 |
| space elevator |
return to Part 1 Part 2
Betty and Parthney arrived back at Parthey Mansion and went immediately to the kitchen. For a time, Parthney watched Betty cook then she set him to work shelling some peas. Parthney could not stop himself from thinking about the man who Betty had been living with for the past 25 years. He asked a question about his predecessor, "Why was George so upset about the rapid development of artificial intelligence on Earth?"
Betty explained, "The intelligent machines on Earth have started making their own technological discoveries and advances. The problem of making a material strong enough to support a space elevator was solved by an artificial intelligence. A dozen space elevators are now under construction."
"Why is that a problem?"
Betty asked, "You saw all the wood smoke at the sugarhouse today?" Parthney nodded in reply. Betty continued, "Before the Fru'wu arrived, Earth was well on its way to having too much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The planet started heating up, glaciers were melting, the oceans were rising. Cities like New Amsterdam and New York are using walls to hold back the sea. But now Fru'wu technology is being used to send torrents of solar energy from outer space to Earth, enough to meet all demand for energy. Fossil fuel use has plummeted. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now dropping fast. Some are worried that Earth's climate might soon swing too far in the ice direction. The way things are going now, we could end up in a new ice age."
Parthney asked, "What does that have to do with space elevators?"
 |
| Space Energy Missions |
Parthney had never imagined such a sequence of events. "Really?"
"According to George, that is still a low probability future, one that could still be avoided. However, he did an experiment. He published an article describing that danger and nobody on Earth seemed to notice. Or care. The Earthlings all believe that the Fru'wu can solve any technological challenge. Everyone seems to believe that the sedron power source for the Fru'wu space-drive can supply Earth with energy, if needed. If so, solar power will no longer be needed. Conclusion: nobody on Earth sees the danger of space elevators."
Parthney was only vaguely aware of hierions and sedrons as fundamental particles. He asked Betty, "Can it? Can space-drive technology be used as a source of energy on Earth?"
"I don't know. George went back to the galactic core to try to find out."
Parthney brought the peas (most of them; some had slipped away from him and rolled away, now hidden somewhere under the big kitchen table.) to Betty and she put them to boil. "Dinner in five minutes."
Parthney put his arms around Betty. "I've had a fun first day on Earth. I feel very lucky to have found you here, Betty. You do remind me of Syon."
It was easy for Betty to imagine that these were the arms of her George Parthey now wrapped around her rather than those of Parthney. She asked, "Do you miss her?"
"Of course. We lived together for two years. She bore my child."
Betty shouted, "Your child?" That just wasn't done.
Parthney asked, "Does that surprise you?"
"Well, yes. You know, Syon is an artificial life form."
"That did not stop her from having our child after the decision was made that no more Interventionists would be sent from Oib to Earth."
Betty set their dinner on the table. "As artificial lifeforms, Syon and I don't actually need to eat, but I'll always eat with you, to fulfill a social obligation. As an artificial life form, Syon should not be having babies, particularly not the child of an agent being sent off to Earth!"
Parthney nodded, "Syon always seemed to enjoy eating and pretending to be a biological creature. I believe she tries to transcend her nature as an artificial life form. She enjoys life."
Betty continued her line of thought, "After taking you away from Hemmal, I suppose Syon felt she was obligated to create a family with you and-"
Parthney cut Betty off. "Don't say that! We were in love. We were both upset when word came that there was an emergency and I would be sent to Earth after-all."
They had their meal in the fancy dining room, at an even longer and more massive wooden table than the one in the kitchen. Betty ate quietly for a while and Parthney critiqued the food. Then Betty said, "So, Mr. family man, tell me... do you simply want to grab Hana and get yourself back to Oib as quickly as you can?"
"Yes, I do. Young children grow up so fast. I don't want to miss out on that experience with my own child."
Betty asked, "Maybe you can explain a message that Syon sent to me in her infites?"
"What message?"
"Syon told me to not restrain myself from... being your partner."
"You mean sexual partner."
"I think that is what Syon meant. That's part of my job, part of being the assistant for an Interventionist agent on Earth. I've been the concubine for dozens and dozens of Thomas clones and as many others... all who were assigned to me. But none of them ever arrived on Earth after having left a family behind on Oib." Still, something in the general tone of the infites that Betty had received from Syon seemed to suggest that Parthney would not be on Earth for only the duration of a quick mission. Her thoughts turned to the idea of using teleportation technology to make copies of people.
 |
| How to hide an Interventionist base of operations. The Koly star system. |
Parthney gazed across the table at Betty and said, "You are so very much like Syon. You seem very comfortable with me when you are not worrying. And when I look at you, I can't help thinking that you are my dear Syon, or some alternate version of her. I'd very much enjoy becoming your next lover. If we do become lovers, that does not mean that I'll love Syon any less than I do. In fact, since I'm going to be the last interventionist agent on Earth, you really should go back to Oib with me after we complete this mission."
