The Argonaut Affair

by Simon Hawke

  "That's putting it mildly, Major," said Delaney. Curtis nodded. "I guess it is, at that. Okay, synchronize coordinates. Mission clock in effect as of now. Remember, if you don't come through by tomorrow night, P.R.T., we're gone."

  "And so are we," said Steiger. "Right. I'm logging crossover. Good luck." They stripped out of their coveralls and removed their boots to strap on their sandals. Then they picked up their ordnance, which consisted of spears, shields, short swords and bows and arrows. They shook hands with Major Curtis, then set off single file toward the confluence point. As Curtis watched, they went between the marking stakes and disappeared from view, into another universe.

  2

  There was no physical sensation associated with the crossover, no tangible evidence of the confluence point itself other than a complete change of scenery from one step to the next. From the verdant valley at the foot of the Italian Alps, they stepped through a rupture in timespace and came out in ancient Greece, centuries displaced from their last footsteps and a universe away.

  It was suddenly much warmer. They could feel the balmy breezes coming in off the Aegean Sea. They were in a wooded area several miles from the base of Mount Pelion. The scene was beautiful, peaceful and bucolic, every color seemed painted in its most vivid shade. The sky overhead was an almost cloudless, turquoise blue and the green hues of the forest were sharp and bright. Even the earth tones seemed to have a greater depth to them, a warmer substance. There was no question but that they were elsewhere.

  The first thing they did was orient themselves by taking their bearings and checking their position with the map. It was imperative to program the new timespace coordinates so they could clock back to the exact same time and place. It was necessary for them to have selected a precise "window of opportunity" for crossover, because no one knew yet how temporal paradox might affect a confluence point. Temporal paradox was to be avoided in any case, but especially in an area of timestream instability. It wouldn't do for them to run into Major Curtis and his Rangers while they had been conducting their scouting expedition. Careful timing was essential, especially in such a narrow chronological band.

  They double-checked their transition coordinates and double-checked again the synchronization of their warp discs, then quickly left the confluence area, heading in a westerly direction. They made their way toward the Anaurus River, following the exact route laid out for them by Major Curtis, one designed to make certain they did not encounter the Ranger scouting party while it had been conducting its crossover reconnaissance.

  "According to this map," said Andre, "we're about three miles from the river at this point. Curtis marked out the ford, but we'll probably have to do some walking up and down the bank to find it. It's not exactly the best map in the world."

  "He didn't exactly have a hell of a lot of time," said Steiger. He glanced up at the sky. "I figure we've probably got about three or four hours of daylight left." It had been morning when they left, about half an hour ago. "I suggest we make straight for the river, get across it before dark and then make camp," Steiger said. "I'd like to put as much distance between us and the confluence point as possible."

  Delaney nodded. "You're thinking about the possibility of hostile Observers?"

  "It's something we can't afford to overlook," said Steiger. "So far as we know, they haven't discovered this confluence yet and chances are they may not find it at all, but I'd feel a lot safer a good distance from the site."

  "I'd feel a lot safer if we knew how they can track our warp discs," Andre said.

  During their last mission in the 19th century, on the northwest frontier of the British Raj, they had been captured by soldiers from the congruent universe. They discovered their counterparts in the other timeline possessed the ability to scan for warp discs, most likely tracing them through their energy fields. It was a technology the Temporal Corps scientists had not yet been able to defeat or duplicate.

  "Well, there's not much we can do about that," said Delaney. "We can't get around carrying the discs. There's no way back without them. At least the odds are in our favor. For the hostiles to track our discs, they'd have to be in the area and they'd have to be scanning. Remember when they traced us in Afghanistan that time, they couldn't do it right away. They knew we were operating in the area, but it still took some time for them to find us."

  "If they had an Observer outpost back here, they'd probably have known about us by now," said Steiger. "Still, I think we should refrain from using the discs unless it's absolutely necessary. No point in giving them a stronger signal to lock onto. If we start teleporting to decrease our travel time, we just might register on somebody's scanner and then they'll be out here in force, sweeping the area."

  "I agree," Delaney said.

  "There is one other thing we never got around to discussing," Andre said. She looked at Steiger. "You're the ranking officer. Are you taking command of this operation?"

  Steiger thought a moment. "I will if you want me to, but I'm not used to working that way. I don't really think a team of three needs a chain of command. Besides, I may have more experience with covert temporal operations, but you two have more experience adjusting temporal disruptions."

  "Only none of us has any experience with creating temporal disruptions," Andre said.

  "I guess that makes us even," Steiger said. "If it's all the same with you, I'm not going to start off our partnership by leaning on my rank. I couldn't care less about chain of command. You two have worked together before and I'm a Johnny-come-lately. Better I should work on fitting in with your methods of operation than take charge and mess up something that works. How did you function with Priest?"

  "Lucas was technically in command," said Finn, "but we never played it strictly by the book. We worked best by improvising, even if it meant bending a few rules."

