original cover art by Edward Valigursky |
Rylla's mother, Vendela. |
source (Sedronite, image credits) |
discovery of anti-gravity hierions |
In my case, the existing link between Yōd and I by way of the Bimanoid Interface is very tenuous. New information (that I believe is coming from Yōd within the AR Simulator) appears in my mind like a suddenly recovered memory. The "return" of those memories often comes while I am dreaming. I seem to have been equipped to access these "memories" by the infites that I received from Yōd when she was teleported off of Earth, however Zeta now suspects that Yōd has also been trying to communicate with her, taking advantage of the fact that Yōd and Zeta have very similar mind patterns and a strong telepathic linkage.
by Izhiun |
Dream Time
Last night I had a disturbing dream. After I awoke today I was puzzling over that dream and trying to understand its contents. I was confused and upset and not making much progress when Zeta finally got out of bed. As soon as I saw her up and about, I ambushed her: "Did you have a strange dream last night?"
Grinning, she came and put her arms around me, "All I remember from last night was you keeping me up half the night, then I fell into a sweet sleep. I'm still a little tired. You were quite spry between the sheets for an old man." Zeta gave me a long kiss.
illegal alien |
"Mmm, yes, it was dreamy." Zeta kissed my nose. "Delightful."
"No: I'm serious. My memories of last night are a strange kind of dream sensation. For me, it seemed like someone -a stranger- had taken control of my body and all I could do was watch what was happening."
Zeta looked at me speculatively then said. "Oh, no. I suspected... but, no..." In her mind, I could see that Zeta was thinking about her sister, Yōd.
a report by Zeta |
A strange idea popped into my head. I asked, "How could Yōd take control of my body?"
Zeta explained, "Alpha, Yōd and I were trained to monitor your thoughts, not control your behavior, but for the past week or so, you have said that you had started having some kind of telepathic contacts with Yōd."
Zeta Gohrlay |
Zeta shook her head. "How could that be?" She rubbed her hands across her abdomen. "This is our child. How could Yōd possibly be gestating a clone of our child?"
"I don't know, but I don't like the idea that Yōd can now take control of my body. That must be what happened last night while I slept."
infites |
I asked, "Could I be carrying an infite-based copy of Yōd's mind inside me?"
Zeta shrugged. "If so, then those infites might have been able to make sure that both she and I are carrying duplicate mind clones."
Startled by that idea, I asked Zeta, "How could that be?"
"As a tryp'At, you probably carry an endosymbiont that can produce desired genomes for zygotes. If your endosymbiont was programmed by the infites that you received from Yōd..." Zeta's voice faded into silence.
the Hierion Domain |
Zeta shook her head, "You don't know that. It might have been someone else." Zeta asked me, "If it was Yōd in control of your body, then where was your conscious mind last night when you lost control of your body? You say you were watching me?"
"Yes, it was frustrating. It was as if I saw you, but all I could do was watch from the perspective of my dream-like state. Could my consciousness have been pushed out of my biological brain and been functioning within my endosymbiont?"
endosymbionts |
"Yes, I think that is it. There were other... voices." I paused, searching for the correct word. They had not really been voices. "Someone was there in the dream with me... trying to distract me from watching what you were doing."
by Thomas |
"I don't know." I fell silent and tried to reactivate and capture more of my elusive dream-like memories. After a minute I said, "This is frustrating because the memories of those voices are like jumbled dream memories. There were multiple layers of information, almost superimposed... maybe encoded. The words, what was trying to be communicated to me... they make no sense."
Zeta suggested, "You should have parts of the minds of Izhiun, Ivory, Thomas and Yōd inside you. Could you have been experiencing their memories as part of your dream?"
Original cover art by John Scott |
Zeta asked, "Questioned by who? Izhiun, Ivory, Thomas or Yōd?" She ran her hands over my chest. "Or maybe it was me. I was wondering why you were behaving like such an animal."
I asked with alarm, "Animal?"
