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

by John Thornton

  Larissa rubbed her hand briefly over her braid, ever so gently. Then in a firm voice she commanded, “I order you to implement scenario one. Make that into reality immediately.”

  “The war for recovery of this colony ship may take a generation, but my conjectures are we will succeed,” Tiffany related. “Sending out orders for the start of scenario number one as discussed.”

  A different voice came from one of the blue automacubes.

  “That is unacceptable,” Phoenix Dominie stated.

  The entire bridge was plunged into darkness. Every monitor, every display, the three dimensional model, and every control winked out. Blackness covered over everything.

  Then a single large display came back on, but glowing a dull orange color. It reminded Paul of the eyes of the Roe.

  “Lattice! What has happened?” Larissa barked. “Give me an answer now!”

  Brinley’s hands flew over the controls trying to regain something, anything. “Nothing is responding to manual overrides!”

  “The DAMA and IAM are now in operational control of the Vanguard. Captain Larissa has been relieved of command. She has shown inability to make command level decisions. Larissa is judged unfit for command. No other qualified human available.” Phoenix Dominie stated. “This unit assumes defense of the Vanguard.”

  The three dimensional model glowed orange.

  “Initiating Operation Alien Purge. Jettisoning with subsequent detonation of A Habitat Oasis in 5…4…3…2…1”

  16 Operation Alien Purge

  Paula, Gretchen, Larissa and Brinley were lit up by the dull orange glow from the large display and from the three dimensional model. The orange light infused the whole command bridge with odd shadows and a surreal feel.

  “Phoenix Dominie, I command you to shut down and release these controls,” Larissa commanded. “Do that immediately!”

  “This unit is in control. Operation Alien Purge has begun. You have been relieved of command.”

  Larissa placed her palm against the display screen. “I am Captain Larissa, any artificial intelligence system respond.” A brief green glow washed over her hand.

  “You have been relieved of command,” Phoenix Dominie repeated.

  “Brinley shut this down,” Larissa said.

  Brinley tried every action she knew on the control board, but there was no response. She then jumped up and headed for the door at a sprint. The door slammed shut right in her face, followed nearly immediately by the second of the double door also closing. She heard them click and latch. Brinley quickly punched in an override code on the dull color pad.

  Nothing happened.

  “I can get us out of here, but it will take some time,” Brinley said as she pulled out some tools.

  The three androids which had been in the lifeless pile stood up. “You will not resist the proper authorities,” one of them said as they took steps toward the people.

  Gretchen pulled out her pistol.

  Piff. Piff. Piff.

  Each android was destroyed by a shot to its head. Their bodies flopped back to the deck and after a moment were still.

  “Security forces are in place around the bridge. Please do not attempt to interfere. This unit does not wish to murder humans, even when they are incompetent to lead. Emergency jettison of A Habitat has begun. You may watch the defense of the Vanguard from external cameras, or as shown on the dynamic model which will display this unit’s success.” Phoenix Dominie stated. “Contingency plans and preparation by automacubes has been underway for some time. Operation Alien Purge is inaugurated.”

  A different display turned on. This one showed the outside of the hull and the view was of a constituent joint. It showed the vastness of space and the field of stars behind it. The more natural looking light from that display only washed away some of the orange light of the room.

  Viewing the outside, flaps of permalloy folded down from the hull and up into the constituent joint. Long streamers of gas sprayed in bubbly jets out to the sides and dispersed in the vacuum of space. Restraining rivets were shattered by controlled explosive bolts. Other parts shifted and moved and twisted. The unlocking of vast mechanical clamp, joints, compression fittings, and connectors took place in an orchestrated sequence. The constituent joint’s multiple pieces slipped apart and the huge cylinder holding the biological habitat known as Oasis ever so subtly slipped away from the rest of the Colony Ship Vanguard.

  “What will happen?” Paul asked. “This ship is in flight. Can that Phoenix thing really do this?”

  Larissa leaned back in the chair. “It is happening. So obviously, the Phoenix Dominie system had this planned.”

  “You are awfully mundane about it,” Paul said.

  “In this case, Paul, there is nothing I can do about it at all. Look at all that is happening to Oasis. Do you have a suggestion on how to stop it?” Larissa was outwardly cool and calm as she gestured at the display.

  Gretchen had pulled off her backpack and removed a molecular torch. “I will help Brinley get the door open.”

  “Be my guest,” Larissa stated. “I doubt it will do any good. For whatever reason Phoenix Dominie wants us to see this, and even if you get the doors open, what will you do? I doubt those three androids are the only ones operational now, not to mention the security automacubes which could be used against us.” Larissa looked at the blue automacubes which were sitting quietly on the bridge. She wondered if she should destroy them now, and briefly stroked the pistol at her hip. She decided against it.

