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

by John Thornton

  “I agree with you.” Cammarry walked over and held onto Jerome with a deep embrace. “But I want to know all the possibilities.”

  “I will follow you both. Will I get to fly again?” Khin asked.

  “No, but where we are going there may be more rats, goats, and chickens than you have ever seen before,” Cammarry said.

  Khin laughed a hearty laugh that echoed down both directions. “I have seen a lot of rats!”

  Jerome rubbed his chin. “Sandie, run another conjecture on all practical routes to reach the ground level of the biological habitat. I want us to consider all relevant possibilities. Also recheck a direct route to the closest end of this habitat, staying on top of this level.”

  The blue automacube began rolling along. The three people turned to look at what it was doing. It came to a place where there was an interior door in the floor. It inserted a cable into the access port near the control pad.

  “I have just reassessed the nonphysicality here,” Sandie stated. “I can do that more effectively through the automacube’s systems than through the com-links. The link I made from the shuttle through the docking clamps has significant limitations. SB Amelia Earhart was also an interference to my prior investigations. That is corrected now. I find no direct route, nor even a possible route though the upper levels of the habitat. It is labyrinth of passages and being tilted at 78 degrees inhibits options.”

  “Well what about going down to the biological habitat?”

  “There are basically three routes from here which you can take to reach the ground floor of the biological habitat. One is by ambulation through the corridors. Somewhere along the way, perhaps in a subtle and gentle manner, you will perceive the hallways and decks becoming more upright as you follow the arc of the habitat. In the nonphysicality, that route looks clear, but my perceptions are limited somewhat. That route is 6.45 kilometers in length using stairs and ramps. You will encounter some problems with stairways, ladders, and the now vertical drops which would need to be spanned.”

  “A long and tiring hike,” Jerome said. “Not impossible, but in a misaligned world, there may be dangers we do not anticipate.” He tapped the side wall where some pipework was jutting out. “What is the next option?”

  The AI Sandie replied, “The second option, is to move 417 meters directly toward the biological habitat. This will bring you to a place along the interior wall of the biological habitat. I have ascertained that there are service and upkeep access doors for the rain system. EA-804 can open them. Those open onto small catwalks which crisscross all the way down to the base of that arching wall. I believe you could open one of those service-upkeep doors and descend along the inside of the habitat’s arced wall. The cameras and apertures I have accessed show me this potential is possible, but has major drawbacks. I have just confirmed that the ground for the biological habitat is horizontal and in general alignment with the planet. Let me show you.”

  A light projected out from Jerome’s com-link and showed a three dimensional image of a landscape as seen from a far overhead perspective. The land was various shades of greens and browns and tans. There were two rivers flowing parallel down middle. They emptied into a large body of water which covered the end of the habitat. It was so far away it was hard to tell much by way of details.

  “Very high, yes very high up.” Khin’s laugh was not humorous this time.

  “So the biology is alive!” Jerome said. “Beautiful.”

  “Yes, that is good news, but the catwalks? They look like an automacube might fit, but not a person walking,” Cammarry said.

  “Indeed, that second way, we would be high in the sky over the biosphere. Way up by the sky-tube, within small spaces,” Jerome stated. He looked over at Khin who was shielding his eyes. “That would be dazzlingly bright, and far overhead. I remember how far away the sky tubed looked over Wolf City.”

  “Not to mention heat,” Cammarry added. “That sky tube generates heat, right? And we would be what, five kilometers straight up?”

  “Not exactly straight upward. The roof is arched, and the land below varies from 1.87 to 6.02 kilometers from the sky tube. So yes, you would be very high overhead. As to the heat issue, yes, the sky tube generates heat which is reflected downward to sustain the habitat. The temperatures during daylight time would be excessive, unless you returned and utilized the spacesuits for travel. I conjecture it may be possible to travel this route at nighttime, but then you would need illumination for the climb. It is not a good option, but it is possible.”

  “And you said there was a third option?” Cammarry asked.

  “Yes. I registered the presence of a transportation system built into the habitat. The non-physicality shows a transport hub not far from here. The initial readings are that the system is functional. The data suggests it has channels to six different locations in Habitat Beta, but I cannot confirm it is a safe system to use. I have no access at this time to the destination terminals. This third option is a possibility, but with such limited information, my conjectures for its success are low.”

  “Sandy does not want you to succeed,” Shadow whispered to Cammarry. “None of the options are realistic. You are being deceived. You are being set up to fail.”

  “I am not sure I believe that!” Cammarry snapped.

  “Excuse me?” Sandie replied. “Where have I erred? Perhaps I was not clear in my explanation?”

  “It is not that,” Cammarry said, trying to cover for her response to Shadow. “I just do not want to try to go back up there to the shuttle to get the suits and deal with SB Amelia Earhart. Nor do I think scaling down the inside of the sky of the biological habitat in the dark would a safe option. As to wandering in the upper levels, I am also wondering how we will get past passages where the once sideways halls are now deep shafts? That leaves option three. So if a transport system can get us quickly and safely to the ground level, is it worth further investigation?”

