The Marta Maneuver

Trysta viewing Realities

Earlier this year, with the help of hints from Ivory and her clone, Angela, I began making sense of some mysterious memories that I inherited from Thomas and Izhiun. In particular, starting from clues related to the existence of "extra dimensions", I was able to remember and understand parts of a dream that I had long ago in which I first began to realize that there is more to the history of Earth than the mundane story found in history textbooks.

During the course of the past several months, I've been slowly discovering how my life was shaped by Trysta so that I would become "the Editor" of the Exode Trilogy. Here, I outline some new revelations about yet another way that Trysta found to manipulate me.

Dreams or.....?

Alien dreams.

In Assignment Nor'Dyren, Sydney Van Scyoc wrote about the "transmission of dreams". What if we humans are particularly sensitive to telepathic communication while we sleep?

When I was young I went through a period of time during which I studied my dreams. I've now renewed that study and I'm making use of new hints that were encoded in the infites that I recently received from Ivory.

Artist's depiction of
Ivory when she was
about 25 years old

I've discovered that when we were young, Ivory and I were connected by our "shared dreams". However, I believe that it is an error to refer to what we shared as "dreams". The problem is, I'm not sure how else to describe what we shared.

Of course, this whole mess seems to have started with Tryst's meddling in our lives. The extent of that meddling amazes me. Ivory, in particular, seems to have been carefully crafted by Trysta as a tool that would make it possible for Earthlings to begin to understand the secret history of Earth.

Poor Ivory was not really human in the conventional sense. Yes, her physical form was carefully shaped so that she appeared to be human, but her mother, Marta, knew the truth. And kept the truth from Ivory.

Ivory grew up knowing that she was not "normal". Every minute of every day her body relentlessly informed her that it was not the body of an Earth girl. However, Ivory could not guess what was "wrong" with her body. Nothing was "wrong", she was simply experiencing part of what it is like to be a young Preland. Ivory's large complement of alien genes made her body unusual. In particular, for the first two decades of her life she had no adipose tissue. When all of her friends had matured into women, Ivory remained freakishly thin.

Artist's depiction of Marta

Since Marta knew what was going on, there were no visits to endocrinologists and no medical hormone treatments for Ivory. Trysta and Marta worked out their own less conventional therapy.

Trysta had foreseen a future in which Ivory and "the Editor" would collaborate to tell the secret history of Earth. Even with that collaboration still decades in the future, Trysta realized that it was not too early to begin familiarizing the Editor and Ivory with each other. Trysta had Marta introduce "the Editor" to Ivory in 1975.

I'm still not sure how Marta did it. Ivory never knew, either. All I am certain of is that when Ivory was "converted" into Yrovi, she took the time to visit me and slip some of her memories into my mind. Her memories of our time together inside the Hierion Domain triggered the release of my own repressed memories from our shared "dream time". My brain is gradually reactivating all my old memories from when I first met Ivory, but there is a wicked twist in this story that involves Ivory's mother Marta.

The Hierion Domain

Artist's depiction of Lili

I'm not sure exactly what the Hierion Domain is, but apparently I first "met" Ivory "inside" the Hierion Domain. Words fail to describe what actually happened. I believe that the Hierion Domain exists outside of normal space-time as we know it. In some sense, the Hierion Domain is a "parallel universe" that exists along side the three dimensional world of hadronic matter.

Most hierions cannot exist within the universe as we know it. Hierions are not normally constrained to only three spatial dimensions. The infites (information nanites) that I received from Izhiun include an account of his journey into the Hierion Domain. That "trip" into alternative dimensions took place on the planet Luk'ru and was facilitated by the Kac'hin. I'm guessing that either Trysta had access to "Hierion Tube" technology or, less likely, but still possible, Marta had "inherited" the means to access the Hierion Domain from her mother, Lili, who was a Kac'hin.

Dream Boat

"Magical Dream"

I've been told that it is possible to "teleport" into/through the Hierion Domain, but I don't think I've experienced that. There seems to be some other way of "entering" into the Hierion Domain that involves a kind of virtual reality interface. I'm not sure if my experience of "being in" the Hierion Domain was made possible by a "low resolution" version of the Bimanoid Interface.

