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

by John Thornton

  “Paulie! No! Do not shoot! Not in here. I am not sure our perceptions are safe to trust in here,” Brinley said.

  “The parabolic inhaler casually quits.” This was followed by a loud clanging sound which also echoed all around but seemed to come from nowhere as well.

  “I will not let the Roe kill either of you!” Paul screamed. He fired the handgun. “No more people die who I am trying to help!”

  Blam! Blam!

  The flash of the weapon’s fire lit up the area for a brief moment. In that moment, Paul, Gretchen, and Brinley were all standing next to each other just outside of the crawlspace entrance. There was the briefest glimpse of pressure doors in uncanny places.

  “I saw the Roe!” Brinley yelled. “Grab my hands!”

  “You are too far away. I will run over there,” Gretchen said.

  “No. No running. Just reach out. Grab hands!”

  Paul and Brinley connected. A moment later, Brinley connected to Gretchen. They were able to hold hands, but the lighting effects all around them were still sporadic and bizarre.

  “Shut off the fusion pack,” Brinley said. “I think that will make it better.”

  “There is a Roe in here!” Paul waved the handgun into the flashes of light he saw.

  “I know. It is a risk, but can we get through this place like this?” Brinley asked.

  Gretchen shut off the light.

  Near darkness returned. The only light was the dim amber glow from the crawlspace. It did not reach to fill the whole area, but rather the dim reflected light was sucked out of the place.

  Then things shifted again, and the dim light from the crawl space winked out. It reappeared in a totally different position a moment later. It was disorienting.

  “Stand back to back,” Gretchen suggested. The three of us can look in different directions as we move.”

  “Is the floor level?” Paul asked. “Or am I just dizzy?”

  Continuing to hold hands, they turned and aligned themselves up with their backs and shoulders against each other. The physical touch helped them tremendously.

  “The parabolic inhaler casually quits.”

  “I cannot tell where that is coming from,” Paul said.

  “Brinley, you lead us, if you can use the plotter,” Gretchen said.

  “I can try, but do not let go of me,” Brinley said as she held tightly to Gretchen with one hand. “Make sure to take Paul’s hand. Do not let go! No one let go!” She pulled Paul’s hand to Gretchen’s. “You hold us both, so I can use the minicomputer with my other hand. I fear if we get separated in here, we may never escape.”

  “I have Gretchen’s hand now,” Paul said. “I also have my handgun out should the Roe be close.”

  Brinley was about to comment, but refrained. “Let me guide us.” She carefully took a step in the direction the plotter indicated. Gretchen was walking sideways, and Paul was also walking sideways. They were all gazing into the dimness.

  “The parabolic inhaler casually quits.”

  “The Roe is by the crawlspace! I see it moving in front of there.” Paul aimed and squeezed the trigger.

  Blam! Blam!

  There were rings of ricochets. Light burst from the weapon’s discharge and sparks flew from where projectiles hit the walls. They lit the room in brilliance, but each flash made the place look different. The first made it look like a room with no hallways, the second made it look like a long and very narrow tunnel.

  “Paulie, do not shoot again. I am not sure what you are seeing, but I am not certain what I am seeing in here. Do not shoot at anything. If the Roe physically grabs you, kill it. But not before. Only shoot it if it physically grabs you. I fear for where we are,” Brinley said.

  “But what if it grabs one of you first?” Paul complained. “I cannot let that happen.”

  “Paulie, trust me.” Brinley led them stumbling to a pressure door which she only found by bumping into it.

  “Keep holding onto each other, and me,” Brinley said as she put the minicomputer away. Its plotter indicator was spinning wildly anyway, but she did not want to tell Paul and Gretchen that. “I will open this door to get us out.”

  With a great effort, Brinley punched the wall, “I think this is a color pad control.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Okay, then the manual lever,” Brinley said and felt around until she grasped the lever.

  “The parabolic inhaler casually quits. The parabolic inhaler casually quits. The parabolic inhaler casually quits.” Echoed the Roe’s words.

  Three chunks of something struck against Paul as he stood with his handgun pointing into the dimness.

  “What is happening? Something just hit me from above!” Paul looked straight up, but there was nothing to be seen in the dimness. The dim light from the crawlspace was nowhere to be seen, but now the walls seemed to be glowing a bit with a dull green.

  “Out we go,” Brinley said and pulled the lever. The pressure door slid to the side.

  The whole orientation of everything changed.

  Paul, Brinley, and Gretchen felt the change and were then pulled upward into the now open door, but as they passed the doorway, they knew they were falling.

  They crashed down in a heap onto a padded surface of a floor. The drop had been about two meters, but felt very different, unusual, and almost surreal.

  Paul avoided landing on Gretchen or Brinley by wrenching himself around while falling. All of them hit the floor hard.

  The pressure door slammed shut. On this side of it was a sign in white lettering, ‘Warning: Oblique Gravity Manipulation Adjustment this Point’.

  “What happened?” Paul muttered as he reread the sign. He was rubbing his eyes and squeezing the bridge of his nose.

  “I may vomit,” Gretchen said as she struggled up to her knees. She held her hand to her head to help alleviate the vertigo she was experiencing.

  Brinley rolled over and started to giggle a bit. She lay on her back staring at what now seemed to be upward.

  “What is funny about this? That was a Roe?” Paul said and tried to stand, but found out quickly he was dizzy, and what he considered up was not up anymore. He sat back and let his head clear.

  They were on the floor in front of the pressure door with the label. It was at the end of a corridor which was well illuminated, but had stale air, and another door, a steel one, about ten meters away. Around the far door there was a large amount of charring and burned areas on the ceiling, walls, and floor.

  “That explains it all,” Brinley chuckled, and pointed at the letters on the door. “We were in a Gravity Alteration Gimbaled Sphere. A very broken and crazily jacked up one. We walked through an operational GAGS back by the hanger bay, remember?”

  “You mean that place where gravity manipulation was changed as it rotated? Under Oasis, I think?” Gretchen asked.

  “Right. That one was working properly. This one is a mess.” Brinley pointed at the door. “It is still powered, but wow, it is out of kilter and played havoc with my senses.”

  “How did we get in there?” Paul asked. “I mean if gravity manipulation was changed, or changing, and the room rotates, how did we get inside from the crawlspace?”

  “I imagine that crawlspace only opens at certain times, when the GAGS stops at an alignment. It certainly was not moving in a consistent or stable manner. That is probably how that Roe got inside there as well. The Roe blundered in accidentally when that GAGS aligned with a doorway which was open. In there the electrical fields, gravity waves, neutrinotronics and magnetism are randomly shifting, disjointed from each other, and uncoordinated. The plotter was not working properly in there, and neither was the fusion pack, or the environmental modulators. I doubt any equipment could ever work with that place shifting about haphazardly like that. No wonder everything looked so strange. It scrambled our senses.”

  Paul stood up and awkwardly approached the pressure door with the label. “I want to kill that Roe!”

  “Paulie, i
f you open that door, you may get sucked back inside there. Do you want that?” Brinley said, in a now somber tone.

  “No! So we just leave it be?” Paul asked. “What if someone else gets in there? Can we fix it, and then eliminate the Roe?”

  “It would take a couple of engineering automacubes, and a lot of time and effort to repair that place. That is if it can even be repaired. It might take a whole excising of the faulty system and a rebuild from its basic frame on,” Brinley said. “I could maybe just de-power it from here, but then the Roe might get out. I am not sure if the doors would all spring open, or lock closed. As it is, I doubt if that Roe will ever get out on its own. We were very lucky, very lucky indeed to get out. Best to leave that mess alone. I doubt anyone else will be crawling through the way we got in there. Yes, best to leave it alone. There might be tagalongs in there as well. If they got out, that would be bad.”

  “Right. I would not go back in there. I am just so angry about people and things trying to kill us. So are we closer to the scout ship, or did that ridiculous malfunction send us way off course?” Paul asked. He was stable on his feet, but looked tired.

  “The plotter says we can proceed this way,” Brinley got up and started walking toward the other door.

  “Like we have some other choice?” Paul muttered. He secured the handgun away in his holster.

  They walked down the hallway.

  “This door is locked from the other side, the plotter says the area is unobstructed,” Brinley said.

  Gretchen scraped some charred remains from the side wall. White letter was revealed beneath it. She read it, “Terragora Investigation and Evolution.”

  “What is that?” Paul asked. “I hope it is not messed up too.”

  “Paul, we all hope that,” Gretchen said with a bit of an edge to her voice. “We are in this together. It is not always just about you.”

  “It is not welded. There was a fire here, but it was a long, long time ago. Notice too that this door is steel, but it is a nickel, chromium steel alloy.” She wiped the door and much of the charring easily slid off revealing a shiny silver surface. “I think it was once called stainless steel, but that was long ago. It will not rust as fast as other steels. Not as good as permalloy, and more clumsy to make and use, but better than typical steel,” Brinley said. “I have seen this only rarely, mostly around places that are wet.”

  “Oh great. We open that door and this whole place floods? Then we drown like the children,” Paul said.

  “Paulie, we could just get back in the GAPS, you would enjoy that, right?” Brinley smiled as she said that. She then took out some small tools. “I can easily unlock this from this side. I do wonder about who set this fire. Was it to keep something in? Or to try to get in?”

  Gretchen pulled out her pistol made by Willie. “I will be ready this time.”

