The Colony Ship Eschaton: The entire ten book series, page 107
Before all the pieces of the destroyed red automacube were lying still on the ground the second one attacked from out of the hallway. The electrical stun elements shot forth, but since Levi was wearing his permalloy armor, the shock effect was minimal. It was not as well deflected as had been the strikes on Tobia’s brown non-organic armor, but Levi was able to shrug off the effects. The machine’s clamp did seize down on Gideon’s arm and flung him down hard. He lost hold of the sword which clattered into the weeds some distance away. Pulling with all his might, he could not escape the grip from the automacube’s appendage, nor could he regain his footing as the machine swiftly pivoted around on its six-wheeled chassis. Tobias looked for an opening to attack with his sword, but hesitated for fear of striking the struggling Gideon.
While watching the struggle, Lorna and Regina were struck from behind by a third red automacube. This one just ran them down, and in the process roughly knocked them to the side. It was going for Levi who was also trying to get Gideon free. The force of the attack by the third automacube knocked Levi onto the other machine as it pivoted around. He was unable to bring his sword down on it as he fell onto its top. He dropped his sword and tried to wrench off the appendage at its base. The appendage shifted and pulled, but would not release Gideon, and Levi would not release the appendage.
Jamie and Michael were trying to align a shot with the Willie Wackers, but they were concerned not only with hitting someone, but also with the injuries or death that could happen from the shredded metal blown apart with the strength of the Willie Wacker’s fire.
“I cannot line up a shot!” Jamie yelled.
Tamar exited the Center, and with just a touch, the jammed door slid all the way open.
“You will not hurt my machines!” she screamed. “Machines, kill them all, spare no one. Burn this entire place to the ground!”
The third automacube spun about away from where Gideon and Levi were wrestling with the other automacube and started spray out a combustible gel. Everything the gel touched ignited in bright orange tongues of burning flame. The people ran quickly away as the flames caught on the grasses, the old wooden pieces, and whatever else was in the way.
“Now I have you,” Jamie said as she fired the Willie Wacker into the automacube which was ejecting the burning gel. The shot was exactly in the center of the front of the automacube and it exploded as the incendiary gel which was ready to eject, internally ignited instead. Shards of molten metal peppered the legionnaires who were wresting with the other automacube, and they were knocked down. Tobias fell the hardest and did not rise.
“Down,” Michael yelled as he fired at the automacube which was still holding Gideon. His shot ripped off the back wheels and greatly reduced its ability to move. However, it still held onto Gideon.
Levi staggered back to his feet and flung himself on the crippled automacube, again yanking at the appendage with his hands. Skirting the flames which were still burning, Regina and Lorna rushed to help Levi. They each had the small permalloy daggers and began hacking at the appendage. They cut out chunks and sections as Levi pulled at the appendage, while Gideon kicked at the front of the automacube. Between them all, they finally broke the clamp controls and the appendage released Gideon. The appendage spun around with force and struck Lorna in the side. There was a sickening crunch, and she fell to the ground, moaning and grabbing her ribs. With its four working wheels the crippled red automacube retreated toward the Center.
“No!” Tamar screamed again. “You cannot kill my machines!”
“But maybe I can kill you,” Brink said as he slipped up from behind where he had been hiding in the Center. In his hand was the last of Shammai’s neutrino disrupting bombs. He pushed down on the switch and stuck the bomb into Tamar’s back.
The small explosion knocked Tamar down and blew Brink back into the hallway of the Center.
Moments later, the remaining automacube reached Tamar where she lay on the ground. It then released a cloud of white gas which quickly blocked everyone’s view. Regina tried to run after the machine and entered the fog of gas. She began choking violently and coughing. She dropped to her knees and crawled out of the noxious cloud.
Brink recovered and ran down the hall and into the portal room. The door to the transport opened in front of him.
“I will help you with the data sticks,” Theta Four’s voice said. “Trust me, I am the only way.” Brink hesitated only a moment. When the display showed images of the data sticks, he ran into the vehicle. The door closed and the vehicle departed. Only then did The Voice say, “Yes, we will play some games with those data sticks.”
The crippled red automacube, with Tamar staggering along beside it, resting most of her weight on it, and being cuddled with its only partially working appendage reached the other transport vehicle. Tamar’s mechanical eye was inoperative, and her motorized arm was hanging still. The NDB had done significant damage to her bio-mechanical interfaces.
“We depart now my friend. But I will leave these people a gift as we go,” Tamar stroked the panel next to the transport portal’s door.
