The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (10 page)

“So, to the point of this,” Zirkos pulled them back.

“In retrieving you at the point of your death, we were doing no more, and no less than what Ship would have done without my presence. You would have lived your term according to your physical expiry date and all would have been well. “

Zeke nodded understanding now.

“However, my interests are much broader than just collecting the Alacite and restoring Ship, but that is for another time. Sufficient that it was of value to me personally to keep you alive. This is why you are here, but without your metal cap.

Now, to matters that pertain to you personally beyond this juncture.

You still retain fifteen percent of the Alacite in your body. This we cannot remove as your body has become dependent on it and your DNA is continuing to mutate because of it. You are still changing, but not rapidly now and without the Alacite poisoning your bloodstream, you will survive with it in your body.”

Should I tell him about the nanites in his system, Zirkos wondered.

“What is it doing to me, do you know?” Zeke sounded concerned.

“I know a lot of what is happening to you Zeke, but its end result is beyond my abilities and those of my on-board processors to extrapolate. Which brings me to the point of your continued residence aboard this ship instead of being returned unaware of what had transpired to your planet.

We would really appreciate the opportunity to study you, and, yes, I am now familiar with your concerns in that area because we tied up some research science with a ‘Subject Z’. We realised this was you once we understood your name was the same as the Zeke Callaghan in their records.

If you were to remain aboard this ship we would make you as comfortable as possible, it would be non invasive monitoring using Ship’s sensors. We just want some time to establish the pattern of mutation, speed and the long term effects on your DNA.

However, you are not a prisoner and if you wish I can release you and place you anywhere on your planet you choose to go.”

Zeke thought for a few moments. He wasn’t exactly happy with the idea of being a science experiment again.

“Anywhere on my planet, you are saying that firstly this isn’t ‘your’ planet and secondly that we are not ‘on’ it currently. Is that right?” he asked still sitting, but with a raised eyebrow that Zirkos identified as questioning/suspicious and also cynical.

Zirkos smiled.

“Zeke, I think you knew you weren’t on Earth even if you were not admitting it to yourself, I would be the same, and its abundantly clear I’m not of Earth either as my skin is definitely not indigenous to your planet. Then, of course, I only have to mention the technology.

You’re a very intelligent human, I notice that since you are now free of the pain and the poison in your system, that your thinking has improved tremendously. Am I right in all of this?”

He watched as Zeke digested the spoken words and came to terms with the fact he probably wasn’t on Earth and probably was in a spaceship talking to an alien who magicked stuff out of thin air and talked to computers like they were people.

“I see you are in need of overwhelming proof, Zeke. This is all good.” He stood and held out his hand, not to be held, but as a guidance as he had seen them do on all of the films and TV programmes Zirkos had absorbed.

When he thought Zeke was ready, he took his arm at the elbow and guided him out of the door and into the control room so he could see for himself.

- 11 -

Zeke turned around as they progressed into the room to see the door disappear behind him as fast as it had appeared. Those nanobots sure are quick, he thought. Thinking of how that technology would work at home, no drafts, no unexpected visitors, no keys to lose. How would you put a cat-flap in that, he wondered idly.

“Ship, create porthole, planet side.”

As they watched, the grey metal of the interior of the ship melted along one wall and formed into a transparent view screen showing the planet Earth from above the North Pole. The whiteness of the icecap dominated everything, but it was possible to make out continents.

Zeke immediately drew back, the fear instantly gripping him, the blackness of space around them scared the living daylights out of him. The porthole so transparent as to be indistinguishable from an open window, so clear and invisible made him feel totally agoraphobic.

He kept the panic inside, didn’t let go of it, like when he was in the thick of it in battle and there were shed loads of armament coming his way, just when he knew he was going to go down big time, that kind of panic you never learn to completely control.

Now he just wanted the porthole closed before he fell, or was sucked out. The feeling of vacuum on the other side and the knowledge of the coldness made him shiver apprehensively. He noticed Zirkos watching him closely.

Probably waiting for me to lose it, Zeke thought to himself. Well, I’m not going to, so there. He almost chuckled at the childish sounding manner of that petulant statement. He wondered if the alien could read minds.

He stood looking alternately around the ship and at the view. The view-screen was large, a good fifteen feet wide by five feet high. The bottom was knee height making him very aware of the lack of depth to it, barely the thickness of his thumb. How can the ship handle the pressure differential? Amazing strength, he thought.

Holding grimly to the chair, his hands clenching the back of the seat while he fought the vertigo that threatened to spill him over. He took in everything he possibly could, and that was a lot to see, inside and out.

Inside, he noticed the streamlined look of everything, the simplicity of controls that had been reduced down to minimalist levels. There was an absence of clutter. Zeke decided he liked that. Everything seemed to stand out, every detail imprinting itself on his mind. Anything his mind could grasp onto in an effort to hold back that deep ingrained panic reaction that makes you want to run.

Outside, he watched the Earth below, he could see movement of cloud, even contrails of aircraft. The view-screen contained sensors that seemed to highlight briefly then fade. He was about to ask about them when Zirkos seeing where his attention was answered for him.

“Those are small bits of matter hitting the forcefield, it could be meteor dust, or something off one of your satellites. As it hits the field, often travelling thousands of miles an hour, it creates an impact area which glows for a second, before the shield compensates.”

Zeke was gob-smacked. He realised that whatever was going to happen he wasn’t about to go back to living in yesterdays world, he knew now what he wanted. He wanted to live in tomorrows world, now... today.

He knew he was going to agree to everything that was asked, required even demanded. He had already decided that he had to pay his dues to this alien who was physically so like a man. Even the A.I. was almost human.

Okay, just close the damned porthole before I begin to scream and climb the walls, he thought to himself.

***

Zirkos observed the man, whom he realised he had taken an instant liking to as he fought to keep his wits and faced up to his situation, one none of his race had ever truly experienced before, and waited for him to process it all. He was patient. He knew that whichever decision Zeke made, that he Zirkos would honour it. The Alien had what he needed.

He glanced over at the small square of Pheson Alacite on the control desk, was it actually glowing?

Zeke finally nodded at him. He had a look on his face that Zirkos interpreted to be close to fainting and he was leaning heavily against the chair. That seemed to be another thing he needed to learn about these people, their ability to manage things outside their realm of expectancy and the reactions it created in them were varied.

“Ship, close porthole” Zirkos commanded.

He led a now subdued Zeke on to a room that he had set up as a small lounge in an effort to give Zeke, as well as himself, an area to meet on neutral ground. This was something he had also researched in how to discuss difficult and personal situations with people.

He watched as the human sat down, his face looked very white. Zirkos wondered if creating the porthole had been the right thing to do. He was missing the opportunity to check Zeke’s vital signs as he was no longer part of the A.I. network. He would just have to continue and watch for any outward sign of trouble. Ship would warn him if any serious side effects were manifesting.

Zeke was physically shaking in reaction as he sat down and took one fist in the other hand to bring it under control. He had been shown without any doubt and in a very commanding way, that he was in space and that everything happening was for real. You can accept something mentally, but only when you confront it physically, does it actually become something you have to deal with on all levels.

Like imagining facing down the barrel of a loaded gun. Up until the time it actually happens, you know it probably means you are going to die, but actually being there with the gun inches from your face, the certainty becomes a matter of fact. The body reacts to that, not the mind.

Zirkos sat across from him, with a look that Zeke interpreted as concern.

Amazing how human looking this alien being was. The differences in their physical bodies, were on the surface, minimal. Zirkos spoke and behaved like a natural person of Earth, not an alien. Although there were frequent slip ups in the body language that Zeke saw as attempts at mimicry, he still thought the alien was a close relative of humans somewhere along the evolutionary chain.

“Zeke you are already aware your metal plate was poisoning your body through your bloodstream. I have studied up on your physiology and its not that much different to my people so I think I can relate to what was going on quite well.

The metal is what you term ‘radioactive’ but not like your plutonium. It has qualities that are helpful to your body if managed in the right proportions. Your body was overdosing on it all the time as your blood attempted to break down the radiation that built up in your body too fast.

When we retrieved the plate we also extracted much of the metal out of your bloodstream.”

Zeke nodded understanding everything so far.

Zirkos took out the small cube of Alacite he had taken off the control panel on the way into the room and handed it to him.

“This was what was taken out of your body. It has mutated in a strange way.”

“What do you mean by strange?”

“To explain that, I must first tell you more about the metal. Your scientists have only recently discovered it, through you in fact, and yes before you mention it, I have seen their research notes.

You were not aware that they were monitoring you right up to the time you nearly died. They had no intention of retrieving you, they were only going to recover the Pheson Alacite and place it into another human while they continued to study the effects and benefits.”

“Jesus wept, I had no idea. I thought I was hidden from them, but they had me under wraps all the time. Bastards!”

“Yes, unfortunately their approach wasn’t helpful to you, but much of the human way of dealing with these issues is antagonistic, its how you say, ‘making yourself your own worst enemy’.“

“That said, I believe your race to be moving ahead quickly on many different science fronts. I am unable to see anything wrong in the overall pattern of your races development, however, in other ways you decimate individuals and small groups that are unable to defend themselves. I think this is a sad reflection of what is proving to be an innovative way to develop.

But, to the point here and its important to keep to it, as I am part historian and a collector of all things so like to discuss things over wide time spans to no great effect.”

Zirkos smiled as he tried to keep his human companion at ease.

“The point Zeke, is that the mutation of the metal your people call ‘Ferrazite’ is of a beneficial nature and your body has already amalgamated it into your genetic make-up. So much so that we could only remove eighty five percent of it. As a mutated alloy it is not, like other metals such as iron, a part of your natural bodily make-up, but now you need it to continue to develop.”

“What do you mean ‘continue to develop’?”

“Well, your body has been going through change. You are younger, fitter, faster, stronger. If you know your superman comics and films you will not develop superpowers, but you are becoming resistant to certain things like pain, injury and so on. The pain threshold you were enduring under the poison effects of the Alacite were tremendous. Much more than you would have endured without the ongoing mutation, building your capacity to manage it.

At the same time your reactions are getting quicker and your muscles are improving. Your body will continue to develop along those lines and I have no data on where it will end.

Your scientists appeared to realise some of this very early on which makes them very perceptive and good innovative researchers, but they did this at your expense and treated you badly. However, their intent is not without merit. Again, if you look at how these advances evolve to develop outside of their original parameters, it benefits humanity on the whole.

“Many of our own people consider such scientists to be barbaric,” Zeke argued.

“Having been on the receiving end of that I wouldn't say necessarily so, but they seem to be immune to the harm and suffering they cause. This is probably through the need to analyse the person as an experiment, getting beyond the humanity to interpret the science, I suppose,” he finished.

“ I think your planet has a common belief system that the ‘end justifies the means’ and this only becomes apparent or controversial when humans, or certain other species are affected.

“WARNING! “

“What is it Ship?”

“We are being scanned by the planet’s satellite and ground radar systems. I detect some form of radiation detection system. They appear to be locking onto us using Pheson Alacite as an anchor.” Ship explained.

“Are we cloaked?”

“No Maker, cloaking now”