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

by John Thornton

  Cammarry sat on the deck, situated about midway between the top of the escarpment and its bottom. The deck was only about three meters square, with a permalloy rail around it. Against the rocky wall at the back was a door which opened to the place she had called her home for the past few months. The rocks around it were overgrown with various vines, and some insect life. The escarpment was so steep, nothing ever climbed up this high. Glancing up, Cammarry could see the overhang at the top of the escarpment. It jutted out at such an angle that nothing could ever scale over that, even if it was able to climb the entire thirty-five meters or so up from the bottom. The bird had now risen a good distance, and was slowly wheeling in a wide arc.

  She looked down. In front of her was a paper bound book, Ranger Outlook Guide. The book had a good deal of information about the jungle biome which was below her, and a smaller section on the sand-hills biome which was above her. She had only glanced through it a few dozen times as she sat and pondered.

  “Well, that decides it for me,” Cammarry muttered to herself “I will scavenge today in the sand-hills. That bird showed me which way to choose. A signpost in the story of my life.”

  She assumed the soaring bird was from the sand-hills biome, but was not quite certain. As she closed the book she thought of Jerome and his love for books, especially those extremely rare, paper books. She then angrily slammed it down and looked again for the soothing sight of the bird. It was gone. It had ascended elsewhere, probably hidden by the outcropping above her. The jungle biome was set before her. Roughly eighteen meters below the deck was the rocky ground which lay in front of the escarpment. Beyond that the dense jungle stretched as far as the stern wall. That wall was out there past the misty and hazy air which always hovered over the jungle. The end of the sky tube was a distant blur. She knew it was something like forty kilometers away, but did not really care. That town of Aston, which sat at the end of the habitat against the wall, directly beneath where the sky tube and bow wall met, would not get a visit from her anytime too soon. She again glanced toward the waterfall, which was visible as the escarpment bent a bit toward the jungle there. The water fell in what looked like preputial motion.

  “So much water.” She shook her head. “Not raining anyway.”

  Rain brought back bad memories for Cammarry. Not quite as deep or guttural as did the sight of tan sand or dust, but rain reminded her of betrayal, and was a much more recent, and unhealed wound in her soul. She tapped the closed book with her hand and recalled finding it. Rain and darkness, both brought back those memories. That dark and wet, seemingly unending, night, which was like an eternity ago, when she came to the escarpment. The trek in the darkness was a blur in her mind. Flashes of memory. Mostly of nightmarish images; rare and strange lights from fires, or other unknown sources which strobed the blackness. Or of eerie sounds, jungle noises, crying people, animals’ shrieks, barks, growls, and hoots. Or of the wet, muddy, and filthy scum on her exposed skin. All those recollections were spun among her mind and the nearly utter darkness to which they were all a part.

  She looked again at the book. It still was a wonder to her how she had discovered the small door in the rocks. She suspected, but her memory was muddled, that one of the synthetic brains had opened the door as she approached. She had fallen inside and then collapsed into exhausted sleep.

  Trying to repress those memories, she turned around and walked over to the clear permalloy door and opened it manually. It swung on smooth hinges outward. Only the hardware of the door was opaque permalloy, the rest of the door and the wall it was set into were clear, transparent. She checked the edge of the door and made sure its power coupling was disconnected. Cammarry did not trust powered doors, and the door here had a manual override, set into the frame, which she had engaged before ever opening that door for the first time.

  Stepping into the single room she now lived in, brought back more memories than she could suppress. When she awoke after the night of blackness, the door to the biome was closed, and the room she was in was a place barely large enough to lay down in. The exit door and a ladder which led upward were all she could see by the dim, orange glow, from imbedded illumination in the ladder. Nonetheless, she had deactivated the power coupling on the door as soon as she found it had a manual override. Then she had ascended the ladder. Or at least, that was how she remembered that dreadful first day in her hole in the wall. Climbing the ladder had led her to the one-room apartment which was about the size of her domicile in Dome 17. There, light from the sky tube came in from the clear permalloy of the deck wall. She found a toilet, sink, bed, small kitchen with table, chairs, counters, and a cabinet marked ESRC.

  Cammarry closed and locked the door to the deck. The only thing that had ever been on the deck, that she knew of, was the large black and white bird of prey which had perched itself on the deck’s rail. It had been there several mornings when she awoke, and had glared at Cammarry with its intense eyes, but had flown off as soon as she rose from the bed.

  She looked over at the ESRC’s door which she had propped open, and the items on its shelves. This sight flooded her with thoughts and memories as well. It had taken her a number of days, she could not recall how many, before she felt desperate enough to even open that ESRC. By that time, she was so hungry, and depressed, that she did not care much if she was attacked again, yet she was truly terrified of Shadow implanting itself in her another time. When she could stand it no longer, and after trying all her tools, renewing the truth that only her com-link and medical kit still worked, she opened that fear-inspiring door. Nothing had attacked her. Inside the cabinet was the Ranger Outlook Guidebook, a good stock of food in suspended animation, as well as some antique tools which functioned. Now, that cabinet held the dysfunctional items from Dome 17. The dead fusion pack, the inert Willie Blaster, and two data sticks which she had not even known were in pouches in her RAM clothing. Her com-link was functional, as noted by the small blue light on its frame, yet she did not want to have it with her. There was no person or machine that could converse with her through that com-link, that she wanted to speak with. So it sat on the shelf in the open ESRC.

