The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (18 page)

Zeke saw an anti-tank weapon and flinched, wondering if the penetration of the shield into the ground would provide him with sufficient stability to withstand the blast. His bio readings would indicate to the shield his concerns, and he hoped it would it would dig in.

He considered moving out of the way using his enhanced speed, but this would mean the police vehicles and bystanders might get caught in the blast instead. Zeke decided he would have to try and take the impact.

Then, a shape appeared beside him. Zirkos! Their shields instantly melded just as a gout of smoke and flame erupted from the shoulder held tube. Zeke saw the trail in the second it took to reach them. Bracing themselves against the incoming missile he wondered just how they would survive. They had never personally tested these shields at such extremes.

As the impact hit Zeke felt the pressure and some of the heat leaking through the screen of the forcefield.

The blast turned the shields to a dark red glow around them, but they held, keeping them rooted to the ground beneath as the explosion raged. Then, as clarity returned, the smoke cleared, so did the shields.

Despite the massive impact crater where the blast had spread along the bottom edge of the shield, Zeke and Zirkos had stood firm. There was damage all around them, shrapnel from the anti-tank missile everywhere, but nobody had been harmed. All shields had held.

“I think we were expected” Zeke smiled at Zirkos.

He laughed and handed him his gun.

“Ready?”

They walked slowly to the main entrance and as gunmen appeared they picked them off with needle accuracy. There was no recoil from the gun which because it blasted a kinetic shock wave, sounded like one as it displaced the surrounding air causing percussive effects.

Romanov appeared, he had the remote detonator in his hand. Zeke didn’t dare shoot him yet.

“So, you think your shield can save all of these people, you stupid foreigner, meddling in the affairs of Mother Russia? He bellowed, finger poised above the button.

“Oh! Things are changing Romanov, your way isn’t the way to do things any more. It never was.”

“Oh, I think you won’t be so popular after this goes off,” retorted Romanov who was, of course, safe behind his shield.

‘DXC neutralised came the mental message from Ship.

“Well, if you are going to press it, you lilly livered coward who Mother Russia would bury in the backyard along with the bones of the other chickens, go ahead!”

Romanov pressed the button. Nothing happened! He looked around confused when no explosion took the building apart. He ran back in through the main doors and disappeared inside.

‘Clear’ Zeke ordered via his implant. ‘Ship, take Romanov out of there first before he shoots anyone.’

Climbing the steps outside the building back to back ensuring there were no more surprises they reached the doors and walked in. Seeing the grenades lying to the side seconds from to exploding, Zeke pointed the gun, ordered a wide beam and literally pressure waved them back at the attackers just inside the door. When they went off Zeke and Zirkos followed in right behind them.

As the smoke from the grenades moved away they watched as the opposition disappeared in sections as Ship grabbed whole groups and removed them to the holding cells. Petrov would be rubbing his hands with glee.

As they released hostages, some of them threw off the satchels of explosives as if they were something evil and tried to get as far from them as they could.

When Zeke walked over to one of the bags and rummaging around, brought out a stick of what looked like light brown plasticine, they stepped further back.

But, when he bit off a piece of it and started chewing, their eyes popped, jaws dropping open. He turned to them and threw over a piece, they ran timidly for cover.

One went back, picked it up and smelt it. “Almonds?”

Zeke nodded and took another bite.

The Russian nibbled and laughed deliriously, almost hysterically. “Marzipan,” he shouted at the others, “it’s Marzipan,” and broke off pieces to hand out.

By the time everyone had understood, and delved into their satchels or bags which had moments before contained high end explosive, to find it was only an almond paste sweet bar, the place was in uproar as the relief of everyone swept through the building.

Zirkos and Zeke left them to it as the Police began filing in to take statements and handle the aftermath of the chaos.

Back on the ship Zeke stacked several blocks of the converted DXC on the side of the kitchen area as a reminder to always think outside the box!

- 17 -

After the take-down of the Russian Mob in Moscow, things went more smoothly as other mob bosses from the outlying areas suddenly decided to cooperate with the initiative to manufacture personal shields. The two companies capable of building the city sized shields and power units were up and running in a matter of weeks and within a further three months, Moscow lay under a protective shield of its own.

The citizens were happy to wear their own personal forcefields and as the spread of them became more commonplace, the level of crime and violent assaults dropped to such low proportions that the Police were often seen playing football with the kids in the street.

They soon became disgruntled when their forces reduced in size due to lack of work, but then the factories producing the new technology took up the slack and the domestic Russian economy grew in leaps and bounds as prosperity went hand in hand with increased tourism. With the benefit of shielding in restaurants and cafés, al fresco dining became popular. The mob were not missed and by now most of the leaders had been incarcerated. Government officials that were linked to them suddenly found themselves out on the streets where corruption died because there were no more victims.

By this time the effect was spreading widely in the USA and China. By selling the units to other countries or licensing the technology to countries for their own domestic manufacture, the ability to walk freely without fear began to overtake everything else.

It soon became irrelevant whether a shield was worn, or not. The Crime against people just died out and when that happened fear dropped away like clouds dissolving in the rays of the summer sun. People gained tolerance and respect and opened their eyes to the variety of cultures around them. It was an idyllic period.

Wider afield the rampant progression of warfare, gun running and terrorism, whilst trying hard to find extreme ways to survive, began to fall out of favour. Why shoot at something if you cannot damage, or kill it.

They tried to develop technology to overcome the shields, but with the nanobots resident in every product it was simply upgraded on a piggyback link and any emitter, or city shield in the locality of a modified unit automatically received the upgraded code and the status quo was maintained.

Society began to move away from violence and as it did so it became more aligned towards constructive development, a more positive period of growth and advancement.

