Steven Gordon 3: The Modloch Empire (45 page)

Amanda stormed into the sickbay,
whipped back the sheets and ripped open the army pyjamas he was
wearing. She lay the cylinder on his stomach and waited. After a
few moments they saw the area began to shimmer. The cylinder began
to disappear.

Jean was fascinated. ‘What is
that?’

‘
A power pack.’
Amanda panned an instrument she had taken from her pocket over
Charlie and shook her head. She closed her eyes. Seconds later they
both simply vanished.

James appeared. ‘I hear his doctor is
here.’ He frowned. ‘Where are they?’

Jean shook her head. ‘I don’t know.
They just vanished.’

She rushed up to the bridge. ‘Where is
that damn ship?’

Her communications officer swung round
in her chair. ‘They just left ma’am. Captain Gordon said thank you
once more.’

‘
Where are they now?
Navigation, do you still have them?’

‘
No ma’am, they
jumped to faster than light speed and are gone.’

‘
What
direction?’

‘
Towards Earth
ma’am.’

Jean felt a moment’s loss. ‘Let’s get
back on station.’

‘
Yes
ma’am.’

Jean sat back on her chair. She had
enjoyed her chats with the strange, blind, robot-like man. She had
hoped to see him at least once after his ship had changed him back.
The headaches hadn’t left him and he had been in constant pain the
whole time they had talked, yet he seemed to have enjoyed those
chats as much as she had. It was great to talk to a man who didn’t
just address her boobs all night.

CHAPTER 56

For the next three months Babes and Ico
helped patrol the area between the barrier and Earth. Every
available fighting ship was on patrol constantly. Every probe they
sent through the barrier was located and destroyed by the enemy.
Three times they slipped across looking for signs of enemy
activity, and there was plenty of it. They couldn’t find any more
staging areas but it was far too dangerous to stay in the region
for any length of time.

News began to filter in from the
Modloch sources. The Albany were having problems trying to purchase
a new mining platform capable of drilling the precision holes in
the asteroids. As time passed they became more frantic. A week
before Earth joined the federation over a thousand asteroids were
slung across the barrier.

Steven investigated and discovered
Albany warships towing asteroids and using a slingshot manoeuvre to
send them across the barrier. The technique wasn’t very accurate,
but the Earth Defence Force was kept busy pulverizing them.

The crew of the Michael Collins
distinguished themselves again by discovering the location of the
Albany probe and destroying it. The discovery of the probe seemed
to take the heart out of the Albany attacks.

Earth’s President was called to the
central planets where the federation held court. He was asked to
provide evidence to support the Human excursion to destroy the
asteroids. The evidence was overwhelming. The Albany and their
allies were ordered to cease hostilities. A few days later the
changes to the law needed for the Humans to gain entry was granted
and Earth became the youngest member of the federation.

The bombardment of asteroids ceased and
both Steven and Komoru journeyed across the barrier on a
reconnaissance mission. They found nothing. For two days they
searched the entire area. Only commercial traffic could be
found.

The two ships were recalled to Earth
where the crew took a well-earned rest, Steven and Komoru went to
her home in Japan. There were big celebrations which they had to
attend, and medals galore. They crew, however, were left for the
most part alone. Kelly visited Scotland and met up with Charlie.
They spent their last week with a pair of crazy Germans in
Hamburg.

CHAPTER 57

Babes and Ico swung out of the dockyard
together. They travelled in tandem until they reached the Kuiper
belt. Six huge blocks of stone, each a hundred miles long, fifty
wide and a mile deep, lay side by side. On top of the first one was
a large metal structure, and to the side in a row, all of the
engines they had stolen from the Albany.

Steven and Komoru beamed themselves
into the structure. Despite being warned of their imminent arrival
Keven Rattray still jumped out of his skin at their appearance.

‘
Man, I almost shit
myself.’ He spluttered.

