"2568-41" - 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 Forty One "Not even the Diana could make it," I said to Lorraine, low- ering the telescope. Lermat is the major Mexican seaport on the Pacific. The design of the fortifications left no doubts that even a battleship like the Diana would never survive an attempted entry. The great chain linked through logs across the mouth of the harbor might not "hold" against the Diana's engines, although I suspected that it probably would unless the Diana rammed it at full speed ahead. And if it didn't break then it could cause the Diana to ride up over the chain, suspending herself helplessly to be pounded to pieces by the steam catapults of the great fort to the south of the entrance. Lorraine having told me that its catapults fired three hundred pound stone shot a quarter mile!!! "The `key' to `victory'," the Warlady answered me back then. The rest of the Mexican navy here in the Pacific was bottled up inside, the five steam frigates of Lorraine's forces just behind. We "controlled" the sea for the time being, but the internal lines of communication that the Mexicans had "neutralized" us... "Three hundred pound shot will smash the Diana's superstruc- ture like an egg," my wife pointed out, echoing my own thoughts. "It will be `necessary' to `take' that fort first," Carol added. A sudden great splash a hundred yards off our bow left no doubts! "I'm sure that their general is `aware' of that," Lorraine answered, the tone of her voice just a bit "unpleasant" then too. He would doubtless be "ready" for an assault by a landing party. I suspected that she was at a "loss" for ideas of what to do now. The "embarrassment" of this before Carol explained her "comment". "We need a `ruse' of some sort," I said, smiling at my wife, Sandra wisely ordered the ship to back off another hundred yards. "Be `dangerous'," Lorraine said. I supposed it would be to take a captured Mexican merchantman into their harbor. I could think of nothing else that would get us "inside" the chain. Al- low us to take the fort by surprise with a force large enough to defeat its own defenders before assistance could be sent from the town inside the harbor. If the chain could be "opened", then the Diana could enter, and cause enough destruction against an unpre- pared foe to jolt the Mexican Emperor into signing a peace treaty with Darlanis. So far the Imperial land forces with the Nevadas had not been able to win any substantial victories against Mexi- co. Even the tarls of Talon had been of little "effect" here. I supposed they were an "annoyance", but so far the Imperials had not found them really "effective" in the military sense against the superior numbers that the Mexican Empire could field in turn. The Mexicans under Tara having enough sense to scatter a bit now, thus making the great flying birds and their riders ineffective. "I'm going with you," Carol suddenly said to Lorraine then. "As I recall you are rather `good' with a bow," the Imperial Warlady smiled back, giving my wife a hug that surprised us both. "We need something to make the Mexicans `careless'," Carol said. "Something that will allow us to make a surprise attack." "I think I know what might be `effective'," I smiled back. "If they `suspect' what we are doing...," midshipman Anders breathed, the tone of her voice just too "steady" now to be true. The merchantman "fleeing" us with every sail set just ahead now. "I will be a widower and `you' my young lady will be captain of the Diana," I replied, well aware that just this could happen! Sandra and the two ship's lieutenants having gone with my wife along with virtually everyone else in Lorraine's fleet. I remem- bered the time that Carol and I had once "discussed" just this should she ever die in battle. She had "suggested" that perhaps Maris Marn might make me a suitable mate. I supposed that it was "possible", but there would never be "another" like my Carol... "Ohh," the young teenage blonde answered, awed a bit now. "If this doesn't work...," Lorraine mused, standing there. "The water isn't that `cold'," my wife pointed out then. "They do have quickfirers like us," the Warlady pointed out, a pale sickle of a moon there in the sky to the east breaking the gloom of the night. The Diana a half mile back like some great monster of the deep. The merchantman's sails gleaming in the dim light left no doubt as to the "nationality" of the stolen vessel. "Bob always did like those `Hornblower' stories," Carol said, aware as she spoke that the Mexicans might not be "fooled". The actual "trick" is from Alexander Kent's "FORM LINE OF BATTLE" I might note, although the book is six centuries "out of print". "I'm glad we got the chance to fight on