The Alexander Inheritance Read online

  They got back to business. “I’m sending Crates of Olynthian. Most of the work on the sewage system is done and he wants to study refining techniques. You know he works with mines as well as sewers. Also a young scholar called Epicurus of Samos.”

  “Samos? I would have thought Athens.” Roxane said.

  Eudemus looked at her curiously. “In fact, his parents are Athenian and were thrown out of Samos when Athens lost the island. Epicurus was doing his two years military service to Athens when his parents had to move to Colophon. He had just joined them there when Satrap Ptolemy called for scholars to come to Alexandria and form a library.”

  “It almost has to be him,” Roxane muttered. At Eudemus look, which had gone from curious to irritated, she explained. “There is an Epicurus who is the founder of the Epicurean philosophy. The Wikipedia has more on him than it does on me.”

  “Well, I hope it’s not the same one. He’s irritating and opinionated. Half the reason I’m sending him is to get him away from me.”

  “Who else?”

  He named three more scholars, none of whom had survived the weaning of history. Then said, “Ptolemy is sending Thaïs and his children on the trip.”

  “Why?” Roxane asked, though she could make a good guess. Ptolemy was keeping his options open. He hadn’t married Thaïs or made any of the children legitimate, but he had apparently decided to provide them with an education and get them out of the way while he negotiated with the other satraps.

  Eudemus just shrugged. And Roxane gathered up the notes and documents and went to see Jane Carruthers.

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  Jane waved her into her office and Roxane gave her the notes.

  “There are twenty-three scholars who have raised the tuition money on their own,” Jane said. “Also about forty regular passengers who just want to make the trip in comfort.”

  “Has everyone…” Roxane started.

  “Yes, everyone has been told that there is no slavery on the Queen and that even former slaves will have to have their passage paid before boarding. Oh, Atum is sending his son, Aristotle Edfu.”

  “Where? To the university?”

  “No. As trader aboard for about twenty tons of cargo. It’s partly seeds and partly sample goods that Atum wants to see if there is a market for in Trinidad. He’s not the only one. Three other Alexandrian merchant houses are sending merchants aboard to look after their cargos. Aristotle is going to be studying ship people business and banking. I think that Atum wants to be Ptolemy’s bank.”

  “Thaïs would be a better choice.”

  “Oh.” There was a lot less warmth in Jane Carruthers’ voice. “What do you know about Ptolemy’s hooker friend?”

  “Don’t underestimate her. Jane, I don’t really understand how you people did things back in your world, but a hetaera is the only class of women who can own their own property and sign their own contracts in this world. Or at least in the Greek states, including Macedonia. Granted, Egyptian women have more rights. As for Thaïs, she has been with Ptolemy for twelve years and has three children by him. Alexander liked to have her around because she is one of the smartest people there is.” Roxane waited while the ship woman worked it out.

  “In a way,” Jane said consideringly, “it may not be all that different in our world, but we are a lot less open about it. And most of the people in the world, including me, are still prone to think in Victorian terms. Momma didn’t approve of such women, so neither should I. Add in the burning of the palace, and you get my reaction.”

  “That wasn’t Thaïs’ fault. They were all very drunk that night. Besides, it was Alexander’s idea to burn the place. Thaïs was just telling stories, which was part of her job.”

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  Thaïs manumitted her slave Delphinia as soon as she learned of the ship people’s strange notion. Delphinia had been thankful, but concerned about how she would live. “Why, I’ll hire you to take care of the children.” So when Thaïs and her family boarded the Queen with Delphinia in tow, there was no problem. They had a suite, two rooms. And though it was cramped by land standards, it was gloriously roomy by any standards of sea travel Thaïs had ever imagined. She was looking forward to the voyage, though she was more concerned than she liked to admit about what Ptolemy would do in her absence.

  She bowed politely to Roxane as she entered the queen’s suite. “It’s good to see you, Your Highness. How have you been?”

  “Well, very well. At least since Dag rescued me from the generals.”

