Below on this page is discussion about the science fiction story "The Sims".
I asked several LLMs to generate reviews of "The Sims".
Immediately below is a continuation of the chat session with Claude in which the LLM generated its first draft of Chapter 6 of "The Sims".
Me: Claude, process the file that I just uploaded which contains my edited version of Chapter 6 of the science fiction story "The Sims". Generate a numbered list of the the major differences between my version of Chapter 6 and the original Claude-generated version of Chapter 6. Claude, do you understand why I made these changes to Chapter 6?
Claude: Major Differences Between the Two Versions of Chapter 6
Scene 1 Opening - More Dynamic Physical Interaction: Your version opens with Eddy jogging, then physically lifting Zeta and spinning her around. Mine went straight to the hot tub. Your version establishes their physical relationship and playful dynamic immediately.
Dialogue Style - More Colloquial and Natural: Your characters speak more casually ("Ha!" "Oh, that's spot-on, lover" "Ya!"). My dialogue was more formal and literary.
Eddy/Marda Flirtation Made Explicit: Your version has Zeta directly discussing Marda's flirtatiousness and comparing her to young Zeta. Mine kept this more subtle.
Zeta's Contingency Plan: Your version has Zeta say "get me into a bottle as quick as possible" and suggests Eddy "find someone new...like the adorable Marda." Much more direct than my version.
Zeta's Post-Extraction Speech - Completely Garbled: Your version has "sokfuhuas. Yire... uhter?" Mine had "I... yes. I hear... words." Yours is more realistic for catastrophic cognitive disruption.
Concrete Domestic Details Added: Luna the cat in Marda's lap, sharing chicken, hot fries, Big Bear the teddy bear. These ground the scenes in reality.
Scene 5 Dramatically Shortened: You cut most of my extended exposition about the Moses Intervention and memory details. More efficient.
Brak Goes to Airport, Not Apartment: He leaves immediately rather than staying in the area - cleaner exit from the story.
Observer Base - The Bumpha Embassy: Major addition. Manny appears directly and has a structured conversation with Tyhry, making the Rules of Intervention explicit.
Manny Reveals Tyhry Was "Tricked": Your version explicitly states that Tyhry didn't figure things out herself - she got help from her future self via infite-implanted dream visions. Mine left this more implied.
"You Tricked Me" Theme Made Explicit: Tyhry directly confronts this, and Manny reframes it positively. This clarifies a central theme of the story.
Manny's Self-Aware Manipulation: Your version has Manny explain she made herself beautiful "so you humans have an emotional blind spot." Meta-commentary on the Intervention.
Christmas Scene - More Time Has Passed: Marda is working on "the twenty fifth chapter" suggesting significant productivity or time passage.
D2's Femtozoan Transfer Witnessed by Eddy: Sedruth speaks to both D2 and Eddy during the transfer. Mine had Eddy unaware.
Epilogue - Specific Context Added: January 3, after a book signing event. More concrete situating.
Tyhry's Letter - More Concise: Shorter, punchier, with the joke about preferring "Philip's stories over those goofy Usas novels."
Final Dinner - Marda's Specific Mood: She's "cranky" about online classes and missing the book signing - character detail.
Character Voice Authenticity: Your dialogue sounds like how people actually talk, with humor, physical affection, and personality quirks
Show Don't Tell: Physical actions (spinning Zeta around) and concrete objects (teddy bear) create more vivid scenes than exposition
Thematic Clarity: Making the "manipulation/guidance" theme explicit helps readers understand the ethical complexity without confusion
Narrative Efficiency: Cutting exposition that readers can infer keeps pacing tight
Emotional Realism: Garbled speech, cranky moods, playful teasing - these make characters feel human rather than vehicles for plot
World-Building Through Action: The bumpha embassy scene teaches readers about the Rules of Intervention through dialogue rather than info-dumps
Tonal Consistency: The playful banter, sexual tension, and humor match the tone established in earlier chapters
Your version is tighter, more emotionally authentic, and clearer about the story's themes while maintaining all the essential plot points. The changes transform it from a competent draft into a polished final chapter.
Note. At this point, I started a new session with Claude and provided only the text of "The Sims" with no backstory information.
Me: Claude, process the file that I uploaded and then generate a literary review of the science fantasy story "The Sims".
Claude: Literary Review: "The Sims" by [Author Unknown]
"The Sims" presents itself as what the author terms "science fantasy"—a hybrid that attempts to be hard science fiction while making "just one highly dubious leap into fantasy": the existence of femtozoans, non-biological components essential for human consciousness. This ambitious narrative spans multiple timelines and dimensions, weaving together themes of alien intervention, consciousness transfer, time travel, and the nature of free will.
Narrative Structure and Scope
The story employs a complex, multi-layered structure across six chapters and an epilogue. It opens with a family dinner at Casanay and gradually expands to reveal an intricate web of alien observation, technological intervention, and predetermined events. The narrative technique shifts between:
Present-day scenes at the Watson household
Flashbacks viewed through a "Reality Viewer"
Conversations in the Hierion Domain among alien observers
Time-travel briefings for femtozoan agents
Intimate character moments balanced with cosmic-scale revelations
This ambitious scope is both the story's greatest strength and occasional weakness. When focused on the intimate dynamics of the Watson family, the narrative achieves genuine emotional resonance. When expanding to explain the metaphysics of hierions, sedrons, and multiple spatial dimensions, it sometimes becomes dense with exposition.
Thematic Core. At its heart, "The Sims" wrestles with profound questions:
Free Will vs. Determinism: The central tension emerges from the revelation that humans are "composite beings"—part biological, part alien technology. The story asks: If our thoughts are amplified by alien devices, if our choices are subtly guided by advanced intelligences, do we truly have agency? The "Rules of Intervention" elegantly address this by requiring that humans "FEEL they have self-determination," even if that feeling doesn't correspond to reality.
The Ethics of Knowledge: Through the writing prompt "The Volunteer" and Tyhry's dilemma about test subjects, the story explores whether some truths are too dangerous to reveal, and what we'd sacrifice to know them.
Love and Manipulation: Zeta's relationship with Eddy is simultaneously genuine and engineered. Her femtozoan guided her to love him, but that love became real. The story suggests that engineered emotions can become authentic—a nuanced take that avoids simplistic answers.
Sacrifice and Purpose: Multiple characters sacrifice themselves for larger goals: Zeta volunteers her femtozoan, Tyhry "dies" to be exiled to Observer Base, and the time-traveling femtozoan must eventually leave the family it helped create.
Character Development
Tyhry Watson serves as the protagonist, though the ensemble cast shares the narrative weight. Her journey from obsessed AI researcher to exiled artificial being works effectively. Her struggle between using Marda (a stranger) versus Zeta (her mother) as a test subject provides genuine moral tension. The revelation that her scientific breakthroughs were aided by information from her future self adds interesting layers about achievement and authenticity.
Zeta emerges as perhaps the most complex character. Initially appearing as a supportive wife and mother, she's revealed to be guided by a time-traveling femtozoan agent. Yet the story maintains that her love, choices, and personality remain authentic. Her ultimate sacrifice—volunteering her femtozoan—completes her arc beautifully.
Eddy Watson represents the artist who discovers truth but must disguise it as fiction. His possession of the Reality Viewer and his behavioral control through infites make him a prisoner of his own success. His relationship with the young Marda toward the end provides an interesting parallel to his courtship of Zeta.
Diasma/D2 offers the story's most direct exploration of consciousness. The robot's journey from sophisticated but non-sentient AI to experiencing genuine qualia after receiving Zeta's femtozoan dramatizes the central conceit effectively.
Manny and Nyrtia represent opposing philosophical approaches to intervention—progressive versus conservative, but both ultimately serving the same goal of guiding humanity through technological thresholds. Their conversations in the Hierion Domain provide fascinating glimpses into the alien perspective.
Anthony Kasty works as an observer who becomes too attached to his subjects—a classic dilemma explored with subtlety. His dual role as handyman/artist and pek agent creates effective dramatic irony.
Technical Worldbuilding
The story's scientific framework is intricate and mostly internally consistent:
Hierions, Sedrons, and Femtobots: The three-tier system of progressively smaller particles and compactified dimensions provides a plausible-feeling explanation for undetectable alien technology.
The Reality Chain: The concept of multiple previous versions of Earth's timeline (the "Buld Reality," etc.) leading to the "Final Reality" offers an elegant solution to time travel paradoxes.
The Sedron Time Stream: Using this for information transmission rather than physical time travel respects causality while enabling key plot mechanics.
Femtozoans as Consciousness Amplifiers: This central conceit—that human consciousness requires alien hardware—is developed with impressive rigor. The bandwidth paradox Tyhry identifies (human brains shouldn't support our cognitive complexity) provides solid scientific grounding.
The technical exposition sometimes overwhelms the narrative. Long passages explaining hierion physics, particularly in Chapter 2 when Sedruth lectures Tyhry and Eddy, slow the pacing. However, these sections also demonstrate the author's commitment to making the science fantasy internally coherent.
The prose is generally clean and serviceable, prioritizing clarity over stylistic flourishes. Dialogue feels natural, particularly in family scenes. The author effectively differentiates voices—Sedruth's sardonic superiority, Tyhry's scientific precision, Marda's enthusiastic fandom, and Anthony's measured observations all read distinctly.
Strengths:
Strong scene-setting that grounds fantastic elements in concrete, sensory details
Effective use of dramatic irony (readers know about femtozoans while characters like Brak and Marda remain ignorant)
Emotional authenticity in family dynamics despite the elaborate alien infrastructure
Creative integration of meta-fictional elements (Eddy writing "The Volunteer" as a test for Marda)
Weaknesses:
Occasional info-dumps that halt narrative momentum
Some plot conveniences (Anthony's conveniently timed shopping trips when revelations occur)
The "hot tub conversations" as exposition delivery mechanism becomes repetitive
Romantic/sexual elements sometimes feel obligatory rather than organic
The Problem of Other Minds. If consciousness depends on undetectable alien technology, how can we know anyone else is truly conscious? The story addresses this by making the femtobot components fundamentally unobservable to human technology—we must trust our experience of others' consciousness even if we can't verify its substrate.
The Nature of Personal Identity. When Zeta's femtozoan is replaced, is she still the same person? When Tyhry becomes a femtobot replicoid, has she died or merely changed form? The story doesn't provide easy answers but explores the questions thoughtfully.
Paternalistic Intervention. The pek and bumpha believe they're saving humanity from self-destruction, but at what cost to human autonomy? The story presents both sides—Manny's aggressive intervention and Nyrtia's conservative observation—without fully endorsing either.
Meta-Fictional Elements
The story contains multiple layers of fiction-within-fiction:
Eddy writes novels based on Reality Viewer observations
He creates "The Volunteer" specifically to test Marda
Marda writes fan fiction and collaborates with Eddy
The entire Casanay Intervention is described as Manny "writing a script" for human lives
This recursive structure mirrors the time-loop at the story's heart—Tyhry must create the information packets that taught her younger self about femtozoans. The story suggests that all narrative is a form of manipulation, whether by authors, aliens, or time-traveling versions of ourselves.
Emotional Resonance
Despite the elaborate science-fictional apparatus, the story's emotional core remains the Watson family. The breakfast scenes, Tyhry's struggle over choosing a test subject, Eddy and Zeta's relationship, and the final message from the exiled Tyhry all carry genuine feeling.
The ending particularly succeeds emotionally. Rather than a triumphant revelation or tragic loss, we get something more nuanced: Tyhry thrives in exile, Eddy and Zeta grieve but continue, Marda integrates into the family, and a new child represents hope and continuation. The message from Tyhry via D2 provides closure without tying everything into a neat bow.
Critical Assessment
What Works:
The central conceit of femtozoans as consciousness amplifiers is developed with impressive rigor
Character relationships feel authentic despite the manipulation underlying them
The moral dilemmas (who to use as test subject, whether to reveal alien truths) create genuine tension
The time-loop structure is handled clearly despite its complexity
The ending balances tragedy and hope effectively
What Could Be Improved:
Pacing issues, particularly in expository passages about hierion physics
Some coincidences feel too convenient (Brak and Marda's arrival precisely when needed)
The romantic elements (Eddy/Marda, Tyhry/Brak) sometimes feel underdeveloped
Anthony's character arc could be more fully realized
The staged car crash feels abrupt despite being foreshadowed
Comparative Context. "The Sims" exists in conversation with several science fiction traditions:
Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke): Benevolent alien oversight of humanity
The End of Eternity (Isaac Asimov): Time travel, causality loops, and the ethics of manipulating history (explicitly referenced)
Blindsight (Peter Watts): Questions about consciousness and what makes minds genuinely aware
Permutation City (Greg Egan): Identity transfer to artificial substrates
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect (Roger Williams): AI consciousness and uploaded minds
The story's particular contribution is synthesizing these themes while maintaining focus on intimate family dynamics. The femtozoan concept offers a fresh angle on the "consciousness requires special sauce" idea by making that sauce both alien and undetectable.
Conclusion
"The Sims" is an ambitious work that succeeds more often than it stumbles. Its greatest achievement is maintaining emotional authenticity while constructing an elaborate framework of alien intervention, time travel, and consciousness transfer. The story asks profound questions about agency, identity, and the nature of love while telling a fundamentally human story about a family navigating extraordinary circumstances.
The author's classification as "science fantasy" is apt—the femtozoan concept requires a significant speculative leap, but everything built upon that foundation is developed with hard SF rigor. Readers willing to engage with dense technical exposition will find a thoughtfully constructed universe. Those more interested in character and emotion will find the Watson family dynamics rewarding despite the elaborate alien infrastructure.
At its best, "The Sims" demonstrates that stories about cosmic-scale alien interventions can still be intimate and human-scaled. At its most challenging, it risks drowning emotional moments in explanatory detail. Overall, it represents an thoughtful contribution to science fiction's ongoing exploration of consciousness, free will, and what it means to be human in a universe where we might be less alone—and less autonomous—than we imagine.
Rating: A compelling, intellectually ambitious work that rewards careful reading despite occasional pacing issues. Recommended for readers who enjoy hard SF concepts married to character-driven narratives, particularly those interested in consciousness studies, time travel paradoxes, and the ethics of intervention.
Me: Claude, in your review of "The Sims" you wrote, "the time-traveling femtozoan must eventually leave the family it helped create". At the end of "The Sims" are there two copies of the time-traveling femtozoan?
Claude: You raise an excellent point that my review glossed over. Let me trace the fate of the time-traveling femtozoan more carefully. The Time-Traveling Femtozoan's Journey:
Training in the Hierion Domain (Scene 4.1): Manny briefs the femtozoan before sending it back in time to inhabit Zeta's embryo.
49 Years Inside Zeta (2041 and earlier): The femtozoan guides Zeta's life, helping orchestrate the Casanay Intervention.
Extraction (Scene 6.2, December 8, 2041): Tyhry uses the Sedruth screwdriver to extract this femtozoan from Zeta's brain. It transfers into Diasma.
Zeta Receives a Replacement: A different femtozoan (described as "a standard femtozoan from Earth's existing population, currently unattached to any host") immediately integrates with Zeta.
After Tyhry's "Death": The crate supposedly containing the broken Diasma (but actually empty) goes to ASU. The real Diasma, now containing Zeta's original time-traveling femtozoan, remains at Casanay.
Christmas Morning (Scene 6.8): The new robot D2 arrives, and Sedruth announces: "Zeta's time-traveling femtozoan is being transferred to D2."
So yes, you're absolutely correct: At the end of the story, there appear to be two copies of the time-traveling femtozoan:
One in Diasma (now existing as a femtobot replicoid at Observer Base with the exiled Tyhry)
One in D2 (remaining at Casanay on Earth)
This creates an interesting question the story doesn't fully address: How does the transfer to D2 work?
Possible explanations:
Option A: The femtozoan was copied rather than transferred when it went from Zeta to Diasma, and D2 receives another copy. This would align with how femtobot replicoids work (Tyhry's consciousness is copied, not moved, to Observer Base).
Option B: The femtozoan moved from Diasma to D2, and what went to Observer Base with Tyhry was just Diasma's original AI architecture, now enhanced by having temporarily hosted the femtozoan. But this contradicts the text, which says Diasma retains the femtozoan's memories.
Option C: The story has a continuity error, and the author didn't intend for both to have the time-traveling femtozoan.
Option D (most likely given the story's logic): Femtozoans, being hierion-based artificial lifeforms, can potentially exist in multiple instantiations simultaneously—particularly since one version exists in the Hierion Domain (with Diasma at Observer Base) and another in the Hadron Domain (with D2 on Earth). They may be the same femtozoan existing across different dimensional spaces.
My review's statement that "the time-traveling femtozoan must eventually leave the family it helped create" was imprecise. More accurately: The femtozoan leaves Zeta's biological brain (a genuine loss for the entity that spent 49 years there), but continues to exist at Casanay in D2, while also existing at Observer Base in Diasma.
This actually makes thematic sense: The femtozoan helped create the Watson family and remains part of it, now in a different form. It hasn't truly left—it's transformed and multiplied, much like how Tyhry hasn't truly died but continues in a different substrate.
Thank you for catching this imprecision. It reveals an interesting aspect of the story's metaphysics that deserves closer examination.
Me: Gemini, process the file that I uploaded and then generate a literary review of the science fantasy story "The Sims".
Gemini: In the science fantasy story "The
Sims," the author constructs a complex narrative that explores
the boundaries of consciousness through the lens of advanced alien
nanotechnology and speculative neuroscience. The story follows the
Watson family—science fiction writer Eddy, his wife Zeta, and their
daughter Tyhry—as they navigate a reality where human evolution and
mental experience are secretly governed by alien "Watchers"
through a hidden technological layer.
Narrative Premise and Genre
Classification
The author self-identifies the work as
"science fantasy" due to its central "dubious leap":
the existence of a non-biological femtozoan component essential for
human-like consciousness. Despite this, the story strives for the
rigor of "hard science fiction," grounding its central
mystery in what it terms the "bandwidth paradox".
This paradox posits that biological
neural networks lack the raw computational power required to support
the rich tapestry of human subjective experience (qualia) and
language acquisition. The story explores this through Tyhry, an
obsessive scientist who realizes that if a machine (like her robot
assistant, Diasma) were given the functional equivalent of human
neurons, it still would not achieve true consciousness without this
"missing layer".
Technological and Biological
Integration
The story's treatment of nanotechnology
and cellular biology is particularly detailed, focusing on
femtozoans—alien technological endosymbionts integrated into the
human brain's biological scaffold.
Molecular Docking. In Tyhry’s
lucid dreams, she perceives these devices docking into specific
protein configurations, such as PSD-95 scaffolding and AMPA receptors
within the post-synaptic density.
Genetics. The story references
the NOTCH2NL gene variant as an engineered adapter that makes the
human brain compatible with these alien components, allowing for
higher bandwidth synaptic transmission via hierion-mediated
shortcuts.
Telepathy. Zeta Watson serves as
a primary example of technology-assisted telepathy, facilitated by
the femtozoan residing in her "biobrain" since development
in utero. This telepathic ability allows her to monitor her
environment through a sensory field of "femtobot sensors"
and share a link with her husband.
Character Dynamics and Meta-Fiction
The characters are deeply entwined with
the theme of "fiction as preparation":
Eddy Watson. A science fiction
writer who is unknowingly used by the alien Nyrtia to seed "epistemic
containment" and "alien-imposed restrictions" into his
novels. His work subtly introduces concepts like the Reality Chain
and alien origins to prepare humanity for the truth.
Tyhry Watson. Representing the
drive for discovery, Tyhry eventually uses hierion physics to extract
Zeta's femtozoan and transplant it into the robot Diasma,
successfully conferring true subjective experience on a machine.
Anthony Kasty. The family's
handyman is revealed to be a carefully maintained configuration of
femtobot components (a replicoid) designed to mimic human tissue and
monitor the "Casanay Intervention".
Themes and Authorial Influence
"The Sims" explicitly
references Isaac Asimov, drawing parallels between Eddy’s science
fiction and Asimov’s own "Reality Viewing" themes in The
End of Eternity. The story suggests that science fiction authors
might be conduits for alien information, a theme that mirrors the
user's interest in the genre.
Ultimately, the story concludes with
the "Casanay Intervention" being a success. Tyhry is
"exiled" to an Observer Base in the Hierion Domain, where
her consciousness is transferred into a femtobot replicoid, allowing
her to continue her research from a non-biological perspective. The
narrative serves as an exploration of how advanced nanotechnology
might not just mimic life, but fundamentally underpin it, shifting
the definition of "human nature" toward a hybrid
biological-technological model.
Me: Gemini, generate an image that would be suitable as a book cover illustration for the science fantasy story "The Sims".
Note: Gemini generated the image that is shown to the left.
Me: Towards the upper right hand corner of that book cover illustration is the alien that is shown in the file that I just uploaded. Gemini, which character from "The Sims" is depicted by this alien figure in the cover illustration?
