Marching Through Georgia (46 page)

Eric raised a hand, a quiet gesture that stilled the muttering.

"Let me guess—" he began.

"No need for guessing here, von Shrakenberg," the secret policeman said. "We've been watching; we always are. Ah am requirin' you to accompany me for investigations under Section IV of the Internal Security Act of 1907, which provides for detention by administrative procedure, for—"

" '—actions or thoughts deemed prejudicial to the security of the State'—yes, Chiliarch, I'm familiar with it."
Nearly having
been its victim once before. "
I also recall legislation statin' that members of the Citizen Force on active service in a war zone may only be arrested by the military police, for arraignment or trial before a duly constituted court-martial."

The Chiliarch was a thin man, with a redhead's complexion despite his dark hair and pencil mustache. "Don't try to play the lawyer with me, von Shrakenberg! Yo'd be well advised to take a cooperative attitude—
well
advised. Now, come along; this isn't an arrest, merely a detention for investigation. Yes, and the American too. And—" his eyes noticed Valentina Budennin, and his mouth smiled "—yes, this Russian too. I'll interrogate at our field headquarters in Kars. We'll round up the rest of these

'partisans' in due course."

Eric was silent for a long moment. The sounds in the background seemed to recede, dying down into a murmur no louder than the blood in his ears.
Well
, he thought.

"Y'know, Chiliarch," he said conversationally. "I think yo'd be surprised at the direction those subversive thoughts of mine have been taking. I
learned
something here."

The police agent snorted. "What, pray tell?" They might have to restrain him after all.

Eric indicated the ring of soldiers. "That these are my people.

Killers? Yes. But they have courage, and honor, and love and loyalty to each other. Those are real virtues, and on that something can be built, something can grow."

He drew the Walther P-38 that was still thrust into the waistband of his battle harness.

The two Security troopers had come expecting an arrest, not combat. Yet they were Draka, too; their rifles came up with smooth speed to cover Eric. Policemen's reflex, that let them ignore the two-score paratroopers within arm's reach, and a fatal mistake. One managed to get a burst off, cracking the air over the security Chiliarch's head. There was a moment of scuffling, a meaty
thud
, a wet
schunk
sound; the secret policeman wheeled to see the Security troopers going down, and the bayonets flashing again and again. Two of Century A's survivors were staggering away, one clutching white-faced at a broken arm, the other squeezing at a stab wound in his thigh; the Century's own medics were moving forward.

"The drivers, too," Eric called coolly. "No noise." He averted his eyes slightly as the two serfs were dragged from their hatches and their throats slit. They submitted in stunned silence, one jerking and bleating as the steel went home.

"Where was I?" Eric continued to the secret policeman.

"Sayin" that the 'convenient accident' in a moment of confusion can work both ways? Pity about yo're party runnin' into those Fritz holdouts. Or extending my analysis. Ah, yes. From
them
something can be built, in time. What you are is a disease, and the only thing yo'll ever produce is rot."

The Security agent turned back again; his face was even paler now, about the lips, but his voice was steady.

"I
know
you, it's all in the dossier! You don't have the guts—"

Eric shot him, low through the stomach. He dropped, unbelieving eyes fixed on the red leak between his fingers, legs limp from a shattered spine. The centurion felt Sofie's arm go about his waist. His left arm looped over her shoulders.

"Thanks, Sofie," he said, and looked up at the rest of them.

"Thanks, all of you."

"Hell," Marie Kaine said. "It's a long way to the Atlantic Coast and the end of the war, Eric. We all want yo' in charge till then."

Suffering eyes turned up to him, over a gaping mouth that soon would scream.

Make an end, do it clean
, he thought. "And there's one thing you should never have forgotten," he said to the man who had come to arrest him. "Whatever
else
I may be, I'm still a von Shrakenberg." The pistol barked.

TIMELINE OF THE DOMINATION

[ Places are listed under their Draka-timeline names. Their
equivalent in our history is given in parenthesis on first
mention. Thus Virconium (Durban, South Africa); Shah-napur
(Maputo, Mozambique); etc. Events prior to 1783
with
an
outcome different from that in our history are marked, thus*.]

