(eng) Michael Kurland by The Princes of Earth

Author:The Princes of Earth [Earth, The Princes of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII.

Four people had been killed in Lord Higar’s assault on the Western Star: three crewmen in the bridge and one of Lord Higar’s men, who was shot by Higar’s own handgun when he tried to hit Nancy. Three crewmen, two of Higar’s men, and one passenger—me—were injured.

The next day at eleven hundred hours, deep-space burial services were read, and the four dead were puffed into space on jets of air that would carry them away from the ship.

“And so these voyagers begin the endless journey,” Captain ep Tzinn read from the ages-old service of the Space Guild as each body left the ship. “They go where time has no meaning, where space has no limits. They join the company of all those who have died in space, and of all those who shall die in space, to meet in the eternal, limitless Valhalla that is the space between the stars.” She closed the book.

“Let it be written in the Great Scroll of the Guild that Second Officer Robel ep Dymstor and Qualified Spaceman Billup Stermatt died in the performance of their duties, and let their people be notified. Warrant Officer”—and here she made a series of sounds I cannot spell or pronounce—“an observer from Greater Darwin, died in the performance of its duty. Let its name be entered in honor in the Great Scroll, as it was in the service of the Western Star that it gave its life, and let its people be so notified.

“As for the other dead man, another will have to speak for him.”

And Captain Lady Tara ep Tzinn turned and walked out of the room.

At thirteen hundred, Deep Space Court was convened in the passengers’ dining room. The tables were removed and rows of chairs were set out facing the front of the room for the passengers and crew who wished to watch the proceedings. At a small table at front center sat Captain ep Tzinn, who was the judge. To her left, at a slightly longer table, sat the ship’s purser, the first officer, and Dame Proud. To her right, on a double row of chairs, sat the thirty accused. The machine shop had manufactured shackles for them, and they were all shackled together, each one’s right foot to the next man’s left, with Lord Higar first in line. The witness chair had been placed between the two tables. On the middle seat of the front row of observers sat a ship’s officer with a holo camera to take an official record of the court proceedings.

“Are we ready?” Captain ep Tzinn asked. “Good. Then let this court be open. We are inquiring into the events that took place aboard the Western Star on the night of April sixteenth, in this twenty-ninth year of the reign of Alexander the Ninth, leading up to and including the deaths of three ship’s officers and one passenger. Let the names of the dead be entered into the official minutes.”

The officer with the holo camera whispered something into his whisker mike and then nodded to Captain ep Tzinn.

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