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diff --git a/20728.txt b/20728.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb9da56 --- /dev/null +++ b/20728.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8625 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Space Viking, by Henry Beam Piper + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Space Viking + +Author: Henry Beam Piper + +Release Date: March 3, 2007 [EBook #20728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPACE VIKING *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, William Woods and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: +This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction +November 1962, December 1962, January 1963, February 1963. +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright +on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Illustration: SPACE VIKING +A great new novel by H. Beam Piper] + +[Illustration][Illustration] + + + + +Space Viking + + + Vengeance is a strange human motivation-- + it can drive a man to do things + which he neither would nor could achieve without it ... + and because of that it lies behind some of the + greatest sagas of human literature! + + +by H. Beam Piper + +Illustrated by Schoenherr + +They stood together at the parapet, their arms about each other's +waists, her head against his cheek. Behind, the broad leaved +shrubbery gossiped softly with the wind, and from the lower main +terrace came music and laughing voices. The city of Wardshaven +spread in front of them, white buildings rising from the wide spaces +of green treetops, under a shimmer of sun-reflecting aircars above. +Far away, the mountains were violet in the afternoon haze, and the +huge red sun hung in a sky as yellow as a ripe peach. + +His eye caught a twinkle ten miles to the southwest, and for an +instant he was puzzled. Then he frowned. The sunlight on the two +thousand-foot globe of Duke Angus' new ship, the _Enterprise_, back +at the Gorram shipyards after her final trial cruise. He didn't want +to think about that, now. + +Instead, he pressed the girl closer and whispered her name, "Elaine," +and then, caressing every syllable, "Lady Elaine Trask of Traskon." + +"Oh, no, Lucas!" Her protest was half joking and half apprehensive. +"It's bad luck to be called by your married name before the wedding." + +"I've been calling you that in my mind since the night of the Duke's +ball, when you were just home from school on Excalibur." + +She looked up from the corner of her eye. + +"That was when I started calling me that, too," she confessed. + +"There's a terrace to the west at Traskon New House," he told her. +"Tomorrow, we'll have our dinner there, and watch the sunset together." + +"I know. I thought that was to be our sunset-watching place." + +"You have been peeking," he accused. "Traskon New House was to be +your surprise." + +"I always was a present-peeker, New Year's and my birthdays. But I only +saw it from the air. I'll be very surprised at everything inside," +she promised. "And very delighted." + +And when she'd seen everything and Traskon New House wasn't a surprise +any more, they'd take a long space trip. He hadn't mentioned that to +her, yet. To some of the other Sword-Worlds--Excalibur, of course, and +Morglay and Flamberge and Durendal. No, not Durendal; the war had +started there again. But they'd have so much fun. And she would see +clear blue skies again, and stars at night. The cloud-veil hid the stars +from Gram, and Elaine had missed them, since coming home from Excalibur. + +The shadow of an aircar fell briefly upon them and they looked up +and turned their heads, in time to see it sink with graceful dignity +toward the landing-stage of Karval House, and he glimpsed its +blazonry--sword and atom-symbol, the badge of the ducal house of +Ward. He wondered if it were Duke Angus himself, or just some of +his people come ahead of him. They should get back to their guests, +he supposed. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her, and she +responded ardently. It must have been all of five minutes since +they'd done that before. + + * * * * * + +A slight cough behind them brought them apart and their heads +around. It was Sesar Karvall, gray-haired and portly, the breast of +his blue coat gleaming with orders and decorations and the sapphire +in the pommel of his dress-dagger twinkling. + +"I thought I'd find you two here," Elaine's father smiled. "You'll +have tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow together, but need I remind +you that today we have guests, and more coming every minute." + +"Who came in the Ward car?" Elaine asked. + +"Rovard Grauffis. And Otto Harkaman; you never met him, did you, Lucas?" + +"No; not by introduction. I'd like to, before he spaces out." He had +nothing against Harkaman personally; only against what he represented. +"Is the Duke coming?" + +"Oh, surely. Lionel of Newhaven and the Lord of Northport are coming +with him. They're at the Palace now." Karvall hesitated. "His nephew's +back in town." + +Elaine was distressed; she started to say: "Oh, dear! I hope he doesn't--" + +"Has Dunnan been bothering Elaine again?" + +"Nothing to take notice of. He was here, yesterday, demanding to +speak with her. We got him to leave without too much unpleasantness." + +"It'll be something for me to take notice of, if he keeps it up +after tomorrow." + +For his seconds and Andray Dunnan's, that was; he hoped it wouldn't +come to that. He didn't want to have to shoot a kinsman to the house +of Ward, and a crazy man to boot. + +"I'm terribly sorry for him," Elaine was saying. "Father, you should +have let me talk to him. I might have made him understand." + +Sesar Karvall was shocked. "Child, you couldn't have subjected +yourself to that! The man is insane!" Then he saw her bare +shoulders, and was even more shocked. "Elaine, your shawl!" + +Her hands went up and couldn't find it; she looked about in confused +embarrassment. Amused, Lucas picked it from the shrub onto which she +had tossed it and draped it over her shoulders, his hands lingering +briefly. Then he gestured to the older man to precede them, and +they entered the arbored walk. At the other end, in an open circle, +a fountain played; white marble girls and boys bathing in the +jade-green basin. Another piece of loot from one of the Old Federation +planets; that was something he'd tried to avoid in furnishing +Traskon New House. There'd be a lot of that coming to Gram, after +Otto Harkaman took the _Enterprise_ to space. + +"I'll have to come back, some time, and visit them," Elaine +whispered to him. "They'll miss me." + +"You'll find a lot of new friends at your new home," he whispered +back. "You wait till tomorrow." + +"I'm going to put a word in the Duke's ear about that fellow," Sesar +Karvall, still thinking of Dunnan, was saying. "If he speaks to him, +maybe it'll do some good." + +"I doubt it. I don't think Duke Angus has any influence over him at all." + +Dunnan's mother had been the Duke's younger sister; from his father +he had inherited what had originally been a prosperous barony. Now +it was mortgaged to the top of the manor-house aerial-mast. The Duke +had once assumed Dunnan's debts, and refused to do so again. Dunnan +had gone to space a few times, as a junior officer on trade-and-raid +voyages into the Old Federation. He was supposed to be a fair +astrogator. He had expected his uncle to give him command of the +_Enterprise_, which had been ridiculous. Disappointed in that, +he had recruited a mercenary company and was seeking military +employment: It was suspected that he was in correspondence with +his uncle's worst enemy, Duke Omfray of Glaspyth. + +And he was obsessively in love with Elaine Karvall, a passion which +seemed to nourish itself on its own hopelessness. Maybe it would +be a good idea to take that space trip right away. There ought to +be a ship leaving Bigglersport for one of the other Sword-Worlds, +before long. + + * * * * * + +They paused at the head of the escalators; the garden below was +thronged with guests, the bright shawls of the ladies and the coats +of the men making shifting color-patterns among the flower-beds and +on the lawns and under the trees. Serving-robots, flame-yellow and +black in the Karvall colors, floated about playing soft music and +offering refreshments. There was a continuous spiral of changing +costume-color around the circular robo-table. Voices babbled happily +like a mountain river. + +As they stood looking down, another aircar circled low; green and +gold, lettered PANPLANET NEWS SERVICE. Sesar Karvall swore in +irritation. + +"Didn't there use to be something they called privacy?" he asked. + +"It's a big story, Sesar." + +It was; more than the marriage of two people who happened to be in love +with each other. It was the marriage of the farming and ranching barony +of Traskon and the Karvall steel mills. More, it was public announcement +that the wealth and fighting-men of both baronies were now aligned +behind Duke Angus of Wardshaven. So it was a general holiday. Every +industry had closed down at noon today, and would be closed until +morning-after-next, and there would be dancing in every park and +feasting in every tavern. To Sword-Worlders, any excuse for a holiday +was better than none. + +"They're our people, Sesar; they have a right to have a good time +with us. I know everybody at Traskon is watching this by screen." + +He raised his hand and waved to the news car, and when it swung +its pickup around, he waved again. Then they went down the long +escalator. + +Lady Lavina Karvall was the center of a cluster of matrons and +dowagers, around which tomorrow's bridesmaids fluttered like +many-colored butterflies. She took possession of her daughter +and dragged her into the feminine circle. He saw Rovard Grauffis, +small and saturnine, Duke Angus' henchman, and Burt Sandrasan, +Lady Lavina's brother. They spoke, and then an upper-servant, +his tabard blazoned with the yellow flame and black hammer of +Karvall mills, approached his master with some tale of domestic +crisis, and the two went away together. + +"You haven't met Captain Harkaman, Lucas," Rovard Grauffis said. +"I wish you'd come over and say hello and have a drink with him. +I know your attitude, but he's a good sort. Personally, I wish +we had a few like him around here." + +That was his main objection. There were fewer and fewer men of +that sort on any of the Sword-Worlds. + + + + +II + + +A dozen men clustered around the bartending robot--his cousin +and family lawyer, Nikkolay Trask; Lothar Ffayle, the banker; +Alex Gorram, the shipbuilder, and his son Basil; Baron Rathmore; +more of the Wardshaven nobles whom he knew only distantly. +And Otto Harkaman. + +Harkaman was a Space Viking. That would have set him apart, even +if he hadn't topped the tallest of them by a head. He wore a short +black jacket, heavily gold-braided, and black trousers inside +ankle-boots; the dagger on his belt was no mere dress-ornament. His +tousled red-brown hair was long enough to furnish extra padding in +a combat-helmet, and his beard was cut square at the bottom. + +He had been fighting on Durendal, for one of the branches of the +royal house contesting fratricidally for the throne. The wrong one; +he had lost his ship, and most of his men and, almost, his own life. +He had been a penniless refugee on Flamberge, owning only the +clothes he stood in and his personal weapons and the loyalty of +half a dozen adventurers as penniless as himself, when Duke Angus +had invited him to Gram to command the _Enterprise_. + +"A pleasure, Lord Trask. I've met your lovely bride-to-be, and +now that I meet you, let me congratulate both." Then, as they +were having a drink together, he put his foot in it by asking: +"You're not an investor in the Tanith Adventure, are you?" + +He said he wasn't, and would have let it go at that. Young Basil +Gorram had to get his foot in, too. + +"Lord Trask does not approve of the Tanith Adventure," he said +scornfully. "He thinks we should stay home and produce wealth, +instead of exporting robbery and murder to the Old Federation +for it." + +The smile remained on Otto Harkaman's face; only the friendliness +was gone. He unobtrusively shifted his drink to his left hand. + +"Well, our operations are definable as robbery and murder," he +agreed. "Space Vikings are professional robbers and murderers. +And you object? Perhaps you find me personally objectionable?" + +"I wouldn't have shaken your hand or had a drink with you if I did. +I don't care how many planets you raid or cities you sack, or how +many innocents, if that's what they are, you massacre in the Old +Federation. You couldn't possibly do anything worse than those +people have been doing to one another for the past ten centuries. +What I object to is the way you're raiding the Sword-Worlds." + +"You're crazy!" Basil Gorram exploded. + +"Young man," Harkaman reproved, "the conversation was between Lord +Trask and myself. And when somebody makes a statement you don't +understand, don't tell him he's crazy. Ask him what he means. +What _do_ you mean, Lord Trask?" + +"You should know; you've just raided Gram for eight hundred of our +best men. You raided me for close to forty vaqueros, farm-workers, +lumbermen, machine-operators, and I doubt I'll be able to replace +them with as good." He turned to the elder Gorram. "Alex, how many +have you lost to Captain Harkaman?" + +Gorram tried to make it a dozen; pressed, he admitted to a score and +a half. Roboticians, machine-supervisors, programmers, a couple of +engineers, a foreman. There was grudging agreement from the others. +Burt Sandrasan's engine-works had lost almost as many, of the same +kind. Even Lothar Ffayle admitted to losing a computerman and +a guard-sergeant. + +And after they were gone, the farms and ranches and factories would +go on, almost but not quite as before. Nothing on Gram, nothing on +any of the Sword-Worlds, was done as efficiently as three centuries +ago. The whole level of Sword-World life was sinking, like the east +coastline of this continent, so slowly as to be evident only from +the records and monuments of the past. He said as much, and added: + +"And the genetic loss. The best Sword-World genes are literally +escaping to space, like the atmosphere of a low-gravity planet, +each generation begotten by fathers slightly inferior to the last. +It wasn't so bad when the Space Vikings raided directly from the +Sword-Worlds; they got home once in a while. Now they're conquering +planets in the Old Federation for bases, and staying there." + + * * * * * + +Everybody had begun to relax; this wouldn't be a quarrel. Harkaman, +who had shifted his drink back to his right hand, chuckled. + +"That's right. I've fathered my share of brats in the Old +Federation, and I know Space Vikings whose fathers were born on +Old Federation planets." He turned to Basil Gorram. "You see, the +gentleman isn't crazy, at all. That's what happened to the Terran +Federation, by the way. The good men all left to colonize, and the +stuffed shirts and yes-men and herd-followers and safety-firsters +stayed on Terra and tried to govern the galaxy." + +"Well, maybe this is all new to you, captain," Rovard Grauffis +said sourly, "but Lucas Trask's dirge for the Decline and Fall +of the Sword-Worlds is an old song to the rest of us. I have +too much to do to stay here and argue." + +Lothar Ffayle evidently did intend to stay and argue. + +"All you're saying, Lucas, is that we're expanding. You want us +to sit here and build up population pressure like Terra in the +First Century?" + +"With three and a half billion people spread out on twelve planets? +They had that many on Terra alone. And it took us eight centuries +to reach that." + +That had been since the Ninth Century, Atomic Era, at the end of +the Big War. Ten thousand men and women on Abigor, refusing to +surrender, had taken the remnant of the System States Alliance navy +to space, seeking a world the Federation had never heard of and +wouldn't find for a long time. That had been the world they had +called Excalibur. From it, their grandchildren had colonized Joyeuse +and Durendal and Flamberge; Haulteclere had been colonized in the +next generation from Joyeuse, and Gram from Haulteclere. + +"We're not expanding, Lothar; we're contracting. We stopped +expanding three hundred and fifty years ago, when that ship came +back to Morglay from the Old Federation and reported what had +been happening out there since the Big War. Before that, we were +discovering new planets and colonizing them. Since then, we've +been picking the bones of the dead Terran Federation." + + * * * * * + +Something was going on by the escalators to the landing stage. +People were moving excitedly in that direction, and the news cars +were circling like vultures over a sick cow. Harkaman wondered, +hopefully, if it mightn't be a fight. + +"Some drunk being bounced." Nikkolay, Lucas' cousin, commented. +"Sesar's let all Wardshaven in here, today. But, Lucas, this Tanith +adventure; we're not making any hit-and-run raid. We're taking over +a whole planet; it'll be another Sword-World in forty or fifty +years." + +[Illustration] + +"Inside another century, we'll conquer the whole Federation," Baron +Rathmore declared. He was a politician and never let exaggeration +worry him. + +"What I don't understand," Harkaman said, "is why you support Duke +Angus, Lord Trask, if you think the Tanith adventure is doing Gram +so much harm." + +[Illustration] + +"If Angus didn't do it, somebody else would. But Angus is going to +make himself King of Gram, and I don't think anybody else could do +that. This planet needs a single sovereignty. I don't know how much +you've seen of it outside this duchy, but don't take Wardshaven as +typical. Some of these duchies, like Glaspyth or Didreksburg, are +literal snake pits. All the major barons are at each other's +throats, and they can't even keep their own knights and petty-barons +in order. Why, there's a miserable little war down in Southmain +Continent that's been going on for over two centuries." + +"That's probably where Dunnan's going to take that army of his," +a robot-manufacturing baron said. "I hope it gets wiped out, and +Dunnan with it." + +"You don't have to go to Southmain; just go to Glaspyth," somebody +else said. + +"Well, if we don't get a planetary monarchy to keep order, this +planet will decivilize like anything in the Old Federation." + +"Oh, _come_, Lucas!" Alex Gorram protested. "That's pulling it out +too far." + +"Yes, for one thing, we don't have the Neobarbarians," somebody +said. "And if they ever came out here, we'd blow them to +Em-See-Square in nothing flat. Might be a good thing if they +did, too; it would stop us squabbling among ourselves." + +Harkaman looked at him in surprise. "Just who do you think the +Neobarbarians are, anyhow?" he asked. "Some race of invading nomads; +Attila's Huns in spaceships?" + +"Well, isn't that who they are?" Gorram asked. + +"Nifflheim, no! There aren't a dozen and a half planets in the Old +Federation that still have hyperdrive, and they're all civilized. +That's if 'civilized' is what Gilgamesh is," he added. "These are +homemade barbarians. Workers and peasants who revolted to seize and +divide the wealth and then found they'd smashed the means of +production and killed off all the technical brains. Survivors on +planets hit during the Interstellar Wars, from the Eleventh to +the Thirteenth Centuries, who lost the machinery of civilization. +Followers of political leaders on local-dictatorship planets. +Companies of mercenaries thrown out of employment and living by +pillage. Religious fanatics following self-anointed prophets." + +"You think we don't have plenty of Neobarbarian material here on +Gram?" Trask demanded. "If you do, take a look around." + +Glaspyth, somebody said. + +"That collection of over-ripe gallows-fruit Andray Dunnan's +recruited," Rathmore mentioned. + +Alex Gorram was grumbling that his shipyard was full of them; +agitators stirring up trouble, trying to organize a strike to +get rid of the robots. + +"Yes," Harkaman pounced on that last. "I know of at least forty +instances, on a dozen and a half planets, in the last eight +centuries, of anti-technological movements. They had them on Terra, +back as far as the Second Century Pre-Atomic. And after Venus +seceded from the First Federation, before the Second Federation +was organized." + +"You're interested in history?" Rathmore asked. + +"A hobby. All spacemen have hobbies. There's very little work +aboard ship in hyperspace; boredom is the worst enemy. My +guns-and-missiles officer, Vann Larch, is a painter. Most of his +work was lost with the _Corisande_ on Durendal, but he kept us from +starving a few times on Flamberge by painting pictures and selling +them. My hyperspatial astrogator, Guatt Kirbey, composes music; he +tries to express the mathematics of hyperspatial theory in musical +terms. I don't care much for it, myself," he admitted. "I study +history. You know, it's odd; practically everything that's happened +on any of the inhabited planets happened on Terra before the first +spaceship." + +The garden immediately around them was quiet, now; everybody was +over by the landing-stage escalators. Harkaman would have said more, +but at that moment he saw half a dozen of Sesar Karvall's uniformed +guardsmen run past. They were helmeted and in bullet-proofs; one of +them had an auto-rifle, and the rest carried knobbed plastic +truncheons. The Space Viking set down his drink. + +"Let's go," he said. "Our host is calling up his troops; I think +the guests ought to find battle-stations, too." + + + + +III + + +The gaily-dressed crowd formed a semicircle facing the landing-stage +escalators; everybody was staring in embarrassed curiosity, those +behind craning over the shoulders of those in front. The ladies had +drawn up their shawls in frigid formality; many had even covered +their heads. There were four news-service cars hovering above; +whatever was going on was getting a planetwide screen showing. The +Karvall guardsmen were trying to get through; their sergeant was +saying, over and over, "Please, ladies and gentlemen; your pardon, +noble sir," and getting nowhere. + +Otto Harkaman swore disgustedly and shoved the sergeant aside. +"Make way, here!" he bellowed. "Let these guards pass." With that, +he almost hurled a gaily-dressed gentleman aside on either hand; +they both turned to glare angrily, then got hastily out of his way. +Meditating briefly on the uses of bad manners in an emergency, Trask +followed, with the others; the big Space Viking plowed to the front, +where Sesar Karvall and Rovard Grauffis and several others were standing. + +Facing them, four men in black cloaks stood with their backs to +the escalators. Two were commonfolk retainers; hired gunmen, to be +precise. They were at pains to keep their hands plainly in sight, +and seemed to be wishing themselves elsewhere. The man in front wore +a diamond sunburst jewel on his beret, and his cloak was lined with +pale blue silk. His thin, pointed face was deeply lined about the +mouth and penciled with a thin black mustache. His eyes showed +white all around the irises, and now and then his mouth would twitch +in an involuntary grimace. Andray Dunnan; Trask wondered briefly how +soon he would have to look at him from twenty-five meters over the +sights of a pistol. The face of the slightly taller man who stood at +his shoulder was paper-white, expressionless, with a black beard. +His name was Nevil Ormm, nobody was quite sure whence he had come, +and he was Dunnan's henchman and constant companion. + +"You lie!" Dunnan was shouting. "You lie damnably, in your stinking +teeth, all of you! You've intercepted every message she's tried to +send me." + +"My daughter has sent you no messages, Lord Dunnan," Sesar Karvall +said, with forced patience. "None but the one I just gave you, that +she wants nothing whatever to do with you." + +"You think I believe that? You're holding her a prisoner; Satan +only knows how you've been torturing her to force her into this +abominable marriage--" + +There was a stir among the bystanders; that was more than +well-mannered restraint could stand. Out of the murmur of +incredulous voices, one woman's was quite audible: + +"Well, really! He actually _is_ crazy!" + +Dunnan, like everybody else, heard it. "Crazy, am I?" he blazed. +"Because I can see through this hypocritical sham? Here's Lucas +Trask, he wants an interest in Karvall mills, and here's Sesar +Karvall, he wants access to iron deposits on Traskon land. And +my loving uncle, he wants the help of both of them in stealing +Omfray of Glaspyth's duchy. And here's this loan-shark of a Ffayle, +trying to claw my lands away from me, and Rovard Grauffis, the fetchdog +of my uncle who won't lift a finger to save his kinsman from ruin, +and this foreigner Harkaman who's swindled me out of command of +the _Enterprise_. You're all plotting against me--" + +"Sir Nevil," Grauffis said, "you can see that Lord Dunnan's not +himself. If you're a good friend to him, you'll get him out of here +before Duke Angus arrives." + +Ormm leaned forward and spoke urgently in Dunnan's ear. Dunnan +pushed him angrily away. + +"Great Satan, are you against me, too?" he demanded. + +Ormm caught his arm. "You fool, do you want to ruin everything, +now--" He lowered his voice; the rest was inaudible. + +"No, curse you, I won't go till I've spoken to her, face to face--" + + * * * * * + +There was another stir among the spectators; the crowd was parting, +and Elaine was coming through, followed by her mother and Lady +Sandrasan and five or six other matrons. They all had their shawls +over their heads, right ends over left shoulders; they all stopped +except Elaine, who took a few steps forward and confronted Andray +Dunnan. He had never seen her look more beautiful, but it was the +icy beauty of a honed dagger. + +"Lord Dunnan, what do you wish to say to me?" she asked. "Say it +quickly and then go; you are not welcome here." + +"Elaine!" Dunnan cried, taking a step forward. "Why do you cover +your head; why do you speak to me as a stranger? I am Andray, +who loves you. Why are you letting them force you into this +wicked marriage?" + +"No one is forcing me; I am marrying Lord Trask willingly and +happily, because I love him. Now, please, go and make no more +trouble at my wedding." + +"That's a lie! They're making you say that! You don't have to marry +him; they can't make you. Come with me now. They won't dare stop +you. I'll take you away from all these cruel, greedy people. You +love me, you've always loved me. You've told me you loved me, +again and again--" + +Yes, in his own private dream-world, a world of fantasy that had now +become Andray Dunnan's reality, in which an Elaine Karvall whom his +imagination had created existed only to love him. Confronted by the +real Elaine, he simply rejected the reality. + +"I never loved you, Lord Dunnan, and I never told you so. I never +hated you, either, but you are making it very hard for me not to. +Now go, and never let me see you again." + +With that, she turned and started back through the crowd, which +parted in front of her. Her mother and her aunt and the other ladies +followed. + +"You lied to me!" Dunnan shrieked after her. "You lied all the time. +You're as bad as the rest of them, all scheming and plotting against +me, betraying me. I know what it's about; you all want to cheat me +of my rights, and keep my usurping uncle on the ducal throne. And +you, you false-hearted harlot, you're the worst of them all!" + +Sir Nevil Ormm caught his shoulder and spun him around, propelling +him toward the escalators. Dunnan struggled, screaming inarticulately +like a wounded wolf. Ormm was cursing furiously. + +"You two!" he shouted. "Help me, here. Get hold of him." + +Dunnan was still howling as they forced him onto the escalator, the +backs of the two retainers' cloaks, badged with the Dunnan crescent, +light blue on black, hiding him. After a little, an aircar with the +blue crescent blazonry lifted and sped away. + +"Lucas, he's crazy," Sesar Karvall was insisting. "Elaine hasn't +spoken fifty words to him since he came back from his last voyage--" + +He laughed and put a hand on Karvall's shoulder. "I know that, +Sesar. You don't think, do you, that I need assurance of it?" + +"Crazy, I'll say he's crazy," Rovard Grauffis put in. "Did you +hear what he said about his rights? Wait till his Grace hears +about that." + +"Does he lay claim to the ducal throne, Sir Rovard?" Otto Harkaman +asked, sharply and seriously. + +"Oh, he claims that his mother was born a year and a half before +Duke Angus and the true date of her birth falsified to give Angus +the succession. Why, his present Grace was three years old when she +was born. I was old Duke Fergus' esquire; I carried Angus on my +shoulder when Andray Dunnan's mother was presented to the lords +and barons the day after she was born." + +"Of course he's crazy," Alex Gorram agreed. "I don't know why +the Duke doesn't have him put under psychiatric treatment." + +"I'd put him under treatment," Harkaman said, drawing a finger +across under his beard. "Crazy men who pretend to thrones are bombs +that ought to be deactivated, before they blow things up." + +"We couldn't do that," Grauffis said. "After all, he's Duke Angus' +nephew--" + +"I could do it," Harkaman said. "He only has three hundred men in +this company of his. Why you people ever let him recruit them Satan +only knows," he parenthesized. "I have eight hundred; five hundred +ground-fighters. I'd like to see how they shape up in combat, before +we space out. I can have them ready for action in two hours, and +it'd be all over before midnight." + +"No, Captain Harkaman; his Grace would never permit it," Grauffis +vetoed. "You have no idea of the political harm that would do among +the independent lords on whom we're counting for support. You +weren't here on Gram when Duke Ridgerd of Didreksburg had his sister +Sancia's second husband poisoned--" + + + + +IV + + +They halted under the colonnade; beyond, the lower main terrace was +crowded, and a medley of old love songs was wafting from the sound +outlets, for the sixth or eighth time around. He looked at his +watch; it was ninety seconds later than the last time he had done +so. Give it fifteen more minutes to get started, and another fifteen +to get away after the marriage toasts and the felicitations. And +no marriage, however pompous, lasted more than half an hour. An +hour, then, till he and Elaine would be in the aircar, bulleting +toward Traskon. + +The love songs stopped abruptly; after a momentary silence, a +trumpet, considerably amplified, blared; the "Ducal Salute." The +crowd stopped shifting, the buzz of voices ceased. At the head of +the landing-stage escalators there was a glow of color and the ducal +party began moving down. A platoon of guards in red and yellow, with +gilded helmets and tasseled halberds. An esquire bearing the Sword +of State. Duke Angus, with his council, Otto Harkaman among them; +the Duchess Flavia and her companion-ladies. The household gentlemen, +and their ladies. More guardsmen. There was a great burst of cheering; +the news-service aircars got into position above the procession. +Cousin Nikkolay and a few others stepped out from between the pillars +into the sunlight; there was a similar movement at the other side of +the terrace. The ducal party reached the end of the central walkway, +halted and deployed. + +"All right; let's shove off," Cousin Nikkolay said, stepping forward. + +Ten minutes since they had come outside; another five to get into +position. Fifty minutes, now, till he and Elaine--Lady Elaine Trask +of Traskon, for real and for always--would be going home. + +"Sure the car's ready?" he asked, for the hundredth time. + +His cousin assured him that it was. Figures in Karvall black and +flame-yellow appeared across the terrace. The music began again, +this time the stately "Nobles' Wedding March," arrogant and at +the same time tender. Sesar Karvall's gentleman-secretary, and +the Karvall lawyer; executives of the steel mills, the Karvall +guard-captain. Sesar himself, with Elaine on his arm; she was +wearing a shawl of black and yellow. He looked around in sudden +fright; "For the love of Satan, where's our shawl?" he demanded, and +then relaxed when one of his gentlemen exhibited it, green and tawny +in Traskon colors. The bridesmaids, led by Lady Lavina Karvall. +Finally they halted, ten yards apart, in front of the Duke. + + * * * * * + +"Who approaches us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard-captain. + +He had a thin, pointed face, almost femininely sensitive, and a +small pointed beard. He was bareheaded except for the narrow golden +circlet which he spent most of his waking time scheming to convert +into a royal crown. The guard-captain repeated the question. + +"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I bring my cousin and liege-lord, +Lucas, Lord Trask, Baron of Traskon. He comes to receive the +Lady-Demoiselle Elaine, daughter of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baron +of Karvall mills, and the sanction of your Grace to the marriage +between them." + +Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself and +his lord; they brought the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to be wed to +Lord Trask of Traskon. The Duke, satisfied that these were persons +whom he could address directly, asked if the terms of the +marriage-agreement had been reached; both parties affirmed this. +Sir Maxamon passed a scroll to the Duke; Duke Angus began to read +the stiff and precise legal phraseology. + +Marriages between noble houses were not matters to be left open +to dispute; a great deal of spilled blood and burned powder had +resulted from ambiguity on some point of succession or inheritance +or dower rights. Lucas bore it patiently; he didn't want his +great-grandchildren and Elaine's shooting it out over a matter +of a misplaced comma. + +"And these persons here before us do enter into this marriage +freely?" the Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He stepped +forward as he spoke, and his esquire gave him the two-hand Sword of +State, heavy enough to behead a bisonoid. Trask stepped forward; +Sesar Karvall brought Elaine up. The lawyers and henchmen obliqued +off to the sides. "How say you, Lord Trask?" he asked, almost +conversationally. + +"With all my heart, your Grace." + +"And you, Lady-Demoiselle Elaine?" + +"It is my dearest wish, your Grace." + +The Duke took the sword by the blade and extended it; they laid +their hands on the jeweled pommel. + +"And do you, and your houses, avow us, Angus, Duke of Wardshaven, +to be your sovereign prince, and pledge fealty to us and to our +legitimate and lawful successors?" + +"We do." Not only he and Elaine, but all around them, and all the +throng in the gardens, answered, the spectators in shouts. Very +clearly, above it all, somebody, with more enthusiasm than +discretion, was bawling: "_Long live Angus the First of Gram!_" + +"And we, Angus, do confer upon you two, and your houses, the right +to wear our badge as you see fit, and pledge ourself to maintain +your rights against any and all who may presume to invade them. And +we declare that this marriage between you two, and this agreement +between your respective houses, does please us, and we avow you two, +Lucas and Elaine, to be lawfully wed, and who so questions this +marriage challenges us, in our teeth and to our despite." + +That wasn't exactly the wording used by a ducal lord on Gram. It was +the formula employed by a planetary king, like Napolyon of Flamberge +or Rodolf of Excalibur. And, now that he thought of it, Angus had +consistently used the royal first-person plural. Maybe that fellow +who had shouted about Angus the First of Gram had only been doing +what he'd been paid to do. This was being telecast, and Omfray of +Glaspyth and Ridgerd of Didreksburg would both be listening; as of +now, they'd start hiring mercenaries. Maybe that would get rid of +Dunnan for him. + +The Duke gave the two-hand sword back to his esquire. The young +knight who was carrying the green and tawny shawl handed it to him, +and Elaine dropped the black and yellow one from her shoulders, +the only time a respectable woman ever did that in public, and her +mother caught and folded it. He stepped forward and draped the Trask +colors over her shoulders, and then took her in his arms. The +cheering broke out again, and some of Sesar Karvall's guardsmen +began firing a pom-pom somewhere. + + * * * * * + +It took a little longer than he had expected to finish with the +toasts and shake hands with those who crowded around. Finally, the +exit march started, down the long walkway to the landing stage, +and the Duke and his party moved away to the rear to prepare for +the wedding feast at which everybody but the bride and groom would +celebrate. One of the bridesmaids gave Elaine a huge sheaf of +flowers, which she was to toss back from the escalator; she held it +in the crook of one arm and clung to his with the other. + +"Darling; we really made it!" she was whispering, as though it were +too wonderful to believe. + +Well, wasn't it? + +One of the news cars--orange and blue, that was Westlands Telecast +& Teleprint--had floated just ahead of them and was letting down +toward the landing stage. For a moment, he was angry; that went +beyond the outer-orbit limits of journalistic propriety, even for +Westlands T & T. Then he laughed; today he was too happy for anger +about anything. At the foot of the escalator, Elaine kicked off her +gilded slippers--there was another pair in the car; he'd seen to +that personally--and they stepped onto the escalator and turned +about. The bridesmaids rushed forward, and began struggling for the +slippers, to the damage and disarray of their gowns, and when they +were half way up, Elaine heaved the bouquet and it burst apart among +them like a bomb of colored fragrance, and the girls below snatched +at the flowers, shrieking deliriously. Elaine stood, blowing kisses +to everybody, and he was shaking his clasped hands over his head, +until they were at the top. + +When they turned and stepped off, the orange and blue aircar had +let down directly in front of them, blocking their way. Now he was +really furious, and started forward with a curse. Then he saw who +was in the car. + +Andray Dunnan, his thin face contorted and the narrow mustache +writhing on his upper lip; he had a slit beside the window open +and was tilting the barrel of a submachine gun up and out of it. + +He shouted, and at the same time tripped Elaine and flung her down. +He was throwing himself forward to cover her when there was a +blasting multiple report. Something sledged him in the chest; +his right leg crumpled under him. He fell-- + +He fell and fell and fell, endlessly, through darkness, out of +consciousness. + + + + +V + + +He was crucified, and crowned with a crown of thorns. Who had they +done that to? Somebody long ago, on Terra. His arms were drawn out +stiffly, and hurt; his feet and legs hurt, too, and he couldn't move +them, and there was this prickling at his brow. And he was blind. + +[Illustration] + +No; his eyes were just closed. He opened them, and there was a white +wall in front of him, patterned with a blue snow-crystal design, and +he realized that it was a ceiling and that he was lying on his back. +He couldn't move his head, but by shifting his eyes he saw that he +was completely naked and surrounded by a tangle of tubes and wires, +which puzzled him briefly. Then he knew that he was not on a bed, +but on a robomedic, and the tubes would be for medication and +wound drainage and intravenous feeding, and the wires would be +to electrodes imbedded in his body for diagnosis, and the +crown-of-thorns thing would be more electrodes for an encephalograph. +He'd been on one of those robomedics before, when he had been gored +by a bisonoid on the cattle range. + +[Illustration] + +That was what it was; he was still under treatment. But that seemed +so long ago; so many things--he must have dreamed them--seemed to +have happened. + +Then he remembered, and struggled futilely to rise. + +"Elaine!" he called. "Elaine, where are you?" + +There was a stir and somebody came into his limited view; his +cousin, Nikkolay Trask. + +"Nikkolay; Andray Dunnan," he said. "What happened to Elaine?" + +Nikkolay winced, as though something he had expected to hurt had +hurt worse than he had expected. + +"Lucas." He swallowed. "Elaine ... Elaine is dead." + +Elaine is dead. That didn't make sense. + +"She was killed instantly, Lucas. Hit six times; I don't think +she even felt the first one. She didn't suffer at all." + +Somebody moaned, and then he realized that it had been himself. + +"You were hit twice," Nikkolay was telling him. "One in the leg; +smashed the femur. And one in the chest. That one missed your heart +by an inch." + +"Pity it did." He was beginning to remember clearly, now. "I threw +her down, and tried to cover her. I must have thrown her straight +into the burst and only caught the last of it myself." There was +something else; oh, yes. "Dunnan. Did they get him?" + +Nikkolay shook his head. "He got away. Stole the _Enterprise_ and +took her off-planet." + +"I want to get him myself." + +He started to rise again; Nikkolay nodded to someone out of sight. +A cool hand touched his chin, and he smelled a woman's perfume, +nothing at all like Elaine's. Something like a small insect bit +him on the neck. The room grew dark. + +Elaine was dead. There was no more Elaine, nowhere at all. Why, +that must mean there was no more world. So that was why it had +gotten so dark. + +He woke again, fitfully, and it would be daylight and he could see +the yellow sky through an open window or it would be night and the +wall-lights would be on. There would always be somebody with him. +Nikkolay's wife, Dame Cecelia; Rovard Grauffis; Lady Lavina +Karvall--he must have slept a long time, for she was so much older +than he remembered--and her brother, Burt Sandrasan. And a woman +with dark hair, in a white smock with a gold caduceus on her breast. + +Once, Duchess Flavia, and once Duke Angus himself. He asked where +he was, not much caring. They told him, at the Ducal Palace. + +He wished they'd all go away, and let him go wherever Elaine was. + +Then it would be dark, and he would be trying to find her, because +there was something he wanted desperately to show her. Stars in the +sky at night, that was it. But there were no stars, there was no +Elaine, there was no anything, and he wished that there was no +Lucas Trask, either. + +But there was an Andray Dunnan. He could see him standing +black-cloaked on the terrace, the diamonds in his beret-jewel +glittering evilly; he could see the mad face peering at him over +the rising barrel of the submachine gun. And then he would hunt +for him without finding him, through the cold darkness of space. + +The waking periods grew longer, and during them his mind was clear. +They relieved him of his crown of electronic thorns. The feeding +tubes came out, and they gave him cups of broth and fruit juice. +He wanted to know why he had been brought to the Palace. + +"About the only thing we could do," Rovard Grauffis told him. +"They had too much trouble at Karvall House as it was. You know, +Sesar got shot, too." + +"No." So that was why Sesar hadn't come to see him. "Was he killed?" + +"Wounded; he's in worse shape than you are. When the shooting +started, he went charging up the escalator. Didn't have anything +but his dress-dagger. Dunnan gave him a quick burst; I think that +was why he didn't have time to finish you off. By that time, the +guards who'd been shooting blanks from that rapid-fire gun got in +a clip of live rounds and fired at him. He got out of there as fast +as he could. They have Sesar on a robomedic like yours. He isn't +in any danger." + +The drainage tubes and medication tubes came out; the tangle of +wires around him was removed, and the electrodes with them. They +bandaged his wounds and dressed him in a loose robe and lifted him +from the robomedic to a couch, where he could sit up when he wished; +they began giving him solid food, and wine to drink, and allowed him +to smoke. The woman doctor told him he'd had a bad time, as though +he didn't know that. He wondered if she expected him to thank her +for keeping him alive. + +"You'll be up and around in a few weeks," his cousin added. "I've +seen to it that everything at Traskon New House will be ready for +you by then." + +"I'll never enter that house as long as I live, and I wish that +wouldn't be more than the next minute. That was to be Elaine's +house. I won't go to it alone." + + * * * * * + +The dreams troubled his sleep less and less as he grew stronger. +Visitors came often, bringing amusing little gifts, and he found +that he enjoyed their company. He wanted to know what had really +happened, and how Dunnan had gotten away. + +"He pirated the _Enterprise_," Rovard Grauffis told him. "He had +that company of mercenaries of his, and he'd bribed some of the +people at the Gorram shipyards. I thought Alex would kill his chief +of security when he found out what had happened. We can't prove +anything--we're trying hard enough to--but we're sure Omfray of +Glaspyth furnished the money. He's been denying it just a shade +too emphatically." + +"Then the whole thing was planned in advance." + +"Taking the ship was; he must have been planning that for months; +before he started recruiting that company. I think he meant to do +it the night before the wedding. Then he tried to persuade the +Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to elope with him--he seems to have actually +thought that was possible--and when she humiliated him, he decided +to kill both of you first." He turned to Otto Harkaman, who had +accompanied him. "As long as I live, I'll regret not taking you +at your word and accepting your offer, then." + +"How did he get hold of that Westlands Telecast and Teleprint car?" + +"Oh. The morning of the wedding, he screened Westlands editorial +office and told them he had the inside story on the marriage and +why the Duke was sponsoring it. Made it sound as though there was +some scandal; insisted that a reporter come to Dunnan House for a +face-to-face interview. They sent a man, and that was the last they +saw him alive; our people found his body at Dunnan House when we +were searching the place afterward. We found the car at the +shipyard; it had taken a couple of hits from the guns at Karvall +House, but you know what these press cars are built to stand. He +went directly to the shipyard, where his men already had the +_Enterprise_; as soon as he arrived, she lifted out." + +He stared at the cigarette between his fingers. It was almost +short enough to burn him. With an effort, he leaned forward to +crush it out. + +"Rovard, how soon will that second ship be finished?" + +Grauffis laughed bitterly. "Building the _Enterprise_ took +everything we had. The duchy's on the edge of bankruptcy now. We +stopped work on the second ship six months ago because we didn't +have enough money to keep on with her and still get the _Enterprise_ +finished. We were expecting the _Enterprise_ to make enough in the +Old Federation to finish the second one. Then, with two ships and +a base on Tanith, the money would begin coming in instead of going +out. But now--" + +"It leaves me where I was on Flamberge," Harkaman added. "Worse. +King Napolyon was going to help the Elmersans, and I'd have gotten +a command in that. It's too late for that now." + +He picked up his cane and used it to push himself to his feet. +The broken leg had mended, but he was still weak. He took a few +tottering steps, paused to lean on the cane, and then forced +himself on to the open window and stood for a moment staring out. +Then he turned. + +"Captain Harkaman, it might be that you could still get a command, +here on Gram. That's if you don't mind commanding under me as +owner-aboard. I am going hunting for Andray Dunnan." + +They both looked at him. After a moment, Harkaman said: + +"I'd count it an honor, Lord Trask. But where will you get a ship?" + +"She's half finished now. You already have a crew for her. Duke +Angus can finish her for me, and pay for it by pledging his new +barony of Traskon." + +He had known Rovard Grauffis all his life; until this moment, +he had never seen Duke Angus' henchman show surprise. + +"You mean, you'll trade Traskon for that ship?" he demanded. + +"Finished, equipped and ready for space, yes." + +"The Duke will