The FR Simulator

In the Ekcolir Reality (above).
In another Reality: Frank Paul vs Saunders.

This blog post holds the middle third of a science fiction story called "Foundation Reality Simulator". In the first third of the story, Isaac Asimov, after noticing a type of weak telepathic link to a young girl, recruited Petra Nicholls for an experiment in his research laboratory.

Petra's brain

Below, in parts 5-7 of the story, Petra becomes the test subject for experiments with a hierion probe. Isaac Asimov's son, Sven, explores how the probe's hierion beam can shift Petra's brain into a new pattern of activity, allowing her to attain two-way telepathic contact with someone in the Writers Block, inside the Hierion Domain.

5. Probe. (read parts 1 - 4)
The first test of the hierion probe on Petra was at the lowest power level. The probe was a modified, low power version of the Fru'wu designed equipment that was already being used to transmit energy to Earth from solar collectors in outer space.

source

The plan was to collect prodigious amounts of solar energy on Mercury and use a hierion beam to send the energy to a receiver station on Earth. According to the plan of the Fru'wu, once that project was completed, it would meet all of Earth's energy needs.

Isaac said, "Let's try for a five minute run, but if anything strange happens, I'll hit the kill switch." Sven was running the experiment, but as defined in the experimental protocol, Isaac had a cut-off switch that could instantly shut off the flow of hierions emitted from the probe.

The equipment was ready, including the large data storage disks of the UltraServe. Sven looked up and asked Petra, "Sure you don't want to chicken out?" He was smiling when he said it.

Petra was looking a bit frightened with the complex electrode array strapped to her head. She smiled at Sven and took a deep breath. "Let's do this." Petra also wore a microphone and everything that she said was automatically transcribed by a voice recognition system and recorded on the computer system.

Sven pressed a key on his keyboard and the experiment began. There was no sound or light from the probe, but a hierion detector registered the increased intensity of hierions passing through the girl's head. Petra started answering the questions that automatically appeared on the screen in front of her.

Q. How do you feel?

A: Like a lab rat.

Q. Any confusion or cognitive impairment?

A: My thoughts seem clear, like a noetic diamond.

Q. Any changes in sensory perception?

A: Three feels like ten. Ten feels like...

Q. Can you move your arms and legs?

A:

Q. Can you remember your first day of school?

A:

Sven was fascinated by the changes he was seeing in the brain wave data being generated by the voltage signals going into the computer from all of the electrodes that were attached to Petra' head. He glanced at Petra and realized that she was no longer responding to the prompts. "Dad, cut the run!"

Isaac was also not responding. He seemed to be watching Petra, but his eyes were wide and unblinking. Sven typed in the abort code and cut off the flow of hierions from the probe. He jumped out of his chair and rushed to Petra. In a few seconds he had the electrode array yanked off of her head. She murmured, "...low power, but we can boost..."

Isaac asked, "What's going on?"

Sven looked over his shoulder at his father. "You spaced out. I stopped the experiment."

Petra grabbed hold of Sven. "It worked. Just like you said!"

"It didn't work. You lost consciousness. I was scared out of my wits..."

"My consciousness got... stretched... expanded. I was linked into the Writers Block!"

Sven nervously said, "Slow down! Tell me what you saw."

Isaac nodded and whispered, "I saw it. Through her... mind..."
____________

Extracted from one Reality and
taken into a new Reality.

Later, Marcia came into the room and told Isaac, "Time to go."

He said, "I'm not going."

Marcia looked at the three pale faces before her. She had not expected any results from the first experiment. "What happened?"

Sven said, "We're still sorting it out. Dad, you might as well go sell books and movies... life must go on. I need to process the brainwave data. And... she seems just fine, but I think Petra should go see a physician."

Marcia repeated, "What happened? Is she alright?"

Petra stood up and approached Marcia. "I'm fine." She had no interest in going to see a doctor. "I just got a little excited during the first run."

Marcia picked up the phone and spoke to the front desk. "Can you give me the number for a nearby neurologist?" She listened to the reply. "Yes, thank you."

