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

by John Thornton

  “SB Sherman, I need a jail. Can you lead this fine religious zealot to some lavatory where there is water and a safe environment? Or better yet, lead him on some holy quest which takes him a long time to get back to the biological habitat? Just make sure he does not interfere with my plans.”

  “That can be arranged,” SB Sherman answered. “However, I can only operate doors, and other egress points. I cannot now interfere with the habitat’s intercom system.”

  The exit door opened. Beautiful yellow light flooded in from the foyer beyond. The side walls of the foyer were transparent permalloy, which allowed a vast overview of the biome below. Cammarry recognized it as the light from the habitat’s sky tube. That daylight dispelled the shadowy darkness of Reproduction and Fabrication.

  “Skedaddle!” Cammarry said and waved the Willie Blaster at him. “Keep quiet about what you have seen. Go on your pilgrimage, take your time, and wander about. I am releasing you from this conflict. You can be spared what is happening. Go! Just hold your tongue, waste some time, and spend some day away. Later, you will have superb story to relate.”

  The technician jumped up and strutted off with an air superiority. “Goddess Araceli has delivered me, and there was nothing you could do to prevent it. I am elect, destined, and divinely favored.” As he passed the doorway, he taunted, “The Parson will reward me, and all heathens are helpless against us. I will immediately find an intercom and send a message. The Parsons will hear of this as soon as I can. I will not be silenced. Hold my tongue, the heathen says. Never! No one can stop the spread of the Goddess Araceli’s messengers. This ungodly slave revolt will be crushed. You and your ilk are like insects who need to be stomped out. You do not know your place, and are working against the divine will. Some vessels are made for mastership, and some vessels are just pots to be used and abused. I know who I am. Goddess Araceli be praised! We will triumph.” He turned his back with a dismissive shrug.

  Cammarry looked down at the bound patrolman, Estefanna. She was watching what was happening. “Did you see all this?” Cammarry asked her.

  She nodded.

  “Excellent.” Cammarry turned back and raised the Willie Blaster.

  Piff.

  The technician was struck in the back and his chest exploded outward from the exit wound. Blood splattered all over the foyer outside of Reproduction and Fabrication. He was dead before he hit the decks. The body was shaken by three quick spasms, then lay still.

  Cammarry swallowed hard, and blinked her eyes repeatedly. She tried to block out the images of what she had just done. Then she turned back to the bound patrolman on the floor. She walked over and squatted down. Cammarry studied the Willie Blaster in her hand. “There was an elderly lady in Beta who abused children, now dead. That technician supported slavery, now dead. Your partner fired at me, now dead. Do you want to be cooperative with me?”

  “Sure, whatever you say.” The patrolman had unsophisticated, broken speech, and a heavy accent. As she spoke, Cammarry could see the brown stains from lek on her teeth, and there were several old gaps in her mouth from missing teeth. “Yup, I will co-op with you.”

  “Tell me your story,” Cammarry ordered.

  “Well, see. I am Estefanna from Wolf City. My boss, she is Patrol Chief Bernice who serves under Parson Frederich. They are the big shots. Well, Bernice, she got herself promoted after that big-old revolt, what with so many patrolmen getting themselves blowed up and all.” She tugged at her bonds a bit, but no more than adjusting them for less constriction, not in an effort to escape. “I was on guard here, mostly the reds do the real guarding. I saw you coming, and you took me down. Oh, my head knows I was injured. Conked me to sleep, you did. Was it you who healed me?”

  “Yes. Now what can you tell me about SB Bodowa?”

  “Machine brains? Not much, nope. I am just a patrolman.” Fear shot through Estefanna’s eyes. “But wait, I do know, some stuff. I knows that the techies worked here and across on the other end of the sky tube, well, um, at that, you know, um, big com-center. I am not sure what all kinds of things they did. We sent their reports back to Parson Frederich. Techies talk to each other over the intercoms. The Parson or Chief gives us orders through the reds, that they do. Well, um, you know, um, I heard them say something about them brains being cut off from one another. Like putting a fence between crops, or like keeping them slaves in separate pens.” Panic flushed her face as she realized she had mentioned the slaves. “Not that I, um, not, um, well, myself never ever supported that slavery. Nope, not me. Not I, um. I am just a patrolman, sent up here to guard stuff, the machines.” A strange look crossed her face as she grew aware of her inner feelings. In her oddly broken speech she continued. “I am scared, yes I am. When scared I chew lek. Say, um, but, well, um, I do not really want none. Not now. It calmed me, but now, it do not even, um, sound any good at all. Sort of makes my tummy queasy-like, um. Sort of like eating too much fried foods, or drinking stale pond water.”

  “I see,” Cammarry replied. “Your head injury was healed, but so was your addition to that junk.” She had no urge to hurt the patrolman, or kill again. Cammarry was trying to hold back her own revulsion at what she had done in killing the other two. Yet, she knew she needed more information. “So there are more security automacubes, technicians and patrolmen at that communication center?”

