Argonaut Affair

1

The mission team sat in the darkened briefing room, watching the holographic presentation. The three-dimensional laser image of the centaur slowly revolved before them as the recorded voice of Dr. Hazen dispassionately described the examination procedure. At the appropriate moment in the briefing, the image of the centaur dissolved to the scanner graph recording, showing the interior organs and the skeletal structure. At the point where the recording switched to the psych team's debriefing session, Forrester allowed it to continue for a few moments, so the agents could have an opportunity to see the centaur, in its conditioned state, responding to the questions put to it in ancient Greek. The he switched the projection off and brought the lights back up.

"The centaur's name is Chiron," he said. "A check with Archives Section reveals that the name first appeared in old Greek legends. Its earliest recorded mention is reported in a story told by Apollonius of Rhodes, one of the librarians of Alexandria. According to the story, which was reputedly based upon actual exploits of seamen of the Mycenaean Bronze Age, Chiron was half-man, half-horse; a teacher who lived in a cave on Mount Pelion centuries before the time of Christ. The young boys who were brought to him for instruction became the greatest heroes of the ancient legends, among them Jason, Theseus and Hercules. The centaur confirmed this information during the interrogation session."

"Confirmed it?" said Delaney. "But those are all mythical figures!"

Forrester made a wry face. "Indeed they are, Captain. As are centaurs, I believe."

Under other circumstances, the exchange would have been funny, but no one laughed.

"What we are apparently confronted with," Forrester continued, "is our first example of how the congruent universe differs from ours. The centaur came through a confluence, appearing in our timestream during the year 219 b.c., at the beginning of the Second Punic War. It caused a considerable amount of excitement among some of Hannibal's troops before our Observers on the scene were able to capture the creature and clock back with it. I won't bother speculating whether our happening to have Observers on the scene was pure dumb luck or a manifestation of the Fate Factor, magnified by inertial surge in the presence of a confluence. I'll leave that brain bender to the scientists. Zen physics only gives me headaches. I'll simply concentrate on what this creature's appearance in our timestream means to us.

"The centaur provides us with our first piece of hard evidence supporting the theory that the physical laws of the congruent universe might not be the same as ours. There is also the question of the temporal focus of the centaur's appearance in our timeline. It came through in the year 219 b.c., but according to Archives Section, the story which mentions the creature dates back at least six centuries before the time of Christ. Either the chronology of the congruent universe is radically different from ours or the congruence has caused an even more pronounced ripple in the timestreams than we realized."

"Excuse me, sir," said Andre Cross. "Does this mean a confluence point which occurs at, say, the 18th century in our universe might lead to another time period entirely in the congruent universe?"

"Quite possibly," said Forrester. "We don't know exactly what that means, though. It's possible that crossing over through a confluence point which occurs in our universe during the 18th century, to follow your example, might bring you to the 20th century, in the congruent universe, or the 25th or the 14th or any other century. But we still have no knowledge of what those time periods in the congruent universe are like. We believe the congruent universe is a mirror image of our own, but we now think it's a sort of funhouse mirror. Distorted, by our standards."

"Which means anyone going through would be going in blind," said Finn Delaney. "There would be no temporal reference. And we wouldn't have any idea what time period we might end up in."

"Correct," said Forrester. "However, we've already taken steps to work within those parameters. I've incorporated most of the former T.I.A. field agents now under my command into a new type of Pathfinder unit. This new unit has been designated as the 1st Ranger Pathfinder Division. Their function will be to go through confluence points as advance scouts for a mission team. They will be equipped with full battle kit, with orders to avoid unnecessary contact with locals if possible, but to engage any enemy decisively if they encounter hostility. Their primary responsibility will be to gather intelligence. However, if they are placed at risk, their secondary mission will be to conduct a quick guerrilla strike, inflict as much damage and as many casualties as possible and then get back fast so they can neutralize any hostiles coming through into our own timeline. Obviously, it's preferable to gather intelligence which allow a mission team to go through and conduct a covert operation designed to achieve maximum temporal disruption, but failing that, better to conduct a quick blind strike which may or may not cause significant temporal damage than to lose any of our people.

