“We are going to an old colony ship,” Gretchen said. “If we can find it. It reportedly will have a functioning ecosystem: people, plants, maybe even animals.”
Paul was unsure if sharing with Daniel was approved, but then he remembered they would be gone soon and perhaps never see him again.
“A colony ship?” Daniel muttered. “I did not expect that. I thought maybe one of the domes on the outer moons had been relocated. Interesting. Does John know about this?”
“I am not sure if the biologist knows or not,” Gretchen replied. “We may try to talk to him, but our time is short.”
“There is no guarantee we will even get there,” Paul added. “And it is a one way trip. No coming back either way.”
“That explains a lot,” Daniel said thoughtfully. “Michael and Jamie were here first, and then came Cammarry and Jerome. Now you two.”
“But we will be setting up a teleportation pad to…” Paul started to say, but then stopped himself.
Daniel was looking intently at them. You could almost see his brain turning over the facts. His eyes were sparkling.
“Might as well tell you,” Gretchen said. “But confidentially. I am not sure who all knows. But this dome is failing. These missions are our only hope.”
“That fits all that I have been seeing: the suicides, the depression, and the hopeless malaise. I knew something big was happening. But I do not want to get you in any trouble, so we are speaking hypothetically, right?” Daniel gave them a wink.
“Sure, hypothetically speaking. If a dome had less than one hundred and twenty days, and there was a chance to teleport to a place which was safe, the people should take that, right?” Paul asked.
“Teleportation? Well, I know Brink is working on that, and that he has teleported intricate machinery and even food rations. He had me run the most complex and thorough tests I have even done on a food ration, down to the subatomic levels. A few days later, he brought back the same food ration and had me repeat the tests. There were no changes at all. I wonder if that food ration was teleported?” Daniel said, again with a grin. “It would be an organic substance to test.”
“Daniel, besides the prophylactic drink, what else do we need? Or are we finished here?” Gretchen asked.
Daniel gave her another big smile. “There is a medical kit that is far exceeding anything you have used before,” Daniel replied. He pulled out two items and placed them in front of the adventurers. They were small rectangular boxes about two fingers thick and roughly hand size. Inside were numerous blue packets, and wires and probes. “These kits are designed to cure any diseases in our database. Even the ones from hundreds of years ago like cancer. Again considering the hypothetical question of going to some ecosystem, the diseases there might be radically different from what we know about here in Dome 17. So assess yourself at the first sign of illness: cough, fever, or diarrhea. Just attach the probes here to your skin and the med kit will run a diagnostic. It will then tailor make treatments for whatever is wrong.”
“Thanks,” Paul said. “There appears to be a dispenser and analyzer, is that correct?”
“Right. The kit will fully assess your conditions, I mean the hypothetical person we are talking about,” he winked at Gretchen again. “And then dispense custom made medications. Sort of your own apothecary. But in an urgent situation, use the generic blue gels. They should treat most anything you encounter. Then a few minutes later, connect up the analyzer and let it make a diagnosis.”
“Thank you Daniel,” Paul said as he took his med kit. Gretchen took hers as well.
“I hope to see you again!” Daniel said. “Maybe I will step though and smell some flowers with you? John has shown me some recordings of flowers. They are beautiful and he says they smell amazing, but he has never smelled one either. So I look forward to seeing you again.”
Gretchen looked Daniel in the eyes and said, “If not with us, I hope you will be there soon with whatever team.”
Daniel’s smile widened. “I will chart that you have received all the necessary items for this mission. That seems general enough to cover all the hypothetical cases we discussed.”
The left the Medical Unit and walked toward the Quartermaster’s location.
“Daniel seems to know even more than he is saying,” Paul commented.
“I think he is saying more than he should, perhaps because Doctor Carolyn was not there, and because he has a crush on me,” Gretchen answered.
“He has good taste,” Paul replied.
The quartermaster’s location was near the sling bay. They stopped at the door, but no artificial intelligence system asked then anything.
After a few moments, Paul rapped his knuckles against the door.
“Come in Paul and Gretchen!” The Quartermaster called from inside.
They opened the door manually and entered.
“Why is the door broken?” Paul asked.
“It is not broken,” replied Willie the Quartermaster. “I turned it off on purpose.”
“Why?” Gretchen asked.
“Well, you see sweetheart, I was thinking. The last two teams that were here asked me questions about what they were getting into. Especially that Cammarry, she asked a lot of really good questions. So I thought and thought. What if the colony ship’s power systems are down, or disrupted? So I shut off the door’s power. It got you to ask about it, right?”
“Yes, it did,” Gretchen said and looked closely at Willie.
He was an odd and unkempt man, with unusual eyes. One eye looked one direction while the other looked in a different direction. His left arm hung stiff and disabled in a tan sling.
