"The real damage was done with the cannonballs that hit us below. They punched through the hull, shattered the mainmast housin' for the lower and upper sides. Then they punched right on through and out the green-side! On the red-side they destroyed three guns, leavin' only seven below." Now the old carpenter began to pace the deck of the little cutter.
"But sir," said the old sailor as tears began to flow down his cheeks. "Sir, the vacuum-cursed dogs cut our Keel! The Keel's only holdin' together with splinters. Lady Elbereth's Gift, the Moss on the Keel, is all that seems to be holdin' the charge. And sir, the Ship is dyin'! Only the Ship, old Kestrel herself is holdin' us in two-space. If not for her, we would'a popped into vacuum days ago, and she can't keep it up much longer. She's dyin' sir!" The old carpenter sat and began to sob.
"Sir," he said, looking up through his tears, "you know that besides the captain, the other person the Ship talks to, just a little, sometimes, is her carpenter? With the captain dead she's talkin' to me. She's mad for vengeance. She wants at that bastard of a Guldur, but she can't, sir. She can't. I've done all I can, but she can't keep hangin' on. Any second now she's gonna pop into vacuum and we'll all die. We gotta get outa here!"
"Chips! Mister Tibbits!"
"Yessir?" he asked, looking up through tear blurred eyes at the young lieutenant.
Quietly Melville continued. "It's time to act like an officer of the Westerness Navy. Kestrel needs us now, more than ever, to do our duty. Our full duty. Whatever that may be. Whatever cup is set before us, we must take it. Now, tell me the rest of what happened."
"Aye, sir. Sorry, sir."
On the Ship above them all pretense of work stopped and everyone watched. This was the cue for Broadax and Hans to go into action.
"Ye damned blueboys!" shouted Broadax, turning her cigar stub and withering, concentrated, bloodshot Dwarrowdelf glare on them. "Git yer tails to yer business while yer betters tends to theirs!" She randomly selected a poor soul to torment. " 'At means you, Andrest! If ye was any denser, I swear light'd bend 'round ye!"
Not to be outdone, Broadax's fellow NCO added his two bits. "An jist wat do ya think yer doin' Jonesy!" said Hans, spitting a stream of tobacco juice overboard as he selected another random victim. "You pay attention ta yer work. Nothin' is foolproof fer a truly talented fool like you!"
Then the two NCOs went about the age-old task of glowering at subordinates, but they stayed close, where they could hear the rest of the carpenter's tale.
* * *
Tibbits drew a deep, shuddering breath and continued. "The bastards opened fire, but it must take forever for those big guns to reload. We was stunned, but we had all the red-side guns manned, and we fired right back. Ol' Guns, Mr. Barlet, he let 'er rip, right through our hatch covers, with four above, and seven below. Thirteen 12-pounders, all loaded with double shot at point-blank range can do the Elder King's own damage sir! As we was pullin' off, we hit them again, and then again, all on what we'd call their green-side. We musta hurt the bastards, but all the shots was into their hull, none of their masts or riggin' was damaged much, so it didn't seem to slow them down any."
"Chips, this may be very important," Melville said, gripping the old sailor's shoulder. "As you remember it, do we have an advantage of height in the waist?"
"Aye sir, over a yard's height advantage, all the way across, except where there was a funny little half a quarterdeck. It's really more like a connin' tower on the corner, astern. Above, their quarterdeck is on the red-side, while below it's on the green-side. They have a little jollyboat on davits hangin' off the quarterdeck on each side, so it'd be tricky to board from their rear quarter. That boat'll keep you from gettin' close.
"Their guns are rigged all weird, too. On the green-side they have the guns all for'ard above the plain of Flatland, and all astern below. On the red-side, all the guns below are for'ard, while the ones above are squished back astern."
"Good. As I understand it, the jollyboat would hamper boarding astern, on either side. But on the red-side, above, they don't have a gun for'ard. And we could board her from there, from the for'ard upper red quarter, without worrying about those guns?"
