Lakum

Original photograph by Maree Jamieson
(see the image credits)

Back in September of 2017, I was giving some serious thought to how Ekcolir might travel back through time 20,000 years and make adjustments to the human gene pool of Earth. Using her advanced Viewing technology, Grean knew that the Huaoshy would put an end to twitino-mediated telepathy, but Grean foresaw a need for telepathic humans in the Final Reality.

Grean initiated a rather complex plan for how to use the Bimanoid Interface to make possible a limited amount of technology-assisted telepathy for Earthlings. Working with the available tools, Grean made use of both Asterothrope and Preland gene combinations to facilitate the creation of a new human variant: the tryp'At. Like the Kac'hin and the Ek'col, the tryp'At were able to use their nanites to control the assembly of new human genomes.

source

Right at the start of 2017, when I wrote "Ereus 20k B.C.E.", I realized that Ekcolir needed to not only provide new gene combinations, but also remove some deleterious gene combinations from ancient Earthlings. However, the details of this genetic surgery were mysterious. By September 2017, I knew that the tryp'At had been involved in Ekcolir's work in the far past, but in order to tell that story, I also knew that a better source of information about events in the Ekcolir Reality was needed.

Here in 2019, that information source has been identified: the ER Simulator. I've previously toyed with the idea of "extracting" people from the virtual reality simulations at Eternity, and now the time has come to get serious about that "magic" trick. So, after a three year delay, here is the follow-on sequel to "Ereus 20k B.C.E.".

___________________

The Lakum Intervention

Bimanoid Interface: the secret
of technology-assisted telepathy.

It was the end of a long summer day and the house was finally quiet. Nora slipped out of bed, taking one last look back at her sleeping husband. Nora checked the time. It was almost 24 hours since her last pregnancy test, which had been inconclusive. She stepped into the master bathroom and did another chorionic gonadotropin test. This one was clearly positive. Nora almost woke her husband in order to share the news, but then decided to let him sleep. He had to be up early to go to work and Nora had already kept him up too late.

Nora exited from the master suite and went down the dark hallway towards Rylla's room. With her telepathic connection to Dysyn, there was no need for Nora to look into her daughter's bedroom. Nora continued quietly past Marda's bedroom and went into Rylla's room. Rylla was at work, using her old tablet computer. Nora sprawled across the bed and glanced at Rylla's second set of breasts, glowing in the light from the tablet's screen. Nora asked, "Did you match the amino acid sequence?"

asteroglands

Rylla finished typing a paragraph and glanced at Nora. Rylla followed Nora's eyes to her breasts; she took hold of her own smaller right breast and replied, "Yes, the protein that I found in the secretion from my asteroglands is an exact match; it is the frenchkissin peptide."

Nora reached out her hand and gently touched Rylla's breast. "Asterogland?"

Rylla explained, "There is no lactose in the secretions from my secondary breasts. Their purpose seems to be the production of hormones that are unique to the Asterothropes, so I've decided to call them 'asteroglands'."

Nora giggled, "You have star-breasts."

Rylla nodded, "Sometimes it seems that I am starring in some science fiction porno-movie about an alien with four breasts. Star Breasts. 'Breasts' with an asterisk. 'Breasts*; see foot note and disclaimers, below.' Actually, in this bizarre movie, I'm the mad scientist... have you decided if you'll let me test some injected frenchkissin on Dysyn?"

Asterothropes:
hermaphrodite (left) and
female (right)

Nora shook her head. "I would never try that experiment without your father's permission, and I have not gotten up the nerve to tell him about Marda's weird transformation."

Rather defensively, Rylla said, "There is nothing wrong with Marda. It is not as if she was transformed into a monster by frenchkissin."

Nora sighed. "I know, but I can't get used to Marda sitting down and writing out 400 page novels. That is not normal behavior for a five-year-old."

source

Rylla laughed quietly. "I'm not so sure. According to my grandfather, Thomas Iwedon was typing out stories at age two. Of course, he was telepathically linked to an actual Asterothrope, back in the era when twitino-based telepathy was still a thing." Nora and Rylla fell silent, both of them thinking about the alien Asterothrope genes that were at work inside Dysyn and Marda, making possible the technology-assisted telepathy of the Mind Clone Network.

Suddenly remembering why she had come to Rylla's bedroom, Nora said, "I also have news from my peptide testing..." She held out the CGmeter towards Rylla.

Georgy

Rylla read the "positive" test result off of the CGmeter's little LED screen. "Congratulations!" The two women threw their arms around each other and hugged. Rylla asked, "What did my dad say?"

Nora explained, "You are the first to know. I'll tell him in the morning... I just found out myself."

"Not to steal your thunder, but..." Rylla fell silent, her eyes unfocused.

Nora asked, "What is it?"

Rylla held up her hand. "Georgy." Nora waited quietly for almost two more minutes and then Rylla lowered her hand and finally spoke again: "I just shared your news with Georgy and she then told me that she is pregnant again, too. She thinks Lakum is the father."

Nora: too perfect to be human?

Nora asked, "Is that possible?" Nora had heard the rumor that Lakum was not really human, that she had emerged from inside the ER Simulator and taken up residence at Observer Base as a close companion of Stacy. Initially, it was assumed that Lakum had originated in the Ekcolir Reality and had the ability to exist in the Final Reality by using the artificial body of a replicoid. But would being some sort of artificial life form give her the ability to impregnate Georgy?

Rylla giggled and shook her head. "I've given up judging events according to what is possible. If Georgy is correct, you are an artificial life form, yet you produce CG and babies like an actual biological creature. So, does it matter if Lakum magically popped out of a virtual reality simulator?"

Nora replied, "In my case, my body could have been constructed from zeptite components and designed to precisely mimic the biological functions of a human being. Why not give Lakum the same benefit of the doubt?"

artificial life

Rylla complained, "The problem is, we don't know anything about replicoid technology. If you and Lakum are replicoids..." Rylla again fell silent. "You know the rumor suggesting that the way to pull someone out of the Reality Simulator System of Eternity is to instantiate their mind inside a replicoid."

