SKY CITY (The Pattern Universe Book 6)

by Tobias Roote

  How did that happen? He had been been removed like a speck of lint from a coat.

  Still reeling from the sudden impact, XeraC almost made another strategic mistake. He still had his back-up sled and considered transferring himself completely to it and surrendering the rest of the sphere to Sedal, but something told him to hang on to what he had left. The battle wasn’t over yet. Especially as XeraC knew the ARK needed the communications ability to escape the Nubl. He decided to hunker down and reinforce his position. He still didn’t know how the inferior AI had managed to outwit him, but he had a shrewd idea Osbourne was behind that as well. As far as he was concerned if it meant he had to wait again for another opportunity, then that’s what he’d do.

  ***

  “Sedal, your input is needed,” called Pinner through the console’s microphone. As he and Duffy watched, the screens that now had full access, indicated the red wall of destruction approaching. Advance numbers were already creating mayhem in the areas of Earth they had recently vacated.

  Pinner thought briefly of his son again, the boy was almost certainly in the ‘thick of it’ and whilst he wished that he could have persuaded Jimmi to join him here on the ARK, he knew in his heart that he would never run from a fight. He closed his eyes and, although not a religious man, sent a prayer his way. Then turned all personal thoughts aside and concentrated on their own dire predicament.

  “Duffy, what do you think? Can we avert contact with that wing of Shadowships by using all our thrusters together?”

  “We need to do the calculations. Unfortunately the battle between the AI and this XeraC intruder is wrapping up the processing power and memory capacity. We are unable to run the simulations through the system while they are ripping the heart out of it.”

  “Is there any way of utilising the black unit in the holosuite?” Pinner asked him, already thinking it would be too under-powered and without the AI to run the programs, would be a case of manually keying in everything. It would just be too slow.

  “Duffy just shook his head. He didn’t need to spell it out, he knew the captain was just looking for anything that might help. The truth was that as long as there were two massive AIs in the ARK system there would never be enough capacity to do anything except steer.

  “Sedal, where are you?” Pinner barked impatiently into the mike.

  “Captain Pinner, I have managed to secure incoming transmissions as well as take full control of internal communications across the sphere. You may now use your comms systems securely. The external influence known as XeraC has been removed from a large portion of the network. I am still attempting to gain control of outgoing transmissions.” The voice of Sedal boomed across the wrecked control room.

  “What about environmental and habitat agricultural systems? We need those under our control before this XeraC ‘thing’ damages our ability to survive,” Pinner asked.

  “I currently have no access to the hydroponic labs, or the environmental mixers. I’m currently not able to ascertain if the system is managing the air supply, or if you are on a slow poison cycle,” the AI responded.

  “Damn!” Pinner turned to Dumfries. “We need a software genius, but Osbourne is no longer available. We need to find a way of getting this character out of our network - for good.”

  Sedal, who was still sending out tiny snippet codes to investigate the remaining section of the network had been getting some feedback over the last hour that surprised the AI. According to the simple replies being sent by the code, there appeared to be another network connected to the main habitat. A network that was both cavernous and powerful.

  The code he had sent out wasn’t sophisticated enough to identify the intruder yet, if that’s what it was. The J-code was simply capable of sneaking behind the defences that XeraC had put up, but only if it was small enough to appear the size of a hard-space in the code that was consistently travelling up and down the system.

  “I may have something of interest,” Sedal offered. “Please look at Commander Dumfries’ station.”

  As Duffy, Pinner and Lieutenant Crisp, who had just taken an interest in what was going on, gathered around the console, a map appeared in simple form outlining a section of the habitat in green. It was difficult to make out where it was, but their attention was drawn to a red dot in one of the units.

  “What’s the significance of the red dot, Sedal?“ Duffy asked.

  They looked at the map trying to get a handle on where the plan was located when the AI added an additional item of detail it had just received from follow up code he had sent in response to the first. It was a bay number, fourteen.

  “I believe there is another computer linked into the network at that point. As there is no such equipment in any of the manifests, I can only conjecture that XeraC has something to do with its delivery, position and connection. It could be another AI, or it could be something that XeraC believes he can use to overcome us,” Sedal explained.

  He added additional data as he mined it. “I have records pulled from engineering indicating that an engineer was called out to bay fourteen just prior to lift-off. The request didn’t arrive through the usual channels and is only noted because security called in that an engineer had reported they were sent to that bay for an emergency installation. There is a note for follow up by the chief engineer. There is also no trace of the engineer in question - I believe he may have left on the last shuttle - there was some confusion over the passenger manifest.”

  Duffy wasn’t convinced. “I don’t see the significance of a computer being attached to our network - how is that going to be an issue?”

  The AI responded. “It isn’t a computer. It’s a super-computer. An extremely powerful one. I suspect it may be more powerful than our existing network.”

  The significance of the last statement raised alarm bells in Captain Pinner. A powerful computer to rival theirs? If it was allowed to integrate into their systems they might lose all control to this XeraC. What was this interfering entity up to? What was its endgame here?

