"IN HARM'S WAY"
AN ADVENTURE IN THE SECOND DARK AGE OF MAN
By Robert J. Simmons
Chapter Five

     
"You have heat!" I breathed to Lorraine as I stepped into
the Athena's stern cabin, the gentle warmth just then to me like
a loving caress from my beloved brownette back there in Arsana.
The fittings, the furnishings all speaking of the famous Warlady.
Unlike my wife, who is not really a "fighting woman" by nature,
Lorraine is exactly what she "appears" to be without any doubts.
The greatest fighting woman of all time perhaps, I feel here...
     
"When I have steam up," Lorraine answered. I wondered about
her "fuel consumption". She burned wood, I could tell that both
from the smoke and the "odor". Here in this time such "fuel"
would be no doubt superior to anything else, and easy to obtain.
"I can make three knots under steam, eleven under sail, and a bit
over twelve with both," she added, her eyes glowing into mine...
     
"Your husband?" I asked, wondering just then about him.
     
"My orders as Queen of Trelandar," Lorraine answered.
     
"In case you don't come back," I filled in for her then.
     
"I have considered that `possibility'," she said, walking to
a wine closet, opening it, and removing a bottle, two glasses. I
wondered about Yvette Senchal, who had been Lorraine's personal
slave girl almost from the time she'd first come here from the
20th Century with Sharon. Flying through a "space-time" warp
called a "GATEWAY" by those of this time. Such being caused by
the use of anti-matter weapons by the Lorr in The War of 2047. I
may note here however that the Priestesses of Lys appear to have
a means of generating these on their own, using the power of a
thunderstorm to open a "passage" between the centuries. Such was
the means that Tais used in any case to transport Carol and me to
this era, although I suspect that it took the "help" of many
Priestesses to concentrate such "forces" to open up a "GATEWAY".
     
I suspect too that there may be a "GATEWAY" opening off and
on over the Atlantic off the coastline of Bermuda. It is known
that a Lorr battle disc with a load of anti-matter bombs exploded
in this area back in 2047 A.D., the resulting blast causing great
destructive tidal waves that washed far up over the coasts. This
may be the source of the mysterious "Bermuda Triangle" of my era.
     
"How did it actually happen?" I asked her, thinking of Shar-
on, her stepdaughter. That had been puzzling me ever since Maris
had told me what our mission here was. Sharon would have had
guards, at least a full squad of Warrioresses to protect her. It
seemed odd that she could be "taken" by some pirate like a vil-
lage girl just blossoming out into womanhood. The Imperial Prin-
cess was "smart", a very capable and competent person for nine-
teen. I'd seen her the year before, telling Darlanis what to do!
The people of Orgon thought highly of their young Queen, I knew.
She was generally thought to be more "competent" than Darlanis...
     
"A surprise attack on a village she was visiting in Orgon,"
Lorraine answered. "Her Warrioresses gave their lives for her,
but there were too many...," the Queen of Trelandar added, hand-
ing me my drink, and sipping thoughtfully at her own as she stood
there before me, her dark brown eyes burning straight into mine.
     
"Queen Maris has learned of it somehow, and has sent me with
three thousand gold crowns to try to ransom her back," I replied.
How Maris "learned" of it was something I didn't know, but I felt
it hardly mattered now. "Together our chances of success are a
lot better than they would be separately," I smiled at Lorraine.
     
"Carol's abilities might be `useful'," Lorraine smiled back.
     
"She's back in Arsana, three months pregnant," I said. A
gentle tap at the cabin door now putting a sudden halt to our
talk. A midshipman entering at the order of his royal mistress.
     
"Their `admiral' is needed," the young midshipman said, his
voice a bit squeaky just then, perhaps due to his age and the
"frown" on Lorraine's stern face just then at being "disturbed".
     
"I'll go with you," Lorraine said, her sword swinging at her
hip. I have seen her in "action", the greatest swordswoman of
all time. Adding, "It's time I met with your people anyway now."

     
"You go first," Lorraine smiled, looking down at the boat.
The waves lifting and dropping it nearly a dozen feet at a time.
I nodded, smiling to myself, venturing down the Athena's gangway.
The boat coming up under me as I leaped, squatting as I hit, my
hands grabbing for the edge of the hull as it fell again, a sea-
man holding it off from the Athena there beside us. The midship-
man giving me a big smile, and grinning up at Lorraine standing
above. She was wearing a soft leather skirt with hose. A heavy
jacket, a hat with veil, high heeled boots as fitting an Imperial
high born woman of her position. Not the best attire for jumping
into a small boat held alongside a ship in a "sea" like this one!
She also carried one of those long rapier like swords that some
Warrioresses prefer, not a practical weapon either when you have
to jump down into a boat filled with men as the scabbard was a
good two and a half feet long, sticking down there beside her...
     
"O.K.!" I heard Lorraine say, the Warlady leaping for us! I
managed to grab her before she went over the side, her right arm
going in up to the elbow in that icy cold water, her hat flying
off, and then floating away now on its own voyage back to Dularn!
     
"It would have been `easier' to take the Athena over there
and grappled on," she growled, her arm dripping, her black mid-
night dark hair falling about her shoulders, the boat's crew with
"wooden faces", fighting to keep from laughing at her discomfort!

     
"Trouble," Sandra said to me as I turned and helped Lorraine
aboard, the Warlady's near "bath" in the ocean having been seen
of course by everyone aboard the North Star. "That pirate made a
good haul of women somewhere, and the captain of the Sea Star now
feels that they are part of the "prize" that we've just taken..."
     
"The law reads, `No citizen of Dularn may take a woman by
force for the purposes of `enslavement' from any nation," I said.
I was sure that the captain of the Sea Star knew that as well as
I did. Queen Maris would certainly remind him of it in no uncer-
tain terms once he returned to Arsana with the prize, I knew too!
     
"He doubtlessly maintains that since the women were not tak-
en by him, but by others that they are now a legitimate prize," I
heard Lorraine say from beside me, the Warlady's awesome intelli-
gence well displayed by her delightful phrasing of the situation!
     
"How did you know!?" Sandra gasped, standing there amazed!
     
"It is `logical', considering the `nature' of your law," the
Warlady smiled, her dark eyes burning into those of my captain...
The Sea Star and the prize now drifting a bit down to leeward.
They were already far enough away that it would be a hard pull
for a boat's crew, especially in this sea. I wondered if he was
thinking that if he got "far" enough away, that I'd just let him
go. A lot of Dularnian seamen were strongly opposed to this law.
There was considerable sexual "polarization" back in Arsana and
elsewhere over it, with women for the law and the men against it.
A number of high born Ladies opposing it, no doubt fearing that
they might someday have to do a bit of "housework" without having
a slave girl to do such "demeaning labors" as dusting furniture.
It being difficult to get any free woman to do such work as they
considered such tasks to be the proper duty here of a slave girl.
     
"Signal Sea Star to bring that prize back," I snapped, Shari
hastening to do my bidding. The ship would be a welcome addition
to the Royal Dularnian Navy, and the women could be useful to us
as some of them might come from areas near where we were going...
     
"I will buy that ship, everyone aboard her," Lorraine said,
adding, "I will give you a draft for two thousand gold crowns for
that vessel and whatever women are aboard it." Her eyes burning
into mine in a way that left no doubts of her determination here!

     
I looked at the women there on the deck of the pirate ship,
bloodstains here and there telling of what had happened earlier.
They clutched to themselves what clothing they could find, shiv-
ering in the cold, their teeth chattering from the chilly breeze.
The Warlady of the Empire of California standing there beside me,
swaying with the motion of the ship. Around us the Athena, the
North Star, and the Sea Star, ships of two different nations, of
two different cultures. I wondered at the thoughts that must
have passed through their minds as they stood there together in a
tightly packed group, now clinging to each other in their terror.
     
"I am Lorraine, Queen of Trelandar, Warlady of the Empire of
California," Lorraine spoke in a clear ringing voice, the sun-
light striking bluish glints off that coal black midnight hair as
it dipped in and out from behind the drifting cotton clouds there
above. "I have purchased this ship, and everyone aboard it," the
tall brunette spoke, her left hand on the hilt of her sword, her
right on the butt of the Martian blaster pistol that she carried.
The women muttering among themselves at this, not all that happy
perhaps at the thought that they might now be her own "property"!
     
"I am giving you a `choice'," the Warlady continued, saying,
"You may serve aboard this vessel under my command, sharing the
risks that I will be sharing, and afterwards reaping the rewards
of faithful service to the Queen of Trelandar, or you may decide
to accept the collars of slave girls, in which case I will sell
the lot of you to the captain and crew of the warship Sea Star."
There was of course only one "reply" the women could make to her!

     
"They're not fighting women," I said to the Warlady as we
stood on the deck of the "Vengeance", this having been the "name"
the Warlady had bestowed upon her new ship. Lorraine having said
that she would take direct command of the former pirate schooner.
Placing her first officer in command of her armored dreadnought.
     
"They will soon learn to be," Lorraine smiled, glancing at
the seamen sent over from our ships and hers to man this new part
of her "navy". The vessel would be rearmed, refitted, and in
time I had no doubt would uphold the honor of this tall brunette!

     
"What in the `Name of Lys' is she hoisting?" Sandra gasped,
lifting the telescope to her eye just before sunset. I didn't
need the telescope to know what it was now! Lorraine believed in
"justice", and I suppose it didn't take her long to pass sentence
on those pirates who had survived the earlier battle. Sandra
lowered the telescope, her face showing the emotions that she
doubtlessly felt. I supposed the sixty odd women aboard had made
no objections to pulling on the ropes fixed to the yardarms. To
putting a final "end" to those who had "abused" them so earlier!
     
"They generally hang pirates," I smiled in reply to her...

     
"A chance to stretch our legs," Shari said to me, her green
eyes glowing with pleasure as we stepped from the boat a day lat-
er. Lorraine needed more firewood for the Athena's boiler. She
burned it up almost by the ton too when she kept steam constantly
up like this in readiness for battle. The ships floating out
there a couple hundred yards out, their catapults and ballistae
cocked and loaded, the Athena broadside to the shore, smoke pour-
ing from her funnel, her awesome armament ready to fire at a sec-
ond's notice. She fired sixteen steam catapults a side, all with
a range of around five hundred yards, either with shot or darts.
Her rate of fire was up to five broadsides a minute, I knew, now
thinking of what it would be like to go up against such a ship...
     
"There are dangerous animals here," I reminded her, thankful
for the crossbowmen we had with us. The ground still covered
with snow despite the warmth of the sun there in the azure sky.
     
"There is a `legend' of `Amazons' who ride on great wolves,"
Shari answered with a smile. I smiled, shaking my head in reply.
Dire wolves are "big", but they aren't big enough to support the
weight of a grown woman on their backs like a horse or unicorn.
     
"Sailors are great story tellers," I smiled back at her.
     
"As you `say', sir," Shari answered me back doubtfully.
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