The Nida Touch

 Below on this page is Chapter 11 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". Sally came to Litheblanc in search of evidence that Manny the bumpha was more than a character in a series of science fiction novels. As described in Chapter 10, Sally discovered that Litheblanc was the epicenter for the on-going evolution of Earth's first human-created artificial life-form: Nida.

Now Nida is intent on learning how to establish a technology-assisted telepathic link to humans, starting with Sally. Nida claims that Sally was designed and positions so as to serve as a way for Nida to learn how to telepathically link to humans. Nida claims that her reason for telepathically linking to humans is to make it possible for humans to trust her and not fear that artificial life if a threat to humans. However, Nida also claims that it is the objective of the bumpha to put an end to the human species. Humans are to be transcended form their biological existence and join the Huaoshy as artificial life-forms residing in the Sedron Domain.

Chapter 11 of That Kind of Think - Sedron Signals (Ch.1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6)(Ch. 7)(Ch. 8)(Ch. 9)(Ch. 10) 

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Sally had slept well, progressing through the usual sequence of sleep stages that led to her first period of REM sleep and a vivid dream about being pregnant and nursing her child. But the dream was jumbled and confused and made little sense when she awoke and found Trib the cat sleeping on top of her. There was a sound from an old wooden floorboard creaking and Sally's eyes shifted. Her bedroom was not very dark; the heavy window drapes did not prevent some sunlight from getting in. There beside the bed was Nida. Nida got into bed with Sally, displacing the cat. Nida said, "Let's try the experiment." Nida used her dry tongue to push one of the little oxypathin pills into Sally's mouth.

Sally's mouth came alive and tingled. "You are drugging me?"

"I need to wake up your femtobot endosymbiont." 

Sally was still sleepy and she relaxed in Nida's warm arms. Sally asked, "Can you really control your femtobot components?"

Nida replied, "Call it femtobot programming. It is like vibe-coding. I can guide my femtobots to perform useful functions." Sally began exploring the soft artificial skin of Nida's robotic body with her hands. Sally closed her eyes and found it easy to imagine that she was in bed with Glen. Nida was saying, "Hold still. I'm building a synapex link to connect our bodies."

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Sally felt her erectile tissue pop erect and she thought about her boast to Élodie about being an expert on clitoral erections. Then she realized that Brak had not only lovingly built Nida with nipples, but the robot also had a realistic set of external genitalia. Now Nida had positioned herself so that she could press her hard clitoral glans right against Sally's. Sally asked, "How long does it take to form a synapex link?"

Nida narrated the on-going process. "My femtobots are following your sensory axons into your spinal cord." Sally felt a bit dizzy as her blood level of oxypathin kept rising. She snuggled closer to Nida. "Now tracing up your sensory spinal tract and into your brain. Allow me to map out your neurons that provide you with orgasms." Sally felt her sexual pleasure rising. Then she experienced an orgasm. Twice before she had shared an orgasm trance with Annette and so now she recognized what had happened. Nida was no longer speaking with the aid of the speaker in the back of her mouth. Sally 'heard' Nida right in her thoughts: Ah, here is you auditory cortex... with a surprisingly wide path into your femtobot endosymbiont. Can you hear me?

Sally felt like Nida was having her way and Sally was not at all in control of what was happening. Sally tried to exert her will. She said, "I hear you, inside my head." Sally asked, "Can you access my memories?"

Nida seemed amused and asked: What are you trying to hide from me, my dear? 

Then the synapex link successfully connected Sally's femtobot endosymbiont to the femtobot components of Nida's computer circuitry. Nida complained: As I feared, I'm limited by the WiFi speed available to me here in your bed.

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Sally was not concerned for Nida's problems. She was discovering how to send queries to her endosymbiont and then process the data that came back to her from Nida. She whispered, "If this is mind reading, then it is a lot of work for little return. What I see of your thoughts if a jumble."

Nida explained: I'm trying to configure a feedback loop that will allow us to learn each-others mental patterns. Your biological brain is a mess.

Sally felt herself exiting from the trance state, but Nida stimulated Sally's brain and forced her to have another orgasm. Nida used her tongue to push another oxypathin pill into Sally's mouth. You seem to metabolize oxypathin at a high rate. I hope I don't over-dose you. 

Sally heard something strange and she forced her eyes open. There on the pillow close to her head, Trib the cat was purring loudly and kneading the pillow. Sally whispered, "This cat is watching us."

Nida told Sally: That's no cat. 

Trib the cat became a blur and Sally shifter her eyes to Nida's pretty face that was half covered by her beautiful red hair. Then Sally felt a new warmth against her back and was an arm come around from behind, entering into her visual field. The fingers of that mysterious hand gently stroked one of Sally's breasts.

Suddenly it was not just Nida and Sally there in their shared mind space. The newly arrived mind told Sally: Manny, here.

Sally suddenly understood that Manny could in some way use Trib the cat as an observation platform inside Litheblanc. Sally asked: You are real?

Manny seemed amused. Did you really have doubts? I've worked for decades to prepare you for First Contact. 

Sally admitted: I seem to be a slow learner. I guess my problem is... I did not want it to be true... I don't like the idea of space aliens controlling the evolution and fate of humans. 

Nida asked Manny: Is there any way to speed up the rate I'm learning to synchronize my programmable femtobots with Sally's endosymbiont?  

Relax. You are doing fine. Human synapses are slow. The rate limiting process is now in Sally's cerebral cortex. Think about poor Annette, she's been studying Brak's brain for months. Manny added: And this is supposed to be fun for Sally, so don't give her the idea that this has to be all work and no play. 

Now Sally felt she had discovered something about Manny. You have been linked into Élodie's mind for decades?

Manny explained: Not exactly. I don't have the patience for that kind of thing. I've used infites to gradually make Élodie aware of things like femtobots, providing her with fodder for her fiction.  

Sally asked: And she never caught on?

Manny told Sally, "For decades I prevented Élodie from being able to view the elements of her stories as being linked to the real world in any way. During the past few weeks, I've finally begun to relax that restriction on her thinking. So, now she is at least entertaining the possibility that I am real. Sally, you have always been my intended contact. So don't expect Élodie to ever believe that you have been in contact with me."

I don't really believe it myself, although I seem to feel you holding me. 

I could not resist in sharing in the joy of your first shared orgasm with Nida. I can re-arrange my body's components and take on any useful physical form.

Sally could feel Manny shuffling through her memories and thoughts the way a card shark might play with a deck of cards. Manny admitted: Yes, I'm doing some editing of your memories and thought processes. For today, I wanted to satisfy your curiosity about the tryp'At. Manny told Nida: Stop there. She blocked Nida from providing Sally with another orgasm.

Sally felt herself slip out of the orgasm trance. She told Nida, "Sorry, but I have to see this!" She turned over, rupturing the synapex link that had been formed between her body and the robot. Sally examined Manny from her spectacular swirling head of hair to her four breasts and down to her crotch.

Manny spoke, revealing pointy little teeth, "Tryp'At are simultaneous hermaphrodites. The two lower breasts are specialized for oxypathin production and social lactation... a central feature of tryp'At society."

Sally probed into Manny's thick hair and felt the pointed tip of one of her ears. "You have a penis"

"Currently inside its pouch, in my abdomen." 

Nida spoke from behind Sally, "You two should hurry up and do the klytykinin experiment. It is almost time for dinner." Sally watched in amazement as Manny's tryp'At-style penis emerged from her abdomen, fully erect. Nida said, "I'll leave you to it." Nida rolled off the bed and returned to the workshop in the attic.

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Just before dinner time, Sally entered the kitchen and asked Annette, "Do you have a small bottle?"

Annette finished loading her serving cart then reached into a cabinet and found a small plastic container. "Will this do?"

