The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (14 page)

Currently, the human country they called ‘China’ was attempting to ascertain the reason the human country called ‘USA’ was re-pointing its satellite monitoring stations into outer space instead of at their nuclear refining factories.

It was not to China’s disadvantage for the USA to do so, but communication between some of the humans indicated that this was a potential opportunity. Whilst others showed concern that the repositioning might represent an unknown threat they were not aware of. Pod had to try and collate this information into a cohesive report for Ship.

Three days later the Pod was still monitoring and sending periodic reports to Ship filled with mundane information that the Pod A.I. itself took no interest in. When it finally came to a momentary pause in its routines a pop-up result that had until then, been hidden behind its main running enquiries, came to the top of the pile.

‘Diagnostic analysis:
Processors 5, 7, 10, 14, 18, 22, 26 running between 10.4 and 13.4% below peak efficiency.
Accepted parameter pre-set at: ±5%.’

Pausing some processes and shunting routines from the worst four processors, the Pod A.I. de-materialised the faulty cores. It then proceeded to remove the substandard particles of Pheson Alacite from the molecular content using the technology developed to isolate the humans metal from his bloodstream. Then replaced the shortfall with a small quantity from the Ship’s store.

Having stored the sub standard Alacite in a work area. Pod re-materialised its processors and inserted them in their former positions in the array.

Pod noted the immediate improvement in its performance as each processor was modified. When complete it set another background diagnostic scan to compare final results. Having now sufficient capacity to carry out its routines without over taxing its processing reserves Pod resumed all tasks without further analysis.

***

President Garner took the call from Ferris and sat down to listen to his report.

“Sir, Mr President. I have to inform you that Jannson is still having issues performing as lead Scientific Officer so I have installed Goeth into the position as a permanent fixture. It appears Jannson seems unbothered and we are bringing in a Military Shrink to see what can be done for his state of mind, which remains unfocused on the projects. We frankly have concerns for his state of mind.

The anti-gravity trials have proven very successful. The globes we use around the complex have been reproduced here in our factories even though the alien ship can fabricate them out of raw materials right in front of us. We nonetheless would like to keep a control over the technology development and this seems the most efficient means with which to achieve that. Sir.”

“That's a good stance to take Ferris, how do the fabricated ones compare in terms of performance?” asked Garner

“That’s just the point Sir, they operate more efficiently, we don’t yet know why.”

“Interesting, keep them looking at that, will you Ferris, there might be an important lesson to be learned here, if we can catch it.”

“Sir, will do Sir. The Tractor Beam technology, although seemingly simple at the outset is proving problematic, they can achieve small successes, but when larger objects are attempted, the system overloads. The Boffin s are working on that with the Alien.”

He continued.

“The Shielding prototypes are working, but again are also having issues when scaling up, they think the issue is linked to the same problems with the Tractor Beam. If we solve one, we think it will solve the other.”

The most interesting development is the Ferrazine compound that is created with Callaghan’s blood is not replicating in any other blood samples we provide. We have not yet isolated the factor in Callaghan’s blood that is causing the molecular change.

The team feel like they are heading down a dead-end and want to get him to insert a small section of the metal under his skin so they can monitor it. He’s resisting at the moment, Sir. I can’t say I blame him for that, all things considered.”

“Can’t you insert it into someone else with the same blood group, Ferris?” asked Garner.

“None of the boffins want to do it, Sir, I’m the same blood type, Sir. With your permission I would be prepared to try it.”

“Ferris, I give you permission to make your own decision on ‘yay’, or ‘nay’, and I will stand by whichever it is. Have it removed as soon as your feel your performance drops below anything you can manage, you are doing too good a job there to lose you, understood?”

“Sir, Yessir Mr President, thank you Sir.”

“Next week, same time, Ferris, I want a full report on all counts. Thank you. “ Garner replaced the receiver.

Jake Jefferson, Garners Secretary for Defence had just sat through the whole of the conversation. He now eyed him suspiciously as though he had just detected that his friend and President had suddenly grown another head. He had only heard Garners end of the conversation, but was immediately disturbed.

“Ferris? General Ferris?”

Garner looked at his friend. “Jake, supposing you were the President and somebody came to you and told you that they could produce a personal shielding device that would protect your men in battle, the only conditions were that you would have to supply the manpower in secret to develop it, they would do the rest.”

“I would bite their hand off, Frank. you know that”

“Well, we have such an operation ongoing and Ferris was already in place with a team exploring biotech possibilities when this came up. It was natural to keep everything in place rather than upset a working project.”

“But, Ferris?”

“Well, to be honest there were various conditions laid down, mostly in terms of security, monitoring of the project and its location being kept totally secret, even from me.” Garner admitted.

“And the other conditions?” Jefferson queried.

“Aah! there’s the rub Jake. Once its working and the production niggles sorted we have to agree to supply it to the rest of the world and share the manufacturing processes with China, Great Britain, the Euro zone, Russia and Japan.”

“Geezus Frank!” Jefferson stood up and began pacing the room. “Are you telling me this... this ‘General Ferris’ fellow is handling this?”

The President knew his friend was getting angry, and for good reason. He had been holding out on him and HE ‘was’ the Secretary of Defence. He should have been in the loop from the start.

“You should have bought me in on this..” he stabbed a pudgy finger at the President, something he would never do in company, but together they were just back to being old school buddies

“You need to tell me everything right now. I have a nation of Americans to defend and you’re telling me we have secretly developed a Sci-Fi Shield that will protect our troops on the ground from bullets and that some two-bit recently ‘jumped up’ general is in charge of its development?”

