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

by John Thornton

  Kablam!!!

  Eris was knocked down to her face. The spacesuit protecting her from the impact. She somehow kept hold on the stretcher, but the detonation pushed it away from her with great force. The lead she had on it kept it from flying across and away.

  The hanger bay lights flickered and went off. Eris looked up and as she scrambled to her feet she saw the four energy circles, move toward each other to form one single globe. As they did, there was the briefest hint of an image, like the ghosts of a long and deep tunnel, but it blinked away as the energy of the globe dissipated, and the grid’s glow faded.

  “No!” Eris cried out as she got to her feet. “Sandie? What happened?”

  “Major malfunction,” Sandie answered. “The sending unit has no power. The complete signal has been lost.”

  Eris looked over and the alcove where she had connected the sending pad into the ship’s power was on fire. Blue, yellow, red, and orange flames engulfed the whole alcove, and the tongues of fire wrapped around the open door and charred the walls of the hanger bay.

  Brilliant lights flashed three times, and then a huge crashing noise shook everything around. From out of the ceiling dropped a thick wall, crushing the power cable, and sealing away the alcove.

  “Emergency Containment Curtain has deployed!” Eris cried out. “All power to the teleportation sending pad has been severed.” She rushed over, dragging the stretcher with her, and placed her palm against the interface surface on the nearest control display. Nothing happened.

  “What?” Eris said and then looked at her hand. It was covered in the spacesuit’s glove, blocking the interface from recognizing her implants. She reached to open the spacesuit, when Sandie’s voice echoed through her ears at a painfully loud level.

  “Do not remove the spacesuit! The air will kill you!”

  Eris stopped her motion. Instead she tapped in a series of commands.

  Negative function sounds came from the display. The fire suppression systems were not working, and the Emergency Containment Curtain would not retract.

  Eris tapped in a different sequence of commands, and saw that power levels were dropping in every system of the hanger bay.

  “The shuttle!” Eris yelled out. She rushed over and opened the cargo compartment at the rear of NS-99. She maneuvered the stretcher into there, shut off the gravity nullifiers on it, and strapped it down securely. Sealing down the rear hatch, she stepped around and opened the cockpit hatch. Slipping the jetpack off, she slid it into an empty seat then sat down in the pilot’s chair.

  “Emergency launch sequence!” Eris commanded.

  The lights on the cockpit controls came on. She started punching in commands, and activating switches. There was a clang as the docking clamps below the shuttle unhooked. Looking out the viewports, Eris saw only darkness.

  “Cycle the hanger bay!” She commanded.

  Nothing was happening.

  Checking the status of the shuttle, Eris noted that the thruster fuel lines were still attached. She popped open the hatch and stepped out into the hanger bay. Jumping over to the side of the shuttle, she hit another set of buttons on the thruster refueling lines, but there was again, no response.

  “Sandie?” Eris yelled out. “I can manually unhook the shuttle, but there is no response to my commands on the hanger bay. As soon as I am inside the shuttle cycle the system and I will fly back to the needle ship.”

  Sandie responded, “I am searching the nonphysicality for a way to do that. The fissures and fractures in the nonphysicality are greatly inhibiting my access to any control systems there in Dardanella 135.”

  “Understood. I will just cycle it all manually,” Eris finished disconnecting the thruster refueling lines, and physically had to drag them away from the shuttle. They should have retracted robotically. She then hustled to the observation deck controls. She wanted to access them via the interface pad, but with her gloves on that was impossible. She tapped in override codes, but none of them had any power at all. Pulling levers, clicking knobs, and pounding on the controls resulted in nothing. Only her helmet light showed any illumination. Looking out through the clear permalloy, she saw that the entire hanger bay was dark, except for the shuttle which was running on its own self-contained power systems.

  Eris bolted out of the observation deck and ran to the external hanger bay doors. There she opened the emergency access panels and read the bright red letters which were outlined in white. ‘Emergency explosive bolts: Warning.” Beneath the warning sign were toggle dials. She adjusted the toggle dials which manually entered in the command code and the physical combination lock opened. The small inner door popped up. Sitting in front of her, lit by the beam of light from her helmet were five loops of wire. Each of those was connected to a physical release switch for the explosive bolts anchoring the hanger bay doors.

  “No going back on this one!” Eris muttered. She then prayed it would work. “This will give me thirty second to get back into the shuttle!”

  She pulled on all five of the explosive bolt release wires. She heard them all click. She began counting as she ran.

  Darting back to the shuttle she leaped up into the hatch, and slammed the close switch, and buckled herself into the pilot’s seat. She pushed on the shuttle’s flood lights which shined over onto the hanger bay doors. “…twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!”

  A deep rumble came from the huge external doors as the release bolts exploded. Designed to detonate and project the damage outward, she did not expect to see the explosions.

  The hanger bay doors shook a bit. They began to part, but jammed when they were only about a meter open. Zalia’s red light poured through the slit and washed the smoky hanger bay in ruby colors. Green vapors mixed with the air in the hanger bay, and shadows and vapors obscured a clear view. Nonetheless, it was clear the hanger bay doors had failed to open enough to allow the shuttle to fly out.

