“Thebes of the Hundred Gates”
Most recently reprinted in Hot Times in Magma City
ebook $2.99

In the comments to my previous post, Randy suggested that “Thebes of the Hundred Gates” was one Robert Silverberg’s best time travel stories.  I hadn’t read it, but I did have a copy on one of my ereaders.

So I read it.

I’ll agree with Randy.  It’s a very good story.  So Randy, thanks for the tip.

Here’s the situation:

A relatively inexperienced agent of a time traveling organization is sent back to Ancient Egypt to search for two missing agents.  They were supposed to go to Rome, but something went wrong.  After a year and a half, the organization has managed to narrow down where the missing agents are, but there’s a decent margin of error.

The inexperienced agent is sent after them because none of the other agents are willing to make the trip.  They warn him that things might not go as well as he hopes.  He should have listened.

Time travel produces nausea and illness, especially if you aren’t used to it.  The farther back you go, the worse the symptoms.  He has some pretty bad symptoms.

The result is that he ends up in a temple where the priestess is one of the agents he’s looking for.  Remember that margin of error?  The missing agents have been in Egypt for years, long enough to learn the language and establish identities for themselves.

They aren’t exactly eager to go back.

The way time travel works in this story, a portal will open exactly one month after the agent arrives.  He has to be at his arrival point when that happens or spend the rest of his life in ancient Egypt.

The rest of the story concerns the tension between the agents who were stranded and their would-be rescuer and between the stranded agents themselves.  This is where the story rises above the typical time travel tale.  Silverberg does an excellent job of showing the inner conflict of the two agents who have been stranded.  They’re quite a bit older and have built lives for themselves.  Do they really want to go back and give up their wealth and privilege?  On the other hand, they are getting older.  Medical treatment in the ancient world can only do so much to counter the effects of aging.  And what about the people they used to know?  Would they want to see them again and find out what’s been going on?

If written by a lesser writer, the tension described would seem like inconsistencies of character.  But this is Silverberg we’re talking about.  In his hands, the complexities of his characters are deftly handled.

I didn’t much care for the resolution of the story.  I would have written it a little differently.  But I’m not Silverberg.  I agree with Randy that this is an excellent time travel story.