Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (44 page)

Ship after ship of the enemy erupted, but at the same time a number of Ulsian ships began to lose sections, and as these were lost, they became far more visible. By now the leading Ulsian ships had reached the enemy that had turned, and consequently had almost free shots at the vulnerable motor sections. The space was now littered with brilliant flashes of exploding ships, and the glowing hulks of highly damaged ships.

By now Gaius' ships were accelerating back towards the enemy. Everything took so long, he reflected, although he knew it was the price of striking the enemy first at high speed. If the enemy could not establish the particular attack pattern selected, the strike would be through them before a serious counter could be found, which gave the attackers the nearest thing to a free hit. The price was that the second hit took time to organize.

The enemy began to regroup just as Lucilla's small force suddenly tore through them from one side. In terms of destruction, this strike was not particularly effective, but in terms of generating chaos, a strike from a third direction was extremely effective, and in the chaos, the ground cannon continued to score.

It took almost thirty minutes before Gaius' strike force had returned to the depleted enemy. Their ships were now scattered across space like a flock of birds that were devoting considerable effort to avoid the ground cannon. The Ulsian ships approached relatively slowly this time, and as they reached firing range, the signs of the damage done to the enemy was clear. Many of the ships had sides torn open, and some were clearly moving under reduced power, and could not readily regroup into a tight formation.

Gaius ordered his ships to form flights of six ships, and these were to attack at various points. He himself chose the centre, and his ship, and those around him, began to accelerate.

The enemy ships began firing at the same time the Ulsian ships did. Closer and closer they came, and the glowing flashes on the enemy ships showed the damage being done. The picture then became disconcerting, as the Ulsian ships began random sideways evasive manoeuvres. Then, as they came closer, Gaius drove directly at one ship. Phasing lock was obtained, and just as it appeared collision was inevitable, the enemy ship disintegrated in a blaze of plasma jets. The ship shuddered as it went through the centre.

"Starboard twenty g, up three g!" Gaius ordered. There, to the right and above was another limping enemy.

"Cannon!" Gaius ordered, and pointed with his wand at the image. The ship rotated to bring the image in front and the cannon poured fire into the ship, metal flew, then as Gaius ordered a downward acceleration of twenty g, the enemy ship appeared to die, just as it left the field of view. There, to the left, an enemy was trying to evade. The ship swung around, and full cannon fire poured into its exhaust area. There was a huge, brilliant flash as the motors destroyed themselves and the ship, then the order was given to accelerate upwards, and further to port.

The next ten minutes were quite strange to Gaius. Everywhere was chaos. Ships were moving in all directions, firing at any enemy that entered the firing range. His ship sustained the occasional bang as pieces of metal sheeting blown off other ships struck him. At one point a relatively undamaged enemy ship appeared from nowhere to be quite close in front. His weapons fired everything they had, and the enemy fired what it could from that side. Metal poured off the enemy ship, then there was another bang followed by fearsome screeching as a major hit was taken due to the enemy fire. The enemy ship appeared almost as a wall, then it slid below as his ship automatically evaded.

For the next ten minutes ships glowed, ships died. Everything was silent, so impersonal. However, the early enemy losses were now telling. Too many ships were finding it difficult to manoeuvre, and could spend only very limited time in a battle zone without being destroyed, but they were too damaged to attempt escape by stepping up to near light speed. Accordingly, more and more of them were drifting away, to see what would happen. The enemy commander realized he had no choice, and he offered surrender. The battle was over, the system taken.

The victory was not free. Twenty per cent of this attack force was destroyed, and as reports came in it was apparent that few Ulsian ships were totally free of damage. His relief was total when Lucilla's ship reported only modest damage.

The next twenty hours were both busy and uneventful. The enemy ships capable of controlled flight were to assemble in orbit about the planet. Those that required medical assistance were to find it primarily amongst themselves, but where additional assistance was required, that would be provided from the planet. The more damaged Ulsian ships would provide escort and enforce compliance; the more mobile Ulsian ships would seek out the more damaged enemy ships, provide repairs sufficient to guide the ships back to the planet, or they would rescue the crews and attach beacons to the hulks, so they could be removed in the course of time. It was very important that these hulks be tagged while they were still in a reasonably confined space.

