Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (36 page)

Charlie shook his head. ‘Not
necessarily. He has been contemplating using normal tugs to do the
job. His commander wants to split the engines between two sites. It
would take much longer, but it obviously can be done. The engineer
would rather fire all twenty and move on to the next launch site
while waiting for the engines to return. The fuel is arriving
tonight. It is inert so we can’t blow that up.’

‘
Yeah I know that
Charlie.’ Stevie was silent for a while. ‘What’s he thinking
now?’

‘
He is wondering if
he is going to miss the mating season; he thinks he is and is
furious.’

‘
Yuk.’

‘
Don’t ask
then.’

Steven laughed. ‘Do you understand how
this platform works?’

‘
Pretty much. That
flat area over there is where they are going to put the fuel cells.
They will be loaded like depth charges used to be. Colossal drums.
They will roll forward and a ram will push them into the hole two
at a time. Then the engine will be pushed in with that funny shaped
ram down there. Once the engine is in they will activate it. The
engine will anchor itself inside the hole. A big spike will come
out of the nose of the engine and pierce both fuel
cells.

‘
Once both engines
are in they can upload a launch sequence. If everything works, then
the engines will engage and propel the asteroid towards Earth. The
engines won’t create some kind of field. The word doesn’t translate
in my head, I can’t pronounce it anyway. It will take a few days to
gather speed. Once it reaches faster than light speed the engines
will cut off. They will un-anchor themselves and those big fuel
spikes will extend to their full lengths and push the engines out
of their hole. Once they are clear of the asteroid, they will brake
to slower than light speed and turn. They will then have enough
internal fuel to return to their next launch point. Only this time
they can accelerate quickly. Return time will be a fraction of the
outward journey. I don’t really understand all the ins and out
Stevie. Hopefully you can fill in the blanks yourself.’

Steven was nodding more to himself than
Charlie. ‘I get it Charlie, don’t worry.’

‘
Wish I bloody did!
Wish I knew more. A couple of shitty O grades and a lifetime of
army service doesn’t exactly qualify you for this kind of
work.’

Stevie looked at his friend in a
thoughtful manner. ‘You are more intelligent than you think,
Charlie. In fact, you are well above the norm or Babes wouldn’t
have given you an implant.’

‘
But I have looked at
some of the stuff you do. I wouldn’t even know where to start with
it. I found it hard to grasp algebra at school, failed maths
miserably, scraped by in English. I was OK at woodwork and history,
but that was about it.’

‘
So what are you good
at Charlie?’

‘
I would have said I
was a bloody good soldier. Not the best, but a good
all-rounder.’

Steven frowned. ‘What do you mean by
“would have said”?’

‘
I’m not me any more.
I’m more cyborg than Human. What took a lot of effort before now
takes no effort at all – from a physical point of view that is. I
run about that assault course all day making young men look stupid
and inept. It makes them push themselves to the point of
collapse.’

‘
Does it make them
better soldiers?’

‘
It makes them
fitter, that’s all.’

‘
Aye, but that’s
important for a soldier isn’t it?’

‘
It is if you are in
the infantry. Not all soldiers fight. We had some Modloch in a few
weeks ago and ran them ragged.’ Charlie laughed. ‘It was good fun.
When this all went down we were about to be bollocked by one of
their officials on what a Modloch soldier should and shouldn’t be
asked to do on a physical level.’

‘
Sounds like you and
Kelly were having fun. You don’t like doing this, do
you?’

‘
Makes me feel like a
spook, and you know how I feel about them.’

‘
I’m
sorry.’

Charlie shrugged. ‘We are getting good
intel though. As much as I detest the intelligence community, they
do serve a purpose.’

‘
Aye, but those
assets just aren’t in place yet.’

‘
Exactly. So until
they are, I’m just going to have to face my demons.’

‘
How are you getting
on with the Modloch Emperor?’

‘
You heard about
that?’

‘
There is very little
goes past me Charlie, you should know that.’

Charlie smiled. ‘I get on really well
with him. He is a complete bastard, but I work well with
bastards.’

Steven laughed. ‘He is a piece of work.
He has done a lot for us though.’

‘
Aye that may be, and
I can tell you that he is totally onside now.’

‘
You mean he wasn’t
always!’

‘
Oh hell no! He
actually likes us now. Finds it hard to compare us to
meat-eaters.’

‘
They are big on
that.’ Sighed Steven.

‘
Keep him sweet
Stevie.’

‘
He is a pain in my
arse.’

‘
Why?’

‘
Wants me to build
him a shit load of bio domes so he can harvest honey and
stuff.’

‘
Honey! But there’s
no bees here... oh right, is it about them damn biscuits he is
obsessed with?’

Steven sighed again. ‘That’s the
one.’

‘
OK, I’m getting
there. What the hell is a bio-dome?’

‘
Remember the one we
built to house the Albany prisoners after the last
battle?’

Charlie’s head came up. ‘Aye, like a
complete living environment – grass, water, the lot.’

‘
Aye, except he wants
walnut trees, bees and much, much, more.’

‘
So what’s the major
problem?’

‘
Getting them to the
Modloch planet. They have to be towed, and it could take
centuries.’

‘
Why?’

‘
We can’t tow at
faster than light speed. It’s complicated physics.’

Charlie made a face, ‘You mean I
wouldn’t understand?’

‘
Not a
chance.’

An amused smile played around Charlie’s
lips. ‘So, basically the problem you have is moving a huge chunk of
rock at faster than light speed across our solar system, through
the barrier to the Modloch system.’

‘
Aye.’ Steven’s head
sank onto his arms.

‘
Forgive me for
stating the obvious here Stevie, but would you mean bloody great
chunks of rock like those asteroids out there?’

Steven frowned. ‘A good bit bigger.
Wait, what do you mean?’

A look of friendly contempt crossed
Charlie’s face. ‘For God’s sake Stevie, this lot are just waiting
for a shit load of engines that can propel a sodding great lump of
rock across the galaxy at faster than light speeds. Nick them you
chump!’

Steven was bewildered for a few more
moments. ‘Nick them? You mean steal them?’

‘
Aye. They are coming
in on a bloody great convoy of freighters. Hijack the buggers. Two
problems solved. They can’t toss those bloody great asteroids at us
and you can deliver your bio things.’

Steven suddenly sat up. ‘Oh Charlie,
you are a bloody genius! Did anyone ever tell you that?’

‘
Oh aye man, all the
time.’

The two burst out laughing.

CHAPTER 44

Admiral Baxter’s head thumped from
reading too much. Steven Gordon had given him a cracker of a
problem. Eventually he called Steven in.

‘
According to what I
can find out, we can legally take action against a proposed threat
to our home world. We would be well within our rights to impound
the cargo. However, we would really need proof before we commenced.
The good thing is that, because we aren’t a part of the federation
yet, we don’t need to submit that evidence to the powers that be
before we take that action. We can always do that later. The
problems will come after. If we kill a lot of people other than the
Albany then we could well lose support for our bid. As we are still
legally at war with the Albany though we can kill as many of them
as we wish.

‘
There are four enemy
battle groups. Two of them are Albany. One Albany battle group is
on its own, protecting their asteroids and launch point on the far
left as we look at it. The other Albany battle group protects the
platform that is drilling the holes in the asteroids.

‘
Do you know if it is
Albany that are manning the mining platform Captain?’

‘
No it isn’t sir. I
believe it is a mixture of races.’

‘
That means we can’t
just blow it up. We need hard evidence as well. Where do you think
the best place to get it is?’

‘
I believe the best
place for that will be with that first Albany battle group, the one
protecting the launch point that is inserting fuel and engines. If
we are lucky they may well have the launch codes, the coordinates
of the target and return coordinates of the engines.’

Baxter nodded unconsciously. ‘That
makes sense. We really need those launch codes. With those we can
justify everything. I think it might also be wise to assault the
Albany war ships with troops, just in case they are on one of
those.’

Steven thought the Admiral’s suggestion
over. ‘If we assault the ships sir, they will have the opportunity
to delete the data. If we destroy the ships and extract their
memory cores then we can hack them to find the information we
need.’

‘
We would risk
destroying the memory cores though.’

‘
No sir, they are
well protected. Only a direct hit would take a core
out.’

Baxter was nodding again. ‘That would
make things much easier.’ He pointed to the next battle group. ‘We
have never fought these people. Do you know much about them?’

‘
Not much sir. They
are native to this part of space and are led by King Vison. The
Catataracs are not known for aggression but they can be fearsome in
defence. I believe their king was the Albany’s mouth piece during
the bid. Their economy is reliant on exports to the
Albany.’

‘
I wonder... if we
gave them the opportunity to back off would they take it? What
about the other race?’

‘
The Ranagata are led
by President San Lo Tae´ and are sympathetic to the Human cause,
forced by circumstance to side with the Albany. They aren’t as
advanced as either of the other races but are known to take a more
aggressive stance.’

‘
I see.’

‘
Sir, do you have the
forces to take on four battle groups?’

‘
Oh aye. These battle
groups aren’t large. In fact, we outnumber them about ten to one.
These are just small battle groups, not an invasion
fleet.’

‘
Sorry sir, still
learning.’

‘
Can I ask how you
come about your information Captain?’

‘
No sir you
can’t.’

Baxter was silent for a few moments.
‘OK Captain Gordon. You may not be under my direct command, nor I
yours, however, I do not like anonymous information. I like to know
its source and its credibility. For now I will accept it, but one
day you will have to spill the beans.’

‘
You will never find
out the source of my information. To tell you where it came from
would be to lose it.’

‘
How on earth would
your source ever find out?’

‘
In exactly the same
way they found out about this.’

‘
Some form of super
spy that only talks to you?’

‘
Something like
that.’ Steven replied.

‘
I can see a solution
begin to form here. Can I rely on the services of your ships and
your men?’

‘
Of course you can
sir.’

‘
Excellent. In the
meantime, go back to your observations. I want their timings,
patrol routes, everything worked out.’

‘
Yes sir.’

CHAPTER 45

Charlie’s head had been sore for a
couple of days and the doctor had confined him to bed in the med
centre. She made herself scarce when Steven arrived.

Steven sat down on a plastic chair.
‘How are you feeling?’

‘
I’m OK now. Turns
out I had a wee bleed in the brain, but those nano bots have sorted
it all out. Man, it felt like those damn things were having a
party.’

‘
They saved your
life.’

‘
Aye,
again.’

‘
I’m sorry I put you
through that.’

‘
No worries Stevie,
we got everything we needed: times, schedules, rendezvous points,
the lot. Has Baxter finalised his plans?’

‘
Aye he has. You want
a part? I could use you.’

‘
Babes says all the
bruising and swelling will be completely gone by tomorrow. So not a
problem. What do you want me to do?’

‘
I’m taking Colonel
Howe and going with the main fleet to destroy the mining platform.
We are going to beam on board and try to get as much information as
possible before destroying it. Baxter will destroy the Albany ships
that protect it. Another force is going to annihilate the other
Albany and take control of the loading platform. They will also
capture the freighters carrying the engines.’