Nora objected, "I can't accept the idea that replicoids are still here with us in the Final Reality. All of the replicoids had to be inactivated when we shifted to the new version of the Bimanoid Interface. No, I can't be a replicoid!"

Rylla asked, "Were all replicoids shut down, or just those who got into a telepathic positive feedback loop? As far as we can tell, you can't telepathically link to anyone except Dysyn."

"Well, don't forget your grandfather's theory: that I was telepathically linked to someone else, which is what allowed for the Buld spaceship to be called back to Earth."

The Mind Clone Network

"That's just an hypothesis. We have no evidence that you have ever been telepathically linked to anyone except your daughter. However, in the case of Lakum..."

Nora waited impatiently. After a long minute of waiting, she asked Rylla, "What about Lakum?"

"I'm not sure I can tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"Forget I mentioned it, Nora."

"Forget what? Come on, Rylla... please don't keep any secrets from me."

Rylla shut off her tablet computer, set it on the night stand and then slipped between the sheets of the bed. "This is so embarrassing."

"What is it? I thought I knew all of your secrets... as your mom, it is my job to know."

Maria Green

"Ya, but you are not really my mom. You are more like my sister. My artificial life sister. After what I went through with Maria Green, I've never been able to completely trust you."

"What you went through? What about me?" Nora touched her head with her finger tips. "At least you were able to recover the memories that Maria stole from you. I never have."

Rylla asked, "How do I know that I have recovered all of my memories?"

Nora insisted, "Well, you don't, but that is irrelevant. You can trust me, Rylla."

"Intellectually I know that. Emotionally, I still have my fears. Anyhow, let's be clear what we are dealing with!" Rylla pointed at Nora. "Sure, it is great that you and Georgy are pregnant again, but..." Rylla fell silent once more.

Nora waited a long time for Rylla to continue, then she sighed and said, "Fine. If you don't want to tell me-"

Interventionists

"I'm telling you, but this is not easy. None of this makes sense. How are these pregnancies being sequenced? And, well, it is happening again as yet another wave! You and Georgy get pregnant at the same time..."

Nora giggled, "Your father and I have been working hard to make another baby ever since Dysyn stopped nursing. We make love every day. Twice on Sundays. It is no mystery that I'm pregnant again."

Rylla mused, "Sure, you two are like a pair of little horny bunnies. It is easy for you to imagine that my father is the father of your children, Nora, but I'm willing to bet that the embryo inside you will be just like Dysyn: not endowed with half its chromosomes from dad."

"I don't care."

Rylla rolled her eyes, "You are free to live in your happy little fantasy world, but it is not as easy for me. Marda, Jytyr... two beautiful children, but I've never even made love to a man. No, these babies are artificially crafted. In another age we would have called it witchcraft. Georgy wants to believe that Lakum is the father, but I'd be willing to bet..." Rylla turned over onto her side, facing away from Nora, and pulled the sheet up around her neck.

Nora laid down beside Rylla and put an arm around her. "I'm not going to question these gifts. For all practical purposes, my babies are the children of your father. Sure, I know it is more complicated than that. You did the genetic testing, but I don't care if your father only contributed a few percent of the genes that are inside Dysyn. I'm not going to worry about the mysterious origins of the other 97%."

"Believe me Nora, I'm not trying to interfere with your happiness. However, we need to be honest with ourselves. In my case, I know that Lakum is not Jytyr's father."

Observer Base

Nora asked, "What are you talking about? Was there ever any doubt? Lakum is at Observer Base. You are here on Earth." After a long silence Nora added, "I suppose you are trying to tell me that Lakum and Georgy are lovers."

Rylla rolled over once again and faced Nora. "No, I don't think so, not in any conventional sense, although I admit that the telepathic signals I get from Observer Base are sometimes rather... wild. Hard to interpret. The signals from Georgy and Stacy can get all jumbled together..."

Nora nodded. "Sure... you three are all part of the same telepathy sub-network."

Rylla shook her head. "No, it is more complicated than that. Let me explain."

the alien Fru'wu

Again Rylla was silent. Nora waited several minutes and then patted Rylla's bottom. "Tell mama."

"I'm trying to remember when it all started... as I recall, I had known about Lakum for some time, so this was about four years ago. At first, Georgy and Stacy would casually mention Lakum and her mysterious origin, how she had emerged from inside the ER Simulator. But Lakum was a mystery that I could not solve from here, on Earth. Anyhow, that was a busy time for me. I was fully recovered from my first pregnancy and had started going back to school to complete my B.S. degree. I was taking all those science classes with a bunch of cute guys in the classrooms and as my lab partners. I was still a horny teenager and not thinking things through carefully and that was when Georgy suggested that I... golly, I don't even know how to describe this. You'll think I'm a pervert!"

"Horny?" Nora said, "My solution to that kind of problem used to involve vibrators, but since I've been living with your dad, I don't need to resort-"

"I know all about your vibrator collection, Nora. You gave half of it to me, which is really what got me through my first year of taking college courses. Still, I was curious. What might it be like to actually make love to a man? So when Georgy suggested that I let Lakum-"

Colleen

Nora interrupted, "Wait, now. We're talking about the Lakum, the woman who Colleen Liscan met and pulled out of the ER Simulator at Observer Base, right?"

"Right. Anyhow, I started... having a sexual relationship with Lakum. Now, this is where it gets weird..."

Nora interrupted and asked, "What are you talking about? Some sort of phone sex?"

Rylla nodded. "Almost. It all started when Colleen met Lakum inside the ER Simulator. They became lovers and of course, Stacy soon found out. Then it evolved into Colleen and Stacy having some kind of three-way relationship with Lakum. Pretty quickly, Georgy figured out what was going on. Georgy talked Stacy into keeping their telepathic connection active while Stacy was making love to Lakum."

