by Dietmar Wehr
At least Admiral Bargham had returned with the rest of the fleet. Simon’s doubts about keeping Bargham on the active roster because of his less than enthusiastic reaction to Simon’s announcement of taking on the role of Regent, was allayed by the assurances of the reinstated Admiral Shefter as the Senior Officer of the Navy, that Bargham was worth keeping. The Royal Marduk Navy’s senior officer corps had been decimated by Zasper Makann. Those loyal to the Crown, had been either forcibly retired like Shefter, or convicted by kangaroo courts and shot. With a few exceptions (like Bargham), the ones that had been allowed to stay in the Navy were traitors and had been purged when order was re-established. Filling those holes in the command structure had taken longer than Simon had hoped for but he wanted to make sure that anyone who was promoted, was politically reliable AND competent and he had insisted on personally reviewing and approving all promotions above the rank of Commander.
As soon as Simon learned that Prince Lucas had been notified and was in the process of returning to the Capital, he ordered Admiral Shefter woken up and told to report to the Palace. Admiral Shefter had been briefed on the threat posed by Space Vikings to Marduk and also on Harkaman’s Plan C strategy. Simon had ordered him to make contingency plans just in case Plan C became operational. With the attack on Tanith, it seemed to Simon that Lucas had no choice now but to go to Plan C.
Both Admiral Shefter and Prince Lucas arrived at the Palace at more or less the same time. Both were shown to the main conference room where a buffet breakfast was in the process of being set up and where the Prince-Protector was already seated. Due to his rank as a Planetary Sovereign, Trask was allowed to enter the room first. When Simon saw him, he immediately got up and quickly walked over to Trask.
“I’m deeply sorry that this terrible event has happened to you and your people, Prince Lucas. Rest assured that Marduk will honor its treaty obligations and stand by your world.” Trask’s expression was one of controlled fury mixed with sadness.
“Thank you, Prince-Protector. I never had any doubts in that regard. I’ve reviewed that actual radio report from the pinnace. Do we know anything more than that at this point?” Simon shook his head.
“No. As you know, that pinnace is still on its way down but it won’t be landing for another half an hour yet.” Turning to Admiral Shefter, Simon said,
“Thank you for responding to the summons so quickly, Admiral. As both of you can see, I’ve arranged for us to have breakfast available. Please help yourselves to whatever you wish and then we’ll get down to business.” When the buffet was finished being set up, Simon dismissed the staff and ordered the doors closed. Turning to the other two men, he said,
“Normally we’d order breakfast and the staff would bring us the food and hover nearby to refill our coffees, etc. I decided to do it this way because I don’t want any servants overhearing what we’re going to discuss. That’s why we’re going to get our own coffee and food.
When everyone had a plate of food and coffee or some other breakfast drink, they sat down at the table. Simon at one end, Shefter to his right and Trask to his left. No one seemed to be all that interested in the food. Simon got the meeting started.
“Admiral, have you seen the contents of the radio message sent by the incoming pinnance?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I was able to go over it in the aircar on the way here. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt as to who led the raid. I don’t know very much about this Fedrig Barragon. Knowing more about him might help me provide more useful advice.” Simon turned to Trask who nodded and said,
“Barragon controlled a Viking base on Dagon. Several thousand hours ago, Harkaman came across a raid on one of our trade planets by Vikings that are known to operate out of Barragon’s Dagon Base and as per my standing orders, he took his ship to Dagon and attacked it. Destroying one of Fedrig’s ships and crippling the other, then raiding the base and destroying any equipment that we didn’t need. I completely understand why he’d want to strike back. There’s a good chance that he lost at least one of his sons from Harkaman’s attack but what surprises me is that he was able to find five other ships to participate in the attack on Tanith. Dagon was never one of the larger Viking bases and didn’t have that many Vikings operating from it. I would have expected him to have a hard time getting even two ships to join him, let alone five.”
