respond."
Cronus nodded and stopped moving. The airfield was quiet and there were few people around. Cyclops were behind Cronus and an entire century of them were standing behind Varro's people. The snap of a flag caught his attention. It was the blood red standard of the Senate; the golden eagle of Tiberia encircled the bundled symbol of that body. Next to it fluttered the blue and red flag of Alabor.
"Where is the president? Their ministers?"
Varro motioned toward a group of human soldiers. "The president and two ministers are here. A few other ministers were killed in the battle."
"I will speak to the president."
The legate saluted and began walking. Cronus followed behind and watched the soldiers lift a man from the group of prisoners. "This is President Levac Rolan."
Cronus stopped and bowed slowly toward the older man. He didn't respond. "I am Praetor Cronus. I have been charged by Caesar Maxentius the Ninth to govern Alabor in his name."
Rolan's cheeks bulged and he then spat at the ground.
A tribune behind the man reared his rifle back, but Cronus angrily waved him off. The Psilon walked toward Rolan and spoke softly, "President, you saw what these machines did, yes?" The old man glanced toward the nearest gold soldier, but he didn't answer. "They accomplished, in two short weeks, what a dozen nations were unable to do in ten centuries. They conquered Alabor. The Caesar has cohort after cohort of them, ready to go. If I give the word, they will come. And they will be relentless."
"So will we," Rolan said.
Cronus shook his head, "You don't understand. In the two weeks that these Cyclops were fighting here, only twenty-two were destroyed. That's it. How many thousands of your people were killed?" The president looked at the tarmac. "Help me govern Alabor. Your citizens will be welcomed into the Empire and the killing can stop."
Rolan looked up, defiantly. "Never."
"The Imperial Navy is intercepting yours as we speak. Your air force is nonexistent. What remains of your armies are gathered in the desert. They have no supply lines and no sources of water for them to hold out."
The president spoke with a cracking voice, "Arkaim will help."
"They would," Cronus said, "if they weren't busy with the Caesar themselves." Rolan blinked rapidly; this was obviously news to him. "Surrender your forces and no one else needs to die."
The old man looked back toward his ministers, but he couldn't see them. He shook his head.
Cronus walked away and waved Varro to him. "Legate, secure the cities as best you can. Suppress any rebellion. Keep casualties to an absolute minimum. Is that understood?"
"Indeed, praetor. But what about the army?"
Cronus thought for a moment before he answered. "Wait them out."
The legate saluted and moved away. Cronus looked toward the west and watched the last few slivers of the sun disappear over the horizon. A breeze hit him just as the light vanished and he felt doubt.
Cronus, Themis, and Coeus were looking through the glass. Theia was pressing buttons on a computer panel. Hyperion was staring at gauges.
"Vacuum seal?" Theia asked.
Hyperion glanced to his left, "Good."
Cronus looked down at his wristband. The screen was blank.
"Don't worry," Coeus said.
"I can't not worry."
Coeus smiled and leaned against the frame of the window. Inside the darkened room, a large piece of machinery was centered in the floor. A wooden platform was situated around it with only a circular coil of the machine rising through a crudely cut hole in the wood. Several rectangles of various materials were rigged with sensors and placed around the table near the coil.
"Charging now," Theia said.
Cronus looked over Hyperion's shoulder. He was watching a needle rise. "Spin is steady."
Theia's finger hovered above a large button. "Discharge in five, four, three, two, one." She pressed it.
What had been an unnoticed audible hum vanished. In the darkened room, the coil twitched but the table did not move. All of the rectangles, however, tipped slightly toward the center and then fell backward.
Theia immediately jumped up and screamed, "Yes!"
Hyperion smiled and rolled away from the panel. "Fantastic."
Coeus nodded and grabbed Theia's hand, "Amazing. Amazing work."
Cronus was smiling and looked behind himself at Themis. She was stonefaced.
"Physics was never my strongest subject."
Coeus left Theia's side and pointed toward the window. "It's a vacuum in there. No wind."
"And this wasn't magnetic."
"No," Cronus answered. "The sensors on the table were made of all kinds of things. Plastic, wood, glass, metal. Magnetism wouldn't explain all of that."
