And, hanging in the air at the center of the burned-out temple, mysterious, unsupported, perfect, was an Eyeimmense, much bigger than any others they had seen, perhaps three meters across.
Josh whistled. Abdi, youre going to need a big bucket to dunk that.
Bisesa walked toward the Eye. In the uncertain light from the oil lamps, she could see her own distorted reflection looming larger, as if the other Bisesa, contained in the Eye like a fish in a bowl, was swimming to the glass to see her. She felt no heat, no sign of the great energies that had gutted this chamber. She lifted her hand and held it close to the Eye. She felt as if she was pushing against some invisible but resilient barrier. The harder she pushed, the more she was repelled, and she felt a subtle sideways pull.
Josh and Abdikadir were both watching her with some concern. Josh came up to her. Are you all right, Bis?
Cant you feel it?
What?
She looked into the sphere. Apresence.
Abdikadir said, If this is the source of the electromagnetic signals we have been monitoring
I can hear them now, her phone whispered from her pocket.
More than that, she said. There was something here, she thought. An awarenessyes. Or at least a watchfulness, a huge cathedral-like watchfulness, which drew her up helplessly. But she didnt even know how she knew this. She shook her head, and something of that mysterious sense of presence dissipated.
Eumenes face was like thunder. So now we know how Babylon was destroyed. To Bisesas astonishment he picked up a golden staff from the floor. He wielded it over his head like a club, bringing it down on the unresponsive hide of the Eye. The club was left bent over, the Eye unmarked. Well, this arrogant god of the Eye may find Alexander, son of Zeus-Ammon, a tougher opponent than Marduk. He turned to the moderns. There is much to do. I will need your help and insight.
Abdikadir said, We should use the city as a base
That much is obvious.
Move the army in. We have to think about the water supply, food. And we need to set up routines like fire watches, guard patrols, repair crews.
Josh said, If the residential half of the city has gone weve a lot of building to do.
I think we will all be under tents for a while yet, Abdikadir said ruefully.
We will send out scouts to map the countryside, Eumenes said. And we will coax the farmers from their mud hutsor we will take their farms and run them for them. I dont know any more if it is summer or winter, but here in Babylonia we can grow crops all year round. He gazed up at the impassive Eye. Alexander was to make this his imperial capital. Well, so it will becomethe capital of a new world, perhaps
Casey came bustling into the chamber. His expression was grim. Weve had a message.
Bisesa remembered what time of day it was; he had been due to try to pick up the cosmonauts radio signals. From Kolya and Sable?
Yeah.
Thats wonderful!
No, it isnt. Weve got a problem.
31. Ham Radio
In the luggage he had been allowed to bring on the Mongols transcontinental trek, Kolya had made sure he packed up the ham radio gear from the Soyuz. Some instinct had always made him keep this secret even from Sable, who had long lost interest in what had once been her project, and he was glad of that now. Once Genghis Khan established his base camp a few tens of kilometers from Babylon, he retrieved the gear and set it up.
Oddly this wasnt difficult. In the retinue of Yeh-l, the Mongol guards were watchful, but they had no idea what he was doing with his anonymous boxes and cables and spidery antennae. It was more difficult, in factbut crucialto keep what he was doing secret from Sable, at least for a few more hours.
He knew he would get only one chance at this. He prayed for a decent transmission path, and for Casey to be listening. Well, the path was poorthe post-Discontinuity ionosphere seemed to be suffering, and the signal was obscured by static, pops and whoopsbut Casey was indeed listening, at the daily times they had agreed when Kolya was still orbiting the world in Soyuz ,in the impossible and lost past. Kolya wasnt surprised to know that Casey and the others had traveled to Babylon; it was a logical destination, and theyd discussed the possibility before he had left orbit. But he was stunned to learn who Casey had traveled withstunned, yet hopeful; for perhaps there was after all a force in the world that could resist Genghis Khan.
Kolya longed to prolong the contact, to listen to this man from the twenty-first century, his own time. He felt that Casey, who he had never even met in person, had become his closest friend in the world.
But there was no time for that. There were no choices left, no more luxuries for Kolya. He talked, and talked, describing everything he knew about Genghis Khan, his army, his tactics; and he spoke of Sable, and what she had doneand what he suspected she was capable of.
He talked as long as he could. It turned out to be about half an hour. Then Sable showed up with two burly Mongol guards, who hauled him back from the radio, and briskly smashed up the gear with the butts of their lances.
32. Council of War
Alexanders scouts brought the news that the vanguard of the Mongol army was only a few days ride away. To his advisers surprise, the King ordered that a parley should be attempted.
Alexander was horrified by what the moderns had to tell him of the destruction that had been wrought by the Mongol expansion. Alexander might be a blood-stained conqueror himself, but he had ambitions beyond simple conquest: his intent was certainly more sophisticated than Genghis Khans, fifteen centuries after his own time. He was determined to oppose the Mongols. But Alexander was of a mind to build something new in this empty world, not to destroy. He said to his advisers, We, and our red-coated comrades from beyond the ocean, and these horsemen from the wastes of Asia, are all survivors of dislocations in time and space, wonders beyond the anticipation of any man. Do we have no other response to all this than to slaughter each other? Is there nothing for us to learn from each other but weapons and tactics?
So he ordered a party of envoys to be sent out, with gifts and tributes, to open a dialogue with the Mongol leaders. It would travel with an impressive force of a thousand men, and was to be under the command of Ptolemy.
Ptolemy was one of the Kings closest companions, a Macedonian and a friend of Alexander from childhood. A hard-faced warrior, he was a dark, silent man, and evidently shrewd. Perhaps he was a good choice for such a delicate mission: Bisesas phone told her that in another reality Ptolemy would, in the carve-up of Alexanders conquests after his death, have become Pharaoh of the ancient kingdom of Egypt. But as he prepared for the mission, Ptolemy stamped around the royal palace looking thunderous. Bisesa wondered if his appointment to this perilous, and highly likely fatal, mission had anything to do with the endless maneuverings and intrigues among Alexanders inner circle.
At Abdikadirs suggestion, Captain Grove attached the competent Geordie Corporal Batson and a few British troops to the party. It had been proposed that one of Bisesas group should go along, since Sable was believed to be at the heart of the assault they anticipated. But Alexander decreed that his three refugees from the twenty-first century were too few to be risked on such a venture, and that was that. Still, at Eumenes suggestion, Bisesa drafted a note for Batson to give to Kolya, in case he encountered the cosmonaut.
The party marched out of the gates of Babylon. They set off to the east, with the Macedonian officers in their dress uniforms with bright purple cloaks, and Corporal Batson and the other British in their kilts and their serge, all to the din of trumpets and drums.
Alexander was a hardened warrior, and while he hoped for peace, he prepared for war. In Babylon, Bisesa, Abdikadir and Casey, along with Captain Grove and a number of his officers, were summoned to a war council.