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

by John Thornton

  “Victor, you were saying you are leading us on a route to reach the Reproduction and Fabrication facility?” Gretchen interjected.

  “Yes. Tarpay is scouting for us and will alert us to any threats ahead. Not all the passageways are still maintained. We will possibly encounter the Roe here, and that is why I was assigned to this duty. Besides having met you previously, since I am immune to the Outbreak, it was considered more safe for me to escort you on your tasks. None of us were certain where you would be heading, but it was theorized that you would be going out of Pampas. To be honest, I had not wanted to venture out of the habitat, but these are irregular times.”

  “This is your first time out of the habitat and you are leading us?” Paul said. He was quite startled.

  “I have reviewed the deck plans, as do all the troopers. I have a detailed map with me; on the off chance we must proceed somewhere I am unsure about. I do know the locations of most of the places within walking distance of Pampas. I do not have to have taken each step to know where we are going,” Victor stated. “Tarpay is also well able to scout for us, so why worry?”

  “Why worry?” Paul retorted. “There are the Roe, and the Jellies, and the tagalongs, and red automacubes, and crazed people trying to kill us. Those are some of the reasons I worry. Just some of the reasons.”

  Tarpay was scratching at a steel door at the end of the hallway. He then looked back at Victor.

  “You see, Tarpay knows our route as well.”

  “How does some animal know the way?” Paul wondered aloud.

  “Tarpay is not just ‘some animal’ as you should know. Tarpay is a volkosoby, and as such is well suited to ferret out routes, passages, and other things needed for this mission to be successful,” Victor stated. “Behind that door is the elevator which leads down to the concourse. That concourse goes under the habitat walls and will lead us to another elevator which does flow directly to the Reproduction and Fabrication facility. We are on the way to our goal.”

  Victor opened the door.

  13 A large surprise

  The steel door slid open and a foul stench wafted over them as the seals on the door snapped. Crumbles of black insulation fell from the ruined lip around the door.

  Gretchen drew out her pistol as Tarpay leapt through the doorway.

  “That is noxious,” Paul said. “It smells like ammonia, mixed with vomit.”

  The area was dark, but the elevator doors were partially open on the far side of what looked like a curved wall. The light in the elevator was on, and it added its illumination to the shaft of light coming from the door they had opened.

  Paul fumbled in his backpack for the fusion pack to put on its light. Something pushed past his legs, and scurried into the dim area beyond.

  “Tarpay! Return!” Victor yelled into the chamber.

  The wolf-dog ran back immediately. Victor and Tarpay walked over to the elevator and looked inside.

  Paul got the fusion pack light on and the beam lit up the room. The room had round arched walls with numerous panels missing. Wiring was hanging loose, and ducts and vents had been torn out of the walls. Dark small passages led away behind where the panels had been removed.

  Gretchen carefully watched everything as she scanned the room while Paul shined the light around. She kept her pistol ready.

  “I see nothing here,” Gretchen said as she completed the turn. “Tiffany can you get any more lights to come on in here?”

  “I am sorry, but I will not,” Tiffany replied. The automacube remained on the other side of the doorway.

  “Again, we get a refusal of help,” Paul groaned.

  They slowly walked over to where Victor was assessing the elevator. He looked at them, and then back to the ruined mess which was the interior of the elevator. The ceiling was virtually gone, and several woven ropes were dangling down from the darkness above. The floor too was ruined as something had pushed it up from beneath until it was ripped and torn apart.

  “This will not go anywhere, ever,” Paul said.

  “I am not sure what did this,” Gretchen stated. “The elevator’s construction is not full permalloy, but is a weaker metal like steel. Still, it takes strength to rip the ceiling away and lift the floor. Even the permalloy supports on the floor are bent.”

  “An explosion?” Paul asked.

  “No.” Victor shook his head back and forth. “I think not. An explosion would leave heat or blast damage. This is just torn up. It could be the Jellie monsters, as they are immensely strong. However, we have only seen them around water, and there is no water here.”

  “How do we get past this?” Gretchen asked.

  “Most of the elevators in this area have corresponding stairwells. We will ferret around and find one of those stairways. Then we will take the stairwell down to the concourse below us. It will involve some backtracking, but that is not a big obstacle.”

  “The smell is not as bad in the elevator as in this room,” Paul said. “I see no reason for the smell, but it may be coming from one of the ruptured vents.”

  Tarpay put his nose to the floor and walked carefully around the room. He circled back a moment later and then stopped by several panels which were still intact.

  “Tarpay has located something,” Victor said and walked over to where Tarpay was nosing the sidewall. “Perhaps Tarpay will save us a search?”

  “Yes, some animal is smelling a wall. That is a comforting sight,” Paul said.

  Victor closely assessed the wall. He pulled slightly on a recessed place and the panel swung out and away.