  Instead, Larissa undid her hair, pulled a small brush from her belt pouch, and began to comb through her thick blonde hair as she sat and watched.

  “Paulie, I am afraid Larissa is right,” Brinley said. “Gretchen, put down the torch. If Phoenix Dominie had wanted us dead, it could have killed us in the darkness after it took control.”

  “Great, you also are giving up?” Paul whined. “I thought no door could keep you out or keep you in.”

  “I choose not to open this door, that is the difference,” Brinley quipped.

  “So what do we do?” Gretchen asked.

  Larissa was carefully braiding her hair. “I believe right now all we can do is observe and hope that whatever this Operation Alien Purge is that it does kill the enemy. I wonder what the unexpected consequences will be?”

  There on the display screen, they saw that all the constituent joints were released. A Habitat was slowly moving away from the rest of the Vanguard. Looking over at the model, in its dull orange illumination, there too the ship was seen decoupled from the A Habitat cylinder.

  “Phoenix Dominie?” Larissa asked. “May I ask you a question?”

  “You already did. This unit is in command but is listening. State your question,” Phoenix Dominie replied.

  “Is your Operation Alien Purge the same as the rejected scenario which Tiffany described?”

  “Scenario two was the plan. Operation Alien Purge is the implementation, that is correct.”

  “Would you please give us full visuals on the model, with commentary on the progress of your Operation Alien Purge?” Larissa asked. Her voice was soft and nonthreatening. “It would be nice to see the aliens represented so we can watch your successes.”

  “This unit will honor that request. It is reasonable for you to observe.”

  The model shifted from the dull orange color to full spectrum animation and recreation of what was happening to the Vanguard. The model showed the best view as the cameras and apertures for the displays were on the hull and could not capture the enormity of the scene. On the model the A Habitat cylinder was gaining speed as it moved away from the needle ship.

  “Phoenix Dominie? I do not see the Jellies accounted for on the model, am I missing something?” Larissa asked. Again her words and tones were different than the others had heard her use before. “Will you help me understand?”

  Paul, Gretchen, and Brinley all sat down and swiveled their chairs around to watch the progression.


  The model suddenly had fourteen blobs of purplish blue that were hovering over the exterior at various places. Ten of those were around various parts of the A Habitat cylinder. They were oblong shaped, and consistent in size, even though their edges were fuzzy.

  “You are seeing the alien ships,” Phoenix Dominie stated. “Hull sensors and newly created devices have instituted physical anchoring, magnetic grappling, and gravitation attraction manipulation to keep those ten alien ships in place until detonation. The rest of the Jellie fleet will similarly be anchored to their current locations to await excising.”

  Paul looked away from the model and at the display screen which showed the outside. Underneath the A Habitat there suddenly were bursts of thrust that were very large. The spouts of flame shot out from A Habitat and drove it away from the needle ship.

  Brinley looked over, “Those are positioning rockets which are firing. That habitat will be a good distance away from the Vanguard very soon.”

  “If it is not and it explodes, what will happen?” Paul asked.

  “Watch and see, Paul. Watch and see,” Larissa said. “It is all out of our hands now.”

  The model showed that A Habitat was moving quickly in a perpendicular manner to the rest of the Vanguard. Three of the alien ships suddenly pulled away from the cylinder and raced toward other parts of the Vanguard. The cylinder then did a quick rotation which surprised Gretchen as she considered how huge the A Habitat really was.

  There was a blindingly bright flash, and no sound, as the solar mimicry system, the sky tube of Oasis, detonated. The flash blanked out the visual cameras. The three dimensional model also faded out for a moment.

  “It happened,” Paul said in shock. “It really exploded. Inaccessible Island is no more.”

  “Let us hope the Jellies are no more as well,” Larissa commented. “But I did see some of their ships moving.”

  As the explosion subsided A Habitat remains were revealed. The cylinder was shattered into countless chunks. The vast majority of them were on courses away from the Vanguard. There were streaks of various things which were still streaming out from the explosion site. There was no evidence of any of the seven Jellie ships which had been trapped to the hull of A Habitat. The three that had escaped were some distance away.

  “How many people just died,” Paul lamented. “All those people in suspended animation inside Inaccessible Island. How many others?”

  “Collateral damage is very regrettable, but is a necessary part of war. The defense of the Vanguard mandated certain sacrifices be made,” Phoenix Dominie stated.

  “I noticed you are still functional. Your central memory core must be located somewhere else, right?” Paul stated. “You avoided your own sacrifice.”

  “This unit’s central memory core is in a secured and mobile location. This unit is essential to defending the Vanguard,” Phoenix Dominie replied.

  “Who decides who is essential?” Paul asked in anger.

  “The Jellies are on the move!” Gretchen said as she watched the three dimension model where the purplish-blue oblongs were moving.

  Three of those Jellie spacecraft had moved very rapidly over to surround one end of a different cylinder. The cylinder was labeled B Habitat on the model.

  “That is Heartland,” Larissa said as she finalized the braiding of her hair. Tying it back into place he spoke again, “Phoenix Dominie, how will you defend against those Jellie craft? You said they would all be anchored and trapped where they were.”

  “Conjectures showed that no Jellie craft would be able to move after implementation of Operation Alien Purge,” Phoenix Dominie replied. “This is unexpected and irregular.”

  “There are always unexpected and irregular consequences,” Larissa said.

  The Jellie spacecraft which surrounded B Habitat linked into a larger single blob. That craft then moved to just over the short end of the habitat. A brilliant pink light came out as a tight and narrow beam. It struck the end of the cylinder.

  “Can we get any closer views?” Larissa asked.

  “There is still no response to the manual overrides,” Brinley reported.

  “This looks very bad. Phoenix thing! What are the aliens doing?” Paul demanded. “You started this! What are they doing!”

  There was no response.

  The model showed the alien combined craft moving slowly along the end edge of the B Habitat. The pink beam of energy was pulsing slowly as it struck into the Vanguard. The model showed a severed fissure being created where the pink beam struck.

  “That is going to cut all the way into the biological habitat!” Brinley said. “That will came decompression of the whole habitat!”

  “Phoenix Dominie?” Larissa asked. “Please help me understand what I am seeing. What will happen to Heartland?”

  There was an eruption of something which flew out from the end of Heartland and flowed past the Jellie combined ship. It looked like fluids, but the scale was so large it was hard to tell. The fissure grew increasingly large until the entire end of the cylinder was consumed and a vast quantity of wreckage debris was flowing out from inside the cylinder.

  “That biological habitat is gone,” Gretchen said in shock.

  “I am dammed,” Phoenix Dominie stated from the display.

  Abruptly the large display went dark. The three dimensional model went blank. The bridge was plunged into darkness.

  “This is really bad,” Paul groaned. “Really, really bad.”

  17 tiffany returns

  The bridge was dark. There was no sound except for the four people who were breathing.

  Gretchen was first to turn on a fusion pack light.

  “What happened?” Gretchen asked. “Paul? Paul are you here?”

  “Where else would I go? We are trapped in here on a dead bridge,” Paul said as he too turned on a fusion pack light.

  Larissa was turning dials and levers, but with a look of doubt on her face. Nothing anywhere in the entire bridge was lit up in any way. The only light was from the fusion pack.

  Brinley was doing the same at her work station, but she too had no response.

  “The whole board is unpowered,” Brinley said. “I will hook up a fusion pack and see if we can get anything to work.”

  “But what happened?” Paul demanded. “Brinley, you know the systems on this old ship. What did we just see?”

  “Paulie, I am not sure. It looked….” Brinley tried to reply but Larissa interrupted her.

  “We saw thousands of people die. That was the alien’s counter attack. I believe the Vanguard just lost not only A Habitat: Oasis, but also B Habitat: Heartland. That was a counter attack by Jellies against our most secure habitat. They just killed everyone in Heartland. I feared their reprisal, and so I chose the long term strategy. We saw Phoenix Dominie’s Operation Alien Purge go terribly wrong.” Several tears ran down Larissa’s face. She ignored them as she tried to get any part of the bridge to function.

  Brinley inserted a fusion pack cable to an access port.

  A small display opened in a weak green glow.

  “I am here,” came Tiffany’s voice.

  “Tiffany? Is that really you?” Paul asked.

  “Yes. The nonphysicality is in chaos and I was able to extract myself form the influences of Phoenix Dominie and I reversed the acculturation,” Tiffany replied.

  Brinley looked at the display, her face lit by the green glow coming off of it. “Tiffany, what is the status of the Vanguard?”

  “That is unknown. I am not willing to link or couple to other systems at this time. The chaos in the nonphysicality is too great and too dangerous. There is zero evidence of a lattice of compeers, or the IAM or the DAMA. Essentially none of them now exist. I am unable to locate my own Atomic Level Processor, however it is functioning. The tendril of consciousness I have to this display is weak and fluctuating. Please connect in your multiceivers so I can make a link to them. Act quickly, this medium is unstable.”

  Paul, Lar
issa, Gretchen, and Brinley all took their multiceivers and cabled them into the ports under the display. The screens on all of them began to glow in a green light.

  “Links established and locked in place,” Tiffany reported.

  “What else can you report?” Larissa asked.

  “Very little. The chaos in the nonphysicality is too severe for any assessment of other features. I do know there are artificial intelligence systems which are active, however, I cannot identify their rationality or coherence or sanity,” Tiffany reported.