Exode Timeline

Isis (and Mr. Spock)

One of my goals for the science fiction novel Exode is to imagine how a story set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe might conform to the technological parameters established by Assignment: Earth. In that Star Trek episode, there was long-range teleportation, a shapeshifting cat/woman (Isis) and an intelligent computer.

For stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I assume that shapeshifting is made possible by nanites.

What can I say about the computer technology that was depicted in Assignment: Earth? Within the Star Trek fictional universe computers were big and clunky until the Next Generation. It never made sense to me that Gary Seven could teleport across the galaxy with Isis in hand and yet have such a primitive computerized assistant.

This technological incongruity might make sense if Gary Seven is simply using technologies that are provided by a much more advanced alien civilization. Gary is stuck with whatever technologies are provided for his use.

Beta 5 computer

Maybe the aliens had decided that providing Gary with a sophisticated robotic assistant would introduce too many opportunities for Earthlings to notice that something strange was going on. Imagine a humanoid robot out and about in Manhattan. While crossing the street the robot is struck by a car and its mechanical guts are strewn across Times Square. In contrast , the big, immobile computer just sits in one secret vault and can presumably be teleported off of Earth in an emergency or simply inactivated and its inner workings reduced to a puddle of melted circuits.

For Exode, I was not willing to adopt a primitive computing technology like "Beta 5". However, I did start thinking about the possibility of having relatively clunky robots at the secret Interventionist training base of Lendhalen. I've been imagining that the alien Fru'wu are the conduit/source of the technology that is available to Interventionist agents like Parthney. Actually, the Fru'wu are "front men" for the Nereids, so some technologies like the teleporters are made by the Nereids, given to the Fru'wu and then the Fru'wu make the teleporters available for humans to use.

Noÿs
I could easily imagine that the Fru'wu and Nereids were "alien Interventionists" who would provide advanced technology to the human Interventionist agents on Earth, but as discussed in my previous blog post, the Huaoshy are much more technologically advanced than the Nereids. I could imagine no good reason to account for a failure of the Huaoshy to step in and prevent the Nereids from using the Fru'wu to help the human Interventionists alter the course of events on Earth. I was in need of a way to trump the god-like powers of the Huaoshy. Finally, I realized that I could use Noÿs for that purpose. Thus, Exode became a sequel to The Start of Eternity, a fan fiction novel in which Asimov's famous time traveler, Noÿs Lambent, destroys Eternity.

Since deciding that Noÿs would provide the backstory for Exode, I've been sketching out the details of exactly how Noÿs can cause the Buld Reality (the timeline that we experience) to come into existence. Since I had originally decided that Gwyned was the daughter of Noÿs, I've been imagining some additional ways of knitting Noÿs into the lives of additional characters who appear in Exode. After a month and a half of this knitting project, I now feel like I can sketch out the timeline for the Buld Reality and the key events that allow Noÿs to shape the world as we know it.

a pek using
Preland facial features

Timeline of the Buld Reality

837,930,298 YBP. The Huaoshy achieve faster-than-light travel. Their home galaxy is far, far away.

~7,000,000 YBP. The Huaoshy reach the Andromeda galaxy and make contact with the Nereids. The Nereids have existed for several million years as a non-technological sapient species on their metal-poor home world.

~6,999,000 YBP. The Huaoshy reach our galaxy. Soon the pek (nanite-based artificial lifeforms that assist the Huaoshy) are domesticating the primates that they find on Earth.

~6,900,000 YBP. The interstellar civilization of the Fru'wu is destroyed by a self-inflicted technological disaster involving their primitive nanotechnology. The Huaoshy have preserved some domesticated Fru'wu on worlds of the Galactic Core.

~300,000 YBP. The Nereids finally establish a technological civilization on their home planet.

200,000 YBP. Needing a tool that will allow them to infiltrate and defeat the Eternals, the Huaoshy begin to develop the Kac'hin, a human variant that can be used like humanoid puppets by the Huaoshy. Captain Hooski is one of the Kac'hin who appear in The Start of Eternity. The Kac'hin are developed on the planet Luk'ru, a world that later becomes the home of Hana and Boswei and their children. By 50,000 YBP the Kac'hin project is complete and no further development of the special abilities of the Kac'hin is attempted on Luk'ru.

