XXIII
The colored turbulence faded into the gray of hyperspace;five hundred hours to Tanith. Guatt Kirbey was securing hiscontrol-panel, happy to return to his music. And Vann Larch would goback to his paints and brushes, and Alvyn Karffard to the workingmodel of whatever it was he had left unfinished when the _Nemesis_had emerged at the end of the jump from Audhumla.
Trask went to the index of the ship's library and punched for_History, Old Terran_. There was plenty of that, thanks to OttoHarkaman. Then he punched for _Hitler, Adolf_. Harkaman was right;anything that could happen in a human society had already happened,in one form or another, somewhere and at some time. Hitler couldhelp him understand Zaspar Makann.
By the time the ship came out, with the yellow sun of Tanithin the middle of the screen, he knew a great deal about Hitler,occasionally referred to as Schicklgruber, and he understood, withsorrow, how the lights of civilization on Marduk were going out.
Beside the _Lamia_, stripped of her Dillinghams and crammed withheavy armament and detection instruments, the _Space Scourge_ andthe _Queen Flavia_ were on off-planet watch. There were half a dozenother ships on orbit just above atmosphere; a Gilgamesher, one ofthe Gram-Tanith freighters, a couple of free-lance Space Vikings,and a new and unfamiliar ship. When he asked the moonbase who shewas, he was told that she was the _Sun Goddess_, Amaterasu. Thatwas, by almost a year, better than he had expected of them. OttoHarkaman was out in the _Corisande_, raiding and visiting thetrade-planets.
He found his cousin, Nikkolay Trask, at Rivington; when he inquiredabout Traskon, Nikkolay cursed.
"I don't know anything about Traskon; I haven't anything to do withTraskon, any more. Traskon is now the personal property of our wellloved--very well loved--Queen Evita. The Trasks don't own enoughland on Gram now for a family cemetery. You see what you did?" headded bitterly.
"You needn't rub it in, Nikkolay. If I'd stayed on Gram, I'd havehelped put Angus on the throne, and it would have been about thesame in the end."
"It could be a lot different," Nikkolay said. "You could bringyour ships and men back to Gram and put yourself on the throne."
"No; I'll never go back to Gram. Tanith's my planet, now. But I willrenounce my allegiance to Angus. I can trade on Morglay or Joyeuseor Flamberge just as easily."
"You won't have to; you can trade with Newhaven and Bigglersport.Count Lionel and Duke Joris are both defying Angus; they've refusedto furnish him men, they've driven out his tax collectors, thosethey haven't hanged, and they're building ships of their own. Angusis building ships, too. I don't know whether he's going to use themto fight Bigglersport and Newhaven, or attack you, but there's goingto be a war before another year's out."
The _Goodhope_ and the _Speedwell_, he found, had gone back to Gram.They were commanded by men who had come into favor at the court ofKing Angus recently. The _Black Star_ and the _Queen Flavia_--whosecaptain had contemptuously ignored an order from Gram to re-christenher _Queen Evita_--had remained. They were his ships, not KingAngus'. The captain of the merchantman from Wardshaven now on orbitrefused to take a cargo to Newhaven; he had been chartered by KingAngus, and would take orders from no one else.
"All right," Trask told him. "This is your last voyage here. Youbring that ship back under Angus of Wardshaven's charter and we'llfire on her."
Then he had the regalia he had worn in his last audiovisual toAngus dusted off. At first, he had decided to proclaim himselfKing of Tanith. Lord Valpry, Baron Rathmore and his cousin alladvised against it.
"Just call yourself Prince of Tanith," Valpry said. "The title won'tmake any difference in your authority here, and if you do lay claimto the throne of Gram, nobody can say you're a foreign king tryingto annex the planet."
He had no intention of doing anything of the kind, but Valpry wasquite in earnest.
So he sat on his throne, as sovereign Prince of Tanith, andrenounced his allegiance to "Angus, Duke of Wardshaven, self-styledKing of Gram." They sent it back on the otherwise empty freighter.Another copy went to the Count of Newhaven, along with a cargo inthe _Sun Goddess_, the first non-Space-Viking ship into Gram fromthe Old Federation.
* * * * *
Seven hundred and fifty hours after the return of the _Nemesis_,the _Corisande II_ emerged from her last microjump, and immediatelyHarkaman began hearing of the Battle of Audhumla and the destructionof the _Yo-Yo_ and the _Enterprise_. At first, he merely reported asuccessful raiding voyage, from which he was bringing rich booty.Oddly varigated booty, it was remarked, when he began itemizing it.
