by Dietmar Wehr
“I want to clarify my expectations, if there’s another Battle of Marduk. If Marduk falls, we will be in serious trouble. As I said a moment ago, if there’s no hope of winning, then pull out BUT if there is a chance of winning, then do whatever you have to, to win.” Trask looked him in the eyes. He had just told Boake to sacrifice the entire fleet if that would tip the scales over to a victory and he could tell that Boake understood.
“Any questions?”
“None.”
“Very good, Boake. I have complete confidence in you. Good luck and good hunting!” said Trask with a smile. They shook hands and Valkanhayn left the room.Trask realized that he had just rolled the dice. The outcome of the next battle at Marduk could potentially decide the fate of everyone in the Old Federation. He wondered if he should have insisted that Otto lead the Tanith fleet. Prior to this most recent battle here at Tanith, he would have said yes to that question but Otto’s gamble, while successful, had bordered dangerously close to being reckless. He was no longer sure that Otto would do the smart thing and withdraw, if that meant letting the civilians of Marduk become victims of the Space Viking Horde. Boake, on the other hand, did not seem to be bothered by guilt for past atrocities and he could always be counted on to obey orders to the best of his ability. No, Boake was the right man for this mission. Trask realized he was tired and hungry. It had been a long day for him even though he’d only just arrived on Tanith a short while ago. He decided he wanted to go back to his pinnace, have a quiet meal in his quarters and get a good night’s rest.
When he entered the tiny Officers’ Mess on the pinnace, for his breakfast nine hours later, the pinnace officers informed him that the fleet was engaged in last minute preparations for the trip to Marduk. He informed the officers that they would be heading back to Amaterasu later that day. With breakfast out of the way, he took a groundcar to the hospital pinnace to see Harkaman. To his surprise, Harkaman was sitting in a chair instead of laying in a bed. He looked much better than just a few hours before.
“You’re heading back soon.” said Harkaman and it wasn’t a question. Trask nodded.
“I’ve seen what I needed to see and I’ve said what I needed to say. I can do more good back on Amaterasu than I can if I stay here. You’re looking better.”
“Less pain medication. If I’m going to be staying with Sk…the Tradetown people, I need to get used to walking around again and I can’t do that if I’m all doped up.”
“You do realize that you and they may have to stay there for maybe months.” Harkaman nodded.
“Yes. That’s why I made sure they had six months worth of supplies when we moved them there.” Trask hadn’t known that but it didn’t surprise him. Otto always was a methodical planner.
“I’ll send a pinnace or ship back on a regular basis to check on the situation here so keep an eye on the sky and don’t forget the code that was agreed upon.”
“I won’t. Does Boake know what he has to do if…when the second wave shows up at Marduk?”
“He knows. I made sure of that and he’ll do what has to be done if it comes to that. I wish he was as good a tactician as you are, Otto.” Harkaman waived the comment aside.
“Don’t underestimate Boake. He and I have worked through more than a few simulations together. He can be sneaky as Niffheim when he wants to be. He’ll do okay as long as some Marduk admiral doesn’t get in his way.” There didn’t seem to be anything more to say except goodbye. Trask held out his left hand instead of his right because Harkaman’s right arm was in a sling. Harkaman shook with his left hand too. As Trask turned to leave the room, he said,
“Don’t get too comfortable in those caves. When the coast is clear again, I’ll expect you to come back to work.” Both men chuckled.
“I’ll be ready when you need me.” said Harkaman with a smile and waive. Trask waived back and left the room. The hospital pinnace was the last ship to leave the Rivington spaceport. It made a short sub-orbital hop to the far side of the planet and dropped Harkaman and several others plus additional supplies and equipment off near the entrance to the large cave complex that now housed almost 5,000 people. Skye came to meet him. She already knew about his injuries but that didn’t stop the tears from flowing down her cheeks when she saw him. They walked slowly because his leg muscles were still weak from the two weeks of bedrest since the battle. As they walked inside the cave and over to where her temporary shelter was set up, she said in a light-hearted, playful tone.
“So, Otto, will this be another hit and run visit again?” When he replied, she could hear the strain, from the physical exertion, in his voice.
“Not this time, Skye. I’ll be staying for a while.” Skye said a silent thank you to the God and Goddess for his having survived the battle. She didn’t know how many days they’d have together but she was determined to make them as memorable for both her and Otto as she could.
