Raising Steam

by Peter Rhodan

  Nearly a hundred of the captured Selgovae had known how to ride and had been split between the two cavalry cohorts while the bit under seven hundred infantry were added to the two legions by splitting the main cohort of each legion into two and adding half the volunteers to each formation. The result was that each of the Legions now had a strength over eight hundred infantry and well over two hundred cavalry besides the artillery and supply troops. A drop in the bucket compared to big armies on the continent Valerius had told him of, but it was a start.

  From his own history studies during military college he vaguely remembered that armies composed of self-contained formations, known as a corps originally, had never really been developed on Earth till the gunpowder era. He was pretty sure he was right about that. He couldn’t remember if it had originated with Napoleon or Clausewitz, although he was pretty sure it was one of those two. He had only the vaguest memories of that semester’s studies and he couldn’t ever remember which was a general and which was the writer although he was pretty sure the Germanic sounding one was the writer.

  He had put a lot of thought into his new legion organisation over the past few months since defeating Maximus. Valerius had helped a good deal with the practical details but a lot of it was Arturo grafting Federation military structure into the Roman one. The current model, which was subject to change, meant that when one these new Legions was built up to full strength it would be a self-contained unit of manoeuvre containing infantry, cavalry and artillery with integral support, logistics, medical and scouting.

  He decided he would deal with the remaining garrisons along the wall in a little while allowing the new recruits some time to settle in amongst the expanded formations. The Second had left a couple of centuries in the newly acquired area north of the wall as they retired south. This was partly to oversee the departure of those Selgovae who had chosen to move, but also to erect a couple of watch posts. These were more cosmetic than really needed as the scout cavalry would still maintain the clandestine watch in the northern areas, but they were built on high ground in order to look the part.

  The land area acquired through the accord with Cluen was not all that large, but it was a gesture of the difference between the old Empire and the new Republic. Like the original Republic, the new Republic would happily expand the borders of the empire and nor would it hide behind walls as the Imperialists were wont to do, well at least not when it didn't have to, Arturo thought ruefully. The policy would now be that the border at the edge of the Empire would be an agreed line, usually a landmark such as a waterway or perhaps a line of mountains and if the barbarians beyond did not respect it then the border would move, a little at first but repeated attacks would result in the attackers becoming part of the Republic. The lack of nationalistic forces made this an even easier approach to expansion that it would be in later periods.

  Money to pay for everything was still a major concern. The census had allowed him to put in place a simple taxation system, based on the old Imperial Roman one but with the taxes lowered and some dropped entirely. On the other hand, he had some new ones such as the company tax which in time would provide significant funds. In the meantime, though, money was tight. Even the loot from the captured Selgovae, of which the government retained half, only went so far. He thought about issuing bonds but decided that was too radical an idea to try yet, so was left with no choice but to return to his wrecked shuttle to try and prize some more battle steel off the sunken spaceship.

  Not being willing to trust anyone else with the knowledge of his crashed ship, he only brought Oween along, plus of course his two bodyguards who refused to let him go without them. He left Valerius in charge, telling him he was going for a ride in the mountains to escape everything for a day or two. Valerius surprised him by not only accepting this without demur but suggesting Arturo should take a break more often. It was interesting watching the former Imperial officers in the aftermath of the Selgovae defeat. His victory against the Scotti was too small a battle to count and that against Maximus had been about playing to the former Dux’s weaknesses. Whilst the battle against the Selgovae was pretty much the same in the sense that he suckered them into charging into his trench line, it had been a real battle and all the former Imperials now looked at him in a much more deferential manner. Interesting.

  Early in the morning the small party rode out of Dervent heading inland and eventually reached the lonely lake holding the crashed shuttle. Despite it getting on toward summer the lake water was still frigid and it was with difficulty that Arturo forced himself to dive down and search through the mud trying to find pieces of the shattered battle armour that had fallen off during the slide into the lake. The broken loose, easy to get at pieces were getting harder to find and he still had no easy way of cutting through the armour still intact on the shuttle while it was in the water.

  Several hours later he had a number of smallish pieces collected on the shore, but these were clearly insufficient for his needs, so he gritted his teeth and dove on the wreck looking for a large piece that had been shattered enough for him to pull off. It took the rest of that afternoon and most of the next morning before he managed to finally chisel a larger lump off. The low water temperature forced him to take frequent breaks from the labour for fear of suffering from hypothermia. Oween and the girls made sure a large fire was burning continuously for him to warm up in front of.

  Once he had finally managed to chisel through the last supporting piece of the lump of armour, it promptly fell into the mud below the curved hull of the shuttle. It took him several more hours diving down on it to get a rope tied around piece of armour securely and attached to the saddle of his horse. With everything set there followed much tugging and swearing by all concerned as the slab was eventually dragged into the shallows. It then required the joint effort of all four of them to hoist it up onto the saddle of Arturo’s horse where they balanced it as they tied it off, sort of. It was a very awkward load for the horse to carry, besides the weight, and it took some time before they were happy with the result. He doubted the horse was happy at all!

