The Sicilian Coil by Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

Author:Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett [Huff, Gorg & Goodlett, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Alternate History
Publisher: Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press
Published: 2021-09-09T05:00:00+00:00

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The weapons shed was next to the quays. It was a largeish building, painted red. The ancient world wasn't made of white marble any more than a living human was made of bleached bones. In fact, it reminded him more than anything of some of the Hispanic neighborhoods where the buildings were painted in bright colors with murals everywhere. The statues were painted, the buildings were painted, the window shutters were painted in different colors. The weapons shed was painted red and orange with explosions all over the place, with the doors and window shutters painted black.

It also had guards in steel breastplates and greaves, with swords and brand new cap lock pistols. Which wasn't a surprise. The radio team had arrived in Carthage just over a year ago and in a year you can learn to make a tube out of steel and drill a hole in the back for a cap. And you can learn to make steel using the open hearth method. What you can't do is learn to do all that cheaply and efficiently. Which was why the six-shot caplock revolver on his hip was worth a fairly large fortune, and was also a symbol of status.

Inside the weapons shed, Hanno Barca showed him their newest addition. It was a variant on the Hale rotary rocket. These were just under twenty inches long, because that was the length of a Carthaginian long cubit. That made them a little shorter than the Ship People Hale rockets. They had thin steel bodies that were wrapped in lacquered cloth for extra strength and had a screw-on warhead.

Then he showed James the launcher, which was where the Carthaginians had gotten creative. The launchers were set in a framework with a door at the bottom of each launcher. As soon as James saw the system, he knew what it was for. It was so that you could load one launcher while another was being fired. And the launchers would be loaded from below decks, so the launcher crew would be safe from enemy arrows and backblast from the missiles.

Carthaginians were not cowards, but they saw no particular virtue in exposing themselves to the slings and arrows of the enemy army.

Hanno showed him the cranks that adjusted elevation and direction. The Carthaginians were traders and merchants. They did math just fine. Including ballistic math. If you could put it in a book of tables, they were happy with it.

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