by Miller, Ian
"I must stay with Quintus," Lucilla said simply. "It is my duty and . . ."
Gaius stared at her, and shook his head. Up to a point she was correct, but he was not going to leave his sister. "You two!" Gaius ordered two soldiers, "Take Quintus and get him up those steps, kicking, screaming, whatever, but get him."
The soldiers stared at this strange craft, but orders were orders. Timothy led the way up the stairs, Lucilla and Vipsania followed, then Gaius followed, clutching his two sacks of personal treasures. Then came the three remaining soldiers, and Quintus, who was now yelling and screaming.
The door closed and they were given seats. Nothing happened for a brief period, then a voice was heard from the ship itself, "You are about to be taken away from this hill but first you will be secured to your seats, and these will move into a machine. Do not be frightened. No harm will come to you, and what is going to happen is for your own benefit. If it does not happen to you, you will be squashed."
"What . . ?" Just as a soldier said that, bands encircled them, and held them in the seats. Then Gaius found his seat transformed to a bed, which began to move towards the back of the cylinder, where it slid into another cylinder. He dropped his sacks before he reached the cylinder. The end was closed, but while he felt frightened, he was not going to say anything. A warmish feeling struck his feet, and very slowly began moving up his body. He guessed that this had something to do with the aliens searching him for the hidden weapon, and he smiled to himself that he had taken the precaution to secrete it in his sack. Then, finally, after the warm feeling had passed over the top of his head, the end of the cylinder opened, his bed was wheeled out and as he was returned to where it had started, he grabbed his precious sacks and brought them close to his feet. When the movement stopped, the "bed" returned to being a chair, whereupon Timothy's chair began the same routine.
"What happened?" Vipsania asked.
"I don't know," Gaius said, "but the voice was correct in one respect. It did not hurt, and as far as I can tell, no damage has been done."
"No damage was done," the strange voice said, "and when any other's turn comes, if he or she has any wounds, they will be repaired."
Before long, Timothy reappeared, and Vipsania's chair began to move. The process was slow, but before long, all chairs were returned to their initial positions.
"You are now ready to fly," the voice said. "I shall let you see what happens." As soon as the voice finished, the wall in front of them appeared to disappear so they could see out. In front of the ship there was a row of dead Celts. Then there was a shudder, and the ship lifted.
"No!" Quintus yelled.
"Keep that idiot quiet!" Gaius said angrily.
The soldiers stared at the wall as the ground began to recede. Two of them seemed terrified, but one of them, Gaius noted, seemed to be enjoying himself. Then they were in a cloud. Discipline held, and a soldier made a gesture of smashing Quintus' face. Quintus took the hint, and sat back.
"I'm sorry," Gaius said softly to Lucilla, "but we have to keep discipline."
"Do you know what's going to happen?" Lucilla asked. She clutched the side of her seat, her knuckles white.
"Don't ask me how I know this," Gaius replied softly, "but you and I will see Rome again. But not straight away."
A strange feeling crossed over Gaius. That prophecy! He would walk amongst the Gods. They were going up! He would return to Rome in ruins. Whoever could fly could defeat Rome. That must be the meaning of the prophecy. But he was to earn his agnomen. His task was clear. He had to stay with these demons, learn from them, then somehow defeat them.
The outside became dark, yet the flight seemed to go on and on. Then suddenly there was a huge silver object beside them that totally filled their view, and their craft then seemed to be drawn inside it.
"I don't like this," Vipsania shuddered.
"Neither do I," Gaius replied. One thing was clear. This was no simple rescue, because otherwise they could have been put down somewhere else. Gaius could see that both Lucilla and Vipsania had reached this conclusion as well.
"We should never have got on board," Quintus muttered.
"You might be right," Gaius shrugged coldly, "but if we had stayed there we would be dead by now, and you know what would have happened to your wife. We don't know what's happening, but we are still alive. Now, above all other times, we must behave like Romans. We must not lose control, and we must be ready to do what we have to do, on orders only."
"You don't order me around . . ." Quintus started.
"Right now I do," Gaius said firmly. He paused and then said more softly, "Quintus, the only way we can survive is if we act together, in a disciplined way. If you want to suggest something, I'll listen. What I'm saying is that nobody must start something on their own.
"You men," he continued to the soldiers, "I'll admit I don't know what's going to happen, but the only way we are going to survive is to behave with dignity. Unless any of you know how to fly, these creatures have to take us home. We have to persuade them to do so, and we're hardly likely to do that by making nuisances of ourselves."
The soldiers nodded.
It was then that the door opened, their creature stood up and walked out. There seemed to be a silence, then began what appeared to be a very heated debate in another language, with another quite strange and different voice. The debate got stronger, then it stopped, and shortly after, there appeared at the door another . . . what? It had two arms, two legs, was made of metal and glass, and had a sort of mouth, and eyes. Its torso was a cylinder, with odd-looking fastenings holding bits together.
"Follow me!" it said. It spoke Latin, in a rather strange metallic tone.
"Do so," Gaius ordered. "Same order as entering. Quintus, please behave with dignity. You men surround him. If he behaves, treat him as of senatorial class. If he . . ."
"Gaius," Quintus said firmly and arrogantly. "There will be no need for that. Personally, I was completely opposed to getting on this flying ship, but since we are here I agree with your proposal. We must work together to persuade these people to return us."
The party slowly made its way though the doorway into a large corridor. They marched along, following what Gaius called the Tin Man. They stopped in front of a wall that slid open to reveal a small room.
"Four in, the rest wait here and I shall come back and get you," the Tin Man said.
"You men wait," Gaius ordered. "Timothy, Vipsania, Lucilla, let's go."
They entered, and the door closed. Then the whole floor moved.
"What's happening!" Lucilla said, a touch of fear in her voice.
"We're just being taken somewhere else," Gaius said calmly. He hardly felt calm, but he had to give the impression that he was not overawed.
"Correct," the Tin Man said calmly. "Don't be afraid. You will not be hurt." He stopped, and then said to Gaius, "You find something fascinating?"
"I am curious to know how those pieces of metal are joined so finely together."
The Tin Man stood motionless for a moment, then said, "We are there." The door opened.
"You are not going to tell me?" Gaius asked, "or don't you know?"
"I may show you later on," the Tin Man said. "Follow!" They walked along a corridor, and to the right there were cages, with animals. Animals that Gaius had never considered possible. Then through a door to more cages. There were two lions, two zebras...
Then an empty cage, with straw on the floor.
"I am sorry that I do not believe this is appropriate," the Tin Man said, "but it is the only place I can put you where you cannot do harm."
"Gaius," Vipsania said with fear in her voice. "If we go in there, we can't get out again . . ."
"We'll get out," Gaius said. "Please do as he says."
"You are cooperative," the Tin Man said as he closed the door behind them and locked it. "That is good. Tell me, why do you cooperate when you know you are prisoners."
"Because I can't do anything to reme
dy the situation," Gaius replied simply, "and there's no point in my doing something when I cannot gain."
"Logical," the Tin Man replied.
"What will happen to us?" Lucilla asked.
"I will let you know later," the Tin Man replied. "I must get the other four."
"What's going on?" Lucilla asked when the Tin Man was out of sight.
"You want my guess," Vipsania said softly. When nobody replied, she said, "We're being collected."
"Collected?" Timothy frowned.
"Didn't you notice all those animals? Two of everything. And some of them are weird and frightening. I think we're going to end up in some sort of games."
"Oh God!" Lucilla shuddered.
"The last bit doesn't follow," Gaius said in as comforting a tone as he could manage, and placed his hand on her arm. "I'm sorry for getting you into this mess," he said. "I think Quintus might have been right, at least to the extent that these creatures are not here to help us."
"We would have all been killed down there," Lucilla reassured him.
"Anyway, all's not lost," Gaius tried to reassure them all. "I'll get you out of this."