Nora laughed. "I get it. And then you got in on the fun."

"Eventually, Georgy told me that she had found a solution to her problem. Georgy prefers to be with women... most of the time, but she also enjoys the pleasure of good old-fashioned vaginal sex. Lakum was the perfect solution. Georgy could connect her mind to Stacy, enjoy the full sensation of having sex with Lakum, and never actually have to deal with Lakum as a lover."

Nora summarized what Rylla had told her: "So, for the past three years, you have known that Lakum has a penis and you never bothered to tell me that little nugget?"

Rylla said, "This isn't about you, Nora. I was simply too embarrassed to tell you that Lakum was some sort of hermaphroditic creature from Deep Time that I was using as a source of telepathic orgasms. Talk about science fiction!"

Nora added, "So, if I understand this tale you are telling me, Georgy now thinks that Lakum is the father of her little embryo, but Georgy has never actually had sex with Lakum."

tryp'At

Rylla nodded. "Yes. Now, this is where it gets weird. Georgy lives just down the street from Stacy. They often visit each other and interact socially. Georgy sees Lakum often. And Colleen. Sometimes when the the party starts at Stacy's house and the lights go low... and they get wild... it is hard for me to know exactly what is going on."

"You mean..." Nora's imagination failed her. She tried to picture Colleen, Georgy, Stacy and Lakum all having sex at the same time, with Rylla following along via her telepathic connection from Earth.

Rylla shook her head. "I mean, it is possible that Lakum did impregnate Georgy, but not very likely. If that was all there was to the story, then I'd just say 'no' and move on. However, it is more complex."

Nora asked, "More complex than five-way telepathic sex with a hermaphrodite who popped out of a virtual reality generator?"

source

Rylla grinned. "Ya. Lakum is not just some cute little girl with a penis. Lakum claims to be tryp'At."

Nora shouted, "Are you serious?" In a quiet voice she continued, "Why have you never mentioned this to me before?"

"Today, when Georgy found out that she is pregnant, she confronted Lakum. Lakum denied ever having had the opportunity to impregnate Georgy. No, I should not say that. Well, actually, what Lakum said was that she had never 'taken the opportunity' to have intercourse with Georgy."

Nora held up her hand, "I begin to understand..."

"Ya, this is weird." Rylla took a deep breath. "Until today, I'd never thought too deeply about Lakum. You know the old saying: 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth'. Georgy, Stacy and I were all happy with Lakum as our shared lover. Anyhow, today Lakum told Georgy, 'As a tryp'At, I could have impregnated you without ever having made love to you.' And according to my grandfather's claims, that makes perfect sense. The only clear account of the origin of the six Minds Clone babies comes from grampa and he admits to having implanted Tihri inside Zeta's uterus, using his special tryp'At blastipositor."

the Buld Reality

Mention of the tryp'At blastipositor triggered an old memory in Nora. She exclaimed, "Wait! Now I remember... there was a Lakum who went back in time and started the Buld Reality... I've forgotten the details."

Rylla knew that Nora had almost no interest in Deep Time. Nora's lack of concern about history reflected the fact that her memories had been heavily edited by nanites. As part of the deal that had made it possible for Nora to remain on Earth, Nora had surrendered most of her memories of being an Interventionist agent. "Lakum was an Interventionist agent who went back in time, just prior to when Ek'colir arrived in the Upper Paleolithic."

Nora complained, "There are so many of these strange stories from Deep Time. How do you keep them all straight?"

Rylla shook her head. "Well, it is not easy. But the Editor has long been extremely interested in the Reality Change that ended the Ekcolir Reality. Whenever Georgy or Stacy find an interesting story in the Writers Block archives or when Colleen dredges one out of the ER Simulator, it is my job to write it down."

Nora tapped her head with a finger tip. "I don't have the head for this. All those stories from Deep Time swirl in my memory like a tornado of stray facts. How do you know which ones are relevant to us here in the Final Reality?"

Rylla explained, "Due to Temporal Momentum, sometimes the old stories from previous Realities have obvious connections to our lives, but in the case of Lakum, I got lazy. I imagined that 'Lakum' was a name like 'Smith'. Why couldn't there be a 'Lakum' in the Ekcolir Reality who was male and possibly an Ek'col? And if so, I was not bothered by the idea that there was another 'Lakum' from the Ekcolir Reality who was female."

Nora nodded. "Right. And I have to wonder if someone wanted to hide the existence of the tryp'At. The idea of Lakum being tryp'At might have been edited out of Time. False information could have been planted in the archives of the Writers Block in order make you believe that Lakum was an Ek'col."

Rylla thought back and tried to order in her mind all the old stories about the Ekcolir Intervention. "Years ago, I learned about Lakum's time travel mission to 20,000 years in our past, but I probably need to review all those sources of information. As I recall, there were several different and often conflicting stories in the archives of the Writers Block that named Lakum as the Interventionist who worked in tandem with Ekcolir in the far past, bringing Asterothrope genes to Earth and inserting them into the human gene pool. In their account of Lakum's role in the Ekcolir Intervention, those stories say that 'he' was the father of Behgi and Suem. I'm going to have to go back and look more carefully at those stories, but somehow I always assumed that the father of Behgi was a male. Probably another male Ek'col, just like Ekcolir. But now I know that the Lakum who is at Observer Base is a tryp'At hermaphrodite, so I have to wonder if the very first Lakum might have been created at the end of the Asimov Reality. Maybe the Lakum prototype was not a male and might have been tryp'At. And if so, who knows how many copies of that original Lakum might have been manufactured and deployed through subsequent Realities."

"Well, I recall some of what you told me about those stories... Behgi, Suem were the first humans on Earth with Asterothrope gene combinations and their mother was named..."

Dehla, Behgi and Suem receive
a visitor from the future.

