Dr. Padraca smiled and pumped their hands enthusiastically. "Please," he said, "Call me Tonio. I suspect I'm not going to be a professor much longer!"
Zant's grin widened. "Well, welcome aboard, Tonio! I'm Zant, and this is Cale."
It was two days before Tonio arrived at the rapidly-emptying offices of Colonies, Inc. The huge poster fields and sign images were gone, as were many of the fancier furnishings designed to impress visitors. Colonies, Inc. was out of business, at least temporarily, and Zant, Cale and Dee were doing their best to convert its assets into cash which could be used to buy weapons. If they could get them designed, of course.
The small man looked around quizzically as he entered the now-sparsely-furnished offices. Zant hurried to greet him. "Pay no attention to the mess, Tonio," he boomed. "We've got a very big ship to fill with weapons, and we're going to need every centisol we can raise!"
Tonio smiled. "Not to worry, uh, Zant," he said. "I quite understand."
He was introduced to Dee, whose beauty left him bashful and stammering. But it took only minutes for Dee's ebullient personality to put him at ease. They repaired to a conference room, and Zant and Cale retrieved cheap plas chairs for them all around a table that was to be picked up the next day.
Tonio moved to the head of the table, moving with the easy facility of a teacher preparing to lead a class.
"Very well," he began, his voice gaining a nervous edge, "Before we begin, we must agree on terms. As we discussed the other day, I want to return to Jumbo with you."
Zant opened his mouth to speak, but Tonio waved him to silence. "Yes, I quite understand that you cannot guarantee me a welcome in the colony, and in fact, I'm not at all certain I would be comfortable in the type of pastoral surroundings the Greeners plan to establish.
"What does interest me," he continued, "is Valhalla. Here we have an enlightened king, actively working to develop civilization on Jumbo. It's a fascinating mix of feudalism and early industrial society. I am no longer concerned about my welcome. I suspect I would be more comfortable in the court of King Rajo than in the Greeners' agricultural paradise."
Cale fidgeted. "Uh, Tonio, we had to lift out of Valhalla before your 'enlightened' king had us killed."
Tonio waved off the intterruption. "Forgive me, Cale," he replied, "but your approach was perhaps not wisely chosen, and you directly threatened the king's control of development on Jumbo."
Cale opened his mouth to reply, but Tonio continued, "Oh, I'm afraid King Rajo is going to find that industrial development is not as easily controllable as he thinks. As technology spreads, others will build on it, and King Rajo will find himself riding a runaway train. Or dino.
"Still, I think Valhalla will continue to be the center of development for years to come, despite the colony in Nirvana. The colony's schools will be focused on agricultural developments for at least a dozen years. They won't be building any railroads, unless it is to haul produce to King's Town." A thin smile crossed his face. "Actually, if we can beat the General, I suspect the colonists might be interested in buying a train from Valhalla!"
Zant was looking thoughtful. "You know, Tonio, you might just be right." He straightened. "So, what did you have in mind?"
Tonio's thin smile widened to a grin. "My payment will be space on your ship to take an assortment of basic tools and machinery to Jumbo. Oh, nothing huge," he added, as Cale started to speak. "More a pile of memory chips, and the 'tools to make the tools to make the tools,' that will be fundamental to an early industrial development." He shrugged. "Probably the largest and most expensive would be a fusactor for power."
Zant laughed aloud. "Ha! I had to tell the Greeners this, and now I'm telling you. Jumbo has no heavy elements you can use to make fuel rods, so a fusactor would be useless as soon as it ran out of fuel." He shook his head. "You could take spares of course, but they'd be decaying all the time they were in storage. No, what you need is a solar powersat and a stack of receivers you can set out as a receiving field for the beamed power." He grinned. "And, it happens that I know where you can buy them."
He looked at Cale. "I think we should agree. We're not going to be able to afford enough weapons to fill up a Din-class, much less Colonizer. We'll have plenty of room. And Tonio can't say we didn't warn him. He knows what he's getting into."
Cale shook his head, fighting a grin. "You do remember a few weeks ago, when you were raving to the Greeners about how wonderful Jumbo was because there couldn't be much industrial development, there."