"Why, yes," he replied. "Secondhand booty. I raided Dagon for it."
Dagon was a Space Viking base planet, occupied by a character namedFedrig Barragon. A number of ships operated from it, including acouple commanded by Barragon's half-breed sons.
"Barragon's ships were raiding one of our planets," Harkaman said."Ganpat. They looted a couple of cities, destroyed one, killed a lotof the locals. I found out about it from Captain Ravallo of the_Black Star_, on Indra; he'd just been from Ganpat. Beowulf wasn'ttoo far out of the way, so we put in there, and found the_Grendelsbane_ just ready to space out." The _Grendelsbane_ was thesecond of Beowulf's ships, sister to the _Viking's Gift_. "So shejoined us, and the three of us went to Dagon. We blew up one ofBarragon's ships, and put the other one down out of commission, andthen we sacked his base. There was a Gilgamesher colony there; wedidn't bother them. They'll tell what we did, and why."
"That should furnish Prince Viktor of Xochitl something to ponder,"Trask said. "Where are the other ships, now?"
"The _Grendelsbane_ went back to Beowulf; she'll stop at Amaterasuto do a little trading on the way. The _Black Star_ went to Xochitl.Just a friendly visit, to say hello to Prince Viktor for you.Ravallo has a lot of audiovisuals we made during the DagonOperation. Then she's going to Jagannath to visit Nikky Gratham."
* * * * *
Harkaman approved his attitude and actions with regard to King Angus.
"We don't need to do business with the Sword-Worlds at all. We haveour own industries, we can produce what we need, and we can tradewith Beowulf and Amaterasu, and with Xochitl and Jagannath and Hoth,if we can make any sort of agreement with them; everybody agrees tolet everybody else's trade-planets alone. It's too bad you couldn'tget some kind of an agreement with Marduk." Harkaman regretted thatfor a few seconds, and then shrugged. "Our grandchildren, if any,will probably be raiding Marduk."
"You think it'll be like that?"
"Don't you? You were there; you saw what's happening. The barbariansare rising; they have a leader, and they're uniting. Every societyrests on a barbarian base. The people who don't understandcivilization, and wouldn't like it if they did. The hitchhikers.The people who create nothing, and who don't appreciate what othershave created for them, and who think civilization is something thatjust exists and that all they need to do is enjoy what they canunderstand of it--luxuries, a high living standard, and easy workfor high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they havea government for?"
Trask nodded. "And now, the hitchhikers think they know more aboutthe car than the people who designed it, so they're going to grabthe controls. Zaspar Makann says they can, and he's the Leader." Hepoured a drink from a decanter that had been looted on Pushan; therewas a planet where a republic had been overthrown in favor of adictatorship four centuries ago, and the planetary dictatorship hadfissioned into a dozen regional dictatorships, and now they weredown to the peasant-village and handcraft-industry level. "I don'tunderstand it, though. I was reading about Hitler, on the way home.I wouldn't be surprised if Zaspar Makann had been reading aboutHitler, too. He's using all Hitler's tricks. But Hitler came topower in a country which had been impoverished by a military defeat.Marduk hasn't fought a war in almost two generations, and that onewas a farce."
"It wasn't the war that put Hitler into power. It was the fact thatthe ruling class of his nation, the people who kept things running,were discre
dited. The masses, the homemade barbarians, didn't haveanybody to take their responsibilities for them. What they have onMarduk is a ruling class that has been discrediting itself. A rulingclass that's ashamed of its privileges and shirks its duties. Aruling class that has begun to believe that the masses are just asgood as they are, which they manifestly are not. And a ruling classthat won't use force to maintain its position. And they have ademocracy, and they are letting the enemies of democracy shelterthemselves behind democratic safeguards."
"We don't have any of this democracy in the Sword-Worlds, if that'sthe word for it," he said. "And our ruling class aren't ashamed oftheir power, and our people aren't hitchhikers, and as long as theyget decent treatment they don't try to run things. And we're notdoing so well."
The Morglay dynastic war of a couple of centuries ago, stillsputtering and smoking. The Oskarsan-Elmersan War on Durendal, intowhich Flamberge and now Joyeuse had intruded. And the situation onGram, fast approaching critical mass. Harkaman nodded agreement.
