Even his grisly trophies are hauled out so that the people are forced to adore them. Not content with raiding unfortunate neobarbarian worlds for loot, recently the Space Viking overlord unsuccessfully attempted to raid Marduk, itself, in an ill-conceived attempt to overthrow the admittedly corrupt and antiquated monarchy. Working with fellow Space Viking madman, Andray Dunnan, and local political demagogue Zaspar Makann, Trask was barely stopped before he achieved his sinister goal.
That got Lucas’ attention – and his ire. He stared at the viewscreen, his men watching both his face and the screen, while his anger grew. For anyone, anywhere, to connect his name with that of Dunnan was grounds for violence. He seethed as he watched some file footage from the Marduk Affair, his men patrolling outside of the Royal Palace, the street battles with the People’s Watchmen, and plenty of quick ship-to-ship footage from the battle in orbit.
When finally cornered in the Royal Palace, he turned on his own allies, executed Dunnan personally, and retreated after his people caused considerable damage to the working-class city of Drepplin. But Trask did not depart this bastion of the Old Federation empty-handed: he took with him one of the noble Mardukan ladies he fancied from the royal court, forcibly marrying her and coercing her into his violent ideology.
The picture showed a view of his stunningly beautiful wife, still on Marduk, and for a few seconds Lucas nearly forgave them their temerity about Dunnan for allowing him a precious glimpse of his beloved. Then he recalled why he was not with her right that moment, and his heart vitrified. He would make these so-called ‘civilized’ savages pay.
Not content with robbing the civilized worlds of their beauty, Trask went on to force his new bride to roam the galaxy, raiding brothels and seraglios for nubile beauties to add to his increasingly growing harem.
More footage of Valerie, this time bringing home the Tanith natives that had been illegally sold as off-world slaves. The women coming off the ship did look frightened and dazed, but considering the ordeal that they’d endured, he couldn’t blame them. Valerie herself looked a little dazed, but she’d been six months pregnant at the time, and he knew that she’d had a hard time sleeping at all. That made Lucas burn that much hotter: to insinuate that he would force Valerie to do anything was brazen enough a lie, but to turn her mission of mercy into something sordid really pushed the limits of propriety.
So rapacious is this warlord that Trask has been disowned even by the brutal militaristic Sword World regimes. The so-called Prince is considered an outlaw and a rebel by his former masters, who themselves are widely known for their cruel exploitation. His audacity is so great that he intruded on the recent gathering of peaceful civilizations at Volund, brazenly suggesting that the civilized worlds of the galaxy bend their collective knee and join his so-called ‘League of Civilized Worlds’, a code-name for imperial conquest.
The screen view changed to a couple of unflattering clips of him at receptions on Volund. One with one of the Atonian ambassadors – Tallbridge, he thought he remembered. The angles chosen cast Lucas in a menacing light, and his actions as he spoke to the Atonian seemed to indicated that Lucas was making demands and threats. Lucas recalled the occasion: he had been describing the life of a Traskon bisonoid rancher on Gram with the man, who had said he raised mutated gowas. He’d discussed nothing more sinister than livestock castration. Then the scene switched back to more space ship battles, some he’d never seen before, some from the Battle of Amateratsu he’d fought so recently. It finished with some footage of the capture of his pinnace off of Beowulf.
But fear not, citizens of Aton! You and the other civilized worlds are being constantly guarded by the brave men and women of the Atonian Planetary Defense Force! News has just arrived of the capture of the outlaw pirate in a daring raid by the APDFS Concorde, deep in enemy territory! Outraged by Trask’s recent illegal and deadly blockade of a world protected by the recent Volund Treaty, the APDF and party officials prepared a complex, multi-world operation called SicSemperTyrannis, in which the outlaw Space Viking was forced from hiding and captured! The infamous Trask and some of his band of cutthroats were taken into custody after a brisk battle in orbit above one of his conquered worlds, and it is our proud duty to report he is now in Atonian hands!
They showed footage of the Atonian ship firing a shot across the bow of his crippled pinnace, the star of Beowulf behind them in the distance. Then it switched to a shot of his men being led off in manacles, himself glaring stoically as he was pushed forward by one of the Atonian troopers.
He will be fairly tried for his crimes and, if found guilty, will receive re-education and rehabilitation, if the unbiased and merciful courts decline to prosecute for his execution. It’s also possible that he possesses vital intelligence concerning any future Space Viking invasion plans. But rest assured, citizens! Your Party continues to protect and serve you from the likes of Trask, even as you sleep!
The scene faded with a patriotic fanfare, probably the planetary national anthem of Aton, and then started up with another showing of The Plight Of The NeoBarbarian.
“Cutthroats?” Lt. Jameson, the Golden Hand guard standing behind him said, offended. “I haven’t cut a throat in a month!”
“They dare,” Lucas said, ignoring the jibe – Jameson was a funny fellow, but he wasn’t in the mood to laugh. “They dare speak my name and Dunnan’s in the same breath. They dare treat my wife like that!” The cell got silent, as the prince’s rage became contagious.
