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

by John Thornton

  “Now, I do not know this station place you speak about. Asking questions in Saretov is not a good idea either. You do remind me of Sasha, my daughter.” The man walked toward the back of the room. “I do not see her much, nor her brothers and sisters.” The man wiped his forehead, “I want to help you. Perhaps this will know.” The man pulled back a woolen curtain which had been part of the drapery.

  Behind it was a set of shelves and under them was a battered green automacube. Next to that was the hulk of a yellow automacube. Both machines were in ruinous condition. The green automacube was missing four of its six wheels, and had a long gash in the side. The arm on the top was disjointed. The hydraulic lines on the arm were severed and the ends plugged with tightly wrapped wire. The yellow automacube had three wheels, but no arm at all. There in the center of the top of the machine was just a broken stump where the appendage should have been. Both were deeply scratched, dented, charred and stained.

  “I was plowing behind two of the grunters, when the blade hit something. It took me a lot of work to dig these out and drag them inside here.” The man patted the green automacube. “I hear rumors that these machines can do a lot, but I have not been able to get them to work. If I take them into Saretov, or even talk to one of those machine shops, I am sure Constable Jeffry will come and confiscate what I found. They are not registered with the CPO. You folks have tools and look like you know what you are doing with machines. If you fix them, maybe you can get your answers, and I can have them working for me?”

  Gretchen slipped out of the small structure and joined Paul.

  “Sir, I think we can help you. Thank you!” Zoya said. She looked at Brinley who squatted down next to the green automacube and began assessing its condition. It was overall in better external shape than the yellow one, but internally it was a real mess. She then turned her attentions to the yellow machine.

  “Well, I hope they can answer your question too. It gets right lonely here since my wife passed. The CPO house was too big for just me. My daughters all live in Saretov and my two sons went to Perm. I have not been the best of fathers. Since their mother passed, they do not come and see me much. I can hardly blame them. I am as grouchy as a grunter and less pleasant to be around. The only time I see them is when I take the grunters to market in Saretov. I always make sure to stop and talk, but almost no one ever comes out here.” The man had a wistful look in his eyes as he spoke. “But maybe those machines can help me? You remind me of my youngest daughter. She is bright and cheerful and loved her mother oh so much.”

  Brinley’s hands worked her tools quickly and efficiently. She was methodical and precise as she worked. Zoya was amazed at the speed Brinley could take the machines down to their respective components. Zoya too helped with the repairs and soon they had both machines disassembled and the problems of each were well understood.

  Gretchen came back in holding a fusions pack. “I think you will need a power source for charging.”

  Brinley connected in the fusion pack and then used the energy to further assess the condition of the processing, memory, programming, and nonphysical capacities of each of the broken automacubes. She then adjusted and fine-tuned the various aspects of the machines to get a complete picture of what repairs were possible.

  “I cannot get both machines up and running, but I can cannibalize parts from each and make a functional single unit. It will mostly have the body of the green one, with a composite of the internal aspects from each. There are only enough fluids for one machine, and that will be by combining what the two have. Only one memory vault is still fully usable, but I can cross over the talents and skills of each into that one vault,” Brinley said. “There will be some loss of information, but that should be minimal.”

  “So you can make one of them run?” the man asked as he turned to Zoya.

  “Yes, sir,” Zoya stated. “Transport and gardening automacubes have many similar and interchangeable parts. It will have four drive wheels, which should make it fairly maneuverable, and the arm should work to about fifty percent of its original range of motion.”

  Brinley continued working on the two machines reassembling the two into one. “I will make it voice activated, so you can just speak your commands. Then they display here,” she pointed to the top of the green machine, “will have an ‘ACTIVATE’ or ‘HALT’ button illuminated. Press which one you need. It will also have a limited amount of things you can teach it. I activated a learning loop. That way it will eventually anticipate your needs, from prior experiences, and be able to help you more.”

  Zoya pressed the ‘ACTIVATE’ button on the green automacube’s display screen. The machine’s arm came up and settled into a holding position, and the wheels turned it around to face the man.

  “Well that is just super,” the man said, again directing his comments to Zoya.

  “You can recharge it on the power connections which serve your water pump by the pasture. I saw several access ports on the side of the stock tank. This initial charge will last for a long time.” Brinley disconnected the fusion pack.

  “Well, girl, did you get your answer?” the man said as he inspected the green automacube with a pleased expression on his face.

  Zoya looked to Brinley.

  “Yes. The yellow one’s ruined memory vault still held some information. I copied all that into the green one’s vault. I did find a floor plan for this habitat and the surrounding decks. I located enough of the information we required,” Brinley replied. “May I take this memory vault?”

  “Yes, if you can use it,” the man replied. “So now I just need to teach this green one to help me around the ranch.”

