POD (The Pattern Universe) (20 page)

It would now travel wherever the dead ship went. He knew his Queen had commanded him to set it on a course back to its original home system. Not the place itself, but the path along which it came. Where it came to rest, the transponder would tell him. There. That would be the prize of greatness beyond all others.

The scientists had confided in him before their re-compositioning had taken place, that the properties of the alien Alacite were ‘unusual’ and bestowed superior power to the user when used in parallel sets. The Queen had inserted them, slept and then had indeed awoken from a long Nagar’th. Once restored she had set about reorganising the hive in a way that had not been seen for many generations. She was animated beyond any before her. She was a Warrior Queen and all would follow her on an endless Haseel.

He, Cebrel, would lead the battle as her ‘Ta and he would defeat those first who would demean their skill and belittle their efficient and forward thinking designs. He would avenge their smirks and petty critiques and bring their arrogance down around their antenna. He would bind them to heel and force them to pray to his Queen before slicing their inner sanctums and ripping their star bursts from their chests.

First, though, he must deal with this silver ship of the alien they had captured, who had since disappeared just as his living sac that held his body of filth was to be turned into acrid embers. Cebrel ordered the ship to be released. The final insult bestowed was to have it depart end over end, the Nubl insult representing total contempt.

He watched as it disappeared into the darkness of deep space grunting with grim satisfaction. Travel, you desecrated beast of biological servitude, from whence you came. I shall find you and when I do, then shall your existence be as if it never was.
Be warned, the Nubl are coming
.

- 16 -

Pod watched carefully as the invasion of Space Island unfolded. So far it had proceeded as anticipated. Pod had envisaged that the island would be disarmed by the human, Ferris, who would be in control before the end of the day. It wasn’t prepared to assist Ferris and would only intervene in Space Island’s defence if Osbourne, Pennington or Garner were likely to be harmed. It had a responsibility to Zeke to protect them and it felt personally responsible for Lang as it had re-materialised him originally.

Pod’s adopted policy of non-interference in this matter left it a little unsettled, but it had formed its decision on set criteria based on Zirkos' original intentions; to create the strongest unified force possible to deal with the Nubl threat.

Yes, it acknowledged to itself that it was interpreting those instructions, but Pod desired the best outcome for the humans. In its mind, this ongoing battle would either force another stalemate through which both sides would continue to strengthen their ability to defend or attack. It decided that it would be better still, if one side won completely, then combined all of the knowledge and skills under one roof.

Pod was watching the Mother-ship’s activities when the Warrior-bots stopped functioning, one during mid-flight with Pennington under its metal arm. It looked as if would plummet into the sea, so Pod intervened and guided it unobtrusively to the hatch entrance. If it could have done so, Pod would have flinched as the Warrior-bot careered uncontrollably across the deck, leaving Pennington dazed, but unharmed.

Pod wondered about the Warrior-bot malfunction, but didn’t have long before it had to recalculate its expectations based on the response by Space Island it had not set any contingency for.

Osbourne, whom it had deemed safe until they arrived at the Fortress, was now unaccountably free. He appeared to be applying nanites to the Warrior-bots holding his friends who then began extricating themselves from the now inert metalwork. Interesting. Why were the Warrior-bots inactive?

Pod was intrigued by the weaponisation of the nanites so transferred some from one of the Warrior-bots to its internal receptacle to examine them more closely.

This set off an alarm response in Pod as they immediately began eating the container they had been deposited in. Pod promptly expelled the offending nanites to outer space before they did anything other than surface damage to its interior. It reviewed carefully what it had gathered by way of information during its short examination.

These new nanites were incredibly dangerous, it seemed little could stop them. It made a note to request more information from Osbourne. No, this was a direct threat to Pod as well as Ship. It decided that instead it would collect the information from his computer. It needed to find a defence against this weapon.

