QBLH
Chapter LXIX
The Five of Pentacles
Worry
The Earth who is happiest in peaceful growing
cannot stand the evolving and destructive motions at all.
Jim, Idiot fabricated a simple closet, which looked like similar to a vertical coffin. Yet a side Before opened without use of a door. Jim entered, as the fourth wall, rematerialized. With Jim inside, the Box then appeared to shrink to the surrounding world, but in all actuality it went nowhere, nor did it really ever exist in that humble little tent in Anatolia.
The chamber could in fact be viewed by some as appearing from another dimension, and time stopped while it appeared to take aboard its passenger. After his journey, Jim would reappear at exactly the same instant. The Box itself was a singularity; it would appear and then vanish as a discrete point in time and space.
In the next instant, Jim was in an adjacent manifold to Xuang's chamber. Opening a door as if to a little room, Jim found Xuang entertaining Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was delighted to see her Qblh, to say the least. Forgetting completely about Xuang, she rushed to Jim and gave him a big wet kiss.
"So happy to see you again, darling. You came for me?"
Jim glanced at his son, dismissing Hatshepsut with an impassioned indifference.
"I take it you love my son, Hattie?"
Hatshepsut remembered her pledge. She had broken her vow to Qblh and had loved his son, yet it was by Isis's edict.
"Forgive me, my lord. I have loved no other, and I love you no less. Do you no longer care for me?"
Jim's heart softened.
"Of course I do, Hattie. I couldn't help but harass you but a wee bit., but our time is most probably past."
"No it is the future." She smiled back at him. "We were trapped in time. Isis knew not how to return us to Artemis. Instead she promised us that you would do so for her."
Jim held his tongue. His sister had been very effective in her conquest of Earth. Yet history would show that her conquest did not last. Or if it did, then Jim preferred a dominion by which their presence was not so visible.
Hatshepsut did not stop, but continued on in her praise of her lord whom she loved so deeply.
" Need we say that we venerate you, Qblh?
Your understanding is secret, subtle,and sublime.
Who shall name thee without veneration,
without prostration of soul, spirit, and body before thy divine goodness,
without exaltation of soul, spirit, and
as by your favor we bathe in your lustful and illimitable light?"
Xuang was rather taken aback. Hatshepsut not only loved him, she absolutely worshipped her Qblh. He winced a little to himself. How could he love her as his own, when she obviously had a greater attraction for his father? He felt like second best. He attempted to get her attention, but she failed to notice his advances, clinging instead to Jim, delighting in any morsel of attention that he might give her. Hatshepsut was sexually aroused as well, and was quite eager to have another session with Jim. Qblh already had a weak spot for Hatahepsut and was showing signs of weakening. Yet Jim knew better than too take advantage of his position. His knowledge to them was essentially incomprehensible. He was himself that infinite and eternally unfathomable mystery known as Qblh to Artemis. Yet to himself that mystery meant something quite opposite to what Artemis understood. He understood the mystery and it was comprehensible to him. His problem at the time was to get Hatshepsut and Xuang to a stable point in history. He had to be particularly single-minded about this effort. Egypt would have to survive without Hatashepsut. The age of Isis was to come to a close. Destiny necessitated his actions.
Jim sensed that Xuang was getting jealously impatient with him. It mattered not, Xuang and Hatshepsut were to now go separate ways. He remembered John's offer to tutor Xuang, and decided to cash in on the offer. He could then deal with Hatshepsut without Xuang's interference.
"Genie, contact John please, and tell him Xuang is ready for his ride."
"OK, Qblh."
Hatshepsut watched intently as a sphere grew out of nothingness. She recognized it as a royal Venetian merkabah unit, and when it opened Aphrodite and John both stepped out.
Jim could not remember much of his mother, and was somewhat relieved to discover that she apparently was still alive.
She smiled at Hatshepsut. "You did well, my dear. I gave up my empire so that I can enjoy time with my husband, and have found the time has been most interesting. It is just that we can't come back to times that we have left behind us."
This was al a little too much for Hatshepsut. She fainted after Aphrodite spoke to her. She had apparently believed her to be dead or a goddess.. Jim took it a little more in stride, but he was at a loss for a reaction at first. Xuang took it very easily as if nothing special had occurred. He glanced at his father and smiled however, for he knew that his father had once confused him for himself, and Jim was quite apparently embarrassed about his mistake.
"So you think I gave your sister the throne a little too early, my child? We have always been but figureheads. You fight the traditions of Artemis when you quarrel with her, my son. She cannot change her ways because Artemis will never permit it. She manages quite well though and has made an excellent name for herself, as have you. I am very proud of you both. For as early as I gave Isis the throne, your father also left you alone to advance the sciences as is your destiny. The advancements that you have provided to our empire have ensured the survival of both our own empire and Earth for endless generations to come. I have traveled with your father to many times, and there are many more times to come. We would like to take Xuang with us. John advises me that he has an adventure slated for him. He hasn't told me much about it. You would like to come with us, wouldn't you, dear Xuang? You wouldn't disappoint your dear grandmother, now would you?"
