On the Rocks

by Peter Rhodan

  Radovas nodded slowly. “Aye. That sounds like a good way of keeping an eye on things and making the locals feel secure.”

  “Yes. Probably only a company at a time at this stage. The Optio’s have to learn how to keep a body of men under control when out of sight of their superiors, plus the basics of keeping them supplied while on a march and also making sure they are headed in the right direction too." He smiled at Radovas who smiled back knowingly. "Their main task will actually be to spot the scouts. The scouts main task will be to get in a position to spot the moment and placement when the Ensign or the Optio plant a small flag for five minutes before continuing on their way. They will have a series of these, colour coded and a list of the order they will plant them in so the scouts won’t be able to guess.”

  Valerious nodded, while Meries snickered in appreciation of the idea. “Now that is cunning.”

  “Just so. Once the scouts spot the flag planting they have to send a report back to me immediately and then that man has to find his way back to the scout force again. The colour coding will ensure no cheating as I won’t give the actual list to the Optio in command till right before they leave.”

  Nods by all met this. Valerius smiled. “That is a very clever idea Arturo. For a navy man you sure have some interesting approaches to land warfare.”

  Arturo smiled. “I had good instructors.” He answered. The others looked puzzled. “Where I come from, to become an officer, you are required to attend two years of Military College where you are taught the basics of combat, command, logistics and so forth, plus you do basic training like you would as an ordinary soldier. Then later on after working up through the junior officer ranks before you are given an independent command as a captain, you do another year of schooling focusing mostly on command issues and handling subordinates, but with other stuff.”

  They all looked at him amazed. “You’re serious, aren’t you?” Radovas said at last. To which Arturo merely nodded smiling. “Wow. Two years study just to become an officer. That’s almost unbelievable. In the Roman Army you learn on the job, so to speak.”

  “So I gather. One of my advantages, I think.” Arturo commented. “A lot of it is just general knowledge related to military affairs. Plus where I come from our technology is more advanced so there was a lot of learning to do with technical stuff. The ones that specialised in the technical areas did later learning courses as well.”

  He paused and looked around at his somewhat daunted subordinates. “And then of course there were the updated training programs and refresher courses and… “He broke off to smile at their bemused expressions. “Well, I think you are starting to get the idea. Fortunately one of the courses I took dealt specifically with the sort of combat we are facing now.” No need to explain his course had only spent two weeks on pre-industrial stuff. “However that was there and this is here so if you have any idea or even criticism of what I am doing don’t hesitate to ask, especially in private. A lot of my learning is theory because I was a naval captain, not a land warfare person.”

  No need to try and explain that the ships he captained sailed between the stars rather than across the seas. “But a lot of what I know is just as usable on land, with suitable adjustments, so we shall see. Anyway, you have all assured me there is no chance of just talking to Maximus so we will go forward on the assumption that we will have to fight him. Good?”

  They all nodded at this and Arturo decided to break the meeting for lunch. After they had eaten and he was getting ready to head across the river into Dervent, one of the soldiers who had accompanied him to Alauna approached. “Yes Belwyn?”

  The man came to a sort of attention. “Sir. I just thought I should tell you that... Well you remember that girl you rescued and who followed us around?”

  Arturo nodded. “Certainly.”

  “Well she is trying to copy your way of fighting, I think.” The man sounded a bit unsure.

  “Really. How do you know this?”

  “I have seen her sir. She has been watching you train in the mornings I think because after you had finished I followed her over there into that patch of woods beyond the cavalry training grounds. She must be living there I think. Anyway she had a length of tree branch trimmed into a pole which she was using to try and duplicate those training movements you have. It’s not something you can mistake.”

  Arturo scratched his head and stared over towards the copse of trees pondering the matter. “I see. Well thank you for telling me Belwyn.”

  “Should I stop her sir?” The soldier asked looking a little puzzled at Arturo’s low-key response.

  “No. I think we’ll just ignore her for the moment. Tell the rest of the men not to harass her as well. Thank you for bringing it to my attention though. Oh and well done on deciding to investigate but not actually stick your nose in and scare her off. Good work.” He smiled at the soldier.

  “Thank you, Sir.” The man said at once pleased the commander was happy but also still looking a little confused by Arturo’s response to his report.

  That afternoon Arturo leaned on the fort’s south gate and looked out over at Dervent and the growing industrial area where the smoke from Ceri’s furnaces hung low over the buildings. The wind wasn’t in the right direction to bring the accompanying odours in his direction fortunately. In front of him there were the raw earth works that marked the beginning of the Dervent to Wern rail line slowly taking shape and over to the south east he could see the one to the coal mine, the so far only single line of rails reflecting in the lowering evening sun that was peeking through a gap in the habitual cloud cover. All told things were going well, if only Maximus would hold off till next spring before coming south and trying smash it all up.

  The next morning was spent conferring with Briffet and several other women about improving the way the spinning was done to keep up with the demand created by the new looms. In the afternoon he was engaged in debating some of the details about pulling down the west wall when there was a commotion at the south gate and he saw Oween had returned with several strangers. Suddenly a weight he had been carrying was lifted!

