Forked Asha

Figure 1. Image by WOMBO Dream.

Below on this blog page is Chapter 4 of a science fiction story titled "Plūribus ē Spatium". To make my version of Chapter 4, I started with the 4,500 word-long first draft that had been generated by Claude. My version of the chapter is close to 8,400 words.

Image generated by Leonardo

 Lori Aurante. The image shown to the right on this page is meant to be a depiction of Lori before her journey to the distant exoplanet Asha. The image to the left was generated by Leonardo.

I also had Gemini make 'storybook' illustrations for Chapter 4 and there are some Grok-generated images and videos near the bottom of this blog page.

Having been recruited for Manny's telepathy experiments on Asha, Lori thinks of herself as being the next "Eve" who has been tasked with populating Asha with human telepaths.

 Chapter 4 of "Plūribus ē Spatium" – Double Asha (read Chapter 1)(Ch 2)(Ch 3)

Tyhry with horns. Image generated by Gemini.

The great room of Casanay was usually a large quiet space that served as Eddy's office where he crafted his science fiction stories. Twice a year Casanay hosted Nora and her children and grandchildren and then the great room became a hive of activity with Eddy's writing placed on the back burner.

Now the great room was humming and busy, but the Australian contingent was not in residence. Casanay had never previously held this particular configuration of people. Anthony was efficiently delivering snacks and drinks while the cats Pepper and Luna were relentlessly testing which of the guests might deliver the best ear scratching.

Lori Aurante. Image generated by Leonardo

Eddy was seated in his swivel chair near his writing workstation, but he had abandoned all hope of getting any more work done this day. Eddy was watching Lori with total absorption, oblivious to the fact that his attention to her was annoying Zeta. Lori was prattling excitedly and seemingly endlessly about her pending journey to the distant exoplanet, Asha.

Zeta occupied her usual place close to Eddy: the large recliner that for decades had occupied the same spot close to Eddy's writing desk. Now Pepper jumped up on an arm of the recliner and occupied the spot which with Trib's absence still faintly registered in an indentation of the cushion where Trib had long preferred to sleep at Zeta's side. Pepper was irked that none of the guests seemed to understand the fine art of scratching cat ears.

Eddy and Lori.
Image generated by Gemini.

Lori Aurante sat on the couch by the front window with a glorious view of Arizona high desert behind her as the late afternoon light turned a distant mesa the color of old copper. She was describing her UFO-fantasy version of the ancient legend of Adam and Eve and speculating on the possibility that the mythical Eve had been an alien creature brought to Earth by the Grendels.

Ely the Grendel listened politely to Lori's wacky theory of humanity's founding by ancient aliens then told her, “Your fantasy is more interesting than the truth.”

Lori asked, “How could you or anyone actually know the truth about those ancient times?”

Eddy wanted to tell Lori about his Reality Viewing equipment which allowed him to View Earth's past, but what he could say and to whom was constrained by behavioral control infites that Manny the bumpha had placed inside his brain decades earlier, back when she gave him the Reality Viewer.

Zeta and Pepper the cat.
Image generated by Gemini.

However, since Lori was soon to depart from Earth, Ely felt no qualms about telling Lori, “I've been on Earth for half a million years. The closest thing to the Adam and Eve myth occurred about 90,000 years ago when there was a population bottleneck. Even then, there was no single woman who was the lone mother of humanity. Nor will you be the only woman on Asha having pregnancies and birthing babies.”

Lori mused, “Half... a... million... years.....” Ely was no longer hiding her natural Grendel body structure from Lori. Lori was still caught up in the process of learning the amazing history of Ely who had long existed on Earth as a femtobot replica copy of her original biological self.

Two copies of Tyhry came down the hallway from Tyhry's bedroom suite and they entered the great room. They had just been synapex linked and had shared an orgasm trance during which they tried to completely align their memories of past events and plans for the near future when the original copy of Tyhry would be away from Casanay. They were not sure when they would be together again and their love making had been rather wild and desperate.

Ely the Grendel and Lori.
Image generated by Gemini.

They sat sat down on the couch with Lori. These two copies of Tyhry were both femtobot replicoids, but the one to Lori's left was the original copy and she was using her tryp'At body form which most noticeably included long pointed ears and two rows of breasts. The other copy, which had for years lived as a companion of Eddy and Zeta at Casanay, continued to use Tyhry's conventional Earth human bodily form. The original Tyhry had heard Lori and could telepathically skim the gist of the conversation thread from Zeta's thoughts. She told Lori, “I know how to program femtobots. I'll program your femtobot copy and the Simulation System so that you will be essentially immortal inside the Ekcolir Reality Simulation.”

Lori giggled and pretended to be horrified, “I hope I won't be expected to spend the next half million years making babies for Manny.”

Tyhry (human) and Tyhry (tryp'At)?
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry scanned her eyes up and down Lori's beautiful body which seemed to have been designed for making babies and feeding them. She shrugged. “My information about the future of the Ekcolir Reality is quite limited. However, I suspect that 20,000 years in the future, colonists from Earth will have spread out into the galaxy past the location of Asha. There will be trillions of other women who can take over the task of birthing more humans.”

Lori asked Tyhry, “So you know you will be alive 20,000 years from now?”

“Yes, I've received dream visions from myself in that far future era, a time when most humans in the galaxy will be making use of telepathy.” Tyhry looked at the faces of Lori, Tynyo and Naseh and told them, “You three carry the genes that will make a society of human telepaths possible. I'm sure Manny selected you for these telepathy experiments on Asha because you are ready and willing to make babies.”

Tynyo and Naseh
Image generated by Gemini.

Tynyo and Naseh had settled into a loveseat that was perpendicular to the couch by the window. Naseh was holding a cup of tea and Tynyo was, like Eddy, mesmerized by the cute and talkative Lori.

Standing beside Eddy's chair, Ely kept fiddling with the Reality Viewer. Ely was trying and failing to find the planet Asha in the Viewer's index of known places in the Ekcolir Reality.

