“Marathon CS 2: Latest assessment: 19% into voyage when incident occurred. No human contact, but distress signal sent from secondary Artificial Intelligence, Lenore, reports that ship has been attacked by hostile aliens. This date is first contact with any alien race. AI also reported that counter attack had begun, but message was garbled and when decrypted also contained contamination from other Artificial Intelligences. Ship considered lost. Trajectory plotting attempted repeatedly using all three methods of colony ship tracking. Marginal success on plotting of course. Estimated robotic FTL contact at less than 5%.”
“So what?” Paul said. “Some failing AI on some other broken down and old colony ship makes a bogus report? How does that matter? That ship is light years from here. Besides, I remember my history lessons and there have been rumors of aliens for generations. Before the Great Event there were even folktales about aliens and ghosts and other weird stuff, right?”
“Yes, Paul, there have been unsubstantiated reports of aliens for many centuries,” Tiffany replied.
“So these spheres are just an advanced type of machine the CPO and Larissa are using to try to kill us,” Paul insisted. “They sent automacubes after us before, now they just have a new way to kill us or capture us. There is no need to invent the idea of alien life forms. Some smart scientists and engineers just had a breakthrough in technology here. Like Brink did with teleportation and faster-than-light travel. We know hardly anything about what the CPO is doing, and there must be scientific investigation happening somewhere on this ship. We even saw androids which looked identical to people. Right? Right?”
“Your assertion does have merit. A technological breakthrough might fit some of what we have seen. However, I do believe that the conjecture of alien life forms is a more likely explanation of these enemies,” Tiffany responded.
Paul was shuddering as he spoke. His voice rose in pitch and in speed. “I cannot fathom more enemies. Not more enemies. Not alien enemies. No more. No more!” Paul slammed his fist into his thigh as he squatted down and cried. “No more craziness. Larissa trying to kill us. Horrible beasts trying to eat us. Machines attacking us. The Roe are everywhere. But not aliens. No more enemies! No more, no more!”
Gretchen walked over as Paul fell to his knees in pleading and in tears. She wrapped her arms around him and held him.
“Paul, I know this is terrible,” Gretchen soothed. “I am here with you.”
Paul took some deep breaths and then hugged Gretchen again. “But Brinley? Could she really be alive?” he muttered.
“It looks that way,” Gretchen said and hugged him back.
“Then we have to get her,” Paul said through his tears. He blew his nose and wiped his hands on the grasses. “We must at least try.”
“Tiffany? What do you suggest?” Gretchen asked.
“As I suggested, we can follow the communication link and track its location,” Tiffany replied. “That offers the best potential for locating Brinley and learning what has happened.”
“Can she hear you?” Paul asked. He again blew his nose and wiped his face. “Can we send messages to her? Maybe tell her where we are headed and see if she can come toward us?”
“That is an insightful theory. I have no way of knowing what the communication link is receiving or not. I will attempt to send reports based on the assumption she is receiving them,” Tiffany replied.
“So what direction do we go?” Gretchen asked.
“The limited deck plans and schematics that I have, as well as conjectures about the construction methods and planning used on the Vanguard show a probability that an elevator or lift of some kind is located directly under the sky tube at each end of the habitat. We are approaching that position now,” Tiffany answered.
Paul looked up and indeed, the sky tube was directly overhead and it did butt up against this end wall. The light reflected down the wall and caused even more unusual shadows around them.
“So we search the wall for what?” Paul asked.
“I think I know,” Gretchen stated and she pointed.
Behind a small copse of trees could be seen some white stenciling on the gray colored wall. It was faded and some of the letters were missing entirely.
“NO E RY ALL WED: QU ANTINE”
“No entry allowed, quarantine,” Gretchen said as she moved the trees away. “This looks like some kind of exit.”
“Great, back to the Roe world,” Paul said. He pulled out a fusion pack and started to hook it into the access port.
“Paul, I can do that,” Gretchen said.
“You need to shoot and kill whatever monster, beast, Roe, or alien comes out of there. Your pistol from Dome 17 seems to be our only effective weapon,” Paul said.
“Brinley’s organic disruptor was very effective against the sphere,” Gretchen said as she drew out her pistol.
“And the spheres took that away,” Paul said. “Just like my hopes and dreams have been taken away.”
The fusion pack powered up the section of the wall. A blue hand outline appeared in the permalloy along with the outline of a rectangle.
“That is consistent with the elevators we have observed,” Tiffany reported.
“But what will be behind it?” Paul said as he looked at Gretchen.
Her pistol was ready and aimed at the rectangle.
Paul matched his hand against the blue hand symbol.
