by Dietmar Wehr
“No, Prince Lucas, you’re right about that however if they feel compelled by circumstances to accept your offer, the crew will resent having to make that choice and you’ll never be able to completely rely on that ship because the crew might mutiny if they think they can get away with it or at the very least, withdraw from a combat situation when you may need them the most. I think the best solution would be if you buy the ship and take into your service those of us who want to stay with you. The rest can take their share of the purchase price and try to get hired by another Viking ship that shows up at Tanith.”
“Yes, I agree. Under the circumstances, that makes the most sense. When you get back to your ship, Boake, I’d like you to address your officers and crew and explain the situation to them. When we get back to Tanith, I’ll sit down with you and Otto and we’ll come up with an offer that you can take to the crew to vote on.” When Valkanhayn nodded, Trask turned to Captain Trevord.
“Captain, since King Angus is either dead or in a mental institution under guard, I think it’s clear that you and your crew can decide your own fate. I’ll make the same offer to your crew as I just agreed to make to Captain Valkanhayn’s crew. When we get back to Tanith, I’ll buy the ship and anyone who’s willing to swear allegiance to me will find a home in my Navy. Those who don’t wish to do so, can leave Tanith however they can.” Trevord said nothing for a while and his expression gave away nothing. It reminded Trask of the kind of carefully neutral expression that poker players might use. Trask looked over at Harkaman who gave a barely perceptible shrug of his shoulders. He couldn’t read Trevord either. Finally Trevord said.
“I do realize that the Queen Flavia is in the same situation as the Space Scourge in terms of needing repairs and having empty cargo holds. I accepted Angus’ offer to command that ship because I thought it would be highly profitable. The prospect of getting a share of the purchase price, depending on how much that is and in what form the compensation is, might satisfy that goal. I obviously can’t speak for the rest of the crew but I’ll pass on the offer and they can think about it on the way back to Tanith.” That wasn’t the answer that Trask was hoping for but it wasn’t an outright no either.
“Very good, Captain. We’ll leave it at that for now. As to what we’re going to do right now, I’ve made some decisions. There’s no good reason for all four of our ships to remain here on Marduk. My regiment from Tradetown is going to be needed by the Prince-Protector for a while longer. They’re going to secure all of the TV stations in the Capital so that the government can get its public service messages broadcast in a timely manner. Admiral? You can expect to get a list of those stations from the Palace shortly. Please see to it that the troops are deployed to them as expeditiously as possible.”
“Certainly, My Prince.” replied Harkaman. Trask nodded and continued.
“Since that regiment will be staying on Marduk for a while longer, the Gilgamesh troop transport will unfortunately have to remain here too. You can tell her Captain that I’ll try to make it up to them in the future somehow. As for our ships, I want Nemeis and Corisande to return to Tanith tomorrow. Space Scourge and Queen Flavia will stay here in order to escort the troop ship back to Tanith when the regiment can turn over the TV stations to the Army. I’ll also be staying here for some period of time and I’ll take one of our pinnaces back to Tanith if necessary.” He then explained why he might be staying longer and both Valkanhayn and Trevord offered their congratulations. Boake was sincerely pleased. Trevord was polite but his well wishes seemed less sincere. When the meeting was over, both Captains left but Harkaman stayed behind. Trask looked at him and asked.
“Well…what do you think, Otto?”Harkaman turned to face Trask and said in a low and slow voice.
“I think…that Captain Trevord…will take his ship and disappear the first chance he gets.”
“Really? Why? What can he do with a damaged ship and no cargo?”
“He can take it to Xochtil or Hoth or Nergal and sell it to Viktor or Tobbin or Everrard. They can pay in gold or other easily convertible loot while you can’t. You’d have to pay him and his crew mostly with land and buildings which they can’t take with them. And before you ask, I don’t think Boake would pull the same stunt. He genuinely wants to stay in your service and if the crew wanted to take the ship to another Viking base, they’d have to do it over his dead body and those of his senior offices. Even if they could pull off that mutiny successfully, which is no sure thing because Boake and his officers aren’t fools, I think the rest of the crew are just smart enough to realize how little bargaining power they’d have if they made it to another base and started dickering over a selling price for a damaged ship and no officers to run it.”
“I hope you’re right. I always thought I could trust Boake after he regained his self-respect. Losing Queen Flavia would still leave us with three ships but I wouldn’t want to lose Space Scourge as well. Not in the short run anyway. In the long run, we can build another ship or two to replace both ships if we need to.” Harkaman nodded.