Betty laughed, "Don't be silly. After five thousand years, I am an honorary Earthling. No, there is much work for me to do here on this world, even if no more Thomas clones are sent to Earth in the future."
Parthney shrugged. "Well, maybe you are a just machine. I don't want to boink you if you have no feelings for me. I guess I misjudged you... I suppose you can't really feel jealous." He said sulkily, "Maybe you just boink each and every Interventionist agent as a matter of routine duty."
Betty laughed. Through the day she had slowly become aware of the fact that she had been carefully programmed over the course of recent decades to feel a deep attachment to George/Parthemy/Thomas/Parthney. Now she realized that her role in Parthney's mission on Earth included the task of making him want to stay on Earth rather than quickly return to Oib. Betty pushed away her dinner plate and got up from her chair and walked around to Parthney's side of the table. She pushed the big table away with a forceful swing of her hips and sat down on his lap, taking hold of his shoulders. "Don't get yourself into a bad mood, Parthney... I adore your cheerfulness. I may not be human, but I fell in love with George. I know you are not the George Parthey that I've lived with for decades, but... yes, maybe I did get just a little jealous when I saw you flirting with Tatum."
Parthney grinned. "I knew it!"
Betty asked, "How old are you, in Earth years?"
Parthney tried to estimate the number, "About Twenty-five."
"Just a kid. During the past two decades I've allowed my appearance to shift, so that I would appear to age some along with George. How old do I look to you?"
"About thirty five."
"Is that too old for your tastes? Are you one of those guys that measures a woman by the number of wrinkles on her face and size of her breasts? Are you only attracted to cute girls like Wyonna and Tatum?"
"Not at all.... I don't enjoy the sight of big breasts. Besides, you don't have wrinkles and you don't act old." He tugged at her collar and tried to take a peak inside her shirt at her torso. "Based on what I've seen so far, I'm guessing you and Syon have the same model of perky breasts. To my eye, you are just as sexy as Syon and your apparent age is not significantly greater than Syon's."
"I wonder how long it will take you to learn not to stare at the breasts of women." She kissed the tip of his nose and then gently tugged on both his ears. "I can understand if you are obsessed with breasts since you grew up on Hemmal among Buld, but the people you meet on this world will know nothing about your odd childhood."
 |
| Parthney on Hemmal (image credits) |
Betty kissed him and ran her tongue around inside his mouth. She then asked, "How was that? Still need more data?"
Parthney was impressed. He asked, "Was that... a trick... using your nanites too... ?" Words failed him.
Betty enjoyed the look of surprise on his face. She replied, "Parthney, I've had a couple of thousand years on this planet learning all kinds of tricks."
Parthney said, "Too bad I wont be here long enough to learn them all." He tried kissing Betty again.
After a time, Betty rested her head on Parthney's shoulder. She spoke softly into his ear, "So, have we covered every angle? I remind you of Syon and you remind me of George.... a sweet, exciting new variant of George. To help keep your mind on your mission, you might as well relieve your sexual tensions by boinking me, not drooling over teenagers."
Parthney laughed. "Fine. I agree; I don't understand these Earth kids and their music... far easier for me to be with you... and even occasionally forget that you are not my precious Syon. Don't get upset if I sometimes slip and call you Syon! But I have two points to make." He held up a hand with the index finger extended, "First, remember Betty, this is our mission, not my mission. I need your help." He tightened his arms around Betty and kissed her gently on the cheek.
Betty still could not stop herself from wondering if she really needed Parthney's help. She suggested, "Given your problem with motion sickness, maybe you should stay here... I can go down to Quaben and collect Hana... bring her back here to you."
Parthney shook his head and said emphatically, "No, Syon explained this to me carefully. Hana moved to New Amsterdam to seek medical care for her daughter. That allowed Thomas to meet Hana and now she knows him well and trusts him. Since I'm a clone of Thomas, I'll be able to impersonate him. Hana will think that I'm Thomas."
Betty asked, "Thomas is living in New Amsterdam now?"
"Yes. He's been there for the past ten years."
Parthney suggested, "The special nanites that I received on Klyz should protect us."