  “I also sent a registration change with your name listed as owner into a link in Saretov. The machine had been out of service for thirty-two years. I believe that registration should satisfy the local Constable that you are the actual owner of this machine, but I doubt there will ever even be a question,” Brinley stated.

  “How do you know my name?” the man said very warily.

  Brinley pulled her gloves off, put them into a pouch on her belt, and rolled up her sleeves. She wiped some sweat from her forehead. “The automacube has the ability to read the chip in your arm.” Brinley then looked down at the memory vault she held. “You are Taras Kazantsev, correct?” Brinley read. “Occupation: Yak development and agriculture. Parents: Sorokina, and Naina.”

  The man nodded, but he had a stricken look on his face.

  “No worries. I placed the registration in your parents’ name as well as yours, and the change date is officially thirty-two years back. No one will ever know. Officially this automacube has been yours for a long time. It will be safe for you to use.”

  The man was very frightened. He looked at Brinley’s bare arm with a mixture of anxiety and astonishment. Subconsciously he was rubbing his own arm where the large F was imprinted. “Smugglers? I thought…. You best leave now. I thank you for the service, I do…. But I do not want see any of you again. Not ever!”

  Zoya looked at him, “Sir, we are not here to harm you, and everything I told you is the truth. We are looking for my momma.”

  “Please go,” he could not face Zoya. “I thought you were from… I do not know what I was thinking.”

  Brinley picked up the memory vault and the rest of the gear. She and the rest then walked out of the man’s home. He followed them to the door, then shut it abruptly.

  Brinley took the memory vault and placed it on the white automacube. “Doctor 147, there is a memory vault here with information on External Repair Station V-2210 and the three hanger bays which are nearest to it. Will you please assimilate that information?”

  “Yes,” the white automacube replied. It then jacked a cable into the small memory vault. “This vault is damaged.”

  “Yes, I know. Can you lead us to find Zoya’s mother?”

  “I am not a transport automacube, but I can re-purpose some of my abilities to serve in that capacity. I can lead us to the genera
l area of External Repair Station V-2210.”

  “So now we go!” Zoya said.

  11 across the habitat

  The sky tube was beginning to dim a bit as Doctor 147 rolled away from the ranch and also away from the town of Saretov. Far overhead several dark colored birds circled slowly, gliding in the air, their wings outspread.

  “Those birds fly sort of like the eagles we saw over the Canyon, but they look different too,” Gretchen observed.

  “What happened with that man?” Paul asked as they walked.

  Gretchen filled him in as best she could, but before she could finish, Zoya interrupted.

  “So how long until we find my momma?” Zoya asked.

  “I have insufficient information to make a conjecture. There are too many unknown variables,” Doctor 147 replied.

  “I am still confused about that man and those beasts. So you helped him, and then he threw you out?” Paul asked.

  “That is exactly what happened,” Brinley said. “He is a habitat dweller, and has only heard what the CPO says about Free Rangers. He has never dealt with any of us, and probably does not know anyone who has. He probably has traded for our goods, but never asked where they originated. We did get the directions we needed, and we repaid him for that, several times over. That automacube will be a huge asset on his ranch.”

  “So he was just acting in fear?” Paul asked.

  “Fear of the unknown can be great. It seemed that he also saw us as a danger. Especially after I made an official registration of the automacube. It was all dated for long ago, but he was afraid,” Brinley replied.

  “Back to finding my momma, please. The location where we are headed, where is it in relation to where we are now?” Zoya insisted on more information.

  “From the limited deck plans and habitat layout on that damaged memory vault, the town of Saretov is about two thirds of the length of the habitat from where we need to exit. Then we will need to descend several decks to be on the same level as the External Repair Station,” Doctor 147 replied. “The information did not provide precise details about the habitat conditions, terrain, or possible obstacles between Saretov and the habitat exit. We will travel parallel to the sky tube for the initial part of this journey.”

  “It certainly looks flat enough from here,” Paul said. “Just the long expanse of clumps of grasses. No obstacles. The greens are as far as I can see, with some patches of brown that I assume is dirt. Thankfully it is not dust,” Paul commented.

  “Nor is it snow. This place feels like the largest habitats we have seen,” Gretchen replied. “The sea off of Inaccessible Island seems far away, but in some ways, the flat grasses here seem almost bigger.”

  “Each habitat has the same amount of square kilometers, just configured differently,” Brinley stated.

  “We will not make it to the habitat’s exit before nightfall,” Doctor 147 stated. “I am certain of that fact.

  “We will need to make a camp,” Brinley said. “But we should walk until it gets dark. If there is shelter that would be helpful, but from the looks of this habitat, shelters are few and far between. There are not even many trees around here.”

