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

by John Thornton

  “You mean like how the rats that are infected chase us as tagalongs?” Paul said. “So these huge beasts might have glowing orange eyes, and come and eat me?”

  “Yes, Paul, that is not out of the range of possibilities. I have been studying the virus which causes the Roe and tagalongs, and it has the potential to infect a wide range of animals,” Tiffany said.

  “Oh dear, do not tell Paulie that!” Brinley said with her usual grin. She was trying to not focus on Tennard and worked hard to push thoughts of him out of her mind. “We know Roe and tagalongs have not been in here, because those bodies are still intact.”

  Brinley walked over and looked carefully at the bodies. They were dressed in green coveralls, and short boots. The bodies were very dried out.

  “They were trying to get inside, or through that door,” Brinley said. “And that is the only way we can go, unless you want to try another vehicle?”

  “Not with the CPO and that Phoenix thing coming after us,” Paul said. “So through the door we go.”

  “I sense no obvious dangers, and will keep alert to potentials,” Tiffany stated. “However, the perception capacities I have are limited.”

  “Let me try a basic sequence, although if these people could not get the door to open, we may have to cut our way inside,” Brinley said.

  “Us? Cut a door open?” Paul said as he glanced at the bodies again.

  Brinley looked carefully but could not find any control mechanisms, nor could she find a color pad.

  “I can power up with the fusion pack,” Gretchen offered. “There may be an elevator or another something revealed.”

  “Is there any choice?” Paul asked.

  Gretchen jacked the cable from the fusion pack into the access port that was near the door. There was no reaction of any kind: no lighting changes, no symbols lighting up on the walls, no color pad, no changes happened at all.

  “Tiffany? Can you try?” Gretchen asked. “The ceiling lights are powered; at least some of them, and the hatch we used had power. Why nothing more?”

  “Certainly I can attempt it,” Tiffany answered. The automacube rolled forward and jacked a different cable into the access port after Gretchen removed the fusion pack connection. “I am sending a tiny tendril into the nonphysicality using extreme stealth.”

  “The CPO and the Phoenix thing knows we are here already,” Paul reminded them.

  “This access port is inert. There are no couplings or links of any kind here. No connection to the nonphysicality is possible. I was hoping to secure the location of the Reproduction and Fabrication facility, but there is nothing to search here. That explains why the fusion pack did not function. There literally is nothing here in the nonphysicality to empower,” Tiffany said. The automacube unjacked from the access port.

  “Why?” Brinley asked. “Why is this so isolated?”

  “Who cares why? We must go somewhere,” Paul said and took off his backpack and removed the molecular torch. He placed it against the door. “I will just cut this door open so we do not become shriveled up dead bodies.”

  A moment later, the door section had been sheered away by Paul’s rapid action. The cut out section fell in two parts. One tipped toward him and fell with a resounding clunk. The other toppled away and made a thud as it landed. Dirt and soil and dark green vegetation of some kind tumbled after it and spilled all around the newly carved opening. Putting the molecular torch away, Paul switched on the fusion pack light and stepped through the opening.

  Dust and dirt floated in the air as it had been kicked up by the metal falling. There was a ruined stairway, covered in dirt, grime, and leaves just beyond the crumbly dirt pile which had drifted up against what had been the door. Much of that dirt had fallen into the foyer. Dim light filtered down from above where the stairs met the surface. A metal trellis, covered in some kind of foliage was at the top of the stairs. Between the bars and the vines, some light did come in, but not a lot.

  “So we have entered somewhere with plants and light,” Brinley said as she too stepped through the opening.

  “Tiffany, can the automacube maneuver out of here?” Gretchen asked.

  “With no difficulty,” Tiffany replied. “The automacube chassis is very versatile.”

  “There was something written on this door, but it has worn off,” Brinley observed. “Paulie, do you want to cut open that trellis, or shall I?”

  “I will do it. The torch will cut the metal and the vegetation easily, right?” Paul said as climbed up the ruined and dirt covered steps. Reaching the top about three meters up, he removed the tool and fired it up again. He yanked the vines, with their clusters of three leaves, away and tossed them down. He then used the torch with the other hand to cut the bars of the trellis.

  “Paul, please stop what you are doing,” Tiffany said sternly.

  “Why, we need to get out, and I almost have this opened,” Paul said with concentration. “We can talk when we are out of here.”

  Paul threw several more clumps of the vines down, and severed another part of the trellis.

  “Paul, you are removing toxicodendron radicans,” Tiffany stated.

  “That sounds like radical toxins,” Gretchen said. “Paul please stop.”

  “Paulie, ‘leaflets three-- leave it be’ and ‘hairy vine-- no friend of mine’ you better stop,” Brinley stated.

