Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (9 page)

‘
Yes, I
will.’

‘
Then this residence
is yours also. If you had said no then we would have had to look
for another residence for you.’

‘
You are serious
about this?’

He smiled, ‘That was a time of great
conflict, when the galaxy and its inhabitants were much younger. We
were at war with more than one species at the time. This was the
residence of the fifth son, separate from the estate below that was
in the possession of the second son. The wars took its toll on the
royal family of that age. The fifth son eventually became the
Emperor. There were no children to the off world marriage and he
eventually took a Modloch wife. They had two sons and five
daughters. He lived to a very old age, outliving his second wife as
well. Eventually he stepped down to let his eldest rule. He spent
the last of his days here, tending this garden. He commanded his
second son to maintain it when he died. In doing so the two estates
were joined, and a tradition started that has never been
broken.’

‘
What a wonderful but
tragic story. He must have loved her very much.’

Rannalld grunted. ‘Trust a female. He
was married to set an alliance. Nothing more.’

‘
Oh
really?’

He looked down at her and shifted
uncomfortably, ‘Yes OK, it sometimes makes you think.’

‘
I would hope so
Rannalld. He fell protecting her and she gave her life to protect
him. If that is not love then what is?’

‘
Duty, devotion.’
Rannalld sniffed.

‘
You aren’t married,
are you?’

He sniffed again, ‘No. We don’t have
the privilege of picking our own mates in the Royal Family. They
are normally chosen for us by our sire out of political necessity.
If we reach the age of thirty, however, and are not yet mated, we
can choose a young female from among the top noble families, if we
wish.’

‘
How old are
you?’

He looked away, ‘Forty.’

‘
Aha! Are you waiting
for love Rannalld?’

He snorted and snot flew out his
nostrils, ‘Are you teasing me?’

She suddenly burst out laughing, and
handed him a handkerchief. He wiped his muzzle in embarrassment.
‘Sorry.’ He tried to hand it back.

‘
You keep a hold of
it for now.’ She pushed the hand down and began to stroll through
the magnificent garden.

A strange cry lifted her head. Mya
gasped, ‘Is that a bird?’

Rannalld looked up, ‘It’s a hunting
Greech.’

‘
I thought there was
no birds or predators on this planet?’

‘
The Greech hunt
small furry animals called Brunne. They eat a type of heather that
grows near the tops of these mountains. As they don’t eat grass or
grass seeds, no one thought to wipe them out. As a result the
Greech also survived.’

‘
I suppose where the
heather grows the grass doesn’t.’

‘
Exactly,’ he
agreed.

‘
Are there more like
this on your planet?

’

He shrugged, ‘I don’t know. I have
never seen any. I have never seen a Brunne either. It is just what
I have been told.’

‘
I think your planet
is quite a sad world.’

He didn’t seem very happy at that but
then he became thoughtful. ‘Gairloch liked to watch them. In one of
his messages home, he said how your world was full of wonderful
animals and birds, that it was beautiful. I have seen some of those
documentaries too. I suppose I can see how you believe our world to
be sad. Maybe poorer. However, when you have a population as large
as ours, every scrap of soil that can be used to grow grass is
needed. We sacrificed everything so that we could survive.’

‘
Was there a lot of
famine?’

‘
In our early
history, yes. Sometimes millions died. We learned to farm better.
Build up to release more soil, and grow grass just about anywhere.
When that began to fail we took to the stars, and so began the rise
of the Modloch Empire.’ He looked directly at Mya, ‘Come, I will
show you the rest of the villa.’

By the time they returned to the
mansion, his staff had left. Cookie declared the day a great
success and returned to the fleet with the chefs to help plan the
banquet. Mya wasn’t left alone for long. The girls arrived as soon
as they finished their shift. They were curious about the villa so
Babes beamed them all up to it. There were no staff there and they
took to the pool naked. It was built in such a way that it seemed
about to flow out of the pool onto the great plain below.

They lined up against the edge and
stared out in wonder. ‘It is hard to believe we are on a strange
planet in another part of the galaxy.’ Komoru murmured.

‘
It certainly doesn’t
look anything like Earth.’ Mya agreed.

Amanda smiled, ‘We are making history
ladies.’

‘
It is all so
strange,’ Mya closed her eyes.

‘
I suppose it is, but
I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.’ Hailey added to their
reflections.

Amanda stretched her arms across the
side of the pool, ‘Even if I die tomorrow, it will all have been
worth it.’

Hailey smiled, ‘You have to wonder what
is going to happen next.’

CHAPTER 13

Charlie was beginning to get a little
pissed off. No matter how hard he tried to get in touch with
Steven, no one would let him. He discovered by accident that Steven
was back on board and headed for his quarters. He was stopped on
the bridge by Howe and Beaver.

‘
No one is to disturb
him, especially you.’

‘
It is important
sir.’

‘
Don’t matter,’
Beaver reinforced Howes. ‘Don’t know what you’ve done Sergeant, but
you’re not to go near him or any other person in the high command.
That’s a direct order from the Captain.’

Charlie’s eyes went cold and both men
saw it. Neither were perturbed though. Charlie knew he could take
both men out before they could blink, but he was far too
disciplined a soldier. He came to attention, ‘Sir, I request that
you at least pass on a message.’ He was looking at Howe.

‘
Go
ahead.’

‘
I think I may well
have found a solution to the problems they are having.’ He
hesitated for a second, ‘The one with the banks. I’m not sure what
to do next. I have a good idea, but I want to talk to him about it,
and discuss the implications.’

‘
I will pass it on,’
Howe nodded.

‘
Thank you
gentlemen.’

He was about to turn away when Beaver
stopped him.

‘
Sergeant, a bit of
advice.’

‘
Yes sir?’

‘
You are far too
regimented for your own good. One of the first things the Captain
told us when we came on board was that if we saw a job that needed
doing, then do it. It is as simple as that. As long as you let him
know somewhere along the way what you are up to. In my experience,
if it is to the benefit of the crew, or the ship, then there will
be no problem.’

Charlie looked from one to the other
and nodded. ‘I will bear that in mind sir.’

They watched him walk away. Beaver
shook his head, ‘Like a fish out of water. If no one tells him what
to do he’s lost.’

‘
Give him a break
Beaver, he is just a grunt. You know what it’s like. Give him time.
You never know, he might become more than the sum of all his
parts.’

‘
He is a nice guy and
a great soldier sir, but I think he has been a grunt far too long.
Completely regimented, unable to think for himself. He hasn’t done
a thing since joining the crew. Nothing other than what he has been
told to do. It ain’t really enough.’

‘
Maybe he doesn’t
really need to do anything other than what he has been ordered to
do. With all these youngsters on board, there is no real slack to
pick up. Not like when we first arrived. The Captain sees something
in him, so maybe we should give him a chance.’

‘
He is the Captain’s
childhood friend,’ Beaver shrugged. ‘Figures he owes him
something.’

Howe shook his head, ‘No: he was smart
enough to realise that Orlath was something different, and the
danger they were about to place him in. It was Charlie who set the
whole ball rolling. Let’s not forget that he paid for it as
well.’

‘
That’s true. They
say there is very little left of him.’

‘
Not much more than
his internal organs. I believe. No one is really saying all that
much about it.’

‘
You going to tell
the Captain?’

‘
Oh hell no. Let’s
see if the Sergeant can begin to pull his own weight around
here.’

‘
Sounds good to me.’
Beaver agreed.

Charlie returned to his bunk more than
a little confused. Even a lengthy argument with Babes did no good.
He felt like he was on a precipice, and felt the truth in Beaver’s
words. He was swimming outside his own element. If he had been out
in the field, in barracks, or even on a battlefield, Charlie knew
he could trust his instincts to make the right decision. Twenty
years of continuous training and fighting gave him that confidence.
But this was no battlefield that he recognized, this was the kind
of thing that even his own officers would know little about. He was
smart enough to realise that it was his mind reading abilities that
had prompted Steven to make the decision he had. Obviously what was
happening now in the higher echelons was top secret and Steven felt
a responsibility to that. Charlie knew it wouldn’t take much for
him to find out those secrets, but he respected Steven’s
decision.

He took out an old jotter he was once
going to use to write out lesson plans for his NCOs. He made a
number of careful lists: what he knew, and what he didn’t know. The
what he knew list was almost blank. From there he went up to one of
the briefing rooms. They had the computers and information systems
he required. It didn’t take him long to hit a blank.

‘
Babes.’

‘
Yes
Charlie.’

‘
Do the Modloch have
internet, and can you plug into it?’

‘
They do have
something similar.’

He read out a list of the laws he
needed and quickly discovered that he would need a copy of the same
laws from Earth. He felt a headache coming on but stuck with it. It
would take two days for the information to arrive from Earth. That
would give him time to go through both the Modloch and universal
laws. Babes helped him understand the legal jargon from both worlds
and the galactic laws. He also had Babes search through her musical
database for anything that sounded similar to Modloch music.

Her analysis was very quick. In reality
there was very little commonality between the two cultures.
However, the Modloch were very fond of woodwind type instruments.
They had instruments that sounded very similar to the clarinet, obo
and bassoon. It gave Charlie an idea.

‘
Babes, do you have
any Glen Miller on board? Nineteen-forty, the big band
era.’

‘
Not much Charlie,
but I know Sergeant Kelly has a large personal
collection.’

‘
Where is he just
now?’

‘
He is on board the
freighter Lexington, training a new detachment of
marines.’

‘
Could you ask if I
can go talk to him please?’

He didn’t have long to wait for a
reply. ‘He says yes, no problem, but if you do come then come in
working dress.’

Charlie sighed, ‘Did you tell him I
needed a favour?’

‘
Yes, but not what it
was.’

Charlie dug out a clean uniform, ‘It
looks like he wants a favour back.’

‘
How do you
know?’

‘
Well if he had said
uniform, I would have put on our pretty blue one, but Kelly has
been around us Brits long enough to know what we mean by working
dress. That would be combat boots and Denims.’

Once Charlie was dressed she beamed him
over to the freighter’s reception area. He was welcomed aboard and
taken to see Kelly. The freighter had been converted into a
training ground; it was an instructor’s dream. There was even a
full assault course on board the large ship.

They shook hands and Charlie’s escort
left.

‘
Hey
Sarge.’

‘
Nice to see you
Charlie,’ he grinned, ‘I see you got the message.’

‘
Yup.’

‘
Hear you want a
favour?’

‘
I hear you have a
shit load of big band music. I want to borrow it.’

‘
What
for?’

‘
Have you heard the
fleet’s in trouble? They won’t let us open any bank accounts, won’t
accept our gold or anything else and we are strapped for
cash.’

Kelly nodded, ‘You know how it is
Charlie, shit flows downhill at the same rate as bad news. These
marines call it scuttlebutt. They reckon the brass are running
round in circles chasing their tails.’

‘
That’s about the
measure of it.’

‘
You been taken off
guard duty?’

‘
Yup, Howe and Beaver
have the duty now.’

‘
Must be serious
then. What do you think?’

‘
There’s a couple of
options. If the whole fleet bolted for the barrier we could leave
the Modloch standing. If we managed to avoid conflict on the way
out then we should be home and dry.’