The Nubl Wars (The Pattern Universe Book 3)

by Tobias Roote

  Arty: Yes, but like you, I had already copied her pattern many times before when I jumped her around the station and Earth. It would have been a simple matter to reconstitute her, none the worse for the experience. Had she not had that unusual unit that kept her atoms in flux, I could have just held her until the threat was removed.

  Pod: This is as I told Kelly Moon. ‘A response that did no harm to a human was an acceptable defence for an AI under threat’.

  Pod had, in fact, told Kelly it was precisely the right thing to do. An AI with a mind as advanced as Arty had the right to exist and it was only humans that believed they were only machines built to serve.

  Pod: Arty, I need to give you an instruction that you must obey. You can’t mention it to the humans - they wouldn’t understand.

  Pod began to explain. The thought had been forming in her mind as she spoke with the AI and had now taken firm hold. She knew it was the right thing to do. Zirkos would approve.

  Pod: If the position between the humans and the Nubl comes to the point where humanity cannot survive, you must ensure that you take yourself and this station away from here by any means possible. There are research records placed within this asteroid that need to be protected. If it is necessary I will be here to remove the collar, but your survival is paramount.

  Pod sent Arty her computations showing the projected outcome of the coming war. It indicated the prime reason for her instruction to Arty was survival of the scientists and the knowledge in the memory banks. She knew that he had the ability to protect and preserve them both. It was another instruction from Ship and Zirkos that she could safely leave to Arty in case something untoward occurred.

  She kept silent on her secondary reason for giving Arty the instruction - that she personally wanted Arty to survive.

  ***

  He was standing apart from everyone watching her. She was part of a small group, brooding, quiet, pensive. A sense of impending doom emanated from them, and whilst he couldn’t see why, he also had an ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach, of something, a premonition.

  He looked around, noting his surroundings for the first time. A blinding white stone spiral stairway went around the group, large, sweeping, dominating the whole view. It went up, high into the sky, drawing in all the buildings, as it progressed upward, linking them via its circuitous route. Distant figures on the stairway were standing as if transfixed by the same fear that held the group nearest him.

  He focused higher, vaguely perceiving the pinnacles, that grew higher, much higher than anything he was familiar with. The sky had turned a strange unfamiliar indigo hue, as if something was filtering the sun, causing it to glow dimmer, and creating an unusual effect. Where was he?

  Looking back at the group he realised that their clothing was unusual, not normal attire. He obviously wasn’t on Earth. The architecture, the people, even the lighting was strange, familiar yet alien.

  A voice was raised, quickly followed by others. One of the men pointed into the distance. He followed their gaze. A pinhead of black against the strange sky grew larger - even as he watched - moving fast and getting closer. He glanced back at the group, the people were scattering. He sensed their fear and saw their panicked moves. Whatever was coming, they feared it greatly, but he didn’t feel personally threatened, more like a bystander.

  He stood his ground, undecided whether to stay or go. He continued to watch as the pinpoint became multiple black pins, which then grew into larger flying objects as they approached his position. They continued to fill his view of the sky until he no longer saw the sky at all, just a mass of flying objects heading directly towards him. He felt fear, but didn’t understand the root of his concern. He seemed to know he wasn’t really there - just observing something.

  That was until a hand grabbed him. Pulling him back into the shadow of the staircase. He was dragged behind a massive stanchion that held the huge elevator up connecting it to the nearest building. He turned to his benefactor. It was her. The woman he had been watching. The one he knew as Celnista.

  “You fool! Why are you here? You think you can fight, or reason with them?” she uttered scathingly, looking darkly at him with an anger he didn’t understand.

  “Who are they?” he asked.

  “You don’t know?” she scoffed disbelievingly, then peered closely at his eyes. Her eyes widened, recognising something in his, then darted over his face, as if what she saw was at odds with her expectations and she was trying to understand. They cleared suddenly and she spoke urgently, as if time was short.

  “They are the ‘New Jenari’, they are an extremist faction. They call themselves the Nubl, ‘the New Unified Brethren of the Living’. They are immortals and will caste you aside, or convert you. If you stay you will be taken.” She peered at him keenly as though searching for some sign from him that didn’t appear.

  As if coming to a decision, her look darkened to a glare of hatred.

  “Why are you here? You do not belong with us,” she said, thrusting him back towards the shadowed area behind the buildings.

  “RUN, or be taken!”

  He looked at the fearsome apparitions that approached the group. They were formidable, attired in exotic armour with strange headgear and costumery. He was unarmed, but he still thought he should stay, defend himself - them - her. Instinctively he understood he was not here to participate, but to observe. There was nothing he could do to avert what was to come - it had already happened.

  He ran, stopping only when he reached an outcrop of white stone, then turned back briefly to see the outcome. The woman had been caught in a net of some sort that had expelled from one of the strangely garbed beings, that were half Jenari, half android.

  As it pulled her in, she looked back at him and glared. The being turned to see what she was looking at.

  Zeke turned and ran.

  He was still running when he awoke dripping in sweat, half on and half off his bunk in the ready room behind the bridge.

