QBLH
Chapter XLI
The Five of Cups
Disappointment
The water wasn't happy with Chokmah, anyway, and now sadly flows off to find calmer grounds
(1312 BC Exodus proposed, 1185 Troy)
The girls are landed around 1225 BC and given time to raise their children
"Helen you are a little more difficult and your time is not just yet. I believe I shall use you to bring about the death of my alter ego so that we may set you up for your position. It is best that you stick with Antiope and see that she is successful uniting the Amazons. I shall bring you some companions who will see you safely to be the bride of Sparta."
"My heart will always be yours Jim. How do you expect me to sleep with this guy without killing him?"
"We'll kidnap you on your wedding night."
"Sparta is not going to take kindly to that."
"I am aware of that."
Helen smiled. "How devious, Jim, that makes you Paris."
"Well who else could spirit himself away from a duel with Menelaues back to your bedchamber. Certainly not nonexistent gods."
"Take me to Paris after Troy when we return to the future, Jim, because I shall certainly be in the mood."
"Your wish is my command, sweetheart." Jim flirted with her.
Jim had given each of the ladies priceless artifacts, and he charged them to keep them near their bodies always. These devices had microcircuits contained linked to Genie's communication network. He would be able to use these devices as a homing signal to find them.
Antiope had been given her legendary girdle.
Helen had a huge diamond seated on a a thickly gpld bonded nanocircuit embedded silicon carbide crystal ring capable of firing powerful laser at will at a target at ay range. Heaven help the man that tried to remove that gem from the hand of Helen's voluptuous beauty. Hidden within the ring also was her link to Genie.
The unbelievably stoic Antiope then yielded to tears as she realized that Jim was about to depart from her and leave her and Helen alone. Helen was a little more successful in not expressing any signs of missing Jim. She refused to even allow Jim to believe that he would be missed.
The trio spent one last evening together and resolved to part ways at daybreak. Genie scrambled the Pegasus's sensory systems so that Isis would be unable to pinpoint their location from above. Just to keep Isis honest Genie also disabled the air to ground transportation system. Unable to warp, land and effectively see, Isis was effectively isolated. Just to complicate matters a bit further, the Pegasus communication system was also malfunctioning. Yet Jim was still able to monitor all ship's systems. One other important aspect gave Jim a definite advantage while on Earth. He was able to use the Pegasus scanners, Genie could of course descramble its own scramble routine with its own multiplexed system. It is indeed truly incredible what that remarkable Idiot was capable of performing.
Antiope and Helen would be left on their own to fare for themselves. It seemed that Antiope and Helen would be allowed to raise their children under Amazon protection until Jim was assured that they could be spared the wrath of Isis. He knew this to be highly improbable, but he also knew that there was no history of any children of Helen or Antiope, so he knew they would be successful in keeping their existence unknown. Jim trusted these most efficient of Amazon captains and he knew better than to underestimate their talents once he had gained their trust. Ever faithful to their Jim, Antiope and Helen would immortalized in Earth history. These remarkable women would return to the twenty-first century and be responsible for the greatest advance in women's rights that history would ever see. Isis would appoint Jim as Qblh, and Jim as Qblh would appoint Helen and Antiope as his trustees. The children could then be presented to Isis as citizens of Artemis. She would be forced by her own law to accept the children as citizens of Artemis free from any crime, completely innocent and also the children of Qblh, Venetian royalty. He anticipated then a satisfactory resolution then to the plight of Antiope and Helen and was pleased with the fact.
Leaving the women, he did not wish them to see his departure, Jim pondered how he would conduct himself on the Pegasus. It would be best to arrive unnoticed, so he resolved to go into a mode of invisibility. Idiot constructed a shielding force around Jim as it folded him into a dimension that could be called nothing else but elsewhere. Jim was within the boundary of the box, his merkabah, and he was free now to go any which way he so chose and experience essentially no duration getting there. His box was linked to the Pegasus, so in essence, he could be considered as being within the material field of the Pegasus. Genie knew the Pegasus quite well, and was very much at home when it was inertially referenced to that great starship.
Navigating himself through the ship's interior, he found his way to the facsimile throne room. There near the throne was an active portal. The way into the portal was at the present an exculpatory stasis wall. If the Pegasus could make it back to the twenty-first century, this portal could be activated as a window to her court. The barrier currently was impassable because a satisfactory transit solution did not exist. If a satisfactory solution were to exist the gate would open. Jim decided to make his entry through that portal. Idiot would have little difficulty using that portal to allow Jim to materialize on board the Pegasus. Isis was alone on the throne, apparently somewhat upset that things were not going quite as well as Shaltain had predicted.
Idiot prompted further aggravation by having the ship's systems transmit to her an evaluation report of Shaltain's operational readiness. She of course was not very pleased with the situation, and Idiot was able to cultivate Isis's temperament to one which Jim thought he could work with.
Isis finally cursed Shaltain on one of the questions, and swore that upon her return she would unplug that infernal machine. Shaltain tried to talk her out of it, but the more it tried the more adamant she insisted it was Shaltain's inept bungling and own selfish desire which was causing such extreme disappointment, as if it were possible for a machine, to have its own self-preservation override its loyalty to its sovereign. Concealed invisibly with Jim, Idiot advised Jim that Shaltain knew full well that it did not have a return solution, and Isis was ultimately going to depend on Qblh to rescue her. It then inquired why she thought that Qblh would ned to rescue her.
"To avoid paradox, I believe."
She was indeed correct and Jim knew it She was bold and confident. Isis sensed Qblh’s interference with Pegasus systems even though she had no sensed evidence of his presence. This would not deter her defensive measures. She sang a spell about her dominion over the Earth, and those on board sang along. It was intended for the ears of Qblh.
We are made in each other’s likeness
And I will make you the keeper of my garden world
If you honor me in kind, I'll be grateful, but be warned
I'm a jealous Being
Who placed the demons in hell
And the angels in heaven
At my side
So set me free, I'll grant your hearts desire
And I will share the secrets of the grand design
Give me daughters, send me sons and I'll make them all chosen ones
I will send them out to die
To meet the angels of death
With no tears, no regrets
We have descended from the heights
My blood must pay for this debt
That was made when we left
Because of me
And if they taste the blood we'll let them drink
And if they taste the flesh we'll let them eat
And if one has to be forgiven then we'll pardon all of them
And if they raze our walls we'll let them in
And if they raise their swords we'll let them hit
And if one has to be forgiven then
We'll love them
Let me lead you to the garden world
I will place you at the right of my father's hand
I was tempted in the wild I crossed from start until end of time
You have emerged the sacred lamb
Whose blood must pay for the debt
That was made when we left
As we have ascend into the heavens I have freed my angels as if from hell
And place them in heaven
At my side
Revised from “Trail of the Dead”
Isis Unveiled
