by Murison, J W
Steven smiled his relief, ‘thank you again sir.’
‘No need to thank me, you make us all very proud.’
The prime ministers escort took the bags and he offered Mary his arm. Steven stood and watched her leave, his feelings mixed. They had sacrificed so much for him over the years, he only hoped now he could return some of that love.
He turned to Buzz, ‘prepare for departure.’
Chapter 31
Steven had lost all of the military personnel. He found them in the dining room surrounding the small soldier they called Cookie. Beaver was slipping something into his mouth with something akin to religious awe. Steven noticed a real live flame burning.
‘What's going on?’
Howe was caught holding out a plate. He flushed like a guilty schoolboy, ‘oh! … Sorry sir but Cookie can’t see our cooking apparatus to use it, so he had to use his own.’
‘You're lucky Babe didn’t douse you in fire retardant. What are you eating?’
‘She almost did, Cookies doing us one of his famous omelettes.’
‘With truffles no doubt.’
‘Yes sir.’
A steaming omelette was shovelled into the Colonel’s plate. The smell hit Steven and made his mouth water, ‘well give us a taste then.’
For a moment he thought Howe was going to refuse, then he pushed the plate with a fork on it towards Steven. He took a small piece and gasped, the flavours burst in his mouth.
Reluctantly but much to Howe’s relief he handed the plate back, ‘you were right Beaver, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like it. What's your name Cookie?’
‘Jimmy Wilson sir, but Cookie’s just fine.’
‘You had better watch yourself. If any of the scientists on board get a whiff of this they may hijack you.’
Beaver chuckled, ‘if we don’t hijack him first.’
Howe nodded his agreement shovelling a piece into his mouth, ‘want a job Cookie?’
Tapper cleared his throat, ‘I don’t think so old boy. Where he goes I go.’
Howe scowled down at the smiling Major.
Steven decided to get to the bottom of this, ‘Beaver I want to see you in my quarters in five minutes. Colonel as soon as you’re finished, the suits are ready, I want you to go down and check them out.’
A surprised Beaver arrived within the allotted five minutes; he looked uncomfortable.
Steven regarded him thoughtfully and wondered if he would tell the truth, ‘what's the beef between the Colonel and the Major?’
Beaver winched, ‘there really isn’t any beef sir.’
‘That’s not how it looks to me.’
‘I know sir, but there really isn’t. It’s just that the Colonel doesn't like having to depend on troops outside our own unit.’
‘You’ve all met before haven’t you?’
‘Yes sir and to make matters worse the Major and his boys have pulled our fat out of the fire more than once.’
‘That rubs the Colonel up the wrong way does it?’
‘Yes sir and to make matters worse the Major knows it.’
‘And he rubs the Colonels nose in it?’
‘He doesn’t really have to rub his nose in it sir. The fact that the Major knows is enough. It’s more of a personality thing.’
‘What do you think of the Major and his men?’
‘Glad to have them along sir and not just for the omelettes.’
‘So you trust them?’
‘Have done with my life more than once. They are as good as we are, and that takes a lot of admitting.’
‘Does the Colonel admit to that?’
‘Yeah but only to me. To tell you the truth sir, the Majors about the only man the Colonel wouldn’t like to meet down a dark ally.’
‘But the Colonel isn’t afraid of him?’
‘Lord no sir, but we've seen them work in close and it was a thing to see. The Colonels got a lot of respect for the Major that way, he just doesn’t like him.’
‘Ok thank you Beaver.’
Steven sat back and thought the situation over. The Colonel was a proud man and he considered his men the best. However it seemed that these SAS men were as good, but unfortunately they belonged to a foreign power and as such constituted a threat. Not only to his country but also to his own men. For in the unlikely event that the two nations would ever oppose one another in conflict, these were the men the Colonel would most likely meet in battle.
Steven realised the Colonels instincts were probably right. The Scottish prime minister and the President of the United States were already at odds with one another. What would the rescue of his father do to their relationship? The prime minister had already made it clear that he would not conceal his help to those he considered his own nationals.
What effect would it have on his own crew? Although there were people on board from all over the world, by far the majority came from the two opposing nations. It was strange but Steven had never really considered himself Scottish, and yet now the only help he would be likely to get was from these fellow Scots. Could he remain neutral if it came to a conflict? He realised he probably couldn’t and then where would he stand with the American members of his crew. Where would he stand with his own best friend? He had to find out.
‘Buzz could you come down here?’
‘On my way Buddy.’
Steven sat himself in his chair. Buzz arrived and sat opposite. ‘What's the matter Steve? You look like shit.’
Steven couldn’t help a small smile, ‘I ain’t having a good day. I need to ask you something.’
‘Fire away.’
‘What do you think of the situation that’s looming between Scotland and America?’
The smile quickly slipped off Buzz’s face, ‘you been thinking about that too huh?’
‘Yeah, what do you think?’
Buzz shook his head, ‘I don’t know man it’s a hard one. What do you think?’
