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

by John Thornton

  “Open the door to where Cammarry is located!” Jerome commanded as he walked toward the door with the number 5 on it. “No tricks, or any other nonsense. You know I will use this!”

  “Yes. You have demonstrated a great propensity for irrational violence and mayhem,” SB Cotard responded, the mechanical voice coming from the white automacube. “You will not be interfered with unless you seek to injure other residents and patients. The patient Cammarry has been reported as ‘Released against medical advice, by criminal coercion of visitors’. The door is unlocked.”

  “Not unlocked! You open it now!” Jerome snarled. “You tried to kill me already. Not again! Khin, you go and physically hold that door to the cafeteria open.”

  “Yes, Wizard Jerome!” Khin positioned himself in the doorway.

  The door to room number 5 opened by swinging inward. The room was lit and showed white walls with half meter square tiles on them. Someone was sitting on the bed, but facing away from the door.

  “Cammarry?” Jerome called. “I am here to get you. Come with me!”

  The figure on the bed turned around. “Jerome? Is that truly you?”

  “Yes, come with me. We are leaving now.”

  Cammarry was wearing a dull, white colored utility shirt and pants. Her RAM clothing and equipment was missing. She was clean and neat, but had a dullness about her face and eyes. “I dream about you often. This one is much like the others. Dreams are just the only thing I have now.”

  “Not a dream Cammarry. Not a dream at all. Come with me, we need to walk out of here,” Jerome said kindly. “I will help you in whatever ways you need.”

  “The Shadow…” Cammarry started to say, but then grabbed at her throat and coughed. As she did that, a smile spread across her face. “It is you… I cannot talk… that proves you are real!” She shook her head and took some deep breaths. Then with a sudden burst of energy she bounced up and leaped across the room, passing a small desk with its papers and coloring implements. “I can really leave!”

  She stepped past Jerome and out of the room.

  “Yes! Khin and I are here to rescue you!”

  “Khin! No, he is dead! Am I dead? Is that why it seems real? You are with Khin? That means…. No… that means you have died too!” Cammarry fell to her knees just before Jerome. She covered her face with her hands and wept. “I really am alone. Utterly alone. All this time I had hoped, and prayed, but now. Alone.”

  With one hand keeping the Willie Blaster aimed at the still stationary automacube, Jerome pulled out the medical kit. Squatting down, he set it on the floor then quickly attached the cables to Cammarry’s forehead. He hit the diagnostic button. The screen lit up, and the display scrolled words. ‘Subject Cammarry. Neurological shock with physiological characteristics of prolonged isolation. Additionally, toxicology shows antiquated chemical anti-psychotic agents present. Holistic cleansing initiated. No other major medical issues. Prognosis excellent.’ The wires lit up as energy flowed into them. They glowed a bit where they made contact with Cammarry’s body. ‘Integumentary, intestinal, hepatic and nephrotic decontamination in process. Basic neurological equilibrium will be reestablished in seventeen minutes, with full restoration in six hours.’

  “Alone one can do so little, but together we can do so much. We are in this together. Cammarry?” Jerome said reassuringly. “I am real. I am here. We are leaving this place.” He was holding in his anger, as he realized she was trembling.

  “Wizard Cammarry?” Khin called out. “We have rescued you! I am not dead as you said. My father said, ‘when one is alone, you just need to go home.’ Wizard Jerome and I will take you home.”

  Cammarry felt the wires on her forehead. “This feel so real. And I could not tell you…” She stopped before she mentioned Shadow. “In my dreams I could talk about anything to you. Just in the dreams. Here you… So you must be real.” She grabbed the wires and yanked them from her head. Quickly she pulled back the utility fatigues she was wearing and exposed her arm. She placed both wires directly on the scar and then dialed the diagnostics to maximum discernment. She suddenly felt nauseated and short of breath. “I will do this!” She forced herself to breathe and refused to stop. “Get out!”

