The Far Side (60 page)

“Well, I have a couple guys who are pretty fair with a mortar.  RPGs -- I don’t know.  We pretty much don’t use them.  They are kind of a poor man’s mortar.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think you can bring us a half dozen mortars -- and we have those east-facing cannons to neutralize.”

“Ah, like that!  You never did get around much, did you?”

“No, we didn’t.”

“Well, off about five hundred yards to the south is a wash that runs down to the ocean.  A couple of days ago the booger was full after the storm, but now it’s down to a trickle.  Down close to the beach we can range those ships.  Lately only the small one is here; I’m not sure where the large one is.  It seems to be west of here, but I’m not sure, its location changes all of the time.”

“They’re surveying,” Andie told him.  “We have to kill that ship, do you understand?  Kill it!”

“Easier said than done if they’re never here,” Kurt told her.  “But, yeah, I thought we might need some equalizers and 81MM mortars made the list.  I can bring four through without a hitch and about two hundred rounds, total.”

“Fifty per tube?” Ezra said, sounding unhappy.

“Yeah, sorry.  The ammo is, well you know.  You see it and you pretty well know what it is, plus it’s heavy.  I can have it here, day after tomorrow.  There is about a 95% chance that they’ll never even know it went through.  Unless that Bullman character interferes.”

“How do you figure him?”

“I don’t know.  He’s awfully easy on most everything.  The one time he got excited was when Jo tried to swap some gear when it was hot.  He told her ‘No’ in no uncertain terms.  We were down for about a half hour that time, but I tell you true, I think he was right and she was wrong.  It’s all well and good for Andie to go hot-wiring high voltage transformers -- it’s crazy for most people to try it.”

“Aye, that’s true,” Andie agreed.  “I don’t know her so I don’t know.”

Linda spoke up.  “I agreed with Bullman.  Jo’s got a lot of spirit and enthusiasm, and a serious case of hero worship, Andie.  I have three people back home who can build a new fusor, people that I trust, anyway.  Still, we can’t afford to lose anyone to accidents just now.”

“No,” Kurt agreed.  “You guys save your batteries now, and let me work on this.  Three weeks, right?”

“That’s right, although I suspect the Tengri will notice us before that.”

“Oh, they will,” Kurt told them.  “They keep a lot of active patrols out and about.  They are a total pain in the ass!  Fortunately, once they are in motion, they tend to stay in motion.  They are rarely out after dark, and if they are close, they end up back in their compound.  And, they don’t keep OPs, so that makes life a lot easier at night.”

“Okay, we’ll get back to you in a couple of days,” Ezra told him.

Chapter 23 :: Fighting the Good Fight

The meeting was in Collum’s tent -- three generals, Collum, Melek, Kris, Andie, and Ezra attended.  The generals had had their faces rubbed in it too many times for them to be happy with things -- but all knew that the battle lore known to Ezra outmatched anything they knew.  Even Andie was, in many ways, wiser.  None of them, though, dared to match Kris.

Ezra was the designated spokesman, which actually suited Kris, because the less often she spoke, the more they would pay attention to her -- at least, so she hoped.  Andie almost never spoke, and everyone listened to her.

“We are now a day from the Tengri fort.  They know we’re here, and we’ve paused at a place with ground ideal for our needs.  Were they to attack us here, the battle would be over right then and there.  I’m sure the reason that they haven’t is that they are aware of the serious downside to fighting outside the range of their large thunder weapons.

“We have been following the one large warship now with our radios.  For the last five days it has been more or less due west of here, and the signal has slowly grown in strength.  You say it’s a hundred miles to the Middle Finger.  That’s a couple of days sail against a contrary wind -- Andie says it’s certainly possible.  Tomorrow or the next day that ship will arrive here.

“That ship followed a course that almost certainly mapped the eastern coastline of the Middle Finger.  You do not want them to have that information.”

There were growls of agreement.

“Further, something we’ve also shared, there has been another source coming from the east, and while the bearing has steadily changed, we believe it is now within sight of the east coast of the East Finger.  Perhaps earlier today, certainly by noon.  They will then follow the coastline south, go around it and arrive here in perhaps two days.

“It can’t be a coincidence that those two ships arrive at almost exactly the same time.  It is my belief that the map information will be passed to the new ship, and it will at once turn around and return home as soon as it is unloaded.  You can’t afford for it to get home, either.

“Thus, we have to act, and not in the way we’d talked about earlier.  We will observe carefully to the west.  The day the ship is seen, we will move our mortars down to the beach.  There they will be sheltered, at least initially, from the ship’s guns and from the fort’s cannons.

