"2569-46" - 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 Forty Six "In the old tales there is something called a `typhoon'," I said to Darlanis, seeing the Empress nod back thoughtfully then. "A storm more powerful than anything we've experienced before..." "I think I'd better return to Sarnian Lady," Darlanis said. On the horizon now before us were great dark clouds, a heavy growing swell like nothing I'd ever experienced before, the North Star itself now being lifted and dropped like a little fishing boat as it rose over the crests and now slipped into the troughs! "Karis, ready two sea anchors, and reinforce them, strip all sails from the yards and bring down the top masts if possible," I spoke then, the Empress standing there and regarding us quietly. I knew that she depended upon me out here, that what had made this "voyage" possible in the first was my legendary seamanship! "Going to be `bad'," I spoke, seeing the lightning flashing in the clouds, the ship pitching heavily as she rode to her twin sea anchors, Sarnian Queen doing the same half a mile behind us. The swells were, I calculated, at least now thirty feet in height judging from the way that they rose up before us as the North Star pitched and bucked like an untamed unicorn being "broken"... "A few prayers to LYS might be `proper'," Karis smiled back. "We have `Maris Marn'," my husband smiled, now hugging me. "And we are aboard the `North Star'," I pointed out then. The WIND was like nothing I'd ever experienced in all my years of sailing. The waves great angry monsters that raced down upon us in white capped rows, one after another, the spray now leaping from the bow of the ship actually passing over the stern! The rain and spray striking my face driven was like hail stones! Lightning flashing in the sky, the boom of thunder like cannons as nature now attacked with all its fury our two helpless ships! "Can't see Sarnian Queen anymore!" my husband yelled, the whistle of the wind in the rigging like the screams of tormented women. The creak and groan of the hull leaving no doubts as to the strain that the ship was taking as she leaped and danced in this typhoon! If the sea anchors didn't "hold" we'd be in seri- ous trouble, as if the ship was to ever swing broadside to the wind it was quite likely now that she'd be driven right over on her side to become a dismasted wreck just like the junk had been! The thought of "that" filling my mind with terror just then too! "Raining too hard!" I yelled back, hoping Darlanis was safe. Of the two ships I considered the North Star the more seaworthy. "Karis, I want to show a bit of sail astern here to keep her bows on to the wind," I turned and ordered, my first officer nodding, well aware of the need to keep the ship facing up into the wind. "Hope Darlanis makes it," she replied, then carrying out my orders as I stood there clinging to the rail, the crew who then followed my orders almost blown from the rigging as they set a tiny bit of staysail, the North Star now meeting the waves better as she rode bows on to the wind perfectly lined up now with it. I stepped down into the hold, careful not to fall as the ship leaped in the waves, glad to see that there were no leaks as I checked the hull. The supplies carefully fastened down indi- cating that my officers were "competent" at their tasks here. On the other hand a number of the crew were now suffering from sea sickness, the close confined quarters below decks being damp and smelly, a few slow "drips" here and there from so much water be- ing poured on the deck there above. While there was a lot of groans and creaking, I had no doubts that the hull would hold up. Dularnian ships are built of overlapping layers of planking, with a layer of pitch between them. Such makes for a "dry" ship too. "How's it going?" I asked Danny, the "senior" of the mid- shipmen as he now sat propped against the hull there behind himh in the dark and dank midshipman's and warrant officer's quarters. Such quarters are in the back of the ship, below the stern cabin. Those of the first and second officer are above, ahead of my own. "I'm just glad `this' is the North Star and `you' are in command of her," Danny Oaks smiled back, the other two midshipmen nodding, the two boys no doubt well terrified of this "typhoon". "At least we don't have to `worry' about Princess Tara here," I smiled back, then taking my leave of the three of them. He had been the one surviving midshipman after Tara's "attack"... "Storm's letting up a bit, I think," Paul said to me as I stood there in the darkness. It had been impossible to feed the crew, or to "do" much of anything, the ship's pitching having been so great. I doubted too in any case that any were "hungry". "We've `survived' the `worst' that nature could throw at us," I answered, dripping