Alone with his lover, Jim undressed her and tasted her fragrance. He buried his face in her hair as she guided his hand over the silky softness of her supply, curved body. Keeping him close to her, she pulled him down imprisoning him within her charms, as their unconsumable passion for each other performed its damage,. Her tears bound him, as she begged him to cease from his labors and spend more time with her. Being unable to promise an eternity, he did agree to the next few days while Argos continued on to Colchis. The ship made extremely slow sailing, and it was quite easy for the Amazons to match an entire days sailing with only a few hours by horse.

The next day Antiope joined the little caravan, at which time it grew into an army with the arrival of the main Amazon troop. All were somewhat curious as to when Qblh would be taking them back to Artemis, as promised. Riders were sent ahead to Medea so as to prepare for the reception. Medea was delighted that Jim was on his way to see her. She made preparations to leave with him, but the king was somewhat disenchanted with the thought of Medea leaving, and vowed to destroy the temples if she did. Medea, in turn withheld the royal concubines in an effort to starve the king's forces. The army became somewhat rebellious when the temple maidens would not perform services, and the king reluctantly withdrew his threats, but began another plot against Medea anyway. The news that a foreign ship would soon be arriving distracted the king as well. He promised to give his son Medea in marriage, if he could prevent her from leaving with any of the newcomers. The doomed prince accepted the challenge.

Jim activated Genie and requested a transfer to Artemis soon finding himself lost in an Amazon orgy where he was not even aware much of the time as to which planet he was on. For several days, Jim would be totally under the influence of ambrosia, and he actually made love to the same woman, quite frequently, on Earth as well as Artemis. He made a game of seeking each in the Pleasure Dome immediately prior to an Earth date, or sometimes afterwards. Antiope and Helen declined an episode in the Pleasure Dome, but most of the Earthbound Amazons loved the experience, even though they were somewhat dazed and confused by the implications of what had been experienced. Yet Idiot permitted the episodes, alllowing Jim to acquire at least an additional fifty golden pegs during the excursion.

Helen did not particularly care for the "necessity" to preoccupy so much of his time with the other Amazons. Yet his efforts did seem to quell the rebellious spirit within Medusa, and it soon became quite apparent that he had pursuaded them all to be extremely nice to Antiope and Helen. Jim had also learned a great deal concerning the current news, since the women had a lot to say. Antiope and Helen were not entirely neglected. He spent each night with both of them..

Perhaps it would be important to remind the reader that the Amazons do not age as rapidly as the Earth humans. Isis would also warp in and out of earth local space while exerting her influence from her Pegasus inertial frame of reference. During these materialization episodes, her priestesses could be transferred to or from their Earth assignments. Many of these maidens with which Jim mated could then be considered hundreds of Earth years old, not to mention the fact that they could be in a sense viewed as not having been born yet either. Yet Jim was actually travelling back to the future to meet them and depositing seed after they had completed their journey, or is it before? Time is meaningless here, and because in each case the duo passed through a singularity in order to conceive, the actual sequence of events can appear to violate causality. The physics is also somewhat impossible to explain. The net result amounts to the fact that all the Amazons were just impregnated at that point in Jim's timeline, and the incubation period had just begun. It may be odd to imagine how Andromeda was impregnated in the Pleasure Dome before she made her trip into the past, and then to live many years in the process, only now to have the child in her womb to commence growing. Yet it was only just now that the child was conceived. Amazon births have not always been the easiest to explain. Idiot would later attempt to detail the operation to Jim, but he asked for the nightmare to cease within five minutes after Idiot commenced the explanation. Results are easier to accept than explanations. Jim had less than thirty Amazons waiting within the Pleasure Dome, and Idiot still demonstrated greater than ninety-nine percent certainty of mission success. Each and every Amazon would eventually find herself back in the Pleasure Dome remembering the entire Earth adventure almost as if it were a dream, but their collective memories would convince them of the reality.

The Amazon caravan proceded on a parallel course with the Argos. They intended to return Jim to the boat just prior to its arrival at Colchis. Antiope would then retreat to their sanctuary at Lesbos to await on her Theseus and her Hercules. The Amazons preferred to isolate themselves from the human men not because they didn't love them, but it was because they couldn't with out destroying their lover. Even if somehow the man could survive, it would be difficult for him when he realized that she didn't age. Very few realized this secret, and the priestesses usually rotated locations before anyone noticed their ageless features. Some of the Amazons were regarded as goddesses by the primitive locals. They were not permitted to die on an Earth assignment, and by the power of the "stone", the Pegasus could always relocate to safely retrieve the injured individual to allow life saving techniques to be applied. Lately it had been noticed that the Pegasus was no longer available. As a result the earthbound Amazons had no alternative but to turn to Antiope and Helen for leadership. Antiope and Helen had been outfitted with an Idiot designed and extremely well-camoflauged defensive system. It was the same system which was linked to Helen's moonstone and Antiope's girdle.

When Antiope arrived, Jim was with Helen in her tent, but that did not prevent Antiope from bursting in. Helen held no jealousy concerning this invasion of her privacy. Helen was somewhat tired of Qblh for the time being and assisted Antiope into the appropriate mood by removing her girdle. She assisted somewhat more in the undressing and Jim soon found himself subject to a double barrelled load of ambrosia.

"Would you like to meet your daughters, Jim?"

"No sons?"

"We weren't that fortunate. Perhaps the next time."

"Besides we would prefer not to raise our sons in this time."

"How do you like your adventure, Antiope?"

