Space Viking

  V

  He was crucified, and crowned with a crown of thorns. Who had theydone that to? Somebody long ago, on Terra. His arms were drawn outstiffly, and hurt; his feet and legs hurt, too, and he couldn't movethem, and there was this prickling at his brow. And he was blind.

  No; his eyes were just closed. He opened them, and there was a whitewall in front of him, patterned with a blue snow-crystal design, andhe realized that it was a ceiling and that he was lying on his back.He couldn't move his head, but by shifting his eyes he saw that hewas completely naked and surrounded by a tangle of tubes and wires,which puzzled him briefly. Then he knew that he was not on a bed,but on a robomedic, and the tubes would be for medication andwound drainage and intravenous feeding, and the wires would beto electrodes imbedded in his body for diagnosis, and thecrown-of-thorns thing would be more electrodes for an encephalograph.He'd been on one of those robomedics before, when he had been goredby a bisonoid on the cattle range.

  That was what it was; he was still under treatment. But that seemedso long ago; so many things--he must have dreamed them--seemed tohave happened.

  Then he remembered, and struggled futilely to rise.

  "Elaine!" he called. "Elaine, where are you?"

  There was a stir and somebody came into his limited view; hiscousin, Nikkolay Trask.

  "Nikkolay; Andray Dunnan," he said. "What happened to Elaine?"

  Nikkolay winced, as though something he had expected to hurt hadhurt worse than he had expected.

  "Lucas." He swallowed. "Elaine ... Elaine is dead."

  Elaine is dead. That didn't make sense.

  "She was killed instantly, Lucas. Hit six times; I don't thinkshe even felt the first one. She didn't suffer at all."

  Somebody moaned, and then he realized that it had been himself.

  "You were hit twice," Nikkolay was telling him. "One in the leg;smashed the femur. And one in the chest. That one missed your heartby an inch."

  "Pity it did." He was beginning to remember clearly, now. "I threwher down, and tried to cover her. I must have thrown her straightinto the burst and only caught the last of it myself." There wassomething else; oh, yes. "Dunnan. Did they get him?"

  Nikkolay shook his head. "He got away. Stole the _Enterprise_ andtook her off-planet."

  "I want to get him myself."

  He started to rise again; Nikkolay nodded to someone out of sight.A cool hand touched his chin, and he smelled a woman's perfume,nothing at all like Elaine's. Something like a small insect bithim on the neck. The room grew dark.

  Elaine was dead. There was no more Elaine, nowhere at all. Why,that must mean there was no more world. So that was why it hadgotten so dark.

  He woke again, fitfully, and it would be daylight and he could seethe yellow sky through an open window or it would be night and thewall-lights would be on. There would always be somebody with him.Nikkolay's wife, Dame Cecelia; Rovard Grauffis; Lady LavinaKarvall--he must have slept a long time, for she was so much olderthan he remembered--and her brother, Burt Sandrasan. And a womanwith dark hair, in a white smock with a gold caduceus on her breast.

  Once, Duchess Flavia, and once Duke Angus himself. He asked wherehe was, not much caring. They told him, at the Ducal Palace.

  He wished they'd all go away, and let him go wherever Elaine was.

  Then it would be dark, and he would be trying to find her, becausethere was something he wanted desperately to show her. Stars in thesky at night, that was it. But there were no stars, there was noElaine, there was no anything, and he wished that there was noLucas Trask, either.

  But there was an Andray Dunnan. He could see him standingblack-cloaked on the terrace, the diamonds in his beret-jewelglittering evilly; he could see the mad face peering at him overthe rising barrel of the submachine gun. And then he would huntfor him without finding him, through the cold darkness of space.

  The waking periods grew longer, and during them his mind was clear.They relieved him of his crown of electronic thorns. The feedingtubes came out, and they gave him cups of broth and fruit juice.He wanted to know why he had been brought to the Palace.

  "About the only thing we could do," Rovard Grauffis told him."They had too much trouble at Karvall House as it was. You know,Sesar got shot, too."

  "No." So that was why Sesar hadn't come to see him. "Was he killed?"

  "Wounded; he's in worse shape than you are. When the shootingstarted, he went charging up the escalator. Didn't have anythingbut his dress-dagger. Dunnan gave him a quick burst; I think thatwas why he didn't have time to finish you off. By that time, theguards who'd been shooting blanks from that rapid-fire gun got ina clip of live rounds and fired at him. He got out of there as fastas he could. They have Sesar on a robomedic like yours. He isn'tin any danger."

