The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 30

Ky’s guards said nothing as they accompanied him the rest of the way to his quarters or as they stood watch outside his room. Had Ky not been so distracted himself, he might have noticed the looks that passed between them or realized how public the display had been, but he was preoccupied with thoughts of Lucilla for the rest of the night.

While he’d thought well of Sara and had even hoped for some kind of pairing with her, thoughts of her had never distracted him from his duty. Worse, he didn’t even consider not thinking about Lucilla, standing by the window, staring into the night lit up by his optical enhancements, watching the city sleep.

He was still standing there when daylight came, his thoughts a jumble, when a chime sounded in his ear. The sound was alien enough after so long not hearing any communication in his head aside from the AI and his own thoughts, that it pulled him completely out of his ruminations of their kiss the night before.

“Yes, Lucilla?” Ky asked.

Considering she was the only person on the planet able to send him a comm signal, he had no doubt who was contacting him.

“This is strange,” her voice came to him. “Your voice is echoing in my mind and yet there’s no one in the room. I know you’ll only tell me it’s no different than a wagon wheel, but it’s hard to hear your voice float to me from so far away and not see it as magic.”

“I know, but I think you’ll be surprised by how quickly you adapt to it and see it as normal. What can I do for you this morning?”

“I am about to leave and meet the guards Father assigned me for the trip, but I wanted to make sure this worked before I did. It isn’t that I didn’t believe you, it’s just …”

“It’s hard to believe until you start using it. It’s completely understandable. Now that you’ve used it and confirmed it works, it should not be a problem to contact me any time you want to, no matter how far away you are. Although it’s best you do it in privacy where others can’t hear you, since to them you’ll be just speaking into the air. If you think it’s hard for you to believe using it, imagine how difficult someone you tried to explain the comms unit to would find it.”

“Yes, I could definitely guess where that would end. I am speaking in barely a whisper and you can hear me though.”

“Unfortunately, that’s as good as it can be with the unit you have. The unit built into my skull allows me to speak without anyone around me hearing it, much like you hear your own thoughts. If only you had your own built-in unit, we could talk whenever we wanted without considering others.”

“The very thought of having a machine sewn into my head is terrifying.”

“Only because it seems so foreign to you. In my home, that type of surgery is normal. I was able to live normally a few hours after the surgery.”

That was true as far as it went, although Ky left out the part where he’d spent months learning to walk again.

“The servants should return any moment to help me finish preparing for my journey, so I should say goodbye.”

“Be careful,” Ky said.

“It will be fine. I’ll see you when I return. Umm … how do I end this?”

“Tap it again with your finger, just like you did to activate it.”

“Very well. Bye,” she said again before the connection ended.

“Sellic,” Ky called out.

The door opened a moment later as his lictore entered.

“Who can I talk to about the guards going north with Lucilla? I’d like to make some quiet inquiries, but I don’t want to make anyone nervous or think I’m looking over their shoulder.”

“I know their commander a bit, but Ursinus served with him for several years before transferring to her guard detail. He’d be the best person to talk to.”

“Can you have him meet me at the palace?”

“I’ll send a man now,” Sellic said, slapping a salute and leaving.

Ky didn’t rush out right away, since it would take time. Since he was going to the palace anyway, he jotted down a few more notes that he’d meant to do the night before, but had ignored them while he stared out the window.

By the time he arrived at the palace, he found Ursinus waiting for him. Ky knew it hadn’t been a big inconvenience, since the new legate was still getting together the command staff for the reconstituted fifth legion. Their current plan was for the men transferring to that legion would report in two days to a campground currently being set up.

“I’m sorry to bother you, I know you’re busy,” Ky said, grasping forearms with the man.

“It’s never a bother to assist you, Consul. Pluto knows I wouldn’t be alive, let alone have my own legion now if it wasn’t for you, and considering how we first met.”

“I have a question about the men detailed to protect Lucilla on her journey north, now that most of those who accompanied us here have been reassigned.”

“They’re good men,” Ursinus said, reading between the lines of Ky’s question. “They’ll protect her with their lives.”

“I’d prefer if it didn’t come to that. If they die protecting her, then she will also die. I’d prefer they all lived.”