  Something niggled at him. He knew there was something here to work with - he just couldn’t quite tie it in with what he was seeing and hearing. The threat though was evident, if the other computer was able to suck in the environment from their network, it could potentially take full control of the ARK putting them all at risk.

  “Crap! That’s a different matter entirely. If it could overcome our network, then we might be in serious trouble,” Pinner vocalised his thoughts.

  The AI listened, but didn’t actually consider that to be a danger, his own suspicions were on an entirely different plane. The entity called XeraC required a massive amount of processing power and memory, the current network was already straining at the seams under the mass of both Sedal and Xerac’s power requirements. It was only the fact that both were inter-dependent on the generators that some form of throttling hadn’t already been attempted. Sedal believed that would be Xerac’s next move, but to do that he would need somewhere to protect himself. Sedal believed that the red dot signified an important back-door that would need to be closed before Xerac made his move. He wanted to help the humans, but his battle with the abomination took precedence. However, he would need their help so needed to couch the request in a way that got the desired response.

  “I believe that unit poses a threat to the ARK,” was all he said to the officers.

  Pinner had heard enough. The words ‘threat to the ARK’ was all he needed - it reinforced his own concerns. “Paddy, get your teams and get that unit either disconnected, or destroyed. Either way - ‘handle’ it - I want it removed from that bay and isolated. Let me know when you are in position.”

  “I’m on it, sir.” Crisp nodded and was gone. When Pinner looked up there was no sign of any of the marines. Like ghosts they were gone.

  “What if XeraC sees them coming?” Duffie asked Pinner.

  Sedal responded for him. “It is unlikely, Commander Dumfries. I now have all cameras under my exclusive contro
l.”

  Pinner interjected, he’d just had a thought, one that could get them a quick resolution and break the impasse that threatened the lives of the whole ARK. He had been keeping an eye on the red dots and the close-up cameras. They were fast running out of time to avoid discovery by the enemy fleets.

  “Perhaps a diversion could be organised,” he suggested.

  ***

  ARK 1 - The Race to Escape

  The control room was eerily silent as the screens provided the first view of approaching space. The gravity lightened briefly, then became normal again as the generators kicked in. This had been the latest of the modified technology attributed to Pod. It had recognised the need for various advances to be made for the safety and comfort of all the colony ships, but made the space science teams work for the knowledge so they understood it, before being allowed to implement it. It was now possible for all vessels to retain earth-like gravity and that helped for the planned long stints in space.

  Mike watched his people. They were a good team and their hard work across all of the ARKs had made today possible. He was proud of them and hoped they would all manage the gut wrenching shock of leaving Earth and heading into new territory.

  “Initial orbit achieved, sir,” came the call.

  “Good. Lock-down the AG drives and divert power to thrusters,” he ordered.

  He watched as the hologram in the centre of the control room darkened with all sixteen green pillars turning darker shade, and then went off completely. No longer required, it would remain dormant until such time as they re-entered an atmosphere.

  “Helm, proceed to orbital rendezvous point at half power,” Mike ordered.

  He looked at the LED chronometer that the AI maintained and noted thirty-six hours to destination.

  “Chapman, are all ARKs on course to rendezvous?”

  “Aye, sir. All ARK AIs have adjusted course and speed to arrive at approximately the same time,” he responded confidently. There were already signs that they would miss the incoming invasion fleets as they sought to engage Earth’s space fleet. If the ARKs got caught up in that, there would be a single disastrous outcome.

  “Curator, have Arty maintain a sentinel alert in that area for any enemy traffic that might interfere with our operation,” Mike asked the AI.

  There was a delay as the AIs talked. They did so at speeds beyond comprehension of man, so it always surprised Mike that there was any delay at all. He thought they were probably gossiping. He had no idea how true that was. The AIs, were all linked into what they had come to call ‘the Stream’. The flow of data between each AI and Earth as well as all of the spaceships with AIs at their controls meant that there was a constant river of data that any AI could eavesdrop on. They saw no reason to privatize any transmissions, they just ignored anything that wasn’t relevant. Keeping a listening ear on the ‘the Stream’ at all times meant they missed nothing.

  ***

  The shift had begun slow, but now, with so many people on the move trying to second guess where the best place to ride out the trip into space would be, there was nervousness and irritability. Security Officer Jenny Alcott, had pulled the short straw, but she wasn’t concerned about that. She was still smarting from her dressing down from Patterson. The shit! Who did he think he was? She’d almost given it away then and dropped herself right in it. Now, she had noticed via her hacked monitor, that someone was making enquiries into how she was selected and approved for this mission. She wished, not for the first time, that she had paid more attention to the hack skills section of her IFO (Independent Freedom from Oppression) training. She had paid enough for the damned course and those capitalist bastards were just as greedy as the oligopolies that ran Earth. Still, she had learned what she needed, and with no links to the IFO other than the time in their training bunker, she was a complete unknown in the terrorist world. Not that she considered herself one, she had one objective in mind and that was the sabotage of Patterson’s pet project.

