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

by John Thornton

  Jerome stepped over the foundation and into the space where the front of the building still existed. “It looks like it was just cleaved away. From this angle I can see out the front door. Was it unfinished? Or was this dismantled?”

  “I say dismantled, but I could be wrong.” Cammarry pointed at the edges and core of the wall section. “There are pipes, conduits, and wires just hacked off smooth. It would not look like that if this was under construction. At least I do not think so.”

  “Nor if it was destroyed in some explosion. If we turned on the fusion light, we could see better and know more what this was. A monument? Or some other specialized building?” Jerome scratched his head. “We have seen lots of damage on the Conestoga, but this is not so much destructive, but just a dismantling or disassembly.”

  “Keep the light off. I think it is getting brighter out here anyway.”

  “Maybe Khin’s keen eyesight is finally being adopted by us both?” Jerome laughed a bit. “He sure can see well.”

  “Shall we look at those other buildings?”

  They walked the short distance to the other structures, and they too were hewed precisely apart, leaving only the front façade intact. They took their time and examined all seven buildings, and none had interiors any longer. Just the front and the smooth flat floors and foundations. Jerome squatted down and saw where ductwork had once come up from the floor, but that had been sliced off, and the duct neatly sealed over.

  The chirping sounds they had heard since arriving were less frequent now, and there were a wider variety of different noises.

  Several birds flew out from one of the buildings, and winged themselves away with a chorus of cawing and cackling. They were smaller and further away than the thing that had flown over them before. As Jerome and Cammarry watched them fly away, it was obvious the sky was getting lighter. Far overhead the sky tube was no longer the dull silvery color, but was now a slightly orange glowing bar across the sky.

  “Dawn in Habitat Beta,” Cammarry stated. “And we have a sign to read.” She pointed to the front of one of the buildings. ‘No water here’ sprayed on that front in dark red paint. The paint had run down in streaks and those dribbling lines reminded Cammarry of her arm when it was slashed. The image of blood and bleeding was vivid in her mind. She looked away quickly.

  “Again a complaint about water,” Jerome said.

  They stood and watched as the landscape around them was illuminated. In the distance birds, ground animals, and insects also came out to welcome the morning. Neither Jerome nor Cammarry noticed how much time passed as they observed day beginning in the biome. The animals were all fleeting and seen only in brief blurs as the raced from one place to another.

  “It is vastly different than Wolf City and the river around there. This place is much drier. Nothing near the low humidity of Dome 17, and maybe I was just used to the moistness of the needle ship, but this place feels dry.”

  “I agree Jerome. Look at the ground. There are cracks in the dirt.” Cammarry walked away from the chopped up buildings, and stepped into the area where there was not the rocky walkways. She squatted down and placed her fingers into the cracks on the ground. Each crack outlined about a palm sized section of dirt. “Is it supposed to look like this? I see groves of what might be trees in the distance, but they look more brown than green. Beta was much more green. The orchard was more green. Is this place supposed to be a mixture of green and brown?”

  “Maybe? I am not sure. The old world had seasons right? I forget what order they were in. There was a song: ‘then comes winter, and springtime, and summer, and then its…No I think it was first comes springtime, when birds sing, and grass…’ something like that.”

  “A song?” Cammarry smiled at Jerome. “Erudite you are, that is for sure. I think the seasons were spring, summer, autumn, and winter. John said they were essential for some biological aspects of life. A long circadian rhythm.”

  “Yes, you are right! I do recall reading about deserts and this biome could have been fashioned after a desert, but these plants are wilted, and some are really dried out and dead. I doubt this is sustainable,” Jerome said. “We do know several people have expressed concerns about water here. The woman and the Ferryman we heard, as well as the person who sprayed that graffiti. In fact, how are you doing on water supplies?”

  “I have some, and have been careful with it.”

  “Me too.”

  As they watched the sky tube’s light became bright. It lit up the whole sky with a warm yellow glow. The birds flew overhead, and there were calls of strange and exotic things.

  “I am not sure where to go from here?” Jerome said. “Those groves I saw look no more green and inviting now in the light of day than they did a bit ago at dawn.”

  Plink. Bling. Tink. Tink. Bling. Plink.

  That was when they heard the music. A sort of tinkling sound reached them. Jerome and Cammarry looked in wonder at each other.

  “Was that a bell?” Jerome asked.

  “I think so.”

  There were more jingles, and gongs, and rings. The tintinnabulation of sounds continued. It was coming from a direction away from the path which led to the buried transport hub. It was different from the bird noises, and different from unidentified occasional bark, howl, or yip they heard. It had a metallic tone to it.

  “More than a single bell. It is a chorale of bells.” Jerome began to walk toward the sound.

  “It is a rather pretty sound,” Cammarry said. “But do we want to expose ourselves to the people here?”

