The Privateer 2: AN HONEST LIVING

by Zellmann, William

  He stepped to the building. Its smooth, light brown surface resembled ruins from the Old Time that he had examined, back when he was young enough and foolish enough to prowl the edges of Old Nirvana. He looked around. Most of the visible buildings seemed to be of the same material, but they varied widely in appearance. Some, like the medical building, were rectangular, similar to King's Town's wooden structures. But others looked like huge bubbles on the land. Others like long half-circles. Some of those seemed very large. Even though far away, they rose above most of the other buildings.

  There seemed to be a number of the strange wheelless vehicles like the one that had fetched him here in various sizes. Men and women went about their business, the women all wearing trousers like the men, even those not in uniform. They moved in ones and twos, and some in groups that marched as though they were parading. Some of the latter seemed to have weapons slung over their shoulders, and he was straining for a closer view of them when the major approached, his companion in tow. "Please come with me, sir," the major said.

  For the next half-hour, Major Odino extracted every detail of the night of the rape. As the innkeeper, it had not been possible for Donord to join the locals that had gone to extract justice from the star men, so he had only hearsay for what happened, and the Major stopped him when he began relating it.

  "I can't use hearsay," he said. "I must know only what you personally witnessed and heard. Now, tell me again exactly what Blue-eye said when she came in the door."

  The questions went on and on. Donord was sure he'd told the story a dozen times, but he was honest enough to admit that the major was helping him remember details he'd nearly forgotten. Even the major was beginning to run down when a thin older man in a white jacket came in.

  "I'm Doctor Ros-Tre," he said. "Your girl, uh, 'Blue-eye', will be fine, but she will require several hours in the regen booth."

  "I'll need to talk to her, Doctor," the major said. "How soon will that be possible?"

  The doctor frowned. "Probably late this afternoon or early this evening. We do not plan to discharge her until morning."

  Major Odino nodded. "May I speak with you for a moment, Doctor?"

  The doctor looked irritated. "Of course, Major." Odino pulled the doctor to a corner of the room. Surprisingly, Donord could hear every word. Evidently star men's hearing was not as acute as that of the men of Jumbo.

  "I've got a problem, doc," the major began. "Is there any chance you could put these two up here in the med bay for the night? You're better equipped for decontam than the visitor's quarters. And I'd say decontam will be required. Besides," he added, "I'm sure they'd rather stay near the girl, and I think the General would rather not have them wandering around loose."

  The doctor nodded, a faint smile playing around his lips. "I quite understand, Major. We had quite a bit of cleaning to do before we could treat the patient. Someone had cleaned up the areas of injury, though," he added. "Very well, Major. Do you think they would mind sharing a room? It would simplify hygiene and decontam."

  "I think they would object to being separated," the major said. "Thanks, doc."

  They returned to Donord. "We will be keeping the girl overnight," the doctor told him. "She will be ready to leave tomorrow morning. We will arrange a room for you and your friend, here."

  The room had a faint acrid odor and two large beds on wheels. Everything was spotlessly clean, but like the rest of the med center, the lack of any warmth or character was instantly noticeable. The young woman who showed them the room explained the 'fresher to them. Donord reflected that Dee had been telling the truth. Even this utilitarian room contained facilities for washing and 'showering', whatever that was. The star men seemed obsessed by cleanliness.

  While his companion endlessly flushed the commode, chuckling happily, Donord stood at the windows, still trying to figure out what he should be looking for. The lights that came on all over the colony as darkness fell were bright and harsh, not the dim softness of torches or oil lamps.

  A quiet knock announced the arrival of another young woman, this one bearing two trays. She stopped just inside the door, silhouetted against the brightness of the hall. "Oh!" she said. "I'm sorry. Didn't they show you how to use the lights?" At the word 'lights', blinding white light flooded the room. Donord and his companion flinched and blinked while their eyes tried to adapt to the brightness.

  The young woman put the trays on small tables with wheels. She looked around at the two men, who were simply standing and watching her. "It's food," she said in a puzzled tone. "Dinner. Eat?"