After a few seconds, Marcia continued, "I need an emergency appointment for... my niece." She listened for a minute. "Then who might be available today? Teaching hospital? Thank you." Marcia ended the phone call and took hold of Petra's hand, "Come on. We're going to the hospital." She told Isaac, "You might as well go to the book signing. It is too late to cancel... people are already waiting for you! We can share an aircar." Marcia, Petra and Isaac were quickly out the door.

Suddenly the room was quiet and Sven felt like he should have gone with Petra, but he was irresistibly drawn to the computer and the data that had been collected from Petra's brain. He sat down and began sifting through the strange brain activity patterns that had been triggered by the hierion probe.

The Last Replicoid

6. Another Asimov.
Three weeks later, they were in the N.Y.U. laboratory and ready to try a new experiment. During the European tour, they had tried gradually boosting the probe's hierion output, but they had not been able to improve on the results obtained in the first experiment.

Petra felt certain about one thing: that first day she had made telepathic contact with her replicoid in the Hierion Domain. Isaac felt that he had somehow been a witness to that telepathic contact, but he was uncertain who had been telepathically contacted in the Hierion Domain. All he could say was, "I think Petra was linked to me and I could also sense that she was connected to someone else."

Petra admitted that she had some kind of telepathic resonance with Isaac, but that was mostly at a level below her conscious awareness.

Subsequent experiments with the probe also clearly altered her brain activity pattern, but she never again felt like she was in a shared mental space with her replicoid.

In advance of starting a new series of experiments in the New England lab, Gina had flown to New York and was holding Petra's hand. Marcia had also insisted on being present for the next experiment. She was impatiently waiting for Sven to switch on the hierion beam.

Isaac told Marcia, "Relax, dear. This time the probe power setting will be half of what we used in the very first experiment." Marcia was too nervous to sit still so she was standing beside Isaac and twitching her hands rhythmically.

Sven had built an entirely new hierion probe that could operate at lower power levels than the original probe. His justification was simple: "Maybe less is more." If experiments done in Europe with higher power were unsuccessful, then why not try lower hierion beam intensities?

Sven announced, "Five seconds."

The seconds passed with agonizing slowness then there was a little beep and probe activated. On the display screen in front of Petra, the routine questions began to appear.

Q. How do you feel?

A: This is it!

Q. Any confusion or cognitive impairment?

A:

The questions continued to appear on the screen, but neither Petra or Isaac were there. Gina was looking right into Petra's eyes and now she said, "She switched off, like a dead light-bulb!"

Sven was watching the brain activity data. "Her brain pattern is fine. Based on the brain data, I'd say she's talking to someone."

Marcia, leaning close to her husband, said, "Isaac is mumbling something about... the Foundation... I can't make it out."

Sven checked the time. They were only thirty seconds into the planned five minute experiment. "I'm taking the hierion flux down another notch." He thought that Petra's pattern of brain activity suddenly became more robust. He was torn between stopping the experiment and shifting down to even lower power.

Petra said, "Hold it here, Sven. This is good. Give me time to..." She had spoken in a whisper through nearly motionless lips. She looked frozen and stiff.

Gina told Sven, "I can't stand to see her like this. Cut it!"

Sven reached out and placed a hand on Gina's arm, "She's doing fine. Give it two more minutes."

After another minute Gina shouted, "Enough! That's enough!"

Petra lifted a hand and took hold of one of Gina's hands. "I'm fine. I was wrong... not my replicoid... I'm talking to an Asimov...."

Gina, Marcia and Sven all looked at Isaac. He croaked, "The other Asimov."

Marcia asked, "Another Asimov? A replicoid?"

Gina moaned, "This is so unfair. Abusing a little girl..."

Sven watched the incoming data. It looked like Petra's brain was operating at a higher activity level than usual, but otherwise all seemed normal. Maybe the temporal lobes were starting to show some abnormal spikes? Again his hand clutched at the kill switch. Gina kept darting him killer glances and he began hating himself for experimenting on Petra.