  Finally secure they headed back toward civilisation, but it was so late in the afternoon by this stage that night was falling already. It was with some surprise that they were met near the second lake by a body of cavalry being led by Aurelius Gervonius looking for them. Valerius had become concerned by their non-return and sent the cavalry out just in case. Arturo claimed his horse was a rather lame which was why they were walking back. It certainly looked lame with the load it was carrying, now covered by a blanket and in the gloom no one appeared to notice the load under the blanket. A quick nod in the direction of the horse and then a wink at Oween who understood immediately what Arturo was concerned about and he immediately offered his horse to Arturo.

  “Take mine back to the fort and I will follow on foot leading yours, Dominus.” He offered smartly. One of things Arturo liked the most about Oween was his quick uptake on matters subtle. He didn’t want everyone knowing about the lake and the source of the battle armour or palladium as it was now named, a policy Oween was well aware of.

  So Arturo and his guards joined the cavalry in riding back to the fort leaving Oween to follow, which he did, sort of, with a detour to Ceri’s house where with that worthy’s aid they managed to get the battle armour off the poor horse allowing Oween to continue on to the fort without anyone wondering about the load the horse had been carrying, hidden by a blanket.

  The next morning Arturo looked out across the river to Dervent. The old round houses of the Brythons were in the minority now as new brick construction continued apace. Ceri had nearly forty men working in his iron works already and a very simple but well laid out house design had been come up with for ordinary people which were being built steadily to house the increasing number of workers and their families. The growth in the numbers there as well as at supporting industries in town meant that the population was now approaching a thousand and growing fast. Work had begun on a new
, larger water pipe system to bring water down from the mountains using an enlarged version of Arturo’s overlapping pipe rim design in order to cater to the growth in population.

  The same pipes were going to be used for a new sewer line running through the town that all the buildings would eventually be attached to. The stink from the town had declined somewhat in recent months as people got used to not just dumping refuse in the pathways and by and large were using the simple sewerage removal service that had been developed to ease the sanitation problems. This would soon be augmented by the big sewer pipes which take the sewerage several miles away to a large depression which would be gradually filled with the outflow. Despite his getting somewhat used to the town’s aroma Arturo had found the noisome stink of the unregulated Selgovae oppidum almost overpowering. How anyone could live in such an unsanitary, smelly environment he had no idea. It was a wonder all those that lived there weren’t disease ridden and sick.

  A small satellite town was now growing up out at the mine site on Arcadius’ property where he had nearly twenty men employed in the mine works in one profession or another. Whatever his own thoughts had been on the matter, he had, at Arturo’s suggestion, built good houses for the men and families moving in. He had also made land available for a shop keeper to set up in order to provide basic mixed grocery and other services to the mine workers and their families locally. A small tavern was being constructed to cater to the workers needs as well. The pipes were in place to connect the mine town to the main water supply when the new water reservoir was finished. The one that hadn’t been started as yet but was on the to do list!

  The rail lines were being extended in all directions as fast as Ceri could produce the rails. The coal mine line was being slowly extended south to another mine and then it was planned to take it even further south to where there was a major iron source which would be tapped. The line south of Wern was gradually extending, they’d started on that before the bridge over the river in town was finished. They already had plans for a station some miles south where there would be a branch heading inland to both coal and iron sources while the main line continued south.

  Work had also begun on the line north, the first target being Alladraef. The line would branch there with the main line continuing to Maglona while the branch headed for Alauna. With the threat of the Selgovae removed one of Theodorus’ apprentices had been sent to Lugowalion to begin planning where the line should run in and out of the town as well as where to put the main station. The work gangs were about to be bolstered by just over two hundred Selgovae who refused to serve in the army meaning work on a lot of projects would now go much quicker. The larger work gangs would require a bigger force of soldiers to watch over the prisoners, but Arturo could live with that.

  The sailing ship, now named the Dawnstar at Arturo’s request, had taken much longer to sort out, partly because of the poor weather conditions over the winter. The main problems had been with the new, far more complicated rigging as well as the details of having multiple spars on a mast and such like. After much trial and error, much of it involving Arturo coming down to Wern for days at a time, the problems had slowly been overcome. She sailed quite well for what was a totally new design, all things considered. Indeed, her handling was far superior to any known vessel according to Cambelyn, especially because of how much closer to the wind she could sail and it all combined to make her much more seaworthy than the Moraciu or similar cargo ships which were the Roman norm.

  Captain Largwil had surprised him by trotting out a huge stack of gold and silver coins, some dating back two hundred years or more, to purchase the Dawnstar after tricking Arturo into naming a price for the new ship. He had made a point of spending a good deal of time watching the Dawnstar go through its’ paces as Cambelyn and Arturo had struggled to sort out the rigging issues between winter storms. There was a second ship under construction now to a slightly modified design including it being three paces longer and foot wider. It was expected to be launched about the same time the dock Theodorus was building was ready. Already the Dawnstar and the Moraciu could pull up on the river side of the wall to load and unload at high tide. Arturo had managed to draw up a rough draft for a warship that would mount the new metal catapults which had been used against the Selgovae although the ones used on the warship would be a good deal larger than the army ones.

  Briffet had announced she was pregnant as the army returned to Dervent, which put a big smile on Oween’s face and an even bigger one on the visage of Arcadius. It was only with stern words that Arturo could get the man to head north to do a census of the small new territory the Republic had acquired. According to Melwyn, the Romans had once occupied the area north of the wall and built a shorter wall at a point above the Selgovae lands. Hearing this Arturo decided that the area north of the wall be named after the old province, Valentia, which was the name Melwyn believed had been used for the area previously during the short period of occupation. It would be a very small province for the moment, but Arturo was almost certain the northern tribes would not keep the peace in the long term, at which point it would grow in area.

  Melwyn had also acquired a second teacher in the form of a former clerk from somewhere down south or even from Gallia, Melwyn was not entirely clear. The fellow was equally vague as to his origins and why he had appeared in the far north of the Empire but Arturo chose not to press the issue as he wasn’t the only one in the Republic with a shady past. Regardless of his past, the fellow picked up the new writing and mathematics very quickly and was soon formally hired as teacher for the school set up in Lugowalion. Two of Melwyn’s better pupils were also given basic teaching positions, one at Wern and the other at Alladraef.

  Having developed working, if primitive, telescopes, it meant that Arturo could set up a functioning signalling system along the rail lines as they advanced. Mechanical signals were devised for the signallers to operate and a simple semaphore signal system developed to transmit basic messages such as line clear and so forth. A signalman would put up the signal intended for the next post and wait for that worthy to post the same signal on his receiving board. If it was notice of something that needed to passed along further up the line then the receiving signalman would repost it on the other side of his position to be received by the next up the line. The same procedure, but over longer more direct routes was intended to be used on the semaphore chain Arturo planned to build but he had decided to concentrate on getting the railroad system up and running first.

  The first civilian Doctor had set up shop in Dervent a month after the battle. He had undergone the same basic training as the military medical men but due to a crippled leg could not serve in the military. While his understanding and knowledge was very limited compared to Federation medicine, he was still far better trained than any local healer had ever been.

  With the census of the local area now completed Arturo announced the first election for the Concillium Romanum would be held midyear. Anyone was eligible to run for a position, he himself standing as the first potential candidate. The election of the local Concillium Provincialum would be held at the same time, three positions being available, one centred on Lugowalion, one on Dervent and one covering the area south of Wern. Within two weeks Arturo had two opponents and there were at least four people running for area in the local Concillium.

  Arturo also introduced several new items he and Ceri had developed. The first was the fork, seemingly unknown this far back in history. It was resisted at first but the low cost to purchase them due to steam powered production in stamping them out with a die, ensured they started to get taken up by society fairly quickly. In a more complicated technical alteration, the gasses released by the coke chambers were piped to a distilling plant using the ceramic lipped pipes Arturo had introduced and the first Kerosene was distilled, along with coal tar which was immediately useful as caulking for the wooden ships.

  Three weeks after returning from the battle Arturo finally produced his first proper ce
ment. The three young men he’d hired to help in the task were given shares in the new North Britannia Cement Company and land was purchased east of Maglona where the plant could be built near a limestone outcrop. Plans were drawn up for the main south east rail line to diverge from the Lugowalion to Dervent line at Maglona and after passing the site of the cement plant to head south east towards Voreda and then further south to Brocavum. These two small towns, both former military vicus developments, had been brought into the New Republican fold by Brennus before the Selgovae invasion.

  With the iron works at Dervent building most of the railway material Arturo had encouraged Lewarth to use his works to produce steel versions of many common tools, particularly axes and saws. Although the local steel was still poor compared to Federation material it was as good as anything available locally in any quantity and with the new techniques he and Ceri had developed it was being produced in ever increasing amounts. Lewarth’s steel production was still small compared to Ceri’s but by concentrating on items that would sell well Arturo hoped the cash flow would help Lewarth expand his steel production quickly.

  The Scotti were particularly keen on the axes and soon the Moraciu included calling at the coast of Hibernia as part of her regular round. The larger Dawnstar began being used for the longer trips to Isca and Londinium, the Moraciu being too old and too small to risk the treacherous trip around the end of the island without there being a real need. The Dawnstar's arrival had resulted in the old ship becoming a local tramp ship in effect, sailing from Deva to Segontium to Hibernia to Wern and then back to Deva.