The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books

by John Thornton

  The man shoved her to the side and slammed his shoulders into the doors. His brute strength pulled them together, and his rippling muscles could be seen as he turned his back on Cammarry. He removed a hand span long tube from his back pocket and spread some kind of yellow goo across the seam of the doors. It smelled a bit acidic as it fused the two doors back together.

  “The Thirteen Heroes be praised nothing else came in this door when you so foolishly opened it,” the man said as he turned back to face Cammarry.

  His eyes were hidden by the dark glasses, which she now saw were more like goggles. His face was line with some age lines, but nothing like the Old One. His feet were shod with boots, and he was far cleaner than any of the Goat People Cammarry had met.

  “Come now! Answer me! Why did you open this door? How did you manage to do it anyway? And why would you want to risk all our fruit?” The man demanded.

  “I need to get to engineering,” Cammarry mumbled. “These plants are amazing!” She swept her arms around as she spoke.

  “Your arm was injured, and what manner of clothing are you wearing?” the man asked as he looked over Cammarry. “You do not look like one of those primitive Goat People. Tell me why you broke in here?”

  “Cammarry, you need to answer this man,” Shadow said which surprised her a bit.

  “Certainly, I can do that,” Cammarry said in response to Shadow.

  “I know you can force open these doors. Sure you can do it. But why?” The man again demanded. “The plucums are just about ready for harvest, and the peacotots are just starting to bud. Those goats are a menace, it is hard enough to keep the rats out of here, and now you want to expose this side of the orchard to the goats! How idiotic! You will ruin everything the Thirteen Heroes accomplished. You want to go back to peonies, orchids, and roses?” His final statement was accompanied by so much disgust he nearly spit out the words, ‘peonies, orchids and roses.” His face was screwed up tight as he spoke.

  “I do not know what those things are, but these plants are beautiful.”

  “Yes, the orchard is beautiful. Say, you do not have goggles on. The light must be blinding to you. No wonder you did not respond properly to me, you can barely see in all the glare. Come now, here put on my spare set. No one should work in this light without protection.” The man extended out a set of the dark goggles he had pulled from a chest pocket.

  “I can see fine,” Cammarry replied. “What are these things? These wonderful plants. They smell enticing.”

  “You must be daft,” the man said, but he put away the goggles. “I am taking you to my shift supervisor. If you are a crazy from the Goat People, they will pay a heavy price at the next round of trades. I know that is right.”

  “The Goat People call me a wizard, but I am just seeking to get to engineering. My name is Cammarry, and my partner Jerome and I have come to the Conestoga to save our people.”

  “A wizard?” The man hesitated a bit. “I have heard the stories, but, well, I suppose…. I am Karmel. I will take you to Bogart, he may know more about this than I do. I must check the door to make sure it is sealed. Goats cannot be allowed in here. You remain right here, please. And for the love of the Thirteen Heroes, do not open any more doors.”

  Karmel turned and quickly made sure the doors were still sealed. He inspected them yet again, and then another time, before he turned back to Cammarry. “Now the doors are shut. Did you open any other doors or passages into the orchard?”

  “No. I am sorry if I messed up something,” Cammarry said. “I really need to get to engineering.”

  “I do not know about that, but I will take you through the orchard to Bogart. We just cannot have goats in here. They would destroy the trees and ruin all our work,” Karmel said. His face had softened somewhat and his tones were less anxious and stressed. He placed his hand on Cammarry’s shoulder, part as compassion, part as guide, and part as restraint.

  Cammarry felt isolated, yet overwhelmed. “This place is so much more than the hallways. You call it an orchard, but the labeling on the door said, ‘Botanical Solarium: Service Entrance’ so what is this place?”

  “It was once called that, but that was before the insurrection. Roses, peonies, and orchids and other useless things grew in here, or so I am told. My grandparents spoke about it being some kind of retreat for the crew, but the Thirteen Heroes made it our fruit orchard. They got the cubbies working. If they had not, everyone would be dead now.” Karmel led her down one of the many aisles which all converged at the center of the orchard. On either side of the aisle were the trees with their leaves, and fruits. The structure of the place was a row of trees, then a walkway, then another row of trees.

  “Are the trees different in each row?” Cammarry asked. “These grow fruit?” She pointed to the colorful oblong objects hanging from the branches.

  “Not every tree line is different. We have the six fruits: nectacotum, grapples, blood-limes, rangour, plucums, and peacotots,” Karmel replied. His dark goggles reflected back come of the warm yellow light. “Each row develops fruit at a different time, so we have a consistent supply, so long as goats stay out of here. You must know about the fruits, otherwise you would have died long ago. Everyone knows about the fruits; we trade them to save everyone. Only a few get the privilege of coming into the orchard. That is why I must take you to Bogart.”

  A large insect flew past Cammarry. It made a faint sound. She swatted at it.

  Karmel struck her hand viciously, knocking it down and away.