"Any idea how?" Vipsania smiled.
"Not the slightest," Gaius admitted.
"That's my Gaius," she said, and hugged him.
It was shortly after this that the others marched past. Quintus gave Lucilla his best effort at a reassuring smile, she waved a kiss. Then he was out of sight. They heard a door close, then silence.
The Tin Man reappeared, with four cups, some apples, and a jar of water. They ate in silence. Gaius felt a trace of vibration through the floor. They were being taken somewhere, but where?
After they finished eating, they stared at their surroundings. Gaius confirmed that the door was closed. He tried to look out, but the lights were dimmed. He checked his sack, untied it, and could feel his metal fittings, his scrolls, and most of all, his alien weapon. It was there. What could he do with it?
They tried talking about anything but their present predicament. Somehow the social life of Rome held little appeal. They began staring vacantly at their surroundings. Gaius gave Vipsania another hug, and suggested they all get what sleep they could.
They lay down, and tried to sleep. It was difficult, but eventually they drifted off. What they were unaware of was that a vapour had been introduced into their air supply, and it would be quite some time before they woke.
Chapter 33
Princeps
It is with regret that I must advise you that Gaius Claudius Scaevola, Legatus Legionis, Legio XX Valeria, must be presumed dead. Scaevola and a small party of soldiers were travelling south to coordinate the westward thrust with Vespasianus and the Augusta. One exploratore from the party has survived, and his account is as follows.
The party marched south and ran into a small squad of Celts who were attacking a squad of Roman soldiers, together with what the soldier called a demon. Scaevola's squad quickly disposed of the enemy, but the soldier informed him that other Celts had attacked and captured a small group of Roman citizens, one of which I understand was his wife. Scaevola sent this exploratore off to get help from the Augusta, and apparently set off to rescue his wife.
It is unclear what happened next. It is presumed that the rescue was successful, because a number of dead Celts were subsequently found. The party then appeared to flee from about four hundred Celts and formed a defensive position on a high hill. The Celts attacked, and while our soldiers fought valiantly, as judged by the dead Celts left behind, it is unclear what happened to the party of Romans. A cohort from the Augusta was sent and it encircled the Celts and disposed of them. However, no trace of the Romans could be found, apart from dead soldiers left at the top of the hill. It also appears that Scaevola had bags of objects that were to be sent to Rome. Nothing even close to the descriptions given to me by the Tribunes of the Valeria were found, either at the hill, or anywhere that could be described as a reasonable path along which they could have travelled. I presume they must have buried these objects to prevent the Celts from accessing them.
While we cannot find their bodies, there has been no sign of them for six weeks, and accordingly I assume they are dead. Apparently Titus' men interrogated some Celts before disposing of them, but all they got was nonsense. The most sane response was that they were taken by the Gods, from which I suspect means they died. On the hill there were a number of dead Celts with terrible burns. I understand that Scaevola was trying to build some weapon based on fire and steam, and since such a weapon is the only explanation for these burned bodies, I presume he got it going, he succeeded to a point, then the device exploded and turned the Roman party into air. No remains of this device were found.
I have assumed temporary control of the Valeria, which shall proceed towards Aquae Sulis.
Aulus Plautius,
General.
Author's note
Thank you for reading this ebook. If you enjoyed it, why not write a reader's review?
First, my grateful thanks for permission to use an image on my cover. The finned boar on the cover is the emblem of the Valeria, and the image was cropped from one kindly provided by the Ermine Street Guard (http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk). I also thank them for offering comments on questions I raised with them. Note that if you disagree with any of the historical facts in the novel, errors and unconventional interpretations are mine alone. Anyone interested in the Roman invasion of Britain will find the Guard and its website to be a very valuable resource, and I strongly advise on visiting the website.
I have tried to make the background to the first two novels in this trilogy as historically accurate as I could, although of course some is just plain fiction. In particular, all events involving Scaevola are imaginary, although I have tried to make such events in accord with history to the extent I could. Of the major events, the encounters with the Iazyges are purely fictional, nevertheless these sort of border encounters did occur from time to time, and the concept of having an adjacent client "kingdom" was fully in accord with policy laid down since Augustus. The fight on the bridge is, of course, fictional, but it also gave me the opportunity to have Scaevola discover the equivalence principle. It also gave me the opportunity to describe what it is like to make a fundamental discovery of significance to science that has been bothering the person making it for some time. That is a personal indulgence, which I hope you will forgive.
There are two main historical events in this book: the attempted coup by Scribonianus, and the invasion of Britain. The available information on both of these is at best sketchy, mainly because the only valid account of the history of this period is presumably in the missing volumes of Tacitus' Annals. Regarding the Scribonianus coup, if you look at the web, not only is the available information sketchy, but in many places it is contradictory. All that seems to be really known is that Scribonianus made an attempt in the Roman senate, but the two legions he was counting on found their eagles firmly stuck in the ground. The award of the name Claudia pia fidelis to the two legions is true. I confess to simply concocting a story that is at least in accord with these facts, and, of course, severely injuring the relationship between Scaevola and Vipsania.
Many of the same remarks relate to the invasion of Britain. There is so little information available, and what there is is frequently not very helpful. The refusal of the Roman soldiers to board is correct, the sending of Narcissus is correct, and Cassius Dio devotes most of his very limited explanation to the call, Io Saturnalia. That is not exactly helpful, but since that trivial event happened, I had to incorporate it somehow. I have tried to follow what is known of the invasion, but again, much of the information is unclear. For those interested, the best account I have been able to find is by Graham Webster: The Roman Invasion of Britain (Routledge, 1999). I was also influenced by Leonard Cottrell's The Great Invasion (Evans Brothers, 1958). I have tried to follow some combination of these, nevertheless there are some parts that I find hard to accept from a st
rategic point of view, and of course the story needed some minor additions.
Accounts of the Battle of Medway often have Gnaeus Hosidius Geta leading a cohort or maybe a legion to harass the Celts in much the way I have described, except that the same soldier was also in Mauretania very soon after. Accordingly, I have interpreted this as being his brother Gaius at the Medway. Was Geta a Legate? Webster seems to think he may have been, Dio implies he was, but what he seems to have done makes no sense so I have demoted him to a Tribunis Laticlavius. He may well have become a legate later. Whatever else happened, if Geta took a whole legion over the river, he would be doing more than harassing chariots and he most certainly would not join the line unless the legion was almost wiped out. No legion was nearly wiped out. What Geta did, or is reported to have done, was more in line with the action of a cohort, but no legion commander, on the eve of a battle, would personally take one cohort and leave the other nine to their own devices.
According to Dio, Vespasian and the Augusta took part at the Medway, but that would make Vespasian a very busy man, and I have taken the liberty of having Scaevola and the Valeria there instead. There is also a point that there appears to be archaeological evidence of burnt villages to the south, although again, these may have occurred prior to the Roman invasion. Dating is not that accurate, but if there were fighting, Vespasian would have been involved there, and it is quite possible that Dio confused two battles. A point that worries me is that Dio seems to have insisted there were only two legions at the Medway (if it were actually the Medway, since as far as I can tell, there is no actual archaeological evidence of such a battle there), and it would make sense that the one that landed on the south coast would not be there. That, of course, assumes the landing pattern that I (and others) have assumed was the actual landing pattern. In short, there is little evidence to support the approach I have taken, but equally there is little evidence against it. To me, the guiding principle is that Cogidumnus was allying himself with Rome because Caratacus had effectively declared war on him. If Rome did not support such an ally, why would any other Celtic tribe support Rome? In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I believe Vespasian and the Augusta would ensure Cogidumnus and his domain were safe, and in doing that he may well have had to fight a battle. The two battles were not necessarily the same, and accordingly, I have concocted the story that the Augusta fought and badly mauled Caratacus' raiding party, which fled to the Medway, to once again fight Rome. (I have adopted Webster's spelling of Caratacus.)