  Donord smiled. "Thank you." The young woman smiled and hurried out. The lights stayed on. Donord hadn't been sure they would. The food was unidentifiable, and quite tasteless. Donord was unimpressed, but both he and his companion wolfed it down.

  The beds were surprisingly hard, with a feel far different from their straw pallets. "Lights," Donord said uncertainly, and suddenly the room was dark. He heard his companion slip from his bed and drag his blankets to the floor.

  After a breakfast that was as tasteless as the dinner had been, the men were taken to see Blue-eye. Donord was amazed. She was sitting up in bed, wearing some sort of gown. But most importantly, her previously ruined face was now unmarked. She was admiring it in a looking-glass, and Donord got a feeling she'd been doing that for a while. "Blue-eye?" he asked uncertainly. She smiled, and her teeth were now even and blinding white. "Isn't it wonderful?" She slipped from the bed and whipped the gown over her head, pirouetting to display her unmarked naked body. "I'm perfect!" she said. "And my head doesn't itch!"

  A knock, and the Major entered. "Good morning." He turned to Blue-eye, "Are you still willing to point out the man that attacked you?" he asked. At her firm nod, he continued. "Excellent. Uh, your clothes were damaged. However, fresh clothing will be brought to you. Uh, I'm afraid we have no clothing with appropriate skirts. I hope you won't mind wearing trousers."

  Blue-eye eyed Donord before turning a smile on the major. "No shift? No chemise? No petticoats? No floor-length skirt to trip on? Yes, Major, I will wear your trousers."

  Another quiet knock, and a middle-aged woman in a white jacket came in. She sniffed at the three men standing around the nude woman, and then shooed them out so she could show Blue-eye how to wear star woman clothing.

  The General's entire command of over 160 men was lined up and waiting when the Jumbos arrived in a small hovercraft. Blue-eye emerged with a grim look. The General and her two escorts following, she walked confidently up a long line of men, and more than halfway down a second. Suddenly she stopped, glaring at a large man standing at a rigid attention.

  Blue-eye stretched to her full five-foot, two inch height. "Yes," she said disdainfully. "I do think I'm too good for you!" She spat in his face and stamped furiously away. Donord's and his companion's hands moved toward their belt knives, but two uniformed soldiers quickly moved in and grabbed the unresisting man, leading him away.

  The major accompanied them back to the Sergeant's Privy, to begin locating and interviewing witnesses.

  Chapter 18

  As the last bit of sunlight faded to Jumbo's star-studded blackness, Tran sighed as he finished feeding and watering his dino. His ninth night in Jumbo's darkness without the comfort of a fire. He knew he shouldn't complain, though. Some of the Free People had been using dark camps for three weeks. And there were two weeks to go.

  Over a month had passed since the humiliation at Treaty, and impatience ate at him like an acid. But he and Forn and the others had agreed that a normal attack would simply end with the deaths of the Free People without damage to the star men. Without damage and without vengeance. No, they had decided, this attack, this death ride, needed planning and the cunning of the plains rat.

  Planned it had been, and cunning it was. Why, some of the Free People had actually volunteered to attack on foot, without their dinos!

  But it had taken time. Much more time than they'd thought. Why, it had taken over three
weeks just to smuggle 400 warriors from the camps of the Free People and start them trickling toward the star man village.

  The eye in the sky, they had learned, was not infallible. Groups of ten or twenty would result in a dot screaming high above them in the sky. Probably it was just watching, but it was also a warning.

  But if six hunting parties went out, and only five returned, there would be no reaction. It also seemed that for almost half an hour before dark and after sunrise, the surveillance was spotty. Heavy overcast helped hide groups smaller than ten. And they could at least hope that the star men would be concentrating on the main body of the Free People, moving slowly east.

  Ironically, it seemed that quite a few of the infiltrators had been able to cross the bridge near Treaty to enter Whitan. While it was certain the star men were watching the land east of the river, they were apparently not watching the land west of it. So a hundred of the warriors were working their way across the plains east of the river, while three hundred more had crossed, and were working their way south through Whitan and Nirvana.

  On the evening before the appointed day, the warriors from the east would rush to gather just before dark. Then they would attack at almost the moment of the next dawn. When the defenders were drawn to the eastern boundary, the men on foot would overwhelm the bridge guards, and nearly three hundred dinos would thunder across the wide, smooth bridge the star men had so thoughtfully provided and into the star men's belly. It was even possible a few of the Free People would survive, to make their way back to the camps and tell the people of their victory!

  Tran had met a few of the warriors since crossing the river. They were travelling mostly in groups of four or less, avoiding towns and villages. But one lucky group had encountered a line of four traders' carts moving south. After hiding the bodies of the traders, a full twenty warriors had been able to pose as traders and their guardsmen while moving south to Nirvana.

  He composed himself for sleep. Perhaps he would dream of slaughtering star men!

  ********

  "No," King Karel said. "We have not tried to rescind the grant of the Cursed Lands to the star men."

  "Why not?" King Rajo's tone was curious.

  King Karel shrugged. "In the history of Jumbo there are many stories of Great Captains seizing kingdoms, or trying to do so. Isn't that how Gralen's grandfather gained Whitan? This 'General' had star weapons and many strong warriors at his call. But sire Cale, here, and the Lady Dee brought sire Zant and sire Tonio, and many more, and even enlisted your own aid to defeat the renegade. Truly, the star men have kept faith with Us. Have they been dishonest with your Majesty?"

  King Rajo shook his head. "No, but I am concerned that this General still occupies a position of authority in their Colony Council. And that's another thing: Where is their King? How can they govern without a leader?"

  King Karel smiled. "Sire Belen tried to explain it to me, but I confess I do not fully understand it. They have a leader, but they call him Colony Administrator. With the death of sire Belen and the defeat of the General, sire Perez has been made Colony Administrator. Apparently, this council of nobles, this 'Colony Council', appointed him, and the Colony Council is selected by the voice of the people somehow. At any rate, he speaks for the colony. Is that not so, sire Cale?"

  "Yes, your Majesty," Cale replied. "But the Colony Administrator does not have all the powers of a king. He cannot conclude treaties, for instance, without the approval of the Council."

  King Rajo frowned. "Yes. Our advisors tell Us that the details of our treaty with the star men have been worked out for days. Yet sire Perez says he cannot sign it yet. We are becoming impatient to return to Our own domain, particularly since the attack the star men feared did not occur."

  "I confess to being confused myself at the fact that there has been no attack," Cale replied. "Zant's trying to figure it out. As for the treaty, the Council hopes to conclude similar treaties with the minor kingdoms, and they hope to use the treaty with Valhalla as a model, so they worry over every comma and period."

  King Rajo was still frowning. "Yes. The minor kingdoms are becoming fearful. Ever since We agreed that Gorby should become part of Nirvana, they fear that We are plotting with Nirvana to seize all their kingdoms. We are counting on the star men's treaties to ease their minds."

  "We have noticed the absence of the formidable sire Zant," King Karel said. "He still believes there will be an attack, then?"

  Cale nodded. "Yes, as do I, and the Council, and even the General. That, your Majesty, is why the General is still in charge of defense. We suspect the nomads are up to something, but we're having trouble figuring out what. Zant's aboard the space station, analyzing the surveillance data. None of our people are experienced at surveillance, and Zant's worried that they've missed something." He paused. "At least it gave us a chance to organize a militia for King Karel. Two hundred men isn't a lot, but with the nomads gone, they can all be pretty much part-timers."

  "Yes," King Karel said in a nettled tone. "We appreciate your efforts, of course. But it is becoming expensive to keep them at Ham's Town. And We are receiving complaints from the residents."

  "I know, your Majesty, and I'm sorry. The trouble is, Zant as much as told them that we're watching from above, and we think they're taking precautions. If they're going to do something, I wish they'd do it! You can't keep people on alert for a month at a time."

