XIII
Beowulf was bad.
Valkanhayn and Spasso had been to the raid. Nobody Beowulf; Beowulf was too tough. Beowulf had energy and and and normal-space craft, they had on a of other of their system. They had but hyperdrive. Beowulf was a planet, and you didn't planets, not and away with it.
And beside, hadn't they on Amaterasu?
"No, we did not," Trask told them. "If we're going to make anything out of Tanith, we're going to need power, and I don't and waterwheels. As you've remarked,[Pg 68] Beowulf has energy. That's where we our and our power units."
So they to Beowulf. They came out of eight light-hours from the F-7 star of which Beowulf was the fourth planet, and twenty light-minutes apart. Guatt Kirbey a that the ships practical distance, and they making plans in an screen conference.
"There are, or were, three of ores," Harkaman said. "The last ship to here and away was Stefan Kintour's Princess of Lyonesse, sixty years ago. He one on the Antarctic continent; according to his account, there was new. He didn't up too badly, and it ought to be still operating. We'll go in from the south pole, and we'll have to go in fast."
They and equipment. They would go in bunched, the ahead; they and the Space Scourge would go to the ground, while the better-armed Nemesis would above to off local contragravity, shoot missiles, and provide overhead cover. Trask transferred to the Space Scourge, taking with him Morland and two hundred of the Nemesis ground-fighters. Most of the single-mounts, landing and and heavy-duty with him, the around the vehicle of Valkanhayn's ship.
They jumped in to six light-minutes, and while Valkanhayn's was still with his they and detection. When they came out again, they were two light-seconds off the south pole, and a dozen ships were either in or up from the planet. All normal-space craft, of course, but some were almost as big as the Nemesis.
From there on, it was a nightmare.
Ships at them with guns, and they back. Missiles out, and counter-missiles stopped them in and of light. Red lights on the board, and and squawked. In the outside-view screens, they saw the Nemesis in a of radiance, and then, while their were still in their throats, come out of it again. Red lights off on the as damage-control and their sealed the in the and air into areas, and then more red lights came on.
Occasionally, he would toward Boake Valkanhayn, who sat in his chair, a cigar that had gone out long ago. He wasn't it, but he wasn't fear. Once a Beowulfer in a flash, and when the of to nothing the ship was gone. All Valkanhayn said was: "Hope one of our boys did that."
They their way in and[Pg 69] down, toward the atmosphere. Another Beowulf ship up, a about the size of Spasso's Lamia. A moment later, another; Valkanhayn was the in of him with his and yelling: "That was one of ours! Find out who it; his name!"
Missiles were up from the planet, now. Valkanhayn's officer was trying to the source. While he was trying, a big melon-shaped thing away from the Nemesis, and in the jiggling, radiation-distorted screen Harkaman's image was laughing.
"Hellburner just off; about 50° south, 25° east of the line. That's where those are from."
Counter-missiles toward the big metal melon; defense missiles, robot-launched, met them. The hellburner's was marked by red and orange in space and then by fire-puffs after it entered atmosphere. It into the the sunset, and then of its own. It was sunlight; a Bethe solar-phoenix reaction, and it would itself for hours. He it hadn't a thousand miles of their objective.
The ground operation was a of a different sort. He in a car, with Paytrik Morland and a of others. There were and gun batteries. There were patterns of of vehicles, gunfire, and single vehicles that past or up in of them. Robots on contragravity—military robots, with to launch, and with only their own to hurl, themselves at them. Screens that from radiation; speakers that orders. Finally, the battle, which had in the air over two thousand square miles of and and plants, two and battles, one at the packing plant and and one at the power-unit factory.
Three came to a triangle over each; the Space Scourge between, out a of vehicles and big claw-armed manipulators; and landing and forth. The car and from one to the other; at one, keg-like of plutonium, collapsium-plated and apiece, were out of the vaults, and at the other were out of nuclear-electric power-unit cartridges, some as big as a ten jar, to power a engine, and some small as a of pistol ammunition, for like flashlights.
Every hour or so, he looked at his watch, and it would be three or four minutes later.
At last, when he was that he had been killed, and was and would all in this fire-riven[Pg 70] chaos, the Nemesis red and the speakers in all the vehicles were recall. He got the Space Scourge somehow, after assuring himself that nobody who was alive was left behind.
