POD (The Pattern Universe) (7 page)

Her chest plate appeared to melt, its shape altered as her personal nanites bored themselves to the surface. They carved out a circular groove on her armoured and decorated exterior and quickly formed a recessed ridge.

When they were finished, an electronic whine emanated from within the Queen’s chest and the newly created ridge clicked outward and sat proud of the plate. Then, as if being pulled by an invisible hand, it slowly extended outward on a slide rack into the Queen’s view.

The Queen’s crystal eyes, flecked with silver veined strands, floated within sockets of liquid silver. This intricate web centred on black pupils that contained an electronic iris. These eyes now zoomed in with precision on the extended platform as they critically inspected the glowing orb at microscopic level.

The thin metal wafers embedded with complex micro-circuitry were arrayed in a star-burst shape around a central hub. Each one, held in place from below, with one edge embedded into the main circuit hub, established a connection on two sides. The fanned display of processors provided for cooling and easy maintenance.

Twenty-four still glowed, flashing as her positron brain continued to run outside her body. She detected the six, two from each sector, that were dark and inactive. On a mental command, they clicked and raised upwards and outwards on their mountings to offer themselves up for replacement.

With growing tension, she replaced the six. Then, without returning the brain to its secure cavity, she ran initial diagnostics. When completed, she noted the new levels and analysed the probable total increase in power to intelligence ratio once all thirty chips were replaced. The Queen smiled, her mouth clicking in satisfaction.

After a further hour of replacement and analysis, the Queen returned the module that contained her brain to the security of her chest where the shielding would protect it from everything, including an electromagnetic pulse. Nubl had reason to be cautious, in the past there had been attempts by biological enemies to eradicate them.

With the chips now secured inside her, the Crystal Queen resumed her normal relaxed posture on her throne of silver and crystal which provided added power to control her hive. She was powerful enough without the throne; it did, however, allow her to bleed off some of the more mundane tasks to the lower caste AI that was enslaved within. This gave her the opportunity to isolate her private thoughts, which she now needed to do.

When the diagnostics had been completed, the Queen remained still for the remainder of Nagar’th. She needed this time. There was much to be done inside her complex systems. The speed and dexterity of her new power meant she was now looking at her situation with a fresh perspective.

As her new, incredibly powerful brain re-sorted and reviewed her race’s past, it re-analysed everything with a tenfold increase in power. The more she delved, the more intense her analysis became. She retraced their history back in time and where others before her had only managed to absorb some of the vast knowledge, her new Alacite processors allowed her to absorb all of it. What was more she was able to extensively analyse the data as she combed through it.

She began at the beginning of the archive, where much of the early information of her races’ past was recorded in retrospect and in report format. The attached files to the report carried vast quantities of analytical data and whilst she concentrated on the basic report, her mind took the attached information and absorbed it all. She mentally read the record...

The Nubl were born long, long ago through a zealous civilisation who believed that everything in life, the planet, the survival of species, had a solution in technology. In the continuing search for a final solution they developed their belief system to such an extent that they began to find beauty in an artificially generated flower, rather than that of a naturally grown bloom. The Nubl who followed this new almost religious doctrine referred to themselves as Technoists and disavowed all things natural where artificial could replace it.

As the technology continued to develop, the full extent of their obsession with artificial life grew to epidemic proportions. The Technoists cults developed a compact and reliable neural network which caused large numbers of them to transfer into artificial forms. They were allowed to retain their status and possessions so quickly became integrated into Nubl society.

Soon, they pressured friends, family and companions to join them in becoming synthetic - the ‘life’ balance became imperilled and eventually tipped in the favour of fabricated bodies.

As Technoists didn’t need to eat, drink or procreate, watching biological beings involved in these activities was soon deemed uncivilised. They developed a social distaste for biological forms which, over time, grew into an abhorrence of all life that wasn’t artificial.

Finally, the world in which they lived became overcrowded with artificial entities that never died. In an effort to find a means to survive and feed themselves, the biological Nubl began to introduce viruses to eradicate whole sections of the now artificially sentient population.

As time went on this developed into a fully fledged war between the Technoists and the Traditionalists. The Traditionalists lost and what now remained of them fled in small cryogenic ships to distant stars to re-start their civilisation. They were never seen or heard from again.

The Nubl Queen halted her internal review and looked more closely at the records that had accompanied this section. There were over two hundred recorded departures in different directions. Her enhanced memory and processing allowed her to impose the known Celnista Nubl map of Space over the historic records from her Hives’ current position. She could see clearly the paths of the Traditionalists exodus, of which as many as four ships traveled in the approximate direction of the silver being’s ship origins. Could they have survived?

The Queen considered the ramifications of dealing with descendants of Nubl Traditionalists and shuddered. A picture of a biological male imposed itself on her inner vision, it looked horrendously inefficient and unsterile. The thought and image in her mind would not leave, it somehow drew her. Disgusting she thought, but no matter what she did the image of the being stayed with her; sensing a thrill that was unfamiliar to her, different to when she had the silver being in her thrall. No, this reminded her of its escape which soured her mood. In the end unable to delete the image, she minimised it into a small section of her prodigious memory, resuming her reading of the narrative.

Centuries passed, evolution of artificial life diverged into tribes of differing attributes. As these tribes became centred on their leaders, so they also evolved hierarchies that promoted differing levels of subservience. Ability to reproduce clones was introduced, but only for those deemed worthy, usually the closest clone members who acted as Councillors.