the same side," the Imperial Warlady smiled there in the darkness, placing her hand on Carol's arm. "Jack Duval was a bastard and I was a `bitch' for doing what I did back then," the Queen of Trelandar admitted. "I wouldn't `be' what I am today if you hadn't," Carol said. "If the Mexicans have any real `idea' of the Diana's per- formance..," Sandra spoke softly from beside, a thought that had passed through both Warladies' minds. Then they would know that no sailing vessel could outrun the Diana in a wind like this now! "Going to be `close'," the Warlady of California smiled, a "shot" from the Diana arching up in the air and falling almost alongside them. A gallon glass sphere filled with lamp oil, the burning wick easily visible she hoped to those there on shore... "It `has' to be," my wife answered there in the darkness. If the Mexicans were to suspect the "truth" it would be all over for everyone. Those who survived to reach the shore would soon be captured, the women doubtlessly sold into a life long slavery. "Fire another?" midshipman Anders asked, looking up at me as I guided the Diana, my hands on the spokes of the great wheel, the triple repeaters only at half ahead on all three engines now. "No," I answered. Too many "wild" shots and the Mexicans might get "suspicious" of the "truth". I didn't want to follow the ship too closely, as a lucky shot from the fort could badly damage the Diana despite its armorplate. Two inches of iron plate backed by four of oak wouldn't stop a three hundred pound shot, and a "lucky hit" could put the Diana right out of action!! "I guess the distance at about half a mile," she said then. She was young, in her late teens, her eyes better than mine were. Her first name was "Susanna", a name that I felt fitted her well if not the sort of a name one might expect of a Dularnian girl... "I'm going to turn away at a third," I answered, seeing her nod. I would go to full power on all, the helm hard to port as the ship turned away. I suspected that the maximum range of the steam catapults might be as much as five hundred yards if not a bit more. Those aboard the Athena were good for five fifty now. "She's cutting it close," Sandra breathed from beside Carol, the Dularnian Warlady nodding in reply. Lorraine was completely in command, the tall slender waspish brunette standing there next to the helmsman. The captured merchantman racing towards doom if they didn't turn away from the chained logs just ahead of them!!! "Ohh!" one of the Diana's officers breathed from beside them, a series of great splashes astern as the Diana turned away leaving no doubt as to the "power" of the fort's steam catapults! "One of those would go right through this," Lorraine spoke, the words of the Imperial Warlady leaving no doubt in anyone's mind just then what could happen if this "ruse" didn't work now!! "Now back that main sail before we run up on to that log chain!" the Queen of Trelandar suddenly "snapped" then, jolting everyone out of their own musings! "And if you don't speak Spanish, keep your damm yaps shut or I'll dammed know the reason `why' later!" ""Quien es barque?" Carol heard a voice call out from shore. Lorraine answering in rapid fire Spanish like a machine gun, the captain of the Diana beside her grinning to herself at the words! "`Cusses' like a drill sergeant!" Sandra whispered to Carol, it being rather obvious to the brownette that Lorraine had decid- ed that THE BEST DEFENSE HERE WAS A STRONG OFFENSE! The Warlady no doubt well aware that should those ashore have time to think things over that it might become obvious what the truth was here! The ship drifting with the wind towards the half floating logs. "Got `guts' too, the bitch!" Carol laughed then in reply. "Going to be a `nasty' fight too," the blonde answered back. The men on shore were yelling something back in reply, the ship now drifting closer. In another few seconds it would be drifting up against the barrier, the brownette knew as she nocked an arrow on her bowstring. A drifting cloud now hiding the Moon. She thought of the child she might never see again, of a life now six centuries in the past. "Why am I here risking my life?" Ca- rol mused to herself. Fighting in behalf of a "cause" that meant next to nothing to those of Dularn. "Just a God damm mercenary!" "Now!" Lorraine cried, the ship striking against the logs! The Imperial Warlady leaping over the side on to the logs, her sword gleaming in her hand, a yelling screaming horde behind her! Racing to the bow, Carol drew back, released, the man fall- ing to the sand of the shore, another swiftly following him to the judgment of Lys. Nearly a hundred arrows in the space of a few seconds released by the deadly bowstrings of two dozen fight- ing women left only dead there on the beach to oppose them now! "Follow the Warlady!" Carol cried now, no one there in any "doubt" as to "who" this certain "Warlady" was! There was, Carol thought to herself then, only one "true" Warlady. Only one who truly deserved the "title" of "WARLADY"! Queen Lorraine herself! It was sword to sword now, the incredible sword skill of the Queen of Trelandar striking terror into those who faced her now!! The Mexicans falling back, while quickfirers from the fort above uselessly peppered the deck of the ship and the dark waters! It being obvious now that the Mexican weapons could not be depressed far enough to fire directly upon a force below the fort itself. Carol felt something go "zip" on past her, it being obvious that the fort's crossbowmen were firing at them, several cries of pain leaving no doubts that some of the missiles had struck their human targets! In the darkness it was hard to tell "friend" from "foe", although as the Mexicans did not use women in their own armed forces one at least knew the "side" any woman was from now! The memories came flooding back in Carol's mind of other times, other places, of another "foe" she'd fought back then. Of a stern featured tall brunette who had once "marked" her face. Now she and that same woman were fighting on the same side, against the same foe. The thought made her "smile" to herself... "Don't let them close that gate!" she heard Lorraine cry, a flurry of arrows and crossbow bolts dropping the Mexicans like toy soldiers there above them. She was aware of that "numbness" she'd felt before in combat as she scrambled up the rocks, the same sensation that this was really all nothing but a "dream" from which she'd soon awaken to find herself safely back at home. A battle raging at the gate, "close quarters" combat where one's skill with a sword might be the deciding factor if you lived or died. The Imperial Warlady herself leading them, striking terror into the hearts of their foes as her men swarmed forward now to take the fort from the Mexicans. A number now fleeing out the other gate towards town, terrified of that tall brunette whose skill with a sword was legend even here in Mexico over a thousand miles from Trelandar. The woman who it was still was the great- est swordswoman of all time, the incredible "Lorraine" herself!!! "IN HARM'S WAY" AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Robert J. Simmons Chapter Forty One "Not even the Diana could make it," I said to Lorraine, low- ering the telescope. Lermat is the major Mexican seaport on the Pacific. The design of the fortifications left no doubts that even a battleship like the Diana would never survive an attempted entry. The great chain linked through logs across the mouth of the harbor might not "hold" against the Diana's engines, although I suspected that it probably would unless the Diana rammed it at full speed ahead. And if it didn't break then it could cause the Diana to ride up over the chain, suspending herself helplessly to be pounded to pieces by the steam catapults of the great fort to the south of the entrance. Lorraine having told me that its catapults fired three hundred pound stone shot a quarter mile!!! "The `key' to `victory'," the Warlady answered me back then. The rest of the Mexican navy here in the Pacific was bottled up inside, the five steam frigates of Lorraine's forces just behind. We "controlled" the sea for the time being, but the internal lines of communication that the Mexicans had "neutralized" us... "Three hundred pound shot will smash the Diana's superstruc- ture like an egg," my wife pointed out, echoing my own thoughts. "It will be `necessary' to `take' that fort first," Carol added. A sudden great splash a hundred yards off our bow left no doubts! "I'm sure that their general is `aware' of that," Lorraine answered, the tone of her voice just a bit "unpleasant" then too. He would doubtless be "ready" for an assault by a landing party. I suspected that she was at a "loss" for ideas of what to do now. The "embarrassment" of this before Carol explained her "comment". "We need a `ruse' of some sort," I said, smiling at my wife, Sandra wisely ordered the ship to back off another hundred yards. "Be `dangerous'," Lorraine said. I supposed it would be to take a captured Mexican merchantman into their harbor. I could think of nothing else that would get us "inside" the chain. Al- low us to take the fort by surprise with a force large enough to defeat its own defenders before assistance could be sent from the town inside the harbor. If the chain could be "opened", then the Diana could enter, and cause enough destruction against an unpre- pared foe to jolt the Mexican Emperor into signing a