Unburning Alexandria (Sierra Waters)

by Paul Levinson

  "Fortunately they don't lock their doors back here," Max said, as he gently pushed a door inward. Part of the structure was open to the clouds, and a full moon was rising, which provided enough light for Max and Sierra to see that the dwelling was empty – not only of people, but of anything of interest, including chairs that could travel through time.

  "They must be in use," Sierra said of the absent chairs.

  "Or perhaps they no longer exist here," Max said. Then, "no, you're right of course," he said as Sierra objected. "You and Socrates took the chairs from 399 BC to 2061 AD, so of course they existed here. . . ."

  "But we have no way of knowing when they will return to this specific time, or if they ever will return here at all. So you may not be so wrong after all," Sierra said in frustration.

  "Jonah and the others know we're here now," Max said.

  "They would be waiting for us in the future – that was the plan," Sierra said.

  "And if we didn't keep our appointment? Wouldn't they come back to where we are now, to see what happened to us?" Max asked.

  "I suppose so," Sierra said. "But then where are they?"

  * * *

  Sierra and Max walked back out into the night, and rented a room in an inn about two miles down the road. They promptly fell sound asleep, had a light breakfast of dates and watered wine the next morning, and went back to the dwelling. The outside looked as it had the night before, but the inside was different. Against the far wall was a chair.

  "Can you tell exactly what time it arrived?" Max asked.

  "No," Sierra said, "not on this kind of older model."

  "Well, this is at least good news, right?"

  "Depends on who arrived in the chair," Sierra replied.

  "Yeah, but at least we have proof that the chair is still in service in this place," Max said. "So do we wait here?"

  Sierra shook her head no. "It's not safe here."

  "How about the Agora?" Max asked. "You told me you met all sorts of interesting people there – it's a logical place for a time traveler to go. We can keep watch in a corner and be relatively safe – it's still in business now, right?"

  "Yes," Sierra said, "good idea."

  The two left the dwelling, but only got slightly beyond Achilles in stone when a hooded figure from the direction of the Agora approached them on the road.

  Sierra and Max drew their weapons. The hooded figure withdrew her hood. "Sierra," the android said, and nodded at Sierra and Max. "I was able to put an update into the chair in the future, to make its arrival times more precise. I thought the two of you were due here this morning."

  "The winds were in our favor," Max said. "We made good time."

  The android nodded again.

  "You have the ability to improve the programming in the chairs?" Sierra asked the android.

  The android nodded. "I learned that from you – you're the one who made the improved chairs, the first one in the Library of Alexandria, and then updates for all the others. That would be about ten years in your future."

  Sierra took it in. Then reacted to the obvious. "Where is Synesius? And Jonah and his wife?"

  "This is not be best place to talk, in the open like this," the android responded. "There is a taverna down the road."

  * * *

  Sierra was struck hard by the death of Synesius.

  "With his sons and his wife gone, he was devoted to his work," the android said.

  "He was devoted to you," Max said to Sierra, trying to be supportive.

  "He knew he was to die in less than an year, whatever else was happening," the android continued, "and, actually, his death in original history may even have been in 413 AD. The only thing historians are sure of is that Synesius died before the death of Hypatia, because given how close he was to her – to you – he certainly would have written something about that, and his writings from this period have all survived as far as we know."

  "I'm sick of this face!" Sierra said loudly, tears in her ears, hand grasping the bottom of her chin. Several patrons of the taverna looked at her. "I'm not Hypatia. I'm going to get back my original face as soon as I. . . ." She thought the better of completing her thought.

  "As soon as you go back as Hypatia one last time to Alexandria?" Max completed the thought. "That's not going to happen."

  "Why would you do that?" the android asked Sierra. "Saving Synesius now makes no sense, whatever you felt about him. Changing events publicly marked in history is dangerous, you know that. It's one thing saving someone who was not supposed to die" – she gestured to Max–

  "I didn't quite die in the first place," Max said, "as far as I know."

  "I know," the android said. "I was just using you as a hypothetical example. Going back in time to save you, if you had been killed before your time, which you nearly were, would be completely different than trying to alter history by preventing Synesius from dying at the time in which he was already recorded as dying."

  "He might well have lived a little longer," Sierra said quietly.

  "Saving Synesius is not the main reason she wants to go back to Alexandria," Max said even more quietly.

  He knew the reason was that Sierra was hoping Alcibiades would yet come out of the woodwork of history to save her as Hypatia from the Nitrian fanatics. She wanted to see him at least one more time – wanted that so much that she would flagrantly risk her life for the chance. "What Synesius wanted above all else was to keep you from Alexandria in 415 AD or any time close to it and those Nitrian maniacs," Max confined himself to saying.

  * * *

  The three headed back to the dwelling with the chair.

  "I still think there's an argument for waiting for Jonah and Ruth," Max said. The android had told them that she had no idea where the couple was or what had happened to them. He still did not trust her completely.

  "It's the dime versus ten pennies choice again," Sierra said. "If we can get at least one of the scrolls safely to the future, that's better than waiting until we have in hand all that we took from the library." She did not specifically mention the Chronica, but hoped Max got the point.