“Your men are going to have to do something very difficult -- they are going to have to be hiding in the gully, and as soon as the cannons from the fort start shooting at us, the Tengri will also launch a sortie.  You have to stop them cold.  You have to kill as many of them as you can.  And, while we will be shooting at their cannons in the fort, they may well be able to shoot them at your men.

“Even one broadside from those guns will be a serious risk.

“Further, we have just four of our own artillery pieces.”  Ezra sighed.  “I haven’t told my friends of this, but it has to be.  In a day or so, that ship from the east will turn north and head here.  You say there is a small headland down at the tip of the peninsula.  They won’t be very close to it, but they may be within mortar range.

“We will send a mortar there to fire at that ship in the hope that we can destroy it or at least force it back.  My friends will supply two men to work the mortar.  We need twenty-five brave men to haul ammunition.”  Ezra licked his lips.  “Kris will go with them, to lead the attack.”

Kris, Andie, Collum, Melek, and even the generals looked at Ezra as if he’d taken leave of his senses.

“All know Kris; all respect Kris.  There is no other person who can command the respect of both groups.  As soon as we finish here, it will be dark outside, and our people should start south.  They will meet my friends an hour before dawn and hide for a time.  When the Big Moon cuts off the sun this afternoon, then they will start south.  Understand that the men of yours going with Kris will be heavily laden.  Twenty-five men will be able to carry only fifty shells...”

“It was all I could do to carry one of the Tengri balls,” Collum told Ezra.

Ezra laughed.  “Ours are better.  Lighter... but they aren’t dralka feathers.  Each man will carry two, plus their personal equipment.

“Here, we will have two guns close to the shore to fire at the warship and one to fire against the fort.  Our cannon don’t work like theirs -- the Tengri won’t be able to shoot at them, while we can hit theirs, even if they are screened by the walls of their fort...”

“That isn’t possible...” one of the generals whispered.  “It isn’t natural.”

“Well, you have experience with this with your bows.  If you shoot parallel to the ground, the arrow goes very fast, very straight -- but if the target is far away, they can move.  Also, the arrow flies lower and lower, until it hits the ground.

“You can lift your bow up, until it points half way to the sky.  The arrow goes further and further, but of course, accuracy suffers.  If you point beyond half way to the sky, the arrow starts going a shorter distance... but if you watch, you’ll see the arrow fall more steeply.  You can hit men on the far side of a hill, if you know what you are doing.”

“Aye,” Collum said.  “I have seen a man shooting at a dralka and kill himself when he fired straight up -- and the arrow fell straight down.  The fool didn’t move.”

There were mumbles of agreement.  They had all seen something like that.

“Exactly,” Ezra said.  “Your enemies shoot their cannon flat, we shoot ours high into the air.  At half way to the sky, they probably have similar ranges.  But, if we are in the ravine -- their cannons can’t hit us, while we will be able to hit them.

“We need to sink that ship.  So, at least at first, we have to concentrate on the warship.  Your men are going to have to keep them from sending a sortie from the fort after us.

“Except crossbows work like bows -- they shoot flat.  In order to shoot at men coming after us, your men are going to have to expose themselves to Tengri muskets and cannon.  Some will be hit and killed... most, though, won’t.  I will be down by the water.  My cousin will command the gun against the fort.”

“And where will I be?” Andie asked.

Ezra answered in English.  “You will have a choice.  You can be trussed up like a turkey, sitting next to Linda back in the cave -- or just sitting next to her.  Your choice.”

“Just so you know I won’t be happy.”

“Maybe.  But you should contemplate that of all the people around, you are the only one gung ho for technology transfer to Melek and Collum.  Contemplate where that will go if you’re bleeding out on the ground someplace.”

“If I was worried about my death, I’d have stayed home,” she retorted.  Still, she settled down, because he was right.

* * *

Melek looked at Ezra, sitting a few feet away, watching his friends setting up their weapons, a dozen feet apart.  Behind Melek, his hundred men were placing the shells that Ezra’s strange weapon would fire when others of Ezra’s friends directed them.

Each of his hundred men had brought one of the shells here, and now they were lodging them in the sand, near one weapon or another.

Above them, hidden by a bush, a senior sergeant of the Sea Fighters whispered, “The ship’s anchored now.  There is no sign of activity.”

The word was passed down the ravine.  Sergeants stood up every couple of hundred feet, signaling that the ship had arrived, and then told their men.  Seeing another sergeant standing told the next sergeant in line what was up, and they stood, while passing instructions to their men.  A quarter of a mile away, Collum and Ezra’s cousin were with the main force of nearly two thousand men.

Another thousand waited near the rookery -- the reserve.

Ezra stood still for a bit, then closed his eyes.  Resting Melek thought.

