The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) by Tobias Roote Read Free Book Online

expectations in enemy confrontations.
    It was also bigger, sufficient to carry up to four Makers even though the internal design was only currently set up for one, the nanobots could easily restructure the interior to accommodate any changes. It was an efficient design.
    Zirkos was extremely capable, evaluating many of the patterns stored in the Pod’s data archive. As a result much of what had been set into the A.I.’s comprehensive build incorporated improvements and advanced systems culled from patterned records.
    This was intended to be a formidable Warrior-Class ship, the first of its generation. No more running from the Nubl. If they turned up again, Zirkos intended to be able to retaliate.
    ***
    The progress on the new Warrior Class T-Ship had Zirkos quite excited. It was unusual for any of the Brethren to apply patterns from other race’s technology in an ad-hoc manner such as it had done. As with the original test of the Dematz thrust on the Pod, which had subsequently and fortuitously resulted in their continued survival.
    Having realised the benefits of utilising other advanced technologies in the fight for survival, it had decided to corporate as much as could be found, or utilised from the Pattern library.
    Zirkos had no doubts at all that, had this technology been already incorporated into the ship design, they would have survived to pass the knowledge back to the Brethren.
    If the Nubl advances didn’t already put their ships ahead of this new design which it acknowledged was old technology in terms of the time it had spent buried under the planet’s surface. It had been a working hypothesis of the sentient’s analysis, but the Nubl successes meant they might not have progressed much further technologically, unless they had met a more superior enemy.
    Zirkos decided to begin the search for answers soon.
    In the meantime it was still pondering the problem of the Alacite in the humans’ system. It had already reached the disturbing conclusion that in all of the virtual tests it had conducted, the human had died before the transformation was completed. The concentration of the substance was just too high for the human physiology to cope with.
    As yet, non of the tests had managed to proceed to a point where the end result of the transformation could be assessed. It set up a new series of virtual tests to see if lower concentrations of Alacite resulted in any change in outcome and left them to run. It would review its findings when the new results were included.
    ***
    Zeke was not coping well. His days were becoming increasingly a mind fuddling experience as the effects of the poison in his system began to cause serious organ damage. He realised it was not just a matter of coping with the pain and trying to sleep, he had missed a couple of meal drops too.
    Deep down he knew things were not going well. Unsure whether the incident with the light beam had accelerated things, or not he was left wondering now if he had any chance of surviving this at all.
    He had dropped all pretence of using the computer to find work and other currently meaningless objectives, instead he used the search engines to research his symptoms. The consensus came back - blood poisoning.
    He became delirious much of the time, in the few periods of coherence he consumed large quantities of water and then slept fitfully. The veins wherever he could see them now stood out and looked a weird ruddy blue with an almost iridescent quality.
    A week after his successful break-in at the pawn shop he awoke to find himself kneeling on the floor with his head resting on the chair seat. He had passed out. He had no knowledge of what he was doing on the floor, only that it was difficult to move. The pain in his joints and limbs was so great he was unable to create any lift to get himself onto his sofa.
    He thought that he would just die there to be found in years to come when the demolition crews came through to check the place. His corpse would be