VENETIA: The TEST

Chapter thirty-two

The effects of the test were widespread. The missiles had landed exactly where
Jim had stated. The dots representing elements of each letter were perfectly spaced. Each
"T" was identical with another in size and spacing. Ground zero of each impact was
perfectly located to spell "THIS IS A TEST". Granted, the elements of each letter were
craters on the moon of somewhat varying sizes, but each of these craters formed a large
circle. All of the 102 circles were spaced perfectly, to allow people on earth to read the
message. Earth observatories could easily make out the message, and the television
networks did a very thorough job of telling the world all about the test.

As Jim had anticipated, his support strengthened, and the US Congress voted
overwhelmingly against the President to give Jim the support he needed. General
Armstrong was secure in his position again, and was urged to run for the White House.
Several other nations joined in giving Jim support.

The stock market took to the sky again, and Jim's billions compounded. He had
quite conveniently bought into the contractors that would benefit most from his
endeavors. Over the next several weeks, he and Antiope secretly roamed the high seas on
the Dutchman retrofitting submarines. The Navy did not advise the President due to a
special defense emergency bill which passed against a presidential veto. States were
threatening to secede. Congress voted to maintain an independent submarine command
which would be subject to Congressional activity and could act independent of
Presidential authority. General Armstrong explained to the congressional committee, that
the submarines would be able to make quick short range strikes against any star cruisers
within twenty-five miles of the earth's surface. He explained about he space mines and had
his technicians wow the congressman with the impressive dynamics of these new systems.
He explained about the possibility of a first strike against the satellites and then summed it
all up explaining the strategic necessity of the submarines. Jim tells me that she is terrified
by the thoughts of our attacks from the sea. She is well aware of how effective the oceans
are at hiding a fleet.

Shady maintained a low profile while effectively maintaining her Florida
operations. The fact that Jim and Antiope were staying on the oceans made it very
difficult to get any of her agents near them. She had no operating agents in Hawaii. Jim
was quite effectively screening the islands, and no Venetian had the desire to go there
again.

Throughout the land, religious cults would lend significance to these new visitors.
Pagan and witchcraft cults envisioned a new age where Isis would rule the world. The
more traditional religions were at a loss to explain the new occurrences. Everyone seemed
to understand truth, integrity and honor as promoted by Jim, but he claimed no divine
association and as such he played down the importance of his role in human destiny. Jim
was quite aware of the pagan interests though. The myths from the ancient days had
provided him with the evidence of possible Venetian tinkering with earth's past.

The pyramids and the Sphinx intrigued Jim greatly. He was quite aware of their
apparent importance with respect to the ancient Egyptians intrigue with the stars. Genie
had made several remarkable observations concerning ancient hieroglyphic texts. Jim had
conducted a brief study of Egyptology and was dead certain that Isis had been there.

As such, it seemed her presence in the past was a given. John had given her the
Pegasus, and he had run a default program to land Pegasus in ancient Egypt. Jim realized
he was at fault then for his sister's interference in earth's past; or could he call it
interference. She was earth's past.

Jim had been more than superficial in his studies of earth past. He saw in history
the demise of Egyptian beliefs to the traditional religions. All the myths were tall tales of
what actually happened, but something had triggered the myths, and the pyramids
themselves were certainly no myth.

Apparently, he would have difficulty trying to relate to earth exactly how he fit in
with earth's destiny. How could he explain his role now to these people, when he didn't
know what was going to happen to precipitate these events?

Paradox upon paradox. He remembered John's remark of another day. His very
existence was at stake as well as the fabric of space-time itself. Jim wondered if he really
had any free will, or if he was just playing a part in destiny. He knew current speculation
was useless, and he would just have to see what developed.

Soon, he would have outfitted the necessary numbers of missiles. General
Needhymen thanked Jim for the laptop. He said that the boys at MIT and Harvard were
indeed impressed, and JPL was designing a prototype ionic drive.