agree to that," Grauffis said promptly. "But, Lucas; +Traskon is all you own." + +"If I have a ship, I won't need them. I am turning Space Viking." + +That brought Harkaman to his feet with a roar of approval. Grauffis +looked at him, his mouth slightly open. + +"Lucas Trask--Space Viking," he said. "Now I've heard everything." + +Well, why not? He had deplored the effects of Viking raiding on +the Sword-Worlds, because Gram was a Sword-World, and Traskon was +on Gram, and Traskon was to have been the home where he and Elaine +would live and where their children and children's children would +be born and live. Now the little point on which all of it had +rested was gone. + +"That was another Lucas Trask, Rovard. He's dead, now." + + + + +VI + + +Grauffis excused himself to make a screen call and then returned to +excuse himself again. Evidently Duke Angus had dropped whatever he +was doing as soon as he heard what his henchman had to tell him. +Harkaman was silent until after he was out of the room, then said: + +"Lord Trask, this is a wonderful thing for me. It's not been +pleasant to be a shipless captain living on strangers' bounty. +I'd hate, though, to have you think, some time, that I'd advanced +my own fortunes at the expense of yours." + +"Don't worry about that. If anybody's being taken advantage of, +you are. I need a space-captain, and your misfortune is my own +good luck." + +Harkaman started to pack tobacco into his pipe. "Have you ever been +off Gram, at all?" he asked. + +"A few years at the University of Camelot, on Excalibur. Otherwise, no." + +"Well, have you any conception of the sort of thing you're setting +yourself to?" The Space Viking snapped his lighter and puffed. +"You know, of course, how big the Old Federation is. You know the +figures, that is, but do they mean anything to you? I know they +don't to a good many spacemen, even. We talk glibly about ten to the +hundredth power, but emotionally we still count, 'One, Two, Three, +Many.' A ship in hyperspace logs about a light-year an hour. You +can go from here to Excalibur in thirty hours. But you could send +a radio message announcing the birth of a son, and he'd be a father +before it was received. The Old Federation, where you're going to +hunt Dunnan, occupies a space-volume of two hundred billion cubic +light-years. And you're hunting for one ship and one man in that. +How are you going to do it, Lord Trask?" + +"I haven't started thinking about how; all I know is that I have to +do it. There are planets in the Old Federation where Space Vikings +come and go; raid-and-trade bases, like the one Duke Angus planned +to establish on Tanith. At one or another of them, I'll pick up word +of Dunnan, sooner or later." + +"We'll hear where he was a year ago, and by the time we get there, +he'll be gone for a year and a half to two years. We've been raiding +the Old Federation for over three hundred years, Lord Trask. At present, +I'd say there are at least two hundred Space Viking ships in operation. +Why haven't we raided it bare long ago? Well, that's the answer: +distance and voyage-time. You know, Dunnan could die of old age--which +is not a usual cause of death among Space Vikings--before you caught up +with him. And your youngest ship's-boy could die of old age before he +found out about it." + +"Well, I can go on hunting for him till I die, then. There's nothing +else that means anything to me." + +"I thought it was something like that. I won't be with you, all your +life. I want a ship of my own, like the _Corisande_, that I lost on +Durendal. Some day, I'll have one. But till you can command your own +ship, I'll command her for you. That's a promise." + +Some note of ceremony seemed indicated. Summoning a robot, he had it +pour wine for them, and they pledged each other. + +Rovard Grauffis had recovered his aplomb by the time he returned +accompanied by the Duke. If Angus had ever lost his, he gave no +indication of it. The effect on everybody else was literally seismic. +The generally accepted view was that Lord Trask's reason had been +unhinged by his tragic loss; there might, he conceded, be more than +a crumb of truth in that. At first, his cousin Nikkolay raged at him +for alienating the barony from the family, and then he learned that +Duke Angus was appointing him vicar-baron and giving him Traskon +New House for his residence. Immediately he began acting like one +at the death-bed of a rich grandmother. The Wardshaven financial +and industrial barons, whom he had known only distantly, on the +other hand, came flocking around him, offering assistance and +hailing him as the savior of the duchy. Duke Angus' credit, almost +obliterated by the loss of the _Enterprise_, was firmly +re-established, and theirs with it. + +There were conferences at which lawyers and bankers argued +interminably; he attended a few at first, found himself completely +uninterested, and told everybody so. All he wanted was a ship; the +best ship possible, as soon as possible. Alex Gorram had been the +first to be notified; he had commenced work on the unfinished +sister-ship of the _Enterprise_ immediately. Until he was strong +enough to go to the shipyard himself, he watched the work on the +two-thousand-foot globular skeleton by screen, and conferred either +in person or by screen with engineers and shipyard executives. His +rooms at the ducal palace were converted, almost overnight, from +sickrooms to offices. The doctors, who had recently been urging +him to find new interests and activities, were now warning of the +dangers of overexertion. Harkaman finally added his voice to theirs. + +"You take it easy, Lucas." They had dropped formality and were +on a first-name basis now. "You got hulled pretty badly; you let +damage-control work on you, and don't strain the machinery till +it's fixed. We have plenty of time. We're not going to get anywhere +chasing Dunnan. The only way we can catch him is by interception. +The longer he moves around in the Old Federation before he hears +we're after him, the more of a trail he'll leave. Once we can +establish a predictable pattern, we'll have a chance. Then, some +time, he'll come out of hyperspace somewhere and find us waiting +for him." + +"Do you think he went to Tanith?" + +Harkaman heaved himself out of his chair and prowled about the room +for a few minutes, then came back and sat down again. + +"No. That was Duke Angus' idea, not his. He couldn't put in a base +on Tanith, anyhow. You know the kind of a crew he has." + +There had been an extensive inquiry into Dunnan's associates and +accomplices; Duke Angus was still hoping for positive proof to +implicate Omfray of Glaspyth in the piracy. Dunnan had with him +a dozen and a half employees of the Gorram shipyards whom he had +corrupted. There was some technical ability among them, but for the +most part they were agitators and trouble-makers and incompetent +workmen. Even under the circumstances, Alex Gorram was glad to see +the last of them. As for Dunnan's own mercenary company, there were +about a score of former spacemen among them; the rest graded down +from bandits through thugs and sneak-thieves to barroom bums. +Dunnan himself was an astrogator, not an engineer. + +"That gang aren't even good enough for routine raiding," Harkaman +said. "They'd never under any circumstances be able to put in a base +on Tanith. Unless Dunnan's completely crazy, which I doubt, he's gone +to some regular Viking base planet, like Hoth or Nergal or Dagon or +Xochitl, to recruit officers and engineers and able spacemen." + +"All that machinery and robotic equipment and so on that was going +to Tanith--was that aboard when he took the ship?" + +"Yes, and that's another reason why he'd go to some planet like Hoth +or Nergal or Xochitl. On a Viking-occupied planet in the Old +Federation, that stuff's almost worth its weight in gold." + +"What's Tanith like?" + +"Almost completely Terra-type, third of a Class-G sun. Very much +like Haulteclere or Flamberge. It was one of the last planets the +Federation colonized before the Big War. Nobody knows what happened, +exactly. There wasn't any interstellar war; at least, you don't find +any big slag-puddles where cities used to be. They probably did +a lot of fighting among themselves, after they got out of the +Federation. There's still some traces of combat-damage around. Then +they started to decivilize, down to the pre-mechanical level--wind +and water power and animal power. They have draft-animals that look +like introduced Terran carabaos, and a few small sailboats and big +canoes and bateaux on the rivers. They have gunpowder, which seems +to be the last thing any people lose. + +"I was there, five years ago. I liked Tanith for a base. There's one +moon, almost solid nickel iron, and fissionable-ore deposits. Then, +like a fool, I hired out to the Elmersans on Durendal and lost my +ship. When I came here, your Duke was thinking about Xipototec. I +convinced him that Tanith was a better planet for his purpose." + +"Dunnan might go there, at that. He might think he was scoring one +on Duke Angus. After all, he has all that equipment." + +"And nobody to use it. If I were Dunnan, I'd go to Nergal, or +Xochitl. There are always a couple of thousand Space Vikings on +either, spending their loot and taking it easy between raids. He +could sign on a full crew on either. I suggest we go to Xochitl, +first. We might pick up news of him, if nothing else." + + * * * * * + +All right, they'd try Xochitl first. Harkaman knew the planet, +and was friendly with the Haulteclere noble who ruled it. + +The work went on at the Gorram shipyard; it had taken a year +to build the _Enterprise_, but the steel-mills and engine-works +were over the preparatory work of tooling up, and material and +equipment was flowing in a steady stream. Lucas let them persuade +him to take more rest, and day by day grew stronger. Soon he was +spending most of his time at the shipyard, watching the engines +go in--Abbot lift-and-drive for normal space, Dillingham hyperdrive, +power-converters, pseudograv, all at the center of the globular ship. + +Living quarters and workshops went in next, all armored in +collapsium-plated steel. Then the ship lifted out to an orbit a +thousand miles off-planet, followed by swarms of armored work-craft +and cargo-lighters; the rest of the work was more easily done in +space. At the same time, the four two-hundred-foot pinnaces that +would be carried aboard were being finished. Each of them had its +own hyperdrive engines, and could travel as far and as fast as +the ship herself. + +Otto Harkaman was beginning to be distressed because the ship still +lacked a name. He didn't like having to speak of her as "her," or +"the ship," and there were many things soon to go on that should be +name-marked. _Elaine_, Trask thought, at once, and almost at once +rejected it. He didn't want her name associated with the things +that ship would do in the Old Federation. _Revenge_, _Avenger_, +_Retribution_, _Vendetta_; none appealed to him. A news-commentator, +turgidly eloquent about the nemesis which the criminal Dunnan had +invoked against himself, supplied it, _Nemesis_ it was. + +Now he was studying his new profession of interstellar robbery and +murder against which he had once inveighed. Otto Harkaman's handful +of followers became his teachers. Vann Larch, guns-and-missiles, +who was also a painter; Guatt Kirbey, sour and pessimistic, the +hyperspatial astrogator who tried to express his science in music; +Sharll Renner, the normal-space astrogator. Alvyn Karffard, the +exec, who had been with Harkaman longest of all. And Sir Paytrik +Morland, a local recruit, formerly guard-captain to Count Lionel +of Newhaven, who commanded the ground-fighters and the combat +contragravity. They were using the farms and villages of Traskon +for drill and practice, and he noticed that while the _Nemesis_ +would carry only five hundred ground and air fighters, over a +thousand were being trained. + +He commented to Rovard Grauffis. + +"Yes. Don't mention it outside," the Duke's henchman said. "You and +Sir Paytrik and Captain Harkaman will pick the five hundred best. +The Duke will take the rest into his service. Some of these days, +Omfray of Glaspyth will find out what a Space Viking raid is really +like." + +And Duke Angus would tax his new subjects of Glaspyth to redeem +the pledges on his new barony of Traskon. Some old Pre-Atomic writer +Harkaman was fond of quoting had said, "Gold will not always get +you good soldiers, but good soldiers can get you gold." + + * * * * * + +The _Nemesis_ came back to the Gorram yards and settled onto her +curved landing legs like a monstrous spider. The _Enterprise_ had +borne the Ward sword and atom-symbol; the _Nemesis_ should bear his +own badge, but the bisonoid head, tawny on green, of Traskon, was no +longer his. He chose a skull impaled on an upright sword, and it was +blazoned on the ship when he and Harkaman took her out for her +shakedown cruise. + +When they landed again at the Gorram yards, two hundred hours later, +they learned that a tramp freighter from Morglay had come into +Bigglersport in their absence with news of Andray Dunnan. Her +captain had come to Wardshaven at Duke Angus' urgent invitation +and was waiting for them at the Ducal Palace. + +They sat, a dozen of them, around a table in the Duke's private +apartments. The freighter captain, a small, precise man with a +graying beard, alternately puffed at a cigarette and sipped from +a beaker of brandy. + +"I spaced out from Morglay two hundred hours ago," he was saying. "I'd +been there twelve local days, three hundred Galactic Standard hours, +and the run from Curtana was three hundred and twenty. This ship, +the _Enterprise_, spaced out from there several days before I did. +I'd say she's twelve hundred hours out of Windsor, on Curtana, now." + +The room was still. The breeze fluttered curtains at the open +windows; from the garden below, winged night-things twittered. + +[Illustration] + +"I never expected it," Harkaman said. "I thought he'd take the ship +out to the Old Federation at once." He poured wine for himself. "Of +course, Dunnan's crazy. A crazy man has an advantage, sometimes, +like a left-handed knife-fighter. He does unexpected things." + +"That wasn't such a crazy move," Rovard Grauffis said. "We have very +little direct trade with Curtana. It's only an accident we heard +about this when we did." + +The freighter captain's beaker was half empty. He filled it to the +brim from the decanter. + +"She was the first Gram ship there for years," he agreed. "That +attracted notice, of course. And his having the blazonry changed, +from the sword and atom-symbol to the blue crescent. And the +ill-feeling on the part of other captains and planet-side employers +about the men he'd lured away from them." + +"How many men and what kind?" + +The man with the gray beard shrugged. "I was too busy getting a +cargo together for Morglay, to pay much attention. Almost a full +spaceship complement, officers and spacemen of every kind. And a +lot of industrial engineers and technicians." + +"Then he is going to use that equipment that was aboard, and put in +a base somewhere," somebody said. + +[Illustration] + +"If he left Curtana twelve hundred hours ago, he's still in +hyperspace," Guatt Kirbey said. "It's over two thousand from Curtana +to the nearest Old Federation planet." + +"How far to Tanith?" Duke Angus asked. "I'm sure that's where he's +gone. He'd expect me to finish the other ship and equip her like the +_Enterprise_ and send her out; he'd want to get there first." + +"I'd thought that Tanith would be the last place he'd go," Harkaman +said, "but this changes the whole outlook. He could have gone to Tanith." + +"He's crazy, and you're trying to apply sane logic to him," Guatt +Kirbey said. "You're figuring what you'd do, and you aren't crazy. +Of course, I've had my doubts, at times, but--" + +"Yes, he's crazy, and Captain Harkaman's allowing for that," Rovard +Grauffis said. "Dunnan hates all of us. He hates his Grace, here. +He hates Lord Lucas, and Sesar Karvall; of course, he may think +he killed both of them. He hates Captain Harkaman. So how could +he score all of us off at once? By taking Tanith." + +"You say he was buying supplies and ammunition?" + +"That's right. Gun ammunition, ship's missiles, and a lot of +ground-defense missiles." + +"What was he buying them with? Trading machinery?" + +"No. Gold." + +"Yes. Lothar Ffayle found out that a lot of gold was transferred to +Dunnan from banks in Glaspyth and Didreksburg," Grauffis said. "He +got that aboard when he took the ship, evidently." + +"All right," Trask said. "We can't be sure of anything, but we have +some reasons for thinking he went to Tanith, and that's more than +we have for any other planet in the Old Federation. I won't try to +estimate the odds against our finding him there, but they're a good +deal bigger anywhere else. We'll go there, first." + + + + +VII + + +The outside viewscreen, which had been vacantly gray for over +three thousand hours, was now a vertiginous swirl of color, the +indescribable color of a collapsing hyperspatial field. No two +observers ever saw it alike, and no imagination could vision the +actuality. Trask found that he was holding his breath. So, he +noticed, was Otto Harkaman, beside him. It was something, evidently, +that nobody got used to. Even Guatt Kirbey, the astrogator, was +sitting with his pipe clenched in his mouth, staring at the screen. + +Then, in an instant, the stars, which had literally not been there +before, filled the screen with a blaze of splendor against the black +velvet backdrop of normal space. Dead in the center, brighter than +all the rest, Ertado's Star, the sun of Tanith, burned yellowly. +The light from it was ten hours old. + +"Pretty good, Guatt," Harkaman said, picking up his cup. + +"Good, Gehenna; it was perfect," somebody else said. + +Kirbey was relighting his pipe. "Oh, I suppose it'll have to do," he +grudged, around the stem. He had gray hair and an untidy mustache, +and nothing was ever quite good enough to satisfy him. "I could have +made it a little closer. Need three microjumps, now, and I'll have +to cut the last one pretty fine. Now don't bother me." He began +punching buttons for data and fiddling with setscrews and verniers. + +For a moment, in the screen, Trask could see the face of Andray +Dunnan. He blinked it away and reached for his cigarettes, and put +one in his mouth wrong-end-to. When he reversed it and snapped his +lighter, he saw that his hand was trembling. Otto Harkaman must have +seen that, too. + +"Take it easy, Lucas," he whispered. "Keep your optimism under +control. We only think he might be here." + +"I'm sure he is. He has to be." + +No; that was the way Dunnan, himself, thought. Let's be sane about this. + +"We have to assume he is. If we do, and he isn't it's a +disappointment. If we don't, and he is, it's a disaster." + +Others, it seemed, thought the same way. The battle-stations board +was a solid blaze of red light for full combat readiness. + +"All right," Kirbey said. "Jumping." + +Then he twisted the red handle to the right and shoved it in +viciously. Again the screen boiled with colored turbulence; again +dark and mighty forces stalked through the ship like demons in a +sorcerer's tower. The screen turned featureless gray as the pickups +stared blindly into some dimensionless noplace. Then it convulsed +with color again, and this time Ertado's Star, still in the center, +was a coin-sized disk, with the little sparks of its seven planets +scattered around it. Tanith was the third--the inhabitable planet of +a G-class system usually was. It had a single moon, barely visible +in the telescopic screen, five hundred miles in diameter and fifty +thousand off-planet. + +"You know," Kirbey said, as though he was afraid to admit it, "that +wasn't too bad. I think we can make it in one more microjump." + +Some time, Trask supposed, he'd be able to use the expression +"micro-" about a distance of fifty-five million miles, too. + +"What do you think about it?" Harkaman asked him, as deferentially +as though seeking expert guidance instead of examining his +apprentice. "Where should Guatt put us?" + +"As close as possible, of course." That would be a light-second at +the least; if the _Nemesis_ came out of hyperspace any closer to +anything the size of Tanith, the collapsing field itself would +kick her back. "We have to assume Dunnan's been there at least +nine hundred hours. By that time, he could have put in a +detection-station, and maybe missile-launchers, on the moon. The +_Enterprise_ carries four pinnaces, the same as the _Nemesis_; in +his place, I'd have at least two of them on off-planet patrol. So +let's accept it that we'll be detected as soon as we come out of +the last jump, and come out with the moon directly between us and +the planet. If it's occupied, we can knock it off on the way in." + +"A lot of captains would try to come out with the moon masked off +by the planet," Harkaman said. + +"Would you?" + +The big man shook his tousled head. "No. If they have launchers on +the moon, they could launch at us in a curve around the planet, by +data relayed from the other side, and we'd be at a disadvantage +replying. Just go straight in. You hearing this, Guatt?" + +"Yeah. It makes sense. Sort of. Now, stop pestering me. Sharll, +look here a minute." + +The normal-space astrogator conferred with him; Alvyn Karffard, the +executive officer, joined them. Finally Kirbey pulled out the big +red handle, twisted it, and said, "All right, jumping." He shoved +it in. "I suppose I cut it too fine; now we'll get kicked back half +a million miles." + +The screen convulsed again; when it cleared the third planet was +directly in the center; its small moon, looking almost as large, was +a little above and to the right, sunlit on one side and planetlit on +the other. Kirbey locked the red handle, gathered up his tobacco and +lighter and things from the ledge, and pulled down the cover of the +instrument-console, locking it. + +"All yours, Sharll," he told Renner. + +"Eight hours to atmosphere," Renner said. "That's if we don't have +to waste a lot of time shooting up Junior, there." + +Vann Larch was looking at the moon in the six hundred power screen. + +"I don't see anything to shoot. Five hundred miles; one +planetbuster, or four or five thermonuclears," he said. + + * * * * * + +It wasn't right, Trask thought indignantly. Minutes ago, Tanith had +been six and a half billion miles away. Seconds ago, fifty-odd million. +And now, a quarter of a million, and looking close enough to touch +in the screen, it would take them eight hours to reach it. Why, on +hyperdrive you could go forty-eight trillion miles in that time. + +Well, it took a man just as long to walk across a room today as it +had taken Pharaoh the First, or Homo Sap. + +In the telescopic screen Tanith looked like any picture of any +Terra-type planet from space, with cloud-blurred contours of seas +and continents and a vague mottling of gray and brown and green, +topped at the pole by an icecap. None of the surface features, not +even the major mountain ranges or rivers, were yet distinguishable, +but Harkaman and Sharll Renner and Alvyn Karffard and the other old +hands seemed to recognize it. Karffard was talking by phone to Paul +Koreff, the signals-and-detection officer, who could detect nothing +from the moon and nothing that was getting through the Van Allen +belt from the planet. + +Maybe they'd guessed wrong, at that. Maybe Dunnan hadn't gone to +Tanith at all. + +Harkaman, who had the knack of putting himself to sleep at will, +with some sixth or _n_-th sense posted as a sentry, leaned back in +his chair and closed his eyes. Trask wished he could, too. It would +be hours before anything happened, and until then he needed all the +rest he could get. He drank more coffee, chain-smoked cigarettes; +he rose and prowled about the command room, looking at screens. +Signals-and-detection was getting a lot of routine stuff--Van Allen +count, micrometeor count, surface temperature, gravitation-field +strength, radar and scanner echoes. He went back to his chair and +sat down, staring at the screen-image. The planet didn't seem to be +getting any closer at all, and it ought to; they were approaching +it at better than escape velocity. He sat and stared at it. + +He woke with a start. The screen-image was much larger, now. River +courses and the shadow lines of mountains were clearly visible. It +must be early autumn in the northern hemisphere; there was snow down +to the sixtieth parallel and a belt of brown was pushing south +against the green. Harkaman was sitting up, eating lunch. By the +clock, it was four hours later. + +"Have a good nap?" he asked. "We're picking up some stuff, now. +Radio and screen signals. Not much, but some. The locals wouldn't +have learned enough for that in the five years since I was here. +We didn't stay long enough, for one thing." + +On decivilized planets that were visited by Space Vikings, the +locals picked up bits and scraps of technology very quickly. In the +four months of idleness and long conversations while they were in +hyperspace he had heard many stories confirming that. But from the +level to which Tanith had sunk, radio and screen communication in +five years was a little too much of a jump. + +"You didn't lose any men, did you?" + +That happened frequently--men who took up with local women, men who +had made themselves unpopular with their shipmates, men who just +liked the planet and wanted to stay. They were always welcomed by +the locals for what they could do and teach. + +"No, we weren't there long enough for that. Only three hundred and +fifty hours. This we're getting is outside stuff; somebody's there +beside the locals." + +Dunnan. He looked again at the battle-stations board; it was still +uniformly red-lighted. Everything was on full combat ready. He +summoned a mess-robot, selected a couple of dishes, and began +to eat. After the first mouthful, he called to Alvyn Karffard: + +"Is Paul getting anything new?" he asked. + +Karffard checked. A little contragravity-field distortion effect. +It was still too far to be sure. He went back to his lunch. He had +finished it and was lighting a cigarette over his coffee when a red +light flashed and a voice from one of the speakers shouted. + +"Detection! Detection from planet! Radar, and microray!" + +Karffard began talking rapidly into a hand-phone; Harkaman unhooked +one beside him and listened. + +"Coming from a definite point, about twenty-fifth north parallel," +he said, aside. "Could be from a ship hiding against the planet. +There's nothing at all on the moon." + + * * * * * + +They seemed to be approaching the planet more and more rapidly. +Actually, they weren't, the ship was decelerating to get into +an orbit, but the decreasing distance created the illusion of +increasing speed. The red lights flashed once more. + +"_Ship detected!_ Just outside atmosphere, coming around the planet +from the west." + +"Is she the _Enterprise_?" + +"Can't tell, yet," Karffard said, and then cried: "There she is, +in the screen! That spark, about thirty degrees north, just off +the west side." + +Aboard her, too, voices from speakers would be shouting, "Ship +detected!" and the battle station board would be blazing red. +And Andray Dunnan, at the command-desk-- + +"She's calling us." That was Paul Koreff's voice, out of the +squawk-box on the desk. "Standard Sword-World impulse-code. +Interrogative: What ship are you? Informative: her screen +combination. Request: Please communicate." + +"All right," Harkaman said. "Let's be polite and communicate. +What's her screen-combination?" + +Koreff's voice gave it, and Harkaman punched it out. The +communication screen in front of them lit at once; Trask shoved over +his chair beside Harkaman's, his hands tightening on the arms. Would +it be Dunnan himself, and what would his face show when he saw who +confronted him out of his own screen? + +It took him an instant to realize that the other ship was not the +_Enterprise_ at all. The _Enterprise_ was the _Nemesis'_ twin; her +command room was identical with his own. This one was different in +arrangements and fittings. The _Enterprise_ was a new ship; this one +was old, and had suffered for years at the hands of a slack captain +and a slovenly crew. + +And the man who sat facing him in the screen was not Andray Dunnan, +or any man he had ever seen before. A dark-faced man, with an old +scar that ran down one cheek from a little below the eye; he had +curly black hair, on his head and on a V of chest exposed by an open +shirt. There was an ashtray in front of him, and a thin curl of +smoke rose from a cigar in it, and coffee steamed in an ornate but +battered silver cup beside it. He was grinning gleefully. + +"Well! Captain Harkaman, of the _Enterprise_, I believe! Welcome +to Tanith. Who's the gentleman with you? He isn't the Duke of +Wardshaven, is he?" + + + + +VIII + + +He glanced quickly at the showback over the screen, to assure +himself that his face was not betraying him. Beside him, Otto +Harkaman was laughing. + +"Why, Captain Valkanhayn; this is an unexpected pleasure. That's +the _Space Scourge_ you're in, I take it? What are you doing here +on Tanith?" + +A voice from one of the speakers shouted that a second ship had +been detected coming over the north pole. The dark-faced man in +the screen smirked quite complacently. + +"That's Garvan Spasso, in the _Lamia_," he said. "And what we're +doing here, we've taken this planet over. We intend keeping it, too." + +"Well! So you and Garvan have teamed up. You two were just made for +one another. And you have a little planet, all your very own. I'm so +happy for both of you. What are you getting out of it--beside poultry?" + +The other's self-assurance started to slip. He slapped it back into place. + +"Don't kid me; we know why you're here. Well, we got here first. +Tanith is our planet. You think you can take it away from us?" + +"I know we could, and so do you," Harkaman told him. "We outgun you +and Spasso together; why, a couple of our pinnaces could knock the +_Lamia_ apart. The only question is, do we want to bother?" + +By now, he had recovered from his surprise, but not from his +disappointment. If this fellow thought the _Nemesis_ was the +_Enterprise_--Before he could check himself, he had finished +the thought aloud. + +"Then the _Enterprise_ didn't come here at all!" + +The man in the screen started. "Isn't that the _Enterprise_ you're in?" + +"Oh, no. Pardon my remissness, Captain Valkanhayn," Harkaman +apologized. "This is the _Nemesis_. The gentleman with me, Lord +Lucas Trask, is owner-aboard, for whom I am commanding. Lord Trask, +Captain Boake Valkanhayn, of the _Space Scourge_. Captain Valkanhayn +is a Space Viking." He said that as though expecting it to be +disputed. "So, I am told, is his associate, Captain Spasso, whose +ship is approaching. You mean to tell me that the _Enterprise_ +hasn't been here?" + +Valkanhayn was puzzled, slightly apprehensive. + +"You mean the Duke of Wardshaven has two ships?" + +"As far as I know, the Duke of Wardshaven hasn't any ships," +Harkaman replied. "This ship is the property and private adventure +of Lord Trask. The _Enterprise_, for which we are looking, is owned +and commanded by one Andray Dunnan." + +The man with the scarred face and hairy chest had picked up his cigar +and was puffing on it mechanically. Now he took it out of his mouth +as though he wondered how it had gotten there in the first place. + +"But isn't the Duke of Wardshaven sending a ship here to establish +a base? That was what we'd heard. We heard you'd gone from Flamberge +to Gram to command for him." + +"Where did you hear this? And when?" + +"On Hoth. That'd be about two thousand hours ago; a Gilgamesher +brought the news from Xochitl." + +"Well, considering it was fifth or sixth hand, your information was +good enough, when it was fresh. It was a year and a half old when +you got it, though. How long have you been here on Tanith?" + +"About a thousand hours." Harkaman clucked sadly at that. + +"Pity you wasted all that time. Well, it was nice talking to you, +Boake. Say hello to Garvan for me when he comes up." + +"You mean you're not staying?" Valkanhayn was horrified, an odd +reaction for a man who had just been expecting a bitter battle +to drive them away. "You're just spacing right out again?" + +Harkaman shrugged. "Do we want to waste time here, Lord Trask? The +_Enterprise_ has obviously gone somewhere else. She was still in +hyperspace when Captain Valkanhayn and his accomplice arrived here." + +"Is there anything worth staying for?" That seemed to be the reply +Harkaman was expecting. "Beside poultry, that is?" + +Harkaman shook his head. "This is Captain Valkanhayn's planet; his +and Captain Spasso's. Let them be stuck with it." + +"But, look; this is a good planet. There's a big local city, maybe +ten or twenty thousand people; temples and palaces and everything. +Then, there are a couple of old Federation cities. The one we're at +is in good shape, and there's a big spaceport. We've been doing +a lot of work on it. And the locals won't give you any trouble. +All they have is spears and a few crossbows and matchlocks--" + +"I know. I've been here." + +"Well, couldn't we make some kind of a deal?" Valkanhayn asked. +A mendicant whine was beginning to creep into his voice. "I can +get Garvan on screen and switch him over to your ship--" + +"Well, we have a lot of Sword-World merchandise aboard," Harkaman +said. "We could make you good prices on some of it. How are you +fixed for robotic equipment?" + +"But aren't you going to stay here?" Valkanhayn was almost in a +panic. "Listen, suppose I talk to Garvan, and we all get together +on this. Just excuse me for a minute--" + +As soon as he had blanked out, Harkaman threw back his head and +guffawed as though he had just heard the funniest and bawdiest joke +in the galaxy. Trask, himself, didn't feel like laughing. + +"The humor escapes me," he admitted. "We came here on a fools' errand." + +"I'm sorry, Lucas." Harkaman was still shaking with mirth. "I know +it's a letdown, but that pair of chiseling chicken thieves! I could +almost pity them, if it weren't so funny." He laughed again. "You +know what their idea was?" + +Trask shook his head. "Who are they?" + +"What I called them, a couple of chicken thieves. They raid planets +like Set and Hertha and Melkarth, where the locals haven't anything +to fight with--or anything worth fighting for. I didn't know they'd +teamed up, but that figures. Nobody else would team up with either +of them. What must have happened, this story of Duke Angus' Tanith +adventure must have filtered out to them, and they thought that if +they got here first, I'd think it was cheaper to take them in than +run them out. I probably would have, too. They do have ships, of a +sort, and they do raid, after a fashion. But now, there isn't going +to be any Tanith base, and they have a no-good planet and they're +stuck with it." + +"Can't they make anything out of it themselves?" + +"Like what?" Harkaman hooted. "They have no equipment, and they have +no men. Not for a job like that. The only thing they can do is space +out and forget it." + +"We could sell them equipment." + +"We could if they had anything to use for money. They haven't. One +thing, we do want to let down and give the men a chance to walk on +ground and look at a sky for a while. The girls here aren't too bad, +either," Harkaman said. "As I remember, some of them even take a +bath, now and then." + +"That's the kind of news of Dunnan we're going to get. By the time +we'd get to where he's been reported, he'd be a couple of thousand +light-years away," he said disgustedly. "I agree; we ought to give +the men a chance to get off the ship, here. We can stall this pair +along for a while and we won't have any trouble with them." + + * * * * * + +The three ships were slowly converging toward a point fifteen +thousand miles off-planet and over the sunset line. The _Space +Scourge_ bore the device of a mailed fist clutching a comet by the +head; it looked more like a whisk broom than a scourge. The _Lamia_ +bore a coiled snake with the head, arms and bust of a woman. +Valkanhayn and Spasso were taking their time about screening back, +and he began to wonder if they weren't maneuvering the _Nemesis_ +into a cross-fire position. He mentioned this to Harkaman and Alvyn +Karffard; they both laughed. + +[Illustration] + +"Just holding ship's meetings," Karffard said. "They'll be yakking +back and forth for a couple of hours, yet." + +"Yes; Valkanhayn and Spasso don't own their ships," Harkaman +explained. "They've gone in debt to their crews for supplies and +maintenance till everybody owns everything in common. The ships +look like it, too. They don't even command, really; they just +preside over elected command-councils." + +Finally, they had both of the more or less commanders on screen. +Valkanhayn had zipped up his shirt and put on a jacket. Garvan +Spasso was a small man, partly bald. His eyes were a shade too close +together, and his thin mouth had a bitterly crafty twist. He began +speaking at once: + +"Captain, Boake tells me you say you're not here in the service of +the Duke of Wardshaven at all." He said it aggrievedly. + +"That's correct," Harkaman said. "We came here because Lord Trask +thought another Gram ship, the _Enterprise_, would be here. Since +she isn't, there's no point in our being here. We do hope, though, +that you won't make any difficulty about our letting down and giving +our men a couple of hundred hours' liberty. They've been in +hyperspace for three thousand hours." + +"See!" Spasso clamored. "He wants to trick us into letting him land--" + +[Illustration] + +"Captain Spasso," Trask cut in. "Will you please stop insulting +everybody's intelligence, your own included." Spasso glared at him, +belligerently but hopefully. "I understand what you thought you were +going to do here. You expected Captain Harkaman here to establish a +base for the Duke of Wardshaven, and you thought, if you were here +ahead of him and in a posture of defense, that he'd take you into +the Duke's service rather than waste ammunition and risk damage and +casualties wiping you out. Well, I'm very sorry, gentlemen. Captain +Harkaman is in my service, and I'm not in the least interested in +establishing a base on Tanith." + +Valkanhayn and Spasso looked at each other. At least, in the two +side-by-side screens, their eyes shifted, each to the other's screen +on his own ship. + +"I get it!" Spasso cried suddenly. "There's two ships, the +_Enterprise_ and this one. The Duke of Wardshaven fitted out the +_Enterprise_, and somebody else fitted out this one. They both want +to put in a base here!" + +That opened a glorious vista. Instead of merely capitalizing on +their nuisance-value, they might find themselves holding the balance +of power in a struggle for the planet. All sorts of profitable +perfidies were possible. + +"Why, sure you can land, Otto," Valkanhayn said. "I know what it's +like to be three thousand hours in hyper, myself." + +"You're at this old city with the two tall tower-buildings, aren't +you?" Harkaman asked. He looked up at the viewscreen. "Ought to be +about midnight there now. How's the spaceport? When I was here, it +was pretty bad." + +"Oh, we've been fixing it up. We got a big gang of locals working for us--" + + * * * * * + +The city was familiar, from Otto Harkaman's descriptions and from +the pictures Vann Larch had painted during the long jump from Gram. +As they came in, it looked impressive, spreading for miles around +the twin buildings that spired almost three thousand feet above it, +with a great spaceport like an eight-pointed star at one side. +Whoever had built it, in the sunset splendor of the old Terran +Federation, must have done so confident that it would become the +metropolis of a populous and prospering world. Then the sun of the +Federation had gone down. Nobody knew what had happened on Tanith +after that, but evidently none of it had been good. + +At first, the two towers seemed as sound as when they had been +built; gradually it became apparent that one was broken at the top. +For the most part, the smaller buildings scattered widely around +them were standing, though here and there mounds of brush-grown +rubble showed where some had fallen in. The spaceport looked good--a +central octagon mass of buildings, the landing-berths, and, beyond, +the triangular areas of airship docks and warehouses. The central +building was outwardly intact, and the ship-berths seemed clear of +wreckage and rubble. + +By the time the _Nemesis_ was following the _Space Scourge_ and the +_Lamia_ down, towed by her own pinnaces, the illusion that they were +approaching a living city had vanished. The interspaces between the +buildings were choked with forest-growth, broken by a few small +fields and garden-plots. At one time, there had been three of the +high buildings, literally vertical cities in themselves. Where the +third had stood was a glazed crater, with a ridge of fallen rubble +lying away from it. Somebody must have landed a medium missile, +about twenty kilotons, against its base. Something of the same sort +had scored on the far edge of the spaceport, and one of the eight +arrowheads of docks and warehouses was an indistinguishable slag-pile. + +The rest of the city seemed to have died of neglect rather than +violence. It certainly hadn't been bombed out. Harkaman thought most +of the fighting had been done with subneutron bombs or Omega-ray +bombs, that killed the people without damaging the real estate. Or +bio-weapons; a man-made plague that had gotten out of control and +all but depopulated the planet. + +"It takes an awful lot of people, working together at an awful lot +of jobs, to keep a civilization running. Smash the installations and +kill the top technicians and scientists, and the masses don't know +how to rebuild and go back to stone hatchets. Kill off enough of the +masses and even if the planet and the know-how is left, there's +nobody to do the work. I've seen planets that decivilized both ways. +Tanith, I think, is one of the latter." + +That had been during one of the long after-dinner bull sessions on the +way out from Gram. Somebody, one of the noble gentlemen-adventurers who +had joined the company after the piracy of the _Enterprise_ and the +murder, had asked: + +"But some of them survived. Don't they know what happened?" + +"_'In the old times, there were sorcerers. They built the old +buildings by wizard arts. Then the sorcerers fought among themselves +and went away,'_" Harkaman said. "That's all they know about it." + +You could make any kind of an explanation out of that. + +As the pinnaces pulled and nudged the _Nemesis_ down to her berth, +he could see people, far down on the spaceport floor, at work. +Either Valkanhayn and Spasso had more men than the size of their +ships indicated, or they had gotten a lot of locals to work for +them. More than the population of the moribund city, at least as +Harkaman remembered it. + +There had been about five hundred in all; they lived by mining the +old buildings for metal, and trading metalwork for food and textiles +and powder and other things made elsewhere. It was accessible only +by oxcarts traveling a hundred miles across the plains; it had been +built by a contragravity-using people with utter disregard for +natural travel and transportation routes. + +"I don't envy the poor buggers," Harkaman said, looking down at the +antlike figures on the spaceport floor. "Boake Valkanhayn and Garvan +Spasso have probably made slaves of the lot of them. If I was really +going to put in a base here, I wouldn't thank that pair for the +kind of public-relations work they've been doing among the locals." + + + + +IX + + +That was just about the situation. Spasso and Valkanhayn and some of +their officers met them on the landing stage of the big building in +the middle of the spaceport, where they had established quarters. +Entering and going down a long hallway, they passed a dozen men and +women gathering up rubbish from the floor with shovels and with +their hands and putting it into a lifter-skid. Both sexes wore +shapeless garments of coarse cloth, like ponchos, and flat-soled +sandals. Watching them was another local in a kilt, buskins and a +leather jerkin; he wore a short sword on his belt and carried a +wickedly thonged whip. He also wore a Space Viking combat helmet, +painted with the device of Spasso's _Lamia_. He bowed as they +approached, putting a hand to his forehead. After they had passed, +they could hear him shouting at the others, and the sound of whip-blows. + +You make slaves out of people, and some will always be slave-drivers; +they will bow to you, and then take it out on the others. Harkaman's +nose was twitching as though he had a bit of rotten fish caught in +his mustache. + +"We have about eight hundred of them. There were only three hundred +that were any good for work here; we gathered the rest up at villages +along the big river," Spasso was saying. + +"How do you get food for them?" Harkaman asked. "Or don't you bother?" + +"Oh, we gather that up all over," Valkanhayn told him. "We send +parties out with landing craft. They'll let down on a village, run +the locals out, gather up what's around and bring it here. Once in +a while they put up a fight, but the best they have is a few crossbows +and some muzzle-loading muskets. When they do, we burn the village +and machine-gun everybody we see." + +"That's the stuff," Harkaman approved. "If the cow doesn't want to +be milked, just shoot her. Of course, you don't get much milk out of +her again, but--" + +The room to which their hosts guided them was at the far end of the +hall. It had probably been a conference room or something of the +sort, and originally it had been paneled, but the paneling had long +ago vanished. Holes had been dug here and there in the walls, and he +remembered having noticed that the door was gone and the metal +groove in which it had slid had been pried out. + +There was a big table in the middle, and chairs and couches covered +with colored spreads. All the furniture was handmade, cunningly +pegged together and highly polished. On the walls hung trophies of +weapons--thrusting-spears and throwing-spears, crossbows and quarrels, +and a number of heavy guns, crude things, but carefully made. + +"Pick all this stuff up off the locals?" Harkaman asked. + +"Yes, we got most of it at a big town down at the forks of the +river," Valkanhayn said. "We shook it down a couple of times. That's +where we recruited the fellows we're using to boss the workers." + +Then he picked up a stick with a leather-covered knob and beat on a +gong, bawling for wine. A voice, somewhere, replied, "Yes, master; I +come!" and in a few moments a woman entered carrying a jug in either +hand. She was wearing a blue bathrobe several sizes too large for +her, instead of the poncho things the slaves in the hallway wore. +She had dark brown hair and gray eyes; if she had not been so +obviously frightened she would have been beautiful. She set the jugs +on the table and brought silver cups from a chest against the wall: +when Spasso dismissed her, she went out hastily. + +"I suppose it's silly to ask if you're paying these people anything +for the work they do or for the things you take from them," Harkaman +said. From the way the _Space Scourge_ and _Lamia_ people laughed, +it evidently was. Harkaman shrugged. "Well, it's your planet. Make +any kind of a mess out of it you want to." + +"You think we _ought_ to pay them?" Spasso was incredulous. "Damn +bunch of savages!" + +"They aren't as savage as the Xochitl locals were when Haulteclere +took it over. You've been there; you've seen what Prince Viktor does +with them now." + +"We haven't got the men or equipment they have on Xochitl," +Valkanhayn said. "We can't afford to coddle the locals." + +"You can't afford not to," Harkaman told him. "You have two ships, +here. You can only use one for raiding; the other will have to stay +here to hold the planet. If you take them both away, the locals, +whom you have been studiously antagonizing, will swamp whoever you +leave behind. And if you don't leave anybody behind, what's the use +of having a planetary base?" + +"Well, why don't you join us," Spasso finally came out with it. +"With our three ships we could have a real thing, here." + +Harkaman looked at him inquiringly. "The gentlemen," Trask said, +"are putting this wrongly. They mean, why don't we let them join +us?" + +"Well, if you want to put it like that," Valkanhayn