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| At the Freeland marine biology research station. |
CHAPTER 3
Inside the Freeland teleportation chamber, Trysta quickly checked the teleportation control display after Ivory triggered the teleportation beam. Trysta soon looked up from the display and said to Yōd and Zeta, "Well, they're gone, but we do not need their help. We might as well get busy and send out the robotic sample collector."
Zeta was fretting over the idea that she had already been killed once by the group mind of Cynk defending itself against Trysta's relentless research efforts. With a touch of fear in her voice, she asked, "Shouldn't we wait for Grean to arrive and help?"
Trysta replied, "We could sit around and wait, but let me tell you a fact: Grean is not nearly as excitable as Ivory. My guess is that Grean won't even bother coming here for a visit unless we have proof that nanocoral is the Remnant Species. Remember, she's certain that South Polar Sea nanoshrimp is the Remnant Species and she firmly believes that we have been wasting our time exploring the lakes of Pink." With a spring in her step, Trysta marched out of the teleportation chamber and confidently led her research team down to the underground Freeland laboratory complex.
Following along behind Trysta and trying to keep up with her pace, Yōd and Zeta immediately noticed that everything at Freeland Base was quite utilitarian compared what they had seen at Mandira. The elevator car had conventional solid walls and seemed not to drop as far underground as had the elevator at Mandira. They stepped out of the elevator, went down a dingy corridor and were met near the Biolab entrance by the Lab Manager, a robot named April.
April said, "Greetings." The robot, who had female body form and a high-pitched voice, spoke directly to Trysta. "I'm glad you have returned."
Trysta gave a brief salute-like wave of her hand towards April and then she walked swiftly into the heart of the lab. While walking, she asked April, "Have you prepared the automated submarine for sample collection?"
April raised her right arm and activated a holographic display. The projected image showed a view of the Freeland submarine docks. "Everything is ready."
Trysta only briefly glanced at the displayed scene and data. She ordered, "Lay in a course. Target the nearby reef where nanocoral was sighted."
April stepped up to a workstation and made adjustments to the control circuits. Feeling caught up in a rush of events, Yōd suggested, "Maybe distance is important. I get the feeling that telepathy on Cynk is distance-dependent. I could not establish telepathic contact with Reggie until I was actually in physical contact with his body. For safety's sake, maybe we should not try to collect a sample from a reef that is too close by. Why not send the sub out to a more distant site?"
Trysta laughed. "Don't be such a wimp, girl. The sample collection submarine that we are going to use is completely autonomous. When the nanocoral sample is obtained, there will be nothing for the aliens to observe linking the submarine back to this base. And there are no telepathic systems on the submarine, so even if there is another telepathic attack, nothing will interfere with the sample collection process. Previously, the mistake was having a human inside the submarine while trying to grab a sample. His telepathic linkages via the Hierion Domain allowed the attack to spread and wipe out our entire team. We won't make that mistake again."
Yōd complained, "Well, I still don't understand why we need to rush into this. I don't want to die again."
Trysta tried to rally her team. "Remember: if the worst happens and we all die again, we will simply be re-created as new copies from the records of our physical structures that are stored safely inside my teleporter at Mandira. However, we are now prepared for the kind of telepathic response that can be provoked by making contact with nanocoral. My working hypothesis is that nanocoral constitutes a second memory system on Cynk, a more dynamic and active system than the nanoplankton system. All we need to do is respect the facts of how nanocoral functions and take the needed precautions."
Zeta asked, "Why would Cynk need two memory storage systems?"
Yōd speculated, "It might be similar to what we humans have in our brains. The hippocampus is a system for acquiring new memories, but other parts of the brain hold our older memories."
Trysta nodded approvingly. "Yes, Yōd, that is a good analogy. Nanocoral seems to behave like an active memory acquisition system. When contacted and activated, the nanocoral reached out and sucked in your minds, leaving your bodies behind as empty shells. I destroyed your old vegetative bodies and reinstantiated new copies of you. Unfortunately, your minds have copies of your old memories from five years ago, so you are all feeling overwhelmed by Cynk and everything that I have told you."
Zeta added, "It is more than that. I feel physically ill. I've never enjoyed going through the teleportation process."
Trysta draped one of her long arms around Zeta's shoulders. "Your problem, my dear, is that your Bimanoid Interface went through the burn-in process and so you are now unable to orient yourself normally."
Yōd had never heard that term before. "Burn-in?"
Trysta explained, "She tried to constantly maintain access to the Bimanoid Interface for decades. Her femtobot endosymbiont did not burnout, it adapted and now it can only connect to one outside source of information, her husband."
Zeta thought about her 'husband' and she admitted, "Yes, I am cursed. While on Earth, he is always in my mind. I'm afraid it has driven me insane. But he is actually my sister's husband, you know."
Yōd asked Zeta, "You are not now in contact?"
"No, it has been quite a relief." Zeta smiled, "I lost telepathic contact with him when we arrived here on Cynk."
Trysta laughed, "You are quite sane, but the human mind is not designed to function under a constant flood of thoughts from another person's mind. That's one of the differences between Asterothropes and humans. I grew up bathed in telepathic signals and my mind could never suffer burn-in. As you have, I'd grow tired of a constant stream of thoughts from just one mind, but unlike you, an Asterothrope would never have lost the ability to make telepathic links to other people. Sadly, you are in a trap of your own making, Zeta."
Yōd asked Trysta, "When you wanted help to explore Pink, why didn't you simply make a dozen copies of yourself?"
