Choice of the Gallant - Paradox Equation I

  ****

  "Evil has come among you. Lo, Socrates, your students are endangered. I, Athena, seek Plato. Apollo has seen his destiny. One seeks to alter it."

  "Oh, beautiful Goddess, he absents himself this day. His loves are not among these either. I had believed they sported on the slopes of Lykavittos. Now, I fear for them."

  "Fear not. He is mine and in my keeping. Apollo, it pleases me to walk through my city. Will you speak to these? I would not change your vision with my presence."

  "Yes, Athena, I shall touch each that the tale not be told. Come, Socrates, your words ring through the ages. Plato records them well. I would not have them changed. They guide the young of the future."

  "Then I ask you take this vision."

  "Socrates, I give you this day to remember us. On the morrow, you will awake, remembering all but our presence here and your trepidation over the fate of Plato. I bid you continue your discourse and pass this day as others. Speak not of us to those I have not touched."

  He gave each of them the same command, then ran after Athena. The speed of his run would convince Socrates and the young men they were, indeed, who they claimed to be. Athena was an excellent tactician.

  He struggled to calm himself. If he could keep his mind on the job at hand, he would have what he so desperately wanted. He could smell the evil. The dark brother was nearby.

  "GALLANT!"

  She saved his life. The dark brother had sprung from ambush and nearly shot him down. He suddenly knew the future she had changed. He would have been injured to dying, but would have killed the brother before death. It had been a trap. Plato wasn't the target. He was.

  "NO! ATHENA!"

  The sudden tears almost blinded him. The dark brother had shot her down. Mick and Elaine were headed toward the hooded figure at a run. He screamed in rage as he saw him shoot first Mick, then Elaine. He pulled the unit he'd built out and turned it on. It was still keyed to the dark brother's genetic code. He smiled as he listened to his death screams. It shocked him a bit. He had killed, but he had never enjoyed it before.

  He ran to Athena. She was alive! So were Mick and Elaine, but all were badly injured. Mick and Elaine he could save. Athena... No! She would not die! He needed Alice. Desperately. She wouldn't live through the journey to the ship. He laughed wildly as Alice materialized around them. Somehow, she had heard his need. And answered.

  He changed a decimal on the coordinates and threw her into flight. He had no idea where they were going, but the decimal point would insure a long flight. He did something he'd never done before. He placed Athena in nontime. She was the first living thing he'd ever risked suspending. He turned to Mick and Elaine, pulled out the medunit, and went to work on them.