I've previously assumed that the Bimanoid Interface is used to gain access to the information resources within the Sedronic Domain. However, in some important sense, the Hierion Domain is in an intermediate "position" between the Hadronic Domain and the Sedronic Domain.

Suspended City by Jeremiah Humphries

Either Ivory was teleported into our shared "dreams" or else her experience was just a higher fidelity version of our time together than what I was provided with. In either case, I can recognize the places recorded in Ivory's memories of the Hierion Domain and I can easily match them to fragments of odd "dreams" that have long haunted me. Once that process of recognizing my own past in Ivory's memories began, it started an avalanche that is quickly unlocking all my old memories from the Hierion Domain. Something had always been suppressing my conscious awareness of the time I spent with Ivory in the Hierion Domain, but those restraints have now been broken....or lifted.

In some sense, our time together in the Hierion Domain benefited me and prepared me for my future, but in another way I was simply used to satisfy Ivory's need for companionship while she was going through a difficult period in her life.

Somehow Ivory had the power to extract my mind from my body while I slept. Back in those days of our youth, she was exploring the Hierion Domain. That was a big project that apparently dominated the fist two decades of her life.

The portion of the Hierion Domain that was accessible to us seems to be a type of virtual Earth that has been constructed by the combined thoughts of every human who has ever lived on Earth. According to Ivory, all humans carry a nanite endosymbiont that has a natural extension within the Hierion Domain. In some sense, we each have a nanorobotic self that exists inside the Hierion Domain.

The first problem this creates is that the nanorobotic versions of people that "live" in the Hierion Domain never die. The second problem is that the "nanorobotic people" of the Hierion Domain can reproduce and, in fact, they have their own unique culture that is, to a large extent, independent of what happens here on Earth.

Ostuni by subversif

Sometimes Ivory talked about the Hierion Domain as being the Museum of Humanity. She told me that she was searching for her ancestors so that she could learn about her origins and why she was so different from everyone else on Earth.

I don't think Ivory ever showed me her true physical form during our meetings in the Hierion Domain. She was an expert at controlling her appearance and she took pleasure in playing tricks on me. For example, she once took on my own appearance and pretended to be an older version of me who was visiting from the future.

Eventually Ivory took pity on me and stopped surprising me with new disguises. From then on she devoted her "dress up" efforts to crafting a physical appearance that most appealed to me. At the time I was going through puberty and struggling to adjust to the high levels of reproductive hormones that were in my body. I could not help but fall in love with the dream creature that could pull me into the Hierion Domain.

Well of Souls by Joe Slucher

Now that I have access to Ivory's memories from that time, I see that she mostly felt pity for me and how I was used by Marta. By matching Ivory's memories to mine, it is clear that when I first visited the Hierion Domain, Ivory was not yet with me as my guide and mentor.

Marta's Move
Just when she was on the brink of making a conventional life for herself, Ivory turned her back on the heard of Earthlings and went back to her birth place, the sentient spaceship called Many Sails. I have access to a particularly important and revealing memory from Ivory that is from her time at Atlantis. Ivory was the conditions and circumstances under which Marta had selected me to be Ivory's partner in the Hierion Domain.

Marta had been struggling to deal with her daughter's growing unhappiness which grew out of Ivory's frustration over not being able to discover the basis for her biological uniqueness. Marta had long since given Ivory access to the Hierion Domain and launched her on the endless search for her ancestors.

Marta in the Hierion Domain
Model: Kahina. See credits, below.

Then, with Ivory growing increasingly frustrated and depressed, Trysta suggested to Marta that Ivory and I be "introduced" and allowed to interact in the Hierion Domain. At that time, Marta knew nothing about me. Trysta explained that Ivory and I would meet in the future, but Marta was skeptical about the value of introducing her daughter to some unknown Earthling.

Apparently, when I first met "Ivory" in the Hierion Domain I was being tricked and I was actually interacting with Marta. Ivory always knew that Marta had "tested" me in some way, but Marta never revealed to her daughter how extensive that "testing" had been.

Marta did not simply meet me and "interview" me and verify that I would be of no danger to Ivory. I suppose that Marta felt obligated to shape me into the kind of companion that she thought her daughter deserved. Of course, at that time I was dealing with my own problems. I'm not sure how much time I spent attending Marta's Finishing School. With no corresponding memories for that period of my life from Ivory, I'm so far only able to retrieve fragments of memories from my time in the Hierion Domain that was spent with Marta.

