Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire

by J W Murison

  ‘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.’

  Whe
n 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.’

  ‘When you helped your Human friend to seal this deal, did you suspect then that they were planning to leave?’

  The Chief’s head dropped, ‘Yes sire, I did. There was already plenty of evidence to suggest it. I also knew of the difficulty they were having and why they wished to leave. I thought maybe if I helped them Charlie wouldn’t leave, that they would be able to stay.’

  ‘If the venture was a success.’

  ‘Charlie tested the music out on my staff. They all loved it. I knew he was up to something then. I knew it would be a success or I wouldn’t have bothered. I didn’t realize at the time I would be doing something to displease my Emperor. I can do nothing more than apologise sire.’

  ‘Your apology is accepted Chief. You are in my eyes completely exonerated. We have all underestimated the Human race. I myself find them quite fascinating. I can see now the plans I had in mind for them were completely futile. None of them would have came to fruition. So how do we bind them to us Chief? Can you answer that question?’

  ‘Be a genuine friend to them sire. Charlie saved my life, yet I have found if I wish for his help, all I have to do is ask. I am the one beholden to him, yet this venture was the very first time he ever asked for my help. I didn’t feel obligated to help sire, I genuinely wanted to help.’

  ‘Is friendship so important to them?’

  ‘I believe so sire.’

  ‘With this single bank account, they now have a foothold in this universe. If I ordered it closed now, they would find out and begin to consider us an adversary. Until now they have had nothing they could offer any race. Our laws have until now prevented them trading anything they have of value. The thing is Chief, they don’t even realise what they have yet.’

  ‘Do you mean paper sire?’

  ‘That is exactly what I mean Chief. They cannot trade their precious metals or minerals. We hold the contracts for all seeds and grasses. This paper, however, is a completely different commodity. There are no laws or restrictions on it. They could also use their own banks for trade. It would mean a steady income of all universal currencies. Once they are established as a rare commodity trader, they would be allowed to open accounts here.’

  ‘How is that sire?’

  ‘Rare commodities comes under the same laws as music and arts.’

  ‘Ah! I understand.’

  ‘The thing is, if the Humans approach it correctly, they could earn enough money to actually establish a bank.’

  ‘You mean, if they have enough universal money to trade with sire?’

  ‘Exactly. Money likes money.’

  ‘There is only one thing though – one Human already knows the value of paper.’

  ‘Let me guess: Charlie?’

  ‘Yes sire. He had paper copies of copyright laws and a Modloch translation. The company owner told him how precious paper was. Charlie made a gift of them to the company director to help sweeten the deal.’

  ‘Very smart of him. In that case, I had better move quickly. It may take time
for news from him to travel to the top. If I tell the King then he will go directly to the politicians. I can also help them establish trade properly and in a way that will be beneficial to the Human race as a whole. Do you think that will earn me their friendship, Chief?’

  ‘I think you are certainly on the right track, sire.’

  ‘Is there anything else you can think of that might help?’

  ‘Integration sire. Some form of joint task force. Training places in our academies and on board our ships. We are an aggressive species sire, but the Humans are more so. We work well together. They have another commodity that isn’t bound by any universal laws.’

  ‘What is that.’

  ‘Creatures they call pets sire.’

  ‘What on Modloch is a pet!?’

  CHAPTER 24

  It had all gone horribly wrong. When Buzz had told Steven, Charlie refused to accept his apology. Steven had tried again when they had met in the dinning hall. Steven had kept his voice low but Charlie had told him very loudly to stick his apology up his arse and walked out. He was now at a loss. Amanda firmly believed that Charlie needed to be hospitalised. The other diners had all looked embarrassed. Now he was waiting for Charlie in his office and had no idea what to do or what to say.

  The lift slid down and Charlie appeared. He looked round. Steven expected him to be angry but he seemed anything but.

  He stepped off the lift. ‘Now was this so bloody hard Stevie?’

  Steven’s jaw dropped, ‘What?’

  ‘This, a wee quiet word. Was it so bloody hard?’

  ‘Uh... No.’

  ‘There you go. Just think how much embarrassment you would have saved yourself if you had just tried this a wee bit earlier.’