BETWEEN FOUR JUNCTIONS

displayed as the future, a symbol of what was to come.

A few years later they unveiled them. They said war as we knew it was over. On robotic legs they proudly stood, with cold metallic hands they saluted their general and fired their guns into the air. They called them atomically-powered warriors, ones capable of carrying out a war devoid of death.

The next war lasted only three months. They were paraded, they were applauded, they were like him. Visions of a future. And he was like them – mechanical, a tool.

Years after the war and he was still out there, constantly touring the solar system, the route and the speeches all he could remember. Still promoting the empire and the war effort, still a hero to some. To himself he was nothing, a machine aware of its futility yet unable to correct itself, no longer able to tell the difference between himself and the robotics on his ship. Little more than an atom heart soldier, simultaneously a machine that acted as if it were a man and a man that acted as if he was a machine. Ultimately, unable to tell either apart.

Anya Clegg

A Roman Style Murder

2080, Caerleon, Wales

It was 4:30pm and Robert was desperate to get home after a long day of tour guiding at the Caerleon Roman Baths – a.k.a. The Tourist Magnet. The rest of the staff had left hours ago and because Robert was the ‘newbie’ it was compulsory for him to cover the final shift. After a long half hour of droning on about the purpose and importance of the final room – the frigidarium (cold room) – a little boy who looked just over the age of six shyly shuffled up to him.

“Um.... Excuse me. What is that big bit of rock over there,” he mumbled, raising his arm to point in the direction of the caldarium (hot room). Sighing, the guide retraced his steps until he came across a slab of stone that he’d never really focused on before. Confused, he looked around for his manager but then remembered they’d all gone home.

“Typical,” he grumbled. He turned back to the little boy who was staring up at him expectantly. “I’m sorry sonny, but I’m afraid I have no idea what it is. Though ...” he inspected the horrifying face of a Medusa with an unusual Celtic moustache, with another grinning human face peeking out from behind, “…it does look like it might have an interesting history.”

80 AD, Isca Augusta, Britannia (Roman Fortress)

“Julius, please be careful around that amphitheatre. It still hasn’t been completed,” called Aelia as she watched him climb over the building work.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m not a kid anymore. I can do things without you constantly shadowing me,” he huffed.

Aelia was Julius’s older sister, and ever since their parents had been deported to Rome as slaves for Emperor Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus (to give his full name), she vowed to make sure that her brother never came to any harm. While she nervously glanced at the rickety building planks surrounding him, Julius heaved himself up until he was level with the highest point of the soon-to-be-completed amphitheatre.

“Julius, get down from there at once. You’re going to fall!” she cried.

He ignored her and – just to annoy her – began to jump wildly up and down on the unstable stone, causing it to shake uncontrollably.

“Julius, don’t!” she screamed.

Aelia was making such a racket that it caught the attention of a soldier who was patrolling the area nearby. The soldier – whose name was Aaron – hurried to see what all the fuss was about. Hearing another scream, he dropped his sword and found Aelia sobbing and staring up at the sky. Bringing his hands up to shade his eyes from the blazing sun, he squinted upwards to see Julius hanging from the stone by one slipping hand. He looked a real state – his chestnut brown hair was peppered by grains of dust and his white toga – perhaps not the best idea, Aaron thought – was now a pale brown. There was no chance of Aaron reaching Julius, but he couldn’t just leave him. Looking around for anything to help, his mind wandered to the thought of this boy as a gladiator trainee. He looked about the right age.

“Excuse me sir, some help here!” Julius yelled.

“I’m trying. Be patient or I won’t help you at all,” he yelled back.

In no time at all, Aaron had gathered some stray pieces of rope, tied them together and threw them up to the boy.

“What are you doing?” Aelia screamed. “You should be climbing up to him!”

Aaron smiled. “Trust me.”

Julian just about managed to wrap his blistered fingers around the rope and pushed himself off the stone ledge. Smoothly, he slid down to the ground and – with a green face –stumbled over to his sister who tweaked his ear.

“Do you know how unbelievably stupid that was?” she shouted. “What do you think mum and dad would have thought?”

As soon as she said that, she knew it was the wrong thing to say. Turning away, she smiled at Aaron. “Thank you so much sir.”

“My pleasure. And you can call me Aaron,” he replied. “Although, you two don’t seem exactly Roman at first glance. You look more like that mad Celtic woman Boudicca.”

Her gaze turned to fire and she marched up to him, gripping his shoulder hard. “Don’t you ever disrespect our Queen, Aaron. She is one hundred times stronger and braver than you and that barmy Emperor of yours!”

Aaron was taken aback by her sudden ferocity. “I’m sorry for disrespecting you miss.”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before an Imperial Legate came round the corner and saw Aelia clutching Aaron’s shoulder.

“What in the devils are you doing woman?” he yelled. “You should be executed for this behaviour.”

Swiftly, she retreated and stood protectively in front of Julius. The Imperial Legate stroked his stubbly chin. “Now that I think about it, you would be more useful alive – and your brother too.”

Nervously, Aaron murmured, “Are you sure that’s necessary, sir. I mean, they’re just harmless Celts.”

The Imperial Legate shot him an intimidating look, grabbed Aelia and Julius and led them away from the amphitheatre.

He took them to a large cart with other people who had been picked off the streets and around half a dozen soldiers. After they were all hustled on, the guards whipped the horses and, abruptly, they started moving. Julius and Aelia had been squeezed between a slender, pale man who looked like he was going to faint at any moment and a bulky guard whose armour was digging into Julius’s rib cage. They were about three quarters of the way through their journey when the slender man suddenly lurched forward, clutching his chest, and collapsed on the floor.

“Great. Another one,” muttered the nearby guard. He pulled himself up, dragged the man’s body and, to Aelia’s utter horror, heaved it out the back of the cart. However, that wasn’t the worst of it. The body tumbled straight into the path of the horses of the next cart behind them. It was not a pretty sight – Julius never forgot it for the rest of his life. When the sounds of splintering bones had died down, everyone acted like it’d never happened. Julius felt sick.

“Is that what’s going to happen to us?” Julius whispered to Aelia.

Aelia looked at him but said nothing; he had a bad feeling, he knew what her answer would be.

Nobody said a word until they arrived at the villa and the soldiers led them outside.The first thing Julius noticed when he stepped down was the unbelievable size of the villa. Leading up to it were dozens of marble steps which curved gracefully around the hundreds of skilfully pruned trees, which left one spot clear where the rotund figure of the Emperor was standing. As the guards herded them closer, Julius spotted a golden laurel wreath adorned on his head that seemed to blind everyone around him with the reflection of the moonlight. Aelia squeezed his hand as the Emperor slowly stumbled down the marble steps.

“That journey was nowhere near long enough for us to be in Rome. So what is he doing here?” she whispered.

Julius looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “How should I know?”

She sighed and Julius could see her suddenly stifle a laugh. He followed her gaze and did the same – the Emperor was doing an extremely bad job of getting down those stairs successfully. Five guards had to drop their weapons and support his flabby body – it was a ridiculous sight.

Eventually, he wiped the sweaty hair out of his face – it was hard to take him seriously at this point – and brought his eyes to look at his newest victims. There were four: Aelia, Julius, a young girl who was sobbing uncontrollably, and a man who looked to be in his thirties.

“Now, you lot should know just how special and lucky you are to be addressed by me – the Emperor. You’re going to be used as slaves and gladiators in my new fortress, The Isca Augusta.”

He waved his arm and shuffled around to make the treacherous journey back up the marble steps while the guards hustled them through the nearest gate. That was not how Julius had wanted to spend his summer. Everyone was so shocked and nobody made a sound until they reached the barracks. Julius was breathing very heavily and gasped when he felt a crusty hand seize his wrist.

“You, boy. Come with me.”

It was a guard. Julius shook his head. “Not without my sister, you filthy Roman!”

Nose flaring, he gripped Julius even harder and growled through gritted teeth. “You will come with me now or I’ll feed you to the lions.”

Julius’s face noticeably paled and he glanced behind him to look for Aelia, but she was already gone. Reluctantly, he allowed the guard to drag him away.

Julius spent the rest of the evening shivering on his stone bed surrounded by stone walls with a few metal bars over a small gap in the stone. He couldn’t stop thinking about Aelia – he wondered if he would ever see her again. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard a loud rumbling noise followed by a voice that came from above his head.

“Hey, stop what you’re doing! No don’t come any closer!”

Whoever was standing there collapsed and their body was dragged behind a pile of barrels. Julius stood up on the bed to get a better look and nearly screamed when he saw a blue-streaked face peering down at him through the bars.

“You, boy,” the person hissed. “How would you like to help murder the Emperor?”

Julius’s face lit up and he nodded enthusiastically.

“Great! Now, you can’t do that stuck in here. I’ll have to find a way to get you out.”

As the stranger looked around, Julius tried to get a good view of their face. She was obviously a Celt (the blue markings on her face and ginger hair) but this one looked familiar important even.Then it hit him – he almost smacked himself in the forehead for being so stupid. This was Boudicca, Queen of the Celts.

Julius was so confused he didn’t notice that she’d already prised open the cell door with a wooden plank and was leaning against the doorway looking at him expectantly.

“What...? How...?” he stuttered.

“Easy trick I learnt as I kid. Anyway, I’m sure you noticed that the Emperor is here instead of Rome. I don’t care why but I’m going to use this opportunity wisely. The plan is that a couple of my soldiers are going to cause a distraction to lure away all his guards and then, we pounce.”

Stretching her arm behind her back, she brought out a bulky dolabra with lots of Celtic engravings of symbols which Julius recognised – death. It had a pointed edge on one end and on the other it looked like something which should be used to smash rocks apart.

“What… am I… meant to do with this?” he managed to say.

This,” she announced, grinning, “is what you’re going to use to murder the Emperor!”

Julius glanced back at the dolabra disbelievingly and realised that she was serious. Suddenly, he heard a loud clattering noise coming from behind him – he swiftly spun around and saw a soldier that he recognised.

“Aaron!” He called.

Turning around, Aaron was greeted by a recently-sharpened sword to the throat.

“No, stop! I know him. He saved me from falling to my death!” Julius yelled, pushing the sword down away from Aaron’s throat.

Boudicca narrowed her eyes and slowly brought it down, “Fine, but this doesn’t mean that I acknowledge you as an ally.”

Aaron sighed and rubbed his throat gingerly – the tip of the sword had left a deep red mark.

“Now, we’re going to murder the Emperor,” Boudicca told him.

His eyes widened but he was still too shocked to say anything so he simply nodded. Boudicca marched out of the door with Julius and Aaron close on her heels. Soon after, they were accompanied by the rest of her troops. Surprisingly, they didn’t run into any obstacles before they reached the Emperor’s room, which was conveniently placed right by the open exit.