Crusade

Amagi, so long ago now. It had worked, somehow, but it had also been a reckless moment and he wondered if the captain was on the verge of another one now. He opened his mouth, but hesitated, daunted by the working jaw and the icy green braziers gazing back.

«Captain,» he said quietly, «Radioman Clancy says the radio’s up.

Lieutenant Mallory requests permissiaid you wanted to begin installing the screw this morning?» Dowden prompted gently. Matt only glanced around for a moment, as if surprised the task wasn’t already under way. For the first time he noticed that almost the entire crew was present, grim-faced and angry.

«Right. I guess the men are a little distracted. Have Spanky and the Bosun light a fire under those repair parties.» Several of the men held his gaze as it passed across them. «They have their own duties to perform today,» he said in a voice that matched his eyes. «I’ll take care of this one.»

«What should we do with these two, Skipper?» Silva asked, nudging Mank-Lar hard with his shoe. Matt shrugged.

«Don’t even need to try them. They’ve admitted they’re enemy saboteurs under orders of their king. But they’re without uniforms or even the courtesy of a declaration of war. Hang them.»

«I want that little son of a bitch dead!» Matt said in a calm but eerily forceful tone. The gathering was almost identical to the one the night before, only this time it was convened directly behind the massed block of the Second Marines, flanked by Rolak’s expatriate Aryaalans and Queen Maraan’s Six Hundred. Another entire regiment of B’mbaadan infantry was added as well. Thirty heavily armed destroyermen — not all human — were in the center, anxious to spearhead the assault with fire. The Orphan Queen stood beside Matt, her eyes gleaming with a feral, joyful light.

«It could break the alliance!» Adar pleaded. «Think of the greater threat!» Sandra stood beside the Lemurian Sky Priest and nodded her agreement, but she seemed deeply troubled.

«Why? I haven’t asked any of the Homes or Guard regiments from Baalkpan to contribute to the attack.» He wore an ironic expression. «I notice none have offered, either, but if they don’t want to be in the assault, that’s fine.»

«What about the Marines? They are drawn from all our people.»

Matt looked coldly at Adar. «The Marines are mine. They’re all volunteers and they’ve volunteered for this. I ordered Chack to make sure.»

«That still does not give you the right to throw them away on this. sideshow!»

Matt’s mounting fury exploded. «I’m not throwing them away! I’m using them for what they’re for! We’ve been attacked! Suddenly and deliberately and by stealth! Believe me, my people have recent experience with that sort of thing!» His gaze lashed Keje. «We’ve been attacked!» he repeated. «And I lost a damn good man who died to save my ship. I thought you said it was ‘different’ if we were attacked? How is it different? I can’t tell yet. I assumed it meant that then you might bring yourselves to fight others of your kind. Is that it? Or is it only different if you are attacked? You’ll personally defend yourselves if you’re personally attacked? Where would you be today if Walker behaved like that?»

Keje met his gaze, but then looked at Adar and blinked furiously with shame and frustration. Matt continued, his voice angry and sarcastic. «Ever since we met, Walker has stood up for you and your people, and she’s lost a lot of good men — some to save that damn city I’m about to. lose more good men going into! But now, when it comes time to stand up for Walker, she’s not ‘one of you,’ is she? You almost had me fooled. I was ready to leave Rolak’s people to fend for themselves — even after they risked everything to come to our aid. We may have helped them first, but at least they know what gratitude is. Still, I was ready to leave them. Now I know there’s no way we can leave them here with that madmat+ yo

«Naw, I fudged the headings you gave me.» Ben frowned. «Captain said to check these little islands real careful. He figures if the storm drove Revenge aground, that’s where she’ll be.»

«What a mess,» Ed murmured, looking first at the distant islands and then the chart. «No way she’d have squirmed through, that’s for sure.»

«Yeah, well,» hedged Mallory uncomfortably, «maybe she did. Or maybe she’s fine and Rick’s still chasing lizards like he was Drake and they were Spaniards.»

