Carr / Robertson Last Space Viking

1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-937912-29-4
Verlag: Pequod Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 292 Seiten

THE LAST SPACE VIKING by John F. Carr & Mike Robertson is a sequel to H. Beam Piper's Space Viking. It takes place about a century after the legendary Lucas Trask first created the League of Civilized Worlds. Lucas Trask's dreams for a new galaxy order appear destined for failure when a new power emerges from the ashes of the Old Federation. Will King Rodrik Trask be able to salvage his grandfather's dream? Captain David Morland of Joyeuse might well be last of the great Space Viking captains. He emerges at a time when the Old Federation is changing, and not for the better. All Morland wants is his own base world to use as a center for organizing raids and trading parties into the thousands of worlds of the long-dead Federation. Generations of Space Viking marauders have taken their toll and plunder-worthy planets have declined as more of the Old Federation worlds have slipped into barbarism. To save his dream, Morland has to find the right Neobarbarian world and conquer it before he's discovered by the new dynasty that's determined to end the Space Viking menace, one way or another!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Carr, John F.

Robertson, Mike

Leseproben

II From a distance, the Nebula looked like a gigantic hot-air balloon. As his pinnace drew closer, David Morland could make out the warship’s distinctive blazonry, a circular golden nebula impaled on a red sword. The Nebula, like most Space Viking ships, was a two thousand- foot spherical raiding vessel with a crew of three hundred along with five hundred ground fighters. The Nebula’s primary mission was to travel into the Old Federation, which had collapsed into anarchy over eight hundred years ago, to raid and loot unsuspecting worlds. Of the thousands of planets in the Old Federation, not more than twenty retained the technological civilization of the former Federation. The rest were potential targets for ships like the Nebula. Within seconds the hull of the ship filled the viewscreen. The pinnace had reversed thrust in time to come to a complete halt, resting in place through its contragravity lifters. Morland involuntarily winced as the collapsium deck cover slid up to allow the two-hundred-foot pinnace to be caught by the grapplers and yanked inside the Nebula’s docking deck. This maneuver, which only took seconds, was one of the most dangerous operations undertaken by collapsium-armored warships. For a few brief seconds, it provided the enemy with a window for a clear shot into the innards of the immense warship. Although the inside of the docking deck was protected by collapsed-matter shielding, even a two-megaton blast inside the ship could cause irreparable damage. Fergus Byrne, Third Officer aboard the Nebula, was waiting inside to greet him as he disembarked from the pinnace. Byrne’s presence was in clear violation of ship’s regulations. In a combat situation, with the Captain, First, and Second Officers away from the ship, Byrne’s place was on the bridge. “Mr. Morland, I’m going down to the surface. I want you to assume temporary command of the Nebula.” “Is everything okay, sir?” he asked. “Stillwater is secure. I’m going to join Captain Orrick. I want to see this strange world for myself. Dismissed.” “Aye, aye, sir,” Morland replied. He wanted to ask Byrne why he was violating ship regulations, but knew he’d get a good chewing out if he did. The Nebula was widely regarded as an unlucky ship and there were questions about the leadership abilities of its captain and senior officers. Its last half-dozen or so voyages had gone poorly; some were barely profitable while others had lost money, presenting the owners with big losses, which meant that the current trade-and-raid journey was a make it or break it trip. Morland might have joined the Nebula just in time for its last voyage, which would inevitably color his chances of finding a berth on another ship when they returned to Joyeuse. The last thing he wanted to do was to rile one of the officers who might be in a position to offer him a post on another ship sometime in the future. Therefore, he swallowed his objection to Byrne’s jaunt to the surface. Agni was the only known habitable planet in a blue star solar system and worth visiting. Usually blue stars were so short-lived that life rarely had a chance to develop. Agni was the exception; it had been discovered at a time when the human race was desperate for more worlds to colonize, and so it had been settled. When the Old Federation fell apart, Agni had lost hyperdrive capability and contragravity, but had preserved a certain level of civilization and had retained primitive nuclear power plants. When the planet had been rediscovered and raided by Space Vikings first venturing back into the Old Federation, those raiders had quickly learned that the inhabitants of Agni were not easy marks. They fought ferociously in defense of their world. Over the centuries Agni had remained a tempting target to marauding Space Vikings. Since the Agni locals had good weapons and fought so well, the planet was only raided by the most daring, or desperate, of ship captains. No one ever returned from Agni without a damaged ship and serious casualties. Lately, raiding Agni had become even more dangerous. They had either rediscovered—or, more likely, captives taken alive from past looting parties had schooled them in—the direct conversion of nuclear power to electricity. This allowed them to develop even more lethal weapons. It also made raiding Agni more lucrative, for besides silver there were plutonium and power unit cartridges to be looted as well. Maybe this is why the Nebula’s officers are celebrating their most successful raid ever planetside? Morland wondered. Regardless, he found it strange. The ship had taken a lot of damage during the raid and there was always the possibility of more hidden missiles. Or what if a ship was lying in wait near one of Agni’s moons? His crew began unloading the pinnaces, which were packed as full as possible with silver, small machinery and the usual odds and ends from the raid. The medic gave him a worried look. “Sir, that’s a nasty break. You really should be in a robomedic.” “That will have to wait until everyone gets back,” he said, trying to remove his armor while standing on one leg with the medic’s assistance. Morland couldn’t very well command a ship, even temporarily, from a robomedic. The anesthesia was already beginning to wear off and he had the medic spray his leg with something that numbed it, bringing the pain down to a manageable level. Then he slapped on a temporary brace. Morland still couldn’t walk unassisted, but he could certainly sit in a chair on the bridge and give orders—if necessary. Then, the outer decked opened again as a troop carrier entered the docking port, triggering a warning siren. There were new scars on the craft’s hull, and flashing yellow lights indicating wounded were aboard. He turned to the medic who was helping him toward the elevators. “Go help with the wounded.” Morland used his hand-phone to call the deck chief. He told him to unload the two pinnaces as fast as possible and have the crews on standby in case they were needed again. The chief looked as if he were about to disagree, but instead nodded and left. The crews coming off the pinnaces obviously wanted to start celebrating what was clearly a lucrative raid. They can wait until the ship is safely off-world, he thought. They’ll have plenty of time to celebrate and recover before their next stop. Realizing he was coming near the end of his ability to stand on one leg, he waved over a crewman to help him make his way to the bridge. There were only a few members of the ship’s company on the bridge. Morland carefully settled himself into the captain’s chair. He found that once he propped his leg up, it didn’t throb so badly. He knew the two junior officers on the bridge, Konrad Veazey and Silvia Ryan well. They had been his main companions on the ship since neither of them belonged to any of the cliques surrounding the senior officers. He sighed quietly, reminiscing over the much friendlier atmosphere on his previous ship, the Prince of Thieves. However, it was Captain Allison who had told him that he was ready to be a senior officer and time to learn how other ships did things when he had sent him to the Nebula to interview for Fourth Officer—which now seemed like a long time ago. According to the latest status report, the raid on Stillwater was going better than the raid he had led in Svaha Port. After some hard fighting they had taken a nuclear manufacturing plant located on the fringe of Stillwater and were still loading plutonium and power cartridges. They had lost some men during the take-over, but not enough to impair the raiding expedition. There was still some fighting going on around the fringes of the plant according to the last communication report, but it didn’t seem to be anything more than occasional sniping. There was only one pinnace left at the nuclear plant which was still being loaded. The pinnace commanded by the Second was several miles away from the plant. Suddenly one of the crew swore. “Missile fire! One of our craft just disappeared. The bastards hit it!” “Which craft was it?” he asked. They all turned and looked at Ryan, who was handling the communications station. Her face had gone pale as she looked up from the board. “The Captain’s combat car,” she said, her voice suddenly hoarse. Morland gaped at her for a second, his face turning as pale as hers. “Double check on that,” he ordered. He felt his heart sink—the Captain! He hadn’t liked the man much, but still he was the captain. Orrick was a hard but fair officer, and the only one of the ship’s high command who didn’t play favorites. The entire bridge crew turned to their instruments. A lady, whom he’d suspected was the Captain’s mistress, was openly crying. One by one their heads swung back to look at him, each one nodding confirmation. He ordered the news sent to the Second, who was now the acting Captain. “Confirmed,” said Byrne’s voice over the speaker. “I’ll return to the Nebula shortly. We’ve detected the launching site. We’re attacking that area now.” His ...