Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (18 page)

‘
Did something change
since my last briefing on the state of the ship?’

‘
I believe you
ordered an extra hundred and fifty medium powered weapons and forty
heavies to help defend the ship, sire.’

‘
Ah! Yes, so I did.
Are you telling me that there simply wasn’t enough
power?’

‘
Yes sir. The new
generators supply twice the power of the Albany units. With all of
the unfixable Albany generators being replaced by new units, we
have more than enough power for all of our needs. You could have
every factory working, and every light on, as well as fight and
defend the ship. Once I had enough money I was going to purchase
the last of the units we require to go fully operational, and a
half dozen spare units as replacements.’

The Emperor picked up his pad again and
scrolled through to what he was looking for. ‘I see you have spent
every penny you have made so far on these generators. Paid for them
up front too. You have also bought a great number of quality tools,
a number of spare parts that our quartermaster can’t supply, and of
course a crate of cheap wine.’ He paused, ‘Is that it Chief? The
only thing you bought for yourself was a crate of cheap wine?’

The Chief was trembling, ‘I thought the
wine was an extravagance sire.’

The Emperor groaned, ‘You wouldn’t know
what a decent wine was if I hit you on the back of the head with a
jar of it. How can I possibly kill one of my people who is so
obviously devoted to his Emperor? At least, that is, until you have
finished paying for all of those generators and installing them.’
He laughed wickedly at his own humour while the Chief trembled even
more. The Emperor noticed and frowned. ‘You should be relieved to
hear that. Is there something you are not telling me about this
little deal of yours?’

The Chief shook his head wildly but the
Emperor wasn’t buying it. He could smell the Chief’s fear growing
with each passing second and knew there was something he had
missed. He picked up his pad again and scrolled through it. He
couldn’t see anything, certainly nothing jumped out at him. The
Chief sat quietly in terror hoping he would never ask.

Despite the fact that the Emperor
didn’t see it he still asked the obvious question. ‘Who is this
Human you went into business with?’

The Chief almost fainted, ‘Charlie,
Charlie Murison, sire.’ He gasped.

The Emperor frowned, the English words
on the document held no meaning for him. However, it was a name he
was very familiar with. His eyes turned colder and he found he
almost choked on the name.

‘
Charlie the
commoner. Charlie the sergeant that made a fool of me and one of my
guards at my own function.’ He got slowly to his feet. ‘ The
Charlie that embarrassed me in front of the whole Empire and all of
my guests?’

The Chief could only squeak a reply,
‘Yes sire.’

The Emperor leaned forward, ‘There is a
Human saying. I believe it is: one step forward and two back. I
have a very special moment planned for that Human. It involves a
blaster and an incinerator, should he ever have the audacity to
step aboard one of my ships.’ The way the Chief’s eyes began to
roll in his head gave the game away. The Emperor felt a nerve along
the side of his muzzle begin to twitch. He shoved his face close to
the Chief’s, ‘He has been here, hasn’t he?’

The Chief could only nod his head. The
Emperor sat back down, fury making his legs weak. ‘If he had come
aboard this ship, I would have known. How?’

‘
He beams
across.’

‘
You mean matter
transportation?’

‘
Yes
sire.’

‘
He has been coming
aboard my ship without proper authorization?’

The Chief nodded and the Emperor rubbed
his hands along his muzzle to still the twitching nerves. He leaned
back and took a number of deep breaths. The executioners were ready
to pounce.

‘
Why was he aboard my
ship?’

‘
Just to visit at
first sire, then he helped us change the generators.’

The Emperor tossed his hands into the
air, ‘Well wasn’t that nice of him! Don’t we have enough engineers
of our own?’

The Chief gulped, ‘Yes sire, but they
found it difficult working in the confined space inside the
generators. Humans are much smaller.’ His voice faltered, ‘Charlie
didn’t mind helping. He had nothing else to do.’

The Emperor frowned, ‘What do you
mean?’