Theia hugged Hyperion tightly and their joy got louder. Coeus stepped away from the duo and said, "This was something far more powerful."
"Gravity? Artificial gravity?"
Cronus motioned toward the pieces inside. "If the coil generated a gravitational field, it would have pulled the sensors toward it." Themis looked through the glass. "They fell away from the coil."
"The same principles might later give us artificial gravity, though," Coeus said.
Cronus nodded, "True."
"Wait," Themis interrupted. "So what happened?"
Coeus sighed as he tried to think of the most basic way to explain it. After a moment, he said, as he spread his hands in front of himself, "Imagine that all of space is made of elastic. That coil just pinched space. When it released it, it caused space to ripple, and made the sensors fall away."
Themis blinked slowly and looked into the room. The simple copper-colored coil just sat there in the middle of a wooden table. "'Pinching space.'" Coeus and Cronus nodded. "Has that ever been done before?"
Cronus' wristband beeped.
"No," Coeus answered. "It hasn't."
Cronus read the device and sucked in a deep breath. "I have to go."
Coeus nodded and slapped his shoulder. "Good fortune."
He ran from the room and turned toward the stairs. He bounded up them two at a time.
It will be fine, he thought.
He pushed open the door and ran across the field toward another building on the BBM compound.
It's routine now. The doctors know what they're doing.
A guard saw Cronus running and he stopped his patrol. He stared for a moment until Cronus saw him watching. He waved and kept running.
It will be fine.
He slammed into the door and darted down the hallway. Cronus turned the corner and saw Gaia and Karin Baraz standing outside of the room. When they saw him, they smiled and waved him on.
"Just in time," Gaia said.
Cronus nodded and slowed to a walk. He inhaled deeply to try and regain his normal breathing pattern. He looked into the room and saw several people in white coats.
"Here," Tethys said as she handed him a paper mask. A nurse was coming toward him with a paper suit. Cronus stepped into it quickly and slowly made his way deeper into the room.
Nervously, he approached the bed and said, softly, "Hello."
A sweaty and disheveled Rhea looked over and grinned. "I wondered where you were." She looked back down toward the doctor. He nodded and she began to breathe heavily. After a few grunts, she asked, "Did it work?"
Cronus had been staring at her bound legs and the doctor between them. He glanced toward her, confused for a moment, and then answered, "Yes."
As she breathed and grunted again, she said, "Good."
"Almost," the doctor said. "Cronus, come on."
He nodded and sidled past Tethys, Phoebe, and two nurses. The doctor backed away and moved to Rhea's left side. He leaned over her thigh and kept his gloved hand under the protruding head.
Head, Cronus thought. He had done this once before but it was still a shock to see.
"There's not far to go."
The doctor looked up at his patient. "Rhea, go ahead."
Rhea immediately strained and grunted. Cronus stared at her vagina and watched it flex, giving way to the child that was emerging.
"Cronus," the doctor said.
Startled, Cronus leaned forward and put his hands under the baby's head. Its face was exposed. The expression was fluctuating rapidly but no noise came from it. The same thing happened with Poseidon and it freaked him out then, too.
"Almost, Rhea."
The shoulders came next. Just as Cronus didn't think his wife could stretch any more, she did and the child's torso appeared.
"Take it, Cronus."
With his left hand under the baby's head and his right forefinger in its armpit, he pulled the child from the womb fully. The doctor leaned over and wiped some of the goo from the child's face and swiped a suction device into his mouth. He began to cry loudly.
He, Cronus thought.
The nurses and their Psilon friends began to applaud. Cronus pulled his son to his chest and cradled him while a nurse cleaned him off. She clipped the umbilical cord and handed the end to the doctor who now dealt with the afterbirth and the post-birth procedures on Rhea.
"Such a bad tradition," Cronus mumbled. "Fathers pulling the baby from the mothers." The nurse smiled. "How many times have children been dropped?"
The nurse tilted her head and said, "More than a few. Less than a lot." She continued to check the screaming child and then led Cronus over to a nearby scale and diagnostic station. She looked at Rhea and said, "Has a name been chosen?"
Rhea locked eyes with Cronus and grinned. She nodded and then collapsed into the bed.
We were named for the Attican gods of old. They were promiscuous and had lots of children with mortals and each other. Those old stories gave him