Technological innovation had received a jump start as well. Jim found himself
nominated to the Board of Directors of many of the companies that he had bought stock.
Antiope accepted a few positions, but Jim refused all positions. Jim had to repeatedly
remind Antiope of the ever present Venetian threat while they tried to maintain a low
profile.

After their business with the submarines was complete, Jim and Antiope retreated
to the Colorado home that the US government had provided them. Access was restricted
and Jim and Antiope would always fly in and out if they went anywhere. They were
always in disguise and their public speaking engagements would always be unannounced
and would be held in random locations.

After several weeks of missile refitting, no new evidence of another Venetian star
ship or portal had surfaced. John had transmitted to Jim that he had still no luck finding
evidence of Venetian activity.

Being reminded of the need to determine the existence of any more Venetian
portals, Jim determined the time was appropriate for a visit to Artemis. Usage of Genie
would be limited, since Jim would need the invisibility and enhanced mobility that Genie
would provide to keep him undetected. Jim would return to Artemis as a ghost.

The Flying Dutchman was anchored at a remote secluded island in the Pacific and
Antiope resolved to stay with John during Jim's absence. She had no more desire for any
surprise visits from Isis.

The world's business went on pretty much as normal as if there were no fleet
threat. Although Jim maintained a very low public profile, and it seemed his whereabouts
was always a mystery, everyone knew about him and the majority felt secure against the
alien threat. The public also had requested that General Armstrong run against the
President for the November elections. Each and every day his popularity was accelerating,
and the President's popularity had declined to single digit approval ratings. Many claimed
that she didn't deserve the office and she was never elected. Jim knew that the Venetians
were still in contact with her. General Armstrong was reminded by Jim that these obscure
contacts were his only way of having any hope of tracking the Venetian threat. Even Jim
agreed that if he failed to accomplish his objectives, only the current President would be
able to stem the wrath of Isis. The November elections would not occur in such a case,
and it wouldn't make any difference then what the majority thought, because Isis would
rule.

Jim's absence was not to be public information, and John, as promised would play
the role of Jim while he was gone.

On the day for departure, Jim simply removed his belt as it shifted back into its
basic box form. He opened the door and went inside. He found himself in the room with
the console at the center. He instructed Idiot to return back to Artemis to the same
location from which the box had been originally situated, but at the current time. Jim was
still not quite ready for any time travel attempts.

The box rematerialized in Jim's private chamber back in Xanadu. Idiot had
carefully performed the displacement to elude Artemis defensive sensing networks. After
scanning the room for any detection devices, Genie neutralized the scanners by providing
simulated images within the camera circuits. Hence Jim's arrival was undetected, and he
immediately had Idiot provide him with his shield of invisibility. Jim found himself able to
walk right through the wall as he was unable to open the door to his room. Being a ghost
distinctly had its advantages, although he couldn't do anything physical.

Jim found his way to Xanadu military command headquarters to determine the
state of affairs. His mission was partially successful. Isis had frustrated his efforts by
alerting Xanadu that Jim had the "Ghost" power, and as such the location of the portal on
earth was absolutely hush-hush. He was able to determine the fact that a portal existed,
however. Jim made his way to the transportation center and discovered the chamber for
the portal to earth. Idiot warned Jim about the stasis field barrier to the chamber, and
disclosed that he would not be able to penetrate the barrier without revealing his presence.

He checked the calendar and determined it would be still another few days before
she arrived. Jim paused for a few hours while he rummaged around the city for more
clues. He discovered that the Venetians had been directed by Sophia to stay out of sight
until further instructions were received by Isis. Jim then determined that it might be
proper for him to return to earth immediately and take adequate precautions.

Although it was very tempting to materialize and perhaps throw a monkey wrench
or two into the works, he felt it would be more appropriate to return to earth with the
information that he had as planned.

