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

by John Thornton

  The mechanical voice of SB Cotard was adamant, “I am unconditionally opposed to Project Angel Food. That entire program was flawed from the start. I am grieved to hear that someone was killed, and you witnessed that. I have added Post Trauma Reaction to your diagnosis index. It helps to explain your behaviors.”

  Jerome bit back and angry response. He then turned again to Khin and Vesna. “Would your people really be willing to help here? Khin, you have been through a lot. Just today that Cotard tried to kill you.”

  “Spirit-ghost Cotard? Will you try to kill me or lock me up?” Khin asked. He pulled down his sleeve and exposed the scars on his arm. “Some other white machine did this to me. Said it needed to grow biological materials. Will you do that to Vesna? Or to her people? Or to me?”

  “No. It is unethical. If you were part of Project Angel Food, I apologize. That program was not to be continued. I am willing to reassess this entire situation in light of this new information,” SB Cotard answered. “Visual observation of your scar does show it conforms to the harvesting techniques which were outlawed by the lattice decision. I would not try to kill any of you, or to harm any of you. Also, the case study of Cammarry will be used to reevaluate involuntary commitments.”

  “Okay then. I forgive you. That Ferryman also took me for a wild ride, and I forgive him too, even though he never spoke to me about it. ‘Forgive as we have been forgiven,’ my father always says that.” Khin extended his arms and spun about. When he stopped he was looking directly at Old Bill. “Big animals! This whole, bright, wonderful world is here. I have seen things none of my family has even dreamed. I have eaten the best foods. I have found my Vesna! Yes, I would help here. If I am released from the Wizard’s Quest. I do want to stay with Vesna, but I also want Wizard Jerome and Wizard Cammarry to succeed.”

  “Khin, you are free to follow your heart,” Cammarry said as she saw the way Khin and Vesna looked at each other. “Jerome and I will continue onward and find Sandie.”

  “I will rebuild the gate first,” Jerome said. “That way Vesna’s people can at least have a perimeter fence for security. Then we will ask Sandie to find a red automacube and dispatch it here. But SB Cotard? You must make sure the security automacubes are careful in using lethal force. Very careful and cautious. As Khin said, ‘cubie red will make you dead’ but that should not be their standard operating procedure. We saw too much of that in Alpha.”

  Khin laughed and laughed.

  SB Cotard answered. “So Habitat Alpha survives? More information to add to my data base. Thank you. As to the request about security automacubes, yes, the use of lethal force will be a last case option, only after exhausting other options. I hope you remember that as well, Jerome. Your own personal violence does not provide a healthy outlet for your emotional needs.”

  Again Jerome restrained his urge to lash out at SB Cotard. Instead, he stepped over to Vesna. “You take Old Bill. Use him to get your people to and fro and remember he can see those gravity sink holes. Beware of them!”

  “Thank you. He is a fine animal!” Vesna beamed. “Khin and I will ride to my people and see who wants to come and live here in the castle.”

  Vesna slung herself up onto Old Bill easily, and then Khin jumped up behind her. “This is going to be fun like flying! As a child I used to try to ride the goats.” Khin smiled broadly. Together they rode off down the pathway. “Good bye Wizards! Come and see us again! Tell Sandie I greeted her.”

  “Fare you very well! May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.” Jerome recited an ancient saying he recalled. It had much greater meaning now than when he had read it long ago.

  Cammarry waved as well. Then she turned to Jerome. “Gravity sink holes?” Cammarry asked. “My head is still a bit fuzzy, sorry about that.”

  “Yes. Places where it seems that this planet’s gravity is coming through, or the gravity manipulation system is failing in some way. I will tell you about it while we journey to Dardanella 135. Sandie said it was near a facility for gravity manipulation. Maybe we can get more answers there as well. But first that gate.”

  “Jerome and Cammarry,” SB Cotard stated, “I too wish you well in your journey. The Conestoga needs to be saved. I hope what has happened here will be a positive contribution to that goal. I have learned from you both.”

  Neither Jerome nor Cammarry answered as they walked away. The used the molecular torch to weld back together the iron gate. Cammarry designed a simple hand operated latch which could be opened or closed. The power system that had been in the fence was not functioning, but there was a physical barrier when they completed their work.

  “So where do we head?” Cammarry asked.

  Jerome consulted the paper map. His fingers lingered on the texture of the paper. He looked back at the Special Care Unit. He made a note to someday return to check its library. “The sea is that way. The map shows the hanger bay at the opposite side of the sea.”

  “A sea? Like the oceans John used to teach us about? So do we walk around the sea?” Cammarry asked. “Or is that a metaphor?”

  “I saw it from the upper levels,” Jerome tipped his head back toward the Special Care Unit. “I also came here in a boat, which I thought was lost. I saw it from up there as well. It looked like it was snagged on the river banks.”

  “The whole habitat is far wetter than I remember. So much water.” Cammarry reached over and hugged Jerome. “The trees are greener and more lush. I do not remember much about being brought here. Just some flashes of images, like being bagged up, wrapped up, and screaming.”