Zant didn't even have the good grace to look embarrassed. He just grinned. "Well," he replied, "there's industrial development, and there's industrial development. Jumbo was terraformed. I doubt there's any coal, or any other energy source there. King Rajo's steam revolution is going to run out of trees in a few years. But any industrial revolution runs on power, and solar will be effective and permanent. And the Greeners have that Din-class in case it needs any servicing." He turned to Tonio. "In fact, Tonio, if you can afford it, I'd get a couple of powersats. Industrial development means power. Without it, your industrial development fizzles."
Tess had been listening through their implants. "Zant is correct, Cale," the voice echoed in his head. "I have estimated a 23.47% chance of the Greener colony failing and actually devolving in the event of a failure of the powersat."
Cale frowned. "But they have a ship, and the space station. They could go get parts or a whole new sat, if necessary." He subvocalized.
"They would have to have credits or some other hard currency," Tess replied, "or at least a cargo to trade. Since the colony is so focused on agriculture, it is not inconceivable that they would be unable to assemble such a cargo. Except for bulk grain shipments, foodstuffs are rarely considered worth trading. Of course, they could raise drugs, but that would result in a number of other hazards. Zant is correct," she repeated. "A certain amount of industrial development is desirable, if not essential."
"They could assemble a cargo of silver," Cale protested.
He could almost hear a negative shake of a nonexistent head. "Silver is already overvalued on Jumbo. If King Rajo or Tonio are successful with their industrial revolution, and silver mining becomes systematic, its value will undergo a severe deflation."
Cale glanced over at Dee. She had obviously heard his conversation with Tess. Now, she gave him a significant look, and nodded slightly.
Cale grinned. "Zant gets insufferable when someone admits he's right," he said. "But I guess we're just going to have live with it this time. If this is a vote, I vote 'yes', to agree to Tonio's terms."
Dee snorted. "Zant's insufferable all the time," she said, her grin removing the sting from the words. "I vote 'yes'."
"As do I," Tess's voice said in Cale's head.
Zant jerked a nod of satisfaction. "Tor-Jen hates meetings," he said, "so he gives me his proxy. That makes it unanimous. Once again, Welcome aboard, Tonio."
The small man flushed with embarrassed pleasure. "Thank you. With that settled, let's move along, as time is of the essence, here. We do not want to arrive at Jumbo to find we're too late, and the General already owns the planet.
"Now," he continued, his voice slipping into the pedantic cadence of the career teacher. "From the weapons standpoint, we have some advantages, and some disadvantages. The General has limited heavy weapons, only a single disruptor and two heavy lasers. Now, both of those weapons go through power cells so fast that with only a single powersat in orbit, I suspect the General will use them only for colony defense against a nomad attack.
"That means he's limited to infantry weapons. Now, that means lasers and shoulder disrupters, and perhaps some flechetters for urban fighting. Advantage Jumbo."
"That'll be enough," Zant said sourly.
But Tonio shook his head. "It wasn't enough on Ilocan," he said. "The advantages of a laser over, say, a sporting rifle, are incremental, not fundamental. Increased range, no deflection, and extreme penetration are improvements on the basic idea
of the firearm. The same tactics that worked in the ground wars on old Earth can work today on Jumbo.
"But we can't use lasers; or rather, our troops can't. We won't have time to set up a charging station for power cells, and besides, the Jumbo natives would take too long to familiarize with them. Advantage Ochoa-Mariden.
"The biggest challenge we face is the Santiagan body armor. It's an excellent design; I've studied it. Very few of the most powerful bows can penetrate even one side of the armor, and even those can't penetrate enough to produce serious harm to the wearer. Crossbows have the potential to penetrate body armor, but it would require a very powerful crossbow, and such a weapon would be very slow to operate; its string would have to be cranked back. A crossbowman would be lucky to get off two shots in a minute, and such a weapon would be suicidal. Advantage Ocho-Mariden.