  “There sure be! At that there com-center, yup!” Estefanna said in her drawled accent. “Lots of them. Maybe four patrolmen and a couple few techies. Some, um, well, reds for protection. You did a number on the reds, like I never did see. They dropped like shooting pheasants. Just walloped them reds to death, you did. Anyways, um, the Parson, well he thinks, yes he does, they can get better controls of the blues again, um, but I am not sure how.”

  Tapping her lip with her finger, Cammarry said, “What to do with you?”

  “Well, um, that trip you offered the techie? Just go wander about, not say nothing to no one. That sounded like paradise to me. I could just walk away, I promise you, um, I would not talk about no goddesses, or slaves, and I would not talk to no one in the habbie, um, not for however long you tell me. I want nothing to do with this fight. Not me, nope. Not I. Could I just do that walk away thing? Um, please?” Estefanna was insistent, and her eyes expressed hope as well as some trepidation.

  Cammarry nodded and untied the patrolman’s boots, and then removed them from her feet. The lack of hygiene was apparent from the smells which wafted up. “The boots will stay here; you are less likely to do much walking in that biome without footwear.”

  “You gotsa good idea there, sister,” Estefanna said. Then her face flushed again. “Sorry, if calling you sister was wrong. Um, I mean no offense, or none, um, well, no disrespect. I apologize.”

  Cammarry unwrapped the belt from the patrolman’s hands. “No weapons, and you promise to stay at least a week away from every intercom? I will know what you say the moment you say it. I am monitoring all the intercoms,” Cammarry lied. “And you saw what I did to that technician, right?”

  Estefanna looked at the dead body in the foyer. She then looked at the dead patrolman by the large fabrication machinery. “Yup. I understand. Can I get up?”

  “Yes, and go on your way. No talking, and keep away from all the intercoms, or I will find you,” Cammarry aimed the Willie Blaster right at Estefanna.

  “I understand. I sure do, yes, I understand.” The barefoot patrolman walked backward toward the exit door. Her hands were held up. “I will not talk no nobody, not for seven whole days.”

  “SB Sherman, make sure you keep Estefanna away from entering the biome, but lead her to places where she can get sufficient water, and food supplies.” Cammarry was sweating as she worried about trusting the patrolman. She knew how much easier it would be to just pull the trigger and end the potential threat, but she also felt compassion and a need for mercy. “I know the ESRC’s have rations in them, sometimes.”

  “I will do that,” SB Sherman stated. “Patrolman, pl
ease take the elevator which is now opening. They have been recently repaired.”

  The patrolman kept walking, but she glanced over her shoulder to see where the elevator was. The doors stood open in the far wall, with a bright blue hand-shape right next to it. After taking a wide path around the dead body, she then sprinted into the elevator and punched the buttons.

  “Do not forget, I am watching and listening!” Cammarry yelled as the elevator doors closed.

  Cammarry stepped back to the control counter in front of the still smoking fabrication apparatus. She tried several of the levers and dials, but could only get a basic overview on the small display. None of the controls she tried were responding. Then she found a button which activated a subroutine. There, a ‘fire suppressant’ section opened, and she started that. A hissing noise came from the apparatus, and the smoke stopped coming out.

  “Well, this machinery has suffered some damage,” Cammarry stated. “SB Bodowa, are you available?”

  There was no response.

  Cammarry plugged in her fusion pack, and the lights in the complex came on. The better illumination allowed her to see some of the damages which had been inflicted by the technician, as well as what she figured were damages done by the AWAD, and the projectiles which had struck the equipment.

  “SB Sherman, can you get some blue automacubes in here to make repairs? You were able to get those doors rebuilt.”

  “When I was interconnected and linked to SB Yomaris, and SB Bodowa, we were able to achieve some of those maintenance and refurbishments. I will attempt to also direct some of the engineering automacubes here, but as I said, I am now limited to contacting them at egress points. Nevertheless, I will try.”

  Unjacking the fusion pack, Cammarry then carefully loaded up all her gear. This time she got the backpack in a position where she could easily carry it, with the AWAD across her back. She had quick access to the Willie Blaster, and felt more confident.

  “Now, I will go find Eris at that hanger bay. You said it was two levels up from the biome? Will you please direct me there?”

  SB Sherman replied. “Certainly. The elevator will descend to the appropriate level, and I will put visual signals on the doors you need to take to get to Swanson 6101.”

  As Cammarry walked out of the Reproduction and Fabrication facility, the newly rebuilt doors shut with a soft but stern swoosh. The pressure door which led to the stairway also looked like it had had repairs done to it.

  Cammarry walked over to the clear permalloy wall and looked down at the biological habitat. The town of Wolf city was below her, and the Loop river was visible in the distance as it meandered next to the great side wall of the habitat. She knew that on the other side, the river also flowed there as well. It flowed all around the entire habitat, even the jungle area which was at the far other end of the vast cylinder.

  “Such a beautiful place,” she stated. “But such ugly people, and such conflict. No one should be slaves, and it should have worked freeing them. Now, I suppose more death must take place. Jerome would have some old quote about the horrors of war or something. That seems to be humanity’s story.”

  The elevator doors slid open with a very faint sound. The blue hand-shaped symbol was lit up next to that elevator. It was not the same one as the patrolman had used when she left.

  On the permalloy wall nearby there was an inscription over a bulkhead door. ‘Solar Mimicry and Habitat Alpha Reactor’. Next to that was an arrow which pointed back the way she had come with a sign saying, ‘Primary Reproduction and Fabrication.’

  “Now, I find Eris.” Cammarry entered the elevator.

  ***

  Meanwhile, Jerome and Monika met in the hanger bay on the needle ship. It was a tense encounter.

  “Jerome, I brought everything I could think of that we might need,” Monika said as she loaded the last of the spacesuits into the rear cargo compartment. “I also have tools, gear, and I even brought a weapon for my own use.” She patted a revolver which was strapped to her thigh. “The roustabouts had a few secreted away, and from what you said, the freed slaves have been in conflict with their former masters. That sounds ugly. This revolver will not do much against a security automacube, but it will stop a human, or wild beast. You did say Wolf City was one of Alpha’s towns, right?”

  “Yes. The other is called Aston, and that is in the jungle end of the biome. Both towns are controlled by the slave masters. I am armed as well. I wish Siva and Peter had made more of the AWAD systems,” Jerome replied. He then looked at Monika for a long moment. “You do not have to come. I mean with you being pregnant and all, I am not sure…”

  “I am sure. Eris is my friend too, and Cammarry. She needs my help as well.”

  They got into NS-99 and sealed down the hatch. “Sandie, we are ready to depart.”

  “I am cycling the hanger bay now. I inspected NS-99 completely and it is refueled.”

  Jerome hit the thrusters and directed the shuttle out of the hanger bay as quickly as was practical.

  Strapped into the one of the pilot seats, Monika looked at the father of her children. She thought deeply about what lay ahead, not only the flight to Alpha, and her seeing a strange habitat, but also what would be in the future. ‘What kind of future do my babies have?’ she asked herself. Then she looked away from Jerome as he caught her staring.

  “Is something wrong?” Jerome asked.

  “No. I was just considering what Alpha might be like. It is odd that you have seen more of the Conestoga than I have, and yet I was born on board, while you were born, well not exactly born, from what you tell me, but anyway you came from Earth. Ironic in a way,” Monika replied. “One of life’s strange twists.”

  “It is a terrible irony, in every way, that the solution to humanity's crises always seem to result in bloody conflict and death,” Jerome said sadly. “Prevention is far easier than reversing bad that has happened.”

  Monika rubbed her abdomen, but refrained from comment. A single tear ran down her cheek which she wiped away as she turned from Jerome. He did not even notice how his words had smacked her. She would not change the fact of her pregnancy, even if she could, however, it was hard to hear Jerome imply that it was bad. ‘He does not understand at all,’ she reminded herself.

  “We should be able to come back via the teleporter, or get more thruster fuel in Alpha, so I am pushing this as fast as we can go. Inertia inhibitors are in place, but this ride will get rough,” Jerome stated.

  “Sandie? How long until we get to Alpha?” Monika asked.

  “Estimated time of arrival is six-hours, eighteen-minutes,” Sandie replied. “I conjecture a real chance of losing contact with you, but cannot give a precise time or percentage chance of that. The dampening field is different than what we have encounter previously, but based on the same general theory. I believe the communication systems in NS-99 will continue to allow me to interact with you, but I cannot guarantee that. It is my goal to use NS-99’s transceivers and multichannel scanners as a relay point once you have penetrated the dampening field. From there, I conjecture a chance of contacting Cammarry, and possibly Eris.”

  “Six hours,” Monika said.

  The shuttle flew on, heading down into the atmosphere of Zalia.

  ***

  In Hanger Bay Swanson 6101 Eris was preparing to depart. She had gathered what supplies she could from the engineering tug, and from the storage lockers around the observation deck. The spacesuit she left in a locker on the side of the hanger, as she was unsure if or when it would be needed, nor if it was even functional anymore.

  “How far away is that room 6009?” Eris asked. “If that is where some of the contacts are located, I may as well start with them.”

  “The contacts resist me, so I am unable to give a precise location of them at all times,” Shadow answered. “I can only perceive from their vantage point when they cooperate with me, which they are not doing at this time.”

  As Eris approached the doorway to leave t
he observation deck, the door failed to open as she approached. That was a bit of a surprise, until she opened the nine-section color control pad and saw the links, couplings, and circuits for the connections to the synthetic brains had been severed away. The whole block of rooms was disconnected from the ship’s oversight and would not appear in the non-physicality.

  ‘Tinkering for sabotage? Indeed. Someone knew what to do to block-out the doors of this area, while leaving the ceiling illumination in place,’ Eris said to herself. ‘An ominous finding.’

  Eris knew someone with skill had used a vibration saw to do that altering, and it was recent damage. Additionally, the intercom system was obliterated as well. She pulled out a multi-tool, made a few quick adjustments, and added a splice, which re-energized that specific door. She then closed the control pad. ‘If I took more time, I could reconnect the whole area, with a bypass which would jump the damage and empower the whole section.’ She chewed on her bottom lip while considering it. She prayed silently for guidance, and decided not to make those extensive repairs at the moment. ‘That would give away my presence.’