Muses of Roma (Codex Antonius Book 1)

by Rob Steiner

  Nestor entered the command deck. “Yes, Centuriae?”

  “Dariya has six hours until she's symptomatic, right?”

  “Yes, although it is an estimate. It could be more or less.”

  “How much more or less?”

  Nestor shrugged. “Four minimum, eight maximum. Why?”

  Kaeso told Nestor his idea.

  “Centuriae, I am not aware of any tests proving that works.”

  Lucia snorted. “Of course not. The Collegia Pontificis weren’t interested in curing the Cariosus, only wiping it out, victims and all.”

  “Could it work?” Kaeso asked.

  Nestor shrugged again. “In theory.”

  “Good enough,” Kaeso said, “because unless you have a better idea, it's the only way we keep Dariya alive until we reach Libertus.”

  Nestor and Lucia were both silent.

  “Have Flamma, Blaesus, and Daryush report to Cargo Two,” Kaeso said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do before we see the good Lady Centuriae of the Corus.”

  They completed phase one of Kaeso’s plan and then took off from Pomona. Corus’s Lady Centuriae called within moments of them leaving Menota’s atmosphere.

  “I assume congratulations are in order, Centuriae Aemilius,” she said when her head displayed above Kaeso's tabulari. “The only reason you’d leave so early is that you found your mythical vaults and are ready for boarding.”

  Kaeso smiled. “We found the vaults, my Lady Centuriae.”

  She cocked her head. “How much?”

  “Over thirty million sesterces.”

  “Thirty million,” she breathed, her glazed eyes telling Kaeso she was dreaming of how she’d spend her share. “You got it all?”

  “Every last sesterce.”

  She nodded. “Well done indeed.”

  “We’re ready to transfer your port entry fee to you.”

  “Yes, about the port entry fee,” she said. “It is no longer required.”

  Kaeso raised an eyebrow. “Well that is most generous of you, my lady. Thank you.”

  “We are confiscating everything in your cargo hold,” she said with a grandmotherly smile. “Under the Menota Treaty, which Libertus just signed, we are authorized to stop, board, and impound contraband on ships entering or leaving Menota space. Even Liberti flagged ships. My pilot is sending you coordinates now. You will bring your ship to those coordinates so Corus can begin boarding. Any attempt to run and you will be fired upon. Are my orders clear?”

  Kaeso sighed. “Yes, my lady. Although I should mention the sesterces are not on my ship.”

  The Lady Centuriae sighed. “Oh?”

  Kaeso tapped a key on his console. “I'm sending you a visual feed right now. You should have it on this channel.”

  She looked at her screen, and her eyes narrowed.

  “What you see, my Lady Centuriae, is a stack of Menota marques—over thirty million sesterces worth—surrounded by way line plasma canisters. The marques are still on the planet in the Pomona vaults.”

  Hopefully she’s never seen the backstage of a theater, he thought.

  She smirked. “I can blow you out of the sky right now and then go retrieve the marques myself.”

  “Maybe. If you can get past the tripwires we set up. You probably can, which is why I programmed this little device.” Kaeso held up his personal tabulari. “It’s transmitting a stop signal to the receiver next to those canisters. If this tabulari is destroyed, or if I turn it off, then the canisters will incinerate those marques.”

  Her lip curled. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Are you willing to take that chance? Are you willing to bet your comfortable retirement in that Mediterranean villa?”

  She stared at Kaeso, her jaw clenching and unclenching.

  “Look, you can have the marques,” Kaeso said. “I have two, simple requests that I have no doubt you will think a fair exchange.”

  Her stare was colder than space. “What are your…requests?”

  “Four canisters of way line plasma and one sleeper crib.”

  The Lady Centuriae laughed. “So you mortgaged all of your way line plasma to hold the marques hostage while you negotiate for a single sleeper crib? If I'm not mistaken, you have seven crew, including yourself. What need do you have for a single sleeper crib?”

  “That’s my business, my lady. I think it's a fair exchange. Thirty million sesterces for one sleeper crib and four way line plasma canisters. Your Eagles have more than enough of each. Fortuna has smiled on you this day, my lady.”