  “I know. Isn’t it horrible? They were all so loyal before Alexander died, but now it’s all this mad quest for empire.”

  Roxane lifted an eyebrow at that, and Thaïs laughed. “Well, they were loyal. They might not have always wanted to be, but they were. At least mostly. Your husband was all that held the empire together. Now it’s his name and, of course, you and your son.” She watched Roxane carefully to see how she would respond.

  “Philip and Eurydice,” Roxane said quickly. “Don’t put all the burden on us.”

  “I’m surprised,” Thaïs said, and she was. There hadn’t been any love lost between Roxane and Eurydice, not that she had ever heard of. “I had thought you had been forced, or at least encouraged, to include Eurydice and Philip in your proclamation.”

  “I was, sort of. Marie Easley, who studied this time, pointed out the advantages. But even in Triparadisus, I would have been willing enough to share the burden with Eurydice, if I had been able to trust her.”

  “So why trust her now?”

  Roxane laughed. “Because she can’t get at me. It’s a gesture of trust that helps her, and doesn’t endanger me. As long as I stay on this ship or in my embassy in Trinidad, I am safe from them all. But enough about me. Tell me, why has Ptolemy packed you and the children off like this?”

  Thaïs would have liked to have heard about the embassy in Trinidad, and she didn’t particularly want to talk about the effect independence had on Ptolemy. He had been negotiating with Antipater before Triparadisus on the subject of putting her aside to marry one of Antipater’s daughters. And he was still looking for a royal wife. Thaïs was a hetaera and though she could keep the company of kings, she could never be a queen. She had been born a slave, sold to a school and worked her way up. She sympathized with the ship people’s dislike of slavery, though she couldn’t imagine how society would work without it. She sighed. “Ptolemy enjoys me, but he has become obsessed with the potential to become Alexander. Or, at the very least, pharaoh of Egypt and Syria. So he is looking for a wife who will buy him the support of one of the other generals.”

  “Do you think he will try for the empire?”

  “Not as long as Alexander or Philip is alive. He is too careful for that. And I don’t think he will try to do anything to you. He truly loved Alexander, and for Alexander’s sake wouldn’t murder you or Philip.”

  “But he wouldn’t cry at our funerals,” Roxane said with some bitterness.

  “No. He would cry, and real tears. But he would be calculating his chances even as he wept.” It was the relief, Thaïs decided. The relief at not having to watch every word that had made her so free with her speech. That, and she was more angry at Ptolemy than she had realized.

  “Well, you will enjoy the ship.” Roxane changed the subject, to Thaïs’ relief. “It truly is a school, and there is a great deal to learn.”

  They talked then about the Queen of the Sea university, and the courses available on it. Then about the schedule of the trip. “From here, we go to Pelusium, just a short stop to see what is available over the trade route from the Red Sea. Then on to Ashdod.”

  “So I heard. Ptolemy is anxious to get the ship people situated there. He’s sending documents to guarantee their safety and support.”

  Roxane nodded. “So I heard as well. Reverend Hewell took it as a sign that God favored their endeavor. Along with Hewell’s church, there will be Rabbi Benyamin Abrahamson, his family, and a small community of Jews, se
ven in all.”

  “Why so few?”

  “There aren’t as many Jews as there are Christians on the ship. In fact, there are even more Muslims than Jews, though the Muslims are mostly in the crew. There were about a hundred Jews on the ship, and most of them stayed in Fort Plymouth. A lot of them were pretty secular. Others are going to be teachers at the university.”

  “Secular?”

  “Jewish by birth, but not religious.”

  “And the Muslims and Christians?”

  “They believe in one god and that it is the same god. But they argue about what that god wants.” Roxane held up a hand and shook her head. “There will be a course in Comparative Religion, if you’re interested. Personally, I find it all very confusing and not very important.”

  “What is important then?”

  Roxane stopped and examined her fingernails. “The electricity and the steam. The machines and the treatments for illness. And something more, I think. Hope, as Pandora released from her box, but bigger and more.”

  Thaïs took a moment to think about that, then changed the subject. There would be time to make her own judgments. “After Ashdod?”

  “Cyprus, then Rhodes,” Roxane said. “After Rhodes, up the coast of Anatolia with several stops, then to Macedonia and back down to Athens. It’s all been published in the schedule.”

  “I’ve read it, but it seems awfully fast.”

  “No, not really. This ship isn’t just bigger than anything else on the ocean. It’s faster.”

  “Could you stop at Mugla?” Thaïs asked. “Pick up Eurydice and Philip?”

  “I asked, but it probably won’t happen. First, because the captain is nervous about the depth of the water in the area, but mostly because if we go to Mugla, Antigonus is likely to do something desperate. Certainly, he will take Eurydice and Philip away from the shore.”

  “Don’t underestimate Antigonus, Roxane. He may have lost a couple of battles, but most of the Macedonian generals despise Eumenes, whatever your book says about him. Because of what your book says about him, and how it disparages them, Antigonus is getting support from a lot of important people.”

  “Ptolemy?”

  “Not officially, but yes. Ptolemy has sent him money. He doesn’t want Eumenes trying to impose Philip or your son on him as his new lord.”

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  “There are several issues about radios,” Chief Radio Officer Joshua Varner said. That was certainly true, but he wasn’t going to be mentioning any of them besides the technical ones. And those he was going to be exaggerating or distorting almost to the point of outright lying. There were a whole host of political factors involved in leaving a radio station in Alexandria or anywhere else in the Med. They must either give the basic technology to the locals or leave someone there to manage the radio system.

  Neither Captain Floden nor Congressman Wiley was willing to do either of those things. Not yet, anyway.

  The radio itself wasn’t that hard. A tube from a microwave could be used, and so could integrated circuits scavenged from any number of places. There were all the phones and slate computers on the ship, each one of which could be hooked into a downstream signal amplifier to produce a radio that with atmospheric bounce and digital signal enhancement could reach a great distance with decent consistency. For that matter, with the sort of vacuum pumps available on the Queen and their knowledge of how radio worked, they could build radios from scratch. They would still need some computerization for frequency tweaking to match the changing atmospheric conditions, if they wanted to get signals from the other side of the world. There just wasn’t any major technological barrier to putting a radio station in Alexandria or another major port on in the Med.

  “Radio waves travel in straight lines and the surface of the earth is not flat,” he said to his assembled audience.

  The statement was true, in and of itself—and never mind the fact that radio waves could be bounced off the ionosphere. That was a different fact. Which was not crying out to be blabbed in public.

  “Also the signal strength diminishes at the cube of the distance,” he added. He saw no need to mention that that depended on the shape of the antenna.

  Dinocrates asked him questions, and so did the other philosophers. Joshua never actually lied. Mostly because the philosophers didn’t know enough to ask the right questions.

  At best, though, this was a stopgap measure. Joshua wasn’t one of those morons who thought that because people of the ancient world were ignorant, they were stupid. Whatever he might or might not know—yet—Dinocrates had been remembered more than two thousand years after he died. What were the odds that he wasn’t as smart as a twenty-first century radio specialist?

  About as bad as the odds he would hit the progressive slots in the casino seven times in a row, Joshua figured. They’d be lucky if this subterfuge lasted half a year.

  CHAPTER 21

  Royal Lounge, Queen of the Sea, Pelusium

  May 1

  Thaïs looked at the city sitting between the beach and the swamps. They’d left Alexandria as the sun was rising and here it was only just after noon, and they were looking at the fortified city of Pelusium. She sat with Roxane and Marie Easley in the Royal Lounge, drinking some not very good wine and eating some decent cheese, while looking out at the fortified city.

  “Will you tell me about Olympias?” Marie asked as they watched the boat head for the Pelusium docks.

  “Must we?” Thaïs complained. “Why spoil a lovely day? Kiril is on that boat along with Roxane’s Dag. On their way to buy up all the linen in Pelusium in exchange for a few spinning jennies, and a couple of your new looms with the flying shuttles. The sun is hot but the air conditioning is cool, and if the wine is so-so, the cheese is tasty.”

