X
It took Valkanhayn and Spasso more time and to their than Trask necessary. Harkaman satisfied, and so was Baron Rathmore, the Wardshaven politician.
"It's like talking a of small into taking somebody's livery-and-maintenance," the said. "You can't use too much pressure; make them think it's their own idea."
There were of crews, with arguments; Baron Rathmore speeches, while Lord Trask of Tanith and Admiral Harkaman—the titles were Rathmore's suggestion—remained aloof. On ships, owned in common, which meant that nobody owned anything. They had taken over Tanith on the same of ownership, and nobody in either was to think that they do anything with the by themselves. By joining the Nemesis, it appeared that they were something for nothing. In the end, they voted to place themselves under the authority of Lord Trask and Admiral Harkaman. After all, Tanith would be a lordship, and the three ships together a fleet.
Admiral Harkaman's act of authority was to order a of units. He wasn't by the condition of the two ships, but that was only he had much worse. They were spaceworthy; after all, they had here from Hoth under their own power. They were only combat-worthy if the weren't too severe. His original that the Nemesis have of them to pieces was, if anything, over-conservative. The were only in shape, and the was bad.
"We aren't going to our time here on Tanith," he told the two captains. "This is a base, and 'raiding' is the word. And we are not going to easy planets. A that can be with isn't the time it takes to it. We are going to have to on every we hit, and I am not going to the of the men under me, which your as well as mine, of under-powered and under-armed ships."
Spasso to argue. "We've been along."
Harkaman cursed. "Yes. I know how you've been along;[Pg 53] chicken-stealing on like Set and Xipototec and Melkarth. Not making to expenses; that's why your ship's in the shape she is. Well, those days are over. Both ships ought to have a full overhaul, but we'll have to that till we have a of our own. But I will insist, at least, that your and are in order. And your equipment; you didn't a on the Nemesis till we were less than twenty thousand miles off-planet."
"We had the Lamia in condition first," Trask said. "We can put her on off-planet watch, of that pair of pinnaces."
Work on the Lamia started the next day, and friction-heat was her officers and the sent over from the Nemesis. Baron Rathmore aboard, and came laughing.
"You know how that ship's run?" he asked. "There's a of of officers; engineer, exec, guns-and-missiles, and so on. Spasso's just an ventriloquist's dummy. I talked to all of them. None of them can pin me to anything, but they think we're going to Spasso out of and one of them, and each one thinks he'll be it. I don't know how long that'll last, it's a string-and-tape job like the one we're having to do on the ship. It'll till we something better."
"We'll have to of Spasso," Harkaman agreed. "I think we'll put one of our own people in his place. Valkanhayn can in of the Space Scourge; he's a spaceman. But Spasso's no good for anything."
The local problem was complicated, too. The spoke Lingua Terra of a sort, like every of the that had gone out from the Sol in the Third Century, but it was a sort. On planets, the language had been in and voice tapes. But can only be read and with the of electricity, and Tanith had that long ago.
Most of the people Spasso and Valkanhayn had and came from villages a of five hundred miles. About of them wanted to be repatriated; they were gifts of knives, tools, blankets, and of metal which to be the of value and medium of exchange, and home. Finding their proper villages was not easy. At each such village, the news was spread that the Space Vikings would pay for what they received.
The Lamia was as as possible. She was still from being a good ship, but she was much closer to being one than before. She was with the best that be assembled, and put on orbit; Alvyn Karffard took of her, with some of Spasso's officers, some of Valkanhayn's, and a from the Nemesis. Harkaman [Pg 55][Pg 54]was to use her for of all the Lamia and Space Scourge officers, and them and forth.
The labor guards, a score in number, were of their duties, Sword-World firearms, and training. The tokens, of plastic, were introduced, and a store was set up where they be for Sword-World items. After a while, it on the that the also be used for among themselves; money to have been one of the of that had been along Tanith's path. A of them were able to use hand-lifters and hand-towed lifter-skids; were learning to like bulldozers, at least to the of which or did what. Give them a little time, Trask thought, a at work on the floor. It won't be many years of them will be aircars.
