The Tanith Gambit

by Dietmar Wehr

  Trask awoke to the sound of a call coming in on the Lodge’s internal communications system. He looked around. From the skylight above the bed, it was clear that it was still dark and he wondered what could possibly be so urgent that couldn’t wait until a more convenient time. He activated the intercom device and said.

  “Prince Lucas here. What is it?”Trask recognized the voice that answered as belonging to the Lodge’s Supervisor of the housekeeping staff.

  “I’m so sincerely sorry to disturb you at this early hour, Prince Lucas, but the Prince-Protector insisted that you be informed right away. A ship has just arrived from Tanith with news that…Tanith has been attacked by Space Vikings.”

  Chapter IV

  Harkaman knew there was something wrong on Tanith as soon as the Corisande dropped out of hyperspace two light seconds from the planet. They should have been hit with microwave detection beams instantly. The detection station on Tanith’s moon kept a constant scan of the surrounding space. The ship should also have detected ordinary audio and video transmissions from Tanith and from the moon but there was nothing. No audio. No video. No microwaves. With Nemesis and Corisande still an hour from touchdown, Harkaman tried to contact the Base but there was no reply. While still beyond missile range, he ordered both ships to go to Battle Stations. As luck would have it, the city of Rivington was on the daylight side when both ships landed. By then, Harkaman could see on the Bridge viewscreen the devastated state of the Base. It looked the way it did when he and Trask landed for the first time here. No shipyard, no power plant, no collapsium matter plant, no factories…and no people. That scared Harkaman more than anything else. The equipment could all be replaced somehow but the people were Prince Lucas’s subjects and some of them were Harkaman’s friends too.

  Harkaman was in audio contact with his former Executive Officer, Alvyn Karffard, who was now commanding the Nemesis. He told Karffard to send out his ground forces to look around and see if they could find anyone. Then Harkaman switched his microphone to the ship’s external speakers and said,

  “This is Admiral Harkaman aboard the Corisande! If anyone can hear my voice, come out and tell us what happened!” Eventually the survivors did and the ground fighters sent out to search found a cluster of survivors in the lower levels beneath the two skyscrapers. Paytrik Moreland was there and in bad shape. He’d been shot and the survivors were trying their best to help him and the other wounded. Whoever attacked the Base took all the medical equipment and supplies too.

  It wasn’t long before the wounded were transported to the ships which were well stocked with medical supplies. After Moreland was attended to by the Corisande’s medical staff and resting comfortably, Harkaman and his senior officers visited him in the Sick Bay to ask some questions.

  “There were seven ships although only six entered the no-jump zone. The other one stayed out. Not sure why.” Moreland’s voice was raspy and weak. He paused to cough and Harkaman took note of the fact that the cough didn’t sound good. After a few seconds to catch his breath, Moreland continued. “We sounded the alert as soon as they emerged from their final micro-jump but it didn’t matter. The Lamia was blown away almost as soon as she started firing. Ground-based missile batteries were taken out by multiple missile barrages. Then the ships landed and we were fighting thousands of troops equipped with combat armor, tanks and armored personnel carriers. It was clearly hopeless so I ordered our people to stop firing and we surrendered. Even so I still managed to get shot. Once they had all the defending forces concentrated and powerless, they started looting.” He coughed some more. The talking seemed to make him weaker.

  “Were you able to determine who was leading the raid?”asked Harkaman.

  “I saw their leader. He was shouting orders all the time. When we surrendered he screamed at his men to search for you and Prince Lucas. I heard him say that he wouldn’t rest until he avenged the murder of his two sons.”

  “What did this man look like?”

  “He was short. Stocky with blonde hair and a scar on his left cheek.” Moreland’s voice was barely a whisper by now. The doctors cut the interview short and ordered them out of the room. Harkaman signaled the others to leave. He’d heard enough. The blonde hair, the scar and the remark about the death of two sons. It had to be Fedrig Barragon. The irony of it almost made Harkaman want to weep. Trask had hunted Andray Dunnan down across untold light years to avenge the murder of his wife Elaine and in doing so, he had set in motion, the events that created another avenging angel. A father driven mad with grief and rage over the loss of his two sons. Trask had set those events in motion but Harkaman was the one that had ordered the missile barrage which had killed Barragon’s sons. Now others had paid the price for those actions and Harkaman was as certain as he had ever been about anything, that there would be more deaths before this tragedy came to an end. As he stepped into the corridor, Alvyn Karffard was waiting for him.

  “So it was Barragon, who led the raid,” said Karffard. Harkaman nodded. “What are you going to do now?” asked Karffard. Harkaman looked at him for a second and then replied,

  “I follow my orders. Prince Lucas gave me orders for just this kind of situation. The real question is how best to go about executing those orders. We’ve got two damaged ships that are low on ammo, a base that’s a liability instead of an asset and orders to start capturing or at least destroying all incoming Viking ships.” Harkaman paused and stared off into infinite space while he rubbed his beard. Karffard knew to keep quiet when his superior was deep in thought. It didn’t take long before Harkaman shifted his focus back to the here and now.

