Argonaut Affair

6

When the Argonauts awoke, aided by buckets of seawater poured over them, they were surprised to find that they were back aboard the ship. As their hangovers subsided, their departure hastened by the brisk sea air, the Argonauts spoke of the beautiful women of Lemnos and the wonderful adventure they had, each of them embellishing upon imaginary amorous exploits. Not one of them would admit to any lapse of memory, although a few of them did confess that drink had dulled their senses slightly.

They even "remembered" how they had staggered back to the ship and set sail, setting course for Thrace. That they had been able to accomplish this while drunk convinced them of their natural ability as sailors. Finn Delaney chose not to disabuse them of this notion. Ahead of them still lay the Sea of Marmora and the Euxine Sea, which would one day be known as the Black Sea. He felt they'd learn the true extent of their sailing abilities soon enough.

The winds were fair and Tiphys took the tiller while Orpheus led the Argonauts in an improvised song about themselves, the chorus of which was the refrain, "The Argonauts are we; men of the open sea."

"Pray for fair weather," Delaney said to Steiger.

"Storms are among the least of my worries," Steiger said as the Argonauts bellowed the chorus of their self-glorifying song. "I just wish Hypsipyle had given us some answers."

"I really don't think she could have," said Delaney. "Her terror seemed genuine. I don't believe she knew those women weren't human beings."

"It doesn't make any sense," said Steiger. "If the people from the future of this timeline wanted the Argonauts to fail in their quest, why not simply clock back a small submarine and sink the ship? There are any number of ways they could accomplish it with far less trouble. We all could have been killed while we were unconscious in that cell. Damn it, Finn, none of this adds up!"

"It has to add up somehow," said Delaney. "On one hand, the events-or the orchestration of events-are following those of our myth very closely. On the other hand, they seem to be aiming for a totally different result. And they're taking a lot of risks to do it. I can't understand it, either. How do we know what to do? Or what not to do?"

"I don't know," said Steiger. "They have to know about us, yet they haven't made any serious effort to knock us out of the picture. It's as if they want us with the Argonauts."

"If your theory is right that we've stumbled into one of their temporal adjustments, then there has to be a key moment in the scenario that's crucial. Maybe that's what they're saving us for."

Steiger nodded. "Maybe. But we're still only guessing."

"I keep thinking about those androids," said Delaney. "By the standards of our artificial intelligence technology, they were relatively unsophisticated. That doesn't fit in with the centaur. If the centaur was an android too, then it's so advanced that none of our tests revealed it for what it was. And if it was genetically engineered, then that indicates a level of technology that should have enabled them to build better androids. If they were capable of such sophisticated technology, why didn't they follow through with it on Lemnos?"

Steiger swore through clenched teeth. "There has to be something we're overlooking. I've never been in a temporal scenario that was so damned inconsistent."

"You've never been in another universe, either," said Delaney.

"So what are you saying, that this universe isn't logical? I don't buy that. There has to be a logical framework to all of this. It's got to be there. We're just not seeing it."

The wind picked up and the Argonauts shipped their oars as the lateen sail filled and the Argo began making good headway in the blow. They sailed past Samothrace through the Hellespont and into the Sea of Marmora, the spray soaking them all thoroughly as the bow of the ship rose and fell crashing into the waves. Not a few of the "men of the open sea" wound up hanging over the side, contributing to the volume of the water. By the end of the day, the winds died down and they were rowing along the Mysian coast.

They had failed to properly provision the ship at Lemnos and stores were running dangerously low. As they dropped anchor and waded ashore, a large group of people came running down to greet them. It was a friendly reception by the Dalions, ruled by King Cyzicus, and the Argonauts were invited to the palace by emissaries of the king. When they arrived, they found a feast being prepared in their honor. King Cyzicus greeted them warmly, offering to provision their ship with food, water and wine as well as clothing to replace their worn and soiled garments.

It was clear that the Dalions were not a wealthy people, but they spared nothing in making the Argonauts feel welcome. During the feast, musicians played and a wrestling exhibition was staged. Young women came out to dance for them and children brought them garlands of flowers.

"We are grateful for this kind reception," Jason told the king. "When we return, we shall sing the praises of Dalion hospitality and of the goodness of King Cyzicus. Would that we could somehow repay your kindness."

Cyzicus suddenly looked tired. "In truth, I had hoped you would respond in such a manner, as I could see from the beginning that all of you were warriors. We have but few soldiers of our own and my people are sorely beset by a fearsome enemy who plunders us at will."

"Fear not, Cyzicus," said Theseus. "If you have enemies who prey upon you, you have but to name them and they are vanquished."

