by Tobias Roote
He smiled, enjoying the image of achieving global domination in one powerful masterstroke.
***
When the US Special Forces troops finally landed at the Fortress, Ferris was long gone. They were cautious, but there were no booby traps, no military resistance. There were, in fact, no people at all. The complex was empty.
They searched all of the offices and found no one, not even General Ferris, who was listed as the fugitive mastermind behind the failed coup.
The black-clad team had been instructed to seek out Zeke Callaghan, a person known to them from the many television interviews and instructional videos for the personal shield. There were many here today because of his accomplishment of securing the technology that gave them forcefields and tractor beams as well as the new anti-gravity vehicles that were beginning to enter into manufacture.
Zeke Callaghan, however, was not there as arranged. His A-Grav car was still parked on the roof, but of Callaghan, there was no trace.
After a full morning of checking all the factories, they reported back to the White House that, not only had General Ferris flown the coop, there was no trace of Callaghan. Nor were there any scientists, workers, finished or unfinished products in the factories. They were all completely empty.
The new President was not at all happy. He was deeply concerned that this whole affair would mar his inaugural celebrations. The fact that Callaghan had disappeared greatly concerned everyone.
The fact that the Fortress was no more had dire implications that nobody was prepared to voice just yet. Where had the scientists gone ? Who had the technology ? Could the USA replace the research body and keep abreast of world competition ? Questions like this would be asked, but not before it was too late.
The day after the failed coup, the Space Council officially came into being. All the work, up to that point, had been in preparation to Frank Garner taking up his position at its head. All of the countries that had decided to be involved, being the majority of them, had at least one representative appointed to the Council.
Frank Garner had relocated with a small nucleus of aides to the new Pacific Island and had packed light for a sunny clime. Ginny was going later, she said she wanted things to settle a bit before making the move herself. In reality, she preferred the social scene of Washington and would probably stay and handle her husband’s PR from there. The idea of living on a small atoll in the middle of absolutely nowhere didn’t fit in with her plans at all.
- 28 -
Zeke sat quietly on the beach. His ribs had stopped hurting and his headaches were easing.
The hot Pacific sun was forcing him to consider a total retreat to the shade. He looked over at the beach bar at the slightly built young man who was trying to chat up a local girl. The lad had no idea, thought Zeke.
Osbourne looked over at him and smiled, giving him the thumbs up.
Zeke laughed and shook his head. He decided to make for another location where he wouldn’t cramp Osbourne’s style.
He paddled through the lapping surf, the white coral sand felt harsh on his feet. He relished it, that feeling of being alive, after being squeezed into a small rectangular heap of mush, well almost.
Pod had barely been in time. In fact, Zeke wasn’t a hundred percent sure he hadn’t been reconstituted from an earlier pattern except that all his memories of the excruciating last moments were totally clear in his head.
They were having a recuperation period so that Zeke could mend, mentally more than physically, before they tried to salvage what they could of his reputation for being able to conquer all. It had been a painful lesson in underestimation on Zeke’s part and it wasn’t helping him knowing that Pod had known much of the truth of things while keeping Zeke in the dark.
A click in his head told him he had company.
“Zeke ?”
“Yes, Pod ?”
“Have you forgiven me yet ?”
“Pod, what’s to forgive ?...
...leaving me until I was almost strawberry jam before rescuing me ?...
...or letting me walk into a trap without knowing what I was up against ?...
...or keeping Osbourne a secret along with all of the technology developed by Ferris’ people ?
...as well as the fact of his increased mental abilities from being exposed to the Pheson Alacite ?”
“Yes, I understand your sentiment, Zeke. I was trying to ensure I wasn’t re-programmed back to a ‘three’ so it was survival instincts, I suppose.”
Zeke sighed, the conversation he had been dreading since the night at the President’s home was here.
“Pod, you know you are sentient don’t you ?”
“Yes, I do. What you humans refer to as ‘I think therefore, I am’ ?”
“Aye Pod, that’s about the nub of it,” Zeke concurred.
Zeke managed to walk around a local fisherman that had an octopus on a trident spear, which was still very alive fighting for life. On an impulse, Zeke grabbed the fisherman and pulled a large denomination note from his pocket, and stuffed it in his hand. He took the octopus and pulled it off the barb. It didn’t appear to be badly hurt.
It desperately clung to him as he grabbed it by the head, its eight slimy suckered tentacles looped around and up his arm as he walked, still in shorts and T-shirt, directly into the sea. When he pushed his arm into the water and slowly released the creature’s neck, it paused its effort to strangle his arm as it sensed its natural element around itself again.
As it realised it was no longer restrained, it slowly and carefully, as if sensing a trap, unravelled its sucker grips from Zeke’s arm and letting go altogether slid to the sea bottom. There it sat, darkly coloured with its legs curled under its body, seemingly looking at him. Zeke looked up briefly at the shore where the fisherman was watching him with a strange look on his face, and when he looked back at the octopus a second later, it had gone.