1776 - Outbreak of American Revolution. Major Patrick
Ferguson invents early breechloading rifle.

1779 - France, Spain, Netherlands* declare war on Great
Britain.

1779 - British fleet under Admiral Lord Cochrane
lands occupying force in Capetown*

1
780 —
Colonel Ferguson's loyalists victorious in battle of
Kings Mountain* Several Loyalist units, including Tarleton's
Legion and the newly formed Ferguson's Legion, re-equipped
with Ferguson breechloaders .* Savage partisan warfare
throughout Southern colonies.

1781 - General Cornwallis besieged at Yorktown in
Virginia, surrenders to American rebels and their French
allies.

1782 -
British naval victories in Caribbean, occupation of
Haiti and Trinidad*

1783 - Second Peace of Paris. American independence
recognized; British Florida and her conquests in Caribbean are
exchanged for possession of Dutch Cape Colony.*

1783 - Loyalty Acts passed by British Parliament: the Cape
is
renamed the Crown Colony of Drakia, and all colonials who
fought or otherwise suffered for their loyalty to the Crown are
offered transport and land grants; so are the Hessian and other
German mercenaries in British service at the time. Legislative
Assembly meets in Capetown. General Patrick Ferguson is first
Governor-General
.

1780-83 - First Loyalist refugees arrive in Capetown.

Conquest of Southern Africa begun; border pushed to Tugela
River.

1783-86 -95,000 Loyalists and their families (not including
some 10,000 slaves) arrive; 10,000 Hessians soon follow, with
relatives and families arriving in a steady trickle from
Germany. At this time the Dutch-Afrikaner population is less
than 9,000, ana is soon assimilated through intermarriage.

1784 - Founding ofVirconium (Durban, South Africa), and
Venta Belgarum (East London, South Africa). General
Banastare Tarleton becomes first Commander-in-Chief.

1783-84 - Volcanic eruptions devastate Iceland. 25,000

Icelanders offered asylum in Drakia, arriving 1783-86.

1784
-
Diamonds discoverd in northern interior
.
Founding
ofArchona (Pretoria, South Africa).

1785 - Gold discovered on Whiteridge (Whitwaterstrand)
and in eastern Archona Province (Transvaal). First steam
engines imported. Output reaches 1,000,000 ounces by 1786.

1786 - Drakian Legislative Assembly passes Indentured
Labor and Master and Servant Acts, establishing system of
debt-peonage for conquered nonwhite population. This rapidly
becomes indistinguishable from chattel slavery, which is also
practiced.

1786-90 - Rapid growth of economy and population. Export
trades in diamonds, gold, copper, sugar, wool, salt, hides, ivory,
etc., established. Drakian ships active in Atlantic and Indian
Ocean slave trades. Zanzibar seized in 1789; Aden, 1791. Free
population reaches 175,000; slave/serf 2,000,000.

Transportation Directorate established to build road network
to mines and settlements of far interior.

1788 - Colonel
Freiherr Augustus
von Shrakenberg retires,
receives 20,000 acre land grant under Maluti Mountains,
South Interior province (Lesotho). Marries Alexandra Hugeson,
of a New Jersey loyalist family
.

1790-92 - Universities of Cape Town, Virconium, and
Archona founded. Anglican bishoprics established in Cape
Town and Virconium.

1792 - Conquest of Northmark (Rhodesia/Zimbabwe);
settlement and development proceed. Gold output exceeds
2,000,000 ounces annually.

1793 - First coal mine in northern Natalia. Outbreak of
French Revoulutionary/Napoleonic wars.

1790-96 -
Period of rapid growth continues, with serious
slave/serf revolts in 1792, 1794 and 1795-97. Slave Code of 1797

grants all freemen power of life and death over "slaves and
other bondservants." Militia Act of 1792 establishes peacetime
conscription and reserve service to age 60. Women's Militia
Auxiliary founded as volunteer group. First Janissary Legion
recruited from slaves bought in West Africa
.

1795- African Mining and Metals Combine founded. Granted
monopoly of large-scale
mining,
leases smaller deposits to
discoverers. School of Mines founded in Archona
.