"Dehla." Rylla thought about Ekcolir (Ereus) and his exile in the far past, during which he believed that it was up to him to implant genes from the far future into the human gene pool of Earth. However, unbeknownst to Ekcolir, Lakum had already accomplished that mission. Ekcolir arrived latter, as a carrier and generator of viruses that could clear away "competing genes", making it possible for the Lakum genes to spread through the human population of Earth. The first victim of Ekcolir's viruses was his beloved Dehla who died about a year after Ekcolir arrived in the Paleolithic. Rylla muttered, "No wonder Ekcolir was never told the truth about his mission."

Nora asked, "Truth?"

a story from the Writers Block

"It is all spelled out in one of the novels from the archives of the Writers Block, a story written by Hafren Wells."

"Now, wait. I thought Hafren lived in the Ekcolir Reality, on Earth. How could she tell a story about the events that caused the end of that Reality?"

Overseers

Rylla explained, "The story of Ekcolir's entire life became accessible to her after Hafren got taken off of Earth by the Overseers. After her career on Earth as a science fiction story writer, Hafren lived the last years of her life at Observer Base where she continued writing stories."

Nora commented, "Hafren must have gone too far in telling Earthlings about alien technology."

Rylla shrugged, "I don't know what got her in trouble with the Overseers. Due to the severity of her crimes, Hafren got booted right out of the Ekcolir Reality. However, the Interventionists were not done making use of her. They made sure that Hafren was untouched by the Reality Change and it was in the Buld Reality that Hafren had the last part of her career as a science fiction author while residing at the Writers Block. This is only confusing if you did not know that Hafren escaped from the Ekcolir Reality, moved on into the Buld Reality and lived out the end of her life inside Eternity."

the last of the Retrofuturians

"Yes, I vaguely remember you telling me about that several years ago. You told me that Hafren joined the Retrofuturians."

"Retrofuturians of the Buld Reality, including Hafren, were frustrated by the fact that all their hard work in the Ekcolir Reality (preparing Earthlings for First Contact with the alien Fru'wu) ended up accomplishing nothing. Working at the Writers Block in the Buld Reality, the Retrofuturians tried to reconstruct what 'went wrong' in the Ekcolir Reality. It is interesting that our Lakum, here in the Final Reality, likes to hang out with the remnants of the Retrofuturians at Observer Base."

Nora was tired. She rested her head on a pillow and rubbed her eyes. Rylla gave a voice command and the room lights dimmed almost to black. Rylla knew that she should also be getting her sleep. Nora asked, "Am I wrong, or did you tell me that Lakum met Hafren at the Writers Block?"

"Yes, Colleen has confirmed that, except it was the replicoid of Hafren. Just before Ekcolir was sent into the past, Lakum was brought into Eternity. Lakum met the Hafren replicoid at the Writers Block and helped her feed information to the biological Hafren who was still on Earth at that time. It was that collaboration that allowed Hafren to write The Ekcolir Intervention. In fact, Colleen is now meeting many important science fiction writers at the Writers Block, inside the Ekcolir Reality Simulator. Colleen has recently suggested that it may have been Hafren's detailed account of Lakum's mission on Earth that got her in trouble with the Overseers. Now I have to wonder if Hafren tried to publish that fact that Lakum was tryp'At. That might have been what got her removed from the Ekcolir Reality and moved on over into the Buld Reality."

"And only now you are figuring this out, after years of screwing Lakum?"

Grean

Rylla put an arm around Nora and held her tight. "Remember, Nora, I've never actually made love to Lakum... I get to link telepathically to Stacy while she is having sex with Lakum. Anyhow, this is almost like a ghost story. Maybe Grean made a copy of Lakum here in the Final Reality. If so, then Lakum could move back and forth between the virtual reality of the ER Simulator and the real world of Eternity."

Nora could imagine that possibility. "Yes, and if so, then maybe Grean planned for Lakum to be at Observer Base now, acting as Stacy's lover and..."

"It is no act. Stacy and Lakum are in love. After having been the first to have sex with Lakum, Colleen was quite jealous that Lakum preferred Stacy as a partner. But it all makes sense if Lakum is really targeting the nodes of the Mind Clone Network. However, it is complex. Grean must have foreseen that Stacy, Georgy and I would all need some sort of anchor for our Mind Clone sub-network."

Nora added, "And Lakum can play that role. And I suppose she, um,  still gets to play with Colleen on occasion."

"Not only that... Lakum also routinely goes back into the ER Simulator."

"Do you mean that Lakum has lovers in the ER Simulator?"

creating the Final Reality

"Exactly. Lakum has a lot of irons in the fire. Or, perhaps more accurately, she has her iron in a lot of different fires. And after going along with it all for years, now Georgy is not happy about it, because she has the suspicion that Lakum was at work on her real mission in the Final Reality more than five years ago, long before Colleen ever became one of Lakum's lovers."

"Real mission?"

"Of course, I've never had a chance to actually see Amiante and Alexina... However, I do see Marda every day."

"What are you talking about? What does Marda have to do with it?"

"Well, I told you that both Georgy and I can telepathically link to Stacy while she is making love to Lakum. At first, Stacy would let either Georgy or I link in whenever we complained about being horny. Now, fairly routinely, the three of us link together. It is rather spectacular when we have three simultaneous orgasms... our minds are all mixed together and during those special times we can see deeper into each-others thoughts than usual. I get glimpses of visual imagery. Apparently, Marda, Amiante and Alexina not only look like three peas from the same pod, but particularly, as Ami and Alex keep getting older, it is clear that the three children all look rather like Lakum."

Marda's family tree

"You mean Lakum is the father of Marda?"

"Something like that. Apparently, before Izhiun was trapped on Earth, he already had in his possession the genetic code for Marda's genome, a code which might be almost identical to the genetic instructions for Alex and Ami. Of course, Amiante is a boy, but it would not be surprising if most of the genes for Marda, Amiante and Alexina were derived from Lakum. Now that I know Lakum is tryp'At, I have to agree with Georgy, that it was probably Lakum who implanted Amiante and Alexina inside their 'mothers', using his tryp'At blastipositor. However, given the fact that there now seem to be no functioning gene sequencers at Observer Base, we may never know for sure."

