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| cover art by Paul Lehr |
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| Astonishing Stories, May 1942. Letter. |
Much later, I came across the character Eustace Chilke in the Cadwal Chronicles, by Jack Vance.
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| Psmith |
Maria Green
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| source |
However, poor Rylla is left with no physical evidence that alien visitors are at work on Earth.
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| source |
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The Pasimov Project
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| In the Ekcolir Reality. Original cover art by Frank Freas and Margaret Brundage |
Georgy felt very comfortable, almost as if she was floating and wrapped in delightfully soft and warm fabric. Turning her head to the side, she saw a young man who was seated by her bed and watching her with an intent gaze. Georgy asked, "Who are you?" Her question came out from her dry lips as a raspy crumble of words.
"I'm Eustace Asimov, at your service." He gave Georgy a sly wink and pulled an ice-cold glass nipple from the side of a device that was on the table by his side. Attached to the nipple was a flexible water tube. "Here, drink some water. You have been sleeping for quite some time."
Georgy sipped the water and felt the delightful sensation of it cooling her mouth. She was thirsty and hungry but most of all fascinated by Eustace. He was very cute. Easily the prettiest boy that Georgy had ever spoken to. However, Georgy felt a bit frustrated by the dim lighting of the room; she could not really get a good look at Eustace. He was speaking while Georgy drank the water and drank him in with her eyes, "I wanted you to catch up on your rest. Apparently you were not getting much sleep while on Earth."
Georgy thought about the events of her final days in Perth and Maria Green's warning that she was going to be removed from Earth and sent into exile. Georgy felt that her mind was sluggish, but she could remember the long laboratory sessions and her final day of sample collection in the field. It was true that she had been getting very little sleep while being terribly busy making her startling scientific discovery: the identification of negative-mass matter in an ancient rock sample.
Georgy could remember Maria's probing questions and her own feeling of excitement while imagining that millions of people would soon read news reports about her amazing discovery. But when had Maria spoken about removing Georgy from Earth? The context of that memory now eluded Georgy. Georgy wondered: When did Maria speak to me about leaving Earth? She pulled the water tube out of her mouth and asked, "So it is true? I am no longer on Earth?" Georgy knew it was true, but she could not explain how she knew it or why the idea of leaving Earth did not surprise her.
Eustace stood and jumped high in the air. "Notice the low gravity! We are on the Moon." He landed gently on the bed beside her, reached out a graceful arm and pushed at Georgy's hair. He briefly placed his hand on her forehead then took her pulse, two slim fingers pressed against Georgy's neck.
Georgy now realized that it felt like she was floating because of the low gravity. For a while she continued to drink the cold water and watch the now quite close eyes of Eustace. When he finished touching her neck she handed the nipple back to Eustace. She threw off the covers, sat up and rolled off the bed. For a minute she jumped and bounced around the room, playing like a child and enjoying the low gravity conditions. After smacking her head for the third time against the high ceiling, she flopped on the bed and asked Eustace, "Where are my clothes?"
Eustace picked up a small strip of fabric from the night table and handed it to Georgy. He said, "Use this."
Georgy had never been ashamed of her body. She had grown up on a farm among rowdy brothers and fecund animals, but here, under the penetrating gaze of Eustace she felt slightly uncomfortable being naked. Eustace was dressed in a colorful jumpsuit and seemed to be feasting his eyes on Georgy. She began to make a sarcastic comment about how tiny the strip of cloth was, but as soon as she grabbed it she saw it begin to morph and grow. The living cloth grew up her arm and within a few seconds it had spread to cover most of her body. Georgy gasped, "Wow!"
Eustace explained, "Nanotech clothing, just one of the many little luxuries we enjoy here on the Moon. I suspect you will quickly adjust to living here and come to appreciate the advanced technologies that augment our lives."
Georgy thought of her scientific work and her family and her plans for a long, interesting life... on Earth. She was feeling somewhat odd, almost like being in a dream and blurted out her worst fear, "Am I dead?"
Eustace shrugged. "You tell me. Some of our new arrivals die on Earth shortly before they are sent here."
"Life after death?" Georgy reached out and grabbed hold of Eustace. His arm felt real enough, warm and fleshy.
Eustace placed one of his hands over her hand where it rested against his arm. "The usual trick is to make a copy of Earthlings just before they die. A dead corpse is left on Earth while the copy is able to continue living here. With the corpse on hand, nobody on Earth asks probing questions, in contrast to cases of pure abduction."
Georgy remembered being swept up in a flood of cold and muddy water and struggling to keep her head up so that she could breath. Death. She had died.
Georgy reached out with her other hand and touched Eustace on the face. He simply looked too perfect. He felt real enough, except his cheek was baby soft with no hint of hairy stubble on his clean-shaven face. She traced the line of his lip with the tip of her finger and commented, "You don't quite look real."
Eustace pulled a small device out of his pocket. The room lights brightened and Georgy noticed that her vision seemed to shift a bit. Suddenly she felt more like her old self. Eustace looked up from the device and said, "There, that should help, but you are right... I'm not exactly real. I use facial nanites to sculpt my appearance and I don't have the patience to do a careful job of it. I mean, why put in a million hair follicles if you are not interested in growing a beard?"
Georgy laughed nervously, "I'm not complaining. You are beautiful, almost like a doll."
Eustace nodded and grinned. "That's the effect I was hoping to achieve. I want you relaxed and willing to chat. Sadly, we no longer get much information from Earth, so I'm now dependent on interviews of new arrivals."
Georgy again looked around the room. She was unable to see any doors or windows. The air in the room seemed sweet and fresh, but she felt a tinge of claustrophobia. "How many people get sent here from Earth?"
"Very few, now that the tryp'At Overseers are gone. In fact, you are the first newbie this year."
