XVI
So Andray Dunnan was him again. Tiny of came in—Dunnan's ship had been on Hoth, on Nergal, selling loot. Now he for gold or platinum, and little, arms and ammunition. Apparently his base, it was, was self-sufficient. It was certain, too, that Dunnan he was being hunted. One Space Viking who had talked with him him as saying: "I don't want any trouble with Trask, and if he's he won't look for any with me." This him all the more positive that Dunnan was for an attack on Tanith. He it a that there should always be at least two ships in off Tanith in to the Lamia, which was on permanent patrol, and he more missile-launching on the moon and on the planet.
There were three ships the Ward and atom-symbol, and a fourth on Gram. Count Lionel of Newhaven was one of his own, and three big across the three thousand light-years Tanith and Gram. Sesar Karvall, who had from his wounds, had died; Lady Lavina had the and the over to her brother, Burt Sandrasan, and gone to live on Excalibur. The at Rivington was finished, and now they had the landing-legs of Harkaman's Corisande II, and were up the skeleton.
And they were with Amaterasu, now. Pedrosan Pedro had been and put to death by General Dagró Ector the the of Eglonsby; the left in Stolgoland had and common with their late enemies. The two nations were in an alliance, with other nations against them, when the Nemesis and the Space Scourge returned and peace against the whole planet. There was no fighting; what had to Stolgoland and Eglonsby. In the end, all the governments of Amaterasu joined in a agreement to the reopened and production of gadolinium, and to in the being in exchange.
It had been harder, and had taken a year longer, to do with Beowulf. The Beowulfers had a single government, and they were to shoot and nego[Pg 84]tiate afterward, a natural in view of of the past. However, they had old Federation-period still in to know what be done with gadolinium. They to off the past as and no blood, and start over again.
It would be some years either had of their own. In the meantime, were good customers, and good friends. A number of Amaterasuans and Beowulfers had come to Tanith to study technologies.
The Tanith were studying, too. In the year, Trask had the more boys of ten to twelve from each and teaching them. In the past year, he had sent the most of them off to Gram to school. In another five years, they'd be home to teach; in the meantime, he was teachers to Tanith from Gram. There was a at Tradetown, and others in some of the larger villages, and at Rivington there was something that almost be called a college. In another ten years or so, Tanith would be able to to the of civilization.
If only Andray Dunnan and his ships didn't come too soon. They would be off, he was of that; but the Tanith would take, in the defense, would set his work for years. He all too well what Space Viking ships do to a planet. He'd have to Dunnan's base, it, his ships, kill the man himself, first. Not to that six years ago on Gram; that was long ago and away, and Elaine was vanished, and so was the Lucas Trask who had loved and her. What now was and on Tanith.
But where would he Dunnan, in two hundred billion light-years? Dunnan had no such problem. He where his enemy was.
And Dunnan was strength. The Yo-Yo, Captain Vann Humfort; she had been reported twice, once in company with the Starhopper, and once with the Enterprise. She a of a hand a by a from one finger; a good ship, and an able, captain. The Bolide; she and the Enterprise had a on Ithunn. The Gilgameshers had settled there and one of their ships had that in.
And he recruited two ships at once on Melkarth, and there was a good of about that among the Tanith Space Vikings.
Melkarth was a planet. Its people had to the village-peasant level; they had no taking or away. It was, however, a place where a ship be set down, and there were women, and the had not the art of distillation, and liquors. A have fun there, much less than on a regular Viking planet, [Pg 85]and for the last eight years a Captain Nial Burrik, of the Fortuna, had been it, taking his ship out for occasional quick and most of the time from day to day almost on the local level. Once in a while, a Gilgamesher would come in to see if he had anything to trade. It was a Gilgamesher who the to Tanith, and it was almost two years old when he told it.
"We it from the people of the planet, the ones who live where Burrik had his base. First, there was a ship came in. You may have of her; she is the one called the Honest Horris."
Trask laughed at that. Her captain, Horris Sasstroff, called himself "Honest Horris," a which he had also on his ship. He was a of sorts. Even the Gilgameshers him, and not a Gilgamesher would have taken a like the Honest Horris to space.
"He had been to Melkarth before," the Gilgamesher said. "He and Burrik are friends." He that like a final and of of them. "The the told our of the Fairdealer was that the Honest Horris was Burrik's ship for ten days, when two other ships came in. They said one had the badge, and the other a green from one star to another."
