by J W Murison
Out of curiosity, they went into what would have been close to a supermarket at home. The food came in bales. Females sniffed at it and squeezed it with their massive hands. There were many different types of grasses in many different forms. The supermarket trollies didn’t resemble anything like those at home. They were tiny; Steven and Komoru couldn’t understand why at first. It seemed the Modloch shopped using some kind of a pen. A tap on the item brought it up on a small screen on the trolley. When they were finished, a couple of taps had the items sent directly home, paying for them at the same time. There were other domestic items that they recognised, but all were in big packages. Eventually they became self-conscious because of all the attention they were getting and left.
They took a short trip to view the local solar system on a domestic flight. The ship was more like a flying lounge. The week began to move too swiftly, and it wasn’t long before they were back on board.
On the bridge Buzz moved from his chair, but Steven waved him back down.
‘What’s up Kemosabe?’
He smiled in return, ‘Not a lot Tonto. We are expecting your buddy back later today.’
‘Charlie?’
‘Yup. Seems to be a bit of a buzz at the moment. Babes has picked up increased traffic between the Modloch home world and the fleet. A large contingent of battlewagons, ours and theirs, just lit out for the other side of the sun.’
‘Maybe it is an exercise of some sort. Let’s hope they keep us out of it.’
‘That would be a first.’ Buzz was going to be proven correct.
Chapter 30
Charlie looked up at the shaking figure. ‘Hey Chief, you okay?’
‘Will be when I get out of here. The Emperor wants a quick word.’
‘What about?’
The Chief looked down his snout at him, ‘Do you think he would actually tell me!’
Charlie laughed, ‘Okay, I will be as quick as I can.’
Charlie was barely gone ten minutes. The Chief felt relief as he approached. ‘What did he want Charlie?’
‘He wanted to introduce me to his friend.’
‘No shitting, Emperor Ne´ Langus!’
‘That’s the guy.’
‘Did he speak to you?’
‘A wee bit.’
‘Wow, what an honour. What did you say to him?’
‘I threatened to kill him.’
The Chief laughed, ‘Yeah okay Charlie, nice one.’
‘I’m no kidding.’
The Chief felt his knees begin to buckle, and Charlie grabbed him.
‘Please tell me you are fucking joking man.’
‘You’re picking up bad language from those you teach Chief. Don’t worry though. I was very diplomatic about it.’
‘Diplo-what? Holy shit, we aren’t even going to reach the Ortea home world!’
‘Oh stop panicking for god’s sake, or I’ll kill you first.’
In the officers’ lounge a couple of hours later the Chief was still glaring at Charlie, even though Charlie had explained it all.
‘It isn’t funny Charlie.’
‘Not laughing here Chief.’
His eyes rolled up into his head, ‘I can’t believe you threatened the most powerful man in the universe.’
‘Shit happens Chief, sometimes you got to step over it, sometimes you step in it. Don’t worry, everything will be fine, I promise. Why did you request me as an escort?’
‘So I know if any of these shits want to eat me before it happens.’
Charlie laughed, ‘You still getting a lot of shit from the Emperor?’
‘Yeah, every week he has me up in front of him for one thing or another. Some days I wish he would just kill me and get it over with. What a bloody life.’
‘You still spending all your cash on that bloody city ship?’
‘Oh hell no. He gave me a big fancy house on my own home world, with a small estate. I haven’t even seen it yet. My folks say it is grand though.’
‘Oh yeah? Seems he is doing right by you.’
‘The official residence of a former Ambassador. I suppose on some levels he is Charlie, I just wish he would leave me alone.’
‘What about your love life?’
The Chief’s eyes flicked down. ‘It would seem a little bird sent a note to a young lady that works in the music business as a receptionist, telling her that I was enamoured with her and had no other suiters at the moment. I wonder who that could have been?’
‘You got me! How’s it going?’
The Chief smiled, ‘Very well thank you.’ The smile faded. ‘The trouble is the Emperor found out and threatened to marry me to his third cousin if I tried to get married without his permission. Man, he is a pain in the ass.’
‘What does his third cousin look like?’
‘Like a male.’
‘Seriously?’
The Chief shuddered, ‘Seriously!’
Charlie thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard.
‘Man, he just loves riding your pony.’
‘I’m not a man, and what’s a pony?’
Even on the fast freighter it took a week to get to the Ortea home world. The two spent their time relaxing in the officers’ club, watching movies and playing games; they even got drunk a couple of times.
When they reached the Ortea home world the freighter unloaded a huge herd of goats. Ortea workers came aboard with large hoses and began to spray the decks down. Rams pushed the water and muck out of the doors. The two watched the process.
‘Charlie!’
Charlie turned to find Commander Morval Oralia coming towards him.
He shoved a fist out at Charlie and opened it. ‘I believe this is the traditional Human greeting.’
Charlie took the hand and shook it. ‘How are you Morval?’
‘Fine Charlie, it’s good to see you. I was told the Modloch Chief Engineer and escort were coming, I never dreamed it would be a Human.’