~90,000 YBP. The Nereids help some Fru'wu rebels of the Galactic Core achieve independence from the pek. There are some interactions between the Nereids, the Fru'wu and the Buld. The Nereids monitor events on Earth and occasionally they manage to bring a human from the Galactic Core to Earth. However, there are Overseers stationed at Observer Base on the Moon who prevent Interventionists from interfering with the course of events on Earth.

Pla'kao

~20,000 YBP. Ekcolir, a human from the Galactic Core in the Noÿs Reality who had been brought to Earth as an Interventionist agent, arrives from the future. He lives among a group Earthlings near the end of the last glacial period and passes his genes into the human gene pool of Earth. He is captured by Overseers and taken to Observer Base on the Moon where he completes his mission to the past by preventing the development of positronic robots. At about the same time, the pek allow the Fru'wu rebels to make it possible for some Buld to transform themselves into the Pla, a group of rebel Buld.

In the Galactic Core the pek begin selecting for human variants on worlds like Hemmal. These variants will be able to breed with Noÿs, a human from 10,000,000 years in the future (in the Mallansohn Reality). Ekcolir is one such human who is born on Hemmal about 1910.

~15,000 YBP. The Fru'wu provide the Pla with the location of Earth. A Buld spaceship, traveling close to the speed of light, begins a journey from the Galactic Core to Earth which will take about 15,000 years.

~10,000 YBP. Noÿs arrives from the future and lives among a group of Earthlings who have retained genes from Ekcolir. Noÿs helps them develop a written language and learn to read and write. Noÿs talks to these primitives and tells them about the far future of Earth. This initiates the popularity of flood myths on Earth.

Noÿs is present when the Fru'wu establish the first teleportation terminal on Earth. Noÿs is teleported to Klyz where she transfers her advanced nanites from the far future of the Mallansohn Reality into a primitive Fru'wu robot. Robotic assistants containing "Noÿs nanites" can be used on Earth by Interventionist agents and they also become the robotic assistants at Lendhalen.

The pek collect genetic material from Noÿs and use it in their human breeding program on planets such as Hemmal.

Robin

~5,000 YBP. Lendhalen is established as a training base for Interventionist agents. Robin the robot is present from the very start. The "magnetic pulse" method that is used to inactivate pek nanites has no effect on the "Noÿs nanites" that are inside Robin.

1910. Deomede is born on Hemmal. He is later trained at Lendhalen and teleported to Earth.

1936. Noÿs arrives from the future and meets Deomede. They have a daughter, Gwyned (born 1939).

1940. Thomas arrives from the future. In the Noÿs Reality, he was the son of Noÿs and Ekcolir. He carries nanites of several types that provide Thomas with an unusual collection of memories, including some from the Isaac Asimov of the Foundation Reality. Thomas transfers his nanites into John Campbell. This allows Campbell to help the Asimov of the Buld Reality start writing science fiction stories that are based on events from the Foundation Reality. Without the nanites in his brain, Thomas needs intensive psychiatric care during the 1940s.

Gwyned

1949. Thomas retrieves the nanites from Campbell. Thomas develops close friendships with Janet Jeppson and Asimov. Ideas from Thomas help stimulate Asimov to write The End of Eternity and to develop an interest in global warming.

1964. Gwyned is teleported off of Earth by Deomede. She arrives at Klyz and then moves on to Lendhalen. She tries to understand the advanced technologies that are available to the Buld like the robot assistants of Lendhalen.

1967. Parthney arrives at Lendhalen for training as an Interventionist agent on Earth. Gwyned and Parthney both suspect that there is more to Robin than meets the eye. Robin has a physical appearance that reminds Gwyned of her mother and Robin tells Gwyned that she has 10,000 year old memories of Noÿs from the time when Noÿs arrived at Klyz. (note: Gwyned knows Noÿs by the pseudonym "Trysta Iwedon"...the name "Noÿs" is never used in Exode.) When Parthney stops his training with the expectation that Gwyned should be the one to go to Earth, the Huaoshy step in and "take control" of Robin, eventually convincing Parthney that he must go to Earth. Parthney asks Robin about Noÿs and the robot suddenly and mysteriously delivers a message from Noÿs: "Thomas, remember to meet Izhiun on the mall". This is the last time that Robin acts outside of the normal behavioral pattern for the robots of Lendhalen. Gwyned asks Parthney to look for her mother (Noÿs) and brother (Thomas; who Gwyned has never met) when he reaches Earth.

