Gwyned's Parents

Gwyned

In Chapter Three of Exode, Parthney arrives at Lendhalen and he is introduced to Gwyned. Gwyned was born on Earth in 1939 and teleported off of Earth in 1964. For the Buld, Gwyned is an important source of information about conditions on Earth.

What does Gwyned know about her own early life on Earth? She was raised by her parents, Trysta and Merion Iwedon in Australia. However, Merion was not her biological father. Also, Trysta's real name is Noÿs Lambent.

Fanfiction Disease
I've previously incorporated Asimov's character Noÿs Lambent into a sequel for Asimov's time travel novel The End of Eternity. For Exode, I imagine that Andrew Harlan and Noÿs lived in Hampton Virgina in 1938 where they were trying to stimulate development of research into magnetic confinement of high temperature hydrogen plasma. As depicted by Asimov in The End of Eternity, Noÿs was a time traveler from the far future. When she traveled back in time to the year 1932 she had in her body advanced nanites that could be used for many purposes. However, Noÿs made the mistake of using those nanites to push too hard to facilitate the development (in the 1930s!) of research into fusion power. (Note: this blog post contains early ideas for integrating Noÿs into the Exode backstory. I later developed a more intricate series of events that involves an additional Reality Change beyond those I was thinking of here.) The fusion research at Langley attracted the attention of Overseers and was quickly shut down. Andrew was captured and taken to the Observer base on the Moon. With the help of an Interventionist agent named Ekcolir, Noÿs escaped and went to Australia with her son.

Robin the robot

Like Parthney, Ekcolir was born on Hemmal. Noÿs came to the attention of Ekcolir because of her son, Thomas. As part of the Interventionist effort to speed cultural development on Earth, agents like Ekcolir search Earth for human variants that are resistant to having their brains infected by pek nanites. In first grade at the age of 5, Thomas is found to be reading at the level typical for high school students. Upon investigation of the boy, Ekcolir quickly confirms that there are no pek nanites in his brain, but to Ekcolir's surprise, there are other nanites present in Thomas' body.

Noÿs admits to Ekcolir that she is the source of the unusual nanites in her son's body. Rather than explain her true origin, Noÿs passes herself of as another Interventionist agent. Gwyned's biological parents are Noÿs and Ekcolir.

Parthney and Gwyned
With the help and guidance of Noÿs, Gwyned grew up in Australia and began participating in a research project for study of magnetic confinement of plasma. By 1964 Gwyned has become frustrated by military involvement in fusion research. When the opportunity arises, Gwyned decides to leave Earth. That opportunity arises through her interaction with another Interventionist agent from Hemmal, Deomede. I previously mentioned that by the time Parthney reaches Lendhalen in 1967, Gwyned has been living among the Buld for several years. At first, she is excited to hear that another human will be arriving, however Gwyned soon realizes that she is ten years older than Parthney and, worse still, he is immature and ignorant; he can't even read and he knows nothing useful about science and technology.

Port Master Thorklet

When Gwyned is teleported off of Earth by Deomede, she is first sent to the Interventionist base at Klyz. The Fru'wu are startled to discover that there are nanites in her body with design features that they have never previously seen. Not knowing that these nanites are from the far future, the Fru'wu guess that they might be Nereid nanites. The Fru'wu decide that they must attempt to regain contact with the Nereids.

Robin the Robot
The two Buld who work closely with Parthney at Lendhalen (Vozgrow and Leymaygn) do not want Parthney to become too comfortable while he is living at Lendhalen. With critical events rapidly unfolding on Earth, they want him to quickly train for his mission and then move on to Earth. However, Parthney does not adjust well to life at Lendhalen and when he shows even a small amount of interest in possibly developing a romantic relationship with Gwyned, she quickly arranges for Parthney to have a robotic companion. Among the Buld, the mechanical assistants at Lendhalen are called "pek", although that is a misnomer. Gwyned introduces Parthney to the new Earth-derived term "robot". Gwyned has a staff of robotic assistants who help with her study of Buld technology and with daily chores. Gwyned has previously named one of her robot assistants "Robin" and she loans Robin to Parthney. This almost has disastrous effects when Parthney treats Robin like a bothet.

Port Master Thorklet

Clu'ten'iun

At the end of Chapter Two, Pla'va warns Parthney that Port Master Thorklet is waiting for him. Thorklet is the only resident of Oib who Parthney meets before he is teleported to Clu'ten'iun. Thorklet briefly describes the function of the automated space station where they meet in orbit over Oib then directs Parthney to ride a space elevator down to the surface of the planet. However, rather than descend to Oib, Parthney looses consciousness and he is subjected to a strong magnetic field that inactivates the pek nanites that are in his body. He is then teleported to the planet Clu'ten'iun. When Parthney wakes up at Lendhalen he is told that the magnetic treatment disrupted his memory. He assumes that he is on Oib, as do the other residents of Clu'ten'iun.

The main characters from Chapter Three of Exode. Top row left, Pla'mak, Gwyned, Thorklet, Pla'kao.
Bottom row left, Robin, Parthney, Leymaygn, Vozgrow. Robin is a robot, Parthney and Gwyned are human.
Thorklet, Leymaygn and Vozgrow are Buld. Pla'mak and Pla'kao are Pla.

Andrew Harlen. Parthney later (1984) meets Andrew when he is taken to the Moon.
Izhiun. When Izhiun is on Earth (2011) he gets to meet Noÿs Lambent and her son Thomas.

