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

by John Thornton

  “…breathe? Momma! Are you okay?” Zoya’s voice was already screaming as Eleonora activated the short range transmitters.

  Wham!

  The shuttle bounced about, jarred by another impact.

  Pop, pop, pop.

  There was a huge sucking sensation as the final layer of the transparent permalloy of the view port gave way. The atmosphere in the shuttle’s cabin rushed out of the now breached viewport, past the jagged edges of the fractured permalloy. Everything that had been loose in the cabin was carried out with the air.

  “Momma! What do we do?” Zoya screamed again. “Momma!”

  “I am here child,” Eleonora said. She took several deep breaths. She took over the controls and worked the thrusters frantically. She was able to get the shuttle under control. They had been thrown way off course. They were a good distance from the hull of the Vanguard, and the scene outside was unfamiliar to Eleonora. “I am not sure what happened, but we need to dock immediately.”

  “Momma was that a meteor shower?” Zoya asked. She had been studying for her test flight and that was mentioned in the training as a remote possibility.

  “No. At least I do not believe so. Whatever hit us came from the hull, not from out in space, otherwise we would have already crashed. It pushed us away from the Vanguard. No meteor could break permalloy, either,” Eleonora stated. “Look at the hull for a hanger bay or an airlock. We must dock immediately.”

  “Momma, I do not know where we are,” Zoya replied. “I see nothing I recognize.”

  “Yes, we were knocked a long way off the trails. But we must dock,” Eleonora stated. “We are leaking thruster fuel badly, and I am not sure where else this ship’s permalloy was cracked or broken.”

  “I am afraid, Momma,” Zoya said.

  “Me too, but we are in this together, and together we will dock this shuttle. Do you see any hanger bays?” Eleonora asked. She was looking for somewhere to connect the shuttle to the Vanguard.

  “No. But what is that?” Zoya pointed.

  Ahead and to the side was a stack about twenty meters in width and breadth and was rectangular shaped. It projected up from the hull about three times the size of its width. It was one of many projections from the hull, but this one was drastically different. At the top of the stack was a cone shaped object that looked totally out of place. It looked to be attached to the stack by a very roughly finished glob of permalloy. The cone shaped object was different color from the glob upon which it sat as well as yet another different color from the permalloy of the Vanguard’s hull.

  Eleonora looked intently at the object, estimating its size and trying to ascertain what the function of such an object might be. “It looks somewhat like a ship of some kind, but not any design I have ever seen.”

  A series of lights shown out from the object and blinked in a pattern.

  “Momma, is some Free Ranger in there?” Zoya asked.

  “I wish I knew. But it is not a hanger bay or an airlock, and we have no time to investigate. Our thruster fuel is almost gone; we are leaking it far faster than I thought. The tanks much be split. If we do not dock soon we are in grave danger. I am getting us closer to the hull. Look for anything that might let us get back inside.”

  “I am looking momma!”

  The shuttle got even closer to the hull and Eleonora flew it between the projections, stacks, and other apparatus. Her eyes scanned the hull looking for a place of refuge.

  “There!” Eleonora stated. “That is an Exterior Repair Station. That will let us in.”

  “I do not see it momma. I know about hanger bays and airlocks, but what am I seeing?”

  “That octagonal flat surface! That is an Exterior Repair Station. They have small airlocks. The automacubes usually use them for routine maintenance on the hull of the ship. We do not use them much at all, because most of the equipment in them is broken. Right now we are just looking for a way back inside, before this shuttle disintegrates around us, or we run out of air. That place is our best hope.”

  Eleonora used the thrusters to stop the shuttle and settle it down near what to Zoya looked like nothing much different from the rest of the hull. She engaged a docking clamp which magnetically set a tether to the hull.

  Wham!

  The ship was struck again and nearly flipped over. It was still held by the tether, but the violence of the latest crash tossed ripped lose part of the pilot’s seat. Deep vibrations rattled all through the shuttle as it banged against the hull.

  Pop, pop, pop.

  Cracks started to appear all across the front of the shuttle.

  “We must evacuate now! Come with me.” Eleonora ordered.

  “Can we get inside this place?” Zoya asked.

  “Child, we cannot stay here!”

  Eleonora unbuckled Zoya, with some difficulty due to the broken seat, and directed her toward the hatch. Then she unstrapped herself and floated after her. She entered the proper code but the color panel only flashed and did not function.

  The hatch was jammed.

  “I am igniting the emergency bolts. Be ready to grab hold of the hull somewhere. Do not get away from the hull.”

  “That will drop the entire back of the shuttle!” Zoya looked terrified.

  “Yes, hold my hand and we will make the leap together. Grab anything on the hull you can. Here goes!” Eleonora entered a different code, and the back section of the shuttle shuddered with vibrations which she could feel through the spacesuit. The back section separated away from the rest of the shuttle and floated away. The rear section of the shuttle was pointed roughly at the hull, but the gap looked enormous to Zoya.