  The drainage tubes and medication tubes came out; the tangle ofwires around him was removed, and the electrodes with them. Theybandaged his wounds and dressed him in a loose robe and lifted himfrom the robomedic to a couch, where he could sit up when he wished;they began giving him solid food, and wine to drink, and allowed himto smoke. The woman doctor told him he'd had a bad time, as thoughhe didn't know that. He wondered if she expected him to thank herfor keeping him alive.

  "You'll be up and around in a few weeks," his cousin added. "I'veseen to it that everything at Traskon New House will be ready foryou by then."

  "I'll never enter that house as long as I live, and I wish thatwouldn't be more than the next minute. That was to be Elaine'shouse. I won't go to it alone."

  * * * * *

  The dreams troubled his sleep less and less as he grew stronger.Visitors came often, bringing amusing little gifts, and he foundthat he enjoyed their company. He wanted to know what had reallyhappened, and how Dunnan had gotten away.

  "He pirated the _Enterprise_," Rovard Grauffis told him. "He hadthat company of mercenaries of his, and he'd bribed some of thepeople at the Gorram shipyards. I thought Alex would kill his chiefof security when he found out what had happened. We can't proveanything--we're trying hard enough to--but we're sure Omfray ofGlaspyth furnished the money. He's been denying it just a shadetoo emphatically."

  "Then the whole thing was planned in advance."

  "Taking the ship was; he must have been planning that for months;before he started recruiting that company. I think he meant to doit the night before the wedding. Then he tried to persuade theLady-Demoiselle Elaine to elope with him--he seems to have actuallythought that was possible--and when she humiliated him, he decidedto kill both of you first." He turned to Otto Harkaman, who hadaccompanied him. "As long as I live, I'll regret not taking youat your word and accepting your offer, then."

  "How did he get hold of that Westlands Telecast and Teleprint car?"

  "Oh. The morning of the wedding, he screened Westlands editorialoffice and told them he had the inside story on the marriage andwhy the Duke was sponsoring it. Made it sound as though there wassome scandal; insisted that a reporter come to Dunnan House for aface-to-face interview. They sent a man, and that was the last theysaw him alive; our people found his body at Dunnan House when wewere searching the place afterward. We found the car at theshipyard; it had taken a couple of hits from the guns at KarvallHouse, but you know what these press cars are built to stand. Hewent directly to the shipyard, where his men already had the_Enterprise_; as soon as he arrived, she lifted out."

  He stared at the cigarette between his fingers. It was almostshort enough to burn him. With an effort, he leaned forward tocrush it out.

  "Rovard, how soon will that second ship be finished?"

  Grauffis laughed bitterly. "Building the _Enterprise_ tookeverything we had. The duchy's on the edge of bankruptcy now. Westopped work on the second ship six months ago because we didn'thave enough money to keep on with her and still get the _Enterprise_finished. We were expecting the _Enterprise_ to make enough in theOld Federation to finish the second one. Then, with two ships anda base on Tanith, the money would begin coming i
n instead of goingout. But now--"

  "It leaves me where I was on Flamberge," Harkaman added. "Worse.King Napolyon was going to help the Elmersans, and I'd have gottena command in that. It's too late for that now."

  He picked up his cane and used it to push himself to his feet.The broken leg had mended, but he was still weak. He took a fewtottering steps, paused to lean on the cane, and then forcedhimself on to the open window and stood for a moment staring out.Then he turned.

  "Captain Harkaman, it might be that you could still get a command,here on Gram. That's if you don't mind commanding under me asowner-aboard. I am going hunting for Andray Dunnan."

  They both looked at him. After a moment, Harkaman said:

  "I'd count it an honor, Lord Trask. But where will you get a ship?"

  "She's half finished now. You already have a crew for her. DukeAngus can finish her for me, and pay for it by pledging his newbarony of Traskon."

  He had known Rovard Grauffis all his life; until this moment,he had never seen Duke Angus' henchman show surprise.

  "You mean, you'll trade Traskon for that ship?" he demanded.

  "Finished, equipped and ready for space, yes."

  "The Duke will agree to that," Grauffis said promptly. "But, Lucas;Traskon is all you own."

  "If I have a ship, I won't need them. I am turning Space Viking."

  That brought Harkaman to his feet with a roar of approval. Grauffislooked at him, his mouth slightly open.

  "Lucas Trask--Space Viking," he said. "Now I've heard everything."

  Well, why not? He had deplored the effects of Viking raiding onthe Sword-Worlds, because Gram was a Sword-World, and Traskon wason Gram, and Traskon was to have been the home where he and Elainewould live and where their children and children's children wouldbe born and live. Now the little point on which all of it hadrested was gone.

  "That was another Lucas Trask, Rovard. He's dead, now."