Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (14 page)

"Here goes," Gaius shrugged, and signalled for the weight to be dropped. The wheel began to go around, there was some general creaking, and the wheel kept going.

"It's working!" Lucilla exclaimed, almost as if she found it hard to believe.

"It's getting faster," Vipsania gasped.

It was. The wheel was now going faster than Gaius had ever imagined possible. Then he noticed the slack in the rope was rapidly getting wound onto the drum. Then the rope tautened, and immediately the wheel began to slow down. At first, Gaius felt despair. The machine was going to fail.

But it did not. It kept turning, albeit more slowly, and at the edge of the bank, Vipsania and Lucilla began jumping up and down.

"It's working! It's working!"

And it was. There, the tree trunk was gradually working its way up the bank.

"We have a problem," Gaius said at last.

"And that is?" the Tin Man asked.

"I should have a way of disconnecting the rope to the engine," he said. "The tree will try to wind itself around the drum! It can't, so . . ."

"So how would you fix that now?"

"The belt between the two wheels. I need to cut it."

"It's going to be expensive, cutting belts after every lift."

"I need to be able to lever it off," Gaius said, after a moment's thought, "but I forgot to put in something to do it with."

"Use this," the Tin Man suggested, and he handed Gaius a wooden staff.

Gaius nodded, and walked over to the small wheel attached to the axle of the flywheel. He put the staff under the belt, and at an angle, with the end of the staff on a supporting tray, intending to lift the belt off the wheel, or break the belt. He hoped not the latter.

He waited until the tree trunk was being dragged across the flat ground, then with a deep breath he thrust the staff under the belt and lifted. He was quite frightened as to what would happen, but to his surprise, the belt unthreaded quite easily, the machine sped up again, and the tree was on the flat.

"Congratulations!" the Tin Man nodded.

"Compared with what you've got," Gaius said dryly, "this isn't much."

"No, but everyone has to start somewhere, and this is generally regarded as a key step. Suppose you had one of these on Earth. What would you do?"

"Make it better. I think joining pipes should be done with a flange on each pipe, something better than leather between them, but . . ."

"Apart from that, what would you do with it?"

"What I said to Timothy was that it could lift fuel, to replace slaves, so I guess the first use would be on mines, to get more metal ore. Of course you need more ore to make the engines, but . . ."

"But the engines last long enough to produce far more than they use," the Tin Man said. "At that point, metal becomes readily available, so large objects can be made reasonably cheaply. The civilization then starts inventing things that use metal, and they start inventing things that use mechanical power. This is the invention that ensures what we call industrialization takes place."

Gaius looked doubtful, but decided not to say anything.

"Now, that won't happen in Rome," the Tin Man continued.

"So what do I do now?" Gaius asked cautiously.

"I am afraid that is the end of your inventing career," the Tin Man said, "but this exercise has earned you enough of what you would call money to live as modest Ulsians would live."

"Which is?" Gaius asked.

"You may learn as much as you're capable of, you may explore Ulsian cities, you may go to entertainment facilities, and enjoy yourselves however you can."

"In other words," Lucilla said, "stay out of sight, and don't be a nuisance."

"Why do you wish to be a nuisance?" the Tin Man asked. "What value is there in inflicting annoyance on others?"

"What I meant," Lucilla replied quickly, "is that I assume we are not to do something like, say, criticizing the approach to the war. From my point of view, not being killed by invaders −"

"Oh!" the Tin Man interrupted. "You mean, expressing opinions on what should happen next?"

"Yes."

"That is not being a nuisance," the Tin Man almost enthused. "That would be most welcome. Ulsian society welcomes all opinions, and you will have the right to express any you wish, the same as any other Ulsian."

"Even if they are unpopular?" Lucilla frowned.

"How can an idea be unpopular?" the Tin Man seemed almost perplexed.

"Well, for example," Lucilla persisted, "I might say a leading Ulsian General should be replaced because he is continually losing his battles. Now, friends of the General would hardly be enthused about that."

