XII
They came straight down on Eglonsby, on Amaterasu, the _Nemesis_and the _Space Scourge_ side by side. The radar had picked them upat point-five light-seconds; by this time the whole planet knewthey were coming, and nobody was wondering why. Paul Koreff wasmonitoring at least twenty radio stations, assigning somebody toeach one as it was identified. What was coming in was uniformlyexcited, some panicky, and all in fairly standard Lingua Terra.
Garvan Spasso was perturbed. So, in the communication screen fromthe _Space Scourge_, was Boake Valkanhayn.
"They got radio, and they got radar," he clamored.
"Well, so what?" Harkaman asked. "They had radio and radar twentyyears ago, when Rock Morgan was here in the _Coalsack_. But theydon't have nuclear energy, do they?"
"Well, no. I'm picking up a lot of industrial electrical discharge,but nothing nuclear."
"All right. A man with a club can lick a man with his fists. A manwith a gun can lick half a dozen with clubs. And two ships withnuclear weapons can lick a whole planet without them. Think it'stime, Lucas?"
He nodded. "Paul, can you cut in on that Eglonsby station yet?"
"What are you going to do?" Valkanhayn wanted to know, against itin advance.
"Summon them to surrender. If they don't, we will drop a hellburner,and then we will pick out another city and summon it to surrender.I don't think the second one will refuse. If we are going to bemurderers, we'll do it right, this time."
Valkanhayn was aghast, probably at the idea of burning an unlootedcity. Spasso was sputtering something about, "... Teach the dirtyNeobarbs a lesson--" Koreff told him he was switched on. He pickedup a hand-phone.
"Space Vikings _Nemesis_ and _Space Scourge_, calling the city ofEglonsby. Space Vikings...."
He repeated it for over a minute; there was no reply.
"Vann," he called Guns-and-Missiles. "A subcrit display job, aboutfour miles over the city."
He laid the phone down and looked to the underside viewscreen. Alittle later, a silvery shape dropped away from the ship's southpole. The telescopic screen went off, and the unmagnified screendarkened as the filters went on. Valkanhayn, aboard the other ship,was shouting a warning about his own screens. The only unfilteredscreen aboard the _Nemesis_ was the one tuned to the fallingmissile. The city of Eglonsby rushed upward in it, and then it wentsuddenly dark. There was an orange-yellow blaze in the otherscreens. After a while, the filters went off and the telescopicscreen went on again. He picked up the phone.
"Space Vikings calling Eglonsby; this is your last warning.Communicate at once."
Less than a minute later, a voice came out of one of the speakers:
"Eglonsby calling Space Vikings. Your bomb has done great damage.Will you hold your fire until somebody in authority can communicatewith you? This is the chief operator at the central State telecaststation; I have no authority to say anything to you, or discussanything."
"Oh, good, that sounds like a dictatorship," Harkaman was saying."Grab the dictator and shove a pistol in his face and you haveeverything."
"There is nothing to discuss. Get somebody who has authority tosurrender the city to us. If this is not done within the hour,the city and everybody in it will be obliterated."
Only minutes later, a new voice said:
"This is Gunsalis Jan, secretary to Pedrosan Pedro, President ofthe Council of Syndics. We will switch President Pedrosan over assoon as he can speak directly to the personage in supreme commandof your ships."
"That is myself; switch him to me at once."
After a delay of less than fifteen seconds they had PresidentPedrosan Pedro.
"We are prepared to resist, but we realize what this would cost inlives and destruction of property," he began.
"You don't begin to. Do you know anything about nuclear weapons?"
"From history; we have no nuclear power of any sort. We can find nofissionables on this planet."
"The cost, as you put it, would be everything and everybody inEglonsby and for a radius of almost a hundred miles. Are you stillprepared to resist?"
The President of the Council of Syndics wasn't and said so. Traskasked him how much authority his position gave him.
"I have all powers in any emergency. I think," the voice addedtonelessly, "that this is an emergency. The council willautomatically ratify any decision I make."
Harkaman depressed a button in front of him. "What I said;dictatorship, with parliamentary false front."
"If he isn't a false-front dictator for some oligarchy." He motionedto Harkaman to take his thumb off the button. "How large is this Council?"
"Sixteen, elected by the Syndicates they represent. There is theSyndicate of Labor, the Syndicate of Manufacturers, the Syndicateof Small Businesses, the...."
"Corporate State, First Century Pre-Atomic on Terra. Benny the Moose,"Harkaman said. "Let's all go down and talk to them."
When they were sure that the public had been warned to make noresistance, the _Nemesis_ went down to two miles, bulking overthe center of the city. The buildings were low by the standards ofa contragravity-using people, the highest barely a thousand feetand few over five hundred, and they were more closely set thanSword-Worlders were accustomed to, with broad roadways between. Inseveral places there were queer arrangements of crossed roadways,apparently leading nowhere. Harkaman laughed when he saw them.
"Airstrips. I've seen them on other planets where they've lostcontragravity. For winged aircraft powered by chemical fuel. I hopewe have time for me to look around, here. I'll bet they even haverailroads here."