At the five minute point, the probe was automatically inactivated. Both Petra and Isaac smoothly emerged from the trance-like state they had been in. Petra told Sven, "You were right again. Less is more. Your probe shut off the femtobot throttle that normally prevents me from using the Bimanoid Interface in 'send' mode. I just had a perfectly coherent telepathic conversation with the copy of Isaac who works at the Writers Block."

Isaac added, "He's not really me. He's my analogue. From the previous Reality."

Petra nodded. "And he agreed to work with me. He has access to everything... everything I want to know..." She fell silent, her eyes wide and fixed with amazement.

Sven got up and moved away from the computer equipment. He pulled the electrodes off of Petra and wrapped his arms around her. "Everything?"

Petra was trembling with excitement. She sighed and rested her head against Sven's shoulder. "The other Asimov has access to a Reality Simulator. He can view everything from the Foundation Reality. It is all there... waiting. And the other Asimov can send it to me. I'm his mind clone."

Isaac muttered, "According to the other Asimov, all my stories about the Foundation are based on fact. In a past Reality, there really was a Foundation."

________________

Nicotiana Endosymbionts

A month later, Sven and Petra were back at it, with the hierion probe ready and aimed at her head. They had learned how to precisely modulate the activity of her femtobot endosymbiont and switch on her conscious control of the Bimanoid Interface. They were waiting for the arrival of the next pre-arranged time to link Petra to the Asimov analogue in the Hierion Domain.

Sven wanted to capture her brain activity data, so he tried asking one more time: "Please, dear, let's hook up the electrodes-"

Petra stubbornly shook her head. "No. We don't need them."

"I feel useless without them attached! Why give up the opportunity of allowing me to know that your brain is functioning-" He fell silent. He wanted to say "functioning normally" but he knew that her brain pattern changed when she was freed from her endosymbiont's constraints. What was 'normal'?

"Relax, Sven. You're making me nervous." She kissed his cheek, just for comfort. "I need you here beside me. Your mind is like an anchor for me in this domain. With you at my side, I know that everything will be fine."

Sven was very nervous. What they were doing was not part of the IRB approved protocols. Officially, they were on hiatus while the Review Board examined the brain activity data that had so far been collected from Petra. Isaac was under pressure to try the probe on additional test subjects. Gina wanted Petra back in Scotland and working on Foundation business and she wanted her NOW.

At the pre-programmed time, the probe activated and Petra squeezed his hand, letting Sven know that she was doing well. Her mind was gracefully merged with that of the Asimov analogue in the Hierion Domain.

The other Asimov told Petra: This is the Simulator.

She could "see" a blurry image in her mind that partially replicated what Asimov was looking at. He was standing near a complex piece of equipment. Petra asked: And it can take you to all places and all times in the Foundation Reality?

Asimov explained: There are limits. The data for this simulation come from the sedron webs that are maintained by the pek. Not all parts of the universe are covered.

Petra said: There is someone there with you. 

I'm not going into the Simulator all by myself. This is another resident of the Hierion Domain who I believe you know. Relda.

Yes, I met Relda once, when she was on Earth.

Asimov asked: So, where would you like to go?

Petra had not wavered in her thinking. I'd really like to see how the fain first made contact with humans.

Asimov nodded. I got a tip about that from Deomede. So, I've set the controls for Terminus, just 40 years after the start of the Foundation...

Reality Simulation

7. The Simulator.
Petra discovered that she was able to retain a weak telepathic connection to the other Asimov while he was using the Foundation Reality Simulator, but it was hard work and after a half hour she gave up. She whispered to Sven, "Off. Shut it off."

He quickly inactivated the hierion probe and for five minutes he simply held Petra in her arms. Recovering her sense of solidity, she asked for water, which she guzzled then she said, "That was interesting. I don't really understand how it is possible, but O.A. has gone inside the Reality Simulator."

Petra and Sven had started referring to the other Asimov in the Hierion Domain as "O.A." As a mind clone designed to telepathically connect to O.A., Petra also had a fairly strong telepathic connection to Isaac Asimov in the Ekcolir Reality and a lesser link to Sven. Sven asked, "You did not lose your connection to him when he went into the Simulator?"

