Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (8 page)

CHAPTER 11

It had been a few days since Steven had
pushed the panic button on the financial crisis and, despite
hundreds of people working on the problem, still no solution had
presented itself. Even the King had drawn a blank. The Emperor had
simply side-stepped his questions, telling him not to worry about
it.

As the meetings became more secretive,
Steven dismissed Charlie. Colonel Howe and Beaver had taken over
the duty of escorting Steven around the fleet. Charlie had been
glad of the break at first but soon became bored. It seemed that
everyone was busy and had some other job to do in their down time.
Everyone except for him. Kelly had been requested as an instructor
by the commanding officer of a new contingent of troops that
arrived just a few days ago.

Charlie changed into civilian clothes
for the first time in months and Babes beamed him down to a mall in
the big city below. Strange beasts flowed around him. All knew he
was of a meat-eating race and some females even ran from him in
fear. There was more than Modloch present. Other and more colourful
creatures wandered around the giant mall. He discovered he was
being shadowed by a number of security guards. After listening to
their thoughts for a few minutes he decided it might be better if
he went back to the ship.

As he turned a corner Babes beamed him
up. He could imagine the panic his sudden disappearance would cause
the guards. Back on board the ship he soon became restless again
and had Babes beam him over to the city ship. He found the Chief
deep in the engine room.

‘
Hey freak, what are
you doing?’

‘
Day off and bored to
tears Chief, what about you?’

‘
Trying to fix some
of these generators you bloody Scots wrecked as you tore up my
engine room.’

Charlie looked up at the damaged
generators. They were huge. ‘Oh yeah. We would shoot a few holes in
them to shower sparks down on the Albany that were hiding there. It
flushed them out.’

The Chief scowled down at him, ‘Was it
really necessary to take out so many of them?’

Charlie scratched his head, ‘Seemed
like a good idea at the time. Can’t you replace them?’

The Chief snorted, ‘Yeah, will I just
pop over to the Albany embassy and ask them to send over some
replacements?’

‘
Aye OK smartarse, I
got your drift.’

‘
We are having to
fabricate parts from scratch. The trouble is some of the parts are
so badly damaged we can’t replicate them. If the Emperor dropped
off the outer rings, we would have enough power for the rest of the
city. You don’t want to hear what he said when I suggested
that.’

‘
How much of the city
have you power for?’

‘
All of it until you
activate the shields and weapons. Then just over sixty per
cent.’

‘
What’s the chances
of you having to use them within your own borders?’

‘
Not the point,
Charlie.’

Charlie sighed, ‘Yeah I get it.’

‘
Especially with the
Emperor on board. Neither will we leave the home world until the
work is complete.’

‘
Can’t you just
install some of your own?’

‘
There are generators
out there that could be converted, or we could have some custom
built. It would only take a few days at most. Not going to happen
though.’

‘
Let me guess, the
Emperor is a cheap bastard.’

The Chief barked a laugh, ‘How did you
guess! So its repair and make do for now.’

There was a howl and a yelp from
somewhere inside the generator. It was followed by a loud clang of
metal; a large spanner slid into sight and stopped at their
feet.

‘
For the love of the
three moons that orbit my arsehole! That’s the third time those
idiots have dropped it.’ Charlie was still laughing as the junior
engineers slid into sight following the same route as the huge
spanner. The Chief ripped into them as they struggled to lift it.
He stopped his tirade for a moment and eyed up Charlie.

‘
Charlie, would you
mind helping out a little? These two are just too big and clumsy to
fit in there together and the tool is too heavy for one of
them.’

‘
No problems Chief,
what am I looking for?’

The Chief pointed to the spanner, ‘It
would be a thing that fits on the end of that,’ he sniffed.

‘
So there’s only one
thing in there that this will fit on to?’

The Chief sniffed again, ‘Yeah, right,
you’ve never seen inside one of these have you. Sorry about that.
It’s just a single bolt about four times your height. There is a
ladder you can climb up to reach it on the inside. It holds on the
top half of the generator. Once the nut is off, we can extract the
bolt from this side, then split it in half so we can get into the
guts of it.’

‘
Right, I got
ye.’

The two junior engineers seemed
doubtful, but the look on their faces as Charlie took the giant
spanner off them and casually slipped it over his shoulder was
novel.

Charlie slid inside and didn’t take
long to find the nut. He slipped the spanner on and gave it a
heave. It didn’t turn so he put more pressure on it. It began to
turn but Charlie noticed something. He inspected the nut carefully
and shouted down.

‘
Hey Chief, a couple
of shots have welded this nut to the bolt. If I turn it any more it
will sheer off.’

‘
Don’t worry about it
Charlie. We will just make a new set. Sheer it off.’

Charlie could clearly hear the two
junior engineers laughing and grinned. After one mighty effort the
large nut gave out with a loud squeal. The spanner and nut fell
together and rolled out of the generator. Charlie could clearly
hear the Chief laughing as he climbed back down. The two junior
engineers stood with their mouths open.

‘
Any more
Chief?’

‘
About a dozen
Charlie, if you’re willing to help.’

‘
Lead the
way.’

‘
You pair of useless
buggers – get the team down here to remove that bolt.’

It only took Charlie a couple of hours
to sort the rest of the bolts. Three he had to sheer off.

The Chief was laughing all the way to
the rest room. ‘You just saved me a couple of days work Charlie. I
think there is still some of that coffee you Humans like if you
fancy a cup.’

‘
Love
one.’

The rest room began to fill up as the
engineers came in for their break. One of the youngsters was
listening to what passed for music. Eventually Charlie got a little
pissed off with it.

He turned, ‘What the hell is that
noise?’

The young engineer gave him a strange
look. ‘Balliboo, it’s their new album.’

Charlie shook his head, ‘The latest and
best of modern Modloch music.’

The engineer missed Charlie’s sarcastic
tones, ‘They aren’t Modloch. They are Almalons.’

‘
A whit?’

‘
Almalons.’

Charlie turned back to the Chief who
shrugged, ‘Never heard of that race. It’s not bad though. Where are
they from?’ He asked the youngster.

‘
It is a new planet
in sector G5. It was colonized by miners and eventually
terraformed. I think they are going to apply for Galactic status
soon.’

‘
Now that’s a wild
sector, right on the frontier.’ The Chief added.

Charlie almost shrugged it off, ‘They
won’t be getting paid for their music then.’

‘
Why wouldn’t they?’
The youngster asked.

‘
As far as I have
been led to believe, new planets and their citizens aren’t allowed
to have bank accounts. Something like that anyway.’

‘
Doesn’t apply to
artists,’ sniffed the young engineer.

‘
How no?’ Charlie
pushed it.

‘
Well, because they
are artists of course. It’s the same with all artists. They are
pretty much free to come and go as they please. Don’t matter if
they are musicians, painters, sculptors or actors. They are playing
here in a few months. They wouldn’t come if they didn’t get
paid.’

‘
As long as they are
part of the artistic community and their record company is
registered with the galactic body that deals with artists, then
they can go where they please. Most artists or their companies have
bank accounts on every planet.’ Added another.

‘
Sorry I didn’t know
that.’ Charlie finished his coffee and the Chief saw him
out.

‘
We got another half
dozen of these buggers scheduled for tomorrow Charlie. Do you have
the day off?’

‘
Looks like
it.’

The Chief slapped him on the shoulder,
‘As soon as you can make it then.’

‘
Catch you tomorrow
Chief.’ Charlie was beamed away.

CHAPTER 12

Rannalld’s senses were being assaulted.
Mya had been completely honest with him. In the morning he had
shown her around the grounds but when lunch time came he very
quickly realised that he could not do her request justice. He
called in reinforcements, and within an hour half of his general
staff had arrived. Cookie had thought they were going to have a
lazy day, but with the arrival of the general staff, the whole damn
thing kicked up a few gears and he sent for back up. Another dozen
chefs arrived, but not to cook. They were needed to take notes and
ask questions. The quiet home quickly turned hectic. The Modloch
servants helped where they could, and Cookie had them transporting
dishes back and forth.

Rannalld groaned as he climbed into the
aircraft. ‘What have you done to me Mya. I can hardly move
now.’

‘
I am so sorry
Rannalld. I did not think they would bring so much food with
them.’

‘
Most of it was
delicious. Never mind, my staff will soon make short work of it. If
there is one thing they do really well, it is eat.’

She laughed, ‘Where are you taking me
now?’

‘
We are heading
towards your villa at the mountains.’

The craft took off and made for a
distant point in the mountains. Mya was getting used to the uniform
green strips of grass. Here and there large machines swept over the
rectangular fields. As they approached the mountains, Mya noticed
the terrain begin to change. She pointed down. ‘What is happening
here?’

‘
Every now and then
you come across a parcel of land that simply refuses to drain.’
Rannalld explained.

‘
Can I see
it?’

‘
Why?’

‘
Please.’

He shrugged and relayed an order to the
pilot who changed course. They flew back and forth across it for
half an hour before she was satisfied.

He was watching her with great
curiosity. ‘What are you thinking Mya? Nothing grows there except
for water grass. Only the poorest would even contemplate eating
that stuff.’

‘
You said all this
belongs to the Emperor; are you allowed to plant food on land like
this?’

‘
You mean there is a
Human crop that would grow in such conditions?’

‘
I think rice would
grow here.’

‘
Ah! That white dish
you are so fond of.’

‘
Yes that’s
it.’

‘
I don’t know, I
would have to look into it.’

‘
Do you think there
is fish down there?’

‘
I doubt it. The
insects that thrived in such places were considered detrimental to
the health of the people many thousands of years ago, and wiped
out. When we killed them off, I think most of the species that
lived off them also died off.’

‘
Still, it might be
worth a trip to find out.’

‘
That it might.’
Rannalld smiled to himself. He had been looking for an excuse to
visit her again, once his official duties had been carried
out.

The craft resumed its course and they
soon reached the mountain villa. Green fields stretched out on any
flat piece of ground to be seen. Mya could see where fields had
been carved out of solid rock. The higher regions were almost
devoid of life, untouched. The villa itself nestled on a long ledge
on the lower slopes of the mountains. High enough to be cooler, but
not so high that the air was thinner. It was exposed to the sun all
day long and sheltered from the prevailing winds. The grass fields
that surrounded it were of a different variety to that which grew
well on the lowlands.

It was a long, single story building.
The flat roof had been converted into a garden, while the far side
had a pool. There were no roads, and the only in was by air; or so
it seemed.

The craft landed on the other side of
the roof from the pool and the garden. They got out and Mya was
immediately struck by the view. It was only a few steps down into
the garden, where they were immediately surrounded by flowers.

‘
These are the first
flowers I have seen.’

‘
They don’t originate
from our planet and are self-propagating, I believe. I think it was
a gift from one of our ancestors to his wife. She was from a
different race and these were from her home world. The legend says
that they were off world together on a cruise ship when they were
attacked by pirates. When he fell in battle she was said to have
taken up his weapon and protected his body. They both survived the
attack, but she later died of her wounds. Her husband put a
stipulation in his will that whomever took over this residence was
on the pain of their personal honour to look after and protect this
Garden.’ He paused for a moment. ‘Will you accept that
responsibility?’