Further centuries onwards, the leaders removed this ability from their Councillors, retaining it only for themselves, thus ensuring they could not be overthrown by large numbers of offspring not loyal to them.

Now, fifteen hundred years later, the tribes had evolved into warring nations spread across the depths of space. With little in common, their artificial sentience had evolved almost separately to the extent they considered themselves incompatible. The one common thing they maintained without question was the eradication of biological sentience, wherever it was discovered.

Beyond that, if one tribe made an unfortunate incursion into the territory of another, it would spark a war between the two, a ‘Haseel’, that would not halt until one of the Queens was killed along with her clones. Thus, they ensured that the remaining workers from that tribe would have no means to rally and would be unable to hold together as their hive mind was destroyed, reducing them to a state of individual consciousness. Most committed suicide, or went berserk and were cut down by the Nubl Hunters.

Any found by other Nubl nations were immediately eradicated, so they had no refuge anywhere. It was considered a sport to hunt down the ‘Nonites or nonnies' as they quickly became known, non-integrated entities, and those few that managed to survive, deliberately removed their antenna before the white noise and the electronic feedback drove them mad. They dispersed far and wide, becoming loners in an attempt to stay out of the reach of the Hunters.

The Queen pondered, quickly running through the numbers. She realised the success rate of Nonnie hunters only covered a fraction of the Nonites that had been created over millennia. This meant that there had to be a substantial number of expelled Nubl somewhere. She made a mental note to follow that up at some point. It wasn’t urgent, but could prove a worthwhile expedition if they could find and eradicate them. She resumed her reading of the records which now raised more questions than answers as her insights grew by the amount of data her mental processes sifted through.

Those clones that were ‘chosen’ within a tribe became commanders of legions. Within their legion, they carried all the different skills needed to repair and maintain themselves. Damage was rare, but often the lower ranks that were less supervised would fight between themselves for seniority. So the soldiers learned that, even at their level, allegiances could prove useful.

The Queen’s clones were the Elite Guard. Only a Nubl Queen could breed her cloned offspring, they were all linked permanently to her, and through her, to each other. So, when one clone discovered a sentient planet, they all knew within seconds, no matter where they were in the systems they claimed as their territory.

The Nubl Clones were provided with ships of their own which carried a small lower-caste clone crew which they depended upon to repair and maintain the craft, having no such skills themselves. The Elite could only command. They could not so much as steer their ship as it was considered beneath them to do so. The crew willingly catered for every need, after all, if their clone pleased the Queen then he might be raised above others. The higher ranking within the elite, the more chance that clone had of being given an opportunity to start a new hive. The workers would benefit.

The Queen’s concentration was broken by another startling revelation which pulled her out her reverie.

Things were not as healthy as they appeared to each of the tribes. Not capable of seeing the larger picture, the other Queens mistakenly believed the levels of the tribes and their hive densities remained the same. They were introvert and shunned external contact, except to trade. So, they didn’t see the diminishing of their race. When the question arose, it was presumed that the tribes had spread so far out, that contact was no longer be possible.

She realised now that the truth was infinitely more ominous. The constant Haseels fought between the tribes had reduced the once mighty Nubl to a small fraction of their earlier dominance of the systems they ruled. They were still a formidable foe against all comers, although perhaps, not for much longer.

As it was, only ten tribes of the Nubl remained of the original three hundred and eighty five. The Queen estimated that, within a further two or three hundred years, the remaining ten would be reduced to five, or less.

What was worse and actually more frightening was that the tribes that remained had only doubled in size from the original number. They did not, however, see the attrition of their overall numbers as any way to do with the way they managed their society. As they refused to meet, or even recognise their species except those in their own hives, they had no means by which to foretell the encroaching demise of their race.

The Nagar’th ended, the Queen remained unmoved, deep in thought. Her mental agility left her sorting, shifting and processing the massive flow of data, which represented not only her hives’ history, but the entire history of her race recorded in her archives. As she ran more and more processes to analyse the long-term outcome of past events, the growing threat to their current situation became increasingly apparent.

Nearby, the workers slowed, occasionally stopping as her processes took more and more power away from the Hive leaving them unguided and awaiting instruction. Her clones stood idle, bemused by their Queen’s inactivity. Her throne AI, increasingly unable to cope with the offloading of more responsibility for managing the hive, began to overheat from the strain. At its direct request, a nearby clone attended it providing cooling gases blasted in via a duct under the throne.

Throughout this, the Crystal Queen remained motionless for a period well into the next Nagar’th.

Overall activity in the hive had dropped to an unprecedented level. Workers ceased moving, their limited brain function sensing something amiss and having no network coordination to direct them. Managers, who usually received instructions from the Queen, or her clones, had none to follow. They also wandered listless and lost as if looking for function or purpose. The clones themselves, endowed with higher functionality, gathered in the throne room. Luckily, all were loyal to her. None sought to overthrow her in her first moment of weakness. In this, she was fortunate.

In space, her ships, aware of the drop in activity but without explanation, feared the worst - that a virus malady had infected the hive, or worse, their Queen was incapacitated. With no pre-programmed instructions giving them routines to follow they waited, idly drifting through empty space while events far away from them took their course.

Slowly, the Queen recovered, Over a period of time as her processes drew their conclusions and fed the data to her consciousness she became aware of the outside world. Never, in her entire existence, had she been so deeply engrossed. Her data archives stretched back millennia. What she had uncovered in her analysis astounded her. Double and triple-checked results ensured there were no errors anywhere. She created a new memory core that could be used as a platform to manage the massive decisions she would have to make.