"The breakdown for this type of operation will be as follows: one, as soon as a confluence is pinpointed and logged, a commando unit will be clocked back to set up an outpost, providing security on our side of the confluence. A unit has already been dispatched to cover the confluence point through which the centaur came into our timeline. Two, a Ranger unit will effect crossover into the congruent universe for the purpose of gathering intelligence. If they do not encounter immediate resistance, they will utilize available local resources to blend in and gather whatever intelligence they can. If feasible, they may be directed to capture locals and bring them back for interrogation. Three, a mission team of adjustment specialists will effect crossover with instructions, based on intelligence gathered by the Rangers, to conduct a coven operation aimed at creating a significant historical disruption in the congruent universe. Four, units of the newly organized Temporal Counter-Insurgency Strike Force based in Galveston will stand by on alert status in the event hostiles attempt to effect a crossover into our timeline.

"Needless to say, this does not cover all contingencies. We are still vulnerable in the event that hostiles from the congruent universe discover a confluence point we are unaware of and send units through to cause disruptions in our timeline, as they did in the Khyber Pass. We were lucky that time, but we need to guard against something like that happening again. For this reason, all available temporal divisions are being broken up and reorganized, converted to Observer squadrons. We clearly cannot begin to cover all of recorded time. Nevertheless, we have to try. We can only hope that between mobile Observer squadrons looking out for temporal anomalies and members of the Temporal Underground providing unofficial intelligence support, we can spot disruptions and clock out adjustment teams to effect repair before the damage becomes permanent. Word has been unofficially leaked through channels that will reach the Temporal Underground so far as that's concerned. They'll cooperate. They have no choice, since their existence is at stake, as well. So if you want to be optimistic, you might say it's business as usual, only more intensified. Much more. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the overview. Now, we get down to the specifics of this case.

"The appearance of the centaur brings up an interesting question. As Capt. Delaney pointed out, centaurs are mythical beings, yet here we are confronted with one in the flesh."

"Horseflesh," said Delaney. Forrester ignored him.

"The debriefing session with the centaur produced the names of individuals who, according to our history, are also mythical figures. Jason, Theseus, Hercules and others. Yet there is some question about that. There is, for example, evidence showing Theseus actually lived. He was described in Plutarch's writings. We don't know for certain about some of the others, such as Hercules. There exist a number of versions of the story of Jason and the Argonauts and there are a number of irreconcilable details. Reconciling those details would require a mission in itself and it would only give us intelligence about what happened in our timeline. What happened in the congruent universe could be something entirely different.

"Archives Section feels this situation has raised a number of fascinating questions. For example, is it possible that our mythology, to a certain point, is their history? And does that then suggest that our history is their mythology? Or are we confronted with some sort of metaphysical transtemporal contamination? In other words, is our mythology the direct result of the situation confronting us today? Has the congruence of the two timelines resulted in a sort of trans-temporal psychic leakage to which espersensitive individuals are susceptible? When Apollonius of Rhodes wrote his Argronautica, was he actually subconsciously picking up images and impressions from the congruent universe? If this is the case, then we might have a basis for gathering intelligence about the congruent universe from the mythology of our own history. Archives Section is particularly anxious for information which might corroborate this theory."

"I think someone in Archives Section has gone right around the bend," said Finn Delaney.

Forrester heard the not quite sotto voce comment. "Perhaps, Capt. Delaney. But what if going 'around the bend,' as you put it, leads to the congruent universe?"

Delaney grimaced. "That's what I love about zen physics," he said. "The more you understand about it, the less you know."

"The important thing is that you understand what our priorities are," said Forrester. "First and foremost, we need to safeguard the integrity of our own timeline. Only after we've made certain no hostiles can cross over through a confluence, either intentionally or by accident, can we contemplate sending a mission team through. These teams will be kept small, as in historical adjustment situations, in order to maximize covert flexibility and minimize the chances of discovery before the mission can be completed. We don't want to risk a mission team blowing its cover and falling into the hands of S.O.G. interrogation teams. The first mission will, assuming it's successful, teach us a great deal about how these operations should be conducted. Consequently, I'm sending in our best team. Capt. Delaney and Lt. Cross, you will report to mission programming immediately following this briefing. Since you have already had experience working in the field with Col. Steiger, he will be joining your team, replacing the late Lt. Col. Priest. The rest of you will provide mission support on this end. You will clock out to reinforce the outpost team stationed at the confluence point. With the exception of the mission team, you will draw full battle kit in addition to period ordnance and report for mission programming. The crossover team will carry period ordnance only. Any questions?"