  “Here’s what we’re going to do. We offload all of the ground fighters and combat equipment and whatever supplies we can spare for the survivors. I want you to send some men to check the missile storage bunker over on the far side of the spaceport. The raiders might have missed them and we could use anything left there to add to our missile supply. Then, when that’s done, both ships will take up a High Guard position in orbit and then we wait for the next Viking ship to show up. In the meantime, I want you to send two pinnaces off, one each to Amaterasu and Beowulf, with a message from me informing them of the attack, notifying them that we’re invoking our Mutual Defense Treaties with then and asking them to please send any armed ships they can to Tanith to defend it so that we can then send our two ships to them for repairs. Have you got all that, Alvyn?”

  “Got it, Boss. Let’s hope their ships get here before we have uninvited company. If they don’t, it’ll be a Gehenna of a bluff that we’ll be running.” Harkaman nodded with a grim expression on his face.

  “That it will, Alvyn.”

  The first Viking ship arrived shortly after both ships took up their orbital positions. The pinnaces were on their way but any response wouldn’t be for at least a week. The incoming ship turned out to be the Reaper. Harkaman contacted the ship by video. As soon as her captain was on the screen, Harkaman took charge of the conversation.

  “Well well, if it isn’t Captain Jorgenson of the Reaper. You’ve come to trade some loot I take it?” Jorgenson looked like he hadn’t gotten much sleep lately and Harkaman noticed a lot of red lights on the panel behind Jorgenson.

  “Oh hello, Harkaman. It’s been a while since we last met. Ah…trading loot. That’s right…but the thing is that we don’t actually have a lot of loot and the problem is that we took a lot of combat damage to get what little we have. So I’m hoping that Prince Lucas would be willing to ah….advance us some credit to be paid off from future raids?” Harkaman was so relieved that he almost laughed out loud. It was extremely rare for a base to agree to any kind of future payment arrangement. Typically it was cash (or equivalent) upfront. For Jorgenson to even suggest otherwise meant that his ship was in desperate straits and that was good news as far as Harkaman was concerned. But now was not the time to drop the hammer on the Reaper. The ship was still beyond the no-jump zone and could hyperjump away if Harkaman demanded her surrender now.
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  “Well, Captain, you’re in luck. Things have been a little slow here lately and Prince Lucas MAY be in a mood to be generous. I can’t promise anything you understand but something might be worked out. Bring your ship down to the spaceport.” Jorgenson was so relieved that Harkaman actually felt guilty but only for a second. After expressing his gratitude profusely, he signed off and Harkaman waited. When the Reaper was deep enough into the no-jump zone that it couldn’t possibly escape a missile attack even from his two weakened ships, Harkaman called the Reaper. When Jorgenson answered, he said.

  “Captain Jorgenson, as you no doubt are aware, you’re now deep within Tanith’s no-jump zone and I have two ships, that can easily get within missile range of you. You are to surrender your ship immediately. Everyone except for a skeleton crew, are to board pinnaces and leave the ship. My boarding party will then come aboard and secure your ship. You and your crew will be held under guard until Prince Lucas decides whether to release you or not. Will you surrender your ship, Captain?”

  “What…surrender? Is this some kind of joke, Harkaman? Tanith is a Viking base for god’s sake!”

  “This is no joke, Captain. Tanith WAS a Viking base. Prince Lucas has decided to get out of the Viking base business and he’s also decided that he doesn’t like Space Vikings anymore. The only choice you have is to surrender and live or resist and die. What is it going to be?” Jorgenson seemed to be paralyzed with shock. He just sat there with his mouth open. Harkaman could hear the babble of panicked voices in the background. When it was clear that Jorgenson needed some additional pressure, Harkaman turned to his Guns and Missiles Officer and said.

  “Okay, Guns. Lock’em up with the targeting radar and prepare to fire. Notify Nemesis to do the same.”

  “Wait! Wait! We surrender! Don’t fire! We surrender!” yelled Jorgenson who then started giving orders to his crew to abandon the ship.

  Harkaman’s boarding party was ready and in a couple of hours they had boarded the Reaper, secured the skeleton crew that Jorgenson had kept aboard and were bringing the ship in to a landing. The pinnaces carrying the rest of the Reaper’s crew were instructed to land at the far end of the spaceport where two dozen contra-gravity tanks plus another two dozen troop carriers were waiting to take them into custody. It all went off without a hitch much to everyone’s surprise. Once the Reaper was on the ground, the few engineers that had survived Barragon’s raid, went aboard and did a survey of the damage. As a combat ship, the Reaper was useless. She could still lift, maneuver and hyperjump but that was just about all. But she could be repaired and the repairs would still be far cheaper than building a new ship from scratch so she had value. Karffard called Harkaman by video to chat.

  “She’s not much of a prize, is she, Boss. It’ll be what….months, maybe years before we can fix her ourselves here on Tanith?” Harkaman smiled and shook his head.

