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"Its as good an idea as I can think of," he smiled back.
*****************************************************************
"Athena's turning a bit," Sandi said to me. She was a good officer. I
saw San-sha lying there on deck with La-ra squatting over her. Bodies being
carried below. The ballistae javelin from the Athena had cut my left leg just
a bit after hitting the quar- terdeck railing, the blood staining my hose as I
stood there. Lars at the bow was directing the fire of the forward ballistaes.
I saw the North Wind start to turn to avoid the onrushing Athena, a cold chill
going through me as I thought of the difference in weights! We were all
exchanging fire, ballistae javelins and catapult shot flying back and forth,
the sails filled with holes, although there was little actual damage as yet to
the rigging, I noticed, except for the main top mast. We had exhausted our own
supply of the "anti-personnel" darts, and were firing heavier missiles now.
Athena firing a pattern of darts that went just over us, ripping and tearing
at the sails!!! Their "gunnery" wasn't up to Imperial standards, I noticed
then. The death of Lorraine's first officer I suspect now was the reason
here...
"Helm hard to port," I snapped, "Prepare to board!" The North Wind,
fifty yards ahead of us, a hundred to port, now rammed by the Athena! The
sound of the crash of the two ships a great "CRUNCH" as they came together,
the North Wind losing its main and fore masts in the collision while the
Athena seemed un- harmed, no doubt due to its much heavier construction, I
suppose!
"Need any help?" I heard a voice say, Carol suddenly climb- ing up from
a hatch, her head wrapped in a bandage, a sword there in her hand! As I
learned later, she had been merely knocked senseless by the ballistae bolt
that bounced off the main mast!!!
"We're about to board the Athena!" Sandi cried with delight!
"Lorraine's got a lot to answer for now," my wife "smiled", the enemy
ship seeming to tower up into the sky now before us!!!
*****************************************************************
"Repel boarders!" captain Janice Hill screamed, leaping down to the main
deck, her sword gleaming in her hand as the survivors from the North Wind now
came climbing up over the side of the Athena. Her keen blade biting deep, a
man screaming in agony as she fought alongside her crew. The dismasted wreck
of the North Wind now held by a dozen grapples alongside the bigger Athena...
*****************************************************************
"A bit too fast," Carol breathed, the North Star hitting hard in a great
groan of complaining wood. Women now leaping from the rigging across the
deadly gap that separated the two ships, swords and boarding pikes in their
hands, and some with nothing but daggers! Carol dashing for the railing, my
hands clasping her ankles, and boosting her up over the side of the Athena. I
could hear the sound of swordplay on the other side as I now sought to follow
her up on to the Imperial dreadnought. Handicapped a bit by my wounded leg as
I saw Sandi join Lars. I could hear the curses and screams of hand to hand
fighting, along with "For Maris Marn and Dularn!" yelled in ringing voices
now! *****************************************************************
Jon Richards met the attack of the brownette officer, her bandaged head
making her look like some feminine pirate, although her swordsmanship quickly
made him think then of his own beloved! In the darkness he did not recognize
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that he faced Carol Simmons!
Down on deck captain Janice Hill fought like a demon, her long slim
blade now wet with blood, the battle she knew hopeless as more and more foes
came climbing over the sides of the Athena! Most of them not men, but women,
wild eyed women, unskilled with weapons, but driven by an anger that made them
fight like furies!
*****************************************************************
"NORTH STARS!" I barked, "CEASE FIGHTING!" The battle now coming to an
end as a couple hundred faces looked up at me then!!
"You're good, whoever you are," Carol spoke to her opponent.
"Lorraine's husband, I believe," I said, seeing Jon nodding.
"I would like to attend to her," he said, nodding to Carol.
"I'd like to see how Maris is doing," I said to Carol then.
"Your leg is bleeding," Carol answered, giving me a smile.
"We won," I said to Maris, although I think she knew that.
"You beat Lorraine?" Maris breathed, pale, so very weak. Her golden hair
outlining the "whiteness" of her face, her eyes, those lovely gem like eyes,
now "glowing" straight into mine... The sickbay like a scene out of some
demented hell. The Physi- cian and her slave girls haggard, exhausted, bloody
as butchers! The "sounds", the "smell", like something out of Dante's
INFERNO.
"You `beat' her," I answered. It had been Maris' own teach- ing that had
won the battle for us. That and the North Star her- self, I thought. A ship
that Maris had designed. Swift, handy, designed to fight anything afloat.
Maris Marn had won this one!
"A bad design," Lorraine said in a weak voice, lying there. "One you can
rest assured I will not repeat again," she added, her dark eyes burning into
the hazel of Carol's as she watched... My wife nodding, well aware that
nothing had been "gained" here.
She was tall, golden there in the light of the lamps, her ribs bandaged
from where a dart or bolt had cut her flesh. But yet she was still awesome in
her majesty, truly the ruler of Im- perial California in every detail. I think
too that we looked upon her much differently than we had before. She had
fought well against us. Showing surprising skill for one such as she...
"You have `won' this time," she said, her azure eyes ice. I knew she
could have sailed off, left us, but she had not done so. She and Lorraine once
stood side by side against a common foe...
"I am not interested in taking prisoners," Maris answered. She was very
weak, the loss of blood having exhausted our Queen as she laid there on a cot
in the stern cabin of the North Star.
"I will give you the Swiftstar, take the Athena back," Dar- lanis
replied. "Perhaps Lorraine will listen to me this time."
"Nothing has `changed'," Maris spoke, Darlanis nodding.
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"Perhaps more than you realize," Darlanis smiled then.
"What do you mean by that?" Maris answered, puzzled.
"There is a `Queen' in Dularn now," Darlanis then said.
"There has always been a Queen of Dularn," Maris answered.
"It takes more than a crown to make a Queen," Darlanis said.
"You wish to speak to me in private?" Maris asked her then.
"They may stay," Darlanis said, looking up at us both. "It is their
lives as much as yours that are at stake here now." The tone of her voice, the
look in her eyes leaving no doubts either!
Chapter Forty Eight
"Scared?" I asked Carol, now putting my arm around her as the North Star
entered the great harbor of Dularn's capital the next morning. The ruined
North Wind on its tow there listing be- hind us, only vigorous work at the
pumps having kept her afloat this long. Maris had said that the ship would
probably never sail again, the vessel doubtlessly to be broken up for her
mate- rials. Swiftstar already gliding to anchor just ahead of us, Lars there
on the quarterdeck with his lovely Sandi at his side. We had won a great
victory, but the price had also been "great". Anis and San-sha were dead,
along with about sixty others, both men and women who had given their lives
for the cause of freedom. Maris there on her cot beside me, weak, pale from
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