There was so much to do, but it could all be automated. As the Tin Man remarked, this was an ideal task for droids. The humans, Ulsians, or whoever, might as well spend the time eating and sleeping, for there was nothing they could do to help.

A wave of relief passed over Gaius. He had won. Once again he was saddened by the known carnage he had inflicted, and more so for the known losses of his own troops. But he had won, and that was so much better than not winning. He sent a message to all his troops congratulating them on a job well done, then he sent a personal message to Lucilla, congratulating her on conquering a planet, something even Alexander had not done. He also informed her that Vipsania should be alive, and was probably in the least damaged ship.

Then he sent a message to General Slaben, informing him that as of now, unless something else turned up, all enemy activity in the space of the Ligra system had ended. He had complete freedom from space attack.

Chapter 34

"We can't what?" Lucilla yelled. She looked as if she would have torn out the eyes of the bringer of this news, which may have been why the Tin Man brought it. The Terrans had been brought together on an otherwise unoccupied troop ship in orbit over Ligra 2 while their ships were taken to orbital workshops for refitting and repair. They had now been on the troop ship for almost two weeks while the battle for ground control had taken place.

"You can't go down to the planet," the Tin Man said in his usual flat tone.

"But there's a victory celebration!" Lucilla protested.

"There's no food down there you could eat."

"I'm sure we could take provisions down there," Lucilla replied. "In any case, there's bound to be other things to do besides stuff our faces!"

"You would be bored down there," the Tin Man said. "I recall you've often complained about being bored."

"On that topic, there's not an awful lot to do up here either," Lucilla said scathingly. "We've been up here doing nothing for two weeks or thereabouts, and while we accepted that at first it wasn't safe to go down . . ."

It would not have been safe, Gaius knew. At first he had been a little puzzled that the Ulsians wanted him to command a fleet, when he knew nothing about space ships and he did know something about ground fighting. It was only when he saw what was happening that he realized he knew nothing of this alien warfare.

They had been able to view what was happening while sitting safely in space. First, the space ships had knocked out ground defences. For Gaius, this was quite a predictable starting point, but it was just about the only point that was predictable. The Ulsians landed their troops at twenty different sites, and at no stage did the enemy attempt to form a line or a front to meet them. Instead, the two forces seemed to travel rapidly across the land in efforts to find concentrations of the other before the opposition could locate them. There would be very brief interchanges of extraordinarily intensive fire, at which point the opponents would separate and try to manoeuvre. Here, the Ulsians had an advantage: their space fleets could do significant damage to the enemy once their location was so pinpointed.

After several days of such exchanges the planet was becoming pockmarked with destruction, however very gradually it was becoming apparent that the Ulsians were getting the upper hand. The enemy bands were becoming more scattered, and were in smaller groups, so much so that occasionally they could be surrounded and then totally eliminated. After ten days had elapsed, the enemy surrendered.

"It is fully accepted that there is no issue of your safety," the Tin Man said in a tone that was the nearest to being pompous that they had ever heard from such a droid. "General Slaben's victory is complete."

"What you're trying to say," Lucilla said sourly, "is that he doesn't want us to go down at all. We can see that. What we don't see is why we're not good enough to go down if we were good enough to win the initial victory."

"General Slaben wishes to make it . . ."

"His victory?" Vipsania asked.

"Exactly," the Tin Man said.

"But . . ." Lucilla spluttered.

"He has to do something," Gaius muttered. "He might as well claim victory."

"That attitude is the reason why you stay up here," the Tin Man said. "You would detract from General Slaben's victory."

"But there would've been no victory without Gaius," Lucilla continued. "If we hadn't split the enemy fleet, all those soldiers could well be dead!"

"It is important that your presence not be known," the Tin Man said, ignoring this point. "They are General Slaben's orders."

