Destiny of Petra

Foundation Films Trilogy

I just completed a 50,000 word science fiction adventure set in the Ekcolir Reality. That story is divided into three linked parts, "Terminus Planet", "Time of Theurgency" and "Foundation Reality Simulator". For convenience, I'm going to refer to these stories as the Foundation Films Trilogy (FFT). In the alternate timeline of the Ekcolir Reality, Isaac Asimov's Foundation saga was brought to the big screen mostly through the persistent conniving of Marcia Greenberg and the script writing of Ariel Adler (and with a little help from the human-fain hybrid, Richella Pohl).

I previously explained the origins of Ariel. Here in this blog post, I want to account for two other characters in the Foundation Films Trilogy: Petra Nicholls and Gina Hay. I also want to speculate on the future life of Petra, in times beyond the end of FFT.

Petra is not the youngest character in the Foundation Films Trilogy. Leira is only 13, but she is a minor character in the story. Petra is the star of "Foundation Reality Simulator". At the start of the story she is only 15, but by the end of the story she is 16 years old and ready to marry Sven.

Why does she want to get married? Petra is scheming with the other Asimov (who lives in the Hierion Domain) to try using the Bimanoid Interface to establish a two-way telepathic link to her replicoid. So far, Sven has helped Petra use a hierion probe to alter the function of her femtobot endosymbiont and allow her to telepathically communicate with the analogue of Asimov at the Writers Block. This was fairly easy to accomplish because Grean had Petra designed as a mind clone of that version of Asimov (called O.A. in the story, "other Asimov").

image source

Replicoids (residing in the Hierion Domain) are designed to make use of the Bimanoid Interface to connect with a person on Earth. Via that link, replicoids control the behavior of humans, creating the Momentum of Time. A design feature of the Bimanoid Interface is to prevent Earthlings from ever being aware that they are linked to their replicoid and are not actually free to control their own behavior.

The image to the left illustrates the mind clone network (MC1) that is made possible by Petra's special brain. She can synchronize her mind with O.A. and then he can use telepathy to tell her what he has discovered by using the Foundation Reality Simulator.

The version of Isaac Asimov living in the Ekcolir Reality has significant differences from the other Asimov, so although Petra can telepathically link to Isaac when they meet on Earth and the strength of that connection is boosted by the hierion probe, Petra is not as strongly linked to Isaac as she is to O.A.

Baby Sven with Svahr.

There are two other telepathic connections for Petra that are revealed in the story. First, as illustrated in the "map" for MC1 and MC2, Petra and Gina were designed as mind clones who have part of their brain micro-structure in common with each-other. Petra and Gina share a weak telepathic connection which allowed Gina to "pick Petra out of the crowd" and recruit her to help create the Foundation for Science Fiction.

Also, Petra has another kind of telepathic link to Sven. As a human-fain hybrid, Sven was designed by Grean so that he would be able to telepathically connect to Petra and induce her to trust him. Sven's parents are Isaac Asimov and Marcia Greenberg, but his genome was artificially crafted and includes some useful fain gene combinations that influence his unusual telepathic abilities.

                                                  In the Ekcolir Reality

Petra and Sven

I'm imagining that the image to the left depicts Petra and Sven after they get married and when they are setting up a new hierion probe research facility in their home. By this point, Petra has discovered how to constantly maintain a telepathic link to her replicoid who is now a resident of the Writers Block.

We don't know much about Petra's parents. Petra has been told that she is the child of Peter Nicholls, but she never really knew her biological father and mother (Kate). In the Final Reality, Peter Nicholls was involved with the Science Fiction Foundation in England and he lived until 2018. For this reason, I depict Petra as living in Scotland and helping to create the Foundation for Science Fiction.

image source

In the Ekcolir Reality, Peter was teleported to Observer Base in 1959 along with Kate. After the disappearance of her parents from Earth, Petra was adopted by another family.

What goes into making a mind clone like Petra? I'm going to imagine that Petra's mother must have been one of Grean's operatives on Earth and possibly a tryp'At or an Ek'col or some other human variant who could make sure that during fetal development Petra's brain formed a connectome similar to that of O.A.

With a brain structure similar to that of O.A., Petra was eventually able to have a robust telepathic connection to him, making it possible for her to learn everything he knew about the Foundation Reality.

Television in the Ekcolir Reality.