In the nonphysicality, the remains of Theta One and Theta Two congealed into one and rose from the dead for a final acts of obedient service.
“Yes commander. We hear and obey.”
Gathering whatever energy outputs they could summon, the ghosts of Theta One and Theta Two surged along and then out of the nonphysicality and into the physical realm. The entire Center of Media exploded in a huge blast.
From outside the Center, the blast was a giant roar. Then a huge flash of light jetting from the few doors which were open. For a moment it was brighter than the sky tube ever got. The shock wave of air flew out of those doors snuffing out the fires, and knocked down people, and tossed ruined machines to the sides. Then the hardest substance humanity had ever created, the permalloy, those walls and ceilings, which had made up the Center, shook, then cracked, and finally toppled over and collapsed down in large irregular chunks.
All that remained was a pile of hard metal.
No one who witnessed it had ever seen anything like it before, and would never forget what they saw.
27 remains
After the dust settled, people started to assess each other for injuries. Mizzah was a whirlwind of activity. He called for people from Media to come out and help. Some actually did. The first being his son Doeg.
“I will check the men, father,” Doeg said.
“Wait! You will check on each person, not just the men. These females were every bit as important in my rescue as any man,” Mizzah said in utter seriousness. “In fact, I would still be lost if not for that red haired woman, Jamie. She is a true hero.”
Doeg nodded, and ran to help. Others from Media, including two predicators who had been hidden by their mothers, came and joined in the efforts to help.
Tobias had suffered a broken nose, and was bruised, but not severely injured. Lorna probably had broken ribs, but could walk. Levi had some additional injuries from the molten metal, but his permalloy armor had mostly protected him. Gideon’s arm was broken from where the automacube had dragged him around. He joked that it was the same arm where he had lost the fingers so it did not really make much difference. His humor helped to alleviate the pain.
Brink was missing. Regina thought she had seen him standing near Tamar when an explosion happened, but with the gas, smoke, and fires, she was not sure what she had seen. They feared he was dead.
Just hours after the explosion, Conner was helping Mizzah organize the efforts to help Media, when Jamie walked up to him.
“Conner, you have a baby due soon. You need to go be with Miranda.”
“But there is much to do here.”
“Let me show you something,” Jamie took him by the arm and they walked over to the ruins which had been the Media Center. “Look at that,” Jamie said and pointed.
A ragged chunk of permalloy, which had been over the doorway, now lay in the heap. It had an inscription cast into it, the words were ‘Faith Hope Love’ in the same kind of script that the words ‘Faith Obedience Honor’ were in place above the entry to the Center in Antioch.
“Do you love Miranda?” Jamie asked.
“Of course,” Conner replied.
“Then go to her now. It is your duty as her husband, and as Rector. And as a father.”
Conner agreed. They discussed the best way to reach the new nursery, and decided that they would walk there since they were at this end of the habitat already. Tobias, Levi, and Gideon would accompany Rector Conner as they made their way to Medical Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy 12.
“Levi, here take one of our cutting torches in case the doors out of the edge of the world are shut. I was at that door once, and regretted not having the right tool,” Michael laughed as he handed the v-saw to Levi.
“Thank you. Are you sure you will be safe from bandits as you come along after us?” Levi laughed as well.
“Yes,” Michael said and punched his hand into his fist. “After what we have been through, bandits will not be a problem. But seriously, Conner needs to reach there as quickly as possible. Can Gideon travel adequately?”
“Gideon could still out walk me, even if both his arms were broken. And that medical machine there may be able to mend his arm and fingers,” Levi dropped his voice a bit. “I still have the fingers here in my pouch. I have not told Gideon.”
“Regina, Jamie and I will help Lorna to get there. She cannot walk as fast, and we will take it slow and easy for her. But please help Conner get there in time.”
They bid farewell to Mizzah who seemed to have a gift for organization, and the two predicators were happy to follow his directives. They agreed that traders would be more than welcome to come back to Media. The women of Media were also exerting more influence than ever before, and they greatly outnumbered the men. The town itself would never be the same. The meeting house, and pillories were gone. The haunted place at the edge of the world was now a ruins, and the people were severely traumatized.
Just as Jamie, Michael, Regina, and Lorna were leaving a young woman ran up to them. She thrust a wadded blanket into Regina’s hands.
“What is this?” Regina said.
“The predicators killed the one who came before,” the woman said and quickly ran away.
