Nicasio had spent his time that morning at the American School library trying to forget what he had done with Stacie the evening before. He was hugely angry with himself for succumbing to Stacie's seductive and obvious tactics. And he could only blame himself for the deplorable outcome, when considering his long-standing relationship with Daniela. His depressed emotional state had caused him to be unproductive while in the reading room of the Blegen Library, only periodically looking into the small face of his Blackberry for any messages.

Though he worried about Daniela's solitary presence with professor Vasiliou, he also sensed that, being herself female, she was in no real danger physically. Only that she might be implicated as associated somehow to the professor's secret society, concerned him greatly. It gave him some solace that their return to the U.S., according to Dr. Simons, was imminent in a matter of days. He tried to stay focused on what he knew would be his last research before returning home. This included several hours working on the related imagery of the sarcophagus emblem, and at mid-day, a trip by taxi to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

An hour later of fighting traffic he finally arrived at the many-roomed repository of thousands of years of ancient and Hellenistic history in all its glory. Once deep inside the facility, however, he was surprised at the dearth of information relating to the Amazons of Greek myth. There was, sadder still, relatively few representative objects on display there which featured them. It was his further observation that most of the dramatic and beautiful imagery of Amazons extant today, those he and Daniela had seen online or in volumes of books, were for the most part housed in other museums and private collections throughout the world.

This was a further frustrating feeling for Nicasio, to not learn any more about their mythological significance or the public's perceptions of them historically, which had apparently once flourished in the Classical Age and the every city of Athens as a popular motif. It was a sobering revelation that the courageous and enigmatic women he had come to find here were for the most part absent from the land where they were most celebrated in ancient times.

Later in the day to the National Archeological Museum nevertheless did astonished him when he saw the presentation dedicated to one of Greece's most phenomenal finds, the Antikythera Mechanism. It was supposedly this object, and its stultifying expression of mathematical and astronomical brilliance, that he was in Athens to purview in relation to his purported study of archaic navigation. The eighty-two fragments of this ancient bronze mechanical device, found by sponge divers on the sea bed near the island of Rhodes in 1900, had baffled historians and scientists since they were first carefully reexamined a half-century ago. They were studied by experts from a series of fields, the earliest including a physicist at Yale University in the 1960's, who spent twenty years of his career revealing only some of what we know today of the device's astronomical and stupefying significance.

The clock-like metal housing, with its internal workings of some thirty toothed gears, once about the size of a standard brief case, is now thought to have been constructed in the 2nd century BCE in a Greek colony of Corinth, possibly by the great mathematician of Syracuse, Archimides. This mechanical instrument was to be declared a technological anomaly in the entire world for its age. Having several circular faces like a clock which revealed the exact movements concentrically of the sun, moon and five known planets of its day, the device acted as a calculator of future and past astrological alignments. Turning a small handle once per day, could accurately plot the position of these heavenly bodies relative to the earth and each other, at any given time. Functioning on a nineteen-year lunar cycle calendar, known originally to the Babylonians, the Hellenistic mechanism could accurately predict lunar eclipses, even suggesting on one of the dials the repeating coloration of the moon during its cyclical eclipses, based on past nineteen year observations of this cycle.

With its eighty-two related fragments, all collected amid the wreck site of an ancient storm-tossed ship, a picture of genius in technology has most recently evolved through the device's reconstruction and extensive study. The find was originally cataloged in 1900 officially as the first underwater archaeological expedition, with other bronze objects of art from the wreck. These included richly executed Hellenistic statues of human figures thought to be en route for delivery in the first century to a wealthy collector in the Roman Empire.

The mechanism's original construction was found to predate any other such gear wheel engineering in the world by one thousand years. It was only after this long lapse of time did the first clockwork gear systems begin to be constructed and seen in northern Europe as devices used for measuring time. The significance of the mechanism, whatever its true purpose was in replicating the motion of heavenly bodies, was that it shattered the long-held belief that the ancient Greeks had no real technological flowering, in spite of their brilliant mathematical, philosophical, artistic, and theatrical developments which had tremendous impact upon shaping the world.

Having read something of the Antikythera Mechanism several years previously, and while still an undergraduate at Cal, Nicasio knew only that this Greek device had the potential to be used for advanced navigation, as it pinpointed the movement of stellar objects accurately. However, this had never truly been verified, and hence, Nicasio had used this conjecture as his specific inquiry with the American School of Classical Studies and as a false rationale for his trip to Athens.

He nevertheless learned much more about the object this day by spending several hours perusing the museums literature and latest findings about it. Since the time the instrument was discovered, and through the use of gamma ray imaging during the 1960's, the device mystified archaeologists and historians with its hidden bronze gear system inside the corroded housing. Nicasio discovered that very recent and more sophisticated magnetic resonating equipment was used to help solve its mysteries. Built in America specifically for the Antikethera Mechanism Research Project (AMRP), an eight ton digital radiograph x-ray machine, nicknamed "Blade Runner" by its international scientific team was employed for the research. The device was transported to Athens specifically to examine the delicate device fragments layer by layer and further reveal a hidden world of technology, never believed possible for a culture some twenty-two centuries before.

