The Colony Ship Eschaton: The entire ten book series, page 125
The sleeping woman was dressed in very mismatched and worn clothing. It was difficult to determine her relative age, as she was covered in grime and dirt. Her hair was long and frazzled. Beyond the strange trio of pots and tubes, in the far corner of the room, was a staircase leading upward.
Michael tried to open the door, but it was tied in place by some kind of twine. He holstered the Willie Wacker and pulled out a knife and cut the twine. The door had been secured from the inside of the room in several places. He then slowly opened the door as softly and gently as possible. Liduma slipped into the room and padded silently around the apparatus and past the sleeping person. The dog stopped at the staircase, and then raised a front leg and pointed by bending the leg and pushing her head down.
Michael and Jamie followed Liduma’s example and walked quietly past the sleeping woman. Upon a closer inspection, the woman looked older than first impressions would have indicated, but also as they got closer the body odor became pungent. Mixed in with that human smell was another somewhat fruity smell which seemed to hang in the air of the room.
They woman snorted once as they passed, but just turned over in her sleep and curled up in the fetal position on the floor. Michael looked back and realized that the door he had opened was no longer secured. Feeling guilty, he quietly stepped back and retied the twine he had cut. He tried to leave the same amount of space open as he had found. From the inside he could see why the door could not latch. At some time in the distant past the steel had been melted around what had been a wheel shaped handle. The melted steel had misshapen the door so it would not shut tightly. He tied the twine securely. Then he again walked past the sleeping woman.
Liduma silently pranced up the stairs. Jamie and Michael followed. Here they found another coil glowing from the wall and that gave off both warmth and light. They were in a fairly large room with a door on each end, and a side room which contained a large pile of some kind of grain. In the dim light it was hard to tell, but Michael grabbed a handful of the grain and stuck it in his pocket.
The first door they tried had been welded shut, and they did not really want to take the time, or make the noise of cutting that weld. The door on the other end of the room offered some information as they got near to it. In faded letters of blue were the words, ‘Sub Level Two’ which were just legible in the dim light from the wall coils.
That door opened without incident to another large room. Here were piles of straw scattered around in the corners. They proceeded through that room as quickly as possible. They departed through the doorway at the far end which had once had a door, but now only broken metal hinges where the door had once stood.
Beyond that broken door frame was a cross passage. In that passage were two people walking right toward them. Their eyes met. The people were hairy and dirtier, if possible, than the sleeping woman had been. Their clothing was also very worn and ill fitting.
“We are just passing through,” Michael said as the strangers stared.
Jamie had her Willie Wacker pointed at the ceiling, but did not aim it at the strangers. The strangers looked at one another, then back at Jamie and Michael, then at Liduma.
“You eat?” The taller one, who had the huge busy beard said and pointed to the dog.
“Yes, this is ours,” Jamie replied.
“Pig better,” the bearded person stated. The other one nodded in agreement.
Michael and Jamie were unsure what to do. The strangers were blocking their way, but did not seem to be threatening. Liduma did not seem to see them as a threat either, but she was staying close to Michael.
“You drink?” The bearded man said.
Michael pulled out his water container and tossed it to the man. The man caught it in a smooth motion. He looked at it, then twisted open the top and took a deep drink. Then he drank more. The container was emptied.
“Just water,” the bearded man said. “Clean water.”
“Yes, clean water,” Michael replied. “Can you let us pass?”
“Me keep?” The bearded man said as he held the water container.
“Yes. We want to get to the surface. May we pass by?”
“Go to habbie?”
“Yes.”
“Up, up, up.” The bearded man said and stepped to the side. His companion stepped to the side as well. They both then laughed very loudly. Their laughing revealed that they had teeth which were ground down to short nubs.
Liduma walked past first, then Michael, and lastly Jamie. As Jamie passed she kept the Willie Wacker ready but pointed upward. She grabbed her own water container and gave it to the person without the beard. She could not really tell if it was a man or a woman. The person grabbed the water container and drank it down as well.
“Clear water.” It was a woman.
“Yes, water for you. Keep the container.” Jamie backed away following Michael and Liduma.
Both the strangers held up the water containers and said together, “No come back. Up, up, up.” They then turned away and walked on.
Liduma led them to a longer hallway. This one was dark, and so they lit their fusion pack light again. This hall curved around in a large arc, but there were no doors or cross passages. They then came across another line of metal stakes upon which bodies were impaled. These bodies were of more recent deaths, and one was a very young looking person with hair that had clearly been cut neatly at one time. The corpses were wearing a variety of clothing, none of it from Dome 17, but it could have been the handmade clothing from Antioch or Media. Liduma led them past the picket of the dead and to an empty double door frame. Behind it was a short corridor with a set of doors at that end.