  Eleonora jumped while pulling Zoya out and away from the shuttle and together they passed by the divided section and out into space. For an instant, they both were separated from the shuttle and from the Vanguard.

  Zoya looked into the blackness of space and squeezed her mother’s hand. She was not alone. The next moment their movement did then bring them into contact with the hull. Eleonora grabbed a cable about as thick as her wrist and pulled Zoya into range of that cable.

  “Grab that, and do not let go!”

  “I have it momma!” Zoya gripped it tightly with her hand.

  Eleonora moved Zoya’s other hand up to near the cable.

  “Grab it with both hands. We can then follow it to that Exterior Repair Station. I see the handrails for that not far away. You can do this, I am right behind you. Just shuffle your hands to move, just like in a shuttle.”

  “Yes, momma.”

  Zoya walked her hands over the cable and concentrated on moving toward her destination. As they both moved along, neither of them noticed when something again smacked into the remains of the shuttle knocking it into three large pieces. Two of those were still connected raggedly together and held by the tether, the third rushed away and into space. As they got to the hand rails, the grip became easier and fit their hands better.

  Following the handrails they got to the octagonal section of the hull.

  “Momma, there is an access panel here. Shall I open it?”

  “Yes, and enter the all-purpose code. We will try that one first,” her mother replied.

  “And if it does not work?” Zoya asked as she pressed on the panel and watched as the covering slid off and a nine sectioned color pad was revealed.

  “We will try all the codes we know. I know many codes,” Eleonora answered.

  The color pad faded out after Zoya entered the code. Then a display came on in its place. The display now had two separate sections one which read, ‘Depressurize’ in blue color and the other ‘Pressurize’ in rust color.

  “Hit the blue color bar.”

  Zoya did. The octagonal section of the hull opened a tiny crack, and a stream of air was ejected. It then slid all the way open. Inside the small airlock, the lights were on, but they were flickering a bit and only weakly illuminated the interior.

  Eleonora and Zoya climbed inside the airlock and turned
around to look for the interior controls which operated the exterior door. There were no controls nearby.

  “Over there momma!” Zoya pointed to a normal sized pressure door set at the back of the airlock. Next to that was a display just like the one outside. It too read, ‘Depressurize’ in blue color and ‘Pressurize’ in rust color.

  “Yes, my daughter, your sharp eyes have found it.”

  They used the inside handrails to pull themselves over to that door and the controls. As they passed the center of the airlock, Eleonora noticed that several sections of the wall had been removed and there were scorch marks and a melted piece of equipment inside a small compartment.

  “Zoya, this is where the macroactinide capacitor enhancers are. This set is obviously ruined. However, I recognize them from the descriptions I have heard.”

  “The things that were destroyed after the Outbreak? Will that stop us from getting inside?”

  “I certainly hope not. Push ‘Pressurize’ and hang onto the rails as you do.”

  “Yes, momma,” Zoya hit the rust colored button. The display shifted and red lights flashed all around the airlock. The exterior door slowly closed.

  “It works!” Eleonora exclaimed.

  “How will we know when pressurization is finished?”

  Eleonora fell to the deck as gravity manipulation came on. Zoya dropped but was holding onto the handrail and therefore did not fall.

  “I should have taken my own advice and held on!”

  “Are you hurt momma?”

  “No. Just shaken up. I did not consider that gravity manipulation would come on here like that before we opened the door. I do believe we can try to open that door now. It will be good to get inside the Vanguard.”

  Zoya pulled on the lever of the pressure door and it slid sideways into its pocket.

  The room beyond was dimly lit. There was a large control chair in the center of the room. That chair had a deeply padded seat and backrest. On the arm rests were various controls: buttons, levers and switches. An enormously large display screen with many well illuminated controls hung in front of that control chair.

  There was a door on two of the other walls.

  Zoya stepped inside, as did her mother. Eleonora thumbed the control and the pressure door to the airlock slid back into place.

  “I am assuming there is breathable air here. I have no testing equipment. I will go first,” Eleonora said, as she shut down the short range transmitter. She then unhooked the bubble helmet. There was a slight hiss as the air inside the suit was under a bit different pressure than in the room, but that was the only difference Eleonora could tell. Removing the helmet she realized how sweaty she had become. She rapped her knuckle on Zoya’s helmet.

  Zoya removed her bubble helmet as well. “Momma? Where are we?”