"You know why? Our rulers are the barbarians among us. There isn'tone of them--Napolyon of Flamberge, Rodolf of Excalibur, or Angus ofabout half of Gram--who is devoted to civilization or anything elseoutside himself, and that's the mark of the barbarian."
"What are you devoted to, Otto?"
"You. You are my chieftain. That's another mark of the barbarian."
* * * * *
Before he had left Marduk, Admiral Shefter had ordered a ship toGimli to check on the _Honest Horris_; a few men and a pinnace wouldbe left behind to contact any ship from Tanith. He sent BoakeValkanhayn off in the _Space Scourge_.
Lionel of Newhaven's _Blue Comet_ came in from Gram with a cargo ofgeneral merchandise. Her captain wanted fissionables and gadolinium;Count Lionel was building more ships. There was a rumor that Omfrayof Glaspyth was laying claim to the throne of Gram, in the rightof his great-grandmother's sister, who had been married to thegreat-grandfather of Duke Angus. It was a completely trivial andirrelevant claim, but the story was that it would be supportedby King Konrad of Haulteclere.
Immediately, Baron Rathmore, Lord Valpry, Lothar Ffayle and the otherGram people began clamoring that he should go back with a fleet andseize the throne for himself. Harkaman, Valkanhayn, Karffard and theother Space Vikings were as vehement against it. Harkaman had theloss of the other _Corisande_ on Durendal to remember, and the otherswanted no part in Sword-World squabbles, and there was renewedagitation that he should start calling himself King of Tanith.
He refused to do either, which left both parties dissatisfied. Sopartisan politics had finally come to Tanith. Maybe that was anothermilestone of progress.
And there was the Treaty of Khepera, between the Princely State ofTanith, the Commonwealth of Beowulf, and the Planetary League ofAmaterasu. The Kheperans agreed to allow bases on their planet, tofurnish workers, and to send students to school on all three planets.Tanith, Beowulf and Amaterasu obligated themselves to joint defenseof Khepera, to free trade among themselves, and to render one anotherarmed assistance.
That _was_ a milestone of progress, and no argument about it.
* * * * *
The _Space Scourge_ returned from Gimli, and Valkanhayn reportedthat nobody on the planet had ever seen or heard of the _HonestHorris_. They had found a Mardukan Navy ship's pinnace there, mannedentirely by officers, some of them Navy Intelligence. According tothem, the investigation into the activities of that ship had come toan impasse. The ostensible owners claimed, and had papers to proveit, that they had chartered her to a private trader, and he claimed,and had papers to prove it, that he was a citizen of the PlanetaryRepublic of Aton, and as soon as they began questioning him, he wasrescued by the Atonian ambassador, who lodged a vehement protestwith the Mardukan Foreign Ministry. Immediately, the People'sWelfare Party had leaped into the incident and branded theinvestigation as an unwarranted persecution of a national of afriendly power at the instigation of corrupt tools of the GilgameshInterstellar Conspiracy.
"So that's it," Valkanhayn finished. "It seems they're having anelection and they're afraid to antagonize anybody who might have avote. So the Navy had to drop the investigation. Everybody onMarduk's scared of this Makann. You think there might be some tie-upbetween him and Dunnan?"
"The idea's occurred to me. Have there been any more raids on Marduktrade-planets since the Battle of Audhumla?"
"A couple. The _Bolide_ was on Audhumla a while ago. There were acouple of Mardukan ships there, and they had the _Victrix_ fixed upenough to do some fighting. They ran the _Bolide_ out."
A study of the time between the destruction of the _Enterprise_and _Yo-Yo_ and the appearance of the _Bolide_ could give them alimiting radius around Audhumla. It did; seven hundred light-years,which also included Tanith.
So he sent Harkaman in the _Corisande_ and Ravallo in the _BlackStar_ to visit the planets Marduk traded with, looking for Dunnanships and exchanging information and assistance with the RoyalMardukan Navy. Almost at once, he regretted it; the next Gilgamesherinto orbit on Tanith brought a story that Prince Viktor wascollecting a fleet on Xochitl. He sent warnings off to Amaterasuand Beowulf and Khepera.
A ship came in from Bigglersport, a heavily armed charteredfreighter. There was sporadic fighting in a dozen places on Gram,now--resistance to efforts on the part of King Angus to collecttaxes, and raids by unidentified persons on estates confiscatedfrom alleged traitors and given to Garvan Spasso, who had nowbeen promoted from Baron to Count. And Rovard Grauffis was dead;poisoned, everybody said, either by Spasso or Queen Evita or both.Even with the threat from Xochitl, some of the former Wardshavennobles began talking about sending ships to Gram.
