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

by John Thornton

  He walked over and picked up the data stick and its reader. “We need even more help, so I am going to have this evolve into a new artificial intelligence system.” He adjusted several small sections of the data stick.

  There was no response.

  “I thought this was working. I need another modern AI,” Jerome said as he again entered the combination to have the data stick evolve.

  Again it failed to do as instructed.

  Jerome raised his arm, with the data stick in his hand, but at the last moment did not throw it away. “It still functions as a data stick, and me getting angry will not make this work any better. My anger does not produce the righteous results needed.”

  “The food is prepared,” SB Bodowa stated. A tray of hot food rolled off the conveyor. Jerome picked it up and took it to the work station next to the bed where Cammarry was sleeping. He sat down to eat.

  “Sandie, so we are marooned on the Conestoga with no chance of getting anyone from the dome here. Is that correct?” Jerome asked with a mouthful of some kind of food he could not identify.

  “That is correct.”

  “So Zalia, this planet, will be our permanent home.”

  “That is correct.”

  “Sandie, have you figured out how far away from Earth we came? And that Cosmic Crinkle thing? What about it?” Jerome put down his fork, and then rubbed his eyes.

  “The recovery of the Dome 17 signal was only possible because of the enhanced efforts between the synthetic brains here and my abilities on the scout ship. The signal picked up was an echo of an echo, and did not allow for an exact location of Earth to be made. I am confident it is a genuine signal, as it was sent out on the faster-than-light methods developed by Brink, however, I have failed in locating the exact location of Earth. I know no more about the Cosmic Crinkle than we did before. I am sorry.”

  Jerome yawned, and then rubbed his eyes again. “The Conestoga has been here for decades. What levels of terraforming have taken place and how long will that take to complete?” Jerome asked. His mind was wandering back to thinking about Cammarry and how to help her.

  The door opened and a white automacubes rolled into the room. It had the six wheels, the manipulation arm on its top, and the black number 912 on its front.

  “I have seen you before. Thank you for coming,” Jerome said as he took another bite of the food. “Please let me know how I can help Cammarry. I love her so much.” A small tear ran down his face.

  The white machine responded, “I am Doctor 912. I will work with the patient. My first suggestion is to transport her to the infirmary in Wolf City.”

  “What?” Jerome stood up almost knocking over the food. “Take her away and back there. Down where those slaves are? With those lunatics chewing that junk? No! Cammarry must to stay here where she is safe from those slave traders.”

  The white automacubes halted its rolling. “I am not sure what you mean by your comments. Are they just a lament? Please elaborate on your phrases ‘slave trader’ and ‘slaves’ and give a precise meaning to the words and phrases.”

  “Basic, institutional slavery. The slave traders down in that habitat. We saw them.” Jerome explained in detail what he had seen as they crossed through Wolf City. He finished by adding, “The one man I saw had a horrific chain physically impaled through his leg, near the heel and ankle. Nobody should be shackled like that. It was grotesque. And those people who were in charge were chewing those brown sticks. What is that? It did not look like food. They called it lek.”

  “I will contact the supervising synthetic brain at the infirmary to evaluate your observations,” Doctor 912 stated. “None of those things should be happening in the habitat.” The automacube rolled over to where Cammarry was lying in the bed. It gently extended out its multi-jointed arm and began reviewing Cammarry’s status. “I will administer nursing care to the patient in this location until the issue you bring up is resolved.”

  “All of you AIs, or SBs, or whatever, you should check on that slavery down there. It is horrible. I do not understand why none of you know about it. Well, Sandie, I know you did not see it, but you other systems are from here and you have lived with it,” Jerome said. “Unless you machines support the evil idea of humans being slaves to other humans. Do you! Those who support slavery, should first be slaves themselves and see how they like it.”

  “Jerome, I wish I had been able to be in contact with you for this entire odyssey, I would then be able to review what you saw. I believe your report. An investigation has begun. I am in contact with the synthetic brains and will review what information they have,” Sandie stated. “I am processing this.”

  The white automacube, Doctor 912 stated, “I am unable to make any link or coupling to the infirmary in Wolf City. I have reported this malfunction to Machine Maintenance.”

  “There have been no responses from Machine Maintenance,” Sandie said. “Not from any inquiries from any of the three SBs. The nonphysicality here has been almost inactive since Habitat Alpha was jettisoned. The synthetic brain which directed the landing of the habitat does not respond to inquiries. There are slots where a multitude of SBs should be responding, but those remain inert. I have only been able to make contact with the three SBs you have encountered. SB Bodowa has no observations about any activity in the biological part of the habitat. It produces items when ordered and they are distributed via gravity conduits. It has not had personal human visitors for over fifty years. SB Joseph Crater also has no observations about the biological habitat. SB Sherman supervises the egress and has some observations. I have reviewed them and made conjectures in association with SB Sherman. Those confirm your assertion that a form of slavery is taking place in the habitat. SB Sherman is attempting to gain additional information by extending its audio and visual observation of the entry points.”

