"2566-25" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bigge Jerome - Warlady 4 - 2566 Ad)2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN Chapter Twenty Five
we strolled the quarterdeck of Huntress. Her dark eyes glowing up into mine. Our boots clumping on the scrubbed planking of the deck underneath us. The officers tending to their myriad duties. Such discussions as this tended to be an "intellectual exercise" that both of us now greatly enjoyed. Janice being a woman who I considered almost like a "daughter", so much was she like me. We had shared much more than what a Queen "shares" with a captain of a third rate. I looked upon Janice as I had once upon "another"! "I used to think so at one time," I smiled back. Now I wasn't so "sure" anymore about anything. Even about Darlanis, who I had always thought that I "knew" better than anyone else. I used to "believe" in a lot of things I no longer "believe in". "The `conflict' between `reality' and `ideals'," she smiled. Janice was a woman who could think deeply, ponder the "truths of life" like few others. I thought of Janet Rogers, who had often like Janice spoken to me like this. She had been dead now for over five hundred years. Suddenly I felt "old", "out of place". "Between `what is', and what you think `should be'," I said. I had made that "mistake" myself. I hoped that I had learned it. "Darlanis is a more `intelligent' woman than I thought," she said to me. I suspected the same thing. Darlanis was not the "dumb blonde" that I'd often thought of her when we'd first met.* * Bleaching one's hair is quite popular among the young women of California just as it was in my own time. Often the eyebrows are also bleached, so that only the eye color tells the "truth". (LR) "It would have been `better' if she'd gone along with my idea of letting the people living in the `disputed territories' vote for which country they wished to belong to," I answered her. Now it looked like we were in for another endless, "winless" war! "I think Darlanis is taking a longer ranged view of `things' here than you are, my Queen," Janice smiled back, her dark eyes glowing up into mine. She looked almost like a daughter of mine. We were both slim, tall, dark eyed, and brunette. We were both of the Warrioress Caste, and wore the common black attire of that caste. I was the Queen of Trelandar, she but the captain of an Imperial third rate, but I think we shared much in common then... "You believed what she said about setting a `bad example'?" I challenged Janice. She was highly intelligent. A woman that I suspected would go far, rise high in the ranks if she lived that long. The gold of her neck chain gleaming there in the sunlight. "What would have happened to the United States of America if Lincoln had allowed the `South' to become its own country?" she asked. I was a bit surprised that she knew about such things. I wondered what would have happened. Would history have been the same? There would have been a "United States of America" and a "Confederate States of America". Both would have shared much the same "culture", shared the same language. Worshipped the same God. They would have been "separated" only by their politics! "Darlanis did allow Trelandar to `vote'," I pointed out. "Trelandar was an independent country before Darlanis con- quered it," Janice smiled. That was true. The sister of the late Queen of Trelandar was now my Prime Minister. It was said by some that Queen Paula and Sanda Talen did look a lot alike. I knew that Sanda was a highly "capable" woman. The same was true of Queen Paula. She had however made the "mistake" of fighting a personal duel with Darlanis to resolve the conflict between them. As Sanda told me, Queen Paula didn't stand a chance against her!! "There was also the issue that Darlanis and I didn't wish to kill one another," I pointed out. I think Darlanis knew what the likely outcome of a duel between me and her would have ended as! "And you were intelligent enough to give Darlanis an `out'," Janice replied. That was true. We had merely altered the basic structure of the Empire of California to allow for more a "Com- monwealth" type of political system with Darlanis still Empress. Otherwise I fear that there would have been a bloody civil war between those who supported me and those who supported Darlanis. And let me tell you that Darlanis does have her "supporters" too! "I think bringing Dularn in as part of our `Commonwealth' is a better idea than fighting a senseless war with the country," I answered. We had done well with Talon, Baja, and the Nevadas. I thought the same might be true of Dularn if we didn't try to mis- treat Maris. Darlanis however did not "see" things my way here. I did not understand this new "hostility" of hers towards Maris. ***************************************************************** "Did I `do' the `right' thing?" Darlanis asked, staring down at the Earth there far below, nearly all of North America now vi- sible there in the Starfire's viewscreen. Sharon now silent be- side her, admiring the "view", "proud" of her beloved Empress. Of "what" she had now become due to her efforts for peace between two worlds. Sharon with her better education well aware of what "could have