  “Why, it is just some plant thing. Besides, I have the trellis opened,” Paul said as he pulled the last of the vines away. There were tiny white flowers on part of the hairy appearing vine. “Now we can go up as I cut the final bars loose.” He threw the cut out trellis down.

  “Paul, you have been exposed to a toxic plant,” Tiffany said.

  Paul climbed up and out and was standing under a bright light from a sky tube far overhead.

  “Do not touch the plants,” Tiffany instructed. The automacube rolled up the stairs and the manipulation arm pulled and removed the remaining sections of the vine and carried them out into the habitat. “It may be safe to come up now, but be careful of touching any remaining toxicodendron radicans.”

  Gretchen and Brinley carefully climbed out. They were standing in a biome right next to the wall that extended high overhead and arched up to meet the sky tube. There were green plants of various shades and hues all around them, and as they looked into the habitat they could see scattered clumps of trees with light colored bark that were quite tall, roughly twenty meters or so. Copses of these trees blocked some of the views, but between them could be see stretches of grassy fields, bushes, and other vegetation. Noises of animals, insects, birds and other things came to them from the foliage. It was not as densely packed of a forest as was found in parts of the Wilds, and the trees were completely different. Yet it was beautiful and majestic and exotic all at the same time. Wafting in the air were new smells that Paul and Gretchen had never even imagined before.

  For a moment, all three people stood in awe of the grandeur that was D Habitat, Safari.

  “Paul, are you hurt or sick?” Gretchen asked.

  “Not a bit,” he replied as he looked away from the forest and put the torch back in his pack. “I scraped my hands on those stupid vine things.” He then looked down at his hands, “They are sort of red.”

  “Paul, let me hook you up to the medical kit,” Gretchen suggested.

  “No need. I can just wash this junk off,” Paul said. “If I had some sanitizer gel, I could. It does itch quite a bit.”

  Paul’s hands were not only turning red, but they were rapidly developing blisters and were swelling.

  “Paul, sit down,” Gretchen stated firmly. “I will connect you to the medical kit, before this gets any worse.”

  “Oh great. Now the plants are trying to kill me as well?” Paul complained as he fumbled with his ever swelling hands.

  Gretchen attached the wires from the medical kit, and it read out, ‘Contact dermatitis: apply balm to affected areas. Press when ready to receive balm.’

  Paul put
his swollen hands under the medical kit and Gretchen pressed the display. A bluish gel squirted out and landed on his palms. He rubbed it all over his hands and the swelling and blistering went down rapidly and the red faded.

  “At least I did not eat that plant,” Paul said. “So will everything in her do that to us?”

  “I will try to alert you to noxious, toxic, or poisonous plants,” Tiffany stated. “I apologize for not alerting you to the danger earlier.”

  “Paulie, it was not that bad. Your medical kit did a cure, and now we can set off to find the Reproduction and Fabrication facility,” Brinley smiled as she encouraged him.

  “Well, where do we start?” Paul said as he continued to rub the balm into his hands. “Any ideas on where that place would be?”

  “A production facility would not be in the biological parts, would it?” Gretchen asked. “But we have seen buildings and other places, towns and such, nestled inside the habitats.”

  “There has been places like that android workshop outside of the habitats too, so again, where do we start?” Paul asked.

  “It looks like some kind of old path is here,” Brinley said and pointed to a part of the ground where there was less overgrowth of grasses and plants. “See the patches along in that direction?”

  “Not really,” Paul said.

  “I think we should follow this and see where it leads,” Brinley said. “We cannot go back the way we came, and following something is better than nothing, right, Paulie?”

  They started following the trail, as Brinley led them. The ground gradually sloped down away from the edge of the habitat. The various stands of trees continued in clumps for as far as they could see. They were moving perpendicular to the sky tube overhead.

  “Tiffany, is this trail going to lead us somewhere?” Paul asked.

  “I am certain it will lead somewhere, however, I think your question refers to leading to a Reproduction and Fabrication facility, is that correct?” the artificial intelligence system responded.

  “Well, yes, I mean, well, will we just end up wandering around in the habitat, or will we find something useful and someplace that can actually help us?” Paul asked.

  “That remains to be seen. I wish I could give you a better answer than that. I currently lack sufficient information to make an accurate conjecture,” Tiffany replied.

  The trail was fairly straight, but the overgrown grasses had nearly obscured it in most places. There were some open spaces where the hard packed surface had not been cracked open or broken down. Only by watching carefully and comparing the height of the grass and other plants was Brinley able to discern the path.

  “Stop!” Brinley said. She put up her hand while with the other hand she pointed. “There is a snake up here. Be careful as you walk past.”

  “I dislike this place even more,” Paul said. “Do you just shoot it or what?”

  “I am not eager to announce to this whole habitat that we are here by firing off a handgun. We can just avoid this and other snakes if we are careful.” Brinley replied.

