The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (2 page)

The Pod's A.I. now able to address its immediate concerns surveyed the damage, correctly assessing that the power requirement to make the repairs would leave the Pod with insufficient reserves to lift it from the swamp. It nonetheless made its decision.

It reduced the Pod’s shield to minimum to conserve power. Then began to carry out essential nano repair work on its thrusters and anti-gravity servos. It still had damaged power cells to repair and no link to the stored patterns including the Occupant Maker’s access links which were also off-line from the crash landing. These were considered by the A.I. to be of secondary importance and it ignored them.

Once the repairs were completed, the A.I. calculated it had sufficient power to make a single attempt to boost itself from the deep mire. It therefore attempted to drag itself out of the clogging mud which proved more viscous than anticipated.

As a result it only succeeded in negotiating itself to a shallow shelf nearer the surface before the power threatened to give out completely. It was still too far below the surface to send up a remote beacon, or power collector.

There was no life on this planet, at least nothing on land. The A.I. had previously detected the beginnings of simple life forms in the liquid part of the planet though these were of no use to the Pod.

There was, therefore, no technology to communicate with, or seek assistance from. It was unable to communicate with its Makers, and unable to source energy this deep underground. It had no means of furthering its objectives at this time.

The Pod was stranded.

The A.I. went through all possible permutations within its processor capacity within milliseconds. It calculated the Pod had a 0.005% chance of recovery.

Having no emotional involvement in the outcome it logically accepted its situation. Then without the ability to feel regret or any other emotion, it shut down all, but essential processes leaving a trickle feed to the outer shield to protect from the worst of unknown environmental erosion and set an Auto Sensor link to its Awake Sequence.

Its final act was to shut itself off to await a change in circumstances.

The Pod now inert and lifeless except for the occasional electronic beat would remain that way for millennia.

- 2 -

Devon, England. Springtime 2020

It had been raining heavily over the last week saturating the English countryside and swelling local rivers to overflowing. The curtains of water lashing down day after day, were just part of the annual ritual of the English weather.

The overflowing fields and plains always preceded summer's abundance of wild greens which formed a natural preserve, considered by the countrified gentry to be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Which was just their subtle way of keeping the property developers at bay.

This year was looking to be the worst on record. Water had risen fully a foot above the previous highest level recorded. The date on the old Norman church wall built at the edge of the sea town’s flood plain was etched with the year 1815. The punt attached by a rope tether to the old iron ring next to the date had long since fallen into disuse. It now languished submerged and rotten still hanging untended from the ring; a telling testimony to the change in the way rural folk managed this naturally occurring phenomenon.

Sown fields desperately clinging onto their tender shoots of wheat, corn, rapeseed or whatever else the farmers had planted this spring, were now completely waterlogged, in real danger of drowning or being swept away in the swelling waters of the incessant rainfall.

Rural roads running through hills and valleys dipped below the waters at every turn leaving unprepared drivers stranded or sitting on top of their shiny motors as the water pressed hungrily around them as they awaited rescue by the local tractors.

The farmers charging a nice little earner for recovery, felt that it was fair recompense for ruined crops and so maintained a nonchalant air of country-styled patience while pocketing their good fortune where they could.

Unseen, therefore of no concern to the locals, except perhaps a few of those living on eroding cliffs, the growing pressure of the underground water table grew unusually high with nowhere for it to go.

The underlying saturated clay buried deep in the ground served as an impenetrable barrier. This forced the mass of water now accumulating in the underground lakes to purge itself further along the border between the clay and the local soil.

The increasing pressure forced the water to forge new paths of lesser resistance, pursuing all possible exits. It finally uncovered a source of release where a newly exposed weakness allowed it to seep in dribbles down a nearby cliff side.

At first it just trickled making little progress, just pushing out small lumps of soil here and there. Eventually, the relentless back pressure pushed through and forged a path for itself as it gushed harder until a widened hole grew where it could run freely down the side of the cliff in a wide stream to the pebbled and stony ground below.

Over the next few hours the unrelenting water pressure continually increased its escape velocity pushing itself out through new weak spots in the cliff, until with just a few tremors and hardly a sound over that of the storm, the cliff wall burst forcing a vast section to fall away in one massive chunk. It hit the beach below leaving the pounding seas to begin the process of cleaning the loose dirt and soil away in the persistent rush of waves.

The spring tide was raging in the storm, it broke continually onto the new cliff fall adding to the breaking momentum from the released water washing away mud and silt in huge quantities, sucking it back through the undertow to leave only a small amount of flint, stones and muddy rubble exposed to the air.

By the morning of the fourth day the storm had blown itself out. The clouds cleared and the tide retreated from the pebble beach leaving the newly created mound exposed to its first sunrise in millennia. As the sun climbed into the sky the heat of the day steamed away surface water and mud began to crack as the muddy clay dried out too quickly.

The approach of midday bought the sun to its zenith and in the cracks that had dried and expanded throughout the morning, a glint of reflection was just hinted at. Within a few minutes the sun moved on and the reflection disappeared.

Over the next few days the sun continued to beat down on the sodden shores. The cracks in the mud continued to widen. As they did, that which was buried slowly became more exposed, and that which had glinted began to reflect for longer periods.

Finally, still protected within its crevice, the glint developed a timorous glow deep within the mound, the drying grains of soil began to vibrate as though the echo of distant trains were causing tremors.

Over the next week the weather alternated between wet and dry, breaking down the edges of the crevices. The gleaming object slowly began to emerge from the mud. Where it once reflected light, it now absorbed it, seeming to reflect the colours of the mud and silt around it.

