Space Viking H. Beam Piper (life books to read .TXT) š
- Author: H. Beam Piper
Book online Ā«Space Viking H. Beam Piper (life books to read .TXT) šĀ». Author H. Beam Piper
āCaptain Harkaman, it might be that you could still get a command, here on Gram. Thatās if you donāt mind commanding under me as owner-aboard. I am going hunting for Andray Dunnan.ā
They both looked at him. After a moment, Harkaman said:
āIād count it an honor, Lord Trask. But where will you get a ship?ā
āSheās half finished now. You already have a crew for her. Duke Angus can finish her for me, and pay for it by pledging his new barony of Traskon.ā
He had known Rovard Grauffis all his life; until this moment, he had never seen Duke Angusā henchman show surprise.
āYou mean, youāll trade Traskon for that ship?ā he demanded.
āFinished, equipped and ready for space, yes.ā
āThe Duke will agree to that,ā Grauffis said promptly. āBut, Lucas; Traskon is all you own.ā
āIf I have a ship, I wonāt need them. I am turning Space Viking.ā
That brought Harkaman to his feet with a roar of approval. Grauffis looked at him, his mouth slightly open.
āLucas Traskā āSpace Viking,ā he said. āNow Iāve heard everything.ā
Well, why not? He had deplored the effects of Viking raiding on the Sword-Worlds, because Gram was a Sword-World, and Traskon was on Gram, and Traskon was to have been the home where he and Elaine would live and where their children and childrenās children would be born and live. Now the little point on which all of it had rested was gone.
āThat was another Lucas Trask, Rovard. Heās dead, now.ā
VIGrauffis excused himself to make a screen call and then returned to excuse himself again. Evidently Duke Angus had dropped whatever he was doing as soon as he heard what his henchman had to tell him. Harkaman was silent until after he was out of the room, then said:
āLord Trask, this is a wonderful thing for me. Itās not been pleasant to be a shipless captain living on strangersā bounty. Iād hate, though, to have you think, some time, that Iād advanced my own fortunes at the expense of yours.ā
āDonāt worry about that. If anybodyās being taken advantage of, you are. I need a space-captain, and your misfortune is my own good luck.ā
Harkaman started to pack tobacco into his pipe. āHave you ever been off Gram, at all?ā he asked.
āA few years at the University of Camelot, on Excalibur. Otherwise, no.ā
āWell, have you any conception of the sort of thing youāre setting yourself to?ā The Space Viking snapped his lighter and puffed. āYou know, of course, how big the Old Federation is. You know the figures, that is, but do they mean anything to you? I know they donāt to a good many spacemen, even. We talk glibly about ten to the hundredth power, but emotionally we still count, āOne, Two, Three, Many.ā A ship in hyperspace logs about a light-year an hour. You can go from here to Excalibur in thirty hours. But you could send a radio message announcing the birth of a son, and heād be a father before it was received. The Old Federation, where youāre going to hunt Dunnan, occupies a space-volume of two hundred billion cubic light-years. And youāre hunting for one ship and one man in that. How are you going to do it, Lord Trask?ā
āI havenāt started thinking about how; all I know is that I have to do it. There are planets in the Old Federation where Space Vikings come and go; raid-and-trade bases, like the one Duke Angus planned to establish on Tanith. At one or another of them, Iāll pick up word of Dunnan, sooner or later.ā
āWeāll hear where he was a year ago, and by the time we get there, heāll be gone for a year and a half to two years. Weāve been raiding the Old Federation for over three hundred years, Lord Trask. At present, Iād say there are at least two hundred Space Viking ships in operation. Why havenāt we raided it bare long ago? Well, thatās the answer: distance and voyage-time. You know, Dunnan could die of old ageā āwhich is not a usual cause of death among Space Vikingsā ābefore you caught up with him. And your youngest shipās-boy could die of old age before he found out about it.ā
āWell, I can go on hunting for him till I die, then. Thereās nothing else that means anything to me.ā
āI thought it was something like that. I wonāt be with you, all your life. I want a ship of my own, like the Corisande, that I lost on Durendal. Some day, Iāll have one. But till you can command your own ship, Iāll command her for you. Thatās a promise.ā
Some note of ceremony seemed indicated. Summoning a robot, he had it pour wine for them, and they pledged each other.
Rovard Grauffis had recovered his aplomb by the time he returned accompanied by the Duke. If Angus had ever lost his, he gave no indication of it. The effect on everybody else was literally seismic. The generally accepted view was that Lord Traskās reason had been unhinged by his tragic loss; there might, he conceded, be more than a crumb of truth in that. At first, his cousin Nikkolay raged at him for alienating the barony from the family, and then he learned that Duke Angus was appointing him vicar-baron and giving him Traskon New House for his residence. Immediately he began acting like one at the deathbed of a rich grandmother. The Wardshaven financial and industrial barons, whom he had known only distantly, on the other hand, came flocking around him, offering assistance and hailing him as the savior of the duchy. Duke Angusā credit, almost obliterated by the loss of the Enterprise, was firmly reestablished, and theirs with it.
There were conferences at which lawyers and bankers argued interminably; he attended a few at first, found himself completely uninterested, and told everybody so. All he wanted was a ship; the best
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