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

by John Thornton

  “My daughter, you are so wise. We will try first for the hanger bay. Then, if we must, we will head into the habitat. I am unsure how aggressive the CPO will be there. The Constable and Governor of Pampas are not well known to me. Had we anticipated this adventure, we would have asked those who do trading here on who to seek out.” Eleonora gave her daughter a wide smile to ease the stress. “Free Rangers have friends in every habitat, but not everyone in a habitat is a friend.”

  “Well momma, it is a training and testing mission. Will I pass?”

  Eleonora hugged Zoya. “You already have passed, my dear daughter.”

  Up they climbed to the next level. There the steel door was closed, and had some rusty stains around its lever.

  “I am hesitant to open this,” Eleonora stated. “There may be much noise, but the route I memorized from the big display showed this deck was the most direct route.”

  “The deck below was open, would that take us to near the same place?” Zoya asked.

  “I am not sure. Not all the corridors run in parallel to each other. Perhaps the next level up will show us more. Stay here, and I will take a look.”

  “No momma, I am going with you. We stay together,” Zoya replied with determination.

  They climbed to the next deck up, but that steel door was even more rusty than the previous one. So they climbed back down.

  “I will try this door. If it makes lots of noise as it opens, we will run to a hiding place. Are you ready?” Eleonora asked.

  Zoya nodded.

  Eleonora pulled the door’s lever. There was a loud snap as the lever broke off. She placed the broken handle into her pocket and slammed her shoulder against the door attempting to open it. It did not budge.

  “Down. Climb down now. The noise may attract a Roe,” Eleonora stated.

  They both climbed down the ladder and exited out past the door which was already open. Upon inspection on the other side of the door, Zoya saw that it was very rusty on its hinges.

  “Head that way,” Eleonora pointed to the right. To the left was a sealed bulkhead door.

  They hustled along as quietly as possible. The corridor was moderately well lit, with a large series of pipes running along the side to their left at the top of the wall. The decking was soft and easy to walk on and did not make any sounds as the traveled.

  At each cross passage, they stopped and carefully peered around the corners on the watch for Roe, or other infected animals. When none were observed, Eleonora led them onward directing their path. They stayed in the main corridor with the large pipes, but it did twist and curve a bit.

  They passed numerous doors, but none were an ESRC. They did not open any of the doors, but did look into the rooms or passages which led from the doorways where the doors were already opened. The area they were in seemed deserted.

  Zoya’s mind wandered and she was trying to estimate what each of the pipes running along the wall would carry. She knew her mother probably already had figured that out. The deep blue pipes were energy conduits. She knew that easily enough. Any child of the Free Rangers knew energy conduits. But the brown pipe and the copper colored pipe were unknown. ‘Perhaps some kinds of fluids?’

  ‘What am I thinking?’ she asked herself. She then kept greater attention on the doors and watched for tools or other supplies. None were seen.

  They passed an open pressure door and then came to an end of the corridor. The large pipe-works rotated ninety degrees and headed straight up and through the ceiling. There were only three doors, and all were closed. One was another pressurized door, set into a small recess, about a meter deep in the corner, and the other two doors were steel.

  “My daughter, I have not seen another way to proceed up to the deck where we need to be. I was looking for another access ladder, or stairwell, or elevator, but have seen none. Now we come to this place,” Eleonora said. “From my counting of our paces I believe we are beneath the hanger bays, but I am not certain.”

  “We have seen no more Roe,” Zoya added hopefully.

  “Yes, that is true. However, not seeing them does not mean they are absent. Have you noticed that this entire section has been sealed off? The only open doors were to closed rooms, or short passages to other sealed doors.”

  “But the door to the ladder was open,” Zoya replied.

  “Yes, that was the only way into this area. We will try the pressure door. That permalloy will not rust, so it should open quietly.”

  Eleonora placed her hand on the frame of the pressure door and a color pad appeared in the permalloy. “There is power to the door. So now my daughter, tell me the proper override code for a pressure door.”

  Zoya recited the sequence of colors she had memorized. Eleonora entered that.

  The pressure door buzzed with a negative function alert while red lights flashed briefly around. Eleonora entered code after code, but none of them elicited a positive function from the door.

  “That door is seriously closed,” Eleonora exclaimed. “Zoya? I am not sure which of these goes where,” she pointed to the other doors. “I find it odd that nothing here has been labeled in any way. I have not seen any other part of the Vanguard that was so stripped of identification or markings.”

  “I had not noticed that,” Zoya replied. As she thought about it, none of the door had been marked with any kind of designation.

  “Please back up a few paces, Zoya. I will open this door, but I am not sure what we will discover.”

  Eleonora pulled at the handle on the door and it easily opened. The room beyond was very dim with only a shadowy grayness

  Eleonora stood and let her eyes adjust as she stared into the gloom. She also took deep breaths and assessed what she smelled. She heard nothing in the room.

