Tiffany answered from the multiceiver. “Paul, using a single Captain’s gig for the lifeboat reduces the capacity of suspended animation to two individuals, and the conjectured success of that plan is just above zero, but much lower than the one-to-five percent chance of success for our current plans. Our fate is much safer with the lifeboat of two combined Captain’s gigs.”
“But we can at least gather the supplies and perhaps find your ALP, right? You said that was located near the target in Safari. If we could connect your ALP into the gig’s systems we might have a better chance at finding a second gig,” Gretchen said. “Brinley, can we dock by Safari and complete that part of the mission?”
“Yes, if we can locate a hanger bay that is not flooded. Or an External Repair Station that is operational. Safari is further away than the Wilds. I wonder if the Artemis is alive?” Brinley replied.
“Most everyone is dead. That countdown back on the command bridge is probably almost zero now,” Paul said. Then he picked up the multiceiver and toggled the switch for Larissa. Her face came on the small display.
“Have you acquired a second gig?” Larissa asked.
“We have seen two that are destroyed,” Paul replied. He then noted that Larissa was in the laboratory where the captive Jellie was kept. “What are you doing?”
“Getting information from the prisoner. Now is there anything else?” Larissa snapped.
“I think we should go get the manufactured supplies next, what do you think?” Paul asked. “I also wanted to know…”
“Brinley has final say. Have her contact me if there is something else.” The multiceiver clicked off.
“I just wanted to know how many survivors there still were, but she cut me off,” Paul said.
“While I would prefer to go to Safari first, we are closer to the Wilds. So, we will head toward the Wilds and the Reproduction and Fabrication zone there. If there are survivors they may also be seeking that location,” Brinley replied.
“Why?” Paul asked.
“Because of what we saw in that last hanger bay. If Pampas is entirely flooded, then that might be happening in the Wilds as well. Survivors will be seeking gravitation higher ground, and nothing is much higher than the sky tube and the promenade near the Reproduction and Fabrication zone.” Brinley was secretly hoping that Tennard had left Miass and was going to be there, but she did not share that with the others.
“Roe will head away from water too,” Paul said, but neither woman answered him.
The Captain’ gig made the short trek across to the next cylinder without incident and no sightings of any Jellies. The Wilds habitat was one of the more familiar places Brinley knew, and she looked for spots of the hull which she would recognize. Even her confidence was shaken a bit as she saw the damage to various places in the hull. As they swooped along, they passes a constituent joint which connected the Wilds habitat cylinder to the needle ship.
“Brinley? That linkage joint we are passing is different than on the deck plans,” Gretchen reported as she concentrated on the display before her. “There are sections which look to have been fastened onto it. I would say they look like reinforcements and giant welds. What do you think?”
Brinley observed what Gretchen pointed out and had the gig circle around it for another view. “That constituent joint will never detach again. The Jellies, I assume it was them, have fused all the decoupling places. It is a solid connection now. And see where the transport tube system emerges from the habitat and passes over to the needle ship? That too has been fortified. I wish I could tell what was traveling through that transport tube.”
“Why would that matter?” Paul asked. “The Jellies are wrecking something. No surprised there.”
“Paulie, if I knew what was inside it that would reveal some of their plans,” Brinley answered.
“Can you just get us docked and avoid this idle speculation? I just want to get this finished, and get away from here. I do not have the best memories of the Wilds.”
“Paul,” Gretchen looked at him, “I doubt we will be freezing here this time. We will not even be entering the biological habitat.”
“But there are lots of other things bad things that can happen,” Paul sighed out.
“I have been watching the deck plans and am looking for a place to dock near that Fabrication zone. I think I have found it. That small oval there is an Exterior Repair Station, and according to these deck plans it is just three levels away from the sky tube promenade. Can we dock there?” Gretchen asked Brinley.
“Yes, at the External Repair Station. The Captain’s gig has an extension stub which is designed to lock to the airlock. I will maneuver us over to that location.” Brinley fingered the controls and the thrusters fired and the gig ever so gently approached the airlock, but then halted a distance away.
“So if we dock here, and that airlock is filled with water, will the whole gig flood?” Paul asked. “That would be catastrophic.”
“Paulie, I see your concern. I have already taken precautions about it. Before I extend the stub out I will try to open the airlock remotely,” Brinley replied. “In a way it is lucky we saw that hanger bay filled with water. It warns us of potentials we may not have considered. I think we will have better luck this time since I can see that there is power in the hull here.
Indeed, there were lights on and a flood lamp was shining out over the airlock door. After Brinley made the signal, a yellow light began flashing just above the airlock door. The yellow flashing shined brightly off the reflective paint of the yellow stripes on the outside of the airlock’s door. The door slid open. Nothing came out.
