"2565-85" - читать интересную книгу автора (Warlady 1 - 2565 Ad Book 2)2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Forty Two "We'll load as much alcohol aboard that we can and run for it if we have to," Darlanis said to me as we flew over her white marble palace there below, the flag of Empire still flying from its flagstaff. The blue and gold of her own personal flag still yet below it visible in the landing lights as I came around up into the wind. I wondered if we were worrying ourselves need- lessly about nothing, although I knew that if Princess Tara had somehow managed to reach the Senate before us we could be in very serious trouble. She had far too much power in the Empire! I had no doubt that if she was here she had doubtlessly already managed to seize control of the Empire. All she would have to do would be to terrify the Senate with tales of our "Revolution" to get whatever "emergency" powers that she needed to become a total dictator over all of Sarn! Make herself into another Napoleon! "A Queen doesn't run from her people," I said to Darlanis. "What was done in Trelandar can be done here too by `YOU' too." "I don't know how!" Darlanis protested, the idea perhaps of overthrowing her own government seeming unbelievable to her too! She was after all from a culture to which such things were almost unthinkable. Even our "Revolution" there in Trelandar had been more in the nature of a coup d'etat than any actual "revolution". "All you have to do is go talk to your people," I told her. I would be there at her side to help her. Give her what "moral support" I could. It was a cold and rainy night. The first week of October had already gone by. Fall was racing down upon us from the cold northlands. Soon the leaves would be changing now. "And wear the most provocative outfit you have," I smiled as she nodded, understanding. She was a wonderful public speaker. She had certainly done an excellent job there in Trelandar. I wouldn't have cared to have tried to "campaign" against her any- where! Even in Trelandar she still had her supporters after all that had happened. There were still those who supported Darlanis Marden, Queen of Sarn, and Empress of the Empire of California! "And if we fail we will at least die together," Darlanis said, giving me a grim smile as I brought the plane down a few hundred yards from the palace there among the anchored ships. I prayed that the Senators wouldn't be prepared for what was to be! My teeth chattered in the cold rain as I stood beside Darla- nis on the piled crates, the gold mesh of her brief attire well displaying her incredible beauty there in the light of the smoky sputtering torches. I wore my own brief outfit, outlandish as it appeared, the force saber ready in my hand. Black Lady floating tied up to the dock behind us. I had to admire Darlanis, the way she "played" a crowd as she did. The upturned sea of faces there in the darkness listening to every word. Cheering her, crying out her name! I thought momentarily of another, and wondered. Around us were gathered the warrioresses of her own personal guard, their chain mail glistening in the torch light. Not enough if the Senate was able to rally the city's own forces against us, but enough that I had little doubt that we might stall things long enough to turn the tables upon those opposing us. Fortunately the 26th Century is an era where most men go armed, and there is not really that much of an advantage that the military has over civilians! I once mentioned the anti-gun laws of the 20th Century to Darlanis, who remarked that she wasn't too surprised that we had the sort of a political system that we had. She also said that our "democracy" of the 20th Century wasn't really that, since the "people" in her eyes had no more actual "say" over things than did her own people of the Empire of Cali- fornia. Perhaps she has a point there. The Constitution of Tre- landar states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is the basis of a free state and shall never be "infringed" by the government. It is not just an "Amendment" like what the old "United States" had in its Constitution, but an actual basic part of the Constitution of Trelandar itself! We have learned a few things from history over those six centuries, I am happy to say! "I now stand before you as your Queen," Darlanis spoke to the crowd gathered there before us. "But now as a much different Queen who has learned much from another from a time now only leg- end. From the time of JANET ROGERS HERSELF! I now stand beside Queen Lorraine Richards of Trelandar who has just brought a `NEW ORDER' to her own land! A `NEW ORDER' that we too of Sarn can now HAVE HERE right in our own land!"