"THE WARLADY OF DULARN"

2567 A.D.!

By Jerome Bigge

Chapter Forty Seven

      "Let fly the spanker, helm hard to port!" I snapped, using the speaking trumpet. "And to rephrase the immortal words of John Paul Jones, `We are now going to start fighting!'" I added with a smile, seeing the North Star's motley crew looking up at me. "So as soon as any of your weapons bear, or can be made to bear, start firing on the Athena!" I doubted that we could do it much harm, but on the other hand we might get "lucky" and hit something important with one of our sheaves of darts or patterns now from the catapults. In any case such fire would tend to im- pair the accuracy of their fire, which is perhaps why most shots were fired in combat, I understand from what I've been told by others. "And whatever fate holds for us now, we shall die as a free people!" The fact that Carol was perhaps dead making little impression. Such is the "nature" of combat, at least in my own experience. It is afterwards that you break down, weep for those who died. At the time I felt totally "drained", emotionless...

      The range was about five hundred yards now, Lars trying for the Athena with our most forward ballistae. A splash off our bow an indication of the power of the Imperial's catapults... Sandi now at my side, acting as signals officer, taking the signals from the North Wind and relaying them to me. With the loss of Maris it would be me now up against Lorraine. I thought of Car- ol, my vision blurring a bit before I wiped my eyes. I saw Kathi down on deck, a bow in her hands, a quiver of arrows on her back. The North Wind pulling up a bit on us, Swiftstar still drifting.

      "Inform Miles we will close the Athena and board," I said.

      "They informed me that captain Miles is dead," she spoke.

      "Going to be a big butcher's bill," I said to her then. *****************************************************************

      "Is there anything we can do?" Janice Hill asked, seeing the two ships approaching, the interchange of missiles now continuous between the three vessels. It was apparent that Swiftstar had suffered too many losses to be of any help now, Jon noted then... Athena was too slow to "run", and too ponderous now for battle. Her awesome firepower, heavier than that of any other first rate, seemed to be of little value against the approaching Dularnians.

      "Lorraine would say that there are always `options'," he smiled, trying to keep up her spirits. That the Dularnian ships were willing to run the gauntlet of Athena's weapons was proof of their "intentions". Despite the losses they might inflict on the two ships, there was no doubt that eventually they would work their way alongside, and then "settle the issue" with cold steel! *****************************************************************

      "That was close," Sandi breathed, the ballistae javelin hav- ing passed right between the two of us to thump into the stern railing. I had ordered the helmsman to steer something of a zig zag course in the hope that it might "hinder" the Imperial's aim. The Athena now turning, presenting her broadside as I feared she might. I swiftly barked the orders, everyone falling to the deck as a deadly hail of missiles suddenly flew towards us! Most of them going a little high, fortunately, although a few found their targets in human flesh due to the extreme crowding of our deck!!!

      "She's swinging around," Sandi breathed, up on her hands and knees, the Athena now presenting her stern to us as she completed her turn. I could see her sails filling, more now being hoisted!

      "Going to make it a running fight," I said, standing up now. It was getting darker by the minute, the sun long gone below the horizon. To the east I could already see a bright planet in the sky, probably Jupiter, I mused, trying to remember my astronomy.

      "Hoist more sail!" I yelled down at the main deck, men and women climbing the rigging to set the stay sails. The North Wind had already done so, running parallel with us a hundred yards to port and pulling up a bit ahead of the North Star. We were still firing our forward ballistae at the Athena, as was the North Wind, while the Athena was firing her stern chasers. The dis- tance between the ships closing, now only perhaps a little over two hundred and fifty yards. Our crossbows now adding their own missiles to the fire we were now directing on the enemy warship!!

      "She's swinging back around!" Sandi cried, and grabbing me!

      "Going to be `nasty'," I breathed, the North Star's bow now aimed directly at the middle of the Athena as she turned around!! *****************************************************************

      "Fire!" Jon snapped, the heavy thuds of the Athena's broad- side echoing in his ears. Janice Hill standing there, watching.

      "I suggest we ram," she spoke. "Our weight is far greater than theirs, and we can at least cripple one of their ships..."

      "Its as good an idea as I can think of," he smiled back. *****************************************************************

      "Athena's turning a bit," Sandi said to me. She was a good officer. I saw San-sha lying there on deck with La-ra squatting over her. Bodies being carried below. The ballistae javelin from the Athena had cut my left leg just a bit after hitting the quar- terdeck railing, the blood staining my hose as I stood there. Lars at the bow was directing the fire of the forward ballistaes. I saw the North Wind start to turn to avoid the onrushing Athena, a cold chill going through me as I thought of the difference in weights! We were all exchanging fire, ballistae javelins and catapult shot flying back and forth, the sails filled with holes, although there was little actual damage as yet to the rigging, I noticed, except for the main top mast. We had exhausted our own supply of the "anti-personnel" darts, and were firing heavier missiles now. Athena firing a pattern of darts that went just over us, ripping and tearing at the sails!!! Their "gunnery" wasn't up to Imperial standards, I noticed then. The death of Lorraine's first officer I suspect now was the reason here...

