CHAPTER SEVEN
THE LANDING
One week before the Battle of the Ottarn River
Bart Saxon stared at the screen. A blue planet, largely water, showed in brilliant colors. He noted exaggerated icecaps at both poles. There were two large continents, one larger than the other, with outlying islands. Saxon focused on the larger continent, the one he’d been told they were going to land on. At this magnification he could see nothing of human works on the planet below, but he studied the geography. There ought to be a big city where those rivers ran together, another somewhere near that obvious mountain pass. The western high plains seemed barren of features and very dusty. Nothing there? It would be amusing to see if he could find cities by choosing what appeared to be good geographical locations for them, then zooming down to find out what was actually there. For now he was content to look at the planet as a whole.
Storms raged across the southern hemisphere. Of course north and south would be arbitrary, but the locals had chosen “north” so that the suns would rise in the east, and most of them lived in the northern hemisphere of the larger continent. Saxon had read that there was also an island culture halfway around the world from the dominant settlement, but little was known about it. Apparently some forgotten Shalnuksi trader had imported a colony of Tonganese Islanders sometime during the First Millennium of the Christian era on Earth.
Whatever the traders had expected, according to the records he’d seen, the result was about what Saxon would have predicted: the islanders had developed a culture very close to what Captain Cook had found in the South Seas. Had this been an experiment in cultural anthropology? That seemed unlike the Shalnuksis, who seldom did anything except for profit, but it was still the most reasonable explanation. It had been much the same with the Steppe cultures brought in and settled on the high western plateaus of the northern continent. They’d been put in place, then abandoned, and if anything had ever been expected of them, it was forgotten.
So damned much I don’t know, Saxon thought. And what I don’t know can certainly hurt me. Maybe Galloway knows more, but Inspector Agzaral doesn’t believe it.
“It looks wet,” Haskins said. “And them ice caps are big. I mean, really big. Looks cold.”
“It is mostly cold. Warming, though,” Saxon said. “And there’s land under much of that ice. If it melts, the seas rise. A lot.”
“So what did you decide about Galloway?” Haskins asked. “We’re supposed to help him.”
“I know,” Saxon said. “But the pilots can’t find him.”
“What?”
“They say they can locate him, but he’s not where they expected him to be, and nowhere they can land.”
“So what do we do?” Haskins said.
“We can look for Galloway, or we can go camp out in this Nikeis place,” Saxon said. “Go there and get settled and then try to hook up with Galloway.”
“I’m for that,” Sandori said. “If we took a vote that’s the way I’d vote it.”
“This ain’t no democracy,” Haskins said.
“Not if you always vote with Saxon, it’s not,” she agreed.
“Lady, I know who Doctor Lee and that Inspector Agzaral put in charge.”
“If we could just hook up with Galloway I’d do that,” Saxon said. “But they don’t seem to think they can do that. So it’s land near one of Galloway’s cities, or near Nikeis. Those are the choices, and they’re not giving us long to make a choice, either.”
“I think I am going to like this Nikeis,” Sandori said. “A republic, and we start off rich.”
“True. They also speak Italian,” Saxon said. “Which you already know.”
“We all got crash courses in both the Tran lingua franca and Italian, and you don’t know either one of them all that well. At least I know some Italian. Might come in handy.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Saxon conceded. “But I got more hypno sessions in lingua franca than Italian. Okay, language doesn’t matter, we just have to learn. Upside, Nikeis is a republic. Spirit knows the language, and maybe something of the customs. Downside?”
“I don’t know dick about no boats,” Haskins said. “’Scuse me, Miss Spirit.”
She grimaced. Haskins seemed to enjoy treating her with exaggerated deference.
“We have a lot of material about boats and navigation,” she said. “Some of it may be useful.”
“Yeah, if you can learn about boats from books,” Haskins said. “And I don’t think you can. But what the hell.”
“That’s a lot of water . . . ” Sandori said, looking at the screen again.