happened". There would have been, she knew, little left later but two lifeless radioactive cinders circling the sun. Darlanis at the moment however speaking not of what she had done on Mars, but of the way she had refused to "go along" with Maris. "I think perhaps in the long run," Sharon answered softly in reply, looking at the Earth there floating like a blue white ball in space, the stars gleaming there on either side of it, a view that no one but the astronauts of her own time had ever seen. "I suppose I would have followed Lorraine's advice, knowing what I do about her," Sharon added, recalling her stepmother's awesome competency at everything she seemed to do. Darlanis nodded back. An'na there at the controls keeping her thoughts to herself then. "I fear however that those who oppose me and what I `stand for' would see such an action as a sign of `weakness'," Darlanis answered. There would also be considerable "opposition" to such a move by those of her own caste, many of whose members had given their lives for the territories now under "dispute" between Cali- fornia and Dularn. And such an action would also add more "fuel" to the demands of the Trelandarian "separatists" who demanded a Trelandar completely independent of the Empire of California. A "return" to the old system of "independent" city-states perhaps. Life was not "easy" for a lovely golden head that wore the crown. "Perhaps you are `right'," Sharon answered, putting her arm around Darlanis as she sat next to the briefly clad Empress. The thought going through her mind just then that perhaps Darlanis was a "deeper thinker" than she had ever given her credit for. A feeling of "love" going over her as she hugged the tall Empress. "I can always `change my mind'," Darlanis smiled back, her strong arm drawing Sharon close. The Earth a blue white ball be- fore them floating peacefully in the inky blackness of space. "I am a woman and that has always been our `privilege' in the past." ***************************************************************** "Isle of Sandor," Mark smiled, looking down at Sela Dai as she stood there beside him. She was a short wench, beautifully curved. One who had no "doubts" about herself a woman either. "Now we `wait' for Lorraine," Sela answered, seemingly pre- occupied then. The thoughts now going through her mind unshared. "It will be `good' to see her again," Mark smiled, fighting back the urge to pat little Sela on the head, which he knew she didn't like anyone doing to her. Her dark eyes glowed up into his as she nodded. Sela being very much "aware" that once the famous Warlady was back in command that they would be "hunting" down Dularnian ships and attacking them. That being Lorraine's "plan" which she had worked out earlier with Prince Jers Bisan. "And no doubt you're looking forward to the `prize money' too," the Princess answered, her voice a bit "harsher" then than she would have wished it. Once again she would be "alone" stand- ing on a quarterdeck, directing a ship in battle. Facing the enemy's missiles, well aware that some of them at least would be directed at her. That she would have to stand there and be shot at like a lovely target with nothing that she could do about it!! And why had she picked such a "life" for herself? That was something that even Sela couldn't seem to answer. She was a true Princess, she had no real reason for putting herself "at risk" as she had. Her mother would not have thought less of her had Sela decided to live out the rest of her life there in Talon, safe from harm. Eventually to get married, have children, live the sort of a life that most women of her own station in life lived!! "Something's bothering you," Mark answered, "picking up" on the tone of her voice. That was not like his beloved Princess! "Just a `mood'," Sela answered quickly, then strolling off. ***************************************************************** "We will be up to the Isle of Sandor tomorrow," Janice said to me late that afternoon. We had made good time. The winds had been "favorable". I had driven the ship, its crew, its officers, everyone "hard". They were sharp. Ready to take on "anything". "There is smoke there ahead on the shore," I said to her, lowering the telescope that I had been using to watch the shore as it moved past. One should always be "alert" for such things. "Some fisherman's fire?" Janice smiled. There were a number of small fishing villages along the coast here. The people were culturally "Dularnian", not "Californian". I did not expect we'd find very many "friends" among them. Darlanis was in my opinion making a bad mistake trying to "hang on" to these people, lands. "We will investigate," I smiled. Janice nodded in reply. "The wreckage is definitely that of a `North' class," the first officer spoke as he climbed up onto the deck before me. I had already determined that for myself with the telescope, the Huntress now lying a couple hundred yards off the rocky shore. A naked body, female, dead, there in the bottom of the longboat. I had no doubts that she had been a captive, one who had drowned. "And?" I challenged, the officer pointing down at the boat. "There are footprints on the beach, men with boots, women barefooted," he answered. The women