(Alexandria, Egypt c. 405 CE)

Being of Greek origin, and the daughter of the last mathematician of the great Museum of Alexandria, the young Hypatia excelled under her father's early teachings, eventually becoming the most prominent female mathematician of her time-an age when the Roman Empire had included this celebrated center of learning into it's expanded territories. This precocious girl, while still only a child, took on the most sophisticated theories of inquiry, not only in the field of mathematics, physics and astronomy but also religion and medicine.

By adulthood she could hold her own discussing the most progressive philosophies against a backdrop of the older ones, and was able to debate religious scholars from the known world-all of them, of course, men. The Alexandrian Library was famous for attracting exceptional thinkers to engage in such dialogues of the most open-minded and diverse opinions. Such ideas were considered for their merits by learned individuals of the day and often originated from the Classical world's most advanced schools of thought-found in Athens and Rome.

The Alexandrian Library was considered the jewel of knowledge for its time in the ancient world. Its famous museum complex and the city itself had been founded by the fearless and ambitious Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. A thousand years later, in the time of Hypatia, this remarkable city was held within the jurisdictions of Rome's authority, but still it had been able to maintain its renown position among the 'cognoscenti' of Egypt, Rome, Classical Greece and the Persian Empire, as well. It had become the premiere repository for much of the world's greatest written work. Scrolls upon scrolls in texts translated into Greek were housed in the museum library and freely examined by the scholars of many empires.

Hypatia is said to have studied and eventually taught there, elevating herself, by cognitive reputation alone, to being the first woman accepted as a lecturer of mathematics, logic, rhetoric, and medicine. By 400 CE, she had become the director of the Neo-PlatonistSchool of Philosophy at the Library in Alexandria. This youthful teacher was revered by her many male students, as females were categorically forbidden to study at any such repositories of learning in those times. Nevertheless, she was invited to study in Athens and lecture abroad there and in Rome, carrying with her an open-mindedness and freshness of ideas admired by the many writers and thinkers of her day.

Her tolerance of various religions-Christianity, Judaism, and the polytheistic beliefs of her countrymen haling from the Egyptian culture and further east, eventually led her into dangerous waters, as the tide of Christian fanaticism was rising throughout the Roman Empire. In response to her championing observation and empirical thought, her defense of philosophies not consistent with Christian dogma, eventually demonized her in the eyes of the Church whose austere authorities were vocal and had become particularly restive in the city of Alexandria by 410 CE.

Following an unprecedented peaceful millennium of academic flair and religious harmony in this city, tensions between the Christians, who were quickly becoming the dominant political element, and the local holders of pagan beliefs, erupted into a revolt. This insurrection resulted in the sacking and burning of the museum's library, the destruction of thousands of texts from the ancient world, some of which Hypatia was able to save, in fleeing the burning complex. This radical movement also manifested itself decisively through the murder of Orestes, the local civic leader who had been vocal in opposing Cyril, the Christian bishop of the region.

Angry mobs, who in their celebrative mayhem wished to deplete the city and library of any lasting pagan ideas or followers, went about murdering and terrorizing locals and foreign students with violent intolerance. These zealous monks and dogmatic thinkers, who threatened to put out the light of wisdom and knowledge forever in favor of their blind faith, eventually targeted the fair Hypatia as a symbol of what they despised.

Riding home on her chariot one day during the time of turbulence, she was ambushed by a cabal of fanatic Christian priests. Stripped of her garments and paraded naked through the street to the steps of the Christian basilica, she was brutally killed by an angry mob on the steps of the holy structure. Accounts by witnesses of the brutal event recorded that they tore all the flesh from her bones with broken tiles in their vicious rampage. Her remains were summarily burned on the spot in celebration of their victory over paganism and any lasting heretical ideas the horrified witnesses might harbor.