wet despite my oilskins from the spray. I could see no light from Sarnian Queen, but the steam frigate was likely to have made more "leeway" than the North Star would. We would look for Darlanis' vessel as soon as it was light now. "There is a `smudge' of smoke on the horizon," Karis said, lowering the telescope. Darlanis had gotten up steam, knowing that the smoke would be visible further than her mastheads would. "She `survived' at least," my husband smiled back at me now. "I have hull and mast damage," Darlanis said to me, greeting me there on the deck. I could see men "reinforcing" her main- mast, others on ropes attempting to make repairs to the armored hull. The foremast was nothing but a broken off stub, I saw too. "Can you make it back?" I asked. Otherwise I'd have to take her and her people aboard the North Star and turn back to Dularn. "We'll `make it'," Prince Serak spoke for her in reply then. I suspected that Darlanis' bravery and courage had inspired them. She is an incredibly "brave" woman, as others have noted here... "I have some spare spars," I ventured, Darlanis smiling. "We came `prepared'," the Imperial Empress smiled back. "Hate to leave them like that out here," Paul said to me. "She'll `make it'," I smiled, knowing that Darlanis would. The Empress' ship already hoisting sail, turning about to sail to the east, back "home" to California two thousand miles away now. "It's a big ocean," my husband said to me as I stood there a few days later. The sun shining down, the crew now busy at work. While much of the "work" was not really "necessary", I felt it best to keep the men and women of the crew as busy as possible... "We're over half way `there'," I smiled back, hoping that my calculations here were "right". I had no way of allowing for how much "ground" we'd lost due to the storm, but I guessed perhaps a reasonable "guess" might be about seventy miles or so now. In any case we had come through the storm undamaged, and we still had ample supplies of food and water to sail on for months yet... "I have a woman here for punishment," Diane Wells, the "sec- ond" spoke as I glanced at her standing there with the luckless member of the crew beside her. "I found her drunk on watch," she explained now, the woman's dark eyes quite avoiding my own then. "I'm disappointed in you, Sally," I said to the woman now. "Don't know `what' got into me, your majesty," she said. "Out here we cannot `afford' any mistakes," I spoke. "Won't happen again," Sally "ventured" in reply. "I intend to `see' that it doesn't!" I snapped. "Hands to witness punishment!" the bosuns called, the crew pouring forth up on to the deck. Three days ago we had seen the topsails of Sarnian Queen disappear below the horizon to the east. We were "alone" like few ships ever have been, and no doubt that "fact" was on everyone's mind now. If something "hap- pened" out here, it would be the "end" for all of us, and no one would ever know mostly likely what had occurred twenty five hun- dred miles from North America. How much "further" it was to Ja- pan now I didn't quite know, but I suspected at least another two weeks of sailing before we sighted land. And tolerating drunken- ness on duty could be the destruction of us all out here too now! "Miss Stevenson was found drunk on duty," I spoke, the faces looking up at mine nodding, everyone well aware of the nature of the situation here. This was no "voyage" up and down a coastline where the land was almost always in sight. There was perhaps a couple miles of ocean beneath us, with only Lys knows what sort of strange aquatic life now swimming there far below us in the dark cold depths no human eye has seen for over five centuries. "Out here all our lives, yours, mine, depend upon all of us doing our `duty' to the best of our abilities," I continued on then... "That is `why' I am awarding a dozen lashes, which I will lay on myself as your captain and as your `Queen', so that there is no `doubt' in anyone's mind as to the seriousness of this offense." I saw Sally put her face to the mast as she stood there now bound to it. She had been stripped, as is commonly done in such matters as this. The bosun handed me the "cat", the whip that is used on aboard ships of war for punishment of miscreants and those careless in the performance of their duties. I had no doubts either that the crew was well aware of "why" their own captain and Queen was doing this instead of the bosun as usual. I needed to impress upon every man and every woman aboard that in this voyage we could tolerate not the least infraction of disci- pline aboard. That here, twenty five hundred miles out to sea from North America, Japan perhaps another two thousand ahead of us yet, there could not be the slightest relaxing of discipline!! 