There were twenty-odd who weren't, and the was full of who had gone up with cargo, and more were being helped off the vehicles as they were berthed. The car in which he had been had been times, and one of the was under his and didn't aware of it. When he got to the room, he Boake Valkanhayn, his and weary, coffee from a and it with brandy.
"That's it," he said, on the cup. It was the one that had been in of him when he had appeared in the Nemesis' screen. He toward the screen; had been up, or the around of the sealed. "Ship secure." He set the and a cigar. "To Garvan Spasso, 'Nobody can call that chicken-stealing.'"
"No. Not if you count Tizona giraffe-birds as chickens. That Gram gum-pear you're in that coffee? I'll have the same. Just out the coffee."
XIV
The Lamia's them up as soon as they were out of the last microjump; Trask's that Dunnan might attack in their had been groundless. Incredibly, he realized, they had been gone only thirty-odd Galactic Standard days, and in that time Alvyn Karffard had done an amount of work.
He had the of and debris, and he had the away from around it and the two tall buildings. The called the city Rivvin; a here and there in it that the original name had been Rivington. He had done mapping, in some detail of the on which it was and, in general, of the of the planet. And he had relations with the people of Tradetown and friends with their king.
Nobody, not those who had it, their when the was unloaded. The little of long unicorns—the Khepera had called them kreggs, a of the name of some who had them—had come through the and the Battle of Beowulf in good shape. Trask and a of his from Traskon them anxiously, and the ship's doctor, acting veterinarian, of they would be likely to eat. Three of the proved to be with calf; these were and over with solicitude.[Pg 71][Pg 72]
The were to take a view of the kreggs, at first. Cattle ought to have two horns, one on either side, back. It wasn't right for to have only one horn, in the middle, forward.
Both ships had taken damage. The Nemesis had one open, and was the Beowulfers hadn't noticed that and a inside. The Space Scourge had taken a directly on her south while out from the planet, and a good of the southern part of the ship was sealed off when she came in. The Nemesis was repaired as as possible and put on off-planet patrol, then they to work on the Space Scourge, transferring much of her to ground defense, out all the available space, and repairing her as as possible. To repair her was a job for a regular shipyard, like Alex Gorram's on Gram. And that was where the work would be done.
Boake Valkanhayn would her on the to and from Gram. Since Beowulf, Trask had not only to the man, but was to him. He had been a good man once, which had been only of his own making had overtaken him. He'd just let himself go and stopped caring. Now he had taken of himself again. It had started after they had on Amaterasu. He had to dress more and speak more grammatically; to look and act more like a and less like a barfly. His men had to jump to when he gave an order. He had the on Beowulf, but that had been the of the chicken-thief he had been. He had been scared, going in; well, who hadn't been, a with the of ignorance. But he had gone in, and his ship well, and had his station over the plant in a of and missile, and he had sure who had gone and who was still alive was he out.
He was a Space Viking again.
Garvan Spasso wasn't, and would be. He was when he that Valkanhayn would take his ship, with much of the of the three planets, to Gram. He came to Trask, about it.
"You know what'll happen?" he demanded. "He'll space out with that cargo, and that'll be the last any of us'll of him again. He'll take it to Joyeuse or Excalibur and himself a with it."
"Oh, I that, Garvan. A number of our people are going along—Guatt Kirbey will be the astrogator; you'd trust him, wouldn't you? And Sir Paytrik Morland, and Baron Rathmore, and Lord Valpry, and Rolve Hemmerding...." He was for a moment, by an idea. "Would you be to make the in the Space Scourge, too?"
Spasso would, very decidedly. Trask nodded.[Pg 73]
"Good. Then we'll be sure nothing is pulled," he said seriously.
After Spasso was gone, he got in touch with Baron Rathmore.
"See to it that he as much money that's him as possible, when you to Gram. And ask Duke Angus, as a to give him some meaningless position with a title, Lord Chamberlain of the Ducal Washroom, or something. Then he can him with and give him an opportunity to sell it to Omfray of Glaspyth. Then, of course, he be to sell Omfray out to Angus. A of times around and somebody'll a knife in him, and then we'll be of him for good."
They the Space Scourge with gold from Stolgoland, and paintings and from the art and and and and and plate from the markets of Eglonsby. They and of from Khepera. Most of the Khepera wasn't to Gram, but it was in of their own to be to the Tanith locals.