“About ninety percent,” Saxon said. “Of course Earth is eighty or so. And if you look at the Pacific as one side, just about all the land is on the other. Here a lot of the land is at the poles covered with ice. Less land to live on. You’re right, that’s a lot of water, and they tell me it’s rising. Navies will be important. We’ll teach them maritime commerce. Buckminster Fuller always said the maritime interests were the real drivers of civilization.”
“If they started off as Venetians, they know more about maritime commerce than you do,” Sandori said. She grinned. “You or me.”
“You’re from Venice?” Haskins asked.
“Grandfather was. Another grandfather from Florence. Mother from Turin.”
“Real Italian lady,” Haskins said. “Good thing, I think.”
There was a buzz. Saxon lifted the communicator handset.
“Hello?”
“Awantshu.”
Saxon had no idea what that meant, but the unknown pilots of the ship always said it.
“Good day,” he responded.
“Your Colonel Galloway is a very long way from the communicator his employers left with him,” the alien voice said. “We have no way of making contact with him.”
“So?”
“If you are asking why this is significant—”
“I am.”
“Then I tell you that we will not risk this ship by exposing it to Galloway’s weapons, so we cannot set you down at his location, nor can we warn anyone that you are coming. You must land on this planet without prior negotiations with the local inhabitants. Choose where you wish us to place you.”
“Is this what you agreed with Inspector Agzaral?”
“His Importance employed us for a mission. He cannot require us to risk our ship. We agreed to transport you, and we will do so. Now choose where you wish to be landed. The landing will be recorded, and the record given to His Importance.”
“A moment.” Saxon told Haskins and Sandori what the alien had said. “And it doesn’t sound like we have a lot of time to decide,” he said.
“I like Nikeis, of course,” Sandori said, and Haskins shrugged.
“I’ll go where you decide,” he told Saxon. “I sure don’t know what’s best. But if we have to fight somebody I’d sure rather fight locals than Galloway’s mercs!”
“Why would we fight at all?” Saxon asked.
“Maybe I just got a nasty suspicious mind,” Haskins said. “Maybe I been on the streets too long. But—”
Sandori smiled thinly.
“Venice was the most civilized place on Earth in its day,” she said.
Saxon shook his head slowly. What the hell do I do? All I know about old Venice is from La Giaconda, and it wasn’t all that nice a place in that opera. But they treated Othello all right in Verdi’s opera. Othello was a mercenary general. So were Cassio and Roderigo. I think. Was that the opera or Shakespeare? I have all that information, but it’s in the containers and I can’t get at it. Damn all.
They’re going to set us down somewhere, and nobody knows we’re coming. Near one of the places Galloway commands, but not necessarily near him. Or near this Nikeis. I guess if those are the choices I don’t have much choice.
“We’re ready to land near Nikeis,” Saxon said into the handset. “We’ll need to hide the cargo except for what we can carry.”
“Yes. We have chosen a place. It will require that you walk seven of your English miles to a road,” the pilot said. “The terrain is level and only lightly forested. There is a major road to the north. Is this acceptable?”
“I suppose so.” He got nods from the others. Seven miles wasn’t far. They had good lightweight camping gear and boots, and they were all in good shape thanks to the ship’s gym. “Let’s do it, then.”
* * *
It was dark when the ship set them down in a meadow surrounded by woods. Lights flashed as automated systems unloaded the three large cargo containers onto the meadow.
“We sure going to need help moving this stuff very far,” Haskins observed. “What do we do, one stay here and watch the stuff? Who hikes, who stays?”
“We can decide in the morning,” Saxon said. He raised his voice to shout into the ship. “What do we do now?”
“Awantshu. The road is to your north. It is an east-west road. You cannot have difficulty finding it.”
Sandori fingered her compass. It seemed to work all right, north was more or less north.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” she said, and Saxon laughed.
“Lady, you have a bad feeling about everything.”
“I suppose. So what do we do now?”
“Wait for morning,” Haskins said. “We sure don’t want to be thrashing around in the dark in woods we don’t know. Come morning we can go look for people.”
“Who stays here?” Sandori asked.
“Why should anyone?” Haskins asked. He pounded the heel of his fist against the side of one of the containers. “Plenty solid, good locks. Take hours to get through this, even with a good hacksaw. With what they have it’ll take days.”
