The Pattern Ship

by Tobias Roote

  By this time, the effect was spreading widely in the USA and China. By selling the units to other countries, or licensing the technology to countries for their own domestic manufacture, the ability to walk freely without fear began to overtake everything else.

  It soon became irrelevant whether a shield was worn, or not. Crime against people just died out and, when that happened, fear dropped away like clouds dissolving in the rays of the summer sun. People gained tolerance and respect, and opened their eyes to the variety of cultures around them. It was an idyllic period.

  Wider afield, the rampant progression of warfare, gun running and terrorism, whilst trying hard to find extreme ways to survive, began to fall out of favour. Why shoot at something if you cannot damage, or kill it ?

  They tried to develop technology to overcome the shields, but with nanobots resident in every product, it was simply upgraded on a piggyback link, and any emitter, or city shield in the locality of a modified unit, automatically received the upgraded code and the status quo was maintained.

  Society began to move away from violence and became more aligned towards constructive development, a more positive period of growth and advancement.

  The introduction of anti-grav vehicles was coming. Everyone knew it and looked forward to cheap transport. The public wanted more of this new technology, that promised more freedom, less fear and greater attention to quality of life.

  The oil companies were, like the Russian Mafia, resistant to change and dug their heels in, trying to corrupt the wheels of progress, but without the ability to buy and bury patents, or smother companies that worked with the new technology, they found their ways blocked by Zeke and his groups’ endeavours.

  Eventually Zeke and his growing band of supporters gained world-wide recognition where, instead of fighting them at every turn, global corporations slowly began to come to Zeke to discuss ways in which they could participate. The impasse was over and the era of cooperation was in full swing.

  - 22 -

  Garner sat at the porthole with Zeke. His second term as President was shortly coming to an end and he wanted one last chance to sit looking at his planet from the amazing perspective of the T-ship.

  “We need something new to work on as a nation, Zeke,” he admitted. “The people are safe now, but they are restless, they want innovation and improvements to their lives and with all that has happened they are hungry for a positive future.”

  He ticked off his fingers at their accomplishments.

  “We have integrated the personal shield. The tractor beam technology has taken off and created all manner of new branches of development. The anti-grav industry is developing viable products, especially vehicles of all types, the nanobot and nanite technology is breaking new ground, especially in healthcare.” He put his hands out.

  “What more of this wonderful new technology could we persuade Zirkos to part with ?”

  Zeke pondered. The two of them had discussed this long and hard and Zirkos felt that, until the world below them moulded into a single entity, or at least had, at its head, a single governing body, that developing space travel technology beyond their already adolescent rate would be counter productive and splinter the human race more than it was already.

  Zirkos knew that if the threats coming towards them were to arrive while individual countries were running their own independent space industries, they would not stand a chance of retaliation and would be at their most vulnerable.

  President Garner had been forceful with the American government bodies and, as a result, his standing with the people was high. He had not delayed in streamlining law enforcement and military bases to a ruthlessly run level with little fat citing the technoocal advances as just cause for their reduced involvement..

  Again, the new technologies that had been introduced had been developed and enhanced as a stepping stone to even greater ideas and products, meaning the employment take-up from redundancies had maintained his popularity.

  The biggest losers appeared to be insurance companies. Zeke chortled at that, since their refusal to cover his medical bills on return from the Gulf contributed to his insurmountable problems. He was happy to be contributing to their difficulties right now.

  The biggest difference came in the reduction in arms-carrying citizens, who felt this no longer remained necessary. Large quantities of small arms had been relegated to attics, strong boxes, and, in some cases, converted to manhole covers by the various State projects.

  The world was disarming on a global scale. There were obviously people who gathered in groups, held rallies and fought to maintain the right to maintain their guns. Nobody stopped them, they just slowly became irrelevant as the use of personal shields expanded to the whole nation. Even schools made them compulsory.

  Zeke and Zirkos both knew this was not the desirable conclusion because, unlike the world down there, they were aware of the impending invasion which was not a matter of if, but when. As a result, Zirkos wanted to leave and look for his brethren, or signs of the Nubl, to ascertain the level of risk from them, or others. Zeke couldn’t think of a reason to stop him except that Zirkos was his only friend, and Ship, his only home.

  Zeke looked over at Garner. He’d watched the man grow as a president since the arrival of Zirkos and the ship’s pattern technology. Ostensibly a one-shot president, Garner had come to realise that the world needed a steady hand and continuity in leadership. He had set his own desire aside, his marriage, not the best in terms of personal satisfaction, was nonetheless a match that Washington liked. He had earned the popularity of the country in leading them into the future with a strong hand. The manufacturing and distribution of ‘Zirtech’, as it had commonly been termed, had kept the USA in the forefront of goodwill as the design and manufacturing techniques were shared out around the world. Many countries chose to use the US products which resulted in high employment and a strong economy. President Garner was riding a wave. Zeke wanted to take advantage of that.