Related reading:

• Fusion research in 1938
• review of The End of Eternity

Prophecy by Time Travel

In my previous blog post I mentioned a strange story that is passed from Noÿs to her daughter, Gwyned. Noÿs is a time traveler from 10,000,000 years in our future, so it easy to imagine that she could tell some interesting tales to the people of the 20th century. Noÿs provides Gwyned with a warning about global warming, but this takes place in the early 1960s, before there is widespread recognition of the idea that human activity can alter the global climate.

How much did Noÿs know about her own future? According to the backstory for Noÿs that was developed by Asimov in his novel The End of Eternity, she made use of advanced technology from the future that allowed her to view alternate "Realities", alternative time lines that might come into existence. Speaking to Andrew Harlen, Noÿs says, "I studied the Reality in which....you and I, together, returned to the Primitive. I saw our lives together and they were happy...."

Captain Christopher's son will command the first
manned mission to Saturn. Left. Right: Kirk.

Does Noÿs have the power of prophecy because of her use of advanced technology that allowed her to watch her future self? I've hinted that Noÿs and the humans from 10,000,000 years in the future might be prophetic in another way: because of access to special knowledge by way of their contacts with the Huaoshy, an advanced alien artificial lifeform that has god-like powers. The Huaoshy are fanatical about keeping secrets from Earthlings, so anyone with special access to the Huaoshy will know things about Earth that nobody else on Earth can know.

Journey into the Primitive
For Noÿs, the "Primitive" means specifically the 20th century. In Exode, Noÿs arrives in the 1930s and she does live happily there with Andrew for a while and they have a son, Thomas, but then Andrew is captured by the Overseers. If she was able to see her "future" life with Andrew in the 20th century then why didn't Noÿs know that Andrew would be captured, why didn't she take steps to protect Andrew?

Assignment: Earth

As Noÿs explained to Andrew, "No matter how finely we focus on a given Reality...there are fuzzy spots. One fuzzy spot spoiled things." So, although Noÿs saw into her own future, the future that she helped to create was different in detail from the future that she originally saw, planned for and tried to bring into existence. Most importantly, as described in The Start of Eternity, the Reality that Noÿs brings into existence (what I call the "Foundation Reality") is one that ultimately allows the Huaoshy to discover that positronic robots on the Moon have invented time travel.

However, regardless of the differences between the version of the Foundation Reality that Noÿs tried to bring into existence and the Reality that was actually formed, I like to imagine that Noÿs did know that Andrew might have to be sacrificed to the Overseers even before she traveled with Andrew to the 1930s. However, she would have tried to bring into existence a Reality in which Andrew avoided that fate. Similarly, she tells Andrew, "There is a probability, not a certainty, of course, that that Earth will end up with a largely radioactive crust." Asimov later described how Earth did become so radioactive that it could no longer support human life (in Robots and Empire). I imagine that Noÿs believed it was desirable for Earth to be abandoned by Humanity, for the same reason that Giskard allowed Earth to become dangerously radioactive.

Noÿs views her future in the Primitive

I imagine that Noÿs and Andrew lived "happily ever after" in the "Foundation Reality" (see below), although Andrew died long before Noÿs, simply because of the extended life span enjoyed by Noÿs. The most interesting thing about the Foundation Reality was that it eventually allowed the alien Huaoshy to realize that time travel had been invented by robots living on the Moon. With that critical understanding finally achieved, the Huaoshy set about creating another Reality in which, when the time to sacrifice Andrew approached, I imagine that Noÿs discussed with Andrew the advantage to be gained from allowing himself to be captured and he volunteered to be taken to the secret Observer Base on the Moon. I imagine that Noÿs was aware of the possibility that Overseers might notice the presence of Andrew and Noÿs in the 19th century and in anticipation of being detected she had a plan that would involve allowing Andrew to sacrifice himself so that Noÿs could escape and continue her effort to establish a future that involved control of the galaxy by Humanity.

The Foundation Reality
In The Start of Eternity, I imagined that Noÿs works in the 1930s to bring into existence the Foundation Reality, a timeline within which events unfold as told in Isaac Asimov's fictional universe. However, despite the best efforts of Noÿs, the Huaoshy develop their own time travel technology which they use to put an end to the Foundation Reality and bring into existence the Reality that we know (for reasons described below and in Exode, I call this Reality the "Buld Reality"). Further, after regaining control of their secret base on the Moon, the Huaoshy put an end to all time travel. For Exode, I imagine that Noÿs, while living in the 20th century, is contacted by time traveling Huaoshy and her efforts in the "Primitive" are re-directed towards the task of creating our Reality.

Testosterone and brain sexual dimorphisms

The Noÿs Reality. When Andrew is captured and taken off of Earth (1949), Noÿs and her young daughter, Gwyned, escape from the Overseers and go to live in Australia. Andrew is the first father that Gwyned knows, but he is not her biological father. While living in Australia, Noÿs uses the name Trysta and she eventually marries Merion Iwedon. Upon reaching adulthood, Gwyned knows Trysta and Merion as her parents and Andrew fades from her memories. Gwyned never really knows Ekcolir, her biological father, very well. Ekcolir is an Interventionist agent from Hemmal and he is something of an absentee parent. Gwyned never understands why Ekcolir only occasionally shows up to consult with "Trysta" and only stays for brief visits. Thomas is Gwyned's half brother. Thomas grows up to be a writer of  fiction: science fiction stories that involve "alternative histories". I expand on the life of Thomas in my next blog post.

