Nemesis

On the Amber Road

We were slow departing from our cabins in the Oak Creek canyon and did not arrive home until late afternoon. After staying up all night reading Rylla's story, I slept during the long drive. As before, Zeta, Nora and Rylla were in the other car, but my son was linked to them by phone most of the way, so my dreams were filled with pieces of their ongoing conversations.

When we came in the house, it was immediately clear that our cats were annoyed, having been abandoned for a day. Zeta and I were thoroughly scolded. However, soon the cats made clear that they recognized Nora as a special attraction; somehow they sensed that she is not an ordinary human being.

The cats remained close to Nora for the remainder of her visit. I felt certain that at a subconscious level, my son also recognized that Nora was not a typical Earthling, but I saw no reason to tell him that Nora is an artificial life form. If cats don't care about such things, why should we humans?

For dinner, we set up an array of fondue pots and everyone enjoyed their own dips whether they be cheese, chocolate or tomato. That evening, our conversation slowly meandered in many directions until my son grew sleepy and went to bed.

Rylla is skeptical about the whole idea that time travel was once possible, but has now been eliminated from the universe by the Huaoshy. With her father out of the room, Rylla bluntly asked Nora, "How do we know that you are not shaping the flow of time even now? Changing our lives and pushing us in directions that we should not be moving?"

Nora leaned back in her seat and rubbed a hand across her protruding abdomen. She admitted, "It is a dilemma, particularly for someone young like you, born after the end of the Time Travel Era. For me, the best evidence of the Dimensional Shift was that other technologies were also altered when the dimensional structure of the universe changed. You've only known technology-assisted telepathy, but I lived for centuries in the presence of natural telepaths. Some of them had powerful telepathic abilities and believe me, it was quite a shock for them when they suddenly lost their telepathic powers."

Zeta asked, "What about you? Didn't you have telepathic powers?"

Nora replied, "I was part of the new generation, equipped with some limited capacity for technology-assisted telepathy by means of the Bimanoid Interface." She patted her belly. "Of course, my telepathic powers have been amplified since the recent upgrade of the Interface. And who knows what will be accomplished with the growing network of mind clones? But to answer your question, like many humans I probably had some minimal capacity to link to other minds by way of my telastids, but only at a subconscious level. I never really missed that ability when it went away. No, it was Trysta, the last Asterothrope, who was most dramatically impacted by the end of telastid-mediated telepathy. And her part-Asterothrope children such as Thomas."

Rylla suggested, "Someone on Earth must have noticed such a profound change in human nature."

Nora shrugged. "I suppose many people did, but they probably attributed the shift in social cohesiveness to the rapid changes then occurring in technology and the resulting alterations to the structures of human societies."

Zeta added, "It is probably no coincidence that just when social science was developing the observational tools and statistical methodologies to prove the existence of telastid-based human telepathy, that form of telepathy was erased from existence by the Huaoshy."

Rylla asked, "Erased?' She glanced at me, "But don't the telastids still exist inside our cells?"

I replied, "Telastids are simply too similar to mitochondria. Nobody has noticed them yet."

Nora added, "And when they are finally noticed, they will be called defective mitochondria and targeted with drugs as a way of achieving weight loss."

Rylla wondered, "You've seen into the future?"

Reality Viewing

Nora nodded, "I've had glimpses into the future. Remember, part of the advanced technology of the Time Travel Era was the existence of Reality Viewing equipment."

I waited patiently, wondering if Nora might tell us something about our own future. After a thoughtful pause in our conversation, Rylla muttered, "I'm not sure I'd like to know my future." For a moment I caught Nora's eye, and I felt certain that Nora knew something about Rylla's future. However, Nora was going to respect Rylla's wishes and not say anything about Rylla's future life.

I was still curious about how Nora had become stranded on Earth, unable to teleport. I suggested, "Teleportation technology must be one of the advanced technologies that the pek feel we Earthlings cannot be trusted with, along with true telepathy."