conceded. "We'll +admit, your _Nemesis_ would be the big end of it. But why not? Three +ships, we could have a real base here. Nikky Gratham's father only +had two when he started on Jagannath, and look what the Grathams got +there now." + +"Are we interested?" Harkaman asked. + +"Not very, I'm afraid. Of course, we've just landed; Tanith may +have great possibilities. Suppose we reserve decision for a while +and look around a little." + + * * * * * + +There were stars in the sky, and, for good measure, a sliver of moon +on the western horizon. It was only a small moon, but it was close. +He walked to the edge of the landing stage, and Elaine was walking +with him. The noise from inside, where the _Nemesis_ crew were +feasting with those of the _Lamia_ and _Space Scourge_, grew fainter. +To the south, a star moved; one of the pinnaces they had left on +off-planet watch. There was firelight far below, and he could hear +singing. Suddenly he realized that it was the poor devils of locals +whom Valkanhayn and Spasso had enslaved. Elaine went away quickly. + +"Have your fill of Space Viking glamour, Lucas?" + +He turned. It was Baron Rathmore, who had come along to serve for a +year or so and then hitch a ride home from some base planet and cash +in politically on having been with Lucas Trask. + +"For the moment. I'm told that this lot aren't typical." + +"I hope not. They're a pack of sadistic brutes, and piggish along +with it." + +"Well, brutality and bad manners I can condone, but Spasso and +Valkanhayn are a pair of ignominious little crooks, and stupid along +with it. If Andray Dunnan had gotten here ahead of us, he might have +done one good thing in his wretched life. I can't understand why he +didn't come here." + +"I think he still will," Rathmore said. "I knew him and I knew +Nevil Ormm. Ormm's ambitious, and Dunnan is insanely vindictive--" +He broke off with a sour laugh. "I'm telling _you_ that!" + +"Why didn't he come here directly, then?" + +"Maybe he doesn't want a base on Tanith. That would be something +constructive; Dunnan's a destroyer. I think he took that cargo of +equipment somewhere and sold it. I think he'll wait till he's fairly +sure the other ship is finished. Then he'll come in and shoot the +place up, the way--" He bit that off abruptly. + +"The way he did my wedding; I think of it all the time." + + * * * * * + +The next morning, he and Harkaman took an aircar and went to look +at the city at the forks of the river. It was completely new, in +the sense that it had been built since the collapse of Federation +civilization and the loss of civilized technologies. It was huddled +on a long, irregularly triangular mound, evidently to raise it above +flood-level. Generations of labor must have gone into it. To the +eyes of a civilization using contragravity and powered equipment it +wasn't at all impressive. Fifty to a hundred men with adequate +equipment could have gotten the thing up in a summer. It was only +by forcing himself to think in terms of spadeful after spadeful of +earth, cartload after cartload creaking behind straining beasts, +timber after timber cut with axes and dressed with adzes, stone +after stone and brick after brick, that he could appreciate it. They +even had it walled, with a palisade of tree-trunks behind which +earth and rocks had been banked, and along the river were docks, +at which boats were moored. The locals simply called it Tradetown. + +As they approached, a big gong began booming, and a white puff of +smoke was followed by the thud of a signal-gun. The boats, long +canoe-like craft and round-bowed, many-oared barges, put out hastily +into the river; through binoculars they could see people scattering +from the surrounding fields, driving cattle ahead of them. By the +time they were over the city, nobody was in sight. They seemed +to have developed a pretty fair air-raid warning system in the +nine-hundred-odd hours in which they had been exposed to the +figurative mercies of Boake Valkanhayn and Garvan Spasso. It hadn't +saved them entirely; a section of the city had been burned, and +there were evidences of shelling. Light chemical-explosive stuff; +this city was too good a cow for even those two to kill before the +milking was over. + +They circled slowly over it at a thousand feet. When they turned +away, black smoke began rising from what might have been pottery +works or brick-kilns on the outskirts; something resinous had +evidently been fed to the fires. Other columns of black smoke began +rising across the countryside on both sides of the river. + +"You know, these people are civilized, if you don't limit the term +to contragravity and nuclear energy," Harkaman said. "They have +gunpowder, for one thing, and I can think of some rather impressive +Old Terran civilizations that didn't have that much. They have an +organized society, and anybody who has that is starting toward +civilization." + +"I hate to think of what'll happen to this planet if Spasso and +Valkanhayn stay here long." + +"Might be a good thing, in the long run. Good things in the long run +are often tough while they're happening. I know what'll happen to +Spasso and Valkanhayn, though. They'll start decivilizing, themselves. +They'll stay here for a while, and when they need something they +can't take from the locals they'll go chicken-stealing after it, +but most of the time they'll stay here lording it over their slaves, +and finally their ships will wear out and they won't be able to fix +them. Then, some time, the locals'll jump them when they aren't +watching and wipe them out. But in the meantime, the locals'll +learn a lot from them." + +They turned the aircar west again along the river. They looked at a +few villages. One or two dated from the Federation period; they had +been plantations before whatever it was had happened. More had been +built within the past five centuries. A couple had recently been +destroyed, in punishment for the crime of self-defense. + +"You know," he said, at length, "I'm going to do everybody a favor. +I'm going to let Spasso and Valkanhayn persuade me to take this +planet away from them." + +Harkaman, who was piloting, turned sharply. "You crazy or something?" + +"'When somebody makes a statement you don't understand, don't tell +him he's crazy. Ask him what he means.' Who said that?" + +"On target," Harkaman grinned. "'What _do_ you mean, Lord Trask?'" + +"I can't catch Dunnan by pursuit; I'll have to get him by +interception. You know the source of that quotation, too. This looks +to me like a good place to intercept him. When he learns I have a +base here, he'll hit it, sooner or later. And even if he doesn't, +we can pick up more information on him, when ships start coming in +here, than we would batting around all over the Old Federation." + +Harkaman considered for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, if we could set +up a base like Nergal or Xochitl," he agreed. "There'll be four or +five ships, Space Vikings, traders, Gilgameshers and so on, on +either of those planets all the time. If we had the cargo Dunnan +took to space in the _Enterprise_, we could start a base like that. +But we haven't anything near what we need, and you know what Spasso +and Valkanhayn have." + +"We can get it from Gram. As it stands, the investors in the Tanith +Adventure, from Duke Angus down, lost everything they put into it. +If they're willing to throw some good money after bad, they can get +it back, and a handsome profit to boot. And there ought to be +planets above the rowboat and ox-cart level not too far away that +could be raided for a lot of things we'd need." + +"That's right; I know of half a dozen within five hundred light-years. +They won't be the kind Spasso and Valkanhayn are in the habit of +raiding, though. And besides machinery, we can get gold, and valuable +merchandise that could be sold on Gram. And if we could make a go of +it, you'd go farther hunting Dunnan by sitting here on Tanith than by +going looking for him. That was the way we used to hunt marsh pigs on +Colada, when I was a kid; just find a good place and sit down and wait." + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +They had Valkanhayn and Spasso aboard the _Nemesis_ for dinner; it +didn't take much guiding to keep the conversation on the subject of +Tanith and its resources, advantages and possibilities. Finally, +when they had reached brandy and coffee, Trask said idly: + +"I believe, together, we could really make something out of this planet." + +"That's what we've been telling you, all along," Spasso broke in +eagerly. "This is a wonderful planet--" + +"It could be. All it has now is possibilities. We'd need a +spaceport, for one thing." + +"Well, what's this, here?" Valkanhayn wanted to know. + +"It was a spaceport," Harkaman told him. "It could be one again. And +we'd need a shipyard, capable of any kind of heavy repair work. +Capable of building a complete ship, in fact. I never saw a ship +come into a Viking base planet with any kind of a cargo worth +dickering over that hadn't taken some damage getting it. Prince +Viktor of Xochitl makes a good half of his money on ship repairs, +and so do Nikky Gratham on Jagannath and the Everrards on Hoth." + +"And engine works, hyperdrive, normal space and pseudograv," Trask +added. "And a steel mill, and a collapsed-matter plant. And +robotic-equipment works, and--" + +"Oh, that's out of all reason!" Valkanhayn cried. "It would take +twenty trips with a ship the size of this one to get all that stuff +here, and how'd we ever be able to pay for it?" + +"That's the sort of base Duke Angus of Wardshaven planned. The +_Enterprise_, practically a duplicate of the _Nemesis_, carried +everything that would be needed to get it started, when she was +pirated." + +"When she was--?" + +"Now you're going to have to tell the gentlemen the truth," +Harkaman chuckled. + +"I intend to." He laid his cigar down, sipped some of his brandy, +and explained about Duke Angus' Tanith adventure. "It was part of a +larger plan; Angus wanted to gain economic supremacy for Wardshaven +to forward his political ambitions. It was, however, an entirely +practical business proposition. I was opposed to it, because I +thought it would be too good a proposition for Tanith and work to +the disadvantage of the home planet in the end." He told them about +the _Enterprise_, and the cargo of industrial and construction +equipment she carried, and then told them how Andray Dunnan had +pirated her. + +"That wouldn't have annoyed me at all; I had no money invested in +the project. What did annoy me, to put it mildly, was that just +before he took the ship out, Dunnan shot up my wedding, wounded me +and my father-in-law, and killed the lady to whom I had been married +for less than half an hour. I fitted out this ship at my own +expense, took on Captain Harkaman, who had been left without a +command when the _Enterprise_ was pirated, and came out here to +hunt Dunnan down and kill him. I believe that I can do that best by +establishing a base on Tanith myself. The base will have to be +operated at a profit, or it can't be operated at all." He picked up +the cigar again and puffed slowly. "I am inviting you gentlemen to +join me as partners." + +"Well, you still haven't told us how we're going to get the money to +finance it," Spasso insisted. + +"The Duke of Wardshaven, and the others who invested in the original +Tanith adventure will put it up. It's the only way they can recover +what they lost on the _Enterprise_." + +"But then, this Duke of Wardshaven will be running it, not us," +Valkanhayn objected. + +"The Duke of Wardshaven," Harkaman reminded him, "is on Gram. We are +here on Tanith. There are three thousand light-years between." + +That seemed a satisfactory answer. Spasso, however, wanted to know +who would run things here on Tanith. + +"We'll have to hold a meeting of all three crews," he began. + +"We will do nothing of the kind," Trask told him. "I will be running +things here on Tanith. You people may allow your orders to be +debated and voted on, but I don't. You will inform your respective +crews to that effect. Any orders you give them in my name will be +obeyed without argument." + +"I don't know how the men'll take that," Valkanhayn said. + +"I know how they'll take it if they're smart," Harkaman told him. +"And I know what'll happen if they aren't. I know how you've been +running your ships, or how your ships' crews have been running you. +Well, we don't do it that way. Lucas Trask is owner, and I'm +captain. I obey his orders on what's to be done, and everybody else +obeys mine on how to do it." + +Spasso looked at Valkanhayn, then shrugged. "That's how the man +wants it, Boake. You want to give him an argument? I don't." + +"The first order," Trask said, "is that these people you have +working here are to be paid. They are not to be beaten by these +plug-uglies you have guarding them. If any of them want to leave, +they may do so; they will be given presents and furnished +transportation home. Those who wish to stay will be issued rations, +furnished with clothing and bedding and so on as they need it, and +paid wages. We'll work out some kind of a pay-token system and set +up a commissary where they can buy things." + +Disks of plastic or titanium or something, stamped and +uncounterfeitable. Get Alvyn Karffard to see about that. Organize +work-gangs, and promote the best and most intelligent to foremen. +And those guards could be taken in hand by some ground-fighter +sergeant and given Sword-World weapons and tactical training; use +them to train others; they'd need a sepoy army of some sort. Even +the best of good will is no substitute for armed force, +conspicuously displayed and unhesitatingly used when necessary. + +"And there'll be no more of this raiding villages for food or +anything else. We will pay for anything we get from any of the +locals." + +"We'll have trouble about that," Valkanhayn predicted. "Our men +think anything a local has belongs to anybody who can take it." + +"So do I," Harkaman said. "On a planet I'm raiding. This is our +planet, and our locals. We don't raid our own planet or our own +people. You'll just have to teach them that." + + + + +X + + +It took Valkanhayn and Spasso more time and argument to convince +their crews than Trask thought necessary. Harkaman seemed satisfied, +and so was Baron Rathmore, the Wardshaven politician. + +"It's like talking a lot of uncommitted small landholders into +taking somebody's livery-and-maintenance," the latter said. "You +can't use too much pressure; make them think it's their own idea." + +There were meetings of both crews, with heated arguments; Baron +Rathmore made frequent speeches, while Lord Trask of Tanith and +Admiral Harkaman--the titles were Rathmore's suggestion--remained +loftily aloof. On both ships, everybody owned everything in common, +which meant that nobody owned anything. They had taken over Tanith +on the same basis of diffused ownership, and nobody in either crew +was quite stupid enough to think that they could do anything with +the planet by themselves. By joining the _Nemesis_, it appeared that +they were getting something for nothing. In the end, they voted to +place themselves under the authority of Lord Trask and Admiral +Harkaman. After all, Tanith would be a feudal lordship, and the +three ships together a fleet. + +Admiral Harkaman's first act of authority was to order a general +inspection of fleet units. He wasn't shocked by the condition of the +two ships, but that was only because he had expected much worse. They +were spaceworthy; after all, they had gotten here from Hoth under +their own power. They were only combat-worthy if the combat weren't +too severe. His original estimate that the _Nemesis_ could have +knocked both of them to pieces was, if anything, over-conservative. +The engines were only in fair shape, and the armament was bad. + +"We aren't going to spend our time sitting here on Tanith," he told +the two captains. "This planet is a raiding base, and 'raiding' is +the operative word. And we are not going to raid easy planets. A +planet that can be raided with impunity isn't worth the time it takes +getting to it. We are going to have to fight on every planet we hit, +and I am not going to jeopardize the lives of the men under me, +which includes your crews as well as mine, because of under-powered +and under-armed ships." + +Spasso tried to argue. "We've been getting along." + +Harkaman cursed. "Yes. I know how you've been getting along; +chicken-stealing on planets like Set and Xipototec and Melkarth. Not +making enough to cover maintenance expenses; that's why your ship's +in the shape she is. Well, those days are over. Both ships ought to +have a full overhaul, but we'll have to skip that till we have a +shipyard of our own. But I will insist, at least, that your guns and +launchers are in order. And your detection equipment; you didn't get +a fix on the _Nemesis_ till we were less than twenty thousand miles +off-planet." + +"We had better get the _Lamia_ in condition first," Trask said. "We +can put her on off-planet watch, instead of that pair of pinnaces." + + * * * * * + +Work on the _Lamia_ started the next day, and considerable friction-heat +was generated between her officers and the engineers sent over from +the _Nemesis_. Baron Rathmore went aboard, and came back laughing. + +"You know how that ship's run?" he asked. "There's a sort of soviet +of officers; chief engineer, exec, guns-and-missiles, astrogator and +so on. Spasso's just an animated ventriloquist's dummy. I talked to +all of them. None of them can pin me down to anything, but they +think we're going to heave Spasso out of command and appoint one of +them, and each one thinks he'll be it. I don't know how long that'll +last, it's a string-and-tape job like the one we're having to do on +the ship. It'll hold till we get something better." + +"We'll have to get rid of Spasso," Harkaman agreed. "I think we'll +put one of our own people in his place. Valkanhayn can stay in +command of the _Space Scourge_; he's a spaceman. But Spasso's no +good for anything." + +The local problem was complicated, too. The locals spoke Lingua +Terra of a sort, like every descendant of the race that had gone out +from the Sol system in the Third Century, but it was a barely +comprehensible sort. On civilized planets, the language had been +frozen unalterably in microbooks and voice tapes. But microbooks can +only be read and sound tapes heard with the aid of electricity, and +Tanith had lost that long ago. + +Most of the people Spasso and Valkanhayn had kidnaped and enslaved +came from villages within a radius of five hundred miles. About half +of them wanted to be repatriated; they were given gifts of knives, +tools, blankets, and bits of metal which seemed to be the chief +standard of value and medium of exchange, and shipped home. Finding +their proper villages was not easy. At each such village, the news +was spread that the Space Vikings would hereafter pay for what they +received. + +The _Lamia_ was overhauled as rapidly as possible. She was still +far from being a good ship, but she was much closer to being one than +before. She was fitted with the best detection equipment that could +be assembled, and put on orbit; Alvyn Karffard took command of her, +with some of Spasso's officers, some of Valkanhayn's, and a few from +the _Nemesis_. Harkaman was intending to use her for retraining of +all the _Lamia_ and _Space Scourge_ officers, and rotated them back +and forth. + +[Illustration] + +The labor guards, a score in number, were relieved of their duties, +issued Sword-World firearms, and given intensive training. The trade +tokens, stamps of colored plastic, were introduced, and a store was +set up where they could be exchanged for Sword-World items. After a +while, it dawned on the locals that the tokens could also be used +for trading among themselves; money seemed to have been one of the +adjuncts of civilization that had been lost along Tanith's downward +path. A few of them were able to use contragravity hand-lifters and +hand-towed lifter-skids; several were even learning to operate +things like bulldozers, at least to the extent of knowing which +lever or button did what. Give them a little time, Trask thought, +watching a gang at work down on the spaceport floor. It won't be +many years before half of them will be piloting aircars. + + * * * * * + +As soon as the _Lamia_ was on orbital watch, the _Space Scourge_ was +set down at the spaceport and work started on her. It was decided +that Valkanhayn would take her to Gram; enough _Nemesis_ people +would go along to insure good faith on his part, and to talk to Duke +Angus and the Tanith investors. Baron Rathmore, and Paytrik Morland, +and several other Wardshaven gentlemen-adventurers for the latter +function; Alvyn Karffard to act as Valkanhayn's exec, with private +orders to supersede him in command if necessary, and Guatt Kirbey +to do the astrogating. + +"We'll have to take the _Nemesis_ and the _Space Scourge_ out, +first, and make a big raid," Harkaman said. "We can't send the +_Space Scourge_ back to Gram empty. When Baron Rathmore and Lord +Valpry and the rest of them talk to Duke Angus and the Tanith +investors, they'll have to have a lot more than some travel films +of Tanith. They'll have to be able to show that Tanith is producing. +We ought to have a little money of our own to invest, too." + +"But, Otto; both ships?" That worried Trask. "Suppose Dunnan comes +and finds nobody here but Spasso and the _Lamia_?" + +"Chance we'll have to take. Personally, I think we have a year to a +year and a half before Dunnan shows up here. I know, we were fooled +trying to guess what he'd do before. But the sort of raid I have in +mind, we'll need two ships, and in any case, I don't want to leave +both those ships here while we're gone, even if you do." + +"When it comes to that, I don't think I do, either. But we can't +trust Spasso here alone, can we?" + +"We'll leave enough of our people to make sure. We'll leave +Alvyn--that'll mean a lot of work for me that he'd otherwise do, +on the ship. And Baron Rathmore, and young Valpry, and the men +who've been training our sepoys. We can shuffle things around and +leave some of Valkanhayn's men in place of some of Spasso's. We might +even talk Spasso into going along. That'll mean having to endure him +at our table, but it would be wise." + +"Have you picked a place to raid?" + +"Three of them. First, Khepera. That's only thirty light-years from +here. That won't amount to much; just chicken-stealing. It'll give +our green hands some relatively safe combat-training, and it'll give +us some idea of how Spasso's and Valkanhayn's people behave, and +give them confidence for the next job." + +"And then?" + +"Amaterasu. My information about Amaterasu is about twenty years +old. A lot of things can happen in twenty years. All I know of it--I +was never there myself--is it's fairly civilized--about like Terra +just before the beginning of the Atomic Era. No nuclear energy, they +lost that, and of course nothing beyond it, but they have hydroelectric +and solarelectric power, and nonnuclear jet aircraft, and some very good +chemical-explosive weapons, which they use very freely on each other. +It was last known to have been raided by a ship from Excalibur +twenty years ago." + +"That sounds promising. And the third planet?" + +"Beowulf. We won't take enough damage on Amaterasu to make any +difference there, but if we saved Amaterasu for last, we might +be needing too many repairs." + +"It's like that?" + +"Yes. They have nuclear energy. I don't think it would be wise to +mention Beowulf to Captains Spasso and Valkanhayn. Wait till we've +hit Khepera and Amaterasu. They may be feeling like heroes, then." + + + + +XI + + +Khepera left a bad taste in Trask's mouth. He was still tasting it +when the colored turbulence died out of the screen and left the gray +nothingness of hyperspace. Garvan Spasso--they had had no trouble in +inducing him to come along--was staring avidly at the screen as +though he could still see the ravished planet they had left. + +"That was a good one; that was a good one!" he was crowing. He'd +said that a dozen times since they had lifted out. "Three cities in +five days, and all the stuff we gathered up around them. We took +over two million stellars." + +And did ten times as much damage getting it, and there was no scale +of values by which to compute the death and suffering. + +"Knock it off, Spasso. You said that before." + +There was a time when he wouldn't have spoken to the fellow, or +anybody else, like that. Gresham's law, extended: Bad manners drive +out good manners. Spasso turned on him indignantly. + +"Who do you think you are--?" + +"He thinks he's Lord Trask of Tanith," Harkaman said. "He's right, +too; he is." He looked searchingly at Trask for a moment, then +turned back to Spasso. "I'm just as tired as he is of hearing you +pop your mouth about a lousy two million stellars. Nearer a million +and a half, but two million's nothing to pop about. Maybe it would +be for the _Lamia_, but we have a three-ship fleet and a planetary +base to meet expenses on. Out of this raid, a ground-fighter or an +able spaceman will get a hundred and fifty stellars. We'll get about +a thousand, ourselves. How long do you think we can stay in business +doing this kind of chicken-stealing." + +"You call this chicken-stealing?" + +"I call it chicken-stealing, and so'll you before we get back to +Tanith. If you live that long." + +For a moment, Spasso was still affronted. Then, temporarily, his +vulpine face showed avaricious hope, and then apprehension. +Evidently he knew Otto Harkaman's reputation, and some of the things +Harkaman had done weren't his idea of an easy way to make money. + +Khepera had been easy; the locals hadn't had anything to fight with. +Small arms, and light cannon which hadn't been able to fire more +than a few rounds. Wherever they had attempted resistance, the +combat cars had swooped in, dropping bombs and firing machine guns +and auto-cannon. Yet they had fought, bitterly and hopelessly--just +as he would have, defending Traskon. + +Trask busied himself getting coffee and a cigarette from one of the +robots. When he looked up, Spasso had gone away, and Harkaman was +sitting on the edge of the desk, loading his short pipe. + +"Well, you saw the elephant, Lucas," Harkaman said. "You don't seem +to have liked it." + +"Elephant?" + +"Old Terran expression I read somewhere. All I know is that an +elephant was an animal about the size of one of your Gram megatheres. +The expression means, experiencing something for the first time +which makes a great impression. Elephants must have been something +to see. This was your first Viking raid. You've seen it, now." + +He'd been in combat before; he'd led the fighting-men of Traskon +during the boundary dispute with Baron Manniwel, and there were +always bandits and cattle rustlers. He'd thought it would be like +that. He remembered, five days, or was it five ages, ago, his +excited anticipation as the city grew and spread in the screen and +the _Nemesis_ came dropping down toward it. The pinnaces, his four +and the two from the _Space Scourge_, had gone spiraling out a +hundred miles beyond the city; the _Space Scourge_ had gone into +a tighter circle twenty miles from its center; the _Nemesis_ had +continued her relentless descent until she was ten miles from the +ground, before she began spewing out landing craft, and combat cars, +and the little egg-shaped one-man air-cavalry mounts. It had been +thrilling. Everything had gone perfectly; not even Valkanhayn's gang +had goofed. + +Then the screenviews had begun coming in. The brief and hopeless +fight in the city. He could still see that silly little field gun, +it must have been around seventy or eighty millimeter, on a +high-wheeled carriage, drawn by six shaggy, bandy-legged beasts. +They had gotten it unlimbered and were trying to get it on a target +when a rocket from an aircar landed directly under the muzzle. Gun, +caisson, crew, even the draft team fifty yards behind, had simply +vanished. + +Or the little company, some of them women, trying to defend the top +of a tall and half-ruinous building with rifles and pistols. One +air-cavalryman wiped them all out with his machine guns. + +"They don't have a chance," he'd said, half-sick. "But they keep on +fighting." + +"Yes; stupid of them, isn't it?" Harkaman, beside him, had said. + +"What would you do in their place?" + +"Fight. Try to kill as many Space Vikings as I could before they got +me. Terro-humans are all stupid like that. That's why we're human." + + * * * * * + +If the taking of the city had been a massacre, the sack that had +followed had been a man-made Hell. He had gone down, along with +Harkaman, while the fighting, if it could be so called, was still +going on. Harkaman had suggested that the men ought to see him +moving about among them; for his own part, he had felt a compulsion +to share their guilt. + +He and Sir Paytrik Morland had been on foot together in one of the +big hollow buildings that had stood since Khepera had been a Member +Republic of the Terran Federation. The air was acrid with smoke, +powder smoke and the smoke of burning. It was surprising, how much +would burn, in this city of concrete and vitrified stone. It was +surprising, too, how well-kept everything was, at least on the +ground level. These people had taken pride in their city. + +They found themselves alone, in a great empty hallway; the noise and +horror of the sack had moved away from them, or they from it, and +then, when they entered a side hall, they saw a man, one of the +locals, squatting on the floor with the body of a woman cradled on +his lap. She was dead, half her head had been blown off, but he was +clasping her tightly, her blood staining his shirt, and sobbing +heartbrokenly. A carbine lay forgotten on the floor beside him. + +"Poor devil," Morland said, and started forward. + +"No." + +Trask stopped him with his left hand. With his right, he drew his +pistol and shot the man dead. Morland was horrified. + +"Great Satan, Lucas! Why did you do that?" + +"I wish Andray Dunnan had done that for me." He thumbed the safety +on and holstered the pistol. "None of this would be happening if +he had. How many more happinesses do you think we've smashed here +today? And we don't even have Dunnan's excuse of madness." + +The next morning, with everything of value collected and sent +aboard, they had started cross-country for five hundred miles to +another city, the first hundred over a countryside asmoke from +burning villages Valkanhayn's men had pillaged the night before. +There was no warning; Khepera had lost electricity and radio and +telegraph, and the spread of news was at the speed of one of the +beasts the locals insisted on calling horses. By midafternoon, they +had finished with that city. It had been as bad as the first one. + +One thing, it was the center of a considerable cattle country. The +cattle were native to the planet, heavy-bodied unicorns the size of +a Gram bisonoid or one of the slightly mutated Terran carabaos on +Tanith, with long hair like a Terran yak. He had detailed a dozen of +the _Nemesis_ ground-fighters who had been vaqueros on his Traskon +ranches to collect a score of cows and four likely bulls, with +enough fodder to last them on the voyage. The odds were strongly +against any of them living to acclimate themselves to Tanith, but +if they did, they might prove to be one of the most valuable pieces +of loot from Khepera. + +The third city was at the forks of a river, like Tradetown on +Tanith. Unlike it, this was a real metropolis. They should have +gone there first of all. They spent two days systematically pillaging +it. The Kheperans carried on considerable river-traffic, with +stern-wheel steamboats, and the waterfront was lined with warehouses +crammed with every sort of merchandise. Even better, the Kheperans +had money, and for the most part it was gold specie, and the bank +vaults were full of it. + +Unfortunately, the city had been built since the fall of the +Federation and the climb up from the barbarism that had followed, +and a great deal of it was of wood. Fires started almost at once, +and it was almost completely on fire by the end of the second day. +It had been visible in the telescopic screen even after they were +out of atmosphere, a black smear until the turning planet carried +it into darkness and then a lurid glow. + + * * * * * + +"It was a filthy business." + +Harkaman nodded. "Robbery and murder always are. You don't have to +ask me who said that Space Vikings are professional robbers and +murderers, but who was it said that he didn't care how many planets +were raided and how many innocents massacred in the Old Federation?" + +"A dead man. Lucas Trask of Traskon." + +"You wish, now, that you'd kept Traskon and stayed on Gram?" + +"No. If I had, I'd have spent every hour wishing I was doing what +I'm doing now. I can get used to this, I suppose." + +"I think you will. At least, you kept your rations down. I didn't on +my first raid, and had bad dreams about it for a year." He gave his +coffee cup back to the robot and got to his feet. "Get a little +rest, for a couple of hours. Then draw some alcodote-vitamin pills +from the medic. As soon as things are secured, there'll be parties +all over the ship, and we'll be expected to look in on every one of +them, have a drink, and say 'Well done, boys.'" + + * * * * * + +Elaine came to him, while he was resting. She looked at him in +horror, and he tried to hide his face from her, and then realized +that he was trying to hide it from himself. + + + + +XII + + +They came straight down on Eglonsby, on Amaterasu, the _Nemesis_ +and the _Space Scourge_ side by side. The radar had picked them up +at point-five light-seconds; by this time the whole planet knew +they were coming, and nobody was wondering why. Paul Koreff was +monitoring at least twenty radio stations, assigning somebody to +each one as it was identified. What was coming in was uniformly +excited, some panicky, and all in fairly standard Lingua Terra. + +Garvan Spasso was perturbed. So, in the communication screen from +the _Space Scourge_, was Boake Valkanhayn. + +"They got radio, and they got radar," he clamored. + +"Well, so what?" Harkaman asked. "They had radio and radar twenty +years ago, when Rock Morgan was here in the _Coalsack_. But they +don't have nuclear energy, do they?" + +"Well, no. I'm picking up a lot of industrial electrical discharge, +but nothing nuclear." + +"All right. A man with a club can lick a man with his fists. A man +with a gun can lick half a dozen with clubs. And two ships with +nuclear weapons can lick a whole planet without them. Think it's +time, Lucas?" + +He nodded. "Paul, can you cut in on that Eglonsby station yet?" + +"What are you going to do?" Valkanhayn wanted to know, against it +in advance. + +"Summon them to surrender. If they don't, we will drop a hellburner, +and then we will pick out another city and summon it to surrender. +I don't think the second one will refuse. If we are going to be +murderers, we'll do it right, this time." + +Valkanhayn was aghast, probably at the idea of burning an unlooted +city. Spasso was sputtering something about, "... Teach the dirty +Neobarbs a lesson--" Koreff told him he was switched on. He picked +up a hand-phone. + +"Space Vikings _Nemesis_ and _Space Scourge_, calling the city of +Eglonsby. Space Vikings...." + +He repeated it for over a minute; there was no reply. + +"Vann," he called Guns-and-Missiles. "A subcrit display job, about +four miles over the city." + +He laid the phone down and looked to the underside viewscreen. A +little later, a silvery shape dropped away from the ship's south +pole. The telescopic screen went off, and the unmagnified screen +darkened as the filters went on. Valkanhayn, aboard the other ship, +was shouting a warning about his own screens. The only unfiltered +screen aboard the _Nemesis_ was the one tuned to the falling +missile. The city of Eglonsby rushed upward in it, and then it went +suddenly dark. There was an orange-yellow blaze in the other +screens. After a while, the filters went off and the telescopic +screen went on again. He picked up the phone. + +"Space Vikings calling Eglonsby; this is your last warning. +Communicate at once." + +Less than a minute later, a voice came out of one of the speakers: + +"Eglonsby calling Space Vikings. Your bomb has done great damage. +Will you hold your fire until somebody in authority can communicate +with you? This is the chief operator at the central State telecast +station; I have no authority to say anything to you, or discuss +anything." + +"Oh, good, that sounds like a dictatorship," Harkaman was saying. +"Grab the dictator and shove a pistol in his face and you have +everything." + +"There is nothing to discuss. Get somebody who has authority to +surrender the city to us. If this is not done within the hour, +the city and everybody in it will be obliterated." + +Only minutes later, a new voice said: + +"This is Gunsalis Jan, secretary to Pedrosan Pedro, President of +the Council of Syndics. We will switch President Pedrosan over as +soon as he can speak directly to the personage in supreme command +of your ships." + +"That is myself; switch him to me at once." + +After a delay of less than fifteen seconds they had President +Pedrosan Pedro. + +"We are prepared to resist, but we realize what this would cost in +lives and destruction of property," he began. + +"You don't begin to. Do you know anything about nuclear weapons?" + +"From history; we have no nuclear power of any sort. We can find no +fissionables on this planet." + +"The cost, as you put it, would be everything and everybody in +Eglonsby and for a radius of almost a hundred miles. Are you still +prepared to resist?" + +The President of the Council of Syndics wasn't and said so. Trask +asked him how much authority his position gave him. + +"I have all powers in any emergency. I think," the voice added +tonelessly, "that this is an emergency. The council will +automatically ratify any decision I make." + +Harkaman depressed a button in front of him. "What I said; +dictatorship, with parliamentary false front." + +"If he isn't a false-front dictator for some oligarchy." He motioned +to Harkaman to take his thumb off the button. "How large is this Council?" + +"Sixteen, elected by the Syndicates they represent. There is the +Syndicate of Labor, the Syndicate of Manufacturers, the Syndicate +of Small Businesses, the...." + +"Corporate State, First Century Pre-Atomic on Terra. Benny the Moose," +Harkaman said. "Let's all go down and talk to them." + +[Illustration] + +When they were sure that the public had been warned to make no +resistance, the _Nemesis_ went down to two miles, bulking over +the center of the city. The buildings were low by the standards of +a contragravity-using people, the highest barely a thousand feet +and few over five hundred, and they were more closely set than +Sword-Worlders were accustomed to, with broad roadways between. In +several places there were queer arrangements of crossed roadways, +apparently leading nowhere. Harkaman laughed when he saw them. + +"Airstrips. I've seen them on other planets where they've lost +contragravity. For winged aircraft powered by chemical fuel. I hope +we have time for me to look around, here. I'll bet they even have +railroads here." + +The "great damage" caused by the bomb was about equal to the effect +of a medium hurricane; he had seen worse from high winds at Traskon. +Mostly it had been moral, which had been the kind intended. + +They met President Pedrosan and the council of Syndics in a spacious +and well-furnished chamber near the top of one of the medium-high +buildings. Valkanhayn was surprised; in a loud aside he considered +that these people must be almost civilized. They were introduced. +Amaterasuan surnames preceded personal names, which hinted at a +culture and a political organization making much use of registration +by alphabetical list. They all wore garments which had the indefinable +but unmistakable appearance of uniforms. When they had all seated +themselves at a large oval table, Harkaman drew his pistol and used +the butt for a gavel. + +[Illustration] + +"Lord Trask, will you deal with these people directly?" he asked, +stiffly formal. + +"Certainly, Admiral." He spoke to the President, ignoring the +others. "We want it understood that we control this city, and we +expect complete submission. As long as you remain submissive to us, +we will do no damage beyond removal of the things we wish to take +from it, and there will be no violence to any of your people, or any +indiscriminate vandalism. This visit we are paying you will cost you +heavily, make no mistake about that, but whatever the cost, it will +be a cheap price for avoiding what we might otherwise do." + +The President and the Syndics exchanged relieved glances. Let +the taxpayers worry about the cost; they'd come out of it with +whole skins. + +"You understand, we want maximum value and minimum bulk," he +continued. "Jewels, objects of art, furs, the better grades of +luxury goods of all kinds. Rare-element metals. And monetary metals, +gold and platinum. You have a metallic-based currency, I suppose?" + +"Oh, no!" President Pedrosan was slightly scandalized. "Our currency +is based on services to society. Our monetary unit is simply called +a credit." + +Harkaman snorted impolitely. Evidently he'd seen economic systems like +that before. Trask wanted to know if they used gold or platinum at all. + +"Gold, to some extent, for jewelry." Evidently they weren't complete +economic puritans. "And platinum in industry, of course." + +"If they want gold, they should have raided Stolgoland," one of the +Syndics said. "They have a gold-standard currency." From the way he +said it, he might have been accusing them of eating with their +fingers, and possibly of eating their own young. + +"I know, the maps we're using for this planet are a few centuries old; +Stolgoland doesn't seem to appear on them." + +"I wish it didn't appear on ours, either." That was General Dagro +Ector, Syndic for State Protection. + +"It would have been a good thing for this whole planet if you'd +decided to raid them instead of us," somebody else said. + +"It isn't too late for these gentlemen to make that decision," +Pedrosan said. "I gather that gold is a monetary metal among your +people?" When Trask nodded, he continued: "It is also the basis of +the Stolgonian currency. The actual currency is paper, theoretically +redeemable in gold. In actuality, the circulation of gold has been +prohibited, and the entire gold wealth of the nation is concentrated +in vaults at three depositories. We know exactly where they are." + +"You begin to interest me, President Pedrosan." + +"I do? Well, you have two large spaceships and six smaller craft. +You have nuclear weapons, something nobody on this planet has. You +have contragravity, something that is hardly more than a legend +here. On the other hand, we have a million and a half ground-troops, +jet aircraft, armored ground-vehicles, and chemical weapons. If you +will undertake to attack Stolgoland, we will place this entire force +at your disposal; General Dagro will command them as you direct. All +that we ask is that, when you have loaded the gold hoards of +Stolgoland aboard your ships, you will leave our troops in +possession of the country." + + * * * * * + +That was all there was to that meeting. There was a second one; only +Trask, Harkaman and Sir Paytrik Morland represented the Space Vikings, +and the Eglonsby government was represented by President Pedrosan +and General Dagro. They met more intimately, in a smaller and more +luxurious room in the same building. + +"If you're going to declare war on Stolgoland, you'd better get +along with it," Morland advised. + +"What?" Pedrosan seemed to have only the vaguest idea of what he was +talking about. "You mean, warn them? Certainly not. We will attack +them by surprise. It will be nothing but plain self-defense," he +added righteously. "The oligarchic capitalists of Stolgoland have +been plotting to attack us for years." + +"Yes. If you had carried out your original intention of looting +Eglonsby, they would have invaded us the moment your ships lifted +out. It's exactly what I'd do in their place." + +"But you maintain nominally friendly relations with them?" + +"Of course. We are civilized. The peace-loving government and people +of Eglonsby...." + +"Yes, Mr. President; I understand. And they have an embassy here?" + +"They call it that!" cried Dagro. "It is a nest of vipers, +a plague-spot of espionage and subversion...!" + +"We'll grab that ourselves, right away," Harkaman said. "You won't be +able to round up all their agents outside it, and if we tried to, it +would cause suspicion. We'll have to put up a front to deceive them." + +"Yes. You will go on the air at once, calling on the people to +collaborate with us, and you will specifically order your troops +mobilized to assist us in collecting the tribute we are levying on +Eglonsby," Trask said. "In that way, if any Stolgonian spies see +your troops concentrated around our landing craft, they'll think +it's to help us load our loot." + +"And we'll announce that a large part of the tribute will consist of +military equipment," Dagro added. "That will explain why our guns +and tanks are being loaded on your contragravity vehicles." + + * * * * * + +When the Stolgonian embassy was seized by the Space Vikings, the +ambassador asked to be taken at once to their leader. He had a +proposition: If the Space Vikings would completely disable the army +of Eglonsby and admit Stolgonian troops when they were ready to +leave, the invaders would bring with them ten thousand kilos of +gold. Trask affected to be very hospitable to the offer. + +Stolgoland lay across a narrow and shallow sea from the State of +Eglonsby; it was dotted with islands, and every one of them was, in +turn, dotted with oil wells. Petroleum was what kept the aircraft +and ground-vehicles of Amaterasu in operation; oil, rather than +ideology, was at the root of the enmity between the two nations. +Apparently the Stolgonian espionage in Eglonsby was completely +deceived, and the reports Trask allowed the captive ambassador to +make confirmed the deception. Hourly the Eglonsby radio stations +poured out exhortations to the people to co-operate with the Space +Vikings, with an occasional lamentation about the masses of war +materials being taken. Eglonsby espionage in Stolgoland was +similarly active. The Stolgonian armies were being massed at four +seaports on the coast facing Eglonsby, and there was a frantic +gathering of every sort of ship available. By this time, any +sympathy that Trask might have felt for either party had evaporated. + +The invasion of Stolgoland started the fifth morning after their +arrival over Eglonsby. Before dawn, the six pinnaces went in, making +a wide sweep around the curvature of the planet and coming in from +the north, two to each of the three gold-troves. They were detected +by radar, eventually but too late for any effective resistance to +be organized. Two were even taken without a shot; by mid-morning all +three had been blown open and the ingots and specie were being removed. + +The four seaports from whence the Stolgonian invasion of Eglonsby +was to have been launched were neutralized by nuclear bombing. +Neutralized was a nice word, Trask thought; there was no echo in it +of the screams of the still-living, maimed and burned and blinded, +around the fringes of ground-zero. The _Nemesis_ and the _Space +Scourge_, from landing craft and from the ships themselves, landed +Eglonsby troops on Stolgonopolis. While they were sacking the city, +with all the usual atrocities, the Space Vikings were loading the +gold, and anything else that was of more than ordinary value, +aboard the ships. + + * * * * * + +They were still at it the next morning when President Pedrosan +arrived at the newly conquered capital, announcing his intention of +putting the Stolgonian chief of state and his cabinet on trial as +war criminals. Before sunset, they were back over Eglonsby. The loot +might run as high as a half-billion Excalibur stellars. Boake +Valkanhayn and Garvan Spasso were simply beyond astonishment +and beyond words. + +The looting of Eglonsby then began. + +They gathered up machinery, and stocks of steel and light-metal +alloys. The city was full of warehouses, and the warehouses were +crammed with valuables. In spite of the socialistic and egalitarian +verbiage behind which the government