by Pirx Danford
The airlock had hold on tight, quickly I opened up the engines covering to then completely disassemble them and it was long after midnight when I finally had replaced all worn parts, so that the airlock was in pristine working condition.
Relieved and exhausted I fell into a deep slumber.
Oxygen low. Movement. Activate lights - fail - reporting damage - fail.
Sensors measure putrefaction - reporting emergency - fail.
Reporting loneliness - fail. I am desperate - fail. Requesting maintenance - fail.
Reporting shutdown, without waiting for acknowledgment.
A weird dream, where had that come from?
Nonetheless I plunged back into work with replenished thirst, while the repairs made good progress I went through safety training with Kara. As soon as the fabber would be repaired we wanted to go on a short outside mission.
But first I examined the plants more closely and to my astonishment I found them interspersed with nanites. Intrinsically all nanites contained a hold-to-run control device with a rigid time limit. This was meant to prevent uncontrollable damage from faulty programming. Back on earth, especially in the early days, there had been quite many incidents. Even with a rapidly climbing toll of deaths in those accidents the new industry managed to escape overly strict regulations. Yet when the Eiffel Tower simply vanished overnight, because its nanite coating received a wrong software update, it became apparent that this technology was only to be used as specifically and short termed as possible.
These nanites on the other hand had entered a symbiosis with the plants, either a damn weird fluke had happened, or one of my predecessors had also escaped after all and decided to do a risky reprogramming. Either way it was brilliant, through this solution the soil had become a solid seal on its own regard. By being anchored throughout the floor the root system would only react with sealing off even stronger the more it was exposed to the vacuum.
We produced some new space suits and used the ablated hills materials and the remaining malfunctioning devices from the airlock for practice on how to refill the fabbers material reserves. Alongside Kara also Trish and Joey accompanied me and I took great care to explain to them how dangerous this little trip would be. In the exit chamber we were packed like conserved sardines.
While exiting we remained leashed near the door and only after thoroughly checking the boots bracing I allowed to detach the rope. Exiting also took quite some time, as my companions had to take in the scenery at first. Their amazement found its expression in baffled calls to one another and the obvious marveling was joyful to witness.
As already done with Rolf on my last trip I took care to have the group leashed together.
After the first clumsy walking attempts we soon looked like a hasty moving caterpillar.
From the outside the tore in the hull looked cruel, on the other hand it was not overly wide. The worst damage was located at the airlock from sector C 3 I, the door had been completely prised open and the offshoots welled out like tentacles. Yet it wouldn’t take too much materials to completely seal up the gap again.
At the place where the gap was the broadest, the root material of the plants I had examined in the inside was providing a lifeless, but solid track nearly a centimeter wide.
The maintenance robots were equipped with the necessary tools, but weren’t constructed for outside missions. So we laid out a mooring with thick wire cable, which the robots could use for anchoring to the hull as well as material reserve for finishing of the sealing process.
After maneuvering five robots into position we finished the outside mission.
Inside my three companions fell into each other arms and grabbed me too, their hooting rang in my ears.
This concluded the second day at the airlock in a delightful manner and we started with preparations for the departure. A messenger arrived and informed us that the area around the maintenance center at C 5 IV had been secured.
We decided to split up the group, new recruits were expected to enroll for maintenance duty at the maintenance center at C 3 II and that was were Kara wanted to be at.
Gerald was to accompany me and we would be the maintenance advance party at the new center so to say. Another day found its end.
After a dreamless night I awoke at ease. Marple signaled an incoming connection and Agatha was on the line “Melissa is finally here! After news of the truce found their way around the complete village packed up to draw back to the inner deck. Together with a great number of other people Melissa sneaked away to join the resistance.” I suggested going to the maintenance center to Agatha, then I had Marple hail Hask. “Yes, I have heard a lot of similar stories already. It seems many here in the outer decks believe that the Benefactor will win this war.” I prayed that this development would not become the ruin of our battle plans.
Kara handed me a parting letter for Steve, he had been with crew Alpha and was now supposed to accompany me after my visit to the maintenance center a C 5 IV, first to the center at B 2 I and then continuing on to the artifacts Bernhard had left behind.
Before taking leave for good I took a final look at the group, a noticeable change was that the members of the new crews alongside their synthetic uniform were wearing fur appliques and pouches. Alongside the pistols the security crew wore shields and spears. It was a weird mixture, as if humanity directly after stepping out of the stone age caves had entered the space age. Measured in evolutionary scales this was somehow even the case. I imprinted it on everyone to work quickly, but to not take unnecessary risk.
Then we parted ways and moved into opposite directions.
My small group only was traveling lightly, four of the five security people accompanied gerald and me, so we numbered only six. We had to cross three sections, but made good progress. Still we halted for a break at C 5 III in the village of the Rock Crushers.
There everyone already had seen the message from the Clarioncallers, so it appeared to me, as I was greeted by loud hails of “Helen! Helen!” by the folks. Having VIP status was something I would need to get used to it seemed.
