Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (46 page)

"No, it was one of Rome's worst days. Seventy thousand Romans died in a matter of two to three hours. Obviously, things are different now, but I thought that if I could deceive them into what was going on, that strategy led to a general flanking opportunity. It was the flanking that did the Roman force in, and I thought the same would apply here."

"It appears you thought correctly," Slaben nodded in approval. "I never said so before, but thank you."

"Thank you for believing in me," Gaius replied. "So what happens now?"

"You and Klendor, return to Ulse with the news," Slaben said.

"There must be easier ways to send news," Gaius frowned.

"But not as securely," Slaben said. "In any case, you must go back and get those things off your heads."

"That would be a good idea," Gaius nodded. "And you?"

"I have my current plans in this message sphere here," Slaben said. "Take it back to Ulse. However, I can summarize. I intend to repair our fleet, build more ships, train more troops, and go after this star system here. If we're successful, we'll work our way back out, star by star, until we have our territory back again."

"Then I suppose we wish you good luck," Gaius said.

"And goodbye," Slaben said. "As you are going back to Ulse, our time lines will almost certainly never cross again. I know you were disappointed not to join the parade, but I assure you it was important. Good luck to you in the future."

"And to you too," Gaius replied.

* * *

They departed three days later. Gaius' ship had been partly repaired, and structural integrity was assured for relativistic travel. The ship itself, however, would then be decommissioned. Shielding was destroyed, cloaking destroyed, life support was only partly functional, and weapons were now working at only forty per cent efficiency. Only the motors were undamaged, and it was easier to remove those and put them into a new ship than to repair the old ships.

There was a certain nervousness as they boarded their ships, but they had to believe the Ulsian engineers. So they had a joint meal with what was left of their dwindling supplies, rejoined their ships, took a last look at the Ligra system as they began accelerating, then retired to their bunks.

Chapter 35

"Welcome back to Ulse," the Tin Man said. He stood there, leaning against the doorpost. "Did you sleep well?"

"It just seems as if I went to sleep last night," Gaius said, "although I do feel a trifle hungry."

"We were so close to relativistic speed that little time has passed," the Tin Man said. "In effect, you have been asleep for a few days."

"And Ulse? How are they? How is the war going?"

"Better than they were a few days ago," the Tin Man said. "They detected our ships at long range, saw how few there were, saw the damage, and decided we must have lost disastrously. There was a huge hue and cry, with demands to know why just the humans had returned, and why the Ulsians were all killed."

"No welcoming party here either," Gaius nodded ruefully.

"Far from it. The correct information has been relayed forward. You should eat, refresh yourself, collect all your belongings and prepare to descend to the planet's surface."

"Collect my belongings?"

"You will never return to this ship again," the Tin Man said. "It is too seriously damaged to be worth full repair as a battleship, and even if it weren't, with your new rank, you will warrant a top class ship."

"This isn't?" Gaius asked.

"Certainly not in its current condition. When you boarded it was close to the best available," the Tin Man said, "but better designs have been made. Now, you must go. May your Gods go with you now and for the rest of your life."

Gaius stared at the Tin Man. "This almost sounds like you don't think you will see me again?" he frowned.

"No. I shall not. I do not have sufficient functionality, and that what I have is breaking down. I shall be scrapped."

"You must be repaired!" Gaius said. "You're almost like family, in a funny sort of way," he added.

"Kind of you to say so, but no. I shall be either scrapped or retained by the freighter. My memories relating to you will, however, be transferred to your new Companion. Whatever Timothy knew will be retained. So, fare well."

"Then I hope you're not scrapped," Gaius said. He felt strange, as he watched the Tin Man almost hobble away.

* * *

It was only when he was descending to the surface and could turn to take a last look at his ship that he suddenly realized how seriously damaged the ship was. He looked over at the others. Vipsania's ship, which had been withdrawn after the first battle because the damage made it non-battle-worthy was probably the one in best condition. Almost half the outer skin and some of the interior of Lucilla's ship had been vaporized. From a distance it looked not unlike a toy some giant rat had half devoured.

The spaceport was almost deserted when they landed. Klendor was there to meet them, and help them back to their apartment where, as expected, even though they did not believe it would be, it was identical to when they left it. Except, as Klendor pointed out, it was not even in the same city!

And there was no Tin Man at the door. Even Lucilla felt sorry for him when she was told of his impending fate.

The next twenty days were days that none of them enjoyed. They were taken to what was regarded as the leading research medical centre where, a droid explained to them in the usual impassive voice, they would get the head implants that had been designed for them.

"Hah! At last we can get these things off our heads!" Lucilla said.

"Oh yes," the droid said, with a total lack of emotion, "irrespective of what happens, you will have those removed."

"What do you mean, irrespective?" Lucilla frowned.

"You may not wish to go through with this," the droid explained. "Let me explain what is involved."

What followed was, as Vipsania noted later, as good a diatribe as any to dissuade them. The essence was simple. Ulsian science was as sure as it could be that the process they were going to provide would work, but on a new species they could never be absolutely sure. The usual procedure was to do the best possible, but retain the option of later optimizing everything by trial and error. Unfortunately, there was a distinct lack of subjects for trials. The process was quite irreversible, so if anyone wished to pull out, this was the time to say so. The process was also likely to be quite painful and distressing until the brain got used to the alternative sensations. It was not that the brain itself would feel problems, but until it adjusted, the brain would be sending the wrong messages through the body, which would lead to pain.

The Terrans stared at each other. Then, taking a quick breath, Lucilla volunteered to be first. As she stepped forward, she turned and looked at Gaius. "I want you to promise me something."

"What is it?" Gaius asked, although the serious tone of his voice suggested that he had an inkling of what was coming.

"I want you to promise," she said, "that if this goes all wrong and if I am incoherent, you will kill me."