Nora whispered to Rylla, "What about Dysyn?"

infites: information nanites

"My guess is that Dysyn, Tihri and Roxzel have a different origin story, some source of Asterothrope genes that is independent of Lakum."

Nora kissed Rylla's forehead, "Good night. I hope I can get to sleep, now... you have me imagining tryp'At blastipositors lurking... no, I don't want to think about it!" Nora returned to the master bedroom. Her happiness about the new embryo growing inside her and the memory editing function of the infites inside Nora allowed her to quickly slip into sleep.

Rylla was not so lucky. Five minutes after Nora had left her bed, Rylla was back using her tablet computer to finish the task of sending her grandfather a report on the frenchkissin lab results. As an appendix, she added in an account of Lakum and her role in creating half of the Mind Clone Network.

___________________________________

part 7

I had originally intended to write a simple sequel to "Ereus 20k B.C.E.", but one thing led to another. The story, above, became part 1 of a seven part story about Lakum...

1. The Lakum Intervention      4,100 words
2. The Agonist and the Editor  1,700 words
3. Status Update                        2,500 words
4. Alastrid Telepathy                 5,800 words
5. Zeta Recreation                      4,100 words
6. The tryp'At Hermaphrodites   4,200 words
7. Double Time                           8,000 words

Next: "The Deep" by Isaac Asimov

Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers.

Short Tale

Man Bin, an artificial life form visiting Earth.

It is possible that the shortest Sci Fi story I ever wrote was "Manmahtiti Bebobinmahtiti". I now want to create a very short story (UPDATE: it ended up being 1700 words) that can be the first part of A Search Beyond.

What would it be like to discover that your mother is an alien life form? That is the startling discovery that awaits Marda when she grows up as the daughter of Rylla.

Marda's family tree (source)

Lucky for Marda, Rylla is almost human. Rylla has some Asterothrope genes, but thanks to the wonders of developmental control nanites, Rylla is almost human in physical appearance.

Previously, I decided that Marda will have five siblings. Jytyr is the younger brother of Marda, born five years after Marda (shown as sibling 2 in the image to the left).

Thomas

At a young age, Marda becomes a writer, working with Rylla to transform the information that Rylla receives from Observer Base into components of the Exode Saga. I've previously depicted Thomas Iwedon as a precocious writer, growing up in the middle of the 20th century.

Ivory

Ivory Fersoni was from the next generation; she grew up in the era of the microelectronics revolution. Ivory was comfortable making a first draft on paper and then making an electronic version.

Marda

I'm imagining that Jytyr will be born in about 2025. Maybe Marda and Jytyr will be part of a generation that never makes use of paper or a keyboard.

From early during her embryonic development, Marda is telepathically linked to Amiante and Alexina, but Jytyr has no telepathic abilities. In about 2040, Rylla will give birth to a pair of twins (the Last Mind Clones) who will be part of a Mind Clone sub-network that includes the children of Alexina and Amiante at Observer Base.

source

I've previously mentioned oxypathin as an Asterothrope protein that is also present in some other human variants such as the tryp'At. I'm now imagining that Rylla inherited the ability to make oxypathin and some of her children will also have oxypathin receptors. But why stop there, with only one alien hormone? Why shouldn't Marda become the first Earthling to experience the effects of another brain-transforming Asterothrope hormone that can be transmitted from mother to child?

The Grendel Files

I've already depicted the very young Amiante as being interested in his mother's stories. Now I need to decide exactly how sophisticated Marda's linguistic skills might be at about age five.

 In the case of Thomas, he was linked to his mother's mind by twitino-mediated telepathy. All of the Mind Clones such as Marda are using the Bimanoid Interface for their technology-assisted telepathy.
Related Reading: frenchkissin

Next: Investigating how Asterothrope genes were brought to Earth 20,000 years ago.

Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers.

Visit the Gallery of Posters.

The Last Mind Clone

source

I'm usually the first one up during the small hours of a new day. Zeta has suggested that as a tryp'At, I don't have the normal human circadian rhythms. In any case, it was unusual for Zeta to awaken first. Then she shook me out of my sleep. "Wake up."

I sat up, disturbing two cats. I was still in the mental world of the dream I had been having. Or was it a dream? Maybe Yōd had been using our shared telepathic linkage to send me information while I slept? I muttered, "I'll take the blankets down..." My voice trailed off. I was thinking about Nora and Rylla.

Zeta placed a hand on my shoulder and asked in a puzzled voice, "Nora? Blankets?" Via my telepathic link to Zeta I could tell she was wondering: Down to Australia?

source

Finally pulling my mind back into the same universe where Zeta was residing, I explained, "You woke me out of a strange... dream, In my.... dream... Nora and her family were visiting us for the holidays. They were going to sleep in the basement."

Zeta tugged on my arm and I slipped back under the covers of our bed. We put our arms around each other and I was holding her tight with the hope that she could anchor me in Reality... my mind kept pulling me back to the alternate Reality of my dream. Zeta complained, "I would not make anyone sleep down there."

The Mind Clone Network

Ever since moving into our retirement home, we had not used the basement for day-to-day living. However, in my dream, things had changed... there was a two car garage down there (formerly three) and some rooms that we had re-constructed as bedrooms. There was still a small version of the formerly large room that Zeta had long used for gardening projects and as her pottery workshop. We had also shrunken down the recreation room, but it still had a pool table that could be converted into a ping-pong table. Additional rooms that had been long used for storage were now new bedrooms, but I'd rebuilt one small room into an office. In my dream, the utility room still included a sump pump (the house had been designed to survive a hundred year flood) and a newly installed second furnace so that the basement could be heated comfortably in winter. I pulled out of my thoughts about the dream and tried to focus on Zeta and the present. "Well, yes... under normal circumstances. But, on those occasions when the house will be full to overflowing, we will need to use the basement as a dormitory. In my dream, all of our children, grand children, great-grand children and the first great-great-grandchild were-"

Zeta interrupted, "Great-great-grand child?"