The Enterprise and the Starhopper. He why they'd gone to a like Melkarth. Maybe they in they'd there.
"The there would be fighting, but there was not. There was a great feast, of all four crews. Then of value was the Fortuna, and all four ships and out together. They said Burrik left nothing of any behind; they were much at that."
"Have any of them been since?"
All three Gilgameshers, captain, exec, and priest, their heads.
"Captain Gurrash of the Fairdealer said it had been over a year his ship put in there. He still see where the landing of the ships had pressed into the ground, but the said they had not been back."
That two more ships about which must be made. He wondered, for a moment, why in Gehenna Dunnan would want ships like that; they must make the Space Scourge and the Lamia as he had them look like of the Royal Navy of Excalibur. Then he frightened, with an at what might have happened. It have, too, at any time in the last year and a half; either or of those ships have come in on Tanith unsuspected. It was only by the accident that he had out, now, about them.
Everybody else it was a joke. They it would be a joke if Dunnan sent those [Pg 86]ships to Tanith now, when they were and for them.
There were other to worry about. One was the of his Majesty Angus I. When the Space Scourge returned, the newly-titled Baron Valkanhayn with him, along with the title and the as Viceroy of Tanith, a most personal greeting, warm and friendly. Angus had it seated at his desk, and a cigarette. The one which had come on the next ship out was just as cordial, but the King was not and a small gold-circled cap-of-maintenance. By the time they had three ships in service on three-month arrivals, a year and a later, he was speaking from his throne, his and the person for himself and the third person for Trask. By the end of the fourth year, there was no message from him in person, and a from Rovard Grauffis to the that His Majesty it for a to address his while seated, by audiovisual. This was by a personal message from Grauffis—now Prime Minister—to the that His Majesty to on his at all times, and that, after all, there was a the position and of the Duke of Wardshaven and that of the Planetary King of Gram.
Prince Trask of Tanith couldn't see it. The King was the of the planet. Even kings like Rodolf of Excalibur or Napolyon of Flamberge didn't try to be anything more. Thereafter, he his and reports to the Prime Minister, always with a personal message, to which Grauffis in kind.
Not only the but also the of the from Gram change. His Majesty was most dissatisfied. His Majesty was disappointed. His Majesty that His Majesty's of Tanith was not to the Royal Exchequer. And his Majesty that Prince Trask was too much upon and not upon raiding; after all, why with when it was possible to take what you wanted from them by force?
And there was the of the Blue Comet, Count Lionel of Newhaven's ship. His Majesty was most that the Count of Newhaven was with Tanith from his own spaceport. All from Tanith should pass through the Wardshaven spaceport.
"Look, Rovard," he told the camera which was his reply to Grauffis. "You saw the Space Scourge when she came in, didn't you? That's what to a ship that a where there's anything taking. Beowulf is with fissionables; they'll give us all the we can load, in for gadolinium, which we sell [Pg 87]them at about twice Sword-World prices. We on Amaterasu for gadolinium, and it for about Sword-World prices." He pressed the stop-button, until he the formula. "You may me as saying that has His Majesty that that isn't good is no friend to His Majesty or to the Realm.
"As for the about the Blue Comet; as long as she is owned and by the Count of Newhaven, who is a in the Tanith Adventure, she has every right to here."
He why His Majesty didn't stop Lionel of Newhaven from sending the Blue Comet out from Gram. He out from her skipper, the next time she came in.
"He doesn't dare, that's why. He's King as long as the great like Count Lionel and Joris of Bigglersport and Alan of Northport want him to be. Count Lionel has more men and more and than he has, now, and that's without the help he'd from else. Everything's on Gram now, the on Southmain Continent's stopped. Everybody wants to keep it that way. Even King Angus isn't to do anything to start a war. Not yet, anyhow."
"Not yet?"
The captain of the Blue Comet, who was one of Count Lionel's barons, was for a moment.
"You ought to know, Prince Trask," he said. "Andray Dunnan's was the King's mother. Her father was old Baron Zarvas of Blackcliffe. He was what was called an invalid, the last twenty years of his life. He was always by two male about the size of Otto Harkaman. He was also said to be eccentric."
The of Duke Angus had always been a people avoided. The of King Angus was a who valued their necks avoided.
Lothar Ffayle had also come out on the Blue Comet. He was just as outspoken.