"Kill you?" Vipsania gasped. "Isn't that . . ."

"Vipsania, whatever else I may be able to put up with," Lucilla said firmly, "I do not wish to remain as some sort of extremely sore vegetable for the rest of my life."

Gaius nodded. "I shall first make sure that any problem cannot be fixed," he said in a flat tone, "but if not, I promise I shall end your misery."

Lucilla lay on a table, her head firmly clamped through the head attachment, then she was put to sleep. When she awoke the following morning, she was back in a bed, with Gaius and Vipsania at her side. The head attachment had gone.

She smiled weakly, then screamed. Her back arched, she screamed again, then a droid injected her with something. Lucilla lapsed back to sleep.

"How is she?" Gaius asked apprehensively.

"According to our readings," the droid replied, "this has gone extremely well so far."

"It didn't look like it," Vipsania said doubtfully.

"Oh, all Ulsians go through much worse than that," the droid said. He paused, then added, "Of course Lucilla is not finished yet."

The next morning when she woke, she lay there, then slowly turned her head. "Hello!" she said, then grimaced in pain.

"Excellent!" the droid said, and sent her back to sleep.

Two days later, they watched as Lucilla was introduced to her Krezell wand. It was placed in her hand, and after a limited amount of twitching from Lucilla, it was taken away and Lucilla was allowed to rest. The droid announced that the connection had been a complete success.

After five days, Lucilla was able to sit up in bed, talk, and have only the odd flash of pain. She could walk, somewhat unsteadily, then she was given her first task. She was given an eight hundred-page book, and told she must memorize everything in it.

"Impossible," she muttered.

"Not at all," the droid said. "I am here to help."

"You're going to remember it all for me?" Lucilla asked. "Then why give it to me?"

"You are going to mentally connect to me," the droid said. "As you read it, I shall remember it, but I shall also organize your memory. You must think of the important bits, and with my help, you shall remember those. I, of course, shall remember everything, but indirectly so shall you, because you will be able to access anything I know. In effect, I shall be a supplementary memory and you must concentrate on learning how to access it."

In the event, on the first day Lucilla tried and tried, and it was only after lunch that she made contact. Before long, she became too tired to maintain contact.

But the next day she found she could optically scan a page, refer the image to the droid, and later recall the page. With the Krezell wand she could almost instantly melt ice blocks at a distance, lift objects, and she could even instruct a pen to draw a picture on a whiteboard.

"That's amazing," Lucilla remarked. "It's exactly what I thought, but I could never draw that well, and here the pen's doing it."

"Not exactly," the droid said. "An Ulsian computer has taken your image, stored it, and is controlling the pen to exactly reproduce your wishes. If you need a precise job done, Ulsian computers will control the task far better than you, or any Ulsian, could ever dream of doing. If you wish to continue making plays, you can now create almost any image you can imagine, or at least the computers will take your thoughts and create it for you. If you want work done, Ulsian computers can make machines do what you could never do because you haven't the strength, persistence, whatever. Technology will now completely liberate you from having to work."

The Ulsians were now satisfied that the implantation had been successful, so Gaius and Vipsania had to decide whether to proceed. As Gaius remarked, there was really no choice.

He remembered lying on the bed and counting. He got to eight, and remembered nothing further. He awoke, tried to sit up, felt a blinding pain, then was put back to sleep. Then followed a period of waking, doing small tasks, then being put back to sleep. Then he was introduced to his Krezell wand. It was placed in his hand, and at first nothing happened. He was asked to connect to it, and as he tried, a strange warm feeling ran up his arm, and immediately began to spread through his body. He was told he must maintain a grip no matter what, so he held on, and after a while, it did not feel so unpleasant. A strange sequence of tingly sensations flowed through him, then suddenly, it stopped, and his head began to hurt. The wand was taken from him.

"Did I fail?" he gasped, as more pain shot through his head.

"Oh no," the droid said. "That was a very good first session."

As the days passed he felt stronger, the pains were less frequent, and he was given his memorizing task. He made contact with the droid, then he could not resist trying to explore the droid's mind.

'Curious, eh?'

"I'm afraid so," Gaius replied.

'I didn't speak,' the droid replied, 'and if you look at me carefully, you will see I'm not right now.'

"But . . "

'You try it,' the droid said. 'Keep your mouth shut, and think what you want to say.'

'You mean, like this?' Gaius thought.

'Fun, isn't it?'

'How many people or Ulsians, or whatever, can sense my thoughts?' Gaius thought.

'Only those whom you permit. You will be able to communicate like this with Vipsania or Lucilla over a few kilometers on a planet without Ulsian technology, or, throughout the planet if the repeaters are set up properly, or any distance provided normal electromagnetic communication is possible.

'Each of you can receive and transmit, but you only receive if the device lets you. What you would normally do is shut out all such communication except that which starts with a key word, from a key person. You must not let too much in, or you simply go mad, and you will wish, no doubt, for privacy, to have only thoughts which are deliberately intended for transmission to be transmitted.'

'Of course,' Gaius thought.

'Now, more training. Some water to boil, some things to move, some images to create. In short, some hard work.'

* * *

After a month had passed with exhausting training, an Ulsian they had not previously met came to see them. "So," he said with some pride, "the operations have been successful, as, of course was expected."

"That's not what I was told before we started," Lucilla replied dryly.

"Oh, with some of our scientists, nothing's ever ready. Added to which, if he had screwed up, he was in some sort of difficulty. But that's not what I came for. I think it's about time you re-entered Ulsian society, although, of course, this time with more freedom."

"That's good," Vipsania said.

"Yes, well, instead of your merely wandering around, we thought you should try your hand at another one of those plays."

"I would have thought," Gaius said slowly, "that with a war on, you might have wanted my services in that area."