  “Tarpay, well done!” Victor praised, ignoring Paul’s comment. “There is a doorway behind these panels. They are just a façade.”

  “So a hidden door is there? Like that fake rock behind the waterfall?” Paul muttered.

  “It looks like it. Do you think it is another suspended animation vault or chamber?” Gretchen asked. “We know that other one was hidden.”

  Victor pulled off the remaining panels and the door was fully revealed. On it was faded lettering in white, ‘In-vivo Cryptoresearch’ on the gray of the door.

  “So Victor, what is that place? I was hoping for a stairway,” Paul said.

  “I have never heard of such a place. It is not on the deck plans I have studied.” He pulled out a folded sheet of thin material and looked at it. “It is not on the map I have. Nor have I heard of anyone discussing this. With the elevator destroyed, I think we should try this route. See how Tarpay signals that it is of interest? Something is back there.”

  “So the animal is now leading us?” Paul said.

  “I trust some animals more than some people,” Victor said, an edge in his voice. “Tarpay has never let me down.”

  “But you have no idea what that place is? Your map does not show it?” Paul was frustrated. “Tiffany, will you please come here and help us? You cannot even see the door from way back there where you are parked.”

  “I think it best the automacube remain where it is,” Tiffany replied. “If I can just…”

  Paul ran over to where the automacube was located. “No! Get in here and help us! I am sick of your refusals and your stubborn defiance of me!” Paul physically grabbed the manipulation arm of the automacube and yanked it through the doorway and into the room. “You will give me an assessment of….”

  The wheels on the orange automacube locked, yet Pail pulled it hard enough to drag it the short distance through the doorway. The steel door immediately slammed shut with a resounding crash which was followed by a sinister hissing sucking sound. More of the ruined insulation fell from around the door.

  “What?” Paul said.

  “The door has closed,” Tiffany reported. “There appears to be some kind of pneumatic device being engaged on it. A liquefied form of insulation is being injected under pressure around the door and frame. I suspected that something was not right with the doorway, but was unable to ascertain what it was. I was trying to explain that I had concerns about the status
of the door when you pulled the automacube into the room. I do not believe there are controls to allow exit of this room from this door.”

  “What?” Paul said again. He was shocked. “We can cut our way out if we need to, but why did you fail to warn me?”

  “I attempted to explain, but you were hasty and reckless,” Tiffany responded.

  The was a laugh. “I am not sure what I am seeing here. Is this a physical altercation between a man and an AI? AIs only do what they are programmed to do, so Paul, why are you angered at the AI?” Victor asked.

  “Go talk to your beast and leave me alone!” Paul snapped back.

  Tarpay growled a bit deep in his throat. He stepped up and in between Paul and Victor. His ears were lying flat on his head, and his lips were pulling back from his teeth.

  The gray and black striped cat leaped in front of Paul. It spat and hissed at Tarpay. The wolf-dog backed down and looked at Victor.

  “Protected by a patrol cat!” Victor laughed a hearty laugh. “All while arguing with an artificial intelligence system! This is quite the sight, I must say so. Yes it is.”

  Hearing Victor’s laugh, Tarpay sat down, his tongue lolled out, and his ears perked up.

  The cat rubbed up against Paul’s legs and he looked down at it.

  “Sorry Tiffany. I should listen to you more carefully,” Paul said.

  Victor laughed even more upon hearing Paul’s apology.

  “Yes Paul, you should listen to me more carefully. I am trying my best to help you achieve your goal,” Tiffany stated. “I am your advocate in this mission, not your adversary.”

  “I said I was sorry. If you really….” Paul started.

  Gretchen intervened, “Paul, shall we open this door? It appears to be the only way to depart, unless we want to try climbing those ropes in the elevator.”

  “Climbing would not lead the correct way. We need to descend to the concourse. Hopefully this door leads to where the stairway is located,” Victor said. “As you said, my dear lady, it is now the only way to depart, unless we seek to cut open that door, go back and search?”

  “Okay, we try this door. That will be faster than cutting open the other one anyway,” Paul said. He walked over to the door with the odd labeling, and pulled the lever. The door groaned open with a rusty screech, but only a few centimeters. He pulled harder and it resisted a bit and then jerked open a small distance more.

  “A hidden door with no security lock?” Gretchen asked out loud. “That seems very strange.”

  “I agree, and that door was labeled. Not the best way to hide something,” Victor said. He motioned for Tarpay to enter as soon as Paul pulled the door wide enough. “It has not been opened for a long time. This is very rusty.”

  Shortly after Tarpay ran through the doorway, sounds came out, musical sounds. Some kind of instruments were making an unusual melody. There were discordant elements which made the listening unpleasant.

  Victor and Gretchen helped Paul to pull the door open and it grinded as it was forced. With the three of them pulling, they finally moved it until there was space enough for a human to pass inside.