  Max nodded. "Who should go first if there's only one chair? I pick not me."

  "I would say just the opposite, either one of you but not me," Sierra said.

  "We are a self-effacing trio, aren't we," the android said with a sour smile. "I was just about to say either one of you, but not me. I am not human, as you know."

  "You do not fear death?" Max asked the android.

  The android considered. "I suppose I do. I enjoy my existence and want to continue my work."

  "Well, then, you're human enough," Max said.

  "Not to mention that you carry the catalog in your head, and you can defend yourself better than either one of us, if you encounter immediate hostility in the future," Sierra said.

  "The same could be said if I stay here in the past," the android said.

  "True, but there will be two of us here in the past and one only us in the future, until the chair is returned," Sierra said.

  "With any luck, that should be instantly, right?" Max asked.

  "Yes," the android said, "but whichever way we do this, one of us will be alone in the future for a brief time at the start of our journey and one of us will be alone in the past for a brief time at the end of it. The real question is where we think we're most likely to encounter Heron – here or in the future? I should be in the more dangerous place."

  "Heron uses legionaries in the future?" Max asked.

  "They're not dressed as legionaries, of course, but they're his legionaries," Sierra replied.

  The dwelling was now in sight down the path.

  "It's more dangerous in the future," Max said, "because we'll have no idea what's awaiting us there until we're there. Here, at least, we can see what's coming."

  * * *

  The chair was exactly where it had been a few hours earlier. The android sat and adjusted the controls to 2061 AD. They had decided on that yea
r as a first stop because Sierra had indicated she had some firsthand knowledge of that time. "I also installed an effect-damper, so you don't need to leave the room," the android said this to Sierra. "Again, as per your improvements in the future."

  The chair vanished with the android and reappeared a second later.

  "So she didn't run into any trouble in the future," Sierra said.

  "Unless she didn't run into any trouble for her but happily encountered trouble for us. Meaning – she's working for Heron," Max said.

  "I know what you mean," Sierra said. "Look, I don't trust her completely either – that's why I didn't buttress my argument for you taking the first trip in the chair by pointing out that you have the Chronica."

  "I got that," Max said. "So great, we both understand each other. And I suppose the next thing you're going to say is I should now get in the chair, because I carry the Chronica." He pulled it out of his robe. "Here, you take it. Now you're the one we most need to go to the future."

  Sierra refused it. "If something goes wrong with the chair, if for some reason it doesn't come back here, I know much more about this past than you do. I am much more likely to find another chair – either here, or in Londinium, or wherever."

  Max shook his head no, then suddenly pulled Sierra close. "I don't want to lose you again," he said, in a thick, ragged voice,

  "I don't want to lose you either." Sierra pressed her face against Max.

  "Do you promise," Max said, "if I leave you here, that you'll go to 2061 as soon as the chair returns, and not take it someplace else – like 415 AD – and then back to Alexandria?"

  Sierra kissed Max deeply.

  "That's good," he said, catching his breath, "but that's no answer."

  "I promise," Sierra said, softly.

  * * *

  The chair vanished with Max. It reappeared a few minutes later. The minutes felt like hours or more to Sierra, and she had no idea why the chair was longer in returning this time.

  She sat in the chair and confirmed that the destination had been correctly set. She breathed in deeply and pressed the go button. The cosmos kissed her.

  She opened her eyes and breathed in the air of the future. She knew it had more irritants and pollutants than the 150 AD air she had just been breathing, but it still smelled good and familiar and like home.

  She looked around the room. She saw the android. "Where's Max?"

  Chapter Fourteen

  [Athens, 2061 AD]

  "We had a heated discussion for a few minutes, and despite my best advice, he took a cab to the Hippocrates Medical Center," the android said to Sierra about Max. "And depending on what he finds there, he'll either come back here or go to the Realport and get on a hypersonic to New York."

  "What does he hope to find at the hospital?" Sierra asked, though she thought she knew.

  "Either Alcibiades or your Mr. Appleton," the android replied. "They are the ones he's seeking, as I'm sure you know. I told him they were already gone several days – I deliberately set the chair so that our paths could not cross – but Max needed to see that for himself."

  Sierra considered going to the hospital herself.

  "You're more likely to miss each other if you rush to Hippocrates now," the android said, reading Sierra's emotions.

  "Why did the chair take minutes rather than seconds to get back to me?" Sierra demanded, eager to change the subject. She agreed with the android that running after Max in these circumstances was not a good idea – he could well be gone when she got to the hospital, and what then? With any luck, he'd come back here after finding that Alcibiades and Appleton had left.

  "I have feelings, I have no better control of my emotions than do you," the android replied. "I was not quite my precise self when I punched in the destination time. I was surprised by Max's intensity."

