Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (58 page)

"Each identified shall be questioned immediately," a judge ordered. He turned to Lucilla and dismissed the charges with honour, a strange classification that Lucilla later found out meant that not only was she found not guilty, she was proven innocent and the victim of a disgraceful accusation. He then added, "Ulse shall get to the bottom of this."

A now rather dazed Lucilla watched as the court formally dissolved itself, several judges went to congratulate her lawyer, and some came to offer apologies and their deepest thanks to Lucilla.

"I thought you were dead," Lucilla said to Antonia, "or whatever destroyed companions become."

"And I am sorry," Antonia said soothingly. "A companion's first duty is to her companion, but the next duty is to Ulse. The problem was, I became more convinced than you are that it was Gerenthe who had mounted this plot to get rid of you. When you thought I was dead, he thought I was dead, and that was his mistake. While you were in that cell, Gerenthe was convinced the outcome would be even better than if you had been killed in the blast. If he knew the truth, anything could have happened.

"In any case," Antonia smiled, "I knew you were safe in that cell, but if you got out, he would have found a way to kill you."

"So now we set off to follow Gaius?" Lucilla asked eagerly.

"Soon, but not yet," Antonia said. "We have to wait until we find out what part Gerenthe played in this, because when we get there we have to be able to arrest him. Anything less, and Gerenthe could still win."

"How long do we have to wait?" Lucilla asked.

"I'd say, about a week," Antonia said.

"The battle'll be over," Lucilla said wanly.

"Have you got the blood lust?"

"No," Lucilla said, "but if we've lost . . ."

"If we've lost," Antonia pointed out, "a fresh undamaged ship might be just the thing for rescuing Gaius and Vipsania."

"If they're still alive."

"If they're not, there's nothing we can do," Antonia said, "but don't get too depressed. Gaius is resourceful."

"Yes, but is Gerenthe?" Lucilla asked. "And if so, what at?"

"If that's your problem," Antonia said, "that's all the more reason to stay, so that when you next meet, you'll be able to do something about it."

"I suppose."

"In the meantime," Antonia said, "there're a number of Ulsians at a certain café you know who want to treat you, and make up to you for Ulse's behaviour. I think you might find the next few days enjoyable enough to take your mind off those problems."

"Antonia?" Lucilla asked. "Can I ask, what happened? I really thought you were destroyed."

"Hah! As I suspected, you were not always paying attention."

"On what?"

"Remember when you had teleportation explained, and you were informed you could control a double on the ground from the luxury of the ship?"

"That was a double?" Lucilla asked, as light began to dawn.

"A treble, actually," Antonia smiled a superior smile. "The other was on one of Gerenthe's ships."

"Doing what?" Lucilla asked curiously.

"Two things," Antonia said, with a tone of superiority. "Firstly, gathering information. I had one of the logs duplicated. At the time, I could not read it, but now I believe the Ulsian justice computers will analyse it, so we might find out what really happened. Secondly, remember the surveillance tape that was tampered with?"

"You did that?" Lucilla asked curiously.

"From one of Gerenthe's ships," Antonia said. "Eventually that will come out, and Gerenthe will get the blame. Of course, if everything had been on the level, the tape tampering would have been irrelevant. Nobody would have known that we went there to get the logs, had there ever been any."

"That's very sneaky!" Lucilla said.

"Thank you," Antonia said proudly. "I'm pleased you find me just like you."

"Thank you," Lucilla muttered back.

Chapter 40

For the next few days, a number of Ulsians lived up to Antonia's assertions that they would try to make life as pleasant as possible for Lucilla. At times Lucilla felt almost guilty; they were trying so hard, and she was not responding as well as she should. She explained many times that she was concerned for Gaius and Vipsania, to help, and even to warn them, although of what she was unsure.

"They could be in danger," she almost pleaded with Antonia.

"Anyone at war is in danger," Antonia pointed out.

"But not from your own side," Lucilla countered.

"Actually," Antonia said, "traditionally that's not true. Ineptness from their own commander has killed more soldiers than brilliance from the enemy's."

