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

by John Thornton

  Paul put his hand up and tentatively reached for the grille.

  The Roe shot its hand out and tried to grab Paul. He was ready and snapped a clasp over it. The clasp was connected to a small chain which Gretchen and Brinley pulled on. The Roe shrieked and screamed as it tried to pull its arm back. The clasp and chain held the hand tightly and actually pulled it through the grille a bit.

  “I will help my daughter!”

  “She is bleeding!” Zoya said. “That will break her arm!”

  “I will help my daughter!” wailed the Roe.

  Paul reached for the medical kit in Zoya’s hands, but she pulled away.

  “I will do it,” Zoya attached the leads from the medical kit to the outstretched and restrained arm of her mother.

  The display on the medical kit scrolled a message, ‘Diagnostics underway. Processing.’

  The side of the medical kit opened and a syringe slid out. ‘Infection identified. Inject into any large muscle mass. Prognosis excellent.’

  “You did it Zoya!” Paul exclaimed as he grabbed the syringe and slid it between the bars of the grille. The Roe shrieked and twisted, trying to get away, but Paul jabbed the needle into it.

  “Now we just have to wait for the treatment to cure your mother,” Paul said as he slid back and slumped in exhaustion.

  20convergence

  SA55 and SA56, the red security automacubes rolled along down the corridor led by YA1 the yellow transport automacube. Larissa walked between the machines, keeping her eyes open for anything. The pistol she carried in her hand was held with confidence, even though it was the one she had confiscated from the smugglers. She had used it to kill the former Governor and it reassured her when she held it.

  They encountered the first Roe as they approached an intersection of corridors. The Roe was unsuspecting as it was busy tearing apart a dead body. Both the legs were missing, but it was yanking at the arms attempting to wrench one of them free.

  Larissa took careful aim.

  Piff

  She fired the pistol from a long way down the corridor.

  The head of the Roe exploded in a cloudy red mass of splatter. The remains of the Roe dropped unto the other body and both lay in the intersection.

  Larissa made hand gestures to the security automacubes and SA55 rushed forward. As it approached the intersection, several obviously infected raccoons came climbing down the wall and began to feast on the two dead bodies. They looked up at the approaching red automacube and their orange eyes glowed wickedly. Their black and white fur seemed to pale in comparison to the glowing of their eyes. They growled and hissed and barred their teeth which were dripping blood from the dead Row and saliva from themselves. Larissa recognized them as raccoons, but also identified the symptoms of the infection.

  “Sterilize that area,” Larissa commanded. She had no intention of getting close to anything that was infected.

  SA55 ejected incendiary gel which landed all across the intersection. The gel ignited and burned intensely and quickly. The fire consumed the infected tagalong animals as well as dead Roe and the body it had been mangling. A few rats, also with glowing orange eyes, which had been waiting for the infected raccoons to depart, and thus were out of the range of the fires, scurried away in panic.

  SA56 then sprayed fire suppression gas on the area, and the flames were extinguished. All that remained was a blackened area in the intersection.

  The yellow automacube, YA1 then moved through the intersection and turned to the right. SA55 and SA56 followed. Larissa walked through and only a hint of the charred and incinerated remains lingered in the air.

  They proceeded through a series of pressure doors and a bulkhead door. Each door responded to the access codes entered by the yellow automacube.

  The second Roe they encountered was immediately after the bulkhead door was opened. It screamed out, “Prudence never to practice either!” It swung a heavy club at the yellow automacube.

  Blam, blam, blam, blam.

  The reports sounded before Larissa could bring her weapon to bear on the Roe. Two shots each from the red automacubes shattered the Roe with high caliber projectiles. Its body was thrown backward with the impact, the club sailing into the large room where it had been living.

  Larissa looked down on the Roe. It had been a woman, and it wore the fragments of a utility worker’s uniform. “How long were you infected?” Larissa pondered.

  The room had once been a waiting room of sorts and had a toilet area connected to it. A tall pile of chairs was against one wall. There was a worn mattress at the side of the room which the Roe had been using. There was a collection of items stacked to the side of that mattress. They were mostly objects which could serve as clubs of one type or another. Also a white plastic box was there which was filled with some kind of misshapen fruits. The room smelled of urine and fecal matter.

  “Pile the refuse and sterilize it all,” Larissa commanded as the yellow automacube opened the door to exit that room. SA56 proceeded after the yellow machine, and then Larissa followed. She looked back at the domicile of the Roe. Then she exited as well.

  The red automacube SA55 dragged the body onto the mattress, then ignited the interior of the room with the flammable gel. It sprayed the fire suppressant afterward, and the room was sterilized.

  Outside the newly cleansed room, Larissa received a message on the multiceiver. She read it, and then nodded her head. “They are just ahead, behind the rotating door. My mission is almost complete.”