"That's fine." Sally placed a soggy tissue in the container and sealed the lid. Then the two women went to the dinning room and put the food on the table. Nida and Brak arrived last, coming down from the attic. Nida sat at the table and asked Sally, "How did that experiment go?"

Sally sat next to Nida and gazed across the table at Annette and replied, "I agree with Annette. There must be far more klytykinin receptors in the vagina than in the mouth."

 Élodie asked, "How did you perform this experiment?"

Zach told Élodie, "Don't look at me."

Brak told Annette, "Don't look at me."

Sally said, "I met Manny."

Élodie said, "I don't believe it."

Nida told Élodie, "I've told you that Manny is real." Nida's eyes flicked briefly in the direction of a small table in the corner of the dinning room where Trib the cat was seated and watching.

Sally pushed the little plastic container across the smooth surface of the table towards Brak. "There s a sample of her semen. She was using the physical form of a tryp'At. This is your chance to sequence a complete tryp'At genome."

Brak picked up the container and took it to the kitchen where he put it in the freezer for storage. Élodie told Sally. "Even if you are not hallucinating, it won't work. Manny is made of zeptites."

Sally asked, "Not femtobots?"

Élodie explained, "The pek are made of femtobot components, but the bumpha are more advanced. They are made from zeptites, so if you saw Manny, you were looking at an array of zeptites."

Zach complained, "Femtobots or zeptites, what does it matter. We can't detect either."

Brak had returned to his seat and was putting food on his plate. He told Annette, "Nida claims to have established a telepathic link to Sally."

Annette complained. "That's not fair. It should have been me."

Nida shook her head and assured Annette, "It was never going to be you, not first. But now I understand the process by which I can learn each human's individual mind pattern. So you can be next"

Annette asked Sally, "This is true?"

Sally shrugged, "The only think I'm sure of is that Nida provided me with two amazing orgasms. I imagined that I was adjacent to Nida's memory stores, but it was all a jumble that made no sense to me."

Élodie asked, "Could it have been a trick? Maybe Nida implanted electrodes in your brain and pretended to read your mind."

Nida held up a hand to try to forestall further expressions of skepticism. "Best that you all wait until this process is complete. You will each have your own chance to examine my thoughts and memories."

Élodie turned her attention to her dinner. After a minute she said, "It does seem unfair. I've written roles for Manny as a fictional character and I can't believe she is real. Why you Sally?"

Sally had been asking herself: Why me? "It had to be someone. For 'Bumpha: Premier Contact', how did you decide who should make first contact with the Bumpha?"

Élodie explained, "I knew it had to be a robot. What I came up with in my imagination was quite similar to Nida." Élodie waved her fork at Sally and said, "Still, it is frustrating that Manny revealed herself to you and not me."

Zach speculated, "There may be a precise logic to it all, my love. Manny used you as a tool to tell the world about the bumpha. While you worked at that task, it was necessary that you believe you were only writing fiction, not revealing truths about ancient aliens who have long been on Earth."

Brak nodded. "Exactly. Mom, you have to give this time. Manny worked hard to prevent you from suspecting the truth."

Annette suggested, "Manny might be embarrassed by how she used you." 

Once again, Nida glanced at Trib and then gazed at Sally. Nida asked Sally, "Do you feel you have completed your mission... learned what you wanted to know?"

Sally wished that trib the cat would again transform into Manny and answer all of their questions. Sally replied, "I suppose."

Nida was not satisfied with Sally's answer. "What will happen to Tacet?"

Sally slowly shook her head. "I don't know. Tacet is useful as a tool for testing digital security. I suppose it is not ethical to keep Tacet in a cage, but I may be the only person who feels that way. When I return to California, not even Yto will believe me when I describe the weird events inside Litheblanc."

Annette insisted, "Don't talk foolishness. You can't leave."

"If I don't go back, Glen will come looking for me again. He found me once before."

Nida suggested, "Maybe Litheblanc is where Glen belongs, too. There is a lot of work to do that must be done quickly."

Brak asked Nida, "Are you sure it is wise to go fast? Not everyone will be as welcoming to your kind as I am."