operated, there seemed to be a +numerous elite class and if gold were not a monetary metal it was +not despised for purposes of ostentation. There were several large +art museums. Vann Larch, their nearest approach to an art +specialist, took charge of culling the best from them. + +And there was a vast public library. Into this Otto Harkaman +vanished, with half a dozen men and a contragravity scow. Its +historical section would be much poorer in the future. + +President Pedrosan Pedro was on the radio from Stolgonopolis that night. + +"Is this how you Space Vikings keep faith?" he demanded indignantly. +"You've abandoned me and my army here in Stolgoland, and you're +sacking Eglonsby. You promised to leave Eglonsby alone if I helped +you get the gold of Stolgoland." + +"I promised nothing of the kind. I promised to help you take +Stolgoland. You've taken it," Trask told him. "I promised to avoid +unnecessary damage or violence. I've already hanged a dozen of my +own men for rape, murder and wanton vandalism. Now, we expect to be +out of here in twenty-four hours. You'd better be back here before +then. Your own people are starting to loot. We did not promise to +control them for you." + +That was true. What few troops had been left behind, and the police, +were unable to cope with the mobs that were pillaging in the wake of +the Space Vikings. Everybody seemed to be trying to grab what he +could and let the Vikings be blamed for it. He had been able to keep +his own people in order. There had been at least a dozen cases of +rape and wanton murder, and the offenders had been promptly hanged. +None of their shipmates, not even the _Space Scourge_ company, seemed +resentful. They felt the culprits had deserved what they'd gotten; +not for what they'd done to the locals, but for disobeying orders. + +A few troops had been flown in from Stolgoland by the time they had +gotten their vehicles stowed and were lifting out. They didn't seem +to be making much headway. Harkaman, who had gotten his load of +microbooks stowed and was at the command desk, laughed heartily. + +"I don't know what Pedrosan'll do. Gehenna, I don't even know what +I'd do, if I'd gotten myself into a mess like that. He'll probably +bring half his army back, leave the other half in Stolgoland, and +lose both. Suppose we drop in, in about three or four years, just +out of curiosity. If we make twenty per cent of what we did this +time, the trip would pay for itself." + +After they went into hyperspace and had the ship secured, the +parties lasted three Galactic standard days, and nobody was at all +sober. Harkaman was drooling over the mass of historical material he +had found. Spasso was jubilant. Nobody could call this chicken-stealing. +He kept repeating that as long as he was able to say anything. Khepera, +he conceded, had been. Lousy two or three million stellars; poo! + + + + +XIII + + +Beowulf was bad. + +Valkanhayn and Spasso had both been opposed to the raid. Nobody +raided Beowulf; Beowulf was too tough. Beowulf had nuclear energy +and nuclear weapons and contragravity and normal-space craft, they +even had colonies on a couple of other planets of their system. They +had everything but hyperdrive. Beowulf was a civilized planet, and +you didn't raid civilized planets, not and get away with it. + +And beside, hadn't they gotten enough loot on Amaterasu? + +"No, we did not," Trask told them. "If we're going to make anything +out of Tanith, we're going to need power, and I don't mean windmills +and waterwheels. As you've remarked, Beowulf has nuclear energy. +That's where we get our plutonium and our power units." + +So they went to Beowulf. They came out of hyperspace eight light-hours +from the F-7 star of which Beowulf was the fourth planet, and twenty +light-minutes apart. Guatt Kirbey made a microjump that brought the +ships within practical communicating distance, and they began making +plans in an intership screen conference. + +"There are, or were, three chief sources of fissionable ores," +Harkaman said. "The last ship to raid here and get away was Stefan +Kintour's _Princess of Lyonesse_, sixty years ago. He hit one on the +Antarctic continent; according to his account, everything there was +fairly new. He didn't mess things up too badly, and it ought to be +still operating. We'll go in from the south pole, and we'll have to +go in fast." + +They shifted personnel and equipment. They would go in bunched, the +pinnaces ahead; they and the _Space Scourge_ would go down to the +ground, while the better-armed _Nemesis_ would hover above to fight +off local contragravity, shoot down missiles, and generally provide +overhead cover. Trask transferred to the _Space Scourge_, taking +with him Morland and two hundred of the _Nemesis_ ground-fighters. +Most of the single-mounts, landing craft and manipulators and +heavy-duty lifters went with him, jamming the decks around the +vehicle ports of Valkanhayn's ship. + +They jumped in to six light-minutes, and while Valkanhayn's +astrogator was still fiddling with his controls they began sensing +radar and microray detection. When they came out again, they were +two light-seconds off the south pole, and half a dozen ships were +either in orbit or coming up from the planet. All normal-space +craft, of course, but some were almost as big as the _Nemesis_. + +From there on, it was a nightmare. + +Ships pounded at them with guns, and they pounded back. Missiles +went out, and counter-missiles stopped them in rapidly expanding and +quickly vanishing globes of light. Red lights flashed on the damage +board, and sirens howled and klaxons squawked. In the outside-view +screens, they saw the _Nemesis_ vanish in a blaze of radiance, and +then, while their hearts were still in their throats, come out of it +again. Red lights went off on the board as damage-control crews and +their robots sealed the breaches in the hull and pumped air back +into evacuated areas, and then more red lights came on. + +Occasionally, he would glance toward Boake Valkanhayn, who sat +motionless in his chair, chewing a cigar that had gone out long ago. +He wasn't enjoying it, but he wasn't showing fear. Once a Beowulfer +vanished in a supernova flash, and when the ball of incandescence +widened to nothing the ship was gone. All Valkanhayn said was: "Hope +one of our boys did that." + +They fought their way in and down, toward the atmosphere. Another +Beowulf ship blew up, a craft about the size of Spasso's _Lamia_. +A moment later, another; Valkanhayn was pounding the desk in front +of him with his fist and yelling: "That was one of ours! Find out +who launched it; get his name!" + +Missiles were coming up from the planet, now. Valkanhayn's detection +officer was trying to locate the source. While he was trying, a big +melon-shaped thing fell away from the _Nemesis_, and in the jiggling, +radiation-distorted intership screen Harkaman's image was laughing. + +"Hellburner just went off; target about 50 deg. south, 25 deg. east of the +sunrise line. That's where those missiles are coming from." + +Counter-missiles sped toward the big metal melon; defense missiles, +robot-launched, met them. The hellburner's track was marked first +by expanding red and orange globes in airless space and then by +fire-puffs after it entered atmosphere. It vanished into the darkness +beyond the sunset, and then made sunlight of its own. It _was_ sunlight; +a Bethe solar-phoenix reaction, and it would sustain itself for hours. +He hoped it hadn't landed within a thousand miles of their objective. + + * * * * * + +The ground operation was a nightmare of a different sort. He went down +in a command car, with Paytrik Morland and a couple of others. There +were missiles and gun batteries. There were darting patterns of flights +of combat vehicles, blazing gunfire, and single vehicles that shot past +or blew up in front of them. Robots on contragravity--military robots, +with missiles to launch, and working robots with only their own mass to +hurl, flung themselves mindlessly at them. Screens that went crazy from +radiation; speakers that jabbered contradictory orders. Finally, the +battle, which had raged in the air over two thousand square miles of +mines and refineries and reaction plants, became two distinct and +concentrated battles, one at the packing plant and storage vaults and +one at the power-unit cartridge factory. + +Three pinnaces came down to form a triangle over each; the _Space +Scourge_ hung midway between, poured out a swarm of vehicles and big +claw-armed manipulators; armored lighters and landing craft shuttled +back and forth. The command car looped and dodged from one target to the +other; at one, keg-like canisters of plutonium, collapsium-plated and +weighing tons apiece, were coming out of the vaults, and at the other +lifters were bringing out loads of nuclear-electric power-unit +cartridges, some as big as a ten liter jar, to power a spaceship engine, +and some small as a round of pistol ammunition, for things like +flashlights. + +Every hour or so, he looked at his watch, and it would be three or +four minutes later. + +At last, when he was completely convinced that he had really been +killed, and was damned and would spend all eternity in this +fire-riven chaos, the _Nemesis_ began firing red flares and the +speakers in all the vehicles were signaling recall. He got aboard +the _Space Scourge_ somehow, after assuring himself that nobody who +was alive was left behind. + +There were twenty-odd who weren't, and the sick bay was full of +wounded who had gone up with cargo, and more were being helped off +the vehicles as they were berthed. The car in which he had been +riding had been hit several times, and one of the gunners was +bleeding under his helmet and didn't seem aware of it. When he got +to the command room, he found Boake Valkanhayn, his face drawn and +weary, getting coffee from a robot and lacing it with brandy. + +"That's it," he said, blowing on the steaming cup. It was the +battered silver one that had been in front of him when he had first +appeared in the _Nemesis'_ screen. He nodded toward the damage +screen; everything had been patched up, or the outer decks around +breached portions of the hull sealed. "Ship secure." He set down +the silver mug and lit a cigar. "To quote Garvan Spasso, 'Nobody +can call that chicken-stealing.'" + +"No. Not even if you count Tizona giraffe-birds as chickens. That +Gram gum-pear brandy you're putting in that coffee? I'll have the +same. Just leave out the coffee." + + + + +XIV + + +The _Lamia_'s detection picked them up as soon as they were out of +the last microjump; Trask's gnawing fear that Dunnan might attack in +their absence had been groundless. Incredibly, he realized, they had +been gone only thirty-odd Galactic Standard days, and in that time +Alvyn Karffard had done an incredible amount of work. + +He had gotten the spaceport completely cleared of rubble and debris, +and he had the woods cleared away from around it and the two tall +buildings. The locals called the city Rivvin; a few inscriptions +found here and there in it indicated that the original name had been +Rivington. He had done considerable mapping, in some detail of the +continent on which it was located and, in general, of the rest of +the planet. And he had established friendly relations with the +people of Tradetown and made friends with their king. + +Nobody, not even those who had collected it, quite believed their +eyes when the loot was unloaded. The little herd of long haired +unicorns--the Khepera locals had called them kreggs, probably a +corruption of the name of some naturalist who had first studied +them--had come through the voyage and even the Battle of Beowulf +in good shape. Trask and a few of his former cattlemen from Traskon +watched them anxiously, and the ship's doctor, acting veterinarian, +made elaborate tests of vegetation they would be likely to eat. +Three of the cows proved to be with calf; these were isolated and +watched over with especial solicitude. + +[Illustration] + +The locals were inclined to take a poor view of the kreggs, at +first. Cattle ought to have two horns, one on either side, curved +back. It wasn't right for cattle to have only one horn, in the +middle, slanting forward. + +Both ships had taken heavy damage. The _Nemesis_ had one pinnace +berth knocked open, and everybody was glad the Beowulfers hadn't +noticed that and gotten a missile inside. The _Space Scourge_ had +taken a hit directly on her south pole while lifting out from the +planet, and a good deal of the southern part of the ship was sealed +off when she came in. The _Nemesis_ was repaired as far as possible +and put on off-planet patrol, then they went to work on the _Space +Scourge_, transferring much of her armament to ground defense, +clearing out all the available cargo space, and repairing her hull +as far as possible. To repair her completely was a job for a regular +shipyard, like Alex Gorram's on Gram. And that was where the work +would be done. + +Boake Valkanhayn would command her on the voyage to and from Gram. +Since Beowulf, Trask had not only ceased to dislike the man, but was +beginning to admire him. He had been a good man once, before ill +fortune which had been only partly of his own making had overtaken +him. He'd just let himself go and stopped caring. Now he had taken +hold of himself again. It had started showing after they had landed +on Amaterasu. He had begun to dress more neatly and speak more +grammatically; to look and act more like a spaceman and less like a +barfly. His men had begun to jump to obey when he gave an order. He +had opposed the raid on Beowulf, but that had been the dying +struggle of the chicken-thief he had been. He had been scared, going +in; well, who hadn't been, except a few greenhorns brave with the +valor of ignorance. But he had gone in, and fought his ship well, +and had held his station over the fissionables plant in a hell of +bombs and missile, and he had made sure everybody who had gone down +and who was still alive was aboard before he lifted out. + +He was a Space Viking again. + +Garvan Spasso wasn't, and never would be. He was outraged when he +heard that Valkanhayn would take his ship, loaded with much of the +loot of the three planets, to Gram. He came to Trask, fairly +spluttering about it. + +"You know what'll happen?" he demanded. "He'll space out with that +cargo, and that'll be the last any of us'll hear of him again. He'll +probably take it to Joyeuse or Excalibur and buy himself a lordship +with it." + +"Oh, I doubt that, Garvan. A number of our people are going +along--Guatt Kirbey will be the astrogator; you'd trust him, +wouldn't you? And Sir Paytrik Morland, and Baron Rathmore, and +Lord Valpry, and Rolve Hemmerding...." He was silent for a moment, +struck by an idea. "Would you be willing to make the trip in the +_Space Scourge_, too?" + +Spasso would, very decidedly. Trask nodded. + +"Good. Then we'll be sure nothing crooked is pulled," he said +seriously. + +After Spasso was gone, he got in touch with Baron Rathmore. + +"See to it that he gets as much money that's due him as possible, +when you get to Gram. And ask Duke Angus, as a favor to give him +some meaningless position with a suitably impressive title, Lord +Chamberlain of the Ducal Washroom, or something. Then he can prime +him with misinformation and give him an opportunity to sell it to +Omfray of Glaspyth. Then, of course, he could be contacted to sell +Omfray out to Angus. A couple of times around and somebody'll stick +a knife in him, and then we'll be rid of him for good." + + * * * * * + +They loaded the _Space Scourge_ with gold from Stolgoland, and +paintings and statues from the art museums and fabrics and furs and +jewels and porcelains and plate from the markets of Eglonsby. They +loaded sacks and kegs of specie from Khepera. Most of the Khepera +loot wasn't worth hauling to Gram, but it was far enough in advance +of their own technologies to be priceless to the Tanith locals. + +Some of these were learning simple machine operations, and a few +were able to handle contragravity vehicles that had been fitted with +adequate safety devices. The former slave guards had all become +sergeants and lieutenants in an infantry regiment that had been +formed, and the King of Tradetown borrowed some to train his own +army. Some genius in the machine shop altered a matchlock musket +to flintlock and showed the local gunsmiths how to do it. + +The kreggs continued to thrive, after the _Space Scourge_ departed. +Several calves were born, and seemed to be doing well; the biochemistry +of Tanith and Khepera were safely alike. Trask had hopes for them. +Every Viking ship had its own carniculture vats, but men tired of +carniculture meat, and fresh meat was always in demand. Some day, +he hoped, kregg-beef would be an item of sale to ships putting in +on Tanith, and the long-haired hides might even find a market in +the Sword-Worlds. They had contragravity scows plying between +Rivington and Tradetown regularly, now, and air-lorries were linking +the villages. The boatmen of Tradetown rioted occasionally against +this unfair competition. And in Rivington itself, bulldozers and +power shovels and manipulators labored, and there was always a +rising cloud of dust over the city. + +There was so much to do, and only a trifle under twenty-five +Galactic Standard hours in a day to do it. There were whole days +in which he never thought once of Andray Dunnan. + +A hundred and twenty-five days to Gram, and a hundred and +twenty-five days back. They had long ago passed. Of course, there +would be the work of repairing the _Space Scourge_, the conferences +with the investors in the original Tanith Adventure, the business +of gathering the needed equipment for the new base. Even so, he was +beginning to worry a little. Worry about something as far out of his +control as the _Space Scourge_ was useless, he knew. He couldn't +help it, though. Even Harkaman, usually imperturbable, began to be +fretful, after two hundred and seventy days had passed. + +They were relaxing in the living quarters they had fitted out at the +top of the spaceport building before retiring, both sprawled wearily +in chairs that had come from one of the better hotels of Eglonsby, +their drinks between them on a low table, the top of which was +inlaid with something that looked like ivory but wasn't. On the +floor beside it lay the plans for a reaction-plant and mass-energy +converter they would build as soon as the _Space Scourge_ returned +with equipment for producing collapsium-plated shielding. + +"Of course, we could go ahead with it, now," Harkaman said. +"We could tear enough armor off the _Lamia_ to shield any kind +of a reaction plant." + +That was the first time either of them had gotten close to the +possibility that the ship mightn't return. Trask laid his cigar in +the ashtray--it had come from President Pedrosan Pedro's private +office--and splashed a little more brandy into his glass. + +"She'll be coming before long. We have enough of our people aboard +to make sure nobody else tries to take the ship. And I really +believe, now, that Valkanhayn can be trusted." + +"I do, too. I'm not worried about what might happen on the ship. +But we don't know what's been happening on Gram. Glaspyth and +Didreksburg could have teamed up and jumped Wardshaven before +Duke Angus was ready to invade Glaspyth. Boake might be landing +the ship in a trap at Wardshaven." + +"Be a sorry looking trap after it closed on him. That would be the +first time in history that a Sword-World was raided by Space Vikings." +Harkaman looked at his half-empty glass, then filled it to the top. +It was the same drink he had started with, just as a regiment that +has been decimated and recruited up to strength a few times is still +the same regiment. + +The buzz of the communication screen--one of the few things in the +room that hadn't been looted somewhere--interrupted him. They both +rose; Harkaman, still carrying his drink, went to put it on. It was +a man on duty in the control room, overhead, reporting that two +emergences had just been detected at twenty light-minutes due north +of the planet. Harkaman gulped his drink and set down the empty glass. + +"All right. You put out a general alert? Switch anything that comes +in over to this screen." He got out his pipe and was packing tobacco +into it mechanically. "They'll be out of the last microjump and +about two light-seconds away in a few minutes." + +Trask sat down again, saw that his cigarette had burned almost to +the tip, and lit a fresh one from it, wishing he could be as calm +about it as Harkaman. Three minutes later, the control tower picked +up two emergences at a light-second and a half, a thousand or so +miles apart. Then the screen flickered, and Boake Valkanhayn was +looking out of it, from the desk in the newly refurbished command +room of the _Space Scourge_. + +He was a newly refurbished Boake Valkanhayn, too. His heavily +braided captain's jacket looked like the work of one of the better +tailors on Gram, and on the breast was a large and ornate knight's +star, of unfamiliar design, bearing, among other things, the sword +and atom-symbol of the house of Ward. + +"Prince Trask; Count Harkaman," he greeted. "_Space Scourge_, Tanith; +thirty-two hundred hours out of Wardshaven on Gram, Baron Valkanhayn +commanding, accompanied by chartered freighter _Rozinante_, Durendal, +Captain Morbes. Requesting permission and instructions to orbit in." + +"Baron Valkanhayn?" Harkaman asked. + +"That's right," Valkanhayn grinned. "And I have a vellum scroll the +size of a blanket to prove it. I have a whole cargo of scrolls. One +says you're Otto, Count Harkaman, and another says you're Admiral of +the Royal Navy of Gram." + +"He did it!" Trask cried. "He made himself King of Gram!" + +"That's right. And you're his trusty and well-loved Lucas, Prince +Trask, and Viceroy of his Majesty's Realm of Tanith." + +Harkaman bristled at that. "The Gehenna you say. This is _our_ Realm +of Tanith." + +"Is his Majesty making it worth while to accept his sovereignty?" +Trask asked. "That is, beside vellum scrolls?" + +Valkanhayn was still grinning. "Wait till we start sending cargo +down. And wait till you see what's crammed into the other ship." + +"Did Spasso come back with you?" Harkaman asked. + +"Oh, no. Sir Garvan Spasso entered the service of his Majesty, King +Angus. He is Chief of Police at Glaspyth, now, and nobody can call +what he's doing there chicken-stealing, either. Any chickens he +steals, he steals the whole farm to get them." + +That didn't sound good. Spasso could make King Angus' name stink all +over Glaspyth. Or maybe he'd allow Spasso to crush the adherents of +Omfray, and then hang him for his oppression of the people. He'd +read about somebody who'd done something like that, in one of +Harkaman's Old Terran history books. + + * * * * * + +Baron Rathmore had stayed on Gram; so had Rolve Hemmerding. The +rest of the gentlemen-adventurers, all with shiny new titles of +nobility, had returned. From them, as the two ships were getting +into orbit, he learned what had happened on Gram since the _Nemesis_ +had spaced out. + +Duke Angus had announced his intention of carrying on with the +Tanith Adventure, and had started construction of a new ship at +the Gorram yards. This had served plausibly to explain all the +activities of preparation for the invasion of Glaspyth, and had +deceived Duke Omfray completely. Omfray had already started a ship +of his own; the entire resources of his duchy were thrown into an +effort to get her finished and to space ahead of the one Angus was +building. Work was going on frantically on her when the Wardshaven +invaders hit Glaspyth; she was now nearing completion as a unit of +the Royal Navy. Duke Omfray had managed to escape to Didreksburg; +when Angus' troops moved in on the latter duchy, he had escaped +again, this time off-planet. He was now eating the bitter bread of +exile at the court of his wife's uncle, the King of Haulteclere. + +The Count of Newhaven, the Duke of Bigglersport, and the Lord of +Northport, all of whom had favored the establishment of a planetary +monarchy, had immediately acknowledged Angus as their sovereign. So, +with a knife at his throat, had the Duke of Didreksburg. Many other +feudal magnates had refused to surrender their sovereignty. That +might mean fighting, but Paytrik, now Baron, Morland, doubted it. + +"The _Space Scourge_ stopped that," he said. "When they heard about +the base here, and saw what we'd shipped to Gram, they started +changing their minds. Only subjects of King Angus will be allowed +to invest in the Tanith Adventure." + +As for accepting King Angus' annexation of Tanith and accepting his +sovereignty, that would also be advisable. They would need a Sword +World outlet for the loot they took or obtained by barter from other +Space Vikings, and until they had adequate industries of their own, +they would be dependent on Gram for many things which could not be +gotten by raiding. + +"I suppose the King knows I'm not out here for my health, or +his profit?" he asked Lord Valpry, during one of the screen +conversations as the _Space Scourge_ was getting into orbit. +"My business out here is Andray Dunnan." + +"Oh, yes," the Wardshaven noble replied. "In fact, he told me, in so +many words, that he would be most happy if you sent him his nephew's +head in a block of lucite. What Dunnan did touched his honor, too. +Sovereign princes never see any humor in things like that." + +"I suppose he knows that sooner or later Dunnan will try to attack +Tanith?" + +"If he doesn't, it isn't because I didn't tell him often enough. When +you see the defense armament we're bringing, you'll think he does." + +It was impressive, but nothing to the engineering and industrial +equipment. Mining robots for use on the iron Moon of Tanith, and +normal-space transports for the fifty thousand mile run between +planet and satellite. A collapsed-matter producer; now they could +collapsium-plate their own shielding. A small, fully robotic, steel +mill that could be set up and operated on the satellite. Industrial +robots, and machinery to make machinery. And, best of all, two +hundred engineers and highly skilled technicians. + +Quite a few industrial baronies on Gram would realize, before long, +what they had lost in those men. He wondered what Lord Trask of +Traskon would have thought about that. + +The Prince of Tanith was no longer interested in what happened to +Gram. Maybe, if things prospered for the next century or so, his +successors would be ruling Gram by viceroy from Tanith. + + + + +XV + + +As soon as the _Space Scourge_ was unloaded, she was put on +off-planet watch; Harkaman immediately spaced out in the _Nemesis_, +while Trask remained behind. They began unloading the _Rozinante_, +after setting her down at Rivington Spaceport. After that was done, +her officers and crew took a holiday which lasted a month, until the +_Nemesis_ returned. Harkaman must have made quick raids on half a +dozen planets. None of the cargo he brought back was spectacularly +valuable, and he dismissed the whole thing as chicken-stealing, but +he had lost some men and the ship showed a few fresh scars. A good +deal of what was transshipped to the _Rozinante_ was manufactured +goods which would compete with merchandise produced on Gram. + +"That load will be a come-down, after what the _Space Scourge_ took +back, but we didn't want to send the _Rozinante_ back empty," he +said. "One thing, I had time to do a little reading, between stops." + +"The books from the Eglonsby library?" + +"Yes. I learned a curious thing about Amaterasu. Do you know why that +planet was so extensively colonized by the Federation, when there +don't seem to be any fissionable ores? The planet produced gadolinium." + +Gadolinium was essential to hyperdrive engines; the engines of a +ship the size of the _Nemesis_ required fifty pounds of it. On the +Sword-Worlds, it was worth several times its weight in gold. If they +still mined it, Amaterasu would repay a second visit. + +When he mentioned it, Harkaman shrugged. "Why should they mine it? +There's only one thing it's good for, and you can't run a spaceship +on Diesel oil. I suppose the mines could be reopened, and new +refineries built, but...." + +"We could trade plutonium for gadolinium. They have none of their +own. We could charge our own prices for it, and we wouldn't need to +tell them what gadolinium sells for on the Sword-Worlds." + +"We could, if we could do business with anybody there, after what +we did to Eglonsby and Stolgoland. Where would we get plutonium?" + +"Why do you think the Beowulfers don't have hyperships, when they +have everything else?" + +Harkaman snapped his fingers. "By Satan, that's it!" Then he looked +at Trask in alarm. "Hey, you're not thinking of selling Amaterasu +plutonium and Beowulf gadolinium, are you?" + +"Why not? We could make a big profit on both ends of the deal." + +"You know what would happen next, don't you? There'd be ships from +both planets all over the place in a few years. We want that like +we want a hole in the head." + +He couldn't see the objection. Tanith and Amaterasu and Beowulf +could work up a very good triangular trade; all three would profit. +It wouldn't cost men and ship-damage and ammunition, either. Maybe +a mutual defense alliance, too. Think about it later; there was too +much to do here on Tanith at present. + +There had been mines on the Moon of Tanith before the collapse of +the Federation; they had been stripped of their equipment afterward, +while Tanith was still fighting a rearguard battle against barbarism, +but the underground chambers and man-made caverns could still be used, +and in time the mines were reopened and the steel mill put in, and +eventually ingots of finished steel were coming down by shuttle-craft. +In the meantime, the shipyard had been laid out and was taking shape. + +The Gram ship _Queen Flavia_--she had been the one found unfinished +at Glaspyth--came in three months after the _Rozinante_ started +back; she must have been finished while Valkanhayn was still in +hyperspace. She carried considerable cargo, some of it superfluous +but all of it useful; everybody was investing in the Tanith Adventure +now, and the money had to be spent for something. Better, she brought +close to a thousand men and women; the leakage of brains and ability +from the Sword-Worlds was turning into a flood. Among them was Basil +Gorram. Trask remembered him as an insufferable young twerp, but he +seemed to be a good shipyard man. He very frankly predicted that +in a few years his father's yards at Wardshaven would be idle and +all the Tanith ships would be Tanith-built. A junior partner of +Lothar Ffayle's also came out, to establish a branch of the Bank of +Wardshaven at Rivington. + +As soon as the _Queen Flavia_ had discharged her cargo and +passengers, she took on five hundred ground-fighters from the +_Lamia_, _Nemesis_ and _Space Scourge_ companies and spaced out on +a raiding voyage. While she was gone, the second ship, the one Duke +Angus had started at Wardshaven and King Angus had finished, the +_Black Star_, came in. + +Trask was slightly incredulous at realizing that she had spaced out +from Gram almost exactly two years after the _Nemesis_ had departed. +He still hadn't any idea where Andray Dunnan was, or what he was +doing, or how to find him. + +The news of the Gram base on Tanith spread slowly, first by the +scheduled liners and tramp freighters that linked the Sword-Worlds, +and then by trading ships and outbound Space Vikings to the Old +Federation. Two years and six months after the _Nemesis_ had come +out of hyperspace to find Boake Valkanhayn and Garvan Spasso on +Tanith, the first independent Space Viking came in, to sell a cargo +and get repairs. They bought his loot--he had been raiding some +planet rather above the level of Khepera and below that of +Amaterasu--and healed the wounds his ship had taken getting it. He +had been dealing with the Everrard family on Hoth, and professed +himself much more satisfied with the bargains he had gotten on +Tanith and swore to return. + +He had never even heard of Andray Dunnan or the _Enterprise_. + +It was a Gilgamesher that brought the first news. + +He had first heard of Gilgameshers--the word was used +indiscriminately for a native of or a ship from Gilgamesh--on Gram, +from Harkaman and Karffard and Vann Larch and the others. Since +coming to Tanith, he had heard about them from every Space Viking, +never in complimentary and rarely in printable terms. + +Gilgamesh was rated, with reservations, as a civilized planet though +not on a level with Odin or Isis or Baldur or Marduk or Aton or any +of the other worlds which had maintained the culture of the Terran +Federation uninterruptedly. Perhaps Gilgamesh deserved more credit; +its people had undergone two centuries of darkness and pulled +themselves out of it by their bootstraps. They had recovered all +the old techniques, up to and including the hyperdrive. + +They didn't raid; they traded. They had religious objections to +violence, though they kept these within sensible limits, and were +able and willing to fight with fanatical ferocity in defense of +their home planet. About a century before, there had been a +five-ship Viking raid on Gilgamesh; one ship had returned and had +been sold for scrap after reaching a friendly base. Their ships went +everywhere to trade, and wherever they traded a few of them usually +settled, and where they settled they made money, sending most of it +home. Their society seemed to be a loose theo-socialism, and their +religion an absurd potpourri of most of the major monotheisms of the +Federation period, plus doctrinal and ritualistic innovations of +their own. Aside from their propensity for sharp trading, their +bigoted refusal to regard anybody not of their creed as more than +half human, and the maze of dietary and other taboos in which they +hid from social contact with others, made them generally disliked. + +After their ship had gotten into orbit, three of them came down to +do business. The captain and his exec wore long coats, almost +knee-length, buttoned to the throat, and small white caps like +forage caps; the third, one of their priests, wore a robe with a +cowl, and the symbol of their religion, a blue triangle in a white +circle, on his breast. They all wore beards that hung down from +their cheeks, with their chins and upper lips shaved. They all had +the same righteous, disapproving faces, they all refused +refreshments of any sort, and they sat uneasily as though fearing +contamination from the heathens who had sat in their chairs before +them. They had a mixed cargo of general merchandise picked up here +and there on subcivilized planets, in which nobody on Tanith was +interested. They also had some good stuff--vegetable-amber and +flame-bird plumes from Irminsul; ivory or something very like it +from somewhere else; diamonds and Uller organic opals and +Zarathustra sunstones. They also had some platinum. They wanted +machinery, especially contragravity engines and robots. + +[Illustration] + +The trouble was, they wanted to haggle. Haggling, it seemed, was +the Gilgamesh planetary sport. + +"Have you ever heard of a Space Viking ship named the _Enterprise_?" +he asked them, at the seventh or eighth impasse in the bargaining. +"She bears a crescent, light blue on black. Her captain's name is +Andray Dunnan." + +"A ship so named, with such a device, raided Chermosh more than a +year ago," the priest-supercargo said. "Some of our people tarry on +Chermosh to trade. This ship sacked the city in which they were; +some of them lost heavily in world's goods." + +"That's a pity." + +The Gilgamesh priest shrugged. "It is as Yah the Almighty wills," +he said, then brightened slightly. "The Chermoshers are heathens +and worshipers of false gods. The Space Vikings looted their temple +and destroyed it utterly; they carried away the graven images and +abominations. Our people bore witness that there was much wailing +and lamentation among the idolators." + + * * * * * + +So that was the first entry on the Big Board. It covered, +optimistically, the whole of one wall in his office, and for some +time that one chalked note about the raid on Chermosh, and the date, +as nearly as it could be approximated, looked very lonely on it. The +captain of the _Black Star_ brought back material for a couple more. +He had put in on several planets known to be temporarily occupied by +Space Vikings, to barter loot, give his men some time off-ship, and +make inquiries, and he had names for a couple of planets raided by +the blue crescent ship. One was only six months old. + +The way news filtered about in the Old Federation, that was +practically hot off the stove. + +The owner-captain of the _Alborak_ had something to add, when he +brought his ship in six months later. He sipped his drink slowly, +as though he had limited himself to one and wanted to make it last +as long as possible. + +"Almost two years ago, on Jagannath," he said. "The _Enterprise_ was +on orbit there, getting some light repairs. I met the man a few +times. Looks just like those pictures, but he's wearing a small +pointed beard, now. He'd sold a lot of loot. General merchandise, +precious and semiprecious stones, a lot of carved and inlaid +furniture that looked as though it had come from some Neobarb king's +palace, and some temple stuff. Buddhist; there were a couple of big +gold Dai-Butsus. His crew were standing drinks for all comers. Some +of them were pretty dark above the collar, as though they'd been on +a hot-star planet not too long before. And he had a lot of Imhotep +furs to sell, simply fabulous stuff." + +"What kind of repairs? Combat damage?" + +"That was my impression. He spaced out a little over a hundred hours +after I came in, in company with another ship. The _Starhopper_, +Captain Teodor Vaghn. The talk was that they were making a two-ship +raid somewhere." The captain of the _Alborak_ thought for a moment. +"One other thing. He was buying ammunition, everything from pistol +cartridges to hellburners. And he was buying all the air-and-water +recycling equipment, and all the carniculture and hydroponic +equipment, he could get." + +That was something to know. He thanked the Space Viking, and then asked: + +"Did he know, at the time, that I'm out here hunting for him?" + +"If he did, nobody else on Jagannath did. I didn't hear about it, +myself, till six months afterward." + +That evening, he played off the recording he had made of the +conversation for Harkaman and Valkanhayn and Karffard and some +of the others. Somebody instantly said: + +"That temple stuff came from Chermosh. They're Buddhists, there. +That checks with the Gilgamesher's story." + +"He got the furs on Imhotep; he traded for them," Harkaman said. +"Nobody gets anything off Imhotep by raiding. The planet's in the +middle of a glaciation, the land surface down to the fiftieth +parallel is iced over solid. There is one city, ten or fifteen +thousand, and the rest of the population is scattered around in +settlements of a couple of hundred all along the face of the +glaciers. They're all hunters and trappers. They have some +contragravity, and when a ship comes in, they spread the news by +radio and everybody brings his furs to town. They use telescope +sights, and everybody over ten years old can hit a man in the head +at five hundred yards. And big weapons are no good; they're too well +dispersed. So the only way to get anything out of them is to trade +for it." + +"I think I know where he was," Alvyn Karffard said. "On Imhotep, +silver is a monetary metal. On Agni, they use silver for sewer-pipe. +Agni is a hot-star planet, class B-3 sun. And on Agni they are +tough, and they have good weapons. That could be where the +_Enterprise_ took that combat damage." + +That started an argument as to whether he'd gone to Chermosh first. +It was sure that he had gone to Agni and then Imhotep. Guatt Kirbey +tried to figure both courses. + +"It doesn't tell us anything, either way," he said at length. "Chermosh +is away off to the side from Agni and Imhotep in either case." + +"Well, he does have a base, somewhere, and it's not on any +Terra-type planet," Valkanhayn said. "Otherwise, what would he want +with all that air-and-water and hydroponic and carniculture stuff?" + +The Old Federation area was full of non-Terra-type planets, and why +should anybody bother going to any of them? Any planet that wasn't +oxygen-atmosphere, six to eight thousand miles in diameter, and +within a narrow surface-temperature range, wasn't worth wasting time +on. But a planet like that, if one had the survival equipment, would +make a wonderful hideout. + +"What sort of a captain is this Teodor Vaghn?" he asked. "A good +one," Harkaman said promptly. "He has a nasty streak--sadistic--but +he knows his business and he has a good ship and a well-trained +crew. You think he and Dunnan have teamed up?" + +"Don't you? I think, now that he has a base, Dunnan is getting +a fleet together." + +"He'll know we're after him by now," Vann Larch said. "And he knows +where we are, and that puts him one up on us." + + + + +XVI + + +So Andray Dunnan was haunting him again. Tiny bits of information +came in--Dunnan's ship had been on Hoth, on Nergal, selling loot. +Now he sold for gold or platinum, and bought little, usually arms +and ammunition. Apparently his base, wherever it was, was fully +self-sufficient. It was certain, too, that Dunnan knew he was being +hunted. One Space Viking who had talked with him quoted him as +saying: "I don't want any trouble with Trask, and if he's smart he +won't look for any with me." This made him all the more positive +that somewhere Dunnan was building strength for an attack on Tanith. +He made it a rule that there should always be at least two ships in +orbit off Tanith in addition to the _Lamia_, which was on permanent +patrol, and he installed more missile-launching stations both on the +moon and on the planet. + +There were three ships bearing the Ward swords and atom-symbol, and +a fourth building on Gram. Count Lionel of Newhaven was building +one of his own, and three big freighters shuttled across the three +thousand light-years between Tanith and Gram. Sesar Karvall, who had +never recovered from his wounds, had died; Lady Lavina had turned +the barony and the business over to her brother, Burt Sandrasan, +and gone to live on Excalibur. The shipyard at Rivington was +finished, and now they had built the landing-legs of Harkaman's +_Corisande II_, and were putting up the skeleton. + +And they were trading with Amaterasu, now. Pedrosan Pedro had been +overthrown and put to death by General Dagro Ector during the +disorders following the looting of Eglonsby; the troops left behind +in Stolgoland had mutinied and made common cause with their late +enemies. The two nations were in an uneasy alliance, with several +other nations combining against them, when the _Nemesis_ and the +_Space Scourge_ returned and declared peace against the whole +planet. There was no fighting; everybody knew what had happened to +Stolgoland and Eglonsby. In the end, all the governments of Amaterasu +joined in a loose agreement to get the mines reopened and resume +production of gadolinium, and to share in the fissionables +being imported in exchange. + +It had been harder, and had taken a year longer, to do business with +Beowulf. The Beowulfers had a single planetary government, and they +were inclined to shoot first and negotiate afterward, a natural +enough attitude in view of experiences of the past. However, they +had enough old Federation-period textbooks still in microprint to +know what could be done with gadolinium. They decided to write off +the past as fair fight and no bad blood, and start over again. + +It would be some years before either planet had hyperships of their +own. In the meantime, both were good customers, and rapidly becoming +good friends. A number of young Amaterasuans and Beowulfers had come +to Tanith to study various technologies. + +The Tanith locals were studying, too. In the first year, Trask +had gathered the more intelligent boys of ten to twelve from each +community and begun teaching them. In the past year, he had sent +the most intelligent of them off to Gram to school. In another +five years, they'd be coming home to teach; in the meantime, he +was bringing teachers to Tanith from Gram. There was a school +at Tradetown, and others in some of the larger villages, and +at Rivington there was something that could almost be called a +college. In another ten years or so, Tanith would be able to +pretend to the status of civilization. + + * * * * * + +If only Andray Dunnan and his ships didn't come too soon. They would +be beaten off, he was confident of that; but the damage Tanith would +take, in the defense, would set back his work for years. He knew all +too well what Space Viking ships could do to a planet. He'd have to +find Dunnan's base, smash it, destroy his ships, kill the man +himself, first. Not to avenge that murder six years ago on Gram; +that was long ago and far away, and Elaine was vanished, and so was +the Lucas Trask who had loved and lost her. What mattered now was +planting and nurturing civilization on Tanith. + +But where would he find Dunnan, in two hundred billion cubic +light-years? Dunnan had no such problem. He knew where his enemy was. + +And Dunnan was gathering strength. The _Yo-Yo_, Captain Vann +Humfort; she had been reported twice, once in company with the +_Starhopper_, and once with the _Enterprise_. She bore a blazon of +a feminine hand dangling a planet by a string from one finger; a +good ship, and an able, ruthless captain. The _Bolide_; she and the +_Enterprise_ had made a raid on Ithunn. The Gilgameshers had settled +there and one of their ships had brought that story in. + +And he recruited two ships at once on Melkarth, and there was a good +deal of mirth about that among the Tanith Space Vikings. + +Melkarth was strictly a poultry planet. Its people had sunk to the +village-peasant level; they had no wealth worth taking or carrying +away. It was, however, a place where a ship could be set down, and +there were women, and the locals had not lost the art of distillation, +and made potent liquors. A crew could have fun there, much less +expensively than on a regular Viking base planet, and for the last +eight years a Captain Nial Burrik, of the _Fortuna_, had been occupying +it, taking his ship out for occasional quick raids and spending most +of the time living from day to day almost on the local level. Once +in a while, a Gilgamesher would come in to see if he had anything to +trade. It was a Gilgamesher who brought the story to Tanith, and it +was almost two years old when he told it. + +"We heard it from the people of the planet, the ones who live where +Burrik had his base. First, there was a trading ship came in. You +may have heard of her; she is the one called the _Honest Horris_." + +Trask laughed at that. Her captain, Horris Sasstroff, called himself +"Honest Horris," a misnomer which he had also bestowed on his ship. +He was a trader of sorts. Even the Gilgameshers despised him, and +not even a Gilgamesher would have taken a wretched craft like the +_Honest Horris_ to space. + +"He had been to Melkarth before," the Gilgamesher said. "He and +Burrik are friends." He pronounced that like a final and damning +judgment of both of them. "The story the locals told our brethren +of the _Fairdealer_ was that the _Honest Horris_ was landed beside +Burrik's ship for ten days, when two other ships came in. They said +one had the blue crescent badge, and the other bore a green monster +leaping from one star to another." + +The _Enterprise_ and the _Starhopper_. He wondered why they'd gone +to a planet like Melkarth. Maybe they knew in advance whom they'd +find there. + +"The locals thought there would be fighting, but there was not. +There was a great feast, of all four crews. Then everything of +value was loaded aboard the _Fortuna_, and all four ships lifted +and spaced out together. They said Burrik left nothing of any worth +whatever behind; they were much disappointed at that." + +"Have any of them been back since?" + +All three Gilgameshers, captain, exec, and priest, shook their heads. + +"Captain Gurrash of the _Fairdealer_ said it had been over a year +before his ship put in there. He could still see where the landing +legs of the ships had pressed into the ground, but the locals said +they had not been back." + +That made two more ships about which inquiries must be made. He +wondered, for a moment, why in Gehenna Dunnan would want ships like +that; they must