The Argonaut Affair

by Simon Hawke

  "Is this how you greet all your visitors?" demanded Jason, slowly coming forward with his hands held at his sides. "What have we done to be so rudely treated? Who are you? Why have our weapons been taken? And where are all your men?"

  "Our men are gone," said a young woman, coming out from behind the others. She alone carried no weapons. "I am Hypsipyle, Queen of Lemnos. Our men have all gone off to war and women left alone are vulnerable. We feared an attack by our enemies or by pirates, so we made preparations to protect ourselves. We did not know of your intentions. Which of you is Jason?"

  "I am Jason, King of Iolchos."

  "I ask you to forgive us, Jason," said Queen Hypsipyle. "It appears we acted hastily and misjudged you and your friends." She turned to the other women. "Put down your bows and make these strangers welcome."

  "Where is Atalanta?" Delaney said.

  "It is she who has convinced me that you came in peace," said Hypsipyle. "If you will follow me, I will take you to her."

  She led Steiger and Delaney down one of several corridors branching off from the main chamber. They passed a number of women heading the other way, carrying trays of food. All were young and beautiful and very fit. She stopped before a door and beckoned them inside. It was a bath chamber, filled with steam and fragrant smells from the scented water and the burning braziers. The tiled sunken bath filled most of the room and Andre sat within it, being bathed by two beautiful young women.

  "Do you believe this?" Delaney asked, speaking in English. "We get chained and thrown into a cold cell while Cleopatra here gets the red carpet treatment."

  "Apparently there are some advantages to being a woman around here," Andre said. "Come on in and get your backs scrubbed."

  "You don't have to ask me twice," said Delaney, shucking his chiton and sandals. He got in and one of the women smilingly moved over and began to scrub him gently with a soft-cloth.

  Steiger sat down cross-legged on the floor. "Would it be too much trouble to ask just what in hell is happening here?"

  Delaney reclined into the woman's arms and sighed. "Right this minute, I'm in no particular hurry to find out."

  A woman bent down over Steiger and smiled, gesturing toward the bath, but he shook his head.

  "I could force myself to stay here for a while," Delaney said, grinning.

  Steiger frowned. "What did you tell Queen What's-her-name?"

  "Hypsipyle," Andre said. "She thought I was being kept by the crew against my will, sort of a ship's concubine. I told her I was part of the crew, voluntarily, and we were on a voyage to Colchis to bring back the golden fleece. She thought the Argonauts were pirates. She seems to have a tendency to think the worst of men."

  "Have you seen any men here at all?" said Steiger.

  "Not a one. No old people or children, either."

  "How did Hypsipyle account for that?"

  "She said the men were away at war and the children were being kept with the old people on another part of the island, for their protection."

  "And none of the men stayed behind to provide this protection?"

  "The women seem quite capable of looking after themselves," said Andre, "which makes me wonder why none of them went to war with the men. I spent more time answering questions that asking them. Hypsipyle said you were all being kept in another part of the palace until she could determine whether or not you were a threat. I wasn't sure of my ground, so I didn't want to press her. Apparently, she's decided we're welcome to stay, so long as our stay is brief. Her story is obviously thin, but it matches the events of the myth."

  "I know and I don't buy it."

  "You sure you don't want a scrub?" Delaney asked.

  "Delaney, doesn't any of this seem a little unusual to you?"

  "Sure. But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy myself while I think about it. I do my best thinking when I'm relaxed." He looked up at the woman in whose arms he reclined and smiled. "And this sure is relaxing."

  Steiger spoke to her in Greek. "Where are all the old people? Where are the children?"

  She smiled at him vacuously and shook her head, as if she didn't understand. She beckoned him into the tub.

  "No thanks. I'm old enough to wash myself." He got to his feet and switched back to English. "We're obviously not going to get anything out of them. I'm going to take a look around. Something about this mission has to start making sense, sooner or later."

