Follett, James - Earthsearch 03 - Deathship (v1.0) Jacked. THE EARTHSEARCH SAGA. *** BOOK TWO: CONTENTS. Prologue: Four Million Years Ago. Part One: Return. Part Two: Flood. Part Three: Surrender. Part Four: Solaria. Part Five: Sundeath. Part Six: Supermass. Part Seven: Deathship. Part Eight: Megalomania. Part Nine: Earth. Part Ten: Earthvoice. *** Book Two EARTHSEARCH -- DEATHSHIP. Prologue. Four million years ago. . . Nothing stirred in the mighty ship as it swung sunwards across the solar system -- its titanic bulk eclipsing the background myriads of stars of the galaxy. Four million years would pass before Mankind gave the galaxy a name, the Milky Way, but for the time-being the celestial wheel of crowded incandescent suns was merely a number in the ship's vast and silent library. The passing hours and the increasing strength of the sun burning on its flawless black skin brought about a gradual awakening throughout the ship: signals flowed along hair-like fibre optic tracks, and artificial gravity was created throughout the ship's seven-mile length. It was extremely weak gravity at a level that would have ill-suited humans with their poor co- ordination and reflexes. But the intelligences aboard the starship were not men and women -- they were robots for whom the low gravity was ideal -- providing them with the necessary stability that enabled them to move with precision and purpose along the ship's scores of miles of darkened, silent corridors. The first such machines in the awakening were service units whose limited intelligences were adequate for straightforward tasks that required little exercise of judgement. Obeying the programs provided when they had been built, they checked all the ship's millions of miles of fibre optic circuits and carried out repairs where necessary. Satisfied that all was well, they swarmed through service hatches onto the ship's hull and subjected it to a meticulous scrutiny. But the ship's outer skin was relatively new in terms of cosmic time and therefore required little attention. Only when the preliminary checks were complete did the master intelligence that commanded the ship's main control room show signs of life. Kraken's awakening began with the absorption of oxygen by his organic brain. The shutters that covered his optical sensors --his eyes -- opened. He had not been designed and built by humans but, apart from his six manipulators, he was humanoid in appearance because his makers had discovered that a human shape was the most appropriate for a sophisticated, multiple function android with a highly-advanced intelligence. There the similarity ended: he possessed no human emotions other than a crude basic instinct of utter ruthlessness and the more sophisticated ability of low cunning. Both of which had been had been considered necessary by his makers to ensure his survival. The nearest he came to human emotions was a measure of his makers' blind, driving ambition which they had reluctantly provided him with to improve his efficacy at serving their purpose. Physically he was larger than any human and immensely more powerful. His height was ten feet and he possessed a formidable mass of 500 pounds. Despite his bulk, the advanced design of the servo-motors buried within his massive armoured trunk was such that he could move faster than any of the secondary androids under his command. The clusters of Herculainium alloy fingers on the ends of his multi-jointed arms were capable of the delicacy of touch needed to manoeuvre the great ship, but they could, if he so desired, seize any of the control room androids and tear them to pieces. Although fear was a human emotion, it manifested itself in the main control room androids because they had been programmed to ensure that they came to no harm, therefore, to avoid arousing Kraken's wrath, they took special care to subject all his orders to internal verification to be certain of carrying them out correctly. There were seven of them in the ship's main control room, their less sophisticated brains becoming active more quickly than their master's brain so that they would be ready for his first orders. When Kraken opened his eyes and dispassionately surveyed the console before him, it was of no interest how long he had spent strapped and comatose in his giant swivel chair. Ten years, ten centuries, ten thousand centuries -- the passing of time was of no consequence. All that mattered to him was the condition of the ship and whether or not it was on course for its destination. His interrogation of the main control room's First Android satisfactorily answered a number of his immediate questions concerning the ship's condition. "And the photonic drive?" he demanded. The First Android did not know what condition the ship's main drive was in but knew enough about Kraken to sense that candour was decidedly risky. Its answer required careful consideration. "Only you have the authority to order the testing of our main drive, Kraken," the First Android replied, bracing itself for trouble. "There have been no adverse reports from the service units therefore the probability is high that its condition is in the satisfactory state it was in when it was closed down." Kraken digested this and reluctantly decided that the answer, although more verbose than he cared for, gave him insufficient grounds for tearing the First Android apart. "Destination status?" he queried. The First Android began to feel more confident. The first hurdle was over. "Everything is exactly as programmed before closedown, Kraken. We are on a solar orbit that will intersect the orbit of the third planet of this solar system within five thousand hours." Watched anxiously by the seven androids for the slightest sign of displeasure that could herald the sudden and noisy depletion of their numbers, Kraken rose to his feet and moved silently across the main control room to the navigation console. The Second Android manning the console moved hurriedly out of his way. Kraken studied the information on the visual display screens set into the console's surface for some seconds. Everything appeared to be in order. Kraken returned to his console and allowed the weak gravity to lower him into his chair. "Visual on third planet," he commanded. The First Android touched out the necessary commands. The hologram replication field hummed briefly. A blurred patch of coloured light shimmered in the field and rapidly hardened into an image of a shining blue-green planet and a smaller crater-scarred moon -both of which appeared to be suspended above Kraken's control console. The angle in relation to the sun that the ship was approaching both bodies meant that they were reproduced in the replication field as crescents of light. The beauty of the shining planet was wasted on Kraken. To him it was just a planet. The only thing that gave him a grudging moment of pleasure as he studied it was that it was a perfect match with the planet that his masters had instructed him to visit. He touched the controls on his desk and viewed the planet for a few seconds in the ultra violet spectrum before switching the replicator into the electromagnetic spectrum. The patterns of invisible radiation fields surrounding the planet appeared as coils of shimmering light. Their shape and intensity tallied with the data displayed on his information screen. There was no evidence of any artificially generated radio emissions but that was only to be expected. A faint outer halo of light encircling the planet caught his attention. He pointed. "What's that?" "A dispersing band of plasma radiation," the First Android answered. "I can see that. It should not be there, should it?" "No, Kraken." "Have you examined it?" The First Android wondered if it was going to be blamed for the mysterious spiral of weak radiation. "Yes, Kraken." Fortunately Kraken was too engrossed in the phenomenon to consider any form of direct action against his subordinates. "Findings?" "All the probabilities have been studied, Kraken. The highest one that correlates with the evidence is that a ship with a similar drive system to ours has visited the planet." "There is no such thing as another ship," Kraken stated emphatically. "This is the only ship in existence." The First Android remained silent. The evidence that the third planet had been visited by another ship was irrefutable but it wasn't prepared to argue the point with Kraken. "Give me the rest of the data," ordered Kraken. "The plasma's dissipation rate measurements indicate that the ship visited the planet four years ago," said the First Android. It hesitated -- sensing that the rest of the evidence might arouse the main control room commander's grave displeasure. "It went into an orbit around the planet?" the giant android demanded. "Yes, Kraken. As you can see, the plasma belts consist of a double spiral - - one possibly caused by deceleration when the ship went into orbit, and the other caused by acceleration to escape velocity when it left orbit." "There is no other ship," Kraken repeated, glaring at the First Android as though challenging it to an argument. The First Android made no reply. Kraken decided to carry out his own analysis of the mysterious radiation halo. He touched out the necessary controls and requested more detailed information. The results were not to his liking: not only had a starship visited the planet four and a half years' previously, but the number of orbits that the ship had made of th...
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