Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (20 page)

"I have been given permission to create whatever scene you wish," the Tin Man said, "and make it do whatever you wish. When everything is correct, we record it, and when every part of a play has been recorded satisfactorily, we get Ulsians to come and watch it, you sell recordings for the screen, and you will have enough wealth to do other things."

"But we won't be allowed to make the images," Gaius said. "It has to be done through you."

"Yes," the Tin man said, then said, "No!"

"Well," Gaius grinned. "Which is it?"

"You can't make the images," the Tin Man said, "at least not yet."

"You don't trust us?" Vipsania asked, with a light smile, but nevertheless a touch of hurt in her voice.

"What I meant is, you are not capable of it," the Tin Man said. "You are not equipped."

"What's that mean?" Vipsania asked curiously. "Do Ulsians have something like another hand, or . . ."

"No!" For the first time, it seemed the Tin Man was agitated. After a small pause, he continued, "I mentioned something about this before. When an Ulsian becomes an adult, an . . . how can I put it . . . an item is embedded in their brains. This allows them to transfer their thoughts, including pictures, to Ulsian machines. If you had one, with the right equipment you could think of an image and create it, you could think of things you wish to move and, provided there is an adequate power source, appear to move it by thought alone. It looks like magic, but of course it is nothing of the sort. It is simply the use of energy by means of fields that are not obvious. Anyway, you haven't got one of these items, so you can't. It is also why you have so many restrictions on where you can go. You could inadvertently be trapped behind a door which has to be 'thought opened'."

"So we're always going to be restricted," Lucilla muttered.

"That depends," the Tin Man said. "If you complete these plays, your wealth should permit you to have these made for you, and as I mentioned before, Timothy's brain should be a sufficient guide for design purposes, which, of course, was why I took the brain and preserved it. So, when you finish this project, it might be possible. However . . ."

"However what?" Vipsania asked.

"You should not force the issue," the Tin Man replied. "These are made at different levels, and the more you force, the lower the level you'll receive. I should add, it is a one-off insertion; there are no upgrades."

"Charming," Lucilla muttered.

"In any case, that is for the future," the Tin Man said. "For the present, do you wish to make plays." He paused, then continued, "I am afraid you will have to make up your mind, right now. I am sorry, but I thought you needed something to do, and with the war, I had quite some trouble . . ."

"We'll do it!" Vipsania interrupted, then turned to Lucilla and added, "Won't we?"

"Yes," Lucilla said, but Gaius detected a tired tone in her voice.

"Good," the Tin Man said. "You have no idea how difficult this was to arrange. At the moment, production means space warships, landing vehicles, soldiers, androids . . ."

"You get machines to do your fighting?" Gaius asked curiously.

"Yes, and no," the Tin Man replied, and held up his hand to stop Gaius from laughing. "Machines can shoot straighter and faster than any Ulsian, or human, could possibly do, however they cannot be in control."

"You don't want them to be in control in case they start shooting you?" Lucilla asked.

"That is a very serious problem which has to be averted," the Tin Man said, "but that is not the reason. The machines still fire the weapons, but . . ."

"You need someone to tell them when?" Gaius offered.

"Yes, but that is not the problem. At least not what I think you're saying. The problem is, given the same situation, either they do the same thing or they do not. If they do . . ."

"They're predictable!" Gaius offered.

"Yes, and if you make sure they don't, they often tend to do something quite bizarre. They either follow what they see as the optimum course, or they take random options, and it doesn't seem to work, although . . ."

"Although what?" Gaius asked.

"Nothing much is working right now," the Tin Man said. "You might have been better off to back the other side."

"Tell me something," Gaius frowned. "Are Ulsian weapons inferior to those of the enemy?"

"No, we have superior technology. Our ships are better too, they're faster, they can be effectively invisible, but . . ."

"But?"

"It doesn't seem to help," the Tin man said. "Somehow, they always manage to outnumber us somewhere, and we lose there, and . . ."