  “I think we should check in here. There is a smell of oils and grease and ozone. I do not smell anything biological, but I am not sure what this place is.”

  Eleonora stepped carefully into the chamber. Zoya crept up and watched intently as her mother faded into the shadows.

  “Momma, I am coming with you,” Zoya said and took a step inward.

  The lights lit ever so briefly in a flickering way, then flashed, but then receded into dimness.

  “Momma! I saw bodies!” Zoya let out a loud and started cry. She quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

  “It is safe. Just a moment as I tap into the energy sources. The primary system here was severed from the ship’s main power supply, but I can reroute that through the color pad controls.”

  “But momma, there were bodies hanging from hooks!” Zoya was frightened.

  The lights slowly rose in illumination. Before Zoya was a room with three bodies hanging somehow from a suspended track systems in the ceiling. As the light brightened, Zoya saw her mother standing across the room near the square color control pad. She was entering a sequence of colors and the lights were responding.

  Zoya saw the bodies more clearly now. They had wide open eyes, and innocent, submissive looks on their faces. Two were female and one was male. They were unclothed. Each was missing either an arm or leg or both. One female was just a torso with no arms or legs. Zoya expected to see blood or gore, yet the bodies were clean and spotless. Looking more closely, as more was revealed in the light, Zoya saw mechanical apparatus: wires, tubes, cylinders, links and coupling. All those things were coming out from the truncated limbs on the bodies. The outside of the body looked exactly like a healthy person. Nearly perfect skin complexion, and body colorations, including eye colors and hair. They looked like people, except that sticking out from the interior was all mechanical parts. The male had a flap of exterior skin folded open and behind that were servos, gears, pistons, and belts which fit where muscles, bone and flesh should have been.

  “Machines?” Zoya asked. “But they look like people.”

  The light was bright in the room now. On one side was a large work bench stacked with well arranged tools. Next to that was a platform with a circular aperture at th
e top. Along the walls were schematics, diagrams, and display screens.

  “Yes. Those are machines. I have never seen anything like them.” Eleonora looked more closely at the hanging bodies. They were held up on cords which connected into the ceiling track system. The tracks led to a work bench in the far corner. “They are replications or imitations of humans: a type of robot or android, to use old fashioned terms. However, these look real. If I did not see the mechanics, I would think they were biological.” Eleonora stroked the side of one of the bodies. “It even feels warm to the touch and soft like a person. Very strange.”

  “Robots? Why? Momma? Why? Automacubes are much more efficient and effective machines. And automacubes are specialized for unique tasks. Why re-create some kind of mechanical person?” Zoya was flabbergasted.

  “Why indeed?” her mother replied. “These systems are impressive and more advanced than any automacube. The exterior looks, feels, and smells biological, yet is synthetic. This workshop is like a small Replication and Fabrication Zone. But apparently this place is making these pseudo-persons. Look at all the tools. That work bench is better equipped than many hanger bays. Certainly, this fine assortment of tools will aid us in our quest to get back to the Free Rangers and out of danger.”

  Eleonora found a mechanic’s belt with pouches and she started to gather tools from the work bench, cubbies, and shelves. She was manipulating some controls on the bench when she said, “I wish we had time to investigate this place more. Only a few of the systems here are powered, and it looks as if the entire place is partitioned and shielded from the lattice. I see traces of an AI, but no way to access or link with it. Zoya, take an assortment of tools. We will need to perhaps cut our way into the pressure door, or find some other way to the hanger bay.”

  Zoya also loaded up on tools, but was haunted by the torsos which looked so life-like yet were machines. She kept looking at the blank submissive faces waiting for them to open their mouths and speak, or for their eyes to move.

  “His love for life is running dry!” a horrific voice screamed from the doorway to the workshop.

  Twirling around, Zoya saw the Roe. It had been a large man, nearly two meters tall. The heavily muscled chest was covered only by a tattered vest of uncertain color or origin, pants and knee high boots covered its lower body. The Roe’s blazing orange eyes were staring right at Zoya. Its face had a long jagged scar down the left side which caused the mouth to be deformed. Half the teeth were missing, but it screamed anyway. “His love for life is running dry!”

  The Roe charged into the room.

  Eleonora pushed Zoya out of the way and to the side while raised a cutting torch. The Roe batted the torch to the side just as it was igniting. The small blue cutting flame scorched the Roe’s arm, but it took no notice of it. “His love for life is running dry!” It yelled again as it swung back at Eleonora.

  “Run Zoya!” Eleonora commanded as she ducked the Roe’s swing and tried again to fend off the Roe with the cutting torch.

  Zoya ducked under the hanging torsos and tried for the doorway. But the Roe spun quickly and slapped at one of the torsos. The force of the blow ripped the cords holding it. The mechanical body crashed down onto Zoya knocking her to the deck.

  “No!” Eleonora cried as she rammed the cutting torch into the back of the Roe’s neck.

