Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) (10 page)

An Ulsian, or a tent, stepped up to greet them, and a long interchange occurred with Klendor. The Romans stood back, unsure of what was going on. Then they continued, eventually reaching another door, through which they entered a long cylindrical object that was supposed to transport them through a tube to their new quarters.

After a series of moves in which the capsule travelled along, left and right, and up and down, they finally entered a further tube which took them up, and opened into a small space facing what appeared to be a door.

"This," the Tin Man said, as he pointed to the door, which promptly opened, "is where you shall live."

They followed him through the door, to find a very small empty room. Vipsania stared blankly at the walls, then shuddered.

"Not exactly the height of luxury," Lucilla noted dryly.

"This is the entry point," the Tin Man said. "The markings on the walls indicate doors."

"It would be helpful," Lucilla added, "if we could open them."

"Walk through one," the Tin Man suggested.

"What?"

"Anyone, walk through one. Try this one. Your triclinium."

Gaius stared at the wall, then shrugged and walked towards it. To his surprise, the wall gave way, and there before him was a fully furnished triclinium, as promised.

"There is storage at the far end, and equipment we hope will be suitable for preparing food over there," The Tin man explained. "If we go back out here, this wall here opens into your sleeping, bathing, and other personal quarters, while going through this fourth wall provides entertainment," the Tin Man said. "I hope you like it. It's the best we could do."

"Entertainment?" Vipsania asked.

"Yes. You can go to an area big enough to play your ball game if you wish. We have the two circles on the ground, and you can use it how you wish. Then there's this lounge, and you might be interested in this wall. It shows recordings . . . Oh, yes, you don't even know what a recording is. Let me show an example. On!" he commanded the wall. Suddenly the whole wall became an image. "Show the recording of the Roman's arrival at the space terminal!" the Tin man commanded, and after a few moments, an image of the cheering tents appeared, then they came through the doorway, and began waving at the crowd. "Stop!" the Tin Man said, and the screen went blank. "Off!" then the screen reverted to the appearance of a wall.

"I wouldn't believe that if I hadn't just seen it," Lucilla remarked.

"You can command it to show you what has been recorded," the Tin Man said. "It has been altered to accept your voice commands. It may also help keep track of each other. Throughout the cities there are recording devices, so if, for example, Vipsania, you wanted to know where Gaius was, stand in front of the screen and order it to find Gaius, and most of the time it will find him, you will see his image, and it will tell you where he is. It can tell you who has come and gone from your apartment over whatever time, and by logic, who is inside your apartment. So if Gaius is asleep in bed and you are somewhere else, while you won't be shown inside the bedroom, you will be told he is in the apartment.

"Of course," the Tin Man continued, "it does more than that. It shows news from anywhere on Ulse, it will show what you call plays, and culture from this and a number of other worlds, in fact you can request to see some history from your planet. However, you will not be able to see anything about your planet relating to what has happened after you left, and you may well be disappointed with what little there is about it. You may see Ulsian programmes, and they will be translated for you, but I suspect you will find them difficult to follow."

"You think we're too primitive?" Vipsania asked, with a touch of anger in her voice.

"No, I don't think you'll understand," the Tin Man said. "You're welcome to try, but ask yourself what you would make of something on the assassination of Julius Caesar if you did not know he was a general, you knew nothing about the Roman republic, the names of people like Antony or Brutus were meaningless, and you had never heard of humans before today."

"Sounds like this'll be entertaining," Lucilla remarked.

"There are programs which will help you learn about Ulse," the Tin Man said, "and there are Ulsian entertainment channels, although, as I just pointed out, how entertaining they are for you remains to be seen."

"Then we should at least explore our rooms," Lucilla said. "I wonder what constitutes a bed."

"It better be soft," Vipsania said, "and close because my feet are killing me. This extra weight is . . . well . . . difficult."

"We're supposed to get used to it," Gaius grinned.

"By developing fat muscly legs," Lucilla grumbled. "Hardly attractive."