“Willie? Do you know something more about the colony ships?” Paul asked. “Has there been more information come back from the probes?”
“I know machines, my friend. I know machines. And machines breakdown, yes they do. Human bodies break down too.” He patted the arm in the sling. “Have you seen Doctor Carolyn yet?”
“Yes, we were at medical, why?” Gretchen answered.
“Well let me just say that the human body is a fine machine, but it takes maintenance and upkeep. It also sometimes cannot be repaired like you want. I suppose our good doc gave you a medical kit?”
“Actually Daniel gave us the treatment and medical kits we needed,” Paul stated.
“Yes, young Daniel is a good boy. He has a right smart brain he does. In a way he reminds me of me. He looks at bodies the way I look at machines. It took him the longest time to accept that my arm will never work again. Even though I was injured before he was in the extracorporeal womb, my arm had been mangled, but that Daniel wanted to run tests, so I let him. He finally accepted that it will never work. He suggested amputation and regeneration, but that is not for me.” Willie looked at Gretchen with one of his eyes, but he also seemed to be looking at Paul. “Sweetheart, I need to get you all outfitted for this mission of yours.”
“So Willie, what do we need?” Gretchen asked with a smile.
“You will need a lot of good luck!” Willie laughed a bit, but it came out as a wheezy and nasally whine. “First, Brink has already got the equipment for his teleportation gizmo set up and stored in that scout ship. I have seen it work. Impressive. Brink does good work.”
“You have seen the teleportation work?” Paul asked.
“Of course. If I did not believe in it, would I be helping you two and the others to try this plan? You will each have two fusion packs. Those might be the most important thing you take. Well, that and the data sticks and readers. You will have those as well. A single fusion pack will power the teleportation receiving pad. But you will have four fusion packs, so as to be redundant and safe. Your RAM suits should protect you from any possible radiation in those old ships. They work here on this dead world; they will work where you are going. You have food rations for ten days, including water. Then there are the grippers, grabbers, cutters, metal melting and welding flames, molecular torch, utility tools, and whatever o
ther stuff I thought you might need and which fit under Brink’s mass limit restriction. It is all in the backpacks, with the fusion packs.” He pointed to the backpacks.
“Thanks Willie, that is great,” Paul said. He was impressed with the ability Willie had to get so much stuff into a single backpack which was not too heavy to carry.
“Hold on now,” Willie said. “That is not all. How will you defend yourself? You are aware there might be some kinds of threats on the colony ships, right? Humans can be right nasty to each other, and if there are animals in those places, so of them will want to eat you.”
Paul thought about what he had seen in Dome 3 and his eagerness was greatly diminished. Willie noted the crestfallen look on Paul’s face.
“Not to worry. Better to have something and never need it, than to need it and not have it. I am not leaving you undefended. I designed a weapon for each of you,” Willie pulled them out. “When Jamie was here, that spunky girl called them Willie Wackers, but then when I said that to Cammarry she objected. Cammarry said that name was indecent.” Willie laughed. “I think it was in Cammarry’s pretty head where the indecent thoughts came from, but anyway. Here are the weapons I designed for you.” He handed one each to Gretchen and Paul.
“How does it work?” Paul asked.
“This is a high velocity projectile weapon. This is powered by the fusion packs, and makes its own ammunition. Just load any substance into the chamber here,” He opened the top of the brownish colored permalloy and ceramic weapon, “The weapon compresses the materials into nuggets, perfectly round, which shoot out this end.” He pointed to the muzzle hole.
“I figured that was where they came out,” Gretchen teased Willie back.
“You sight down the barrel between these three points. Easy. Just aim and fire. You will get probably about a hundred projectiles out of a full chamber of materials. It will charge constantly while in the holster. This weapon will stop anything which threatens you. If used against permalloy it will punch a hole in it with repeated blasts, so be careful. The selector here,” he pointed to a lever by the trigger, “You can alter it for velocity intensity: low, medium, and high. So be careful with your Willie Wackers.”
“Jamie called them that?” Paul said Jamie’s name with contempt.
“Well, we discussed that name, yes.” Willie had noted the tone Paul used for Jamie.
“Is there a better name?” Paul asked.
“A generic name would be a pistol. While I reviewed the old records on weapons a company named Daisy caught my eye. Maybe call it a Daisy or a projectile pistol, or PP?” Willie laughed. “I do not care what you call it. Jerome was going to call his a blaster.”
“Thanks for the pistols,” Paul said as he strapped it around his waist in its holster.
“Yes, thanks Willie for all the supplies. I think we need to get to the sling bay for launch,” Gretchen said.
