QBLH
by
"My name is Abdul. I see you are Americans. You are creating quite a stir around here."
Qblh remained silent. He gestured for Helen to take over. He didn't want to talk. "Well we have just started. Take us to Jerusalem now."
"That is not easy. They have secured the border."
"We'll see. Just drive."
Traffic was exteremly congested on the approach to the Gaza border. Helen payed off an armed group to clear the way for her. They managed to get the cab to within a few yards of the border. Helen exited the cab, dragging Jim with her and walked to talk to the gate guards. Speaking English, a Palestinian officer assisted her in providing an unuobstructed path to the gate.
Ahead the road was considerably less congested. He was reluctant to allow Qblh to cross unquestioned, but a quick look from Helen pursuaded him to comply.
The Israeli guards were much more reluctant to allow Helen pass, and the officer refused the gold offering and was ready to arrest Helen because of the attempted bribe, but Qblh then spoke to the guard in fluent Hebrew.
No one else understood what Qblh had said, but the guard immediately became a little more friendly towards Helen. He allowed the cab to pass and then called his superiors advising them as to the presence of this group within Israel.
General Armstrong took the call. He laughed. So that was where he was. He had been very busy that day keeping track of his aliens. It seemed that someone was playing havoc with the market insisting that fission and fusion energy systems would displace conventional power plants. He was even aware of some very powerfull photovoltaic systems as well for low power applications. General Armstrong liked this brave new world that Jim seemed to be bringing with him. It was hard to trust Jim upon first appearances. It just didn't seem possible that what the man suggested was possible.
Satellite reconnaissance spotted the cab on the highway many miles below. General Armstrong placed a phone call to the closest Israeli command post. He asked to talk to the occupants of the cab. Abdul talked incessantly about this land. Qblh wasn't interested, and neither was Helen. Helen noticed the cab's air conditioner wasn't working.
"Turn on the air conditioner, Abdul. I'm hot."
"It doesn't work. No parts, no freon."
"Jim!"
"OK."
"Stop the cab, Abdul. I'll fix your air conditioner. She insists."
"You must be kidding, Jim. I have no tools and neither do you. How do you propose to fix it? Your woman must be crazy? Are you going to listen to her?"
"She will not give either of us a moment of peace if we don't make her comfortable. She's on a date and wants to be comfortable. Just go buy yourself a carton of cigarettes on me, while I take care of your car."
Abdul was gone less than five minutes. He noticed his cab was running with the windows rolled up. Inside Helen was smiling at him. Getting inside, he was amazed at the blast of cool air that met him.
"Is it alright," he asked, "if you don't make it quite so cold. I'll settle for 76 degrees if that is cool enough for you."
"See Jim, I told you it was too cold for him."
"I thought he would appreciate 68 degrees. Sure Abdul, you can turn the air down a little."
"No I want to turn it up. I want it warmer."
"That is incorrect English, Abdul. To make it colder you turn up the air conditioner, you turn it down to make it warmer."
"You English people. Your language makes no sense."
Abdul still was very impressed by his functioning air conditioner. The unit had never worked. The woman had a delightful aroma and was very enticing, but her companion intimidated him. He had an air of self-confidence and fearlessness.
"The road to Jerusalem has many checkpoints. It will be very expensive to attempt bribes all the way, and it doesn't always work. I have some friends who can see you there for a very modest fee."
Qblh had no intentions of explaining his tactics to Abdul. "Just drive the cab. That is all I am paying you for."
"It can be very dangerous."
"I am dangerous, but don't be afraid; I will see that no harm befalls you. She trusts me to protect her. Why shouldn't you? She certainly needs more protection from others than you."
Satisfied that his passengers were not idiots, Abdul felt more at ease. In fact, he felt a little bit of a thrill with the sense of upcoming fun and surprises. The road to Jerusalem was slow driving because of massive amounts of foot and animal traffic which would always be reluctant to yield the right of way.
