The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  Both Trask and Princess Valerie were on the cramped Bridge of the pinnace as it emerged from hyperspace in the Tanith star system. As expected, they were still almost 100 million miles away from the planet. That was about as accurate a jump as it was possible to make over a distance of 500 light years. It only took the Astrogator a few seconds to calculate the necessary micro-jump to bring the tiny ship within 2-2.5 light seconds distance from the planet. Still outside the no-jump zone but close enough to communicate by micro-wave radio. With the micro-jump made, Trask strolled over to the communications station and took the microphone, that the Comm. Tech handed him.

  “Prince Lucas calling Tanith. I repeat. This is Prince Lucas calling Tanith.” The Base responded within seconds and soon Trask was looking at Harkaman’s image on the overhead viewscreen.

  “Welcome back home, Prince Lucas and welcome also to Princess Valerie. Unfortunately I have bad news to convey to you, My Lord. Tanith has been…” Trask nodded and interrupted him.

  “Attacked. Yes, Otto, I know already. Just before we left Marduk, a pinnace arrived from Amaterasu with the news. I know about the results of the raid. What’s happened here since then?” Harkaman got over his surprise quickly and took a deep breath.

  “Well, actually quite a lot, My Lord. I started implementing Plan C right away and there are now eight captured Viking ships on the ground or in orbit in various states of operability. Except for one of them, the others all need repairs, some need a lot of repairs. Nemesis and Corisande are both completely repaired. That was done on Beowulf and Amaterasu. In order to pay for those repairs and to start replacing the stolen equipment, I traded a heavily damaged Viking ship and the Space Scourge. Boake and his officers and some of his crew have signed on as members of the Royal Tanith Navy and are now crewing the newest addition to the fleet, the captured and fully operational Star Knight. The rest of his crew as well as all of the crews of the captured ships are busy keeping themselves alive on that island that’s 400 miles off the coast to the west. By the way, the Queen Flavia never showed up. I doubt if we’ll ever see her again. She’ll spread the word that Tanith is no longer a Viking base but that word will get out anyway from the Viking ships that stopped here and left again in between the time of the attack and my arrival so we should expect the frequency of incoming ships to drop off in the months ahead.”

  “The Base is still a long way from getting back to the state that it was in when we left here but we’ve already replaced a lot of the stolen infrastructure and topped up the stockpiles of consumables and ammo. We had the assistance of the Sun Goddess and the Grendelsbane for a while but they’ve returned home now. Right now, Your Majesty’s Navy consists of Nemesis, Corisande II, Star Knight plus seven other ships that we can make look like they’re operational and combat ready if needed, to intimidate an arriving ship into surrendering. That’s essentially the high points of the events. Do you want to hear the details now?”

  “Eight captured ships! My, my, you HAVE been busy, Otto. I’m relieved that Plan C has been implemented and so far successfully too, I might add. The details can wait until after we land and get settled in but I do want to know how many people we lost in the raid.” Harkaman’s expression became somber.

  “The total death count is 233 which includes the crew of the Lamia plus ground forces that were killed in the fighting before Moreland surrendered. There are another 89 that are injured but only 13 of them are serious. We’ve already held funeral services for the dead and we can expect all of the injured to recover eventually.”

  “Very good, Otto.” Trask paused to look at Valerie and then said. “Have you had time to see what kind of shape my quarters are in?” Harkaman sighed.

  “Barragon ordered his men to trash everything in the Executive Tower. There wasn’t a stick of furniture or any kind of amenity left intact. Corisande brought back a complete suite of the best furniture that could be found on short notice on Beowulf. It’s not as good as what you had but at least you won’t have to sleep on your flagship tonight.”

  “I’m sure it’ll do fine. How are the men taking the situation in terms of morale?” Harkaman looked to his left for a second and then responded.

  “Morale was understandably bad after the raid but it picked up substantially when I arrived and got even better when Corisande brought back a lot of equipment and supplies. Before the attack, most of the people here considered themselves to be Space Vikings operating a Space Viking Base. Now they think of themselves as citizens of Tanith at war with Space Vikings. The shift in attitude has really been quite remarkable but it’s there. Your arrival will give morale another boost.”

  “That’s good to hear. I know that you’ll make all the necessary arrangements for our arrival and getting settled in the Tower. Is there anything else you want to tell me now, Otto?” Harkaman shook his head.

  “No, My Prince, everything else can wait until your back and settled in.”

  “Fine. I’ll see you then, Otto. Trask clear.” With the connection broken, Trask and Valerie left the Bridge and retired to their quarters.

  Chapter VII

  It was dark by the time that Trask’s pinnace landed at the spaceport. Even so, he could still see the visual evidence of the raid but the city and the spaceport had power, the lights were on and it was clear that Rivington and its spaceport were inhabited and recovering. Harkaman and all his senior officers were waiting at the bottom of the pinnace’s boarding ramp when Trask and his bride calmly walked down the ramp. No introductions were needed of course since the Princess had already met all of Trask’s officers on prior occasions. As Trask stepped down off the ramp onto Tanith proper, Harkaman and his officers snapped to attention and gave their Prince a very un-space-viking-like salute which Trask carefully and solemnly returned. It wasn’t something that Trask had insisted on in the past but the meaning was clear to everyone. Sovereigns of Civilized Worlds deserved to have their power acknowledged in a way that Space Viking Chiefs didn’t. Even Princess Valerie understood that this signified a fundamental change and if it wouldn’t have ruined the moment, she would have kissed Harkaman on the cheek to show her gratitude for his loyalty to her husband. With the salute out of the way, Trask and Valerie exchanged pleasantries with Harkaman and his officers before boarding one of the several utilitarian vehicles that were waiting to take them to the city. Harkaman rode in the front with the junior officer driver while Trask and Valerie sat in the back.

  “I’ve arranged for your possessions to be moved to your quarters. My apologies for not having a more suitable vehicle to take you to the Executive Tower, My Prince, but I made the decision that a luxury air or ground car was not the highest priority for our limited financial resources.” Trask waived the apology away.

  “No need to apologize, Otto. I’m just relieved that the Princess and I don’t have to walk back to the city. You made the right decision about our priorities. I’m pleased with what you’ve been able to accomplish here. Eight captured ships is more than I was expecting. Six of those captured ships will be picked up by Marduk Navy crews starting in about three weeks time. By then we should have more of them. What were you thinking of in terms of the next step in restoring Tanith back to where it was prior to the raid?” Harkaman nodded.

  “Yes, the next step. Well, we got lucky that Barragon and his raiders didn’t bother to take any equipment from our moon. The mining robots, the steel mill and most of the interplanetary craft used to shuttle back and forth from Tanith are still there. My guess is that their cargo holds were full and there was no point in trying to load anything else. What we still need to replace down here are the shipyard, the collapsium matter plant, and all of the various kinds of manufacturing capacity to produce our own ship equipment, armaments, etc. The shipyard and collapsed matter plant we can get from Amaterasu or Beowulf and we can pay for that with more captured ships. But without our own manufacturing capability, we’ll have to import just about everything we need other than basic structural steel. Old
Federation technology just isn’t back up to the same standard as Sword Worlds’ technology which is why the robotic manufacturing plant we used to have, was so valuable and the only places where we can acquire that level of technology again are the Sword Worlds…and maybe Barragon’s base at Dagon. I think I should take Corisande and Nemesis, along with a couple of captured ships, and pay Barragon a visit. That will kill two birds with one hellburner. We take back the equipment he stole and make him pay for the raid on Tanith. The two captured ships will add enough cargo capacity to allow us to bring back just about everything that we haven’t already replaced.” Trask nodded.

  “Paying Barragon a visit makes excellent sense even without the added incentive of taking back the stolen equipment. The Captain of the Amaterasu pinnace told me that our people overheard Barragon blame me for the deaths of his two sons. I can even sympathize with his grief but if I turn the other cheek, he’ll come back another time and kill who knows how many more of my people trying to get to me. I won’t risk it.” He paused then said, “Is there a way to incorporate a raid on Dagon with the long term aspect of Plan C?”

  “Maybe. The answer depends on how quickly Barragon can get his base back into operation and more importantly how quickly he can get the word out that he’s open for business. It could be many months before ships start arriving there again. Raiding his base would not be a problem. Conquering it outright and setting up a permanent military presence to ambush incoming ships would be more of a logistical problem. Time consuming but doable. But whether that effort would be the best use of our resources is hard to say at this point. On the other hand, I think Beowulf might be interested in sending and keeping a couple of ships at Dagon for ambush purposes after we raid it. They have three ships now and if we trade two more, which Beowulf can repair, for the shipyard and collapsed matter plant, , then they’ll be able to send a couple of ships to Dagon and still have three ships to defend their own planet. The incentive for them is that they keep any ships that they can capture. It also has the added benefit that if an incoming ship manages to get away, it’ll be Beowulf that gets the blame for the ambush, not you. Now don’t get me wrong, Prince Lucas, I’m not hoping that any ships get away but if it does happen, it’s better for now at least, that no one knows that the driving force behind the ambushes is Tanith. The longer we can keep that secret, the better.”

  “I agree. Let’s send the two captured ships to Beowulf and arrange for a new shipyard and collapsium plant. Let them know that they’re welcome to all the captured ships they can take if they’re willing to occupy Dagon after we’re finished with it. As soon as that’s taken care of, you can take Corisande and Nemesis to Dagon and settle accounts with Barragon. When the shipyard is back in operation, we can then repair most of the damage to the other captured ships ourselves. If you can bring back the robotic equipment from Dagon, all well and good and if not, then we’ll figure out if we can spare the people necessary to send a ship to one of the Sword Worlds. In any event, we will not go back to Gram and Haulteclere is off limits too. I don’t want King Konrad knowing more about what’s happening here than can be helped. One other thing. When Simon’s people arrive in three weeks looking to take possession of two captured ships, we let them have the two that are the most damaged. Marduk has a working shipyard and we don’t so they can deal with the more severely damaged ships better than we can right now.” Harkaman smiled as he nodded and said,

  “Excellent idea, My Prince. I’ll see to it. I’m looking forward to catching up with Barragon again. Some of the people who were killed in his raid were my friends.”Trask nodded but said nothing. Revenge was a nasty business as he knew better than just about anyone but the only thing worse than the guilt of doing something was the guilt that results from doing nothing and Barragon had become another mad dog that had to be put down for everyone’s sake.

  When they arrived at the Executive Tower and the ten floors of living quarters that had been set aside for the Prince and any VIP guests, the accommodations weren’t as bad as Trask had been expecting. The furniture wasn’t as luxurious as the stuff that was there before and the style was different but it did look comfortable and Otto assured him it was well made. Princess Valerie, to her credit, did not make a fuss. She understood that it could have been a lot worse and that it would eventually get better. Tanith might have the same level of technology as a Civilized World but in all other respects, it was a huge step down from Marduk. There were many places on Marduk that contained more people than existed on the entire planet of Tanith. Even now, vast areas of Rivington were still completely empty. It was estimated that the city could house as many as half a million people and right now there were less than 5% of that number living there. But be that as it may, those 5% were now her people too and she was determined to help her husband protect them.

  Harkaman spaced out with Corisande and Nemesis two days later with half of the ground forces that had previously been used for raiding planets. The other half stayed on Tanith to assist with securing surrendered ships. With two of the captured ships on their way to Beowulf, that left Star Knight and the five other damaged ships that collectively equaled the combat power of one and half undamaged ships. Trask had insisted that if Harkaman could not be on Tanith to command the fleet than his Exec had to stay behind and Harkaman had enjoyed Karffard’s obvious distress upon hearing that his boss would have all the fun of raiding Dagon (again!) while Karffard had to stay behind and twiddle his thumbs in orbit aboard his flagship, the Star Knight, while listening to Valkanhayn’s bombastic boasting.

  Over the next three weeks, two more incoming Viking ships were captured and their crews sent to the island. The average time between ships, now about 10 days, was starting to increase noticeably.Keeping the detained Viking crews fed was becoming a major logistical headache too. A pinnace loaded with food had to make the trip every day now. At least the captured ships also included their food stockpiles and the use of their carniculture vats to supplement the meat from the growing herd of Kreggs that Trask had brought to Tanith all those months ago. Trask ordered the detainees to be equipped with tools that they could use to farm and hunt. He had few concerns about them using the tools to build boats. The island was several hundred miles off the coast of the main continent and the city of Rivington was another 1,000 miles inland. Trask decided that if any Viking managed to find their way to the mainland AND get back to Rivington, then that man deserved to be given his freedom although he didn’t tell them that. What they were told was that they’d be there for the duration of the war against Space Vikings but if any of them wanted to renounce Viking raids forever and join Trask’s fleet, they’d be welcome. Initially there were a lot of volunteers until it became clear to them that each volunteer would be questioned under the veridicator machine and if they were caught lying, they’d be dropped into the ocean halfway between the island and the mainland and told to swim the rest of the way back. Upon hearing that news, the volunteers changed their minds. However after weeks of living in primitive conditions with nothing to do, a trickle of volunteers started coming forward again and so far all had passed the veridicator test. They were given new clothes and placed in junior positions among loyal ship or ground combat crews to prove that they could be trusted.

  When the Marduk transport finally arrived with the two ship crews, it also carried friendly messages from Simon, his wife and friends of Princess Valerie. Trask and Princess Valerie invited the visiting officers as well as a few of his own officers to dinner and despite the modest furnishings and basic food, everyone found the conversation enjoyable. The two captains were not quite as thrilled with the condition of the two ships that were to be turned over to them although they were careful not to say anything that might be construed as a complaint. Apparently the Prince-Protector had made it clear that Marduk should be grateful for the damaged ships which could eventually be repaired and his officers had better not look a gift horse in the mouth. After spending several days becoming acquainted w
ith their ships’ equipment and verifying that they were indeed space worthy, if not combat worthy, the two new units of the Royal Marduk Navy lifted off and headed back home with each ship carrying only one pinnace for emergency use. The typical Marduk Navy cruiser carried two auxiliary craft but they were much smaller. The larger, 200 ft. pinnaces carried by Viking ships, were useful for carrying combat armor and ground troops to various locations quickly but since the Marduk Navy wasn’t planning on pillaging and looting planets, there didn’t seem to be much use for the larger pinnaces and so Trask kept six of the eight pinnaces carried by the two transferred ships. If his navy couldn’t use them itself, they could be sold to other planets for equipment or supplies.