The Gift of Teleportation

the first positronic robot

Within the Exode Saga, there is no shortage of Interventionists who are ready and willing to share advanced technologies with scientifically primitive Earthlings. I've previously imagined that in the Foundation Reality, Earthlings were provided with the "gift" of positronics. Suddenly able to make positronic robots, Humanity also soon had access to interstellar space travel technology and went on to develop Galaxia, all because the positronic robots had the secret of twitino-mediated telepathy.

In the Asimov Reality, Earthly scientists never discovered positronics, but humans were provided access to the sedrons and that in itself allowed for cheap and efficient interstellar space travel. Humanity spread through the galaxy and with the help of the Phari in distant Alastor Cluster, a form of human telepathy was developed that did not require positronics.

a science fiction film in the Ekcolir Reality

In the Ekcolir Reality, there was an attempt by the Fru'wu to share their long-range teleportation technology with Earthlings. Previously, in "Grean Fiction", Relda was given access to the film Fateful Planet and the book Report on the Fru'wu Teleportation Network, both from her future. Relda was tasked with helping Ariel Adler on Earth make the film Fateful Planet, but she was not allowed to share what she knew about teleportation technology with Ariel.

 

Destination: Altair

Below is part 2 of "Grean Fiction", which tells the background story leading up to the first scientific mission by Earthlings sent to the Altair star system.

Related Reading: see Forbidden Planet.

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Part 2 of Grean Fiction. (read part 1)

Siena Vuon was tired. She'd been working 20 hour days all summer, trying to rescue alien biological material from precarious coastal archeological sites in advance of the coming storm season. She lay sprawled across her sleeping bag, dreaming about icebergs. Now she was awakened by her robotic assistant. "Please wake up, Siena." Rumbles from the nearby crumbling glacier accented the robot's words.

Forcing her eyes to open, Siena first saw part of the robot's hand and its metallic sheen. Her eyes quickly closed again and she began drifting back into sleep. Another shake of Siena by the robot and then she turned her head out of the pillow and focused on the machine's nearly-human face and asked rather testily, "What is it, Etty?"

The machine spoke in a loud grating voice calculated to jar Siena into wakefulness. "We are sifting more hierions, at grid location JN23." Then Etty continued via the complax link that was implanted in Siena's brain: It is a very rich site.

Siena swung her feet to the floor of the tent and began issuing orders, "Tell Justin." Via complax: Get the biovac shifted over to JN23, ASAP.

Etty used conventional radio to transmit that order to Justin where he was at work inside his biovac mobile lab. Justin had never allowed a complax unit to be implanted in his brain.

Rising rather unsteadily to her feet from the edge of her cot, Siena grabbed onto the robot and waited for the world to stop spinning. She was extremely sleep deprived and had lost twenty pounds during the season's digging. Show me the spectroscopy data.

 

negative mass hierions

Etty's chest flickered in the dim interior of the tent and displayed the requested data. Note the strong negative mass component, but it is a complex mixture. Siena could clearly "hear" what the robot was saying over their shared complax link, but the distant rumble of falling ice was ominous and distracting.

Stumbling from the tent into the 2:00 AM sunshine, Siena glanced east towards the looming face of the nearby glacier. Just then, there was another very loud rumble and crash as more ice broke off the leading face. She called out, "Waves!"

 

Etty instantly shifted the display to show the ocean wave display. A small semi-circular wave was visible, spreading from the site of the latest ice fall, but it was now close to low tide and this wave would be no danger to the expedition. 

 

Siena turned her head and glanced up-slope from the tents; there was the aircair, their only means of escape should a giant wave come towards the dig site.

Justin stepped out of the house-sized mobile biolab and shouted to Siena, "What the hell is going on? I just started the ES12 sift." He was wearing nothing but a transparent anti-contamination suit. Siena was wearing nothing at all, so she had no radio link to Justin.

Shouting over the rumble of more falling ice, Siena told Justin, "Eject the ES12 sample! We've got a huge new find over at JN23." The first microscopy results were just coming in from the automated digger over at JN23. Justin jumped down from the biolab's hatch and came to stand beside Siena. For moment they watched the new images being displayed in rapid sequence by Etty then Siena shouted excitedly, "Zoom in on that!"

