LAZARUS CAIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an ordeal with Isis! Jim was glad that the ridiculous ceremony was over. Isis could be so cruel at times. Jim thought about his plan. He instructed Genie to pluck him out of space upon reaching .7C. Isis's security system would detect Jim's launch immediately and would instantly trigger a stasis field surrounding the planet to prevent anything from leaving or entering Artemis space. The time between detection and stasis field triggering is equivalent to the time it would take the flagship to reach .7C, impulse limit. Only impulse power could be used to escape planetary orbits. The immense gravitational field warping capable of the starship could interfere with local planetary stability.  Warp was usually only switchrd on when there was a star to absorb the gravitational riplles created by the warp drives. The flagship would then be incapable of escaping the stasis induced gravitational directional beam. field. The inter-dimensional dynamic unit had been designed to evade this field. The Pegasus, the name of the flagship, could be absorbed immediately and directly  into the locally created gravitational 12th dimensional field generated domain affectionately nicknamed the "Box" . Immediately, whenever the box was  activated, it could get him outside the range of the  upcoming stasis sphere before it was triggered and Jim would be  free from Artemis.

 

Jim certainly had to do a lot of pandering to get the clearance to gain access to Pegasus, but he did promise Isis a joyride and he needed access to Pegasus in order to "warm op" the flagship.  Meanwhile, Isis concerned herself with packing and other last minute preparations. Being fully aware of the stasis system, Isis knew Jim couldn't leave the planet without her say so and therefore, she would always accompany him. To Isis, this would be considered just another Sunday drive, but Jim knew Isis was not going to go along for this ride. All the required security links had been "jimmied" and Genie had been instructed to intercept him immediately after launch and project him toward a region of space within Earth's gravitational field. Once contained within the Box, Jim could "land" Pegasus and have 8 hours to discuss with Genie the possibilities once they had been projected at their destination. Needless to say, Isis would be extremely agitated to find out that Jim had escaped and irritated an exponentially greater amount when she discovers that she hasn't the foggiest idea where he is. Her tracking system would be able to track the Pegasus up until the time of the rendezvous with the Box. The sensors would detect the presence of the Box, the Pegasus disappearing into the Box and the Box folding into a light beam. This light beam would be directed out of the star system with a gradual shift of color toward the ultraviolet spectrum. As Isis fully realizes this, Jim would have managed to accelerate to light velocity in a time frame that she could not possibly have anticipated and therefore, somehow managed to get through the stasis field. The known trajectory would not be of any help to Isis as to Jim's destination, because the beam was directed to the Artemis local sun, Sirias. Isis would know that Jim would have done this to get additional acceleration from Sirias as he launched himself to his destination. Ah, but Isis will certainly deduce Jim's destination. She would be aware that Jim would undoubtedly get there well before she could. Unfortunate for her, Isis would have no way of knowing for sure that Jim would be able to get to Earth before the Imperial fleet arrived. She would need to inform the fleet of his escape and be prepared to capture Jim upon his arrival at Earth; if that was indeed his destination. Isis would know that she could do nothing if Jim was already there. She would have to alert the fleet of his already being there. It would certainly be a confusing command. The Amazon commanders would be advised to be prepared to capture Jim somewhere in space and time. Talk about looking for a needle in a haystack! All other habitable planets would have to be sent similar instructions.

 

Jim's escape plan was foolproof. Jim was to warm up the Pegasus and fly it to the Queen's palace so that she could board. En-route, he would shift to max power and within seconds he would be 100 miles from the Artemis surface. The stasis field had a radius of 1,000,000 miles or more. It would only take Isis seconds to order a correction to Jim's unauthorized take off. Jim, of course would have to "instantaneously" get himself a million miles away from Isis as soon as she detected his takeoff. No known machine in the galaxies was capable of doing that. Supposedly, it would take light itself over 5 seconds to traverse those million miles. It would take Isis less than 5 seconds to activate the stasis field if she directly observed the takeoff. If she didn't directly observe the takeoff, then the stasis field would not be triggered until the automatic controls triggered it. The time required would be sufficient enough to get Jim to .7C, for Genie to detect that fact, power up, intercept him and whisk him away to safety. All this in but a few ticks of the clock; speed was definitely critical and Isis was unlikely to give him a second chance. No big deal there. If he fails, then he would just simply go back to the Box and whisk away anyway, but without the Pegasus.

