SKY CITY (The Pattern Universe Book 6)

by Tobias Roote

  A screen lit up on his wall display. Just the one. It displayed the Command Centre. He had no ability to access these cameras, so it had to be relevant that one appeared on his wall right now.

  At the same time his analysis brought him the conclusion that the only way for the ARK teams to survive was to attempt a deal with him. The deal would have to in some way threaten XeraC to be effective.

  Whilst he knew that Sedal was still trying to usurp the rest of the network and main systems from his control, they had no time to negotiate. They needed the outgoing comms system and he had it. They had two choices: a war of attrition over the next few weeks, or deal him a killing blow immediately. They didn’t have weeks, not even days - not even hours. That left the latter option. His processors ground out the problem looking for the solution.

  Would they turn off the network? Now, while under threat of attack by the Nubl? He had been watching the incoming fleet of enemy ships and was well aware of the threat they represented. You couldn’t hide a sphere the size of the ARK amongst those invading hordes. At least one enemy ship was likely to collide with them if they maintained their current heading.

  Why hadn’t they changed direction to avoid contact?

  The analysis also suggested a third alternative. ‘They would offer him a way out in return for giving up the ARK’s systems.’

  Ah! he thought. That’s the reason for the single camera view of the CCC. They intended to bargain.

  As he completed the thought the camera zoomed into the captain. His name was Pinner, an idiot, XeraC thought, but he had still been lucky. A bold rescue operation had turned things around for the ARK crew. XeraC still had a few tricks to play out and unlike them he could survive without air, but not without power, he thought nervously.

  “XeraC, the ARK AI has provided an open link to this camera for you so that we can discuss the situation we find ourselves in.

  I’m presuming you're listening and are aware that, firstly, your ability to move around the ARK at will has been severely restricted; and secondly, the ARK itself must be allowed to be operated fully by our people if we are to avoid destruction at the hands of the approaching enemy fleet. A fact which I’m certain you’re cognisant of from your own monitoring of our situation. This is an outcome that helps none of us.”

  “Captain, I’m well aware of the situation. What is it you want?” XeraC spoke directly through the link provided by Sedal.

  “We need immediate and unrestricted access to ARK’s systems and outgoing communications to avert the crisis ahead of us. If you fail to cooperate, and if we survive the next few hours, we will shutdown the ARK network and purge the systems of all non-essential code,” the captain confirmed. Sedal ensured the camera caught the full intent of the captain’s uncompromising expression.

  XeraC almost laughed, but chose to respond instead with a touch of nonchalance. “Captain, if I am to comply with this ultimatum, what do you propose to offer me in return?” XeraC asked, already knowing exactly what his options were. He wondered if the captain was aware that he, XeraC, had an ace in the hole that would guarantee his survival and provide an opportunity for revenge. A thought niggled at him, it was slow in coming to the surface and XeraC was momentarily distracted by wanting to hear the captain’s response.

  “We will offer you --” the captain switched his attention to an earpiece that was feeding him information. XeraC suddenly had a bad feeling as the captain muted the mike, then turned to his XO and gave some instructions. He then turned back to the camera and un-muted again.

  XeraC noted that Pinner’s attitude seemed to reflect a sudden difference in him - as if his position had changed, and he was....

  “...Sorry, XeraC... I was about to say that we will offer you an amnesty and the right to continue your existence as part of the habitat within the ARK. However, you will have to agree to comply with the existing rules and laws along with the other inhabitants of the ARK. You will not be permitted to interfere with the ARK’s operations.”

  “...and, if I refuse to cooperate, captain? What guarantee do you have that you will be able to eradicate my presence in the ARK’s systems. I seem to recollect you trying to do so before,” XeraC replied, but alarmingly he was getting signals from his sentinels that something was happening to his unit in bay fourteen. With no chance to react, XeraC’s links with his AG sled were cut.

  XeraC’s virtual office exploded into shards of exploding data as his fury vented itself on his environment. It was only by chance that Sedal’s total control of the major portion of the network was such that no single byte of code was allowed through to the rest of the habitat systems.

  The scream of fury had vented through the speaker system in the CCC and caused the captain and other members of the crew in the room to cover their ears from the feedback before Sedal managed to bring the volume to a manageable level. Alarms were going off now, reflecting the disruption of the environmental controls which were still vulnerable to XeraC’s activities.

  Pinner saw Duffy signal the operators to shut off their alarms. It wouldn’t help matters if the civil unrest grew out of control at this moment.

  The captain turned his attention to his earpiece, deciding to continue to communicate less publicly, the earpiece would protect his hearing from any further outbursts. On his command, Sedal blocked verbal communication through the speaker system. Pinner then looked directly into the camera.

  “XeraC, Sedal advises me you are still able to hear and see me, so I will continue... You will have realised by now – indeed, I’m sure that feedback was your response to the knowledge that your escape route has now been closed off. So, if you do not comply, we can now be sure your continued existence in our systems will be brought to an end within a few hours.

  Now, if you agree to release the ARK systems to us immediately we will allow you to vacate to your miniature environment sled and you will then be free to participate in the habitat in whichever way your skills can be utilised - for the good of all. If you refuse, the ARK will be shutdown completely and only rebooted after a full system test and purge. The AI has just confirmed that this will remove your entire presence from the ARK systems. Your choice then becomes the same as the rest of us, XeraC - choose life, or extinction.”

  The earpiece was silent for a moment, then XeraC’s voice came through, modulated, but still aggrieved. “It seems that I’m constantly faced with choices that appear to offer me freedom, yet imprison me within solitary confinement. If I agree to this travesty, my isolation will be greater than yours and for far longer than your unimpressively short lives,” he bleated.

  “What can you offer me that does not impose the threat of isolation or extinction. They pretty much appear to be the same result to me,” XeraC asked after a short pause.

  In response, Sedal broke through and closed down XeraC’s access to the environmental sections of the habitat and in the process set nanites to repair the damage to the controls. It would be a close run thing, but the humans would survive so long as they managed to outrun the Nubl ships. Nothing was certain at this moment in time.

  XeraC realised that it was now only a matter of time before Sedal pushed further into his zone. Already his ability to reconstitute his virtual office world was compromised by the lack of access to the processing power of the network. He was running out of room. He was also completely out of options.

  ***

  ARK 1 - Shipwrecked

  Mike stared at the view from the cameras. They weren’t showing anything he recognised, which was good, he thought initially. It meant they were out of range of the Nubl Shadowships and that meant they could begin the evacuation.

  The thing was - he didn't recognise ANYTHING! and that scared him for some reason he hadn’t yet plumbed. He fought panic and began to sort through the priorities.

  “Ensign, contact the other ARKs, let’s find out where everyone thinks we are. Start building a star map of this system, we need to get our bearings,” he called out.


  Mike smiled at his friend, relieved that he looked like a ton weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “Johann - well done on getting us away from that nightmare.”

  Johann smiled weakly, he was still coming to terms with the fact they had escaped - thanks to Arty.

  Mike continued to organise. “Belling. Get me SecD on the comms as soon as you can connect. I need to know the state of play down there with the civilians.”

  Activating the comms to his earpiece he spoke into it.

  “Curator. Are you able to give me a comprehensive damage report yet.”

  “Affirmative Captain.”

  “Proceed.” Mike’s initial orders had been intended to get everyone concentrating on their jobs and not on where they were. He had a bad feeling in his gut, and on top of everything else he wanted to find somewhere they would be safe to transfer the population from ARK1 to the other habitats.

  The AI continued privately while Mike gestured to Johann to pick up the AI’s communication through his own earpiece.

  “The sabotage to the generators resulted in the immediate deaths of Ms Alcott and Sergeant Zachary Theale. It is believed Mr Theale was attempting to reason with the female saboteur when she set off the explosions. She appeared skilled in setting charges and managed to create a loop-back to the other generators causing massive feedback resulting in irreparable damage to the backup system.

  This was a design fault which is being corrected during the nanite assisted repairs. There have been forty two casualties and nineteen fatalities from the missile and laser strikes. A list of all the dead and wounded is appearing on your console, captain.

  In addition, the pilot has been recovered and is in a poor way, but the surgeons are working on him now. The SCN ship’s AI, has been identified by its serial number as ‘Vasha’, and was also recovered. We are awaiting the AI’s reboot to discover the pilots name....”

  Mike was staggered at the news. It was yet another traumatic shock for his body to absorb.

  “I know the pilot’s name,” he said quietly and turned to Johann, with a look on his face that beggared belief. Of all of the ships to come to their aid and be shot down, then recovered. He shook his head unbelievingly. His son was the pilot the AI was referring to, and Mike believed that Curator knew that, but was allowing Mike time to sort himself out. Curator was well aware of the family relationship. The AI’s involvement recently in arranging a meeting at the secret base on Earth, along with Jimmi’s AI partner,Vasha, had been appreciated.

  The AI continued uninterrupted while Mike gathered his thoughts. He couldn’t leave the bridge - not yet, but as soon as he could, he would proceed to the medical unit. He concentrated on Curator’s droning voice.

  “.... the main generators two and three are out of commission. The replicators were sabotaged and are currently unusable. Shield and cloaking systems have been repaired, but currently there is insufficient power to drive them. The external environment is destroyed. I compute it will take twenty seven months to re-seed the surface. Reconstituting the atmosphere is anticipated to take seventeen months. Hydroponics has enough starter cultures, but insufficient growth to feed ten thousand people. Backup generators are coming on-line and will be running fully in four hours and thirty four minutes.”

  “Curator, what is your analysis of the ARK’s viability?”

  “Analysis confirms the ARK currently has a 42% chance of survival with a projected population loss of 80% in the first twelve months from loss of agriculture.” The Curator delivered the death sentence for the ARK in the same even speech as everything else. The lack of any emotional tone did nothing to reduce the impact of its analysis.