«Who’s Drake?» Ed asked.

«Never mind. British guy.»

Tikker leaned forward and squinted until his eyes were tiny slits. «Let me see chart, please,» he said, and Ed handed it over. Tikker studied it carefully for a long time and squinted out the windscreen once more. «Very strange,» he said and shook his head. «Usually you charts are so good.»

«What? Why?»

«I see white islands where chart says should only be water.»

Mallory took off his sunglasses and squinted as well. «I don’t see anything.»

«You push pedals, I look for ship,» Tikker said smugly and resumed his study of the horizon. Ed left them and went to the engineer’s compartment. One of the few things they’d discovered that still worked in the half- sunken plane when they found it was a thermos. It had been empty at the time, floating in the sandy brown water in the fuselage. Ed rescued it and had used it ever since. The initials «EP» were lightly scratched in the thick aluminum and he was struck by the coincidence since they were the same as his. He often wondered what had become of the original owner. He picked it up and poked his head into the waist gunner’s compartment to make sure the other two spotters weren’t goofing off. Then he carefully poured a cup of joe into a tin mug and eased his way forward against the jostling motion of the plane.

«Coffee,» he announced, slowly extending the cup into Mallory’s line of sight.

Ben shook his head. «Can’t right now. I need both hands. Thanks, though.» Ed only shrugged and took a gentle sip himself. Tikker looked at him and wrinkled his nose. Not very many Lemurians liked real coffee, much less the local brew. Like real coffee, it had a stimulating effect and that’s what they used it for: medicine. Not because they liked the taste. The big island was growing larger and many of the smaller ones were easy to distinguish now. Tikker suddenly remembered the binoculars around his neck. He thought they were the neatest things in the world — next to the airplane, of course — but much as he loved them, their technology was still so unfamiliar that he often forgot he had them on. Somewhat embarrassed, he raised them now and adjusted the objective knob. Then he stiffened, and it seemed to Ben every sable hair on his body stood on end.

«What? What do you see?» For a long moment, Tikker couldn’t speak. «What is it?» Ben demanded. His copilot’s body language had sent a chill of concern down his spine.

«It is not islands where they do not belong,» he finally managed. «It is sails. Grik sails.»

«Here, give me those,» Ben said, taking the binoculars from Tikker’s neck. He tried to hold the wheel and the glasses steady at the same time, but found it impossible. He glanced at Tikker, who seemed immolently, «walking» around and sloshing its contents. He raised the glasses to his eyes.

«God a’mighty,» he whispered. The entire horizon, from the islands of Pulau Belitung to the distant hint of a smudge that was western Borneo, was dotted with hundreds of dingy pyramid shapes. The water below was still a little foamy and the whitecaps had turned the normally warm, dark blue sea a kind of dirty turquoise, but the hint of red from the enemy hulls made them stand out quite clearly. «God a’mighty,» he repeated, a little louder this time and with an edge of panic in his voice.

The intercom crackled and an excited voice reached them from one of the observation blisters. «Ship! Ship! I see ship! Right below! Wake up, you in front! You not see ship?»

Revenge had been through hell. As soon as the size of the storm became apparent, Rick Tolson and Kas-Ra-Ar knew their only hope was to beat north as far as they could and gain as much sea room as possible before the seas grew too large to do anything but run before them. With grim satisfaction, they’d pounded the lone Grik ship with a pair of broadsides as it drew near. Then, leaving the enemy trailing a shattered mainmast and at the mercy of the coming blow, Revenge went about. The wind drove out of the west-northwest at first, and the ship shouldered her way through the growing swells far into the Natuna Sea.

For thn one piece she’s fast, well built — thank God! — and weatherly.» Glancing past Kas at one of the many work gangs diligently at their labors, he added, «And she’s got the best damn crew any ship like her ever had in this messed-up world. A destroyerman couldn’t ask for much more.» He paused. «Engines would be nice, but then she wouldn’t need her sails and that’s part of her charm.»