peace treaty with Darlanis. So far the Imperial land forces with the Nevadas had not been able to win any substantial victories against Mexi- co. Even the tarls of Talon had been of little "effect" here. I supposed they were an "annoyance", but so far the Imperials had not found them really "effective" in the military sense against the superior numbers that the Mexican Empire could field in turn. The Mexicans under Tara having enough sense to scatter a bit now, thus making the great flying birds and their riders ineffective. "I'm going with you," Carol suddenly said to Lorraine then. "As I recall you are rather `good' with a bow," the Imperial Warlady smiled back, giving my wife a hug that surprised us both. "We need something to make the Mexicans `careless'," Carol said. "Something that will allow us to make a surprise attack." "I think I know what might be `effective'," I smiled back. "If they `suspect' what we are doing...," midshipman Anders breathed, the tone of her voice just too "steady" now to be true. The merchantman "fleeing" us with every sail set just ahead now. "I will be a widower and `you' my young lady will be captain of the Diana," I replied, well aware that just this could happen! Sandra and the two ship's lieutenants having gone with my wife along with virtually everyone else in Lorraine's fleet. I remem- bered the time that Carol and I had once "discussed" just this should she ever die in battle. She had "suggested" that perhaps Maris Marn might make me a suitable mate. I supposed that it was "possible", but there would never be "another" like my Carol... "Ohh," the young teenage blonde answered, awed a bit now. "If this doesn't work...," Lorraine mused, standing there. "The water isn't that `cold'," my wife pointed out then. "They do have quickfirers like us," the Warlady pointed out, a pale sickle of a moon there in the sky to the east breaking the gloom of the night. The Diana a half mile back like some great monster of the deep. The merchantman's sails gleaming in the dim light left no doubt as to the "nationality" of the stolen vessel. "Bob always did like those `Hornblower' stories," Carol said, aware as she spoke that the Mexicans might not be "fooled". The actual "trick" is from Alexander Kent's "FORM LINE OF BATTLE" I might note, although the book is six centuries "out of print". "I'm glad we got the chance to fight on the same side," the Imperial Warlady smiled there in the darkness, placing her hand on Carol's arm. "Jack Duval was a bastard and I was a `bitch' for doing what I did back then," the Queen of Trelandar admitted. "I wouldn't `be' what I am today if you hadn't," Carol said. "If the Mexicans have any real `idea' of the Diana's per- formance..," Sandra spoke softly from beside, a thought that had passed through both Warladies' minds. Then they would know that no sailing vessel could outrun the Diana in a wind like this now! "Going to be `close'," the Warlady of California smiled, a "shot" from the Diana arching up in the air and falling almost alongside them. A gallon glass sphere filled with lamp oil, the burning wick easily visible she hoped to those there on shore... "It `has' to be," my wife answered there in the darkness. If the Mexicans were to suspect the "truth" it would be all over for everyone. Those who survived to reach the shore would soon be captured, the women doubtlessly sold into a life long slavery. "Fire another?" midshipman Anders asked, looking up at me as I guided the Diana, my hands on the spokes of the great wheel, the triple repeaters only at half ahead on all three engines now. "No," I answered. Too many "wild" shots and the Mexicans might get "suspicious" of the "truth". I didn't want to follow the ship too closely, as a lucky shot from the fort could badly damage the Diana despite its armorplate. Two inches of iron plate backed by four of oak wouldn't stop a three hundred pound shot, and a "lucky hit" could put the Diana right out of action!! "I guess the distance at about half a mile," she said then. She was young, in her late teens, her eyes better than mine were. Her first name was "Susanna", a name that I felt fitted her well if not the sort of a name one might expect of a Dularnian girl... "I'm going to turn away at a third," I answered, seeing her nod. I would go to full power on all, the helm hard to port as the ship turned away. I suspected that the maximum range of the steam catapults might be as much as five hundred yards if not a bit more. Those aboard the Athena were good for five fifty now. "She's cutting it close," Sandra breathed from beside Carol, the Dularnian Warlady nodding in reply. Lorraine was completely in command, the tall slender waspish brunette standing there next to the helmsman. The captured merchantman racing towards doom if they didn't turn away from the chained logs just ahead of them!!! "Ohh!" one of the Diana's officers breathed from beside them, a series of great splashes astern as the Diana turned away leaving no doubt as to the "power" of the fort's steam catapults! "One of those would go right through this," Lorraine spoke, the words of the Imperial Warlady leaving no doubt in anyone's mind just then what could happen if this "ruse" didn't work now!! "Now back that main sail before we run up on to that log chain!" the Queen of Trelandar suddenly "snapped" then, jolting everyone out of their own musings! "And if you don't speak Spanish, keep your damm yaps shut or I'll dammed know the reason `why' later!" ""Quien es barque?" Carol heard a voice call out from shore. Lorraine answering in rapid fire Spanish like a machine gun, the captain of the Diana beside her grinning to herself at the words! "`Cusses' like a drill sergeant!" Sandra whispered to Carol, it being rather obvious to the brownette that Lorraine had decid- ed that THE BEST DEFENSE HERE WAS A STRONG OFFENSE! The Warlady no doubt well aware that should those ashore have time to think things over that it might become obvious what the truth was here! The ship drifting with the wind towards the half floating logs. "Got `guts' too, the bitch!" Carol laughed then in reply. "Going to be a `nasty' fight too," the blonde answered back. The men on shore were yelling something back in reply, the ship now drifting closer. In another few seconds it would be drifting up against the barrier, the brownette knew as she nocked an arrow on her bowstring. A drifting cloud now hiding the Moon. She thought of the child she might never see again, of a life now six centuries in the past. "Why am I here risking my life?" Ca- rol mused to herself. Fighting in behalf of a "cause" that meant next to nothing to those of Dularn. "Just a God damm mercenary!" "Now!" Lorraine cried, the ship striking against the logs! The Imperial Warlady leaping over the side on to the logs, her sword gleaming in her hand, a yelling screaming horde behind her! Racing to the bow, Carol drew back, released, the man fall- ing to the sand of the shore, another swiftly following him to the judgment of Lys. Nearly a hundred arrows in the space of a few seconds released by the deadly bowstrings of two dozen fight- ing women left only dead there on the beach to oppose them now! "Follow the Warlady!" Carol cried now, no one there in any "doubt" as to "who" this certain "Warlady" was! There was, Carol thought to herself then, only one "true" Warlady. Only one who truly deserved the "title" of "WARLADY"! Queen Lorraine herself! It was sword to sword now, the incredible sword skill of the Queen of Trelandar striking terror into those who faced her now!! The Mexicans falling back, while quickfirers from the fort above uselessly peppered the deck of the ship and the dark waters! It being obvious now that the Mexican weapons could not be depressed far enough to fire directly upon a force below the fort itself. Carol felt something go "zip" on past her, it being obvious that the fort's crossbowmen were firing at them, several cries of pain leaving no doubts that some of the missiles had struck their human targets! In the darkness it was hard to tell "friend" from "foe", although as the Mexicans did not use women in their own armed forces one at least knew the "side" any woman was from now! The memories came flooding back in Carol's mind of other times, other places, of another "foe" she'd fought back then. Of a stern featured tall brunette who had once "marked" her face. Now she and that same woman were fighting on the same side, against the same foe. The thought made her "smile" to herself... "Don't let them close that gate!" she heard Lorraine cry, a flurry of arrows and crossbow bolts dropping the Mexicans like toy soldiers there above them. She was aware of that "numbness" she'd felt before in combat as she scrambled up the rocks, the same sensation that this was really all nothing but a "dream" from which she'd soon awaken to find herself safely back at home. A battle raging at the gate, "close quarters" combat where one's skill with a sword might be the deciding factor if you lived or died. The Imperial Warlady herself leading them, striking terror into the hearts of their foes as her men swarmed forward now to take the fort from the Mexicans. A number now fleeing out the other gate towards town, terrified of that tall brunette whose skill with a sword was legend even here in Mexico over a thousand miles from Trelandar. The woman who it was still was the great- est swordswoman of all time, the incredible "Lorraine" herself!!! |
|
|