Angela |
As described previously, "the education of the editor" required creation of the Atlantis Clones. Most recently, I decided that Angela would be the proximal conduit by which the bimanoid interface could channel information to "the editor" of the Exode Trilogy. Now I need to sketch in the backstory for Angela, particular some details about her family and her birth mother.
Arosa University |
By the time I arrived, we all called it the Triversity. Sure, I'd seen "Lycée Trois" on the seal in the upper right corner of all official documents from the school, but I gave that no thought. So complete had been the Anglicization after the influx of students from the States during the1960s that French was almost completely unknown to the faculty and student body, even if French Canadians had founded and managed Lycée Trois during its first two centuries of existence.
The Triversity was created during the Vietnam war as a solution to the problem of how the wealthy could keep their son's from being drafted. Two of the original three schools existed for decades on the Canadian side of the border and remained strictly segregated, one for boys and one for girls. When the U.S. - Canadian border finally solidified, the third school had, by necessity, been founded on the State side where it eventually became Cook State College in the 20th century (originally Cook Agricultural College).
Gunta College |
Arosagunta airport |
Still, Arosa College and Gunta College both attracted a fair number of "legacy students": sons and daughters of wealthy families who had become familiar with the Arosaguntacook area during the war. The Arosaguntacook valley had been shaped and reshaped by beaver for 10,000 years. During the war, hundreds of palatial "summer cottages" had been constructed in the area and, along with the Arosagunta airport, they still provide easy access to the Saddleback and Sugarloaf ski resorts during the winter.
Arosaguntacook valley |
During that summer I went for long bike rides through the valley. I was amazed by the modern and carefully paved blacktop roads that wound through the sheep pastures and forests. Occasionally I would glimpse some of the "cottages" that sat by their private lakes at the end of their private drives. By the end of each day I ended up back in town at my dorm, blissfully unaware of the high society of Arosaguntacook valley.
A lake of rural Arosagunta |
Professor Killian |
Professor Killian teamed me up with Pete, the other undergrad in the class. Halfway through the semester Pete and I finally started working on our joint project, which was supposed to be a mathematical model. Early in the semester I'd spent several weeks suggesting topics for modeling and Pete showed no interest in any of them. He was always talking about computer programming and we shared an interest in APL, a programming language that was available to me through the Triversity mainframe.
Peter's "cabin" |
Pete impatiently called me down the hall to his "study", which was a large bedroom converted into his computing room. Half a dozen PCs occupied most of the desk space, including an Apple II which was attached to a huge color monitor. In a closet there was a gleaming new PDP-11. Pete sat down next to a "home-brew" computer that did not exist in a case, but rather was strung out component-by-component in a rack half concealed by wires and cables. On a glowing green Tektronix screen were the specialized characters of APL code. He explained that he was making an APL interpreter that could run on a microcomputer.
I expressed my skepticism about being able to run APL on a microcomputer and he patiently explained how in another year or two, powerful microchips, cheep high-capacity storage devices and better displays would put affordable APL-competent machines on desktops across the country and he would have the APL code waiting. I tried to shift the conversation away from his dream of running APL on a PC to our class project. He insisted that his APL coding project was going to be our class project.
Toni Killian |
With Pete telling me tales of his "hot romance" with Toni, we stepped out into the chilly evening and brushed snow off of his sporty car. Ten minutes later we were back in town and riding up the elevator to the top floor restaurant above the Marriott hotel. Before we could go in and eat we were handed coats and ties and I was given a pair of leather shoes to replace my beat-up sneakers. I was surprised to find that we were not only meeting Toni, but also her mother, who happened to be Professor Killian.
______________________________________
Meeting Hana
Charlet Marial with Angela |
Peter is the son of Andy and the father of Hilde. Ivory Fersoni and the "Atlantis Clones" are cousins of Hilde. Peter plays an important role in making possible the creation of the Atlantis Clones. He recruits the young women who become the surrogate mothers for the clones. Initially believing that he is of another species and unable to father children with Earth women, Peter is something of a rake. After Peter fathered a child with Charlet Marial, she became the surrogate mother of Angela.
Angela getting technical assistance
for communication with the Buld |
Cory Corneigh with Anney |
Charlet Marial and Peter are never really happy when restricted to the confines of Atlantis. Another of Peter's "recruits", Cory Corneigh, gives birth to the last Atlantis clone (Anney) and it is she who Angela grows up knowing as her mother.
Cory takes on the task of translating the Buld language, ultimately making use of Angela and her easy familiarity with the bimanoid interface to crack the problem and allow for meaningful communication between "Atlantis" and the Buld. The other "trick" that makes this communication possible is that the undersea "base" known as Atlantis is actually the sentient spaceship Many Sails.
In my next blog post I'll fill in the one remaining hole in Angela's back story, the identity of her genetic mother.
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