Nora shrugged. "That's an interesting idea, but I don't know. One of the reasons that I was allowed to stay on Earth is that many of my memories were edited and suppressed. I must have known much more about telepathy back in the days when I routinely teleported back and forth between Earth and Observer Base. Of course, it is clear that teleportation was also impacted when the Huaoshy changed the physical structure of the universe, but I can't provide an account of that change in terms of sedronic physics. I never personally had any control over the teleportation technology that was used to occasionally send me to Observer base... I just went along for the ride. With pek lurking off stage and the Huaoshy as a hidden force behind the pek, we Earthlings tend to wonder if we ever really control anything. More likely, the pek can't trust Earthlings with knowledge of hierions or sedrons, and you can't understand telepathy or teleportation without knowledge of hierions and sedrons. So, we just drift along, stumbling into a future that has been planned for us."

Rylla complained, "It all seems so fantastic! I've never met a Huaoshy and I doubt if anyone else has, either. It seems absurd to believe in something that is beyond our experience." Rylla glared at Nora. "The ancients used to call it 'fate', all you do is throw up your hands and mumble about unseen forces: the pek and the Huaoshy."

Artist's depiction of a Fru'wu

Nora laughed. "Nor will you ever meet any alien, not even a Fru'wu. You'll have to be satisfied to read stories about them that were written by folks in the Writers Block." She added, "The Huaoshy are completely inaccessible to hadronic beings like us; they reside in the Sedronic Domain."

Zeta told Rylla that once, as a child, back on her home world, she had met a pek. "I wonder if the pek can shift themselves out of the hadronic domain and cross over into the Sedronic Domain."

I shook my head. "Evidence is hard to come by. Apparently the pek believe that the Rules of Intervention restrict their movements. For example, they have a taboo against setting foot on planets like Earth."

Nora looked at me and said quietly, "Rules are made to be broken."

Zeta suggested, "The Rules of Intervention may not actually apply to the pek. Those Rules may have been written for lesser beings such as the Nereids."

Nora shrugged. "Who knows? Has anyone actually seen a copy of the Rules of Intervention? The problem is, the pek are masters of disguise. They can take on any physical form that is convenient for them to use. There could be a million pek living on Earth and we would never know."

Rylla nodded and exclaimed, "Exactly! And they might still be making use of time travel technology."

Nora sighed. "No, we all need to stop imagining that we can be rescued from our mistakes by time travel. We are now stuck with the world that we create by our choices and actions. No more second chances. That terrifies me." Nora reached out and placed a hand on Rylla's shoulder. "When I was young, I did not have to worry about making mistakes. Oh, the stories I could tell!"

I wondered if Nora might actually open up and tell us some of her secrets. I suggested, "Tell us about one of your past missions on Earth."

Nora laughed nervously, "Oh, my!" She explained to Rylla, "I've been trying so hard to forget about the past and just live as an Earthling with your father. But, since he's asleep and in the other room, I suppose I could tell you about my first pregnancy." Nora leaned close to Rylla and whispered, "Just don't share this story with your father."

Rylla said, "If it is a good story then it will end up being told to everyone in the world."

Nora asked, "Told as a science fiction story?"

Rylla giggled. "I don't like science fiction. I don't write science fiction."

Nora nodded knowingly. "You might not try to write science fiction, but the people of Earth will view your stories as science fiction. You have no physical evidence of alien visitors to Earth. Anyhow, when I had my first child I was living in Europe. It was the time when the Roman Empire was at its peak. As an Interventionist agent, my mission was to bring the secret of papermaking to Europe."

I burst out, "What?" I was skeptical. "You taught the Romans how to make paper?"

"Well, I tried, but in the end, my effort to bring printed books to the Romans were reversed by the Overseers. However, that is another story. We were talking about the pek, not paper. The story I want to tell you now is about one particular pek. You see, I found a pek 'living' on Earth."

Isaac Asimov's Nemesis

"I had established a small paper manufacturing plant beside the Danube at Drobeta in Dacia. In those days, I was only concerned with technological progress and I paid little attention to religion. After successfully producing my first batch of paper, I was trying to use available materials to build a printing press."

Zeta giggled. "Imagine a Roman Empire with printed books and a scientific revolution!"