Nicasio ascertained from his visit to the museum, and its impressive display of research by the AMPR team, that no such convincing relation to navigation had yet been revealed. He nevertheless was still not totally prepared for the full significance of the mechanism's recently discovered and illustrated characteristics. The devise combined a superior combination of mathematics, engineering, technical brilliance and a sophisticated understanding of stellar bodies visible in the night sky. It had the capacity to display with exceptionally accuracy the relationships of these astronomical bodies as seen from a point of reference on the earth's surface in past, present and future. And yet, with all its sophistication, it is still not certain what the specific purpose was of building such an accurate working model of the heavens.

To Nicasio, the conclusion remained, confirmed by the international team of researchers beginning in 2006, and meeting at a 2011 conference in Athens in which new data was presented, that this wheeled instrument was a rudimentary recorder and calculator of astronomical motions. It could logically be said today that it represented a forerunner of the first modern-day computer.

Perhaps, he thought, as he left the museum and the breath-taking display of the device, that its purpose by the ancient Greeks was just to rise to the intellectual challenge of pitting themselves against the sublime complexities of the universe. To attempt to replicate with previously unattainable exactness, the miraculous workings of the heavens. This might have been in itself a goal to a brilliant culture that contemplated so early man's most philosophically complex questions. It would have perhaps been the greatest challenge to the theoretical minds of the Greeks, he thought. Nevertheless, as he headed back to the American School of Classical Studies late that afternoon by taxi, he realized it was only one more of the conundrums of this distant land, which he had presently found himself in, trying to piece together what would always be elusive to science and the most common of people alike-the truth.

* * *

Nicasio returned to his dorm room, still concerned that Daniela had not called or messaged him at any point in the long day. With several recent books on the Antikythera Mechanism, and the experience of seeing its latest and most sublime models first hand, he felt confident of his own conviction, if asked, that the device, at least at present, revealed little navigational use to ancient or subsequent mariners. To those at the American School, he could now convince them that his trip to Athens yielded this valuable revelation. For his own curiosity, the machine was simply engineered for other more esoteric purposes, though stupendously brilliant nonetheless.

As he made his way back to his room and collapsed on the bed, his Blackberry suddenly began to buzz in his back pack. He leaped up, took it out of its protective pocket and answered it while falling back on the bed.

"Dani? Is that you?"

"Of course. . . who else would be calling you from a home phone out here on an island? Did you have someone else in mind?"

Nicasio felt his heart skip several beats.

"OK . . . I've just been really . . . concerned. I mean about your . . ."

"Why, Nicasio? I'm perfectly safe here."

"Yeah, I know that. It's just about . . . what Professor Simons has been telling me by phone. Look, Dani . . . you're returning to Rafina tomorrow by ferry, right? We'll meet then."

"Actually, I've decided to stay here. Permanently, Nicasio. The place suits me perfectly."

". . . Right. What time will your ship arrive back in Rafina?"

"I'll have to find that out. I'll call you back tonight."

"Geat. So . . . what else did you find out? Anything you can tell me over the phone?"

"Nothing . . . and No."

"Why? Is the professor near you in the house . . . and you can't speak?"

"Yes. And yes." Daniela was lying. Vasiliou had not yet returned from her rendezvous on the yacht.

"OK Daniela. We'll discuss all this when you get back to Athens."

She felt suddenly strange. Already she was being deceptive to him. She knew there would be more critical questioning later. But for now she was certain she would not tell him more of what she had learned. She realized they had never been so distant and detached.

"So . . . you're not going to let me stay in this beautiful place another week, I suppose."

"Daniela! We'll be going back to California the day after tomorrow. The professor made the request that we get back as soon as we can."

"But I thought this was a vacation. You make it sound like we're working."

"We are working, Dani. Remember?"

"Alright . . . what ever you say, professor. I just can't bear the thought of seeing Mr. Cuomo again. Ever!"

"So . . . tell me. You haven't felt . . ."

"What?

"I don't know . . . uncomfortable over there? . . . Lonely maybe?"

"No, silly. Professor Vasiliou is a fantastic person. We actually have gotten along very well."

"OK Dani."

Nicasio's depression about Stacie and his infidelity was coming back to haunt him.

"So . . . call me back with your arrival time. Will you do that?"

"As you wish, sir."

"I hope you got . . . a nice rest on the island, Dani."

"It was the nicest. Just a bit too short, that's all."

"Exactly. . . So . . . still love me?"

"What do you think, Nicasio?"

"That's your answer?

"You know I do. Now please don't ask me that."

"Right. Later then."

"Talk to you soon."