“Actually, Sire,” Delio said quietly, “if you don’t mind me saying, this was a well-done piece of propaganda. Anyone uninformed of the reality of the situation—”
“Yes, I know,” Lucas admitted, angrily, “they’re going to see me as a vicious, lawless invader. The truth doesn’t matter to these people. That bit about the temple – I know it may sound like an idle threat, gentlemen, but at some point in the future, I will make the citizens and Party of Aton pay for this . . . this slander,” he pronounced, darkly. “You see, they’re setting us up as a strawman for their own people. An existential threat their ruling party can exploit to manipulate the masses.”
“But that does suggest their motives, does it not?” Delio countered. “From what we know now, the Atonians seem to have been pushing and pushing the idea of a Space Viking threat as a reason to build up their forces and manipulate the other powers into some sort of alliance they can control. Even if they have to manufacture the threat. That twisting of the Marduk Affair was skillfully done: they not only discredited Tanith’s part in it, but they linked the whole thing to a general Space Viking conspiracy to invade the Old Federation. And it was quite persuasive.”
“That brings me no comfort, Lieutenant,” Lucas said, darkly.
“Oh, understandably, Sire,” Delio quickly agreed. “However, it does tell us what kind of people who we are dealing with. People who don’t hesitate to bend and twist the truth. This means that they actively control the public’s perception of reality. That’s not the kind of power that can be fought with infantry divisions and fission bombs, Sire. And you can bet that this will be rebroadcast across the civilized worlds. Even the people on Marduk who know how much Tanith helped them have to admit that Dunnan’s fleet of Space Vikings more than lived up to the stereotype Aton has been spreading.”
“Which helps alienate our only ally among the civilized powers,” nodded Lucas.
“There’s ample historical precedent for it,” admitted Delio. “And from the feel I get from the Atonian regime – all that ‘Party’ nonsense, and their overbearing bureaucracy – that leads me to believe that this is likely a common policy strategy, Sire. Undermine from within, like the Germans did with the French over the Dreyfus Affair in pre-Atomic history on Terra. Control the flow of information to the masses so tightly that there is no room for argument about exactly what constitutes a fact – that’s textbook Communist Party doctrine of the old Soviet and Chinese empires, right around Year 0. Watching some of these other films, it’s b
een fascinating. Aton pitches itself as a liberal socialist utopia, a completely egalitarian meritocracy, but it’s clear that it’s little more than an authoritarian dictatorship in a civilized package.”
“So how do we fight them?” Lucas inquired, curiously. Once again, he was intrigued by the young officer’s perspective, and something familiar about him tugged at the corner of Lucas’ mind.
“Well, fighting against a bureaucracy is a lot harder than fighting a society with a strong central leadership, like a monarchy. The problem with bureaucracies is that they’re institutions, and that means that they’re impersonal as well as difficult to persuade. That’s a good thing and a bad thing, I suppose. But I’m getting the feeling that Tanith – and Your Highness – are just a colorful bit of fluff to whoever is running Aton’s policies. There is a much deeper game going on here.”
“That’s what worries me,” Lucas nodded. “I’m insulted and annoyed right now, Mr. Delio. The kind of annoyed that could end with an orbital bombardment. And yet the Atonians seem to act as if I’m powerless to do something like that.”
“I think it’s more likely they’re trying to goad you into doing something like that, Sire. Assuming we’re released again, of course. Again, the problem with bureaucracies, particularly autocratic bureaucracies: you could nuke the entire capital of Aton back to the stone-age and it would merely confirm in everyone’s mind the truth behind the newscasts. An attack like that would serve their interests admirably. The other civilized worlds would start to agree that something has to be done, and Aton would be more than willing to use that as a pretext for assuming wider control.”
“So your counsel is don’t nuke them?” Lucas asked, surprised.
“That is for His Highness to decide,” Delio bowed, graciously. “But nuking them doesn’t automatically make the problem go away.”
“Point taken, Lieutenant,” Lucas sighed. “But right now, I think it would make me feel better. A lot better.”
* * *
The first court appearances began the next day, and lasted a week, as far as anyone could tell. One by one the men were hauled back to the main complex by Atonian combat troops, placed in front of a masked judicial panel, charged with crimes, forced to plead without legal counsel, without access to their consulate, and then condemned to pro forma life terms at “a designated interplanetary Atonian re-education facility.”
The whole episode resembled a well-scripted comic opera. As planned, Lucas didn’t attempt to grandstand or object at any point during the proceedings, and he instructed his men to do likewise. Even after another Political Officer appeared and pleaded, wheedled, and attempted to bribe Lucas into confessing his crimes, he wasn’t tempted in the slightest to betray his world, his family, and his men to enjoy a life of quiet reflection while his planet – and his wife and baby – were bartered about in some nasty galactic political game. The most he was willing to do was stare balefully at the camera and utter the cryptic line: “Tell the Baroness I’ll dance with her at the sandcastle. That’s a promise.” A simple message to his wife, but one that would baffle the Atonian codebreakers who no doubt were having conniptions trying to determine what sinister message he was really communicating. And nearly useless as anti-Space Viking propaganda. But he hoped that somehow it would find Valerie’s ears.