Idiot rematerialized Jim back on the Flying Dutchman. The transit time was not
eight hours there or back in this case. Idiot had performed a true zero time displacement
from earth to Artemis and back. Idiot reminded Jim of his time travel capabilities, and that
he may soon be requiring these capabilities.

"Jim, I am receiving indications of extreme spatial time fluctuations occurring in
the near future."

"What are the implications, Idiot?"

"We are the source of those fluctuations. You must make preparations for time
travel to earth's past?"

"Can you elaborate?"

"Not really, I can't get a lock on the disturbances without affecting the outcome of
any involvement that you may have. Wait.... I am getting a lock, and its not us; it was
John. I just detected his track going back through time from leaving Artemis. Very odd
signal, I've never seen one like that before. It seems that while transmitting through
hyperspace we passed John, on his way back to earth."

"Very interesting Idiot. I didn't know you had that capability."

"I didn't either, but it's not every day that we encounter a time traveler."

"It surprises me that you can't detect portal displacement."

"I can, but we also have to be undergoing zero-time displacement ourselves at the
same instant. In that case, I can not only detect the displacement, but have to act
drastically to avoid particle collisions."

"Did you have to dodge, John's trajectory?"

"No, John was nothing more than graviton energy, and as such was incapable of
interacting with any temporarily locked matter."

"Well, let's discuss this time travel phenomena some more. You keep telling me of
your capabilities, and I keep getting warned of paradox. How do you safeguard against
paradox?"

"Paradox is intrinsically linked with the dualistic nature of the universe. Our
propulsion system harnessed the power released by creating very minuscule paradoxes
called monopoles. These monopoles are singularities which are created when the forces of
nature try to divide by zero. Since the monopole cannot exist at steady state, it is actually
a result of a balance between matter and antimatter which occurs as a result of our
gravitational field manipulations. The anti-matter particles can be envisioned as being the
same as its corresponding material particle. The material particle travels forward in time
and the anti-particle travels backward in time. They are actually the same particle. The
monopole is the point at which the regular matter crosses the event horizon and becomes
its own opposite. The trajectories of the two must not intersect, otherwise another
monopole could be created. Most subnuclear particles are simply nothing more than a
harmonic oscillation of such high energy bosons bound within such a space-time loop. "

"How do life forms cope with such duality dangers while we cross the event
horizon? Do I encounter my opposite?"

"You cannot encounter your opposite by chance, if I'm navigating, and all that is
accounted for. I am a machine and as such cannot elaborate on the forces of will and
imagination which is a characteristic of a living being and not a machine. I am incapable of
crossing the event horizon intelligently without a life form aboard. My navigational acts
are a result of your will and imagination. You by controlling me determine the course of
future events. However, once you have made manifest any action as a result of action of
will, that creation can not be undone without destroying local space time in the region. A
creation in imaginary space can be undone, a creation in real space can not be undone. As
you live, time passes, and your brain balances between acts of the will and acts of the
imagination. Since I am a machine, I can't elaborate much further than that. Perhaps you
can elaborate further in your own mind, but I am of limited assistance there. The key to
avoiding paradox with life matter is to avoid time travel."

"Yet, John just time traveled."

"But notice, that he avoided all physical contact with you, until after you left him
on the Pegasus. He deliberately avoided creating paradox. If you received radiated
information confirming his dual presence, then you would have sensed a paradox. Causal
implications would be very indeterminate and as such certain instabilities could likely have
occurred. We are aware of John's threefold existence as we encountered his graviton trail.
We know that he is now on the Pegasus on its way to Artemis and also on earth with
Antiope. We also just encountered his graviton trail. It is hard to explain how we are
avoiding paradox, but we are because of the fact that the spatial temporal displacement is
being controlled by precise calculated control of interdimensional dynamic displacement.
You did program me with that function as you well know. John's computer network got
that from me while we linked on the Pegasus. Jim you still are the inventor of time travel.
John got the idea from you."

Lazarus Cain

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