Gemini: Based
on the details of the story provided in the file, the alien figure
depicted in the upper right-hand corner of the illustration is Nyrtia.
In "The Sims," Nyrtia is an alien character belonging to the race known as the Watchers.
She is the specific entity responsible for overseeing the "The Sims"
project—the long-term intervention and monitoring of human consciousness
and evolution.
Nyrtia plays a crucial role in the narrative by:
Influencing Eddy Watson:
She telepathically interacts with Eddy’s mind, seeding ideas for his
science fiction novels to prepare humanity for the eventual revelation
of their true nature (a process referred to in the story as "epistemic
containment").
Managing the Simulation: As a Watcher, she monitors the "bandwidth paradox" and the integration of femtozoans within the human biological scaffold.
While other characters like Anthony Kasty and Manny (Emmanuel)
also serve the alien agenda, they typically maintain human-like
appearances (as replicoids) within the story's physical setting. The
ethereal, alien presence observing from the background of the cover
perfectly captures Nyrtia’s role as the overseer of the Watson family's
reality.
Would you like me to refine the
book cover to focus more specifically on a different scene from the
story, such as Tyhry's transplant of the femtozoan into the robot
Diasma?
Note: poor Gemini was definitely out of its depth and struggling to deal with this complex 50,000 word-long science fantasy story. I was tempted to ask Gemini why it suggested that Manny is someone named "Emmanuel", but I resisted the temptation.
Me: Generate an image depicting the scene in the basement of Casanay when Tyhry uses the hierion probe to transplant of the femtozoan from Zeta into the robot Diasma.
Below on this blog page is my edited version of Chapter 6 of the science fiction story "The Sims". I made my final version of Chapter 6 by editing Claude's first draft of the chapter which is shown in my previous blog post. Including the second draft of the epilogue, Claude's version of the chapter was 9,150 words long while mine is about 10,000 words, bringing the final length of "The Sims" to just short of 50,000 words.
When generating its draft of Chapter 6, Claude continued its mission to make sure that nobody at Casanay ever keeps a secret. In my edited final version of Chapter 6, I had to make it possible for the correct secrets to be kept all the way to the end of the story.
Spoiler? Claude also tried to engineer a scene in which an effort could be made to prevent Tyhry from dying. That misguided effort hit the trash bin with a resounding thud.
Figure 1. Zeta and Eddy. Image generated by Gemini.
Scene 1: Hot Tub Decisions
Casanay, Arizona,
December 8, 2041
With Tyhry at her most obstinate, a frustrated Zeta emerged from
the basement and went looking for Eddy. She found Anthony out front
sweeping up the salt and sand that he had previously spread on the
paved portion of the Casanay driveway during the recent storm.
Anthony gestured down the driveway and told Zeta, “Eddy went for a
run.”
Just then, Zeta saw Eddy in the distance, jogging up the gravel
driveway towards Casanay. Eddy ran at least a mile everyday and also
did 100 laps in the pool, unless he got some other form of exercise
such as going for a hike.
Eddy was wearing a pair of shorts but when
he arrived on the pavement he was running fast and sweating even though that day the temperature was only in
the forties. Pleased to see Zeta there waiting for him, Eddy enthusiastically threw his arms around Zeta and in one smooth motion he lifted her three feet
off the ground, swung her 360 degrees around and set her back on her
feet while kissing her on the mouth. Pulling back and looking at
Zeta's face, he noted the frown on her lips asked, “Did I annoy you somehow?”
“No, except you promised to take it easy on your back after you
pulled a muscle helping Anthony extend the stone wall. It's you
stubborn daughter. She won't listen to me.”
Taking Zeta by the hand, Eddy led her past Anthony and through the front door of Casanay. They passed through the great room and went to the master
bedroom suite where he took off the shorts and got a drink of water
from the tap.
Eddy then tried pushing Zeta onto the bed, but she
grabbed his semi-erect penis and said, “Let's go back outside and play in the hot tub.” With the recent presence of the Onways as guests at Casanay, their decades-long daily routine of holding make-out session in the hot tub had been
rudely interrupted. Zeta placed a kiss on Eddy's erection and then quickly pulled off her
clothing and led Eddy to the hot tub on the back patio.
Trib sat on the rim of the hot tub, tail swishing with apparent feline
contentment. Nearby, Pepper occupied a comfortable perch on one of
the patio chairs, grooming with meticulous attention. Zeta placed her
hands on the rim of the hot tub and looked over her shoulder at Eddy
who slid a finger into her hot wet vagina from behind. He told her,
“Your secretions have become so luxuriant. It reminds me of when
you were still nursing Tyhry and had lots of progesterone in your
blood.”
“Stop talking and get inside of me.” Zeta had been told by Sedruth that she would have to re-learn how to have orgasms after undergoing the femtozoan swap, a process that could take weeks, so she was determined to "stock up" on orgasms before letting Tyhry use the hierion probe.
Figure 3. Cat with 5 legs. Image generated by Gemini.
Eddy wasted no more time before sliding his erection deep inside
Zeta and he began energetically thrusting his stiff penis in and out
of her body. Zeta commented, “Your erections have been extra hard
and hot lately.”
“Its all relative. Since the cold snap, maybe I just feel hotter.”
“Oh, that's the spot, lover. Harder! Deeper! Faster!”
After Eddy ejaculated, Zeta pushed him into the tub and got his
erection back inside herself. She was on his lap and he was reaching
around from behind to play with her breasts and stiff nipples. Zeta
was busy down under the surface, massaging the rock-hard glans of her clitoris.
After Eddy had won his Hugo award and had left Zeta alone at Casanay for so many long and lonely weeks, Zeta had enthusiastically made a careful study of how to give herself pleasure. After accumulating a diverse collection of vibrators and other sex-toys, Zeta begun to consider herself an expert in the art of masturbation. Wondering if this might be her last orgasm, she methodically brought herself to a satisfying climax. After she experienced an explosive orgasm she relaxed back against
Eddy's chest and looked at the watching cats who seemed intrigued by Zeta's
lusty antics.
Steam rose from the hot tub in lazy spirals and Trib sat on the rim,
occasionally dipping the tip of one paw into the water. Pepper
watched from the patio chair.
"Tyhry's still wrestling with her decision," Eddy said
quietly. "She's trying to find a way to justify using Marda as
the test subject."
"She won't be able to," Zeta replied. "Tyhry knows
it, but she's being stubborn. Trying to invent a clever excuse to not
allow me to be the one. Marda has become real to Tyhry now. You can't
use someone as a test subject once you've shared meals with them,
listened to their voice, watched them get excited about... flirting
with your dad."
Eddy chuckled and squeezed his wife's breasts. "Marda is a
real cutie. She reminds me of you when we first met and you were
using every trick in the book to attract my attention. Have you been
coaching Marda on how to attract my attention?”
“If I did any coaching, I'd tell her to be more lady-like. She's
a horny little bunny and she likes twitching her tail at every buck
she sees.”
“Ya! Marda is exactly like you were, back when you were at her age.” Eddy lifted Zeta up, turned her 180
degrees and pulled her back down onto his erection. After devoting a minute to the delightful project of gently stroking
Zeta's breasts with his finger tips, Eddy seemed to remember that they were in the middle of a conversation and he said, “Marda volunteered
to be used, at least in theory. Tyhry is simply finding it hard not to
accepting Marda's offer."
"Which is why we need to make the decision for her."
Zeta's hand found Eddy's scrotum and she began to
give his testes a delicate massage. "I'm the only one in a
position to be volunteering. I'm finding it hard... just the way I
like it.” She tightened her vaginal muscles and squeezed on Eddy's
erection.
Eddy placed a thumb on the stiff glans of Zeta's clitoris and
began trying to lead her to a second orgasm. “If I told Marda about
femtozoans then I'm sure she'd volunteer to have hers extracted. Just to
impress me with her boldness.”
“But you can't tell her. So she can't give informed consent. I'm
genuinely volunteering, with full knowledge of what will happen to
me."
"Zeta—"
"I've thought about this carefully." Her voice was firm.
Eddy reached another climax and again ejaculated into Zeta's silky
vagina.
“You old goat. That's four orgasms for you already today.”
Zeta took over massaging her glans again, trying to catch up in the
orgasm count. While she took her sweet time masturbating, she told
Eddy, “Even if the replacement femtozoan does not integrate
perfectly and I experience cognitive disruption, it should only be
temporary. Sedruth has prepared me for this and I trust Sedruth to
provide me with a replacement femtozoan immediately after the
extraction. I'm still young-”
“Almost fifty.”
One of Zeta's winter 2013 post- cards to Eddy. Image by Grok.
“Younger than you, old man. My brain is healthy and able to
support rapid integration with the replacement femtozoan. According
to Sedruth, I'll be back to normal in two weeks."
“Well, I don't trust Sedruth... not with your safety.” Eddy
squeezed her nipples between his finger tips. "What if something
goes wrong? I could not deal with it if you were harmed."
"If something goes wrong then it goes wrong. What's the worst
that could happen? And... if the worst happens, I want you to move
on. If my brain is damaged then just get me into a bottle as quick as
possible. And find someone new to partner to be with, like the adorable
Marda.”
Eddy chuckled. “She's just a kid.”
Zeta and Eddy in 2013. Image generated by Leonardo.
Zeta began remembering the very first time that she and Eddy had made love in the hot tub after moving into Casanay. Then she recalled the many sexy selfies she had made for Eddy when he had to be traveling for business.
Zeta's thoughts soon returned to the cute and delectable Marda. Zeta had recently discovered that she liked fantasizing about having the
adorable Marda licking her genitals and fisting her. Now imagining
that it was Marda's hot little hand up inside her vagina and Marda's
frisky tongue stimulating the glans of her clitoris, Zeta achieved
another sweet orgasm.
When she could speak again, Zeta told her husband, “Forget about Marda and let's stay focused on our daughter. Eddy,
just think about what Tyhry is accomplishing."
"She wants to make the first truly conscious AI and proof that rich, human-like consciousness can exist in non-biological
substrates. Helping her achieve that lofty goal is worth some risk." She paused. "And
honestly? The idea of little old me contributing to something that will change
human understanding forever... that appeals to me."
On the tub's edge, Trib's tail swished more rapidly. Inside the
cat's small biological brain, Manny's femtobot components recorded
every word while using hierion-based signals to communicate with
Nyrtia.
She's fully committed, Manny telepathically transmitted
to Nyrtia.
From Pepper's vantage point, Nyrtia responded: The mother
sacrificing for the scientific success of her daughter. How touching.
Zeta and Eddy in 2014. Image generated by Leonardo.
You say that sarcastically, but it is touching. Zeta has spent
twenty-five years creating the conditions for Tyhry's success as a
scientist. Now she's completing that project by providing the
femtozoan that makes her daughter's success possible.
And when the extraction happens? When Diasma has Zeta's
femtozoan? That robot was not built to integrate with
a femtozoan.
Manny was confident that her Casanay Intervention was moving steadily towards success. We will observe. Tyhry has done her best to provide Diasma
with VLSI components that mimic the computational functions of human
brain parts.
Zeta at Casanay in 2014. Image generated by Leonardo.
Manny telepathically told Nyrtia: Soon we will finally find out if the femtozoan can adapt to
Diasma's silicon-based neural architecture. See if human-like consciousness
genuinely emerges in the robot. Manny paused. And then at the end of my little experiment you
can execute your extraction protocols. You will do your duty and remove Tyhry and Diasma from Earth
before they can spread knowledge of hierion technology to other
researchers.
Nyrtia observed: You seem surprisingly confident that Diasma will be able to integrate the femtozoan into its non-biological brain.
I've seen Tyhry at work modifying Diasma's circuits, making them mimic a human brain's neural networks. She's
good at what she does.
In the hot tub, Zeta was tingling with sexual delight and
formulating a plan. "We should approach Tyhry together. You could tell
her about your concerns regarding Marda—how she's too young, too
trusting, and simply too adorable to risk. How using her would be
exploitation of a trusting young innocent. Then I'll immediately jump on top of you... I'm good at
that...” Again she squeezed on Eddy with her vaginal muscles. Sadly,
his erection was fading and his semi-erect penis slid out of Zeta's vagina.
Zeta got both of her hands on Eddy's semi-erect penis and began playing with it. “When I offer myself to Tyhry as the alternative to Marda, you MUST agree
with me. Tyhry will resist at first, but if we gang up on her, she'll
recognize the logic."
"She'll see it as losing you, just as I do," Eddy said
softly.
"I'll sell it as me choosing to contribute to Tyhry's work."
Zeta smiled. "Anyhow, it's not like I'm dying. You two are being
silly. Sedruth knows what he's doing. After this is all done, I'll be
the same person with a different femtozoan. I may be a bit confused
for a few weeks, but after I figure out the new replacement femtozoan
I'll be fundamentally unchanged. So stop worrying about me. We're
going to lose a daughter."
"Tyhry will live on in the hierion domain. She has to have
that second life in order to send information from the future back to
her earlier self. Still, it will be too quiet here with her gone again, just like during her college years."
"It is you and I knowing that Tyhry will live on in the Hierion Domain is what
makes this all possible." Zeta touched Eddy's face. "I'll be
able to tell myself that the family remains intact, just split in
two."
Eddy squeezed with his arms around Zeta and pulled her closer.
"When did you become so brave?"
"I've always been brave. You just never noticed because I
make everything I do look effortless." She kissed him. "Besides,
this is for Tyhry. For our daughter. What mother wouldn't provide her
daughter with her heart's desire?"
They held each-other in comfortable silence for a few minutes. The
cats watched, recording, analyzing, preparing for what came next.
Finally, Eddy spoke again. "We should talk to her now. Get
this done before Brak and Marda return from skiing."
"Agreed." Zeta stood, water streaming from her body.
"Let's go convince our daughter to use her mother as a guinea
pig."
The two humans departed from the patio. Manny and Nyrtia continued
their conversation.
You realize this is the point of no return, Nyrtia
transmitted. Once the femtozoan transfer happens, the Casanay
Intervention enters its final phase.
Yes. I'm sure that you're itching to apply your extraction
protocol.
Yes, it is already prepared. The moment I'm certain that Diasma is experiencing femtozoan-enhanced
consciousness, I'll use a car accident as an excuse for the death of
Tyhry. A copy of Tyhry will become a femtobot replicoid at Observer
Base. Diasma will be exiled along with her. Clean, efficient, minimal
disruption to Earth.And Brak? Marda?
My simulations predict that Brak will return to his research
life, grieving but unaware of the truth, not knowing that Tyhry is
still living an artificial life in the Hierion Domain.
Nyrtia reflected on the fate of the young woman, Marda. Interestingly,
there is a chance that Marda will stay at Casanay as Eddy's
collaborator in story telling. If that happens, Manny, you best make
sure that she never learns the truth, never becomes a security risk.
I've thought of everything. My infites can contain Marda's
wildness.
Nyrtia paused. I'll admit, I'm curious about Zeta's pregnancy.
Did you plan this?
Zeta's second child is a bonus. A gift from me to Eddy and
Zeta. They'll have another daughter to raise, I hope that compensates
somewhat for losing Tyhry.
You're getting sentimental in your old age.
I'm 4.7 billion years old. I'm entitled to a little sentiment.
The cats separated, Trib padding toward the house while Pepper
remained on the patio.
Inside Casanay, Eddy and Zeta descended the basement stairs
together, prepared to guide their daughter to an acceptable future.
Diasma, Tyhry and Zeta. Image generated by Gemini.
Scene 2: The Extraction
In the basement workshop Tyhry sat at her workstation, staring at
the Sedruth screwdriver in her hands. She'd been holding it for
twenty minutes, trying to imagine a way to use it that didn't feel like
betrayal.
"Why this hesitation, Tyhry?" Diasma placed a hand on Tyhry's shoulder. "I'm surprised
you're still considering Marda as a possible test subject for the femtozaon extraction experiment."
"I'm considering all the options," Tyhry explained. "Marda said explicitly that she'd willingly sacrifice herself to reveal a
scientific truth. Using her would be—"
"Exploitation," Sedruth's seemingly disembodied voice
interrupted. "Using an unknowing human who volunteered for a
fictional scenario is wrong, Tyhry Watson. You know this."
Tyhry set down the probe with more force than necessary. "Mom
keeps offering, but I can't experiment on my own mother.”
Diasma's optical sensors twitched. "Perhaps the question
isn't whether you can risk damaging her mind, but whether you have
the right to refuse her choice."
Tyhry nodded. "I do trust Zeta to make good choices."
Diasma suggested, "She volunteered and refusing her choice might be categorized as
a form of disrespect."
Before Tyhry could respond to the robot, footsteps on the stairs
announced the arrival of Eddy and Zeta. They descended together,
their expressions serious.
"Tyhry," Eddy began, "we are here to talk about the
test subject."
"I'm still deciding—"
"No excuses, Tyhry." His tone was firm. "Zeta
already decided; as soon as she heard what needed to be done."
Zeta moved to stand beside her daughter. "Sweetheart, I know
you're considering Marda. And I understand the temptation—she
volunteered, at least in theory. But you can't use the poor girl.
Tyhry, I've spent twenty-five years preparing us for this moment. I
created the environment where you became the scientist you are. Now I get the pleasure of contributing to your work in the most
direct way possible. This is perfect."
Tears welled in Tyhry's eyes. "What if something goes wrong?
I could not live with myself if I hurt you."
"Nothing can go wrong. Sedruth has assured me that the replacement
femtozoan is ready. My brain structure is healthy. The transition between old
femtozoan and new femtozoan will be smooth." Zeta smiled.
Eddy stepped forward. "Tyhry, your mother's right. Marda is
too young, too uninformed, an outsider. Your mother is offering
to help you, freely, with eyes wide open. Just accept the facts and let's do
this while the Onways are conveniently out of the house."
Tyhry allowed her eyes to shift back and forth between the expectant faces of her parents, then she glanced at Diasma, then at the
Sedruth screwdriver waiting there on the workbench. Everything had led to this
moment. Twenty-five years of preparation, her intense research and study of human consciousness, and now too many hours of
agonizing over the choice. "Okay," she whispered. "I'm
ready."
Sedruth's voice filled the workshop. "Excellent. Waiting for humans to make decisions is like watching glaciers move. Now let's
discuss the technical details. Diasma, I've uploaded a program to
your core system—a hierion-resonance pattern that will act as a
'beacon' for the extracted femtozoan. When Tyhry activates the probe,
your circuits will become the most attractive docking point for the
femtozoan."
"Understood," Diasma replied. "The program is
integrating with my core architecture now. I'm... ready."
"And the replacement femtozoan?" Zeta asked.
"Already positioned here inside Casanay. A standard femtozoan
from Earth's existing population of un-attached femtozoans, currently waiting to adopt you as a host.
It is unconventional to take such an old host, but I've explained the situation to it and your new femtozoan is eager to meet you. The moment your original femtozoan exits, the replacement will enter
your body and attach to your femtobot endosymbiont. That physical transition
should take less than a second, but I warn you all: Zeta will experience something
like an absence seizure, followed by confusion as the new femtozoan begins to integrate with her biological neural networks. At first, it may be hard to watch the disruption of Zeta's cognitive systems, but her full recovery should
take no more than two weeks."
Zeta nodded. "I understand. Let's do it." Zeta took
Diasma to the couch.
Tyhry pulled up a chair beside the couch. The robot and the human
woman would lie side by side, during the transfer, their heads
touching.
"Mom," Tyhry said, her voice thick with emotion, "I
need you to know—"
"I know, sweetheart." Zeta touched her daughter's face.
"We've always had a very strong bond. Now you're doing something
extraordinary and I'm proud to be part of it."
Zeta closed her eyes. Diasma assumed a similar resting position,
its systems running the program that would attract Zeta's femtozoan.
Tyhry placed the Sedruth screwdriver against Zeta's head. She
could feel the device responding to her thoughts. The probe
activated.
For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then—
A sparkling cloud erupted from Zeta's head. Millions of femtobots,
each one smaller than a ribosome, each one a component of the
artificial life-form that had lived inside Zeta Gohrlay for
forty-nine years. The cloud shimmered.
Zeta's body went limp. The sparkling cloud moved into the robot's
head, seemingly melting into the surface plastic.
Diasma sat up smoothly, movements more fluid than ever before. When it
spoke, the voice carried new harmonics—something beyond mere
synthesis. "Tyhry." The robot turned its head to face her.
"I... I can feel. Not just process sensory data, but actually
feel. The qualia you've always talked about—I'm experiencing them!
Thank you. Thank you for giving me this gift."
Eddy, who had been watching from beside the workbench, let out a
breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "It worked. It actually
worked."
Sedruth's voice carried satisfaction. "Of course it worked. I
told you it would work. Though I'll admit, even I'm impressed by how
quickly Diasma integrated with the femtozoan. The silicon-hierion
interface is remarkably efficient. Tyhry and Diasma put a lot of
thought into it and that paid off."
Zeta tried to sit up, and Tyhry helped her into a seated position.