“I agree. I see that you chose Plan B. I recommend that as soon as the ink’s dry on the treaty, that Simon send a Navy pinnace to Xochtil and the other bases to announce, from a safe distance of course, that Marduk, Tanith, Amaterasu and Beowulf all have mutual defense treaties with each other which, while not technically true, is essentially correct and that ANY attack on any of those four planets will generate a retaliatory strike against Xochtil, regardless of whether the attacking ships came from there or not. That’ll discourage Viktor from organizing a raid and will also make him responsible for actions taken by the other base owners. He has enough clout to convince the others not to do anything foolish. You do realize, I hope, that sooner or later, some Viking captain is going to ignore Viktor’s wishes and attack one of our trade planets? When that happens, you’ll have to make good on my threats to Viktor or he’ll interpret the lack of action as a bluff and it’ll be open season on all our trade planets.”Trask sighed. He had instinctively known that but there were always more urgent things to think about until now.
“Yes, I do realize that. We’ll cross that river if and when we get to it. When you get back to Tanith, get the Corisande repaired first, then Nemesis and start turning away Viking ships as soon as you think you can safely make that decision stick.” Harkaman didn’t say or do anything which was very unlike him.
“What’s on your mind, Otto?” Harkaman took a deep breath and said.
“I’ve been checking the timeline of events. There’s a scenario that I don’t like and hope hasn’t happened but you should be aware of it. By the time we found out that Viktor’s fleet had taken control of Gram and handed it over to Omfray, Viktor had enough time to make it back to Xochtil. If he then learned about your first visit to Marduk, and interpreted it in the most paranoid way, he would have had time to organize another fleet of Viking ships and arrive at Tanith, while we were on our way here. If I should find out that Tanith has been attacked in our absence, what actions do you want me to take until you get back?” Trask pondered the question and as he did so, his anger started to grow. As Prince of Tanith, he felt a moral obligation to protect the people, who had sworn allegiance to him and his heirs. Any attack on Tanith would involve fatalities including civilians who didn’t know anything about interstellar power struggles and just wanted to be left in peace to raise their families. The image of women and children lying dead in the streets of Rivington or Tradetown, hit him just as hard as did the news of Elaine’s murder. When he leaned forward to look Harkaman in the eyes, a voice so hard he barely recognized it as his own said.
“If Tanith has been attacked, you’re to immediately begin executing Plan C and take whatever actions you think are appropriate!” Harkaman’s voice was equally serious.
“I understand, Prince Lucas. You can count on me.”
Chapter III
Prince Viktor listened to the voices of his officers and crew on the Bridge of his ship, the Black Hawk.
Her Captain was taking care of things in order to leave his Prince alone to think princely thoughts undisturbed. Viktor was tired of being cooped up in his luxuriously appointed quarters aboard this ship. He’d much rather be in his much larger Palace on the ground on Xochtil, with his harem and other amenities but even princes had to sometimes go out into the field to take care of business.
When his cousin, and majority owner of the Viking base on Xochtil, had sent his envoy to ‘insist’ that Viktor assemble a fleet of Viking ships to help put Duke Omfray on the throne of Gram, Viktor had complied but reluctantly. He’d never met Omfray but had heard of his reputation and helping a man like that become King of Gram offended Viktor’s sense of right and wrong but he wasn’t yet ready to defy King Konrad so he organized the fleet and took them to rendezvous with Konrad’s two ships and then on to Gram. That battle had been surprisingly easy and even though his ships hadn’t been allowed to raid any cities on Gram, they were satisfied with pledges of free repairs and ammo in the future, all to come out of King Konrad’s share of the base profits, which Konrad expected to make up from tribute paid to him by his new feudal underling King Omfray of Gram. And with that operation over, Viktor had looked forward to getting reacquainted with his harem as he headed back to Xochtil.
But once there, he heard the news from Tanith, brought in by Viking ships that had stopped there. Prince Lucas had apparently established friendly relations with the Crown of Marduk. One of the few Civilized Worlds that was too powerful for Space Vikings to risk attacking and also powerful enough to pose a serious threat to Xochtil and the other Viking bases if the Marduk Navy knew where to find those bases and if their King felt like making his navy people earn their pay. That news, on top of the fact that Trask’s ships had conducted a so-called reprisal raid on Barragon’s Dagon base gave Viktor some sleepless nights. Despite his best efforts to reign in the Space Vikings that regularly used his base, it was only a matter of time before one of them decided to raid one of Tanith’s trade planets and let Viktor worry about any reprisals. The more he thought about it, the more convinced Viktor became that an armed clash was inevitable and therefore he, Viktor, should take the initiative and strike first. And when Fedrig Barragon’s ship arrived at Xochtil with bloody vengeance against Trask for the death of his two sons during the raid on Dagon, on his mind, Viktor had conceived a brilliant strategem.So here they were, getting ready for the final micro-jump to within 2 light seconds of Tanith. The Captain came over to Viktor’s Command Chair and said.
“We’re ready for the final jump, My Lord.” Viktor kept his eyes focused on the main viewscreen as he said.
“Very good, Captain. You may give the signal to jump.” The seven ships in Viktor’s fleet micro-jumped and Tanith, along with its moon, appeared in the main viewscreen. At the Captain’s command the screen switched to a tactical representation of the planet and its surroundings. Viktor nodded his approval. Kraggor was an excellent subordinate. Just as he was about to compliment Kraggor, he noticed that the symbol on the screen, representing Barragon’s ship, was accelerating towards the planet.