‘The Chief and I go back a long way, we are good friends. He asked me to be an escort so here I am.’
‘I don’t blame him.’
The Chief stuck his hand out, ‘Just call me Chief.’
Morval took it. ‘A pleasure to meet you Chief. I am Commander Morval Oralia. Just call me Morval. I am your liaison officer.’
‘No ship yet?’ Charlie asked.
Morval snarled a little. ‘They say I am too damn unlucky, no one wants to fly with a guy who has had two ships blown out from under him.’
Charlie laughed. ‘They might have something there.’
Morval shrugged in a very Human way. ‘Who cares, it’s a break from the war and I get to go home every night, right?’
‘Are you enjoying the peace?’
Morval scratched himself behind the ear. ‘I don’t know Charlie. A lot of guys are on a knife edge. We keep expecting the shit to hit the fan any minute, as your friend used to say. The big question is, can we trust these bastards?’
‘I wouldn’t trust them any further than I could throw them.’
‘Hey! Am I invisible?’ The Chief protested.
‘We aren’t talking about grunts like us Chief. It’s those bastards that are in charge. Would you trust your Emperor?’ Charlie asked.
The Chief’s eyes rolled a couple of times. ‘You know damn well I don’t.’
The three laughed.
Morval was curious. ‘Did you ever fight in this sector Chief?’
‘Can’t say I did.’ The Chief admitted. ‘Anyway, engineers don’t fight. We run about the engine room like idiots trying to keep the ship operational. Our lives depend entirely on the skills of the Captain. I was lucky, I served with Admiral Gairloch from an early stage. He liked to take his experienced men with him wherever he went. He was also the Emperor’s brother, so he always got the men he wanted. He kept me safe until he went through the great barrier. I am the only survivor.’
‘Wow! You went through the barrier and returned to tell the tale? I need to be havin
g drinks with you.’
‘We can all pull up a sandbag later if you want.’ Charlie stated. ‘Let’s get this show on the road.’
They spent the rest of the day moving around from one ship to the other. Almost all the engineers were Dent.
‘Explain something to me Morval.’ Charlie started.
‘What?’
‘How come all the engineers are Dent? How come none of them tried to escape?’
Morval frowned. ‘After the initial attack by the Dent, a couple of thousand years ago, a huge portion of our population starved to death. There was a terrible shortage of skills. Most of those who attacked us were slaughtered for food, but some of them however had skills we needed. They were enslaved. Over the centuries things began to change. Our people fought to defend the planet; the Dent began to make up the shortfall in skills that were needed to keep everything working back home.
‘I’m not exactly sure when, but our leader back then told the Dent that if they established their own schools, taught their own people, the top ones would be exempt from being eaten, as would their children. Over the years it led to very few Dent being eaten and we had to make up the shortfall elsewhere. The three grand commanders have now given them equal rights as citizens. It wasn’t just Dent though. If you had a skill we were short of, then the chances were you could not only survive, but survive well. Half our cities are still empty, or half empty. I don’t think there is a single person living in what was once considered the poor quarters.
‘I’m not sure if that answers your question Charlie. The Dent became half of us. The smart half. They have little or no fighting skills, but they are very tech smart.’
‘Pretty much the same as every engineer. As I said, we depend on the skills of the Captains to keep us alive.’ The Chief had become thoughtful. ‘It became a symbiotic relationship; still is. The Emperor asked me to look out for a couple of Modloch engineers who returned here after a period of captivity to resume the jobs they had before they were released, and they took their families with them.’
‘That sounds weird.’ Charlie decided.
Morval shook his head. ‘Not really. A top-class engineer gets their pick of places to stay.’
The Chief agreed with Morval. ‘At home we are moved about according to our family size. Apartments aren’t that big, the walls are paper thin, everyone lives on top of everyone else. You’ve seen it for yourself Charlie.’
‘I suppose. It’s like that on Earth in some places, but for the most part folk have a choice of kind. They can move away from the cities if they want.’
‘You mean if they have the skill sets required in the place they want to move to?’
Charlie found he had to agree with the Chief. ‘You got a good point. I suppose there are people in the poverty trap back home that can’t get out of it.’
Morval had wondered away a few feet to make a call. He came back. ‘I found your engineers, they are working in a major power facility underground. I can try and make arrangements to meet them if you want.’
‘I would like that.’
Morval nodded. ‘The problem is Charlie, we know you are from a builder’s ship, and you can be tracked by your ship.’
‘It has to be in orbit for that to happen. My ship is light years away.’
‘I will see what I can do.’
Chapter 31
The Chief and Charlie met two Modloch engineers on the shores of an underground sea. Charlie had been cleared after a few hours. They had spent the journey blindfolded and both were completely disorientated by the time they reached their destination. The blindfolds were removed at a station of some kind. There was quite a bit of movement. Some females and children were quite colourfully dressed, but the males seemed to be in uniforms of one kind or another. The trains were almost silent but still clearly recognisable to Charlie as trains.