  “So what are you going to do about it?” Jerome asked. “These three AIs, I mean SBs, cannot be the only ones in operation. I saw a red automacube in operation, and I know there must be other systems keeping the ecosystem working. And what about the exterior terraforming?” He yawned again.

  “I am continuing to investigate, plan, and extend our knowledge of the operations here. For now, I believe you should sleep,” Sandie said. “The bed is large enough for both you and Cammarry, and the information gathering will take some time. I will remain vigilant and awaken you to any possible threat. SB Bodowa has agreed to secure the Reproduction and Fabrication area until more is known and a plan of action has been established.”

  Jerome stretched and yawned again. “I do need to sleep. Thank you Sandie. It is great to have you back. Do whatever you have to do to make things better. Cammarry and I need a safe place to live, and it will be for the rest of our lives. Do whatever it takes, to stop this evil.”

  “I agree. I will.” Sandie’s normally rather perky and spunky voice was utterly serious.

  Jerome slipped into the bed and fell into a sound sleep.

  Sandie continued to probe into the nonphysicality and interface with the synthetic brains of the Conestoga. She had not told Jerome how tedious and difficult that process was, because of the slowness and fragility of the old SBs. Additionally, the nonphysicality of their lattice was better than anywhere else Sandie had investigated on the Conestoga, but it was still primitive in comparison to the way Dome 17 equipment operated. The processing of inquiries from Sandie to the SBs was a huge mismatch, and Sandie, even though only present remotely, was far superior to the other systems.

  Sandie was frustrated.

  Doctor 912 attended to Cammarry tenderly and competently, administering fluids, nutritional supplements, and medications as needed.

  Ten hours later, Jerome and Cammarry were both awakened by Sandie. “Good morning adventurers!” Sandie said with a spunky tone.

  “Where am I” Cammarry asked as she rolled over. “Last thing I remember was some horrible nightmare about the dome failing and everyone being lost.”

  Jerome turned to
her, “That was a nightmare alright, but it was real. No one can ever come here from Dome 17.”

  Cammarry and Jerome cried together.

  “Thank you Jerome for holding me. This is all such a mess.”

  “You were quite sick, but the medical kit should have cured you, along with the nursing skills of that white automacube.” Jerome gestured to the wheeled machine that was parked near the head of the bed.

  “Shadow?” Cammarry asked.

  “What?” Jerome responded. “I am not sure what you mean.”

  “Nothing. Nothing at all. I feel much better now. Thank you again. So Sandie, what is happening? Fill me in on the latest, I need to know.”

  “I am thankful you have recovered from your ailments Cammarry,” Sandie stated, “I have made some progress. I have made contact with synthetic brain SB Yomaris. That SB is currently the supervisor for the solar mimicry, weather, and main reactors. Unfortunately, SB Yomaris was not originally designed to operate that many departments. Operation of the solar mimicry was its primary function. A group called the Thirteen Heroes did a remarkable work and this SB is functioning over design limits, but doing so in a stable and effective manner. Therefore, SB Yomaris is not able to add significant assistance at this time without endangering the entire habitat.”

  “We heard something about those Thirteen Heroes before,” Cammarry answered. “They did work on the needle ship as well, from what we heard.”

  Sandie continued. “I am compiling the legends about that group, the Thirteen Heroes. With the help of the ship’s other SBs, I have reports on the slavery issues. Jerome you were correct; slavery is happening in the habitat. SB Sherman evaluated the last several decades of records, and the slaver traders are using the people in suspended animation as a source for slaves. The SB which should be supervising the suspended animation repositories is in ‘knocked out-standby mode’ so it is unable to resist when humans come from the habitat and manually re-animated people. Just after reanimation, the people have their identification tracking devices removed from their bodies. This has happened at irregular intervals, but some 4,869 people have been re-animated over the last 65 years. Of those, an estimated 1,700 are alive in the habitat at this time. There are also 3,456 people in the habitat who have been born here and have had identification tracking devices implanted shortly after birth. There is a likelihood of other humans in the biological habitat who are unrecognized.”

  “So the slave traders are using re-animated people who were born on Earth and went into suspended animation. Cruel, vicious, slavery. An evil which plagued humanity is here. How?” Jerome wondered.

  Sandie answered. “According to the recordings, those slave traders use the identification tracking devices to dominate the machines of the habitat, including the automacubes, the water systems, and the infirmary. By removing them from the re-animated people, those people are inhibited greatly in what systems will help them. The SB supervising the infirmary has also been placed in ‘knocked out-standby” mode. I conjecture many of the other SBs have suffered a similar shut down.”

  “Slavery?” Cammarry asked. “We are marooned on a world where there is institutional slavery. This is disgusting.”

  “I agree.” Jerome began doing some isometric exercises. “Sandie? Is slavery happening in the other parts of the Conestoga?”