‘
He said he had
nothing else to do.’

‘
I thought he
protected the diminutive Captain Gordon?’

‘
Yes
sire.’

‘
Who is protecting
him now?’

‘
Two of his senior
officers.’

The Emperor came slowly forward. ‘How
long?’

‘
A few weeks now,
sire.’

‘
Did he say
why?’

‘
I asked. He told me
to mind my own business.’

‘
Had he done
something wrong?’

‘
He didn’t act like
it sire.’

The Emperor knew that there were often
those who held vital information but just weren’t aware of it. With
every other race in the galaxy, he had his spies and contacts. With
the Humans, it was a blank wall. Tapping into their communications
network had proved futile. Nothing the Humans were doing or seemed
to be doing raised a red flag anywhere within his intelligence
community. The Emperor was far from being a fool. In their
position, he knew he would have been plotting and scheming. After
spending so much time with the King, and after so many
conversations, he knew the Humans were well aware of the
predicament they were in. His intelligence community, however,
seemed to be of the impression that they were blissfully unaware of
how precarious their position was.

‘
What hold does this
Human have on you? Do you count him as a friend?’

‘
Yes sire. Charlie
saved my life. A damaged section of a walkway gave way under my
feet. I fell and was trapped. I was dying. Charlie found me,
climbed down thirty feet, released me, then carried me on his back
to safety. We have been friends ever since.’

‘
A powerful incentive
for friendship indeed. Help me out here Chief. Take that one step
forward into the light again. What don’t I know about the Humans?
What are they doing that I cannot see? What do you think they are
doing that I cannot see? Give me a reason not to execute you and
pay for those damn generators myself.’

The Chief knew he was drowning and
desperately clutched for a straw. ‘You said you wanted the Humans
to be beholden to you sire, to depend on you.’

‘
Yes I did. Go
on.’

‘
It won’t happen
sire.’

‘
Not now,
no.’

The Chief’s eyes rolled dramatically
and he grabbed for the glass of water. ‘Would never have happened
anyway, sire.’ He managed to gulp.

The Emperor took a deep breath and
asked calmly, ‘Why not Chief?’

‘
The Humans are
preparing to leave.’

‘
What makes you think
that?’

‘
I am the Chief
Engineer of the fleet sire. I receive all intelligence reports from
my officers; many are at this moment working with the Humans and
instructing them.’

‘
I am aware of that.
So you have received intelligence from your engineers that the
Humans are preparing to leave?’

‘
Yes
sire.’

‘
Go on.’

‘
By my estimation, it
looks like the Human battle fleet is preparing to make a run for
the great barrier. A few days ago maintenance of the freighters was
scaled back to near zero and all spare engineering staff rerouted
to the battle wagons.’

‘
So they are
preparing to make a run for it and dump their
freighters?’

‘
That’s what it looks
like sire.’

‘
Did you report this
Chief?’ The edge had crept back into this voice.

‘
Yes of course sire.
I knew how important the information was. I first reported my
suspicions weeks ago to W1.’

‘
Did you indeed!’ The
Emperor reached for a communication device. ‘Put me through to
intelligence W1.’

‘
You wish to talk to
them directly sire?’ Came the voice of his puzzled
Secretary.

‘
I most certainly
do.’

‘
Yes sire. Of
course.’

When his communications device beeped
he answered it. ‘Your glorious Highness, Major Achnereeona at your
service. How can we possibly be of assistance?’ The secretary had
obviously warned them who was calling.

‘
I am sitting having
tea with my Chief Engineer.’ He smiled evilly at the Chief, ‘He
tells me he has been putting in reports about certain Human
activities. He believes they may be planning to leave
shortly.’

‘
Yes sire, I know the
reports. I marked them urgent and sent them directly to W5. Other
reports coming into this station also backs up your Chief
Engineer’s conclusions. They were all forwarded to W5.’

