07:20 (Paris Time)
Friday, September 30, 861 C.E.
Buffet restaurant of the Novotel Inn
Toulouse, Kingdom of Western Francia
Pham Tarang let his son Duon, his teenage daughter Vinka and his wife Dinh go in front of him in the small queue of people slowly making their way past the buffet tables, picking their choices for breakfast. Compared to what the Tarangs had been accustomed to see in cafeterias and restaurants in Kyoto Alpha, the spread that had been prepared for this morning’s breakfast was nearly barebones in terms of variety, consisting solely of bacon, bread, cereals, ham, jam and porridge, but no fresh fruits or fresh eggs. Pham perfectly understood why it was so, with the whole fleet on rations until fresh food could be grown or acquired in sizeable quantities. A sign at the start of the line advertized that fact, urging the customers to show restraint and not to waste food. A small bearded man following Pham in the lineup surprised the food inspector by expressing contentment about the food spread while speaking in Occitan. Pham gave him a curious look as the man, along with a woman and five children, all dressed in simple fleet coveralls without any insignias on them, served himself.
‘’You really think that this morning’s selection is great, mister?’’
‘’Of course it is, sire! There is plenty to eat, isn’t there?’’
‘’Uh, may I suppose that you are a native of Toulouse, mister?’’
‘’You may, sire!’’ Replied the man before extending his right hand, which Pham shook. ‘’I am Grégoire, and this is my family. Only four days ago, I was a slave and a poor fisherman living in a tiny wooden hut on the island of Le Grand Ramier. Then your people came and me and my family became free people, on top of becoming citizens of your wondrous society. Since they had to demolish our hut in order to build anti-flood walls around the island, we were relocated here in this inn yesterday, until your people could build a city on the island. Today, I am going to go fish in style, as part of the crew of one of the two magnificent ships now docked here.’’
Pham couldn’t help smile at the exuberance and enthusiasm of the man. His attitude about the limited variety of the food available also made Pham seriously think about how spoiled the average Centaurian had been, like the other citizens of the Human Expansion.
‘’Then, I wish you a good and safe fishing trip, Mister Grégoire.’’
‘’Thank you, sire!’’
Continuing to serve himself, Pham then went to a free table with his family and sat down to eat his porridge and toasts with jam. Grégoire and his own family soon sat down at the next table and it took less than a minute before the children from both families started conversing together, with the Tarangs asking questions about life around present-day Toulouse and with the children of Grégoire answering those questions, often in colorful terms. Pham smiled with amusement when his eleven year-old son Duon exchanged room numbers with Élyse, the twelve year-old daughter of Grégoire. Vyyn Drelan, who had been eating breakfast with Ann Shelton at another table, came to see Pham as he was about to finish his meal, smiling down to him and his family.
‘’Good morning, Mister Tarang! The corvette WANDERER just called to say that it will land in Toulouse in about ten minutes. If you could go gather your things for our trip, we will leave from the lobby of the inn in twenty minutes.’’
‘’I will be there, Doctor Drelan: I already packed my things and only need to go get them in my family suite.’’
‘’Excellent!’’
‘’Uh, how long will my husband be gone, miss?’’ Asked Dinh, still a bit apprehensive despite the repeated attempts by Pham to reassure her. Vyyn, feeling Dinh’s unease, answered her frankly in a sober voice.
‘’I am not sure yet, Misses Tarang. It will depend on how we are greeted at each of our stops of our tour. At the minimum, I expect us to be gone for at least a week, maybe two, since we intend to discuss trade with the major suppliers we will find. Please understand that a lot depends on our trip, along with the fishing that will be done by our vessels: we have millions to feed and little time to find food for them. We will however proceed with all due caution and will have a strong escort of commandos and combat robots to protect us, plus the disintegrator guns of our corvette. Your husband will be quite safe, I promise you.’’
‘’Thank you, miss.’’ Said Dinh, somewhat reassured. She then gave a quick kiss to Pham, who was about to bring his plate and utensils to the dishwashing counter.
‘’Be careful, Pham!’’