  ***

  Not far away from the room that Larissa had the red automacubes sterilize were a blue engineering automacube and a gray gravity manipulation automacube. They had been methodically tracking Larissa movements and keeping pace with her. They were the puppets of Phoenix Dominie and were connected via the alternative mini-lattice it had established. Phoenix Dominie made sure the links and couplings to those automacubes were well hidden in the nonphysicality.

  The possessed machines were extremely cautious as they clandestinely followed the Governor. They were able to plot her route and use substitute passageways, maintenance sluices, and ducts to keep up with the progression of movement. Sometimes they went through areas which were inhospitable to humans, which therefore were avoided by Governor Larissa. This allowed them to be unseen and unobserved by the security automacubes, or Governor Larissa herself.

  The puppet automacubes had a surprise rendezvous place established which was along Governor Larissa path.

  ***

  On the same level as Governor Larissa and her automacubes, in an unmarked and unrecorded workshop, Zoya watched through the grille as her mother’s healing continued.

  “Zoechka?” Eleonora said in a weak voice. Her eyes were bloodshot, but no longer glowed orange.

  “Yes, momma. I am here!”

  Zoya grabbed the clasp and removed it from her momma’s arm. She then took the ratchet and quickly undid the bolts on the grille. She pushed the grille aside, and pulled her mother from the tight space.

  Eleonora crawled out with Zoya carrying most of her weight. Brinley, Gretchen, and Paul assisted. They got Eleonora to a chair where she could sit.

  Brinley handed Eleonora a container of water, “Drink some, but take it slowly. You are still healing.”

  “Yes. Thank you,” Eleonora replied. “Zoya, it is so good to see you!”

  Zoya grabbed her mother in a huge hug and held on. They embraced for a long while, just basking in the presence of their love for each other.

  “Zoya, how did I get healed? Last I remember, I was attacked. Then something about you in a zero-gravity conduit? It is all a blur. I was certain I was infected. I suppose I was wrong.” Eleonora truly looked confused.

  “Momma, you were infected. But never again. These people have made you immune to that danger. I told you I was coming back for you.”

  “Zoya, who are these people?” Eleonora asked.

  Zoya made the introductions, but Eleonora looked only a bit less confused
. So Zoya explained about how she had found them, and gave a brief explanation of how they had gotten back to recovery Eleonora.

  “I am not sure how I was locked in that vent,” Eleonora said in hesitation.

  “Momma, you did that to yourself so I could find you and so you would not hurt anyone.”

  “Perhaps so no one would hurt me as well? My daughter, I am so very proud of you. Now we must get you home. We are a long way from C Habitat, the Woods and our home in the safe zone around Hanger Bay 984. This was only to be your testing and proving flight. We will need to find other Free Rangers to help us, and perhaps unpack a stored shuttle. Is there a hanger bay near here?”

  “The shuttles are not safe,” Brinley said. “From what we have learned, they are being destroyed, much like what happened to you two. Many have been lost.”

  “So we walk all the way back?” Eleonora asked.

  “Yes, momma. We can walk all the way back if we need to. Just so you are safe and we are together. Everything will be fine now,” Zoya replied and wrapped her arms around her mother again.

  “I suggest we leave shortly. This place is too creepy for me,” Paul said. He glanced again at the android bodies and body parts.

  “There are plenty of tools here, momma. Take what you think will help us and we will be on our way. I am so happy I found you!” Zoya’s face beamed with joy.

  Eleonora kissed her daughter on the forehead, “I too am immensely pleased to see you again.”

  Eleonora found a mechanic’s belt and loaded the pouches with a few tools. She then headed toward the door to exit the room. She pressed the control panel at the door’s edge and the door slid out of the way.

  Piff.

  Eleonora’s back exploded. She was struck in the front with a high velocity nugget. The projectile ripped its way through her body leaving a large hole where it exited out her back.

  “Momma!” Zoya screamed. “Noooooooo!”

  Piff.

  Zoya was killed as she turned toward her falling mother, the shot tearing through her body and striking the back wall of the workshop. Both were dead before they hit the floor of the workshop. Their bodies fell right onto the stained place where the Roe body had been previously.

  Gretchen caught a glimpse past the falling bodies of a red automacube down the hallway. She drew her Willie’s pistol and fired.

  Piff, piff, piff.

  The machine, SA56, exploded in a shower of sparks and flame.

  “Run!” Paul yelled as he pushed Gretchen toward the doorway. “We must get out of here!”

  Brinley leaped after them, but took a final look at Zoya and Eleonora. They were embraced in death, together. They were holding hands and that image would remain with Brinley the rest of her life. A mother and daughter holding hands as they died.

  Blam, blam, blam, blam.

  Round after round struck near the doorway, but the three survivors had made it across the hall to the corner where the pressure door was located in the recessed alcove. They were partially shielded from the fire of SA55. Brinley furiously began to try to open the door.