Qblh could easily perceive the hatred between Jew and Muslim. Both wanted sovereignty of this particular patch of road to Jerusalem. Qblh knew this to be unacceptable. Yaohushua was clearly influencing him to survey this land prior to his time jump. These same people would find the rule of Isis to be totally unacceptable as well. What they could not know is from whence he came and to whence he was going.
Qblh intended on constructing a fusion power plant in Jerusalem with the Master's permission. He would have to jump back in time, or so he thought, to get that permission. With permission granted he would commence construction.
Earth needed inexpensive power for all. Power and energy is the lifeblood of all machinery, not oil. Antiope was very uncomfortable with her perception of Middle East commercial strategies. She felt that the West was being pressured by its oil interests in the Middle East, and was willing to compromise values in order to keep oil pipelines flowing freely.
Fusion energy is the principle by which the stars create energy. The gravitational field of the star creates the immense pressure which maintains the fusion process. There would be no religious blasphemy in powering Jerusalem with such a method.
Distribution of power as other utilities is best carried out by a single administration with any city. The divided city concept is a very bad idea. America had been somewhat overprotective with regard to its nuclear policy. Government regulations prohibited export of nuclear technology.
Unscrupulous and misguided politicians frightened the masses into being afraid of nuclear power technology by playing on the public's fear of the unknown and nuclear bombs. America was too self righteous. It justified the use of the atomic bomb to save the lives of millions of combatants.
Japanese women and children died horrible deaths that the American public is deathly afraid of. Yet the shock of the death of these thousands of civilians did prevent conventional fire bombing of Japanese cities which would have incurred the death of millions of woman and children. The suicidal nature of the Imperial Japanese war mentality of the time influenced the American leadership to act in this manner.
As a result over-regulation drove the cost of nuclear power generation so high that the only limit to the price of oil was the world economy itself. It was no secret that the world economy could be controlled by controlling the flow of oil. The oil equation was a vital part of the thinking of German and Japanese WWII strategy.
America was no help. It fed its population a desire for the private automobile. America had to keep its public entertained and happy.
The American infrastructure has no public transportation system to boast of.. Instead they depend ont the automobile to get back and forth to work. Hampering private ownership of a means for transportation restricted an individual's means to finding employment in a competitive society.
In America employers are prohibited from discriminating during hiring on account of a person's domestic residence. A person can live in Indiana and work in Illinois. Both states have individual laws concerning civil laws. If one did not like the law in one state, he was free to move to another, and still be an American.
Yet, Qblh was quite aware of the trap America had gotten itself into and why the American economic system was truly not a model for the rest of the world.
Human efforts would always be flawed and full of good intention. Vain leaders would always inflate their own worth at the expense of the population. Government would also attempt to control the behavior of its citizins. Public education would always be used to indoctrinate the children with the values of those with the power to influence the media.
Yet government has no inherent sense of truth. A government that claims to be democratic finds itself to be subject to the rule of mass emotional crazies. Fear could easily be induced into one's thinking, and used to influence the mass unconscious. Contritely, religious beliefs required leaders to influence its public's fear of death. The more afraid of death the individual is, the easier he is to control.
Humans are vulnerable. They are mortal, and need sustenance. Individuals work for each other to get mutual help to better enable mutual survival. Individuals are often reluctant to die and to work for meager rations, but there is no end to what the human appetite can desire.
Abdul warned Jim of another upcoming check point. There were long line of cars and people as Israeli soldiers searched for contraband and weapons. As could be expected, there was an angry group of individuals who were denied the right to travel any further. Their paperwork had not been in order.
There was another small group of individuals who were being detained because of security concerns. The women of these individuals were crying that the soldiers were treating them unfairly.
Helen was not bored with this trip, amazingly enough, even though the journey was slow and tedious. She didn't know what Qblh had in mind, but she could sense it was of tremendous importance. She could easily see that this land had a great deal of problems and the solution was going to be nothing short of miraculous. Who else besides someone with the resources of Qblh would dare take on such a challenge?