As soon as the Lamia was on watch, the Space Scourge was set at the and work started on her. It was that Valkanhayn would take her to Gram; Nemesis people would go along to good on his part, and to talk to Duke Angus and the Tanith investors. Baron Rathmore, and Paytrik Morland, and other Wardshaven gentlemen-adventurers for the function; Alvyn Karffard to act as Valkanhayn's exec, with private orders to him in if necessary, and Guatt Kirbey to do the astrogating.
"We'll have to take the Nemesis and the Space Scourge out, first, and make a big raid," Harkaman said. "We can't send the Space Scourge to Gram empty. When Baron Rathmore and Lord Valpry and the of them talk to Duke Angus and the Tanith investors, they'll have to have a more than some travel of Tanith. They'll have to be able to that Tanith is producing. We ought to have a little money of our own to invest, too."
"But, Otto; ships?" That Trask. "Suppose Dunnan comes and nobody here but Spasso and the Lamia?"
"Chance we'll have to take. Personally, I think we have a year to a year and a Dunnan up here. I know, we were trying to what he'd do before. But the of I have in mind, we'll need two ships, and in any case, I don't want to those ships here while we're gone, if you do."
"When it comes to that, I don't think I do, either. But we can't trust Spasso here alone, can we?"
"We'll of our people to make sure. We'll Alvyn—that'll a of work for me that he'd otherwise do, on the ship. And Baron Rathmore, and Valpry, and the men who've been our sepoys. We can things[Pg 56] around and some of Valkanhayn's men in place of some of Spasso's. We might talk Spasso into going along. That'll having to him at our table, but it would be wise."
"Have you a place to raid?"
"Three of them. First, Khepera. That's only thirty light-years from here. That won't amount to much; just chicken-stealing. It'll give our green hands some safe combat-training, and it'll give us some idea of how Spasso's and Valkanhayn's people behave, and give them for the next job."
"And then?"
"Amaterasu. My about Amaterasu is about twenty years old. A of can in twenty years. All I know of it—I was there myself—is it's civilized—about like Terra just the of the Atomic Era. No energy, they that, and of nothing it, but they have and power, and aircraft, and some very good chemical-explosive weapons, which they use very on each other. It was last to have been by a ship from Excalibur twenty years ago."
"That promising. And the third planet?"
"Beowulf. We won't take on Amaterasu to make any there, but if we saved Amaterasu for last, we might be needing too many repairs."
"It's like that?"
"Yes. They have energy. I don't think it would be wise to mention Beowulf to Captains Spasso and Valkanhayn. Wait till we've Khepera and Amaterasu. They may be like heroes, then."
XI
Khepera left a taste in Trask's mouth. He was still it when the died out of the screen and left the of hyperspace. Garvan Spasso—they had had no trouble in him to come along—was at the screen as though he still see the they had left.
"That was a good one; that was a good one!" he was crowing. He'd said that a dozen times since they had out. "Three in five days, and all the we up around them. We took over two stellars."
And did ten times as much it, and there was no of by which to the death and suffering.
"Knock it off, Spasso. You said that before."
There was a time when he wouldn't have spoken to the fellow, or else, like that. Gresham's law, extended: Bad manners drive out good manners. Spasso on him indignantly.
"Who do you think you are—?"
"He thinks he's Lord Trask of Tanith," Harkaman said. "He's right, too; he is." He looked at[Pg 57] Trask for a moment, then to Spasso. "I'm just as as he is of you your mouth about a two stellars. Nearer a and a half, but two million's nothing to about. Maybe it would be for the Lamia, but we have a three-ship and a to meet on. Out of this raid, a ground-fighter or an able will a hundred and fifty stellars. We'll about a thousand, ourselves. How long do you think we can in doing this of chicken-stealing."
"You call this chicken-stealing?"
"I call it chicken-stealing, and so'll you we to Tanith. If you live that long."
For a moment, Spasso was still affronted. Then, temporarily, his hope, and then apprehension. Evidently he Otto Harkaman's reputation, and some of the Harkaman had done weren't his idea of an easy way to make money.
Khepera had been easy; the hadn't had anything to with. Small arms, and light which hadn't been able to fire more than a rounds. Wherever they had resistance, the had in, and machine and auto-cannon. Yet they had fought, and hopelessly—just as he would have, Traskon.
Trask himself coffee and a cigarette from one of the robots. When he looked up, Spasso had gone away, and Harkaman was on the of the desk, his pipe.
