John Ringo - Council Wars 02 - Emerald Sea

by Emerald Sea(lit)

  "You know it's that damned rabbit," she replied, quietly. There were mer around and it would do their morale no good to know that the women and children were being sent on a ship that had a potential agent onboard.

  "No, I don't know it's the rabbit," Edmund said. "And neither do you. Don't assume that. The one person I refuse to suspect, though, is Evan."

  "Why?" Daneh said, then frowned. "Not that I would, either."

  "Because he's such a perfect little engineer," Edmund replied. "You can tell what he's thinking just by looking at him. I don't think he could carry it off. I may be wrong, but I also think that he might have an idea how to ferret out the mole. Whoever it is has to be communicating somehow. Even if he's being visited by an avatar, there are traces of their presence. Evan should be able to figure something out. If he can't, I'm out of ideas."

  "Okay," Daneh said. "I can see that. But Rachel could go."

  "I want both of you to go for the same reason you both came down here, I trust you more than Rachel and, really, it's going to need two. Just go, okay?"

  "Okay," she sighed, reaching out to stroke his face. "Take care of yourself."

  "I will," Edmund said. "It's you I'm worried about."

  * * *

  Getting the mer-women out of the cavern was easier than retrieving their babies. But the latter, well swathed in sailcloth, were lifted out through the light fissures and then both groups were ferried out to the ship and hoisted over the side on slings.

  While that was going on the ship was discharging its cargo. Since there weren't enough of the bronze-headed spears that had been brought as friendship gifts, they were supplemented with boarding pikes. The pikes were made of low-carbon steel and would rust quickly in the salt environment but they were all that were available. As this was going on, Edmund went over the side and rounded up Herzer and Jason.

  "Here," he said, when he finally found them going over plans for the retreat. He thrust out two scabbarded short-swords, wrapped around by heavy belts of a synthetic fabric.

  Herzer drew his and tried to whistle. The blade was bright silver and surprisingly light. The design was identical to the Blood Lord blades that he had trained with but while they were light and maneuverable, this blade felt like a feather.

  "What is this?" he asked. "Titanium?"

  "No, it's a high-tech alloy from the twenty-third century," Edmund replied. "Angus showed it to me just before the Fall. It takes power to work initially, but I had some prepped when the Fall came. I made those just before we came down here as a bribe to Bruce. It's much better than titanium; among other things you can shape it to a damned near monomolecular edge. Don't run a finger down the blade to see how sharp it is."

  "I won't," Herzer said, strapping on the sword. The belt was just long enough.

  "Thank you," Jason said, sounding weary.

  "We're taking Donal, Chauncey and Commander Gramlich," Edmund said. "Put that in your calculations."

  "Thank you again," Jason said. "I thought you were going on the ship."

  "No, I'm sending Rachel and Daneh that way," he admitted. "But I'll hold on to Joanna to keep up."

  "The straps aren't going to take the strain," Herzer pointed out. "It's going to be a long ride. And they're only half as effective if they're stuck in the water all the time."

  "I know," Edmund said with a grin. "I think it's time to find out if you can ride a dragon bareback."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  "Evan, we have a problem," Daneh said, coming into the engineer's crowded office with Rachel trailing her.

  "There are female members of the ship's company," he said, uneasily. "The dispensary has everything that..."

  "Not that kind of problem." Daneh sighed. The engineer, while brilliant at what he did, had the social skills of a rhinoceros. Which made what they needed to do a bit of a problem. "Edmund is convinced that there's a spy for New Destiny on the ship."

  Evan opened his mouth to protest and then closed it, nodding.

  "They do seem to find us with remarkable regularity," he replied.

  "And they knew too much about our party when we got to the Isles. Now, it could be anyone..."

  "It could be me," he said, looking at her suspiciously. "Or you. No, not you. You weren't on board when they intercepted us before."

  "And, sorry, Evan," Rachel said with a smile. "I don't think you could bring it off."

  "No, probably not," the engineer said with a grin.

  "But you might be able to find out who it is," Daneh said. "Edmund told me to tell you 'avatar traces.' I have no idea what he's talking about."

  "Hmmm." The engineer frowned and nodded. "When avatars, or any manifestation of Net energy, are formed, they give off a minute electromagnetic field. It's caused by the not quite perfect intratransmission of data among the nannites or fields that are formed. And in the case of straight projections, because it's a quantum field projection, the energy is actually quite high. In cases where they pass through grouped pieces of metal or other conducting materials they tend to create a static charge area that is similar in some respects to Saint Elmo's fire..."

  "Okay, okay," Daneh said. "You don't regale me with the physics and I won't tell you about DNA interactions."

  "You're a genegineer?" Evan said, delighted.

