The Black of Space, page 3
part #8 of Steven Gordon Series
Richard Liverington’s eyes snapped open. It took him a moment to gather his wits, but a glance to his right was all he needed to know where he was. He studiously swung his legs off the small cot he had been laid on, to the side away from the view.
‘You can send me home now.’
An invisible door slid open and Komoru entered.
‘I know you saw it.’
His scowl wasn’t pretty, ‘Where’s your boyfriend?’
‘He doesn’t even know we are here.’
‘Then I will have you charged with kidnapping. Yeah, and you won’t be able to bribe me either.’
‘Ten million, twenty?’
‘It ain’t about the money.’
‘Then what is it about Mr Liverington? Tell me what it is all about.’
‘A slant-eyed bitch like you would never understand. Now get me home or I will come over there and choke the life from that scrawny throat of yours.’ He got up threateningly.
In the blink of an eye, the door behind Komoru opened, and the biggest man he had ever seen in his life strode in. In a few steps Lewis had closed the distance. He grabbed the man by the throat and hoisted him into the air.
‘Like dis? Is that what you intend doing to Miss Komoru? You be dead before you got halfway across de floor, ass-wipe. You better talk to Miss Komoru nice like. She don’t like swearing much either. Watch your tongue.’ Lewis tossed him across the room and left.
Liverington had got a big fright, but when the woman walked over and crouched down in front of him, the coldness in her eyes petrified him. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
‘Please answer my question Mr Liverington.’
It took him a few moments to gather his voice. He had to cough to clear his crushed airways.
‘It’s about freedom of choice. I choose to believe what I want.’
‘To the point where you would harm others?’
‘Who am I harming?’
‘Steven and I. This crew, these ships.’
‘I’ve done nothing to any of you.’
‘You had your friends press charges.’
‘You shouldn’t have kidnapped them.’
‘They were very vocal in their beliefs, Mr Liverington. To the point where they were being absolutely abusive.’
‘It was only words.’
‘Is that how you justify your cult? Words can be as damaging as action. After all, isn’t the pen mightier than the sword? I am sure you identify with that saying, Mr Liverington. After all, how could your nonsense have spread so far and wide without it?’
‘It isn’t nonsense.’
‘Look to your right and see the truth.’
‘No.’
‘You would deny the truth?’
Liverington growled, ‘I have the right to view this world any damn way I want to.’
‘No one is denying your right to see the world in whatever manner you wish. I will not, however, allow you to bring us down with you.’
‘No one is bringing you down.’
‘Are you aware that that Goodwill Ambassadors are not allowed to have a criminal record? You would destroy our careers.’
‘Not my problem.’
‘Is that all the thanks we get for saving your miserable life? How many times have we saved it now? Not just your life, but the lives of every Human being on the planet. I don’t care what shape you wish to believe the world is. We, however, do not expect to be abused in the manner that you and your people have subjected us to.’
‘It is all…’ his words trailed off as she rocked forward on to her toes.
‘Be very careful what you say next. If I deem you to be a lost cause, I will beam you into the nearest volcano.’
‘You would murder me?’
‘We have saved your life many times, does it not then belong to us? We did not come to your press conference and throw insults at you. We did not bring lawsuits against you. We simply proved to those who were crying at us, calling us liars, the truth. We could quite easily bring suits of our own for defamation of character. We have the money to snowball you all into hell for the rest of your lives.’
She half-closed her eyes, and a tack of gold and precious gems appeared close to them. His eyes widened. Komoru reached over and picked up an egg-sized fire diamond. She handed it to him.
‘Is it real enough for you Mr Liverington?’
He felt the jewel in his hands, then held it up to the light. He could see the colours deep within, they were breath-taking.
He gave a small nod and handed it back across, then his eyes flicked to the gold. Komoru smiled and reached out. She placed a small bar in his hands.
‘Is it real?’
‘Yes. The fire diamond is almost priceless. That gold in weight is worth a hundred thousand, three times that much because it comes from space.’ She smiled coldly, ‘Do you believe we can keep you in court until you die of old age?’
‘Yes.’
‘We have no wish to harm you or any of your people Mr Liverington. No one understands how precious life is more than we do. Feel free to call every planet you want to flat. Sit at home and think happy thoughts all you wish. However, if you bring us to court, then you are not only endangering your own life, but the lives of everyone on this planet. We are the front-line, we are the buffer between Humanity and destruction. Do you wish to remove that buffer?’
His head moved from side to side slowly, ‘No. I didn’t know the lawsuits would do so much harm. It still doesn’t detract from the fact that you have destroyed the beliefs of a dozen people. That is unforgivable.’
‘Ten of them are now millionaires. I don’t think they care all that much. It is called settling out of court, and it is perfectly legal in your country.’
The line of his mouth hardened, and she could see there was still fight left in him.
‘I can see you still need a little persuading.’ She stood, ‘Lewis.’ The door opened. ‘Escort Mr Liverington to the airlock please.’
Liverington howled all the way there. He was sure he was about to die. Lewis tossed him in unceremoniously.
He pointed to a space suit, ‘You better put that on if you don’t want to die.’
