Quest for the Conestoga (Colony Ship Conestoga Book 1) (19 page)

Looking around, Cammarry also saw that the plant growth was different.  There were larger plants around the edges of the room, some climbing up the walls, and others were squatty sphere shapes about a meter tall.  Like in the other rooms, water was dripping slowly down the walls in various places, and the air vent covers were all missing.  Most of the foliage was off-white, brownish, taupe, or a very pale green.  There was a musky smell in the air.  Several more flying insects were observed.  There was a thicket of waist high plants at the center of the room.  They were intertwined with each other which made for a substantial clump of plants.

“Here is where we build the teleportation receiving pad,” Jerome said.  “We will just need to harvest the raw materials.  The doors here will serve as a source for the grid.  I can easily strip out the permalloy and form the grid pattern needed.”  He pulled out the molecular torch. 

“There is an awful lot of biological stuff in here.  Will it interfere with teleportation?”  Cammarry asked.

“All this amazing and wonderful life is truly a positive sign.  I conjecture it will not interfere in any way with the teleportation system. Please be careful not to disrupt too much of the biology as you build.  There is sufficient space on this side of that hedge of plants,” Sandie replied.  “There are other factors I am concerned about, but am working on those as we speak.  The data sticks have the detailed plans and I suggest you begin working immediately.”

Cammarry pulled a data stick out of her thigh pocket, and took a reader from another pocket.  Setting the reader down, she inserted the data stick. Nothing happened. 

“There is no response.” Cammarry removed the data stick and reinserted it.  She watched for the light to shine up the side of the data stick, but nothing happened. 

“Try another one,” Jerome suggested.  “Perhaps that one malfunctioned.”

“I have yet to see a data stick fail.  They work even in the dead domes.”  Cammarry did pull a different one out and inserted it into the reader.  Again there was no response. 

“The reader must be faulty.”  Cammarry pulled a different reader out and again tried the data sticks.  Neither one would function.  “This is strange.”

Jerome pulled out his own data stick reader and tried the data sticks he carried.  None of them worked.  None of the readers showed any sign of being powered or functional.  “All of these are just dead.  Sandie, how can that be?”

“Under normal circumstances, the odds of a complete failure of all the data sticks and readers at the same time is infinitesimally small, so much as to make it a near certain impossibility.  However, we did pass through that Cosmic Crinkle, and I do not know what lingering effects it may have had.  I will run some conjectures on this situation.  Meanwhile, I still have full plans for the teleportation receiving pad.  I will project those plans from your com-links.”

Floating in front of Cammarry and Jerome were the plans. 

“That door we already cut off will be a good start,” Jerome said and turned around and headed for where it lay.  He stepped through the doorway and back toward the airlock. 

Cammarry pulled off her backpack and started to disassemble the component parts of the teleportation control systems.

“Yaaaa,  Waaaaah!” 

Cammarry remained motionless in her squatting position. 

“Aaeeeeh!   Aeeeeuuua!”

The strange cries echoed throughout the gallery.  Cammarry could see nothing beyond the hedge of plants at the center of the room.  Neither could anything be observed long the sides, where there were more open spaces.

“Link me with Jerome.  Jerome?”  Cammarry whispered. 

Through the earpiece Jerome answered.  His voice was loud, and Cammarry wondered how far it traveled.

“Jerome, someone is screaming in here.”

“Cammarry, that vocalization is probably not human,” the AI Sandie interjected.  “I cannot identify it, but checking against human pitches and variables, I conjecture it is a nonhuman sound.  I cannot be absolutely certain, but the likelihood of it being a person is very low.  However, it certainly it is a living entity of some kind.  This is so thrilling!”

“It sounds like it is in terrible pain.”

“I am coming back,” Jerome called. 

A moment later he burst past the door.  He had the Willie blaster drawn.  He took a squatting position by Cammarry.  “Where is your weapon?”

“I did not think to draw it,” Cammarry said.  “I thought I was hearing some crewman in agony.”

“Whaaaaoooo!   Eeeeeooooh!” 

“That is a terrible sound,” Jerome said.  “Pain often causes someone to scream out.”

They both looked around but could not see anything. The hedge blocked out the view of the center, and the edges remained empty.

“Maaaeeee.   Beeeooooa.”

“There are at least five separate entities making those calls,” Sandie reported.  “I have checked my database but I can find no corresponding sounds.  I apologize for not being able to identify this.  It certainly is exciting!”

“Is there a danger here?  I have read about the predatory kind of animals. Are these things preparing to attack?”  Jerome asked as he gazed down the sights of his weapon.  His voice was calm and controlled.  He was breathing slowly and deeply.

“I cannot give a definite answer,” Sandie said.  “There is insufficient information. 

A small animal, roughly knee high, came bounding out of the shadows, around the hedge.  It was hard to see because of the dim light and the fact it was moving very quickly and in ways that looked random.  It leaped on its long skinny legs, and bounced about. It sprang up onto an old storage crate where the moss and fungus were short, but then bounded off the wall and back to the floor. Another animal also pranced into view and leaped over the first one, twisting and calling out as it did.

“Baammaa!” 

“Oh cute!”  Cammarry said. 

The animals were now moving into a more visible part of the room.  They had four legs, a small tail, and a rectangular head with ears that jutted out to the sides.  They were various colors, but both had fur that followed a basic pattern.  They had dark colored heads, either a brown or black.  That coloration was over not just their heads, but along their shoulders creating a drape-like effect with the color covering about half of the front legs.  The rear of each animal was white with a few stripes or splotches of color.  The animals moved so rapidly, bouncing and jumping about, that it was hard to see all their features. 

Jerome pulled up on his weapon and pointed it toward the ceiling.  “They look like young animals.  The way they frolic reminds me of a young batch of age-mates.  But perhaps I am just ignorant of the ways animals can act?”

Two more animals appeared, and they were larger than the first two.  One jumped up on the crate and stayed there.  The other was walking along toward where the little ones were bounding about.  These larger animals were white on their faces, and short horns on their heads.  They had brown or perhaps reddish brown colors on their sides.  The one walking along was quite bloated, swollen, and round looking near its back legs. 

Suddenly, one of the small animals raced toward the bloated one, and stuck its head down underneath the animal’s belly.  The small one put its front legs straight out, dipped its back and jabbed its head into a part of the other animal.  The big one stood still as the smaller one nuzzled underneath. 

“Babies feeding,” Cammarry said. 

“Indeed, that is correct,” Sandie stated.  “These are animals are no threat.  They are of a type called capra aegagrus hircus, commonly called the goat.  At one time on Earth there were an estimated one-billion of these goat animals in a myriad of subspecies, varieties, and types.  According to the records we have, goats are one of the oldest domesticated animals.  They were used for their milk, meat, hair, skins, as a work animal, and as a companion animal.  These specific ones appear to be smaller than the average size in the records, perhaps they are of a dwarf variety.” 

“Three billy goats?  There may be a troll lurking about somewhere, according to the old folklore,” Jerome said with a grin.  “Although what would constitute a bridge to trip-trap across is unclear.”  He smiled as he watched the one goat nurse while the other young one continued to bop about leaping in silly ways.

“Billy goat refers to the male, nanny goat refers to the female, and the young ones are called kids,” Sandie said. “At least according to the common parlance of that era.  As to the troll, there are a variety of possibilities.  Trolls were common in folklore, and may represent degenerate humans, people or ill repute, criminals, or a common fear of the unknown. A troll might be a substitute figure for a monster that has no specific physical description.  Trolls in the historical records varied drastically from culture to culture and even within the same community.  Often the troll was simply a non-specific embodiment of the unknown or of primitive mind’s anxiety of terror.” 

“So no real trolls?”  Jerome chuckled. 

The first young animal stopped nursing and began hopping about again.  They kept moving closer and closer in their meandering manner.  Then suddenly all the goats stood still, turned, and looked directly at where Jerome and Cammarry were squatting.  With a group mentality, the goats seemed to all become aware of the people at the same moment.  They intensely stared at the adventurers. 

“Maaaaa!”  The goats all cried in unison.

“They have seen us,” Cammarry said. “They do not seem overly worried or concerned.  We still need to build the receiving pad, and these animals just confirm there is adequate resources here.  They are able to survive, we have seen water running in these rooms, and there is plant life.  Some kind of ecosystem is functioning, and apparently has been for years.”

“I will get that door and begin making the grid,” Jerome said and as he stood up, the goats bolted away in the blink of an eye. 

“I guess I scared them.  They are certainly skittish.”  Jerome saw something else move in a far corner of the room.  Something was behind one of the bush-sized plants.  “Well one goat stayed, I think, way over there.  Unless it was the proverbial troll from the rhyme?” 

Cammarry turned up the brightness of the fusion pack light and went back to setting out the components for the teleportation system. 

Jerome left and returned carrying the door into the room.  He then cut a small section and made a flat tool of it.  Using that he scraped the growth medium off the floor and cleaned the needed area.  The space was more than adequate.  He continued cutting the remains of the permalloy door and slicing it into thin sections and placed them in the correct pattern on the floor. 

“Sandie, I have everything ready.  As soon as we get the grid pattern laid down, we can begin calibrations and final assembly.”  Cammarry stood and walked over to another door and using a molecular saw, cut that door off and began stripping it down to add to the grid.

“I am still working on some additional issues as well,” the AI replied.  “I hope to be ready when you are.”

Working together, Jerome and Cammarry soon had the basic framework for the teleportation receiving pad completed.  The goats were heard again at one point, but it was a distant echo, and they did not approach.  The two people kept comparing their endeavors against the plans that Sandie displayed through their com-links. 

“Sandie, double check our construction quality,” Jerome commanded.  “We do not want any problems with this system.”  He stood still and waited for the AI’s reply.

“Excellent work!”  Sandie chortled.  “The grid pattern is nearly perfect, and it is well within established tolerances and design clearances.”

“So now we hook up all the pieces and connect in the component parts,” Cammarry stated. 

She assembled the control and utilization console, as well as the proximity array and compiler.  Jerome made the connections for the fusion pack.  All the pieces fit together well and the mechanism was completed.