"But then there's hardly anyone to attract," Gaius said, then immediately regretted it.

"Don't remind me," she said, and shuddered as she tried another door.

The beds were surprisingly comfortable, and as Vipsania remarked, the quarters were extraordinarily luxurious. The floors were totally smooth, and warm to feel. As they explored the rest of their apartment, they even found a small area that was "officially" outside, but it was surrounded by walls and a ceiling. The ceiling looked like sky, it had an image of the sun that radiated heat and light, but, they were assured, it was only a few feet up in the air. The generator of these images was a little fragile, so under no circumstances were they to prod or throw things at their "sun". It appeared the entire complex was underground and the ceiling was simply an image to "make them feel at home". In the centre of this area was a fountain that sprayed small amounts of water upwards, then to flatten out abruptly and fall faster than they were used to seeing. There were also small plants, none of which were familiar, and these were mainly flat creepers or small bushes with surprisingly robust trunks and branches.

After the Tin Man had shown them how the various items worked, he excused himself, and informed them he would stand beside the front door.

"You can take a chair," Vipsania offered.

"Thank you, but standing for me is as easy as sitting, and I take up less room. I know this is a lot for you to think about, but, well, there it is." Without further comment or gesture, he turned, walked to his new position, then appeared almost to turn himself off.

They had a reasonable amount of room, and in some ways they had luxuries and gadgets that no Roman had even dreamed about. There was only one drawback. That was that there was only one exit, and that was guarded by the Tin Man. This might be luxurious, but it could become a prison.

The Tin Man was there to help, and also, as it turned out, to prepare food. They were warned about eating any food at all on Ulse other than what was prepared by him.

"Someone might want to poison us?" Lucilla asked as a joke.

"All Ulsian food will be poisonous to you," the Tin Man said.

"Then we'll starve . . ."

"I meant all food that is native to Ulse," the Tin Man hastily corrected himself. "There are a number of representatives from other planets here, and we have food compatible with yours. Unfortunately, some of your favourites will not be available, but you might like the taste of some things you've never seen before. There are also some additional supplies that have come from Kroth, when they ever get through the Ulsian inspections to prevent alien life forms from coming here. In any case . . ."

"We have to eat," Gaius nodded, "so let's be practical."

In the event the food was not a problem. There was some quite strange meat, but it was by no means unpleasant. There were some interesting fruit, breads and other cooked items that were quite tasty. It was a subdued party that ate a quite strange meal that evening. They tried their entertainment screens, and spent some time changing from one program to another, but there was nothing on that they actually wished to look at. However when they finally decided to try to sleep, they found the beds were so comfortable they suddenly felt like royalty.

The next morning, when Gaius went to wash, he found a small object beside the basin, and a note from the Tin Man suggesting that he might prefer to use this to shave. He looked at it, then decided he had better find out how it worked. The Tin Man explained which part did the cutting, how he should turn it on, and where he should put it to let it recharge. He pressed the button, and was quite surprised when it started to vibrate slightly, but he went ahead, somewhat tentatively.

"It works!" he said in surprise, as he felt the part of his face he had shaved.

"Of course it works," the Tin Man said in the nearest Gaius had ever heard to a scathing tone. "A civilization that can build ships to travel across space at virtually the speed of light should be able to devise something to cut hair."

"I'm sorry," Gaius shook his head. "I didn't doubt you. I was just pleasantly surprised."

"Then I assure you," the Tin Man said, "if that gives you a pleasant surprise, there will be many more. Ulse cannot undo what is done, but it can give you access to a lot of devices that your technology could not even imagine, and before you get upset about that, that was a statement of fact. It has no intent to insult."

The Tin Man was correct. Even the simplest of tasks, such as sharpening a knife to cut meat was done so much more efficiently. They each found many of the simplest devices quite fascinating, and even fun to use. Vipsania in particular was enthralled by them, and she agreed completely with the Tin Man: she was not going to feel inferior because Romans had not devised these items. After all, in twenty million years you should have done something better than a nation that had existed for seven centuries.

Eventually, of course, the novelty began to wear off, and routine jobs began to feel, once again, like routine jobs, even if they were being done with equipment they could never have imagined. In fact, as Lucilla was to remark later, it was quite surprising how quickly cleaning with a sonicated wash/suck device felt just as much like work as cleaning with a brush. Except, of course, the job was done far better, and far far more quickly. After their first few weeks, they knew they could survive. The question was, could they live?

Chapter 7

Tempers were beginning to fray. The exit door was always closed and the Tin Man appeared to be deactivated. The Tin Man refused to respond to all requests and questions, but eventually Gaius stood in front of him and said that he knew the message was getting through, and it was most impolite to simply stand there. Nothing happened for about three minutes, during which time the Tin Man seemed to reactivate, then he informed them that they were not permitted to leave.

"We're prisoners, aren't we?" Lucilla demanded.

"Certainly not!" the Tin Man replied. "Isn't this the most luxurious place you have ever seen?"

"It is," Lucilla replied, "but we're still prisoners."

"You're honoured guests!" the Tin Man protested.

"The difference between a prisoner and a guest is that a guest can go out the front door at any time, and a prisoner cannot," Lucilla responded forcefully. "We cannot."

There was another long pause, and eventually Lucilla said in a very irritable tone, "At the least you could answer."

"Maybe he can't," Gaius said softly to her, as he tried to calm her down. "Maybe he is asking for instructions from somewhere else."

"That is correct," the Tin Man said. "However, I can assure you, you are not considered to be prisoners."

"Then let me go outside!" Lucilla persisted.

"You'd get lost," the Tin Man pointed out. "This is for your own good."

"No we wouldn't," Lucilla countered.

"In any case," Gaius pointed out, "you said before you can find us anywhere on Ulse, and we're hardly likely to be able to go anywhere off Ulse, are we?"

"I can't let you out yet," the Tin Man persisted.

"What exactly is the problem?" Vipsania asked.

"Eventually you'll be able to go to lots of places," the Tin Man said, "but right now, it only makes sense to let you go to where you can benefit."

"So let's try somewhere!" Lucilla argued. "Let's make a start."

"I'll get someone to discuss this with you," the Tin Man responded.

* * *

The somebody arrived three days later. An Ulsian dressed in a purple cover-all garment stood before the three irritable Terrans, and as the sleeves covered his hands, only his eyes were visible.

"You took your time," Lucilla had to point out.

"I came immediately," the Ulsian protested.

"Immediately after what?" Lucilla remarked caustically.

"Immediately after the meetings elected me as spokesman," the Ulsian replied.

"You mean," an exasperated Lucilla said, "that there was a meeting that took three days just to decide who should come and see us?"

"That was rather quick," the Ulsian nodded agreement.

"Quick?" Gaius almost exploded. "I suppose your military decisions are taken with similar speed?"

"Oh no," the Ulsian replied. "I assure you not. We do consider everything. They take years."

"Each?" Lucilla asked sarcastically.

"Oh yes," the Ulsian seemed to almost beam from behind the 'tent'.

"No wonder you're losing the war," Gaius muttered.

"What was that?" the Ulsian responded angrily.

"Nothing," Gaius muttered.

"It was indeed something!" the Ulsian snarled. "You're truly a barbarian! You want Ulsians to rush off and get killed. You're a . . ."

"I was suggesting that the Ulsian military had better get off its arse," Gaius said coldly, "and I never suggest that battles be bought with soldiers' lives."

"We should get off this topic," Vipsania said, as she pushed herself between the two of them. "What we want to know is, when are we going to be let outside?"

"When our meetings decide!" the Ulsian said angrily.

"And when'll that be?" Lucilla snorted.

"When we're ready!" came an even angrier reply. "These things have to be done properly, not like barbarians do them!"

"Of course," Gaius muttered sarcastically. "We've got to have the appropriate number of meetings."