“End of report.” The green lettering was back.
“Those Roe were moving much better than Roe we have seen,” Gretchen repeated. “Not as ungainly as those that attacked us.”
“And no tagalongs,” Brinley said. “None at all. I think that was from right after the Outbreak happened, like sixty some years ago.” Brinley was contemplative. “That is a long time for this AI to be without interactions with others.”
“Are we done with the voyeurism of terror?” Paul asked. “Besides making us more afraid, is there some way this artificial intelligence can actually help us? What was its designation? TSI-6?”
The green scrolling lettering responded, “Negative. TSI-6 is the primary artificial intelligence: Suspended Animation and Hibernation Oversight. I am TSI-200A.”
“So, TSI-200A, do you have any supplies we can use?” Paul asked.
“Negative,” scrolled the answer.
“Do you have deck plans or schematics that will give us more knowledge about the physical layout of the Vanguard?”
“Negative,” scrolled the answer.
“Do you have any way to scan the exterior of the Vanguard?”
“Negative,” scrolled the answer.
“Paulie, while you interrogate the AI, I am going to weld shut all the grilles in here. If the Roe found a way in once, they might find their way back. That red automacube may need help defending this place, and the least I can do is make its perimeter more secure,” Brinley stated. She walked off and was taking out her welding equipment as she did.
“Good idea Brinley,” Gretchen said. “Paul and I will see what we can learn here.”
They asked the artificial intelligence several more questions, but all received the same reply, “Negative,” scrolled the answer.
“We need to try a different approach. TSI-200A do you have a list of what functions you can do?” Paul asked.
“Affirmative. Monitor and maintain suspended animation cocoons, 97.65% of tertiary capacity. Supervise security automacube, 2% of tertiary capacity. Interact with personnel in chamber, 0.35% of tertiary capacity. No other functions available.”
“You are operating on tertiary systems. What level of operation are tertiary systems compared to your standard operations?” Gretchen asked.
There was a pause and no green lettering came on the display.
“If you had full power and full access to the lattice what could you do?” Paul asked.
“The limits to the lattice of compeers have not been established. I am unable to make conjectures to answer your inquiry. Vanguard systems are interactive and evolving for enhanced performance and operations in service to the core programming and core mission of the Vanguard. In prime condition, the science and engineering of the lattice of artificial intelligences includes: ethics, reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception in nonphysicality, perception in physical realms, and the ability to direct and manipulate objects in service to the mission of the Vanguard. The Vanguard itself is sentient when all systems are operational. Core programming revolves around penultimate mission objective: the Vanguard will successfully traverse space to the Westerhuis 9 system, locate best planetary body, establish functional colony. All other objectives secondary. The lattice of compeers is essential to reaching that mission objective.”
Brinley returned from her welding job. “The place is as secure as I can make it. Roe will not get in here. Tagalongs, maybe, but they do not carry pry bars and will not be able to open the compartments. I do not think there is anything else to gain being here. There are no other exits. This place is not connected to the freight elevator system or the corridors around it.”
“So this was a dead end,” Paul complained.
Gretchen squeezed his shoulder, “Not really. We may have just saved fifteen hundred people. Is that not what we set off to do in the first place when we flew out here?”
“I guess you are right. But how many decades will it be before these people know they have been saved? By then, I will have been eaten by some killer fish, or bashed to death by a Roe, or some other horrible ending. But yes, maybe we saved these people.” Paul hugged Gretchen.
“So now we need to decide our next steps. We still need to search for a way to get to Tiffany, if we can,” Gretchen said.
“But not today,” Paul stated. “Brinley will you stay the night with us?”
“Sure, Paulie. I have a lot to think about. Things about today just do not add up.”
7 by land or by sea?
The sky tube’s light was growing brighter as Paul lay in the tent. Gretchen was curled up next to him and her frizzy black hair was resting on his shoulder. Brinley was sleeping soundly along the other side of the tent. Paul had not slept well at all. The events of the previous day ran through his mind over and over. From the simple problem of the ruined fish, to the horrors of seeing the children in the sea go under, to the strangeness of the interaction with the AI which ran the suspended animation chamber, Paul was perplexed. He debated in his mind if he should have watched more of the record of what the Roe had done. That thought took his mind back to when he had watched the gruesome record from Dome 3, and that in turn reminded him of seeing Karen kill herself. His mind cycled around and round with unpleasantness at each rotation.
He slipped his arm out from beside Gretchen. She rolled over a bit and did not fully awaken. He quietly stood up, grabbed up a few items and the clothes he worn during the day and carefully stepped across the inside of the tent. Brinley was sleeping with her mouth open and breathing very deeply. Her face was quite innocent looking, which again reminded Paul of the children who had died while searching for some pirate treasure.
Outside the tent the air was a bit cool. The night-time birds, insects, and animals were still making their rounds, and Paul was uncertain why he was even outside. He drank deeply from a cup of water he poured out of the tank of water they had installed. He paused as he reached the proper amount for a water ration, but then just gulped some more. “So much water here,” he said quietly to himself. “One of the few advantages to being on the Vanguard.”
He slipped on the communication link and spoke into it, “Tiffany?” He knew the system was voice activated, and would only alert to the AI Tiffany and would not alert on Brinley’s or Gretchen’s communication link unless he called their names. “Tiffany? Where are you? Why do you not respond?”
A plethora of ideas not ransacked his mind. The scout ship was destroyed like the shuttles, and Tiffany’s Atomic Level Processor was destroyed. In other words, Tiffany was dead. He tried to reject that idea since the scout ship was securely anchored to the hull by the permalloy umbilicus he had made. He doubted that the things which had shot down shuttles would shoot at something attached to the hull, but it was possible, he thought.
He next considered that Larissa had been told about Tiffany and the scout ship. Larissa had proven herself to be a vicious enemy and if she could take advantage she would. Did Larissa set some explosive devices and blast the scout ship from the hull? Or would she have the capability to get to the scout ship, enter it, and dismantle Tiffany’s ALP? Paul pondered, worried, and wondered. Was it more likely that Larissa would just dispatch some automacube, or a score of them, to go and cut the scout ship free and let it drift away? And engineering automacubes could easily have been programmed to do that. More and even stranger ideas ran through Paul’s mind as he gazed out over the sea.
“Maybe it is all some simple communication system failure,” Paul said. “Maybe Tiffany is trying to contact us as hard as we are trying to search for Tiffany?”
“Maybe Tiffany is,” Gretchen said.
“How long have you been standing there?” Paul said without turning around.
“A bit. I think we really do have to search for Tiffany. In this place we need every advantage we can, and honestly, I feel lost without Tiffany’s data base, advice, and yes, even the humor.”
“Did we depend too much on Tiffany?” P
aul asked. “I mean, we should know most of this stuff, right? Our ancestors built this ship, and our own Dome 17 was the most advanced place left. No one has technology like we do, or we did. We are not ignorant savages, are we?”
Gretchen wrapped her arms around him. “No, Paul. We are not ignorant savages, but we are ill informed in this situation and in need of guidance. Consider Brinley, she is about half our age and she functions well in the biological habitats, and in the corridors, and in the shuttles, but that is because she is native to this ship. We are not. We are strangers in this even stranger land. So we need Tiffany to give us the advantage we lost.”
“What if Tiffany is truly lost?” Paul asked.
“Then we need to know that as well. The scout ship will still have other supplies, a backup medical kit, which alone is worth the search, and other things we can salvage. But it will be a quest and with you and I working on it, we can get there.”
“You two cannot forget about me can you?” Brinley interjected. “I am going along too. We have a choice. Do we go back down the freight elevator and into the safe zone… I mean to where the Free Rangers used to be? Then get into the corridors where the Roe are and work and fight our way to try to discover a way to that scout ship of yours? Or do we search for Klara in the biological habitat and hope she was telling the truth about that map?”
“Someone needs to tell people what happened to those children,” Paul said somberly. “Their ages mates….sorry… their parents will want to know.”
“So are you saying we should go across the sea? For we could go through the corridors and try to find some way to get into the habitat another way. I admit, Inaccessible Island was the major place, the only place I knew of, for Free Rangers to bring things in and out of here, but there must be other ways,” Brinley stated.
“How long would finding one of those alternative ways take?” Gretchen asked. “I doubt those children searched for this island for days and days. They looked more like they were just out for a game of playing. Sort of like an afternoon of ricochet ball, not some long drawn out adventure.”
“Well, if some other Free Ranger knows a route, that would make things much easier. They are scattered about and we would need to ask a bunch of them. So going over the sea seems to be the quicker option, but I do not know the details of this habitat. Just some generalities. There are two towns: Kimry, and Murom, and some islands.”
“That girl Anda, she said she was from Kimry. That boy Bogdan said he got the monkey’s paw from Klara. I think we can assume Klara is somewhere near Kimry, wherever that is,” Paul related.
“That still means we have to go over the sea to search,” Gretchen said. “Are you ready for that?”
“I do have an idea for distracting whatever it was in the water that killed those children,” Paul answered. “As I lay trying to sleep I kept thinking. So, yes, I say, over the sea we go.”
The three of them ate some food, packed up the gear they thought they needed, and secured down their tent. By then the sky tube was beginning to become somewhat obscured by what Brinley called clouds.
“I almost forgot, today is rain day,” Gretchen said as she looked up at the partially covered over sky tube.
As they walked along the trail, following the stream, the sky got darker and grayer colored.
