Muses of Roma (Codex Antonius Book 1)

by Rob Steiner

  Would find, he corrected himself. Thinking failure breeds failure, his old Umbra mentor had hammered into his psyche.

  “There's Pomona,” Lucia said.

  The ship's nose cameras showed a city with buildings just as gray with ash as the surrounding hills. Where once a thriving, growing city had flourished, now the empty husks of markets, temples, and homes remained. The Romans may not have slagged the city, but their diraenium bombs were just as effective.

  “Blaesus, where is this Canyon street?” Lucia asked.

  “According to the tabulari, it’s in the city’s northeast sector.” He looked up from his map to the monitors. “There,” he said, pointing to two large elliptical buildings across the street from each other.

  “Where should we land, sir?” Lucia asked Kaeso.

  “Right between them, if you can.”

  Lucia clenched her teeth. Caduceus was not a large ship, and would easily fit between the colosseum and the theater, but landing there would be a challenge in the violent winds running through the valley at sixty miles per hour. Nobody said anything as Lucia guided the ship into the “Canyon.” She hovered over the road separating the two structures, the winds buffeting the ship, pushing it backwards, but she held the sliders on her controls and allowed the ship to descend. There was a small bump as the ship settled on its pads, and then all was still.

  “Grav and inertial fields off-line,” Lucia said. “Thrusters powering down. We're here.”

  “Lucia,” Blaesus said, “your skills are unmatched.”

  “I wouldn't have needed them if we had a landing system from this century.” She glanced at Kaeso.

  “Your landing system is in those vaults,” Kaeso said. “Let's go get it.”

  7

  “See the new display on your visor?” Nestor asked the crew once they were suited up in Bay One. Kaeso noticed the new red box in his helmet visor’s corner display. There were two bars labeled ‘Radiation’ and ‘Contagion.’

  When everyone said they did, Nestor continued, “Watch that display. I programmed it just for this job. The suit will protect you from the bulk of any radiation.”

  “'Bulk?'” Dariya asked as she checked Daryush's suit. The big man grunted, and gave her an upturned thumb. Dariya smiled, nodded, and then patted him on the shoulder.

  Nestor said, “You will not get any more radiation than you would standing outside on a sunny day. However, if some should leak into the suit, that display will tell you how much.”

  “How’s it different than the normal rad display?” Lucia asked. Her eyes darted across the interior display only she could see. Like Kaeso’s helmet, Lucia’s followed her eye motions and responded to blinks that told it which displays to show on the visor.

  “Normal rad displays won’t pick up the diraenium Romans use in their irradiation bombs,” Nestor said. “This new display will.”

  Kaeso focused on the display and blinked twice to bring it to full size on his visor. “I suppose the 'Contagion' would be our friend the Cariosus.”

  “Yes, Centuriae,” Nestor said. “It monitors your suit’s interior for contamination. If that alarm goes off...well, we are leaving you behind.”

  Flamma adjusted his helmet latches, then asked, “I thought the diraenium bombs killed off everything?”

  “They were supposed to,” Nestor said, “but the vaults are underground. There might be pockets of virus the bombs did not reach.”

  Flamma nodded, and the crew was quiet.

  “Well,” Blaesus said, rubbing his gloves together, “I cannot wait to get started.”

  Kaeso went to the cargo bay’s door controls and moved a slider. Red lights flashed within the bay. Kaeso said into his com, “Verify your suits are secure.”

  One by one the crew gave their affirmative. Kaeso checked the fittings on his suit one last time and then checked his visor to ensure it was sealed.

  “Opening outer doors,” Kaeso said, then moved the slider to the open position.

  The cargo ramp lowered with a grinding Kaeso heard in his helmet. Dust and ash blew into Bay One from outside. When the ramp touched the ground, he saw swirling eddies of fine debris moving on the street. The light was gray, even though it was near noon at this longitude. Kaeso picked up his tool bag, slung it over his shoulder, and led the crew onto Pomona’s dead streets.

