The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (25 page)

As he began to cool down, his feet dipping in the water he looked back over the beach.

He chuckled when he saw Osbourne running towards him skipping through the surf. That young man needed a life away from his science and experiments.

Unfortunately, what with everything he had learned and what Zeke had picked up already from the chatter on the airwaves, they had no time to lose. They had a mountain of work to do to mitigate the ominous advantages that Ferris had over the Free World.

The only advantage that they had was, that Ferris didn’t yet know that Zeke was still alive, and was unaware that Osbourne had managed to get Pod full unrestricted access to the Fortress servers.

Pod had managed to get all of the data and technology advances onto the Space Councils’ computers and his people were already piecing together the new stuff that Ferris thought he had exclusive access to.

It was now a race against time to get the new base operational and defended with completely new advanced technology before Ferris came after the Space Council.

***

As the weeks progressed, Garner’s arrival with the help of his small team did a lot to support and encourage global support of the Island’s ambitions. Within the first month they had the administration and research sectors built and operational. The computers were housed deep underground and by necessity kept completely isolated from external communications.

Access to these rooms was controlled by a force screen that was keyed to allow certain bio signatures and no other. It meant that wherever these forcefields were located security was one hundred percent effective without needing security personnel to be on-hand for verification.

There were internal verifications too. If a particular project needed to be out in the open a personal forcefield around it meant it couldn’t be approached by anyone, but a handful of scientists. They were even working on different colourings including a mirror surface. The applications were varied.

The work going on underground with the research teams represented cutting edge development of existing and new technology. Some of it had been supplied by Pod and had not been shared outside the group. As a result there were some very excited people which helped attract others to join them.

The Space Council, referred commonly now as the SC, became a very important component as it drove home the message to countries still undecided, slowly convincing the most reticent of them all to at least affiliate themselves with the SC so they could have a voice.

As it came close to a point where the SC was to sit in its first session they began organising the new A-Grav ships into a fleet and set-up schedules for regular collection and delivery of Delegates. There were two hundred members and their aides, which meant anywhere between eight hundred and one thousand seats.

Within the year there would be aircraft exclusive to each member Delegate and this would increase security and limit the amount of ships needed to be managed by the Atoll. Particular attention was paid to backup systems, forcefields and communications security.

Garner’s headache grew bigger the closer they got to the inaugural ceremony. Luckily he had a good team who knew him well and were also known to many of the countries involved. They built a large hotel complex at the back of the Island away from the manufacturing sector and the airport. With a beach, restaurants and all facilities provided it allowed for the ships to be scheduled over two to three days.

Many of the Delegates would be staying long-term, others would commute. It was just going to be the initial influx that was going to cause the mayhem.

In the end the day came. There were A-Grav ships constantly flying in and out, delegates queueing at his door for one to one meetings, last minute problems, all of them mundane, and trivial things that people leave until the last minute.

Anne kept the refreshments flowing, maintained his timetable, called him an ‘Old Fart’ in private, often enough to keep him grounded and generally kept him sane. In the end they were ready on time, thanks to her, and his teams efforts. The problems that had been mounting up to this moment, all fell away when Garner walked out onto the podium to declare the first Space Council session open.

Its first session lasted a full week. Every delegate had to be sworn in, this meant translation issues for the new A.I. set-up as Recorder for the sessions. Rules that had been agreed in the months preceding the first meeting had to be ratified in session. Appointment of representatives into positions of authority at all levels, whilst pre-arranged beforehand, fell apart at the last minute as supporters switched sides, or delegates pulled out. In the end all twenty two members were installed into a Senate body.

Military representation was initially fought hard, but after much manoeuvring the reasons for it became a matter of global concern. The justification was that if man was going into space, then a Navy, or Police force was needed out there to protect them, if from nothing else, then from each other.

On the basis of a personal forcefield wasn’t going to help anyone breathe vacuum it was deemed expedient to set-up some form of regulatory force. This also served to give the SC teeth of its own, something that gained popularity as the debate progressed.

Seemingly many nations had views on the possibilities of piracy, and with the one of the founding intentions of the SC being to develop colonisation plans it was deemed a prudent objective. It was helped along considerably by the quiet announcement that the New Technology Foundation set-up by Zeke and Zirkos in the initial days would fund much of the cost of set-up and running of the Force. Opposition fell away rapidly after that.

So it was within the SC’s first session, and beyond Garner’s wildest dreams, that the Space Defence Force was established and given a budget and a sweeping mission agenda; to protect Earth and secure space for all.

***

Zeke took the news of the newly formed SDF well in that he hadn’t expected to get that aspect of the SC operational in the first year of operation let alone in the first session. As a result he bought all of his plans forward and started meetings with potential captains and crew and pulled in experts from the various space programmes to begin teaching them about what to expect from space, how to navigate, manoeuvre and the theory of how to fly an as yet unknown vehicle in space. The designs were still being fleshed out. It was going to be a while, he decided.

He missed Pod, it had been months now since their talk on the beach had prompted Pod to go off in search of itself. With Ship gone and Zirkos too, it felt very much like he had been left back at square one. Except of course he had no metal plate in his head and he had a job.

Ferris had been very quiet and Zeke worried about that. If they were building new technology based on progress Ferris’ teams had made, how much further had they progressed since. The only advantage that Zeke’s people had was the added technology given to them by Pod. It was this that was going to see them into space.

Osbourne, sitting opposite having pulled a double shift down in the lab, was taking a break and keeping Zeke in the loop. He watched his friend as his thoughts lay heavily in the distance. Osbourne thought he knew what the problem was. He missed Zirkos and the spaceship. He resumed his update.