"Just one, sir," said Finn Delaney. "What exactly is our mission?"

"You will cross over into the region known as Mount Pelion," said Forrester, "located near the kingdom of Iolchos in Thessaly. There you will make contact with Jason, son of the deposed King Aeson of Iolchos. Your orders are to gather intelligence and create a historical disruption in the timeline of the congruent universe."

"Sure," Delaney said, wryly. "We'll infiltrate the argonauts and steal the golden fleece."

"Interesting idea," said Forrester. "If, in fact, they do find the golden fleece, see if you can bring it back with you. I'd like to see it."

The mission briefing was unusual, to say the least. According to the legend, Phrixus and Helle were brother and sister, the children of King Athamas of Minua. Their mother was the cloud nymph Nephele, but Athamas also had two children with a concubine named Ino. It was Ino's belief that if the children of King Athamas were dead, she would be able to convince him to adopt her own children as his heirs. When famine came to Minua, Ino's intrigues came to fruition. She convinced Athamas the gods were angry with him and that to regain their favor, he had to make a sacrifice. He had to give them that which he loved best. Ino insisted that if Athamas gave Phrixus and Helle to the gods, their anger would be appeased.

Driven by the effects of the famine on his kingdom and by Ino's ravings, Athamas ordered an altar built and tearfully sent word for Phrixus and Helle to be brought to the high priest. But Nephele learned of the peril to her children and refused to stand by and let them die. The god Hermes had given her a present of a flying ram and Nephele took Phrixus and Helle, set them on the ram's back and had the ram fly them to safety, forever out of reach of Athamas.

When Athamas learned that the ram had flown off with his children, he realized the gods had never intended for them to die and he went mad. In a fury, he killed one of Ino's children and Ino, escaping from him, leaped off a cliff with her other child in her arms. She fell into the sea and turned into a dolphin that would swim the waves forever, crying with its offspring at its breast. The people of Minua drove out their mad king and he was forced to wander miserably until he came to the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle told Athamas his fate would be to wander in penance for his sins until wild beasts would feast him as their guest. Mad and sorrowful, Athamas wandered starving through the wilderness until one day he encountered a pack of wolves. So fearsome was his appearance, the wolves ran off at the sight of him, leaving their kill. Athamas, desperate with starvation, threw himself upon the carcass of the sheep which they had left behind. In this way, a feast was provided for him by wild animals and the prophecy was fulfilled. Athamas recovered from his madness, founded a new settlement and eventually became a king again.

As to the fate of his two children, the ram flew far from Minua with Phrixus and Helle on its back. Helle became exhausted and lost her grip. She fell into the sea near Thrace and drowned. From that day on, the place where she fell bore the name of Hellespont. The ram flew on with Phrixus over the Euxine Sea to Colchis, on the Circassian coast. There it landed, spent, and promptly died of exhaustion. In recognition of the ram's heroic feat, the gods turned the ram's fleece into gold. Phrixus settled in Colchis and gave the golden fleece to King Aietes of Aea in exchange for his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In celebration of the union, Aietes hung the golden fleece upon an ancient beech tree in the sacred grove of Ares. It became the greatest treasure of his kingdom, a relic of the gods.

Phrixus did not have many years to live happily and peacefully in Colchis with his wife. When he died, his spirit had no rest because his body was buried far from his native land. Thereafter, he appeared often to the heroes of Minua in dreams, pleading with them to bring back the golden fleece so that his spirit could return with it and find rest.

Aeson of Iolchos was a cousin of Phrixus. He had a stepbrother named Pelias, who was said to be a nymph's son. When he was an infant, Pelias was abandoned in the mountains where he was meant to die, but a shepherd found him, nursed him back to health and raised him. When he became a man, Pelias returned to Iolchos and drove out King Aeson, who escaped to the mountains with his young son, Jason. At Mount Pelion, the deposed King Aeson encountered Chiron the centaur, a teacher in the arts of music, healing and warfare. Aeson gave his son into Chiron's care so the centaur could prepare him for the day when he would return to Iolchos and reclaim his birthright.

Jason grew up with Chiron and his other young students and remembering the wishes of his father, he learned his lessons well. He became accomplished in all Chiron had to teach him and he lived by the principles which Chiron preached. He vowed never to speak harshly to any soul whom he might meet upon his travels, to give his help to all in need of it and always to stand by his word.

When he grew into a young man, he left Mount Pelion and traveled back to Iolchos to reclaim the throne. On his journey home, he encountered an old woman on the banks of the river Anaurus. Frail and weak, she begged his help to cross the swiftly flowing river. Remembering his vow, Jason did not refuse her. He took her on his back and started to cross the river.

Halfway across, his foot became wedged between two rocks in the riverbed. In freeing his foot, he broke his sandal, which was swiftly carried away by the current. Jason was upset because he would have to enter Iolchos with one foot bare, looking like a beggar, but the old woman whom he had helped across the river was actually the goddess Hera, Queen of the Immortals on Olympus, in disguise and though he lost his sandal, Jason gained her favor.

When Jason came to Iolchos and arrived for an audience with King Pelias, the king was greatly disturbed. The Oracle of Delphi prophesied that he would lose his kingdom to a man who came to him wearing only one sandal. Thinking to rid himself of Jason, Pelias promised to relinquish his throne if Jason would bring back the golden fleece to Iolchos, thereby proving his worth to rule. Pelias knew such a quest would be hazardous and he was convinced Jason would never return from it.

Jason went to the Oracle of Delphi and asked for guidance. Speaking with the voice of Hera, the Oracle told him to seek out Argus, the shipwright, and to have him build a galley with fifty oars, then to send out a call for heroes to accompany him upon his quest. Then the Oracle told him to cut down the Speaking Oak of Dodona and give Argus the trunk to carve into a figurehead which would guide him on his voyage. Jason did as he was told and while the ship was being built, the call went out across the land for heroes to sail with him. When the ship was finished, it was named the Argo in honor of its builder. The crew, calling themselves the Argonauts, set sail from Iolchos on their quest for the golden fleece…

The programming run ended and Finn Delaney sat up, massaging his temples. Cybernetic programming always left him with a slight headache. He glanced over at Steiger, lying back in the contoured chair with his eyes closed. Andre Cross sat up and frowned.

"That was the strangest mission programming session I've ever had," she said. "Gods who walk with mortals, oracles that see into the future, flying rams, monsters, supernatural events…" She shook her head. "If I hadn't seen the centaur for myself, I'd swear someone played a joke and slipped in a fake program."

"I was thinking the same sort of thing," Delaney said. "It's impossible to take the story seriously. It's an ancient fable, after all. Still, there's the centaur…" He glanced at Steiger, still lying back with his eyes closed.

"Creed? "said Delaney.

Steiger grunted in reply.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm thinking," Steiger said.

"That could be dangerous," said Delaney, grinning.

Steiger opened his eyes, but didn't smile.

"It was a joke," Delaney said.

"I got that," Steiger said.

"Right," said Delaney. "Apparently what you don't got is a sense of humor."

"Everybody has their own way of breaking the tension just before a mission," Steiger replied. He glanced at Delaney. "Some people make jokes. I guess I'm not one of those people."

"How do you handle the tension?" Andre said.

Steiger swung his feet down onto the floor and stood. "I don't get tense."

Andre shook her head as she watched him leave the room, heading for the Ordnance Section. "I don't quite know what to make of him," she said. "We've been involved on several missions together, yet I still can't figure him out."

"He's been out in the cold too long," Delaney said. "Field agent Phoenix, man of a thousand lives. We've seen only two of them-Temporal Corps deserter Barry Martingale and Pathan warlord Sharif Khan. Both very different personalities. We haven't seen much of Creed Steiger yet."

"You make him sound schizophrenic," Andre said.

"That's one of the reasons I've always had a hard time working with T.I.A. people, especially field agents," said Delaney. "The best of them have never been too tightly wrapped. Remember our old friend, Carnehan, agent Mongoose? He was an excellent case in point."

"That doesn't sound like a promising analysis of our new partner," Andre said.

"Maybe it's not," Delaney said. "But on the other hand, he's a survivor. The fact that he made bird colonel in Temporal Intelligence speaks for itself. And don't forget we wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for his help on our last two missions."

"Do you really think he doesn't feel the tension?" Andre said.

"I don't know. I sure as hell do. Every time. Maybe he internalizes it. Some people just don't seem to get tense. They don't feel fear; they never panic."

"There's a word for people like that," Andre said.

"What word is that?"

"Crazy."

The outpost was located in the 2nd century B.C., high in the Alpine range overlooking the Po Valley. Several miles to the west was the pass through which Hannibal would take his 26,00 °Carthaginians to meet with the Roman consul Scipio at the Battle of Trebia. The three temporal agents materialized in the heart of the small outpost, which was well concealed in the rocks high above the valley.

Beneath their coveralls, the three agents wore lightweight chitons, the knee-length universal garment of the ancient Greeks. Made from wool and sometimes embroidered with borders covered by geometrical designs, chitons were rectangular one-piece garments worn draped over the left shoulder, leaving the right arm and shoulder bare. The chitons were sometimes pleated and usually fastened at the waist by girdles, little more than cords encircling the hips. They wore chlamys with their chitons, lightweight woolen capes or mantles which were fastened at the shoulder or the throat by brooches or fibulae, metal clasps resembling safety pins. Their warp discs were disguised as heavy silver bracelets.

They were met at the transition point by Major David Curtis, the officer in command of the outpost. He wore one-piece, lightweight battle fatigues and a plasma sidearm. "All clear on this end," Curds said. "Are you straight on S.O.P.?"

Standard Operating Procedure called for them to program the transition coordinates for the other side of the confluence as soon as they went through, checking them with the outpost unit to make certain the coordinates were consistent with the confluence point on the other side. They would then have a temporal reference for the location of the confluence, which would enable them to return to precisely the same place and time when they completed their mission.

Curtis and two of his Rangers accompanied them on the short hop to the confluence point location, at the foot of the Alpine range. "We go on foot from here," said Curtis. "We don't want to make a transition anywhere close to the confluence point itself. We don't know yet how warp disc fields might interact with a temporal convergence. Orders are to play it safe."

"What's the temporal range of the confluence point?" said Steiger.

"It's a short one," Curtis said. "Three days. We've mapped it backwards and forwards to make absolutely sure. The centaur came through yesterday, Present Reference Time, and we'll synchronize temporal coordinates to have you coming through tomorrow, P.R.T., on completion of your mission."

"That doesn't give us much timespace," Delaney said.

"True, but it works for us as well as against us," Curtis replied. "We've got one day either side of Present Reference and then the rippling effect displaces the convergence and the confluence dissipates. No way to track it; it doesn't shift and move on, it just disappears. That means the opposition probably won't find it unless they luck out like we did. Even if they do, we've got it covered throughout its duration."

"Where are the Carthaginians at this point?" Andre said.

"On their way through the pass," said Curtis. "We shouldn't be encountering them if we keep to the mission timetable. We don't want to hang around in this area very much beyond that point. That would be risking contact with either the Carthaginians or the Romans, maybe even both."

They came to a river and Curtis pointed out the picket emplacements where the Rangers had set up their perimeter watch. "We've already been through and back," he said. "The confluence is located directly in front of you, approximately fifteen feet away from the riverbank. We've staked it out." He pointed to the marking stakes planted in the ground. "Crude, but effective. Five feet beyond those stakes takes you through into ancient Greece in the congruent universe. You'll be crossing over into a heavily forested area approximately three miles from the foot of Mount Pelion."

He gave them a hand-drawn map. "I'm not the world's best cartographer, but this should serve you. It'll get you to the Anaurus River and from there to Iolchos. According to the centaur's debriefing, your arrival in Iolchos should coincide roughly with the arrival of Jason, allowing for the time it would take a man traveling on foot from Mount Pelion. The centaur couldn't provide further information, since obviously it could only tell us what it knew up to the time Jason departed from Mount Pelion. The centaur's been returned to its own timestream, so the situation has been normalized at that end. That's if you can call any situation involving a centaur normal." Curtis grimaced. "I don't envy you this trip. It's bound to be peculiar."

"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.