  "I thought he said he didn't get tense," said Delaney, after Steiger had left.

  "He's right, you know," said Andre. "There's something very peculiar about these women. With the exception of Hypsipyle, they all seem stunted in their development. Childlike. It's as if they were all stamped out of the same mold. They're all young and beautiful, yet somehow asexual."

  Delaney reached out and touched the naked breast of the woman bathing him. She made no response. "You think maybe they're just not interested in men?" he said.

  "No one's made a pass at me," said Andre. "I've tried communicating with them, but you see what they're like. They don't really seem interested in us at all. We're speaking in a foreign language that they've never heard before and they're not in the least bit curious. I've spoken with Hypsipyle, but nothing I say gets more than a smile out of any of the others. I haven't even heard any of them converse among themselves."

  "Interesting," said Delaney, looking thoughtful. "No men, no children and apparently no one over the age of twenty-five. They're all young, all beautiful, and they all act somehow retarded, except in direct response to Hypsipyle. And they only seem capable of limited reactions."

  As if in play, Delaney threw his arms around one of the women, then suddenly bit down hard on the flesh of her upper arm.

  "Finn!" Andre shouted, shocked by his action.

  The woman merely looked puzzled.

  "That should have made her scream," said Andre.

  Delaney pushed the woman away and got out of the bath. "It should have, only androids don't feel pain."

  "Androids!"

  "Come on. We'd better go find Creed."

  Steiger pressed himself against the wall and waited until the women passed by, then turned the corner. He heard the sounds of music and male laughter from the direction of the main chamber. The women had been carrying trays of food. The Argonauts were being royally entertained. He ran quickly down the length of the corridor until he came to a flight of steps leading down. He listened for a moment, then slowly started down the stairs.

  The stone steps led down to a landing, then turned at a right angle and continued down to a floor below ground level. He went down and paused at the end of the stairs. To his left was a large wooden door before which stood two women armed with spears. One of them saw him and immediately came forward, spear held crosswise in front of her.

  "I'm sorry," Steiger said in Greek, "I seem to have become lost. I saw my friends coming in this direction and I was trying to find them."

  The woman made no other response save pointing in the direction from which he had come, her face expressionless.

  The other woman remained near the door, watching them.

  "You don't seem to understand," said Steiger. "They came this way, I'm sure of it. They were with the queen."

  The woman pointed again, more emphatically.

  "What's behind that door?"

  She came closer, as if to push him back with her body, still pointing back toward the stairs.

  "I get the message," Steiger said. He turned around as if to obey, then spun around again quickly and plucked the spear out of her hands. "All right, now we're going to-"

  He ducked quickly and the spear thrown by the other woman passed inches over his head and fell clattering on the stairs behind him. The woman whose spear he had taken grabbed at it, attempting to wrestle it away from him. Steiger twisted to one side and used her strength and momentum to throw her off her feet. The other woman came at him quickly and Steiger held the spear toward her, point first, but she didn't even slow down. Only by jerking
the spear away at the last moment did Steiger prevent her from impaling herself on its point.

  "Are you crazy? What-"

  She was on him and he had to toss the spear behind him to grapple with her. Then her companion joined the fray and Steiger quickly found his hands full. He used a judo throw to flip the first one away from him, then grasped the arm of the second and pivoted, turning her around in front of him and forcing her hand up behind her back in an armlock. She continued struggling and Steiger increased the pressure. It seemed to have no effect. He kept up the pressure, turning her to keep her body between himself and the second woman, who had recovered from his throw and was trying to get at him. Neither of them made a sound as they fought.

  Steiger suddenly heard a snapping sound and felt a looseness in the woman's arm. He had broken it and she did not even cry out. He pushed her away and they both came back at him. One of them held a dagger. He had no choice but to stop holding back. He executed a spinning wheel kick and sent the knife flying out of her grasp. She went after it and her companion, now also armed with a blade, came at him. He trapped her wrist, spun backwards into her body and delivered a hard elbow strike into her solar plexus. It should have taken all the fight out of her, but she merely sagged, struggling for breath, while the other woman launched herself at him.

  He blocked the knife thrust and delivered a punishing hammer-first blow to the bridge of her nose, breaking it. Blood spurted, but again there was no outcry and the woman kept at him. He smashed a blow into her midsection, knocking the wind out of her, but as she bent over, fighting for breath, her companion was already regaining hers and preparing to rush at him again.

  "All right, ladies," Steiger said, breathing hard himself. "From here on in, it's hardball."

  As the woman launched herself at him, Steiger's foot arced up in a powerful sidekick and caught her in the throat, smashing the trachea. Blood gushed from her mouth, but she still came at him for several steps before she fell, gargling hideously. Behind them, the heavy wooden door opened and a hooded figure came out. The moment he saw what was happening, he bolted back inside and slammed the door shut. Almost fatally distracted, Steiger twisted at the last moment and his breath hissed out in pain as the dagger slashed along his side. He smashed his elbow into the woman's temple, then drove a hard right into her stomach, doubling her over, and brought the edge of his hand down hard upon the back of her neck, breaking it. She fell to the floor, motionless.

  Steiger was at the door in an instant, tugging on it, but it was bolted from inside. He quickly turned and picked up one of the long daggers, jamming it into the narrow gap between the door and the wall, working the blade in and up against the crossbar on the other side. He felt it lift and he pulled back on the door, opening it wide.

  Behind the door was a small, rectangular room with stone walls and a stone floor. Illumination was provided by two torches set into the walls. There was no sign of the hooded figure. Pushed against the walls were several crudely made, low wooden tables upon which the nude bodies of beautiful young women were stacked like cordwood.

  They were all clearly lifeless, but there were no signs of decomposition nor was there any evidence of the smells associated with death. He approached the tables and examined one of the bodies intently. With the exception of the fact that all signs of life were absent, the woman looked merely asleep. The body was perfectly formed, as were all the others, and on the inside of the back of the left thigh, Steiger found a tiny tattoo. A serial number. A quick examination showed that other bodies had the same tattoo, all the numbers different, but varying by no more than several digits. "Androids," Steiger said in a low voice. He hurried into the outer chamber and quickly stripped the clothing off the two guards, then dragged them into the storage cell. He wiped off the blood-it had to be synthetic, he thought-with one of the chitons the androids had been wearing and then wadded up the clothing and tucked it beneath the stacked bodies. Then he lifted up each one and added it to the stacks, arranging the bodies carefully. He ran back up the stairs, checked to make sure the corridor was clear and encountered Finn and Andre coming the other way.

  "Creed," said Andre, "we found out something about these women. They're all-"

  "Androids," said Steiger.

  Delaney stared at him. "How did you know?"

  "I just had a nasty tussle with a couple of them in the cellar. They're dead, if that's the proper term. There's a whole roomful of inactive androids down there, stacked up in piles. Run numbers tattooed on the backs of their inner thighs, where you wouldn't notice them unless you were a lot closer than you should be. And our hooded friend was down there, as well. He got a good look at me while I was fighting with the android guards stationed in front of that storage room. He ducked back into the room and by the time I got in there, he was gone. The only way he could have gotten out without my seeing him was through a secret passage or by clocking out."

  "You were right," said Delaney. "This changes everything. They're onto us for sure."

  "It still doesn't explain the centaur, though," said Andre. "There's no way an android could have gotten by that examination, no matter how sophisticated it was."

  "There's no time to think about that now," said Delaney. "We've got to get out of here and fast."

  "Good luck convincing the Argonauts to leave," said Andre. "They're having a high old time, enjoying the feast and watching the dancing girls. We've got a problem."

  "Let's not panic," Steiger said. "They may not find the bodies right away. I stripped them down and piled them on top of the others. And unless our hooded friend gets to Hypsipyle, she's going to be busy with the entertainment for a while. My guess is that she's probably human. If we can get her alone, maybe we can get some answers. Let's go back to the feast before she sends someone to the bath looking for us."

  "What happens if our hooded friend clocks back with reinforcements?" asked Delaney.

  "We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. We've probably been blown right from the beginning. I'd like to know why nobody's come after us yet."

  "It does look as if we're following a script," said Andre. "Only what is the script?"

  "Nothing to do but follow it and see," said Steiger. "Maybe if we improvise some changes, we'll force their hand."

  "What bothers me is why," said Delaney. "It just doesn't make any sense. It almost looks as if they're trying to create some sort of a disruption in their own timeline!"

  "Or maybe it's the other way around," Steiger said.

  "What do you mean?" asked Andre.

  "Maybe the convergence effect has caused a disruption in their history that they're attempting to adjust," said Steiger. "We've apparently become involved in some sort of complex plot and I find it hard to believe that all this was staged expressly for our benefit. I can't think of a reason for it. What if we've accidentally stumbled into one of their temporal adjustments?"

  "It would explain a lot," said Delaney. "If that's the case, then it increases our chances of creating a significant disruption in their timeline. All we have to do is sabotage their adjustment."

  "It also increases the risk," said Andre. "We'd have to know what their plan was before we could interfere," said Steiger. "Otherwise, we just might wind up accomplishing their mission for them. Besides, we could be wrong. We simply don't have enough information. The hooded man seems to be the key. He keeps turning up at all the right places. If we could only get our hands on him..."

  "So what's our next move?" said Andre. "Do we try to interrogate Hypsipyle?"

  "If we get the chance," said Steiger, "but it would be very risky. This whole thing is liable to blow up on us at any time, the moment those two androids I put down are discovered. No, unless we get a clear shot, I don't think we should chance it. They're going through this charade with the Argonauts for a reason. I say we change the game plan on them. We've got to get the Argonauts to leave. At least it will buy us time."

  "Only how do we break up the party?" asked Andre.
/>   Delaney snapped his fingers. "Hercules!"

  "What?"

  "Why not use the myth to our advantage?" Delaney said. "According to the story, Hercules became outraged that the Argonauts were carrying on with women when they had a mission to accomplish. You saw what he was like when his temper was aroused."

  "Yeah, I saw," said Steiger. "And it makes me wonder. That kind of strength is more than a little inhuman, wouldn't you say?"

  Andre shut her eyes. "I don't want to know about it," she said, wearily. "Hercules an android, too? This is insane."

  "Before our paranoia completely runs away with us," Delaney said, "remember there have been lots of documented cases of strongmen capable of breaking chains and bending iron. Hercules may be unbelievably strong, but he seems human enough to me. Besides, I've never heard of an android that stutters. And he loses his stutter when he's angry, like some people who stutter lose it when they're singing or otherwise preoccupied. That's a purely human characteristic."

  "All right, you've got a point," said Steiger, "but I'm not taking anything at face value anymore. Whichever way it goes, we can always scrub the mission and clock out. But I want to get to the bottom of this somehow."

  "I think we're all agreed on that," said Andre.

  "Okay, then. Let's see what we can do to get the Argonauts moving before all hell breaks loose."

  "Too late," said Delaney.

  Hypsipyle was walking swiftly down the corridor in the vanguard of about twenty android Amazons. On seeing them, she pointed and shouted, "There they are! Seize them!"

  As the androids started forward, Delaney charged unexpectedly. He ploughed into them, moving fast and low. In the narrow corridor, there was no room for them to spread out and he bowled several over, pushing past the others to grab at Hypsipyle and spin her around in front of him, his arm across her throat applying pressure.

  "Call them off or I'll break your neck," he said.

  "Stay where you are!" said Hypsipyle, her voice cracking slightly. The androids froze where they stood, looking at her expressionlessly.