Raising Steam

by Peter Rhodan

  Amelius Catulavinus was also in residence at the fort. He was an alchemist from Londinium that Captain Largwil had found for Arturo. The fellow was dark haired, going slightly grey and about forty years old, Arturo estimated. The man had been looking over the area but clearly did not understand why, in his instructions, Arturo had insisted he pick a spot a good mile from anything.

  “Why you want things so far from anywhere I don’t understand. It will mean everyone will have to travel a mile or more each day just to get to and from the work site. It makes no sense when we could build it here just near the baths, for instance.”

  Arturo waved his hand in small motion as if denying the point Amelius had just made. “Because the chemicals you will be dealing with are dangerous. It’s hard to explain without being able to show you, but once we get the right chemicals then you will understand, believe me!”

  Amelius studied him for a moment. “This is one of things from your homeland, isn’t it? Like the steam engines?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid so, only far more dangerous.”

  Amelius nodded. “In that case the best spot would the farm north of the river which extends to the coast. A branch could be run from the rail line to provide access by steam trains if you want and some sort dock could be built on the river to enable the stuff to be shipped by sea.”

  Arturo looked to the north over the river. “That sounds just the sort of site I was thinking of. We will go and investigate after lunch.”

  The land Amelius had mentioned seemed almost ideal and after some persuasion the farmer agreed to sell in return for a very generous price and the possession of a new farm up the coast near Wern. The property Arturo offered had been left empty for some years from well before the Scotti raid and had been added to the land owned by the Republic following Arcadius’ census when no one related to the former owners had been found.

  The matter was quickly settled and then Arturo took Amelius over the site explaining how he wanted it laid out. A row of widely separated storage buildings here, each one in a hollow, the earth dug out to be used to build banks between each of the storage buildings. The main manufacturing building would be here and the storage of components there. The farm buildings would form the basis of that area. The administration building would be right up against the edge of the property near the river and as close to the railway as possible.

  They returned to the fort at sundown, Amelius still puzzled by why things needed to be so spread out. Then he was even more amazed at the detailed instructions Arturo wrote out after dinner concerning how the chemicals would be combined and the very stringent safety precautions that needed to be employed when dealing with the resultant powder which Arturo called gunpowder, using the Terran term. Arturo rather suspected that it was the wearing of felt shoes or sock like things that really puzzled Amelius the most! Gunpowder was not his first use of a Terran term and although no one knew what it meant right now, they would soon enough he thought to himself. His continued use of the name in his description of the process to Amelius would ensure the name stuck.

  A visit to the bridge works was the first order of business the next day and Domgal, the foreman in charge, was only too happy to explain to the Dux where his men were up to and the plans for the next few months. The was no rush as they were all sheltering under the partially completed works from a sudden downpour. “Once we finish this bridge, Dominus, we be tasked to build the station building, the goods shed and an engine shed with a water tank on top, as well as pit for them to build one of those turntable things in for turning the engines around. I been told how this is going to be the end of the line for some time, so it be needing to have all the facilities.” He paused as if waiting for Arturo to confirm this information, but Arturo just cocked his head and looked expectant.

  “Once that all be done we are apparently going to be building a sea wall and docks but Theodorius said something about the water way being dredged and anyways I’m not experienced at sea walls, docks and such like so I have been told Theodorus will be taking charge of that part.” The fellow did sound rather relieved at not having to build the works himself.

  Arturo nodded, looking at the bridge work above them and smiling at the men. The team looked to be half hired workers and half indentured ex Selgovae warriors. The first group were happy to see him, proud of the bridge they were building. The second group were sullen but seemed to be working fine. Only the special clothing, yellow brown coloured tunic and trousers with red diagonal trim, gave away their status. “Any trouble with indentured labourers?” He asked the engineer quietly.

  “None so far Dominus. They all behave well and if they are not cheerful at least accept their position. The fact they get housed and fed the same as the other workers helps.”

  “Good. I’ll not have them mistreated. Don’t be afraid to promote any that show initiative or a talent for engineering.”

  The man looked a little surprised at this but nodded acceptance. “Aye, so I shall Dux. If any show promise that be. They have no proper education of course” He said after a moment.

  This comment was unanswerable, and as the rain stopped just then so Domgal became busy getting his crew back up on the works site. Arturo and company slogged through the muddy road back north, the old Roman road having been so submerged in dirt and grass that it was almost not worth trying to find. At least the return journey north was far less eventful. The stone mason Corvus had sent for from Wern had started work on the tomb for Leana and seemed honoured to have been chosen for the task by Arturo. They were able to catch the afternoon train to the north, their horse wagons still being on a siding at Hamlyn and were quickly loaded. Perhaps the horses were becoming more used to being loaded on and off the wagons? Arturo pondered this idea given how fast the operation had gone this time. Maybe regular loading and offloading for the cavalry could be a useful training program. Hmm. He would mention that once he was back.