Temporal Inertia
One of the features of "Reality Changes" in The End of Eternity is the inertia of time, by which Asimov meant that even if a time traveler causes an altered course of events, time tends to "heal itself" and the course of events can return to its original shape after a limited period of time travel-induced alterations.

As a further example of the resiliency of time as depicted by Asimov in The End of Eternity, the main character, Andrew, visits a library in Eternity that has records for many alternative Realities. Among the library holdings for alternate Realities of the 575th century are 15 that included novels written by Eric Linkollew, "usually described as the outstanding writer" of that century. Each of the 15 different sets of "complete works" of Linkollew are different: "One set was noticeably smaller than all the others." Asimov never explained how many alternate Realities in a particular century could be brought into existence by Reality Changes while leaving most people unchanged, but since I'm using Asimov's version of time travel for Exode, I'll adopt this feature of time travel. The Reality that we know is slightly different from any that Noÿs "viewed" in preparation for her time travel to the 20th century, but most of the people that she viewed remain the same and have an existence in our Reality.

Noÿs brings nuclear technology to the 20th century

I imagine that when Noÿs "viewed" her own future in the 20th century she saw her son Thomas and her daughter Gwyned. Gwyned grows up as a gifted science student and starts a career in physics research. I imagine that in the Foundation Reality she played an important role in the development of fusion power.

As a biological product of her two unusual parents, Gwyned is not  typical Earthling. When Gwyned is teleported off of Earth (in the Buld Reality) and arrives at Lendhalen she provides Parthney with a rather perplexing introduction to the existence of a human female who is not sexually attracted to men.

For Exode, I imagine that Noÿs comes from the far future, a time when there is only one human gender. As described by Asimov in The End of Eternity, humans "just die out" at some point in time more than 10,000,000 years in our future. Noÿs is part of a project that is designed to put an end to Eternity, the time travel system on Earth. The mere existence of Eternity is blamed for the inevitable extinction of the human species in the Mallansohn Reality. For her mission back in time, Noÿs has been surgically engineered to have the appearance of a human female of our primitive age and she has some advanced nanites that facilitate her disguise. In the Buld Reality, Gwyned, as a biological hybrid between Noÿs (with the mono-gender genes of humans in the far future) and Deomede (a false Buld from Hemmal), is genetically unable to respond to males as potential sexual partners. Parthney is not particularly attracted to Gwyned, either. They are almost two different subspecies of humans.

Leymaygn on Oib

Gender Wars
Gwyned's sexual preferences come to the attention of Deomede and when he decides to teleport her off of Earth he is happy to so. Ekcolir (in the Noÿs Reality) and Deomede (in the Buld Reality), as Interventionists, are rather aggressive and militant in their efforts to make sure that heterosexual humans inherit the Earth rather than the hermaphroditic Prelands. Also, the Overseers are all genetically modified females, which further biases Interventionist agents on Earth (who are all males) against women like Gwyned. Their prejudice against the Prelands and the Overseers often extends to include humans who are not obviously heterosexual. Deomede does not trust Gwyned so he gladly teleports her off of Earth.

Spock: "Interesting experiences...." Smirking Kirk.

When Gwyned is on Earth, her mother (Noÿs)  talks to Gwyned about certain myths and legends and she hints that they are relevant to the future of Earth. Gwyned can't make sense of what Noÿs is telling her, but later, at Lendhalen, she passes along what Noÿs said to Parthney. When Parthney reaches Earth he "connects the dots" and realizes that Noÿs provided useful information about global warming and how the Buld, soon to arrive in the Solar System, can help the Earthlings deal with their technological adolescence and problems like rising sea levels.

Parthney comes to understand the concept of global warming because of Leymaygn's skilled interpretation of Gwyned's reports about events on Earth. Leymaygn is familiar with the on-going effort to warm Oib, and she correctly recognizes the cryptic warning from Noÿs about melting glaciers and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on Earth. Leymaygn tells Parthney about the technology that is used by the Buld to transmit vast amounts of energy to Oib.

In The End of Eternity, Asimov showed the Eternals confronting the implications of people who, through the use of time travel technology, know their own futures. August Sennor proposes the theory that time paradoxes are impossible, that people cannot know their own futures: something will always prevent people from obtaining knowledge of their own future. Asimov does not adopt that conservative theory, but the people working within Eternity are depicted as having an almost superstitious aversion to even contemplating the idea of meeting yourself in time. Similarly, in Star Trek, allowing people to learn about their future was often just too much fun to avoid. In Tomorrow is Yesterday, the crew of the Enterprise tells Captain Christopher that in his future he will have a son. In Assignment: Earth, Spock and Kirk can't resist telling Roberta and Gary that they have interesting experiences ahead of them, together in their future.

The Start of Eternity: the first positronic robot.

Does Parthney go to Earth knowing his own future? Not really. He has some hints about Earth that help guide his actions, but it is only after he has made critical decisions and already acted that he realizes the meaning of the message that Noÿs provided to him by way of Gwyned. Still, with the help of Parthney that critical information persists in the Solar System and is available when Kach and Izhiun eventually arrive.

The Start of Eternity
Is Exode a sequel to The Start of Eternity? I'm not going out of my way to make sure that Noÿs can jump cleanly from the pages of The Start of Eternity into Exode. It was a happy coincidence that when I finally decided that Exode should start in the 20th century Noÿs was in the right place at the right time to play a role in Parthney's mission to Earth.

