Harrison's Landing

“ One of my most effective mottoes has always been, "Secrecy can be an obviousity." What the magicians call misdirection. Let people very obviously see what you want them to see, then they'll never notice what is hidden. This was why I landed at midday, on the largest field on the planet, after a very showy approach. I was already dressed for my role, and out of the ship before the landing braces stopped vibrating. Buckling the fur cape around my shoulders with the platinum clasp, I stamped down the ramp. The sturdy little M-3 robot rumbled after me with my bags. ”

“ As soon as they were clear he activated it and the ramp slipped back like a giant tongue. As soon as the lock had swung shut the ship lifted and drifted upwards silently towards its orbit, a shrinking darkness against the stars.
There was just enough starlight to see the sandy wastes around them, as wave-filled as a petrified sea. The dark shape of a sandcar drew up over a dune and hummed to a stop. When the door opened Ihjel stepped towards it and everything happened at once. ”

“ Is it to be a separate one, steward, for the child?”
“Yes, Massa, sep’rate coffin for dat infant.”
“Please, sir, the pilot wants to see you in the wheel-house.”
“Is that her?”
“Get the glass,” said the pilot.
“That’s her, sure enough; she’s going, too: but we shall be over her to-day, if she don’t look out. I’ll tell Mr. Farr to see those fires well kept up now. I’ve saved a lot of knots for the race from last wooding.”
Now came a struggle; the Belle Isle was a-head but a few miles, and it was a race for stakes worth winning. ”

“ His lordship, now in high spirits, since the destination of the enemy seemed evident, and the wind had shifted in his favour, jocosely remarked to his assembled captains—"There is just a Frenchman apiece for each English ship, leaving me out of the question to fight the Spaniards: and, when I haul down my colours, I expect every captain of the fleet to do the same; but, not till then."
Having got fairly into the trade winds, they run, on the 21st of May, in the last twenty-four hours, a hundred and ninety miles. The next day, they passed the tropic, vulgarly called crossing the line ”

“ In the mean time, all the sail was kept on them, that they might force through whenever the ice in the smallest degree slacked. Though the people behaved very well in hauling the launches, and seemed reconciled to the idea of quitting the ships, having the fullest confidence in their officers; yet, as the boats could not, with the greatest diligence, be got to the water-side in less than a week, it was judiciously resolved to carry on both attempts together: moving the boats constantly, but without omitting any opportunity of getting the ships through. ”

“ He knew well the psychology of the little thing, and it was the little things by which he kept the crew worked up to the verge of madness. I have seen Harrison called from his bunk to put properly away a misplaced paintbrush, and the two watches below haled from their tired sleep to accompany him and see him do it. A little thing, truly, but when multiplied by the thousand ingenious devices of such a mind, the mental state of the men in the forecastle may be slightly comprehended. ”

“ The 1st of August 1798, wind west north-west, light breezes, and fair weather. The second division of the fleet sent a party of men on shore to dig wells. Every ship in the fleet sent twenty-five men, to protect the workmen from the continual attacks of the Bedouins and vagabonds of the country. At two in the afternoon, L'Heureux made the signal for twelve sail, west south-west; which we could easily distinguish, from the mast-heads, to be ships of war. The signal was then made, for all the boats, workmen, and guards, to repair on board their ships, which was only obeyed by a small number. ”

“ Many times in the course of the next week did the words of Harrison, so long forgotten, come to his mind, "the wages of sin is death." Many times he thought he should starve, and probably would have done so had it not been for the kindness of sailors whom he accidentally met.
One day when he was so extremely reduced by want that he could scarcely stand, he tried to crawl along toward the port of Calcutta, and endeavor to find a vessel ready to sail for America. "I may as well die in one place as another," he said to himself, "and I shall certainly die if I remain here." ”

“ A cruel thing happened just before supper, indicative of the callousness and brutishness of these men. There is one green hand in the crew, Harrison by name, a clumsy-looking country boy, mastered, I imagine, by the spirit of adventure, and making his first voyage. In the light baffling airs the schooner had been tacking about a great deal, at which times the sails pass from one side to the other and a man is sent aloft to shift over the fore-gaff-topsail. In some way, when Harrison was aloft, the sheet jammed in the block through which it runs at the end of the gaff. ”

“ There was, indeed, a hope of success, but it was a faint one, and the evil genius of the expedition again interposed to defeat it. The boats did not keep together, as instructed; they did not all land, as directed, on the mole: and, in consequence, they were stove, by running ashore through a raging surf; the ammunition in the men's pouches got wet ”

“ Nothing is sure in a sea-fight, beyond all others; shots will carry away masts and yards of friends as well as foes. But I look with confidence to a victory, before the van of the enemy could succour the rear: and, then, that the British fleet would be ready to receive the twenty sail of the line; or to pursue them, should they endeavour to make off. If the van of the enemy tacks, the captured ships must run to leeward of the British fleet. If the enemy wear, the British fleet must place themselves between the enemy and the captured, and the disabled British ships ”

“ He had it out of my fingers before it cleared my wallet.
"What are you getting at?" he mumbled as he ran his eyes over the blueprints. "This is an ordinary heavy-cargo and passenger job. It's no more a Warlord battleship than I am."
It is hard to curl your lips with contempt and talk at the same time, but I succeeded. "Of course. You don't expect them to file warship plans with the League Registry, do you? But, as I said, I know more than a little bit about ships. ”

“ Of course they couldn't see my hands.
"It doesn't matter who we are," the radio boomed again. "Just obey orders if you care to live. Stay away from the controls until we have tied on, then do exactly as I say."
There were two distant clangs as magnetic grapples hit the hull. A little later the ship lurched, drawn home against the battleship. I let my eyes roll in fear, looking around for a way to escape—and taking a peek at the outside scanners. The yacht was flush against the space-filling bulk of the other ship. I pressed the button that sent the torch-wielding robot on his way. ”

“ Aware that from a military point of view no land-campaign could, except by accident, effect any result proportionate to its cost, Harrison had placed himself at the head of a popular movement so strong that he would have met the fate of Hull and Alexander Smyth, had he not made at least a demonstration86 against an enemy whose face he had not yet seen. ”

“ Yet what will they do with it when they have it built? They have an expanding culture, no unemployment, a surplus of heavy metals and ready markets for all they produce. No hereditary enemies, feuds or the like. If it wasn't for this battleship thing, I would call them an ideal League planet. I have to know more about them."
"I've already called the spaceport—in your name of course," I told him. "Ordered a fast courier ship. I'll leave within the hour."
"Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself, diGriz," he said. Voice chill as the icecap. ”

“ Dan said, sniffing.
"Smells awful, just makes me thirsty. But ... Dan ... what happened? First the radio contact, then that jet...."
"Look, our answer is coming from over there," the big officer said, pointing at a moving column of dust rolling in from the horizon. "No point in guessing, because we are going to find out in five minutes."
It was less than that. A large, sand-colored half-track roared up, followed by two armored cars. They braked to a halt in the immense cloud of their own dust. ”

“ Forty feet away sat the sailing-master's wife still placidly knitting at her pale blue shawl, the perfect portrait of secure propriety. The sight of her there was somehow reassuring.
"So is Mr. Hare, I always believed. But never mind. How fast we are going already!"
"Yes, the C—this yacht goes fast."
"What is considered fast for a yacht? How long would it take us to get to New York?"
"Three hours. Why not go?"
A white-clad steward noiselessly approached with her parasol. She took it and smiled at Varney's idle pleasantry. ”

“ Dan shouted hoarsely, "The lights—where are the lights?"
In their last orbit the twinkling lights of the American cities had been seen clearly through their telescope. The entire continent was now black.
"Wait, see South America—the cities are lit up there, Gino. What could possibly have happened at home while we were in that orbit?"
"There's only one way to find out. We're going back. With or without any help from ground control."
They disconnected the lunar Bug and strapped into their acceleration couches in the command module while they fed data to the computer. ”

“ Every opportunity has been offered the enemy to put to sea: for, it is there that we hope to realize the hopes and expectations of our country; and, I trust that they will not be disappointed.
"Your lordship will judge of my feelings, upon seeing that all the junior flag-officers of other fleets, and even some of the captains, have received the thanks of the corporation of London, whilst the junior flag-officers of the Mediterranean fleet are entirely omitted. ”

“ As we sped across the sandy wastes at some solitary house a man, a woman, a child would come to the door and wave it in loyal greeting. Two years ago I saw a sight that has ever been present in my memory. As we were going out of the harbor of Newport about midnight on a dark night some of the officers of the torpedo station had prepared for us a beautiful surprise. The flag at the top of the station was unseen in the darkness of the night, when suddenly electric search-lights were turned on it, bathing it in a flood of light. ”

“ The halyards slackened, and, though it all happened very quickly, I could see them sag beneath the weight of his body. Then the gag swung to the side with an abrupt swiftness, the great sail boomed like a cannon, and the three rows of reef-points slatted against the canvas like a volley of rifles. Harrison, clinging on, made the giddy rush through the air. This rush ceased abruptly. The halyards became instantly taut. ”

“ In a boat, I have always noticed that it is the fixed idea of each member of the crew that he is doing everything. Harris’s notion was, that it was he alone who had been working, and that both George and I had been imposing upon him. George, on the other hand, ridiculed the idea of Harris’s having done anything more than eat and sleep, and had a cast-iron opinion that it was he—George himself—who had done all the labour worth speaking of. ”

“ Having sent frigates, in all directions, to gain intelligence of the enemy, the moment it was ascertained that they had actually sailed, he was beating to windward, off the coast of Sardinia, on the 16th of April, when he was informed, by an Austrian vessel from Lisbon, that sixteen ships of war had been seen, the 7th inst. standing to the westward. His lordship, now, justly apprehensive that this must have been the French fleet, felt extremely uneasy, that they had thus eluded all his vigilance. His agony is not to be described ”

“ The boats were no sooner alongside, than we attempted to board: but a very strong netting, traced up to her lower yards, baffled all our endeavours; and an instantaneous discharge of her guns, and small arms from about two hundred soldiers on her gun-wale, knocked myself, Mr. Kirby the master of the Medusa, and Mr. Gore a midshipman, with two thirds of the crew, upon our backs, into the boat; all, either killed or desperately wounded. The barge, and cutter, being on the outside, sheered off with the tide: but the flat-boat, in which I was, hung alongside ”

“ The wind and sea were even so violent, as to oblige many ships to let go a second anchor to prevent them from driving, notwithstanding they were riding with two cables an end; and, by the morning, the wind veered again to the southward of the west. On the 30th of last month, the wind having come to the northward, we passed into the Sound with the fleet; but not before I had assured myself of the hostile intention of the Danes to oppose our passage. ”

“ Escape, however, was apparently the very last thought likely to occur to Captain Harrison; for although he kept the studding-sails abroad while the ship was being prepared for action, no sooner had the first lieutenant reported everything ready than the order was given to shorten sail; and a pretty sight it was to see how smartly and with what beautifully perfect precision everything was done at once, the studding-sails all collapsing and coming in together at exactly the same moment that the three royals were clewed up and the flight of staysails on the main and mizzen masts hauled down. ”