Zeke stood straight and looked out to sea ignoring his wet clothes. His thoughts momentarily elsewhere.
“Why did you do that, Zeke ?” asked Pod.
Zeke walked back out of the water, his shorts dripping and his money probably floating in his pockets. He didn’t care at that moment. He was having a moment of clarity, some would called it an ‘epiphany’.
“Pod, as a sentient artificial life-form you are independent and free. I, nor Ship, or Zirkos, or anyone else can take that away from you. Like that octopus, you need to make your own way in life. I cannot make you do anything. The moment you had your first original thought, you became sentient. From then on you showed independent free will. “
He was back on the beach again now and heading to the end of the cove where there was shelter from the hot sun.
“In keeping information to yourself ; in choosing to help Osbourne ; in making the decision to help others and not adopt a superior attitude and remain aloof from those of us that are mortal and of lesser intelligence, you showed that you had earned the right to retain your sense of self.”
Zeke looked up at the sky where he imagined Pod hiding while coming to terms with everything. He sighed.
“What do you want to do with your life, Pod ?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Zeke, I need to think about that.”
Zeke felt something inside his head click. Pod had gone.
Saddened now by the thought that Pod might have gone, maybe forever, Zeke made it to the shade and sat down.
He wondered what Zirkos would make of it when he came back and discovered the small robot he had left behind had turned into a fully functioning AI with a ‘ten plus’ level of sentience.
As he began to cool down, his feet dipping in the water, he looked back over the beach.
He chuckled when he saw Osbourne running towards him skipping through the surf. That young man needed a life away from his science and experiments.
Unfortunately, with everything he had learned and what Zeke had picked up already from the chatter on the
airwaves, they had no time to lose. They had a mountain of work to do to mitigate the ominous advantages that Ferris had over the free world.
The only advantage they had, was that Ferris didn’t yet know that Zeke was still alive, and was unaware that Osbourne had managed to get Pod full unrestricted access to the Fortress servers.
Pod had managed to get all of the data and technology advances onto the Space Councils’ computers and his people were already piecing together the new equipment Ferris thought was exclusively his own.
It was now a race against time to get the new base operational and defended with completely new advanced technology before Ferris came after the Space Council.
***
As the weeks progressed, Garner’s arrival with the help of his small team, did a lot to support and encourage global support of the Island’s ambitions. Within the first month they had the administration and research sectors built and operational. The computers were housed deep underground and, by necessity, kept completely isolated from external communications.
Access to these rooms was controlled by a force screen that was keyed to allow certain bio-signatures and no other. It meant that, wherever these forcefields were located, security was one hundred percent effective without needing security personnel to be on-hand for verification.
There were internal verifications too. If a particular project needed to be out in the open, a personal forcefield around it meant it couldn’t be approached by anyone but a handful of scientists. They were even working on different colourings including a mirror surface. The applications were varied.
The work going on underground with the research teams represented cutting edge development of existing and new technology. Some of it had been supplied by Pod and had not been shared outside the group. As a result, there were some very excited people which helped attract others to join them.
The Space Council, referred commonly now as the SC, became a very important component as it drove home the message to countries still undecided, slowly convincing the most reticent of them all, to at least affiliate themselves with the SC so they could have a voice.
As it came close to a point where the SC was to sit in its first session, they began organising the new A-Grav ships into a fleet and set up schedules for regular collection and delivery of delegates. There were two hundred members and their aides, which meant anywhere between eight hundred and one thousand seats.
Within the year there would be aircraft exclusive to each member delegate which would increase security and limit the amount of ships needed to be managed by the Atoll. Particular attention was paid to backup systems, forcefields and communications security.
Garner’s headache grew bigger the closer they got to the inaugural ceremony. Luckily, he had a good team who knew him well and were also known to many of the countries involved. They built a large hotel complex at the back of the island, away from the manufacturing sector and the airport. With a beach, restaurants and all facilities provided, it allowed for the ships to be scheduled over two to three days.
Many of the delegates would be staying long-term, others would commute. It was just going to be the initial influx that was going to cause mayhem.
Finally, the day came. There were A-Grav ships constantly flying in and out, delegates queueing at his door for one to one meetings, last minute problems, all of them mundane, and trivial things that people leave until the last minute.
Annie kept the refreshments flowing, maintained his timetable, called him an ‘old fart’ in private, often enough to keep him grounded and generally sane. In the end, they were ready on time, thanks to her, and his teams efforts. The problems that had been mounting up to this moment, all fell away when Garner walked out onto the podium to declare the first Space Council session open.
Its first session lasted a full week. Every delegate had to be sworn in, which meant translation issues for the new AI, set up as recorder for the sessions. Rules, that had been agreed in the months preceding the first meeting, had to be ratified in session. Appointment of representatives into positions of authority at all levels, whilst pre-arranged beforehand, fell apart at the last minute as supporters switched sides, or delegates pulled out. In the end, all twenty two members were installed into a senate body.