“That man is so predictable. Well I suppose I should follow the script.” Seconds later Prince Barragon’s hate-filled face appeared on Viktor’s Command Station viewscreen.
“Listen, Barragon, the plan was to wait here beyond the no-jump zone until we had an idea of what kind of defending forces we were facing. Why are you heading down now?” Barragon’s voice was so full of fury that he was barely comprehensible.
“I don’t take orders from you! I’ve had to wait a long time to avenge my two sons and I’m not waiting any longer! If you’re too cowardly to face Trask’s ships then stay out here! I’m going in and so are the others!” The image disappeared as Barragonbroke the connection. Viktor looked up and saw that the other five ships were also headed down to the planet. All according to the carefully crafted plan between himself and the other five Viking captains. If they played their role correctly, they’d be amply rewarded. He caught Kraggor’s eye and gestured for him to come over to Viktor.
“Yes, My Lord?”
“Everything seems to be going according to plan so maintain our current position but let’s be ready to jump back to base at a moment’s notice.”
“I’ll see to it, My Lord.”
The actual battle over Tanith was over so fast, Viktor almost missed seeing it. There was only one defending ship and although it fought bravely, it was simply overwhelmed with missiles. None of the attacking ships were damaged. It was 24 hours later when the plan reached the key point. Viktor listened in to the video screen conversation between a furious Barragon and the rest of the captains.
“It doesn’t matter if all your cargo holds are full of equipment! I’ve already agreed to give you favorable terms if you hand over that equipment on Dagon so that I can get the base back into operation. But right now, I need your ships to stay here until that bastard Trask and his stooge Harkaman come back so that we can finish the job of killing them both!” All of the other captains started talking at once but one of them yelled the loudest.
“SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU! I’ll do the talking! Look, Prince Barragon, killing Trask and Harkaman was always your own personal vendetta. We agreed to join you on this raid for loot and nothing else. There’s no incentive for us to engage in a space battle with Trask’s ships when we already have all the loot we can cram into our cargo holds. Why take combat damage when we don’t have to? The others and I are heading to Dagon as agreed. That’ll leave you here by yourself. Not good odds, I’m sure you’d agree. My suggestion is that killing Trask and Harkaman will have to wait for another day. What can he do, now that his base has been wrecked? We’re heading out. End of discussion.” When Viktor heard that, he turned to Kraggor and said.
“Alright, Kraggor. Barragon has served his purpose. Take us home.” Viktor leaned back and smiled. That fool thought those other five ships would meet his ship back at Dagon. Little did he know that Viktor had already bribed those five captains to take their cargo to Xochtil. The equipment that Barragon was counting on to re-establish his base on Dagon, would be used to set up a second spaceport/shipyard that would enable Xochtil to handle twice as many Viking ships at any one time.Not only would Trask think that Barragon was responsible for the raid on Tanith, which in a way was correct, but when Trask’s ships arrived at Dagon, they’d find that the base was still smashed and wonder where the stolen equipment was. In the meantime, Viktor would keep the second shipyard a secret until he had arranged for a Sword Worlds freighter to arrive on Xochtil, ostensibly from Haulteclere, and supposedly carrying all the equipment needed to expand the Xochtil operation. That would throw off any suspicions that the second shipyard was really Trask’s equipment. By then, he’d have the second phase of his strategic plan ready to execute to lay the foundation of a new Space Viking Empire.
The Wedding had been as formal and impressive as Simon’s staff could arrange on short notice. The guest list was small by the standards that Trask was used to but then again, he was from another planet so how many of his friends could he invite? Simon was there of course. So was Boake. Trevord had pleaded some kind of stomach ache and had not attended and Harkaman had already left for Tanith as per Trask’s orders. The ceremony was simple and quick. The reception was also quick since most of the guests left early and the ride by fast aircar to the Cragdale hunting lodge as Simon’s guests was also quick. The physical consummation of their union, was everything that Trask had hoped for. His new bride was delightfully lusty as well as tenderly loving. It was the kind of wedding night that he had expected to have with Elaine but Dunnan had gunned her down within minutes of exchanging their vows and Trask had felt anxious all day that history would repeat itself despite the careful security precautions that Simon had insisted on. But history had not repeated itself and here they were. It was now in the middle of the night. Valerie’s head was resting against his shoulder and he could tell from her breathing that she was asleep. He was startin
g to feel sleep tug at his heels and decided to surrender to the inevitable. The future looked very good for the two of them. She would help him build Tanith into a Civilized World and with a little luck, their children would grow up in a safer galaxy. He hoped he’d be able to sleep without dreaming again of the victims of his own Space Viking raids. They were haunting him less and less often now but he wondered if building a peaceful world was enough to balance the karmic scales or did the Universe have something else in mind for him to accomplish before his soul could rest in peace? Sleep overtook him before he could find an answer.
