The Navel of the World

by P. J. Hoover

  “I said no deal,” Benjamin said, but again, Achilles ignored him.

  “Or choice two,” Achilles said. “I kill you and take the object anyway.”

  Gary looked at Benjamin. “Give it to him.”

  “His reasoning is pretty good,” Andy said.

  Benjamin turned back to Achilles. “Why do you want it so bad? What does it do?”

  Achilles leaned forward again. “You mean you don’t know?” And then Benjamin felt Achilles dig into his mind. “No, you don’t know. But I think we should keep it that way. It’s better that you don’t.” Achilles looked around and tapped his foot. “So what’s the answer? Either way, I get the object.”

  Benjamin felt his mind spin. Why was the thing so important anyway? Not that it mattered. He reached to his belt and pulled out the metal box. “We can go if I give it to you?”

  Achilles nodded. “The sooner the better.”

  Benjamin turned to Andy and Gary.

  “Maybe it’s why you got it in the first place,” Andy said.

  Now that was something to consider. Maybe the whole reason he’d got the object at all was so he could trade it with Achilles. Otherwise, it seemed pretty random they’d have exactly what Achilles wanted more than anything else. At least that was the impression Achilles’s mind was giving.

  Benjamin turned back to Achilles. “Promise?”

  Achilles stood and nodded. “Let it never be said I am without honor.”

  And so Benjamin reached the box through the bars of the cell, and Achilles grabbed it. His fingers closed over the metal, and then he looked back up at Benjamin. “Now is the time for you to go.”

  And the way he said it was pretty final. Like they shouldn’t wait around for Achilles to change his mind. So they moved closer together in the cell, and using the short dagger telemagnifier, time traveled back to the present.

  CHAPTER 22

  The Food of the Gods Is Disgusting

  “What time is it?” Benjamin said.

  It was a rhetorical question. Benjamin knew the answer even before he opened his eyes; his heads-up display told him everything. And he’d slept until ten o’clock. But with the way his head was pounding, it might have been better not to wake up at all.

  “God my head hurts.” Benjamin looked over at Gary’s bunk bed. “And why is Gary still asleep?” He called over, “Hey, Gary, get up.”

  Gary didn’t move.

  “Come on, wake up.”

  Still no movement.

  Benjamin stood up from his bed but sat back down when the floor started spinning under him. “Whoa.”

  “What’s wrong?” Andy said.

  Benjamin shook his head, which only made it hurt worse. “I feel like I’m gonna die.”

  “Maybe you’re hungry.” Andy hopped down from the bunk bed.

  “I don’t feel hungry,” Benjamin said. “Just tired.”

  Andy walked over to Gary and began to shake him. “Come on, Gary. Get up.”

  Gary’s eyes fluttered open. “No. I don’t feel good.” And he closed his eyes again.

  “Come on. This is ridiculous.” Andy shook him again.

  “No.” Gary didn’t even bother opening his eyes this time.

  “What is wrong with you guys?” Andy asked. “We have Digs in an hour, and we still need to eat. Get up!”

  “You go ahead and go without us.” Benjamin lay back down in his bed. “I’m going to rest a while longer.” And when he closed his eyes, the world disappeared around him.

  When Benjamin woke it was late afternoon, and Heidi stood over him looking down. He tried to pull the covers over himself.

  “He’s awake,” she said.

  Benjamin’s head felt a little better, though it still felt like someone was teleporting rocks inside it. He turned and looked over to Gary’s bed. Gary looked the same as this morning—flat on his back in bed asleep.

  “What are you doing here?” Benjamin asked.

  “Andy told us you guys were sick,” Heidi said. “We told Aurora, and she said we better check on you.”

  “And it’s a good thing I did.’” Aurora pointed her finger at them. “You guys have been doing a little too much time traveling.”

  “We’ve only gone twice.” Benjamin sat up in bed. The effort caused his head to swim, but he pretended to ignore it and steadied himself.

  “Your chromosomes need time to realign,” Aurora told him.

  “I thought it would be okay,” Benjamin said. “I though the TPT helped with that.”

