Raising Steam Page 2

  The discovery of both where and roughly when he was had been a shock and on top of that he had been forced to accept he would likely never see his wife and children again. Nor the Federation that was bringing civilisation back to the shattered Empire. To complicate matters even further, he still had doubts he was doing the right thing by attempting to bring into being a technology based civilisation much earlier than in the historical record of the society he was from. Like some two thousand years earlier, or thereabouts.

  He was no theoretical expert on history or alternate reality and for all he knew his actions now would forever change the future he had come from, which created the paradox that if his own future no longer existed how did he get here? His preferred theory was that this was some alternate universe, but he had no way of determining the truth of that idea and there were problems with that concept anyway. Whenever he considered the matter he found himself going around and around between causality and implausibility, with no way of determining reality apart from what he was experiencing first-hand. In the meantime, he went on with his plan to industrialise what was left of this part of the Roman Empire. He put the date at some point early in what had been known as the fifth century by historians of his time, but his own historical knowledge was so scratchy about such ancient matters that is very hard to date when he was with any real accuracy.

  He had chosen Ancient History as one of his courses at the Academy, thankfully, it now turned out! The problem was it had been an introductory general knowledge course, more than anything, covering most of Earth’s History before the discovery of the wormhole jump points that had allowed man to spread to the stars. Much of what he had learned was way too general to be of use in his present predicament although even the knowledge that something was possible had to be a help. Like the telegraph, although he had still to determine how to generate electricity, something he didn't think he had ever actually read an account of. Military tactics were another thing. While his Major had been Military History, that course had mostly been about jump point battles, planetary invasions and appropriate defence, drawing on the many civil wars of the Chou Empire and even more recent space battles after the Empire’s downfall. Modern military matters involving the tactics of plasma armed warships in space were not directly transferable to bows and swords. On the other hand, the general principles of strategy and even tactics to some extent, were just as applicable in Roman times as they were in the Federation he had been born into. Or so he believed.

  Pretty much all the basic concepts were the same, at least in theory. Surprise, concentration of force and logistics were equally applicable to almost any military operation. It was simply a matter of translating the underlying principles from drop ships and powered weapons to arrows and spears. At least that was what he kept telling himself. One day he might even believe it! Certainly, his formal training gave him skills and a toolkit which had proved, so far, to able to provide him with distinct advantages over the local military. On top of that, all the historical battles he had studied gave him a massive resource of ideas he could use locally, hopefully. He had already revolutionised scouting, something Roman armies were quite bad at historically. Besides that, he had five millennia of theory to draw on in the form of pithy quotes. An army marches on its stomach. Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. The god of war favours the big battalions. Quantity has a quality all its own. Get there fastest with the most. And so on. Many were overly simple and trite but still had that kernel of truth. Particularly now he found himself in a real-life sword and sandal epic movie!

  Five days ago. a heavily guarded wagon had arrived with several chests containing newly minted coins from the foundry at Dervent. This new money was a complete change from all that had gone before as far as he could tell although they had adopted historical names for the new coins. The main point of difference was that each coin design had numerical value displayed on them, something none of the old Imperial coins had displayed as far as he could tell. The new coinage started with the As, an old Roman coin name which had long been out of use but which Melwyn knew of from his historical readings. One As was deemed to be one hundredth of a Denarius in value and in addition to the small coin marked as one As there were also larger five As coins and larger still twenty As coins. The various As coins were made from bronze which was fairly plentiful, especially the old hoarded coins which were being exchanged and then melted down.

  The new silver Denarius was valued at one twentieth of a new gold Solidus. It was similar in size to previous Imperial silver coins and like the As there was also a larger five Denarius coin. The new Solidus was designated as one hundredth of a new coin entirely, the Palladius. The Palladius coins were made of the battle armour off his crashed shuttle and there were only a few of them so far. The new coin was larger than the old one he had first struck using the same design as a recent Solidus but most of the increase in value was an arbitrary decision on his part. After all, the only supply available was the metal still sheathing the remains of his shuttle and given how slow technological advances were going to take, that would remain true for a very long time. The Solidus also came in a five Solidus value although they had not as yet designed a twenty Solidus coin. He was planning on introducing the idea of bank notes shortly to make money transportation and exchange easier.

  Once the branch of the bank had been set up in Lugowalion by Jacob, it was seeded with a bunch of the new coins and as soon as they were in circulation people began digging up their caches of the old ones they had secreted away and began putting them back into use. Some of the very old ones people brought in were of reasonable purity and were allowed to remain in circulation, provided they were still in good condition. Most were more modern, less pure coins and were simply exchanged for lesser face values of the new, pure coins and were then boxed up and readied for shipment south to be melted down and recast as new Republican coins.

