The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle

by John Thornton

  “Yes, I understand. But did you hear my question? We are not from the Vanguard. We need your help. Fifteen hundred people’s lives are at stake. Who do I speak to about getting help?” Gretchen insisted.

  “Yes, I heard your question. I am analyzing it for a response. Your question is deemed an equivocation, perhaps a delusion, or a diversion of some type. Please extend your arm so that samples may be taken.” The arm mechanism of the automacube was waiting with an air of impatience.

  Gretchen extended her arm. As the automacube was taking the samples, she again asked her question. “Who do we speak to regarding getting assistance? We came here from Earth; our people back in Dome 17 are in danger. We must set up a teleportation receiving pad as quickly as possible. Please allow me to speak to one of your supervisors or someone in authority.”

  The automacube finished taking the samples. It rolled back a few meters and then paused. “The presuppositions to your inquiry are illogical, impossible, and irrational. There is no location on the Vanguard called Dome 17. No one can come from the Earth to the Vanguard. Teleportation is a fictional technology. Assessment wise, your bodily functions do not show any evidence of deception, therefore I conclude you are delusional. The samples taken will be analyzed for biological components of your delusion. Appropriate referrals to mental hygiene will be made.”

  Gretchen was stunned. Paul then spoke, “What Gretchen stated was completely the truth. The Chief Engineer of Dome 17 discovered breakthroughs in faster-than-light transportation as well as teleportation. It has been over 100 years since the Vanguard left the Earth. Our technology evolved and advanced. That is how we arrived here. Our goal is only to find a safe place for our people. That is all because Dome 17 is failing. We must save our people. At least let us speak to someone in authority.”

  “You both share the same delusional thinking. Perhaps that is from a shared mythology in your family of origins. You may have been raised in a remote part of the Vanguard which has degenerated into tribal myths and legends. You may have been taught delusional ideas as children and have incorporated them into your worldview. That would explain your expounding these nonsense notions without physical signs of deception. As to scientific evolution: exceeding the speed of light is a scientific impossibility, teleportation is a fictional technology. Therefore, your statements are not factual, be they delusions or deliberate lying remains to be revealed. There are training methods by which a skilled operator can mask physical signs of lying. So that is also a possibility,” Doctor 147 stated. “Thank you for your cooperation. The results from the samples will be communicated directly to Constable Larissa.” The display screen on the automacube went blank and the machine rolled out of the holding cell area.

  “How does it feel to be delusional?” Paul asked sarcastically.

  “I thought maybe being a medical type program that machine would be willing to assist us. Does Tiffany have any suggestions?” Gretchen asked.

  Just as Paul was placing the communication link back on his ear, there came a clamor and commotion of yelling and screaming. There were loud reports and other sounds of some kind of turmoil happening.

  A figure in an insulated blue jumpsuit, which included heavy boots and a thick hood, sprinted into the holding cell area. She called out to Gretchen and Paul, “Get to the back of the cell while I cut open the bars!”

  Gretchen and Paul did as instructed. The woman in the blue jumpsuit took a small cutting torch to the doors, the hinges glowed bright red and then melted part.

  “I am Brinley,” she said. “Our unit of the Free Rangers is here to rescue you. This is your lucky day! Quickly, we must flee. The stun grenades will only last for a short time.”

  18 out of the cold and into the fire?

  Paul and Gretchen stared at the woman who had just cut the steel cages open. She pulled her hood back and revealed she had long light brown hair and large expressive hazel eyes. “See, those cages cannot stand against my work!”

  Another person in a blue jumpsuit ran into the holding cell area, and threw two bundled blue jumpsuits toward Brinley.

  “Thanks Jared,” Brinley stated with a huge grin. “I wonder if these two were sedated by the automacube. They seem rather sluggish in their responses.”

  Jared replied, “It does not matter if they were sedated or not. We are here to get them out. Get them dressed for outside. We are leaving.” He spoke with a deep full voice and was clearly in command of the situation. He retreated back into the hallway.

  Paul grabbed one of the bundled jumpsuits and tried to unfold it. Gretchen followed his example, but she too was unfamiliar with the clothing.

  “Hurry,” Brinley said. “Let me help you. We have transportation outside. But the Constable’s other troops will be gathering and we do not want to be here when they do.” She grabbed one of the bundles, expertly unfolded it, and showed Paul how to slip it on. “Come on, you act like you have never seen this stuff before. You must have gotten a wallop of sedation. Snap out of it!”

  The material was thin but warm and was a full body suit, including gloves, hood, and insulated covers for their shoes. Brinley then helped Gretchen. Moments later they were leaving the holding cell area, indistinguishable from each other. Brinley leading and guiding, Paul and Gretchen hesitantly going along.

  “The disorientation will fade as the sedation wears off. Do not worry, Brinley is here to help!” Her enthusiasm was extreme.

  Paul still have communication link over his ear, but the hood of the jumpsuit hid that. “Tiffany? Are you observing this?” Paul whispered.

