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

by John Thornton

  “It is in case the air is lost,” Cammarry started to explain, but then hesitated. How could she explain depressurization, atmospheric necessities, and the rest to him? She also pushed away thoughts of the dead crew members she had seen. They had been strapped into their seats still inside the spacesuits. “We will wear these, because we might need a special suit like this.”

  “Wizard clothes to ride in a wizard machine. Yes, that is clear. So long as I can fly!” Khin followed Jerome’s example exactly and was soon ensconced in a spacesuit, all except the gloves and bubble helmet.

  “You are a fast learner,” Cammarry commented as she watched Khin. Her own suit slid on, and when she attached the torso to the legs, she felt the slight pressure against her legs as the bottom of the suit adjusted to her size.

  “Jerome, will you explain the helmet to Khin?”

  “Certainly, Cammarry,” Jerome answered as he pulled the gloves onto his hands. The fingers and thumb were not at all restricting, but there was a slight bulge around the wrist where the gloves sealed to the arms. He turned to Khin. “Inside of this helmet, there is a locking closure which makes the suit turn on. The helmet locks down like this.” He pulled it on and twisted it. Then the rest of the suit equalized the pressure and he could feel ripples around his body as the suit made some adjustments. He unlatched the helmet, and rotated it away and off his head. “Now we will not wear the helmets all the time, because the suits have a limited amount of air, but the helmets do need to be close to us so if there is a problem we can quickly place it on. Do you understand?”

  “Sure! The wizard hat has a window. It covers my whole head, like if I put a rat into a leather bag, but leather does not have a window!” Khin found his comment very funny. “When will we know to put our heads in the bubble?”

  “Hopefully, we will not have to,” Cammarry added. “We just need to be ready in case there is a problem. Then we need to act quickly. These suits are not exactly like what we have used before, but their operations are simple. I am going to practice putting mine on and off a few times, then we can talk about how to hear each other when we have the helmets on.” Cammarry placed her helmet on and then took it off. Her suit adjusted perfectly to her body shape.

  Khin followed her example. “The wizard clothing tickles me, but it is a nice massage. It reminds me of the back rubs my mother gave me as a child. I have a question. If I put a rat into a leather bag, the rat might die because it cannot breathe. If I keep my head in this helmet, how do I breathe?”

  “The spacesuit will give you enough air to breathe for several hours,” Jerome said. He kept thinking of the dead bodies he had seen in the spacesuits. It felt surreal to him. “When you put a rat into a bag, does it die right away?”

  “Most rats I put in bags are already dead,” Khin chuckled. “I understand what you mean. So we will not fly too long with our heads in the bubble.”

  “But you will fly inside the machine for a long time,” Cammarry added.

  “Wizard ways are strange to me, but I am on the quest with you.”

  “Now as to communications, Sandie, we have the com-links, and can you patch them into the suit systems?”

  “Yes,” Sandie answered. “That has already been established. The vintage Conestoga transmission system was not too difficult to repair and update to handle connection to our system. The com-links are connected into the suits, and the network of the shuttle. Khin will be able to speak and hear all that you do. Communications will automatically be established when each helmet is secured. Additionally, I made sure the lufi amalgam battery systems in each suit are fully charged. That gives you rebreathing capacity for eight hours at standard usage.”

  “So Khin will only have the suit systems, while we have the com-links as well?” Cammarry asked.

  “That is correct.”

  “Is the automacube loaded?” Jerome asked.

  “Yes, EA-804 is secured in the cargo hold of the shuttle. All systems are ready for launch,” Sandie answered.

  The three people, each carrying a bubble helmet under the arm, returned to the shuttle. Cammarry sat in one of the pilot seats, and Khin sat in his passenger seat. Jerome pulled the permalloy bar out from the door jam and stowed it along the side wall. He then pushed the button to close the door. “I assume we are ready for this?”

  “Yes! Let us fly now!” Khin chortled.

  “I am ready. This time we launch on our own command, and not that of Carter the Kidnaper.” Cammarry pulled the cable from her com-link and connected it into the access port next to the flight control display screen.

  Jerome showed Khin how to latch the restraints on the seat, and then he sat down. “Sandie? We are ready to depart.”

  “I am in position to assist. Using Machine Maintenance codes, I can operate the hanger bay doors, as well as the atmospheric pressure, gravity manipulation, and fetters securing the shuttle,” Sandie replied. “I directed the repairs via EA-804 and those connections are secure and stable.”

  The cockpit display screen lit up with cryptograms and symbols. A tiny beam of light came from both Jerome’s and Cammarry’s com-link and superimposed a few actual words over the symbols on the display. The background was dull white, and the images on the display were of various colors. Beneath the display a panel opened and several physical knobs rose from the dash as well as levers, gauges, slide bars, and a central instrument shaped like a palm sized post. The post had a handgrip on it, with toggle switches on the sides and top.

  “Menu driven icons, and a joy stick. I recall the runabout’s flight manual spoke of these types of control instruments. There are some I do not recognize, but most are pretty straight forward and clear.” Jerome said. “Touch activated? Or manual mechanical controls?”