It now considered that, with the addition of the killer nanites and the obvious distress of the AI invasion fleet, the odds had changed to a fifty percent chance of Space Island securing a stay of execution.

Breaking the self-imposed rules it had adopted for this human showdown, Pod did a thorough scan of the island’s surface, discovering in the process that all the bots were similarly disabled; the invasion apparently thwarted by the smallest of things.

The nanites had somehow disabled them all. Yet, there were no trace of them on the bots that littered the Complex below. Just the three on the Mother-ship were being consumed by the nanites. Although the Fortress nanites that had been set to protect the brain and control centres were fighting back, slowly overcoming the killer nanites by their overwhelming numbers, fatal damage to the machines had already occurred.

Pod continued to adhere to its self designated protection of Osbourne and the others. It had not been able to save the soldiers that had inadvertently positioned themselves on the other side of the doors which had been destroyed by cannon fire. It regretted the loss of life, but didn’t have the time, or materials, to re-fabricate their patterns.

When it followed the Mother-ship and its phalanx of gunships back to the Fortress, Pod was surprised to find the complex was decimated. Searching for the reason for such a change of circumstances, it uncovered the remnants of a battle underground. There was more evidence of killer nanites having been released and still working.

Wisely, Pod decided to keep itself clear of any possible infection choosing to remain well above the now inactive shield. It instead scanned the structures below ground and as the island forces spread throughout the complex, the attention shifted to the control room area and a small shielded room that Pod was unable to penetrate.

Analysing it remotely, as being of the same constituent materials as the laboratory, Pod deduced that Ferris, who was nowhere to be found, had removed himself to the room. The Space Island forces were now seeking to gain entry to secure Ferris so it seemed all was now over for the rebel human leader.

It became plainly evident that it had greatly under-estimated the abilities of the humans on Space Island. They had not only fought off an invasion by a superior force and technology, but had also invaded and overcome the Fortress itself and won the day.

Realising Osbourne and Pennington had the matter completely under control, Pod, now feeling a little unsure of itself, jumped back into space. It decided it needed to re-evaluate its analytical capabilities, as whilst very satisfied with the outcome, it was aware that it had miscalculated the human abilities substantially. It was an error it did not want to repeat.

Osbourne placed the vial up against the door to Ferris’s safe room and tipped the remaining quantity of grey sludge onto the handle recess where it immediately clung to the doorway and began eating into the metal shielding. There was little danger this batch would spread beyond the doorway as the timer on the lifespan of the nanites was running out and it would only have sufficient time to eat its way through the door.

As they began to have an impact on the metals of the door and the frame, Goeth arrived back with two glass vials containing nanites he had recovered. He passed them gingerly to Osbourne, who used one vial on the hinged side of the doorway. As the grey sludge slid its way down the hinges utilising the force of gravity, it too began to eat its way into the door frame

Pennington waited until there was light showing through both sides of the doorway, then two of his biggest soldiers pressed themselves against the door which heaved open on one side leaving a single hinge holding the bulk of the door off the ground. It was breached; they were in.

They moved in, Goeth and Osbourne behind the three soldiers. Garner hung back, not sure whether to be involved, or not. He needed to be here; he had the Space Council to answer to. It would go a lot easier for him if he could speak first-hand about being there, in the midst, able to account for their actions from a personal perspective. Still, the idea of being this close to Ferris didn’t give him any comfort at all. So, he held back as much as he dared.

The room was a standard office in that there was a desk, chair, cabinets and bank of monitors on the wall and three on the desktop. There was little in the way of decoration in there and nothing seemed out of place, except for Ferris, that is.

Goeth moved quickly ahead of the soldiers and Pennington, all of whom were now standing with weapons raised in the firing position unsure of what they saw. Goeth understood immediately.

Ferris was sitting in a chair facing them, at least, what used to be Ferris. It was now a strange, mottled, greeny-blue carapace being that still in parts wore a military General’s uniform. Ferris looked bloated, the swelling brought on by the mutation overtaking his biological body.