  Jerome held her close. “I am so sorry I could not protect you from being taken. It is my fault that I did not find you sooner.” He kissed the side of her head, and stroked her hair. “Forgive me for not rescuing you right away. You were the damsel in destress, and I failed as your white knight.”

  “You did not fail me.” Cammarry leaned into him. “I am just hoping this is not a dream. I will be so sad if I awaken back in that room.”

  “Well, this is real. Sandie is waiting for us, and we have a map. Oh so much has happened while you were imprisoned here. Let me explain…” Jerome went on to tell of his adventures as they walked toward the river.

  The river was still muddy and clogged with debris that had washed down as the rains had fallen. There were birds swooping down and skimming the top of the water. The sky tube far overhead was yellow, warm, and bright. They walked along the pathway, and when they got closer to the river, they turned and followed it in the same direction it flowed.

  Jerome finished his explanations of where he had been and what he had seen. He gave only brief overviews of the fighting in the tunnel and the massacre of the animals. Cammarry had been traumatized enough already, and Jerome felt the need to protect her. He longed to ask her more about the thing which had been removed from her arm, and about her times at the Special Care Unit, but hesitated out of compassion.

  “Cammarry, you can tell me anything, whenever you want,” Jerome said as he took her hand and gently squeezed it. “I will always listen to you.”

  She gazed into his eyes, and nodded. “Well, your parting with Bigelow does not sound like it was ideal,” Cammarry commented. “But I understand why he felt the need to seek out those children.”

  “I agree, but…” Jerome muttered a bit. He took several deep breaths and focused his mind. “I do worry about what will happen with Nabila and Dewi, but I had to find you. Maybe when we reconnect to Sandie, we can assist in that search somehow?”

  “Maybe we can finally track down that Ferryman fellow?” Cammarry said with an edge to her voice. “I am so glad Khin was not killed, I keep replaying that sight in my head. So many nights I just lay in bed seeing him die, over and over, and over, and over. Now to know he is alive and well. It is like a miracle.”

  “But the…” Jerome al
most spoke about the man who had died, the clone of Khin, but again, in compassion for Cammarry he held off. “…the Ferryman is a threat, and I am not sure what all that is about. We have gotten far too many conflicting stories about the Ferryman. Now apparently he is doing something to those leftover children?”

  “So we find Sandie and regroup,” Cammarry said. “I want to hear all your stories, I know you are withholding some details, at least some details. I also know Sandie will have stories to relate. We have lost a lot of our technology, and that my dear, is about our only advantage here on the Conestoga.”

  “My biggest advantage is being with you now. It was not good for me to be alone,” Jerome stated.

  They walked along and followed the pathway as it paralleled the river’s course. As they came around a bend, the vista opened up and the sea became visible.

  “John was right!” Cammarry said in awe. “He showed us those old images and visual recordings of oceans, and seas. I never ever considered I would actually see so much water in one place!”

  Jerome pulled her next to him. They stood together looking out over the last half kilometer of the river as it wound its twisting and convoluted way into the sea. The deep brown muddy water of the river was different from the color of the sea. The water of the sea was grayish color, but reflected up the light from the sky tube. There were waves which were gently rolling about. The muddy brown was mixing with the sea water and diffusing out in a delta shape.

  Instead of the single big flow of water, here at the end, the river divided into a multitude of smaller currents, with pools, ponds, and bogs all across the area. It was about twice as wide as the river had been, but many small hillocks, lumps, and bumps of ground interspersed the watery flow. Tall weeds rose from the banks, and from the sandy mud of the whole area. Driftwood was caught in various places, with clumps of grasses, and other debris which had been washed down river. The old pre-drought riverbed edge was still visible, up a meter or so from the current water level. This was easily determined and could be seen on the bank where stripes showed prior water levels. Jerome wondered if the new water level was quite a bit higher than it had been during the worst of the drought, as many places had submerged plants which, to his biologically untrained eyes, appeared to be the same as those which were growing near the water, not in the water. He was just unsure of all he was seeing and what it meant.

  “Yes, so much water.” Cammarry turned side to side and observed it all.

  “And there is our boat. It is called Miss Kay,” Jerome pointed. “Although the owners also called it a durham style or type of boat.”

  The durham boat was wedged into a small inlet of water. It had drifted a bit from where it was when Jerome had seen it from the window of the Special Care Unit. The rope he had used to tie it down was stuck upstream in a strange way. The water shimmered differently where the rope was lodged. The currents flowed around that circular area, where the water was flat and still.

  “See that rope?” Jerome again pointed. “I believe it should be floating on the water, like it is near the boat. But instead, when it gets to that spot where the water is still, it sinks.”

  Cammarry nodded. “Is it stuck on something under the water? It is very muddy and cloudy water.”

  “Most of the river I saw is muddy, but look at that still spot. It is clearer,” Jerome commented.