  “Dag is not…” Roxane started, only to receive rather condescending looks from both older women. She quickly changed the subject. “Kiril will be delivering Satrap Ptolemy’s letters of authorization, and Atum’s son, Aristotle, will be buying spices from the Red Sea traders.”

  “Why are you both so reticent when it comes to talking about Olympias?” Marie asked.

  “We’re not. It’s just that stories of ghosts, ghouls, and Olympias should be told on a dark night when you’re very, very drunk. Just before you burn down a palace,” Thaïs said.

  “Did Olympias…” Marie started, and Roxane laughed as Thaïs held up an hand and protested.

  “I honestly don’t remember. But we were all very drunk, and Alexander had a strange relationship with his mother. He loved her dearly, but by preference he loved her from a distance. And Olympias didn’t like anything Persian, so burning the Palace of Persepolis probably would have pleased her.” Thaïs looked over at Roxane and smiled a bit sadly. “Your husband ruled the world with whims. He ruled us all with his whims. Ptolemy would have followed him anywhere. He had something about him…maybe he was Zeus’ bastard. I wouldn’t put it past Olympias. All in all, I like your Dag better. He’s a serious boy, and he cares about people deeply. Alexander’s passions ran hot, but not deep.”

  “I know. Alexander was always the tiger lashing his tail and baring his teeth. But he was so smart, he could see through people.”

  “What about Philip II?” Marie asked.

  “In a way, he was more like Ptolemy than Alexander. King Philip was a plodder. A careful general, except that Olympias could always get under his skin.”

  “Is there any truth to the reports that Ptolemy is Philip’s son?”

  “No, none. The ‘reports,’ as you call them haven’t really started yet. Some of Ptolemy’s advisers are suggesting that he float that as justification for declaring himself pharaoh, but so far Ptolemy is unwilling to do it. He loved his father, even if they had all the normal father-son conflicts.”

  They talked about the other generals and their wives, and Alexander’s moving the court before his death in Babylon. They discussed the partition at Babylon and explained to Marie that Ptolemy’s role was l
ess than history recorded. “Perdiccas had the ring, and Alexander had given it to him,” Roxane said, and Thaïs nodded.

  “Ptolemy would have followed Alexander, like I said, but he didn’t want to,” Thaïs said. “We were all tired of it by then, all except Alexander.”

  By the time they finished talking, the boat was on its way back. And four more were headed in to load up on Egyptian linen. They left for Ashdod as the sun set and were there by morning.

  Ashdod

  May 2

  “It really ought to be April first,” Dag muttered as the religious emigrants offloaded. Kiril was watching them like a farmer watches his chickens. Looking forward to lots of eggs and an eventual stew pot.

  An older woman, Christine Boonie, walked down the ramp to look at the small town, nodded sharply, and marched down the dock toward the town. She was pulling a wheeled suitcase behind her, and Dag knew that it now contained books on medical procedures and homeopathic remedies. Christine, a devout Christian, had spent thirty years as a nurse’s aide in hospitals and old folks’ homes. She was now the closest thing to a twenty-first-century doctor in Ashdod. The rest of the religious emigrants were heading up the docks, now mostly with local Jews leading them. And with a great number of gestures and a lot of confusion.

  Kiril reached out a hand to Dag. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Don’t leave without me.” He spoke in Greek and now Dag could follow his comments without the translation app.

  “Well, hurry up. The captain wants to be in Tyre tomorrow morning.”

  “I’ll be back by dawn, I promise.” Tyre was barely thirty knots away. An hour and a half would see them there.

  ☆ ☆ ☆

  Dag wandered along the docks with an escort of two Silver Shields. They carried their shields, which had been polished and then lacquered, and they also carried the traditional Greek kopis and wore polished armor. Dag carried one of the ship’s pistols in his belt, and was under orders not to fire it unless absolutely necessary.