"2568-43" - 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 Three

      "The hatches are dogged, ma'am!" the sailor cried to mid- shipman Anders, tugging futilely at the Mexican battleship's hatch while the Diana maintained a protective fire against those on shore. A few arrows and crossbow bolts now starting to fall among them leaving no doubt in the young blonde midshipman's mind that at least some of the Mexicans were willing to risk the Di- ana's fire in return for keeping the landing party from having a free hand with their own battleship! The inexperienced teenage Dularnian maiden now having little idea of "what" to do next too! It being obvious that those aboard the Mexican ship had closed the hatches, thus locking out the boarding party from the Diana.       "I'll signal the Diana!" the blonde haired girl answered, hoping that I might have some idea of what to "do" about things. "Perhaps the ship can ram this one," she suggested brightly then, an arrow dropping at her feet, while other missiles started fall- ing among the boarding party like a deadly hail from the sky...       "Maybe we can cut the ropes and the Diana can tow it out to sea," one of the bosuns ventured, a grizzled old sailorman nearly old enough to be Susanna's own great grandfather. Anders nodding as they stood there, well aware of the "targets" that they made!!       "Do so," she answered, signaling the Diana as it came in closer, the black smoke of its coal fires rising up into the star sprinkled sky while the Moon, only a few days from "new" now gleamed down upon them in the eastern sky. A sky now growing just a bit "pale" there on the distant horizon as the rays of the sun started peeking just a bit over the curve of the Earth. The young midshipman watching the men leaping on to the curved hull of the battleship, others on the bow of the Diana waiting to take hold of the ropes to tow the enemy battleship away from its dock.       "Should'a sent one of the `boys' instead of a pretty girl like you," a sailor smiled as a spent arrow thunked at his feet. The Diana's continuous fire had discouraged most of those firing at them, but some, hidden behind shelter where the Diana's mis- siles could not reach, were arching arrows and crossbow bolts at the landing party, such missiles, while not actually "aimed" as such, were still able of inflicting serious wounds if they struck you! The puffs of steam from the Diana proof of her own fire!       "Think of your work, not me!" Susanna Anders snapped back. A man clutching at an arrow in his shoulder falling from the deck of the enemy battleship into the waters alongside the vessel. A woman leaping into the water, keeping him afloat while others now lifted him back on to the ship. Puffs of steam from the forward turret telling of the Diana's return fire as the battleship now started to back away, taking up on the tow rope that joined it to the enemy battleship. The teenage blonde crouching down to make less of a target for herself as she clung to a hatch handle, the dock falling back as the Diana now dragged the other ship away...       "Landing Party, Get Aboard The Enemy Ship!" I snapped, care- fully taking up the strain as the Diana started towing the other! Anders' blonde hair a pale glow in the moonlight as she scrambled aboard after her men, and then suddenly clutching at her leg! I saw a burly sailor grab her, keeping her from falling overboard!!       "I think Tara is going to be `pissed'," Lorraine said to my wife as the two Warladies now watched the goings on in the har- bor. It being quite obvious that the Diana was towing the other battleship out from its dock, while at the same time maintaining a steady stream of fire upon those who now sought to prevent it!       "Maybe it'll shorten the war," my wife smiled in reply.       "I'm two weeks `past due','" Lorraine answered back.       "`Motherhood' will do you `good'," Carol laughed in reply.       "Make my husband more aware of his `responsibilities," Lor- raine answered with a smile in return, regarding the still lovely Dularnian Warlady in the now growing light as the first rays of the sun lit up the eastern sky, the stars mostly dim and pale with Venus bright in the east. "`Both' to me and the child I bear." The Imperial Warlady well aware of the other woman's own feminine attractiveness, of her provocative features that left no doubts in anyone's mind that she was fully and truly "female"...       "You talk as if there could be `another woman'," Carol said, wondering what woman would "dare" such a thing knowing "who" he was married to. It not being that uncommon in this era for a wife to "defend" her marriage with cold steel if it came to that! And Lorraine was commonly believed to be the greatest swordswoman of all time! A woman that no other woman at least could match!!!       "I am glad that we are not `enemies' any more," Lorraine smiled in reply, now laying her hand on the brownette's shoulder. "I am glad that I've gotten to know you as I have," she added...       "Bob and I don't really `belong' here in this time," Carol said, looking out over the harbor. She watched Lorraine nod in reply, the Imperial Warlady's dark brown eyes meeting her hazel.       "You have `done' what you were sent here to do," Lorraine answered. "And perhaps `reminded' me of a few things too," the Imperial Warlady added, putting her arm around Carol's shoulders. "Darlanis is not a `second Janet Rogers', and perhaps the `first' wasn't all that she was cracked up to be either," Lorraine said.       "If you could go back in time...," Carol breathed softly.       "It would make little difference," Lorraine smiled back.       "The Mexicans are trying to get steam up," the midshipman announced to me in a squeaky voice, staring past me at Anders there in sick bay getting her injured leg treated by the ship's Physician. The Diana had been towing the enemy battleship most of the way down the harbor towards the entrance. There had been little "interference" by the enemy. I supposed that we'd taught them a degree of caution with our quickfirers and flame throwers!       "Props and rudders are too deep for the ram," I answered, the Diana being a bit "difficult" to sail backwards like we were. It would be "easy" to sink the enemy ship, but such a vessel could be "valuable" if we could take it as a prize instead of just sinking it here in the harbor. I wasn't too sure as to the depth of water here, and it was possible that the Mexicans might be able to "raise" the ship later and make the necessary repairs.       "`That' could be quite a prize," Lorraine said, holding the telescope to her eye, the sky now quite light there in the east.       "Looks like they're trying to get steam up," Carol noted, the wood smoke rising from the Mexican battleship's twin funnels.       "The Diana's backing off!" Lorraine spoke, viewing the scene through her telescope. "And she's ramming the other ship now!!!"       "That should `hold' them," I spoke, seeing the midshipman nod. I had rammed the other ship just about where her boilers would be, I guessed. I suspected that "this" might be "enough" to encourage the Mexicans aboard to abandon their ship to us...       "There's a hatch opening!" the boy spoke in awe. I saw the men scrambling out over the armored hull like a bunch of ants when their nest is disturbed to leap into the still waters below!       "Send a boarding party over, take command of it," I replied.       "Aye, aye sir!" the boy cried, dashing below then to do so!       "We `paid' a high price for `victory'," I said, seeing my wife nod as the bodies were brought aboard for burial at sea. Among them the body of Captain Sandra Steven of the Diana, along with one of our two lieutenants. Both dead of crossbow bolts. I saw Carol's eyes meet mine, her hazel eyes filling with under- standing. We had "survived", while they had died, and for what?       "Lorraine feels that it was worth it," Carol said to me.       "No doubt `she' would," I answered, holding my wife.       "What are your `intentions' towards the prize?" Lorraine said to me as I stood there on the main deck of the Diana, the dead bodies stacked almost like cordwood awaiting burial at sea.       "It was `taken' by the Diana, and it will remain ours," I said. I saw the Warlady nod, her dark brown eyes holding my own. The ship was "repairable", and was even able of getting up steam on one of its twin engines. The design of the engines spoke well of the Mexicans, although I suspect some of its design was "due" to Princess Tara's "knowledge" of the past, the infamous Princess being as "knowledgeable" about such things as any of the Scribes!       "Oh Lys, we ask your mercy upon the souls of these who have died, in the hope that you will look upon them with mercy and gather them to your loving bosom as the `mother' of all living things." I heard Carol say as she spoke the "last rites" over our own dead. We had purchased our "victory" at a high price, I thought then... "We ask too, oh dear loving Lys, that you grant us who live the wisdom to know good from evil, that we may keep your commandments, that we may live our lives in the hope that we will be gathered to your bosom after death to be forever united with you for all time." I recalled what Lorraine had written. I wondered if she had perhaps seen "God" there on the arid surface of Mars. I knew the Warlady was no longer the "agnostic" she'd been back in the Twentieth Century when I'd often spoken to her.       Stepping up beside Carol, I then said, "We mourn those who have fallen, but we must also remember the `good' they did in their lives, the memories we hold of them, and remember that they did not die in vain, that the `cause' for which they fought was `just' regardless of what the Scribes someday write of our acts." With this I nodded my head and the first of the bodies wrapped up in hammocks and weighted with shot was quietly tipped over the side of the Diana into the restless green waters of the Pacific.