“I understand Consul, and I’m sure they would prefer the same. Until Rome returns to its glory, however, travel anywhere out of Devnum is dangerous, especially with the Carthaginians pressing us like they have been. She has a full complement of seasoned men and she will be within a few miles of the wall and the Legion still stationed there.”

“… who are so spread out they couldn’t muster more than a handful of men to come to her aid if it’s needed.”

“That is true. If you are that worried, perhaps you should talk to the Emperor. I protected her long enough to know neither of you could convince her not to do something she’d set her mind on, but if the Emperor forbids her journey, she’ll be forced to stay here. She’s stubborn, but she wouldn’t ignore a direct command from her father.”

“And I’d then have to face her wrath, since she’d know I’d be the one behind it. No, I can’t do that, especially since she’ll be moving away from the Carthaginians with enough men to protect her from normal bandits. I’m sure she’d tell me she’s after going north, but that she’d be here if the Carthaginians decide to move against us before winter ends.”

“That does sound like her.”

“Well, thanks. It’s good to hear her guards are the best she could get at least, aside from you and Sellic, of course. I’ll have to take that as comfort for now.”

“As you say, Consul.”

“All right, I’m sure you’re busy and we have a council of war with the other commanders in a few hours that we both must prepare for.”

Ursinus slapped a salute and went deeper into the palace while Ky turned and returned to his rooms to prepare.

This would be the first full council of war since just before the battle of Devnum and, despite their anger and skepticism, the Emperor had commanded that both Eborius and Pius attend. They might be angry at everything that had happened but ignoring such a command would either end in their dismissal from service or their rising up in open civil war, something Ky didn’t think either man was ready for.

Now that they’d begun training new recruits, including freed prisoners and slaves, they were finally ready to begin preliminary preparations for how they were going to deal with the coming Carthaginian attack.

Ky was one of the last ones to arrive, again. He wasn’t purposefully making everyone wait, although the look Pius gave him suggested the legate didn’t believe that. There were a lot of details that needed to go into their planning. If it had been in his time, Ky would have just uploaded everything to the other commanders, but the need to write everything down and send it to clerks to copy and reproduce took time.

“It seems I keep having to apologize for being late,” Ky said as he and Strabo, who’d relieved Sellic by this point, handed out the documents he’d had produced.

“Consider it forgiven. We understand how much you have to deal with and prepare, Consul,” the Emperor said before turning to the assembled men. “Now that we’ve finally got the forces we’ll have available, it’s time we decide on our battle plan when the Carthaginians attack.”

“As much as I admired Globulus and his record of success,” Eborius said. “I believe he showed us that assaulting the Carthaginians would be foolhardy. The Consul proved to us that standing on the defensive and letting the Carthaginians come to us is the only chance we have at survival. Our forces will be a lot stronger than they were in the last battle, even considering the new inferior elements added to it.”

Ky had to wonder if Eborius had ever managed to charm anyone in his life. His ploy of praising Ky was immediately undercut by the last statement, not that Ky actually believed Eborius thought anything Ky had done was positive. Ky did find it interesting that he was pushing for a defensive posture. Looking over the man’s record, Ky would have predicted that he would have opted for the same strategy as Globulus, a head-on assault on the Carthaginians. Ky thought he might actually be impressed, if it wasn’t the wrong strategy.

“I’m afraid I don’t agree,” Ky said, interrupting Pius, who was probably going to support Eborius’s plan. “While that was the right strategy at the time, considering how close the Carthaginians were to Devnum when we deployed, here it would end in disaster. Remember that, even with the surprise rear attack and near encirclement we managed, they still devastated decimated our forces. True, we will have a lot larger command now than we had then, but so will the Carthaginians. I’m sure you’ve seen Ramirez’s reports that suggest the force discrepancy will be worse for us than during the battle of Devnum, despite our larger forces.”

“Ramirez missed the last Carthaginian army until after they’d almost captured the Emperor’s daughter and were on our very doorsteps. I find little in his report credible. I’m sure their force will be larger, but I believe the force difference will be less, not more, and if properly set up, they will be at a greater disadvantage attacking us head-on. We’ll have your new weapons after all.”

Again with the weak attempt at flattery, although at least it wasn’t followed by a direct insult this time. Given the man’s arrogance and supreme confidence in himself, Ky doubted he’d even looked at the reports from Ramirez’s spies.