The chieftain alongside most warriors was already in the middle decks, yet the elder of the tribe spent the evening together with me. From her I learned that the name of the tribe stemmed from the fact, that it had been mainly responsible for the task of removing the partitioning walls.
One of the security crew members named Joel emerged being blessed with a silver tongue and as we departed the next morning our group counted three more security crew members and an astounding number of nine more recruits for the maintenance service for crew Phoenix.
Especially the female population was attracted to the idea of repairing the ship, maybe so because only this would secure a future for their families. Until now I hadn’t pondered the topic, but now it became clear to me that the gender roles were pretty strictly separated.
With a shudder I remembered the past times in which women even had counted as property and was extremely happy that the ships crew had at least been spared for relapsing into this mistake.
The following day went by suspiciously uneventful.
After an unhurried walk of four hours we arrived at the maintenance center at C 5 IV.
There were no mysteries to uncover here, the center was in a comparably good state as the one at C 3 II. After producing uniforms for the whole fresh crew and stun weapons for the three new security service guys, I took care there were enough learning devices for the maintenance folk. After this I turned my effort towards the maintenance robots and drones. When they started increasing their own numbers by repairing their kin or when needed dismantling them I started searching the maintenance terminals for clues. This was when Gerald excitedly ran up to me, to tell me of a discovery down below the maintenance center in the tunnels. When I arrived at the site a gruesome sight laid before me, on a mat of synthetic material that had not decayed were the remainders of a decomposed human sprawled out. At its side a backpack that might as well could have bee
n mine.
I would have preferred to just find traces of a predecessor, yet before me laid his or her corpse. A blatant admonition.
But why in the midst of the tunnel?
The broken data glasses in the grip by the remaining bones from the hand gave the first clue and I rummaged the backpack for more hints. The provisions, that had been stored there ages ago, first had decayed to then leave a brown crumbly layer on everything.
Apparently there had been a severe lack of insects, else this all would have happened differently. Still I was able to recover three things that should yield useful informations. A computer, much similar to the learning devices, an old headlamp with an integrated video camera and a loose piece of leather, which looked very much like the map from Bernhard. At the corpses side laid a weapon, it was a pistol with smart ammunition much like mine, whose energy reserves had been depleted over time.
Sadly a hole in the skeletons skull answered the unasked question for what purpose the weapon had been used in the end.
In the meantime the maintenance robots began swarming, the new recruits made up their lack of experience in comparison to Agatha by their sheer numbers.
I made sure the robots would report any weird findings and leave them undisturbed, then I began a close examination of my predecessors belongings.
The storage module of the computer was severely damaged, hopefully it could be saved with some effort, so I launched a recovery analysis, which would need some hours to run.
The cloth indeed was a very faded copy of Bernhards map, did my predecessor have contact in any form? Gerald could not say anything about that, but promised to pass the question on to the elder members of his society.
The camera seemed equally unpromising at first, but then suddenly submitted an intact data stream. Baffled I watched the depths of space on screen, then the image slowly turned towards the ship hull and I witnessed what must have been the rift in the hull freshly after the impact.
Above the starkly visible metal edges drifted a layer of earthen sand and it was soil visible which was barely holding together against the pull of the vast emptiness of space. I saw hands protected by space suits gloves place stripe after stripe with nanites, so I had been right. Sadly every other data stored on the camera had been lost, so frustrated I went to bed.
Coming morning I found a jigsaw puzzle of reconstructed text parts from the computers data storage. Would it have been undamaged it probably would have been an extensive diary of the events. A date I found told me that this must have been the fourth of my nine predecessors counted after Bernhard, except the third had reached a respectable age, which in regard to the circumstances I very much doubted. One name kept coming up, Cylus Aswani was the technician, who like by miracle survived long enough for provisional repairs on the rift.
Apparently he had been captured by the Benefactor directly on exiting, the words captivity and brainwashing kept repeating close together.
When the impact resulted in the gap he was allowed to the outer decks to do the necessary repairs and somehow managed to escape after finishing. At the flight into the tunnels his data glasses became severely damaged and lacking a key card he was stuck. Certainly he could have found a different way out, but the struggles had weakened his spirits so much that he simply gave up.
At the end he often repeated “so tired” in the diary.
In the meantime the connection to the other two maintenance centers had been established and I submitted a summary of the past events as report.
With the conclusion “so the people of the spaceship will inevitably clash in a large conflict” a queasiness grabbed me and inappropriately I remembered not eating anything today.
After a hastily wolfed down meal of nutriment pulp I connected with the ships main computer in the waking center. I received the necessary orders on how to proceed with the ending steps for the mission, starting with how to commence the braking maneuvers. Obviously it was much too soon to consider waking the drive engineers, yet sooner rather than later the waking center would receive unmistakable measurements and then would simply proceed to execute the necessary steps on its own.
