RE: Odyssey

"You have to be kidding." It's so elaborate and real, that I can't shrug it off as a prank.

But I refuse to believe what the woman says.

Odysseus? Sure, that's my name. Odysseus King, from Hampton Roads, Virginia.

I'm not some tragic Greek hero from the past.

"It is the truth, Odysseus. Look around, this is your kingdom." Athena insists, opening her arms with a theatrical motion. The owl sitting on her right looks amused by this absurd situation.

My heart rate is still high from the earlier firefight and race with time to destroy the Tachyon Lance.

I was ready to go out in flames to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

What are the wrong hands though? Are the Americans any better than the Russians if they get to play with such a dangerous toy? Nobody should have that power.

And it sent me back in time, for real? I can't accept if it means what this woman tells me.

Why me? Why would I be the most unlucky person in the Greek mythology?

I can come to terms with many things.

Death? It can happen when you're a soldier and even if you're not. I came prepared, volunteering to be an interpreter in a dangerous situation.

Time travel? Sure, why not? I saw what that machine could do. I watched time move backward at an insane speed. No movie trick could replicate this to fool me.

A Greek goddess, in the flash? I can even deal with that. Either this, or I lost my mind hours ago. Or three thousand years later? It depends on how you look at it.

But no. I can't accept one thing.

A dark future that nothing can change.

It's a common theme in Greek mythology, and I'd be the man worst affected by it.

"You got the wrong guy, oh wise goddess, Athena." Bowing my head, I try to be as respectful as possible. She went from eight to thirty right in front of my eyes. Her outfit is convincing too.

Pissing off a mythical goddess seems like a terrible idea, so let's play this cool.

"Would you say, you're not Odysseus, son of Laertes and Anticlea?" She asks with a confident smile. "Or that this isn't the Island of Ithaca, your kingdom?"

"That's what I'm saying, yes." I'm losing my patience, but I have to be careful.

"My name might be Odysseus, but I'm American. I serve with the US Navy as a Lieutenant onboard CVN-71 USS Theodore Roosevelt. This is my first time setting foot on this island."

"The first time that you remember. You were too young when you separated from your parents."

She smiles, reaching for me, but I won't take her hand.

"You got that right. I don't remember my parents. They died in the attack on the World Trade Center twenty-three years ago. Or almost three thousand years after your Odysseus lived."

"That's what your uncle told you." She says, rolling her eyes.

At least she knows that my uncle raised me. But the way she continues is getting distasteful.

"Your real parents are alive, and waiting for your return."

"No, my real parents might have been Greekophiles, and a fan of your tragic hero Odysseus to give me this name. But they died in a terrorist attack, which made me enlist as soon as possible."

"I'd like to convince you, but I know how stubborn you can be, so it's better if you see it with your eyes." She looks more patient than when she was a child in the middle of a gunfight.

But no, I still can't accept this. Not that Odysseus. Why couldn't my parents pick any other name?

Anyone else that's a bit less cursed than him would have worked.

"I refuse to take that role. If you're the wise Athena, take me back home. My real home in the future." I clarify as much as I can. Her eyes narrow, and even the sky darkens with her mood.

Did I piss her off after all? I'd still rather deal with the wrath of a literal deity than the fate this name carries for me. She takes a deep breath, calming herself down before asking.

"So you don't remember anything? Do you refuse your heritage as a Greek hero? Are you that afraid of your destiny?" She's getting riled up again by the end.

"You saw me earlier. Did I look like a coward to you, fighting a battle that wasn't mine?" I go on the offensive. It's not like I have anything to lose. "I never shied away from hardship."

We're in a staring contest, but her grey eyes can see through me. A note to self, don't try to stare down a deity again. It feels like she strips away all my flesh, but I steel myself.

"I'm not going to become your most tragic hero in history. Even Oedipus of Thebes was better off than my cursed namesake Odysseus." I claim, clenching my teeth. Her face brightens again.

"Oh? Good. Tell me what you know."

"The Odysseus you talk about, the king of Ithaca." I start in stark denial. "I can't be him."

"I'm twenty-four. At that age, this poor bastard was already mutilated when dueling for the hands of Penelope." I wanted to learn about my lost parents but didn't know where to start.

My only relative was that uncle who took me in, and he never talked about them. I looked up everything about the name they chose for me instead. There wasn't much.

Odysseus was a mere footnote in the famous Iliad, Homer's only known epic.

"After losing his hand and kingdom, the Spartans force him to serve in the ill-fated Trojan Wars. The name Odysseus coins the most devastating defeat of the Mycenaean era."

He was a strategist, fated so nobody would listen to him, like Cassandra on the Troyan side. After the humiliating defeat, they blamed him for an early Dark Age in Greek history.

"Then, as the legend goes, a storm caught his ship on his way home, and a cyclops killed him. That's the role you want me to take. What's so glorious or heroic is there about it?"

"I see you learned everything about your history. Good. That means it was worth sending you into the future. A fate you know about is a fate you can avoid."

"Oedipus would disagree." I scoff, remembering another tragic story before Odysseus' time.

"Oedipus didn't have me as his mentor. I'll help you work towards a better future." She smiles, and almost convinces me. Almost. "And about Penelope, you're still not late to win her hand."

"Knowing what fate would wait for me if I courted her? No, thank you. No woman is worth that hassle." In the Iliad's footnote, that's where everything went downhill for my namesake.

But is it such a stretch? I can see myself being that unlucky too. It's like my first active deployment, that ended with me traveling back in time.

By this logic, I could be the same cursed Odysseus after all. But I don't want to be.

"I offer you a deal." Athena smiles once again.