 

 

Beautiful! Jim was being given the royal escort to the Pegasus as the guards under orders from Isis herself allowed him to pass through all the gates and security zones in order to board Pegasus. Jim would of course, have the guards aboard with him when he would leave. They were prepared only to do what they considered the expectations of his nature. This departure would catch them strictly off guard. They would not expect to actually see Jim successfully escape and would be responsible for reporting to Isis any misbehaving he may have done. The guards would have to be neutralized. Jim had prepared a special narcotic elixir for the guards to take care of this problem. The guards would find themselves waking up somewhere else. They would be powerless to do anything and, if for some reason, they did try to stop him, Jim would simply have to kill them. He didn't want to do that. He had a particular fondness for these two guards but was also familiar with the fact that Isis would not be very nice to them, if she ever saw them again, once Jim had escaped. Well, it seemed that he would have to befriend them or kill them. What to do? Well, he would have to deal with that later. It's not their fault that they are to be the unfortunate ones guarding him when he escaped. Jim supposed he had no alternative but to give them a chance to preserve their lives. He would have to see how they reacted once he had escaped. He vowed to himself that he would not turn these guards over to Isis for summary execution. It was certain that the guards could not be let onto Jim's secrets so Genie's security system would have to be activated. Smart Genie. Asking him about security first thing. These Amazon captives would certainly have a hard time explaining how they were captured by a Genie in a bottle and Isis would certainly not be able to get much useful info out of them. But Isis could not execute them either. They would be the only ones knowledgeable enough about the Box or who had seen it. Jim resolved that he would have to make a little detour to drop off the ladies.

 

 

The Pegasus was the engineering marvel of the universe. The Pegasus was capable of achieving .999999C, or almost the speed of light. It was a well-known fact that nothing could exceed the speed of light and any attempt to do such a thing would rip apart any vehicle. The Pegasus was the first ship ever to be able to approach a black hole's gravitational field close enough to launch a probe. The probe was immediately accelerated toward the black hole and disappeared. The Pegasus was able to pull away from the black hole's gravitational field back to the relative safety of free space. Jim had loved that ride most of all, but he did seem to recall that Isis got very space sick from all that fun acceleration. He always warned her that the ride was going to be a little bumpy. Jim got what he wanted though. He understood black holes a little better after that and was eventually able to fabricate some small ones in his laboratory. The first box was nothing more than a containment device. Isis was quite familiar with the other boxes.

 

 

The Box itself was similar to the space portals that had been constructed linking the various planets together that were under the domain of the Venetian empire. These portals, somewhat similar to hazy black holes had a deep, black appearance, and were accompanied by a paired silver hazed portal that had the appearance of a mirror The Box is different because it is mobile and had a slightly more complex and powerful portal manifold, and in this sense it could be classified a vehicle. The portals were bulky, immobile and had to be heavily guarded. They demanded a tremendous amount of power when activated, and the size of the object being transported was limited to less than 500 kilograms. The usual procedure for planetary conquest involved the landing of an expeditionary force, the construction of a portal while the area around the portal construction site was secured and then Isis herself would visit to lay claim to the planet. She would choose a male by which she would have a son. That son would be immune to ambrosia and would be capable of supporting the reproductive needs of the Venetian colonists. From a strictly biological point of view, the new species that would be introduced by the invasion would intermingle with the native race and effectively exterminate the old race.