"Aye . . . aye, I guess so, sir. Unless they swing that gun up for'ard, as a bow chaser. But so far they haven't done that above, just the one gun below. It must be damnable hard to swing the gun up front, and they probably want a full broadside on at least one side. I know I would, if I only had four guns to a broadside.
"But, Lootenant," Tibbits continued, "the ones below will rake us like hell's own furies."
"Aye Chips, but we won't be below. They don't know that our Ship is dying. We'll smash our bows together, red-side to red-side. Everyone, including the cook and her cat, will be hidden away, ready to board from that one quarter. Even if we begin to sink from the impact, it won't matter, because we'll all be on their Ship. Meanwhile, down below, they can board our Ship, and they'll die with the Ship! Can you think of a more fitting end for the bastards?"
"Aye, sir," said the old carpenter, looking up through his tears with a faint glint of hope in his eye.
"Now, you say we had double shot in the first volley. Did that volley penetrate their hull?"
"Aye, sir. Punched clean through the hull on this side. I don't know where they went after that."
"And the other volleys? Did they penetrate?"
"Aye, sir. Best I can tell they did."
"Good," said Melville. "And did they have a lot of their Goblan 'allies' up in the rigging?"
"No, sir. No, they made it look all peaceful like. Almost no one was in the riggin'. That was most of why we managed to get away. Everyone, curs and ticks both, musta been packed in below decks. You think we mighta chopped them worse than we can know?"
"Oh, aye, Chips. Aye." Melville knew that he was also speaking to nearly a hundred listening ears as he said,
"Read here the moral roundly writ
For him who into battle goes —
Each soul that hitting hard or hit,
Endureth gross or ghostly foes.
. . . blown by many overthrows,
Half blind with shame, half choked with dirt,
Man cannot tell, but Allah knows
How much the other side was hurt!"
"Dear Lady Elbereth," said Tibbits, "I hope we made the bastards pay for what they did to poor old Rick Crosby and the others."
Melville knew that, in the words of Lord Wavell, "When things are going badly in battle the best tonic is to take one's mind off one's own troubles by considering what a rotten time one's opponent must be having."
"You tell me Chips. Fifty-two 12-pound balls bouncing around inside that Ship. Each one must have created hundreds, thousands of splinters as it busted its way in. You can bet the doggies and their Goblan 'ticks' were sucking shot and splinters that day. Aye, we made the bastards pay, and we'll make them pay even more! Now, wrap up quickly and tell what happened after that."
"Well, then came the weird part, sir. We ran straight east, 'cause that's how we lay when we was snookered by that bastard. We spotted a line of Guldur Ships, stretched out to the north and south, all headed west, toward Stolsh. It was an invasion fleet! The biggest damn fleet you ever saw. Mostly transports, runnin' real slow, but there was a sizable batch of frigates with them, too.
"We figured they must be plannin' to take out the whole Stolsh Empire in one punch. The one we ran into musta been part o' their scout screen. Their job bein' to get rid of anyone who could warn the Stolsh. That's got to be why they did for us like that, the bastards.
"We veered off from them pretty easy 'cause they was goin' so slow. We slipped around that vacuum scummer what sucker-punched us, 'cause you know those Guldur can't sail worth a damn. But with the damage we took we couldn't put stress on the mainmast or the Keel, and so we couldn't pull far ahead of the bastard. We seen him signal to his fleet, so he must've told them not to worry about us, 'cause we was hurt bad. The bastard probably didn't want to share any of the loot
and glory.
"Lootenant Fielder said we could escape to this world here. That it was our only chance. So here we are, and that bastard of a Guldur vacuum sucker is right behind us, sir."
"Can Kestrel fight, Chips? Can she handle a boarding action?"
"Aye, maybe she can hold out for a little while. She could take a solid smack in the bows and it might just compress the Keel, but anythin' from the side is apt to crack that Keel the rest of the way. But how can we fight that bastard's guns? They swung one of those monsters up front, for a bow chaser, on the lower side, and what we saw would curl your hair. They was shootin' at us at ranges two times what our 12-pounders can do. How can you fight guns like that?"
