Back to neo-Aegea: Jonas and the Metro Part I

Dear Readers,

  Neo-Aegea remains a major focus of my research, and it also seems to build a large amount of reader response, so I thought that I would provide another primary source from the neo-Aegean dataset that I have.

  Like the things you've seen before, this source is a story from neo-Aegea.  Remember that neo-Aegea lacks the robust media that you are used to in your time stream, and so storytelling will be a more serious profession there.  These stories represent one of the main entertainment outlets for the Aegeans.  If you saw my post yesterday on Augury, you can imagine that this is why the stories come in with such a strong signal.

  The story today is once again by the Homerian "Civet the Storyteller," though I cannot say if it's an ancient oral story that Civet wrote down for the first time, or if it is something a little more original.  It clearly has a basis in several Judeo-Christian biblical stories, but of course mixed with Ancient Greek paganism and culture from your time stream.  Perhaps you can give me some insights to elements I do not understand about it.

Below, see my translation of the story's first part, after the jump, since I have finally gained the ability to add jumps.  Over your weekend, the second part will go up.  Once again, words in brackets are stage directions for a public performance by a storyteller.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism

University of Constantinople

    Athena, a major player in this myth.

Gather round, gather round! [That is a placeholder for the hook to bring in listeners.  I expect a good storyteller to come up with his or her own hooks, and so I am not going to give away my own.]

  Long ago, when Aegea was still young, a great City stood on a mesa between two sea chasms.  The mesa is long destroyed by the gods' fury, and its memories exist only in story. Likewise, its name is forgotten, except to the great storytellers.  Beware if you spread this tale!  Only a storyteller favored by the gods [here is where you note that you are such a storyteller; play it up!] may utter the City's name: Harpazō. [let your audience be awed by the fact that you did not die on saying this]

  Today, my friends, friends' wives, and lovers [wink], I tell you the tale of Harpazō and its downfall, a tale of caution!  For that City did not heed its Engineers, and so terrible things befell it.

  In those days, in many Cities, the Engineers competed with other, false priests for the attention of the people.  Be thankful that this does not happen anymore, or you would be punished along with these charlatans.  The gods would sink one City to prevent such heresies and mutinies from spreading, though they do have their mercy.

  That's how it went with Harpazō.  An Engineer, average of his exalted class, lived there in this final age.  This Engineer was a Second Degree, and his name was Jonas.  His home City lay far across the sea from Harpazō, but his Chief Engineer sent him to Harpazō to spread knowledge of the Engineering Truth.

  Jonas, young and naïve, accepted the mission without any idea what it really meant.  He thought that it would be a simple task to help him earn his stripes, and that he would be there to help out a much larger effort.  The moment he stepped off his rich, adorned Engineer's bathyscaph, he learned that it would be nothing of the kind.

  He stepped down his gangway, through the airlock, and into one of the many Docking Rings in Harpazō.  Unlike most cities, Harpazō was so large that it needed to have more than one Docking Ring just to ensure enough merchants could sell their goods to satisfy the people's appetites.  This one looked like most.  Large, with sweeping halls and curved walls.  Merchants, performers, and storytellers spread throughout to hawk their wares.  And, in those days, countless religious demonstrators, pushing one deity or another.

  But in all the bustle, Jonas saw one thing absent: other Engineers.  He stepped from the gangway to the City's deckplate, and stopped a little slave-girl, "Miss, can you help me find the Machinists' Shop and the other Engineers?"

  The little girl whirled around, and almost spilled her basket of goods from the Docking Ring markets, "Don't say that!"

  Befuddled, Jonas blinked his dark eyes, "Don't say what?  Engineer?"

  The little slave girl huffed, "Yes, of course that, mister!  You know they're illegal here!"

  "Actually, I didn't.  Why?"

  She rolled her eyes, "Well because there was that big fight in the main Docking Ring a few weeks back, and all the fuss, and so Captain Sennacherib banished all of them.  'I'll kill 'em all,' he said.  Then he gave away some bread, which was really-"

  "Thank you, little girl."  He tossed her a bit for her trouble.

  The news left Jonas terribly frightened.  He turned to go back into the bathyscaph, to return to his City, and flee this awful place.  He found Athena in his path, in her full black battle armor and carrying the Prototype Aegis, and fell to his knees on the threshold of his vessel.

  Her voice boomed, though only Jonas could hear it, "You are here for a reason, Jonas!  Do not leave, or you will earn the wrath of more gods than just me."

   He muttered and mumbled, but could not form coherent words.

   She lifted his face to her with her armored boot and forced him to nod.  "That is more like it, Jonas.  Now, go back into Harpazō.  Find Sennacherib and tell him that we are not pleased.  Soon we will destroy this City.  I would venture that he will not like that."

  Jonas still muttered, and then Athena disappeared.  He thought, "I have to stay.  If I have to stay, I have to hide.  Sennacherib will kill me."

  He rushed into the marketplace, and found the shadiest dealer he could see.  Tiny and dirty, the man's unkempt facial hair gave him a crusty look, like a rock that grew too long among sea mosses.

  "Ah, sir...I need...I need to know where the Machninists' Shop was in this City."

  "Whazzat?  Oh, we don't have one of those here.  IF we did, though, you might be able to find it over near the Main Docking Ring.  'Course, right where someone would want to put it, there's a big construction project.  The Second Ave SubAegean Bathyscaph line, you know."

  Jonas knew something about this.  The sections of Harpazō were named "Aves," because an early ruler felt a deep love for birds.  Likewise, his Chief Engineer taught him about the sub-Aegean bathyscaph lines, the "subscaph."  So large that a person could not walk its length in a day, Harpazō needed a different transport system.  Harpazō's Captains solved this with fixed bathyscaphs that ran under the mesa that supported the City and connected each Ave to the others.  To make it work, the Captains twisted the power of the gods, charging each bathyscaph with gods'-fire produced at Hephaestus Plants.  He saw such a plant, once.  Prometheus Engines produced deep fires and steam, and through Hephaestus's magic, the steam became gods'-fire to power, in this case, the bathyscaphs.

  And now he knew that Sennacherib banished the Engineers so that he could build another one of these bathyscaph systems right under their Machine Shop, once a great place of prayer.  Jonas now knew why Athena visited him.  And he still wanted to hide.

The second part of this translated myth will go up on your Saturday, as part of Weekend Worlds.