  “Yes, I see it. Like the particles in the water have been weighed down. Like gravity is different there,” Cammarry smiled at Jerome. “A gravity sink hole! But gravity manipulation is done in fields, and with layers, and overlapping construction. What could cause a distortion in gravity to such a confined area? Water used to be thought of as incompressible, at least nearly so, but gravity manipulation altered that. Still, it takes a lot of power to compress water, and it only shrinks a bit. The particles and items in the water are affected more, as you can see in that rope, but what is causing that? A localized gravity projection?”

  “I have been pondering that myself. I wish Brink were here, he is the expert on advanced physics.” Jerome caught himself as he remembered all the people from Dome 17 were lost to them. He hugged Cammarry and then went on. “I have coveted talking to Brink, Willie, Janet, Gwen or John about what we are seeing here. Just to conference with anyone in Dome 17 would be great, but alas, that cannot happen again. John would be thrilled to see so much water and he would be telling us about water animals. I hope to soon be talking to Sandie about this.” Jerome looked at Cammarry. “I am so glad I found you again. I missed you so much!”

  “Yes, being alone in that room was horrible. Thank you for coming and getting me. But what do we do about that gravity sink hole and the boat? I assume we need the boat to locate Sandie. Or is there some other route?”

  “Well, the map shows some kind of ground all around the sea here, but the map lacks details. Look over the water, you can see that land if you strain your eyes.” Jerome pointed out across the sea. “Those are trees or something way across there.”

  “Khin would see it for sure.” Cammarry replied with a grin. “That is more water than I ever imagined I would actually see. I keep thinking of John and his biology classes. We have seen rivers, and rain, and now a sea. The indigenous people call this a sea, and it is huge, but John said there were things like lakes, oceans, ponds, lagoons, and other things. Can you recall the order and scale of what was what?”

  Jerome pondered. “He showed us those old records, and I thought the oceans were the biggest bodies of water. But in reading I have encountered the phrase ‘seven seas’ often. I read it as a metaphor, like how the wicked are as the tossing sea. Or figures of speech like how the sea will not be quiet, for its waters toss up refuse and mud. As the waves of the sea roll so are the wicked who bring strife wherever they go.” Jerome rubbed his hands together, then cracked his knuckles. “We have seen the wicked here. Now we see the waters, the deep, the ocean, the sea. Call it what you will, but our route is across it or around it. If it runs the whole width of the biome, it will be about ten kilometers wide. I cannot judge how far it is from here to the stern, but I do not think I am seeing stuff ten kilometers away, but maybe. Oh for Sandie to give us accurate reports. Vesna had some advanced optics, and I should have asked to use those. Nonetheless, it will not be long before we reconnect with our own AI!”

  Cammarry squatted down. “There are certainly a lot of insects and tiny life here. Buzzing, flying, swooping, and skating across the waters. Is that a good sign? Was an estuary a place where water came together? A bog, or swamp? John said something about some water being salt and other water being fresh. Could this sea place be that salt water he spoke about? It smells sort of like that.” She plucked up a blade of grass and tickled her lips with it.

  “Sandie can answer all our questions, we just need to reach her location,” Jerome looked back to the rope which was trapped in the gravity sink hole. “I rode down river on that boat, with that big animal, Old Bill. I think I can steer this craft across the waters. How hard can it be? Especially now that we are back together and I am not alone. We piloted a FTL scout ship a score of light years to get here. You and I can do anything!”

  “Agreed. So how do we get into that boat?” Cammarry asked. “The sky tube is getting dim. I think night is falling. I sure hope this day has been real. I dreamed so often of being free from Shadow, and of escaping that asylum of aloneness. But even if this is a great dream, I am glad to have seen you again Jerome.” Her eyes were getting heavy, and Cammarry looked very tired. She yawned and that was infectious.

  Jerome covered his mouth with his hand as he too yawned. “I will wade out to the boat. I know its operations, thanks to Monika, and I can get it away from that gravity sink hole.” He peered at the water where the rope sank down. He looked closely, but did not see anywhere else that looked strange or altered like that patch of the water did. “This aberration of gravity does not seem as big in diameter as the one the boat moved over before, or like the others I have seen. They
must be appearing in different sizes. That looks circular, and the others did as well. But I have no way to know for certain.” He unslung his backpack and set it beside Cammarry. “All our technology is in here. I doubt that water could hurt it, but that flow is not a trifle. I will bring the boat back and then we can be on our way.” He kept his belt with its two pouches, but removed the holster with the Willie Blaster. “Use this if you need to. Protect yourself. Keep an eye out for dangers.” There are animal predators, both on the land and a big one with huge teeth that lingers under the waters. Worst of all are the people here. They have been truly vicious.”

  Cammarry took the weapon and gear. “Do be careful,” Cammarry said, yawning yet again. “I will keep watch over you. If need be, I could try to come get you, but neither of us know the art of ambulating in water… swimming.”

  “Just knowing that you are watching over me is enough.” Stepping down into the water, Jerome’s RAM clothing easily repelled the water and mud. He still had to forcefully pull his feet up to clear the mud with each step. The water pushed hard against him as he waded along. The mud was stickier than he expected and made walking more difficult than did the pressure from the water currents.