The second wave arrived two weeks later. Motion detectors had been set up on the top of the mountain, where the cave complex was located, to continuously scan the night sky for orbital movement. When they detected multiple objects crossing the sky, Harkaman was notified. He and the senior Tradetown people walked outside and were able to see the reflected sunlight, from the setting sun, off of a cluster of objects that were moving in formation towards the horizon.Harkaman used a pair of electronic binoculars to get a better look. They were too high to get an accurate count but he knew it was the second wave. There were too many of them to be from Amaterasu, Beowulf or Marduk. As he watched, two small lights separated from one of the ships and dropped quickly down out of sight. Harkaman had a sinking feeling that he had just witnessed a missile launch but at least they weren’t shooting at the cave complex. The mountain above them, blocked all heat, light and energy emissions. As long as they weren’t careless, they wouldn’t be detected and Harkaman was determined to make sure that none of them were careless. They waited for an hour to see if the ships were still in orbit but didn’t see them again.The ships must have left orbit after firing the missile. Ten days later the motion detectors picked up a single ship that slowly passed overhead and then hovered within line of sight of the cave entrance. Harkaman waited to see if the ship would give the proper recognition code. He relaxed when he saw blinking red and blue lights from the ship. Having received the proper recognition code, he used a low power, handheld laser to send the proper response. It wasn’t long before the ship, a captured battleship that Trask had traded to Amaterasu in exchange for the first four missile boats, landed near the cave entrance. Trask wasn’t on board and Harkaman would have been surprised if he had been. A junior officer came down the ramp and invited Harkaman and the senior Tradetown people to come aboard to meet with the Captain. Harkaman realized how much he missed the feeling of having a solid metal deck under his feet when he entered the Officers Lounge and sat down in a comfortable chair again. Food and alcoholic drinks were served but Harkaman reminded himself not to get carried away. Harkaman informed the Captain and his officers of the short visit by what had to have been the second wave of Space Viking ships. He told them about the missiles. The Captain informed him that Rivington City had been wiped off the face of Tanith with what had to be a Hellburner warhead. They had also detected residual radiation from an island off the coast, where an atomic explosion had recently occurred. He showed Harkaman where that island was on a map. Harkaman nodded. It was the island where the captured ships’ crews were living.
“Why would they bomb their own people?” asked the Captain. Harkaman shrugged and winced. When would he learn not to shrug while his arm and sholder were still healing?
“The only explanation I can think of, is that the prisoners built their usual fires to keep warm, and since there are several thousand of them there, they probably had quite a few fires. That much light and heat would have stuck out like a sore thumb to ships in orbit. With Tradetown and Rivington completely dark and cold, the ships probably assumed that the island held the local people and s
o they fired on it.” The Captain looked at Harkaman carefully before speaking.
“I must say…you don’t sound too upset about it.”
“I’m not. There’s an old saying that I found in a book, I looted from a library somewhere. It goes like this. ‘What goes around, comes around’. The Space Vikings in orbit didn’t do anything that the Space Vikings on that island haven’t already done themselves somewhere to someone else, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s poetic justice.” The news about the destruction of Rivington City bothered Harkaman more. As long as the city was intact, it made sense to re-occupy Tanith but with the city now gone, he wondered if Lucas would abandon Tanith and stay exclusively on Amaterasu. As his Admiral, that would mean that Harkaman would be spending almost all of his time away from Tanith…and from Skye. He wondered if she could be enticed to live in a beachhouse on Tanith Island. Plenty of time to worry about that later, he thought.
Several days later, Harkaman was bored. The ship from Amaterasu had left to return there. His right arm was usable again although the muscle was weak from lack of use. It was evening and Skye was visiting with her female friends so Harkaman decided to do some exploring. He found a portable light, a safety helmet, protective goggles and some rope and went over to the part of the cave complex, that had experienced a cavein at some point in the past because of the huge pile of rocks and boulders, that were now covered with fine dust. When he reached the base of the rock pile, he focused his light into a tight beam and pointed it at the top of the pile. He couldn’t be sure but he thought that maybe there was a small gap at the top between the roof of the cave and top of the rock pile. That gap, if in fact there really was a gap, would be worth exploring. Shifting the beam of light back down to the bottom of the pile, Harkaman started climbing very carefully. Every step up was made after making sure the rock under his feet wouldn’t give way under his weight. By the time he got to the gap, he was breathing hard, sweating and his leg and arm muscles were burning with fatigue. After resting a few seconds, he leaned into the gap and pointed his light in it. The tightly focused beam seemed to go on forever but as he slowly moved it around, he could see more of the cave ceiling, and when he pointed the light downward, he was startled to see the shiny reflection of light off of something that was clearly made of metal! Carefully sliding his body headfirst into the gap, he was able to view a larger area and found other pieces of metal that appreared to be part of a machine. More than one in fact. He didn’t recognize what kind of machines they were but they had to be something important for someone to have gone to all the trouble of moving them into this cave complex on the other side of the planet’s only inhabited continent. You don’t go to all that trouble just to store some machines that aren’t needed. You do that to hide something you don’t want someone else to find just like he and Lucas has moved the Tradetown people into the cave complex to hide them from Space Vikings. For a few seconds he was tempted to crawl thru the gap and down the other side but common sense prevailed. He hadn’t told anyone where he was and if he fell and injured himself, he’d be stuck on the otherside and no one would hear him yell for help. Having made the decision to play it safe, he carefully backed out of the gap and slowly made his way down the rocky slope to the base. He wondered if Skye would be as excited by his discovery as he was but on further thought decided that she probably wouldn’t.
Viktor looked up as Captain Chevalier entered his office. The sight of the ugly scar on the cheek and the missing arm still sent a shiver up Viktor’s spine. Chevalier walked up to the desk and bowed. He has an apprehensive look on his face and is probably wondering if I’m going to have him shot for the disasterous Battle of Tanith, thought Viktor. It was a tempting idea but he resisted the impulse.
“Have a seat, Captain. I’m enjoying a glass of mellon brandy. Would you care for some?” Viktor chuckled at the surprise on Chevalier’s face.
“Why yes, Your Highness, I would. Thank you.” Viktor signaled the bar robot, that was waiting patiently in the corner and told the machine to bring another glass of brandy. When Chevalier had the brandy in his hand, Viktor pointed to the data tablet on his desk.
“I’ve just been rereading your quite comprehensive report, Captain. I’ve looked at your tactical display recordings and clearly Trask and Harkaman had a technological surprise up their sleeves although…” he paused to look Chevalier in the eye. “..I would have ordered counter-missile fire on those coasting missiles even if they posed no threat to my ships. But…that’s with the benefit of hindsight. Given the circumstances of the situation you faced, I’m prepared to overlook that particular oversight. On the plus side of the ledger, you did the right thing when you ordered the cripples destroyed to prevent any of their crew from falling into Trask’s hands. You also brought back 21 ships. Seven of those 21 are badly damaged including your ship and you and the other six captains are facing the same dilemma. None of you have enough loot to pay for the repairs. But let’s put that unpleasant fact aside for the moment. It’s your report that I want to talk about now. You’ve clearly done a lot of thinking on your way back from Tanith and have come up with a quite astonishing set of recommendations.” Viktor picked up the data tablet and started reading from it.
“You recommend…let’s see here…’development of the following offensive and defensive technologies’…’ongoing research into anti-ship missiles that will gradually extend effective powered range up to 100,000 miles’… ‘development of ways to confuse the ability of enemy missiles to home in on their targets’…’more accurate, faster and longer ranged counter-missiles’. And then you go on to propose some radical modifications to the standard raiding type of battleship. Clearly you had your own damaged ship in mind when you came up with this ‘superbattleship’ configuration of having clusters of preloaded launch tubes that are hundreds of feet long. I think you’re correct in your evaluation, that preloaded missile tubes would explain the rapid fire which you witnessed coming from those small ships. I have to say that this report is quite useful to me. You’ve raised issues that I would not have thought of and you’ve done me a valuable service by bringing these issues to my attention now. So now we’re back to your ship.It could be restored back to its original configuration as a raiding battleship but as I’ve said, the cost would be more than you can afford and I’m not prepared to fix it for free. I would be prepared to have it modified to your superbattleship configuration, at my expense, if that ship were to become part of my navy. That would mean transferring ownership of the ship from you to me and the problem is that, with my current projects to bring Loki up to Sword World technical standards, I don’t have enough precious metals left over to pay you what you probably think your ship is worth. My engineers can start to build a superbattleship from scratch but that would take many months. Do you have any ideas as to how we can get around this impasse, Captain?” Chevalier smiled. He did.
“Yes, Your Highess, I believe I do have an idea. Any strike force, that Marduk may have sent to Xochtil, would have arrived there long ago. Having seen on Tanith, how effective an ambush force could be in capturing incoming ships, it would make sense for Marduk to do the same at Xochtil. I imagine that they would keep 2-3 ships there all the time with each ship being rotated back to Marduk after some period of time. That would also allow them to shuttle prize crews back to Xochtil to bring more captured ships back to Marduk. However, with the distance between Marduk and Xochtil, I’m inclined to think that captured ships will be piling up at Xochtil, faster than the prize crews can pick them up. Now even though some of those captured ships will be damaged, they’re likely to be less damaged than my ship AND it’s highly likely that they’ll be carrying loot from recent raids. Therefore, what I propose, is that if Your Highness is willing to authorize the minimum amount of repairs to my ship and the other six ships, so that we can at least fire missiles, we would be willing to carry your people to Xochtil and overpower any Marduk Navy ships that might still be there, in return for a share of any loot, t
hat are on the captured ships that your people will bring back here. That share of the loot will enable the other captains to pay for repairs to their ships and you’re share of the loot will enable you to buy my ship, if you still want it and I’ll then reinvest my share here on Loki while I serve in your Navy, if you’re willing to have me. Marduk owes me for this...” He pointed to his missing arm. “and I want them to pay. I’d also be VERY interested in commanding a superbattleship one day.” Viktor leaned back and looked at Chevalier carefully. This man continued to surprise him. The idea, on its face, was brilliant. At a single stroke, he could gain control of perhaps several captured ships, that could be rebuilt to the superbattleship configuration much faster than building new superbattleships from scratch, plus gain enough loot to buy Chevalier’s ship, with maybe more left over instead of depleting his current reserves AND at the same time, knock the Marduk Navy back on its heels. It was a very appealing idea. Restoring at least some of the damaged ships’ missile firing capability could probably be done fairly quickly and easily. It was hull damage that took a long time to fix.
