Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (5 page)

"Boundaries?" Gaius said in surprise. "Augustus said that we were big enough fifty years ago. Does that mean . . ?

"You are still expanding," the Tin Man said, "but the expansion, especially in terms of thought, literature, philosophy, is drying up."

"Ridiculous!" Lucilla exclaimed.

"Inevitable," the Tin Man said. "First, look at Rome. A marvellous city, but look at the flow of goods. Huge amounts come in, but not so much goes out."

"Rome makes law . . ." Vipsania offered.

"Yes, but so far everything has been paid for by additional conquest. Once you stop conquering, you have to pay for everything yourselves. Your taxes will rise. Rome will maintain itself as an autonomous region for, maybe, centuries, but unless you become more productive and keep the desire to advance instead of consume, your civilization will fall back into a slough of taxation and lack of vision."

"And Rome will fall into ruins," Gaius nodded. He stopped, then added, "But even if Rome falls, someone else will surely make these discoveries."

"It is certainly possible," the Tin Man said, "but by no means certain. Removing you can at least be interpreted as a disaster."

A thought suddenly struck Gaius. If he had not been removed from the hilltop, he would have been killed by the Celts, and that would have ended everything the Tin Man was talking about. Or would it? If he were killed, his belongings would have been found, and then what? If they were taken to Rome, given that Claudius knew what they were, the work might have continued. Then, maybe, he would not have been killed. If captured he could have been ransomed. If that ship had not distracted him, they might have been able to kill enough Celts on the track, then make a breakout, particularly if he was prepared to use the alien weapon. If he had never met the alien, possibly they could have outrun the Celts, with Quintus on a horse. The fact was, there was no way of knowing what might have happened.

For Gaius, there was no real answer so he sat back to look at this planet. As the Tin Man left the three Romans, Gaius pointed out the two moons to Vipsania. It was quite remarkable, Gaius thought, that they could talk to each other as if they were right beside each other; the only thing they could not do was touch each other. It was then that he realized that if he could do this, so could his previous captor. Yes, it was a good idea to wait until he was asleep.

He and Vipsania talked for a while, but the enormity of their problem was too much, and soon they drifted into silence. Gaius thought he should try to go back to Vipsania, but the Tin man had asked him to stay there, and he needed the Tin Man. Which raised the question, where was the Tin Man.

"What's that?" Lucilla asked.

"What's what?" Gaius replied.

"Coming around the back of the planet," Lucilla said, "there's something moving."

"The other moon," Gaius offered.

"It's moving too fast," Lucilla said, "and it is very small."

"Maybe it's another ship like the one we're on," Timothy offered.

"That's exactly what it is," the Tin Man said. Gaius turned in surprise to see he was on the bridge. He had come in so silently.

"There's another two," Vipsania noted. "They seem to be following the first one. They must be going to the same place."

"I think the first one might be coming this way," Lucilla offered. "I presume we won't collide."

"Not by accident," the Tin Man replied.

"What's that meant to mean?" Gaius asked in a suspicious tone.

"I'm afraid the situation has suddenly got out of control," the Tin Man said, and he seemed hesitant as he said it, which, given his usual lack of emotion, gave his message unusual gravity. "It seems Ulse is at war. The first of those ships is Ulsian, and it's in deep trouble."

"And the other two are the other side?" Gaius asked.

"Yes. The Ulsian ship has been damaged, and its motors are not functioning properly. It's weapons are not exactly functioning well either."

"I see what you mean by deep trouble," Gaius noted. As he watched, a jet of metal vapour streaked off it. Suddenly the front ship seemed to slow, turn, and seemed to head directly towards one of the attackers. The attacker fired, more metal peeled off, but then, suddenly, the attacker realized what was to happen. The ship tried to turn, but the Ulsian ship tore right into its side. There were huge flashes of light, streams of metal flew in all directions, then darkness.

Then quite unexpectedly, there was a thump on the ship.

"What's that?" Gaius asked, in concern.

"The Ulsian pilot has escaped in a 'life-boat'," the Tin Man said.

