LAZARUS CAIN

Isis managed to get in touch with her fleet once again through the Pegasus link. The fleet admiral reported that Jim had stayed to help to ensure all the crewmembers had escaped from the Titicaca. She smiled because she was certain then that he had allowed all the Canopus crew members to escape. The fleet admiral reported that they were somewhat behind as to the reports from earth now that the portal had been destroyed. It would be weeks before they would be able to receive any signals transmitted from earth. 

 

"Admiral, I should have several hundred Amazons on the earth's surface. Both my father and my consort are defending the planet earth at the present time. This is going to make our conquest of earth somewhat difficult. I heard reports that my brother was busy popping up all around you. What is your evaluation, and is there any evidence of him releasing drones?"

 

"Yes, my queen. With great fortune we managed to capture two drones of a very unique design. The electronics erased the memory and overwrote the circuits with nonsense. There is no form of armament system at all on the drone, but it does smack highly of being a tracker/transmitter, it also has a highly developed propulsion system, which self-destructed immediately when we trapped the unit. What is so unique about this drone is its capability to evade capture. We can't hit it with our lasers because it anticipates our every move. Apparently the two that we captured must have malfunctioned in order for us to succeed, because we're driving ourselves nuts trying to kill these insect-like drones."

 

"Thank you, admiral. Stand advised that those trackers will probably be fatal if you get to close to earth. I don't know how he modified the propulsion systems of those rockets that he launched from earth, but I do know that each missile represents a threat to the ships of your fleet if he unleashes the power of the sun against our craft. I have reports that these missile systems and weapons systems have a Venetian design."

 

"My queen, if that is so, it is folly to walk directly into such cannon fire. Why I would laugh if my opponent ever walked into such a trap, if I had such a defense."

 

"May I remind you, admiral, that these are missiles you are up against and not star cruisers. As good as his targeting may be, you will find yourself at an advantage if you maintain a respectable distance between yourself and any incoming warheads from Earth. I suspect that if you make evasive maneuvers constantly, that will make it a little more difficult for these missiles to hit you. He will have to make course corrections on those incoming projectiles and you should be able to detect the energy bursts when the corrections are being made. I have reports of one hundred twenty-four missiles being launched. My agents report that he modified each rocket with some form of unknown fuel and unknown propulsion system."

 

"My queen, we must assume that those missiles have the same capability as our own 'stingers'. Certainly we can defend against a limited number of these, but there is no telling how many more that he can launch."

 

"Admiral, I have several thousand Amazons on the planet. Our portal has been destroyed. If somehow over the next four weeks conditions do not improve, then I shall need your fleet to bring them home. I shall not simply let you be destroyed, but if there is a slim possibility that fortune can swing our way, then I am inclined to be there to grab my chance. I still feel that I have a very good chance. Let's not give up with the destruction of only three ships. Do stand advised, admiral, as to who the opposition is."

 

"Understood, my queen. I will immediately intensify our preparedness, and will do all that you have suggested."

 

"I shall be on the Pegasus and am en route to Earth. I shall be there well before you. Maintain course."

 

"By your will, your majesty."

 

Isis then consulted with her mathematicians and scientists to plot a course for earth to get there tomorrow. She was advised that they would have to travel back in time in order to do so, because it would take time to get to the black hole.

 

She laughed at them. "Time, time; can't you see time is what this is all about?"

 

Her advisors admitted to her that indeed such was true, but no one was really prepared to deal with the real possibility of such time travel. She agreed with them while admitting that perhaps such a great role would be best performed by someone only of her great rank. Such was not really conceit upon her own part. She was simply stating that she wouldn't want someone else to beat her to the punch.

 

She ordered the great powerful engines of the Pegasus ordered up to full power and accelerated it towards Cygnus.

 

Shortly after time started to accelerate, Helen appeared out of nowhere with Jim in the ship's control room directly in front of Isis. Helen handed Genie to Isis. Jim was just waking up to find himself looking directly at Isis while she held the belt in her possession. She was extremely happy to see him and immediately ordered him held.

 

Isis walked up to Jim and kissed him.

 

"Glad to see you home. What destiny brings you to me now, my love?"

 

Jim was a little confused. He glared at Helen, then he blinked. He saw two Helens. One was apparently very distressed and the other stood next to Isis. Jim then immediately recognized his situation. It was more than a coincidence that Isis was on the Pegasus, she needed to use the communications center. However, Jim had forgotten to reprogram Idiot as to what to do if the belt were stolen. It was now obvious that Isis had succeeded in her plan to capture the "box." If it were anyone but Isis he would be able to command the Box to do as he wished, but she held a spell of silence over him. She was actively preventing him from transmitting sound to Genie.