"Well, you saw the elephant, Lucas," Harkaman said. "You don't to have liked it."
"Elephant?"
"Old Terran I read somewhere. All I know is that an elephant was an animal about the size of one of your Gram megatheres. The means, something for the time which makes a great impression. Elephants must have been something to see. This was your Viking raid. You've it, now."
He'd been in before; he'd the fighting-men of Traskon the with Baron Manniwel, and there were always and rustlers. He'd it would be like that. He remembered, five days, or was it five ages, ago, his as the city and spread in the screen and the Nemesis came toward it. The pinnaces, his four and the two from the Space Scourge, had gone out a hundred miles the city; the Space Scourge had gone into a circle twenty miles from its center; the Nemesis had her until she was ten miles from the ground, she out landing craft, and cars, and the little egg-shaped one-man air-cavalry mounts. It had been thrilling. Everything had gone perfectly; not Valkanhayn's had goofed.
Then the had begun[Pg 58] in. The and in the city. He still see that little gun, it must have been around seventy or eighty millimeter, on a high-wheeled carriage, by six shaggy, bandy-legged beasts. They had it and were trying to it on a when a from an directly under the muzzle. Gun, caisson, crew, the team fifty yards behind, had vanished.
Or the little company, some of them women, trying to the top of a tall and half-ruinous with and pistols. One air-cavalryman them all out with his machine guns.
"They don't have a chance," he'd said, half-sick. "But they keep on fighting."
"Yes; of them, isn't it?" Harkaman, him, had said.
"What would you do in their place?"
"Fight. Try to kill as many Space Vikings as I they got me. Terro-humans are all like that. That's why we're human."
If the taking of the city had been a massacre, the that had had been a man-made Hell. He had gone down, along with Harkaman, while the fighting, if it be so called, was still going on. Harkaman had that the men ought to see him moving about among them; for his own part, he had a to their guilt.
He and Sir Paytrik Morland had been on together in one of the big that had since Khepera had been a Member Republic of the Terran Federation. The air was with smoke, and the of burning. It was surprising, how much would burn, in this city of and stone. It was surprising, too, how well-kept was, at least on the ground level. These people had taken in their city.
They themselves alone, in a great empty hallway; the noise and of the had moved away from them, or they from it, and then, when they entered a hall, they saw a man, one of the locals, on the with the of a woman on his lap. She was dead, her had been off, but he was her tightly, her blood his shirt, and heartbrokenly. A on the him.
"Poor devil," Morland said, and started forward.
"No."
Trask stopped him with his left hand. With his right, he his pistol and the man dead. Morland was horrified.
"Great Satan, Lucas! Why did you do that?"
"I wish Andray Dunnan had done that for me." He the safety on and the pistol. "None of this would be if he had. How many more do you think we've here today? And we don't have Dunnan's of madness."[Pg 59]
The next morning, with of value and sent aboard, they had started cross-country for five hundred miles to another city, the hundred over a from villages Valkanhayn's men had the night before. There was no warning; Khepera had electricity and radio and telegraph, and the spread of news was at the speed of one of the the on calling horses. By midafternoon, they had with that city. It had been as as the one.
One thing, it was the center of a country. The were native to the planet, heavy-bodied the size of a Gram or one of the Terran on Tanith, with long like a Terran yak. He had a dozen of the Nemesis ground-fighters who had been on his Traskon to a score of and four likely bulls, with to last them on the voyage. The were against any of them to themselves to Tanith, but if they did, they might prove to be one of the most valuable pieces of from Khepera.
The third city was at the of a river, like Tradetown on Tanith. Unlike it, this was a metropolis. They should have gone there of all. They two days it. The Kheperans on river-traffic, with stern-wheel steamboats, and the was with with every of merchandise. Even better, the Kheperans had money, and for the most part it was gold specie, and the bank were full of it.
Unfortunately, the city had been since the of the Federation and the climb up from the that had followed, and a great of it was of wood. Fires started almost at once, and it was almost on fire by the end of the second day. It had been visible in the screen after they were out of atmosphere, a black until the it into and then a glow.
"It was a business."
Harkaman nodded. "Robbery and always are. You don't have to ask me who said that Space Vikings are professional and murderers, but who was it said that he didn't how many were and how many in the Old Federation?"