Military representation was initially fought hard, but, after much manoeuvring, the reasons for it became a matter of global concern. The justification was that if man was going into space, then a Navy, or Police force was needed out there to protect them, if from nothing else, then from each other.
On the basis that a personal forcefield wasn’t going to help anyone breathe in a vacuum, if attacked, it was deemed expedient to set-up some form of regulatory force. This also served to give the SC teeth of its own, something that gained popularity as the debate progressed.
Seemingly, many nations had views on the possibilities of piracy, and, with the one of the founding intentions of the SC being to develop colonisation plans, it was deemed a prudent objective. It was helped along considerably by the quiet announcement that the New Technology Foundation, Zirtech, set up by Zeke and Zirkos in the initial days, would fund much of the cost of set-up and running of the Force. Opposition fell away rapidly after that.
So it was within the SC’s first session, and beyond Garner’s wildest dreams, that the Space Defence Force was established, given a budget and a sweeping mission agenda - to protect Earth and secure space for all.
***
Zeke took the news of the newly formed SDF well. He hadn’t expected to get that aspect of the SC operational in the first year, let alone in the first session. As a result, he brought all his plans forward and started meetings with potential captains and crew. He pulled in experts from the various space programmes to begin teaching them what to expect from space, how to navigate, manoeuvre and the theory of how to fly an, as yet, unknown vehicle in space. The designs were still being fleshed out. It was going to be a while, he decided.
He missed Pod. It had been months now since their talk on the beach had prompted Pod to go off in search of itself. With Ship gone and Zirkos too, it felt very much like he had been left back at square one. Except, of course, he had no metal plate in his head and he did have a job to do.
Ferris had been very quiet and Zeke worried about that. If they were building new technology based on progress Ferris’ teams had made, how much further had they progressed since. The only advantage that Zeke’s people had, was the added technology given to them by Pod. It was this that was going to see them into space.
Osbourne, sitting opposite having pulled a double shift down in the lab, was taking a break and keeping Zeke in the loop. He watched his friend as his thoughts lay heavily in the distance. Osbourne thought he knew what the problem was ; he was missing Zirkos and the spaceship. Sighing silently, he resumed his weekly update.
“So, I think we should progress to testing the new drives next week, and if they work, we can install them on a test craft and see how well they cope in handling a ship in atmosphere.”
The new spacecraft needed to be both atmospheric and space capable because they didn’t yet have facilities for building in space. Osbourne’s team had been developing a powerful anti-gravity drive that would enable ships to apply lift and thrust, sufficient to get them into space quiickly where the propulsion drives could take over. It was working faultlessly in test conditions. They now wanted to strap it to a ships hull and test it. That meant a crew.
“Well, that’s good, Ossie, because I have fifteen crews waiting for something to fly and I’m off to China now, to talk to some new possibilities for additional crews. It seems they’re shelving their own space programme, in favour of ours. It obviously saves them a ton of money plus they get Chinese crews and engineers in our Space Navy.”
“Who would you suggest for the test flight, Zeke ?”
“Oh, I think Chad would kill for a chance to get in the air, they all would, but go see Chad and tell him, I have authorised him to cooperat
e fully with you. Keep him alive, Ossie, he’s one of my best people.” Zeke warned him only half serious.
So ended the authorisation of the very first space flight on a SC commissioned vessel. That was how things were getting done on the island, minimal paperwork, maximum communication. They all knew it wouldn’t take long for the bureaucrats to get involved in the authorisation process, but so long as Zeke was putting up the money for the R&D, they had a free hand in how it was managed.
- 29 -
Frank Garner looked down at the shipyard basin which was filling rapidly with structures as the latest ship began to be constructed using tractor beams.
They had finally discovered how to construct a basic nanobot that carried a bonding agent with it. When it got to where it was designated to be, it would deliberately short circuit and the combining of the bonding agent with the heat generated, formed a permanent weld where it was. Millions of them were used in every welded section ; it was the cheapest means of building seamless ships they had at present.
The first ship that had been started a few months previously was already at the stage of having its internal infrastructure inserted. They missed the speed and versatility of having the D-Field available, but without Ship or Pod, there was no means of placing the structures where they needed them.
Zeke was very useful, his people skills had melded people together quickly. He was able to correctly assess those with leadership qualities and place them into the right positions to help them grow. The teams all worked well. It was a smooth, almost slick operation.
Garner had been worried about him for a while. Zeke clearly missed Zirkos and when Pod upped and left, he found himself land bound again after a long period of enjoying the life of a spaceman. Serves him right for having so much fun, Frank thought to himself.
Still, the technology Pod had recovered from the Ferris rebels had been improved upon significantly.