10 Larissa and Brinley work together?
Brinley saw Larissa reach the bottom of the pillar’s interior space. The shadows cast by the few lights reflected off the myriad of wires, ducts, and pipes around her and made the space look unusual. The energy system had a radiance which gave off light and heat at low levels, but in the confined space, it was oppressive. The air was stagnant without circulation. The crawl down was harder than she had thought it would be. On more than one occasion she had to remove her tools or reposition them in order to shimmy and wriggle her way past some very narrow pace. By flattening her breasts, and extending both arms over her head she had slid through the tightest of places. She did not fear falling as it was too tight for that to happen.
“I am at the bottom. There is nowhere to go from here unless we cut something open,” Larissa said as she looked back up at Brinley. She was squatting on the floor in the largest space they had yet found, and it was barely a meter wide and about a meter and a half high.
Brinley slid down next to her. It was the closest Brinley had ever been to Larissa without being in combat.
“I have a vibration saw, which should be able to cut us an opening in the floor,” Brinley said and wiggled to remove it from her pocket.
“And what will be beneath us? Water or a deck or a habitat?” Larissa asked.
“Honestly, I am not sure. We have no other place to go,” Brinley commented.
That was when dark and somewhat sticky fluids dripped onto them.
Looking up Larissa said, “I wondered when our enemies would do that.”
“Do what?” Brinley asked.
“They are flooding this space,” Larissa said. “They know we escaped and are planning to drown us in here.”
“How do you know that?”
Larissa looked Brinley squarely in the eyes, just a dozen centimeters away. “It is what I would do in their place. If you cannot find where someone escaped, block off every route, and force them to come back or they die.”
The few drips became a stream of fluids pouring down on them. There were some sizzling sounds as the fluids cooled off the radiant heat from the energy systems. There was also a strange fishy kind of smell.
“The enemy probably flooded with sea water that whole arched tunnel section they were using, and it is now leaking in around the entry to this crawl space,” Larissa stated. “Otherwise it would be pouring in like a river. It will still drown us, just a bit slower.”
“So we cut our way out,” Brinley said. “If there is no door, we make a door.”
“I will climb up and get out of your way
,” Larissa said and reached both hands up and pulled herself back into the crawl space.
“Thank you,” Brinley said.
“There will be more air up here anyway so I will last longer if you fail to cut an exit,” Larissa stated.
Brinley put the vibration saw next to the floor and then activated it. The lu-fi amalgum batteries showed it had a forty three percent charge.
“I am not sure of the depth of the flooring here, so I am setting it on maximum. That should be enough.”
Brinley quickly cut a circular opening nearly the size of the place she was standing. Water was starting to pool, and she could smell and taste the saltiness of the water. There was also a strange acrid sense to it as well. The noise of the dripping and flowing water was echoing back up the long and tight shaft.
“I got the perimeter cut made,” Brinley said, and she pushed with her legs against the floor. She placed her hands over her head and levered with her arms to add more force.
The floor was covered in about twenty centimeters of water.
Larissa dropped down to the space and as she did she kicked down hard on the floor. It slid a bit down, but did not open. Larissa was soaked with the slimy foul water, her braided hair plastered against her back. The water had obviously been pouring over her in her position above.
She handed Brinley a hair band. “Tie up your hair; it will stay out of your face. This foul stuff is a real mess.”
Brinley looked with surprise at Larissa.
“Just take it, I have others. I need you to be as efficient as possible, and you need to see,” Larissa said.
Brinley took the hair band and tied her hair in a quick ponytail. She was almost knee deep in the pool of water that was rising.
“We need to kick this thing open,” Larissa said. “Brace your arms and push with me. We push together and on three we pull up as best we can and kick downward. One, two, three, kick!”
They pushed hard three times and then pulled up by grabbing some of the wiring and conduits and kicked downward.
The cutout floor dropped a bit lower.
“Again! One, two, three, kick!” Larissa barked.
Again the floor dropped just a bit. The water was pouring down faster and the pool was waist deep. The air was getting really bad and foul.
Coughing a bit Larissa commanded again, “One, two, three, kick!”
The two of them pushed and kicked as hard as they could.
The floor tilted a bit as it did drop, but was still there.
“The water is not pouring out,” Brinley said. “I am not sure it is even open beneath us. I cut as deeply as the v-saw would penetrate!” She coughed and spit out some of the water that was splashing all around them.
“I am sure you did your best. Now we need to just push it out. I am not going back up to our enemies. We push this down now! One, two, three, kick!”
The floor shook a bit and dropped a smidge more. But the water was coming even faster. It was now neck deep as they squatted there in the space.
“Come on and push harder!” Larissa yelled. She got a mouthful of foul water and spit it out. “This time we do it, right!”
“Absolutely! We are getting out. No door can keep me in!” Brinley yelled back. “Just keep kicking every time!”