"I assure you," the Tin Man said, "you would not be the first to criticize the efforts of those who continue to lose. However," he said, then paused.

"You need a positive suggestion, not just criticism," Gaius offered.

"Exactly," the Tin Man replied.

"We understand," Gaius nodded. "It is easy to criticize, but not so easy to find a better alternative."

"Understand that," the Tin Man said, "and you will be welcomed at meetings. You may say anything you like about any issue, provided you are polite and attempt to address issues. Even if your ideas are in a minority of one, they are nevertheless welcome and will be registered and made available to any who are interested."

Chapter 9

"I'm bored!" Lucilla groaned. It was a statement that summarized both her and Vipsania's feelings, but Lucilla was distinctly more vocal about it. And it was only a few weeks since the liberation that they had hoped would remove this problem.

The day they would get to see the city for the first time had Lucilla bubbling with enthusiasm, Vipsania cautious as she wondered how they would find their way around, and Gaius apprehensive. They had been denied access before, but why? For their own good, they had been told. Unlike Vipsania, he had no doubts at all that they would be safe, but he had serious doubts about how the Ulsians would respond to their presence. However, they all bundled into a capsule at their door, the capsule door closed, and it shot forward with the now familiar juddering due to lack of maintenance. At stops it went up, it went down, it was shuttled sideways, but eventually the Tin Man announced they were stopping at the city centre, which was as good a place as any to commence exploring.

As the capsule came to a halt, and the door opened, Lucilla leaped out and made to the exit door, which promptly opened. She stared out and gasped, turned to the others and gestured that they really must hurry, then, to make sure they were following, she stepped out backwards. At the same time, a strange metal object with a brush on the end of it appeared behind her legs. She tripped, and fell backwards, to be caught by another similar metal tube that seemed to be leaking some liquid. She gave a yell as she was helped back to the upright position, at which point some other metal tube with a brush and sucking device appeared and seemed to begin drying her off. The Tim Man rushed forward, and the arms disappeared.

"What was that?" Vipsania gasped.

"Come and see for yourself," Lucilla said. It was clear she wasn't hurt, so the others emerged.

Before them was an open square, to the left and right an enormous street with vast pavements that seemed to go almost forever, although she was assured that was an illusion. At the edges of the pavement, brightly coloured buildings soared up to meet the sky, a blue surface with such a brilliant light in it that it could not be looked at directly. The buildings themselves seemed to stop only for cross streets, and it seemed each city block, of about quarter a mile side, was one building.

The pavements were littered with little tables under sunshades at which Ulsians sat, apparently eating, or simply filling in time, and with strange grey Tin Beetles. These were cubes that scuttled around waving legs and wings that sucked; the front legs systematically covered all the ground around the droid, poking and prodding, loosening that which was not desired and sucking it up. The middle legs covered the same ground; they squirted cleaning liquid on grease or anything that the front legs had failed to remove then they scrubbed vigorously. The rear legs followed up, sucking up the liquid and polishing the pavement, while the wings sucked in huge volumes of air, removing dust and odours from it. At the front of the beetles were two antennae that supported dust-seeking lenses, each waving independently, searching meticulously for foreign bodies. Then, as Lucilla looked up, she saw these beetles also climbed up rails on the side of every building, which explained their brilliance and clean appearance.

The square was well grassed, at least with a plant that was the Ulsian equivalent to grass. The side closer to them was empty, apart from Ulsians walking in an orderly fashion along the paths that crossed the grass in very neat straight lines. These paths, when viewed from above, seemed to form the pattern of a number of sticks held vertically above the area and dropped. Near the centre of the square a pile of gigantic slabs stepped their way up to form something not unlike a pyramid, but with the top half removed. Each layer formed a flat area about five meters higher than the area below, with the start of the next layer commencing about eight meters further in. The sides of the slabs were at forty-five degrees, and growing up the sides were tree-like vines that supported branches bearing leaves as thick as a discus and with the area of a Roman shield. These vines also had short stems the thickness of ship's rope that supported what appeared to be grape-like bunches of fruit each the size of a fist.