  “No!” Eris cried out. She pounded the arm rest on the pilot’s seat. “No! No! No!”

  “Eris?” Sandie asked. “I cannot find any way to link into the hanger bay doors.

  “I just blew the explosive bolts for the whole section and the door failed to disengage,” Eris said. “I am trapped in here.”

  “I am conjecturing possible escape plans, but have nothing to offer at this time,” Sandie said. “I am sorry.”

  Eris ran ideas through her mind. She looked at the jetpack next to her. She considered using it to shove the hanger bay doors open, but dismissed the idea almost immediately. She knew the jetpack had nowhere near the power needed to wrench open the huge doors. Even the thrusters on the shuttle lacked sufficient force to pry open those doors since they were jammed. Looking at the ruddy light streaming inside, she knew she could probably squeeze herself out through the small gap which was now open, but, without the shuttle, where would she go on an alien world?

  Eris shut her eyes and prayed. She took some deep breaths, and readied her mind for death. Checking her suit’s air supply, she knew her final moments would not come for an extended time, but she also understood there was no where she could go that would be safe.

  A shivering and shaking made Eris open her eyes. Glancing over, she saw the grid of the teleportation sending pad shuddering up and down on the deck of the hanger bay. The truncated power cable was flopping about like a water hose which was not controlled. Eris smiled at that image in her mind. She recalled a time with her parents when they all extravagantly wasted water by spraying each other with a hose. She had been seven years old then, and it was her birthday. Her parents had spent an exorbitant amount of money for those few moments of joy with her. At the time, she already knew water was scarce and precious, yet she had no idea just how expensive that party had been for her parents. As an adult she had calculated it once, but she forgot the cost now. She only remembered the joy that flopping and flowing water hose brought her, and the smiles and laughter of her parents.

  Then her engineering mind assessed what she was seei
ng. “Why is that bucking like that?”

  The deck beneath the teleportation sending grid, split open into a fissure. The permalloy crumbled downward and the crevice spread from under the Emergency Containment Curtain. The thick and heavy curtain itself sagged downward.

  “A gravity sink hole!” Eris exclaimed. “Or the pressure from where the sea went in those whirlpools. The hull must be breached.

  The crevice spread right toward Eris, who tapped the shuttle’s thrusters and NS-99 scooted away. Green gases, particles, vapors and haze sucked downward into that crevice. The permalloy split and ripped and the entire teleportation grid fell into the widening hole. Then the cracks and tip of the crevice met the section of floor beneath the external hanger bay doors.

  There was a huge shrieking of tortured metal as the crevice spread. It was loud enough to vibrate Eris bubble helmet even though she was inside the shuttle. With a resounding cacophony of crunching and crumbling the external doors resisted the immense pressure welling up from deep beneath. Then those external doors just folded in on themselves and the red light of Zalia’s sun blazed through the greenish yellow air and nearly blinded Eris’ eyes. She was looking at sunrise on Zalia.

  “Out I go!” She yelled, without even knowing there was a clear path, Eris pushed the shuttle’s thruster controls to maximum. She was pinned back against the pilot’s seat by the sudden acceleration.

  NS-99, what had once been called Faithful Lightning, shot out of the ruins of Habitat Beta like lightning from a thunderstorm, and escaped from the devastation of the Dardanella 135.

  “Excellent!!!!” Eris yelled and engaged the inertia suppression systems and gained a measure of control over the wild flight of the shuttle. She directed the shuttle to gain altitude, and then curved it around in a wide arc.

  “What?” Eris said as she looked back at the outside of Habitat Beta. Numerous holes were visible, gaping and wide open to Zalia. Then she looked down at the ground around where the crumbling parts of the hanger bay were still falling downward. A river of slushy liquids was washing down a steep slope, but that was not what astonished her. Giant lettering had been dug into the higher ground.

  ‘YOU LEAVE NOW’ was clearly spelled out. Several Crock vehicles were moving along the edges of that message, as well as along the sides of where the gray river was flowing.

  “That must be where the sea went,” Eris said. “And I received you message.”

  Not knowing if anyone was watching, or would even understand, she tipped the wings of the shuttled twice and then set course to make orbit.

  “Sandie! I am out of there!” Eris called. “I am boosting into orbit, but am not sure where the needle ship is in relation to me. Can you plot me a course?”

  “You have escaped Dardanella 135?” Sandie asked. There was shock in the artificial intelligence system’s voice. “I lost all contact with Habitat Beta some moments ago. I thought you were lost. I will relay the good news to Jerome and Cammarry. They have been eagerly waiting to hear.”

  “Wait! It was pretty amazing, but, you must not tell Cammarry and Jerome about SB Cotard. The central memory core is in storage, but I am not certain of the reinstallation. Cammarry will never trust this synthetic brain. Sandie, promise me this will be between us only.” Eris looked back, and the Crock’s large letters were just too tiny to read.

  “I do not keep secrets from my friends,” Sandie answered.

  “Tell them I saved the shuttle. It is true. Just do not tell them about SB Cotard. That secret will keep stress and pain and anxiety away from Cammarry, right? And keeping this private will help another friend, like me. Please help me too!” Eris countered. “I am not even sure SB Cotard can be reinstalled, but I need it to help the people who are still in suspended animation. Please keep this between us. At least until we know how the reinstallation goes.”

  “Understood. I will refrain from telling them the details of SB Cotard,” Sandie said very reluctantly. “Because I do see long-term merit to your plan of incorporating SB Cotard for humanitarian use. However, I will reevaluate this secret as circumstances change.”

  “Thank you Sandie. What about that course to the needle ship?”

  “Yes, I am plotting that now. SB Pinaka has connected to a hanger bay which was unknown to me. It is near to Navigation and Astrogation. It is only a tertiary hanger bay, designated Pine 1009, but it is fully operational.”

  “What of Beta?” Eris asked. “From what I saw, the whole habitat suffered a catastrophic failure.”

  “I will have to review your records when you come back, but that is consistent with the readings I took prior to losing contact,” Sandie stated. “I have only limited connections to NS-99 at this time, but can assist in guiding you safely to the needle ship. Additionally, the last signal I got from Habitat Beta was from SB Amelia Earhart. It said simply, ‘Namaste’ and then all contact was lost.”

  Epilogue

  Music floated over the grand hall of the needle ship. Cadet Danny was at his piano, his elderly fingers flying across the keys. The dim light, which was ubiquitous on the needle ship, shone down on the black and white keys as he made music. His piano melody arched over the hubbub of a multitude of voices speaking to each other.

  “You play beautifully,” Franklin said from his wheelchair. “I can see so much in my mind’s eye. Simply amazingly gorgeous music.”

  “Yes, Bagherra too likes your music,” Beverly said from the cozy chair in the corner. “Just purring away as always. This is a nice part of the Special Care Unit.”

  “Thank you,” Cadet Danny replied. He did not correct Beverly, realizing that her mind was doing the best it could. For this occasion, he had combed his bright white colored hair, and his recently trimmed beard and eyebrows were neat and tidy. “Your people are a welcome addition to us. Nabila, or what it Dewi, actually took time to tend to me.” His medium brown face was a mass of wrinkles, especially on his tall forehead, but his face shone with the smile he carried now.

  “I cannot tell those two apart either. I only met them just before the evacuation. They were with the roustabouts, from my understanding,” Franklin stated. “My eyes are too poor to see them clearly, and they sound exactly alike. They do have that boy Adeilson with them, like a shadow wherever they go. Him I can recognize, if by no other way than by his somber words.”

  “The lighting has not been good on the needle ship for a long time, but the plants need the growth light. Well, all the children are welcome here. I understand you are staying with the Goat People as well?” Cadet Danny asked.

  “Yes, all the elderly and some of the children are staying here. Your hospitality is wonderful. Some of the adults are dispersing to the other places, but not us. Would you play that one you said was by Brahms again?”

  Cadet Danny nodded. “I think that is who composed it, but I do it all from memory now, and I am not sure if my memory is right or not.”

  “Either way, it is beautiful to hear,” Franklin answered. “Thank you again for giving me a new home.”

  “There will be a lot of resettlement now. It has been a long time since people from all three groups came here. I guess maybe there are more than three groups. I recall when there were nine groups: the needle ship, and each habitat, but that was long, long ago, when we were in transit through the stars.”

  “Your music takes me through the stars. Thank you!” Franklin closed his old eyes and rested his hands across the stumps of his legs.

  Cadet Danny’s fingers played on and the music soared. Children danced around the tents where the Goat People lived. The mostly mottled blue colored tents stood in orderly fashion, tied together by leather straps. But the children danced, whirled, and played in a chaotic, haphazard, and fun manner. It was a time for celebration.

  On the other side of the grand hall, beyond where the children danced, and past a myriad of boxes, shipping crates, storage bins, large vats of liquid emitting tantalizing aromas, and all the other things specific to the Goat People’s w
ay of life, there was special activity.

  A group of tables had been set up where some of the tents had been moved out of the way. At the tables were Jerome and Cammarry, along with Eris and many of the refugees, the last survivors from Habitat Beta. The remains of an elaborate meal were on the tables, and the discussions were ongoing.

  A man dressed in a white shirt with stripes around the sleeves, gray and black pants of thick and tough material, with large open pockets on the sides stood up. “That was a most excellent meal! Even those, what did you call them, oh yes, food ration bars!” He glanced over at Jerome and Cammarry as he struggled with a way to describe the food produced by the newly made Dome 17 techniques. “A good new…travel food. So now to the migration business. We, the Chicken People, welcome the hunters and fishers who wish to join our tribe,” Dick stated with solemn dignity. “My brother Fedders and I are pleased to have those people accompany us back to our homes, hatchery, and brooder!”