Some of these were learning machine operations, and a were able to vehicles that had been with safety devices. The had all and in an that had been formed, and the King of Tradetown some to train his own army. Some in the machine shop a to and the local how to do it.
The to thrive, after the Space Scourge departed. Several were born, and to be doing well; the of Tanith and Khepera were safely alike. Trask had for them. Every Viking ship had its own vats, but men of meat, and fresh meat was always in demand. Some day, he hoped, kregg-beef would be an item of sale to ships in on Tanith, and the long-haired might a market in the Sword-Worlds. They had Rivington and Tradetown regularly, now, and air-lorries were the villages. The of Tradetown occasionally against this competition. And in Rivington itself, and power and labored, and there was always a cloud of over the city.
There was so much to do, and only a under twenty-five Galactic Standard hours in a day to do it. There were whole days in which he once of Andray Dunnan.
A hundred and twenty-five days to Gram, and a hundred and twenty-five days back. They had long ago passed. Of course, there would be the work of repairing the Space Scourge, the with the in the[Pg 74] original Tanith Adventure, the of the needed for the new base. Even so, he was to worry a little. Worry about something as out of his as the Space Scourge was useless, he knew. He couldn't help it, though. Even Harkaman, imperturbable, to be fretful, after two hundred and seventy days had passed.
They were in the they had out at the top of the retiring, in chairs that had come from one of the of Eglonsby, their drinks them on a low table, the top of which was with something that looked like but wasn't. On the it the plans for a reaction-plant and mass-energy they would as soon as the Space Scourge returned with for producing collapsium-plated shielding.
"Of course, we go ahead with it, now," Harkaman said. "We tear off the Lamia to any of a plant."
That was the time either of them had close to the possibility that the ship mightn't return. Trask his cigar in the ashtray—it had come from President Pedrosan Pedro's private office—and a little more into his glass.
"She'll be long. We have of our people to make sure nobody else to take the ship. And I believe, now, that Valkanhayn can be trusted."
"I do, too. I'm not about what might on the ship. But we don't know what's been on Gram. Glaspyth and Didreksburg have up and jumped Wardshaven Duke Angus was to Glaspyth. Boake might be landing the ship in a at Wardshaven."
"Be a sorry looking after it closed on him. That would be the time in history that a Sword-World was by Space Vikings." Harkaman looked at his half-empty glass, then it to the top. It was the same drink he had started with, just as a that has been and recruited up to a times is still the same regiment.
The of the screen—one of the in the room that hadn't been somewhere—interrupted him. They rose; Harkaman, still his drink, to put it on. It was a man on in the room, overhead, that two had just been at twenty light-minutes north of the planet. Harkaman his drink and set the empty glass.
"All right. You put out a alert? Switch anything that comes in over to this screen." He got out his pipe and was packing tobacco into it mechanically. "They'll be out of the last and about two light-seconds away in a minutes."
Trask sat again, saw that his cigarette had almost to the tip, and a fresh one from it, wish[Pg 75]ing he be as about it as Harkaman. Three minutes later, the tower up two at a light-second and a half, a thousand or so miles apart. Then the screen flickered, and Boake Valkanhayn was looking out of it, from the in the newly room of the Space Scourge.
He was a newly Boake Valkanhayn, too. His captain's jacket looked like the work of one of the tailors on Gram, and on the was a large and knight's star, of design, bearing, among other things, the and atom-symbol of the house of Ward.
"Prince Trask; Count Harkaman," he greeted. "Space Scourge, Tanith; thirty-two hundred hours out of Wardshaven on Gram, Baron Valkanhayn commanding, by Rozinante, Durendal, Captain Morbes. Requesting permission and to in."
"Baron Valkanhayn?" Harkaman asked.
"That's right," Valkanhayn grinned. "And I have a the size of a to prove it. I have a whole of scrolls. One says you're Otto, Count Harkaman, and another says you're Admiral of the Royal Navy of Gram."
"He did it!" Trask cried. "He himself King of Gram!"
"That's right. And you're his and well-loved Lucas, Prince Trask, and Viceroy of his Majesty's Realm of Tanith."
Harkaman at that. "The Gehenna you say. This is our Realm of Tanith."
"Is his Majesty making it while to accept his sovereignty?" Trask asked. "That is, scrolls?"
Valkanhayn was still grinning. "Wait till we start sending down. And wait till you see what's into the other ship."
