The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) Read online

  Table of Contents

  THE PATTERN SHIP

  THE PATTERN UNIVERSE - BOOK 1

  BY

  TOBIAS ROOTE

  The Pattern Book series of novels are the exclusive work and copyright of ©Tobias Roote 2013

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  FOREWORD

  Science Fiction has been my true love in books since I was a young boy and was given Dan Dare Annuals for Christmas.

  I have read thousands of books over the years. The advent of the eBook has given me the chance to re-purchase a lot of them in electronic form so I am now able to carry and enjoy them wherever I travel. You have to love the technology its given me the freedom to write from wherever I am.

  About the Pattern Ship

  This is a series that started off as a short story then when it reached chapter four it decided it would become a book.

  Put away because there were too many other projects on the go, I resurrected it again in Autumn 2013 after thinking about the characters and how they would interact. I then wrote the first draft in a few weeks after publishing my first book Mercury’s Secret (not a Sci Fi novel) in the November. Book 1 was launched on the 20th December 2013

  I would like to take this opportunity of thanking my beta reader, John, my long suffering Wife and Editor, Louise, and all of my ‘Ex Pat’ friends who are always full of enthusiasm for my work and who keep me motivated at times when it seems difficult to achieve my ambition of becoming a published author.

  As corny as it sounds, without all of these people my books would never be written.

  All of the characters and events in this book are a work of fiction and do not resemble anyone real, friend or enemy. Any coincidental references to places are just that, All identifiable references are culled from publicly available material.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  I would like to thank http://SelfPubBookCovers.com/Fantasyart for their contribution to the front cover of this book.

  - 1 -

  A cosmic disturbance occurred within the open vacuum existing between the watery planet and its cratered moon. An unseen ripple was forming, a distortion in local space.

  It spread outward, causing molecules floating in the vacuum to become suddenly agitated by whatever was creating the anomaly. The effect resulted in a swirling cloud of cosmic dust visible for hundreds of miles.

  From behind the planet’s moon the occurrence was keenly observed. The dark shape hiding in the shadow of the orbiting satellite pulsed once, then not wanting to be detected by the encroaching ripple, its already insubstantial mass dissipated into the ether leaving no detectable trace of it's former presence.

  The growing anomaly shimmered as a corona of gas molecules appeared, pushing through it's surface ahead of a small sleek object. A spaceship nosed its way into normal space.

  As it completed its entrance, the foggy bow wave created by its arrival was sucked in behind it as the silver ship, now free of the distortion, increased its speed and distance from the wormhole, which was already collapsing as the technology that generated it passed it by.

  The Ship had materialised close to an asteroid belt, but rather than alter course it switched its hull shields to deflect everything except the largest rocks, which could easily be avoided. Uninterrupted, it continued its flight between the nearby planet and its moon.

  The T-Ship, so named because of its shape, had begun its planned realignment for another leap into hyperspace, when unexpectedly something occurred to delay its jump.

  Proximity alarms on the ship’s shield instantly relayed to the single occupant, evidence of a cloaked object locking onto the mass of the ship. It was immediately identified by the on-board A.I. as a Nubl missile.

  The small antimatter missile was set to match velocities with the T-ship until it made contact. Then an on-board computer would accelerate the small, but powerful motor enabling it to push its way slowly through the shield’s thin defense.

  As a result there were now only seconds before it pierced the shield to make contact with the hull and detonate.

  The Occupant noted almost absently that only the proximity to the asteroids, prompting the activation of the shield, had allowed time for any action to be taken at all. Unfortunately, very little could be done except escape.

  He scanned local space, unable to detect anything other than the immediate threat. He suspected Nubl Assassins, but picked up nothing in the vicinity. Nonetheless, the ship made a complete scan of the solar system collating as much data for later analysis as it could in the few seconds it had remaining.

  Then, with no time to consider any form of retaliation, the ship’s occupant instantaneously uploaded himself and all other T-ship patterns to the tiny Escape Pod.

  At the precise moment of the ships detonation, the orb ejected, cloaked and at high velocity on an evasion trajectory that had been burned into its navigation array moments before.

  The T-ship’s physical occupant had only a millisecond to confirm successful ejection before he was de-materialised along with his ship in the resulting antimatter explosion.

  The escaping Pod's passive on-board sensors detected the Nubl fliers as they winked in and out of local hyperspace coming closer to the expanding wreck of the T-ship, sending out armed Seekers to hunt for the anticipated Pod.

  No longer needing their cloaks, each Seeker carrying antimatter mines only needed to be in proximity of the quarry to detonate; they would not assume that the debris field was all that was left. Every piece would be examined for useful data.

  Not wanting any witnesses to their kill they would be thorough... very thorough. The Nubl did not know if there had been an Escape Pod launched, they would just assume so and be exacting in their search, as was their way.

  The Pod's A.I. allowed itself to be put on standby as observer while the Occupant's pattern took over all on-board tasks. The Occupant continued to plot at lightening speed, any and all trajectories that would allow it to complete its escape to the planet below undetected.

  It was a very compact Pod with no means to sustain any lifeforms. Its only purpose was to evade detection at all costs in an effort to preserve the extensive library of collated patterns acquired from all over the known universe, including that of the Occupant, one of its Makers.

  So small that it might be mistaken for a piece of wreckage, its speed of ejection from the T-ship was timed to coincide with the explosion so it would hide in the expanding debris field and follow a computed trajectory. By the time the enemy Seekers could establish its existence, the Pod would hopefully have vanished.

  The Occupant’s pattern, using the impressive speed of the on-board computer had within 3 seconds of dispersal from the T-ship, selected a set of coordinates on the distant planet. It activated the ‘Dematz thrust’, a technology for de-materialisation patterned from a prior technological civilisation and incorporated for its own use. It was still in test mode so not yet implemented on the mai
n ship.

  A hazardous manoeuvre because it could only work while the ship was uncloaked, which was necessary only for the briefest of seconds it took to initiate. Once de-materialisation thrust was engaged it could secure its escape without likelihood of pursuit. The danger was always in those first few seconds.

  While they relocated and materialised, the Occupant had a few moments to think.

  The discovery of Nubl in this system was very bad news. It had been many long years since it had needed to evade them and the T-ship's battle defence array had long since become outdated.

  No contact with its brethren had occurred in the last eight thousand or so periods, giving no opportunity for a melding which would have shared knowledge amongst all the brethren. It was probably why they had found them so quickly; their hive systems having continually evolved and improved, now obviously able to track a T-ship’s signature.

  All that it could do was evade capture, or at worst, deletion and hope they had not anticipated their plotted destination. The Occupant intended to land on the planet and hide, reconstituting itself and ship using saved patterns from any source of exotic materials available.

  A few minutes later the Pod materialised above the destination planet.

  Unfortunately, in the few seconds required before its cloak re-engaged, it came under fire from a Nubl sentry already in stationery orbit around the planet.

  The Occupant was startled. So, they had anticipated the T-ships potential gambits ahead of the attack, or worse were already established on the planet below. It appeared they were primed; their sensitive robotic sensors keyed to the signature of the specific craft type as they reacted automatically in the milliseconds it took the Pod to materialise.

  There was no time to expand the shield beyond the hull. The impact of the first missile took out the subsidiary power arrays leaving no means of initiating the Dematz again. The cloak would also no longer engage and there was no time for anything other than immediate evasive action.

  The A.I took over, in microseconds plotting all possible options. There was only one that had more than a 60% chance of success. The A.I. completed the relay and the Pod leapt into the new trajectory, heading for the planet below at an alarming speed.

  It had correctly computed a greater success in aiming for the nearest land mass which, as the planet contained a rich atmosphere, would mean a fast entry; risky if not fully controlled. There was also more chance of evading pursuit amongst the mixed liquid and land terrain with its large continent covered in heavy vegetation.

  The A.I. had no time to complete a survey other than to note there were no detrimental elements within the atmosphere to damage the hull.

  With only a few seconds before the Pod hit the atmosphere and relative safety from attack, it would be a matter of milliseconds in timing. The Nubl's missiles were useless in anything but zero gravity. It was a weapon designed for space.

  Another Sentry detonated itself near the Pod’s location, the resulting antimatter explosion causing the Pod to rock from the pressure wave but not close enough to cause any damage. Sensors also tracked a small clutch of incoming missiles, some way off, but closing fast.

  Out of time and risking everything, the Pod’s A.I. reset to a steeper trajectory heating up dangerously as were the missiles trying to follow it down. Not designed to cope with planetary re-entry they reacted to the intense heat build-up which caused them to become unstable and detonate.

  The first of the batch blew in turn causing a chain reaction that created a massive antimatter blast, throwing the Pod right out of its already dangerous trajectory and sending it tumbling helplessly out of control towards the planet.

  Now in danger of burning up, it switched its shields to maximum in an effort to reduce damage. The Pod spiralled uncontrollably towards the land mass, somehow missing the worst of the high mountainous regions before finally hitting the ground at an acute angle causing its shield to overload and almost fail.

  The angle of impact allowed it to bounce through the undergrowth forging a shallow furrow before landing at a distance on a soft surface. The Pod came to rest at what the A.I. thought was the edge of deep mass of vegetation.

  With its sensors offline it came as a complete surprise to the A.I. when the Pod rapidly began to sink into a semi liquid swamp. With thrusters temporarily unavailable, the Pod could only watch helplessly as it completely submerged under the mire.

  Above, the solid looking but waterlogged surface was already knitting back together leaving no outward clue to any recent disturbance. The Pod meanwhile, unable to activate any of its servos, continued to descend through the quicksand into the depths. Fortuitously, the mud and water above also dampened the Pod’s tell-tale signature beyond Nubl sensor range.

  So, when a Nubl sentry probe flew across the area some minutes later following the Pod’s projected trajectory, it detected no tell-tale wreckage, or signature, other than the massive furrow that had been gouged out of the land by the shielded Pod as it landed. It incorrectly surmised the Pod had bounced and then resumed its flight to another location.

  When it finally completed its circuit, reporting a negative response to its central control, it was designated a new search sector well away from the current location.

  The Pod's A.I. now able to address its immediate concerns surveyed the damage, correctly assessing that the power requirement to make the repairs would leave the Pod with insufficient reserves to lift it from the swamp. It nonetheless made its decision.

  It reduced the Pod’s shield to minimum to conserve power. Then began to carry out essential nano repair work on its thrusters and anti-gravity servos. It still had damaged power cells to repair and no link to the stored patterns including the Occupant Maker’s access links which were also off-line from the crash landing. These were considered by the A.I. to be of secondary importance and it ignored them.

  Once the repairs were completed, the A.I. calculated it had sufficient power to make a single attempt to boost itself from the deep mire. It therefore attempted to drag itself out of the clogging mud which proved more viscous than anticipated.

  As a result it only succeeded in negotiating itself to a shallow shelf nearer the surface before the power threatened to give out completely. It was still too far below the surface to send up a remote beacon, or power collector.

  There was no life on this planet, at least nothing on land. The A.I. had previously detected the beginnings of simple life forms in the liquid part of the planet though these were of no use to the Pod.

  There was, therefore, no technology to communicate with, or seek assistance from. It was unable to communicate with its Makers, and unable to source energy this deep underground. It had no means of furthering its objectives at this time.

  The Pod was stranded.

  The A.I. went through all possible permutations within its processor capacity within milliseconds. It calculated the Pod had a 0.005% chance of recovery.

  Having no emotional involvement in the outcome it logically accepted its situation. Then without the ability to feel regret or any other emotion, it shut down all, but essential processes leaving a trickle feed to the outer shield to protect from the worst of unknown environmental erosion and set an Auto Sensor link to its Awake Sequence.

  Its final act was to shut itself off to await a change in circumstances.

  The Pod now inert and lifeless except for the occasional electronic beat would remain that way for millennia.

  - 2 -

  Devon, England. Springtime 2020

  It had been raining heavily over the last week saturating the English countryside and swelling local rivers to overflowing. The curtains of water lashing down day after day, were just part of the annual ritual of the English weather.

  The overflowing fields and plains always preceded summer's abundance of wild greens which formed a natural preserve, considered by the countrified gentry to be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

  Which was just their subtle way of keeping
the property developers at bay.

  This year was looking to be the worst on record. Water had risen fully a foot above the previous highest level recorded. The date on the old Norman church wall built at the edge of the sea town’s flood plain was etched with the year 1815. The punt attached by a rope tether to the old iron ring next to the date had long since fallen into disuse. It now languished submerged and rotten still hanging untended from the ring; a telling testimony to the change in the way rural folk managed this naturally occurring phenomenon.

  Sown fields desperately clinging onto their tender shoots of wheat, corn, rapeseed or whatever else the farmers had planted this spring, were now completely waterlogged, in real danger of drowning or being swept away in the swelling waters of the incessant rainfall.

  Rural roads running through hills and valleys dipped below the waters at every turn leaving unprepared drivers stranded or sitting on top of their shiny motors as the water pressed hungrily around them as they awaited rescue by the local tractors.

  The farmers charging a nice little earner for recovery, felt that it was fair recompense for ruined crops and so maintained a nonchalant air of country-styled patience while pocketing their good fortune where they could.

  Unseen, therefore of no concern to the locals, except perhaps a few of those living on eroding cliffs, the growing pressure of the underground water table grew unusually high with nowhere for it to go.

  The underlying saturated clay buried deep in the ground served as an impenetrable barrier. This forced the mass of water now accumulating in the underground lakes to purge itself further along the border between the clay and the local soil.

  The increasing pressure forced the water to forge new paths of lesser resistance, pursuing all possible exits. It finally uncovered a source of release where a newly exposed weakness allowed it to seep in dribbles down a nearby cliff side.

  At first it just trickled making little progress, just pushing out small lumps of soil here and there. Eventually, the relentless back pressure pushed through and forged a path for itself as it gushed harder until a widened hole grew where it could run freely down the side of the cliff in a wide stream to the pebbled and stony ground below.