Tyhry glanced at the star map currently displayed on the display screen of the Viewer. "Dad," she said, "We need to talk about the Asha Simulation."

Eddy's gaze did not shift away from Lori's pretty face. "I assume you will return to the simulation of your laboratory and Sedrover. You told me that you already know the location of Asha. What is there to discuss?"

Ely and Eddy.
Image generated by Gemini.

Ely said, “I can't find Asha in the bookmarks directory of the Ekcolir Reality.” Ely pointed at the star map. “Based on the coordinates that Tyhry got from Ary, Asha must be in this region of the galaxy.”

Tyhry told Ely, "That Viewer probably has Asha listed under a different name. In any case, the Viewer is not designed for astrogation. The navigation system of Sedrover will have no trouble finding Asha. We don't have to worry about that.”

Zeta handed Anthony her empty glass and applied the fingers of both her hands to Pepper's ears. Zeta had a weak telepathic connection to Tyhry which she had developed through the years. She asked her daughter, “Then what is it that is bothering you?” Zeta added, “I'm surprised that you have not already returned to Sedrover.”

Tyhry told her father, “Here is my problem, dad. The Asha of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation is going to be like the first draft of a complex story.... a confused mess. Nobody except Manny knows how to craft a society of human telepaths, and due to temporal paradox restrictions, she can't tell us what she knows. Specifically, my problem is that we need a fork of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation that can be vastly accelerated temporally. In simple terms, I need a fork that only models Asha and its star system. For Manny's little telepathy experiment, we do not need to Simulate Earth or the rest of the galaxy. If we can simulate just the one planet, Asha, and the people on it, such a simulation can run at a very high speed. That will allow us to quickly learn the pitfalls, errors and blind-alleys on the path to a society of telepathic humans. Then I'll be able to use that information from the 'first draft' Simulation to accomplish our work on the Asha of the Final Reality much more efficiently, without bumbling around in the dark."

Lori asked, “Why not simultaneously run a thousand simulations of Asha?”

Tyhry shrugged. “It would not surprise me if Manny ends up doing that, but I don't even know how to get one such Simulation up and running. So, let's not get greedy.”

Eddy and Zeta.
Image generated by Gemini.

The great room became quiet and there was a pause in the conversation. Eddy finally managed to pull his eyes off of the enchanting Lori. He turned in his swivel chair and looked at the stellar map on the display screen. Eddy was very familiar with one distant location in the galaxy: Alastor Cluster, an artificial construct created by the Phari in the Asimov Reality. Eddy had previously used forked Simulations of planets in Alastor Cluster for his research into the origins of telepathic human variants such as the tryp'At.

Now Eddy contemplated the vast interstellar distance between Earth and Asha and the problem of initiating a Simulation fork that would include both Sedrover, currently in its hangar on Earth, and Asha, but none of the rest of the galaxy. Eddy suddenly had the disorienting sensation he always got when his stored infites were starting to erupt some useful information — a momentary absence, like a window going briefly dark before a light came on inside. Something like a aura before a migraine headache. Finally he said, slowly: "It can be done. You just need to program the Simulation System to include Sedrover in the simulation of Asha. The spaceship will serve as the initial living space for the colonizers of Asha."

Tyhry nodded. "My plan is for Sedrover to transit from Earth to Asha and then remain on the surface of the planet until adequate housing can be built. Yes."

Exoditions of Cynk

Eddy's gaze drifted back to Lori and then past her to the familiar desert scene outside, beyond the window. "Zeta, do you remember when... this was before Tyhry was born... you and I were teleported to the planet Cynk in Alastor Cluster?”

Now Zeta was really mad. “Of course I remember. Ivory was there on Cynk, getting into trouble, as usual.” Zeta was eternally jealous of Ivory Fersoni and her place in Eddy's life.

Tyhry commented, “Wait. That story about Cynk was just a tale dug out of the Archives of the Writers Block. Right?”

“Of course.” Zeta explained, “Eddy and I remained on Earth. The copies of us that became your parents. It was our teleportation duplicates who had that adventure on Cynk.”

Eddy laughed and gazed at Zeta. “Cynk was a Phari planet. Don't forget, the Phari have amazing technology, including the ability to teleport planets around the galaxy.”

Tyhry had previously experienced telepathic contact with the Phari who resided in the Hierion Domain. Tyhry had learned from the Phari that it was possible to teleport objects into and out of the Reality Simulation System. Initially it was that Phari teleportation trick that had allowed the HySe to obtain sedron fuel from the Ekcolr Reality Simulation. Tyhry said, “I'm sure that the Phari could teleport Sedrover directly to Asha.”

Eddy nodded. “Or teleport Asha here to the Solar System.”

Tyhry mused, “Either of those options would vastly simplify the Simulation System programming required for the Asha Simulation fork.”

Ely suggested, “Maybe Cynk is already in the Solar System... in the Ekcolir Reality.”

Ver'la and Mars.

Tyhry shook her head. “Sure, the planet Ver'la was once here in the Solar System, but it is hard to hide an Earth-sized planet.”

Lori said, “Not that hard. Just put it on the other side of the Sun, in Earth's orbit.”

Tyhry laughed at Lori's ingrained UFO enthusiast's naivete. “Astronomers would quickly notice if an Earth-sized planet arrived in the Solar System, at Earth's L3 point or anywhere else.”

Lori suggested, “If the Phari can teleport planets, I doubt if they would have any difficulty hiding one from Earth's primitive astronomers.”

Eddy and Zeta.
Image generated by Gemini.

Ely said, “Lori might be right about that. Even a whole planet could probably be hidden by Phari technology. Think about how Observer Base is hidden right on Earth's doorstep and has never been detected by Earth's astronomers.”