Nora nodded. "Yes, that was the plan. Being concerned only with science, I toiled away in my workshop and I gave no thought the religion of the Empire... not until the cult of Nemesis arrived in Drobeta and began construction of a new temple."

Nora explained, "Temples of the cult of Nemesis were little more than covers for an altar. Of course, in Drobeta, the altar was there first, before they built the temple around it..."

----   Clandestine Destiny as told by Nora Stone ----

I'd selected Drobeta as my base of operations because it was a growing trade node on the Amber Road. I enjoyed living with some luxury, and I did not want my lifestyle to seem outlandish. Among the wealthy traders of Drobeta I could lead a comfortable life. I wanted easy access to a supply of trees, the manufactured goods of the Empire and the markets of the Mediterranean world that I expected would be eager to sell books printed on paper. The port of Drobeta on the Danube river provided me with easy access to the rest of the Roman Empire.

The site selected for the new temple of the cult of Nemesis was on the little hill up behind my paper mill. I'd bought my land from a Dacian family that lived on that hill and farmed the surrounding fields. I was contracted to clear the forested land on the ridge beyond their homestead and it was those trees that provided the wood pulp for my paper manufacturing.

At the time of the arrival of the cultists, a young woman, Rescuturme, was the only Dacian who remained in her family's hilltop compound. Everyone else in her clan had moved into town, abandoning their agricultural lifestyle and adopting the ways of the Roman merchants. One evening Rescuturme arrived at my workshop, a rather cramped space that was perched above the paper mill. She called to me, "Nerilla! Nerilla! Let me in!" I invited her in, but she was insistent that I go with her up the hill. She was wild, seemingly in a state of panic. I saw that she was carrying a small oil lamp and its light cast her face into a mask of fright. Rescuturme still raised horses on the sloping pastures. She trained and exercised the horses in her heard, each year selecting those that were strong and clever, which she then sold to the Romans. I wondered: what had so terrified the girl? My telepathic powers were not well tuned to her mind, so I could see little detail beyond the emotional turmoil of her thoughts. Frustrated that my plans for the evening were being disrupted by an histerical girl, I reluctantly abandoned work on my experimental printing press and followed Rescuturme out into the dark night.

As we walked, the moon popped above the horizon and Rescuturme extinguished her lamp. She told me how she had sold the old vineyard at the very top of the hill to the cult of Nemesis. Excitedly, she told me about events of the past two weeks. "At first, there was only Marcus, who paid me for the land in gold and also sold me his fine horse. Then last weak, Tulio appeared. Both are mercenaries, guards of the cult. Marcus arrived on a great Tracian stallion, but Tulio... well, there was strange glow in the forest the night of his arrival. I assumed that Marcus was clearing the temple site and burning the slash. But the next day, when I investigated, I found no ashes, only the stone altar of the cult in a little clearing among the trees that hold up a canopy of vines. The forest has grown up and carried the grape vines into a high canopy."

I had previously visited the ancient vineyard on the hill. "Yes, I know the place."

We went around the side of Rescuturme's villa, a heavy castle-like structure of stone. I could see flickers of light up ahead and a glow above the top of the hill as we continued walking through the back gardens of the villa and then up into the forest. Rescuturme paused to re-light her lamp then we proceeded up the little trail through the trees. She whispered, "Two nights ago the strange lights returned. I came up here and saw that the altar was bathed in light, almost like the light of the sun! Marcus and Tulio were there, beside the altar. They seemed to be waiting, so I waited, watching secretly from the edge of the clearing. Suddenly the altar lit up and then Zephyrus appeared atop the altar. He stepped down and the lights went away, like blowing out a candle."

I had a good idea what it was that Rescuturme had witnessed. The only question was why she had been allowed to remember seeing a teleportation terminal being used. My heart started to pound. Because of my training as an Interventionist, thoughts of teleportation made me suspect that an Earth Overseer might be involved. If so, I was in great danger.

We were now close enough to directly glimpse the lights that illuminated the altar. Rays of bright light reached us through little gaps in the forest foliage. Again Rescuturme extinguished her lamp. She whispered to me, "Yesterday I came up here and spoke to Marcus, Tulio and Zephyrus. I asked them about the strange lights I had seen."