“Kick! Kick! Kick!” Larissa yelled.
In synchronized rhythm the two women kicked downward and pushed upward with their arms. The water kept pouring in and was nearly covering them over. Brinley was getting light headed and choking on the foul water and lack of air.
“Keep kicking! Never quit! I never quit!” Larissa screamed. “I never lose! I will not quit!”
The floor broke loose.
The permalloy disc which had been cut out clanged off the railing of a catwalk and dropped into the darkness below. Brinley and Larissa were pushed by the surging water downward. As they passed through the cut out floor, Brinley grabbed the rim and Larissa’s belt and swung them a tiny amount. Because of that, in the fall, Brinley and Larissa both landed just inside the railing on the catwalk, while the water poured mostly past the catwalk. They struck the expanded metal hard with Larissa landed on top of Brinley.
“Ooph! Yuuoof!” they cried out as they slammed into the catwalk.
The water continued to pour past them, but slowed a bit as the accumulated water which had pooled at the bottom was now gone and it was a steady stream of water.
“Did the fall, kill you?” Larissa asked as she rolled off of Brinley.
“No,” Brinley sputtered and spit water. “I certainly do not want to do that ever again.”
“Nor do I,” Larissa replied. She looked around.
There was a yellow light some distance away and it was rotating slowly and giving a dull illumination to the area. The light was mounted at a corner of the catwalk where several other catwalks came together. The size of the area they were in was large, but the light was not bright enough to see the walls or the floor down below them. The sound of the pouring water made the floor seem very remote.
In the distance Larissa could barely see another yellow light flashing, but it was hard to see.
“There is steam coming up from the floor,” Brinley observed. “There must be machinery down there that is vaporizing the water.”
“So you do not know where we are?” Larissa asked.
“Not really. Probably an engineering or propulsion system of some kind. A big place,” Brinley replied.
“I lost my knife, and the broken multiceiver,” Larissa said as she checked her body over. “No bones broken, but no equipment. What do you still have?”
Brinley stood up and stretched her back. Overhead she could make out the hole where the water was still pouring down. The ceiling was not flat or even, and had a multitude of projections, ducts, and pipes in it. The section where the hole had been made had also broken off a duct and some conduits with their wiring hanging down in broken pieces. Checking herself, she realized her tool belt was gone. She assessed her pockets.
“I still have the v-saw, a couple of spanners, and my wits. That will be enough,” Brinley said.
“It will have to be. This area will not fill up anytime soon, and our enemies might figure that out. We need to get back to the Wilds,” Larissa said.
“Why?” Brinley asked. “We are free from those things, so here we just part ways. I am too tired to kill you now.”
Larissa actually laughed a bit. “You could try to kill me, but you would lose. I know we hate each other, but there is a bigger issue here. Those enemies, they attacked the Wilds and killed my people. They attacked Oasis and killed Herric and who knows how many others there. They obviously did something like that to you and the smugglers as well. They are a threat to humanity, and to the Vanguard.”
“We are Free Rangers, not smugglers,” Brinley chided.
“Okay, Free Rangers. The point is that you are people, human beings on this colony ship. Those things are not. They attacked us in at least two of the habitats, and you smugglers…. oh, Free Rangers, in the decks and corridors. I wonder if they attacked the CPO as well?” Larissa pondered for a moment.
“A ship wide attack?” Brinley asked. “And yes, we agree, we are humans. You honestly do not know what those things are?”
“You saw it, and you heard it talk to us. Nothing like that is in the Wilds, not even in the deepest parts of Lake Orsk,” Larissa responded. “There are some animals that can mimic speech, and some species of apes that can use sign language, but nothing like what we saw.”
“I agree,” Brinley conceded, “As a smuggler, as you call me, I too have never seen or heard about anything like that. I have seen a lot of things, but never those spheres or that creature which spoke to us.”
“So we continue our truce?” Larissa asked. “Or do we see who can kill the other right her and right now?” Larissa’s blue eyes met Brinley’s hazel eyes and there was menace from both sides.
“We focus our hatred on those enemies, yes,” Brinley respo
nded. “Maybe later we will try to kill each other.” Brinley brook eye contact this time.
“Agreed. Now where do we go?” Larissa asked.
Water suddenly started to shoot down from the hole in the ceiling. It was a raging cataract of pressure and flow. Both Larissa and Brinley jumped away and across the catwalk toward the yellow flashing light.
“Looks like the entry door to that crawlspace broke loose,” Brinley yelled over the roaring of the water.
“Or the enemy increased the pressure,” Larissa added. “It is good we got out of there.”
They reached the flashing yellow light, and the humidity, steam, and haze in the whole area was growing. Larissa pointed toward the distant other yellow flashing light and they hiked toward it.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 104
