Mar 2, 2021

The Hui-chi

Another nanocoid adventure.

Back in 2016, I introduced an alien-human hybrid called the Tre. "The Tre are a strange breed...  part Majar, part Rhune, part something else." That something else are the Hui-chi, a hybrid that has genes from the Iidi, the Fwai-chi and humans. The Fwai-chi, Rhunes, the planet Marune and Alastor star cluster were all creations of Jack Vance. Other residents of Alastor Cluster such as the Iidi (also first mentioned in 2016) and the Tre are my fan-fiction additions to Vance's imagined future.

As told in "Meet the Phari" (below), by making use of special genetic patterns obtained from the Lavany embryo, two telepathic mind clones are made on the planet Marune. One is the daughter of a Rhune, Maerio, the other is the grandchild of a Hui-chi hermaphrodite named Tuttuhr. Tuttuhr the Hui-chi is introduced to readers in Chapter 1 of "Meet the Phari", below on this page, but first I have some introductory comments about the setting of the story.

"Meet the Phari" introduction comic
The Hui-chi have yellow skin and long pointy ears and typically have some degree of telepathic powers. They are part of an on-going effort (see "The Alastor Network") to find special alien gene combinations and patterns that when placed into humans will result in great telepathic abilities and allow for development of a stable human society of telepaths.

"Meet the Phari" includes some of the characters who were introduced in The Alastor Network. However. "Meet the Phari introduces many new characters, starting with Tuttuhr, who along with the rest of the Hui-chi have been living in secret underground cities of Marune, but the Hui-chi will soon come out into the open. You can look at a video teaser or an introductory comic strip before starting to read the story (the first chapter is below, on this page).
 
Rob-B (left). This image was made by using
Zoey02, FynnAndHer and CyberGirl01 by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
The Phari were the first human-like species to arise in our galaxy, but they have long ago transcended into the Hierion Domain where they now exist as artificial lifeforms. In the Asimov Reality, the Phari constructed Alastor Cluster, a kind of archive for all the human-like species that evolved in our galaxy during the past two billion years. Now that human mind clones exist, it is becoming possible, for the first time, for humans to make use of the Bimanoid Interface and initiate meaningful communication with the Phari.

Some of the characters in "Meet the Phari" are robots (such as Rob-B, shown in the image to the right), some are other forms of artificial life such as replicoids and some are biological organisms.

Image credits: "Snowy landscape"
by Aled Jones and "Fi in Mountains"
by Henry1850 (CC BY-NC 3.0).

Other human-alien hybrids in addition to the Hui-chi appear as characters in "Meet the Phari". One such hybrid with powerful telepathic abilities and a special ability to look into the future was created by mixing together genes obtained from several sources: the Pheni, the Phasi, the Prelands and the Phet. This type of hybrid creature is called the Phyphy, pronounced "fifi".

The Phasi are an ancient form of artificial life from Kwenslo, a type of devolved Pharazen with oracular telepathic ability to see the future. The Phasi were designed so as to make use of nanoscopic replicoids called nanocoids, which allow them access to information within the Sedronic Domain. That information can be from both the far past and the far future (see Chapter 11). Now, as told in "Meet the Phari", Grean the Kac'hin is experimenting with nanocoids inside human hosts.

Delpha and Grean in the Asimov Reality
Grean grew up with her selfie, Delpha.
  Grean is a biological organism, a Kac'hin, although her selfie, Delpha, often visits humans and pretends to be Grean. During the long process during which R. Gohrlay and R. Nyrtia worked to develop human telepathy in the future of the Asimov Reality, about every 300 years a new "copy" of Grean ("New Grean") was made as a teleportation duplicate by Delpha. Grean's old memories were transferred to the younger copy of Grean in the form of infites
 
At the time described in Jack Vance's Alastor Cluster novels, Grean undergoes one such periodic renewal of her biological body. Grean and Delpha have previously become friends with Tuttuhr the Hui-chi and a Phyphy called Raundellysh. At the beginning of part 1 of "Meet the Phari" (below), Tuttuhr and Rau are planning New Grean's birthday clusterday party.
Wraparound cover for Meet the Phari (a scene from Chapter 12). This image made with Elena17
   by Eclesi4stiK which is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.


Raundellysh. This image made with Lyari1 by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.

Meet the Phari ؄

Part 1. A Tuttuhr Tale

Having been invited to the clusterday party as a last-minute replacement guest, Tuttuhr was trying to come up with a great gift for Grean. Her friend Raundellysh asked, "What, my gift idea is not good enough for you?"

Tuttuhr had been making use of the unique telepathic abilities of the Fwai-chi to examine how Rau's gift would impact the planet Marune. Tuttuhr scolded Rau, "I suspect you have overlooked some fine details, such as the importance of human twins... their power!"

Twinning was not part of Phyphy physiology and Rau conceded the point. "What do you mean by 'power'? Glinnes and Glay Hulden are twins... that is not good enough for you?"

blastipositor
"No. Only Glinnes gets a nanocoid?" Tuttuhr complained, "That makes no sense, and I don't know how you can begin to explain away that absurdity."

Rau had recently become something of an embryo implantation maven and patiently explained, "It is a high-tech trick. Delpha has been encouraging Old Grean to begin using blastipositors in creative ways. If you are careful and take your time, precision nanocoid transfer is possible, even in humans who have two ovaries attached to just one uterus. Glinnes and Glay will gestate together in the same uterus for 9 months, but Glay will not be effected by the nanocoid that gets implanted inside Glinnes."

Just like Grean, Tuttuhr and Rau were both hermaphrodites with two uteri, each attached to its own vagina and its own ovary. Tuttuhr said, "Eww! Humans are so disgusting." For a moment she contemplated with horror the idea of two fraternal twins, one male and one female, both gestating inside a single uterus, but then she suddenly saw that there actually was a pair of twins on Marune that were an integral part of Rau's gift to Grean. With that realization, Tuttuhr understood what the Fwai-chi were trying to show her and she also knew that this sly twist of the planned future would serve perfectly as a special addition to the clusterday gift for Grean. Tut burst out laughing and told Rau, "I have it! Okay, now we can go to the workshop." 

Replicoid Games
"The Arrival"
Tuttuhr and Rau were on separate planets located on opposite sides of Alastor Cluster. They were using the Phari Network so that they could chat about the party for Grean. Now they both activated the Bimanoid Interface transfer sequence that Delpha had taught them to use whenever they needed to move into their special replicoid bodies inside the Hierion Domain. While helping Delpha with missions and assignments on various worlds of the Cluster, it was convenient for operatives like Tut and Rau to make use of artificial bodies that were in many ways superior to the bodies of mere biological creatures. Tuttuhr and Rau both arrived at Grean's clusterday party within microseconds of each other, ready to celebrate the creation of a new copy of Grean in Alastor Cluster. So perfect were their replicoids that neither Tuttuhr or Rau ever noticed any changes when they were no longer in their biological bodies.

Delpha welcomed Tut and Rau to her workshop and then, seeing a mischievous glint in Tuttuhr's eye, she said, "What trouble are you two brewing up today?" Delpha was once again frustrated by Tuttuhr's ability to hide many of her thought processes from Delpha's telepathic inspection.

Rau pointed an accusing finger at Tuttuhr and said, "She's making some last minute change to the parents of our proposed nanocoid targets on Marune." Upon arriving in the workshop, Rau had quickly begun to sweat since Delpha had elevated the temperature inside the workshop in advance of anticipated naked sex play during Grean's party. Rau kicked off her knee-high boots and pushed them under the nearby teleportation platform.
 
With the approach of Grean's clusterday party, Delpha had originally suggested to Rau that she help make plans for how to assemble a specific 7-part nanocoid module with the help of New Grean during her party. Now, Delpha sighed and requested, "Please don't overly complicate this, Tut. Seven nanocoids is already enough to juggle. We want to entertain Grean today, not make her head spin." 
 
To avoid temporal paradoxes, Delpha had not even tried to explain to Rau how the lives of these seven nanocoid-directed residents of Alastor Cluster would play a major role in allowing humans to telepathically communicate with the Phari. And Tut was invited to the party simply to provide a source of fresh sexual excitement for Grean.

Just then, Grean arrived by teleportation and said, "Yes, please don't create some complex puzzle that will frustrate the new me." Grean stepped off of the teleportation platform. "I just spent the past few centuries battling the robotics problem and I'm mentally exhausted." Before teleporting in, Grean had been secretly listening to Rau and trying to get a sneak peek at what plans were being laid in Delpha's workshop. Grean despised the silly surprises that were often sprung on her at clusterday celebrations.