  “Apparently not,” Aurora said. “By the looks of Gary over there, even with some realignment help, he won’t be traveling for a good six months. Some telegens really can’t handle it.”

  “Six months!” Benjamin said. “What about me? I can’t wait six months. I don’t have time for that.”

  “You always have time when it comes to time,” Aurora said. “But I think with a little ambrosia, you’ll be as good as new in a couple weeks.”

  Benjamin shook his head. “No, that’s too long. I need to go again next Saturday.”

  Aurora stood up. “Not gonna happen.”

  “It has to happen,” Benjamin said. “What if I do it anyway?”

  “You might find yourself stuck back in time with no temporal chromosomes left in you,” Aurora said, “Then there’d be no way—none—to get back. Once your chromosomes are gone, they don’t re-grow.”

  “Two weeks!” Benjamin shook his head. “What do I have to do to recover?”

  “You need to drink this.” Aurora handed over a thick test tube with a cork in the end. It was full of some grey, chalky substance with large chunks in it—kind of like what Benjamin thought pulverized brains might look like.

  “Yuck!”

  “It’s ambrosia, and you need to drink it all,” Aurora said. “And it tastes worse than it looks.”

  “Wasn’t ambrosia the food of the gods?” Iva asked. “Didn’t it keep them immortal?”

  “Exactly,” Aurora said. “They all drank this. That way, they could jump around in time and look like they were immortal.”

  Benjamin looked at the test tube. Did he really need to drink this…stuff? He took a small taste and grimaced. “Ugh!”

  “All of it,” Aurora said.

  Benjamin’s head pounded. Not like there was any choice. Drink the brain stuff or maybe never get better. He put the tube to his mouth and drank/chewed all of the chalky substance.

  “What about Gary?” Benjamin shuddered. He knew he’d be having an aftertaste from this stuff for the next month.

  “We just gave him some,” Aurora said. “It’s starting to work, but he’s still pretty beat. He’ll need to sleep the rest of the day.”

  “Are you sure about the two weeks thing?” Benjamin gave it one final attempt. The ambrosia was working; he already felt better. His headache was fading, and the lightheadedness was starting to settle.

  “Two weeks. No sooner.”

  By Monday morning, Gary had recovered enough to get up and go to class. Skipping breakfast, he drank another test tube of ambrosia.

  “This stuff tastes nasty,” Gary said, swallowing it all down.

  Andy laughed. “Only three more days of it.”

  “I don’t know why I’m bothering,” Gary said. “If I’m out for Troy, who knows when I’ll ever need to temporally phase again.”

  Andy tilted his head. “You may feel up to going.”

  Gary shook his head. “No way. I’m not risking my extra chromosome pair to go back. I’m not getting stuck back in that war.”

  “Then who’s going?” Andy looked at Benjamin. “Just us?”

  Benjamin shrugged. If he’d been doing one thing since they got back it was thinking—lots of thinking. Maybe Hexer had been right. This whole chromosome thing could be a sign.

  Andy smacked his forehead with his palm. “You can’t seriously be considering taking Iva or Heidi along? Please tell me you’re not.”

  Benjamin gestured with his hands. �
�Well, don’t you find it pretty coincidental that Hexer told us Gary wasn’t going to be there and now we find out he’s right?”

  “Coincidental or not, you can’t take girls back to that war,” Andy said. “Did you even look around? What if they got kidnapped or something? What if they got killed? Achilles could get a hold of them, and I’m not sure we could trade anything to get them back.”

  “I don’t see much choice,” Benjamin said. “And Hexer didn’t mention any problems.”

  Andy shook his head. “I totally disagree. We have two weeks. By then I’m sure you’ll see there’s no way they can go back to Troy.”

  Benjamin didn’t bother saying anything. The choice was made, and he didn’t even get to make it. Andy would just have to come to accepting the cold, hard truth. They’d be going back to Troy with Heidi and Iva.

  The rough weekend had taken its toll on Benjamin more than he realized; it wasn’t actually until telekinesis that Benjamin figured out how much the temporal phasing had affected him. But their telekinesis teacher, The Panther, had no mercy. In fact, five minutes into the class, Benjamin felt sure somehow The Panther had found out about the time traveling.

