Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (36 page)

"Maybe they're making out Rome is more advanced," she said hopefully. "Maybe they're trying to lay down conditions to let us go home."

"Maybe your imagination's out of control!" Gaius shook his head.

* * *

Gaius was taken by capsule to the simulators, but this time the journey seemed to be different. When the capsule finally stopped, he strode through the door to find himself alone on the side of an Ulsian hill. That must be wrong! He turned to go back, but the doorway had been covered by turf. Then he heard a noise, and when he turned around he saw the image of a horse. Apart from Klendor, nobody else was in sight. Then he heard a cry of his name from above. He looked up, and there was an image of Timothy on a horse. "Celts!" he cried. He looked around, and from nowhere, the image of the twentieth legion formed in the distance.

"The first scenario was your opponent's battle," Klendor smiled. "This one is yours, and I must now leave you to it. No help can be given, other than to let you know the horse is solid enough that you can ride it. You are supposed to know what you are doing in this battle."

"But . . . how is this . . . the detail . . . I mean . . ." Gaius gasped.

"In the actual battle, one of your men pointed out a silver object in the distance," Klendor smiled. "That was a recording device, and the records came to Ulse with your ship. So, go to it. Anything your legion could do can be done here, as if it were on Earth. Oh. If you fire a missile, you must assume Earth's gravity, not Ulse's. The computers will make the appropriate adjustments. Now, you'd better get on with it."

Gaius nodded, and turned to the image. This was ridiculous, he felt, but there was little option. He grasped the horse, and found it was solid. He mounted, half expecting the image to collapse but it did not, and almost in disbelief he found himself riding this non-existent horse to the top of the hill. It gave him the eeriest feeling to speak once again to his old tribunes, reconstructed from Timothy's memory and, Gaius noted wryly, slightly different in one or two details, and strangely bland in one or two others, where Timothy had not taken sufficient notice. There was also a slight "washed" effect, as if the memory had fuzzed up slightly. Still, there was no time to lose. He gave the same initial deployment as previously.

The three cohorts moved off to the northern forest, which, Gaius noted, was not quite correct either. Timothy had not taken much notice of that, and it was hidden from the recording device. The "artillery" was brought into position, and the digging of trenches had just begun when word came that the Celts were on the move.

Gaius quickly rode to the hilltop, and there, before him, he could see the Celtic infantry starting to advance down the hillside. His opponent had seemingly noticed that he was building fortifications, and was determined to attack before these were completed.

With loud whoops the Celts charged down the hillside towards the stream below. Just as the leaders were about to reach the stream, Gaius ordered the catapults and ballistae to commence firing into the rear two thirds of the attackers. The archers were lined up to fire on anyone crossing the stream, and the infantry were in line to deal with whatever resulted.

Whatever else could be said about Ulsian simulations, Gaius realized, they were realistic. As the missiles tore into the images of the Celts, men appeared to be broken. As the charge reached the bottom, the leaders perforce had to slow down, and the charging masses tore into the leaders. The catapults now lowered their firing into this mass of imaged humanity, and the scene was one of incredible carnage. Then the image disappeared, and Gaius remained alone on the hilltop.

"I assume you had no desire to see the images played out to their gruesome end?" the Admiral said later.

"No," Gaius said firmly. He paused, then looked at the Admiral and said, "I became a soldier because that was the way to advance in Rome, and not because I had an urge to kill."

"But you knew you would?" the Admiral pointed out.

"Actually," Gaius pointed out, "apart from dealing with banditry, the majority of Roman soldiers do not see war. Even during the invasion of Britain, less than an eighth of the army was involved."

This clearly surprised the Admiral.

"You don't think you can simply join the army to do your duty?" Gaius challenged.

"Of course!" the Admiral chuckled. "After all, I did."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Gaius said, as he suddenly realized what he had said.

"Not at all," the Admiral shrugged. "I was probing you."

* * *

Two further battles were similarly fought, each ending up as a debacle. His opponent tried an early flanking movement on Gaius' right, but the terrain was too steep, and the Roman cohort could easily hold up progress long enough for the counter-attack to cut in from the side. Then he tried a flanking attack on the left, but his troops became lost in the swamp and the computer ruled that they would have dispersed and fled when Gaius simply crossed the stream and took the essentially undefended base.

On the fourth scenario, there was no attack, but when it was ruled that night had passed and Gaius was ready to advance, his enemy had disappeared, apparently having decided to retreat west to the hills of Wales. At that point the Admiral informed Gaius that the entire exercise was over. He should report to the military headquarters the following morning.

* * *

"You thrashed him!" Lucilla said later, when she heard that the fifth exercise would not take place.

"So it would seem," Gaius remarked, with a touch of self-satisfaction.

"One for the primitives!" Lucilla added, with obvious satisfaction.

"Except that you can't say so," Vipsania intervened.

"What?" Lucilla asked, almost in exasperation. "Why not? They keep telling us how good they are!"

"Because we can't afford to be seen as trying to humiliate their hero."

"What're you getting at?" Gaius frowned.

"Stop and think about it," Vipsania replied. "The last five scenarios represented one of your victories, and you were one of the participants. Presumably the first five represented a battle fought by your opponent, and I'm ready to bet he won."

"And there's only one famous Ulsian victory so far in this war," Gaius nodded, "and an Ulsian commander destroyed ten enemy ships without loss when they were leaving a planetary system."

"Nobody's going to thank you for saying he wouldn't have won if you'd been the enemy, and there's no future in pointing out he can't ride a horse," Vipsania continued. "All that happens is you'll really annoy them all."

"And we need them more than they need us," Gaius nodded.

"But you can't run yourself down," Lucilla said. "If you do, we'll never get home."

"We'll never get home," Vipsania said simply.

"What?" Lucilla cried out. "I thought we agreed it was at least possible they'd let us return, and . . ."

"But it won't be home," Vipsania countered. "It'll be at least fifteen hundred years later."

"Rome will still be there," Lucilla said confidently.

"But not the same as we know it," Vipsania countered.

Gaius nodded in agreement. He could hardly mention the prophecy now, so he added, "No city could withstand fifteen hundred years of the likes of Little Boots."

That was difficult to disagree with.

* * *

Gaius was determined to maintain as an impassive expression as he could as he entered, but he knew this would be difficult. This would be the first time he had seen Staff Officers more or less on their home turf.

The door was opened for him. He marched into the room and paused. There before him was a longish table, around which a number of Ulsians were seated. At the far end there was one who seemed to have a more important uniform, at the near end but to the right was a vacant chair that appeared to have been designed for him, while directly opposite this was a seated Ulsian who seemed to be somewhat agitated: his erstwhile opponent. He marched to the end of the table, saluted the meeting, then stood at attention until the officer at the other end indicated he should be seated.

By now Gaius was becoming experienced at reading Ulsian expressions, but it needed little experience to read the Ulsian sitting opposite. His erstwhile opponent was very unhappy, and not a little angry. He had been humiliated in front of his peers, and Gaius could see how correct Vipsania had been. A small device was handed to Gaius, and it was indicated that he should put it in his ear. They knew he had some reasonable command of Ulsian, but this would offer translations so that everything said would be correctly interpreted for him. He should reply in Latin, and a proper translation would be provided to the room.

The officer at the end of the table gave a quick résumé of what had taken place and why. The purpose was to select officers suitable for command. The Ulsian General Staff would now make or not make appointments. All Ulsians were bound by military discipline to accept the outcomes without question, but the same was not so for the Terran. Did Claudius wish to object to any procedures?

"I have already accepted your judgments in advance," Gaius replied.

"Good," came the reply. "However, the procedure is not yet over. You will each give me your interpretations of the tests. Claudius, being less familiar with our procedures, will go second."

This did not displease Gaius, but he knew he had to be careful. He would first listen to everything his opponent said.

His opponent began by pointing out that intercepting an enemy involved a certain degree of luck, and much of Gaius' actions in the last two battles depended on his having knowledge that his real opponent did not have. In effect, he had set a trap, and his opponent had walked right into it. Even in the early scenarios, Gaius knew he had an enemy, and he knew when the enemy would arrive. He agreed that Gaius had handled himself surprisingly well, and the use of mines was sound, but again based on the knowledge that would not normally be available. He admitted his handling of the Celtic troops was poor. He simply did not have the experience, and he had expected that one way or the other Gaius would have the same problem.

"Yes!" one of the others interrupted, "but in one scenario you simply fled! Is that the best you can come up with?"

His opponent was downcast.

It was then Gaius' turn to speak. "It is true," he commenced, "that I more or less knew I had an opponent, but I do not think that is relevant. In war, you know you have an opponent. If you don't know where he is, you have to assume he might be nearby.

"On the assumption that the first scenario was a repeat of a previous battle, I agree that a careless enemy could well be caught out, I agree my opponent set a good trap to catch a careless enemy, and in the field any reasonable competence will often prevail. On the other hand, he knew this was an exercise too, and to be placed in such a competition he had to assume I had a sufficient degree of competence that just being good may not suffice. In the first scenario, I was really in a position from which it was difficult to win, if my opponent employed scouts, the asteroids, and depth of field properly. Initially he deployed so he could not concentrate his forces at the critical time, and he had no depth to correct. In the later scenarios, he used cover well, but there was still no depth, and it was too concentrated at specific points. At no time did he use scouts to find me.

"My only comment on the second set was that up to a point my opponent was correct on one round. In one sense, his best option was to flee."

"What?" someone frowned. His opponent was so furious he was speechless.

"What I meant," Gaius said hurriedly, as he tried to cover for the anger he had generated, "that action could be his best option from the military point of view. He has light infantry and cavalry, and is opposed by heavy infantry and artillery on ground quite unsuitable for cavalry action. His best option is definitely to make his stand somewhere else, where his cavalry might be more effective."

"I do not believe that ground was particularly suited for what you term heavy infantry either," a General Slaben interposed. He was seated about a third of the way down the table, and his expression was blank, a challenge to Gaius. "A direct attack seems the only real option, what with the swamp, the forest and the hills?"

"A direct attack has to be made sometimes," Gaius agreed, "but that works both ways. What actually happened was that Caratacus sat it out on top of the hill, forcing me to make the direct attack while he retained the advantage of height. I had no choice, because as you correctly point out, a stalemate does not achieve any goals, and it usually benefits the force with the closest supplies and reinforcements. However, I also made an additional deployment that, at the time, was critical. I actually made it in these exercises as well but it was never activated in these exercises because there was no need."

"And what do you think was the best deployment for your opponent in this exercise?" Slaben asked curiously.

"Much the same as what Caratacus did," Gaius explained. "Sit on the top of the hill, and advance when I do, so that he fights me about two-thirds the way up the hill. But he should also send skirmishers into the forest. First, it protects his flank from what I actually did, and if I don't do that, he can come around from the rear and attack my supplies."

"And the swamp?" General Slaben asked.

"I believe it is right to stay out of that," Gaius replied. "It is in full view of observers on the hill, and it is impossible to move quickly through it. Accordingly, with no element of surprise, a major problem for mobility and no tactical advantage, I can't use it. The same may not be true for the enemy if he knows secret paths, but I don't think my opponent here can be expected to use those, unless you provided special information to him."

"I see," Slaben nodded slowly. He then turned to Gaius' opponent and asked, "Have you any comment on that?"