  It spun away from Zoya and grabbed Eleonora with both hands. It began to squeeze very hard. Eleonora had kept hold of the torch and it had cut a bloody line from the back of the neck neatly around to the front as the Roe turned. But now her arms were pinned by the immense strength of the Roe, the torch was immobilized by her trapped arms.

  “Leave my momma alone!” Zoya shrieked as she smashed a spanner into the side of the Roe’s head.

  The Roe, its head rocked by the strike from Zoya, and the burned open line on its neck, darted forward and bit down into Eleonora’s shoulder.

  “Araah!” Eleonora bellowed in pain as the few front teeth of the Roe sank deeply into her flesh.

  Zoya struck again with the permalloy spanner, and Eleonora felt the grip of the Roe lessen. She wrenched her arm free and brought the torch up and burned across the front of the Roe’s neck. Zoya crashed the spanner down on the Roe again.

  The Roe relented from the bite, as its severed head fell to the deck. The cutting torch had cauterized much of the neck stump and there was not too much blood. However, some blood did come out soaked into Eleonora’s shoulder wound.

  “Momma!” Zoya cried and tried to step over the quivering mass of the Roe’s body.

  “Stay back, my daughter!” Eleonora commanded as she stumbled back into the work bench. She turned off the torch and dropped it. “Stay back. I am surely infected.”

  “Momma no!” Zoya wept bitterly.

  “Stay back from me. Watch out for the tagalongs. Those infected animals will be here shortly.” Eleonora said as she bandaged her bloody shoulder with some adhesive spray from the workbench. The spray was designed to seal pneumatic leaks, but it sealed over the clothing, wound, and blood. It was not antiseptic or even neat, but it stopped the bleeding. She then kicked the head of the Roe out of the doorway. “We must give the tagalongs something to feed on. I must… to protect my daughter.”

  “Momma, how can I help?”

  “The platform there,” Eleonora pointed to the side of the work bench. “See if that is powered. We will have to work quickly. That bite got a major vessel. Yes… that platform… That might be a way to protect my daughter.” Eleonora had grabbed the legs of the large Roe and was dragging it out of the room. She had to shove the mechanical torso to the side of the room to get by. “Yes, see if that is powered. Use a command override code. …I must protect my daughter.”

  Zoya stepped to the platform. She identified the control levers and code entry points, but was unfamiliar with the specific function of the platform. After manipulating the controls, she stated, “Yes, momma. I have gotten this powered. The ship’s power grid was blocked but I rerouted a channel to this platform.”

  “Excellent. There is hope,” Eleonora coughed as she finished pushing the dead Roe out of the room.

  “Momma, is this an air duct?”

  “It is a zero gravity… a gravity conduit.” Eleonora said. She stopped and had several dry heaves, but then went on. “It connects locations…made for… I must protect my daughter… It transports things…yes.”

  “Will it bring us weapons? Or more tools?” Zoya asked. She was afraid for her mother. In her mind she kept hearing the echoes of the mantra of the Free Rangers, ‘Save one for yourself’ regarding what to do when infected by the Outbreak that turned someone into a Roe. Zoya imagined her momma killing herself before the infection ran rampant in her body. Her stomach knotted at that prospect and she tried to control her runaway emotions.

  “Momma, you can bring a weapon here!” Zoya said in tears.

  “Not bringing…. Sending….” Eleonora gasped and choked. “Sending you…. I must protect my daughter… not much time.” Eleonora gestured for Zoya to move away from the platform. She then reached out to the controls and her fingers flew over them. A panel opened in the side of the platform, and Eleonora did more adjustments on those components. “Power on… system… operating… seeking target.”

  The permalloy on the top of the platform dilated and cushiony floor was revealed a short distance below that. There were lights illuminating all around the platform. A soft glow was over the cushiony floor.

  “Climb in…on… get… here! I must protect my daughter!” Eleonora spat out the words along with a stream of foul smelling phlegm.

  Zoya hesitated, but seeing her mother struggling, she then obeyed. “Does this take us to beyond that pressure door?”

  “Yes… five seconds…you go…I must protect my daughter!” Eleonora said while shaking her head to clear it.

  Zoya stepped up and onto the cushiony floor which sank a bit as she stood on it. “Momma? You will follow me, right?”

 
; “Five second….after closure… Squat!” Eleonora threw a switch and spun a dial on the controls. There was a strange sensation that surrounded Zoya. The gravity manipulation forces took hold. The cushiony floor was withdrawn. She sank gently down into the gravity conduit.

  “Momma! You will follow me, right? I do not want to leave you!” She tried to reach out, but was unable to pierce the gravity field.

  “Must go… I must protect my daughter!” Eleonora screamed. For the first time, her eyes had begun to glow orange.

  “Momma! I love you momma! I love you! I will come and save you! I will find a way!”

  Eleonora slammed her open palm down on the controls. The permalloy on the top of the platform constricted back into the original closed position. The last sight Zoya had was her mother’s eyes bulging and glowing brilliant orange. “I must protect my daughter!”