“We will not hurt you!” Khin called and raised his hands.
The children continued to cry and scream in fear.
“Look at us,” Vesna said. “We will not harm you in any way. Who is hurt?”
Two of the bigger children pointed toward the control pedestal. Looking over to that spot, Khin saw two elderly people slumped against the controls of the durham boat. He vaulted over the sidewall of the boat and rushed to those people.
The elderly woman was cradling the equally old man in her lap. He was a tall and slender, bald, except for a thin strip of gray hair that wrapped around the sides of his head. His pudgy face was grinning; despite the pain he was obviously feeling. He was breathing raggedly and air whistled past where he was missing a couple of teeth.
“Oh Lloyd, you did so well,” the woman said. “Her dusty blond hair was streaked with gray. Strands of hair were hanging loose from what had been a neatly pinned style. “We got those children here. Just like when you got the donkeys all the way. This time you made it with the children. Oh Lloyd, you saved them all.”
Lloyd moved his eyes to look at the woman. They were old and had seen many years, yet for a moment they took on the life of a young man falling in love. “Erma, you have been so good to me. Thank you.”
The medical automacube rolled up and over the side of the boat. “I am doctor M-604. May I assist you?”
Lloyd waved a hand in a negative gesture, “Take care of the children. They will need you.”
“I have scanned the group and performed initial triage,” the white automacube replied. “Your gunshot wounds are the most serious of all the injuries.”
“The children are not hurt?” Lloyd asked.
“There are contusion, abrasions, and some small lacerations, but no major injuries,” the white automacube replied. “Those are the physical injuries. There are psychological, emotional, and developmental injuries which are much more significant. Those will need to be further evaluated and treated, but for now, the children are stable.”
“That is so good to here,” Lloyd sighed out.
“May I treat you now?” the automacube asked. “You have suffered a gunshot wound to the back, and another to your left leg. Initial assessment shows moderate levels of internal bleeding. I will need to intervene immediately for the best chance of success. You can be placed into emergency suspended animation and transported to the clinic.”
“No need. I am too old for all of that. You take care of the children,” Lloyd turned away from the machine. “Unless, Erma? Are you injured?”
“I am relaying to SB Cotard your refusal to accept medical care,” the white automacube stated. “Treatment will not be forced on anyone who does not desire it. The woman next to you, Erma, has a malignant brain tumor. It is in the final stages of growth. Prognosis is very poor. I can offer palliative cares.”
“I will just sit with Lloyd now,” Erma said. “Together in life, together in all that is ahead.”
The machine rolled away and began assisting the children who were climbing out of the boat.
“Erma, the children are needed for our journey through space to the target world.” Lloyd nestled back against Erma. He was growing more pale by the moment. “Thank you for holding me. You were always so good with our babies.”
“I never picked one up without giving a kiss,” Erma said and hugged Lloyd.
Lloyd smiled broadly. “Your love made the Conestoga better. The next generation is essential to the success of the mission. We have done our part. Our own children will have children who will walk on Tlalocan.”
“Lloyd, you saved these children,” Erma kissed the side of his face. “Our own children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are proud of you. I am proud of you!”
“We are in this together. We are a team. I want to see the river,” Lloyd said weakly. His breathing was ragged and coming in short gasps.
Khin and Vesna helped Lloyd to sit up on the chair by the control pedestal. His eyes were getting glassy and foggy. Erma sat next to him and held him tightly.
“Cubie white, knows what is right,” Khin said gently.
“Yes, young man, it does. But our time here is ending.” Erma looked to Khin and then to Vesna. “You complement each other. I am glad we let you have the Miss Kay. The omiai looks to have been successful, you are a cute couple. The nurse and the scholar, a perfect match.” Erma was looking at Khin, but seeing someone else. “Now please just leave us here, so we can remember.”
Khin did not understand what she meant, but did not seek to correct her. Vesna grabbed Khin by the hand and led him away. As they walked off, they heard Erma speaking.
“Lloyd dear, this was even better than when you took the load of donkeys,” Erma said and leaned her head against Lloyd. “That was something to see, but now we have brought a whole durham full of children to a place of safety. Lloyd, do you remember when we took the kayaks out… it must have been the year before I was first pregnant. That was such a lovely day and you were so handsome and strong. Today, you were even stronger and more handsome. In those kayaks we cruised the river and saw so much. It was a delightful time.”
Lloyd’s head had slumped down against the pedestal, and his ragged breathing had stopped. Erma patted his side in recognition of that, but continued to talk about her memories of them being together, and being young, when Habitat Beta had been a decent and safe place to live.
Khin and Vesna helped the children get out of the boat. The children carried the pillows, blankets, and other belongings they had. The two oldest children, two girls, who were about ten years old, were organizing the younger ones into pairs. The youngest child was about five years old, the rest being between five and ten years of age.
