The Goodwill Ambassador (Steven Gordon Book 4)

by J W Murison

  ‘I will begin this briefing by saying some of you will know how I have came about this information and some won’t. For those of you who don’t, please don’t ask.’ There was a small chuckle.

  ‘If the fact that we are now surrounded by a Catatarac fleet isn’t bad enough, I have even more bad news. The captives are not being held in a nice cell as we first expected. They are all in stasis chambers. This means we can’t beam them up. To do so would be to kill them instantly. Colonel Howe, what are our chances of survival if we assault the freighter or the ship they are cross-decked to?’

  ‘Virtually nil sir. It is simply too much of a risk. We can field a good number of men with the two honour guards, but we are still going to be outnumbered. If the information you gave me earlier is correct that is.’

  ‘It is. There are close to a hundred armed combatants in the hold with the chambers.’

  Cookie made a suggestion. ‘Can’t we just beam them up, chambers and all?’

  ‘We can, but the moment we start beaming them up someone is going to notice. Right now we are running silent with little energy output. If the containers start disappearing, it won’t take them long to find us from our energy output.’

  ‘We could move about after each container.’ He suggested.

  ‘Another good idea Cookie; the chances of getting away are still quite slim though.’

  Beaver had been sitting thoughtfully. He put his hand up.

  ‘Yes Beaver.’

  ‘There has to be a time when they will be unable to keep a close eye on them.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They are going to have to move the containers from one ship to another, or even onto the station. That’s when they will be most vulnerable. If they are being moved around, it will be a lot harder to keep an eye on them.’

  ‘It will still be spotted Beaver.’

  ‘Not if we replace them.’

  ‘With what?’

  ‘Can’t we make mock ups? We have a few of our own, let’s copy those. They are pretty much all the same, the ones I have seen anyway. We could even put pretend bodies in them.’

  ‘So far it is the only idea we have of any merit. As you know we can’t beam anything anywhere while travelling at these speeds, so realistically it is the only time we can really effect a rescue.’

  ‘We need to get ahead of the game sir. Now they are with this battle group, they are travelling slower. We need to get to where they are going to make the exchange and form some kind of plan.’

  ‘Yes, but what if they stop short of the station and make an exchange there?’

  ‘It is possible, but why would they? The space station will have the facilities to quickly load and off load cargo.’

  ‘You mean why make an easy job hard?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I am saying. If they were going to cross-deck from one ship to another, why even come in this direction?’

  ‘Another good point Beaver.’ Steven took a deep breath. ‘Let’s go for it; let’s try and get ahead of the game. I will get both ships to start making stasis chambers right away. Colonel, would you like to come with me to see the Doctor? Those stasis chambers have viewing ports, which means we will have to recreate the faces of all of the captured individuals. Do we even have pictures of them? We’ll also need a device that’ll give out readings, as if there’s a real person inside them. I am sure the Doctor has records of all the readings from the stasis chambers we recovered on the Black Planet.’

  A short while later they were discussing possibilities with the Doctor. She went onto her computer.

  ‘We should have all of them on record, they are company employees.’

  Steven scratched his head. ‘I completely forgot about that.’

  A line of thumbnails appeared on screen. ‘Here we are, they are all here.’

  ‘What about the rest of it?’

  ‘I don’t see why it’s not possible. A little ballistics gel, some 3D modelling and artificial wigs should do it. I was reading the report. By the looks of things, they were having breakfast when they were taken. The chances are they would have been dressed in the company boiler suits.’

  Steven frowned. ‘I thought they were taken in the middle of the night?’

  She gave him a funny look. ‘The middle of the night on the Modloch home world. The bio-domes work on Earth time, it was breakfast time.’

  ‘Makes perfect sense.’ Howe agreed. ‘It is easier to abduct people if they are all up, dressed and gathered in the same place at the same time.’

  ‘What about reproducing life signs?’

  ‘It’s easy, there are such things as testing units. The ship can build them and we just fit them in.’

  ‘Then let’s get to it, we don’t have a lot of time on our hands.’

  ‘Can I get some help?’

  ‘As much as you want.’

  Chapter 35

  It was Colonel Howe who disturbed Charlie. He knocked on the door and Charlie commanded it to open.

  ‘How are you doing Captain?’

  ‘Colonel Howe, this is a surprise.’

  The Colonel studied Charlie lying back on his bed. ‘I know you don’t have to stand up and salute me Captain, but it would be nice if you opened your eyes.’

  ‘I have my eyes switched off Colonel. Even if I opened them, I wouldn’t see you.’

  ‘Are the headaches that bad?’

  ‘They were. Not so bad now though.’

  ‘Are you on meds?’

  ‘Just get to the point Colonel, what is it you want me to do?’

  ‘We have just arrived at the Catatarac forward base and found a whole Albany fleet waiting here. I have a feeling there may be more ships nearby. In a few hours, the Modloch and Human fleet will reach Catatarac space. If they enter it, I want to know if they are going to be ambushed.’

  Charlie sat up and opened his eyes. ‘Can you find the command vessel?’

  ‘We have it.’

  ‘Then get me close.’

  An hour later Charlie stood in front of a star map and began marking in positions.

