Space Viking H. Beam Piper (life books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: H. Beam Piper
Book online «Space Viking H. Beam Piper (life books to read .TXT) đ». Author H. Beam Piper
âBut, Otto; both ships?â That worried Trask. âSuppose Dunnan comes and finds nobody here but Spasso and the Lamia?â
âChance weâll have to take. Personally, I think we have a year to a year and a half before Dunnan shows up here. I know, we were fooled trying to guess what heâd do before. But the sort of raid I have in mind, weâll need two ships, and in any case, I donât want to leave both those ships here while weâre gone, even if you do.â
âWhen it comes to that, I donât think I do, either. But we canât trust Spasso here alone, can we?â
âWeâll leave enough of our people to make sure. Weâll leave Alvynâ âthatâll mean a lot of work for me that heâd otherwise do, on the ship. And Baron Rathmore, and young Valpry, and the men whoâve been training our sepoys. We can shuffle things around and leave some of Valkanhaynâs men in place of some of Spassoâs. We might even talk Spasso into going along. Thatâll mean having to endure him at our table, but it would be wise.â
âHave you picked a place to raid?â
âThree of them. First, Khepera. Thatâs only thirty light-years from here. That wonât amount to much; just chicken-stealing. Itâll give our green hands some relatively safe combat-training, and itâll give us some idea of how Spassoâs and Valkanhaynâs people behave, and give them confidence for the next job.â
âAnd then?â
âAmaterasu. My information about Amaterasu is about twenty years old. A lot of things can happen in twenty years. All I know of itâ âI was never there myselfâ âis itâs fairly civilizedâ âabout like Terra just before the beginning of the Atomic Era. No nuclear energy, they lost that, and of course nothing beyond it, but they have hydroelectric and solarelectric power, and nonnuclear jet aircraft, and some very good chemical-explosive weapons, which they use very freely on each other. It was last known to have been raided by a ship from Excalibur twenty years ago.â
âThat sounds promising. And the third planet?â
âBeowulf. We wonât take enough damage on Amaterasu to make any difference there, but if we saved Amaterasu for last, we might be needing too many repairs.â
âItâs like that?â
âYes. They have nuclear energy. I donât think it would be wise to mention Beowulf to Captains Spasso and Valkanhayn. Wait till weâve hit Khepera and Amaterasu. They may be feeling like heroes, then.â
XIKhepera left a bad taste in Traskâs mouth. He was still tasting it when the colored turbulence died out of the screen and left the gray nothingness of hyperspace. Garvan Spassoâ âthey had had no trouble in inducing him to come alongâ âwas staring avidly at the screen as though he could still see the ravished planet they had left.
âThat was a good one; that was a good one!â he was crowing. Heâd said that a dozen times since they had lifted out. âThree cities in five days, and all the stuff we gathered up around them. We took over two million stellars.â
And did ten times as much damage getting it, and there was no scale of values by which to compute the death and suffering.
âKnock it off, Spasso. You said that before.â
There was a time when he wouldnât have spoken to the fellow, or anybody else, like that. Greshamâs law, extended: Bad manners drive out good manners. Spasso turned on him indignantly.
âWho do you think you areâ â?â
âHe thinks heâs Lord Trask of Tanith,â Harkaman said. âHeâs right, too; he is.â He looked searchingly at Trask for a moment, then turned back to Spasso. âIâm just as tired as he is of hearing you pop your mouth about a lousy two million stellars. Nearer a million and a half, but two millionâs nothing to pop about. Maybe it would be for the Lamia, but we have a three-ship fleet and a planetary base to meet expenses on. Out of this raid, a ground-fighter or an able spaceman will get a hundred and fifty stellars. Weâll get about a thousand, ourselves. How long do you think we can stay in business doing this kind of chicken-stealing.â
âYou call this chicken-stealing?â
âI call it chicken-stealing, and soâll you before we get back to Tanith. If you live that long.â
For a moment, Spasso was still affronted. Then, temporarily, his vulpine face showed avaricious hope, and then apprehension. Evidently he knew Otto Harkamanâs reputation, and some of the things Harkaman had done werenât his idea of an easy way to make money.
Khepera had been easy; the locals hadnât had anything to fight with. Small arms, and light cannon which hadnât been able to fire more than a few rounds. Wherever they had attempted resistance, the combat cars had swooped in, dropping bombs and firing machine guns and auto-cannon. Yet they had fought, bitterly and hopelesslyâ âjust as he would have, defending Traskon.
Trask busied himself getting coffee and a cigarette from one of the robots. When he looked up, Spasso had gone away, and Harkaman was sitting on the edge of the desk, loading his short pipe.
âWell, you saw the elephant, Lucas,â Harkaman said. âYou donât seem to have liked it.â
âElephant?â
âOld Terran expression I read somewhere. All I know is that an elephant was an animal about the size of one of your Gram megatheres. The expression means, experiencing something for the first time which makes a great impression. Elephants must have been something to see. This was your first Viking raid. Youâve seen it, now.â
Heâd been in combat before; heâd led the fighting-men of Traskon during the boundary dispute with Baron Manniwel, and there were always bandits and cattle rustlers. Heâd thought it would be like that. He remembered, five days, or was it five ages, ago, his excited anticipation as the city grew and spread in the screen and the Nemesis came dropping down toward it. The pinnaces, his four and the two from the Space Scourge,
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