Backscatter

"Uriah, I have no wish to kill you."

The rebel's words finally sank in. Uriah frowned and lowered his head to stare at the man before him. "Don't toy with me Hannibal. It's beneath you."

"Uriah, why should I want to kill you? The war is over. You are my countryman again." Hannibal signaled for his archers to stand down. He walked the remaining distance to Uriah and in a show of trust put his open hand upon the man's shoulder and said quietly, "Come. Pick up your sword and sheath it. We have a country to rebuild."

Uriah the Hittite stood rigid for a long moment, and then did something he hadn't done in years. He began to weep.

Chapter 21. Sonic Birds Go Flying By

Three weeks later.

Time: Friday, June 18, 2055 7:38 PM UMT

Hannibal sat with Megan, Alvaro, and their five-year old daughter Kelsey on their condo balcony on the main island of Madeira. They were all enjoying an after-dinner plate of spicy pepper goat cheeses and assorted crackers, and the adults had glasses of cool amber-colored wine. There was a delightful southern breeze blowing off the deep ocean, clean and salty. The sun had set a half hour ago and the last of the evening twilight was just fading from the sky. The last quarter moon would not rise for hours, but there was still plenty of light to admire the scenery. The lit garden campus of Funchal University was spread out before them to the east.

Hannibal sighed and idly wondered how many opportunities he would have in his future to see such idyllic beauty and smell the deep ocean, an odor that two short years ago had been so familiar to him. Was it really only two years ago that he first met the Madeirans? He munched another small wedge of cheese with a cracker and sipped his wine, gazing over the city lights. And there! There was the hospital where he lay wounded just a month ago. Hannibal stretched his healed arm and shook his head in amusement.

"What Hannibal?" asked Megan in Phoenician. "Worried about tomorrow?"

"What? No. I was just thinking how nice it is to see the deep sea again. The smells of Canaan's coast are quite different. The ocean is so clean here, and more wild and free in its power."

Alvaro spoke up. "If you change your mind and want to address Congress in Phoenician tomorrow, Megan's offer to interpret still stands."

Hannibal nodded and replied slowly in Portuguese. "I know. Such kindness. But I've been rehearsing for a week. I'll be fine. And it's important that they see me making the struggle... no, sorry, making the effort to talk in their native tongue." He switched back to Phoenician. "So, you two said you had something to discuss?"

Megan nodded and then looked at her husband.

"Come Kelsey!" he said, "It's been a big day, and there's another one coming tomorrow. Time for bed."

Kelsey nodded and kissed and hugged her mother goodnight and then surprised Hannibal by kissing his cheek too before retiring with her father to her bedroom. Hannibal sighed as they left. He and Megan relaxed and enjoyed their view in silence for several minutes, and then Hannibal commented, "Kelsey... What a delightful daughter you have."

"Oh yes. Playful too, much more than I ever was when I was her age. But she's had a much gentler start in life."

Hannibal looked at Madeira's chief ambassador very carefully. "Ah, a reference to your own childhood Megan. Thank you." He hesitated for a moment. "I know how careful Madeirans are concerning their history. I don't mean to pry for information I shouldn't have, but... Was your childhood difficult?"

Megan sighed and nodded. "My family was fine. They loved me. But other parts of my childhood were filled with death."

"Ah. Well, it's a natural part of life."

"Violent death."

"Oh."

Megan took a deep breath. "Hannibal, I can share my childhood memories with you now. By a 57 to 43 and 9 to 4 district vote, Congress has with condition authorized us to tell you our history. That's why Alvaro was late for dinner."

Hannibal eyes lit up. "What's the condition?"

"That you tell no one without additional Congressional approval."

Hannibal was astonished. "That's all? They will accept my word?"

"Yes. Alvaro was trying for an amendment where that wouldn't even be necessary, but yes, they'll accept your word. Think of it as an experiment, an experiment in trust."

"I am grateful. What do I have to do?"

"Just pledge your word to us when Alvaro gets back. Ah, here he comes now." Alvaro walked back out on the balcony. "Back so soon?" his wife asked.

Alvaro nodded. "After she washed up and brushed her teeth, I told her I needed to come back here. Kelsey said she would read her storybook a bit and promised not to eavesdrop."

Alvaro sat down and the conversation turned serious. After receiving Hannibal's pledge, Alvaro and Megan spent the next hour describing almost all their history but leaving out Megan's critical role in creating the temporal backscatter resonance that brought them back to 1107 BC.

