The Alexander Inheritance Read online

  “Don’t ask Ahura Mazda for still more aid after the aid the world has gotten in the Queen of the Sea. A spinning jenny and a carding machine allow a few women to do the work of a hundred.”

  “Right,” Dag said, “don’t ask for butter on your popcorn.”

  “We have plenty of butter. Did you want popcorn?” Roxane sounded confused, and Dag explained. Roxane had done an excellent job of learning English in the months on Trinidad, and Dag hadn’t done all that badly with Greek either, in spite of the fact that they had both been learning the languages of the natives of Trinidad at the same time. And it was languages; there were three on the island, plus Tupky. In spite of that—or maybe because of it—English was becoming the lingua franca of the island of Trinidad. But in spite of all that, they could both get tripped up by idioms.

  “Yes,” Roxane agreed with a warm smile after he had explained. “Popcorn is good, even without butter. And even without electricity, spinning wheels and steam-powered lathes and looms will change the world. But after Alexander took Persia and emptied out the thresher houses, there was what your economists call inflation. Prices for everything went up. They are still high, but they have been dropping in the last couple of years. One of the passengers, a Mr. Jack Carroll, is an amateur economist and says that what is happening is that the economy is catching up with the money supply. I had just assumed that the silver was finding its way back into the vaults of the satraps.”

  “It’s probably some of both,” Dag agreed. “But what’s your point?”

  “I’m not sure. But what will be the effect of your saws and lathes and spinning wheels? Also the plows and reapers and the milling machine for the wheat. What will those things do to the cost of cloth and the cost of bread?”

  “Not to mention the quality of bread,” Dag agreed, holding up a roll. It wasn’t a new question. It had been discussed before and no consensus had been reached. Well, one reason was that the ship had its own money, called ship credit, that was recorded in the ship’s computers, and Eleanor Kinney determined how much ship credit she would give for so much silver, gold or latex. “I don’t know, but I know that the captain hopes it will eventually put an end to slavery.”

  There was a tightening of Roxane’s mouth. The queen of Alexander’s empire wasn’t an abolitionist. In fact, aside from some Stoics in Athens, the only abolitionists on Earth seemed to have arrived on the ship. Even the Stoics more trivialized slavery than opposed it. Roxane had managed to restore peace after the Silver Shields’ attempt to take the ship by, in essence, buying the slaves from the Silver Shields so that she took the loss, then by pleading their case before Captain Floden. She still hadn’t quite forgiven Dag for not warning her of the problem before they had brought her retainers and their families and slaves aboard. But she didn’t say anything. She knew that this wasn’t something that any of the ship people would give on.

  Dag knew slavery was wrong. Knew it with a bone-deep certainty that made it difficult for him to see how she could fail to understand the evil in it. Slavery was theft. Theft of the labor and the liberty of the slave. But the truth was that Roxane didn’t see much wrong with theft either. It was what armies did when they conquered new territory, after all. And that was what her late husband had been all about. Morality at this point in the history of the world really was something that was only applied sporadically.

  Slavery was one of the issues that they avoided talking about. Dag changed the subject to the schedule of stops in the Mediterranean. “We think a week in Alexandria should be enough. We mentioned the possibility of a university at sea to Dinocrates before we left, so there may be some students coming aboard.”

  “I know the Queen is not carrying nearly so many passengers, but do you think that Eleanor will be able to buy enough food for the cruise in just seven days?”

  “If she can’t, we will just be eating a lot of tuna steaks and potatoes. We’re carrying enough food for two months, and we’ll be back in Trinidad before we run out.”

  “Assuming there are no delays at the other stops,” Roxane said. “I still don’t see why you insist on going to Rome. Carthage makes some sense, but the Romans are barbarians.”

  “Even worse, Samnium,” Dag grinned. “We are planning a day in Salerno, well, what will become Salerno, and another in what will be Naples. Both of which are part of Samnium at this time.”

  “All Italians are barbarians,” Roxane agreed. “I will grant you that in a couple of hundred years Rome might become civilized, but at the moment it’s a bunch of farmers without much to trade. I’d rather deal with the Tupky.”

  “They have iron and are just a bit of knowledge and practice away from steel,” Dag disagreed. “They are working on aqueducts and good roads.”

  “The Tupky have steel now, or will by the time we get back. They live on a river, so have less need of roads and aqueducts. Their knot writing is different from Greek writing, but in some ways it’s superior. All the Romans have, they got from the Greeks, who stole it from the Persians.”

  “Rome gave the world pizza,” Dag proclaimed, one finger pointing to the ceiling, then started laughing.

  They were both uncertain about how well the goods they were carrying would sell. Latex from South America was potentially very useful for things like rubber tires on wheels, but would the locals see the value?

  CHAPTER 20

  Alexandria Harbor

  April 24

  The lookout spotted the Queen over an hour before she sailed into Alexandria harbor, and the galleys were waiting, but making it very clear with white flags that they had peaceful intent. The notion that the ship people considered the white flag a sign of parley was promulgated by the library and everyone was making sure to use it.

  Atum Edfu was not first to board the Queen. That was Dinocrates’ privilege, as the representative of Ptolemy, Satrap of Egypt and Syria.

  “So he got Syria in this history as well as the other,” Roxane said as Dinocrates bowed. “Did he wait until the Jewish holy day?”

  Dinocrates stood back up and smiled. “No. Having read the butterfly book, Laomedon agreed that resigning his post in favor of Ptolemy was his wisest course. I understand several talents of gold changed hands, but everyone is being quiet about how many.”

  Jane Carruthers waved them to the elevators, and they chatted as the next group came aboard.

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  Ten minutes later, seated in the Royal Lounge with sweet potato fries and a glass of wine, Dinocrates got down to business. “Satrap Ptolemy wishes to hire ship people to work in the Library of Alexandria and to consult on the opening of a route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.”

  Roxane nodded. “I think Ptolemy may be able to find employees for that, but you need to know something. When my Silver Shields came aboard the Queen with their wives, concubines, and slaves, the slaves were emancipated by the ship people. I ended up having to compensate my bodyguards for the loss of their chattel, because the ship people flatly refused to. It’s possible that once away from the ship, some of them will develop a more reasonable attitude, but I wouldn’t count on it. Their opposition to slavery is fanatical. You will do better to use hired employees, people who are at least technically freed of bondage, as their servants and supports.”

  “Is it really that bad?” Dinocrates asked, more curious than offended. “I knew that they were opposed to it. There is a section in the butterfly book that condemns the practice. But it doesn’t offer much in the way of how we are to manage without slaves. Someone has to chop the wood and empty the chamber pots. How is a man to get any work done if he spends all his time on menial chores?”

  “They have devices…” Roxane started to explain, then stopped herself. There was a great deal to explain about how the ship people’s society worked, and there was no way she could get to it all now. “Never mind all that. What is the situation now? Where are Eurydice and Philip?”

  “In a small fishing village on the Aegean coast, called Mu
gla. They are still in Antigonus’ custody and Eumenes seems satisfied to leave them there. He’s busy up north trying to bring order to chaos. Meanwhile, the Greek city states are declaring independence in droves.”

  “It’s all coming apart,” Roxane said sadly. “Even faster in this history than in the other.”

  They discussed the political situation and Dinocrates offered to let Roxane move into Alexandria. She politely declined. Then they talked about the role of the Queen.

  “It’s what they call a university,” Roxane said. “Or a college, like Socrates or Aristotle set up, but more formal, to teach people science and law—whatever they want to learn. They will charge tuition and a fee for living on board. But remember what I said about slavery. There is no slavery on the Queen of the Sea. Any slave brought aboard is free the moment its foot hits the deck.”

  “I can’t imagine that you can learn much if you’re spending all your time cleaning your clothing,” Dinocrates repeated the complaint he had voiced before. “Besides, who would go to their school with such a restriction?”

  “There are employees who work for the ship. Or you can hire people to do the necessary chores. But don’t worry about emptying chamber pots. Their toilets…”

  “I remember,” Dinocrates agreed.

  Just then a waiter brought in a cart with a variety of cakes on it. They were served and Roxane thanked the waiter as he left. “It’s not that they don’t have servants, but the servants are free to leave and seek other work if they choose to.”

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  Atum Edfu got aboard and was reintroduced to Eleanor Kinney, the chief purser. “Eleanor, dear lady, how badly are you going to cheat me this time? I warn you, our smiths are producing good steel now, so I have little interest in your steel knives.”

  That was a lie. The smiths of Alexandria, armed with the knowledge the ship people had let drop, were making steel. But it wasn’t good steel, not nearly as good as the steel of the ship people. And it cost a fortune. Slaves were cheap, but they had to be fed. And pumping a bellows to force air into melted iron to remove the carbon was not work for weaklings.

  “That’s fine then,” Eleanor said. “We’ll keep our steel knives for sale at Rhodes. We have plenty of silver, and even quite a bit of gold that we got across the Atlantic.” Eleanor was using the translation app. She was finding Macedonian Greek difficult to master. And besides, the delays as the app translated gave her time to think.

  “Still,” she continued after the app translated, “you might want to have a snack before we get down to business. Here we have Trinidadian tuna salad and corn chips. The bowls are made from processed latex.”

  She dropped an empty bowl on the floor and it bounced.

  “Woman, I must bring my wife to protect me. Your beauty blinds me and I can’t bargain fairly,” Atum complained mournfully.

  Alexandria Harbor

  April 26

  “How are we doing, Eleanor?” Captain Floden asked.

  Eleanor had been smiling from the moment she entered his office. “Unbelievable, sir. It’s a feeding frenzy out there. While we were gone, the stuff we sold last time—including the stuff we made, what little there was of it—has been being passed around and gotten more expensive with each trade. Those steel knives especially. They hold an edge like nothing these people have. So they were waiting for us when we got here, with goods ready to sell and silver to buy. Then they saw the stuff we brought from Trinidad, the new foods and the latex. Also the llama wool and dyes. It was all new and the feeding frenzy pushed the prices of the South American goods higher than I ever thought possible.”

  “So, our silver supply?” Captain Floden waved her to one of the leather arm chairs.

  “I think we’re ready, sir.” Eleanor sat down, then passed her slate computer over to the captain.

  “This soon?” Captain Floden asked, glancing at the spreadsheet displayed on the computer screen, then handing it back.

  “Yes, sir.”

  While Marie Easley was studying Alexandrian-era politics with Roxane, and Dag and others were learning how to make steam cannons and steel, Eleanor was studying money. She, in cooperation with President Wiley and Captain Floden, came up with a silver-backed partial-reserve money. The ship was one of the two reserves.

  The paper money was a way for the ship to issue more money than they had silver, without adulterating the silver with copper. But to do that, they first needed to make sure that they had plenty of silver. It was only partly about making sure that the ship had enough money to cover its expenses. It was also about making sure that there was a consistent money for them to use in dealing with other people. Something they could set prices in, for things like tuition and room and board on the ships while studying.

  The machine shops had made up the plates, but they weren’t going to start printing the money till they were sure that there was enough silver.

  “We’re ready,” Eleanor repeated.

  “And the university?” Captain Floden asked, leaning back in his chair.

  “We’re ready there too, Captain. We have a faculty for electronics, for modern English, for steam power, basic metallurgy, medical stuff, and we have the layout of the Advancement of Civilization course.” That was the “seeds of liberty” course they developed to try to convince the locals that slavery was a bad thing, that it was evil in its nature. The course also argued that it was no longer a necessary evil, because of the knowledge and technology that the Queen brought with her. They all knew that it was going to be a hard sell. Even getting the local slave owners to realize that it was evil was proving a lot harder than any of them expected.

  Mugla

  April 29

  “The ship people are back,” Trajan reported. “The news just came over the signal fire network.”

  “Does Antigonus know?” Eurydice asked.

  “He’s probably being told right now.”

  Eurydice had spent the winter and early spring in this little fishing village writing letters and trying to judge the situation. The kings of the far eastern edge of Alexander’s empire declared independence, and the satraps of the eastern empire were busy trying to bring them to heel, with mixed success. Babylon was given, by her, under Antigonus’ instruction, to Seleucus, then to Cassander’s little brother, Philip. Who, in Eurydice’s view, couldn’t pour wine out of an amphora without guidance. Roxane, in her proclamation, gave Babylon to Peucestas, who wasn’t much better. The arrogant bastard wasn’t someone Eurydice would want at her back with a dagger, anyway.

  By now this stinking little village had just about driven Eurydice insane, and Antigonus was nearly ready to deliver her head to Olympias, dumping the rest of her body, and Philip’s, in the bay.

  “Can we get loose?” she asked.

  “Possibly. But to go where?”

  It seemed that Trajan was always asking that question. Every time she asked about escape, he came back with “to where?” Now, though, Eurydice thought she might have an answer. “To the ship. The Queen of the Sea.”

  “Can we trust them?”

  “We’ll know soon. If Roxane is well, then we can probably trust them. If she is dead or held against her will, then we must look elsewhere for our escape.”

  Royal Lounge, Queen of the Sea

  April 29

  “So, Eudemus, who do you plan to send to the university?” Roxane asked once he was seated on the couch. She waved at a waiter, who brought good Egyptian beer and potato chips.

  “Would that I could attend myself. Unfortunately, my duties prevent me. There is still the issue of personal servants.” Eudemus looked at the chips curiously, and Roxane demonstrated. They were ridged potato chips and there was a cassava-based dip on the tray.

  He tried it and Roxane looked at him, trying not to show how much she sympathized with his complaint. The Queen of the Sea university was opening for students and would be making a tour of the Mediterranean, picking up more students. Then it would go back to Trinidad and t
hen come back here, on a set schedule. The whole trip would take three months and would constitute one semester, at a fixed rate that included food, lodging, and training in two subjects. All of that was fine and acceptable to Eudemus and the scholars, especially after they saw the rooms and the other facilities. This was still a luxury cruise liner, after all. But almost to a man, the scholars expected to bring at least one slave with them on the trip.

  Captain Floden made it clear, though. Once a slave set foot on the Queen, he or she was no longer a slave and would be allowed to leave the ship anywhere they chose.

  That had forced a question to the front of the minds of the scholars. Would their slaves, their personal servants, remain loyal if they had the option of leaving? That question ate at them.

  It ate at the slaves too, the idea that there was another option than slave or master. They wanted the question to go away. Roxane wanted the question to go away. One of her servants stayed in Trinidad. Another stayed with her on the ship and was her employee, who received pay every week out of Roxane’s account.

  Neither the slaves nor the masters knew how to approach the idea of liberty. But the slaves were starting to adapt to the notion a lot faster than the masters were.

  And that was a truly scary thought.

  “They are firm, Eudemus. They will not budge on this and only the knowledge of how few they are prevents them from putting every city within the range of their guns to rubble until the practice of slavery is abandoned.”

  “Monstrous,” Eudemus said, and Roxane was tempted to agree. As fond as she had grown of Dag and as much as she respected Marie Easley and Jane Carruthers, she found some of their attitudes deeply offensive.