  Sierra was surprised, too – that Max hadn't waited here. Her mind raced. This android had said that Sierra knew that Max would be seeking Alcibiades or Appleton, and the android was right. But did the android know that Sierra knew that Max had very different motives in wanting to see the two men? His motive for seeing Appleton here would likely be to give him the Chronica – on the one hand, not as safe as depositing the scroll with Appleton in his Riverdale home in 1895, but Appleton in any place and time was less of a target than Max, and therefore a safer holder of the scroll. But Sierra and Max had taken great care to make sure no one, including the android, knew about the Chronica. And it still did not make sense that Max would take off to meet Appleton, with Sierra just a split second away. No, Max was after Alcibiades, and his motives for wanting to see him were completely different. Now her heartbeat accelerated to the speed of her spinning brain. She needed to see Alcibiades, too–

  Sierra realized the android was looking at her. She had an odd expression in her eyes. "Had you taken more care with the chair's settings, I would have arrived here before Max left," Sierra said. "I think you delayed my arrival deliberately – or there is something else going on that you haven't told me about. What is it?"

  The android sighed, mightily.

  Well, at least you're likely telling the truth about your emotions, Sierra thought.

  "I revealed something to Max," the android said slowly, "I thought he needed to know."

  Sierra looked at the android questioningly.

  "He wanted to know more about you and Alcibiades," the android said.

  Sierra nodded. That made sense.

  The android sighed again, "Max loves you very deeply."

  "I know," Sierra said, barely audibly.

  "Do you know why Alcibiades has not come to find you, since you parted in the prison of Socrates in 399 BC?"

  "Is he dead?" Sierra asked in a choked voice. She had held these molten feelings at bay for so long.

  "No," the android said. "What I mean to say is Alcibiades did not die at the age you knew him – he grew old and eventually died of natural causes."

  Sierra discovered that tears were running down her cheeks.

  "Alcibiades thought he discovered that you and he were Heron's parents," the android continued.

  "What?"

  "He learned all about DNA in your future."

  "So he stayed away from me because he was afraid that we would bring Heron into being?"

  "Yes."

  "But he did not make me pregnant in the time we spent together, and I have not seen him since." Now Sierra's voice was loud and pitched. "Will we meet again?"

  "I do not think so."

  "But Heron exists. How–"

  "Alcibiades slept with many women. He was sure that he was Heron's father – he was either mistaken about you being Heron's mother, or he forced history to take another turn. But by staying away from you, Alcibiades made sure you were not Heron's mother. Then the universe's resistance to change, its inertia in changing whatever was, directed Alcibiades to unknowingly seed the womb of another women, from which Heron was born."

  * * *

  It took several minutes or more for Sierra's thoughts to clear, and the first thing she saw clearly was that Max was still not back. "We can't wait here any longer," she said to the android, "Heron has been to this restaurant at least half a dozen times that I know of."

  The android nodded and tapped her head with her index finger. "I have to find a terminal so I can upload the Library's catalog to some safe place and give you the password. But it's difficult to find terminals in this age of clouds, which would be far more vulnerable than terminals to Heron's hackers."

  "Hospitals usually have terminals with special encryptions just in case there's a cloud burst," Sierra said.

  "My arm could also use a little medical attention," the android said, and touched her robe. "I got this by the harbor in Alexandria."

  "Nothing too serious, I hope?"

  "No," the android replied, and carefully opened the door. "I timed our arrival to be too early in the morning for anyone to be here."

  "Good." Sierra looked at the locker on th
e far side of the room – it was just as she had remembered, and it was not locked. "We have to put on suitable clothes. I assume Max did the same?"

  The android nodded and walked with Sierra to the locker. The two put their scrolls on the floor and began taking off all of their clothes, which they placed in a bag marked "ancient" in the locker. It always occurred to Sierra whenever she thought about it that this total change of clothing including her undergarments was the time traveler's equivalent of every mother's advice to put on clean underwear every day, in case you got into an accident and had to go to the hospital. If Sierra had to be rushed unconscious to the Hippocrates or any other hospital in Athens 2061 AD, the last thing she needed the orderlies or doctors to see was the strophium she had just removed from around her breasts and the skimpy subligar from below her waist.

  Sierra also noticed, as the android removed similar garments, that she looked 100% a woman bare naked, too. In fact, better than most women Sierra had seen this way in this or any other millennium. The two quickly donned contemporary clothing, including jackets with inner pockets big enough to carry their scrolls. "Which colors did Max take? So I can spot him at a distance."

  "Deep blue, he looked good," the android replied. "The clothing in this time and place, in this time of year especially, is pretty much the same for men and women."

  The two exited the restaurant. There were real clouds in the sky, angry with coming rain. But Sierra still found the jolt of 21st century air restorative.

  The android summoned a robocab, which arrived 8 minutes later. "Hippocrates Center?" the warm male baritone with a Greek finish inquired.

  "Yes," the android replied. Her fingers danced quickly over the pay pad on the back of the driver's seat. "I'm running up quite a tab here," she said.

  "Who's paying for this?" Sierra asked.

  "You, in the future," the android replied.

  Sierra nodded absently. She suddenly was thinking the android had still not given her a complete explanation of why Max had bolted to this hospital – maybe there was something more the android had told him. Alcibiades supposing that he and Sierra could be Heron's parents was a punch in the stomach, no doubt, but more to Sierra than Max. Was there something else, relating more directly to Max and Alcibiades, that the android had revealed?