would of course be captives. The ship was not the North Star, that I had already determined. "They either caught fire and had to `beach' or they were forced to `abandon' their ship," Janice said to me. I suspected the second as being most likely. My squadron was only a day's sail or so ahead of us now. I suspected that the Dularnian cap- tain had decided to destroy his vessel rather than let it fall into Imperial hands. Here too he was likely to receive a "warm" welcome from the people living in the area. We would most likely not, although that did not deter me from giving the orders I did. "We saw `nothing'!" the headman of the little village plead- ed with me as he stood there before me. Behind me anchored fore and aft a hundred and fifty yards off shore the Huntress, its catapults now armed and loaded with my firebombs. I reached up with my arm, waved. The sudden burst of flame there on the beach at one end of the village left no doubts in anyone's minds then!! Lamp oil in a gallon glass bottle with a cotton rag for a wick. Not "high technology", but yet "impressive" to any "barbarian"! "I will burn your worthless village, your boats," I replied, my eyes "hard" as they looked into his. I had only a boat's crew behind me. That and my own "reputation", which was "awesome" enough I thought to keep him mentally "off balance". In any case I did not think that any of the villagers had the courage to face me. They had heard of Queen Lorraine of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of California. I had given Janice her orders. I knew too that she would obey. And carry out my commands regardless. I supposed they could kill me if they wanted to, but there would- n't be much left if they did. I could rely upon Janice for that! "The ship was the `Northland'," his wife said, her eyes hard as they looked into mine. I suspected that she "wore the pants". She was tall, dark haired, muscular looking. Wore a sword too. I suspected that she had once been a Dularnian warrioress from the looks of her. Often such women "retire" once they grow old. "And those who were aboard it?" I challenged her in reply. "They have fled into the forests," she answered me back. I suspected that they had done so only in the last hour. There was no doubt in my mind that these people thought of themselves as being "Dularnian". That they now owed their allegiance to Maris! "The women that they hold captive will be returned to me be- fore the sun sets tomorrow or this village will burn," I answered in reply, standing there, looking straight into her dark eyes. I had no doubt that they knew where the women were being held too!! 2566 A.D.! A TALE OF ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN Chapter Twenty Five
we strolled the quarterdeck of Huntress. Her dark eyes glowing up into mine. Our boots clumping on the scrubbed planking of the deck underneath us. The officers tending to their myriad duties. Such discussions as this tended to be an "intellectual exercise" that both of us now greatly enjoyed. Janice being a woman who I considered almost like a "daughter", so much was she like me. We had shared much more than what a Queen "shares" with a captain of a third rate. I looked upon Janice as I had once upon "another"! "I used to think so at one time," I smiled back. Now I wasn't so "sure" anymore about anything. Even about Darlanis, who I had always thought that I "knew" better than anyone else. I used to "believe" in a lot of things I no longer "believe in". "The `conflict' between `reality' and `ideals'," she smiled. Janice was a woman who could think deeply, ponder the "truths of life" like few others. I thought of Janet Rogers, who had often like Janice spoken to me like this. She had been dead now for over five hundred years. Suddenly I felt "old", "out of place". "Between `what is', and what you think `should be'," I said. I had made that "mistake" myself. I hoped that I had learned it. "Darlanis is a more `intelligent' woman than I thought," she said to me. I suspected the same thing. Darlanis was not the "dumb blonde" that I'd often thought of her when we'd first met.* * Bleaching one's hair is quite popular among the young women of California just as it was in my own time. Often the eyebrows are also bleached, so that only the eye color tells the "truth". (LR) "It would have been `better' if she'd gone along with my idea of letting the people living in the `disputed territories' vote for which country they wished to belong to," I answered her. Now it looked like we were in for another endless, "winless" war! "I think Darlanis is taking a longer ranged view of `things' here than you are, my Queen," Janice smiled back, her dark eyes glowing up into mine. She looked almost like a daughter of mine. We were both slim, tall, dark eyed, and brunette. We were both of the Warrioress Caste, and wore the common black attire of that caste. I was the Queen of Trelandar, she but the captain of an Imperial third rate, but I think we shared much in common then... "You believed what she said about setting a `bad example'?" I challenged Janice. She was highly intelligent. A woman that I suspected would go far, rise high in the ranks if she lived that long. The gold of her neck chain gleaming there in the sunlight. "What would have happened to the United States of America if Lincoln had allowed the `South' to become its own country?" she asked. I was a bit surprised that she knew about such things. I wondered what would have happened. Would history have been the same? There would have been a "United States of America" and a "Confederate States of America". Both would have shared much the same "culture", shared the same language. Worshipped the same God. They would have been "separated" only by their politics! "Darlanis did allow Trelandar to `vote'," I pointed out. "Trelandar was an independent country before Darlanis con- quered it," Janice smiled. That was true. The sister of the late Queen of Trelandar was now my Prime Minister. It was said by some that Queen Paula and Sanda Talen did look a lot alike. I knew that Sanda was a highly "capable" woman. The same was true of Queen Paula. She had however made the "mistake" of fighting a personal duel with Darlanis to resolve the conflict between them. As Sanda told me, Queen Paula didn't stand a chance against her!! "There was also the issue that Darlanis and I didn't wish to kill one another," I pointed out. I think Darlanis knew what the likely outcome of a duel between me and her would have ended as! "And you were intelligent enough to give Darlanis an `out'," Janice replied. That was true. We had merely altered the basic structure of the Empire of California to allow for more a "Com- monwealth" type of political system with Darlanis still Empress. Otherwise I fear that there would have been a bloody civil war between those who supported me and those who supported Darlanis. And let me tell you that Darlanis does have her "supporters" too! "I think bringing Dularn in as part of our `Commonwealth' is a better idea than fighting a senseless war with the country," I answered. We had done well with Talon, Baja, and the Nevadas. I thought the same might be true of Dularn if we didn't try to mis- treat Maris. Darlanis however did not "see" things my way here. I did not understand this new "hostility" of hers towards Maris. ***************************************************************** "Did I `do' the `right' thing?" Darlanis asked, staring down at the Earth there far below, nearly all of North America now vi- sible there in the Starfire's viewscreen. Sharon now silent be- side her, admiring the "view", "proud" of her beloved Empress. Of "what" she had now become due to her efforts for peace between two worlds. Sharon with her better education well aware of what "could have happened". There would have been, she knew, little left later but two lifeless radioactive cinders circling the sun. Darlanis at the moment however speaking not of what she had done on Mars, but of the way she had refused to "go along" with Maris. "I think perhaps in the long run," Sharon answered softly in reply, looking at the Earth there floating like a blue white ball in space, the stars gleaming there on either side of it, a view that no one but the astronauts of her own time had ever seen. "I suppose I would have followed Lorraine's advice, knowing what I do about her," Sharon added, recalling her stepmother's awesome competency at everything she seemed to do. Darlanis nodded back. An'na there at the controls keeping her thoughts to herself then. "I fear however that those who oppose me and what I `stand for' would see such an action as a sign of `weakness'," Darlanis answered. There would also be considerable "opposition" to such a move by those of her own caste, many of whose members had given their lives for the territories now under "dispute" between Cali- fornia and Dularn. And such an action would also add more "fuel" to the demands of the Trelandarian "separatists" who demanded a Trelandar completely independent of the Empire of California. A "return" to the old system of "independent" city-states perhaps. Life was not "easy" for a lovely golden head that wore the crown. "Perhaps you are `right'," Sharon answered, putting her arm around Darlanis as she sat next to the briefly clad Empress. The thought going through her mind just then that perhaps Darlanis was a "deeper thinker" than she had ever given her credit for. A feeling of "love" going over her as she hugged the tall Empress. "I can always `change my mind'," Darlanis smiled back, her strong arm drawing Sharon close. The Earth a blue white ball be- fore them floating peacefully in the inky blackness of space. "I am a woman and that has always been our `privilege' in the past." ***************************************************************** "Isle of Sandor," Mark smiled, looking down at Sela Dai as she stood there beside him. She was a short wench, beautifully curved. One who had no "doubts" about herself a woman either. "Now we `wait' for Lorraine," Sela answered, seemingly pre- occupied then. The thoughts now going through her mind unshared. "It will be `good' to see her again," Mark smiled, fighting back the urge to pat little Sela on the head, which he knew she didn't like anyone doing to her. Her dark eyes glowed up into his as she nodded. Sela being very much "aware" that once the famous Warlady was back in command that they would be "hunting" down Dularnian ships and attacking them. That being Lorraine's "plan" which she had worked out earlier with Prince Jers Bisan. "And no doubt you're looking forward to the `prize money' too," the Princess answered, her voice a bit "harsher" then than she would have wished it. Once again she would be "alone" stand- ing on a quarterdeck, directing a ship in battle. Facing the enemy's missiles, well aware that some of them at least would be directed at her. That she would have to stand there and be shot at like a lovely target with nothing that she could do about it!! And why had she picked such a "life" for herself? That was something that even Sela couldn't seem to answer. She was a true Princess, she had no real reason for putting herself "at risk" as she had. Her mother would not have thought less of her had Sela decided to live out the rest of her life there in Talon, safe from harm. Eventually to get married, have children, live the sort of a life that most women of her own station in life lived!! "Something's bothering you," Mark answered, "picking up" on the tone of her voice. That was not like his beloved Princess! "Just a `mood'," Sela answered quickly, then strolling off. ***************************************************************** "We will be up to the Isle of Sandor tomorrow," Janice said to me late that afternoon. We had made good time. The winds had been "favorable". I had driven the ship, its crew, its officers, everyone "hard". They were sharp. Ready to take on "anything". "There is smoke there ahead on the shore," I said to her, lowering the telescope that I had been using to watch the shore as it moved past. One should always be "alert" for such things. "Some fisherman's fire?" Janice smiled. There were a number of small fishing villages along the coast here. The people were culturally "Dularnian", not "Californian". I did not expect we'd find very many "friends" among them. Darlanis was in my opinion making a bad mistake trying to "hang on" to these people, lands. "We will investigate," I smiled. Janice nodded in reply. "The wreckage is definitely that of a `North' class," the first officer spoke as he climbed up onto the deck before me. I had already determined that for myself with the telescope, the Huntress now lying a couple hundred yards off the rocky shore. A naked body, female, dead, there in the bottom of the longboat. I had no doubts that she had been a captive, one who had drowned. "And?" I challenged, the officer pointing down at the boat. "There are footprints on the beach, men with boots, women barefooted," he answered. The women would of course be captives. The ship was not the North Star, that I had already determined. "They either caught fire and had to `beach' or they were forced to `abandon' their ship," Janice said to me. I suspected the second as being most likely. My squadron was only a day's sail or so ahead of us now. I suspected that the Dularnian cap- tain had decided to destroy his vessel rather than let it fall into Imperial hands. Here too he was likely to receive a "warm" welcome from the people living in the area. We would most likely not, although that did not deter me from giving the orders I did. "We saw `nothing'!" the headman of the little village plead- ed with me as he stood there before me. Behind me anchored fore and aft a hundred and fifty yards off shore the Huntress, its catapults now armed and loaded with my firebombs. I reached up with my arm, waved. The sudden burst of flame there on the beach at one end of the village left no doubts in anyone's minds then!! Lamp oil in a gallon glass bottle with a cotton rag for a wick. Not "high technology", but yet "impressive" to any "barbarian"! "I will burn your worthless village, your boats," I replied, my eyes "hard" as they looked into his. I had only a boat's crew behind me. That and my own "reputation", which was "awesome" enough I thought to keep him mentally "off balance". In any case I did not think that any of the villagers had the courage to face me. They had heard of Queen Lorraine of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of California. I had given Janice her orders. I knew too that she would obey. And carry out my commands regardless. I supposed they could kill me if they wanted to, but there would- n't be much left if they did. I could rely upon Janice for that! "The ship was the `Northland'," his wife said, her eyes hard as they looked into mine. I suspected that she "wore the pants". She was tall, dark haired, muscular looking. Wore a sword too. I suspected that she had once been a Dularnian warrioress from the looks of her. Often such women "retire" once they grow old. "And those who were aboard it?" I challenged her in reply. "They have fled into the forests," she answered me back. I suspected that they had done so only in the last hour. There was no doubt in my mind that these people thought of themselves as being "Dularnian". That they now owed their allegiance to Maris! "The women that they hold captive will be returned to me be- fore the sun sets tomorrow or this village will burn," I answered in reply, standing there, looking straight into her dark eyes. I had no doubt that they knew where the women were being held too!! |
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