The "great damage" caused by the bomb was about equal to the effectof a medium hurricane; he had seen worse from high winds at Traskon.Mostly it had been moral, which had been the kind intended.
They met President Pedrosan and the council of Syndics in a spaciousand well-furnished chamber near the top of one of the medium-highbuildings. Valkanhayn was surprised; in a loud aside he consideredthat these people must be almost civilized. They were introduced.Amaterasuan surnames preceded personal names, which hinted at aculture and a political organization making much use of registrationby alphabetical list. They all wore garments which had the indefinablebut unmistakable appearance of uniforms. When they had all seatedthemselves at a large oval table, Harkaman drew his pistol and usedthe butt for a gavel.
"Lord Trask, will you deal with these people directly?" he asked,stiffly formal.
"Certainly, Admiral." He spoke to the President, ignoring theothers. "We want it understood that we control this city, and weexpect complete submission. As long as you remain submissive to us,we will do no damage beyond removal of the things we wish to takefrom it, and there will be no violence to any of your people, or anyindiscriminate vandalism. This visit we are paying you will cost youheavily, make no mistake about that, but whatever the cost, it willbe a cheap price for avoiding what we might otherwise do."
The President and the Syndics exchanged relieved glances. Letthe taxpayers worry about the cost; they'd come out of it withwhole skins.
"You understand, we want maximum value and minimum bulk," hecontinued. "Jewels, objects of art, furs, the better grades ofluxury goods of all kinds. Rare-element metals. And monetary metals,gold and platinum. You have a metallic-based currency, I suppose?"
"Oh, no!" President Pedrosan was slightly scandalized. "Our currencyis based on services to society. Our monetary unit is simply calleda credit."
Harkaman snorted impolitely. Evidently he'd seen economic systems likethat before. Trask wanted to know if they used gold or platinum at all.
"Gold, to some extent, for jewelry." Evidently they weren't completeeconomic puritans. "And platinum in industry, of course."
"If they want gold, they should have raided Stolgoland," one of theSyndics said. "They have a gold-standard currency." From the way hesaid it, he might have been accusing them of eating with theirfingers, and possibly of eating their own young.
"I know, the maps we're using for this planet are a few
centuries old;Stolgoland doesn't seem to appear on them."
"I wish it didn't appear on ours, either." That was General DagroEctor, Syndic for State Protection.
"It would have been a good thing for this whole planet if you'ddecided to raid them instead of us," somebody else said.
"It isn't too late for these gentlemen to make that decision,"Pedrosan said. "I gather that gold is a monetary metal among yourpeople?" When Trask nodded, he continued: "It is also the basis ofthe Stolgonian currency. The actual currency is paper, theoreticallyredeemable in gold. In actuality, the circulation of gold has beenprohibited, and the entire gold wealth of the nation is concentratedin vaults at three depositories. We know exactly where they are."
"You begin to interest me, President Pedrosan."
"I do? Well, you have two large spaceships and six smaller craft.You have nuclear weapons, something nobody on this planet has. Youhave contragravity, something that is hardly more than a legendhere. On the other hand, we have a million and a half ground-troops,jet aircraft, armored ground-vehicles, and chemical weapons. If youwill undertake to attack Stolgoland, we will place this entire forceat your disposal; General Dagro will command them as you direct. Allthat we ask is that, when you have loaded the gold hoards ofStolgoland aboard your ships, you will leave our troops inpossession of the country."
* * * * *
That was all there was to that meeting. There was a second one; onlyTrask, Harkaman and Sir Paytrik Morland represented the Space Vikings,and the Eglonsby government was represented by President Pedrosanand General Dagro. They met more intimately, in a smaller and moreluxurious room in the same building.
"If you're going to declare war on Stolgoland, you'd better getalong with it," Morland advised.
"What?" Pedrosan seemed to have only the vaguest idea of what he wastalking about. "You mean, warn them? Certainly not. We will attackthem by surprise. It will be nothing but plain self-defense," headded righteously. "The oligarchic capitalists of Stolgoland havebeen plotting to attack us for years."
"Yes. If you had carried out your original intention of lootingEglonsby, they would have invaded us the moment your ships liftedout. It's exactly what I'd do in their place."
"But you maintain nominally friendly relations with them?"
"Of course. We are civilized. The peace-loving government and peopleof Eglonsby...."
"Yes, Mr. President; I understand. And they have an embassy here?"
"They call it that!" cried Dagro. "It is a nest of vipers,a plague-spot of espionage and subversion...!"
"We'll grab that ourselves, right away," Harkaman said. "You won't beable to round up all their agents outside it, and if we tried to, itwould cause suspicion. We'll have to put up a front to deceive them."
"Yes. You will go on the air at once, calling on the people tocollaborate with us, and you will specifically order your troopsmobilized to assist us in collecting the tribute we are levying onEglonsby," Trask said. "In that way, if any Stolgonian spies seeyour troops concentrated around our landing craft, they'll thinkit's to help us load our loot."
"And we'll announce that a large part of the tribute will consist ofmilitary equipment," Dagro added. "That will explain why our gunsand tanks are being loaded on your contragravity vehicles."
* * * * *
When the Stolgonian embassy was seized by the Space Vikings, theambassador asked to be taken at once to their leader. He had aproposition: If the Space Vikings would completely disable the armyof Eglonsby and admit Stolgonian troops when they were ready toleave, the invaders would bring with them ten thousand kilos ofgold. Trask affected to be very hospitable to the offer.
Stolgoland lay across a narrow and shallow sea from the State ofEglonsby; it was dotted with islands, and every one of them was, inturn, dotted with oil wells. Petroleum was what kept the aircraftand ground-vehicles of Amaterasu in operation; oil, rather thanideology, was at the root of the enmity between the two nations.Apparently the Stolgonian espionage in Eglonsby was completelydeceived, and the reports Trask allowed the captive ambassador tomake confirmed the deception. Hourly the Eglonsby radio stationspoured out exhortations to the people to co-operate with the SpaceVikings, with an occasional lamentation about the masses of warmaterials being taken. Eglonsby espionage in Stolgoland wassimilarly active. The Stolgonian armies were being massed at fourseaports on the coast facing Eglonsby, and there was a franticgathering of every sort of ship available. By this time, anysympathy that Trask might have felt for either party had evaporated.
The invasion of Stolgoland started the fifth morning after theirarrival over Eglonsby. Before dawn, the six pinnaces went in, makinga wide sweep around the curvature of the planet and coming in fromthe north, two to each of the three gold-troves. They were detectedby radar, eventually but too late for any effective resistance tobe organized. Two were even taken without a shot; by mid-morning allthree had been blown open and the ingots and specie were being removed.
The four seaports from whence the Stolgonian invasion of Eglonsbywas to have been launched were neutralized by nuclear bombing.Neutralized was a nice word, Trask thought; there was no echo in itof the screams of the still-living, maimed and burned and blinded,around the fringes of ground-zero. The _Nemesis_ and the _SpaceScourge_, from landing craft and from the ships themselves, landedEglonsby troops on Stolgonopolis. While they were sacking the city,with all the usual atrocities, the Space Vikings were loading thegold, and anything else that was of more than ordinary value,aboard the ships.
* * * * *
They were still at it the next morning when President Pedrosanarrived at the newly conquered capital, announcing his intention ofputting the Stolgonian chief of state and his cabinet on trial aswar criminals. Before sunset, they were back over Eglonsby. The lootmight run as high as a half-billion Excalibur stellars. BoakeValkanhayn and Garvan Spasso were simply beyond astonishmentand beyond words.
The looting of Eglonsby then began.
They gathered up machinery, and stocks of steel and light-metalalloys. The city was full of warehouses, and the warehouses werecrammed with valuables. In spite of the socialistic and egalitarianverbiage behind which the government operated, there seemed to be anumerous elite class and if gold were not a monetary metal it wasnot despised for purposes of ostentation. There were several largeart museums. Vann Larch, their nearest approach to an artspecialist, took charge of culling the best from them.
And there was a vast public library. Into this Otto Harkamanvanished, with half a dozen men and a contragravity scow. Itshistorical section would be much poorer in the future.
President Pedrosan Pedro was on the radio from Stolgonopolis that night.
"Is this how you Space Vikings keep faith?" he demanded indignantly."You've abandoned me and my army here in Stolgoland, and you'resacking Eglonsby. You promised to leave Eglonsby alone if I helpedyou get the gold of Stolgoland."
"I promised nothing of the kind. I promised to help you takeStolgoland. You've taken it," Trask told him. "I promised to avoidunnecessary damage or violence. I've already hanged a dozen of myown men for rape, murder and wanton vandalism. Now, we expect to beout of here in twenty-four hours. You'd better be back here beforethen. Your own people are starting to loot. We did not promise tocontrol them for you."
That was true. What few troops had been left behind, and the police,were unable to cope with the mobs that were pillaging in the wake ofthe Space Vikings. Everybody seemed to be trying to grab what hecould and let the Vikings be blamed for it. He had been able to keephis own people in order. There had been at least a dozen cases ofrape and wanton murder, and the offenders had been promptly hanged.None of their shipmates, not even the _Space Scourge_ company, seemedresentful. They felt the culprits had deserved what they'd gotten;not for what they'd done to the locals, but for disobeying orders.
A few troops had been flown in from Stolgoland by the time they hadgotten their vehi
cles stowed and were lifting out. They didn't seemto be making much headway. Harkaman, who had gotten his load ofmicrobooks stowed and was at the command desk, laughed heartily.
"I don't know what Pedrosan'll do. Gehenna, I don't even know whatI'd do, if I'd gotten myself into a mess like that. He'll probablybring half his army back, leave the other half in Stolgoland, andlose both. Suppose we drop in, in about three or four years, justout of curiosity. If we make twenty per cent of what we did thistime, the trip would pay for itself."
After they went into hyperspace and had the ship secured, theparties lasted three Galactic standard days, and nobody was at allsober. Harkaman was drooling over the mass of historical material hehad found. Spasso was jubilant. Nobody could call this chicken-stealing.He kept repeating that as long as he was able to say anything. Khepera,he conceded, had been. Lousy two or three million stellars; poo!