1796 - Richard Trevithick arrives in Virconiumfrom
Cornwall, appointed Inspector-General of Steam Engines by
Mining Combine.

1799 - Founding of Diskarapur (Newcastle, South Africa)
and Shahnapur (Maputo, Mozambique). Trade with India
produces fad for Persian/Moghul artwork.

1794-97 -French population of Santo Domingo/Haiti flees
before slave revolt. 11,000 arrive in Drakia. Royalists from
European France follow.

1800 - Free population reaches 350,000. First ironworks,
machine shops, shipbuilding yards started as
Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars render imports uncertain.

Cotton becomes important crop. Large-scale public works in
roads, harbors, irrigation.

1800-02 - Conquest of Egypt (occupied by French) and
Ceylon, a possession of Dutch Republic allied with France.

French colonies in West Africa seized.

1803 - Revolt in Egypt suppressed; 300,000 rebels deported
to Sinai work camps to begin construction of Suez Canal.

1803 - High-pressure steam engine perfected by Richard
Trevithick. Construction of Archona-Virconium railway line
begins in 1805.

1804 - First steam "drags" (trucks) and steamships.

1807 - Ottoman Empire declares war on Britain due to
Drakian refusal to evacuate Egypt. Drakian forces seize
Cyprus, Crete, Tunisia. Suez Canal completed.

1812 - Americans overrun and annex British North America.

1815-16 - Peace of Vienna confirms Africa as British/

Drakian preserve. Portuguese colonies of Angola ana
Mozambique purchased. British veterans and Napoleonic
refugees immigrate. Madagascar conquered.

1820 - Cache of papyrus manuscripts found in Western
Desert by Drakian Camel Corps patrol. Virtually all lost works
of Classical literature and philosophy recovered
(e.g.,
Sappho,
Euripides, Aristotle, etc.). Classical revival affects Drakian
culture. Foundation of Alexandria; growth of Combines.

Petroleum first used as motor fuel, 1831.

1820-40 - Rapid growth of export agriculture and
manufacturing/transport. Abolitionist groups in England and
northern U.S. begin cultural/ political campaign against
Drakiafor alleged "depravity" and other violations of Victorian
middle-class norms. This produces defiant anti-bourgeois
sentiment in Drakia. Thomas Carlyle emigrates to Drakia.

1800-40 - "Drakia" becomes elided to "Draka" in popular
usage. Free population reaches 1,000,000. Conquest of North
Africa requires mobilization of over 150,000 men for most of
period 1825—1850. Increased employment of citizen women
produces legal reforms, franchise agitation.

1848-49 - Mexican-American War. "Young America" faction
forces annexation of all of Mexico over objections of President
Polk.

1850 - First transcontinental railway (Shahnapur-Luanda).

Katanga copper discovered. Mombasa-Nile line built. Conquest
of Sudan and Senegal. Brass-cartridge repeating rifle adopted
by Draka forces. R.J. Catling settles in Diskarapur, develops
world's first practical machine-gun.

1854-57 - Draka expeditionary forces assist British in
Crimean War and Indian Mutiny. Dominion of Draka Act,
1858, grants "responsible government" to Draka (practical
sovereignty in effect). Hall process patented by Ferrous Metals
Combine, enables steel to be produced as cheaply as wrought
iron. Rival Bessemer method quickly eclipsed.

1854 — Cuba, Philippines, Hawaii, Haiti, and Santo
Domingo annexed by United States. Japan opened to Western
trade. "Empire of Central America" established by Southern
adventurers under command of William Walker; extends from
Guatemala to Panamanian territories seized from Columbia.

1860-1866 American Civil War begins as President Douglas
bombards Savannah. Dominion of Draka provides massive
clandestine aid
—
repeating rifles, gatling guns, steam
warships, steam-powered warcars
—
to Confederacy. Union
casualties exceed 700,000, including large numbers of Mexican
conscripts. Mexican territories achieve statehood. Douglas
assassinated in 1865 by Confederate fanatic; Vice-President
Lincoln inaugurated
.