Chapter Twelve

[Alexandria, 150 AD]

Synesius, Jonah and Ruth, and the android walked quickly, their robes laden with scrolls, towards the room with the chair. The android reflected on the fact she that was laden with more than scrolls – her memory carried the entire catalog of the Library.

The four encountered no legionaries along the way – just Ptolemy forever pacing, tracing elliptical orbits with his feet–

"Stop!" Ptolemy said sternly. "I know what you are doing! I have eyes."

The four froze. Is this astronomer working with Heron? Synesius frantically thought.

The android put her hand on her weapon–

"Please," Ptolemy suddenly changed his tone to imploring and reached into his robe.

The android withdrew her weapon.

"Take this with you," Ptolemy continued and produced a scroll. "I want your world to know about this."

The android lowered her sword.

"Of course," Jonah said. He took Ptolemy's scroll and put it next to the others in his robe.

Ptolemy mumbled his thanks and returned to his pacing.

"We need to go," the android said.

The four proceeded to the room. No legionaries were in view. The android gently pushed the outer door open. The four entered the room, which was empty of people. The android locked the door. "This will at least keep us safe for a few heartbeats from anyone now in the Library who means us harm," she advised. The four proceeded to the inner room. A single chair stood as if at attention in the center.

"We need to decide who should go to the future first," Jonah said. "Might I propose Ruth?"

Ruth started to object–

"You mean to take her out of harm's way here," Synesius said, "but surely you know it could be far more dangerous in 414 AD – there could be legionaries in that future version of this room right now, waiting to greet anyone who appears in the chair with drawn swords."

"True," Jonah said. "But let us review our options. We know for a fact that there were legionaries in this room in 413 AD – they nearly killed you, as you told me. It is unlikely that they would wait a year in this room, or return to it in a year, unless they had knowledge that we would be arriving in 414 AD. But we – Ampharete – made that decision, instructed us to go to 414, just a few minutes ago. On the other hand, the two of you have been here in 150 AD, with Ampharete and Max, for a whole day now. Time enough for Heron to learn of our whereabouts – or whenabouts – and look for us here."

"I see your logic," Synesius said. "Still . . . "

"You will not come to a conclusion to this matter via logic," the android said. "There are good arguments on both sides. If that is what the two of you want," she directed this to Jonah and Ruth, "then you should go," she said this Ruth. "The worst choice is wasting time debating it now."

Ruth started to object again–

This time Jonah interrupted. "Please, go." He took her hand and spoke in Hebrew he hoped only she could understand. "I will join you soon, my sweet wife."

Ruth flung her arms around Jonah, squeezed him hard, then let go and sat in the chair.

The android unlocked the outer door and looked quickly outside. "We still seem to be undiscovered here," she returned to the inner room and reported. She closed and locked the outer door again. Then she walked to the chair in the inner room and set the arrival date for the same day of the month in 414 as it was now in 150 AD, as Sierra had instructed. "The chair will depart in 90 seconds," the android said. "I set it for automatic return to this precise time, so you need do nothing other than leave the chair and the room," she said to Ruth, who nodded and sat in the chair. The android and the two men left the inner room and closed the door behind them. All three drew weapons to combat any sudden legionary appearances outside or inside the room.

[Alexandria, 414 AD]

Ruth had traveled in chairs between 150 AD and the 410s AD before, but those chairs had been in Athens, and Jonah had traveled in an accompanying chair right beside her. This was the first time she had traveled alone and in Alexandria. But it felt the same – a kiss from the cosmos, on some part of her even deeper than her soul. And it transpired in an instant.

She opened her eyes. Heron smiled at her. The two legionaries in back of him did not.

"Stay in the chair," Heron told Ruth and leaned over the controls. "I'm sending you back one year to 413 AD, where you can tell me to travel a year forward to now, to greet and instruct you as I now am doing."

Ruth trembled with fear. "How could you be in this room when my chair arrived? I thought–"

"Hypatia Waters designed this chair, but I endeavored to improve it," Heron replied. "I fitted it with a shield that protects its surroundings from the effects of a chair arriving through time."

Heron smiled with satisfaction as the chair vanished with a wet popping sound. "I set it to go back to 150 AD after Ruth exits in 413 AD," he said to Titus and Lucius. "I expect Jonah will be here any moment."

[Alexandria, 150 AD]

Jonah, Synesius, and the android heard a sound inside the room. "That should be the chair," Jonah said. The three re-entered the inner room, weapons still drawn, and relaxed just a bit when they saw it was empty of legionaries.

