The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Niffheim, NO, Your Highness! Given the past history between those two countries, I’m certain that Stolgoland’s Premier Nogon is practically foaming at the mouth but what can he do against Ector’s monopoly on atomic weapons?”

  “Well…he can offer a mutual defense treaty between Stolgoland and Tanith and he can also request military assistance from us in defending his borders.”

  “He could do all that but will he? I heard that Stolgoland’s Premier has personal reasons to dislike you and that’s putting it mildly. Apparently a cousin of his was serving as an officer in the military and was stationed at one of their ports when we atom bombed it during our raid on this planet.” Trask took a deep breath and said,

  “In that case, we’ll find out who he hates more, General Ector or me. I want to speak to him but not here. I’ll take the call down in my quarters. You’re welcome to listen in. Let’s go.” When both men arrived in Trask’s quarters, which were one level down from the Flag Bridge, Harkaman contacted the Communications Station and told the Comm. Tech to arrange a private video call between Prince Lucas and the Premier of Stolgoland. The call took longer to arrange than expected but just as Trask was about to query the Flag Bridge about the delay, the Comm. Tech announced that the Premier was available and the small screen in front of him shifted to show an angry-looking man wearing a military uniform.

  “I should have expected you to show up here now! Planning another atomic raid in cooperation with General Ector again, Trask?”

  “No, Premier Nogon. Quite the contrary in fact. I’m no longer in the Space Viking business as I’m sure you’ve heard. In fact, there’s an undeclared state of war between Tanith and all Space Vikings. I understand your feelings towards me. What I ordered my people to do to your people during our raid years ago, is something I now deeply regret and I wish to make amends in any way I can. General Ector is no friend of mine and if there’s any way I can throw a monkey wrench into his plans, I’d be happy to do it.” Nogon said nothing far longer than could be accounted for by the lightspeed delay. When he did finally respond, his voice was less harsh.

  “Yes, I have heard that you’re capturing Space Viking ships instead of repairing them. I’ve also heard from our Beowulf friends, that you’ve had a change of heart. I didn’t know whether to believe all that and when I heard that five of your ships showed up hours after General Ector’s broadcast, I just assumed the worst. You say you want to make amends. If you have something specific in mind, I’m prepared to listen.”

  “How would you like our help in getting the gandolinium mine, on your territory, back under your control?”

  “I’d like that very much. You’re prepared to pit your ships against Ector’s in order to recover that mine?”

  “Yes I am. What I would need from you in order to legitimize my military intervention, is an official announcement of a Mutual Defense Treaty between Stolgoland and the Princedom of Tanith as well as a public declaration that you have requested our assistance in defending your borders. When he hears that, Ector will undoubtedly contact me and try to get me to back off. I’ll tell him that if he doesn’t order his forces to withdraw from your mine, I’ll order my ships and ground troops to take it back by force. If he’s then stupid enough to order his ships to attack mine, I’ll have the excuse I need to either capture or destroy those ships and then land my troops on Egonsby’s Capital.”

  “The announcements I can do. What else would Stolgoland have to do in return for this help?”

  “Nothing at all, Premier Nogon. You can consider my assistance as partial repayment of a debt, that I feel I owe to your people.”

  “I see that you really have changed, Prince Lucas. I just have one more question. What will happen to the gandolinium mine and any captured ships after this whole thing is finished?”

  “The mine will be turned over to your military’s control and if you want to hand it back to the Planetary Council, that’s up to you. As for any captured ships, I’m not sure handing them back to the Council is such a good idea. They didn’t do a very good job of keeping control over their ships. I may be biased but in my opinion, your planet will be a lot safer if it has a Planetary Head of State that has real authority and doesn’t need the consent of every government for every decision. But if your Council can unanimously agree that I should return the captured ships, I’ll hand them back.”

  “You’ve given me some food for thought, Prince Lucas. On behalf of the people of Stolgoland, I want to thank you for your assistance and I personally, want to thank you because I have other family members serving in our military and as long as Ector was running Egonsby, there was always the prospect of full scale war between our two countries. If Ector can be neutralized and the war averted, you’ll have saved those lives as well.” Lucas nodded solemnly.

  “If I can do some good here today, then it’ll be one of my better days as a Sovereign Prince. Unless there’s something else that you wish to discuss, I suggest that you arrange for the broadcasted messages and after I inform General Ector that he is not going to have everything go his way, I’ll confer with Admiral Harkaman as to the best tactical deployment of our ships and ground forces. Please tell your staff that we’ll be in contact with your people again and they should be on the alert for that. Was there anything else, Premier Nogon?”

  “No, Prince Lucas. I’ll take care of those broadcasted messages right now. It was a pleasure speaking with you. Until later then.” When Nogon’s image was gone, Trask looked at Harkaman who was smiling.

  “That went far better than I expected.” said Harkaman.

  “Better than I expected too to tell you the truth.” replied Trask.

  “What do we do now?”

  “Well, right now, you and I are going back to the Flag Bridge and wait for Nogon’s announcements. Then we wait some more for the General to call and while we’re doing all that waiting, our ships will continue to approach the planet in a completely friendly and non-hostile manner!”

  “As my Liege Lord commands.” Both men laughed.

  The announcements of the Mutual Defense Treaty and request for military assistance were broadcast five minutes later. It was less than two minutes after that when Trask was notified that General Ector was requesting a video call. Since he and Harkaman were back on the Flag Bridge, Trask ordered that the General be put on the main viewscreen.

  “General Ector, I see that you’ve promoted yourself to Protector. How many stars will you be wearing on your collar now?” After the usual delay, Ector’s face turned crimson with anger but when he spoke, his voice was calm.

  “Trying to goad me into doing something rash won’t work, Trask. I know you have five ships to my three. My ships will not attack yours unless you initiate hostilities. This so-called Mutual Defense Treaty with Stolgoland is a farce! You know it and I know it. I haven’t attacked Stolgoland so there’s nothing that they need military assistance for.”Trask didn’t wait to hear if there was more.

  “You have sent your troops to take control of the gandolinium mine that’s on Stolgoland territory. They consider that a hostile act and they want the mine back.”

  “Oh I’m sure they do want it back but they gave up all rights to that mine when they agreed to the formation of the Planetary Council. I took control of that mine from the Council, not Stolgoland. They have no right to take it back.”

  “Ah, I see. You have the right to take it from the Council but Stolgoland doesn’t have the right to take it back from you, is that it? Let me enlighten you, General Ector. Stolgoland is prepareing to take that site back by force and I’m going to help them do it. Is that clear enough for you? Now since my atomic arsenal more than offsets yours, and my fleet outnumbers yours, you might want to recognize the fact that you’re holding a losing hand and order your troops and ships to stand down.” To both Trask’s and Harkaman’s surprise, Ector caved in immediately.

  “Alright. I’ll order the ship that’s stationed at the mine, to pick up my ground forc
es and withdraw. I have nothing more to say to you, Trask.” With the channel cut off, Trask saw that Harkaman was just as off balance as he was.

  “That was far too easy.” said Harkaman. “My gut tells me he’s up to something.” Trask nodded slowly.

  “So what do you recommend we do now?”

  “I think we have to head down to the mine to verify if he does what he said he would do. If we keep all five ships together, I don’t see how he could do anything that would be a serious threat.” That made sense, thought Trask.

  “Okay. Give the necessary orders. Let’s get down there as fast as possible.”

  Almost two hours later, the five Tanith ships were slowly descending from space, directly over the mine. When they broke through the cloud cover, Harkaman ordered the ship’s optics to zoom in to the mine itself. He and Trask watched the image on the Flag Bridge’s main screen. All of the mine infrastructure…buildings, equipment, etc. seemed to be intact but there was no movement and no sign of the personnel, who had been captured by the invading Egonsby forces. Trask turned to Harkaman and said,

  “Shouldn’t we be seeing the mine operating personnel?”

  “Yes, we should, unless Ector ordered his forces to take them along when they left or maybe they’re still locked up inside one of those buildings and the evacuating troops didn’t bother to let them out.”Trask said nothing to that. More minutes went by. The ships dropped lower, now down to 8,000 feet altitude. Trask gestured to the Communications Station.

  “Get me Premier Nogon on one of the smaller video screens, Otto.” Harkaman passed on the necessary orders and Premier Nogon’s image appeared seconds later.

  “Hello again, Premier Nogon. We’re approaching the mine site and it does look like Ector’s forces have been evacuated. We detected his ship leaving the area about 45 minutes ago on a heading back to Egonsby’s Capital. What we don’t see is any of the mining personnel. The site seems to be completely deserted. Do you want us to land and investigate what’s happened to those people or would you prefer to send in your own people?” Nogon hesitated for a few seconds and then replied,

  “I have a battalion of troops on their way there now. They can arrive in less than five minutes. I suggest we let them find out what’s happening there.”

  “Fine. Fine. We’ll hover over the area and provide air cover if necessary. Let’s keep this channel open if that’s agreeable to you, Premier?” Nogon nodded and turned away to speak to one of his aides. “Otto, tell our ships to hold station at our current altitude.” With the ships now hovering at just over one mile altitude, Trask and Harkaman watched as the recently-acquired, contra-gravity personnel carriers of the Stolgoland elite forces approached the site. Just as the carriers crossed the outer fence of the mine, Harkaman slammed his right fist into his left hand and yelled out,

  “It’s a trap! I bet they’ve planted a fusion bomb powerful enough to at least cripple us if we got close enough! We have to get to higher altitudes NOW!” Without waiting for Trask’s approval, Harkaman ran over to the five small screens connected to the Bridges of all five ships and ordered their captains to immediately ascend at maximum speed. While he was doing that, Trask looked over to the screen where Premier Nogon was still seated.

  “Premier! Admiral Harkaman thinks the site is booby-trapped with atomic devices! We’re moving to a safer altitude! I recommend that you order your troops to ha…” Trask saw the electronically filtered flash from the brighter-than-the-sun explosion and felt the concussion as the blast wave hit the Nemesis, at the same time. The force of the concussion wave was powerful enough to temporarily overpower the inertial dampeners and anyone standing, was knocked to the floor. Trask felt his left arm break as it took the brunt of the impact of his body falling on the edge of an instrument consol. He heard alarms going off and the interior lighting flickered for half a second, then came back on. The personnel assigned to the Flag Bridge were all seated and unharmed, if somewhat dazed. One man was vomiting as a result of the sudden acceleration. Others were shouting. Trask couldn’t make out the words. Then he heard a voice he recognized. It was Harkaman’s, ordering everyone else to shut up and attend to their stations. The voice was getting louder. That meant that Harkaman was coming closer. Even as Harkaman knelt down beside Trask, he was still shouting.

  “…and keep an eye on the long range instruments! I think we’re going to be attacked any second! Somebody call the ship’s doctor to the Flag Bridge NOW!”

  “I’m okay, Otto. My arm’s broken but other than that, I’m okay.” Harkaman nodded and grabbed Lucas by his right arm to help him get up. Lucas looked around.

  “We don’t seem to be that badly damaged. How did we manage that?”

  “We had already started accelerating upwards at 6Gs. If we had still been hovering when the blast wave hit us, we would have all be knocked unconscious , even the ones sitting. The ships would have probably been damaged enough to loose propulsion and we would have died in the resulting crashes.”

  “And you think Ector’s going to attack us now?” Before Harkaman could reply, the radar tech yelled out.

  “Three ships approaching from the north at high speed and high altitude!”

  “The north? But we saw Ector’s ship head south!” said Trask.

  “Yes. Obviously it formed up with the other two ships and they circled the planet to come at us from the opposite direction. Excuse me, Lucas. I have to leave you by yourself while I fight this battle.” Trask nodded.

  “Go ahead, Admiral.” Trask suddenly realized that he should tell Premier Nogon what was happening but the comm. screen, that had been connected to Nogon, was just showing static. Of course, thought Trask. All communications are down due to the electro-magnetic pulse effects of the atomic blast. Trask wondered how Harkaman would be able to communicate with their other ships. Somehow he found a way. By the time his five ships had reached the upper atmosphere, they had shifted to battle formation and were already firing missiles at the approaching ships. Counter-missiles were also being launched to intercept the return fire. It quickly became apparent that as soon as the other ships realized they were fighting five more or less undamaged ships, instead of the cripples they had probably been expecting to fight, they changed course and tried to disengage but Harkaman wasn’t having any of that. He concentrated each missile barrage fired by all five ships on a single target and as each ship in turn was hit by the massive missile barrage, it was vaporized by what must have been a Hellburner warhead.

  By the time all three enemy ships were destroyed, the Doctor arrived and proceeded to set the broken arm. When he was finished, Trask noticed that Harkaman was again standing next to him.

  “All three bogeys have been turned into Emm Cee Squared, Luc ah…Your Highness. Our ships only suffered minor damage. No fatalities or serious injuries but you’re not the only one with a broken bone. Oh and by the way, we’ve re-established video communication with Nogon’s Headquarters. He’s on the screen if you want to talk with him. While you’re doing that, I think we should proceed to Egonsby’s Capital and arrest that bastard Ector!” The painkiller that the Doctor had injected him with was already working and Trask was starting to feel lightheaded but he said,

  “Yes. Let’s do that.” He turned back to the small comm.. screen and saw Nogon’s worried expression.

  “Are you hurt, Prince Lucas?” asked Nogon.

  “Not seriously, Premier Nogon. Did Admiral Harkaman tell you that he destroyed Ector’s ships?” Nogon nodded vigorously.

  “Yes he did! That means that Ector’s lost his military superiority! Did I hear you give Admiral Harkaman permission to send troops after Ector?”

  “We…I did. By attacking us directly, Ector has given us all the justification we could possibly need to find and arrest him. I personally hope he’s stupid enough to resist arrest so that we can shoot the no good, son-of-a-damnthing! What about your battalion? Did anyone survive the blast?”

  “We’re still checking but my exper
ts tell me that they were too close. I have to assume that they’re all dead including the mine personnel…and the mine itself is now useless. It’ll be thousands of years before the radiation dies down enough to begin mining gandolinium again.”