make the _Space Scourge_ and the _Lamia_ as he had +first seen them look like units of the Royal Navy of Excalibur. Then +he became frightened, with an irrational retrospective fright at +what might have happened. It could have, too, at any time in the +last year and a half; either or both of those ships could have come +in on Tanith completely unsuspected. It was only by the sheerest +accident that he had found out, even now, about them. + +Everybody else thought it was a huge joke. They thought it would be +a bigger joke if Dunnan sent those ships to Tanith now, when they +were warned and ready for them. + +There were other things to worry about. One was the altering attitude of +his Majesty Angus I. When the _Space Scourge_ returned, the newly-titled +Baron Valkanhayn brought with him, along with the princely title and the +commission as Viceroy of Tanith, a most cordial personal audiovisual +greeting, warm and friendly. Angus had made it seated at his desk, bare +headed and smoking a cigarette. The one which had come on the next ship +out was just as cordial, but the King was not smoking and wore a small +gold-circled cap-of-maintenance. By the time they had three ships in +service on scheduled three-month arrivals, a year and a half later, he +was speaking from his throne, wearing his crown and employing the first +person plural for himself and finally the third person singular for +Trask. By the end of the fourth year, there was no audiovisual message +from him in person, and a stiff complaint from Rovard Grauffis to the +effect that His Majesty felt it unseemly for a subject to address his +sovereign while seated, even by audiovisual. This was accompanied by a +rather apologetic personal message from Grauffis--now Prime Minister--to +the effect that His Majesty felt compelled to stand on his royal dignity +at all times, and that, after all, there was a difference between the +position and dignity of the Duke of Wardshaven and that of the Planetary +King of Gram. + +Prince Trask of Tanith couldn't quite see it. The King was simply +the first nobleman of the planet. Even kings like Rodolf of Excalibur +or Napolyon of Flamberge didn't try to be anything more. Thereafter, +he addressed his greetings and reports to the Prime Minister, always +with a personal message, to which Grauffis replied in kind. + +Not only the form but also the content of the messages from Gram +underwent change. His Majesty was most dissatisfied. His Majesty was +deeply disappointed. His Majesty felt that His Majesty's colonial +realm of Tanith was not contributing sufficiently to the Royal +Exchequer. And his Majesty felt that Prince Trask was placing +entirely too much emphasis upon trade and not enough upon raiding; +after all, why barter with barbarians when it was possible to take +what you wanted from them by force? + +And there was the matter of the _Blue Comet_, Count Lionel of +Newhaven's ship. His Majesty was most displeased that the Count of +Newhaven was trading with Tanith from his own spaceport. All goods +from Tanith should pass through the Wardshaven spaceport. + +"Look, Rovard," he told the audiovisual camera which was recording +his reply to Grauffis. "You saw the _Space Scourge_ when she came +in, didn't you? That's what happens to a ship that raids a planet +where there's anything worth taking. Beowulf is lousy with +fissionables; they'll give us all the plutonium we can load, in +exchange for gadolinium, which we sell them at about twice +Sword-World prices. We trade plutonium on Amaterasu for gadolinium, +and get it for about half Sword-World prices." He pressed the +stop-button, until he could remember the ancient formula. "You may +quote me as saying that whoever has advised His Majesty that that +isn't good business is no friend to His Majesty or to the Realm. + +"As for the complaint about the _Blue Comet_; as long as she is +owned and operated by the Count of Newhaven, who is a stockholder +in the Tanith Adventure, she has every right to trade here." + +He wondered why His Majesty didn't stop Lionel of Newhaven from +sending the _Blue Comet_ out from Gram. He found out from her +skipper, the next time she came in. + + * * * * * + +"He doesn't dare, that's why. He's King as long as the great lords +like Count Lionel and Joris of Bigglersport and Alan of Northport +want him to be. Count Lionel has more men and more guns and +contragravity than he has, now, and that's without the help he'd get +from everybody else. Everything's quiet on Gram now, even the war on +Southmain Continent's stopped. Everybody wants to keep it that way. +Even King Angus isn't crazy enough to do anything to start a war. +Not yet, anyhow." + +"Not _yet_?" + +The captain of the _Blue Comet_, who was one of Count Lionel's +vassal barons, was silent for a moment. + +"You ought to know, Prince Trask," he said. "Andray Dunnan's +grandmother was the King's mother. Her father was old Baron Zarvas +of Blackcliffe. He was what was called an invalid, the last twenty +years of his life. He was always attended by two male nurses about +the size of Otto Harkaman. He was also said to be slightly +eccentric." + +The unfortunate grandfather of Duke Angus had always been a subject +nice people avoided. The unfortunate grandfather of King Angus was +probably a subject everybody who valued their necks avoided. + +Lothar Ffayle had also come out on the _Blue Comet_. He was just as +outspoken. + +"I'm not going back. I'm transferring most of the funds of the Bank +of Wardshaven out here; from now on, it'll be a branch of the Bank +of Tanith. This is where the business is being done. It's getting +impossible to do business at all in Wardshaven. What little business +there is to do." + +"Just what's been happening?" + +"Well, taxation, first. It seems the more money came in from here, +the higher taxes got on Gram. Discriminatory taxes, too; pinched the +small landholding and industrial barons and favored a few big ones. +Baron Spasso and his crowd." + +"Baron Spasso, now?" + +Ffayle nodded. "Of about half of Glaspyth. A lot of the Glaspyth +barons lost their baronies--some of them their heads--after Duke +Omfray was run out. It seems there was a plot against the life of +His Majesty. It was exposed by the zeal and vigilance of Sir Garvan +Spasso, who was elevated to the peerage and rewarded with the lands +of the conspirators." + +"You said business was bad, as business?" + +Ffayle nodded again. "The big Tanith boom has busted. It got +oversold; everybody wanted in on it. And they should never have +built those two last ships, the _Speedwell_ and the _Goodhope_; +the return on them didn't justify it. Then, you're creating your +own industries and building your own equipment and armament here; +that's caused a slump in industry on Gram. I'm glad Lavina Karvall +has enough money invested to live on. And finally, the consumers' +goods market is getting flooded with stuff that's coming in from +here and competing with Gram industry." + +Well, that was understandable. One of the ships that made the +shuttle-trip to Gram would carry enough in her strong rooms, in gold +and jewels and the like, to pay a handsome profit on the voyage. The +bulk-goods that went into the cargo holds was practically taking a +free ride, so anything on hand, stuff that nobody would ordinarily +think of shipping in interstellar trade, went aboard. A two thousand +foot freighter had a great deal of cargo space. + +Baron Trask of Traskon hadn't even begun to realise what Tanith base +was going to cost Gram. + +[Illustration][Illustration] + + + + +XVII + + +As might be expected, the Beowulfers finished their hypership first. +They had started with everything but a little know-how which had +been quickly learned. Amaterasu had had to begin by creating the +industry they needed to create the industry they needed to build a +ship. The Beowulf ship--she was named _Viking's Gift_--came in on +Tanith five and a half years after the _Nemesis_ and the _Space +Scourge_ had raided Beowulf; her skipper had fought a normal-drive +ship in that battle. Beside plutonium and radioactive isotopes, she +carried a general cargo of the sort of luxury-goods unique to +Beowulf which could always find a market in interstellar trade. + +After selling the cargo and depositing the money in the Bank of +Tanith, the skipper of the _Viking's Gift_ wanted to know where +he could find a good planet to raid. They gave him a list, none +too tough but all slightly above the chicken-stealing level, and +another list of planets he was _not_ to raid; planets with which +Tanith was trading. + +Six months later they learned that he had showed up on Khepera, with +which they were now trading, and had flooded the market there with +plundered textiles, hardware, ceramics and plastics. He had bought +kregg-meat and hides. + +"You see what you did, now?" Harkaman clamored. "You thought you +were making a customer; what you made was a competitor." + +"What I made was an ally. If we ever do find Dunnan's planet, we'll +need a fleet to take it. A couple of Beowulf ships would help. You +know them; you fought them, too." + +Harkaman had other worries. While cruising in _Corisande II_, he had +come in on Vitharr, one of the planets where Tanith ships traded, to +find it being raided by a Space Viking ship based on Xochitl. He had +fought a short but furious ship-action, battering the invader until +he was glad to hyper out. Then he had gone directly to Xochitl, +arriving on the heels of the ship he had beaten, and had had it out +both with the captain and Prince Viktor, serving them with an +ultimatum to leave Tanith trade-planets alone in the future. + +"How did they take it?" Trask asked, when he returned to report. + +"Just about the way you would have. Viktor said his people were +Space Vikings, not Gilgameshers. I told him we weren't Gilgameshers, +either, as he'd find out on Xochitl the next time one of his ships +raided one of our planets. Are you going to back me up? Of course, +you can always send Prince Viktor my head, and an apology--" + +"If I have to send him anything, I'll send him a sky full of ships +and a planet full of hellburners. You did perfectly right, Otto; +exactly what I'd have done in your place." + +There the matter rested. There were no more raids by Xochitl ships +on any of their trade-planets. No mention of the incident was made +in any of the reports sent back to Gram. The Gram situation was +deteriorating rapidly enough. Finally, there was an audiovisual +message from Angus himself; he was seated on his throne, wearing +his crown, and he began speaking from the screen abruptly: + +"We, Angus, King of Gram and Tanith, are highly displeased with our +subject, Lucas, Prince and Viceroy of Tanith; we consider ourselves +very badly served by Prince Trask. We therefore command him to return +to Gram, and render to us account of his administration of our colony +and realm of Tanith." + +After some hasty preparations, Trask recorded a reply. He was sitting +on a throne, himself, and he wore a crown just as ornate as King Angus', +and robes of white and black Imhotep furs. + +"We, Lucas, Prince of Tanith," he began, "are quite willing to +acknowledge the suzerainty of the King of Gram, formerly Duke of +Wardshaven. It is our earnest desire, if possible, to remain at +peace and friendship with the King of Gram, and to carry on trade +relations with him and with his subjects. + +"We must, however, reject absolutely any efforts on his part to +dictate the internal policies of our realm of Tanith. It is our +earnest hope,"--dammit, he'd said "earnest," he should have thought +of some other word--"that no act on the part of his Majesty the King +of Gram will create any breach in the friendship existing between +his realm and ours." + + * * * * * + +Three months later, the next ship, which had left Gram while King +Angus' summons was still in hyperspace, brought Baron Rathmore. +Shaking hands with him as he left the landing craft, Trask wanted to +know if he'd been sent out as the new Viceroy. Rathmore started to +laugh and ended by cursing vilely. + +"No. I've come out to offer my sword to the King of Tanith," he said. + +"Prince of Tanith, for the time being," Trask corrected. "The sword, +however, is most acceptable. I take it you've had all of our blessed +sovereign you can stomach?" + +"Lucas, you have enough ships and men here to take Gram," Rathmore +said. "Proclaim yourself King of Tanith and then lay claim to the +throne of Gram and the whole planet would rise for you." + +Rathmore had lowered his voice, but even so the open landing stage +was no place for this sort of talk. He said so, ordered a couple +of the locals to collect Rathmore's luggage, and got him into a +hall-car, taking him down to his living quarters. After they were +in private, Rathmore began again: + +"It's more than anybody can stand! There isn't one of the old great +nobility he hasn't alienated, or one of the minor barons, the +landholders and industrialists, the people who were always the +backbone of Gram. And it goes from them down to the commonfolk. +Assessments on the lords, taxes on the people, inflation to meet +the taxes, high prices, debased coinage. Everybody's being beggared +except this rabble of new lords he has around him, and that slut of +a wife and her greedy kinfolk...." + +Trask stiffened. "You're not speaking of Queen Flavia, are you?" +he asked softly. + +Rathmore's mouth opened slightly. "Great Satan, don't you know? No, +of course not; the news would have come on the same ship I did. Why, +Angus divorced Flavia. He claimed that she was incapable of giving +him an heir to the throne. He remarried immediately." + +The girl's name meant nothing to Trask; he did know of her father, a +Baron Valdiva. He was lord of a small estate south of the Ward lands +and west of Newhaven. Most of his people were out-and-out bandits +and cattle-rustlers, and he was as close to being one himself as +he could get. + +"Nice family he's married into. A credit to the dignity of the +throne." + +"Yes. You wouldn't know this Lady-Demoiselle Evita; she was only +seventeen when you left Gram, and hadn't begun to acquire a +reputation outside her father's lands. She's made up for lost time +since, though. And she has enough uncles and aunts and cousins and +ex-lovers and what-not to fill out an infantry regiment, and every +one of them's at court with both hands out to grab everything they +can." + +"How does Duke Joris like this?" The Duke of Bigglersport was Queen +Flavia's brother. "I daresay he's less than delighted." + +"He's hiring mercenaries, is what he's doing, and buying combat +contragravity. Lucas, why don't you come back? You have no idea what +a reputation you have on Gram, now. Everybody would rally to you." + +He shook his head, "I have a throne, here on Tanith. On Gram I want +nothing. I'm sorry for the way Angus turned out, I thought he'd make +a good King. But since he's made an intolerable King, the lords and +people of Gram will have to get rid of him for themselves. I have my +own tasks, here." + +Rathmore shrugged. "I was afraid that would be it," he said. "Well, +I offered my sword; I won't take it back. I can help you in what +you're doing on Tanith." + + * * * * * + +The captain of the free Space Viking _Damnthing_ was named +Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, which meant that he was some +Sword-Worlder's acknowledged bastard by a woman of one of the Old +Federation planets. His mother's people could have been Nergalers; +he had coarse black hair, a mahogany-brown skin, and red-brown, +almost maroon, eyes. He tasted the wine the robot poured for him +and expressed appreciation, then began unwrapping the parcel he +had brought in. + +"Something I found while raiding on Tetragrammaton," he said. +"I thought you might like to have it. It was made on Gram." + +It was an automatic pistol, with a belt and holster. The leather was +bisonoid-hide; the buckle of the belt was an oval enameled with a +crescent, pale blue on black. The pistol was a plain 10-mm military +model with grooved plastic grips; on the receiver it bore the stamp +of the House of Hoylbar, the firearms manufacturers of Glaspyth. +Evidently it was one of the arms Duke Omfray had provided for Andray +Dunnan's original mercenary company. + +"Tetragrammaton?" He glanced over to the Big Board; there was no +previous report from that planet. "How long ago?" + +"I'd say about three hundred hours. I came from there directly, less +than two hundred and fifty hours. Dunnan's ships had left the planet +three days before I got there." + +That was practically sizzling hot. Well, something like that had to +happen, sooner or later. The Space Viking was asking him if he knew +what sort of a place Tetragrammaton was. + +Neobarbarian, trying to recivilize in a crude way. Small population, +concentrated on one continent; farming and fisheries. A little heavy +industry, in a small way, at a couple of towns. They had some nuclear +power, introduced a century or so ago by traders from Marduk, one of +the really civilized planets. They still depended on Marduk for +fissionables; their export product was an abominably-smelling +vegetable oil which furnished the base for delicate perfumes, and +which nobody was ever able to synthesize properly. + +"I heard they had steel mills in operation, now," the half-breed +Space Viking said. "It seems that somebody on Rimmon has just +re-invented the railroad, and they need more steel than they can +produce for themselves. I thought I'd raid Tetragrammaton for steel +and trade it on Rimmon for a load of heaven-tea. When I got there, +though, the whole planet was in a mess; not raiding, but plain +wanton destruction. The locals were just digging themselves out of +it when I landed. Some of them, who didn't think they had anything +at all left to lose, gave me a fight. I captured a few of them, to +find out what had happened. One of them had that pistol; he said +he'd taken it off a Space Viking he'd killed. The ships that raided +them were the _Enterprise_ and the _Yo-Yo_. I knew you'd want to +hear about it. I got some of the locals' stories on tape." + +"Well, thank you. I'll want to hear those tapes. Now, you say you +want steel?" + +"Well, I haven't any money. That's why I was going to raid +Tetragrammaton." + +"Nifflheim with the money; your cargo's paid for already. This," +he said, touching the pistol, "and whatever's on the tapes." + + * * * * * + +They played off the tapes that evening. They weren't particularly +informative. The locals who had been interrogated hadn't been in +actual contact with Dunnan's people except in combat. The man who +had been carrying the 10-mm Hoylbar was the best witness of the lot, +and he knew little. He had caught one of them alone, shot him from +behind with a shotgun, taken his pistol, and then gotten away as +quickly as he could. They had sent down landing craft, it seemed, +and said they wanted to trade; then something must have happened, +nobody knew what, and they had begun a massacre and sacked the town. +After returning to their ships, they had opened fire with nuclear +missiles. + +"Sounds like Dunnan," Hugh Rathmore said in disgust. "He just went +kill-crazy. The bad blood of Blackcliffe." + +"There are funny things about this," Boake Valkanhayn said. "I'd say +it was a terror-raid, but who in Gehenna was he trying to terrorize?" + +"I wondered about that, too." Harkaman frowned. "This town where he +landed seems, such as it was, to have been the planetary capital. +They just landed, pretending friendship, which I can't see why they +needed to pretend, and then began looting and massacring. There +wasn't anything of real value there; all they took was what the men +could carry themselves or stuff into their landing craft, and they +did that because they have what amounts to a religious taboo +against landing anywhere and leaving without stealing something. +The real loot was at these two other towns; a steel mill and big +stocks of steel at one, and all that skunk-apple oil at the other. +So what did they do? They dropped a five-megaton bomb on each one, +and blew both of them to Em-See-Square. That was a terror-raid pure +and simple, but as Boake inquires, just who were they terrorizing? +If there were big cities somewhere else on the planet, it would +figure. But there aren't. They blew out the two biggest cities, +and all the loot in them." + +[Illustration] + +"Then they wanted to terrorize somebody off the planet." + +"But nobody'd hear about it off-planet," somebody protested. + +"The Mardukans would; they trade with Tetragrammaton," the +acknowledged bastard of somebody named Morvill said. "They have +a couple of ships a year there." + +"That's right," Trask agreed. "Marduk." + +"You mean, you think Dunnan's trying to terrorize _Marduk_?" Valkanhayn +demanded. "Great Satan, even he isn't crazy enough for that!" + +Baron Rathmore started to say something about what Andray Dunnan +was crazy enough to do, and what his uncle was crazy enough to do. +It was just one of the cracks he had been making since he'd come +to Tanith and didn't have to look over his shoulder while he was +making them. + +"I think he is, too," Trask said. "I think that is exactly what he +is doing. Don't ask me why; as Otto is fond of remarking, he's crazy +and we aren't, and that gives him an advantage. But what have we +gotten, since those Gilgameshers told us about his picking up +Burrik's ship and the _Honest Horris_? Until today, we've heard +nothing from any other Space Viking. What we have gotten was stories +from Gilgameshers about raids on planets where they trade, and every +one of them is also a planet where Marduk ships trade. And in every +case, there has been little or nothing reported about valuable loot +taken. The stories are all about wanton and murderous bombings. I +think Andray Dunnan is making war on Marduk." + +"Then he's crazier than his grandfather and his uncle both!" +Rathmore cried. + +"You mean, he's making a string of terror-raids on their trade +planets, hoping to pull the Mardukan space-navy away from the home +planet?" Harkaman had stopped being incredulous. "And when he gets +them all lured away, he'll make a fast raid?" + +"That's what I think. Remember our fundamental postulate: Dunnan is +crazy. Remember how he convinced himself that he was the rightful +heir to the ducal crown of Wardshaven?" And remember his insane +passion for Elaine; he pushed that thought hastily from him. "Now, +he's convinced that he's the greatest Space Viking in history. He +has to do something worthy of that distinction. When was the last +time anybody attacked a civilized planet? I don't mean Gilgamesh, +I mean a planet like Marduk." + +"A hundred and twenty years ago; Prince Havilgar of Haulteclere, six +ships, against Aton. Two ships got back. He didn't. Nobody's tried +it since," Harkaman said. + +"So Dunnan the Great will do it. I hope he tries," he surprised +himself by adding. "That's provided I find out what happened. Then +I could stop thinking about him." + +There was a time when he had dreaded the possibility that somebody +else might kill Dunnan before he could. + + + + +XVIII + + +Seshat, Obidicut, Lugaluru, Audhumla. + +The young man elevated by his father's death in the Dunnan raid to +the post of hereditary President of the democratic Republic of +Tetragrammaton had been sure that the Marduk ships which came to +his planet traded also on those. There had been some difficulty +about making contact, and the first face-to-face meeting had begun +in an atmosphere of bitter distrust on his part. They had met out +of doors; around them, spread wrecked and burned buildings, and +hastily constructed huts and shelters, and wide spaces of charred +and slagged rubble. + +"They blew up the steel mill here, and the oil-refinery at Jannsboro. +They bombed and strafed the little farm-towns and villages. They +scattered radioactives that killed as many as the bombing. And after +they had gone away, this other ship came." + +"The _Damnthing_? She bore the head of a beast with three very big horns?" + +"That's the one. They did a little damage, at first. When the +captain found out what had happened to us, he left some food and +medicines for us." Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan hadn't mentioned that. + +"Well, we'd like to help you, if we can. Do you have nuclear power? +We can give you a little equipment. Just remember it of us, when +you're back on your feet; we'll be back to trade later. But don't +think you owe us anything. The man who did this to you is my enemy. +Now, I want to talk to every one of your people who can tell me +anything at all...." + +Seshat was the closest; they went there first. They were too late. +Seshat had had it already, and on the evidence of the radioactivity +counters, not too long ago. Four hundred hours at most. There had +been two hellburners; the cities on which they had fallen were +still-smoking pits literally burned into the ground and the bedrock +below, at the center of five hundred mile radii of slag and lava and +scorched earth and burned forests. There had been a planetbuster; it +had started a major earthquake. And half a dozen thermonuclears. +There were probably quite a few survivors--a human planetary +population is extremely hard to exterminate completely--but within +a century they'd be back to the loincloth and the stone hatchet. + +"We don't even know Dunnan did it, personally," Paytrik Morland said. +"For all we know, he's down in an air-tight cave city on some planet +nobody ever heard of, sitting on a golden throne, surrounded by a harem." + +He had begun to suspect that Dunnan was doing something of just the +sort. The Greatest Space Viking of History would naturally found a +Space Viking empire. + +"An emperor goes out to look his empire over, now and then; I don't +spend all my time on Tanith. Say we try Audhumla next. It's the +farthest away. We might get there while he's still shooting up +Obidicut and Lugaluru. Guatt, figure us a jump for it." + +When the colored turbulence washed away and the screen cleared, +Audhumla looked like Tanith or Khepera or Amaterasu or any other +Terra-type planet, a big disk brilliant with reflected sunlight and +glowing with starlit and moonlit atmosphere on the other. There was +a single rather large moon, and, in the telescopic screen, the usual +markings of seas and continents and rivers and mountain-ranges. But +there was nothing to show.... + +Oh, yes; lights on the darkened side, and from the size they must be +vast cities. All the available data for Audhumla was long out of +date; a considerable civilization must have developed in the last +half dozen centuries. + +Another light appeared, a hard blue-white spark that spread into a +larger, less brilliant yellow light. At the same time, all the +alarm-devices in the command-room went into a pandemonium of jangling +and flashing and squawking and howling and shouting. Radiation. +Energy-release. Contragravity distortion effects. Infra-red output. A +welter of indecipherable radio and communication-screen signals. Radar +and scanner-ray beams from the planet. + +Trask's fist began hurting; he found that he had been pounding +the desk in front of him with it. He stopped it. + +"We caught him, we caught him!" he was yelling hoarsely. "Full speed +in, continuous acceleration, as much as we can stand. We'll worry +about decelerating when we're in shooting distance." + +The planet grew steadily larger; Karffard was taking him at his word +about continuous acceleration. There'd be a Gehenna of a bill to pay +when they started decelerating. On the planet, more bombs were going +off just outside atmosphere beyond the sunset line. + +"Ship observed. Altitude about a hundred to five hundred +miles--hundreds, not thousands--35 deg. North Latitude, 15 deg. west of +the sunset line. Ship is under fire, bomb explosions near her," +a voice whooped. + +Somebody else was yelling that the city lights were really burning +cities, or burning forests. The first voice, having stopped, broke +in again: + +"Ship is visible in telescopic screen, just at the sunset line. And +there's another ship detected but not visible, somewhere around the +equator, and a third one somewhere out of sight, we can just get the +fringe of her contragravity field around the planet." + +That meant there were two sides, and a fight. Unless Dunnan had +picked up a third ship, somewhere. The telescopic view shifted; +for a moment the planet was completely off-screen, and then its +curvature came into the screen against a star-scattered background. +They were almost in to two thousand miles now; Karffard was yelling +to stop acceleration and trying to put the ship into a spiral orbit. +Suddenly they caught a glimpse of one of the ships. + +"She's in trouble." That was Paul Koreff's voice. "She's leaking air +and water vapor like crazy." + +"Well, is she a good guy or a bad guy?" Morland was yelling back, as +though Koreff's spectroscopes could distinguish. Koreff ignored that. + +"Another ship making signal," he said. "She's the one coming up over +the equator. Sword-World impulse code; her communication-screen +combination, and an identify-yourself." + +Karffard punched out the combination as Koreff furnished it. While +Trask was desperately willing his face into immobility, the screen +lighted. It wasn't Andray Dunnan; that was a disappointment. It was +almost as good, though. His henchman, Sir Nevil Ormm. + +"Well, Sir Nevil! A pleasant surprise," he heard himself saying. +"We last met on the terrace at Karvall House, did we not?" + +For once, the paper-white face of Andray Dunnan's _ame damnee_ +showed expression, but whether it was fear, surprise, shock, hatred, +anger, or what combination of them, Trask could no more than guess. + +"Trask! Satan curse you...!" + +Then the screen went blank. In the telescopic screen, the other ship +came on unfalteringly. Paul Koreff, who had gotten more data on +mass, engine energy-output and dimensions, was identifying her as +the _Enterprise_. + +"Well, go for her! Give her everything!" + + * * * * * + +They didn't need the order; Vann Larch was speaking rapidly into his +hand-phone, and Alvyn Karffard was hurling his voice all over the +_Nemesis_, warning of sudden deceleration and direction change, and +while he was speaking, things in the command room began sliding. In +the telescopic screen, the other ship was plainly visible; he could +see the oval patch of black with the blue crescent, and in his +screen Dunnan would be seeing the sword-impaled skull of the +_Nemesis_. + +If only he could be sure Dunnan was there to see it. If it had only +been Dunnan's face, instead of Ormm's, that he had seen in the +screen. As it was, he couldn't be sure, and if one of the missiles +that were already going out made a lucky hit, he might never be +sure. He didn't care who killed Dunnan, or how. All he wanted was +to know that Dunnan's death had set him free from a self-assumed +obligation that was now meaningless to him. + +The _Enterprise_ launched counter-missiles; so did the _Nemesis_. +There were momentarily unbearable flashes of pure energy and from +them globes of incandescence spread and vanished. Something must +have gotten through; red lights flashed on the damage board. It had +been something heavy enough even to jolt the huge mass of the +_Nemesis_. At the same time, the other ship took a hit from +something that would have vaporized her had she not been armored in +collapsium. Then, as they passed close together, guns hammered back +and forth along with missiles, and then the _Enterprise_ was out of +sight around the horizon. + +Another ship, the size of Otto Harkaman's _Corisande II_, was +approaching; she bore a tapering, red-nailed feminine hand dangling +a planet by a string. They rushed toward each other, planting a +garden of evanescent fire-flowers between them; they pounded one +another with guns, and then they sped apart. At the same time, Paul +Koreff was picking up an impulse-code signal from the third, +crippled, ship; a screen combination. Trask punched it out as +he received it. + +A man in space armor was looking out of the screen. That was bad, +if they had to suit up in the command room. They still had air; +his helmet was off, but it was attached and hinged back. On his +breastplate was a device of a dragonlike beast perched with its tail +around a planet, and a crown above. He had a thin, high-cheeked +face, with a vertical wrinkle between his eyes, and a clipped blond +mustache. + +"Who are you, stranger. You're fighting my enemies; does that make +you a friend." + +"I'm a friend of anybody who owns Andray Dunnan his enemy. +Sword-World ship _Nemesis_; I'm Prince Lucas Trask of Tanith, +commanding." + +"Royal Mardukan ship _Victrix_." The thin-faced man gave a wry +laugh. "Not been living up to her name so well. I'm Prince Simon +Bentrik, commanding." + +"Are you still battle-worthy?" + +"We can fire about half our guns; we still have a few missiles left. +Seventy per cent of the ship's sealed off, and we've been holed in a +dozen places. We have power enough for lift and some steering-way. +We can't make lateral way except at the expense of lift." + +Which made the _Victrix_ practically a stationary target. He yelled +over his shoulder at Karffard to cut speed all he could without +tearing things apart. + +"When that cripple comes into view, start circling around her. Get +into a tight circle above her." He turned back to the man in the +screen. "If we can get ourselves slowed down enough, we'll do all we +can to cover you." + +"All you can is all you can; thank you, Prince Trask." + +"Here comes the _Enterprise_!" Karffard shouted, with obscenely +blasphemous embellishments. "She hairpinned on us." + +"Well, do something about her!" + + * * * * * + +Vann Larch was already doing it. The _Enterprise_ had taken damage +in the last exchange; Koreff's spectroscopes showed her halo-ed with +air and water vapor. Her instruments would be getting the same +story from the _Nemesis_; wedge-shaped segments extending six to +eight decks in were sealed off in several places. Then the only +thing that could be seen with certainty was the blaze of mutually +destroying missiles between. The short-range gun duel began and +ended as they passed. + +In the screen, he had seen a fat round-nosed thing come up from the +_Victrix_, curving far out ahead of the passing _Enterprise_. She +was almost out of sight around the planet when she ran head-on into +it, and vanished in an awesome blaze. For a moment, he thought she +had been destroyed, then she lurched into sight and went around the +curvature of Audhumla. + +Trask and the Mardukan were shaking hands with themselves at each +other in their screens; everybody in the _Nemesis_ command room was +screaming: "Well shot, _Victrix_! Well shot!" + +Then the _Yo-Yo_ was coming around again, and Vann Larch was saying, +"Gehenna with this fooling around! I'll fix the expurgated +unprintability!" + +He yelled orders--a jumble of code letters and numbers--and things +began going out. Most of them blew up in space. Then the _Yo-Yo_ +blew up, very quietly, as things do where there is no air to carry +shock- and sound-waves, but very brilliantly. There was brief +daylight all over the night side of the planet. + +"That was our planetbuster," Larch said. "I don't know what we'll +use on Dunnan." + +"I didn't know we had one," Trask admitted. + +"Otto had a couple built on Beowulf. The Beowulfers are good nuclear +weaponeers." + +The _Enterprise_ came back, hastily, to see what had blown up. Larch +put off another entertainment of small stuff, with a fifty megaton +thermonuclear, viewscreen-piloted, among them. It had its own +arsenal of small missiles, and it got through. In the telescopic +screen, a jagged hole was visible just below the equator of the +_Enterprise_, the edges curling outward. Something, possibly a heavy +missile in an open tube, ready for launching, had gone off inside +her. What the inside of the ship was like, or how many of her +company were still alive, was hard to guess. + +There were some, and her launchers were still spewing out missiles. +They were intercepted and blew up. The hull of the _Enterprise_ +bulked huge in the guidance-screen of the missile and filled it; the +jagged crater that had obliterated the bottom of Dunnan's blue +crescent blazon spread to fill the whole screen. The screen went +milky white as the pickup went off. + +All the other screens blazed briefly, until their filters went on. +Even afterward, they glared like the cloud-veiled sun of Gram at +high noon. Finally, when the light-intensity had dropped and the +filters went off, there was nothing left of the _Enterprise_ but an +orange haze. + +Somebody--Paytrik, Baron Morland, he saw--was pounding him on the +back and screaming inarticulately in his ear. A dozen space-armored +officers with planet-perched dragons on their breasts were crowding +beside Prince Bentrik in the screen from the _Victrix_, whooping +like drunken bisonoid-herders on payday night. + +"I wonder," he said, almost inaudibly, "if I'll ever know if Andray +Dunnan was on that ship." + + + + +XIX + + +Prince Trask of Tanith and Prince Simon Bentrik were dining together +on an upper terrace of what had originally been the mansion house of +a Federation period plantation. It had been a number of other things +since; now it was the municipal building of a town that had grown +around it, which had, somehow, escaped undamaged from the Dunnan +blitz. Normally about five or ten thousand, the place was now jammed +with almost fifty thousand homeless refugees from half a dozen other +towns that had been destroyed, overflowing the buildings and +crowding into a sprawling camp of hastily built huts and shelters, +and already permanent buildings were going up to accommodate them. +Everybody, locals, Mardukans and Space Vikings, had been busy with +the work of relief and reconstruction; this was the first meal the +two commanders had been able to share in any leisure at all. Prince +Bentrik's enjoyment of it was somewhat impaired by the fact that +from where he sat he could see, in the distance, the sphere of his +disabled ship. + +"I doubt we can get her off-planet again, let alone into hyperspace." + +"Well, we'll get you and your crew to Marduk in the _Nemesis_, +then." They were both speaking loudly, above the clank and clatter +of machinery below. "I hope you didn't think I'd leave you stranded +here." + +"I don't know how either of us will be received. Space Vikings +haven't been exactly popular on Marduk, lately. They may thank you +for bringing me back to stand trial," Bentrik said bitterly. "Why, +I'd have anybody shot who let his ship get caught as I did mine. +Those two were down in atmosphere before I knew they'd come out of +hyperspace." + +"I think they were down on the planet before your ship arrived." + +"Oh, that's ridiculous, Prince Trask!" the Mardukan cried. "You +can't hide a ship on a planet. Not from the kind of instruments we +have in the Royal Navy." + +"We have pretty fair detection ourselves," Trask reminded him. +"There's one place where you can do it. At the bottom of an ocean, +with a thousand or so feet of water over her. That's where I was +going to hide the _Nemesis_, if I got here ahead of Dunnan." + +Prince Bentrik's fork stopped half way to his mouth. He lowered it +slowly to his plate. That was a theory he'd like to accept, if he +could. + +"But the locals. They didn't know about it." + +"They wouldn't. They have no off-planet detection of their own. Come +in directly over the ocean, out of the sun, and nobody'd see the ship." + +"Is that a regular Space Viking trick?" + +"No. I invented it myself, on the way from Seshat. But if Dunnan +wanted to ambush your ship, he'd have thought of it, too. It's the +only practical way to do it." + +Dunnan, or Nevil Ormm; he wished he knew, and was afraid he would go +on wishing all his life. + +Bentrik started to pick up his fork again, changed his mind, and +sipped from his wineglass instead. + +"You may find you're quite welcome on Marduk, at that," he said. +"These raids have only been a serious problem in the last four +years. I believe, as you do, that this enemy of yours is responsible +for all of them. We have half the Royal Navy out now, patrolling our +trade-planets. Even if he wasn't aboard the _Enterprise_ when you +blew her up, you've put a name on him and can tell us a good deal +about him." He set down the wineglass. "Why, if it weren't so utterly +ridiculous, one might even think he was making war on Marduk." + +From Trask's viewpoint, it wasn't ridiculous at all. He merely +mentioned that Andray Dunnan was psychotic and let it go at that. + + * * * * * + +The _Victrix_ was not completely unrepairable, although quite beyond +the resources at hand. A fully equipped engineer-ship from Marduk +could patch her hull and replace her Dillinghams and her Abbot +lift-and-drive engines and make her temporarily spaceworthy, until +she could be gotten to a shipyard. They concentrated on repairing +the _Nemesis_, and in another two weeks she was ready for the voyage. + +The six hundred hour trip to Marduk passed pleasantly enough. The +Mardukan officers were good company, and found their Space Viking +opposite numbers equally so. The two crews had become used to +working together on Audhumla, and mingled amicably off watch, +interesting themselves in each other's hobbies and listening avidly +to tales of each other's home planets. The Space Vikings were +surprised and disappointed at the somewhat lower intellectual level +of the Mardukans. They couldn't understand that; Marduk was supposed +to be a civilized planet, wasn't it? The Mardukans were just as +surprised, and inclined to be resentful, that the Space Vikings all +acted and talked like officers. Hearing of it, Prince Bentrik was +also puzzled. Fo'c'sle hands on a Mardukan ship belonged definitely +to the lower orders. + +"There's still too much free land and free opportunity on the +Sword-Worlds," Trask explained. "Nobody does much bowing and +scraping to the class above him; he's too busy trying to shove +himself up into it. And the men who ship out as Space Vikings are +the least class-conscious of the lot. Think my men may have trouble +on Marduk about that? They'll all insist on doing their drinking in +the swankiest places in town." + +[Illustration] + +"No. I don't think so. Everybody will be so amazed that Space Vikings +aren't twelve feet tall, with three horns like a Zarathustra damnthing +and a spiked tail like a Fafnir mantichore that they won't even notice +anything less. Might do some good, in the long run. Crown Prince Edvard +will like your Space Vikings. He's much opposed to class distinctions +and caste prejudices. Says they have to be eliminated before we can +make democracy really work." + +The Mardukans talked a lot about democracy. They thought well of it; +their government was a representative democracy. It was also a +hereditary monarchy, if that made any kind of sense. Trask's efforts +to explain the political and social structure of the Sword-Worlds +met the same incomprehension from Bentrik. + +"Why, it sounds like feudalism to me!" + +"That's right; that's what it is. A king owes his position to the +support of his great nobles; they owe theirs to their barons and +landholding knights; they owe theirs to their people. There are +limits beyond which none of them can go; after that, their vassals +turn on them." + +"Well, suppose the people of some barony rebel? Won't the king send +troops to support the baron?" + +"What troops? Outside a personal guard and enough men to police the +royal city and hold the crown lands, the king has no troops. If he +wants troops, he has to get them from his great nobles; they have to +get them from their vassal barons, who raise them by calling out +their people." That was another source of dissatisfaction with King +Angus of Gram; he had been augmenting his forces by hiring +off-planet mercenaries. "And the people won't help some other baron +oppress his people; it might be their turn next." + + * * * * * + +"You mean, the people are armed?" Prince Bentrik was incredulous. + +"Great Satan, aren't yours?" Prince Trask was equally surprised. +"Then your democracy's a farce, and the people are only free on +sufferance. If their ballots aren't secured by arms, they're +worthless. Who has the arms on your planet?" + +"Why, the Government." + +"You mean the King?" + +Prince Bentrik was shocked. Certainly not; horrid idea. That would +be ... why, it would be _despotism_! Besides, the King wasn't the +Government, at all; the Government ruled in the King's name. There +was the Assembly; the Chamber of Representatives, and the Chamber of +Delegates. The people elected the Representatives, and the +Representatives elected the Delegates, and the Delegates elected the +Chancellor. Then, there was the Prime Minister; he was appointed by +the King, but the King had to appoint him from the party holding the +most seats in the Chamber of Representatives, and he appointed the +Ministers, who handled the executive work of the Government, only +their subordinates in the different Ministries were career-officials +who were selected by competitive examination for the bottom jobs and +promoted up the bureaucratic ladder from there. + +This left Trask wondering if the Mardukan constitution hadn't been +devised by Goldberg, the legendary Old Terran inventor who always +did everything the hard way. It also left him wondering just how in +Gehenna the Government of Marduk ever got anything done. + +Maybe it didn't. Maybe that was what saved Marduk from having a real +despotism. + +"Well, what prevents the Government from enslaving the people? +The people can't; you just told me that they aren't armed, and +the Government is." + +He continued, pausing now and then for breath, to catalogue every +tyranny he had ever heard of, from those practiced by the Terran +Federation before the Big War to those practiced at Eglonsby on +Amaterasu by Pedrosan Pedro. A few of the very mildest were pushing +the nobles and people of Gram to revolt against Angus I. + +"And in the end," he finished, "the Government would be the only +property owner and the only employer on the planet, and everybody +else would be slaves, working at assigned tasks, wearing +Government-issued clothing and eating Government food, their +children educated as the Government prescribes and trained for jobs +selected for them by the Government, never reading a book or seeing +a play or thinking a thought that the Government had not +approved...." + +Most of the Mardukans were laughing, now. Some of them were accusing +him of being just too utterly ridiculous. + +"Why, the people _are_ the Government. The people would not +legislate themselves into slavery." + +He wished Otto Harkaman were there. All he knew of history was the +little he had gotten from reading some of Harkaman's books, and the +long, rambling conversations aboard ship in hyperspace or in the +evenings at Rivington. But Harkaman, he was sure, could have +furnished hundreds of instances, on scores of planets and over ten +centuries of time, in which people had done exactly that and hadn't +known what they were doing, even after it was too late. + + * * * * * + +"They have something about like that on Aton," one of the Mardukan +officers said. + +"Oh, Aton; that's a dictatorship, pure and simple. That Planetary +Nationalist gang got into control fifty years ago, during the crisis +after the war with Baldur...." + +"They were voted into power by the people, weren't they?" + +"Yes; they were," Prince Bentrik said gravely. "It was an emergency +measure, and they were given emergency powers. Once they were in, +they made the emergency permanent." + +"That couldn't happen on Marduk!" a young nobleman declared. + +"It could if Zaspar Makann's party wins control of the Assembly at +the next election," somebody else said. + +"Oh, then Marduk's safe! The sun'll go nova first," one of the +junior Royal Navy officers said. + +After that, they began talking about women, a subject any spaceman +will drop any other subject to discuss. + +Trask made a mental note of the name of Zaspar Makann, and took +occasion to bring it up in conversation with his shipboard guests. +Every time he talked about Makann to two or more Mardukans, he heard +at least three or more opinions about the man. He was a political +demagogue; on that everybody agreed. After that, opinions diverged. + +Makann was a raving lunatic, and all the followers he had were a +handful of lunatics like him. He might be a lunatic, but he had a +dangerously large following. Well, not so large; maybe they'd pick +up a seat or so in the Assembly, but that was doubtful--not enough +of