Betty was still worried about putting her trust in some untested Fru'wu technology, but maybe it was she, herself who was being tested. Parthney had told her to stop worrying so much. Somehow her mood had shifted and she was now willing to put her uncertain future into the hands of the Fates. She sighed contentedly and relaxed against Parthney and then asked, "And what was your second point?"
Parthney replied, whispering into her ear, feeling her soft and warm in his arms and allowing himself to think of Syon, "Well, my dear, you are sitting on it, and I think we'd both be more comfortable with it upstairs in George's big soft bed."
______________________________
That wasn't quite the end of Parthney's first day on Earth in the Ekcolir Reality, but in an effort to keep this blog post's PG rating, I'll end the story there, near the long dining table of Parthey Mansion. They did make it back upstairs to the big bed, eventually.
The above account of Parthney's first day on Earth is actually only a fragment of a larger novel-length story that Georgy White found in the library of the Writers Block. The full version includes an account of Parthney's training on the planet Oib and the events on planet Tar'tron upon the arrival of George Parthey on that world, following his 25-year-long mission on Earth.
 |
| recent Realities |
Of course, it was not the biobody of George that was teleported from Earth to Tar'tron, but rather a collection of nanites that was lifted from the endosymbiont inside George's body. A "parthey" was one of the receptacles for infites that had been used by Lili in the Ekcolir Reality in order to facilitate the secret insertion of her Interventionist agents into the population of Earth.
We have to ask the question: was Gustav Parthey or an earlier member of his family living in Europe an actual clone of Thomas? Zeta suggests that the Parthey clan was artificially created by genome engineering. According to her theory, a Grendel Interventionist stationed on Earth (possibly Betty) manufactured the genome of Gustav Parthey and inserted that artificial genome into an oocyte obtained from his mother. Zeta suspects that a parthey had physical features that were quite similar to the "original Thomas body structure", but modified so as to match a normal body structure for an Earth human. In the case of Thomas himself and clones like Parthney, their bodies had to be carefully shaped by developmental control nanites during fetal development in order to "edit out" several distinctive Asterothrope phenotypic properties. That special editing step was not required for a parthey.
The Interventionist agent who worked with Betty before the arrival of Parthney was named "Parthemy". He was the 13th such agent in the parthey sequence during the Vermont Intervention. When the Parthemy infites were teleported to Tar'tron, they were inserted into another receptacle, one that had never been modified so as to hide the Asterothrope features of Thomas. Upon his arrival on Tar'tron, Parthemy met with Lili and reported his findings concerning the deteriorating situation on Earth. Earthly problems arising from the introduction of advanced Fru'wu technology on Earth necessitated the Reality Change that converted the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality. Until he reached Tar'tron, Parthemy was not aware that Earth was very close to completing its complex transition from the Ekcolir Reality to the Buld Reality.
yT'Teb
Also present on Tar'tron at the time of Parthemy's arrival there, was yT'Teb, the sedronic equivalent of a replicoid, an artificial life form who was telepathically linked to Betty on Earth by way of the Sedronic Domain. It is clear from the Writers Block account of Parthemy, Lili and yT'Teb on Tar'tron that yT'Teb had complete access to the mind of Betty and was aware of everything she experienced on Earth. The question of yT'Teb's ability to control Betty's behavior was not addressed in the story read by Georgy at the Library of the Writers Block. Upon his arrival on Tar'tron, Lili debriefed Parthemy and then Lili and yT'Teb discussed the contents of his report...
____________________________
After she had spoken to Parthemy, Lili expressed her disappointment to yT'Teb, "That was a waste of time."
yT'Teb agreed, but it had been useful to let Lili convince herself of that fact. "Sadly, Parthemy has no idea that we here on Tar'tron continuously receive a complete copy of everything experienced by Betty on Earth. Had he known, he would have remained on post in Vermont rather than feel compelled to visit us here."
Lili shrugged. Parthemy had reached the point where he could accomplish nothing useful on Earth. With each passing year he became more upset over the social trends on Earth. Lili said, "It is for the best, because with Parthemy out of the way, we can now use Betty and Parthney to deal with the Hana problem. How is that going?"
yT'Teb quickly provided Lili with a summary of Parthney's first day on Earth then said, "As expected, Parthney is not the smoothest operator on Earth. His brain was originally crafted so as to allow him to carry out his special mission on Hemmal. When we were forced to change plans and send him to Oib, my hope was that Syon could back-adapt his brain structure in preparation for him serving as an agent on Earth, but then she discovered a devious alternative fork in the Reality Chain. We took that fork and now Betty must deal with annoying problems like Parthney's motion sickness. Fortunately, Betty is versatile and so far she has been able to handle Parthney and deal with his quirks." yT'Teb could not keep a sly grin from spreading across her face.