  Several boxes of these old coins were in a cart lumbering along behind him making a horrible sound even with the tallow the driver had smeared liberally on the axles every morning. Riding alongside him was his aide Oween, the returning squad of cavalry sent north with the new coins were acting as guards and then there was the girl, Briana. She was an escaped slave of the Selgovae who Arturo had found and who had been hanging around trying to copy Arturo’s Bushido based fighting style by what she thought was hidden observation and then she had fought with a bow in the battle against Maximus. After the battle she had followed him north to Lugowalion and continued to hover about the edge of his space determined to act as his bodyguard in response to his saving her from rape and possible death from two fellows on the road to Alauna. He had spied on her one afternoon practicing with the sword she must have acquired in the battle, trying to copy the bushido moves he practised and not doing a bad job actually.

  A week ago, he had relented and taken in her into his service publicly, much to the dismay of his regular soldiers until she had fought a duel with Delwyn, a tough veteran promoted to Ensign in the new organisation. He had not fared well against her speed and agility which had gone some way to mollify the men as to her presence. Her use of the wooden cavalry practice sword against the infantry sword of Delwyn had been impressive to the uneducated although Arturo felt her form was a bit too inhibited and jerky. Not that he was an expert at Bushido by any means, but he had seen real experts before being marooned here.

  Delwyn seemed pretty upset at being beaten by a girl but Oween stepped in and pointed out that Delwyn had never faced such a fighting style before and that he, Oween, had succumbed to exactly the same style when he had first faced Arturo. He then went on to say that now that he had worked out the foreign fighting style he could beat Arturo easily and his good natured camaraderie turned the trick of keeping Delwyn from getting too angry and stopped his mates giving him too hard a time later although there was still some raillery.

  Arturo had her outfitted in the same style tunic and trousers as the men, only in black with w
hite trim on the collar, cuffs, hem and the two vertical stripes down the front and back that were the normal pattern for the Republican troops. Most of the men in Lugowalion still wore their old Imperial uniform, all of them being fairly worn and threadbare these days. Those who had transferred from the Republican forces had the blue green uniform that Arturo had standardised on, but the men had been required to replace the red trim of the First Legion with the white trim of the new Second Legion. New uniforms were on order for the former Imperials and would start being issued very soon, he was assured.

  The force in Lugowalion had been bolstered by a group of twenty Frisians who claimed to have simply come over from their land looking for hire as mercenaries. Oween quietly said to Arturo that he rather thought they had come on a raid but had run into trouble with the few remaining Roman troops at the eastern end of the Wall and had subsequently fled west.

  Either way, they and a trickle of other recruits bolstered the infantry cohort and pushed its’ numbers up above five hundred. The cavalry also gained a small handful of recruits and Julianus had enough men to divide his scout group into two under strength squads which gave him more flexibility. Already they were penetrating the lands of the Selgovae directly north of the Wall, more as a training exercise than serious scouting at this stage although Julianus planned to extend this greatly over the winter that was now fast approaching. The soldiers were tasked to see how far they could scout without occurring the wrath of the locals.

  Leaving Coel in charge of the Second Legion at Lugowalion was a risk but with Meries as his second Arturo had decided to test the man’s loyalty. Arturo had learned more of the man’s ancestry and now knew he was probably the rightful King of the Carveti, who were the main tribe in this northwest part of Britannia. However, the man had opted to be part of the Roman government for reasons Arturo was not entirely sure of and seemed honestly interested in the new methods and revolutionary ideas Arturo was introducing. Hopefully he would prove to be a good second to Arturo.

  Chapter 3

  1165FR: Back to base

  By the time the column reach Maglona, Arturo’s legs were rubbed sore and his backside was stiff and painful. He was still an indifferent rider at best and having hardly been in the saddle at all over the past few weeks meant he was really feeling it by the time the small settlement in the lee of the old Roman fort came into view. That evening he had to attend a dinner in his honour held by the Mair of the place and as the dinner was attended by several of the leading men in the area he could not really avoid it. He tried hard to make a favourable impression but the soreness from the ride combined with fatigue meant he found he wasn't quite up to being witty and gracious. He had gone accompanied by Oween and with Briana trailing behind. She took up a stance inside the door of the dining room in the Mair’s house, one of only three Roman style houses still in use in the town, the rest of the inhabited houses being in the Brythonic round style, and she spent the evening getting covert glances from the guests. They all seemed surprised at her designation as a bodyguard, but none dismissed the idea as some in Lugowalion had done. Arturo felt they were probably simply humouring the powerful foreigner.

  He shared this thought with Oween later on the way back to the fort and Oween thought it was a good joke although Briana did not seem so amused. Alladraef with its small huddle of houses where the road to Alauna branched off was reached before midday and Arturo took the time to look around the immediate vicinity. To the northwest there was a large tract of land that appeared to have once been worked but was now overgrown and sprouting small trees everywhere which immediately attracted his attention. One of his key ideas was to spread things around the towns in the area so each had some activity that would draw people to the place and provide growth and employment.

