POD (The Pattern Universe)

by Roote, Tobias

  As Zeke arrived at the ship, Arty was just letting down the gangplank, at Pod’s command, Zeke assumed. That Pod seemed able to get any A.I. to obey him, bothered Zeke a little. He wondered just how good an idea that was and wished that Ossie could get his head around the terrestrial A.I.s enough to provide a little independence in that area.

  Zeke’s sled landed close to the ship and he alighted, running up the ramp at the same time as Goeth, both of them slower than Ossie and Lang, the two youngsters. Although Zeke could have run the distance from the Council chamber to the ship quicker, it wouldn’t do to be seen doing so. Pod was already aboard having ported itself across presumably.

  He reached the control room with Goeth close on his heels, to find Ossie explaining to Lang the design of the ship from the bottom up. Lang, being almost a clone of Osbourne, was drinking it all in, while Goeth immediately began to ask questions trying to catch up, his eyes glowing with unbridled enthusiasm.

  “Arty, head for space, fastest speed, please. Raise seats for everyone so we can buckle in and take instructions from Pod on trajectory and destination. I’m sure he will tell us in good time where we are going,” Zeke commanded the A.I., turning a questioning look in the direction of the now hovering pod.

  Goeth’s eyes were as round as saucers, taking in everything he could see. The A.I.’s response made him jump.

  “Commander, Pod informs me we are about to proceed by a series of jumps to the asteroid belt. I believe it will not be necessary to sit or buckle in, as you say,” Arty responded affably.

  “Arty, please provide visual to destination on the main screen, also show indicative approach of invading vessel and another of Earth as we leave its orbit. I want to keep an eye on what’s happening.”

  “It shall be so, Commander.”

  Their view suddenly changed from above Space Island to outer space with Earth below them. Then they were in deep space and the only thing visible on the main screen was the moon off to the left. Another thirty seconds and they were outside the asteroid that Pod had named Alpha Station. Then they were inside the hangar.

  Goeth, Osbourne and Lang were silent, watching the view-screens which had shown the jumps, the arrival at the asteroid and now, apparently, a hangar inside an asteroid. To say they were speechless would have been an understatement.

  Arty opened the hatch and extended the gangplank. They walked out and stood in the vast empty hangar, completely overwhelmed.

  “Where are we, Zeke?” asked Ossie quietly, almost afraid someone would hear and come after them.

  “This is Alpha Station,” said Zeke. “It’s a near Earth asteroid and it's been equipped with just about everything needed for human survival. In addition, it has the best defences that can be designed by Pod so it should be better able to survive an attack. Beyond that, I know nothing more.”

  Pod spoke out loud. “I built this complex while Fortress and Space Island were fighting for supremacy because I knew you would not have the time, or the ability, to complete it once the battle was over, whoever won. I was preparing for whichever of the two sides would be the winner in the contest to take up the fight against the Nubl.”

  As if avoiding the argument this statement might bring, Pod quickly moved on to its planned objective.

  Agitated, it bobbed up and down as it warned them. “We do not have much time. I am porting us all to the control room,” it said with an urgency that sounded strangled coming through a mechanised voice.

  The next second they were all in the concourse of a large room. Lang wondered around while Goeth and Osbourne just looked at Zeke, as if expecting an explanation from him. Zeke just shrugged his shoulders, tipping his eyebrow towards Pod indicating that it was running the show for the moment.

  They stood there, bemused by events taking place around them without interaction on their part, as four workstations grew up out of the floor. Now, instead of an empty area they were in the midst of a fully functional control room.

  “Gee!” Lang exclaimed. “This is really cool!”

  Ossie, also impressed with the working advanced nanite technology they were trying to emulate back on Earth, was suddenly distracted by something out of the corner of his eye. He looked up in time to see an extremely large view-screen appear on the wall that automatically switched itself on as it completed its transformation.

