Centaurian Ch. 07

"You could do either," said Chronos, "but this event is part of the timeline, and changing time comes with consequences. Every event has ripple effects, some might perceive them as positive or negative, depending. As things stand, the gods will know this event has happened, and they would expect you to save everyone, so no one needs to die. Fortunately, while Zeus sent four other meteors this size, the others had near misses. If you change time, Zeus will not get the level of negative attention his actions deserve than if you let it happen and save everyone, along with the ship."

"Why is that necessary?"

"Because Olympus has gods not so sure about you and your abilities, and some that, surprisingly, have yet to see Zeus for what he is. He has acted without provocation which gives you support and not enemies willing to stand up to some interloper dethroning their king."

"That's rather political. I had no idea the gods had any interest in such things."

"Only when it suits our purpose, and in this instance, it suits yours."

"Wouldn't that allow people to suffer, even just for a short while, for the sake of expediency? I would prefer to eliminate all suffering."

"The desire to eliminate all suffering appeals to you," said Chronos, "and that you want to end it says wonderful things about your character, but not all suffering is bad. Often, it causes growth and change. The problem is chronic suffering for the sake of suffering. You are welcome to end that; it serves no good purpose. But to take away all suffering would be extremely bad for everyone."

"Why?"

"Because the tapestry of the world is woven with many threads. You would find three of extreme importance—consequences, compassion, and empathy. Without suffering, consequences have no teeth. And compassion and empathy help to draw people together. They only exist because of various degrees of suffering. So, while you could reduce suffering without an issue, to eliminate it entirely would pick apart the threads that hold the world together, and it weakens the cloth."

"Okay. I get it." Ronan thought for a few minutes and an idea occurred to him. "I like William, and if he wants to join us, he's welcome, but this incident has demonstrated to me that if he remains with us, he can't stay mortal. If he changes his mind later, I can undo it, but for now, he will need this.

"In being partly my son, Aquila has a spark from my eternal flame that has not only made him immortal, but he's also impervious to injury, otherwise he would never have survived the hotel's destruction. I will give William more than just a spark, with a strength of body and even greater strength of character."

Ronan removed his shirt, placed his open palm onto his chest, and concentrated on precisely what he wanted as an intensely bright fire leaked from beneath his palm. Ronan pulled his hand up and drew his thumb and forefinger together pulling a delicate web of fiery embering from his skin, and from within him, he drew a tiny sphere of golden light the size of a pea.

Ronan turned to Chronos. "I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Well done. Do you know how to administer it?"

"I imagine that I would place it into the wound. Is there anything you would recommend?"

Chronos smiled a little and looked kindly upon Ronan. "You are so different from Zeus. You hadn't taken it personally when I said to you what I had about Thanatos, you listened, and now you seek advice. It's refreshing to see someone with your power not have violent outbursts, pretend to know everything, or seek to control others through fear."

"That's because I'm an adult. I hear Zeus likes torturing people, has he ever tortured you?"

"Indirectly," he said. "You have no idea what living under Zeus is like, especially for me. Many of the others have experienced Zeus's torture at one time or another—which is terrible—and they know a lot he has done, but they couldn't stop him and must accept that. As the god of Time, I know everything he has done and all he would do...all of it. And knowing is a burden because—unlike everyone else—I could stop him. So often, I have contemplated giving in to the temptation of going back in time to undo Zeus. I've wanted to on many occasions. He has harmed so many people."

"What stopped you?"

"If I did that, you wouldn't exist. I had to remind myself repeatedly that we had to endure Zeus, so everyone would have the benefit of your presence."

They stood staring at one another for a moment. What an astonishing, disturbing, and humbling thing to hear. Ronan had no idea what to say to him, and Chronos hadn't expected him to.

"William is in the last few seconds of life," Chronos told him, "so when you place it into his wound, be cautious not to touch him. Afterward, hover over the wound with your hands and focus your time-field there to get the healing process started by illuminating it like sunshine. It will only heal so far for now, but it will be enough to stabilize him and keep him alive to allow it to complete its work when you restart Time."

