POD (The Pattern Universe) (14 page)

The reactors themselves were buried under the surface of each facet of the asteroid allowing the collectors to pull in fuel from different angles. There was sufficient turbulence from the belt to ensure the availability of particles would remain consistent.

The nanobots inside the asteroid finally ground to a halt. They had excavated everything. The massive piece of rock was now an empty shell with areas of added density to shield the insides from any problems with the fusion reactors. These sealed units required no maintenance. A full complement of bots had been built into the units to take care of anything that needed repairing. Pod could always jump more in as required.

Pod now formed a hologram grid of the interior. It had given the project much thought, tweaking the design since it had begun the excavation. Now it had a fairly comprehensive picture of the result it wanted. It broke the project down into component parts; walls, floors, ceiling, wiring, lighting, air ducts, communications, equipment, fixtures and fittings and so on, until it had allocated its unlimited resources to specific aspects of the grid.

When it was satisfied that it had allocated the right mass of nanites to each aspect of the project, Pod communicated a complex set of instructions to the billions of nanite servers, which in turn passed the commands down to individual nodes.

The nodes having received clear instructions on where they were to go and what combination they had to form, passed instructions onto their respective nanite legions. As if orchestrated, the whole soup of grey electronics began to heave and separate. To an outside observer it would have looked like organised chaos.

Within the chaotic turbulence of the dark interior of the asteroid, the trillions of nanobots sought to relocate to their assigned positions within the hologram. Those designated as walls or ceilings, waited out of the way. Others that were to form the floors and lower walls began to move ‘en masse’ towards their grid locations.

The absence of gravity meant that pools, balls and odd shapes of grey matter began to appear, each suspended in the middle of the unbuilt areas, the final location tuned into their programming. Walls would appear in the midst of nothing at all, then a ceiling would match up and eventually a floor would appear to provide a complete corridor.

Stairs and A-Grav lift systems appeared out of nowhere. As construction within the hologram area took shape, masses of unallocated nanites disappeared, becoming incorporated somewhere in Pod’s comprehensive building program.

Wiring formed, forcing its way through ‘still fluid’ walls and ceilings until it joined with light fixtures, food processing units and door management systems as the grey mass seemed to come together into a cohesive unit. As sections became complete, the nanobots bonded with their neighbours and melted down to form a solid section. Lights came on as nanite wiring connected to solar batteries. Air ducts burst into life as they began to circulate newly created atmosphere.

As if by magic, order had been created from chaos.

Finally, Pod glided through corridors, checking rooms and services to ensure everything had formed correctly. Where it found problems in its fabrication design, it sent swarms of nanobots to carry out redesigned solutions. It took time, but Pod was nothing if not exacting in its own expectations.

Once complete, and satisfied the project was finished, it updated its patterns with all the new solutions it had designed and jumped back into space to prepare its next project.

- 11 -

At 05:00 hrs... LT, the Tactical Command’s Situation Room situated on the central reservation of the Grav-Port, received signals from three surveillance globes covering the Fortress space yards. The videos received indicated that a major activity was occurring in the ship pens. Pennington was immediately informed and on his order, Space Island went to the state of ‘High’ alert indicating inbound threats.

This meant all incoming traffic was told to hold off until visible inspection was carried out by the new security globes that had been hurriedly designed by the new Osbourne-Lang partnership. They had on-board sensors that could ascertain bodies and cargo and anything that wasn't on the manifests or readily unidentifiable, was only allowed to land in a quarantined area where it was subjected to search and seizure.

In the first two hours, three unscheduled A-Grav ships turned back rather than be searched. A further one in the process of landing had been tractor-beamed to the quarantine area and a camouflaged team of four enemy operatives captured with an array of arms and sabotage materials. The A-Grav ship was destroyed by Osbourne’s new killer nanites to ensure there were no hidden surprises. The newly recycled remains went into the raw material bins for eventual re-use.

It became evident that this was the start of a planned attack by Fortress. Pennington advised Garner he was taking over command of the island and immediately initiated the plans that had been treading water for the last month.

Baxter’s team was given authority to proceed with operation ‘WatchTower’. Pennington, together with his Staff Sergeant, watched from the observation post as the aircraft loaded with men and sleds, switched on its camouflage ‘cloaked’ shield technology before the hangar was unsealed.

Nobody noticed the ship smoothly manoeuvre out of the hangar and fly off. Ten minutes later a discreet nullified exit just above sea level at the south of the island formed just long enough to enable something to pass through before closing again, totally unobserved.

Exactly ten minutes after the silent and invisible departure a further four fast search sleds followed in another ship, this one intended to drop off teams to run interference for the first sled. The departure was conducted in full public view so that if anyone was watching, they could expect to see a retaliation of some sort. These headed out uncloaked on a high trajectory northwards directly towards the Fortress.

The WatchTower team’s cloaked ship proceeded through the southern departure nullifier gate that had been pre-set with a floating buoy. This enabled them to transmit to the buoy which had its own scrambled code that, to the shield operators on the Island, indicated nothing untoward. Except the field, provided a discreet exit for the team’s fast ship. This was so they could run clandestine operations with no computer logs that might be picked up by an enemy hacking team.

The military commissioned MIC-10 A-Grav ships were state of the art incorporating the latest propulsion systems, so that if you could see them, you would believe they were missiles. The rule to keep them cloaked while travelling was a security measure implemented in the early days. They only uncloaked when proceeding to the landing site to avoid any monitoring by Fortress.

Five minutes into the flight the pilot’s course corrections brought it around to a northerly heading. A few minutes later it overtook the diversion aircraft which was flying a hundred miles to port, a MIC-4, an older universal design compared to the MIC-10.

It would arrive and begin its operations to divert attention while the cloaked jet landed and released the sled teams.

The MIC-10 would still be cloaked, but there would be tiny variations in harmonics while the sleds slipped out of its camouflage field as they worked on different frequencies. An enemy sensor operator, with nothing better to do, might try and investigate any anomaly. They didn't want to take that chance.

Baxter sat pensively; he always clammed up at the start of an operation. This one had been well drilled, but there was still a lot that could go wrong. With only a single exit from the Fortress, escape was only going to be a possibility, no more, despite what had been arranged, discussed and planned. He looked at his team. Like him, they kept themselves to themselves in the beginning, each compartmentalising their loved ones, their worries, concerns and troubles all needed to be set aside.

He felt inside his jacket for the flat ceramic bottle he had been handed by that kid scientist Osbourne with instructions on what to do with it. He felt it was a fools errand, but Pennington told him it was Priority ‘A’, so Baxter would do his level best, or die in the attempt. They had reassured him that the contents were harmless to humans. That made him a little less nervous.

The red light blinked. They were coming into the landing zone. They made themselves fast to the sleds with the quick release leg straps which gave them mobility without fear of falling if it tipped or bucked. Pitt, his tag team member, light as a feather and as fast as greased lightning, took the driving position leaving Baxter behind him to keep his eyes peeled and direct the operation.

Baxter peering back towards the cockpit, saw the co-pilot lean out and give the thumbs up. He turned just as Pitt, who, seeing the doors open propelled them forward out the rear of the aircraft at a fast, low hover, the immediate glare of the snow blinding him until his shades adjusted to the glare.

Camouflaged and cloaked they were invisible, but at the low level they were hovering caused disruption in the powdery surface of the snow. Baxter tapped Pitt on the arm pointing down and then indicated upwards, Pitt understood and raised them another twenty foot from ground level while they waited for the other sleds to form up.

Typically, they hadn't designed a means yet to neutralise the cloaking effect for those using them, so instead they expanded the shields until they made contact with each other. The shields harmonised until they were one elongated protective bubble. The ship had disappeared from view as soon as they exited. They didn’t even know if it was still there, or if it had taken off. It wouldn't matter for a few hours.

Baxter pointed them in the general direction before letting the on-board GPS provide them with exact coordinates. The sleds flew on for several hours, silently hugging the deep channels all the way along the snow ridges. Here, there was less chance of any refraction, or shadow. The chilled unheated air would have frozen their breath, had they not put on masks providing protection as well as oxygen for flying at high altitude altitude.

They halted in a dark ravine short of their destination and took the opportunity to eat a meal bar with hot coffee from flasks they carried. They checked their weapons and went over last minute details.

When they resumed they did so cautiously, not flying in straight lines or fast, but at varied speeds and indirect. They knew there were sensors around and checking their instruments regularly they were aware when the diversions began, as signals flashed up on their visors giving them updates on positions and enemy responses.

They made their last run hugging the cliff all the way; the waterfall was in full flow, making it a tough assignment to get past that initial surge. They would have a little help.

As each sled pulled up to the waterfall, it tethered itself using a tractor beam front and back. This held it close to the cliff within easy reach of the gushing water. They were already drenched from the cold spray, their thermal gear maintaining a warm separator from the outside environment sensed change and increased the output.

Templar, one of the first to reach the waterfall edge used hand clamps made up of tiny tractor beams that hooked themselves into cracks and crevices, pulled a grey tube he carried on his backpack, opening one end he shook out the contents.

A foot long black and silver fish, not unlike a large salmon, was ejected from the tube. It had a tractor clamp built into the base of its mouth and another on its stomach. A ring protruding from the base at the rear allowed Templar to attach a thin cord. He activated the salmon and threw it as deep into the opening as he could.

Monitoring the salmon on his visor display, he guided it paying out the thin cord as he did so. Like a real salmon, the black and silver fish swarmed up the rapids until it reached an area where the narrow rock entrance opened out into a slower moving stretch. It continued to swim a few more yards until it received a fresh command from Templar.

The fish shaped object changed mode and pressed itself up against the rock wall, pushing its head out of the water and embedding its face clamp into the rough surface. Retraction of its head pulled the second clamp out of the water which then activated. It repeated this several times until it was satisfied it had a good purchase on the rock face. It then released two grey squirts of adhesive nanites which swarmed over the area around it acting as load spreaders, enough to manage the weight of two humans against a fast flowing flood.

Templar held the cord tight as his team mate attached a double hand grip device to the cord. Keeping his mask on to supply him with air, he pressed a button on the grip which sent him into the freezing water in a fast dive, his boots disappearing last as the clamps yanked him up the cord.

With practised ease, each soldier copied the first and when the last had moved up the line, Templar followed, leaving five cloaked sleds behind ready for their escape.

They had achieved the easiest part of the mission, getting into the Fortress.

The Medusa was the latest Fortress artificial brain, simple, but specifically designed for warfare, tuned to its armaments and optimised for aggression. The multi-headed AI, so named because it also controlled the complete actions of all the ships in the fleet, proceeded to make way using its new propulsion system; a hydrogen-based engine allowing for fast cycling of power to its main propulsion and manoeuvring thrusters.

Encircled by its five slaved Dragon class gunships matching it for speed and agility, but with only half its size, the Medusa was by far the largest ship the Fortress had built within its secret space hangars. Although plans existed for much larger vessels, these could not be constructed on the surface. Work was currently ongoing to design and build an orbital platform construction yard which could be raised into space with anti-gravity lifts.

Firstly though, the Fortress had to deal with a growing annoyance. Space Island’s progress was accelerating and, if not stopped, would likely to be the first up in space. Since the uncovering of Ferris’ camouflaged espionage programme, the Fortress development had lost traction. It now needed scientists from the competing programme on-board to resolve its technical difficulties. Ferris intended to deal with that today.