"I tried to stay connected, but there is some kind of shift in his mind pattern when he is using the Simulator. I got tired of trying to stay linked to O.A. and I finally gave up, but he was on Terminus! When he returns, I'll learn what he found out about the fain and how they first met humans."

Stars End

Sven was struggling to recall what he had long ago read in the Foundations stories of his father. Those old memories had been partially obscured by having seen the Foundation movies and other films that told stories set in the Foundation fictional universe. Sven was struggling to accept that there had been a previous Reality in which the Foundation had actually existed. "I don't remember there being aliens in my father's stories about the Foundation."

Petra giggled. "Isn't that strange? But I saw this much. There was an archeological dig on Terminus, and an on-going investigation of ruins left behind by an alien civilization."

"So, these aliens were gone, extinct, long before humans spread through the galaxy?"

Petra shrugged. "For years I have been writing out my version of that history. I've always felt that the fain were an ancient species that may have explored our galaxy long before humans existed."

"That is a fun idea for science fiction, but I'd like to see evidence."

"If we get lucky, O.A. will find physical evidence that aliens were once on Terminus."

Sven looked at his watch. "Okay, it is still early. We need to work on our cover story."

Petra shook her head. "I'm not sure it is worth trying to hide the truth from your father. The telepathic connection that he and I share keeps getting more and more stable. For now I can prevent my thoughts from leaking to him, but I fear that soon he will have the power to read my mind."

Sven took a deep breath. "I hate lying to him, but he's in a tight corner with the Research Board breathing down his neck."

Petra suggested, "I should go back to Perth."

Sven looked at her with dismay. "My heart just stopped beating."

Petra took one of his hands in hers. "Sven, I'm falling in love with you. No! Just listen to me. I care about you. I can't put your career at risk. Just give me one of the probes so that I can maintain my contacts with O.A."

"It is too dangerous. Just now... you were so zoned-out. You can't risk any of these telepathy sessions on your own."

"I'll get help from Gina or someone else in Perth. Really, you are not an indispensable part of the process. And you need to move on... start working with other test subjects."

"I know you are right, dear, but I don't want you to go. I'm far past falling for you. I'm smitten."

"I'm too young for you, Sven. A year from now you will have forgotten about me and moved on to a busy career. Just think of your fame once word spreads that you can connect people to the Hierion Domain."

Sven speculated, "The kind of results we've obtained might only work for rare individuals like you who are mind clones. And I'm not sure that I can even publish your results. Think of the unwanted attention you would receive if I told the world about your special brain."

"It will be for you and your father to sort through the maze of the publication ethics. When I'm in Scotland, we'll stay in touch. Maybe in six months things will cool down and you will be able to visit me in Perth."

"If you insist on returning to Europe then I think I should go with you. I'll take a leave of absence... pause my Ph.D. work..."

"Don't be silly. Nobody walks away from a Nobel prize." Petra stood up. "Goodby."

He looked away. Sven quietly said, "Goodby." When he turned his head again, she was gone. She had taken the low power probe.

________________

When Petra returned home she had to spend a lot of time explaining to her foster parents why she had been away from home for so long. It was almost a week before she dared arrange to use the probe again.

She had started working each day in the new offices of the Foundation for Science Fiction. Gina was very busy and often out of town on business, so Petra centered her attention on the new secretary of the Foundation, Ian Mott. On an evening when her parents were going out to see a movie, Petra invited Mott to dinner and then brought him back to her home.

He objected, "Your parent's are out?"

"They'll be home soon. We don't have much time."

She was pulling him up the stairs. "Don't be a mule. I have something to show you... up in my room."

"Petra, you're a cute kid, but I already have a girl and..."

"Just shut up, Ian. I'm not going to molest you. Please, help me out. I need your help, or this might not be safe. I promised Sven to get help..."

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

They went into Petra's room and she showed him the hierion probe. "I'm going to turn this device on and for a while I'll be in communication with... Look, I'll explain as much as you like, tomorrow. For now, just be here with me. If something goes wrong, turn off the probe." She carefully positioned herself in front of the probe and then activated it. "Just sit quietly while I...."