  Enquiries revealed that the property had been owned by a wealthy member of the Carveti royal family, yet another, who had been killed when the Scotti raided Alauna and no one had claimed the land since. Because it had been owned by a member of the local nobility the locals had left it untouched. Arturo commissioned the Mair to undertake a survey of the land and determine the exact size of the plot. He also sent a letter to Coel with one of the cavalry troopers mentioning the property, the death of the previous owner who was presumably some sort of relative to Coel and at the same time asked about acquiring it. Arturo thought it would be a good place for the university he intended to build as soon as he could.

  After a small lunch in the company of the Mair the party continued south under grey and unfriendly looking skies, but they reached Dervent without being drenched, their arrival being none too soon for Arturo’s chaffed legs! The boxes of old coins were sent to the foundry to be sorted and smelted into new Republican ones and Arturo had to endure yet another dinner. This one was instigated by his own officers and the Mair of Dervent. Arcadius and his daughter Briffet attended, much to Oween's delight, and several other local dignitaries. A lavish, by local standards at least, dinner was the last thing he wanted to do after two days of riding a horse, but he could not gainsay everyone’s delight in his return.

  Ceri also attended and was obviously brimming with news but contained himself seeing how tired Arturo was and with the promise of Arturo repairing to the iron works first thing in the morning. Valerius reported on the military situation which was that there was very little to report. The biggest excitement being the arrival of a group of twenty youths of mixed Sarmatian and Brython descent from down south who had come north to serve in the cavalry on the Wall and who Valerius had persuaded to enlist here at Dervent, and bolster his cavalry force, rather than continue north to Lugowalion. Everyone at the dinner could see how tired Arturo was so conspired to make sure the dinner did not go too late and Arturo was able to flop into his bed far earlier than he had originally anticipated.

  The next morning Oween accompanied him to the iron works, which seemed to have grown in just the few weeks he had been at Lugowalion. Inside a large shed that Arturo could not remember being there three weeks before stood a metal barrel attached to what was a double cylindrical cast block. From the centre of one of these cast cylinder shaped blocks extended a polished metal rod that connected to another rod that was fixed off centre to the hub of a wheel. Connected to this rod was another that jinked up and back and then connected to a rod that entered the second, smaller, cylindrical on the cast block.

  It looked far more complicated in real life than the half-remembered diagrams he barely noticed in his History course decades before. He had vaguely remembered that original steam engines had been built with vertical cylinders but the only diagram he had any memory of was for a steam railway locomotive so that was the design their first steam engine would be based on. Ceri and his men had turned rough sketches of half remembered diagrams into a practical metal construct!

  From the top of the metal barrel rose a tube that Arturo at once recognised as a simple chimney. The whole barrel was well above the ground level, being mounted on brick supports that formed a sort of cradle. At the rear Arturo could see a curved metal box like shape attached the rear of the cylinder and beyond that what appeared to be a large barrel which was also mounted on brick supports with a wooden box on the ground next to it that contained black stuff that was almost certainly coal. There were a number of metal rods running from the back to the front as well. One was connected to the backward hooked upper metal rod that connected to the second smaller metal block at the front. Another ran along the side of the boiler and then connected to something underneath that Arturo could not see clearly.

  There were two men at the rear of the contraption and Ceri was fairly jumping up and down in his excitement to show the device off as he led Arturo into the shed. “I would not have believed this would work if it had been anyone else who tried to tell me about it!” He exclaimed obviously beaming in delight. “But it is brilliant! Your people are geniuses!” He elaborated conducting Arturo to the rear of the device.

  “Harlain and Gregorix are the operators.
Gentlemen, Primarius Arturo and Oween.” They all shook hands. These two were new to Arturo but they both seemed to know him or at least who he was. “The two biggest problems were getting the steam cylinder and valves right. What you see there is the third attempt at that.” Ceri was fairly burbling as he indicated the cast metal objects at the other end of the contraption. “The other was the tolerances. I am still not happy with what we have but it works. Sort of.” As he spoke he led them to the rear where they could see there were a couple of levers next to the domed metal shape in the upper centre of which there was a solid looking door.

  The heat coming off this part of the machine was clearly evident and Gregorix opened the door and standing on a framework designed to put him at the right height, shovelled a couple of loads of coal in through the door. Inside Arturo could see the glow of the fire the man was feeding. Attached to the upper part of this furnace was a glass tube with copper pipes attached to the top and bottom which ran back into the barrel. Arturo nodded at this. “Where did you get the glass?”

  Ceri smiled. “I heard about that relative of Dileen’s so had him make it up. Needed a few goes before he made something strong enough to last. The two pipes are connected to the boiler so we can watch the water level. This metal tube thing over here is our pressure gauge.” The object he pointed to was set above the end of the barrel. “We developed a method of weighing the steam pressure roughly and that thing is supposed to let us know if the pressure inside gets too high.”