"You should go next," Synesius said to Jonah.

"Yes," the android agreed and leaned over the chair to re-set it. "No," she said suddenly, and pulled back.

"What is wrong?" Synesius said.

"There is something not right with the settings," the android said.

"Is Ruth–" Jonah began.

"I have no reason to think any harm has come to her," the android. "It is just . . . I cannot be sure, because this is a slightly different kind of chair, as you know. But from what I can see in its log, the chair made two jumps through time to get back here."

"I do not understand what you are saying," Synesius said.

"I am saying the chair traveled first from 414 AD to some time between then and now, and then proceeded in a second jump to arrive back here," the android said. "But I cannot be sure."

"Why would the chair do that?" Jonah pressed. "Are you saying it is not working properly?"

"Perhaps," the android said. "Or perhaps it was deliberately set to do that."

"But why?" Jonah asked.

The android held up her hands in the very human gesture of communicating I don't know.

"Can you see in what intermediate year the chair first arrived?" Synesius asked.

The android shook her head no. "I can barely see that the chair made a two-part rather than a direct trip."

Jonah sighed, walked over to the chair, and put his hand tenderly upon it. "Could you set it as we planned to bring me to 414 AD?" he asked the android.

"Yes, but it's too dangerous," the android replied. "If the chair is malfunctioning–"

"I understand why he wants to go," Synesius said. "I would want to do the same if it was Hypatia who had just traveled to the future."

The android hesitated.

"Please," Jonah said. "Our reasons for not wanting to stay here in 150 AD with the precious scrolls we carry remain the same. We incur a greater risk by going back out in the Library and the city of Alexandria now."

Synesius nodded his agreement.

The android agreed unhappily and re-set the chair.

"Thank you," Jonah said and sat.

Synesius and the android left the room.

[Alexandria, 414 AD]

"What happened to us?" Heron asked Jonah, as Titus and Lucius kept him pinned to the chair after his arrival.

"What happened to us?" Jonah repeated, furiously. He struggled to break free. "I saw your true nature." Titus and Lucius increased their pressure.

"You saw what that witch Sierra painted for you," Heron said.

"Send me back to Ruth," Jonah said. "There is no point in our talking. I have nothing to tell you, and would not tell it if I did."

"I know," Heron said, and leaned over the controls.

Jonah involuntarily clutched the scrolls in his robe.

"You need not worry about those," Heron said, faux soothingly. "I'll be taking them off your hands when I see you in a moment, last year."

Heron stepped back, motioned the legionaries to release Jonah, and watched in satisfaction as the chair disappeared with a pop.

[Alexandria, 413 AD]

Ruth flung her arms around Jonah and kissed him on the lips. Jonah felt her tears on his face. "I am sorry," she said.

"She has nothing to be sorry about," Heron said.

Jonah gently stroked Ruth's face and rose from the chair. Heron, the two legionaries he had just seen in 414 AD, and two other legionaries were in the room. "You look exactly the same," Jonah blurted out to Heron.

Heron smiled. "A man doesn't change much in an hour."

"I am sorry," Ruth said again, her head against Jonah's face. "I did it because I love you."

It finally got through to Jonah that Ruth was more than Heron's prisoner here. "What do you mean?"

"She means that has been my source of information for a long time now," Heron answered for Ruth.

"I love you," Ruth said again to Jonah and touched his face. Jonah removed her hand. "I did not want you killed," Ruth continued. "But even if I had no connection to you, I would agree with your former mentor on this matter – it is wrong to tamper with time. It is dangerous, immoral."

"You agree with Heron about that?" Jonah asked in disbelief. "Heron has done more to tamper with time than any human ever alive."

"That is an ambitious statement," Heron said. "But if I have, I am now trying to stop a meddling in time that could have far worse consequences than anything I ever did."

"Bringing all of that knowledge forward to the future will have unforeseen consequences," Ruth said to Jonah. "You have said so to me many times."

"Yes," Jonah said, "but I also said some of those consequences could be wonderful – could make the future a much better world, one which benefits from knowledge otherwise lost in the past."

Heron started to speak–

"He is a murderer," Jonah pointed his finger at Heron. "He tried to kill not only Hypatia, but Alcibiades. His legionaries tried to kill Plato!"