I asked, "What did they say?"

"They said that they had been burning fires and trying to signal their goddess and attract her to come down to Earth and dedicate the new temple site. I knew they were lying, but I changed the subject. I asked Zephyrus, 'Where is your horse? I'll I buy it from you. Ask Marcus, I paid him a fair price for his mount.' I knew that Zephyrus had not arrived on horseback, but I wanted to hear what he would say."

I warned Rescuturme, "Best you not tell these three mercenaries what you know."

I could sense that Rescuturme was afraid that she knew too much, but she was compelled to learn more. Rescuturme continued with her story. "Zephyrus chuckled and told me that he had arrived on the wind."

I suddenly realized that there was one good reason why Rescuturme had been allowed to witness a teleportation pad in use: so that she could tell me about it. I suspected that we were walking into a trap, but I was also too curious to turn around. Rescuturme and I crept up to the edge of the little clearing in the forest where Marcus, Tulio and Zephyrus waited near the alter.

The mind of a man who has learned to read and write is different. I could sense that Marcus was well educated and in his mind I could sense that he anticipated another teleportation event to occur. He turned his head and looked in our direction. Marcus called out, "Rescuturme, don't hide. Come join us. Bring your friend."

Rescuturme glanced at me and then led the way out into the open. Rescuturme asked, "Marcus, what is this strange rite? What is the source of this odd light?"

Indeed, there was no fire burning, but the area around the altar was well-lit. Marcus said to me, "Welcome to our sacred place, Nerilla."

I wondered if Marcus could extract my name from the pattern of my thoughts. More likely, during the previous week Rescuturme had probably spoken to Marcus about me and used my name. I stepped forward and examined the altar. It looked like simple carved stone. I asked Marcus, "Who are you waiting for? Who is going to arrive tonight?"

Marcus made no attempt to hide the truth. "Our goddess. She wants to have a word with you."

Rescuturme pulled me away from the altar. "It is a magic stone! Watch! It will change into light."

Once more I contemplated running away, but I knew that I would not be left in peace. I imagined that my presence in Drobeta and my role as an Interventionist agent had been discovered by the Earth Observers. It seemed likely that the "goddess" who Marcus expected to arrive would be an Overseer, sent to collect me and put an end to my Interventionist work on Earth. I said to Marcus, "I don't believe in gods."
_____________________________

At this point in the story, Rylla asked Nora, "You weren't afraid?"

Nora explained, "Interventionist agents are trained to expect capture. I knew that if I was taken off of Earth and imprisoned at Observer Base, then a copy of me would be made and that copy would be sent to Earth on a new mission."

Zeta said to Nora, "So, you were a foot-soldier in the Time War..."

Nora nodded, "Yes. And I thought I knew my mission. My work at Drobeta would vastly accelerate the development of European civilization if I could provide paper and a new industry of printed books to the Romans. But I could sense in the thoughts of Marcus that there was another reason for my presence on Earth at that time."

Nora continued her story.....
_____________________________

Marcus came and stood close to me. I thought he looked silly in his fancy soldier suit. He said to Rescuturme, "No magic, just the divine power of the goddess." Marcus turned directly towards me and I could smell his ripe body odor. "You will see for yourself: Nemesis knows all. She promised me that you would be beautiful like a god, but also warned me that you are not to be mistaken for a god."

I could sense in the mind of Marcus a rising lust. He reached out and placed his hand against the side of my face. A fear filled my thoughts: had the Overseer promised Marcus that he could have me as his slave and concubine?

At that moment, the altar flashed to life and became a functioning teleportation terminal. A humanoid figure appeared on top of the teleportation pad and I came as close to getting religion at that moment as I ever could. The three mercenaries gave out a cry of welcome: "All hail the goddess!"

God, alien or zeptite-based artificial life form? The being that had suddenly arrived in our midst by teleportation looked essentially like a human woman. She looked like one of the human variants from the Galactic Core, with long ears, big eyes and pointy teeth. I had some type of telepathic contact with her, but only to the extent of providing me with an involuntary compulsion to worship her. I knew that this was no Overseer.

She pointed at Rescuturme and spoke to Tulio and Zephyrus, "Take the lady back to her home. She has performed her task well. Reward her."

Tulio and Zephyrus each took hold of one of Rescuturme's arms and they led her away.

The "goddess" stepped off of the teleportation platform and immediately it transformed back into a stone altar. The lights of the clearing dimmed and the three of us stood there in the moon light. I found my voice and asked, "Who are you? What are you?"

She waved a hand in my direction and I felt a swarm of infites slip into my brain. Suddenly, I knew her to be a pek; an hermaphrodite, but she looked almost like a woman. "You can call me Priscilla." As my eyes adjusted to the lower light level, I could see that Priscilla's dress emitted its own soft glowing light.

Marcus was not satisfied to hear his goddess label herself with a mundane name like Priscilla. He told me emphatically, "This is the great goddess, Nemesis!"

Priscilla laughed, flashing her long white fangs. She put an arm around my shoulders and told me, "The whole Nemesis thing originated long ago as an Interventionist plot. During the past few centuries, I've often found it useful to adopt the role of Nemesis. I'll admit, I can have a lot of fun playing the role of a god!" Priscilla guided me away from Marcus and off across the clearing. "Marcus only knows me as Nemesis, his goddess. I must say, such trickery does make for loyal servants."

Marcus was following along behind us and he had no difficulty hearing what Priscilla had told me. He complained, "I gladly serve you, Nemesis."

Priscilla ignored Marcus and said to me, "I see in your thoughts that you have guessed the purpose in my plan for bringing together you and Marcus."

I was a bit sickened by what I had seen in the thoughts of Marcus. "You really expect me to be the mother of his son?"

Priscilla glanced back over her shoulder at Marcus. We had stopped walking and now stood at the edge of a little precipice. The Danube river could be seen in the distance, glimmering in the moonlight like a silver snake. "Why not? He cleans up nicely. The only problem is, he is getting old, so I want to make a copy of him. You will give birth to his clone. You see, my dear Nerilla, I must plan for the future. Your plans for the future must be modified and subjugated to mine."

Marcus asked, "Clone?"

Priscilla ignored Marcus and spoke to me. "I make use of whatever tools are available here on Earth and you will be the perfect tool to provide me with a copy of Marcus. I only expect to get about 20 years of service out of a typical Earthling, then I need a replacement copy."

I asked, "Who are you? How can you operate in this way on Earth, using men as your slaves?" Even as I spoke those words I was feeling a growing cognitive dissonance. Part of me wanted to fall to my knees and worship Priscilla as a god, but the rational part of my mind wanted an explanation for how an alien creature could operate so openly on Earth.

Priscilla tried to make me understand. "You Interventionists think you can alter the pace of technological innovation on Earth, but you are really only allowed to be here by we pek because you provide a source of genes for evolving humanity and preparing for the future."

"You are pek?"

"That should not surprise you. Who else but a pek could teleport around Earth and build an Empire from scratch. Yes, that has been my task for the past six centuries, building up the Roman Empire as an alternative to the Etruscan Empire."
__________________________

I'd long known that a dominate Roman Empire is a recent feature of Earth's Reality Chain, but I had never heard an explanation for how Rome had been able to control such a vast territory. I complained to Nora, "Wait, now. Are you saying that the pek were responsible for replacing the Etruscan Empire with a gigantic Roman Empire?"

Nora nodded. "Of course, R. Nyrtia must have agreed that the benefits arising from the Rome Empire meant that the Etruscans should be almost completely erased from Earth's historical timeline. The Huaoshy were god-like in their ability to view alternative Realities and select the optimal future."

Zeta asked skeptically, "Optimal for who?"

Rylla said, "I've read some of what grandpa wrote about the influence of the Etruscans in the Ekcolir Reality." Rylla glanced at me then turned back to Zeta, "Somehow, their influence led inexorably to a global warming catastrophe for Earth."

Zeta was not ready to accept the idea that centuries of Roman rule had been good for Earth. "How could the mere existence of a Roman Empire avert the global warming catastrophe?"