Difficult to see and back in towards the cliff in what was still very dangerous territory for scavengers, it remained hidden from the early fossil hunters and beachcombers. It continued undisturbed while slowly excavating itself from the surrounding soil.

By the sixth day it was resting completely in view. Now, if one could see it without its strange refractive camouflage, one would be reminded of a tear-drop, only this one was close on a meter in length and half that in height and width. Its surface was totally without blemish and considering it had been buried for millions of years, it looked absolutely immaculate. It was also awake.

- 3 -

The moment the planet’s sun touched the surface of the Pod's outer skin its receptors had clicked on, drawing in the few moments of energy directed through the newly formed crack in the hardening mud. It was nowhere near enough to bring the Pod’s processes on-line; its automated collectors activated by the alarm remained in a waiting state sensing the proximity of heat and atmosphere.

It waited, running algorithms acknowledging its programmed options matrix had changed. Next time the sun’s energy hit the solar collectors in its skin, it was ready to absorb every millisecond of power. As it did, so also came the realisation that its long period of dormancy was coming to an end. Carefully balancing the small amount of power it was accumulating, the Pod used its anti-grav jets to vibrate, loosening the hold of the surrounding earth.

Vulnerable in its present state, the Pod enabled its cloaking at the lightest level, attempting to conserve as much of its power as possible until ready to free itself completely.

By the 5th cycle of solar charge it was able to operate internally, bringing essential systems into standby mode. By the sixth cycle it was on-line and receiving sufficient power from the planet’s sun to charge its repaired power cells to their minimum level.

The Pod’s support routines turned on its central processors and awoke its Maker.

Zirkos, the occupant’s consciousness, absorbed the information that the Pod’s systems had been collecting for the last 6 periods and made the correct astronomical analysis that told it some 2 billion such periods had passed since the Pod had landed. It noted the use of the last of its power as the Pod submerged in quicksand with no means of recharging its power cells. The A.I. had diagnosed its options, completed repairs then gone into hibernation.

The distress signal emitted had been swallowed up by the surrounding ground. It would have been highly unlikely for any rescue Drone to have found them. There were no registered signals coming in on the security bands, so no other Apostles were within range of this solar system. It was well off the beaten track here.

Using external sensor arrays to ascertain its position in relation to immediate threats, the Maker decided it to be far from ideal. There were increasing numbers of indigenous bipeds collecting within the locality of the ship. They appeared harmless gatherers, but Zirkos needed to put distance between the Pod and potential discovery.

Deepening the intensity of the Pod’s cloak and activating shield level to ‘hull only’ it quietly and totally unobserved, manoeuvred the craft to the top of the cliff. Checking that it still had enough power to handle any emergency, Zirkos came to a decision and set course to a position 200 clicks above the surface, and initiated the ‘Dematz thrust’. For the few seconds it was uncloaked, it remained unnoticed by the local inhabitants.

A few moments later the Pod emerged above the planets' north pole. Zirkos now increased the shield depth to four times the size of the Pod. The power reserve was low again meaning it would need to remain here until fully recharged. Replacement of the remaining damaged power cells was also a priority.

In pattern mode Zirkos was effectively an artificial intelligence. For the time being it had to remain so until it had sufficient grasp of the availability of materials required to initiate a T-ship rebuild. It had no doubt it could find the required materials within the system, but currently there was insufficient urgency to proceed beyond complete recovery of the Pod’s systems.

Instead, it deepened its investigation of its surroundings. Discovering the planet below had now developed to the stage of early space travel, the disembodied consciousness monitored their basic communication channels, becoming aware as it did so of the rudimentary structure of their language, sciences, social structure, government and technology.

Linked into data streams using the satellites they had set-up was extremely slow and cumbersome, but easy to bypass security and scan imprint everything the A.I. needed. By the time it had finished recharging the working power cells, it had a complete list of objectives to carry out on the planet below.

The transport systems used by the aliens on the planet were extremely crude. Whilst they would eventually evolve into space worthy vehicles, extending beyond their existing solar system would be an impossibility without some major leaps in their existing technology.

They were on the cusp though, just needing a few nudges in the right direction. The Pod and A.I. were not considering providing those nudges yet as they were not prepared for any possible repercussions.

They were certainly in no danger of discovery as the level of technology on the planet was clearly inferior to that of the Pod. The Maker decided that the best option to move forward was to establish itself at a remote location on the planet and organise its new ship build from there.

Zirkos was certain that the patterning technology could emulate a human physiology as although their brains were large they only used a small portion of it. Zirkos could probably map most of its memory into their cranium capacity. What couldn't fit in could be inserted using some bio-arrays into the chest cavity to handle the extra processing required. A neural link to the on-board systems would give it sufficient ability to manage in the human form.

Now, all it needed was a pattern and for that it was going to have to obtain the materials on-planet.

- 4 -

The shadowy figure huddled in the cold night, leaning against the wall at the back of the diner. It was dark, the street lights a fair distance away meant he could keep an eye on the complete length of the alley from where he waited. In this part of town it paid to be careful.

Zeke had fought for weeks to take over this one cul-de-sac. It was now his exclusive territory and nobody had tried to muscle in for a month. The last one who tried was still in hospital.

It wasn't that he was violent person. He had just been given no choice when the other man had come at him with a knife in each hand and a frenzied look on his face. Zeke knew he had to finish it as an example to others, or there would be more fights and more pain. As it was, he barely overcame the madman.

The sound of the back door opening, brought his mental focus back as light flooded into the alley, cutting off his ability to view beyond. No matter, it was his territory; only a fool crossed him here and tried to muscle in.