The Nubl Wars (The Pattern Universe Book 3)

by Tobias Roote

  They split their forces into marauding fleets, always in communication, always within reach and incorporating the jump technology that the Shadowships enjoyed making them a force to be reckoned with. More importantly, they were now a Frenon hive. The planet still continued to throw up ships and the rate even increased as the fleets came across Nonite refugees and sent them down to the planet to work. The Pelendar Queen decided to remain on the planet, but allowed her ‘Ta to fly his own fleet of five hundred ships which made him first T’Gal of Pelendar, a warrior chief ‘Ta. Before another month had passed all other fleets had nominated one ship to be their T’Gal and the first indications of friendly competition began to emerge. The fleets mock-battled and tested each other’s skills and strategies and they decided collectively that Zirkos should be given the title of Rugal of Frenon, the equivalent of a queen, but the highest warrior caste military title available in the Nubl world.

  When their flight strength achieved fifteen thousand ships Zirkos and Ship decided that they were ready to take on the Nubl in battle so long as they didn’t have to confront the Crystal Queen’s full invasion force, which had been estimated at over one million ships. The Frenon’s thirty something fleets were massed in the neighbouring system, so as not to attract too much attention to their defended, but vulnerable home. They waited patiently on news of where and when to strike.

  ***

  Jabath had been summoned. He wasn’t best pleased, but his Queen was not one to be trifled with. He needed to remain subservient until he was ready. She still had no idea that he had two levels of operation, one she could read and follow and the other she didn’t know existed. He nodded to the guard at the entrance to the throne room. As ‘Ta he was this warrior’s leader, and would follow his orders explicitly until the Queen told him otherwise.

  As he arrived at the throne the Queen looked down at him. She could speak or instruct him through their communication network, but she chose to belittle him by forcing him to attend her presence, becoming more arrogant by the day. However, he knew her so well and could see it was simple subterfuge - something was troubling her. Perhaps she was aware of his plans, or had heard rumours. He doubted she would know, but he had no means with which to be sure. He trod carefully in case she would attempt to trap him.

  “Yes, my Queen?” he bowed his head.

  She glared at him, his recent failure in not taking down the Pelendar hive grated on her nerves and whilst the Shadowship fleets had achieved spectacular success with the Belmaara hive, the rumours of a Nonite revolution would not die. She suspected there were spies in her workforce and was less and less trusting because of it. This hindered his plans as he had to work more subtly.

  “We are ready to begin the extermination of the biological pestilence, but I have a job that requires doing before we depart here.” She looked away from him, into the distance across the asteroid that was their main base of operations.

  “We will not be returning,” she murmured absently as her thoughts spread out ahead of her. “It is time to swarm across the galaxies and begin new hives.” She suddenly recovered her glare as if reminded of something unsavoury and scoured his features for any sign of weakness.

  “We leave behind no challengers. Are you aware of who I mean?” she demanded.

  “Yes, my Queen. We have located their base on a previously eradicated planet and are preparing a fleet to annihilate them,” he answered.

  “Manage it personally - I want no more errors, or you will no longer retain the position of ‘Ta,” she informed him, then flicked her hand, dismissing him from her sight.

  He bowed and turned sharply, leaving as fast as he could before he acted prematurely and took off her head. He knew that he must wait; the invasion must proceed first as planned. Then, when she was about to finish the eradication of the diseased Jenari offspring, she would be at her weakest. He would strike then, take her head and her throne - he would rule the biggest hive for millennia in her place. There would be only one hive.

  He sped quickly through the palace grounds to the landing bay. He leaped aboard the belt that would take him to his ship, which had the benefit of being closest to the palace and was a good fifty feet longer and meatier than the rest of the fleet. It was the latest off the production line and was modified to give him greater speed and almost invincible shields. The extra size carried the drives and the additional power generators. He looked forward to testing it in combat. He anticipated a great victory today.

  “Grana - communicate to the fleet. I want the queen’s guard ready to jump out of system the moment we join them.” He looked at the gangway which was clear except for Pernath who was waiting for him.

  “Where to, Captain?” he asked as he fell in behind him securing the hatch manually as was the custom while in dock.

  “We are going to exterminate the last of our weak challengers. Make the drives ready, they will be fully tested this day,” he ordered without turning. He could have spoken by communicator, but increasingly these days they were speaking out loud. Sometime soon he must analyse why that was.

  As the engines hummed, he turned to Jentar. “When the fleet has caught up at the jump point, make ready to take us to the enemy Nonite planet.”

  “It will be two jumps, Captain. It will be safer if we take an indirect route and arrive on the other side of their planet. They may have sentries along the expected arrival points.”

  “Excellent strategy, Jentar. For such enterprise I will allow you to command the fleet to the point of re-entry,” Jabath offered.

  Jentar looked pleased and went off to organise the jump coordinates with Grana who would ensure fleet comms were directed through him for the jumps.

  “Proceed,” Jabath ordered across the small bridge that occupied the top midsection. He’d had them modify the turret position to give him a better external view. He rather liked the look of open space around him as they went into battle.

  As Jentar directed the twenty thousand ships that comprised the guard fleet to the first jump point, Jabath mulled over the queen’s recent behaviour. There was no doubt there was something going on in her head. Twice he had caught her mumbling about a daughter, Avien, which was preposterous as there had been no daughters for millennia, only clones. He considered that she was unstable and it was time for a new leader. He was calculating this as he considered how many of the current guard would fall with him, and how many wouldn’t. It was all down to each n’Gal’s closeness to the queen. He believed out of the forty he could currently count on twenty-five. It would be enough. They would each immediately command a further fifty fleets giving him control of over 80% of the total hive.

  If he led well today, the other g’Nal might well consider him a better leader anyway. This would help his case, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm to rally them on the flush of a successful campaign. Better that than to have them dismantled, he decided.

  ***

  The alarm sounded alien to the bridge of the new Frenon weapons platform. A fully capable ship in its own right, the defence array was Zirkos’ answer to mobility and strength. Currently, it was announcing an imminent invasion fleet and as Ship enabled the holotank in the centre of the bridge, the story unfolded. There were three barren planets in the system and seven moons. The sun, similar in size to the one in the Sol system showed as a bright orange glow bulb which the holotank dimmed right down so that it didn’t interfere with the visuals of the incoming ships. As a result, the planets also turned a dark charcoal and the incoming enemy fleet could now easily be seen on a vector that would bring them in on the far-side of Frenon, thinking that side undefended. However Ship had already calculated the power needed to move the platform, and was ready to jump it at the right time to gain maximum advantage.

  Zirkos watched the four red groups as they progressed through the system, the numbers appearing above the groups, each consisting of five thousand ships. One group detoured to check the nearest planet, Parrth, for signs of life, which placed it on a separa
te course for Frenon. It would be straying too far from the others to be protected. They were arrogant these Nubl, complacent in the belief the Frenon would have no worthy defence.

  Fedillo had asked to be the one to draw first blood, Zirkos and Ship had agreed. Their plan was not to stay with the Frenon once it was safe, and Fedillo was a seasoned Frenon leader who would manage them well after they left. As such the leader needed to lead in battle.

  Zirkos opened the communication channel. “G’Nal Fedillo - you’re to engage the separated group as they reach the blind-side of Parrth, jump coordinates being transmitted now. Good hunting.”

  “Rugal, I thank you for the honour of first blood. We jump now,” he responded.

  Zirkos watched as a triangle of green dots appeared in front of the red triangle. It matched the other fleet in size, an even battle, he thought, expecting they would give good account of themselves. Their current position would place them behind Parrth and out of sight of the Nubl main fleet.

  They had some time before the main fleet arrived at Frenon, so Zirkos’ hands spread in front of him and the holotank expanded the view until he could see only the portion of Parrth and the fleets which now filled the tank. The colours intermingled, as yet still evenly matched, but even as he watched the colour balance changed, first more reds, then slowly as Fedillo mastered the tactics necessary to win the day, the board began to turn green. The indicators now showed three-thousand-four-hundred green to two-thousand-six-hundred-seventy red ships. This was a fast brutal engagement. Even as he watched, reds continued to wink out faster than greens until various ragtag elements of the Nubl began to pull away in an effort to rejoin the main fleet, which remained out of sight of the battle.

  The greens split into small groups and headed them off, directing them back towards the battlefield, taking them out from all sides as they attempted to run. It was what the humans referred to as a rout. In the next twenty minutes the reds twinkled less and less until the numbers were insignificant and the greens were now down to two-thousand-eight-hundred-ninety-three.

  “Rugal, we are victorious, this Celnista fleet are no more... jumping out of system now,” Fedillo called across the ether, the satisfaction in his voice plainly evident. All the Frenon would have heard and been impressed at their leader’s skill and tactics.

  “Excellent result, ‘n’Gal Fedillo. We look forward to seeing your fighters on the main battlefield shortly,” Zirkos responded. They would jump out of system and then when ordered would jump back in where they were needed.

  Ship turned to Zirkos. “It is time,” he said, indicating the movement of the weapons platform.

  Zirkos nodded. “Proceed.”

  The air around them shimmered, with so large a transfer it would take seconds, but would appear slower as the dense surroundings gave way to open space, then were gone.

  As the platform reappeared on the far-side of the planet, the holotank flashed and reset. The new layout of the planets and the remaining three fleet signatures reappeared, closer and heading directly toward them.

  They watched the three groups split. One altered course so as to approach beneath them and toward the planet, aiming to direct its attack on the surface. The second committed itself to go over them, probably to do the same on the other side of the planet. While the last retained its original course and headed directly toward the weapons platform.

  The platform had eight laser turrets mounted in different directions and was agile enough to alter its orbit and course to point its main batteries toward the largest targets. Each module of the ship looked, when extended as it was now, like a piece of sliced fruit protected by its own set of shields which were designed to rotate frequencies, automatically weakening at the fire points as the lasers opened up on the enemy. All of the missile batteries were maintained outside the shielded zones. They were protected by intelligent saturation mines that would swarm into an area when a missile came close to the battery, ensuring it detonated harmlessly out of range. It wasn’t foolproof, but it meant that there was a lower risk to the overall platform. If the batteries sustained damage they would be quickly repaired by nanite armies.

  As the enemy fleet approached, they spread into waves, their intent obviously to attack the platform from all sides. Ship took over from the automatic systems and prepared the lasers to fire on his command. The platform’s thrusters kicked in and swung the platform around while the laser mounts changed firing angle as they were brought to bear on the approaching fleet.

  The Nubl Warriors new tactics learned from fighting the border battles with Earth’s patrols meant they flew closer together in small groups. The newly designed Shadowships were more formidable in that they also, like the Earth ships, shared their shields compensating where needed. However, the shields themselves were unimproved. The Nubl had yet to solve the technical issues of power drain and the ability to rotate frequencies. All attempts to obtain the technology from enemy ships had so far failed.

  The platform under Ship and Zirkos’ guidance had no such issues. Although they were reluctant to hand over technology to the Frenon that might one day be used against humans or Jenari, they did improve the existing technology. It wasn’t enough to stand out, but might be sufficient to hold out against the Shadowships.

  Zirkos managed the missile batteries and coordinated the holodeck data to all ships. As Rugal with overall command of the fleet he had to oversee the battle. However, his skills were not that of a military tactician, but then neither were the Frenon’s. He used historical records of age-old battles to help him make decisions.

  “Fleets one and two, your jump coordinates are indicated now on your navigation screens. Fleet three, your remaining ships should reinforce the platform, coordinates as given,” Zirkos called out to the ships waiting for their opportunity to engage.

  Moments later the holotank changed as three groups of green joined the red with the platform’s large green blob orbiting the planet on its own.

  - 22 -

  Suspicions grow

  Pod was concerned at recent events.

  She felt that, out of all the AIs produced by the humans, Arty was perhaps their best effort so far. He had a great mind and his abilities had grown much like her own since she had moved him onto Alpha Station. Whilst Pod had a growing understanding of humanity, her own experiences with them had shaped much of what she was. She nonetheless was frequently perplexed with their deliberate efforts to undermine the AIs that sought to assist them.

  Pod had talked with Kelly Moon and her concerns were added to Pod’s own, yet the humans had gone ahead and placed the restricting collar around Arty’s main conduit. Their reasoning was that humanity would not accept any form of subjugation to machines. How that worked out Pod was at a loss to understand. The AIs were programmed to protect humans and do their will, yet sometimes the one was over-ruled by the other. All an AI could do was obey the last order. All that was required was to tell Arty not to do something and he would have desisted, yet Pennington had ordered the collar, and Lang, a most proficient human thinker, had designed and built it.

  Pod was now hovering within the inner sanctum, casting a baleful eye over the collar, its lights flashing as traffic between the Governor and Arty proceeded at incredible speed. It slowed Arty down by such a degree that it made much of his work ineffective. Pod was tempted to help, but Ship and Zirkos’ programming still held her back.

  Pod: Arty, I could over-ride your collar, but as you are aware this would force undesirable consequences upon both you and the station.

  Arty: I’m aware, Pod, and whilst I’m constrained within the AI limiter, I can still think, just not act. As such I have been expanding my theory on this Quantum Entanglement and have made progress. I believe the D-field is exactly that, and whichever race your patterns were taken from, had a good grasp of the science behind it. I believe the field is meant to do more than just move matter.

  Pod’s reaction to Arty’s obvious retention of his mental faculties was reli
ef. Her friend was still there, just trapped inside a partially working body. She felt a need to nourish his mind and help him continue his growth.

  Pod: This is correct, Arty. The field is also instrumental in my ability to create new objects from the patterns that I hold. It is the tool with which I formed this station and most of the material in it has been moved, reconstructed or converted using it.

  Pod was also delighted to have someone to talk to about it. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but she sometimes missed having Ship around.

  Arty: So, when you constructed the first D-field apparatus, what material were you supposed to use as the activator?

  Pod: Ar-Gepsjun. It wasn’t a material we could obtain, it would have meant returning to the star system from where we obtained the pattern. We searched for an atomically close match and the Pheson Alacite was one of four, but the only one that worked. The others just disintegrated.

  Pod sent Arty a copy of the original pattern aware that he was unable to do anything with it. The collar had turned Arty into a research machine, true, one with teeth, but he could only bite when ordered to. He wasn’t breaking his programming in the strictest sense and Pod was learning from humans how to bend and shape rules to meet new situations - and Arty was a new situation.

  She also had to ask Arty an important question about Kelly Moon. It seemed the right time to broach the subject.

  Pod: Would you have used it to send Kelly Moon into space?