“Looks like this one is working,” Brinley said. “May I dock now, Paulie?”
Paul just frowned and nodded.
The gig moved carefully up to the airlock door. Then a bit forward as Brinley aligned the gig’s side door into the proper position. Using the thrusters she matched perfectly with the hull. She then fired three of the magnetic docking tug cables. The gig was secured in place.
“Extending the stub now,” Brinley said. “It will seal to the gaskets around the airlock. “I will then over pressurize the stub and make sure there are no leaks.
On the side of the gig, all around the pressure door, a series of panels slid apart. The stub then folded out in accordion fashion and made contact with the edge around the airlock. The pieces fit like hand in glove and the seals were made.
“This is the same way we will connect the two gigs together. It will need permalloy bracing to be more secure, but the two locked together with permalloy reinforcement will be very strong,” Brinley explained.
“If we ever find a second gig,” Paul muttered. “So will we need space suits or something to get from here to there?”
“No Paulie, you can just float over. Once inside the airlock when we cycle it, we will get gravity manipulation back.” Looking at the reading on her display Brinley announced, “The stub is pressurized and heated and all is reading safe. We can enter the Vanguard.”
Paul was first to the pressure door on the side of the gig. He saw the color pad control and then looked to Brinley.
“Try three greens. I programmed that into the gig as an all-encompassing override code,” Brinley replied.
Paul tapped the green colored section of the pad, and the pressure door slid to the side. Paul pushed himself off and scooted across the stub, which was only about ten meters long and roughly three meters wide. He then reached the airlock door which had closed when the stub had extended and locked into place. Next to the door were the two colored buttons, ‘Depressurize’ in blue color and ‘Pressurize’ in rust color.
Paul pressed the rust colored button and heard things happening beyond the airlock’s door. When it opened he pushed himself through and immediately was pulled up and smashed into the ceiling.
“What?” Paul cried as he reoriented himself and realized he was not on the ceiling, but was actually on the floor, considering that gravity manipulation
was in place and that conventional wisdom said gravity always pulled down.
“Paul! Catch!” Gretchen called from where she was still floating in the zero gravity beyond the airlock’s now open door. A backpack came flying into the airlock and as soon as it passed the door, it too was affected by the gravity manipulation and it fell down to land in Paul’s arms. “You forget that. I also have a belt with a Willie’s pistol on it, but did not want to throw that.”
“Thanks,” Paul replied as he stood up. Gretchen, with Brinley behind her now looked upside down.
“Not that a pistol will do you much good Paulie. Try not to shoot either of us,” Brinley laughed.
“You could have told me which way was down, instead of letting me just fall.”
“I did not know and was going to use advanced scientific testing equipment to find out,” Brinley smiled back. “I planned on tossing something inside before I went through. The direction it falls is down.”
Gretchen and Brinley each grabbed onto hand rails and nimbly swung themselves into the gravity field and stood next to Paul. They both had backpacks strapped on and equipment belts around their waists. As usual, Brinley had more tools than the others, but all three had the Dome 17 pistols.
“I thought you might bring an L-ROD. I saw you load several,” Paul stated. “At least you did bring me a multiceiver. Thanks.”
Brinley handed him the multiceiver. “These tight corridors will not be the place for a long range rifle-type weapon. Now we need to get to the Reproduction and Fabrication zone. If we can find an automacube, it might be helpful to take the time to reprogram it to serve us. Then it could tote all the paraphernalia back with us and leave us free to defend ourselves without being encumbered.”
Brinley pulled out a small ratchet and removed several 11mm bolts. She then modified the components that were behind the macroactinide capacitor enhancer compartment. “This will be a very effective lock for the Captain’s gig. That way one of us does not have to stay here as a guard.”
“Are you sure that will be sufficient? Maybe some other Free Ranger will come by and think it is her lucky day and fly off with our gig,” Paul said.
“I am more concerned about Roe or Jellies, then the Free Rangers around here. They were murdered.” Brinley choked up a bit. “Sorry. Come on we need to move.”
Brinley cycled the next door by convincing it with a few tweaks of a tool on her belt. That inner airlock door slid open and the command chair was revealed. It was a huge mess. There was gunk of some oily substance running down the side of the chair with a charred and melted section on the seat. The large display was fractured in several places, and the cracks had green paint over them.
Gretchen checked the room marked ‘Supplies’ but it too had nothing useful, only a few piles of old rags, and some empty fist sized containers which were off white color.
“So far, so good. We are inside and we have not made much noise. The lights are still working, but that chair is a total loss. I thought we might be able to summon an automacube with that, but no matter.” Brinley walked over to the door which was the exit for the Exterior Repair Station.
“No noise. We are not attracting any Roe,” Gretchen said. “We do not want them coming after us.”