  “They hit the blue automacube,” Paul observed.

  The modified blue automacube had been struck by several of the bullets and now had large holes in its side. Fluids were leaking out. There were a few sparks as well.

  “I cannot get to it to salvage the memory vault,” Brinley complained. “We need Doctor 147.”

  “Those first shots were not from an automacube!” Gretchen stated. “It was a pistol like mine!” She held her pistol around the permalloy corner and fired blindly down the hallway. “If you try to go over to that machine and you will die too.”

  Piff, piff, piff.

  She did not look to see if she hit anything.

  “Pistol like yours? Larissa is here?” Brinley said in startled surprise. She drew her handgun.

  Paul drew out his handgun as well.

  Piff, piff.

  Two shots from down the hall carved ruts out of the permalloy around where they were standing. They all ducked in shock.

  Gretchen returned fire, again shooting down the hall blindly. “We that is a weapon like mine. It must be Larissa!”

  “Paulie? Do you have a fusion pack?” Brinley asked. “We cannot stay here, and I cannot get this pressure door to open.”

  “No! The backpacks are still in that workshop!” Paul yelled.

  “Go get them,” Gretchen said and peeked around the corner and fired the pistol as fast as she could.

  Piff, piff, piff, piff, piff.

  Brinley, squatting down, also peered around the corner and fired.

  Blam, blam, blam.

  Brinley saw her rounds impacting the remaining red automacube, but bouncing harmlessly off of it.

  “That rotating door must have been hidden. I did not see it when we came that way!” Brinley called as she fired at the opening where the door now was located. “Where is Larissa?”

  Again the bullets bounced off the armor of the red automacube. It was darting behind the smoky remains of the destroyed automacube. She continued to fire anyway, seeking to incapacitate the wheels if nothing else.

  Blam, blam, blam.

  The automacube returned fire, and the second steel door was peppered with bullets. Anyone who stood in front of that would be killed before being able to open it.

  Paul leaped back across the hallway and into the android workshop. He found the backpacks, and he put one on. He tossed the other backpack across the hall. He then leaped back.

  Blam, blam, blam.

  SA55 fired at Paul as he moved. The rounds narrowly missed him, but one round struck his backpack and sent him wheeling around. He was barely able to scramble back to cover in the alcove. He dug into the backpack and pulled out the fusion pack.

  “The medical kit is kaput!” Paul declared. “It took a square hit and is in pieces.”

  Gretchen was about to fire again at the automacube, when she saw Larissa peering out. Larissa fired first.

  Piff, piff.

  Gretchen ducked away barely in time. More chunks of permalloy were ripped away, just over Gretchen’s head.

  “Larissa is out there, but I cannot get a clear shot at her,” Gretchen stated. “She is using one of our weapons!”

  Gretchen reached around the corner and again fired blindly down the corridor.

  Piff, piff, piff.

  The two weapons from Dome 17 exchanged shots, and much of the sides, ceiling, and deck of the corridor were riddled with impact damage.

  Paul jacked the fusion pack into the access port near the pressure door. The perimeter of the door lit up in a bright blue light. Brinley entered the highest level override code she knew. The door buzzed a load tone, and then with a shudder, it slid sideways. It was only open about a quarter of the way.

  A gray colored automacube was on the other side attempting to prohibit the door from opening. Paul drew out his handgun and fired from less than a meter away. The thin walls of the gravity manipulation automacube were pierced by the bullets from the gun. It rocked backward and released its grip on the pressure door.

  “So Larissa had us surrounded?” Paul said as he kicked the automacube and forced his way through the narrow opening of the door. He shoved and pushed at the barely functional automacube which was heavily dripping fluids. The pressure door slid open more.

  “I wonder why she chose a gray one,” Brinley said as she helped Paul push it out of the way. “Paulie, that is an odd choice for attacking us.”

  “I am just glad it was not a red one!” Paul yelled. “Gretchen, we have a way out. Come on!”

  Gretchen fired blindly down the hallway a few last times, and then ran to meet Paul and Brinley.

  The room where the rapidly deactivating gray automacube was located was small with only a wall with a hand symbol on it.

  “We might be trapped in the elevator,” Gretchen stated, as she watched the door. “The danger is great.”

  “It is more dangerous to stay he
re,” Paul said as he slapped his hand against the symbol on the wall.

  The blue light shined around his hand and then outlined the elevator doors as they opened.

  The three people stepped inside, the doors closed, and the elevator whisked them away.

  Phoenix Dominie knew one of its puppet automacubes had been damaged. It severed the link to that gray automacube. Two Free Rangers were dead, and three automacubes were broken. Phoenix Dominie grieved the damage to the automacubes. Its blue automacube puppet was still in the area and able to monitor what was happening. Phoenix Dominie had the blue automacube open several door, vents, and other small passageways which were heavily infested with tagalong animals.