  Turning around, Cammarry picked up the tools which did work. The medical kit from Dome 17, and the Conestoga technology from the ESRC. Those antique tools consisted of an old-style vibration saw, a multipurpose tool, and the old ship’s first-aid kit.

  “Well, it is not much, but it is something,” Cammarry said to herself. “Now to ascend to the sand-hills.”

  Snugging up the attachments on her RAM clothing, Cammarry pulled the waist strap as tightly around her as she could. The clothing was now baggy over her very thin frame. Excessive, long-term hunger had not been a problem for Cammarry. After the hunger did drive her to open the ESRC, she lost much of her appetite. The food was too spicy, bitter, salty, seasoned, or too flavorful for her palate. It just did not taste good. By eating only a meal every few days, trying to prolong the food stores from the ESRC, she had lost weight. For she knew the suspended animation food would not last forever. In fact, she had only two meals left.

  “Well, I tried foraging in the jungle, but that failed,” Cammarry said as she adjusted her pants yet again and cinched them up tighter around her skinny legs. “The jungle was better than a mission to a dead dome on Earth, but I wish that book had a guide for eatable foods, but no, that story is somewhere else.”

  The trap door which opened in the floor with the descending ladder was latched. It too had been depowered and took a spin of the small wheel on it to open manually. In the other corner of the small room was the ladder which led upward. She climbed the first few rungs, and spun the wheel on the trap door in the ceiling. It slowly lifted upward on its manual springs.

  Cammarry began her ascent. After clearing the trapdoor, she turned back and pushed it down with her foot. It sealed, and with a tap of her toes the wheel spun. The shaft where the ladder was located was smooth on the sides, and an orange glow lit the entire height. Looking up, she w
ondered if there was an elevator which opened somewhere in the Ranger Outlook, but she refused to reconnect the power to see. So she climbed rung by rung. She climbed at a steady, even pace. There was no rush, and no one waiting for her.

  Cammarry completed her ascent. The top of the ladder ended at another trap door. From the bottom, it was a regular looking permalloy mechanism. Cammarry spun the manual wheel and it lifted open. She climbed out. From the top it was a camouflaged door. This one looked like a tilted rock and blended well into the scenery. When that door was shut it looked like a random rock of the field. Just as the outside of the bottom door looked like a part of the escarpment wall. Cammarry had checked the top door when she first explored the place and was disconnecting the power from the doors. All five doors, the two camouflaged doors, the two trap doors, and the clear permalloy door to the deck, she de-powered and set on manual. Cammarry knew that meant anyone who was aware of the doors’ locations, could open them, but no one had tried in all the weeks she had stayed there.

  As she exited the door she muttered to herself, “Well, if someone gets in here they are welcome to that broken stuff. Sandie ruined it for me anyway.”

  Shutting the door, Cammarry looked at it and memorized where it was located. The waterfall was not as visible from up on the top, but she could still hear it. She could also see the chasm where the river plunged down over the edge against the sidewall of the habitat. That sidewall clearly rose up beyond that. Checking all the views and things around, she memorized the location. She would not forget how to enter her adopted abode.

  “Now, I am off to find resources.”

  As she looked out, the view here was vastly different than from the deck. She saw the grass covered, rolling, small hills with some exposed areas of sand on their sides. Covering some of the vales between the small hills were trees, but everywhere else was a vast sea of golden or green grassy vegetation. The grasses ended about a dozen or so meters away from the edge of the ridge escarpment. From that point to the edge were rocks and pebbles leading right to a meter-high rim of rock which was atop the abutment which jutted out. There were numerous clumps of trees, but they were a deep green with some even having a faint bluish tint. Instead of the wide and big leaves of the jungle trees, these trees usually had tight, straight, often pointy spikes on their stems. Those spikes were a rusty brown color on the ground about the trees.

  Cammarry walked toward the river, as she thought following that upstream might be her best choice. That way, she figured, she could just follow the river back to where her hiding hole was located. She still was somewhat intimidated by the vast biological habitat, especially now that she was alone, unarmed, and without connection. For the briefest moment, she thought about returning and getting the com-link, but her emotions quickly overruled her adventurer training.

  “They failed to help me before,” Cammarry stated and then spit onto the ground. She smiled as she thought of that spit, and how she could never do that when she had been on missions outside of Dome 17. She squatted down and looked at the grasses where her sputum had landed. Watching that drop meander down the grass stem was soothing.

  “So the story of my life now is being alone.” She stood and continued onward. Reaching the river she gazed at it. The river was set against the sidewall of the habitat, and she understood better why this section was called sand-hills. Even more so than in the small rolling hills, the bank of the river showed the sandy soil which was not far beneath the grassy surface. The bank was steep, and most of it was sandy loam and pebbles. She inhaled deeply and was refreshed by the smells of the river and the mist which thickened the air. Cammarry saw some movement in the water, besides the gentle waves as the river pushed toward the waterfall. She realized that there were some dark shadows under the water. They were waving their tails and keeping in about the same position, by swimming against the current. They looked peaceful and tranquil in their watery residence.

  “John would have liked it here. He could have hunted for those fish, and caught them. He always said fish historically were a big food source. How would I do that?” She considering the mess that might happen if she waded into the river. Then she looked over toward the waterfall, and gazed back at the flow of water. She shook her head. “Too strong a force of water to walk within.”

  As Cammarry followed the river upstream, she kept looking for some signs of human habitation. In all the days she had looked out over the jungle from the Ranger Outlook, she had never seen another human being. Lots of animals, birds, and insects were observed, but no people.

  Walking along, she came to a hill off to the side of the river. It was wider and somewhat taller than the others in the area. At the same time as she spied that hill, noises and other sounds reached her ears.

  “Keea ceiis, giigg, yuiiikeit,” and a strange mix of other clucking, yelping, clacking, and cackling was heard. These were not the same calls the chickens on the needle ship made, nor did it sound like anything Cammarry knew.

  Some animals were moving about under and around the trees on that hill.

  “Chickens?” Cammarry stated and knelt down. With one hand she made a shield above her eyes to see better.

  The animals she watched did resemble, roughly and in a general way, the chickens from the needle ship. Cammarry squinted her eyes to get a better look. She had never seen the needle ship’s chickens in bright light. Outside of the needle ship’s ever-present dim light, she was not sure what those chickens would look like. So she compared what she was seeing in the bright sky tube light to the chicken she had only observed in the dimness. These birds were different. They were mostly the same size, but these birds, on the hill, moved differently. They were less aggressive and slower. There were also physical differences which could not be accounted for only by the lighting difference. These habitat birds had long reddish-yellow legs under their seemingly oversized bodies. One of the closer birds had grayish-green legs. Even in the bright light their feathers were dark, nearly blackish, with a somewhat coppery sheen. Some had red parts about their heads, necks and throats. Cammarry wondered if they were carnivores and had been devouring some prey animal. That might explain the sluggish behavior if they were satiated with food. Yet, the red did not look very much like blood, it was too bright. It looked to be part of their plumage. And Cammarry saw no carcass of some dead prey.

  “Chickens are food on the needle ship,” Cammarry said softly. Without the Willie Blaster, she wondered how she might ever drop one of the large birds. She imagined herself running after one, and chuckled. “Khin would love to see me chase a chicken. In the end, it would probably eat me.” She wiped a tear from her eye.

  The creatures were slowly migrating around, and growing closer to the river, so Cammarry skirted away from them and out more toward the middle of the biome. She looked up and used the sky tube as a reference point and headed roughly in that direction. She knew walking facing the sky tube would bring her toward the center, while walking with her back to the sky tube would take her toward the outer edges of the biome. Walking parallel with the sky tube would carry her along the long axis of the habitat. She did not want to veer too far from the river but did want to avoid those odd ground birds. “I wonder if they can even fly?” She nearly called them chickens, but knew they were some different species. Again she wished she could speak to John about all she was seeing. She did not want to admit it to herself, but her heart yearned for human contact. The idea of speaking to Sandie, the artificial intelligence crossed her mind, but she rejected it quickly.

  When the hill with the birds was a sufficient distance away, she headed back toward the river. That was when a thundering herd of beasts emerged from a gully near where she was approaching. About a dozen animals rushed away. Their movement was swift, as they ran before her. Tawny brownish color, about a meter tall, with four swift legs, they blended into the shrubs and grasses fairly well. They ran with their heads down, but moved quickly. She only got a good look at one, in just an instant, as it pa
ssed her. She was impressed by the odd shape of its bumped and slumped nose which hung over its mouth. Its dark eyes met her own, and then the beast was gone. Some of them had twin horns with dark stripes, but most were hornless. Some grunts, groans, and odd vocalizations came from the herd as it rushed off. They were sounds Cammarry had never heard before.

  “Not goats,” Cammarry muttered as she jumped back. There was no need to move, but her instincts had taken over. “Bigger than goats, but what are you?”

  Again, she pondered if these animals were a food source, yet could not imagine trying to catch one of these odd non-goat things. Khin had ways with goats, but these were not goats, just as the blackish birds were not chickens.

  “Oh John, the wonders I see, and I wonder what you are seeing? Are you alone too? Did you find a safe place, some garden, or biome? I sure hope you did.”

  Cammarry walked on, and glanced at the footprints of the animals and these too were different from the many goat footprints she had seen in the dim light of the needle ship. Her mind kept making comparisons with what she was seeing now, to what she had known on the needle ship. Yet, behind that was the biology classes John had taught in Dome 17. Back then, wild animals were all extinct, mythological, or pure fairytales.

  “I am not a hunter, especially without weapons. I suppose I must find some human settlement and hope they have stored foods,” Cammarry remarked. She spit again, thinking of the spicy tastes of the suspended animation foods.