Sally Lanty's study of telepathic sashei.
This image made with EveRoom01,
 Elves03 and Redhead6 by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.
Rau laughed merrily and tried to assure Grean that all was going to go smoothly. "This will be fun and games!" Rau stepped close to Grean, placed a hand on her crotch and said, "I'll say, Grean games, knowing how much you like to play with the humans." Rau's hand had settled in at the top of Grean's genital groove and now she let her finger tips massage and stroke the glans of Grean's clitoris that could be felt through the thin silky fabric of her skirt. She was pleased to feel the spunky organ respond almost instantly and start to become engorged with blood.

Grean reached out and ran her fingers through Rau's pretty hair. Grean had long ago fallen in love with Rau after learning how sensitive she was to Phyphy sashei. Rau had a powerful ability to project her sexual desires and thoughts into the minds of other people, a talent known on worlds of Alastor Cluster as sashei. Grean closed her eyes and sighed as her erectile tissue stiffened and she muttered, "You know that I instinctively feel sorry for anyone who is not an hermaphrodite." Watching Rau and Grean touching each other, Tuttuhr felt warm and pulled off her shirt, tossing it on a nearby control panel of one of the time machines in Delpha's workshop.

Rau kissed Grean's mouth rather passionately and then said, "Yes, we all know how you endlessly take advantage of the poor binaries."

Viewing the future.
Grean's eyes flew open and she told Rau, "Don't blame me for any of the little sexual adventures that I have. Nyrtia is responsible for setting the tone in Alastor Cluster... it all goes back to deploying her hypersexual Asterothropes in the galaxy. I'm just picking up the pieces after that disaster."

"Fine, blame Nyrtia, particularly when she is not here to defend herself." Rau tried to imagine the mysterious ancient origins of the Asterothropes in Deep Time. "I suppose Nyrtia would pass the buck to the pek and blame them for creating the Prelands."

Grean did not agree, but she did not have the patience to explain to Rau that the Prelands were specifically designed to have reduced sensory systems as part of the process of developing a human variant that would willingly abandon life as biologicals and transmigrate into the Hierion Domain as an artificial lifeform. 

This image made with Elena17
and yennefer by
Eclesi4stiK available
under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.
Grean turned around in a 360 degree circle and complained, "Where is Eynta? I've been expecting the new me to try out her penis on Eynta's amazing magical vagina." Grean once again regretted her long standing agreement with Delpha that she would not use her Viewing equipment to examine the first two decades of her lives. Grean was looking speculatively at Tuttuhr who Grean knew only casually. Delpha wanted to start making use of Hui-chi familiarity with the mysterious ways of the Fwai-chi.

Tuttuhr slipped a hand inside Grean's skirt and said, "Anytime you are horny and can't find Eynta, I'd be happy to play with your penis. My vaginas might not be magical, but I try harder." Stroking gently with her finger tips, Tuttuhr tried to stimulate Grean's secondary erectile response that would enlarge the glans of her Kac'hin clitoris into its alternative penis conformation. While concentrating on that task, Tuttuhr felt a sexually charged telepathic signal arrive from Grean and Tuttuhr's penis quickly inflated to full size. Grean noticed the bulge of Tut's skirt caused by her erection; she had never previously seen Tuttuhr's penis and she was curious about its dimensions and eager to explore its features.

Rau said, "Sorry to shatter your expectations, Grean, but the new you will be very pleased with what Tut and I have planned for her first sexual experience here in the Cluster. And besides, Eynta is busy on Yerophet right now."

the magic of time travel

Grean suggested, "A small trip through Time could fix any scheduling problem."

Rau said rather testily, "Grean, please, don't flaunt your time travel skills... that is like eating a meal in front of starving people. I arranged this celebration using the tools available to me. What unfolds today is a bit like a surprise party in its details... time travel could ruin all our fun."
 
Delpha raised her hands and looked back and forth between Grean and Rau. "Ladies, if you don't mind, this is a party, not another chance for you to argue." Delpha knew that the love affair between Rau and Grean was reaching its natural end point after nearly a thousand years. "Let us begin the festivities!" Delpha hugged Rau and Grean hugged Tuttuhr and they began the celebration. Tuttuhr enthusiastically threw her arms around Grean and kissed her, wiggling her tongue around inside Grean's mouth. Tuttuhr's spiky little erect penis pressed against Grean belly through the fabric of Tut's skirt. The tip of Tut's penis started to emerge up through the skirt's waistband.

gharks
Delpha was trying to telepathically stimulate and monitor the rising level of sexual excitement being experienced by all the party attendees. Somewhat worried that the over-eager Tut might ejaculate on Grean, Delpha abruptly teleported the Old Grean away and said, "I'll bring the New Grean here in just a moment." With an arm still around Rau, Delpha turned to Tuttuhr, glanced first at her erect nipples then at the tip of her erect penis pushed proudly outward and upward against the resisting elastic waistband of her skirt and asked, "What are you planning to add to Rau's planned program for the party?"