For The Start of Eternity I, originally imagined that the Huaoshy would terminate time travel in 1947. However, for Exode, I want Noÿs and Ekcolir to travel back in time, departing the 20th century from a time point in the early 1970s (possibly 1971, more than 20 years after the proposed end of time travel in The Start of Eternity). So, for Exode, I imagine that the Huaoshy put an end to time travel around 1971 rather than 1947. It might be possible to make The Start of Eternity consistent with this later date, but I'm not going to worry very much if the ultimate fate of Noÿs in Exode is slightly different. The Start of Eternity can end with events still taking place in the Noÿs Reality and Exode can be in the Buld Reality.

In The Start of Eternity I imagined that the Huaoshy lost control of their secret base on the Moon. For Exode, I imagine that when the Huaoshy allow a Buld spaceship to depart for Earth (shortly after the time when they lose control of their Moon Base in the Mallansohn Reality) doing so is part of how they create our Reality (the "Buld Reality"). This is part of the Huaoshy plan in which Ekcolir goes back into the past near end of the last glaciation where his  presence will allow the pek to prevent the positronic robots (including Gohrlay) from capturing the Moon Base that was established long ago by the Huaoshy. In exchange for her help in thwarting the revolt by positronic robots, the Huaoshy agree with Noÿs to give the humans a chance to create a technological civilization on Earth (what becomes the "Buld Reality").

Khipu

I like this "Exode variation" on the end of Eternity (in which Noÿs dies far in our past at about the time when written language first appears on Earth) better than what I had originally imagined in 2009 for The Start of Eternity. It is fun to imagine ways that "ancient Interventionists" could have left behind cultural artifacts that have gone unrecognized. In what way could Noÿs have made a cultural impact about 10,000 years ago that could have persisted and transmitted information about our present times all the way into the 20th century?

Technological Intervention

Ancient lenses?

In the original Exodemic story I imagined that Interventionist agents showed Alexander the Great how to use simple lenses to make possible a system for microscopic writing. That technology for microwriting was discovered by the Overseers and they put an end to its use on Earth, but some of the lenses remained behind as puzzles for archeologists.

For Exode, we can ask how Noÿs might have arranged to have stories about the 20th century propagate across 100 centuries. Recognized evidence for writing that was preserved in stone and clay only goes back about 50 - 100 centuries. However, it is fun to imagine that we might some day discover evidence of unusually advanced artifacts at a 10,000 year old archeological site. Some forms of mnemonic aids that might assist in the propagation of stories through long periods of time might not leave clear evidence of their existence in ancient times. Noÿs is able to compare the ancient myths of the Noÿs Reality and the Buld Reality and notice a difference that she attributes to her own presence on Earth 10,000 years ago.

The Buld Reality

Sequence of Realities: Eternity, Foundation, Noÿs, and Buld.

Before the Huaoshy can cause the "Buld Reality" (which is the world as we know it) to come into existence, there is an intermediate "Noÿs Reality". In the Noÿs Reality the Huaoshy take control of their Base on the Moon at a point during the 20th century. In the Noÿs Reality, Noÿs lives out her life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Under the influence of Noÿs, advanced nuclear technology is developed and Earth never makes heavy use of fossil fuels and never goes into an age of serious global warming and catastrophic sea level rise. However, Earth suffers a nuclear catastrophe instead. The Huaosy show Noÿs that future and in so doing, gain the help of Noÿs for initiating another Reality Change. By sending Ekcolir back into the distant past at the end of the last glaciation the Huaoshy are able to keep control of Observer Base on the Moon and arrange for a Buld spaceship to arrive in the Solar System early in to 21st century. At the end of Exode, we are left wondering if Earthlings can make use of Buld technology to prevent catastrophic sea level rise.

My next blog post further sorts out the differences between the Noÿs Reality an the Buld Reality.

Exode Evolution

Exode pulped

This blog post is the first of three related posts that allow me to catch my breath and reflect on how the stories Exode and The Foundations of Eternity have been maturing.

This post allows me to reflect on the mysterious origins of my current fiction writing obsession, the science fiction story Exode. Exode tells the story of the Prelands, the newest primate species that was designed to replace we humans on Earth.

I recap some of the key design features of the story including all the alien species (such as the Fru'wu) and the various special subtypes of humans that appear in the story (including the Ek'col).

At the end of this blog post I mention some of the remaining parts of the story that I'm still actively piecing together. Along the way I'll include some of the art work for Exode and related stories that I mention.

Origins of Exode
2011 was a frustrating fiction writing year for me because I had very little time for writing. With 2012 approaching I played around with a story idea (The Olmec Intervention) that supposed Earth had experience a catastrophic disaster in the year 2012 of a previous Reality, but then time travel had been used to create a new Reality which corrected the fundamental cause of the disaster, saving we Earthlings. Hooray!

Actually, The Olmec Intervention is rather dark and it deals with human sacrifice. I tried to imagine how Interventionists might be allowed to act more aggressive on worlds like Earth if the Overseers could at any time "reset the game" and correct any problems...problems like the destruction of the human species. That writing project reminded me of the wisdom of Asimov's approach to time travel in his novel The End of Eternity, but I also gained some experience in thinking about how information might be "leaked" from one Reality to another. As I'll describe in the next two blog posts, Exode depends on some rather tricky movement of people from one Reality to another.

By the time 2012 arrived I was ready for a new fiction writing project. As a sufferer of Fanfiction Disease, I always feel temptation to extend and elaborate on the science fiction stories of others, so I spent the first part of 2012 on a few fanfiction writing escapades such as Departure from Nor'Dyren. I started thinking about the design of lifeforms for the purpose of facilitating interstellar travel at sub-light speeds. Eventually these ideas led to the Buld as a major element of Exode.