Steven wiped his hand over his mouth, ‘I don’t know Buzz. Once we spring my father and the Scots prime minister tells the world he’s there the shits really gonna hit the fan.’
‘I know and the President ain’t really stable is he?’
‘No and that’s what I’m worrying about. Half this crew are either Scottish or American. What the hell do we do if the President tries to take some kind of action against the Scots?’
‘You mean military action; he won’t do that will he?’
‘Why not? He’s already tried to kill us with that nuke, and now he’s threatening to kill my father.’
‘I don’t know Stevie, you’re right the guys nuts and probably capable of anything, but if you’re asking me if we should fire on our own forces if they attempt some kind of attack on Scotland, then I got to say no. If you could do it without killing anybody, fair enough but what are the chances. Those people will only be following orders.’
‘Christ I know that Buzz, but my mothers in Scotland and my Father might soon be. Will I allow them to be captured again? We’ll be right back to square one.’
‘Then you got to get them out of Scotland man.’
‘That isn’t going to do any good. It won’t matter where they are, he will still hunt them down and we’ll be right back to square one.’
‘Cant you shove them on the Moon?’
‘Then we would have to stay there to keep them supplied.’
Buzz shook his head, ‘man I could do with a beer.’
Steven slumped back in his seat, ‘I wish I drank.’
They were silent for a while then Buzz’s eyebrows narrowed, ‘what about some kind of defence shield could Babe make one.’
Steven sat up, ‘that’s a good idea, what do you think Babe?’
‘A defence shield would be easy to construct however it would be impracticable to implement.’
‘How so?’
‘The generators have to be set at precisely the right spots and in a certain pattern. To protect the whole of the country they would hav
e to be set in the sea and it would take months to build the generators to power it. Also any aircraft moving into their airspace would have to be fitted with detectors.
The same applies to any vehicle trying to reach the country. The same would be needed if you were only trying to protect a town or city. Defence shields would prove instantly fatal to any Earth vehicle trying to penetrate its perimeter.’
Steven slumped back in his seat, ‘never mind, it was a good idea though.’
‘I’m stuck,’ Buzz admitted.
‘Yeah me too, maybe something will turn up later. Let’s go join the Colonel and waste something.’
‘Sounds like a good idea to me.’
The found an angry Colonel Howe arguing with a smiling Major Forbes. Exasperated Steven butted in, ‘what's wrong now Colonel?’
‘This man wants the new weapons. His own will be quite adequate for a covering force.’
Steven sighed, ‘give him the weapons Colonel, and I want everyone of his men dressed like us.’
The Colonel turned his frown on Steven, ‘why?’
Steven held his irritation at bay, ‘if something should happen to one of his men and were forced to leave the body behind, even if they get some video footage of them, then the President will be able to lay the blame squarely on Scotland’s shoulders.
So far they are the only friends we’ve got here Colonel and we’re going to need them. I can’t and won’t give him anymore ammunition than he’s already got. Can you understand that?’
The Colonel instantly calmed down and nodded, ‘you’re right sir I should have thought of that. I’ll see to it.’
‘Good now have we enough weapons and suits for every one?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘Then let’s get suited up and go shoot something.’ The men burst out laughing.
Twenty minutes later they were all suited up and armed. The air lock opened up and some of them cried out in alarm at the sudden change in gravity, but all bounced happily out onto the surface of the Moon.
The suits the ship had constructed were figure hugging and a cobalt blue baring the same insignia on the sleeves as their normal uniforms. The helmets were quite small constructed in their entirely by some form of glass that reacted immediately to the strong sunlight.
There was a lot of laughing as men explored the gravity of the Moon by jumping as high as they could. Steven found he could jump higher than any of them. They proceeded to a point a few hundred meters from the ship and formed up in a line.
Colonel Howe moved forward another hundred meters. He would be the first to fire the weapon from a safe distance, just I case anything went wrong.
Green light stuttered out into the distance. Beavers laugh carried easily to Steven, ‘see told you it fired green shit.’
Howe bounced back, ‘I think I would call that a success.’
Steven grinned and nodded, ‘I see you’ve configured them to fire like normal weapon.’
‘It’s what we’re all used to sir.’
‘Probably a wise choice Colonel, now what?’
The Colonel moved back into the line, ‘ok prepare to fire everyone. Fire.’
Green light arced out into the distance. Steven felt a slight shudder as the weapon fired, but it felt comfortable in his hands.
‘Ok ceasefire,’ the Colonel ordered.
Steven had a question, ‘how are we going to find out what kind of damage they will do Colonel?’
‘There’s some large boulders and rock on the other side of the ship sir, we can try them out there.’
‘Then let’s go.’
A line of men bounced merrily around the ship and were soon pulverising boulders on the other side. It was Major Forbes that called a ceasefire this time. Howe seemed to be about to jump down his throat but the Major was able to get in an explanation first.
‘I want to go and check on the penetrating power of the weapons on that large boulder before we reduce it to dust.’
Howe relaxed, ‘ok good idea.’
