Ivory Fersoni

Hilde

Hilde's Father
One of the mysteries that is not resolved for readers of Exode is the identity of Hilde's father. As described previously, Hilde is the daughter of Hana and an unknown man who is one of the children of Andy. Why is the story of Andy's children so difficult to sort out for "the editor" of the Exode Trilogy?

As was the case for Hilde, growing up on Earth was a struggle for all of Andy's offspring. Grean insulated Hilde's cousins from the meddling efforts of physicians and Lili, as the well-informed matriarch, knew that her grandchildren only needed loving care and adequate time to develop along the rather delayed trajectory that is typical for anyone with a healthy dose of Asterothrope, Ek'col and Kac'hin genes.

Ivory Fersoni is a cousin of Hilde (update).

Of course, the Overseers would have been outraged had they know that Lili was living on Earth during much of the 20th century.

Kach was designed and crafted on Hemmal, Lycaun was trained on Luk'ru in the Andromeda galaxy and in much the same way Lili grew up on Tar'Tron.

Grean was forced to bring Lili to Earth, but the details of her time spent on our planet are not part of the story told in Exode.

Lili at Atlantis.

Andy and Gwyned are the children of Deomede and Trysta. Gwyned wears out her welcome on Earth by actively working to make black holes a viable source of cheap energy, a vocation that runs her afoul of the secret Nereid agent who is operating in 20th century Earth. For her own protection, Deomede subtracts Gwyned from our primitive civilization and sends her off to the stars. Similarly, Grean takes Andy into "protective custody".

Andy Iwedon was quietly extracted from the known history of Earth at about the same time that his sister Gwyned is teleported away to first Klyz and then is sent on to the Interventionist training base at Lendhalen. The Kac'hin maintain a secret undersea base of operations on Earth (which they jokingly refer to as "Atlantis")...it is the perfect refuge for Andy.

With the assistance of swarms of sedronic zeptoscale artificial lifeforms, Lili and Andy manage to produce at least two healthy children and raise them to adulthood in the undersea base of Atlantis. One of those children, name unknown, plays an important role in Exode as the father of Hilde.

Ivory at Atlantis, 1992

Ivory Fersoni
The only other known fact is that Lili and Andy had at least one daughter. While still quite young, she met and fell in love with Adão Fersoni, a passenger on Portuguese ship that sank in 1961. Adão, near death, was rescued and taken into Atlantis. Using the assumed family name Papagaio, Adão and his young family were moved out of Atlantis and settled on the island Annobón in 1966 when his daughter Ivory was 4 years old. Adão shipped goods between the mainland, Annobón and other nearby islands until he was murdered by members of the violent Esangui clan in 1971. At that time, Ivory was taken by her mother to the town of Salinópolis in Pará, Brazil.

Ivory earned an anthropology degree from the Federal University of Pará in 1982. She then did mitochondrial DNA sequencing at the Universidade de São Paulo for a project investigating the genetic history of native peoples of South America. Ivory did postdoctoral research at the Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar. In 1991, using her own DNA as a control, Ivory discovered that her DNA was distinct from any known human DNA pattern. Her mother refused to provide a DNA sample and from then on she would only contact Ivory by way of a mysterious email account.

Anna in 1995

While preparing to publish a journal article describing her unusual DNA pattern, Ivory was visited by Grean and "invited" to return to Atlantis. Although Lili had by this time returned to Tar'Tron, Ivory was surprised to find that her clone, Anna (an identical "twin sister" who was 5 years younger than herself) had a biology research lab in Atlantis.

Anna's area of research was brain development and her test subjects were additional cloned copies of Ivory, then ages 2, 5, and 9. Grean allowed Ivory to expand the on-going research into the study of brain development in her own children. Upon demonstrating that her eggs could produce fairly normal children using sperm from genetically normal humans, Ivory eventually talked Anna into also having two children of her own.

However, Anna was tired of the restricted life in Atlantis. Handing over care of the younger clones to Ivory, Anna went out to live within conventional Earthly society.

Zeptite-mediated Telepathy
Under the influence of an intensive zeptite-assisted brain development program devised by Ivory, her two youngest "clone sisters" were able to make use of their bimanoid interface to establish a form of telepathic communication with their cousin Hilde, who, by chance, had undergone a similar pattern of brain development under the influence of zeptites provided to her by Betty. Thus, when Hilde had the chance to communicate with "the editor" before her departure from Earth, she was able to suggest the possibility that other descendents of Andy were present on Earth.

At the end of Exode, Grean stands down from duty on Earth. All the terms of the negotiated agreement between Trysta and Grean have been met. Most of the "Ivory clones" remain on Earth, leaving open the possibility that some Earthlings will continue to efficiently utilize the bimanoid interface.

Anney's escape from Earth

Anney, one of the "Atlantis clones" leaves Earth with Grean. They join up with Kach for her continued search for the Creators. Kach believes that she must extend her search to other galaxies. Grean believes that the key to contact with the Huaoshy is found within the Kac'hin.

Anney has the technical ability to initiate experiments exploring how to improve control over the Kac'hin bimanoid interface. It is not clear that the Huaoshy have any real interest in Humanity. If things don't work out for humans on Earth, the pek are still perfecting the Prelands on worlds of the galactic core.

1914

In The World Set Free, Herbert Wells imagined a future in which nuclear power was used for destructive purposes. That technological challenge to human survival prompted a response: Humanity was able to unify and move on into the future.

In Exode, there is no such happy resolution of of the challenges facing we Earthlings. The Buld are left in a delicate situation. They want to warm Mars and make that world their new home. At the same time, they have the means to cool the Sun and save Earth from global warming, but do they have a motive for helping we Earthlings?

1954

cave art by Stephen Youll

1954

Asimov's robotic character Daneel first appeared in book format in 1954. Daneel makes a brief appearance in my fan fiction sequel to Asimov's novel, Foundation and Earth.

I previously decided to remove the names of Asimov's fictional characters from the Exode Trilogy. For example, I have Noÿs Lambent use the cover name "Trysta Iwedon" while she resides in 20th century Earth.

1953

In the case of Daneel, I am free to use any name I want. For example, Asimov had Daneel use the name Eto Demerzel during the time in the Foundation Reality when the galactic empire centered on Trantor was about to fall. As mentioned above in this blog post, the world Trantor appears with the name "Tar'Tron" (or Tar'tron...I can't decide which version I prefer) in the Exode Trilogy. The planet is called "Tart'Tron" while it is under pek control in the Realities the come after the Foundation Reality.

By the time of the events involving Daneel that are depicted in The Foundations of Eternity, Daneel has long since transferred his memories into the brain of Fallom. Who is the "new individual" that is created by this merger of Fallom and Daneel?

art by Stephen Youll

I imagine that the name "Fallom" continues to be applied to the combined intellect of Fallom and Daneel. I also imagine that the physical body (and specifically his positronic brain) of Daneel continues to be useful, although most of his ancient memories are erased in order to make room for new ones. Daneel can still function as an operative, going out to the various human-populated worlds of the galaxy, as needed. By the time of the events in The Foundations of Eternity, Galaxia has come into existence and Daneel's remaining project takes the form of rather mundane but continued support of the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Asimov showed us that Daneel was comfortable working with operatives such as Dors Venabili. I imagine that Dors was a human/robot hybrid using positronic circuits and some other artificial components, but with a body mostly composed of human cells.

Similarly, by the time of the events in The Foundations of Eternity, I imagine that Daneel has been re-formed into a man-machine hybrid that can move among the Human worlds of the galaxy unrecognized as a being with a positronic brain.

art by Stephen Youll

When the crew of Many Sails approaches Fallom's hidden base on the Moon, Daneel is recalled from his duties on Terminus.

What role might Daneel adopt as his "cover identity" on Terminus? As imagined in The Foundations of Eternity, with Galaxia formed, Gohrlay has allowed some contact between the vast Genesaunt civilization and a few worlds of our galaxy.

I also imagine that some operatives such as Daneel have gone out to other galaxies on missions to investigate Genesaunt civilization. I'm now thinking that Daneel, using the cover name Lars Darwin (named in honor of Lord Dorwin), proposes to stimulate interest in the Encyclopedia Galactica by contributing his own expertise as the new Andromeda galaxy editor.

The "Lars Darwin" persona is a famous intergalactic adventurer, well known for his expeditions to nearby galaxies.

2014

From the the perspective of "the editor" of the Exode Trilogy, the key question about the "Atlantis clones" is if maybe one of the clones with a brain that is well tuned to zeptites and skilled using the bimanoid interface could help sort out the story of the Exode Trilogy.

So far, I've imagined "the editor" having to initiate a search for the "Atlantis clones". However, at the end of the events in Exode, there is nothing to prevent the residents of Atlantis from reaching out and telling their story to the world. Well....maybe not "nothing". How would xenophobic Earthlings react to the knowledge that there are some humans on Earth with unusual genomes? Would it be wise for Ivory and her relatives to keep quiet and not reveal their existence -or their unusual genetic endowment- to the rest of us "run-of-the-mill" humans?

June 1940

During the past year I've had fun imagining the science fiction stories that might be written by Thomas. Thomas enjoyed a rather exquisite pattern of early brain development with the assistance of Ekcolir and the advanced zeptoscale devices that he brought to Earth for his Interventionist mission.

Now I'm tempted to imagine that one of the "Atlantis clones" might become a writer. Grean and Lili could not explain many mysteries to Andy and his family, then they departed from Earth, believing that by the terms of the agreement with Trysta, Earth and its people were to be allowed to make their own future.

For people like Ivory, after living a life that might feel like it was scripted as part of a science fiction story, it might only be possible to publish one's autobiography as science fiction.

Inspired by pulp fiction magazines.
Click to enlarge.

Maybe some day "the editor" of the Exode Trilogy will suddenly discover a published "science fiction" novel that describes events on Earth that only make sense in the context of what "the editor" thinks of as the secret history of Earth: the long struggle of Gohrlay and her positronic robots to win we humans a chance to reach the stars. Of course, the Atlantis clones will be unable to make sense of their bizarre lives until they gain access to the cache of information that was deposited with the editor of the Exode Trilogy.

Ivory might be the one to tell the story of the "Atlantis clones", but I imagine that she would not be the best choice to help edit the Exode Trilogy. She might be willing to let her name be used in the publication process and be a point of first contact for "the editor".

There is more detail about the writing career of Ivory in my next blog post.

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Note: see "Let there be light" for more more about the Bimanoid Interface.

Related reading: Clones in Exode
2018 - Ivory on Cynk

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