"2569-23" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jerome Bigge - Warlady 7 - The Dularnian Queen)2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Twenty Three "Diane! The Flamethrower!" I screamed, vaulting from the quarterdeck to the deck, the crew of the North Star now staring in awe as Princess Tara's ship closed the distance between us! I saw a man point up into the sky, yell something about a `flying arrowhead'! THEN AT THAT MOMENT THERE WAS A THUNDEROUS "CRASH- ING" LIKE THE SOUND OF THUNDER ALL ABOUT ME!!! MEN, EQUIPMENT, BLOOD, SPLINTERS, FLYING ABOUT, THE HORRID "CRACK" OF A MAST AS IT NOW TOPPLED!!! FIRE AND FLAME, "HORROR" ALL AROUND ME AS I DASHED FOR THE BOW! For the only weapon we possessed that might destroy Tara's ship now! The missiles that Tara had fired having been "explosive" to boot! The Bajan's ship wreathed in smoke as she drew ahead, perhaps to come about and deliver the "finisher"! "Lys!" I gasped, Diane lying there on the deck, her right foot severed from her leg like a great cleaver had cut it off! I saw the blood, the look of "horror" in her eyes at the knowledge she would be crippled for life assuming any of us survived now! The North Star out of control, her main mast fallen, still swing- ing now towards Tara's ship as I reached the flamethrower mounted there on the forecastle. I felt a stinging pain in my side, a patch of blood now staining my tunic as I swung the flamethrower about, praying that it would reach, that I could AVENGE my ship!! "Too far!" I wept, the flaming oil falling short, the cries of wounded men and women filling my ears as the enemy started to- wards the North Light, the horror filling my mind as I thought of what such a vessel could do! Only the Diana might stand a chance against something like this, and I wasn't even sure it could now! THEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS A TERRIFIC FLASH, TARA'S SHIP SEEM- ING TO EXPLODE AS AN INTENSE BLUE WHITE BEAM OF LIGHT STRUCK IT! The heat, even from this distance searing as the beam played over the now blazing ship, a few survivors throwing themselves into the water to escape! The triangular shaped silver craft the same that Tais had brought with her when we had faced the EVIL ONE... "She saw her last battle," my father said, weeping as he held Marta's body in his arms, closing her staring eyes, the red blood everywhere, the "remains" of captain Dan Woods like nothing I'd ever seen before. I had "done" what I could for Diane, the rest up to the ship's Physician, that of North Light as that ship came up and launched her boats to send us what "help" they could now. The craft of the Priestesses floating overhead, several small craft having been released from it to search for survivors. I was numb with shock, with the horror of what I had just seen... The North Star could be repaired, she would sail again, but the memories were something that I would never forget as I knelt on a blood soaked quarterdeck, aware of horrors unknown for centuries! "I am sorry we were not in time," First Priestess Tais said standing there, looking about at the ruin. I had not seen the craft land, but just then there was "much" I no longer saw then!! Even when Bob had taken the North Star up against the Athena the destruction had been nothing like this, the North Star now list- ing as water poured in through a great hole blasted in her side! "She's `dead'," I said, looking up at the Priestess, now kneeling there in the blood. Marta had died a Warrioress' death. The tears running down my cheeks, blood everywhere like "paint"! Tara's dozen deadly shells, filled with black powder, had explod- ed on contact, killing or wounded nearly half my crew! Crippling my ship, leaving it almost only a listing nearly helpless ruin! "Many `innocents' died today," Tais then said to me. Few of the slave girls aboard Tara's ship had survived the energy beam. "The North Star `will' make it back to Arsana," I said, the captain of the North Light nodding. I still had steam, and two good masts. I would bury my step mother at sea as she would have wished. She had died on a quarterdeck in battle, the way she would have wanted it to be. The tears were uncontrollable now... My husband holding me, the dead body of Emily there before us. "You are alive," I said, taking Diane's hand in mine, the tears filling her eyes. The Physician had done what she could. I wondered what Tori would have to say. There had been nothing that I could have done. No one had believed that Princess Tara would be able to manufacture cannon firing explosive shells. The Priestesses believed her dead, although her body had not been yet found among those floating there in the strait behind us now. I looked up at Tais standing there, the First Priestess herself al- most having a "haunted" look about herself at the sight of this! I knew she had given the order to fire on Tara's ship despite the hundred innocent lives it would cost, few of the women surviving. "A midshipman with one foot isn't much good to anyone," Di- ane wept, well aware that she