Hannibal sat like a sponge, absorbing everything and asking very little until they were finished. He gave a deep sigh. "I remember two years ago, saying goodbye to Kelsey. She asked me to bring her an elephant. Such an odd request. I didn't know what to make of it."

Megan answered. "She was referring to another Hannibal, a famous general who crossed mountains called the Alps with elephants. In our old timeline, that didn't happen until nine hundred years from now."

"Your daughter mistook me for someone else?"

Megan shook her head. "No. My daughter was trying to make a joke. She has a very playful sense of humor." Megan sighed. "You see our dilemma. We want to spare this version of Earth from the rape it suffered in our original timeline. That means transferring our technology to all the people here. But how do we do that without getting into the same awful problem that was killing us?"

Hannibal nodded slowly. "Your power can also be used to destroy."

Megan frowned at the intractable problem. "Yes. As a king, you're a very unusual exception right now Hannibal. Most of the Earth right now is ruled by bloody-thirsty warlords, in spite of the massive deaths six years ago."

"You see our dilemma, don't you?" Alvaro asked, echoing Megan's earlier comment. "With all our technology, we're still outnumbered 250 to 1, and if the technology gets out too soon, we might be attacked with our own weapons. We're playing a very dangerous game. And once our secrets are out, there's no going back. We'll only get one shot at this."

Megan spoke up. "In our old world, small bands of fanatics had access to tremendous destructive power. And they had a completely dark vision for what they wanted the future to look like, full of rigid religious restrictions. It was a future full of control and bereft of compassion for anyone who disagreed with them."

Hannibal stared at Megan and Alvaro with distraught eyes. "And they were willing to die for such darkness?"

Megan answered. "Oh yes. There was no cure for the Satan Bug. Many of its designers must have died by their own creation."

"And you fear the same thing could happen in this world?"

"Of course. Look at Ethbaal. Imagine he had not just a sword, but a sword and a bottle of a new Satan Bug, one that would kill not just him but everyone he hated, everyone on the hill, and perhaps everyone else as well." Megan stared at Hannibal with penetrating eyes. "What would he have done Hannibal?"

Hannibal was silent for a moment and then shuddered. "Yes, I have seen it myself. Hate can strip the love from a person's dreams." After a while his hand came up and touched his cheek. "And yet I remember the softness and kindness of Kelsey's kiss. Such a strange world we live in, to hold such goodness and such evil, both as the same time." He turned and stared at Megan and Alvaro in the dim light on their balcony. He appeared to be troubled. "So you are oracles then?"

Alvaro was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"You come from the future. You know what's going to happen."

Alvaro blinked. "No, Hannibal, no. It's not like that at all. The temporal singularity... Sorry for using Portuguese words but I don't know what to call it in Phoenician. The temporal singularity did not occur in our own past. Believe me, our people have been struggling with this concept for the last six years. Two of our most prominent religious figures have yet to be born, and now from a physics perspective they never will be. People here have been soul searching their faiths for the past six years, trying to come to terms with this."

Hannibal stared at Alvaro with a puzzled look, clearly half understanding at best. Alvaro continued. "Our future is as open and undetermined as our intuition tells us it is. It always will be. There will never be true oracles. The physics forbids it."

Hannibal sank back in his chair to think and said nothing for a while. Eventually he reached out to the plate of snacks and idly ate another cracker. "There is also another matter, one I wanted to discuss with you. I thought I'd bring it up after my speech tomorrow, but perhaps now is the better time."

Alvaro raised his eyebrows and nodded for him to continue.

Hannibal paused for a long moment, struggling with how to make his proposal. "You people have given us so much already, but... Megan, Alvaro, I want to ask for something more. I want to make a start mixing our two peoples together."

Alvaro sighed. "That would be wonderful, but probably at least a few years away."

Hannibal shook his head. "No. I don't think it's too early to start now. What if we started the exchange with a very small number, one and two people?"

Alvaro thought for a moment. "Go on."

"Edom's twin daughters Adah and Naomi. They lost both their parents in the war. The death of their mother was brutal. They were forced to watch. And their father died in the last day of the war."

Alvaro nodded. "I remember. Were they branded?"

"Thank the gods no. Ethbaal was hoping to capture Edom alive and have the pleasure of forcing the father to see the official enslavement of his daughters. The girls' arms are undamaged."

