X
It took Valkanhayn and Spasso more time and argument to convincetheir crews than Trask thought necessary. Harkaman seemed satisfied,and so was Baron Rathmore, the Wardshaven politician.
"It's like talking a lot of uncommitted small landholders intotaking somebody's livery-and-maintenance," the latter said. "Youcan't use too much pressure; make them think it's their own idea."
There were meetings of both crews, with heated arguments; BaronRathmore made frequent speeches, while Lord Trask of Tanith andAdmiral Harkaman--the titles were Rathmore's suggestion--remainedloftily aloof. On both ships, everybody owned everything in common,which meant that nobody owned anything. They had taken over Tanithon the same basis of diffused ownership, and nobody in either crewwas quite stupid enough to think that they could do anything withthe planet by themselves. By joining the _Nemesis_, it appeared thatthey were getting something for nothing. In the end, they voted toplace themselves under the authority of Lord Trask and AdmiralHarkaman. After all, Tanith would be a feudal lordship, and thethree ships together a fleet.
Admiral Harkaman's first act of authority was to order a generalinspection of fleet units. He wasn't shocked by the condition of thetwo ships, but that was only because he had expected much worse. Theywere spaceworthy; after all, they had gotten here from Hoth undertheir own power. They were only combat-worthy if the combat weren'ttoo severe. His original estimate that the _Nemesis_ could haveknocked both of them to pieces was, if anything, over-conservative.The engines were only in fair shape, and the armament was bad.
"We aren't going to spend our time sitting here on Tanith," he toldthe two captains. "This planet is a raiding base, and 'raiding' isthe operative word. And we are not going to raid easy planets. Aplanet that can be raided with impunity isn't worth the time it takesgetting to it. We are going to have to fight on every planet we hit,and I am not going to jeopardize the lives of the men under me,which includes your crews as well as mine, because of under-poweredand under-armed ships."
Spasso tried to argue. "We've been getting along."
Harkaman cursed. "Yes. I know how you've been getting along;chicken-stealing on planets like Set and Xipototec and Melkarth. Notmaking enough to cover maintenance expenses; that's why your ship'sin the shape she is. Well, those days are over. Both ships ought tohave a full overhaul, but we'll have to skip that till we have ashipyard of our own. But I will insist, at least, that your guns andlaunchers are in order. And your detection equipment; you didn't geta fix on the _Nemesis_ till we were less than twenty thousand milesoff-planet."
"We had better get the _Lamia_ in condition first," Trask said. "Wecan put her on off-planet watch, instead of that pair of pinnaces."
* * * * *
Work on the _Lamia_ started the next day, and considerable friction-heatwas generated between her officers and the engineers sent over fromthe _Nemesis_. Baron Rathmore went aboard, and came back laughing.
"You know how that ship's run?" he asked. "There's a sort of sovietof officers; chief engineer, exec, guns-and-missiles, astrogator andso on. Spasso's just an animated ventriloquist's dummy. I talked toall of them. None of them can pin me down to anything, but theythink we're going to heave Spasso out of command and appoint one ofthem, and each one thinks he'll be it. I don't know how long that'lllast, it's a string-and-tape job like the one we're having to do onthe ship. It'll hold till we get something better."
"We'll have to get rid of Spasso," Harkaman agreed. "I think we'llput one of our own people in his place. Valkanhayn can stay incommand of the _Space Scourge_; he's a spaceman. But Spasso's nogood for anything."
The local problem was complicated, too. The locals spoke LinguaTerra of a sort, like every descendant of the race that had gone outfrom the Sol system in the Third Century, but it was a barelycomprehensible sort. On civilized planets, the language had beenfrozen unalterably in microbooks and voice tapes. But microbooks canonly be read and sound tapes heard with the aid of electricity, andTanith had lost that long ago.
Most of the people Spasso and Valkanhayn had kidnaped and enslavedcame from villages within a radius of five hundred miles. About halfof them wanted to be repatriated; they were given gifts of knives,tools, blankets, and bits of metal which seemed to be the chiefstandard of value and medium of exchange, and shipped home. Findingtheir proper villages was not easy. At each such village, the newswas spread that the Space Vikings would hereafter pay for what theyreceived.
The _Lamia_ was overhauled as rapidly as possible. She was stillfar from being a good ship, but she was much closer to being one thanbefore. She was fitted with the best detection equipment that couldbe assembled, and put on orbit; Alvyn Karffard took command of her,with some of Spasso's officers, some of Valkanhayn's, and a few fromthe _Nemesis_. Harkaman was intending to use her for retraining ofall the _Lamia_ and _Space Scourge_ officers, and rotated them backand forth.
The labor guards, a score in number, were relieved of their duties,issued Sword-World firearms, and given intensive training. The tradetokens, stamps of colored plastic, were introduced, and a store wasset up where they could be exchanged for Sword-World items. After awhile, it dawned on the locals that the tokens could also be usedfor trading among themselves; money seemed to have been one of theadjuncts of civilization that had been lost along Tanith's downwardpath. A few of them were able to use contragravity hand-lifters andhand-towed lifter-skids; several were even learning to operatethings like bulldozers, at least to the extent of knowing whichlever or button did what. Give them a little time, Trask thought,watching a gang at work down on the spaceport floor. It won't bemany years before half of them will be piloting aircars.
* * * * *
As soon as the _Lamia_ was on orbital watch, the _Space Scourge_ wasset down at the spaceport and work started on her. It was decidedthat Valkanhayn would take her to Gram; enough _Nemesis_ peoplewould go along to insure good faith on his part, and to talk to DukeAngus and the Tanith investors. Baron Rathmore, and Paytrik Morland,and several other Wardshaven gentlemen-adventurers for the latterfunction; Alvyn Karffard to act as Valkanhayn's exec, with privateorders to supersede him in command if necessary, and Guatt Kirbeyto do the astrogating.
"We'll have to take the _Nemesis_ and the _Space Scourge_ out,first, and make a big raid," Harkaman said. "We can't send the_Space Scourge_ back to Gram empty. When Baron Rathmore and LordValpry and the rest of them talk to Duke Angus and the Tanithinvestors, they'll have to have a lot more than some travel filmsof Tanith. They'll have to be able to show that Tanith is producing.We ought to have a little money of our own to invest, too."
"But, Otto; both ships?" That worried Trask. "Suppose Dunnan comesand finds nobody here but Spasso and the _Lamia_?"
"Chance we'll have to take. Personally, I think we have a year to ayear and a half before Dunnan shows up here. I know, we were fooledtrying to guess what he'd do before. But the sort of raid I have inmind, we'll need two ships, and in any case, I don't want to leaveboth those ships here while we're gone, even if you do."
"When it comes to that, I don't think I do, either. But we can'ttrust Spasso here alone, can we?"
"We'll leave enough of our people to make sure. We'll leaveAlvyn--that'll mean a lot of work for me that he'd otherwise do,on the ship. And Baron Rathmore, and young Valpry, and the menwho've been training our sepoys. We can shuffle things around andleave some of Valkanhayn's men in place of some of Spasso's. We mighteven talk Spasso into going along. That'll mean having to endure himat our table, but it would be wise."
"Have you picked a place to raid?"
"Three of them. First, Khepera. That's only thirty light-years fromhere. That won't amount to much; just chicken-stealing. It'll giveour green hands some relatively safe combat-training, and it'll giveus some idea of how Spasso's and Valkanhayn's people behave, andgive them confidence for the next job."
"And then?"
"Amaterasu. My information about Amaterasu is about tw
enty yearsold. A lot of things can happen in twenty years. All I know of it--Iwas never there myself--is it's fairly civilized--about like Terrajust before the beginning of the Atomic Era. No nuclear energy, theylost that, and of course nothing beyond it, but they have hydroelectricand solarelectric power, and nonnuclear jet aircraft, and some very goodchemical-explosive weapons, which they use very freely on each other.It was last known to have been raided by a ship from Excaliburtwenty years ago."
"That sounds promising. And the third planet?"
"Beowulf. We won't take enough damage on Amaterasu to make anydifference there, but if we saved Amaterasu for last, we mightbe needing too many repairs."
"It's like that?"
"Yes. They have nuclear energy. I don't think it would be wise tomention Beowulf to Captains Spasso and Valkanhayn. Wait till we'vehit Khepera and Amaterasu. They may be feeling like heroes, then."