"Yes, Marda's first-born... a son, named Brak."

"Brak?" Zeta seemed dismayed by the name.

"Yes, Marda named her son Brak."

"Brak is a name? For a boy?" Zata shook her head with wonder. "What a crazy dream... Marda was born just a month ago!"

"Well, my dream was from the future."

Zeta asked, "In the future?"

"It seemed so real, I feel like it was a memory from the future." I've always felt that I had been allowed one time travel journey into the future, back in the era when time travel was still possible. My memories of that trip into the future have been edited, but occasionally I do recover stray memories from my future self.

Zeta was intrigued by the sudden arrival of family news from the future. "Marda's first-born?"

source

"Well, yes. Like Rylla, Marda became something of a baby factory. Her daughter Llyndella was the one who finally became -will become- famous for discovering sedronic matter."

Zeta giggled, "What kind of a name is Llyndella?"

I could not answer Zeta's question. Nor could I explain how I knew about Llyndella and her amazing discovery of the first sedron. "Anyhow, my dream was not about Llyndella... the dream took place before Llyndella was born."

Zeta whispered in my ear, "Tell me what happened."

For a few minutes, I tried to trace the threads of my dream memory back as far as possible. Just before awakening, I had been with Zeta, down in the basement, but it had really begun when...

______________

Rylla being observed by a Kac'hin.

I can sense the general moods of Rylla, even when she is on the other side of the planet. I knew that she was trying to get in contact with me. I turned on the holochat and there was Marda, in realistic 3D reconstruction, holding Brak at her breast. She called to her mother, "Here he is, now."

I said, "Good to see... you, Marda."

She pulled a little blanket across her chest so as to cover her breasts. "You don't have to ogle the breasts of little girls."

There was nothing little about Marda. I protested, "I do... if you put them right in front of the hololens."

Marda rolled her eyes, "Don't be so old-fashioned. In modern society men are expected to ignore women who nurse their babies."

Rylla came into range of the camera. All I could see of her was her torso as she stood behind Marda. With this view, I could see that she seemed to be pregnant again. Rylla said, "Hi, grampa."

I said, "Hi, Rylla. You are looking... great."

"Ya, I'm looking large. I was going to surprise you and Zeta with the news when we reach Arizona, but... hold on to your hat and brace for a surprise. Care to guess what the 'big' surprise is?" I was speechless; amazed that ten years after her third pregnancy, Rylla was pregnant again.

The last Mind Clones; a pair
of twins who function as part
of the MC4 subnet along with
the children of Alexina
and Amiante at Observer Base.

Marda jerked a thumb over her shoulder towards her mother and said, "It's twins."

I sputtered, "Wow! Again? That's... amazing."

Rylla said, "Tell me about it. And the way I'm swelling up, it might create a problem. Airlines don't want pregnant women on their flights."

I could sense that Rylla was very happy and excited to have two new babies on the way. "When is your due date?"

"The official projection says in March, but you know that I'm slow." She put her hand on Marda's shoulder, "It took me a year to make Marda and almost sixteen months to build Phrix and Alcia... that was 19 pounds of babies!" Rylla laughed. "I hope the two new ones don't try to break that record. Anyhow, I just sent you an email with our travel information. We'll be arriving late in the day, so we'll spend the first night in a hotel and drive to your place the next day."

"You know I don't mind picking you up at the airport."

"No, it is not practical. There will be six of us and your car is too small. We've got a rental van reserved, and besides, you have other guests arriving."

It was true. The whole family was going to gather for the holidays. I opened up Rylla's email and glanced through the contents. "So, your dad is not going to be able to escape the lab?"

Fru'wu

"Oh, of course he could, but this is prime sample collection season and he refuses to let his post-docs take over. So it will be just Nora and her three kids. They will be arriving from Montreal."

I knew that Nora's daughter Dysyn was attending the University of Montreal. "And my other two children and their families will be here, too. It will be a full house... 21 people and assorted cats and dogs."

"A real circus!" Rylla sighed. "You'll probably be too busy for work."

For Rylla, "work" meant work on her writing. Marda had become her key collaborator and they were both planning to consult with me during their visit concerning their latest work. "I've arranged for you to have the lower floor. We'll have a working office down there, isolated from distractions."

Marda complained, "Isolated? Next to the rec room and the pool table?"

"I've installed additional sound proofing in the walls of the office. Anyhow, what's wrong with the sound of children playing?"

source

Rylla replied, "Nothing at all. Thank you for accommodating us. Oh... and you'll be interesting to see a new story that Stacy recently found. It reveals some of the genetic tricks and techniques that were used by the Fru'wu and the Grendels."

I asked, "Why do you keep teasing me with these new discoveries?" For more than a year Rylla and Marda had been investigating a series of new revelations about the process of how human evolution had been shaped by alien Interventionists, but they had been reluctant to share the details with me. "Why not send a copy of this new story on to me now?"

"No, I can't do that." Rylla apologized, "There are problems."

Marda added, "Some of the contents of this story seem to be deliberately planted mis-information."

I asked, "Planted by who?"

Rylla explained, "If we knew that, our job would be easier. We are going to have to independently verify everything that we have extracted from the Writers Block, which means a large amount of leg work for Georgy inside the ER Simulator. It takes time to accomplish all this fact checking."

I could sense that Rylla was not being completely honest. "You two are hiding something from me."

source

Brak had fallen asleep and Marda got out of her chair, then moved out of camera range. Rylla sat down in front of the hololens. "I can tell you this much: the tryp'At are involved."

"Well, don't pretend like you need to protect me. I'm not that fragile. I'm willing to hear bad news about the tryp'At."