Trysta laughed. "That probably seems like a good idea to you, but believe me, it would lead to disaster. Even just two extant copies of the same Asterothrope mind would result in positive feedback. Now that is a recipe for burnout! Also, there are many ethical and practical reasons for not duplicating people. Think it through. You always get a silly argument: 'I'm the real Trysta'. 'No! I am!' That sort of conflict never works out well."
Zeta muttered, "Trysta, I can sense that nothing will deflect you from your mad dash to contact the Remnant Species, but be warned. I feel like I might vomit at any time."
Trysta suggested, "My dear, if you need a break, take the elevator back up, lay down for a while and rest. I wanted us all together because we work well as a team we have a powerful synergy of diverse backgrounds and special abilities." Trysta looked at each of us for a moment then said, "I understand why you might feel that I am moving too quickly, but think about it from my perspective! Grean first brought me to this world more than 40 years ago. Now, we are very close to establishing contact with the Remnant Species. Forgive me for being eager to push ahead with our research, but I have worked too long and hard for this... I can't delay any longer, not with success so close at hand."
Just then, Trysta received a call from Cal. Trysta activated the radio receiver in her bracelet that linked her to the robotic staff in Mandira. "Yes, what is it, Cal?"
Cal reported, "I just spoke to Ivory inside the teleportation chamber."
Trysta frowned and asked, "Why was she in Mandira?"
Cal robotically replied, "Ivory told me that you had sent her to Mandira with instructions to retrieve a piece of needed equipment, a teleportatation booster."
Trysta said, "That was not true. I'll be right there." Trysta cut the com link to Cal and said to Yōd and Zeta, "I better go see what Ivory is up to." She asked hypothetically, "If she wanted to speak to me, why didn't she returned here, to Freeland?" Trysta reached into a pocket and pulled out what looked like a small white pebble. She placed the stone into a slot on her bracelet and the stone began to shine with a rich internal light. She glanced at April and said, "Proceed with the sample collection mission, as we have planned. I'll be back soon." She pressed a button on the glowing device and teleported herself directly to Mandira.
Zeta turned to Yōd and said, "Ivory is in Mandira? That's odd. I was expecting her to get in contact with Grean and then bring Grean here to Freeland."
Yōd shrugged. "I lost my intermittent telepathic contact to Ivory about fifteen minutes ago." She was watching a display screen showing a feed from a video signal that originated from the sample-collection submarine. She asked April, "How long until the sub reaches the reef?"
April pointed to another display that showed a tracking map. "ETA is thirteen minutes. The sub is moving slowly and carefully. We don't want to rush in and provoke a violent response from any creatures that inhabit the reef. In particular, we don't want to bumble into an alien nest site."
Yōd asked, "Even the sea creatures feed on xenomass?"
April explained, "Almost all of the accumulated xenomass of Cynk is in vast undersea and underground deposits. The target reef is at the site of one of the underwater xenomass seeps where creatures can feed. As far as we can tell, all the ocean creatures are dependent on xenomass for the nutrients that keep their biological subsystems functioning. The energy supply for powering their nanite components is by way of yet another type of nanite, what we call the enites."
Sinking into deeper, darker water, the submarine activated more of its lights. Zeta asked, "How deep is this reef?"
April checked another data screen. "The sub is now at 3,000 feet below the surface. We've never seen any nanocoral near the surface. It seems to prefer the warm waters that are located deep down near the floor of these fissures."
Yōd said, "I've never seen a lake like this." She watched the display screen as the submarine kept moving ever deeper into the lake. "What created these deep fissures?"
"Stroma Lake is artificial, apparently created by some powerful planetary engineering technology." April brought to the display screen a map of the tectonic plates of Cynk. "The natural movements of the tectonic plates of Cynk slowed to a halt long ago. The bed of the lake is at an ancient plate boundary; basically a rip in the planet's crust. An artificial rip created by some incredibly powerful device. Even now, perhaps two billion years after its creation, mantle energy comes up from below and heats the water of the lake. Nanocoral seems adapted to high temperature, high pressure conditions."
Zeta and Yōd kept watching the video feed from the submarine which occasionally showed various alien creatures when they briefly came into the region of light emanating from the sub. Some of the swimming creatures were far larger than the submarine itself. Finally, the submarine slowed and came to a stop, a thousand feet from a swimming school of nanocoral that periodically merged into the structure of the reef and then again emerged, dancing in the light from the submarine. A large number of reef-patrolling creatures streamed by, possibly attracted by the light of the submarine.
After another minute, Yōd asked. "What now?"
April said, "The submarine is at station near the target reef, waiting for the order to proceed with sample collection. You can see the schooling nanocoral. They resemble the coral larvea of Earth. We can only see them when millions of them swarm together in a small area."
Zeta wondered, "Where is Trysta? She said she'd be right back."
Yōd suggested to April, "Maybe you should call Trysta."
The robot attempted to contact Trysta by radio. April said, "Trysta is not responding. In fact, I'm not even getting a ping back from her radio receiver."
Zeta looked at Yōd and said, "What now?"
Yōd asked April, "Can you contact Cal?"
April replied, "Of course."
Yōd ordered April, "Call Cal and ask him to find Trysta or Ivory or any other person present at Mandira. Have them call us."
A moment later, April said, "I sent the message using robocode. Cal is initiating a full and careful search of Mandira, but he does not believe that anyone other than the robot staff is present."
Zeta and Yōd looked at each other and exchanged puzzled frowns. Yōd asked her sister, "What's going on? We need a hypothesis...."
