"2568-09" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 6 - In Harms Way)

"IN HARM'S WAY"

AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

By Robert J. Simmons

Chapter Nine

      "I will go in alone," I heard Lorraine say to Darlanis. We had brought the Athena and Sarnian Queen in under steam, the smoke from our funnels slowly drifting up into the iron gray sky overhead. A few flakes of snow now drifting down, a gentle but chilly breeze from the north leaving no doubt that we were now getting close to the great arctic ice cap of this era. The scat- tered ice floes that we'd now seen drifting out there in the ocean like ghostly white islands had left little "doubt" of this. The crews were at "general quarters", with weapons now issued...       Floating alongside the warship was a boat of fur clad men who looked much like the Vikings of old. If Queen Valeris was right, and I had no doubt that she was, this was the place where they held Sharon captive. Lorraine would take with her five thousand golden crowns, an amount of "wealth" that in this time I had calculated would have built and "outfitted" a dozen ships, and also paid the wages of their crews for some time to come. She had placed me in command of the Athena, telling me what she wished me to do should she not return from this mission of hers.       I had sent Carol earlier to Queen Valeris, my wife's "cun- ning" something we might need if Lorraine failed to ransom her stepdaughter from these men as I suspected might well happen. A couple of swift schooners now in dry dock had left no doubt that we had indeed finally found the right place. The other ships, the North Star, the Vengeance were both further out to sea. We had almost stripped these ships of their crews to provide the Athena and the Sarnian Queen with the manpower necessary for the sort of a battle we might be forced to fight here. This would be a battle without "rules", the "code of honor" meaning nothing to such men as these now looking up at us as Lorraine carefully de- scended the icy gangway to step down into their boat. The heavy chest of gold then being swung out and lowered down beside her. Such an amount of gold weighed about three hundred thirty pounds.       "Got more `guts' than I'd have," captain Janice Hill of the Athena said to me, her appearance and build making her look like a "daughter" of Lorraine. I suspected too that both Janice and Lorraine looked upon their "relationship" together in such terms. Janice was a competent sailor, but not really a fighting captain. Darlanis' captain was an old grizzled sailor. I assumed that he "knew" a few things. Darlanis was a completely different matter. Her courage I did not "doubt", but she was a "loose cannon" whose actions under fire were something none of us could predict now...       "Keep steam up," I answered, seeing her nod. Our steam en- gines and weapons were the only things that might save us now!! We were vastly outnumbered by these people, several of their long oared vessels lying there at the wharfs, while a couple others now kept a close watch from nearby. While such vessels were not "ramships" as such, they were filled with men, and like any oared vessel, would have the advantage in maneuverability over both our steam frigates. On the other hand the "firepower" of a steam frigate is awesome, perhaps three times that of the North Star...       Lorraine kept a careful eye on her surroundings as the War- lady of California was guided along the half frozen muddy paths that made up the "streets" of this ramshackle city the men with her called "home". Some slatternly women looking out at them, a few passersby moving out of their path. Despite the cold, the snow, the place had a "stink" like that of penned up slaves, the Queen of Trelandar noticed thoughtfully. Obviously "cleanliness" was not something considered very "important" here in this place. The visible signs of aging among the population leaving no doubts that they too knew little of the anti-aging serums of the south. Once long ago she had stood against a Legion, "bluffed" them all. A "living legend" some now claimed to be the greatest fighting woman of all time. Lorraine wondered if it was true... The gen- tle drifting snowflakes from the iron gray sky now coating the unpainted rough logs of the houses there upon both sides of them. A few from time to time kissing her chilled face beneath her par- ka. The rough hewn logs of the houses seemingly "fitting" here.       "You wouldn't bring `much' in a slave market," the leader of the group had said to her when they'd landed, the "implications" of that something that left no doubts in Lorraine's mind as to what sort of men these were. "Not like your girl would," he ad- ded with a grin, Lorraine nodding, the "feel" of her Lorr force saber and blaster pistol beneath her outer clothing a comfort to her just then. If she was to die in this place, she would at least give an "account" of herself that would never be forgotten!       The Warlady had shuddered despite herself beneath her cloth- ing in reply, not from the cold air, but from the thought of what perhaps had already "happened" to her lovely innocent Sharon at the hands of these sub-human beasts! The hatred burning in her heart washed over her like a flame as she marched in the midst of them almost like some captive through their dirty filthy village. Regardless of what happened now, she pledged she would see this matter out to the final end, dying if necessary in defense of one who was slim and golden, one who perhaps now was the "hope" of a new civilization that someday might dawn on Earth after she and Darlanis were gone... A true "second Janet Rogers".............. *****************************************************************       "We wait for the signal," Carol spoke, looking up at Queen Valeris as the fur clad woman sat there astride her gigantic wolf, a long metal shod lance there in its socket at her stirrup. With the Warlady of Dularn was a force of Warrioresses, fighting women of both Dularn and California. Women armed with swords and the deadly short compound bows that could hurl a dozen arrows a minute to a distance of two hundred and fifty yards. Lieutenant Shari Johnson of the North Star now nodding in reply, sitting there on her own wolf beside the Queen of the Free Women. Carol wondered if her own opinion of these women was still the same as it had been. She had spent days now living with them, sleeping in their own camps, sitting around their fires at night while the wolves howled at the Moon peeking from between the snow clouds.       "We have extra wolves," Valeris answered. The animals were superior to a unicorn over rough terrain, although little faster. Carol smiled in reply, made a polite comment that she preferred to "fight" on foot. Keeping to herself that she was terrified of the gigantic creatures, which she didn't trust all that much yet. *****************************************************************       The structure, Lorraine noticed with that professional in- terest of a well educated person, was much like that of the long houses of the Vikings. A open fire down the center being vented to some extent through the roof. The interior was smoky, smelly. A number of half naked women, dirty, clad in nothing more than bits of crudely treated animal skins, now were going about their duties as slaves. Their own eyes looking up into hers in a way that left no doubts in the Warlady's own mind that there was in- deed "A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH" for a woman in this horrid place!       "You are from the Empire, `woman'?" the pirate king spoke, sitting there gross and swollen on the skin covered throne, Shar- on there beside him, her azure eyes burning into those of her fa- mous stepmother! The blonde haired girl completely naked but for a brief bit of fur that served more to "accent" her nakedness than to cover it, Lorraine saw. A blaze of hot fury going over the Warlady as she slipped back her coat. Her thin unrouged lips curving into a grim smile as she whipped out the blaster pistol!!       "I am," Lorraine snapped, leaping forward up on to the dais. The report of the pistol was loud, like the crack of a whip, the more sodden "THUD" of the explosive bullet hardly noticeable. Lorraine spinning about, turning, half throwing the force saber into Sharon's hands, the half dozen pirates now leaping forward all dying as swiftly as Lorraine's trigger finger could pull the four and a half pound pull semi-double action trigger six times!!       "Cut the other women free!" Lorraine snapped, the steel of her voice something that made Sharon feel very proud of the woman just then. Despite the admiration and love she felt for Darlanis it had been Lorraine who had come here, a woman who Sharon knew was the greatest fighting woman of all time, a tall rather stern featured brunette with whom she'd once flown from the Twentieth Century to this time. The same woman who had defeated the entire crew of a Bajan slaver with just a sword, the same woman who those in the Empire of California knew to be a true "Empress of Swords", a true "Warlady" in the full true meaning of the term!!!       The pistol held in both hands, concentrating on her sight picture, Lorraine opened fire upon the stunned surprised pirates gathered about there in the great hall. The pistol was a weapon completely unknown to these people, and as she had expected, they fled in terror, jamming the exits, making better "targets" of themselves. A few trying to escape by lying down behind things swiftly dying at the hands of the infuriated women who only a minute before had been serving them as docile meek slave girls...       Sharon had waded into the "melee" swinging the force saber, a weapon against which there was no defense, the meter long "blade" of pure force passing through matter with no resistance! The young Queen of Orgon quickly organizing the former slaves into a fighting force as her step mother's pistol sent the last of the terrified pirates fleeing from the building into the cold!       "They will be back with reinforcements," Lorraine snapped to Sharon, exchanging her empty magazine for a full one of thirty. "And some of them will have crossbows," the Warlady pointed out. *****************************************************************       "Some sort of `fuss'!" Janice spoke, cocking her head. I had no doubt what "sort" of a "fuss" it was, and "who" was re- sponsible for it! Lorraine had wisely left me in command, al- though I doubted that Darlanis would obey any order I gave her...       "Battle Stations! Light Your Firebombs! Destroy Those Ships!" I yelled to the crew as I stood at the quarter deck rail- ing! "FULL STEAM!" I barked into the speaking tube that connect- ed the quarterdeck with the boiler room amidships. "Hoist that anchor!" I ordered, the Athena already coming up on her anchor!!       I saw Sarnian Queen hoisting her battle flags, Darlanis fir- ing a full broadside of fire bombs into the village, her quick- firers all in action, pouring a rain of missiles into those gath- ered on the docks. Her other broadside firing, two of the long- ships bursting into flames, the others now under oars moving in!       "Fire on those longships!" Janice Hill snapped from beside me. I saw men and women from the North Star, the Vengeance with their bows, crossbows now at the armored railings, firing, the black smoke pouring from our funnel as the lamp oil was pumped into the fire that fed our boiler! The heavy "thud-thud" of the engine beneath our feet a comforting sound as we swung slowly about, our massive armored bow pointed right at a pirate vessel!!