"Chips, did they ever hit us?"
"Well, no sir. Except for a few that passed through our sails and our riggin'. One of those took out the sailin' master."
"I'm sorry to hear that. He was a good man. Our captain, first mate, marine lieutenant, sailing master and our bosun. The enemy has much to answer for. But do you see? Those guns are inaccurate as hell at long range, and slow as hell to load at close range." The old carpenter looked at him with hope smoldering in his eyes.
"Chips, an ancestor of mine, Herman Melville, wrote that, 'Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the handle or the blade.' By the Lady, we can do it. We can close with those bastards and board them! We shall grasp this dark deed by the handle and plunge it into the enemy's breast! We have no choice. To fight is our duty. Do you want to kill your Ship and rot below? Or do you want to avenge her?" A ragged cheer broke out among the surrounding sailors.
Melville didn't wait for an answer as the carpenter looked at him openmouthed, bewildered, amazed, and . . . hopeful. "Mr. Aquinar!" he shouted.
"Sir!"
"Get me the gunner, asap!"
"Aye, sir!"
The Kestrel had four warrant officer positions, each responsible for the operation, repair and maintenance of their portion of the Ship. The carpenter, Mr. Tibbits, was responsible for all the wooden parts of the Ship. The sailing master was responsible for all sails and rigging, but he was dead, and so was his senior NCO, the bosun. The gunnery warrant, Mr. Barlet, was responsible for her forty 12-pounders. The purser, Brother Petreckski, was responsible for the cargo and the holds. In order to get the Kestrel ready for combat Melville needed to get these section leaders and their personnel into action.
Melville's next priority was to get a quick exterior look at the damage to the lower half of the Ship. Wise-nose was specifically designed for maintenance tasks such as this. At the bow, stern and flanks of the cutter there were steps that permitted access directly to Flatland. Melville moved carefully as he lowered himself down to this level, since gravity and warmth increased as you got closer to Flatland.
At the upper levels of the rigging, gravity was around a quarter gee and it was uncomfortably chilly. At the crow's nest it went up to a half gee and cool. The constant cold at that height was why they used enclosed crow's nests instead of open fighting tops.
On the maindeck of the Ship it was about one gee, with warm and balmy temperatures. Right at the plain of Flatland, where Melville was, the Ship was hot, with around 1.5 gees, and you had to move with some caution.
Melville knelt on the platform, and dipped his head through the opaque blue plane of Flatland. From this position he could see the half of the Kestrel that was "below." Basically, the Ships of two-space were like two old-time sailing ships with everything below the waterline cut off, and then joined together at the "waterline" formed by Flatland. The end result was that you had two ships arranged so that one of them was "upside-down" to the other.
When he turned his head briefly, he could see that the cutter beside him was exactly the same on a smaller scale. Two equal sides, balanced above and below Flatland, except the cutter only had one small mast to a side.
Masts and sails had to be equally placed, above and below the vast plain of two-space. If the "balance" between the upper and lower part of a Ship got out of adjustment, the Ship could tip over. If an old-time sailing ship tipped over it sank into the deep blue sea. When a Ship in Flatland tipped too far it would also "sink," popping out of two-space and into the cold, hard vacuum of interstellar space.
As soon as Melville's head popped through, "down" became "up" for the portion of his body that was on the other side. All forces pushed him "down" from both sides into Flatland, that impossibly thin layer that represented the thickness of the entire galaxy.
From here it was as though his head was sticking out of water. He could see the two gaping holes where the enemy's cannonballs had punched through the gundeck, and down into the Keel. Hanging immediately above him were the constellations of the "lower" sky. Dominating all was the great pinwheel that sailors called the Andromeda Galaxy. Which Earth astronomers swore had nothing to do with the "real" Andromeda Galaxy.
After taking a quick look, Melville pulled himself back up to the deck of the cutter. There was one other entity that Melville needed to consult before he committed them to combat. Kestrel herself.
Hans and Broadax helped Melville pull himself up to the maindeck. He strode to the hatch, just for'ard of the mainmast, down the ladder (a land lubber would have called it a set of stairs, but aboard a ship, stairs are always called ladders), and through the upper gundeck. The warm yellow light given off by the Elbereth Moss guided him through the wrack and ruin of the shattered decks. He went down a second ladder to the upper hold.
Beside him, running fore and aft down the floor of this deck was the Keel, a round beam covered with pure white Elbereth Moss. Lovingly placed around the Keel were the crew's most delicate instruments. These were mostly the locks and barrels from many muskets and pistols. The cannon, muskets, and rifles that fired in two-space were somewhat protected by their "Keel charges," the small, modified version of the Ship's Keel, that provided the projectile force for the gun. But the gunpowder weapons used in three-space needed the protection provided by close proximity to the Ship's Keel whenever they were transported in two-space.
Beside the Keel they also stored some of the carpenter's equipment (much of which was now in use), some navigational equipment, a few carefully tended block-and-tackle, and some of the surgeon's instruments. Here, closest to the Keel, the corrosive effect of Flatland on technology was at its least. With daily maintenance these few pieces of crude three-space technology could continue to exist.
In slots in the deck, further out from the keel, the swords were stored. They were kept parallel to two-space, their blades essentially "floating" in that impossibly thin plane. The influence of Flatland worked to pull the blades "flat," atom by atom. The effect was that the edges of the blades were "drawn" into supernatural, almost monomolecular sharpness.
Melville could see where the Keel was mortally damaged by the impact of two great cannonballs fired at point-blank range. All around him men were working to shore up this vital area of the Ship.
At the foot of the ladder lay an open hatch surrounded on three sides by a ladder-like railing. This was the opening to the "lower" half of the Ship. Flatland couldn't be seen here, in the same way that the waterline is invisible from inside a ship. But the gravitational effect could be felt. If you eased feet-first through this hatch you'd sink halfway down. Half of your body would be pulled "down," while the other half, the half below Flatland, would be pushed "up." Like floating in water, with gravity pulling you down and buoyancy pulling you up. Except in this case it was gravity pushing from both directions.
Instead of easing in, Melville dove through the hatch, headfirst, like diving into water. His momentum carried him most of the way through, and he pulled himself out using the railing on that side. From here he could see the damage to the keel from the other side. It didn't look any better.
He knelt carefully in the 1.5 gees and grasped the shattered Keel shards in his hands. <
<
ous thoughts.
<
She was in pain, preoccupied and distracted. But she was the product of over a century of fellowship with human beings. Her sentience was her own. Her heritage was human. Communicating with her was sometimes ponderous, but she knew how to transfer complex concepts in a concise manner.
<< . . . F L A N D E R S . . . F I E L D S . . . >>
Melville understood immediately, and was rocked to his core by what she was saying. Aloud to the men around him, and to his Ship (his Ship, by God, for a little while it was his Ship), he replied:
"<
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow . . .
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw!
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die!
We SHALL NOT SLEEP!>>"
Kestrel replied with a pulse of energy so powerful that it was felt by every crewman who was in contact with the Elbereth Moss that coated much of the Ship.
In that moment the young lieutenant became the avatar of his Ship. Kestrel's ancient voice tore his throat raw as the Ship replied. "<
<> the Ship concluded, and cut the connection. Melville slumped to the deck.
What had just occurred was remarkably rare. A Ship had cried out to her whole crew, sending a message of despair and anger, a request, an order, a demand for vengeance. No captain of a Ship ever had a greater mandate thrust upon him. The men around him looked stunned. The crew of the Kestrel might not want to seek what they thought was certain death, but trapped between the steely will of their Ship and the orders of their captain, they had no choice. They would obey.
With the help of Broadax and Hans, Melville staggered to his feet. He looked down at his hands, which were torn and bleeding from clutching the ragged shards of his Ship's soul. In a daze he began moving toward the ladder.
Two Space War Page 9