"Believe it or not Jim, everything is proceding in line with what Genie suggested in Chicago. I am truly amazed. I don't know how you designed that thing, Jim, but that Box of yours is the most incredible invention of civilization, but who invented it? You or John? For the life of me, this time travelling confuses me as to which one of you can claim the credit, but what does it matter? I still feel uncomfortable living in the past, and would feel relieved to return to our own time, yet our adventure has only just begun. Yet death is real enough, and we are all afraid of dying in the past and never returning to our own time. You have done this before Jim, and our queen seems to have no fear of such adventures and she doesn't even have a Genie to help her. We find this to be most refreshing however, my love, so don't be discouraged. Your gift to me has to be the most marvelous gift than any woman has received, and if not is more than enough for me."

"No biggie," Jim lied.

"Medea likes neither of us, Jim. She is jealous of both myself and Antiope, not to mention Hatshepsut, because she knows that you love us. Medea claims to have had a bout with you in the Pleasure Dome or so we have heard. Did you encounter her while you were making your flashback romances?"

"Yes Jim, I have also heard many of my warriors mentioning flash sessions in the Pleasure Dome. Quite a few claimed to have actually been on Artemis, yesterday? Is this true?"

"Now girls, please. You know I'm living on borrowed time and have a scorepad to turn into Isis. When it is full, the clock runs out and we all have to be on Artemis with this Earth adventure of ours terminated. Remeber we only have a couple of days to experience this adventure of yours."

Antiope laughed. "Certainly you jest, Jim. We have been here over several dozen Earth moons and you keep referring to the fact that all this is occuring in less than two days Artemis time."

"The passage of time is an indeterminant when you cross the event horizon, sweethearts. Yet the rules of science require me to return you to our time from exactly where we left. When we return to the twenty-first century, we will be on the Flying Dutchman just southeast of Cyprus, and all this will seem almost as a dream, yet it will not have been a dream, but a real experience. To others, however, it will appear as a dream, but unfortunately the paradox avoidance system will leave you unable to prove that we altered history in any manner. "

"So where to now Jim?"

"We are going to arrange for the removal of the tribe after they attack our city which we rule together, Antiope; and we are going to send Helen to Menelaeus to be the High Priestess of Sparta. You and I, Antope are going to get married in Athens. How do you like that?"

"That sounds wonderful, Jim. Yet what of the Amazons once we have deserted them. They will attack our city and regard us as traitors. I promised them a return to Artemis."

"And so shall they be returned. At the time of dying on the battlefield, they shall not die, but I shall employ Genie to return them all to Artemis at that time, for that shall be the end of the amazons as far as Earth legends are concerned."

"And leave those egocentric male barbarians to rule the Eath. I've seen how they think, Jim. Men are so stupid. They will undo all the good that we have done. I can't trust a single chieftain. Every time they see us, they send a few men to abduct us only to find corpses, and then they hate us and revile us. I don't know what you see in these men, Jim, but I believe Isis is right. They certainly will make a mess out of ruling. Why do you feel you have to sort out the mess Jim by yourself, when Isis is all too willing to help these men in her own successful manner. You may not approve her tactics, but we have ruled Earth for the past nine thousand years."

"Your subjects have been getting to you, eh, Antiope? You know I don't like to hear that, and you also know that Isis would love to have heard you tell me that. Yet I have always warned you of the risks of involving yourself in this adventure and you must learn to trust me. I do know what I am doing, believe it or not......and don't forget, I'm a man too."

"So when can I announce our betrothal?"

"You can't tell them that yet, Antiope. They will certainly rebel if you take me as your spouse. For you to marry their Qblh would be treason or sacrelege or worse, and they would declare war on us and our Greek allies. Didn't your simulation tell you that?"

"Well I thought that was the plan."

"Yes but now is not the time, as you should well know."

"Just teasing, my beloved. Don't get jealous, Helen dear. I am somewhat envious of your adventure as well. You get to go down in history as the world's most beautiful woman. You should feel flattered."

"Yes, but I don't get married to my hero. I am stuck with an old feeble king who will hardly keep my interest."

"Why Helen, Meneleaus was the most famous king of Sparta."

"Yes but he did not have the courage to go after me himself. Instead he sent his gorilla brother. It seems that I shattered their male pride when I decided to live with who I really like."

"Now Helen. you shouldn't be talking of these things in the past tense. They are your future."

"And if I decide not to cooperate?"

Jim smiled. "So you would rather stay with that feeble old king than be carried away by this white knight."

"Jim you were such a coward. Why do you intend on running away from the fight that you could have easily won."

"We really don't know what happened yet, Helen, and by the way, I am forbidden to take any life, so there will be no way that I can win a fight to the death with the human mortal. It may be imperative that I retreat, as history shows. Yet in our version, Helen, you are not going back to Sparta. The Greeks shall be permitted to destroy Troy, and that shall be their reward, but you're leaving with me. Your time in the past shall have ended. Yet that is all still a little way off, my dear Helen."

"I'll pass up being your maid of honor, if you don't mind, Antiope."

"Oh please, Helen. It is nothing personal. I don't love you any less. It is just the marriage itself is essential to act out our role with the Greeks."

Antiope frowned. "I don't know if I should marry you, if it doesn't mean anything, Jim."

Antiope and Helen both stared at Jim, wondering what he would say in response.

"I thought it was your wish Antiope, and we both know full well our marriage on Earth will not be recognized on Artemis as legal.. Isis would annul it."

"Must you return to her?"

"I don't believe I can avoid it."

"You love her, don't you Jim?"

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