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HERAKLION: THE STONE CIRCLE
by Paul Edmund Norman
Eleven
Anno Domini 1996 - Earth - Heraclius, Middle East - Chuck's Story
'I can confirm that everything Marie said is true,' Chuck said. 'Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of France on the eighteenth of May 1804. His Egyptian campaign took place in 1798 and the following year with the Army of the Orient. They sailed from Toulon on the nineteenth of May 1798 and were joined by convoys from Genoa, Corsica, Marseilles and Civita Vecchia. Napoleon captured Cairo in July 1798. The following January he invaded Syria and two months after that he captured Jaffa. General Kleber defeated the Turks at Heliopolis on the twentieth of March 1800 and was garrisoned at Cairo until he was assassinated. He was succeeded by General Menoa.
My story isn't nearly so exciting, I'm afraid. Both Marcellus and Marie come from times when everyone seemed to be at war with each other. Oh, I guess there are still some conflicts going on, like in Israel and in Europe, and places like that. But the days of armies marching through other peoples' countries and taking them over is just about gone. I was on vacation, that's all. My parents took me to Egypt, to see the pyramids, and the valley of the kings, and all that stuff, the museums, the libraries and all that. Anyway, we decided to go east a little way to cover some of the trails the Crusaders had taken in the twelfth century, and we ended up at Heraclius.
We went around the city a couple of times, bought some artifacts, you know the sort of thing, old coins, knives, that sort of thing. I decided to go off on my own for a while, and I found this trail leading up into the hills. Well, it was a pretty hot day, about thirty, I guess, and I thought it would be cooler up higher. I had my camera, my video camera with me, and I started filming. It was rough going, and quite steep, but the view from the first hill was quite breathtaking, looking down on the walled city, and imagining what it must have been like in the time of the Crusades, with the siege machines, and the arrows and the sword fights. I guess I just sat there, filming until the batteries ran out, and lost track of the time. As the sun went down, the sky got blacker and the clouds began to build up from the west, and pretty soon it was raining. I took shelter beneath an outcrop of rocks, and by the time the rain had gotten so's I could just about see through it, it was pitch black. Then the thunder started, way off in the distance, over the sea, and I could see the lightning breaking through the clouds and shining on the water.
I guessed I ought to have been thinking about making a run for it, but the truth was, when I started out from under the rocks, I couldn't see the trail any more! And well, the rain just kept coming down, harder than ever, and it was like World War Three out there, just like the Gulf, when the Tomahawks hit Baghdad and all! Well, I sort of dozed off, thinking that it might let up after a while, and occasionally there were some breaks in the clouds, but nothing substantial enough. The rest you know. I decided to start off looking for the trail back down to the city and I got lost. I ended up at the stone circle, and more or less the same thing happened to me as happened to Marie. I stood in the circle, just amazed at the storm that was crashing about my ears, then all of a sudden, I ended up here, and I wish I'd stayed with my old man and my old lady!'
To be continued.....
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