“So, I think we should progress to testing the new drives next week and if they work we can install them on a test craft and see how well they cope in handling a ship in atmosphere,” he finished updating Zeke.

The new spacecraft needed to be both atmospheric and space capable because they didn’t yet have facilities for building in space. Osbourne’s team had been developing a powerful anti-gravity drive that would enable ships to apply lift and thrust, sufficient to get them into space where the propulsion drives could take over. It was working faultlessly in test conditions. They now wanted to strap it to a ships hull and test it. That meant a crew.

“Well, that’s good ‘Ossy’ because I have fifteen crews waiting for something to fly and I’m off to China now to talk to some new possibilities for additional crews. It seems they’re shelving their own space programme in favour of ours. It obviously saves them a ton of money plus they get Chinese crews in our Space Navy.”

“Who would you suggest for the test flight, Zeke?”

“Oh, I think Chad would kill for a chance to get in the air, they all would, but go see Chad and tell him I have authorised him to cooperate fully with you.

Keep him alive, Ossy, he’s one of my best people.” Zeke warned him only half serious.

So ended the authorisation of the very first space flight on a SC commissioned vessel. That was how things were getting done on the Island, minimal paperwork, maximum communication. They all knew it wouldn’t take long for the bureaucrats to get involved in the authorisation process, but so long as Zeke was putting up the money for the R&D they had a free hand in how it was managed.

- 23 -

Frank Garner looked down at the shipyard basin which was filling rapidly with structures as the latest ship began to be constructed using Tractor beams.

They had finally discovered how to construct a basic nanobot that carried a bonding agent with it. When it got to where it was designated to be, it would deliberately short circuit and the combining of the bonding agent with the heat generated formed a permanent weld where it was. Millions of them were used in every welded section, but it was the cheapest means of building seamless ships they had at present.

The first ship that had been started a few months previously was already at the stage of having its internal infrastructure inserted. They missed the speed and versatility of having the D-Field available, but without Ship or Pod, there was no means of placing the structures where they needed them.

Zeke was very useful, his people skills had melded people together quickly. He was able to correctly assess those with leadership qualities and place them into the right positions to help them grow. The teams all worked well. It was a smooth, almost slick operation.

Garner had been worried about him for a while, he missed Zirkos and when the Pod upped and left, he found himself land bound again after a long period of enjoying the life of a spaceman. Serves him right for having so much fun, Frank thought to himself.

Still, the technology the Pod had recovered from the Ferris rebels had been improved upon significantly.

Again Zeke’s ability to focus in on problems without necessarily knowing all the science involved more often than not was totally intuitive and one hundred percent accurate. They had made big jumps in a small period of time with everything they had recovered and now had very little concern for Ferris’ antics.

Once they got into space they would deal with the rebels. These ships only represented the first thrust of a many pronged approach.

He saw the silvery glint of the A-Grav ship as it arrived in from the USA. He looked at his watch, one hour and forty minutes. A record, the new drives they had designed on the back of the Ferris ones were working a treat. He continued to watch as the pencil thin craft landed on the flattened surface beyond the shipyards. The passengers were already disembarking. Several fliers, the name they had given the anti-gravity taxis, were hovering close by the ship.

One detached itself and headed towards the shipyard. That'll be Zeke, Frank thought, I’d best go meet him at the gate.

He walked down to the main gate entrance. The fliers had a stop there that they used out of the way of the C-Grav’s, the cargo transporters, that shifted raw materials and finished sections around.

He could see the lad, was he only a lad? thought Garner. He definitely was not ageing at all and if anything he looked fitter and leaner than ever. That blessed curse of Ferrazine in his system, no doubt.

Then he had it, Zeke’s hair was growing, finally. He now sported a silvery thin, but definitely growing, mop of hair on his head.

Garner laughed as Zeke stepped off the Flier and moved to greet him. He was smiling, looking healthy and unconcerned while holding a fairly chunky case alongside him that was also supported by grav-braces.

They were the latest fad.

Nobody needed to carry anything heavy. They just strapped a grav-brace to it, or three or four of them as they were manufactured and set to only suspend at a certain height from the ground and would only work with a maximum weight. You then just pushed it around with no effort at all. Garner had seen ninety year old women pushing stuff around with the tip of a gnarled finger. Beautiful to behold.

“Hi Frank, How’s the Pacific treating you?”

“Not bad Zeke, not bad. You’re looking good, the new eyebrows suit you too.” Garner appraised the other new addition.

“Yes, I finally figured out all I needed to do was to tell my hair to grow and it did, I didn’t choose the colour though. I guess that’s something I still have to learn.”

That was the thing with Zeke, he wasn’t fazed at all by the power he had over his body and the abilities he had developed. Zeke read from the reports that things like that were entirely possible, like growing a hand back, or clearing scar tissues, just by thinking it into being over a period of time and that was that. He would read it, try it, then he would just go back to doing stuff the normal way. If there was ever a person who didn’t need the powers he had inherited from the Ferrazine, Zeke was that person.

“So, what’s the first port of call on the list. You said you had something really special to show me. I’m intrigued, it got me here a full day earlier than scheduled, I’m horny for some excitement. Are we doing that first?”

“Hahaha! maybe, let's get you up to the house and settled in, then we will drift off to the office, Anne has missed you and after that we can do the tour.”

“Okay Frank, but you can’t leave me in suspense for long.” Zeke looked at him with mock disappointment.

Frank laughed. He had been working on this little surprise for some time. Zeke was going to be absolutely stomped and it should help him over his loss of Ship, Zirkos and that little Pod A.I. he had grown so fond of.