Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (11 page)

‘
That woman has no
fear. I haven’t been scolded like that since I was a
child.’

The King laughed, ‘She terrifies
me.’

The Emperor joined his laughter. ‘She
needs a mate and children to keep her occupied.’

‘
You would be
surprised by the amount of people that agree with you.’

‘
No I wouldn’t. It
might take that sharp edge of her.’ They laughed again.

‘
Order her to take a
mate. Choose one for her.’

‘
Do you honestly
think that would work?’

The Emperor thought it over, ‘Maybe
not. It might just make her worse.’

‘
Exactly. We were
hoping the brave sergeant Kelly might have made inroads before
now.’

‘
Ah, the hero from
another time.’

‘
That’s right. She at
least seems to respect him, if nothing else.’

‘
How do you
know?’

‘
When she wanted to
ask Captain Gordon for a place on his crew, it was Kelly she
approached to sponsor her.’

‘
She must also trust
him then.’

‘
He is an honourable
man. She knew he would convey her request.’

‘
Is he not a
commoner?’

‘
Yes he
is.’

‘
Not good. You could
commission him and give him land.’

‘
No I couldn’t. I am
afraid one of my ancestors lost the part of our Empire that he
comes from many centuries ago.’

‘
That makes it worse.
Still.’

‘
Yes. I wonder if we
could give them a little nudge.’

‘
Do their duties keep
them apart?’

‘
Very much
so.’

‘
Gairloch thought
much of him. Maybe we could invite him to the function.’

‘
That’s an idea, but
how do we get them together?’

The Emperor smiled, ‘Oh that’s easy.
One of the race that is coming is called the Delaney. They consider
it obscene for single women to be unaccompanied.’

‘
Oh yes, that’s good,
I like that. Both of course are very duty orientated. They would
accept it. After a stern talking too of course.’

They both roared at one another’s
wit.

‘
Barley water,’
suggested the Emperor.

‘
Yours or mine?’
Asked the King.

‘
Mine, we will keep
yours for later.’

CHAPTER 16

Cookie sat down at the table bearing
gifts. Tapper’s eyes flew wide. ‘Fancies, nice. I thought we had
run out of cream.’ He was referring to the cream buns on the
plate.

Cookie grinned, ‘It isn’t cream
sir.’

Tappers smile faded and his hand
hesitated midway to the plate. ‘Oh! Not more of that alien
cuisine.’

‘
I am afraid so. This
particular product is called Lala and comes from the sap of the
Lala tree.’

Tapper scowled, ‘Now I think you are
talking Lala, Cookie.’

Cookie laughed at him, ‘I shit you not
sir. First developed by a race called the Wolat, who have a more
diverse diet than grass. It can be made into a butter, cream and
there is even a kind of cream cheese. It is considered a bit of an
acquired taste in these parts.’

‘
You mean only the
rich can afford it.’

‘
No not really sir,
the Modloch just don’t seem to like it. On the rare occasions they
do eat it, it is normally like this with fruit. Try it.’

Tapper cautiously took one of the buns
and took a bite. His face went through a number of different
emotions. ‘It does taste a little barky, but highly acceptable.
Nice find Cookie. Yes, I like that.’

‘
All part of the job
sir.’

‘
Have you found much
on the planet that Humans can eat?’

‘
There isn’t much but
grass and a few bland vegetables which were retained for medicinal
value a very long time ago and survived the purges. One of them
gives very bad gas.’

Tapper stuffed another cream bun into
his face, ‘Yes, I think I tried that one.’

They both laughed, ‘Any word from the
future Lady Dunedin sir?’

‘
Well!’ he sighed.
‘We were hoping that when she joined the space corps she would be
stationed with the fleet on one of the science vessels.
Unfortunately she has been assigned to a vessel which is
investigating the asteroid belt.’

‘
That’s
bollocks!’

‘
Maybe, but that’s
just the way it goes sometimes. To be truthful, I think she has the
best job at the moment. The elements on this planet are very
similar to those back home. Everything is already catalogued.
Hardly the life of exploration I was hoping for really.’

‘
Don’t worry sir, you
know what it’s like. You have to go through all the normal bullshit
before you can go have fun.’

‘
That is true. How is
your love life getting on?’

‘
Well there is
nothing getting on, if you know what I mean. Any and all pleasures
shall only be revealed on the wedding night.’

Tapper laughed, ‘Oh hard luck old
man.’

Cookie smiled and shook his head,
‘Actually I am handling it better than I thought I could. There is
a certain comfort to the fact. I used to get paranoid if I was
separated from a girlfriend for any length of time. With Mya, it
just doesn’t enter my head.’

‘
Oh! Actually I can
see where that is a benefit.’ Tapper leaned forward. ‘I hear the
dashing Rannalld has taken quite a fancy to her.’

The two burst out laughing, and laughed
until their sides hurt.

CHAPTER 17

Charlie was becoming extremely
frustrated with the time everything was taking. It took two days
for everything to be rerouted to Earth. You couldn’t just slip onto
the internet and Babes had no records of what Charlie had wanted to
find out. All the layman advice he had gathered had been
conflicting, so when a full copy of the copyright laws arrived he
was more than pleased. After another day of research he wrote an
email to Steven’s mum explaining his circumstances. She wrote
straight back but it was another week by the time she had set
everything up.

It had been a very long fortnight. The
Chief had called on him to help remove all of the old generators,
which were now coming back from the repair shop. The Chief asked
again for help to put the first one back in and Charlie was more
than ready to test his theory.

Babes had made a boiler suit for him
and the Chief was impressed by his apparel.

‘
I like that Charlie,
what’s it called?’