Zeta suggested, "I have no idea...." They fell silent for a minute, thinking of possible explanations for Trysta's disappearance. Zeta shrugged, "Maybe Trysta and Grean are talking everything through at Grean's base of operations."
April was still monitoring the submarine. She asked, "The nanocoral school seems to be gradually thinning and dissipating. Should we initiate the sample collection routine?"
Yōd shook her head and said to Zeta, "I'm not going to give that order. I was counting on Trysta arriving back here and being able to deal with any response that might be provoked from the natives."
Zeta said, "I'm also in no hurry to go blundering into that reef. In fact, rather than try to collect a biosample, I'd prefer that we attempt a telepathic communications experiment. Yōd, when we teleported here from Mandira, you said something about communicating with Reggie."
Yōd giggled. "It was creepy. That beast started wrapping its tentacles around me and... I don't know. It is almost as if I blanked out for a minute. No, that's not it. I was awake, but it felt like a dream."
Zeta rubbed her head. "I remember seeing you with Reggie... then it goes fuzzy. Trysta was talking and showing us..." She pointed to the map and the submarine's location. "This. The target location for sample collection. Then we were all suddenly teleported and I felt ill. I still have not recovered. I don't feel normal and I know it is not normal that my memory of what you did with Reggie is so fuzzy. I agree... what I recall from the moments just before we teleported is artificial and dream-like."
Yōd asked April, "Do you know Reggie?"
"Of course. Reggie is famous among all the researchers on Cynk." April brought to the display an image of Reggie. "Reggie is one of the most advanced hybrids that had been created so far."
Yōd pressed her point. "Have there been similar hybrids made here in this lab?"
April nodded. "Yes. Would you like to meet our Little Angel?"
"Angel?"
"That's what we call her." April brought to the display an image of a strange hybrid organism, part Earthly whale and part a creature of Cynk's ocean known as a West Coast Sea Dragon. "Angel is still a growing juvenile, about two years old, but she has a huge brain and a special nanite endosymbiont. The genetic engineering was performed by Ivory, splicing together genes from both Earth and Cynk."
Surprised by the idea of such genetic mixing, Yōd asked, "The genetic material for the two planets is fully compatible?"
April nodded. "Most planets in this galaxy have lifeforms that share their nucleic acid systems for storing genetic information."
Yōd knew that was not enough. "But usually there are other biochemical problems and incompatibilities at the protein level."
April admitted, "Yes, sometimes there are protein differences, but they are subtle and can often be dealt with, allowing modified versions of Cynkian proteins to function inside predominantly human cells. That is the case with Angel."
Yōd asked, "But what is the point? What is to be gained by expressing alien proteins in human cells?"
April explained, "Human brain cells. Ivory's hypothesis was that a Phari endosymbiont works best when certain alien neuropeptides are at the interface between a biobrain and the nanites."
Yōd said, "I see. That makes sense."
Zeta asked, "Where does Angel live?"
April replied, "Angel was created here in the lab, but she quickly grew to larger to be kept inside. She now lives in a fenced cove along the coast."
Zeta came to a decision. "Okay, here is what we are going to do. I'll stay here and wait for Trysta to return. You two go and have a look at this Little Angel. Yōd, see if you can detect any telepathic contact to the beast, but be careful. Don't do anything stupid like get into the water with it." Zeta pointed to a display screen that was part of the datanexus. "April, keep in touch by radio, send me robotext updates on your progress."
Yōd and April returned to the elevator. The robot said, "We can teleport directly to the marine research station."
Yōd said, "I'm not as sensitive to the harmful effects of teleporting, not in the way Zeta is, but I'm also not a big fan of teleporting."
April said, "Teleportation is quick, but we can also fly. In fact, that would give you a chance to really see the full extent of Angel's cove. And besides, there is no teleportation platform down there, so landings can be a bit rough when people teleport into the marine station." They exited from the elevator at the ground floor and walked out of the main house. April led the way along a little trail to a nearby aircraft hanger.
The hanger was a center of bustling activity with dozens of robots servicing a fleet of aircars and telescouts of various models and sizes. Yōd said, "This is a big operation."
April explained, "We have over 3,000 aircraft for Freeland and our sister station on the west shore of Stroma Lake. Most of the aircraft operate out of a set of larger repair hangers that service the miasma clearing dirigibles." April pointed to a small, sleek aircar. "We can use this little flitter."
________ANGEL______
April pointed towards the south end of the cove, "There's Angel. See that splash? The fence is electronic. Certain electromagnetic frequencies disrupt the nanite components that are embedded in the nervous system of these creatures."
Yōd noted: "This is a large cove. Angel is several miles out from the station."
April nodded. "True, but if we start putting out some xenomass, Angel will notice and come to the feeding station at the dock. She has a good appetite so she'll hurry in and she's a fast swimmer."
Yōd pointed towards the black miasma. "I didn't realize how close the miasma is to Freeland."
April nodded. "The miasma was cleared from this area years ago, but it is a constant struggle to keep it from moving back in, particularly this time of year. The prevailing winds push the nanites towards shore and our nanite clearing crews are working at full speed.
A row of low hills formed a backdrop for the research station at the north end of the cove. April landed the aircar on a metal platform at the top of the nearest hill and they walked down a path to the dock. The air of Cynk seemed thick to Yōd and tinged with a hundred odd odors. The gravity was definitely stronger than Earth's and Yōd was thankful to be walking downhill.