  The howling wind pushed Kaeso left; he had to lean into the wind to avoid falling over. He looked at the colosseum and the amphitheater ahead. The hazy sun barely penetrated the cloud cover, but it illuminated both structures just enough to see their dark, massive outlines through the polluted air. Kaeso blinked at his visor and his helmet lights came on. They lit up the air particles around him, making it even more difficult to see, so he switched them off.

  He turned and watched his crew lumber down the Caduceus's ramp in their EVA suits. They all carried a tool bag over their shoulders. Lucia's Legionnaire training helped her move gracefully in her suit, while the others fought simply to stand straight in the wind.

  Kaeso frowned. Once again, guilt surged through him. They are not trained for this. We should be smuggling Arabian kaffa. A job you know they can do. They're not Umbra Ancilia. They're not even Legionaries.

  “They're competent enough,” Kaeso muttered to himself.

  “You say something, sir?” Lucia asked, approaching him. “Your lips moved, but I didn’t hear you on the com.”

  “Nothing. Blaesus, where's your map?”

  Blaesus lumbered up to Kaeso, then stumbled forward as a wind gust almost sent him into Kaeso's arms.

  “A bit breezy today,” he said. “I scanned the maps onto the ship's shared network. You can find it in my folder. Here are the scrolls Vallutus was kind enough not to ask for when he backed out.”

  Kaeso took the scrolls and then blinked at his visor to bring up the ship's network. He found the maps in Blaesus's folder, ignored the ones of the local hills and mountains, and opened the file showing the vaults’ layout.

  “Everyone open the vault schematic,” Kaeso ordered.

  Dariya approached with Daryush shuffling behind. “Should we not find the vaults first?” she asked.

  “The schematics will tell us where the vaults are,” Kaeso said. “Look for vents, power generators, anything that would need connecting to the outside. Private citizens built these vaults. I'm betting the vaults won't be self-contained like a military bunker.”

  The crew studied the layouts for a minute, then Dariya said, “Ah...”

  When she didn't say more, Lucia demanded, “What?”

  Dariya ignored Lucia.

  Kaeso said, “Dariya?”

  “Sir, I believe our Roman friends used an Iris for their com systems. If you check the schematics around the access room just outside the vaults, you will see switch boxes with the Iris symbol.”

  “So?” Lucia asked. “Many banks use Iris.”

  Kaeso grinned. “Yes, and they need a nice, big antenna array to bypass the way station relays and send their signals into their own store of com drones next to the way line. Look for an Iris array on the colosseum or amphitheater. It should be someplace high up.”

  Peering into the ashy gloom, Kaeso realized his order would be harder to follow than it sounded. Kaeso told the crew to split up. Kaeso, Dariya, Daryush, and Flamma walked around the colosseum, while Lucia took Blaesus and Nestor around the amphitheater’s exterior.

  Kaeso had seen the many colosseums on Terra, even the Colosseum Maximus in Roma. While the Pomona colosseum was not as large as the Maximus, it was still big enough to make it difficult for Kaeso to search for a rooftop Iris antenna in the seething atmosphere.

  “Where are all the bodies?” Flamma asked, staring at the colosseum.

  “I thought Romans burn golem bodies after gladiatorial matches,” Dariya said.

  “I'm not talking about gladiators. Where are all the citizen bodies? If the city was irradiated without warning, shouldn't we see some bodies?”

  Kaeso
scanned the street and realized Flamma was right. It had been two years since the planet was destroyed. If the diraenium bombs killed all living organisms as advertised, there would be no bacteria around to decompose any bodies left in the open, nor would there be any animals to feast on the remains. There should be thousands of people laying in the streets, sitting in the crashed cars and buses, lying in the doors of buildings. Besides the dust and ash, the whole street looked as if it was deserted when the bombs fell.

  “Maybe they took shelter?” Dariya said.

  “They wouldn't have had time,” Kaeso said. “The Eagles jumped through the way line and bombed the planet within minutes.”

  As Kaeso pondered the riddle, Lucia's voice came over his com. “Centuriae, I think we found the Iris.”

  “Acknowledged. We’ll be right there.”

  When Kaeso's team reached Lucia's location in the back of the amphitheater, she pointed to a wide circular shadow on the theater's roof.

  “Is that your Iris antenna?” she asked Dariya.