"I'm not going back. I'm transferring most of the of the Bank of Wardshaven out here; from now on, it'll be a branch of the Bank of Tanith. This is where the is being done. It's to do at all in Wardshaven. What little there is to do."
"Just what's been happening?"
"Well, taxation, first. It the more money came in from here, the higher taxes got on Gram. Discriminatory taxes, too; the small and and a big ones. Baron Spasso and his crowd."
"Baron Spasso, now?"
Ffayle nodded. "Of about of Glaspyth. A of the Glaspyth their baronies—some of them their heads—after Duke Omfray was out. It there was a plot against the life of His Majesty.[Pg 88] It was by the and of Sir Garvan Spasso, who was to the and with the lands of the conspirators."
"You said was bad, as business?"
Ffayle again. "The big Tanith has busted. It got oversold; wanted in on it. And they should have those two last ships, the Speedwell and the Goodhope; the return on them didn't it. Then, you're your own and your own and here; that's a in on Gram. I'm Lavina Karvall has money to live on. And finally, the consumers' market is with that's in from here and with Gram industry."
Well, that was understandable. One of the ships that the shuttle-trip to Gram would in her rooms, in gold and and the like, to pay a profit on the voyage. The bulk-goods that into the was taking a free ride, so anything on hand, that nobody would think of in trade, aboard. A two thousand had a great of space.
Baron Trask of Traskon hadn't to what Tanith was going to cost Gram.[Pg 89]
[Pg 90][Pg 91]
XVII
As might be expected, the Beowulfers their first. They had started with but a little know-how which had been learned. Amaterasu had had to by the they needed to create the they needed to a ship. The Beowulf ship—she was named Viking's Gift—came in on Tanith five and a years after the Nemesis and the Space Scourge had Beowulf; her had a normal-drive ship in that battle. Beside and isotopes, she a of the of luxury-goods to Beowulf which always a market in trade.
After selling the and the money in the Bank of Tanith, the of the Viking's Gift wanted to know where he a good to raid. They gave him a list, none too but all above the chicken-stealing level, and another list of he was not to raid; with which Tanith was trading.
Six months later they learned that he had up on Khepera, with which they were now trading, and had the market there with textiles, hardware, and plastics. He had kregg-meat and hides.
"You see what you did, now?" Harkaman clamored. "You you were making a customer; what you was a competitor."
"What I was an ally. If we do Dunnan's planet, we'll need a to take it. A of Beowulf ships would help. You know them; you them, too."[Pg 92]
Harkaman had other worries. While in Corisande II, he had come in on Vitharr, one of the where Tanith ships traded, to it being by a Space Viking ship on Xochitl. He had a but ship-action, the until he was to out. Then he had gone directly to Xochitl, on the of the ship he had beaten, and had had it out with the captain and Prince Viktor, them with an to Tanith trade-planets alone in the future.
"How did they take it?" Trask asked, when he returned to report.
"Just about the way you would have. Viktor said his people were Space Vikings, not Gilgameshers. I told him we weren't Gilgameshers, either, as he'd out on Xochitl the next time one of his ships one of our planets. Are you going to me up? Of course, you can always send Prince Viktor my head, and an apology—"
"If I have to send him anything, I'll send him a sky full of ships and a full of hellburners. You did perfectly right, Otto; what I'd have done in your place."
There the rested. There were no more by Xochitl ships on any of their trade-planets. No mention of the was in any of the reports sent to Gram. The Gram was enough. Finally, there was an message from Angus himself; he was seated on his throne, his crown, and he speaking from the screen abruptly:
"We, Angus, King of Gram and Tanith, are with our subject, Lucas, Prince and Viceroy of Tanith; we ourselves very by Prince Trask. We therefore him to return to Gram, and to us account of his administration of our and of Tanith."
After some preparations, Trask recorded a reply. He was on a throne, himself, and he a just as as King Angus', and of white and black Imhotep furs.
"We, Lucas, Prince of Tanith," he began, "are to the of the King of Gram, Duke of Wardshaven. It is our desire, if possible, to at peace and with the King of Gram, and to on relations with him and with his subjects.
"We must, however, reject any on his part to the of our of Tanith. It is our hope,"—dammit, he'd said "earnest," he should have of some other word—"that no act on the part of his Majesty the King of Gram will create any in the his and ours."
Three months later, the next ship, which had left Gram while King[Pg 93] Angus' was still in hyperspace, Baron Rathmore. Shaking hands with him as he left the landing craft, Trask wanted to know if he'd been sent out as the new Viceroy. Rathmore started to laugh and ended by vilely.
"No. I've come out to offer my to the King of Tanith," he said.
"Prince of Tanith, for the time being," Trask corrected. "The sword, however, is most acceptable. I take it you've had all of our you can stomach?"
"Lucas, you have ships and men here to take Gram," Rathmore said. "Proclaim King of Tanith and then to the of Gram and the whole would for you."
Rathmore had his voice, but so the open landing stage was no place for this of talk. He said so, ordered a of the to Rathmore's luggage, and got him into a hall-car, taking him to his quarters. After they were in private, Rathmore again:
"It's more than can stand! There isn't one of the old great he hasn't alienated, or one of the minor barons, the and industrialists, the people who were always the of Gram. And it goes from them to the commonfolk. Assessments on the lords, taxes on the people, to meet the taxes, high prices, coinage. Everybody's being this of new he has around him, and that of a wife and her kinfolk...."
Trask stiffened. "You're not speaking of Queen Flavia, are you?" he asked softly.
Rathmore's mouth opened slightly. "Great Satan, don't you know? No, of not; the news would have come on the same ship I did. Why, Angus Flavia. He that she was of him an to the throne. He immediately."
The girl's name meant nothing to Trask; he did know of her father, a Baron Valdiva. He was lord of a small south of the Ward lands and west of Newhaven. Most of his people were out-and-out and cattle-rustlers, and he was as close to being one himself as he get.
"Nice family he's married into. A to the of the throne."
"Yes. You wouldn't know this Lady-Demoiselle Evita; she was only seventeen when you left Gram, and hadn't to a her father's lands. She's up for time since, though. And she has and and and ex-lovers and what-not to out an regiment, and every one of them's at with hands out to they can."
"How Duke Joris like this?" The Duke of Bigglersport was Queen Flavia's brother. "I he's less than delighted."[Pg 94]
"He's mercenaries, is what he's doing, and contragravity. Lucas, why don't you come back? You have no idea what a you have on Gram, now. Everybody would to you."
He his head, "I have a throne, here on Tanith. On Gram I want nothing. I'm sorry for the way Angus out, I he'd make a good King. But since he's an King, the and people of Gram will have to of him for themselves. I have my own tasks, here."
Rathmore shrugged. "I was that would be it," he said. "Well, I offered my sword; I won't take it back. I can help you in what you're doing on Tanith."
The captain of the free Space Viking Damnthing was named Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan, which meant that he was some Sword-Worlder's by a woman of one of the Old Federation planets. His mother's people have been Nergalers; he had black hair, a mahogany-brown skin, and red-brown, almost maroon, eyes. He the the for him and appreciation, then the parcel he had in.
"Something I while on Tetragrammaton," he said. "I you might like to have it. It was on Gram."
It was an pistol, with a and holster. The leather was bisonoid-hide; the of the was an with a crescent, on black. The pistol was a plain 10-mm model with plastic grips; on the it the of the House of Hoylbar, the of Glaspyth. Evidently it was one of the arms Duke Omfray had provided for Andray Dunnan's original company.
"Tetragrammaton?" He over to the Big Board; there was no previous report from that planet. "How long ago?"
"I'd say about three hundred hours. I came from there directly, less than two hundred and fifty hours. Dunnan's ships had left the three days I got there."
That was hot. Well, something like that had to happen, sooner or later. The Space Viking was him if he what of a place Tetragrammaton was.
Neobarbarian, trying to in a way. Small population, on one continent; and fisheries. A little industry, in a small way, at a of towns. They had some power, a century or so ago by from Marduk, one of the planets. They still on Marduk for fissionables; their product was an abominably-smelling vegetable[Pg 95] oil which the for perfumes, and which nobody was able to properly.
"I they had in operation, now," the half-breed Space Viking said. "It that somebody on Rimmon has just re-invented the railroad, and they need more than they can produce for themselves. I I'd Tetragrammaton for and it on Rimmon for a of heaven-tea. When I got there, though, the whole was in a mess; not raiding, but plain destruction. The were just themselves out of it when I landed. Some of them, who didn't think they had anything at all left to lose, gave me a fight. I a of them, to out what had happened. One of them had that pistol; he said he'd taken it off a Space Viking he'd killed. The ships that them were the Enterprise and the Yo-Yo. I you'd want to about it. I got some of the locals' on tape."
