The Wings of Mercury
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 15
Devnum
“Do you have a minute?” Lucilla asked, standing in the doorway of Ramirus’s small, cluttered office.
“Empress!” Ramirus said, standing up quickly, knocking several papers to the floor.
She should have warned him she was coming, to keep from giving him a shock. Even though his office was situated very close to her own private study, so that he was on hand in case she needed him, she could count on one hand the number of times she’d visited him here, instead of him visiting her. And all of those times had been before she’d become Empress.
For this, though, she wanted to be the one to come to him, since she was planning on asking him for something she knew he would not want to give.
“I was reading over your reports from Anatolia,” she said as a prelude.
“Yes. Unfortunate their colonies fell so quickly. I know I predicted this outcome, what with how little support their city-states have to give them militarily, but I’d hoped they would last a little longer. The easterners’ southern army should be across the Dardanelles and marching into Greece proper by week’s end. I do not hold out a lot of hope for the actual city-states themselves to hold out against the enemy when they reach them either. Even if we started selling simple cannon to them, they won’t be able to survive the attack.”
“I know, and it worries me. I know you said you think they will march into Italia in an effort to cut us off from the Middle Sea, but I think their plan is to turn north once they break through Greece and attack Ky’s forces from behind, putting him in a vice between their two forces and isolating him. Should they do that, we will be finished.”
“Possibly, although if they get close, the Consul could always retreat and prepare to face the combined armies head-on, at least to keep from being surrounded.”
“Which is almost as bad.”
“We should, hopefully, have the Italians with us by then. They won’t be able to go through much training, but they did not give up a lot of manpower during the war with Carthage, at least, not compared to Hispania and Germania, and their leaders have indicated a high interest among their population in joining the fight. If the enemy gets through Greece and puts Italia under threat, they will be even more likely to sign up. I think we might be able to assemble a large enough force to counter them out of Italia alone, although it will strip the country dangerously bare and will be the only large mobilization we’ll be able to manage from there.”
“But like you said, that takes time, which is why what we really need is to get the Greeks themselves to cooperate, instead of offering themselves up as victims to the easterners. We need them to hold the line to give the Italians time to mobilize and train properly.”
“Even with advisors and our arms, I’m not sure they will be able to hold out against the eastern armies alone. Unless they get over their infighting and work together, one city-state, no matter how well armed, is not going to stand up to a fully rifle-armed army.”
“I know, but I don’t see what other choice we have. Besides, there’s also the worse possibility that some of the city-states will see themselves with a better chance of survival by joining the easterners instead of fighting them, giving the easterners a secure base to fight from.”
“A distinct possibility, and one I’m not even sure our presence will be able to prevent. But I think you’re correct, and there are very few options left open to us. It’s worth a try.”
“I’m very glad you think so because I want you to lead the mission to Greece,” Lucilla said.
She kept her tone even and confident, but inside she was nervous. She knew what the response to this request was going to be, and she did not relish it.
To say he was surprised was an understatement.
“Your Majesty, I ... I can’t. I’m too old for that. My place is here, advising you, not traipsing across Greece.”
“And there’s nowhere I would rather you be, if I had a choice. Unfortunately, I do not. You yourself just said how fraught this mission is going to be; how difficult it will be to convince any of the city-states to not only join our cause in defense, but work with the neighbors they’ve spent generations hating. It will take someone with experience and a deft hand to even give us a slight chance of success. Every person we have who is experienced in this kind of high-level diplomacy is already in the field. You are quite literally the only person left in my government who fits those qualifications.”
“I appreciate your assessment of my abilities, Empress, but even if I wanted to go, I’m not in the physical condition for such a journey. You know that.”
“I know it will be difficult. Llassar said much the same thing to me when I asked him to handle Sardinia. But, like with him, I need you, Ramirus. This is not only critical to the fate of the alliance, but to our very Empire. I don’t expect you to do this alone. I am going to send Gaius with you as an aide. Besides being trained by Faenius, he’s young, strong, and eager to learn. He’ll handle much of the physical work, leaving you to deal only with the negotiations. He will make the task bearable for you while having a chance to gain experience in diplomacy. The fact that we have run out of anyone with experience in this type of negotiation makes it clear we have not put enough emphasis on this. We are no longer a small Empire on a small island. The number of independent political bodies grows yearly, and we need to have relations with them, which means training our next batch of new diplomats. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have teaching these young men than you.”