The airlock doors slid closed. Liverington hastily scrambled into the suit. It was nothing like the big suits you saw in the movies. It was sleek and conformed to his body. A strange zip closed it at the front. He stuck the helmet over his head and felt the suit drawn to it. The helmet came alive. Red lights turned to green. His breathing began to settle. He watched the seconds tick by in the display.
About five minutes later the doors began to open. He got up and stood in front of it. It occurred to him that this might be a trick - his suit was registering oxygen in the atmosphere outside his suit. The thought had just crossed his mind when Ico dropped the shields and he was sucked clean out. He hit the ground hard and tumbled to a stop. He could just see the ship take off. He scrambled to his feet and threw up a fist at them.
‘You bastards just blew me out of a goddamn airlock!’ He couldn’t see or hear the hilarity onboard the ship.
He began to take stock of his situation. His eyes sought out the display. His oxygen was fine, his suit intact. With a deep breath he looked around. A line of boulders to his right seemed interesting. He walked over on unsteady legs. He felt different. Scrambling on top of the nearest boulder, he almost had a panic attack. He had visited the Grand Canyon, but this made that look small. He knew exactly where he was standing. His foot kicked a small rock. He bent and picked it up. It didn’t feel right for some reason. He threw it.
‘Holy shit!’ The rock flew much further than he expected before dipping into the canyon.
‘Gravity, goddamn gravity is different…’ he had said it aloud and now felt like a fool. He looked up and around, then located another fist-sized rock. He wound up and threw. The rock sailed away. He howled with delight. His predicament forgotten, he jumped from boulder to boulder to locate more rocks to throw. He began to experiment to see how far he could throw them. It was while doing this that he overstretched from a run. Brittle rock crumbled underfoot and he found himself sailing out into the void. His howl of fear did not go unnoticed. He was in the middle of chastising himself for being the architect of his own downfall, when he materialised back in the airlock of the ship. Relief flooded through him. They weren’t going to kill him, at least not yet.
His tour lasted a few hours. They dropped him off on more than one moon. On each he threw rocks to see how far they would travel. The moons of Jupiter he would recount later as his favourites. When they dropped him off on a moon in Saturn’s orbit, he didn’t even bother picking up a rock. He was exhausted and tired. The beauty of what was before him held him enthralled. He sat down and rested against a rock. Despite fighting it, he fell asleep.
The following morning he woke up in his own home. For a moment he thought it a dream, but on his kitchen counter he found a bag of rocks, one from every planet and moon he had stood on. He went to his computer and sent a message.
An hour later, Komoru appeared at his door and knocked lightly. He opened it and leaned against the post.
‘I will help you stop the lawsuits. On two conditions: you compensate those in the same way you compensated the others.’
‘And the other condition?’
A smile began to spread across his face.
chapter 5
Steven was dumbfounded, ‘Seriously?’
Komoru let out a long slow breath, ‘Yes, I am afraid so.’
‘No! I mean… seriously?’
‘Saying that over and over isn’t going to change anything.’
‘You accepted his proposal?’
‘I felt I had no other choice. I had considered throwing him into a volcano.’
‘That wouldn’t have helped. In fact his disappearance would have had the opposite effect.’
‘I realised that.’
‘What is he going to do?’
‘He is going to vlog our adventures.’
‘Vlog… seriously?’
Komoru punched him, ‘Stop saying that. It is getting annoying.’
‘Right, OK, but what is he going to do?’
‘He is going to travel with us and document our travels.’
‘Sounds like a load of crap to me.’
‘I don’t think so. You should meet him.’
‘No thanks.’
‘This isn’t a request Steven. Consider it a part of your political training.’
‘You mean smile and lie?’
She kissed him on the cheek, ‘Pretty much. Right now he has us by the you know what’s. If either of us receive a criminal record, it is over. It was your actions that put us in this position in the first place, so you will have the decency to listen to his proposal.’
‘Fine!’
Steven wasn’t amused at all by the proposition, but Komoru was right, he had caused this situation, and at least she hadn’t scattered the man’s atoms all over the universe.
The interview took place the following day in Steven’s office on the moon. Mr Liverington didn’t look like much at all. Maybe a bit of a redneck. Close to middle age, medium height, broad build, scraggy short beard, hair thinning and beginning to turn grey. He slumped a little in the seat. Steven was suddenly curious as to why this man had managed to get hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide. They studied each other for a full minute before Steven decided to break the ice.
‘Mr Liverington I presume?’
He half smiled, ‘Is it Doctor Gordon, Ambassador, or Captain?’
‘This isn’t an official interview. Call me Steven.’
‘Ritch, Ritchie or Richard. If you call me Dick, I will be offended.’ He sat up and leaned across the desk, offering his hand. Steven returned the gesture, his hand disappearing into the man’s calloused hand. They sat back in their chairs.
‘Why the hell do you want to come with us?’
Richard laughed, ‘You really need to know my story. I didn’t do all that well at school. I wasn’t really interested. I had my life all mapped out long before that. I worked for my father since I was a kid. He was a builder, had his own company. I was going to leave school and join him, eventually taking over the business. Only about the time I was finishing school, he had a fatal accident. The business folded, I was left high and dry with no qualifications.
