The Argonaut Affair

by Simon Hawke

  "Your tale, Jason, is their tale also. It is a tale of children driven from their homes and denied their birthright. It is a tale of mortals invoking the desires of gods to justify their own and of gods who walk with mortals to redress those wrongs. How it all will end, no mere mortal can say, but in every dream, there is a lesson to be learned. Question all dreams to discern their lessons and question all mortals to discern their purposes, for the gods will question you in turn. It is as Idmon said, the wiser man is not he who believes he knows the answers, but he who knows to ask the questions.

  "And now, it grows late and you must leave upon the morning tide. The time has come to sleep and dream and see what lessons we may learn."

  The Argonauts slept deeply, all save "Fabius," who merely feigned sleep while he took his turn on watch. Andre had taken the first shift, pretending also to be asleep while she remained on watch. Her shift passed uneventfully and she then woke Steiger, who took his turn for several hours. Delaney had the last shift and Steiger woke him quietly to report that all was well. Steiger then stretched out and was asleep almost immediately while Delaney remained awake, thinking. Chiron's tale had sounded uncomfortably familiar.

  Delaney had the feeling they were caught in a time when myth and reality were indistinguishable. These people were primitives, yet they were sophisticated in the way they created their own myths, then lived them. Idmon had said it best. The oftener a tale is told, the truer it becomes. He wondered what they'd find when they arrived at Colchis. Would there be some enchanted golden fleece hanging on a tree branch in the Sacred Grove of Ares or would it turn out to be a rotting sheepskin painted gold, a moth-eaten symbol of an old tale upon which a kingdom had been built?

  Would this be just a long, dull sea voyage which, on their return, would become the subject of embellished tales such as the fable Orpheus had told? A part of him hoped that would be the case, for the alternative, the one suggested by the existence of a creature such as Chiron and the strange phenomenon at Delphi, was a frightening one, one which threatened to shake the foundations of all that he believed and disbelieved. Yet, at the same time, a small part of him hoped it would be true. It was the part of him that remembered all the stories of his childhood and experienced crushing disappointment upon becoming an adult.

  It was almost dawn when he heard the soft footfalls of hooves and looked up to see Chiron quietly moving toward the entrance to the cavern. Moving silently, Delaney followed him. Chiron went outside and in the soft gray light, Delaney could see the centaur heading down a path that led into the woods. Keeping his distance, Delaney pursued him, curious to see where the centaur was going at such an unlikely hour. After a short while, Chiron came to a small clearing in the forest in the center of which a small stone altar had been built. He entered the clearing and stopped before the altar with his head bowed.

  For a while, the centaur simply stood there, saying and doing nothing, as if praying, but then Delaney heard a deep, masculine voice say, "I am here."

  Standing behind the altar, in the early morning shadows, was a figure that had not been there a moment earlier. He was wearing a hooded cloak which hid his features.

  "They have come, just as you said they would," the centaur said. "They will be sailing on the morning tide. What would you have me do?"

  "Nothing more," the hooded figure said, "only tell me, among the Argonauts, who are the ones you do not know, the ones who were not among your pupils?"

  "There are several," said Chiron. "Argus the shipwright is one, as well as Idmon the soothsayer, and Mopsus the astrologer. There are Menoetius and Pirithous, and Hylas, the boy who serves Hercules..."

  Delaney heard Chiron mention several other names, among them their own aliases, Fabius, Creon and Atalanta. The hooded figure questioned Chiron about each of them.

  "Good," the strangely familiar voice said, finally. "You have done well. Go now. It is almost dawn. Tell no one about our meeting."

  "I would ask only one question," Chiron said. "Many of these youths are near and dear to me. The quest they have embarked upon will hold great dangers for them. Tell me, will they succeed?"

  "No man should know his fate," the hooded figure said, "nor that of another. Some will die and some will live. What becomes of them is the province of the gods. Go now. Wish them well upon their journey."

  Chiron bowed from the waist, then turned and came back in Delaney's direction. Delaney ducked behind some bushes to avoid being seen and waited until the centaur had passed. When he looked up again, the hooded figure was no longer in the clearing. He ran to the stone altar and looked around in all directions, but there was no sign of a trail or even of anyone having been there in the first place. The ground around the altar and the stone platform it stood upon was damp with early morning drizzle, but the only tracks visible in the gray dawn were Chiron's hoof prints.

  5

  "The Isle of Lemnos," Tiphys said, steering toward the green island lying ahead of them. "We had best anchor tonight in the protection of its bay, Jason. The sun is getting low and unfamiliar waters can be treacherous at night. Besides, we shall need to go ashore in search of fresh water to replenish our supply."

  "And m-m-meat," said Hercules, whacking himself on the belly with a sound like wood splitting.

  "Very well," said Jason. "We anchor for the night at Lemnos. Argus, Mopsus, Idmon, Telamon and Oileus, you shall remain with the ship while the rest of us go ashore in search of water and provisions."

  "Lemnos," Steiger said, "according to the myth, an island of beautiful Amazon women." He glanced at Delaney and grinned. "Think that's what we'll find?"

  "I'm more worried about having a ringer on this voyage," said Delaney.

  Steiger nodded, suddenly serious. "If he's among the Argonauts, it would explain the hooded cloak. He wouldn't want to be recognized. But if the centaur's in on some sort of plot with him, why would he want to disguise himself for a private meeting?"

  "Maybe the centaur never knew what he really looked like and he wanted to keep it that way. And that raises more questions."

  "You said you thought you recognized the voice. None of the Argonauts' voices ring any bells with you?"

  Delaney shook his head. "Several of them have deep voices. And whoever it was could have been altering his normal voice."

  "Too bad you didn't notice if anyone was missing when you trailed Chiron."

  "If anyone had left during the night, one of us should have spotted him," Delaney said. "And if someone left after I did, he should have spotted me."

  "If one of these characters was equipped with a warp disc," Steiger said, "he could have clocked out of the cave and to that clearing without anyone noticing."

  Delaney glanced at him sharply. "I think we'd better talk about this. Let's see if we can split away from the main group once we're ashore."

  They spoke in low voices, but the Argo was not the best place to hold a surreptitious conversation. No space had been wasted in the construction of the galley and they were all in fairly close contact all the time. All three temporal agents had been on ocean voyages before, but no matter what the time period or what type of vessel, one thing about life on the sea remained constant. Time passed very slowly.

  The Argo was an uncomplicated vessel. There was no need to climb the rigging to take in or let out sails, because there was only the one simple, triangular lateen sail which could be hoisted or taken down easily and quickly. There was no need to perform maintenance on armaments, because there were none. There was no need to maintain engines or generators, pumps or electrical equipment or any of the other items found on more modern ships. The Argo was as primitive as a ship could be short of the reed vessels of the Polynesians. Shipboard duties were simple. There was not much else to do save row or watch for leaks and bail if the need arose. When they were close to shore, one of the men would go into the bow and let down a weighted rope so that soundings could be taken. Theirs was not an ambitious ocean-crossing voyage so much as an extended off
shore cruise. On their course in the Aegean Sea, they were never very far from land and much of their voyage would be spent following the coastline, sailing between the islands and the mainland. With the proper crew and under the right conditions, the Argo might have been capable of crossing an ocean, but even expert sailors would have found it quite a hardship.

  The Vikings, sailing roughly similar vessels in the North Sea, braved far more of the dangers of the deep than did the Argonauts, and most of the Argonauts were not experienced sailors. The majority of them were landlubbers to whom the voyage took on epic proportions. When the sea was calm, they rowed, which was backbreaking work. When the winds were fair, they made slow headway under sail with the oars shipped. At such times, there was not a great deal to do on board.

  The sun had burned every one of them. They had rigged an awning to provide some very much needed shade, but skin was nevertheless tender and muscles were still sore. Hylas was kept busy applying olive oil to sunburned skin and some of the crew felt seasick, even in the relatively calm seas they had experienced. Delaney, who had once endured a squall in the crow's nest of a British man o'war, wondered uneasily how this crew would fare in the event of a storm.

  While they were under sail, a listless lethargy was the prevalent atmosphere on board and even Orpheus, a seemingly inexhaustible source of songs and tales, fell to sitting idly on deck and staring out to sea, lost in his own thoughts. After a day's sail, the Argonauts looked forward to spending time ashore.

  They anchored in the small protected bay and waded in, pleased at the prospect of getting in some hunting. They split up into small groups and went off in different directions to explore the island. It gave the temporal agents a chance to go off by themselves.

  "You're going to call me a paranoid again," said Steiger, "but hear me out first. I've been thinking about this ever since we left Mount Pelion. Something's wrong here. Someone else is conducting some sort of covert operation on this voyage. Our friend with the hooded cloak really seems to get around. He could be someone in the pay of King Pelias, someone who's infiltrated the Argonauts as we have, but there's another possibility that worries me even more. Our hooded friend might not be working for Pelias at all."

  "I'm not calling you a paranoid yet," said Finn, "but I'm reserving judgment.''

  "All right. Consider this. The centaur shows up in our time-line, coming through conveniently at a point where we just happen to have Observers stationed. The fact of the centaur's existence predisposes us to consider the possibility that physical laws might be significantly different in this universe. The debriefing of the centaur seems to corroborate the events described in one of our most ancient myths, in which supernatural forces figure prominently. We witness at least one event so far, at Delphi, which appears to be supernatural. We've got some mysterious hooded figure cropping up both at Iolchos and at Pelion. Now maybe supernatural events are natural here, but consider that any one of us could have duplicated the seemingly magical appearance and disappearance of the Oracle ... by using a warp disc. Our friend in the hooded cloak might be getting around the same way."

  "Wait," said Andre, "let's go back to the beginning for a moment. What do you mean by saying that the centaur appeared 'conveniently' at a point in time where we happened to have Observers on the scene? Assuming it was all planned somehow, how could the opposition have arranged to have a confluence occur at such a convenient point?"

  "They didn't have to arrange it," said Steiger. "Suppose they discovered the confluence first. They could have conducted a scouting expedition just as Curtis did. They have the ability to scan for warp discs somehow. Wouldn't it make sense that it would be the first thing they'd do? They could have discovered we had Observers in the area and decided to take advantage of that fact."

  "So they created a centaur in their genetic engineering labs, programmed it, and sent it through the confluence to provide us with disinformation meant to send us on some sort of wild goose chase?" said Delaney. "Maybe. It's a long shot, but it's possible, I suppose. But if this whole thing is a setup of some sort, then they'd have to be aware of us. Even if they hadn't spotted us at the very beginning, they'd know about you from the night you tried to follow the hooded man back to Iolchos. They would have had plenty of time to discover your warp disc while you were unconscious. And if they identified you, they'd have to know about us as well, which means that our cover has been blown. So why didn't they relieve you of your warp disc? Why haven't they made any moves?"

  "I don't know," said Steiger. "I could be wrong about all this, but my gut tells me we're being waltzed through some kind of scenario by somebody who wants us to accept things just as they appear. I have the feeling we're walking into something."

  The ground suddenly seemed to leap up beneath them and seconds later, they were suspended about six feet off the ground in a large rope net. Delaney found himself staring down into the face of a lovely young woman who held a sort of leather bellows in her hands.

  "What-" he began, but before he could get the next word out, she squeezed the bellows and blew a suffocating mist into his face. It blinded him and he started coughing violently. Everything started spinning and then all feeling left him.

  Delaney awoke in a large room with stone walls. Light was coming into the cell from barred windows high overhead. The floor was cold and damp, made of mortared stone, and lying on it had given him a backache. His head throbbed, his eyes stung and his lungs felt as if he had breathed in acid fumes. He made an effort to sit up and discovered that both his hands and feet were manacled.

  The Argonauts were lying all around him in various positions of unconsciousness, similarly shackled. He made a quick head count and saw that they had captured everyone who came ashore. Those who had remained on board the Argo were absent, as was Andre. Steiger rolled slightly and moaned, starting to come around.

  "What was that you were saying about walking into something?" said Delaney.

  Steiger sat up slowly. "God, my head feels like it's about to burst. What happened?"

  "We were netted in some sort of animal trap, then neatly gassed," said Delaney. "We must have been the first ones they caught. The others are still out of it."

  Steiger held up his hands and shook the chains. "Slave traders?" he said, grimacing.

  "Back in our timeline, they did a pretty brisk slave trade in these days," said Delaney. "But if the one who gassed us was a slave trader, she sure didn't look the part."

  "She?"

  "You didn't see her?"

  "Hell, I turned my head and the next thing I knew, it was like breathing tear gas. I didn't see a thing. What did she look like?"

  "Diana."

  "Who?"

  "The goddess of the hunt. Young, beautiful, cute little figure in a miniskirt, long legs, bow, quiverful of arrows, lovely golden hair-, eyes you could die for..."

  "Right, I get the picture. You think we found our Amazons?"

  "More like they found us."

  "Where's Andre?"

  "I don't know."

  "Anyone else missing?"

  "Only the men back on the boat."

  Steiger looked around at the cell. "Lovely accommodations."

  "According to the story, they murdered all their men for bringing back concubines from Thrace," said Delaney.

  "Is there a point to this or are you just being bright and cheery?"

  "Also according to the story, they made the Argonauts quite welcome, if you'll recall."

  "That's right," said Steiger, "I'm still not thinking too clearly. They stayed here for a while and enjoyed the company of a lot of horny women and they would have stayed longer if Hercules hadn't kicked their butts back aboard the ship. This part wasn't in the script."

  The other Argonauts started to come around. It turned out that several of the hunting parties had been caught in nets as well, others had fallen into pits, the rest were approached by lovely young women and gassed when they allowed them to get close.

  "I do not u
nderstand this," Jason said. "Were all of us captured by women?"

  "Why have we been chained?" roared Hercules, furiously. Suddenly, there was no trace of a stutter. The deep voice rumbled forth smoothly in ringing, stentorian tones. "Who dares chain the son of Zeus?"

  He stood and held his arms out before him, pulling the chains taut. The muscles in his shoulders and chest bunched, standing out in sharp relief, and a moment later, the chains snapped cleanly.

  Steiger stared, eyes wide. "Jesus, did you see that?" he whispered.

  Delaney tried his own chains. "I saw it, but I don't believe it. These links are almost an inch thick!"

  Hercules reached down and snapped the chains holding his feet together, then turned his attention to the chains holding Hylas. One by one, he freed each of the Argonauts and when he was done, he wasn't even breathing hard.

  "I must be dreaming," Steiger said softly to Delaney. "Nobody could be that strong!"

  "Not even Hercules?" Delaney said.

  His fury building, Hercules attacked the door, throwing himself against it repeatedly like a charging rhinocerous, until the heavy wood splintered and the hinges broke, sending both Hercules and the door crashing outward into the corridor beyond.

  They ran out after Hercules as he stormed down the corridor, roaring at the top of his lungs. He came to a door at the end of the corridor and launched himself against it without breaking stride, smashing through it and into the room beyond.

  It was a large central chamber, brightly lit with torches. There were rich tapestries hanging on the walls and thick carpets on the stone floor. There were long, low tables and couches placed around the perimeter of the room and there was a large group of about thirty young women facing them. They were all dressed in short chitons and sandals laced up to their knees. Their hair was worn long and pulled back, fastened by clasps at the nape of the neck. Each of them held a bow drawn back with an arrow nocked and ready to fly. Confronted with this sight, even Hercules was brought up short.