  The view showed the expanse of space between Earth and the Moon. They could see green lights winking and a few gold lights spaced at different planes of orbit, some sweeping the heavens, other stationary. There were other view-screens, but this one seemed to command the undivided attention of everyone, except Zeke, who had been in space a while now and wasn’t fazed by it all.

  Zeke, who had seen all of this before, took advantage of the silence and spoke to Pod on his implant.

  ‘Pod, you need to bring me up to speed with what you plan to do here. None of us know what all this equipment is for and we cannot help you if you don’t provide some very fast tuition.’

  ‘Zeke,’ Pod answered, ’I have built a lot more of the sensors than I have put out across this section of space. I have nanobots building more as we speak, but currently there are another five thousand of them in the storage area away from the living area.’

  ‘OK, but you had better tell everyone your plan before we go any further, otherwise you will have no time and no help from anyone.’

  ‘I understand. I see your point and you are right, I was assuming you would all know what to do. I will correct that oversight now.’

  Pod moved off so it was further away and bobbed up and down as if nervously attempting to gain everyone’s attention. It began speaking out loud in its tinny mechanised voice.

  “I have a report to make,” it hesitated, almost human-like.

  “This complex will house thousands of your people. You should bring the scientists and a viable population up here to defend and continue your species until you find a way to defeat the Nubl.”

  “Seriously? You want us to move here and leave Earth to get annihilated?” Zeke asked.

  Pod bobbed. It was not used to discussion with these humans. It strove to answer.

  “I had hoped for more time, but you don’t have it. In one hour and forty of your minutes, the enemy vessel will arrive in Earth orbit. It will consider it imperative to fire on your planet and decimate as much as possible before calling in the rest of its hive.

  When this occurs, you will have thousands of ships arriving and you will have no chance of survival. They are relentless and they will not halt their attack until Earth is a sterile rock.”

  Goeth piped up, he was suddenly nervous. They had not considered that Earth could be destroyed even before they got into space. “Are you saying the weapons we have developed and the city shields will not withstand their attack?”

  “No, probably not, but this is why I have brought you here,” Pod said. “I have developed a weapon based on Ossie’s killer nanites which I placed in the sentinels around your solar system. These attacked the enemy ship as soon as it arrived. “

  Pod ran a video and sensor simulation on the view-screen showing them what occurred as the Nubl Shadow-ship entered the solar system. It went on with its explanation as the video showed complimentary data.

  “That Nubl ship is now making its way here. However, I am unable to determine how successful the attack was. The nanites were programmed with a lifespan of two hours. That period will expire in approximately one hour and four minutes.”

  Lang interjected, “so, when the spaceship arrives here it may be damaged and, therefore, could be attacked successfully, or it might not be and we will be no better off, except we are here and the rest of the world is down there.” He pointed at the view-screen showing the blue, white and brown swirly marble of Earth.

  “If we don’t have any chance with our existing weapons, then why are we here?” asked Osbourne, who despite having complete faith in Pod, was also unsure what they were doing on a hollowed out asteroid in the mid
dle of space and a long way from Earth.

  Pod swung around towards the computer systems that suddenly became visible as a cloaked screen dropped from the far side of the room. A massive mainframe which Goeth surmised was at least three times the size of the Fortress system was now on display, one bank of many hundreds of lights flashing indicating it was currently active.

  "This is a mostly inactive mainframe computer. It needs the insertion of an A.I. to operate fully. When it is one hundred percent functional it will provide actively manned services and defences. The programs and subroutines are all installed ready for it to run. It does not require intervention by humans to work, but will operate better with human interaction."

  “So, if it's not active, how will it help us defend Earth? I’m getting confused – ” asked Lang, plainly getting a little worried about dealing with a strange A.I. when time was apparently disappearing on them fast.

  “– and where are we going to find an A.I., or build one in the time we have? The Fortress Medusa took months and was still only basic. You are talking about sophisticated circuits and programming ability that we just do not have the time for,” Goeth added.