‘I became a labourer for one of my father’s competitors. I suppose over time I became a skilled labourer. Ten years ago, I had my own near fatal accident. I fell off scaffolding, near thirty feet high. Cracked my spine, broke lots of bones. I wasn’t allowed to work and I lost my case for compensation. I had detached my safety line to clip it on to the stage above when I fell. They said it was my own fault, not the black ice I stepped on.
‘Anyway, I was on welfare and feeling like I had been fucked over by the man. Which I had been. I spent a lot of time online. Discovered the flat Earth society. I liked the message. You know: stuff convention, stuff the man. So I got stuck into the man, became an activist, grew in popularity. When the originator of the society passed away, he left it all to me.’
‘The baton passed.’
‘Yeah, sure, you could call it that.’
‘You do realise that the Earth isn’t flat?’
‘What the hell has that got to do with anything?’
‘Everything!’
‘Every man, woman and child on this planet has the goddamn right to believe what the hell they want. We don’t have to take shit from doctors, scientists or governments.’
‘You have a big chip on your shoulder.’
‘Massive.’
‘You hate the man.’
‘I hate the man.’
‘I suppose in your eyes I represent the man.’
‘Sure do.’
‘So you hate me too?’
‘Not on a personal level.’
‘I’m not the man.’
‘You just bribed ten of my people into dropping charges against you. You are that man.’
Steven had to think about that one for a moment, ‘You might have a point. But I will ask you again now I know your backstory. Why do you want to come with us?’
‘Your lady gave me a nice little tour of our solar system. Our last stop was Saturn. She dumped me on a small moon. What a view. Damn what a view. I was enthralled, no shitting. It was the first time in years I had felt at peace. It was like Saturn sucked out all of my anger and pain. Hell, I even fell asleep. Sitting on my ass, leaning against a moon rock. I have trouble sleeping in my own bed Steven, the pain and discomfort wakens me a dozen times a night. When I woke up in my own bed the next morning, I thought it had all been a dream. When I found those rocks, I knew it hadn’t been. I also knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and it wasn’t sit on my ass here on Earth. I want to see what you guys see, I want to go where you guys go, and I want to tell all of my friends about it. I want to share those experiences with the world.’
‘Half the world wants to do exactly that - why should we take you? Apart from the fact you have us over a barrel.’
‘We get news reports about what you guys are up to all the time. We get the Modloch news, but without a new generation TV with a translator, it just sounds like a herd of animals bawling. To me you are no more than a plastic figure on a toy shelf, and that goes for the people who watch my channel as well. What I am going to do is Humanise the lot of you. I am going to rip every last remnant of doubt from the Human race, regardless of race or religion. That is what I am offering you.’
‘You mean you are going to snoop into our lives.’
‘I am going to crawl up your ass with a microscope.’
Steven let out a long sigh, ‘I don’t like that idea at all.’
‘Of course you don’t. I won’t get too personal though. I do have a little decorum.’
‘How are you going to market this?’
‘Easy, I give you the benefit of the doubt, you compensate my people, we drop all the charges. As a thank you, you invite me to join your crew on your journey. Being the great sceptic I am, I agree. I go with you to prove the lies. What I find there is astounding. We meet the aliens on a personal level, they aren’t strange creatures on the tube. By the time we reach the other side of that barrier, folks are going to love you people. When they meet your alien friends, it is going to make the impact much bigger.’
‘I can see were you are coming from. I still don’t like it.’
‘You don’t have to like it; you just have to live with it. One more thing: I join your crew.’
‘Why? I thought you would go with Komoru.’
‘Too many foreigners for my liking.’ He held up a hand, ‘I ain’t being racist, I just know I will find it hard to fit in there. She also scares the living shit out of me.’
It took a moment, but Steven burst out laughing, ‘Komoru is a wonderful woman.’
Richard leaned forward in his seat, ‘One of my gifts is that I am a very good judge of character. That ain’t no soft lovey dovey chick. That woman has a core of steel and I suspect that those who cross her regret it. Last time I saw eyes like hers was on a marine sniper.’
Steven was silent for a long time contemplating the man in front of him. In the end, he realised that he just didn’t have much choice in the matter. It was obvious that Komoru wanted this man on board, and Steven now understood why. She realised that he could help in an area where they weren’t represented. The guy was very sharp.
‘There will be times when on diplomatic missions that we will be unable to share information with you. I will make sure that, even if you do find out what is going on, no information leaks out and compromises our mission.’
‘I ain’t all that interested in the diplomatic stuff Steven, it’s the people stuff I’ll be focusing on.’
‘Then I agree.’
‘Then let the show begin.’
chapter 6
It had been a tough week for Charlie. Turran and Gord had worked him hard. He had learned to eat, walk and run like a Modloch. They had even taught him some basic Modloch phrases. Rumours flew around the Royal residence. Females he had never seen before would suddenly appear as if from nowhere. Many tried to talk to him; he ignored them, but it seemed to have the opposite effect to the one desired.
