VI

HELENA

2,614 Years Before the Final Exodus

 

The auburn-haired woman strode into the Balaneia as though she belonged. In reality, she hadn't been in many months and couldn't afford it tonight.

She sipped fine wines and ate delectable breads, cheeses, and fruits. She was rubbed with fragrant oils and massaged. And she would end the evening with a long soak in a steamy bath before being rubbed down again.

The woman stepped into the tiled pool room and removed her robe, handing it to a boy by the door. The steam prevented her from seeing the other people already reclining in the pools but she stepped confidently toward the steps, regardless. She slid into the warm water and propelled herself to the opposite corner, resting her back against the warm ceramic. Whatever cares she had were slipping away.

"Are you Helena Telamonina Delphii?"

She opened her eyes and looked through the steam to the man sitting in the pool next to her. "Why?"

He smiled and lifted his arm to rest on the dividing wall between them. "Do not worry, Helena. I am a friend."

She looked at his hand and saw a gold ring. Hephaestus Institute of Technology. "'A friend?'" She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. "Odd. I know my friends' names. I do not know yours."

"I am Thersites. Until recently, I was a leading scholar at the Hephaestus Institute."

"'Until recently?'" Helena did not look or turn toward him.

"Yes." Thersites glanced around the room noting that only two other people were bathing. "A very important project of mine ... fell into an abyss."

Still not opening her eyes, Helena scrunched up her face in confusion. "Was it withheld?"

Thersites grinned again, "No, but that's a longer story for another time."

"As you wish."

Thersites watched an older citizen leave the pool and a girl attended to him with a towel. "You were the lead genetic scholar at the Asclepius School, where you worked for nearly fifteen years altogether." She did not respond. "You worked in cloning. Cloning organs, rapid maturation processes, and the like." No response. "No complete human cloning, of course. That was banned centuries ago by the gods."

"Is there a purpose to this?"

"Yes. You were forced out of the school five years ago when it was discovered that you were secretly researching cloning of human minds." Helena opened her eyes, but did not turn toward him. "Not the organ itself, but the memories and information within." He paused, waiting for a response that didn't come. "For the last few years you've been eeking out extra funds by acting as a healer in your neighborhood. Your home is far smaller than it used to be and your food is more bland."

She swallowed slowly and paused. Thersites said nothing. Helena saw her father in her memory for a moment. Then she stared at a single tile on the far wall and spoke, "How do you know all of this?"

"Hephaestus Institute," Thersites said as he tapped his hand on the tiled wall, causing the metal of his ring to clink. "I was a leading designer of advanced computational processors. I can find information about anything. More importantly, I can find secrets that shouldn't be found."

Helena said nothing else. She stood from the pool and walked into the open towel a young man held for her. She glanced back at Thersites once and went to retrieve her clothes from the storage area.

Thersites followed. Helena did not acknowledge his presence as she dressed herself and stepped out into the Balaneia's courtyard. A small group was playing music; soft, soothing music from ancient-styled lyres and flutes. She sat at a table and Thersites sat across from her.

"Something to drink?" he offered.

"You buy."

Thersites motioned to a waiting attendant. When he approached, Thersites said, "Two coffees."

"Bring cream." Helena sat motionless as the attendant hurried away. "Very well. I acknowledge that your information about me is correct. What do you wish to do with this?"

"First, I must ask why you were forced out. Cloning the mind, yes, but what precept did that violate?"

Helena tilted her head slightly, "It goes back to cloning humans. More importantly, it violated a precept of the Asclepius School. That the mind contains the entirety of the person. All that we are, all that we have been and will be, it is in the mind."

"Somewhat existential," Thersites said quietly.

"Somewhat, but it is truthful. The mind contains the information and the memories that influence personality. The memories and abilities that ascribe intelligence. All of the information that allows the body to function. Organs can be replaced, but not the mind. The mind is the person."

Thersites nodded. "So by cloning minds it could be said you were trying to circumvent the ban on cloning humans."

Helena nodded. "That was not my intent. I presented my project ... what little there was ... at an annual review by Asclepius. He was displeased and pointed out the preceptual violation. I tried to argue that this could be used to save someone who had been severely injured or was suffering from a disease before their body failed. I was unsuccessful. Asclepius wanted me reprimanded, but the division's lead scholar ordered me to leave instead."

Thersites looked toward the musicians. "My project was thrown into a divine abyss." Helena raised her eyebrows while he continued, "It was complete. A computational processor the likes of which have never been seen. Lord Hephaestus saw it … and he took it away."

"Did it violate some directive?"

"None that I'm aware of." Thersites watched an attendant come near with what he thought was their drinks, but he went to a different table instead. "Hephaestus told me that the project was not being withheld and that he would be getting back to me. He never did, obviously."

Helena crossed her legs and picked a hair from her knee. "It must have truly intrigued him."

Softly, Thersites responded, "Or frightened him."

She lifted her head with a jerk. "You seem to have a high opinion of your work."

Thersites said nothing. He turned and watched the musicians for a moment before the attendant returned with their coffees. He began to drink his immediately, but Helena poured in copious amounts of cream. As she stirred, he spoke again, "We live in a Utopia, you know."

She took a small sip and said, "So I hear."

"For three thousand years, the gods have lived among us and lifted mankind." Thersites spoke with an earnestness that Helena immediately recognized as facetiousness. "They have bestowed holy gifts of knowledge upon us all. And what have we reaped?" He waited for a reaction from her but she just drank. "No hunger. No homeless. No war. It took ages to get us to this point, but for the last few centuries, we've truly lived without hardship."

Helena chuckled mockingly.

"There is still hardship, of course." Thersites gulped a bit of his coffee. "Hardship of the spirit, perhaps, but not the hardship associated with a godsless existence. One that includes famine and conquest." Helena seemed distracted and she looked toward a couple dancing slowly by the musicians. "No, the Lords of Kobol provide shelter and sustenance for all. Better things are available for those who wish to work for it. No back-breaking labor, though. If one wishes to toil in the sun or fish the sea, they may, of course. But it is the advancements of arts and sciences that are mankind's true labors these days." He turned the handle of his cup side to side and grinned at Helena. "The gods have given us free will to choose our own destinies, but people above us and even the gods themselves have prevented some of those choices."

Her distraction ended and she looked at Thersites with a stern glare. "What are you saying?"

"Would you like to get back to your work, scholar?"

"'Get back' to what? A project that was all theory and without physical form? A project that displeased the gods?"

"Get back to helping people. You said so yourself. By cloning a mind, a person with severe injuries or a terminal disease could be given the full life they deserve."

"Again, my work was all theory. No substance."

Thersites smiled again. "That's where I come in."