2569 A.D.! THE DULARNIAN QUEEN AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Chapter Forty Six "In the old tales there is something called a `typhoon'," I said to Darlanis, seeing the Empress nod back thoughtfully then. "A storm more powerful than anything we've experienced before..." "I think I'd better return to Sarnian Lady," Darlanis said. On the horizon now before us were great dark clouds, a heavy growing swell like nothing I'd ever experienced before, the North Star itself now being lifted and dropped like a little fishing boat as it rose over the crests and now slipped into the troughs! "Karis, ready two sea anchors, and reinforce them, strip all sails from the yards and bring down the top masts if possible," I spoke then, the Empress standing there and regarding us quietly. I knew that she depended upon me out here, that what had made this "voyage" possible in the first was my legendary seamanship! "Going to be `bad'," I spoke, seeing the lightning flashing in the clouds, the ship pitching heavily as she rode to her twin sea anchors, Sarnian Queen doing the same half a mile behind us. The swells were, I calculated, at least now thirty feet in height judging from the way that they rose up before us as the North Star pitched and bucked like an untamed unicorn being "broken"... "A few prayers to LYS might be `proper'," Karis smiled back. "We have `Maris Marn'," my husband smiled, now hugging me. "And we are aboard the `North Star'," I pointed out then. The WIND was like nothing I'd ever experienced in all my years of sailing. The waves great angry monsters that raced down upon us in white capped rows, one after another, the spray now leaping from the bow of the ship actually passing over the stern! The rain and spray striking my face driven was like hail stones! Lightning flashing in the sky, the boom of thunder like cannons as nature now attacked with all its fury our two helpless ships! "Can't see Sarnian Queen anymore!" my husband yelled, the whistle of the wind in the rigging like the screams of tormented women. The creak and groan of the hull leaving no doubts as to the strain that the ship was taking as she leaped and danced in this typhoon! If the sea anchors didn't "hold" we'd be in seri- ous trouble, as if the ship was to ever swing broadside to the wind it was quite likely now that she'd be driven right over on her side to become a dismasted wreck just like the junk had been! The thought of "that" filling my mind with terror just then too! "Raining too hard!" I yelled back, hoping Darlanis was safe. Of the two ships I considered the North Star the more seaworthy. "Karis, I want to show a bit of sail astern here to keep her bows on to the wind," I turned and ordered, my first officer nodding, well aware of the need to keep the ship facing up into the wind. "Hope Darlanis makes it," she replied, then carrying out my orders as I stood there clinging to the rail, the crew who then followed my orders almost blown from the rigging as they set a tiny bit of staysail, the North Star now meeting the waves better as she rode bows on to the wind perfectly lined up now with it. I stepped down into the hold, careful not to fall as the ship leaped in the waves, glad to see that there were no leaks as I checked the hull. The supplies carefully fastened down indi- cating that my officers were "competent" at their tasks here. On the other hand a number of the crew were now suffering from sea sickness, the close confined quarters below decks being damp and smelly, a few slow "drips" here and there from so much water be- ing poured on the deck there above. While there was a lot of groans and creaking, I had no doubts that the hull would hold up. Dularnian ships are built of overlapping layers of planking, with a layer of pitch between them. Such makes for a "dry" ship too. "How's it going?" I asked Danny, the "senior" of the mid- shipmen as he now sat propped against the hull there behind himh in the dark and dank midshipman's and warrant officer's quarters. Such quarters are in the back of the ship, below the stern cabin. Those of the first and second officer are above, ahead of my own. "I'm just glad `this' is the North Star and `you' are in command of her," Danny Oaks smiled back, the other two midshipmen nodding, the two boys no doubt well terrified of this "typhoon". "At least we don't have to `worry' about Princess Tara here," I smiled back, then taking my leave of the three of them. He had been the one surviving midshipman after Tara's "attack"... "Storm's letting up a bit, I think," Paul said to me as I stood there in the darkness. It had been impossible to feed the crew, or to "do" much of anything, the ship's pitching having been so great. I doubted too in any case that any were "hungry". "We've `survived' the `worst' that nature could throw at us," I answered, dripping wet despite my oilskins from the spray. I could see no light from Sarnian Queen, but the steam frigate was likely to have made more "leeway" than the North Star would. We would look for Darlanis' vessel as soon as it was light now. "There is a `smudge' of smoke on the horizon," Karis said, lowering the telescope. Darlanis had gotten up steam, knowing that the smoke would be visible further than her mastheads would. "She `survived' at least," my husband smiled back at me now. "I have hull and mast damage," Darlanis said to me, greeting me there on the deck. I could see men "reinforcing" her main- mast, others on ropes attempting to make repairs to the armored hull. The foremast was nothing but a broken off stub, I saw too. "Can you make it back?" I asked. Otherwise I'd have to take her and her people aboard the North Star and turn back to Dularn. "We'll `make it'," Prince Serak spoke for her in reply then. I suspected that Darlanis' bravery and courage had inspired them. She is an incredibly "brave" woman, as others have noted here... "I have some spare spars," I ventured, Darlanis smiling. "We came `prepared'," the Imperial Empress smiled back. "Hate to leave them like that out here," Paul said to me. "She'll `make it'," I smiled, knowing that Darlanis would. The Empress' ship already hoisting sail, turning about to sail to the east, back "home" to California two thousand miles away now. "It's a big ocean," my husband said to me as I stood there a few days later. The sun shining down, the crew now busy at work. While much of the "work" was not really "necessary", I felt it best to keep the men and women of the crew as busy as possible... "We're over half way `there'," I smiled back, hoping that my calculations here were "right". I had no way of allowing for how much "ground" we'd lost due to the storm, but I guessed perhaps a reasonable "guess" might be about seventy miles or so now. In any case we had come through the storm undamaged, and we still had ample supplies of food and water to sail on for months yet... "I have a woman here for punishment," Diane Wells, the "sec- ond" spoke as I glanced at her standing there with the luckless member of the crew beside her. "I found her drunk on watch," she explained now, the woman's dark eyes quite avoiding my own then. "I'm disappointed in you, Sally," I said to the woman now. "Don't know `what' got into me, your majesty," she said. "Out here we cannot `afford' any mistakes," I spoke. "Won't happen again," Sally "ventured" in reply. "I intend to `see' that it doesn't!" I snapped. "Hands to witness punishment!" the bosuns called, the crew pouring forth up on to the deck. Three days ago we had seen the topsails of Sarnian Queen disappear below the horizon to the east. We were "alone" like few ships ever have been, and no doubt that "fact" was on everyone's mind now. If something "hap- pened" out here, it would be the "end" for all of us, and no one would ever know mostly likely what had occurred twenty five hun- dred miles from North America. How much "further" it was to Ja- pan now I didn't quite know, but I suspected at least another two weeks of sailing before we sighted land. And tolerating drunken- ness on duty could be the destruction of us all out here too now! "Miss Stevenson was found drunk on duty," I spoke, the faces looking up at mine nodding, everyone well aware of the nature of the situation here. This was no "voyage" up and down a coastline where the land was almost always in sight. There was perhaps a couple miles of ocean beneath us, with only Lys knows what sort of strange aquatic life now swimming there far below us in the dark cold depths no human eye has seen for over five centuries. "Out here all our lives, yours, mine, depend upon all of us doing our `duty' to the best of our abilities," I continued on then... "That is `why' I am awarding a dozen lashes, which I will lay on myself as your captain and as your `Queen', so that there is no `doubt' in anyone's mind as to the seriousness of this offense." I saw Sally put her face to the mast as she stood there now bound to it. She had been stripped, as is commonly done in such matters as this. The bosun handed me the "cat", the whip that is used on aboard ships of war for punishment of miscreants and those careless in the performance of their duties. I had no doubts either that the crew was well aware of "why" their own captain and Queen was doing this instead of the bosun as usual. I needed to impress upon every man and every woman aboard that in this voyage we could tolerate not the least infraction of disci- pline aboard. That here, twenty five hundred miles out to sea from North America, Japan perhaps another two thousand ahead of us yet, there could not be the slightest relaxing of discipline!! |
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