"How old are they?"

Megan spoke up. "Almost exactly Kelsey's age. They were born during the plague times. Hannibal, what are you suggesting?"

"That the twins become citizens of Madeira. There are so many orphans in Canaan now, both from the war and from the plague. It would be a gift to us if you care for two of our orphans. And I know my... Alvaro, what do you call daughters of cousins in Portuguese?"

Alvaro answered, "They're your first cousins, once removed."

"What? Seriously? That sounds so odd, almost cold."

Alvaro shrugged. "Yeah, well, what can I say?"

Hannibal shrugged back. "Anyway, I know the girls' characters. They are both very smart, a bit wild but with hearts that are noble and true. They will be good representatives of my people. And they will represent the future of our nations together."

Alvaro paused for a long moment. "Well, they're the right age to start school here. Do they speak any Portuguese?"

"A very little. These last few weeks, I've tried to teach them what Megan taught me. But they're fine linguists; speaking easily in both Phoenician and the tongue of their Hebrew mother. I don't think language will be a problem. Alvaro, Megan, I've already asked the girls. They're very willing and have pledged their obedience. Will you act as their parents if they come here?"

Alvaro surprised Megan by turning to her and saying with a playful smile, "Well, it's not as if we have much else to do."

"Alvaro, do be serious! I take it by your humor this appeals to you?"

Alvaro blushed at his wife and nodded. "We should have some long talks about this, and invite Kelsey into some of them too, but at first thought, yes..."

An alarm bell went off in Megan's mind at the mention of her daughter. "Hannibal! You mentioned this as an exchange of one and two people. What did you mean?"

"Well, my first thought was, my removed cousins would live here, and perhaps Kelsey"

"What?! No! Absolutely not!"

Hannibal blinked. "I didn't mean to offend."

Megan took a deep breath. "Sorry. You're right. You said nothing that was offensive."

Hannibal tilted his head. "Are you worried about Kelsey's safety?"

"Among other things, yes."

Alvaro broke in. "Hannibal, Kelsey will be starting school a month from now. It's extremely important. She can't miss her education."

"Ah, her training, yes. I did not consider how extensive her learning time must be." He paused for a long moment. "Adah and Naomi would also get this training?"

Alvaro nodded. "If they were our adopted daughters, of course."

"How long does it last?"

"Probably sixteen years at least, perhaps more if they choose advanced professions."

Hannibal's eyes went wide. "Seriously?!"

"Totally."

Hannibal thought for a moment. "This schooling, the schedule, what's it like?"

Megan replied. "You know about the months of our calendar Hannibal. Children go to school ten months a year in two five-month sessions, starting when they're six years old. There are two five-week breaks starting the weeks of the summer and winter solstices. The breaks are called independent activities periods, where the children pick something to study on their own."

"Ah, so Kelsey will start school in late July?"

"Yes. She'll be turning six in a couple of weeks. School will start for her on July 26th. Kelsey's very excited about it."

"And Adah and Naomi would join her in the school?"

"If we go through with this, yes."

Hannibal smiled happily. "This is even better than I hoped. Megan, Alvaro, it's important for both our people to see us getting along together. How about all three girls do their schooling here, and also live two months a year in Canaan?"

"Uh..." Megan's first thought was to object but a quiet voice in the back of her mind was asking her to consider the proposal seriously and not reject it out-of-hand.

Hannibal went on. "Kelsey's independent activity could be to learn how to live in our culture."

"Uh..." was all Megan could say again.

Alvaro turned and looked at his wife with a surprised look on his face. "You're not rejecting the idea?"

"Uh..." Megan finally gulped. "Not yet I guess."

"Neither am I. Hannibal, the safety of our daughter would be a very big concern. Kelsey would also have to agree to this. We won't force her."

"I understand. There would be guards entrusted with the girls' care. There's one person in particular I have in mind, the finest swordsman I have ever seen, a Hittite."

Megan and Alvaro turned and stared at each other. Neither could quite believe they were considering entrusting the life of their daughter to a Hittite swordsman of 1100 BC. Alvaro finally turned back to Hannibal and said, "We'll think about it." They chatted for a while about other matters and then headed off to bed.

Two weeks later.