“They did not always come after us in the past,” Paul said. “They just lie in wait until we come by.”
Brinley opened the door and carefully peer out through the tiny crack. “The deck plans are accurate. This is the causeway, and down there is the stairwell we will use to descend to the sky tube level.”
“How are we above the sky tube?” Paul asked. “That is at the top of the habitat.”
“There are always a few deck levels insulating the biological habitats. We believe it was designed that way as a safety. Multiple bulkheads and compartments to prevent any explosive decompression,” Brinley said as she opened the door all the way.
“That worked so well in Pampas with all that water,” Paul mumbled under his breath. “I feel so much safer now.”
The corridor had light gray colored walls, and a soft, almost plush feeling floor. They could walk along it with no sound at all. The lights in the ceiling were only functioning on every third panel, but it was in a regular pattern.
“Paul, this is much better than when we first arrived on the Vanguard. No cutting through walls, and I have seen this on deck plans.” Gretchen’s face was relaxed more than Paul remembered seeing it for some time.
“The plans do not show where the Jellies are, right? Or the Roe?” Paul asked.
“Of course not, Paul. You know that. But for this mission I am grateful for all the help we can get. Now that stairwell is just around the corner there.”
Gretchen gestured toward where the hallway made a gentle curve to the left. They walked around that, and saw the stairwell.
Brinley had her pistol out faster than the others, but there really was no need. “Androids.”
The bodies were lying haphazardly as if they had just randomly dropped over. One was on the landing in front of the stairwell, and two were stretched out against the stairs themselves. The one on the landing was on its back and staring at them. His crisp, short, and black hair was just as they remembered. His too perfect looking face, with its slightly submissive look was medium colored. His lifeless round, brown eyes just stared at them. He, and the other two were wearing uniforms of dark blue with gold trim. There were white epaulets on their shoulders.
“Midshipmen. Looks like they all went down when that TSI-19 was taken out. I wondered if it was ship-wide, and did not dare to hope they were all shut down,” Paul said.
“Paulie, of course it was ship-wide. They were all linked to that artificial intelligence system. But what were they doing here in the first place? These uniforms are slightly different as well. I thought all the CPO android were in various places on the needle ship.”
“They are still way too realistic looking for me,” Paul said. “Do we need to shoot them just in case?”
“With a non-moving target and from close range, you might actually hit it,” Brinley said. “If it makes you feel safer, go ahead and shoot off their heads. Remember, Roe respond to noises.”
Paul did not shoot.
Brinley and Gretchen walked past the inert androids and headed down the stairs. Paul was last to step around them, and kept his eye on them until they were out of sight. The stairs were typical permalloy without the plushness that the hallway had. The lighting continued to be in the same kind of pattern and gave just adequate lighting. There were several open grates at one landing down, but no signs of any tagalongs or other animal life. A fourth android was sprawled on a section of stairs just before they reached the level they wanted. So the descent of the stairs was without incident, even though Paul fully expected something to happen. They came to a door that was marked, ‘Solar Mimicry’ in white lettering on a green door. It did not even have a lock or a pressure fitting. Just a typical door.
Brinley reached for the door. Paul grabbed her hand. “This has been too easy. Nothing goes this smoothly on the Vanguard. Nothing. There is some horror waiting for us when you open that door.”
“Relax Paulie, I know you have been though a lot of traumatic stuff, and we are all under tremendous stress, but things can go along without an attack.” Brinley then thought of how Larissa had been shot. That had come at an unexpected moment. “Just to be safe, we should draw our weapons. Paulie, you are right there could be any number of threats beyond this door.”
Brinley opened the door after they all had their pistols drawn.
There was not a direct threat to them, but the promenade that was revealed was far different than what they had seen on previous visits to the level where the sky tubes functioned. First, was the light. There was a purplish throbbing light that pulsed and filled the area with its bizarre glowing. Right away they knew it was from the Jellies. They looked intently around, but saw no Jellie spheres.
“Look at the floor!” Paul remarke
d.
The floor was not the typical permalloy they had expected, but had been made transparent, or at least it was transparent now. The Wilds habitat was far below. The could tell it was clear permalloy because the throbbing light was reflecting up off of the floor, but between the pulses of light they could see all the way down to what had been the biological habitat far below.
They cautiously stepped forward. To the side in the distance they could see where the elevator had been located. Walls looked to have been melted away or torn down. To the other side was the counter which ran along the rails, behind which were the huge solar mimicry machines. Sections of the counter had been ripped away. A large purplish-blue apparatus was now connected into the Solar Mimicry machines. It was a large lumpy shape with tubes and things coming from it and they were jammed into places in the Vanguard machinery. The permalloy looked to have been melted around the purple tubing.
The Colony Ship Vanguard: The entire eight book series in one bundle Page 185