  Steiger nodded. "Sounds good to me. Rules sometimes get in the way. Besides, I was never very good at taking orders, so I'm not too fond of giving them myself. I've always been an undercover man. I still haven't gotten used to people saluting me, much less addressing me as Colonel."

  Delaney grinned. "I think we'll get along."

  "I was wondering about our symbiotracers," Andre said. She looked at Steiger. "You think Dr. Darkness will be able to find us here?"

  "I haven't got the faintest idea how the damn things work," said Steiger, "but then neither does anybody else. Darkness is light-years ahead of the scientists in R & D. They can't even figure out how he managed to make particle level chronocircuitry. The fact that it's molecular bonding drives them nuts. If they could figure out how to do it, they'd do it with warp discs."

  "If they could make that work, it wouldn't be a bad idea," said Delaney.

  Steiger smiled. "No, it wouldn't. I didn't have the heart to tell them Darkness was already working on it. We know warp discs function in either timestream, because soldiers from the congruent universe had no trouble getting around in ours. It's my understanding the symbiotracers work on similar principles, which means they might work here. Just the same, I wouldn't count on any help from Dr. Darkness. He told me he's not going to attempt crossing over until he has more information about the congruent universe. He has no way of telling how his subatomic structure would react to a convergence."

  "Why should it react any differently from ours?" said Andre.

  "How much do you know about tachyons?" said Steiger. "Not much," she said.

  "Well, he won't admit it," Steiger said, "but Darkness probably doesn't know much more about them than you do. How do you study something that's faster than light? Especially when it's yourself. He has no way of knowing what will happen to his tachyonized state if he crosses over through a confluence. He might very well wind up departing in all different directions at six hundred times the speed of light."

  "Instant discorporation," Andre said. "I can see why he might be concerned. He's a strange man. You know, you never told us how you met him."

  "That's because I'm not exactl
y sure myself," said Steiger. "He just materialized out of thin air one day and started giving me instructions, as if we'd been working together for years. He's quite a character. Sort of a human deus ex machina. He has agents of his own scattered throughout all of time, mostly people in the Underground. He knew all about me, so he obviously has access to all sorts of top secret information. Then again, how hard would it be for him to find out anything he wanted to know? How do you stop someone who's faster than light? He's living proof that there are more things to heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy, as the old saying goes."

  "Shakespeare," Delaney said, identifying the quotation. "Prince Hamlet to Horatio."

  Steiger smiled, "No, actually it was Mooney Dravott."

  "Who?"

  "Mooney Dravott," Steiger said. "He was a fine old Elizabethan drunk. Shakespeare used him as the model for Falstaff. Mooney would get ripped and say the most amazing things. Bill wrote them down and used them in his plays."

  "Bill?" said Delaney. "You knew Shakespeare?"

  "Oh, yeah," said Steiger. "Nice fella. I met him while I was gathering intelligence on the Temporal Underground in the late 16th century. He would have been amused to know how well his work came to be regarded and how long it has survived. He didn't take it all that seriously himself. To him, it was just a living, something he did for enjoyment and to make money. He used to say, 'It beats acting.' He did a lot of his writing in pubs, soliciting reactions and taking suggestions from just about anybody. He wrote for the people, so he had a high regard for their opinion. Much of what he wrote was taken from history, but he was more interested in the story for its own sake than in historical accuracy, which is one of the reasons I always suspect history as handed down to us by storytellers."

  "Such as Apollonius of Rhodes, you mean," said Andre.

  "Exactly."

  "I keep thinking about the mission programming," said Delaney. "I've seen a lot of strange things, but if it wasn't for the centaur, I wouldn't have bought any of it."

  "I'm not sure that's not the right approach," said Steiger. "Just because we caught a centaur who-or is it which?-corroborated some of the details of an ancient fable doesn't necessarily mean it's all true. If Apollonius really was picking up on psychic impressions of this place, how much of what he wrote can be considered reliable information and how much the result of a primitive mind attempting to make sense of science and technology beyond its grasp?"

  Delaney frowned. "What are you saying?"

  "Well, I've been trying to think of rational explanations for what seem to be irrational or supernatural elements in the story," said Steiger. "Maybe their technological development here is completely at variance with what we would expect at the same period in our timeline. But that's only one possible explanation. We're at war with the congruent universe. Intelligence is important to each side. It would be in their best interests to supply us with disinformation. Maybe we're actually dealing with a universe in which certain physical laws are different from those in our own timeline. On the other hand, suppose the centaur was actually created by genetic engineers in the future of this universe. This whole thing could be a setup."

  "Interesting idea," said Andre, "but it doesn't seem very likely."

  "Why not?"

  "All right, let's assume that was what happened," Andre said. "They created a centaur in their genetic labs, programmed it with disinformation about this timeline and sent it through the confluence to draw us here. For one thing, if that were the case, they could have taken us by now. And for another, it would require genetic engineering capabilities far in advance of our own."

  "And that's not impossible," said Steiger. "There's also the possibility that they could have taken us, only taking us this early in the game didn't fit in with their plans."

  "Okay, I'll grant you that," Andre said. "But then it still doesn't add up, because if the centaur had been programmed, it would have shown up in the psych team's debriefing session."

  "Maybe not," said Steiger. "What if they're better at psychological conditioning than we are? Can we make a centaur? There's still another possibility to consider. If this is some sort of setup and they really planned the operation carefully, they could have had people on the inside, on our interrogation team."

  Delaney whistled. "Boy, that's really getting paranoid!"

  "Sound too incredible to you?" said Steiger. "Don't forget, they managed to infiltrate Archives Section before and alter some of our records. There's every reason to suspect they could have managed to infiltrate us elsewhere. It sounds a lot more believable to me than the idea of gods and monsters being real."

  "Is that any less believable than my having been born in the 12th century?" said Andre, playing devil's advocate. "The first time I saw a suit of armor made from nysteel, I thought it was magic. The first time I saw someone make a temporal transition, I thought he was a sorcerer appearing out of thin air. Well, wasn't he, in a sense? Where does technology stop and magic begin? Isn't it just a matter of perspective?"

  "I suppose it all depends on whether an immortal is actually a god or someone who's achieved the ultimate in life extension," Steiger said.

  "But what exactly is a god?" said Andre. "Whose definition are we using?"

  Steiger smiled, "Why don't we wait until we meet one? Then we can go right to the source."

  They reached the river shortly before dark without encountering anyone, mortal or immortal. The crossing did not prove difficult to find; it was almost exactly where Major Curtis had indicated it on his hastily drawn map. The river flowed swiftly and the water came up to their thighs, so it was necessary for them to move slowly and carry their weapons high as they waded across. They made camp not far from the riverbank. The night was warm and they decided to sleep under the stars, taking turns standing watch. It felt strange hearing the familiar sounds of crickets and nightbirds, seeing familiar constellations and knowing they were in another universe.

  As their fire died down, Steiger reached into it and removed a glowing branch. He used it to light a cigarette.

  "That's very non-regulation, you know," Delaney said. "You're not supposed to bring things like that through to Minus Time."

  Steiger grinned. "You want a drag?"

  "Sure."

  Steiger passed him the cigarette.

  They took turns standing watch and the night passed uneventfully. At dawn, they rose and washed up in the river, then checked the baited hooks they had left in the water overnight. Each of them had caught a fish. They were trained in survival techniques, but so far their journey was less a mission than a pleasant hike. Living off the land would pose no problem. As they were finishing their breakfast of cooked fish, someone hailed their campsite from the riverbank.

  Exchanging glances, they made sure their weapons were within easy reach before replying to the call. A moment later, a slender, strikingly handsome young man came through the trees and stopped a short distance away from them. Like them, he was dressed in a knee-length chiton and a short mantle draped over one shoulder. He carried a small leather pouch and a bronze spear. A knife was tucked into his girdle. He had dark, curly hair that was in need of cutting. His cheeks were youthfully smooth. His features were well defined, with prominent cheekbones, a high forehead, a sharp nose and a slightly squared chin. His eyes were dark and his mouth had a proud, stubborn look about it.

  "I did not wish to come into your camp and take you unaware," said the young man, "so I gave warning of my presence. As you see, I am alone and mean no harm."

  "Come forward, then," said Delaney. "If you are hungry, we still have some food left."

  The young man stepped forward and they could not help but notice that he wore only one sandal.

  "The price of doing someone a good turn," he explained, noticing their gaze and glancing down at his unshod foot. "I was carrying a poor old woman across the river on my back. She would have been drowned for certain on her own; the current is swift and she was too frail to have
stood against it. My foot became caught between two stones halfway across. While I struggled to free it, the strap upon my sandal broke. With the old woman on my back, I could not have tried to catch it before it was swept away. Faced with a choice between the loss of an old woman or a sandal, I chose to lose the sandal. The proper choice to make, I think, if not the most convenient one."

  He dropped his spear on the ground and sat down beside them. "I will trade you figs for fish," he said, opening his leather pouch and passing them several fruits. "I am Jason, son of Aeson, rightful king of Iolchos. I am on my journey home to claim my birthright." He said this as casually as if he had been remarking upon the weather. "I am called Fabius," said Delaney. "And these are my friends and traveling companions, Creon and Atalanta. We travel to Iolchos, also."

  "Excellent," said Jason. "We shall all go together, then." It did not seem to occur to him they might not want to all go together. He simply accepted it as a matter of course.

  "I heard Pelias is king in Iolchos," Andre said, to see how Jason would react.

  "The throne does not belong to him," said Jason, his mouth full of fish. He spat out several bones, "He took it from my father and now I will come and take it back from him."

  "All by yourself?" said Steiger.

  "It is mine by right," said Jason, simply.

  "Pelias might not see it that way," Steiger said.

  "It matters not how Pelias might see it," Jason said, masticating furiously. "The kingdom is mine to claim and claim it I shall."

  "But what if Pelias disputes your claim?" said Andre.

  "Then I will have to challenge him. I do not wish to do this, so I intend to ask him to step down of his own free will. He will have to see that right is on my side and so I must prevail."