"Did Spasso come with you?" Harkaman asked.
"Oh, no. Sir Garvan Spasso entered the service of his Majesty, King Angus. He is Chief of Police at Glaspyth, now, and nobody can call what he's doing there chicken-stealing, either. Any he steals, he the whole farm to them."
That didn't good. Spasso make King Angus' name all over Glaspyth. Or maybe he'd allow Spasso to the of Omfray, and then him for his of the people. He'd read about somebody who'd done something like that, in one of Harkaman's Old Terran history books.
Baron Rathmore had on Gram; so had Rolve Hemmerding. The of the gentlemen-adventurers, all with new titles of nobility, had returned. From them, as the two ships were into orbit, he learned what had on Gram since the Nemesis had out.
Duke Angus had his of on with the[Pg 76] Tanith Adventure, and had started of a new ship at the Gorram yards. This had to all the of for the of Glaspyth, and had Duke Omfray completely. Omfray had already started a ship of his own; the entire of his were into an to her and to space ahead of the one Angus was building. Work was going on on her when the Wardshaven Glaspyth; she was now as a unit of the Royal Navy. Duke Omfray had managed to to Didreksburg; when Angus' moved in on the duchy, he had again, this time off-planet. He was now the of at the of his wife's uncle, the King of Haulteclere.
The Count of Newhaven, the Duke of Bigglersport, and the Lord of Northport, all of had the of a monarchy, had Angus as their sovereign. So, with a knife at his throat, had the Duke of Didreksburg. Many other magnates had to their sovereignty. That might fighting, but Paytrik, now Baron, Morland, it.
"The Space Scourge stopped that," he said. "When they about the here, and saw what we'd to Gram, they started their minds. Only of King Angus will be allowed to in the Tanith Adventure."
As for King Angus' of Tanith and his sovereignty, that would also be advisable. They would need a Sword World for the they took or by from other Space Vikings, and until they had of their own, they would be on Gram for many which not be by raiding.
"I the King I'm not out here for my health, or his profit?" he asked Lord Valpry, one of the screen as the Space Scourge was into orbit. "My out here is Andray Dunnan."
"Oh, yes," the Wardshaven replied. "In fact, he told me, in so many words, that he would be most happy if you sent him his nephew's in a of lucite. What Dunnan did touched his honor, too. Sovereign see any in like that."
"I he that sooner or later Dunnan will try to attack Tanith?"
"If he doesn't, it isn't I didn't tell him often enough. When you see the defense we're bringing, you'll think he does."
It was impressive, but nothing to the and equipment. Mining for use on the iron Moon of Tanith, and normal-space transports for the fifty thousand mile and satellite. A collapsed-matter producer; now they collapsium-plate their own shielding. A small, fully[Pg 77] robotic, that be set up and on the satellite. Industrial robots, and to make machinery. And, best of all, two hundred and technicians.
Quite a on Gram would realize, long, what they had in those men. He what Lord Trask of Traskon would have about that.
The Prince of Tanith was no longer in what to Gram. Maybe, if for the next century or so, his would be Gram by from Tanith.
XV
As soon as the Space Scourge was unloaded, she was put on off-planet watch; Harkaman out in the Nemesis, while Trask behind. They the Rozinante, after setting her at Rivington Spaceport. After that was done, her officers and took a which a month, until the Nemesis returned. Harkaman must have quick on a dozen planets. None of the he was valuable, and he the whole thing as chicken-stealing, but he had some men and the ship a fresh scars. A good of what was to the Rozinante was which would with produced on Gram.
"That will be a come-down, after what the Space Scourge took back, but we didn't want to send the Rozinante empty," he said. "One thing, I had time to do a little reading, stops."
"The books from the Eglonsby library?"
"Yes. I learned a thing about Amaterasu. Do you know why that was so by the Federation, when there don't to be any ores? The produced gadolinium."
Gadolinium was to engines; the of a ship the size of the Nemesis fifty of it. On the Sword-Worlds, it was times its weight in gold. If they still it, Amaterasu would a second visit.
When he mentioned it, Harkaman shrugged. "Why should they mine it? There's only one thing it's good for, and you can't a on Diesel oil. I the be reopened, and new built, but...."
"We for gadolinium. They have none of their own. We our own prices for it, and we wouldn't need to tell them what sells for on the Sword-Worlds."