"Now," he continued, "I'm confident that we can develop some interesting weapons to help us cope with the General's advantages. Actually, I'm most worried about the villagers' tactics. A cavalry charge and an infantry advance into the face of Ochoa-Mariden's troops would be suicide. And that, gentlemen, will become your responsibility, I'm afraid. You are far more skilled at persuasion than I am; perhaps you'll be able to make them see that marching bravely toward an entrenched formation of killers is a display of foolhardiness, not courage. I wish you good luck with it. It took several centuries on old Earth for that lesson to be learned."
Tonio's demands had got Zant to thinking about ships. No one had actually said so, but everyone seemed to assume that Colonizer and Cheetah would go haring off to Jumbo.
"But, I dunno," he said to Cale. "Colonizer is our largest investment, and I think we should protect it. I don't think it's necessary to take that monster to Jumbo, it's just foolish.
"Besides," he continued, "she's unarmed. Ochoa-Mariden has an armed Din-class, and that space station. We might very well have to fight our way into orbit."
Cale frowned. "Cheetah's armed," he replied, "but her weapons are on her centerline, not in turrets that can be aimed."
"Well," Zant said, "We still have one armed Din-class left over from the war. She's in orbit around Ilocan."
Cale nodded. "And don't forget Explorer, the new ship they're building on Vishnu. What's the latest on her?
Zant shrugged. "My last report was about three weeks ago. They were on schedule. It should be available for pickup just about now."
Cale looked thoughtful. "Okay, how about this: Tor-Jen takes Colonizer to Ilocan, changes ships for the Din-class, and then goes to Vishnu to pick up Explorer. That would give us three armed ships."
"Hey!" Zant cried delightedly, "My . . . uh, your Strengl is in that Din-Class's hold! That should raise the ante!"
The Strengl had been the Empire's premier long-range fighter. It was faster than any civilian ship in normal space, and even had its own small jump engine, although the small astrogation comp and limited life support meant only short jumps. Strengls carried either a destroyer-sized laser, or a heavy Alliance-model quickfirer on its centerline. When they'd been scouring Cale's scrapyard for ships during the so-called "Junkyard War," the Strengl had been found, its engine stripped out. But the engine turned out to be the same as an Empire Corvette's, and the Vishnu techs had completely refurbished it. Zant loved it, and had spent many happy hours trying to figure out how to pry it away from Cale.
Tor-Jen, who had been sitting impatiently in orbit for weeks, now, broke orbit almost immediately, and headed for the jump point at Colonizer's max boost.
Chapter 9
In only a few days, Tonio had a sheaf of weapons designs prepared, and he and Zant began visiting the manufacturers, soliciting bids. Within a week, some of the simpler designs were being delivered, bows and arrows, for instance.
Archery is one of the oldest known sports. While technological advances such as force bows, mass-driver bows and powered or laser-guided arrows were common, enough preindustrial cultures survived to guarantee a small but devoted following of "purists", who eschewed the advances in favor of bows with actual strings and unpowered, unguided arrows. Tonio knew that sport archery existed on Santiago, and his reputation gained him interviews with experts on the current state of the art.
As a result, they ordered a thousand so-called "compound" bows. These looked little like force bows or even cruder ancient designs. Some sported removable limbs, and even computerized aiming devices. But all of them featured a complicated-looking arrangement of strings and pulleys. These were designed to relieve some of the string pull pressure from the archer's fingers, allowing a longer draw and a longer sighting time. After close examination, Tonio ordered a rather simple style with non-removable limbs and no sights, and pull weights ranging from 27 to over 45 kilograms. He also ordered fifty thousand non-powered, non-guided arrows with plas shafts and flights, or 'feathers', and razor-sharp ceramic broad-heads, or 'points', and extra strings and pulleys, of course, as well as another fifty thousand extra ceramic points. He planned to keep Jumbo's arrow makers busy.
'Standard' bows, naturally, were designed for hunting or target shooting; bows hadn't been considered war weapons for millenia. So, Tonio's viewpoint was quite different from that of the archery enthusiasts. His archers would be trying to kill men wearing body armor. Tonio contacted several custom bow makers before finding one whose interest in the challenge nearly matched his own.