Garner chuckled as he watched his friend get wound up with the news he had withheld from him. He knew he was just getting the surprise out of his system and he would calm down in a minute. Time for some damage control, he decided.

“JJ, I’m telling you about it now. I intended to all along, but I needed time to think about what this means not just to us, our nation, but to the whole of the planet. So, sit down and let me tell you what you need to know.”

As the President told his friend about the project and other aspects under development, his friend JJ sat and listened intently. At the end he sat back and gave a big sigh as he absorbed everything of what General Ferris was managing, but not who for, and not where. Jefferson wasn’t entirely happy, but was running with it for now.

“Okay Frank, you got me settled and up to date. How do you want to play it from here. Where do you see this shield gizmo taking us?” he asked his friend.

“Does it work?”

“Yes, it does. The intention is to make the personal shield cheap and affordable for everyone, its going to be reduced down to a small box the size of mobile phone and will clip on peoples belts or wrists and provide them protection from everything except a direct hit from a bomb, even then we’re not yet sure if that isn’t possible too. Its a scaling issue apparently.”

“But giving it to the rest of the world kinda defeats the object doesn’t it, Frank?”

“Not at all, JJ. In fact it takes much of the reason for war out of the equation. Why fight if you cannot kill, maim or wound anything. Suicide bombers will be wasting their deaths, terrorists will stop blowing up town centres. Even gang culture would change on the streets of our cities. Street crime will all but disappear and when the ratio of violence reduces to the point where people feel safer, then guns themselves will become less important, even irrelevant.”

Garner went on, having first checked his friend was still on-board.

“They are working on the scaling, when its sorted they believe they can generate larger shields to protect buildings, even cities. It could be incorporated into motor vehicles so they could avoid damage in accidents; even aircraft.

So, you see it has a massive impact the wider the technology spreads and if the different countries involved in the manufacture continue to improve designs, effectiveness and portability, the greater the level of protection for everyone.”

“Bloody Hell” was all that Jake Jefferson could say. It was enough.

***

Zeke was brooding.

He sat at the porthole gazing out over the night side of Earth and pondering the workload they had accumulated in recent weeks. This was the first opportunity he had to consider his own needs for some time now and he was tired.

He realized this was partly due to the lack of sleep he was getting, a side effect of the mutation of his system with the the small amount of Alacite still active in his bloodstream. He found looking out the porthole gave his mental processes some respite.

At Zirkos’ suggestion he had presented himself to a variety of martial arts and self defence studios as well as invited some old buddies still in the Services to physical challenges in an attempt to measure the improvements to his body.

He had tried hard to keep the true extent of his abilities from them, but in all cases it was noticeable how much faster and stronger he had become. He was not concerned so much about that, as he was the requests to reinsert some of the metal so the scientists could turn him into a lab rat again.

He would do it except for the worry he had on the continued mutation of his system. He was human, he had no desire to be anything but, human. If this was going to turn him into something else, he wanted nothing to do with it. So, he fretted that nobody yet could tell him where it was likely to stop.

Zirkos walked in, he had been as active as Zeke lately and Ship had told him that the Human was showing signs of disturbance. He had come to check on his friend personally.

“Hello Zeke, I find you here more and more these days.”

“Yes, its a soothing location and its rare to find anywhere that provides for some peace, I like it.” Zeke smiled.

“How do you think we are progressing with Phase Two of the plan?” he enquired, hoping to draw Zeke out and get to the back of his mood change.

“Its going well, there are now over four hundred scientists down there and in excess of one thousand engineers and factory workers. We are producing a wider range of finished products ready for distribution.”

“Is it time to introduce Phase Three, do you think?”

“It could be, lets get Garner up here for a meeting and figure out how he tells his Security Council that the USA has suddenly developed new technology that will make them vastly superior to all other nations on Earth.”

He chuckled and added what he was thinking “and that just after he tells them he is going to share all of the technology with other major powers. They are going to flip double somersaults in trying to have him impeached.”

“Yes, I see the problem, I had considered it. I think the way forward is this.”

Zirkos continued to explain his idea to Zeke and the next few hours left them deep in discussion as they worked out how to introduce Phase Three without starting a civil or a global war.

***

Ferris had decided to participate with the insertion of a small section of Ferrazite. He was at the heart of himself a Marine and a soldier, but beneath that he enjoyed being in control, mostly in power.

He had a lot of new power now as Commander of the Fortress, as it had become known. Nonetheless, he felt that additional faculties as demonstrated by Callaghan in the conference room would suit him admirably. He didn’t like being bested and he wanted nothing more than to get revenge and he was a man who knew just how to get what he wanted.

He went off in search of the Scientists and prepared for what he knew from watching Callaghan’s progress, would be a god-damned painful experience.

- 15 -

Garner and Jefferson stood nervously together as the National Security Council convened around them. None of the attendees knew what was to be discussed, it had been called by The President, after lengthy arguments with Jefferson. They agreed that it needed ratification from the Council before the whole matter went any further.

Unusually it was the President that intended to disseminate knowledge to the NSC rather than the usual piecemeal contributions from each member combining to mock up a strategy for the President to consider. For this reason there was considerable excitement within the room.

When the meeting came to order and the President had sat down he looked around the room at the twenty two people who he relied on to help him run the Country and wondered what they were all going to think of him after the next thirty minutes.

“Ladies and Gentleman,” the President began.

“I have called this meeting today to ask you all to consider the likely position of the United States if, in a short period of time, weeks at most, the objective of war and aggression were defeated by such a great leap in technology, that it would result in violent oppression by any opponent being impossible to achieve.”

The room was quiet as he paused for breath. Their attention firmly on absorbing what he had just said. He knew he had their interest.