"This isn't ineptness," Lucilla pointed out.

"I agree," Antonia said, "but you can't go up to the commander and just push him aside because you claim something's not right. If everybody could do that, your army would collapse immediately. We have to wait until we know exactly what's going on."

"Gaius could be warned that something's not right," Lucilla pointed out.

"He knows something's not right," Antonia said. "His problem is, he doesn't know what, and unfortunately, neither do we. Be patient."

Unfortunately, patience was not one of Lucilla's better points. As she could not leave, the other half of her wanted to get to the bottom of whatever Gerenthe had been up to. As Antonia pointed out, she had no particular skill for this job, and no particular idea of what to do. She would be kept informed.

"Then why haven't you told me what was on the ship's log you copied?" Lucilla asked.

"Because there was nothing to tell."

"Nothing? Come off it. Perhaps you didn't appreciate the significance of −"

"I meant what I said," Antonia interrupted calmly. "There was nothing. No recording. The log was fresh, untouched, yet to be started. The original had obviously been replaced."

"You mean. . . ?"

"What I said."

"That's virtually proof that Gerenthe changed them. He must be . . . " She paused, as another thought struck her.

"He must be what?" Antonia said calmly, then added, "Gerenthe did not change them. First, if he was going to change them, why put in a blank, which is effectively a guarantee that it has been replaced. And in any case, why should he change it?"

"They prove his guilt."

"Perhaps," Antonia said, "but if it were left on the ship of a Space Marshall, who's going to know? And if he did remove it, what would he do with it? A warship's log is extremely difficult to destroy. If he kept it on the same ship, it would be just as easy to find as if it were in the correct place, and why would he bring it down to Ulse?"

"Perhaps he didn't," Lucilla mused.

"Explain?"

"Perhaps one of the crew did," Lucilla said. "Perhaps the story about the log being in that building was truer than we thought. Perhaps the bomb was to destroy it, as well as kill me and Vipsania."

Antonia nodded. "That makes sense."

"The story given to me could have been true," Lucilla said, "at least up to a point. Gerenthe could have found out, and −"

"We can check!" Antonia interrupted. "Come over to this screen, and see if you recognize any of the faces."

Lucilla sat down, and the screen came to life. Antonia did something, and then the image of an Ulsian face came to the screen.

"Do you recognize him?"

"No."

"Then try again."

Again, the image was not recognizable, nor the next, then . . .

"That's him!" Lucilla said excitedly. "The one who talked me into going to get the logs."

"Interesting," Antonia said. "That Ulsian is the engineer from one of the other ships. It's also one of the Ulsians who were in that room when the bomb went off." Antonia paused, then sensing that Lucilla did not understand, added, "Everything that my double saw, I saw. However, the ships' log was definitely not there."

"It doesn't prove the engineer didn't have it, though," Lucilla said softly. "That's his bargaining chip. He may not have brought it with him."

"An excellent point," Antonia said. "We must find out as quickly as possible where he went while on Ulse."

"Wouldn't he have his own quarters set up for him?" Lucilla asked.

"Since Gerenthe didn't let his troops down, no," Antonia said, "and since he hadn't been on Ulse for nearly four hundred years, he would hardly have friends."

"Then it's impossible to trace where he went," Lucilla said in a saddened tone.

"Oddly enough, the very absence of even acquaintances makes it easier," Antonia said. "Anyone taking a new residence has to have a certificate proving they've relinquished the old one. Not having one to relinquish starts a new process. I'll check the records."

Checking the records took ten minutes, with the overall result the engineer had not legally taken a new residence.

"There's one interesting point, though," Antonia said. "There's already been one of these checks on where this engineer went, and guess who initiated it?"

"Gerenthe!"

"Actually, the executive officer, but you can assume with his commander's approval."

"So Gerenthe eventually caught up with this engineer," Lucilla remarked, "and presumably recovered the log."

"The evidence is to the contrary," Antonia said. "Let me search further."