  Okay, not really, but it sure felt that way.

  “Today we practice knife throwing,” The Panther said. Twenty knives materialized out of nowhere, arranged in a neat pattern on the desk. “I need a victim—I mean a volunteer.”

  Nobody raised a hand. And then Benjamin felt his right arm begin to lift into the air. He grabbed at it with his left, trying to hold it down, but the effort was futile.

  “Stop it, Andy,” Benjamin thought.

  “Stop what?” Andy replied.

  Benjamin found himself with his right hand straight in the air, the left hand holding it at the wrist.

  Benjamin looked back to see Ryan Jordan grinning from ear to ear. That dirty, rotten snake. He would pay for this.

  “Ah, Benjamin Holt, wonderful of you to volunteer.” The Panther smiled.

  Benjamin had no choice but to walk forward.

  “I need you to stand against the far wall,” The Panther said.

  Benjamin walked over to the bull’s-eye. He took his place and turned around. Without warning, a knife flew off the table and embedded itself in the wall to the right of Benjamin’s neck. He closed his eyes tightly and didn’t reopen them until he had heard nineteen more knives land. Without daring to move, he looked at the twenty gleaming daggers outlining him.

  Simultaneously, they detached and floated back to the desk. Benjamin started to move away from the wall. “I need you to stay right where you are, Mr. Holt.” The Panther put up his hand in a stopping motion. “Now who wants to be the first to try?”

  If Ryan Jordan’s arm had flown up any faster, it would have detached. Benjamin groaned and once again shut his eyes. It was just going to be one of those days. Probably for the next two weeks.

  Benjamin finished up his torture in telekinesis, and he and Andy headed to eat. Since she hadn’t time traveled, Heidi was as perky as normal, blond hair sparking, talking to Josh before lunch. Benjamin and Andy walked in, blowing past Suneeta Manvar as they made their way to the table where Iva and Gary already sat.

  Benjamin stared when he saw Iva. If the bags under her eyes had been any darker, she’d have been a raccoon. Hadn’t she gotten any sleep last night?

  “Wow, what happened? You look awful,” Andy said, then clapped his hand over his mouth.

  Benjamin couldn’t believe it; sometimes Andy really was a complete moron.

  “Gee, thanks, Andy,” Iva said. “That’s just what I want to hear.”

  “I just had a talk with Magic Pan,” Heidi announced as she walked up.

  “I thought you were talking to Josh,” Benjamin said.

  Heidi smiled. “After Josh.”

  Benjamin ignored her smile.

  “So what did he say?” Andy said.

  Heidi sighed. “A whole lot of nothing. It’s like he didn’t have a purpose in talking to me.”

  “You think he knew we eavesdropped on Saturday?” Benjamin asked.

  Heidi pursed her lips. “Maybe.”

  “Couldn’t you just read his mind?” Gary asked.

  “I tried, but it was blank,” Heidi said. “And I mean really blank. I think he uses a telejammer.”

  “Aren’t those illegal?” Benjamin asked.

  “Yeah, they’re illegal,” Heidi said, then switched to telepathy. “I think Magic Pan is actually an anarchist in disguise.”

  “Anarchist?” Benjamin said. “He got the menus back online. Not to mention he was in a meeting with Helios.”

  “Wouldn’t an anarchist try to break the menu system?” Gary asked.

  “Who broke the menu system in the first place?” Heidi said.

  “It was broken when we got here,” Andy said. “Leena Teasag probably broke it for job security.”

  “I don’t think so,” Heidi said. “I think Magic snuck to Lemuria before the semester started and disabled the menus. Then, when it was convenient, he fixed them.”

  Andy laughed. “That’s a little farfetched.”

  “Even if it is true, what’s the big deal,” Benjamin replied. “It’s just a prank.”

  Just then, Nick Konstantin walked into the dining hall. Iva saw him, too, and Benjamin noticed her trying to slide down in her chair.

  “Hey,” Andy said. “There’s Nick.”

  Iva slunk lower.

  But it was too late. Nick took one look at the table and walked over.

  He reached for Iva’s hand and kissed the back of it. “Ah, my beautiful Ivana! There you are. I missed you in ’omeroom this morning.”

  “I was really tired.” Iva kept her hands to her face.

  “I found I could not recite the poetry without your lovely face,” Nick said. “It gives me strength.”

  Andy groaned. Loudly.

  “But I see you now, and my ’ole world is brightened,” Nick continued. “But you are tired; I shall not keep you. But might I just say that you look more lovely than usual this morning, if that is even possible. Please do not neglect me tomorrow.” He kissed her hand again and turned and walked away, reciting poetry as he went.

  Andy rolled his eyes. “Ivana? What’s that all about?”

  Iva giggled. Nick had obviously flipped the right switch and turned her mood around. “Oh, it’s just a nickname. He asked if he could use it to compose a poem.” She looked after Nick with a dreamy look in her eyes.

  “Maybe you should compose a poem with her name in it,” Benjamin silently suggested to Andy.

  “Whatever,” Andy said as he pushed his chair out and stood up.

  Guess it was going to be one of those days for Andy for the next two weeks, too.

  CHAPTER 23

  Gary Throws Down the Gauntlet

  Over the next two weeks, Benjamin checked his heads-up display constantly, making sure the clock wasn’t running backwards. He didn’t need any more ambrosia, and he felt fine. Only Aurora’s word told him he had to wait. But her word was good; her dad time traveled all the time. If he didn’t trust her, he might as well give up on time travel completely.

  Not that understanding made it easier. To cope with the time, Benjamin worked out every detail of the upcoming trip. He knew where to go. He knew who was going. All that was left was picking a temple of Kronos.

  “I’ve charted out some of the temples we can choose from,” Iva said at lunch the following Saturday.

  “Can’t we just go back to one we’ve already been to?” Benjamin sat next to Heidi and flipped his menu over.

  Andy shook his head and ordered a hamburger, eyeing Iva as she grimaced. “I’m not going back to Rome. I’m not lifting that wall again.”

  “Aurora says Kronos doesn’t like the same people coming back to the same temples,” Heidi said. “According to her, he loves to play games. If someone comes back, they won’t find a TPT.”

  “And we don’t want to risk that,” Iva added. “After n
ext weekend, we have our ability tests, and then we leave Lemuria. We can’t take a chance.” She reached down with her fork and picked at her salad.

  “So what are our choices?” Andy took an enormous bite from his hamburger.

  Iva looked away, and her eyes glazed over as she checked her heads-up display. “Well, there’s one in Sumeria, but it’s buried underground.”

  Benjamin reached over and grabbed a piece of bread. “That’s out. With our luck, we’d need to dig it up. What else?”

  “There’s Athens and Thebes in Greece; they have pretty famous temples,” Iva said.

  That didn’t seem to meet with Andy’s approval either. He took another bite and talked with his mouth full. “I don’t know. All the Greek architecture has all those huge stone monuments and stuff. I’m not lifting anything else.”

  Iva went on. “Or we could go to South America. The Incan civilization worshipped Kronos as Viracocha, and they had a temple to him in the center of their empire.”

  “Hmmm. Didn’t the Incans used to do human sacrifices and stuff?” Benjamin asked.

  “That stopped ages ago,” Iva said.

  “Allegedly,” Benjamin said.

  “Which leaves my personal favorite,” Iva said.

  Benjamin knew without her saying another word that the decision was already made. She’d only been asking them as a courtesy.

  “And that would be…?” Andy asked.

  Iva smiled. “That would be India. There’s a temple in southern India where thousands of people go every Saturday to pay their homage to Kronos.”

  “Or Shaneeswara as they call him,” Heidi added. She flipped her menu back over and ordered a second dessert.

  “With that many people around, we’ll blend right in,” Iva said.

  “Sounds like you guys have already been talking about this,” Andy said.

  Heidi looked at Iva, and they both smiled. “Just a little,” Iva said.

  Andy scooted his chair out. “As long as I don’t have to lift anything.”

  Heidi clapped her hands together. “Good. It’s all set except for one thing.”

  “And what’s that?” Andy asked.