them in any representative district to elect an Assemblyman. He +was just a smart crook, milking a lot of half-witted plebeians for +all he could get out of them. Not just plebes, either; a lot of +industrialists were secretly financing him, in hope that he would +help them break up the labor unions. You're nuts; everybody knew the +labor unions were backing him, hoping he'd scare the employers into +granting concessions. You're both nuts; he was backed by the +mercantile interests; they were hoping he'd run the Gilgameshers +off the planet. + +Well, that was one thing you had to give him credit for. He wanted +to run out the Gilgameshers. Everybody was in favor of that. + +Now, Trask could remember something he'd gotten from Harkaman. +There had been Hitler, back at the end of the First Century +Pre-Atomic; hadn't he gotten into power because everybody was +in favor of running out the Christians, or the Moslems, or the +Albigensians, or somebody? + + + + +XX + + +Marduk had three moons; a big one, fifteen hundred miles in +diameter, and two insignificant twenty-mile chunks of rock. The big +one was fortified, and a couple of ships were in orbit around it. +The _Nemesis_ was challenged as she emerged from her last hyperjump; +both ships broke orbit and came out to meet her, and several more +were detected lifting away from the planet. + +Prince Bentrik took the communication screen, and immediately +encountered difficulties. The commandant, even after the situation +had been explained twice to him, couldn't understand. A Royal Navy +fleet unit knocked out in a battle with Space Vikings was bad +enough, but being rescued and brought to Marduk by another Space +Viking simply didn't make sense. He then screened the Royal Palace +at Malverton, on the planet; first he was icily polite to somebody +several echelons below him in the peerage, and then respectfully +polite to somebody he addressed as Prince Vandarvant. Finally, after +some minutes' wait, a frail, white-haired man in a little black +cap-of-maintenance appeared in the screen. Prince Bentrik instantly +sprang to his feet. So did all the other Mardukans in the command +room. + +"Your Majesty! I am most deeply honored!" + +"Are you all right, Simon?" the old gentleman asked solicitously. +"They haven't done anything to you, have they?" + +"Saved my life, and my men's, and treated me like a friend and +a comrade, Your Majesty. Have I your permission to present, +informally, their commander, Prince Trask of Tanith?" + +"Indeed you may, Simon. I owe the gentleman my deepest thanks." + +"His Majesty, Mikhyl the Eighth, Planetary King of Marduk," Prince +Bentrik said. "His Highness, Lucas, Prince Trask, Planetary Viceroy +of Tanith for his Majesty Angus the First of Gram." + +The elderly monarch bowed his head slightly; Trask bowed a little +more deeply, from the waist. + +"I am very happy, Prince Trask, first, I confess, at the safe return +of my kinsman Prince Bentrik, and then at the honor of meeting one +in the confidence of my fellow sovereign King Angus of Gram. I will +never be ungrateful for what you did for my cousin and for his +officers and men. You must stay at the Palace while you are on this +planet; I am giving orders for your reception, and I wish you to be +formally presented to me this evening." He hesitated briefly. "Gram; +that is one of the Sword-Worlds, is it not?" Another brief +hesitation. "Are you really a Space Viking, Prince Trask?" + +Maybe he'd expected Space Vikings to have three horns and a spiked +tail and stand twelve feet tall, himself. + +It took several hours for the _Nemesis_ to get into orbit. Bentrik +spent most of them in a screen-booth, and emerged visibly relieved. + +"Nobody's going to be sticky about what happened on Audhumla," he +told Trask. "There will be a Board of Inquiry. I'm afraid I had to +mix you up in that. It's not only about the action on Audhumla; +everybody from the Space Minister down wants to hear what you know +about this fellow Dunnan. Like yourself, we all hope he went to +Em-See-Square along with his flagship, but we can't take it for +granted. We have over a dozen trade-planets to protect, and he's +hit more than half of them already." + +The process of getting into orbit took them around the planet +several times, and it was a more impressive spectacle at each +circuit. Of course, Marduk had a population of almost two billion, +and had been civilized, with no hiatus of Neobarbarism, since it +had first been colonized in the Fourth Century. Even so, the Space +Vikings were amazed--and stubbornly refusing to show it--at what +they saw in the telescopic screens. + +"Look at that city!" Paytrik Morland whispered. "We talk about the +civilized planets, but I never realized they were anything like +this. Why, this makes Excalibur look like Tanith!" + + * * * * * + +The city was Malverton, the capital; like any city of a +contragravity-using people, it lay in a rough circle of buildings +towering out of green interspaces, surrounded by the smaller circles +of spaceports and industrial suburbs. The difference was that any of +these were as large as Camelot on Excalibur or four Wardshavens on +Gram, and Malverton itself was almost half the size of the whole +barony of Traskon. + +"They aren't any more civilized that we are, Paytrik. There are just +more of them. If there were two billion people on Gram--which I hope +there never will be--Gram would have cities like this, too." + +One thing; the government of a planet like Marduk would have to +be something more elaborate than the loose feudalism of the +Sword-Worlds. Maybe this Goldberg-ocracy of theirs had been forced +upon them by the sheer complexity of the population and its +problems. + +Alvyn Karffard took a quick look around him to make sure none +of the Mardukans were in earshot. + +"I don't care how many people they have," he said. "Marduk can be +had. A wolf never cares how many sheep there are in a flock. With +twenty ships, we could take this planet like we took Eglonsby. +There'd be losses coming in, sure, but after we were in and down, +we'd have it." + +"Where would we get twenty ships?" + +Tanith, at a pinch, could muster five or six, counting the free +Space Vikings who used the base facilities; they would have to leave +a couple to hold the planet. Beowulf had one, and another almost +completed, and now there was an Amaterasu ship. But to assemble a +Space Viking armada of twenty.... He shook his head. The real reason +why Space Vikings had never raided a civilized planet successfully +had always been their inability to combine under one command in +sufficient strength. + +Besides, he didn't want to raid Marduk. A raid, if successful, would +yield immense treasures, but cause a hundred, even a thousand, times +as much destruction, and he didn't want to destroy anything +civilized. + +The landing stages of the palace were crowded when he and Prince +Bentrik landed, and, at a discreet distance, swarms of air-vehicles +circled, creating a control problem for the police. Parting from +Bentrik, he was escorted to the suite prepared for him; it was +luxurious in the extreme but scarcely above Sword-World standards. +There were a surprising number of human servants, groveling and +fawning and getting underfoot and doing work robots could have been +doing better. What robots there were were inefficient, and much work +and ingenuity had been lavished on efforts to copy human form to the +detriment of function. + +After getting rid of most of the superfluous servants, he put on a +screen and began sampling the newscasts. There were telescopic views +of the _Nemesis_ from some craft on orbit nearby, and he watched the +officers and men of the _Victrix_ being disembarked; there were +other views of their landing at some naval installation on the +ground, and he could see reporters being chevied away by Navy +ground-police. And there was a wide range of commentary opinion. + +The Government had already denied that, (1) Prince Bentrik had +captured the _Nemesis_ and brought her in as a prize, and, (2) the +Space Vikings had captured Prince Bentrik and were holding him for +ransom. Beyond that, the Government was trying to sit on the whole +story, and the Opposition was hinting darkly at corrupt deals and +sinister plots. Prince Bentrik arrived in the midst of an +impassioned tirade against pusillanimous traitors surrounding his +Majesty who were betraying Marduk to the Space Vikings. + +"Why doesn't your Government publish the facts and put a stop to +that nonsense?" Trask asked. + +"Oh, let them rave," Bentrik replied. "The longer the Government +waits, the more they'll be ridiculed when the facts are published." + +Or, the more people will be convinced that the Government had +something to hush up, and had to take time to construct a plausible +story. He kept the thought to himself. It was their government; how +they mismanaged it was their own business. He found that there was +no bartending robot; he had to have a human servant bring drinks. He +made up his mind to have a few of the _Nemesis_ robots sent down to him. + + * * * * * + +The formal presentation would be in the evening; there would be a +dinner first, and because Trask had not yet been formally presented, +he couldn't dine with the King, but because he was, or claimed to +be, Viceroy of Tanith, he ranked as a chief of state and would dine +with the Crown Prince, to whom there would be an informal +introduction first. + +This took place in a small ante-chamber off the banquet hall; the +Crown Prince and Crown Princess and Princess Bentrik were there when +they arrived. The Crown Prince was a man of middle age, graying at +the temples, with the glassy stare that betrayed contact lenses. The +resemblance between him and his father was apparent; both had the +same studious and impractical expression, and might have been +professors on the same university faculty. He shook hands with +Trask, assuring him of the gratitude of the Court and Royal Family. + +"You know, Simon is next in succession, after myself and my little +daughter," he said. "That's too close to take chances with him." He +turned to Bentrik. "I'm afraid this is your last space adventure, +Simon. You'll have to be a spaceport spaceman from now on." + +"I shan't be sorry," Princess Bentrik said. "And if anybody owes +Prince Trask gratitude, I do." She pressed his hands warmly. "Prince +Trask, my son wants to meet you, very badly. He's ten years old, and +he thinks Space Vikings are romantic heroes." + +"He should be one, for a while." + +He should just see a planet Space Vikings had raided. + +Most of the people at the upper end of the table were +diplomats--ambassadors from Odin and Baldur and Isis and Ishtar and +Aton and the other civilized worlds. No doubt they hadn't actually +expected horns and a spiked tail, or even tattooing and a nose ring, +but after all, Space Vikings were just some sort of Neobarbarians, +weren't they? On the other hand, they had all seen views and gotten +descriptions of the _Nemesis_, and had heard about the ship-action +on Audhumla, and this Prince Trask--a Space Viking prince; that +sounded civilized enough--had saved a life with only three other +lives, one almost at an end, between it and the throne. And they had +heard about the screen conversation with King Mikhyl. So they were +courteous through the meal, and tried to get as close as possible to +him in the procession to the throne room. + +King Mikhyl wore a golden crown topped by the planetary emblem, +which must have weighed twice as much as a combat helmet, and +fur-edged robes that would weigh more than a suit of space armor. +They weren't nearly as ornate, though, as the regalia of King Angus +I of Gram. He rose to clasp Prince Bentrik's hand, calling him "dear +cousin," and congratulating him on his gallant fight and fortunate +escape. That knocks any court-martial talk on the head, Trask +thought. He remained standing to shake hands with Trask, calling him +"valued friend to me and my house." First person singular; that must +be causing some lifted eyebrows. + +Then the King sat down, and the rest of the roomful filed up onto +the dais to be received, and finally it was over and the king rose +and proceeded, followed by his immediate suite between the bowing +and curtsying court and out the wide doors. After a decent interval, +Crown Prince Edvard escorted him and Prince Bentrik down the same +route, the others falling in behind, and across the hall to the +ballroom, where there was soft music and refreshments. It wasn't too +unlike a court reception on Excalibur, except that the drinks and +canapes were being dispensed by human servants. + +He was wondering what sort of court functions Angus the First of +Gram was holding by now. + +After half an hour, a posse of court functionaries approached and +informed him that it had pleased his Majesty to command Prince Trask +to attend him in his private chambers. There was an audible gasp at +this; both Prince Bentrik and the Crown Prince were trying not to +grin too broadly. Evidently this didn't happen too often. He followed +the functionaries from the ballroom, and the eyes of everybody else +followed him. + + * * * * * + +Old King Mikhyl received him alone, in a small, comfortably shabby +room behind vast ones of incredible splendor. He wore fur-lined +slippers and a loose robe with a fur collar, and his little black +cap-of-maintenance. He was standing when Trask entered; when the +guards closed the door and left them alone, he beckoned Trask to +a couple of chairs, with a low table, on which were decanters and +glasses and cigars, between. + +"It's a presumption on royal authority to summon you from the +ballroom," he began, after they had seated themselves and filled +glasses. "You are quite the cynosure, you know." + +"I'm grateful to Your Majesty. It's both comfortable and quiet here, +and I can sit down. Your Majesty was the center of attention in the +throne room, yet I seemed to detect a look of relief as you left it." + +"I try to hide it, as much as possible." The old King took off the +little gold-circled cap and hung it on the back of his chair. +"Majesty can be rather wearying, you know." + +So he could come here and put it off. Trask felt that some gesture +should be made on his own part. He unfastened the dress-dagger from +his belt and laid it on the table. The King nodded. + +"Now, we can be a couple of honest tradesmen, our shops closed for +the evening, relaxing over our wine and tobacco," he said. "Eh, +Goodman Lucas?" + +It seemed like an initiation into a secret society whose ritual he +must guess at step by step. + +"Right, Goodman Mikhyl." + +They lifted their glasses to each other and drank; Goodman Mikhyl +offered cigars, and Goodman Lucas held a light for him. + +"I hear a few hard things about your trade, Goodman Lucas." + +"All true, and mostly understated. We're professional murderers and +robbers, as one of my fellow tradesmen says. The worst of it is that +robbery and murder become just that: a trade, like servicing robots +or selling groceries." + +"Yet you fought two other Space Vikings to cover my cousin's +crippled _Victrix_. Why?" + +So he must tell his tale, so worn and smooth, again. King Mikhyl's +cigar went out while he listened. + +"And you have been hunting him ever since? And now, you can't be +sure whether you killed him or not?" + +"I'm afraid I didn't. The man in the screen is the only man Dunnan +can really trust. One or the other would stay wherever he has his +base all the time." + +"And when you do kill him; what then?" + +"I'll go on trying to make a civilized planet of Tanith. Sooner or +later, I'll have one quarrel too many with King Angus, and then we +will be our Majesty Lucas the First of Tanith, and we will sit on a +throne and receive our subjects. And I'll be glad when I can get my +crown off and talk to a few men who call me 'shipmate,' instead of +'Your Majesty.'" + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +"Well, it would violate professional ethics for me to advise a +subject to renounce his sovereign, of course, but that might be an +excellent thing. You met the ambassador from Ithavoll at dinner, did +you not? Three centuries ago, Ithavoll was a colony of Marduk--it +seems we can't afford colonies, any more--and it seceded from us. +Ithavoll was then a planet like your Tanith seems to be. Today, it +is a civilized world, and one of Marduk's best friends. You know, +sometimes I think a few lights are coming on again, here and there +in the Old Federation. If so, you Space Vikings are helping to light +them." + +"You mean the planets we use as bases, and the things we teach the +locals?" + +"That, too, of course. Civilization needs civilized technologies. +But they have to be used for civilized ends. Do you know anything +about a Space Viking raid on Aton, over a century ago?" + +"Six ships from Haulteclere; four destroyed, the other two returned +damaged and without booty." + +The King of Marduk nodded. + +"That raid saved civilization on Aton. There were four great +nations; the two greatest were at the brink of war, and the others +were waiting to pounce on the exhausted victor and then fight each +other for the spoils. The Space Vikings forced them to unite. Out of +that temporary alliance came the League for Common Defense, and from +that the Planetary Republic. The Republic's a dictatorship, now, and +just between Goodman Mikhyl and Goodman Lucas it's a nasty one and +our Majesty's Government doesn't like it at all. It will be smashed +sooner or later, but they'll never go back to divided sovereignty +and nationalism again. The Space Vikings frightened them out of that +when the dangers inherent in it couldn't. Maybe this man Dunnan will +do the same for us on Marduk." + +"You have troubles?" + +"You've seen decivilized planets. How does it happen?" + +"I know how it's happened on a good many: War. Destruction of cities +and industries. Survivors among ruins, too busy keeping their own +bodies alive to try to keep civilization alive. Then they lose all +knowledge of how to be civilized." + +"That's catastrophic decivilization. There is also decivilization by +erosion, and while it's going on, nobody notices it. Everybody is +proud of their civilization, their wealth and culture. But trade is +falling off; fewer ships come in each year. So there is boastful +talk about planetary self-sufficiency; who needs off-planet trade +anyhow? Everybody seems to have money, but the government is always +broke. Deficit spending--and always the vital social services for +which the government has to spend money. The most vital one, of +course, is buying votes to keep the government in power. And it gets +harder for the government to get anything done. + +"The soldiers are sloppier at drill, and their uniforms and weapons +aren't taken care of. The noncoms are insolent. And more and more +parts of the city are dangerous at night, and then even in the +daytime. And it's been years since a new building went up, and the +old ones aren't being repaired any more." + +Trask closed his eyes. Again, he could feel the mellow sun of Gram +on his back, and hear the laughing voices on the lower terrace, and +he was talking to Lothar Ffayle and Rovard Grauffis and Alex Gorram +and Cousin Nikkolay and Otto Harkaman. He said: + +"And finally, nobody bothers fixing anything up. And the +power-reactors stop, and nobody seems to be able to get them started +again. It hasn't quite gotten that far on the Sword-Worlds yet." + +"It hasn't here, either. Yet." Goodman Mikhyl slipped away; King +Mikhyl VIII looked across the low table at his guest. "Prince Trask, +have you heard of a man named Zaspar Makann?" + +"Occasionally. Nothing good about him." + +"He is the most dangerous man on this planet," the King said. "And I +can make nobody believe it. Not even my son." + + + + +XXI + + +Prince Bentrik's ten-year-old son, Count Steven of Ravary, wore the +uniform of an ensign of the Royal Navy; he was accompanied by his +tutor, an elderly Navy captain. They both stopped in the doorway +of Trask's suite, and the boy saluted smartly. + +"Permission to come aboard, sir?" he asked. + +"Welcome aboard, count; captain. Belay the ceremony and find seats; +you're just in time for second breakfast." + +As they sat down, he aimed his ultraviolet light-pencil at a serving +robot. Unlike Mardukan robots, which looked like surrealist +conceptions of Pre-Atomic armored knights, it was a smooth ovoid +floating a few inches from the floor on its own contragravity; as it +approached, its top opened like a bursting beetle shell and hinged +trays of food swung out. The boy looked at it in fascination. + +"Is that a Sword-World robot, sir, or did you capture it somewhere?" + +"It's one of our own." He was pardonably proud; it had been built on +Tanith a year before. "Has an ultrasonic dishwasher underneath, and +it does some cooking on top, at the back." + +The elderly captain was, if anything, even more impressed than his +young charge. He knew what went into it, and he had some conception +of the society that would develop things like that. + +"I take it you don't use many human servants, with robots like +that," he said. + +"Not many. We're all low-population planets, and nobody wants to +be a servant." + +"We have too many people on Marduk, and all of them want soft jobs +as nobles' servants," the captain said. "Those that want any kind +of jobs." + +"You need all your people for fighting men, don't you?" the boy +count asked. + +"Well, we need a good many. The smallest of our ships will carry +five hundred men; most of them around eight hundred." + +The captain lifted an eyebrow. The complement of the _Victrix_ had +been three hundred, and she'd been a big ship. Then he nodded. + +"Of course. Most of them are ground-fighters." + +That started Count Steven off. Questions, about battles and raids +and booty and the planets Trask had seen. + +"I wish I were a Space Viking!" + +"Well, you can't be, Count Ravary. You're an officer of the Royal +Navy. You're supposed to fight Space Vikings." + +"I won't fight you." + +"You'd have to, if the King commanded," the old captain told him. + +"No. Prince Trask is my friend. He saved my father's life." + +"And I won't fight you, either, count. We'll make a lot of +fireworks, and then we'll each go home and claim victory. How would +that be?" + +"I've heard of things like that," the captain said. "We had a war +with Odin, seventy years ago, that was mostly that sort of battles." + +"Besides, the King is Prince Trask's friend, too," the boy insisted. +"Father and Mummy heard him say so, right on the Throne. Kings don't +lie when they're on the Throne, do they?" + +"Good Kings don't," Trask told him. + +"Ours is a good King," the young Count of Ravary declared proudly. +"I would do anything my King commanded. Except fight Prince Trask. +My house owes Prince Trask a debt." + +Trask nodded approvingly. "That's the way a Sword-World noble would +talk, Count Steven," he said. + + * * * * * + +The Board of Inquiry, that afternoon, was more like a small and very +sedate cocktail party. An Admiral Shefter, who seemed to be very +high high-brass, presided while carefully avoiding the appearance +of doing so. Alvyn Karffard and Vann Larch and Paytrik Morland were +there from the _Nemesis_, and Bentrik and several of the officers +from the _Victrix_, and there were a couple of Naval Intelligence +officers, and somebody from Operational Planning, and from Ship +Construction and Research & Development. They chatted pleasantly +and in a deceptively random manner for a while. Then Shefter said: + +"Well, there's no blame or censure of any sort for the way Commodore +Prince Bentrik was surprised. That couldn't have been avoided, at +the time." He looked at the Research & Development officer. "It +shouldn't be allowed to happen many more times, though." + +"Not many more, sir. I'd say it'll take my people a month, and then +the time it'll take to get all the ships equipped as they come in." + +Ship Construction didn't think that would take too long. + +"We'll see to it that you get full information on the new submarine +detection system, Prince Trask," the admiral said. + +"You gentlemen understand you'll have to keep it under your helmets, +though," one of the Intelligence men added. "If it got out that we +were informing Space Vikings about our technical secrets...." He +felt the back of his neck in a way that made Trask suspect that +beheadment was the customary form of execution on Marduk. + +"We'll have to find out where the fellow has his base," Operational +Planning said. "I take it, Prince Trask, that you're not going to +assume that he was on his flagship when you blew it, and just put +paid to him and forget him?" + +"Oh, no. I'm assuming that he wasn't. I don't believe he and Ormm +went anywhere on the same ship, after he came out here and +established a base. I think one of them would stay home all the +time." + +"Well, we'll give you everything we have on them," Shefter promised. +"Most of that is classified and you'll have to keep quiet about it, +too. I just skimmed over the summary of what you gave us; I daresay +we'll both get a lot of new information. Have you any idea at all +where he might be based, Prince Trask?" + +"Only that we think it's a non-Terra-type planet." He told them +about Dunnan's heavy purchases of air-and-water recycling equipment +and carniculture and hydroponic material. "That, of course, helps a +great deal." + +"Yes; there are only about five million planets in the former +Federation space-volume that are inhabitable in artificial +environment. Including a few completely covered by seas, where you +could put in underwater dome cities if you had the time and +material." + +One of the Intelligence officers had been nursing a glass with a +tiny remnant of cocktail in it. He downed it suddenly, filled the +glass again, and glowered at it in silence for a while. Then he +drank it briskly and refilled it. + +"What I should like to know," he said, "is how this double obscenity +of a Dunnan knew we'd have a ship on Audhumla just when we did," he +said. "Your talking about underwater dome-cities reminded me of it. +I don't think he just pulled that planet out of a hat and then went +there prepared to sit on the bottom of the ocean for a year and a +half waiting for something to turn up. I think he knew the +_Victrix_ was coming to Audhumla, and just about when." + +"I don't like that, commodore," Shefter said. + +"You think I do, sir?" the Intelligence officer countered. "There it +is, though. We all have to face it." + +"We do," Shefter agreed. "Get on it, commodore, and I don't need to +caution you to screen everybody you put onto it very carefully." He +looked at his own glass; it had a bare thimbleful in the bottom. He +replenished it slowly and carefully. "It's been a long time since +the Navy's had anything like this to worry about." He turned to +Trask. "I suppose I can get in touch with you at the Palace whenever +I must?" + +"Well, Prince Trask and I have been invited as house-guests at +Prince Edvard's, I mean Baron Cragdale's, hunting lodge," Bentrik +said. "We'll be going there directly from here." + +"Ah." Admiral Shefter smiled slightly. Beside not having three horns +and a spiked tail, this Space Viking was definitely _persona grata_ +with the Royal Family. "Well, we'll keep in contact, Prince Trask." + + * * * * * + +The hunting lodge where Crown Prince Edvard was simple Baron +Cragdale lay at the head of a sharply-sloping mountain valley down +which a river tumbled. Mountains rose on either side in high scarps, +some topped with perpetual snow, glaciers curling down from them. +The lower ranges were forested, as was the valley between, and there +was a red-mauve alpenglow on the great peak that rose from the head +of the valley. For the first time in over a year, Elaine was with +him, silently clinging to him to see the beauty of it through his +eyes. He had thought that she had gone from him forever. + +The hunting lodge itself was not quite what a Sword-Worlder would +expect a hunting lodge to be. At first sight, from the air, it +looked like a sundial, a slender tower rising like a gnomen above a +circle of low buildings and formal gardens. The boat landed at the +foot of it, and he and Prince and Princess Bentrik and the young +Count of Ravary and his tutor descended. Immediately, they were +beset by a flurry of servants; the second boat, with the Bentrik +servants and their luggage was circling in to land. Elaine, he +discovered, wasn't with him any more, and then he was separated from +the Bentriks and was being floated up an inside shaft in a +lifter-car. More servants installed him in his rooms, unpacked his +cases, drew his bath and even tried to help him take it, and fussed +over him while he dressed. + +There were over a score for dinner. Bentrik had warned him that he'd +find some odd types; maybe he meant that they wouldn't all be +nobles. Among the commoners there were some professors, mostly +social sciences, a labor leader, a couple of Representatives and a +member of the Chamber of Delegates, and a couple of social workers, +whatever that meant. + +His own table companion was a Lady Valerie Alvarath. She was +beautiful--black hair, and almost startlingly blue eyes, a +combination unusual in the Sword-Worlds--and she was intelligent, +or at least cleverly articulate. She was introduced as the +lady-companion of the Crown Prince's daughter. When he asked +where the daughter was, she laughed. + +"She won't be helping entertain visiting Space Vikings for a long +time, Prince Trask. She is precisely eight years old; I saw her +getting ready for bed before I came down here. I'll look in on her +after dinner." + +Then the Crown Princess Melanie, on his other hand, asked him some +question about Sword-World court etiquette. He stuck to +generalities, and what he could remember from a presentation at the +court of Excalibur during his student days. These people had a +monarchy since before Gram had been colonized; he wasn't going to +admit that Gram's had been established since he went off-planet. +The table was small enough for everybody to hear what he was saying +and to feed questions to him. It lasted all through the meal, and +continued when they adjourned for coffee in the library. + +"But what about your form of government, your social structure, +that sort of thing?" somebody, impatient with the artificialities +of the court, wanted to know. + +"Well, we don't use the word government very much," he replied. "We +talk a lot about authority and sovereignty, and I'm afraid we burn +entirely too much powder over it, but government always seems to us +like sovereignty interfering in matters that don't concern it. As +long as sovereignty maintains a reasonable semblance of good public +order and makes the more serious forms of crime fairly hazardous for +the criminals, we're satisfied." + +"But that's just negative. Doesn't the government do anything +positive for the people?" + +He tried to explain the Sword-World feudal system to them. It was +hard, he found, to explain something you have taken for granted all +your life to somebody who is quite unfamiliar with it. + + * * * * * + +"But the government--the sovereignty, since you don't like the other +word--doesn't do anything for the people!" one of the professors +objected. "It leaves all the social services to the whim of the +individual lord or baron." + +"And the people have no voice at all; why, that's tyranny," +a professor Assemblyman added. + +He tried to explain that the people had a very distinct and +commanding voice, and that barons and lords who wanted to stay +alive listened attentively to it. The Assemblyman changed his mind; +that wasn't tyranny, it was anarchy. And the professor was still +insistent about who performed the social services. + +"If you mean schools and hospitals and keeping the city clean, the +people do that for themselves. The government, if you want to think +of it as that, just sees to it that nobody's shooting at them while +they're doing it." + +"That isn't what Professor Pullwell means, Lucas. He means old-age +pensions," Prince Bentrik said. "Like this thing Zaspar Makann's +whooping for." + +He'd heard about that, on the voyage from Audhumla. Every person on +Marduk would be retired on an adequate pension after thirty years +regular employment or at the age of sixty. When he had wanted to +know where the money would come from, he had been told that there +would be a sales tax, and that the pensions must all be spent within +thirty days, which would stimulate business, and the increased +business would provide tax money to pay the pensions. + +"We have a joke about three Gilgameshers space-wrecked on an +uninhabited planet," he said. "Ten years later, when they were +rescued, all three were immensely wealthy, from trading hats with +each other. That's about the way this thing will work." + +One of the lady social workers bristled; it wasn't right to make +derogatory jokes about racial groups. One of the professors +harrumphed; wasn't a parallel at all, the Self-Sustaining Rotary +Pension Plan was perfectly feasible. With a shock, Trask recalled +that he was a professor of economics. + +Alvyn Karffard wouldn't need any twenty ships to loot Marduk. Just +infiltrate it with about a hundred smart confidence men and inside +a year they'd own everything on it. + +That started them all off on Zaspar Makann, though. Some of them +thought he had a few good ideas, but was damaging his own case by +extremism. One of the wealthier nobles said that he was a reproach +to the ruling class; it was their fault that people like Makann +could gain a following. One old gentleman said that maybe the +Gilgameshers were to blame, themselves, for some of the animosity +toward them. He was immediately set upon by all the others and +verbally torn to pieces on the spot. + +Trask didn't feel it proper to quote Goodman Mikhyl to this crowd. +He took the responsibility upon himself for saying: + +"From what I've heard of him, I think he's the most serious threat +to civilized society on Marduk." + +They didn't call him crazy, after all he was a guest, but they +didn't ask him what he meant, either. They merely told him that +Makann was a crackpot with a contemptible following of half-wits, +and just wait till the election and see what happened. + +"I'm inclined to agree with Prince Trask," Bentrik said soberly. +"And I'm afraid the election results will be a shock to us, not to +Makann." + +He hadn't talked that way on the ship. Maybe he'd been looking +around and doing some thinking, since he got back. He might have +been talking to Goodman Mikhyl, too. There was a screen in the room. +He nodded toward it. + +"He's speaking at a rally of the People's Welfare Party at Drepplin, +now," he said. "May I put it on, to show you what I mean?" + +When the Crown Prince assented, he snapped on the screen and +twiddled at the selector. + + * * * * * + +A face looked out of it. The features weren't Andray Dunnan's--the +mouth was wider, the cheekbones broader, the chin more rounded. But +his eyes were Dunnan's, as Trask had seen them on the terrace of +Karvall House. Mad eyes. His high-pitched voice screamed: + +"Our beloved sovereign is a prisoner! He is surrounded by traitors! +The Ministries are full of them! They are all traitors! The +bloodthirsty reactionaries of the falsely so-called Crown Loyalist +Party! The grasping conspiracy of the interstellar bankers! The +dirty Gilgameshers! They are all leagued together in an unholy +conspiracy! And now this Space Viking, this bloody-handed monster +from the Sword-Worlds...." + +"Shut the horrible man off," somebody was yelling, in competition +with the hypnotic scream of the speaker. + +The trouble was, they couldn't. They could turn off the screen, but +Zaspar Makann would go on screaming, and millions all over the +planet would still hear him. Bentrik twiddled the selector. The +voice stuttered briefly, and then came echoing out of the speaker, +but this time the pickup was somewhere several hundred feet above +a great open park. It was densely packed with people, most of them +wearing clothes a farm tramp on Gram wouldn't be found dead in, +but here and there among them were blocks of men in what was +almost but not quite military uniform, each with a short and thick +swagger-stick with a knobbed head. Across the park, in the distance, +the head and shoulders of Zaspar Makann loomed a hundred feet high +in a huge screen. Whenever he stopped for breath, a shout would go +up, beginning with the blocks of uniformed men: + +"_Makann! Makann! Makann the Leader! Makann to Power!_" + +"You even let him have a private army?" he asked the Crown Prince. + +"Oh, those silly buffoons and their musical-comedy uniforms," +the Crown Prince shrugged. "They aren't armed." + +"Not visibly," he granted. "Not yet." + +"I don't know where they'd get arms." + +"No, Your Highness," Prince Bentrik said. "Neither do I. +That's what I'm worried about." + + + + +XXII + + +He succeeded, the next morning, in convincing everybody that he +wanted to be alone for a while, and was sitting in a garden, +watching the rainbows in the midst of a big waterfall across the +valley. Elaine would have liked that, but she wasn't with him, now. + +Then he realized that somebody was speaking to him, in a small, +bashful voice. He turned, and saw a little girl in shorts and a +sleeveless jacket, holding in her arms a long-haired blond puppy +with big ears and appealing eyes. + +"Hello, both of you," he said. + +The puppy wriggled and tried to lick the girl's face. + +"Don't, Mopsy. We want to talk to this gentleman," she said. +"Are you really and truly the Space Viking?" + +"Really and truly. And who are you two?" + +"I'm Myrna. And this is Mopsy." + +"Hello, Myrna. Hello, Mopsy." + +Hearing his name, the puppy wriggled again and dropped from the +child's arms; after a brief hesitation, he came over and jumped onto +Trask's lap, licking his face. While he petted the dog, the girl +came over and sat on the bench beside him. + +[Illustration] + +"Mopsy likes you," she said. After a moment, she added: "I like you, too." + +"And I like you," he said. "Would you want to be my girl? You know, +a Space Viking has to have a girl on every planet. How would you +like to be my girl on Marduk?" + +Myrna thought that over carefully. "I'd like to, but I couldn't. +You see, I'm going to have to be Queen, some day." + +"Oh?" + +"Yes. Grandpa is King now, and when he's through being King, Pappa +will have to be King, and then when he's through being King, I can't +be King because I'm a girl, so I'll have to be Queen. And I can't be +anybody's girl, because I'm going to have to marry somebody I don't +know, for reasons of state." She thought some more, and lowered her +voice. "I'll tell you a secret. I am a Queen now." + +"Oh, you are?" + +She nodded. "We are Queen, in our own right, of our Royal Bedroom, +our Royal Playroom, and our Royal Bathroom. And Mopsy is our +faithful subject." + +"Is Your Majesty absolute ruler of these domains?" + +"No," she said disgustedly. "We must at all times defer to our Royal +Ministers, just like Grandpa has to. That means, I have to do just +what they tell me to. That's Lady Valerie, and Margot, and Dame Eunice, +and Sir Thomas. But Grandpa says they are good and wise ministers. +Are you really a Prince? I didn't know Space Vikings were Princes." + +"Well, my King says I am. And I am ruler of my planet, and I'll tell +you a secret. I don't have to do what anybody tells me." + +"Gee! Are you a tyrant? You're awfully big and strong. I'll bet +you've slain just hundreds of cruel and wicked enemies." + +"Thousands, Your Majesty." + +He wished that weren't literally true; he didn't know how many of +them had been little girls like Myrna and little dogs like Mopsy. He +found that he was holding both of them tightly. The girl was saying: +"But you feel bad about it." These children must be telepaths! + +"A Space Viking who is also a Prince must do many things he doesn't +want to do." + +"I know. So does a Queen. I hope Grandpa and Pappa don't get through +being King for just years and years." She looked over his shoulder. +"Oh! And now I suppose I've got to do something else I don't want to. +Lessons, I bet." + +He followed her eyes. The girl who had been his dinner companion was +approaching; she wore a wide sunshade hat, and a gown that trailed +filmy gauze like sunset-colored mist. There was another woman, in +the garb of an upper servant, with her. + +"Lady Valerie and who else?" he whispered. + +"Margot. She's my nurse. She's awful strict, but she's nice." + +"Prince Trask, has Her Highness been bothering you?" Lady Valerie asked. + +"Oh, far from it." He rose, still holding the funny little dog. +"But you should say, Her Majesty. She has informed me that she +is sovereign of three princely domains. And of one dear loving +subject." He gave the subject back to the sovereign. + +"You should not have told Prince Trask that," Lady Valerie chided. +"When Your Majesty is outside her domains, Your Majesty must remain +incognito. Now, Your Majesty must go with the Minister of the +Bedchamber; the Minister of Education awaits an audience." + +"Arithmetic, I bet. Well, good-by, Prince Trask. I hope I can see +you again. Say good-by, Mopsy." + +She went away with her nurse, the little dog looking back over her +shoulder. + +"I came out to enjoy the gardens alone," he said, "and now I find +I'd rather enjoy them in company. If your Ministerial duties do not +forbid, could you be the company?" + +"But gladly, Prince Trask. Her Majesty will be occupied with serious +affairs of state. Square root. Have you seen the grottoes? They're +down this way." + + * * * * * + +That afternoon, one of the gentlemen-attendants caught up with him; +Baron Cragdale would be gratified if Prince Trask could find time to +talk with him privately. Before they had talked more than a few +minutes, however, Baron Cragdale abruptly became Crown Prince Edvard. + +"Prince Trask, Admiral Shefter tells me that you and he are having +informal discussions about co-operation against this mutual enemy +of ours, Dunnan. This is fine; it has my approval, and the approval +of Prince Vandarvant, the Prime Minister, and, I might add, that of +Goodman Mikhyl. I think it ought to go further, though. A formal treaty +between Tanith and Marduk would be greatly to the advantage of both." + +"I'd be inclined to think so, Prince Edvard. But aren't you +proposing marriage on rather short acquaintance? It's only been +fifty hours since the _Nemesis_ orbited in here." + +"Well, we know a bit about you and your planet beforehand. There's +a large Gilgamesher colony here. You have a few on Tanith, haven't +you? Well, anything one Gilgamesher knows, they all find out, and +ours are co-operative with Naval intelligence." + +That would be why Andray Dunnan was having no dealings with +Gilgameshers. It would also be what Zaspar Makann meant when +he ranted about the Gilgamesh Interstellar Conspiracy. + +"I can see where an arrangement like that would be mutually +advantageous. I'd be quite in favor of it. Co-operation against +Dunnan, of course, and reciprocal trade-rights on each other's +trade-planets, and direct trade between Marduk and Tanith. And +Beowulf and Amaterasu would come into it, too. Does this also have +the approval of the Prime Minister and the King?" + +"Goodman Mikhyl's in favor of it; there's a distinction between him +and the King, as you'll have noticed. The King can't be in favor of +anything till the Assembly or the Chancellor express an opinion. +Prince Vandarvant favors it personally; as Prime Minister, he is +reserving his opinion. We'll have to get the support of the Crown +Loyalist Party before he can take an unequivocal position." + +"Well, Baron Cragdale; speaking as Baron Trask of Traskon, suppose +we just work out a rough outline of what this treaty ought to be, +and then consult, unofficially, with a few people whom you can +trust, and see what can be done about presenting it to the proper +government officials...." + + * * * * * + +The Prime Minister came to Cragdale that evening, heavily incognito +and accompanied by several leaders of the Crown Loyalist Party. In +principle, they all favored a treaty with Tanith. Politically, they +had doubts. Not before the election; too controversial a subject. +"Controversial," it appeared, was the dirtiest dirty-name anything +could be called on Marduk. It would alienate the labor vote; they'd +think increased imports would threaten employment in Mardukan +industries. Some of the interstellar trading companies would like +a chance at the Tanith planets; others would resent Tanith ships +being given access to theirs. And Zaspar Makann's party were already +shrieking protests about the _Nemesis_ being repaired by the +Royal Navy. + +And a couple of professors who inclined toward Makann had introduced +a resolution calling for the court-martial of Prince Bentrik and an +investigation of the loyalty of Admiral Shefter. And somebody else, +probably a stooge of Makann's, was claiming that Bentrik had sold +the _Victrix_ to the Space Vikings and that the films of the battle of +Audhumla were fakes, photographed in miniature at the Navy Moon Base. + +Admiral Shefter, when Trask flew in to see him the next day, was +contemptuous about this last. + +"Ignore the whole bloody thing; we get something like that before +every general election. On this planet, you can always kick the +Gilgameshers and the Armed Forces with impunity, neither have votes +and neither can kick back. The whole thing'll be forgotten the day +after the election. It always is." + +"That's if Makann doesn't win the election," Trask qualified. + +"That's no matter who wins the election. They can't any of them +get along without the Navy, and they bloody well know it." + +Trask wanted to know if Intelligence had been getting anything. + +"Not on how Dunnan found out the _Victrix_ had been ordered to +Audhumla, no," Shefter said. "There wasn't any secrecy about it; +at least a thousand people, from myself down to the shoeshine boys, +could have known about it as soon as the order was taped. + +"As for the list of ships you gave me, yes. One of them puts in +to this planet regularly; she spaced out from here only yesterday +morning. The _Honest Horris_." + +"Well, great Satan, haven't you done anything?" + +"I don't know if there's anything we can do. Oh, we're investigating, +but.... You see, this ship first showed up here four years ago, +commanded by some kind of a Neobarb, not a Gilgamesher, named Horris +Sasstroff. He claimed to be from Skathi; the locals there have a few +ships, the Space Vikings had a base on Skathi about a hundred or so +years ago. Naturally, the ship had no papers. Tramp trading among +the Neobarbs, it might be years before you'd put in on a planet where +they'd ever heard of ship's papers. + +"The ship seems to have been in bad shape, probably abandoned on +Skathi as junk a century ago and tinkered up by the locals. She was +in here twice, according to the commercial shipping records, and the +second time she was in too bad shape to be moved out, and Sasstroff +couldn't pay to have her rebuilt, so she was libeled for spaceport +charges and sold. Some one-lung trading company bought her and fixed +her up a little; they went bankrupt in a year or so, and she was +bought by another small company, Startraders, Ltd., and they've been +using her on a milk-run to and from Gimli. They seem to be a +legitimate outfit, but we're looking into them. We're looking for +Sasstroff, too, but we haven't been able to find him." + +"If you have a ship out Gimli way, you might find out if anybody +there knows anything about her. You may discover that she hasn't +been going there at all." + +"We might, at that," Shefter agreed. "We'll just find out." + + * * * * * + +Everybody at Cragdale knew about the projected treaty with Tanith +by the morning after Trask's first conversation with Prince Edvard +on the subject. The Queen of the Royal Bedroom, the Royal Playroom +and the Royal Bathroom was insisting that her domains should have +a treaty with Tanith, too. + +It was beginning to look to Trask as though that would be the only +treaty he'd sign on Marduk, and he was having his doubts about that. + +"Do you think it would be wise?" he asked Lady Valerie Alvarath. +The Queen of three rooms and one four-footed subject had already +decreed that Lady Valerie should be the Space Viking Prince's girl +on the planet of Marduk. "If it got out, these People's Welfare +lunatics would pick it up and twist it into evidence of some kind +of a sinister plot." + +"Oh, I believe Her Majesty could sign a treaty with Prince Trask," +Her