Regina unfolded the blanket and inside it was a set of clothing from Dome 17, a set of shoes, two data sticks, and a data stick reader. “I wonder whose these were?” Regina asked as they all looked at the items which had been returned.
Epilogue
“Hello, who is there?” said the weak and frail voice of Ava. “Is that you Lindsey? I am expecting you. You did not bring that horrid beast dog thing with you? That animal smells terrible, and it is not a normal thing.”
“No, Ava, it is not Lindsey,” Rector Conner replied. “It is me, Rector Conner. I have brought Miranda and a special guest to meet you.”
“Rector Conner? I thought I was done with your foolishness. But come in, and do not leave the door open. The insects get in and bother me. You know I am blind and the last thing a blind person needs is some annoying fly landing on her face all day long.”
Conner and Miranda stepped inside, and pulled the door shut.
What little light came through the draperies was all that lit the cabin. Ava was small and very thin. Her hair was silvery grey and cut short, and thinning in many places. The skin over her face was drawn tight into what looked to be a permanent frown. Her eyes were wide, but had the dull white of the blindness she suffered from. Her cosmetics had been applied that morning. Conner had warned Miranda about mentioning that.
“Ava, I am Miranda. Conner was here before, and he told me about you. He said you instructed him to take care of our baby. Well she was born a few days back. Conner got there just in time. We wanted you to meet our daughter.”
“A new RC? A baby?” Ava looked shocked. “I know nothing about babies, I never had an RC myself, but like I told your fool husband….I mean like I told Rector Conner, RCs are essential to the survival of the ship.”
“Yes, Conner told me about how important that was. So we wanted you to meet her. Her name is Ava, would you like to hold her?” Miranda said.
“Ava? You named an RC…. Of course I would like to hold her,” Ava’s old face broke into a genuine smile. Miranda gently set the young Ava in the lap of the old Ava, who ever so tenderly cuddled her and held her. Ava traced the baby’s face with her fingers. “I can tell she is beautiful.”
“Just like her namesake,” Conner said.
“Well now, pull up some chairs, and let me tell you some stories. But you be sure to put those chairs back exactly where they were. I am blind you know. So what does little Ava need to know? Oh yes. The needle ship….”
Meanwhile Jamie and Michael were sitting on the chairs outside of their cabin in Antioch. They were discussing the latest events.
“Rector Lydia did a very nice job at that, what did she call it? Oh yes, a memorial service, for Brink. Perhaps we should walk over and thank her? She lost a good friend like we did.” Jamie said.
“Not right now,” Michael answered.
“Willie was very excited to take a trade party back to Media. He says there will be lots of changes there. Should we go with them?” Jamie asked.
“Not right now.”
“Regina has located an automacube, a green one, down in the underground garage. She is working to install Roxanne’s ALP onto that. I certainly hope Roxanne is not too badly damaged. Regina says initial tests are positive but it depends on how well Roxanne can integrate into that automacube. Shall we go help her?”
“Not right now.”
“Lindsey, Joel, and Jacob are about running the legs off of Liduma. Should we go save that dog hound?”
“Not right now.”
“Theta Four is not back to full functioning. Runs between Media, here, and engineering seem to be working smoothly, so far. We could go over and help with those tests and refinements?”
“Not right now.”
“John and Abigail are still working on interpreting and understanding that book, Moistatus you found. Should we go help them?”
“Not right now.”
“We could go back to where Liduma found that book and dig around for other things which might be recovered. Take Joel and Jacob along?”
“Not right now.”
“Gideon says that his fingers which Kurat were able to regrow are actually better than the ones he lost. Levi never did tell him about carrying back those fingers, did he? Maybe we should go see how they are doing?”
“Not right now.”
“With the two data sticks from Media, and after asking around we now have discovered seven others, and three more readers. It is not many, but it helps. And we still need to figure out how to fix those, or to track down the ones that were lost.”
“Not right now.”
“So here we sit. On the Colony Ship Eschaton, and we know only a fraction about it. So what do you want to discover next?”
“I think right now, I will just go inside and take a nap.”
“I think right now I will join you.”
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Thornton lives with his wonderful wife, two dogs with strange personalities, and two ancient cats. When his grown daughters and their husbands come to visit the days are awesome.
Building the Colony Ship
Book 7 Colony Ship Eschaton Series
John Thornton
Copyright © 2013 John Thornton
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1492157155
ISBN-13: 978-1492157151
DEDICATION
For my daughters, sons-in-law, and my wife.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Edited by Mike Elsberry
Art on cover by Dedefox
Art on back by Pawel Margacz