A few minutes later a tap taping noise reached their ears. Steven heard Howe sigh with exasperation, but the Colonel held his peace. After a few Minutes the Major bounced back.
He reported directly to Howe, his funny accent gone for once, ‘these weapons are too powerful to assault the prison with.’
Howe wasn’t pleased but he didn’t shout, ‘what makes you think that?’
‘That chunk of rock is some form of granite, probably as strong as anything we’ve got back on Earth and these things are blowing straight through it. We fire them at anything back on Earth and we’re going to start knocking down walls.’
Howe scratched the back of his helmet absentmindedly as he tried to come to terms with the problem. ‘Prison walls are pretty solid aren’t they?’
‘Yes but they’re man made. Even with steel reinforcement you can’t compare it to natural Granite.’
Howe scowled thoughtfully, ‘compare it for me.’
The Major sighed, ‘a single sheet of tissue paper to an unopened ream of A4 paper, five hundred sheets.’
‘Run it down for me.’
‘You fire at one wall and it will probably go through everyone in the building. You fire it on the same level as the Captains Father and you could quite possibly kill him from clear across the other side of the prison without even knowing it.’
‘Damn, are you sure about that?’
‘That blocks about ten meters long and of solid granite. Our shots are going straight through that and the ones behind. We really need to find a good chunk of rock of similar properties and find out how far it penetrates using the ships sensors. That would give us a good idea of the damage we’re likely to inflict back on Earth.’
Howe wasn’t pleased, ‘maybe we had better go back to using our own weapons.’
It was Cookie who provided a solution as he voiced his opinion, ‘what do we need all this firepower for anyway. Ok it’s great knowing we have it but do we really want to go in there blazing away, knocking down buildings and killing everyone in sight. I don’t know what this green stuff is but it certainly isn’t solid shot. It’s more some kind of energy, right. So why can’t we just crank the power down so it only stuns, and if we need to knock a wall down then crank it back up again.’
It was a good idea and everyone realised it, but Howe shrugged, ‘I have no idea if we can do that.’
Steven stepped in, ‘we’re here to discover what our offensive capability are Colonel. I like that idea so I suggest you go back to the drawing board and find a better test sight.’
‘I’ll get right on it sir.’
‘Excellent and I will admit I do like these weapons. An excellent first try Colonel.’
‘Thank you sir.’
Chapter 32
Steven found the doctor in her new sick bay. Her eyes gleamed with enthusiasm as she pottered about making it her own and discussing her trade with the ship. She had already shed her bulky uniform for one of theirs and Steven couldn’t help but notice her good looks. He also noticed she wore no rings.
‘Hi how are you settling in?’
She almost jumped in surprise, ‘oh sorry I didn’t hear you come in. This ship is great and the people are really smart. I think I’m going to like it here.’
‘I certainly hope you do. Em! There is one thing we haven’t told you yet. Not only is this a job for life but it will also considerably lengthen your lifespan.’
‘By how much?’
Steven shrugged, ‘we’re not sure yet, maybe twice or three times its normal length.’
‘Will we still age at the same rate?’
‘No I don’t think so. That’s one of the answers I’d like you to research for us. There is also something else I would like you to do first. The ship can produce complicated chemicals. Some of which can induce sleep. I want you to help her to produce something that will knock out people quickly and safely. You’re aware that we’re going to try and rescue my father?’
‘Yes
sir I was given a full briefing by the Prime Minister.’
‘We are going to be walking into a trap. There are armed men on every floor and realistically we stand no chance of success. However I want you to produce some form of gas that we can deliver directly into the building before we assault it.’
‘You want to try and knock the opposition out before you go in, literally?’
‘That’s right.’
‘That could be very dangerous, from a medical point of view.’
‘My intentions aren’t only to save my father Doctor but to save as many lives as possible. The soldiers we have on board this ship are probably the world’s best and even though they are heavily outnumbered, they will cause a lot of casualties amongst their opposition.
The energy weapon the Colonel has developed since coming on board is a very frightening piece of kit. I just saw it punch a hole through a ten-meter chunk of granite. Can you imagine what that would do to a tank let alone a man?
At this moment they are trying to reduce the power of the weapon so it will only stun, but if they are hard pressed I have no doubt they will crank the power back up to maximum and they will probably do it without conscious thought.
I want to avoid that. Hopefully the ship will have something a lot more advanced than we have on Earth and something that will be a lot safer. If you two can work out how much we will need and in what dose, I will work on a safe delivery system.’
‘I will do my best sir.’
‘Thank you.’
He left her to get on with it and hoped she would find something soon, but he was still left with a problem; how the hell did he deliver on site enough gas to knock out an entire prison. He also had to hope that his opposition didn’t have gas masks. However knowing the type of men that opposed them he realised that it was a vain hope. Surprise was going to have to be his main weapon.
He went round the whole ship answering questions and settling arguments on policy or science. It was while talking to all the different personnel now on board that he began to realise he had more in common with the soldiers on board than the scientists and felt easier in their company.