Space Viking

by H. Beam Piper

  XXIV

  Attempting to conceal the presence on Tanith of Prince Bentrik'swife and son was pushing caution beyond necessity. Admitted thatthe news would leak back to Marduk via Gilgamesh, it was over sevenhundred light-years to the latter and almost a thousand from thereto the former. Better that Princess Lucile should enjoy Rivingtonsociety, such as it was, and escape, for a moment now and then, fromanxiety about her husband. At ten--no, almost twelve; it had been ayear and a half since Trask had left Marduk--the boy Count of Ravarywas more easily diverted. At last, he was among real Space Vikings,on a Space Viking planet, and he was trying to be everywhere and seeeverything at once. No doubt he would be imagining himself a SpaceViking, returning to Marduk with a vast armada to rescue his fatherand the King from Zaspar Makann.

  Trask was satisfied with that; as a host he left much to be desired.He had his worries, too, and all of them bore the same name: PrinceViktor of Xochitl. He went over with Manfred Ravallo everything thecaptain of the _Black Star_ could tell him. He had talked once withViktor; the lord of Xochitl had been coldly polite and noncommittal.His subordinates had been frankly hostile. There had been five shipson orbit or landed at Viktor's spaceport beside the usualGilgameshers and itinerant traders, two of them Viktor's own, and abig armed freighter had come in from Haulteclere as the _Black Star_was leaving. There was considerable activity at the shipyards andaround the spaceport, as though in preparation for something on alarge scale.

  Xochitl was a thousand light-years from Tanith. He rejectedimmediately the idea of launching a preventative attack; his shipsmight reach Xochitl to find it undefended, and then return to findTanith devastated. Things like that had happened in space-war. Theonly thing to do was sit tight, defend Tanith when Viktor attacked,and then counterattack if he had any ships left by that time.Prince Viktor was probably reasoning in the same way.

  He had no time to think about Andray Dunnan, except, now and then,to wish that Otto Harkaman would stop thinking about him and bringthe _Corisande_ home. He needed that ship on Tanith, and the witsand courage of her commander.

  More news--Gilgamesh sources--came in from Xochitl. There were onlytwo ships, both armed merchantmen, on the planet. Prince Viktor hadspaced out with the rest an estimated two thousand hours before thestory reached him. That was twice as long as it would take theXochitl armada to reach Tanith. He hadn't gone to Beowulf; that wasonly sixty-five hours from Tanith and they would have heard aboutit long ago. Or Amaterasu, or Khepera. How many ships he had wasa question; not fewer than five, and possibly more. He could haveslipped into the Tanith system and hidden his ships on one of theouter uninhabitable planets. He sent Valkanhayn and Ravallomicrojumping their ships from one to another to check. They returnedto report in the negative. At least, Viktor of Xochitl wasn't campedinside their own system, waiting for them to leave Tanith opento attack.

  But he was somewhere, and up to nothing even resembling good, andthere was no possible way of guessing when his ships would beemerging on Tanith. The only thing to do was wait for him. When hedid, Trask was confident that he would emerge from hyperspace intoserious trouble. He had the _Nemesis_, the _Space Scourge_, the_Black Star_ and _Queen Flavia_, the strongly rebuilt _Lamia_, andseveral independent Space Viking ships, among them the _Damnthing_of his friend Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, who had volunteered tostay and help in the defense. This, of course, was not purealtruism. If Viktor attacked and had his fleet blown toEm-See-Square, Xochitl would lie open and unprotected, and therewas enough loot on Xochitl to cram everybody's ships. Everybody'sships who had ships when the Battle of Tanith was over, of course.

  He was apologetic to Princess Bentrik:

  "I'm very sorry you jumped out of Zaspar Makann's frying pan intoPrince Viktor's fire," he began.

  She laughed at that. "I'll take my chances on the fire. I seem tosee a lot of good firemen around. If there is a battle you will seethat Steven's in a safe place, won't you?"

  "In a space attack, there are no safe places. I'll keep him with me."

  The young Count of Ravary wanted to know which ship he would serveon when the attack came.

  "Well, you won't be on any ship, Count. You'll be on my staff."

  * * * * *

  Two days later, the _Corisande_ came out of hyperspace. Harkaman wasguardedly noncommittal by screen. Trask took a landing craft andwent out to meet the ship.

  "Marduk doesn't like us, any more," Harkaman told him. "They haveships on all their trade-planets, and they all have orders to fireon any, repeat any, Space Vikings, including the ships of theself-styled Prince of Tanith. I got this from Captain Garravay ofthe _Vindex_. After we were through talking, we fought a nice littleship-to-ship action for him to make films of. I don't think anybodycould see anything wrong with it."

  "This order came from Makann?"

  "From the Admiral commanding. He isn't your friend Shefter; Shefterretired on account of quote ill-health unquote. He is now in a quotehospital unquote."

  "Where's Prince Bentrik?"

  "Nobody knows. Charges of high treason were brought against him,and he just vanished. Gone underground, or secretly arrested andexecuted; take your choice."

  He wondered just what he'd tell Princess Lucile and Count Steven.

  "They have ships on all the planets they trade with. Fourteenof them. That isn't to catch Dunnan. That's to disperse the Navyaway from Marduk. They don't trust the Navy. Is Prince Edvardstill Prime Minister?"

  "Yes, as of Garravay's last information. It seems Makann is behavingin a scrupulously legal manner, outside of making his People'sWatchmen part of the armed forces. Protesting his devotion tothe King every time he opens his mouth."

  "When will the fire be, I wonder?"

  "Huh? Oh yes, you were reading up on Hitler. That I don't know.Probably happened by now."

  He just told Princess Lucile that her husband had gone into hiding;he couldn't be sure whether she was relieved or more worried. Theboy was sure that he was doing something highly romantic and heroic.

  Some of the volunteers tired of waiting, after another thousandhours, and spaced out. The _Viking's Gift_ of Beowulf came in witha cargo, and went on orbit after discharging it to join the watch.A Gilgamesher came in from Amaterasu and reported everything quietthere; as soon as her captain had sold his cargo, with a minimum ofhaggling, he spaced out again. His behavior convinced everybody thatthe attack would come in a matter of hours.

  It didn't.

  * * * * *

  Three thousand hours had passed since the first warning had reachedTanith, that made five thousand since Viktor's ships were supposedto have left Xochitl. There were those, Boake Valkanhayn among them,who doubted, now, if he ever had.

  "The whole thing's just a big Gilgamesher lie," he was declaring."Somebody--Nikky Gratham, or the Everrards, or maybe Viktorhimself--paid them to tell us that, to pin our ships down here.Or they made it up themselves, so they could make hay on ourtrade-planets."

  "Let's go down to the Ghetto and clean out the whole gang," somebodyelse took up. "Anything one of them's in, they're all in together."

  "Nifflheim with that; let's all space out for Xochitl," ManfredRavallo proposed. "We have enough ships to lick them on Tanith,we have enough to lick them on their own planet."

  He managed to talk them out of both courses of action--what was he,anyhow; sovereign Prince of Tanith, or the non-ruling King of Marduk,or just the chieftain of a disciplineless gang of barbarians? One ofthe independents spaced out in disgust. The next day, two otherscame in, loaded with booty from a raid on Braggi, and decided tostay around for a while and see what happened.

  And four days after that, a five-hundred-foot hyperspace yacht,bearing the daggers and chevrons of Bigglersport, came in. As soonas she was out of the last microjump, she began calling by screen.

  Trask didn't know the man who was screening, but Hugh Rathmore did;Duke Joris' confidential secretary.

  "Prince Trask; I must spe
ak to you as soon as possible," he began,almost stuttering. Whatever the urgency of his mission, one wouldhave thought that a three-thousand-hour voyage would have taken someof the edge from it. "It is of the first importance."

  "You are speaking to me. This screen is reasonably secure. And ifit's of the first importance, the sooner you tell me about it...."