  “Idiot! How dare you strike at a bee! You are truly some kind of insurgent! You are trying to kill us all,” Karmel cried in alarm.

  Cammarry swung up her other arm and punched him in the abdomen. “I have no idea what you are taking about.”

  Karmel doubled over in pain. His hat toppled to the dirt and rolled to beneath one of the trees. “We protect…. The orchard….You cannot…. hurt the bees, or let goats in here… It will ruin the orchard.” He gasped the words out. “Are you insane?”

  “Run Cammarry!” Shadow said. “You must get away from this man. He wants to stop you from helping Dome 17.”

  “I am going to engineering!” Cammarry grabbed the goggles from off of his face and tossed them toward the fruit trees. “Leave me alone!” She then sprinted down the row away from the kneeling and gasping Karmel.

  “Please do not hurt the orchard!” Karmel yelled as he covered his eyes. “We all need the fruits to survive! Please!” He took a few deep breaths and the wailed out, “Help me! There is a crazed stranger in the orchard! Help! Help! Help!”

  Cammarry saw a path between the trees which led from the row she was on to another row. She darted onto that. She was running, but still admiring the beauty of the trees. Their bark was thick, and their leaves were so vividly green, and the globes hanging from the branches were such pretty colors. She dashed along the walkway, next to that row of trees, continuing toward the center of the orchard where it looked like all the walkways and rows converged beneath the glowing light source. As she ran, she reached up and plucked one of the fruits. She considering stopping, but heard more yelling coming from back where Karmel had been. There were now several voices all calling out. And so she ran and lifted the fruit to her nose as she did.

  It smelled tantalizing. The roughly ball shape reminded Cammarry of ricochet balls from the game in Dome 17. The fruit had a slightly fuzzy outer surface, was mottled deep reddish color mixed with yellow spots. She whiffed in again. The fruit had a very distinct and pleasant smell. She took of bite of it as she ran.

  “It is so sweet!” She licked her lips to catch all the juice from the fruit. She then took another bite. The very center of the fruit contained a small, hard nugget of some kind. She ate all the fruit off and placed the nugget thing in her pocket.

  As she continued to run, she kept finding small paths between the rows and she followed them, trying to get as far away from Karmel as possible. At one point she screeched to a halt as she turned onto a
walkway and saw a machine working. It had six wheels, was box shaped, colored a dark green, and had a manipulation arm on the top of it. It was slowly rolling along next to a tree while its arm was extended way up.

  “What are you?” Cammarry muttered. The appendage of the machine reminded her briefly of what had injured in the ESRC. Here, however, the tip of the arm was doing something tender and placid to the small blossoms at the ends of the stems and branches. The arm would settle over the blossoms for a moment, and then ever so gently move onto the next. Cammarry had no idea what it was doing, but she remembered Khin’s saying, ‘Cubie green, a good machine’ and she smiled. She walked back quietly and took a different route to bypass the machine. It occurred to her that she remembered it was called an automacube.

  As she got to the center of the orchard, she was able to see that at the very center there was indeed a coming together of all the walkways that were between the rows of plants. There was a small mound there at the center, and on that mound was a circular structure of clear permalloy. The structure sat directly beneath the brightly glowing sphere and was connected to that sphere by a tube of clear permalloy. The tube glistened in the brilliant light.

  Cammarry stopped. The trees she was near were different, with fruit that was more oblong shaped and yellow and green colored.

  “Shadow? What are these fruits? Are these safe to eat too?” Cammarry asked as she visually assessed the structure on the mound.

  There was no answer.

  The bright light made it difficult to see what was inside the structure. Then one side of the structure swung open and a person stepped out. She too was wearing the wide hat and dark, nearly black, lensed goggles. She also had clothing similar to what Karmel had been wearing.

  “What is all the commotion?” The woman called out as she looked from side to side, not seeing Cammarry. She then put her hands to her mouth and made a funnel. “Karmel! Bogart!” She yelled.

  In the distance voices came back. Cammarry could not understand the words as they were very faint.

  “Yes! I understand!” The woman yelled back. She then turned around, shut the door in the clear permalloy structure, and then hustled away down one of the walkways.

  “Cammarry, you can proceed now,” Shadow urged. “You must hurry to get to engineering and find that shuttle.”

  “I should probably have just spoken to these people. They might have helped me,” Cammarry said.

  “That man struck you,” Shadow reminded her. “He hit you.”

  “I know, but he said something about the fruits and things. I think he felt threatened. I would have been wiser to just explain my own ignorance and seek his assistance. That way….” Cammarry tried to explain.

  Shadow interrupted. “Flee! Flee now. The people are coming. You cannot negotiate with these people. They are coming in anger and malice.”

  Cammarry looked back, but did not see anyone.

  “That woman was getting the others. They know where you are. You must flee to engineering now!” Shadow’s voice was in near panic.