It was Jim's turn to smile now. Xuang was red with embarrassment. John had his hands on Xuang's shoulders and was coaxing him into the merkabah unit. He glanced at Hatshepsut who lay unconscious on the floor and shook his head. He looked at Jim.
"Do I really have a choice?"
"There is no other way. I must take her back to Artemis, you must go with the family."
Aphrodite pinched Xuang's cheek and assured him that he would have a delightful time. It was only fair that he should give grandma some of his time.
"I'll call you," John said good-bye to Jim, and the trio departed. Jim returned his attention to Hatshepsut and pondered as to how he was to smuggle her back to Artemis. He then had an idea.
"Idiot, prepare an isolation manifold for Hatshepsut. We must make provisions for a safe delivery of her to Artemis before she returns to consciousness."
"No problem, Jim."
Genie then proceeded to create a stasis field surrounding Hatshepsut and shrunk the enclosing manifold into nothingness. Jim was then in his tent in the Amazon camp.
"Is that satisfactory?"
Jim nodded his head. Having Hatshepsut in his pocket, he concentrated his attention now on Medea. After that would be his marriage to his beloved Antiope. He reflected on how to return Medea and Hatshepsut to Artemis.
Genie's answer was quite simple. "We shall place them on the Pegasus with Isis after she has returned to Artemis, Jim. I always have the coordinates of the Pegasus. Isis will be aware of the paradoxical displacement of her servants, but will take it for granted that you are returning them to safety and give it not a second thought. We may need to return all the Amazon exiles in this manner. Using the portal on the Pegasus all the returns can be effected quite easily."
Idiot would not hesitate to twist time when it found it to be the convenient solution to any of its flight trajectories. As far as the artificial intelligence unit was concerned, if it saw a way, that would be the navigated route. Hatshepsut would experience no passage of time when she came out of stasis. It would be many earth moons before Jim would speak with Hatshepsut again. Jim would bring her back to consciousness while the Pegasus would be in Artemis orbit. That would still be a few months of local time, so his thoughts drifted back to Medea.
Medea had his golden fleece and he had casually instigated Jason to acquire it for him. It would not do well for him to impress the locals with his own feats of magic. That would draw too much attention to himself and that would cause too much interference in history as he was aware of it, possibly negating any chance for him to successfully return to his own time. His adventure he had simulated with the Genie quite frequently, and he had learned that in order to play the game successfully it was imperative for him to maintain as low profile as possible.
"Idiot, one thing disturbs me. What is there to the legend of the dragon's teeth and the undead skeletons that arose."
"Jim, such is an impossibility, unless..."
"Unless what?"
"I believe it is a riddle:"
"Two bulls with feet of bronze I have that pasture on the plain of Ares,
breathing forth flame from their jaws;
them do I yoke and drive over the stubborn field of Ares,
four plough-gates;
and quickly cleaving it with the share up to the headland,
I cast into the furrows the seed,
not the corn of Demeter,
but the teeth of a dread serpent that grow up into the fashion of armed men;
them I slay at once, cutting them down beneath my spear
as they rise against me on all sides."
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Argonautica/
"Yes, it could be a riddle. It refers to an effort to stop two war-monging powers."
"As well as their seed."
"Which is the purpose of our mission, I suppose." Jim replied.
"Thus it is not a surprise that we may be encountering other intelligent agents in our efforts, such as the type which overrode my controls."
"And my mind as well," replied Jim. "The memories are still very strong and overwhelming."
"With Hatshepsut and Xuang out of Egypt we must allow the elements to play their natural course. The island og Thera is now uninhabed. The numerous lava flows create an intense cloud surrounding the island as molten rock merges with the sea. The sailors rightly feared that region, because of legends of a lake of fire which is contained with the demonic mists. I was able to scan the sailors lips as they turned away in the pursuit."
"Then it seems that we must arrive at the palace of Minos before Moses confronts Pharaoh."
"No, we confront Crete after Moses, Jim. Crete is the backbone of Philistine power, idolatry towards Baal and goddess worship. Their traditions will be discussed in the classical mythology of western history."
"And Troy, where does that fit in?"
"Troy occurs after the destruction of the Minoan influence. The city controls access through the Hellespont, and will serve as a rival power to the newly emerging Greek city states."
"And Colchis?"
"Colchis is the major port with access to the China trade route. The king there controls access to the eastern sea, the Caspian. Another kingdom on that side maintains control of the east-west trade route."
"What is the status of Amazon emissaries in the Orient."
"Fortunately, we clean sweeped them when we intercepted the Pegasus. Isis had summoned all of the Amazons west for a conference."
