The tide of victory

Antonina shook her head irritably. 'I could ask the same of you, Ousanas! This is a Roman ship, not an Axumite one.'

'I've gotten accustomed to watching out for you,' he replied, as he finished lighting the rest of the lanterns. He placed the igniter back in the cabinet and shrugged.

'But I told my officers to stay back on the docks. There's no good reason to risk them on this expedition.' He eyed the large, complicated-looking gadget which filled the center of the shelter. 'What they know about using Greek fire cannons would fill the world's smallest book.'

That comment drew Antonina's own eyes to the fire cannon. With the lanterns lit, the true nature of the 'bow shelter' was apparent. She was reminded, forcefully, that the shelter could more accurately be called a 'turret.' An unmoving one, true. But a turret nonetheless.

For the first time since the crisis started, she felt a trace of hesitation and unease. In truth, although she understood the basic workings of the device, Antonina had no real idea how to operate it under combat conditions. Under any conditions, actually.

At that moment, Eusebius came into the bow shelter. The relaxed and casual glance he gave the fire cannon reassured Antonina. However awkward Eusebius might still be in social situations, he was as adept an artificer and mechanic as any in the world.

'You'll have to operate the cannon,' she pronounced.

Eusebius' eyes widened. Who else? was the obvious thought behind that startled expression. Antonina found herself forcing down a giggle.

'Good,' she pronounced. 'That's settled. What do you want me and Ousanas to do?'

Eusebius looked back and forth from each to the other. 'You, I mostly just want to stay out of the way, Antonina. Except for telling me what you want done.' He eyed Ousanas' spear. 'Him, I'd just as soon keep around. Never know. The Victrix isn't designed for boarding operations. But-you never know.'

'We're not going to be doing any boarding, Eusebius. In fact, I want to stay as far away from that oncoming Malwa ship as possible. It's bound to be crammed with gunpowder and every incendiary device known to man.'

Eusebius nodded. He'd obviously figured that much out himself. 'You just want to torch it, and get as far away as possible before it blows. But the Malwa may have their own plans, and so I can't say I'm sorry to see Ousanas and that spear of his in the area. We only have a handful of marines to fend off any boarding attempt.'

He came forward, edging his way around Antonina-the fire cannon in the center made the turret a cramped place-and peered through the viewing slit. 'Can't see a damn thing. I've got the crew ready to start sending up flares. Probably ought to send up the first one very soon. We've got no idea how close that enemy ship has gotten by now.'

'Go ahead and fire it off, then. But not the green one; that's my signal to the battery,' said Antonina.

Eusebius worked his way past her again. Just as he reached the open space at the rear of the turret, leading to the deck beyond, a sudden thought came to Antonina.

'Eusebius! I'm puzzled by something. If we have flare rockets, why doesn't the battery guarding the harbor? I'd think they could handle bigger ones, in fact.'

Again, Eusebius' eyes widened. If anything, he seemed more startled than before. 'They could, actually. Much bigger ones. Big enough to reach several miles out to sea and light up the whole area enough for the battery to have a target even at night.'

He cleared his throat. 'As to why-? Well, the basic reason is that nobody ever thought of it.' He ducked his head and scuttled out of the turret.

Ousanas chuckled. 'War is too serious a business to leave in the hands of men, Antonina.'

'My thoughts exactly!' She turned back to the viewing slit and peered into the darkness. 'Mind you, they're handy to have around. When the crude muscular stuff actually happens.'

Chapter 16

A few minutes later, the first flare went off. Her face pressed against one of the viewing slits in the shield, Antonina scanned the dark sea looking for any sign of the approaching Malwa suicide ship.

She didn't have very long to spot anything. When the flare erupted, about three hundred feet above the sea, it cast a very satisfactory light over a large area. But the parachute failed to deploy, and the spent rocket plunged into the water after providing only a short moment of illumination.

'Damn the thing!' She turned her head and glared at Eusebius. 'What went wrong?'

Eusebius didn't seem greatly perturbed. 'What usually happens.' He straightened up from his own viewing slit and shrugged. 'Those flare rockets are pretty crude, Antonina. Not much more sophisticated, except for the venturi, than the simplest Malwa rockets. Well over half the time, the propellant fires too unevenly-or too hot, or both-and burns through the parachute rigging before the flare goes off.'

'Why don't we fix the problem?' she grumbled.

'Not worth it. That'd make for very expensive rockets. The way it is, we can carry plenty of them.' He turned his head and bellowed-shrilled, more precisely-an order for another flare to the seamen waiting at the rocket trough just behind the bow shield. They were obviously expecting the order, and the next flare went up seconds later.

'The trick,' said Eusebius softly, as he pressed his eyes back to the slit, 'is not to try to scan the whole area. I always assume the rocket is going to malfunction, so I always start by scanning the area just ahead. Then, for the next one, the area to my left. Then-'

He broke off. The second flare erupted-and, again, plunged almost immediately into the sea.

Antonina slapped the side of the shield in frustration. 'Couldn't see anything!'

Eusebius was already shrilling another order. Then, turned back again to the viewslit. 'Nothing in front of us or to the left. Now we'll see what it looks like to starboard.'

Antonina held her breath. Then, erupted in more cursing. Louder, this time. The parachute for the third flare had deployed satisfactorily. But the flare itself failed to ignite, and the only light shed was the faint glow of a still- smoldering rocket fuselage as it drifted gently down to the waves.

'Another!' shrilled Eusebius.

But that flare became almost a moot point. Just before Eusebius issued the command, Antonina suddenly saw the enemy vessel. It was well illuminated by the back flash of a rocket volley sent their way by the Malwa. Clearly enough, the three rockets sent up by the Romans had provided the enemy with a target.

'Stupid,' muttered Eusebius. 'They're still three hundred yards off. They should have waited.'

Antonina held her breath. But Eusebius' confidence proved justified. Five of the six rockets fired by the Malwa missed the Roman vessel by a good fifty-yard margin-one of them even exploding in midair almost as soon as it left the enemy ship. The Malwa too, clearly enough, were plagued with malfunctioning missiles.

The last missile caromed off the sea surface and skipped past the Victrix, missing the stern by not more than ten feet.

Antonina turned her head and saw Ousanas pressing himself into the entrance of the bow shield. There wasn't much room, with the three-man crew staffing the fire cannon. The Ethiopian aqabe tsentsen grinned at her.

'Getting hot now,' he said. 'Much cooler in here, behind these splendid shields.'

Ironically, the fourth Roman flare went off perfectly. Looking back through her viewslit, Antonina could see that the Malwa ship was now perfectly illuminated.

'You should get back now also, Antonina,' muttered Eusebius. His tone was half-apologetic, but firm for all that. 'There's really nothing more for you to do. Everything's clear enough from here on. They're struggling against the wind and the current, and we're sailing right for them. Everything works for us now. They have to use oars, which means they can't fire too many more broadsides without losing way completely. And pretty soon we'll be coming at them bow-on anyway. I doubt they'll be able to fire more than two rockets at a time.'

Reluctantly, Antonina backed away from the viewslit and began edging her way to the rear. Between the cramped space and her own voluptuous figure, getting past the two fire-cannon handlers on her side was a bit of a