The train on the platform filled up and moved off. Charlie noticed there were half a dozen lines of some kind. A bell rang and a clear barrier came down on the platform. Charlie was curious and watched. A few seconds later there was a blur as a train passed through.
‘Wow! That was fast.’
The Chief had also been observing. The bell rang again and the barrier was raised. ‘It’s going so fast it must create a vacuum. The barrier must be to stop people getting sucked off the platform.’
‘Amazing.’
It took another hour to reach the inland sea. They had to walk the last half mile. The two Modloch were sitting on a pier with their families laughing.
They got up and greeted the trio.
‘What are you doing?’ The Chief asked.
The older answered for them. ‘We are going fishing. We are just waiting for the right time.’
‘What for?’
‘Luxury goods. We can trade whatever we catch. There is little use for money down here. Food has more value. We are catching Trill tonight, a little shrimp like thing, but the Ortea go nuts for it.’
‘Why did you come back?’
‘They told us we could. We work on a power plant, it’s about ten minutes from here on the train. I have to admit it was a bit scary when we first got caught. Most of the people on the ship ended up in the stew pot, but as first-class engineers we were offered a job instead. Their engineering is a little different, but excellent. Then we were introduced to a new way of life. We loved it. When we were told that we could come back, we dragged the wife and kids with us.’
‘May I talk to your wife?’
‘Yeah sure.’ He indicated the female just to the side.
‘May I ask what you think of it so far?’
Her eyes gleamed, ‘I thought he was gone forever. The company he worked for was quite mean, and I struggled on his pension. When he returned, it was a miracle, then he tried to drag us back here. I was too scared at first, but he told me he was going anyway. I had a choice, I chose to stay with my husband, but I am so glad I did. The children are receiving a far better education, the house is wonderful, and the fishing is fun, we can do it as a family. The seaweed took a bit of getting used to, but we are now beginning to get grass products, so it isn’t as bad.’
‘You like it here?’
‘Love it, I miss the sunlight of course, but at the weekends we travel to the surface for the whole day. It’s fun, the children love it.’
While the Chief talked to the families, Charlie took a video on his phone of their surroundings. The city itself was quite big, but the dome they were in was huge. The whole place gleamed. Charlie likened it to a black glass. Even the dome above their heads seemed to be made of the black glass. It reflected the light from the city straight back down to the ground again. He had to admit it was beautiful.
‘How was this built?’ He asked the younger of the Modloch engineers.
‘It is a kind of microwave technology. It heats the rocks to melting point. The magma produced is taken away in a carefully shielded pipe, to keep the temperature of the magma up so it keeps flowing. At the other end, it is allowed to flow into carefully created moulds, which mould the cooling magma into any shape you want. It’s normally different types of bricks and building blocks. By the time a cavern is constructed, they have all the building materials they need to build a city. Saying that, I don’t believe they have built a city for quite some time.’
‘So the cities are built from the same rock that they extract to make these huge caverns?’
‘That’s it. Big machines will take a plan and lay the blocks into any shape of building you want. The same microwaves that melt the rock are used to fuse the building blocks together; on a smaller scale of course.’
‘Very neat.’
‘Different rock gives different colours of building blocks. It makes every city unique. Some are quite beautiful.’
‘Is this one made up of a kind of black obsidian?’
‘No idea, I’m an engineer not a geologist.’
Charlie’s mind began to race. He pulled Morval to the side.
‘Morval, what do they do with the excess blocks that they can’t use from building these cities?’
‘How the hell should I know?’
‘Okay, I want you to get in touch with some of your high command and find out that answer. I also want a legal finance guy to speak to, and tell them not to let that Human freighter leave the surface of the planet yet.’
‘I can’t do all that Charlie.’
‘Yes you can Morval, and do it now.’
Morval walked away. He talked into his communicator for almost twenty minutes before he came back to Charlie.
‘I have our top financial guy on the line, he wants to know what this is about before he goes any further.’
Charlie took the communicator from him. ‘Hello.’
‘My name is Dong Mings, what can I help you with Captain?’
‘I take it you have no financial ties with the rest of the federation?’
‘That is correct, but so what?’
‘Would you like some?’
The was a pause and a short barking laugh, ‘Of course, but what can a mere Captain do for us?’
‘When I was a mere Sergeant, I set up the PD music company of Earth. Have you heard of it?’
‘Only recently, but yes, I have heard of it. Okay, if what you say is possible Captain, then I am very interested.’
‘I can have the PD company set up a bank account for you, so that our peoples can trade with one another.’
‘I see, and through you, we can trade with other planets.’
‘That’s right.’
‘I’m listening Captain, a little sceptical maybe, but I am listening.’
‘Good, I want to know what you do with the building blocks that come out of these caverns, the ones you don’t use to build anything with.’
There was a slight pause. ‘They are in huge dumps on the planet’s surface. I think all are covered by layers of sand in the vast deserts. Why?’
