In the Heart of Darkness

'We seamen call them `basket ships.' Corbita are freight haulers, general. They operate by sails alone, without rowers. They're slow under the best of circumstances, and they'll be even slower here in the Bosporus fighting against the northerly winds. But-they've got a big capacity. Each one can carry up to four hundred passengers, although I doubt they're holding more than three hundred apiece. They've got to haul the arms and equipment, also.'

'And the cataphracts' horses,' added Belisarius.

'That, too. But I'm pretty sure that the cataphracts themselves are being transported in the smaller ships. Aegidius has eight merchant galleys-akatoi-in that fleet. Just about right for a thousand cataphracts. Although-which is good for us-they're having to use their sails alone. They'll have no room for rowers on top of the cataphracts.'

Belisarius stared at the fleet. John fell silent, realizing that the general was coming to a decision.

'Right,' murmured Belisarius. He cocked an eye at the Rhodesman. 'The immediate priority is to stop the Army of Bithynia from reaching Constantinople. You're the naval officer, John. How would you do it-now that you have my galley as well as this ship?'

John frowned.

'You've got good rowers. But how fresh are they?'

Belisarius shrugged. 'Fresh enough, I should think. We came most of the way from Egypt on a sailing ship. Ashot had the galley waiting for us in Abydos, and we crossed the Sea of Marmara using our sails. We only unshipped the oars a few minutes ago.'

'Good. We can wreak havoc among those plodding corbita with a dromon. The real problem's the akatoi. Those merchants galleys are fast. And they're full of cataphracts.' He grimaced. 'I wouldn't want to face that kind of archery, even in an armored galley. Not when you have to get close enough to ram.'

'You won't have to,' said Belisarius. 'I'll take the akatoi with this ship, using the scorpions. You take the dromon and do as much damage as you can against the corbita.'

Seeing John's hesitation, Belisarius pressed on.

'There's no other way, John. I'm not a naval officer-you are. I wouldn't know what to do with a dromon. Whereas here-'

He waved at the scorpions.

'I do know how to use artillery. Quite well.'

Belisarius almost laughed, seeing the look of near anguish on the Rhodesman's face. John, he knew, wanted to finally try out his wonderful new artillery weapons.

John blew out his cheeks.

'You're right, damn it.'

He eyed Belisarius skeptically.

'I assume you don't know how to sail a ship, either?'

Belisarius answered with a smile.

The naval officer grunted. He gestured toward one of the sailors standing at the stern. The man trotted forward along the gangway.

'His name's Honorius. Let him command the ship. Just tell him what you want. You can concentrate on the scorpions.'

He turned to his assistant.

'Eusebius! Show the general how to handle the firebombs. He's going to command the artillery on this ship. I'm taking the dromon.'

John eyed Belisarius' cataphracts. By now, all of them had boarded the pamphylos.

Seeing the avarice in John's eyes, Belisarius chuckled.

'Leave me Valentinian,' he said. 'I'll want him to aim the other scorpion. You can take the rest.'

Less than a minute later, the dromon was pulling away from the ship and heading straight toward the enemy fleet. John was standing in the stern, giving orders to the steersman.

Belisarius did not watch for more than a few seconds. He had his own problem to face.

How best to use his little artillery ship against over two dozen opponents?

A thought came from Aide:

Cross the T.

Explain, commanded the general.

A series of images came to his mind. Scenes of naval battle, featuring ships pounding at each other with cannons. In each instance, the fleets attempted to sail their own ships directly across the coming line of the enemy, in order to bring their broadsides to bear on as many opponents as possible.

Belisarius scratched his chin, pondering. The scenes which Aide had shown him were not entirely relevant to his situation. His ship was armed with only two scorpions, located amidships, not a line of cannons running down the entire sides of the ship. 'Broadsides,' thus, were impossible.

Still-

The sailor whom John had named as his substitute was now standing next to Belisarius, waiting for orders. The general turned to Honorius, and began gesturing to illustrate his question.

'Can you row this ship at a right angle across the front of that approaching fleet?'

Honorius squinted at the enemy ships. Aegidius' armada was now well into the Bosporus, about a mile distant.

'Easily. They're letting the basket ships set the pace instead of the akatoi. Those corbita are slow to begin with. And if they're packed with cataphracts-and all their armor-they'll be a lot more sluggish than usual.'

He leaned over the wall of the fighting platform and began shouting orders to his crew. The ship began taking a new heading, but Belisarius did not bother to watch. His concentration was focussed on the scorpions.

John, he saw, had chosen his weapons well. The scorpions were that type of stone-throwing catapult which were called palintonos. The name was derived from the 'fold-back spring' design which allowed the two torsion arms to swing forward further than was possible in the more traditional 'straight-spring' euthytonos. The weapons were mounted on the same type of tripod base which Roman engineers used for cranes and hoists. The scorpions were then fitted onto a swivel attachment atop the tripod. The end result was a weapon which could be tilted up or down as well as swung sideways in a complete circle.

Romans did not manufacture their artillery engines to the same degree of standardization as would be common in future eras. But, from long experience, Belisarius recognized that the two scorpions were both in what was considered the '11-pound' class-that being the weight of stone shot each was capable of hurling. Using that weight of shot, they had an effective range of well over 400 yards.

'How heavy are your firebombs?' he asked Eusebius.

'A little over eight pounds. Not more than nine.'

Belisarius nodded.

'We should have a range of almost five hundred yards, then.'

Again, he examined the scorpions. The weapons were placed on either side of the wood-castle, far enough apart to allow the engines to be swiveled without the six-foot-long firing troughs impeding each other. Unfortunately, of course, there was no way that both of them could be used simultaneously to fire over the same side. As they-to use Aide's expression-'crossed the T,' one of the scorpions would be out of action completely.

For an idle moment, Belisarius pondered alternate ways of emplacing artillery on a ship. Almost immediately, another image came from Aide.

A steel ship, very sleek for all its gargantuan size, plowing through the sea. Cannons-three of them abreast-were mounted in a strange sort of enclosed swivel-

Turret.

— directly amidship. Two enclosed swivels-

Turrets.

— were mounted toward the bow, one toward the stern. Those cannons could be brought to bear in any direction. All nine could be employed in broadsides, to starboard or port. Six could also fire across the bow, and three across the stern.

'Oh, well,' muttered Belisarius. 'We'll have to make do with what we've got.'