  “You will be alone, forever. Always alone!” Shadow said, but only Cammarry heard. “You cannot make it alone. Trust me, you need me. They all need me.”

  Despite increasing nausea, wheezing in her chest, and a throbbing headache, Cammarry willed herself to press the diagnostic button.

  The medical kit flashed several times, and the display read out, ‘Highest resolution shows an unrecognized foreign object. Object discovered embedded in flexor carpi radialis. Unusual energy signature surrounds foreign object. Routine scans were masked by that same unfamiliar energy. Object’s function unknown. Extraction initiated. Identification unknown. Purpose unknown. Prognosis unclear.”

  The wires hummed and the medical kit stimulated Cammarry’s arm. Her own muscles squeezed and flexed and contracted. A small drop of blood emerged, and with it a tiny capsule. The capsule slipped to the floor, but Cammarry kept her eyes on it. It was about one-eighth the size of her smallest fingernail.

  Cammarry gasped and suddenly was able to breathe freely, and her nausea subsided. “Finally!” She cried in joy. Turning to Jerome she asked, “Give me a molecular torch. I will be free!”

  Jerome dug the torch out, “What is that thing?”

  Cammarry never let her eyes move from the small thing on the floor. She gulped before she spoke. “Shadow.” Then with a huge sigh of relief, she yelled out. “It is Shadow! It is Shadow. That fiend is out of me at last!”

  Jerome handed her the molecular torch. She flipped a tab, and the torch’s visual magnifier popped into place. She peered through it. The capsule was clearly manufactured, and was black, purple, and blue. Bits of her flesh were still attached to it by small grappling hook arrangements at both ends. A shimmery coil-like wrap covered the center, and that was black and red. The ends were purple. On the side, in miniscule lettering was ‘#414’ but no other identifiers were observed.

  “Now you die!” Cammarry flipped on the cutting torch, and the capsule melted then snapped with a final spurt of energy.

  “What was that?” Jerome helped her to her feet.

  “A constant annoyance for way too long. Some kind of neuromuscular or sarco-biometric implant. Reminds me of things I read about from the era around the Great Event,” Cammarry said with a satisfied grin. She peered intently at the cutting flame of the torch. Nothing remained of the capsule. She licked her lips and smiled wide. “I will tell you all, later. Shadow is dead, acknowledgement of the Shadow must be a continuous process throughout life, the grim process of washing one's dirty linen in private.”

  “Look at you, quoting old things you have read!” Jerome hugged her and held her close.

  “I am here too!” Khin called from where he stood. “When do we leave? I must get back to my Vesna. Wizards? Vesna is waiting, she must not be alone. It is not good to be alone.”

  Cammarry stared at him. “But I saw Khin die. I did. You saw it too!” She looked into Jerome’s face.

  Jerome hugged her with his arm. “Yes, we saw someone die a horrific death. It was not Khin. But you are free now. They could chain you, torture you, or even destroy your body, but they could never imprison your mind. You are Cammarry, and you are strong and you are my one love!”

  “Right. Maybe I was wrong about Khin,” Cammarry said. She pulled away and picked up the medical kit. She hit the diagnostic again and read the prognosis. It showed no sign of any other impairment. “This is good news. But where will we go?”

  SB Cotard answered before Jerome could. “You are invited to stay here. Your medical device is fascinating. I would like to incorporate it into my treatment care-plans. I will provide you with a suite and all that you two might need.”

  “No!” Jerome yelled. “I told you we were leaving!” He aimed the Willie Blaster at the white automacube t
hat the synthetic brain, SB Cotard was using to communicate.

  “I believe that the device you have…” SB Cotard began to say, but was interrupted. A surprising voice came over the speakers from multiple places. The words came from the loudspeakers in the ceiling and also echoed in from the cafeteria. The new voice downed out whatever SB Cotard said.

  Cammarry hugged Jerome and smiled.

  Khin laughed and laughed and laughed.

