by Peter Rhodan
There were two more under construction but for this inaugural trip only one was going to be used for the special dignitaries. All the senior military commanders were here except for Gervonius who had been left in command at Lugowalion. Dileen remained at Wern to welcome the first train but pretty much anyone who was anyone locally was present for the grand opening. With enough people wanting to travel to keep the train running all day Arturo had worried about problems of precedence with the senior people jockeying for who got to ride first. In the end Arturo had decided that all who travelled on the special trains today would do so as result of being drawn randomly out of a hat. Or a large earthenware pot in actual practice.
Melwyn had suggested using potsherds, apparently a way of doing a secret ballot common in the Greek cities and so everyone who wished to travel had been instructed to inscribe their name on a sherd and each train load of people would be drawn out randomly. In the end he had done the same with the dignitaries using the special carriage, much to those worthy’s disgust or amusement, depending on their temperament. Although in practice they had all had agreed it was a fair way of sorting things out and determining who got to ride when.
Coel chose to be amused by the democratic method of selection, especially when he drew the first train. Brennus was less so when he didn't get drawn till the third. Arcadius likewise was annoyed at missing both the first two trains and was not happy being relegated to the third with Brennus. He was only somewhat mollified when Vellgern, now Mair of Dervent got stuck with the last train. Arcadius and Vellgern had some feud going on between them that Arturo had never been able to get to the bottom of but seeing his rival relegated the last train made Arcadius’ own lowly position at least somewhat bearable.
People began arriving early despite the cold weather and by the time the weak winter sun got above the buildings of the iron works there were several hundred would be travellers already milling around and more arriving all the time. Arturo was somewhat surprised by the enthusiasm as the engine and its sister, which had been completed two weeks before, had been regularly operating on the coal line for two months so it wasn’t as if steam engine hauled trains were a new thing. The engine had its problems, as was to be expected from a first effort, but it could haul eight loaded wagons if necessary although they usually went with only six, on the poorly laid line out to the coal mine. Even so it was a vast improvement on what the poor horses could pull. People had come from miles around to watch it chuff slowly along hauling coal wagons to and from the mine.
The first engine had been named Dervent and its sister engine was named Wern. Wern was a slightly better steamer, some of the flaws in the first engine having been corrected and rolled along the track much more smoothly. Ceri had taken the lessons learnt to heart and had made some modifications to the original design as the second engine was being built. It was still basically the same design despite the several improvements made to various parts of the engine. The axles were mounted slightly differently to how he had done it on the Dervent and the wheels were balanced better than on the first set, but the main changes were to the steam chest and smoke box area which had resulted in much better steaming and greater power, or so he informed Arturo. He was in the process of drawing up a whole new design based on his experiences with the first two and that hopefully would lead to the third engine being substantially better than the original pair.
Finally, there was the peep of a steam whistle and Dervent rolled out of the shed that housed the two engines, belching smoke and steam. The crowd made a low groaning noise, but Arturo could not determine if it was an expression of concern or anticipation. The engine rolled onto the main line from the branch track to the shed it was housed in and came up past the waiting train on the far side from the milling crowd. There was actually a large crowd gathered on the far side of the line as well and Arturo was glad he had followed Valerius’ advice and placed a century over there to make sure no one got on the line.
The engine halted past the line of wagons and one of the men on board jumped down and ran back to change the switch so Dervent could back onto the train. The same man walked to the carriage and waited as the engine slowly ran backward, signally to the driver how far there was to go as he slowly neared the carriage. With a thump the engine reached the parked train and the man swung under the projections which Arturo had insisted be called buffers, being one of the few words he remembered from his historical readings. The fellow soon had the train connected and after crawling back out waved the all clear to the station staff.
These worthies had the job of checking off those that had been drawn for the first train. There was a surge in the crowd as these people pushed their way through the milling mass. Arturo had had special tickets printed by Hwillam which had been handed out to people when their sherds had been drawn out. They were larger and more elaborate than the design settled on for the ordinary tickets that would be issued when normal operations commenced the next day as these special tickets were intended to be used as a keepsake to commemorate the momentous event.
Arturo had very publicly allowed himself to be drawn by chance like everyone else and would have to wait for the third train for his own trip. The line itself was still only single track and would be operated simply for the moment, with only one engine being on the whole line at any one time. The glass maker Gilbyn and the leather worker Owyn had between them managed produce several telescopes of which some had been sold to the North Britannia Railway Company and would be used by the men manning the simple semaphore stations to regulate traffic, once the traffic grew to a level that needed regulating.
Initially there would be two passenger trains, each way, each day. One in the morning and one in the late afternoon. There would be one goods train in the middle of the day running from Dervent to Wern and back although it was hoped that traffic would develop over time to the point where more goods trains were needed. Certainly, the trains would make it much easier to transport goods from Dervent to the dock at Wern which was nearing completion.