"Well, thank you. I'll want to those tapes. Now, you say you want steel?"
"Well, I haven't any money. That's why I was going to Tetragrammaton."
"Nifflheim with the money; your cargo's paid for already. This," he said, the pistol, "and whatever's on the tapes."
Dealing with Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan
They played off the that evening. They weren't particularly informative. The who had been hadn't been in with Dunnan's people in combat. The man who had been the 10-mm Hoylbar was the best of the lot, and he little. He had one of them alone, him from with a shotgun, taken his pistol, and then away as as he could. They had sent landing craft, it seemed, and said they wanted to trade; then something must have happened, nobody what, and they had a and the town. After returning to their ships, they had opened fire with missiles.
"Sounds like Dunnan," Hugh Rathmore said in disgust. "He just kill-crazy. The blood of Blackcliffe."
"There are about this," Boake Valkanhayn said. "I'd say it was a terror-raid, but who in Gehenna was he trying to terrorize?"
"I about that, too." Harkaman frowned. "This town where he seems, such as it was, to have been the capital. They just landed, friendship, which I can't see why they needed to pretend, and then and massacring. There wasn't anything of value there; all they took was what the men themselves or into their landing craft, and they did that they have what to a religious against[Pg 96] landing and without something. The was at these two other towns; a and big stocks of at one, and all that skunk-apple oil at the other. So what did they do? They a five-megaton bomb on each one, and of them to Em-See-Square. That was a terror-raid pure and simple, but as Boake inquires, just who were they terrorizing? If there were big else on the planet, it would figure. But there aren't. They out the two biggest cities, and all the in them."
"Then they wanted to somebody off the planet."
"But nobody'd about it off-planet," somebody protested.
"The Mardukans would; they with Tetragrammaton," the of somebody named Morvill said. "They have a of ships a year there."
"That's right," Trask agreed. "Marduk."
"You mean, you think Dunnan's[Pg 97] trying to Marduk?" Valkanhayn demanded. "Great Satan, he isn't for that!"
Baron Rathmore started to say something about what Andray Dunnan was to do, and what his uncle was to do. It was just one of the he had been making since he'd come to Tanith and didn't have to look over his while he was making them.
"I think he is, too," Trask said. "I think that is what he is doing. Don't ask me why; as Otto is of remarking, he's and we aren't, and that him an advantage. But what have we gotten, since those Gilgameshers told us about his up Burrik's ship and the Honest Horris? Until today, we've nothing from any other Space Viking. What we have was from Gilgameshers about on where they trade, and every one of them is also a where Marduk ships trade. And in every case, there has been little or nothing reported about valuable taken. The are all about and bombings. I think Andray Dunnan is making on Marduk."
"Then he's than his and his uncle both!" Rathmore cried.
"You mean, he's making a of terror-raids on their trade-planets, to the Mardukan space-navy away from the home planet?" Harkaman had stopped being incredulous. "And when he them all away, he'll make a fast raid?"
"That's what I think. Remember our postulate: Dunnan is crazy. Remember how he himself that he was the to the of Wardshaven?" And his for Elaine; he pushed that from him. "Now, he's that he's the Space Viking in history. He has to do something of that distinction. When was the last time a planet? I don't Gilgamesh, I a like Marduk."
"A hundred and twenty years ago; Prince Havilgar of Haulteclere, six ships, against Aton. Two ships got back. He didn't. Nobody's it since," Harkaman said.
"So Dunnan the Great will do it. I he tries," he himself by adding. "That's provided I out what happened. Then I stop about him."
There was a time when he had the possibility that somebody else might kill Dunnan he could.
XVIII
Seshat, Obidicut, Lugaluru, Audhumla.
The man by his father's death in the Dunnan to the post of President[Pg 98] of the Republic of Tetragrammaton had been sure that the Marduk ships which came to his also on those. There had been some about making contact, and the face-to-face meeting had in an of on his part. They had met out of doors; around them, spread and buildings, and and shelters, and wide of and rubble.
"They up the here, and the oil-refinery at Jannsboro. They and the little farm-towns and villages. They that killed as many as the bombing. And after they had gone away, this other ship came."
"The Damnthing? She the of a with three very big horns?"