  Arturo strode down the Decumana through the increasingly busy fort and grasped his friend’s arms in welcome, a broad smile on his face. “It is good to see you my friend. We were beginning to believe you had been lost at sea!”

  “Ha! No that was not the problem. The old shipbuilder had died so I had to track down his son in Isca. Cambelyn, this is Arturo Sandus. Arturo, Cambelyn, Coel’s son from Isca.”

  Arturo clasped forearms with the stocky, brown haired man in his mid-thirties. “Welcome, Cambelyn. Welcome.”

  “And this is Theodorus, who claims to be an engineer.” Oween seemed to be implying some doubt about the man’s professed speciality in this statement Arturo thought. Mind you Oween could be sarcastic readily enough at the best of times.

  Theodorus was a tall, skinny sandy haired man who looked undernourished but had sharp features. He advanced to clasp arms with Arturo. “Theodourus Verenius. It is an honour to meet you sir.” He said.

  “Likewise. An engineer eh?”

  “Aye. I worked on the refurbishment to the wall at Londinium most recently.”

  Oween grinned at this statement. “I found him working as a labourer for a fisherman in Isca.”

  Arturo cocked his head at the man who started to look nervous. Arturo let him sweat while watching closely. After a few moments the man appeared to give in and shrugged. “I had to leave Londinium in a hurry. I was working for my wife’s cousin in Isca. He put us up which was very kind of him.” He stopped, obviously unwilling to explain why he had been forced to leave Londinium in a hurry.

  Arturo crossed his arms and simply looked at the man who visibly shrank and shuffled from foot to foot. He turned up the corner of his mouth.” Had to leave in a hurry?” Arturo asked quietly and then simply waited for the clearly nervous fellow to reply.

  Theodorus shuffled and looked at his feet, then glanced under his brows at
Arturo but whatever he saw did not reassure him. “I, um, I...” He stumbled verbally.

  “You um... yes?”

  The man swallowed slumping further. “There was a problem with the funds for the wall repairs. One of the slaves claimed I was keeping some of the materials back and um,” He paused swallowing again. “He claimed I was, um, swapping the material for favours at a certain brothel. Which were lies.”

  He stopped and looked pleadingly at Arturo who glanced at Oween who winked. The man was clearly a liar but which? He seemed affronted by the brothel slander more than the corruption slander. Hmm Arturo thought to himself and then uncrossed his arms and waved one hand airily. “And you were actually swapping the material for...?”

  The man jerked and stepped back, his eyes going to Arturo's face before slumping again. “Wines mostly. I then sold them to the Bishop and the Vicarius for influence and well the contract for the wall repairs for instance. Everyone does that sort of thing.” He explained obviously trying to justify his embezzlement scam. “But I couldn’t admit to using them for favours from The House of Veils. The wife would have killed me! Worse her brother, who is the civic guard commander, would have beaten me up for sure or worse. He does not like me much.”

  He paused and stared off into the distance. “He’s a real devout Christian, which is kind of funny given he is the guard commander, but anyway I claimed to be innocent and it became my word against that of a slave but then my damn assistant organised an audit and the crap hit the fire. I confessed to my wife and she somehow got her brother to help us out of the town and we went to her cousin’s in Isca. The only work he had though was helping him with the fishing.”

  Arturo had learnt enough of the local ways of doing things that he was not surprised at the man’s peculation nor at his admission. It was almost as if graft and corruption were the normal way of doing things in the Empire he gathered, at least in the bigger towns and cities. Not having proper accounting methods clearly didn’t help the situation, something he intended to rectify.

  “Well I need an engineer. And I need an honest and reliable one. Do you understand me?” He said sternly.

  “Yes sir. I understand completely sir.” The man’s head bobbed up and down, his face one of eager willingness to please.

  “I also need someone who is willing to learn and try new things. I am not from around here.” HE waved vaguely at the town and fort. The smoke from Ceri’s furnaces was hanging low in the sky today giving the place a very solemn appearance. He pointed sort of out to sea and rather upwards. “My own land is far away and my people are more advanced in many ways than what I have found here. I am a naval captain however, not an engineer, so I need someone who knows about such things to translate my vague descriptions in practical construction. Are you willing to listen to my weird ideas, then try and translate my non-engineer recollections of the things my people can do into practical construction?”

  Theodorus bowed. “I am willing to do whatever you require sir. I saw the bank of the rail line Oween described on the way up here to the fort and was very impressed. Such a clever idea. He explained how one horse can haul two or three times as much material along it as along a normal road. Very interesting concept.”

  “I am glad you like it.” Arturo answered with a trace of irony in his voice. “There are several projects that need attention. The course of the rail line to Wern will need to have two strong bridges built over the Dervent along the way according to the route we have roughed out. Then at Wern I want to build a large enclosed dock area for trading ships as well as needing a large stone bridge to carry the rail road over the river mouth so we can reach the actual town and then later extend the line south.”