Lili noticed that yT'Teb was amused and asked, "What?"
yT'Teb replied, "I'm sure you recall that after his child was born on Oib, I had to trick Parthney into going to Earth. He was allowed to believe that he would only be on Earth for a few days. Betty is dismayed by the unusual style of Parthney's training and his behavioral idiosyncrasies."
"Is Betty going to be able to adjust to her new programming?"
yT'Teb gave a delicate shrug and replied, "Time will tell."
Lili observed, "I see that you have recently been forced to stay in almost constant telepathic contact with Betty. Is that interfering with your other duties and, most importantly, has she begun to notice your presence in her mind?"
yT'Teb replied, "She senses that something unusual has happened, but the new infites that were provided to Betty by Syon seem to be working well. Betty has almost completely forgotten about the way that our minds are linked by way of the Sedronic Domain."
Lili smiled and said, "I'll have to congratulate Syon on another job well done." Lili nervously drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair and asked, "How are you progressing with preparations for the Hana extraction?
yT'Teb explained, "Betty and Parthney have devised their plan. Tomorrow they will meet Hana in New Amsterdam. Betty will pretend to also be the mother of a developmentally abnormal child. That will allow for quick establishment of rapport between Betty and Hana. Betty can position herself so as to take Hana's place as the care-giver for Hilde. Over the next fifteen years, Betty will help prepare Hilde for her special role on Earth as part of the research effort aimed at making use of sedrons as an energy source."
Lili nodded. "Yes, we must try to find a replacement for Earth's solar energy supply, but I'm not optimistic that our efforts will lead to success."
yT'Teb said, "Sadly, we have no good reason to hope that Earth will somehow avoid a global warming catastrophe. However, I am prepared to throw everything we have into the battle against that looming problem."
Lili asked, "Will Betty construct a new parthey in order to facilitate your work?"
 |
| blue sedronite source |
Lili suggested, "Go ahead and take care of that." She tried to imagine some complication that might exist, requiring a more nuanced strategy. "Isn't this kind of job exactly right for your skills and experience?"
yT'Teb nodded. "My plan was to send a teleportation duplicate of myself to Earth, but the copy of me on Earth will have to live in a mental health care institution, as an orphan."
Lili commented, "Not fun for your duplicate, but necessary."
yT'Teb added, "Hana and her daughter are under constant Observation. Hilde will receive particular close scrutiny after her mother suddenly dies... possibly a visit from an Overseer. If so, I'll deal with the Overseer, but it will be challenging for me to impersonate a young cognitively impaired child without revealing hints of my true nature. If my actions attract attention of the higher-ups, the pek might get involved and I may be captured. Under the terms of the Pact, I should not be going to Earth."
Lili blandly said, "Being captured by Overseers is a risk faced by all my agents on Earth, yT'Teb."
"And I accept that risk." yT'Teb bowed to Lili and continued, "But I must remind you, Lili, I have detailed knowledge of your entire spy network. If I am captured and interrogated by the pek, there is danger... you might suffer another major dismantling of your organization here in the Core, as has happened in the past."
Lili asked, "What alternative do we have?"
Lili was intrigued by the idea of sending an alternate version of yT'Teb to Earth. "Is there enough time to prepare that old backup copy for this mission?"
"Possibly. I've been experimenting with a limited transfer of my current memories into that old copy of my mind. I need to make sure that 'the old me' understands this mission, the power of Fru'wu nanites and is properly prepared to work in tandem with Betty, Parthney and Thomas."
"How much time do you need to be sure that this scheme will work?"
yT'Teb laughed. "You tell me. You are the one with access to Viewing technology."
Lili groaned, "I'll try a Viewing session, but as you know this current Reality is starting to fragment. It is now almost impossible to find high probability paths into the future while Viewing. Current conditions for Viewing the future are almost as bad as they were back when the Time War was still raging. Too many over-lapping time travel events and conflicting Reality Changes are in play."
"Yes, I understand your limitations." yT'Teb suggested, "Do the best you can. Let's meet gain in an hour and make our final decision at that time. If I must, I'll go to Earth myself, as I am... the current me. If I do, then you must be prepared to deal with another visit by the pek."