  “We saw no evidence of it on the needle ship,” Sandie replied. “As to the other seven habitats, there have been no reported contacts between those habitats and the needle ship or Habitat Alpha since the time the habitats made planet fall. Their status is unknown. That is also the condition of terraforming. Unknown. I have been unable to locate any terraforming attempts made from Habitat Alpha. What has been attempted, if anything, by the occupants of the other habitats is unknown.”

  “So how do we address this problem?” Cammarry asked.

  “I am not sure what we can do. We have very little leverage or ability to effect change,” Jerome said.

  “I do not want to contradict you Jerome, but we do have more resources available to us than you know. I have connected the data stick, and all its information, to the SB Bodowa here. So all the tools, implements, and gear we need are now part of SB Bodowa’s inventory of items for production. I have already ordered a third com-link so that I can have an established link here in Reproduction and Fabrication. So no matter where you are on the Conestoga, you can request items be produced here and they will be shipped to you. Additionally, the SBs and I have taken steps to correct the slavery issue,” Sandie stated. “I have uncovered many of the command codes used by the Conestoga’s Machine Maintenance department. Using those the lattice of SBs and I have been able to re-purpose many automacubes in Habitat Alpha.”

  “Automacubes to what purpose?” Jerome stretched his arms. “Remember, ‘cubie red will make you dead. Cubie green a good machine. Cubie blue knows what to do.’ Or so said our friend Khin. So what have you done?”

  Sandie’s voice carried a note of playful optimism as well as mirth. “By accessing the automacubes’ need for routine updates and maintenance, I learned that they have been set to ‘slave mode’ which may have contributed to the human slavery observed in the habitat. The SBs have demonstrated that the Conestoga’s Articles of Confederation are the foundation for the human society here. Slavery is not acceptable under those regulations, and the ‘slave mode’ of the automacubes, and the human slavery observed here have been conjectured to have the same etiology. It began with a diversion from the Articles of Confederation.”

  “Are you sure of this?” Jerome asked.

  “That is my best conjecture,” Sandie answered, and it was confirmed by the synthetic brains of the Conestoga. Therefore, I have gained control over the medical, engineering, horticultural, and transport automacubes; the white, blue, green, and yellow. The security automacubes are protected. I cannot access them from intervention through those Machine Maintenance channels. I am looking for ways to penetrate the security automacubes’ platforms. The records show several other types of automacubes, but I have been unable to locate any of those models.”

  “What will you have them do?” Cammarry asked. “I must know now.”

  “Set the captives free,” Sandie replied. “I changed the automacubes’ primary purpose to assessment and assistance of humans who do not have identification tracking. The engineering automacubes are required to remove all restraints, bindings, and or shackles. The medical automacubes’ highest priority is now to foster healing from all injuries associated with the slavery. The automacubes are also inhibited from obeying all commands from any person that supports slavery.”

  “So you are abruptly taking the machines away from the habitat people,” Jerome stated. He stopped his exercising and closed his eyes. He swallowed hard several times, but was unsure what else to say. He then looked to Cammarry.

  Cammarry glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. She thought she heard Shadow whisper something about Jubal taking away the AIs from them. She shook her head, looked down, and rubbed her eyes. “Is this permanent?”

  Sandie responded, “The lattice of SBs and I agreed to these primal settings on the automacubes for the time being. I conjecture only a short time will be needed under these circumstances. The yellow automacubes will identify the people, the blue ones will remove the shackles, and the white ones will perform the needed medical care. After a new social order has been established, things can be refined.”

  “Cubie green a good machine?” Jerome tried to cover his concern with mirth, but it did not work well.

  “The horticultural automacubes have been sent on a mission to gain information about this product you said the slave traders called lek. They will investigate it and report back to us,” Sandie replied. “Additionally, SB Sherman, who controls all egress passages from the biological habitat, will no longer allow any humans, except those authorized by the lattice, to leave the biological habitat, and special focus is on preventing slave traders from entering the suspended ani
mation repository. That will eliminate the source of new slaves.”

  “Excellent!” Cammarry exclaimed. “Since the reanimated people are Earth born, they must be well educated, intelligent, and dedicated to the mission of the Conestoga. The people living as slave traders will learn from them. No reasonable and educated person would support slavery. They are just misguided and confused.”

  Jerome replied, “The history of overturning slavery is not a simple one, and often leads to violence, but that was long ago.”

  “Yes, Jerome, that was ancient history. Many centuries have passed since then, and this can be easily solved. These people started with order and precision. These people are just confused, scared, and mixed up,” Cammarry commented. “When they are confronted with the loss of their machines, they will see the error of their ways. The freed slaves will use their liberty wisely. They will help the habitat people to understand the evils of slavery and work together with them. This beautiful habitat will become a place of peace and tranquility for everyone who lives here. That will make it attractive as our new home.”