  Cammarry assessed the route which had been printed out, and she saw that she would need to exit from the opposite side of the Botanical Solarium, which she now could identify on the map. She trotted away from the central clear permalloy structure and headed down a row next to some fruit trees that had only tiny white flowers on them, with fingernail sized little dark balls beneath them.

  Cammarry reached the far side of the orchard, and came to the wall. Looking at the map in her hand, she counted the wall sections, and moved over several rows. At that point there were trees that had a red and yellow round fruit. Cammarry picked several of those, smelled them, and placed them in her backpack next to the boxed food rations she had gotten from the ESRC.

  Seeing a single door set into the wall, Cammarry approached it and compared it to the route that was indicated on the map. She knew where she was and where she needed to go. The door was marked, ‘Emergency Exit Only’ in stenciled white lettering. She pulled on the release levers, but the door did not open.

  Suddenly there was a shrill siren warbling. This throbbing noise was immense.

  Cammarry pulled off her backpack, and extracted the molecular torch. Setting it on maximum, making sure the connection to the fusion pack was intact, she used the cutting blade and sliced down along the lever side of the door. The seam parted easily and she kicked the door open. It felt warm even through her footwear.

  “You must flee quickly!” Shadow said.

  “No, I will seal this door first. That was important to the safety of that orchard,” Cammarry stated out loud as she stepped through the doorway. “Never waste a food ration, or any water. I must protect food supplies for these people.”

  “There is no time. Run away!” Shadow urged.

  “No.” Cammarry retrieved the molecular torch, and set it to welding. She melted several sections of the permalloy door back together with its frame. “The function of the door is ruined, but the orchard is secure. I suppose they can cut it open and rebuild the door if they need it to operate.”

  “It will hinder their following you. Good idea. Now run away! Flee!” Shadow cried. “You must get to engineering. Only there can you help the people in Dome 17. Hurry!”

  Cammarry packed up the molecular torch, and grabbed one of the fruits. She threw her backpack on and looked around as she walked briskly along. This hallway, dimly lit, was similar to the typical ones on the Conestoga. It had short plant and fungus growth on the horizontal surfaces, and some open ventilations ducts where water was dripping down.

  Taking a bite of the fruit, Cammarry scrunched up her lips. It was tart and almost bitter, but also had a zesty tang to it. It was vastly different from the food ration bars she had grown up with, and was not as pungent as the cheese Khin had given her. It was different too from the other fruit she had eaten, a bit crunchier, and more robust. She licked her lips as she ate the rest of the fruit.

  Turning a corner, she spotted something written on a wall in neon blue colors. ‘She walks at midnight, while others sleep. Beware the company that you keep. Slumber overtakes you to your fate, she is coming for you, and will not be late.’

  “Shadow? What does this mean? Who is she?” Cammarry asked.

  There was no answer.

  “And who can ever sleep in this place? The light is always the same, this dull glow constantly,” Cammarry said. “When did I last sleep? When?”

  There was still no answer from Shadow.

  Cammarry walked on, for how long she was not sure. She checked the map and followed the route that was indicated. She descended a spiral stairway, which was very slippery and difficult to walk on. Here she found some of the heaviest foliage yet found in a hallway or staircase. There also was more dripping water which covered the stairs. The plants had wound themselves around the handrails, treads, and steps so thickly that it was more of a controlled slide downward, than walking on stairs.

  “I must sleep,” Cammarry stated as she read the markings on the doors where she exited the stairs. “Causeway NS209? I wonder what you once were?”

  The causeway was about ten meters wide, and three meters high. It felt strangely oppressive as the lights were only on one upper corner, so the whole way was eerily lit in even more gloom than other places had been. Looking at the doors along the causeway, Cammarry found one which was standing open, but darkness lay beyond it.

  Flicking on the fusion pack light, she stepped inside and discovered it had once been some kind of office. Charts and photographs were on the walls. The ceiling ducts were still covered over by grilles and there was no growth medium or plant life in the small office. There was an overturned table, two broken chairs, and a davenport along one wall. The couch was soft and plush material of brown and gray stripes. At the back of the office was a small nook which had a toilet and sink. Both plumbing fixtures were even operational, although the water pressure was minimal. That amount of water still seemed like an extravagant luxury to C
ammarry. She drank deeply from the sink.

  “Well, I can at least rest in here,” Cammarry stated as she pushed the manual levers and the door slid into place.

  She dropped onto the davenport and turned off the fusion pack light. She almost instantly dropped off to sleep.

  7 Near miss

  “That is the Trading Place,” Khin said as he opened a pressure door. “I am not sure who will be here, and we have little to trade, so who knows how this will go?”

  Jerome followed Khin into what had once been an entertainment or exercise facility. It was not a ricochet ball court, but it was clearly some kind of athletic complex, or it had been long ago. Even in the dim light, Jerome could see that there were old murals painted on the walls which showed people in various states of activity. There were painting of men running, and women leaping, and children playing. The murals were old, and the paint was flaking off in many places. Water running down the walls had ruined parts of them, yet their original high quality was still evident.