  “Yes Paul, I suggest extreme caution. The violence demonstrated by the Constable is a proven threat. However these people’s motives and actions are unknown.” The AI Tiffany responded.

  “Stop mumbling and get moving,” Brinley said. She gently pulled on Paul’s shoulder. “And my name is Brinley, not Tiffany! Do not forget it!” She winked at Paul.

  Several of the guards were laid out on the floor unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. The front room showed signs of minor explosions, but there was no fire or serious damage.

  Just before they left the building Gretchen remembered their equipment. “We cannot leave our supplies. Where would they be?”

  “The Constable would have anything of value in her office,” Brinley responded. “However the stun grenades are probably wearing off. We need to leave now!”

  Gretchen ran into the Constable’s office. The Constable was stretched out on the floor, with her weapon in hand. The bag of equipment was in the corner and Gretchen grabbed it and started to leave the office. The white automacube rolled out. The mechanical voice said, “There are very unusual findings in your samples. I have found evidence of regeneration of tissues consistent with treatment by our doctors, but no record of your genetics on file anywhere. I need to do further study, to assess if you were telling the truth or not. There is some doubt as to your origin on the Vanguard.”

  Gretchen vaulted over the automacube, and into the hallway. Just that she did she heard a weak voice coming from the office. “Halt!” Constable Larissa said groggily. There were three quick reports, and bullets slammed into the wall just over Gretchen’s head. Gretchen ducked and leaped away. The automacube still calling for her to wait and be examined.

  Brinley had opened the front door, and a gust of cold air struck them as they jumped into the frigid outdoor weather. There was an unusual sight sitting there in the snow. It was another sleigh of sorts, except much narrower and lower to the ground than the one pulled by the poitevin donkeys. These new animals were totally different. These eight animals were harnessed to the sleigh, but were only knee high, with four legs, bushy upward turned tails, and pointed snouts. They had thick gray and white fur.

  “I destroyed their skis,” a woman said from the sleigh. “But I am sure they have more. We can out run them if we leave soon. The dogs are eager to go.”

  Jared directed Gretchen and Paul where to sit on the skinny sled. Gretchen held tig
htly to their sack of equipment. Brinley used her torch to melt the handle of the door to the building’s frame. It sealed the door with an ugly lump of slag.

  “Brinley, we are leaving. Irene get us out of here!” Jared said as he settled onto the sled in front of Gretchen and Paul. Brinley ran quickly and jumped onto the sled just as the dogs bolted to their feet and rushed away jerking the sled after them. Irene stood at the back of the sled and directed the dogs, who were making excited yapping and barking noises.

  The sky tube far overhead was bright and the snow was sparkling. The wind was blowing forcefully, however sounds of gunfire came from the building they had just left. Irene signaled the dogs and they ran with even greater speed as the sled raced the way.

  “I left a little surprise for our friends back there,” Jared said as he pulled a small device from his pocket. He pushed the red button on the device, and there was a loud explosion. Gretchen looked back and could see that the explosion did not do any damage but there was now a thick black smoke being carried on the wind directly toward the Constable’s building.

  “Good job Jared!” Brinley said from her seat. “That will mix them up and make it hard to see where we are heading.”

  “Especially since I am turning us a different way now,” Irene said. The sled slid off on a new trajectory, the dogs running furiously, yipping and yapping at each other.

  Paul was amazed as he watched the dogs pulling the sled. Having never seen animals before coming to the Vanguard, these were intriguing to him. He wondered if all transportation in this habitat was by animal. The dogsled was certainly faster than the way they had come to this place, but even Paul could tell that the sled was almost overburdened. He also had no idea of their destination. He wondered if he had exchanged one cage, a warm one inside, for a different kind of cage out in the frozen wilderness.

  He whispered to Tiffany, “Can we trust these people?”

  The AI Tiffany responded through the ear piece of the communication system, “Paul, that is an excellent question. My observations are as follows: Constable Larissa was a direct threat. That was proven. These Free Rangers had ample opportunity to kill but did not. Conjectures indicate you and Gretchen are probably safer in their company then you were in the company of Constable Larissa and those authorities. However, the social dynamics here are virtually unknown. I am comparing my observations with known historical examples of socioeconomic political systems in order to make conjectures. Paul, you are currently moving away from the other communication link. That is where the equipment for the teleportation pad is located.”

  “I was afraid of that. But we have no choice right now where we are going,” Paul whispered.

  The dogsled traveled rapidly through the snow, but Gretchen and Paul both could feel the cold seeping in, even around their insulated jumpsuits. They had entered a wooded part of the habitat where large cone shaped dark green trees were growing. Many of the tree branches were covered with snow or with ice. Being under the trees Paul lost sight of the sky tube.

  The trees became thicker and closer together as they traveled. It was still white around them, but a gloomy sort of white. The snows seem to be captured more in the canopy of the trees and less on the ground underneath them. They continued until the sled was no long being pulled over snow. Snow was still in the dense canopy of the trees, but some kind of rusty brown colored little sticks covered the entire ground under the trees. The sled slowed down as it did not slide as easily over the tiny brown sticks as it had over the snow.