After a fair delay while all the passengers for the first train were loaded aboard and with a scream of steam escaping from the whistle above the firebox, the engine began to slowly pull the cavalcade out of the siding with much hissing and the belching of smoke into the sky. The driving wheels slipped a few times with the load but overall the first passenger train managed to depart quite smartly and easily.
With the train gone and the wait till the next being a couple of hours most of the assembled people dispersed. Arturo and those of his key people who remained headed over to the fort for a light morning tea. They were trailed by Briana and her new understudy, Hlarna, who Briana had recruited somehow. This woman was a Scotti who had fled Hibernia for some reason and was clearly very undernourished. She had only just begun training and Briana had made her don a grey coloured set of clothes rather than the back Briana wore to underscore her trainee status.
Arturo, for his part, made no attempt to interfere despite some of the protestations and snide remarks by the 'real' soldiers which he chose not to hear. He regarded Briana and her minion as the thin edge of the wedge for woman’s rights in this new Republic he was building and he planned to encourage any and all such actions that chipped away at the male dominance and misogyny that permeated not only the whole of Roman society but also apparently nearly all of the ‘barbarian’ states that surrounded the Empire.
His new laws had been written up and published by Hwillam, distributed to each Mair and were now available to everyone for perusal. There had been some grumbling about women now being allowed to own property in their own right, but not as much as Arturo and others had anticipated. Arturo surmised that this was mostly because the male population could not see where that one small change to the status quo would eventually lead. Small but steady progress, that was the key, he thought to himself. The early teenagers and younger children would grow up with females owning property as the norm and eventually those that remembered the ‘good old days
’ would pass on leaving woman owing property as the norm.
He led the party into the officer's mess inside the fort and they all settled around one of the plain wooden benches. “How goes the census?” He asked Arcadius, more for the benefit of the others than himself as Arcadius sent him regular reports of his progress.
“Quite well, all things considered. It is slow and tedious work but surprisingly interesting for all that. Barring really bad weather I should be finished early in the new year. Are you still planning on collecting the first taxes in the spring?”
One of the things Arturo had done was enforce the Christian reckoning of when the year started and ended. The Roman method based on consulships was so unwieldy that these days hardly anyone used it anyway. Besides it was what he was used to from home. While individual planets had their own separate ‘year’ based on that planet’s rotation around its particular sun, the whole civilised galaxy still used Earth times and dates in space to ensure consistency throughout.
What he did do however was use the Roman dating for years based on the foundation of Rome rather than the Christian one based on the birth of their Christ. His argument was that this was the Roman Empire and thus years would be calculated based on when it was traditionally founded. Given he controlled the only printing presses on the planet at this time, he knew which dating would be the one that won out in the long run.
He nodded to Arcadius. “Yes. The influx of money will be very handy I can assure you. All these military freeloaders are costing me a fortune to maintain.” And he waved at the far end of the table where the military people were congregated. These worthies all smiled at his small joke, being used to his irreverent style of addressing them now.
Arcadius pursed his lips. “I hope you are not expecting too much of a cash flow from this. The whole area is nowhere near as prosperous as it was a century ago. Even with the growth of the iron works and my coal mine and such. Also, you are reducing the relative tax rate so much compared to the old ones that it means you will get even less money in. I doubt very much that it will cover the cost of your army, let alone all the public works you are engaged in.”
Arturo smiled. “I know and I am not expecting it too. But it is important to get fair, honest and simple tax measures in place and reliable people trained to enforce and collect them so that the whole operation can be exported to other areas easily as the new Republic grows. I have read or heard about the problems in that past. Greedy tax farmers in the old days, local dignitaries made responsible for collecting unreasonable taxes in recent times. Nothing is ever perfect my friend, but my aim is to have simple, hard to corrupt tax system that applies to everyone.” He smiled at the old Roman.
Arcadius nodded but before he could say anything Brennus interrupted. “Are you planning on facing Combrosius?” He looked eager at the prospect of facing the Comes.
Arturo shook his head. “Not as yet. At least not unless I have to. I know our army is better than his, man for man, but I would rather not kill any more Romans than I have to. I had to take advantage of Maximus’ mentality to defeat him, which included decimating the cavalry, but I avoided having to fight your infantry by a stratagem, as you are well aware. There are enough enemies beyond the frontier that fighting each other is to be avoided. Not that I won’t if I have to, mind.”
He paused and looked at his military officers trying to gauge their reaction. They all seemed to be agreeing with him or at least none appeared upset with his words. “Combrosius is apparently a much less, ah, headstrong fellow than Maximus so negotiation is at least a likely possibility. On the other hand, he regards himself as the top dog here in Britannia so he may not take kindly to playing the Republic game, especially given how many Emperors and would be Emperors have started on this island. Anyway, there are other areas we will be dealing with first.”