  “No, that’s not the plan. We need to replace our stolen equipment fast and get our own ships repaired. The only thing we can offer in exchange right now is the Reaper. As soon as we hear back from either Amaterasu or Beowulf, I’m going to offer the Reaper as payment for repairs on Corisande and Nemesis and maybe the replacement equipment too. If they drive a hard bargain, then we may need to sweeten the offer with a 2nd captured ship but that will be easier now. A skeleton crew can put the Reaper into High Guard orbit along with Nemesis and Corisande so that the next incoming Viking ship will see three ships in orbit instead of two. I don’t know any Viking captain that would be crazy enough to take on 3 to 1 odds and they won’t know that our ships aren’t in the best condition .”

  The next encounter was different. Two days later another Viking ship arrived. Harkaman contacted the ship and saw a Captain that he didn’t already know. The man looked relaxed and when he saw Harkaman, he nodded and said.

  “I’m Captain Khegan of the Star Knight. I’ve got a cargo hold full of precious metals, art, etc. The usual kinds of loot and I’m looking to buy ammo and supplies. Are you by any chance, Prince Lucas?”

  “No. I’m Admiral Harkaman, Prince Lucas’s Second in Command. I’m sure that you and Prince Lucas will be able to reach a mutually satisfactory arrangement. We have all kinds of ship’s ammo and supplies. You’re welcome to approach the planet and land at our spaceport. Will you be needing any combat damage repaired, Captain Khegan?” Khegan smiled and shook his head.

  “Thankfully no. We’re in excellent shape, just low on consumables. We’ll head down to the planet now. Was there anything else, Admiral Harkaman?”

  “No, Captain. Nothing more right now. We’ll contact you again soon with final landing instructions.”As soon as he cut the connection, Harkaman ordered the Reaper’s skeleton crew to bring the ship up to orbit. They wouldn’t be able to man her inoperative weapons but they could make her look like she was ready for combat. Half an hour later, with the Star Knight in deep enough to be unable to avoid combat if that should become necessary, Harkaman brought all three ships to Battle Stations and called Captain Khegan again.

  “Final landing instructions so soon, Admiral Harkaman?” Khegan’s voice was polite but Harkaman detected an undertone of suspicion.

  “I’m afraid not, Captain. We know that your radar has picked up our three ships in high orbit over Tanith. You’re close enough now that we could bring you into our missile range if we so desired. I’m therefore giving you the opportunity to save your crew and yourself by surrendering your ship.” Khegan turned out to be one cool commander. He didn’t even bat an eye. After a few seconds of silence he said.

  “You really expect me to surrender my ship without firing a shot? You’ve obviously never heard of me, have you, Admiral Harkaman?” Harkaman’s pulse started to speed up. If Khegan called his bluff, anything could happen up to and including the Star Knight lasting long enough to break out past the no-jump zone and hyperjump away to spread the alarm about Tanith and its new policy.

  “I expect you to realize that you’re facing 3 to 1 odds which means that you’re unlikely to survive a missile exchange, ESPECIALLY if you’re low on missiles, which it sounds like you are. What I’m offering you is a chance to live so that you can fight another day. Prince Lucas wants your ship. Once you surrender her, you and your crew will be free to leave Tanith when one of our ships makes a courtesy call to another Viking base. Until then, you and your crew will be treated decently as long as none of you make any trouble. Now…are you going to make me kill today? I’d prefer not to have to kill today but I will if you force me to.” Khegan said nothing for what seemed like a long time but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. Finally he said.

  “If we weren’t so low on missiles, I’d roll the dice and see what happens but we are so I won’t. I’m prepared to surrender my ship if you give me your personal assurance that my crew and I will not be killed or mistreated.”

  “I’ll give you that assurance on the condition that you and your crew will not cause any trouble. This is how the surrender will take place. You order everyone except a skeleton Bridge crew to leave your ship via your pinnaces, which will be given detailed landing instructions and I expect those to be followed precisely. My ships will be monitoring their progress. I’ll send my boarding party to your ship to secure it. Are there any questions, Captain Khegan?” For a second, Khegan looked like he might change his mind and start firing but then he shook his head and said.

  “No questions. We’ll comply with your instructions.” Harkaman didn’t fully relax until the Star knight was on the ground and secure and all of its crew were off their pinnaces and processed as prisoners. A quick survey of the ship showed her to be in excellent condition and Harkaman was relieved that now they really did have an overwhelming advantage with one undamaged and two damaged ships.

  Chapter V

  Prince-Protector Simon was not a happy Regent. He hated being woken up in the middle of the night with bad news but the Spaceport Supervisor made the right decision to notify the Palace when he learned that a
pinnace from Amaterasu by way of Tanith had arrived with news that the Tanith Base had been decimated by a Space Viking raid. Getting the news a few hours later would not have changed anything one iota but delaying sharing it with Prince Lucas might have given the impression that Simon didn’t care. He did care, in fact, he cared very much. Not just because Prince Lucas was a good friend to him personally but also because the new Mutual Defense Treaty meant that Marduk was now obligated to help defend Tanith against its attackers and even though the domestic, political and economic situation on Marduk had improved considerably in the three weeks since the Battle of Marduk, the Navy was still only half as strong as it used to be and the Army was still struggling to meet its domestic obligations, let alone contemplate sending troops offworld.