Majesty's Prime Minister decided. "But it would have to be kept +very secret." + +"Gee!" Myrna's eyes widened. "A real secret treaty; just like the +wicked rulers of the old dictatorship!" She hugged her subject +ecstatically. "I'll bet Grandpa doesn't even have any secret treaties!" + + * * * * * + +In a few days, everybody on Marduk knew that a treaty with Tanith +was being discussed. If they didn't, it was no fault of Zaspar +Makann's party, who seemed to command a disconcertingly large number +of telecast stations, and who drenched the ether with horror stories +of Space Viking atrocities and denunciations of carefully unnamed +traitors surrounding the King and the Crown Prince who were about to +betray Marduk to rapine and plunder. The leak evidently did not come +from Cragdale, for it was generally believed that Trask was still at +the Royal Palace in Malverton. At least, that was where the +Makannists were demonstrating against him. + +He watched such a demonstration by screen; the pickup was evidently +on one of the landing stages of the palace, overlooking the wide +parks surrounding it. They were packed almost solid with people, +surging forward toward the thin cordon of police. The front of the +mob looked like a checkerboard--a block in civilian dress, then a +block in the curiously effeminate-looking uniforms of Zaspar +Makann's People's Watchmen, then more in ordinary garb, and more +People's Watchmen. Over the heads of the crowds, at intervals, +floated small contragravity lifters on which were mounted the +amplifiers that were bellowing: + +"SPACE VI-KING--GO HOME! SPACE VI-KING--GO HOME!" + +The police stood motionless, at parade rest; the mob surged closer. +When they were fifty yards away, the blocks of People's Watchmen ran +forward, then spread out until they formed a line six deep across +the entire front; other blocks, from the rear, pushed the ordinary +demonstrators aside and took their place. Hating them more every +second, Trask grudged approval of a smart and disciplined maneuver. +How long, he wondered, had they been drilling in that sort of +tactics? Without stopping, they continued their advance on the +police, who had now shifted their stance. + +"SPACE VI-KING--GO HOME! SPACE VI-KING--GO HOME!" + +"Fire!" he heard himself yelling. "Don't let them get any closer, +fire now!" + +They had nothing to fire with; they had only truncheons, no better +weapons than the knobbed swagger-sticks of the People's Watchmen. +They simply disappeared, after a brief flurry of blows, and the +Makann storm-troopers continued their advance. + +And that was that. The gates of the Palace were shut; the mob, +behind a front of Makann People's Watchmen, surged up to them and +stopped. The loud-speakers bellowed on, reiterating their four-word +chant. + +"Those police were murdered," he said. "They were murdered by the +man who ordered them out there unarmed." + +"That would be Count Naydnayr, the Minister of Security," somebody said. + +"Then he's the one you want to hang for it." + +"What else would you have done?" Crown Prince Edvard challenged. + +"Put up about fifty combat cars. Drawn a deadline, and opened +machine-gun fire as soon as the mob crossed it, and kept on firing +till the survivors turned tail and ran. Then sent out more cars, and +shot everybody wearing a People's Watchmen uniform, all over town. +Inside forty-eight hours, there'd be no People's Welfare party, and +no Zaspar Makann either." + +The Crown Prince's face stiffened. "That may be the way you do +things in the Sword-Worlds, Prince Trask. It's not the way we do +things here on Marduk. Our government does not propose to be guilty +of shedding the blood of its people." + +He had it on the tip of his tongue to retort that if they didn't, +the people would end by shedding theirs. Instead, he said softly: + +"I'm sorry, Prince Edvard. You had a wonderful civilization here on +Marduk. You could have made almost anything of it. But it's too late +now. You've torn down the gates; the barbarians are in." + +[Illustration][Illustration] + + + + +XXIII + + +The colored turbulence faded into the gray of hyperspace; +five hundred hours to Tanith. Guatt Kirbey was securing his +control-panel, happy to return to his music. And Vann Larch would go +back to his paints and brushes, and Alvyn Karffard to the working +model of whatever it was he had left unfinished when the _Nemesis_ +had emerged at the end of the jump from Audhumla. + +Trask went to the index of the ship's library and punched for +_History, Old Terran_. There was plenty of that, thanks to Otto +Harkaman. Then he punched for _Hitler, Adolf_. Harkaman was right; +anything that could happen in a human society had already happened, +in one form or another, somewhere and at some time. Hitler could +help him understand Zaspar Makann. + +By the time the ship came out, with the yellow sun of Tanith +in the middle of the screen, he knew a great deal about Hitler, +occasionally referred to as Schicklgruber, and he understood, with +sorrow, how the lights of civilization on Marduk were going out. + +Beside the _Lamia_, stripped of her Dillinghams and crammed with +heavy armament and detection instruments, the _Space Scourge_ and +the _Queen Flavia_ were on off-planet watch. There were half a dozen +other ships on orbit just above atmosphere; a Gilgamesher, one of +the Gram-Tanith freighters, a couple of free-lance Space Vikings, +and a new and unfamiliar ship. When he asked the moonbase who she +was, he was told that she was the _Sun Goddess_, Amaterasu. That +was, by almost a year, better than he had expected of them. Otto +Harkaman was out in the _Corisande_, raiding and visiting the +trade-planets. + +He found his cousin, Nikkolay Trask, at Rivington; when he inquired +about Traskon, Nikkolay cursed. + +"I don't know anything about Traskon; I haven't anything to do with +Traskon, any more. Traskon is now the personal property of our well +loved--very well loved--Queen Evita. The Trasks don't own enough +land on Gram now for a family cemetery. You see what you did?" he +added bitterly. + +"You needn't rub it in, Nikkolay. If I'd stayed on Gram, I'd have +helped put Angus on the throne, and it would have been about the +same in the end." + +"It could be a lot different," Nikkolay said. "You could bring +your ships and men back to Gram and put yourself on the throne." + +"No; I'll never go back to Gram. Tanith's my planet, now. But I will +renounce my allegiance to Angus. I can trade on Morglay or Joyeuse +or Flamberge just as easily." + +"You won't have to; you can trade with Newhaven and Bigglersport. +Count Lionel and Duke Joris are both defying Angus; they've refused +to furnish him men, they've driven out his tax collectors, those +they haven't hanged, and they're building ships of their own. Angus +is building ships, too. I don't know whether he's going to use them +to fight Bigglersport and Newhaven, or attack you, but there's going +to be a war before another year's out." + +The _Goodhope_ and the _Speedwell_, he found, had gone back to Gram. +They were commanded by men who had come into favor at the court of +King Angus recently. The _Black Star_ and the _Queen Flavia_--whose +captain had contemptuously ignored an order from Gram to re-christen +her _Queen Evita_--had remained. They were his ships, not King +Angus'. The captain of the merchantman from Wardshaven now on orbit +refused to take a cargo to Newhaven; he had been chartered by King +Angus, and would take orders from no one else. + +"All right," Trask told him. "This is your last voyage here. You +bring that ship back under Angus of Wardshaven's charter and we'll +fire on her." + +Then he had the regalia he had worn in his last audiovisual to +Angus dusted off. At first, he had decided to proclaim himself +King of Tanith. Lord Valpry, Baron Rathmore and his cousin all +advised against it. + +"Just call yourself Prince of Tanith," Valpry said. "The title won't +make any difference in your authority here, and if you do lay claim +to the throne of Gram, nobody can say you're a foreign king trying +to annex the planet." + +He had no intention of doing anything of the kind, but Valpry was +quite in earnest. + +So he sat on his throne, as sovereign Prince of Tanith, and +renounced his allegiance to "Angus, Duke of Wardshaven, self-styled +King of Gram." They sent it back on the otherwise empty freighter. +Another copy went to the Count of Newhaven, along with a cargo in +the _Sun Goddess_, the first non-Space-Viking ship into Gram from +the Old Federation. + + * * * * * + +Seven hundred and fifty hours after the return of the _Nemesis_, +the _Corisande II_ emerged from her last microjump, and immediately +Harkaman began hearing of the Battle of Audhumla and the destruction +of the _Yo-Yo_ and the _Enterprise_. At first, he merely reported a +successful raiding voyage, from which he was bringing rich booty. +Oddly varigated booty, it was remarked, when he began itemizing it. + +"Why, yes," he replied. "Secondhand booty. I raided Dagon for it." + +Dagon was a Space Viking base planet, occupied by a character named +Fedrig Barragon. A number of ships operated from it, including a +couple commanded by Barragon's half-breed sons. + +"Barragon's ships were raiding one of our planets," Harkaman said. +"Ganpat. They looted a couple of cities, destroyed one, killed a lot +of the locals. I found out about it from Captain Ravallo of the +_Black Star_, on Indra; he'd just been from Ganpat. Beowulf wasn't +too far out of the way, so we put in there, and found the +_Grendelsbane_ just ready to space out." The _Grendelsbane_ was the +second of Beowulf's ships, sister to the _Viking's Gift_. "So she +joined us, and the three of us went to Dagon. We blew up one of +Barragon's ships, and put the other one down out of commission, and +then we sacked his base. There was a Gilgamesher colony there; we +didn't bother them. They'll tell what we did, and why." + +"That should furnish Prince Viktor of Xochitl something to ponder," +Trask said. "Where are the other ships, now?" + +"The _Grendelsbane_ went back to Beowulf; she'll stop at Amaterasu +to do a little trading on the way. The _Black Star_ went to Xochitl. +Just a friendly visit, to say hello to Prince Viktor for you. +Ravallo has a lot of audiovisuals we made during the Dagon +Operation. Then she's going to Jagannath to visit Nikky Gratham." + + * * * * * + +Harkaman approved his attitude and actions with regard to King Angus. + +"We don't need to do business with the Sword-Worlds at all. We have +our own industries, we can produce what we need, and we can trade +with Beowulf and Amaterasu, and with Xochitl and Jagannath and Hoth, +if we can make any sort of agreement with them; everybody agrees to +let everybody else's trade-planets alone. It's too bad you couldn't +get some kind of an agreement with Marduk." Harkaman regretted that +for a few seconds, and then shrugged. "Our grandchildren, if any, +will probably be raiding Marduk." + +"You think it'll be like that?" + +"Don't you? You were there; you saw what's happening. The barbarians +are rising; they have a leader, and they're uniting. Every society +rests on a barbarian base. The people who don't understand +civilization, and wouldn't like it if they did. The hitchhikers. +The people who create nothing, and who don't appreciate what others +have created for them, and who think civilization is something that +just exists and that all they need to do is enjoy what they can +understand of it--luxuries, a high living standard, and easy work +for high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they have +a government for?" + +Trask nodded. "And now, the hitchhikers think they know more about +the car than the people who designed it, so they're going to grab +the controls. Zaspar Makann says they can, and he's the Leader." He +poured a drink from a decanter that had been looted on Pushan; there +was a planet where a republic had been overthrown in favor of a +dictatorship four centuries ago, and the planetary dictatorship had +fissioned into a dozen regional dictatorships, and now they were +down to the peasant-village and handcraft-industry level. "I don't +understand it, though. I was reading about Hitler, on the way home. +I wouldn't be surprised if Zaspar Makann had been reading about +Hitler, too. He's using all Hitler's tricks. But Hitler came to +power in a country which had been impoverished by a military defeat. +Marduk hasn't fought a war in almost two generations, and that one +was a farce." + +"It wasn't the war that put Hitler into power. It was the fact that +the ruling class of his nation, the people who kept things running, +were discredited. The masses, the homemade barbarians, didn't have +anybody to take their responsibilities for them. What they have on +Marduk is a ruling class that has been discrediting itself. A ruling +class that's ashamed of its privileges and shirks its duties. A +ruling class that has begun to believe that the masses are just as +good as they are, which they manifestly are not. And a ruling class +that won't use force to maintain its position. And they have a +democracy, and they are letting the enemies of democracy shelter +themselves behind democratic safeguards." + +"We don't have any of this democracy in the Sword-Worlds, if that's +the word for it," he said. "And our ruling class aren't ashamed of +their power, and our people aren't hitchhikers, and as long as they +get decent treatment they don't try to run things. And we're not +doing so well." + +The Morglay dynastic war of a couple of centuries ago, still +sputtering and smoking. The Oskarsan-Elmersan War on Durendal, into +which Flamberge and now Joyeuse had intruded. And the situation on +Gram, fast approaching critical mass. Harkaman nodded agreement. + +"You know why? Our rulers are the barbarians among us. There isn't +one of them--Napolyon of Flamberge, Rodolf of Excalibur, or Angus of +about half of Gram--who is devoted to civilization or anything else +outside himself, and that's the mark of the barbarian." + +"What are you devoted to, Otto?" + +"You. You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian." + + * * * * * + +Before he had left Marduk, Admiral Shefter had ordered a ship to +Gimli to check on the _Honest Horris_; a few men and a pinnace would +be left behind to contact any ship from Tanith. He sent Boake +Valkanhayn off in the _Space Scourge_. + +Lionel of Newhaven's _Blue Comet_ came in from Gram with a cargo of +general merchandise. Her captain wanted fissionables and gadolinium; +Count Lionel was building more ships. There was a rumor that Omfray +of Glaspyth was laying claim to the throne of Gram, in the right +of his great-grandmother's sister, who had been married to the +great-grandfather of Duke Angus. It was a completely trivial and +irrelevant claim, but the story was that it would be supported +by King Konrad of Haulteclere. + +[Illustration] + +Immediately, Baron Rathmore, Lord Valpry, Lothar Ffayle and the other +Gram people began clamoring that he should go back with a fleet and +seize the throne for himself. Harkaman, Valkanhayn, Karffard and the +other Space Vikings were as vehement against it. Harkaman had the +loss of the other _Corisande_ on Durendal to remember, and the others +wanted no part in Sword-World squabbles, and there was renewed +agitation that he should start calling himself King of Tanith. + +He refused to do either, which left both parties dissatisfied. So +partisan politics had finally come to Tanith. Maybe that was another +milestone of progress. + +And there was the Treaty of Khepera, between the Princely State of +Tanith, the Commonwealth of Beowulf, and the Planetary League of +Amaterasu. The Kheperans agreed to allow bases on their planet, to +furnish workers, and to send students to school on all three planets. +Tanith, Beowulf and Amaterasu obligated themselves to joint defense +of Khepera, to free trade among themselves, and to render one another +armed assistance. + +That _was_ a milestone of progress, and no argument about it. + + * * * * * + +The _Space Scourge_ returned from Gimli, and Valkanhayn reported +that nobody on the planet had ever seen or heard of the _Honest +Horris_. They had found a Mardukan Navy ship's pinnace there, manned +entirely by officers, some of them Navy Intelligence. According to +them, the investigation into the activities of that ship had come to +an impasse. The ostensible owners claimed, and had papers to prove +it, that they had chartered her to a private trader, and he claimed, +and had papers to prove it, that he was a citizen of the Planetary +Republic of Aton, and as soon as they began questioning him, he was +rescued by the Atonian ambassador, who lodged a vehement protest +with the Mardukan Foreign Ministry. Immediately, the People's +Welfare Party had leaped into the incident and branded the +investigation as an unwarranted persecution of a national of a +friendly power at the instigation of corrupt tools of the Gilgamesh +Interstellar Conspiracy. + +"So that's it," Valkanhayn finished. "It seems they're having an +election and they're afraid to antagonize anybody who might have a +vote. So the Navy had to drop the investigation. Everybody on +Marduk's scared of this Makann. You think there might be some tie-up +between him and Dunnan?" + +"The idea's occurred to me. Have there been any more raids on Marduk +trade-planets since the Battle of Audhumla?" + +"A couple. The _Bolide_ was on Audhumla a while ago. There were a +couple of Mardukan ships there, and they had the _Victrix_ fixed up +enough to do some fighting. They ran the _Bolide_ out." + +A study of the time between the destruction of the _Enterprise_ +and _Yo-Yo_ and the appearance of the _Bolide_ could give them a +limiting radius around Audhumla. It did; seven hundred light-years, +which also included Tanith. + +So he sent Harkaman in the _Corisande_ and Ravallo in the _Black +Star_ to visit the planets Marduk traded with, looking for Dunnan +ships and exchanging information and assistance with the Royal +Mardukan Navy. Almost at once, he regretted it; the next Gilgamesher +into orbit on Tanith brought a story that Prince Viktor was +collecting a fleet on Xochitl. He sent warnings off to Amaterasu +and Beowulf and Khepera. + +A ship came in from Bigglersport, a heavily armed chartered +freighter. There was sporadic fighting in a dozen places on Gram, +now--resistance to efforts on the part of King Angus to collect +taxes, and raids by unidentified persons on estates confiscated +from alleged traitors and given to Garvan Spasso, who had now +been promoted from Baron to Count. And Rovard Grauffis was dead; +poisoned, everybody said, either by Spasso or Queen Evita or both. +Even with the threat from Xochitl, some of the former Wardshaven +nobles began talking about sending ships to Gram. + +Less than a thousand hours after he had left, Ravallo was back +in the _Black Star_. + +"I went to Gimli, and I wasn't there fifty hours before a +Mardukan Navy ship came in. They were glad to see me; it saved +them sending off a pinnace for Tanith. They had news for you, and +a couple of passengers." + +"Passengers?" + +"Yes. You'll see who they are when they come down. And don't let +anybody with side-whiskers and buttoned-up coats see them," Ravallo +said. "What those people know gets all over the place before long." + + * * * * * + +The visitors were Lucile, Princess Bentrik, and her son, the young +Count of Ravary. They dined with Trask; only Captain Ravallo was +also present. + +"I didn't want to leave my husband, and I didn't want to come here +and impose myself and Steven on you, Prince Trask," she began, "but +he insisted. We spent the whole voyage to Gimli concealed in the +captain's quarters; only a few of the officers knew we were aboard." + +"Makann won the election. Is that it?" he asked. "And Prince Bentrik +doesn't want to risk you and Steven being used as hostages?" + +"That's it," she said. "He didn't really win the election, but he +might as well have. Nobody has a majority of seats in the Chamber of +Representatives but he's formed a coalition with several of the +splinter parties, and I'm ashamed to say that a number of Crown +Loyalist members--Crowd of Disloyalists, I call them--are voting +with him, now. They've coined some ridiculous phrase about the 'wave +of the future,' whatever that means." + +"If you can't lick them, join them," Trask said. + +"If you can't lick them, lick their boots," the Count of Ravary put in. + +"My son is a trifle bitter," Princess Bentrik said. "I must confess +to a trace of bitterness, too." + +"Well, that's the Representatives," Trask said. "What about the rest +of the government?" + +"With the splinter-party and Disloyalist support, they got a +majority of seats in the Delegates. Most of them would have +indignantly denied, a month before, having any connection with +Makann, but a hundred out of a hundred and twenty are his +supporters. Makann, of course, is Chancellor." + +"And who is Prime Minister?" he asked. "Andray Dunnan?" + +She looked slightly baffled for an instant then said, "Oh. No. +The Prime Minister is Crown Prince Edvard. No; Baron Cragdale. +That isn't a royal title, so by some kind of a fiction I can't +pretend to understand he is not Prime Minister as a member of +the Royal Family." + +"If you can't ..." the boy started. + +"Steven! I forbid you to say that about ... Baron Cragdale. He +believes, very sincerely, that the election was an expression of +the will of the people, and that it is his duty to bow to it." + +He wished Otto Harkaman were there. He could probably name, without +stopping for breath, a hundred great nations that went down into +rubble because their rulers believed that they should bow instead +of rule, and couldn't bring themselves to shed the blood of their +people. Edvard would have been a fine and admirable man, as a little +country baron. Where he was, he was a disaster. + +He asked if the People's Watchman had dragged their guns out from +under the bed and started carrying them in public yet. + +"Oh, yes. You were quite right; they were armed, all the time. Not +just small arms; combat vehicles and heavy weapons. As soon as the +new government was formed, they were given status as a part of the +Planetary Armed Forces. They have taken over every police station +on the planet." + +"And the King?" + +"Oh, he carries on, and shrugs and says, 'I just reign here.' What +else can he do? We've been whittling down and filching away the +powers of the Throne for the last three centuries." + +"What is Prince Bentrik doing, and why did he think there was danger +that you two would be used as hostages?" + +"He's going to fight," she said. "Don't ask me how, or what with. +Maybe as a guerrilla in the mountains, I don't know. But if he can't +lick them, he won't join them. I wanted to stay with him and help +him; he told me I could help him best by placing myself and Steven +where he wouldn't worry about us." + +"I wanted to stay," the boy said. "I could have fought with him. +But he said that I must take care of Mother. And if he were killed, +I must be able to avenge him." + +"You talk like a Sword-Worlder; I told you that once before." He +hesitated, then turned again to Princess Bentrik. "How is little +Princess Myrna?" he asked, and then, trying to be casual, added, +"and Lady Valerie?" + +She seemed so clearly real and present to him, blue eyes and +space-black hair, more real than Elaine had been to him for years. + +"They're at Cragdale; they'll be safe there. I hope." + + + + +XXIV + + +Attempting to conceal the presence on Tanith of Prince Bentrik's +wife and son was pushing caution beyond necessity. Admitted that +the news would leak back to Marduk via Gilgamesh, it was over seven +hundred light-years to the latter and almost a thousand from there +to the former. Better that Princess Lucile should enjoy Rivington +society, such as it was, and escape, for a moment now and then, from +anxiety about her husband. At ten--no, almost twelve; it had been a +year and a half since Trask had left Marduk--the boy Count of Ravary +was more easily diverted. At last, he was among real Space Vikings, +on a Space Viking planet, and he was trying to be everywhere and see +everything at once. No doubt he would be imagining himself a Space +Viking, returning to Marduk with a vast armada to rescue his father +and the King from Zaspar Makann. + +Trask was satisfied with that; as a host he left much to be desired. +He had his worries, too, and all of them bore the same name: Prince +Viktor of Xochitl. He went over with Manfred Ravallo everything the +captain of the _Black Star_ could tell him. He had talked once with +Viktor; the lord of Xochitl had been coldly polite and noncommittal. +His subordinates had been frankly hostile. There had been five ships +on orbit or landed at Viktor's spaceport beside the usual +Gilgameshers and itinerant traders, two of them Viktor's own, and a +big armed freighter had come in from Haulteclere as the _Black Star_ +was leaving. There was considerable activity at the shipyards and +around the spaceport, as though in preparation for something on a +large scale. + +Xochitl was a thousand light-years from Tanith. He rejected +immediately the idea of launching a preventative attack; his ships +might reach Xochitl to find it undefended, and then return to find +Tanith devastated. Things like that had happened in space-war. The +only thing to do was sit tight, defend Tanith when Viktor attacked, +and then counterattack if he had any ships left by that time. +Prince Viktor was probably reasoning in the same way. + +He had no time to think about Andray Dunnan, except, now and then, +to wish that Otto Harkaman would stop thinking about him and bring +the _Corisande_ home. He needed that ship on Tanith, and the wits +and courage of her commander. + +More news--Gilgamesh sources--came in from Xochitl. There were only +two ships, both armed merchantmen, on the planet. Prince Viktor had +spaced out with the rest an estimated two thousand hours before the +story reached him. That was twice as long as it would take the +Xochitl armada to reach Tanith. He hadn't gone to Beowulf; that was +only sixty-five hours from Tanith and they would have heard about +it long ago. Or Amaterasu, or Khepera. How many ships he had was +a question; not fewer than five, and possibly more. He could have +slipped into the Tanith system and hidden his ships on one of the +outer uninhabitable planets. He sent Valkanhayn and Ravallo +microjumping their ships from one to another to check. They returned +to report in the negative. At least, Viktor of Xochitl wasn't camped +inside their own system, waiting for them to leave Tanith open +to attack. + +But he was somewhere, and up to nothing even resembling good, and +there was no possible way of guessing when his ships would be +emerging on Tanith. The only thing to do was wait for him. When he +did, Trask was confident that he would emerge from hyperspace into +serious trouble. He had the _Nemesis_, the _Space Scourge_, the +_Black Star_ and _Queen Flavia_, the strongly rebuilt _Lamia_, and +several independent Space Viking ships, among them the _Damnthing_ +of his friend Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, who had volunteered to +stay and help in the defense. This, of course, was not pure +altruism. If Viktor attacked and had his fleet blown to +Em-See-Square, Xochitl would lie open and unprotected, and there +was enough loot on Xochitl to cram everybody's ships. Everybody's +ships who had ships when the Battle of Tanith was over, of course. + +He was apologetic to Princess Bentrik: + +"I'm very sorry you jumped out of Zaspar Makann's frying pan into +Prince Viktor's fire," he began. + +She laughed at that. "I'll take my chances on the fire. I seem to +see a lot of good firemen around. If there is a battle you will see +that Steven's in a safe place, won't you?" + +"In a space attack, there are no safe places. I'll keep him with me." + +The young Count of Ravary wanted to know which ship he would serve +on when the attack came. + +"Well, you won't be on any ship, Count. You'll be on my staff." + + * * * * * + +Two days later, the _Corisande_ came out of hyperspace. Harkaman was +guardedly noncommittal by screen. Trask took a landing craft and +went out to meet the ship. + +"Marduk doesn't like us, any more," Harkaman told him. "They have +ships on all their trade-planets, and they all have orders to fire +on any, repeat any, Space Vikings, including the ships of the +self-styled Prince of Tanith. I got this from Captain Garravay of +the _Vindex_. After we were through talking, we fought a nice little +ship-to-ship action for him to make films of. I don't think anybody +could see anything wrong with it." + +"This order came from Makann?" + +"From the Admiral commanding. He isn't your friend Shefter; Shefter +retired on account of quote ill-health unquote. He is now in a quote +hospital unquote." + +"Where's Prince Bentrik?" + +"Nobody knows. Charges of high treason were brought against him, +and he just vanished. Gone underground, or secretly arrested and +executed; take your choice." + +He wondered just what he'd tell Princess Lucile and Count Steven. + +"They have ships on all the planets they trade with. Fourteen +of them. That isn't to catch Dunnan. That's to disperse the Navy +away from Marduk. They don't trust the Navy. Is Prince Edvard +still Prime Minister?" + +"Yes, as of Garravay's last information. It seems Makann is behaving +in a scrupulously legal manner, outside of making his People's +Watchmen part of the armed forces. Protesting his devotion to +the King every time he opens his mouth." + +"When will the fire be, I wonder?" + +"Huh? Oh yes, you were reading up on Hitler. That I don't know. +Probably happened by now." + +He just told Princess Lucile that her husband had gone into hiding; +he couldn't be sure whether she was relieved or more worried. The +boy was sure that he was doing something highly romantic and heroic. + +Some of the volunteers tired of waiting, after another thousand +hours, and spaced out. The _Viking's Gift_ of Beowulf came in with +a cargo, and went on orbit after discharging it to join the watch. +A Gilgamesher came in from Amaterasu and reported everything quiet +there; as soon as her captain had sold his cargo, with a minimum of +haggling, he spaced out again. His behavior convinced everybody that +the attack would come in a matter of hours. + +It didn't. + + * * * * * + +Three thousand hours had passed since the first warning had reached +Tanith, that made five thousand since Viktor's ships were supposed +to have left Xochitl. There were those, Boake Valkanhayn among them, +who doubted, now, if he ever had. + +"The whole thing's just a big Gilgamesher lie," he was declaring. +"Somebody--Nikky Gratham, or the Everrards, or maybe Viktor +himself--paid them to tell us that, to pin our ships down here. +Or they made it up themselves, so they could make hay on our +trade-planets." + +"Let's go down to the Ghetto and clean out the whole gang," somebody +else took up. "Anything one of them's in, they're all in together." + +"Nifflheim with that; let's all space out for Xochitl," Manfred +Ravallo proposed. "We have enough ships to lick them on Tanith, +we have enough to lick them on their own planet." + +He managed to talk them out of both courses of action--what was he, +anyhow; sovereign Prince of Tanith, or the non-ruling King of Marduk, +or just the chieftain of a disciplineless gang of barbarians? One of +the independents spaced out in disgust. The next day, two others +came in, loaded with booty from a raid on Braggi, and decided to +stay around for a while and see what happened. + +And four days after that, a five-hundred-foot hyperspace yacht, +bearing the daggers and chevrons of Bigglersport, came in. As soon +as she was out of the last microjump, she began calling by screen. + +Trask didn't know the man who was screening, but Hugh Rathmore did; +Duke Joris' confidential secretary. + +"Prince Trask; I must speak to you as soon as possible," he began, +almost stuttering. Whatever the urgency of his mission, one would +have thought that a three-thousand-hour voyage would have taken some +of the edge from it. "It is of the first importance." + +"You are speaking to me. This screen is reasonably secure. And if +it's of the first importance, the sooner you tell me about it...." + +"Prince Trask, you must come to Gram, with every man and every ship +you can command. Satan only knows what's happening there now, but +three thousand hours ago, when the Duke sent me off, Omfray of Glaspyth +was landing on Wardshaven. He has a fleet of eight ships, furnished +to him by his wife's kinsman, the King of Haulteclere. They are commanded +by King Konrad's Space Viking cousin, the Prince of Xochitl." + +Then a look of shocked surprise came into the face of the man in the +screen, and Trask wondered why, until he realized that he had leaned +back in his chair and was laughing uproariously. Before he could +apologize, the man in the screen had found his voice. + +"I know, Prince Trask; you have no reason to think kindly of King +Angus--the former King Angus, or maybe even the late King Angus, +I suppose he is now--but a murderer like Omfray of Glaspyth...." + + * * * * * + +It took a little time to explain to the confidential secretary of +the Duke of Bigglersport the humor of the situation. + +There were others at Rivington to whom it was not immediately +evident. The professional Space Vikings, men like Valkanhayn and +Ravallo and Alvyn Karffard, were disgusted. Here they'd been +sitting, on combat alert, all these months, and, if they'd only +known, they could have gone to Xochitl and looted it clean long ago. +The Gram party were outraged. Angus of Wardshaven had been bad +enough, with the hereditary taint of the Mad Baron of Blackcliffe, +and Queen Evita and her rapacious family, but even he was preferable +to a murderous villain--some even called him a fiend in human +shape--like Omfray of Glaspyth. + +Both parties, of course, were positive as to where their Prince's +duty lay. The former insisted that everything on Tanith that could +be put into hyperspace should be dispatched at once to Xochitl, to +haul back from it everything except a few absolutely immovable +natural features of the planet. The latter clamored, just as loudly +and passionately, that everybody on Tanith who could pull a trigger +should be embarked at once on a crusade for the deliverance of Gram. + +[Illustration] + +"You don't want to do either, do you?" Harkaman asked him, when they +were alone after the second day of acrimony. + +"Nifflheim, no! This crowd that wants an attack on Xochitl; you know +what would happen if we did that?" Harkaman was silent, waiting for +him to continue. "Inside a year, four or five of these small +planet-holders like Gratham and the Everrards would combine against +us and make a slag-pile out of Tanith." + +Harkaman nodded agreement. "Since we warned him the first time, +Viktor's kept his ships away from our planets. If we attacked +Xochitl now, without provocation, nobody'd know what to expect from +us. People like Nikky Gratham and Tobbin of Nergal and the Everrards +of Hoth get nervous around unpredictable dangers, and when they get +nervous they get trigger-happy." He puffed slowly on his pipe and +then said: "Then you'll be going back to Gram." + +"That doesn't follow; just because Valkanhayn and Ravallo and that +crowd are wrong doesn't make Valpry and Rathmore and Ffayle right. +You heard what I was telling those very people at Karvall House, the +day I met you. And you've seen what's been happening on Gram since +we came out here. Otto, the Sword-Worlds are finished; they're half +decivilized now. Civilization is alive and growing here on Tanith. +I want to stay here and help it grow." + +"Look, Lucas," Harkaman said. "You're Prince of Tanith, and I'm only +the Admiral. But I'm telling you; you'll have to do something, or +this whole setup of yours will fall apart. As it stands, you can +attack Xochitl and the Back-To-Gram party would go along, or you +can decide on this crusade against Omfray of Glaspyth and the +Raid-Xochitl-Now party would go along. But if you let this go on +much longer, you won't have any influence over either party." + +"And then I will be finished. And in a few years, Tanith will be +finished." He rose and paced across the room and back. "Well, I +won't raid Xochitl; I told you why, and you agreed. And I won't +spend the men and ships and wealth of Tanith in any Sword-World +dynastic squabble. Great Satan, Otto; you were in the Durendal War. +This is the same thing, and it'll go on for another half a century." + +"Then what will you do?" + +"I came out here after Andray Dunnan, didn't I?" he asked. + +"I'm afraid Ravallo and Valpry, or even Valkanhayn and Morland, +won't be as interested in Dunnan as you are." + +"Then I will interest them in him. Remember, I was reading up on +Hitler, coming in from Marduk? I will tell them all a big lie. +Such a big lie that nobody will dare to disbelieve it." + + + + +XXV + + +"Do you think I was afraid of Viktor of Xochitl?" he demanded. "Half +a dozen ships; we could make a new Van Allen belt around Tanith of +them, with what we have here. Our real enemy is on Marduk, not +Xochitl; his name's Zaspar Makann. Zaspar Makann, and Andray Dunnan, +the man I came out from Gram to hunt; they're in alliance, and +I believe Dunnan is on Marduk, himself, now." + +The delegation who had come out from Gram in the yacht of the +Duke of Bigglersport were unimpressed. Marduk was only a name to +them, one of the fabulous civilized Old Federation planets no +Sword-Worlder had ever seen. Zaspar Makann wasn't even that. And +so much had happened on Gram since the murder of Elaine Karvall and +the piracy of the _Enterprise_ that they had completely forgotten +Andray Dunnan. That put them at a disadvantage. All the people whom +they were trying to convince, the half-hundred members of the new +nobility of Tanith, spoke a language they didn't understand. They +didn't even understand the proposition, and couldn't argue against it. + +Paytrik Morland, who was Gram-born and had been speaking for +a return in force to fight against Omfray of Glaspyth and his +supporters, defected from them at once. He had been on Marduk and +knew who Zaspar Makann was; he had made friends with the Royal Navy +officers, and had been shocked to hear that they were now enemies. +Manfred Ravallo and Boake Valkanhayn, among the more articulate of +the Raid-Xochitl-Now party, snatched up the idea and seemed +convinced that they'd thought of it themselves all along. Valkanhayn +had been on Gimli and talked to Mardukan naval officers; Ravallo had +brought Princess Bentrik to Tanith and heard her stories on the +voyage. They began adducing arguments in support of Trask's thesis. +Of course Dunnan and Makann were in collusion. Who tipped Dunnan off +that the _Victrix_ would be on Audhumla? Makann; his spies in the +Navy tipped him. What about the _Honest Horris_; wasn't Makann +blocking any investigation about her? Why was Admiral Shefter +retired as soon as Makann got into power? + +"Well, here; we don't know anything about this Zaspar Makann," the +confidential secretary and spokesman of the Duke of Bigglersport began. + +"No, you don't," Otto Harkaman told him. "I suggest you keep quiet +and listen, till you find out a little about him." + +"Why, I wouldn't be surprised if Dunnan was on Marduk all the time +we were hunting for him," Valkanhayn said. + +Trask began to wonder. What would Hitler have done if he'd told one +of his big lies, and then found it turning into the truth? Maybe +Makann had been on Marduk.... No; he couldn't have hidden half a +dozen ships on a civilized planet. Not even at the bottom of an +ocean. + +"I wouldn't be surprised," Alvyn Karffard was shouting, "if Andray +Dunnan _was_ Zaspar Makann. I know he doesn't look like Dunnan, we +all saw him on screen, but there's such a thing as plastic surgery." + +That was making the big lie just a trifle too big. Zaspar Makann was +six inches shorter than Dunnan; there are some things no plastic +surgery could do. Paytrik Morland, who had known Dunnan and had seen +Makann on screen, ought to have known that too, but he either didn't +think of it or didn't want to weaken a case he had completely accepted. + +"As far as I can find out, nobody even heard of Makann till about +five years ago. That would be about the time Dunnan would have +arrived on Marduk," he said. + +By this time, the big room in which they were meeting had become a +babel of voices, everybody trying to convince everybody else that +they'd known it all along. Then the Back-To-Gram party received its +_coup-de-grace_; Lothar Ffayle, to whom the emissaries of Duke Joris +had looked for their strongest support, went over. + +"You people want us to abandon a planet we've built up from nothing, +and all the time and money we've invested in it, to go back to Gram +and pull your chestnuts out of the fire? Gehenna with you! We're +staying here and defending our own planet. If you're smart, you'll +stay here with us." + + * * * * * + +The Bigglersport delegation was still on Tanith, trying to recruit +mercenaries from the King of Tradetown and dickering with a +Gilgamesher to transport them to Gram, when the big lie turned +into something like the truth. + +The observation post on the Moon of Tanith picked up an emergence at +twenty light-minutes due north of the planet. Half an hour later, +there was another one at five light-minutes; a very small one, and +then a third at two light-seconds, and this was detectable by radar +and microray as a ship's pinnace. He wondered if something had +happened on Amaterasu or Beowulf; somebody like Gratham or the +Everrards might have decided to take advantage of the defensive +mobilization on Tanith. Then they switched the call from the pinnace +over to his screen, and Prince Simon Bentrik was looking out of it. + +"I'm glad to see you! Your wife and son are here, worried about you, +but safe and well." He turned to shout to somebody to find young +Count Steven of Ravary and tell him to tell his mother. "How are you?" + +"I had a broken leg when I left Moonbase, but that's mended on the +way," Bentrik said. "I have little Princess Myrna aboard with me. +For all I know, she's Queen of Marduk, now." He gulped slightly. +"Prince Trask, we've come as beggars. We're begging help for +our planet." + +"You've come as honored guests, and you'll get all the help we can +give you." He blessed the Xochitl invasion scare, and the big lie +which was rapidly ceasing to be a lie; Tanith had the ships and +men and the will to act. "What happened? Makann deposed the King +and took over?" + +It came to that, Bentrik told him. It had started even before the +election. The People's Watchmen had possessed weapons that had been +made openly and legally on Marduk for trade to the Neobarbarian +planets and then clandestinely diverted to secret People's Welfare +arsenals. Some of the police had gone over to Makann; the rest had +been terrorized into inaction. There had been riots fomented in +working-class districts of all the cities as pretexts for further +terrorization. The election had been a farce of bribery and +intimidation. Even so, Makann's party had failed of a complete +majority in the Chamber of Representatives, and had been compelled +to patch up a shady coalition in order to elect a favorable Chamber +of Delegates. + +"And, of course, they elected Makann Chancellor; that did it," +Bentrik said. "All the opposition leaders in the Chamber of +Representatives have been arrested, on all kinds of ridiculous +charges--sex-crimes, receiving bribes, being in the pay of foreign +powers, nothing too absurd. Then they rammed through a law +empowering the Chancellor to fill vacancies in the Chamber of +Representatives by appointment." + +"Why did the Crown Prince lend himself to a thing like that?" + +"He hoped that he could exercise some control. The Royal Family +is an almost holy symbol to the people. Even Makann was forced +to pretend loyalty to the King and the Crown Prince...." + +"It didn't work; he played right into Makann's hands. What happened?" + +The Crown Prince had been assassinated. The assassin, an unknown man +believed to be a Gilgamesher, had been shot to death by People's +Watchmen guarding Prince Edvard at once. Immediately Makann had +seized the Royal Palace to protect the King, and immediately there +had been massacres by People's Watchmen everywhere. The Mardukan +Planetary Army had ceased to exist; Makann's story was that there +had been a military plot against the King and the government. +Scattered over the planet in small detachments, the army had been +wiped out in two nights and a day. Now Makann was recruiting it up +again, exclusively from the People's Welfare Party. + +"You weren't just sitting on your hands, were you?" + +"Oh, no," Bentrik replied. "I was doing something I wouldn't have +thought myself capable of, a few years ago. Organizing a mutineering +conspiracy in the Royal Mardukan Navy. After Admiral Shefter was +forcibly retired and shut up in an insane asylum, I disappeared +and turned into a civilian contragravity-lifter operator at the +Malverton Navy Yard. Finally, when I was suspected, one of the +officers--he was arrested and tortured to death later--managed +to smuggle me onto a lighter for the Moonbase. I was an orderly +in the hospital there. The day the Crown Prince was murdered, we +had a mutiny of our own. We killed everybody we even suspected of +being a Makannist. The Moonbase has been under attack from the +planet ever since." + +There was a stir behind him; turning, he saw Princess Bentrik and +the boy enter the room. He rose. + +"We'll talk about this later. There are some people here...." + +He motioned them forward and turned away, shoo-ing everybody else +out of the room. + + * * * * * + +The news was all over Rivington, and then all over Tanith, while +the pinnace was still coming down. There was a crowd at the +spaceport, staring as the little craft, with its blazon of the +crowned and planet-throned dragon, settled onto its landing legs, +and reporters of the Tanith News Service with their screen pickups. +He met Prince Bentrik, a little in advance of the others, and +managed to whisper to him hastily: + +"While you're talking to anybody here, always remember that Andray +Dunnan is working with Zaspar Makann, and as soon as Makann +consolidates his position he's sending an expedition against +Tanith." + +"How in blazes did you find that out, here?" Bentrik demanded. +"From the Gilgameshers?" + +Then Harkaman and Rathmore and Valkanhayn and Lothar Ffayle and +the others were crowding up behind, and more people were coming off +the pinnace, and Prince Bentrik was trying to embrace both his wife +and his son at the same time. + +"Prince Trask." He started at the voice, and was looking into deep +blue eyes under coal-black hair. His pulse gave a sudden jump, and +he said, "Valerie!" and then, "Lady Alvarath; I'm most happy to see +you here." Then he saw who was beside her, and squatted on his heels +to bring himself down to a convenient size. "And Princess Myrna. +Welcome to Tanith, Your Highness!" + +The child flung her arms around his neck. "Oh, Prince Lucas! I'm so +glad to see you. There's been such awful things happened!" + +"There won't be anything awful happen here, Princess Myrna. You are +among friends; friends with whom you have a treaty. Remember?" + +The child began to cry, bitterly. "That was when I was just a +play-Queen. And now I know what they meant when they talked about +when Grandpa and Pappa would be through being King. Pappa didn't +even get to be King!" + +Something big and warm and soft was trying to push between them; +a dog with long blond hair and floppy ears. In a year and a half, +puppies can grow surprisingly. Mopsy was trying to lick his face. +He took the dog by the collar and straightened. + +"Lady Valerie, will you come with us?" he asked. "I'm going to find +quarters for Princess Myrna." + + * * * * * + +"Is it Princess Myrna, or is it Queen Myrna?" he asked. + +Prince Bentrik shook his head. "We don't know. The King was alive +when we left Moonbase, but that was five hundred hours ago. We don't +know anything about her mother, either. She was at the Palace when +Prince Edvard was murdered; we've heard absolutely nothing about +her. The King made a few screen appearances, parroting things Makann +wanted him to say. Under hypnosis. That was probably the very least +of what they did to him. They've turned him into a zombi." + +"Well, how did Myrna get to Moonbase?" + +"That was Lady Valerie, as much as anybody else. She and Sir Thomas +Kobbly, and