would be a cripple for life now... That all her life she would hobble about with a cane like Marta! And few of the young men she had known would want a cripple girl! "A good officer commands with her mind, not her feet," I said to her. She had been brave, her courage without doubt. I was proud of what she had "become" in only these few shorts days. I thought of Marta, what Queen Tulis had "done" to her. I would not be such a Queen as that! "And you have the makings of a cap- tain," I said to her, holding her hand in mine as Tais watched. My body bandaged where the splinter had cut it without my feeling it then. Some of the most badly wounded had been taken aboard the Priestess' ship for transportation to Shalimar for treatment. "She was once a `legend' in her own time," I said, standing there, the tears blurring my vision, the body wrapped in the flag there before us. "A woman who served Queens now dead, who fought against the enemies of her country with all her strength, all her skill." Sniffing back my tears, I continued on, saying, " A wom- an who stood on the quarterdeck of a ship of war, who saw bat- tle, and did not flinch from death." My husband standing with my father, the slave girl Kathi between them. We had tried to find all the remains of the captain, but they had been badly scattered by the explosive shell. The North Star was down by the bow, only the watertight compartments keeping us still afloat now as we steamed slowly towards Arsana, the sun hiding its face behind drifting clouds as if to hide from the sights it had seen... I opened the BOOK OF LYS that La-ra held, and read from it as the surviving members of the crew listened, the single officer, the last midshipman beside him, standing a bit apart from the seamen. The North Star's masts were bare of sails as I brought her into Arsana's harbor, the ship's flag at half hoist. The stub of the main mast, the visible damage, the blood staining the hull, all leaving no doubt that this ship had been badly "mauled". We had twenty seven dead to be taken ashore for cremation, an even larger number who would be taken to hospitals, and several who in one way or another would never be the same as they were before... "You kept your `wits' about you when no one else could," my Prince had said to me as we tried to put things to order a bit. I had tried to fight back, although perhaps futilely, as Tara's ship was beyond the reach of the flamethrower when I'd used it. "Now we know what warfare would be "like" if the Priestesses didn't control our technology," I had answered. Princess Tara had been a "student" of the weaponry of the past, "fascinated" no doubt by the "ways" that Man has invented over the many centuries to kill others of his kind. And Lorraine had been little better. A woman who well deserved the "title" of Warlady, I thought now! "Maybe we should go back to throwing rocks," he'd "smiled". "You shouldn't be out of bed yet!" I said to Tori as she sat there in a wheel chair, my own disheveled appearance leaving no doubts that the North Star had suffered some sort of a disaster!! The boats now gathering about the listing crippled ship almost like sharks feasting on a wounded whale or so it appeared to me. At Tori's side was her husband, dark haired, a bit heavy set now. "My daughter?" she asked, the expression on her face leaving no doubts as to her feelings. That on mine no doubt at the sight of her telling her that something awful had happened to her girl! "She lost her right foot when Tara's ship shelled us," I an- swered in level tones, the look of horror in Tori's dark eyes al- most like a dagger into my heart then. Diane was sixteen, an age when most young girls are looking forward to life. Now she was a cripple, someone who would be "stared at", even pitied a bit now. "She is alive," Tori's husband said, taking his wife's hand in his. "And that's what's important," he added, the tears now filling Tori's eyes as she nodded, aware no doubt of the "price" she'd paid for getting Diane away from the young men of Arsana... ***************************************************************** "She is probably dead," the woman spoke, standing there on the beach, her daughter in her early teens wading out into the icy water of the strait to see if the woman clinging to the spar was still alive after everything that had happened to her. The burns she bore leaving no doubts as to the agonies she had suf- fered before being flung into the freezing cold water of the sea! "She is `alive'!" the girl cried with delight, feeling a weak faint pulse beneath the burned skin, surprised that anyone could survive this long after immersion in these icy cold waters! "She may not live," the mother answered, now wading into the bone chilling water herself to assist in dragging the woman to shore. "And if she does she will be `scarred' for life," she pointed out, her daughter nodding, seeing the burned features of one who had once been beautiful. Who once had been a Queen long ago in a land to the south. A land called "Sarn", who those of another time would have thought of as being northern California. 