 

"Aladdin, your Genie can't hear you. I have taken your voice. You be a good boy and I'll let you have your voice back. Meanwhile, I understand that your Genie is user friendly. Is that so? How are you Genie? Do you know who I am?" 

 

Genie responded, "I am functioning well, and you are Isis, Queen of the Amazons."

 

"You have a very clever Genie here, Aladdin. I understand your Genie can assume other shapes as well. Genie, are you currently capable of shape shifting? I need you to change shape for me."

 

"I'm sorry but you are not authorized access to that control function. I need verbal instructions from one who has access in order to change the current status tensor."

 

"Do you mean without authorized verbal access, you can't change state?"

 

"Not until the password has been stated or if I recognize the voice as an authorized user. I see my master, but he is not allowing me to change state for you."

 

Isis glared at Jim. She took the belt out of the control room and hid it in a soundproofed chamber. In the meanwhile she had an elixir prepared that would also prevent Jim from speaking. Her will was being drained while her magic held him dumb. She also decided to personally deal with Jim and weaken him. She looked at the clock spinning rapidly as the Pegasus accelerated towards Cygnus. She had Jim taken to the miniature Pleasure Dome on the Pegasus and permitted him to be used by all as they weakened him.

 

Isis called the true Helen to her and thanked her. "Don't worry about how Jim feels about you. He knows that you didn't betray him, besides I shall tell him. I shall let your children live and you shall not be punished in any way for Jim's crimes. I do know that you feel too strongly for him. I must insist that you dismiss any notions that I shall ever again allow you to use his body for Yoni. You are also to be retired of your position as a captain of my guard. I will grant you the full pension that went with the rank. Your future concerns shall be spelled out in your next assignment." 

 

Pegasus continued to accelerate and Isis finished Jim off. Jim drifted unconsciously as his Amazon captives kept him in a dreamlike state as he was overwhelmed with ambrosia.

 

Isis resumed command of the Pegasus as she entered Cygnus space. Her navigators programmed in the necessary waypoints for course corrections and Isis proceeded to attempt to now go back into the past and intercept earth a few weeks before her fleet arrives. Jim had the plot of her fleet, but he certainly wouldn't be aware of this attack by the Pegasus. Having Jim and the Pegasus she could force John to surrender and the conquest could be fulfilled.

 

The course was programmed into the ship's computers and the simulations indicated that the calculations were workable. Isis felt her heart count the time as she accelerated into the black hole. She watched as the clock raced and then slowed down, and then she recalled it starting to go backwards before she blacked out.

 

She awakened to find herself in a stationary earth orbit. She smiled when she saw the great blue orb of earth on her Viewing screen. The rest of her crew were all somewhat dazed as they all started to wake up. To her amazement John was there by her side. He apologized to her saying that Jim, Helen, and Genie were gone. He himself had failed to get away in time, and now had to share her fate.

 

"My fate! What do you mean?"

 

"It seems that you overshot somewhat in your attempt to go back in time and the Pegasus warp drives are severely damaged by the journey. The Pegasus has run low on power reserves and we must land in order for me to rebuild the ship. We are many

thousand years in earth's past."

 

"Thousands? How many thousands?"

 

"Have your star navigators tell you where and when you are. Meanwhile, I've decided to come along for the ride, and I do know that you are going to need my help. You know its not my habit to let you die just because you are extremely stupid, Isis. After all, you are my daughter. You simply had to fly into the black hole, didn't you? You had to go back in time, didn't you? Well, I owed Jim one. He saved me from you back there on earth, so I saved him. You can pretty well bet that he will succeed in foiling your fleet since we foiled you on this last effort of yours. Now you can be a good little girl, and perhaps I'll get you back to Xanadu, but you must realize that is going to be somewhat difficult."

 

"Oh John, I'm sure I can get your cooperation, and where is your Box now, and how do you intend to use it against me. Escape and you will never find me again and you know it. The Pegasus may not be able to time travel, but I see an earth down there awaiting my conquest."

 

"It is an earth of 11,000 BC. You have cavemen down there. They're just now coming out of the ice age. Man should be fairly easy for you to conquer, they are nothing more than spear chucking Neanderthals if they have even learned yet how to make spears. However, earth does have the mineral resources to allow me to rebuild the Pegasus. I can use my box to help us, but no tricks Isis else you'll never see Xanadu and rule again."

 

"Can't you use your box to make the necessary materials?" 

 

"Now, now, Isis you aren't a queen anymore. Your empire doesn't exist yet, and one of your ancestors now sits on your throne."

 

"What do you want, John?"

 

"Equality, Isis. Don't dictate to me, I won't dictate to you. We agree on things, then act."

 

"We'll see. Meanwhile you can get us to earth. Shall we go there and see what we shall see?"

 

Isis reviewed her crew. Indeed Helen was gone and her Helen remained. Helen had gotten her wish. Jim had rescued her. Her Jim was somewhere in the future, and Isis was with twins. Her children must be sent back. They didn't belong in the past. She told John that her twins were still alive. Oddly enough, Helen and Isis were the only two that were pregnant on board the Pegasus. This was more than a coincidence. She wanted no pregnant amazon on the excursion, thus she was the only one. Then she realized why John was by her side. John knew that they were his children. They had been conceived on the Pegasus only a few hundred thousand heartbeats in her past. These would indeed be children of the stars.

 

Inside she knew that John would be at her side until the children were born and then what. Isis shuddered, the twins, her desire to go back to the future with these children. She felt that she was missing something critical, but couldn't quite place the thought.

 

As the Pegasus scanned the globe, tribal units of humans were plotted and studied. The inhabitants were food gathering tribes and there were no cities or structures of any kind.

 

Isis seemed to have a problem with the need to live under such conditions. She spotted a mountainous area in South America located at the headwaters of the Amazon River. She also spotted a mountainous region in Asia with a very fertile river valley. She resolved to establish several colonies in river valleys that were easy to cultivate. The Amazon basin was rich with life and ability to traverse the earth was not restricted as that the Pegasus had several flying machines at her disposal.

 

Further global scans revealed another location where the African Nile entered the Mediterranean. Earth's geography was somewhat different than 20th century earth. John noticed the differences but kept quiet. Isis chose to set up a few home bases and had her warriors learn to control the human men. It was really quite easy for the Venetians to tame these ancient cave men who themselves were more than eager to compete for the attention of these beautiful invaders. Isis directed Medusa and Godiva to breed with the pre-human males. They weren't entirely happy, but Isis really gave them no choice.

 

John was busy all day giving technical support to the Amazons as they got their human animal to work for them. The humans seemed to have an intense attraction for these beautiful Amazon creatures. The men were overwhelmed by the beauty of these aliens, as opposed to their own women. Still whenever, the human male bred with the Amazon he died. Isis considered an experimental breeding of John with a human female, but John refused. Isis decided that she wouldn't push the issue but would experiment later on in time.

 

These human animals had no language of their own. Her scouts reported that the various tribes had no particular common language and as a general rule they were somewhat uncooperative with one another as they found themselves ever competing for food and other resources. The Amazons discovered that these creatures had a remarkable adaptability and they were amazed at their ability to teach these creatures how to speak. Each Amazon would then have a pride of humans both male and female, which she would use as a work force.

 

John continued with the rebuild of the Pegasus as he told Isis it would be quite a while before it was like new again. Isis asked for a time frame. John mentioned that it would probably take a few hundred years. She was not too happy. John mentioned he could construct an accelerator chamber on board the Pegasus to allow them to accelerate through time as they awaited the construction of the projects. Isis declined indicating that she would rather live and teach these people her ways. They seemed receptive enough. The humans were awed at the giant ship. John showed Isis the relation between the seasons and the tilt of earth's axis. The humans needed to understand this in order to know when the seasons would come and go. Isis had her own plans as to how to treat these humans who seemed all too willing to serve her. All the Amazon women held much more loyalty to Isis than they did to John. John, however, was quite talented at teaching these simple people basic skills. He seemed to gain their trust quite easily and he in turn was very good at bringing out these people's capabilities. By supplying these simple creatures with abundant food and other basic necessities, Isis was able to establish several community centers to which the natives would come to obtain their support. Isis would not give food to all; they would have to do something in trade. 

 

The natives grew to revere these women and by the time the twins were born a small city had already been built in the Andes to commemorate the birth. John designed the city so that the natives would be able to know the seasons by watching how the sun would rise in the morning. He also attempted, but in vain, to describe his origins to these people, but they all seemed to misunderstand him and hold him and Isis in great awe. John did not like this idea of being thought to be a god. This simply was not true, but Isis seemed to be encouraging the practice.

 

John also had some monuments started at the base of the Nile. He remembered that he had to leave the time markers so that Jim would know where to find Isis. As the months passed, John knew that he would leave in a few years but Isis would be staying.

 

It was with great occasion that the twins were born. The first Amazons born on earth were of royal blood and were indeed John's children. The high priestess remarked that these children would be the greatest of all earth's rulers. Isis chose a warmer different climate in Egypt to raise these children. At that time the foundation for the great Sphinx was being laid out. Isis was not interested, it was one of John's projects. He also left plans for the construction of pyramids. He had to give two landmarks for Jim to spot in the future and was quite particular in the way he laid out these time markers. These time markers would demonstrate a knowledge of the equinox of the sun and also mathematics. The locals would use these clocks to determine the seasons for planting and harvesting. Isis would keep her new earthly kingdom under her rule by her ability to fly around on the Pegasus saucers.