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

by John Thornton

  The transceiver crackled in Eris’s pocket. “Chief! Chief! We have been ambushed. Slaves with guns! By the repository! Jefferson and I are all shot up!”

  Eris turned to the other patrolman and saw he was speaking on the transceiver. She rushed over and kicked it out of his hand. He fell to the deck and groaned out in pain. Across his bloody uniform breast was the name, ‘Mustafa’ in black. Eris heard footsteps behind her as the patrolman, Jefferson, ran away as fast as his injured body could carry him.

  She spun about and aimed the RSW Model 10 at the fleeing and limping figure. “Halt!” She yelled. “Halt, I say!” She sighted down the barrel and lined up the target. “Halt!”

  Jefferson darted into an open passageway and was away. Eris had a chance to shoot him, but she could not get her finger to squeeze down on the trigger. She turned back to the patrolman on the floor. “You stay where you are!” She ordered. There might have been a nodding of his head, but Eris was unsure. She stepped back to Inteus, whose legs were now feebly moving about. She squatted down and turned him over.

  “I got them…. Captain… so no one else becomes a slave… I got them…” Inteus slurred through his words. Blood was all over his clothing.

  “You did great!” Eris said. “Hold on, help is coming.” She again wished she had her com-link, but she stood up and looked down the hallway. It was a long way to run back down, turn the corner where the broken automacube was, and then gallop down to the other entrance. Instead, she turned to look the other way. The second entrance was much closer and she rushed to it.

  The door was heavily charred and dented from the explosions and attempted forced entry. The nine-section color pad was missing, having been blown off. She pounded on the door. “This is Eris! Let me in! Inteus is wounded out here! Oh please hear me!” She prayed fervently as she pounded on the door. “I am Eris!”

  The one side of the double door shook a bit. It then creaked and groaned as it slid part way open. Eris thrust her head into the opening and yelled. “Get a medical automacube out here immediately! Bring me my com-link!” She tried to squeeze though the opening, but the door was jammed in its frame.

  AI Batibat responded, “Medical services are being sent. That door is inoperative.”

  “Just hurry! Inteus is dying!”

  Eris went back to Inteus. His breathing was labored and ragged. She sat down and set his head in her lap. That seemed to help his breathing a bit. He smiled weakly at her. “This is not how I thought Tlalocan would be. Our new home… cannot have slavery or evil… right Captain?”

  “Hush now,” Eris said as she looked into his face. His blue eyes were tired. His face was lined, and he looked about the same age as her own father. Even though Inteus’ complexion was much lighter, and even paler from the loss of blood, he somehow reminded Eris of her dad. She kissed him gently on the forehead. “Help is coming.”

  “I am… a human services… specialist. I never… thought people… would be so corrupt.” Inteus looked up at her. His blue eyes pleading into her own golden eyes. “Why did they do it?”

  “Evil is in every human heart. It is just waiting to come out,” Eris said. “We must stand against it. Hush now, the medical automacube is here.”

  Eris saw the automacube stop next to the patrolman, and she barked out a command. “Treat this person first.”

  “Standard protocol for mass causality incidents is to assess and triage the victims,” the automacube responded. “I am following that…”

  “Treat this man first, Captain’s orders! Override all protocols!”

  The automacube rolled up to Inteus, and said, “I am Doctor 232. I will be treating your injuries.” The manipulation arm began to quickly assess the wounds. A bright light turned on from the automacube and flooded the hallway with illumination. Bullet marks were all over the walls, ceiling, and deck. Not that the permalloy was dented, but the projectiles had left reside from themselves as they struck the ultra-hard metal. Eris tried to look at those things, rather than the pools of blood from the massive injuries.

  A second white automacube rolled up. “I am Doctor 97. May I treat the second victim? Or do you want me to follow the blood trail and attempt to locate the third victim?”

  “Take care of this one,” Eris said. “He is a criminal, so watch him closely.”

  “Understood. Has security been notified?” the white automacube asked.

  “I am security. I am the Captain.” Eris stormed away, her mind cluttered with conflicts about why she could not shoot the fleeing patrolman, and if she should even have wanted to do so.

  While the automacubes provided medical care to the two injured men, Eris walked back up the hall and collected her AWAD. While she slung it over her shoulder, Linda came running up from the other entrance.

  “I have that com-link,” Linda said, breathlessly. “This is not familiar technology, but I am social status lawyer, and not an engineer like you.”

  Eris thanked her, and really took notice of her now. Linda was in better control of her emotions, although she was still nervous. Petite with green eyes, and short blond hair, she had a multi-tool strapped on her belt, and another AWAD across her back. She kept looking down the various halls and doorways.

  “A lawyer? Really?” Eris was surprised.

  “That was my training, but when they woke me up, I was put to work in their lek fields. Miserable work. I am thankful you killed all of them,” Linda said, but fingered the strap which held the AWAD. “What now Captain?”