  Pod continued as if it had only paused for breath. “the A.I. Arty could be removed from Zeke’s ship and be made active within three hours. It could then run diagnostics to be completely on-line before the main hive arrives.”

  The small A.I. went on, “you are here because I need your help. I need you to understand that there may be an outside chance we can reduce the impact of the Nubl attack on your population by giving them other concerns. There is a sixty five percent chance we will still fail and the Earth will be destroyed. If this occurs we will also probably be destroyed by their hive fleet."

  “Wait! just wait... a moment,” Lang interrupted. ”You are going way too fast for me. We have no time to get our head around one bombshell before you add another to the pile. We need to deal with these points as we go along. How can you have done – all this –” he waved his hands pointing at the complex they were standing in, “ – on your own... in the time you say you had... It’s impossible.”

  Zeke interjected, “actually, Lang, Pod could do this and has the capacity to do much more. Ship, the other A.I., was not as advanced as Pod has become and it managed to run the whole technological stepping process for Earth and more besides.”

  “But... how can you get that much brain capacity into a small vessel like that?” he said pointing at Pod’s shell.

  Ossie, who knew a little about everything, turned to Lang and said simply “Ferrazite” and turned back to Pod.

  Lang whispered unbelievingly, “Ferrazite? the same stuff that turned Ferris into a monster? You cannot be serious?”

  Zeke sighed. “Lang, you weren’t around when they took a massive metal plate out of my head that was pure Ferrazite. I would have ended up like Ferris, only worse, if the aliens hadn’t cleared it from my system.”

  He went on impatiently, “it was Pod who discovered the process with which to filter it from my blood and remove the plate from my head without killing me, but.... I really think you need to suspend your disbelief until we have more time. Pod is our only hope to beat the Nubl and we are wasting time. Just believe for now and if you still don’t understand, then ask questions later.”

  Goeth nodded. He had absorbed everything and quickly understood what was going on. He smiled at Zeke, then turned back to Pod. The A.I. was patiently waiting to resume. “Pod, I believe you had more to say? Please continue.”

  “The mainframe, if it is working fully, can manage multiple actions simultaneously. If we attack the Nubl from multiple axis at the same time, there may be an opening for us to cause untold damage to the Nubl fleet.”

  The A.I.’s metallic voice sounded almost apologetic. “It will not reduce the impact of their fire on the planet or the damage they can achieve, but might reduce the length of time they can remain here which would have a direct effect on the survival of your species.”

  Everyone looked at Pod, the screen, then each other. Nobody wanted to believe that the end of their civilisation could be hours away and there was nothing they could do about it. They quickly came to terms with the prospect of having to place their trust in the bobbing escape pod which clearly indicated it had a plan for defence, but not one that would avoid destruction of their planet. They had little choice but to hear the rest of it.

  “What’s your plan, Pod?" asked Zeke, who trusted the little A.I. who had saved his life and been the closest he had had to a friend since Zirkos and Ship had disappeared.

  Pod outlined its basic idea and as each of them was given work to complete, they found that, far from an outside chance, Pod’s plan would give them a potentially excellent defence although as Pod had said it would not halt the attack itself.

  As each took a console and began working on their role in the planned defence, Zeke wondered at some of Pod’s decisions.

  He spoke to Pod through his implant.

  ‘Pod, if you remove Arty from my ship, we have no means of using it as part of the attack on the Nubl. I would have thought that me and Arty out there with the ship's heavy weapons would provide considerable fire-power support to Pennington’s Marauders.’

  ‘Yes, you have a point,’ Pod responded, the tinny sound causing Zeke to cringe a little as it seemed to oscillate his implant. ’However, if I were to take Arty’s place in your ship, we would have a much better chance of survival. Arty is ideal for this mainframe as it's matched to his terrestrial build.’