________________________
According to Rylla, there is an obvious discontinuity in the story at this point, almost as if someone edited the version of the story that Georgy read in the Writers Block archive. Zeta suggests that the pek removed some information that might implicate them as having participated in an illegal intervention into the course of events on Earth.
In the end, it was a hybrid version of yT'Teb that was sent to Earth: a quickly assembled infite hybrid lacking most of the recent memories of yT'Teb. Those infites were teleported into the waiting parthey in the teleportation chamber at Parthey Mansion on Earth, sometime in the middle of Parthney's first night on Earth. The yT'Teb infites animated the base-model parthey that Betty had prepared and formed into what appeared to be the body of a young boy.
After their first night together, Parthney and Betty awoke and shared breakfast in bed. Betty decided that she could have a lot of fun feeding Parthney's large appetites for both food and sexual frolics. Then Betty went to the teleportation chamber and met the artificial construct that would pretend to be her son.
Soon, Betty and Parthney were being driven to New Amsterdam, taking along "their child": the newly created parthey shell that was being animated by the newly arrived yT'Teb infites. During the drive south, Betty and Parthney discussed strategy, with particular emphasis on how to respond if an Overseer appeared while they tried to capture Hana. During the car ride, "their child" mostly behaved like a toddler and for a time nursed at Betty's breast.
Towards the end of the drive and approaching New Amsterdam, yT'Teb slipped out of character and entered into adult conversation with Betty and Parthney. yT'Teb was pretending to be a developmentally delayed child, but when he began to speak, he started explaining to Betty exactly how Hana would be removed from Earth. He had within himself a set of special Fru'wu nanites that would facilitate getting Hana sent off to the Galactic Core. Suddenly, Betty understood why Parthney had suggested performing a field teleportation. The special nanites carried by her "son" might make that possible.
Betty was uncomfortable with yT'Teb's plan to attempt a "field teleportation" of Hana from Quaben. She complained, "I don't like being in a position where my life depends on Fru'wu nanotechnology."
yT'Teb, speaking in the voice of a small child, confidently explained, "I've tested these Fru'wu nanites on Tar'tron. They generate the large pulse of energy needed to open a teleportation portal in the field, but then they efficiently re-capture almost every erg, shunting it into the Sedronic Domain. We are quite hopeful that Earth Overseers can't successfully monitor for such a power surge in that Domain."
Betty asked, "And what about the pek?"
yT'Teb replied, "By the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, the pek were to have withdrawn from Earth."
 |
| linked to the Hierion Domain |
yT'Teb gave a tittering, little boy giggle. "I've warned Lili to be prepared for a visit by the pek, if our actions here on Earth are detected by Overseers."
After arriving in New Amsterdam and reaching the site of the Clinical Neuroscience meeting, Parthney insisted that it was Betty who should go inside the convention center and find Thomas. Parthney and yT'Teb went to a nearby park where they played with balloons while waiting for Betty to return.
Thomas
Betty got to fulfill her centuries long dream of meeting Thomas Iwedon. She went into the convention center, wondering how she would find Thomas among the thousands of people present. Betty was looking for someone who looked like Parthney, but a message from Syon whispered: Relax, Thomas is waiting for you.
Just inside the main entrance was large man with a big fuzzy beard and bald head. He confidently approached Betty and said, "Welcome to Quaben, Betty."
Betty would have walked right by Thomas, but now she could see that his body structure matched that of Parthney. Thomas had been working as a technician for the research lab at New Amsterdam University in Manhattan that collaborated with Tatum's mother and other neuroscience researchers around the world to study the brains of developmentally delayed children.
Betty and Thomas stepped outside and went for a walk along the river. It was a bright spring say, and the trees were starting to flower. While they walked, they discussed how Hana would be duplicated. Thomas seemed to already know about the plan to substitute yT'Teb for Hilde.
They passed the cart of a sidewalk peddler and Thomas paused to buy a colorful broad-billed hat. He plopped the hat on top of Betty's head. Thomas seemed very well informed about Interventionist methods, and Betty suspected that Thomas must know her identity as an artificial life form, but she simply thanked him for the hat, thinking that with his bald head it was he that needed it. He told her enigmatically, "You'll find this hat useful."
 |
| The Arlesheim Elf |
Thomas nodded. "I'll go now. No sense in me standing close to Parthney... someone might notice how similar we are." With no further discussion, Thomas turned and walked away. Betty stared after Thomas, wishing that she could spend more time with him, but somehow certain that in the future their paths would cross again. She was still uncertain how to make contact with Hana. She sent a message to Thomas: How should I approach Hana?
