The Carrier by FLEDGLING Copyright Paul Clint 2011 Published by A Mirror Image Publishing at Smashwords Smashwords License Statement This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. The Carrier The carrier was huge. TAS92ZB knew about stars, galaxies and how big the universe was, like everyone who lived in the carrier, he had access to the images from the carriers sensors. It's kind were insignificant on the scale of creation, but that was out there. The Carrier was where he lived and worked so the immensity of outside seldom intruded. But the Carrier was his only means of survival so all the occupants were dependent upon each other. When something went wrong, they all had to do their part. TAS92ZB was a member of the engineering guild, a direct descendant of those who had originally designed the carriers that allowed them to travel the vast distances even the engineers couldn't imagine. Back in the time of his ancestors, they'd lived in a perfect world. Every living organism followed instructions and cooperated in maintaining a perfect harmony. And there was no end to think about or dread. When an organism began to fail, it simply cloned itself and moved its consciousness to a new body. The real problem though was that the Carrier had been designed for that perfect world of his ancestors. They had designed so many automated systems into carriers, that they sometimes acted as if they had a will of their own. That single simple fact had destroyed the ancient's perfect world. Back then, according to records TAS92ZB had found in the Carrier's archive, the world was filled with a species referred to as Creators who had the ability to alter a clone to live in a different environment. Once a clone was created for that special circumstance or task, it and its descendants were forever committed to the new form. There was no possibility of going back. So when the latest, most advanced tool (the Creators had built carriers to be tools) began malfunctioning, a great division occurred among the Creators. A third of them wanted to abandon the new design and destroy all those already in use. This would have condemned an uncountable number of beings in the crews of the condemned carriers who could no longer survive outside them. Up until that time, there had never been a disagreement among the specialized offspring of the original Creators, so there was no precedence for resolving the argument. When those in favor of destroying carriers couldn't achieve consensus, they simply decided to act on their own. And that was the beginning of the war. The Carrier had originally been designed to repair itself and last forever, but the countless hordes of invaders that were at constant war with them had taken their toll. The procedures and blueprints for repairs had degraded much like the operating system of a computer that had been running for too many years. The errors and junk files had accumulated to the point where it was harder and harder to find the right plans. For some time, the carrier had been concerned about finding enough fuel. TAS92ZB hadn't the foggiest idea which department had made the decision, but somebody, somewhere thought it was a good idea to put in some stores of extra fuel just in case there was a shortage. The problem was that no one rescinded the order and the stored fuel had accumulated until it almost exceeded the Carriers capacity to carry it. So TAS92ZB had been charged with the task of finding out who initiated the order and persuading them to cancel it. The problem was, how could he find one individual in a bureaucracy the size of a city? He'd been looking for a long time and was dismayed by the lack of concern everyone showed. They were all wrapped in their own lives and jobs to the point where the well being of the whole population was no longer something they had time for. Life continued on so they all assumed that things would never change. He was aware of the fact that the problem might be the result of a quirk in the Carriers automated systems, but had never considered possibility that it was the result of the Carrier no longer traveling the inconceivable distances it used to. This was mainly because TAS92ZB couldn't imagine them. The result was that he went on searching for someone who didn't exist. In spite of the fact that the Carrier's systems were slowly degrading, only a tiny percentage of the crew was making the effort to keep the Carrier running by doing anything more than the bare minimum there jobs required. Ultimately, less efficient systems would become failing systems and then a cascade of failing systems until all was lost. TAS92ZB felt like a prophet foretelling the end of the world and with good reason, because everyone treated him the way prophets have always been treated. They ignored him until they couldn't anymore and then they tried to silence him. There was only one thing he could think of that might still save the Carrier. He might be able to encode a message to the Carrier itself. When the end was finally inevitable and careening ever closer, TAS92ZB sent the message in the form of a dream. George, wake up, you better lose some weight or you're going to have a heart attack!” To learn more about carriers, read “A Stone Cut Without Hands”, Which is also a Smashwords ebook. **** A Stone Cut Without Hands is the first novel of a trilogy. Watch Fledgling on Smashwords for the next volume ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I am retired, well educated, opinionated, often brilliant and occasionally stupid, have a collection of 20,000 sf novels I've read and I started writing because the quality of stories available dropped below the threshold of my interests. I try to write about ideas never before considered. Discover other titles by FLEDGLING at Smashwords.com: THE CARRIER Connect with Me Online: At Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/fledglings Authors Website: http://www.fledgling.byethost8.com/ Blog: http://fledgling-astonecutwithouthands.blogspot.com/