  “I believe it is worth checking. We can try the other options, if that transport system is inoperative,” Jerome said.

  “Follow the automacube, it will lead you to the transport hub. It is not far,” Sandie stated.

  7 Beta’s biological habitat

  The blue automacube halted at a junction. Just before it there was an abrupt edge, where the floor, which had been a sidewall ended. Jerome peered over the edge and looked down a hundred meter drop. He could see doors in the sides of the shaft, and in his mind he rotated the view and realized it had been a normal hallway once. Now that everything was sideways it was an abyss. Some of the doors were open, but most were shut. At the very bottom, there were several crumpled remains of shattered automacubes. One had been yellow, and another had been black. There may have been more, but it was hard to tell from the pile of broken debris.

  “I am glad you did not plummet over that edge,” Jerome patted EA-804. “That is some fall to demolish things like that.”

  “Especially since many parts of an automacube are made from permalloy,” Cammarry added. “So where is this transportation hub?”

  The automacube motioned with its manipulation arm. All three people looked upward. That direction was not as long as the abyss was deep, but it was just as disconcerting to see the doorways at stages above them. Along one wall they noticed an inscription. ‘Transport System Hub 27R’ with an arrow. Following that direction with their eyes, they could see a series of pressure doors. The second one up had writing on it. The angle prevented reading the label, but Cammarry stated the obvious, “I assume that is the transport hub.”

  “Must be twenty meters up to that door. It looks like the color pad next to it is powered, I can see the lights, but how do we reach that?” Jerome asked.

  “I can climb up to there,” Khin stated. “These walls are not as slippery as back home. Too dry and too bright, but not as slippery. Easy climb. Good handholds, and footholds.”

  “You could actually climb these walls?” Cammarry asked as she looked with scrutiny at the
them. There were some pipes, and conduits, and the lighting boxes, but nothing looked like a ladder or good place to climb.

  “Sure, sure,” Khin laughed. “Much better than when I climbed up from the Land of Bad Air. Here the air is good, the walls are dry, but the light is too bright.” His eyes were nearly squeezed shut.

  “We are going to find you something to help with that, I promise you Khin. Some eye protection. I also see, just below that pressure door, a small cabinet. It has a lighted sign sticking out over it: ESRC,” Jerome said as he stared upward.

  Cammarry shook a bit as she heard those letters. Her arm throbbed. She tried to speak but could not.

  “That is like what we saw before. It may have tools and supplies we need. Your arm was injured in the last one we opened, right?” Jerome said as he saw the pale look on Cammarry’s face.

  “Yes…” Cammarry mumbled. “That last one had a fire suppression hose inside of it, as well as food, and tools. I did get injured….but it healed up. She almost spoke about Shadow, but restrained herself, remembering how she had felt when she had tried before.”

  Khin looked across the span to where the wall went up and down. There was about a five meter gap. The door to the transport hub was on that far wall.

  “Sandie? Can the automacube climb up to that transport hub door and open it for us?” Jerome asked.

  “No need to bother your spirit-ghost! I will climb up there!” Khin said and ran right toward the edge. “Wizards just talk too much.”

  “Khin wait!” Cammarry yelled.

  “I like to fly!” Khin yelled and laughed at the same time as he launched himself from the edge. He leapt across the gap, arms extended out in front of him. He grabbed onto some pipes which were running vertically and hung on. With both his hands and feet he quickly began to pull himself upward.

  At the first doorway, he threw a leg up, and rolled himself onto its edge where he sat. “This is not too bad! No moss, and no water. Easy to grip. Do you want me to open this door?”

  “Do be careful!” Jerome called out.

  “My mother says, ‘Think before you leap, then at night you always sleep.’ So I am careful!” He laughed as he stood on the frame of the door and sidled himself over to the corner. “My father says he always thought three times before taking action. Twice would have been quite enough!”

  “The transport hub door is the next pressure door up,” Cammarry called. “Be wary as you pass that ESRC!”

  Khin only laugh and turned a bit. He faced into the corner as he wedged his feet to each side and continued to climb. The lights were less bright at that part of the vertical hallway and neither Cammarry nor Jerome could see the places he was making toeholds. He scampered past the ESRC without even a pause to look at it. Khin made steady progress upward and soon was perched on the frame of the door they thought was for the transport hub.

  Khin was able to reach the color control pad. “Three greens?” He called down.

  “That should be the correct access code,” Sandie answered. “I have several others you can try if that one does not work.”

  Khin laughed and pressed the green section three times. The pressure door slid upward, which was sideways to the way it was designed. Even brighter light flickered on from the room which was now open. That light cast a bright beam out and into the shaft.

  “I will just go in there now,” Khin said as he covered his eyes with one hand and pulled himself over and into the light with the other. As he righted himself, his silhouette was all that could be seen against the light. “Hey! What?” He called out and then his body disappeared from view.

  Smashing and crashing sounds came echoing down from the open door.

  “Khin! What is happening?” Cammarry yelled.

  There were several long hissing sounds, and then a metallic snap. The lights went out in the room and all was quiet.

  “Khin! Khin! Where are you?” Jerome yelled.

  “Sandie, we must get up there. Something has happened.”

  “Agreed!” Sandie eagerly said. “Orders issued.”

  EA-804 extended out the cable it had been using. Taking the end of the cable, it flung that using its manipulation arm. The cable sailed over, and fell short of the doorway. The machine winched it back in and then tried throwing it again. The cable landed on the edge of the open door, but did not stay. It slid off and fell again. It was winched back.

  “Khin we are coming!” Cammarry yelled. “Sandie, find us a way up there!”

  Jerome shrugged off his backpack. He took the molecular torch out and savagely cut into the permalloy of the wall next to him. Sparks came flying out as he severed an energy conduit. Some of the lighting shut down as about every third illumination box shut off. He roughly chopped several pieces of permalloy. He then worked as fast as he could to weld them into a basic grappling hook shape.

  “EA-804 stop trying to throw that, it will not work!” Jerome turned to Cammarry said as he came to the edge. “Did you see anything more?”

  “No. The lights went out, and no sounds at all from up there. What has happened?” Cammarry asked. “Khin! Answer me, please!”

  Jerome switched the setting on the molecular torch and welded the cable onto the bottom of the grappling hook. Then he held the treble bladed hook in his hand. “I am going to try to get this hook to catch inside that doorway. I have no idea on what, but we must try.”

  “Sandie! Will this work?” Cammarry asked.

  “It has potential. The automacube was attempting a similar maneuver, but with far less potential.” The AI’s voice did not sound hopeful.

  Jerome pulled out a long length of the cable and wound it into loops. The end was still attached to the automacube’s internal winch. He then swung the grappling hook around and around. Taking careful aim, he threw the hook. The cable played out behind it. The hook sailed up and bounced into the dark doorway.

  “Nice throw!” Cammarry called.

  “But will it catch on anything?” Jerome said as he gently began to pull it back. The cable slowly tightened up, but he could feel the hook shifting around as it dragged toward the door. As it reached the edge he stopped pulling. “Nothing. It is just sitting there. There might not be anything to grab onto inside there.”

  “Well, try it again.”

  Jerome nodded and tugged a slight bit. The hook fell and as it did it looped around the ESRC sign and tangled itself around the cable.

  “Well, that is a mess,” Jerome uttered under his breath. He started to yank on it, when Cammarry grabbed his arm.

  “Wait. That is a connection,” she said.

  “But it is below the door where he disappeared. I will try throwing it again. If I spin the cable, I can probably untangle it from that sign.”

  “Jerome, no. Do not untangle it. Tangle it more. See if the automacube can pull itself up to that spot. If so, it can open the ESRC, and that would give it a base to sit on and places to attach to. From there it may be able to better assess what is inside that room.”

  “Will that sign even hold the weight of the machine?” Jerome asked. He looked down the shaft at the wrecked machines at the bottom.

  “We must find out what happened to Khin!”

  “Sandie? Will the sign hold the weight of the automacube?” Jerome asked.

  “I do not have any information on the strength of materials used in constructing that sign. We know the cable can carry the machine’s weight, and by visual observation I can tell the sign is not made from permalloy, but is a polymer composite attached to the permalloy wall by a fashion which is unknown. I cannot estimate its weight bearing potential,” the AI Sandie answered.

  “This is the only automacube we have working for us here,” Jerome said hesitantly.

  Cammarry shoved his shoulder. “Khin is the only indigenous person who helps us. Get that tangle secured and send over the machine! Khin need our help!”

  “You are absolutely correct. Sorry.” Jerome spun the cable about until it had a wrapped itse
lf around the makeshift grappling hook several more times, and had made an additional loop over the sign’s end. “That looks pretty secure.” He then pulled on it hard. The cable tightened and the sign did not come loose.

  “Sandie, command the automacube to ascend there and then continue on up and over into that transport hub area where Khin went,” Cammarry ordered.

  “I am not sure this is the best alternative,” Sandie began. “There could…”

  “You see? That is proof Sandie does not want you to succeed,” Shadow whispered to Cammarry.

  “Sandie, do it now!” Cammarry ordered.

  “Affirmative,” Sandie replied.

  EA-804 took up the cable and attached it to the winch. Then it began tightening the winch. The machine rolled right to the edge of the drop. It then extended out its drive wheels and angled them to raise its own profile. The cable grew more tight and then the winch speed increased. The automacube was lifted upward, and pulled off the floor. It immediately swung out and over to the other wall, hanging by the cable.