"This is one enemy that will not be vanquished easily," said Cyzicus, "if, indeed, they can be vanquished at all."

Simon Hawke

Argonaut Affair

"What manner of men are these fearsome foes?" asked Jason.

"These are not men, but giants," Cyzicus said. "Each of them possesses not two arms, but six. And in the hand of each arm is held a heavy wooden club that with one blow can crush a skull or break all of a man's ribs. They descend upon us from the hills and seize our harvests and our livestock. There is nothing we can do to stop them. Our bravest men have fallen to them and our fairest women have been carried off."

"Be they men with two arms or giants with six," said Jason, "I was not taught to refuse help to those in need of it, nor is it in my blood to flee from danger. You have welcomed us and treated us as honored guests. You have acted honorably and we can do no less. What say you men? Shall we give these six-armed titans a foe worthy of doing battle with them?"

"Just how big are these giants, anyway?" Delaney said, but his question was lost in the cheer given by the others.

The Argonauts gathered up their weapons and followed Cyzicus outside, where they were joined by a group of soldiers who led them to the stables. Within a short time, they were mounted and riding toward the hills. The three temporal agents hung back at the rear so they could talk without being overheard.

"Six-armed giants?" Andre said.

"I know what you're thinking," said Delaney. "I'm thinking the same thing."

"First Amazons, now six-armed giants?" Steiger said. "What in God's name is going on here? What are these people doing, clocking androids back here by the dozens?"

"Why would androids carry off their women?" said Delaney.

"It almost seems as if they studied the events and creatures of our Greek mythology and are trying to duplicate them," Andre said.

Steiger stared at her. "That's a hell of an idea," he said.

"Let's run with it for a minute," said Delaney. "The Argonautica of Apollonius is supposedly based on actual historical events which became mythologized over the years. The situation here seems. similar. Let's assume we're confronted with an attempt to recreate those mythical events and make them real. Why?"

"Is it possible they could be trying to redirect the flow of their own history for some specific purpose?" Andre said.

"That would amount to creating a split in their own time-line," said Delaney. "Why would they want to jeopardize their own temporal stability?"

"We keep coming back to square one," said Steiger. "No matter what kind of explanation we come up with, nothing about this scenario seems to fit together. We're not getting anywhere."

"We're getting closer to Colchis," Andre said. "If events continue to progress according to the myth, then that has to be the focal point of this scenario."

"Then why use androids to try to stop the Argonauts at Lemnos?" asked Delaney.

"It leads nowhere again," said Steiger. "Every hypothetical scenario we put together falls apart from inconsistencies."

"Maybe that's where we're going wrong," said Andre. "We keep trying to come up with rational explanations."

"Meaning there's an irrational one?" said Steiger. "We're back to the supernatural again? It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me to buy that."

"If the answer keeps coming out incorrect, something has to be wrong with the equation," Andre said.

"So let's take another look at the equation," said Delaney. "Let's go back to the beginning and take it one step at a time. A number of factors seem to indicate that the people from the future of this timeline are attempting to construct a temporal scenario based upon the voyage of the Argonauts. We have the centaur and the incident at Delphi, plus the hooded man who keeps turning up everywhere. He may be with us on the voyage, posing as one of the Argonauts or there may be other explanations for his sudden appearances and disappearances, as well as for the centaur and what we saw at Delphi, but the androids at Lemnos can't be explained away. We're assuming our cover has been blown. We can't get rid of our warp discs. Our only alternative is to abort the mission and run if they close in. Only they haven't closed in. Why? Because they've made that choice or because they haven't had an opportunity?"

"They've had plenty of opportunities," said Steiger. '"Have they? I'm not so sure. Maybe we're making some incorrect assumptions. Let's take the centaur first. What are the odds of a creature like that having evolved naturally?"

"I should think it would require a radically different evolutionary process in this universe," said Steiger, "involving significantly different life forms. Nothing we've seen so far supports that. If the centaur didn't evolve naturally, then that leaves us with either magic or some sort of genetic engineering, including the possibility of android technology advanced beyond our level. The think-tank boys in Archives Section considered the possibility of magic based on prior intelligence that certain physical laws in this universe may be different from ours. But we've seen no real evidence of that. Until we do, I'm going to look for rational explanations. So the only rational explanation possible is that the centaur is an artificially created being. The hooded man is linked with both the centaur and the androids, which supports that theory. The centaur is considerably more sophisticated than the android women, so it's either a more advanced model or a genetically engineered creature."

"But that still leaves us with several elements that don't seem to fit together," said Andre. "If the centaur was sent through the confluence to draw us in, then for what purpose? So they could capture us and wring us dry? They could have done that before we ever got to Iolchos or at any time during the construction of the Argo. Did they intend to use us as part of their scenario? Again, why? Why not use their own people? Why risk our disrupting their timeline? And if they wanted us alive to use us, why did Hypsipyle order the androids to kill us? And why would they be careless enough to let us discover that the Lemnos women were androids in the first place?"

"I think our original assumption was correct," Delaney said. "The centaur came through the confluence by accident. As a result, we crossed over and stumbled into a temporal adjustment scenario of some sort. If we assume the opposition never detected us, then there was no reason for them to expect anyone from our timeline on the scene because they didn't know about the confluence."

He looked at Steiger. "Remember when you followed the hooded man in Iolchos and someone jumped you? If there was no reason for anyone to suspect we were anything but what we appeared to be, the logical assumption for them to make was that you were following the hooded man to find out who Jason's secret benefactors were. It never occurred to them that you might be a temporal agent from another timeline, so it never occurred to them to check you for a warp disc. If we work from that assumption, then that means our cover was still safe at that point. It would explain why they never moved against us while we were unconscious in the cell at Lemnos. They didn't know who we really were. The only other time when our cover might have been blown occurred when the hooded man saw you fight those two androids. I'm sure that even in this universe, ancient Greeks never used combat karate. But could that have tipped him off? You said he pulled a fast disappearing act. Could he have put it all together so quickly? He saw you using modern fighting techniques, but it's still a long jump to make from realizing that to concluding you were from another timeline."

Steiger nodded. "He could have checked with someone and reported what he saw, asked if anyone knew what the hell was going on. They may have problems of their own we know nothing about."

"And meanwhile," said Delaney, "we were getting the hell put of there and in the process, I didn't exactly treat Hypsipyle in a very queenly manner. If she wasn't part of their adjustment team, but just a local they were using, then she obviously wouldn't have been fully briefed. So she lost her temper and ordered the androids to kill us on her own. It's possible they never meant to kill the Argonauts."

Steiger expelled a heavy breath. "So that means I'm the one who blew our cover. Great. Some pro I turned out to be."

"You couldn't have known the hooded man would be there," said Delaney. "What's more, you weren't exactly in a position to make lots of choices."

"There's still a chance we haven't been found out," Andre said. "At least, not all the way. If the hooded man is one of the Argonauts, he knows the three of us are together, but he may not have had enough time to make his report."

"It's possible," said Steiger, "but he could have clocked ahead, made his report, then clocked back."

"Maybe not," said Andre. "You said he got out of there in one hell of a hurry. He would have had to make several rather tricky temporal transitions. He had to cut it pretty close. All the Argonauts were accounted for when we got back to the main room of the palace."

"It could explain why no one's made a move against us up 'til now," Delaney said. "But we're still left with some big problems. Until we know what their scenario is, we can't work against it effectively. The scope of it means they have to have a sizable team running this operation and we have no way of knowing who they are."

"Well, at least we managed to come up with a rational explanation that accounts for all the inconsistencies," said Steiger. "I think we can put the Archives boys and their cockamamie theories about magic right where they belong. We've finally got a logical sequence of events to work with."

"Now all we have to do is figure out what they mean," said Andre. "Why are they recreating the myth of Jason and the Argonauts down to the last detail?'' "Maybe it's a dress rehearsal," said Delaney. "What?" said Steiger.

"What if all this is just… some sort of war game? What if they're on maneuvers?"

"Maneuvers?" Steiger said. "What are you talking about?"

"Andre just gave me a really wild idea-recreating the story of Jason and the Argonauts down to the last detail. Why would they want to take a myth based on a historical incident and run an operation that would turn the historical incident in to the myth itself?"

"Whoa," said Steiger. "You've lost me." His horse came to a halt. "Not you," said Steiger, giving the horse a kick. "All right, now run this by me again?"

"Considering what our situation is," Delaney said, "we have to examine every possibility, no matter how off-the-wall it may sound. I admit this one sounds pretty farfetched, but think about it. Maybe it won't seem quite so crazy. Remember what happened on our last mission in the Khyber. They discovered a confluence point and crossed over with a mission team to set up an operation. They mobilized the Pathan tribes and took advantage of an uprising to bring troops in. They had a good plan, but much of it depended on a great deal of improvisation in a timeline they were unfamiliar with. Remember how they controlled the Pathans?"

"They played on their superstitions," Andre replied. "They posed as gods."

"And the hooded man seems to be doing the same thing," Steiger said.

"Exactly," said Delaney. "You said if they wanted to sabotage the voyage of the Argonauts, there were easier ways to do it. But suppose that isn't what they want? Suppose what they're actually doing is making sure their temporal continuity isn't disturbed while they conduct what is essentially a trial operation, maybe even two operations-a practice temporal adjustment under controlled conditions and a dress rehearsal for massive temporal disruption in our timeline?"

"You're right," said Steiger. "It does sound crazy. It would mean risking temporal disruptions in their own timeline."

"True," said Andre, "but would the interference be significant enough to endanger their temporal continuity? They've dropped the androids on a relatively remote island, where they remain. The Dalions, too, are isolated in a tiny kingdom, surrounded by high country. The centaur is on Mount Pelion, living in a cave-all relatively isolated locations in which they can control the variable factors. If they wanted to test their temporal adjustment capabilities under controlled conditions, they couldn't have made better choices. In our timeline, there's hardly any documentation of this period at all. Travel was severely limited and what communication there was took place on the most primitive levels. It would be a very simple matter for them to keep one step ahead of the Argonauts and clean up any problems after they've moved on. How great could the potential risks be?"

"There would still be risks," Delaney said, "but if they're not as experienced with temporal adjustments as we are, it would be worthwhile taking them. We're at war and they need to develop strategy and train the troops."

"And by using androids," Steiger said, "they'd be minimizing the danger to their personnel. They could also be testing out the feasibility of using androids in offensive operations directed against our timeline. Finn, maybe your idea's not so crazy, after all. Androids make great cannon fodder. They don't retreat and they fight 'til they drop. They could be experimenting with different types of androids-the women on Lemnos, the giants here, if that's what they are-"

With a scream, a body landed upon Steiger, knocking him from his horse. It was a body twice as big as he was, with an unusually long torso from which sprouted six muscular arms. The creature was matted with hair so that it almost seemed covered with fur. It looked like a human spider with four of its arms wrapped around Steiger, pinning him to the ground, while the two remaining arms pummeled him with blows. Andre unsheathed her sword and brought it down hard upon the creature's neck, decapitating it with one stroke. Warm blood spurted from its neck and splattered Steiger.

The things were leaping down upon the Argonauts from the rocks above, screaming as they fell, knocking the riders from their horses. Andre wheeled her horse and avoided one, then managed to shake loose another that had landed on her horse behind her. Delaney was brought down, but he broke the creature's grip and slashed his sword across its face. It did not even cry out. A second blow with the sword split its skull and it fell.

Several of the king's soldiers died in the initial assault, but none of the Argonauts had fallen. While they were at best barely adequate as sailors, in hand to hand combat, each was in his element. The few who were not warriors, such as Mopsus, Idmon and young Hylas, had stayed behind at the palace. Jason and Theseus stood back to back, laying about them with their swords. Hercules caught one of the giants on the fly, then dropped the creature on his knee, breaking its back. He unslung his bow, which no one but he could pull, and started to let loose his long war arrows. Each one found a mark.

Only a killing blow would stop the giants. They didn't seem to feel lesser wounds at all. If one arm was cut off, the others would continue fighting. The battle raged as the sky darkened and visibility grew poorer. Hercules ran out of arrows and drew his sword, striking such powerful strokes that his opponents were cut cleanly in half. A club struck Andre's sword arm and it went numb from her hand up to her shoulder. As the giant struck again, she rolled, avoiding the blow, and came up with her sword held in her left hand, but a sword point ripped through the giant's chest as Orpheus ran it through from behind and the creature fell.

The battle seemed to last for hours, but at the end, the Argonauts emerged victorious. When it was over, the ground was littered with the bodies of dead giants, as well as those of soldiers and several of the Argonauts. They had lost Euphemus, as well as Admetus, Pirithous, Menoetius, Zetes and Calais. Most of the surviving Argonauts were covered with blood, if not their own, then that of the giants. Tiphys had sustained the most severe injuries. Meleager had been knocked unconscious and King Cyzicus was dead, transfixed by an arrow shot by Hercules. It had struck its target with such force that it passed completely through the giant and penetrated the ruler of the Dalions.

"Some maneuvers," Steiger said to Delaney as they stared down at the dead king. "If these are war games, friend, they're playing them for keeps."

"I checked one of the bodies to see if the giants had any run numbers tattooed on them, like the Lemnos women did," said Andre.

"And?"

"I couldn't find any."

"That doesn't prove they weren't androids," Steiger said.

"True," said Andre. "But it also doesn't prove they were."