Thomas replied to Betty: Let Parthney initiate contact. Thomas went back to the lab where he worked at New Amsterdam University and he did not attend the rest of the conference at the convention center. Back in the lab, he began packing up his few personal belongings. He would soon quit his job and depart, his work in New Amsterdam complete.
After watching Thomas walk away, Betty went over to Parthney. He asked, "How did things go with Thomas?"
Before Betty could reply, yT'Teb handed her one of his balloons and asked Betty for her hat. Betty took the hat off of her head and handed it to yT'Teb who then held it out towards Parthney and said, "Put on the hat, Pathney. We need to get you into your Thomas disguise."
Parthney asked, "I have to wear this silly hat?"
yT'Teb said, "Parthney, just put the hat on your head. You'll be able to get rid of it soon, if it annoys you." Along with the hat, yT'Teb was handing Parthney a swarm of nanites. Working under the hat, those nanites quickly removed the hair from Parthney's head, leaving him bald. yT'Teb said, "We can't risk anyone seeing you suddenly go bald."
Betty told Parthney, "Thomas and I spoke about the mission, but he will not be further involved in making contact with Hana today. I now understand that you must pretend to be Thomas... that will allow us to approach Hana. Thomas looks exactly like you, except he is bald and wears a beard."
Having cut away Parthney's hair, the nanites now began to construct a beard on his face. yT'Teb said, "While your beard grows out, let's get lunch. Then we can go inside and attend Lori's talk." They purchased food from some street vendors and ate outside under the warm Spring sun. By the time Parthney was done eating his lunch, the nanites had shaped microscopic fragments of his hair into a fine beard.
 |
| Dr. Lori Kidwell |
In the afternoon, Betty and Parthney (now he was impersonating Thomas, complete with bald head and bushy beard) sat together with "Betty's son" in the back row of a meeting hall and listened to the presentation titled, 'Cognitive Delay Syndrome: an Extreme Case'. Parthney became distracted during the talk and he turned his eyes away from the screen where the data analysis from Dr. Kidwell's research team was being displayed: various measures of the development of Hilde's brain circuits and behavior. Parthney's special Fru'wu nanite implant, obtained at Klyz, had automatically detected an Observer Probe in the room. That Probe was designed and programed by the Earth Overseers to be invisible yet constantly monitor Hana's movements and record images of everyone who she interacted with.
As soon as Lori's presentation ended, Parthney got up from his seat in the family section at the back of the meeting room and approached Hana. The speaker, Tatum's mother, was still answering questions from the audience. Now fairly close to Lori, for a moment, Parthney gazed appreciatively upon her svelte body, which she seemed to be proudly showing off with her rather revealing clothing. While Parthney ogled Dr. Kidwell's beautiful body, a swarm of Fru'wu nanites shot out of Parthney's body and entered into the nanoscopic Observer Probe that hovered above Hana. The Probe was quickly reprogrammed so as to assure that unedited images of Parthney/Thomas and Betty would not be transmitted to Observer Base.
Hana noticed Parthney approach and when the question and answer period ended, she stood up and said, "Hello, Thomas." They stepped out of the conference hall and Parthney introduced Betty to Hana. Hana was intrigued by the way Betty had been successfully raising her own developmentally delayed child (who Betty introduced to Hana as 'Tory') and how Betty even dared to bring her young son to the meeting. Hana commented, "Tory seems so content! My little Hilde would never remain quiet for so long... she needs constant attention and play." For half an hour the two women discussed the challenges of raising children who failed to learn to use language in the way that children usually did. Eventually, Hana and Betty arranged for a play date the next day, during which Tory would get a chance to play with Hilde at a park near Hana's home in a suburb of New Amsterdam.
 |
| Hana and Hilde at Landsend Park. |
Parthney, now playing the role of Thomas, said, "I've been to Landsend with Hana and Hilde. I'll drive you over. I can watch the children play together and collect some update observations on Hilde for the study."
Hana said to 'Thomas', "Fine. Let's meet at 1:00 PM."
Betty, Parthney and Tory stayed in a big hotel in New Amsterdam that night then the next day they drove to the nearby suburb where Hana and Hilde lived. Some of yT'Teb's nanites were special advanced nanites that had been provided by the Fru'wu to Lili. These nanites, now inside Tory, were able to assemble into a portable teleportation target node that worked together efficiently with the teleportation equipment in Parthey Mansion. Using this advanced Fru'wu technology, it would be possible to perform a "field teleportation" without a huge energy surge, making it possible to avoid attracting Overseer attention.