Those doors were tight, but with a shove from Michael and Jamie together they opened up. Liduma slipped through and then barked twice. They stepped out and the light from the fusion pack showed they were on the landing of a spiral staircase. It seemed very familiar. The doors they came through snapped shut with a resounding clang. They would not open from this side, no controls, handles, or other way to gain entry, short of cutting a way inside. The stairs went both up and down from the landing. It was dark in both directions.
“You must be kidding me,” Jamie said. “We are really here?” She started digging in her backpack.
Michael laughed. “I think so. Unless there is one identical to it, yes, I think this is it.”
“Either way, I am marking this spot.” Jamie pulled out the molecular torch and put in on the lowest setting. She then proceeded to carve the word ‘Shades’ in the permalloy next to the doors. “If we ever need to come back to that tribe, I cannot imagine why we would, but we will know where they are. I wish I had marked out many different places we have visited.”
“Great idea. Your brains are one the many reasons I love you!” Michael waited until she had finished her carving before he gave her a big hug.
They climbed the stairs, and after several revolutions the orange lights they were expecting lit up and the stairs ahead of them were cast in a similar glow.
“Yes just like before,” Jamie declared. She climbed faster now that the stairs were better illuminated. After a few more revolutions of the circular stairway, Michael noticed that the orange lights behind them were winking out after they had passed.
“They are turning off below us, just like before.” Michael stated. “If we are right, we will not have to cut open the door at the top.”
“If we are right, we are nearly out of these tunnels and halls!” Jamie was ecstatic.
Liduma raced ahead as if she was able to sense what was coming up the stairs. She barked twice from above.
At the top of the stairs, Liduma was on point, right toward the door which Michael and Jamie had cut open on a different adventure. The light shone through where the bottom half of the door had been cut away. It was the light from Habitat One: Coastal Plains. They were in the first staircase they had ever encountered on the Colony Ship Eschaton.
23 A canvass bag
Liduma was first through the opening and she walked happily out to the field of green grasses and dandelions. She lay down, and then rolled onto her back. Upside down, with her legs bent she wiggled around on her back. The warm light from the sky tube was shining down on them.
Jamie emerged and blinked her eyes. The greens of the world still amazed her. She stopped, “Michael, I just thought of this habitat as my world!”
“Well, this is our world, right?” Michael said as he stood up after crawling out of the opening. “This is our home for the rest of our lives.” He looked around and saw a bird fly by. It had a reddish breast and he knew it was called a robin. He smiled as he watched it fly over.
“At least it is not rain day,” Michael said. “Although the way I look, I could use some bathing.”
“Rain day was two days ago,” said a young woman’s voice.
“Lindsey!” Jamie and Michael said at the same moment.
Lindsey stood up from where she had been seated a distance away. Her woven clothing was neat and clean, her long brown hair tied back in a braid which hung down her back. She had a large canvass bag with her. “I have been waiting here for you.”
“Lindsey, how did you know we were coming out here?” Jamie asked as she approached Lindsey to give her a hug.
“Wait just a minute,” Lindsey said as she held up a hand to keep Jamie away. “Have you looked at yourself?”
Jamie glanced down at her clothing. She was covered in slime, dirt, and various other things she could not even identify.
“And, not to be rude, but you too stink really badly.” Lindsey laughed. “But I brought food and water. The bread might be a bit harder than fresh, since I have been here for two days. But it is still very good. One of my father’s apple fritter breads.”
“That sounds wonderful,” Michael added. “But how did you know we would be here?”
Lindsey handed him the canvass bag and then backed away. “I will tell you while you eat. Then after that; we are off to the stream for some serious cleansing.”
“You even brought some of John’s fungus bricks!” Jamie laughed as she pulled out the food and also the containers of water. Liduma came over and sat down near them. They all sat in the green grass under the light of the sky tube. The air smelled fresh and clean. Lindsey sat a ways away from them because of the odors.
“There are dried meats and bones for Liduma as well. As to how I knew you would be here, well everyone is searching for you all. After the hunt for the feral boar, none of us could find you. The Rectora and Rector organized search parties. Levi and Gideon led one, Regina and that talking machine Roxanne led another, Melody and Rolyn have been searching every spot in the forests, and there are probably half a dozen more teams looking for you three. Lorna and Josiah went to the fish farm, and lots of others. They have killed at least eight feral boars, while they hunted for you. We will have more hams and pork for feasts for a long time. But no one could find you at all.”
