The Privateer 2: AN HONEST LIVING

by Zellmann, William

  "Yes, Great Wizard. Are you familiar with the concept of a 'computer', or 'comp'?"

  Hiraf brightened. "Yes! I have come across those terms in my studies. They are machines that think."

  "Comps are built to many levels of complexity," Cale explained. "I wear a comp on my wrist, and I carry a tablet. The tablet is much more complex, more 'advanced' than the wrist comp. Technically, comps do not 'think'; they merely perform very quick computations in response to their programming.

  "But Tess is a 'self-programming' comp, one of the most advanced in space. It is she who will lift us off and take us on our tour. At the same time, her 'bots, her 'hands', like this one, will make certain we have anything we need."

  "Is the drink not to your liking, your Majesty?" Tess asked. "Would you prefer something more familiar? Beer, perhaps, or ale?"

  King Rajo jumped as he realized he had been staring at the 'bot, ignoring the drink it offered. With a determined look, he reached for the drink. The 'bot scuttled away, and King Rajo suppressed a sigh of relief.

  Surprisingly, Hiraf watched it leave, a fascinated look on his face. Now that he had a name to attach to them, "comps" and "'bots" were no longer mysterious monsters. Now, he wondered how they worked. "That's why there are no levers or gauges!" he declared excitedly. "The . . . the comp contains them all!"

  Dee smiled and took this one. "Exactly, great Wizard. With Tess on the job, even a woman like me can fly a starship."

  Hiraf shook his head. "Amazing!"

  "Tess," Cale asked, "Did you get the coordinates of the wreckage from Zant?"

  "Yes, sir," she replied crisply, "we can lift off at any time." The somehow mechanical tone in her voice was obviously intended to put the visitors at ease.

  "Y'know," Tonio remarked, "I never thought about it before, but that is one fine AI you have here. I don't think I've ever encountered one this advanced."

  Uh-oh, Cale thought. "Tess is Alliance-made. I have a terrible time finding someone qualified to service her here in the old Empire."

  Tonio grinned. "Ah! Alliance manufacture. That explains it. She's certainly impressive."

  Cale suppressed a grin. Tonio had sounded exactly like some of the people of Nirvana accepting some wonder from Valhalla. "Perhaps we'd better be going," he said. "Is the crowd clear, Tess?"

  Again the crisp, somehow mechanical tone. "Yes, sir. We're clear to lift on your command."

  The king's eyebrow raised again at Tess's words, "on your command". Cale turned to him with a smile. "With your permission, Majesty?"

  An excited smile broke on King Rajo's face. "By all means, sire Cale, lift!"

  Cale bowed, and Tess lifted off, the the king's delight. Hiraf tried to maintain his scowl, but he couldn't completely suppress his own excitement as the main viewscreen showed the ground receding. The terrified guardsmen remained in their huddle. At Tess's prompting, Dee approached them and got them to seats. The terrified grimaces never left their faces, though. To them, this was all witchcraft.

  "But it doesn't even feel like we're moving!" was the king's comment.

  Cale nodded. "Cheetah has gravity compensators, your majesty. Even in space, where there is no gravity, you would not notice a difference. It's a very expensive addition, but Cheetah was originally an old Empire Viceroy's yacht."

  The king looked around. "A yacht? This amazing vessel was a yacht?"

  Cale nodded. "Yes, Majesty," he replied simply. He decided that King Rajo was beginning to understand the magnitude of the wonders his planet had lost.

  Tess drove across the checkerboard of tilled fields, then a wilderness, and finally the seemingly endless plains inhabited by the nomads.

  "Cale," Tess said in his head, "We will be going quite fast when we reach the wreck sites. Even with the high-speed cameras, the pictures will be few and lack detail, and the king is likely to be dissatisfied. If you would like, I can put a 'bot in the flitter, and have it do some slow and close-up photography."

  Cale frowned. "We'd have to land to drop it off and pick it up, wouldn’t we?"

  "Nearly," Tess agreed. "Launching would require me to repeat the hover launch we used before. And we would have to land for a few moments to recover it. But both sites are in reasonable proximity, and the flitter could cover both in a relatively short time."