"Then you win when you put your house in order," Gaius shrugged.

"We hope so," the Tin Man said. "In the mean time, back to the plays. What has been proposed is . . ."

Chapter 15

For several months, the Terrans were as happy as they were going to be on Ulse. Lucilla and Vipsania were having enormous fun creating scenes and making images of people do what the play required. Gaius was there some of the time for support, and he made some contributions, but most of the time he found that when he had a suggestion, Vipsania or Lucilla would take it and work it through far faster than he could. For Lucilla and Vipsania, creating these scenes temporarily took them back to Earth, and it made them feel so pleased. Gaius thought about Earth from time to time, but equally he was thinking more and more of where he was.

The more he thought about it, the worse the situation was becoming. The war news was becoming increasingly bad, but apart from some general wailing now and then, nobody seemed to be doing anything about it. For his part he was continuing to sign autographs; it appeared his autograph was becoming an increasingly desirable item amongst the young of Ulse. He began studying in more detail the history of the war, from the initial surprise attacks, the battles at first lost for the simple reason that the enemy outnumbered the Ulsians who, while they maintained a peace-time space fleet, that fleet had consisted of a few very old ships that were there more for show than for fighting. The enemy then began pouring into Ulsian space, seemingly laying waste to planetary system after planetary system, pouring in at almost the rate at which news travelled.

This, Gaius knew from experience, had a very deleterious effect. If you were at a place seemingly at peace, then news of a war arrived, then news of loss after loss arrived, all compressed into a few days, then the enemy appeared, the next battle was two thirds lost before it even began. The soldiers believed they were the next statistic. Win a couple of key battles, as Alexander had, march fast, and the opposition would crumble before your eyes, suing for peace before they were laid to waste.

The more he looked at it, there was a certain resemblance here to Alexander's time. Alexander had an air of invincibility, he marched fast, and many a village surrendered because they heard of his victories only marginally before his arrival, before anything could be done to raise forces or morale. Perhaps things had not changed with the advance of technology as much as he had thought.

The problem with this analogy was that he seemed to have elected to be a Persian. He had often argued that the Persians should not have lost to the Greeks. They had more options, they were fighting on their home territory, and there were very many more of them. There had been a number of opportunities, including avoiding fighting the battle at Issus, or if they had to fight it, fight it better. Such analysis, of course, was easy in retrospect. The problem was to do it when it mattered.

Not that he would be put to the test, for he was not in any position to do anything. When he made comments to Ulsian committees, he was told to be specific. When he made a specific suggestion, he was told he did not, indeed could not, understand modern warfare. After all, how could a man who had never even left the ground before he was kidnapped understand three-dimensional space warfare? Gaius did not have a good answer to this. And, if he claimed he could, why should they believe him? It was just too far-fetched, they continued. He was merely a barbarian. Yes, he had been successful, but in his own time, in his own place. Gaius had to concede that they were most likely to be correct. It was one thing to say that the principles were the same, but that was impossible to prove, and his own principles stated that operational aspects were an important consideration when formulating strategy. He had to concede he had no knowledge of the operational aspects of space warfare. He could, however, read the histories of ancient Ulsian battles. If nothing else, it helped fill the day.

* * *

The day of the first play arrived. It would eventually be available on demand through screens, but the first presentation was "live" at a great amphitheatre, where there were thousands of seats, all of which were filled. Gaius was a little concerned, because the images had been life-size, and in this huge amphitheatre the images would be lost. But he was wrong. The first image was amplified to such a degree that everybody would almost feel they were right up against the action.

Gaius was most impressed. He had had some part in the production, but what he saw was really due to Vipsania and Lucilla, and it was stunning. When the play was finished the crowd agreed with him. The first response was stunned silence, then there was applause, then as this got louder, the Terrans were invited to come forward.