Steven laughed out loud and Komoru hid
her laugh behind a delicate hand.

‘
Sorry about that
Kevin.’ Steven reached out and Kevin shook his hand. ‘How are
things progressing?’

‘
Not bad Steven. It
wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to find the right types of
rocks. Three of these baby’s came from the same
asteroid.’

‘
Wow, that must have
been big.’

‘
It was, aye. There’s
no much left of it now though. We are drilling reinforcement into
them now.’ He reached over and switched on a screen. ‘Sit down,
I’ll give you the tour.’

He tried to pat down his dirty boiler
suit before he sat down at the terminal. The screen came to life. A
see-through section of one of the large platforms popped onto the
screen. Kevin manipulated it. Thousands of red lines ran through
it. ‘That is the reinforcing we have to do.’

‘
Is all that
necessary?’ Steven bemoaned.

‘
Federal regulations.
That treaty didn’t come on its own you know.’

‘
Well, they have more
idea about it than we do.’

‘
Exactly, that’s why
I am doing it right. Your mum sent out a crew about two weeks ago
and they have been harvesting metal from the Kuiper Belt to make
the wire. They almost have enough for us to do the first one.
Installation will begin as soon as testing on the wire is complete.
Once we have done that we will install the engines and set off for
the great barrier. Two at each end. The first two to accelerate it
to light speed and the two at the other end to brake it when we get
there. We will dig a hole two hundred feet deep, which we will pack
with all the materials that we need to complete construction. While
on the journey the machines will prefabricate everything we need.
We will follow in a freighter. On that freighter we will have
everything we need to seed it and the trees to plant on it when we
arrive.’

‘
Once across the
barrier we will brake the damn thing and be picked up by the
Modloch tugs, who will tow us at sub-light speeds to position on
the other side of the sun from the Modloch planet.

‘
Once we have slowed
down to sub-light speeds we will be able to begin erecting the
structure. At some point after it is complete it will be inspected.
If approved then we will seed it and plant the trees. It will be
inspected again. At that point a fast freighter should arrive from
Earth with the bees. That’s if everything goes according to
plan.’

‘
If everything goes
according to plan...’ Steven mused. ‘How are your crew? Are they
going to be happy to see this thing through to the end?’

‘
Ye mean a trip to a
different solar system, meeting aliens for the first time, and a
big enough pay packet to retire on? Och, I think they are just fine
Steven.’

Steven laughed. ‘I just hope you all
enjoy the experience.’ He pointed to the picture. ‘Are those water
cisterns?’

‘
Aye it sure is.
There is plenty water and ice up here, we won’t need to lug it up
from Earth. We tested it. You couldn’t get water any purer if you
tried. We are still going to put it through a purifier before we
add it to the cisterns though, no point in taking
chances.’

‘
I can’t fault you
there Keven. What is your time scale?’

‘
It’s going to take a
year. By then we should be orbiting the Modloch planet with all six
bio-domes. I’m not in charge of finding the plants, trees or bees
though. I am just assuming they are on track as well.’

‘
They are, don’t
worry about it. We spent a few days before we left going round
everyone.’

Kevin’s radio crackled to life. He
answered it briefly. ‘I’m sorry Steven, I need to go.’

‘
Us too.’ Steven
stood and shook his hand. Komoru bowed and Kevin returned it. ‘We
will see you when you reach the other side.’

‘
Look forward to it.
You can show me the sights of the Modloch planet and buy me a
beer.’

‘
Love to.’ They stood
back and a few seconds later vanished.

CHAPTER 58

Charlie found he had finally been
accepted by the inner circle. Beaver and Howe now treated him with
the same respect as they did the other soldiers in the team. The
Scottish contingent had always treated him with respect because
both Tapper and Cookie had known him before they had joined the
SAS. As for the American contingent, only Lewis had really taken a
liking to him.

Charlie and Lewis watched the two
officers leave the canteen.

‘
Dey is cool wit you
now Charlie.’