  11 docking

  The Model 14S shuttle, with its ‘NS-99’ designation slipped silently though space toward the chartreuse colors of the planet Zalia. The needle ship’s bulk was receding behind it. There was a brokenness to the look of the needle ship, an incompleteness, a measure of things lacking. The constituent joints where each habitat had once been connected to the needle ship were like the hands of babies who had let go of a precious toy far too prematurely. They were open, deficient, and longing for reconnection.

  The artificial intelligence system Sandie, observing, monitoring, recording, and guiding shuttle NS-99 perceived it all. When Sandie wanted to, she could arrange her point of view to be from the shuttle, yet she still was physically present in the Atomic Level Processor inside the scout ship attached to the needle ship. Physically the shuttle was alone in the vast reaches of space, where only few and far between atoms violated the complete emptiness of vacuum. Light waves from the red sun cast their glow upon the exterior of the shuttle, but still it was alone as it rushed toward Zalia. The shuttle was alone. Sandie was alone. The planet sat green and alone against the blackness of space.

  Using maneuvers far too rugged for any human occupant, NS-99 approached the outer reaches of the planet’s atmosphere. Sandie had an entry vector and trajectory plotted, and the shuttle’s onboard system responded perfectly to the AI’s commands. Advanced scanning devices, at least for the Conestoga’s technology, had been augmented by Sandie. Those were activated as the flight continued. Sandie knew where Habitat Beta was located on the planet’s surface, but had very little detailed information about other surface features. General data had been collected, but specifics and intimate details were lacking. True, Habitat Alpha’s location was also known, but that only accounted for two of the eight habitats which had been jettisoned from the needle ship decades before. And so Sandie searched, gathered information, and complied the data.

  Skimming the upper atmosphere at high speed, NS-99 was soon arching around the planet, putting Zalia’s mass between it and the needle ship. The shuttle passed beyond line-of-sight. Here was a potential barrier or obstacle. A position where risk spiked. Sandie had conjectured a low risk of loss of links or couplings to NS-99, but the risk was still real. Only when the shuttle continued to report back, and Sandie continued to perceive through the mechanical apparatus of the shuttle, was the risk proven to be only a potential, not a reality. Had Sandie had lips, she would have smiled. Operation Faithful Lightning was proceeding without flaw.

  Sandie continued issuing commands. NS-99 dipped lower into the atmosphere and encountered some of the first turbulences. These were minimal, but they built up, as did the heat on the belly of the shuttle. Here too was another spike in risk potential. The permalloy was an effective shield against that heat, as the shuttle’s designers had built it to make frequent egress to and from a planet. However, they had engineered it for planets which were closely comparable to the Earth. To a pristine Earth, one that existed prior to the Great Event and the atmospheric pollution and degradation which followed those cataclysms and war. All seven colony ships had been sent toward what were suspected to be near-earth equivalent planets. Zalia’s atmosphere, on the other hand, was vastly different from that which those long dead engineers had planned for, but again, Sandie conjectured the risks as very minimal. After all, other shuttles had already successfully reached the habitats on the planet’s surface, but not this specific shuttle.

  Samples of the atmosphere were taken for detailed analysis as NS-99 descended. Minor adjustments were made due to those more intimate facts. The readings of the surface were getting sharper and more detailed as the shuttle sunk through the green clouds and entered into the middle layers of Zalia’s atmosphere.

  Approaching the location of Habitat Beta, Sandie picked up signals originating from the habitat. It was an interference field. Sandie did not reveal the shuttle’s presence and withheld sending out her own signals. Stealthy and covert observation and perception were what Sandie needed. The AI’s diligence was rewarded. The shuttle receivers picked up minute traces of activity from the hull which included some Conestoga based alerts and instructions. Of most importance was a command to micro-turrets which were built into the Conestoga’s hull. Originally those turrets were used to deflect debris in space during flight. Sandie sensed the command and knew exactly who had sent it, and to which turrets it was intended, and when the particles were to fire.

