QBLH
by
"I am then to assume we are to land in this same ocean location yet 3400 Earth years previous. I am to also acquire maximum antimatter charge in the process. I am also programming in an extra ten kilograms for John as well. In our bounce back to Artemis, I will have to fly through Cygnus and discharge some antimatter."
"OK Idiot. Effect displacement."
"Processing and implementing."
"I'll tell the ladies to get below so that we may change outward appearance. Do you have a model of a time-ship to demonstrate for the record?"
"Of course I do, Jim."
"I see, we effectively transverse space by decreasing the actual 'distance' between points; that is we shrink space."
"Yes, the apparent shape of space is altered by reconstructing our gravitational tensor field to one that is of a distinctly different velocity relative to Earth's space. Our meter is a distinctly different meter in a different frame of reference, as is our second distinctly different."
"Thus there is no lower limit to the amount of time needed to traverse great distances."
"As long as one is free to control his velocity. I am your dream machine with self generating power capabilities. Power requires direction, but the direction must maintain continuity else an uncontrollable release of energy would result in the complete instability of local space."
"Poof and we go boom! Correct, Idiot?"
"Correct Jim. Have you advised to the ladies the risks of this form of travel? They seem to suffer from the illusion that time travel is risk free. This will be their first trip back in time."
"Idiot, they don't belong on the Earth we just left. I still believe our best course of action with respect to Earth is to not become involved. Somehow, I regret becoming involved in the first place. Now I have promised to give them the ability to harness fusion energy. Yet they hedge in accepting my help, and fear some great nuclear holocaust instead. I am advised that such secrets be given to only a privileged few. Who decides who the privileged are to be? The same system that distributes the wealth? Harnessing tremendous amounts of power leaves very little room for error, and we have too much potential power over this little planet to make mistakes."
"Yes, Jim, but so far our mistakes have not been critical ones. I still have a potential path projected in my active navigational controller for 3400 years ago, and as you are quite aware, we are on our way, and are no longer in Earth's gravitational field or local space. We are currently interfacing with the Cygnus singularity, the ladies will be losing consciousness shortly. I can effect transformation of the ship's appearance during the brief time that they are unconscious. I am making the transition very smoothly, Jim, almost too smoothly, almost as if.....Jim! We're being pulled in. Our controls require us to follow the direction made manifest to us. It is almost, as if, we're expected."
"This is highly unusual, Idiot."
"Jim, why did you decide to make this trip?"
At that moment, the event horizon was crossed as all passengers lost consciousness. Just a fleeting second passed, and Jim awakened to find himself on what appeared to be a simple merchant boat. Idiot advised Jim that they had arrived.
Below decks, the Flying Dutchman was provided with a Venetian interior with all the corresponding luxuries. Idiot had to maintain an artificial gravitational space in order to do so, but this was simply one of the many gravitational manifolds that Idiot had to maintain in order to store its massive reserves of antimatter and energy reserves. The current state of Idiot's power reserves would have given Jim enough power to bounce immediately back to Cygnus and then to Artemis of their home time, if it were not for the other very powerful field which seemed to have trapped them.
Antiope and Helen, being not very technically minded and also asleep, knew nothing about this other power, so Jim and Idiot were the only one's aware. "Let us maintain silence about this other energy field to anyone else Idiot. It isn't John, is it? "
"No John's signature is distinctly different. This is definitely a very strong power field, and yet it is like nothing that I have any record of. The field is temporally active and quite alive. I am but a machine Jim, this energy field appears to be a living, intelligent source."
"Amazing! It seems that I may indeed find who I am looking for."
"And who is that Jim?"
"Idiot, you would never understand."
"Perhaps neither of us currently understands, and we both need to discover the facts to make us understand. You, to satisfy the reason for your curiosity; I, so that I can provide you with the necessary support. The women are with you to bear witness."
"Idiot, you mentioned that this other power source is alive and intelligent. Are you receiving any transmissions that you can interpret?"
"Affirmative Jim, but I am denied communication access, because I am but a machine. Aren't you receiving transmissions?"
"Transmissions?"
"Yes, I have the understanding that you are in communication with this being, or so I am told."
Jim self reflected. "So it is He! Truly amazing!"
Then realizing his consciousness was naked before God, Jim was tremendously embarrassed. Feeling that he had been summoned to this time, he felt that the women were not to be exposed until they had a little less allegiance to their mistress, the queen.
Jim would have to deliberately create a paradox. His communication links with this unknown force were numerous, brief, and intense. "You have been afflicted by me," The message was conveyed to him, mentally.
Isis had intense mental power, but Jim could resist these assaults with some effort. This new intelligence was much more intense, making Jim feel like an intruder. Jim felt very small in comparison, in spite of the power of his Box, which itself was under this power's influence. Idiot did not even realize what was controlling it. Idiot was being tampered with as easily as he had tampered with early Earth's twenty-first century computers.
"Jim, we are only quasi-stable in this region. I am having difficulty merging with Earth's local gravitational field. We aren't fully materialized."
"We can't surrender our mass reserves, Idiot, maintain position."
Jim mentally struggled to determine his course of action, once fully grounded. He then lapsed into a dream-like state. Flashing through his mind were glimpses of a mass Exodus. Jim found himself on a mountain staring at a frightened old man. "Bear witness!" Jim was told. The old man could not see Jim, and Jim could not see the Voice, but Jim could feel the fear and awe that the old man had for this same Power.
Jim's state of consciousness shifted, and he was once again aware of himself being on the Dutchman. "Jim, I have managed to achieve stabilization. I must admit that I was lucky. The solution seemed to involve the simultaneous equalization of a triple set of twelth-order gravigeometrecal tensor transformation matrices while maintaining a null geodesic. It is the first time that I have successfully solved the equation. It seems that I must have learned something new since the last attempt which allowed me to perform the critical switch."
Jim knew better. He had been given permission to land. Jim was elated. He had been accepted by the Hebrew God. Yet it would not be his role to reveal Him to the people of this time, because that role had been given to another. Jim had no doubt that the great exodus would soon occur. As with Noah, Jim would maintain his distance and keep uninvolved, unless forced. Having encountered the old man on the mountain and sensing his immediate gravitational stabilization, Jim knew that the old man was still there at this very moment, still stunned from the encounter.