After another hour, during which Lucilla almost fell asleep with boredom, Antonia finally announced that it was unlikely that Gerenthe had recovered the logs. The search had restarted the day after Lucilla's arrest, and was still going on. As Antonia noted, it raised interesting questions, some of which would soon be answered when these searchers were arrested.

"If Gerenthe had no contact with this engineer," Lucilla frowned, "how did he know where to plant the bomb?"

"My guess is sheer bad luck," Antonia suggested. "The engineer had to have somewhere free from prying eyes, and, for that matter, surveillance so he chose that dive. What he must have done is reserved the room, found you, then went back."

"And the bad luck," Lucilla offered, "is that Gerenthe frequented that place as well, must have seen the engineer, found out what had happened, and, well, the rest we know."

"If he'd been generous to the owner, and mentioned that he had an officer on the loose, the owner could well have informed Gerenthe immediately after taking the reservation," Antonia said.

"And the owner would have been elsewhere, so if we can question him . . ." Lucilla said enthusiastically.

"You made an incorrect assumption," Antonia said in a flat tone. "The owner died in the blast."

"Gerenthe presumably killed him to tie up loose ends," Lucilla suggested.

"But by doing so, may have lost control of events," Antonia said. "It's difficult to get someone to ensure everything's in place before setting off the bomb if the someone has to be in place too. So, I'm afraid, we're back to looking for a clue."

"It occurs to me," Lucilla said, "and forgive me for saying this, but you too may have made an incorrect assumption."

"And what do you think I've missed?"

"You said that the engineer would have no friends."

"Any friends he had from his previous time on Ulse would have been dead for several hundred years," Antonia pointed out.

"Not if they went out on a different space ship to an equivalent distance," Lucilla pointed out.

"That is quite true," Antonia said. "There have been no other ships in the recent past, but it might be worth considering such a return over the previous decade or so."

"There could be a lot of ships," Lucilla pointed out.

"Yes," Antonia beamed, "and an awful lot of crew's histories to track. Truly an enormous amount of data to sift through. At last a task to get the ship's computers out of their slumbers. I shall work on it."

"I'm pleased you're enthusiastic about data sifting," Lucilla smiled.

"What I'm enthused about," Antonia said, "is that we are working well together. You are letting me get on with it, and you have shone in your correct role."

"What do you mean?" Lucilla asked cautiously.

"It can be summarized this way. You should leave the perspiration to me, but provide the inspiration. You cannot compete with me in sifting trivial data, and your strength is thinking of the unexpected."

* * *

An hour later Antonia apologized to a bemused Lucilla for the length of time taken to get this task done. However, progress had eventually been made and one and only one correspondence had been found, an executive officer who had previously been on a deep space flight with the engineer. Moreover, surveillance indicated this now retired space pilot had been visited by someone who had managed to conceal his identity by using the identity of a relative of a space pilot who had recently left Ulse.

The military police visited this executive, and when it was established that these police were not from Gerenthe, but were directly controlled by an investigator looking into Gerenthe, the retired pilot took the investigators out of the city and up to the surface. They went up a valley, and to a cave hidden behind a number of rocks. The cave seemed empty, however a large rock could be moved, with some effort, and behind that was a cavity containing the missing log.

The ship's log made disturbing viewing. The battle started a little as Gerenthe had stated, except that Gerenthe, and a few ships, stayed out of it. The difference between Gerenthe's account and the actual battle was soon established: the Ulsian fleet was thrashed, in part through Gerenthe not properly committing his full force at the same time. Just before the fleet was totally wiped out, the M'starn stopped, and it appeared Gerenthe made contact with them. Exactly what happened next was unclear, but the remaining Ulsians still alive were transported to the surface of the planet then the ships were destroyed. The M'starn fleet then appeared to depart, and Gerenthe, after altering the crews, ordered the remaining undamaged ships to return to Ulse.

"Where he claimed victory," Lucilla snorted.

"So it would appear," Antonia agreed. "This is most disturbing. It appears that even you underestimated the problem."