Titans of Chaos

I could tell from the looks on the boys' faces that Colin thought Vanity was being a sissy; Quentinwas more forgiving. He said, "The Lady Phoebe may have known a weakness associated with thePhaeacian ability to feel that 'being watched' sensation. It is a sense impression of some sort. Whycouldn't it be dazzled or deafened?"

Victor had put his prosthetic face back on, but his expression, as usual, was composed anddispassionate. "In any case, we must decide our next course of action. We have no reason tobelieve the Huntress cannot follow us up out of the atmosphere. She is a moon goddess, after all."

I said, "Mars! Who here wants to go to Mars? We'll be famous!"

Victor said, "Well, for one thing, people trying to hide should not be famous."

"If the gods are so secretive, they might not be willing to strike out against famous people,right?" I pointed out.

Colin said sarcastically, "Yeah, look at how well things turned out for famous guys likeAgamemnon and Ajax and Oedipus and Icarus..."

I said, "Listen! We're free for the first time in our lives, and now is our chance to spread ourwings, to test our strength against the odds, to attempt bold things, to sail beyond the sunset!"

Colin grinned at that.

I looked at Quentin and said, "To learn things never learned, to step where none have stepped, tofly higher than even the princes of the Middle Air."

And to Victor I said, "Even if she follows us up out of the atmosphere, then Phoebe might not beable to achieve escape velocity. If she cannot, then the whole solar system, the whole universe, isours! What will we care then about the gods? What is Olympos but one small mountain on onesmall world?"

The motion was carried, and I found myself in the leadership position once again.

As they say, the devil is in the details. We need an Aristotelian paradigm in order to keep our airfrom going stale, but Aristotle did not allow for the Newtonian orbital mechanics we need toreach another planet.