Gaius had been made aware on more than one occasion that Lucilla's stay on Ulse had convinced her that Roman women were held as second-class citizens by their husbands. Gaius felt this was nonsense; the different roles merely reflected practicalities. However, those practicalities did not arise now, and as they walked forward he suddenly decided that he would hold back. Accordingly, when the two women strode to centre stage for applause, he remained at the side and applauded them. Eventually he was persuaded to go to the centre-stage but by this time, the acknowledgement had been made.

* * *

He later thought that this should earn him some sort of gratitude. It did not. When they were taken to the post-production celebrations, Lucilla ensured that Gaius was clearly in third place, and she and Vipsania did all the talking to the Ulsians present. As it happened, Gaius was only too pleased to be left out, but he was also aware that that was not the reason he was left out.

After they found out how much wealth they were accumulating, Lucilla pointed out over dinner that they could now do a much greater range of things.

"We still have to be careful, though," Gaius noted. "We mustn't irritate the Ulsians."

"Which, of course, you would never do with your opinions at those committees?" Lucilla countered caustically.

"I mean by what we do," Gaius replied. "We have been assured we can say anything we like at committees."

"That doesn't mean that anything said that's unpopular is free, though," Vipsania pointed out.

"I agree," Gaius said. "I'm trying to keep my comments logically sensible."

"What you really mean," Lucilla said, "is that you expect us to clear with you first before we do anything, and get permission from our superior, so to speak."

"I don't understand," Gaius shook his head.

"Roman men think they own Roman women," Lucilla said in a flat tone. "Well, here it's different."

"For goodness sake," Gaius shook his head, "I've never said anything to suggest that I own you two."

"Yes, but you think it," Lucilla smirked.

"Nonsense!" Gaius shook his head

"But you still want us to check in first?" Lucilla pointed out.

"We have to act in unison," Gaius countered, a touch of frustration now showing through.

"And you think you're better than us, despite the fact that it's our money?"

"That's not correct," Gaius started.

"It is," Vipsania interrupted. "We actually earned the money. I know you tried, dear, but really, most of your efforts had to be redone."

"What I meant," Gaius said with a touch of anger, "is that I don't think I'm better than you . . ."

"So," Lucilla smirked, "you'll clear your actions with us instead?"

"I concede that you have earned all that money," Gaius said, as he struggled to suppress his feelings. He knew that this was not going to be a winnable argument, "although how many opportunities you'd have had without my steam engine is an interesting question."

"So you think that gives you the right to stop us doing . . ."

"I've never tried to stop anything so far," Gaius said. "If you're going to criticize, you might at least wait until there's cause!"

"Let's stop this," Vipsania interrupted. She realized that Gaius was starting to get increasingly angry, and that Lucilla was venting accumulated self-pity. The problem was, she realized, they still had to live with each other. "You're both right, and you're both wrong."

There was a silence as the two Claudians stared at her.

"You're both right about what you think about yourselves," Vipsania explained, "and you're both wrong about what you think about the other." She paused, and turned to Lucilla and said, "Like it or not, we should at least let Gaius have his say. He's the one that's got a better grasp of the strategic aspects, and you, Gaius, should give Lucilla a freer hand."

"I've no intention of stopping her doing anything," Gaius shrugged. "For what it's worth, I've never been able to anyway."

"Then why are you going on like this?" Lucilla frowned.

"Because if we want to get back to our planet, we've got to be careful."

"We'll never manage that," Lucilla said. "They simply won't let us go."

"Maybe not," Vipsania said soothingly, "but we shouldn't give up."

"Yes," Lucilla shrugged, and added in a flat tone, laden with sarcasm, "Let's keep the dream alive."

"It may be a hopeless dream," Gaius replied softly, "but it's our dream."

* * *

Over the next few weeks, both Lucilla and Vipsania found themselves to be stars, a concept they had great difficulty in coming to grips with at first, but they soon became very pleased with themselves.