The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of software code and after checking it was satisfactory as a command query, it passed the structured subset project back to the A.I. and left it alone to work out the dynamics before handing it back to Zirkos as a solution, or not.
    In the meantime, Zirkos carried on internalising the knowledge being transmitted through electronic highways on everything to do with the planet and its inhabitants. They really were amazingly industrious, but a totally unfocused race of beings. What might they accomplish as a race if they worked together, it wondered.
    It recognised though, that their major breakthroughs tended to come about when in adverse relationships with equal or superior competitors.
    This seemed to give them the temporary focus needed to achieve amazing breakthroughs, some of them it could see were strategically important as platforms for advanced technology.
    Again, it noted that subsequent lack of focus sent them off in directions that were non-productive, while other potential advances were ignored completely.
    Their military especially promoted ingenious and innovative concepts which dramatically sped the development of peripheral sciences. Impressive science in all fields, Zirkos thought, assessing the humans as progressive and technologically brilliant. Although still too young a race to make any radical progress in their immediate future.
    They were an interesting species and reminded Zirkos of its own people, in that they had a long way to go, but much promise for an abundant and productive future. It decided to continue to monitor their progress, some of which might be of benefit in the future.
    Thinking of them and its people made Zirkos homesick for company. Although not a long time had passed, it nonetheless recognised that it was a considerable period of time since it had any contact with its own people.
    The millennia lying dormant under the planet’s surface meant that no Brethren would have detected them on a fly past. It resolved that as soon as it was able, that it would reconstitute its natural form and with a new T-Ship, enter a wormhole to transmit current location and receive any news or signals from its long lost Brothers.

    - 6 -
    The sound of windscreen wipers scraping across an icy wind shield faded as Zeke’s breathing became more controlled. Licking his dry cracked lips he attempted to swallow the pitiful amount of saliva his mouth could muster in an attempt to produce life in his painfully parched throat.
    Lying where he had passed out Zeke slowly checked out his body. First manipulating an arm, then a leg, until he established that he was in fact still alive, or more importantly to him, still in one piece.
    ‘What the fuck was that?’ he thought as he began remembering the beam of light that had illuminated, then attacked him, leaving him in a temporary coma.
    ‘How temporary was temporary?’ he wondered.
    Pulling his watch near his face he screwed up his eyelids until he could focus on the moving hands.
    ‘Little hand on the three, big hand on the six. Ugh! That’s, uh, three-thirty.'
    He couldn’t see yet if that was morning, or afternoon.
    Pulling himself up, he dragged himself against the nearest counter, sitting there until his head stopped swimming. A quick glance up at the red digits on the wall told him what he needed to know.
    ‘Oh good, it's still morning,’ he sighed.
    He had been out for a couple of hours and was still in darkness.
    Zeke was no fool. He knew something very strange had just occurred, but being a professional he drew the correct conclusion; whoever or whatever it was had not alerted the Police, or the owner, therefore wasn’t part of the shop’s security. He relaxed awhile as his mind and body attempted to merge itself back into a single entity.
    He would have to deal with the light issue later, he still had work to do.
    As he felt around his person he came across the small bottle of mineral water he kept in his pocket.
    Unscrewing the cap, he emptied the