Jamie wiped some crumbs from her chin as she listened. Liduma chewed on a meaty bone, and Michael relaxed after eating an entire fungus brick.
“Some people even went so far as to Media to search, but no one found any evidence of where you went. Some speculated that the ball of light opened up again and took you away. But the Domers said that tele… portable thing did not work anymore.”
“Teleportation, but go on. It sounds like we really caused a fuss,” Jamie laughed.
“Well, in all the searching I decided to go to Gath. I have heard the tales about Gath, and when I spoke to Jacob and Joel they said there were no dead bodies there, but it was a creepy place. So I thought maybe no one else would check there, being it is a creepy, and cursed place. So I ran to Gath and spent the night in one of the houses there.”
“You were all alone in Gath?” Michael asked. He remembered the terrible nightmare he had had there.
“Well, everyone else was off searching, so I told my mother and father I was searching as well. And I was. I went to Gath. I dreamed about you coming out from where you came in. And Liduma was even in my dream. She was fighting some horrible monster which had climbed up in some trees. The next morning I ran back home, you know I can run fast, gathered up the canvass bag of supplies and came here. That was a few days ago. Just before rain day.”
“Lindsey, you were all alone in Gath?” Michael asked again.
“Sure, it is not like there is much danger there. The bandits were banished. Mother and father do think I was with a search party, but I did not tell them it was a search party of one.”
Michael and Jamie laughed and laughed. Liduma rolled back onto her back and wiggled around again. She was still chewing on the bone, but also rubbing her back in the grass.
“So hurry up and finish eating. We need to get you to the stream as fast as we can. You smell worse than baby Ava’s diapers or big Ava’s passing gas. But please do not tell her I said that.”
Epilogue
“So Michael, do you think Roxanne will be able to integrate all that we told her about the building of the Eschaton?” Jamie asked as they worked in the garden outside of their cabin in Antioch.
“Roxanne did say what we learned was remarkable. But the AI also said it was not inconsistent with suppositions and conjectures made.” Michael answered as he pulled some weeds from the patch of green bean plants that was growing. Several of the neighbors had helped him to identify what was a food plant and what was a weed. He was still not able to tell the differences until the weeds were big enough to have small thorns on them.
“Roxanne confirmed that Dillion and Nigul were schoolmates of Kevin Mayberry, but the full relationship between those three had been lost to history, until now. And the AI confirmed some of what we learned about Rebane Space Construction and Asteroid Prospectors. But without the record cylinder recordings, our tale could only be considered as secondarily supported. Of course, the dome had known Dillion Vermeer’s status with Dome Survival Systems and did have a report on how the plan had been scaled back due to ‘backers withdrawal from plan.’ Too bad it did not say which backer, but it seems pretty clear it was Jaxson Rhono. Roxanne was really interested in getting access to the Chronicler’s records called, Prohibetur Scientiae, and is securely probing the nonphysicality for ways to find that.”
“I hope Roxanne does not find The Voice in the nonphysicality while searching.” Michael added.
“When we are done with these weeds, should we walk over to the Center and see about Roxanne’s progress?” Jamie asked.
“Good idea, but not right now.” Michael replied
“Conner and Miranda have invited us to come have a ham dinner with them, yet again. I think he still feels badly about our being missing for so long. I am not as thrilled with the idea of more boar food, but it would be good to see them again. Ava is adorable. What do you think?”
“Good idea, but not right now.” Michael replied.
“Regina thinks Theta Four could take us out by Savannah again. She wants to try to access Edgar from the transport system, Roxanne has a yellow automacube programmed to use the display screen as an interface. Regina is still holding out hope that Edgar will help us use the few remaining data sticks we have.”
“Even after the explosions on that observation deck? I doubt Edgar will ever want to talk to us again. That AI will pull back into the habitat. Can you blame it? Seems like every time we interact with Edgar things explode. What do you think? Should we go over and help Regina plan that trip to Savannah? Maybe go along?” Michael asked.
“Good idea, but not right now.” Jamie replied with a wide smile, her freckles glowing in the light of the sky tube.
“Tobias said the people of Media are really turning things around over there. I was truly impressed that Tobias hunted for us all the way to Media.” Michael said.
Jamie thought for a moment, “I guess we could take a journey out there.”
“Good idea, but not right now.” Michael replied.
“Tobias also said the people in Media had rumors of someone stealing grain and other foods at night. Do you think that might be some people from the Shades of Sheol?” Jamie asked. “They did have that big pile of grain down in their area.”
“Maybe we should take some of the hams made from the feral pigs out to that cut up door? Leave them some good food. They did say pig was better than dog, right?”
