The Project Gutenberg EBook of Space Viking, by Henry Beam Piper

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Title: Space Viking

Author: Henry Beam Piper

Release Date: March 3, 2007 [EBook #20728]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPACE VIKING ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, William Woods and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Transcriber's note:
This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction
November 1962, December 1962, January 1963, February 1963.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright
on this publication was renewed.]

[Illustration: SPACE VIKING
A great new novel by H. Beam Piper]

[Illustration][Illustration]

Space Viking

Vengeance is a strange human motivation--
it can drive a man to do things
which he neither would nor could achieve without it ...
and because of that it lies behind some of the
greatest sagas of human literature!

by H. Beam Piper

Illustrated by Schoenherr

They stood together at the parapet, their arms about each other's
waists, her head against his cheek. Behind, the broad leaved
shrubbery gossiped softly with the wind, and from the lower main
terrace came music and laughing voices. The city of Wardshaven
spread in front of them, white buildings rising from the wide spaces
of green treetops, under a shimmer of sun-reflecting aircars above.
Far away, the mountains were violet in the afternoon haze, and the
huge red sun hung in a sky as yellow as a ripe peach.

His eye caught a twinkle ten miles to the southwest, and for an
instant he was puzzled. Then he frowned. The sunlight on the two
thousand-foot globe of Duke Angus' new ship, the _Enterprise_, back
at the Gorram shipyards after her final trial cruise. He didn't want
to think about that, now.

Instead, he pressed the girl closer and whispered her name, "Elaine,"
and then, caressing every syllable, "Lady Elaine Trask of Traskon."

"Oh, no, Lucas!" Her protest was half joking and half apprehensive.
"It's bad luck to be called by your married name before the wedding."

"I've been calling you