I suggested, "I think I understand the point that Nora is trying to make. The Etruscan Empire was supported and propped up by R. Nyrtia and the Interventionists. When we humans look back at the Ekcolir Reality, we like what we see. In that Reality, Earth was a more peaceful world, with a quicker pace of social and technological progress. However, it was also a trap, leading to certain catastrophe. Earth needed something like cool Huaoshy objectivity and pek ruthlessness in order to put our world on a safe trajectory into the future."

Nora added, "We might not like the heavy-handed way that the pek imposed the Roman Empire on human civilization, but we must accept it. When I was dealing with Priscilla I was helpless to resist..." Nora continued her story.
__________________________

When Priscilla arrived and derailed my life, I was not happy with the idea of the pek taking control of Earth and interfering with my mission on Earth. However, Priscilla was good at her work. For one thing, Priscilla was an expert at using infites to control human behavior. She could talk to me about topics like cloning humans and then casually erase all memory of such things from the minds of people like Marcus.

I believe that Priscilla was trying to educate me and provide me with a broader perspective on Earth history than what I had received when I had trained as an Interventionist agent. With time, I lost my resentment of Priscilla and her role in shaping Earth's history. And we had plenty of time. Since Priscilla was going to revert the Reality of a Rome with paper and printing, she let me live out a fantasy existence in which I did bring those technologies to Rome. During that time, Marcus built a great temple for Nemesis in Drobeta and then he helped Rescuturme turn her family's villa into an academy of learning.

Rescuturme and I had many children during the decade after Priscilla diverted the courses of our lives. My first-born son was a clone of Marcus and I saw him grow to become a man. Similarly, Rescuturme gave birth to clones of Tulio and Zephyrus. Marcus and I had additional children and I was happy living in Drobeta, believing that in exchange for providing Priscilla with a clone of Marcus, the pek were allowing my Interventionist mission to succeed.

Priscilla with a Marcus clone.

I lived out my biological life with Marcus as my husband, then most of that life was erased by the pek. Two of my children lived on in Earth's Final Reality. After my biological life ended, a replicoid copy of me was made at Observer Base, a copy that retained the memories of my erased life with Marcus on Earth.

After many years of living with Marcus and of quizzing him about his youth, I realized that the mother of Marcus was an earlier Interventionist agent who raised him to "be civilized". I did the same for the next Marcus clone, and I was left wondering how many previous copies of Marcus there had been.

I know that Priscilla started her work in ancient Greece. She had worked tirelessly to create the Roman Empire as alternative to the Etruscan Empire of the Ekcolir Reality, making use of Interventionist agents such as me whenever we arrived on Earth. Maybe all around the Mediterranean sea, each temple to Nemesis marks the spot of such an intervention.
__________________________

After Nora finished her story about her past life during the Roman Era, we cleared away our dishes and the fondue pots. After helping clean up, Rylla was tired and went off to her room to sleep.

Nora, Zeta and I sat for a while longer, discussing artificial life forms. Watching the cats snuggle up to Nora, I asked bluntly, "What are you, Nora?"

She replied, "Nobody ever bothered to explain that to me. I suspect I am and artificial life form, composed of femtobot components. However, no Earthly diagnostics could detect a difference between me and an actual human being."

Zeta suggested, "You seem to be a perfect physical specimen. Do you age?"

Nora shrugged and a sly grin danced on her lips, "I can appear to age."

I asked another indelicate question, "And what of the baby that you are carrying? Is it real? Biological?"

Nora nodded gravely. "I don't have the ability to make more artificial beings like myself. However, I can gestate human embryos. I'm doing my part to build a network of mind clones that will make possible information flow between Earth and the Hierion Domain. Making these mind clones seems to have been a planned part of the Trysta-Grean Pact."

That night, Nora, Zeta and I made our own pact, to work together to make sure that Rylla would be happy and live a productive life. Nora suggested that Rylla should return home to Australia and complete her education. I did not argue the point, knowing that Rylla would do exactly what she wanted to do, no matter what anyone else thought was proper and appropriate.

Next: That night, Rylla and the mind clone network create a shared dream...

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers