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

by John Thornton

  “Yes, follow that car!” Jerome laughed. “I have read about people saying that so often, it was fun to do.”

  “Command understood and initiated,” Hecate replied.

  “What? Cammarry! Brace yourself!” Jerome yelled as he sensed a vibration in the vehicle. He leapt over and pushed her up and into the seat. She fumbled for stability and wrapped one around the chair’s arm. She pulled herself into place just as there was a loud noise.

  Clonk!

  There was a jerk and lurch. The vehicle dropped.

  “Free fall!” Jerome grabbed for the arms of the other seat, but missed. He smashed his head into the seatback. Blood rolled down from the gash. Cammarry seized his sleeve as his arm passed by her. She held on. “Slow this descent!” She commanded.

  “Unable to comply. Gravity manipulation error. Vector inaccuracy. Malfunction of multiple systems. Electromechanical and magnetic oscillation inoperative,” Hecate replied. “Repairs needed.”

  Jerome, blood running into his eyes, flailed his free arm and connected with a different part of the other chair. He pulled onto that as the speed of the vehicle increased. He felt like he was falling, and was dizzy at the same time. With one leg he pushed on the dashboard and then looped his own arm around the bottom of the seat and held tightly. “Not much safety in this! Sandie! Override the system here and get it under control!”

  “I cannot do that,” Sandie answered. “I am attempting to intervene, but I have only limited access to this section of the nonphysicality, and no direct access to the vehicle.”

  Jerome tried to reach the control panel, but could not. The speed was such that the fusion pack, Cammarry’s backpack, and other items were bouncing around the front part of the vehicle. He wiped the blood from his eyes, but its bright red flow did not lessen.

  “Hecate? Is there manual bypass for control of this vehicle?” Cammarry asked.

  “Machine Maintenance is well aware of my systems and their operations,” Hecate replied. “I only followed your command.”

  “I did not mean it literally!” Jerome yelled. “Shut down operations and halt the vehicle!”

  “Unable to comply with command,” Hecate stated.

  “Open manual controls!” Cammarry commanded.

  “Sandie led you here. She does not want you to succeed,” Shadow whispered.

  “Not now!” Cammarry rebuked Shadow.

  “Please clarify your command,” Hecate stated. “Do you want manual control or not?”

  “Yes! Give me manual control!” Cammarry screamed. “Immediately!”

  “I cannot see it!” There was twisting and spinning sensations. Jerome was struggling to try to get to the panel Cammarry had been using, but blood was flowing across his face. He lost his grip on the seat.

  “Manual control panel extended,” Hecate stated.

  The jammed panel which Cammarry had been trying to get completely open before the fall, shot toward her, striking her arm. She shook the arm in pain, but looked closely at the revealed controls, trying to make sense of the levers, knobs, buttons, and dials.

  “Emergency braking!” Cammarry called out as she pulled a lever to one side what she hoped would slow them down.

  There were negative function sounds from several different places.

  “No more power for you!” Jerome yelled as he blindly grabbed the cord which connected the fusion pack to the access port. He yanked it hard and it flew loose.

  The lights in the vehicle flickered, dimmed, and then stayed on in a red glow.

  “Synthetic Brain Hecate losing… power… drain… report…..Machine Main..ten…..ance…… malfun……” the mechanical voice slowly faded out, but the vehicle kept moving at an alarming rate.

  “Engaging magnetic blockage, whatever that is,” Cammarry said as she watched the control panel in front of her also waning out. It colors were dimming, and she was trying to read the display before it was gone.

  “Sandie? Get control of this!” Jerome yelled as he tried to link the cable from his com-link into the access port. The blood in his eyes, and the dizziness in his brain made it even more difficult to do.

  The vehicle staggered as something seemed to grip it and slow its momentum. Jerome was thrown forward and smacked into the dashboard. “Uggh!” He slumped into a pile.

  “Jerome!” Cammarry yelled. She was partially protected behind the manual controls. She yelled again as she pushed several buttons on the commands. As the command buttons and levers lost illumination, a small display lit up with a plain white background and basic black lettering. ‘Choose Emergency Exit’ flashed. There was a list below it.

  “Sandie? What destination? Where did Khin go? She cried out. She read out what the black letters spelled “I have Lugil, Quady, Kalapa, Seron, and Crondel. Sandie help me!”

  There was no reply.

  Sandie? Answer me!” The white screen was rapidly fading away and the lettering was becoming grayer. “I pick Crondel!” She tapped on the word Crondel, and heard a pleasant tone just as the display faded away. “Sandie what is happening?”

  The vehicle made another series of jerks and twists but then righted itself. Cammarry could feel the vehicle slowing as she breathed some deep breaths and adjusted to the vehicle being upright and the seat being beneath her. It was now moving more horizontally than vertically.

  “Jerome? Can you get up? Sandie? Jerome is injured! Help me!”

  “Neither can here you now,” Shadow said. “They tried to make you fail, but you are succeeding. Now it us just you and me.”

  “What are you?” Cammarry yelled. Her eyes were wide with fear as she looked at Jerome. It was hard to see details in the dim red light, but his face was covered in blood and his arm was twisted behind his back. She looked back to the manual controls, but none of them were illuminated and when she moved a switch it just jiggled without locking or clicking into place.

  “I need help here!”

  There was no response. Not from Shadow, or from Jerome, or from Sandie. The vehicle was still moving, but was fairly stable in a normal orientation. Up felt like up, and down was where the floor was located. Cammarry stood up and searched for her backpack and the medical kit it contained. She spotted it at the back end of the vehicle wedged under one of the seats along the wall. “I will help you Jerome!”

  As she grabbed the medical kit, the vehicle lurched, jerked, and slowed even more. She stumbled a bit as she stepped back to Jerome. He had not moved since he fell.

  “It is too late,” Shadow said. “You should have taken the next implantation. Too late. Too late.”

  8 Crondel and a very unusual machine

  “Shut up! Shadow, just shut up!” Cammarry screamed out as she squatted down next to Jerome. “You have never been anything but a curse to me, so shut up! I never want to hear from you again!”

  She placed the medical kit on the floor, but then fell against the front of the dashboard as the vehicle jerked again. She sat down heavily on the floor and threw one leg over Jerome to keep him in place. He was still warm, but she could not hear his breathing over the noises from the vehicle. She felt his head, and it was sticky with blood.

  “Jerome, I will not fail you!” She pulled the wires from the medical kit and attached them to the sides of his head. “Emergency diagnostic and treatment!” She pressed the activate button.

  In the dim red light, the small screen on the medical kit glowed brightly. ‘Patient Jerome. Moderate level injuries. Unconscious. Closed head trauma. Multiple fracture to left arm. Level four laceration to scalp. Initiating treatment. Prognosis good. 1. Apply inhalation gel. 2. Inject neurological support compound into any large muscle mass. 3. Connect wires medially and distally to fractured arm.’

  Cammarry grabbed the gel that was ejected from the side of the medical kit and slathered it under Jerome’s nose. It was pinkish colored in the red emergency lights, and had a distinct aroma. The syringe then slid out from the bottom of the kit. She opened Jerome’s pants and rammed t
he syringe into his thigh. He did not respond to either the gel or the injection. She slid the syringe back into the top of the kit, and then pulled the wires off his head. She had to roll him over to expose his broken arm. He did not flinch or gasp as she did that. Even moving his obviously shattered arm around did not illicit a response.

  “Come around Jerome. Tell me some stupid quote from one of your old books!” She said as she pulled his mangled arm out of the RAM suit. It bent in more places than just at his elbow and wrist. His hand was swollen. She connected the medical kit wires to his shoulder and then to his wrist.

  The vehicle jerked and rocked as it slowed even more, but Cammarry was now secure enough to keep them both from being jostled too much.

  “Wires, in place,” Cammarry said to herself, and hoped that Jerome was hearing what she said. “Now heal his arm!” She pressed the activate button on the medical kit.

  The medical kit screen came on again. ‘Neurological support in progress. Bone alignment and stimulation initiated.’

  The wires sent current into Jerome’s broken body, and his own muscles began to pull and reshape his arm into correct configuration. As the last of the abnormal bends in his arm straightened out, he cried out. “Where am I? Oh dear! That really is a strange sensation.”

  Cammarry wept tears of joy as she heard his voice. “You are with me!”

  “I see that. I am home. Where we love is home. Our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” Jerome smiled his best in the dim red light. He tried to sit up, but his arm did not allow him to move as he desired. “Sandie? What is the situation?”

  There was no response.

  “Sandie has not replied, but I think the wild ride in this vehicle is coming to a halt somewhere,” Cammarry stated.

  “I feel medicated,” Jerome said as he took a deep breath. “I must have been beaten up badly for the medical kit to use this stuff.”

  There was a more solid bump as the vehicle came to a halt.

  “I am not sure where we are, but we have arrived,” Cammarry said as she looked at the medical kit.

  A grinding noise shook through the floor, and then the vehicle began to back up. Cammarry caught herself and steadied Jerome as he lay on the floor. He looked up with a weak smile, “The voyage continues.”

  Cammarry squeezed his shoulder. “The screen says your arm will be healed in about half an hour. The bone stimulator and alignment is working. Maybe this thing will stop by then. I am glad you are awake now.”

  “Is this where Khin went? I wonder what he thought of that kind of a ride?” Jerome asked. “Regarding that other vehicle, SB Hecate did not seem aware of the other shuttle’s status.”

  “That SB did say something like that, but where is Sandie?” Cammarry asked as she tapped on the earpiece part of her com-link. “Sandie! We need you! Replay the conversation we had with SB Hecate.”

  There was no response.

  The vehicle was still backing up, slowly. Bumps, and heaving motions were felt as the vehicle crunched into something, went up and over it, and then continued. Jarring and tearing sounds shook the vehicle as it settled in and then finally stopped. Momentarily it was stationary and level, then it fell about a half meter and rocked to the side a bit. The rear door sprang open.

