Chapter XXVI
Four of Wands
Completion
The Fire has settled and reigns over its realms
Isis begins an epic undertaking to take advantage of her recently established transition into earth’s “past”.
Being multiple light years from Earth is not a new problem concerning her ability to rule.
The utilization of stargate technology
allows her to establish psychic links
which she shall utilize routinely to exercise control.
In each case one of her trusted officers would act under her authority to exercise control.
If a remote location presented any form of threat to her authority,
the local officer would be able to request and immediately receive resources
to restore the situation to one that Isis would rule as appropriate.
Isis fashioned several potential Earth civilizations that she would govern within her mind. She would stay on Artemis and make no further ventures to Earth. Time travel was simply much too risky and she immediately passed legislation that forbade it. Those caught would be publicly executed. True to her husband, she left a loophole so that anyone traveling with Qblh could potentially be spared. She did not try to imagine how she was going to prove the culprit had time traveled, but she believed that if she was led to believe it, then guilt was self-evident. She also left a loophole for herself.
Isis still needed a portal on Earth. Her promise to interfere didn't mean that she wouldn't have any agents in the field. Communication would be instantaneously transmitted to her through the portal. By sending Qblh to Earth she would have that window to the other world. He was usually quite liberal about letting her have her way with any of her enterprises and rarely interfered. She was quite certain that she could subtly control Earth beneath his very nose continually keeping him on guard against an Armageddon that she would never permit, because he would blame the catastrophe on her interference. Isis would never put herself in a position where her brother could call her a failure. Qblh had the stamina to take the fall and the resilience to recover. He was like man and she wondered to herself whether men indeed were their ancestors.
The thought that temporal boundaries could be easily crossed bringing disorder and chaos to any sort of established order disturbed her greatly, but she was comforted by her brother's integrity and his firmness concerning maintaining continuity within space and time. She admired Qblh's rituals which kept all the secrets of the Genie well protected.
She enjoyed the stories about the fleet's destruction, even though they had been her ships. The fact that Qblh had not killed any of her subjects made the story the makings of an Artemis legend rather than a tragic blunder. Isis did not feel defeated, but in control. Qblh had eighty-four virgins to satisfy. He would be preoccupied a few days. She would make plans.
Isis sent word to Gemini to ensure Qblh did not have Genie with him at anytime. If discovered with Genie, they were told to tell him that the Genie is not allowed in the Pleasure Dome and to bring him to her if he didn't obey and expel Genie right away. A second offense would warrant her immediate attention and he was to be brought to her immediately if such occurred.
She considered the history of the Venetian empire. Her civilization was ancient and seemed timeless, but she really did not know how much truth there was in history. She herself had made some official reinterpretations of history. Yet the Earthmen intrigued her greatly, and there were still some of her people unaccounted for. Perhaps she could have Qblh retrieve them for her. She would pay his price, but would also entice him to keep her cost low.
She thought about Antiope and Helen. Qblh would most certainly fiercely protect them from her wrath. She focused her thought on them and knew that she should forgive them for everything, but her law undeniably would find them both guilty of many crimes. She would find her respect compromised if she left them unpunished. Qblh would know this and hide them in some other world out of her reach. She would not pursue them, she decided. If they crossed her path, she would judge them; if Qblh presented them to her, she would honor his appeal. She usually always did.
Still, her need for a stargate on Earth continued to motivate her decisions. The Pegasus had a stargate on board. Earth still associated that ship with Jim, and would consider it as no threat. She still wanted the mission to be secret. She summoned her starship navigators as she formulated her plans.
"Sisters, we have Cygnus at our disposal, and we have just sent him to the Pleasure Dome where he shall be preoccupied for several days. I would like a stargate on Earth today, and I want the Pegasus back today. Can it be done?"
"Not without the knowledge of the Genie, m' lady. We must assume that it is fully knowledgeable concerning our operations. We have all learned to respect his device. All secret ways to Earth are closed to us, m' lady. We cannot imagine a way to approach Earth without him gaining knowledge."
"Then I shall presume that he will do nothing. Set up a stargate for yesterday then and arrange for a put-call displacement of the Pegasus."
"M' lady, that has never been done. None of us knows how to do that."
"Maybe you don't, but I do."
Isis was at the helm of her empire's resources. The very fact that Qblh could hold his own against her said a much about his power. Yet, Jim was simply good at running and hiding.
He had no social skills and no armies, but he was rather quick to perform.