  Gretchen picked up a dried stick from the grass and walked over to Brinley. “Do we want to move it? Where is it? I do not see it yet.”

  “Probably no need to provoke it by trying to move it. Most snakes will just slither away from people; at least in the other places I have seen them. It is there on the trail, that brownish-green color on the open piece of ground. This one, looks to be about two meters long.”

  “Oh, I see it now. Like coils of rope or cable. I would not have noticed it from here. It has a very dark black mouth,” Gretchen said as the snake lifted its head and looked at them, exposing its mouth.

  “Just assume every snake is poisonous and avoid them all,” Brinley said. “I have heard that colorful snakes are more likely to be deadly, but I am not sure if that is true. The colorful snake skins do make for better trading items.”

  As Brinley and Gretchen were observing the snake on the trail, Paul had started to watch the grove of trees ahead of them and to the right of the trail. Something was moving around the tress, but he was not sure what, or if the movement was in the trees or not.

  “Gretchen, what is that?” Paul said and pointed as an animal stepped out from behind the trees.

  Gretchen looked up and gasped. “That has to be six or seven meters tall!”

  Walking slowly out around the trees was a bizarre animal. It was tan colored, which oddly reminded Gretchen of her life in Dome 17, but the tan fur was broken up by asymmetrical brown pseudo squares, or trapezoid shaped patches. It had an enormously long neck. Its head had two thick bumps on it. The animal was standing on legs that looked too spindly to be able to support its bulk.

  “That is one of those animals on the mural, but it is way bigger than I thought,” Brinley commented.

  Paul had his handgun pulled out and was preparing to fire.

  “Do not shoot,” Tiffany stated loudly. “They are herbivores and the threat is low.”

  “How can you say anything that tall is low? Are you making a bad joke?” Paul asked as he aimed at the animal.

  “The giraffe is an unusual looking animal, but the records show it is not overly aggressive. Notice it is biting the foliage off that tree. I believe we are observing its feeding behavior,” Tiffany stated.

  “Paulie, we do not want to alert anyone we are here. If you fire, someone will hear it,” Brinley said. “And people are probably a bigger threat than that giant beast.”

  “Paul, I agree with Brinley,” Gretchen said.

  “We have not been in this biome for very long and I have already been poisoned by a plant and nearly stepped on a killer snake, and now I am facing that long necked freak. I cannot take much more,” Paul muttered. He did not put the gun away, but relaxed his grip a bit.

  “Paulie, come on and we will just walk away,” Brinley said. “Just keep very observant for other animals.”

  “Yes, Paul, we have Tiffany to identify these creatures from the historical records. We are also armed, as you know, and if we must, we will defend ourselves. But here we press forward,” Gretchen added.

  As they walked past the grove of trees where the giraffe was feeding, they saw that two more were on the opposite side. They also were eating the leaves off the trees and paid no attention to the humans and the automacube that were passing by on the old and seldom used road.

  And so they walked in quiet for a long time. Additional animals were seen at a distance, including some that vaguely reminded Paul of the animal called Tarpay that the man Victor had used to hunt them down. These other carnivores were similar in appearance, but seemed to have shorter back legs and ran differently than did Tarpay. Paul had no desire to get closer to do a more careful comparison. He considered asking Tiffany, but declined to do so.

  The light from the sky tube was diming. Despite eating as they walked, their energy levels were getting exhausted. They were all ready to rest somewhere.

  “So as night falls here, and it become dark, what kinds of threats will we face? Some vicious carnivores? Or raging automacubes? Or will the Roe be in here?” Paul asked.

  “Paulie, I doubt the Roe will be in this habitat, but maybe one followed us in from the transport hub and has been tracking us just to get to you tonight,” Brinley chided.

  “That is possible,” Paul said. “We did not seal up that door we cut open. I have seen too many weird things on the Vanguard. I think the last time I slept well was in Grandpa Gari’s home after I nearly froze to death, but then Larissa’s people came, and we know how that turned out.”

  “We do need to find a shelter or some location to spend the night. I know I need to rest and sleep,” Gretchen replied. “Tiffany? Any ideas on where we can safely spend the night?”

  “I have observed no suitable resting place which would offer shelter,” Tiffany responded. “From my calculations, we have spent roughly one third of a typical daylight cycle since we entered this habitat. That means this habitat and the others are not in syn
chronization for their day night cycles.”

  “We had the safe zone…. I mean, we had the living quarters for the Free Rangers coordinated with Oasis for a day night circadian rhythm. Other hanger bays were harmonized with the habitat closest to them. I know they are not all the same.” Brinley said while she yawned. “I have spent the night outside in a habitat before, so we can do that. Tiffany can stand watch, right?”

  “Yes, I am well equipped to do that, and can alert you all at a moment’s notice,” Tiffany replied.