      "Helm hard to port," I snapped, "Prepare to board!" The North Wind, fifty yards ahead of us, a hundred to port, now rammed by the Athena! The sound of the crash of the two ships a great "CRUNCH" as they came together, the North Wind losing its main and fore masts in the collision while the Athena seemed un- harmed, no doubt due to its much heavier construction, I suppose!

      "Need any help?" I heard a voice say, Carol suddenly climb- ing up from a hatch, her head wrapped in a bandage, a sword there in her hand! As I learned later, she had been merely knocked senseless by the ballistae bolt that bounced off the main mast!!!

      "We're about to board the Athena!" Sandi cried with delight!

      "Lorraine's got a lot to answer for now," my wife "smiled", the enemy ship seeming to tower up into the sky now before us!!! *****************************************************************

      "Repel boarders!" captain Janice Hill screamed, leaping down to the main deck, her sword gleaming in her hand as the survivors from the North Wind now came climbing up over the side of the Athena. Her keen blade biting deep, a man screaming in agony as she fought alongside her crew. The dismasted wreck of the North Wind now held by a dozen grapples alongside the bigger Athena... *****************************************************************

      "A bit too fast," Carol breathed, the North Star hitting hard in a great groan of complaining wood. Women now leaping from the rigging across the deadly gap that separated the two ships, swords and boarding pikes in their hands, and some with nothing but daggers! Carol dashing for the railing, my hands clasping her ankles, and boosting her up over the side of the Athena. I could hear the sound of swordplay on the other side as I now sought to follow her up on to the Imperial dreadnought. Handicapped a bit by my wounded leg as I saw Sandi join Lars. I could hear the curses and screams of hand to hand fighting, along with "For Maris Marn and Dularn!" yelled in ringing voices now! *****************************************************************

      Jon Richards met the attack of the brownette officer, her bandaged head making her look like some feminine pirate, although her swordsmanship quickly made him think then of his own beloved! In the darkness he did not recognize that he faced Carol Simmons!

      Down on deck captain Janice Hill fought like a demon, her long slim blade now wet with blood, the battle she knew hopeless as more and more foes came climbing over the sides of the Athena! Most of them not men, but women, wild eyed women, unskilled with weapons, but driven by an anger that made them fight like furies! *****************************************************************

      "NORTH STARS!" I barked, "CEASE FIGHTING!" The battle now coming to an end as a couple hundred faces looked up at me then!!

      "You're good, whoever you are," Carol spoke to her opponent.

      "Lorraine's husband, I believe," I said, seeing Jon nodding.

      "I would like to attend to her," he said, nodding to Carol.

      "I'd like to see how Maris is doing," I said to Carol then.

      "Your leg is bleeding," Carol answered, giving me a smile.

      "We won," I said to Maris, although I think she knew that.

      "You beat Lorraine?" Maris breathed, pale, so very weak. Her golden hair outlining the "whiteness" of her face, her eyes, those lovely gem like eyes, now "glowing" straight into mine... The sickbay like a scene out of some demented hell. The Physi- cian and her slave girls haggard, exhausted, bloody as butchers! The "sounds", the "smell", like something out of Dante's INFERNO.

      "You `beat' her," I answered. It had been Maris' own teach- ing that had won the battle for us. That and the North Star her- self, I thought. A ship that Maris had designed. Swift, handy, designed to fight anything afloat. Maris Marn had won this one!

      "A bad design," Lorraine said in a weak voice, lying there. "One you can rest assured I will not repeat again," she added, her dark eyes burning into the hazel of Carol's as she watched... My wife nodding, well aware that nothing had been "gained" here.

      She was tall, golden there in the light of the lamps, her ribs bandaged from where a dart or bolt had cut her flesh. But yet she was still awesome in her majesty, truly the ruler of Im- perial California in every detail. I think too that we looked upon her much differently than we had before. She had fought well against us. Showing surprising skill for one such as she...

      "You have `won' this time," she said, her azure eyes ice. I knew she could have sailed off, left us, but she had not done so. She and Lorraine once stood side by side against a common foe...

      "I am not interested in taking prisoners," Maris answered. She was very weak, the loss of blood having exhausted our Queen as she laid there on a cot in the stern cabin of the North Star.

      "I will give you the Swiftstar, take the Athena back," Dar- lanis replied. "Perhaps Lorraine will listen to me this time."

      "Nothing has `changed'," Maris spoke, Darlanis nodding.

      "Perhaps more than you realize," Darlanis smiled then.

      "What do you mean by that?" Maris answered, puzzled.

      "There is a `Queen' in Dularn now," Darlanis then said.

      "There has always been a Queen of Dularn," Maris answered.

      "It takes more than a crown to make a Queen," Darlanis said.

      "You wish to speak to me in private?" Maris asked her then.

      "They may stay," Darlanis said, looking up at us both. "It is their lives as much as yours that are at stake here now." The tone of her voice, the look in her eyes leaving no doubts either!

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