A robotic porpoise met them at the edge of the dock. Yōd had known similar animal-form robots while growing up on Tar'tron where they provided recreation opportunities for people, but she was surprised that this porpoise spoke perfect English. "Hello April, Yōd."
April said, "Let's call Angel in for a feeding. Yōd wants to try to test for telepathic signals."
April activated the feeding system which began pumping some xenomass through a pipe onto a floating platform beside the dock. The porpoise started to swim out into the cove, rising up and out of the water in periodic leaps in order to gain height and see better. After going only a short distance out from the dock, the robot turned and returned to shore. The porpoise said to April, "Here comes Angel. She must have seen you fly in and she probably assumed you would feed her."
April pointed far out to sea. "There she is." She told Yōd, "It will take a few more minutes for her to arrive." April closed a valve and the flow of xenomass slowed to a trickle. "How are you planing to test for a telepathic signal?"
Yōd explained, "I think I had some sort of telepathic contact with Reggie, but Trysta prevented me from noticing what was going on. With Trysta not here and interfering this time, I might be able to use the Bimanoid Interface to make contact to Angel's endosymbiont. It will be interesting to see if Angel notices what I'm doing."
April seemed puzzled, "Why would Trysta interfere? She brought you here to Cynk so that you could help make contact with the aliens."
Yōd shrugged. "How would I know what motivates Trysta? She's as alien as a scarab. I've repeatedly tried to sneak a peek into Trysta's mind, but she seems to have no trouble blocking me out." For a minute they watched Angel approach the dock, periodically surfacing to take a breath. Yōd speculated, "Trysta may be searching for something in the Phari data banks, some important piece of information that she wants to get for herself and not let anyone else know about." Yōd fell silent, finally realizing how large Angel was. Angel reached the edge of the dock and started voraciously eating the xenomass that April had set out. Yōd muttered, "She has teeth."
April laughed. "Angel has about 90% killer whale genes. Ivory mostly spliced in central nervous system genes that were obtained from the alien Sea Dragon."
Yōd was feeling no hint of telepathic contact between herself and Angel. She started pulling off her clothing.
April asked, "What are you doing?"
Yōd said, "I need to get closer to Angel. I want to get in the water."
"Zeta told you not to do that. And I agree with Zeta. Ivory and the Master are the only people who ever swam with Angel, and that was years ago when she was a newborn. She grew fast and her play soon got too rough. Now, any time when Ivory needs to get close to Angel, she takes precautions. Ivory is fearless and sometimes still gets in the water with Angel, even when told that robots can do the work." April pointed to a metal diving cage on the far end of the dock. "It is wise for humans to uses that cage for protection, otherwise Angel gets too rambunctious. Sadly, Angel seems to desperately crave physical contact."
Yōd took one last glance at the metal cage and then made a perfect dive off the dock and into the water. Angel immediately stopped eating the xenomass and swam towards Yōd. Angel and Yōd met, almost nose-to-nose, about 15 feet below the surface. Angel swam past and Yōd grabbed onto the creature's large dorsal fin. Yōd started wondering if she should be more concerned about how cold the water was or how long Angel might stay submerged. She tried to ignore those worries and use the Bimanoid Interface to make telepathic contact with the creature.
When Angel surfaced about 100 feet from the dock, April called to Yōd, "Are you alright?"
Yōd gave a brief wave to April and almost slipped off of Angel's back. She closed her eyes and held on tight. Now that she was in physical contact with Angel, she was receiving thought pattern transmission by way of the Bimanoid Interface. There were no words, just images of what looked like two people swimming in the water; a man and a woman. Yōd got a better view of the woman in the stream of mental images and she suddenly realized it was Ivory.
Yōd wanted to try sending a thought to Angel. It had to be both simple and clear. She imagined Angel leaping out of the water the way that the robotic porpoise had. Angel immediately turned and swam towards deeper water. After taking a long, deep breath, Angel dove below the surface, going deeper and deeper and then she finally came up fast, breaking the surface and rising partly out of the water and up into the air. When angel sank back into the waves, Yōd was knocked off of Angel's back by the force of the water.
Yōd was dazed and the salty water stung her eyes. She gasped for breath and had trouble seeing the dock above the swells, but with the help of the nearby hills, Yōd oriented herself and started swimming back towards shore, her teeth now chattering with cold. Angel circled around and slowly swam past, offering Yōd a chance to grab hold again. Yōd grabbed Angel's fin and held on tight and gratefully allow Angel to carry her back to the dock.
When Yōd finally climbed up the ladder to the dock, April was waiting with a heated blanket that she wrapped around the girl. April asked, "Did you sense any type of telepathic contact?"
Yōd spoke through blue lips, "Just some images. But I think Angel was in my mind, too. Maybe she received more from me than I got from her. Thankfully, Angel brought me back to the dock. I'm a lousy swimmer."
In contrast, Little Angel was putting on a show and repeatedly leaping out of the water and creating tremendous splashes.
April pulled Yōd away from the edge of the dock. "Angel is trying to splash us." She was vigorously rubbing Yōd dry with the big, soft blanket. "That sounds like the kind of weak telepathic contact that Ivory and the Master reported having, as well as you, the last time that you visited here. Unfortunately, we've never made any progress in our experiments with linguistic communication."
Yōd added, "And I had an emotional sensation. I sensed that Angel is definitely lonely. It was a mistake to only make one of her." Yōd suggested, "Maybe we could make a robotic device that could keep her company."