  "No," Daneh replied. "Before the Fall, I fixed their screwups. But the point is, if he, the spy that is, is using a transmitter or being visited by an avatar, there should be traces."

  "Well... yes," Evan said. "But very faint ones. I don't know how..." He paused and murmured to himself. "Perhaps if I..."

  "I'll leave it to you," Daneh said, patting him on the knee. "But this is between us. If you find anything, report it to Rachel or me. No one else. Clear?"

  "Not even the skipper?" Evan said.

  "Not even the skipper." Daneh paused and then shrugged. "Whoever it is, they always appear to know our exact position. If they're not using a position locator, and I don't see why they would have access to one, then it has to be someone who has access to the updated navigational charts. How many members of the crew does that make?"

  "Oh."

  * * *

  It was nearly midnight before the work was done and all the gear of the mer was loaded on the ship or on their backs. The group at the surface waved to the women and children on the ship in farewell. The younger mer, even those that could free-swim, had been loaded on board as well, most of them protesting furiously. Finally all preparations were complete and the ship raised anchor, filling its sails with the dying landwind, and moved off to sea.

  "The faces of the women aren't something to take with you on the ship," Herzer muttered.

  "What?" Jason said at the apparent non sequitur. "They're the ones on the ship."

  " 'Bird of Prey March,' " Herzer said. "I really need to teach you some Kipling." He paused and frowned as they swam back to where the dragons were gathered. "Actually, there's one that's more fitting."

  "Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,

  From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.

  The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying.

  'Tis you, 'tis you must go, and I must bide.

  But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,

  Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow.

  'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow,

  Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so."

  As he sang the clustered delphinos echoed the song back in weird harmony, the siren song drifting across the dark waters until finally it died away.

  "That's a damned sad tune to start this journey on," Jason said.

  "It's a damned sad journey," Herzer replied, taking his place in the protective hemisphere. The plan was to have Joanna take the point with dragons near the surface on all four sides and the armed mer-men in a hemisphere with the unarmed women and a few of the older males in the middle. The latter weren't there just to be guarded. The landsmen and the dragons needed fresh w
ater and they were dragging along barrels of it. The fresh water was denser than the salt so the barrels tended to float but it was still going to be hard going. The delphinos were ranging out as scouts, but at the first sign of trouble they were to enter the protective bubble; there was no way for them to fight either the orcas or the ixchitl. Much less the reported kraken.

  "You know a lot of songs like that?" Jason said as the group moved off.

  "I love war," Herzer admitted. "It's a damned sad thing, but it's the one thing that I'm really good at. And if you love war, you have to know its face, the good, the bad and the ugly, and there really are all three faces. War has a beauty that is almost addictive, winning or losing. An ancient general said: 'It is good that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it.' Music is to war what food is to sex, a very nice accompaniment. So, yeah, I know a lot of songs and poems about war. For that matter, I'm a pretty good cook," he added with a chuckle.

  "You're weird, Herzer."

  "So I've been told," the lieutenant admitted. "On the other hand, there are some that aren't quite so dreary. Old Ireland was called the land of sad war songs and happy wars. But Norau was the land of sad, or at least unwilling, wars and happy war songs. Let me teach you one of those."

  And so, with the delphinos echoing back the tune through the night-dark seas, he taught the group of mer-warriors the words to the song "March of Cambreadth."

  The ixchitl struck at dawn.

  * * *

  The day dawned clear with scudding winds from the north. On them the clipper rolled south under nearly full sail at almost forty klicks per hour.

  "Great day to be sailing, sir," Jerry said as he scrambled up the ladder to the bridge. "Do you want to launch?"

  "Hell, yes," the skipper said, bellowing for all hands to turn the ship into the wind. When the crew was engaged he turned back to the rider. "I want constant top cover. Keep an eye out for that damned kraken. And, of course, any New Destiny ships. We're not going to bother parleying; I am not willing to be Mister Reasonable with this cargo."

  "Aye, aye, sir," the warrant said, saluting. Shep had already been brought from below so Jerry settled his gloves, glad for the first time in nearly a week to be in proper gear, and loaded her on the catapult. As soon as the wind was off the port quarter he launched for the dawn patrol.

  * * *

  Jerry had been recovered and Koo was aloft when the lookout called down to the bridge.

  "Dragon signaling, sir," the sailor called. "Number twenty-four, and four dips!"

  "Enemy in sight," the signal midshipman read off. "Five ships."

  "Bloody hell," the skipper growled. He had the weather gauge of the ships and more speed than they, either with or against the wind. But the position they had chosen was a narrows that he had the choice of passing through or beating around for another two or three days, maybe a week. And there was another thing.

  "Damnit, XO, they're waiting for us," the skipper snarled.

  "Maybe, sir," Mbeki said, with a shrug. "But this is the logical path if we're taking the southern route. They might have another force on the northern turn as well."

