"IN HARM'S WAY"
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Robert J. Simmons
Chapter Nineteen
"That didn't take very long," Carol said to me, relaxing un- der the stars there on a lounge, the full Moon shining down upon her swollen pregnant body. Kathi giving me a smile, the blanket she'd used to cover herself against the chill slipping away to reveal that ripe provocative sexy body briefly clad in leather. To Carol and Kathi I had been "gone" only a couple hours at most.
"I `saved the world'," I smiled back at my beloved brow- nette. The EVIL ONE was now back in Hell where he belonged. If the Priestesses hadn't started shooting at him as soon as he had appeared there that morning, nothing would have ever happened, I explained to Carol and Kathi, telling them the entire story here.
"And Tara and her `friends' probably ran in terror when they saw what they'd gotten," Carol concluded. That was why the EVIL ONE's "Gateway" had closed behind it, "trapping" it on the Earth.
"I think Mankind was being `tested'," I ventured. That would "explain" the nature of the "message" SHE had given to the Priestesses of Lys. It was obvious that they had failed it too! This was in my own opinion the "reasoning" behind The War between Earth and Mars in 2047. The appearance of the Lorr no doubt had a great deal to do with Mankind's "willingness" to fight The War. We are still a race that "takes up the gun" too readily at the least provocation. The Priestesses of Lys had done no "better".
"But it was called `the EVIL ONE'!" Kathi protested, forget- ting for the moment that she was but only just a collared wench.
"She does have a point," Carol smiled there under the moon- light as I sat there beside her. I had met up with the "DEVIL".
"I think there are `questions' that never will be answered," I smiled back. I recalled its words, "I AM BUT A PART OF MY MAS- TER WHO RULES HELL." I think the true "EVIL ONE" had merely "probed" this "Gateway" that had opened between our planes of ex- istence, and sent only a small part of himself on through it. I suspected that we had all learned a "lesson" here, including the EVIL ONE. Maybe that had been God's intention here, I guessed. Perhaps God had wanted us to look upon the "face" of EVIL, see for ourselves just what sort of a creature it was. I suppose the Priestesses of Lys will eventually evolve their own "answers"...
It was a bright sunny day in early August. The Diana was now finally "ready" for sea, for its final check-out when it was announced that we were going to have a "visitor"! Lorraine Rich- ards, the Queen of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of Califor- nia, had decided to pay us a "friendly" visit. I suspected how- ever as did Maris that she was more interested in the Diana than in us. Her own battleship, the "Invincible", was near complete. Her ship floating there in the harbor, a bit of smoke rising up.
"I know we're not at war, but I still don't like the woman," Carol said to me. There was a personal hatred between the two. My wife's swollen belly jutting out leaving no doubts as to the late stage of her pregnancy. Queen Maris stepping forward to greet her as the Warlady tall and slim stepped up on to the dock, her boat's crew smartly fitted out, I noticed in black shirts. The tall masts of her steam frigate, the Athena, towering up into the sky as it rested above its reflection there in the harbor. I knew that the Imperial shipyards were building more just as fast as they could, a half dozen of such vessels already now at sea... Lorraine no doubt having studied the Diana quite "carefully" too. Her own "counterpart" to the Diana was almost ready for the sea. So we had "heard" from Imperial sailors plied with strong wine while sexy short skirted members of the "Prostitute Guild" sat in their laps and encouraged them to tell everything that they knew.
"I trust you have a good doctor picked out for when the `time' comes," Lorraine said as she exchanged greetings with us.
"We do," Carol answered, a bit "curtly" I thought to myself.
"And the Priestess in attendance," Lorraine added then. If the child was "defective" in any way it would be destroyed at birth. Such was the "law", a "law" that none dared "violate"...
"There will be nothing wrong with the child," I said to her.
"It is a wise law, if perhaps one possible only in a `social order' like this," Lorraine smiled back, her words bringing back memories of similar discussions I'd had with her in our own era. Lorraine having held that the basic operating system that ran a society should not be subject to control by the political system. She had used as her "model" the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages as an "example" of the sort of "operating system" she wanted to impose upon Mankind. The Priestesses are the "result".
"Are you thinking to become a mother?" I asked the Warlady.
"When I return to Trella Jon and I will...," she "smiled".
"Do you `good'," Carol smiled, the true meaning of her words doubtlessly considerably "different" from what they appear here. Carol like any "mother to be" having considerable concern about such things. I saw Lorraine "nod", her dark eyes meet my wife's.
"So `this' is the Diana," Lorraine smiled, standing there in the control cabin with us. Maris Marn giving me a big "grin". I had a little surprise in store for the awesome Imperial Warlady. We had steam up on all three boilers, the black smoke from the coal fires rising up into the sky over the city. The Diana lying there at the dock like some great armored creature of the sea, a "design" that had not been "missed" by very many here in Arsana.