* * Janet's own political system was called "THE NEW ORDER". When we made our "Revolution" there in Trelandar I suggested that we called our own political system "The New Order" after hers. (LR) I listened to Darlanis speaking to the people before us in that clear ringing beautiful voice of hers. I supposed it really didn't matter all that much what she said to them, it was just that she was "THERE" and that the people could see her standing up there in the rain before them. Political speeches are usually just a lot of "rhetoric" anyway. Both Darlanis and I are pretty good "rabble-rousers" by 26th Century standards. She is perhaps somewhat "better" at it because she is so stunningly beautiful no man can disbelieve her! I would hate to have Her as an enemy! "HAIL DARLANIS!" I heard the people cry. There were a few who also "hailed" me as I stood there beside Darlanis. They had heard of our "Revolution" from the passing ships. Word travels slowly in the 26th Century as I have mentioned. No doubt the tales had been a bit "distorted" by the time they reached Sarn. There was, I knew, even some of our own revolutionaries who were now hard at work along the border between Sarn and Trelandar. Stirring up the people of the area. Making "trouble" as best that they could for the titled aristocrats of the region. San- da's "Revolution" was now getting "out of hand" despite our own best efforts to contain it! It was spreading like "wildfire"! I feared what the ultimate consequences might be if it got out of hand. I am a Frenchwoman by birth. I know of our own Revolution and what it brought. What the American Revolution could have been had not men like Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton been in control. I feared what Sanda might do once she saw how "easy" it was to arouse the people. Send them like maddened rabid dogs at the throats of the oppressive aristocracies of the 26th Century! What I feared most of all was crossbowmen as Darlanis stood there tall and golden, her wet body glistening there in the rain. I feared that bolt out of the darkness that would take her life! Without Darlanis there would be no way to control the revolution we were starting. Without her all of Sarn could be plunged into a "blood-bath" like what had happened in France in 1789! Then the "scavengers" would come. The Nevadas, the peoples from the dry arid wastelands to the east beyond the mountains! And then the forces from Dularn as Queen Tulis took advantage of her dis- owned daughter's death! I thought of anti-matter, of its "con- tainment" in "magnetic bottles". Revolutions were much the same! Controlled, a revolution could alter civilizations, change the entire history of the human race. Uncontrolled, disaster and death would be the only outcome! Sarn would be destroyed, chewed up and bitten apart by its neighbors to the north, south, and east. What Darlanis had so carefully built up could be destroyed by one crossbowman! With one carefully aimed two ounce bolt! I saw the glitter of armor, saw spear points moving in the darkness behind the crowd. Heard Darlanis pause, her azure eyes glowing there in the torchlight as she saw the Legion. Heard the muttering of the crowd as they too saw the cause of their Queen's concern. The "establishment" had finally reacted to our "Revolu- tion". Darlanis' warrioresses moving up, drawing their blades. I saw the flash of steel among the crowd. The people were ready to fight! To die for their golden Empress. The odds were far worse than my worst nightmares! We were outnumbered at least by twenty to one! We faced perhaps seven thousand men, armed men! An entire Imperial Legion! Their own Warrioress forces outnum- bered those who stood by Darlanis by some ten to one! I saw Dar- lanis draw her sword. Saw the look in her eyes. She would die as she had lived. Die with her people against these overwhelming odds that it would have taken thousands to stand up against! We had not known the awesome forces that would be thrown against us. We had "miscalculated", and badly, I feared! TARA HAD WON!!! "There is Black Lady," Darlanis said to me. "See that I am avenged." I knew the thoughts in her mind. There was enough al- cohol in the plane to make it to Trelandar. To safety! She and her people would hold the Legion long enough for me to take off. "We Queens don't `run'," I snapped back. I had no doubt who would be in actual "command" of that Legion. She would not have left such a task up to others. Princess Tara is no "dumbbell"! "Like a bad copper you keep `turning up' Lorraine," Tara snapped as she sat there on a pure black unicorn before the Le- gion, glorious in helmet and chain mail. I had to smile at that, since she took the very words that I was going to say right out of my own mouth! Behind her seven thousand men in armor, spears in their hands, shields on