“I don’t understand why it would be difficult for him to recruit ships, Prince Lucas,” said Shefter.
“Well…any Viking ship coming to his base would very likely be in need of repairs to fix damage taken in recent raids. With his base unable to repair ships, those ships would have to go somewhere else to get their combat damage fixed. Therefore there’s no incentive to either wait in orbit around Dagon for other ships to be recruited or go to another base, get repaired and then wait for Barragon and other ships to rendezvous. The other thing to keep in mind is that Viking base owners are a suspicious lot. They have to be to stay in business. If a ship is known to have participated in a raid on another Viking base, regardless of the reason, then other base owners are going to be leery of allowing that ship anywhere near their own base. With the Dagon base out of commission with no assurances that it would be put back into operation, any of the ships that normally use the Dagon base, who participated in the attack on Tanith, would be taking the risk that the Dagon base might not be reactivated and then they might not be allowed to land on any other Viking base.” It was Simon who spoke next.
“Yes but how was it that this Prince Viktor was able to recruit some ships to help this Duke Omfray take control of Gram?”
“That wasn’t a raid in the usual sense of the word. It was more of a straightforward military operation. I’d guess that the Viking ships involved were paid by Viktor or Konrad and as such were actually acting as mercenaries. I’m sure Viktor recruited them from the ships that stop regularly at Xochtil and which he knows well. Having hired them, he can’t turn around and banish them from Xochtil. If he did that, word would very quickly get around that Viktor can’t be trusted and that would be bad for business.”
“Yes, that makes sense,” said Simon. Turning back to Shefter he said, “Did you have any other comments or questions for Prince Lucas or myself, Admiral Shefter?”
“No, Your Majesty.” Simon then turned back to Trask.
“Prince Lucas, am I correct that you’re now contemplating switching to Plan C?” Trask’s eyes got hard.
“As soon as Admiral Harkaman arrives at Tanith, he’ll put Plan C into effect immediately as per my orders, that were given to him just in case something like this in fact happened. So Plan C is definitely in effect. I gave him complete discretion as to how to go about implementing Plan C so I don’t know exactly what he’ll do and that’s why I need to get to Tanith as soon as possible aboard the pinnace that I kept here for just this purpose. But before Princess Valerie and I leave, I want to make sure that we’re agreed as to Marduk’s participation in Plan C.” Simon nodded then looked back at Shefter and said,
“Admiral? What’s the status of the contingency plans I asked you to undertake to support Plan C?” Shefter cleared his throat and said,
“Well, Your Majesty, there hasn’t been time to come up with detailed plans but we have the broad strokes, so to speak, figured out. I can have two skeleton crews ready to send to Tanith via our navy transport ship in about three weeks. By the time that transport gets back, I’ll have another four crews ready to send to Tanith. After that, additional crews will take longer to put together and will consist of experienced officers and personnel that have been freed up using new graduates from the Academy and training school. Both have been notified to concentrate on only the most essential training and skills and they’ll be making public service announcements calling for new applicants within the next ten days.” The Prince-Protector gave Shefter a stern look.
“Let’s expedite that timetable as much as possible, Admiral Shefter.” Trask saw Shefter shrink a little under Simon’s glare an
d heard him say,
“I’ll see to it, Your Majesty.” Trask looked back at Simon and said.
“So to sum up then, Prince-Protector Simon, we’re agreed that your Navy will pick up and take possession of six captured ships and will then supply additional crews that will operate our captured ships under Admiral Harkaman’s command.”
“Yes, Prince Lucas. That is my understanding as well.”
“Very good. Is there anything else we need to discuss before I head to the spaceport to speak to the incoming pinnace’s crew?” Simon turned to Shefter and said.
“Admiral?”
“There’s nothing else that I need to discuss with Prince Lucas, Your Majesty.” Simon turned back to Trask and said.
“I believe that we’ve covered everything that needs to be dealt with right now, Prince Lucas.” Both Sovereigns shook hands and Trask left the room. It was only after he was back in the aircar on his way to the spaceport that he realized he’d forgotten to eat any of the food on his plate. Oh well, he thought, I’ll get something to eat at the spaceport while I wait for the pinnace to land.
Trask had just enough time to find and eat breakfast since the pinnace landed within the hour at the civilian spaceport. After meeting with her Captain, in the spaceport VIP Lounge, he had a better idea of the situation on the ground on Tanith. Casualties, thank God, were not nearly as bad as they could have been but the Base’s infrastructure and equipment were gone. That would be difficult to replace but not impossible. He found out that the pinnace had been on a mission to drop off some of Tanith’s students as well as some Amaterasu technical staff and after learning of the attack, the pinnace had actually returned to Amaterasu first, to notify the authorities which was quite understandable especially given how close together the two star systems were, and was then sent to Marduk just in case Trask was still here. By the time Trask was finished debriefing the pinnace Captain, it was the middle of the afternoon. He learned that Princess Valerie had arrived with all of their luggage at the Tanith pinnace and was waiting for him there. With the prospect of a three week voyage aboard a cramped pinnace that had only basic facilities for preparing food, Trask suppressed his urgent desire to leave at once and suggested to his new bride that they have dinner at one of the finer restaurants in the city before taking off. Naturally she accepted. To their surprise, the Prince-Protector, his wife and Princess Myrna were at the spaceport to say good-bye when they were about to board the pinnace. It was a solemn and tearful parting. The three princesses hugged each other and cried. The two men shook hands and expressed sentiments of friendship both official and personal. One last wave as Trask and his bride stood at the top of the boarding ramp and five minutes later the pinnace was on its way into space.
When the two of them retired for the night, the sex had a frenzied quality to it that surprised both of them. Instead of the light-hearted and playful mood of their wedding night, the mood was serious and somewhat somber. Valerie was saddened to realize that her beloved husband had lost that carefree look on his face from the previous night. Instead of the sadness that she’d seen in his eyes before, she now saw a look of determination that scared her. After the lovemaking was over, they held each other and talked for a long time. Trask told her of Plan C and its ambitious goal of wiping out or at least crippling the Space Viking scourge once and for all. He explained to her that if they ever hoped to have a peaceful life together on Tanith, this war on Space Vikings had to be undertaken. When they finally stopped talking and she heard the slow, regular breathing which told her that Lucas was asleep, she cried silent tears of sadness for the heavy burden that her husband felt obliged to carry and for the loss of the wonderful vision of a carefree life together, that seemed to have been within their grasp just 24 short hours ago.
Chapter VI
Viktor took in a deep breath of Xochtil air as he walked down the ramp. It was good to be back home! It was the middle of the night but that didn’t matter. There was an aircar waiting to whisk him to his palace, where he’d enjoy waking up and getting reacquainted with his harem but first things first. A quick visit to his office for an update from his Deputy Base Commander and then he could relax and satisfy his other urges.
Viktor’s 2nd in Command was waiting for him in his office.
“I hope you have good news for me, Serge,” said Viktor as he sat down in his large comfortable chair behind the large desk.
“Yes, My Lord. I do. The secondary site has been surveyed and the ground has been prepared as you ordered. The equipment can be set up as soon as it’s delivered.”Viktor slapped the desk.
“Excellent! I knew I could count on you. Just a reminder, Serge. If anyone should ask, you tell them that this new equipment came from Haulteclere, got it?”
“I understand, My Lord. I assume that you’ll want the Black Hawk to begin raiding again as soon as possible and to that end I’ve already ordered her to be resupplied.” Viktor was pleased by his Deputy Base Commander’s initiative.
“Very good, Serge. I know it’s the middle of the night here but I’m still operating on shipboard time so if you’ll supply me with the operational reports from the period that I was away, you’re then free to go back to sleep if you wish.”
“I’ll have those reports for you momentarily, My Lord.”As Viktor waited to see the routine reports of his Base’s operations, he pondered the new long range plan that he had come up with after Barragon had landed screaming for Trask’s head and asking for help. When the second shipyard facility was up and running, he’d start the next phase of the long range plan. He had two heavily damaged ships, that their crews couldn’t pay to repair and had abandoned. He hadn’t been able to repair them himself because his main shipyard was too busy repairing ship damage that could be paid for. The second shipyard could repair them in secret and they would also be given the same blazonry as Trask’s two ships so anyone seeing them from the outside would identify them as belonging to Trask. With one more of his own ships, suitably camouflaged, he’d have a three ship squadron, that he would then send out to attack other Viking bases and Trask would get the blame. By knocking his competition out of business, more Viking ships would come to Xochtil and best of all, he’d get to keep 100% of the profits from the second shipyard himself.
Viktor snickered as he remembered how pleased he was when his cousin, the King of Haulteclere, had offered to finance the Xochtil Base and split the profits with Viktor 60:40. Forty percent of the profits with no investment of his own seemed like a generous deal but eventually Viktor found out how Konrad was cheating him. Konrad’s freighter would arrive to pick up the loot that the Base had taken in exchange for repairs and supplies. The loot would be taken back to Haulteclere and since most of it would be in the form of precious metals, jewels, art,etc. it would have to be appraised and Viktor’s 40% of the appraised value would be deposited to his account in a Haulteclere bank, from which he could pay for luxury items, etc. for his own personal use, to be shipped to Xochtil on the next outbound freighter. What he had learned was that his dear cousin had ordered the appraised value to be cut in half and Viktor’s share was based on the lower amount, effectively bringing his percentage down to twenty percent. The new equipment would basically mean that the planet Xochtil would have two separate Viking bases and Viktor would keep 20% of the profits from one and 100% of the profits from the other.
When most and maybe even all of the other Viking bases were blown out of commission, Viktor would then have a stranglehold on the repair and resupply of Viking ships and he’d also be adding to his own personal fleet of ships. He knew that his cousin had dreams of bringing all of the Sword Worlds under his personal control. Viktor had his own dream. He’d build Xochtil up until its military might would rival any of the other Civilized Worlds and then he’d use that might not to raid worlds of the Old Federation but rather to conquer them instead and add them to a growing interstellar Empire with himself as the Emperor. Naturally, he’d have to take on the other Civilized Worlds li
ke Marduk, Aton, Isis, etc. but with his personal fleet augmented by Space Vikings, that could be done too. And oh yes, when that time came, he’d offer to buy Konrad’s 60% interest in the original Xochtil shipyard, at a suitably adjusted lower value, and if Konrad refused, he’d find out what it was like to be on the receiving end of a Viking raid. He wondered how many Viking ships might be interested in a full scale raid on Haulteclere. Each of the Sword Worlds was stuffed to the rafters with loot taken from Old Federation planets. As he daydreamed, he reached into his desk for a cigar. He made a mental note to himself to send a pinnace to that planet where those cigars and more importantly, the tobacco to make them, came from in order to replenish his diminishing supply. What was the name of that planet again? Oh yes. Poictesme. Something happened to that planet during the collapse of the Old Federation. Viktor couldn’t quite remember what that something was. Cigars made from Poictesme tobacco, were produced in limited quantities and were highly valued. He wondered if most of the planet now was maybe radioactive from the legendary interstellar wars. Rumor had it that Poictesme mellon brandy was equally good and equally scarce. So far, none of the Viking ships stopping at Xochtil, had brought any in. Maybe he could encourage one of them to make a side trip to Poictesme if they happened to be in the neighborhood. As Serge put the operations reports on Viktor’s desk, Viktor looked at them and decided that with verbal confirmation that the Base was operating smoothly, the boring details could wait until after he’d had a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast. Right now, his body wanted something else and Viktor knew just how to satisfy that particular itch.