  “We followed music and found the Old One, Cadet Danny,” Jerome remarked. “That gave us some assistance, and honestly, I am not sure what else to do. Any ideas?”

  “I suppose not,” Cammarry said. She then heard what she was afraid was coming.

  “You will regret this,” Shadow stated. “Nothing good will come of this. You know I am right. Why do you think Sandie has abandoned you?”

  Rather than respond verbally, Cammarry but her lip nearly to the point of drawing blood. In that self-inflicted pain, she remained silent. She looked at Jerome and then motioned with her hands to proceed.

  They walked across the parched ground. The clumps of grass were scattered around. A small animal of some kind scampered away very quickly as they walked. It was brownish, with a white bob of a tail.

  “Rabbit? Not a white one.” Jerome smile to himself. “I am not following it.”

  “Those are trees up ahead,” Cammarry remarked as they got closer to the sounds of the bells. “Or what is left of trees.”

  “Some still have leaves on them, but they do look dry. The more I see, the more I appreciate that woman we heard asking about water. Do you think the entire Habitat Beta is suffering?” Jerome asked.

  “Perhaps. What is that beyond the trees? I see flashes of color, and the noise is louder now.”

  “That is where the music is coming from, it appears,” Jerome responded.

  They walked around the copse of withering trees. Jerome looked back and realized they had been gently descending from the remains of the town of Crondel. The ground looked like it had once been a road of sorts, but it was dirt covered. The road was only visible as he looked back toward the town and compared the topography of the surrounding area. That hulk of a village was at the end of that road and upward in elevation a bit. Jerome wondered what it all meant. He turned back and looked through at the trees again. Refocusing his eyes, he peered toward what was beyond them.

  “I am not sure what that is,” Jerome said as he and Cammarry stared at the odd sight before them.

  The colors were vivid and flashing as a large and unusual mechanical contraption rotated around. It was as big as one of the buildings in Crondel, but so very different. It was turning. It had a pyramid tip or roof over it. That too was spinning slowly around on a center axis. The stripes were vivid: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, and violet. Those stripes swirled in a pattern which was part of that top of the apparatu
s. Below that was a level, or floor, or deck, about the height of a one story building. It was a platform, and the roof’s edge projected out about a meter or so over it. On that platform, which was rotating around like the roof, there were things. As they looked, they could see the things turning from their left, and then proceeding in front of them, and receding to the right. They were traveling in a circle.

  “Lark?” Jerome asked as he saw the word turn slowly around on the top. “What does that mean?”

  “You are the one with all the old quotes,” Cammarry chided. “You tell me.”

  “Well, in antiquity a lark could mean a source of amusement or adventure, or even a quest,” Jerome said.

  “A wizard’s quest?” Cammarry laughed. “Khin will love that. I thought it was some kind of long gone animal.”

  “Could be,” Jerome said. His eyes were following the machine’s movement, even though it stayed in the same place and just spun round and round on its axis. “I am reminded of Brink teaching the children about the conservation of angular momentum. Why is that large thing spinning?”

  “I wish Sandie would reply. She could identify this,” Cammarry said. She took the com-link off and examined it yet another time. It looked functional, but she could not make contact with Sandie the artificial intelligence system.

  “That is the source of the music, but are those animals on a wheel?” Jerome asked. “A spinning roundabout? Why would animals be on something like that?”

  “They do look like animals. They are moving round and round, and up and down, but it looks too mechanical to be biological.”

  “Agreed. The few animals we have seen here are so skittish, not moving slowly and methodically like those are doing.”

  They approached the thing cautiously. It was about twenty meters wide, in diameter. The platform’s floor was elevated one easy step up, perhaps twenty-five centimeters high. The animal figures were moving, but their individual bodies were in a fixed in position. Jerome watched as a white colored animal with four legs came around the circle. It had a heavy look about it, with stout body, and upright head. A fancy and colorful set of straps and such were over its back. Jerome watched that single figure carefully. Its legs all stayed in the same position, one front leg raised, and the other straight down. Both back legs slightly bent as if it was about to leap. It never moved its head, nor did its open eyes shift position at all. As he looked, he saw that the legs never actually touched the floor of the platform, even though the whole thing’s body rose and fell as it moved along.

  “Statues?” Jerome muttered as he watched it turning.

  There was a shiny golden colored shaft, or rod, vertically down through each of the animal figures. They were situated in side-by-side pairs, but while each pair was a similar kind of animal, they differed from the ones right behind them, or in front of them. Watching them proceed around, each animal rose and descended on its own golden shaft. It rose slowly up, and then settled down again. They all rose and fell numerous times as they made the circuit around. None of the animals rose and fell together, but rather they all moved in waves. A uniform, soothing, and tranquil motion.

  “Yes, indeed: statues, figures, effigies, sculptures. Brilliant and beautiful creations.” Cammarry was watching closely as well. “I have counted one hundred, in fifty sets of pairs.”

  “How do you know?” Jerome asked in puzzlement. “They just keep turning and going by.”

  “I have watched for a certain pair. They will be coming round again momentarily. They first caught my eye,” Cammarry stated. “They have both their front legs raised and bent at the knee. Long serpentine necks, with big pointy upright ears and bulbous eyes. Red and gold colored necklace and seat. Frilly and decorative adornments. Well, I think it is a seat, like a…. what is that ancient word?”

  “A saddle? Like used to ride animals?” Jerome asked. Just then the pair Cammarry had described came rotating around. They were light brown on their backs and yellowish on their bellies. The red collar, chinstrap, and seat were edged and decorated in gold. At their lowered position, they were at least as tall as Jerome, perhaps a bit taller. When they rose, their heads were well above, perhaps a meter higher than the low position.

  “That is the pair!” Cammarry said. “I started counting with them. They are number one to me. They have those big mouthed ones behind with their sharp teeth. I counted fifty pairs of statues.” She grabbed Jerome’s hand. “Come on! I am getting a closer view.”

  She pulled Jerome along and they jogged up to the contraption. The bell music was loud, but not overwhelming. The way the thing was situated, the sound echoed up and around it, without being overly loud right next to the machine.

  “Very interesting acoustics. I thought it would be too loud to talk here, but it is a pleasant volume, even close to the rotating machine. Do we call it a Lark?”

  Cammarry did not respond by just watched, mesmerized by the colors, motion, and sounds. Time passed slowly as they stood by and watched as the animal statues continued their rotation while rising and falling.

  “Some of the animals I recognize. Those are horses, I have seen them in old recordings.” Jerome pointed as a pair came by. “They were a solid work animal throughout history.”

  “That pair look like oversized wolf animals, like the statue in Wolf City,” Cammarry said. “Notice how all of these have some kind of seat or place to sit, or ride?”

  “But to what purpose? As an exhibit of the types of animals in Habitat Beta?” Jerome asked as they watched it go round and round again.

  As the strange animal pair she had described came round another time, Cammarry stepped up and onto the device. Jerome followed. The motion was easy to adjust to, as the spin was slow and gentle and especially smooth. The floor of the machine was textured to allow their footwear to have a firm grip, even as the machine rotated around.

  The warm yellow light from the sky tube shined in on the figures as the machine continued its rotation. The music played. The creature statues rose and fell as they made their seemingly endless course around. Jerome looked closely at the head of the odd figure. Its bulbous eyes were dark, cloudy, and grayish. The triangular ears pointed upward, and were painted dark brown on the inside. Jerome touched the statue, and it was very smooth, and cool.

  “This is not permalloy, but is as smooth and refined as any permalloy I have ever felt,” Jerome said.

  Cammarry also touched the figure. “It is not any kind of metal, but something not as hard, yet firm.” She rapped it with her knuckles. “It is solid, no hollow ringing sound.”

  “The detail is exquisitely well done,” Jerome said. “I wonder how it was made.” He looked around and then suddenly threw his leg up and over the seat. It fit well, and he nestled into the saddle on the figure of the strange animal. “This is very soothing. Between the music and the motion, I feel at peace for the first time in a long while.”

  “This is not safe,” Shadow whispered to Cammarry. “This is not a place for you. Run away now while you can. Run!”

  “Stop it!” Cammarry snapped.

  “How? Why?” Jerome asked. “I have no idea how this machine works, or what it is for, or who built it. Do you see some controls? Why stop it now?”

  “Sorry, I did not mean you… I was… never mind.” Cammarry turned around and looked away. She could not force the words about Shadow out, and did not want the physical angst of attempting to do that again. “It is tranquil here. Maybe that is all that matters. Did you see that?” She pointed.

  While they had been examining the figures, and Jerome had climbed onto one, feeling it rise and settle back, they also were going round and round. Cammarry saw out of the corner of her eye, something off a ways.

  “Jerome! Look!”

  Jerome looked but was unsure what she had seen. “What was it?” The center of the carousel was solid and composed of vertical stripes which were brightly colored, similar to the canopy over the top. The other statues were rising and falling in their ow
n patterns, and that made looking ahead or behind them difficult. So he watched out the side, but that was a limited field of vision.

  “Keep your eyes open as we go round again. Someone else is here,” Cammarry said. “Someone is watching us.”

  They both watched the landscape as the machine turned. “Sandie? Sandie can you hear me?” Jerome asked as he tapped the com-link. There was no reply.

  The machine turned, the distance groves of trees looked unchanged. The parched ground was no different with its clumps of brownish green grasses. But then as the machine turned, something else came into view. About ten meters away, on the opposite side from where they had approached, was a man and some living animals.