Betty

1971. Noÿs travels back in time to 10,000 YBP (see above). Parthney is teleported to Earth where he meets Deomede and the robotic assistant Betty. Deomede tells Parthney that Noÿs is gone, but they begin searching for Thomas.

1972. Ekcolir (an Interventionist from the "Noÿs Reality") is sent back in time about 20,000 years to initiate the Buld Reality.

1973. Thomas (from the "Noÿs Reality") was kept inside the time travel device on the Moon during the time when the Noÿs Reality was changed into the Buld Reality by Ekcolir.Thomas is now sent back to 1940 (see above).

1974. Noÿs of the "Noÿs Reality" is finally sent back in time to 1936 (see above). Before this final time travel event, she gets a chance to look into the future of the Buld Reality. After she travels back in time, the Huaoshy initiate a shift in the dimensional structure of the universe which makes time travel impossible.

1977. Parthney's search for Thomas is mostly futile, but the trail of people who have known Thomas and have corresponded with him leads Parthney to Janet and Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov digs out an old manuscript from Thomas: a "science fiction story" about a man named Izhiun who meets a "Buld spaceship" that arrives on Earth in the year 2012.

Asimov comments that the story could never be published because it was written like a report describing an actual event (actually it is based on an actual report from the Noÿs Reality that Noÿs saw while looking into the future). Janet is not able to say much since Thomas was her patient for many years, however she tells Parthney that Thomas believed that his "science fiction story" about the Buld was not fiction, that events would actually happen as described in the "story". Asimov has only corresponded with Thomas. Janet further mystifies Parthney by asking him, "Is Thomas your brother?"

1980. Deomede tells Parthney that he will test the idea that the Overseers can now detect teleportation events. He gives Parthney his list of contacts among the Earthlings in case he is captured. He is captured by Overseers shortly after he teleports an Earthling to Klyz.

Klyz

1984. Parthney has come to believe that one of Deomede's contacts, Hana, might be the "Hana" mentioned in Thomas' "story" about Izhiun and the Buld. Parthney has discovered that Hana has been having "email" communications with Thomas by means of messages sent over CSNET. The man on Earth who meets the arriving Buld spaceship is described in the "story" as, "Izhiun, son of Hana, born in the Andromeda galaxy." The story describes Hana as having been born on Earth. Parthney teleports Hana off of Earth and soon he is captured by an Overseer and taken to the Moon. Thomas uses his nanites to sneak into Observer Base when Parthney is taken in.

Thomas and Parthney confirm that Observer Base is being phased out in preparation for the arrival of the Buld spaceship. Thomas uses the teleportation terminal at Observer Base to send Parthney back to Klyz. Thomas takes the place of Parthney since they are genetically identical.

1985. The Fru'wu at Klyz want to send a human delegation to the Andromeda galaxy to make contact with the Nereids. Believing that Parthney was responsible for the death of her husband, Hana refuses to work with Parthney.

Kach

1987. Kach and her son Boswei leave Hemmal and go with Parthney to the Andromeda Galaxy. Hana, Muchlo and Steph go along.

1991. Hana and Boswei settle on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. Their son Izhiun is born.

1998. Kach goes to Earth on a mission to help make it possible for the Overseers to capture the secret Nereid station on Earth. She is captured by the Overseers and taken to Observer Base. Kach meets Thomas who is still living at Observer Base.

2011. Izhiun arrives on Earth with a clone of Kach. The secret Nereid station on Earth is destroyed during raid by the Overseers. To the Overseers, it looks like Kach was killed in the raid, but Kach is teleported back to Klyz. Izhiun contacts Hana's husband who is still living on Earth.

2012. The Buld spaceship arrives in the Solar System. The existing Overseers retire. The Nereids explain to the Buld that the Overseers have quit and that the Earthlings need a clean, safe energy source. Izhiun meets the Buld at the Washington Monument and obtains instructions for how to build an energy receiver that will collect energy transmitted by hierions from a solar energy collection station that the Buld can put on Mercury. The Huaoshy make the remaining Observers on the Moon into the next Overseers, but they begin operating under a new set of rules that allows Earth to receive some technological assistance from the Buld. Hana's husband begins placing the Exode story on the internet. Izhiun leaves Earth and goes with the Buld to start terraforming Mars.