"That's the one. They did a little damage, at first. When the captain out what had to us, he left some food and for us." Roger-fan-Morvill Esthersan hadn't mentioned that.
"Well, we'd like to help you, if we can. Do you have power? We can give you a little equipment. Just it of us, when you're on your feet; we'll be to later. But don't think you us anything. The man who did this to you is my enemy. Now, I want to talk to every one of your people who can tell me anything at all...."
Seshat was the closest; they there first. They were too late. Seshat had had it already, and on the of the counters, not too long ago. Four hundred hours at most. There had been two hellburners; the on which they had were still-smoking into the ground and the below, at the center of five hundred mile of and and earth and forests. There had been a planetbuster; it had started a major earthquake. And a dozen thermonuclears. There were a survivors—a population is hard to completely—but a century they'd be to the and the hatchet.
"We don't know Dunnan did it, personally," Paytrik Morland said. "For all we know, he's in an air-tight city on some nobody of, on a throne, by a harem."
He had to that Dunnan was doing something of just the sort. The Greatest Space Viking of History would naturally a Space Viking empire.
"An goes out to look his over, now and then; I don't all my time on Tanith. Say we try Audhumla next. It's the away. We might there while he's still up Obidicut and Lugaluru. Guatt, us a jump for it."[Pg 99]
When the away and the screen cleared, Audhumla looked like Tanith or Khepera or Amaterasu or any other Terra-type planet, a big with and with and on the other. There was a single large moon, and, in the screen, the of and and and mountain-ranges. But there was nothing to show....
Oh, yes; lights on the side, and from the size they must be cities. All the available data for Audhumla was long out of date; a must have in the last dozen centuries.
Another light appeared, a hard blue-white that spread into a larger, less yellow light. At the same time, all the alarm-devices in the command-room into a of and and and and shouting. Radiation. Energy-release. Contragravity effects. Infra-red output. A of radio and communication-screen signals. Radar and scanner-ray from the planet.
Trask's hurting; he that he had been the in of him with it. He stopped it.
"We him, we him!" he was hoarsely. "Full speed in, acceleration, as much as we can stand. We'll worry about when we're in distance."
The larger; Karffard was taking him at his word about acceleration. There'd be a Gehenna of a bill to pay when they started decelerating. On the planet, more were going off just the line.
"Ship observed. Altitude about a hundred to five hundred miles—hundreds, not thousands—35° North Latitude, 15° west of the line. Ship is under fire, bomb near her," a voice whooped.
Somebody else was that the city lights were cities, or forests. The voice, having stopped, in again:
"Ship is visible in screen, just at the line. And there's another ship but not visible, around the equator, and a third one out of sight, we can just the of her around the planet."
That meant there were two sides, and a fight. Unless Dunnan had up a third ship, somewhere. The view shifted; for a moment the was off-screen, and then its came into the screen against a star-scattered background. They were almost in to two thousand miles now; Karffard was to stop and trying to put the ship into a orbit. Suddenly[Pg 100] they a of one of the ships.
"She's in trouble." That was Paul Koreff's voice. "She's air and water like crazy."
"Well, is she a good guy or a guy?" Morland was back, as though Koreff's distinguish. Koreff that.
"Another ship making signal," he said. "She's the one up over the equator. Sword-World code; her communication-screen combination, and an identify-yourself."
Karffard out the as Koreff it. While Trask was his into immobility, the screen lighted. It wasn't Andray Dunnan; that was a disappointment. It was almost as good, though. His henchman, Sir Nevil Ormm.
"Well, Sir Nevil! A surprise," he himself saying. "We last met on the at Karvall House, did we not?"
For once, the paper-white of Andray Dunnan's âme damnée expression, but it was fear, surprise, shock, hatred, anger, or what of them, Trask no more than guess.
"Trask! Satan you ...!"
Then the screen blank. In the screen, the other ship came on unfalteringly. Paul Koreff, who had more data on mass, engine energy-output and dimensions, was her as the Enterprise.
"Well, go for her! Give her everything!"
They didn't need the order; Vann Larch was speaking into his hand-phone, and Alvyn Karffard was his voice all over the Nemesis, of and direction change, and while he was speaking, in the room sliding. In the screen, the other ship was visible; he see the of black with the crescent, and in his screen Dunnan would be the sword-impaled of the Nemesis.
