Scaevola's Triumph (Gaius Claudius Scaevola trilogy Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

in disbelief at him.
    "Wh where did you come from?" Vipsania said, and moved towards him.
    "Stop!" the Tin Man ordered, then explained, "Gaius is on the bridge, at the front of the ship. This is just a picture of what he is doing. You can talk."
    "Gaius! Is that really you?"
    "Yes! Isn't this amazing!"
    "What are you doing?"
    "Looking outside," Gaius explained. "There's a huge planet outside. It looks very impressive. You should . . ."
    "You can show them what you are looking at," the Tin Man said, "but first . . ."
    "Oh, yes," Gaius nodded. "The Tin Man . . ."
    "Tin Man?" the Tin Man almost snorted.
    ". . . want's to look at my bag of papers. Show them to him, and do not use the weapon on him, but keep the weapon."
    "That's fine," Timothy nodded.
    "Now," the Tin Man said, "I am handing Gaius a square. If he holds that up, and presses this small button, what he is looking at will be shown on the wall opposite to where you are currently looking. Go on," he said, handing the object to Gaius, "show them."
    Gaius took the square and swivelled towards the image of the planet. He centred it, pressed the button, then saw an image form on the wall behind.
    "By the Gods!" Vipsania muttered, then she turned back towards Gaius and said, "That's a planet? That's what Earth is?"
    "It's a planet," Gaius said, in a knowing and learned tone, "but not like Earth. It seems it's all gas. Or air."
    By the time Gaius had repeated what he knew about gas giants and rocky planets, the Tin Man came into view. He opened the bag, looked at the metal objects, then took the papers and within five seconds had glanced through them. He placed them back in the bag, and turned towards Gaius' image.
    "I can see you didn't think much of that," Gaius muttered.
    "And how did you come to that conclusion?"
    "You hardly looked at them," Gaius muttered, his hurt feelings now quite obvious.
    The Tin Man took out the papers and handed them to Timothy, then he turned his back. "Take any page you care," he said, "and read the first six words on the page."
    Timothy looked at the Tin Man's back in puzzlement, but he did. To his surprise, when he had finished, the Tin Man recited word perfectly everything that was on the page.
    "That was what was written on that page," the Tin Man said, "and additionally, there's a brown stain of some sort starting at line eleven, third word, and ending diagonally at line nineteen, word nine."
    "He's correct!" a puzzled Timothy said.
    "Gaius, I read every word you wrote. Your metal objects? I could reproduce them exactly, with the exact same pitch on the thread, and with imperfections in exactly the same place."
    "But you only just looked at them?"
    "And recorded their images in the ship's computers. You don't know what that means, and some time I'll explain. In the meantime, believe me, I have read what you wrote."
    "And . . ?"
    "It's a total disaster!" the Tin Man said.
    "I'm that wrong?"
    "You're that right!" the Tin Man countered. "I'm thinking more of this ship and your planet. You have found what all advanced technologies agree is the beginning of physics, but even worse, your steam device is the recognized beginning of technology and industrialization, words that you can't understand, but, just say they lead to being able to construct ships that travel between the stars."
    "Oh," was all Gaius could reply
    "There's worse," the Tin Man added. "You have been in contact with your Princeps ."
    "Yes, I met Claudius as a boy, and . . ."
    "And Claudius has written, promising to fund what sounds suspiciously like the beginnings of the very first University on your planet. Not only have you made important discoveries, but you were also in a position to have them implemented. Your removal has irreversibly altered the future of your civilization."
    "I'm sure it won't fall over just because I'm gone," Gaius countered.
    "It will go on the way it was going," the Tin Man said, "but had you not been removed and had the Princeps kept his word to you,