The tide of victory

Again, Antonina felt herself floundering out of her depth. But she could tell from the expressions on the faces of the experienced naval men around her that they all understood and agreed with Eusebius' point.

'Difficult-at best-to convert a sailing ship to a galley,' muttered Ezana. 'Have to rebuilt her almost completely.'

'We could just transfer the fire cannon to an existing galley,' offered Eon. But the look on his face didn't evidence any great enthusiasm. 'True, you'd lose the advantage of height. Be a bit dangerous, that, in close quarters. Which'-his enthusiasm was fading fast-'is of course how the weapon can be used best.'

Ousanas started to say something, but Menander interrupted.

'Go the other way,' he said forcefully. He jerked a thumb toward the southern wall of the room, pointing to an invisible harbor. 'You all know the new steam-powered warship the old emperor designed arrived here three days ago. What you may not know is that the Justinian brought an extra steam engine with her, in case of major mechanical problems. But I can't really use the thing anyway. Can't possibly fit it in the Justinian as a spare engine. We could use it to refit the Victrix as a paddle wheeler.' He paused, looking at Eusebius. 'I think.'

As ever, having a technical problem posed immediately engrossed Eusebius. The naval officer was still an artisan at heart. He ran fingers through his hair, staring at the tile floor through thick spectacles.

'Could be done. Easier to make her a stern-wheeler, but a side-wheeler would have a lot of advantages in a river like the Indus. Slow and muddy as it is, bound to be hidden sandbars all over the place. With a side-wheeler you can sometimes walk your way over them. That's what Aide says, anyway.'

'Can't armor a side-wheeler,' countered Menander immediately. Although he was not exactly an artisan himself, the young cataphract had quickly picked up the new technological methods which Aide had introduced. He was comfortable in that mechanical world in a way in which older cataphracts were not.

Eusebius lifted his head, his eyes opening wide. 'Why are we messing with paddle wheels, anyway? The Justinian and her sister ship were designed for screws. It wouldn't be that much harder to redesign the Victrix for screw propulsion.'

Menander got a stubborn, mulish look on his face. Seeing it, Eusebius sighed. 'Forgot. You've only got one spare screw, don't you? And as many problems as the Justinian has already-typical prototype stuff-you don't want to find yourself stranded somewhere on the Indus without an extra propeller.'

By now, Antonina and the Ethiopians were completely lost. Seeing the blank expressions on their faces, Eusebius explained.

'You can't just slap together a propeller. Tricky damn things. In the letter he sent with the Justinian, the emperor-I mean, the Grand Justiciar-told us he had to fiddle for months-his artisans, I mean-until they got it right. No way we could make one here, without the facilities he's got at Adulis.'

Their faces were still blank. Menander sighed.

'You do know what a propeller is?'

Blank.

Menander and Eusebius looked at each other. Then, sighed as one man.

'Never mind, Antonina,' said Menander. 'Eusebius and I will take care of it. You just go and have yourself a nice ocean cruise.'

Chapter 22

Barbaricum

Autumn, 533 A.D.

The pilot in the bow of Belisarius' ship proved to be just as good as his boasts. Half an hour before dawn, just as he had promised, the heavily laden ship slid up onto the bank of the river. The bank, as could be expected from one of the many outlets of the Indus, was muddy. But even a landsman like Belisarius could tell, from the sudden, half-lurching way in which the ship came to a halt, that the ground was firm enough to bear the weight of men and horses.

For two weeks, once it had become clear that monsoon season was drawing to a close, Belisarius had been sending small parties to scout the Indus delta. Landing in small boats under cover of night, the scouts had probed the firmness of the ground along the many mouths of the river. Every year during the monsoon season, the great flow of the Indus deposited untold tons of silt in the delta. Until that new soil was dry enough, the project of landing thousands of men, horses and equipment was impossible.

'Nice to have accurate scouting,' said Maurice, standing next to the general.

'It'll still be a challenge, but the ground should be firm enough. Barely, but enough.'

Belisarius turned his head. In the faint light shed by a crescent moon, he could make out the shape of the next ship sliding alongside his own onto the bank. Other such ships, he knew, were coming to rest beyond that one-and many more still along two other nearby outlets of the river. Over the course of the next three days, Belisarius intended to land a large part of his entire army. Thirty thousand men, in all. Aide claimed it was the largest amphibious assault in all of human history to that day.

The general's eyes now moved to the bustling activity on his own ship. Already, the first combat engineers-a new military specialty which Belisarius had created over the past year-were clambering over the side of the ship. Those men were completely unarmored and bore no weapons of any kind beyond knives. Their task, for the moment at least, was not to fight. Their task was to make it possible for others to do so.

No sooner had the first engineers alit on the bank than others began handing them reed mats. Moving quickly, the engineers began laying the mats over the soft soil, creating a narrow pathway away from the still-soggy ground immediately by the riverbed.

'They're moving faster than I expected,' grunted Maurice. 'With as little training and preparation as we'd been able to give them. '

Belisarius chuckled. Maurice was still a bit disgruntled over the change of plans which had been made the past summer, after the sabotage attempt at Charax.

He's just grumbling, grumbled Aide. That man is never satisfied. How much training does it take to lay down some simple reed mats, anyway?

It's not all that simple, replied Belisarius. Moving in the dark, in unfamiliar territory, with the fear of enemy attack in the back of their minds-and them with neither weapons nor armor? Not to mention that probably half of them are still seasick.

He glanced at the sky. Still no sign of dawn, but the moon gave out just enough light to see that the sky was cloudless.

Pray this clear weather holds up, he continued. The three days we spent at sea waiting for it took a toll on most of the men. They're not sailors, you know.

Aide accepted the implied reproof without protest. For all that the crystal being had come to understand the nature of what he called his 'protoplasmic brethren,' Aide knew he was still prone to overlook the crude facts of protoplasmic existence. On the other hand. he couldn't have laid down those simple mats at all.

There was a new clattering noise. The Arab scouts were bringing their mounts out of the hold and beginning to walk them off the gangplank onto the reed-matted soil of the river. The horses had suffered from rough weather at sea at least as much as the men. But they were so eager to get their feet on terra firma that they made no effort to fight their handlers. The biggest problem the Arab scouts faced, in fact, was keeping the beasts from stampeding madly off the deck of the ship.

Abbu rolled over to Belisarius. The old Arab scout leader was practically swaggering.

'One day, General, no more.' Abbu's pronouncement came with the certainty of a prophet. 'One day from now, all opposition will be cleared to the walls of Barbaricum.'

The old man's cheerful assurance transformed instantly into doom and gloom. He and Maurice exchanged a mutually satisfactory glower. Two natural-born pessimists agreeing on the sorry state of the universe.