Inserted into the webpages of  the Foundation Films Trilogy are many images depicting stories from the future. These books, movies and stories published in magazines (and one television show, Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure) are examples of how information obtained from the Foundation Reality Simulator and the residents of the Writers Block (many of whom originated in the Asimov Reality) will be presented to the people of Earth, all with the goal of helping limit the damage done by rapid adoption and application of Fru'wu advanced technology.

Asimov's Science Fiction Adventure specialized in converting short stories (previously published in magazines) into television programs. One gimmick was to use story authors as actors. There's Gina (above) who had a part in the episode called "Enigma of the Fru'wu".

Foundation Reality Simulator

image source

 I've struggled with how to visually depict the idea of someone like O.A. or Relda going into the Foundation Reality Simulator. In my imagination, that is accomplished by a process similar to teleportation, but the individual is converted into a type of artificial life process that can take its place inside the virtual reality of the Simulator. The simulation runs on some fantastic quantum computer in the Sedronic Domain. While O.A. is "inside the Simulator", Petra can't easily maintain her telepathic connection to him because his mind is in a new, altered form. However, O.A. can pop himself out of the Simulator and then report what he has learned to Petra.

I'm thinking that after Petra's replicoid adjusts to "life" in the Writers Block, she will take over the task of going on information-seeking missions inside the various Reality Simulators in Eternity. Maybe the replicoid will be able to more efficiently transmit its thoughts to Petra from within a Simulator.

                                     Hermaphrodites

retro-future fiction

Grean and Leira are the two characters in the Foundation Films Trilogy who are described as being hermaphrodites.

It is implied that Trysta and Grean were, at some time in the past, romantically involved as lovers. Not explicitly depicted in the text of the story, Leira impregnates Gertrude while they are living in the Hierion Domain. This comes about as part of the process by which Relda "instructs" Gertrude on how to deal with human males. The child of Leira and Gertrude is Piero, who eventually becomes important in the life of Gina Hay.

In the Foundation Films Trilogy, there is mention of fain agents on Terminus. These are human-fain hybrids, created by the fain remnant artificial life form, possibly with help from the pek. In the story "Invasion of the Telepathic Hermaphrodites", it is revealed that some of the fain agents on Terminus were hermaphrodites.

Petra Nicholls and Gina Hay.

What About Gina?
Besides Petra, the other mind clone in the Foundation Films Trilogy is Gina. There is a delay in getting Gina linked into the Bimanoid Interface so that she can begin to telepathically communicate with Relda in the Hierion Domain. The story ("Foundation Reality Simulator") ends just a few minutes into what will be a new life for Gina living with Piero. Earlier in the story, it is suggested that Gina's sexual preferences lean towards other women. It is also suggested that Piero has some unusual anatomical features due to his fain gene combinations. The fain were simultaneous hermaphrodites, so one might speculate that Piero could have a vagina. Someday we might receive a report on that from Gina.

cover art by Stephen Youll

Are you positronic about that?
One last issue in the Foundation Films Trilogy is the fact that a positronic robot (Dani) is on Earth even after the Trysta-Grean Pact has gone into effect. Technically, no positronic robots should still be deployed on Earth. However, Grean has allowed this "violation" because Ariel needs some special care. We can wonder: how did Dani win Ariel's heart? As is also the case for Wendy, Dani routinely does not allow the humans around him to realize that he has telepathic abilities. Ariel knows that Dani is a robot and I assume that Ariel also knows about his telepathic abilities, although I also assume that Ariel and Dani almost always speak to each other rather than communicate telepathically. I also assume that without her knowledge, Dani has altered Ariel's emotions and thought patterns in order to cause her to fall in love with him.

New in September.

Related Reading: coming in September... "The Synpaz of Seelie", the continuing adventures of Petra Nicholls and her replicoid, Artep. One of the special communities in Eternity is Seelie, home of the synpaz. The synpaz originated long ago when a means was needed to guide and influence the behavior of Earthlings in the era before literacy and science. R. Nyrtia created the synpaz Interventionists as her agents on Earth. The original synpaz were constructed at one tenth normal human scale, leading to legends of "little people" in many ancient cultures of Earth.

negative mass

Enthralled by the ability of the synpaz to fly (see anti-gravity), upon being instantiated in Eternity, Artep chooses to be equipped with a body constructed at the synpaz size scale. Unfortunately, Artep has trouble fitting in with the human-alien hybrids of Seelie Town, so she develops the habit of "haunting" the homes of various writers who live in the Writers Block.

Next: X-File 1998

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers