Earth: Day One

Parthney's first day on Earth.
Teleportation of his mind
across the galaxy.

"Earth: Day 1" is a 25,000 word science fiction story about Parthney's mission to Earth in the Ekcolir Reality. The story begins on this page, below, after some introductory table setting.

Introduction
I just completed a re-read of both Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. After I wrote the title of this blog post (originally it was called "Foundation of Robots") I found this other blog post with suggestions for a good order to read Asimov's books about robots and the Foundation so as to best appreciate Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation. I agree with Michael Cheang's suggested reading order.

R. Daneel Olivaw by TubularNiko

Isaac Asimov died just about exactly when he finished writing Forward the Foundation, and that novel ends with the death of Hari Seldon, the man responsible for creating the Foundations. The robot Daneel appears one last time on Trantor, attending the funeral of Seldon.

Exode Saga

Asterothrope

As a fan of Asimov's Foundation stories, I've never been able to accept that the saga of the Foundations must end with Foundation and Earth.  Within the Exode Saga, I imagine that Eternity was created as a way to allow humans of the Hidden Centuries to evolve into a telepathic species that could defend itself against the Huaoshy. R. Gohrlay evolved the Asterothropes as a new type of humanoid with telepathic abilities, but they were not able to breed with humans.
 
In the Foundation Reality, long-lived Spacers were given some Asterothrope gene combinations for human telepathy, but the full expression of that trait required a significant delay in in the pace of childhood development and entry into puberty. Asimov gave us a look at the Solarians, particularly Fallom, but the Solarians were an hermaphroditic dead end. Daneel (working under the guidance of R. Gohrlay) took that genetic recipe for human telepathy to Gaia and began work on the creation of Galaxia. Also, Daneel tried to find a way of attaining human telepathy within the confines of a normal short human life span.

Telepathy and Humans
When the Galaxia project was nearing completion, Daneel began his Foundation plan and some humans with telepathic ability were widely seeded into the population of the galaxy. During all this time, the bumpha made sure that R. Gohrlay was allowed to continue her experiments in human telepathy, due to their long-standing interest in seeing what could be made possible if humans had sophisticated telepathic abilities. If humans could be linked together by a powerful form of telepathy, might it eventually become possible to avoid the need to replace humans with Prelands? However, the Huaoshy decided that humans with "natural" telepathy powered by twitinos would be too disruptive for their multigalaxy-spanning system of governance and they took control of Eternity away from R. Gohrlay, using Grean and artificial life forms such as LaCy as their tools.

the Galaxia Gambit

After Grean defeated R. Gohrlay, the Huaoshy explained to the Interventionists that they would soon be changing the Dimensional Structure of the universe, making all further "natural" twitino-mediated telepathy impossible. R. Gohrlay began a new project: creating another human variant that could efficiently use the Bimanoid Interface (thus, the creation of the tryp'At) for technology-assisted telepathy. Most of that design work was done in the future of the Asimov Reality.

To end the Time War, the Huaoshy found a way to genetically merge Asterothropes with humanity (the Ek'col). This allowed for the Trysta-Grean Pact and led to cooperation between Grean and the Interventionist forces on Earth. As part of that Pact, Gohrlay was put on Earth and allowed to have children with a tryp'At (who became known as "the Editor"). However, at the last minute, due to the problems caused by tryp'At Overseers, Gohrlay's husband (the Editor) was given an additional duty: informing the people of Earth about the Secret History of Humanity.

source

In the Ekcolir Reality
Before the tryp'At were deployed to Observer Base (making possible the creation of a mind clone communications network), Lili had devised an alternative system for passing information about Deep Time to the Editor (who, in the Ekcolir Reality, was P. K. Dick). That alternative communications system was dependent on the Bimanoid Interface and a group of telepathically-linked clones, the Ivory clones.

the origin of Parthney as a clone of Thomas

It was Ekcolir's mission to Earth that cemented the changes to Earth's timeline required to shift from the Asimov Reality to the Ekcolir Reality. However, many other adjustments to the timeline were also needed and many of these "tweaks" were made by a cadre of specially trained Interventionist agents: the Thomas clones.

The last Thomas clone sent to Earth was Parthney. Sending Parthney to Earth was a last minute decision, made after the Trysta-Grean Pact was established. By Viewing the future of Earth, Grean and Trysta could see that the tryp'At Overseers (the final group of Earth Overseers) would become a problem, making it impossible for Ivory and her clone sisters to carry out Lili's plan.

Whimsical poster depicting Parthney
as a suave secret agent (source).

Parthney, who had previously been told that he would not carry out a mission to Earth (he had begun to shifted his attention from training as an Interventionist agent to living as a musician on the planet Oib) was informed that there had been another change of plans. After a quickly improvised period of further training on Oib and Klyz, Parthney was sent to Earth.

Transition to the Buld
The transition from the Ekcolir Reality to the Buld Reality was achieved by means of an extremely complex Reality Change. The Fru'wu, Thomas Iwedon, Trysta and the clones of Thomas all played important roles in creating the Buld Reality, but in the Buld Reality 1) the Fru'wu never visited Earth and 2) Thomas was never born because Deomede was the Ek'col agent who was sent to Earth, not Thomas' father Ekcolir.

Teleportation

Thomas was not erased by the Reality Change that ended the Ekcolir Reality because he carried the portable "physiotime generator" that had been given to him by his mother, Trysta. In the Buld Reality, the Fru'wu never visited Earth, but they passed some of their advanced nanotechnology on to the Interventionists who lived in the Galactic Core. Of particular importance to Parthney, on his way to Earth, Parthney passed through the Klyz teleportation hub where he was equipped with advanced Fru'wu nanites that could shield him against the Earth Overseers. Advanced Fru'wu nanotechnology also reached the planet Tar'tron where it was made use of by Lili and yT'Teb, as described below on this page.

At The Writers Block

source

Using her telepathic linkage to Georgy, Rylla recently read an account of Parthney's first arrival on Earth in the Ekcolir Reality. There was to be a second such arrival in the Buld Reality, but that is a story told in another forum. Here (below) is Rylla's account of Parthney's first day on Earth when he met his "robotic" assistant, Betty.

{Note: in the Ekcolir Reality, there was a different system for numbering the years. Below, an attempt has been made to help the reader align 1) events in the Ekcolir Reality with 2) events in the Final Reality, so our system for numbering the years has been used.}
__________________________________________

Earth: Day 1

Part 1 - George Parthey

New England in the Ekcolir Reality
click image to enlarge

George Parthey loved his large (in his mind, he used the term "majestic") New England house and the intricately crafted antiques that decorated its many rooms. Living in this unique old house was one thing he would really miss about Earth. Another was his robotic assistant Betty. The penchant of Earthlings for taking a precious gift and destroying it? George was more than ready to finally get away from that.

In 1841, Gustav Parthey had arrived in the New World and moved into a newly-built mansion that had purposely been built precisely on the border between New France and New England in an attempt to draw attention to the stupidity of politically manufactured boundaries.

Through the course of following years and decades, the sons and daughters and grandchildren of Gustav had repeatedly expanded and renovated what came to be known as Parthey Mansion.

Some 150 years after Gustav arrived in the New World, George was proud of his own work to modernize the old place during his time on Earth. He had recently completed the task of upgrading all of the utilities to take advantage of the most up-to-date technology. There were highly efficient solar panels on the roof and a high-bandwidth two-way radio link to the new Fru'wu satellite system that was providing super high-speed internet connectivity to the world.

Now the old house simple glowed with its complex array of LED lights. The Mansion truly shown at night. During the annual Festival of Light, people came from all the nearby towns to gaze upon the light show put on at the Parthey Mansion, including spectacular contributions from computer-driven image projectors that lit up the surrounding wooded hillside. That light show was particularly spectacular after a snow storm when the projected images were reflected off of a fresh blanket of snow.