"A man. Lucas Trask of Traskon."
"You wish, now, that you'd Traskon and on Gram?"
"No. If I had, I'd have every hour I was doing what I'm doing now. I can used to this, I suppose."
"I think you will. At least, you your down. I didn't on my raid, and had about it for a year." He gave his coffee cup to the and got to his feet. "Get a little rest, for a of hours. Then some[Pg 60] alcodote-vitamin pills from the medic. As soon as are secured, there'll be parties all over the ship, and we'll be to look in on every one of them, have a drink, and say 'Well done, boys.'"
Elaine came to him, while he was resting. She looked at him in horror, and he to his from her, and then that he was trying to it from himself.
XII
They came on Eglonsby, on Amaterasu, the Nemesis and the Space Scourge by side. The had them up at point-five light-seconds; by this time the whole they were coming, and nobody was why. Paul Koreff was at least twenty radio stations, somebody to each one as it was identified. What was in was excited, some panicky, and all in Lingua Terra.
Garvan Spasso was perturbed. So, in the screen from the Space Scourge, was Boake Valkanhayn.
"They got radio, and they got radar," he clamored.
"Well, so what?" Harkaman asked. "They had radio and twenty years ago, when Rock Morgan was here in the Coalsack. But they don't have energy, do they?"
"Well, no. I'm up a of discharge, but nothing nuclear."
"All right. A man with a can a man with his fists. A man with a gun can a dozen with clubs. And two ships with can a whole without them. Think it's time, Lucas?"
He nodded. "Paul, can you cut in on that Eglonsby station yet?"
"What are you going to do?" Valkanhayn wanted to know, against it in advance.
"Summon them to surrender. If they don't, we will a hellburner, and then we will out another city and it to surrender. I don't think the second one will refuse. If we are going to be murderers, we'll do it right, this time."
Valkanhayn was aghast, at the idea of an city. Spasso was something about, "... Teach the dirty Neobarbs a lesson—" Koreff told him he was on. He up a hand-phone.
"Space Vikings Nemesis and Space Scourge, calling the city of Eglonsby. Space Vikings...."
He it for over a minute; there was no reply.
"Vann," he called Guns-and-Missiles. "A job, about four miles over the city."
He the phone and looked to the viewscreen. A little later, a shape away from the ship's south pole. The screen off, and the screen as the on. Valkanhayn, the other ship, was a warn[Pg 61]ing about his own screens. The only screen the Nemesis was the one to the missile. The city of Eglonsby in it, and then it dark. There was an orange-yellow in the other screens. After a while, the off and the screen on again. He up the phone.
"Space Vikings calling Eglonsby; this is your last warning. Communicate at once."
Less than a minute later, a voice came out of one of the speakers:
"Eglonsby calling Space Vikings. Your bomb has done great damage. Will you your fire until somebody in authority can with you? This is the at the State station; I have no authority to say anything to you, or discuss anything."
"Oh, good, that like a dictatorship," Harkaman was saying. "Grab the and a pistol in his and you have everything."
"There is nothing to discuss. Get somebody who has authority to the city to us. If this is not done the hour, the city and in it will be obliterated."
Only minutes later, a new voice said:
"This is Gunsalis Jan, to Pedrosan Pedro, President of the Council of Syndics. We will President Pedrosan over as soon as he can speak directly to the in of your ships."
"That is myself; him to me at once."
After a of less than fifteen they had President Pedrosan Pedro.
"We are prepared to resist, but we what this would cost in and of property," he began.
"You don't to. Do you know anything about weapons?"
"From history; we have no power of any sort. We can no on this planet."
"The cost, as you put it, would be and in Eglonsby and for a of almost a hundred miles. Are you still prepared to resist?"
The President of the Council of Syndics wasn't and said so. Trask asked him how much authority his position gave him.
"I have all powers in any emergency. I think," the voice added tonelessly, "that this is an emergency. The will any I make."
Harkaman a in of him. "What I said; dictatorship, with false front."
"If he isn't a false-front for some oligarchy." He to Harkaman to take his thumb off the button. "How large is this Council?"
"Sixteen, elected by the Syndicates they represent. There is the Syndicate of Labor, the Syndicate of Manufacturers, the Syndicate of Small Businesses, the...."