The white automacube led the children as they walked up the pathway away from the pier.
“Khin, that durham boat is ruined,” Vesna said quietly. “At first I thought we could maybe use it to somehow take all the people away to somewhere, but the hull is cracked, and the water jet is hopelessly clogged with muck.”
“I wondered about that too,” Khin said. “That old couple, I am amazed they brought all these children here. Why would they do that?”
One of the older children, walked over and her dark eyes were intense. “All of Seron is in flames. The Kurent was murdered. They blew up his manor. Never have I heard such explosions. Lloyd and Erma rescued us from the Ferryman’s people. They are killing everyone. The whole town is on fire.”
“My dear Khin, that is horrible,” Vesna said.
“Sister! Come here” the girl called. Her eyes were wide in amazement. “This is Khin!”
The other girl rushed over. “You really are Khin?” The two girls were nearly indistinguishable from each other. Each had dark eyes, dirt colored brown hair, mocha complexions and brown clothing. Their smiles lit up their faces.
“Yes, that is my name,” Khin replied. “And you are?”
Before either girl could answer, SB Cotard’s voice echoed down from the ruins of the Special Care Unit up on the hill. “Emergency. There are threats coming along the perimeter fence. All available people please respond.”
Vesna whistled, and Old Bill and Poco came trotting over from where they had been grazing on the grasses.
“Will you girls make sure the children follow the cubie white to where it leads?” Khin asked.
“Yes!” The two girls replied together. “We will help them, but what is happening?”
“More bad people are here,” Vesna said. “We ride off to defend this place.” She jumped up onto Old Bill and then they galloped away.
Khin pulled out the com-link from a pouch. He slipped it on over his ear.
One of the girls, looking at the com-link intensely, rushed up to him and whispered into his other ear.
“Really?” Khin said. He began to laugh and laugh. He pressed the side of the com-link to activate it. “Sandie? I must speak to Jerome and Cammarry. I heard their message. Do they want us to come to
the needle ship? There are lots of old people here, and now some children. I am not sure how to get them there, and we are under attack again.”
He mounted Poco and headed off to confront the next attack.
The two girls rushed to help the other children follow the automacube up toward the pavilion.
15 last ride on the carousel
“This is a lot nicer than our last trip in one of these,” Jerome said. He was watching the display screens on the front of the transport vehicle. It was showing their progress toward the destination of Crondel. The ride was controlled, inertia was suppressed, gravity manipulation was working, and it was smooth and comfortable.
“We do still have the medical kit if we need it,” Cammarry added with a partial laugh. “I am pleasantly surprised at how smooth this is going.”
“I do not want to sound like our adventurer friend Paul from Dome 17, may he be safe and secure wherever he went, but sometimes when you are in the eye of the storm, you are not aware of the immense forces raging around you,” Jerome said and winked at Cammarry.
“That was not whiny enough for Paul. I do wish I knew his and Gretchen’s story.” Cammarry wiped a tear from her eyes. “I wonder if we will ever know what became of those other adventurers? Copernicus told us many of the Dome 17 people were saved by going to that Colony Ship Eschaton. What became of those other adventurers to the other colony ships? Those are stories we will never know.”
Jerome looked up and said quietly, “May all the adventurers everywhere be happy and free, and may their thoughts, words, and deeds contribute in some way to the happiness and safety of whoever they encounter.”
“Agreed.”
There was a slight jerk and the vehicle slowed down. It came to a stop. Then it reversed directions and backed up, slowly. Several bumps, and heaving motions were felt as the vehicle crunched into something, went up and over it, and then continued. Jarring and grinding sounds bumped the vehicle as it settled in and then finally stopped.
“Well there had to be some element of a rollercoaster ride this time.” Jerome smiled happily. “Overall, quite an improvement.”
The portal hatch opened. The warm light from the vehicle’s interior illuminated the terminal hub. Cammarry and Jerome stepped out and both switched on their fusion pack lights. The hub was much as they remembered, except this time they stepped out of a neatly docked vehicle, not a vehicle which had suffered a crash landing. The shambled condition of the terminal made Cammarry thankful the vehicle they had used had arrived safely. The hatch, which had opened after their vehicle docked, had not been used in a long time. The coating of grime, dirt, and dried gunk had fractured and fallen all around the portal hatch. Looking at the permalloy of the hatch and wall, exposed beneath the filthy crust, Cammarry’s mind saw where the chunks of debris had fallen off, and like puzzle pieces they could have been fitted back together around the long unused hatch.
“Five portal hatches. And the score is two wrecks and one success. Sounds about right for our missions on the Conestoga,” Cammarry stated. “I would hate to play ricochet ball with those kind of odd of success.”
Jerome had not thought about ricochet ball for some time, and he grinned remembering the game from Dome 17. “It would be nice to have a clear, sterile, and well-lit court to just play on. No dust, debris, or rubble. Yes, the Conestoga is different.” He waved his hands around.
Dust was floating in the swirls of the air, and there were broken parts of the ceiling and walls lying around everywhere. Two other closed hatches were along the wall. All the portal hatches were set about six meters apart. The closed ones were still coated and sealed with the covering of neglect. A thick layer of dust and grime ensconced most everything in that terminal hub. At each end of the room were the wrecks of other vehicles. The one they had ridden before was canted and misaligned, with the hatch still open. The coating of grime was thinner on that wreck than the other, but still whatever process was causing the grime to build up on things was still working. The interior of that vehicle was in shadow. The other wreck was from some far older crash where a transport vehicle had smashed through the wall with tremendous force. Only a small portion of it was visible, sticking out from the rubble of the destroyed wall. Dust and debris covered the old wreck, and amidst the remains were thin silvery-white filaments.
“Com-links failed last time we were here, and I had been injured badly.” Jerome walked over and hugged Cammarry. “Thank you for getting me though that all.”
Holding tightly to him, she replied, “Without the medical kit, things would have been very different.”
“Sandie, you can still hear me?” Cammarry asked.
“Yes, I am tracking and recording your progress,” the AI replied through the functioning com-link. “It is interesting to visualize the places you only informed me about. I am also sending out the message via the public address system. As expected, I have not gotten any replies.”
“Hopefully the right people heard and will be waiting for us. Well look! At least we know what that means now.” Jerome pointed at the back wall of the terminal hub. The green hand-written graffiti read, ‘Hayward MacDonald 4 KM sternward’. Seeing that again made each of them stop and consider. They stood in silence for a moment before continuing on.
“We also know something about Mister Tate Willman now,” Cammarry added. “We are making progress and developing a better understanding of the Conestoga’s history.”
“An odd, convoluted, and violent history,” Jerome said. “Much like the history of humanity.”
Where the oldest vehicle crash had taken place was a pile of debris: chunks of fractured permalloy, twisted steel, broken polymers, and several large pipes which had been ripped from the ceiling when it collapsed. The remaining wall, the one without the graffiti, consisted of meter long vertical sections, each set at right angles to the others, making for a diagonal looking effect stretching across the room. There were dozens of small circular engravings in a pattern all along that unusual wall. A space, a gap, about a half-meter wide was in the center of that wall where the panels had partially slid apart. A cone shaped pile of rocks, debris, and dirt was at the base of that opening. It had spilled down from above, where an tunnel of sorts, extended upward at an angle. The dirt was a rich brown color, while the rocks were various shades, and shapes, the biggest being about fist sized. Some light was visible up in that opening.
“Well, our escape burrow still exists,” Cammarry said and nodded at the opening.
Jerome smiled and recalled something. “Beauty is in the beholder’s eye, but design does designate function. To me that hole and tunnel is both beautiful and functional.” He ran his hands across the designs and decorations on the wall.
“I am thankful we at least know where that leads this time. No more mysteries,” Cammarry said as she stepped up onto the pile and began her ascent. Dirt and clods and rocks skittered down as she climbed up.
“We have reconnoitered some of the Conestoga, but I would refrain from saying there are no more mysteries,” Jerome laughed a bit. “I too am glad to know this leads up to the surface of Beta’s biological habitat. Last time we just hoped for a better place.”
“There is much brighter light up here, so it must still be daytime in the habitat. No nocturnal visit for us this time. The roots still work as handholds. Oh, what we have learned in such a short time.” Cammarry thought about all they had seen, heard, and experienced. “Our story seems longer than the time we have been here on the Conestoga.”
“It has been a lifetime. Yesterday is past, tomorrow is yet to be, today is ours. That is why they call it the present,” Jerome quipped.
“Presently, we are about to pop out like rats in their tunnels,” Cammarry replied.
“Khin would like that we spoke about rats.”
They emerging in the bottom of a depression in the ground. It was roughly ten meters in diameter in a crater shape. Plants were all around the edge of the crater depression.
“No rats here. The sky tube is shining, but there are no animal noises. No birds, insects, or anything. When we were here before, the noises bothered me,” Cammarry said. “Now I am not sure which bothers me more, the unknown sounds, or the lack of sounds.”
“The lack of sounds makes me think of all those dead fish in that stream,” Jerome said. “Dead animals make no noises, and I fear that might be the cause of the silence. If the Crock vehicles are bringing the gravity sink holes, then vast areas may already be dead. Breeching the walls of the habitat, the planet’s toxic gases might be flooding in in multiple places.”
They hurriedly made their way up and out of the depression. They found the stone walkway as they remembered and followed it to the ruins of Crondel.
The Colony Ship Conestoga : The Complete Series: All Eight Books Page 136
