"IN HARM'S WAY"

AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN

By Robert J. Simmons

Chapter Twenty One

      "I guess there could have been worse places," Carol forced a smile as I helped her along the length of the Diana to the stern cabin at the other end of the hundred and sixty five foot battle- ship. Lorraine giving me a smile, reassuring me that there was nothing to "worry" about. I wasn't that "sure" of that. Carol was not a "young" woman, nor had she ever had a baby before this! The men and women of the Diana's crew regarding us with curious stares there inside the semi-twilight of the armor plated hull.

      "She'll be all right," Lorraine "reassured" me again then.

      "You're not having the baby, she is," I snapped back, push- ing open the door to the stern cabin, a smell of "smoke" in the cabin from the backdraft. That was something "more" that needed to be "fixed" before we put the Diana into actual "service" now. The white boiling water churned up by the triple propellers much different than the sort of a "wake" left behind a sailing ship. The cabin dim, "dark", the only light that which came through the seven portholes that ran across the width of the ship's stern. I would have liked to have had the sort of a "stern cabin" that a sailing ship had, but such would have made the Diana extremely "vulnerable" to enemy fire astern. Carol reaching up, touching my face, giving me a smile as I gently lowered her to the cot. The arrival of the Physician for a moment put a halt to things.

      "I hope you've delivered a baby before, Saris," I said to her. She was an upper class Dularnian woman, divorced, one son in the Army. Her hair a sort of reddish brown, her eyes a vivid green that reminded muchly me of another's whose grave was now on the bottom of the sea some fifteen hundred miles to the north. I knew she was "competent", but this was not like treating battle injuries. Nor was Carol a woman of her own Twenty Sixth Century.

      "I've brought a few into the world, although this is the first time I've ever done it without having a Priestess at hand," she answered. The Priestess' role in this being to put the woman in a deep state of hypnosis, and then later on to "verify" that the newborn is "fit" to live. We did have the means to relieve pain, but hypnosis is far superior as a pain control for child- birth. Carol was "hypnotizable", having gone to a local temple some months ago when it had been explained to us what childbirth was like in this era. "I cannot promise a pain free delivery," she added, looking down at Carol, who grimly nodded back in turn.

      "I will need a candle, and your trust, Carol," Lorraine said to my wife. I saw my wife nod, well aware of "what" Lorraine was attempting to do here. Doctor Saris Sanson glancing over at me.

      "What you `see' here you will `keep to yourself'," I spoke.

      "I am an `educated woman', not a Peasant," she smiled back.

      "The Priestesses have `reason' for their concern," Lorraine spoke, "But as I am their `founder' in a way, I think I am `qual- ified' to do this." Saris nodding, quietly regarding the Queen.

      "Ship's going to `battle stations'," I breathed to Saris, hearing the bosun's whistles. Saris like me watching Lorraine attempting to hypnotize my sweating wife without much success so far from what I could see of things. It being obvious that the Priestess who had originally "mind programed" my wife back in Ar- sana had also made sure that no one else could hypnotize her now.

      "Won't be much of a `fight'," Saris smiled, no doubt think- ing of the Diana's firepower as matched against that of a pirate! On the other hand those aboard the raider would be desperate men. Dularnian naval ships hang pirates without showing any mercy...

      "If he can get the wind at his back...," I nodded back. To do so he would have to cross in front of the Diana's bow, face the ship's forward quickfirers. Granted in these seas we would not be able to use anything but the upper turret quickfirer, but even so our missile fire would far exceed that of a fourth rate!

      "Hey!" Saris gasped, the Diana coming around in a sharp turn, heeling so far over that we could hardly keep our own feet! Then suddenly I heard the engines going into full reverse just before a terrific sudden crash sent us all stumbling back a step!

      "Her Majesty should have been a Farmer!" I gasped, there be- ing no doubt that the Queen had just rammed the damm pirate ship!

      "I'll be all right, Bob, see what happened," Carol hissed, another labor pain "tightening" her face as Lorraine uselessly still yet tried to hypnotize her. Saris stepping forward with a filled hypo, no doubt some of a pain relieving drug to ease my wife's labor pains. Carol grasping at the cot, her face wet with sweat, beads of it on her forehead, her swollen body twisting and squirming with the pains of childbirth. I wanted to be with her, but I also wanted to know what the damn Queen of Dularn had done!