Following Delpha's eyes, Tuttuhr looked down and then shyly adjuster her skirt so as to cover her erection. Glancing at Delpha, Tuttuhr replied, "Just a small cli... a small change. Dervas and Alferica are sisters who grew up together at Cloudscape Castle. Twins run in their family and Rau overlooked the fact that at this very moment Dervas is ovulating with both of her ovaries, producing two ripe eggs. I want Grean to make use of both of the egg cells, not just one."

Rau objected, "According to the visions of my Phasi, Dervas will only ever have just one child." Rau demanded of Tut, "How could you possibly know anything about the ovarian follicles of Dervas?"

Fwai-chi
"The Fwai-chi are an amazing source of information." Tuttuhr had long enjoyed her telepathic linkages to the Fwai-chi and what she learned from them. "Yes, Dervas should only raise one child. I didn't find a way to change the sad life of poor Dervas, although I feel very sorry for her." She had one more thing to tell Rau, "I simply want Grean to gestate a second embryo along with the one that you have already planned for."

Delpha chuckled. "I see." She was impressed by Tuttuhr's audacity. "So, you think it will be fun to play the game of constructing a telepathic hybrid."

"Well, not me personally." Tuttuhr giggled. "In all honesty, once I got my semen past the tip of my penis, I would not know where to begin in making a hybrid." Tuttuhr reached down and lifted the hem of her skirt, revealing her erect penis in all its golden glory. "The Fwai-chi assure me that what they have come up with will bring much joy to Grean." Tuttuhr pulled a bottle of lubricant out of her back pocked, put some on the palm of her hand and vigorously stroked her stiff little penis. Having heard from Rau about the ritualistic way that each new copy of Grean was welcomed to Alastor Cluster, Tut had planned ahead, imagining how to make certain that her first sexual encounter with Grean would go smoothly. Now oiled up, her yellow penis gleamed radiantly in the rather harsh light of Delpha's workshop. Tut handed the bottle to Rau and told Delpha. "Now I'm quite ready to party with the new Grean."

As first seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
New Grean on the planet Wyst.
An image made with YennBlake & this by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.
Delpha said, "Hold on just one moment" Delpha bent down and kissed Tuttuhr's cute penis while she quickly looked into the future and then said, "Interesting. Now I wish I knew how the Fwai-chi were able to find this low probability future. I approve." Then, without further delay, Delpha teleported the new copy of Grean into the room. 

New Grean was naked when she appeared and seemed pale compared to the just-departed old version of Grean. This young version of Grean had grown up on an artificial world where her body had never been exposed to sunlight and her lightly pigmented skin had never tanned. Delpha placed her hands on Grean's shoulders and said, "Grean my darling, Tuttuhr has a small surprise for you." Delpha took her hands off of Grean, intentionally brushing her fingers across Grean's soft breasts and then turned her attention to Rau. Delpha deftly pulled off Rau's shirt and kissed her breasts.

Tuttuhr approached Grean from behind, reached around and put her hands on Grean's perky breasts which Tuttuhr massaged delicately while noticing that they were easily twice as big as Old Grean's breasts. Grean's nipples promptly stiffened and popped erect. Then Tut let her hands slide down until they found Grean's second row of nipples, which Tuttuhr playfully tweaked. Tuttuhr bent her knees slightly and her penis slid between Grean's legs. Looking down at herself, Grean asked Delpha, "Why are you now using the four nipple version of my body?" Tuttuhr let her hands go lower and she stroked Grean's labia. Slipping a finger into Grean's genital groove, Tuttuhr was pleased to discover that Grean's two vaginas were already oozing copious amounts of her natural Kac'hin lubricating fluids.

Delpha had quickly pulled down Rou's skirt, letting it fall to the floor and then began to methodically stroke Rau's genital groove with her finger tips. Speaking over her shoulder to Grean, she explained, "During the next several decades I'll be rather aggressively increasing the use of Asterothrope gene patterns in the Cluster and spreading the idea that Asterothropes had telepathic abilities. It will be useful for you to show off your own Asterothrope-derived phenotypic features. Call your extra nipples a teaching tool for the humans."

Rau's penis popped out and quickly swelled to full size in response to Delpha's telepathic influence and the warm, gentle touches of her fingers. Delpha applied some of the lubricant to Rau's penis. In addition to oil, the lubricant contained several chemicals that would enhance the sexual performance of Grean and amplify her sexual pleasure.

Delpha reduced the gravity inside the workshop and Tuttuhr lifted Grean off her feet. As Grean slowly settled back towards the floor, she came down upon the erect penises of both Rau and Tuttuhr. Grean gave a small squeal of delight as both her vaginas were filled with hot penises. Delpha told Grean, "You will have two children, my dear, forming a key part of a nanocoid-linked octet."

Rau and Tuttuhr were now rather comically bouncing Grean up and down with their thrusting erections. Suspecting that she was expected to do all the "work" of creating the new octet, Grean tried to speak, "Eight... orgasms? Ah, eight nano..." She touched the stiffening glans of her clitoris which, even when not erect, was significantly larger than it had been in her previous body and asked Delpha, "Why... eight nanocoid-linked embryos?" She gave up trying to speak and gave in the the pleasure of the moment. She achieved an orgasm and cried out in pleasure. Her clitoris had two separate sets of erectile tissue and after Rau and Tuttuhr both ejaculated their hot semen into her vaginas, Grean allowed her secondary erectile tissue to fill with blood. Her clitoral glans swelled to penis size and the part of her clitoris in the walls of her vaginas enlarged and gently pushed the two erections of Rau and Tuttuhr out of her body. Grean settled to the floor and was now eager to make use of her penis.

Trullion
Delpha brought the room's artificial gravity field back up to near normal and activated the workshop's giant video display screen and said, "This is Tingo Drosset, a Trevanyi on planet Trullion." Grean watched as Tingo waved her hand past a candle, casting a flickering shadow on the wall of her tent. A moment later, her lover arrived and took Tingo in his arms. Tingo extinguished the candle. Delpha told Grean, "In just a moment, Tingo will be relaxed and receptive. She was impregnated two days ago and has an early embryo in her left falopian tube." Delpha waved her hand and sent a cloud of nanites into Grean's body which would assemble into a set of nanocoids. "You can have the pleasure of implanting a nanocoid into Tingo's little embryo."

It did not take long for Tingo's lover to climax and ejaculate into Tingo's tight, hot vagina. A moment later he slipped out of Tingo's tent and ran off into the night. With some infrared enhancement of the video feed, Grean could see the dim form of Tingo, laying on her back and now starting to masturbate. Grean objected, "That cad did not even give Tingo a proper chance to have an orgasm!"

Tingo Drosset
"These two have been sneaking behind the back of Tingo's husband during a clan gathering... Tingo's lover is rightly afraid of getting caught." Delpha gestured towards the displayy screen and shouted, "Now is your chance! Announce yourself as Tingo's ancestral spirit mother." Delpha teleported Grean into the dim confines of Tingo's tent and Grean said, "You are now pregnant, Tingo! The spirits of your ancestors are pleased."

Tingo gasped and sat up, straining in the darkness to see who had spoken. Grean moved between Tingo's legs and rather roughly pushed her flat onto her back. Tingo was trembling; she had never really accepted her tribe's belief in the existence of ancestor spirits. Some of Rau's rather runny semen oozed out from Grean's back vagina and flowed downward along her thigh. Ignoring all distractions and endeavoring to play her role as a mythical figure of Trevanyi superstition, Grean told Tingo, "As your spirit ancestor, I've had to watch your sex play and your lusty copulations... now it is my turn! Just relax my child." 

Making use of her brain activity-modifying infites and her hot penis, Grean quickly brought Tingo to a sweet climax. With her penis deep inside Tingo's vagina, Grean carefully extended her blastipositor out the tip of her penis and through Tingo's cervix. The blastipositor then navigated itself on towards the embryo that was far up in Tingo's reproductive tract. Grean felt herself close to ejaculating and tried to delay her sexual reflex. She asked, "Do you have a name for this child?"

teleportation
With the help of Grean's infites, Tingo had recovered from her initial fright. She reached out and felt Grean's breasts. Startled, she whispered, "What kind of ghost are you? Breasts and a penis?"

Grean ejaculated and for a time her pleasure was so intense that she could not speak; now she rapidly slid her penis in and out, maximizing the pleasure of her orgasm. The tip of the searching blastipositor had located Tingo's embryo and it quickly extracted the DNA from one of the embryo's cells. Determining the sex of the embryo did not take more than a fraction of a second. Grean slowed the pace of her penis sliding in and out of Tingo's vagina, used the memory-altering infites to edit out Tingo's alarm at Grean's hermaphroditic anatomy and finally she replied, "I will watch over your daughter. Tell me her name."