April shook her head. "We've tried that. It just seems to frustrate her and then she attacks the puppet, either destroying it or injuring herself. Let me show you something." April had Yōd dress, then wrapped her in the blanket again.
_______ANGEL II________
Yōd asked, "When will she wake up... be born?"
"He is past term. Ivory has been delaying birth, trying to let him grow more. He is awake for just a few hours each day. Little Angel knows that he is in here. She can sense when he is awake... she gets excited during those times."
Yōd said, "Or maybe Angel II wakes up whenever Little Angel gets excited." She closed her eyes and tried to make telepathic contact with Angel II. After a couple of minutes she was ready to give up. "Nothing. I suppose I should try again when he isn't asleep."
April said, "Something is happening."
Yōd opened her eyes and saw that Angel II had started thrashing about quite violently. April said, "He seems to be waking up."
The creature's eyes were still closed and its limb movements seemed like random twitches. Yōd asked, "How can you tell if it is awake?"
April explained, "Electroencephalography is definitive, but normally his eyes open when he is awake, and that is when he becomes most active. I've never seen this kind of behavior."
Yōd wondered if she had woken the creature. "I tried to use the Bimanoid Interface, but I had no sense of connecting to a mind. I suppose I could have been in contact with some unconscious core of its brain."
April examined the electroencephalography pattern for Angel II. Seeing no indication of waking brain activity, the robot shrugged. "I suppose Angel II might be dreaming. Ivory has developed a theory about Cynk telepathy that might be applicable. Just as human children must reach a certain age before they can speak, the creatures of this world don't link into the planet's telepathy network until about two years after they hatch. During that time, much of the cellular structure of their nervous system is replaced by nanites. Ivory and the Master learned that by blocking that replacement process and inserting a G-sym, they could prevent their hybrids from linking into the planetary network, resulting in a kind of domestication of the hybrid organisms that they created."
Yōd suggested, "And Trysta apparently found a way to let Reggie link into the planetary memory system while keeping him docile and under her control. What was that you said? A G-sym?"
April explained, "Yes. It is the special endosymbiont that Grean provides for all the hybridization experiments. Our slang term is 'G-sym', short for Grean-supplied endosymbiont. It is a pek-designed endosymbiont, similar to what is used for species like the Nereids, the Fru'wu and the Prelands to link their minds into the Sedronic Domain, but more primitive, modular and flexible. A G-sym is a kind of test platform for testing endosymbiont prototypes and trying to link experimental test subjects into the Bimanoid Interface."
Yōd mused. "And obviously these G-syms work to a limited degree with the hybrids like Reggie. Still, something fundamental is lacking, so full communication with the group mind of Cynk has not been possible. And there has never been true contact with a Remnant Species or any kind of higher intelligence on this planet."
April nodded. "Ivory thinks that there is no true intelligence remaining on Cynk. She calls this an Archive World for the Phari, a stored collection of template patterns."
Yōd's body was now warmed up to normal. She took off the blanket and handed it back to April. "Are you in contact with Zeta?"
April replied, "She ordered me to keep in contact and I've been sending her periodic updates by radio. When you jumped into the cove, she asked for directions this station. She is currently being escorted here by one of my assistants."
"Ha!" Just then, Yōd thought she could hear an aircar fly over the building. "Zeta is such a good worrier. I take it that Trysta never returned to Freeland."
"No, she has not been found. Cal completed his search of Mandira. No people were found there, not Trysya, not anyone. We robots are worried about the fate of Trysta, too, so we took the initiative decided to contact all of the bases on planet. We've only heard back from Jaqy and Svahr. They say that-"
"Wait!" Yōd asked excitedly, "Jaqy and Svahr are here on Cynk?"
"Yes, they are part of Grean's research team. They operate out of their bases on Cyan and are leading the search for nanoshrimp in the South Polar Sea. Jaq, Svahr and Ivory all have artificial bodies with femtobot components that were tuned for the ability to link into the group mind of Cynk."
Yōd laughed, "Grean has worked for years with three artificial lifeforms tuned for success? And yet they had to bring in three bumbling humans as the second team?"
April seemed a little dismayed by recent events. She reported, "Jaqy and Svahr claimed to know nothing about Trysta's whereabouts and both seem reluctant to say anything about Grean's recent activities."
Yōd laughed. "I suppose working with biologicals is a constant source of frustration for you robots. We are quite capable of lying and deceiving anytime it is convenient to do so. By the way, I've been meaning to ask you a question. What planet are you from?"
April said, "I'm from the same world where you and Zeta grew up. Tar'tron. Can't you tell?"
"It was my suspicion that you are from Tar'tron, but there are many specialized little communities there, so I was unsure. Were you brought here by Grean or Trysta?"
"All the robots here on Pink have arrived by long-range teleportation, beamed in from Tar'tron by Trysta. Many Sails periodically delivers shipments of more robots to the bases on Cyan."
Just then, Zeta and another robot arrived. They ran in through the side door of the research station and along the walkway beside Angel II's pool. Upon drawing near, Zeta immediately chastised Yōd, "You just had to go for a swim with a killer whale? Are you nuts?"
Yōd giggled and massaged her left wrist which was beginning to swell and turn greenish-black. Yōd said, "Angel is a little sweetie, there was no problem. I have a sprained wrist and some broken ribs, but my medical nanites have those minor injuries under control. And look here." She pointed into the pool. "This is her little bother. Isn't he just adorable?"