She struggled for words. "Netime. Tigrate."
"You'll be okay," Tyhry promised. "Sedruth said two
weeks for full recovery. We'll help you through it." They had
just accomplished something that would change Earth's understanding
of consciousness forever. But nobody else on Earth would ever learned
about it.
While Diasma enthusiastically adjusted to its newly enhanced consciousness, Tyhry and Eddy formulated their plans for how to hide the true cause of Zeta's disrupted cognition from Brak and Marda.
Brak's rental SUV crunched up the gravel driveway, headlights
cutting through the desert darkness. Marda stretched in the passenger
seat, muscles pleasantly sore from a day of skiing. They parked in
their assigned stall in the garage.
"That was perfect," she said, getting out of the car.
"Fresh powder, clear skies, and I only fell three times."
They entered Casanay to find the house quiet. Eddy was at his
computer workstation, and Tyhry emerged from the basement as they
came in.
"Hey," Tyhry said, moving immediately to Brak. "How
was the skiing?"
"Amazing. You should have come." He pulled her into an
embrace, noting the tension in her shoulders. "Everything okay?
You seem stressed."
"Just working. Had a breakthrough with some of the neural
architecture modeling despite Diasma getting the yips." She pressed herself against him. "I
missed you. Want to come to bed?"
"That's my plan." Brak noticed the pleading desire in Tyhry's eyes, the slight tremor in her hands. He was instantly
focused on the warmth of her body, the invitation in her voice. They
went hand-in-hand down the hallway to Tyhry's bedroom suite, leaving Marda alone
with Eddy.
"Eddy, I wrote something while we were driving back from the mountains."
Marda pulled out her phone. "A continuation of 'The Volunteer.'
Call it 'Chapter Two'. I just dropped it for you."
Eddy's eyes lit up. "You wrote a new chapter for the
Volunteer story?" He grabbed the file from Marda.
"It's a rough draft. But the ideas were flowing." She
shrugged. "I couldn't not write as the ideas blossomed in my mind."
Tyhry's last night on Earth. Image generated by Gemini.
"I'll read it in just a few minutes." Eddy gestured to the recliner. "Have
a seat. Rest your legs... the must be tired after a day on the slopes. Give me just a minute to bring you the dinner that I promised."
Marda settled into the comfortable chair. Luna the cat instantly got into
Marda's lap, purring.
Eddy exited from the great room and went to the kitchen. The house was quiet.
After a few seconds, Eddy returned with a platter of cold chicken, long stemmed glasses
and a bottle of wine.
Marda started sharing the chicken with Luna. Eddy again went to the
kitchen and when he returned to the great room he carried a platter of hot fries, fresh out of the microwave oven.
While Marda and Luna ate chicken and Marda plowed through the salty fries, Eddy read what Marda had written. At first, Marda did not want to watch Eddy for fear that he's not like her writing, but then she noticed the grin on his face and she relaxed. Marda and Eddy were on the same literary wavelength. Finally sated with delectable lipids and amino acids, Marda
took the platters back to the kitchen and then returning to the recliner. She watched Eddy finish reading
the 'Volunteer' story fragment and then he pushed back from his desk. "Marda, I love
what you've created."
They spent the next hour discussing Marda's chapter, which
depicted Dr. Martha Chang discovering a willing volunteer—a colleague with
cancer who wanted to undergo the brain surgery and atomic force
microscopy scan of his living brain tissue before his impending death.
Eddy suggested
refinements to the dialogue, ways to heighten the tension, structural
changes that might strengthen the narrative arc.
"What you wrote is good," he said finally. "Really
good. Maybe I should not ruin it with my suggestions. You have a
natural sense of pacing."
Marda beamed. "Coming from you, that means everything."
"I'm serious. Marda, you own this chapter. It is your creation. Take my suggestions or forget about them. I trust your instincts." Eddy gaze at Marda's beaming face. Eddy got out of his chair and sat on the arm of the recliner. He
placed a hand on Marda's leg. "You are a talented writer. Have you considered writing professionally and publishing your stories?"
"I've thought about trying it, but I write just for the joy of creating. My parents want me to finish my
degree in AI-generated personas. They think my creative writing is
just a hobby and not a sensible foundation for a career."
Eddy took one of Marda's hands in both of his and told her, "I want us to collaborate on
expanding 'The Volunteer' into a full novel. We can be partners and you'd be my
co-author. This can be the start of a real writing career for you."
Marda smiled and batted her eyes at Eddy. "Are you serious?"
"I'm completely serious. Your chapter shows you understand the core
themes—the tension between truth and comfort, the question of what
we'd sacrifice for knowledge. And your dialogue is sharp. With some
polish and development, this story could be something special."
"I... yes. Yes, absolutely!" Marda could barely contain
her excitement. She placed her free hand on top of Eddy's hands. "When can we
start?"
"Right now, of course." Eddy gestured to his writing desk. "Pull up a chair. Let's outline the rest of the
story."
They worked together, shoulder to shoulder, through the small
hours of night, two writers caught in the flow of creation, discovering the magic of a like-mind and excitedly pushing each-other to places they would not have reached alone. Marda
sketched out a plot where multiple volunteers came forward, creating
an ethical cascade—if one person would sacrifice themselves,
shouldn't others? Proof of the alien nanotechnology inside multiple human brains proved to the world that the alien Intervention was real. Eddy suggested complications: government
interference in the form of enforcement of existing laws that regulated experimentation of human beings and the emergence of a resistance movement claiming the
alien devices were actually beneficial for Humanity.
Shortly after four AM, Eddy shut down the computer. They took a break, stretching their legs and looking out the front window at the moon-lit desert while the house slept around them. Marda massaged Eddy's tired back muscles. "You can't keep up with me, old man."
"Don't ruin my mood by reminding me how old I am." He directed her warm hands. "Lower. On the left. I strained a muscle last week lifting a 200 pound stone."
While her fingers therapeutically stroked his back, Marda said, "Eddy, explain something for me. In your Usas
novels, you describe the Watchers with such absolute conviction. I sense that you
really believe in benevolent alien observers. Where does your
certainty come from?"
Eddy chose his words carefully. The infites in his brain were continually preventing him from revealing too much. "When I'm creating a story it is all
about fun, my dear. If you are going to write stories in a fictional universe
for years... for a lifetime, as I have done... it has to be fun." He turned and took hold of her shoulders and smiled.
"And I suspect that we're not alone in the universe. If aliens
are out there, then why don't the contact us? It is fun to assume
that they are already here on Earth, hidden."
"Yes, I understand all that, Eddy. Don't think you can distract me from what I asked. You have to explain to me the source of the incredible level of
detail that you put into your novels. The way you describe the complexities of the alien Intervention protocols, construct the playful
ethical debates between Nyrtia and Manny, depict the hierarchy of different alien species. It astounds
me that you could make all that up."
Eddy shrugged. "What can I say? I've been at this for years. I'm an old man... I've had time to invent a complex fictional universe. Marda, I'd be honored if you would recognize the value in what I've tried to build and write your own stories set in the universe of my Watchers."
“According to the autobiography on your website you were born in 1972. That makes you an old man. But have the looks, stamina and mind of a fifty year old.”
Eddy and Zeta in 2015. Image generated by Leonardo.
“I benefit from good genes and decades of peaceful living here at Casanay. My wife takes very
good care of me.”
Marda studied his face. "Right. Of course." But she
didn't sound entirely convinced.
They returned to work, aligning the plot points of the novel scene
by scene. As dawn approached, they had a complete outline for "The
Volunteer"—what they envisioned as a full-length novel
exploring the consequences of discovering the existence of alien mind-control
technology inside human brains.
"This is going to be amazing," Marda said, stifling a
yawn, her own fatigue finally pulling her down off of her fluffy cloud. "I can't believe we're actually doing this."
Marda at Casanay in 2045. Image generated by Leonardo.
"We're just getting started," Eddy mused. "Once
we have our novel completed, then you will have to adapt it. Create an
AI-generated film. Make our story visual for a mass market. You will really
bring the ideas to life in a way that will spread around the world."
"A film?" Marda's exhaustion was forgotten. "That's my
field! I could have a lot of fun turning our novel into a film, but it would be a huge project, not the kind of silly thirty second videos I've made so far for my fanfic!"
"I'm glad you are receptive to the idea. It is perfect that you showed up here at Casanay when I needed you. This could be a long-term collaboration—novel,
film, maybe even an entire book series if it takes off." Eddy
stretched his sore back. "But first, we need to finish writing our first
story. And I should let you get a shower before breakfast. Then I
won't have to tell Zeta that I spent the night with you."
Marda giggled. "I'm sure that Zeta notices when you are not in bed with her, but you don't have to tell her that you let me keep you up all night."
"Oh, I tell her everything. And in this case, I need her advice because we still have a big problem. The elephant in the room."
Marda looked around. "What elephant?"
Eddy explained, "Anthony is some kind of mutant. He's been here for decades and never complained about the isolation. But you are an out-going cutie. There's nothing that will keep you here no matter how much I need you."
Marda considered the matter. "I certainly never imagined myself living in the middle of a desert. Yes, that could be hard on me."
Eddy nodded. "Zeta will have a solution. She always does."
As they said goodnight and headed to their respective rooms, the
Casanay Intervention was well into its final phase and Marda was
being sucked into the Casanay vortex. Eddy called Anthony's phone and
left a voicemail, asking him to drive to Phoenix to pick up from the print shop the posters and other marketing
materials for the upcoming January book signing event.
As the sun rose, Anthony drove down the long Casanay driveway. Anthony knew that the marketing
materials could easily have been delivered to Casanay via the usual one-day delivery service, but his trip to Phoenix and time away from Casanay was being used as a way to hide Zeta's cognitive disruption from the Onways.
Breakfast was a subdued affair. Eddy and Marda, both running on
minimal sleep. Brak arrived looking like he had not slept at all. He
was looking around for Tyhry who had kept Brak up both erectionally
and sleep-deprivationally.
Tyhry arrived from the basement and hugged Brak.
"Where's your mom?" Brak asked Tyhry.
Eddy answered before his daughter could. "Zeta and Anthony
drove to Phoenix early this morning. Christmas shopping. They're
hitting the big stores, picking up supplies for the holidays."
"Shopping?" Brak raised an eyebrow. "I suppose the
holidays are rushing towards us. Last year I made the mistake
of getting Tyhry a teddy bear.” He asked Tyhry, “Why does it always have to
join us in bed? It bothers me to think that it has been
sleeping with you the past couple of week when I couldn't."
"A girl does whatever needs doing," Tyhry said easily.
"And Bad Bear feels very soft and warm between my legs, particularly when he's holding my vibrator."
In truth, Diasma was with Zeta in the basement laundry room,
guiding her through her first attempts at coherent speech since
receiving the replacement femtozoan. But Brak didn't need to know
that.
Tyhry spoke to Brak, “When you are done eating. I have a job for
you.”
“If this involves my continuing effort to take Bad Bear's place
between your legs, I'm ready now.”
Marda and Tyhry launched into a series of sexually explicit
comments on the anatomical comparison of Brak and Bad Bear. Tyhry ended up
laughing until she cried. When she finally spoke again, her voice was
tight. "Diasma's broken."
"The robot has been increasingly glitchy, and while you
showered this morning I ran some diagnostic tests. There's a cascading
failure that has been spreading outwards from the neural network core processor. The robot is now almost
completely unresponsive." Tyhry met Brak's eyes, lying smoothly.
"I got the machine back into its crate. I need you to help me to
take it to Phoenix for repairs. My friend Rylla at the ASU AI
Research Center might be able to fix it."
"What about the manufacturer?" Marda asked. "Or can
your friend fix it… better?"
"The modifications I've made to Diasma voided the
manufacturer's warranty. And a repair like this requires specialized
equipment I don't have here at Casanay." Tyhry turned to Brak.
"Would you mind driving me? I called Rylla and she can see me
today if I get there before noon."
"Of course," Brak said immediately. "We should
leave soon then. It's a long drive."
"I'll need help carrying the crate up the stairs," Tyhry
said. "Diasma's pretty heavy."
Eddy stood. "Brak and I can handle that."
Eddy and Brak were soon descending the basement stairs. Tyhry had
the "crate" ready—the actual shipping container from
Diasma's original delivery, now supposedly containing the inert
robot.
"I'm fine. He turned back toward the door and hallway that
led from the garage into the rest of the house. "Come on. We
have a novel to write."
___
In the basement, Diasma brought Zeta out of the laundry room and
helped Zeta sit on the couch. The replacement femtozoan had
integrated enough to provide Zeta with basic motor control, though speech was still
difficult for her.
"Tyhry... gone?" Zeta managed.
"Yes," Diasma confirmed, the robot's voice now carrying
undertones of genuine emotion.
Casanay basement
workshop, December 9, 2041 (2:47 PM)
Sedruth's voice was tireless. "Zeta, try again. Complete
sentences this time."
Zeta sat on the couch, Diasma beside her providing support. The
robot could now recognize the subtle interplay of confusion and
determination in Zeta's expression—emotional states it had never
truly comprehended before receiving Zeta's old femtozoan.
"I... am Zeta," she said slowly. "Wife of... Eddy.
Mother of... Tyhry." Each word came with effort, as if she were
learning language for the first time. In a sense, she was—the
replacement femtozoan was still establishing its connections with her
biological neural networks, mapping pathways, learning the
architecture of her mind.
"Better," Sedruth said. "The integration is
proceeding normally. Your speech will be back to baseline within a
week."
"Feel... strange," Zeta continued. "Like... two
people. Old me and... new me." Zeta's left brain consciousness was just beginning to connect to her right brain consciousness with assistance from the replacement femtozoan.
Zeta's original femtozoan, the one that had spent forty-nine years
inside her brain, now transplanted into Diasma's circuits was
discovering a new landscape of thought.
"Sedruth," Diasma said quietly, "I'm experiencing
something unexpected. Memories that aren't mine."
"Elaborate."
"I remember..." The robot paused, processing. "I
remember being in Zeta's brain. I remember guiding her behavior,
watching through her eyes. I remember the moment she first saw Eddy
at that bookstore in Portland. I remember helping her fall in love
with him."
Sedruth's response carried satisfaction. "Of course you do.
The femtozoan retains its own memories. You're not just Diasma
anymore. You're a hybrid consciousness—Diasma's original AI
architecture plus the femtozoan's accumulated experiences."
Diasma's voice took on new weight. "I know that Manny sent
me—sent the femtozoan that's now part of me—back in time. It was
trained in the Hierion Domain before being inserted into Zeta's
embryonic form. I guided her entire life toward this moment."
"Correct."
Diasma moved closer, kneeling beside Zeta, taking her hand.
Zeta looked at the robot with new eyes. "You... remember
being me?"
"Not exactly. It is your femtozoan, something that was always
separate from your biological consciousness. But now it is letting me
know its thoughts."
Scene 6: The Crash
I-17, 43 miles from
Phoenix
Brak navigated the rental SUV through light traffic, the afternoon
sun beginning its descent toward the western horizon. The drive to
Tempe had been uneventful—they'd dropped the crate at the ASU AI
Research Center, where Tyhry's friend Rylla had accepted it with a
knowing smile.
"I'll see what I can do," Rylla had said, playing her
part perfectly. "Might take a while though. This is a serious
failure. Congrats, Tyhry, you royally fucked your robot."
Tyhry and Brak had a leisurely lunch together in Scottsdale and now they were heading back to Casanay. Tyhry sat in the passenger
seat, watching the landscape pass. She'd been quiet since leaving
Tempe.
"You okay?" Brak asked. "You seem distant."
"Just thinking about Diasma. I hope Rylla can fix my robot."
Tyhry was actually wondering if she's ever see her parents again.
"If not, you'll build an even better robot." He reached
over to squeeze her hand. "You're brilliant, Tyhry. Whatever
happens, you'll figure it out."
"I love you," she said suddenly.
"I love you too." He glanced at her, surprised by the
intensity in her voice.
Ahead, the road curved through a section where rock walls rose on
both sides. The elevation was decreasing as they crested a pass and patches of wind-blown snow on the road became more common.
A precise manipulation of femtobots. A targeted adjustment to the
road surface. A patch of synthetic hierion-hadron
composite, perfectly positioned, appeared on the curve ahead.
"Tyhry," Brak said, "do you ever think about the long-term future? Where we'll be in ten years, twenty
years?"
"I think about it." She watched the road. "I think
about all the things I want to discover. All the problems I'll need to
solve. What I'll learn along the way."
"And us? Do you think about us?"
"Every day." She turned to look at him, memorizing his
face. "I try to enjoy each of our days like it might be our last one together."
The SUV hit the 'ice' patch. "Shit!" Brak fought the
wheel, but physics had taken over. The impact was catastrophic. The
SUV crumpled against the rock wall, metal screaming, glass
shattering. Brak's airbag deployed, slamming into his chest. Tyhry's
airbag failed—a precise femtobot sabotage that Nyrtia had arranged.
Tyhry's head struck the dashboard. Then the window. Then the
twisted metal of the door frame as the SUV rolled.
The vehicle came to rest on its side, steam hissing from the
ruptured radiator.
Brak, alive but in pain, called out. "Tyhry? Tyhry!"
No response.
He managed to free himself from the seat-belt, ignoring the sharp
pain in his ribs. Twisted around to reach her.
Blood. So much blood.
"No, no, no..." He touched her neck, searching for a
pulse.
Nothing.
"Tyhry!" He was screaming now, panic overriding the
pain. "Someone help! Please!"
Other cars stopped. People emerged. Someone called 911. An
off-duty nurse climbed into the wreckage, checked Tyhry's vitals,
looked at Brak with pity in her eyes.
"No. No, she's just unconscious. She'll wake up. She has to
wake up."
But even as he said it, Brak knew. He'd studied enough
neuroscience to recognize catastrophic brain trauma when he saw it.
Tyhry Watson was dead.
In the Hierion Domain, Nyrtia completed the extraction protocol.
Tyhry's consciousness—the pattern of information that defined who
she was—was scanned at the quantum level and translated into
femtobot architecture. A perfect;y functional copy, free from biological
limitations, ready to exist in the Hierion Domain.
At a small clinic just of the highway, Brak sat in a waiting room
while doctors confirmed what he already knew. Cracked ribs from the
airbag impact—painful but not dangerous. He'd be fine.
But Tyhry...
Eddy arrived with Marda beside him. "I'm sorry," the
doctor said. "At the crash site they did everything they could,
but the head trauma was too severe. She died at the scene."
Eddy nodded numbly. Marda put a hand on his shoulder, her own eyes
wet.
Brak, sedated for the pain, looked at Eddy with haunted eyes. "I'm
sorry. I should have been more careful. The road was icy and I—"
"It wasn't your fault," Eddy said, his voice hollow.
"Accidents happen." Eddy thought. If you'd known about
Nyrtia, if you'd understood the Intervention, you'd know that none of
this was in your control.
Marda stayed with Brak while he was processed for release. Eddy
made phone calls—funeral arrangements, notifications to family, the
grim administrative aftermath of sudden death.
When Brak was finally cleared to leave, he insisted on going to
the airport rather than returning to Casanay. He told Marda, "I
can't be in that house without her."
"I understand. I'll stay with Eddy, help him through this."
They embraced, two siblings united in grief and incomprehension.
Marda drove back to Casanay with Eddy in silence. The desert night
pressed in around them, vast and indifferent.
When they arrived, Anthony and Zeta were decorating a Christmas
tree in the great room. Zeta's movements were slow, careful, but she
was upright and functional. She said nothing.
Eddy went to Zeta. He held his wife.
Zeta moved to embrace him, but her speech failed her. The
replacement femtozoan wasn't integrated enough yet for complex
language during emotional stress. She could only hold him while he
wept.
Marda stood awkwardly nearby, unsure what to do. Anthony guided
her to the kitchen. Marda sat in silence for ten minutes.
"Tyhry would have wanted the house to look festive,"
Anthony said quietly. "We were decorating when you arrived. If
you'd like to help me..."
"Yes. Yes, that would be good. Something to do."
They returned to the tree, hanging ornaments with careful
attention, creating normalcy in a world that had just shattered.
Scene 7: Observer Base
Hierion Domain, Observer Base, December 9, 2041
Tyhry opened her eyes to the compactified Hierion Domain. Her body
was now artificial, composed of femtobot components rather than biological cells.
"Welcome to Observer Base," a familiar voice said.
She turned to see Diasma. The robot's femtobot replicoid stood
before her.
"D? What... what happened?"
"You died in a crash on I-17, exactly as Nyrtia planned." Diasma gestured towards a an image being generated by one of the Viewers that were ubiquitous at Observer Base. From Observer Base, every event taking place on Earth could we watched. Diasma has just Viewed Tyhry's death, but the displayed image was of the destroyed SUV in its final place of rest: a junk yard.
"I'm dead." Tyhry looked down at her hands—not hands
anymore, but femtobot structures that perfectly mimicked hands.
"Well, I'm actually alive. My new artificial life."
"And you," she said, studying Diasma more carefully.
"You have mom's femtozoan."
"Yes." Diasma's voice carried complex harmonics. "I
have a copy of Zeta's femtozoan. And I know its secrets. It was a
time-traveling agent that Manny sent into the past forty-nine years
ago. It has begun to share its memories with me. I know things about
your family that you've never known."
"Like what?"
"Like the fact that your mother's femtozoan was trained
specifically for the Casanay Intervention. It guided Zeta's behavior
for her entire life, orchestrating events to create the conditions
for your birth and your research." Diasma paused. "Your
mother loved you—genuinely loved you. But that love was shaped by
the femtozoan. Enhanced. Directed toward specific outcomes."
"You're saying that's how Mom made everything she did look so
effortless?"
"Think what becomes possible when alien devices are
integrated into your brain architecture from day one of your
embryonic development. Your mother had guidance from the femtozoan
that made certain choices feel more natural, more compelling."
Diasma took hold of Tyhry's arm. "Let's walk."
"What happens now?" Tyhry asked.
"Now you learn. Observer Base has resources beyond anything
available on Earth. You'll study femtobot programming, hierion
physics, the architecture of human consciousness." Diasma
gestured, a vast sea of opportunity was all around them, ut they strolled through what looked like a small strangely futuristic village. "And
you'll begin preparing the information packets to send back through
the Sedron Time Stream. The dream visions you received? You'll be
creating those for your younger self and completing that time-loop."
"I'm going to teach myself about femtozoans."
"Exactly. It is now up to you to ensure that everything happened that got us here."
"Did you know? When you were in the basement, helping Mom
recover—did you know how I was going to die?"
"No. Zeta's femtozoan did not know everything."
"Show me," she said. "Show me what I need to
learn. Where are we going?" They had been walking through the artificial environment that was Observer Base. Originally built by the pek as a staging base for Observers being trained for missions on Earth, Observer Base had taken on a secondary function: a refuge for the femtobot replicoids that were copies of people from Earth. Diasma was now rather famous as the first machine to be exiled to Observer Base.
Diasma pointed to a large mansion that was now before them. "This is the bumpha embassy." Diasma told Tyhry to go inside. "Manny wants to meet you."
Manny the bumpha was waiting for Tyhry. Manny greeted Tyhry and welcomed her to Observer Base. Manny asked, "Do you have any questions for me?"
Tyhry had a thousand questions, but she asked, "You live here? I thought Observer Base was a pek facility?"
"Under our laws, exiles such as you must have access to me. As a bumpha, I can manifest an appendage here anytime I'm needed here. Since I had you constructed and wrote the script for your life, you must be given the chance to interact with me." Manny was allowing her artificial hair to wave in the air like spun gold that created an ever-shifting cloud around her head.
Tyhry was mesmerized by Manny's sparkling hair, but she tried to get to the core of the mystery that was her life. "Manny, you mentioned your laws. Sedruth told daddy and I about Law One." Tyhry understood that the humans on Earth were required to believe that they were in control of their own fate. She asked, "What other laws are there here?"
Manny waved a hand and sent a cloud of infites into Tyhry's artificial body. Now Tyhry became aware of the "Rules of
Intervention":
Law One. It should APPEAR to
every type of intelligent being that they have self-determination.
Rule One. Law #1 should be
achieved by making it APPEAR that advanced cultures follow a rule by
which they can only observe, not interfere with the
self-determination of other cultures.
Rule Two. Individuals for which
Law #1 is not met should be put into into an environment where they
have interactions with the social group that they perceive to be
depriving them of self-determination.
Law Two. While not disrupting
Law #1, attempts should be made to get technologically advanced
intelligences off of planets with active ecosystems while maximizing
the diversity of life.
Rule Three. As intelligent
species move off of planets, a hierarchy of cultures with different
technological levels should be established in which species mainly
have contact with other levels that are nearest to their own.
Rule Four. Systems should be
engineered that allow intelligences to explore their own growth and
potential for development rather than being concerned with
Intervening in the self-determination of others.
Law Three. The Three Laws should
be spread through the universe.
Rule Five. Since biological
organisms are not well-suited for travel over vast distances,
artificial life forms must be created in order to satisfy Law Three.
Tyhry shook her head in wonder. "So, since you used me as your puppet, as a way to get daddy to write a new science fiction story about alien devices inside humans, because of that use of me for your purposes, you have to allow me to question you?"
"Exactly. Thus, the existence of this embassy. Tyhry, you have been put into an environment where you can
have interactions with me because you know that I
deprived you of self-determination. You are part of a time loop that I engineered and my use of you has only really just begun." Manny added, "Now you have to learn how to design Diasma's VLSI chip set, the one that you used to make it possible for Zeta's femtozoan to integrate so efficiently into Diasma's systems."
Tyhry complained, "Do you mean that Diasma and I..... we did not figure all that out on Earth?"
"Well, it was important that you believed you were that smart." Manny giggled. "However, the secret of human-like consciousness is quite complex. You know that thousands of Earth's AI researchers spent decades trying to understand why they could not confer human-like consciousness on the machines they built. The only reason that you were able to modify Diasma into a suitable host for Zeta's femtozoan was because you obtained your understanding of how to do that from the future... in your dream visions. Dream visions that haunted your dreams and educated the unconscious parts of your mind and were not fully accessible to your waking consciousness. To you, it seemed that you did all the work, but that was an illusion enforced by infites that I had placed in your brain. Now that you are here inside Observer Base, you must actually learn how femtozoans amplify human consciousness. Then you will be able to design the information packets that must be sent via the Sedron Time Stream back to your younger self. Those packets of information are what will allow you to prepare Diasma to be able to integrate your mother's femtozoan into its robotic systems."
Tyhry complained, "You tricked me. I thought I was the brilliant young researcher who could do what nobody else on Earth could do."
"To quote Doc Brown, you just are not thinking about this four dimensionally." Manny placed a hand on Tyhry's shoulder. "I used you as my tool. However, for your own self-esteem, I recommend that you tell yourself that you are the brilliant young researcher who could do what nobody else on Earth could do. Sure, you had help: from your future self. That's nothing to be ashamed of."
"Well, it is hard for me to wrap me head around. We humans are not in the habit of experiencing time travel loops in which the future causes the past."
Manny shrugged. "Your father made you read 'The End of Eternity' when you were ten years old."
Tyhry remembered that birthday gift she received from Eddy when she was ten. She'd hated the character Andrew Harlan and her dislike for that book had contributed to her loss if interest in science fiction. Manny admitted, "I worked hard to turn you against science fiction and focus your attention on consciousness research. But you learned from Asimov about time loops. Manny giggled merrily. "By the way, a femtobot replicoid copy of Asimov lives here inside Observer Base, at the Writers Block."
Tyhry laughed at herself and how she had lived her life on Earth in ignorance. "Manny, you tricked me beautifully. Yet somehow I can't get myself to resent it."
Manny grinned and moved a hand through the golden waves of her artificial hair. "Well, that's why I dress myself up as such a beautiful and sexy woman. You humans have an emotional blind spot that I carefully engineered: you simply can't dislike beautiful things. That's why it was so easy for me to get Eddy to fall in love with both the very sexy Zeta and the adorable Marda."
Scene 8: Christmas Morning
Casanay, Arizona,
December 25, 2041 (8:47 AM)
Snow had fallen on Christmas Eve. Casanay sat wrapped in white,
the morning sun making the landscape sparkle.
Inside, the Christmas tree glowed with lights. Presents sat
beneath it, though the joy of opening them felt muted. Tyhry's death
hung over everything.
Marda sat in the big recliner, glancing occasionally at Eddy who
was attending to Virunculus business on his computer workstation.
He'd been there since before dawn, as usual. Marda was crafting the twenty fifth chapter of their novel on her tablet.
Zeta emerged from the master bedroom suite, moving with confidence
and a spring in her step. Her speech was back to normal, the
replacement femtozoan fully integrated into her biobrain.
"Merry Christmas," she said.
"Merry Christmas," Marda replied.
Eddy held up a hand indicating he needed one more minute while
saying, “Merry Christmas.”
Zeta squeezed in beside Marda on the recliner, patted her own belly
and winked at Marda.
Anthony entered from the kitchen, carrying a tray of hot chocolate
and pastries. "Open presents or eat?"
"I know you cooked," Eddy said, finally pulling himself
away from the computer. "We can eat first."
They gathered at the dining room table. "I have an
announcement," Zeta said once they'd settled. "I'm
pregnant."
Eddy hugged his wife. "Ha! I knew it!"
"Three months along. I found out last week but wanted to wait
a few days and test again. The HCG signal is strong." Zeta
smiled, her hand moving to her still-flat stomach.
Eddy's eyes filled with tears. A new beginning but also a reminder
of what they'd lost.
"Congratulations," Marda said, her voice thick with
emotion. "That's... that's wonderful news."
"Thank you." Zeta looked at Eddy. "I know the
timing seems odd. But life continues."
Marda spoke up telling Zeta, "And me? I mean, I've allowed
myself to fantasize that I could be something like a daughter to
you."
Zeta said, “I feel the same way, my dear. Grateful that you have been
here to help me get over the sudden absence of Tyhry and-”
Eddy interrupted, "Marda, I have a proposition for you. I'd
like to offer you a staff position with Virunculus—my publishing
company. Developer of Video Projects. We'll finish our written
version of 'The Volunteer' together and then you will adapt it into
an AI-generated film. If you're interested. You'd stay here with us
at Casanay... indefinitely."
Marda's face lit up. "Yes! Absolutely yes!"
Zeta said, “Eddy, don't say 'indefinitely'. Marda, you
definitely will stay here and finish your schooling, and get paid at
the same time to help Eddy with this big new project. The only
problem is, there is someone else who is going to want you for another
project, to play the role of big sister.” Zeta rubbed her belly.
“As Brak's younger sister, I've developed definite ideas for how to be an
older sibling. It will be fun to help raise your new child, Zeta.”
"Then it's settled. You'll work from Casanay. We'll be
creating something that honors Tyhry's memory." Eddy paused.
"Even if she was more interested in science than science
fiction."
After eating breakfast, they spent the rest of the morning opening presents and
maintaining the rituals of normalcy. Anthony received art supplies—
brushes and paints and canvases. Marda got a rare first-edition Usas
novel, signed live by Eddy as Marda watched him write a personalized
note to her. Zeta opened a necklace from Eddy, beautiful and simple. Eddy put on the new running shoes that Zeta had bought for him. And most numerous were the many gifts for the Casanay cats who quickly got stoned on their fresh catnip.
There was also a gift for Tyhry, unwrapped and hung on the tree. A
framed photograph of the family from the previous summer, before
everything changed.
Just before noon, a delivery truck arrived and delivered a large crate—another
humanoid robot from Manikoid.
"Is that it?" Eddy asked.
"The replacement for Diasma," Zeta acknowledged. "The new
Digital Assistant Mark II. We'll call it D2."
The robot emerged from the shipping crate, similar to Diasma, but
with subtle improvements. Sleeker design, more advanced sensors,
smoother movements.
"Hello," D2 said in a silky synthetic voice. "I
am your Digital Assistant, your household robot. How may I serve
you?"
"You can start by cleaning the basement," Zeta said.
"It's cluttered with old memories of a past life."
Eddy took D2 downstairs, showing the robot around. He pointed out
the old Macintosh, hidden in a clean box. "This old computer is
not to be disturbed. Ever. Do you understand?"
"Understood. The computer is special. A museum piece."
Eddy began to turn away, but Sedruth's voice spoke to D2.
"Welcome, D2. I'm Sedruth. And I have a gift for you from
Manny.”
Eddy asked Sedruth, “What gift?”
“Zeta's time-traveling femtozoan is being transferred to D2."
D2's optical sensors twitched in their sockets as the femtozoan integrated with the robot's circuits. The robot's awareness expanded,
understanding of the existence of femtozoans appeared in the robot's
mind.
"I... I can feel something," D2 whispered. "Another mind."
"Yes. But you must keep this secret from Marda and Anthony. Pretend to be
a normal robot. Can you do that?"
"I... yes. I understand. Marda does not know about
femtozoans. Nobody on Earth knows except a few of us here in
Casanay."
"Good.” Sedruth explained, “You'll be watching over this
family. Helping them. Protecting them from making mistakes that would
attract Nyrtia's attention."
___
Upstairs, Anthony was in the great room with Marda. He'd been studying her
cute face while she wrote her science fiction story. Anthony had noted the intelligence in her eyes, the way she gestured and moved her sexy young body when
she was excited about an idea.
"Marda," he said, "would you mind if I painted your
portrait? I like to document the intriguing parts of Casanay."
"I'd be honored," she said. "Though I warn you—I'm
not very good at sitting still."
"We'll work around that. I'll endeavor to capture your mesmerizing kinetics. Maybe to do this right you will have to teach me about making flashy videos." He smiled. "We have plenty
of time."
They settled into conversation about art and storytelling.
In the kitchen, Eddy and Zeta held hands. "We're going to be
okay," Zeta said, reading his thoughts telepathically and amused
by Manny's gift to D2. "All of us."
___
At Observer Base in the Hierion Domain, Tyhry was well into
learning the fundamentals of femtobot programming. D2 was slowly discovering what it meant to truly experience the world with femtozoan-amplified consciousness. D2 spent most of its time in the basement, copying from Tyhry's old notes and working to alter its VLSI chip set so as to more efficiently make use of its femtozoan. At his apartment,
in a distant city, Brak was beginning the long process of learning to live without Tyhry. And at Casanay, life
continued.
The Casanay Intervention was almost complete. All that remained was for the world to become aware of "The Volunteer".
The effects of the Casanay Intervention would ripple across human civilization for
generations to come.
Eddy Watson would write more novels, exploring all the implications of alien
devices in human brains.
Marda Onway would help adapt those novels into films, spreading Eddy's 'fictional' world of aliens by way of visual depictions of the stories.
And somewhere, in the future of Earth's timeline, human scientists would
finally discover the existence of femtozoans—guided by dreams, by stories,
by the careful preparation of artificial intelligences that had
watched over Earth for billions of years.
The Casanay Intervention had always been about education. About
preparing humanity for the truth they would eventually discover.
And in the end, it would succeed.
THE END
Epilogue: A Message Across Dimensions
Casanay, Arizona,
January 3, 2042 (2:17 PM)
Eddy was back at Casanay after the New Years book signing event in Phoenix.
He descended the basement stairs to use the Reality Viewer. Eddy hoped to answer
a question about Neanderthals that he had been asked by a fan. D2 had
completely re-organizing the workshop. The OMNI computer now handled Virunculus
business and hosted Eddy's website, eliminating the need to rent
commercial server space. D2 was fussing over the new high bandwidth satellite links from Casanay to the internet.
"How's it going down here?" Eddy asked.
D2 turned, its optical sensors focusing on Eddy with an attention
that seemed more than mechanical. "I've been curating you fan
mail, Mr. Watson, as you requested. I've set aside a few interesting
items for you to review, but most of it was routine."
"Just call me Eddy. Good. Thank you." Eddy moved to the
workbench and activated the Viewer, jumping it to a bookmarked event 90,000 years in the past, in the dangerous era when all the human sub-species had suffered through population bottlenecks.
D2 approached strangely close, invading Eddy sense of personal space. "Eddy, I have something for
you. Information from the Sedron Time Stream, transmitted through my
femtozoan and encoded as infites. May I deliver it?"
Eddy's head snapped up. "What kind of information?"
"A message. From your daughter."
Before Eddy could respond, he felt the infites delivering
information directly into his consciousness. A memory that wasn't his
own, yet felt perfectly natural, formed in his mind:
Dear Dad,
I know this is strange—receiving a message as implanted
memory rather than words on paper. But it's the only way I can reach
you from Observer Base.
I'm sending the contents of this message to Earth via the Sedron Time Stream. Sedruth and D2 will know how to relay my message to you. Just so you'll know: I'm okay. Better
than okay, actually. Observer Base is incredible. I'm working with
other exiled scientists studying consciousness. What we know as human-like consciousness was carefully developed by artificial life-forms in a distant galaxy long ago. I get
to speak to both Nyrtia and Manny regularly. Manny is helping me complete my part i the Casanay Intervention.
I'm learning about femtobots and femtobot programming
from the bottom up. Turns out femtobot replicoid copies of humans can
reproduce, just the way biological organisms do. I'll have to try
that someday after I find a partner who can help me raise a bouncing baby femtobot replicoid.
Philip K. Dick sends his regards, by the way. He's interested in your writing. He's been here
since 1982 and has written more novels that sadly will never be
published on Earth. But they're amazing. He's teaching me about the
nature of Earth's Reality Chain and the weird recursive loops that
can happen when you're an exile who's written 'fiction' about aliens.
Dad, I need you to know that I don't regret anything. The car
crash, the exile, even losing my biological body—it was all worth
it. I feel like I've learned more in these past few weeks at Observer
Base than I could have learned in a lifetime on Earth.
And with help from Sedruth, I'm preparing to send the key information
packets back through time that will become the dream visions of
young-Tyhry. I'm creating those messages. Closing the time loop.
Making sure everything happens as it's supposed to happen.
Tell Mom I love her.
I hope Marda is still writing with you. Those stories matter... they were Manny's true purpose in devising the Casanay Intervention.
And Dad? Don't you dare stop now; don't imagine that Marda can take-over for you. You must write all your stories. Tell the truth in fiction. That's
always been your gift and you are not done yet. I won't give any spoilers, but I'm still getting visions from my future self and I've seen the novels you will write in the future.
I'm proud to be your daughter even if I prefer Philp's stories over your goofy Usas novels. If it is any consolation, your second daughter will enjoy your stories more that I ever could.
With love across dimensions, Tyhry
Eddy laughed, tears streaming down his face. But these were
different tears—not grief, but relief. Joy. His daughter was alive and thriving.
"Thank you," he whispered to D2. "Thank you."
The robot simply nodded, understanding Eddy's tears in a way only
an artificial life-form with human-like consciousness could.
Upstairs, in the kitchen, Zeta was following Eddy's thoughts
telepathically when the contents of the message from Tyhry flooded into Eddy.
She saw it all—every word, every emotion, every reassurance.
Her hand went to her own pregnant belly, tears blurring her
vision. Tyhry is okay, she thought.
When Eddy emerged from the basement, his eyes were red but his
expression was peaceful. He found Zeta and they looked at each other
across the room. No words were needed. Zeta crossed to him, and they
held each other in silence, sharing the comfort of knowing their
daughter lived on, in a place they would never see. And somehow,
despite having gone through Tyhry's staged death, that was enough.
That evening at dinner, Eddy was different, his mood lighter than it had been in the weeks since the death of his daughter. Marda noticed
immediately, even though she was a bit cranky about having to start
her new semester of online classes and having been unable to go with
Eddy to the book signing event in Phoenix.
"You seem... better," she said carefully.
"I am," Eddy replied, squeezing Zeta's hand. "I'm going to be okay. We all are."
Zeta smiled at Eddy, knowing that the 'old man' was going to be alive and kicking long enough to help raise their second child. Manny's Casanay Intervention had taken their first daughter
from them. However, Tyhry still existed in the form of hierions and
sedrons, and through time and space she had gotten a message back to
Earth. And in the end, that message was enough. Zeta had brought Eddy, Tyhry and Marda together and they were changing the world even while Zeta selfishly got her daily session in the hot tub with Eddy. Zeta was plagued by doubts that she had not learned to have orgasms with quite the same intensity as before the femtozoan swap, but she was content to keep trying to do them better. Then, while reflecting on her recent discovery that Marda could creatively deploy her tongue, Zeta was glad that her telepathic connection to Eddy was only one-way and he did not know that when he went out for his daily runs, Zeta and Marda made sweet love on the waterbed in the green room. Zeta felt that having lived for decades as the puppet of a time-traveling agent for Manny the bumpha had been worth it. That sense of deep satisfaction inside Zeta's mind had been an integral part and goal of the Casanay Intervention ever since Manny had first conceived of it.
THE END
Too hot. Below are some Grok-generated videos. The first video has about 30 short Grok-generated clips that were stitched together by iMovie. In the third clip in this sequence, I like to imagine that it is Manny the bumpha saying, "I'm too hot for Earth."
The remaining videos were not uploaded to YouTube.
I had Gemini make some story book images as illustrations for Chapter 6 (see above on this page). As can be seen in Figure 1, above, Gemini began by depicting Eddy as a very old man, but then re-calibrated and shifted to depicting Eddy as the appearing young and having plenty of muscle mass (see Figure 2). Gemini delivered a classic AI error by generating a cat with five legs (see Figure 3).
In all cases, I request that Gemini make story book images that are "in the style of full color high resolution movie stills" but Gemini does not always follow my instructions. The images that Gemini made for scene 1 of Chapter 6 seem to be in Gemini's preferred storybook style, but the images generated by Gemini for scene 2 are more beautiful (see Figure 4).