Eddy said, “In the Asimov Reality, humans were carriers of a Phari endosymbiont which gave humans access to Bimanoid technology. And that provided a form of telepathy for those who could access the Bimanoid Interface.”

Tyhry asked, “Where are you going with this, dad? The Bimanoid Interface was needed to provide Earth with a Momentum of Time. After the end of the Time Travel Era, the Bimanoid Interface was disabled, or over-loaded... or something. Anyhow, it is not relevant to the type of telepathy that Manny has planned for the Final Reality.”

Eddy shrugged. “I'm trying to help you solve your problem, Tyhry. I've suggested a solution to your problem: the Phari. The Phari provided the technology that allowed the positronic robots of Earth to construct the Bimanoid Interface. That provided a form of telepathic communication to humans. The Phari are the masters of the Hierion Domain and hierion-based technologies." He blinked. "You've previously been in contact with the Phari. Just ask them to help you accelerate the Asha Simulation."

Because Eddy was biologically tryp'At, Tyhry had developed some ability to sense his mind pattern and his thoughts. "This mumbo jumbo about Cynk and the Phari and the Bimanoid interface is all coming from your infites," Tyhry said, not unkindly. "Does anything else come with it?"

There was a long pause as Eddy thought about the information reaching him from his stored infites. "Just a reminder," Eddy said, looking faintly troubled. "The deceleration problem. When the simulated population on Asha grows, the processing load will force the simulation to slow. In the early phase, you might get a thousand-to-one acceleration. But that ratio will fall as the complexity of the telepathic social network expands."

Lori. Image generated by Leonardo

From the couch, Lori said, "I'm sorry, I just want to make sure I understand. You're saying you can run a simulation of the planet we're going to live on, and it will run faster than real time. So, for those of us who remain here in the Final Reality, by the time we get to Asha, the Simulated Asha it will already be years ahead of us?"

"That's the idea," Tyhry said. “But only if I can contact the Phari and get their help. The Phari are notoriously elusive. It is not like I can just call them on the phone.”

Lori was adjusting her thought processes to take into account the marvels that were made possible by the Reality Simulation System. "And the people in the Simulation of Asha — they will be femtobot replicoid copies of us?"

"Replicoid copies of you.” Tyhry gestured towards Ely, Lori, Tynyo and Naseh. Tyhry emphasized that detail. “After I get you onboard Sedrover, I'm going to the Asha of the Final Reality. Manny made a set of tryp'At clones, the Ary, that I'll be working with here in the Final Reality. This is part of a vast loop in time. What the femtobot copies of you learn about human telepathy on the Simulated Asha of the Ekcolir Reality will lead Manny to make Ary."

Lori was confused by the time loop. "So there's a version of me on this simulated Asha right now, making mistakes."

"No. Not yet. The Asha Simulation hasn't been initialized yet. But yes, that is more or less how it will work, if I can get the assistance of the Phari."

Still baffled by the time-loop, Lori said, “If the Simulation has not even started, then how can Manny know what we learned... what we will learn... about human telepathy?”

Anthony and Tyhry's replicoid copy?
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry laughed. “Don't hurt your brain thinking about this, Lori. Manny already has access to a record of everything that exists in the Sedron Domain, up and down the time axis. She can tap into the Sedron Time Stream and obtain information about the future. Manny already knows the future. She just can't tell us about our own futures. Lori, you are going to have to live your life and discover the best way to make a society of human telepaths. It will be a great adventure.”

Lori looked at Tynyo and licked her lips. Tynyo smiled at Lori and then looked at Naseh. Naseh sipped her tea with the equanimity of someone who had previously spent enough time around Tyhry Watson to have re-calibrated her sense of the possible. Naseh thought about the thrilling experience she'd had the first time she'd seen Tyhry's anti-gravity flying car. She told Lori, “My advice: just relax and enjoy the ride.”

"The tricky part," Tyhry continued, turning back to Eddy, "is the initialization. I need to program a Simulation that contains only Asha's star system and Sedrover, physical objects that are currently separated by a vast interstellar distance. I doubt if even Manny could deal with these conditions. I agree that we need to make use of the Phari and their mastery of the Hierion Domain. But I don't know how to contact the Phari and get their help."

Sedron Time Stream.

Eddy nodded slowly. "I agree with your assessment of the ugly situation you have gotten yourself into. This sort of programming information could exist in the Sedron Time Stream — but Manny is not here to tell us." He shook his head. There was another source of information about the Sedron Time Stream, but he was unable to mention it.

Tyhry could telepathically sense that Eddy was thinking about the Sedruth entity who functioned as a living assistant for Eddy's use of the Reality Viewer that was there embedded in the computer on his desk. Tyhry said, "Thanks for thinking this through with me dad. I'll get the crew of Sedrover assembled. While I'm off in the Ekcolir Reality Simulation, you check your sources, including the Writers Block story Archive. There's something we are missing in this puzzle."

Eddy nodded. “The last piece of the puzzle.”

Tyhry got up off the sofa. She was ready to enter into the Ekcolir Reality Simulation. She approached Eddy and squeezed her father's shoulder. "This discussion has been helpful, dad. Thank you."

Zeta, who had been following all of this from her recliner said, “I can't believe you are leaving us, Tyhry. Going off across space to some distant world...”

Tyhry and Naseh
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry said, “Don't get sentimental, mom. My replicoid copy will remain here at Casanay and I'll be just a teleportation jump away from Earth. The first order of business for Ary is going to be installing a long-range teleportation device on Asha. We at least can thank the Phari for their galactic teleportation network which includes Earth.”

Naseh was on her feet and ready to enter the Ekcolir Reality Simulation. She said, "When you say replicoid copies of us enter the Simulation — what does that mean, exactly? For our biological selves?"

"Your biological selves," Tyhry explained, "will remain here at Casanay, with my parents, until I return from arranging things on Sedrover inside the Simulation. The replicoid copies are how you'll contribute to the experimental telepathy work on Asha — inside the Simulation — while your biological originals remain here in the Final Reality."

Tynyo said, "And the replicoid copy is... us? Same memories, same personality?"

"Identical at the moment of copying. After that, you diverge. The other copy of you will have new experiences you won't ever have." Tyhry paused then took the hand of her copy. "This is a copy of me that I made years ago. As you can see, we look different. I've adopted my biological tryp'At body form, but this copy of me lives here with my parents and uses a conventional Earth human body form. We are now two separate people."

Tynyo considered this for what seemed like a long time. Then he looked at Anthony and said, "I feel like I'm going to need more tea and a few weeks to sort out all the copies and time-loopiness."

Tyhry laughed and pulled Tynyo to his feet. “Sorry, but your days of leisure and relaxed cogitation are over.”

Tyhry and Lori. Image generated by Gemini.
I split the file for Chapter 4 into three parts
  for Gemini; this is not actually Chapter 5.

---

Tyhry used the Reality Simulation equipment inside Eddy's computer to open a portal the Ekcolir Reality Simulation that held her nanotechnology research laboratory and Sedrover. One-by-one, Lori, Ely, Tynyo and Naseh went through the portal while it was in scan mode. Femtobot replicoid copies of Lori, Tynyo and Naseh were made and sent into the Simulation. Tyhry told the biological originals of Lori, Tynyo and Naseh, “I'll be back soon.” She passed through the portal and arrived inside the simulation.

Lori and Tyhry in the Simulator.
Image generated by Gemini.

One moment Lori had been in Casanay's great room, the next moment she was in Tyhry's nanotechnology research laboratory among work benches and strange equipment and under a completely different quality of artificial light. The transition was instantaneous. Lori gasped.

Marda had been warned to expect the arrival of Lori, Tynyo and Naseh inside the Simulation. Marda said, “Welcome to the Ekcolir Reality.”

"That was—" Lori began.

"Just like teleportation," Tyhry put an arm around Lori and said. "But you are the new you... now composed of femtobots."

Lori looked down at her hands, turning them over. "I still feel like me"

Lori and Tyhry and femtobots.
Image generated by Gemini.

"As a femtobot replicoid copy of your original biological body, your femtobots are now powering every neuron in your brain, holding every memory and generating every sensation you have. All that you were is still present, just powered by femtobots."

Lori looked up. "And now I will become a different person than the biological me who still is back at Casanay."

"The other copy of you is still in the Casanay great room, probably asking Eddy a series of questions about what is happening to you. From now on the two of you diverge and become distinct individuals sharing a common past."

This provoked a short laugh from Lori. She looked around the laboratory, then at Tynyo and Naseh, who were conducting similar inspections of their own bodies, trying to detect some change.

"There's something else I want you to know," Tyhry said. She moved to one of the lab benches and sat on its edge. "As femtobot replicoids, your bodies are now composed of programmable femtobot components rather than biological matter. Under the program that I've activated for you, the practical consequence of this is that your bodies are no longer automatically subject to biological aging. Your femtobot components have been programmed to repair damage, correct errors and maintain your current physical form indefinitely."

Lori and Tyhry and immortality.
Image generated by Gemini.

Tynyo and Naseh both accepted the fact of their immortality and they simply nodded in understanding. It was Lori who had to speak. "So we are immortal now."

"As a replicoid... and artificial life-form... yes. Although, by modifying your programming, I could allow you to appear to age. Someday you may decide that you want to have the appearance of an older, wiser you." Tyhry added, "Back in the Final Reality, your original biological self is still subject to the usual biological aging processes."

Lori looked at Tyhry and Lori said, quietly, "When I was eleven years old, my grandmother died. I remember thinking that it was the most wrong thing I had ever encountered. That someone who had been in the world for eighty years, who knew so much, who loved so many people — that all of that should simply stop." She paused. "I never really stopped thinking that."

Tyhry told Lori, “It will be interesting to find out if you and I still feel like immortality is a good idea a million years from now.”

Marda told the new arrivals, “You all seem to be doing just fine. I'm Marda and I'll be taking you to Asha.” Marda guided Lori, Ely, Tynyo and Naseh through the laboratory's interior to the back door. “Sedrover is in the hangar, ready to fly.”

___

Another conversation had also taken place upon the arrival of the newcomers inside the lab. Upon arriving in the laboratory, Tyhry had telepathically told Marda: I'm going to try contacting the Phari and ask them to help set up an accelerated Simulation of Asha. Introduce these four to Sedrover and the crew.

The Phari? Marda was skeptical. I won't hold my breath. First, I doubt if the Phari will respond to you. Second, what do they know about programming bumpha Reality Simulation equipment?

Tyhry communicated back: I have to try. Manny seems to think that she has already provided us with everything that we need You and I made good use of the Phari once before. Maybe all I need to do is try to play that wildcard again.

Marda told Tyhry: But that communication with the Phari required the help of a positronic robot.

Yes. Tyhry assured Marda: I may need to return to Alastor Cluster in the Asimov Reality in order to contact the Phari.

___

Marda and Ely and Sedrover.
Image generated by Gemini.

Marda led the way to Sedrover. Waiting for them was one of the Anthony replicoids. Marda said, “This copy of Anthony is part of Sedrover's crew. Anthony, show Lori, Ely, Tynyo and Naseh the ship and their cabins.”

Marda took Tyhry to her cabin. After quick and energetic sex-play session, Tyhry put her jumpsuit back on and pulled the hierion probe out of her pocket. "You should be able to use this probe for the G-sim experiments."

Marda, still naked and sweaty, held the probe in one hand while she was preventing Tyhry from zipping up the top of her suit. Fondling one of Tyhry's lower breasts and bouncing it up and down, Marda said, "Just an on-off switch. The G-sim is too simple." Marda took the stiff nipple of Tyhry's breast between her lips.