‘
Thank you Major. I
shall remember your professionalism.’

‘
It is my honour to
serve sire.’

The Chief almost pissed himself with
relief. The Emperor was on a witch hunt now though and asked to be
put through to W5. There he received the same information; they had
kicked the intel up to W7, which was the highest level.

It was a general that answered his
questions. ‘I am sorry sire, we have investigated all such reports.
You are aware that the Human communications systems and computing
abilities are extremely primitive; all of their ships are also of
Modloch design. As a result we have been aware of every
communication they have made since they arrived. There isn’t so
much as a single communiqué to back up these reports, no matter how
compelling they seem to be.’

‘
Thank you
General.’

The Chief expected to be blasted again,
but instead the Emperor sat back and rubbed his jawline
thoughtfully.

‘
Could the Humans
possibly communicate such orders verbally? No! Such a manoeuvre is
extremely difficult without a proper plan. Even the most basic and
simple of plan would be too much for a Modloch commander to
memorize, let alone a Human. So how are they doing it?’

The Emperor had been talking to
himself, speculating, he hadn’t expected an answer. As he calmed
down the answer popped right into the Chief’s mind. ‘Paper
sire.’

The Emperor’s eyes flicked downward and
captured the Chief, ‘Sorry. What?’

The Chief fumbled in the top pocket of
the boiler suit that Charlie had given him and produced a notebook.
He slid it across the desk. The Emperor reached for it tentatively,
‘What is this thing?’

The Chief swallowed, ‘It’s an NCO’s
notebook sire. I got it from Charlie. He said he has a small stock
of them. They are issued.’

The Emperor opened it and frowned ‘What
is this scrawl?’ He flipped a few pages. ‘It is your name, you’ve
been scrawling your name on it!’

‘
It isn’t as easy as
it looks sire. Try it. The pencil is held in the top part, you
simply pull it out.’

It was with a sense of wonder that the
Emperor retrieved the pencil and tried to write his name. He howled
with laughter at the results. ‘You are right Chief, it isn’t that
easy.’ He closed it, ‘Why do they give their NCOs such wondrous and
valuable things?’

‘
The Humans are very
primitive sire. They use paper for everything; I saw that on Earth.
We were getting bags of what they call “mail”. It was all written
on paper. Gairloch had it all burned because of the bacteria that
was on them. We had a Human liaison officer who typed up some of
them and sent them to us electronically. It is not outwith the
Human’s ability to have an internally secure network where they
dispense orders of this nature by courier, and printed on
paper.’

‘
We haven’t used
paper for a thousand years.’

‘
The Humans have vast
forests growing to provide them with all their paper needs. They
even reclaim it, shred it up and make new paper from it. Sire, they
even use it to wipe their backsides on.’

The Emperor was mortified at first, and
then saw the funny side. He howled with laughter but quickly calmed
down and became thoughtful again. He tried once more to write his
name in the notebook and laughed. ‘It is a lot harder than it
looks, but strangely gratifying.’

The Chief kept his peace. The Emperor
put the pencil back into its holder and reluctantly slid the
notebook back across the table. It disappeared into the Chief’s
pocket.

‘
So the Humans have
been preparing to leave and issuing orders on paper. Not a single
one of my intelligence people realised that. They aren’t as stupid
as everyone believes them to be, are they Chief?’

‘
They are a lot
smarter than the people on this side of the barrier wish to give
them credit for sire.’

The Emperor stabbed a beautiful finger
at him, ‘That is exactly the problem Chief. No one on this side of
the barrier wants to believe they are smart.’

‘
May I say something
sire?’

‘
You have at least
earned that right Chief. Go ahead.’

‘
I have been with
these Humans a long time now. It is true that they are
technologically and intellectually inferior to all species on this
side of the barrier. Their ability to adapt to any situation,
however, is vastly superior to any species we know, including our
own. They are smart in a completely different way. Their ability to
overcome their own shortcomings is undeniable.’