It forced his body into stretching to an abnormal size without breaking, the leathery nature of his skin containing the pressure, turning the pressure inward, collapsing his vital organs despite the shielded sheaths grown around them. He had died a death that must have been excruciatingly painful, regardless of his ability to withstand the pain after months of enduring the mutation of his body. It had simply eaten him away from the inside.

Stubborn to the end, Ferris must have realised that excessive traumas, such as the sound grenades and the resulting damage to his arms and legs, would accelerate the reaction of the Ferrazine in his body. The stress brought on by losing, compounded by the added strain of seeing the computer room wrecked, seeing his plans being turned from pure genius to idiocy in moments because of unexpected intervention and a small flask of grey sludge, all led to a Ferrazine overload.

When Osbourne finally stepped forward and tipped the remaining vial of nanites onto the once superhuman body of Ferris, nobody intervened. Better this than dealing with the issue in a more public way. The Ferrazite had destroyed him; nobody wanted anything to do with him, or the by-product

Garner stepped forward and despite everything that had happened, stood quietly with head bowed saying a prayer for Ferris. Nobody else would mourn him, not after the deaths of their people today. They realised that Garner was mourning an old enemy and that this was more for him than for Ferris.

As the single most powerful leader on Earth now, Garner could afford a moment of spiritual generosity. The moment passed. He turned and walked away.

He had a world to run and ‘by God’, he was going to make it all happen.

It took the full remaining lifespan of the nanites to dispose of the Ferrazine aspects of Ferris’s body. As their single-use power cells drained, they dropped to the carpet amongst the mush of the mutated elements. Now, completely inert and of no further use; they could be sucked up, or recycled into something new.

That which was left of Ferris was burned in place using chemicals from Goeth’s laboratory. Goeth smiled grimly as he realised that, despite his past loyalty to Ferris, his death was a welcome release from tyranny. His group of lab rats downstairs would be keen to depart the Fortress, he couldn’t blame them.

After checking the room for secrets and important records, and removing what was felt to be important, they sealed the room using a nanite paste which formed a thick steel alloy type skin over the entrance.

Outside in the control room, Goeth and Osbourne were talking about the time between Osbourne escaping and today. They had a lot to discuss and one of the main questions on Goeth's mind was what was going to happen to him. He broached the question with Osbourne.

“What do you think should happen with you, Dr. Goeth?” Osbourne used his formal title to separate their previous chats with an official enquiry.

“I admit I have been a willing party to the rebellion since the death of Jannson, but I believe I have much to offer Space Island in terms of experience and research.” He looked out the corner of his eye to try and gauge Osbourne’s reaction. He pushed his luck, “I’m sure your Mr. Callaghan will want to make use of me.” Goeth was hoping that mentioning Jannson would indicate whether or not he would be held accountable. He knew that Osbourne had seen much of what was happening back in the days when the first Fortress was operational. Just how much did he know, or suspect and was he going to call him out.

Osbourne knew or suspected Goeth’s involvement in Jannson's death. He wasn’t going to trust the man any further than necessary, but it was important for the scientists to combine their efforts, at least until a new team had evolved from the two different laboratories. He decided to pretend indifference to the fate of Jannson while working out how to get justice for Jannson.

“We will have to leave it to Zeke to decide when he gets back from his space trials with our new Marauder class, spaceship. However, I don’t think there will be a problem if we can resolve to work together. I presume you will accept that you can no longer lead the laboratory and will have to be answerable to me?” Osbourne coughed to avoid breaking into laughter as he saw Goeth’s face drop at the realisation of that little bombshell.

“You have a spaceship - in space?” Goeth queried, his aggrieved look turning to astonishment at finding that his competitors had overcome the space travel issues. Not only that, but they had a viable ship. “You must let me be involved, I absolutely promise, you won’t have any problems from me,” he added excitedly as he realised that his work could take a big leap forward with this new information.