  Brinley and Gretchen nodded to each other. Brinley then deftly unlocked the stainless steel door and slowly opened it. Light shown out. That light was more like the light in the habitats. It cast a warm glow onto Brinley as she stepped inside, Gretchen followed, keeping the pistol ready and scanning all around for any threats. Paul followed, and closed and relocked the door behind him. On this side, the door was almost mirror shiny silver and very clean. The locking mechanism latched easily and smoothly. Etched into the stainless steel were the words, ‘Substitute Exit: Emergency Use Only’.

  The first thing Paul noticed as he turned around was the light. It was coming from a central orb hanging over the top of the area. That glowing orb was a yellow color, and warmth was radiating out from it. It was about fifty meters high and shined down on the entire room.

  The next thing was the smell of vegetation. That pleasant aroma struck all their noses as they breathed in the fresh air which circulated around them. Not only was the air fresh, it was also pleasantly humid.

  But more remarkable than the light or the air was the sight of living plants. The three of them stepped away from the stainless steel door and out from under the branches of a large tree which was close by.

  “Have we found a habitat?” Gretchen asked in awe.

  Around the perimeter of what appeared to be a circular, or perhaps multisided expanse were large trees with fruit hanging on them. They encircled the whole area. There were fruits of all different colors, even on the same trees. The leaves of the trees were green and vibrant. The tree they were closest to had orange fruits. Not the cruel orange color of a Roe’s eyes, but a sweet and inviting orange color.

  “The ceiling goes all the way to a peak just above that orb of light,” Paul said and pointed. “It looks like the orb is suspended on a pillar of translucent permalloy. See how it comes down from the orb and into that building directly under it?”

  “Row after row of plants, in such neat order. This is not a habitat like I have seen,” Brinley commented. “I can see all the way to the other side, which is about two hundred meters away. This is way too small to be a habitat, but bigger than any laboratory or garden I have seen. Reminds me of crops and farms.”

  Indeed, the rows were very orderly with plants which were a bit shorter than knee high. The plants had medium green oblong shaped leaves with deep furrows and veins on them. There were occasional small walkways between sections of plant rows. All of the walkways led toward the center where the small building stood beneath the glowing orb.

  "klauuk kak-klauuk kak"

  Something a rusty red color scrambled across their path and ran away into the crops. Gretchen trained her pistol on it. Its two tiny legs were moving its body quickly.

  “No!” Brinley said sternly. “It is only a chicken.”

  “I have eaten that?” Paul said as he remembered some of the food items he had traded for with the Free Rangers. He did not think it would look like it did.

  Gretchen still had her pistol trained on it. “Are they tagalongs?”

  Another chicken came strutting out from under the fruit trees. It had only two legs and walked in a sort of bobbing manner. It was not running like the previous one had done. There was a red flap of something jutting up from its head. It had palm length black feathers coming out along its back end, sort of like a tail.

  “They do not have orange eyes,” Paul observed. “So where are we?”

  “Paulie, the door said it was the ‘Terragora Investigation and Evolution’ and from what we can see, we can make some guesses,” Brinley said.

  “No need to guess, I think we will find out in a moment,” Gretchen said as she pointed with the pistol toward a figure that was walking toward them from the small building at the center of the area.

  The person walking toward them came at a leisurely stroll. Not the lumbering gait of a Roe. The person had on a wide brimmed hat, and wore intact clothing.

  “It is not a Roe,” Paul said in relief.

  “Gretchen, it might be best not to train a weapon on that person just yet. There is nothing in her hands,” Brinley said.

  “Her?” Paul asked.

  “You can tell by her walk. Yes, I agree it is a female,” Gretchen said as she holstered the weapon.

  “What if she is hostile? We did just break into this place. It might be her home. What if she resents us being here?” Paul jabbered.

  “What if she can help us?” Brinley said.

  They waited the few minutes for the woman to reach them. She kept on the walkways.

  “My, I can hardly believe my eyes. Irina said there were people here, but I did not believe her,” the woman said.

  “Greetings!” Brinley said warmly. She then made introductions.

  “Oh of course, you would not know my name. I am Brenda. How? Why? I am just so surprised.” The woman was shorter than Brinley or Paul, and a bit heavier. She had neck length straight hair and a happy round face.

  “We came in from that door,” Brinley pointed.

  “That only leads to the insane room. No one comes through there, but I guess you three must have.” Brenda then rushed forward and gave e
ach of them a warm hug. “Sweeties, it is so good to have someone find us. I honestly thought we were all that survived.”

  “We are on a journey,” Brinley said. “May we pass through your home here?”

  “Come back with me now. We were just starting to eat our midday meal. You are welcome to share with us,” Brenda said. “Please, follow me and we will talk. I have so many questions. I also must apologize to Irina. I imagine I gave her a funny look when she said people were here. I thought she was telling tales again. You know how children love to invent things. Their minds are so cleaver and their imaginations are so vivid. I did fear it might have been a rabid one, although I have only heard those stories from my parents.”