Below is the third part of a science fiction story called "
The Dead Widower Society". To read Part 1,
click here.
Part 2.
The Case of the Telepathic Teetotaller
It
was just a few days after the sensational news of the Arlesheim Elf
swept around the world. I'd learned that the "Elf" was an
alien visitor to Earth named Cyndir. After our escape from
Switzerland, Isaac Asimov had given both Cyndir and myself refuge at
his mansion.
Cyndir
then revealed that there was a second alien on Earth, a creature
named Noah. In the far past, Noah's actions had been orally
transmitted and magnified and ultimately given rise to the biblical
story of the flood.
With
Earth now under the restrictive terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, the
Lunar Overseers do not tolerate the presence of any aliens on Earth.
Asimov had promised to reveal a means to send the two aliens away
from Earth and back to their home worlds in the Galactic Core. I
suspected that the fate of Humanity and the future of Earth depended
on Asimov fulfilling his promise, something he arranged to do at a
meeting of The Dead Widower Society.
With
the members of the Society assembled and comfortably arrayed around
the sofas and chairs in the den of his mansion, Asimov first
instigated several boisterous toasts. I contemplated the odd mix of
people who had been gathered together that night. In addition to
Asimov and myself there was the mystery writer John, the brother and
sister pair Peter and Marta, Peter's wife Jane and Anney the clone.
Then,
with the room grown quiet in anticipation, Asimov said, "I've
promised you dramatic entertainment tonight, but I must warn you that
I intend to talk a lot."
Jane
said sarcastically, "What a surprise."
Asimov
laughed and said, "I intend to talk even more than usual."
We
all followed Asimov's directive that we proceed to the dining room. I
asked Asimov if "Dead Widowers" was an appropriate name for
this group of misfits. He replied that even if there was only one
dead widower, John, the group could elect anyone they liked as a new
member, regardless of their death and marriage status.
While
his guests ate, Asimov regaled them with the story of how he had
brought back to the States the Arlesheim Elf, an alien Preland. The
Dead Widowers listened attentively while eating, sometimes almost
forgetting to eat. Henrike, the health care aide of John, kept
trooping back and forth to the kitchen, acting as our server during
the meal.
Over
dessert, Peter congratulated Asimov on having provided a most
entertaining story. He asked, "Has this tale been accepted for
publication, perhaps by the National Enquirer?"
For
his answer, Asimov invited everyone to return to the den for after
dinner drinks. There waiting for us was Cyndir, fully decked out as a
Preland both in bodily shape and sporting traditional Preland garb.
After introductions and some undignified pinching and bodily probing
of Cyndir by Marta, we were all settled in with our drinks and Asimov
struck a dramatic pose in front of the fireplace. Cyndir, as a
Preland and lacking a digestive system, neither ate nor drank.
Peter
said, "Well Isaac, I'm impressed. I never expected to see a
Preland here on Earth."
Asimov,
without shame, admitted that he was the most interesting person on
Earth and others should expect him to have astounding party guests.
Having
cleared the dining room table and leaving the hired cook to clean up
the kitchen, Henrike joined us in the den. I offered to fix him a
drink, but refusing any refreshment he simply settled into a chair
next to John.
Then,
in his most pedantic voice, Asimov said, "Allow me to explain
why I brought you here tonight. As you know, if you stayed awake
through my dinner time lecture, the Preland waif, Cyndir, stranded on
Earth and lonely for fellow hermaphroditic company, is desperately
looking for a way to get off this planet. Who among you can offer a
solution to this difficult problem?"
Jane
said, "I suppose you expect any solution to include quick and
efficient transport of Cyndir back to the galactic core."
Asimov
nodded, "Exactly so."
Peter
mused, "You know, were NASA to transport Cyndir as far as the
Moon.....well, I've heard rumors of a teleporter device at Observer
Base."
Anney
confirmed the existence of an emergency lunar teleportation device.
"That's how Parthney was sent back to the Galactic Core."
Marta
added, "My daughter Ivory recently tricked the Overseers into
taking her to the Moon." She asked Asimov, "Do you propose
that Cyndir do the same?"
Asimov
grinned and shook his head. I said, "Frankly, I was surprised
that there was no Overseer on hand at Space Energy Missions to nab
Cyndir and take thon to the Moon."
Cyndir
said, "I suspect that the Overseers did capture the "Preland
decoy" that was provided to the police by Asimov. We've heard
nothing more from the Swiss authorities regarding the Arlesheim Elf.
I bet the Overseers took the decoy to the Moon and the Swiss are too
embarrass to admit that they lost their prisoner."
Anney
closed her eyes and dipped into the vast data stream available to her
via the Sedronic Domain. "Yes, I can confirm that. The 'decoy'
disappeared from Witzwill two days ago. The Swiss police are quietly
engaged in a manhunt, er, alien-hunt."
I
then provided the clue that Asimov had previously shared with Cyndir
and I. "Asimov has previously hinted that telepathy is the
answer."
Peter
asked, "Anney, didn't your sister Anna go off with the Buld?
Could you use telepathy to contact Anna and arrange for the Buld
spaceship to return to Earth and pick up Cyndir?"
Anney
shook her head and explained, "I've tried that, but the Buld
seem to have taken a vow to forget about Earth and let us bumble
along and solve our own problems."
Asimov
added, "And in the case of the Buld, they have no
faster-than-light space travel capability. It took them 15,000 years
to travel from the Galactic Core to Earth."
"But
they could get Cyndir to the teleportation terminal on the Moon."
Asimov
complained, "Once on the Moon, the remaining problem would be
gaining access to the teleporter. We don't even know the location of
Observer Base."