  “I think it is both, or either. These knobs correspond to the images on the display. There is also a projected grid on the front view ports.” Cammarry adjusted one of the knobs in front of her and the projected grid shifted as she did so. What about voice activation?”

  Sandie the AI responded. “I can override any of the systems. I have set up the grid pattern and the labeled overlay through your com-links. My intention was to make the operation of this shuttle as close to the FTL scout’s controls as possible.”

  “You have done very well. This looks much more familiar than I expected.” Jerome smiled broadly at Cammarry. “Sandie, did you install faster-than-light options as well?”

  “That is impossible with our current level of production abilities,” Sandie answered seriously. “I cannot conjecture any method of building the proper equipment needed for that. The shuttle’s structural integrity would not withstand the forces of FTL transition, nor do we have a destination which would require faster-than-light travel.”

  “Sorry Sandie,” Jerome replied. “I was of course using hyperbole to compliment your accomplishments regarding the repairs done here. I should just have said a simple, ‘thank you’ and ‘well done!’”

  Cammarry smiled and nodded to Jerome. She turned around and looked at Khin. “Are you ready to fly?”

  “I have been waiting for so very long already. Yes! I want to fly again!”

  “Sandie, please begin the decompression process for the hanger bay,” Cammarry commanded as she touched several controls which were marked for that purpose.

  The hanger bay’s air circulation apparatus kicked in and began to drain the hanger bay. A gauge on the display showed the rapidly decreasing pressure in the hanger bay.

  “Sandie, will the exterior doors operate with the emergency curtains in place?” Cammarry asked.

  “Yes,” Sandie replied. “However the exterior doors will only separate part way, as their range of motion is now limited. The engineers who designed the emergency compartmentalizing curtains did incorporate a clever mechanism so that the doors become three separate egress points while allowing each individual stall to remain pressurized or not as needed. It is an ingenious invention, even though it was planned over one-hundred ye
ars ago. That emergency system was built with what we consider now obsolete construction methods. It allowed for safeguards in case of multiple scenarios: fire, crash, or as in our case an explosion.”

  “The safety system worked. The Captain was inventive as well, with his scheme of distributing the water, growth medium, and plant and animal life into the needle ship,” Jerome said.

  “In some ways I think Willie would have admired these people.” Cammarry remembered the Dome 17 Quartermaster and his creative spirit. A smile crossed her lips. “May you be well Willie, wherever you are.”

  “Hanger bay is now in vacuum,” Jerome stated. “Disengaging fetters from the shuttle.”

  Sandie the AI added, “Gravity manipulation off in thirty seconds.”

  “This does not feel like flying. I am just sitting tied to a seat like a nanny goat waiting to nurse the kids. Will we ever get to fly? Or is this a wizard’s test of patience?” Khin’s laugh was not as vigorous as usual.

  There were a series of loud clanks and clunks which reverberated up from the bottom of the shuttle as the docking clamps disengaged. Then the sense of gravity was gone.

  “Oooh! Now I feel the flying!” Khin cheered. He began to unbuckle his restraints.

  “Hanger bay doors opening,” Cammarry said as she adjusted a knob on the dashboard.

  Brilliant red light flooded into the hanger bay through the crack made as the exterior doors parted. It shone obliquely into the cabin of the shuttle through the front and side viewports.

  Khin covered his eyes. “That is too bright!” His movement caused him to slip out of the restraints and tumble a bit over the back of the seat.

  “I got you!” Cammarry called out as she turned around and grabbed Khin’s spacesuit boot and pulled him back into the seat. “Strap down again for a little while. The shuttle is flying now, and after we get outside you can fly inside here.”

  Khin closed his eyes tightly and blindly grasped for the belts. He connected them back together and then placed his hands over his eyes again. “Why is it so bright?”

  “That is the sun, around which the planet rotates. The Conestoga is in orbit around the planet, and the planet is in orbit around the sun. We are about to leave the Conestoga.” Jerome adjusted some controls and fired a brief pop from an inferior thruster. The shuttle rose off the hanger deck. Jerome compensated for that movement by a slight bit of thruster action from the superior nozzles. “The thrusters are smooth and working well.”

  “Did you have any doubts?” Sandie asked. “I told you I had inspected the operational systems of the entire shuttle.” There was a hint of smugness in Sandie’s mechanical voice.

  “Sandie, I will never doubt you. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people, like us adventurers, can change the world!” Jerome whooped. “Indeed, we already have changed this world, and now we are headed back to Zalia.”

  The hanger bay doors reached the limit of their movement, and that was more than adequate space for the Model 14S shuttle to maneuver out of the hanger bay.

  5 Findnig Beta

  The shuttle floated away from the needle ship section of the Colony Ship Conestoga. The long ship was stretched out before them as Jerome directed the shuttle into a gentle curve rolling it to place its belly toward the sun.