Betty, Parthney and Tory arrived at the little park and found that Hana and Hilde were already there, with the Observer Probe hovering above them. While the two children started playing together, Betty sat down on a bench beside Hana.
Parthney did not sit down. He was carefully scanning the area, but nobody else was there in the park with them. He felt confident that the Observer Probe was under control and would not transmit unedited images of Betty or himself on to Observer Base. While pretending to take notes on Hilde's play behavior, he wandered over to Hana's car and placed a packet of signal nanites on the roof of the car.
After ten minutes of playing with Hilde, Tory suddenly ran towards the bench, moved close to Hana and activated the teleporter system that he carried in his body. Instantly, upon the portable teleportation equipment being activated, a copy of Hana was sent across the galaxy to Tar'tron. At the same instant, a teleportation duplicate of Hana was placed into her nearby car. However, that copy of Hana was dead, with a ruptured cerebral artery. Parthney quickly placed Tory inside Hana's car, collected the signal nanites that he had placed there and watched as the little child-sized parthey quickly morphed from the form of a small boy into a precise copy of Hilde.
 |
| in the Ekcolir Reality Original cover art by Hans Wessolowski |
When Hana was teleported away, Betty shifted her facial nanites so as to take on the appearance of Hana, then taking the real Hilde by the hand, Betty led the child to her car. A minute later Parthney, Betty and Hilde were on their way to a new home, their mission in Quaben accomplished. More importantly than only matching the appearance and voice pattern of Hana, Betty took care to precisely mimic the body odors of Hana and she effortlessly took over the job of caring for Hilde, including the task of breast feeding her. Hilde's cognitive impairments prevented her from noticing that anything unusual was happening.
Parthney, Betty and Hilde did not immediately return to Vermont. At Parthey Mansion, workers from the power company arrived and disconnected the Mansion from the electric power grid. The mansion's repair nanites continued their invisible work tending to the house and the grounds, but no Interventionist agents would be in residence for several years.
Parthney and Betty had taken Hilde into hiding at a new location, a new Interventionist "safe house" on the west coast of the continent. The exact location of that Interventionist base of operations was not revealed in the novel that Georgy read in the archives of the Writers Block, but there was mention of the fact that they resided somewhere in Alaska.
 |
| The "Viking Empire": Skangana (northern Asia and Europe, it includes Scotland and reaches the Black Sea), the Skallan provinces of Alaska, Norseland and Pantago (southern tip of Skallan) and Snælan {in the Ekcolir Reality}. |
During that time in exile from New England, Hilde quickly adjusted to her new home and her new parents. Hilde did not notice when "Hana" was, over the course of a year, able to slowly morph her face and voice back towards the Betty pattern. Hilde was a highly active child who required constant physical interaction with others and she thrived on being physically active and constantly engaging in entertaining play. Although she was over two years of age when her mother "died", Hilde still could not speak even single words, but she was clever and demanding.
In the first few days after leaving New England and while watching Hilde, Parthney quickly decided that he was needed on Earth to help Betty raise Hilde. His decision to stay on Earth would have been less stressful had he known that he was a teleportation duplicate and the original copy of Parthney was still on Oib, living happily with Syon and their child.
 |
| Hilde (Edith) in Alaska |
During his first few weeks living in Alaska, Parthney also altered his appearance. Betty had received word from Thomas that soon after Hana's "death", he had come to the attention of the Earth Overseer, Belinda Tement. His work in New Amsterdam completed, Thomas was ready to move out of his Manhattan apartment and to return to New York when he was interviewed by Overseer Tement. He advised Betty that Parthney should alter his appearance. By transferring some of her facial nanites into Parthney, she was able to significantly alter the appearance of the biological George Parthey. Changing his name, Parthney began calling himself Henry Montpellier.
In the small hill towns near Parthey Mansion, there was disappointment that the annual winter light shows no longer took place. Rumors gradually spread that George Parthey had died from pneumonia after a flu virus infection.
A few years later, Betty returned and took up residence at Parthey Mansion with her husband Henry Montpellier. Upon returning to Vermont, Betty and Parthney spent most of their time with Hilde, inside Parthey Mansion. There was nothing seriously wrong with Hilde's brain; it was simply progressing through the normally slow early developmental stages characteristic of Asterothropes. Soon enough, Hilde began to catch up to the typical human developmental sequence and she began to use language. In particular, she learned to use her new name, Edith, and in her later life she would not remember ever having been called Hilde by her mother. In the government-maintained databases of Vermont, Edith Parthey was listed as the legal heir of George Parthey.
