The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe)

by Roote, Tobias

  - 12 -

  “You mean they are like a wasp hive, you attack one and they all come after you in a swarm?”

  “Yes, the Nubl are a hive mind and are linked to their own nests, if you attack them the others will home in on you and are relentless in pursuit. If you take on a single Nubl you must also be able to handle a massive full-on attack in the event they can steer themselves through a wormhole to your location.”

  “Geez! And you think these are going to be making a bee-line, ha-ha! joke, for us as soon as they register our ability to enter into space?”

  “Yes, I do, the problem is they have already been here to this solar system, so this is on their path of dispersal. They will revisit it once every two to three hundred of your years. If you imagine that the last visit was before your industrial revolution...”

  “...then their next one is about due sometime this century,” Zeke finished.

  “Yes, I think that about sums it up.” Zirkos affirmed.

  Zeke sat there in thought. Zirkos wondered what he was thinking about.

  Zeke started thinking out loud. “So, if we stand any hope of dealing with them when they come, then we have to get the whole world together and work as a team. Do you have ANY idea how impossible that is going to be?”

  “Yes, I do. Which is why I need you to become my Ambassador.”

  “Your what? Ambassador? How on Earth... aah!, I think I see. Well, actually, no I don’t, tell me what you mean.”

  “Zeke, I am just one Alien. I need to forge links with your leaders. There isn’t time to waste on misunderstandings.“

  Zirkos explained what he wanted.

  “Already I see differences in perception between things you and I talk about. Imagine this at a global level. I need someone with me who will steer things the right way with your leaders.

  If you do this we can monitor your health while you are working.”

  Zirkos wondered if the job idea meant he should offer money, so he decided to add.

  “Payment for your services can be made if you wish to have an ‘official’ job, but you won’t need for anything here. Ship, or I can supply you with just about anything you desire.”

  ***

  The President sat in his armchair pulling on his moustache. His wife and his PR team all said, it was distinguished, but he couldn’t wait until his term finished and he could shave the blasted thing off.

  Unusually he was not running for a second term, his first was bad enough. He’d had no idea the difficulties of being the Head of State of the USA would hamstring him so much. He wanted to achieve so much, but because of the politics, the favours owed, allegiances and strength of lobbyists, there was no room for his own personal agendas. As a result he was feeling disenchanted with everything.

  He put the report on the threat of China’s continuing economic growth forecast down for the third time in an hour. It was hard reading. It left the USA no room for manoeuvre. Debt to the Chinese banks, by the States, was so high they effectively owned the USA. If the Chinese wanted to foreclose tomorrow there was damn all the government could do about it except declare war.

  “There is a way out of the predicament, Mr President,” the voice said.

  “Whoa! Who’s that?”

  A man came out of the dark shadow of the corner of the President’s private suite, walked slowly towards him and sat opposite on the long backed green leather chesterfield that had sat in that spot for the last two hundred years.

  He was tall, rugged, plainly American and he was dressed in a one piece tunic of dark grey. His head was shaved, his complexion was of rude health and lightly coloured, as if he had recently had a holiday in Hawaii. He was relaxed as if perfectly at home.

  As he sat, his legs crossed, he leaned back relishing the comfort of the leather as if it was something he had grown fond of and now missed. He then leaned forward as if ready to explain when he noted the President’s attention wandering to the table.

  President Garner initially dumbfounded, was too surprised to even reach for his panic button.

  “It won’t work, Mr President,” as the Presidents’ hand belatedly moved towards the small hand control that would call in his duty security team with guns unholstered, safety off and aiming to shoot first, explanations second, response.

  The President pressed it and waited for the doors to burst open, ready to duck under the coffee table at the first opportunity like he had been taught. Even the body sensors should have picked up the intruders presence, but hadn’t.

  Nothing happened.

  You don’t get to be President by being stupid, and Garner could see the man wasn’t armed, had not approached him aggressively and showed no threat or hostility towards him. He gauged his need to respond in panic mode and assessed correctly that currently there was no threat, only an unexplained entrance into his private chamber for which someone’s head would roll once this little episode had run its course.

  He decided to humour the situation until his sleeping security team woke up to the fact he wasn’t alone.

  “What do you want and why are you in my private suite, and just how the fuck did you get in here through the White house security?” he bellowed loud enough to wake the dead.

  “That’s a lot of questions Mr President, perhaps if you would allow me, I would like to show you something that might get you and me off on the right foot, so to speak.” Zeke offered quietly.

  The President stood, as if to move towards the door. He spoke very loudly.

  “I cannot see anything in your hands, you aren’t wearing a jacket and you don’t have a briefcase. What could you possibly have to show me that would stop me from having you thrown into chains ten levels below the Hoover building where the sun never shines.”

  “Oh, it’s not here Mr President, it’s somewhere we are going to visit.” With that Zeke walked up close to the President and issued a command to the empty air.

  “Ship? Now please!”

  Before the President could respond he felt a tingling sensation over the whole of his body. It stymied his intended outburst.

  Both were suddenly enveloped in a D-field that in microseconds removed them from the room, and where two seconds later two black suited Agents burst in, guns drawn looking for the President.

  “I heard voices, Blayne, I tell you he was talking to someone and I heard the other guys voice like he was in the room,” the smaller, skinny one said.

  “Where has the President gone?” The one called Blayne shouted at the other, weaving his gun around the room in a totally ineffective manner seeing as there was nothing to aim at.

  “He was here, I spoke to him as he entered just over ninety minutes ago, he hasn’t come out.”

  Blayne pressed his throat mike and called out an all points alert.

  “White Stag is missing,” he croaked into the mike choking back the disbelief that he was calling this in on his watch.

  ***

  President Garner reeled as he reacted badly to the unexpected change in location. The floor, surroundings, air pressure; all made him disoriented. He had no concept of a ‘de-materialisation’ field for relocating a body so he naturally responded in a highly negative way. He swore like a trooper.

  Finding a chair back near him to cling to he used it to help stabilise his balance while he tried to work out what the hell had just happened.

  No longer in his darkened lounge, the temperature change alone caused him to awaken to the idea he was some place else. The even light distribution gave him the sense of timelessness as if he had entered a period of perpetual daytime. In a sense he wasn’t far off the mark.

  Opposite him in exactly the same position as in his lounge stood the stranger, looking taller now in the clear light.

  Garner could see intense alertness in the eyes, he could tell the man was services-trained purely from the stance and attitude, his own background was of similar nature. He was dealing with Military, or ex forces, home-grown terrorists? His imagination was pull
ing overtime in the absence of explanations.

  The stranger introduced himself.

  “My name is Zeke Callaghan, your people will be able to check me out when we send you back. You will be going back, Mr President,” he reassured him politely.

  “You are not a prisoner, or hostage. You are just a visitor that we needed to talk to and the best way of getting your attention was to bring you here.”

  Garner wasn’t ready to concede anything to this man yet. He went to step back to put distance between them and instead came up against a hard surface.

  “Where the hell am I, and what the hell do you mean by kidnapping me? He wagged his finger threateningly.

  “Currently, you are in a spacecraft above the North Pole” Zeke responded calmly.

  He could see the President wasn’t really taking it in. He could well understand the idea of blanking of something totally unbelievable until the mind could either cope with it, or was not given a choice.

  “Do you know the penalty for kidnapping the President of the United States of America?” The President ranted on.

  The President was plainly rattled and ran off the threat without thinking of the insanity of threatening someone who could just disappear him from his office under the very nose of his Security detail.

  “As I said back on Earth, Mr President, it might be easier to just show you.” Zeke offered in a calming manner that he wasn’t sure would be seen as such in a few seconds.

  He offered the President a brown paper bag and prepared for the onslaught from the formidable man who was his country’s leader standing in front of him.

  “You might need this Mr President” said Zeke not responding to the threat, handing him the bag.

  “A barf bag, are you kidding me? umm! Callaghan did you say your name was?”

  “Yes, Mr President, if you would like just to watch this wall here for a second?” he indicated the blank wall in front of them.

  “Ship porthole planet side, please,” he commanded

  “Affirmative,” confirmed Ship.

  It didn’t seem to take as long to create the porthole this time as Zeke’s introduction to space side vistas had, maybe Ship was getting faster. Canada, Russia and part of the The USA was in darkness mostly, cloud covered much of the eastern side and mid country was getting a thunder storm or two.

  Zeke’s attention was drawn back into the ship by the sound of a bag rustling just as the President lost his dinner.

  The President held onto the chair, much as Zeke had done the first time. He watched as the President’s eyes bulged. It was perhaps a cruel thing to do, but as Zeke had personally experienced and reminded himself ‘It beat all the argumentative crap right out of you’.

  “As you can see Mr President, we are currently stationed just over the North Pole. You can see Canada, Russia and if you look down there you can just make out Washington on the edge there, where we just removed you from.”

  Garner looked at Zeke as if he felt there was a debt owed and it wasn’t a pleasant look, but despite himself President Garner was mesmerised. Only a few select people got to see the view of the world from here for real.

  “You could easily be faking this Callaghan, I don’t know how you are doing it, but I’m sure as hell not going to be convinced by anything from a little bitty demonstration like this. Where are we? In a 3D trailer-park in back of the White House?”

  “Ship, can you reposition us alongside the Space Station please, remain cloaked.”

  “Affirmative, Zeke.”

  A few seconds later the view changed and they were port side view onto a shining combination of unfurled gossamer wings and mismatched washing machine drums. all combined into a familiar shape known the world over. Behind it the Earth shone bright as a button as the sun’s reflection slid across Ireland and western Spain bringing early morning to Europe.

  The President was completely lost in the view and it was some minutes before either of them could bring themselves to pull away from it and focus on the inside of the ship.

  “Ship, close porthole,” Zeke commanded.

  The view slid from sight as it was replaced with the grey of the wall, as if it never existed.

  Garner walked to the wall still clutching the brown bag and felt along it looking for something, then hand still on the wall turned to Zeke.

  “How did you do that? It looked so real?” He asked incredulousy.

  “That is because it was real,” confirmed Zirkos as he walked in from his quarters having kept out of the way until the show had concluded.

  Now Garner was astonished. He had just got used to the idea that he was dealing with an extraodinary human being that could spirit him out of the White House past all of his security and into space, talk to a spaceship, look at Earth through a porthole that just appeared ‘on demand’ when to top it all off, an alien walks in.

  Silver skinned Zirkos had timed his entrance perfectly and he walked up to the President and offered his hand.

  “Mr President, my name is Zirkos and I come from another universe. Can we please talk?” Zirkos indicated the next room where Zeke was already heading.

  Garner just followed completely speechless, and much like Zeke before him, meekly now, all previous bluster and pretentiousness gone out the porthole.

  ***

  President Garner sat in the Oval office where he had been returned to not ten minutes earlier. He had decisions to make and the first one was going to be how to explain his disappearance from his lounge fours hours ago. He had no means of leaving the room without his Security detail being aware, yet it was important that they not be aware of his visit to outer space, not yet.

  He would be carted off to dementia land and Dredge would take his place. That damned man had proven to be a venomous viper in the pit. It would be all he needed to cudgel power from the office of the President. He was about to press the intercom to call in Anne, his secretary when the door burst open and she ran in ahead of two security officers. She looked very upset.

  His Secret Service head of detail was the first to quiz him.

  “Where have you been, Sir? We have been hunting all over for you?”

  “I took a walk, I had read too much of the papers I had to catch up on and just took a walk. Its no big deal, nobody noticed me I intended to just be a few minutes, but was away longer and just found my way to my office without thinking about it.” Garner said dismissively trying hard to keep his voice sounding casual.

  “Has anybody here got a damned cigarette?” he bellowed in an effort to change the subject...

  “Sir, Mr President you can’t...” his secretary pleaded.

  “Yes, Yes! I know just get me a coffee please, Anne its been a long night.” He turned to his security detail.

  “Gentlemen,” The President indicated the door, “Really, all is well, I just went off the radar for a few hours is all.”

  As Anne returned with his morning coffee and the post, hot on her heels his top guns filed in all raring to start a new day of mayhem.

  They ain’t seen nothing to what’s coming, thought Garner as he reflected on the meeting he had just had seven miles up in space. They ain’t seen nothing at all, he chuckled.

  - 13 -

  “What do you think Zeke?”

  Zirkos was looking pensively out of the porthole that they had both decided they liked having, the view of the Earth beneath the ship gave them both focus, despite the occasional feelings of vertigo that Zeke got when he stood too close and lost the perspective of the frame. Then he just felt he was falling and had to pull back before he fainted.

  “I think he will work it out, he has all the facts now, he certainly wants to break out of the institutionalised dogma that surrounds the job, if he can get things moving in the right direction its possible that we could end up with what we need; a concerted world order to put planet Earth on a space footing.”

  Zirkos turned towards Zeke.

  “Do we proceed now with stage two, or wait awhile. You
know your President best, will he cooperate if we set things in motion?”

  Zirkos was referring to the stages of the plan they had thrashed out before kidnapping Garner. Firstly to convince the most powerful person on the planet that humans were not alone in the universe and aliens were real and secondly, that a potential alliance was possible if handled delicately.

  The potential for a variety of disastrous outcomes was significantly high given the general ‘Area 51’ type paranoia and cult behaviour. They intended to try and circumvent much of that by layered introduction of both ideas and evidence.

  “Yes, I’m ready, lets do it”

  Zirkos responded “Ship, location and status of the Ferrazite Science Committee?”

  “The Committee is currently in closed session at their headquarters in the Kennedy Building, there are armed guards stationed outside the door and two people with concealed weapons within the room,” Ship responded.

  Zeke decided now was the best time, without thinking on it too much.

  “Ship, de-materialise the concealed weapons at the same time as you transfer me, please.”

  The distraction of me arriving will probably conceal the sudden absence of their weapons, he thought. He made eye contact with Zirkos, smiling as he nodded.

  “Initiate transfer” ordered Zirkos, and watched as Zeke disappeared.

  Two small weapons appeared on the edge of the control panel nearest him. He picked one up and idly examined it, noting the efficient way the humans designed and used lethal technology. If they had the science available to them from his Pattern library, where would they be in one hundred years, he wondered. Could they be trusted?

  He sighed and turned to view the ship’s monitoring system which was following the proceedings down on the planet.

  ***

  Zeke felt that peculiar pins and needles effect he had come to recognise was part of the re-materialisation.

  He and Zirkos had worked on design changes to make the process quicker which also cut down the light effect as much as possible.

  The spectrum that the field used could be set to different levels according to the need. They had isolated only what was needed to transfer from two points and this turned out to be a very low density shadow of dark grey colour and the power needed was also reduced so that a curtain no longer showed, just the outline of the object as it transferred. It took only a second or two, for Zeke to re-materialise in the committee room and he was immediately aware and able to move about.