  It was shortly after nightfall that the General called Cale. "Something's up," he said. "Just before dark, we started getting a lot of capacitance and thermal alarms on the north perimeter. I've sent scouts with night vision to check them out, but from the thermal images, I'd estimate about a hundred men with dinos."

  Cale frowned. "That's not enough. The chiefs would sit on a hundred. There must be more. We expected three or four times that number."

  Cale called Zant and briefed him. "I've been thinking," he said, "If they could infiltrate a hundred mounted men east of the river, they could have infiltrated a lot more on the west side. King Karel is loaning me a dino. I'm planning to take Explorer and make a pass over the west bank to see what I can see on thermals."

  Zant shook his head. "No. Let me send a Din-class. Its thermal sensors won't be as good, but if there are nomads there, the Din-class can land at Ham's Town and take a bunch of militia aboard. And a high pass won't spook the nomads. A battle is one thing, but King Karel wouldn't like a couple hundred nomad bandits roaming around killing."

  Cale nodded. "Seems like a plan. Get on it. If their infiltrators have bunched up like that, the attack must be scheduled for dawn tomorrow."

  It was nearly midnight before the Din-class could make its pass east of the river. Zant called Cale. "It's getting pretty crowded around the bridge. I'd say several hundred with dinos. I've called Tonio at Ham's Town to start waking up the militia, but I doubt we'll make it by dawn."

  Cale called the General and gave him the news. "This looks like their main body."

  The General nodded. "Yes. I'd say the ones to the north will attack at first light. They're obviously hoping to draw our forces away from the main attack." He smiled thinly. "For nomads, this is very sophisticated tactics. We'll be ready for them, but I only have a hundred and sixty men plus the colony militia, make that another hundred."

  Cale nodded. "Zant's loading King Karel's militia at Ham's Town. That's another two hundred, with bows and crossbows. But they won't get there before dawn. They're militia; it's not like marching trained troops aboard."

  The General nodded. "I understand. We'll hold them. But I hope your militia has more than crossbows and bows. By the time they get here, we might be hand-to-hand."

  Cale shrugged. "Mostly knives, swords, tomahawks, and those spear things. They love the tomahawks, now that they've learned they're weapons and not camp tools. Some of them want to carry two or three of them."

  "Good," the General replied. "Tell Jenfu to land them on the west bank and have his men take them in the rear. The bridge is wider
than I'd like, but it's a choke point. If I remember correctly, the nomads don't like hand-to-hand. They have those assegais, or javelins, those light six-foot spears."

  Cale nodded. "Right. They can throw them, and they do, but mostly they use them as stabbing weapons, since they can use them from dinoback. Aside from those, all I ever saw were belt knives and those things with three stones tied together."

  "Oh, yes. Bolas. Well, they won't be able to use those much. Even the colony militia isn't dumb enough to stand up in the open." He turned from the screen, and then turned back. "I've got to go. There's a lot to do before dawn."

  Cale cursed. He wanted to be there. But he couldn't think of anything he could do that would help. Well, maybe he could talk the kings out of going there with only a few guardsmen. He sighed and went to wake the kings.

  ********

  The roar overhead roused Tran to instant wakefulness. He had never heard such at night during the weeks of moving south. Could the star men possibly see in the darkness of Jumbo? Surely the starlight was too faint for even their sharp eyes.

  He frowned. Whether they could or not, the plan could not be changed. He was sure that Fron was even now sharpening the blade of his javelin, but he had no way to make certain. He must trust in the honor of the Free People, and believe that there would be an attack with the dawn. He composed himself for sleep. He would need all the rest he could get tomorrow!

  ********

  By dawn, the General's scouts had all the nomads to the north located. The General had entrusted the defense of the north perimeter to the colony militia, after making certain they were properly positioned to take out the attackers. On this front, it would be a mounted attack in the typical nomad fashion, and the General was confident that the militia's ample supply of power cells would let their lasers and blasters wipe out the attackers.

  "Remember," he'd told them during their short briefing, "Take out the dinos first! The nomads don't like to be afoot, and besides, they won't be sheltered behind their animals. Take out the dinos, and you'll have clear shots at the men.