Three weeks later, Tonio summoned Cale, Zant and Dee to the local archery range to display the results of some of his efforts.
A mannequin stood at the forty-meter point on the range, wearing body armor. Another stood ten yards further downrange. The bowyer showed them a rather long arrow with a flat tip. He explained that the arrow's tip contained a small, contact-fired shaped charge of high explosive, with a metal spike in its center. In theory, the explosive charge would fire when the arrow contacted the body armor, its shaped charge propelling a now-molten spike through the armor and the man wearing it. The charge, he claimed, added only 100 grains to the weight of the arrow, and actually improved the balance.
Tonio was excited. "It may be that this will do what a firearm or even a blaster cannot – penetrate body armor!" He chuckled. "If it works, we may bring the bow, or at least the crossbow, back as a weapon of war. Well, at least as a 'special weapon'."
"A laser can penetrate body armor," Zant pointed out.
Tonio was undaunted. "Yes, of course," he replied. "There is no defense against a laser except a thick layer of ablative armor and a quick escape. But lasers require advanced technology, quite a bit of training, and a lot of power packs. And, of course, their beam is visible. What this will do is give a skilled archer a chance of killing or wounding the man wearing body armor and operating that laser, without even revealing his presence." He shrugged. "I suspect that Jumbo has no shortage of skilled archers."
Cale grinned. "I suspect you're right."
"Our main disadvantage is that we are facing highly trained troops with modern weapons and tactics. Our main advantage is that we know the exact amount and types of training those troops have received, the tactics they will use – Ochoa-Mariden is an unimaginative sort – and the weapons and equipment with which they are equipped. I hope this weapon will help us cope with one type of that equipment."
"What about regular arrows?" Cale asked. "Will they penetrate body armor, too?"
Tonio shook his head. "Probably not. It depends upon whether they're using the armor that uses plas sheets, or the kind that uses woven fabric. Even on the fabric style, though, I suspect the arrow might stick in the armor, but not do more than prick the man wearing it."
He stepped over and spoke to the bowyer. The man nodded, stood, and nocked the arrow. He drew the bow back to his cheek and released. The arrow flew straight to the mannequin's chest. As it impacted, there was a sharp crack! and the rear part of the arrow flew back toward them about a yard before falling to the ground.
They hurried to the mannequin, to find that, indeed, the body armor sh
owed a large cratered hole. Zant hurried around the mannequin, and found a new, pointed raised area half an inch in diameter. They wrestled the armor from the mannequin.
The hole in the armor's front matched a larger, smoking hole in the mannequin, front and back. Of the projectile, there was only a tiny metal puddle in the tip of the raised dent in the back of the armor.
They tried the other five arrows the bowyer had made, and all of them detonated, and all produced through-and-through, smoking wounds.
A delighted Zant ordered five thousand of the explosive arrows on the spot. Cale wasn't so sure. "I think they're dangerous to the archer," he explained. "These things will be carried in an archer's quiver, and they're tipped with a contact explosive. What if the man jumps over a small creek? Will he be blown up by his own arrows?"
Tonio shook his head. "They're not that sensitive. It takes quite an impact to detonate the explosive. I think they're at least as safe as minigrenades, and we're going to have several thousand of those." He shrugged. "Of course, we can have the archers pad the bottoms of their quivers to provide extra insurance." At Tonio's insistence, they added a thousand explosive crossbow arrows, called 'bolts', to their order.
Tonio led them to the next station on the range, where a rather chubby, grinning man awaited them. Tonio introduced him as the most innovative crossbow designer on Santiago. The classic crossbow is merely a small bow mounted on a rifle-style stock. They tend to be cumbersome, slow to reload, and difficult to draw, or 'cock', sometimes requiring a crank mechanism to accomplish this. In addition, due to their short draw length and short power stroke, they have at best only about half the power of a longbow with the same pull. Their single real advantage over the longbow lies in the fact that it takes much less time and effort to train someone to shoot a crossbow well. It can take years to produce a skilled longbowman, but a man can become competent with a crossbow in a matter of days.
The Privateer 2: AN HONEST LIVING Page 17