“You find me a home to go to,” Willie said. “Make it a nice one! And good luck to you both!”
8 The Third sling launch
The sling launch bay was a bustle of activity. The team of technicians working for the Chief Engineer Brink was resetting the launch for the third time. One technician came and took all the supplies, backpacks, pistols and everything and carried them over to be carefully loaded into the FTL scout ship. She also directed Paul and Gretchen to a room where they could put on their RAM clothing for the mission.
After changing into the suits, they stepped out and found the Committee members waiting for them. Muriel, Lorna, and Jubal all were standing there looking at Paul and Gretchen.
“We are here to wish you the very best.” Muriel stated.
Lorna gave each of them a warm hug.
Jubal said to them, “This is an important day, and your bravery will never be forgotten. We have had two successful launches, and are looking forward to this being another one.”
“I think we are ready,” Gretchen stated.
“We have asked the other two teams already, and we will ask you the same thing. While this is very important, and the dome is depending on these missions, I remind you, there is no way to get you back, should something happen. You enter this FTL ship, and you are beyond coming back. Yes, you can contact us via the FTL communications, we hope, but we will not be able to come to you in space. Only after the teleportation receiving pad is installed will we be able to come to your location. And you cannot reverse that process. The teleportation will only go from here to you. So we want to ask you to confirm your decision to go. Do you still wish to continue?” Jubal asked in utter seriousness.
“I went to Dome 3, and survived that,” Paul said bluntly. “In a way, I am doing this for Karen as well as everyone else. The people need hope. So I am going.”
“Me too,” Gretchen said. She slipped her arm around Paul.
“Jamie and Michael left for the Eschaton,” Lorna said. “And the other ships have now all been selected by teams. The scheduled launches will proceed over the next day.”
“Jerome and Cammarry volunteered for the Conestoga and were the second launch.” Muriel stated. “We have not asked why any of the teams selected their specific target ships. We just wish success to each of the teams.”
“How can each team be successful?” Paul asked bluntly. “Only one teleportation pad can be established, right? So in a way, this comes down to a race. The first team to set up the pad and connect to here wins, right?”
The Committee members looked hard at each other. After a moment Muriel said, “We wish luck and success to each team. We do not want to lose anyone, because, while it is true only one team can set up the teleportation pad, we sincerely hope each team finds a safe home, even if only for that couple.”
“What happens if two teams set up a teleportation receiving pad at the same time?” Gretchen asked.
The Chief Engineer Brink had been watching them from his control station. He walked over to answer that question. “There is virtually no chance of an instantaneous setup and connection from two or more sources. The first teleportation pad that is operational will be linked and locked into place. So you are correct there can be only one.”
“That makes sense,” Gretchen responded.
Brink continued, “I seriously desired to establish multiple teleportation sending units, but the array necessary to safely penetrate the ruined atmosphere of Earth is too large and complex for that. If we had more time, I would have built seven separate arrays, but we did not have that amount of time.” Brink was a tall man with a quiet voice. He tended to listen more than speak, but when he explained things he often was very detailed without being arrogant. He loved mathematics and had designed the faster-than-light travel and teleportation theories from mathematical formula. He worked diligently to bring the theories into real life applications.
“I have prepared your departure. You are the third launch. Did you get to medical? And Willie? And talk to John?” Brink asked.
“We did not get to see John the teacher. Is that a major problem?”
“Jamie and Michael had a good discussion with John about biological systems. I thought you would have taken that opportunity as well. But no matter. We do not have time for you to go and do that now. I must orient you to the operating systems.” Brink turned and walked toward the scout ship.
“So we go now, or not at all?” Paul asked.
“If we miss the launch time, we would abort that mission, remove that scout ship from the sling, then proceed on schedule with launches four through seven. I would have to recalculate the sling for another launch. Copernicus?”
“Yes, Brink,” his personal artificial intelligence system answered by appearing at his side as a three dimensional display.
“How long would it take to abort mission three and reschedule?” Brink asked.
Copernicus answered, “Removal of the scout ship would take thirty-five minutes, reprogramming would take an additional twenty minutes, and then replacement of the scout into the sling would requi
re thirty-five minutes again.”
“Brink, we are not aborting the mission,” Paul stated. “I guess I was just curious.”
“Each of the new generation artificial intelligences are designed specifically for these missions.” Speaking about the artificial intelligence systems, Brink beamed. “We have already had two perfect launches, and those AIs functioned flawlessly. These are the newest and most advanced AIs we have ever produced. No offense intended, Copernicus.”
“None taken, Brink. Your comment is accurate. The artificial intelligence systems installed for the faster-than-light scout missions are indeed the best ever produced. Do you want to hear a comparison between their abilities and my own?”
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 8