"You are certain I will bear a girl?"

"Yes." Grean had now transferred the nanocoid into the embryo.

Written in the Asimov Reality.
Duissane "on" Yrinna.
Original cover art by Johannes Bruck
"Then she is Duissane."

Grean pulled her penis out of Tingo and then paused to kiss Tingo's stiff clitoris before she was teleported off of Trullion. Grean was back in Delpha's workshop and the scene on the display screen had shifted to a starshine-lit lake. 

Delpha said, "This is the planet Wyst." Grean saw a woman swimming slowly at the surface of the water, then she noticed that the swimmer was being watched by a man standing on the nearby shore. 

Tuttuhr was fondling Grean's penis and now she took it into her mouth, enjoying the spicy taste of Grean's semen. Grean was intently watching the images from Wyst. Where he stood under the bright starshine of Alastor Cluster, Grean could see that the man's penis was erect and pointed towards the sparkling stars above. He dove into the water and soon the couple embraced and kissed. A moment later, the woman walked through the warm water to the grassy bank and lowered herself into the sweet grass, her feet still in the water. 

Next: part 2 of "Meet the Phari" 

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Mar 1, 2021

Robots and Hybrids

SciFi02 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

I occasionally blog about creating illustrations for science fiction stories (most recently, last year). When I was first using DeviantArt about 7 years ago, I discovered that some folks explicitly make their images available as "stock" that can be modified by other artists. Some people who upload files to DeviantArt simply use a Creative Commons license that gives other people the right to modify and reuse the image files. In this blog post I want to discuss the work of a few specific artists who I know by way of their DeviantArt accounts and who share their images under a Creative Commons license.

Since this blog is mostly about science fiction, my first example is SciFi02, shown to the right. You can support the creator of this image, Eclesi4stiK, at their Patreon page. When illustrating my science fiction stories, I often search the internet for "futuristic fashion" and hope to find images that might look like a person from the far future. Often my characters are humanoid robots and it is a challenge to give them a slightly different appearance than the human characters.

folks on DeviantArt that I'm watching

Currently I "watch" 24 DeviantArt accounts, shown to the left. Eclesi4stiK has had their account for 9 years and they have over 10,000 watchers. People have viewed the 500 or so images posted by Eclesi4stiK over 750,000 times. Many of those images are available for other people to use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).  

Vacu; made using
SciFi02 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

In "The Alastor Network", one of the robot characters is Vacu, who has been stationed for several decades on a low temperature world in Alastor Cluster called Yerophet. I made only minor changes to SciFi02 by Eclesi4stiK in order to have a depiction of Vacu as I had imagined "her". Sadly, Vacu is not allowed to dress like this while on duty and working at the communications monitoring station of the Whelm. 😢

When Ryl Shermatz first visited Yerophet 25 years before the events depicted in "The Alastor Network", he attempted to reverse engineer Vacu. Vacu had been manufactured on the planet Triskelion and sold to the Connatic (Ryl's father) for a very high price. However, the nanoscopic components of Vacu resisted Ryl's analysis, and even during the time period of events in "The Alastor Network", the Whelm cannot build sophisticated robots. I like to imaging that while Ryl was studying Vacu, "she" had some fun distracting Ryl while off duty and dressed as shown in the image to the right.

Alien-Human Hybrids 
Konie's vision of the young Eleyn.
made with Leah01 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
For "The Alastor Network" I wanted some images that would depict characters who were alien-human hybrids. Ryl's mother, Eleyn, has many Asterothrope gene patterns. At the time of the events in "The Alastor Network", Eleyn's husband is on Earth investigating the origins and telepathic abilities of the Asterothropes. The Asterothropes are usually described as a human variant, created by R. Gohrlay in Deep Time. However, while genetically engineering the Asterothropes, R. Gohrlay's positronic robots had access to Preland genes, so some of the special abilities of the Asterothropes might be traceable to their Preland-like gene patterns. The Prelands were crafted by the pek as another type of human variant. It is clear that the pek used some gene patterns originating in alien species in order to make the Prelands. Those aliens originated in other galaxies and it has not been possible for human investigators to identify their home worlds.

Lora, Pepha, Konie and lo'Whots have large amounts
of Plesypy gene combinations. Blue = male.
A central plot element in "The Alastor Network" are human-Plesypy hybrids such as the Kerub. The Plesypy have blue pigmentation and are native to the planet Ottengla, but some Plesypy gene combinations have recently been introduced into the population of human colonists who live on Yerophet. The ancient Plesypy have powerful telepathic abilities that have recently been engineered into the Kerub such as lo'Whots. The Kerub also have some genes that originated in the alien Phet.

Lora with her head made up so as to appear human.
Made using AssaStudyroom by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.

Lora is an interesting case because she has long taken pains to hide her alien phenotypic traits while interacting with humans who visit the Trading Post. Twenty five years before the time of "The Alastor Network", Lora and Ryl had an intimate relationship and their daughter, Konywhn inherited traits like blue skin from her mother. Lora usually hides her blue coloration when she must speak to humans who would be alarmed by her natural appearance. 

It is commonly believed that all the Kerub live over the border in Kerub Territory, but Lora and her friend Pepha live on the human side of the boarder in Goslewenn because they inherited the human pattern of thermal regulation and can tolerate the warm temperatures that appeal to humans.

As seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
Konywhn and Voyt. Made using
Onboard2 & Redspec8 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
When Eleyn arrives at the Trading Post, Lora makes no attempt to conceal her blue skin. Eleyn is well aware that Lora is the mother of Eleyn's grand-daughter, Konywhn.

Konywhn is mostly human in appearance and works as a communications technician at the Whelm communications monitoring station in Frost Hills. She becomes friends with Ryl's daughter, Voyt, when she is deployed to the base in Frost Hills. Voyt has come to Yerophet in order to do research on the genetics of the human-alien hybrids of Yerophet. Konywhn will also appear as a character in "Meet the Phari" in which she will depart from Yerophet on a new mission. 

In the image shown to the right, Voyt is collaborating with Konie to correlate Asterothrope-like gene patterns with telepathic signal data being collected by Josef, an artificial intelligence system with telepathic abilities.

A depiction of Pepha made using Veronikaroom
by Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Pepha plays an important role in "The Alastor Network" as the mother of lo'Whots. The father of lo'Whots is Wilken, Ryl's brother.

Pepha also contributes genes towards the creation of the Lavany mind clones who are produced on Yerophet. About one month after the end of the events in "The Alastor Network", Ryl's son Heshlo will impregnate Pepha. That human-alien hybrid embryo will be taken back in Time by Grean the Kac'hin and used as part of the process of making the Lavany mind clones. Heshlo and Pepha meet in part 21 of "The Alastor Network" at a time when Pepha is twice the age of Heshlo.

A depiction of Fi made with evesnow02 by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

1.5 Partons. Pepha's mother is a human-Asterothrope hybrid named Berryfial, or "Fi" for short. One of the phenotypic features of Asterothropes is two rows of breasts. The smaller secondary breasts are the source of oxypathin, a chemical substance that can amplify the telepathic powers of Asterothropes.

Berryfial and Eleyn have similar Asterothrope gene combinations and they meet at the Trading Post in part 21 of "The Alastor Network". Berryfial's husband, Semoy, works at the secret genetic engineering facility in Goslewenn that is run by Lora. Fi and Semoy have long lived in the secret underground residential complex beneath the Trading Post. Semoy is a Plesyspy-human hybrid with four legs and two arms, rather like a Centaur.

A depiction of Maturin in the hot tub on Yerophet.
Made using redhead03 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.
Last year I introduced Nirutam as a new character in the Exode Saga. Nirutam was an alien Ret'fai from the Andromeda galaxy who died on Earth. However, Nirutam's selfie, Maturin, was assigned the task of making sure that Yōd did not pass some dangerous types of information back to Earth From Alastor Cluster. Yōd is briefly on Yerophet during the time period covered by "The Alastor Network", but neither she nor Azynov play a major role in the story. They do protect Glisten's unborn child from getting caught up in a damaging type of telepathic feedback with lo'Whots, but then they quickly return to Zeck where the climate is much nicer than on Yerophet.

A Kac'hin-Kerub hybrid made using
roxieoutd09 and blondeelf02 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
.
In the last chapter of "The Alastor Network", Maturin briefly walks across the stage at the end of the story. Nirutam had a rather unusual appearance with dark orange skin. Although Maturin is an artificial lifeform and can adopt any convenient physical form, she makes use of a body shape that is is similar to that of Nirutam when she meets up with Grean for some play time at the end of "The Alastor Network".

Another hybrid with significant amounts of Kerub, human and Kac'hin genes is shown to the right. A Kac'hin phenotypic trait is long pointed ears. This is a new character who appears in "Meet the Phari". In addition to the many images obtained from Eclesi4stiK, I also made use of some other images by additional folks at DeviantArt in order to make a few more illustrations for characters in "The Alastor Network". 

Original rendering: "Tiger Den" by henry1850.
Image available under the CC BY-NC 3.0 license
The scene depicted to the left is from the future, in a time about two decades after the end of the events that are described in "The Alastor Network". This is a gathering of mind clones during which their mind clone network is being used by Grean as a way to amplify human telepathic abilities and allow for contact between a human test subject and the Phari. The Phari reside in the Hierion Domain and no longer exist as biological organisms, so they are not depicted in this image.

While writing "The Alastor Network", I wanted some kind of futuristic image for the Brevik Drone Works where hierion field generators were being tested for their ability to protect passenger ships from space pirates.

As seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art shown here and thanks to
Henry1850 for Energy Device (CC BY-NC 3.0)
The image shown to the right is pretty, but I have no idea what it is showing. Possible the depicted scene is an attempt to apply advanced technology from the future to the spaceship building processes of the Pegasus Company.

"Couple" by CakeOne
license: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
While writing "The Alastor Network", I wanted to illustrate the loving relationship between Kasya Jeghtop and her husband. I made use of the image shown to the left.

Below and to the right on this page is another composite image that uses a rendered image that is posted on the DeviantArt website with the following instructions: "You may use this as long it is placed on your backgrounds."

As seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Milton
Rosenblatt and Ed Emshwiller
See also: mysticmorning
"The Alastor Network" involves the creation of a mind clone network that includes children who all share one identical cerebral hemisphere but have many other biological differences.

The exact scene shown to the right is not present in "The Alastor Network", but it conveys the idea of mixing together alien genes with human genes to make alien-human hybrids who can be telepathically linked as part of a network. The Plesypy of Ottengla have blue pigmentation as do the Kerub, so I made use of the "alien blue baby" by mysticmorning.

In "The Alastor Network", some of the characters appear more than once, occasionally as duplicate copies standing side-by-side. Technology exists that allows for copying a person and instantiating them inside an artificial body, a replicoid. In part 21 of the story, there is a scene where three copies of Eleyn are busily completing a small task for Grean the Kac'hin.

See "DAZ 11244" by jennova21.
Available under the CC BY-NC 3.0 license.
In the image shown to the left, those three replicoids are shown along with another character in the story who is amused to see multiple copies of Eleyn. That exact scene does not exist in the story, but this illustration captures the idea of duplicating a person.

For many of my illustrations I imagine that there was a science fiction author who used the pen name "Glisty Raven" in the Ekcolir Reality. In "The Alastor Network", one of the characters is Glisten Ravensroke. Glisten originated in the Jack Vance novel Wyst.

One last point... I find it extremely distressing that fun science fiction art from the past is no longer in circulation for the enjoyment of fans. A major theme in "The Alastor Network" is recovery of lost information from the past. Yōd and Azynov use the AR Simulator to explore the history of the Asimov Reality

As seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
Tuttuhr the Hui-chi and a friend.
This image was made using ElfHuman by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
While at work inside the AR Simulator with Yōd, Grean has a chance to make alterations to the timeline of the unfolding simulation, thus the details of human society in Alastor Cluster that are seen by Yōd do not exactly match the actual sequence of events that took place in Deep Time. The AR Simulator uses advanced technology to access information stored in the Sedronic Domain.

I've previously imagined that some people can directly access information about Deep Time without using Simulator Technology. For example, the Fersoni sisters specialized in "viewing" events from their previous Reality (the Ekcolir Reality) and sharing their knowledge with the Editor. Also, some science fiction story tellers from the Ekcolir Reality were brought into the Buld Reality and worked in the Writers Block. From there, they could help other science fiction writers on Earth tell stories about actual events that took place in past Realities. 

As first seen in the Ekcolir Reality.
An image made with YennBlake & this by
Eclesi4stiK available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This is a scene in "Meet the Phari".
That ongoing practice allowed for us, here in the Final Reality, to sometimes see old versions of stories and even whole copies of some Deep Time science fiction magazines from the Ekcolir Reality. This is why many of the illustrations included in "The Alastor Network" have the words "in the Ekcolir Reality" right there in the image caption. These "deviations" are thus my re-imaginings of pulp magazine covers from Deep Time.

Many thanks to all of the many artists who share their works with all the non-artists such as myself. As usual, if you don' like what I have done with your image, please let me know... I'll remove my offending deviation from the internet.

Related Reading: another re-imagining of old science fiction art

Next: "Meet the Phari"

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers