by Paul Howard
A great cheer began to arise from the men in the water and I was feeling pretty much like celebrating myself. But this was not to be. For no sooner had the men began to cheer than Gracchus, sensing his chance, knocked down his guard and wrested his sword from him. Dashing across the beach, he cut his bonds, grabbed me from behind and put the blade of the sword to my throat.
“I will kill you if you do not do exactly as I say!” he shouted and all celebration ceased instantly.
“You are not in a position to bargain Gracchus!” I snapped.
“You do not think so, eh?” he responded. “All I want is the gold. That is worth your life, is it not?”
“It is by my order alone,” I replied, “That you were not killed in the first place. It took all of my persuasion to save you. Kill me and you die right where you stand!”
“Then we shall die together!” he snapped.
“If that is what you want,” I said, “But the gold would be of no use to you dead!”
The Nubian had already bounded over the side and the men swarmed around us. I held up my hand to hold them back. The expression on 53’s face told me that nothing, not even my order, could stop him.
“You have about one second to decide!” I suggested.
Gracchus saw the face of the Nubian and realized that I was right. He threw down the sword and let go of me. As the Nubian approached I picked up the sword and pointed it at Gracchus’ throat. “I will take care of him,” I said to 53, “Get the men aboard!” The Nubian paused and glared at Gracchus.
“Quickly!” I demanded.
“You heard the Captain,” he shouted at the others, “Get aboard!”
Gracchus looked at him and then to me, unsure of what he would do. “He would have killed you, Gracchus,” I said sharply, “But I will let you keep your life.” I pointed at the ridge. “Run,” I said, “As fast as you can!”
He looked over his shoulder at the natives.
“What about them?” he demanded.
“They are your problem,” I said, “Or would you prefer to deal with him?”
I glanced at the Nubian, who was still quite ready to slay him on the spot. Without another word Gracchus saw the reason of my words and ran toward the ridge. The men began to scream and taunt him but he never looked back.
A spear whooshed past me and struck him in back. He stopped, fell to his knees and collapsed, face down, upon the beach. I turned, feeling very shocked and disappointed toward 53, only to discover that he still held his spear. His expression was as shocked as mine and he looked over at the one who threw it.
Calpurnia! She stood, gasping and staring at Gracchus lying there. The other men around her backed away with a look of surprise and admiration on their faces. She looked at me and said nothing. All eyes turned to me as if wondering what I would say. What could I say to her?
Regardless of my orders she was not bound by the Brotherhood or subject to my commands. I felt that I understood the reason why she did it. I had been over-ruled! My mind quickly turned over what she had done. This angel of supreme grace and beauty was much more woman than I had ever imagined. She was as strong as any of us and I found myself loving her all the more for it. She also threw one hell of a spear!
I softly placed my cloak around her shoulders and she pressed her head against my chest. I held her close and escorted her onboard the ship. Not a word passed between us. I was too stunned to say anything anyway. Sarah met us on the gang and wordlessly led her below decks.
We had a ship to put to sea and we quickly busied ourselves with the task at hand. The order was given to drop oars and, once all were aboard, we rowed out of the harbor. As we raised sail I looked back at the beach one last time. I could see no sign of Gracchus! Whether the islanders had taken him away or he had somehow survived I cannot say. That was the last we saw of him.
The sky had turned a brilliant orange as our island retreat receded on the horizon. The torches were lit and Number 93 came to fetch me to the new armory. My eyes struggled to adjust to the darkening interior below decks as we approached the room which had been adapted for that purpose. A soft, yellow glow came from within. As I entered, the first thing I became aware of was the pungent smell of charcoal.
The Greek was working on the Apparatus in the corner. “The Captain is here.” said the Chinese. The Greek closed the top of the box and smiled in greeting.
“Welcome, Captain,” he said, “I thought you should see this.”
I looked around the room with its carefully arranged shelves and tied-down fixtures. I could make nothing of it.
“We must post a guard at this door at all times,” he began, “No one must enter without permission. Everything in here is dangerous and even the best intentioned curiosity seeker could ruin the ordinance or generate a spark.”
“I am wearing metal…” I said.
He raised his hand in reassurance. “The contents of the armory are now secure, there is no risk from that.” he said. I took a deep sigh of relief. I should have known better. If there was danger Number 93 would have told me beforehand.
“What do you mean by ‘secure’.” I asked nervously.
“All the fuses are securely stored,” he replied, “As are the electrical triggering devices. The contents of this room are now relatively harmless as they are.” I looked closely at the contents of the shelves. Hundreds of little boats were neatly arranged in rows, each one secured by cloth lined rods which ran the length of the shelves.
“Those are the fire mines,” he explained, “The safety pins will be pulled before launch. This is the launcher.” He raised a chute of canvas and tubing and showed it to me. “When these sections are connected they will lower to the water and deploy the mines,” he continued. “The longer tube is for the surface torpedoes. It will be semi submerged when the torpedoes are activated.”
Even as he showed and explained these things to me, I could not understand what he was talking about. “Very interesting,” I replied, “But why show this to me now?”
The two inventors looked at each other with a sense of amusement.
“These weapons,” said the Greek, “Will be useless at sea unless the ship is handled properly to take the greatest strategic advantage of them. That can only happen if the ship’s officers fully understand how they work and what they do.”
I looked to one and then to the other. They were completely in earnest.
“Sit down please, Captain,” he said with a wry smile on his face, “We have much to learn!”
I sat down and the lesson began. In the course of their overview I came to understand these new weapons and what they would do in actual combat at sea. No longer miracles or things of curiosity, they were powerful and dangerous tools for a new kind of warfare. I became aware that all of my officers and the crews responsible for working with them would have to learn new methods and combat tactics using this new technology.
I agreed to organize training sessions throughout the course of our journey to ensure our readiness for when the time came to put them into use. I also became aware that I would be charged with the task of developing new sailing tactics to produce maximum effect. This was why they brought me down there as soon as we had put to sea.
Antonia was a new kind of warship unlike any other that had ever come before. We were a new world unto itself and our naval tactics would have to be as profoundly new as the weapons themselves. They showed me the lights they used in the armory, like everything else around me they were different. An enclosed flame within a globe of reinforced ceramic and glass which went out when tipped over or broken, yet could breathe air like an open flame.
New…Revolutionary! I hadn’t even imagined the scope of what we had taken on before that hour. It was like a dream from some distant age. A door had been opened to another world and it frightened me. I wondered if mortal men were truly up to it. What a handful of men in the Stinker had done while we drilled and labored on the beach was centuries beyond anything in the Roman World. I r
ealized that I would have this New Age at my back in the strangest battle ever waged on the sea. It almost seemed like a dream yet, it had a kind of super reality about it. I remembered the afternoon I sat on the ridge and pondered whether any of this could be real.
After an hour I could absorb no more. I asked for a chance to sleep on what they had explained to me. To give my mind a chance to digest it all. Sensing my fatigue, they agreed. I promised to return for as many such sessions as would be needed to master the new concepts.
As I came up top, the island of Amorgos was receding on our port side and the stars were coming out. There was so much to do and very little time to do it in. I checked in with the bridge and made sure of our course, inspected the rigging and took stock of the ship and crew. With 53 in charge all was as it should be. Although I normally would have met with Calpurnia and had originally planned to do so, I found that I simply could not. It was as if our inventors had lit a fire under me. There would be no rest. No landfall. No diversion from our mission until we sighted Gibraltar, if the men chose to go there.
When I finally reached my cabin before midnight I was completely rung out by the events of the day. Like everyone and everything else aboard Antonia that night, my limbs ached and my eyes could close to sleep. But there was no rest within me. Peace was a luxury for those who were not headed for certain death. Not for us.
I lay in the bed for a long time, trying to clear my mind of the nagging thought that we had somehow managed to herd ourselves into an utterly insane idea. “After all,” thought I, “What difference can one ship make in the sweeping course of world affairs? If Rome is determined to plunge the entire world into generations of all-out war, how could anyone hope to change its mind?” But the more I thought of this, the more I found myself confronted by the personal reality of Nero.
This was all his idea. Even though he had a history of doing whatever he pleased, no matter how self-indulgent or pointless, Rome also had a history of letting even an emperor go so far before stopping him. Caligula also had mad indulgences which were not global but they ultimately became his undoing. Perhaps the problem could be best left to Rome. We could flee and let the empire take care of its own problems. So my rationale went for some time.
Then I remembered the fire. The Great City in ruins, the way that Nero managed to destroy the seat of the Roman world and place the blame on others. In the hands of the truly deceptive and ambitious, words become mighty and deadly weapons. If a lie is repeated often enough it takes on a resemblance to truth that can become a reality unto itself by simply repeating it over and over.
Sheep do not rationalize the noises they make; they just keep repeating them instinctively. What poison was that evil mind preparing to spew into the ears of an unwary and much too gullible populace?
A final decision had to be made. It was not too late for us to change our minds. If we were to take action it could not be a simple act of momentum or outright madness. It would have to the decision of determined and sober men. Clearly, dispassionately and deliberately arrived at in the light of cold, hard facts. There was only one thing to be done. The issue had been talked around and hinted at long enough. It had to be put it plainly before the crew and have it finally decided once and for all.
As we moved out of the Cyclades a door would close behind us and cut us off from the Aegean and beyond. Our westward course would pull us deep into the enclosed trap of the Mediterranean. Whatever course we chose would be a one-way journey. There could be no turning back, no tarrying, no pause for reflection. We were fugitive slaves on a captured, mutinous ship and all before us were enemies.
Even if we encountered no obstructions in our path time was also against us. The possibility of reaching Gibraltar in time to find the fleet before the treacherous conditions of late autumn forced its withdrawal was in serious doubt. That is a very long voyage for any ship, even under the best of conditions. We would be taking a frightful risk even by attempting to make the sailing and still be faced with the possibility that we would reach our goal too late. Everybody onboard had to understand that. This was not a decision that could simply be made by a commander and followed purely on the basis of faith.
The next morning was cool and clear. The sky was cloudless and a stout wind had risen from the east. Even the weather seemed to be pushing us from behind. Shortly after morning meals, I directed 53 to muster all men aft. The time had come.
“Are we about to have one of your rousing speeches?” he asked. I told him what was on my mind. “I thought we had already settled that,” he replied, “Why not just leave things as they are?”
“Because the decision has not been made,” I said, “Not by all. Not with everything clearly in mind. We need to make what we are doing clear in plain language. There can be no doubt among us at all.” He shrugged and looked a little puzzled by my answer.
“I know what you have done with the men,” I said, “You will never know how much that means to me. If I was not sure of the answer, I would not be calling this meeting. Every life aboard is at stake, we have to make certain of our course.”
“You need reassurance?” he asked.
“Frankly, yes,” I replied, “If we are going to attempt this, I think everybody does.”
He nodded his head and called all hands aft. Everyone but the helmsman moved aft as I took up a position on the bridge where all could hear. I found myself thinking about that day that seemed so long ago when I stood on the forecastle and addressed them. At that moment, it seemed to me like my life just kept repeating itself.
“The time has come, my friends,” I began, “Now we must decide our fate. I am so proud of what you have all achieved since the day we took over. Then, we were slaves but now, you have proven your worth as men. You have claimed your right to choose your own destiny. The destiny of us all. We have talked about it, trained ourselves for it, made our plans, and remade this ship into something that has never sailed on the seas before.
“Now it is for all of us to make the commitment we have prepared ourselves for. But before we do. I want to be sure we are of one mind. A mind as clear as the sea air around us. Before we decide I must point out our options plainly and without prejudice. With each hour that passes time becomes our increasing enemy. We must assume that our visitors from Amorgos were not the only ones who knew of our presence in these islands and that every ship and tradesman in the area are spreading tales about us.
“That means that there is no turning back for us from now on. Whatever course we follow is a one-way journey and once we decide, we will not be able to change our minds at a later time. Your decision now will be irreversible. The wind is at our backs and we are making good speed today, we shall clear the Cyclades and reach open sea by nightfall at the latest. Once we are there we can turn this ship south or west.
“If we go south, we can try to minimize our exposure to the trade routes and make for an undeveloped port like the one we just left yesterday, burn this ship, split the gold among us and go our separate ways. There are many such places on the African coast that could serve this purpose. We will find a place that is far enough out of the reach of Rome but not so isolated as to leave us in the middle of nowhere.
“That is one option and it is not a bad one. We could try to live out our lives peacefully, let the Empire go about its business and keep out of politics, no matter what happens.”
I surveyed the assembly before me and noticed that neither of the women was among them. This puzzled me but I continued with my address to the crew.
“The other option is the one that we have all conjectured and talked around for weeks. To sail west across the Mediterranean and make for Gibraltar. I know that many of you have expressed a willingness to attempt this even at the cost of your lives. But we must look at this carefully.
“Have you considered the challenge of trying to sail the entire length of the Mediterranean right through the very heart of the Roman Empire in a stolen warship? No matter where we go we are the big
gest thing on the water. It is impossible for a ship this size, flying a bright orange sail with the symbol of a charging horse, to go unnoticed by everybody who sees it. We would have to make for absolute speed and could not stop or make port even in an emergency.
“We are not only racing against time but we are also racing against the very nature of what put us here. The stories about us are following us as fast as any ship or courier can carry them. We have already seen that for ourselves. We must consider that. There is also the risk that we could encounter other Roman warships on our way. They may not realize what we are and let us pass without incident. But there is always the chance that some of them could be too curious or recognize that we are not where we are supposed to be.
“We cannot afford a fight with the Roman Navy. It would cost us time and resources, not to mention lives. There is always that risk and it will increase as we get closer to our goal.
“Then, there is the issue of the sea itself. It is already autumn and the Septimus Fleet will be forced to withdraw before rough seas make their patrols impossible. We could risk everything and get there only to find it is for nothing. We also cannot predict what kind of weather we will have to contend with. The later in the fall it gets, the rougher the sea will become. This certainly would not be an easy journey for any of us.
“Then there is the task itself. Even if we could manage the sailing and the traffic on the sea lanes and the weather, even if we found the fleet was still there, the mission would be, in my opinion, almost impossible to achieve.
“They have sixteen ships like this one. Just as fast, just as sturdy. Their weapons are conventional but anybody who has ever seen ballisters and Roman fire knows how deadly effective they are in battle. The same is true for the Marines; trained in combat with the legions they are fierce and professional at war. If they boarded us we would soon be swamped and overcome by the fleet, which would be able to swarm around us like hungry sharks.