  ‘Oh, interesting! So, you would step out of your pod, I didn’t know you could do that. I would be most interested in working with you in the ship. That sounds like an excellent arrangement. Thank you.’

  ‘What for, Zeke? I don’t understand your reason for gratitude.’ Pod could be seen bobbing in the corner where it had elected to await further developments.

  ‘Pod, you have no idea how much I enjoy your company. Having you with me in the ship will be fantastic. Let’s hope we survive to look at the possibility of putting you into a ship of your own.’ Zeke outwardly chuckled, bringing strange looks from Goeth, who was working on the next console to him.

  ‘You humans can be so strange, sometimes,’ Pod responded with an almost audible sigh.

  Zeke chuckled again, drawing further looks from Goeth, but just ignored him.

  Osbourne and Lang were talking to each other as they brought the mainframe on line and began the activation of its routines. Once they had checked it for compatibility at the coding level, they set up a communication data-link with Arty on the ship.

  “Arty, do you hear us all right in the control room?” Osbourne called out loudly as if he were in another room. He didn’t anticipate any issues with the transfer as Pod had mimicked the construction methods of terrestrial computers and Arty was familiar with the layout of everything.

  “Yes, Ossie, I hear you fine. You can reduce your decibel output range by approximately forty percent which should help to preserve your vocal chords,” Arty responded cheekily.

  “Arty, are you developing a sense of humour, now you're out of a box and flying around space?” Ossie joked.

  “Arty, we do not have much time. Are you up to speed with Pod’s plan to integrate you into the asteroid mainframe?”

  “Yes, Ossie. Pod has prepared the transfer of my entire set of routines and personality matrix and it can proceed at your command,” the A.I. confirmed.

  “Arty, initiate transfer immediately. Advise when completed.”

  “Affirmative, Lang. Processing now,” Arty confirmed.

  Lang turned to Zeke and said, “this is going to take about ten minutes to get his entire core over the data-link during which both the mainframe and the ship will be inoperable.”

  Zeke mused over the delay. “Pod, what is the ETA on the Nubl Shadow-ship?”

  “Nubl Shadow-ship will be in range of the planet in forty four minutes.”

  “Is there going to be enough time for Art
y to get fully back on-line by then?” Zeke asked Ossie and Lang.

  The problem was they needed to communicate with Pennington and update him with the ETA so that Pennington could get his fighters into space ready to take it on.

  A little later, Pod activated Zeke’s implant.

  ‘I need to transfer myself into the ship, it will take more than ten minutes. During this time, you will have to make sure that everything goes as planned.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Pod, these people here can handle everything. As long as we don’t get attacked it will be fine,’ Zeke responded.

  A new booming voice resonated through the room “Arty is on-line” and the mainframe suddenly burst into life. The timbre of Arty’s voice was significantly different. It carried authority and confidence. As different consoles turned themselves on, the group could see a wide range of activities streaming up the screens as the newly integrated A.I. ran all its subroutines to integrate them with its own core activities.

  Pod disappeared. Zeke knew the A.I. would be transferring itself into the ship. He anticipated that he would be jumped aboard as soon as Pod was ready.

  “Arty, connect with Space Island, General Pennington, please. Encrypt all communication in and out of Alpha Station at all times,” Zeke commanded.

  The main screen switched from a view of Earth to the military command on the Pan Asia Military Base.

  “Pennington, we are expecting the attack from a single ship to begin in approximately thirty minutes. You should be preparing your Fighter squadrons for launch.”

  "Ah, Zeke. Where are you and what is that control room for?"

  “No time to explain, John. We have set up secure channels of communication with your CC, we will provide you with live feed and information as it becomes available to us here.” Zeke looked to the terminals on the right and left where Arty was introducing feeds being received from the sentinels and triangulating the Nubl position. This was displayed on a three dimensional coloured grid-map that showed the Earth and Moon along with all of the earth satellites and the now vacant Space Stations that had been evacuated at the first sign of trouble.