Rylla looked over her shoulder then whispered to me, "Marda does not trust you. She suspects that you are living on Earth in violation of the Pact."

source

I groaned. "Well, she may be right. However, so much time has passed... I've stopped worrying about the Pact."

"As have I, but Marda has a mind of her own. And she's worried about Brak..."

"There's a problem with Brak? Medical?"

"No, he is perfectly normal."

"So what is the problem?"

"Marda grew up in constant telepathic linkage to me. Marda expected that she would have that same kind of relationship with her first-born."

source

"That's silly. There were six Mind Clones and then that was the end of the telepaths."

"Rationally, Marda knows that. Emotionally, she wants to have a telepathic link to Brak."

Marda returned and stood beside Rylla. She added, "I can't stop wondering... maybe there will be no more Mind Clones allowed until the terms of the Pact are finally met."

I told Marda, "Look, I'd depart from Earth today if I thought my being here was a violation of the Pact."

Marda said, "No, you wouldn't. You'll never leave Zeta."

I persisted: "And she would go with me. Anyhow, you can't dismiss the other possibility... that telepathy just is not good for Earth."

Marda objected, "That's for we humans to decide!"

Rylla suggested, "We humans may lack the needed technology to craft a telepathic human." She reminded Marda, "Your telepathic powers may have been made possible through the action of developmental control nanites that shaped your embryonic brain. Maybe under the terms of the Pact, that alien technology is no longer allowed on Earth. Had you gotten your wish to produce a telepathic baby, that might have been a violation of the Pact."

Marda sputtered in exasperation, "Nonsense!" She turned and retreated out of camera range.

I told Rylla, "I can see that you are dealing with some tensions on your end, but I still wish you would be honest with me."

Rylla looked over her shoulder then opened up a text chat. THIS IS A SENSITIVE TOPIC FOR MARDA, SO DON'T DISCUSS THIS WITH HER. OKAY?

I replied: I DON'T LIKE KEEPING SECRETS.

Rylla: YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT. JUST TEL ME YOU WILL NOT UPSET MARDA.

Me: FINE. I'LL KEEP YOUR SECRET. SPILL IT.

Rylla: I'M NOT CERTAIN OF ANYTHING, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENING. IT MIGHT BE THE NEXT GENERATION OF MIND CLONES.

I glanced at Rylla's protruding abdomen. Foolishly I said, "You are in contact with the new twins?"

Rylla glared at me and typed: "SHUT UP! MARDA MIGHT HEAR. SHE ALREADY SUSPECTS. SHE'LL EVENTUALLY FIGURE IT OUT, BUT RIGHT NOW SHE IS TOO BITTER ABOUT NOT HAVING A TELEPATHIC LINK TO BRAK.

I asked: WHY NOT JUST TELL HER?

NOT UNTIL I KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. THIS GOES BEYOND ME. ALEX WILL SOON GIVE BIRTH TO HER TWINS AND THEN WE'LL KNOW

Again I could not restrain my surprise, "Alexina is carrying twins?"

"WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT UP? YES, ALEX IS CARRYING TWINS AND BOTH AMI AND ALEX ARE IN TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION WITH THE TWINS.

source

I was surprised, but then I remembered what I had been told long before, about Alex and Ami being less constrained than Earthlings. They might be living under a different set of rules and constraints in the Hierion Domain. I asked, "How long ago did you get this news from Alexina?"

Rylla was growing increasingly angry at my inability to not talk. I'LL SAY NO MORE. IT IS CLEAR THAT YOU CAN'T KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT.

"Rylla, you know me very well. It is my job to disseminate information, not obscure the truth."

"ALEX HAS TOLD ME NOTHING. I THINK ALEX AND AMI ARE TRYING TO KEEP SECRET WHAT IS GOING ON AT OBSERVER BASE. OF COURSE, THE MORE ALEX TRIES TO HIDE THE TRUTH, THE MORE I CAN SENSE THAT SHE IS HIDING SOMETHING FROM ME.

source

"This is exactly why none of us should keep secrets. It leads to suspicion and then the Network will fragment-"

"Well, nothing lasts forever. The current Network may have been designed to have a limited period of utility. We may be reaching the end. Our Network might disintegrate and-" Rylla continued in text: AND A NEW MIND CLONE NETWORK MIGHT TAKE OVER.

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME A HEADS-UP.

Rylla and I spoke for a while about travel details then our conversion ended. I got out of my chair, turned and saw Zeta. I blurted out, "Rylla is-"

Zeta could see in my mind what I was about to say. She said, "Well, now you know."

The Mind Clone Network

I asked, "You knew?"

"Of course. She told me as soon as she found out."

"And you did not tell me?" I was hurt. I like to imagine that Zeta tells me everything.

"She asked me not to tell you until she was certain about having a telepathic link to the embryos. Now she is certain and she told you herself."

I was puzzled by one thing. "And you have known that Alexina is in telepathic contact with her new twins, too?"

Zeta shook her head, "I only know what Rylla tells me."

"I don't like any of this secrecy. Why should anything change after Alexina's new babies are born?"

"Don't ask me. You had the chance to ask Rylla, but instead you pissed her off and she stopped talking to you. Good work."

"I'm too old to learn how to keep secrets."

"Don't worry about it. And don't mope. I need your help."

Book 2 of the Lost World trilogy

I looked at the stack of boxes that were near the door to the stairwell that leads down to the basement. We were going to have to house 11 guests in the basement during the holidays. Three new beds had just been delivered the day before and Zeta had ordered new bedding. She opened one of the boxes and pulled out a set of sheets then led the way down into the basement. I picked up several of the boxes and followed her down the stairs. Watching me from the bottom, she said, "Careful old man, I don't want to have to take you to the hospital."

I took my time going down the stairs. "Maybe we should have an elevator installed."

"Not a bad idea. Alternatively, we could move to Mars where the gravity is weaker and falls are not so tragic."

