Aqua's sizzling sun was getting hazy as it settled behind lower Pelo
Head, outlining the violent peaks like teeth in some savage jaw. Ward
stood on the bridge of the first-liner, _Bad Weather_, and watched the
fleet and the late returning gliders. He never failed to marvel at
these ships--sleek, sea-flying catamarans, steady, tall and wonderously
beautiful. Their twin hulls skimmed the seas with hardly a roll. Their
speed was something you had to feel to believe.
He watched the second-liner. _South Bird_, come around to catch her
glider.
Both soaring upwind, they aimed for an intersection. As they drew
closer, two long booms with netting between were extended over the
stern. Slowly they angled together. When it appeared that the glider
would crash the bridge it pulled up, stalled and fell softly into the
net.
He never failed to exhale a long breath after such a landing--catching,
rather.
Launching was even more spectacular. The ship raced out on fast beam
reach with its glider poised upwind on its two poles. Then a streaking
corvette hissed up under the stern, swung slightly upwind, caught the
braided stretch-line and actually yanked the glider aloft. Ward was
quite sure it was something he never wanted to try.
The _Bad Weather_ was coming around now. He caught the white flash
of her glider high downwind. Tahn came to stand by him, his quick,
cat-like motions betraying his eagerness.
"They bring more news," he grinned. "The Grimnal in Anda Bay is
starting to raise sail."
Ward frowned.
"They think to trap us between them. Perhaps they expect us to race
into the Passage after dark."
Tahn coughed his pleased cough.
"But our--uh--tactics, is it? They are to keep out of the Passage?"
Ward smiled.
"For now. We fight them as two separate fights, not as one. We will
overwhelm each in turn."
Tahn's cough was one of agreement.
"Yes," he breathed. "Just as long as we fight."
They turned to watch the glider make its long floating approach. It had
dumped its spoilers and was losing altitude, when it suddenly climbed
impossibly fast, spun completely around and exploded in a hundred
pieces.
* * * * *
Tahn leaped to the rail, stared, then keened the Kali howl of alarm.
Ward squinted downwind in puzzlement, then saw it--the seething, wild
slice of a wind devil arcing toward the fleet.
Curling, lashing, faster than any ship, it bore down on them in a track
of boiling foam. Other ships took up the cry. Knives flashed as sheets
were cut and sails crashed down. Seamen ran aloft to furl the wild
cloth. Some of the leading corvettes tried to turn and run out of the
way, but the wind was too fast.
A corvette suddenly lifted her bows, flipped over backwards and slammed
down like a thrown stone. A frigate lost her sails and masts in less
than two seconds. Another corvette rose sideways on one hull, spun and
broke in two. The wind shriek became deafening.
Another frigate lost its masts, lifted on its stern and fell back in
an explosion of water. The first-liner, _Thunder_, lost its masts and
rigging, put its bows down as if stepped on, spun a full ninety degrees
and finally relaxed. A corvette went tumbling end over end into the
side of a second liner, which immediately lost its masts and half its
bridge. A corvette went streaking out of the fleet at blinding speed,
one hull hiked entirely out of the water, and disappeared in a wall of
spray.
It was abruptly silent.
The foaming wind track left the fleet and slashed toward the open sea.
With a soft flutter, then a breeze, the westerly quietly resumed its
push. The Kali appeared on deck again and slowly gazed about them. And
the fleet lay dead in the water.
Ships lay heading in all directions. Wreckage, lines and bits of sail
littered the water. A frigate lay listed hard over. Damage reports were
coming in to the _Bad Weather_: the _Thunder_ dismasted and leaking;
another first dismasted; one second leaking badly, perhaps going down;
three other seconds dismasted; one frigate sinking fast; two more
dismasted and leaking; two more dismasted; six corvettes lost; four
dismasted and damaged.
Tahn was grim as he scratched marks on a slate. Twenty-one ships out of
action in less than a minute. Ward cursed and slammed the rail. Damned
planet! Damned Grimnal! Damned everything! Tahn coughed beside him.
_And_ damned coughing!
"There is more news," Tahn said quietly. "We just fished out a glider
flyer who had returned from cruising Pelo Head."
Ward turned. There seemed to be a smile flickering on Tahn's swarthy
face.
"He says there is a great Grimnal force coming into the Break from the
north. Sixteen firsts, eighteen seconds and ten frigates. There are no
corvettes."
Ward's whole body seemed to tighten. Thanks to a damned wind the trap
was sprung.
"Can they come through the Break?" he asked, more to stall for time
than gain information. Tahn coughed three times.
"It is a brave thing to do. Even for Kali it would be brave. It is bad
water in the Break. The wind goes up; the current comes down. It is
slow, but it can be done."
"How slow?"
* * * * *
Tahn tilted his head, stared at where the slice of the Break was barely
visible on the horizon, and shrugged, almost.
"Maybe--uh--two hours. Maybe more." He coughed. "Maybe less."
Ward glared at the crippled ships.
"And they would try it at night?"
Tahn coughed assent.
"There will be a good moon. I would try it."
Damn. Forces from three sides that, united, would blow them right out
of the water. They could meet any of them alone, but....
"If we could slip south," he pondered aloud, "we could--"
Tahn snarled, his face an unearthly mask in the dimming light. His
breath whistled between his teeth.
"You _polasti_!" he hissed. Ward straightened and faced him. The Kali
around froze in their tracks. _Polasti_ was the foulest word in their
language.
"Kali have died in this water just now," Tahn was barely able to manage
his voice. "They are down there right now. We will not run and disgrace
them! We will stand here. We will put a wall of sails and guns around
this spot, and if we die it will be in honor. We will run no more. _We
will run no more!_"
He was trembling when he finished, and Ward expected a knife to make
one final arc. It was impossible to try to explain. It was broken....
That thought crashed through as a knife never could.
It's over. The Grimnal will surround this pitiful fleet like a storm.
It's over; we've lost the fight, the war and the planet. And I've done
it. It's my baby.
The thing seared him, roared through him, shook him--and touched a
secret place. A deep place where he stored his anger. All his past
angers, big and little; covered stifled, caught and hidden. Old hurts,
old dreams, old reproaches screamed and gibbered through him like a
thousand ghosts and devils. They swamped the gentle man. They dragged
him down and gagged him. And something else took his place--something
that had never been allowed to stand before.
"You stupid bastards!" he roared, wheeling to face them all. "You
God-forsaken fools! A Grimnal baby is a greater fighter than your
bravest man. Look what he has done to you. Look! Like blind animals
you have been led into a trap. You have been put in a cage of your own
ignorance. You call me _polasti_! I am the only one who can show you
how to win. The only thing you know is to bunch together and be killed
like animals at slaughter. You stand together in one tight group to
make it easy for him. You know how it will be? Look!"
He sprang to the glass globe that held the magnetized needle, seized
it and hurled it to the deck. It exploded like a small bomb. The Kali
moved back.
"That is what the Grimnal will do to you. Your bravery will be as that
glass, nice to see--but look at it now!"
Water from the globe trickled slowly through the shattered glass. The
chips winked red in the dying sun. Only the cry of the wind sounded
through the ship. Ward forced his choking breath to an even rhythm.
"Now go die like the fools you are."
He left the quiet bridge and threaded his way to his cabin. Night was
coming softly to the Grimnal Sea.
* * * * *
It was dark in the cabin when the knock sounded. There was no answer,
and it came again.
"Come," Ward said in a very tired, hollow voice.
The door swung open and someone entered. After a long moment, Tahn's
voice came softly in the dark.
"No one has ever spoken to the Kali like that."
Ward did not answer.
"It is a brave man that can do that. And bravery is something we
understand." There was a silent moment. Tahn coughed. "May I light the
lamp?"
Ward swung around in the chair.
"Certainly."
Flint flicked on steel, a spark glowed, caught, and light wavered in
the cabin. The two faced each other, Ward sagged low in the chair, the
Kali by the lamp. Tahn coughed again.
"There is a way?"
Ward let a moment pass.
"There is a way to try."
"Fighting?"
"Yes, fighting."
Tahn paused the barest second.
"Tell me."