  Dariya peered into the gloom. “I cannot tell for sure in this muck, but it seems the right dimensions. Well done, centurion.”

  Kaeso could almost hear Lucia's teeth grind at Dariya's intentional misidentification of her former rank. Before Lucia could respond, Blaesus said, “I spotted it. Apparently my eyes are used to seeing through cloudy cataracts.”

  Kaeso grinned. He appreciated the old Senator’s knack for defusing tense situations. Even if he sometimes created them.

  Kaeso pointed to a door at the back of the amphitheater. He tried the handle, but it was locked so they proceeded around the side to the front of the building to find the main doors open.

  “Ah,” Blaesus said once he entered the lobby. “Now I can stand up straight like a civilized man and not fight that infernal wind.”

  “Which way now?” Flamma asked.

  The theater's main lobby would have been as opulent and beautiful as any Roman theater, if it was not covered in gray ash. Beneath the grime, colorful frescoes graced the walls behind smooth marble statues of the gods standing on pedestals. Darkened chandeliers hung from the ceiling far above them. A wide, red-carpeted staircase with marble handrails wound its way up to the theater's second level.

  The wind moaned through the theater.

  Kaeso brought up the vault schematics on his visor. They showed that the only entrance was from an elevator. Kaeso scanned the lobby for an elevator and found one at the far end near the base of the staircase. He walked to the elevator and pressed a button. Nothing happened.

  Dariya grunted. “I am surprised you even tried, sir.” She pulled a crowbar from her tool bag. “I have the key.”

  She inserted the crowbar into the space where the doors met and pulled back on the bar. The doors groaned open an inch or two.

  She motioned to her brother. “You take a pull, big man.”

  Daryush nodded, then put his gloved hands on the crowbar and grunted as he pulled the doors open another foot. Kaeso grabbed one side of the door, Daryush the other, and they both pulled again, opening the doors to shoulder width. Kaeso turned on his helmet lamps and peered down into the blackness. The elevator car rested at the floor below them, its top a foot below the entrance. Kaeso squeezed between the open doors, taking care not to snag his oxygen backpack, and stepped onto the car’s roof. He found a rooftop access hatch and gave it a good stomp. It fell into the elevator with a soft thump on the carpeted floor.

  Dariya peeked through the doors. “No way we can fit through that little hatch. Not with these suits.”

  Kaeso checked the vault schematics on his visor again. “You're right. Good thing this isn't the elevator we want.” He stepped back into the lobby.

  “Of course,” Dariya said, checking her visor. “This shaft is too narrow. It's got to be a freight elevator.”

  “Let's try the loading docks.”

  The crew walked through the lobby and onto the theater floor. Ash-covered busts sat in alcoves along the walls. More frescoes covered the walls with scenes from bawdy comedies to tragic dramas. Above them hung a spectacular chandelier with hundreds of tiny, dangling crystals. It looked like an upside down tholus tree.

  Kaeso grunted, then pointed up at the chandelier. “Our white tholus tree.”

  “So Barbata knew what she was talking about after all,” Blaesus said. “Should we start digging up the seats beneath it?”

  The crew ignored Blaesus and continued walking down the aisle.

  A colorful set graced the stage, as if awaiting the next performance. It was a scene from ancient Greece, with Greek gods and Greek lettering painted on marble columns. Kaeso's Greek was limited, but he could make out “Thebes” on a column.

  “Seneca,” Blaesus said wistfully. “It’s a scene from the first act of Oedipus, I believe. It's been years since I saw a play by him. The Seneca troupes in the Lost Worlds don’t compare to a true Roman company.”

  Flamma chuckled. “Give me a good Atellan farce any day. Seneca depresses me.”

  “Atellan farces are vulgar,” Blaesus scoffed. “Just the sort of taste I'd expect from a gladiator. Lucia, please tell me you are not a vulgar plebe like our gladiator comrade? Seneca or Atellan?”

  “I've never been to the theater,” she said.

  “You've never... But why? You call yourself a Roman and you've never been to the theater?”

  “Why spend a dozens sesterces and two hours to sit in a crowded theater when I can watch dramas on my own visum?”

  “Oh, my dear, it's the experience you pay for, not the story. We’ll remedy that once we're all rich. Then you won't have any excuse to avoid live plays. I’ll take you to a good Seneca play, perhaps Oedipus in memory of this adventure. I think you’d like it. I suppose we could find a decent enough company outside Roma. Perhaps Libertus has one. What say you, Centuriae? Are the Liberti uncultured barbarians like all good Romans are taught to believe, or do they have good playhouses with quality actors?”

  “I wouldn't know,” Kaeso said. “I'm more of a reader. I'd rather read the worst book ever written than see the best play ever made.”

  Blaesus laughed. “Centuriae, I'm not sure if you're joking or serious. To be honest, it doesn't matter. A clever response nonetheless.”

  Kaeso climbed the six stairs up to the stage and then weaved around the set pieces to the curtains behind them. He parted the curtains and stepped into the tight corridor. His headlamps illuminated the dusty air ten feet in every direction.

  “Lucia, take your group left and I'll go right. Call if you find the elevator.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Kaeso led Dariya, Daryush, and Flamma to the right. Collapsed rigging lay scattered on the floor. He stepped around it, warning the others as he did so.

  Kaeso saw the first body backstage. It was a man, naked, lying on his back, his empty eye sockets staring at the ceiling. The irradiated city and dry climate had preserved the body well. Though the skin was leathery, the man's facial features were clear. He had no hair that Kaeso could see, and his neck was swollen as wide as his head. A Cariosus victim.

  Kaeso took a deep breath and stepped over the man.

  Dariya said, “There's your body, Flamma. Happy?”

  Flamma exhaled, but said nothing.

  Kaeso turned another corner and saw the freight elevator doors. Five more bodies lay before them. He shined is helmet lights on the bodies and saw they were also Cariosus victims. Men and women, all naked, with swollen necks and no hair. Kaeso noticed the elevator had dents and scratches in it. As Kaeso approached, he saw the shredded fingernails on each body, the tips a pulpy mush.

  Daryush began to moan. Dariya took his hand in hers. “It's all right, 'Ush, I'm here. Just don't look at them.”

  “He's not gonna get sick, is he?” Flamma asked. “'Cause that would be nasty if he got sick in a—”

  “Shut up, Flamma,” Dariya said. “He is not sick.” Dariya led Daryush away from the bodies to the other side of the
backstage.

  Kaeso activated his com. “Lucia, we found the freight elevator.”

  “We're on our way, sir.”

  “Be aware there's debris and...bodies on the way.”

  She paused. “Acknowledged.”

  When Lucia, Blaesus, and Nestor arrived, Daryush still stood in a corner with his back to the bodies, Dariya trying to soothe him.

  “Yes,” Blaesus grumbled, “they would have to block the door.”

  Nestor walked over to the bodies and inspected them. He looked up at Kaeso with grim eyes.

  Kaeso turned to Flamma and Lucia. “Let's move them.”

  When both paused, he said, “They're dead. They're no longer contagious. The diraenium bombs killed off any virus long ago.”

  They both nodded reluctantly, then each grabbed a body’s ankles and pulled it off to the side.

  Kaeso couldn't blame them for hesitating. All the Umbra training left in him screamed to get as far away from these bodies as fast as he could. He ignored the screams, grabbed the ankles of a body, and pulled it away from the elevator.

  “Um,” Blaesus said, “am I the only one wondering why they scratched the elevator door hard enough to destroy their fingers?”

  Lucia grunted as she moved another body. “To escape the diraenium bombs would be my guess.”

  “They were in the Cariosa’s final stages,” Blaesus said. “They'd have no concept of the danger. My guess is they knew someone was alive beyond those doors. Someone to satisfy their hunger.”

  “Blaesus,” Kaeso said, “please give us a hand.”

  He sighed. “I'm an old man, but I will do my best.”

  Once they cleared the bodies from the elevator door, Kaeso asked Dariya for her crowbar. She whispered something in Persian to Daryush, then went and handed Kaeso the bar.

  “Is he with us?” Kaeso asked.

  Dariya glared at him. “He will be fine. It just takes him longer to get used to...terrible things. Not everyone can look on a dead body without flinching.”