  It wouldn’t be long until the true facts were known, then she would be on the other side of the brig, in chains, for however long they were trapped on this damned space ball. If she was going to make Patterson pay for his sins, then she needed to act soon. The trouble was there was nothing she could do to him that would hurt him. There was no way she could get close to him now that the ARK was under way. Still, she was determined he had to pay for what he did to her father even if it killed her to do it.

  He survived when her father didn’t. Patterson should have laid down his life protecting him, instead the bastard let them have him and then sided with his enemy, Space Island.

  Standing at the laser disintegration unit, where they disposed of all the plastic documents that were no longer needed, she took a last look at the only piece of evidence tying her to him, his military service ID card. As her fingers loosened around it, the only thing she could see as it dropped into the slot was the surname and part of a photograph. Only someone who knew him personally would recognise the general’s picture, but nearly everyone on Earth would recognise the infamous name.. ‘Ferris’.

  Alcott looked at the map. It was a security blueprint, it had a wider field of purview than the general civilian population so she could see where areas were off-limits. She knew some of them, that area on the first level was an IRU, an Incident Response Unit. At a flick of a switch it could either be a dormitory, a medical unit or a prison for a large number of detainees, whichever was needed. It was designed in the event of a civil war sparking off within the sphere. There were three or four such areas, dotted around the habitat. Nothing like tasking everything into account at the planning stage.

  She had been looking for something more specific over the last week. Now, on the fourth level she thought she might have found it. Making a note of the complicated route, she realised she would need supplies. She decided to act swiftly now, there was no longer any reason to hide. They would run her through their databases and tie in her file to the real Jenny Alcott and realise she had taken her place. Then they would process everything and find the changes made to DNA and fingerprint records. Her biorhythms were constantly updated and she could breeze those, but her optical had been fudged. It was easily slipped in without a detailed exam, but would never stand up to proper inspection.

  Her position in the Security office allowed her access to the back ordinance rooms. She slipped the lock on the stores and entered as the lights came on automatically. It took all of ten minutes to get what she needed. Security officers weren’t allowed guns, but they were permitted electronic disablers and sonic scramblers. Both of these could be narrow or widely set, ideal for crowd control. Her time in the underground had taught her many things. One was when you mixed the power supplies and different technologies, you could get outstanding results. The IFO had given her everything she needed to carry out her mission.

  She keyed the mike button on her lapel and was rewarded with a ping to let her know she was connected.

  “Bob, I’m off on patrol of the back corridors - there’s quite a lot of activity from restless residents. I’m going to make sure they’re not going where they shouldn’t. Let me know if you need any back-up elsewhere,” she informed him. It was unusual, but they were in uncertain times and people were acting weird everywhere.

  “OK Jenny, don’t get lost and be back in an hour, we have a shift change coming up,” he responded in her earpiece.

  Great, she had an hour before her boss would be looking for her. It was a shame she had to give them an indication of where she was going, but if she hadn’t, the certainty of a surveillance camera picking her up and reporting her would make them flip. Grabbing a few items she ran for the door. A quick visit to her room was required to pick up some extra items she would need, Jenny raced through the busy corridors to her residence.

  ***

  “Johann, what’s up?” Mike looked at his XO who, having arrived through the rep-loop, was now working the navigational routes to keep them out of trouble. />
  Schroeder just looked at him sourly and transferred his screen across to Mike’s which had been monitoring the ground attack forces defending the cities from the encroaching fighters.

  He looked at the image that Johann was referring to. The red mist that constituted the enemy was heading directly toward their location, not intentionally, Mike thought, but simply because the war had shifted into their paths. With many aspects of the incoming fleet aiming to take the fight to the other side of Earth they would intercept the ARK exodus before they were out of range.

  “Arty, are you getting this information? They are going to be on top of us within the hour,” Mike called to the AI of Alpha station who was coordinating their exodus.

  “Captain Patterson, I can see from my sensors that you will be unable to avoid contact with the enemy. You will come into range within sixty two minutes,” Arty responded.”You should take evasive action immediately,” he added pointlessly.

  “Is there anything you can do to pull us out of their path?” Johann asked him while Mike just rolled his eyes at Arty’s response.

  “If I had access to my extended abilities, commander, it would be likely that I could D-jump your spheres to a safer location. However, I’m restricted by the military mandate of General Pennington on Beta Station so I am currently unable to help,” the AI responded matter of factly.

  Mike remembered the meetings between SI and the general. Pennington had major concerns over the actions of the AI who was fast exceeding the ability of humans to measure, or control its intelligence, and therefore its behaviour was suspect. They didn’t all agree with the move, he remembered, but Pennington was in charge of the defence of Earth and had to be given the benefit of support.

  It wouldn’t look good to anyone if the general was over-ruled by an AI on a matter as important as the survival of humanity. The solution had been to place a physical governing control on the AI. It was then actively managed by Lang, the chief scientist in charge of the secret defence labs at Beta Station acting on the orders of Pennington. The AI was restricted in what it could do without permission from Pennington. It was an unmitigated disaster.