‘’I will, I promise, Dinh.’’ Replied her husband before leaving. At the table nearby, the same process basically repeated itself as Grégoire was about to leave to go board his fishing vessel, due to leave this morning for the fertile fishing grounds of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Vyyn, Pham and Grégoire actually walked out of the restaurant together after last waves of the hand to their respective families and friends.
Half a hour later, Vyyn, Pham and a contingent of eleven commandos with fifty combat robots were brought by air bus to the foot of the access ramp of the corvette H.S.S. WANDERER, resting on the landing pad just built near the future market place. The corvette, shaped like a fat saucer with a top dome, had a maximum diameter of a hundred meters and a height of sixty meters and represented a very respectable mass and volume. Vyyn knew that this type of ship, while lightly armed by the standards of the Combat Fleet, specialized in the detailed exploration of planetary systems. As such, it was superbly equipped with sensors and mapping equipment and had crew facilities meant to sustain independent trips as long as a few months. It also had sizeable cargo holds and embarked four shuttles, which would prove very useful indeed for their coming trip. An officer of the Exploration Fleet, a solidly-built man in his thirties with red hair and green eyes, greeted them inside a large airlock after the group climbed the access ramp.
‘’Doctor Drelan? I am Lieutenant Commander Sean McManus, Executive Officer of the corvette WANDERER. I will be leading you and your companions to your quarters.’’
‘’Thank you, Commander. Did you embark a good quantity of storage containers of various sizes before leaving the MARCO POLO, as was requested?’’
‘’We did, Doctor. We also emptied our main cargo hold to make space for the foodstuff you will be able to acquire during your trip and have already lowered the ambient temperature in it to near freezing point. Also, as per your request, we loaded up metal and glass items, plus some gold and silver, to be able to trade them for food.’’
‘’Excellent! Then, lead the way, mister.’’
Leaving the combat robots in the large airlock, Vyyn, Pham and the eleven commandos followed McManus through a secondary airlock, then to a cargo elevator. As their cabin was rising silently, the officer asked a question to Vyyn.
‘’So, what will be our first stop on your quest for food, Doctor?’’
‘’Bordeaux! We should find there sizeable quantities of wine, fresh grapes, vinegar, salt and fruits, since it is the most important port and exchange point on the Southwest Coast of Francia. We will however have to approach the town cautiously and be vigilant: Bordeaux had been under Viking control for many years, until our ships destroyed a Danish army there a few days ago. There may still be some Vikings around the town. If we do find some of them in or around Bordeaux, we will then destroy them, unless they are in the process of leaving to go back home. Those Scandinavians caused too many destruction and deaths to be allowed to stay in Francia.’’
‘’Agreed! How many stops are you planning to do during your World quest?’’
‘’Not as many as I had first thought. After discussing things with Mister Tarang here, we decided to concentrate solely on the locations that are either large population centers or trading centers, or both. Some locations may have some foodstuff to offer, but collecting food in small quantities would be a waste of time for us, in view of how much we need to acquire. Also, we wish to avoid destabilizing the food chain of places that have barely more than the minimum they need to feed their own population. For those reasons, we will be mostly avoiding Central and South America. According to our historical records, the area of Mexico has been suffering a long period of drought during the last decades and the Mayan civilization is presently in a severe decline, like the Wari culture in Peru. The latter also didn’t have a true marketing system, instead redistributing the little surpluses they had to the profit of their governing classes. At the most, we may make short stops in places that could offer some quantities of spices, like chili peppers, which we need in lesser quantities. One last question for you, Commander: your corvette is equipped with at least one mnemotronic chair and has extensive language databanks, I hope?’’
‘’We do have a small mnemotronic section with two assimilation chairs and a complete data library, Doctor. Why do you ask?’’
‘’Because me and Mister Tarang decided that we may well have to select a few individuals during our trip to serve as our local interpreters. Since most of the present languages on Earth are not contained in our mnemotronic databanks, the only alternative we have to spending years learning them is to make some locals assimilate modern English and use them as translators.’’
McManus nodded his head at those words as the doors of their cargo elevator opened.
‘’A nice, simple solution to a complex problem, I must say. This way, please!’’
Getting to their assigned cabins and quickly storing their luggage in them, Vyyn and Pham, accompanied by Sergeant Mark Dempster, who was in charge of the commando squad, went up next to the bridge of the corvette, where Commander Hien Minh greeted them with a warm smile and a handshake. After the usual presentations, the delicately-built Asian woman showed them spare seats on the command platform.