"In a good sense." Zeta explained, "The way you used to make love to Alpha, decades ago, back when you were a young man."
clones of Gohrlay |
Zeta laughed, "You think you were being questioned by our child?"
I also laughed. "It seems silly, but I've been wondering exactly how sophisticated the thought processes of a mind clone might become... even before one is born. I wish we knew more about mind clones."
by Rylla |
I could not stop myself from thinking about what might be learned by activating a replicoid. Particularly one that might know how to use the teleportation equipment at Observer Base. "But-"
Zeta shouted, "No buts!"
"Vendela's replicoid might be able to provide Rylla with-"
"No. It is too dangerous. You did not experience what I went through with Yōd before she slipped into the AR Simulator.... the positive feedback that built up between me and my sister. It was no fun. Actually, it was dangerous. I won't put Rylla through that."
Ivory Fersoni |
I kept pushing my case, "I got a taste of that feedback effect, just before Irhit was inactivated. We both survived. And besides, Rylla is not actually a clone of Vendela."
"They are almost genetically identical. No, it is too risky. Don't even mention this wild scheme to the poor girl."
"You know she would be willing to try it."
"So don't mention it to her. Just because nothing bad has ever happened to her, she thinks she is invincible."
I had to add one more push against Zeta's defenses. "It is interesting that you did not simply make the point that we don't have the means to activate Vendela's replicoid."
source |
"Interesting. Was it Eustacia who inactivated them in the first place?"
"No, I think that was done by the Tryp'At Overseers, but Eustacia had been waiting and watching for years, anticipating that the tryp'At would be driven out of Observer Base. It might have been Eustacia who teleported Georgy to Observer Base."
I complained, "I don't like collaborating with Eustacia if she can keep such secrets from us."
At Observer Base |
Zeta replied, "This is what you have to look forward to when you get married. We were just arguing about what happened in bed last night."
Rylla laughed, "I heard you two going at it last night."
At that point, Zeta and I shifted our private discussion over into our shared telepathic channel.
Eustacia Pasimov
The Pasimov Project |
In 2018, a new Asimov-related character appeared, Eustacia Pasimov. For some reason, no female analogue of Asimov ever existed in any of the Realities of Earth's Reality Chain. However, Eustacia seems to be proof that it was possible to create a female analogue of Asimov. Created in the Ekcolir Reality, Eustacia was unable to penetrate the AR Simulator. Later, in the Final Reality, Eustacia played a key role in creating the mind clone network.
The Escapist Clan |
And it was not just Asimov's analogue. What about the First Reality versions of Vance and Clarke? There was a small group of scientists at Observer Base, highly constrained in their investigations by the Rules of Intervention. Many Sails had created the conditions by which a quirk of human biology might be explored. The Phari endosymbionts inside humans had become entangled with mitochondria, creating a new intracellular organelle, the telastid. Telastids conferred upon Neanderthals a weak type of telepathy, resulting in a unique type of social cohesion. Might it be possible for such a hadron-based creature to successfully develop technology, spread among the stars and not destroy itself?
Gohrlay's Brain |
"By accident", a human brain was copied into positronic circuits, leading to discovery of a powerful type of telepathy and, ultimately, to a practical method for time travel. R. Gohrlay attributed her ability to recognize what was happening to her prior exposure to the fiction of her "first family". I wonder if the original analogue of Asimov in the First Reality had shared with Gohrlay his thoughts about time travel. Eventually, R. Gohrlay and R. Nyrtia arranged for a Reality in which Asimov, Vance and Clarke lived in the era when space travel became possible.
I've been investigating how it was possible for Asimov to pass on to me some hints about hierions and sedrons, telepathy and time travel in his science fiction stories. Who were the Interventionists that made that possible? The answers to many such mysteries remain to be revealed. I can't help thinking that Vendela's replicoid, if re-activated, might boost the functioning of the mind clone network and help us reveal more of the Hidden History of Humanity.
Next: LaCy the replicoid
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