Below on this blog page is Chapter 5 of the science fiction story "The Metamorph Intervention". Having previously discussed with both Gemini and Claude my idea of including two different versions of Chapter 5 in "The Metamorph Intervention" (see "Competition or Cooperation? )", I changed the ending of Chapter 4 as written by Claude from: "Now Ovidius was effervescent with excitement and had launched into crafting a new story where Daedalus would encounter beings from the lunar sphere, learn about real flight technology, and use it for his escape from a floating alien craft that hovered over the Aegean." to
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| Korinna Viewing. |
After living in ancient Rome for a day, Marda finds the many love letters that Ovid wrote to her. In the most recent letter, Ovid seemingly hints that he is planning to leave Korinna. Marda also finds the beginning of a poem that is Korinna's reply. Marda must finish that task and with the help of the Korinna femtozoan, she writes a poem for Ovidius called "Worry not my Love" which is heavily based on "Don't worry baby". From that point on, nothing seems to go right for Ovidius.
The micro-change. Manny steps in and helps Marda carry out a small adjustment to Time. Thus, in Chapter 5b, Marda first "consults" with the Korinna femtozoan and crafts for her another poem, bringing into existence an altered version of Roman history with a better future for Ovidius and all of Humanity.
[Note: The video shown above was generated by Gemini. Click the video's volume control button to unmute the video and hear the AI-generated sound. Text prompt: "Cupid floating in the air above Ovid. Cupid shooting arrows while Ovid writes a poem. Audio: 'She takes me to the future.' "Chapter 5a. Broken Reality.
The journey of a thousand paces
That
led me to your door,
Now I will never again see your face
I'll
never walk that road like before.
Why did I know no fear
When I
first came to your door?
Now we share a pool of tears
That we
simply can't ignore.
Why did Cupid lead me here?
A
god let me know the way.
Many times I've wondered why.
So
many times I've cried.
The many ways I've tried
To leave, to end our pain
And still Cupid leads me back
Those
same thousand paces again.
Cupid, you brought me here
A
long, long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
My heart is no
longer aglow
But still Cupid led me back
On my
journey of a thousand paces
That took me so far off track
A
captive of your embraces.
Marda read the poem fragment that Korinna had recently composed, now made irrelevant by the changes that had been thrust upon Ovidius in the past day. Marda sat down and wrote out a new reply to Ovidius, first in English:
Worry Not My Love
Pain has been building up inside of us
For, oh, I don't know how long.
I kept thinking that
Something would go wrong
But Minerva looked in my eyes
And made me realize
Don't worry lover
Everything will turn out right
Maybe I should keep my mouth closed
When I tell you about science fiction
But I can't back down now because
Minerva showed the path to conviction
And she made you come alive
And I can handle your sex drive
Don't worry my sweet lover
Everything will turn out right
Just take along my love with you
And when you know how much I loved you, baby
Nothing can go wrong with you.
Oh, what you do to me
When you make love to me
And I say, don't worry, baby
Everything will turn out all right
Our new Daedalus story will take flight
I know our future, baby
The Korinna femtozoan helped Marda translate the meaning of that poem into Latin, but that effort took most of the night. They had to argue about how to convert 20th century English concepts into Latin phrasing that would have meaning to Ovidius. When it was completed, Marda left the newly crafted poem where Ovidius would find it upon waking.
Upon reading the new poem from Korinna, Ovidius realized that his entire life had been altered. He had a new mission in life and Korinna had been transformed into a woman who would make his new life possible. He found Korinna in the back garden, watching the sunrise. He wanted to speak to her, but they merged magically and made love on the cool damp ground, the heat of their shared passion warming them like fire.
The weeks following Manny’s visitation became a crucible for Ovidius. He was a man possessed, but not by a divine muse in the way his fellow poets understood, the way he himself had once thought. Now, he was possessed by a truth so vast and unbelievable that it had shattered the comfortable confines of his original view of reality. He tried, at first, to speak of it plainly to his friends.
Propertius had simply clapped him on the shoulder, a pitying smile on his face. "Publius, my friend, your imagination has finally consumed you. Save such brilliant madness for your verses; I don't understand you. Your madness will make you immortal."
The condescension was maddening. With the exception of Korinna, everyone he spoke to had the same reaction to his experience of having met Minerva. They saw his frantic conviction not as a factual account of a real event, but merely as the raw material of his imagination producing fantastic ideas for a new kind of poetry.
His wife, Korinna—the new Korinna—was the only one who understood him. She was his anchor, the only other witness to the impossible meeting with Minerva. The change in her was undeniable; she now possessed a depth of knowledge about history, politics, and human nature that was simply astonishing. And in their love making, Korinna now seemed to know dozens of new exciting ways of pleasuring Ovidius. But that, too, was a truth he could prove to no one. That gulf between his subjective world and what he could prove to others was a frustration that became a constant, simmering fire in his gut, a pressure that had only one outlet: his writing.
"If they will only accept the truth when disguised as a story," he said to Korinna one evening, pacing restlessly, "then we will give them a story that changes the very way they think about the gods."
He’s ready, whispered Korinna’s femtozoan from the quiet depths of Marda’s shared mind. He has found the path. Guide him gently.
And so they began to craft the new Daedalus tale. Marda drew upon her memory of Kenth's stark arrival at the Metamorph facility, describing to Ovidius the severe, obsidian-carved figure of the pek Overseer.
Ovidius grew even more excited. "Wonderful! The counter-balance to the gentle goddess Minerva. A stricter god who watched over the fate of the whole world. Kenth, you say? A strange name for a god, but who knows what might be the ways and words of gods from other worlds?"
Ovidius, in turn, wove into their new story the cosmic awe he’d felt aboard Minerva’s ship, Many Sails. The story they outlined was a radical departure from the traditional tale.
In their version of the ancient story, Daedalus was not
merely a brilliant inventor; he was a man touched by a "goddess"
from the stars who used the name 'Minerva' while
sharing with him some of her advanced knowledge. Ovidius told Korinna, "For our story we must use the old Greek name, Athena. Minerva will understand!"
Athena's act of providing Daedalus with knowledge from a distant world attracts the attention of a rival god, a stern and unforgiving being named Custos (the Watcher), who sees this interference as a violation of cosmic law. Custos "abducts" Daedalus, taking him not to a prison on Crete, but to a vast, hovering citadel high above the Aegean—a place called the ‘Observatory’.
"He needs to see the inhabitants of that alien Observatory", Marda suggested, relaying to Ovidius details about the Prelands and the other human variants such as Neanderthals that she was familiar with.
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| Novella the replicoid. |
In the new story, Daedalus was given access to the Watcher's technology. Ovidius wrote with feverish intensity, describing technologies Marda had only hinted at. Nanites became "fabricator mites"—tiny, invisible servants that wove clothing from thin air and synthesized food directly into a nutrient cloud that automatically fed the human residents of the Observatory. Daedalus, the ultimate craftsman, learns to command the nanites. He studies the principles of aerodynamics not from experiment on living birds, but from information mites that flow directly into his mind, granting him an intuitive understanding of lift and drag.
Korinna, is the language right? Is this too much for them to believe, even as fiction? Marda projected internally, consulting with the Korinna femtozoan.
No, it’s perfect, Korinna’s femtozoan replied. He frames it as divine magic, but describes it with the precision of an engineer. It is both myth and manual. The audience will be captivated.
The climax of their story was Daedalus's escape. Using the fabricator mites, he doesn't build wings of feather and wax. He weaves a massive, winged cloak from spun diamond fiber, a structure of stunning lightness and strength. He builds a hang glider. In the final scene, he leaps from the Observatory's edge, not as a desperate father fleeing a king, but as a defiant mortal who has stolen knowledge from the gods, sailing silently down through the clouds to return to the world of men.
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| Korinna |
"To stage this..." the lead actor breathed, "the spectacle of the flight alone would fill the theater for a year."
The first performance was a sensation. The theater was packed. When the actor playing Daedalus, suspended by a clever system of ropes and counterweights Marda had helped design, soared across the stage on his magnificent wings, the audience gasped as one. But as the play's philosophical implications settled in, a different murmur began. In the shadows of the portico, a stern-faced senator named Cato Secundus stood with two members of the Pontifical College.
"This is not art," one of the priests said, his voice tight with disapproval. "It is poison. He portrays the divine as mere travelers from the Moon, fallible and factional. He strips them of their majesty, their mystery."
Cato nodded grimly. "It is a corruption of the mos maiorum. It encourages men to look to the stars for answers instead of to the gods of Rome. It is a dangerous fantasy, and Ovidius is a dangerous man."
Up in the stands, Ovidius heard the roar of the crowd, a sound of pure adoration. He squeezed Marda’s hand, a triumphant, manic glint in his eyes. For the first time, his madness felt not like a curse, but like a glorious, terrible weapon. He had their attention now. He was satisfied, for the moment, that his fiction was being heard, unaware that the story he had just begun to tell already provoked very real and very powerful enemies.
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| Everything went wrong. |
Manny gave Korinna/Marda a comforting hug. "Live and learn, my dear. You have learned that if given the opportunity, Ovidus sure can ruffle feathers. Next time you must force him to use caution."
"Next time?"
Manny nodded. "I take care of my friends. We'll make a new Reality in which I've arranged for you to meet the first of female Roman lovers."
Marda was intrigued. "First?"
Manny waved a hand and a Viewer display appeared on Korinna's writing desk. "View this alternate future in which the wrath of Cato Secundus is not provoked."
Using the Temporal Viewing equipment provided by Manny, Marda observed an alternative timeline for Rome, one in which Cato Secundus was provided with 'payment' that bought his good graces. After using the Viewer to explore this new Reality, Marda asked, "You will bring his daughter back from the dead?"
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| Korinna and Novella |
Using the Viewer, Marda traced back to the Reality Change that would initiate that new Reality. Marda saw herself, writing a new poem, one composed explicitly for the Korinna femtozoan. "This Change must start with the Korinna femtozoan?"
Manny explained, "You need to make more room in your life for the Korinna femtozoan. In particular, let her control your love making with Ovidius. If you teach Ovidius your sexplay methods from the future, he will become too bold, too wild in his story telling."
Marda suggested, "Manny, it seems to me that you could have foreseen this all, even if I could not."
Then Marda sensed the telepathic presence of Sedruth. Even Manny is not perfect. Once a new Reality is created, new and even better Realities become Viewable by Manny. Constructing the future of Earth is a collaboration between bumbling humans and we sedronites. True, Manny is a weak link in the process; she hates to program her operatives too rigidly. In this case, she knew of your fear of suddenly becoming the wife of Ovidius. Manny used you as a probe of Roman society, a way to probe for weak links in the reactionary religious conservatives. Through your provocative actions, Marda, a way to use Cato Secundus was revealed.
Manny told Marda, "Now, I will send you back through time for a re-do."
Manny assured Marda, "I'll provide you with the necessary information nanites. You will know." Manny initiated the time travel sequence.
________
Chapter 5b. Repaired Reality.
After the Reality Change, Marda was again living her second day in Rome, but she retained her memories of the coming weeks in the previous Reality. Marda gently told the Korinna femtozoan: We must become a team, by love. Teach me how to love Ovidius.
The Korinna femtozoan commented: I see in your memories that you have never had a male lover. So strange...
Marda noted: True, but I will love you as you have never known love... woman to woman. Marda composed a new poem just for Korinna, a poem that was there waiting in her infite-generated memories...
You may wonder, from where I come
Know
that the future is where I am from
Right inside me, is where you
belong
From this moment on.
At this moment, we have been
blessed
And with your help, we'll find happiness
To Ovidius,
you'll speak with my breath
A better future? Expect nothing less.
I'll live my life through you,
I won't wait to start, because
My dreams will come true through you
And our mind-link will never pause.
From this moment, as long as we
live
You can love Ovidius, and I promise you this
Every day I
will endlessly strive
To share with you his sweet kiss
With your help I can win his love
And
Manny will guide us from above
Nothing can defeat the three of
us
Our lives will be blessed with riches, plus
We'll deal with the pek rules, no fuss.
From this moment, the future is
ours
Watch your love for Ovidius as it flowers
That is our
shared bond
from this moment on.
The Korinna femtozoan was amused. Very well, the first thing to remember is never try to make love to Ovidius. He must always feel that he is in complete control.
Marda agreed. I'll give you complete control of this body when Ovidius wants to make love. I won't even try to deploy my sex techniques from the future.
When those internal negotiations were concluded, Marda wrote a different poem for Ovidius that was along the lines of the poem that Korinna had begun to write before the arrival of Marda's femtozoan in the past. Marda now realized that Ovidius had been adequately stimulated by her talk about science fiction and his encounter with 'Minerva'. Now all he needed to know was that Korinna would support his desire to tell the story of his meeting with Minerva to the people of Rome.
But it was the evenings that Marda treasured most, when she and Ovidius would sit together crafting narratives that danced on the knife's edge between revelation and fiction.
You're falling in love with him, Korinna's femtozoan observed with gentle amusement as Marda watched Ovidius pace excitedly around their workspace, gesturing animatedly as he worked through plot complications.
Is that so terrible? Marda replied internally.
Not terrible at all. Just... different than I expected when I agreed to this arrangement. I never loved him this way. You're completing him in ways I never could.
Ovidius suddenly stopped his pacing, his eyes bright with inspiration. "I have it, Korinna! The perfect framework for our Daedalus tale. Not just a story of flight, but a story of choice—and the price of knowledge."
"Tell me," Marda said, setting aside the wax tablet where she'd been sketching costume designs for the theatrical performance they were planning.
He's channeling the pek-bumpha conflict, Korinna's femtozoan whispered in wonder. How can he know about that?
Marda suspected she knew. The morphic resonance effect was working—Ovidius's enhanced consciousness was picking up echoes of cosmic conflict through the very fabric of reality itself. But to him, it simply felt like inspired storytelling.
"And which path does Daedalus choose?" Marda asked.
"That's the beauty of it—he chooses both and neither. He takes the knowledge they offer but uses it to return home, to share what he's learned with those he loves. The flight isn't escape—it's the first step in bringing two worlds together."
Over the next several days, they crafted the narrative with obsessive care. Marda found herself contributing insights that seemed to flow from some deep well of understanding—details about materials and engineering principles that Korinna certainly never knew, knowledge that could only be coming through her connection to the Sedron Domain.
The story began with Daedalus as craftsman and inventor, already renowned throughout the Mediterranean for his ingenious creations. But in their version, his imprisonment in the Labyrinth was not punishment from King Minos—it was protective custody.
In their tale, Daedalus awakens not in his cell, but aboard a vessel suspended between sky and sea, somewhere above the Aegean. The ship appears as a crystalline palace filled with wonders—walls that show distant worlds, pools that reflect not the viewer's face but their deepest thoughts, corridors that seem to extend into infinity.
His captors—or saviors—appear initially as familiar gods. Apollo, with his radiant countenance. Minerva, stern and wise. But gradually, they reveal their true nature: beings of living light who have sailed between stars since before Earth's mountains rose.
"Why have you brought me here?" Daedalus asks in their narrative.
"Because," comes the response, "you alone among mortals have learned to see beyond the boundaries of what is to envision what could be. This gift makes you precious—and dangerous."
They show him visions: humanity's possible futures spreading like branches from a great tree. In one branch, humans abandon their physical forms and join a vast network of consciousness that spans galaxies. In another, they carry their biology with them to the stars, seeding new worlds with earthly life and passion.
"Both paths have merit," the star-travelers explain. "But the choice cannot be made for humanity—it must be made by humanity. And that choice begins with stories. Myths that prepare minds for what is to come."
"If you accept this knowledge, you become our agent. Every use of what we teach you will nudge humanity toward one future or another. Choose carefully—the weight of species rests in your hands."
Marda watched Ovidius write this scene with growing amazement. He was unconsciously weaving together themes that directly paralleled her own situation with Manny and the Metamorph project. The question of agency, the burden of cosmic responsibility, the fear of being manipulated by forces beyond comprehension—it was all there.
He's processing your experience, Korinna's femtozoan observed. Through metaphor and symbol, he's making sense of the impossible situation you've brought into his life.
In their story, Daedalus accepts the knowledge but with a crucial modification. Rather than becoming a passive instrument of alien will, he demands the right to interpret their gifts according to his own wisdom.
"I will not be your puppet," their fictional Daedalus declares. "If humanity must choose its future, then let the choice arise from human values, human dreams, human love—not from the cold calculations of starlight."
The aliens—bemused by this display of mortal audacity—agree. They provide him with materials that seem ordinary but possess extraordinary properties: threads that grow stronger when stretched, resins that harden under stress, frameworks that adjust their shape according to the forces acting upon them.
The construction sequence Ovidius crafted was a masterpiece of technical poetry. Daedalus shapes wings not of crude feathers and wax, but of materials that respond to wind and intention. The flight itself becomes not desperate escape but joyous discovery—a dance between human will and natural forces.
But the true climax comes when Daedalus realizes he can choose his destination. Rather than simply fleeing to safety, he could sail to any land, any future. The wings represent not just physical flight but the power to reshape destiny itself.
"And where does he choose to go?" Marda asked as they reached this crucial moment in their narrative.
Ovidius smiled. "Home. He chooses to return home and share what he's learned. Because the greatest adventure isn't escaping the world—it's transforming it."
Their Daedalus lands not in some distant refuge but in the very heart of Athens, wings still spread, carrying proof that the impossible had become possible. Word spreads like wildfire: a man has flown, the gods have shared their secrets, the age of wonders has begun.
"It's perfect," Marda said when they completed the first draft. "Both inspiring and subversive. It gives people permission to dream of transcendence while keeping them grounded in human values."
And it's going to cause enormous trouble, Korinna's femtozoan added with what felt like anticipation.
But among the enthusiasm, Marda detected darker currents. Several members of the collegium pontificum—Rome's board of religious officials—sat in stony silence throughout the performance. Their faces spoke of offense taken and consequences planned.
After the reading, as guests milled about discussing the implications of the story, one of these officials approached Ovidius directly.
"Young poet," the man said, his voice carrying the weight of ancient authority, "your tale is... innovative. But tell me—do you truly believe the gods would share their sacred mysteries with mortals? Or are you perhaps suggesting that what we worship as divine is merely... advanced craftsmanship?"
The question hung in the air like an accusation. Marda felt Ovidius tense beside her, and she could sense his mind racing through possible responses.
Careful, Korinna's femtozoan warned. This is how careers end and exiles begin.
But before Ovidius could respond, an unexpected voice cut through the tension.
"Surely," said Gaius Maecenas himself, rising from his couch with diplomatic grace, "the mark of truly inspired fiction is its ability to make us question the boundaries between possible and impossible. Young Ovidius has created not heresy, but hope—a vision of humanity rising to meet the gods as partners rather than subjects."
Later that evening, as they walked home through Rome's winding streets, Ovidius was unusually quiet.
"Second thoughts?" Marda asked.
"Not about the story," he said slowly. "But about the consequences. I understand now why the star-travelers in our tale were so careful about the knowledge they shared. Truth can be dangerous—especially truth that challenges the foundations people build their lives upon."
Marda took his hand, feeling the calluses from his stylus, the ink stains that never quite washed clean. "So what do we do?"
Ovidius stopped walking and turned to face her, his eyes reflecting the flickering light of the oil lamps that lined their path. "We do what our Daedalus did. We choose to transform rather than escape. We craft our stories so carefully, so beautifully, that even those who might oppose us find themselves carried along by the wonder of possibility."
He's found his mission, Korinna's femtozoan observed with satisfaction. Not just as your collaborator, but as a true agent of change.
As they reached their door, Marda felt a familiar shimmer in the air. Manny was near, though not yet manifested.
"Tomorrow," Ovidius said, apparently sensing nothing unusual, "we begin planning the theatrical performance. I want to show Rome what it looks like when humans truly take flight."
Marda thought she recognized her. "Naya?"
"I am Novella, daughter of Cato Secundus. I was at the theater tonight."
Ovidius asked, "Did you enjoy the show?"
"I did. And I have an idea for your next show." Novella told Ovidius, "About a father who rescues his daughter from the underworld. But this 'underworld' is is the domain of the Overseer of Earth. That's where I have been for the past ten years."
Ovidius excitedly asked Novella about the Overseer. Her answers confirmed for Marda that Novella had met Kenth. While Ovidius and Novella were both pleased to find someone else who had met a god, Marda stood there with a grin on her/Korinna's face. Marda understood Manny's plan. Novella was clone of Naya, one of Manny's favorite Interventionist agents. The Korinna replicoids commented to Marda: So, this is the lover that Manny promised you?
Marda replied to Korinna: A lover for us. Hopefully just the first of many.
As Marda thought of Manny and said 'many', the telepathic thoughts of Manny the bumpha intruded on the telepathic discussion between the Marda and Korinna replicoids: Remember, this copy of Novella is a zeptite replicoid, not a biological organism. The biological Novella died ten years ago, in a shipwreck, along with her mother. This artificial Novella is equipped with a blastipositor and she can implant embryos inside women. As part of my on-going human breeding project, Novella will implant an embryo inside you.
Marda asked: When will this pregnancy occur?
Ovidius had promised to meet Novella at the theater in the morning. Marda watched Novella walking off into the night. Ovidius took Marda/Korinna's arm and led her inside their home. He asked, "Do you believe her? That she was brought back from the dead?"
Marda nodded the graceful head of Korinna. "I do." Marda wondered how many other agents of Manny were secretly at work in Rome.
The morphic resonance was building, night after night, performance after performance. Each person who heard their stories carried away seeds of transformation—ideas that would bloom into innovations, dreams that would reshape the trajectory of human civilization.
Standing at the threshold of their home, Marda realized she was no longer afraid of being Manny's instrument. Whether she had agency or not seemed less important than the quality of the future she was helping to create.
The future was taking flight, one story at a time.
____________the end____
Next: return to SIHA.
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