Georgy nodded and said, "Right." Then part of Georgy's mind was surprised. She knew what tryp'At Overseers were, but she had no memory of having heard those words previously. She asked, "How do I know about the tryp'At and their role as Earth Overseers?"
Eustace reached up and took hold of Georgy's hand, pulling it away from where it now rested against the side of his neck. "Georgy, do you trust me?"
"Yes. I'm not sure why I do. This is all very strange, but I feel like I know you well. I do trust you, but I don't know why."
"Come, let me show you around. I'll explain as we go. Walk this way." He tugged her hand and pulled Georgy off of the bed.
Eustace showed Georgy how to achieve a graceful walking/skipping movement in the low gravity. For a few minutes they went back and forth across the room. Now they stood in a corner of the room and he told her, "You are very athletic and graceful." Again he held the small device. "Now, don't be shocked, but I'm going to teleport us downtown."
Suddenly the bedroom vanished and they were standing on a street corner in what looked like a toy city. Some oddly shaped buildings rose up before them. "By ancient tradition, this is known as Observer Base." A few people were visible, going about their business. It was night time and although the streets and buildings glowed softly, it was a small, dark city and a splatter of stars could be seen twinkling above. Eustace continued, "Our population has plummeted recently, so you might feel that you are in some sort of ghost town. This is your new home, so allow me to begin showing you the sights." They set off hand-in-hand, skipping down the street which glowed a faint banana yellow under their feet.
Georgy asked, "This is all underground, right?"
"Exactly. Deep under the surface."
"So, you don't actually observe the stars, do you?"
Eustace laughed. "This base was established long ago to facilitate observation of Earth and its lifeforms. The stars that you see above us are simulated, a kind of art, like a mural."
Their surroundings were growing even darker with each turn down a new alleyway. No other people were now visible. Georgy asked, "Where are you taking me?"
"I want to show you the fishbowl, the place that used to be the center for ongoing Earth observations." They entered into a building, crossed an elegant lobby and rode a curving escalator up to a higher level. They now stood in front of a decorated wall. There were artifacts from a hundred different Earthly civilizations arrayed across the display shelves and nooks before them. Eustace warned, "I don't have a key, so we'll teleport in."
They teleported into a circular hall that had seating at about 75 workstations. Off in one quadrant of the room a half dozen people were at work. One of them waved to Eustace and he waved back. Eustace explained to Georgy, "This was once a hive of continuous activity. Now there is only one miserable remnant of glory, the AR Project."
Georgy knew that "AR" meant Asimov Reality, just as she had known about the tryp'At Overseers, but she asked, "The Asimov Reality?"
"Yes. Your infites seem to be working just fine. I provided you with a set of information nanites that can act to augment your Earthly memories. Those of us who work on the AR Project are trying to discover some secrets from the far future of Earth in what was the Asimov Reality, an earlier timeline of Earthly events."
Georgy knew that Isaac Asimov had written a novel about time travel and the far future of Humanity. She asked, "Eustace, are you related to Isaac Asimov, the writer?"
Eustace nodded. "I am. Are you familiar with Asimov's writing?"
Georgy shook her head. "Sorry, but no, I've never read any of his works."
Eustace finally let go of Georgy's hand and sat down at one of the workstations. He activated the equipment and said, "Show the White farm, near Perth, Australia. Find any occurrence of Georgy White as a child being exposed to the works of Isaac Asimov." Images formed in front of them and Eustace pulled one out and expanded it. Georgy could see a scene from her past: watching a movie on television. She was with her parents and two of her siblings. Eustace said, "That was six years ago. You were watching Bicentennial Man."
"Yes, I remember! About a robot who wanted to be human." Georgy asked, "How is this possible? Who would have been recording this inside my home?" Tears filled up Georgy's eyes and one spilled out, running down her cheek.
Eustace shut off the display equipment. "I'm sorry I upset you. I should have known we might see your family." He put his arms around Georgy and held her gently. "You will have to learn to live without them, but you can always come here and see images of them."
With wonder and awe, Georgy said, "It is all here, isn't it? All of Earth's history. Using the equipment here in this room, we can see it all."
Eustace nodded. "Almost all. Not long ago these recordings of events on Earth ended, so we are now quite blind to the events of recent Earth history. That's why I had to test you in this way. I can see that you are who you appear to be, not someone else trying to trick me."
Georgy pushed back and gazed at him from arm's length. "Who else would I be?"
"One of the problems with nanotechnology is that identities can be faked. I had to be sure that you are not an agent of my enemies, masquerading as an Earth girl."
Georgy laughed nervously. "Enemies?"
"Yes, I have enemies. I want to provide the people of Earth with access to advanced technology, but that is illegal. My enemies would love to catch me sending forbidden knowledge to Earth and if they did, I'd be exiled to the Core."
Georgy knew that "core" meant the Galactic Core. As that implanted memory bubbled up in her mind, she felt a sense of awe. "There are people who live on worlds of the Galactic Core?"
Eustace nodded. "Too bad you were not here last year, you could have met Yōd. She spent most of her life on Tar'tron, a world of the Core."
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| Original cover art by Douglas Chaffee and Dwight Morrow |
"No. She is still here, in Eternity."
Georgy knew why Eustace kept mentioning Eternity. Eternity was a place outside of Earthly space and time. Her infites shifted into an information cascade. A flood of words filled Georgy's mind: Hierion Domain, replicoid, Genesaunt, pek, bumpha, Huaoshy, Kac'hin. All the meanings of those words were present in her mind, but Georgy had never thought about them before. Eustace noticed what was happening and his arms were around her, he was holding her and looking into his little device while her mind flew out of control.
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| SIHA |
Next: the story continues in Resistance Training
Alternate track. The 2018 SIHA award.
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