"And we can guess to whom it's important," Gaius said in a flat tone.

"That attitude is not at all productive," the Tin Man said in his flatter tone.

"The question is," Gaius continued sourly, "is any attitude productive?"

"Obeying General Slaben's orders and staying away from the planet is."

"Yes, that would be," Gaius said harshly. "The question is, to whom?"

"Perhaps," the Tin Man continued, "you are in a position where the best you can score is zero."

"Gaius," Lucilla interrupted, "You've got to go down there. Otherwise Slaben will report to Ulse that he conquered the planet, and we're . . ." She spluttered a little, and seemed incapable of finishing the sentence.

"No," Vipsania said softly.

"What?" Lucilla said. She stared at Vipsania as if she were infested with plague.

"No. We don't," Vipsania repeated.

"Unfortunately Vipsania's right," Gaius said with a shrug. "Orders are orders. Back in Rome, Claudius took credit for taking Camulodunum, when the fact of the matter is, he did nothing in the field."

"I thought Ulsians were fairer than that!" Lucilla snorted.

"Well, now you know better," Gaius grinned as if he had suddenly seen an amusing revelation. "What you must realize is they're no better than us. They just know more."

"There's a lot of truth to that," the Tin Man acknowledged. "Now you have realized that, it will be easier for you in Ulsian society."

"But not down on the planet," Lucilla said

"There are three reasons," the Tin Man said. "It is desirable that the Ulsians on the planet believe that it was the Ulsians who won, it is desirable that the enemy not be aware that there are non Ulsian commanders, because then they will not adjust their strategic computers, and . . ."

"And?" Vipsania asked curiously.

"There's a civilization from whom your existence should remain concealed."

"For whose benefit?" Vipsania asked in a soft tone.

"Certainly not Ulse's," the Tin Man said. "The benefit may be partly yours, but certainly for your planet's."

"Earth's?" Vipsania asked. "How can our going to this celebration affect Earth?"

"Most likely it won't," the Tin Man said, "but we can't be sure."

"This civilization is where Quintus was taken?" Vipsania asked.

There was a pause, then the Tin Man said, "Yes."

"Then they know about us," Lucilla said.

"But they don't know we fly space ships and win battles," Gaius mused.

"What's that got to do with it?" Lucilla asked.

"They can ignore Earth at present because it offers no military threat," Gaius said. "If they heard something that convinced them it might, then they might do something to stop it."

"It is worse than that," the Tin Man explained. "At present they have a treaty with Ulse which prevents their having an interest in Earth, up and until Earth develops space travel."

"And they've broken that treaty," Lucilla said bitterly, "when they took Quintus."

"Strictly speaking, they did not," the Tin Man said, "because Quintus was taken by someone else. However, it is quite likely they have not kept totally to the treaty."

"Then why doesn't . . ." Lucilla began.

"Who can?" Gaius asked. "Ulse is far away, and it has far more important problems of its own. My guess is they know that nobody'd be in a position to do anything about minor breaches."

"Then what's to stop them doing whatever they like?" Lucilla asked angrily.

"Probably honour," Gaius offered, "but given a technicality, such as our being taken as proof of Terran penetration of space, they might. Is that it?" he asked, turning to the Tin Man.

"Something like that," the Tin Man replied.

"After the victory parade," Vipsania asked, "could we go down and have a look around?"

"You would still be obvious," the Tin Man said.

"Not if we dressed up in those trefunes," Vipsania pointed out.

"I shall inquire," the Tin Man offered. As Vipsania noted later, the total absence of any hesitation would normally be used to draw adverse conclusions, however with a machine hesitation was never observed.

* * *

It was two days later that they were permitted to visit Ligra 2, with severe restrictions. The first visits were to certain areas where development was forbidden, and the planet was in 'its natural state'. These National Parks were something that the Terrans had never considered, however the Ulsians pointed out that once their population and their levels of technology grew, they either had reserved areas, or the original planet would disappear.