Prior to the death of this remarkable woman, and at the peak of her power as an academic mentor, she managed to accomplish something additionally, and in total concealment of history. The incendiary ramifications of her actions would only currently unfold in modern times, with the coming out of a secret society of which she had been an early founder.

As an exceptional woman of action and champion of diverse cultures, she was instrumental in beginning a clandestine undertaking as valuable as the scrolls of wisdom she taught and managed to save from destruction in her young life. Hypatia, Greek scholar of ancient knowledge, distant myths, and early science, kept a special interest in carrying out the timeless wish of another remarkable woman from the past. It was a wish born at the edge of the known world, almost two thousand years before her, on the plains of Anatolia.

Believing it to be more than a wish, Hypatia established that Penthesilea's vision would become a promise to help unite one of the most persecuted and historically maligned groups in the world-women of all ages, creeds and races.

* * *

The next morning, Nicasio rose to a vaguely familiar dream where his class at Cal was still shouting and clapping their hands in anger and disappointment with him. This audible disturbance was actually the sound of Professor Simon's voice and a loud knocking on the hotel room door at 7:12 AM. Nicasio only then remembered where he was and what work he still had ahead of him that day.

According to the professor's plan, this second excursion to the site was scheduled around the careful removal of a representative wall stone from the base of the tholos for more analysis by a geologist. This was necessary for a more positive identification of the material's origin. Nicasio knew the importance of this. Laboratory analysis of the geologic structure and composition of the blocks could identify whether they were in fact carried in from afar, and this would greatly advance their unraveling of the mystery.

It needed to be determined if the marvelous stones had been brought to the site from a local quarry or if they originated from a marble deposit in a foreign location and brought in by ship. The marble blocks from the tomb varied in size from the base rows-the size of an airport carry-on bag, curving upward stone-on-stone, and gradually becoming smaller, to the size of a standard street mailbox.

It was without question a craftsman's feat to have cut the blocks so perfectly, whoever had managed it. They had skillfully and artistically allowed for their parabolic shape to connect seamlessly without mortar, rising to the apex of the dome. Professor Simons had arranged an appointment with an internationally known geologist for the following day in San Francisco, the sort of expert who specialized in marble and granite, among other stones, from the many diverse quarries of the world. The meeting, it was hoped, would once and for all yield a critical fact in their preliminary investigation of the tholos. The sample block, after careful removal, might also shed light on how they were cut and polished as the many aggregates of the 'beehive" construction.

Nicasio also knew their work that day was to produce a more formal plan of the structure, drawn precisely from measurements, and then place them into an architectural software program to view a three-dimensional schematic of the structure's shape and dimensions. The tomb's position in relation to cardinal coordinates, the coastline, and surrounding environmental features might also yield something of the intelligence associated with its construction, its assembly, and an overall purpose in placing it so remotely.

More photos would be taken of the empty sarcophagus and some sterile DNA scrapes would be made from its interior for any organic material or residue left inside since the time it was emptied-if in fact, it ever did contain genetic traces.

While Nicasio dressed slowly and stiffly, preparing to meet the professor down stairs for breakfast, he made a final attempt to reach Daniela by phone. At 7:30 he knew she would be up and at that particular hour preparing for work. The phone rang only twice.

"Hello. . . Nicasio? . . .where are you?" Daniela seemed to be whispering. This was unsettling to him so early in the morning.

"I'm still down in Carmel. We're preparing to go out and work on the project this morning."

"Right, Nicasio! For two days straight now? Out of contact with the whole world?" She still seemed to be whispering.

"Look, Dani, I'm coming home tonight, OK? We have to discuss some things. . ."

She was suspiciously silent.

"No. . . It's nothing so serious. Just about Cal. This whole project! And the future travel I was telling you about."

"Nicasio. . . Are you in some kind of . . . trouble?"

"No! It's just this damn assignment right now. It's going to be extended . . . over to Europe in a week or so. You know, Dani . . . I'm expected to be there for it now, that's all."