‘
Aye, I noticed. Why
the sudden thaw?’

‘
You proved yourself
to dem man.’

‘
Didn’t realise I
needed to.’

‘
Yeah, but you not
one of us, you’re a regular grunt.’

‘
So is
Kelly.’

‘
Kelly got more
experience than all of us Charlie, you know that. That’s why
everybody respect him.’

‘
Aye
true.’

‘
Thing wit you is,
you ain’t one of us. Yeah sure, Tapper and Cookie know you, they
say you fine. But we don know, and what made it worse is the
Captain don say you’re one of us, and have to take orders from
Beaver or Colonel Howe. You just do what you want around
here.’

‘
Been kinda waiting
for someone to tell me what to do.’

‘
Yup, typical
grunt.’

Charlie laughed. ‘Yeah, I suppose. It
is a little disorientating at first though.’

‘
Yeah, but you got
the message. Stepped up to the plate. We been talking. Gonna take
you through special forces training.’

Charlie shrugged. ‘What’s the point?
It’s not like any of you could outrun me. Physically I am even
stronger than you.’

Lewis thought that was hilarious. ‘Yeah
we ain’t gonna put you through any of that shit. We gonna give you
the weapons training and the knowledge.’

‘
Oh! Right, yeah I’d
love that man.’

‘
Nine am tomorrow
morning at the armoury. I got you for bombs and
devices.’

‘
Look forward to that
Lewis, thanks.’

‘
You like to blow
shit up?’

‘
Was that actually a
real question?’ The two laughed. ‘So what swung it for me in the
end? You know, getting accepted by the boss.’

‘
You saved everyone’s
ass man.’

‘
That ain’t
it.’

‘
Yeah, but you didn’t
kick up a stink when you never got any recognition for it
either.’

Charlie thought it over. ‘Stevie knows
the last thing I want is attention drawn to myself.’

‘
Yeah we know that.
Ain’t quite what it’s about Charlie. We know you could walk into a
shit storm of fire and come out clean, dey bullets just bounce off
your white hide. But when the chips were down an you found youself
on dat asteroid wit no way back, you never gave up man. Send me
down a jet pack. Man, we all laughed at that. Not at the time
though. Didn’t think you were going to make it Charlie.’

‘
Neither did I. When
that shock wave hit me I seriously thought I was a goner. Punched
me right out of faster than light speed.’

‘
Yeah man, and
nowhere near where the Captain thought you would be
either.’

‘
I figured that out
myself. When I looked round everything was gone. Thought you lot
would have figured I got caught in the explosion and
vaporised.’

‘
Babes knew you got
away, her scanners would have picked up something. How did you
survive so long?’

‘
I was more machine
than man, I had internal menus and everything. Found one that would
lower my oxygen to a minimum and put me to sleep. Set it to wake me
if the oxygen levels were returned to normal.’

‘
Wuz you scared
man?’

‘
Funnily enough no. I
felt at peace.’

‘
Yeah, I know the
feeling. Well, gotta go before we split.’

‘
Catch you later
Lewis.’

Charlie was almost finished his coffee
when Amanda turned up. She came over and looked down her nose at
him. ‘A little bird tells me you took a trip to Germany with Kelly.
Visit the Reeperbahn did we?’

‘
Stayed at a couple
of friends of his who own a bakery.’

‘
Yes and we all know
what’s above the bakery, don’t we.’

Charlie sniffed at her. ‘You know, if
you were the owner of a formula one racing team, and you had a
driver who had just returned from a serious accident, would you
throw him into the seat of your brand new shiny red multimillion
pound Ferrari? Or would you stick him in the old banger for a few
warm up laps, you know, until he got his nerve back?’

Amanda rolled her eyes at him and
turned away slowly. She took a few steps, hesitated for a second,
then walked out. She hadn’t said a word but her mind had been
buzzing. Charlie merely smiled.