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

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