"Maybe in the future a G-sim will be more than just a binary switch. For now, I want it simple and I want human telepathy to be reversible. When a G-sim activates, the zeptite endosymbiont will be available for telepathy... under the constraints imposed by the femtozoans who will be judging the quality of the relationship." Tyhry sighed as Marda sucked some more of the sex hormone-rich fluid out of Tyhry's breast.

Marda pulled of Tyhry's nipple, swallowed and enjoyed the warm glow as oxypathin from Tyhry's milk activated Marda's oxypathin receptors. Marda said, "The love-gate."

“I hate that terminology, but yes, humans will only be able to telepathically link to those who they love.”

"Why not try to learn more from these early telepathy experiments? I could put a signal processing function into the G-sim... try to get a read-out what the femtozoan is doing, how it measures love in a human relationship." Now Marda began sucking on Tyhry's other lower breast, eager to get more oxypathin.

Tyhry, Marda and the hierion probe.
Image generated by Gemini.

"Marda, I don't think you appreciate the complexity of femtozoans," Tyhry said. “Manny gave me training in this area. I've even been in direct contact with Eddy's femtozoan, if only for a moment. When I get to be with Ary again, I expect to get advanced training on femtozoans, but for now we have to trust that femtozoans will know if two people are in love. Remember, Manny has been developing this technology for the past million years. I have to believe she has this figured out. Everything else is there inside every brain: the zeptite endosymbiont, the femtozoan, the primate biological architecture for pair-bonding. Just add the G-sim and any human should be able to begin developing their telepathic abilities. But I want a kill switch... just in case something goes wrong. If someone start abusing their telepathic abilities, I want you to be able to quickly inactivate their G-sim using the hierion probe."

Marda popped off of Tyhry's nipple and felt some oxypathin-rich fluid dribble down her chin. “Abusing telepathy? Tyhry, this is the kind of silly fear that comes from reading too many science fiction stories!”

Tyhry licked Marda's chin and then kissed the tip of Marda's nose. With all the oxypathin that Marda had obtained from Tyhry's two lower breasts, Tyhry now noticed that Marda had a spectacular clitoral erection. Tyhry slid two fingers into Marda's dripping vagina and then massaged the glans of Marda's clitoris with the slippery fluid that was a mixture of Marda's own luxuriant vaginal secretions and Tyhry's semen. “Please, don't argue with me, Marda. I've seen the future and G-sims become integral to human telepathy once people are spreading from Earth through the galaxy. Just deploy the G-sims as I've requested. With luck, all will go smoothly on Asha and you will never need to shut one off.” For emphasis, Tyhry rubbed Marda's clitoral erection vigorously with her finger tips.

Tyhry, Marda and the hierion probe.
Image generated by Gemini.

Marda was quiet for a moment while she enjoyed what Tyhry was doing to her clitoris. "You are imagining that turning off a G-sim will be like the surgery that removes a cataract. Simple, quick. But imagine people like you and I who share a telepathic connection for years... decades. What would be the consequences of cutting that telepathic link?"

"Marda, let's hope you never need to find out. But this is a safety protocol. Until we know that human telepaths won't harm each-other, I want to be able block their use of telepathy. I think this is why Manny wants experienced tryp'At telepaths like you, me and the Ary running these experiments on Asha... so we can experiment safely."

Marda fell back on the bed, dropped the hierion probe and masturbated to a climax. She looked up at Tyhry and noticed that although Tyhry was now fully dressed, she had telepathically enjoyed Marda's orgasm. "And the other safety feature is the choice aspect — on the future, each human will decide whether to have a G-sim implanted."

"They must be able to decide. That's not just an ethical preference. It's a constraint imposed by the Trysta-Grean Pact. Manny can't give humans a modification like telepathy if they don't freely choose it. Giving humans telepathy is flirting with a foundational change to the meaning of 'human'. I've seen 20,000 years into the future when some people still adamantly resist getting a G-sim. But that is for the far future, after humans believe they invented the G-sim and start calling it a G-sym. When you get to Asha, start by giving all the humans a G-sim. We need data and we need it fast, so even newborns get the G-sim."

"All right," Marda said finally. "I could even implant G-sims into embryos in utero, but I think it expecting too much for a fetus to fall in love with its mother.” Both Marda and Tyhry were thinking about the Hua who they had met in a simulation of the First Reality. Hua fetuses developed telepathic linkages to both parents. Marda stood up again and put her arms around Tyhry. “I'm convinced of the wisdom of design principles you want me to apply to the G-sim. The engineering challenge is going to be ensuring the switch is genuinely binary — that it can be reliably reversed if someone changes their mind about wanting to have telepathic abilities."

“I don't foresee many people getting cold feet and backing out. I'm not sure which I like more, being in your hot vagina or being linked to your beautiful mind.” Tyhry tried to pull away from Marda's tenacious embrace. "Now, let me go. I need to see Tyna."

Marda rubbed each of Tyhry's four stiff nipples through the silky fabric of her jumpsuit. "I'll start preliminary modeling of the G-sim architecture. This is so simple, even I can do the femtobot programming. By the time we arrive at Asha in the simulation, I want to have a workable prototype."

Tyna and Aymy.
Image generated by Gemini.

---

Tyhry found Tyna in the engine room of Sedrover, working with Aymy to load the last of the sedron fuel for the long flight to Asha. They looked up when Tyhry appeared, and then Tyna flung herself into Tyhry's arms.

"I can't believe you are not going with us," Tyna said.

"I'm needed in the Final Reality. Marda will be in charge of Sedrover." Tyhry sat down. "I need to ask you something important."

Tyna said, "I know what you're going to ask."

"You can see it in my thoughts?"

"Yes. I see you want to take your femtozoan back.” Tyna paused. "I don't resent it, Tyhry. It is yours, and you let me use it when I needed it. I thank you for that."

Tyhry and Tyna.
Image generated by Gemini.

Aymy, who had been quiet beside her daughter, picked up the hierion probe she had built with help from Tyhry. Her eyes moved between Tyhry and Tyna with the attentiveness of a woman who had spent a lifetime learning to read the spaces between what people said.

Tyhry brought out the necklace from Tiz. “There are several tryp'At femtozoans here... sophisticated ones, from Tiz. Maybe you will be able to select the one that appeals to you the most after I take back mine from you. I'll be interested to know what you can learn from your new one.”

Tyhry, Tyna and Aymy.
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry and Tyna embraced and melted together into a passionate kiss. Aymy activated the hierion probe and Tyhry's femtozoan was released from Tyna's femtobot endosymbiont. It migrated into Tyhry's body and quickly locked into Tyhry's femtobot endosymbiont. For a brief time, Aymy saw a sparkling cloud near Tyna's head then Tyna and Tyhry pulled their lips apart. Aymy said, "I could see a cloud of nanites. I think it worked.” She inactivated her hierion probe.

Tyhry had formed a synapex linkage to Tyna. In their shared mind space, Tyhry could sense two femtozoans in a conversation. She's inexperienced, she did not grow up with clone sisters.

Inexperienced, yes. But that also means unencumbered. No accumulated history... almost a blank slate. There is much I can teach her about being tryp'At.

Tyna reached up touched her hair. She asked Tyhry, "Those are femtozoans?"

Tyhry was trying to make a stronger connection to her own femtozoan. I'm glad to have you back.

It was all over in less than a minute. The femtozoans seemed uninterested in Tyhry and Tyna. Unable to communicate further with the femtozoans, Tyhry broke the synapex link to Tyna. She told Aymy, “Thank you for your help. It worked.”

Tyhry was frustrated by her inability to communicate with her own femtozoan, but pleased that she had seen it at work, preparing Tyna's new femtozoan for an unusual host. She realized she was looking at Tyna, and Tyna was looking at her, and both of them understood that femtozoans had been exchanged, even if they still felt unchanged.

Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry held her hand out towards Aymy. "Take this necklace," Tyhry said. "There are two more femtozoans in it. They are for the first two babies born on Asha."

Aymy lifted the necklace from Tyhry's hand and placed it around her neck. “Two won't be enough.”

"Femtozoans are artificial life forms." Tyhry mused, “I suspect that these two will reproduce and be able to create an endless supply of additional femtozoans.”

Tyna asked Tyhry, "Will I ever see you again?"

Tyhry shrugged, "I think so... at least I've seen a future vision of you on Asha. In any case, I know that you were always meant to end up on Asha." They hugged one last time and Tyhry quickly departed.

---

Tyhry and Manny. Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry exited from Sedrover and returned to her nanotechnology laboratory. She was reviewing in her mind how she had previously been able to contact the Phari by making use of a telepathic positronic robot from the Asimov Reality. Manny was waiting beside the control console for the Reality Simulation equipment there in the lab. Manny was spectacularly decked out in her preferred bodily form for interacting with Earth humans, her sparkling cloud of extraordinary nanite-generated hair defying, as always, the physics of the surrounding environment.

When Tyhry arrived, Manny said, without preamble, "Congratulations on making sure that Marda will use the G-sim on Asha."

Tyhry sat down at the console. She had first learned about G-sims in a future vision of G-world, the planet that was the site of galactic championship golf tournaments in the far future. In that future era, the name was morphed to 'G-Sym' and it had to be surgically implanted by humans, who in that time were just starting to learn about hierion physics, but it gave humans a way to activate their telepathic abilities. Hoping for explicit confirmation from Manny, Tyhry spoke her thoughts out-loud, "The G-sim must be a choice because the Trysta-Grean Pact requires that humans retain genuine individuality and self-determination as they spread through the galaxy. Human telepathy can't be a biological inheritance, even a beneficial one, without violating the terms under which humans won the right to colonize millions of worlds."

Tyhry and Manny.
Image generated by Gemini.

Manny regarded her with the expression that Tyhry had learned, over years, to recognize as the expression Manny wore when she was pleased but did not want to make the pleasure the focus of the conversation. "Yes. The pek understand this too. They have no objection to these telepathy experiments on Asha, because these experiments lay the foundation for a future society in which every person will have chosen whether to pursue telepathic contact with others." A pause. "What they will not tell you, because they are pek and they consider this obvious, is that non-telepathic humans must be allowed to live alongside telepathic ones, without either group treating the other as either incomplete or a threat."

"I know. That has become quite clear to me. I've been doing a lot of thinking about Golf World. I now understand why you made sure that my future self taught me about G-syms."

Manny tilted her head slightly. This was not a gesture she used often. "Do you really understand, my dear?"

"In the future, the sport of golf survived as a refuge for humans who refused the G-sym. Not because golf requires isolation — but because the rules of the game don't involve any game-play advantage from telepathic coordination between players. It remained an individual sport. It is an example of how people without telepathy will continue to function in human society even after most people adopt telepathy." Tyhry ran her fingers through Manny's big cloud of sparkling hair. "You're not going to tell me what problems we will face on Asha, are you."

Tyhry and Manny.
Image generated by Gemini.

"I am not."

"Because you want us to discover them without your help."

Manny smiled. "The behavior of a telepathic biological species is something we bumpha have only observed in humans and human variants like the Asterothropes. This is the legacy of the positronic robots who felt humans should have telepathic abilities. As mandated by those robots, human telepathy should be a human creation. Or at least appear to be crafted by humans.” Manny giggled. “I want you and Marda to help your test subjects discover and deal with all of the problems as they arise, without my framing, because humans deserve to feel that they won telepathy for themselves."

“Tyhry, I've worked for a million years here in the Final Reality to design and test femtozoans and prepare you for your mission on Asha. There are just two more little things I need to do for you. Ever since your vacation on Threy, I've been learning how the Phari use short-cuts through the Hierion Domain for their amazing teleportation technology.” Manny moved to the control interface of the Simulation System and placed her hand on it. "There, it is done. Sedrover is now inside an accelerated forked Simulation of Asha," Manny said. "By the time you teleport to Asha in the Final Reality, a year of simulated time will already have passed inside the Asha Simulation and Marda will already have a G-sim in Lori's new-born baby." She withdrew her hand from the equipment.