  "Prince Trask, you must come to Gram, with every man and every shipyou can command. Satan only knows what's happening there now, butthree thousand hours ago, when the Duke sent me off, Omfray of Glaspythwas landing on Wardshaven. He has a fleet of eight ships, furnishedto him by his wife's kinsman, the King of Haulteclere. They are commandedby King Konrad's Space Viking cousin, the Prince of Xochitl."

  Then a look of shocked surprise came into the face of the man in thescreen, and Trask wondered why, until he realized that he had leanedback in his chair and was laughing uproariously. Before he couldapologize, the man in the screen had found his voice.

  "I know, Prince Trask; you have no reason to think kindly of KingAngus--the former King Angus, or maybe even the late King Angus,I suppose he is now--but a murderer like Omfray of Glaspyth...."

  * * * * *

  It took a little time to explain to the confidential secretary ofthe Duke of Bigglersport the humor of the situation.

  There were others at Rivington to whom it was not immediatelyevident. The professional Space Vikings, men like Valkanhayn andRavallo and Alvyn Karffard, were disgusted. Here they'd beensitting, on combat alert, all these months, and, if they'd onlyknown, they could have gone to Xochitl and looted it clean long ago.The Gram party were outraged. Angus of Wardshaven had been badenough, with the hereditary taint of the Mad Baron of Blackcliffe,and Queen Evita and her rapacious family, but even he was preferableto a murderous villain--some even called him a fiend in humanshape--like Omfray of Glaspyth.

  Both parties, of course, were positive as to where their Prince'sduty lay. The former insisted that everything on Tanith that couldbe put into hyperspace should be dispatched at once to Xochitl, tohaul back from it everything except a few absolutely immovablenatural features of the planet. The latter clamored, just as loudlyand passionately, that everybody on Tanith who could pull a triggershould be embarked at once on a crusade for the deliverance of Gram.

  "You don't want to do either, do you?" Harkaman asked him, when theywere alone after the second day of acrimony.

  "Nifflheim, no! This crowd that wants an attack on Xochitl; you knowwhat would happen if we did that?" Harkaman was silent, waiting forhim to continue. "Inside a year, four or five of these smallplanet-holders like Gratham and the Everrards would combine againstus and make a slag-pile out of Tanith."

  Harkaman nodded agreement. "Since we warned him the first time,Viktor's kept his ships away from our planets. If we attackedXochitl now, without provocation, nobody'd know what to expect fromus. People like Nikky Gratham and Tobbin of Nergal and the Everrardsof Hoth get nervous around unpredictable dangers, and when they getnervous they get trigger-happy." He puffed slowly on his pipe andthen said: "Then you'll be going back to Gram."

  "That doesn't follow; just because Valkanhayn and Ravallo and thatcrowd are wrong doesn't make Valpry and Rathmore and Ffayle right.You heard what I was telling those very people at Karvall House, theday I met you. And you've seen what's been happening on Gram sincewe came out here. Otto, the Sword-Worlds are finished; they're halfdecivilized now. Civilization is alive and growing here on Tanith.I want to stay here and help it grow."

  "Look, Lucas," Harkaman said. "You're Prince of Tanith, and I'm onlythe Admiral. But I'm telling you; you'll have to do something, orthis whole setup of yours will fall apart. As it stands, you canattack Xochitl and the Back-To-Gram party would go along, or youcan decide on this crusade against Omfray of Glaspyth and theRaid-Xochitl-Now party would go along. But if you let this go onmuch longer, you won't have any influence over either party."

  "And then I will be finished. And in a few years, Tanith will befinished." He rose and paced across the room and back. "Well, Iwon't raid Xochitl; I told you why, and you agreed. And I won'tspend the men and ships and wealth of Tanith in any Sword-Worlddynastic squabble. Great Satan, Otto; you were in the Durendal War.This is the same thing, and it'll go on for another half a century."

  "Then what will you do?"

  "I came out here after Andray Dunnan, didn't I?" he asked.

  "I'm afraid Ravallo and Valpry, or even Valkanhayn and Morland,won't be as interested in Dunnan as you are."

  "Then I will interest them in him. Remember, I was reading up onHitler, coming in from Marduk? I will tell them all a big lie.Such a big lie that nobody will dare to disbelieve it."