Ian was alarmed by the way her eyes turned up in their sockets, but when he reached to turn off the probe, Petra reached out and grabbed his arm. "Don't interrupt. I'm getting a report from..."

Ian waited. The minutes seemed to move past at a terribly slow pace. He started sweating. Eventually, he heard Petra's parents downstairs. Imagining that Petra was in no immediate danger, he resisted the temptation to pull the plug on the probe. Petra's mother called through the door. "We're home, dear."

Petra called out, "How was the movie?"

"Just fine. I'll tell you all about it in the morning. Sweet dreams."

It was another half hour of squirming for Ian, then Petra finally turned off the probe. For five minutes Petra scribbled notes in a notebook then she turned to Ian. She whispered "Thank you so much! That worked out perfectly. Now, to get you out of here..."

She went into her closet and came out with a coil of rope. She went to the window and opened it. Petra tied one end of the rope to the big old-fashioned radiator and threw the other end out into the back yard. "Do you think you climb down without making too much noise?"

Before climbing out the window, Ian stood with his hands on the rope, looking at Petra. "You owe me big. I want a complete explanation for this silliness, tomorrow at work...." He tightened his hold on the rope and with some undignified grunting, exited through the window and disappeared into the night.

The other Asimov's investigations on Terminus had made some progress, but then seemed to run into a dead end. The other Asimov suspected that there was some sort of cover-up: someone had tried to obscure evidence that aliens had once lived on Terminus.

After thinking about her available options for half an hour, Petra turned on her computer and sent a short report to Sven, writing in a kind of terse coded shorthand that she hoped would be meaningless to anyone but Sven. The email read:

Dearest Sven-
Progress extracting information from the Simulator is slow. I am in good health and I trust you are both healthy and happily making progress towards the P H D. Please let me know if you will be able to visit Perth. June is a wonderful time... I want to take you to the highlands for a little vacation.
With Love, Petra

She sent a longer email to Isaac Asimov:

Dear Isaac-
I'm sorry that I had to drop out of the research study. I was away from my work for a long as was practical. I'm committed to the Foundation for Science Fiction and I'm sure that you will have plenty of other test subjects for your research.

Thank you for your exhaustive notes on my story about the origins of positronic robot telepathy in the Foundation Reality. Your instincts are sound and I am going to make major revisions. I hope you will detect great improvements in my second draft.
Your grateful student in writing, Petra

During the next few months, Petra devoted much thought to the idea that she needed to distance herself from the startling revelations about the fain that she was receiving from O.A. First, she thought about using a pen name to publish what she had learned about events in the Foundation Reality. At work, she was slowly recruiting writers into the growing community of Foundation-funded artists and she wondered if one of them might be recruited to tell her tale.

One day, while using the Bimanoid Interface, she mentioned the nature and challenges of her work to O.A. He suggested: You know, I can bring the replicoids of your writers into the Writers Block.

Petra asked: What do you mean?

If the replicoid was here, in the Block, then I could feed the story of  fain-human first contact to the replicoid and then the story would get relayed to your writer on Earth. Apparently Relda is trying to set up a similar communications channel through Gina. That effort is not going well for two reasons. First, Gina is busy. Second, Gina is resisting the idea of bombarding her brain with a beam of hierions. 

Petra said: It is up to you and me.

The other Asimov agreed. Between the two of us, me at this end and you on Earth, we could probably ghost write anything. The credit would go to the writer on your staff, but there would be no clear link back to you as the source. You would avoid unwanted scrutiny.

image source

Petra suggested: I just gave an advance to a new Foundation author, Sydney J. I like her writing... she recently published a novel about alien archeology on an exoplanet and she would be a good choice to task with writing a novel about the fain.

A.O. asked for more information about Sydney J.

She's rather secretive. I have not been able to figure out her real name or where she lives. Petra provided A.O. with everything she knew about Sydney.

After a minute, A.O. said: I found her. He had access to the automated system that recorded all events taking place on Earth. I'll pull her replicoid into the Block and we'll see how it goes. What is the name of the novel you want Sydney to write?

Petra suggested: Maybe it should be "Robots of the Fain".

Next: the story continues... a positronic robot on Terminus

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