Daniela hung up the phone. As it was late in the afternoon she suddenly felt the need to take that hike she had promised herself. As she passed by the coffee table, she saw the laptop and approached it. She impulsively sat down and quickly lifted open the monitor. As it blinked on, she accessed the email account again with her specific PIN and password. There was another message already waiting for her. She opened it and saw that it was again a link to a URL. She clicked on the address and another website document opened:

The Penthesilea Sisterhood

VADE MECUM

for Anaea_4356

[Please delete this document after reading. Its encryption will not permit copying or printing]

Illumination IV: The Need for Protection: Our Sisters Under Siege

Greetings Anaea_4356:

I am writing to you from my home in the state of Delaware, USA. I have been involved with the Penthesilea Sisterhood now for four years. I am thirty-three years old, a legal assistant, married, with two small children. During these past years I have devoted what ever time and energy I have, after my family commitments and work, to the ongoing efforts of reducing the mass-victimization of women throughout the world. What I am about to tell you is shocking and depressing but we are all hopeful and devoted to making changes. Some of those improvements, I am happy to share with you, are taking place now, and there is evidence our efforts are helping and expanding rapidly.

The only thing that makes me want to continue the work I do is the direct observations of improvement I and my colleagues have made about the tremendous suffering experienced by a great many females in all countries of the world today. In many cases, such as those involving poverty, HIV infection, and access to proper nutrition and/or potable water, conditions are extreme and remain life-threatening. These are seen as most critical in the world's developing nations. But still other problems we are documenting and recording, which effect women specifically are no less dangerous to their lives and health. These types of issues are for the most part, illegal acts committed upon women, and which are not being effectively dealt with by the governments and regimes they are occurring in.

It is our belief, as an organization devoted to the protection and well-being of females, that there have not been enough sweeping reforms socially and politically to bring an end to the violence perpetrated against them. It victimizes millions each year. In a recent study conducted by the United Nations responding to this issue, it was found that of all the females in the world today, one third would be the victims of rape, molestation or beatings. It is to this end that our society is fully engaged presently at many levels.

One of the areas which PS has made great strides in is the division I am actively concerned with. That is the systematic, recording and documenting of just how enormous the problem of crime against women is, world-wide. My colleagues and I in this sector alone are some four-hundred strong and we operate presently at the ground level in eighty-one countries already. Our volunteer efforts collect data daily from various news sources, NGOs, and reliable outreach organizations operating throughout regions of the world. We log these statistics into a catalogued data bank for logistical planning and for the execution of programs where they are most needed. We compile these statistics on the number and various forms of suffering, abuse, maltreatment or discrimination brought upon females specifically classified to measure their growth or decline.

Sadly, since 2005 when our own society first began to look into such violations of law and human rights world-wide, the number of cases has steadily risen. This fact also reflects upon our more accurate and diligent reporting of these incidents and the great need to presently take action against them on a variety of levels. What our data had suggested up to only one year ago, is that the conditions of women collectively in the world, even in countries which had adopted more progressive laws to insure their better treatment and protection, had not markedly improved and in many instances conditions of rape and physical violence at the hands of males dramatically worsened.

We are currently excited, however that some of our focused programs are taking effect slowly but gradually in some categories. The more depressing picture of some of our stats is particularly true in areas of political instability, intractable poverty, or ongoing armed insurrection within countries embroiled in civil wars and conflicts between religious factions. In these theaters, women and girls suffer not only the majority of the world's poverty and illiteracy, but in the last decades they have suffered the worst trauma as the victims of war crimes and terrorism targeted at them specifically in alarming numbers. They have been victimized further, according to our statistics, as a result of the growing incidence of domestic abuse in countries as the economic crises continues to deepen. Where we have put our main concern these past years is in countries where violence and sexual assault against women has been grossly overlooked and even seen as the norm in some societies.

Our recent efforts can be seen readily in the news reports which covered the "Arab Spring" and other dramatic social changes occurring in societies which have for centuries dictated limits on women's rights. Their control by male religious extremists against education and social behavior deemed appropriate in most other nations is under attack by our operations in several specific countries today. Our involvement has been visible in bringing the entire nation of India to reevaluate its broken system of protection for women, and the deep-rooted values many males in that culture have shown in failing to honor the rights and dignity of its female citizens. Our public campaigns to orchestrate international awareness about the acts of rape, mutilations and "honor killings" occurring in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and certain African nations is gaining traction on the world stage.

There has as well, unfortunately, been a steady increase in the number of cases involving illegal sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls from almost all countries of the world. We are working in dramatic ways to curb this practice and rescue females who find themselves in this nightmarish world.

The purpose of this Illumination, Anaea_4356, is to present to you briefly our most pressing concerns as a roadmap for our ongoing and future programs. We in the Penthesilea Sisterhood are today prepared to carry out what ever it takes to prevent the incidence of these more inhumane offenses and conditions we consider the most disturbing and unconscionable to females. We are already fully mobilized and active in doing so. Here are the areas of abuse we are targeting.

Daniela was clearly uncomfortable with what was to come. She knew any description of the suffering women endured today would not be pleasant. But now as a result of her growing commitment to work with Nefeli and the society, she felt a duty to face the realities of what she as a privileged young woman never had to be subjected to. Was this fair, she thought, that any woman had to endure the horrible treatment and conditions so many of her female sisters had to? It was with this new-found attitude that she took a deep breath and read on.

* * *