Hilde was home schooled by Betty and Parthney until age 8, then she started attending the local schools. With her aptitude for science, Hilde also participated in science enrichment programs at the Scientarium. Hilde grew up to become one of the large cadre of scientists who began working on development a sedron-based energy source for Earth. Eventually, many years later, the Overseers took note of the fact that Edith was genetically identical to Hilde, and the Overseers strongly suspected that Edith was the grown-up Hilde. However, by then, Betty and Parthney had both returned to the Galactic Core and the teleportation equipment had been removed from Parthey Mansion. Edith again came under constant Observation, but by this point in the Ekcolir Reality timeline, even the Overseers were hoping that a functional prototype for a Sedronic Power Generator might be built on Earth. Hilde was allowed to continue her sedron research and live out the first part of her life on Earth. Eventually, when she gave up all hope of understanding sedronic physics, Edith/Hilde departed from Earth.
The yT'Teb Intervention
The fate and artificial life of the yT'Teb-animated parthey was somewhat more complicated than the life of Edith. To help care for Hilde, Hana had employed a live-in nanny. After the police were called to the scene of Hana's "death", they temporarily returned Hilde home and placed her in the care of the nanny. That nanny was actually a robotic Observer who had been positioned on Earth in an attempt to solve the mystery of Hilde's unusual genetic makeup. Earth's Overseers were trying to identify and capture the Interventionists who had placed Hilde on Earth. As a child with alien genes, Hilde was technically on Earth in violation of the restrictions imposed by the Pact. The Overseers had quickly determined by genome analysis that Hana was not Hilde's genetic parent, but they had not been able to trace the the source Hilde's unusual genome.
 |
| Overseer Tement |
The nanny reported Hana's death to Observer Base. Two days later, when an Overseer arrived on Earth to investigate Hana's death, Hilde had already been transferred from her home into a government-run care facility. The Overseer arrived at the care facility and presented documents identifying herself as Dr. Belinda Tement. She portrayed herself as a member of the New Amsterdam University team that was studying Hilde's cognitive development. Dr. Tement spent some time with Hilde during which she used her nanite probes to re-check Hilde's genome sequence.
Satisfied that the newly measured DNA pattern matched that previously recorded for Hilde and stored in the archives at Observer Base, Overseer Tement decided to over-look Hilde's behavior. Since arriving at the government-run care facility, Hilde had been quite well behaved. Tement wondered: Maybe the stress of losing her mother has been good for the poor child, pushing her out of her old habits. Overseer Tement departed from the care facility and set off to do some detective work. According to automated probe data, Hana had interacted with several as-yet unidentified people in the day before her death and Belinda would not be able to rest until she could rule out the involvement of Interventionist agents in Hana's death. Dr. Kidwell and Thomas were among the many people interviewed by Overseer Tement, but the Overseer made no progress in accounting for Hana's abrupt death.
Why should a healthy young woman in her early 20s suddenly die from a stroke? Overseer Tement found that Hana had none of the usual risk factors for stroke. However, nanite probe data indicated bilaterally symmetrical structural defects in Hana's internal carotid arteries. The left internal carotid had ruptured and that was the official cause of death. Overseer Tement could never explain the origin of the deformities in Hana's arteries.
Within six months, it was decided that Hilde no longer had to be institutionalized. Hilde (the yT'Teb-animated parthey), was by then beginning to produce short sentences. She was adopted into a new family and continued to make dramatic cognitive advances during the next few years. Hilde seemed like a precocious and gifted child to her new parents, who were never aware of the Observer Probe that constantly followed their Hilde. The artificial Hilde began formal schooling at age six and was a successful student. Then, a week after Hilde turned 15 years old, she left home and was never seen again by her adoptive parents.
 |
| The field teleportation of Hana, in the Ekcolir Reality. original cover art by Vincent Di Fate |
To escape from being constantly under Observation, the simulated Hilde had used nanites to attack and inactivated the Observer Probe that always followed her. Then she changed her body form and moved to Europe and began a new Interventionist mission, the first of several during which she worked to keep Earth from slipping into a global warming catastrophe. In the end, all Interventionist actions along those lines only seemed to make matters worse and the Ekcolir Reality was ultimately replaced by the Buld Reality.
Related Reading: Part 1 and Part 2 of "Earth: Day 1"
Next: linking to Tar'tron in the Final Reality
 |
| visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
No comments:
Post a Comment