possible. But that was long ago. He scraped away a thick accumulation of dust and then attached a pad and cable to the permalloy. The cable was connected into his recording and sensing equipment. He flipped the cover off the pouch on his belt which held sealed instruments in a clear permalloy box. All that showed were red lights. The instruments proved there was no power registering in the permalloy, at least not within his scanning range. He shook his head negative so the others could see. They walked back to the vehicle and climbed in, sealed the doors, and hooked cables to each other’s suits.
“This is the fourth stop on this dome’s perimeter with no energy readings at all,” Paul said. His companions could now hear him. They could also respond now that they were physically connected to each other by the cables.
“We can assume it is pretty much dead, right?” One of the other adventurers said. She had a silky smooth voice.
“Karen, that is premature. We have only circled about a third of the way around. We have not even gotten to an entryway yet. We need to get inside,” the third adventurer said with enthusiasm and spunk in her voice.
“Jamie, I think Karen is probably correct. This dome is dead. If a third of its exterior is not showing any power the whole place is lost.” Paul commented. He started up the fusion truck and maneuvered it to continue following the circular sides of the dome. “And all the other domes, all of them have been dead. Why should this one be any different?”
“Paul, they are all different. Yes, so far the other domes have all failed, but we are here to find out why. I was selected to lead this team to learn why, not quit so easy. Our dome has not failed. It cannot be the last one, right? We are here to learn the cause of those failures, not just to confirm these domes are out of commission. Dome 17 needs as much information as possible so we can all survive as long as possible. Besides, there could still be people alive. They could have retreated and sealed a secure secondary area. We will not know until we get inside.”
“I think it is a waste of time. I say we head back now,” Paul stated. “The fusion truck’s data stick will just exactly reverse our course, and then Dome 17 here we come.”
“I want to get inside here. This is exciting, it is what being an adventurer is all about,” Jamie said with eagerness.
“So again, Jamie, you and I disagree. Karen your decision will dictate our fate,” Paul stated flatly.
“Jamie does make a point about learning the cause. I do agree with you Paul, this dome is dead. What we do not know is why. So we try to find a hatch or door or airlock to get inside,” Karen said with resignation.
The fusion truck followed the circumference of dome and finally came upon what looked like some kind of place for entry. It was a projection outward of about four meters. It was eight meters high and a similar amount wide.
“See, there is our way inside,” Jamie said and pointed past the clear permalloy window.
“If there is an inside,” Paul commented, but only Karen heard him. Jamie had already disconnected her cable and was heading out the door. “Karen, that woman is excessively energetic and impulsive. Besides, even if, on the remote chance someone is alive inside there, they would never let us in.”
“Paul, of course they would not let us in. Jamie knows that, but they might answer some questions, and through the cable pads on the exterior we could speak to them,” Karen replied. “If anyone is alive here, which you and I both doubt. But let Jamie blow off some energy, who knows, maybe one day that will save us all.”
“Not likely. And you cannot speak to someone in this dome if they are all dead,” Paul stated and then disconnected the cable linking him to Karen. They both climbed out of the big vehicle and stepped down into the loose dust on the ground.
Jamie had reached the entryway. There was a huge square-shaped door, with a drift of dust piled waste high against it. The dust was easily kicked away, and Jamie plowed a path up to the door. The dust she kicked up swirled around in the winds. Paul watched as she did a sensor reading, but she then also connected a fusion pack cable into a part of the door’s frame. One side of the door opened with a grinding whine which was heard over the winds and even through the protective clothing. It was a bone shuddering and eerie sound.
Jamie turned back and gave the other two a thumbs-up as she disappeared inside of the dome. Karen followed.
“Oh great, she found a way inside. That woman is just too energetic,” Paul commented. Since the personnel communication signals could not pene
trated the dust, wind, and radiation outside of the dome, only he heard what he said. “This place is dead, and there is nothing more to learn here.”
Paul made it to the half open door, and followed Karen and Jamie inside. Jamie was already working on the next door, which was about three meters away. The outer room appeared to be a decontamination chamber of some kind, but it had obviously not been used for ages. There were cracked pipes along one wall with what might have once had antiseptic foams inside. Now the remains of those antiseptics were but caked and dried out streaks down the permalloy wall. The pipes themselves had cracked and shattered in a multitude of places, probably due to the excessive heat. Paul checked his belt pouch and the instruments read 53.6c for the temperature around them. Luckily their suits could handle that and more. So far nothing in the chamber indicated that this dome had any radiation absorbing material technology. There were two old-style environmental suits on the wall. One had a broken face plate, and the other was ripped down a shoulder. The old environmental suits hanging there were not on par with the technological levels on Dome 17. Environmental suits were all replaced by RAM clothing, at least in Dome 17.
There were also several vehicles in the chamber, but they too looked long neglected. One had wheels missing, and another had the drive train disassembled. The lufi amalgam batteries were laying scattered in a heap behind the parts of the drive train. “No fusion packs? But where would they go anyway?” Paul muttered to himself. “If they came to Dome 17 none of us would let them in.”
Karen was standing to the side watching Jamie as she connected the fusion pack into the secondary door. There was a loud hissing sound and the outer door snapped shut. That cut off the tan light which had been coming in through the opening. Jamie quickly snapped the fusion pack light on.
Karen walked over and tapped Jamie who looked up. Karen motioned about the exterior door and Jamie just shrugged and went back to work on the interior door. A few moments later, that interior door lowered about half way into the floor and stayed there. There was some dim light coming from inside the dome. That light was tan colored. Jamie stepped though and into the dome itself.
Karen followed, and Paul brought up the rear. He worried about the external door, but felt he had to follow along. They entered a dimly lit area just beyond the second door. Dust was floating around in the light from the fusion pack.
Paul looked at Karen and tapped the side of his head. “Karen, can you hear me?”
A scratchy response was heard, “Yes. So this dome still seems to filter some of the junk in the atmosphere. The communications will work here, but no telling how much range there would be. At least we can talk if we stay close together.”
“Does she know that?” Paul asked and pointed at Jamie who was walking ahead of them.
“Yes, I know. I can easily hear you both,” Jamie responded. “I put on the communication system as soon as we got inside. Even an unpowered permalloy dome will block some of the interference. From the heat, obviously this dome is breached somewhere, but now we just look for what happened. First, we see that they only had a two stage system for entry. That is very sloppy and unsafe. Not nearly enough redundancy. They may have had a failure only in this section just due to this door. Maybe another part of this dome is still operational?”
“They died,” Paul replied. “Once an exterior dome breech happened, everyone died.”
“Maybe, unless they had section bulkheads to shut down. They could have compartmentalized their survival plan. Perhaps an underground protected area? We need more information. We need to discover what happened? Why is the question we want to answer. Why did this dome fail? It has been nearly a hundred years since these domes were built, and decades since contact between them was lost. Why did this dome fail, while Dome 17 has kept going?” Jamie asked as she looked around.
“Just lucky? Or maybe it is our weather?” Paul said sarcastically. “Can you reopen that exterior door out there? No one wants to get trapped in here. Especially due to jumping into some worthless quest for trivial details.”
“No worries, I can get that open easily,” Jamie retorted. “No need to get all huffy about it. There is nothing trivial about survival.”
Before Paul could offer his response, Karen interjected, “You two ever get tired of bickering? I do. Look, the clear permalloy on that wall seems intact. The radiation levels are way past safe here, but only about a third of what is outside.” Looking out, all she could see was a tan swirling nothingness.
“So now we just find one of their data sticks, or an AI and power it up and get our answers,” Jamie was marching off to explore.
“Dead is still dead,” Paul remarked as he followed along.
The hall with the wall of clear permalloy was short and opened into a large gathering place. There were tables and chairs and a few counters. They were haphazardly arranged and tipped over. Some were broken into pieces. Sections of the wall overhead had large squares of clear permalloy which allowed the tan light to creep into the area in diffuse dimness and dust.
“This is not big enough to be their cafetorium, so it must be a secondary dining facility. Maybe there will be an AI in the food prep area,” Jamie said as she walked toward some doors. The light coming in from the clear permalloy was not bright enough for effective visibility, so she kept the light from the fusion pack in front of her.
“Maybe if we connect into their main systems, we can find some records,” Karen suggested. “If we could access their artificial intelligence systems, or even some old computerized main frame we could learn a lot more.”
Paul moved a few chairs around and picked up a booklet which was lying on the floor. It was smudged with some brown stains but still legible. “I know which dome we found. This is Dome 3, like we anticipated.”
“You doubted we would find where we were going?” Jamie said with a smug edge to her voice.
“Just double checking and making sure,” Paul replied. “According to the booklet here, they had shifts coming here for meals. It looks like a duty roster of some kind, but the date seems to be about fifteen years ago. Is that when the failure happened?”
“Fifteen years?” Karen said. “Yes, that fits. This place has been gone at least that long, from the dust that is settled here. But if the dome is breeched in a big way, the dust could go anywhere.”
Jamie tried to open one of the doors from the dining area, but it was jammed. She stepped back and gave it a swift kick, and the door flew open slamming on the hinges. “Well, that was not too hard.” She said.
“When in doubt, just force it about. Right Jamie?” Paul sneered.
“When needed, force is an excellent tool,” Jamie responded glibly. She entered the room beyond the door.
“You two need to settle it down. You are both annoying me,” Karen interceded. “Can we power up anything here?” She pointed at the dimness in a vague manner.
Beyond the now open door the areas were in deeper shadows and it was hard to make out what was ahead. Even the light from the fusion pack did not pierce the dust filled air very well. Jamie stepped forward and was obscured by the dust and dimness. Every step brought up a new puff of dust.
Karen cautiously followed along, and tried to shine her own fusion pack beam toward where she thought Jamie was, but could not find her. “Jamie! Stay close or we might lose audio. Visual is already poor.”
“No worries,” Jamie replied flippantly. “I can always home back on Paul’s melancholy. That can be found anywhere.”
“Glad to be of help,” Paul commented with contempt as he stepped into the murky area. With his fusion pack adding light to the other two, the area was revealed as a sort of kitchen of some kind, but only a small part was observable.
“You both are bothersome. You could try to be nice to each other. I am so sick and tired to being a referee to you people!” Karen snapped.
“They do not use fusion packs,” Jamie said from the darkness ahead. “But I am overriding into their old style s
ystem. My fusion pack should power up some of the equipment in here.”
A slight flickering of light came from overhead, and more dust fell from the ceiling. That revealed more about their location. Jamie was at the far wall and she had opened a conduit to get at the wiring and circuits inside. The fusion pack was connected to it by cables and splices. The lights flickered some more, then dimmed. A deep mechanical cough came from somewhere and that echoed through the room. Dust belched out of some vents and that obscured viewing even more, and coated everything with yet another layer of tan. After several moments, the lights finally overcame their feeble flickering and shined down to more fully illuminate the room. Air circulated, and the dust was blown about.
“That will charge these old systems for a while, but I am not sure how long it will last. Dome 17 modernized beyond this stuff over twenty years ago,” Jamie commented.
There were steel platters stacked on one side, with holders for utensils. Along one wall was a chain driven system of pulleys suspended from the ceiling with empty hooks hanging down from them. There was a countertop running beneath that system. Along the countertop were misshapen lumpy items covered over with dust. Karen walked over to examine the countertop and the rows of lumps.
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