Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (41 page)

‘
So they have two
prepared asteroids and four engines. I have no doubt by now that
they also have the fuel to launch them and are merely waiting for
the right opportunity. We have had some of our assets in the area
but they cannot locate the new launch site. Nor can we launch an
attack across the barrier. The Albany’s friends amongst the
federation have been kicking up a stink. Of course, our evidence is
already on its way there, and I have no doubt that our actions will
be vindicated in time. However, in the meantime we will have to
defend ourselves from this side of the barrier. You may also want
to know that a large fleet of Albany warships have entered the area
and are patrolling aggressively. We have now lost the element of
surprise, and any engagement would most likely prove
costly.

‘
This means we are
going to have to stop them with what we have. To assist with this,
I have asked Captain Steven Gordon to discuss the difficulties you
will face.’

Steven was applauded loudly as he took
the stand and actually blushed.

‘
Ladies and
gentlemen, what we face is a desperate attack by a desperate race.
They need to wipe us out before our bid is accepted by the
federation. If they don’t they will lose this war by default. We
may still remain enemies afterwards, but to assault us then would
be to risk retribution by the whole federation. At this time our
bid is being pushed through but there are time constraints that we
cannot force. The time we have won from them so far has set them
sailing very close to the wind. My information tells me that they
are well past the point of caring. They do not believe that they
will be punished if they launch an attack in the next few weeks,
even if the asteroids destroy Earth after we have signed the
treaty. They firmly believe that launching an attack so long before
the treaty is signed will give them enough wiggle room to squirm
their way out of trouble. They may well be right. After all, they
know how to play the system far better than we do.

‘
So where does this
leave us? Well, you must be wondering why they prepared so many
asteroids to begin with. It would only take one to wipe out every
living thing on Earth. Two or more would completely smash it to
pieces.’

He saw a few nodding heads. ‘Many races
have defence systems that can deal with this kind of threat. These
defences are unique to each planet; how they work are closely
guarded secrets. We have a defence system that can deal with normal
asteroids but not ones moving at speeds faster than light. The
Albany don’t know that though and were hedging their bets. We don’t
know exactly how they planned to do it, but we know that at the
moment the first asteroid struck they intended for the others to
destroy themselves. How do we know this?’

Steven turned to the wall behind him
and picked up a remote control. A video of an asteroid about the
size of those being thrown at Earth appeared. ‘This is the
destroyer Coventry attacking an asteroid as part of a practice
run.’

Green light shot into the darkness and
peppered the asteroid. The destroyer systematically pulverized the
asteroid until there was nothing left but dust. The whole process
took almost a minute.

‘
As you can see, it
was very effective.’ Steven clicked a button and a different
asteroid appeared. ‘This was also taken from the Coventry. These
are some of the asteroids that were targeted at Earth.’

Green light flicked across the asteroid
and it immediately blew into billions of tiny pieces. The blast
rocked the Coventry.

‘
The Coventry
actually received some minor damage from the blast. I am sure that
you could all tell the difference. If we slow the footage down we
can see what happened in more detail.’

The asteroid reappeared and a green
light lanced out. Just before it struck the film slowed right down.
A sequence of explosions could easily be seen rippling round the
asteroid.

‘
As you can see, the
Coventry set off a chain reaction. A net of explosives had been set
into the surface of the asteroid that destroyed it completely. To
put it simply, the Albany have designed things so that at the
moment an asteroid hits Earth the rest can be destroyed by remote
control. This tells us that they have some way of observing Earth.
They also obviously have some way of detonating the explosives on
the other asteroids.

‘
Some have argued
that the asteroid hitting the Earth would trigger the rest to blow
up, that the destruction of the asteroid itself would trigger the
event. If that was so then the destruction of this asteroid would
have triggered the same event on the others close by. It
didn’t.

‘
Others have argued
that some form of device on the asteroids themselves could trigger
the asteroids to self-destruct. Because they are traveling at
faster than light speeds, that is impossible. Sorry, not impossible
but highly impractical.

‘
The only reasonable
explanation is that there is some form of remote viewing device
that will record the event and send out a signal that prompts the
other asteroids to self-destruct. Our first task is to try and find
that device. You must not destroy it. We need to find it and hijack
the thing. If we can discover it then we may well be able to hack
into it, and have it destroy the asteroids before they come
anywhere near Earth.

‘
That would be our
ideal solution. However, our second mission will be to detect the
asteroids and destroy them on route. This may seem the simplest of
solutions, there is only one problem though. We cannot fire our
weapons at faster than light speed. To do so would be to breach the
shields that keep us safe at such speeds. Basically, these shields
keep us in a form of stasis within the hull of the ship. To
accelerate at light speed without them would leave us smeared
against the back walls.

‘
It is fairly basic
physics. Some layman told me a while ago to switch off the
artificial gravity. As we were weightless in space we wouldn’t feel
the acceleration. I tried to point out to him that it wouldn’t make
any difference. We would float exactly where we were until the back
wall hit us at light speed.’

There was a great deal of laughter at
that. Steven smiled. ‘Let’s get back to the asteroids. They do not
have a shield to protect them. That is why they have to accelerate
slowly until they reach light speed. If they tried to jump to light
speed, the effect would be similar to holding a pistol to an egg
and squeezing the trigger.

‘
After inspecting the
engines we acquired, we know the engines themselves have a small
internal shield that protects their internal workings. Once they
have reached light speed they will stop accelerating and let the
asteroid reach the Earth under its own momentum. The engine will
push itself out of the asteroid at this point, and once free, brake
until it reaches manoeuvring speed. It will then turn and jump
straight back to light speed. Once at light speed it will jump to
its next launch point. These engines need to be destroyed. If they
return across the barrier they can be used again, and again and
again. The only time they are really vulnerable is when they are
decelerating and turning.

‘
The best time to
catch them would be while the engines are still inside the
asteroid. Destroy both at the same time.’ Steven took a deep
breath. ‘If only it were that easy. Once we detect them, we have to
catch them, which will take time. Then when we do catch them we
can’t fire our weapons at them. Remember that. Nor can we manoeuvre
at light speeds. You will have to be directly on the tail of the
asteroid and on the exact same bearing before you can catch up with
it. The good news is we will be able to catch it. All our ships can
travel at light speeds of six plus. These engines can only propel
an asteroid to a maximum of three. Your fighters won’t be able to
catch them though, and you can’t deploy them at that speed. If you
strike the asteroid it will disrupt your shields and you and your
entire crew will be killed.

‘
Our shields in light
speed are good enough to deflect small to medium sized meteoroids,
not bloody great asteroids.’

There was a great grumbling amongst the
room and Steven paused to take a drink of water.

‘
Can’t you beam a
bomb on board?’ Someone shouted.

‘
Nope.’ Steven
confessed. ‘Doesn’t work at that kind of speeds. Oh, and before
anyone suggests it, we can’t use the engines that we acquired
either. They wouldn’t be able to catch them.’

Steven turned to the screen again and
pressed the remote. ‘There is only one way to knock them out. The
only place on any ship where it is safe to break our shields is at
the back. A disruption to the shields there will not cause a
catastrophic failure. Shield generation begins at the front of a
ship and sweeps backwards down both sides. Where the two meet at
the back of the ship is an area of shield distortion. The more
irregular the shape of your ship is, and the more shield generators
it has, then the larger the area of distortion. A Modloch engineer
will tell you the less disruption, the faster your ship can go.
That is true. It is why my ship and its partner are faster than
anything else we have. They are simply built to be that fast. Our
weapons are concealed within the hull. If we had them on the
outside, like most of your ships, then we wouldn’t be any faster.
It all has to do with shield harmonics.’

He changed the picture. ‘So how do we
do it? We cannot fire a weapon through that area. Our weapons are
energy weapons, they would send a shockwave back up the hull
disrupting the shields and we would end up as strawberry jam. The
energy from a normal weapon could also disrupt it. So this is the
solution.’

The picture changed again. ‘We drag a
bomb behind our ships using the thinnest wire we can possibly
manufacture. We get in front of the asteroid and let it catch us
up, find a good spot to place the bomb and then release it. We then
get the hell out of the way and detonate it.

‘
We are giving the
job of catching the engines to the battleships and the job of
bombing the asteroids to the destroyers.

‘
The wire and bombs
are already well under construction. The wire itself is only about
half a millimetre thick and the bombs are contained within a unit
that looks like an old lunar lander. When the legs of the lander
make contact with the asteroid explosive bolts will be shot into
the surface to secure it. As I said, you release the tether, get
the hell out of the way, and detonate it.’

He put up another picture. ‘You will be
deployed into two solid blocks. A line of probes will be scattered
across the edge of the great barrier in the most likely place the
asteroids will cross. The battleships will be deployed in depth
over this area here, where we estimate that the engines will
release and turn back. It is a very large area and you will be
stretched thin. You will deploy your fighters in pairs to cover as
wide an area as possible.

The closer we get to Earth then the
narrower the search area becomes. We have ten times the number of
destroyers as we do battleships. That means we can concentrate you
much better. The probes will give us an accurate track of the
asteroids and as many destroyers as possible should get onto that
exact same track and wait for them.’

Steven paused for a second and took a
drink of water. ‘Accuracy and timing. Timing, timing, timing. That
is what it is going to come down to. If you don’t get in front of
the asteroid; if you don’t get on its exact track, you won’t get a
second chance at it. Once it is past you it is gone. You won’t be
able to jump to light speed dragging a bomb. You will have to
accelerate there slowly.

‘
As soon as your
ships are set up with the bombs and tethers you will begin to
patrol towards Earth at manoeuvring speed. Once the asteroids are
detected you will manoeuvre onto its course and accelerate to a
speed where by you can intercept it. You
should
have plenty
time. Plant the bomb, cut the tether and get the hell out of there.
Detonate it at a safe distance.

‘
If you reach the end
of your patrol line then you will stop, pull in the bomb and jump
back to the beginning of the patrol line to start again. That way
we will get a continual flow. So to reiterate: navigation, timing
and accuracy. That’s it. You will receive your detailed orders from
Admiral Baxter. Thank you.’

This time there was no clapping.

CHAPTER 51

Commanders John Logan and Alfie Lloyd
launched into the black. Behind them every available pilot and
fighter also launched. John and Alfie pulled their fighters round
and the Sir William Wallace passed to their right. Because the Sir
William Wallace was a training vessel, they had been kept out of
the fight until now. The two realised they wouldn’t have been
involved at all if they’d been on their own mother ship still with
the Modloch fleet. As it was they had taken the trainee Scottish
and Commonwealth pilots and poured years of experience into
them.

Each and every one of them had passed
their flight training and advanced flight training with ease
because of their input. Still, because of the emergency they had
been kept together, and two weeks ago the ship had been turned into
an active service unit. Both commanders would have been proud to
have any of the pilots in their own squadrons.

As they came back over the top of their
mother ship, the last of their squadrons caught up and entered
formation. Both men twisted their heads to eyeball their men.