"Like to take a ride?" I smiled back at the Warlady, trying to keep a straight face. Maris openly giggling to herself then!
"I understand that some people have called this `Simmon's Folly'," Lorraine smiled back, her dark brown eyes holding mine. She was wearing a black silken blouse, deeply cut at the neck, a matching soft leather skirt and fine polished high heeled boots. Along with the sword and dagger worn by those of the Warrioresses now supported by a beautiful weapons belt set with lovely jewels. Her golden tiara with its precious jewels marking her as a Queen. She is not a "beautiful" woman, but she is rather "attractive"...
"The chief engineer was delighted with that wench of yours," Carol smiled. I understood that she pleased him well as a slave girl should. She was also "pleasing" as a cook and housekeeper to the Mayor of Arsana, Jard's aristocratic looking blonde wife who some people here had nicknamed "The Queen of Arsana" for rea- sons that really have little to do with this story as such now...
"Darlanis', not mine," Lorraine smiled back at my wife. "I use other `methods' of obtaining `information' than sending women to a country where they soon end up as slave girls." I suspected I knew what "sort" of methods the Imperial Warlady used too... I had no doubts that she had "purchased" considerable information in the same way that we had, using the exact same "methods" here.
"Lieutenant, rouse the crew," I said, seeing her nod. I saw her raise the hatch, scramble down the ladder. Here at dock the interior of the Diana was like an oven in this summer sun. I rather hoped that at sea things would be a bit more "pleasant". I glanced through the viewing slits, saw that the ventilation hatches were being swung shut across the Diana's armored back. The blue green painted hull now gleaming there in the bright sun as the Diana laid at the dock like some great monster of the sea.
"There are duplicate controls on the deck below," I said, seeing Lorraine nod. "We are surrounded here by three inches of steel armorplate," I added. I suspected that the Diana would have been "proof" even against muzzle loading cannons. Against the weapons of this era it was totally and completely impervious.
"I was recently `informed' by First Priestess Tais that you `resolved' a `problem' that had been `concerning' her," Lorraine then suddenly said. I wondered how much Tais had told her of it?
"Doesn't `pay' to be `trigger happy'," I smiled back at her.
"Perhaps a `lesson' we all could `learn'," Lorraine smiled.
"Cast off fore and aft!" I heard the midshipmen yelling, the men at the dock freeing the Diana from its moorings, the ropes being quickly brought aboard and then stowed, the armored hatches now closing as the ship drifted very gently away from the dock.
"Engine number one slow astern," Sandra Steven spoke, her hand moving the "repeater" as she took the helm herself now. I had been impressed enough by her abilities at command to request her as "captain" of the Diana, an "honor" I wondered if she real- ly "appreciated" all that much considering that the Diana did not "handle" like a sailing ship, being driven by its triple screws. I had carefully explained to her that number one and three could be used to maneuver the ship by running them either forwards or backwards, the Diana being able to turn about in her own length.
"I expect you prefer sails to this," Lorraine said to her.
"There are `advantages' to `steam'," Sandra answered back. The Diana now clear of the dock, backing slowly out into the har- bor. The blonde now reaching forward, pushing engine number three "repeater" to slow ahead. The slow even "thud-thud" of the engines a comforting sound just then. Carol sitting there smil- ing at me, her forehead glistening a bit from the heat inside the Diana's control cabin due the hatches being all closed down now. I rather doubted that she was all that "comfortable" right now.
"We clear of the other ships?" Queen Maris asked, looking out of the slits at the harbor. Normally we would have had all the hatches raised, but this was a special occasion and the Diana was at full battle readiness, her weapons all "armed" and ready!!
"Yes," I said, blowing the steam whistle, smiling to myself!
"We're under fire!" Lorraine cried a few seconds later, the city opening up on us with everything they had, as did every ship in the harbor with the exception of course of Lorraine's Athena!! I saw flames through the viewing slits, a firebomb having made a direct hit on the Diana, catapult shot and quickfirer missiles a constant hail falling from the sky upon its great armored length!
"Scared?" Carol laughed, Lorraine shaking her head in the negative. It had been a good "trick", one that I didn't think the Warlady of California would forget for some time now as we "proved" to her that no weapon of the 26th Century was effective against the Diana! A bit of burning oil flickering in one of the viewing slits from a direct hit on the control cabin itself now! I blew the steam whistle again, the fusillade then stopping now.
"We could steam into Trella with this, sink and burn every ship in the harbor, hurl fire bombs a quarter mile inland, while you could do nothing but sit and watch," Carol said to Lorraine.
"My own battleship could do the same to you," the Warlady smiled back. "That is why we are `wise' to remain at peace now." I rather thought Lorraine did have the "better" of the exchange!