The introduction of anti-grav vehicles was coming. Everyone knew it and looked forward to cheap transport. The public wanted more of this new technology that promised more freedom, less fear and greater attention to quality of life.

The oil companies were, like the Russian Mafia, resistant to change and dug their heels in trying to corrupt the wheels of progress, but without the ability to buy and bury patents, or smother companies that worked with the new technology, they found their ways blocked by Zeke’s group endeavours.

Eventually Zeke and his growing band of supporters gained world-wide recognition where, instead of fighting them at every turn, the global corporations slowly began to come to Zeke to discuss ways in which they could participate. The impasse was over and the era of cooperation was in full swing.

***

Above the Arctic Circle Spring 2026

Garner sat at the porthole with Zeke, his second term as President was shortly coming to an end and he wanted one last time to sit looking at his planet from the amazing perspective of the T-Ship in space.

“We need something new to work on as a nation, Zeke,” he admitted. “The people are restless and want innovation and improvements to their lives.”

He ticked off his fingers.

“We have integrated the personal shield. The tractor beam technology has taken off and created all manner of new branches of development. The anti-grav industry is developing viable products, our nanobot and nanite technology is breaking new ground especially in healthcare.” He put his hands out.

“What more of this new technology could we persuade Zirkos to part with?”

Zeke pondered. The two of them had discussed this long and hard and Zirkos felt that until the world below them moulded into a single entity, or at least had at its head a single governing body, that developing space travel technology beyond their already adolescent rate would be counter productive and splinter the human race more than it was already.

He knew that if the threats coming towards them were to arrive while individual countries were running their own independent space industries, they would not stand a chance of retaliation and would be at their most vulnerable.

Garner had been forceful with the American government bodies and as a result his standing with the people was high. He had not delayed in streamlining law enforcement and military bases to a ruthlessly run level with little fat.

Again the new technologies that had been introduced had been developed and enhanced as a stepping stone to even greater ideas and products meaning the employment take-up from redundancies had maintained his popularity.

The biggest losers appeared to be insurance companies. Zeke chortled at that seeing as their refusal to cover his medical bills on return from the Gulf contributed to his insurmountable problems. He was happy to be contributing to their difficulties right now.

The biggest difference came in the reduction in arms carrying citizens who felt that this no longer remained necessary and large quantities of small arms had been relegated to attics, strong boxes and in some cases converted to manhole covers by the various State projects.

The world was disarming on a global scale. There were obviously people who gathered in groups, held rally’s and fought to maintain the right to maintain their guns. Nobody stopped them, they just slowly became irrelevant as the use of personal screens expanded to the whole nation. Even schools made them compulsory.

Zeke and Zirkos both knew this was not the desirable conclusion because unlike the world down there, they were aware of the impending invasion which was not a matter of if, but when. As a result Zirkos wanted to leave and look for his Brethren, or signs of the Nubl to ascertain the level of risk from them, or others. Zeke couldn’t think of a reason to stop him except that Zirkos was his only friend and Ship, his only home.

Zeke looked over at Garner.

“Frank, what will you do when your Presidency comes to an end?” he asked in preparation to fielding an idea he had.

Garner mused, hedging as he sensed that something was coming his way, so Zeke expanded.

“Put it this way, you have had two terms of very successful government, you have tied the USA to many countries with the distribution and sharing of new technology. You have achieved more than any President in history in bringing about world peace.” Garner was nodding, but not thinking hard enough for Zeke.

So, Zeke repeated his question. “So I ask you again, what will you do next?”

Garner looked him in the eye “Zeke, frankly I don’t really know what I could do with my time. Like Presidents before me I will be on hand for the new President to lean on for a while. After that I might take up fishing.”

“If I told you that there is a lot more that you could do, in fact ‘must do’ to prepare our world for what is to come, would you be interested in helping us achieve it?”

“Well, that’s an interesting offer, Zeke, but you will need to tell me what is coming so that I can make that decision for myself.”

So, Zeke spent the next hour telling Garner what Zirkos had told him and what he had himself researched using the Ship as a retrievable archive. Ship provided visual replays of many of the genocides committed on alien worlds and at the end Garner was convinced.

“Well, just how do you propose we go about getting this off the ground Zeke? Dang! We don’t even have the ability to cope in space except as an experimental space station. Admittedly its moving along now, but there’s no way in hell we’re gonna get that kind of technology up and running in a hurry, unless.....”

“Yes, we had intended that the next phase was to create a universal shipyard to develop and build ships. Ship can replicate them one at a time initially, but its processor intensive and would tie us down at a time when we need to be more flexible.”

“It would be better,” Zeke added, “if there was independent ability to construct a viable spaceship that met our needs. That way we would grow our own expertise.”

“Hmmh! I agree and its something that will pull nations together if the expertise can be spread across the international circuit. I’m up for that.” he nodded positively.

“How would you see it working, you can’t just pull people away from what they are doing,” he asked.

Zeke, thought about how to go about appraising Garner of the overall objective, which was to have a Space Navy prepared for anything that might come at them. As much as he hated the idea, a Military venture had more going for it than a civilian one, just how to make it work was the issue.

“We don’t need civilian freighters because there is nowhere to transport anything, although there will be a need for commercial mining, this is a way off yet.”

“Yes?” Garner agreed so far.

“We do need to prepare for the eventuality of the Nubl, or some other attack at some point in the future...” Zeke paused.

“Yeees!” A slightly more sceptical agreement, his eyebrow was arching and Zeke knew that it was going to be an issue of making it seem democratic for Garner to go for it.

“....and we do need to do this without coming across as warmongers to the peace lobby that has gained considerable ground since the introduction of the shield technology.”