“Have you heard from Kris?” Melek asked, a little nervous.

A fleeting smile traced Ezra’s lips and Melek frowned.  “No, not that.  Her mission is as important as all the others.”

“I know -- still, you’re a good man as she is a good woman.”

“Ezra...”

“I know.  Neither of you would ever dream of anything like that.”

The men at the weapons had finished with their preliminary adjustments and stood relaxed, waiting for something to happen.  Melek wished he could relax.  Above, the Sea Fighter sergeant hissed.  “There is activity on the warship!  They are going to launch a boat!  Ten minutes!”

Ezra tapped Melek on the chest.  “You will stay here, yes?”

Melek sighed.  “Yes.”

Half of his men were tasked to rush the boat as it landed, killing all of those aboard -- or to die trying.  Ezra had made it clear: “Those men are the Tengri navigators and chart makers.  You cannot afford to have the knowledge in those heads get home.  You have to make them work a lot harder than this for information.”

Melek thought if they could talk on “radios” to their homeland, it was probably pointless -- but who could take the chance?

The fifty men to attack the boat had been trained carefully.  They knew not to bunch together, they knew to run as hard as they could for a thirty count, lift their crossbows and start firing, regardless of anything else happening.

There would be three or four boat guards, Ezra had told him, another couple of guards on the fort wall.  Firing against running men, they’d be lucky to hit once.  Moreover, any of them who fired when their attackers were far off were out of the fight, as it took them almost a minute to reload.  In that time the crossbow men would get off four shots, and after that, three to the defender’s one.

Once everyone on the boat was down, the attack group was to topple to the ground, looking like they’d been shot, and play dead after that.  If nothing else, Melek thought, they’d be harder to hit.

“One minute,” the sergeant announced.  “They are just beyond the surf line.”

Melek psyched himself up, trying to empty his mind to prepare for what was next.  Ezra’s two friends, the gunners, took shells and stood with them, near their weapons.

Belatedly, Melek checked his crossbow.  He didn’t want to pull the trigger and have it flap uselessly.  It was ready.  So was he.

It was supposed to be a good thing if the men of the garrison sortied to help either their comrades in the boat or to attack Ezra and his friends.  Every man outside of those walls was at a greater risk of being killed than those inside it.  He could only hope.

“Ten seconds,” the sergeant called, his voice as calm now as it had been ten minutes before.

Finally, it seemed like the last few seconds flashed.  “Go!”

The sergeant had spent long hours with Ezra and Jake, Ezra’s cousin.  The word “Go!” was the signal for the sergeant to fire one of their thunder rods, and it roared, firing fifty rounds in just seconds.  Ezra had said to have no faith in it, that the man didn’t have enough time to learn any skill, but Melek could hope.  “Stay down, stay ready!” He told his men.

The tubes a few feet away coughed, and the men firing them reached for more shells.  A moment later another of Ezra’s friends was passing corrections to the guns.  He too was hiding behind one of the bushes.

The Sea Fighter sergeant slid down into the gully, a huge grin on his face.  “I got half!  I swear it, Melek!  Half went down in heaps!”

As if to emphasize that, he heard the first snaps of crossbow strings.  There had yet to be a firearm fired, except the one.  He was stunned.  They faced no resistance?

Even as he thought that, there was a smatter of shots from seaward, and one or two from the fort a short breath later.  Something hit the ground above his head and made a shockingly awful sound as it buzzed away.

“It’s called a ‘ricochet,’” Ezra told him.  “As bad as they sound, they’re worse if one hits you.  The bullet is all messed up, and does a lot more damage.”

Melek nodded.  In the distance, he could hear a creaking sound over the noise of the latest explosions from Ezra’s guns.

“Ready,” he said, suddenly feeling calm and steady.  There was a solid slam of shots from the Tengri.  “Up and at them!” he commanded.

He couldn’t let them go up by themselves, so he went up and over the wall of the ravine with them.

The crossbows made a solid racket as men fired when they found a target.  There was a column of about forty Tengri that had gotten out of the gate, with more coming behind them.

The crossbows swept them like a breath of wind moved grain.  They were two hundred yards away, and Melek wondered how it was that they could get so close without discovery.  The sun appeared solidly from behind the Big Moon and he could hear alarms from inside the fort.

“Two more volleys, men!”  Melek called.  “Do not advance!  Kill them, then get into cover!”

Some men ran forward, heedless of the orders.  At least three of them, Melek saw, were Dralka.  Why not?  What honor did such as them have?

Another volley lashed out, and the twenty additional men that had come out of the fort also withered in the fire.  Some of them fired in Melek’s general direction, but he saw none of his men fall.  “One more!  Then down!” he screamed.