Quest for the Conestoga (Colony Ship Conestoga Book 1) (24 page)

“I have heard the stories.  My brother saw, well actually his friend was who saw it, but he told my brother, about a cubie, a green one, and it was moving some of the tall mushrooms which are so good to eat.  He brought back a whole bag of those mushrooms, cubie green, a good machine!”

Jerome pulled a small tool out of his pack and opened the back of the cubie.  Flipping a piece open he shined a light inside.  “There is a small display panel on its superior surface.  Looks like some kind of antique style of battery or power pack used as an energy source.”  He carefully examined the interior.  “Khin might be right about this machine.  It looks like there is a set of containers which hold what is labeled as ‘Incendiary Ordinance’ and another container is marked, ‘12mm Slugs’ so this machine does have some kind of combat abilities.  I suggest we not connect a fusion pack to it.  It might be part of a guardian system for the bridge.  I am not sure from this vintage machinery, but it may have an elementary cognizance.”

“So not a real AI, but some basic awareness and sentience?”  Cammarry asked. 

“Exactly!”  Sandie interrupted.  “Jerome, I magnified the images you viewed of the interior of that machine.  Two of the component parts have tiny markings identifying it.  It is officially designated as an ‘Automacube: Security Model’ and there are matching serial numbers on many of the parts.  The serial numbers reference a ‘Fabrication and Reproduction’ facility.  I conjecture that this cubie, as Khin calls it, was manufactured as a single unit somewhere on the Conestoga.”

“A security force?”  Jerome asked.  “Obviously did not succeed in its mission.”

“So we avoid activating this cubie, and see what else is here.  We need to find a way to get those secondary systems functional and get the Conestoga, or as you said, the needle ship, into a stable orbit.”  Cammarry walked around the cubie and looked at the bridge in the light from the fusion pack.  “There is no plant growth in here.  Sandie, is there a way to get more lights on?  There is not even the dim light we see in other places.”

“The nonphysicality around that door was in worse condition than at previous locations.  If you can connect into a different access port, I can again probe and look for some answers,” Sandie replied.  “The fragmented nature of the nonphysicality makes exploration tedious, but I see no other way.”

“Light?  I know that.”  Khin rushed past, and was in the shadows.  “I will help the wizards!”

There was a clicking noise, and then ceiling lights flickered on.  Khin was standing next to a horizontal counter which was arch shaped and wrapped around the room at roughly waist height.  The ceiling lights shined down adequately enough to reveal that he had pulled down on several levers at the end of a control board.  There were a multitude of other buttons, dials, switches, and gauges along the wall in front of the counter.  “These are levers which bring light to dark places.”  Khin smiled and laughed a bit.  “Is knowing that, reading?”

“It is very helpful,” Jerome replied. 

“How did you know that lever was there?”  Cammarry asked.

“I did not know.  I saw it.”  Khin laughed.  “You are testing me again, right?”

“It was so dark, I did not even see that bank of controls and gauges,” Cammarry responded.  “You could actually see it?”

“Yes, it was vague but I could see it.  You honestly could not?”  Khin asked. “I look, I listen, I learn.”

“I did not see it,” Jerome added. 

“Neither did I,” Cammarry confirmed.  “You have excellent vision in the dark.”

Cammarry looked around more at the ruins of the bridge.  Some of the controls had been removed from the wall leaving jagged gaping holes.  Doors were hanging open, some with busted hinges, and some doors were lying on the floor or leaning against the wall.  Wires, pipes, conduits, and insulation hung out with broken and torn ends.  Faces of gauges were smashed, or shattered or melted.  There were sections on the countertop where charring was seen.  There was also graffiti marring the controls.  The paint did not spell out words, but made circles, and an arrow downward.  Few of the controls looked to have escaped the sabotage. 

Off to the side, about ten meters away, was a clear permalloy wall which ran parallel to the arching shape of the bridge.  Shining the fusion pack light through the clear permalloy showed that the space behind that was empty.  She turned back and scanned the countertop, the walls, and the other controls looking for an access point that was not ruined.  She could not find one.

Jerome had walked past the countertop and up righted several overturned chairs.  “Horrible destruction here.  Why would the crew do this to their own ship?  It is peculiar that there is no growth medium or plant life in here.  We have seen it nearly everywhere else on the Conestoga.”  Shining the light about some more he spotted something else.  “There is a stairway down on this side of that clear wall.”

The stairway was only partially visible as there was a sliding door over the top of it which was about two-thirds of the way closed.   

On the other side of the command bridge was a pressure door which was a symmetrical counterpart to the one they had entered through. It was closed. 

“Sandie?  Do you see any usable access ports?  The only ones I see have material jammed in them or are melted over.”

“The vandals were thorough in their devastation of the bridge,” Sandie replied.  “I have seen no functional access ports since you entered here.”

Cammarry walked back to where the red cubie was located.  She then followed the wall and discovered a small doorway, only about a meter wide.  The door swung open as she pushed on it. “There is some kind of apartment here.  Several beds, a sink and toilets.  No plant growth here either.”

Jerome called back, “The air vents are all closed in here.”  He pointed at the ceiling and the floor where the vent covers were closed and intact.  “Probably why it is so musty and stale smelling in here.  We have seen water coming from what were air circulation vents in other places, but here it looks like the bridge was sealed off.”

“A security measure against the plant life?  Or against the vandals?  Well, all the plant life scattered about does seem odd for a spacecraft,” Cammarry replied as she walked back from the door to the apartment.  “I had my mind around the idea of ecosystems or biotopes in certain designated sections of this ship, like the missing cylinders, but did not expect it all over like it is.  Except for here.  No plant life here, but we find more deliberate destruction.  Perhaps worse than we have seen anywhere else, except for in that graveyard, that gallery of dead AIs.  Do you think the same people who destroyed the AIs’ memory cores are the ones who ruined the bridge?”

“Seems to be the case, but why?  Why such vicious vandalism of their own control systems?  Suicide attempt?  Mass panic?  It makes no sense to me, but who knows?”  Jerome asked.  “Shall we assess the lower level, or open that next pressure door?”

Khin was still standing by the control board.  “Opening doors is not always wise.  If doors are already open, animals can go in and out of that place.  If it is safe for animals, it may be safe for people.”

“That decides it,” Cammarry smiled at Khin.  “Thank you Khin.  Please keep helping us, you know this place, and we do not.  I appreciate your wisdom.  The stairway is open, well sort of open, so we should check down there before opening that next pressure door.  I wonder how we will ever find the location for the secondary controls?  It is obvious this bridge is kaput.”

Jerome squeezed past the stuck door and descended the stairs.  The beam of light shot through the dust his steps kicked up.  “It is dark down here.”

“I can help!”  Khin called happily and raced down the stairs and around Jerome.  Again he disappeared into the shadows.  A moment later there was a long series of clicks and lights flickered overhead.  “I show my reading skills by turning on more lights!”

Khin was standing at the end of a small corridor, a wide smile across his face.  “I now understand why wizard places are so bright.  Wizards have trouble seeing in the low light.  I never thought wizards had bad eyes, but you do.”

A work station was next to him.  This one was not ruined like the command bridge above.  The countertop was in good repair, and the assorted gauges, monitors, buttons and levers did not have any damage. 

“Khin?  Did you see what is behind you?”  Jerome asked as Cammarry descended and stood next to him. 

“The dead body.  Sure, sure.  Dead bodies are sometimes in places where animals do not go.  Mostly the rats take care of dead bodies.  This one dead a long long time.  No rats here.”  Khin was unruffled. 

The body was very dried out and mummified.  It was wearing a white shirt with blue selves, and matching blue pants.  The clothing was in good condition.  Next to the body were several items.

“A crew member,” Cammarry said.  She walked over and knelt down next to the body.  “Well manufactured clothing, tools, and this is some kind of hand weapon.”

“Just a dead wizard,” Khin stated bluntly.  “I hear no spirit-ghost here.”

Jerome turned and looked back at the stairs.  From the new angle he could see scorch marks on the inside of the sliding overhead door.  “That person was firing at the stairway.  I think in defensive action against what was happening up on the bridge.”

“There is a small device here next to the body and the weapon.  It has an access port on the side.”  Cammarry picked up the item.  It was palm sized and covered in dust.  It had a small display on one side, and several buttons along one edge.  “The weapon is obviously burned out.  The circuits I can see are fried.  Just an old-style energy weapon anyway.”

“If you plug in the com-link I might be able to help assess that,” Sandie said.  “Not the weapon, but the other item.  I conjecture it is an information storage tool.  It is similar to items found in the historical records from a hundred years ago, the time when the Conestoga was launched.”

Cammarry jacked the cable into the small device. 

“Assessment completed.  It is a portable communication and information system.  It was designed to store data in a primitive manner and much of that information is corrupted and therefore lost.  It belonged to someone named Captain Lance Lechner.  I conjecture that the body you see is that same person.  The uniform it is wearing could be that of a flight crewman, perhaps an officer, and maybe the captain’s.  The information in the old device has some remains of records on Captain Lechner interacting with numerous people.  The detailed information is corrupted, but I have reconstituted a few conversations which took place at the end of the record.  I warn you, they are incomplete and fragmentary.”

“What can you show us?”  Cammarry asked. 

Sandie replied, “I am sorry, but I cannot show you anything.  I can only reconstruct the messages and read the pericope to you.  The audio and visual data is too corrupted to display anything.  Here is what I can recover: From Officer Sara Casey
:  ‘….habbie families in open…  have revolted…. Blue circles…  and they plan to jettison the habbie for landing on….’
Captain Lance Lechner responded,
‘…..punched a message through that accursed spot which grabbed us….. planet fall will be successful… need to …..  provisions for needle ship crew….. aeroponics will…’
and that is the first interaction I was able to reconstitute.”

“The Captain knew how to get a signal back!”  Cammarry said excitedly.  “If he can do it, so can we.”

“Where there is a will, there is a way, and there is hope,” Jerome replied.  “Sandie?  What else did you find out?  You said there were other discussions.”

“Not so much discussions as fragments of interactions,” Sandie said.  “The next is between someone called an engineer, a doctor, and Captain Lance Lechner.  Here is that information:  doctor states,
‘…. need a stable food source….  zoology says animal, plant system can….might be stable for years…cytology confirmed…’ 
Captain Lance Lechner replies,
‘…the whole needle ship?  Initiate the plan… Get info to habbie brains…’
  Shortly after this, what I assume is during the same conversation, the person called engineer interjects with,
‘….all eight brains aware…. Habbie’s not destroyed….. aggregate ingredients from Beta acquired…. …docking soon, we can use the gig’s engines as propelling force…. …will it matter?  It might work, worth a try….
’”