  “Frank, what will you do when your presidency comes to an end ?” he asked in preparation to fielding an idea he’d already discussed with Zirkos.

  Garner mused, hedging as he sensed that something was coming his way, so Zeke expanded to draw him out.

  “Put it this way, you’ve had two terms of very successful government. You have tied the USA in a good way to many countries with the distribution and sharing of new technology. You have achieved more than any president in history in bringing about world peace.” Garner was nodding, but not thinking hard enough for Zeke.

  So Zeke repeated his question. “So I ask you again, what will you do next ?”

  Garner looked him in the eye. “Zeke, frankly, I don’t really know what I could do with my time. Like presidents before me, I will be on hand for the new president to lean on for a while. After that I might take up fishing.”

  “If I told you that there is a lot more that you could do, in fact, ‘must do’ to prepare our world for what is to come, would you be interested in helping us achieve it ?”

  Garner turned from the view of Earth and looked Zeke in the eye. “Well, that’s an interesting offer, Zeke, but you will need to tell me what is coming so that I can make that decision for myself.”

  So, Zeke spent the next hour telling Garner what Zirkos had told him and what he had himself researched, using the Ship as a retrievable archive. Ship provided visual replays of many of the genocides committed on alien worlds and at the end Garner was convinced.

  “Well, just how do you propose we go about getting this off the ground, Zeke ? Dang ! We don’t even have the ability to cope in space except as an experimental space station. Admittedly, it’s moving along now, but there’s no way in hell we’re gonna get that kind of technology up and running in a hurry, unless.....”

  “Yes, we had intended that the next phase was to create a universal shipyard to develop and build ships. Ship can replicate them one at a time initially, but it's processor intensive and would tie u
s down at a time when we need to be more flexible.”

  “It would be better,” Zeke added, “if there was an independent facility to construct a viable spaceship that met our needs. That way, we would grow our own expertise.”

  “Hmmh ! I agree, and it’s something that will pull nations together if the expertise can be spread across the international circuit. I’m up for that,” he nodded positively, but quizzed Zeke. “How would you see it working ? You can’t just pull people away from what they are doing.”

  Zeke, thought about how to go about appraising Garner of the overall objective, which was to have a space navy, prepared for anything that might come at them. As much as he hated the idea, a military venture had more going for it than a civilian one, just how to make it work was the issue.

  “We don’t need civilian freighters because there is nowhere to transport anything. There will be a need for commercial mining, but this is a way off yet.”

  “Yes !” Garner agreed so far.

  “We do need to prepare for the eventuality of the Nubl, or some other attack, at some point in the future...” Zeke paused.

  “Yeees !” A slightly more sceptical agreement. Garner’s eyebrow was arching and Zeke knew that it was going to be an issue of making it seem democratic for Garner to go for it.

  “....and we do need to do this without coming across as warmongers to the peace lobby that has gained considerable ground since the introduction of the shield technology.”

  “Yes !” Garner accepted the valid argument and was reassured, as far as it went.

  “So, we need to meld a non-political group, from all nations, with a sufficient presence to provide a balance between democratic and military background and use that to forge a new space council.”

  “Mmmh ! Yes, that sounds workable, provided that it was a one man, one vote, type of situation. It would, by necessity, be a one vote per country to begin with, I suspect, although this might not be a fair distribution of power where more advanced countries are putting up the majority of the workforce or finance to develop the technology.”

  “We have already thought of that,“ prompted Zeke. “The raw materials would be provided by Ship’s facilities for mining asteroids and the initial patterns would also be provided until we created sufficient momentum to design and manufacture.

  Then we are looking at workforce mainly and the financing would come out of the funding bank we set up initially to secure a foothold for Zirkos’ people on Earth. There is considerable money in that available for our use,” he offered.

  “So, you wouldn’t require investment from countries or organisations then ?” Garner seemed surprised.

  Zeke nodded. “That’s right, because, honestly, if we tried to go that route, would we not get the USA demanding a bigger slice of the action, then China and Russian and Europe demanding proportional voting too.

  “The last thing we want is a lobbying system that emulates the political system we already have, and that so many object to, as it lines the pockets of the rich and powerful,” Zeke responded, knowing full well that it would be as he had described.

  Garner looked askance at Zeke.

  “Careful, Zeke, I’m part of that system. A lot of what you want the space council to be, is going to require the involvement of those very structures you criticise.” He waggled his finger, for good measure, in a friendly warning.

  Zeke wasn’t having that and responded.

  “We will avoid that route altogether if we can. This has to be seen to be, not in any corporate group pockets. That means keeping it out of that ‘system’ as you call it. We could do it without any of you, purely by providing a platform, the financing and the materials and inviting people to join us. It wouldn’t take long to steal the best brains from all of the countries on the planet and set them up as a completely independent identity.”

  “Hmmh !” Garner grunted.

  He didn’t seem too pleased at that prospect, but that was the stick, the carrot was getting voluntary involvement from all the governments, or at least all of those prepared to commit to such a project.

  “Okay !” he said, not sounding at all committed to his answer. “ If I agree to get involved, I want a fairly decent position within the new set-up. I won’t work for no recognition, the USA has to be prominent in any organisation that deals with global aspirations.”

  “Frank,” Zeke assured him, “we were actually hoping you would be its president.”

  His eyes brightened at that. “Ah, then that’s settled. Let’s get it all going as soon as my presidency is over, that will give me something to kick dust into the new president’s eyes ... hehehehe !” He chuckled at the prospect of continuing the mission he’d already started. It would take the operation away from the USA, but as he’d realised before Zeke had said it, the whole thing would need to be squeaky clean to pull the old enemies in without losing the allies..

  ***

  Ferris called the meeting to order. He had some specific things he needed to accomplish. The first was that he required access to the over-ride codes to the city systems, specifically Washington, however, he couldn’t broadcast the fact.

  “Osbourne, you are dealing with replication of the shields for cities. How are the updates coming along ?” he queried.

  “Well, sir, we have responded as requested by the Secretary of State, prioritised them and the list has been passed along. You should have a copy of them in your inbox.”

  “Good. We are planning on some exercises, over the next few months, to test their ability to respond to emergencies from external sources and it’s anticipated that there will be a high degree of failure rate in response times,“ Ferris offered up. “How do you feel they will react to such an incident, Osbourne ?”

  “Er, I think they might struggle with the technology, sir. They have been advised it’s a straight forward on / off switch and have not been trained in anything that might preclude that. Are you suggesting that attacks might be forthcoming, sir, all of our data suggests...”

  “No, Osbourne, I’m not suggesting anything, but the President has insisted that I personally take full responsibility for the effectiveness of our shield systems, so I’m going to make sure my ass is covered in one hundred percent cast iron and copper plate.”

  “Yes, but the shields aren’t likely to fail, sir. We have tested them to the destruction of everything around them and they haven’t failed, ever, sir.”

  “Osbourne, it may surprise you to know I do read your reports, and everyone else’s here,” he swept his eyes hawkishly around the table

  “However, there needs to be contingency planning and, from my ad-hoc site visits, I have been extremely disturbed at what I have seen. I intend to make some corrections to the back-up and ensure that there are justifiable reasons for purpose trained engineers and additional back-up power sources. So far my advice has been largely ignored. I intend to correct that oversight,” Ferris responded.

  “How do you intend to achieve that, sir, since they only have to switch them on.”

  “I intend to make the shields fail, simulating a power failure, and they will then be advised accordingly and told to have the screens set back up via an alternate source within 30 minutes or face annihilation, simulated, of course.”

  “But, to do that, sir, you would need the shield override codes. They are only to be given to the SofS, or the President, sir.”

  “Osbourne, does the buck stop with the President if the shields fail, or with me ? If it’s me, do you want to be the one to stand there and tell me you were sorry, but you were under instructions. Instructions, I might add, that I actually wrote and gave to you when we set this whole operation up ?” Ferris glowered at him.

  He was pleased to see Osbourne shrinking from the exposure he felt was being directed towards him.

  “I guess... I mean, I understand, sir. I can have these made available....” he tried to utter, but he was interrupted by Ferris, who pretended acceptan
ce and impatience.

  “Make it so, Osbourne, I expect the complete list in my inbox, no later than end of business today.”

  Ferris quickly moved onto the next order of business, leaving Osbourne mouthing to himself like a fish out of water. Which, in terms of what had just occurred, was exactly what he was. He had a brilliant mind, but couldn’t deal with the likes of Ferris and didn’t cope well in the militaristic environment he had been forced into. He sank into despondancy as he tried to work up an argument for not giving Ferris the shield codes.

  The last order of business was the development of the tractor beam weapon. Zirkos had brought one down with him on one of his visits and demonstrated its application. It was enough to set the tongues going as fast as the brilliant minds in the group and despite not knowing how it was accomplished, had made headway between them to ascertain a large portion of the weapon’s functionality.

  They had just got to the point where they could build a working prototype, but had no idea how to adjust the aim from needle to hammer mode. Instead they decided to keep it as a needle gun and were in the process of tooling up to produce them in small quantities.

  “How soon before you can supply a hundred off for testing and marketing ?” Ferris demanded. The engineering scientists were all gathered in a huddle so he addressed them as a block not bothering to single any one out.

  “We are about two weeks away from having a manufacturing process, after that another three weeks to tool up and get the workers trained. It’s a fairly technical process,” bleated a small mousy man wearing John Lennon blue tinted glasses.

  “I need them in a month. See what you can do to get the process speeded up, let me have one hundred working models before the next meeting,” he instructed. He needed them quickly, the plans he had fermenting were coming along nicely.