Anney
said, "It is not just a matter of knowing the location of the
Base's entrance. The Moon Base is not in our three dimensional space,
it is inside the Hierion Domain. You must transmit a special
hierion-encoded access signal in order to enter the Base. That access
code is encrypted and useless without access to either an Overseer
spaceship or an Overseer teleportation terminal's transmission
system."
The
room grew quiet. Cyndir rather pessimistically described the
possibility of there being a long abandoned Preland spaceship hidden
somewhere on Earth.
Jane
asked, "Could you locate it using Preland telepathy?"
"I've
tried, but it seems a hopeless task. Were such a ship here I should
have noticed it thousands of years ago. I'm afraid my dream of a
hidden Preland spaceship is just a silly and distracting idea."
Peter
suggested, "Let's not be too quick to give up on the Overseers.
They seem to have changed their ways since the Buld arrived in the
Solar System. A telepathic call to the Moon might attract an Overseer
who would be happy to send Cyndir back to Hemmal."
Cyndir
said, "More likely, the Overseers would be embarrassed to learn
how easily Asimov's 'decoy Preland' tricked them. No, I'd prefer not
to put my fate in the hands of the Overseers. It is their duty to
enforce the Trysta-Grean Pact and my presence on Earth is a violation
of that agreement. I fear that the Overseers would lock me up at Moon
Base and throw away the key."
The
room again grew quiet and nobody seemed to be able to suggest a
solution to the problem that Asimov had placed before the group. Jane
called for a break and went off to the bathroom. Others refreshed
their drinks and allowed their talk to drift off topic and towards
casual gossip. Ten minutes later Asimov called everyone back to the
task at hand.
"So,
it appears that you are all stumped by Cyndir's problem. Allow me to
provide the solution." Pacing in front of the fire for dramatic
effect, he began, "This mystery starts with the arrival of
Cyndir on Earth, just how long ago, our Preland guest refuses to say,
but-"
Anney
interrupted and stated flatly, "14,293 years ago."
Asimov
gently patted her golden hair approvingly, "Exactly, so, my
dear. And what was the nature of this alien's mission on Earth?
Simply to watch over the other Prelands who came to this world?
Possibly so, but why were the Prelands here on our planet?"
"I
first became aware of the Prelands when I arrived in the Koly star
system with Parthney. Kach told me all about the Prelands on the
planet Hemmal and their plans for the future. Those Prelands believe
that they are the Chosen Ones who will transcend physical existence
and join with the Creators, the alien Huaoshy, for eternal life
within the Sedronic Domain."
"But
what of Cyndir?" Asimov glower down at the alien. "Is that
why you want to return to Hemmal, so that you can 'become one' with
your Creators?"
Cyndir
shook thons head, "Not all Prelands share that conventional
religious faith. We renegade Prelands who came to Earth cast our lot
with you Earthlings. Like you, we long for the great adventure of
exploring space and living the kind of life that is to be had here in
the universe of hadronic matter."
Asimov
spun and turned back to address the assembled members of the Dead
Widower Society. "And so Cyndir informed me three months ago
when we first met and laid our plans for how to create a media event
and have the Arlesheim Elf be captured."
Marta
interrupted to ask a question. "Isaac, how did you first contact
Cyndir?"
Cyndir
answered, "I've survived on Earth for fourteen thousand years by
making use of my advanced nanites. I've always had the ability to
detect the presence of nanite swarms. When Isaac returned after his
excursion to the Andromeda galaxy, I instantly detected the familiar
pattern of his nanites."
I
observed, "So you do have telepathic contact with humans."
"In
a sense." Cyndir quickly put on a display of thons ability to
rearrange the nanite components of thons body, briefly morphing into
a couple of odd physical forms. "I'm an expert at using nanites
both for disguise and for communications. I can detect the swarms of
nanites that reside inside people. Each nanite swarm has a unique
pattern, emitting a specific kind of hierion signature. However,
telepathic communication is not automatic; it depends on two people
having matched nanites that can make possible technology-assisted
telepathy."
Asimov
added, "Likewise, I developed considerable expertise in using
nanites while I was in the Andromeda galaxy. The Nereids made sure
that I would have nanite-assisted communication with Cyndir upon my
return to Earth."
Peter
asked, "What did the Nereids tell you about human evolution and
telepathy? To what extent are human brains pre-adapted to telepathy?"
Cyndir
explained, "Some humans, particularly the now extinct
Neanderthals, had evolved a form of natural and innate rudimentary
telepathic communication. However, when the Huaoshy changed the
dimensional structure of the universe so as to make time travel
impossible, that change also eliminated natural human telepathy.
Still, the human brain does have neural circuits that can be easily
adapted for nanite-assisted telepathy. Particularly the brains of
those earthlings who have inherited certain Preland gene
combinations."
Jane
asked Cyndir, "If you and Asimov were on the same 'nanite
wave length', so to speak, then why did you wait until three
months ago to contact him?"
Cyndir
returned to thons chair and Asimov took up the question. "Why
indeed? Why then? And why me in the first place? Cyndir claims that
thons 14,000 year long mission on Earth finally ended just three
months ago. For millennia, Cyndir's task was to watch over other
Prelands and make sure that they did not rock the Interventionist
boat and draw down to Earth the wrath of the Lunar Overseers. I now
share an important clue: Cyndir previously named the last Preland
colonist on Earth, a person known to earthlings as Noah."
Marta
scoffed, "Do you mean the biblical Noah?"
Asimov
turned again towards Cyndir and thundered at the little alien, "Well,
my little friend, do you deny it?"
Cyndir
replied quietly, "No, you should all know the truth. Noah met
the Buld spaceship when it briefly visited Earth. Noah was ready to
leave Earth and thon knew well the people at Space Energy Missions,
which was a hot bed of Nereid Interventionism. Of course, everyone at
Space Energy Missions left this dreary planet and went off with the
Buld aboard their spaceship."
Peter
asked, "Then didn't your mission end at that time, a few years
ago? Why didn't you also hitch a ride off of Earth with the Buld?"
Cyndir
gave a delicate shrug. "I had to carefully confirm that the
terms of the Pact between Trysta and Grean were being adhered to.
That took a while longer. Also, I carefully searched for evidence of
a Preland spaceship that legend says was hidden on Earth long ago.
When I grew tired of that fruitless search, I contacted Isaac."
Asimov
continued, "And knowing that Cyndir was intimately familiar with
my nanite signature, we are forced to assume that Cyndir had
identified me as providing thons best chance of getting off Earth and
returning to the galactic core. Why should that be?"
I
said, "Isaac, you've been of interest to the Overseers ever
since you became a time traveler."
Asimov
shrugged, "I'm a skeptic with respect to time travel, but yes,
Cyndir is avoiding the Overseers. So, why befriend me, someone who is
likely to warrant Observation and Overseer attention?"
Jane
looked around the room suspiciously, "Are you telling me that we
are under observation right now?"
Peter
patted the arm of his partner. "Relax, my dear. Asimov is one of
those who thinks we are all constantly under observation."
Asimov
said, "Perhaps I am wrong about that. Indeed, the entire Earth
Observer Corps was dramatically altered after the Buld spaceship
reached Earth. Some claim that the Overseers retired and withdrew
from Earth along with the Nereid Interventionists."
Anney
said, "That is only partially true. There are now new
Overseers."
Marta
asked, "Then should we expect a visit from an Overseer?"
As if
on cue, the doorbell sounded.
I
went to the front door and opened it. There stood Orbho Jandra, who I
had known while living on the Moon as a prisoner of the Overseers.
'She' said, "Hello, Thomas. How are you?"
I
replied, "Surprised by your presence here, but come in. I
suppose Asimov has been expecting you."
Returning
to the den I performed introductions, "This is Orbho Jandra,
from Observer Base. Perhaps you already know the esteemed Dr.
Asimov." I introduced Peter and Jane, using her real name. "This
dignified matron is Marta, Peter's sister. And this charming lass is
Anney, a daughter once removed by cloning from Marta's daughter
Ivory." Upon Jandra's arrival, Cyndir had morphed so as to take
on the appearance of a human child.
Orbho
Jandra went over and took hold of one of Cyndir's hands, "And
who is this sweet little girl?"
Asimov
blustered and said, "This is my granddaughter, Karen."
Jandra
commented, "Indeed. I fail to see a family resemblance."
The orbho turned away from Cyndir and said, "What a
distinguished group. I doubt if there is a higher concentration of
Preland genes in any other room on Earth."
Peter
said, "If that is a quantitative assessment based on genotype
analysis, could you share with us what percentage of our genes are of
Preland origin? This has become a matter of hot speculation within
our little club."
Orbho
Jandra replied, "I'm not free to answer that under the binding
terms of the Grean-Trysta Pact. However, let me say that I feel
rewarded in coming here tonight. I've long been intrigued by rumors
of Preland visitors to Earth. Now, within minutes of arriving here,
I've finally identified one earthling who is remarkably close to
having a 100% pure complement of Preland genes."
Jane
expressed her annoyance, "Oh, enough already! Stop playing
games, Jandra! I order you to tell us why you are here!"
Jandra
produced a perfectly musical and human laugh. "Yes, I am an
artificial life form, but don't believe the rumor that we orbho must
robotically follow orders. In any case, I don't mind telling you why
I'm here."
Asimov
rather noisily put ice in a glass, added some whiskey and then sat on
a sofa beside Anney. I also took a seat and then Orbho Jandra spoke
to fill the gathered silence. "I'm a recent arrival in this star
system, so I've only been stationed here about 20,000 years. During
that time, the most frustrating part of my work has been that we
orbho are equipped with only primitive nanites. The Nereid
Interventionists, with their more advanced nanites, always had the
ability to avoid Overseer attention. We orbho are aware of our
technological inferiority, but generally cognizant of the presence of
Nereid agents on Earth."
Jandra
continued, "Those alien agents were of four types. First, the
agents who passed themselves off as humans: trained in the Koly star
system and then teleported to Earth. They first appeared on Earth
about 5,000 years ago and were almost always clones of you, Thomas.
Parthney was the most recent of these."
"Second,
going back to about 10,000 years ago, there has been a type of
artificial life form that served on Earth as Nereid-sponsored agents.
Thomas and Peter, you knew one of these as Betty, one of the Space
Energy Missions folks. As a class, these were accomplished
shapeshifters and sometimes referred to as Grendels."
"Third,
there have been the Preland agents. The last of that kind was once
known as Noah, of biblical notoriety."
"And
finally, there have been Preland Overseers. That elite core never
consisted of more than a single agent on Earth at any one time. All
of the other Interventionists are gone from Earth, carefully adhering
to the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. I'm here now to deal with the
only violator of that Pact, the last Preland agent on Earth."
Asimov
suggested, "You refer to the Arlesheim Elf?"
"Indeed.
I've recently discovered that on rare occasions, Earth humans have
interacted with Preland Overseers. Coming down through history in
myths and legends, humans have sometimes referred to Preland
Overseers as elves because of their pointed ears, narrow chins and
large eyes. The Preland Overseers are small, like a human child."
Jandra nodded towards Cyndir.
I
demanded of Jandra, "Why were you sent here tonight? I rather
expected the arrival of an Overseer."
Jandra
replied, "The Arlesheim Elf is right to fear the Overseers.
Overseers have no patience for anyone or anything that violates the
Rules of Intervention. For that reason, I am here unaccompanied by an
Overseer."
Asimov
asked, "Do you intend to violate your own Rules?"
Jandra
solemnly shrugged. "It is I who write the rules for Earth. The
Overseers would punish anyone caught violating the Trysta-Grean Pact,
but in my view, the Arlesheim Elf gets off on a technicality. I can't
persecute someone who was conscientiously doing their job,
particularly when, by my own assessment, it was a job well done."
Jandra
explained, "For 14,000 years, years that were critical to the
shape of this Reality, the Arlesheim Elf kept the last few Preland
Interventionists in line. I suspect that the Elf, as a Preland
dissident, has enjoyed being stationed on Earth and only now
reluctantly will return home. It would not bother me if the Elf wants
to stay here on Earth. In fact, the Dead Widower Society would be a
safe refuge for the Elf if thon willingly decided to make Earth thons
permanent home."
Asimov
heaved himself to his feet. He seemed deflated and tired. He spoke
earnestly to Cyndir, "This orbho knows you well enough, so no
more dissembling, my friend. Which is it to be, a return to your
distant home world in the Galactic Core or will you join us here on
this primitive planet and join us in our adventure", and here
Asimov gestured to the assembled members of the Dead Widower Society,
"a great adventure to get Humanity to the stars?"
At
that moment, Cyndir morphed back to Preland form. The alien said, "I
am torn between these two options. Slowly, over the millennia, I saw
Humanity grow and mature. With the accelerating pace of discovery and
invention I grew excited by this world's prospects. I envy you
earthlings for the grand adventure that awaits you among the stars."
Marta
said simply, "Then stay and join us."
Asimov
cleared his throat and for the first time in my experience he seemed
to hesitate and show uncertainty before he spoke. All eyes were on
him; he took a last sip from his glass and said, "There is one
more, um, little fact, that Cyndir failed to mention. A detail that
I'm sure sways thons decision making process."
We
all looked at Cyndir who was gazing downward and not meeting our
eyes. Asimov went on. "When Cyndir started thinking about the
possibility of staying permanently on Earth, thon decided to have a
child."
Peter
said, "What the hell?"
Jane
laughed, "Oh, Isaac, don't tell us you're going to be a father!"
Asimov
shook his head. "Don’t be absurd. Prelands are a different
species. A human male can't father a child with a Preland."
Anney
asked, "What do you mean by "staying permanently on Earth"?
Prelands have long lives due to their nanite endosymbionts, but they
are not immortal."
Asimov
sat back down next to Anney and put his arm around her. "Yes,
dear, but Cyndir thought seriously about living out thons life and
being buried here on this world."
I
said, "As simultaneous hermaphrodites, Prelands can
self-fertilize."
Marta
gasped. "Oh, my!"
Cyndir
explained, "Yes, it is true. I'd lived for thousands of years on
Earth, watching innumerable families and seeing thousands of
children. I've tried to fertilized my own egg cells, but about 25% of
my people have lost the ability to self-fertilize. Apparently I am
one such."
Jane
said, "That's too bad, Cyndir. Being a mother is one of the most
rewarding things about being an earthling."
Cyndir
nodded, "I'm beginning to learn that for myself. Just two days
ago I gave birth to my own baby."
The
Dead Widowers gasped in surprise. Peter recovered his wits first and
asked, "You performed an artificial fertilization?"
I
suddenly realized that I had heard a squeak from Cyndir's child just
the previous day. I'd come upon Asimov examining Cyndir's chest pouch
because he was helping a nursing mother!
Cyndir
continued, "I contacted Dr. Asimov three months ago because I
wanted his help when I gave birth. And I knew that Isaac could get me
home to Hemmal."
Asimov
told Cyndir, "Show them your baby."
Cyndir
pulled open thons chest pouch and we could see a tiny Preland
snuggled inside thon.
Marta
asked Asimov, "How did you arrange to have Orbho Jandra come
here tonight to collect Cyndir rather than an Overseer?"
Cyndir
buttoned up thon's shirt and asked Asimov, "Will you now reveal
your solution to this mystery?"
Asimov
explained, "I knew a method that was available to contact
Observer Base on the Moon: telepathic communication. My problem was
that of all the people on Earth, only Cyndir seemed to have
significant experience with telepathic communication and thons
experience was really only with other Prelands. Because of my
experiences after I left Earth, traveling through space to many
worlds and learning much about Genesaunt civilization, I pursued my
hunch that Cyndir's mind could reach out and find someone who could
return thon to Hemmal."
Jane
asked, "Your hunch proved correct?"
Asimov
shrugged. "My hunch was wrong. I was led down the wrong path due
to the fact that I'm a linear thinker, a trained scientist. Sadly,
Cyndir proved unable to signal telepathically to anyone on the Moon.
Yesterday, in desperation, I called my granddaughter and asked for
her help. She's much more intuitive than I."
The
doorbell sounded again and once more I went to the front door. Two
women were waiting on the front step. One was Cecilie Vedra. The
other held out her hand and she introduced herself to me as Asimov's
granddaughter (I'll not mention her name since she is a private
person and wants no notoriety). We went inside to join the assembled
Dead Widowers.
While
guiding the two new guests into the house, I asked Cecilie, "What
are you doing here?"
"It's
your fault really. After I met you, I started investigating Vance and
the publication history of the Alastor Cluster series." Before
she could say more we were interrupted by shouting.
When
Asimov saw his granddaughter he gave a loud whoop of surprise and
shouted, "What are you doing here?"
His
granddaughter hugged Asimov and explained, "After your strange
phone call yesterday I thought you were losing your mind. All your
talk about telepathy and contacting the Moon upset me. I decided that
I needed to come see you and check on your health."
When
we entered the den, Asimov turned, saw Cecilie and I and he sputtered,
"Ug! The meddling cub reporter!"
I
performed a quick introduction for the benefit of the other Dead
Widowers. "This is Ms. Cecilie Vedra, a writer for a New York
newspaper. Cecilie, you've already met our host for this evening, but
under a different name. He is the famous author, Isaac Asimov."
Cecilie
and Asimov shook hands. She said, "Sir, when I first saw you,
you seemed familiar. I believe you are about 95, but amazingly you
look like a young man."
Asimov
nodded in acknowledgement of his youthful vigor then gestured towards
Cyndir, "We were about to resolve the case of the Arlesheim Elf,
better known as Cyndir the Preland." Asimov turned towards the
alien.
Cecilie
watched while Cyndir morphed back into Preland form. Cecilie's knees
became wobbly and I guided her safely to a couch. Slowly she tore her
eyes from the alien and turned to me and muttered, "So your
crazy story was all true?" I nodded.
Asimov's
granddaughter said to Asimov, "So, you're not crazy after all."
Cyndir
sighed and nodded, "I'm now beginning to understand." Thon
said to Asimov, "You got help from your granddaughter." He
asked Asimov, "But how did you know that your granddaughter
could contact Jandra?"
Jandra
did not let Asimov reply. "Dr. Asimov can't answer that
question. Let me explain. Like those humans who have inherited
Preland gene combinations, Asimov's granddaughter has a knack for
making intuitive judgments based on nanite-assisted telepathy
operating at the level of the unconscious mind. As a keen observer,
Dr. Asimov long ago noticed the special ability of his granddaughter
to make good choices without seeming to have a logical basis for her
decisions."
"Not
quite. Your fictional character, Wanda, was able to achieve conscious
control over her mentalic abilities. Your granddaughter cannot."
I
said, "Dr. Asimov seems to have his own remarkable powers of
intuition. I wonder how many alien gene combinations he carries."
Jandra
commented, "Very few, but, don't forget, there is another source
of genes for telepathic ability on Earth."
Anney
said, "Yes, the Neanderthals."
Jane
asked, "If the Neanderthals had natural telepathy, then why did
they go extinct?"
Anney
explained, "Their telepathic powers gave them great empathy and
a peaceful nature. Our human ancestors exterminated the Neanderthals.
However, some earthlings have inherited key Neanderthal gene patterns
that make their brains well suited for nanite-assisted telepathic
communication."
Jander
explained, "At Observer Base on the Moon, we've long monitored
Asimov's family. Recently, when Asimov's granddaughter, at Isaac's
request, started trying to contact the Moon telepathically, I noticed
her signals. Her thoughts were rather confused and jumbled, but they
led me here."
Asimov
asked Cyndir, "So, will you stay here on Earth?"
Cyndir
went to stand by Orbho Jandra and reached up to grasp the hand of
that wonderful human-shaped artificial life form. "No, I must
leave this world. I've worked long and hard to keep Preland genes
flowing into the human gene pool, but only time will tell if humans
eventually become a new type of Preland, one well suited for this
world. For now this is a world for humans. For now, there is no place
here for me. Friends, let us say farewell."
We
all said our goodbyes to Cyndir and then I walked the departing
aliens (including the tiny baby who was along for the ride inside
Cyndir's chest pouch) to the front door. Before stepping outside,
Cyndir returned to human form.
I
returned to the den, where Asimov refilled all the glasses and he
handed me my glass. Henrike still sat stoically beside John, the only
person in the room without a drink.
Asimov
lifted his glass and said, "Let's drink to our sad loss of
Cyndir, a being who would have been a fine addition to the Dead
Widower Society." We drank rather sadly, all except Henrike,
who, like Cyndir, never seemed to eat or drink.
Asimov
raised his glass again, "Now to the topic of expanding our
club's membership. I propose a new member for our club: Thomas
Iwedon. Thomas could have left Earth and joined the Buld, but he
stayed behind, committed to the task of informing the people of Earth
about their secret history. All in favor?"
I was
unanimously acclaimed a Dead Widower. Asimov said to me, "Then I
now inform you that as a new member, you must host next month's club
meeting."
Lacking
a home of my own, and nervous about how much cordiality might be
expected from Asimov after all the long years I'd spent annoying him,
but also thinking of our success with the case of the Arlesheim Elf,
I said, "In that case, maybe I'll just move in here with you."
Asimov
grumbled and looked unhappy at that prospect, so I started thinking
seriously about getting a new job and earning the money I needed to
host the next meeting of the Dead Widower Society.
Asimov
did kindly allow both Cecilie and I to stay at his home for another
week after the meeting of the Dead Widower Society. Cecilie and I
immediately began collaborating on a book that will tell the secret
history of Earth.
The
first great discovery we made while performing research in support of
our writing collaboration was that John's valet, Henrike, is actually
the Preland who Cyndir knew as Noah. The whole spectacle of Cyndir's
dramatic departure from Earth was engineered as a smoke screen to
convince the Overseers that the last Preland on Earth was finally
leaving this world.
Henrike,
like the other Preland colonists who settled on Earth, is a member of
a Preland subspecies that was modified to have a larger body size
than normal for a Preland. Their human-like body size, along with
their Nanites, allowed the Preland colonists to live among humans on
Earth without being recognized as aliens.
Nanites
provided to the Preland colonists by their Interventionist sponsors,
the Nereids, sculpted their alien bodies into human form.
Additionally, their advanced nanites provided the colonists with the
ability to detect and avoid the Observers, Overseers and orbho who
were stationed on the Moon and watching over Earth.
All
the Nereid Interventionist agents on Earth were originally present as
part of the pek master plan for introducing Preland genes to Earth
and gradually shaping and transforming the human population of Earth
into a new type of Preland. As long as the humans of Earth remained
ignorant of that alien plan, the Lunar Overseers never needed to
spring into action and take corrective action against the
Interventionists.
Most
Prelands departed from Earth 20,000 years ago at the time when
Ekcolir had traveled through time into the past. By then, the
Trysta-Grean Pact was in effect and pek plans to eventually populate
Earth with Prelands had been abandoned. Henrike was among the last
few Preland colonists who lingered on Earth past the time of
Ekcolir's time travel mission.
Henrike
considers Earth his home and he is tired of hiding his true identity.
He insisted that I write and publish an account of the Dead Widower
Society and his relationship with its founding member. By publishing
this story I risk provoking an Overseer response, but in my view,
Henrike is now an earthling. It was he, the telepathic teetotaler,
who actually knew how to contact Orbho Jandra and get Cyndir off of
Earth.
The
idea that Asimov's granddaughter magically had the needed combination
of Neanderthal genes to allow her to use nanite-mediated telepathy
and contact Jandra was only a plausible fiction, designed to fool the
Lunar Overseers. The Lunar Overseers should relax and, like Jandra,
not interfere if Henrike wants to stay on Earth.
Simultaneously
with publication of this story about the Dead Widower Society,
Cecilie is also publishing a report about Preland visitors to Earth
in the Port Jefferson Echo.
It is now time for the whole world to learn about the Prelands and
the entire secret history of Earth.
With
his skill at programming nanites, Asimov was able to provide my brain
with a new nanorobotic prosthesis that has re-activated my interest
in being a writer. I've launched a new phase of my writing career and
Asimov is relieved that I can now support myself. I recently moved
into my own modest house.
I
hosted this month's Dead Widower Society meeting during which Cecilie
was voted in as the newest member of the Society.
As
co-investigators into the secret history of Earth, Cecilie and I made
a second great discovery. Our collaboration has made clear the
identity of "John Doe", Asimov's co-author of "Assassin
from Hemmal".
After
meeting Asimov (who was then using the false identity of Agent
Henderson) at the Hotel Coop Tagungszentrum in Muttenz, Cecilie
reviewed the guest list at the hotel and noticed the name Saul Greek.
An internet search turned up that name in the context of the New York
publisher of "Assassin from Hemmal". Cecilie contacted an
acquaintance at that publishing house and learned that the staff was
all abuzz about that soon to be published book. The listed co-authors
were obviously pseudonyms, but rumor had spread that there were two
clear writing styles in the book which had each been linked to a dead
science fiction author.
Cecilie's
friend at the publishing house speculated that someone was imitating
the writing styles of Isaac Asimov and Jack Vance. Having heard my
story about Asimov's past involvement with time traveling aliens,
Cecilie began investigating the possibility that "Saul Greek"
was actually Asimov.
On
our first day together, I never would have spoken so obsessively to
Cecilie about Asimov except for two facts. First, she carried a copy
of Pharism,
a novel by Vance that should not have existed in this Reality.
Second, her physical appearance and name were identical to a
fictional character in yet another Vance novel that had also existed
in Deep Time, within a previous Reality.
Cecilie's
investigations quickly turned up old photos of Asimov and she
recognized that "Henderson" looked remarkably like Asimov
as a young man when he was growing up in the previous century.
Cecilie
began a search for Asimov, ignoring the fact that he had died twenty
years previously. She managed to find Asimov's granddaughter just
when she was stepping out her door and traveling to visit Asimov.
Thus, Cecilie and Asimov's granddaughter had arrived together at a
meeting of the Dead Widower Society.
As
for the secret identity of Asimov's co-author, "John Doe",
our suspicions immediately fell upon the mysterious John who was the
founder of the Dead Widower Society. I knew that "John" was
the real first name of Jack Vance. While a guest in Asimov's home,
Cecilie surreptitiously burrowed into some of Asimov's correspondence
and found the address of "John Doe", the co-author of
"Assassin from Hemmal".
Cecilie
and I went and visited John. We found him living comfortably in an
old rambling house with Henrike. John readily admitted that he was
related to the Jack Vance of this Reality. However, the nature of
that relationship is rather odd and twisted.
John
Doe was been born in Deep Time as a member of a pair of twin boys,
Jack and John Vance. In that previous Reality, Jack and John both
grew up to be successful writers, often collaborating in odd ways. In
their native Reality, Jack wrote the first Alastor Cluster novel then
John wrote the next novel in the series, taking it in a new
direction. Eventually, alternating authorship of the novels, the
series grew to include a total of seven books, each about a different
world in the Cluster. Pharism
was one of the novels written by John.
John
told us, "One day, a strange woman came to my door, here, at the
version of this house in that other, similar Reality, and she told me
that I would soon die in a tragic accident, a plane crash."
"Ordinarily
I would have thrown her off my property, but something told me that I
should hear her out. She explained that she could take me to live
elsewhen and if I went with her then I would live a long and
productive life."
It
turned out that the "strange woman" was actually Grean, the
Kac'hin who was using time travel to arrange for the creation of our
Reality, the version of the universe within which Earth's future
would be guided by the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Grean did not
actually give John an option. She transferred him into our Reality,
the world as we know it.
John
arrived in our Reality one week to the day after his analog died. The
John Vance who arrived out of Deep Time, although old and blind,
still wanted to write fiction. Grean introduced John to Henrike who
soon had John equipped with a fancy new dictation system that allowed
him to speak his stories and then Henrike could use a computer system
to transcribe those voice recordings into publishable written format.
About
that time, Cyndir showed up and spoke to Henrike. Cyndir had been
trying to decide if Henrike (who Cyndir knew by thons Preland name,
Noah) could continue living on Earth without being detected by the
new Lunar Overseers and without being recognized as a violation of
the Trysta-Grean Pact which forbids any further alien presence on
Earth.
Upon
learning that Grean had linked Noah up with John, Cyndir decided that
Noah was being allowed to continue living on Earth.
Cyndir
wanted to have a child and Noah suggested that he could be the
father. At first, Cyndir was dismayed by the offer. Noah was from a
separate Preland subspecies, one engineered to be twice the size of a
normal Preland. Cyndir had never heard of mating between the two
Preland species and doubted that it was possible for Noah to father
thons child.
After
some undignified trials and some nanite-mediated remodeling of
Cyndir's reproductive tract, Noah impregnated Cyndir. Cyndir decided
to stay on Earth, but then Grean showed up and explained that a
breeding pair of Prelands could not be allowed on Earth. Cyndir
agreed to return to Hemmal in the Galactic Core.
Cyndir
was dismayed when Grean refused to provide transportation. Grean
explained, "My duty is to turn you over to the Lunar Overseers.
I can't be caught transporting you to Hemmal. I'll pretend that I
never saw you, so you can try to find your own ride home before the
Overseers find you."
Grean,
having previously viewed the future of our Reality, provided an
outline of how Cyndir should proceed. "Have John contact Issac
Asimov. Issac will help create a diversion, convincing the Lunar
Overseers that no more Prelands remain on Earth. Then you will be
provided with the means to return to your home world."
Cyndir
asked Grean for more details about the future, but none were
forthcoming. In any case, events proceeded as I have described. John
formed the Dead Widower Society and Asimov was the first new member
recruited to join. At an opportune time, with the birth of thons
child approaching, Cyndir contacted Asimov. The decoy media circus of
the Arlesheim Elf's capture was played out. Orbho Jandra arrived on
Earth to take Cyndir away and provide transportation back to Hemmal
by means of the teleporter terminal at Observer Base on the Moon.
Cecilie
and I listened with rapt attention to his account of past events and
then John fell silent. He chuckled quietly, then said, "Since
coming to this Reality, I've re-written some of the my old books."
I
said to Cecilie, "That's why you were able to obtain a new
version of Pharism
that I'd never seen before."
One
issue was still bothering Vance. He said, "Then last month a
woman named Cecilie Vedra showed up at the Dead Widowers meeting."
I
added, "Cecilie's existence here in this Reality puzzles me. Her
physical appearance exactly matches the fictional character Cecilie
who you wrote into one of your novels in Deep Time."
John
nodded thoughtfully. "Thomas, you and I might be the only people
on Earth who know about Cecilie as a fictional character in the
previous Reality. How is it that you met her, just when you were
responding to news of the Elf?"
I
looked at Cecilie and she shrugged. "Don't look at me! I'm
completely baffled to learn that I'm the flesh and blood
personification of a character created by Mr. Vance."
Henrike
had been listening to our conversation. Finally thon spoke, "John,
when Grean was trying to get me to come and live with you, I was told
something odd that now makes sense to me. Grean told me that after I
was comfortably established as your aide, a time would come when
Earth would be ready to hear the truth about my presence, about an
alien living on Earth. I think that time has come. I now see that
Thomas and Cecilie are the ones who can tell the people of Earth
about me."
As I
submit this story for publication, I have only two more things to
add. First, I believe that the Lunar Overseers might still prevent
the publication of this story and drag John and Noah and the rest of
the Dead Widowers off to the Moon for safe keeping.
Second,
Cecilie believes that she was brought into existence in this Reality
because of my obsession with fiction. I admit that when I was living
in the Ekcolir Reality, I developed a crush on the fictional Cecilie
Vedra character. I've discovered that Cecilie's nature is such that
she was instantly intrigued by me when I began spouting off and
telling her about my past as a time traveler who originated in Deep
Time. Cecilie broke things off with her former boy friend in New York
and we are now happily living and working together.
I
explained to Cecilie that as a hybrid Asterothrope/Ek'col I can't
father children with a human woman. On a recent day, Cecilie
complained of this fact to Asimov and he said, "Rest easy on
that count, my dear. My nanorobotic probes tell me that you are
actually a Kac'hin, carefully crafted by nanites during your
development to match Vance's description of his Cecilie Vedra
character. And according to my probes, your first child will be born
in about eight months."
Asimov
turned to me, "I take back what I've said in the past about you
being a failure as an Earthling. And congratulations on finally
becoming a father...I suspect that when Trysta used alien technology
for viewing the future she foresaw her grandchild long ago."
I
could tell that Asimov was still reluctant to believe in time travel.
I suggested, "Trysta's ability to view the future was exactly
how you described Reality Viewing in your time travel novel."
Asimov
muttered, "Time travel is the stuff of science fiction, not
reality."
I put
my arm around Cecilie and said, "I don't want to question the
magic that brought Cecilie and I together, but Isaac, even you can't
ignore the fact of Cecilie's existence."
Asimov
shrugged. "I'm not ignoring her. I simply find it easy to
hypothesize that you and John have been tricked into believing that
time travel is real."
I
whispered, "Was real. The universe has changed. The age of time
travel has ended. Now we humans must find our way to the stars with
no more corrections, no more second chances."
The End
This (above) is the third part of a science fiction story called "The Dead Widower Society". To read Part 1, click here. Part 2.
______________________________________________
Looking back from 2019
The story (above) about the Dead Widowers and the last Preland on Earth was written back in 2014 at the time when I was conceptually shifting from the task of creating
Exode as a stand-alone novel to a larger Exode Trilogy. That shift was necessitated by my discovery of the structure of
Deep Time, the sequence of
Realities in Earth's
Reality Chain.
When I began writing
Exode (in the Summer of 2012), it was to be a story that was set in the
Final Reality. As originally conceived,
Exode was going to be a story about space travel, not time travel. However, I was still haunted by another story,
Foundations of Eternity, which did involve time travel. I had stopped working on
The Start of Eternity back at the end of 2009. During 2010 I had fun writing
Cellular Civilization, a story that was concerned with alien intervention into the course of development of technologies on Earth.
In 2011, I was too busy in the real world to write fiction. In March of 2012, when I returned to story writing, I was in the mood for some fan-fiction (see the
Contact television show), but I was still exploring how Interventionist agents might operate on Earth and expose we Earthlings to alien technologies.
By
August of 2012 I had move past my fan-fiction disease and was working on a new story set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. I had toyed with the idea of making my "new" story be a sequel to Cellular Civilization, but I had by then abandoned wiki websites as my preferred platform for writing and shifted to using blogs. I decided on a clean break from my older stories and intended to tell
Exode through the eyes of
Hana, an Earth woman who was exiled from Earth and able to explore
Genesaunt society as it exists in the Galactic Core.
World Building
During 2012 I created the planet
Hemmal. Soon I was populating the worlds of the galactic core with human variants such as the
Prelands, the
Pla, the
Kac'hin and the
Buld (not to mention non-humans such as the
Fru'wu). At the
end of 2012 I created a cover image for
Exode.
Exode was developing nicely as a stand-alone novel until I decided to add in a character named
Gwyned. As mentioned in
this blog post at the start of 2013, I was not intending to open a can of worms by having Parthney trained by Gwyned for a mission to Earth. Gwyned was a logical choice to be the resident of
Lendhalen who taught Parthney how to pass himself off as a Earthling: Gwyned had herself been born and raised on Earth.
World Collide
However, by
February 2013 the previously well-isolated story
Exode was being drawn into the great gravitational attractor of my older story,
The Start of Eternity. Gwyned's mother (Trysta) had arrived in the 1930s of Earth during the
Foundation Reality. For the
Exode story, I was depicting
Interventionists such as Parthney operating on Earth and
I was in need of a way to trump the god-like powers of the Huaoshy. By the middle of February, I
had decided that Trysta could pass advanced technology to Parthney. By making Trysta and
time travel be part of the
Exode story, I could no longer avoid developing and making explicit the
links between
The Start of Eternity and
Exode.
Balance of Power
At first, the main
link was the biological connection between Trysta and her daughter Gwyned. In my imagination, Trysta was an
Asterothrope, a human variant from 10,000,000 years in our future. Although Trysta had a human lover,
Andrew Harlan, they could not have children together; Asterothropes are a distinct species that is reproductively isolated from we humans. I imagined that Gwyned's father was Ekcolir, an
Ek'col. Why had the
pek crafted yet another human variant (the Ek'col) just so that
Trysta could have children? Trysta had come to the
Primitive Era with Harlan and she had planned to manufacture her own Asterothrope children by artificial means.
Ekcolir
By introducing Ekcolir into the
Exode story, I had opened a huge can of worms. I had to think carefully about
the backstory of Gwyned and the romance between
Trysta and Ekcolir. In 2013 I realized that
Exode was part of a trilogy that included
Foundations of Eternity and a new novel called
Trysta and Ekcolir. By
March 2013 I had discovered that there was another Reality sandwiched between the Foundation Reality and the
Buld Reality. Eventually, I realized that there was both the
Asimov Reality and the Ekcolir Reality in Earth's Reality Chain.
By
April 2013 I had discovered that Parthney is a clone of Trysta's son,
Thomas. As described in the story above, on this page, eventually Thomas became a member of the
Dead Widower Society. As mentioned
here, there are also clones of Gwyned. Originally I had included a robot named Robin in
Exode, but by
June 2013 Robin had been transformed into
Syon (Noÿs spelled backwards), the artificial life replica of Trysta. Other key steps in the creation of
Exode are described in
this blog post.
3 to 5
For a couple of years I was comfortable in imagining that all of the events described in the
Exode Trilogy could be comfortably contained in three novels. However, by the
beginning of 2014, I was already into the process of making room in the Exode Trilogy for additional member of Tryst's family such as
Ivory Fersoni. Also, since I was having so much fun with Isaac Asimov as a character in my stories, I was branching out: soon enough I would write both myself and
Jack Vance into the Exode Trilogy. Clearly, things were getting out of hand. Eventually the Exode Trilogy had to be expanded to a 5 novel
Exode Saga.
When I began crafting
A Search Beyond, I wanted to find a way for the
replicoid of Isaac Asimov to explore events that had taken place in the far future of the Asimov Reality. For several years I had a hard time letting go of
The Case of the Arlesheim Elf and the rest of the
Sessily Trilogy. However, with the recent arrival of
Rylla, I now have a different pathway into the exploration of the Asimov Reality, a path that can be exploited for
A Search Beyond.
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