"Do you read me, _Odyssey II_? Come in." The radio crackled on channel
sixteen, the ocean mariner's open line. "Goddammit Mike, do you copy?
Over."
Michael Vance was exhilarated, and scared. The salty taste of the
Aegean was in his mouth as he reached for the black mike of his radio,
still gripping the starboard tiller. His waterproof Ross DSC 800 was
topside, since there was no other place for it.
He was lean, with leathery skin and taut tanned cheeks all the more so
for his having spent the last three days fighting the sea. He had dark
brown hair and a high forehead above eyebrows that set off inquiring
blue eyes. His face had mileage, yet was curiously warm, with a slim
nose that barely showed where it had been broken year before last--
during an ARM special op in Iran.
"Is that you, Bill? Good to hear your voice, but this is a hell of a
time--"
"Who else would it be, you loony gringo? Hey, I'm getting a damned lot
of static. How about switching channels? Over to seventy."
"Seventy, confirmed." He pushed in the code, his fingers slippery and
wet. The wind was already gusting up to thirty
knots, while his boat was crabbing across the growing swell. "Okay,
Lotus-Eater, you're on."
"Listen, old buddy," the voice continued, clearer now that it was
digital, "our weather radar shows a squall building in the north, up in
the Sporades, and it looks like it could be a real bear. It's going to
be all over your butt in no time. Thought I'd better let you know. You
ought to try and hole up down on the south side of Kythera."
Kythera was an island just off the southeast tip of Greece's
Peloponnesos. It was now looming off Vance's starboard bow, barren
mountains and sheer cliffs.
"I've been watching it," he yelled back into the mike, holding it close
to shield it from the howl of wind. The gale was coming in at an angle
to the waves, creating two swells running at ninety degrees, and the
sea was getting short and confused. "But I think I can ride it out. I'm
making probably seven or eight knots." He paused, then decided to add a
little bravado. No point in admitting how worried he was. "Just a
little rock and roll."
'That's horseshit, friend. This thing's for real. You'd better head for
cover." It was the profane, oversmoked voice of Bill Bates, CEO of
SatCom, who'd been monitoring his trip using the awesome electronics
he'd installed on the little island of Andikythera, fifteen kilometers
south of Kythera. "Even old Ulysses himself had that much sense, and
it's common knowledge that guy didn't know fuck-all about sailing. Took
him ten years to get home. Remember that inlet on the south side of the
island, that little harbor at Kapsali? We put in once for a drink last
year. I respectfully suggest you get your ass over there and drop
anchor as soon as possible."
"And let you win? No way, Jose." He was jamming his weight against the
starboard tiller, and the radio was distracting. As far as he was
concerned, the wager with Bates was ironclad: retrace Ulysses' route in
a fortnight and do it without ever touching land. "I just think you're
getting worried. You suddenly remembered we've got ten large riding on
this. Somebody's got to lose, and it's going to be you, pal."
"You're a headstrong idiot, Michael," Bates sputtered. "Fuck the ten
grand. I don't want it and you don't need it. I'm hereby going on
record as taking no responsibility for this idiotic stunt, from this
point on. You're really pushing your luck."
"We both know this ain't about money. I've got a reputation to live up
to." Like finding out how many ways I can kill myself, he thought.
Jesus! How did I get into this?
He reached to secure the linen sail line to a wooden cleat. The
heightening swell was churning over the gunwales, soaking him as it
drove the bow to leeward.
"Well, for once in your life use some sense. The risk isn't worth it.
Our weather radar here at the facility tells no lies, and you should
see it. This is going to be a granddaddy. I've triangulated your
position and you're only about four klicks off the east side of
Kythera. You could still run for that little harbor down south before
it hits."
"I know where I am. I can just make out the island off my starboard
bow. About two o'clock." It's tempting, he told himself. Damned
tempting. But not just yet.
'Then go for it." Bates coughed. "Listen, you crazy nut-cake, I have to
get back out to Control. We've got a major run-up of the Cyclops laser
system scheduled tonight for 2100 hours. So use your head for once,
goddammit, and make for that anchorage."
"Your views are taken under advisement. But a great American
philosopher once said it ain't over till it's over." He pushed the
thumb switch on the microphone, clicking it off. Then he switched it on
again. "By the way, amigo, good luck with the test." The Cyclops was
going to power the world's first laser-driven space vehicle. Who knew
if it would work?
'Thanks, we may need it. Catch you again at 2300."
"See you then." If I'm still around, he thought. He clicked off his
mike, then switched back to channel sixteen. The radio was the only
electronic equipment he had permitted himself. He enjoyed monitoring
the Greek chatter coming from the island fishing boats and trawlers,
which worked nights. Lots of bragging.
Now, though, the bursts of talk on the open channel were all about the
building storm. The fishing boats this night had abandoned the Aegean
to the massive inter-island ferries. In fact, those white multi-deck
monsters were his real concern, more than the storm. _Odyssey_ _II_ had
no radar, and his tiny mast lantern would just melt into the rain when
the storm hit. Sailing in the dark and in a squall was a game of pure
defense; he had to keep every sense alert--sight, hearing, even smell.
He prayed the ferry lanes would be empty tonight. A Nomicos Line
triple-decker could slice his little homemade toy in half without ever
knowing he was there.
_Odyssey II_ was a thirty-eight-foot wooden bark, planked construction
of cypress on oak, that no sane man would have taken out of a marina.
But Michael Vance was hoping to prove to the world that the fabled
voyage of Ulysses from Troy back to Greece could have happened. Unlike
anything seen afloat for almost three thousand years, his "yacht" was,
in fact, an authentic replica of a single-masted Mycenaean warship.
Painted lavender and gold--the ancient Greeks loved bold colors--she
could have been a theme-park ride. But every time he looked her over,
he felt proud.
His browned, cracked fingers gripped the wet wood as the sea churned
ever higher, now blotting out the dim line of the horizon. The storm
was arriving just as daylight faded-- the worst moment.
Enough thinking, he ordered himself, audibly above the gale. It's bad
for the reflexes. Just keep the tiller to leeward and don't shorten
sail. Go for it. Just get around Kythera, then heave to and lie in the
lee till the worst is over. Another five, maybe six kilometers should
do it.
Vance wasn't Greek; he was American and looked it. As for Greece and
things Greek, he preferred tequila over ouzo, a medium-rare sirloin to
chewy grilled octopus. All the same, years ago he had gotten a Ph.D. in
Greek archaeology from Yale, taught there for two years, then published
a celebrated and radical theory about the Palace of Knossos on Crete.
The book had caused an uproar in the scholarly community, and in the
aftermath he had drifted away from the world of the ancient Greeks for
several years. With this project, he liked to think, he was coming back
home. He had just turned forty-four, and it was about time.
Age. More and more lately he realized he preferred old,
well-crafted things: stick-shift transmissions, tube amplifiers, vinyl
recordings. Anything without numbers that glowed. _Odyssey_ _II_ was as
close to that feeling as he could get.
Coming in now was his first real weather, and he had his numb, pained
fingers crossed. His creation had certain historically precise features
yet to be fully tested in high seas. He had built her in the style of
ships in Homer's time, which meant she was hardly more than a raft with
washboard sides. Four meters across the beam, with a shallow draft of a
meter and a half, she was undecked except for a longitudinal gangway
over the cargo and platforms at the bow and stern, protected with
latticework to deflect enemy spears. It did not help much, however,
against the swell. The keel extended forward at the bow, supposedly for
additional lateral plane, and that was a plus when reaching with the
wind abeam or tacking to windward, but now, running downwind, it
increased her tendency to sheer about. All his strength was needed on
the tillers just to keep her aright.
There were other problems. Maybe, he thought, Ulysses had them, too.
He'd reproduced the ancient Aegean practice of tying the ends of the
longitudinal wales together at the stern, then letting them extend on
behind the ship and splay outward like the tail feathers of some
magnificent phoenix. Although he loved the beauty of it, now that
"tail" was catching the wind and making steering even tougher.
Probably should have left the damn thing off, he'd often lectured
himself. But no: _Odyssey II _had to be exactly authentic . . . or what
was the point? No guts, no glory. The ancient Greeks were the
astronauts of their age, the Aegean their universe, and he wanted to
recapture the triumphs and the fears of Homer's time, if only for a
fortnight.