Greenland H-tag fragment

Justin pointed to the displayed image, "More of that alien script."

Siena was convinced that about three million years in the past, an alien outpost had been located there in Greenland. Then it had been buried under volcanic debris from a catastrophic eruption in the Iceland Plume. Buried for millions of years under the Greenland ice-sheet, most of the archeological site had recently been lost to the sea and what remained would probably wash away during the coming winter, but just maybe enough could be salvaged to learn why the aliens had been there on Earth. There was a high-pitched sound and Siena looked out to sea. "Finally!" Two weeks earlier, after first finding a few fragments of the alien script, she had posted a job opening for a linguist.

Then ten days ago, Siena had received a reply to the job posting from Dr. Edith Morbius. Siena wanted immediate help identifying and translating the alien text, but Morbius was on Mars and had not wanted to come to Earth. Morbius had asked Siena to transmit images of the textual fragments to Mars. Siena had refused. For two days they had exchanged messages and argued the matter and then finally Edith had relented, however, it had taken her a week to travel from Mars to Earth. After Edith had started her flight to Earth, Siena had finally sent her nano-scanned copies of all of the alien text fragments that had so far been found in Greenland. Edith had quickly confirmed that there were similarities in the Greenland textual fragments to those that had been previously found on Mars.

Justin pulled his eyes away from the approaching aircar, went back inside the biolab and laid in a course up the coast towards JN23. The mobile lab's AI took over and began marching the massive lab along the shore towards the JN23 grid location.

 

Siena stepped back into her tent and passed through her autotay, emerging from the exit port now sealed inside her own anti-contamination suit. Emerging from the tent, she saw the newly arriving aircar settle to the ground. A small suitcase popped out, followed by Edith Morbius who was wearing nothing but a swimsuit. The aircar took off as soon as Edith started down the slope towards Siena. Siena said, "I'm so glad you are here Dr. Morbius! Tune your complax to channel 314."

 

Edith raked her eyes up and down Siena's long lean body and wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. "Looks like I'm over-dressed for the Arctic." 

"This time of year we can be just plain hot for weeks on end. Justin and I gave up the idea of wearing clothing a month ago."

 

"Justin?"

 

"He's the team biologist." Siena gestured towards the biolab.

Edith glanced at the biolab that had begun moving off towards JN23 on its crawl legs. Edith held up her suitcase and asked, "I'm ready to get started... just tell me where I should stow my bag."

 

"Tell the AI to stow it for you."

 

Edith admitted, "I don't use a complax."

 

Siena exclaimed, "Not another throw-back?" She wondered silently: What are the chances of me getting two scientists who don't have a complex implant?

Using her own complax, Siena told the robot: Etty, take the suitcase to her tent. She gestured to what had been a supply tent, now converted into quarters for Morbius. Siena told Edith, "That's your tent." 

 

There was another particularly loud fall of ice off of the glacier. Turning back towards Morbius, Siena said, "You'll get used to all the noise." She took Edith by the hand and led her to Siena's tent. "You'll have to use either my autotay or possibly Justin's. How tall are you?"

Edith followed Siena into her tent. "Living on Mars I've been stretching. I got myself up to six two. However, I'm really feeling the force of ol' Earth since my arrival on planet yesterday."

"You've probably lost some of that extra Mars height already. My autotay was designed for suiting people between five six and six zero. Justin's is the next step up to accommodate his larger frame. Go ahead and try mine, it is programmed for tits, not scrotums."

Edith Morbius

With one last look at Siena's perky breasts and a swipe at the sweat on her brow, Edith pulled off her swim suit and handed it to Siena. 

 

Siena was impressed by the size of Edith's pendulous breasts and wondered if her autotay would be able to successfully wrap Edith.

 

Edith passed through the autotay and emerged, sealed in a transparent work-suit, which was tight across her chest, providing some support where her breasts pushed out against the transparent material of the suit. She pushed her breast up with both hands, still trying to get used to Earth's powerful gravity.

 

Siena tossed the swim suit back to Edith and said, "Let's go. I got word of an exciting new find just before your arrival." Edith could clearly hear Siena by way of the radio receiver in her suit.

 

Emerging from the tent, they passed Etty. Siena ordered: Get down to JN23 and prepare a level area for Justin. Use the blade on the aircar. Siena turned and ran off along the shore.

