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

by John Thornton

  Cammarry, being smaller in stature had more freedom of movement. She continued to press forward. She was moving faster than Jerome and the distance between them grew greater.

  The vibrations came again. This time the knocking sound was louder and emanated more from the shaft’s wall. It was like a tapping or someone knocking. Placing his hands on the dull white surface, Jerome could feel the vibrations, and hear the sounds as it tapped and tapped and tapped.

  “Cammarry, this is getting louder.” Jerome called out while the tapping was happening. Cammarry did not respond, if she heard him.

  When the tapping stopped he called again. “Cammarry how are you?”

  “Moving along. You?”

  “Following.”

  The tapping came again, but this time even more forceful and loud. It pounded down faster and faster. The vibrations shuddered along the shaft’s interior surface where Jerome and Cammarry could both feel it.

  “Sandie? What is this?” Jerome hollered.

  The pounding continued, and if Sandie replied, Jerome could not hear it. He could barely reach back with his hand to push on the com-link. He could not alter it enough to tell if Sandie was trying to reply.

  Suddenly, the pounding ended, and the shuddering stopped.

  “….ing. Continue moving. The noise you are experiencing is of an unknown origin. You are currently two hundred and seventy meters along the way to Pine 1206. I will keep repeating. Continue moving…”

  “Sandie I hear you!” Jerome called out. The pounding was echoing in his head, and his teeth were sore from the heavy vibrations.

  “Good! You two continue moving. I will alert you when…”

  The pounding came back, but even more loudly than before. Jerome felt his bones quivering and he was jostled off his back. The fusion pack light danced a jig behind him making flashes of illumination off the dull white inside shaft. It was hard to mentally focus. He called out, “Cammarry are you there?”

  Cammarry could not hear Jerome over the pounding and the shaking going on all around the utility shaft. But she could hear Shadow who spoke, “Why did you come into this place?”

  “Tell me where I am. I need to know when to cut my way out,” Cammarry answered as she wiggled forward. After some more moving, she paused and looked ahead, but the light from her fusion pack, which she had been pushing along, just revealed the same long and apparently endless shaft of dull white.

  “How will you ever complete your mission now?” Shadow asked. “You are marooned here in this shaft. Why did you do this to yourself?”

  “You are from this ship. Tell me where I can get out, or shut down that infernal clatter,” Cammarry yelled. Her voice was drown out by the pounding which circled around the shaft. The noise was rotating around her. First it was above her, then to the side, then beneath her, then the other side, and then above again. The cycle repeated, but rotated in the opposite direction. It circled her again and again with its deep pounding and shaking of the utility shaft. “Make it stop!”

  “I am unable to comply with your command,” Shadow answered.

  Cammarry unexpectedly felt Jerome’s hand on her heel. He squeezed reassuringly and pushed her foot forward. She had nearly forgotten he was behind her. She began moving again.

  “…me? You are now at three hundred fifty two meters. It is not much….” Sandie’s voice was interrupted by the drubbing sound which had become both noise and vibration together.

  Cammarry’s eyes were watering and her ears were ringing. She was losing orientation as to what was up or down. The skittering of the fusion light was hard to take as her eyes were either blinded by the brightness, or trying to adjust to the shadows which dropped over her.

  “Shadow! Stop this racket!” Cammarry yelled.

  “I am unable to comply with your command,” Shadow answered.

  “Sandie help me!”

  There was no response. She kept crawling forward. The noises stopped, but the echoes rang in her head, her back, her hips, and her bladder. She was unsure if she could hold herself together much longer. Straining to look ahead while the noise had abated, she saw something coming slowly toward her. It was a dark brown color and at first she was unsure if it was a visual disturbance in the shaft or not.

  “Jerome! Something is in here with us!” Cammarry yelled.

  “What is….” Jerome’s reply was cut off as the thudding, throbbing pulse beat against the shaft yet again. Faster and louder and harder than previously, it was all encompassing. Jerome wondered if people were standing outside the shaft striking it with large hammers. He reached forward to try to again touch Cammarry, but his fingers closed on empty air.

  Cammarry scooted forward and right toward the brown thing in the shaft. She could see it better now. It was a device which fit very snugly in the shaft. On visible end of it, there was a projection toward her. A diamond shaped protuberance was right there. There were small appendages, which reminded Cammarry of microscopic cilia, but these were all around the edge of the device. Those small appendages were loosely arranged around the tiny space between the device and the walls of the shaft.

  Cammarry crawled forward, trying to ignore the incredibly loud pounding reverberations that were pummeling all around her. Getting close enough to the brown device she could see a plate of some kind with lettering.

  ‘Lozenge B239WM Model CFE’

  “The cleaning lozenge?” Cammarry said. The noise was so loud she was unsure if she spoke audibly or not. “Sandie? Is this where I cut our way out?”

  The pounding noise continued and concealed any other sounds.

  “Shadow? Please answer me. Is this where I cut us out?”

  Again there was no response.

  “We are leaving here.” Cammarry took the molecular torch in hand and set it to its deepest cutting level. She paused for a moment, hoping the pounding would stop, and wondering which direction to make the cuts. When the noises increased she rolled onto her back and with both hands extended ahead of her, neatly used the torch to cut out a large section of the top of the shaft. A few drops of melted permalloy fell, but she was skilled enough to dodge those with her hands. Nothing else fell from the newly made opening. She drew the torch along and made a cut about two centimeters wide. She made the cut across the top of the shaft, and then drew it horizontally about midway in the shaft. Making the second overhead cut required her to slide under the first. She did that, hoping nothing heavy would fall in and crush her as she continued making the exit. After severing nearly a complete section out of the curved shaft’s walls, she used one hand to cut the final part connecting with where she had made the first cut. The border of the door she was creating was finished and she pushed it upward.

  “Yes!” She cried in triumph as the shaft section moved easily out of the way, revealing a dark and cool area. Cammarry could still hear the incessant pounding, but it now was less intense as the sound dissipated in the newly found area. She placed the cut out section over onto the outer side of the shaft, careful not to let it slip away. Next came the fusion light which she placed on top of the cut out section. Its light showed her where she was. The space was wide with heavy cross beam braces in an X shape. The shaft was held up by those cross braces at intervals of about ten meters. Her exit passage was between two of those cross braces. About two meters over her head was the ceiling for this area. She peered over the shaft and saw about that same distance down to a floor below. Numerous other ducts, pipes, conduits, tubes, and countless wires ran along the walls and connected to the cross braces. Some of those pipes connected right into the shaft she had exited, even though she had not seen any junctions while she crawled through.

  “Come on out Jerome! Follow me!” Cammarry yelled, but she could not even hear her own voice over the pounding sounds. At least here the sounds were less intense.

  She climbed out and pulled her backpack with her. Standing on the shaft’s outer surface she noted it was a dark gray color and roughly finished. The rough tex
ture allowed her to stand on it and not slip. Pulling the backpack on, and belting her gear around her waist, she rose and stepped with balanced care along the top of the shaft until she reached the closest cross bracing.

  “Come on Jerome!” She yelled. This time she heard a bit of her own voice, but the pounding sounds were still masking almost everything else.

  Jerome’s hands pushed up from the opening in the shaft. He then used his arms to pull his body from the shaft and then dragged out his own backpack, and gear. He looked around and spying Cammarry gave her a heartwarming smile. She returned the look. Jerome slid his legs to either side of the shaft and thus straddling it, took the cut out section and placed it back in the opening. It nearly slid inside, and he caught it and put it off to the side a bit. He pulled out his own torch, and adjusted it for welding. Placing the cutout back into the opening he spot-welded several places along its perimeter. When those were secure he tediously and methodically welded a seal all the way around the opening, fusing the permalloy back together again.

  “Come on! Quit wasting our time!” Cammarry yelled. Jerome did not acknowledge that he heard her, and she doubted if he would hear her even if she were to yell in his ear from a centimeter away. As it was she was yelling from several meters away.

  Finishing his repair work, Jerome looked up just as the pounding noise stopped. He smiled again and spoke, “We made it through there!”

  “What?” Cammarry called back as she heard something, but her own ears were still ringing with the after effects of all the pummeling sound.

  Jerome repacked his backpack, and Cammarry saw the fruits he was carrying as well as the tools, and a data stick reader and a data stick.

  “Why did your waste space with those? They do not work. None of them do!”

  “What? I can hardly hear you! The belt on my waist? Yes! I have the belt for my waist!” Jerome held it up and showed her. The weapon holster and tool pouches were intact and he strapped it around himself. He then dug into his ears with his fingers, and that seemed to ease some of the pain and echoing that was still happening to his hearing. As he sat straddling the shaft he massaged his legs and flexed his knees.

  “No! The data sticks! Why did you bring them?” Cammarry hollered.

  “Dated what?” Jerome replied. “Oh, the data sticks. I brought them because I want to read something, sometime, somewhere. I hope to get them working again.” His ears were ringing a bit less.

  Cammarry heard his reply and smiled. She too hoped they could get the data sticks repaired.

  “Jerome? Cammarry?” The AI Sandie asked. “At this time, can you hear me?”

  Jerome pushed the com-link on his ear at nearly the same time as Cammarry did the same for her own. He adjusted the volume to maximum.

  “Yes! I can hear you now!”

  “I hear you!” Cammarry stated.

  The was a whoosh and a shake and the shaft beneath Jerome’s legs and under Cammarry’s feet bounced a bit as materials started to flow through it again. The seam Jerome had made did not leak.

  “I positioned the cleaning lozenge to block your path at the correct spot, since we were unable to communicate because of the noises. I tried sending video signals, but they were not successfully displayed,” Sandie stated with relief in her mechanical voice. “You made it to near Pine 1206, at least from the records I discovered. Visualizing this place, I suggest you ascend on the cross beam and open up a passage next to that smaller yellow shaft which intersects with the utility shaft you just traversed,” Sandie instructed.

  Jerome looked around and saw the smaller shaft Sandie described. It went up at an angle and then entered the ceiling right above Cammarry’s head. He stood up and being careful not to hit his head on some of the pipework and other fixtures which ran through the space he walked over to where Cammarry was standing. He hugged her fiercely. “You did great!”

  Cammarry held him tightly as well, and said, “We still need to cut our way out of here.”

  “Let me do that.” Jerome took out his torch and set it to cutting. He quickly circumscribed a circle in the permalloy of the ceiling which was large enough for him with his backpack on to enter. “No tight crawling this time,” he said as he swept the molecular torch around. He let the severed oval fall out and it clanged to the floor below. Light spilled down out of the opening he had created. Placing his foot on the cross beam he stepped up and stuck his arms and head inside. A small stream of water poured over the edge and dribbled down his leg. “We found a toileting area, but in my eagerness to get out of here, I cut the side off of the toilet.”

  Cammarry laughed.

  Jerome pulled himself all the way up. He reached back and aided Cammarry as she too climbed up and into the lavatory.

  “Well, there is at least more than one toilet. Do you plan to cut the others apart as well?” Cammarry joked.

  Jerome looked at what he had done, and then quickly welded shut the water pipe which was vainly trying to refill the truncated toilet bowl. “I just cannot stand to see water wasted. Conservation is a state of harmony between people and the world.”

  “Water just does not seem to be as big of an issue here as in Dome 17,” Cammarry observed. “Look at these toilets. They all use water to carry away wastes. That is a waste of a precious resource. But they must go to some reclamation center where the water is retrieved for further use.”

  Sandie the AI added, “The extreme recycling methods of Dome 17 have not been seen in any of our exploration of the Conestoga, but remember this technology is roughly one hundred years old. I am very thankful you arrived in this lavatory. I conjecture that Pine 1206 is beyond that door, or at least an ancillary room which adjoins Pine 1206 is there. Having a lavatory near to a hanger bay is a prudent and logical design feature.”

  “We will find out,” Cammarry stated as she walked past Jerome and opened the door.

  “There is no growth medium here, nor any plants,” Jerome stated as he followed her.

  The door opened easily, and beyond was brightly lit. They walked out into a room about twenty meters long, and five meters wide. To their left the entire wall was made of clear permalloy, but there were only dim shapes and gray shadows beyond the transparent, yet ultra-strong material. A workstation countertop, with slanted consoles of buttons, levers, dials, gauges, and small display screens ran the length of the clear permalloy. Several plush chairs were pushed up against the countertop. The other three walls were of opaque permalloy, a bluish green color. There was a bulkhead door set into the permalloy. There was a pressure door to their right. Next to each of those doors was a lit up nine colored section control pad. A door marked ESRC was in the corner.

  Cammarry gawked at the ESRC, but did not approach it. She rubbed her arm without thinking about it.

  Jerome sat down at one of the chairs, and looked over the controls. He toggled a lever which was marked, ‘Main Lighting’.

  “A hanger bay!” Cammarry said as she quit looking at the ESRC and gazed out through the clear permalloy. Numerous overhead lights snapped on. She thought of the orchard she had broken into and then sprinted across. She wondered which was larger, the hanger bay she was observing now, or the orchard. They both were larger than where Khin’s Goat People lived.

  The hanger bay was much wider than the observation deck where they stood. It extended far to their right. The ceiling was high, and the opposite wall was comprised of huge hanger bay doors. Those doors were dark blue with yellow cross stripes. Around the edges of the hanger bay there were tanks, and cylindrical storage containers labeled as ‘Thruster Fuel’ and ‘Decontamination’ and ‘Hydraulics’ and some others which they could not read from the observation deck. The floor was marked off in bright yellow stripes which divided the space into four equal-sized, separate areas. Large numbers were painted onto the center of those areas and the same number was painted on the ceiling over the top.

  “We found some shuttles,” Jerome said. “Several of them.”

  Stal
l 1 was empty.

  Stall 2 had a delta-winged vehicle, obviously designed for flight, parked there on skids. The overall color was white with a dark yellow trim. The body was a triangular tube with rounded nose. The wings were slung under that tube. It was sleek and pointed toward the hanger bay doors. There were twin propulsion engines at its rear to either side of the tall rudder. Thruster nozzles were visible at various spots on the shuttle’s fuselage. The wingspan was something like twenty meters, which nearly filled the stall where it rested. Its rudder stood about twenty-five meters tall.

  Stall 3 was empty.

  Stall 4, at the far end of the hanger bay, had three small vehicles parked in it. They looked identical from the distance. Each was much smaller than the shuttle in stall 2.

  “That large one will be where we start looking for commination equipment. Those others are not much bigger than a fusion truck,” Cammarry said dismissively.