Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (37 page)

‘
That’s only two
forces, isn’t it?’

‘
Yup, that leaves the
battle groups from the other races.’

Steven was counting them off on his
fingers. ‘Baxter is hoping that if he gives them an out the
Catataracs may well take it. He believes that the biggest threat
will come from the Ranagata. President San Lo Tae´s son to be
exact, Vice Admiral Ban Lo Tae´. A little research shows him to
very aggressive. He’s trying to prove to everyone that he is worthy
of following his father.’

Charlie’s head lolled back on the
pillow with a smile. ‘Trying to follow in daddy’s footsteps.’

‘
Pretty much. That’s
where you come in. I want you to go with Komoru. They will beam you
aboard the Vice Admiral’s ship to detain him, if
possible.’

‘
You mean hold him
hostage?’

‘
Call it what you
like Charlie. You are obviously the best choice. You will be able
to read his mind and know if he is complying or not.’

‘
Who is on the
team?’

‘
Komoru’s special
forces, along with Lewis and Kelly.’

‘
Sounds like a good
team. I’m in. So what are we actually going to be trying to achieve
there?’

‘
No hostile action.
We don’t want to shoot them unless we really have to. As you know,
the father is sympathetic to our cause and has a lot of friends. At
this moment he isn’t actively trying to stop support for our bid,
but if his son is killed or if he loses a lot of forces, he may
well declare war on us.’

‘
And try and persuade
all his friends to do so too.’

‘
Correct.’

‘
Aye OK Stevie. How
long we got?’

‘
Two days. Kelly has
schematics of their ships and is already putting Komoru’s guys
through their paces.’

‘
Right. I’m familiar
with their ships already. Tell Kelly I will be there first thing
tomorrow.’

‘
Will do.’

‘
You had better let
the doc in, she is getting pissed off at our private little
chats.’

‘
I noticed. I think
she is quite keen on you Charlie.’

‘
She is.’

‘
So why don’t you ask
her out?’

‘
Two reasons. The
first being I am not of equal or higher rank.’

‘
Seriously?’

‘
This is the army
Stevie, believe it.’

‘
What’s the
second?’

‘
She wonders if I
would be more like a vibrator than a Human man.’

‘
Oh Charlie, too much
information man! I’ll leave you to it.’

Charlie was still laughing at the
horror on Steven’s face when Amanda came back in. ‘You seem in a
better mood. Do you want to share the joke?’

‘
Oh hell
no!’

‘
It would have been a
dirty one then?’

‘
It most certainly
was.’

‘
Then you may
certainly keep it to yourself, Sergeant.’

‘
I most certainly
will ma’am.’

CHAPTER 46

The Albany battle cruiser finished the
outward leg of its patrol and swung back towards the mining
platform. Its destroyers followed it in formation. A shower of
meteoroids flashed a warning on an operator’s console and he
flicked on the cameras. This far from the sun, they could barely be
seen; however, a little light reflected off a few. He zoomed in
until he could see them quite clearly. Thousands of irregular
rocks, made up of who knows what, whizzing round the universe,
almost with a mind of their own. It was a rare sight as most were
destroyed and pulverized to dust by any passing ship with weapons.
Some planets in some solar systems did allow the occasional
meteoroid shower to survive though, if it had some historical or
cultural significance.

An hour later they arrived back at the
mining facility to rendezvous with their partner battle cruiser and
her escort. A light on his panel flashed. It was his opposite in
the other battle cruiser.

‘
Hey Joz, my panel
has just lit up. What is coming in from your patrol
area?’

‘
Hi Maroz. It is a
meteoroid shower. Nice one too. Don’t worry, it’s coming nowhere
near.’

‘
On vector
0004554667E?’

‘
That’s correct my
friend.’

‘
Any idea what is
coming in from 9990007399B?’

‘
Where?’

‘
You must have it
Joz.’

The tired operator flicked on his
screen, ‘OK I got it.’ He frowned to himself. ‘I have no idea
Maroz, it looks like ships. What about the freighters with those
engines?’

‘
They passed us on
our outer leg. They should be arriving at the launch point about
now.’

‘
Maybe they turned
back? They are coming in from that direction anyway. Did they have
their IDs switched on?’

‘
Yes, of
course.’

‘
Then who the hell is
this?’

It simply didn’t occur to either
operator to sound the alarm, they were so used to the coming and
going of many different ships. Both died while still trying to
puzzle it out. The main part of the Human fleet appeared and fired
at the same time. The Albany battle fleet simply disintegrated. On
the mining platform a covey of Albany destroyers were also hit.
Baxter ordered their engines to be taken out. Landing craft rained
down from the Human battle fleet, and soldiers began an
assault.

In the control room Howe, Tapper and
the rest of his men suddenly appeared. An Albany officer talking to
the Chief Engineer was shot where he stood with a cup of hot liquid
in his hands. The Ranagata Chief Engineer was half scalded as the
Albany officer dropped.

‘
What the...’ His
words were cut off as Howe’s pistol appeared in his face. He had
half rose to his feet, now he sank back slowly into his chair. ‘Who
are you?’

‘
All you need to know
is I am Human, and that we are here to destroy your facility before
you can start hurling these asteroids at Earth.’

The Chief’s hand slid along the arms of
his chair towards an electronic pad. He gasped as the cold muzzle
of Howe’s revolver kissed the skin at the corner of his eye. ‘This
is a firearm. Are you familiar with them?’

‘
No!’ The Chief
gasped.

‘
They fire a
projectile that will blow clean through your skull and leave a
fist-sized hole on the other side of your head. Don’t touch
anything.’

‘
Why haven’t you
killed me?’

‘
Oh I want to. Makes
my job much easier. However, we are not at war with your people
yet. Don’t worry, once war is declared between our people, I will
come back and finish the job.’

Beaver moved over to his side. ‘We are
secure sir.’

‘
Good! Tell the
Captain.’

A few seconds later Steven appeared.
With Babes’ guidance, he began to download as much information as
he could get.

The Chief’s eyes swivelled to the large
windows in the command centre. Outside the darkness of space was
filled with flashing lights and large explosions.

‘
You are killing all
the Albany?’

‘
Certainly
are.’

‘
They will seek
retribution.’

‘
We don’t give a
damn. The only thing that is saving their arses just now is the
fact that they are part of the federation. If it wasn’t for that
their home planet would now be a radiated hell.’

The Chief glanced over at his people.
‘What are your intentions with us?’

‘
If you behave, we
will let you evacuate before we destroy this facility.’

‘
Destroying this
facility is an act of war.’

‘
Do you think that
helping the Albany destroy our home world isn’t?’

The Chief was silent for a while. Small
tremors reached them through the super structure. ‘If one of those
destroyers blow up, we shall all be killed.’

‘
We know.’ Howe
admitted. ‘That is why we are assaulting them with troops and not
just blowing them up.’

‘
Many things can go
wrong.’

‘
The sooner we are
out of here the better then. However, we are not leaving until we
have evidence of your collusion.’

A larger tremor reached them.

‘
Then it would be in
all of our interests if I helped you locate what you are looking
for.’

Howe glanced at Steven, ‘Captain, this
officer is offering assistance.’

Steven stood up from the console he was
working at.

‘
It would be
appreciated, but if he tries anything different then you have my
permission to shoot him.’

Howe flicked the muzzle of his pistol
and the Chief got up slowly. He joined Steven. ‘You don’t need half
of that. May I?’

Steven stepped back. It only took a few
seconds for the Chief to locate the files Steven required. Babes
confirmed that they were exactly what they were looking for.

‘
This is what we
need, thank you.’

‘
I am merely trying
to preserve the lives of myself and my people.’

Steven locked eyes with the aliens for
a moment and could read the honesty in them, ‘You may evacuate. We
will be blocking all transmissions for about an hour.’

‘
I understand. Our
life pods will sustain us for a few days. May I announce the
evacuation?’

‘
In a second.’ He
waited until Babes confirmed the upload. ‘OK. You may do so now.
Colonel Howe, get in touch with command and announce the
evacuation. Mission complete.’

‘
Yes sir.’

The Chief moved to a different panel;
seconds later strange lights and a noise could be heard. When he
turned round the Humans had gone.

He let out a sigh of relief. His staff
looked round in wonder. ‘Well don’t just sit there you idiots, get
the hell off the station!’

There was a mad dash for the life pods.
He was a little slower than the youngsters that worked for him and
three life pods had already taken off by the time he reached them.
His second in command was waiting by the fourth. ‘You made it you
old shit. Was beginning to think I was in for a promotion. What the
hell is going on?’

‘
You don’t
know?’

‘
I was fast
asleep.’

‘
You mean you slept
through all those explosions?’

‘
What explosions? It
was the evacuation alarm that woke me.’

‘
Let’s go, I will
explain on the way out of this shithole.’

There were a dozen others on board,
including an Albany. The Chief paused. ‘You are very lucky to be
alive.’ He pushed past and squeezed into the pilot’s seat, his
second in command took the seat next to him. ‘Launch sequence.
Initiate.’

‘
Initialising, sir.
All ready to go.’

‘
Let’s get out of
here.’ He pushed the intercom. ‘I hope you are all buckled in.
Launching now.’

They were thrown back against their
seats as the life pod launched. The space around them was full of
burning debris.

An unfamiliar female voice sang in
their ears. ‘All escape pods please lay in a course of 18022345E
and you will be escorted out of the combat area.’

His second in command eyed him
enquiringly. ‘Just do it. Put up the rear view as well while you
are at it.’

His second complied. ‘Going to tell me
what is going on?’

‘
That’s a Human
fleet.’

‘
SHIT! You mean they
discovered what is going on?’

‘
They certainly
have.’

‘
Heads will roll for
this one.’

‘
Not ours. We are
just contractors.’

‘
That may well be.’
He pointed to the rear view screen. The last of the Human troops
were now clear of the facility and the battleships moved in to
finish it off. ‘Looks like we are going to be out of work for a
while.’

Space was lit up by a kaleidoscope of
different coloured lights as the Human battleships concentrated
their firepower onto the huge platform. It blew spectacularly.
White hot metal was cooled instantly by the absolute cold of space
and shattered into lethal shards that spun off in every direction.
Most of it would end up being pulled into the asteroid belt.

The Chief Engineer smiled. ‘So the
government will have to provide us with a brand new one. We will
also be home in time for the mating season.’

His companion thought it over. ‘Will
the company still pay our wages?’

A battlecruiser and its escort slid in
behind them. Their shields lit up in small bursts as debris from
the platform struck.

‘
They have no option,
we are on contract.’

The companion smiled and looked out the
window at a big battlecruiser as it slid past. ‘That’s a Modloch
ship.’

‘
No, it’s Human. The
dimensions are slightly smaller than a Modloch but it is based on
the Modloch design.’

‘
Do you think they
will let us live?’

‘
They killed all the
Albany and let us live. That lot behind us are shielding us from
debris. I think we are going to be all right.’

‘
But the Humans are
meat-eaters, aren’t you worried?’