Less than a thousand hours after he had left, Ravallo was backin the _Black Star_.
"I went to Gimli, and I wasn't there fifty hours before aMardukan Navy ship came in. They were glad to see me; it savedthem sending off a pinnace for Tanith. They had news for you, anda couple of passengers."
"Passengers?"
"Yes. You'll see who they are when they come down. And don't letanybody with side-whiskers and buttoned-up coats see them," Ravallosaid. "What those people know gets all over the place before long."
* * * * *
The visitors were Lucile, Princess Bentrik, and her son, the youngCount of Ravary. They dined with Trask; only Captain Ravallo wasalso present.
"I didn't want to leave my husband, and I didn't want to come hereand impose myself and Steven on you, Prince Trask," she began, "buthe insisted. We spent the whole voyage to Gimli concealed in thecaptain's quarters; only a few of the officers knew we were aboard."
"Makann won the election. Is that it?" he asked. "And Prince Bentrikdoesn't want to risk you and Steven being used as hostages?"
"That's it," she said. "He didn't really win the election, but hemight as well have. Nobody has a majority of seats in the Chamber ofRepresentatives but he's formed a coalition with several of thesplinter parties, and I'm ashamed to say that a number of CrownLoyalist members--Crowd of Disloyalists, I call them--are votingwith him, now. They've coined some ridiculous phrase about the 'waveof the future,' whatever that means."
"If you can't lick them, join them," Trask said.
"If you can't lick them, lick their boots," the Count of Ravary put in.
"My son is a trifle bitter," Princess Bentrik said. "I must confessto a trace of bitterness, too."
"Well, that's the Representatives," Trask said. "What about the restof the government?"
"With the splinter-party and Disloyalist support, they got amajority of seats in the Delegates. Most of them would haveindignantly denied, a month before, having any connection withMakann, but a hundred out of a hundred and twenty are hissupporters. Makann, of course, is Chancellor."
"And who is Prime Minister?" he asked. "Andray Dunnan?"
She looked slightly baffled for an instant then said, "Oh. No.The Prime Minister is Crown Prince Edvard.
No; Baron Cragdale.That isn't a royal title, so by some kind of a fiction I can'tpretend to understand he is not Prime Minister as a member ofthe Royal Family."
"If you can't ..." the boy started.
"Steven! I forbid you to say that about ... Baron Cragdale. Hebelieves, very sincerely, that the election was an expression ofthe will of the people, and that it is his duty to bow to it."
He wished Otto Harkaman were there. He could probably name, withoutstopping for breath, a hundred great nations that went down intorubble because their rulers believed that they should bow insteadof rule, and couldn't bring themselves to shed the blood of theirpeople. Edvard would have been a fine and admirable man, as a littlecountry baron. Where he was, he was a disaster.
He asked if the People's Watchman had dragged their guns out fromunder the bed and started carrying them in public yet.
"Oh, yes. You were quite right; they were armed, all the time. Notjust small arms; combat vehicles and heavy weapons. As soon as thenew government was formed, they were given status as a part of thePlanetary Armed Forces. They have taken over every police stationon the planet."
"And the King?"
"Oh, he carries on, and shrugs and says, 'I just reign here.' Whatelse can he do? We've been whittling down and filching away thepowers of the Throne for the last three centuries."
"What is Prince Bentrik doing, and why did he think there was dangerthat you two would be used as hostages?"
"He's going to fight," she said. "Don't ask me how, or what with.Maybe as a guerrilla in the mountains, I don't know. But if he can'tlick them, he won't join them. I wanted to stay with him and helphim; he told me I could help him best by placing myself and Stevenwhere he wouldn't worry about us."
"I wanted to stay," the boy said. "I could have fought with him.But he said that I must take care of Mother. And if he were killed,I must be able to avenge him."
"You talk like a Sword-Worlder; I told you that once before." Hehesitated, then turned again to Princess Bentrik. "How is littlePrincess Myrna?" he asked, and then, trying to be casual, added,"and Lady Valerie?"
She seemed so clearly real and present to him, blue eyes andspace-black hair, more real than Elaine had been to him for years.
"They're at Cragdale; they'll be safe there. I hope."