  So they walked in relative silence. The grasses occasionally had some bright spot of flowers mixed among them: yellows, or blues, or reds. Paul was amazed at the variety of different kinds of plants he had seen. Just here on this flat area, called pampas, he could not count the myriad of different growing things. He was concentrating on looking at the vegetation when he noticed that the grasses were much shorter where they were walking.

  “Something has been cutting or clipping the grasses here,” Paul commented.

  “I think it might be that thing, maybe?” Gretchen said as she pointed at a mound of dark brown soil which was heaped up not too far distant. An animal was there on top of the pile. It was not quite knee high, overall yellowish, with darker browns on its head. It was long and somewhat fat at the bottom with two small appendages, or arms, or legs hanging down as it stretched upright.

  “That is a rat!” Paul said as he spotted what Gretchen was pointing toward.

  “The rats I saw were grays or blacks, if I remember right. That animal is buff colored, with brown. It is bigger than the rats too, I think,” Gretchen replied. The animal she was watching stretched down and walked on its four legs. The look of fatness was an illusion, it was long and slender. It then sat down again and raised up with its front legs off the ground and alertly gazed around.

  “There are more of them. Look at the other mounds!” Paul too was pointing. “None of these animals has orange eyes.”

  Scattered around the area where the grasses and other foliage were clipped, there were numerous mounds. Many of the mounds had one or two of the animals on it. Some mounds had none. The animals were sometimes walking on all fours, and others were sitting upright like the first one they saw.

  As they walked closer, still following the white automacube, the animal closest to them began to make a high pitched squeaking or chirping kind of yip. The other animals all heard that and within mere seconds they had all disappeared.

  “Where did they go?” Paul asked aloud. He rushed over to the mound where the first one had been. “There is a hole here. It must have gone down there in that tunnel. Are they dangerous?”

  “Paulie,” Brinley laughed. “I am a Free Ranger and I do not spend all my time in the biological habitats, but I can tell you, those are not rats. I cannot recall the name for them, but they are not rats, nor other tagalong type of animals.”

  “I wonder if they have a whole network of these underground tunnels that is interconnected?” Gretchen pondered. “Perhaps we are on top of a city of those animals? How intelligent are they? If they have made an underground city, they must be animals of a fairly high order of intellect. And that first one seemed to serve as a guard and alerted the others.”

  “Hiding in the ground makes me think there are likely some kind of predators which feeds on those animals. Now that predator might be a danger to us, but these burrowing animals are not.” Brinley said.

  Paul and Gretchen remembered the predator they had seen in the frozen habitat. It had looked vicious and extremely dangerous.

  The sky tube continued to dim until it was just a dull glow high in the sky. It was not totally dark, but dim enough to stop their walking.

  “We will need to stop for the night,” Brinley announced. “I have not seen any place of shelter, so it will be sleeping outdoors.”

  “I can stand watch,” Doctor 147 stated. “I have lights to use to illuminate the area should some danger approach.”

  They sat on the grassy ground and opened their backpacks. They had supplies of food to consume, and still some water in containers.

  “We will need to find water tomorrow,” Brinley stated. “We should have filled up our supplies back at that ranch.”

  “That man was not too happy with us being there,” Paul commented.

  “He only threw you out of his house Paulie,” Brinley chuckled.

  “Actually, he looked pretty scared of us all at the end,” Gretchen pointed out.

  Zoya ate in silence while the others spoke.

  Brinley noticed that and said to her, “Zoya, we will keep working to find your mother. You know that, right?”

  “I know. It just seems like such a bigger job than I thought it would be. I expected to be able to go right back and save her. Now I am not sure we can even find the area where she was. It was not in a biological habitat,” Zoya responded. She started to cry.

  Brinley moved next to her, wrapped her arms around her and held her as she cried herself to sleep.

  Paul and Gretchen arranged their backpacks and gear and tried to sleep as well.

  The sounds of night animals, insects, and birds started not long after the sky tube darkened. In the dimness, only an occasion flying over thing was observed. The air cooled, and the ground was hard.

  Paul considered trying to talk with Gretchen, but with Zoy
a asleep, he feared waking her. He did not really understand her obsession with finding her mother, but respected her devotion and duty. He compared what Zoya was doing with what he might do were Gretchen lost. As he drifted off to sleep, he decided that when you loved someone you were willing to pursue them and help them no matter what. In Paul’s consideration, Zoya felt a bond which was even stronger than the bond between age-mates, but not quite the same as romantic lovers. The notion of parent-children special attachment was alien to him.

  The night was uneventful, however, none of them slept well. The sky tube brightened and that awoke the people from their fitful sleep. They ate a meal, and drank some of their dwindling water supply.

  “I am drinking more here than on Inaccessible Island,” Paul stated.

  “That is because the conditions here require better hydration,” Doctor 147 responded.