Time: Saturday, July 3, 2055 3:30 AM UMT

The lone man was dressed as a poor wanderer, and the shoddy robes covering him suggested he was a Jebusite, though he was not. He had traveled late and hard the night before across the mountainous terrain. The waxing gibbous moon had provided light for traveling until setting four hours before sunrise, when the tired man had at last settled down. He was now less than thirty kilometers from the awful hill where the king's men had met their fate. On a rocky ledge in the dry mountains he had quickly collapsed into sleep.

He stirred and stretched now after his six-hour rest, drinking only two swallows from his water skin. He gathered up his few possessions and prepared to move on. But there on a rock ten meters from his sleep site stood a large bird. It was standing on its legs, clearly not carrion, but also not moving. The traveler considered for a moment. If the unusual bird was asleep, it might make a fine breakfast. He slowly picked up a nearby rock and approached his prey as silently as he could.

He became troubled as he approached the bird. Its eyes were wide open so it was clearly not asleep, yet the bird was as unmoving as stone. What bird would allow a hunter to approach like this? The man had also heard the wild stories of the pair of talking birds that had plagued Ethbaal, but those birds were a pair, bright blue in color and flying in the air, and this one was motionless and matched the gray of the rocks. Still.. The man paused and considered, wondering whether to continue his attack.

"Hello Ittobaal," the bird said in the clear voice of the goddess Megan as it magically changed to a brilliant green.

Ittobaal shrieked and jumped back, his hunting rock still clutched in his hand.

"Looking a bit scruffy this morning, aren't we?" the bird said in a conversational voice. "Do the Jebusites know you're parading around in their tribal colors?"

"You!" Ittobaal blurted out.

"Yes, it's me. I'm flattered you recognize my voice."

The man was at a total loss for words. "How did you find me?" he finally asked in a squeak.

"Wrong question Ittobaal. I'm very disappointed. Your question should have been, when did you find me? And the answer to that is, over a week ago, the day before the Philistines moved in to seize you." Megan made a clicking noise with her tongue. It was a familiar expression for a Canaanite woman to use to shame and scold her young children. "Ittobaal, consider your sorry life. Your brand of politics was too slimy for even the Philistines to stomach, and that is saying something."

The insults from the feminine voice were unbearable. "Be gone from me, you demon of darkness!" Ittobaal screamed at the bird as he hurled his rock. The bird lowered its head slightly and the throw barely missed.

Megan laughed. "Oh, you can't get rid of me that easily!"

Ittobaal trembled at the reality of his predicament came crashing down on him. He whispered, "You have no power over me..."

He was dismayed that the bird continued laughing. Or at least, the goddess speaking through the bird kept laughing. Except for the head bob, the bird was still as unmoving as stone. It was extremely disconcerting.

"No power?" laughed Megan. "Ittobaal, this bird represents the very latest and greatest in Madeiran surveillance technology. Sonic has more power than you can possibly imagine. That's the bird's name by the way, Sonic. It has a twin named Super less than five thousand cubits from here. They work as an integrated pair. I'm controlling both. And Super is leading a group of men dedicated to giving you the reception you deserve for coming back to Canaan."

Ittobaal was speechless for a moment, and then the goddess's words sank in. "You lie!" he retorted in a shout.

Megan made her tongue clicking sound again. "Now that was just plain rude Ittobaal. Name me one time you've caught me in a lie. We can make a game of it if you want. I can start listing all the times you've lied to me. Want to try? I'll let you make the first move."

"You lie!" Ittobaal said again, but this time it came out as a hoarse whisper. His hand groped along the ground and found another rock.

Megan continued in her conversational tone. "Think so? Look in the valley below. You can see your reception party yourself." There was a pause. "No, not there. A little more to the east, by the grove of cedars. That's right. Super will flash a light for you. See them now?"

Ittobaal gave a small shriek.

"Ah, I see you've found them. Want to say hello? I can patch you through. There a certain Hittite that would love to say a few words to you. Stand by..."

Ittobaal face turned deathly pale. He felt that he had awakened into a nightmare. He began cursing the bird loudly.

Megan's voice returned. "Hear that Uriah? If you want to reply, just speak."

Uriah launched into a short burst of Hittite than Megan could not understand. She was seated below decks in a control room forty kilometers away aboard the M.N.S. Urushalim Express, anchored a few hundred meters off Sidon's coast, and she took a moment to run the speech through a new lingual cross referencing program. It could only make out one word of Uriah's shout. The word was cockroach.