At the left of the top surface there was a huge fountain, which threw a deluge of water at what seemed like an enormous velocity, but the column became strangely sluggish, flattened, and the water poured down the sides, to be collected on the level immediately lower. On the right hand side was a metal statue of one of the thick-trunked stubby trees of Ulse. On the sides of this pyramid a small army of young Ulsians were climbing the vines, and when they reached the top they would climb the stubby tree, then stand around under the fountain to get thoroughly soaked before commencing their descent.

"That represents the water of life, and the tree of advancement," the Tin man informed them in a solemn tone.

"Why a tree?" Gaius asked curiously.

"You once asked me how Ulsians could discover fire with all the rain they sustain?" the Tin Man asked.

"I recall," Gaius said.

"Of course we can't be sure," the Tin Man said, "but our sociodynamics answers this way. Lightning frequently strikes trees on Ulse, and can set them on fire."

"And the rain puts out the fires," Gaius said in a slightly scathing tone.

"But not that tree," the Tin Man replied. "The tree grows a very high concentration of what we call terpenes, which are fluids that are very flammable. So much so that if you can get a fire going, this wood will sustain the fire, even if the wood is green and it has been rained on."

"Then all the forest should burn down very quickly," Gaius remarked.

"Not at all," the Tin Man said. "If a fire starts in the forest, you get a firestorm, a wall of fire that travels extraordinarily fast, and the trees supply enough terpenes that the oxygen becomes essentially consumed. The fire then goes out, and most of the time the rain quenches anything that remains. The boring parasites that attack the tree are cooked, and before long the trees are as good as new."

Gaius could find no response. Such a situation was so alien to his experiences, but then again, he was on another planet.

They began their walk, to see cafés, galleries, meeting places, shops and trading places, museums, and numerous entrances to the transport system. Interestingly, there were no street entrances to living quarters; these could only be reached via a capsule.

The city had buildings with sophistication that made Rome seem primitive. Even more importantly, everybody lived in such buildings. There was no apparent poverty, and no marked differences between different living standards. Neither of the women was familiar with most of Rome, but they were aware that most of the citizens lived in conditions that would be unbearable to the wealthy. This city was clean, there was no poverty, and every Ulsian could reach its potential.

Unfortunately, the city was built for Ulsians. The view of the city was breath taking on the first sighting, but simple background after several visits. There were magnificent museums and galleries, numerous entertainment facilities, and some distance from the city, a most incredible library, with access to a bewildering amount of information. Unfortunately, the galleries and museums were interesting only for occasional visits, and there was a limit to the amount of learning the women wished to put in. Art could only be viewed for so long, and in any case, it did not represent anything they could understand. Once the buildings became familiar they were just that: buildings. The museums had some interest, but too much was devoted to the history of Ulse, which was extraordinarily long, complicated, and uninteresting. The entertainment was often simply incomprehensible.

There was also a very distinct barrier between them and the Ulsian population. Ulsians would stare at them and point them out, but from a distance. At first this pointing was irritating and once Lucilla turned and stuck out her tongue at some particularly close and obtrusive pointers. The Ulsians jumped back in surprise. As the Tin Man pointed out later, this episode only increased their reputation for being barbarians.

"That's just tough!" Lucilla muttered.

"But more for you than them," the Tin man pointed out.

"But they're so rude!" Lucilla protested.

"Unfortunately," Vipsania comforted Lucilla, "this is their planet. We are the ones that have to fit in."

That was to be quite a problem. There seemed to be no way to make progress. Everybody made a real effort to be polite, but as Lucilla pointed out, the Ulsians would probably interpret this as everybody making a real effort to be polite. Correct, and not very helpful. Vipsania pointed out that it was their only way of starting, and they had to keep mixing with the Ulsian population and hope for something to happen.