“Our next immediate task is to send a force down the coast to Glannoventa and secure this whole side of the island west of the mountains. We will also send another force through the mountains in the spring as well, just so they know who is in charge now. I intend to try yet again to negotiate with Honoriatis about folding his command into our forces. In the meantime, I want a separate force sent south from Lugowalion to show the flag down to Voreda.”
The military commanders nodded. “That will give Arcadius something to do in the new year. Can’t have him just sitting around doing nothing.” Valerius offered with a smile.
Arcadius smiled in return but refrained from commenting verbally, just gave the officer a well known sign with his fingers. Seeing Arcadius was limiting his response to a non-verbal one, Arturo continued. “I know that does not sound all that exciting, but I want all our immediate surrounds under our control before the spring is properly upon us. Then we will see as to what further action we take from there.” Arturo paused and turned to Brennus. “Anything happening north of the border?”
“Nothing overly threatening, at least till next year. The cavalry scouts Julianus is sending out are starting to get quite venturesome in their activities however despite how far they extend and so far none have been caught. We’re developing a system to enable them to watch the Selgovae main oppidum in relays so no one team gets worn out or bored doing the same job for months. These new telescopes will make a big difference to their effectiveness. Honoriatus’ men co-operate with ours in patrolling the wall without any problem so there is some possibility we may be able to make progress with him in the new year. It was really Maximus who was the problem there I think. As far as numbers go, I have been getting a trickle of tribesmen from north of the wall joining up. Mostly younger sons or fellows who got into trouble and have been run out. My infantry cohort is now over five hundred strong and the cavalry is a bit over one hundred and fifty.”
He paused and looked as if he wanted to say more but was reluctant. Arturo waved his hand in a motion for him to continue and after a slight hesitation he continued. “I saw that new ballista in Ceri’s yard today. How soon are we likely to get some?”
Arturo shook his head. “We are still working out the bugs so you will have to put up with the normal ones for the present. They should be ready to be issued in the spring, but we will have to find crews for them. On top of that, they will need horse teams as the plan is for them to be far more mobile than your artillery has been in the past.”
“Really?” Coel asked. “To what end?” Arturo had found Coel did a lot of watching and listening but kept his opinions largely to himself. It was hard to get a read on the taciturn man other than he seemed a competent enough officer and not subject to the impetuosity of some of the others.
Arturo smiled. “These ballistae will fire a metal ball not an arrow like your traditional ones do. More like the heavy catapults except for the stone ball being replaced with a metal one. Each ballista will have large travelling wheels and an attached wagon loaded with the ammunition and spare parts. Some of the crew will ride on that and some on the horses.”
They all looked puzzled at this departure from any sort of field artillery they had previous experience with. Personally, Arturo did not think their effectiveness would be all that great, certainly not a great deal better than the catapults already in use by the Romans, although the large wheels and mounted crews would allow them to manoeuvre far more readily than any artillery in existence. The heavy steel leaf spring bow they had developed took two men to crank and they would be lucky to fire a shot a minute. Probably more like two shots every three minutes in practice he expected. Still that was not the real purpose. The real aim was to develop a pool of artillery crews used to fast movement and rapid volleys for when he managed to come up with gunpowder cannons.
There was a chap in Lugowalion that sold all manner of charms and potions who knew how to extract saltpetre. Now all he had to do was find sulphur and remember the formula. The steel Ceri was producing was probably still not quite good enough for proper breech loading firearms but there should be no problem in casting smoothbore bronze cannon and
boring out basic muskets, possibly even rifled ones using steam power for the lathes. The power made available by the steam engines, even the simple clunky ones Ceri had started making, was going to revolutionise local industry. Ha. Why it was called the industrial revolution!
At least he now had a cement being made, albeit in small quantities so far. The product was not quite right and would need experimenting with but what he had now would do the job, at least for small one and two storey brick buildings and such. The next major tasks he needed to engage in were improving public health with both better sanitation and garbage removal. To train proper doctors, build a proper, clean, water supply and develop electricity. He wished he could access the data banks on the shuttle which would have made things so much easier. Oh well.
He smiled at his officers “The artillery will be far more mobile than any previously used so they can be positioned where they are needed, not just set up at the start of a battle and hope the enemy march in front of them. Their improved mobility will include being able to support the cavalry directly.” He continued before pausing to smile. “Do not expect some sort of wonder weapon. They will be more effective as field artillery than anything you may have used in the past because of their mobility, but their firepower will still be limited. Their main advantage will be ability to get them where you need them quickly. In fact, I expect they will usually start in a reserve position so we can make use of that to surprise people.” Several of the officer looked thoughtful at this.