“What about if the Greeks agree? I agree Gaius is a good lad, but he is not a military man. They will need to immediately begin training in our tactics, and they will have almost no time to learn them. If we had Llassar or even Cormac, or if one of the legates was not in the field and able to handle that end of the burden, it might give us a chance. Neither I nor Gaius, however, have the training to teach the Greeks what they need to know about fighting.”
“I’m aware, which is why I was planning on sending Modius with you. He’s been working closely with the legions, learning the new tactics we’ve been developing to deal with these easterners while protecting ... well, me. But his starting point was our current tactics. Since it seems the easterners have adopted our own strategies, he has been learning everything about how our legions fight. While not ideal, he’s been in service for decades and is our best option, with all of our legates in the field. He’ll also lead the security detachment of praetorians we send with you, although Gaius is able to do that as well. With the two of them, however, you should be able to delegate those tasks you do not feel prepared to handle yourself and focus on those you do.”
“Have you told Modius of his new assignment?” Ramirus asked skeptically.
“Not yet, but leave him to me. He won’t be happy, but he’ll understand the reason. Besides, it’s not like I leave the palace complex very much these days anyway, where I have dozens of guards at any one time.”
Ramirus made a non-committal noise, clearly not believing what the Empress was selling.
“Please say yes,” she said, using the voice she used as a young girl, trying to convince him to back whatever argument she wanted to make to her father. “I need your help.”
Ramirus sighed heavily. “You know there’s nothing I could deny you. Yes. Fine. I’ll go.”
“Thank you, old friend,” she said, taking his hand in hers.
He patted her hand gently. She tried to hide the sadness the moment caused her. She knew this was necessary, for the war and the future of the Empire, but she had yet to acknowledge, even to herself, how difficult it was going to be without her old friend at her side.
“Good morning, my friend,” Hortensius said, walking into the small dockside building Lucan used as his office.
It was very different from how both Hortensius himself and Sorantius kept their own working spaces, which they’d all but overfilled with remnants of every project they had completed, were currently working on, and even ones that were just ideas. Lucan, by contrast, had no paperwork or anything else that would indicate there was any project currently in the works aside from the dozen caravels currently under construction and the rectangular box floating in the harbor.
That box, however, was the reason Hortensius was here. It might have seemed innocuous and even strange to uninformed observers, but it was the test platform for the new ship-based boiler and high-pressure conduit system that would be the center of the new river boats. Essentially, the size of the boiler on a train, but with limitations the train didn’t have, the biggest of which was protecting the boiler.
Boilers were susceptible to exploding when punctured and these ships were being designed to go into combat, where they would be shot at by rifle and cannon. Something trains, in general, were not expected to handle and so had no serious protection against. The biggest problems they’d faced, so far, were how far they had to go in protecting the boiler, the weight for the ship as far as armor went, since every stone meant the vessel was a deeper draft, and dealing with exhaust on the boiler, which would be a natural weak point for any protection they set up.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lucan said, frustration clear on his face as he looked at the diagrams nailed up on the wall of the office. “We’re still having problems with pressure drops and the build-up of pressure in the boiler. It’s not catastrophic, but it could become a real problem once we start working on the ancillary systems.”
“Hmm,” Hortensius said, stroking his beard as he joined the shipbuilder, looking over the schematics. “Have you identified the cause?”
“No, and it’s frustrating me. Your assistants have been looking over the boiler, and they assure me everything is working as intended, but after just a few hand spans from the boiler, the pipes start to lose pressure. Anything over half the length of the boat and there won’t be enough to do anything. Which is why I feel it’s definitely in the boiler itself.”
“I see. It does sound like it, but my guys have been working with the boilers for a while, and know them pretty well, even if they’re scaled down. If they say it’s not the boiler, then there’s a good chance it’s not. If it’s losing pressure over that short a distance, it could be the connection points or something with the piping. We’ll have to investigate it. Has it caused any kind of buildup in the boiler itself?”
“I don’t think so, at least not that your people have told me. I’ll be honest, I’m struggling to keep up with all of these changes. Give me sail and timber any day.”
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