QBLH
Chapter LV
The Five of Swords
Defeat?
Win at All Cost
Idiot interrupted. "John is requesting docking, Jim."
"I forgot about him, we may have to take a slight detour, Xuang."
"You know I don't mind, father."
"I'm sure you don't. Enable docking, Idiot."
"Docking manifold in creation, Jim."
"Very good."
Within a matter of minutes, John entered through a freshly created docking portal. Although he was delighted to see his son and grandson once again, the urgency and critical nature of the upcoming mission reminded them of the difficulty that the times shortly ahead would present. Yet their next mission would actually be one of incredible joy, but they knew that not yet.
"I don't know what it is, Jim, but my flight solution required us to merge our flight path."
"That is interesting. Idiot did suggest that your arrival was expected. I was not aware of the exact nature of your visit. Is this part of your mysteriously downloaded instructions?"
"Mysteriously?" queried John.
"Yes, after you recharged us, we left but had a very difficult rematerialization. We were permitted to rematerialize only after some necessary reprogramming. Apparently much of this flight itinerary is unknown to me, and I am supposedly the pilot."
"You have Genie under instructions not to create paradox nor to inform you of upcoming events, do you not?"
"Of course."
"Well so far, so good, son. Our systems are still working in good order, and the error matrix has us on every low power demand. So where are we going?"
Jim did not know. Idiot obviously did.
"You have something you need to tell us, Idiot. Where are you taking us?"
"Well, if you recall Jim, we must reenter the Earth continuum at exactly the same point in space-time that we had our collision. You shall be passing through the same interval again. Remember that collision point, your memories, and the required solution?"
"You were interfered somewhat with at that time, Idiot, were you not?"
"Yes, I received instructions then to make a flight correction in two minutes our time."
"What is this, Jim? What is Idiot talking about? Interference, as in instructions received and you know nothing about them?"
"I know something about it, John, just not enough."
"Well what do you know?"
"Ninety seconds to warp engagement, Jim."
"Hold idiot!" cried John.
"Invalid password, seventy-five seconds."
"Can't you override, Jim, at least for a couple of minutes. I would like to know where we are going."
"Idiot, what is going on?"
"We shall be approaching singularity in sixty seconds via the 'no-name's' programmed instructions. Prepare for immobilization."
Immobilization was always necessary for hyperwarp travel through any singularity. No motion could occur since the matter being transferred or transformed would be subject to intense gravitational rifts. Genie would effectively keep all contained electromagnetic fields in equilibrium as they were accelerated through the event horizon. At his point, John, Jim, and Xiang were beyond the point of no return. Genie had already engaged full power and was in the process of approaching criticality for an infinite space-time jump. The trio scrambled to a securing station, full well knowing that there was no point in arguing with Genie at this point. John had been on board but a scarce few minutes before hyperspace was crossed.
Preparing himself, Jim reflected that the three of them were together for the first time, perhaps the only time. Their very existence itself was also a remarkable oddity as well. Jim knew very little concerning the facts of John's conception, but was fully aware of the oddness of the circumstances concerning the birth of Xuang and himself. Jim knew very little concerning his birth, and of course could remember nothing. Jim also was full aware of Who it Is that had programmed Idiot to make this next flight detour. He would keep silent concerning this, for perhaps his son and father may also know as well, but were advised as he to keep silent. While approaching singularity, the universe does very odd things to any living creation. Jim would have to approach a very intense meditative state to even remember a semblance of the interval's events. Though his body was immobile his mind was very conscious. He received no external light, but focused only on his own existence just to maintain a peaceful inner stability. He was there, Jim could sense the presence of the nameless God that he served. He knew that the three of them were to be privileged to witness the child Yaohushua and to give him honor. They had been selected to be the three magi, the three kings of the orient, for kings they were indeed.
When the Merkabah reentered the continuum, they found themselves in Earth orbit noticing the light from a distant supernova which Idiot had used to determine the time for rematerialization. "Welcome to the New Age, Jim. As you see, I used the star to find the child." Indeed Idiot had used the star to find the child. Idiot always knew where Earth was at any instant, it simply had to determine when to rematerialize, and that was not so simple at times. It could however, use cosmic events, such as occurrence of supernovas, to determine arrival times. Idiot cared not whence its instructions came from if multiple programmers had access. Although it was confused concerning the source of programming, especially in this case, that did not effect its ability to navigate with infinite precision.
"What child is this?" queried Xuang.
John smiled. He knew.
"I didn't know you intended on baptizing your son," John commented, yet smiling as he did. "This definitely adds some to the mystery of things, does it not?"
"Well tell me your feelings, father."
"Me, I'm delighted. It is a most impressive surprise, my son. No wonder you kept it secret. I couldn't be delighted the more. Thank you for the invitation."
Jim saw that his father thought that he had planned this course of events and sprung it as a surprise. He decided to support his fathers illusion somewhat. He could really tell him nothing else, because he really did not understand himself how he came to arrive at this point in time. He knew that neither Xuang nor himself had given Genie these specific coordinates, and no one else was capable of such a feat. Could John be playing dumb. You never knew with him.
"I thought you might be impressed, father. I have always wished to visit this time."
"I just never believed that you would ever test the proof of the story, my son. Of course, if this is all proven true, it may have considerable influence on the future course of events from our own time. Yet it is not exactly a good idea to test God in this way by time-traveling to exact proof. It does not exactly reflect good faith. I am disappointed that you would test God in this manner, my son, but it seems that He let you get away with it, but I don't know how or why. It's not for me to judge, I'm sure. Just be extremely careful, son. Time travel is one thing, but testing God is another."
Jim was glad that his father warned him. He recalled the encounter when Idiot had been overpowered by an outside and overwhelmingly superior intelligence. It must have been during this incident when Idiot was programmed with the coordinates to make this particular detour. During his meditations during hyperspatial displacement he seemed to remember being asked if he would like to see "his son". He had responded to the affirmative, even though it was unclear as to which son he was going to see. He had thought the other voice was talking about his own son. During singularity though, he could not discern between himself and the other. He did not know whether it was his own son or the other's son that was being referred to. Singularity does odd things to the mind. Apparently, he was to visit the son of the other. How could he explain this to his father, and how much did he really know? Yet the miracle had only just now made itself manifest. Jim pulled his thoughts together. He considered the reason for this journey. Certainly this child would grow and exercise his fate, and would Jim be permitted to retrieve his Lord from the past, if it could be considered the past. Certainly Earth would need some preparation. Jim knew not was in store, but he sensed his desire to be a part of whatever happened. And what if it His Son, I am about to visit? He reprogrammed our flight in this direction. It was a requirement of the solution.
"OK, Idiot, now that you got us here, give us the appropriate garb, and we shall need a ground survival kit for the three of us as well as the gifts. I trust you know what the gifts are to be. We must guard our knowledge carefully. Xuang has no prior knowledge. Have you confirmed that fact, Idiot?"
"Xuang is unaware of the details to your instructions to me, Jim. He has also received a minimum of exposure to Earth and Artemis of our own timeline. I have not revealed to the twins any information that I have concerning Earth history. I find it highly unlikely that Xuang has any knowledge of his future."
"Well, I shall assume that any knowledge that he may have to be not important then, or if it is, we can deal with it."