"A clever move," Gaius noted. "If the other ship thinks the Ulsian died in the collision, he lives to fight another day."

"I'm afraid he doesn't," the Tin Man said. "That miserable wretch who commanded this ship previously has reported the thump to the remaining ship. It's closing. I must go and warn the Ulsian."

Gaius watched the enemy warship pull up alongside. As he understood it, this ship had its motors fully on, so the warship was clearly faster. That was not a surprise. Success in war depended on being faster, and preferably stronger. The ship he was on also appeared to be unable to do any damage to the warship, so in principle, the warship could simply destroy this ship. However, simple destruction did not seem to be the warship's intention. Why not?

The simplest answer was that the previous captain had done some sort of deal with the warship. Those soldiers would presumably capture the single Ulsian, that wretch would be back in charge, and he and his family would be killed. That was the future.

Except why was there only one Ulsian? This huge ship was operated by one alien and the Tin Man. Perhaps there were not many on the warship either. Perhaps his only chance of living was to pick a side, and win. The problem was, the only side that looked like offering him any hope also seemed to be the losing side. Actually, he reflected, there was a second problem. Suppose he did pick a side, how would he recognize which was which?

There was a simple answer to that. He had to find the Ulsian before the others arrived. Not only that, but he had to do it quickly. There was what was obviously a smaller craft half way between them and the warship. He should go down to the docking bay and that, fortunately, was one of the very few places on this ship with which he was familiar. He should also find something to act as a shield.

Chapter 3

For a shield, he returned to one of the storerooms where he had previously found a large metal object with a handle. He had no idea what it was supposed to do, but then nobody else would know what he was going to do with it either.

He was creeping along a corridor somewhere near where he was sure the docking bay should be when he felt a heavy vibration. The other ship had docked. The hardest time for an attacker would be entering through the door. But if the attackers could not get through the door, they could retreat to their shuttle, and the warship would simply destroy them. But then, if they defeated the boarders, then what? That would depend on . . . No! One thing at a time!

There was the Tin Man, talking to another strange looking creature. It was fairly short; it had a large head, the back of which was elongated. It had quite thick, stubby legs, and quite powerful arms. If forced into a wrestling match, it looked like an obvious winner. It had some sort of a staff in its hand, and, for some reason it was standing out in the open, waiting. Was it going to surrender? If it were, then Gaius had better rethink. The less that was seen of him, until it became clear what was going to happen, the better. There was a door just before the bay. He strode towards it as quietly as he could, then opened the door and stood half in the entrance.

Gaius heard the hatch to the entrance open, so he leaned forward to peek around the corner. Three strange creatures entered. They were a little taller than the Ulsian, but still shorter than Gaius, and they were seemingly somewhat weaker for they seemed to be struggling to move freely. They had quite large eyes placed behind what seemed to be a cross between a beak and a short elephant-like trunk. They had thin, long arms, which held what appeared to be ridiculously short swords that had no edge, no real point, but they did have something trailing from the wrist to some sort of pack behind the back.

It was then the previous captain appeared from somewhere, and began yabbering to the intruders, apparently letting them know he was the one who had sent the message, and he was on their side, and then, as if to prove it, he produced some sort of weapon and leaped towards the Ulsian.

All the Ulsian seemed to have was a short staff-like object in his right "hand". Without seeming to think, he pointed this at the captain, and all Gaius could do was to gasp. The captain was held motionless in mid-air, then flung towards the Tin Man. An order was given, and this time the Tin Man held his captain and dragged him away. The three intruders circled.

One raised the "sword", pointed at the Ulsian, and something seemed to happen, for a green light seemed to show up on the Ulsian, or more precisely, a few inches in front of him. If that were a weapon, the Ulsian seemed to have some form of invisible armour. Two of the intruders then advanced, and were held back by the Ulsian, again, lights flickering on the intruder's chests. Obviously the two sides had weapons that Gaius did not understand, but it was equally obvious that the Ulsian could only deal with one at a time. He seemed to be able to hold off two, but the third was circling towards Gaius. Assuming that that was a realistic weapon, the Ulsian must lose.

Then suddenly Gaius felt strangely heavy, as if he was suddenly transformed into lead. The intruders were now suffering, and Gaius reasoned that the Tin Man must have turned up the force that held everyone to the floor. However, while the Ulsian was clearly better adapted to this increase in force, that was not going to win the day. Despite the obvious stress, the third intruder had gone well to the side, the other two had separated, and the Ulsian was clearly feeling desperate. He tried to close with one, but it stepped back and the other thrust forward. The light flashed brighter on the Ulsian, and it had to step back. If Gaius was going to do anything, it had to be now.

He lunged forward, struggling against the increased gravity. The third intruder half saw him, and turned its weapon vaguely in his direction. It was about halfway around, when Gaius struck, his gladius entering about two-thirds the way down the body, and driven upwards. There was a howling scream, blood, and some strange sticky mucilage poured from the wound. The intruder fell to the ground as Gaius withdrew the sword, and when the strange weapon hit the floor, there was a huge flash, the wounded creature writhed, shed sparks, then lay still.

The more distant intruder momentarily stared at the two of them, then turned his weapon in Gaius' direction, but the Ulsian had seen what was required. He leaped towards it and pointed his wand at the backpack. There was an enormous flash, and when the weapon turned back to the Ulsian, nothing happened. The closer intruder, however, appeared to have Gaius in his sight.

There was a yell, then a cry from the Tin Man of "No!" Timothy had appeared, holding the weapon Gaius had secreted in his bag. He aimed at the intruder turning towards Gaius, but that intruder, on seeing Timothy, turned and fired at him. Timothy fell back in complete agony, his right shoulder having almost disintegrated. Gaius flung all his weight forward, driving whatever he held in his left hand at the closer intruder. There was a thump, the closer intruder fell back, under the weight of whatever Gaius had thrown at it, and Gaius stepped forward and stood on the intruder's "sword" arm, holding the gladius above his body.

"Don't kill him," the Tin Man said.

Gaius looked over to the other two and saw that the other intruder, having had his backpack destroyed, had clearly surrendered.

"Can you speak to whoever or whatever this is?" Gaius asked.

"Yes."

"Tell it to tap the floor with his free hand if he wishes to surrender," Gaius said. "He must surrender to live."

There were some instructions from the Tin Man, and after a moment, the tap. Gaius stood back, sword at the ready.

"Tell him to dismantle his weapon," Gaius ordered. "Tell each of them not to say anything, or attempt to signal to their ship. Tell them that on my world, surrender means that any attempt to do so would make them spies, and the penalty is death, on the spot."

As the two aliens complied, some conversation ensued between the Ulsian and the Tin Man. Gaius stepped over towards Timothy, and stared sadly at his old friend. He guessed that the wound was probably numb, but it was also fatal. There was no way anyone could survive that damage.

"I don't think I'm going home," Timothy gurgled, a trace of blood appearing at his lips.

"I think you might be right," Gaius said evenly.

"That wasn't very clever of me," Timothy sighed.

"You saved my life, old friend," Gaius said, holding onto Timothy's hand.

"Did I?"

"I would have been killed, but for you," Gaius smiled. He placed his hand across his friend's forehead, and softly stroked his hair.

"It's been fun," Timothy mumbled. "I am so glad you let me come."

"You'd have been better to have stayed home," Gaius said. "Sit in the sun, read, argue . . ."

"And have done nothing," Timothy said. "Gaius, I have no regrets, except that I can't . . . " He began coughing.

"Let me see," the Tin Man said.

"What were you saying to him?" Gaius asked, pointing to the alien, after he had let the Tin Man examine Timothy's wound.

"I am explaining who you are, and why you are here. He wants to know why you did that?"

"Strategy," Gaius replied. "And this is not over. There is a warship over there."

"I know."

"How many crew will be left?"

There was a discussion between the other two, then back came the reply, "No more than three."