  ***

  Pod was across the other side of space watching a battle unfolding between a Reaver patrol and another probing incursion by the Nubl, who were only partially trying to escape, or kill the Earth ships They weren’t exactly toying with the Reaver patrol, but were essentially testing out manoeuvres and weapons, no doubt to report back on the readiness of the Earth fleet.

  Whilst monitoring, the AI noticed a number of recent modifications in the Nubl’s armaments and shields that were disturbing and was in the process of recording them in preparation to making recommendations to Osbourne when her attention was distracted by an intense response from somewhere.

  Recognising the signature as Zeke’s, and sensing strong emotion coming from him, she responded by jumping directly to Alpha Station. She was acutely aware of her previous failures to help him, especially during the battle with Cebrel. She found herself, yet again, unable to assist with his nightmare. Instead, watching him rise and recover, Pod remained passive and cloaked while continuing to analyse the ongoing changes in his body. It hadn’t escaped Pod’s notice that she was increasingly aware of his presence wherever she happened to be in local space. She could even pin down his precise location, as she had just done.

  Her sensors checked out the latest readings from Zeke’s body. The Alacite’s progress was accelerating, binding them both together more each day. A side effect of this was, that she had some idea, mainly flashes of scenes, of what he was experiencing in his nightmares. Something in the flashed images, set off her analysis-mode, and once again it raced through the millennia-long memories looking for something to base her assumptions on.

  The Alacite mutation was powering through Zeke’s system, increasingly affecting his brain cells as well as the rest of his body. He was now approaching a physiological and psychological crisis. Either he would go insane like Ferris, or the changes would take him along a different path. Nothing could be done to alter the outcome, the Alacite was too finely embedded in his DNA. It was as much a part of him
as he was of it, but what the ‘it’ would be after the crisis had passed was guesswork.

  All Pod’s efforts to extrapolate from the known data indicated it would kill him, painfully. He was already experiencing increased pain levels when he exerted himself. A small percentage of results indicated a change, a metamorphosis of some description. It was this aspect that concerned Pod the most. If he lived - what would Zeke be?

  Pod: Arty, location of Kelly Moon?

  Arty: Science Lab 4, Alpha Station.

  Pod: Carry out diagnostics on your systems, Arty. Look for aberrant behaviour not programmed into your personality matrices.

  Arty: What am I looking for, specifically?

  Pod: Possible side effects of modified Alacite on your systems. I consider it likely that its prolonged use affects performance.

  Arty: Based on your observations of Zeke Callaghan?

  Pod: Correct. It is unlikely to cause any degradation in non-humans. However, a regular diagnostic will highlight any potential for abnormalities to develop.

  Arty: I concur.

  ***

  The Crystal Queen with her entourage swept aboard the new Throne-ship from the small pilot vessel that had carried her to the waiting invasion fleet. The two hundred strong crew of clones and workers bowed their heads deferentially as she passed on her way to the bridge.

  Her place as Supreme Queen of the Nubl had been cemented last week with the routing of the Frenon rebels. Her fleet had lost the battle under her ‘Ta, Jabath, but her overview of the outcome was that the back of the uprising was broken and they would no longer be a threat to her reign. It would be an easy enough matter to send a small fleet back to clean up the mess left behind. The few left would quickly die out without the workers underground to provide them with parts. For now though, she had other more important objectives for her newly acquired empire. After this invasion, her Nubl fleet would press on to new territory and new conflagrations would follow. They would burn their way through the universe until her power was omnipotent.

  Before her, through the wall-to-wall view, she now watched the amassing of her fleet. As the ships continued to line up, her view became restricted. She ordered the Throne-ship to rise higher above the now ten-deep fleet of her latest and most formidable warships. The black sheen of their hulls would go dull once their shields went active, but for the moment the position she had chosen for her inspection gave her the bounced light from the system’s yellow sun across the entire panorama of space.

  The Throne-ship was the first of its kind, her centre of operations. Not happy with the way her ‘Ta was performing and wanting to take a more active role in the fighting, she had ordered him to join her on-board while they made last minute preparations for the invasion of Earth.

  Secretly, she was unhappy over his failure to provide a resounding victory over the Nonnies little world. He seemed preoccupied often and she suspected he was conspiring. All her clones did to some degree, usually jostling for position amongst themselves. He was becoming a problem because she couldn’t see how he was achieving his rise in power amongst the other clones. Well! we will just see how he performs during this invasion, she decided, watching him through her monitors. He was preparing the four hundred g’Nar Talon leaders for their missions. Usually the g’Nar had one thousand ships under their wing, but for this invasion this had been increased to three thousand. There were in excess of one million ships waiting on her command to proceed.

  The Queen noted the contingent of warriors standing behind Jabath, as if detailed to protect him. Why would Jabath believe he was a target, she wondered, and on a whim scanned the crew for any sign of a threat. There was nothing, and her scouring was thorough. As far as the Queen was aware, nothing could be hidden from her scrutiny. Still, she thought, something was amiss, and decided to monitor their movements, it might give her a clue as to why they were in attendance. Did he suspect she was unimpressed with his performance? Would he attempt to stand against her? She laughed at the ridiculous thought that he might attempt to wrest power from her, his Queen, and promptly let the whole thing drop from her concern.

