The Pattern Ship

by Tobias Roote

  The agents no longer had to be prepared to ‘stop a bullet’ for the President, although the possibility still existed in the event of catastrophic shield failure.

  So when President Garner arrived in Washington, it was a low key event, even as he headed for the White House. Garner was staying there tonight as he feted the outgoing staff and loyal followers. Ginny was alongside him in the limousine, looking beautiful as they stepped out to applause and cheers from the party members, staff and friends.

  All of the senators were here ; it was a time for celebration. Many of them had ridden in on his ticket and had done well as a result. They had much to thank Garner for, so they would be generous this night, if none other. He knew that tomorrow they would be welcoming the new President in and it would all begin again, but without him.

  His good friend, Jefferson, was right there to help him out and led the applause as he stepped up the elegant steps back into the White House. Garner smiled and waved at everyone, pleased to be back if only for a fond farewell. He had missed the power and splendour. He would not miss its intrigue and plotting.

  The party was well received and despite the concerns about the next morning, Garner managed to appear relaxed and happy. He looked around his friends and wondered which one of them was going to be the one that stabbed him come morning. He thought he knew a little of how Caesar must have felt before Brutus pressed home the blade.

  Most, if not all, were wearing their personal shields, scaled down to the minimum so that it didn’t cause unnecessary jostling within the confined space. The deluxe versions could pattern the skin so closely that you felt only a slight tension as you went to shake hands. Any threat detected in body chemical changes, or unusual pheromone activity, would put the shield on alert and ready to protect its wearer. As a result, there were very few secret service people in evidence, or indeed, necessary.

  Garner thought hard about taking his friend JJ aside and warning him about the threat, but he respected Zeke and held fast to their plan knowing that all contingencies, if not taken care of, were at least anticipated. Tomorrow they would know who was, and who wasn’t, and hopefully, they would manage to deal with the attempted coup bloodlessly.

  His personal aide from the newly forming Space Council was the last to leave. Thursday, the day after tomorrow, he officially took up his position as interim President of the Representatives of the Global Space Council. He felt the challenge was worthy of his effort. He hoped fervently that he would live through tomorrow so that he could be there.

  He had confidence in Zeke and the Artificially Intelligent companion called Pod.

  Strange relationship that one ! Garner noted absently that Pod seemed attached to Zeke, and the feeling appeared to be reciprocated. He wondered if Zeke was aware of the bond forming there, he doubted it. Garner had come to terms with having a conversation with a computer, but it still made him feel like he was dealing with one of his reptilian senators, such was the intelligence and awareness of these machines.

  He thought more about Zeke Callaghan. The man never seemed to be looking out for himself and most of the time, was seemingly unaware of the respect he had earned in the halls of power these last five years. He gathered nothing for himself, never seeking fame or popularity, but he nevertheless received it everywhere, while remaining blissfully ignorant.

  Garner had noticed that the Pod was becoming more aware. He hadn’t said anything to Zeke when the AI began acting proactively the other night, but it had come as a complete surprise to Zeke, he noted. There was definitely something happening. Still, that’s for another day, he thought. First, there was tomorrow.

  WEDNESDAY 07:00 hrs

  Sergeant Mendez of unit Delta knew his orders.

  He was absolutely clear on what his team had to achieve. He led his small four-man team down the dark tunnel. As expected, he met no resistance.

  They were underground, at a secret location outside the city shield, where there was no current threat level. So, whilst the shields were up, they were at the lowest setting. Traffic could enter and exit, provided it was using the correct access sequences codes.

  He needed to be on station by 07:45 hrs ; there was plenty of time.

  All around the city of Washington, other small teams were carrying out parallel tasks. They all had one single objective. When the shields failed, they were to ensure they could not be reset. Their mandate was to kill as few as necessary. The intention was to remove senior management, but leave the workforce intact.

  He had no ruck with the civilians, or even the small military attachment that would be on hand. If they shot first, he would take them out. He was easy about it. A good soldier followed the orders of his commanding officer. His was to take and hold Shield Station No.8. The security teams inside had no idea their personal shields would fail at the same time. They would be unable to reset them and would, therefore, be at risk, whereas his teams' shields would remain secure.

  After travelling through dimly lit corridors for just over thirty minutes, Mendez judged they were approximately five minutes from objective A, the external shield, when suddenly everything went black. He couldn’t see a thing.

  Mendez stopped dead. He was confused because there was nothing he was aware of, down here, that could detect them. Yet, it was instantly pitch black and it wasn’t just that the lights had gone out, it had just gone deadly black. The absence of any light at all was suddenly terrifying.

  He lost his bearings, so assuming his men were in front of him, he called out quietly to them, ordering them to a halt.

  When he got no answer, he fumbled for his torch. Switching it on, he aimed the light at where his men should have been waiting for him. Nothing ! They weren’t there.

  What he saw was empty space, lots of empty space and rocks, there were all types of rock.

  Switching the torch from one angle to another, all he could see were a lot of those things you read about in Geographic magazines. Stalagmites and stalactites were literally everywhere.

