Sharon stood silently at my side as we watched Sarnian Lady closing the distance between us. The trireme now no more than a quarter of a mile from us as we laid helplessly becalmed before it. The black painted eyes on its bow glaring at us malevolently. Janis telling me that we were now coming into range of her ballistae and heavy crossbows, the ram having been readied along with the catapults. The figures of people now easily visible upon her forecastle as the long rows of oars brought her relentlessly towards us. The Ronda's great lateen sails now flapping uselessly in the calm that had suddenly struck us. Dooming us to our fates, whatever they might be. Janis had left the Dularnian flag flying. A helpless "mouse" giving this "cat" "the finger"!
As I have mentioned earlier, the design of 26th Century galleys is different from galley design during the time they were used before the development of cannon and square rigged warships finally made them obsolete. The triangular lateen sails are used mainly to sail the vessel from point to point. The oars being used when in engagement against other galleys. The low masts and flammable sails being taken down before the galley enters into battle, fire arrows sometimes being used in battle although the use of fire at sea is discouraged by the "Codes". Sarnian Lady had taken down her masts and sails, leaving only the low hull now rolling in the swell, her decks bristling with men and armament. She looked irresistible, unstoppable. The "Imperial Tarl" flying over her high ornate sterncastle, a smaller flag beneath it. Janis telling me that it was the personal flag of Darlanis herself. A field of stars circling a stylized golden crown on dark blue.
Sarnian Lady mounted eighteen ballistae to our four, the weapons also being heavier and more powerful than ours. She also carried half a dozen catapults, the weapons running the length of the ship on a spine over and above the rowers, who sit below the main deck where they are protected from enemy missiles in battle. I could see men gathered at each weapon now, a group of women, Warrioresses by their attire, gathered on the forecastle around a tall golden haired woman towering over all of them wearing golden mesh whom I immediately recognized once again as being none other than Empress Darlanis Marden herself! The glitter of her golden halter and brief miniskirt catching the sun's rays and reflecting them back into my eyes! The precious jewels encrusting her trappings giving her a barbaric look like something out of a novel!
"Sharon, I want you to stay with Lana regardless of what happens," I told her as she clung to me. Her lovely azure eyes wet with tears, knowing the fate that awaited me at the hands of the Californians. I knew that whatever happened to me she would be safe with Lady Lana. I was not that hopeful about my own future despite what Lana had said. I was in possession of the Ronda, guilty of slaying nine of its crew, (True, Sharon had killed two, but that was a secret I hoped to keep to myself!) including its captain, and seizing its valuable cargo for my own. They could, I supposed, also charge me with the deaths of Lana's three Foresters as well as holding the Lady Lana Daris herself by force if they wanted to get really "nasty" about it all as they might!
"Drop the sails and lower our flag before some `trigger- happy idiot' over there takes a shot at us," Janis yelled to Shirl as Sarnian Lady swung broadside to us. Her eighteen ballistae and six catapults aimed squarely at us. I thought of what old-time sailors must have thought when they faced a row of grinning black muzzles back in the time of the old square-riggers. Sarnian Lady's armament looked just as deadly if more primitive.
"What will happen to them?" I asked Janis in low tones as the former slave girls gathered at the rail to stand and look at Sarnian Lady. The women silent as they regarded the end to their hopes of freedom now floating a hundred yards off. They too had lost much. Some wept bitterly as they stared at the blue-green battleship there broadside to them. Others shook their fists in futile hatred. "Freedom" had been so close for all of us! A boat being lowered, no doubt to send a "prize crew" to take command of the Ronda. The Imperials standing there waving at us!
"The `collar', no doubt when we reach Sarn," Janis answered. Starting a bit as we both saw Darlanis climbing down carefully into the boat there beside Sarnian Lady. Leaping down into the arms of a young officer ready to catch her should she slip and fall. Janis clutching at my arm as if she could not believe her eyes. The two having been separated for six years by the warfare between their two countries. The bright sun glittering off her attire as Darlanis seated herself beside the young officer, the thought going through my mind that she had more courage than I would under similar circumstances! Darlanis being just too easy a target for any crossbowman willing to die for his or rather "her" freedom! And the Ronda was filled with desperate women!
"Where's Sharon?" I hissed as Lana joined Janis and I on the deck to greet the ruler of California. I had to admit that there was certainly nothing wrong with the Empress' courage considering the situation and the "risk" that she was taking that someone might just be willing to give their life if only they could take Darlanis' first! "The bitch has BALLS!" I muttered to myself, now utterly fascinated by Darlanis and her incredible courage to come like this to us when one shot from a crossbow could have put a swift end to her entire life and career as the Empress of California! This being my first "glimpse" of the "DARLANIS LEGEND"!