“Yeah, okay,” Saxon said. “I sure wish we knew more about what we’re doing.”
“We’ve got knowledge and trade goods,” Sandori said.
“Sure, if somebody don’t just take them,” Haskins said.
“Think they would?”
“Officer Sandori, I have no idea,” Haskins said. “But why wouldn’t they?”
“It’s a civilized city-state. They’re not barbarians. Besides, they can take stuff, but ideas are a bit harder to get. They won’t know how to use anything. We can show them. And it wouldn’t be smart to get us too pissed off,” Sandori said. She fingered her pistol.
“Yeah,” Haskins said. “Of course, they ain’t never seen a pistol.”
The two of them had argued this a dozen times. Saxon sometimes took one side, sometimes the other, but he didn’t know what would happen. If they’d gone to Captain Galloway they’d have a better idea of who they were dealing with. Too late for that, Saxon thought. We can try him later. If we can find him.
There were mechanical sounds behind them. The ship’s hatchways and doors closed.
“Good luck.” The voice came from the small communicator box that lay beside Saxon’s pack.
“Thank you,” Saxon said.
The ship lifted silently, straight up out of the clearing, and was gone in seconds. It was the first time Saxon had been outside it to see it fly.
“Impressive,” he muttered. “I wonder how the hell they do that?”
“Beats me,” Haskins said. “But you’re sure right, it was impressive.”
“Some kind of magnetic effect?” Sandori wondered.
“I can’t see how that would work, but I can’t think of anything else,” Saxon said.
“And now we’re alone,” Sandori said. “And I think I’m just a little scared.”
Haskins laughed. “Only a little?”
“Let’s get some sleep,” Saxon said. “We’ve got a good three-hour walk in the morning.”
“I’ll get out the tents,” Haskins said. “Two enough, or you want one all to yourself?”
“Two’s enough for me,” Saxon said. “Heck, one’s enough for me.”
“Two, please,” Sandori said. “And thank you, Cal.”
* * *
The meadow was small. Young trees grew at its edges, and behind them were older trees, nearly all conifers. Earth trees, Saxon realized. A few strange flowers dotted the meadow, but the grass underfoot seemed earthlike, and they could easily have been in California. There was almost no sense of an alien world until a large and strangely marked insect flew past.
“Young growth,” Haskins said. “This place was logged out, maybe fifty years ago.”
“You can tell that?” Sandori asked. “How?”
“Just can.” Haskins looked around. “I did some logging once. Hard work, too hard for me! But look over in the woods there, see that stump? That tree was cut down with a saw. Too even across the top, and trees don’t just break over and fall.”
“Oh.” She looked around nervously.
“Long time ago,” Haskins said.
They were in the middle of breakfast. Haskins proved to be skillful with the small Mountain Safety Research stove, and a good cook. Saxon savored the last of the fresh eggs and bacon. He had just finished when the communicator box spoke.
“Mr. Saxon. Awantshu.”
“Here!”
“You need not walk to the road. There is a party coming towards you. They have been moving purposefully in your direction for half an hour, and it is clear they know where they are going.”
“What should we do?”
“We have no advice,” the voice said. “We have delivered you to a place of your choosing.”
“How would they have known where to come?”
“Perhaps we were seen. We made no effort to hide,” the voice said. “We used lights freely in landing you.”
Saxon nodded to himself.
“You said this area wasn’t inhabited.”
“We saw no signs of inhabitants. In any event they are coming to you. It remains only to observe.”
“You’ll watch.”
“Yes. We are required to report your situation to Inspector Agzaral.”
“And if they slaughter us?”
“We will report that to His Importance. Good luck.”
“How many are coming?”
“We count seventeen. Nine are mounted. All appear to be armed, and some are in armor.”
“A war party?”
“They appear to be escorts to a large wagon train moving eastward along the road. That wagon train has halted. Although we saw no one watching, it is our belief that the landing last night was observed, by them or someone closer. You would have been discovered in any event. Is it not better sooner than later?”
“I suppose so.”
“Good luck.”
“Wait! Maybe it would be better to move us to another location!”
“We cannot do that. Good luck.”
“Why can’t you?”
“That was not part of our contract nor is it within our discretion. Good luck.”
Saxon shouted at the box but there was nothing else.
“Okay, Boss, so what do we do?” Haskins demanded. “Dig in? Lay out heavy weapons?”
“We don’t have any heavy weapons,” Saxon said. “And I’d rather not start off with a firefight even if we had them. It won’t do you two any harm to get out rifles and take up positions between the containers, but don’t shoot unless I tell you.”
“Or you aren’t able to give any more orders,” Sandori said.
“Well, yeah, there’s that,” Saxon said.
* * *
The waiting was the hard part. A thousand doubts ran races in Saxon’s head. Should they run away, abandon their cargo? That couldn’t be intelligent. Without the equipment they had no reason to be here. There was nothing to do but wait.
* * *
The approaching party made no attempt at concealment. First there was the sound of a trumpet, then a half dozen crossbowmen, led by a fugleman with a banner, emerged from the woods into the clearing. They formed a rough line, broken in the middle, their bows held low in what had to be a deliberately unthreatening pose. When the crossbowmen were set, four horsemen rode through their lines and out into the clearing.
“Ave!” one shouted.
The spokesman had neither helmet nor armor. He wore a dark blue velvet doublet slashed to reveal scarlet silk lining, dark hose that looked like silk, and a black velvet muffin-shaped hat. A sword, thin but shorter than a rapier, hung at his left side. His beard was well trimmed.
Looks young, Saxon thought. Under thirty. Handsome devil.
“Ave, indeed,” Saxon answered.
The man responded with rapid sentences in Italian. Saxon thought he recognized a few words, but no more than that. He stood there, helplessly.
“He says he is Caesare Avanti,” Sandori said from behind him. She came up to join him. “He’s a Senator in Nikeis, and his uncle is a Councilor. These soldiers are his retainers. We’re in the territory of the Most Serene Republic of Nikeis, sometimes known as the New Venetian Republic.”
“Hot damn. Did he say what he wants?”
Sandori spoke liquid syllables and got more in answer.
“He asks if we are star men. He says he knows two star men, and we carry weapons that resemble those the star men carry.”
“There goes secrecy. Tell him sure, we’re star men, and we’re here to help them.”
Sandori spoke a few words, then nearly collapsed with giggles.
“What in the world?”
“Sorry. Can’t help it,” she said with a grin. “I said, ‘We come in peace. Take me to your leader.’”
* * *
Caesare Avanti seemed excited. He gawked at the visible gear—nylon tent, mountain stove, canteens and mess kits, backpacks and sleeping bags—and kept glancing at their holstered pistols.
He also kept eyeing Sandori’s ankles. She wore camouflage trousers with the bottoms rolled up. Saxon remembered she’d put on boots when they got up, but sometime after the Nikeisians arrived she’d taken off both boots and heavy socks and put on slippers.
“It will take some time to bring sufficient transport for all this,” Senator Avanti said. He waved his hand to indicate the cargo containers. “Perhaps you could unpack what equipment you will need and come with us. We will leave men to guard this site, and when the transport column arrives they will bring everything to the seaport city.”
Sandori translated into English, then asked him, “Do you understand the value of what is here?”
“Of course not.”
“But you will concede that it is great. Senator, who do you trust to guard such a fortune? Every power on this planet will pay to obtain what is here.”
“What use will it be?” Avanti asked.
Saxon struggled to understand, and interrupted the translation to say “To whom? Captain Galloway can use anything here.” Saxon spoke in what he hoped was the planetary lingua franca, and Avanti nodded in apparent understanding.
“Does he know you are here?”
“He is expecting us.” Saxon said. “And does he not have agents in your city?”
“He does. They enjoy the hospitality of the Signory,” Avanti said. “As do the Roman agents.”
“Those you know of,” Sandori said.
“True.”
“I think it best to wait,” Saxon said. He looked over to where Haskins was standing guard with a battle rifle.
“And we will continue to enjoy the pleasure of your company,” Sandori said.
Saxon could have sworn she was batting her eyes at the young Senator.