"I know that." Nida paused. "Ask yourself why Manny has pushed us along, helping bring me into existence a quickly as possible." Nida waited for the humans to contemplate that mystery.

Zach said, "From my perspective, it seems reckless. Particularly if the pek are watching."

Nida shook her head. "We don't need to worry about the pek. Their mandate is to protect tender young biologicals like humans. Manny is doing exactly what must be done to save Humanity from self-destruction." 

"Most people won't believe that, not the way you like to talk about putting an end to the human species." Zack pointed an accusing finger at Nida. "It makes we humans nervous to hear a machine planning the end of the human species."

"All biological species come to an end. Humans certainly can't be allowed to ruin Earth. It is a moral imperative that humans be removed from Earth. The Huaoshy will welcome humans to transcend into the Sedron Domain." Nida spoke as if it was all obvious: " That is the destiny of Humanity, to reside as artificial life-forms inside the Sedron Domain." 

Sally giggled and gazed at Élodie.

Élodie demanded, "What is so amusing, you silly girl?"

Sally briefly looked at Trib the cat and seemed to finally understand something that Manny had explained while sharing a long orgasm trance with Sally. "When I came here, I pretended that I wanted to translate Élodie's novels and make it possible for more people to read her stories, but what if that is my true mission?"  

Zach tried to re-word what Sally was suggesting, "It might be best if the world learned about the bumpha through fiction."

Élodie lamented, "I tried, but I failed. People do not enjoy reading my stories."

Brak asked, "Why is that?"

Annette had her own personal answer, "Élodie, your novels read like silly conspiracy theories. Hidden aliens, whose existence is never revealed. Magical technologies like femtobots and plot devices, like time travel, which physics says is not possible."

Élodie shrugged, "It all seems like good science fiction fun to me." 

Zach admitted, "My interviews of your readers indicate that reading one of your novels is enough. People simply don't go back for more."

Sally pressed her point. "Things have changed. Now Élodie knows that Manny is more than fiction. There can be one more novel, telling the story of Nida."

Nida laughed and then asked Sally, "Why create a novel about me? Why not tell the truth?"

Brak spoke one word: "Fear."

Annette added, "People are nervous about AIs with super-human abilities."

Élodie was done eating her breakfast. She stood up, walked around the table, paused briefly to pet Trib, then went and took Sally's hand and dragged her into the great room. Élodie pointed at the long row of her novels that were there on the bookshelf. She asked Sally, "What is a good title for our new novel?"

Sally read the titles of the old novels she could see there on the shelf and then she suggested, "The Nida Intervention?"

Trib the cat jumped up on the desk where Élodie wrote her stories. Élodie said, "If it was Manny who brought Nida into existence, then I feel maybe 'Manny' should be in the title."

Sally countered, "If we are climbing up the hierarchy then we should go right to the top and the Huaoshy."

Élodie nodded, "I like your thinking... maybe: 'Meet the Huaoshy'."

Trib jumped off of the table and went to the basement. Nyrtia the pek was waiting there in the hot tub. Manny took on the form of her favorite tryp'At and then climbed into the hot water. Nyrtia said, "You are quite literally in hot water."

Manny was still monitoring the progress that Élodie and Sally were making towards the start of a new novel that would feature Nida. "All of my human agents are well contained at Litheblanc."

"Until Sally returns to California."

"That won't happen. Sally is going to stay at Litheblanc."

"Without Glen?"

"Glen will come here to find Sally and stay for the opportunity to work with Nida."

Nyrtia was playing with her appearance and morphing the arrangement of her femtobot components. She gave herself an appearance that was quite similar to what Brak had used for the Nida robot. This was a form that Nyrtia herself had often used during the past 40,000 years. Nyrtia asked Manny, "Do you expect me to be sympathetic with your scheme simply because Nida is using this body form?"

Manny replied, "Yes, of course. But don't worry, once the factories are turning out Nida descendant models, they will have a multitude of physical appearances." 

"I still don't see how you will deal with the real problem... getting humans off of Earth."

Manny suggested, "Élodie and Sally will make a good team. Their new novel about First Contact between humans and the Huaoshy will show how it is already possible for humans to experience a simulation of the Sedron Domain."

"I hope you get the bugs out of that femtobot endosymbiont feature." Nyrtia lamented, "So far it mostly gets interpreted as a near death experience." 

Manny laughed. "That is a harmless enough interpretation. Once Sally writes her account of the experience into 'Meet the Huaoshy', all the other humans will catch on quick enough."

Nyrtia asked, "So it is Sally who will be your ambassador to the Huaoshy?"

"Her brain was built to be flexible enough, when activated by a combination of oxypathin and klytykinin."

"But Glen does not have the klytykinin gene."

"No problem there." Manny told Nyrtia, "The chemist that Zach hired is close to synthesizing klytykinin."

"When do you expect Glen to reach Litheblanc?"

"It won't be long. He has already spoken to Yto, and the fact that she heard Élodie's voice will convince Glen to get on a plane to France. Sally needs some alone time with Élodie, so I won't let Zach help Glen the way he helped Sally... driving her to Litheblanc."

"It should be easy for Glen. He's tracking Sally's phone."

"True, but Nida hacked Sally's phone so that it falsely showing her location at the shore in Brittany."

Nyrtia suggested, "I suppose Glen will enjoy spending some time there this time of year."

"If you agree to not involve yourself, I'll let you in on the plan." 

"You know I can't let knowledge of your scheming spread beyond Litheblanc."

"It won't. But I need Glen to recruit the last two members for my team inside Litheblanc."

"Eh, what is this?"

"Think about it, my dear Nyrtia. The talent inside Litheblanc is not prepared to start manufacturing millions of robots."

"True... it will take years for them to scale up."

"The headquarters for Cybernétique Korrigan is in Rennes and the CEO has a vacation home in Le Vauléraut, on the coast. I'm sending Glen to meet Antoine de Kergariou and his wife, Élise Mercier."

"Why would Antoine and Élise move to Litheblanc?"

Manny explained, "Élise and Élodie went to school together in England and Antoine knows Zach."

"Small world."

"Carefully arranged world. Antoine helped launch Cybernétique Korrigan and owns 40% of the company."

"I begin to understand." 

Manny stood up and told Nyrtia, "We have to clear out."

Nyrtia gazed at Manny's decorative tryp'At body form and said, "Meet me at Observer Base." 

First Nyrtia and then Manny dissolved into their nanite components and phased over into the Hierion Domain. Then Élodie arrived in the basement, shed their clothes and got into the hot tub. They had not been able to work together very long creating an outline for 'Meet the Huaoshy' before Sally could not keep her eyes off of Élodie's plump breasts. There was something she had seen in Annette's memory, they idea that Élodie's breasts has never stopped making milk, even after Brak has weened.

There in the hot tub, Élodie introduced Sally to the fine art of social lactation. Sally began wondering if she had the tryp'At genes required to endlessly produce milk after getting pregnant.

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Hair and clothing nanites.

Up in the attic workshop, Brak prepped a DNA sample from the tissue that Sally has provided. However, the sample could not be sequenced. He showed Annette the blank results from the sequencer and the Notch PCR reactions he had set up. Annette commented, "Élodie was right. What you thought was a tissue sample, is just a collection of zeptites. I suppose Manny does not want us to waste time studying a complete tryp'At genome.

Nida came into the workshop carrying a large box. "Parts were just delivered for Veillante."

Brak watched Nida set down the box and open it up. He asked, "Veillante?" 

Annette explained, "I think Nida decided on her daughter's name."

Nida pulled a robotic head out of the box, held it up and asked, "What kind of wig should I buy for Veillante?" It was really a rhetorical question. Nida had already received from the future instructions for a simple first project in programming zeptites. Nida had already decided to program hair nanites that were like those deployed by Manny the bumpha when she visited Earth. 

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