IV
They under the colonnade; beyond, the main was crowded, and a of old love was from the outlets, for the or time around. He looked at his watch; it was ninety later than the last time he had done so. Give it fifteen more minutes to started, and another fifteen to away after the marriage and the felicitations. And no marriage, pompous, more than an hour. An hour, then, till he and Elaine would be in the aircar, toward Traskon.
The love stopped abruptly; after a silence, a trumpet, amplified, blared; the "Ducal Salute." The stopped shifting, the of voices ceased. At the of the landing-stage there was a of color and the party moving down. A of in red and yellow, with gilded[Pg 17] and halberds. An the Sword of State. Duke Angus, with his council, Otto Harkaman among them; the Duchess Flavia and her companion-ladies. The gentlemen, and their ladies. More guardsmen. There was a great of cheering; the news-service got into position above the procession. Cousin Nikkolay and a others out from the into the sunlight; there was a movement at the other of the terrace. The party the end of the walkway, and deployed.
"All right; let's off," Cousin Nikkolay said, forward.
Ten minutes since they had come outside; another five to into position. Fifty minutes, now, till he and Elaine—Lady Elaine Trask of Traskon, for and for always—would be going home.
"Sure the car's ready?" he asked, for the hundredth time.
His him that it was. Figures in Karvall black and flame-yellow appeared across the terrace. The music again, this time the "Nobles' Wedding March," and at the same time tender. Sesar Karvall's gentleman-secretary, and the Karvall lawyer; of the mills, the Karvall guard-captain. Sesar himself, with Elaine on his arm; she was a of black and yellow. He looked around in fright; "For the love of Satan, where's our shawl?" he demanded, and then when one of his it, green and in Traskon colors. The bridesmaids, by Lady Lavina Karvall. Finally they halted, ten yards apart, in of the Duke.
"Who us?" Duke Angus asked of his guard-captain.
He had a thin, pointed face, almost sensitive, and a small pointed beard. He was for the narrow which he most of his time to into a crown. The guard-captain the question.
"I am Sir Nikkolay Trask; I my and liege-lord, Lucas, Lord Trask, Baron of Traskon. He comes to the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine, of Lord Sesar Karvall, Baron of Karvall mills, and the of your Grace to the marriage them."
Sir Maxamon Zhorgay, Sesar Karvall's henchman, named himself and his lord; they the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to be to Lord Trask of Traskon. The Duke, satisfied that these were he address directly, asked if the terms of the marriage-agreement had been reached; parties this. Sir Maxamon passed a to the Duke; Duke Angus to read the and legal phraseology.[Pg 18] Marriages houses were not to be left open to dispute; a great of blood and had resulted from on some point of or or rights. Lucas it patiently; he didn't want his great-grandchildren and Elaine's it out over a of a comma.
"And these here us do enter into this marriage freely?" the Duke asked, when the reading had ended. He as he spoke, and his gave him the two-hand Sword of State, to a bisonoid. Trask forward; Sesar Karvall Elaine up. The lawyers and off to the sides. "How say you, Lord Trask?" he asked, almost conversationally.
"With all my heart, your Grace."
"And you, Lady-Demoiselle Elaine?"
"It is my wish, your Grace."
The Duke took the by the and it; they their hands on the pommel.
"And do you, and your houses, us, Angus, Duke of Wardshaven, to be your prince, and to us and to our and successors?"
"We do." Not only he and Elaine, but all around them, and all the in the gardens, answered, the in shouts. Very clearly, above it all, somebody, with more than discretion, was bawling: "Long live Angus the First of Gram!"
"And we, Angus, do upon you two, and your houses, the right to wear our as you see fit, and to maintain your against any and all who may to them. And we that this marriage you two, and this agreement your houses, us, and we you two, Lucas and Elaine, to be wed, and who so questions this marriage us, in our teeth and to our despite."
That wasn't the used by a lord on Gram. It was the by a king, like Napolyon of Flamberge or Rodolf of Excalibur. And, now that he of it, Angus had used the first-person plural. Maybe that who had about Angus the First of Gram had only been doing what he'd been paid to do. This was being telecast, and Omfray of Glaspyth and Ridgerd of Didreksburg would be listening; as of now, they'd start mercenaries. Maybe that would of Dunnan for him.
The Duke gave the two-hand to his esquire. The who was the green and it to him, and Elaine the black and yellow one from her shoulders, the only time a re[Pg 19]spectable woman did that in public, and her mother and it. He and the Trask colors over her shoulders, and then took her in his arms. The out again, and some of Sesar Karvall's a pom-pom somewhere.
It took a little longer than he had to with the and shake hands with those who around. Finally, the started, the long to the landing stage, and the Duke and his party moved away to the to prepare for the wedding at which but the and would celebrate. One of the gave Elaine a of flowers, which she was to from the escalator; she it in the of one arm and to his with the other.
"Darling; we it!" she was whispering, as though it were too to believe.
Well, wasn't it?
One of the news cars—orange and blue, that was Westlands Telecast & Teleprint—had just ahead of them and was toward the landing stage. For a moment, he was angry; that the outer-orbit limits of propriety, for Westlands T & T. Then he laughed; today he was too happy for anger about anything. At the of the escalator, Elaine off her slippers—there was another pair in the car; he'd to that personally—and they onto the and about. The forward, and for the slippers, to the and of their gowns, and when they were way up, Elaine the and it among them like a bomb of fragrance, and the girls at the flowers, deliriously. Elaine stood, to everybody, and he was his hands over his head, until they were at the top.
When they and off, the orange and had let directly in of them, their way. Now he was furious, and started with a curse. Then he saw who was in the car.
Andray Dunnan, his thin and the narrow on his upper lip; he had a the window open and was the of a gun up and out of it.
He shouted, and at the same time Elaine and her down. He was himself to her when there was a report. Something him in the chest; his right leg under him. He fell—
He and and fell, endlessly, through darkness, out of consciousness.[Pg 20]
V
He was crucified, and with a of thorns. Who had they done that to? Somebody long ago, on Terra. His arms were out stiffly, and hurt; his and hurt, too, and he couldn't move them, and there was this at his brow. And he was blind.
No; his were just closed. He opened them, and there was a white in of him, patterned with a snow-crystal design, and he that it was a and that he was on his back. He couldn't move his head, but by shifting his he saw that he was and by a of and wires, which puzzled him briefly.[Pg 21] Then he that he was not on a bed, but on a robomedic, and the would be for and and feeding, and the would be to in his for diagnosis, and the crown-of-thorns thing would be more for an encephalograph. He'd been on one of those before, when he had been by a on the range.
That was what it was; he was still under treatment. But that so long ago; so many things—he must have them—seemed to have happened.
Then he remembered, and to rise.
"Elaine!" he called. "Elaine, where are you?"
There was a and somebody[Pg 22] came into his limited view; his cousin, Nikkolay Trask.
"Nikkolay; Andray Dunnan," he said. "What to Elaine?"
Nikkolay winced, as though something he had to had than he had expected.
"Lucas." He swallowed. "Elaine ... Elaine is dead."
Elaine is dead. That didn't make sense.
"She was killed instantly, Lucas. Hit six times; I don't think she the one. She didn't at all."
Somebody moaned, and then he that it had been himself.
"You were twice," Nikkolay was telling him. "One in the leg; the femur. And one in the chest. That one missed your by an inch."
"Pity it did." He was to clearly, now. "I her down, and to her. I must have her into the and only the last of it myself." There was something else; oh, yes. "Dunnan. Did they him?"
Nikkolay his head. "He got away. Stole the Enterprise and took her off-planet."
"I want to him myself."
He started to again; Nikkolay to someone out of sight. A hand touched his chin, and he a woman's perfume, nothing at all like Elaine's. Something like a small him on the neck. The room dark.
Elaine was dead. There was no more Elaine, at all. Why, that must there was no more world. So that was why it had so dark.
He again, fitfully, and it would be and he see the yellow sky through an open window or it would be night and the wall-lights would be on. There would always be somebody with him. Nikkolay's wife, Dame Cecelia; Rovard Grauffis; Lady Lavina Karvall—he must have slept a long time, for she was so much older than he remembered—and her brother, Burt Sandrasan. And a woman with dark hair, in a white with a gold on her breast.
Once, Duchess Flavia, and once Duke Angus himself. He asked where he was, not much caring. They told him, at the Ducal Palace.
He they'd all go away, and let him go Elaine was.
Then it would be dark, and he would be trying to her, there was something he wanted to her. Stars in the sky at night, that was it. But there were no stars, there was no Elaine, there was no anything, and he that there was no Lucas Trask, either.
But there was an Andray Dunnan. He see him black-cloaked on the terrace, the diamonds in his beret-jewel evilly; he see the face[Pg 23] at him over the of the gun. And then he would for him without him, through the cold of space.
The longer, and them his mind was clear. They him of his of thorns. The came out, and they gave him cups of and fruit juice. He wanted to know why he had been to the Palace.
"About the only thing we do," Rovard Grauffis told him. "They had too much trouble at Karvall House as it was. You know, Sesar got shot, too."
"No." So that was why Sesar hadn't come to see him. "Was he killed?"
"Wounded; he's in shape than you are. When the started, he up the escalator. Didn't have anything but his dress-dagger. Dunnan gave him a quick burst; I think that was why he didn't have time to you off. By that time, the who'd been from that rapid-fire gun got in a of live and at him. He got out of there as fast as he could. They have Sesar on a like yours. He isn't in any danger."
The and came out; the of around him was removed, and the with them. They his and him in a and him from the to a couch, where he up when he wished; they him solid food, and to drink, and allowed him to smoke. The woman doctor told him he'd had a time, as though he didn't know that. He if she him to thank her for him alive.
"You'll be up and around in a weeks," his added. "I've to it that at Traskon New House will be for you by then."
"I'll enter that house as long as I live, and I wish that wouldn't be more than the next minute. That was to be Elaine's house. I won't go to it alone."
The his sleep less and less as he stronger. Visitors came often, little gifts, and he that he their company. He wanted to know what had happened, and how Dunnan had away.
"He the Enterprise," Rovard Grauffis told him. "He had that company of of his, and he'd some of the people at the Gorram shipyards. I Alex would kill his of security when he out what had happened. We can't prove anything—we're trying hard to—but we're sure Omfray of Glaspyth the money. He's been it just a too emphatically."[Pg 24]
"Then the whole thing was planned in advance."
"Taking the ship was; he must have been that for months; he started that company. I think he meant to do it the night the wedding. Then he to the Lady-Demoiselle Elaine to with him—he to have actually that was possible—and when she him, he to kill of you first." He to Otto Harkaman, who had him. "As long as I live, I'll not taking you at your word and your offer, then."
"How did he of that Westlands Telecast and Teleprint car?"
"Oh. The of the wedding, he screened Westlands office and told them he had the on the marriage and why the Duke was it. Made it as though there was some scandal; that a come to Dunnan House for a face-to-face interview. They sent a man, and that was the last they saw him alive; our people his at Dunnan House when we were the place afterward. We the car at the shipyard; it had taken a of from the at Karvall House, but you know what these press are to stand. He directly to the shipyard, where his men already had the Enterprise; as soon as he arrived, she out."
He at the cigarette his fingers. It was almost to him. With an effort, he to it out.
"Rovard, how soon will that second ship be finished?"
Grauffis laughed bitterly. "Building the Enterprise took we had. The duchy's on the of now. We stopped work on the second ship six months ago we didn't have money to keep on with her and still the Enterprise finished. We were the Enterprise to make in the Old Federation to the second one. Then, with two ships and a on Tanith, the money would in of going out. But now—"
"It me where I was on Flamberge," Harkaman added. "Worse. King Napolyon was going to help the Elmersans, and I'd have a in that. It's too late for that now."
He up his and used it to push himself to his feet. The leg had mended, but he was still weak. He took a steps, paused to on the cane, and then himself on to the open window and for a moment out. Then he turned.
"Captain Harkaman, it might be that you still a command, here on Gram. That's if you don't mind under me as owner-aboard. I am going for Andray Dunnan."[Pg 25]
They looked at him. After a moment, Harkaman said:
"I'd count it an honor, Lord Trask. But where will you a ship?"
"She's now. You already have a for her. Duke Angus can her for me, and pay for it by his new of Traskon."
He had Rovard Grauffis all his life; until this moment, he had Duke Angus' surprise.
"You mean, you'll Traskon for that ship?" he demanded.
"Finished, and for space, yes."
"The Duke will agree to that," Grauffis said promptly. "But, Lucas; Traskon is all you own."
"If I have a ship, I won't need them. I am Space Viking."
That Harkaman to his with a of approval. Grauffis looked at him, his mouth open.
"Lucas Trask—Space Viking," he said. "Now I've everything."
Well, why not? He had the of Viking on the Sword-Worlds, Gram was a Sword-World, and Traskon was on Gram, and Traskon was to have been the home where he and Elaine would live and where their children and children's children would be and live. Now the little point on which all of it had rested was gone.
"That was another Lucas Trask, Rovard. He's dead, now."
VI
Grauffis himself to make a screen call and then returned to himself again. Evidently Duke Angus had he was doing as soon as he what his had to tell him. Harkaman was until after he was out of the room, then said:
"Lord Trask, this is a thing for me. It's not been to be a captain on strangers' bounty. I'd hate, though, to have you think, some time, that I'd my own at the of yours."
"Don't worry about that. If anybody's being taken of, you are. I need a space-captain, and your is my own good luck."
Harkaman started to pack tobacco into his pipe. "Have you been off Gram, at all?" he asked.
"A years at the University of Camelot, on Excalibur. Otherwise, no."
"Well, have you any of the of thing you're setting to?" The Space Viking his and puffed. "You know, of course, how big the Old Federation is. You know the figures, that is, but do they anything to you? I know they don't to a good many spacemen, even. We talk about ten to the hundredth power, but we still count, 'One, Two, Three, Many.' A ship in hyperspace[Pg 26] about a light-year an hour. You can go from here to Excalibur in thirty hours. But you send a radio message announcing the birth of a son, and he'd be a father it was received. The Old Federation, where you're going to Dunnan, a space-volume of two hundred billion light-years. And you're for one ship and one man in that. How are you going to do it, Lord Trask?"
"I haven't started about how; all I know is that I have to do it. There are in the Old Federation where Space Vikings come and go; raid-and-trade bases, like the one Duke Angus planned to on Tanith. At one or another of them, I'll up word of Dunnan, sooner or later."
"We'll where he was a year ago, and by the time we there, he'll be gone for a year and a to two years. We've been the Old Federation for over three hundred years, Lord Trask. At present, I'd say there are at least two hundred Space Viking ships in operation. Why haven't we it long ago? Well, that's the answer: and voyage-time. You know, Dunnan die of old age—which is not a of death among Space Vikings—before you up with him. And your ship's-boy die of old age he out about it."
"Well, I can go on for him till I die, then. There's nothing else that means anything to me."
"I it was something like that. I won't be with you, all your life. I want a ship of my own, like the Corisande, that I on Durendal. Some day, I'll have one. But till you can your own ship, I'll her for you. That's a promise."
Some note of indicated. Summoning a robot, he had it for them, and they each other.
Rovard Grauffis had his by the time he returned by the Duke. If Angus had his, he gave no of it. The on else was seismic. The view was that Lord Trask's had been by his loss; there might, he conceded, be more than a of truth in that. At first, his Nikkolay at him for the from the family, and then he learned that Duke Angus was him vicar-baron and him Traskon New House for his residence. Immediately he acting like one at the death-bed of a rich grandmother. The Wardshaven financial and barons, he had only distantly, on the other hand, came around him, and him as the of the duchy. Duke Angus' credit, almost by the of the Enterprise, was re-established, and theirs with it.[Pg 27]
There were at which lawyers and bankers interminably; he a at first, himself uninterested, and told so. All he wanted was a ship; the best ship possible, as soon as possible. Alex Gorram had been the to be notified; he had work on the sister-ship of the Enterprise immediately. Until he was to go to the himself, he the work on the two-thousand-foot by screen, and either in person or by screen with and executives. His rooms at the were converted, almost overnight, from to offices. The doctors, who had been him to new and activities, were now of the of overexertion. Harkaman added his voice to theirs.
"You take it easy, Lucas." They had and were on a first-name now. "You got badly; you let damage-control work on you, and don't the till it's fixed. We have of time. We're not going to Dunnan. The only way we can catch him is by interception. The longer he moves around in the Old Federation he we're after him, the more of a he'll leave. Once we can a pattern, we'll have a chance. Then, some time, he'll come out of and us waiting for him."
"Do you think he to Tanith?"
Harkaman himself out of his chair and about the room for a minutes, then came and sat again.
"No. That was Duke Angus' idea, not his. He couldn't put in a on Tanith, anyhow. You know the of a he has."
There had been an into Dunnan's and accomplices; Duke Angus was still for positive proof to Omfray of Glaspyth in the piracy. Dunnan had with him a dozen and a employees of the Gorram he had corrupted. There was some ability among them, but for the most part they were and trouble-makers and workmen. Even under the circumstances, Alex Gorram was to see the last of them. As for Dunnan's own company, there were about a score of among them; the from through and sneak-thieves to bums. Dunnan himself was an astrogator, not an engineer.
"That aren't good for raiding," Harkaman said. "They'd under any be able to put in a on Tanith. Unless Dunnan's crazy, which I doubt, he's gone to some regular Viking planet, like Hoth or[Pg 28] Nergal or Dagon or Xochitl, to officers and and able spacemen."
"All that and and so on that was going to Tanith—was that when he took the ship?"
"Yes, and that's another why he'd go to some like Hoth or Nergal or Xochitl. On a Viking-occupied in the Old Federation, that stuff's almost its weight in gold."
"What's Tanith like?"
"Almost Terra-type, third of a Class-G sun. Very much like Haulteclere or Flamberge. It was one of the last the Federation the Big War. Nobody what happened, exactly. There wasn't any war; at least, you don't any big slag-puddles where used to be. They did a of among themselves, after they got out of the Federation. There's still some of combat-damage around. Then they started to decivilize, to the pre-mechanical level—wind and water power and animal power. They have draft-animals that look like Terran carabaos, and a small and big and on the rivers. They have gunpowder, which to be the last thing any people lose.
"I was there, five years ago. I liked Tanith for a base. There's one moon, almost solid iron, and fissionable-ore deposits. Then, like a fool, I out to the Elmersans on Durendal and my ship. When I came here, your Duke was about Xipototec. I him that Tanith was a for his purpose."
"Dunnan might go there, at that. He might think he was one on Duke Angus. After all, he has all that equipment."
"And nobody to use it. If I were Dunnan, I'd go to Nergal, or Xochitl. There are always a of thousand Space Vikings on either, their and taking it easy raids. He on a full on either. I we go to Xochitl, first. We might up news of him, if nothing else."
All right, they'd try Xochitl first. Harkaman the planet, and was with the Haulteclere who it.
The work on at the Gorram shipyard; it had taken a year to the Enterprise, but the steel-mills and engine-works were over the work of up, and material and was in a stream. Lucas let them him to take more rest, and day by day stronger. Soon he was most of his time at the shipyard, the go in—Abbot lift-and-drive for normal space, Dillingham hyperdrive, power-converters, pseudograv, all at the center of the ship.[Pg 29] Living and in next, all in collapsium-plated steel. Then the ship out to an a thousand miles off-planet, by of work-craft and cargo-lighters; the of the work was more easily done in space. At the same time, the four two-hundred-foot that would be were being finished. Each of them had its own engines, and travel as and as fast as the ship herself.
Otto Harkaman was to be the ship still a name. He didn't like having to speak of her as "her," or "the ship," and there were many soon to go on that should be name-marked. Elaine, Trask thought, at once, and almost at once rejected it. He didn't want her name with the that ship would do in the Old Federation. Revenge, Avenger, Retribution, Vendetta; none to him. A news-commentator, about the which the Dunnan had against himself, it, Nemesis it was.
Now he was studying his new of and against which he had once inveighed. Otto Harkaman's of his teachers. Vann Larch, guns-and-missiles, who was also a painter; Guatt Kirbey, and pessimistic, the who to his science in music; Sharll Renner, the normal-space astrogator. Alvyn Karffard, the exec, who had been with Harkaman of all. And Sir Paytrik Morland, a local recruit, guard-captain to Count Lionel of Newhaven, who the ground-fighters and the contragravity. They were using the and villages of Traskon for and practice, and he noticed that while the Nemesis would only five hundred ground and air fighters, over a thousand were being trained.
He to Rovard Grauffis.
"Yes. Don't mention it outside," the Duke's said. "You and Sir Paytrik and Captain Harkaman will the five hundred best. The Duke will take the into his service. Some of these days, Omfray of Glaspyth will out what a Space Viking is like."
And Duke Angus would tax his new of Glaspyth to the on his new of Traskon. Some old Pre-Atomic Harkaman was of had said, "Gold will not always you good soldiers, but good soldiers can you gold."
The Nemesis came to the Gorram yards and settled onto her landing like a spider. The Enterprise had the Ward and atom-symbol; the Nemesis should [Pg 30]bear his own badge, but the head, on green, of Traskon, was no longer his. He a on an sword, and it was on the ship when he and Harkaman took her out for her cruise.
When they again at the Gorram yards, two hundred hours later, they learned that a from Morglay had come into Bigglersport in their with news of Andray Dunnan. Her captain had come to Wardshaven at Duke Angus' urgent and was waiting for them at the Ducal Palace.
They sat, a dozen of them, around a table in the Duke's private apartments. The captain, a small, man with a beard, alternately at a cigarette and from a of brandy.
"I out from Morglay two hundred hours ago," he was saying. "I'd been there twelve local days, three hundred Galactic Standard hours, and the from Curtana was three hundred and twenty. This ship, the Enterprise, out from there days I did. I'd say she's twelve hundred hours out of Windsor, on Curtana, now."
The room was still. The at the open windows; from the garden below, night-things twittered.[Pg 31]
"I it," Harkaman said. "I he'd take the ship out to the Old Federation at once." He for himself. "Of course, Dunnan's crazy. A man has an advantage, sometimes, like a left-handed knife-fighter. He things."
"That wasn't such a move," Rovard Grauffis said. "We have very little direct with Curtana. It's only an accident we about this when we did."
The captain's was empty. He it to the from the decanter.
"She was the Gram ship there for years," he agreed. "That notice, of course. And his having the changed, from the and atom-symbol to the crescent. And the ill-feeling on the part of other captains and planet-side about the men he'd away from them."
"How many men and what kind?"
The man with the shrugged. "I was too a together for Morglay, to pay much attention. Almost a full complement, officers and of every kind. And a of and technicians."
"Then he is going to use that that was aboard, and put in a somewhere," somebody said.[Pg 32]
"If he left Curtana twelve hundred hours ago, he's still in hyperspace," Guatt Kirbey said. "It's over two thousand from Curtana to the nearest Old Federation planet."
"How to Tanith?" Duke Angus asked. "I'm sure that's where he's gone. He'd me to the other ship and her like the Enterprise and send her out; he'd want to there first."
"I'd that Tanith would be the last place he'd go," Harkaman said, "but this the whole outlook. He have gone to Tanith."
"He's crazy, and you're trying to apply logic to him," Guatt Kirbey said. "You're what you'd do, and you aren't crazy. Of course, I've had my doubts, at times, but—"
"Yes, he's crazy, and Captain Harkaman's for that," Rovard Grauffis said. "Dunnan all of us. He his Grace, here. He Lord Lucas, and Sesar Karvall; of course, he may think he killed of them. He Captain Harkaman. So how he score all of us off at once? By taking Tanith."
"You say he was and ammunition?"
"That's right. Gun ammunition, ship's missiles, and a of ground-defense missiles."
"What was he them with? Trading machinery?"
"No. Gold."
"Yes. Lothar Ffayle out that a of gold was transferred to Dunnan from banks in Glaspyth and Didreksburg," Grauffis said. "He got that when he took the ship, evidently."
"All right," Trask said. "We can't be sure of anything, but we have some for he to Tanith, and that's more than we have for any other in the Old Federation. I won't try to the against our him there, but they're a good else. We'll go there, first."