“They will help, but they will not be enough to counter the Carthaginians.”

“So are you suggesting we attack the Carthaginians?” Pius asked angrily. “If their forces are so much larger, they’ll crush any attack easily.”

“True, but I am not suggesting that either. In front of Devnum, we’ll have little to no room to maneuver, which will be the only thing that will help us survive the coming battle. We need to fight them away from the town, somewhere where we can draw them into a trap. While they might outnumber us, I believe if we play our advantages well, we can truly surround them and draw them into an actual encirclement.”

“Why is every commander’s plan to try and recreate Cannae?” Eborius said. “How many times has that been attempted, and how many times has it failed.”

“We would have achieved that at the battle of Devnum, if we had enough men. We have the same tools to repeat and even surpass our last attempt, although we’ll need the right terrain to pull it off. It will require courage and sacrifice from the holding force, but we …”

“Emperor, I thought this was a council of war. If our new Consul’s only strategic thinking is to repeat Cannae, we have truly lost.”

“Have you looked at this?” Velius asked, holding up one of the documents Ky had handed out. “The terrain the Consul has found makes it possible, as long as we get the bulk of their forces engaged in this area between these two lakes. If the bait is large enough …”

“Tricks. Ploys. Gambits. How many times have legates in the past tried to trick the Carthaginians in battle only to have the sheer numbers overwhelm them,” Eborius said. “They were so focused on being clever that they forgot how to lead men. The Roman legionary is the greatest fighter in the world … or he was before you let this man dilute our forces with inferior men. Emperor, give me three legions of true Romans and I will stand before any horde the Carthaginians throw at us and I will defeat them.”

“Have you spent much time reading the records of past losses?” Ky said.

“I know our military history better than any outsider.”-

“I’m glad to hear that. Then you know about Cnaeus Consentius Decianus? Aulus Horatius Flavinus? Vel Vergilius Brutus?”

“I recognize the names but …”

“They were all Legate Primus in charge of Roman legions facing down Carthaginian hordes. Each claimed their soldiers were worth ten, thirty, a hundred foreign invaders and they would stand before the hordes and crush them once and for all. Decianus lost half of Rome’s legions in the plains of Italy, forcing the Emperor to abandon Rome. Flavinus lead an ill-advised assault to bring the fight to the Carthaginians, losing fifteen legions. Brutus you must remember, as he was the man who lost Londinium. All fought a stand-up fight against the Carthaginians and all lost, leading to the remaining Romans living huddled on this island between barbarians and Carthaginians.

“Do you know who diduse tricks, ploys, and gambits? Cornelius Lucius Sulla who maneuvered the Carthaginian forces across the plains of Hispania, buying time for your ancestors to escape the continent for their new home. He had almost thirty legions, more than half of every able-bodied Roman facing a horde that turned the landscape black with their tight-packed masses, and he killed so many that it took a generation before the Carthaginians could mount an offensive again. Nearly every one of those men died in the end, but they really did take a dozen men for every one of them, and they did it by only fighting when they were in a tactical advantage.”

“Everyone knows of Sulla’s greatness, but there are some who think …”

“They are fools,” The Emperor said. “I have read the histories that Ky is describing to you and if anything, he is underplaying how crafty Sulla was. He was a once-in-a-generation commander who understood generalship wasn’t about measuring his testicles against those of the opposing commander.”

“I would give my life for Rome!” Eborius said, his face turned a beet red. “You are no longer Romans. I don’t know if this is some kind of spell he’s put you under or just cowardice, but I weep for our loss. I am returning to my legion and can only hope someone with sense keeps Rome from falling to ashes.”

Eborius, Pius, and their lieutenants stormed from the room. Several of the remaining legates stood to stop them until the Emperor gestured for them to return to their seats.

“Emperor, I mean no disrespect,” Auspex said. “But you cannot let them leave. They have disobeyed your direct command and declared themselves against you. It could lead to rebellion, which we can ill-afford right now.”

“I share your concerns, but they were already set to disobey my word and not come to this conference at all. While I managed to convince them to join us in hopes we could talk sense into them, they left safeguards behind. Thanks to men Ramirez has in their ranks, we know their men have orders to assault the city if they do not return. I would prefer the possibility of rebellion over its certainty. They understand they would lose the populace and are under-manned which means they could not prevail. I believe for now they will hold their positions, looking for a way out of the corner their anger has painted them in. For now, we negotiate.”

“And if they won’t?” Ky asked.

“Then it’s civil war and, regardless of who wins, the end of Rome. Now Consul, please share the details of your plan with us.”

“There’s been a shift that I think the Consul will need to take into his plans?”

“Yes?”

“I just received a report that there have been new incursions by the Picts on the northern border. Vibius sent a request along with the reports for more men, as he is stretched too thin to stop all of the raids.”

“Unless Eborius or Pius agree to return north, we don’t have the men. We have had to create two legions worth of men out of thin air. Every legionnaire, except for those under Eborius and Pius, has essentially become a trainer for new legionnaires as we bring in all of the new recruits, slaves, and prisoners. Even if we wanted to send one of the other legions, which we can’t afford to if we have to make the Consul’s plan work without the first or second legions. We are stretched too thin to make any difference for him.”

“I am aware, but it means shipments from the northern mines will come under attack more often, decreasing the supplies we need for new weapons. The changes the Consul gave the mine owners looks like it will increase production, but that won’t matter if we lose most of it to raiders.”

“What do you recommend?” The Emperor asked.

“What about Lucilla?” Ky said, cutting Ramirez off. “She’s headed north. She might have enough men to handle the standard brigands, but can she hold off a Pict raiding party?”

“No,” Ursinus said.

“Emperor, I will go north, intercept her and send her home and then continue on to join the third legion. I can help them get the north under control while our forces continue to train. All that remains now is managing the production of the new equipment, which Hortensius can do, and training the new soldiers, which the legates are better equipped to do than I am, I don’t have much to do here anyway. While I have other ideas of how Rome might improve itself, none of them are achievable before the Carthaginians get here.”

“That isn’t a bad idea,” Ramirez said. “The Consul will offer more than the small number of soldiers we might send north, and he speaks with your word, so if he does see a solution, he won’t have to wait for word to return here and a response to travel back before acting.”

Ky looked at the Emperor, but didn’t say anything to counter Ramirez’s statement.

“Commander, is it wise to stay silent? All models suggest you are unlikely to change the situation in the north and only expose yourself to unnecessary dangers. Optimum use of resources would be to remain here and ensure the forces available are prepared to execute your plan against the Carthaginians.”

“I know, and I don’t care. Someone needs to reach Lucilla and convince her to return to Devnum before she gets too far north.”

“The Emperor could dispatch a courier that would reach her as quickly as you could. Wouldn’t that suffice?”

“She’s stubborn. Even if I sent along my own letter, she’d say no.”

“You could speak to her over the comms.”

“True, but she might ignore me, too. If I was there, I could order her guard commander to turn around and bring her back. She’s the Emperors’ daughter and a force to be reckoned with when she wants to be. I’m not confident she won’t talk him into continuing, despite any written orders.”

“Commander, your reasoning is flawed. There are multiple paths to convince her to return to safety. Your leaving …”

“I don’t care. I’m going to bring her back even if I have to pick her up and carry her home. Now shut up or I’ll dig you out with a spoon and solve our problems once and for all.”

“Consul?” The Emperor said.

Ky saw everyone staring at him. Ky realized he’d said the last part out loud.

“I’m sorry. That wasn’t directed at any of you.”

The Emperor looked back and forth to his advisors, obviously concerned that the man he had leading the defenses of Rome had gone insane. Strabo, who’d been with him when his motor assist failed, looked concerned for another reason. They’d already seen hints of something wrong with their commander, and would have read this outburst as an evolution of that breakdown.

“I was having an argument with myself, since part of me wants to head north. I’m also concerned there might be issues here that will need my attention.”

While no one seemed to believe that explanation, it was enough, apparently, to let them move on and pretend Ky’s weird outburst was just an internal argument. Which it was, just not in a way they’d understand.

“While I think Ramirez is correct that all of the training left to do can be handled by the legates, I want you to delay for a few days. While I think Eborius and Pius will sit still for the moment, there is a chance I’m wrong and their allies in the senate will convince them that now is the time to make their move and bring back the republic. If that happens, I will need you here. If they don’t move right away, then I believe we have enough time for you to travel north.”

“What about your daughter,” Ky asked.

“I will send a rider for her now. I’m certain she’ll ignore it, but I will also send one to Auspex directing him to send her back to Devnum straight away. She might be able to convince her guards to keep going, but Auspex hasn’t dealt with her before and will not be under her charms yet. She’ll most likely be traveling slowly, since she’s stopping at the oracle, by the time she starts arguing with the legate you will have had time to ride north and catch up to her.”

“Emperor, I …”

“Ky, I appreciate your concern, but I need you here for a few more days.”

The Emperor’s words were friendly, but his tone made it clear he didn’t plan on arguing the point any further. Something inside Ky pushed him to still go after her, but Ky knew that would cost him all of the goodwill he’d built with the Romans to this point and possibly even prompt Eborius and Pius into something rash.

“As you say, Emperor,” Ky said, unhappily.

The council returned to the topic at hand as Ky walked the legates through his plan and got input. While he’d formulated this play using records from hundreds of years’ worth of battles and using the AI to play out a variety of scenarios trying to eliminate possible surprises, these men had been fighting these kinds of battles all of their adult lives. They had practical field experience for maneuvering and fighting a Roman army that Ky lacked, and their input improved his plan, pointing out places where practice and theory often diverged.

By the time they finished, they had a solid plan of battle. The Emperor had made them stay late into the day to work up an alternate version of the plan that did not include the first or second legions, which was made everything more complicated, but was a real possibility they all knew they might face.

The biggest issue was that, once they’d have less holding forces available before the trap was sprung, since the second force that was supposed to close behind the Carthaginians and box them in were already as thin as they could get and still complete the encircle meant, even with the help from the terrain. Ultimately, that meant the holding force would be completely mangled by the time the trap was sprung and a whole lot of Romans would die.

As soon as Ky returned to his rooms, he pinged Lucilla’s communicator three times. He’d instructed her on what the chime she would hear meant, and they’d worked out a code for how to know if a request to talk was urgent or not. One ping was, ‘this isn’t urgent, please get to me when you can,’ two pings meant, ‘I need to talk to you soon,’ and three pings was, ‘this is an emergency, drop what you’re doing and contact me.’

Ky paced up and down his room like a caged animal while he waited for her to respond. His internal chronometer told him it had been less than ten minutes, but it still felt like an eternity to Ky, who worried every minute meant she would reach the area being raided that much sooner.

Finally, he heard her connect.

“Couldn’t stand one day without me,” she said in a jovial tone.

“Lucilla, this is serious. You need to turn around and come back.”

“What happened?” she asked, suddenly getting serious.

“Picts have begun raiding in large parties across the border, killing, pillaging, and taking slaves. Your guard force is not large enough to handle them and the oracle you are going to is directly in the area they are raiding. You are in danger.”

“Ohh, I thought maybe something had happened to my father. You worry too much, Ky. I’ll be fine. I will plan on being here for a few days. If it makes you feel any better I’ll skip visiting the third legion and return as soon as I’m done at the oracle.”

“That will be too late. Seriously, you need to turn around now. Your father is sending you a letter requesting your return right now. I really think it’d be a good idea to listen to him.”

“We’ll be fine. I’ll make sure as soon as my father’s letter arrives the commander increases security and keeps us as safe as possible. Even if they are raiding across the border, the oracle’s shrine is still a good ways from it. The Picts have never raided that far before.”

“And the Carthaginians haven’t attacked Devnum in decades, and yet you almost died on your way home.”

“That’s not the same thing and you know it. The Picts are just raiding for profit and the Carthaginians have been trying to kill us for centuries. It’s completely different.”

“Commander, perhaps …”

“What was that?” she asked, in a combination of shock and fear.

Ky mentally chided himself. He knew that the AI would translate through the communicator, because the same mechanism he used to speak to her was used to speak to and hear the AI. It was so commonplace that he hadn’t even considered it, but this would be more than just a new experience for her.

For starters, she wouldn’t have been expecting to hear any other voices, since she only knew the comms as a one-to-one communication with Ky on the other end, while Ky was used to comms being filled by chatter from other pilots, sometimes their AIs, and squadron command. It was possible for him to cut the AI out of the loop, as far as her hearing it, but he hadn’t even thought to do it.

The other, and possibly bigger problem, was that this was the first time she would have ever heard an artificial voice. While the designers did a good job giving the AIs a personality and human-like sound, it still didn’t sound quite human to Ky’s ear. To Lucilla, who would have never heard any digitized voice, it must have sounded like a demon.

“Hold all communications,” Ky commanded before softening his voice. “Lucilla, don’t be afraid. That is … this is going to take some explanation.”

“Was that the gods?” she asked, awe still in her voice.

“No. I told you, I’m just a man from a place with more advanced technology, and wasn’t sent by the gods.”

“I know you said that, but this is different. This isn’t a new weapon or tool, this is another voice that is real and not real all at once.”

“I know and this is going to be difficult to explain, but please bear with me while I try.”

There was a long pause before she said, “Alright.”

“In my time we can make machines capable of doing things for us. They think, after a fashion, although not in the same way we do, and help us complete tasks. This one is part of the machines they placed in my head, and it helped me operate other extremely complex machinery. It communicates with me and I with it in the same way I’m communicating with you now.”

“You have a machine in your head that can talk to you?”

“Yes, but it’s not a person. It … it’s hard to explain. It is as smart as we are, but doesn’t have the same emotional thinking as we do, although it’s beginning to gain that.”

“You said it’s.”

“Yes. It’s not a person, like I said.”

“It doesn’t have a name?”

“No. Like I said, it’s not a person. It’s a computer, which just means a machine that computes. That does math and other things like that very quickly.”

“Can I … talk to it?”

“All hold commands canceled,” Ky said.

“Hello?” Lucilla said tentatively.

Ky wasn’t entirely sure that would work, since by design the AI was only supposed to respond to direct queries. He wasn’t surprised, however, when the AI, which would have certainly been aware of their conversation and probably didn’t have to hold communication had it not wanted to, despite the command that Ky gave.

“Hello, Lucilla,” It responded.

“I’m not sure how to refer to you.”

“I am a neural interfaced tactical combat system,” the AI said.

It occurred to Ky that it was speaking in Latin to her, despite speaking Earth standard with him. Of course, most of what it said still came out in Earth standard, since Latin either didn’t have the needed words, or the context of those words had changed so much from ancient Latin as to be meaningless.”

“I don’t understand some of those words.”

“It was describing its designation, much as you might call a cart with wheels a wagon or a seat on the back of a horse a saddle.”

“How do you refer to it when you ask it a question.”

“I just ask the question, since it knows when I am talking to it or to someone else.”

“Ohh. Can … can you still hear me?”

“Yes, Lucilla.”

“What can I call you, since what you said doesn’t mean anything to me?”

“I cannot answer that.”

“Maybe you could give it a name,” Ky suggested.

“I couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right, telling something what it should be called, especially when it is its own thing.”

Ky considered how to answer that when the AI surprised him, but responding for itself.

“Your naming me would be acceptable.”

There was a long pause while she thought before finally saying, “You could be Sophus.”

“A sage or wise man. While I have advanced computing faculties, wisdom is a trait that I do not have, as it refers to having experience, which I do not have.”

“Doesn’t it also mean having knowledge and good judgment in addition to just experience?” Ky said.

“That is correct, but my database suggests colloquial use of the term combines all three traits.”

“A name isn’t just a description of what you are,” Lucilla said. “It’s what you could be. Parents don’t know if their child will be conqueror or mighty or shine like the stars, but they give them names as a prayer to the gods for their child.”

“Then I accept your name, thank you.”

Even though the AI had been using the singular in their interactions, everything else had been more or less the same, letting Ky think of the AI as he’d always thinking about it. It was eye-opening, hearing it interact with Lucilla, sounding almost human.

“I …” Lucilla started and then paused, before continuing in a soft whisper. “The commander needs to talk to me. I have to go.”

She disconnected. Ky kicked himself for letting the conversation go off the rails, since they’d finished without her agreeing to return home. It seemed unlikely that he’d have any luck in the future, but he’d try again later, until he was able to leave and go after her or she decided to come back on her own.