 

 

With all these interests in the acquisition of power and establishment of her race as supreme in the galaxy, Jim found himself not really interested in the concerns of the court and government. Jim was far more interested in the fabric of the universe itself. For him power rested in knowledge and understanding. Fear and superstition are hindrances to technological invention. His sisters were always too concerned with their worldly gains to pay any attention to why things are the way they are. Consequently, Jim had a superb understanding of universal laws and was a master of all the known sciences. As such, he could always impress the ladies, who considered his inventions as nothing more than symbols for the magic, which he seemed to practice. These silly women thought that he had some form of telekinetic ability. Jim felt a certain affection and respect for the Creator of all that he understood, and was certain that the universe was a living entity and he himself was just a subset exhibiting similar characteristics. He felt that Isis did not really have any feel or respect for these beliefs, and as a result, she was really incapable of comprehending the knowledge and understanding that Jim had acquired. This knowledge and understanding was absolutely critical in his ability to construct and activate the Box. The Venetians themselves had absolutely no idea how the portals worked. The device had been invented by one of his forefathers and exploited as a means for linking the empire. Were it not for the portals, transportation between the remote planets would take years, even at light speed, and then time dilation would age the traveler much more slowly than those left behind on the home planet. This would make governing the various planets quite difficult if her native subjects aged more rapidly than she. Her governing activities would require her presence on subject planets. At .999999C, the time dilation factor is 1000; therefore, very high velocity travel at that speed would allow her to traverse great distances in a short time, but she would also be missing out on 1000 years of her planet's history for every year gone. Portal displacement allowed the traveler to step into another world, experience subjective time and then return with very little elapsation of Artemis local time. In fact, the subjective time experienced by the traveler appeared to be somewhat independent of the time of observed absence.

 

 

Jim knew that this was not entirely true. He knew that the Venetians would never fully understand the time relationships, which were engineered into the portals. It was clear that the system had been engineered to exhibit the observed effects. The secret to the time portal had been revealed to him by one of his genotomes; information banks that could only be revealed to an individual by genetic identification. Tradition respected the royal genotomes, and it was absolutely fatal for anyone to access these information banks if their genetic structure was not of the proper type. Accordingly, it would be fatal for him to access one of Isis's genotomes, and it would be fatal for her to access one of his genotomes. By this means, each sex kept privy any secrets that were to be passed down from generation to generation.

 

 

With this in mind, Jim knew that if he went to any of the subject planets, Isis could be there in an instant. The only known habitable planet outside the domain of Isis was this same planet Earth. Jim wasn't certain if this planet was subject to the protection of any other interest. As far as Venetian records indicated, the planet was under self-rule, and even as such there was no single government body known to represent Earth's interest. The planet seemed to be governed by local tribes or nations, which tended to compete with each other for power, resources and territorial rights. And her Imperial fleet was headed in that direction. The fleet had not yet approached the closest portal to Earth. Isis would most certainly intercept the fleet there and travel with the fleet as quickly as possible toward Earth, once she noticed his absence. Jim could think of nowhere to go but Earth, and his sister of course would be able to infer his probable destination. Jim's only advantage would be time, but sometimes, that was all the advantage he needed. The Box's secrecy would remain imperative. He would have to keep the Box hidden at all times and its actual existence would have to kept under the shroud of mystery.

 

 

Well now, what to do about Pandora's Box now that he had created it? When Jim noticed that the black hole exhibited properties similar to the portal, he was able to discover the way to build the Box. Time travel! What a dream! And right there at his fingertips! But would the Creator permit that? Jim was afraid to find out, but then why was he permitted the discovery? Jim's own creative force compelled him to go on, but he felt that his reservations about going backward in time were sufficient warnings. Isis he knew would have no such reservations and once again, his sixth sense tingled warning him that this Box should not fall into the wrong hands. It would be folly, or so he thought, for anyone to pilot the Box without a full understanding of inter-dimensional geometrodynamics, but then of course, there was Genie inside the Box, and Genie was capable of making the Box easy to control by anyone who could command the Genie...And then?