  “Khin, now you can see the needle ship, what you called the world, and how we are outside of it,” Cammarry pointed out the viewport.

  “Can I fly now? I feel like a bug buzzing over the mushrooms.” Khin reached down and began to unbuckle the belts. “I have no weight!”

  “Have you looked outside?” Cammarry asked. “If you look out the other side, the sun is not visible, and you can see into space. This is an amazing view.”

  Khin briefly looked out the view port which Cammarry pointed toward. “Looks like reflected lights off a dark pond of water. I want to fly!” He unhooked the belts and pushed himself up. The ceiling was not far above him, but he held up his hand to stop the slow movement of his body. “This is flying!” He tucked himself into a ball and rolled head over feet. One foot bumped into the bubble helmet he had hooked on the wall. That sent his movement careening around a bit, but he placed his hands up to avoid any painful bumps or bruises. “This is terrific!” His laughing was the most vigorous Cammarry and Jerome had ever heard.

  “Cammarry, just let him have his fun. I am rather surprised he is not getting nauseated by zero gravity, but if he likes it, more power to him. True enjoyment comes not just from activity of the mind, but sometimes joy can come from the simple exercise of the body. Body, mind, and spirit all can experience joy in their own ways.”

  “Well, Khin, do not kick me as you tumble about,” Cammarry said with a grin. “So Sandie, do we have a route to where that shuttle was in Beta?”

  “Yes. I have a course plotted and am making scans using the shuttle’s equipment. Being outside of the Conestoga, I have better resolution on the shuttle’s systems. I am correlating them to the scanning from the FTL scout ship and building a more comprehensive picture of the planet Zalia.”

  “Have you spotted any other parts of the Conestoga? There were eight habitats that were jettisoned, right?”

  “Yes, Jerome, that is our working assumption, based on the facts we have uncovered. We know Habitat Alpha survived, and now have evidence that Beta also is still in operation on the surface. So far, no other evidence for the other six habitats. I conjecture there is a potential that some of them did not survive planet-fall, perhaps even failing during the detachment from the needle ship.”

  “Well, their ultimate status is unknown, and we are going to Beta. Might as well take them in alphabetical order, right?” Jerome joked.

  Cammarry laughed a bit, but nowhere nearly loud enough to overcome Khin’s giggling. She did ask, “Without the audio transmission, would you be able to detect Beta from this range?”

  “An excellent and well-reasoned question, Cammarry. Bravo!” Sandie replied. “To answer your question, no. None of the equipment I have, either here on this shuttle, or on the FTL scout, or by using what remains of the needle ship’s systems, has the ability to discern Beta’s location. From orbit, it remains shadowed and mysterious.”

  “Sandie is not referring to me,” Shadow whispered to Cammarry.

  “I was afraid of that,” Cammarry stated to Shadow, but Jerome and Sandie thought she meant the scanning equipment. “So we really are in the dark about the other six habitat.”

  Laughing as he tumbled about, Khin called, “How can anyone be in the dark in such a bright place! The red light here is so strong!”

  “I was speaking metaphorically,” Cammarry answered and then addressed Sandie again. “Have you detected any wreckage in orbit that would suggest part of a lost habitat?”

  “Another excellent question. No. I have not found any significant wreckage in orbit around Zalia. As for as I can detect, the needle ship is the only major artifact in orbit. There are a few stray objects in orbit, which, from metallurgical analysis, show they originated on the Conestoga. There is also the larger shuttle which contained the deceased people and was defectively launched by SB Joseph Crater. I have tentatively identified that as a model 6 shuttle. I did that by comparison with descriptions in the runabout’s flight manual. That shuttle continues to tumble away from the planet on an erratic course. I do not consider it an orbital body any longer.”

  “Would a huge habitat leave a static debris field, or would all the wreckage have been drawn down into the planet’s atmosphere and burned up in failed reentry?” Jerome asked.

  “Much would depend upon the type of failure or malfunction encountered. I conjecture that if the habitat failed during detachment, some seventy years ago, and did not suffer a catastrophic detonation of some kind, it would leave a small number of large, unpowered sections of wreckage in orbit. Of those a vast majority would have been in unstable orbits. So the decay eventually would have resulted in termination of the various debris orbits. Those objects wou
ld strike the atmosphere, resulting in burning, explosions, or otherwise disintegration up in Zalia’s upper atmosphere. In my conjectures, even the most stable orbit I could estimate would last no longer than fifty-one years. By contrast, a major explosion, resulting in a huge number of smaller parts of wreckage would deteriorate even more rapidly. It is conjected to be unlikely that a debris field would still exist today after seventy plus years. However, absence of evidence does not provide evidence of an event’s absence,” Sandie answered. “Additionally, much of Zalia is still unknown, or uncertain, and elements detected in the atmosphere are not fully understood. Therefore reentry effects are just conjectures based on limited knowledge.”

  Khin finally caught himself and pulled his body into the seat. “Flying is so fun! But tiring. Do I understand that this machine is flying, and I was flying inside this machine?”