  “Not this time you antique old lady,” Sandie stated, but sent no signal out.

  A blast of microparticle ripped through the chlorine atmosphere.

  “Missed me!” No one heard Sandie’s comment, but it was recorded in the AI’s memories. Sandie contemplated and pondered all that was happening as she adjusted the flight of the shuttle. The craft soared well out of the microparticles pathway as they fired again.

  “Yours is not the only docking location. So Synthetic Brain Amelia Earhart, you are being circumvented. This time, I will decide what happens, and what will not happen. You will not hinder me. I have been studying all I could about you. I am faster, better, stronger, and smarter. You are only older and bigger. I also have had this shuttle modified and enhanced.” Had Sandie been human, she would have sneered. She locked the thought away for when she next met with the simulation of Doctor Chambers. She pondered if she should put a simulated sneer on her simulated face. “Namaste, to yourself SB Amelia Earhart.” Sandie was finding sarcasm a way to cope with her feeling alone.

  The shuttle shifted direction and dipped down near to the hull of the habitat. It flew past the one end and made a wide loop to return. It was unclear if it was circling the stern or the bow of the habitat. Again Sandie was using all the equipment in the shuttle to assess the exterior of the huge cylinder. Additional assessments and investigations of the landscape and ground of the planet Zalia were made. She decided to name this end the bow.

  “Gravity and ship alignment should match at about ground level. Jerome and Cammarry will need someplace upright in orientation. They need a docking port or hanger bay which is gravitationally closely aligned in correct position relative to the ship.” Sandie had that as one of her design parameters for operation Faithful Lightning. The conjectures were that Jerome and Cammarry would have a significantly better and faster chance of successful escape should the shuttle be docked in a location easier to access. “Also essential is functional gravity manipulation, to counteract Zalia’s greater gravity.”

  The shuttle circled around the end of the habitat. The roughly sixteen kilometers in diameter end was carefully scanned for anything resembling a hanger bay or other suitable docking port. Of course, not all of it was visible, as ground was piled up against it in many places, making it resemble a half-circle. The dark blues and grays of the permalloy hull were streaked and stained in various places, by what had been some kind of large impacts. Sandie was unable to conjecture what would do that to permalloy. The AI also desired to do a direct physical sampling of those stained areas, but was unable to do so because of the shuttle’s limitations. Sandie was intrigued.

  Quadruple checking to make sure SB Amelia Earhart was not within range, Sandie began sending out signals using a tight beam by laser, neutrintonics and microwaves. The goal was to find a receiving antenna, array, or other piece of hundred-year old equipment and convince it to respond. Sandie had conjectured the most probable way to locate a hanger bay was via those signals. Hopefully, a hanger bay without an unstable synthetic brain. As the shuttle cruised along, no responses were received.

  The red
ball in the sky was just setting, and the nighttime of the planet was beginning. Zalian dusk had occurred. This inhibited Sandie’s observations only partially. The planet’s greens were tinted with deeper reds, scarlets, and marrons. None of the colors was like any sunset Sandie had in her records. Twilight continued to cast long shadows around the end of the habitat as it sat cantilevered to the direction of the planet’s rotation. Sandie did maneuver the shuttle over an area where the ground was plowed up in a deep furrow exposing gray liquids in pools and ponds at the bottom. The furrow was not a natural occurrence, but Sandie was unclear if it was from the landing of the great cylinder, or something subsequent to making planet-fall. In the setting red sunlight, those pools shimmered in swirled colors. There was evidence that not long before, some kind of slushy river of liquids had passed thought the middle of the furrow away from the habitat.

  The marks of erosion along the banks of that Zalian riverbed described a flow that originated out from somewhere at the end of the habitat. Several huge pipes were still dripping some kinds of fluids, and Sandie was surprised when the spectral analysis of that fluid proved it to be water.