their arms, swords at their hips. The force of warrioresses on their unicorns alone outnumbered us all! With one motion I lifted the force saber and flicked it on. The beam of gently glowing force extending out a meter from my hand. A totally alien weapon from the fantasies of another time. "Couldn't you do better than that pitiful little force of primitive barbarians, Tara?" I snapped back. "Don't you realize that I command the very forces of the stars themselves? That she who is First among the Lorr is my most dear friend? Didn't you see the power that I command when the Starfire blasted your pi- rates into sub-atomic particles? Don't you realize I could give an order and have the entire Earth turned into a radioactive cin- der as totally lifeless as the Moon? Do you think I am some sim- ple barbarian like you who has to ride around on some dumb beast while I command the skies themselves! You see my craft. Don't you know I could burn this entire city to ruins and there would- n't be a single thing that you or anyone of you simple barbarians could do about it! Dammit Tara, don't you realize `WHO' controls this world of yours? That behind me stands a `POWER' so infinite that your simple little primitive mind can't even understand it!" "You!" I snapped to a warrior at Tara's side. "Toss me your shield!" The man did so. There was a blur of light and the shield crashed to the flagstones in four pieces, my force saber having passed through the metal as if it was but a mere mist! "You see my power, Tara," I snapped. "Dare you defy me?" I saw her face, saw her eyes. Saw the terror in their depths. She wheeled her mount and galloped off into the darkness, BEATEN!!! "I think, Lorraine, that I would not care to play poker with you," Darlanis said in quiet tones, her azure eyes filled with awe at what I had done. It had of course been a bluff. Perhaps the biggest bluff ever pulled in the entire history of the human race. I had, of course, known that Tara knew of the Starfire. Knew that she knew that such a craft was commanded by the Lorr, which she muchly feared. My force saber did the rest for us all. We had won without crossing a single blade. The power of the Im- perial Senate was broken. Darlanis was now truly Queen of Sarn! Empress of California. She handed me her sword. I kissed it. As I have said before such is meaningful among those of my caste. 2565 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN By Jerome B. Bigge Book Two Chapter Forty Two "We'll load as much alcohol aboard that we can and run for it if we have to," Darlanis said to me as we flew over her white marble palace there below, the flag of Empire still flying from its flagstaff. The blue and gold of her own personal flag still yet below it visible in the landing lights as I came around up into the wind. I wondered if we were worrying ourselves need- lessly about nothing, although I knew that if Princess Tara had somehow managed to reach the Senate before us we could be in very serious trouble. She had far too much power in the Empire! I had no doubt that if she was here she had doubtlessly already managed to seize control of the Empire. All she would have to do would be to terrify the Senate with tales of our "Revolution" to get whatever "emergency" powers that she needed to become a total dictator over all of Sarn! Make herself into another Napoleon! "A Queen doesn't run from her people," I said to Darlanis. "What was done in Trelandar can be done here too by `YOU' too." "I don't know how!" Darlanis protested, the idea perhaps of overthrowing her own government seeming unbelievable to her too! She was after all from a culture to which such things were almost unthinkable. Even our "Revolution" there in Trelandar had been more in the nature of a coup d'etat than any actual "revolution". "All you have to do is go talk to your people," I told her. I would be there at her side to help her. Give her what "moral support" I could. It was a cold and rainy night. The first week of October had already gone by. Fall was racing down upon us from the cold northlands. Soon the leaves would be changing now. "And wear the most provocative outfit you have," I smiled as she nodded, understanding. She was a wonderful public speaker. She had certainly done an excellent job there in Trelandar. I wouldn't have cared to have tried to "campaign" against her any- where! Even in Trelandar she still had her supporters after all that had happened. There were still those who supported Darlanis Marden, Queen of Sarn, and Empress of the Empire of California! "And if we fail we will at least die together," Darlanis said, giving me a grim smile as I brought the plane down a few hundred yards from the palace there among the anchored ships. I prayed that the Senators wouldn't be prepared for what was to be! My teeth chattered in the cold rain as I stood beside Darla- nis on the piled crates, the gold mesh of her brief attire well displaying her incredible beauty there in the light of the smoky sputtering torches. I wore my own brief outfit, outlandish as it appeared, the force saber ready in my hand. Black Lady floating tied up to the dock behind us. I had to admire Darlanis, the way she "played" a crowd as she did. The upturned sea of faces there in the darkness listening to every word. Cheering her, crying out her name! I thought momentarily of another, and wondered. Around us were gathered the warrioresses of her own personal guard, their chain mail glistening in the torch light. Not enough if the Senate was able to rally the city's own forces against us, but enough that I had little doubt that we might stall things long enough to turn the tables upon those opposing us. Fortunately the 26th Century is an era where most men go armed, and there is not really that much of an advantage that the military has over civilians! I once mentioned the anti-gun laws of the 20th Century to Darlanis, who remarked that she wasn't too surprised that we had the sort of a political system that we had. She also said that our "democracy" of the 20th Century wasn't really that, since the "people" in her eyes had no more actual "say" over things than did her own people of the Empire of Cali- fornia. Perhaps she has a point there. The Constitution of Tre- landar states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is the basis of a free state and shall never be "infringed" by the government. It is not just an "Amendment" like what the old "United States" had in its Constitution, but an actual basic part of the Constitution of Trelandar itself! We have learned a few things from history over those six centuries, I am happy to say! "I now stand before you as your Queen," Darlanis spoke to the crowd gathered there before us. "But now as a much different Queen who has learned much from another from a time now only leg- end. From the time of JANET ROGERS HERSELF! I now stand beside Queen Lorraine Richards of Trelandar who has just brought a `NEW ORDER' to her own land! A `NEW ORDER' that we too of Sarn can now HAVE HERE right in our own land!"* * Janet's own political system was called "THE NEW ORDER". When we made our "Revolution" there in Trelandar I suggested that we called our own political system "The New Order" after hers. (LR) I listened to Darlanis speaking to the people before us in that clear ringing beautiful voice of hers. I supposed it really didn't matter all that much what she said to them, it was just that she was "THERE" and that the people could see her standing up there in the rain before them. Political speeches are usually just a lot of "rhetoric" anyway. Both Darlanis and I are pretty good "rabble-rousers" by 26th Century standards. She is perhaps somewhat "better" at it because she is so stunningly beautiful no man can disbelieve her! I would hate to have Her as an enemy! "HAIL DARLANIS!" I heard the people cry. There were a few who also "hailed" me as I stood there beside Darlanis. They had heard of our "Revolution" from the passing ships. Word travels slowly in the 26th Century as I have mentioned. No doubt the tales had been a bit "distorted" by the time they reached Sarn. There was, I knew, even some of our own revolutionaries who were now hard at work along the border between Sarn and Trelandar. Stirring up the people of the area. Making "trouble" as best that they could for the titled aristocrats of the region. San- da's "Revolution" was now getting "out of hand" despite our own best efforts to contain it! It was spreading like "wildfire"! I feared what the ultimate consequences might be if it got out of hand. I am a Frenchwoman by birth. I know of our own Revolution and what it brought. What the American Revolution could have been had not men like Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton been in control. I feared what Sanda might do once she saw how "easy" it was to arouse the people. Send them like maddened rabid dogs at the throats of the oppressive aristocracies of the 26th Century! What I feared most of all was crossbowmen as Darlanis stood there tall and golden, her wet body glistening there in the rain. I feared that bolt out of the darkness that would take her life! Without Darlanis there would be no way to control the revolution we were starting. Without her all of Sarn could be plunged into a "blood-bath" like what had happened in France in 1789! Then the "scavengers" would come. The Nevadas, the peoples from the dry arid wastelands to the east beyond the mountains! And then the forces from Dularn as Queen Tulis took advantage of her dis- owned daughter's death! I thought of anti-matter, of its "con- tainment" in "magnetic bottles". Revolutions were much the same! Controlled, a revolution could alter civilizations, change the entire history of the human race. Uncontrolled, disaster and death would be the only outcome! Sarn would be destroyed, chewed up and bitten apart by its neighbors to the north, south, and east. What Darlanis had so carefully built up could be destroyed by one crossbowman! With one carefully aimed two ounce bolt! I saw the glitter of armor, saw spear points moving in the darkness behind the crowd. Heard Darlanis pause, her azure eyes glowing there in the torchlight as she saw the Legion. Heard the muttering of the crowd as they too saw the cause of their Queen's concern. The "establishment" had finally reacted to our "Revolu- tion". Darlanis' warrioresses moving up, drawing their blades. I saw the flash of steel among the crowd. The people were ready to fight! To die for their golden Empress. The odds were far worse than my worst nightmares! We were outnumbered at least by twenty to one! We faced perhaps seven thousand men, armed men! An entire Imperial Legion! Their own Warrioress forces outnum- bered those who stood by Darlanis by some ten to one! I saw Dar- lanis draw her sword. Saw the look in her eyes. She would die as she had lived. Die with her people against these overwhelming odds that it would have taken thousands to stand up against! We had not known the awesome forces that would be thrown against us. We had "miscalculated", and badly, I feared! TARA HAD WON!!! "There is Black Lady," Darlanis said to me. "See that I am avenged." I knew the thoughts in her mind. There was enough al- cohol in the plane to make it to Trelandar. To safety! She and her people would hold the Legion long enough for me to take off. "We Queens don't `run'," I snapped back. I had no doubt who would be in actual "command" of that Legion. She would not have left such a task up to others. Princess Tara is no "dumbbell"! "Like a bad copper you keep `turning up' Lorraine," Tara snapped as she sat there on a pure black unicorn before the Le- gion, glorious in helmet and chain mail. I had to smile at that, since she took the very words that I was going to say right out of my own mouth! Behind her seven thousand men in armor, spears in their hands, shields on their arms, swords at their hips. The force of warrioresses on their unicorns alone outnumbered us all! With one motion I lifted the force saber and flicked it on. The beam of gently glowing force extending out a meter from my hand. A totally alien weapon from the fantasies of another time. "Couldn't you do better than that pitiful little force of primitive barbarians, Tara?" I snapped back. "Don't you realize that I command the very forces of the stars themselves? That she who is First among the Lorr is my most dear friend? Didn't you see the power that I command when the Starfire blasted your pi- rates into sub-atomic particles? Don't you realize I could give an order and have the entire Earth turned into a radioactive cin- der as totally lifeless as the Moon? Do you think I am some sim- ple barbarian like you who has to ride around on some dumb beast while I command the skies themselves! You see my craft. Don't you know I could burn this entire city to ruins and there would- n't be a single thing that you or anyone of you simple barbarians could do about it! Dammit Tara, don't you realize `WHO' controls this world of yours? That behind me stands a `POWER' so infinite that your simple little primitive mind can't even understand it!" "You!" I snapped to a warrior at Tara's side. "Toss me your shield!" The man did so. There was a blur of light and the shield crashed to the flagstones in four pieces, my force saber having passed through the metal as if it was but a mere mist! "You see my power, Tara," I snapped. "Dare you defy me?" I saw her face, saw her eyes. Saw the terror in their depths. She wheeled her mount and galloped off into the darkness, BEATEN!!! "I think, Lorraine, that I would not care to play poker with you," Darlanis said in quiet tones, her azure eyes filled with awe at what I had done. It had of course been a bluff. Perhaps the biggest bluff ever pulled in the entire history of the human race. I had, of course, known that Tara knew of the Starfire. Knew that she knew that such a craft was commanded by the Lorr, which she muchly feared. My force saber did the rest for us all. We had won without crossing a single blade. The power of the Im- perial Senate was broken. Darlanis was now truly Queen of Sarn! Empress of California. She handed me her sword. I kissed it. As I have said before such is meaningful among those of my caste. |
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