"I don't know," Lana answered in a low voice as the boat hooked on and I heard a woman's voice snap something in tones too low to be understood on deck over the creaking of the Ronda's hull in the swell. The voice doubtlessly that of Darlanis herself as she was the only woman there in the craft! The assembled feminine "crew" of the Ronda silent behind us as many now showed their displeasure at the turn of events with teary eyes. Shirl had done her best to restore order. We would greet Darlanis as a free people, as proud freedom loving Dularnians greeting a enemy.
Then suddenly SHE was there before us! Stepping up onto our deck! Tall, standing well over six feet in her boots, her hair of the most lovely light gold, her eyes a beautiful azure sky- blue that seemed to glow like precious jewels. A halter of pure gold mesh covered her high firm breasts, a matching short gold mesh mini glittering there in the sunlight around the flare of her hips. High golden leather boots on her feet. The precious jewels covering her trappings sparkled with hundreds of brilliant points of light. She seemed to tower over us all, almost like she was something "alien", not human. A "goddess" that could blast us all with a thunderbolt! So beautiful that she took your breath away, although by 20th Century standards she would have been too tall, a bit too muscular. The dagger, the long slim sword at her hip marked her as being of the Warrioresses. I saw the muscles moving there beneath that flawless lightly tanned skin as she swayed with the roll of the ship, saw the flatness of that perfect belly, the strength of her thighs, the swell of the biceps in her arms and knew that she had physical strength even beyond my own. She was so incredibly beautiful that I felt that I was in the presence of something not completely totally human, not something truly ever born of Woman. It is, I believe, a major part of her power over the hearts and minds of others, although I should mention here that she is highly intelligent, very well educated by 26th Century terms, and on good relations with the Lorr, which is unusual given the usual sort of relations between Mankind and the ant-like inhabitants of Mars. There is of course a very good reason for all this as you will see later on.
I felt Janis tremble with emotion beside me as Darlanis lifted her arms, her eyes seeming to suddenly glow as she perhaps for the first time recognized her sister, the red lips moving, but only a soft whisper escaping as I saw how this beautiful goddess of a woman could feel human emotions. Lana suddenly trembling at my side, although whether from excitement or something else I didn't know as she jerked at me, her eyes wide with horror as I saw it too! A gasp going up from the assembled women as they too now saw what stood on the Ronda's quarterdeck, a cocked and loaded crossbow in her young trembling hands! SHARON!!!!!!!!
"DARLANIS!" I heard Sharon sob, "I WON'T LET YOU HANG LORRAINE AS A PIRATE WHEN WE WERE ONLY DEFENDING OURSELVES!" I HAD NO DOUBT THAT SHARON FULLY INTENDED TO KILL DARLANIS RIGHT WHERE SHE STOOD! The crossbow one of the Dularnian types that would hurl an steel shafted bolt over three hundred yards. Darlanis had made a fatal miscalculation in coming aboard as she had. The power of her beauty, of her provocative attire which had served to almost "stupefy" the rest of us, had absolutely no effect on Sharon! I could hear the yells from Sarnian Lady, see men at the ballistae, turning, aiming them, all of Sarnian Lady's armament now aimed directly at Sharon. The Warrioresses having fitted arrows to their bows, crossbowmen had taken their positions, but none of it would do the least good as no missile could strike Sharon before she pulled the trigger and fired a two ounce steel bolt RIGHT THROUGH DARLANIS' HEART! And Sharon was an excellent shot too with the weapon, I recalled, leaping forward to save Darlanis' life as the golden Empress stood there looking into the face of Death. Standing there calmly as if nothing had happened!
"SHARON! BY MY COMMAND! FREEZE!" I cried, throwing myself in front of Darlanis, praying that the post hypnotic suggestion I had placed in her mind so long ago still worked. Janet Rogers and I having been working in the field with a curious Sharon as our test subject months ago! Sharon wavering there before me, fighting the post hypnotic suggestion, unable to kill Darlanis without first killing me, the thought going through my mind that she might just kill us both with the same bolt should she happen to fire by accident. "LOWER THE CROSSBOW!" I snapped, aware of Darlanis' azure eyes, of her height, the glitter of her golden attire. Seeing Shirl sneaking up behind Sharon, suddenly grabbing her, the bolt shooting off harmlessly into the sky as Sharon then collapsed sobbing into the strong arms of Shirl. She was a good first officer. I hoped that Darlanis understood that.
(.txt)