The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) Read online

  Over the next few hours the unrelenting water pressure continually increased its escape velocity pushing itself out through new weak spots in the cliff, until with just a few tremors and hardly a sound over that of the storm, the cliff wall burst forcing a vast section to fall away in one massive chunk. It hit the beach below leaving the pounding seas to begin the process of cleaning the loose dirt and soil away in the persistent rush of waves.

  The spring tide was raging in the storm, it broke continually onto the new cliff fall adding to the breaking momentum from the released water washing away mud and silt in huge quantities, sucking it back through the undertow to leave only a small amount of flint, stones and muddy rubble exposed to the air.

  By the morning of the fourth day the storm had blown itself out. The clouds cleared and the tide retreated from the pebble beach leaving the newly created mound exposed to its first sunrise in millennia. As the sun climbed into the sky the heat of the day steamed away surface water and mud began to crack as the muddy clay dried out too quickly.

  The approach of midday bought the sun to its zenith and in the cracks that had dried and expanded throughout the morning, a glint of reflection was just hinted at. Within a few minutes the sun moved on and the reflection disappeared.

  Over the next few days the sun continued to beat down on the sodden shores. The cracks in the mud continued to widen. As they did, that which was buried slowly became more exposed, and that which had glinted began to reflect for longer periods.

  Finally, still protected within its crevice, the glint developed a timorous glow deep within the mound, the drying grains of soil began to vibrate as though the echo of distant trains were causing tremors.

  Over the next week the weather alternated between wet and dry, breaking down the edges of the crevices. The gleaming object slowly began to emerge from the mud. Where it once reflected light, it now absorbed it, seeming to reflect the colours of the mud and silt around it.

  Difficult to see and back in towards the cliff in what was still very dangerous territory for scavengers, it remained hidden from the early fossil hunters and beachcombers. It continued undisturbed while slowly excavating itself from the surrounding soil.

  By the sixth day it was resting completely in view. Now, if one could see it without its strange refractive camouflage, one would be reminded of a tear-drop, only this one was close on a meter in length and half that in height and width. Its surface was totally without blemish and considering it had been buried for millions of years, it looked absolutely immaculate. It was also awake.

  - 3 -

  The moment the planet’s sun touched the surface of the Pod's outer skin its receptors had clicked on, drawing in the few moments of energy directed through the newly formed crack in the hardening mud. It was nowhere near enough to bring the Pod’s processes on-line; its automated collectors activated by the alarm remained in a waiting state sensing the proximity of heat and atmosphere.

  It waited, running algorithms acknowledging its programmed options matrix had changed. Next time the sun’s energy hit the solar collectors in its skin, it was ready to absorb every millisecond of power. As it did, so also came the realisation that its long period of dormancy was coming to an end. Carefully balancing the small amount of power it was accumulating, the Pod used its anti-grav jets to vibrate, loosening the hold of the surrounding earth.

  Vulnerable in its present state, the Pod enabled its cloaking at the lightest level, attempting to conserve as much of its power as possible until ready to free itself completely.

  By the 5th cycle of solar charge it was able to operate internally, bringing essential systems into standby mode. By the sixth cycle it was on-line and receiving sufficient power from the planet’s sun to charge its repaired power cells to their minimum level.

  The Pod’s support routines turned on its central processors and awoke its Maker.

  Zirkos, the occupant’s consciousness, absorbed the information that the Pod’s systems had been collecting for the last 6 periods and made the correct astronomical analysis that told it some 2 billion such periods had passed since the Pod had landed. It noted the use of the last of its power as the Pod submerged in quicksand with no means of recharging its power cells. The A.I. had diagnosed its options, completed repairs then gone into hibernation.

  The distress signal emitted had been swallowed up by the surrounding ground. It would have been highly unlikely for any rescue Drone to have found them. There were no registered signals coming in on the security bands, so no other Apostles were within range of this solar system. It was well off the beaten track here.

  Using external sensor arrays to ascertain its position in relation to immediate threats, the Maker decided it to be far from ideal. There were increasing numbers of indigenous bipeds collecting within the locality of the ship. They appeared harmless gatherers, but Zirkos needed to put distance between the Pod and potential discovery.

  Deepening the intensity of the Pod’s cloak and activating shield level to ‘hull only’ it quietly and totally unobserved, manoeuvred the craft to the top of the cliff. Checking that it still had enough power to handle any emergency, Zirkos came to a decision and set course to a position 200 clicks above the surface, and initiated the ‘Dematz thrust’. For the few seconds it was uncloaked, it remained unnoticed by the local inhabitants.

  A few moments later the Pod emerged above the planets' north pole. Zirkos now increased the shield depth to four times the size of the Pod. The power reserve was low again meaning it would need to remain here until fully recharged. Replacement of the remaining damaged power cells was also a priority.

  In pattern mode Zirkos was effectively an artificial intelligence. For the time being it had to remain so until it had sufficient grasp of the availability of materials required to initiate a T-ship rebuild. It had no doubt it could find the required materials within the system, but currently there was insufficient urgency to proceed beyond complete recovery of the Pod’s systems.

  Instead, it deepened its investigation of its surroundings. Discovering the planet below had now developed to the stage of early space travel, the disembodied consciousness monitored their basic communication channels, becoming aware as it did so of the rudimentary structure of their language, sciences, social structure, government and technology.

  Linked into data streams using the satellites they had set-up was extremely slow and cumbersome, but easy to bypass security and scan imprint everything the A.I. needed. By the time it had finished recharging the working power cells, it had a complete list of objectives to carry out on the planet below.

  The transport systems used by the aliens on the planet were extremely crude. Whilst they would eventually evolve into space worthy vehicles, extending beyond their existing solar system would be an impossibility without some major leaps in their existing technology.

  They were on the cusp though, just needing a few nudges in the right direction. The Pod and A.I. were not considering providing those nudges yet as they were not prepared for any possible repercussions.

  They were certainly in no danger of discovery as the level of technology on the planet was clearly inferior to that of the Pod. The Maker decided that the best option to move forward was to establish itself at a remote location on the planet and organise its new ship build from there.

  Zirkos was certain that the patterning technology could emulate a human physiology as although their brains were large they only used a small portion of it. Zirkos could probably map most of its memory into their cranium capacity. What couldn't fit in could be inserted using some bio-arrays into the chest cavity to handle the extra processing required. A neural link to the on-board systems would give it sufficient ability to manage in the human form.

  Now, all it needed was a pattern and for that it was going to have to obtain the materials on-planet.

  - 4 -

  The shadowy figure huddled in the cold night, leaning against the wall at the back of the diner. It was dark, the street l
ights a fair distance away meant he could keep an eye on the complete length of the alley from where he waited. In this part of town it paid to be careful.

  Zeke had fought for weeks to take over this one cul-de-sac. It was now his exclusive territory and nobody had tried to muscle in for a month. The last one who tried was still in hospital.

  It wasn't that he was violent person. He had just been given no choice when the other man had come at him with a knife in each hand and a frenzied look on his face. Zeke knew he had to finish it as an example to others, or there would be more fights and more pain. As it was, he barely overcame the madman.

  The sound of the back door opening, brought his mental focus back as light flooded into the alley, cutting off his ability to view beyond. No matter, it was his territory; only a fool crossed him here and tried to muscle in.

  The framed light of the doorway reflected around a big shadow accompanied by the sounds of chopping and scouring from the kitchen behind. The man stepped out with a garbage bag in one hand, a paper bag in the other. Tossing the garbage into the dumpster, he left the paper bag on the corner. After looking left and right, he turned and walked back into the kitchen slamming the door shut behind him.

  Zeke waited a few seconds then stood, walked to the dumpster, took hold of the folded top of the bag assessing its contents by weight and bulk. It was heavy tonight, the heat from the outside told him it contained coffee as well as a decent meal. Sweet! he thought. Hopefully a cancelled order as well as leftovers.

  He left the alley keeping close to the shadows while walking the short distance back to the park.

  Watching carefully for unwanted attention he slipped through a railing and shimmied behind some overgrown trees. He quietly negotiated dense bushes running alongside a building adjoining the green zone, until he came to an old rough painted metal door near the back.

  Slipping inside like a shadow, the well oiled hinges giving nothing away, he stood inside for a second sensing all was quiet, then hooking the catch to secure the door he made his way to the small room that he called home.

  The room was locked. He palmed the key sliding it into the lock swinging it wide open. Remaining cautious and outside the direct opening he peered inside noting all was normal before he entered and closed the door behind him, flipping the latch.

  Crossing the room to his makeshift table, he sat down in the dim light provided by the black metallic desk lamp that he had wired into the security light, and opened his food bag. He had not eaten all day and keeping his strength up was starting to become an ordeal.

  There were worse things in life than being a street nobody; he wasn’t on drugs, or drink. He was just one of the many thousands unable to cope with a structured and orderly life. He could, but was on a watch list so had to keep below the government radar.

  Inside the paper bag were the major remains of a triple burger, fries and large coffee which now sat in front of him.

  He piled in demolishing the fast food meal in a few minutes. Then sitting back he savoured the coffee, he now felt faintly nauseous from the rushed intake of calories, but he would survive for another day.

  With food taken care of Zeke turned his mind to his other recurring problems.

  He needed a job. The trouble with that was, to get a job he needed an address. Which then raised the age-old ‘Catch 22’ situation. To get an address, he needed a job. Zeke also needed a new ID. He could get the ID and fake the rest IF he could get hold of a computer and some other gear to protect himself while he hacked into the governments’ computers.

  Zeke wasn’t a thief, nor was he a degenerate, but he did have a problem with society, and it with him. His problem was that he had been badly injured in the Gulf and now had a lovely piece of shiny metal over a third of his skull. Nothing would grow over it and for some reason no amount of cosmetic make-up or plastic would stick to it.

  The damned thing had been forged of some exotic metal in a backstreet surgery and fitted as a temporary replacement for his skull, smashed in from a sudden impact with a wall as the chemical weapons factory blew up. The local hospital had a blacksmith make it up until he got back to the USA.

  The only problem was that by the time he was returned to the USA as an exchange of prisoners, the metal cap had settled in and bonded with his grey matter. Worse still, they discovered it had been smelted from metals recovered from a meteorite and was even now leeching rare unknown poisons into his bloodstream.

  The end result was now a silvery glint to his skin, particularly around the face and neck where the concentration was highest. The overall physical effect made him unpleasant to look at and scary for young kids. He kept away from people. It was easier and kinder than spooking them.

  He was supposed to be regularly checked by a team of scientists, but they were more interested in the effects of the metals on his body, than they were of curing or helping him.

  In the end he had to escape their clutches as their tests became more invasive. He wasn’t interested in their scientific discoveries.

  So what if the damned stuff was making his skin tougher. So what if his metabolism was changing. He was damned if he was going to be their guinea pig if they didn’t have the common decency to take care of him as a human being.

  Now though, it was tough going and he needed to get himself a step up. His thinking was currently centred on a possible raid of a pawn shop nearby that had recently received most of the equipment he needed. He could do it, it just went against all his principles.

  This weekend, he decided. He would do it in the early hours of Sunday when he knew he would have the best opportunity of remaining undiscovered until the Monday. He knew it would be a piece of cake, his military years had taught him all he needed to know to get in and out.

  ***

  Zirkos had finished the geological scans of the planet below. They needed certain elements to reconstitute the T-Ship and whilst all the materials were available, some of the quantities were scarce and spread around the planet.

  Others were deep below the liquids the inhabitants referred to as water. It wasn’t too sure of what it was actually called as they also referred to it as sea, ocean, river, lake and stream and that was just in one language.

  Different languages amongst the indigent species of a planet were usual, except these were all of the same species. It was interesting, but of no logical or scientific value. Zirkos just selected the most universal language and had the translators teach just that one. The others would filter into its consciousness, as and when, time permitted.

  While doing all this Zirkos researched many of the patterns it had in the Archive the last time it had melded with the brethren. There was much advanced technology within the library and it gleaned as much as it could that was available within the time span it had allotted. Zirkos missed its corporeal body and wanted a ship to house it in - soon.

  It set the Pod’s A.I. collating the results of the scans into a suitable order of collection. Most of it was material readily available and could be extracted from remote locations. It noted that some important heavy elements were apparently restricted to specific areas, mostly in the northern hemisphere.

  These were also where the military species that experimented with them were concentrated. It had no concerns over discovery, the Pod’s cloaking device would cover that. However, Zirkos had no desire to create awareness amongst them. It would remove materials only where there would be no discovery in the short term.

  Zirkos updated the A.I.’s collation criteria and moved on to other research. It intended to study the genetic make-up of these creatures in preparation to discerning their pattern. It was unusually varied and would take considerable processing to completely map their pattern for saving.

  ***

  The Pod A.I. worked efficiently. There were twenty two source groups and it was during the process of selecting the last group of the rarest of elements essential to its Maker’s quest to reconstitute the T-Ship when it discovered the anomaly. It searche
d its database, but found no correlation to what it was measuring to any previous pattern in existence.

  Without the necessary coded permissions to upgrade its processing, the A.I. could only perform assigned tasks and not develop its own independent processes. Its coded instructions as an Escape Pod had been uploaded prior to its ejection from the Ship. These included sufficient codes to allow it freedom of thought and action in escape, evasion and survival. Once this situation had cleared it automatically deleted the codes and resumed its passive role.

  It therefore recorded the anomalous reading as something previously un-patterned. It then mapped its location completely including all peripheral items that it considered relevant. Then, the results being outside its designated criteria of analysis and response, the A.I. flagged it for immediate attention of the Maker known as Zirkos.

  It then promptly forgot about it and continued to collate and organise the retrieval programme including selecting a remote location where the Pod would be able to construct the T-Ship. It needed to be away from satellite and the ever watchful eyes of these humans.

  All of this was within its current level of permitted abilities, so it carried out its duties within the defined limits prescribed by the Maker.

  - 5 -

  Zeke slipped in through the square galvanized steel air ducts, squeezing himself into the upper section where it exited out above the false ceiling that hid the concrete lintels that formed the upper floor.

  Spreading his weight carefully where the ceiling tiles had the most metal wire supports, he worked the top half of his body slowly to the desired tile. His rubber soled boots and strong legs gripped the sides allowing him to hold most of his weight off the ceiling.