  ‘That’s where they are.’

  ‘It is an ambush then.’

  ‘Big nasty one. An invasion of Catatarac space by hostile forces. It’s meant to teach us a lesson.’ Leaden steps took Charlie towards the door.

  ‘Are you okay Charlie?’ Steven asked.

  ‘No I’m not Stevie. This has got to stop. Twenty years in the army never killed me, I am damn sure you’re not going to either.’

  ‘Sorry man, it’s an emergency.’

  ‘There is always going to be an emergency.’ Charlie shuffled out.

  ‘Do you really think it is that bad sir?’ Howe asked.

  ‘I am afraid it is Colonel. If Charlie was fully Human, he would have been dead months ago.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Too much strain causes haemorrhaging on his brain, basically a stroke. According to the Doctor, Charlie has suffered nearly a dozen since arriving on this ship. Charlie doesn’t complain much, but she is sure the pain is equivalent, or ever worse than, an acute migraine.’

  ‘I didn’t know that.’

  ‘Right now we need to get this information to the fleet.’

  It took them an hour to make direct contact. Steven assured Admiral Baxter that they were on top of the situation. Twenty minutes later Baxter assured him that they would stop on the edge of Catatarac space and begin to go through diplomatic channels. Steven slipped back into the large Albany fleet. He noticed that the ships looked brand new.

  A single battle cruiser had docked with the space station. It was time to get to work.

  Chapter 36

  Cookie slipped behind some containers on the space station. The suit and helmet he was wearing shimmered slightly as it took on the appearance of his background. He knew he wasn’t invisible, but close to it. They had been beamed across to the space station, in the area likely to be used by the freighter. It was Cookie that found the transpor
t, or more to the point they found him. A large hanger door in the direction of the battle cruiser rose with a clatter that told of its age. He leapt up on to the container and crawled across the top of it. A series of open trailers pulled by a strange tractor entered. It swung round and backed up to the hanger doors on the opposite side.

  His transmissions were picked up in the briefing room. The operator got off the tractor and disappeared.

  Howe began to issue orders. ‘Cookie, you got a great vantage point, stay put. Tapper, you’re closest, see if you can follow that operator.’ The radios gave a couple of bursts of static.

  ‘Did they hear you?’ Steve asked.

  ‘Of course. To cut out the chances of being over heard in a situation like that, you just give a single click of the mic to acknowledge that you have been heard. Let’s change to Tapper’s helmet cam.’

  The screen changed. Tapper moved swiftly within the shadows. He stuck his head around the corner of the door. He saw the corridor was long and empty except for the Albany operator. The roof was also very high.

  Babes was able to get measurements of the corridor and the hanger from their helmet cams.

  ‘Okay, that’s enough guys, we’re bringing you out.’

  With the measurements taken, Babes began to beam in cameras. A couple went into the trailers, but most were attached to the roof, so they could watch the progress of the trailers as they were driven to the other ship.

  ‘That’s everything in position sir. We need to finish those chambers and the dummies.’

  ‘It will be close, but we should be finished in time Colonel. All we need now is to see them, and Babes and Ico will put the finishing touches to them.’

  ‘They don’t seem to have much security in place. Not yet anyway.’

  ‘Let’s keep our fingers crossed Colonel. I wonder how Komoru is getting on.’

  A few miles away, Komoru was watching Lewis make preparations. She was doing something totally different to what Steven thought she was doing. He turned and studied her determined face.

  ‘Are you sure about this Miss Komoru?’

  ‘Yes Lewis. Finish it.’

  ‘You ain’t telling Captain Gordon?’

  ‘No Lewis I’m not. He would no doubt make some objection and try to persuade me not to do it.’

  ‘Yeah, I kin see dat. Dis is a big thing Miss Komoru.’

  ‘I am quite capable of making my own decisions Lewis. Are you willing to carry out my orders?’

  ‘Yes ma’am, shu am. I also respect you for making dis decision.’

  ‘Thank you Lewis, be as quick as you can please.’

  ‘I will have it ready Miss Komoru, don you worry none.’

  All they had to now do was wait for the freighter to arrive.

  Chapter 37

  Flashing rows of lights sprang up out of the darkness. The brand-new freighter was still unmarked and its livery shone neon bright in the dark of space. The freighter broached sideways, and the docking port at the space station also began to glow. In contrast, the docking port looked like it had gone through the wars. It bore the scars of many careless manoeuvres. The station was so old, visitors had to dock manually. The pilot of the freighter was one of the best at his trade, and the freighter slid into position flawlessly. There was a slight fluorescing around the cargo doors as the freighter pushed through the station’s forcefield.

  On board the Human ships, nerves were stretched taught. Men sat with weapons at hand, suited up for combat; if they were needed, it would happen in the blink of an eye.

  The freighter’s cargo doors opened and almost a hundred armed soldiers doubled into sight. They ignored the transport and were ran past it by officers and NCOs. They disappeared quickly, heading back to their own ship. A small detachment of about twenty Albany hove into sight. They took up a loose formation close to the transport. The operator had returned to his tractor, and at the press of a button the sides of the trailers dropped.

  A strange forklift device brought out the chambers two at a time and a couple of troops leapt onto the back of the trailers to help load them. Once one was filled, they began the second. Observers were allocated to everybody they could see. They watched the individuals like hawks. As they turned away from the trailers, they called out ‘CLEAR’ loudly. Babes monitored everyone and everything. As soon as all of them were looking in the wrong direction, she and Ico began to transfer the chambers.

  The room was filled with voices shouting out, ‘STOP, CLEAR’. Steven began to sweat. Most of the time it was the tractor driver, sitting high up, who was the problem. He was watching the loading intently. Most of the soldiers had their backs to the trailers, watching outwards. An opportunity came when the driver jumped down to talk to an officer, however the forklift was delivering two chambers at that time. There was more than one sigh of frustration. It took a while to load the one hundred chambers, but the swapping was frustratingly slow.

  ‘Sir, the Albany battle cruiser is already warming up their engines.’

  Steven sighed with frustration. ‘We don’t even have half of them aboard yet and the tractor is about to leave. Does anyone have any suggestions? We need to slow them down.’

  Steven felt helpless as the tractor pulled away into the long corridor. It was almost halfway. With the Albany soldiers walking along side, it was easy to swap out the ones in the middle, but they couldn’t risk swapping out those at the sides as they could easily be seen.

  ‘Stevie, stick a wrench in its engine.’ Buzz called out.

  ‘What!’

  ‘Beam a wrench into its engine or beam a part of it out into space.’

  ‘Babes!’ Steven yelped.

  ‘I will try my heart.’

  A few seconds later the tractor trundled to a halt. The operator got off and began kicking it. He lifted the engine covers. When he and the officer began to look inside, they beamed the containers across as quickly as possible; the soldiers had returned to an all-round defence with their backs to the trailers.

  ‘Grab the ones on the outside first.’ Steven ordered.

  ‘STOP.’ Came the command from two of the crew as they came back up from the guts of the engine. The officer froze and leaned to the left of the driver. He went up to one of the trailers and jumped up. He checked one of the chambers, gave it a few funny looks, then jumped back down. Everyone was holding their breath. When he went back to conversing with the driver there were sighs of relief all round. Stil,l he seemed to keep a closer watch after that. Steven ordered the chambers on the far side of the officer to be swapped. The driver seemed to be arguing with someone on his communicator. In the end, he stomped off. It took him almost half an hour to return with a new tractor.

  Steven was thinking hard. ‘Babes, once he has swapped out the tractors, can you return the piece you removed to its exact position?’

  ‘Yes my heart, but there is no guarantee it will work again.’

  ‘I don’t need it to work, better if it doesn’t. As long as it is there.’

  ‘Yes my heart.’

  The officer became distracted with the changing of the tractor. He commanded some of his soldiers to help move it. The driver linked up the new tractor and they set off again. The tractor was only a few feet away from the battle cruiser when they swapped out the last container. By now Steven wasn’t the only one sweating heavily.

  ‘That’s the last one on board.’ Howe reported.

  ‘Then let’s get the hell out of here before our luck runs out.’ Steven almost shouted.

  ‘Komoru reports she also has all of hers on board.’ Howe added.

  ‘Let’s head for the agreed rendezvous point.’

  They began to weave their way through the Albany battle fleet. Once clear they sped up to top sub-light speed until they were thousands of miles away, before entering light speed. The two ships met at the appointed place, a large hollow asteroid, fifty miles inside the asteroid belt.

  Komoru gave Steven a big hug. ‘That was intense, I didn’t t
hink we were going to make it.’

  ‘Me either.’ Steven confessed. ‘Have you begun to revive them?’

  ‘No, I don’t see the point. Let’s get them safe first.’

  ‘I agree.’ Steven put up a map on screen. ‘We have to change our route out. Charlie was able to steal this from the mind of their commander, it’s a joint battle fleet waiting to ambush our forces if they cross the line. We need to get ourselves clear, circumnavigate the enemy fleet and then radio our success. I don’t want our signals to be intercepted.’

  ‘Do you want us to split up?’

  ‘No, I would rather have you close by just in case. We can support each other.’

  She smiled. ‘Okay. Let’s not hang around.’

  ‘I agree.’

  The two ships left the asteroid belt. Once Steven was clear of enemy forces he sent the success signal, but he requested that the fleet should stay in place until they were completely out of enemy territory. Almost a day later they docked with the Emperor’s battle cruiser. By then the bewildered bee keepers had been revived. They cross-decked into his protection. The Emperor requested Steven attend.

  He looked over Steven’s escort. ‘Where is the Captain?’

  ‘If you mean Captain Murison sir, he has been detained in sickbay. He isn’t very well at the moment.’

  ‘I see. I hope he recovers soon. How did you get so far in front of us Ambassador?’

  ‘We had the engine signature of the freighter on record. We set off as soon as we discovered that. We can travel much faster than your battle fleet and caught up with them before they reached the Catatarac space station.’

  ‘Tell me about the rescue.’

  Steven did so, omitting nothing.

  The Emperor thought it over, ‘How is it they didn’t detect your ships when you beamed your people and the chambers back and forth?’