  At dinner that evening, Valerius, Arcadius, Llewellyn and his other senior commanders in Dervent were aghast at the assassination attempt. The fact that such a bold move could be made was almost as much a point of discussion as that there was someone out there determined to see an end to Arturo. Whilst there were a couple of obvious suspects such as Combrosius, no one really stood out. Valerius, who knew Combrosius, was pretty sure that the Comes was not the sort of fellow to undertake anything so underhand. “Lacks the imagination to come up with something like that. He is very linear in his thinking, if you follow me.” Arturo nodded understanding. A lot of military people were like that, in his experience.

  Arcadius then wondered if it could have been organised by an Agent En Rebus which then led to him having to explain what these were and how common they were. The fact that Honorius had told the towns in Britannia took look to their own defence a few years before did seem to mitigate somewhat against one of these fellows being behind it though. No one present really thought the Empire was that interested in the doings this far north in a province the Empire had effectively abandoned.

  In the end it was generally agreed that they would need more information before being able to determine the party or parties responsible. What it did result in was that Valerius demanded that Arturo not travel without at least a squad of soldiers in company from now on. Arturo had to agree despite his own feeling that his guards were more than a match for anything and anyone, locally at any rate. Pointing out the success his guards had had resulted in an argument, which after half an hour or more of, they reached the compromise that Arturo would be accompanied by a squad of soldiers any time he had to travel other than on the railroad. The rail lines were now going to be used to define ‘safe’ territory where his bodyguards and Oween should suffice as protection.

  They all encouraged Briana to find more candidates willing to serve as bodyguards as soon as possible and Valerius promised to have the Legion’s armourer make up suits of mail armour for the girls to wear under their black ‘ninja’ clothing. This term was coming into use a
fter Arturo had let slip that their black outfits made them look like ‘ninjas’, the famous traditional super spies and warriors from old Earth, some place called Nippon if he remembered rightly from his historical readings. Only on this Earth they had probably not been invented as yet, he thought to himself later. He still had no resolution to whether he was on ‘his’ Earth or a parallel Earth where that apparent time travel conundrum of his changing his own past would be allowable. At least he wasn’t still lying awake at night with his mind twisting and turning over the question as he had frequently found himself doing straight after first discovering he was on old Earth.

  Anyway, the upshot of his slip was that Briana now used the term ninjas to refer to herself and her now one remaining fellow bodyguard. Getting used to wearing the mail armour would take them time but would increase their survivability. Arturo also secretly resolved to see about extracting enough battle steel from the shuttle wreck to make katanas of that metal for them too. The battle steel was getting very hard to extract, all the easily removed damaged bits he had pretty much cleaned up already. He would need to think about this some more. He could really use a bunch more for bolstering the Republic’s still shallow coffers although the first tax collection had helped with that a little.

  The booty collected from the dead Selgovae warriors had also helped the coinage situation. Arturo had framed a simple policy that all loot would be divided up although he had modified his early breakdown of the loot. Now one third would go to the state and two thirds to the men, in shares based on their rank. A an ordinary milites received one share while a sergeant or other promoted soldier got two shares. A company sergeant or an Ensign got three shares, an Optio four, a Centurion six and so on up the command chain. The state’s share had not been enormous but in the end the soldiers had agreed to the whole of the metallic booty being melted down and turned into coins, then divided up. The glut of precious gems caused them to not bring as good a price as one would otherwise expect but the men seemed happy enough with what they received.

  Another part of the coinage problem was that when the Imperial coins were placed next to the Republican coinage with its high level of purity, Arturo having settled on ninety percent as the standard, the Imperial coinage were in some cases almost valueless. Many of the so-called silver coins were practically bronze coins with a silver coating and the gold coins were only worth about a half their supposed value. Already the bank’s exchange rate was that one Imperial Solidi of Honorius was only worth forty two percent of a Republican one. Fortunately, while there was the occasional grumble about money changers, most people went ahead with the exchange anyway, thus increasing the metal available for new Republican coins.

  On the other hand, things were going better elsewhere. The North Britannia Railway Company was making profit, largely from the coal and iron ore traffic. This in turn meant it was now paying for most of the construction crew costs itself and in time would be able to pay the survey crew costs as well. And this situation would only improve as the lines spread further and the amount of traffic increased. The use of the special horse wagons by Arturo’s party had opened a few eyes to the ways the railway could be made to transport combat troops. They had already seen how effective it was for moving bulk supplies with the first wagon loads of food being sent north for the Selgovae refugees in Lugowalion and along the Wall. Which was costing the government money on top of everything else, but which humanitarian aid Arturo regarded as a long term investment.

  The decision to make it known he was looking for more bodyguards resulted in a stream of young women turning up, often without parental permission or even that of their husbands. Briana found it hard to decide who to take or not take so Arturo took a hand and told her to take any who were definitely eligible and put them through a really hard training program, like the one the army did with new recruits but even harder. Most would fall out but the few who succeeded would be worth having. Those that fell out but who still wanted to serve Arturo intended to form into a regular army unit. Exactly what sort of unit he had still to decide on, but he fully intended to break down the sexist barriers in this society as fast as he could. As the military was probably going to be the toughest bastion to overcome he intended to start there. Although in some ways it was the easiest because the military could be ordered to make changes that civilians wouldn’t.

  While Briana and Marlyn weeded out the applicants that were obviously not suitable and set up a camp for the rest at the edge of First Legion’s barracks area, Arturo finally talked Arcadius into serving as his head of Imperial Security. Exactly why Arcadius changed his mind Arturo wasn’t sure and Arcadius wasn’t saying. It was probably a response to the assassination attempt, he decided in the end. Whatever the reason Arturo was very happy to finally have the person he wanted to get the Security operation up and running. The prestige Arcadius had locally was important certainly, but the man’s known character was equally as important as the head of an organisation that was intended to spy internally as well externally.

  Arcadius proceeded to give him a far more detailed explanation about the Agentes En Rebus of the Empire and their various tasks including keeping an eye on the powerful leaders within the Empire. Interestingly, Arcadius, despite his traditional Roman heritage, did not have a problem with Briana and her ninjas being placed under the command of Imperial Security. Arturo thought it was probably because Briffet had always been a bit of a tomboy although he also had to consider Arcadius’ knowledge of Arturo’s views on the matter may have been an important consideration as well. Perhaps the assassination attempt had made him realise just how much better things were with Arturo in charge as opposed to a return to how things had been before Arturo’s arrival.

  Arcadius put his farm and mine business under his now heavily pregnant daughter’s direction, aided by his very competent foreman and moved into a new building near Briana’s camp site that had just been completed. The building had originally been planned to be a new set of quarters for single officers, but this construction was now switched to the north side of the camp with Imperial Security acquiring the building. He and Arturo surveyed his new domain one morning after the workmen had finished the tiled roof. “So, what exactly do you want Imperial Security to do?” He asked, crossing his arms and leaning up against one rough brick wall.

  “Well, let’s see.” Arturo said starting to pace back and forth in front of Arcadius. “First there will be task of providing security for Republican officials and visiting dignitaries, hence my transferring Briana and her ninjas to be under your command. Eventually there will be male security guards as well, probably the clear majority in the long run but for the moment we will go with my female ninjas for, ah, strategic cultural reasons.”

  Arcadius nodded. “Yes, your goal of making women equal. I am aware of your plans, even if some are not. I may even somewhat support your radical ideas.” He grinned at Arturo.

  Arturo smiled. “For an old chap you are perceptive and have a mind which is much more open to new ideas than some I could mention. You have surprised me somewhat. Your willingness to adapt is one of the reasons I wanted you for this job.” Arcadius nodded to acknowledge the compliment but said nothing, leaving Arturo to continue. “The second function will be like those Imperial fellows you told me about, in that Imperial Security will keep an eye out for internal threats such as anyone plotting to overthrow the Concillium and re-assert rule by Emperor again.”

  Arcadius smiled. “Yes, your obsession with restoring the Republic or at least an updated version thereof, as you have said numerous times previously.” And when Arturo appeared to be about to say something he waved a hand, smiling. “And yes, I can work with that. What else?”

  Arturo continued to pace. “Foreign threats. Imperial Security will set up agents in foreign lands to spy on them and give warning of threats, to corrupt and bring under our control officials and even rulers through bribery or more subtle means of persuasion, mostly revolving around blackmail of some type
. I imagine over time we will have to determine where to set the limits of the types of actions we will be prepared to undertake. I am not sure what will be seen as acceptable to use such methods in the long run, but for now basically pretty much anything goes as far as foreigners are concerned.”

  He paused and looked over at Arcadius. “The Imperial part of the Empire is not to be regarded as a foreign power as such and as a consequence there will be some limitations on what I will regard as acceptable methods in the old Empire. On the other hand, their being fellow Romans will mean the use of carrots may be just as valuable as blackmail.”

  “Carrots?” Arcadius queried, obviously puzzled by the reference.

  Arturo smiled. “In my land there is a well know joke about a stubborn donkey being made to carry his load briskly wherever his owner wants by having a stick tied to his back extended forward of his head and a carrot being tied to the stick just out of his reach. The donkey in his effort to reach the carrot keeps moving forward but of course the stick keeps the carrot just out of his reach. It is called the carrot and the stick parable.”

  Arcadius nodded smiling. “Ha. Yes. I see. Carrots. I like that.”

  “Yes. Well that is how I see Imperial Security being organised. Three departments basically. Physical security of people and places, Internal Security and External Security.”

  “Hmm. Yes. I can see how it would divide up like that. On the physical security side, we will have to provide guards for visiting foreign dignitaries as well. Some of them would not be happy have female bodyguards assigned to them.”