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Authors: David Weber, John Ringo
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the port has any notion that we’re here, we’re in the deep.”
“So how do we communicate between the ships, Sir?” Despreaux asked. The sergeant had been particularly quiet all evening, but she was one of the two NCOs in charge of maintaining communications. With Julian setting up the weapons, it was her job to plan a jury-rigged replacement com net for the flotilla’s units.
“Com lasers, flags, guns, flashing lights,” Pahner said. “I don’t care. But no radios.”
“Yes, Sir,” Despreaux said, making a note on her toot. “So we can use our tac-lights, for example?”
“Yes.” Pahner paused again and slipped in a strip of bisti root while he thought. “In addition, the sailors in K’Vaern’s Cove reported that piracy is not an unknown thing on Marduk. Now, why am I not surprised?”
Most of the group chuckled again. Practically every step of the journey had been contested by local warlords, barbarians, or bandits. It would have been a massive shock to their systems if it turned out these waters were any different.
“When we approach the far continent, we’ll need to keep a sharp lookout for encroaching ships,” Pahner continued. “And for these fish. And for anything else that doesn’t look right.”
“And His Dark Majesty only knows what’s going to come next,” Kosutic agreed with a smile.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Land ho!”
The lookout’s cry rang out only two days after the attack by the giant coll . No one was really surprised by it, though. The evidence of an approaching landfall had been there for at least a day—a thin gray smoke on the horizon, and a golden alpenglow before dawn.
Julian swarmed up the ratlines to Hooker ’s fore topmast crosstrees with an agility which might have seemed at odds with his determinedly antiseaman attitude. He took his glasses with him. They were considerably better than his helmet visor’s built-in zoom function, and he spent several minutes beside the Mardukan seaman already perched there, studying the distant land. Then he zoomed the glasses back in and slid back down to the deck.
“Active volcano, sure enough,” he reported to Pahner. “The island looks deserted, but there’s another in the chain just coming over the horizon.”
Pahner consulted his toot and nodded. “It doesn’t appear on the map,” he said, “but at this resolution, it wouldn’t.”
“But there is a line of mountains on the eastern verge of the continent,” Roger pointed out, projecting a hologram from his pad. He pointed at the light-sculpture mountains for emphasis. “They could be volcanic in nature. Which would probably make this a southern extension of that chain.”
“Hullo, the deck!” the lookout still at the crosstrees called. “’Nother to the south! We’re sailing between them.”
None of the islands were visible from deck-level, yet, but Captain T’Sool, more accustomed to the shallow, relatively confined waters of the K’Vaernian Sea than the endless expanse of the open ocean, looked nervous.
“I’m not sure I like this,” he said. “We could hit shoals anytime.”
“Possibly,” Roger conceded, with a glance at the azure water over the side. “It’s more likely that we’re still over a subduction trench or the deep water around one. Water tends to be deep right up to the edge of volcanic formations. I’m glad to see our first landfall be volcanoes, actually. You might want to slow the flotilla and get some depth lines working, though.”
“What are these ‘volcanoes’ you keep speaking of?” T’Sool asked. Roger checked his toot and realized that it had used the Terran word because there was no local equivalent.
“Have you ever heard of smoking mountains?” he asked.
“No,” the seaman said dubiously.
“Well, you’re in for a treat.”
“Why does smoke come from the mountain?” Fain asked in awe.
The flotilla had slowed as it approached the chain, and now it proceeded cautiously between two of the islands. The
“So how do we communicate between the ships, Sir?” Despreaux asked. The sergeant had been particularly quiet all evening, but she was one of the two NCOs in charge of maintaining communications. With Julian setting up the weapons, it was her job to plan a jury-rigged replacement com net for the flotilla’s units.
“Com lasers, flags, guns, flashing lights,” Pahner said. “I don’t care. But no radios.”
“Yes, Sir,” Despreaux said, making a note on her toot. “So we can use our tac-lights, for example?”
“Yes.” Pahner paused again and slipped in a strip of bisti root while he thought. “In addition, the sailors in K’Vaern’s Cove reported that piracy is not an unknown thing on Marduk. Now, why am I not surprised?”
Most of the group chuckled again. Practically every step of the journey had been contested by local warlords, barbarians, or bandits. It would have been a massive shock to their systems if it turned out these waters were any different.
“When we approach the far continent, we’ll need to keep a sharp lookout for encroaching ships,” Pahner continued. “And for these fish. And for anything else that doesn’t look right.”
“And His Dark Majesty only knows what’s going to come next,” Kosutic agreed with a smile.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Land ho!”
The lookout’s cry rang out only two days after the attack by the giant coll . No one was really surprised by it, though. The evidence of an approaching landfall had been there for at least a day—a thin gray smoke on the horizon, and a golden alpenglow before dawn.
Julian swarmed up the ratlines to Hooker ’s fore topmast crosstrees with an agility which might have seemed at odds with his determinedly antiseaman attitude. He took his glasses with him. They were considerably better than his helmet visor’s built-in zoom function, and he spent several minutes beside the Mardukan seaman already perched there, studying the distant land. Then he zoomed the glasses back in and slid back down to the deck.
“Active volcano, sure enough,” he reported to Pahner. “The island looks deserted, but there’s another in the chain just coming over the horizon.”
Pahner consulted his toot and nodded. “It doesn’t appear on the map,” he said, “but at this resolution, it wouldn’t.”
“But there is a line of mountains on the eastern verge of the continent,” Roger pointed out, projecting a hologram from his pad. He pointed at the light-sculpture mountains for emphasis. “They could be volcanic in nature. Which would probably make this a southern extension of that chain.”
“Hullo, the deck!” the lookout still at the crosstrees called. “’Nother to the south! We’re sailing between them.”
None of the islands were visible from deck-level, yet, but Captain T’Sool, more accustomed to the shallow, relatively confined waters of the K’Vaernian Sea than the endless expanse of the open ocean, looked nervous.
“I’m not sure I like this,” he said. “We could hit shoals anytime.”
“Possibly,” Roger conceded, with a glance at the azure water over the side. “It’s more likely that we’re still over a subduction trench or the deep water around one. Water tends to be deep right up to the edge of volcanic formations. I’m glad to see our first landfall be volcanoes, actually. You might want to slow the flotilla and get some depth lines working, though.”
“What are these ‘volcanoes’ you keep speaking of?” T’Sool asked. Roger checked his toot and realized that it had used the Terran word because there was no local equivalent.
“Have you ever heard of smoking mountains?” he asked.
“No,” the seaman said dubiously.
“Well, you’re in for a treat.”
“Why does smoke come from the mountain?” Fain asked in awe.
The flotilla had slowed as it approached the chain, and now it proceeded cautiously between two of the islands. The
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