2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Twenty Three "Diane! The Flamethrower!" I screamed, vaulting from the quarterdeck to the deck, the crew of the North Star now staring in awe as Princess Tara's ship closed the distance between us! I saw a man point up into the sky, yell something about a `flying arrowhead'! THEN AT THAT MOMENT THERE WAS A THUNDEROUS "CRASH- ING" LIKE THE SOUND OF THUNDER ALL ABOUT ME!!! MEN, EQUIPMENT, BLOOD, SPLINTERS, FLYING ABOUT, THE HORRID "CRACK" OF A MAST AS IT NOW TOPPLED!!! FIRE AND FLAME, "HORROR" ALL AROUND ME AS I DASHED FOR THE BOW! For the only weapon we possessed that might destroy Tara's ship now! The missiles that Tara had fired having been "explosive" to boot! The Bajan's ship wreathed in smoke as she drew ahead, perhaps to come about and deliver the "finisher"! "Lys!" I gasped, Diane lying there on the deck, her right foot severed from her leg like a great cleaver had cut it off! I saw the blood, the look of "horror" in her eyes at the knowledge she would be crippled for life assuming any of us survived now! The North Star out of control, her main mast fallen, still swing- ing now towards Tara's ship as I reached the flamethrower mounted there on the forecastle. I felt a stinging pain in my side, a patch of blood now staining my tunic as I swung the flamethrower about, praying that it would reach, that I could AVENGE my ship!! "Too far!" I wept, the flaming oil falling short, the cries of wounded men and women filling my ears as the enemy started to- wards the North Light, the horror filling my mind as I thought of what such a vessel could do! Only the Diana might stand a chance against something like this, and I wasn't even sure it could now! THEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS A TERRIFIC FLASH, TARA'S SHIP SEEM- ING TO EXPLODE AS AN INTENSE BLUE WHITE BEAM OF LIGHT STRUCK IT! The heat, even from this distance searing as the beam played over the now blazing ship, a few survivors throwing themselves into the water to escape! The triangular shaped silver craft the same that Tais had brought with her when we had faced the EVIL ONE... "She saw her last battle," my father said, weeping as he held Marta's body in his arms, closing her staring eyes, the red blood everywhere, the "remains" of captain Dan Woods like nothing I'd ever seen before. I had "done" what I could for Diane, the rest up to the ship's Physician, that of North Light as that ship came up and launched her boats to send us what "help" they could now. The craft of the Priestesses floating overhead, several small craft having been released from it to search for survivors. I was numb with shock, with the horror of what I had just seen... The North Star could be repaired, she would sail again, but the memories were something that I would never forget as I knelt on a blood soaked quarterdeck, aware of horrors unknown for centuries! "I am sorry we were not in time," First Priestess Tais said standing there, looking about at the ruin. I had not seen the craft land, but just then there was "much" I no longer saw then!! Even when Bob had taken the North Star up against the Athena the destruction had been nothing like this, the North Star now list- ing as water poured in through a great hole blasted in her side! "She's `dead'," I said, looking up at the Priestess, now kneeling there in the blood. Marta had died a Warrioress' death. The tears running down my cheeks, blood everywhere like "paint"! Tara's dozen deadly shells, filled with black powder, had explod- ed on contact, killing or wounded nearly half my crew! Crippling my ship, leaving it almost only a listing nearly helpless ruin! "Many `innocents' died today," Tais then said to me. Few of the slave girls aboard Tara's ship had survived the energy beam. "The North Star `will' make it back to Arsana," I said, the captain of the North Light nodding. I still had steam, and two good masts. I would bury my step mother at sea as she would have wished. She had died on a quarterdeck in battle, the way she would have wanted it to be. The tears were uncontrollable now... My husband holding me, the dead body of Emily there before us. "You are alive," I said, taking Diane's hand in mine, the tears filling her eyes. The Physician had done what she could. I wondered what Tori would have to say. There had been nothing that I could have done. No one had believed that Princess Tara would be able to manufacture cannon firing explosive shells. The Priestesses believed her dead, although her body had not been yet found among those floating there in the strait behind us now. I looked up at Tais standing there, the First Priestess herself al- most having a "haunted" look about herself at the sight of this! I knew she had given the order to fire on Tara's ship despite the hundred innocent lives it would cost, few of the women surviving. "A midshipman with one foot isn't much good to anyone," Di- ane wept, well aware that she would be a cripple for life now... That all her life she would hobble about with a cane like Marta! And few of the young men she had known would want a cripple girl! "A good officer commands with her mind, not her feet," I said to her. She had been brave, her courage without doubt. I was proud of what she had "become" in only these few shorts days. I thought of Marta, what Queen Tulis had "done" to her. I would not be such a Queen as that! "And you have the makings of a cap- tain," I said to her, holding her hand in mine as Tais watched. My body bandaged where the splinter had cut it without my feeling it then. Some of the most badly wounded had been taken aboard the Priestess' ship for transportation to Shalimar for treatment. "She was once a `legend' in her own time," I said, standing there, the tears blurring my vision, the body wrapped in the flag there before us. "A woman who served Queens now dead, who fought against the enemies of her country with all her strength, all her skill." Sniffing back my tears, I continued on, saying, " A wom- an who stood on the quarterdeck of a ship of war, who saw bat- tle, and did not flinch from death." My husband standing with my father, the slave girl Kathi between them. We had tried to find all the remains of the captain, but they had been badly scattered by the explosive shell. The North Star was down by the bow, only the watertight compartments keeping us still afloat now as we steamed slowly towards Arsana, the sun hiding its face behind drifting clouds as if to hide from the sights it had seen... I opened the BOOK OF LYS that La-ra held, and read from it as the surviving members of the crew listened, the single officer, the last midshipman beside him, standing a bit apart from the seamen. The North Star's masts were bare of sails as I brought her into Arsana's harbor, the ship's flag at half hoist. The stub of the main mast, the visible damage, the blood staining the hull, all leaving no doubt that this ship had been badly "mauled". We had twenty seven dead to be taken ashore for cremation, an even larger number who would be taken to hospitals, and several who in one way or another would never be the same as they were before... "You kept your `wits' about you when no one else could," my Prince had said to me as we tried to put things to order a bit. I had tried to fight back, although perhaps futilely, as Tara's ship was beyond the reach of the flamethrower when I'd used it. "Now we know what warfare would be "like" if the Priestesses didn't control our technology," I had answered. Princess Tara had been a "student" of the weaponry of the past, "fascinated" no doubt by the "ways" that Man has invented over the many centuries to kill others of his kind. And Lorraine had been little better. A woman who well deserved the "title" of Warlady, I thought now! "Maybe we should go back to throwing rocks," he'd "smiled". "You shouldn't be out of bed yet!" I said to Tori as she sat there in a wheel chair, my own disheveled appearance leaving no doubts that the North Star had suffered some sort of a disaster!! The boats now gathering about the listing crippled ship almost like sharks feasting on a wounded whale or so it appeared to me. At Tori's side was her husband, dark haired, a bit heavy set now. "My daughter?" she asked, the expression on her face leaving no doubts as to her feelings. That on mine no doubt at the sight of her telling her that something awful had happened to her girl! "She lost her right foot when Tara's ship shelled us," I an- swered in level tones, the look of horror in Tori's dark eyes al- most like a dagger into my heart then. Diane was sixteen, an age when most young girls are looking forward to life. Now she was a cripple, someone who would be "stared at", even pitied a bit now. "She is alive," Tori's husband said, taking his wife's hand in his. "And that's what's important," he added, the tears now filling Tori's eyes as she nodded, aware no doubt of the "price" she'd paid for getting Diane away from the young men of Arsana... ***************************************************************** "She is probably dead," the woman spoke, standing there on the beach, her daughter in her early teens wading out into the icy water of the strait to see if the woman clinging to the spar was still alive after everything that had happened to her. The burns she bore leaving no doubts as to the agonies she had suf- fered before being flung into the freezing cold water of the sea! "She is `alive'!" the girl cried with delight, feeling a weak faint pulse beneath the burned skin, surprised that anyone could survive this long after immersion in these icy cold waters! "She may not live," the mother answered, now wading into the bone chilling water herself to assist in dragging the woman to shore. "And if she does she will be `scarred' for life," she pointed out, her daughter nodding, seeing the burned features of one who had once been beautiful. Who once had been a Queen long ago in a land to the south. A land called "Sarn", who those of another time would have thought of as being northern California. |
|
|