By thinking about how I might write a sequel to Sydney Van Scyoc's novel, Assignment Nor'Dyren, I was stimulated to look back at the first story ever written in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, the science fiction novel Exodemic. Exodemic is an alternate history story in which the fictional history of Earth starts to diverge from actual history back in the year 1759.

Starting with one woman who was saved from death by an alien-designed virus, the story follows her descendants a few generations to Franny who becomes one of the first female medical doctors in England. However, when the Overseers finally realize that she should not exist, Franny is taken off of Earth and she has a chance to travel between the stars and explore Genesaunt Civilization.

While blogging about the alternative history of Exodemic, I started to have some new thoughts about the backstory and motivations of the Interventionists who cause so much trouble in stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. When I originally wrote Exodemic back in the early 2000s, I had no intention of allowing time travel to be a part of the Exodemic Fictional Universe. However, after my experience of writing The Start of Eternity, a fanfiction sequel to Asimov's time travel novel, I had become much more comfortable with the idea that there can be a role for time travel and other advanced technologies in shaping the modus operandi of Interventionists in the Exodemic Fictional Universe.


While blogging about Exodemic and related stories back in early 2012 I was reminded of Carl Sagan and how much I wish he had been able to produce a sequel to his movie Contact.

During March 2012, I finally allowed myself to indulge in the fun of sketching out my ideas for a fanfiction television series that would be a sequel to Carl Sagan's movie, Contact. Of course, I placed the Contact television series in the Exodemic Fictional Universe.

I had previously included teleportation technology in The Search for Kalid, but while thinking about the Contact television series I began to think about alternative ways to incorporate teleportation technology into stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. I've now taken a similar approach in Exode.

Also, while planning the Contact television series, I developed some new ideas for how nanites might interact with human brains. I finally started thinking systematically about the roles for distinctly different "generations" of nanites: 1) nanites made of conventional matter, 2) nanites composed of hierions, and 3) nanites composed of sedronic matter. These ideas carried over into Exode where various types of nanites such as "Noÿs nanites" (advanced nanites of the Asterothropes) play important roles in the story.

left to right: Ellie, Palmer and Dr. Wye.

By April of 2012 I was fairly clear in my thinking about the importance of advanced nanites for Dr. Wye, a key Interventionist in the Contact television series.

I created the Encyclopedia of Future Science as a place where I could write down the backstory for the advanced technologies that appear in the Exodemic Fictional Universe.

Start Exode
During May 2012 I started the story Exode. I wanted this new story to incorporate some of the advanced technological tools that I had provided to Interventionist agents in the Contact television series (such as teleportation). I initially envisioned a rather flamboyant Interventionist agent on Earth who used the name Henry (Hank) Montpellier. As originally envisioned, in Chapter One of Exode, Hank would teleport an Earth woman, Hana Davyon, off of Earth, starting her on an exploration of the distant worlds of the Interventionists. My main goal was to provide a more detailed account of the motives and methods of Interventionists than I had previously written into any story set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. My plan was for the reader to discover the motives of Interventionists by following Hana on her adventures.

Hank's House

Hank involves himself with Hana because the Interventionists on Earth have long been using women such as Hana as biological experiments. The Interventionists have been rather desperately trying to alter the human population of Earth so as to assure that Earthlings will be prepared to withstand the stress of their immanent First Contact with an arriving Buld spaceship.

Right from the start, there was some mystery surrounding Hana's husband. I explored the possibility of killing him off, but he was too valuable to meet such a fate.

In previous stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe I developed my thinking about how aliens, over the course of millions of years, guided the evolution of primates to produce the human species. Exode follows this guided evolution process to the next logical step.

Exode introduces the Prelands, an advanced primate variant that has been designed to replace us, the current inhabitants of Earth. I was concerned about making the Prelands too different from us...too alien...in particular, they seldom use spoken language. It is important that readers feel some anxiety about the idea that the Prelands were designed to inherit the Earth and that we, the current "owners of Earth", would be tossed on the trash heap of evolution.

Hank's birth name is Parthney. Parthney was born on the distant planet Hemmal. While I had originally planned to let Hana introduce readers to the worlds that give rise to Interventionist agents, I quickly switched gears and decided to let readers first experience Hemmal through the eyes of Parthney while he is just a kid, before he became an Interventionist agent. So, rather than begin Exode with Hank and Hana on Earth, the story starts on Hemmal, a world of the galactic core.

After realizing that I should begin Exode with the story of Parthney's origins, my thinking about the story quickly expanded to include other characters from Hemmal. Soon I knew that there should be a central role for a human woman from Hemmal, Kach, in "presenting the case" for allowing we primitive Earthlings to NOT be replaced by Prelands. I imagined Kach relentlessly searching for the aliens who were planning to let the Prelands inherit the Earth. How might she make an argument on our behalf? How would you? Sadly, Kach will never be satisfied with the results of her quest to contact the aliens who have created we humans. The Creators have very little interest in us...or any biological species.

Alien Fru'wu

By September 2012 I was busily constructing some of the backstory for Parthney and his fellow Interventionists. I Imagined two alien species who would support and work with the human Interventionists: 1) the Fru'wu and 2) the Nereids. The Fru'wu evolved on a planet in our galaxy, but the Nereids are from the Andromeda galaxy.