  “That is a good question, my daughter, I am not sure. I know we were over the Wilds, at the bow end, when we passed the destroyed hanger bays. However, the shuttle was thrown quite a distance. My best guess is we are outside of F Habitat, Pampas, also called Prairie. At least I hope we are. The destroyed hanger bays were the only known working ones by the Wilds. If we are still in that habitat’s cylinder we will need to locate an unknown hanger bay and restore a ship. Possible, but difficult. If we are in Pampas we can locate the Free Rangers and barter for a ship.” Eleonora pulled off the spacesuit revealing her work coveralls. “Get out of your spacesuit. It will only be a burden inside here. Thankfully you had yours on. And thank you for saving me. Had you not given me my helmet when you did, I would surely have perished.”

  Zoya took off the spacesuit. Opening one of the doors she discovered a storage room. Inside were two other spacesuits, but they looked like they had not been used in a good long time. Zoya was about to open the other door when her mother stopped her.

  “That leads to a corridor. We need to get more information before we head away from here.” Eleonora then sat in the control chair. The display screen opened and was partially functioning.

  “Momma, will the CPO know you are using that equipment?” Zoya asked, a bit worried.

  “Probably,” her mother replied, “especially if this is connected to the lattice. However, we must ascertain where we are, so we take this risk. If the CPO chases us, we will be long gone from this location, unless they are right on top of us already. If that is the case, there is no greater danger using this now.”

  The display screen flipped from image to image as Eleonora scanned it. Floor plans, schematics, and deck plans were displayed. “Yes, as I suspected, we are in the Pampas cylinder. We are a long way from the Woods and our home in the safe zone around Hanger Bay 984. This is Exterior Repair Station V-2210, and is connected to the lattice, but it is only 35% functional. Of course, this system does not show where any Free Rangers might be. It shows some hanger bay is not too far from here, but I am not sure what we will find there. We also may need to enter F Habitat itself.”

  “Momma, will there be Roe?” Zoya asked.

  Eleonora turned and looked her daughter in the eyes. “Yes. You are wise my daughter; you understood why I spoke of the habitat. We will work to avoid the Roe, even if that means entering the biological habitat of Pampas itself.”

  “Momma, I have heard it called, Prairie as well. Is there a difference?” Zoya asked.

  “Not really. I have not visited inside this habitat for some time, and I know you have not. Check all the storage places here. We will need tools. I will see what more I can glean from this display.”

  “I looked momma, and there are two old suits, but nothing else.”

  “Then we will need to find tools to continue. Where do we find tools?” Eleonora asked. She tried hard to turn the crisis into a learning experience and spoke with a calmness she did not feel herself.

  “Machine shops have tools. Hanger bays have tools. An ESRC would have some tools,” Zoya replied from her memorized lessons.

  “So as we walk toward the hanger bay we look for an Emergency Supply Resource Cabinet.”

  “I thought it was Emergency Supply Rescue Cabinet?” Zoya asked.

  “Rescue. Yes, it may rescue us. My daughter, you are so very smart. Let me hug you and then we will depart on this adventure.” Eleonora held her daughter for a few minutes. “Come now, we need to find some tools and then get to that hanger bay.”

  They opened the door to the hallway. It was very dim with only occasional working lighting from fixtures in the ceiling.

  “A caramelized molasses aftertaste!” an eerie voice echoed from somewhere in the hallway.

  “Momma! Is that a Roe?” Zoya whispered.

  “Yes, that is a Roe,” Eleonora softly replied. “Zoechka, this is very dangerous. Very dangerous.”

  2 Inaccessible Island more accessible

  The sky tube began to shine brightly down on Inaccessible Island. The air heated faster over the island than over the sea, and that caused air turbulences. The grasses on the plateau gently swayed as the air moved across them. The trees with their large leaves also rustled a bit as the air circulated across the top of the highest parts of the island. The ripples of the sea rolled and frolicked as far as the eye could see. Gulls flew out to greet the morning, and other forms of animal life came out for the day. The night animals, insects, and other creatures retreated away from the brightness of the sky tube.

  Gretchen greeted the new day by stretching her tall, muscular, and dark body. She ran a hand through her frizzy hair and then pulled it back into a rough ponytail. “Paul? Are you already awake?”

  “Not yet. I am still asleep,” Paul replied. “No wait, I guess I am awake now.” He pulled his head out from under the blanket, rolled over and kissed Gretchen on the cheek, and then climbed out of the bed.

  The tent they shared was actually about half again as large as their former apartment. That apartment was many light years away in the radioactive and toxic remains of what they had called Dome 17. Their new home, this tent had mesh openings on all sides, and a metal
structure which made it easy to disassemble, but sturdy enough to allow for protection from the biological and weather elements of A habitat: Oasis.

  “In a few minutes, I will get some water from the stream,” Gretchen stated as she dressed. “Today, I think we will need to walk to the Free Rangers and get a few more supplies. What do we have for trading?”

  Paul ran his hand over the short beard on his chin. His facial hair was a medium to light brown color, which contrasted with his nearly white blond head hair and pale complexion. “The last batch of fish I tried to dry out seemed to work better than my prior attempts. But I still am not sure the Free Rangers will want them.”