  “Let me find out. For now, you head back to the repository, and keep alert. The automacubes will be bringing Inteus and the wounded patrolman back to the repository. We need to find a way to shut that entrance.”

  Linda grabbed the strap she had been fingering and gripped it mightily. “They are not all dead? I thought Inteus was the only one hurt, I saw you up and about. One of them is still alive out here?” Linda spun about. “Where?”

  Eris grabbed her gently. “Thank you for bringing the com-link. Hurry back into the repository. I will make sure you are safe. Go along.”

  Linda nodded quickly. “Back in there. Oh, I, well, that is what I will do. I am free now.” She turned and ran away as fast as she could.

  Eris put the com-link on and tapped it three times for a private channel.

  “Hello Eris,” Sandie stated. “It is heartwarming to hear from you. I was concerned after you left the repository. From the visual images I am now seeing, there was a firefight. How are you?”

  “I am exhausted, and frightened, but not as badly as these former slaves,” Eris replied as she walked back to where the automacubes were working. The patrolman was on his back with a breathing apparatus over his face, while the automacube was suturing a large injury in his side. Inteus was sitting up, but still was very pale. He had infusions running into him from the other automacube.

  “Captain, this automacube says I need to go to the hospital, but it cannot make contact with the medical facilities in Aston,” Inteus stated. “The slave holders control Aston. Please do not let it take me there.”

  “That is correct. Both these patients should be admitted to the hospital for completion of their care,” the mechanical voice of the white automacube Doctor 232 stated.

  “Take both patients into the repository, immediately,” Eris ordered. She prayed and then had an inspiration come to her. “There are additional criminals in this area, and transport is not safe right now. Work with AI Batibat to see about putting this criminal into suspended animation until hostilities cease.”

  There was a slight pause. Then the medical automacube responded, “That is a highly unusual request, but if the hospital is inaccessible, we agree. Transport will take place immediately.”

  As the automacubes carefully packed up the wounded patrolman, Mustafa, and Inteus, Eris kept watch. She listened as Sandie explained what was happening to Monika, Jerome, and Cammarry. Those three were moving rapidly toward the repository, but were not speaking to each other. Each
was having a private interaction with Sandie through the com-links, but they were not discussing anything with each other. Jerome was inventing scenarios and methods of fighting the Crocks. Cammarry was listening to classical music. Monika was discussing her pregnancy feelings and ideas, and had linked to an audio session with the Doctor Chambers simulation.

  “They have their own conflicts,” Eris replied as Sandie related the general details, but no confidential specifics.

  “Indeed, conflicts come in a myriad of forms,” Sandie answered. “Your own conflict here was intense and traumatic.”

  The two wounded men were then being placed into separate uninflated trauma stretchers. Inteus had resisted a bit, but the automacube had sedated him, and then he was more cooperative. The trauma stretchers were then filled with enough gas to protect the wounded and stabilize their bodies for transport. Then gravity nullification was applied so the stretchers could be carried between the two automacubes. The stretchers had the capability for inducing suspended animation, but for the short journey into the repository the medical automacubes had decided that was not medically prudent. Tubing, monitors, and other medical apparatus kept the treatments going for the men while the automacubes lifted them in the stretchers.

  “We are proceeding to the repository, as directed,” Doctor 232 stated with its mechanical voice. “I have continued to attempt to contact the hospital facility in Aston without success. Has security arrived to protect our operations here?”

  “I told you, I am serving as security now,” Eris stated.

  “It is highly unusual for engineering flight crew personnel to serve as security,” Doctor 232 stated.

  “It is highly unusual for a repository to be physically bombed and attacked, so get these men inside there now!” Eris was irritated and uncertain of what would happen when other red automacubes or patrolmen came and continued the attack. ‘Can I shoot someone?’ Eris prayed about that in silence.

  The white automacubes carried the wounded men down the hall, past the inert automacubes, and along the burned corridor to the doorway where the doors were crushed.

  The freed slaves were watching, some aiming the AWADs at the medical automacubes. Eris then remembered that there were perhaps three rifles still in the blood-soaked hallway. She knew they would need to collect those to continue the defense of the repository.

  “Wait!” Linda yelled as the first automacube rolled into the repository. “Which one is Inteus? He is one of us.”

  “You mean that other is a patrolman?” Rodolfo asked incredulously. “Brought in here?”

  “She ordered it!” Linda said and pointed an accusing finger at Eris. “She never was a slave.”

  “But she is the Captain,” Doreen muttered. “Right? Part of the flight crew.”

  Linda stepped over and pulled back part of the covering on the closest inflatable stretcher. “This is Inteus, take him in.”

  The white automacube moved ahead.

  The other medical machine stated, “Please do not hinder transport. This patient needs to be stabilized.”

  “A patrolman?” asked Luljeta. “Not in here. They ruined the other repositories, take him away.”

  “Please clear the way,” Doctor 97 said in its mechanical voice. “This patient needs continued medical care.”

  Eris raised her voice. “AI Batibat can put him in suspended animation until he can be safely taken to the hospital.”

  “No, no, no!” Gilbert said in rage. “No patrolman in a cocoon. Not after what they did. No!”

  The others started to holler and yell out their agreements. The artificial intelligence system, Batibat was saying something but it was lost in the melee of voices.

  “They made us slaves!”

  “They killed my friends!”

  “I was raped!”

  The former slaves pushed around past the stretcher carrying Inteus, and roughly surrounded the other stretcher.

  “Stop!” Eris yelled. “Halt!” In her mind she thought of the fleeing patrolman.

  Doreen shoved Eris to the side, while she spewed out a litany of the sins she had witnessed. “…and they made us work drying that drug lek! Right after beating three people to death!”

  Linda grabbed the stretcher and ripped it away from the automacube. Tubing, cables, and monitors disconnected from the patient, and the machine. The gravity nullifiers lost power, and the stretcher fell hard to the floor.

  Hands and arms flew down upon the man in the stretcher. Pounding, beating, and tearing at him. Curses rang out from various voices, and eyes bulged as grimaces of anger shown on their faces. Part of the stretcher tore loose.

  BLAM

  Eris fired her RSW Model 10 into the ceiling. The sound momentarily stopping the mob’s attack.

  “Listen to me! We are not animals! We will not stoop…” Eris tried to interject, but petite Linda rammed an elbow into Eris’ stomach. She doubled over in pain as all her air rushed from her lungs. Rodolfo swatted her arm with his fist, knocking the RSW Model 10 down and away. It clattered on the floor. Eris dropped to her knees.

  “The patrolmen all deserve death!” Doreen cried out. “This one right here and right now!”

  With a frenzy they tore the man, Mustafa, out of the stretcher. Despite the horrific pain he was feeling, he became momentarily conscious. His eyes met Eris’s eyes, but then some fingers dug into his face. Mustafa’s mouth opened to scream, but it was muffled by more blows to his face and head.

  “Stop it!” Eris tried to call out and get up, but she was kicked away.

  Fists came crashing down. Fingers grabbed into eyeballs and tore them away. Blood splattered around as the mob let loose its collective rage, anger, and built-up frustrations.

  AI Batibat sounded warnings, “You are being recorded and security will be notified!”

  No one paid any attention to it at all.

  The white automacube, Doctor 97, was tipped onto its side when it tried to intervene. It was calling out requests for calm, then for security, and then was silent.

  After only a few moments, the patrolman named Mustafa was dismembered and his steaming body spread across the floor in front of the ruined doors. Eris grabbed the RSW Model 10, and tucked it under her body as she crawled away from the carnage.

  “The patrolmen had rifles!” Linda cried out. Those weapons must be in the hall. We can kill them all. Follow me!” She raced into the hall. The AWAD was on her back, blood dripping from her fingers and teeth.

  “To Aston!” One of the others cried and followed along, dropping part of the dead patrolman’s arm.

  Before Eris could know fully what had happened, it was over. Linda, Luljeta Gilbert, Doreen, and Rodolfo raced away in a hysterical, horrific, homicidal rage.

  Only Inteus remained. He was still sedated, sealed inside the inflated trauma stretcher.

  Eris laid on the floor of that repository and wept. It was yet another repository where death had visited instead of reanimation and life. She cried. She prayed. She mourned.

  Despite Sandie’s words in the ear of her com-link, finally the load of weariness, infuriation, and exasperation overcame her. She fell into a nightmare-filled sleep.

  ***

  Several hours later, the pounding of footsteps echoed into the burned corridor outside of Suspended Animation Repository 17A. Eris stirred to wakefulness. Blinking her eyes, she recognized she was on a suspended animation cocoon table which had been extended out from one of the cuboids. She slipped off of it, and looked around. Her gear was neatly stacked, clean, and waiting on a small stand next to her. Grabbing the RSW Model 10, she pointed it toward the caved-in doorway.

  Three medical automacubes were parked there. They had their manipulation arms locked together into a flimsy, and makeshift barrier.

  “Captain Eris?” AI Batibat asked. “There are three individuals quickly approaching in the hallway. They claim to be associate of yours. I have no way to confirm what they are saying, as I still do not possess perception abilities
beyond the repository. However, their claims are consistent with the AI Sandie’s account. I can only offer token defenses if this is a ruse or subterfuge. I still have been unable to contact security to come and police this area.”

  Eris looked around a bit as she slipped from the table. She saw Inteus sleeping on another of the tables. His color was better, and his injuries were bandages and sealed over.

  A single AWAD was stacked against the wall next to the stand with her gear. She rejected that in her mind, knowing it would damage the medical automacubes, and not do anything against humans. After all, the footsteps she heard were of human origin.

  “Eris?” Monika called out. “We are out here!”

  Relief flooded though Eris’ heart and mind and she raced to the entry. “Let me past.”