"Corporate State, First Century Pre-Atomic on Terra. Benny the Moose," Harkaman said. "Let's all go and talk to them."[Pg 62]
When they were sure that the public had been to make no resistance, the Nemesis to two miles, over the center of the city. The were low by the of a contragravity-using people, the a thousand and over five hundred, and they were more closely set than Sword-Worlders were to, with between. In places there were of roadways, leading nowhere. Harkaman laughed when he saw them.
"Airstrips. I've them on other where they've contragravity. For by chemical fuel. I we have time for me to look around, here. I'll they have here."
The "great damage" by the bomb was about equal to the of a medium hurricane; he had from high at Traskon. Mostly it had been moral, which had been the intended.
They met President Pedrosan and the of Syndics in a and well-furnished near the top of one of the medium-high buildings. Valkanhayn was surprised; in a loud he that these people must be almost civilized. They[Pg 63] were introduced. Amaterasuan personal names, which at a and a political organization making much use of registration by list. They all which had the but of uniforms. When they had all seated themselves at a large table, Harkaman his pistol and used the for a gavel.
"Lord Trask, will you with these people directly?" he asked, formal.
"Certainly, Admiral." He spoke to the President, the others. "We want it that we this city, and we complete submission. As long as you to us, we will do no of the we wish to take from it, and there will be no to any of your people, or any vandalism. This visit we are paying you will cost you heavily, make no mistake about that, but the cost, it will be a price for what we might otherwise do."
The President and the Syndics glances. Let the worry about the cost; they'd come out of it with whole skins.
"You understand, we want maxi[Pg 64]mum value and minimum bulk," he continued. "Jewels, objects of art, furs, the of luxury of all kinds. Rare-element metals. And metals, gold and platinum. You have a metallic-based currency, I suppose?"
"Oh, no!" President Pedrosan was scandalized. "Our is on services to society. Our unit is called a credit."
Harkaman impolitely. Evidently he'd economic like that before. Trask wanted to know if they used gold or at all.
"Gold, to some extent, for jewelry." Evidently they weren't complete economic puritans. "And in industry, of course."
"If they want gold, they should have Stolgoland," one of the Syndics said. "They have a gold-standard currency." From the way he said it, he might have been them of with their fingers, and possibly of their own young.
"I know, the we're using for this are a centuries old; Stolgoland doesn't to appear on them."
"I wish it didn't appear on ours, either." That was General Dagró Ector, Syndic for State Protection.
"It would have been a good thing for this whole if you'd to them of us," somebody else said.
"It isn't too late for these to make that decision," Pedrosan said. "I that gold is a metal among your people?" When Trask nodded, he continued: "It is also the of the Stolgonian currency. The is paper, in gold. In actuality, the of gold has been prohibited, and the entire gold of the nation is in at three depositories. We know where they are."
"You to me, President Pedrosan."
"I do? Well, you have two large and six smaller craft. You have weapons, something nobody on this has. You have contragravity, something that is more than a here. On the other hand, we have a and a ground-troops, aircraft, ground-vehicles, and chemical weapons. If you will to attack Stolgoland, we will place this entire at your disposal; General Dagró will them as you direct. All that we ask is that, when you have the gold of Stolgoland your ships, you will our in of the country."
That was all there was to that meeting. There was a second one; only Trask, Harkaman and Sir Paytrik Morland the Space Vikings, and the Eglonsby government was by President Pedrosan and General Dagró. They met more intimately, in a smaller and more room in the same building.
"If you're going to on[Pg 65] Stolgoland, you'd along with it," Morland advised.
"What?" Pedrosan to have only the idea of what he was talking about. "You mean, them? Certainly not. We will attack them by surprise. It will be nothing but plain self-defense," he added righteously. "The of Stolgoland have been to attack us for years."
"Yes. If you had out your original of Eglonsby, they would have us the moment your ships out. It's what I'd do in their place."
"But you maintain relations with them?"
"Of course. We are civilized. The peace-loving government and people of Eglonsby...."
"Yes, Mr. President; I understand. And they have an here?"
"They call it that!" Dagró. "It is a of vipers, a plague-spot of and ...!"
"We'll that ourselves, right away," Harkaman said. "You won't be able to up all their it, and if we to, it would suspicion. We'll have to put up a to them."
"Yes. You will go on the air at once, calling on the people to with us, and you will order your to us in the we are on Eglonsby," Trask said. "In that way, if any Stolgonian see your around our landing craft, they'll think it's to help us our loot."
"And we'll that a large part of the will of equipment," Dagró added. "That will why our and are being on your vehicles."
When the Stolgonian was by the Space Vikings, the asked to be taken at once to their leader. He had a proposition: If the Space Vikings would the army of Eglonsby and admit Stolgonian when they were to leave, the would with them ten thousand of gold. Trask to be very to the offer.
Stolgoland across a narrow and sea from the State of Eglonsby; it was with islands, and every one of them was, in turn, with oil wells. Petroleum was what the and ground-vehicles of Amaterasu in operation; oil, than ideology, was at the of the the two nations. Apparently the Stolgonian in Eglonsby was deceived, and the reports Trask allowed the to make the deception. Hourly the Eglonsby radio out to the people to co-operate with the Space Vikings, with an occasional about the of materials being taken. Eglonsby in Stolgoland was active. The Stolgonian were being at four on the Eglonsby, and there was a[Pg 66] of every of ship available. By this time, any that Trask might have for either party had evaporated.
The of Stolgoland started the after their over Eglonsby. Before dawn, the six in, making a wide around the of the and in from the north, two to each of the three gold-troves. They were by radar, but too late for any to be organized. Two were taken without a shot; by mid-morning all three had been open and the and were being removed.
The four from the Stolgonian of Eglonsby was to have been were by bombing. Neutralized was a word, Trask thought; there was no echo in it of the of the still-living, and and blinded, around the of ground-zero. The Nemesis and the Space Scourge, from landing and from the ships themselves, Eglonsby on Stolgonopolis. While they were the city, with all the atrocities, the Space Vikings were the gold, and anything else that was of more than ordinary value, the ships.
They were still at it the next when President Pedrosan at the newly capital, announcing his of the Stolgonian of and his cabinet on trial as criminals. Before sunset, they were over Eglonsby. The might as high as a half-billion Excalibur stellars. Boake Valkanhayn and Garvan Spasso were and words.
The of Eglonsby then began.
They up machinery, and stocks of and light-metal alloys. The city was full of warehouses, and the were with valuables. In of the and which the government operated, there to be a class and if gold were not a metal it was not for purposes of ostentation. There were large art museums. Vann Larch, their nearest approach to an art specialist, took of the best from them.
And there was a public library. Into this Otto Harkaman vanished, with a dozen men and a scow. Its would be much in the future.
President Pedrosan Pedro was on the radio from Stolgonopolis that night.
"Is this how you Space Vikings keep faith?" he indignantly. "You've me and my army here in Stolgoland, and you're Eglonsby. You promised to Eglonsby alone if I helped you the gold of Stolgoland."
"I promised nothing of the kind.[Pg 67] I promised to help you take Stolgoland. You've taken it," Trask told him. "I promised to avoid or violence. I've already a dozen of my own men for rape, and vandalism. Now, we to be out of here in twenty-four hours. You'd be here then. Your own people are starting to loot. We did not promise to them for you."
That was true. What had been left behind, and the police, were unable to with the that were in the wake of the Space Vikings. Everybody to be trying to what he and let the Vikings be for it. He had been able to keep his own people in order. There had been at least a dozen cases of and murder, and the had been hanged. None of their shipmates, not the Space Scourge company, resentful. They the had what they'd gotten; not for what they'd done to the locals, but for orders.
A had been in from Stolgoland by the time they had their vehicles and were out. They didn't to be making much headway. Harkaman, who had his of and was at the desk, laughed heartily.
"I don't know what Pedrosan'll do. Gehenna, I don't know what I'd do, if I'd myself into a like that. He'll his army back, the other in Stolgoland, and both. Suppose we in, in about three or four years, just out of curiosity. If we make twenty of what we did this time, the would pay for itself."
After they into and had the ship secured, the parties three Galactic days, and nobody was at all sober. Harkaman was over the of material he had found. Spasso was jubilant. Nobody call this chicken-stealing. He that as long as he was able to say anything. Khepera, he conceded, had been. Lousy two or three stellars; poo!