Parthney and Kach briefly meet before Parthney goes off to Earth. They are brought together again after he completes his mission on Earth and Parthney, to his surprise, learns that he has a son, Boswei. With help from the Fru'wu, Parthney, Kach, Boswei and Hana go to the Andromeda galaxy in an attempt to make contact with the mysterious Nereids. Kach mistakenly suspects that the Nereids are the Creators.

Not being particularly interested in Kach's fruitless search for the Creators, Boswei and Hana take up residence on the planet Luk'ru, at first unaware of the special role that that world has played as the origin of the Kac'hin. Years later, near the end of Exode, their first child, Izhiun, eventually travels to Earth.

Part of the fun in creating Exode is pretending that it is NOT fiction. Through all of The Foundations of Eternity and Exode the people of Earth remain unaware of the fact that our species was designed and created by aliens. However, by the end of Exode we humans have finally earned the right to learn the secret history of Earth.

Yandrey

In October 2012 I decided to pretend that I am Hana's husband. This allows me to play the role of someone trying to reconstruct the Exode story from information provided to me by Izhiun and Thomas. Around that time, the story was becoming clearly defined and constrained by the differences between Prelands, the Buld and the "false" Buld and the other human variants who appear in Exode. Some of the unique biology of these different human variants (such as the Buld "Change") are described in this blog post. Yandrey, a friend and mentor of Parthney on Hemmal, has avoided going through the change for 15,000 years! Several other characters in Exode are also ancient humans, kept alive through the centuries by "medical nanites".

In November 2012 I tried to decide on the role of religious faith as a motivating drive behind Kach's relentless search for the Creators of Humanity. This decision led to my eventual invention of the special biological background of Kach as a "false Kac'hin" (see below).

Parthney and Pla'va

In December 2012 I still had no clear idea of the motivations of the Nereids and the Interventionists in general. This blog post summarizes my thinking at the end of 2012 and explicitly asks some of the lingering questions I had about the story and how it would unfold. I was still in search of a satisfactory way to make sure that "Interventionists are not just a simple band of renegades".

Exode 2013
At the start of 2013 I was finally ready to send Parthney on his journey into outer space. I soon discovered that in addition to the Prelands and the Buld Clan, I needed another human group, the Pla. The first Pla who Parthney meets is Pla'va, the spaceship pilot who shuttles him away from Hemmal.

The Pla can make use of "partial change" and so retain some degree of resistance to pek nanites. The Pla constitute the core of the human Interventionists who are aided by the Fru'wu. Parthney is startled to discover that Pla'va has made an effort to abandon the hermaphroditic Buld phenotype and adopt the female gender and attain a conventional human female phenotype. Parthney is tempted to accept Pla'va's offer and stay with her, but something drives him onward towards the distant and mysterious planet -Earth.

Gwyned in her lab

I had originally imagined that the secret Interventionist training base was located under the surface of Oib. However, Oib is just the convenient "cover" used by the Pla. Pla'va takes Parthney to Oib in her spaceship, but then he is secretly teleported to Lendhalen, which is actually located on Clu'ten'iun.

Early in 2013 I finally settled my thinking about exactly when the events of Exode take place and I entered into the complex process of establishing the identities and backstories of the Exode characters who would train Parthney for his mission to Earth. In particular, Gwyned is an Earthling who resides at Lendhalen. Gwyned was originally imagined to be "the Hana of the previous generation", but her backstory quickly expanded in an unexpected direction (see Gwyned's Parents).

Also, I knew that there must be a special robotic character at Lendhalen, and that character's importance grew rapidly along with Gwyned's, although it took six month for me to realize that the robot's name was Syon.

By the end of January 2013 I had in hand a basic sketch of events that unfold during Parthney's time at Lendhalen, but I was still struggling to come to grips with the backstory and motivations for the Interventionists. And: why were the pek seemingly complicit with the scheming Interventionists by allowing Parthney to go off to Lendhalen?

I started sketching in details for the Interventionists at Lendhalen such as Leymaygn, Vozgrow, Pla'mak and Pla'kao. I decided that Parthney would not go directly from Lendhalen to Earth, but rather, would stop off at the Klyz teleportation hub. I began filling in some of the backstory for the thousands-of-years-long secret history of contact between the Buld and Earth.

Exode the Sequel

In February 2013 I made the discovery that Gwyned is the daughter of Noÿs Lambent. This led to the realization that Exode is a sequel to The Foundations of Eternity.

This discovery surprised me and caused a major shift in my thinking about Exode which was mostly complete by April. I added in some backstory for Noÿs, more clearly defining her biological nature as a human from the far future, although that process continues. I realized that Parthney, like Gwyned, is genetically related to Noÿs through the Ek'col. Further, Parthney is a clone of Thomas.

Similarly, Kach received a more interesting and complex backstory that explains her innate connection to the Creators. She is a "false Kac'hin". I was happy with this plot twist, because I had long been bothered by the idea that Captain Hooski is a Huaoshy. It makes much more sense to say that Hooski is Kac'hin, although thon might sometimes pretend to be Huaoshy.

Remaining Mysteries
As described above, much of the plot structure for Exode and many key characters have fallen into place and revealed themselves. I'm still feeling rather baffled by the way that Exode has grown and morphed during the past year!

I'm currently trying to clarify my thinking about how Gwyned should go about encouraging Parthney to look for her brother Thomas on Earth and how that leads to a meeting between Parthney and Janet Asimov. She gives Parthney a copy of a science fiction story that was written by Thomas under the pen name "Saul Greek".