Their tenure at the mystery planet was short. After the mock trial, only a hundred and fifty hours or so after the Tanith men were brought to the secret Atonian base, they were once again herded into a spaceship (a decrepit old thousand-foot freighter) and placed into cells, albeit all on the same deck this time so that they could talk to each other. They had virtually no interaction with the guards or crew, no idea where they were going or how long it would take to get there, or what would happen when the did arrive. And for entertainment, they had only the ubiquitous Atonian propaganda screens.
“I have to confess, Sire,” Lt. Delio whispered one restless lights-out-period, when most of the other men were asleep. “I’m getting more and more concerned with every hour that passes. What exactly did your source tell you about this mysterious prison, ‘Planet X’?”
“It’s the secret prison camp for Aton’s pipsqueak empire,” Lucas explained. The interrogators had tried to cower him by making ‘Planet X’ as miserable-sounding as possible. “It’s a kind of backwater gulag. They send all of their troublesome undesirables there. Organized crime figures, political prisoners, disavowed enemy agents, drug and slave peddlers, captured insurgents from their rebellious client worlds, intransigent ethnic populations who don’t like the Party...”
“Ah. A cess-pit, then, where Aton sends everything it wishes to forget about.”
“Essentially. Hard labor, rough conditions, remote location.”
“And Your Highness thought this was preferable to a cozy little apartment somewhere?”
“I enjoy a brisk and robust lifestyle,” Lucas pointed out, grinning into the darkness.
“Your Highness is wise,” Lt. Delio conceded with a chuckle. “And I’m certain you feel that the likelihood of escaping from . . . ahem, ‘Planet X’ is better?”
“I’m counting on it,” the prince nodded in the gloom. “My biggest question is about the men. Do you think they can stay together, stay fit, and survive?”
“The Golden Hand? Absolutely,” the young man said fervently of his blood-brothers. “And the rest of the crew, even the young ones, they’re made of stout stuff, Sire. And I’ll do what I can to keep them secure.”
“Good. Because we are going to find a way out, Mr. Delio. We’re going to find a way off that planet. And we will find a way back home. You have the sacred promise of your sovereign prince on that one.”
“I have every faith in you, Sire,” Delio assured him. “It’s the rest of the universe which continues to disappoint me.”
“Mr. Delio, I know just how you feel,” Prince Lucas sighed.
The hours stretched on and on, as the light-years rolled by. The monotony was nearly unbearable some days, and even the best efforts to keep up spirits on the prison ship were hard to keep up as time dragged. But several weeks after they boarded, at long last a guard announced that they had made planetfall at their new home: the godforsaken prison world known only as ‘Planet X’.
Chapter Four:
The Wizard’s Lackey
Otto Harkaman looked at himself in the reflection of the console and frowned. It wasn’t a pleasant look, and he could understand why his subordinates avoided it at all costs. But it wasn’t the practiced unpleasantness that got his attention. It was the feeble old man he saw staring back.
You had five ships, the reflection seemed to mock him. Thousands of men. Hundreds of contragravity vehicles. Two score years of experience. And you still couldn’t keep a one-armed thug from running off with the heir to the Realm.
Otto Harkaman was a troubled man. He took the abduction of little Princess Elaine personally. It was on his watch that Garvan Spasso – Ghu curse his name! – had infiltrated an entire team of twenty mercenaries into Rivington, where they plotted an executed a daring raid. It was an unexpected and surprise attack. While his men had fought and died courageously, in the end the security of the Royal Family was his responsibility. And he had failed.
He could barely face the distraught Princess. Valerie was like his own daughter, a bright, beautiful woman who had come to Tanith from Marduk, one of the most advanced human civilizations, and had survived. More, she’d prospered, and grown into her role as a ruler as much as she had a wife to his best friend.
And every time he looked into those deep blue eyes, once filled with love but now emptied by grief, his heart wanted to break.
In the face of such emotion he had retreated to orbit, running the defenses of the world from the bridge of his ship, the Corisande II. He had many good tactical reasons for doing so: he was able to move to intercept any incoming traffic and block any outgoing traffic, he was able to contact the defensive stations at Rivington and the moonbase wit
h equal ease, and he was in an active defensive posture – plenty of good reasons to be in orbit. Not having to look his sworn sovereign in the eye after his failure was one he’d rather not admit to.
He tore his eyes away from his damnable reflection and forced himself to stare once again at the display screen overview of Tanith’s defenses. The moonbase glowed in green at the top, nine separate missile launch facilities scattered over the face of the satellite. The habitable portion of the base itself had a deep bomb shelter with independent power, probably the most hardened facility in the system. There was also a platoon of marines stationed there; men trained in vacuum combat who could defend the station against all but the most aggressive invasions. It would take a lot of violence to knock that base down. But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be done.
The next layer of defense was the outlying picket ships. Three ship’s pinnaces, two-hundred feet long hyperdrive-capable teardrops armed with dozens of missiles, patrolled the translunar orbits around the world. In case of serious attack, the pinnaces would likely be the first real response to an aggressor. They also had a lot more space to cover.
Princess Valerie's War Page 7