  It was a very poor prognosis and cemented Mike’s view that now they were out of range of the enemy ships, they should vacate the ARK.

  “Sir, I have SecD for you,” Belling called out.

  “Who’s’ this?” Mike said into the mike as he heard the voice at the other end.

  “O’Hara, captain. I’ve taken temporary command of security while we attempt to bring order to the chaos caused by the sabotage and the enemy missiles. Everything is madness down here. With no power we are working with limited success to get the people into zones where we can count them, deal with the walking wounded and organising supplies.”

  “Well done, O’Hara. We are going to begin evacuating everyone to the other ARKs. I need you to prepare the hangars to receive a large number of shuttles and then fill them with evacuees as fast as you can. You will need to liaise with Belling here who is, as I speak, organising the inbound procession of the first rescue craft.”

  “Understood, captain. This will help alleviate some of the concerns down here. I’ll get on it right away.”

  Mike had no doubt that the general population of the habitat would be increasingly frightened. They would have seen much of what occurred as the public screens would display whatever was going on, except for anything to do with the CCC. It had never been considered that information should be censored, an oversight perhaps, but too late in any event.

  He watched as shuttles began to rise over the remaining spheres and head towards them. There were other ships appearing, then moving off under their own steam, their intentions clearly to hasten towards any habitable planets. The ARKs had no jurisdiction over the vessels which were obviously full of evacuees. It was fairly obvious from the conversations in the ‘Hub’ that many of them were in communication with ARK1 and other members of the exodus. It was utter chaos, but it would sort itself out in a short time.

  As information began to flow in from the other ARKs, the navigation crew began to build a picture of their location. The information surge that Arty had pulsed through along with them gave them their first insight into where they were. A yellow star system named Sygmus Py4 with four possibly five, habitable planets. It was many light years from Earth, but only a single jump’s distance. One which, in Mike’s view, was technically impossible with the state of their science currently. How had Arty managed it?

  Even as they continued to evacuate the ARK, the scientists were being brought up to date to help them figure out what was happening. The general consensus was, that it was impossible, but as the argument continued amongst the ARKs, the data burst slowly revealed that ARTY had grasped the quantum entanglement question and used it to power the jump into this system. The revelation left the technical crew as well as the scientists stunned - an AI had beaten humans to solving the biggest scientific question of the last three hundred years - and everyone wanted to know how.

  “How’s the evacuation going, Johann?” Mike called across to his XO.

  “Almost complete. They’re only travelling short distances so the turnaround is fast. The bottleneck is in accessing our hangars and main airlock. We should be finished within the next ten minutes. Then, it will just be the security crew, and maintenance, who are still trying to repair the generators, and finally us in the CCC.

  “Arty confirms that all vessels have been evacuated.” Belling called out to Mike.

  “He’s not sure if he can jump ARK4, there still appear to be communication issues,” he added as the information was relayed.

  “Precisely how is Arty communicating across light years of space that we can hear it in real time?” he asked nobody in particular, but before anyone could answer, he was hailed.

  “Sir, I think Alpha Station is in trouble. They’re jumping out and dragging ARK4 with them,” Belling called out.

  Heck! Mike thought - that’s a massive amount of real estate. How can the Station raise that much power and what will happen if it fails?

  “Keep monitoring them Belling, if they succeed we should see them appear shortly,” Mike said.

  As they waited the arrival of their benefactor, the tension rose in the small Control room. Listening to the inter-ARK chatter, scientists wanted more information on the QE question answered. Mike just wanted the hundreds of thousands of people on the Station and ARK4 to be safe and out of harm’s way. His friend Pinne
r and their people deserved a chance.

  Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. No asteroid appeared and the concerns amongst the bridge crew grew. Security had evacuated the last of the maintenance crew and they were the only ones remaining. With no Rep-loop train to speed them to the main evacuation point, Mike had ordered that they go in groups of ten. Now, they were the last group and Mike was ordering the shutdown of the ARK.

  Curator was ordered to stand down and prepare for shutdown of the mainframe, the core of which was designed to be ejected with the ARK’s complete records as well as the AI. It would be picked up by one of the shuttles after they had all been taken off the habitat.

  Before any of that could happen, disaster struck. Debris came flying through the corridors at vast speed on a bow wave of air pressure.

  This was followed up with a bone jarring quake which hit them so fast nobody had a chance. The deck around them heaved and buckled, the walls disappeared to be replaced by rock and other obstructions as the ARK appeared to get turned upside down and inside out. Mike vaguely saw crew members thrown, others seemed to vanish as first the air pressure took them, then the roiling quake seemed to envelop them.

  Mike remained conscious at the far end of the Hub, but as he was buffeted between one side of the CCC and his console, he felt oppressive closeness. Then it went dark, the air he was breathing carried a stale and stagnant smell. The roaring in his ears that he hadn’t noticed up to now dropped off, leaving the screeching sounds of bedrock grinding against steel as everything settled, sounding very ominous. The squealing continued as metal buckled under extreme pressure and rock scraped against rock as it continued to find a home in the Control Centre.