"I saved Alcibiades in the first place from the death that our original history meted out to him," Heron replied. "As for Plato," Heron grimaced in distaste, "his philosophy, his dislike of the practical, could well have kept the world away from technology for more than the thousand years that it did. But I did not grasp at the time just how important Plato's work was to Augustine. I was younger then. I have since learned that saving usually accomplishes more than killing."

"Are you trying to save Hypatia right now?" Jonah demanded.

"I am not trying to hurt her, I assure you," Heron replied. "I'm only trying to protect history from her looting of the Library."

"'Looting'? She's trying to save precious texts that you would let burn. You say your opinions changed as you aged – what if you decide a year from now that this current plan of yours of stopping Hypatia from saving the texts to be burned in Alexandria was a bad idea – what if you change your mind and see you were wrong?"

"As they say in the future, you don't get do-overs in life but you do in time travel. . . . But this is no longer any concern of yours, my once devoted student. All you need to know now is that I will not let you interfere any more with my plan to stop Sierra Waters."

The tone of Heron's voice sent a chill through Ruth.

[Alexandria, 150 AD]

Synesius and the android had already decided that the android would go next. She sat in the chair, smiled at Synesius, and pressed the initiation key.

[Alexandria, 414 AD]

The android's reflexes were faster than human. Her fingers went to set and initiate an immediate return trip the instant she saw Heron and his legionaries.

"Stop her!" Heron shouted to the legionaries. The two Romans ran to the android and the chair, slashing with their blades at the disappearing figure.

[Alexandria, 150 AD]

"What happened?" Synesius re-entered the room and helped the android out of the chair. He noticed the sleeve of her robe was torn and touched it.

"I'm not harmed," the android said. "But we need to leave here, immediately. We could use the chair to travel to go a different time or–"

The chair vanished with a pop.

Synesius looked thoroughly confused.

The android considered. "Heron must have a way of controlling this chair by remote means. We need to leave. The next thing we see in this room could be a legionary, and that could be in an instant." She directed Synesius out of the inner room. Then she restrained Synesius with one hand, and slowly opened the outer door with her other hand. She peeked out. "No one here," she said.

"Do you want to go back the way we arrived?" Synesius said.

"I don't care," the android said. "We just need to move . . . no, you're right, let us leave the Library from a different exit."

[Alexandria, 414 AD]

Heron looked at the chair he had just retrieved from 150 AD and considered his options.

"I would suggest it is too dangerous for you to travel back there now," Titus said, "certainly not without Lucius and me, and only one person can travel in that chair."

Heron nodded.

"Let Lucius travel back there now," Titus said. "And I will immediately follow."

"I supposed you are right," Heron said, slowly. "I need to make sure you do not cross paths with Jonah and Ruth back there, before they came here – that would surely bring on disturbing consequences."

Titus and Lucius nodded, not necessarily in agreement or full understanding of what Heron was saying, but in appreciation of his agreement with their recommended action.

"I will send you back five minutes after the time in which the chair began its journey in 150 AD," Heron said. "Be prepared to fight and capture anyone who is in the room, and, if no one is there, to pursue them wherever they are. If you need help, you can find legionaries to command in the usual places in the city."

Titus nodded.

[Alexandria, 150 AD]

Synesius and the android encountered no legionaries in their hurried exit from the Library. None were in view outside, either.

"Should we seek a place to stay for the day and the night?" Synesius said.

The android considered. "Too dangerous. We would be sitting ducks there – I learned that expression in 2087 – easy targets."

"A ship to Athens, then?" Synesius asked. "We would at least be moving ducks in that case."

The android smiled. "Jonah said there were two ships docked in the harbor that could provide passage to Athens. If the chair's controls were precise, it is now a little less than two hours after noon." She looked at the position of the sun in the teal blue sky and confirmed the time. "Assuming Hypatia and Max are already out at sea on the way to Athens on one ship, that leaves the other ship for us."

Synesius nodded. The two walked quickly but observantly to the harbor. Synesius pointed. "There is a ship that could take us to Athens."

The android looked further, then pointed. "And there are four legionaries who could reach the ship before we did." The android pulled Synesius behind a pillar, so they were out of the legionaries' line of sight.

"If I recall my study of history correctly, there should be some houses of worship that way," Synesius pointed in a direction away from the legionaries. "We could go there and likely not be seen."

"And when we are there what our strategy be?" the android asked. "Huddle frightened in the night? And tomorrow we will be no closer to delivering our rescued scrolls to the future than we are right now. We would still be ill advised to use the chair, which would mean we would be back here again hoping to find passage to Athens."

Synesius had no good answer. He had no reason to think that the legionaries would not be guarding the harbor tomorrow. "Do you think the two of us can best the four legionaries?" he asked, and touched the hilt of his blade.

"I believe I have a pretty good chance," the android said. "At very least, I can delay them long enough for you to get on the boat." She gave him a bag of coins. "Tell the captain there will be more of this when he get you to Athens – that might well give him incentive to resist the legionaries. Those boats are well armed."

Synesius shook his head no. "You are far more valuable to our quest than am I – you carry a complete catalog of the Library in your head. "

"But I am not truly alive" the android said. "It is wrong for a living being to sacrifice his own life to save the existence of a nonliving being."

"I appreciate the subtly of your ethics," Synesius said, "but Max told me I am to die in original history in 414 AD, or less than a year from now in my lifetime. So I would be sacrificing very little of my life if I died here to save you and the catalog."

The android poked her head around the corner. "There is no time left for talk. The legionaries are approaching."

"Can they see through pillars?" Synesius asked in disbelief.

"Perhaps one of them caught a glimpse of us the moment we saw them," the android said. "But we have no time for discovery of causes. All we have time for now is escape and battle." She looked at the ship. "If we run we might reach the ship before the legionaries."

Synesius nodded. He and the android drew their weapons, secured the scrolls in their robes as best they could, and ran to the ship.

Some of their scrolls slipped through their robes as they ran. "Don't stop to retrieve them," the android shouted. "Maybe the legionaries will."

The legionaries did not stop to pick up the scrolls, and reached the ship just as Synesius and the android were boarding.

"Pay the captain for the voyage and for some of his men to help us now," the android said, and jumped off the ship back on the shore. She let out a fierce cry and charged the four approaching legionaries.

The captain put a strong arm on Synesius's shoulder. "We do not take fugitives on this ship," the captain said harshly.

Synesius caught the Phoenician accent and thought there might be hope in that. Phoenicians were no friends of the Romans. "We are not fugitives, I am Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais." Synesius pulled out the gold insignia he wore around his neck and hoped it would have meaning to the captain. "They are not legionaries, but thieves wearing legionary garb after this money." Synesius pulled the bag of coins from his robe. "I would rather give half of this to you, for voyage to Athens for me and the acolyte you see fighting below. And a few more coins for a few of your men to help us fight those thieves."

The captain was impressed with both the insignia and the coins, which he took. "She seems to be doing well enough on her own," he said, admiringly. But he called out to his men for help.

The android had dispatched two of the legionaries and was wheeling on the other two. But Synesius saw another four legionaries approaching from a direction behind the android. He knew if he shouted out to warn her that would distract her and could well lead to a sword in her neck from one of the legionaries she was engaging. Synesius ran back down to the shore with his own weapon drawn.

Four men from the ship quickly followed. Two went to aid the android, and two stayed with Synesius.

The android killed a third legionary and got cut deeply in the arm by the fourth. But the two men from the ship were now upon him, and the fourth legionary was soon dead. The men from the ship now turned to face the second group of legionaries, and the android saw them for the first time.

She ran ahead of the two men from the ship and joined the battle. It was brutal, bloody, and soon over. The four additional legionaries, three men from the ship, and Synesius were down. The fourth man from the ship made sure with slashes that the fallen legionaries were all dead. Two of his brethren were dead on the ground. He helped the third, wounded, to his shaky feet.

The android cradled Synesius's head in her arms. "I see tears in your eyes," Synesius said. "I see bleeding on your arm. You are more human than you admit." He coughed up blood and shuddered.

"Let me carry you to the ship," the android said. "I can find a physician to heal you."

Synesius shook his head. "Let me die here in Alexandria, in sight of the Lighthouse, not far from Hypatia's beloved Library. It is too late for healing."

"No–" the android said.

"I will see my wife and my sons again," Synesius said.

She knew they were dead. She tried to lift him.

He reached into his robe. "Give this to Hypatia," he said, barely audibly. "It is her heart."

"You can give it to her yourself," the android said, but she took the blood-stained locket.

"Promise me that you will not let Hypatia back here," Synesius said in a broken whisper. "Promise me you will not let her die by the Nitrians."

"I promise," the android said, softly. "I promise you."

And the Bishop of Ptolemais lifted his head so he could see the Lighthouse one last time, and died.