Captain Rainer. They armed the servants at Cragdale with +hunting rifles and everything else they could scrape up, captured +Prince Edvard's space-yacht, and took off in her. Took a couple of +hits from ground batteries getting off, and from ships around +Moonbase getting in. Ships of the Royal Mardukan Navy!" he added +furiously. + +The pinnace in which they had made the trip to Tanith had taken +a few hits, too, running the blockade. Not many; her captain had +thrown her into hyperspace almost at once. + +"They sent the yacht off to Gimli," Bentrik said. "From there, +they'll try to rally as many of the Royal Navy units as haven't gone +over to Makann. They're to assemble on Gimli and await my return. +If I don't return in fifteen hundred hours from the time I left +Moonbase, they're to use their own judgment. I'd expect that +they'd move in on Marduk and attack." + +"That's sixty-odd days," Otto Harkaman said. "That's an awfully long +time to expect that lunar base to hold out, against a whole planet." + +"It's a strong base. It was built four hundred years ago, when +Marduk was fighting a combination of six other planets. It held out +against continuous attack, once, for almost a year. It's been +constantly strengthened ever since." + +"And what have they to throw at it?" Harkaman persisted. + +"When I left, six ships of the former Royal Navy, that had gone +over to Makann. Four fifteen-hundred-footers, same class as the +_Victrix_, and two thousand-footers. Then, there were four of +Andray Dunnan's ships--" + +"You mean, he really is on Marduk?" + +"I thought you knew that, and I was wondering how you'd found out. +Yes: _Fortuna_, _Bolide_, and two armed merchantmen, a Baldurbuilt +ship called the _Reliable_, and your friend _Honest Horris_." + +"You didn't really believe Dunnan was on Marduk?" Boake Valkanhayn +asked. + +"Actually, I didn't. I had to have some kind of a story, to talk +those people out of that crusade against Omfray of Glaspyth." He +left unmentioned Valkanhayn's own insistence on a plundering +expedition against Xochitl. "Now that it turns out to be true, +I'm not surprised. We decided, long ago, that Dunnan was planning +to raid Marduk. It appears that we underestimated him. Maybe he +was reading about Hitler, too. He wasn't planning any raid; he +was planning conquest, in the only way a great civilization can +be conquered--by subversion." + +"Yes," Harkaman put in. "Five years ago, when Dunnan started this +programme, who was this Makann, anyhow?" + +"Nobody," Bentrik said. "A crackpot agitator in Drepplin; he had +a coven of fellow-crackpots, who met in the back room of a saloon +and had their office in a cigar box. The next year, he had a suite +of offices and was buying time on a couple of telecasts. The year +after that, he had three telecast stations of his own, and +was holding rallies and meetings of thousands of people. And +so on, upward." + +"Yes. Dunnan financed him, and moved in behind him, the same way +Makann moved in behind the King. And Dunnan will have him shot +the way he had Prince Edvard shot, and use the murder as a pretext +to liquidate his personal followers." + +"And then he'll own Marduk. And we'll have the Mardukan navy coming +out of hyperspace on Tanith," Valkanhayn added. "So we go to Marduk +and smash him now, while he's still little enough to smash." + +There had been a few who had wanted to do that about Hitler, and +a great many, later, who had regretted that it hadn't been done. + +"The _Nemesis_, the _Corisande_, and the _Space Scourge_ for sure?" +he asked. + +Harkaman and Valkanhayn agreed; Valkanhayn thought the _Viking's +Gift_ of Beowulf would go along, and Harkaman was almost sure of +the _Black Star_ and _Queen Flavia_. He turned to Bentrik. + +"Start that pinnace off for Gimli at once; within the hour if +possible. We don't know how many ships will be gathered there, +but we don't want them wasted in detail-attacks. Tell whoever's +in command there that ships from Tanith are on the way, and to +wait for them." + +Fifteen hundred hours, less the five hundred Bentrik was in space +from Marduk. He hadn't time to estimate voyage-time to Gimli from +the other Mardukan trade-planets, and nobody could estimate how many +ships would respond. + +"It may take us a little time to get an effective fleet together. +Even after we get through arguing about it. Argument," he told +Bentrik, "is not exclusively a feature of democracies." + + * * * * * + +Actually, there was very little argument, and most of that among +the Mardukans. Prince Bentrik insisted that Crown Princess Myrna +would have to be taken along; King Mikhyl would be either dead or +brainwashed into imbecility by now, and they would have to have +somebody to take the throne. Lady Valerie Alvarath, Sir Thomas +Kobbly, the tutor, and the nurse Margot refused to be separated +from her. Prince Bentrik was equally firm, with less success, on +leaving his wife and son on Tanith. In the end, it was agreed that +the entire Mardukan party would space out on the _Nemesis_. + +The leader of the Bigglersport delegation attempted an impassioned +tirade about going to the aid of strangers while their own planet +was being enslaved. He was booed down by everybody else and informed +that Tanith was being defended where a planet ought to be, on +somebody else's real estate. When the Bigglersporters emerged +from the meeting, they found that their own space-yacht had been +commandeered and sent off to Amaterasu and Beowulf for assistance, +that the regiment of local infantry they had enlisted from the King +of Tradetown had been taken over by the Rivington authorities, and +that the Gilgamesh freighter they had chartered to transport them +to Gram would now take them to Marduk. + +The problem broke into two halves: the purely naval action that +would be fought to relieve the Moon of Marduk, if it still held out, +and to destroy the Dunnan and Makann ships, and the ground-fighting +problem of wiping out Makann's supporters and restoring the Mardukan +monarchy. A great many of the people of Marduk would be glad of +a chance to turn on Makann, once they had arms and were properly +supported. Combat weapons were almost unknown among the people, +however, and even sporting arms uncommon. All the small arms and +light artillery and auto-weapons available were gathered up. + +The _Grendelsbane_ came in from Beowulf, and the _Sun Goddess_ from +Amaterasu. Three independent Space Viking ships were still in orbit +on Tanith; they joined the expedition. There would be trouble with +them on Marduk; they'd want to loot. Let the Mardukans worry about +that. They could charge it off as part of the price for letting +Zaspar Makann get into power in the first place. + + * * * * * + +There were twelve spacecraft in line outside the Moon of Tanith, +counting the three independents and the forcibly chartered +Gilgamesher troop-transport; that was the biggest fleet Space +Vikings had ever assembled in their history. Alvyn Karffard said +as much while they were checking the formation by screen. + +"It isn't a Space Viking fleet," Prince Bentrik differed. "There +are only three Space Vikings in it. The rest are the ships of three +civilized planets. Tanith, Beowulf and Amaterasu." + +Karffard was surprised. "You mean _we're_ civilized planets? Like +Marduk, or Baldur or Odin, or...?" + +"Well, aren't you?" + +Trask smiled. He'd begun to suspect something of the sort a couple +of years ago. He hadn't really been sure until now. His most junior +staff officer, Count Steven of Ravary, didn't seem to appreciate +the compliment. + +"We _are_ Space Vikings!" he insisted. "And we are going to battle +with the Neobarbarians of Zaspar Makann." + +"Well, I won't argue the last half of it, Steven," his father told him. + +"Are you people done yakking about who's civilized and who isn't?" +Guatt Kirbey asked. "Then give the signal. All the other ships are +ready to jump." + +Trask pressed the button on the desk in front of him. A light went +on over Kirbey's control panel as one would on each of the other +ships. He said, "Jumping," around the stem of his pipe, and twisted +the red handle and shoved it in. + + * * * * * + +[Illustration] + +Four hundred and fifty hours, in the private universe that was the +_Nemesis_; outside, nothing else existed, and inside there was +nothing to do but wait, as each hour carried them six trillion miles +nearer to Gimli. At first, the ruthless and terrible Space Viking, +Steven, Count of Ravary, was wildly excited, but before long he +found that there was nothing exciting going on; it was just a +spaceship, and he'd been on ships before. Her Highness the Crown +Princess, or maybe her Majesty the Queen of Marduk, stopped being +excited about the same time, and she and Steven and Mopsy played +together. Of course, Myrna was only a girl, and two years younger +than Steven, but she was, or at least might be, his sovereign, and +beside, she had been in a space action, if you call what lies +between a planet and its satellite space and if you call being shot +at without being able to shoot back an action, and Relentless +Ravary, the Interstellar Terror, had not. This rather made up +for being a girl and a mere baby of going-on-ten. + +One thing, there were no lessons. Sir Thomas Kobbly fancied himself +as a landscape-painter and spent most of his time arguing techniques +with Vann Larch, and Steven's tutor, Captain Rainer was a normal-space +astrogator and found a kindred spirit in Sharll Renner. This left +Lady Valerie Alvarath at a loose end. There were plenty of volunteers +to help her fill in the time, but Rank Hath Its Privileges; Trask +undertook to see to it that she did not suffer excessively from +shipboard ennui. + +Sharll Renner and Captain Rainer approached him, during the cocktail +hour before dinner, some hundred hours short of emergence. + +"We think we've figured out where Dunnan's base is," Renner said. + +"Oh, good!" Everybody else had, on a different planet. "Where's yours?" + +"Abaddon," the Count of Ravary's tutor said. When he saw that the +name meant nothing to Trask, he added, "The ninth, outer, planet of +the Marduk system." He said it disgustedly. + +"Yes; remember how you had Boake and Manfred out with their ships, +checking our outside planets to see if Prince Viktor might be hiding +on one of them? Well, what with the time element, and the way the +_Honest Horris_ was shuttling back and forth from Marduk to some +place that wasn't Gimli, and the way Dunnan was able to bring his +ships in as soon as the shooting started on Marduk, we thought he +must be on an uninhabited outer planet of the Marduk system." + +"I don't know why we never thought of that, ourselves," Rainer put +in. "I suppose because nobody ever thinks of Abaddon for any reason. +It's only a small planet, about four thousand miles in diameter, and +it's three and a half billion miles from primary. It's frozen solid. +It would take almost a year to get to it on Abbot drive, and if your +ship has Dillinghams, why not take a little longer and go to a good +planet? So nobody bothered with Abaddon." + +But for Dunnan's purpose, it would be perfect. He called Prince +Bentrik and Alvyn Karffard to him; they found the idea instantly +convincing. They talked about it through dinner, and held a general +discussion afterward. Even Guatt Kirbey, the ship's pessimist, could +find no objection to it. Trask and Bentrik began at once making +battle plans. Karffard wondered if they hadn't better wait till they +got to Gimli and discuss it with the others. + +"No," Trask told him. "This is the flagship; here's where the +strategy is decided." + +"Well, how about the Mardukan Navy?" Captain Rainer asked. "I think +Fleet Admiral Bargham's in command at Gimli." + +Prince Simon Bentrik was silent for a moment, as though he realized, +with reluctance, that the big decision was no longer avoidable. + +"He may be, at present, but he won't be when I get there. I will be." + +"But ... Your Highness, he's a fleet admiral; you're just a +commodore." + +"I am not just a commodore. The King is a prisoner, and for all we +know dead. The Crown Prince is dead. The Princess Myrna is a child. +I am assuming the position of Regent and Prince-Protector of the Realm." + + + + +XXVI + + +There was a little difficulty on Gimli with Fleet Admiral Bargham. +Commodores didn't give orders to fleet admirals. Well, maybe regents +did, but who gave Prince Bentrik authority to call himself regent? +Regents were elected by the Chamber of Delegates, on nomination of +the Chancellor. + +"That's Zaspar Makann and his stooges you're talking about?" Bentrik +laughed. + +"Well, the Constitution...." He thought better of that, before +somebody asked him what Constitution. "Well, a Regent has to be +chosen by election. Even members of the Royal Family can't just +make themselves Regent by saying they are." + +"I can. I just have. And I don't think there are going to be many +more elections, at least for the present. Not till we make sure the +people of Marduk can be trusted with the control of the government." + +"Well, the pinnace from Moonbase reported that there were six Royal +navy battleships and four other craft attacking them," Bargham +objected. "I only have four ships here; I sent for the ones on the +other trade-planets, but I haven't heard from any of them. We can't +go there with only four ships." + +"Sixteen ships," Bentrik corrected. "No, fifteen and one Gilgamesher +we're using for a troopship. I think that's enough. You'll remain +here on Gimli, in any case, admiral; as soon as the other ships come +in, you'll follow to Marduk with them. I am now holding a meeting +aboard the Tanith flagship _Nemesis_. I want your four ship-commanders +aboard immediately. I am not including you because you're remaining +here to bring up the late comers and as soon as this meeting is over +we are spacing out." + +Actually, they spaced out sooner; the meeting lasted the whole three +hundred and fifty hours to Abaddon. A ship's captain, if he has a +good exec, as all of them had, needs only sit at his command-desk +and look important while the ship is going into and emerging from +a long jump; the rest of the time he can study ancient history or +whatever his shipboard hobby is. Rather than waste three hundred and +fifty hours of precious time, each captain turned his ship over to +his exec and remained aboard the _Nemesis_; even on so spacious a +craft the officers' country north of the engine rooms was crowded +like a tourist hotel in mid-season. One of the four Mardukans was +the Captain Garravay who had smuggled Bentrik's wife and son off +Marduk, and the other three were just as pro-Bentrik, pro-Tanith, +and anti-Makann. They were, on general principles, also anti-Bargham. +There must be something wrong with any fleet admiral who remained +in his command after Zaspar Makann came to power. + +So, as soon as they spaced out, there was a party. After that, +they settled down to planning the Battle of Abaddon. + + * * * * * + +There was no Battle of Abaddon. + +It was a dead planet, one side in night and the other in dim +twilight from the little speck of a sun three and a half billion +miles away, jagged mountains rising out of the snow that covered it +from pole to pole. The snow on top would be frozen CO_2; according +to the thermocouples, the surface temperature was well below +minus-100 Centigrade. No ships on orbit circled it; there was +a little faint radiation, which could have been from naturally +radioactive minerals; there was no electrical discharge detectable. + +There was considerable bad language in the command room of the +_Nemesis_. The captains of the other ships were screening in, +wanting to know what to do. + +"Go on in," Trask told them. "Englobe the planet, and go down to +within a mile if necessary. They could be hiding somewhere on it." + +"Well, they're not hiding at the bottom of any ocean, that's for +sure," somebody said. It was one of those feeble jokes at which +everybody laughs because nothing else is laughable about the +situation. + +Finally, they found it, at the north pole, which was no colder than +anywhere else on the planet. First radiation leakage, the sort that +would come from a closed-down nuclear power plant. Then a modicum of +electrical discharge. Finally the telescopic screens picked up the +spaceport, a huge oval amphitheater excavated out of a valley +between two jagged mountain ranges. + +The language in the command room was just as bad, but the tone had +changed. It was surprising what a wide range of emotions could be +expressed by a few simple blasphemies and obscenities. Everybody +who had been deriding Sharll Renner were now acclaiming him. + +But it was lifeless. The ships came crowding in; air-locked +landing-craft full of space-armored ground-fighters went down. +Screens in the command room lit as they transmitted in views. +Depressions in the carbon-dioxide snow where the hundred-foot +pad-feet of ships' landing-legs had pressed down. Ranks of +cargo-lighters that had plied to and from other ships or orbit. +And, all around the cliff-walled perimeter, air-locked doors to +caverns and tunnels. A great many men, with a great deal of equipment, +had been working here in the estimated five or six years since +Andray Dunnan--or somebody--had constructed this base. + +Andray Dunnan. They found his badge, the crescent, blue on black, on +things. They found equipment that Harkaman recognized as having been +part of the original cargo stolen with the _Enterprise_. They even +found, in his living quarters, a blown-up photoprint picture of +Nevil Ormm, draped in black. But what they did not find was a single +vehicle small enough to be taken aboard a ship, or a single scrap of +combat equipment, not even a pistol or a hand grenade. + +Dunnan had gone, but they knew whither, and where to find him. +The conquest of Marduk had moved into its final phase. + + * * * * * + +Marduk was on the other side of the sun from Abaddon with +ninety-five million miles--close, but not inconveniently so, Trask +thought--to spare. Guatt Kirbey and the Mardukan astrogator who was +helping him made it within a light-minute. The Mardukan thought that +was fine; Kirbey didn't. The last microjump was aimed at the Moon of +Marduk, which was plainly visible in the telescopic screen. They +came out within a light-second and a half, which Kirbey admitted was +reasonably close. As soon as the screens cleared, they saw that they +weren't too late. The Moon of Marduk was under fire and firing back. + +They'd have detection, and he knew what they were detecting--a clump +of sixteen rending distortions of the fabric of space-time, as +sixteen ships came into sudden existence in the normal continuum. +Beside him, Bentrik had a screen on; it was still milky-white, +and he was speaking into a radio hand-phone. + +"Simon Bentrik, Prince-Protector of Marduk, calling Moonbase." +Then, slowly, he repeated his screen-combination twice. "Come in, +Moonbase; this is Simon Bentrik, Prince-Protector, speaking." + +He waited ten seconds, and was about to start again, when the screen +flickered. The man who appeared in it wore the insignia of a +Mardukan navy commodore. He needed a shave, but he was grinning +happily. Bentrik greeted him by name. + +"Hello, Simon; glad to see you. Your Highness, I mean; what is this +Prince-Protector thing?" + +"Somebody had to do it. Is the King still alive?" + +The grin slid off the commodore's face, starting with his eyes. + +"We don't know. At first, Makann had him speaking by screen--you +know what it was like--urging everybody to obey and co-operate +with 'our trusted Chancellor.' Makann always appeared on the screen +with him." + +Bentrik nodded. "I remember." + +"Before you left, Makann kept quiet, and let the King make the +speech. After a while, the King wasn't able to speak coherently; +he'd stammer, and repeat. So then Makann did all the talking; they +couldn't even depend on him to parrot what they were giving him with +an earplug phone. Then he stopped appearing entirely. I suppose +there were physical symptoms they couldn't allow to be seen." +Bentrik was cursing horribly under his breath; the officer +at Moonbase nodded. "I hope for his sake that he is dead." + +Poor Goodman Mikhyl. Bentrik was saying, "So do I." Trask agreed, +mentally. The commodore at Moonbase was still talking: + +"We got two more renegade RMN ships, within a hundred hours after +you left." He named them. "And we got one of the Dunnan ships, the +_Fortuna_. We blew out the Malverton Navy Yard. They're still using +the Antarctic Naval Base, but we've knocked out a good deal of that. +We got the _Honest Horris_. They made two attempts to land on us and +lost a couple of ships. Eight hundred hours ago, they were joined by +the rest of Dunnan's fleet, five ships. They made a landing on +Malverton while it was turned away from us. Makann announced that +they were RMN units from the trade-planets that had joined him. I +suppose the planet-side public swallowed that. He also announced that +their commander, Admiral Dunnan, was in command of the People's +Armed Forces." + +Dunnan's ground-fighters would be in control of Malverton. By now, +the odds were that Makann was as much his prisoner as King Mikhyl +VIII had been Makann's. + +"So Dunnan has conquered Marduk. All he has to do, now, is make it +stick," he said. "I see four ships off Moonbase; how many more have +they?" + +"These are _Bolide_ and _Eclipse_, Dunnan's ships, and former Royal +Mardukan Navy ships _Champion_ and _Guardian_. There are five +orbiting off the planet: Ex-RMNS _Paladin_, and Dunnan ships +_Starhopper_, _Banshee_, _Reliable_ and _Exporter_. The last +two are listed as merchantmen, but they're performing like +regulation battlecraft." + +The four that had been circling Moonbase broke orbit and started +toward the relieving fleet; one took a hit from a Moonbase missile, +which staggered her but did no evident damage. Two ships which had +been orbiting the planet also changed course and started out. The +command room was silent except for a subdued chuckling from a +computer which was estimating enemy intentions by observed data and +Games Theory. Three more came hurrying out from the planet, and the +two in the lead slowed to let them catch up. He wanted to be able +to engage the four from off the satellite before the five from the +planet joined them, but Karffard's computers said it couldn't be done. + +"All right, we have to take all our bad eggs in one basket," he +said. "Try to hit them as soon after they join as possible." + + * * * * * + +The computers began chuckling again. The serving-robots were doing +a rush business in hot coffee. Prince Bentrik's son, sitting beside +his father, had stopped being Ruthless Ravary the Demon of the +Spaceways and was a very young officer going into his first space +battle, more scared and at the same time happier than he had ever +been in his short life. Captain Garravay of the _Vindex_ was making +signal to the other ships from Gimli: "_Royal Navy; smash the +traitors first!_" He could understand and sympathize, even if +he couldn't approve of putting personal ahead of tactical +considerations, and made a quick sealed-beam call to Harkaman to be +prepared to plug any holes they left in formation if they broke away +in search of vengeance. He also ordered the _Black Star_ and the +_Sun Goddess_ to shepherd the lightly armed and troop-crammed +Gilgamesh freighter out of danger. The two clumps of Dunnan-Makann +ships were converging rapidly, and Alvyn Karffard was screaming into +a phone to somebody to get more speed. + +At a thousand miles, the missiles started going out, and the two +groups of ships, four and five, were equidistant from each other and +from the allied fleet, at the points of a triangle that was growing +smaller by the second. The first fire-globes of intercepted missiles +spread from their seeds of brief white light. A red light flashed on +the damage-board. An enemy ship took a hit. The captain of the +_Queen Flavia_ was on a screen, saying that his ship was heavily +damaged. Three ships bearing the Mardukan dragon-and-planet circled +madly around each other at what looked, in the screen, like just +over pistol-range, two of them firing into the third, which was +replying desperately. The third one blew up, and somebody was +yelling out of a screenspeaker, "Scratch one traitor!" + +Another ship blew up somewhere, and then another. He heard somebody +say, "There went one of ours," and wondered which one it was. Not +the _Corisande_, he hoped; no, it wasn't, he could see her rushing +after two other ships which were, in turn, speeding toward the +_Black Star_, the _Sun Goddess_ and the Gilgamesh freighter. Then +the _Nemesis_ and the _Starhopper_ were within gun-range, pounding +each other savagely. + +The battle had tied itself into a ball of gyrating, fire-spitting +ships that went rolling toward the planet, which was swinging in and +out of the main viewscreen and growing rapidly larger. By the time +they were down to the inner edge of the exosphere, the ball had +started to unwind, ship after ship dropping out of it and going +into orbit, some badly damaged and some going to attack damaged +enemies. Some of them were completely around the planet, hidden +by it. He saw three ships approaching _Corisande_, _Sun Goddess_, +and the Gilgamesher. He got Harkaman on the screen. + +"Where's the _Black Star_?" he asked. + +"Gone to Em-See-Square," Harkaman replied. "We got the two +Dunnan-Makanns. _Bolide_ and _Reliable_." + +Then young Steven of Ravary, who had been monitoring one of the +intership screens, had a call from Captain Gompertz of the +_Grendelsbane_, and at the same moment somebody else was yelling, +"Here comes the _Starhopper_ again!" + +"Tell him to wait a moment; we have troubles," he said. + +_Nemesis_ and _Starhopper_ sledge-hammered each other and parried +with counter-missiles, and then, quite unexpectedly, the +_Starhopper_ went to Em-See-Square. + +There was an awful lot of Em being converted to Ee off Marduk, +today. Including Manfred Ravallo; that grieved him. Manfred was +a good man, and a good friend. He had a girl in Rivington.... +Nifflheim, there were eight hundred good men aboard the _Black +Star_, and most of them had girls who'd wait in vain for them on +Tanith. Well, what had Otto Harkaman said, so long ago, on Gram? +Something about old age not being a usual cause of death among +Space Vikings, wasn't it? + +Then he remembered that Gompertz of the _Grendelsbane_ was trying +to get him. He told young Count Steven to switch him over. + +"We just lost one of our Mardukans," Gompertz told him, in his +staccato Beowulf accent. "I think she was the _Challenger_. The ship +that got her looks like the _Banshee_; I'm turning to engage her." + +"Which way; west around the planet? Be right with you, captain." + + + + +XXVII + + +It was like finishing a word puzzle. You sit staring at it, looking +for more spaces to print letters into, and suddenly you realize +that there are no more, that the puzzle is done. That was how the +space-battle of Marduk, the Battle _off_ Marduk, ended. Suddenly +there were no more colored fire-globes opening and fading, no more +missiles coming, no more enemy ships to throw missiles at. Now it +was time to take a count of his own ships, and then begin thinking +about the Battle _on_ Marduk. + +The _Black Star_ was gone. So was RMNS _Challenger_, and RMNS +_Conquistador_. _Space Scourge_ was badly hammered; worse than after +the Beowulf raid, Boake Valkanhayn said. The _Viking's Gift_ was +heavily damaged, too, and so was the _Corisande_, and so, from the +looks of the damage board, was the _Nemesis_. And three ships were +missing--the three independent Space Vikings, _Harpy_, _Curse of +Cagn_, and Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan's _Damnthing_. + +Prince Bentrik frowned over that. "I can't think that all three +of those ships would have been destroyed, without anybody seeing +it happen." + +"Neither can I. But I can think that all those ships broke out of +the battle together and headed in for the planet. They didn't come +here to help liberate Marduk, they came here to fill their cargo +holds. I only hope the people they're robbing all voted the Makann +ticket in the last election." A crumb of comfort occurred to him, +and he passed it on. "The only people who are armed to resist them +will be Makann's storm-troops and Dunnan's pirates; they'll be the +ones to get killed." + +"We don't want any more killing than...." Prince Simon broke off +suddenly. "I'm beginning to talk like his late Highness Crown Prince +Edvard," he said. "He didn't want bloodshed, either, and look whose +blood was shed. If they're doing what you think they are, I'm afraid +we'll have to kill a few of your Space Vikings, too." + +"They aren't my Space Vikings." He was a little surprised to find +that, after almost eight years of bearing the name himself, he was +using it as an other-people label. Well, why not? He was the ruler +of the civilized planet of Tanith, wasn't he? "But let's not start +fighting them till the main war's over. Those three shiploads are +no worse than a bad cold; Makann and Dunnan are the plague." + +It would still take four hours to get down, in a spiral of +deceleration. They started the telecasts which had been filmed and +taped on the voyage from Gimli. The Prince-Protector Simon Bentrik +spoke: The illegal rule of the traitor Makann was ended. His deluded +followers were advised to return to their allegiance to the Crown. +The People's Watchmen were ordered to surrender their arms and +disband; in localities where they refused, the loyal people were +called upon to co-operate with the legitimate armed forces of +the Crown in exterminating them, and would be furnished arms +as soon as possible. + +Little Princess Myrna spoke: "If my grandfather is still alive, +he is your King; if he is not, I am your Queen, and until I am old +enough to rule in my own right, I accept Prince Simon as Regent +and Protector of the Realm, and I call on all of you to obey him +as I will." + +"You didn't say anything about representative government, or +democracy, or the constitution," Trask mentioned. "And I noticed +the use of the word 'rule,' instead of 'reign.'" + +"That's right," the self-proclaimed Prince-Protector said. "There's +something wrong with democracy. If there weren't, it couldn't be +overthrown by people like Makann, attacking it from within by +democratic procedures. I don't think it's fundamentally unworkable. +I think it just has a few of what engineers call bugs. It's not +safe to run a defective machine till you learn the defects and +remedy them." + +"Well, I hope you don't think our Sword-World feudalism doesn't have +bugs." He gave examples, and then quoted Otto Harkaman about barbarism +spreading downward from the top instead of upward from the bottom. + +"It may just be," he added, "that there is something fundamentally +unworkable about government itself. As long as _Homo sapiens terra_ +is a wild animal, which he has always been and always will be until +he evolves into something different in a million or so years, maybe +a workable system of government is a political science impossibility, +just as transmutation of elements was a physical-science impossibility +as long as they tried to do it by chemical means." + +[Illustration] + +"Then we'll just have to make it work the best way we can, and when +it breaks down, hope the next try will work a little better, for a +little longer," Bentrik said. + + * * * * * + +Malverton grew in the telescopic screens as they came down. The Navy +Spaceport, where Trask had landed almost two years before, was in +wreckage, sprinkled with damaged ships that had been blasted on the +ground, and slagged by thermonuclear fires. There was fighting in +the air all over the city proper, on building-tops, on the ground, +and in the air. That would be the _Damnthing_-_Harpy_-_Curse of +Cagn_ Space Vikings. The Royal Palace was the center of one of +half a dozen swirls of battle that had condensed out of the +general skirmishing. + +Paytrik Morland started for it with the first wave of +ground-fighters from the _Nemesis_. The Gilgamesh freighter, like +most of her ilk, had huge cargo ports all around; these began +opening and disgorging a swarm of everything from landing-craft +and hundred-foot airboats to one man air-cavalry single-mounts. +The top landing-stages and terraces of the palace were almost +obscured by the flashes of auto-cannon shells and the smoke and +dust of projectiles. Then the first vehicles landed, the firing +from the air stopped, and men fanned out as skirmishers, +occasionally firing with small arms. + +Trask and Bentrik were in the armory off the vehicle-bay, putting on +combat equipment, when the twelve-year-old Count of Ravary joined +them and began rummaging for weapons and a helmet. + +"You're not going," his father told him. "I'll have enough to worry +about taking care of myself...." + +That was the wrong approach. Trask interrupted: + +"You're to stay aboard, Count," he said. "As soon as things +stabilize, Princess Myrna will have to come down. You'll act as +her personal escort. And don't think you're being shoved into the +background. She's Crown Princess, and if she isn't Queen now, she +will be in a few years. Escorting her now will be the foundation of +your naval career. There isn't a young officer in the Royal Navy who +wouldn't trade places with you." + +"That was the right way to handle him, Lucas," Bentrik approved, +after the boy had gone away, proud of his opportunity and his +responsibility. + +"It'll do just what I said for him." He stopped for a moment, to +play with an idea that had just struck him. "You know, the girl will +be Queen in a few years, if she isn't now. Queens need Prince +Consorts. Your son's a good boy; I liked him the first moment I saw +him, and I've liked him better ever since. He'd be a good man on +the throne beside Queen Myrna." + +"Oh, that's out of the question. Not the matter of consanguinity, +they're about a sixteenth cousin. But people would say I was abusing +the Protectorship to marry my son onto the Throne." + +"Simon, speaking as one sovereign prince to another, you have a lot +to learn. You've learned one important lesson already, that a ruler +must be willing to use force and shed blood to enforce his rule. You +have to learn, too, that a ruler cannot afford to be guided by his +fears of what people will say about him. Not even what history will +say about him. A ruler's only judge is himself." + +Bentrik slid the transpex visor of his helmet up and down +experimentally, checked the chambers of his pistol and carbine. + +"All that matters to me is the peace and well-being of Marduk. I'll +have to talk it over with ... with my only judge. Well, let's go." + + * * * * * + +The top terraces were secure when their car landed. More vehicles +were coming down and discharging men; a swarm of landing craft were +sinking past the building toward the ground two thousand feet below. +Auto-weapons and small arms and light cannon banged, and bombs and +recoilless-rifle shells crashed, on the lower terraces. They put the +car down one of the shaftways until they ran into heavy fire from +below, at the limit of the advance, and then turned into a broad +hallway, floating high enough to clear the heads of the men on foot. +It looked like the part of the Palace where he had lodged when he +had been a guest there but it probably wasn't. + +They came to hastily constructed barricades of furniture and +statuary and furnishings, behind which Makann's People's Watchmen +and Andray Dunnan's Space Vikings were making resistance. They +entered rooms dusty with powdered plaster and acrid with powder +fumes, littered with corpses. They passed lifter-skids being towed +out with wounded. They went through rooms crowded with their own +men--"_Keep your fingers off things; this isn't a looting +expedition!_" "_You stupid cretin, how did you know there wasn't a +man hiding behind that?_" In one huge room, ballroom or concert room +or something, there were prisoners herded, and men from the +_Nemesis_ were setting up polyencephalographic veridicators, sturdy +chairs with wires and adjustable helmets and translucent globes +mounted over them. A couple of Morland's men were hustling a +People's Watchman to one and strapping him into a chair. + +"You know what this is, don't you?" one of them was saying. "This is +a veridicator. That globe'll light blue; the moment you try to lie +to us, it'll turn red. And the moment it turns red, I'm going to +hammer your teeth down your throat with the butt of this pistol." + +"Have you found anything out about the King, yet?" Bentrik asked him. + +He turned. "No. Nobody we've questioned so far knows anything later +than a month ago about him. He just disappeared." He was going to +say something else, saw Bentrik's face, and changed his mind. + +"He's dead," Bentrik said dully. "They tortured him and brainwashed +him and used him as a ventriloquist's dummy on the screen as long as +they could; when they couldn't let the people see him any more, +they stuffed him into a converter." + +They did find Zaspar Makann, hours later. Maybe he could have told +them something, if he had been alive, but he and a few of his +fanatical followers had barricaded themselves in the Throne room and +died trying to defend it. They found Makann on the Throne, the top +of his head blown away, a pistol death-gripped in his hand, and the +Great Crown lying on the floor, the velvet inner cap bullet-pierced +and splattered with blood and brain tissue. Prince Bentrik picked it +up and looked at it disgustedly. + +"We'll have to have something done about that," he said. "I really +didn't think he'd do just this. I thought he wanted to abolish the +Throne, not sit on it." + +Except for one chandelier smashed and several corpses that had to be +dragged out, the Ministerial Council room was intact. They set up +headquarters there. Boake Valkanhayn and several other ship-captains +joined them. There was fighting going on in several places inside +the Palace, and the city was still in a turmoil. Somebody managed +to get in touch with the captains of the _Damnthing_, the _Harpy_ +and the _Curse of Cagn_ and bring them to the Palace. Trask attempted +to reason with them, to no avail. + +"Prince Trask, you're my friend, and you've always dealt fairly with +me," Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan said. "But you know just how far +any Space Viking captain can control his crew. These men didn't come +here to correct the political mistakes of Marduk. They came here for +what they could haul away. I could get myself killed trying to stop +them now...." + +"I wouldn't even try," the captain of the _Curse of Cagn_ put in. +"I came here for what I could make out of this planet, myself." + +"You can try to stop them," said the captain of the _Harpy_. +"You'll find it even harder than what you're doing now." + +Trask looked at some of the reports that had come in from elsewhere +on the planet. Harkaman had landed on one of the big cities to the +east, and the people had risen against Makann's local bosses and +were helping wipe out the People's Watchmen with arms they had been +furnished. Valkanhayn's exec had landed on a large concentration +camp where close to ten thousand of Makann's political enemies had +been penned; he had distributed all his available weapons and was +calling for more. Gompertz of the _Grendelsbane_ was at Drepplin; +he reported just the reverse. The people there had risen in support +of the Makann regime, and he wanted authorization to use nuclear +weapons against them. + +"Could you talk your people into going to some other city?" Trask +asked. "We have a city for you; big industrial center. It ought to +be fine looting. Drepplin." + +"The people there are Mardukan subjects, too," Bentrik began. Then +he shrugged. "It's not what we'd like to do, it's what we have to. +By all means, gentlemen. Take your men to Drepplin, and nobody will +object to anything you do." + +"And when you have that place looted out, try Abaddon. You were +aground there, Captain Esthersan. You know what all Dunnan left there." + + * * * * * + +A couple of Space Vikings--no, Royal Army of Tanith men--brought in +the old woman, dirty, in rags, almost exhausted. + +"She wants to talk to Prince Bentrik; won't talk to anybody else. +Says she knows where the King is." + +Bentrik rose quickly, brought her to a chair, poured a glass of wine +for her. + +"He's still alive, Your Highness. The Crown Princess Melanie and I +... I'm sorry, Your Highness; Dowager Crown Princess ... have been +taking care of him, the best way we could. If you'll only come +quickly...." + +Mikhyl VIII, Planetary King of Marduk, lay on a pallet of filthy +bedding on the floor of a narrow room behind a mass-energy converter +which disposed of the rubbish and sewage and generated power for +some of the fixed equipment on one of the middle floors of the east +wing of the palace. There was a bucket of water, and on a rough +wooden bench lay a cloth-wrapped bundle of food. A woman, haggard +and disheveled, wearing a suit of greasy mechanic's coveralls and +nothing else, squatted beside him. The Crown Princess Melanie, whom +Trask remembered as the charming and gracious hostess of Cragdale. +She tried to rise, and staggered. + +"Prince Bentrik! And it's Prince Trask of Tanith!" she cried. +"Just hurry; get him out of here and to where he can be taken +care of. Please." Then she sat down again on the floor and fell +over, unconscious. + + * * * * * + +They couldn't get the story. The Princess Melanie had collapsed +completely. Her companion, another noblewoman of the court, could +only ramble disconnectedly. And the King merely lay, bathed and +fed in a clean bed, and looked up at them wonderingly, as though +nothing he saw or heard conveyed any meaning to him. The doctors +could do nothing. + +"He has no mind, no more mind than a new-born baby. We can keep him +alive, I don't know how long. That's our professional duty. But it's +no kindness to His Majesty." + + * * * * * + +The little pockets of resistance in the Palace were wiped out, +through the next morning and afternoon. All but one, far +underground, below the main power plant. They tried sleep-gas; the +defenders had blowers and sent it back at them. They tried blasting; +there was a limit to what the fabric of the building would stand. +And nobody knew how long it would take to starve them out. + +On the third day, a man crawled out, pushing a white shirt tied to +the barrel of a carbine ahead of him. + +"Is Prince Lucas Trask of Tanith here?" he asked. "I won't speak to +anybody else." + +They brought Trask quickly. All that was visible of the other man +was the carbine-barrel and the white shirt. When Trask called to +him, he raised his head above the rubble behind which he was hiding. + +"Prince Trask, we have Andray Dunnan here; he was leading us, but +now we've disarmed him and are holding him. If we turn him over to +you, will you let us go?" + +"If you all come out unarmed, and bring Dunnan with you, I promise +you, the rest of you will be let outside this building and allowed +to go away unharmed." + +"All right. We'll be coming out in a minute." The man raised his +voice. "It's agreed!" he called. "Bring him out." + +There were fewer than two score of them. Some wore the uniforms of +high officers of the People's Watchmen or of People's Welfare Party +functionaries; a few wore the heavily braided short jackets of Space +Viking officers. Among them, they propelled a thin-faced man with a +pointed beard, and Trask had to look twice at him before he +recognized the face of Andray Dunnan. It looked more like the face +of Duke Angus of Wardshaven as he last remembered it. Dunnan looked +at him in incurious contempt. + +"Your dotard king couldn't rule without Zaspar Makann, and Makann +couldn't rule without me, and neither can you," he said. "Shoot this +gang of turncoats, and I'll rule Marduk for you." He looked at Trask +again. "Who are you?" he demanded. "I don't know you." + +Trask slipped the pistol from his holster, thumbing off the safety. + +"I am Lucas Trask. You've heard that name before," he said. "Stand +away from behind him, you people." + +"Oh, yes; the poor fool who thought he was going to marry Elaine +Karvall. Well, you won't, Lord Trask of Traskon. She loves me, not +you. She's waiting for me now, on Gram...." + +Trask shot him through the head. Dunnan's eyes widened in momentary +incredulity; then his knees gave way, and he fell forward on his +face. Trask thumbed on the safety and holstered the pistol, and +looked at the body on the concrete. + +It hadn't made the least difference. It had been like shooting a +snake, or one of the nasty scorpion-things that infested the old +buildings in Rivington. Just no more Andray Dunnan. + +"Take that carrion and stuff it in a mass-energy converter," he +said. "And I don't want anybody to mention the name of Andray Dunnan +to me again." + +He didn't look at them haul Dunnan's body away on a lifter-skid; +he watched the fifty-odd leaders of the overthrown misgovernment +of Marduk shamble away to freedom, guarded by Paytrik Morland's +riflemen. Now there was something to reproach himself for; he'd +committed a separate and distinct crime against Marduk by letting +each one of them live. Unless recognized and killed by somebody +outside, every one of them would be at some villainy before next +sunrise. Well, King Simon I could cope with that. + +He started when he realized how he had thought of his friend. Well, +why not? Mikhyl's mind was dead; his body would not survive it more +than a year. Then a child Queen, and a long regency, and long +regencies were dangerous. Better a strong King, in name as well as +power. And the succession could be safeguarded by marrying Steven +and Myrna. Myrna had accepted, at eight, that she must some day +marry for reasons of state; why not her playmate Steven? + +And Simon Bentrik would see the necessity. He was neither a fool nor +a moral coward; he only needed to take some time to adjust to ideas. +The rabble who had bought their lives with their leader's had gone, +now. Slowly, he followed them, thinking. + +Don't press the idea on Simon too hard; just expose him to it and +let him adopt it. And there would be the treaty--Tanith, Marduk, +Beowulf, Amaterasu; eventually, treaties with the other civilized +planets. Nebulously, the idea of a League of Civilized Worlds began +to take shape in his mind. + +Be a good idea if he adopted the title of King of Tanith for +himself. And cut loose from the Sword-Worlds; especially cut loose +from Gram. Let Viktor of Xochitl have it. Or Garvan Spasso. Viktor +wouldn't be the last Space Viking to take his ships back against +the Sword-Worlds. Sooner or later, civilization in the Old Federation +would drive them all home to loot the planets that had sent them out. + +Well, if he was going to be a king, shouldn't he have a queen? Kings +usually did. He climbed into the little hall-car and started up a +long shaft. There was Valerie Alvarath. They'd enjoyed each other's +society on the _Nemesis_. He wondered if she would want to make it +permanent, even on a throne.... + +Elaine was with him. He felt her beside him, almost tangibly. Her +voice was whispering to him: _She loves you, Lucas. She'll say yes. +Be good to her, and she'll make you happy._ Then she was gone, and +he knew that she would never return. + +Good-by, Elaine. + + +[Illustration: FIN] + + +Notes: +Inconsistent hyphenation; the former forms were all changed to the latter: + Space-Scourge (7) vs. Space Scourge (41) + Sun-Goddess (3) vs. Sun Goddess (3) + + Jaganath (2) vs. Jagannath (4) + Amaterasun (1) vs. Amaterasuan[s] (1) + handphone (1) vs. hand-phone (3) + planetside (1) vs. planet-side (1) + slagpile (1) vs. slag-pile (1) + trade planets (3) vs. trade-planets (10) + two hand (1) vs. two-hand (1) + air cavalry (1) vs. air-cavalry (2) + smallarms (1) vs. small arms (5) + +Thinkos: + Admiral of the Royal Mardukan Navy." [Chap. XIV] +was changed to + Admiral of the Royal Navy of Gram." + + one of the Gram-Marduk freighters, [Chap. XXIII] +was changed to + one of the Gram-Tanith freighters, + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Space Viking, by Henry Beam Piper + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPACE VIKING *** + +***** This file should be named 20728.txt or 20728.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/7/2/20728/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, William Woods and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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