Athene's Prophecy (Gaius Claudius Scaevola Trilogy) Read Free Page B

resolve the issue in our favour, or, for that matter, we give up trying, we cease to exist, as does the human civilization."
    "We are devoting much of our nuclear energy to life support and growing vegetables," Grenfell added. "However, there is a problem. The viewer is very energy hungry, and when we use the viewer, we have to turn off certain life-support functions. If we over-use it, we shall degrade our own environment to an extent that we shall not survive."
    "One of the other odd things about where we are," Dr Chu added, "is that since we are not connected directly to the rest of the Universe and cannot get energy in, it is also rather difficult to get rid of spare heat. If we cannot work out a way to get rid of it, and I am working on that, we shall eventually cook. The good news is that the viewer gets rid of energy, but the bad news is it does not get rid of heat."
    "Suppose he doesn't accept me as a goddess?"
    "I have an idea to help that along," Grenfell offered. "We get him to recognize you."
    "How? I mean I can try in the dream, but if he rejects that . . ."
    "We have to dress you up to look the part, and we have to do this twice. What I want you to do is to persuade the builders of this little temple to erect a statue that looks like you. That way, our Roman will recognize you in his dreams."
    "Is there an available sculptor?" Athene frowned.
    "There was always a statue, and all we want to do is alter what it looks like. As it happens, we know that we can get a chance at him before he does your face."
    "So you're going to dress me up as a goddess? Have we got what we need to make it look real?" Athene was somewhat doubtful that this could be done, after all, the temporal satellite was not exactly filled with theatrical material.
    "The sculptor will dress you for the statue, and after that it is only your face that counts. But there is one more thing. This has to be an unusual statue. What I suggest is that you persuade the sculptor to show you thinking. Power and bombast simply won't do."
    "To add to it," Chu smiled, "I'll make you something that glistens and looks like a laurel wreath crown. We can still put on some theatrics."
    "Can we do this in stages?" Athene asked. "Firm up one step, then . . ."
    "We get one chance up until the alien civilization is resolved. At that point, their commitment to help, assuming we can get it, could lead to their arranging further communication, so the top priority is to get him there. However, in the later efforts you should also give one or two clues about the subsequent timeline, just in case, and also to stop him branching out into some further non-productive line."
    "You don't want him becoming a prophet," she nodded.
    "No, and there's another catch. While he must make these discoveries, he has to keep them secret until he gets abducted. The requirement that he could have changed the way Rome developed but for the abduction depends on his not having already done it."
    "Further complications!" Athene nodded. "As if this weren't hard enough already."
    "I know," Dr Chu smiled, "but I've got faith in you."
    That might be misplaced, Pallas Athene thought as she stared at the notes in front of her. All she had to do was save two civilizations. This time she might have to earn that "Goddess" title she had given herself, and since there was no guarantee she would be born on the new timeline that would be created, she might end up being truly mythological.
    * * *
    Athene stared dolefully at the controls. This would be her last attempt, and she had to time it very well. Up until her previous attempt she had been so confident. Each previous attempt had worked surprisingly well, she had gathered so much information, she had discovered how her Roman would respond to what stimulus, and she had been so sure the last effort would really be the last. But it had not worked. Everything had gone off at a tangent at the end, and she was unsure why. Ralph Grenfell thought he knew: the Ulsians