Jim wanted her to give up the empire and go off with him and live a simple life. Undoubtedly, that is what he would be doing with Helen and Antiope. But Jim would want to show-off to Antiope and Helen. He was typically male in that department even though he claimed to have full control of his instincts. Isis knew better. She only led him to believe that he had free will. He would go through great efforts to free himself of her, but that only strengthened the bond with her twin. She felt that they were the same creature, but only split into a male and female form.
"Perhaps all living things are of a single form," she thought. She did not understand herself as separate from her people. She easily felt the pain and joy of her subjects. Her twin would seek to understand the reason for everything, and refused to believe that Isis was as sensitive as she claimed. He simply could not understand why she could see and hear better than he. He made up for his physical handicaps by having an increased mental resourcefulness.
Perhaps when the children grew, then she could go off with him. Her primary duty now was to prepare the children to rule Artemis and the empire. Certainly Xuang would be inclined to run off and protect Earth from the threat of Artemis. She couldn't be sure. She couldn't presuppose what Xubvcang would do.
Isis felt Jim pressuring her to lose her interest in earthly concerns. It was after all just a speck of dust in the galaxy. Earth was centuries away from any form of interstellar travel.
She could ignore Earth if her brother wasn't there. Now, since he was going to involve himself with the Earth planet, it was imperative that she keep close tabs on him. She, too, would be somewhat secretive in her efforts. She would have Gemini guard the portal, once it had been established. Mindful of her inability to keep the gate hidden from Genie, she still felt that she wouldn't really know for sure what would happen unless she tried. Not to be intimidated by anyone, she made her decision.
She would do it!
Gemini would also be assigned as Jim's new Earth companions. She decided to spare the lives of Antiope and Helen both, but she would decommission them and that would disqualify both of them from future time travel ventures with Qblh.
"Sophia, I need a crew for the Pegasus. Tactical squadron."
"As you wish, my lady."
"Immediate departure, full power operations. We shall keep my throne's portal tuned to the Pegasus's entry portal."
This technique would permit Isis to travel on the Pegasus and yet simultaneously be in her throne room. A full staff of guards was stationed throughout the palace securing all access to the throne. A floating control console made its way to her side so that she could coordinate her commands. Gemini were assigned to keep an eye on Qblh, ensuring that Isis would be forewarned of any of his suspicious activities.
Isis programmed in a course query and obtained a satisfactory navigational solution which appealed to her. She would not do a time reversal but would effectively do an instantaneous venture. Her crew could be spread out through time zones without creating paradox, thereby providing for her an instantaneous transfer to Earth in just a very few hours. She would not be permitted to stay for fear of creating a causality violation. She only needed to tag a piece of Earth as her link point.
Isis accessed the computers on board the Pegasus through her console command link. The ship still had a record of its Earth's ventures. She reviewed Earth's geography of old from the Pegasus's files and compared that with her more recent maps of Earth. She noticed that Atlantis was gone and some other differences. Current maps were more useful, and her records knew more about man's ancient history than modern man knew himself. She did not have a very good set of files concerning modern Earth culture. Jim and John had destroyed any Venetian electronics which would have permitted information about current Earth to have reached the Venetian data banks. That was fine with her; in order to make a causal violation she would require prior knowledge of the event she would change. Paradox required prior knowledge of the event to be changed. The less she knew, the better. She dared not go back to her prior time, however, because she did have prior knowledge of that time. She started to gain some comprehension of what Qblh had to deal with when he traveled time. She expected him to interfere then, if she went too far.. Knowing this, she felt that Qblh would always protect her from inducing any true danger, if she made a mistake.
The ability to “see” or transmit/receive information instantaneously between two distinct time periods
separated by space or time beyond the immediate event horizon is a skill
that the Queen of Artemis is able to exercise via utilization of stargate technology.
The matter and antimatter pairing allows for the modulation of signals to be transmitted
either way through spce time or both instantaneously
via the connecting corresponding wormhole.
Each end of the wormhole has a stargate
which acts as a gate to the wormhole.
Communication devices are linked to each gate and the local Venetian authority.
Each high priestess on Earth could thus demonstrate
a psychic link with Isis and vice versa.
Such ability is considered to be closely related to the concept termed as remote viewing.
Such a skill is called magic by our ancestors and even modern folk.
Such ability has been classified as witchcraft.
We may then certainly understand the power of these high priestesses
when they exercised their will.