“How will I monitor events taking place in the accelerated Simulation of Asha?” Tyhry suggested, “I could make a copy of this Reality Viewing equipment to take to Asha.”

"There is no need. That is my last gift to you, Tyhry. When you reach Asha, a copy of this laboratory will be waiting for you, complete with a Reality Viewer that will allow you to communicate with the Asha that is inside the Simulation. That will allow you to observe and learn from their mistakes. For example, you may decide that it too disruptive to a human society if young children have telepathic abilities."

Tyhry and Manny.
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry said, "And what are my options if I see something going badly wrong in the Simulation?"

"Then you will understand something important about how to correctly form a telepathic human society in the Final Reality. You must let Marda and her test subjects make their mistakes, just as I have done while training you for your role in these telepathy experiments." Manny's expression shifted again into something that contained the particular bumpha quality Tyhry had always found simultaneously frustrating and bracing in her: a reflection of the bumpha perspective and their long history. The bumpha view of human affairs derived from billions of years of accumulated bumpha experience. "You have been preparing for this your entire life, Tyhry. I did not make that life easy, but you thrive in the face of challenges. I am not going to make what comes next easy either. But I am quite confident that you are ready for it. And you should have plenty of fun along the way. I know you fear not being with Marda, but I carefully designed Ary to keep you entertained."

Manny disappeared without transition, without warning. Tyhry wondered if she would ever see Manny again. Then she popped herself out of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation and returned to Casanay.

---

Tyhry and the teleporter.
Image generated by Gemini.

Tyhry and Ely had made a quick trip to Observer Base with Eddy. They'd searched the Archive of the Writers Block for any other stories about Asha, but had come up empty.

The femtobot copy of Tyhry who would remain at Casanay asked to keep Tyhry's flying car for her own use and she had offered to deliver the biological test subjects to Picachu. However, the biological Lori, Tynyo and Naseh had been shifted over to the teleportation facility under Picachu Peak from Casanay by Roxzel's use of the teleporter inside Observer Base.

Now Tyhry, Ely, Lori, Tynyo and Naseh were together inside the long-range teleportation facility under Picacho Peak, with Lori impatiently waiting on the teleportation platform. Tyhry had entered into the Phari-designed targeting instruments the coordinates for Asha that Tyhry had obtained from Ary on Tiz. Tyhry was confident that the Phari long-range teleportation equipment could target Asha without difficulty. It was a world only 800 light-years distance from Earth, close enough to be safely reached without needing its own Phari teleportation terminal.

Tyhry warned Lori, “With no teleportation terminal on Asha, you might arrive as much as 20 feet above or below the ocean surface. Although there is no Phari-style teleportation terminal there, yet, there is a tryp'At-designed hierion triangulation array with nodes on three tropical islands. That will be good enough for what we need today.”

“I understand.” Lori was completely naked and feeling the full force of Tynyo's eyes on her body. While gazing at Tyny's big Ek'col-style penis, Loru stroked her erect nipples and said, “I can swim. Let's go already.”

Tyhry activated the teleportation sequence and the teleportation pad came alive.

Tyhry reminded Lori, "Swim to the big island to the west, towards the afternoon sun. We'll meet you there at the lab."

Tyhry and Ely the Grendel.
Image generated by Gemini.

“I know. This is the third time you've told me.” Lori was transported away. Tynyo let go of Naseh's hand and mounted the platform, his semi-erect penis waggling with each step. He disappeared in a flash. Naseh made a small gesture towards Tyhry and followed Tynyo to Asha.

Ely asked Tyhry, “Who do you expect Tynyo to impregnated first? Lori of Naseh?”

Tyhry gestured for Ely to get on the platform. Tyhry was glad that her tryp'At-style penis was stiff yet hidden inside its abdominal sheath. “I don't know, but Tynyo better be quick about making his move on Lori if he hopes to beat me to the task. She's just too cute... I can't wait for my chance to impregnate her.”

Ely jumped up on the platform, her pointy Grendel breasts bouncing, and she disappeared.

Tyhry took one last look around the control room and told Roxzel telepathically: Wish us luck. A moment later Tyhry was on Asha.

---

Grok-generated image depicting
Tyhry, Naseh, Ely and Lori soon
after being teleported to Asha.

The sky was different. That was the first thing — not frighteningly wrong, not hostile, but unmistakably other, a blue that held less blue than Earth's sky, with a sun that was slightly too orange and slightly too large above the western horizon. The air was warm and the water comfortable.

Tyhry dropped five feet out of the air and splashed into the Asha ocean. Orienting herself on the surface, she swam quickly through the broad swells to catch up with Ely. Soon they had reached the island and were all standing on the beach, looking at a copy of the nanotechnology research laboratory that was surrounded by tall palm-like trees and looking like it had been there for fifty years, growing into the tropical vegetation of the local environment.

Inside the laboratory building, every workbench, every instrument, every cable seemed exactly where it was in the original laboratory on Earth. It was a perfect duplicate, constructed by Manny, ready and waiting for Tyhry's arrival.

"Exactly as Manny promised," Tyhry said, half to herself.

Lori was still at the front entrance, one hand on the door frame, looking out at the plants and sky, listening to the sounds of insects and birds. "Is there anything dangerous on this world?"

Grok-generated image.
A less green Ely the Grendel.

After confirming that the Reality Simulation System would power up, Tyhry joined Lori at the door. "You've met Manny. Don't you trust her?"

Ely, Tynyo and Naseh came back into sight, having completed their short walk around the outside of the laboratory building. Ely told Tyhry, “There are extensive gardens and orchards in back. Food plants from Earth. Nobody will go hungry.”

The three biological colonists milled around near the entrance of the laboratory, looking out at their new world with the specific quality of attention that humans had always brought to the first sight of territory they intend to inhabit — an inventory that is also, in some way they cannot quite articulate, a greeting.

Tyhry and Ely went to the Simulation System control console.

The accelerated Asha Simulation had already been running for fourteen months of simulated time. The femtobot replicoid colonists were still living aboard Sedrover, but they were already constructing the buildings of a new settlement on the shores of a large fresh water lake.

Tyhry spoke to the Sedruth entity, which functioned as a sophisticated search system for the vast network of past Realities that could be Viewed by the equipment, “Sedruth, what is the news from the Asha fork?

Tyhry and Ely the Grendel.
Main image generated by Gemini.
Inset by Leonardo.

Sedruth sent video of key events to the display screen and provided narration. “Lori has given birth the the first child born on Asha. Her name is Tarynon, now three months old. Tarynon took up one of the Tiz femtozoans and Marda has implanted G-sims into both Tarynon and Lori. Lori and Marda are learning Tarynon's telepathic mind pattern”

Tyhry felt something she recognized, after a moment, as hope. Not the abstract hope of a plan going well, but the specific hope of watching something important begin and develop as planned.

Sedruth put on the display screen part of Marda's research log. The progress summary was terse: G-sim prototype, iteration 7. Binary integration confirmed in bench tests. Awaiting biological trial. Candidates: Tynyo and Naseh. Can their weak Ek'col style telepathy be amplified? This will be interesting.

Tyhry smiled at her friend's understatement.

Lori, Tynyo and Naseh finally came inside the lab. Lori said, "There's already a child, isn't there? In the simulation. Tynyo can't wait to pounce on me!"

"Yes. The femtobot replicoid Lori's first child was named Tarynon. She's already learning to use telepathy."

A pause. "Well, I'm dying to know.” Lori asked, “Who was the father?"

Onboard the HySe.

"I could pull that information out of the Simulation for you, but do you really want to know?” Tyhry reached out and stroked one of Lori's graceful breasts with her finger tips and added, “In this Reality, events do not need to proceed as they have inside the Simulation."

“Can I speak to my replicoid copy?”

Tyhry opened a portal to the forked Simulation of Asha in the Ekcolir Reality, but the portal would not open. “It appears that Manny has only given us Viewing access to the Asha Simulation.”

Naseh absorbed this with the equanimity that Tyhry had come to expect from her. She put an arm around Tynyo's back and smuggled against his side. Then she asked, "What happens now? We just wait for HySe?"

Tyhry thought about the eight tryp'At clones, four-brained and telepathically interconnected for every moment of their lives, who had never previously encountered a human mind inexperienced with telepathy. Tyhry felt a growing infatuation with Lori, but it seemed that Manny expected Tyhry to be sexually partnered with Ary. Tyhry shifted her gaze of of the beautiful body of Lori and to Naseh, whose sexy body brought back to Tyhry the night she had once spent engaged in sex-play with Naseh. Trying to ignore her growing horniness, Tyhry replied, "Yes, we wait for HySe," she said. "And we can try to contact them." Tyhry activated the interplanetary communications equipment that she had built for communication with Sedrover. “This is pretty crude equipment, using hierions. We've only found it useful for short ranges, out to about 500 astronomical units.” Tyhry transmitted: “Asha calling HySe.”

After a delay of almost ten seconds, Tyhry heard the voice of Alexina, “Tyhry, is that you? Where are you? Are you already on Asha?”

Tyhry and Alexina.
Image generated by Gemini.

An image of the interior of the HySe control room appeared on the display screen. Tyhry could see both Alexina and Amiante and one of the Ary clones. Tyhry nodded. “We just got here. Where is HySe?”

“We are slowing down for star system navigation. ETA at Asha is about fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, that's great timing. I'll let you get back to your navigation. Don't run into any asteroids. See you soon.” Tyhry broke the communications link to HySe. Just that brief glimpse of the Ary clone had Tyhry's heart fluttering. With her femtozoan back inside her, Tyhry was now responding differently to Ary.

The orange sun of Asha moved another degree toward the horizon, and its light on the indigenous plant life made the world look, for just a moment, like something out of a dream vision — strange and unmistakably alien and exactly as it had always been meant to be when Manny had selected this world for her telepathy experiments.

___End Chapter 4__

I used Grok to make some short video clips depicting Lori Aurante at Casanay (see below).

Image by Leonardo.

Figure 2. Grok-generated image.

For the Grok-generated video clips that are show above, I started  by uploading to Grok the WOMBO Dream-generated image that is shown at the top of this blog post as Figure 1. Grok is able to edit images. Using the Leonardo-generated image that is shown to the left, I asked Grok to change the color of her dress to blue (see the resulting Grok-generated image that is shown in Figure 2). Grok refused generate a video for the image shown in Figure 2.

Grok-generated video frame.

For someone like me who has free access to Grok, I can get about 50 Grok-generated short videos in one session. Among all of the video clips generated from Figure 1, there was one in which she stuck out her tongue for no apparent reason (see the image to the left).

Grok-generated video frame.

As shown to the right, there was another video clip in which she showed a lot of tongue just before she started speaking. For most of these clips, I had her speaking lines of dialogue from Chapter 4.

Grok-generated video frame.

 Bad physics. A common problem for Grok-generated videos is having feet and hands pass through other objects. One of the physics problems that Grok had with Lori occurred after she played with her hair. Some of her hair appeared to break off and start falling. 

Grok-generated video frame.

The image shown to the right shows that lost lock of hair after it has detached and fallen a short distance towards the floor. That lock of hair appears to fall about six inches just before the end of the video clip.

In addition to sometimes asking Grok to show her touching her hair, for some of the video clips I specified that she neaten the hem of her skirt.

Next: 

Images generated by Leonardo and Grok. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers