Time Travelers Never Die (49 page)
Read Time Travelers Never Die Online
Authors: Jack McDevitt
THE
play ends with Trainor kneeling over Achilles’ body while Paris retreats into the darkness. Polyxena produces a knife, which she will use on herself. The chorus closes out, and, for a few moments, after the last actor has left the stage, the audience is mute. Gradually, people begin to applaud.
play ends with Trainor kneeling over Achilles’ body while Paris retreats into the darkness. Polyxena produces a knife, which she will use on herself. The chorus closes out, and, for a few moments, after the last actor has left the stage, the audience is mute. Gradually, people begin to applaud.
When the actors came back to take their bows, the members of the audience were out of their seats cheering.
“Not bad,” said Rod.
Harvey admitted that
Achilles
had been “very effective.”
Achilles
had been “very effective.”
“But it proves nothing,” said Aspasia.
“It doesn’t prove,” he said, “that it was written by Sophocles, but who cares? It’s like arguing about who wrote Shakespeare. What really matters is that we have a previously lost work, or we’ve discovered another brilliant playwright. Take your pick.”
Ahead, in the crowd, there was a familiar face. One she hadn’t seen in years.
“Dave,” she said. “Dave Dryden. How are you?”
He broke into the same relaxed smile she remembered. “Aspasia. It’s good to see you. How’ve you been?”
“Couldn’t be better. What did you think of the show?”
“Not bad.” He was with a young woman and a tall, silver-haired man in pinstripes. “Katie,” he said, “this is Aspasia. We were in graduate school together at Princeton.” He squeezed Katie’s wrist. “We’re old friends.”
“Princeton’s getting to be a long time ago,” Aspasia said. “Hello, Katie.”
They shook hands, and Dave turned to the man in the pin-striped suit. “This is another old friend,” he said. “Aspasia, Ari. He’s a librarian.” Then he switched to Greek. “Had it not been for her, Ari, tonight would not have happened.”
“He doesn’t speak English?” she asked.
“No. Not yet.”
Aspasia smiled, offered her hand, and responded in Greek. “Ari,” she said, “I’m delighted to meet you.”
Citations:
From Walter F. Cuirle, Notebooks. Used by permission.
From Kip Thorne,
Physics of the Impossible
by Michio Kaku, Doubleday, copyright © 2008 by Michio Kaku. Used by permission of Kip Thorne and Michio Kaku.
Physics of the Impossible
by Michio Kaku, Doubleday, copyright © 2008 by Michio Kaku. Used by permission of Kip Thorne and Michio Kaku.
From John Earman,
Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks
, Oxford University Press, copyright © 1995 by Oxford University Press. Used by permission.
Bangs, Crunches, Whimpers, and Shrieks
, Oxford University Press, copyright © 1995 by Oxford University Press. Used by permission.
From Harlan Ellison,
Strange Wine
, ibooks, copyright © 1978 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Used by permission.
Strange Wine
, ibooks, copyright © 1978 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation. Used by permission.
Warning:
The epigraph at the head of Chapter 34, attributed to Sophocles, is of course simply a happy hoax, intended to catch the unwary.
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