“I’m familiar with the stories,” Pierce said. “UFO enthusiasts think those are all primitive descriptions of alien spaceships.”
“What if they are? What if the sun chariot is an Originator spaceship? Maybe the Black Knight is what Fallon thinks it is, an alien device for harnessing and redirecting the sun’s energy. And the sun chariot is the vehicle used for going back and forth to turn it on. That’s what we need to do to fix this. Fly up to the Black Knight and shut it down.”
“Fly up? In an ancient alien spacecraft?” Pierce sighed. It was outlandish, but outlandish was par for the Herculean Society’s course. “Assuming it’s possible, in the story, Phaethon lost control of the chariot and nearly destroyed the Earth.” He looked at Fiona. “Raven was scorched by the sun. That’s why his feathers are black. Approaching it could make things worse.”
Gallo pointed to the orb. “It’s alien technology. Has to be. And it responds to Fiona. To the Mother Tongue. There aren’t a lot of other options.”
George gave a nod. She was right about that. “But we’ll have to find the chariot first.”
“And Felice.” Lazarus spoke quietly but his tone was as hard as a diamond.
Pierce nodded. “We know Fallon’s experiments caused this. That’s where we have to focus our efforts. But Erik, you go after Felice.”
“You’re sure?” Lazarus looked surprised. He’d overcome the PTSD caused by drowning hundreds of times in a row while clawing his way out of a lake. He was back to full fighting strength now, physically and mentally, and for him, the mission always came first. But even a seasoned fighter like Lazarus could be undone by worry for a loved one. For him to bring his full force to bear, he first had to find Felice, whose presence and expertise would also be beneficial.
“I’m sure,” Pierce said. “Go find her, and when you’re done you can both help us save the world.”
SIXTEEN
Gallo felt a flush of guilt. “I didn’t mean…”
Pierce waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. We’d just be in his way.” He took out his phone and tapped the screen twice, once to place the call, and once more to put the phone on speaker.
Dourado picked up on the first ring. “Still no word,” she said.
“About our flight, or from Felice?”
“Take your pick.”
“Doesn’t matter. Change of plans. Erik is going to Geneva to help Felice. If he asks, and he probably won’t, give him whatever help he needs with travel arrangements.”
“Just Erik? What about the rest of you?”
Pierce looked over at Gallo. “Gus, where do we start?”
Gallo was at a loss, feeling put on the spot, but Fiona jumped in. “Cintia, we need to find the chariot of Helios, the Sun god.”
“Oh. Let me Google it.”
Gallo wasn’t sure if Dourado was joking or not, but the brief exchange helped her organize her thoughts. “What we’re looking for is a real world connection to Helios. Temples. Specific locations mentioned in the myth that correspond to real locations. I’d look it up myself…”
“I understand.” There was a slight pause. “Okay, the most significant ancient site associated with the worship of Helios is the island of Rhodes, just south of Turkey.”
“Of course,” Gallo murmured. “The Colossus.”
“The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was dedicated to Helios. There’s a whole file on it in the Herculean archives.”
“We can save that for another day,” Pierce said.
“The Dorians brought Helios worship to Rhodes, probably from Corinth on the Greek mainland. There was a small temple to Helios there, but he was never very important to the Greeks. The only other place associated with Helios is Thrinakia.”
Gallo nodded. “From the Odyssey. After escaping Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus landed on the island of Thrinakia, where Helios’s daughter Lampetia tended his sacred cattle and sheep. Odysseus was warned to avoid the island, and especially the herds, but his men were hungry and killed some of the cattle. Helios demanded retribution. He threatened to stop the sun from shining on the Earth if the mortals weren’t punished, so Zeus sent a thunderbolt to destroy them. Odysseus survived but was exiled to Ogygia, the island of Calypso, for seven more years.”
“Stop the sun from shining,” Pierce mused. “Sounds like he was threatening to cause a solar event.”
“Why does a Sun God need sacred cows?” Fiona asked, shaking her head. “And people think Native American stories are weird.”
Gallo gave her a thoughtful look. “That’s an excellent question.”
“It is?”
“If experience has taught us anything, it’s that, while there is more than a little truth in the old myths, we have to be careful about taking everything at face value.”
“Right. Chariot equals spaceship.” Fiona shrugged. “And sacred cows equal what?”
She meant it as a joke, but as she said it, her eyes got a faraway look. “A chariot is pulled by horses…a power source. There’s a logic to the symbolism.
“Helios had cattle and sheep, right? Cattle for meat, sheep for wool. If we accept that Helios was an alien…an Originator…maybe he was the guy in charge of solar power. What would he need that would correspond to meat and…” She looked down at the orb again, squeezing the springy metal. “Wool?”
“I’ll be damned,” Pierce muttered. “I think you’re onto something. I’ll bet if we take that thing to Thrinakia, you’ll be able to use it like a compass to find the chariot.”
“Unfortunately,” Gallo said, “like so many other locations from the Odyssey and the Heraklion, we don’t know where it was, or even if it was. Ancient geographers thought it might have been Sicily, or Malta. But they were just guessing, and obviously they had no idea that there was a world beyond the Pillars of Hercules.”
Pierce nodded. “Cintia…”
“Let me guess,” Dourado said. “You need me to cross reference all locations in the Odyssey with actual known locations and create a computer simulation of the actual route Odysseus traveled. Already on it.”
“Actually I… You know what, never mind. I like your idea better.”
“According to Homer, Odysseus and his crew arrived at Thrinakia after passing Scylla, a six-headed sea monster, and Charybdis, a giant whirlpool that’s often associated with the Strait of Messina, between Italy and Sicily. That’s the main reason why Sicily is often identified as Thrinakia. Before that, they were on the island of Circe, the sorceress — also a daughter of Helios. Circe told Odysseus that there were two routes back to his home, the Kingdom of Ithaca. The route he chose took him to Thrinakia, but the other route would have taken him through the Wandering Rocks, the same rocks that almost destroyed the Argo. Traditionally, the Wandering Rocks are associated with the Bosporus Strait, the passage between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. So if Odysseus had to pass through the Wandering Rocks to get back home, that would put Circe’s island in the Black Sea. Nowhere near Sicily.”
“Not to mention the fact that the Bosporus is the only water route out of the Black Sea,” Pierce put in. “There isn’t another, so Circe couldn’t have offered Odysseus a choice.”
Gallo shook her head. “There’s no way to make the geography described in the Odyssey fit the map unless we reject all our preconceptions about where Odysseus, or the person who inspired him, actually traveled.”