The Nereid Objection

Andromeda galaxy

There are three different kinds of extraterrestrials in the science fiction story Exode. 1) The Fru'wu. These aliens evolved on another planet in our galaxy. They are just starting to develop their own nanotechnology and they have some understanding of hierions. 2) The Nereids. These aliens evolved on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. They are older and more technologically advanced than the Fru'wu. The Nereids have just begun to make use of sedrons. 3) The Huaoshy. These aliens evolved in a distant galaxy about 1,000,000,000 years ago. They long ago transformed themselves into a form of artificial life. They have mastered the use of hierions and sedrons and their advanced technology gives them god-like power over biological species.

The Huaoshy have been spreading through the universe from galaxy to galaxy and systematically converting sapient species into "domesticated" forms that can successfully make the transformation from biological existence into the domain of artificial life that has been developed by the Huaoshy. The Huaoshy view biological organisms like humans in much the same way that we humans view viruses. We might find a virus interesting, but if it become a nuisance then we would not hesitate to exterminate it.

Objection

domestication

The Nereids and the Fru'wu both object to the way that the Huaoshy go around the universe "domesticating" biological species. Interestingly, the Huaoshy are guided by an ethical precept that forces them to give "conscientious objectors" the opportunity to develop on their own as biological organisms without the Huaoshy forcing them to make the transition towards continued existence as an artificial life form.

Objection Over-Ruled
Although the Huaoshy have given the Nereids and the Fru'wu a chance to escape from the Huaoshy "domestication program", the Huaoshy do impose some constraints on the Nereids and the Fru'wu. In particular, the Nereids and the Fru'wu are not allowed to interfere in the development of other species such as we humans.

The Huaoshy arrived on Earth about 7,000,000 years ago. They immediately began "domesticating" the apes and in a very real sense the Huaoshy created the human species. Furthermore, on worlds of the Galactic Core the Huaoshy are busy creating the Prelands, hermaphroditic successors to we humans who the Huaoshy plan to be the next species of ape to dominate Earth. The Nereids and the Fru'wu object to the way the Huaoshy systematically eliminate natural reproductive processes from species like humans.

Fukushima

However, the Huaoshy are not bothered by such objections. The Huaoshy have vast experience dealing with sapient biological species and they know that most human-like species that develop a technological civilization manage to destroy themselves while doing vast damage to the ecosystems of planets like Earth. Huaoshy ethics impel them to protect worlds like Earth and prevent species like we humans from destroying ourselves.

The Huaoshy Hegemony
The Huaoshy have spread their influence through space during the course of the past 1,000,000,000 years and Genesaunt Civilization now spans about 100,000 galaxies. Within that vast Genesaunt Civilization new species evolve, are domesticated by the Huaoshy and gradually transition from their original biological form into an artificial form of life that can merge into the domain of existence that was first pioneered by the Huaoshy. As a form of life, the Huaoshy are as different from we humans as we are from bacteria.

The Nereids are close to the upper right...will they survive?

There are always a few "boat rockers" like the Nereids and the Fru'wu, but they make little impact. Most "boat rocker" species eventually manage to destroy themselves. In fact, when the Fru'wu were starting to spread outward from their home world, they managed to destroy their budding interstellar civilization when their nanotechnology went out of control. They only exist today because the Huaoshy "cultured" some Fru'wu on worlds of the Galactic Core where they were kept safe from the self-inflicted technological disaster that exterminated the Fru'wu on their home world.

The Nereids never tire of pointing out the fact that they have successfully avoided self-inflicted technological disasters. They ask: isn't it possible that we will exist forever as a biological lifeform? They believe that they should be free to visit worlds like Earth and share their lifestyle and technology with primitive creatures like we Earthlings. The Nereids argue that with their help, other species like the Fru'wu can be prevented from destroying themselves.

Interventionism
The Huaoshy systematically guard worlds like Earth from "do-gooders" like the Nereids. The Huaoshy themselves went through an early period when they were "do-gooders" who tried to "help" less technologically advanced species. Invariably their good intentions back-fired. The Huaoshy eventually developed a set of ethical rules that strictly limit how advanced technology can be introduced to worlds like Earth.

The Huaoshy have grown very comfortable with their system of guiding biological species like humans towards existence as "domesticated" artificial life forms. Over time, the Huaoshy have had a few "scares"; situations in which the Huaoshy fear losing control over Genesaunt Civilization. Usually the biggest problems arise when a species like the Nereids begins to develop an understanding of sedrons. There have been species that began zipping around the universe in spaceships looking for opportunities to "intervene" in the course of development of worlds like Earth. Thus, the Huaoshy are always on guard against Interventionists. Normally, the Huaoshy do not hesitate to stop anyone who violates the Huaoshy rules that govern Interventionism. In the case of Earth, something went wrong....

Time Travel
Among the "scares" that the Huaoshy have had, one of the most dramatic involves Earth. In a strange twist of fate, some positronic robots were produced on the Moon (as told in The Start of Eternity). During their long existence, the Huaoshy had never seriously explored positronics, nor had any of the millions of other species within Genesaunt Civilization. The first positronic robots quickly discovered that their positronic brains made possible an efficient form of quantum computation. With that serendipitous technological advantage the positronic robots realized that they could not only communicate telepathically but they could also use their telepathic powers to control the type of nanorobotic artificial lifeforms that the Huaoshy routinely deploy to keep watch over worlds like Earth.

Furthermore, after liberating themselves from the Huaoshy, the positronic robots discovered that their positronic brains not only allowed for telepathy, but they could telepathically receive information from the future! Eventually the positronic robots discovered that they could build devices that make time travel possible. Using their positronic telepathy and time travel they took control of our galaxy. This really scared the Huaoshy who began to fear that they could loose control of their carefully crafted billion year old Genesaunt Civilization.

As mentioned in my last blog post, the backstory of Exode includes a show-down between two competing forces on Earth in the middle of the 20th century. The positronic robots and the Huaoshy battled to a unproductive standoff. That great conflict was finally resolved by an agreement between the alien Huaoshy and Noÿs, a time traveler from the far future.

Dimensional Engineering
When the Huaoshy and Noÿs cooperate to bring into existence the Buld Reality (our timeline, the world as we know it), the Huaoshy then change the dimensional structure of the universe so as to eliminate telepathy by positronics and make time travel impossible. When they do this, the Huaoshy are left with a monopoly on sedrons. This is a great relief to the Huaoshy who have long worried that some other species like the Nereids would push ahead with sedronic technology and disrupt Genesaunt Civilization.

It was the realization by the Huaoshy that they could achieve a monopoly on sedrons that allowed them to compromise their ideals and come to an agreement with Noÿs about the Final Reality and the future of Humanity.

By cooperating with the Huaoshy, Noÿs was given the chance to view possible Realities and she realized that Earth was confronted by two alternative futures, neither of which was acceptable. One set of possible futures involved the development of nuclear technology. Such a future would avoid the use of fossil fuels and global warming, but would lead to a nuclear disaster in the future. The other type of future would lead to a runaway greenhouse effect and a catastrophic rise in sea level. In either case, it would be a future in which hermaphroditic Prelands would inherit the Earth rather than Humanity.

Luckily, Noÿs was able to find another type of alternative future. Noÿs found a way to get help from the Nereid and the Fru'wu Interventionists that would allow her to do an end run around the Huaoshy and provide an alternative source of energy to the primitive Earthlings. The Huaoshy were willing to accept this "solution" even though it would lead to a future in which poorly-domesticated and potentially dangerous humans would attain advanced technology. Due to their new found monopoly on sedrons, the Huaoshy felt confident that the humans could ultimately be controlled and prevented form disrupting Genesaunt Civilization.

In fact, looking into the future, the Huaoshy could see that Genesaunt Civilization would be transformed by their agreement with Noÿs, but not shattered. In the Buld Reality, Interventionists would become much more active and there would come to be more diversity within Genesaunt Civilization. Because of their new monopoly on sedrons, the Huaoshy could tolerate a future with more "wild" and less "domesticated" species like humans having advanced technology.

At the end of Exode, the reader is left wondering if we Earthlings can really make use of this new opportunity won for us by Noÿs.

In my next blog post I summarize the timeline of events in the Buld Reality that shape the story Exode. The Nereids are in the right place at the right time to play a critical role in events on Earth.