Tros was at my side “How long do you think we have to wait for Cilo?”
“I don’t know. I hope not long. Aspasia is safe now.”
And about 20 minutes later, a slave just walked up to us with Cilo (now much bigger than when last we’d seen her) at his side.
Tros ran to her and picked her up and hugged her and soon everyone came running, Melite and Socrates and Eleni and there was the happy moment we had all been waiting for. Tros was crying and Eleni was crying and Melite was crying and Alice was really crying (not Socrates). Ok, I was crying too.
Melite pulled me away. “Let’s give them some time alone.”
Melite and Rose and Alice and I left the docks and rode back out to the army. The soldiers were obviously upset to see their ships burned, but they were loyal followers of the Great God Einstein and knew that he would protect them.
Pericles was like a man destroyed. “She didn’t even say goodbye. A second time!”
I started to ask him if he was kidding me, but I could see from his face that he wasn’t. He truly loved her, even though she clearly didn’t love him and was a cold calculating kidnapping untrustworthy bitch to boot. Some things pass understanding. Sometimes the dental floss never runs out.
Durai came out to see me. “Ah, Lord Robert. I and the King are so very happy that everything worked out to your satisfaction. Er, you are satisfied?”
“Yes, Durai, completely satisfied. Thank you for your assistance. And thank King Jagjit on my behalf.”
“I will convey your thanks to his Majesty. Now then, there are a few matters we would like to discuss.”
I sighed, I hated this kind of diplomatic long talk. But Melite is the opposite of diplomatic and Tros and Pericles were both busy with their personal issues and well, Socrates, was also the opposite of diplomatic and Megakreon was half a world away.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Well, Lord Robert, there is the small matter of payment for the burned ships, use of the field, some damage to the docks, some economic hardship caused to merchants of the city by the blockade. I have a full accounting with me.”
“Ok. We’ll pay for any damages, as I told you. Give me your accounting and I’ll have it paid.”
“Yes, uhm, well, I might have spoken a little hastily when I said the accounting was ready. The charges for usage of the fields outside the city are still an open item. Nobody was sure exactly how much longer you were going to be needing them.”
“House guest and fish start to stink after 3 days, eh Durai?”
“What?”
“Nothing. We will have to wait for the rest of our fleet, probably a few more days then we’ll be on our way, as promised.”
“Very good, Lord Robert. I’ll tell his Majesty.”
“OK. Thanks.”
I started to turn away, but he just stood there, waiting. “Yes? Is there something else?”
“Well, now that your business with the woman is concluded, I don’t suppose that there is any need to continue surrounding the city? Perhaps your soldiers would be, um, more comfortable, in a nice field a few miles from here, where they wouldn’t be bothered by all the traffic and noise from the city?”
“Fine. Ok, we’ll move. It’s going to take a bit of time.” I wanted to remind him exactly who was surrounding who. “You don’t move an army like this on a moment’s notice.”
I could see that he understood my point. “Oh, take all the time you need. Would tomorrow morning be enough time?” The little diplomat had some balls!
I laughed. “Ok, Durai, we’ll move as soon as possible. But, a friendly word of advice. I assume that your spies have figured out by now who we are and what we do. So, you know that we’ll be marching back this way one day. It would make me very happy to find when we pass back that your city had already freed its slaves and women and was moving away from kings. And, well, if not, I would be the opposite of happy.”
“I’ll certainly let his Majesty know that you plan on returning.” He gave me a nervous little smile. “About how long do you think you’ll be away?”
“Not very long Durai. Not very long at all.”
The next morning we moved the army to the field he had suggested. And about 8 days later, the fleet arrived in the port.
With half of our fleet at the bottom of the harbor (plus the ships we lost in the storm. Luckily the slower fleet had missed the storm and had lost only one ship, with no loss of life), part of the army was going to have to march.
My plan was to split the army, and half could conquer northern India, while the other half would sail back to Babylon and from there back to Ankyra and eventually back to Greece. We were all anxious to get back.
I went to find Pericles to ask him to command the marching part of the army. He wasn’t in the camp or anywhere I looked. Finally someone said that he had been seen down by the docks.
I found him there, staring out to sea. “Pericles! I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Sorry, I’ve just been here.”
“I want to ask you a favor.”
“I want to ask you a favor also.”
“You first Pericles.”
He turned away from the sea to look at me. He looked terrible. Like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“I need a ship. I need to go after her.” He almost whispered.
“How can you expect to find her? We have no idea where she is heading. It could be anywhere.”
“I’ll find her. I have to. Promise me, that if I find her and I send for our son, you’ll leave us in peace and he won’t be followed.”
“You have my word.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m not sure if finding her is the best thing for you, but I wish you luck.”
“I wish I could explain it. I wish I could resist it. But I can’t. I just need to find her. To be with her. I’ll never see Athens again.”
“You’re always welcome in Athens.”
He shook his head. “No. Athens doesn’t need me anymore. Aspasia is my Athens now. Like Athens, she’s sometimes recalcitrant, but she does need me. Deep down she knows that.
“I guess now I can tell you. I never was really a believer in you or your cause. I only worked with you because I thought it was what was best for Athens. But I can see now that you are the future. I’m leaving Athens in your hands. Take good care of her.”
“I’ll do my best. Whatever you believed, you were a good friend and a great help. May the Great God Einstein smile on you.”
“But you wanted a favor from me?”
“It was nothing. When do you leave?”
“As soon as I can hire a crew. I’d like to leave tomorrow if possible.”
“Be sure to stop by before you leave.”
“I will.”
So, I trudged off to find Socrates. Sometimes it can be frustratingly difficult to find someone to lead an army.
I went to the docks with Melite and Tros and Eleni early the next morning to see Pericles off.
As he was boarding his ship, I handed him a scroll of paper.
“What’s this?”
“We discussed it last night, and we all agreed.” They all nodded. “It’s a pardon for Aspasia. We won’t hold her responsible for her old world thinking. But it’s a new world now. If she’s ready to accept it, she’ll be welcome back in Athens too.”
Pericles laughed. “One day that soft heart of yours is going to get you in trouble.”
It had been hard for Eleni, who had suffered the most at Aspasia’s hand, to agree to a pardon, but she was a changed woman. Now that Cilo was safe all the anger seemed to have drained out of Eleni. The woman who hired a ship to sail to the rescue of her daughter (and was herself captured) now seemed to have been used up and Eleni seemed tired but happy for the first time in a long time. It was good to see my friends working to repair all the cracks in their little family.
So, some short weeks later, we headed back to Greece. Socrates took control of the land army and undertook to conquer India in
the name of Science and Kindness.
Tros and I and our families took the ships back to the Euphrates and up the river to Babylon. We stayed a week or so in Babylon then continued on to Ankyra and from there to Miletus, where we hired ships to transport us back to Athens.
More than a year on campaign. Rose was now almost too big to hold and little Alice, who had been so tiny when born, was a fat happy baby.
Megakreon met us at the harbor.
“Robert! Melite! Good to have you back safe and sound! Megakreon kept things running for you! Rosie! Come give your uncle Megakreon a big kiss!”
But Rose was shy. I doubt she remembered him.
“Megakreon! My old master!” We hugged and he hugged Melite and then Tros and Eleni and Cilo came to join us.
“Cilo! We’ve never met, but I’m your father’s oldest friend!”
“Where is Isodemos? Back in Megara?” I asked.
“Ho, no! Isodemos is in Egypt! He’s conquered most of Northern Africa and should be joining up with our Union in the former Persian Empire soon. He’s become quite the general!”
“Really? How did that happen?”
Megakreon threw his arm around my shoulder. “Well, we were having problems with a general in Spain…”
It was good to be back in Athens, but soon enough it was time to head back to Megara and the administrative work. So much to do. I was still traveling with my special students and giving classes as often as time permitted, I was writing my ‘Book of Questionable Facts’ trying to impart as much as I could remember, reading court decisions, reviewing laws passed by various assemblies, and planning to conquer the world. It really was exhausting.
So, when Melite suggested that we take off, just the two of us for a picnic lunch, I jumped on it! I really wanted to lie on the soft grass with my head in her lap and let her feed me grapes and just relax. She may have had her own ideas for the perfect picnic, but we both knew that once we got back to Megara the administrative monster would make these kinds of moments rare.
So, we packed a lunch and saddled up a couple of horses (did I mention that the saddle was my ‘invention’?), and rode out of the city. We rode along a little river until we found a promising spot, with warm sunlight and some shade and a little bit of privacy.
I explained to Melite my idea about the perfect picnic, and she told me hers and we did it her way.
After some hours eating and drinking and playing and just being together in a way that is impossible when surrounded by thousands of soldiers, we headed back into the city.
Maybe it was the vodka, or just the long-forgotten sense of freedom.
“Let’s race!” I said. We had both become very comfortable on a horse over the course of the campaign.
“Ok!” and she was off, her horse kicking clods of dirt in my face.
“No fair! Doesn’t count!” I yelled.
“Counts double!” She shouted back.
I pushed my horse faster and we closed on them, then suddenly I felt my saddle slide to one side and I was falling. I though “anytime you fall on a horse it’s a bad thing.” The last thing I remember, I’m waiting for the impact, but I never feel it.
Epilogue
I wake up, with no pain. No pain at all. And there is a lot of light. It’s almost blindingly bright.
I’m confused at first, then the picnic starts to come back to me. I remember the horse race and me falling and, I assume, crashing to the ground.
I’m on some kind of bed. I’m not sure if the bed is just incredibly comfortable or if I’m drunk or paralyzed. I experimentally move various extremities, everything moves smoothly, nothing seems broken or even bruised.
I look around for Melite and realize that I’m in some kind of hospital. A few seconds later a nurse walks into my room. “Mr. Kakos! How nice that you’re awake! Just relax please and the doctor will be in to see you in a moment. Do you need anything? Water?”
I’m in shock and I mumble something that he takes to mean that I don’t need anything and he leaves the room.
A few minutes later the door opens again and what I can only describe as a large coffin stood on its end enters the room.
“Hello, I’m Doctor. We are so excited to see that you are awake.”
I promptly pass out.
I wake up again, it’s still there.
“Ok, awake again! I’ve got to tell you, you really are a mystery to us!”
“You’re a mystery to me too.” I manage.
“I apologize if we seem a little incompetent” it said with a little laugh (the coffin laughed!), “it’s just that we’ve never had a patient before. Nobody has! You’ll make us famous!”
“What?”
“Sorry, we’re just so excited. We don’t know what happened to you, maybe a stroke or maybe a heart attack? Well, whatever it was, it’s a first! Nobody has had a stroke in over 500 years! Oh I hope it was a stroke!”
“What the fuck is going on?! Where are you?!”
“Mr. Kakos, no need for profanity. I’m right here. I’m Doctor and we are trying to understand your, er… episode.”
“I want to speak to the doctor!” I jumped out of bed and tackled the coffin. We fell to the floor together but once we were down there, I didn’t know what to do. Was I fighting with this thing? What exactly was going on?
The nurse entered and the coffin said, “I think we’re going to need to do a psych transfer. There goes my fabulous career!”
So, they transferred me to a psych hospital (where I was also the first patient in hundreds of years) and I’ve been working to integrate the old history with the new. They still think I’m crazy and can’t understand why I don’t respond to their treatments which have ‘without fail, cured every patient for more than half a millennium’, but they don’t think I’m a danger to myself or anyone else so they let me go free.
Here I am in the year of the Union 2449, and again I’m the only man who knows something extraordinary and again the only value I can make out of it is to tell stories.
The following history you all know, or if you don’t know it you can look it up in any history book, but I might have some unique perspective.
After the mysterious disappearance of ‘The Founder’ (me) there was, of course, a thorough search and when the search failed to turn up any clues to my whereabouts, the priests began the story that I was taken to the realm of the Great God Einstein to watch over the world.
Socrates on receiving word of my disappearance sent a signal that he had my succession orders and my will and hurried back to Athens. As my orders dictated, Fotis and Tros took joint command of the Union. My shares in the Distillery, banks and other commercial interests went to Melite with some other small bequests.
Tros, already in command of the Union’s military forces, continued with our conquests. Soon all of the Mediterranean basin was union territory and from there expansion continued north and west into Europe, South into southern Africa, and east into Asia.
In Union Year 20 (20 UY. *Union year 0 is traditionally measured from the flight of the Founder to Megara.) Tros and Fotis retired and following my succession orders an election was held. My daughter Alice was elected President. She continued most major policies with few changes, guided by Melite.
(NOTE: I’ve tried my best to convert this into the old style BC/AD date. It was difficult since most of the famous people I remember from history apparently never existed or never rose to prominence, e.g. Cesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon (I know these names mean nothing to you, but they were famous when I was young). But, I think that Albert Einstein (the scientist I made into a god) wrote a bunch of famous papers in 1905 AD and I think that he was between 20 and 30. So when I saw works of extreme genius by Albert Einsteinia (When last names came into fashion, the priests all took names based on Einstein), I used that to back date and put the date of my arrival in ancient Greece at approximately 435-425 BC)
By 26, the whole of Europe, Africa and Asia was under Union control.
&nb
sp; In 26, Plato invents internal combustion engine.
In 27, Alice retired and Alcibiades, a nephew of Pericles, was elected. Under Alcibiades the first of the Founder Temples arose. These temples worshiped the Founder as a separate deity. The temples of the Great God Einstein began a vicious repression of the new god. Kindness, they said, included anything necessary to keep people on the path to a better rebirth.
From 60-80 Aristotle invents synthetic gasoline (eliminating the carbon dioxide build up problem), the first electronic computer, the first airplane, and radio.
In 79 a Union Expeditionary force discovers the North American continent while exploring in North Eastern Siberia. Rapid conquest follows.
By 175 the Founder Temples had grown, despite official repression, to cover approximately 35% of the world population.
In 210 the First Kindness War broke out. Although officially a religious war, political tensions played a large part. Union Territories outside the original Mediterranean basin had been long aggrieved buy what they saw as a “Greek” favoritism in Union politics and administration.
As a result the Founder Temples were especially popular in Asia and the Americas (called North and South Robertia in honor of the Founder).
This was the first ‘Modern War’. Fought with large ocean going ships, jet aircraft, bombs and large artillery, the carnage was fantastic.
The Treaty of London which ended the First Kindness War, established the right of the Founder Temples to exist and proselytize in all Union Territories, the Capital was moved to London and all armaments were banned in all territories.
In 225, Archimedes secretly invents the atomic bomb while working for Einstein Temple territories.
In 240 the Union launched the first manned moon mission.
Worried that control of the moon would give Einstein territories an unbeatable advantage in warfare, the Founder Temple territories launched the Second Kindness War. Both sides were armed with atomic bombs (Founder Temple spies had stolen the designs shortly after development and both sides had been in furious production).
A New York Lawyer in the Court of Pericles Page 25