For years, Betty and George had argued about the wisdom of holding those holiday light shows at Parthey Mansion. After thousands of years on Earth serving as a secret Interventionist agent, it was impossible for Betty to break her ancient habit of trying to hide herself from Observers and working diligently to avoid ever having contact with an Overseer. In contrast to Betty's preference for caution, George argued, "We are protected by the Trysta-Grean Pact." He worked tirelessly to push Earth towards more rapid technological advancement and even suggested boldly, "Grean herself will protect me from the Overseers." There was no project at Parthey mansion that was too big and flashy for the tastes of George. The wintertime light shows were George's annual public celebration of technology and he strove to make each new one more splendid than the previous one. For more than two decades, Betty had lived in fear of his recklessness.

Lili the Kac'hin on Earth,
disguised as a human

Now, it was his last day on Earth and for one last time, George wandered across the polished hardwood floors of the long hallways and large rooms of the Mansion. He was on his way to the teleportation chamber and would soon depart from Earth after almost 25 years of service as an Interventionist agent. In the Grand Hallway, he paused in front of a large painting of Gustav Parthey and Gustav's sister Lillian. This painting had been made in Europe before Gustav left for the New World. Below the painting, on a small antique display table, lay a copy of Gustav's book: Das Haus in der Brüderstrasse. This was the original manuscript version; essentially a diary, it contained many intriguing stories about Lillian and the period of time in their youth when Lillian had seemingly been possessed. George knew the truth. For a time, Lili the Kac'hin had lived with Gustav (occupying the body of his human sister), preparing him for his coming mission to the New World.

Now, George opened the book and read once more the last words that Lili the Kac'hin had spoken to Gustav:

"Take your pangenes to the New World and find Terry, your wife-to-be. Your descendants will always be susceptible to what you have witnessed in me... the ability to channel a Kac'hin or other agent arriving on this world. You know what must be done with such visitors; make them welcome."

By tradition, new clones of Thomas were sent off on their Interventionist missions to Earth immediately following the recital of a similar invocation. Soon after arriving in the New World, Gustav's own body had been "taken over" for use by an Interventionist agent, the first of many who would operate out of Parthey Mansion.

Betty

George closed the old book and thought about the next such Interventionist agent who would reach Earth and serve as his replacement. Both George and the next agent were clones of the great Thomas Iwedon and both had been trained in the Galactic Core for their missions on Earth. For the first time in many years, George spoke his own name, the name he had used during his first life in the Core: "Parthemy." Parthemy had just learned that the new agent, the 14th one to be sent to Parthey Mansion, was code named Parthney.

During the past two decades, Parthemy had gradually come to think of himself as George. It would be a new challenge to switch back to being Parthemy when he reached the Core. However, with conditions deteriorating on Earth, he believed it was his duty to return to the headquarters of the Interventionists in the Galactic Core and make sure that Lili understood what was now happening to Humanity.

Having reached the end of the Grand Hallway, George released a tiny cloud of utility nanites which entered the lock mechanism and activated the "door open" sequence, giving him access to the Mansion's well-hidden teleportation equipment. Upon entering the little teleportation chamber, he found Betty already at work, checking the integrity of their teleportation link to the Galactic Core. Betty first made sure that the door had closed behind George, then she said, "All clear through to Tar'tron". She tried to put good cheer and enthusiasm into her softly spoken words, but she was uncertain about the course that her life would take after Parthemy's departure from Earth.

George stepped close to Betty and took hold of her shoulders. They had said their sad goodbyes the previous evening, but he wanted to tell her one more thing. "Thank you, my dear, for your loving support through all these years." He bent forward and sweetly kissed the tip of her nose. "I have one last request. Serve my replacement as well as you have served me... work closely with him and protect him from harm."

Betty looked at George with dismay. "Replacement? I've already begun shutting down operations here. This house is scheduled to be taken off of the electrical power grid next week."

George shook his head in sympathy with Betty's plight. "I just found out a few minutes ago." He tapped his head to indicate the source of his knowledge: a message sent directly into his brain by way of his G-sym. "Lili is improvising like wild... she is launching some new emergency mission and I suspect that you will be right in the middle of the action."

Betty gave a human-like sigh. She muttered, "I'm always the last to know." She had a technology-assisted telepathic link to George's mind that allowed her to make use of his sensory organs, to see through his eyes and hear what he was hearing. However, she could only sense contents of his thoughts when he bothered to make a conscious attempt to use his G-sym to transmit his well-formed verbal thoughts to her.

George laughed and gently touched his finger tips to her delicate chin. "Chin up! I expect it will now be exactly as it was with me... the 'new me' will arrive and provide you with a set of infites containing his mission parameters."

Betty grabbed George's hand and kissed his finger tips. She said, "Nobody is exactly like you, my love." Betty sent a special control signal to her left eye which caused it to produce a dainty tear that spilled out and rolled down her face. Betty asked, "When will the new agent arrive?"

Teleportation

George brushed away the tear and kissed her cheek. "That I do not know. No doubt it will happen whenever Lili decides is the optimal time for him to beam in." Suppressing his desire to hold Betty in a tight embrace one last time, George let go of Betty and stepped onto the teleportation platform. George turned, gazed one last time upon his loyal assistant and said, "Oh, there is one more thing, dear. The new agent will be arriving from Klyz." Betty nodded, gave a little farewell wave of her hand and activated the teleportation equipment. George disappeared, his molecules transferred from the hadronic domain of the universe into another domain of existence.

While looking at the empty platform for a minute, Betty wondered: Why Klyz? That was one of the Fru'wu planets, not part of the Interventionst's network of worlds in the Galactic Core.

Slowly re-focused her mind, Betty exited from the teleportation chamber, closed the door and checking carefully to make sure that there was no visible hint as to its presence behind what appeared to be a solid, load-bearing wall of the Mansion. Confident that the door to the teleportation chamber had sealed itself shut with molecular precision, Betty turned and strolled towards the comcenter, but before getting there she changed her mind and decided to wait a while longer before calling the power company again. The new Interventionist agent might arrive in just a few minutes or it could be several years before he came to Earth. If it was to be only Betty in the Mansion, living by herself for a time, then the new solar power system would meet her needs.

Betty stopped walking and listened to the quietness of the house. Without the sound of her footfalls on the polished floor, the big old house was almost silent. Already I miss him. Betty let her memories roll back to the first day when Parthemy had arrived on Earth, taking control of the body of the Earthling named George Parthey. The original George had been a bookish writer, seemingly destined to be the last of the Parthey lineage in the New World. Then Parthemy had arrived and he had instantly brought new dynamism and life back to Parthey Mansion. Her thoughts of George were interrupted by a voice.

The robotic artificial voice of the phone announced: "Incoming call from Scientarium". Betty activated her built-in connection to the comunit and said, "Hello, Parthey Mansion, may I help you?"

Mika is the great-granddaughter of Max.
Max was the son of Henry Parthey and
a Vermont woman named Lynda.
Max was born soon after the
end of the Civil War.

Mika Semina, the administrator of the Scientarium, was calling because George had not shown up for work the previous day. Mika said, "Hello, Betty. This is Mika. Sorry to bother you, but I need help. We are having serious difficulty finding a replacement for Mr. Parthey."

Before leaving Earth, George had resigned from his job and Betty had expected that would be the end of her contact with Mika. Betty said, "I'm sorry that you were given such short notice, Mika, but because of Mr. Parthey's many other pressing commitments, he simply had to end all of his volunteer work."

The administrator said, "Yes, I understand that, but with the unemployment rate essentially at zero, we simply have not been able to find a replacement for him. I called today with the hope that if George is free this afternoon... well, we'd be happy to have him on a temporary day-by-day basis, whenever he has the time. The children were simply dismayed yesterday when George was not there for them... you know how the children love him."

Betty sighed loudly then said, "I understand your plight, but there is not much that I can do. I'm willing to come over today and help with the children, but I doubt if I'd be able to fill the Master's shoes."

Mika was amused to hear Betty refer to George as the "Master". Nobody quite knew exactly what the relationship was between George and Betty, but since they lived alone together, there was much tongue wagging and speculation about the possibility that Betty was more than just George's employee and assistant. Mika said, "Oh, I don't know, Betty... I think you'd do just fine! I don't want to impose on your precious time, but if you are free today... well, we can certainly use you. I think you would enjoy spending some time with our students... George always has."

Betty knew quite well that there were several reasons why George had volunteered to spend time with the students who attended the local after-school science enrichment program. On the practical, mission-oriented side of the equation, volunteering at the Scientarium helped George kept up with changing attitudes among Earthlings with respect to the many technology advances that had been triggered by the arrival of the Fru'wu. George regularly spent time talking to the instructors at the Scientarium, all of whom were highly trained research scientists or engineers. And then, of course, on the purely emotional side of the equation, there was a part of George's volunteer work that did indeed bring him great personal pleasure. That aspect of George's interactions with the locals would have irritated Betty except for the fact that, technically, his personal relationships with Earth women also helped him fulfill a special duty that was expected of Interventionist agents. Betty pushed all those thoughts away and said, "Oh, very well, Mika. I am available. Today. I'll be there at 4:00 PM."

Relief was audible in Dr. Semina's voice. "Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. The children will be pleased, too. I know I'm old fashioned, but I hate the idea of a robotic bus delivering children like packages." Impatient with Mika's prattling, Betty broke the connection and sighed again. She asked herself: Why do I get myself into these things? Well it is not as if I'm too busy to help the Scientarium. With George gone, there was not much for Betty to do. There was only one item in Betty's household work queue.

A nanite sensor was sending out a signal warning that someone had handled the delicate pages of Das Haus in der Brüderstrasse. Betty now approached the book and began monitoring the on-going activity of a swarm of cleaning nanites while they worked to remove all traces of George's biobody from the book. Through the many millennia that Betty had been on Earth, she had gradually come to understand cellular life forms, including small details such as the molecular composition of their skin oils. She had long since carefully adjusted the programming of the cleaning nanites so as to efficiently distinguish between the natural oils of the book and the invasive oils and bacterium-carrying dead cellular debris left behind by a human touch. Betty's original programming, from thousands of years past, had provided the foundation for the required chemical analysis. In particular, Betty had a catalog of every oil molecule that could function as a human pheromone. Further, Betty could efficiently regulate the positioning of such molecules at the surface of her own artificial body, a trick that helped make humans comfortable in her presence despite her being a synthetic construct composed of hierion femtobots and not biological cells.

Now, gazing upon Das Haus in der Brüderstrasse, Betty thought: Of course, George had taken the time to read that one particular passage... the last instructions from Lili to Gustav, hence his heavy-handed orders about me serving the replacement agent. As if Betty needed to be ordered to assist a Thomas clone or welcome a new arrival from the Core to the Mansion!

The five boroughs of New York, Virginia in the Ekcolir Reality
Severn Pt., The Warren, Airvale, Holly Pt. and Tabbs Pt.

For a moment, Betty thought about Thomas and what he might be doing. Betty's guess was that Thomas was still in New York, but her only reason for thinking that was because of what she had learned from the infites provided to her many years ago when Parthemy had arrived on Earth. That had been almost twenty five years previously and Thomas might have moved since then.

Betty was surprised by the quick transition she was making. Her thinking was already shifting its focus towards Thomas and away from George. Soon Parthemy would only remain in her memory as one of many men in the large category of "the previous agents". Parthemy was only gone from Earth for a few minutes and already she felt a tingling excitement over the idea of running off to New York in search of Thomas!

Of course, Betty had seen dozens of agents come and go. Through the centuries, it seemed that she had changed and tended to become increasingly attached to each new agent that she worked with, particularly those that were clones of Thomas Iwedon. And now, Betty was finally living in the same century with Thomas! Betty speculated: Maybe Thomas is no longer in Virginia? Sadly, Betty was usually in the dark, getting only a limited trickle of information from Lili. Betty was only ever provided with just the information that she needed to do her work and assist with each currently on-going mission being conducted from Parthey Mansion. Lili knew better than distract her Interventionist agents with too much information. Betty thought: If I knew where Thomas was, I'd go visit him. Right now!

Betty knew the importance of Thomas as the original biological entity who had been cloned to produce a long line of clones who had served as Lili's Interventionist agents, but she knew little about the actual life that Thomas was living on Earth. Somehow, through the long centuries, Betty had developed a strong and teasing desire to meet Thomas. As far back as ten or twelve years previously, she had begun to fantasize about leaving Parthey Mansion and going to visit Thomas. The idea of abandoning her current Master and wandering off in search of Thomas simultaneously horrified Betty and vastly intrigued her.

The West in the Ekcolir Reality (source).

Now, Betty impulsively checked to make sure that her precious memories of Thomas were safely archived within the network of her special infite reserves. Over the millennia, Betty had hoarded every stray nanite that came her way and now they formed a sophisticated mini-brain inside her that was safely under her personal control (her minders in the Galactic Core seemed unaware of its existence). In a sense, having such a "mini-brain" was an unauthorized violation of her original programming, but did anyone but she, herself, actually remember her original purpose and programing? Betty thought: Lili takes my work for granted. With the arrival of each new agent on Earth, a new swarm of infites was forced into her body; those information nanites rearranged her memories and prepared Betty for the next stage of her "life" on Earth. Betty smiled. Artificial Life. No human technology could detect the difference between her body and that of a biological human, but she was composed of sub-nanoscopic hierions, not hadrons... femtobots, not cells.

Suddenly, Betty felt a cognitive shudder, a strange sort of chill, and she thought: maybe there is someone who can read my thoughts and detect my secret memories of Thomas! For a time, Betty allowed herself to speculate about the powers of Earth's Overseers. She wondered: Could and Overseer use advanced technology to tap into my thoughts? Slowly that fear of discovery by the Overseers faded from Betty's thoughts.

femtobots

Betty did not want her memories of Thomas to be erased during a round of her reprogramming by infites. In her private thoughts, she had developed quite an active fantasy world that centered on Thomas. In her imagination, Thomas was a special human, with all the finest characteristics. Why else would he have been cloned and used as the template for Lili's secret agents?

Betty was quite certain that her fellow Interventionist agents could not look deeply into her mind and memories. She could transmit language-like technology-assisted telepathic signals to Thomas clones, but she knew from long experience that those mind-links were not designed to allow one to peer into hidden memories. Still, she wondered: Could an Overseer look into my mind and learn all of my secrets? She hoped to never find out.

Betty began to imagine getting in the car and driving south to New York City... going in search of Thomas. Before Betty could fully slip into a new fantasy about meeting Thomas, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a new ALERT signal from the teleportation chamber.

Betty turned her gaze away from Das Haus in der Brüderstrasse, quickly strode down the length of the Grand Hallway and entered the teleportation chamber just in time to see the new Interventionist agent arrive on the teleportation pad. The teleportation equipment sent one more message to Betty: Transmission from Klyz complete.

Betty immediately saw that the new agent was indeed another clone of Thomas, again making use of the body of George Parthey! The new agent's infites had been placed into the currently active parthey receptacle. Now, standing on the pad was what looked like a slightly different version of George Parthey than the George who had been the previous agent and who had beamed out just a few minutes earlier. This new version of George wore different clothes. To preserve as much continuity as possible for the new agent, he was still dressed in his own clothing upon materialization, but now his mind was inside the biological body of George Parthey, long-time resident of Earth.

Technically, the mind of this new agent had simply been instantiated inside a new container: the body of the Earthling who was known as George Parthey. All that had been teleported to Earth from the planet Klyz was the set of information nanites that held the complete mind pattern of the new agent. The teleporter automatically provided some clothing nanites that formed themselves into a replica of the clothing that had been worn by the dematerialized agent in the Core. The teleported infites had been inserted by the teleporter into the waiting G-Sym endosymbiont of George Parthey, taking the place of the corresponding nanites that had, only a few minutes earlier, constituted the mind of the previous agent.

Part 2: Betty and Parthney

Through long experience, Betty knew that each mind that was placed into a human body would animate that body in a unique way so as to generate a slightly different posture as well as distinctive hand and facial muscle activity patterns. Betty quickly learned that this version of George Parthey would almost always have a little smile on his face, like a mischievous boy... the sort of knowing grin that she had always imagined on the face of Thomas Iwedon. Betty said, "Welcome to Earth. I'm your assistant, Betty."

Parthney's eyes widened and his grin broadened into a smile of joy. He stepped off of the pad and threw his arms around Betty, holding her close against his body. He excitedly spoke into her ear, "Syon! I thought I'd never see you again."

_______________________

Continue to Part 2 of "Earth:Day 1".

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