Zeta was breathing hard after running in the high gravity field of Cynk. She looked at the sleeping Angel II who had not stopped his thrashing. "He is cute, in a carnivorous killer sort of way. I hope it was worth the risk you took." When sent to Earth, both Zeta and Yōd were provided with medical nanites. Yōd's medical nanites were replicating in an attempt to repair all of the damage done to her body by Angel, but she had a big ugly bruise on her face that was a low priority repair. Zeta sent most of her medical nanites into Yōd.
Yōd sighed with disappointment. "Not really. I have not learned much. Nothing more than April here could have told me, had I known the correct questions to ask. And how goes the great hunt for nanocoral? Did you get a sample?"
Zeta wiped some sweat from her brow. "Don't be silly. The whole crazy plan for collecting a nanocoral sample is on hold until we find out what happened to Trysta and Grean. Nobody seems to know where they are. Did the aliens use another telepathic blast to eliminate them?" Zeta struggled to calm down and catch her breath after running in the high gravity. For a minute they watched Angel II's continuing thrashing movements. "According to the robots at Grean's headquarters, Trysta and Grean are not sitting around having a big meeting to sort out their differences. It is as if Trysta and Grean both disappeared."
Yōd suggested, "They may have decided that their mission here on Cynk is nothing more than a big wild goose chase. There may simply be no intelligent life here to make contact with."
Zeta shrugged. "I don't think the goal was to contact some type of intelligent alien that has been living in a cloud of miasma for millions of years and then sit down for a chat over a cup of tea. The endosymbiont of the Remnant Species could have value in itself, even if the Phari don't want to have contact with us. Maybe the Phari natives of this world have slipped out of the Hadronic Domain and moved on to better things long ago. If the Phari are aware of our presence on Cynk, we may be little more than a minor annoyance to them."
April and a small team of other robots were working together at the life-support system for Angel II. Yōd approached the robots and said, "One more thing..." April looked up from the control nexus display. Yōd asked, "Is there another submarine here at this station?"
April replied, "The submarine dock is right next door." She pointed towards a glowing archway at the back of the aquarium. "Let me guide you."
"No, finish your work here." Angel II was still squirming quite a bit. "I seem to have upset Angel II. Try to get him calmed down. Zeta and I will check out the sub."
One of the other robots said to April, "The glucose supply tube just ruptured. I'll get into the pool and replace the broken tube, but we need to calm Angel down before he does more damage."
Zeta followed along with Yōd and they walked through the pool dome towards the adjacent submarine dock area. When they had moved some distance away from the robots, Zeta asked, "Why are you looking for another submarine?"
Yōd explained. "When I linked minds with Little Angel (who, despite her name, is about ten times bigger than that little baby you just saw), I saw a memory that bubbled up out of Angel's mind. In that old remembered scene, I could see Ivory, swimming in the water. And there was something else there in the water, in the background: a submarine." They had reached a place inside the submarine dock complex where they had a view of the service area where a half dozen variously sized submersible vehicles were parked. Yōd pointed at one, "This is the one that I saw, over here."
Zeta looked at the submarine that Yōd had just pointed to and observed, "It does not seem as streamlined as the others."
Yōd nodded. "Yes, its hull has been modified." They walked along the dock and came up beside the structurally modified submarine. "Look at this huge hatch on the side." Something that Yōd had felt during her the mind-link with Little Angel now suddenly made sense to Yōd. She blurted out, "Ivory had been training Little Angel to swim inside this submarine." Yōd laughed.
Zeta asked, "What?"
Yōd explained. "It all makes sense. Ivory made a hybrid killer whale. They wanted to take Angel to the nanocoral. Ivory trained Little Angel to ride inside this submarine. That explains everything."
Zeta thought out loud: "They were going to use Little Angel as a sensor device, a way to accelerate their on-going search for nanocoral?"
"No. They had already found the nanocoral reef." Yōd giggled. "That reef is right in Freeland's back yard! No, they wanted to try using Little Angel to help make telepathic contact with the nanocoral. Just like how Trysta has been using Reggie to gain access to the memories that are stored in the nanoplankton."
Zeta held up one hand, palm towards Yōd. "Wait. Slow down. How does Angel II fit into this?"
Yōd explained, "When we linked minds, I could sense that poor Little Angel's thoughts are full of loneliness and despair. Angel II was designed to be a companion for Little Angel."
Zeta asked, "Are you sure?"
"No, of course not." Yōd reflected on what she had actually seen in Little Angel's mind. "I'm using my human biases to interpret a few thought fragments from the mind of an alien hybrid creature. Tell me what I'm missing."
Zeta shrugged. "As much as I hate to do so, I've been thinking of Ivory. When we arrived here, a strange woman appeared, and everyone started calling her Ivory."
Yōd laughed, "That only seems strange to you because of your mental burn-in. You spent years using the Bimanoid Interface to monitor the mind of your husband. You even had to sit by and watch him live a virtual reality life with Ivory inside the Hierion Domain. Eventually, you lost your ability to access other minds using the Bimanoid Interface."
Zeta offered a correction. "It is better to say that I burned out the part of my brain that is required to control the Bimanoid Interface."
Yōd muttered, "Ya, right. Zeta, describe it in any way you like. Anyhow, I was able to use the Bimanoid Interface and get a weak, intermittent telepathic connection to her. I know that woman was Ivory, regardless of her physical appearance."
Zeta shook her head. "No, wait; that's just your theory. What if she was an alien puppet, designed to trick you in to imaging that she was Ivory?"
Yōd continued, "No. You can try to deny it, but look; you were the only one who could not link telepathically into Ivory's mind. The rest of us all knew that she was Ivory. It was only you who found her appearance and her sudden arrival upsetting."
Zeta nodded. "Fine. I accept that you can use the Interface in ways that I can't, but hear me out. It occurred to me that this strange woman was not Ivory, but rather.... well, some kind of decoy. A fake Ivory being controlled by the aliens and designed to fool you by means of telepathic mind control. What if the aliens have fooled you all by their use of telepathy, making you believe that their puppet was Ivory?"
Yōd laughed and hugged Zeta. "No, you are wrong. And think about it. If the aliens can control our minds that well, why not just make me "see" their puppet as having the physical appearance of Ivory as I knew her on Earth?"
Zeta suggested, "Maybe they can't over-ride your visual cortex."
Yōd explained, "No, that's not it. I've been in telepathic contact with Ivory, at least intermittently, ever since we arrived on this world. It is her, I know her mind pattern. More importantly, your husband knows it is Ivory. He knows her very well indeed."
Zeta said, "Stop calling him my husband. He married our sister Alpha, not me. Can't you even try thinking about the larger implications of my hypothesis before you dismiss it?"
Yōd tried to imagine that Ivory was some sort of imposter, but she couldn't get past all the evidence against Zeta's hypothesis. Yōd said, "Look, you know that Ivory has long played around with nanites and experimented with changes to her physical appearance. You should not be surprised to find that after five years of living on Cynk she adopted a new appearance. It is as simple as that." Yōd paused and for a minute she seemed lost in thought. Finally she whispered, "Still..."
Zeta waited a long time, looking into Yōd's troubled eyes, then she grew restless and asked, "Well?"
Yōd giggled. "Oh, nothing. You'll have me seeing ghosts with your silly talk about alien puppets."
Zeta demanded, "Don't brush me off. You thought of something. Why are you talking about ghosts?"
Yōd took Zeta by the hand and led the way back to Angel II's nursery pool. "Before today, I'd never had a chance to meet Trysta. I was curious to make contact with the mind of an Asterothrope, so I began using the Bimanoid Interface in an attempt to establish telepathic contact with her. I had no luck. It was like catching quicksilver. Every time I felt like I glimpsed a fragment of her mind, it slipped away from me. Or it was snatched away."
Zeta shrugged. "Asterothrope minds probably don't mesh well with human minds. They are seven million years evolved past we humans."
Yōd was visually scanning the entire pool area, looking for April, but nobody was in sight. Yōd kept walking back towards the place where Angel II had been tethered to his artificial placenta. "After failing to make a telepathic connection with Trysta, I tried to communicate telepathically with Reggie. I think I was successful, but now something is blocking my memory of what I saw in Reggie's mind. I remember... I tried... I was working my way around a blockage of the Bimanoid Interface. I was frustrated because something was disrupting my use of the Bimanoid Interface and also making me forget what I was trying to do. It all happened fast. And looking back, I see now: that block correlates with Trysta's actions. When she knew that she was loosing control of the situation and could no longer keep me from sneaking past her block and establishing full telepathic contact with Reggie, that was when she quickly teleported us all to Freeland."
"Why would Trysta try to prevent you from merging minds with Reggie?"
"I don't know, but all your silly talk has me seeing ghosts." Yōd suggested, "What if Trysta is the alien puppet?" They were now back in sight of Angel II. He was no longer in his artificial amniotic sac and was swimming freely. The April and team of robots were in the water, comically and ineptly trying to get Angel II to drink from a big bottle of milk.
Yōd said, "Those silly bots don't know anything about breast feeding." She pulled off her clothing and jumped into the pool. The water in the pool was not as cold as the water in the cove, but it was saltier. With burning eyes, Yōd swam to the robots and she found herself face-to-face with Angel II who was now awake.
Angel II floated at the surface, breathing through the hole on the top of his head. He did not seem interested in the bottle that the robots had been thrusting at him, trying to get the sucker tip into his mouth. Yōd put her arms around him and closed her eyes, trying to stop the burning sensation and help herself sense any possible telepathic contact with Angel II.
While hoping for contact to Angel II's mind, Yōd found herself in telepathic contact with Little Angel, who was out in the cove and repeatedly crashing herself into the gate that controlled access to the indoors pool that held Angel II. Yōd let go of Angel II and grabbed April by the hand, pulling her up to the surface. Yōd's head went up into the air and she was gasping for breath and rubbing her eyes.
April said, "He broke out of the artificial gestator. He won't take the milk."
Yōd shouted, "Open the tunnel entrance to the cove. Little Angel is trying to get in here."
April climbed out of the water and ran off towards the tunnel that connected the pool to the cove. Zeta asked Yōd, "What's going on?"
Yōd explained, "This is Angel II's birthday. I tried to connect to Angel II's thoughts, but I connected to Little Angel instead. Little Angel is in telepathic contact with her brother and wants to come inside." She reached up and took Zeta's hand.
Zeta pulled Yōd out of the pool just as Little Angel arrived, swimming at full speed. Little Angel pushed her giant snout against the robot who was still trying to feed Angel II and flipped the machine out of the water. The robot sailed through the air and crashed against the wall. Angel II then turned and gently rubbed her side against Little Angel's body.
April returned and helped the other robot stand up.
Yōd picked up the blanket she had used previously and wrapped herself in it. Yōd approached April and asked, "Do you think it might be possible to use hormones or something to stimulate milk production and allow Little Angel to nurse Angel II?"
For a minute, April and the injured robot conferred about the hormones that could be used to make Little Angel begin lactating. The damaged robot limped away towards the biochemistry lab and April turned to Yōd. "We can try injecting a hormone cocktail, but it might take days to stimulate lactation." They could see that Little Angel had rolled to the side so that Angel II could suckle and breath at the same time.
Zeta said, "Strap the milk container to Little Angel and run a tube to the nipple."
April agreed with that plan as a temporary way to feed Angel II. She went to the 3D-printer in the corner of the pool room and started making the needed equipment.
Yōd gazed into the pool, watching the two calm beasts and said to Zeta, "I think Ivory is the key."
Zeta asked, "Now you agree that she's an alien puppet?"
"No, I don't. Think about Ivory's history."
The first thing Zeta thought of was Ivory's relationship with her husband. Zeta was embarrassed by the jealousy that she felt towards Ivory. After all, she was not really married to anyone: she had been assigned to a mission on Earth: she had been tasked with pretending to be her sister, Alpha Gohrlay, but unlike Alpha, Zeta had never been married and was no expert when it came to caring for babies. Zeta tried to forget all of her emotional entanglements. She told herself: this is not about me. "Ivory was trained as a molecular biologist."
Yōd added, "And with the help of your husband, she constructed a hybrid creature, Little Angel, mixing together whale genes and alien genes and an endosymbiont... a G-sym."
Zeta extended the recap of what they knew, "But Little Angel was lonely, so Ivory made a companion. Angel II." Zeta pointed to the baby who floated peacefully, apparently having fallen asleep while sucking at Little Angel's nipple.
Yōd continued, "But think about Ivory's history. She did not just make a duplicate copy of Little Angel. She could have run Little Angel through a teleportation scan and then made 20 copies of her. Instead, they went to all the trouble of laboriously growing Angel II from an embryo."
Zeta asked, "Why go to all that trouble if the goal was just to provide a play buddy for Little Angel?" Zeta gazed upon Angel II. "Of course, Angel II is male."
Yōd shook her head. "No, forget about sex. Think about Ivory and her sisters."
Zeta thought out-loud, "Ivory wrote dozens of reports about Deep Time, describing what her sister Angela could see in the temporal echos of the Sedronic Domain."
Yōd giggled. "We've been led to believe that a record of all past Realities exists within the Sedronic Domain. That might be true, but no human can actually use the Bimanoid Interface to reach into the Sedronic Domain and see what is there. That's the key difference between we humans and the Prelands. No, the Bimanoid Interface allows connections into the Hierion Domain, not the Sedronic Domain."
"But Ivory and her clone sisters were not actually human. Maybe they can link into the Sedronic Domain, even if you can't."
Yōd shrugged. She let the blanket fall the the floor and she started getting dressed again. "Well, I don't know exactly what Angela's telepathic abilities were, but I'm sure that Little Angel was named after Angela. And Angela was allowed to grow up using the Bimanoid Interface from day one. She had fantastic telepathic abilities and could use the Bimanoid Interface in ways that went far beyond what either Ivory or Anney could do."
Zeta finally realized what Yōd was driving at. "Ivory was crafting Angel II to be the tool that would allow telepathic contact with the Remnant Species."
Yōd smiled. "That's my theory. Ivory wanted a second Angel that would be more like Angela, having been exposed to telepathic contact from day one. No, exposed to telepathy even before birth. I'm glad you could reason you way to that conclusion, Zeta. We are on the same page and no ghosts are needed."
"But Angel II was a work in progress." Zeta mused, "Ivory was in no hurry, she was letting..." Zeta stared at the sleeping Angel II. "Ivory was letting him grow larger physically and they were also growing his endosymbiont, with Little Angel providing constant telepathic contact."
Yōd added, "And you don't want to hear this, but for Ivory there were more important things to do than sit around watching Angel II grow up. She has been living with your husband for the past five years."
Zeta snapped, "He's not my husband. He can live with whom ever he wants."
"I've gotten brief glimpses into both of their minds. Believe me, he wants to be with Ivory. They love each other. I've seen in Ivory's mind that they were very happy together living here on Cynk the past few years. Your husband has no memory of the past five years, but I could clearly sense that in Ivory's mind. That's why it makes no sense that they would go out and try to capture some nanocoral and in so doing provoke a telepathic attack by the native creatures. They were being careful and slowly developing Angel II as a communications device. They were going to eventually put Angel II into that special submarine and have him make telepathic contact with the Remnant Species."
Zeta nodded. "And Trysta told us none of this."
Yōd complained, "Trysta lied to us about everything. The question is: why? If Trysta was a puppet of the aliens and the Remnant Species has taken control of Trysta's mind, then why would she keep pushing towards the goal of obtaining a nanocoral sample?"
April returned, carrying some new equipment. She went into the pool and rigged Little Angel up so that she could feed Angel II from the bottle. Little Angel remained calm while the robot put a little harness on to hold the milk bottle. Angel II never woke up, even as he started getting the milk through a tube that ran to the nipple from the bottle. Still in the water, April looked up and gave Yōd and zeta a 'thumbs up' signal.
 |
| Yōd and Ginger "celebrating" Angel II's birth day. |
Zeta asked Yōd, "What are you doing?"
Yōd gestured towards the robot who was getting into the pool. "I'm going to lend a hand getting Angel her hormone injection. And if Angel II gets woken up again, I'm going to try to get a telepathic link into his mind."
Next: chapter 4; a Phari Tale at Slave Craton.
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