  "Isn't that hover launch dangerous?"

  "Now that I have done it, I am confident there is little danger to Cheetah or to the flitter. I had a safety margin of over half a second. I recommend a fast pass with a high-speed camera recording, and then the flitter launch. The fast pass will tell us whether the nomads have reached the wreckage. If they haven't, the flitter could get some excellent pictures and even holos. If they have, the 'bot can orbit well out of arrow range, and still get some excellent footage."

  Cale thought. Finally, slowly. "All right. I'll ask the king if he's up for it."

  King Rajo's wolfish grin was all the answer Cale needed, though he did wait for the king's verbal permission.

  "Approaching site one," Tess reported. "Cameras running."

  A dark dot appeared in the endless sea of green, then flashed past far too fast to even register. "Approaching site two." Again, the dark spot appeared and disappeared far too quickly for their eyes to register details.

  As she came around to reverse course, Tess ran the high-speed footage at normal speed, slowing it enough for human eyes to distinguish the crumpled remains of the flitter. Still, little but dark smudges were visible, and Cale decided that the risk of losing their flitter would be justified to obtain footage that would impress the king.

  Abruptly, the viewscreen view shifted. "Cargo hatch open," Tess reported, "Assuming vertical orientation. Flitter launch in three . . . two . . . one . . . Launch! Boost!" A small black oval appeared in the viewscreen, pitching and yawing violently, and disappeared almost immediately. "Cargo hatch secure," came Tess's unruffled voice. "Assuming low orbit."

  The viewscreen showed black, then blue, and finally the surface of Jumbo below them. The image steadied, and everyone aboard gasped as it swelled rapidly. The illusion of falling was almost too real.

  "Receiving images," Tess announced. Again the viewscreen shifted, and this time displayed images that were clearly coming from the flitter.

  At first, they were merely images of plains grasses as the flitter orbited, scanning for nomads. "No nomads detected," Tess reported.

  "Your Majesty," Cale said, "I recommend against having the 'bot land the flitter. It would have to leave the flitter to get any better images than it could get by orbiting, and I think it's just too dangerous."

  The king frowned. "I thought this "'bot" was a mechanical creature," The king said. "What is the danger?"

  Cale shook his head. "The danger of losing the only flitter we have, and of Tess being short a 'bot when she needs it."

  The king nodded. "I will not waste resources. If this 'bot can get identifiable images, I will be satisfied."

  Cale grinned. "No worry, Majesty. With the cameras it's carrying, you'll be able to count the wounds." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dee wince.

  "Tess," he subvocalized, "Tell Dee I don't want her here for this. It's something she shouldn't have to deal with."

  After a moment, Dee's head came up, and she exchanged looks with Cale. He put on a firm look, and with a short, sharp tilt of his head, indicated that she should leave.

  After a moment, she turned to the king with a smile. "If your Majesty will permit, I will just make certain that all is in order with Tess."

  King Rajo's attention was glued to the viewscreen. He waved dismissively. Dee took a deep breath and headed for their cabin.

  The images being transmitted by the 'bot were of excellent quality. Projectile damage from a quickfirer was obvious. Ten bodies were scattered around the wreck, all clad in Santiago-issue camouflage and body armor. Cale could have been wrong but he thought he saw one move slightly.

  "This is real," king Rajo said grimly. "This is tru
e. There is no trickery here, only death." He turned to Cale. "I will wish to see the other wreck, though only to acknowledge the deaths of brave men who died helpless.

  "Sire Cale," he continued, his face stony, "I do not like your 'modern' war. These men died in battle, and yet had no chance to display their prowess, their bravery."

  Cale shrugged. "This is the kind of war your enemy fights. These men, and thirty more, were sent to destroy your castle, your city, and your nation. Had they reached their destination, there would have been no warnings, no calling out to battle. They would have used those," he pointed to the heavy laser mounted on the nose of the crashed flitter, "to slaughter any of your guardsmen on the roof or walls of your castle. Then they would have landed, and forty killers would have sought you out with those." He said, pointing to a laser still held by one of the bodies. "Once they were certain you were dead, they would have planted explosive devices, blowing your castle to rubble. It would have taken less than half an hour.

  "These people are called 'special operations' troops," he continued, "but what they are is killers. Not fighters, not warriors. Killers. They attack without warning, kill without mercy, and destroy without conscience. And the General's men were so good at it that they horrified even their leaders. They are criminals on their home world. Do not feel pity for these monsters."

  King Rajo shook his head. "We were reluctant to enter this fight. We felt that king Karel made his bed by inviting the offworlders into his domain. Let us look at the other wreck."

  But the other wreck had been found by the nomads. And there had been survivors. Nearly a dozen nomad bodies scattered around the wrecked vehicle testified to that. There had been survivors. The four broken, disfigured bodies showed that there were none now.

  The 'bot orbited the site twice, dodging spears and arrows; but when a nomad clumsily fired a laser in the direction of the flitter, Cale called it back.

  Tess used the flitter and 'bot to locate a suitable location for landing. They touched down, and almost before the flames stopped, the flitter was diving into the open cargo hatch. They lifted off again in moments.

  "As We were saying," King Rajo said, "We were reluctant to enter this fight. We felt it was not ours to fight. We were wrong. These people were approaching our nation from nomad territory, to avoid being seen. We have similar reports from our smaller neighbors. They would have fallen upon us without warning, and used those offworld weapons to slaughter Us and our people. We will join the fight, sire Cale. Not because we fear losing our domain. Not because poor Karel has already lost his. No, we will fight this fight to restore honor and the warrior's code to war."

  Good luck, Cale thought. The worst thing about total war is its totality. To win, you have to learn to fight their way; and you can't regrow your virginity. The next time someone is on the losing side of an 'honorable' war, desperation will drive them to try this way again. No, by the time this is over, 'honorable' war will be dead on Jumbo. We brought evil here after all. And I'm SORRY!

  Before they returned to the castle, Cale took his guests on an aerial tour of the inhabited region of Jumbo, from the sea and Nirvana to the ruins of Valhalla creeping up the sides of the mountains like some ugly, blackened fungus. The locals were mesmerized. Every time they spotted a familiar landmark, they exclaimed to each other.

  "You say you have maps of this area of Jumbo?" Hiraf asked excitedly. "I would like to use them to update our maps from the Old Time."

  "Yes, of course," Cale replied. "We can make you copies, if you'd like."

  They grounded at their usual spot, and the king sent one of his guardsmen for a two-axle wagon to transport the star men's samples, gifts, and supplies.

  After another parade back to the castle, King Rajo resumed the interrupted meeting. Cale had brought the equipment to project images, and the first he projected was their map of the inhabited area of Jumbo.

  "Your Majesty," he said, "The first thing we need to do is to understand the present situation. Could one of your advisors indicate for us the boundaries and limits of the various kingdoms?"

  Actually, though, the first thing was for all the councilors to "ooh" and "aah" over the map, gabbling excitedly when they recognized a landmark. The king permitted the excitement to continue for a few minutes, before calling the meeting to order, and calling upon Hiraf to indicate the borders of kingdoms on the map.

  Hiraf had the foresight to bring his own map, and he consulted it frequently as he traced the outlines of the kingdoms with his finger. The watchers were dumbfounded when the lines he traced remained after he removed his finger.

  The inhabited portion of Jumbo formed a long, narrow ribbon stretching from the Mile-High Mountains to the west, to the Great River to the East. Cale told himself he was growing very tired of the superlative names attached to everything on Jumbo. He had to remind himself that the names were intended to lure tourists to Jumbo. "Everything's greater on Jumbo" had been the planet's slogan for centuries. But under the present circumstances it was a bit irritating, and more than a bit ironic.

  The river border was strictly and violently enforced by the nomads. Few, indeed, survived even brief incursions into nomad territory.

  The settled area was divided into six kingdoms. Nirvana, on the south end of the strip, and Valhalla on the north, were the largest, and Rajo and Karel were commonly referred to as the "great kings".

  As Tess had theorized, warrior ancestors who had offered to protect the farmers for a fee had established the four smaller kingdoms. The kingdoms were small because the warrior protectors had to be able to respond rapidly to threats, and three or more days' response time could not be considered rapid by any measure.

  By now, however, the roving bands of bandits had been largely exterminated, and the kings were free to fight each other in hopes of conquering more territory and becoming a 'great' king.

  On Nirvana's northern border sat the states of Gorby and Whitan. Gorby stretched east from the Mile-High Mountains, sandwiching Whitan between itself and the Great River. Since Gorby was not required to defend itself from nomad incursions, it was prosperous, and its king, Bornat, was free to try to expand his domain by attacking his neighbors. He was wiser than to attempt to attack Nirvana, but he kept his neighbors to the north and east worried.

  Unfortunately for Bornat, Ochoa-Mariden had decided that Gorby should be the second kingdom to be 'united' with the colony, and in a lightning airborne attack followed by mechanized invasion, he had seized it in hours. Bornat and his family were killed, and a somber King Karel announced stonily that Gorby was now part of the kingdom of Nirvana.

  Gralen, king of Whitan, was a rather effeminate young man, who preferred hosting grand balls to hosting battles. He was well aware that he would almost certainly be the General's next target.

  North of Whitan lay Jesh, smallest of the minor kingdoms, and Terjo was the fourth and last minor kingdom, north of the former kingdom of Gorby. Like Gorby, Terjo did not have to deal with nomads. As a result, Terjo's residents tended to look down on their more warlike neighbors, calling them 'uncivilized', and 'barbarians'.

  In fact, though, all three of the remaining minor kings had appealed to Valhalla for aid.

  One thing Cale noticed immediately was that there was very little access to the sea. The ruins of old Nirvana stretched from the foothills of the mountains to the Great River, and of course, the ruins were cursed, off-limits to the locals. On the other bank of the river was the beginning of the Giant Forest, which ran along the coast for over a thousand kiloms. Over the centuries, woodsmen had established hunting camps along the river, and eventually a narrow road had come to wind its way to the sea.

  There, a small fishing village huddled in the wide delta where the river met the sea. The inability of the residents to transport their catch to larger markets quickly meant that the village was small and poor.

  In theory, the ruins, like the Cursed Lands, were part of King Karel's domain, also called 'Nirvana'. But, of course, neit
her was of any value.

  The Cursed Lands formed the northern border of the Giant Forest, and stretched in a fan shape for hundreds of kiloms. The power plant whose destruction had created the Cursed Lands had been located on the riverbank, on the city side of the river, so a small portion of the poisoned lands were within King Karel's domain. The Cursed Lands were clearly delineated by their sickly, stunted growth and stark lack of healthy plant or animal life. Since the Cursed Lands were avoided by the nomads as much as the villagers, and part of them were within Karel's domain, they had come to be considered a part of Nirvana.

  The combination of the Giant Forest and the Cursed Lands had served to protect about two-thirds of Nirvana's eastern border from incursion by nomads. One of the reasons King Karel had been willing to deed the Cursed Lands to the star men was that people were becoming aware that the Cursed Lands were becoming once again habitable, and he knew that another third of his kingdom might soon become subject to nomad attacks.

  The Kingdom of Nirvana stretched the width of the settled ribbon, from the Mile-High Mountains to the Great River. Since King Karel had deeded the Cursed Lands to the star men, Valhalla was now the largest kingdom on Jumbo, Hiraf noted with pride.

  "He took Gorby in hours," King Rajo mused, studying the map. "We wonder why he has not yet taken Whitan."

  Cale replied. "I suspect that we are part of the reason, your Majesty. I imagine we've seriously upset his timetable. He knows that we star men are the greatest threat he faces. I suspect he is sitting in New Home trying to figure out what we are going to do. He'll suspect there aren't many of us, but he also knows we brought two ships that can carry significant cargoes.

  "After his disastrous attack on Valhalla, he's worried. He has lost his spy in the sky, and now he's lost half of his air force. He knows that we can watch his movements, or at least some of them, and he cannot watch ours.

  "But time is not our friend here, your Majesty. I'm sure he has already realized that he cannot move large numbers of troops without being seen, so he will begin sending small groups, who will sneak into an area, probably through Gorby, and meet up just before an attack. Some may be already on their way."