  Irene stopped the dogsled. Jared and Brinley climbed off. Jared called to Gretchen and Paul, “Ready to get out of this frozen place?”

  Gretchen replied, “Where are we going?”

  “This was the closest exit from E Habitat. We will need to work our way through the corridors to get to a hangar bay. What unit of the Free Rangers are you from?” Jared asked.

  Before Gretchen or Paul could answer, Irene interjected, “I am releasing the dogs from their harnesses. They will know their way back to their ranch. The rancher will probably report them as stolen by us, and I doubt he will find his sled until spring, but such magnificent animals deserve to be sent home.” Irene was unhooking the dogs from the harnesses. The dogs seemed affectionate toward her, and she rubbed them with her gloved hands.

  “Excellent,” Jared replied. “Brinley you can get that door open right?”

  Brinley was already heading away from the sled, she yelled back, “I have yet to meet a door I cannot open. There is no place on the ship I cannot get into or out of.” She gave Jared a wave with her hand and her thumb was upward.

  Paul and Gretchen climbed off the sled and watched as Irene rubbed the dog’s heads as they played around her feet and nuzzled her with their noses. There was genuine affection being shown between Irene and animals. The dogs seemed in no hurry to depart, even though they were free from the harnesses.

  “Come on. The exit is right this way,” Jared instructed. He pointed his gloved hand toward where Brinley had headed. Paul and Gretchen walked that way and stepped back into snow as they left the forest. Looking to the right and to the left they could see for an immense distance in both directions. The forest came to an abrupt halt nearly in a straight line in both directions. A good distance down the tree line, there was an animal, of a totally different type, standing just outside of the trees. It had long thin legs, a dark brown colored body, and a head with horns that branched into many spikes. Gretchen and Paul stared in awe at the animal which seemed to be looking back at them. Suddenly, it bounded away quickly through the snow and back under the cover of the trees.

  “You look as if you have never seen a stag before,” Jared said.

  Gretchen was about to agree, but then refrained from answering.

  Ahead of them, about 20 meters away, Brinley was standing before a doorway. The doorway was set into a wall which went as high as their eyes could see arching way overhead all the way to the sky. The wall was made from permalloy and they both recognized this was the outer wall of this habitat. It reminded them of where they had entered via the elevator, but neither had any idea where the elevator was located in relation to their current location. They all walked over to where Brinley was working on the door.

  In fluorescent yellow letters there was stenciled across the door the words, “Quarantine do not enter. Death awaits.”

  “Brinley, we need to leave. Get that door open,” Jared ordered.

  “The permalloy here was welded together, and the ship’s power diverted. This door has not been open since the outbreak. I can easily cut the seams free but we are going to have to pry the door open enough to get through, since there is no power here,” Brinley stated. “Also the Roe are probably pretty concentrated behind here. They usually congregate in places that have not been opened for a while.”

  Gretchen, carrying the sack of their equipment walked over and examined the door. She pulled a fusion pack from the sack and connected it into a port near the door. Blue lighting flickered to life around the frame of the door. “The fusion pack should allow us to open that door, if you cut the seams open. We can reconnect it from the other side and shut this door, if that was your plan?” Gretchen asked.

  “Wow! That is super!” Brinley said with a wide smile.

  “Fusion pack?” Jared asked with puzzlement in his voice.

  Paul placed his hand on Jared’s shoulder and said to him, “We will explain it all, but can we get out of this frozen horror as soon as possible?”

  “Cutting the door open now,” Brinley said as she began melting the welds. “That gadget you have is sure handy. Did it come from Central Storage? Or was it a new invention by your unit? I really need to get myself one of those. If you tell me who makes them, I am sure we can work out a trade for…”

  “Brinley, cut open the door already,” Jared commanded.

  “Nearly done. I can talk and work at the same time, you know.” Brinley’s torch sliced open the welded seams and Gretchen activated
the door. With a shudder and a grinding of metal it slid open. She disconnected the fusion pack and they all stepped out of E Habitat. The Wilds were left behind for now, but both Gretchen and Paul knew they would have to come back soon to finish setting up the teleportation pad.

  19 free rangers verses the roe

  Paul and Gretchen felt the heat immediately as they entered the gloomy passageway. The corridor was substantially warmer than the habitat they were leaving. Gretchen reconnected the fusion pack into a port near the door, activated the controls, and the large permalloy door squealed and shook as it shut. It blocked out the light, cold, and snow from E Habitat. The sounds of grinding metal echoed up and down the passageway.

  The Free Rangers looked nervous. They quickly pulled off the blue jumpsuits, and folded them into small bundles which fit on their belts. Underneath the jumpsuits they had functional clothing, and belts with pouches. Each had a pouch holding what looked to be a hand weapon. The weapons were very similar to one the constable had used to kill Ferdinand.