I asked, "Would you go to Mars with me?" I set down the boxes and helped Zeta put a set of sheets on one of the new beds.

inside Grendelkeep

Zeta replied, "Of course I would, but if your 'future memory' about Tez is correct-"

"There has never been any confirmation of the idea that I will depart from Earth without you."

Zeta nodded, "True, but you know I can't escape from the suspicion that you will eventually be re-united with either Alpha or Ivory... or both. I'd prefer not to be a witness to such a reunion."

Zeta had emptied the boxes and she ordered me to return upstairs for more. We continued making up the new beds and Zeta was making a list of things that she needed to buy for each of the downstairs bedrooms. I noticed that the last of the boxes did not contain bedding. It rattled when I tipped it. Zeta told me, "Oh, I almost forgot, that's the new towel rack for the new bathroom." Then she looked around the room. "We seem to be missing one more box. I know I bought a king-sized electric blanket for this bed. I don't want the baby getting cold."

Alpha Gohrlay

I told Zeta, "This was the last of the boxes from upstairs. Maybe the blanket did not get delivered with the other items yesterday afternoon."

I could not get excited about one missing blanket. Our preparations for the big family gathering were coming together. We'd just had one third of the downstairs garage converted into a second bathroom for the basement. Now we were in the middle of getting the last bed made up, but I opened the remaining box and looked at the instructions for the towel rack. I said, "You know, we should probably get another dryer to put into the laundry room."

Zeta laughed, "Or just hire a cleaning service! Are we insane, thinking we can feed and house 21 people for three weeks?"

"They won't all be here for the full three weeks and there will be many short trips to the Canyon, to the ski areas and elsewhere. We'll survive and it will be fun, if hectic." It had been too quiet in the house since our daughter had gone off to college.

Zeta and I spent some time puzzling over the instructions for the towel rack, which were terse. It was a large rack with an attached heating lamp. I gave up. "Ug, this does not look fun. I'll go online and find a video."

I put the instructions back in the box and Zeta resumed the process of making the bed. I turned back towards Zeta just as she fluttered the top sheet across the big bed. Zeta said, "Actually, now that I think about it there are two missing blankets. I got one for Nora's bed... she hates cold. And also, there were some towels that I ordered... oh, well... maybe they will be delivered today."

We were in the bedroom where we planned for Marda and Brak to sleep; it had a direct connection into a big adjoining bathroom with a tub. Rather than help tuck-in the sheet, I put my arms around Zeta and I said, "You know what would be fun..."

She leaned back against me and looked around the room. I could sense that she was worried: by putting in a bigger bed, there was not room for much else. Zeta was still thinking about getting a crib for Brak, even-though Marda had told us not to bother; she preferred to keep the baby in her bed, at her side. Zeta asked, "Do you ever feel sorry for Rylla and Marda?"

I was nibbling on her neck, but I knew what Zeta was thinking. Through some mysterious alien technology, Rylla was on her 4th pregnancy and Marda had gone through her first, all with no need for either of them to have had a sexual partner or even so much as a sperm donor. "Somehow, all of their babies were pre-planned and constructed. I guess we could say that Izhiun was the 'father' of both Marda and Brak."

Zeta turned around and we started to undress each-other. She complained, "Its cold down here."

I asked, "Do you want me to turn on the basement heating system?"

"I'm not hot enough for you?"

"Oh, you are nice to look at, but that only gives me more goosebumps."

She jumped onto the bed. "Well, get moving, old man. Throw that blanket over me." We got moving under the blanket and soon we were plenty warm. After our little work out, we lay there relaxing, but the bed was in total disarray, with my feet not covered by the blanket. I complained, "My feet are getting cold."

"Your legs are too long."

Then we heard Tihri coming down the stairs and calling, "Mom? Dad? Are you down here?"

Zeta popped off the bed and pulled on her skirt. She handed me a bundle of my clothes and pushed me into the adjoining bathroom where I started dressing. I could hear Tihri say to Zeta, "Really? I suppose you two have to try out every new bed in the house... You're pushing 80, Mom... don't you ever intend to stop acting like a horny teenager?"

Zeta was getting dressed. She put on her bra and then pulled on her shirt. "Why shouldn't we check on the new beds? Do you want a guest making a nasty discovery... such as a broken spring..."

Tihri said, "Well, speaking of guests, Greg just asked me if there might be room here for one more. His brother has no place to go for the holidays."

Now dressed, I came out of the bathroom and asked, "Another guest? I suppose he could sleep on the fold-out couch upstairs."

Zeta suggested, "Or he could use the second bed that we put into the fourth upstairs bedroom."

I asked, "I thought that was already the plan for Greg, or am I confused?"

Zeta explained, "No, that was the plan, last week."

Tihri added, "Dad, things are moving along with Greg and I. He'll sleep with me in my room."

I looked at Zeta, "You were not going to tell me about this?"

Zeta replied, "You are rather old-fashioned. I was not sure how you would feel about it. I figured that once the house started filling up, you'd never notice where Greg slept."

I asked Tihri, "So you really like Greg?"

"I'm in love with him, Dad. We want to spend the rest of our lives together."

Original cover art by
Reginald Heade and John Healey

From my perspective, that was moving along fast; this was big news. The last I had heard, Greg was just a fellow student that Tihri had recently met. I'd been told that they were planning to do a lot of skiing together during the holidays. Apparently they had recently discovered a different recreation that they both enjoyed sharing. Fatalistically, I said, "Everything happens for a reason." Thinking about Marda and Brak, I wondered if maybe Tihri was pregnant, but Zeta told me: No, not yet. My thoughts shifted to Rylla and the other big news of the day; her gestating twins. I wondered if they might be the last Mind Clones who would ever be born on Earth.

Tihri was returning upstairs. She turned and told us, "Oh, some more boxes were just delivered by a flying drone. They are upstairs by the front door."

That was when Zeta woke me out of the "dream".

Next: Rylla's second-born, Jytyr.

Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers.