I, Clavius

Nora Adamanta

I was vaguely aware of the existence of Nora. My son had mentioned her several times, but in such a low-key and off-handed manner that I had not actually allowed myself to take her presence in the structure of my family very seriously. It all seemed tenuous and fragile. I imagined Nora as the first indication that it might actually be possible to find a "replacement" for my grand-daughter Verella's mother who had been missing for more than ten years.

However, Nora's growing importance within my son's life and all of the related events in the research laboratory run by my son were taking place far away, on the other side of the planet. I had my own concerns, so Nora had captured very little of my attention.

That all changed on the cool winter day when she arrived at my front door. Zeta had gone to the door expecting to deal with a package delivery and at the sound of the doorbell, I had glanced up, peering through the window of the guest room which I sometimes use as my study. Nora has fascinating structural features, many of which were immediately apparent since she seemed very lightly dressed for December. I could see her there waiting politely at the front gate (even though we never bother to close the gate) then she turned and looked directly at me.

Betty

Suddenly I remembered an Interventionist agent who I had originally known as "Betty" and who Zeta knew as "Dark Nora". The image of Nora (Betty) that I had long held in my mind was a borrowed one that had come to me in the set of infites that I had received from Parthney. Somehow I had allowed myself to imagine that Betty had completed her work on Earth had departed from our world. It was surprising to realize that my son's new friend (Nora) was the artificial lifeform that Parthney had known as Betty. I suddenly knew this in a flash of recognition that was triggered by the infites that I had more recently received from Yōd. Betty loves playing with disguises, but Yōd's infites held the key for allowing recognition of Nora/Betty. That key was her telepathic mind pattern, a pattern that was well known to Yōd.

I had no conscious telepathic connection to Nora, but our minds were able to exchange information at a more subliminal level. I recognized her mind pattern and I knew: this was Nora/Betty.

My mind was tipped into a state of startlement and amazement so it was only after Zeta let Nora pass through the front door that I noticed there was no car in the driveway. I wondered where Nora had arrived from and how she had reached our home in the dessert, then I remembered that in the previous millennium Betty had been in control of teleportation technology. It had been Betty who long ago had teleported Hana off of Earth.

Zeta and I share a special kind of telepathic link, so I knew that she wanted me. Now! I forced myself out of my shocked paralysis and hurried down the hallway to the living room. I felt the full force of two sparkling sets of eyes upon me as I entered the room. I've long experienced the effects of Zeta's facial nanites, including the way they make her eyes sparkle with a kind of perfection that is rare in mere Earthlings. Upon seeing her at close range, I was instantly convinced that our guest was not of this world and I could understand why Zeta had previously assured me that Nora is an artificial lifeform. Zeta said, "This is Nora, from Perth."

With our telepathic connection revealing to me Zeta's emotions, I could sense that Zeta knew that Nora was not human, but she was playing along, accepting Nora's cover story. I looked out the window towards the driveway and asked, "Are you traveling with my son?"

Nora shook her head. "No, he does not know that I came here to speak with you. I'll be back in Perth before he wakes up. However, if you want to start making plans, we will both be here for a visit next year."

I remembered that in Australia it was summer time, which almost excused the way Nora was dressed. Had she just rolled out of bed on a hot summer night and teleported herself to the other side of the planet? If so, perhaps it was miraculous that she was wearing any clothing at all. After a brief struggle to pull my eyes and mind away from her lovely body, I felt the need to warn her. "It was not wise to teleport yourself here. I'm constantly being observed."

Nora laughed in relief, "Have no fear! Close Observation of Earth recently ended, soon after the Bimanoid Interface was altered. We do not have to worry that some enraged Overseer will soon arrive intent on breaking up our little party."

Zeta asked suspiciously, "Why are you here?"

Nora explained, "I was teleported here in order to give you warning that Rylla is on her way."

Somehow I knew what Nora meant, but this was the first time that I'd heard the name "Rylla" spoken, so I automatically asked, "'Rylla'?"

"Your grand-daughter Verella now insists on being called Rylla." Nora rolled her eyes. "She is inbound, flying here from Australia."

Alarmed by this revelation, Zeta asked, "The girl is traveling alone?"

"Quite." Nora shrugged. "She can take care of herself. Growing up without a mother, she has become confident and self-sufficient. I'm not worried about her."

I laughed nervously, "You are worried about me."

"Well, yes. You don't know Rylla, and I felt that you should be warned. She has been telepathically linked to you through her entire life." Nora looked back and forth between Zeta and I. "The retro-sculpting of Rylla's endosymbionic Bimanoid Interface was very similar to what Zeta went through. Rylla's telepathic abilities have been suppressed, limiting her use of the Interface to subconscious contacts with her mother and you. Her ability to use the Bimanoid Interface for conscious exchange of information was intentionally burned out and blocked."

Zeta asked, "Just so that she could remain on Earth? For what purpose?"

Nora shrugged, "Oh, there is a purpose, but we mere mortals never get briefed on those fine details. It is up to us to figure out such mysteries. However, at Observer Base there has long been a theory: that Rylla is the true Editor, the Earthling who will actually write the Secret History of Humanity."

During the past decade, I had come to imagine that it was my job to function as the Editor and write the Secret History of Humanity, but I could immediately understand the possibility that I had deceived myself. I asked, "Why is Verella coming here?"

"She recently discovered your blog. More importantly, she now knows that there are alien forces at work on Earth. She recently had a personal experience of... well, she met an Interventionist and got a demonstration of the power of nanites.  So, when you meet her, don't try to pretend that you know nothing about space aliens and other-worldly technology. You are going to have to find a way to educate the poor girl... pass on to her all that you know."

With Nora there in front of me, I could not restrain myself from questioning her. "Whose side are you on? Are you one of R. Gohrlay's agents?"

Nora sighed. "I'm on Rylla's side, so please take care of her. Now, I have to return home." Nora threw her arms around me and briefly hugged me. Then she did the same with Zeta. She turned and walked out, not even looking back at us over her shoulder as she went through the front door.

I had been dazzled by Nora. I stood there tingling from the feel of her arms around me, the delightful sensation of her body pressed against mine. I muttered to Zeta, "I should have stopped her. Think of what she could tell us about the Interventionists and Parthney's mission on Earth."

Zeta did not share my enthusiasm. "Nora is dangerous. She's a walking demonstration of why Interventionists should not be allowed on Earth. As an artificial lifeform composed of femtobots, she can take on any physical form. In just two minutes she had you totally captivated and ready to put her up in the guest house for a week's stay."

I smiled, "You have to admit, she is gorgeous."

"She's a fake. She's been playing this game for thousands of years."

I put my arms around Zeta. "You seem jealous."

"I am. I'd love to have her technical abilities. I have to work slowly and carefully to alter my body with my medical nanites. What takes me a year of hard work, Nora can achieve in a few minutes. Still, I don't know how she can teleport around Earth so casually. By the terms of the Pact, there should no longer be anyone on Earth with access to teleportation technology."

I'd been reading in the study all afternoon, which was a long time for me to be apart from Zeta. We held each other tight and started kissing.

cover art by Edmund Emshwiller

Zeta is the magical love of my life, but even as I held her in my arms my thoughts were wandering. I had truly been startled by the sudden appearance of Nora. I have been continuing to search through the infites that I received from Yōd. With hints provided by those infites, I had recently been able to fight through an old memory block that had been imposed on by Irhit. I had remembered once more the "homework" assignment that I was given long ago by Bonny. Earlier this year I finally read "Anniversary" and just before Nora's arrival I'd read "The Key", forty years after Bonny had told me to read that story.

Now I felt something hard in my pants pocket where I was pressed against Zeta. I reached down and pulled out the little nanite containment device. It was almost identical to the one that Yōd had given me just before she had departed from Earth.

I began to say, "Nora must have-" My phone rang. It was Verella calling to let me know that she was flying in and had landed in Los Angeles. She asked, "Can you meet me at the airport?"

Of course, I told her that Zeta and I would pick her up at the airport and we were pleased to hear that she was coming for a visit. Driving into town from our home in the dessert, we would have to hurry to arrive at the airport before Verella.

Ten minutes later we were getting into the car. I told Zeta, "You drive."

She asked, "Why should I drive?" Zeta got behind the wheel.

Feeling certain that Nora had provided me with critical information, what would be the key to understanding how to deal with my grand-daughter, I explained, "I bet his dispenser contains infites. I'm going to find out."

Driving down our long driveway, Zeta complained, "That's not wise. You still have not fully processed the infites that Yōd gave you." Before Zeta could stop me, I opened the nanite dispenser and a cloud of infites flowed into my head.

At the end of the driveway was Nora, walking bare foot in the rough gravel to the side of the pavement. Zeta slowed the car and I rolled down the window. I called to Nora, "Need a lift?"

Wordlessly she got into the back seat of our car and Zeta got us on the highway. I was struggling to deal with the onslaught of information reaching my mind from Nora's infites. I could see that it had been her plan to return to Perth by teleportation. My eyes were blinded by internal images of my son and Rylla. For the past year they had been living together happily as a family. Nora knew that she could never take the place of Rylla's missing mother, but I could see in her recorded memories that Nora had managed to achieve a strong friendship with Rylla.

I asked, "Why aren't you back in Perth?"

Nora replied, "I don't know. Something is wrong." After a pause she asked, "Did you hear from Rylla?"

I had sunk back into my internal world, searching through the information from Nora. Zeta had been correct: it was not wise for me to take in these new nanites. They seemed to be fighting for my attention against the stronger influence of Yōd's infites. As if far away, I heard Zeta say, "We're on the way to the airport. Rylla's on a connector flight from LA."

Nora said, "I suppose I should catch a flight back to Australia."

Zeta asked, "Maybe you should explain what went wrong with your plans. If we are on the same side, we should work together."

Nora complained, "You can't expect me to trust R. Gohrlay's secret agent on Earth."

Zeta said, "I've never met R. Gohrlay. Even if she is responsible for me being here on Earth, I'm hardly her agent."

Zeta and Nora continued to discuss Genesaunt politics while I mentally descended into the world of infites. My mind was flooded with information about recent events in my son's geology research lab and his home. On the home front, I could see in Nora's memories that my son was now happy to have a woman back in his life after ten years of lamenting the mysterious disappearance of his wife.

Perth, Australia

As for events in the lab, I saw how Georgy White had made use of a kind of "anopticon" to find evidence for hierions on Earth. During that discovery, Nora had been working as a technician in the lab. I saw that without hints and help and prodding from Nora, Georgy would not have been able to make sense of her experimental results and would not have realized that she had detected hierions with negative mass.

Also clear in the infites was the fact that "a copy" of Georgy had been sent to Observer Base on the Moon. Her discovery of hierions had been erased from Earth. At first, Nora had gone with Georgy to the Moon, but then she had been teleported back to Earth in order to help Rylla adjust to her realization that alien Interventionists were operating on Earth. Sifting through Nora's memories as recorded in the infites, I could tell that until the Bimanoid Interface had been altered, Nora was routinely in contact with a woman named Eustacia who lived at Observer Base.

When I realized that Eustacia was a female clone of Isaac Asimov, I cried out, "Amazing!"

Zeta asked me, "What?"

I muttered, "Another Asimov...." But I was too busy searching through the infites to continue speaking. In his story "The Key", Asimov used the crater Clavius as the location on the Moon where an alien artifact was hidden. In Nora's memories, I saw that Eustacia had kept Nora informed about how Georgy was adapting to life At Observer Base. When Georgy asked where "on" the Moon Observer Base is located, Eustacia had told her that the hidden base was in the rim of Clavius crater. In that memory, both Nora and Eustacia had laughed.

Looking deeper into the infites, I understood their laughter. I saw that Observer Base had never "on" the Moon. Observer Base is located in the Hierion Domain, but it had long been common practice to lie to new arrivals from Earth and pretend that Observer Base was hidden under the surface of the Moon.

During the past year or so, Nora had made a half dozen or so trips to Observer Base, slipping out of my son's house at night after he had fallen asleep. During that year, Eustacia had gone through a pregnancy. Then, with birth of the baby approaching, one of the group that frequently met together at Anatole's arrived with Georgy.

I was surprised to see that Georgy's friend was Izhiun, a man from the Andromeda galaxy who had once given me a set of infites.

original cover art by
Earle Bergey

In those memories from Nora, I saw Izhiun trying to explain to Georgy that they were "almost the parents" of the baby being carried by Eustacia. With support from Nora, Georgy decided to undergo hormone treatment so that she could be prepared to raise the baby when it was born.

I was having trouble knowing the correct temporal order of Nora's memories as recorded in the infites that Nora had passed on to me. There was a recent memory of a discussion between Nora and Eustacia about how Qaz and Nyrtia had been "balancing the nanites" used by Izhiun so as to adjust Georgy's access to the Bimanoid Interface. Qaz and Nyrtia were trying to make sure that Georgy would have "the correct" type of telepathic contact with the baby and be able to guide the development of its connections to the Bimanoid Interface.

I could also see in Nora's memories that Eustacia had long been working to genetically modify Earth humans so as to improve their ability to use the Bimanoid Interface. I saw that Hana had been part of that human genetics project.

Sorting through the infites, I discovered that Izhiun was the resident of Eternity who could use a nanite prosthetic to activate the teleportation equipment at Observer Base. Working with Nora Adamanta (sometimes she called herself Nora Stone), Izhiun had planned to teleport her back to Perth after she had warned me that Rylla was on her way to the States.

original cover art by
Edmund Emshwiller

My eyes cleared and I saw that we were now arriving at the airport. Something had gone wrong with Izhiun's plan to teleport Nora back home. Was Nora now trapped on Earth in the role of a mass-spectroscopy technician? In Nora's memories that she had recorded in the infites, I saw that she had quit her job in my son's geology lab when she had taken on the task of helping Rylla and moved in with my son.

Zeta pulled up to the departures area and Nora said, "Thanks for the ride and good luck with Rylla." She got out of the car and I saw that she was now dressed more sensibly and carrying a small bag. Watching her walk away, I realized that she could use her femtobots to make anything that she might need from clothing to credit cards.

I said to Zeta, "My son is a very lucky man." Then I got a text message. I told Zeta, "Rylla just landed."

Next: Retro-reading 1919 - 2019.

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Club Moon

Hana on Luk'ru

Back in 2012, I began a serious investigation of Genesaunt society when I started writing a new science fiction story called Exode. The two main Genesaunt factions (Interventionists and Overseers) were to be revealed to readers through the eyes of Hana, an Earth woman who having given birth to an oddly mutated baby is taken away from Earth, beginning a great adventure of discovery among the far stars of the galaxy.

Kach and Parthney take Hana
to the Andromeda galaxy

In earlier stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, the usual destination for new exiles from Earth was Observer Base on the Moon. For Exode, I was soon off to a more distant world, the planet Hemmal, located in the Galactic Core. Hemmal was the home world of Parthney, the Interventionist agent who had to remove Hana from Earth.

source

Zooming out even further from Earth, Parthney gets caught up in a search for the Creators, the unseen aliens who have long been performing genetics experiments on we humans. Parthney and Kach visit the planet Luk'ru, a world in the Andromeda galaxy. Along for the ride is their son and Hana, who eventually raise their own children on the planet Luk'ru.

source

One of the children of Hana who is born on Luk'ru, Izhiun, makes the long journey back to Earth and passes a set of information nanites on to the Editor.

After briefly living on Earth and helping the Dead Widowers, Izhiun is captured by Overseers and sent to the Moon. When Georgy White arrives at Observer Base, Izhiun is there, experimenting with nanotechnology. Using a nanite prosthetic, he has managed to incapacitate his own telepathic abilities, allowing him to remain on Earth after the sudden arrival of Bimanoid Interface 2. Below, I review some of my major Sci Fi blogging topics for 2018 including the origin of the Bimanoid Interface version 2.

from Galaxy magazine in 1955

Izhiun on the Moon - December 2018

I'm currently writing about a native resident at Observer Base, Eustacia Pasimov. Eustacia was created by genetic alteration of Isaac Asimov's genome, artificially producing a female clone of Asimov. This genetic manipulation was performed when it was realized that for some reason no female analogue of Asimov had ever existed in the many Realities of Earth's Reality Chain. It was suspected that Asimov should be able to access hidden information within the AR Simulator of Eternity, but several attempts to use Asimov as the "key" for entry to the AR Simulator had all failed. Maybe only a female analogue of Asimov could access the AR Simulator?

The Asimov Reality

However, the specially created female analogue of Asimov could not enter into the AR Simulator. She adopted the name Eustacia Pasimov and developed her own project at Observer Base: attempting to carry out her own breeding experiments in an attempt to replicate what had been accomplished in the far future of the Asimov Reality. Eustacia worked towards the goal of creating a human variant that could use the Bimanoid Interface to achieve the type of telepathy that R. Gohrlay had previously crafted for the Asterothropes.

Asterothrope

At the end of Part 2 of The Pasimov Project, Eustacia is pregnant, carrying a fetus that was crafted by combining genes from Izhiun and Georgy White. With Izhiun's odd mixture of Asterothrope, Ek'col and Kac'hin genes, will Eustacia give birth to a baby that qualifies as "human" under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact?

see

Georgy herself inherited some special gene combinations from her parents, so she has some telepathic abilities and is able to achieve telepathic contact with the fetus that is growing inside of Eustacia. In an attempt to control Georgy's telepathic abilities, she secretly undergoes "nanotransformation", an attempt to modify the function of her femtobot and zeptite endosymbionts using rather crude nanites that were smuggled into Observer Base from the planet Tar'tron. On Earth, Rylla's telepathic connection to the fetus must be boosted, allowing it to become a mind clone of Rylla.

Alice Wroke

November 2018
During November I was in in the mood for thinking about Jack Vance and his science fiction stories. In his novel The Book of Dreams, Vance described Alice Wroke as "miraculous". Exactly what were her origins? I like to imagine that in an alternate Reality, Vance might have written additional stories about the adventures of Kirth Gersen and Alice Wroke. Similarly, I have fan-ish fantasies about additional stories (example: The Society of Matriarchs) featuring Vance's characters Glinnes and Duissane.

"Telek" by Jack Vance

October 2018 
During 2018, I was paying special attention to the science fiction stories of Theodore Sturgeon, who was born in 1918. In October, I blogged about "Twink", a short story by Sturgeon that involves telepathy. It was useful for me to think about old published stories dealing with telepathy while I was developing my thinking about "Rylla" and the telepathic Mind Clone Network.

Phenence

September
In September, I wrote a short story about Phenence and her first adventure on Earth. Phenence was one of the clones of Gohrlay.

Another story that I wrote in September is about the mysterious "Bonny Fennland" who introduces the Editor to the science fiction of Jack Vance. Bonny has a helper "Cal", an artificial life form who is named after the robot in Isaac Asimov's short story called "Cal".

clones

August
During August I wrote an account of the day when the Bimanoid Interface was upgraded. That alteration was a foundational event that made possible the creation of the Mind Clone Network.

Ivory Fersoni

During August, I like to celebrate the science fiction of Jack Vance. In 2018 I wrote a story called "Minus Yōd" that includes discussion of an imaginary alternate version of Vance's story from 1952: "Cholwell's Chickens".

July

Harlan Ellison

In July I wrote a science fiction story that is based on the video game Civilization: Beyond Earth. "Exoditions on Cynk" describes the fate of Ivory Fersoni and how she ended up on an ancient planet of the Phari. 

June
During June, I was busy playing Beyond Earth.

May

Add caption

I blogged about the impact of Harlan Ellison on Star Trek.

April
I often blog about the science fiction of Jack Vance in May, but in 2018 I had a blog post about Vance in April. I suggested the idea that Kirth Gersen was a deep cover IPCC agent.
It was in that blog post that I first suggest Araminta Smade could exist in "the real world". I  used that idea in a chapter of A Search Beyond.

source

March
In The Last Replicoid , I described Azynov as the last replicoid that was made by Grean, the artificial device used by Many Sails that could enter into the Asimov Reality Simulator of Eternity. As a copy of Isaac Asimov, Azynov has all of Asimov's memories, but his personality has been altered to remove his obsession for writing.

fictional chemistry

February
In February of 2018, I blogged about a strange 1927 story about telepathy called "The Tissue-Culture King" by Julian Huxley.

Let's Make a Genre

January
In 2018 I blogged about the new X-Files season. I also began 2018 by blogging about Theodore Sturgeon who was born in 1918. I did some retro-reading of his 1953 science fiction story, "The Wages of Synergy". 

In January, I also wrote a short story called "Let's Make a Genre". This is a story about an Interventionist mission on Earth aimed at helping to create the science fiction literary genre.
Related Reading: 2019 year in review - 2017 year in review
Next: Sources, Agents and Collaborators

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Resistance Training

The Pasimov Project   Part 2 (click here to read Part 1)

Eustace teleported with Georgy back to the bedroom and tossed her onto the bed. Another woman was already there in the room, waiting. Eustace glanced at the woman and saw that she was intently engaged with a display device. "Ah, Colleen, what do you think?"

Colleen was looking at a complex data stream reporting on the activity of Georgy's brain. With snarky disapproval in her voice, Colleen replied, "You wore the poor girl out, of course."

Eustace did not seem concerned. 'He' gazed upon the sleeping girl, looking for indications of a physical stress response. "She's tough as nails, a farm girl."

"But she's got significant control over the Bimanoid Interface. She already figured out how to access the infite dictionary that you implanted in her brain."

Eustace turned 'his' head and told Colleen firmly, "That's impossible."

"Look for yourself." Eustace examined the brain data and could see that Georgy really had cracked the code for unlimited access to the infite dictionary. Then, making use of the simulation control interface, Colleen made some adjustments to Georgy's body. Finally she said, "I did a complete memory erase for the past fifteen minutes and I subtracted the dictionary from this simulation. Now be careful and let the poor creature eat! I'll handle the simultaneous nanite-mediated nutrient transfer for her biobody." Colleen disappeared from the simulated reality and Eustace went to sit beside Georgy on the bed, waiting for the girl to regain consciousness.

Eustace was quite aware that they were in a simulation, a virtual reality. Eustace smiled, amused to be in disguise as a male. It was clear from the data being pulled from Georgy's mind that the girl was intrigued by Eustace and sexually attracted to "him". For a moment, Stacy explored her own thoughts: could I ever actually come to think of myself as a male? She thought not. It is fun to play this role on occasion, but I'm hopelessly female and only attracted to men.

Georgy's eyes flickered and she turned her head to look at Eustace. "I-  I got a bit dizzy there."

"Perfectly normal, my dear, you've been through a lot." Eustace took hold of one of Georgy's hands, gently holding it between both of his. "Its not every day that a girl dies and gets sent off to the Moon."

Georgy grinned and put a hand to her temple. "I... I was just going to ask you a personal question, Eustace. Are you somehow related to Isaac Asimov, the writer?"

Eustace explained, "Well, Eustace Asimov is not my real name. I'm using this name as a tribute to Isaac Asimov, to honor his role in the science fiction revolution. You see, as a member of the resistance movement here at Observer Base, I often need to conceal my identity. Calling myself 'Eustace Asimov' is deceptive... just part of the life of a freedom fighter here in Eternity."

"Fighting who?"

"The Overseers. They don't want someone like me sharing advance alien technologies with Earthlings."

"But you said the tryp'At are gone."

"True, and the tryp'At were a major source of trouble for we freedom fighters, but we in the resistance movement still have our difficulties. Now listen, Georgy: I want you to take it easy. You are going to learn all about your new life here in Eternity, but not all at once, not all right this minute. Your blood sugar levels are dropping and I'd like to take you to dinner."

Georgy sat up and said, "I am hungry. And thirsty." She grabbed the water nipple from the dispenser and drank.

Eustace began pacing back and forth beside the bed. "We can either go to my place for a quiet meal or we could eat at Anatole's. Many of the resistance fighters gather at Anatole's each evening."

Georgy replaced the nipple in the dispenser and stood up. "I'd like to meet your friends, but isn't there danger if you all gather in one place?"

"We take our precautions, believe me. It is perfectly safe for us to assemble at Anatole's. A word of warning, though. Anatole is not exactly human."

"What exactly is he?"

"A replicoid. And not a typical replicoid, at that."

"What's a replicoid?"

"Anatole is a great cook. He's devoted to taking care of we fragile humans, but he might startle you when you first see him. He looks like a mechanical man."

"Ah, he's a robot. I begin to understand why you use the name Asimov. Asimov imagined a future in which humans would be served by positronic robots. And that is how it is here in Eternity?"

"To some extent. Mostly we are taken care of by nanorobotic systems. Invisibly small nanites perform many routine tasks such as cleaning and maintenance. Anatole insists on playing the role of a robotic servant. He's quite a character. Anyhow, you may not even see him. He tends to just stay in the kitchen, cooking. Still, I felt I should warn you."

"Thanks for the warning." Georgy rolled off of the bed and got to her feet. "What other surprises should I be warned about?"

Eustace took out his teleportation control device and placed an arm around Georgy's waist. "Don't worry, there are plenty of surprises in store for you, my dear. You'll be thrilled and edified as you learn about Eternity." They teleported out of the bedroom and arrived in a gaily-lit back alley of Observer Base. This part of town had a completely different character than had the dreary dark streets near the fishbowl. Eustace gestured towards a doorway, "Here we are."

Above the door were small glowing lights that spelled out "Anatole Ravenley". The door opened at their approach and Georgy was hit by a wave of loud music and savory food odors. Eustace led her by the hand to a small dining room where about 20 of his friends were gathered for talk and before-dinner appetizers. They were seated around a single long table.

Georgy immediately became the center of conversation. "Finally, Eustace appears with his new recruit!"

"What's her name, Eustace, do you plan to introduce us?"

"My, she's a youngin!"

Eustace held up a hand, "Silence you buffoons. This is Georgy White, previously abiding on the oft forgotten continent of Australia."

A woman rose from the table and placed a hand on Georgy's arm, "Welcome to Eternity, Georgy. My name is Colleen Liscan. Has Eustace been taking good care of you?"

Eustace was continuing to field questions and comments from those seated at the table. He was describing Georgy's work at Perth University and her discovery of hierions on Earth. Georgy tried to keep her attention focused on Colleen. "Eustace seems like a true gentleman, until you are naked in front of him."

Colleen rolled her eyes, "Eustace sometimes feels the need to play the role of a lecherous male. Take no offense! Deep down inside Eustace is a lonely child."

At that moment, a dozen plates full of food arrived by teleportation on the low platform that ran the length of the table at its center. Eustace said, "Enjoy your meal. We'll take our dinner on the balcony."

Eustace teleported with Georgy up the the balcony that surrounded the first floor dining area. A few other couples were up there, seated at small tables for two. Eustace and Georgy settled at their own table and waved to the group below. Eustace said, "Ignore Colleen. She is jealous and hates to see me with a new recruit."

Georgy asked, "Am I being recruited?"

"Yes. There is not much useful work to do here in Eternity. A farm-bred lass like you? I know your type! You'd be bored if you did not have a job and work to do. We in the resistance can use your assistance."

"What other options are there for me here?"

"Some new residents take up the study of Earth's history. We have on record a detailed history of human civilization, going right back to the very beginning." The center of the little table began glowing red.

"Fascinating! I've always enjoyed ancient history and particularly anthropology. Do the records here go back to the origins of the human species and-"

Eustace cut off Georgy's enthusiastic patter. "Tut tut, my girl. Let's not get carried away. Right this minute we have an immediate task of great importance! We need to get some food into you. I've taken the liberty of placing an order. Lean back from the table, now." A collection of plates, dished and cups appeared on the table, teleported directly from Anatole's kitchen. The red glow of the table faded away and they ate, with Georgy asking questions about the source of food for the residents of the Moon.

Eustace shook his head rather sadly. "As a farm lass, the less you know the better. All the food here is completely artificial. There are no farms, no fields, no fisheries here on the Moon. However, Anatole is a magician. He'll learn exactly what you enjoy and you'll soon stop wondering where your food comes from. So, just enjoy."

Georgy pointed down to the group on the floor below. "These are all your recruits? Brought here from Earth, like me?"

"No, most of them were born here in Eternity. Colleen, however, is a fairly recent arrival. Like you, she got herself involved with a violation of the Pact and won herself a ticket to the Moon."

Georgy leaned back in her chair and set down her fork. She rubbed her forehead and tried to remember how she had learned about the Trysta-Grean Pact. She knew that the Pact involved a set of rules concerning what Earthlings could be allowed to know about alien visitors to Earth. In particular, her own discovery of negative mass hierions on Earth was exactly the kind of knowledge that was forbidden by the Pact. She asked, "Who is Trysta? And Grean?"

Eustace stared off towards the high ceiling of Anatole's. "Trysta is my hero." For a long minute he was silent and the noisy banter and laughter from below was all that Georgy could hear. Eustace finally continued, "Trysta was the first proof that an Earthly primate could control the Bimanoid Interface. However, as an Asterothrope, Trysta fell short. What was needed was a true human with telepathic abilities. That is my goal, my team's on-going project: to construct, from scratch, a human with the same telepathic abilities that Trysta had."

"Trysta is not a human being?"

Trysta in the 482nd.

"That's right. The Asterothropes came into existence only in the far future. They are a unique type of primate that evolved from we humans. Too bad you never read the science fiction of Isaac Asimov. He wrote an amusing story about Trysta and her adventures in Time called The End of Eternity."

Georgy realized that she knew time travel had been used to bring Trysta from the far future to the 20th century. Frustratingly, she did not understand how it was that she firmly believed in the existence of time travel as an actual technology. Georgy wondered: how do I know these strange things? She asked Eustace, "So, you not only make use of teleportation, but also time travel?"

Eustace chuckled. "Sadly, no. Time travel is no longer possible. But Trysta was a time traveler, that is certain. Actually, a better source of information about Trysta is a book that was written by Andrew Harlan after he arrived here at Observer Base. Andrew's story begins with the time that he spent in the 482nd century with Trysta and ends with an account of their time together in the 20th century."

The lights inside Anatole's began to dim. The entire building seemed to split in half and all of the seats shifted position and the room was reorganized into a theater. The plates disappeared from their table and Eustace said, "The entertainment is about to begin. I'm sorry you did not get to order dessert." Two tall glasses containing a chilled green drink appeared on the table. "This is a drink that Anatole created in honor of Trysta."

The evening's entertainment had begun. Georgy and the others now faced a large projected image. What looked like an Earthly movie began. Eustace commented, "This ceegee was made here at the Base. This is a sequel to the movie Contact."

Georgy settled back in her chair which had slowly transformed itself into a comfortable recliner. "I've heard about that movie, but I never saw it." She tasted the green drink and was struck by its subtle and delicate peppermint flavoring. She set the glass into her recliner's cup holder and leaned back, trying to make sense of the ceegee. She had the odd sensation that the story was being fed directly into her brain.

The story progressed through its preliminaries and some failed attempts to use the alien-designed Machine to send more travelers to the center of the galaxy. Then when the ceegee reached a rather steamy scene with Palmer Joss and Ellie Arroway, Eustace took hold of Georgy's hand. They held hands through the rest of the show, but Georgy never saw the ending before she fell asleep.

_______

Later, Georgy was replaying her recent memories from the fishbowl. Drifting at the delicate interface between dreams and wakefulness, she imagined calling her parents on Earth by making use of the communications equipment in the fishbowl. In her dream, she was excitedly telling her mother about Eustace, who was there with her, holding her in his arms. She felt safe and warm in the embrace of Eustace. Still speaking by phone to her mother, Georgy felt a type of illicit thrill from being there in the fishbowl, naked with Eustace. Then, Eustace morphed into the young daughter of Georgy's thesis adviser: Verella. Shocked by the idea of embracing and caressing Verella, Georgy suddenly woke up. Her eyes popped open and she peered through the shadows. It was a woman there beside her, with their limbs tangled together. Startled and disoriented, Georgy sat up and whispered, "Eustace?"

"No, this is me. Stacy."

"Stacy?" Georgy tried to focus on her face. Stacy looked like Eustace, in much the way that a sister might resemble a brother. But there was no doubt that Stacy was a woman; she was quite obviously pregnant. "What happened to Eustace?"

Stacy rubbed her eyes. "I'll explain everything, but I'm tired. I'd hoped you would sleep longer. This pregnancy is wearing me out." She rubbed a hand over her bulging belly. "That whole Eustace thing was just a test. I did not want to expose my true identity to you until I could be certain who you are."

Georgy sat up in the bed, trying to order her thoughts. She had memories of having known Eustace for what seemed like years. They had grown to become collaborators in his project and they had grown to be happy and devoted lovers, sharing this very bed that Georgy now found herself in. All those sweet memories of Eustace seemed to slip away, like memories of a dream.

Stacy was speaking. "Forget about Eustace. I showed myself to you in that form as a precaution. I apologize for not trusting that you are just an innocent Earth girl. You see, I grew up during the Time War and I developed the automatic and paranoid strategy of not trusting strangers."

"Eustace was not real?"

"Nothing that you experienced while in the company of Eustace was real. The technology here for virtual reality simulations is very advanced. I've lived for so long in fear that the tryp'At would discover my human genetics project... well, that's my problem. And I should be getting over it since the tryp'At appear to have been driven away from Earth. Still, I can't escape the belief that someone must still be enforcing the terms of the Pact, so using caution is not irrational. I don't want to be sent to the Galactic Core, not now when I feel that my project is close to success. Anyhow, all that  time you spent with Eustace was just me testing your identity."

Georgy reached down and placed a hand between her legs. She had a kind of composite memory of having made love with Eustace hundreds of times, of having been in love with him for years. She muttered, "Just a test?"

Stacy shook her head in wonder. "Well. I had to try."

Georgy asked, "Try what?"

"I had to try to make you forget about Eustace. I knew it would not be possible. You are a strange case. You must have access to information resources in the Sedronic Domain, just as Angela did. Amazing."

Georgy reached out and placed a hand on Stacy's bulging abdomen. "Who is the father?"

Stacy sighed. "I'd rather not discuss the matter. I'm only acting as a surrogate mother for this baby. I'm not supposed to reveal who the parents are."

Georgy closed her eyes and tried to imagine the growing fetal mind that was there inside of Stacy. "Will this child have telepathic powers?" Suddenly, Georgy was there, floating inside of Stacy. She opened her eyes and jerked her hand back.

Stacy asked, "What? Did you make contact?"

Georgy shrugged, "I must be imagining..." A shiver went up her spine. Georgy jumped off the bed and found her nanite clothing. As the nanite-woven material coated her skin, she asked, "Who is Angela?"

Eustacia explained, "Angela was a rare Earthling, along with Anney and Radhas, who could use the Bimanoid Interface as a tool for accessing information from Deep Time. Of those three, it is Radhas who has a close connection to you. In a manner of speaking, Radhas was the mother of your friend, Verella."

"Verella? She was hardly my friend, although without her I might not have discovered that deposit of negative mass matter." Georgy looked at Stacy suspiciously. "How do you know about Verella?"

"Look, Georgy, I think I've made myself clear. Since you arrived here for your second life, I've been all through you... physically and mentally. After you fell in love with Eustace, you told him everything about your life. Even how you fantasized about moving in with Verella and living like her sister. Or her mother."

Georgy shouted, "That's not true!"

"Oh? Well, I suppose it does not really matter."

"Look, if in a moment of personal fantasy you imagine making love to an older man that does not mean it was a serious plan or anything meaningful!"

Stacy observed, "And yet you seem very animated by the concept. In any case, I'm sorry I mentioned it. Let's leave your fantasies to the side. The point is, the mother of Verella was an important vector as part of my genetics project. Radhas volunteered to go to Earth on that mission. She temporarily took over control of the body that belonged to Verella's mother. Then, when she completed her work with Verella, Radhas returned here. But something went wrong. Verella's mother should have resumed control of her body and continued living her Earthly life as if Radhas had never been there, but something had broken in her mind. She was insane and she abandoned her family."

Georgy said, "Its not hard to guess what went wrong. Just as I can remember Eustace, Verella's mother could remember Radhas."

Stacy nodded. "You're a clever girl. As was Verella's mother. Because she could remember Radhas taking control of her body, she knew that aliens were visiting Earth, influencing the course of events on Earth. Who knows what she learned about Radhas while watching from inside their shared mind during all those years? She went on the run, trying to hide."

"How sad."

"Yes. How very sad. But Verella was resilient. She grew up resenting the loss of her mother, but with her unconscious telepathic abilities she was never really abandoned."

Georgy shook her head in wonder, "So poor Verella is caught up in your web of intrigue?"

"Yes. And so are you, my dear. I need your help, Georgy. Colleen Liscan and other 'exiles' from Earth are working with me to make sure that Earthlings receive their inheritance: the ability to communicate telepathically."

Next: the genes of Luk'ru
Related Reading: "Hierion Confinement"

source

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Heisenberg's Eyes

cover by Paul Lehr?

I'm fascinated when non-scientists attempt to write science fiction stories about biology. Frank Herbert published such a story, called "Heisenberg's Eyes", in the June and August 1966 issues of Galaxy magazine. 1966 was an interesting year for Herbert because his Dune saga was bursting upon the world. In the wider world of biology research, the "coding problem" was rapidly being solved. Sadly, there is no indication in the text of "Heisenberg's Eyes" that Herbert had any understanding of DNA or the concept of a nucleic acid sequence. In the absence of having anything sensible to say about genetic engineering, Herbert went ahead and wrote a story about genetic engineering imaginary future politics and the human struggle against tyranny.

see the original cover

You can download the magazine issues that contain "Heisenberg's Eyes" from online archives of science fiction magazines such as the Internet Archive.

June 1966 Galaxy with Heisenberg's Eyes Part 1 - Download
August 1966 Galaxy with Heisenberg's Eyes Part 2 - Download

"Heisenberg's Eyes" is set in the far future, at a time when surgeons have long been doing genetic surgery on early human embryos. The imaginary setting of "Heisenberg's Eyes" reminds me of the futuristic world described by Stanley G. Weinbaum in his 1939 story "The Black Flame". A small "ruling class" of immortals (called "Optimen") uses advanced reproductive technology to control society.

Herbert tells us that this brave new world of the future is full of sterile worker drones who lead a "troglodyte existence". A typical lifespan is 200 years, so most people never get to have children. However, there are some fertile members of society who occasionally get to be parents. "Heisenberg's Eyes" begins with genetic surgery on a newly formed embryo. Herbert skips over the in vitro fertilization process and begins the story by introducing readers to the morula stage embryo of Lizbeth and Harvey Durant.

Svengaard's nurse
illustrated by Dan Adkins

Don't let the name "Optimen" fool you: some of the Optimen are women, such as the cult figure Calapine, who is worshiped as a fertility goddess by some members of the underclass. Other political factions of the future include the Cybermen and the Parents Underground. The god-like Optimen reside in Central, a headquarters from which they dispatch special agents such as Dr. Potter.

And don't let the illustration (to the left on this page) fool you. Dr. Svengaard uses the ultra-modern meson microscope to examine the Durant embryo's genes.

The renowned Dr. Potter has been called upon to perform genetic surgery on the Durant embryo because it is a special embryo with high-potential genes. Dr. Svengaard has detected indications that this embryo might have the mystical capacity to develop into one of the rare, immortal Optimen. Peering through his meson microscope, Svengaard sees a "triple spiral", an indication that there are Optimen genes in this embryo! I suppose if mere mortals have a double helical DNA then (by Herbert-logic) the god-like Optimen should have a triple helix.

Calapine; 50,000 years old

Herbert tells us that the Optimen are perfect, but for some reason they are sterile (except possibly our dear old Calapine). Well, as they say, perfection is not all its cracked up to be. Herbert drops an endless stream of little hi-tech bomb shells on the reader. For example, we are casually informed that there is danger in using the meson microscope to examine DNA: the danger of Heisenberg interference. Then, for only the 9th time in the long history of genetic engineering, Dr. Svengaard witnesses a molecular miracle. A rod of sperm protamine appears inside a cell of the embryo, causing the ADP-ATP exchange system to suddenly become more complex and “resistant” to gene surgery.

the Third Doctor

What is this mumbo-jumbo supposed to mean? The miraculously appearing microscopic rod of sperm protamine represents an "outside adjustment" to the embryo. There is an unseen resistance movement ("led" by the Cyborgs) with secret underground bases and secret doors in walls and the magical means (never really explained) to divert some precious embryos away from developing into Optimen towards becoming freemen, people who can live free from Optimen-imposed system of global control and world domination. Were this story being written in our millennium then we would get some incoherent sciency backstory about a "Spartan virus". Since "Heisenberg's Eyes" was written in the previous millennium, Dr. Kildare Dr. Potter proceeds to perform delicate molecular surgery, bringing baby morula back from the brink of death, but only by means of the risky use of mutagens!

cover by Terry Oakes

Legend has it that Herbert spent years researching topics like ecology while writing Dune. There is no indication that he put similar effort into "Heisenberg's Eyes". Readers are subjected to page after page of seemingly random biochemistry terms that describe and "explain" the gene surgery process.

The super-hi-tek genetic surgery of 1966 requires spinning reels of "computer tapes". After Dr. Potter's miraculous surgery is complete, the computer tech "accidentally" erases the computer tape evidence obtained during the surgery which would reveal that this embryo can survive without the life-giving enzyme supplements provided to the people of the world by the Optimen of Central. The data erasure is initially attributed to "solenoid failure", but the Optimen have no difficulty deducing that the erasure was deliberate.

Reflecting on the events surrounding his surgery on the Durant embryo, Dr. Potter has a brilliant flash of insight: he realizes that a simple chemical treatment can render other human embryos free of any need for the artificial enzyme treatments that are the technological basis of how the Optimen maintain control over the world's population. I suspect that Herbert never understood what an enzyme is, but who cares? He just needed a hi-tech plot device with a sciency name.

1987 edition

Part 2
After thousands of years of world domination by the Optimen, the simmering revolutionary movement of the Cybermen and the Parents Underground turns into open warfare against the Optimen.

The revolutionaries wish to be free of the Optimen: free to live without the restrictions imposed by the Optimen.

Herbert declined to show us the source of the egg cell that gave rise to the Durant embryo, but when circumstances (require?) that the embryo be implanted into Lizbeth, she suddenly has painful stitches in her abdomen. Okay, Herbert was writing a decade before Louise Brown, but successful uterine implantation of a rabbit embryo (created through in vitro fertilization) had been achieved in 1959. Women now routinely have their early embryos put into their uterus using a thin tube that goes through the cervix. Maybe the abdominal stitches are what we should expect from having a gene surgeon, old Doc Potter, perform an embryo implantation. After all, in Herbert's brave new world, it has been thousands of years since women actually went through pregnancy; now the embryos develop inside hi-tek artificial vats.

Fearing the Durant embryo and what might be learned from it, the the ruling Optimen triumvirate decides to ruthlessly kill everyone in the area, millions of residents. The rebel Cyborgs and the Durant family (embryo makes three) are hunted down, captured and brought to Central for interrogation. You'll have to read the "stunning conclusion" of "Heisenberg's Eyes" for yourself; I can't explain it. I have the feeling that when Herbert reached the page limit for Galaxy, he stopped writing.

I like to imagine that a young Frank Herbert read "The Black Flame" and then later wrote "Heisenberg's Eyes" as a kind of re-imagining of that Stanley G. Weinbaum story. I can't decide which is less biologically plausible: 1)  spore-drive space travel powered by spice-generating sandworms or 2) the magical degenerating-Optimen ending of "Heisenberg's Eyes". While shaking my head sadly in dismay, I'll slap the label "biofantasy" on "Heisenberg's Eyes". The story almost qualifies for the additional label of "anti-science fiction".

1966 cover

In his comments on The Eyes of Heisenberg, Rob Weber emphasizes the point that "Heisenberg's Eyes" deals with the collapse of an imaginary society in which an attempt had been made to control the evolution of the human species and lock human society into an artificially-constrained social system.

I believe that this imaginary society of the future was able to last about 70,000 years because at some time in the far past the Optimen granted the Cyborgs permission to form a secretive underground movement where it was possible to experiment with human embryos, dream of alternatives to the Optimen-controlled world and thus provide an outlet for the restless human spirit.

Revolt against the immortals

The Optimen kept a close watch over the world using a sophisticated surveillance system, and they retained the ability to "put their foot down" if the revolutionaries ever got too uppity. However, it was only a matter of time (about 70,000 years) before the immortal Optimen became too lazy and incompetent to keep a firm grip on affairs. Finally there was an opening for development of a new kind of society and that opening is described in "Heisenberg's Eyes".

recycle those covers!

For me, "Heisenberg's Eyes" seems like a mostly sterile exercise of the imagination. Herbert never managed to make me believe that his imaginary world of the future is possible and "Heisenberg's Eyes" certainly is not fun or entertaining. I suspect that even Herbert grew tired of writing this story and could not be bothered to write a sensible ending.

The End of Eternity

What interests me most about "Heisenberg's Eyes" is that it deals with an imagined future society where a "technological singularity" is never allowed to occur. This kind of technological stasis is also found in Isaac Asimov's Foundation saga and the stories of Jack Vance that are set in a future galaxy where humans have spread to many worlds, but people still live essentially as we do right now here on Earth. In The End of Eternity, Asimov imagined how time travel technology could be used to create a static future for Humanity. In "Heisenberg's Eyes", Herbert gives us an imaginary dystopian static society of the future that is built upon genetic engineering. As a biologist, I don't find such a future to be either plausible or entertaining. I can't stop myself from believing that Herbert borrowed the plot and never really cared about the story he was telling. I suspect that "Heisenberg's Eyes" was written during the time when Herbert was trying to walk away from having a 9-5 job and transition to being able to survive as a full-time fiction writer.

Fru'wu: Our Alien Prometheus

"Heisenberg's Eyes" strikes me as being just another story that Herbert could crank out for a paycheck. Given the power to alter human genes, I doubt if people would simply use that power to make a dead-end dystopian society full of sterile worker drones who lead a "troglodyte existence". That is an anti-science plot that seems stuck in the far past along with the Frankenstein monster and I'm not sure why a reader of science fiction would enjoy such a story. It is sad that such dystopia-themed stories represent one of the established roads to publication and financial success in our world.

Related Reading: "Methuselah's Children" and Herbert's 1965 artificial intelligence story

Next: another resistance movement

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