Suddenly he could hear the sound of a man's muffled voice trailing off.

"Dani? Dani, where are you? Who was that?" A sick feeling began to knot up in Nicasio's stomach. The sensation continued to well up, quickly into his throat where he had difficulty speaking.

"I have to go, Nicasio," she whispered calmly. "I really do. . . Call me when you get home."

The phone went dead.

He quickly redialed, thinking only of the male voice he had heard, or thought he had heard. The phone only continued to ring.

"Damn! What's this all about now? Damn it!" He threw the phone on the bed and went over to the hotel phone on the night stand. He dialed her house phone. It too continued to ring.

"What the hell is this now, Daniela?" he mumbled to himself while waiting. He sat frozen for a moment and tried not to imagine the picture that had jumped into his mind-Daniela in someone else's house; or worse, a bedroom. Worse still, someone else's bed. But there was a strange man's voice, and he was certain he had heard it. Why was she in such a hurry to end the conversation?

"JESUS CHRISTO!" he shouted out, using his more passionate Spanish for such moments of total consternation or anger. He finished dressing quickly and stormed out of the room in the direction of the hotel dinning area.

Professor Simons met him in the hallway.

"Ah, Nicasio. . .I was just going to see what was keeping you." The professor looked amazingly fresh, enthusiastic. Seemingly ready to take on this newest of historical mysteries once more.

"Yeah, well I wish I knew what was keeping me!"

Dr. Simons became quiet and looked closely into the young man's face, as if taking Nicasio's psychic temperature.

"Ah. . . I see we've developed an obvious domestic conflict of some considerable importance here. . ."

"Something like that, yeah."

Out of respect for the professor, Nicasio made an attempt to compose himself and put the perplexing issue of Daniela's possible morning companion away for the time being. As he struggled with this, the professor led him toward the dinning area and resumed in an even more sensitive voice.

"Well, young man. These things will never be far away, I assure you. Especially concerning one as eligible and intelligent as yourself."

Nicasio was not really listening to what he was saying.

"Remember, we are always at the whims of the gods in these maters. They play with us out of some stupendous boredom, apparently. And delight in our misery."

Out of the corner of his eye Nicasio could see the professor insensitively smiling. But his mind would not leave the muffled voice back in San Francisco.

"Now listen, Nicasio. Perhaps when we return to the city this evening you can spend your best efforts to put this . . . issue to rest . . . even temporarily if nothing else. Such matters, as I remember them, are always only temporary anyway." The professor smiled confidently and then strangely frowned. "They will, however, develop into other, larger storms later. There is no doubt about."

Nicasio tried to imagine if the professor was actually trying to help or just mocking him for his youth and vitality.

"Just don't forget, young man. Now you are in parallel worlds . . . the temporal one, and the glorious realm of history." The professor looked up at the ceiling pensively. "You will grow to find the latter is so much sweeter, my boy." He then smiled again, a little wistfully to himself.

Nicasio only wanted to ignore these philosophical ramblings as the two wandered into the hotel's breakfast area.

"Nicasio? I'm sorry. I can see you are not at your best this morning. But you'll just have to put this development on hold until you can more appropriately deal with it. OK? We have work today of the utmost importance. You see, stressing about this trivial . . . woman thing only dulls your focus? It does us no good on any account. Am I clear?"

"Trivial woman thing?"

"What else could it be in your case, my boy?"

Nicasio was about to vent his anger explosively at this cavalier attitude the professor was showing, but instead restrained himself. He thought again. His former teacher was right about it not being the optimum time. He would indeed get to the bottom of whose voice he had heard next to Daniela that morning and why she had acted so evasively. It would be taken up again in her presence that night.

"Yeah, OK," he replied with a cooler head. "You're right, Dr. Simons. I'll sort it all out this evening."

The professor gave him an uncharacteristic wink, and an avuncular slap on the shoulder. It was comforting, but a bit too condescending for Nicasio's taste.

* * *