"Moon Base" by Jon Hrubesch

Parthney quickly realizes that there are elements of truth in the fiction of Thomas...hints about the immanent arrival of a Buld spaceship. The Overseers of Earth have long searched for Thomas, so his interest in Thomas eventually leads Parthney into a trap and he is captured by Overseers and taken to the Moon. In the end, I want it to be clear to readers that Gwyned's presence at Lindhalen was designed to lead Parthney into the Overseer trap.

Another lingering issue is Hana's son, who she leaves behind on Earth...should he play any role in the later part of Exode? I'm tempted to transform "him" into a girl who will grow up and meet Izhiun when he reaches Earth (see Hilde).

One of the great ironies of Exode is that Kach is driven to seek out and contact the Nereids because she is a false Kac'hin. However, because she is Kac'hin, the Nereids don't want to have anything to do with her. This leads to great frustration for Kach. Eventually Kach goes to Earth and then returns (with the help of Izhiun). At that point, will the Nereids finally relent and satisfy Kach's curiosity?

I like the idea that after the Buld reach Earth, the Nereids will be willing to "lighten up" and trust Kach. I would not mind finding a way to get Kach and Parthney back together. Maybe the end of Exode should be a scene showing Kach and Parthney heading off on a new mission among the stars, again renewing Kach's search for the Creators.

There are several outstanding issues related to the long history of Interventionist activity on Earth. For the part of Exode that describes the time when Parthney is in training at Lendhalen I want to sprinkle in a few examples of Earthlings who came to Lendhalen as well as some tales about famous agents who were sent off to Earth.

Noÿs viewing Realities

In general, for the Interventionists at Lendhalen, the only source of information about what various Interventionist agents have done on Earth comes from the stories told by the Earthlings who those agents teleported off of Earth. Gwyned tells Parthney some stories about Deomede, the Interventionist agent who is her father. Parthney does not know that Deomede is "almost his father". Parthney is a clone of Thomas and Thomas' father was Ekcolir, the analog of Deomede in the previous Reality.

Timeline
Back at the end of March I put together a timeline for Exode. Since then, I've thought about how Exode can mesh with The Foundations of Eternity. In my next blog post I'll sketch out an updated summary of the various Reality Changes that lead to the Buld Reality, our Reality, the Reality of Exode. Then, in the final post of this series, I'll provide a more accurate timeline for events in the Buld Reality that reflects to plot changes and character additions that have come into focus since March. In some cases, I've changed the way I use certain names, such as affixing "Trysta" and "Merion" to Noÿs and Andrew as soon as they arrive in the 20th century.

Parthney and the Ek'col

Hank's house in Vermont

About a year ago I started thinking about a new science fiction story that would reveal how we humans were designed, created and scheduled for replacement during the past quarter million years. The first two characters that I had in mind met on Earth and were called Henry Montpellier and Hana Davgon. Of course, "Hank" Montpellier was just a cover name for a mysterious visitor from a distant planet and I later decided that his birth name was Parthney. The spelling of Hana's name has since morphed to "Davyon" and the story was given the name Exode.

I originally imagined calling Chapter One of Exode "Vermont" since that was where "Hank" had a dramatic scene with Hana and that was from where he teleported her away to a distant planet (now called Klyz).

Parthney the Interventionist

secret agent Robert Lansing

My original plan was to follow Hana when she left Earth and allow readers to learn about Genesaunt civilization by way of her experiences. However, Henry Montpellier quickly captured my attention and before long I realized that Parthney would be the main character of Exode.

In a very real sense, Parthney became my version Gary Seven since I decided to equip Parthney with teleportation technology similar to that depicted in the Star Trek episode Assignment: Earth.

I can easily imagine Robert Lansing playing the role of secret agent James Bond, but it would be laughable to cast Parthney as a shrewd and tough agent. I've previously had some fun mocking Parthney in his role as an Interventionist agent. In fact, Parthney was sent off to Earth with the expectation that he would bumble around on Earth and be captured by the Overseers.

Parthney (to the right); Reginal (center)

Garage Band Parthney
Picture a kid down the street who dropped out of high school and who spends his days playing music in his parent's garage with his buddies...that's a good first approximation of Parthney as a young man on Hemmal. Snicker all you like: I feel no obligation to equip Exode with a conventional science fiction hero.

On the planet of Parthney's birth there is no real concept of a "rock star". First of all, nobody on Hemmal has ever heard of Rock and Roll music. Second, there is only one other human on Hemmal and she's not a fan of Parthney's style of music. However, the young Parthney is something like the Hollywood stereotype rock star in that he seems to always have a pretty girl on his arm.

I do mean "seems". Parthney is in his 60s before he finally "gets the girl". Up until then, his sexual partners are an odd collection of robots, other assorted artificial lifeforms and a surgically altered member of the Buld Clan.

Parthney starts climbing out of his adolescence, not when he is kicked out of his parent's basement, but, rather, when he is kicked off of his home planet. Parthney never actually gets to meet his parents since he is a clone and his parents are long dead. His birth mother is Reginal, a pek.

What is Parthney's crime that gets him booted off Hemmal? Making fun of musical conventions of the Prelands. The Prelands take their music seriously and they view Hemmal as their world and they insist that the Buld behave like guests. While living on Hemmal, Parthney is known as a "false Buld", which means he is viewed a mutant member of the Buld Clan. In fact, Parthney's genetic background is more complex than that, but he is one of only two humans on the planet. The term "human" is a problem in this context: more specifically I should say "humans who are genetically similar to Earthlings".

Although, it must be said that the Buld are almost human...they have an extra pair of chromosomes not found in we Earthlings. And the Prelands are Human Version 2.0, the next in the long line of primates that have been designed and crafted by the pek. The Prelands were designed to replace we humans. Hemmal is a convenient planet where Parthney can be born and grow up speaking English.

Noÿs

When Parthney leaves Hemmal he is on his way to Earth. If Parthney can be said to have a mission in life it is this: he was created so that he could play a role in giving we Earthlings a chance to survive. Originally, it was our fate to become extinct and be replace by Prelands.

Our chance for survival was won by Parthney's mother, a time traveler from the far future of Earth. Just as the name "Gary Seven" is never mentioned in Exode, the name of Parthney's mother is also not included in the pages of Exode. However, I don't mind saying -here- that Parthney's genetic mother is Noÿs, a character from Asimov's time travel novel The End of Eternity.

As described in The Start of Eternity, Noÿs is living in the 20th century when the Huaoshy have their opportunity to put the positronic robots out of the time travel business and regain control of Observer Base on the Moon.

The Ek'col
While writing The Start of Eternity I imagined that Noÿs and Harlan would live out their lives together in 20th century Earth. Later, while developing Exode, I decided that Harlan would be captured by the Overseers and Noÿs would go on to have two children fathered by Ekcolir/Deomede. Ekcolir and Deomede are the same person, they just exist in two different Realities.

Noÿs and Ekcolir have a son who they name Thomas. Parthney is genetically identical to Thomas. Parthney is interesting genetically because both Noÿs and Ekcolir have unusual genes. Noÿs is from 10,000,000 years in the future along the timeline of the Mallansohn Reality. Ekcolir is an Ek'col. The Ek'col are a variant of the human species that was designed specifically by the Huaoshy to be able to  breed with Noÿs and produce a male descendant.

As discussed previously, there are some major biological differences between Noÿs and Earthlings of the 20th century. Noÿs is from a population of humans where there are no males, only females and hermaphrodites. During her negotiations with the Huaoshy, it was agreed that Noÿs would not remain on Earth past 1974. However, while using Huaoshy "Reality viewing" technology, Noÿs selected a Reality in which she saw her son welcoming a Buld spaceship to Earth in the year 2012.

In order for Noÿs to have a son, the Huaoshy created the Ek'col. There are several genetically distinct types of human in Exode:
1) Earthlings
2) the Overseers are a genetically modified variant of Homo neanderthalensis.
3) the Buld Clan; specialized for space travel
4) the Kac'hin
5) the Prelands; designed to replace we Earthlings
6) the Ek'col

Kach

The Ek'col were designed after the Huaoshy realized that positronic robots had invented time travel. The Buld and the Kac'hin already existed, but they were heavily utilized to help prepare Earth for the Buld Reality. All three of these human variants were provided with some of the genetic features of Prelands, most noticeably, they are hermaphroditic (although the Ek'col are not exclusively hermaphrodites). The Buld were designed to specialize in travel between stars using spaceships that travel just below the speed of light. The Kac'hin were designed to function as humanoid "puppets" that allow the Huaoshy to interact directly with humans (this is important in The Start of Eternity). Both the Buld and the Kac'hin have extra pairs of chromosomes compared to we Earthlings. However, mutant Buld and Kac'hin can be born who lack those extra chromosomes. During the past 15,000 years quite a few "false Buld" have been sent to Earth as Interventionist agents.

The Kac'hin were created on the planet Luk'ru in the Andromeda galaxy. Parthney, Kach, Boswei and Izhiun all get to interact with some hermaphroditic Kac'hin on Luk'ru. Kach is the only "false Kac'hin" in Exode.

Gwyned

Exode does not show the home world of the Ek'col, a planet which is populated mostly by hermaphrodites. The Ek'col were designed to have androdioecy. The Ek'col have a large collection of gene combinations derived from Noÿs. Also, the Ek'col have some phenotypic features that differ from those commonly found among we Earthlings. The most obvious anatomical difference is that that the Ek'col have 4 fewer teeth than we Earthlings.

Exode includes two Ek'col/human hybrids who are the children of Noÿs. Gwyned is the daughter of Deomede and Noÿs. Phenotypically female, she has no interest in males. Born in 1939 and growing up on Earth, Gwyned is not very happy.

When Gwyned is teleported off Earth and sent to Lendhalen, she is exposed to a powerful magnetic field that is designed to remove nanites from her body. She learns that she has lived her entire life on Earth with nanite symbionts in her body that have disguised the fact that she has unusually small finger nails and no toe nails. When Parthney arrives at Lendhalen he has the same experience. As the son of Ekcolir and Noÿs, Parthney is Gwyned's sister.

Parthney at Lendhalen

When Parthney first meets Gwyned at Lendhalen, she is working in her laboratory and wearing gloves that hide her hands. She notices that Parthney has finger nails like her own, but she hides from Parthney the fact that they both share this unusual anatomical feature.

Noÿs, from 10,000,000 years in the future, has no finger or toe nails and fewer teeth than we Earthlings. While interacting with humans in her distant past, her futuristic anatomy is disguised by by nanite symbionts that she carries in her body. The Ek'col were designed so as to make sure that hybrid children of Noÿs and an Ek'col male retain the ability to host the type of nanite that Noÿs brought with her from the future.

When Parthney reaches Klyz he is provided with new "Noÿs nanites" that allow him to function on Earth as an Interventionist agent without his unusual anatomy being noticed.