‘
We call them boiler
suits. You must have seen them on Earth?’

‘
I did, I just didn’t
want to look stupid by asking.’

‘
I could ask Babes to
make you up a pair. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.’

He rubbed his hands together, ‘I would
love a pair.’

The first generator was lugged into
place. A number of Modloch had turned up to see if Charlie could
replace the nuts as easily as he had removed them. All the nuts and
bolts had been swapped for brand new shiny ones. Charlie wrapped a
thick towel round the nut and heaved it onto his shoulder. There
was a communal groan and a few laughs from the gathered company.
More than a few had bet on Charlie not being able to lift the nut
by himself. Those that had worked with him already, bet against
them. With a great roar of laughter the Chief collected most of the
winnings.

Charlie, unaware of what was happening,
climbed up the ladder on the inside and lifted the nut into
position. He tightened most of it by hand, then finished it off
with the spanner which he had suspended from his shoulder by a
strap. Sliding down and out, he was surprised by the din.

The teams set to reconnecting the
generator while Charlie and the Chief moved onto the next one.

It was at their dinner break that
Charlie was going to set his plan in motion. Most of the Modloch
seemed to be in a good mood now and all treated Charlie with a
growing respect. The young ones were playing their music again.
Charlie took out the old fashioned boom box that Babes had made for
him. Of course some were curious and much hilarity ensued when
Charlie told them what it was. The young were almost rolling around
on the floor at the size of the thing. Charlie took out a thermos
and some sandwiches to eat.

‘
Go on then Charlie,
let’s hear what you Humans call music on your antique.’

The others switched their music off and
Charlie felt nervous as he switched it on. If they hated it then
everything he had done, all the work, the research, was worth jack
shit! If there was ever a time for prayer then it must be now, he
thought, as he touched the play button. His guts tightened as the
first bars of ‘In The Mood’ began to play and they burst out
laughing. He was almost about to fall back into despair, but the
laughing began to peter out. Alien ears started to twitch as they
absorbed far more than Charlie could hear. Heads began to bob and
feet to tap. Charlie felt a sudden release in tension.

They almost bopped to ‘American Patrol’
but when ‘Moonlight Serenade’ and then ‘Moonlight Becomes You’ came
on they howled in a strange way. It was one of the weirdest
experiences of Charlie’s life.

He switched the player off and the howl
of protests almost deafened him.

‘
Get back to work,
the lot of you.’

Some were asking Charlie where they
could get a copy but the Chief chased them away. He regarded
Charlie with cool eyes, ‘What are you up to Charlie?’

Charlie tried to look innocent. ‘What
do you mean, Chief?’

‘
Don’t come your
Human crap with me Charlie. I can tell you are up to something by
that stupid grin on your face.’

Charlie took a sip of coffee, ‘Are you
aware of the problems we are having getting money?’

‘
You mean the Human
race, your position in the universe, that kind of
thing?’

‘
Aye.’

‘
Of course I am, do
you think I’m stupid?’

‘
No I
don’t.’

‘
You do it through
trade. You want to come into the great alliance? You have to be
sponsored by about six or seven other races. You trade with them,
and they give you the financial backing you need to go through the
process.’

‘
Aye, that as may be
Chief, but I bet they don’t also have a bloody great battle fleet
to look after while they are going through the process.’

‘
True
enough.’

‘
What we have for
trade they won’t accept.’

‘
You mean like fire
diamonds and that kind of shit?’

‘
Aye, and the Emperor
is already selling grass from the seeds we sent him. That leaves us
a wee bit short of leverage.’

The Chief shrugged, ‘You should have
been a bit more careful then, shouldn’t you? I told your people a
long time ago to blow this ship up and negotiate your way into the
alliance. They knew better though. Let’s cross the barrier with a
bloody great war fleet and give the city ship to the Emperor, they
said. Hasn’t that been a shit load of fun?’

‘
Nothing to do with
me. People a lot bloody smarter than me made that
decision.’

‘
Way I see it, they
are going to pay for that decision sooner or later.’

Charlie detected a certain note in the
Chief’s voice, ‘Like I said, out of my hands Chief.’

‘
Right, but what’s
all this about?’ You’re at it.’

Charlie held up his hands in surrender.
‘You got me. Did you like the music?’

‘
Stop playing games
Charlie.’

‘
I can assure you,
I’m not playing games. Did you enjoy it?’

‘
It was amazing. Why
didn’t I hear any of that when I was on Earth?’

‘
Different era.
Remember Kelly?’

‘
Right, the hero out
of time, a sergeant like you.’

‘
That’s the one.
These are his music discs. They were from his time, almost a
hundred years ago.’

The Chief frowned, ‘Why is that
significant? More to the point, what has it got to do with me?’

‘
Do you know anything
about the music business?’

‘
Not a bloody
clue.’

Charlie grinned, ‘Turns out artists
don’t need an alliance.’

The frown deepened, ‘Young Gallus
mentioned something about that the other week, didn’t he?’

‘
He did that. He was
right. What you need is a bona fide music company that has a
license from its department of foreign affairs to trade off
world.’

‘
So?’

‘
The artist goes to
the company, the company then approaches another music company from
inside the great alliance. They make a deal, the inside company
sets up bank accounts for the company. Once the company has an
account set up it can then distribute funds to whomever it wants:
traveling executives, managers, artists, you know that kind of
shit.’

‘
You are thinking of
setting up a company?’

‘
Already done
it.’

‘
Right.’ The Chief’s
mind began to race, ‘You have permission for your office of foreign
affairs?’

‘
Signed, sealed and
delivered.’

‘
What is it you are
missing then?’