If only he be sure Dunnan was there to see it. If it had only been Dunnan's face, of Ormm's, that he had in the screen. As it was, he couldn't be sure, and if one of the that were already going out a lucky hit, he might be sure. He didn't who killed Dunnan, or how. All he wanted was to know that Dunnan's death had set him free from a self-assumed that was now meaningless to him.
The Enterprise counter-missiles; so did the Nemesis. There were of pure energy and from them of spread and vanished. Something must have through; red lights on the board. It had been[Pg 101] something to the of the Nemesis. At the same time, the other ship took a from something that would have her had she not been in collapsium. Then, as they passed close together, and along with missiles, and then the Enterprise was out of around the horizon.
Another ship, the size of Otto Harkaman's Corisande II, was approaching; she a tapering, red-nailed hand a by a string. They toward each other, a garden of fire-flowers them; they one another with guns, and then they apart. At the same time, Paul Koreff was up an impulse-code from the third, crippled, ship; a screen combination. Trask it out as he it.
A man in space was looking out of the screen. That was bad, if they had to up in the room. They still had air; his was off, but it was and back. On his was a device of a with its around a planet, and a above. He had a thin, high-cheeked face, with a his eyes, and a mustache.
"Who are you, stranger. You're my enemies; that make you a friend."
"I'm a friend of who Andray Dunnan his enemy. Sword-World ship Nemesis; I'm Prince Lucas Trask of Tanith, commanding."
"Royal Mardukan ship Victrix." The thin-faced man gave a laugh. "Not been up to her name so well. I'm Prince Simon Bentrik, commanding."
"Are you still battle-worthy?"
"We can fire about our guns; we still have a left. Seventy of the ship's sealed off, and we've been in a dozen places. We have power for and some steering-way. We can't make way at the of lift."
Which the Victrix a target. He over his at Karffard to cut speed all he without apart.
"When that comes into view, start around her. Get into a tight circle above her." He to the man in the screen. "If we can ourselves enough, we'll do all we can to you."
"All you can is all you can; thank you, Prince Trask."
"Here comes the Enterprise!" Karffard shouted, with embellishments. "She on us."
"Well, do something about her!"
Vann Larch was already doing it. The Enterprise had taken in the last exchange; Koreff's her halo-ed with air and water vapor. Her instruments[Pg 102] would be the same from the Nemesis; wedge-shaped six to eight in were sealed off in places. Then the only thing that be with was the of between. The short-range gun and ended as they passed.
In the screen, he had a round-nosed thing come up from the Victrix, out ahead of the Enterprise. She was almost out of around the when she ran head-on into it, and in an blaze. For a moment, he she had been destroyed, then she into and around the of Audhumla.
Trask and the Mardukan were hands with themselves at each other in their screens; in the Nemesis room was screaming: "Well shot, Victrix! Well shot!"
Then the Yo-Yo was around again, and Vann Larch was saying, "Gehenna with this around! I'll the unprintability!"
He orders—a of and numbers—and going out. Most of them up in space. Then the Yo-Yo up, very quietly, as do where there is no air to shock-and sound-waves, but very brilliantly. There was all over the night of the planet.
"That was our planetbuster," Larch said. "I don't know what we'll use on Dunnan."
"I didn't know we had one," Trask admitted.
"Otto had a on Beowulf. The Beowulfers are good weaponeers."
The Enterprise came back, hastily, to see what had up. Larch put off another of small stuff, with a fifty thermonuclear, viewscreen-piloted, among them. It had its own of small missiles, and it got through. In the screen, a was visible just the of the Enterprise, the outward. Something, possibly a in an open tube, for launching, had gone off her. What the of the ship was like, or how many of her company were still alive, was hard to guess.
There were some, and her were still out missiles. They were and up. The of the Enterprise in the guidance-screen of the and it; the that had the of Dunnan's spread to the whole screen. The screen milky white as the off.
All the other screens briefly, until their on. Even afterward, they like the cloud-veiled sun of Gram at high noon. Finally, when the light-intensity had and the filters[Pg 103] off, there was nothing left of the Enterprise but an orange haze.
Somebody—Paytrik, Baron Morland, he saw—was him on the and in his ear. A dozen space-armored officers with planet-perched on their were Prince Bentrik in the screen from the Victrix, like bisonoid-herders on night.
"I wonder," he said, almost inaudibly, "if I'll know if Andray Dunnan was on that ship."