‘’Please make yourselves comfortable: we are about to take off for Bordeaux. Just in case of trouble there, we have two interceptors in support with embarked commandos and combat robots ready to intervene on short notice.’’
‘’A good idea, Commander.’’ Replied Vyyn. ‘’Surviving Vikings around Bordeaux have now had a few days to regroup since our initial assault. However, if they show themselves about to leave, then we will let them go after delivering to them a warning never to return to Francia.’’
Commander Minh nodded at that, satisfied: while the Human Expansion was no pushover and was more than ready to deal with threats, it didn’t believe in causing unnecessary deaths if an enemy was giving up.
‘’We do have heavy stun cannons on top of disintegrator guns, Doctor. We will thus be able to measure our response if need be. I understand that your mission is as much diplomatic as it is commercial, right?’’
‘’Correct, Commander Minh! If we could make friends during this mission and thus facilitate continued commercial exchanges with various cities, then the better. We will also try to enroll the services of a few local translators, which would then be made to learn English in your mnemotronic section.’’
‘’A good idea: I had been wondering about how you were going to proceed when faced with such a bewildering range of languages and dialects. Very well! Mister Alvarez, you may take off for Bordeaux when ready.’’
‘’Aye, Captain!’’ Replied the pilot, who then gently moved his control stick, making the 43,000 ton corvette lift off silently from its landing pad.
With the corvette taking some altitude, then accelerating to supersonic speed, they arrived within sight of Bordeaux and the Atlantic coast within minutes. As they were slowing down and losing altitude, Hien Minh received a report from one of the two interceptors now circling over the town and its port that made her frown.
‘’Doctor Drelan, one of our interceptors has sighted two Viking long ships moored at quayside in the port of Bordeaux. They are in fact docked besides the wrecks of the Viking ships destroyed six days ago. They must have arrived in Bordeaux in the last few days.’’
‘’Hum, probably liaison or courier ships. They also could be here to pick up some of the loot accumulated by the Vikings while looting this region. Tell our interceptors to hold fire for the moment, until we could find the reason for their presence. They could become useful to send back to Denmark any Danes still in Bordeaux…minus their loot, of course!’’
‘’Of course!’’ Said Minh, smiling, before looking at her sensors officer. ‘’Jeff, scan visually the port area and the town and see if there is any suspicious-looking activity.’’
The sensors officer acknowledged her order, then took a few minutes to scrutinize Bordeaux from the air before reporting back to his captain.
‘’Commander, there are dozens of big wooden barrels on the docks near the Viking ships, along with some chests and bundles, while a number of men are bringing more barrels and bundles from inside the town. It appears that those long ships are being loaded with some cargo.’’
‘’Probably loot being sent to Denmark. We will certainly not allow those Vikings to leave with the fruit of their crimes. Tell Lieutenant Frunze to land on the docks the commandos and robots carried by his interceptor. Have them stop the loading of these ships, but with minimal force.’’
‘’Aye, Commander!’’
Minh then looked again at Vyyn.
‘’I believe that it will soon be time for you to land in Bordeaux, Doctor. Do you have a protective suit equipped with directed gravity propulsion?’’
‘’I do and I know how to use it, Commander. I will go suit up, then will jump with my escort over the port.’’
‘’Understood! We will go down to low altitude to facilitate your jump.’’
‘’Thank you, Commander! Sergeant Dempster, Mister Tarang, let’s go!’’
As the trio was riding an elevator cabin down to their quarters, Pham Tarang patted gently Vyyn’s shoulder.
‘’Uh, could I remind you that I never used a directed gravity-equipped suit, Doctor?’’
‘’That’s no problem, Mister Tarang: you can ride on the back of one of our robots: they are equipped with a folding stepping platform and with handles and safety lines. Have you ever fired a stun pistol?’’
‘’Uh, no!’’
‘’Again, not a problem: I will instruct the robot which will carry you down to stay with you and provide you close protection while on the ground.’’
Only half reassured, Pham nonetheless didn’t ask more questions to her. After a stop of a few minutes in their respective cabins in order to put on their suits and gather packsacks with essential tools and equipments, the trio and the ten commandos of Sergeant Dempster went down to the main airlock, where their fifty combat robots were waiting. Seeing that an air car was ready as well to follow them out, Vyyn pointed it to Pham.
‘’If you prefer to go sit in that air car instead of riding on the back of a robot, feel free to do so, Mister Tarang.’’
Pham hesitated for a moment, eyeing the air car, then the robots. He finally decided that he might as well take a few risks and stay with his companions.
‘’Uh, I will go down with one of our robots, Doctor.’’
Vyyn nodded, satisfied by that answer.
‘’Good show, Mister Tarang: you are showing yourself a truly worthy citizen of the Human Expansion. Take place at the back of Unit 2094.’’
Mark Dempster went with Pham to the designated robot and unfolded down its rear stepping platform. Once Pham was on the platform, the commando snapped the hooks of two short safety lines to rings fixed to Pham’s protective suit, then gave a few verbal orders to the robot before going back to the side of Vyyn Drelan as the access ramp of the airlock lowered open, creating a small hurricane inside the airlock. Pham could now see that Bordeaux’s port area, on the left bank of the Garonne, was just under them, maybe fifty meters below, while the corvette had slowed to a near hover. Sergeant Dempster and his ten commandos were the first to run down the ramp and jump, closely followed by Vyyn Drelan and the robots. Pham tightened his jaws and held on firmly with both hands to the safety bar on the back of his robot as it lifted off the deck of the airlock and flew out with the other robots. His heart beating fast, Pham actually enjoyed his ride as much as it scared him: it was like riding a rollercoaster car at an amusement park. He was however returned quickly to the reality of his situation when his robot landed smoothly on a quay and started rolling on its twin set of rubber and steel tracks: maybe ten men lay immobile on the quay, near two Viking long ships. Since their bodies appeared intact, Pham reasoned that they must have been hit by stun discharges. Seeing that Vyyn kept going on towards the center of the town, Pham stayed on his robot and let it carry him inside Bordeaux. The town was actually surprisingly small, Pham having expected a much larger city. He then remembered what Ann Shelton had told him about the demographics of the Middle Ages: towns with a population larger than 10,000 were actually the exception in this time period, at least in Europe. Pham also noticed that the streets were nearly deserted, with only a few heads visible in windows of upper floors of the primitive houses bordering the narrow street his robot was following. In view of the reputation of those Vikings, that however did not surprise him much.
He was finally able to step down from his robot’s platform when it stopped in the middle of a public square, joining an extended line formed by dozens of combat robots. Undoing his safety lines and jumping down on the rough stone pavement of the square, he walked to Vyyn Drelan, who was standing maybe twenty meters in front of the main entrance of a stone building. That stone building looked quite sturdy and its four levels actually dominated the other buildings around the square, while a narrow tower jutted out at the back.
‘’So, Doctor Drelan, what is going on?’’ Asked Pham once he had stopped beside Vyyn.
‘’There were indeed quite a few Vikings left in Bordeaux, Mister Tarang. Those who were not stunned in the port fled to the local church and are now hiding inside. They also posted a few archers at the windows, so keep your visor down for the time being.’’
‘’Then, what do we do now? Send our robots to assault the place?’’
‘’We will certainly do that if those Vikings prove too obtuse. We have the church completely surrounded by commandos and robots, thus the Vikings inside have no way out. I would however prefer that they give themselves up peacefully. I guess that this is a good time to practice my diplomatic skills. Stay behind and close to Sergeant Dempster while I go forward to parley.’’
Vyyn then walked alone towards the entrance of the church, to stop a mere ten paces from the thick wooden double doors before opening her helmet’s visor and shouting in Occitan.
‘’YOU ARE NOW SURROUNDED, WITH NO WAY OUT. SEND SOMEONE TO PARLEY WITH ME IN THE NEXT MINUTE, OR WE WILL STORM THIS CHURCH AND KILL YOU ALL.’’
She then waited patiently, hoping that common sense would prevail on the opposite side, thus avoiding an ugly bloodbath. One minute nearly passed before someone opened the door of the church. To her surprise, a woman came out alone and walked towards her. She was dressed in female Viking clothes and carried a long dagger at her belt, plus wore a set of golden jewels. The Viking woman was nearly as tall as Vyyn, who stood a good 178 centimeters, and appeared fit and strong. She however could only hide partly her fear as she glanced nervously at the line of combat robots and of commandos in powered armor suits. When she spoke to Vyyn, it was in a fair but accented Occitan.
‘’I am Thorunn, wife of Chieftain Björn Ironside. What kind of people are you, to throw lightning bolts and to be able to fly like you do?’’
‘’We are simple human beings like you, Thorunn. We however came from the future, from three millenniums ahead, in fact. We have also traveled through the stars to arrive here. What you see is merely the product of very advanced knowledge, and not some sort of magic. My name is Vyyn Drelan and we came to tell you and your people to leave Bordeaux immediately, without your loot, and to never return to Francia. If you refuse to leave, then we will be forced to kill you all.’’
The Viking woman gave Vyyn a jaundiced look while seemingly restraining herself from attacking her.
‘’You were lucky that my husband’s army was not here when you attacked our ships in the port five days ago.’’
‘’And you think that it would have made a difference?’’ Shot back Vyyn, hardening her tone. ‘’In case you didn’t know it already, your husband is dead, along with his friend Hasting and their army. We killed them all near Agen six nights ago.’’
Thorunn obviously had not known about that, as she recoiled by one step while horror and grief appeared on her face.
‘’No! That can’t be true!’’
‘’It is!’’ Replied Vyyn, forcing herself not to feel some sympathy towards the Viking woman. After all, did this Thorunn grieve for all the people killed by her husband’s army? ‘’Furthermore, all the Viking armies that had been roaming Western and Eastern Francia, as well as those in the British Isles, have now been destroyed by our flying ships. Any future Scandinavian fleet or army that will leave Denmark, Norway or Sweden with the goal of plundering their neighbors will be destroyed on sight. The Viking way is over, Thorunn, for good! You and the others hiding in that church will now leave Bordeaux in your two boats and return home, where you will pass the word about our warning.’’
The Scandinavian had tears on her face and could barely stop herself from crying openly as she stared at Vyyn.
‘’And what then? There is not enough good land back home to feed properly all of my people.’’
‘’And that justified attacking others, raping, looting, burning and killing your way through Europe, on top of reducing others to slavery? If this could console you a bit, we are not going to single out your people in this manner, as we intend to enforce peace and order throughout the World in the next few weeks and months. Now, go tell your people to come out, without their weapons. You have ten minutes before we take this church by assault and I can guarantee you that none of you will survive it if we have to attack.’’
‘’Ten minutes?’’ Said Thorunn, apparently unsure. ‘’How long exactly is that?’’
Vyyn then remembered that the notion of precise timing was still unknown to this time period, as no devices existed yet that could measure minutes precisely. Sighing with frustration, Vyyn nodded once to Thorunn.
‘’Very well! I will be counting down the minutes out loud until the time is up. You better go convince the others inside to give up: time is now running.’’
Still in a state of semi-shock, Thorunn turned around and hurried back in the church, with the doors closing back behind her. Mark Dempster then approached Vyyn to speak with her, glancing from time to time towards the front façade windows of the church.
‘’I am not sure that they will surrender this easily, Doctor Drelan. You and Mister Tarang should step back behind our line of robots.’’
‘’No! That would be interpreted as fear on my part, which may convince them to attack. I still have hope that they will give up. Could you tell your commandos and our robots to switch to stun guns only? That way, we will avoid killing them even if they decide to resist.’’
‘’Hmm, I suppose that we could do that. Alright! I will pass the order around to use stun fire only.’’
‘’Thanks, Sergeant! That is much appreciated.’’
To Vyyn’s relief, the Vikings started coming out of the church one by one after four minutes, dropping their weapons in a pile near the door and then forming a group a few paces away. Vyyn was able to count eighteen grown men, six teenage boys and 32 women, including Thorunn. All had long faces and looked with apprehension at the robots and commandos, possibly expecting to be massacred now that they were disarmed. With the accord of Dempster, Vyyn walked alone up to the group of Scandinavians, stopping three paces in front of Thorunn.
‘’Thank you for being reasonable. My warriors will now escort you to your two boats. Then, you will be free to leave for Scandinavia. Remember: never come back, on pain of death!’’
Escorted by ten commandos and twenty combat robots, the Scandinavians soon left towards the port, leaving Vyyn free to go inspect the inside of the church. What she found was pews that had been pushed aside along the walls, freeing a large surface in the center, with that surface occupied by a big pile of wooden barrels and chests and with hundreds of bulging jute bags piled on top of each other. Getting close to the pile and lighting up her helmet’s frontal lamp to supplement the poor light coming from the few windows, Vyyn read quickly the few inscriptions on the barrels and also touched some of the bags as Pham Tarang joined her inside.
‘’Wine, cereal grains, olive oil and salt. All things that we certainly could buy for our own people. We will however have to find their previous owners first, in order to be able to pay them for this merchandise and also to possibly get even more foodstuff. Bordeaux is the center of a rich agricultural region, so we should be able to acquire much food here.’’
‘’And how do you propose that we find those owners, Doctor?’’
‘’Simple! We will do like they do in this time period: have people roam the streets while shouting out our offer to the previous owners to show up in the main square to recuperate their goods.’’
‘’Uh, some fraudsters could use that chance to come and pretend to be some of those owners, don’t you think?’’
Vyyn smiled at those words.
‘’I know! However, I am sure that the real owners will also show up and sort those fraudsters out. Could you make a rough inventory of this stuff while I go talk with Sergeant Dempster to arrange for our public announcements?’’
‘’With pleasure! It will also give me time to take test samples of the wine and olive oil, to check them for purity and bacterial content.’’
‘’A good idea! I will send you a few commandos to help you by bringing out the stuff you will declare fit to be bought for our consumption.’’
With Vyyn then walking out of the church, Pham quickly went to work, taking out of his backpack a small portable lab designed to test food and liquid samples, then drawing out a few drops of wine and of olive oil to examine them through his microscope. His fears of finding them to be contaminated or unsanitary were quickly assuaged, while the sacks of grains proved free of vermin. Taking a sudden decision, Pham filled a test tube with red wine and tasted it. He was actually a true connoisseur of wines and spirits and found the wine to be a young one of fair quality, enough to qualify as table wine. In truth, since aging wine in bottles was not a known process in this century, this was probably as good as he would ever find around here. Calling the corvette by radio on the channel indicated to him earlier, Pham asked for a shuttle to come down with a variety of some of the food and liquid containers brought from the MARCO POLO, so that he could transfer the wine and olive oil from the barrels he had to pierce to extract samples. By the time that he was finished with his inventory and sampling and had the barrels and bags brought out in the open, a growing crowd of Carolingians had started gathering in the public square, with Vyyn Drelan busy discussing with some of them. Vyyn seemed to be quite happy when Pham approached her.
‘’So, are these some of the owners of this stuff taken by the Vikings, Doctor Drelan?’’
‘’Indeed, plus quite a few more merchants who are willing to sell to us.’’
‘’Excellent! Know that I found everything we found inside the church to be of good enough quality for our use. If you don’t mind, I will now take over the dealings from here: I have quite a lot of experience in haggling prices.’’
‘’Have fun, Mister Tarang!’’ Said Vyyn, stepping back to give her place to Pham.
The next few hours proved very fruitful for Pham, who was able to buy dozens of barrels of red wine and of olive oil, plus a few barrels of vinegar, three tons of salt, one ton of fresh grapes, over twenty tons of wheat grain and oat grain, plus mountains of fresh fruits and vegetables. From what he could understand from the claims of the local merchants, those quantities hardly dented the reserves available to feed the people of Bordeaux, so he was free to buy the lot without fear of causing a future famine. As a payment, he used some of the gold and silver recuperated on the dead Vikings killed near Agen, with enough coins left for more acquisitions at other locations. When he had completed his dealings, with all the foodstuff he had bought having been flown to the waiting corvette, he was able to fly back to the ship with Vyyn and their escort of commandos and combat robots, plenty happy and satisfied.
‘’Well, Doctor Drelan, if things continue like this, we should be able to fill up the cargo hold of this corvette with foodstuff. What is our next stop?’’
‘?