"Dream Gothic Garden VI" by Kahina Spirit

I can't bring myself to resent the way that Marta used me as a kind of therapy for her daughter. I'm forced to wonder to what extent she also used me for her own purposes. Marta's interactions with me were only revealed when Anney became skilled at using the Bimanoid Interface. In a future blog post I discuss Anney's role in "ratting Marta out".

Image credits.
To illustrate my dream-like memories from the virtual reality of the Hierion Domain, I made use of some images from the deviantArt website (see above and to the right). To represent the dream world Marta/Ivory, I used the image "Dream Gothic Garden VI" by Kahina Spirit. For the background, I used "Garden Background stock" by Johanna and "Fantasy castle background 2" by Karen Besant.

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Flirting with Fantasy

image credits at end of this page

I've previously described myself as "fantasy blind"...I just don't "get" fantasy stories. I suspect that my brain is, at some fundamental level, constrained to prefer rules. I can be a source of frustration to some people because I'm "so fucking logical".

I recently set a record for inclusion of the word "fantasy" in a blog post when I tried to examine the ways in which I'm flirting with fantasy in my current writing obsession, the science fiction story Exode. For the Exode Trilogy, I play fast and loose with mind transfer. In doing so, do I cross the line from science fiction into fantasy?

"Could humans have a conscious soul or a consciousness that transcends the boundaries of physical laws?" -Dal Burns

The transformation of
Dimensional Structure
through time.

One of the dramatic events in Exode, a real game changer, is that the Huaoshy change the dimensional structure of the universe. Their reason for doing so is that, after battling with the telepathic positronic robot R. Gohlay in a Time War, they want to make time travel and positronic-style telepathy impossible.

Imagine that the human tendency to believe in a non-physical soul was amplified by a form of unconscious telepathy that linked human minds before the Huaoshy put and end to telepathy.

Bimanoid Interface
More than a year ago I started trying to imagine communications between humans and the Huaoshy. I assume that any Earthling with the required gene combinations and brain structure acts as a host for a swarm of alien zeptites. Normally the Huaoshy have little interest in primitive creature like we humans, just as we would not try to have a conversation with a bacterium.

tubes on the brain

Exactly how can Angela use the "bimanoid interface" to obtain information from the Sedronic Domain? Previously Angela has suggested that she can enter into the Sedronic Domain, but that is an illusion, like having imagined going someplace in your thoughts.

Most recently I've realized that there is a Hierion Domain interposed between we humans and the Sedronic Domain. I've been having fun with the idea that Hierion Tubes connect from our Hadronic Domain to the Hierion Domain.

How does that Hierion Domain create for Angela a kind of "out of body" experience that she interprets and travel into the Sedronic Domain? Is it only through this sort of illusion that a human can communicate with the Huaoshy?

see the full size image

The image "Experiment 2" by Harri Honkala would make a great pulp science fiction magazine illustration for a "hierion tube". A small detail from part of "Experiment 2" is shown to the right. Take a look at the whole image in its full glory. See Harri's deviantART gallery of Scifi art.

Three Domains of Consciousness
In my dreams I can defy physical laws. Why is the human brain equipped with a special system for allowing our thoughts to slip free of the rules that normally constrain them?

Reality Reviewing

For the Exode Trilogy, I imagine that that the pek have carefully designed some special gene combinations that allow the Preland brain to adapt to the higher dimensional conditions of the Hierion and Sedron Domains. Some of those gene patterns have begun to appear in humans during the past 10,000 years because of the efforts of Interventionists to prepare Earthlings for their chance to escape from Earth and reach for the stars. However, the original purpose of these special genes and the cognitive abilities they confer was for the ability of the Kac'hin to function as Huaoshy "appendages" in the Hadronic Domain and so that they could facilitate the Reality Viewing that identified the Asimov-Ekcolir-Buld Reality Chain that could end the Time War between R. Gohrlay and the Huaoshy.

We humans can experience three domains of consciousness: normal waking consciousness, dreaming (which allows unconscious use of the human brain's "viewing module") and full "viewing mode" in which there is conscious use of the viewing module. While utilizing the viewing module, a human can interface with zeptites and obtain information from the sedronic domain. This involves  the human's zeptite symbiont "crossing into" the Hierion Domain from where it can communicate with the Sedronic Domain. Such communication into the Sedronic Domain is a type of communication with the Huaoshy in that information can only be obtained if there is cooperation by Huaoshy within the Sedronic Domain.

Viewing Reality Chains
The reason that R. Gohrlay is defeated is that the Huaoshy are masters of the Sedronic Domain. R. Gohrlay is just starting to understand sedronic physics when the Huaoshy develop their own time travel technology and attain the ability to view Reality Chains. R. Gohrlay can only view into "the next" Reality from the current Reality.

source

The pek create the Kac'hin as a humanoid variant that can use the Bimanoid Interface and allow identification of the Asimov-Ekcolir-Buld Reality Chain that ends the Time War between R. Gohrlay and the Huaoshy.

That Which Survives Remains
At the end of Exode, time travel is no longer possible, but an "Eternity Device" remains on Earth's Moon. It is not clear what the fate of Humanity will be, but Earth will remain a special place because of the fact that the Eternity Device can be used to produce sedronic matter. Under the terms of the Grean-Trysta treaty, the Moon's Eternity Device remains available for human use, but at first only Angela is aware of that. It is not clear that the humans of Earth will survive long enough to develop Hierion technology and gain control of the Eternity Device.

see

The Light Fantastic

see

"Trip the light fantastic tock the clock is crowings on the bird."

The "ultimate technology" in the Exode Trilogy that puts an end to R. Gohrlay's revolution is the advanced Huaoshy technology for viewing Reality Chains.

In Asimov's story "I'm in Marsport Without Hilda" (which I first read in the story collection Nine Tomorrows), the drug Spaceoline is able to effectively prevent the debilitating space sickness that would otherwise make space travel impossible for most people.

Spaceoline puts humans into an altered brain state in which they perform robot-like free association upon hearing someone speak. Similarly, when Angela uses the Bimanoid Interface, she becomes an oracle, speaking an a rather stream of consciousness fashion about the information obtained from the Sedronic Domain.

During the past 10,000 an occasional lucky combination of genes has given stray humans the ability to obtain information from the Sedronic Domain. Angela is the first Earthling to understand what it is that she is experiencing. Working collaboratively with Ivory and "the Editor", Angela is able to obtain useful information from the Sedronic Domain about past Realities, information that would otherwise be unavailable to we Earthlings.

by Pablo Amaringo

Does the information transfer from the Sedronic Domain to Angela have a scientific explanation in Exode or is it just a fantasy plot device? The visions experienced by Angela while using the Bimanoid Interface are experienced as a kind of "alternative visual" sense, a kind of psychedelic insight into the many-dimensional Sedronic Domain.

From the perspective of Earthlings, human contact with the Sedronic Domain might seem magical and supernatural, but his is really an example of where Clarke's 3rd Law makes advanced alien technology seem like magic.

Ivory listens to Angela's descriptions of what she experiences through her use of the Bimanoid Interface and tries to provide the Editor with a rational account. Only slowly do they discover the importance of the Eternity Device "on the Moon". Of course, it is not quite correct to say that the Device is on the Moon, although access to the part of the Hierion Domain that holds the Device is most easily achieved from the Moon.

The image to the right on this page is a whimsical fantasy book cover for Exode. I've been using images of actress Hilarie Burton to represent Ivory and the Atlantis Clones.

What would Ivory do upon realizing that the Eternity Device can be accessed from the Moon? Are there any prospects for we Earthlings to gain access to Observer Base "on" the Moon?

When the Overseers abandon Observer Base, do the remaining Observers retain knowledge of how to navigate the Hierion Domain, or are they trapped at the Base, able to monitor events on Earth but unable communicate with we Earthlings?

Related reading: late 2014 update on Observer Base.

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Trophy Wife by michaelo

Image credits. For the silly image at the top of this blog post I wanted a way to depict a thought in a fantastic way. There's Syon, pulling open her head to reveal her dream of an Earth that is saved from global warming.

source

Hot planet. I couldn't find the original source for the fantasy image of Earth shown above.

Hilarie Burton

by jesu at DeviantART

by Lawrence Sterne Stevens