Part 23
Avenging and bright fall the swift sword of Erin,
On him who the brave sons of Usna betray'd!
For ev'ry fond eye he hath waken'd a tear in,
A drop from his heart-wounds shall weep o'er her blade!
-- Thomas Moore, 1811
"Have I mentioned what a supremely stupid idea this is, Robbie?" Roy asked as the two men walked to the edge of the forest where the rest of their teammates were gathered.
"Have I mentioned that I'm waiting for someone to come up with a better one?" returned Dick with a sardonic smile. "I'm not particularly all that eager to go aboard an enemy ship where we'll be outnumbered several hundred to four, but them's the breaks."
Garth had flown the lifeboat back to the Jericho to take Vic's place as pilot, so it was the seven of them who stood in a rough circle to say goodbye. Dick, Donna, Raven, and Vic would be going with Chandria aboard the Ch'ton ship; Roy, Wally, and Toni would join Garth aboard the Jericho. As Dick looked around at his friends, he saw matching worried faces (except on Raven -- it was always hard interpreting her expressions). His smile turned into a grin.
"It's gonna be okay, guys! Don't worry so much." Their expressions didn't change. "Look, for one thing, she doesn't have red hair, and for another, I'm now very much married -- Babs would kill me!"
Wally broke up first. Once he started laughing, it became contagious, and soon all of them -- even Raven -- had to work to remain standing because they were laughing so hard.
Roy finally sputtered out, "You've gotta admit, Robbie, you've certainly established a precedent of you getting involved with royal alien chicks who've been booted off their thrones."
"Well, it all worked out in the end, didn't it?" asked Dick, trying to sound innocent.
Donna sighed. "Yeah, I guess it did."
After exchanging hugs and handshakes, the two teams split up to go their separate ways.
~~~~~~~~~~
Gareth made no secret of the nature of the guests he brought aboard. He showed the queen, her maid, and the four humans to two of his spare cabins -- Donna (and Raven, sort of) joined Chandria and Terga in one, Dick and Victor took the other. Subsequently, Vic soon detected an attempt by the communications officer to send out a message to the Warlord warning him of the presence of the queen and the Titans on board. Vic told Gareth, who then ordered that the officer be imprisoned and left to question him.
Dick lightly drummed his fingers on the table as he waited for Gareth to join them in the Moravi's version of a briefing room. It seemed as if all he did lately was sit around a table talking! He looked up as Gareth walked into the room. Ch'ton expressions were still a little hard for him to read, but he thought Gareth looked pretty satisfied with himself.
"Your Majesty, Dick, I think Orloff was the only spy on board with access to any type of communication equipment. He gave me the names of three others who reported to him, but he was positive he was the only spy of any rank aboard. While I was at it, I also explained to my other officers that the Warlord was trying to take over the throne, and you and your people were here to help the queen regain it. If any of them give you any problems, please let me know."
Dick nodded and smiled, but he was still glad that Vic would continue to monitor the Ch'ton ship's communications. Another Ch'ton walked in the room -- he was a warrior, like Gareth, but much younger and somewhat slighter-looking. Gareth introduced him as Arvon, his first officer. The two warriors sat down at the table with the others.
"All right, Gareth, Arvon," Dick nodded to each one. "I only gave you a brief synopsis before; now that we have time, we'll explain how we came to be here." It took a while for Dick and Chandria, with comments from Vic and Donna, to lay out the whole tale, but eventually they reached the point at which they had lured Gareth to the lifeboat. Gareth and Arvon just stared at the group in dazed shock.
"So here we are," finished Dick. "Now, Vic and I have done some research, and I think we can make a pretty good case that the Warlord is the main military conspirator, at least as far as regicide and usurpation are concerned."
That seemed to shake Gareth from his befuddlement. "But surely one man could not murder a queen, start a war, and take over a government!"
Remembering the history of men such as Hitler, Stalin, or Robespierre, Dick said simply, "It can be done, if you have the right people around you and have no regard for anyone's life but your own."
Vic took up the explanation. "The way we figure it, all the Warlord needed to carry out the murder of the previous queen was the help of the intelligence unit that observed Luthor and one ship's command crew -- the ship that supposedly detected the Earth ship readings when the queen's ship exploded. After doing some digging, we discovered that same ship, with the same command crew, was destroyed during one of the early battles. The intelligence unit just happened to be stationed on one of the colony worlds that suicided when we took it over."
"No loose ends," sighed Donna.
"Nope," Dick replied. "Now his current bid to usurp power seems to be a purely political process. The military isn't really needed at all."
"But what about his spies?" asked Chandria.
Surprisingly, Gareth was the one who answered this. "When you think about it, there's nothing inherently wrong with a commander's wanting to know what's really going on in his command. I know that even your cousin the queen had her informants. If Terga and my comm officer are any example, I doubt we have much to worry about from Tongear's spy network once he's no longer in a position to threaten them."
The warrior sat back in his chair, a thoughtful look on his face. "If all we have to be concerned about is taking out Tongear, I think it's important that we make no mention of his part in the death of the Queen Chalanda."
"What! Why?" exclaimed Dick, with the others chiming in as well. Arvon, though, nodded in agreement.
"A warrior shouldn't even be able to think about murdering his queen," Arvon said emphatically. "It's bad enough that one actually did, but we certainly don't want to give any others the idea that it is possible."
"Exactly," said Gareth. "I think the best way to deal with Tongear is for me to challenge him."
"Challenge?" inquired Dick even as Chandria and Arvon gasped in shock -- Chandria in fright, Arvon in excitement.
Gareth reached over to squeeze Chandria's hand reassuringly. "Any warrior with the rank of captain or above may challenge the Warlord for his position. If the challenger wins, he is the new Warlord."
"Even in wartime?" asked Donna, astonished.
"Yes. It doesn't happen as often as you might think, though."
Dick nodded in understanding. "What's the catch?" At their puzzled expressions, he realized the idiom hadn't translated properly. "I mean, what protections does the Warlord have?"
"Ah, I understand," Gareth replied. "First, the loser of the challenge dies or is killed. Second, the Warlord sets the conditions and terms of the challenge." He smiled grimly. "He can set any sort of contest he pleases as long as it can be conducted by two people, and a clear winner can be determined."
"Anything?" asked Vic.
"Anything. One Warlord actually dueled his opponent in a spelling contest. He won, although it didn't do him much good because those who felt he had made a mockery of his office and the challenge later assassinated him. Another Warlord proposed that ..." he trailed off and glanced sideways at Chandria.
"Yes, my lord Gareth?" she asked, gently mocking.
Gareth took a deep breath, as his dark complexion grew even darker. "Well, that ... the winner would be whoever could, uh, service the greater number of, uh, women of a certain type," he said in a rush.
"Oh, you mean Warlord Tonmeath!" said Chandria brightly as the others snickered. The snickers turned to outright laughter at the shocked expression on Gareth's face. Chandria patted his arm gently. "I'm a historian, love - a historian whose uncle was the Warlord. I made something of a study of the quirks of the office."
"So who won?" asked Dick, irrepressibly.
"The opponent, actually," replied Gareth absently. "Seems the Warlord underestimated the ... stamina of his opponent."
"So you think you can beat Tongear on whatever he dishes out?" inquired Vic, trying to bring the discussion back on topic.
"Yes. Tongear has been challenged three times before. Each time, he picked swords."
"Excuse me, swords?" Donna said, puzzled. "I want to make sure our translators are working right. Could I see a picture?"
Arvon muttered to himself for a moment and punched keys on the console built in to the table. In a few moments, the star field picture on the wall blanked out, and a scene of two warriors battling each other with swords took its place. Dick could see that the swords looked very similar to old-fashioned sabers, although they were somewhat longer and heavier. Donna turned back to Gareth and nodded her head.
"Yep, those are swords, all right. Thanks, Arvon." She smiled at him.
The younger warrior nodded and ducked his head a bit in embarrassment. He did everything but mumble, "Aw shucks, ma'am, 'tweren't nothin'." Dick and Vic exchanged grins, and even Raven looked amused.
Gareth continued, "His opponents weren't incompetent swordsmen; it was just that Tongear was much better. I've never fought him, but I have fought warriors who have. They each told me that I could take him."
"Y'know, that puts a whole new spin on Tongear's move to separate you from Chandria and transfer you out here," Dick said thoughtfully. "Maybe it wasn't just to isolate Chandria; maybe he was worried you would challenge him."
Gareth looked thoughtful in turn. "You could be right. It would certainly make a lot of sense."
~~~~~~~~~~
Although there were many differences between Ch'ton ships and Earth ships, Dick was pleased that one of the similarities was a large gymnasium. It certainly felt good to push himself physically, and while some of the Ch'ton exercise machines were unfamiliar to him, there were others that were virtually identical. Dick had just finished a demanding routine on the Ch'ton equivalent of the rings, so he decided to take a break and watch Donna and Gareth spar.
Already an excellent swordswoman by Amazonian standards, it hadn't taken Donna long to become accustomed to the Ch'ton sword and style of fighting. Since then, she had sparred with Gareth, who had grown somewhat rusty since the war had started. Like Donna, he hadn't taken long to regain his form, and the two regularly fought to a draw most days.
All activity stopped as a young warrior dashed into the gym. "Sir! Sir! We've finally received word from Command that the queen's missing!"
The resounding cheer at this news was such a contrast to the content of the message that Dick and Gareth and eventually everyone else began laughing. Finally, Gareth clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"All right, warriors! It's time to put our plans into action! Let us hope that the commander responds favorably to my request."
Gareth and Donna put up their swords and left the gym along with Dick. Back in Gareth's office, Dick and Donna joined Arvon and Chandria out of range of the video pickup as Gareth called his commanding officer, whose rank translated into English as "Leader." Vic and Arvon had set up another monitor so that they could watch without being seen.
"Gareth! I'm assuming you've called about that bit of news we passed along," the older Ch'ton said gruffly.
"Yes, sir. Leader, I was wondering, ..."
"Yes, Captain?"
"Sir, since things have been pretty quiet here lately, I would like to volunteer my ship for the queen's search and rescue mission."
Watching Gareth, Dick admired the other man's ability to sell a performance. If he didn't know better, he would have assumed Gareth was distraught but trying desperately to hide it. Now, would the Leader buy it?
"Well, son, I haven't received any instructions that would permit me to detach anyone for that purpose." He held up a hand to forestall Gareth's immediate protest. "On the other hand, I haven't received any instructions that say I can't." He nodded to someone out of camera range. "Prepare to receive my authorization codes. You may leave your station whenever you are ready."
Gareth stared at the monitor. "Thank you, sir! I really appreciate this!"
"Just bring her back, son. That's all I ask."
"Yes, sir!" Within minutes, the ship was underway.
Later that evening (ship's time), Dick walked into Gareth's office and was pleased to see that the warrior was alone. Gareth looked up and smiled, and Dick took a seat.
"Even in the midst of a political crisis, a captain's work is never done," Gareth complained cheerfully.
"I know the feeling," commiserated Dick, thinking of the hours he had spent doing reports, both as a CAG's executive officer and then as a CAG himself.
"So, what can I do for you?" asked Gareth.
"I was just wondering ... what if he doesn't pick swords?"
Gareth stared at him in shock. "What? Why wouldn't he? All three previous challenges were swords."
"Which I'm sure he knows you know. Look, I think he'll choose swords, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make contingency plans." At Gareth's continued puzzlement, Dick explained. "It's never a good idea to depend on your opponent to do exactly what you expect him to do. Enemies have a nasty habit of refusing to go along with our plots and plans. So we have to have backup measures in place. It's not enough that one path leads to the conclusion we want; all paths should lead there."
"I see ... so you're concerned that if Tongear knows I'm expecting him to choose swords, he might choose something else just to cross me up."
"Exactly. Now, granted, as I read his file, I think he has too much pride -- and ego -- to select anything else. He would undoubtedly view that as being weak. However, he's also ruthless enough that he might not care how it looks as long as he wins. So let me ask it this way: What would be the worst challenge scenario you could imagine? You don't even have to tell me if you don't want to. I just want you to think about it."
Gareth absently rubbed his forehead as he thought. Dick smiled slightly, got to his feet, and then walked out the door.
~~~~~~~~~~
Several days later, the Titans, Chandria, Terga, Gareth, and Arvon were gathered once more in the briefing room. They had just passed the final checkpoint and were now headed to Ch'ton. On the wall monitor, Dick could see the Titans aboard the Jericho as they also gathered in their briefing room.
"We're heading into the final phase," Dick said, without preamble. "We have to assume that Tongear knows Gareth is coming but not the reason why. From the information we got at the last checkpoint, we're going to have a problem keeping up the appearance of joining the search and rescue mission. Ships involved in the search mission are forming up on the edge of the Ch'ton system, while we need to be on Ch'ton itself. Gareth and I have discussed this, and we both feel Moravi should join the search, but Gareth will turn command over to Arvon and come over to Jericho with us."
Gareth spoke up. "It would have been nice to arrive at Ch'ton with my ship at my back, but there's no good reason for it to be there, and by staying here, everyone, meaning Tongear, will think I'm here as well."
"Exactly. Now the next problem we have is the challenge. I'm assuming it should be done as publicly as possible?" Dick asked, looking at the warriors for confirmation. They nodded.
"So we can't just transport him into the Warlord's office or something," sighed Wally.
"Right. We need to draw the Warlord out into a public setting. It would also be nice if we could avoid having Gareth charged with treason for consorting with the enemy or however they word it here, so we don't want to be too obvious or visible in our assistance."
"Your presence would tend to ... complicate matters," said Chandria, dryly.
"So here's my plan ..." began Dick, outlining the idea that had come to him a few nights ago. He took some secret pleasure at the looks of horror that appeared on the faces of not just his teammates, but the Ch'ton as well. A loud silence filled the room when he finished speaking.
Roy said finally, "I have to apologize to you, Dick. I shouldn't have said your last idea was a supremely stupid one, since this new one leaves it completely in the dust!"
"Hey, this wasn't entirely all my idea, you know. You and Donna had a part in it." At their identical expressions of astonishment and disbelief, he smiled. "You said it yourself, Roy, 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!'"
** End Part 23 **