Ronan did so, and William's tissues knitted back together in a glow of embering that began to spread throughout his body but stopped when the light could no longer penetrate his skin.

The four other small meteorites had only left holes in the superstructure. The larger metallic meteorite, reminiscent of an anvil, had pierced the base of the superstructure and passed through several floors of the substructure. It shot through the engine room, through the double-walled hull, and then began its long drop to the ocean floor.

The door to the engine room had sealed itself as a safety measure, but the meteor's entry point in the ceiling would allow the room's air and smoke from the engine to rush out as the room rapidly filled with seawater and as the other floors above were compromised by that hole, they would also fill with water and within a couple of hours, it would send the ship plummeting to the bottom.

"If we open the door," said Chronos. "Our time-fields would cause the water inside the field to unlock and run out."

"Are the men inside still alive, and if so, are they injured?"

"It's two men you know, Gustav Lauterborn and Garit Bruckhauser. Fortunately, they have just minor injuries."

"Good," said Ronan. "I want to temporally undo this to a point before the meteor strikes the ship."

"We have made changes elsewhere, so you must isolate this from it, but you lack the expertise."

"You and I move about in a pocket of time, right?"

"Right."

"Well, if we can do that, why don't I manifest a bubble of time that encompasses the trajectory of the meteor and reverse it? I could include the engine room and the damage that it made as it tore through the ship."

"That sounds workable, but it's not that simple. Currently, the ship has sunk to the same degree that the water has entered the engine room, so a bit of the ship has filled the void. There is no pocket of empty space in the ocean for the water to flow to. Without time there, the water outside the ship is like concrete. It's a matter of hydraulic pressure, the water wouldn't evacuate the room."

"So, I would..."

"You would have to lift the entire ship, along with several other simultaneous actions, but I can think of simpler alternatives."

Ronan began inspecting the door to discover how the locking mechanism functioned. "How deep is the water in the room?"

"It's a fairly sizable room, but it flooded quickly, so when time stopped it had only reached their knees."

He turned to Chronos. "Okay, I probably should just restart time and lift the ship, have we anything else I should accomplish while time has stopped?"

"Before you continue this train of thought, there's something I should tell you. I hadn't wanted to distract you from learning here; for the moment, there isn't a rush."

"What's wrong?"

"This morning, you spoke to Poseidon on the bow of the ship, and he had to flee when Death arrived. Death suspected you had spoken to someone in secret. He has keen eyesight and saw you emerge from a cloaking field, and he noted the discoloration on the deck from a puddle of seawater, and the vanishing trail of footprints from someone's bare feet leaving the scene, so he had no difficulty guessing to whom they belonged."

"And he told Zeus."

"He told him he would do what he could. Remember?"

Ronan closed his eyes in silent frustration. "Shit. Is he...?"

Chronos nodded a little. "Zeus has prepared to torture him for information."

"Where can I find him?"

"Olympus has a temple to Zeus, and out front, he has placed a duplicate of the Brazen Bull of Phalaris with Poseidon inside it. He had yet to light a fire beneath it, but he says he will if Poseidon refuses to tell him what he wants to know."

"Poseidon should just tell him then."

"Based on what he would say, if he told the truth, he would light the fire beneath it anyway for betraying him."

"Can I go there with time stopped?"

"No. Teleportation requires Time, and one can reach Olympus no other way."

"Then I should take care of everything aboard ship now." He considered it for a moment. "I think I have an idea, but I must go to the bridge." He mounted the stairs at a trot to reach the top floor with Chronos close behind.

"What will you do?" asked Chronos.

"Well, if I have as much power as people have insisted, then let me put that to the test. Our presence aboard this ship has caused trouble for the captain and crew, making them behind schedule with a damaged ship. And although the captain has asked us to leave, I refuse to abandon them near the middle of the Atlantic in this condition." They came to the flight of stairs where the captain stood locked in time, and they used caution to pass him without making contact. As they continued upward Ronan asked, "Have you any action that you would forbid me?"

Chronos smiled a little. "I appreciate your desire to respect me and my domain. I know you would only do what you must, so I would forbid nothing, but if by some circumstance you must change the past, I ask that you consult me first. Alterations to the timeline can have drastic consequences, and I can give you a picture of those beforehand."

"I agree to that. My plan requires unlocking the entire ship but not the people. Do you know who Robert Baden-Powell is?"

"Founder of the Boy Scouts, I believe," said Chronos.

"Exactly. One thing he said was, 'Try and leave this world a little better than you found it,' which easily translates into leaving the places you visit in better condition than when you arrived. If this works, I have decided to take that on as a philosophy. Which reminds me, I made a mess in the ocean when I chucked things off the ship, I need to clean that up when I have spare time."

"Commendable," said Chronos, "but you also injected extra heat into the ocean when you boiled it, and into the atmosphere when you destroyed Kratos. That's not good."

"Thank you for pointing that out, I will take care of that when I clean up my mess."

"And you killed several fish," he added.

"Okay! I get the picture."

"Just trying to help," he said as they entered the bridge.

Ronan's light began to intensify as he moved to the instrument panel and laid his palms onto the console before him. While intending to leave the people time-locked, he sent out a wave that began an illumination on, in, and throughout every part of the ship, creating a pocket of time that encompassed the entire vessel, including all that its light could touch, namely the air and water around it.

"Poseidon told me I would find using my power deceptively simple, and he was right."

"Do you still fear it?" Chronos asked.

"Yes, and I think I now know the real reason why."

"Why?"

They gazed out the windows to watch the ship emerging in a bright glow that, in the distance, faded to the vast, black, timeless nowhere beyond.

"I fear that I will grow to like it too much," said Ronan.

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because power corrupts."

"Oh, I see, so if power corrupts then anyone on the verge of omnipotence should turn into the most corrupt being in the universe, is that it?"

"Something like that, yeah. Take Zeus for example, he's powerful—and not nearly omnipotent—but look at him."

Chronos rolled his eyes a bit and shook his head. "You are not Zeus. Beneath the power itself, you are entirely two different beings, not remotely similar."

"Poseidon said Zeus's evil had grown over time," said Ronan. "Wouldn't that mean it could happen to me too?"

"Zeus has always lacked what you have. He hasn't a clue how to love anyone, and he has never had the benefit of a protector."

At the mention, Ronan's brows drew together. "You mean Liam?"

"Did you think perhaps your need of his protection extended little beyond him picking you up and carrying you into his home?"

Ronan turned toward the window his mind trying to work it out.

"Kratos's jibes at Liam protecting you stemmed from his ignorance. The god of brute strength could not comprehend the more subtle aspects of what it means to protect someone. Liam is—forever and always—essential to you, not in defending you from anything external but protecting you from yourself. Liam is your policeman; he is your compass; he is your someone to answer to. And you will because you love one another, and you would never want to disappoint him. So, do you want to ensure that you never become evil?" Ronan turned his head, and Chronos held his complete attention. "With every decision, always keep in mind his love for you and his favorable opinion. Because losing him can happen."

Ronan leaned forward with his hands on the glowing console before him, he hung his head, and from his lips came that not quite laugh, not quite cry of a relief that allowed his body to relax which melted into amusement and gratitude. "Prometheus really is a genius, isn't he?"

"Yes, but he can't take all the credit for this," said Chronos. "Most of the other Stallions successfully avoided being found by anyone during their initial dormancy period, and typically, they remained alone throughout their lives not fully connecting with anyone, but Zeus ensured that Rosine ran across Henri in Toulouse. She took him in, and something odd happened. He became emotionally attached to her upon awakening, almost if by compulsion. Prometheus hadn't wanted you to spend eternity alone, so he searched the entire world and found Liam on the little island of Key Biscayne. Prometheus wouldn't want you to think he had manipulated you both into a relationship. He simply anticipated several of your needs and fulfilled them, as best he could, by playing matchmaker."

"But Henri left Rosine after he got her pregnant," said Ronan.

"Henri was afraid. He had believed that having children could not happen and should not have happened. He felt he had betrayed his duty to carry the eternal flame, and that his remaining would expose his agelessness. He had not left her with ease. But also, you must remember the dangerous and superstitious era in which it happened."

"Someone would likely have tried to burn him at the stake or something, I suppose."

"His never aging would have caught up with him," said Chronos, "and it would have been bad."

"Was Aquila's birth supposed to happen?"

"In temporal logic, every event automatically falls under the umbrella of supposed to happen, including changes to the timeline which are not really changes at all."

"But how can-"

"Don't ask me to explain that because I couldn't. Language is an inadequate means of communicating the complexities of Time. We should get on with your plan."

"Very well, if you say so," said Ronan. "I have a question. Would moving the ship harm the others here?

"Although they remain internally time-locked," said Chronos, "they are—essentially—little islands of stopped time cut off from the rest while surrounded by the ship's time-field, and you can safely move them."

Ronan held out his upward-facing palms at waist height. "In that case, I will lift the ship, make all the repairs, give them some new lifeboats, and while I can't teleport the entire ship, I can still move it to an empty patch of the Mediterranean just off the coast of Genoa. That would more than make up for lost time and save them a significant amount of fuel."

"Have you thought of using your imagination and doing a little more than just repairing the ship?"

"Like what?"

"Ooh,"—Chronos shrugged a little and his eyes skimmed the ship for a moment—"like giving it an upgrade, perhaps..."

Ronan's brows rose as he glanced around. "Hmm...I could use the practice."

With Time stopped, Ronan took the opportunity to hone his abilities to the point he could manifest his will with relative ease. His most significant challenge came from broadening his imagination far enough to effectively utilize his power.

He renewed the entire ship as though it were brand new, and during that, he found many items the crew had attempted to seal out the corrosive effects of the sea with multiple layers of paint, giving them an unsightly appearance, so he took it upon himself to change its metals to a titanium alloy that wouldn't corrode. He had wanted to change the entire ship's metals to titanium, but the designers had built the ship with the weight of steel in mind and changing it to a lighter metal would require altering the ballast, so that would mean restructuring the ship. Not having the necessary expertise in such matters, he felt it best not to tamper with that.

Moving the ship took little effort, and he made a gentle landing with it in an arm of the Mediterranean called the Ligurian Sea, a third of a mile off the coast of Genoa, ensuring the ship hadn't lain in the pathway of any oncoming vessels.

With all that accomplished, he had just a few things left before he restarted Time.

"I want to thank you for your assistance," Ronan said to Chronos. "Without you, I might have been stuck for an eternity."

Chronos smiled. "I doubt it," he said. "Eternity is a long time. Eventually, you would have thought of something, but you're welcome. This has been my privilege. So, what's next on your agenda?"

"Before I restart time," said Ronan, "I need to speak with Liam."

"Right. I will meet Liam on the timeline, so I cannot meet him now."

"I was about to ask you for some privacy."

"Ahh! So, that's how it happened. Not a problem." He held out his hand, and Ronan took it. "I want us to be great friends, and please, know that you can count on me."

"I appreciate that Chronos, I can never thank you enough for what you've done here."

"Well, perhaps you can help me. And why don't you and the others call me Angus."

"Angus?" Ronan asked in disbelief.

He nodded. "I own and live in the Barlow Building in Los Angeles. It holds three successful gay clubs—two public, one private. I have a dance club called Beef, a strip club called Beef Strips, and in my home there, I have a members and invited-guests-only sex club and bar called Beef & Chill. So far, the club has fourteen permanent members. I have a blast at my clubs, and I have even been known to strip at Beef Strips for special gatherings and charity events, so nearly everyone has seen me naked, and unlike during my marriage, my bed is never lonely. The humans know me by the legal name, Angus Barlow, but the guys at the clubs like to call me Steakhouse."

"Steakhouse?"

Angus unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned, and unzipped his pants. Reaching inside he pulled out the cause of his bulge. Even soft, it hung heavily off him like a hairless forearm atop a sack filled with two unenhanced goose eggs, and each one could fill a man's palm.