"I even have a game for you, my lady as well. Qblh will play in a virtual reality world with you while I obtain critiical governing kernels. Please be aware that you are programming so any decisions that you make in this game will have very lasting consequences, so be aware of this danger. We can recreate any scene that you encounter, however, so there are save and restore features. We can correct any mistakes that you perceive during the game and keep replaying the scene until it suits your taste. Are you game?"

'I want Qblh by my side physically as well during this game."

"We anticipated that. You will be permittted to play regardless of Jim's ambrosia levels."

"Oh, I shall like this game very much. The children can have separate rooms."

"Of course."

"And I can watch the stars go by as well."

"As you wish, mty lady."

Xiang queried. "Can I watch the stars as well."

"You're the pilot, Xiang. Your father has given you this privilege. Didn't you say that you thought your solution might work?"

"Yes, but father said I needed to review my theory for more errors. Apparently I made some mistakes."

"Of course you did, he wouldn't want to admit that you had that ability. I don't know how many times I had to remind him of his simple mistakes before he finally programmed me correctly. This is part of your game."

"And what are you going to teach me. Genie?" Xuang queried.

"Your routine is similar to your mother's. In your case, you are assumed as the future ruler of Artemis. You play the role of queen of the Venetian empire with all due priveleges. In your case, I must perform future simulations."

"And who invented these games?" Isis queried.

" 'Creates' is the proper term, my dear. Genie reacts to each of us by mimicking a known environmental reality which it has experienced in the past."

"Of course, Genie summons images which are contained in our hall of records."

"Precisely, and those images react in a real fashion, thus the virtual simulation."

"So you can undoubtedly establish thought links with Genie, can't you Jim?"

Jim smiled. "It's not quite that simple, but I suppose you are right."

"I knew it! It's just magick."

"It's not magic."

"I know perfectly well what it is, Jim. It's magick, but I am impressed. You are very good. Your machinehead intelligence will make it impossible for me to distinguish you from the Genie, but you shall be under my ambrosial influence, so we shall see how smart Genie is with you at a disadvantage."

"Where is the problem? I already told you I am allowing you access to Genie's capabilities."

"But not complete access."

"You are reprogramming Shaltain, not Genie. Do not think that you are reprogramming Genie. So complete access is denied."

The children seemed most eager to start the game, so the family finished the formalities of the reunion quite quickly. For the remainder of the day, the royal family would stay in touch with each other electronically, yet also live. Genie would retard and advance messages so that each participant could adress and respond in their own time, yet with the illusion of appearing live. A time travel machine can do this.

And so it was that Jim had the Box navigate the Pegasus back to Artemis. Genie successfully managed to develop replacement software for the Artemis electronic governing banks. Jim made some minor corrections to his theoretical database, and the Idiot computer found the entrance to the wormhole. It seemed that the wormhole opening had occurred about the time of the Great Flood. A wormhole opening being understood as the entry point for the Pegaus from the Cygnus jump. The point at which the Pegasus had reentered the Earth continuun could best be understood as the creation of a singularity. This same singularity would be the reentry point for the way back. The trick in entering this singularity is that it must be done at light velocity and the entry space required is considerably smaller than the broad side of a barn. That is the trouble with space travel. One needs the greatest precision in navigation, far beyond the ability of any human. Energy must be vectored with microscopic perfection and a split second error could yield tragic circumstances.

True to his word, Jim allowed Xiang to pilot the way back to Artemis. To say the ride was a little bumpy is putting it rather mildly. Xiang simly justified the overshoot by saying he always wanted to see what the universe looked like a few billion years ago. He also had considerable trouble braking within the galaxy. Jim was highly amused as he watched his son learn how to drive.

"You must learn to put on the brakes before you even see the target galaxy , Xiang. You must fly by your knowledge of where the stars are, and not by where they appear to be."

Xuang laughed as her brother kept overshooting the galaxy and forever arriving at the wrong time when he did manage to slow down in time. Imagine the frustration of trying to intersect a point in space-time which comes and goes in a split second and is sub-nuclear in size. Finding a needle in a haystack is child's play compared to this. It is also the apparent impossibility of this task which was so frustrating to the Amazons. Coming out of the hole was one thing. Finding one's way back was another.

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