  "I don't buy it, XO," the skipper said, shaking his head. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."

  "Yes, sir, nuke Mars now," Mbeki said, completing a joke so old its genesis had been lost. "But this is only twice."

  "No, that damned kraken as well," the skipper said. "Well, it doesn't matter, one way or the other. We have to pass through. But we're still below the horizon to them. Bring the ship into the wind, I need to talk to Warrant Officer Riadou."

  * * *

  Evan knocked on the door of the wardroom and entered without permission to the frown of the skipper.

  "What?" Chang snapped.

  "I heard that there are more ships ahead," the engineer replied, seeming not to notice the rebuke. "I was looking for Jerry. Herzer asked me to make something for him, but in all the bustle we never got to test it."

  "What?" Jerry asked.

  "Well, the skipper was saying that he wanted the ship to be more offensive."

  * * *

  A leather-and-wood device had already been strapped to the breast of a protesting Shep when they reached the deck. It was mostly wooden box, with three partitions, and some leather reins and wooden levers, apparently to open the partitions.

  "I'm afraid it's... somewhat dangerous to the ship, sir," Evan said. "Loading is the worst part. You see, each of the compartments has a pottery jug of jellied gasoline in it."

  "Ouch!" Jerry said. "But..."

  "Oh, it also has a fuse," Evan said. "It was that that took me so long to make. The first few designs tended to detonate prematurely."

  Jerry had a sudden clear image of what it would be like to be riding a flaming wyvern and closed his eyes against it.

  "They'd better not prematurely detonate on my ship, Mr. Mayerle," the skipper said angrily.

  "Well, I'm fairly confident in this design," the engineer said with an abstracted expression. "There's a vial of sodium and a vial of water in the base of the jar. When the two hit something solid, the sodium ignites and that, in turn, ignites the gasoline. As long as they're not dropped... That was why I was commenting on the loading."

  "We're going to need to come up with some very careful procedures," the skipper said in a definite voice.

  "Yes, sir," Evan replied. "But, there they are."

  "I just pull the straps?" Jerry said, looking the device over. There were three straps and three boxes. He noticed that the boxes had pins through their covers; until those were released, they couldn't be opened. The pins had white pieces of canvas on them that fluttered in the wind. If they hadn't been pulled, it would be evident.

  "Well, I suspect that hitting the ships will be harder than you anticipate," Evan replied. "Wind drift, differences in speed. But... yes."

  "Skipper," the dragon-rider said with a feral grin, tightening up his gloves. "I think we've got us a strike carrier."

  "As long as we have something to sail to," the skipper noted, looking to the north where the ship was now pointed. "Okay, I'm going to stay below the horizon; it's up to you riders. Go show them why they don't mess with the UFS."

  * * *

  The ixchitl had been lying doggo in the sand but one of the delphinos just ahead of Joanna spotted them and raised the alarm. However, before it could turn to run back to the ring of defenses one of the ixchitl erupted from the sand and passed over it, firing down with its nematocysts.

  Joanna reacted immediately but even as she clamped her jaws shut on the ray it was too late; the harpoon had done its work and the delphino rolled over on its back as the neurotoxin coursed through its body.

  The group was suddenly surrounded by a white cloud as the school of ambushing rays erupted out of the sand, filling the water with their wings. They rushed the bristling hemisphere but could neither penetrate the shield of spears, nor get above the group to fire down.

  The dragons, meanwhile, were ravaging through their school, chopping at the rays. Ridden by Bast, Edmund and Herzer, they kept near the surface where the ixchitl's rays could not reach them, but they could bite downward. The ixchitl found themselves trapped between the dragons above and the hemisphere of spears.

  Finally they backed off and one of the larger ixchitl turned on its side, its normally white underbelly flashing through a range of colors. At apparent command two of the rays on the far side broke off and then came back at speed, leaping high into the air and into the midst of the crowd of mer-maids and huddling delphinos.

  They arrived with a tremendous splash and the impact momentarily broke the spear line. They also fired their harpoons immediately, and apparently at random, hitting one of the mer-girls and a delphino.

  Even this did not avail them much. The spear line reformed before the ixchitl to the outside could do anything to help their comrades and at a squealed command from Herman two of the delphinos grabbed the nematocyst cords,
practically before they could begin pumping poison, and rolled with them, like great crocodiles, until the cords were ripped from the bellies of the beasts.

  Furthermore, the mer-women were not unarmed and they fell on the ixchitl with the fury of anger and desperation. Two of them were badly bitten but the steel and bone knives jabbed and fell and before long the ixchitls' carcasses drifted downward on the light current.

  At this the ixchitl leader flashed his belly again and the whole group broke off the attack, heading for deeper water.