  “I have analyzed that music which is being played from beyond the door,” Tiffany stated. “It is recorded in an old form called, ‘compressed signal replica retrieval’. I conjecture that what we are hearing is a combination of two separate works. One is a variation on music reportedly written by Saëns, possibly titled, ‘Le carnaval des animaux’ originally composed circa 1880. The second is an electronic composition which resembles Nechayev’s ‘Adagio loomade surma’ originally composed circa 2035. However, my historical records are incomplete, and this conjecture is only probable, not confident. I have no way to know when this was recorded, nor who were the musicians, nor why the two pieces are being played simultaneously.”

  “What difference does some bizarre noise make?” Paul said. “Can you shut it off instead of just talking about it?”

  “I am trying to assist where I can. I will not enter the nonphysicality at this point, so unless we see a mechanical method of terminating the music, I cannot assist in doing that,” Tiffany replied.

  Victor pushed past Paul and squeezed his way inside beyond the door labeled ‘In-vivo Cryptoresearch’.

  Paul was next, and he aimed the fusion pack light into the area trying to see where Victor and the wolf-dog had gone. Gretchen followed, with the orange automacube barely squeezing past the stuck door.

  “This door will not shut on its own,” Gretchen said as she looked around. “So that is not a problem.”

  The music was louder and more annoying, but the room was visible. There were mesh cages along one side, with cabinets along the other side. Many of the cabinet doors were ripped off and some had three or four long slash marks across them. Gretchen could see some diffuse light up ahead and around a corner. It was different from the light of the fusion pack which Paul was holding while he looked into some of the cages.

  “Skeletons,” Paul said in a voice loud enough to overcome the irritating sounds of the music. “Makes me think of Dome 3, but these are not human bones.”

  Gretchen looked where the beam of light was shining. The bones were yellowed and in a jumble. The skull was too large and the wrong shape for a human. The ribs were also too wide.

  “Some habitat animal, I suppose, but is the skeleton in each cage the same? Victor, are they the same animals or different animals in the cages by you?” she asked. “Do you know what these animals were?”

  Victor was too far ahead to hear so her question was not answered.

  The next cage like the previous one was locked. Inside it was another skeleton. The skull was longer and more pointed than the last. “That looks like Tarpay’s size,” Paul said. “But the next cages also have other types of bones. This place is too odd for my liking. The locks are on the outside of the cages, but who were the jailers?”

  While all the cages were the same size, about two meters by three meters, the skull sizes varied from the largest one by the entry door, to very small and pointy skulls no bigger than a thumb.

  Tiffany offered an observation. “I have a rough conjecture on what types of animals these were. In the first cage…”

  “Who cares, and why does it matter now? They are dead. The cages are locked. Whatever happened in here was long ago. I just want to find the way out,” Paul said bitterly. “Try to shut off that disgusting noise, if you can at least help that much.” He quit looking in the cages and walked around the corner.

  Gretchen examined the cabinets, but all that they contained was debris. The ripped up chunks and pieces in the cabinets were mostly too small to identify. She called out over the sound of the music, “Victor? What is this place?”

  Turning the corner, they saw the area opened up to a much larger space. The music echoed even louder there. Victor was standing against one wall working on a control board. In one had he had a small device which was making light. In the other he was working on the buttons and dials.

  “Victor!” Gretchen yelled over the top of the noise. “What is this place?”

  “This place is unlike what I have known. Those poor animals back there died in cages. That should not be. I can find no working power sources in this junction box,” Victor said. “Tarpay is exploring ahead, but I wanted more light to see what is really here.”

  “Let me help,” Gretchen pulled out her fusion pack and connected it into the access port.

  The fusion pack energy flowed into the junction box. The ceiling lights slowly started to glow. There was a smell of burning dust as the lights came on. The area was now visible. It stretched for about thirty meters wide and perhaps fifty meters deep. The ceiling was some ten meter overhead. The floor was permalloy with some kind of spongy covering on it. The covering was ripped and torn in numerous places. The walls showed splash marks of some kind of dark fluids which had dried on them. A few pipes and wires crossed the walls, but mostly they were bare.

  About one fourth of the flo
or was open with a sort of ramp which led downward from the far side of the area. It was not a solid ramp, but instead was like a ladder at an angle with bars instead of steps. To get to that descending ramp they would need to walk around the room to the far side, and then descend. There were no railings or barriers to the opening where the ramp descended.

  “We could have walked right off that edge,” Paul said. “With the darkness and the distracting noise, was this a trap?”

  “We would have seen it with the fusion lights,” Gretchen said. “But it is unsafe to be so open like that. Not really even stairs either.”

  “The rungs on that ramp would allow someone to climb up, sort of, but it is certainly not handy for people,” Paul stated.