  Kaeso waited for a stab of pain from his implant, but to his surprise, none came. He fought the urge to search the ship proximity displays on his console.

  “Spare me your fake piety,” she said. “How can I be sure all thirty million sesterces are in that pile you're showing me? The view is awfully dark.”

  “I suppose you're going to have to trust me. And Fortuna.”

  This time Kaeso did glance at his proximity displays. Where are they? Perhaps Menota’s rings…?

  She grunted. “I will discuss this with my colleague on Virtus,” she said, and then her head disappeared.

  Lucia said, “That's a good sign. If she wasn't considering it, she’d have destroyed us by now.”

  Kaeso searched the empty space outside the command window. Menota was behind them, so all he could see were stars and the running lights of the two Roman Eagles miles above them. He studied his proximity display. Only the Eagles registered.

  “Yes,” he muttered, “a good sign.”

  Minutes passed without a response from Corus. Lucia tapped her fingers on her console. “Come on,” she said. “It's thirty million sesterces.”

  “They'll take the money,” Kaeso said, still searching the stars outside the window. “They're arguing over what to do with us once they have it.”

  “We'll be long gone by the time they get the money,” Lucia said. When Kaeso didn’t say anything, she asked, “Won't we?”

  Kaeso remained quiet. Even if the Romans did what they said they’d do, it would take Kaeso’s crew at least an hour to get the way line plasma canisters hooked up to the way line drive, and at least fifteen minutes for the plasma to spool through the drive. Then there were the two Eagles blocking the way line jump point through which Caduceus could escape.…

  Kaeso hated plans that relied on luck and the gods, and this plan was all luck and gods.

  The com chimed, and the head of the Lady Centuriae materialized above his tabulari once again.

  “We accept your proposal,” she announced. “Proceed to the coordinates my pilot sent you earlier. We will meet you there in one hour. You will transmit the exact location of the marques to us and disable the plasma canisters around them. Once my men have the marques, we will send over the sleeper crib and way line plasma.”

  “I'm sorry, my lady,” Kaeso said. “We get the sleeper crib and way line plasma first, then we send you the marques’ location. You know it will take us an hour to install the canisters. More than enough time for you to blow us out of the sky if you do not find all thirty million sesterces.”

  She stared at him. “Very well. Be at those coordinates in one hour.” She ended the transmission.

  Lucia sighed. “Why did you have to give her that idea, sir?”

  “She’s a Roman. It already crossed her mind,” Kaeso said, receiving the coordinates from Corus. “I'm sending the coordinates to you. Take us out.”

  Lucia moved some sliders on her pilot’s console. The stars outside the command deck window shifted as the ship came about and shot toward the rendezvous point.

  “How can it take them an hour to gather one sleeper crib and four canisters of way line plasma?” Lucia asked.

  When Kaeso didn't say anything, she continued, “It won't take them an hour. They're using that time to search for the marques in Pomona. When they find them, they'll destroy us.”

  “Possibly.”

  Lucia sighed. “So we're dead no matter what w
e do.”

  Kaeso looked at her. “I'm sorry I brought us here.”

  Lucia had a sudden warmth in her eyes. It surprised Kaeso, especially after he all but admitted they were going to die.

  “Centuriae, you did what you thought was best. You had no choice. I admit I had my doubts; I also knew it was either this job or we sat on our hands waiting for the ship to fall apart.”

  “At least you'd all live to serve on another ship.”

  “What other ship?” she asked. “It's only a matter of time before Libertus and Roma negotiate an extradition treaty. When that happens, none of us would find legal work anywhere. We'd either have to turn ourselves in or serve on pirate ships.”

  Kaeso grinned. “We’re not pirates?”

  She gave him a rare smile. “We may do things that are less than legal, but at least we don’t attack unarmed vessels. There's no honor in that.”

  They spent the rest of the journey to the rendezvous point in silence. Caduceus arrived within twenty minutes, but the Eagles were not there. Kaeso expected that.

  Still searching for the marques, he thought. They'll be here when they find them. Then we see if this is the last gamble I ever make.

  Kaeso turned to his console and activated the camera in Cargo One. Dariya sat on a box talking to Daryush through the Cargo One window. Daryush no longer cried, but his head was down and he nodded periodically. Kaeso did not turn on the audio, but he watched them for a long time.

  The com chimed. “Here we go,” he said as he activated the com. The head of a stern-faced Roman officer materialized.

  “Centuriae Aemilius, you will power down your engines and prepare for docking with Corus. Once again, your crew is confined to quarters and only you will open the connector hatch. We will transfer your sleeper crib and way line plasma to you once your ship is secure. Acknowledge.”

  “Acknowledged,” Kaeso said. The proximity display showed two Roman Eagles approaching Caduceus fast. Too fast.

  “Centuriae...” Lucia said, staring at her display.

  “I know. They found the marques.” I was never a good gambler. Now my crew will pay my debt with me.

  “We should make for the rings,” Lucia said.

  “We’d never make it.”

  Kaeso looked out the command window, waiting for the flash of launching missiles from the two Eagles. The ships grew from white moving dots to—

  Brilliant light enveloped the two Eagles, and for a moment Kaeso thought they had launched. But the flashes were too bright.

  Lucia saw it too. “What happened? They're not on my display.”

  Kaeso released a long breath. You were out there. Let’s see if my implant will kill me.

  “Centuriae, there’s another ship near where the Eagles were,” Lucia said. She squinted at her display. “Impossible…”

  “What?”

  “It has no beacon.”

  To Lucia's Roman experience, a ship couldn’t fly without a beacon. By international treaty and long-standing religious custom—often more powerful than law—all starships had an identifier beacon built into their hulls. The engines activated the beacon and the beacon activated the way line plasma, thus making interstellar travel along the universal way lines possible. Even pirate ships had a beacon that transmitted their identification, false though it may be.

  But Liberti Umbra ships did not operate by normal rules. They did not use the same engines every other human starship used.

  As Kaeso expected, his com console chimed. He activated it, but no holographic head materialized.

  “Caduceus,” said a voice with a Liberti accent, “either Fortuna is your patron god, or you knew we were here.”

  Lucia frowned in confusion, but Kaeso smiled. He thought he recognized the voice, though he couldn't be sure. The voice was masked, and it had been three years since he last heard it.

  “I wasn't sure you heard me the first two times.”

  “We did,” the voice said. “We just didn't want to get involved.”

  “Why did you?”

  There was a pause. “You have an infectee aboard?”

  Kaeso figured if Umbra was out there, his 'emergency code' references to Fortuna would get them involved. He knew his odd request for a single sleeper crib would start them thinking, especially considering the planet he just left. Umbra never got its hands on a Cariosa before the Romans destroyed the planet, and that was a treasure over which he gambled they’d “get involved.”

  “We do,” Kaeso said, “but unless you have a sleeper crib, she won't last another three hours. You destroyed the one I was negotiating for.”

  “They weren’t going to give it to you, and you know it,” the voice said. “Prepare for docking.”

  When the com light turned off, Kaeso saw through the window an Umbra ship blink into existence right above the Caduceus. It was slightly smaller than Caduceus, and resembled a black teardrop with no running lights. It was hard to see due to its black matte hull. The only way he could discern the ship visually was how it blocked the stars behind it.

  Lucia cried, “Gods below, where did that ship come from? Did they destroy the Eagles? Who are they?”

  To Kaeso's surprise, his implant issued no warning pain. However, he didn’t want to tempt Fortuna. “They’re going to help Dariya, and they're going to help us get to Libertus.”

  “Centuriae, I need more than that.”

  Kaeso stood up from his command couch. “That's all I can tell you right now. You'll just have to trust me.”

  He left the command deck before she could laugh at him.

  12

  Kaeso stood before the docking hatch console waiting for the connection indicator to flash. A small shudder announced Caduceus had docked with the Umbra ship. Once connected, he looked through the docking hatch window for someone on the other side to traverse the connector tube between the two ships.

  “You do realize what you've done, right?” said a voice from behind him.

  Kaeso turned to see a tall thin man with gray, cropped hair leaning with folded arms against the bulkhead. He wore the plain gray jumpsuit of a common merchant starship crewman.

  “They improved the projectors since I left,” Kaeso said. “Nice. If I didn’t know this came from my implant, I’d think you were standing on my ship. Galeo?”

  “My disguises never fooled you, did they, Kaeso?”

  Kaeso smiled when Galeo’s clean-shaven face shimmered. The man also wore an Umbra cloak. The “cloak” was a mesh suit that covered the wearer’s entire body. It projected whatever identity the wearer’s implant could make up. Most Ancilia wore an Umbra cloak while on missions to hide their true faces. Or to make themselves invisible.

  “The cloak may disguise your face, but it never hid your condescending voice.”

  Galeo laughed, then strode forward and gave Kaeso a tight embrace, which Kaeso returned. He even feels real, Kaeso thought with wonder. If his deactivated implant could make it seem like Galeo was really here, he wondered what an activated implant could do now.

  “I’ve missed you, old friend,” Galeo said. “The Ancilia these days are all business-first types. Don't know how to have fun like we used to.”

  “Is that what we had? Fun?”

  Galeo’s smile melted, replaced by a sad gaze Kaeso thought the suit rendered well. They have made improvements since I left. I mean, since I was “relieved.”

  “Well,” Galeo said, “let's just say they were interesting times.” His eyes scanned the corridor. “So this is your ship.”

  “Don't let her looks fool you. She has a good heart.”

  “And her crew?”

  “Scoundrels, one and all.”

  “Just like their Centuriae.”

  Kaeso shrugged.

  “And one Cariosa,” Galeo said. “What were you thinking, going down to Menota? You knew the danger.”

  Kaeso clenched his teeth. “My centuriae couch doesn’t have the resources of the most prosperous planet in Human Space to
back it up. Until you sit in that couch, you won’t understand our situation, so I don't want a lecture.”

  “You want me to stick my neck out for a disgraced former Ancile. I think I've earned the right to give you a lecture.”

  “If you bring in a Cariosa, your bosses won't care if she came out of Hades’ ass, much less from a disgraced former Ancile. You'll be a hero.”

  Galeo snorted. “You don't know my current bosses.”

  “Come on, Galeo. She's one of my crew and she's going to die—or worse—if she doesn't get into a sleeper crib now.”

  Galeo hesitated. “I don't know who Fortuna has smiled on more today: me or you.”

  “If you bring in a Cariosa, it'll be you.”

  “Not what I meant.” Galeo sighed. “You think we were patrolling Menota, don't you?”

  “Why else were you here?”

  “We were following you.”

  Kaeso looked at him. “I haven't told my crew anything they shouldn’t—”

  “That's not why we’re here. An incident has occurred that requires your expertise.”

  Kaeso blinked. “What incident could make the Umbra Magisterium want my help? I'm disgraced, remember?”

  “You should know the gods work in strange ways.”

  “What incident, Galeo?”

  Galeo unfolded his arms and walked over to the Cargo One window. Kaeso had closed the metal shutters before Galeo boarded so Umbra wouldn’t see Dariya until they agreed to help. Galeo put his hands on the glass, though, as if he knew she was there.

  “What I'm about to tell you falls under your implant's concealment protocols.”

  Pain sparked from Kaeso’s implant as it received the signal from Galeo's implant. Now Kaeso could not reveal the conversation he was about to have with Galeo. One more thing I need to hide from my crew.

  “Two months ago we learned that a high-ranking member of the Roman government wanted to defect to Libertus.”

  “How high?”

  “Consular Family.”

  Kaeso felt his mouth hang open. “Is that possible?”

  “We don't know.”

  “It's a trick,” Kaeso said. “A Consular doesn’t up and defect to Libertus. They just want our Ancilia to make contact, flush them out.”