      "I'll be right back," I assured her, dashing out the door. Through the ship's open hatches on either side I could see the listing raider, sinking by the stern, people in the water, most of them women, now swimming as best they could towards the Diana! The Diana rolling helplessly in the waves as she waited for them!

      "He turned right in front of us," Maris said, giving me a sheepish smile. While the Diana had not been harmed, I wondered how many innocent lives had been lost among those aboard the pi- rate ship. Not the pirates themselves, who would hang as soon as we got back to Arsana, but the innocent women they had stolen. I saw Sandra nod as she affirmed what had "happened" here only a moment ago. The only thing we could be thankful for was that the pirate had not kept the women helplessly chained below decks. At least someone had the human decency not to let them all drown...

      "Launch a boat, send it over to that wreck," I snapped. The pirate ship probably had watertight compartments and would stay afloat despite the Diana having rammed it square in the stern. I was interested in saving life now, not in taking a "prize" here. The storm to the north now filled most of the sky in that direc- tion. The Diana's roll indicating that the weather was getting up. The waves were huge monsters, even tossing the Diana about!

      "Aye, aye sir," captain Sandra Steven answered, then going below to give the orders to the crew, leaving me with Maris Marn. She had been "holding" the Diana in place by using the engines. I didn't envy any boat's crew in waves like this either. They could easily end up swimmers in the water just like the women...

      "He came around so fast there was nothing I could do," Maris said to me, her eyes pleading up into mine. I supposed that I wouldn't have done any better. The Diana was "handy" in her own way, but one had to understand the relationship between the force exerted by the propellers and the triple rudders mounted behind each of the three great bronze propellers. I nodded, smiled a bit. I supposed it didn't "matter" that much anyway as any run- ning battle between us and the pirate could have taken even more women's lives had any of our own missiles ever pierced his hull.

      "We'll find out who `freed' those women, hang the rest," I smiled, Maris nodding, her golden hair matching her own tiara. I respected Maris for the Queen she was, and I supposed that I had expected an awful lot of her in placing her in charge of the ship as I had. And while Sandra was its captain, she really didn't understand that much about steam ships like the Diana either yet.

      "I'll take care of things, get back with your wife," the Queen of Dularn answered, giving me a quick kiss then much to my own surprise. Her body for a brief second pressing against mine!

      "How's it coming?" I asked, Saris sitting beside Carol, my wife naked to the waist, a blanket covering her from there down. Lorraine standing at the stern, looking out one of the portholes. Maris must have turned the Diana just a bit then, as suddenly a wave came washing up, splashing in, and spraying the Warlady!

      "Better close those," I said, lighting another lamp.

      "Weather's getting up," the Queen of Trelandar said.

      "Wouldn't want to `do' this again," Carol said to me, clasp- ing my hand in hers. I saw her face "tighten", felt her squeeze. The child was a month early, although this gave us little worry. Saris was a competent doctor, and we weren't that far from land. I could hear thumps and bangings, the muted sound of voices from beyond the closed cabin door, a midshipman on "guard" right now. The Diana was under way again, heading back towards Arsana now. I understood that the "prize" was still capable of being sailed. The storm had caught up with us, the sound of thunder audible.

      "`Once' will be enough," I assured my beloved brownette.

      "Never planned on having children," Carol smiled at me.

      "Never planned on being `here' either," I smiled back.

      "Remember the arena in Trella?" Carol "smiled" then.

      "Two against an `Empire'," I said, wiping her brow.

      "Back to back, side by side," Carol smiled up at me.

      "You'll be a good mother," I said, holding her hand.

      "We will live again through her," Carol said to me then.

      "And the future is safe again," I said, recalling "another".

      "Hurts...," Carol gasped, Lorraine reaching down, assisting. "Like `Passing A Watermelon'!" my pain racked brownette breathed, the sweat just rolling off her as she hissed with the pain of it!

      "Just a little more, my Warlady," Saris said, her hands un- der the blanket, a pillow underneath Carol's rump to raise her, "And you'll have a fine daughter to follow in your footsteps."

      "I'll be a lot happier when she is...!" Carol gasped.

      "A fine girl, flawless in every detail," Saris said, Lor- raine nodding. I hoped that they were "right". A newborn baby isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but Carol seemed content! My wife cradling the little squirming fussing crying infant to her breast, our daughter suddenly finding her mother's nipple...

      "You have a `name' for her?" Lorraine asked. Carol smiled.

      "Hope," my wife said, looking the Warlady in the eye then. Little Miss Hope Simmons now happily sucking out Carol's milk...

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