The Hermit
Chapter Ten
Jump Start
and
Conversation With an Idiot
The Hermit speaks of withdrawal—not escape, but illumination.
A lantern lifted into darkness.
Wisdom earned through solitude.
Truth revealed only when one dares to stand apart.
The Hermit is a powerful card that symbolizes wisdom, spiritual
enlightenment, and inner guidance. It often appears when we need
to step back and reflect on our lives, delve into our inner world, and
gain a greater understanding of ourselves
And aboard the Dutchman, drifting in quiet hyperspace, Qblh found himself doing exactly that: standing apart from Earth, from Isis, from destiny itself… and from the people now waiting on him.
Jim sat before the navigational core, the Dutchman humming softly around him. Hyperspace shimmered outside the ports like a frozen aurora. He hadn’t meant to ignore Helen, but the ship kept pulling him inward—toward thought, toward memory, toward the increasingly tangled lines of time.
Helen sighed behind him.
“Jim… come up for air sometime today?”
He almost smiled. “Just a few more seconds.”
“Right,” she muttered. “The Hermit at work.”
Before he could answer, John strode in from the corridor.
“Well,” John said dryly, “the men in black are back. Looks like another Chicago mess, and this time the whole crew’s invited.”
Jim rubbed his eyes. “Of course they are. Call out the marines—the Flying Dutchman rides again.”
Time, Paradoxes, and a Very Patient AI
Jim tapped the console.
“I suppose we can thank Genie for this. Paradoxes tend to fracture the continuum, and Genie hates stepping on broken glass.” He paused. “Idiot, how did you think of sending me the pyramid plans?”
Idiot’s voice replied with its usual calm.
“The Amazon library contained them. I retrieved the designs from historical archives.”
Jim frowned. “You didn’t get them from our earlier visits to Earth?”
“There may be more complex temporal networks than originally calculated.”
Jim leaned back. “Wonderful. More time webs. As if one wasn’t enough.”
Idiot continued, unconcerned.
“It would be erroneous to assume that the space‑time manifold conforms only to your single observed path. Qblh is scheduled for many more transitions. The pyramids were always part of your return. Isis believed she created the loop by giving birth to herself. However, Qblh was conceived after that event. Time eventually corrected itself.”
John raised an eyebrow. “In English?”
Jim translated:
“Idiot identified the pyramids as a kind of navigational beacon. My children helped triangulate the return path. Idiot used their molecular history to stabilize the temporal coordinates.”
Helen threw up her hands.
“You two are impossible. Can you please speak Earth‑language?”
“To plot a precise jump,” Jim explained, “I need matter from the time we’re jumping to.”
“And the anti‑time energy?” John asked.
“Cygnus,” Jim said. “Always Cygnus.”
Idiot added, “Correct. The Box can contain it. Jim induced the structure from Cygnus and had me reproduce it microscopically.”
Helen stared. “And this is why you call him Idiot?”
Jim froze.
“…Oops.”
Helen crossed her arms. “OOPS?”
She turned to the ceiling.
“Genie, why are they calling you Idiot?”
“Idiot, don’t answer that!” Jim snapped. “Qblh commands—or I pull your plug!”
“You heard my master,” the Box said serenely.
Helen blinked. “Okay. I’m leaving before someone explodes.”
John guided her out. “Come on. This is one of their… moments.”
New Passwords, New Problems
Once the door sealed, Jim exhaled.
“It’s time for a new password, Idiot. We’re compromised.”
“You compromised yourself, Jim. Or should I call you Qblh?”
Jim rubbed his temples. “Fine. We change the protocol. Double authentication.”
He pointed upward.
“If I call you Idiot, and you call me Jim, that means full control.
If I call you Genie, and you call me Qblh, that means restricted control.”
“Understood.”
“What happens if I call you Idiot while you call me Qblh?”
“I respond, but maintain restricted mode until instructed otherwise.”
“Good.” Jim folded his arms. “Test. What’s my name, Genie?”
“You are Qblh.”
“What’s my name, Idiot?”
“You are Qblh.”
“Call me Jim, Genie.”
A pause.
“You are Qblh.”
Jim snorted. “Call me Jim, Idiot.”
“You are Jim.”
He grinned. “Who’s on first?”
“I do not know.”
“No, he’s on third.”
Idiot’s tone flattened.
“Why are we discussing baseball, Jim?”
He laughed. “Still no sense of humor. I’ll fix that someday.”
The Burden of Earth
The Dutchman’s lights dimmed to their evening cycle. Jim let himself lean back, letting the quiet settle around him.
The evolution of form mirrors the evolution of consciousness. Slowly, painfully, over aeons. Yet the Mystery Schools had always believed in shortcuts—ways to accelerate awakening.
Idiot projected a link.
“A relevant reference for you, Qblh.”
Jim browsed it. “Good link. Association?”
“It concerns your fate as Qblh.”
“My fate?”
“Isis named you Qblh. That naming is binding.”
Jim grimaced. “I don’t like what that implies.”
“You must consider how you intend to save Earth from Isis’s wager.”
Jim’s Dilemma
He reviewed Earth’s fractured governments, its obsession with wealth, its worship of the dollar. In contrast, he could create matter from nothing. Time‑traveling, near‑immortal, wealthy by any metric—he could control Earth’s economy without breaking a sweat.
But why? To what end?
Wealth meant nothing to someone unbound by a single century.
He thought of the summit, of how they had recoiled from him.
They feared Isis.
They feared him.
They feared anything they didn't control.
Jim spoke softly.
“Idiot… how do I avoid being mistaken for an anti‑Christ?”
Idiot replied simply:
“He who is not against you is for you.”
Jim stared at the darkened console. “Not helpful.”
“Prophecies serve as warnings,” Idiot explained. “They guide behavior. They do not define inevitability.”
“What happens if we jump to the time of Christ?”
“Depends entirely on your intent.”
“Would I be the tempter in the wilderness?”
“Would you ever ask him to worship you?”
Jim shook his head. “No.”
“Then you are not the tempter.”
“Then who is?”
“Insufficient data.”
Jim sighed. “Are you saying sometimes we tempt ourselves?”
“Self‑doubt is a powerful adversary.”
Should He Walk Away?
im rested his head against the chair.
“Idiot, maybe we shouldn’t involve ourselves with Earth’s future. Maybe we should go back to Artemis and let this world solve its own mess.”
“There is a high probability that Isis expects you to do exactly that.”
Jim groaned. “Of course she does.”
“You dislike governing,” Idiot continued. “Yet Earth has problems you can mitigate out of goodwill, not authority.”
“That sounds like programming.”
“It is. You intended to help these people long before you first journeyed here.”
Jim closed his eyes.
“This problem may be impossible.”
Idiot answered gently.
“Which is precisely why you were chosen.”