  Just out of reach from his torch beam he detected a roof above him, perhaps several hundred feet up.

  He pressed his mike against his throat, “Delta One to Delta Team, come in.”

  Nothing. No answer, not even static. He repeated his command across the airwaves, but got no reply.

  He was now totally lost.

  He decided to swing back the way he had come, wondering how he had turned off the wrong way while his team had obviously continued onward.

  He was still walking back when he heard a shot. It echoed around the cave.

  He couldn’t tell where the noise originated, only that it came from a long way away, and it sounded like a rifle. He switched off his torch and waited for some directional indication.

  When he heard no more shots he felt disinclined to try shooting himself. Instead, he decided he was totally lost and sat down to wait for further noises to direct him to the rest of his unit.

  He was baffled, there were no access points to caves on his plans....

  WEDNESDAY 07:55 hrs

  The supervisor at Shield Station No. 8 detected the moment when the shields went down.

  They just dropped, leaving the generators humming excitedly with power and no outlet to expend it on.

  He called out to the engineers, who were, even now, running to their stations.

  “We have shields down !” he shouted.

  He pressed the alarm next to the control panel he maintained. The haunting klaxon reverberated through the underground tunnel network, bringing the guard detail to full alert. Their personal shields switched to full strength, glowed in the dark, reflecting the red flashing light of the alarm. Then suddenly, they went off too and the soldiers, instead of forming their guard positions, stood around taking their shield emitters out, trying to turn them off and on again to reset. Within another few minutes, they were working again and they all resumed their previous activities.

  Taking station, at both entrance and exit to the tunne
l, they fanned out and prepared for intruders. No other reason could be given for a shield drop like that. It only occurred on override or fail and since the power generators were still on-line somebody had hit the override codes. They had no warning of any tests or exercises, so could only surmise it was not a drill, and so the squad leader acted accordingly.

  The supervisor was on the phone, talking to central command.

  “No, there was no warning !”

  “Yes, the power is still running.”

  “No, there had been no blips in output.”

  “What ? All other stations are having the same issues ?”

  “Yes, we will power down and reset all shields.”

  “Time to completion approximately fifteen minutes.”

  He frantically waved to the engineers giving them the signal to reboot the shield generators. As they carried out his orders, the generators, one by one, whined down in pitch, until eventually with a deep groan, they stopped. The silence after many hours of their pitched whine was thunderous. His ears rang.

  The additional crew of support engineers arrived. Running past the armed guard, they put themselves onto the free stations, taking command of their respective modules and, within thirty seconds, all the checks were done and the command was given to restart the generators.

  One by one, they burst back into life and began building up speed to enable them to generate the power needed.

  It would take a while to emit sufficient force to create the fields necessary to enable the shield to expand over the city once more. They prayed that, in the meantime, no calamity had beset the city from whatever had forced the shields to disarm. They would know soon enough, they decided.

  The supervisor was on the phone again.

  “Yes, they are coming back up on-line.”

  “Another five minutes before shields can activate.”

  “No, there had been no enemy contact.”

  “Yes, all defence forces were deployed.”

  “No, it’s understood this is not a drill.”

  “Yessir, seal the entrances.”

  He gestured to the guards to close the doors.

  “No, we can’t hear any fighting.”

  “What ! There are aircraft and helicopters over the White House ?”

  “I understand, do not let the shields fail again.”

  “No, I have no idea what codes were used.”

  “They could use them again ? Bloody Norah !”

  “Yessir ! we will continue to repeat, as required.”

  The supervisor put down the phone, gestured to the sergeant in charge of the guards.

  “Nobody in, nobody out ! Its a hostile environment out there. Shoot to kill, that’s the order.”

  “Aye aye, Clegg. No worries, we have all exits sealed and locked down.” He smiled reassuringly.

  As the shield became active, the supervisor waited anxiously for the other stations to come on-line. If one failed they could plug the hole, if two failed they would have holes, more than that they might as well go home.

  ‘Eight’, ‘nine’, ‘eleven’, ‘twelve’, ‘fourteen’...

  There was a loud cheer when the last one came on-line and the shield went to full strength, causing the generators to heave as they felt the strain, then drop back as the load balanced out between the fourteen sets of generators.

  Washington was safe again.

  It was up to topside to deal with any threat that had already entered the city.

  WEDNESDAY 08:00 hrs

  The President was standing looking out the window when the thunder of jets, overflying the White House, made the windows rattle. It was followed up immediately with helicopters and gunships in attendance. All of them faced inwards towards the White House lawn.

  Garner sighed. So, they had failed. The coup was under way. He prepared himself for what was to come.

  Knowing now that he wouldn’t get to see his dreams fulfilled, he wished only that the Space Council could have had a chance to come into being. He stood by his desk awaiting his fate. He had no idea who was going to be walking into his office. He just knew the first person through the door, would be the one who had betrayed him.

  As the noise in the outer offices grew, so the outside seemed to become active and he turned to watch as black-suited armed figures rappelled down ropes hanging from the sides of the choppers.

  He watched them as they gathered briefly in groups, conversing, giving and receiving last minute orders for deployment, then spreading out around the grounds. Facing outwards weapons raised, shields full on.

  Something about it all dimly shouted to him deep within his brain, but it wasn’t quite getting through yet. He turned around and looked towards the door just as Jeffreys walked in.

  He looked in JJ’s eyes and immediately knew who the unknown rebel was.

  Jake smiled at him triumphantly.

  “So it was you all the time, wasn’t it, Jake ?” Garner immediately accused his lifelong friend.

  “Frank, Frank...” he was shaking his head as if scolding a naughty child.

  “Yes, it was me. You could not imagine how hard I found it, to support you as you gave away our power and our strength to all of our enemies.”

  He walked up to the President, his arrogant bearing now showing in his manner. The manner of one who had come into power and was about to exert it.

  “You allowed a single alien being to command a great nation and applauded him, while on his instruction, you brought our once great country to its knees. How could you do that to us, Frank ?”

  He wagged his finger at Garner.

  “Still, no harm done. This country will be great again, mark my words, Frank. We are going to undo all of the damage you have done. It starts here, today.

  We have control of the Army and the Air Force. The Navy will fall into line as soon as they see a chain of command that can be followed and keep them in strength. They need a proper leader, Frank.” JJ shook his head sadly.

  “You aren’t one and neither, frankly, is the new President,” he spat scathingly at his old friend.

  “Unfortunately, Frank, you have to go, as well as your successor.” He sighed, as if it was regrettable.

  Frank knew there was going to be no regret in it at all. Jefferson’s true colours were shining through. He watched as JJ dropped all pretence of the friend he had pretended to be, throughout the years together.

  Jefferson moved as he continued to speak, taking something out of his pocket, holding it in his hand.

  “Today we start a new government. One empowered with the strength of resolve and might. One that will take back all of the advantages you have given to our enemies.

  We are about to take back control of our borders, repel all foreign influences and, oh yes ! the most beautiful thing of all, we have the disarming codes for every single shield in the world, including yours, Frank.”

  He pointed a small black box at Frank who actually felt it when his shield went down, leaving him totally exposed to his enemy.

  Jake now drew a weapon, a small calibre gun, from his jacket and pointed it at him. Frank could only smile sadly, and wonder at his friend of so many years. How could he have been so wrong ? He watched him pull the trigger, refusing to close his eyes while waiting for the bang and the pain that would signal the end of his dream.

  As the shot rang out, Frank felt a great freeing up of his soul. He saw the oval office doors burst inwards, black-clad men leaping onto Jake, overpowering him, his own shield failing to defend him as it was itself disabled.

  Jake’s gun was wrested from him, and disarmed, he was held in an arm-lock by two strong agents. Other dark-suited figures swarmed into the room, their backs to Frank, shielding him from further attack, as, suddenly, he felt heavier again. He wondered what had just happened as he felt drawn back into the Oval Office.

  He staggered under his own weight, and was surprised when a black-suited figure was immediately there for him and helped
him as he recovered. He had thought they were Jefferson’s men.

  “Are you all right, Mr President ?”

  “Yes... I... am. Yes ! Thank you.” He grabbed the man and then letting go as he remembered he had been shot, he felt around his body for anything to disprove his theory. “I am fine, I am not...” he sighed with relief, “I’m not injured.”

  “Good !” the soldier said.

  “We have secured the White House, sir. All rebel forces have been disarmed, or neutralised and the leaders,” he pointed at Jefferson, “have all been apprehended.”

  Annie walked in, dodging between all the military types. She had a cup of tea in her hand, but she looked white as a sheet and was shaking like a leaf.

  “Here you are, Mr President, you might need this !”

  Frank took her hand and sat her down in his chair. He took the rattling cup from her gently and put it on the desk.

  He turned to his sideboard swiftly, taking two of his favourite crystal goblets. He sloshed a generous quantity of his favourite brandy in each, sat his butt on the desk and handed her one of the glasses.

  She took it in both hands, the glasses were a tad heavy.

  “Here’s to you, Annie. How do you fancy a new job. One a long way from here with plenty of challenges and an old fart to look after every day ?”

  “Yes, just as long as you’re the old fart !” She laughed nervously and took a swig of the brandy, nearly choking on it, as the fumes hit the back of her throat.

  Frank smiled and looked out of the window, finally realising what it was he had failed to notice before. That all of the soldiers were facing outwards, protecting the White house, protecting him. He silently prayed and gave thanks.

  As calm and order was restored, the secret service agents were allowed back in and other staff who had been cleared were allowed to come and go.

  Frank and Annie sat through it all, talking about his plans for the Space Council and, as he did so, he realised that there was now nothing to stop it becoming a reality.

  It must have showed in his face, because Annie took hold of his hand, reassuring him. Her strength had returned, and with it, her calm assurance that all was well with her world which, for the most part, included Frank Garner and everything he was and did. She would go wherever he did, her love for this man unfailing in its resolve.