Next Chapter

"IN HARM'S WAY"

AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

By Robert J. Simmons

Chapter Nine

      "I will go in alone," I heard Lorraine say to Darlanis. We had brought the Athena and Sarnian Queen in under steam, the smoke from our funnels slowly drifting up into the iron gray sky overhead. A few flakes of snow now drifting down, a gentle but chilly breeze from the north leaving no doubt that we were now getting close to the great arctic ice cap of this era. The scat- tered ice floes that we'd now seen drifting out there in the ocean like ghostly white islands had left little "doubt" of this. The crews were at "general quarters", with weapons now issued...       Floating alongside the warship was a boat of fur clad men who looked much like the Vikings of old. If Queen Valeris was right, and I had no doubt that she was, this was the place where they held Sharon captive. Lorraine would take with her five thousand golden crowns, an amount of "wealth" that in this time I had calculated would have built and "outfitted" a dozen ships, and also paid the wages of their crews for some time to come. She had placed me in command of the Athena, telling me what she wished me to do should she not return from this mission of hers.       I had sent Carol earlier to Queen Valeris, my wife's "cun- ning" something we might need if Lorraine failed to ransom her stepdaughter from these men as I suspected might well happen. A couple of swift schooners now in dry dock had left no doubt that we had indeed finally found the right place. The other ships, the North Star, the Vengeance were both further out to sea. We had almost stripped these ships of their crews to provide the Athena and the Sarnian Queen with the manpower necessary for the sort of a battle we might be forced to fight here. This would be a battle without "rules", the "code of honor" meaning nothing to such men as these now looking up at us as Lorraine carefully de- scended the icy gangway to step down into their boat. The heavy chest of gold then being swung out and lowered down beside her. Such an amount of gold weighed about three hundred thirty pounds.       "Got more `guts' than I'd have," captain Janice Hill of the Athena said to me, her appearance and build making her look like a "daughter" of Lorraine. I suspected too that both Janice and Lorraine looked upon their "relationship" together in such terms. Janice was a competent sailor, but not really a fighting captain. Darlanis' captain was an old grizzled sailor. I assumed that he "knew" a few things. Darlanis was a completely different matter. Her courage I did not "doubt", but she was a "loose cannon" whose actions under fire were something none of us could predict now...       "Keep steam up," I answered, seeing her nod. Our steam en- gines and weapons were the only things that might save us now!! We were vastly outnumbered by these people, several of their long oared vessels lying there at the wharfs, while a couple others now kept a close watch from nearby. While such vessels were not "ramships" as such, they were filled with men, and like any oared vessel, would have the advantage in maneuverability over both our steam frigates. On the other hand the "firepower" of a steam frigate is awesome, perhaps three times that of the North Star...       Lorraine kept a careful eye on her surroundings as the War- lady of California was guided along the half frozen muddy paths that made up the "streets" of this ramshackle city the men with her called "home". Some slatternly women looking out at them, a few passersby moving out of their path. Despite the cold, the snow, the place had a "stink" like that of penned up slaves, the Queen of Trelandar noticed thoughtfully. Obviously "cleanliness" was not something considered very "important" here in this place. The visible signs of aging among the population leaving no doubts that they too knew little of the anti-aging serums of the south. Once long ago she had stood against a Legion, "bluffed" them all. A "living legend" some now claimed to be the greatest fighting woman of all time. Lorraine wondered if it was true... The gen- tle drifting snowflakes from the iron gray sky now coating the unpainted rough logs of the houses there upon both sides of them. A few from time to time kissing her chilled face beneath her par- ka. The rough hewn logs of the houses seemingly "fitting" here.       "You wouldn't bring `much' in a slave market," the leader of the group had said to her when they'd landed, the "implications" of that something that left no doubts in Lorraine's mind as to what sort of men these were. "Not like your girl would," he ad- ded with a grin, Lorraine nodding, the "feel" of her Lorr force saber and blaster pistol beneath her outer clothing a comfort to her just then. If she was to die in this place, she would at least give an "account" of herself that would never be forgotten!       The Warlady had shuddered despite herself beneath her cloth- ing in reply, not from the cold air, but from the thought of what perhaps had already "happened" to her lovely innocent Sharon at the hands of these sub-human beasts! The hatred burning in her heart washed over her like a flame as she marched in the midst of them almost like some captive through their dirty filthy village. Regardless of what happened now, she pledged she would see this matter out to the final end, dying if necessary in defense of one who was slim and golden, one who perhaps now was the "hope" of a new civilization that someday might dawn on Earth after she and Darlanis were gone... A true "second Janet Rogers".............. *****************************************************************       "We wait for the signal," Carol spoke, looking up at Queen Valeris as the fur clad woman sat there astride her gigantic wolf, a long metal shod lance there in its socket at her stirrup. With the Warlady of Dularn was a force of Warrioresses, fighting women of both Dularn and California. Women armed with swords and the deadly short compound bows that could hurl a dozen arrows a minute to a distance of two hundred and fifty yards. Lieutenant Shari Johnson of the North Star now nodding in reply, sitting there on her own wolf beside the Queen of the Free Women. Carol wondered if her own opinion of these women was still the same as it had been. She had spent days now living with them, sleeping in their own camps, sitting around their fires at night while the wolves howled at the Moon peeking from between the snow clouds.       "We have extra wolves," Valeris answered. The animals were superior to a unicorn over rough terrain, although little faster. Carol smiled in reply, made a polite comment that she preferred to "fight" on foot. Keeping to herself that she was terrified of the gigantic creatures, which she didn't trust all that much yet. *****************************************************************       The structure, Lorraine noticed with that professional in- terest of a well educated person, was much like that of the long houses of the Vikings. A open fire down the center being vented to some extent through the roof. The interior was smoky, smelly. A number of half naked women, dirty, clad in nothing more than bits of crudely treated animal skins, now were going about their duties as slaves. Their own eyes looking up into hers in a way that left no doubts in the Warlady's own mind that there was in- deed "A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH" for a woman in this horrid place!       "You are from the Empire, `woman'?" the pirate king spoke, sitting there gross and swollen on the skin covered throne, Shar- on there beside him, her azure eyes burning into those of her fa- mous stepmother! The blonde haired girl completely naked but for a brief bit of fur that served more to "accent" her nakedness than to cover it, Lorraine saw. A blaze of hot fury going over the Warlady as she slipped back her coat. Her thin unrouged lips curving into a grim smile as she whipped out the blaster pistol!!       "I am," Lorraine snapped, leaping forward up on to the dais. The report of the pistol was loud, like the crack of a whip, the more sodden "THUD" of the explosive bullet hardly noticeable. Lorraine spinning about, turning, half throwing the force saber into Sharon's hands, the half dozen pirates now leaping forward all dying as swiftly as Lorraine's trigger finger could pull the four and a half pound pull semi-double action trigger six times!!       "Cut the other women free!" Lorraine snapped, the steel of her voice something that made Sharon feel very proud of the woman just then. Despite the admiration and love she felt for Darlanis it had been Lorraine who had come here, a woman who Sharon knew was the greatest fighting woman of all time, a tall rather stern featured brunette with whom she'd once flown from the Twentieth Century to this time. The same woman who had defeated the entire crew of a Bajan slaver with just a sword, the same woman who those in the Empire of California knew to be a true "Empress of Swords", a true "Warlady" in the full true meaning of the term!!!       The pistol held in both hands, concentrating on her sight picture, Lorraine opened fire upon the stunned surprised pirates gathered about there in the great hall. The pistol was a weapon completely unknown to these people, and as she had expected, they fled in terror, jamming the exits, making better "targets" of themselves. A few trying to escape by lying down behind things swiftly dying at the hands of the infuriated women who only a minute before had been serving them as docile meek slave girls...       Sharon had waded into the "melee" swinging the force saber, a weapon against which there was no defense, the meter long "blade" of pure force passing through matter with no resistance! The young Queen of Orgon quickly organizing the former slaves into a fighting force as her step mother's pistol sent the last of the terrified pirates fleeing from the building into the cold!       "They will be back with reinforcements," Lorraine snapped to Sharon, exchanging her empty magazine for a full one of thirty. "And some of them will have crossbows," the Warlady pointed out. *****************************************************************       "Some sort of `fuss'!" Janice spoke, cocking her head. I had no doubt what "sort" of a "fuss" it was, and "who" was re- sponsible for it! Lorraine had wisely left me in command, al- though I doubted that Darlanis would obey any order I gave her...       "Battle Stations! Light Your Firebombs! Destroy Those Ships!" I yelled to the crew as I stood at the quarter deck rail- ing! "FULL STEAM!" I barked into the speaking tube that connect- ed the quarterdeck with the boiler room amidships. "Hoist that anchor!" I ordered, the Athena already coming up on her anchor!!       I saw Sarnian Queen hoisting her battle flags, Darlanis fir- ing a full broadside of fire bombs into the village, her quick- firers all in action, pouring a rain of missiles into those gath- ered on the docks. Her other broadside firing, two of the long- ships bursting into flames, the others now under oars moving in!       "Fire on those longships!" Janice Hill snapped from beside me. I saw men and women from the North Star, the Vengeance with their bows, crossbows now at the armored railings, firing, the black smoke pouring from our funnel as the lamp oil was pumped into the fire that fed our boiler! The heavy "thud-thud" of the engine beneath our feet a comforting sound as we swung slowly about, our massive armored bow pointed right at a pirate vessel!!

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