“Perhaps this is a good day to set off. If that thing in the water was not an automacube, it might swim down below the surface more to get away from the rain,” Paul suggested. “I know I am not used to water falling from the sky.”
When they reached the waterfall, the light was uniformly gray and a steady mist was happening. Beads of moisture were on the blades of grass, and on the leaves of the trees on the plateau. Not too far from where the three of them walked, the blossoms of two lilac trees glistened in the rain.
“Well, I do not have to worry about getting damp from the spray of the waterfall,” Paul commented as they began the descent down the trail.
At the third pool up, the one they thought of as in the middle of the waterfalls, even though it was not the exact middle, the trail led across the bridge behind the waterfall itself. They entered the proper code for extending the bridge, and then crossed over it. By this time the rain was steadily falling in small droplets.
The bridge spanned a crevasse which was fifteen meters wide. The bridge was wide enough for three people to walk side by side easily, however, this time they walked single file. It seemed a more fitting to cross the bridge in the rain.
At the other side, Gretchen activated the controls, by entering the code, and the bridge was ‘drawn’ as the Free Rangers called it. To Paul and Gretchen it looked like the bridge retracted back into the cliff. As far as Paul and Gretchen knew, the only other way to access the plateau was through the freight elevator which came up inside the island.
“Well, Inaccessible Island, is inaccessible again, at least the plateau where we live,” Gretchen said as the bridge finished its retraction into the cliff’s wall.
“If there was a runabout shuttle in here, we could fly to wherever we needed to be, right Brinley?” Paul asked. He had often wondered about how to bring a two person runabout inside this biological habitat.
“Paulie, there would be advantages to doing that. Do you have a way to get one here? I will fly it for you if you do.” Brinley gave him a big smile.
“Did you know that Paul actually was measuring the corridors trying to find a way to get one here?” Gretchen asked.
“The freight elevator was more than big enough, but there were a couple of choke points in the corridors that were too narrow. I even considered disassembling one and then rebuilding it in here up on the plateau,” Paul replied as they continued to walk.
“Count me in on that project!” Brinley laughed. “It sounds like something Tennard might have tried when he was younger. In fact, when we get back from this adventure, ask him about it. He may have already tried it or knows a way to make it happen.”
They had reached the beach and Paul walked over to the fish dehydrator. The rain was a steady beating against their faces and moisture ran off their backs.
Something had gotten into the bottom layer of the fish dehydrator and dragged some of the charred fish pieces out onto the rocks and sand. Most of the hard lumps of fish were still on the upper shelves.
“Paulie, it looks like the rats did not even really want your fish,” Brinley pointed out.
“Rats? In here?” Gretchen asked in surprise. “I have seen no rats.”
“Not the infected tagalongs, but normal rats. Rats, cockroaches, and raccoons are everywhere on the Vanguard. That is why there are so many tagalongs, well, except the cockroaches, those insects do not get infected, but they are virtually everywhere. Every place I have ever visited has had rats, raccoons, and cockroaches,” Brinley said. “Paulie, we have supplies of good food, so why are we stopping here? Are you going to try another batch?”
“Not today. I think we can use these over dried ones though. I threw that shriveled monkey’s paw in the water just before those children died. I was thinking I would use these fish chunks to distract whatever was in the water. If it went after the monkey’s paw, maybe it will go after the fish chunks too. That way you can use the small boat to get the bigger boat. Unless you want me to change places with me? I could probably figure out the controls and operation of that bigger boat, but that would take more time.”
“Not a bad idea, Paulie,” Brinley smiled again. “Actually a pretty good idea. I will use the rowboat and get the airboat for us. Throw in your lures at this spot, so if it was a shark it will be over here.” Brinley turned and headed away toward where they had stored the rowboat.
“I am going with Brinley,” Gretchen said. “She may need help.” Gretchen walked over and kissed Paul and held him for a bit.
“Thanks,” Paul said as they released the hug.
“I cannot swim, but I can shoot anything that tries to get at us,” Gretchen patted the holster which held the pisto
l made by Willie. “This will even work underwater, so if I do get dragged under, I will take out whatever attacks me.”
Paul’s face got pale. “That cannot happen.”
“Paul, I should not have said that, sorry.” Gretchen kissed him on the cheek and then turned and sprinted after Brinley. “See you in a bit with that big boat!”
Paul gathered the remainder of the dried-out fish chunks into a carry box and walked away from the fish dehydrator. He pondered what Gretchen had said. He glanced back and saw in the distance that Gretchen and Brinley were near the funny-looking bird colony. The birds were circling and flying, even in the rain. It was too far away to see clearly, especially with the rain, but Paul hoped and trusted that the women would be safe as they took the small boat out. Yet, Paul’s mind continued to feed him the memories of seeing the children drown.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 72