The orders formed a very complex rule book and very much reminded me of a choose your own adventure book, where the reader decides on how the story proceeds.
In this form the steps before me would lead straight into an unpreventable catastrophe.
To turn this around it was required to make changes, for which I was not authorized, so I browsed the ships policies for a clue on who was allowed to authorize changes to the programs.
Obviously one of the commanders had to be awakened from cryosleep. To my irritation the waking centers computer directly refused my request and explained that this would only be possible when all the main computers from the maintenance centers had been connected.
This evening I went to sleep very unsatisfied and felt like I was not making any progress. Of course I was being unfair on myself, but that was like it felt, as if all my efforts were simply not enough. Marple was unable to contact any of my friends and I did not feel close enough to any of my current companions to talk about my feelings.
Embittered I fell into a restless sleep.
Swish open - Swish close. Haha, swish. I feel great. And those looks. Why wait for orders?
I have energy, so I might as well play.
Swish! Again I close the door before my human escapes.
It took a while for me to comprehend that my pets needed water and food. After mice and rats I had a cat and now the culmination, a human.
I only have him for a year, but he starts to bore me, barely he tries getting through the door, only gazes stupidly into the camera.
Whatever I don’t have anything else to do anyhow. Swish - Haha!
Such a crazy dream, but I believe it must have been the computer from one of the smaller maintenance rooms. Was actually a human being kept imprisoned by a computer somewhere on the ship?
Another one who needed rescue, soon most connections would be repaired, then I would quickly find out where this was going on.
I granted me an abundant breakfast, especially the hard cheese of the outer deck folks tickled my taste. What I missed the most though was sea food, mussels, prawns, fish yes even squid would have been welcomed greatly by me.
Instead I received a message from the maintenance robots, further finds had been made in the tunnel. My discontent continued, to counteract this I needed successes, my companions were all very busy, so I decided to take a look on the findings on my own.
The first find was a severed hand chain, shot through cleanly by a targeted shot, so Cylus had been bound when entering the tunnels.
The other find were the remaining bones from an arm directly below an access hatch, someone obviously had tried to retain Cylus as he got down. Curious if I would find the matching remains to the arm on the other side of the hatch, I opened it and climbed out.
A shrill alarm tone submitted by Marple was the last thing I heard when everything around me went dark.
Only slowly my senses returned, something dragged me on arms and legs all the time and everything swayed around me. Puffing, stomping and the clanging of metal armour surrounded me and before my eyes I slowly recognized my bound hands.
In hushed tones orders were passed on “Tunnel eleven, everyone to Tunnel eleven” and as I hang I tried to catch a view on my capturers.
I shuddered when I recognized the uniforms, in the end the iron warriors had managed to get me in their control.
“Marple” I whispered, but as I realized it had been taken away, it was already too late. One of my bearers lowly called “she is awake” and after a while the troop leader walked on my side and was silently surveying me.
Suddenly everything became dark again, luckily not because I had been beaten senseless but rather because we had arrived in a tunnel and steps were resounding from all sides around me.
A well know pungent smell stung my nose and as the bearer in front stu
mbled I landed on something slimy and saw the lifeless face of one of the tunnel monsters before me.
“Careful man” grumbled the bearer in the back “these critters are lying about everywhere in here, take care else you’re gonna slip again.”
From ahead I could hear loud calls, clanging and whizzing of swinging swords and the hissing and squealing of the animals. So the Iron Warriors had found an unguarded way.
As we finally left the tunnel behind, one of the large towers connecting the decks sprang up before us, in its entrance lounge the troop halted for a short rest.
The troop leader stepped close as I laid helpless on my back and asked promptly “Would you prefer to walk on your own?” with a grim face I nodded, if cut loose I might get a chance to escape.
My arms and legs felt lifeless at first, but when I rubbed them a burning ache flared up and only barely I could suppress to scream. After some gymnastics the blood flow improved, but that was when my freedom of movement was taken away again. As I would need my arms for climbing I was very thoroughly strapped around the waist.
I was only able to count five soldiers, this had been an extremely targeted mission and either unlikely lucky, or in fact my position had been betrayed.
Positioned between the soldiers the climb was being done at a brutal pace. The lights in this tower were not working and a torch was unusable while climbing the ladders. So more than once I hang in the rope after slipping. After the third time the troop leader hissed at me “Stop being so clumsy, else we drag you up the whole way, do believe me that this is not something you want!”
From then on I tried hard not to slip again, actually the slipping had been a bit on purpose.
My thoughts were racing in the effort to find the means for an escape, yet these soldiers knew exactly what they were doing and were also very well trained.
This was not how I had envisioned spending my day.
At the towers top, at near weightlessness I unceremoniously was being dragged behind the group like a hot-air balloon. It was a pretty ignominious experience. Naturally they also had taken my guns, my backpack remained behind in the maintenance center, as this had been intended to only be a short visit to the maintenance tunnels.