  “I see. I have not had a lot of experience with bridges I am afraid. I understand the principles though and when I was younger, I did do a little work on aqueduct arches which are similar in many ways, certainly the same general principles apply. If I had my copy of Vitruvius it would be easier but I am sure I have enough knowledge to carry out the tasks you have described.”

  “Vitruvius?” Arturo enquired.

  “He wrote a book on architecture back centuries ago. I had to leave my copy behind.”

  “I see. The scholar Melwyn who runs our school system may be able to help there. I will have you introduced to him later.” He nodded to the man and turned to the other newcomer. “And you are the son of the shipwright?”

  “Aye.” Cambelyn answered then cocked his head. “You really intend to build full sized ships at Wern?” He asked.

  “Is that what Oween told you?”

  “Yup. Surprised me as there is not much need for big cargo ships up this way. Captain Largwill told me he finds it hard to pay his way in the Moarciu.”

  “Yes. He said the same to me and he certainly does not look very prosperous although he does not appear to poor either. On the other hand his ship is slow and cumbersome and poorly designed which means he has to spend far longer sailing with smaller loads than could be achieved with a larger, better designed ship.”

  “My father built the Moarciu.” Cambelyn said with asperity, obviously taking umbrage at this criticism of his father’s work.

  Arturo waved his hand in a placating motion. “Sorry. It was not meant as a criticism of your father’s abilities. She is no doubt a well-built ship from what I have seen but where I come from we have much larger and more efficient ships, which is what I want you to build.” Or at least I hope I can remember enough to build such ships, he thought to himself.

  “Larger? But why would you want to build larger ships when there is not enough trade for Captain Largwill as it is?”

  “Oh, but I think the trade situation will change in the near future. For instance. Theodorus. " he said to the engineer, turning to face that worthy. "What do they use in Londinium to heat their houses?” Arturo looked questioningly at the engineer with raised eyebrows.

  Theodorus seemed surprised to be addressed so suddenly, clearly, he was probably busy trying to remember what he had learned of bridge building. He responded readily enough to Arturo’s question though. “Wood mostly. Damn expensive it is these days too. There is not much in the way of free woods left anywhere near the town so it’s carted in, mostly down the river on barges.”

  “And what about at Isca?” Arturo enquired of both men.

  They glanced at each other then Theodorus answered. “Mostly wood, the hills have a rich covering, but also some coal. There is plenty of it in the area inland from the coast, but it is hard work carting it into town.”

  Arturo crossed his arms. “So if wood is so expensive in Londinium why not ship coal or wood from Isca around to Londinium?”

  Cambelyn shook his head. “Too risky. Sailing back and forth from Isca means daring the storms off the Atlantic on a regular basis. Plus trying to sail back to Isca along the southern coast will be against the prevailing winds and into the sometimes very big seas. I doubt it would be viable in the long term due to the frequent ship losses you would almost certainly suffer and the limited value of such a bulk cargo.”

  Arturo smiled. “And if you had a ship that was a lot handier, half again as fast and carried twice as much and was a much more seaworthy vessel as well?

  Cambelyn smiled ruefully. “Such a ship does not exist.”

  “No. But if you are prepared to work with me such a ship could exist very soon.”

  Cambelyn looked keenly at Arturo taking in his serious demeanour and confident manner. “You’re serious ain’t ya?” He asked after a moment.

  Oween joined in. “Seen that look before Cambelyn. He not only means it but knows it can be made to happen. Wait till you see some of the other things he’s got going on around here.”

  Cambelyn looked from Oween to Arturo and shook his head. “Well I shall be interested to see what you have in mind, that is for certain. And do not worry about me not being willing to learn new things. If you can indeed show me how to build a ship like you just described I don’t care what ne
w methods I will have to learn.”

  “Good.” Arturo paused. “We have another new idea hereabouts, called a Company. It allows two or more people to share in owning an operation. I am going to create a ship building Company, Britannia Shipbuilding, which I intend you to have a share in, a growing share over time, as the operation grows. You can find out more about these companies later, but basically what it means for you is that in exchange for your expertise you will not only get paid a regular wage but will also gain a share of the profits the company makes as well.”

  The man considered this statement, his puzzled look indicating he was not entirely sure he understood all that but he smiled back as Arturo smiled at him. “You’re clearly trying to make this sound attractive to me. All right. What is the pay?”

  “Well I was thinking about forty solidi to start. Most in cash but some in shares so that over time you build up a decent share of the company.”

  The shipwright gaped at him. “Forty solidi, mostly in cash?”

  Arturo nodded. “Why, is that too much?” He turned to Oween then Theodorus.

  “It does seem a fair bit. More than Radovas or Valerius is getting.” Oween said into the sudden silence.

  Theodorus simply looked bland and Arturo realised he wasn’t going to say anything negative in case he was going to paid at a similar rate. “Yes. But their pay will go up as the army gets bigger. Theodorus, I had been thinking of a similar arrangement with you. Set up one of these companies, which I will largely provide the capital for. Some of your pay will also be in shares in that company in return for your expertise. The capital will provide the funds to pay for works, buy stone and other materials and so forth in advance and keep it going during your first job or two until the company can fund its own way.”