"We could, if we do with there, after what we did to Eglonsby and Stolgoland. Where would we plutonium?"
"Why do you think the Beowulfers don't have hyperships, when they have else?"
Harkaman his fingers.[Pg 78] "By Satan, that's it!" Then he looked at Trask in alarm. "Hey, you're not of selling Amaterasu and Beowulf gadolinium, are you?"
"Why not? We make a big profit on ends of the deal."
"You know what would next, don't you? There'd be ships from all over the place in a years. We want that like we want a in the head."
He couldn't see the objection. Tanith and Amaterasu and Beowulf work up a very good trade; all three would profit. It wouldn't cost men and ship-damage and ammunition, either. Maybe a defense alliance, too. Think about it later; there was too much to do here on Tanith at present.
There had been on the Moon of Tanith the of the Federation; they had been of their afterward, while Tanith was still a against barbarism, but the and man-made still be used, and in time the were reopened and the put in, and of were by shuttle-craft. In the meantime, the had been out and was taking shape.
The Gram ship Queen Flavia—she had been the one at Glaspyth—came in three months after the Rozinante started back; she must have been while Valkanhayn was still in hyperspace. She cargo, some of it but all of it useful; was in the Tanith Adventure now, and the money had to be for something. Better, she close to a thousand men and women; the of and ability from the Sword-Worlds was into a flood. Among them was Basil Gorram. Trask him as an twerp, but he to be a good man. He very that in a years his father's yards at Wardshaven would be and all the Tanith ships would be Tanith-built. A junior partner of Lothar Ffayle's also came out, to a branch of the Bank of Wardshaven at Rivington.
As soon as the Queen Flavia had her and passengers, she took on five hundred ground-fighters from the Lamia, Nemesis and Space Scourge and out on a voyage. While she was gone, the second ship, the one Duke Angus had started at Wardshaven and King Angus had finished, the Black Star, came in.
Trask was at that she had out from Gram almost two years after the Nemesis had departed. He still hadn't any idea where Andray Dunnan was, or what he was doing, or how to him.
The news of the Gram on Tanith spread slowly, by the and that the Sword-Worlds, and then by ships and Space Vikings to the Old Federation.[Pg 79] Two years and six months after the Nemesis had come out of to Boake Valkanhayn and Garvan Spasso on Tanith, the Space Viking came in, to sell a and repairs. They his loot—he had been some above the level of Khepera and that of Amaterasu—and the his ship had taken it. He had been with the Everrard family on Hoth, and himself much more satisfied with the he had on Tanith and to return.
He had of Andray Dunnan or the Enterprise.
It was a Gilgamesher that the news.
He had of Gilgameshers—the word was used for a native of or a ship from Gilgamesh—on Gram, from Harkaman and Karffard and Vann Larch and the others. Since to Tanith, he had about them from every Space Viking, in and in terms.
Gilgamesh was rated, with reservations, as a though not on a level with Odin or Isis or Baldur or Marduk or Aton or any of the other worlds which had the of the Terran Federation uninterruptedly. Perhaps Gilgamesh more credit; its people had two centuries of and themselves out of it by their bootstraps. They had all the old techniques, up to and the hyperdrive.
They didn't raid; they traded. They had religious to violence, though they these limits, and were able and to with in defense of their home planet. About a century before, there had been a five-ship Viking on Gilgamesh; one ship had returned and had been for after a base. Their ships to trade, and they a of them settled, and where they settled they money, sending most of it home. Their to be a theo-socialism, and their religion an of most of the major of the Federation period, plus and of their own. Aside from their for trading, their to not of their as more than human, and the of and other in which they from social with others, them disliked.
After their ship had into orbit, three of them came to do business. The captain and his long coats, almost knee-length, to the throat, and small white like caps; the third, one of their priests, a with a cowl, and the symbol of their religion, a triangle in a white circle, on his breast. They all that from their cheeks, with their and upper shaved. They all had the same righteous, faces,[Pg 80] they all of any sort, and they sat as though from the who had sat in their chairs them. They had a mixed of up here and there on planets, in which nobody on Tanith was interested. They also had some good stuff—vegetable-amber and flame-bird from Irminsul; or something very like it from else; diamonds and Uller and Zarathustra sunstones. They also had some platinum. They wanted machinery, and robots.
Dealing with Gilgamesher
The trouble was, they wanted to haggle. Haggling, it seemed, was the Gilgamesh sport.[Pg 81]
"Have you of a Space Viking ship named the Enterprise?" he asked them, at the seventh or in the bargaining. "She a crescent, light on black. Her captain's name is Andray Dunnan."
"A ship so named, with such a device, Chermosh more than a year ago," the priest-supercargo said. "Some of our people on Chermosh to trade. This ship the city in which they were; some of them in world's goods."
"That's a pity."
The Gilgamesh shrugged. "It is as Yah the Almighty wills," he said, then slightly. "The Chermoshers are and of false gods. The Space Vikings their temple and it utterly; they away the images and abominations. Our people that there was much and among the idolators."
So that was the entry on the Big Board. It covered, optimistically, the whole of one in his office, and for some time that one note about the on Chermosh, and the date, as nearly as it be approximated, looked very on it. The captain of the Black Star material for a more. He had put in on to be by Space Vikings, to loot, give his men some time off-ship, and make inquiries, and he had names for a of by the ship. One was only six months old.
The way news about in the Old Federation, that was off the stove.
The owner-captain of the Alborak had something to add, when he his ship in six months later. He his drink slowly, as though he had limited himself to one and wanted to make it last as long as possible.
"Almost two years ago, on Jagannath," he said. "The Enterprise was on there, some light repairs. I met the man a times. Looks just like those pictures, but he's a small pointed beard, now. He'd a of loot. General merchandise, and stones, a of and that looked as though it had come from some Neobarb king's palace, and some temple stuff. Buddhist; there were a of big gold Dai-Butsus. His were drinks for all comers. Some of them were dark above the collar, as though they'd been on a hot-star not too long before. And he had a of Imhotep to sell, stuff."
"What of repairs? Combat damage?"
"That was my impression. He out a little over a hundred hours after I came in, in company with another ship. The Starhopper, Captain Teodor Vaghn. The talk was that they were making a two-ship somewhere." The captain of the Alborak for a moment. "One [Pg 82]other thing. He was ammunition, from pistol to hellburners. And he was all the air-and-water equipment, and all the and equipment, he get."
That was something to know. He thanked the Space Viking, and then asked:
"Did he know, at the time, that I'm out here for him?"
"If he did, nobody else on Jagannath did. I didn't about it, myself, till six months afterward."
That evening, he played off the he had of the for Harkaman and Valkanhayn and Karffard and some of the others. Somebody said:
"That temple came from Chermosh. They're Buddhists, there. That with the Gilgamesher's story."
"He got the on Imhotep; he for them," Harkaman said. "Nobody anything off Imhotep by raiding. The planet's in the middle of a glaciation, the land surface to the is over solid. There is one city, ten or fifteen thousand, and the of the population is around in settlements of a of hundred all along the of the glaciers. They're all and trappers. They have some contragravity, and when a ship comes in, they spread the news by radio and his to town. They use sights, and over ten years old can a man in the at five hundred yards. And big are no good; they're too well dispersed. So the only way to anything out of them is to for it."
"I think I know where he was," Alvyn Karffard said. "On Imhotep, is a metal. On Agni, they use for sewer-pipe. Agni is a hot-star planet, class B-3 sun. And on Agni they are tough, and they have good weapons. That be where the Enterprise took that damage."
That started an as to he'd gone to Chermosh first. It was sure that he had gone to Agni and then Imhotep. Guatt Kirbey to courses.
"It doesn't tell us anything, either way," he said at length. "Chermosh is away off to the from Agni and Imhotep in either case."
"Well, he have a base, somewhere, and it's not on any Terra-type planet," Valkanhayn said. "Otherwise, what would he want with all that air-and-water and and stuff?"
The Old Federation area was full of non-Terra-type planets, and why should going to any of them? Any that wasn't oxygen-atmosphere, six to eight thousand miles in diameter, and a narrow surface-temperature range, wasn't time on. But a like that, if one had the equipment, would make a hideout.
"What of a captain is this Teodor Vaghn?" he asked.[Pg 83]
"A good one," Harkaman said promptly. "He has a streak—sadistic—but he his and he has a good ship and a well-trained crew. You think he and Dunnan have up?"
"Don't you? I think, now that he has a base, Dunnan is a together."
"He'll know we're after him by now," Vann Larch said. "And he where we are, and that puts him one up on us."
The Big Board
