QBLH
Chapter XLIII
Seven of Cups
Debauchery
The Seven of Cups are called Debauch - the waters are rotting
Episode 58
Originally posted October 26,1997
The family reunion continues. It seems that this is indeed a first family reunion of the grandest sorts.
Our amateur politician Jim faces his powerful antagonist in an attempt to gain concessions.
Yet when you're stranded on the highway, are you going to argue with your mechanic?
He's likely to quit on you, and let your ambtitions perish.
Isis needs to return to her seat of power and she is certainly not one to lose face.
And these political rivals are lovers to boot.
And what are the stakes?
Nothing less than the fate of planet Earth itself.
Allow us to be a fly on the wall as we silently observe these two diplomats negotiate.
Wait a second, they aren't diplomats, they are the leaders themselves.
So what has this to do with time-travel, may you ask?
What and give away all my secrets?
Surely, you jest!
"The Mechanic" or was that electrician?
We need a tech rep?
Genie can't fix everything on the spot
Isis sensed the loss of the last of the ship's critical drives.
"Jim, that's not fair. You're using your magic to sabotage my ship's systems. Undo your spell."
"By your command, my lady. Genie answer me, reactivate the warp drives."
"Sorry, Qblh, the engines have overheated and melted down. They are irreparable."
"Don't give me that, Genie. Make new engines in their place."
"And how am I supposed to do that, Qblh?"
Isis stared in disbelief. "Qblh, you tolerate insubordination from your Genie?"
"You're right, my dear. Explain yourself, Genie. I am commanding you to repair those engines."
"Unable to comply, Qblh. There are technical impossibilities which make it impossible to effect repair, so I can not start."
"Qblh, what kind of double-talk is this? Are you testing my patience? Shaltain would never talk this way to me."
Genie responded promptly. "It would also be impossible for Shaltain to effect repair. Shaltain would be forced to admit the impossibility as well. The overheating damage is a chronic effect of this latest journey into the past. I have a very large amount of additional discrepancies in the ship's systems. Would you care to see the details?"
"Well Qblh, how do you intend on rescuing me."
"We can arrange for one more displacement only, and that displacement must be home to Artemis. Is that not correct, Genie?"
"I can arrange for one displacement only, and that must be to a Venetian repair facility."
Isis smiled at Jim again. "Bravo, my Qblh, you have checkmated me again. Well, have it your way, then, but first, I want my way with you for the next few hours till I tire of you. We shall conceive again, and I shall allow you to pursue your adventures further, but you are always mine, my love, remember that. Shelter Antiope and Helen well, my Qblh, I shall find them yet. I shall spare their lives if you surrender them to me. Perhaps I shall let you have them back again in exchange for your precious Earth."
She moved closer to Jim challenging him to resist her further. Jim couldn't help but feel the passion of her love within him. At the same time, she was penetrating and influencing his consciousness. Isis was somewhat telepathically inclined; she had a reputation for being the most highly skilled in her empire. Jim could telepathically impede efficiently, he had permitted her the discovery of the girdle and the gem to prevent her from searching deeper. Claiming that it was a genetic secret, and a royal one at that, no one ever could determine the extent of her psychic abilities. She could not see the future, however, even though many of her subjects believed that as well. Her influence on Jim was very real and physical, but he knew how to control his body, even when subject to her passionate influence. Yet for the next few hours he would not be able to resist her. In her presence, her will overwhelmed him.
"My spirit is in you always," she would tell him. "You and I share the same life and it is for each other. Qblh, my love, you have even a greater destiny ahead, but for now let us exchange the Kiss of Life once more, as we celebrate our existence and remember the nobility within each of us. Yet you must always be humble towards me my Qblh. You must bow to me and kiss my feet as a token of your submission to me, your lady."
Gently she rested her hand on Jim's head and brought him to his knees. He bowed to her as prompted and kissed both her feet. These two creatures would soon resolve their differences, and it is not appropriate for me to unveil our dear lady any further as she seduces her lover. The reader having followed me so far can only but imagine what it must have been like for Jim as he was alone with his beloved Isis once again. The passage of time would mean nothing. I would describe the scene, but Isis can be so erotically violent in her love making and she really doesn't hold back any passionate evocations or invocations. She would claim it all as being sacred tantric magick and essential for her reproductive interests, and it mattered not how it would strike outside observers who would be forbidden the sight in the first place. Perhaps I may recall a few of her blessings on Jim as she sanctified herself for another child.
Perceiving Jim's fears yet also understanding her own power Isis sang as Qblh loved her.
" When seen in spectred forms, with terrors dire;
Now darkly visible involved in night,
Perspicuous now they meet the fearful sight.
My love expels wherever found
Thy soul's mad fears to earth's remotest bound;
With holy aspect on our incense shine,
And bless thy mystics, and rites divine."
http://www.west.net/~beck/Eleusis-4.html
She knew it was time once again to return to Artemis, and she had no difficulty accepting.
Xiang and Xuang were now grown and had played an important part in Earth history.
"Your son shall be prove to you an invaluable ally on Earth, Qblh. He has a profound understanding of the beginnings of Chinese civilization, and I believe the twenty-first century Chinese nation might be able to relate to him."
"Profound indeed, Isis! I suspect you cheated a little in that, and provided a little technical assistance there as you did in Babylon."
"Your children were involved with China and not Babylon, Qblh. They honored your wishes and set up no false deities nor did they deify themselves. I may have assisted them when requested, my Qblh, but I did not direct them. They are quite talented, and I am sure that you would be quite proud of them. It has been as centuries since I've left that throne room that fateful day on Artemis. We do not know our way back home. I have tried several times. I am quite pleased to see you, my Qblh. I can maintain the charade longer but I choose to do so no longer. Shaltain deceived me and failed to tell me how to return to Artemis. The solution seems to involve the simultaneous equalization of a triple set of twelfth-order gravigeometrecal tensor transformation matrices while maintaining a null geodesic, and we simply have no way of determining the appropriate eigenvalues."
"That is because Shaltain could not provide them for you, nor is it capable. I am aware of the solution requirements, and that involves returning you to Artemis so that continuity can be maintained, and you don't cease to exist. Yet it surprises me that you took flawed advice. Who was it again that advised you that a return trip was possible. Certainly you can't permit her to mate with me in the Pleasure Dome; we wouldn't want the offspring of an idiot."
"It is not one of my subjects, Qblh. It was Shaltain which made the technical improvisations, and quite apparently those plans were inadequate."
"Indeed Isis. I would say that they are fatal mistakes, and require a miraculous solution. What would you have done if Shaltain was one of your living subjects. I know you quite well, my dear. You would have ripped.."
"Out their hearts. You need not amplify my anger at Shaltain my dear Qblh. I cannot decommission Shaltain, Qblh. It is too powerful and no one has the knowledge to shut the system down and it is programmed to ignore any instructions from you."
"Well perhaps if you ask Genie very nicely for a wish, Genie may have a solution, my dear, because as you have said there is nothing that I can do to change Shaltain's behavior."
Her eyes glittered. She understood. "Very clever Jim. Genie can you hear me. Your master claims that you have the power to grant me my wishes. Can you influence Shaltain's behavior Genie?"
"Is that your wish, my lady?"
"Yes that is my wish."
"What is your wish?"
"What do you mean what is my wish? You just heard my wish."
"I heard many things and all I have is an ambiguous command, so I don't know what it is that you are wishing for my lady."
"I wish that you will deactivate Shaltain, unplug it, kill it! Do you understand my wish now you idiot genie?"
"Yes I now understand your command my lady, and your wish shall most certainly be honored. It also seems that all ship's systems are now functioning, and we are now accelerating towards Artemis. Shaltain will not be aware of our arrival. I shall scramble its sensors as soon as Artemis is capable of detecting our arrival. Expect your debauched governing electronics to undergo massive system failure upon our return. The time rift will overload Shaltain's artificial intelligence programming and it will start to acquire a dual personality. It will begin to war against itself and essentially destroy itself. How long would you care for the trip to Artemis to take my lady. My programming allows you some say so."
"Underway already Jim? I didn't give the command."
"You made the wish, my lady, and Genie is fulfilling that wish, and he needs to get to Artemis to do just that. We have our privacy till our arrival. How much privacy shall that be?"