 

"Stow this in my tent!" Edith tossed her swimsuit to the robot and followed Siena.

Now jogging, Edith tried to keep up with Siena as they ran down the coast towards the JN23 grid site. Edith was not used to Earth gravity and her legs felt like led. Falling behind, she called after Siena, "What is the new find?" 

 

Siena trotted past the trundling biolab and looked back towards Edith and stopped running. "New artifacts with more of the alien script... these are larger chunks of text than I've seen before."

Etty went zooming by, flying the aircar over-head towards JN23. The aircar was emitting a very loud squealing noise. The aircar was equipped with negative mass hierions and could quickly zoom around the entire archeological site, but now with the big titanium grader attachment in use, its engine was working hard, at about 140% of its original design power level.

 

When Edith jogged past the biolab, Justin's voice came over the radiolink. "Hello, Dr. Morbius."

 

Edith looked back and saw Justin waving through the front window of the biolab. She told Siena, "I could get used to this no clothing thing. He's gorgeous."

 

Justin laughed. "I can hear everything you say Dr. Morbius."

 

Mars in the 25th century (source)

Siena asked, "Justin, gorgeous? I'm afraid you've been on Mars too long." The truth was, Siena was intimidated by Justin's big powerful body. She turned and continued running, leaving Edith to stare just a while longer at Justin.

Edith was surprised to find Justin's mind pushing at her. He was a powerful Probe! A shiver went through Edith's body then she turned and followed Siena.

After a five minute jog, Siena reached JN23. The robot excavation crew was being directed by Etty to help clear a level spot for the biolab. Siena went right to the mobile digger unit, up the ladder and in through the hatch. The new hiero-metal fragments with alien writing on them were sealed up behind the sample chamber's anti-contamination barrier, but she took manual control of the microscope and started to examine the newly retrieved material at various magnifications. 

 

A minute later, Morbius finally arrived, breathing heavily and sweating profusely inside her suit. During the run, with her breasts bobbing and slipping against the hieplas material of the suit, her nipples had been stimulated to dramatic erectness. Siera glanced at Edith and was greatly impressed by the girl's two swollen nipples.

 

The automated systems of the digger announced: Next sample now loading to microscopy stage.

Siena had to fight against the AI system in an attempt to keep control of the microscope. Over-riding the robotic system, she obtained a first low magnification view of the newest sample, revealing what looked like a hundred torn bits of paper. Edith was watching over Siena's shoulder. She asked, "What is the composition of those fragments?"

Siena pulled up the materials analysis report. "Same as the ones that I previously sent to you. Some synthetic mixture of hierions and hadrons."

Edith nodded. "On Mars, it seems that the Fru'wu made very few written records. Usually they were personal tributes, possibly as part of burial customs."

Siena took her eyes away from the microscopy image. "Are you suggesting this site is a Fru'wu cemetery?"

Edith shrugged and smiled while trying to adjust the cooling controls on her suit. "My first guess... this might be a pet cemetery."

the Fru'wu

"Pets? Did the Fru'wu keep pets?"

Siena zoomed in on the largest text fragment in the new batch of artifacts. The magnification scale was in the sub-nanometer range. Edith pointed to the display screen, "That word there looks familiar. In the Mars dialect that was dated to seven million years ago, that is the word for 'ape'. The Fru'wu collected apes on Earth and then bred them in captivity on Mars."

"As pets?"

"Maybe I should not use that word, but yes, I believe the Fru'wu may have viewed their captive apes as pets or possibly breeding stock."

"So what does this fragment say?"

"I can't be sure. This is a different dialect from what I've worked with on Mars. However, this is a fairly large haul! We might be able decipher this new dialect. I'll get started feeding today's fragments into the computer." Edith had her own linguistic records in a bracelet that she wore on her wrist. She went to the computer workstation and began processing the new finds. After a minute she commented, "The automated system has already done much of the grunt work. This is better equipment than I've had on Mars."

Etty came inside the digger and commented, "This is a year 2433 model Empire Archeology Unit, with the 2434 software update. I am the most sophisticated artificial intelligence system available for field archeology."

Edith glanced at the robot then returned to her work. "Amazing that they found a robot cranium large enough to hold your ego."

M1A2R3S

Siena laughed. "Etty was named in honor of your specialty area, Dr. Morbius. Of course, until our finds here in Greenland this summer, the Empire Archeology Units had only been used to study extinct human languages from Earth's past."

Etty was watching over Edith's shoulder, "I'm starting to get 80% matches on the new text fragments. This Greenland script is amazingly close to the four million years older script that was used on Mars."

Edith had long ago learned not to try to compete with robots in rapid processing. "What does this fragment say?"

Etty hesitated. "Some of the terms are unknown, but I believe this is a shipping manifest. Essentially a catalog of creatures to be loaded on a spacecraft for transport to a distant planet."

Justin came on the radio, "I'm ready to start sifting. Do you want me to start on the older material or your most recent dump?"

Siena replied, "Take the most recent one, we seem to be working our way into a richer area, thick with artifacts!"

 

Edith said, "Shipments to an exoplanet would make sense. The Fru'wu did not come from Mars. Mars must have been conveniently close to Earth, but now we have to wonder... where else might they have sent Earthly life forms? It has been frustrating trying to get the Fru'wu to tell us anything useful about their home world."

 

"Oh, I believe the story they have told. That their home world was long ago destroyed."

 

"But there must be other planets in the galaxy where the Fru'wu still reside. We know nothing about them."

 

Etty was monitoring the new fragments of text being viewed by Siena. "Wait now. That one. Better contrast, please. Thank you. I have it now. Interesting. I believe this fragment describes, in a kind of code, the destination for one batch of lifeforms being sent from Earth to another world."

 

Edith nodded and said, "I'm correlating this code with stellar data. And... I believe I have a match. This fragment may be making reference to Altair IV, a known exoplanet in the Altair system."

Siena gave a whooping shout. "That's fantastic! How did you make the match?"

"On Mars, we found many fragments of what seem to be spaceflight manifests. Altair was one of their most frequent destinations. I'm guessing on some of the details present in this new Greenland script, but that's my preliminary read of it."

Etty asked, "What database are you using to pull the Mars script data?"

Edith pointed to her bracelet, "The good old Morbius database."

"So, unpublished data?" Etty turned to Siena, "I must caution against putting trust in an unpublished source of data."

Siena laughed. "Relax, Etty. I think we can trust Dr. Morbius."

Justin announced, "I'm getting protein sequences. New JN23 sequences. Mostly proteins from Earth organisms, but also some Fru'wu sequences. And there are some likely Australopithecine sequences." 

Siena and Edith both leaned back in their chairs and looked at each other. Edith said, "They're going to the wrong world."

Siena was also thinking about the up-coming departure of Earth's first interstellar spacecraft. "If we announce these new findings, maybe they will change their destination to Altair."

"No, these things are planned years in advance. But..."

"What?"

Edith explained, "Five years ago I applied for a position in the interstellar space crew ranks. I was turned down, but now..." 

Justin said, "Hey! You too? I was also turned down by Interstellar."

Edith replied sarcastically, "Small world." She gave up her seat to Etty. "How about you, Siena? Do you also dream of going to the stars?"

"No, I'm perfectly happy here on Earth. This is the golden age of sub-glacial archeology, my specialty."

Edith asked, "How many more weeks do we have have before winter returns?"

"First sunset is next week. Temperatures will start to drop rapidly next month. The storm season could start then, or it might be delayed a few more weeks."

"And when do you plan to announce your findings, Dr. Vuon?"

 

"Originally I was planning to do a careful analysis over the winter, but I suppose there is now need to speed things up."

 

Edith felt her legs trembling, whether from fatigue or excitement she could not judge. "I'll leave it to you to deal with the small minds of Earth. Once we are done here in Greenland, I'll not remain silent. This might be my ticket to a new world!"

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Edith and Siena

Justin, Siena and Edith were insanely busy for all of the following week. Edith took to working at a computer station in her tent. At the end of the day when the sun was finally going to set into the Greenland Sea, Siena stepped into Edith's tent. "It is almost sunset. Come on out and stretch your legs."

 

Edith had been pondering an email from the Interstellar Space Agency confirming receipt of her re-application to join the ranks of the crew members in training for interstellar flights. The email had been sent by a "General Marson" who had the title, "Director of IF2". While on Mars, Edith had lost track of the growth of the Interstellar Space Agency and had put away her dream of travel to a distant exoplanet.

Edith stood, turned and saw that Siena had dressed. Feeling Edith's eyes on her, Siena said, "Justin is coming up from the dig site."

 

Since her arrival in Greenland, Edith had struggled to accommodate herself to Justin. She had never wavered in her opinion that he was a pretty male specimen. However, Edith felt like he could see right through her. Now Edith quickly dressed for this social occasion, pulling on her swimsuit.

 

Justin, Siena and Edith gathered together on the shore. Grounded icebergs obscured their view of the sunset, but for five minutes they stood there watching the sun slowly slip below the horizon. The distant sound of splintering and falling glacial ice was almost constant, but they had learned to almost ignore those ominous noises. Finally, Justin turned from the setting sun and asked Edith, "Any more progress on your genome hypothesis?" His eyes seemed to cheerfully trace the contours of Edith's body.

Edith sighed and replied, "Not much. I doubt if the Fru'wu ever even tried to encoded their system of gene numbering into the kind of H-tags that we've found here or on Mars. So I am forced to make guesses. However, I am almost certain that I've identified the Fru'wu word for 'dolphin'."

Siena nodded. "I'd say it is a miracle that these H-tags even exist. It is almost as if the Fru'wu wanted archeologists of the far future to know that they had visited Earth."

Justin laughed at Siena and told Edith, "Archeologists are so fanciful." He glanced at his boss for a moment then turned his gaze back upon Edith.

source

Siena grumbled. "Fanciful. That was one of the kinder words included in the reviews of my grant extension proposal." After finding some of the mysterious alien H-tags, she had asked her funding agency for a submersible dredge that could vacuum the sea floor near the dig site. Other comments from the reviewers of that emergency funding proposal had included the words "insane" and "laughable". She shrugged, "So... it looks like we'll be back to digging and sifting glacial deposits again next summer." The problem was, Siena had no clue as to the location for a new dig site. She'd started thinking about the Antarctic.

Edith suggested to Siena, "You should give up on Earth. I plan to be on my way to Altair this time next year." She and Justin had both written to the Interstellar Space Agency, suggesting Altair as the destination for the first interstellar flight departing from Earth. She looked up into Justin's face and asked, "Do you know a General Marson?"

He chuckled and replied, "That's my mother. She's been put in charge of the new Belerephon mission."

Originally, the Belerephon had been constructed as Earth's first interstellar spacecraft. However, the newly discovered warp drive technology had undergone several sudden advances, forcing multiple redesigns of the Belerephon. During the course of a decade, the speed of the Belerephon had gone up from light-speed to 2x light-speed and then to 4x light-speed. Finally, a new ship had been built from scratch, one that would be able to travel at 8x light-speed and would soon depart on a journey to the nearest know Earth-like exoplanet. Now the new plan was to use the Belerephon for second tier missions of low priority and so a second spaceship crew was being selected.

Edith smiled grimly at Justin and thought: Justin Marson, son of General Marson. Such was the competition for the few available seats aboard the Belerephon. "I suppose that gives you an inside track for the crew selection process."

 

Book 2 of the Lost World trilogy

He shrugged and gestured towards the biolab where it sat down along the shore. "It is our work here in Greenland that makes us good candidates, particularly if it is decided to send the Belerephon to Altair. And you have the distinct advantage of being an experienced space traveler and previously making alien discoveries on Mars." 

 

Justin was now standing very close to Edith. A cool breeze had come up and Edith felt a slight chill for the first time in a week. She could feel the warmth of Justin's body. "You know, fitting together your biodata with the H-tag texts... it all begins to makes sense. It seems clear that the Fru'wu sent many dolphins from Earth to Altair IV, and all the evidence points to that planet being an ocean world, probably with no land."

Already the sun was slowly edging back upwards from its brief dip below the horizon. The first sunset at the end of the Greenland summer was over and done with. Siena turned away from the sunset and gazed at Justin. Siena had initially been reluctant to hire him. He was new Ph.D., specialized in analysis of ancient polypeptide sequences from Antarctic ice cores. His thesis advisor's letter of reference had warned: Too clever for his own good. He's curated more ancient protein sequences than anyone else in the world, but he has no interest in publishing his results. Also, Justin has never used a complax. Frustrating!

 

Nobody else had applied for the available biologist position on Siena's Greenland expedition, so Justin had been hired. Then, their first day at the site in Greenland, Justin had walked around for an hour and then he pointed to a particular spot along the shore. This was the approximate site of ice core drilling back in 1976. Those old cores had yielded a few intriguing biological samples from ancient lifeforms. However, Siena felt uncertain about exactly where to begin her dig. Taking Justin's advice on where to start digging, immediately they began finding ancient protein fragments in the glacial sediments. Now, Siena watched Justin as he watched Edith and flashed his charming smile at her. Siena had come to think of Justin as her good luck charm. Close on the heals of rich biological pay dirt, they had next stumbled upon the mysterious H-tags. Actual alien artifacts from the far past!

Siena had carefully avoided any personal or non-professional contact with Justin. During the past week, it had been impossible for her to ignore the growing interest that Justin and Edith showed in each other, how their eyes lingered on each other. Siena was a bit jealous of them, but she told herself: Well why not? She certainly would not try to keep them apart.

 

Siena yawned and said, "I'm going to catch some shut-eye." After one last appraising glance at Justin and Edith, she went to her tent.

Edith was struggling within herself. Closer ties to Justin might boost her chances of being selected for the Belerephon crew. Yet, somehow, she was afraid of Justin. It seemed that Edith could feel his thoughts, which, in her imagination, had become increasingly filled with a sad lustful longing. Well, why not? Looking into his eyes, she sighed and leaned against him. 

 

Justin had tried to not rush things ahead to quickly with Edith, sensing that she was socially awkward and intimidated. However, this moment seemed the perfect opportunity to test the waters. He asked himself: well, why not try? He slipped an arm around Edith. "What worries me most is the size of Altair IV. It is a large planet, even more massive than Earth." With his other hand her lifter her fingers to his lips and then gently and slowly applied little kisses to each of her finger tips.

Edith giggled at the feel of his kisses and murmured, "Deep ocean. Deeper, high pressure atmosphere. But there is oxygen and water, so..." Feeling increasingly at ease, she rested her head against Justin's shoulder. And now the sky was quite beautiful, brightening with a dozen glorious shades of pink and red dancing on the clouds.

Justin let his hand slide down over the gentle curve of her bottom. His finger tips slid over the soft fabric of her swimsuit where it stretched lovingly over her powerful glute. "There's an old rumor that the original Fru'wu home world was a water world with a dense atmosphere. Supposedly the Fru'wu evolved in their ocean and then were able to eventually transition to flight in the thick atmosphere of their world."

source

Tickled by his wandering fingers, Edith giggled again and pulled her hand away from his lips. She rested it against his chest an could feel a stiff nipple below the fabric of his thin shirt. "With their sophisticated anti-gravity technology, the Fru'wu could have... done almost anything." Now, Justin's dancing fingers at play over her gluteal muscles sent shivers up her spine. Her voice trembling slightly, she asked quietly, "I wonder what destroyed their home world."

"Look at what has happened to Earth. When the Fru'wu arrived, everyone accepted the gift of their advanced technologies and rushed to apply them. That was going to solve the global warming problem." Justin slipped his fingers under the fabric of her swimsuit and caressed her smooth skin. "In the end, Fru'wu technology just made things worse."

"Much worse." Edith slid her a hand to Justin's arm, which she grasped, enjoying the feel of his muscles. "But it is only because of global warming that we now know about Altair's importance to the ancient Fru'wu." She now lowered her hand and rested it on the front of his shorts and felt his swollen penis. He turned and put both arms around her. She leaned close and whispered in his ear, "I don't want you thinking that I'm trying to take advantage of you and your mother..."

"Don't worry about that." Justin kissed the top of her head and used a finger to explore the wetness between Edith's legs. "Please don't let your imagination go wild, Edith. Neither me or my mother is interested in you for the wrong reasons."

Edith felt like she was spinning, her head was light and hot. "Sir, do you intend to ravish me here on this rocky beach?"

He kissed her trembling lips. "Only if that is your desire. We'll be more comfortable in my tent."

Next: Part 3 of Grean Fiction - the journey to Altair IV

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