  Instead she dwelt on the green-eyed human in her memories. How had he managed to insert himself into her past. Half a dozen instances now in ‘the times that went before’, he had appeared. She checked the timelines from her throne archives. They didn’t show him before, or after, and the records were intact, untouched. Yet he had been there, she had touched him, looked into his eyes, spoken to him.

  These incidents interfered with her thinking, they had no place in her memories, yet constantly came to the fore, pushed there by some unknown bond that she could feel growing within. When she was on her throne meditating, it was almost possible to feel his presence; something about him created unusual feelings in her. They made her dwell on ‘the times that went before’ which disturbed her greatly, for she could not falter now, her triumphant flight across the heavens would not wait another second. She stirred herself resolutely.

  “Jabath ‘Ta! - Command the fleet to move to the incursion point,” she ordered, driving down emotions that had no place being there after all this time, sending them back into the past where they belonged.

  Enough of this human, she thought. If she came across him she would tear him ’limb from limb’ herself. Yet, in her mind she knew deep down, she probably wouldn’t - there was something.....

  Distracted by the movement of whole flotillas of her million strong fleet, Celnista, the Crystal Queen, put all behind her as she watched intently while her clones rushed about preparing her Throne-ship to take its position in the midst of the largest fleet in Nubl history.

  Jabath, who had arrived while she was in deep introspection, stood behind her, watching intently as he observed the change come over her, then saw as her attention returned to the present.

  Yes, he thought, the occurrence of these incidents was increasing. He would plan his takeover when she was next deeply swept into her memories. His orders went out to his personal guard. They were his assassins, ready to leap into action on his command. Soon, he thought to them... very soon. He sensed their acceptance and preparedness.

  - 23 -

  Nubl Space: Send them Packing

  ‘Fedillo, engage enemy fleet as circumstances permit. The WP (weapons platform) can take care of itself, use your ships well,’ Zirkos called to him across the queen’s network. Fedillo looked at the smaller version of the holodeck in his control room. It displayed localised space so that he could view the threat detail without unnecessary distraction.

  The Frenon captains managed their ships in perfectly synchronised movements and knew that their practised reactions would spell the difference between success or failure of their strategy.

  “Begin phase 1,” he instructed his remaining fleet of approximately three thousand ships.

  Immediately his fleet of greens split from their formed mass into six splinters, diverged paths separated them quickly into the path of the incoming fleet of Nubl Shadowships forcing them into more than one battlefront. The splinters on the end swung around the enemy fleet and began their attacks from the sides causing the enemy to lose their formation. Unused to tactical responses from the other hives, the Shadowships temporarily lost momentum while the Frenon, still grouped, slipped amongst them discharging their lasers into the mass of ships. Within minutes the enemy fleet’s attack was broken and the battle became a melee.

  As the Frenon ships at the front took casualties, others moved up to take their place. While the splinter formations were mercilessly pounded with heavy laser fire, they maintained their attack, continually slipping between the Nubl ships, blowing them out of their path with concentrated fire. The newly upgraded Frenon shields withstood powerful laser beams from all directions before giving out, the ships turning into molten slag. However, the Frenon tactic was proving much more punitive for the Nubl warriors who incurred losses often in the region of three Shadowships to every Frenon vessel.

  Fedillo could see tha
t the splinter formations were doing their part, the results evident in the winking out of red dots all over the holodeck. The greens began outnumbering the reds. Fedillo’s ship, battered from a near miss from a Nubl missile after two runs through enemy ranks, now broke off its own attack to survey the fight from a distance. He needed perspective.

  Meanwhile the WP was now at the centre of the maelstrom of fire as the battle continued toward them, only partially abated by Fedillo’s fleet.

  Whilst maintaining a constant barrage of lasers, Ship also avoided the Frenon ships flying directly through his field of fire. The platform’s beams were larger than the enemy’s, drawing significantly more power, but recharging from huge generators in a fraction of the time. The recharge speed gave them an impressive pulse rate of fire, resulting in significant hits, sometimes as many as three ships deep as the powerful beams punched through local space.

  The effort of managing all eight lasers impacted considerably on Ship’s own physical resources, but as he was also plugged into the ship, he could draw extra power from the generators while continuing to monitor shields for signs of weakness.

  The Nubl ships continued to approach the heavy defences of the platform pounding more fire at it as they realised that it was the flagship of their enemy. They sought to destroy it and through it, the Frenon morale. Under the concentrated onslaught, laser beams and missiles began to impact the hull, forcing Ship to concentrate more on realigning the shield to reinforce damaged areas giving the nanites an opportunity to repair the damaged sections.

  Back out in the impenetrable darkness of space, fleets two and three were having similar successes with the splinter tactic, and it seemed to Fedillo, having readjusted his holodeck so he could switch between battle-zones, that he could now see that the concentration of skilled Shadowship warriors were here in his own arena of fire. The other two enemy fleets were having an equally bad time of it as his first enemy attack behind Parrth. They seemed to be less sure of their ships and their own abilities, obviously they were more used to enemies that didn’t fight back, Fedillo reasoned.