Next Chapter

"IN HARM'S WAY"

AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

By Robert J. Simmons

Chapter Forty Three

      "The hatches are dogged, ma'am!" the sailor cried to mid- shipman Anders, tugging futilely at the Mexican battleship's hatch while the Diana maintained a protective fire against those on shore. A few arrows and crossbow bolts now starting to fall among them leaving no doubt in the young blonde midshipman's mind that at least some of the Mexicans were willing to risk the Di- ana's fire in return for keeping the landing party from having a free hand with their own battleship! The inexperienced teenage Dularnian maiden now having little idea of "what" to do next too! It being obvious that those aboard the Mexican ship had closed the hatches, thus locking out the boarding party from the Diana.       "I'll signal the Diana!" the blonde haired girl answered, hoping that I might have some idea of what to "do" about things. "Perhaps the ship can ram this one," she suggested brightly then, an arrow dropping at her feet, while other missiles started fall- ing among the boarding party like a deadly hail from the sky...       "Maybe we can cut the ropes and the Diana can tow it out to sea," one of the bosuns ventured, a grizzled old sailorman nearly old enough to be Susanna's own great grandfather. Anders nodding as they stood there, well aware of the "targets" that they made!!       "Do so," she answered, signaling the Diana as it came in closer, the black smoke of its coal fires rising up into the star sprinkled sky while the Moon, only a few days from "new" now gleamed down upon them in the eastern sky. A sky now growing just a bit "pale" there on the distant horizon as the rays of the sun started peeking just a bit over the curve of the Earth. The young midshipman watching the men leaping on to the curved hull of the battleship, others on the bow of the Diana waiting to take hold of the ropes to tow the enemy battleship away from its dock.       "Should'a sent one of the `boys' instead of a pretty girl like you," a sailor smiled as a spent arrow thunked at his feet. The Diana's continuous fire had discouraged most of those firing at them, but some, hidden behind shelter where the Diana's mis- siles could not reach, were arching arrows and crossbow bolts at the landing party, such missiles, while not actually "aimed" as such, were still able of inflicting serious wounds if they struck you! The puffs of steam from the Diana proof of her own fire!       "Think of your work, not me!" Susanna Anders snapped back. A man clutching at an arrow in his shoulder falling from the deck of the enemy battleship into the waters alongside the vessel. A woman leaping into the water, keeping him afloat while others now lifted him back on to the ship. Puffs of steam from the forward turret telling of the Diana's return fire as the battleship now started to back away, taking up on the tow rope that joined it to the enemy battleship. The teenage blonde crouching down to make less of a target for herself as she clung to a hatch handle, the dock falling back as the Diana now dragged the other ship away...       "Landing Party, Get Aboard The Enemy Ship!" I snapped, care- fully taking up the strain as the Diana started towing the other! Anders' blonde hair a pale glow in the moonlight as she scrambled aboard after her men, and then suddenly clutching at her leg! I saw a burly sailor grab her, keeping her from falling overboard!!       "I think Tara is going to be `pissed'," Lorraine said to my wife as the two Warladies now watched the goings on in the har- bor. It being quite obvious that the Diana was towing the other battleship out from its dock, while at the same time maintaining a steady stream of fire upon those who now sought to prevent it!       "Maybe it'll shorten the war," my wife smiled in reply.       "I'm two weeks `past due','" Lorraine answered back.       "`Motherhood' will do you `good'," Carol laughed in reply.       "Make my husband more aware of his `responsibilities," Lor- raine answered with a smile in return, regarding the still lovely Dularnian Warlady in the now growing light as the first rays of the sun lit up the eastern sky, the stars mostly dim and pale with Venus bright in the east. "`Both' to me and the child I bear." The Imperial Warlady well aware of the other woman's own feminine attractiveness, of her provocative features that left no doubts in anyone's mind that she was fully and truly "female"...       "You talk as if there could be `another woman'," Carol said, wondering what woman would "dare" such a thing knowing "who" he was married to. It not being that uncommon in this era for a wife to "defend" her marriage with cold steel if it came to that! And Lorraine was commonly believed to be the greatest swordswoman of all time! A woman that no other woman at least could match!!!       "I am glad that we are not `enemies' any more," Lorraine smiled in reply, now laying her hand on the brownette's shoulder. "I am glad that I've gotten to know you as I have," she added...       "Bob and I don't really `belong' here in this time," Carol said, looking out over the harbor. She watched Lorraine nod in reply, the Imperial Warlady's dark brown eyes meeting her hazel.       "You have `done' what you were sent here to do," Lorraine answered. "And perhaps `reminded' me of a few things too," the Imperial Warlady added, putting her arm around Carol's shoulders. "Darlanis is not a `second Janet Rogers', and perhaps the `first' wasn't all that she was cracked up to be either," Lorraine said.       "If you could go back in time...," Carol breathed softly.       "It would make little difference," Lorraine smiled back.       "The Mexicans are trying to get steam up," the midshipman announced to me in a squeaky voice, staring past me at Anders there in sick bay getting her injured leg treated by the ship's Physician. The Diana had been towing the enemy battleship most of the way down the harbor towards the entrance. There had been little "interference" by the enemy. I supposed that we'd taught them a degree of caution with our quickfirers and flame throwers!       "Props and rudders are too deep for the ram," I answered, the Diana being a bit "difficult" to sail backwards like we were. It would be "easy" to sink the enemy ship, but such a vessel could be "valuable" if we could take it as a prize instead of just sinking it here in the harbor. I wasn't too sure as to the depth of water here, and it was possible that the Mexicans might be able to "raise" the ship later and make the necessary repairs.       "`That' could be quite a prize," Lorraine said, holding the telescope to her eye, the sky now quite light there in the east.       "Looks like they're trying to get steam up," Carol noted, the wood smoke rising from the Mexican battleship's twin funnels.       "The Diana's backing off!" Lorraine spoke, viewing the scene through her telescope. "And she's ramming the other ship now!!!"       "That should `hold' them," I spoke, seeing the midshipman nod. I had rammed the other ship just about where her boilers would be, I guessed. I suspected that "this" might be "enough" to encourage the Mexicans aboard to abandon their ship to us...       "There's a hatch opening!" the boy spoke in awe. I saw the men scrambling out over the armored hull like a bunch of ants when their nest is disturbed to leap into the still waters below!       "Send a boarding party over, take command of it," I replied.       "Aye, aye sir!" the boy cried, dashing below then to do so!       "We `paid' a high price for `victory'," I said, seeing my wife nod as the bodies were brought aboard for burial at sea. Among them the body of Captain Sandra Steven of the Diana, along with one of our two lieutenants. Both dead of crossbow bolts. I saw Carol's eyes meet mine, her hazel eyes filling with under- standing. We had "survived", while they had died, and for what?       "Lorraine feels that it was worth it," Carol said to me.       "No doubt `she' would," I answered, holding my wife.       "What are your `intentions' towards the prize?" Lorraine said to me as I stood there on the main deck of the Diana, the dead bodies stacked almost like cordwood awaiting burial at sea.       "It was `taken' by the Diana, and it will remain ours," I said. I saw the Warlady nod, her dark brown eyes holding my own. The ship was "repairable", and was even able of getting up steam on one of its twin engines. The design of the engines spoke well of the Mexicans, although I suspect some of its design was "due" to Princess Tara's "knowledge" of the past, the infamous Princess being as "knowledgeable" about such things as any of the Scribes!       "Oh Lys, we ask your mercy upon the souls of these who have died, in the hope that you will look upon them with mercy and gather them to your loving bosom as the `mother' of all living things." I heard Carol say as she spoke the "last rites" over our own dead. We had purchased our "victory" at a high price, I thought then... "We ask too, oh dear loving Lys, that you grant us who live the wisdom to know good from evil, that we may keep your commandments, that we may live our lives in the hope that we will be gathered to your bosom after death to be forever united with you for all time." I recalled what Lorraine had written. I wondered if she had perhaps seen "God" there on the arid surface of Mars. I knew the Warlady was no longer the "agnostic" she'd been back in the Twentieth Century when I'd often spoken to her.       Stepping up beside Carol, I then said, "We mourn those who have fallen, but we must also remember the `good' they did in their lives, the memories we hold of them, and remember that they did not die in vain, that the `cause' for which they fought was `just' regardless of what the Scribes someday write of our acts." With this I nodded my head and the first of the bodies wrapped up in hammocks and weighted with shot was quietly tipped over the side of the Diana into the restless green waters of the Pacific.

Next Chapter