  “We are here,” Cammarry said as she looked out.

  Dust floated down from the misaligned doorway and the frame it was supposed to latch onto. The hatch had opened inside the room where the vehicle had attempted to connect, but it was only about a third of the way patent as the vehicle had settled lower than was needed for proper alignment.

  “Dust!” Jerome said with his pulse racing. His eyes darted to Cammarry’s.

  “This is not a view from the Dome,” Cammarry replied warily as both she and Jerome thought immediately of the world they had known most of their lives. “There will not be radiation.”

  “It is not the radiation you see that will be a problem,” Jerome replied in forced humor. “Sandie? We really could use your help.” With his uninjured hand he managed to connect the com-link cable into the access port on the dashboard.

  There was no response.

  “Should we try the fusion pack again?” Jerome asked.

  “I will look around outside. Maybe we can just safely move out of this vehicle? At least it is mostly upright now, and that is far better than how it was when we found it.”

  “SB Hecate might try to correct that if more power was available,” Jerome said as he tried again to get up.

  Cammarry pushed him down. “Remain where you are and let the medical kit finish. You conked your head, and your arm was busted up. I will look around for us both.”

  Jerome’s eyes grew wider as he remembered how they had been separated before. With his unbroken arm he reached out and grasped her. “Or could you just wait here so we can stay together? It is not a long time. There is some food in the backpack, unless it was all crushed in this rolled and toasted ride.”

  Cammarry looked at him and tipped her head to the side. “You must have really rattled your brain, I think you mean rollercoaster ride, correct? Some ancient amusement type of entertainment.”

  “That is it! Rollercoaster!” Jerome agreed. “I once read how entertainment was used to simulate fear. The ancients actually sought to provoke fearful sensations: falls, crashes, and even engaged in pretend but realistic looking mass violence, all in a pursuit for fun.”

  Cammarry pulled her backpack out and set it down. “They did not just pretend. Remember, the ancient world had the 90 Hour War, the Great Event, and virtually destroyed itself as well.” She looked around and found Jerome’s backpack. “Yes, we can eat while your arm heals. I hate to think that if I go through that passage, this vehicle might just zip away with you inside it. We are in this together.”

  Jerome took some of the food she offered, “Yes, we are in this together. I do hope Khin is safe.”

  “He is probably eating one of his cheeses,” Cammarry said as she took a bite of the food. She did not want to think about what it was she was eating.

  After sharing the meal, and having the medical kit run another diagnostic on Jerome which he passed, they gathered all their gear and squeezed out through the rear door.

  The dim red light from the vehicle’s interior was all that illuminated the place they entered. Cammarry turned on the light on the fusion pack and saw the shambles of what was around them. Dust was floating in the air, and there were broken parts of the ceiling and walls lying around where the hatch had opened. Another three hatches were along the wall, about six meters apart. None of them looked to have been opened for a long time. A thick coating of dust and grime covered them over. Where there might have been a fifth hatch, there was a wrecked vehicle amid a pile of rubble. It had smashed through the wall with tremendous force in some long past crash. Only a small portion of it was sticking out from the destroyed wall.

  “Oh my!” Cammarry exclaimed. Seeing twisted, torn, bent and melted permalloy surprised both of them.

  “That was one wicked impact,” Jerome said as he looked at the remains of the vehicle. Dust and debris covered it. There was also a large amount of some kind of fine silvery-white filaments. Those filaments reflected back the light as it was shined on them. They stretched across sections of rubble, and between the broken parts of the stack.

  Cammarry looked at a more intact wall. She read the graffiti hand written on it in green paint. “Look at that, ‘Hayward MacDonald 4 KM sternward,’ we saw that in the elevator.”

  “They may both have been written at roughly the same time, when this habitat was connected to the needle ship and the Conestoga was all together,” Jerome said. “Maybe we will track down what happened to Hayward MacDonald, but right now I am doubtful that Khin came this way. No one has been here for a long time.”

  “I was thinking that as well,” Cammarry said.

  Jerome turned around in the room and surveyed all he could see. The hatch wall was obviously part of a transport hub, sim
ilar to the one they had departed. This one was gravitationally upright, not sideways, but was in far worse condition. Where the vehicle crash had taken place was a pile of debris: chunks of permalloy, twisted steel, broken polymers, and several large pipes which had been ripped from the ceiling as part of it collapsed. He walked over to the pipes.

  “Cammarry, shine the light over here more, would you please?”

  Cammarry focused the fusion pack light where Jerome directed it. The pipes were about double a palm’s width wide and were dry. Beneath them there were no signs at all of what had been in the pipe.

  “Quite different than on the needle ship where water flowed from the ducts and ran across the floor.” He reached inside the pipe, and then groaned. “Oh, my arm is still stiff. It will take some calisthenics to limber it up again. I guess I should be thankful it is not ancient times where they would just hack it off, or wrapped it in some bandages and let it try to heal over a period of months.”