Ending the Ekcolir Reality

This image (above) was made using
"Pat the cat" by Cathleen Tarawhiti.
See the image credits at DeviantArt.
 CC BY 3.0

Here on this page is a new science fantasy story called "Final Change" which explains how some of Grean's helpers from the Ekcolir Reality were brought into the Final Reality.

Artep has recently been instantiated inside the Hierion Domain as an artificial lifeform, a synpaz. The synpaz are about one tenth the size of humans. Grean needs to make use of Artep to extract the replicoid of Joanna MacDonald from High Seelie.

in High Seelie

The events of "Final Change" begin soon after the end of "The Synpaz of Seelie". "Final Change" can be read as a stand-alone short story, but in order to fully appreciate what is happening, it is probably best for readers to first look through the previous stories of the Grean's Hack series.

______  Final Change   _________

1973
1. Grean's Plan

path to the Final Reality

Artep awoke inside Isaac and Mary's home in the Writers Block. Upon waking, she immediately drifted upward out of her chair, enjoying the sensation of flight. She was thinking about her parents and nanites. Artep reminded herself that she was not really Kate's daughter; she was no longer a biological entity, just a simulated person. An artificial little person, composed of nanites.

She looked down at her small chair where it rested on the coffee table. That item of synpaz-sized furniture was Mary's way of making Artep feel welcomed. Welcomed or not in the Writers Block, it didn't really matter to Artep. She shared Petra's commitment to exploring the human capacity to make use of the Bimanoid Interface for technology-assisted telepathy. The only matter weighing on Artep's mind was the fact that she was now physically separated from Sven and totally dependent on her telepathic link to Petra for help in weaning herself from her addiction to his loving presence.

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The apartment was quiet, but Artep could sense Asimov's mind. As she slowly drifted and turned, Artep caught site of Grean out of the corner of her eye. Whirling quickly and then staring in dismay, Artep asked stupidly, "Grean?"

Grean said cheerfully, "Good morning, Artep."

"What are you doing here?" Artep flew over and landed on the couch beside Grean. Then she added a belated, "Good morning."

Grean giggled merrily and replied, "Oh, the usual."

Reminded of how she had met Grean the previous day, Artep thought about how Grean had appeared exactly at the moment when Naj flew off to play aeroball. Then Artep began thinking about Quen and her intriguing sy'Paz anatomy.

Both Grean the Kac'hin and the sy'Paz were simultaneous hermaphrodites. They had the general appearance of human females, but they contained carefully selected collections of alien genes. Within minutes of meeting Artep, both Grean and Quen had shown her that they had a penis.

Every time she thought about Quen, Artep fantasized about what it might feel like to have a fur-covered penis inside her.

Having existed as a synpaz replicoid for just a few days, Artep was still adjusting to her new "life". Unable to push the image of Quen's furry penis out of her thoughts, Artep admitted to herself that she would not be able to resist equipping herself with that part of the standard synpaz anatomy. She told herself: Well, a penis, but without the fur. Rousing herself out of her growing erotic fantasy, Artep asked Grean, "You are here to protect me?"

"Yes, that is correct."

a story from the Writers Block

Upon waking and feeling the whispered sensation of Isaac's mind and the subtle sensation of his subconscious thoughts mingling with hers, Artep had begun to think about going down the hallway to find him. Her best guess, based on the faint telepathic signals that Artep could detect from Asimov, was that he was awake and writing. For the hundredth time in the past day, Artep wondered why she did not have a stronger telepathic connection to Isaac. That was only one of the many mysteries concerning telepathy. She told Grean, "I feel safe here with Mary and Isaac."

"You are. They will take good care of you. Azynov was tempted to instantiate you at full size, but I was able to over-ride that impulse and all is well."

"Azynov?"

Grean apologized, "Sorry, that is how I think of the copy of Asimov who works here in the Block... to avoid confusion with the copy of Asimov who is on Earth."

Artep asked, "Why does the size of my body matter?"

"As a synpaz, you will be able to accomplish tasks that a full-sized replicoid can't do." Grean could not elaborate further on the nature of those "tasks" due to an impinging Temporal Paradox. Grean knew that she had to slowly build up Artep's knowledge of the Hierion Domain so as not to overwhelm the poor girl's capacity to adjust to changes. Using her advanced Reality Viewing equipment, Grean had seen the pleasant future that awaited Artep, a future in which Artep became a welcomed addition to Isaac and Mary's household. Grean did not mention the other future which she had averted; the possible alternative future in which Artep had just now gone to find Asimov and then she had awakened Mary, setting in motion a sequence of undesirable effects. "They will become your new family, but don't forget about your parents."

Artep nodded her head. "I woke up thinking about them."

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"Then you will be glad to know that your father just returned from his mission on Earth. If you hurry, this is a good time to meet him." Grean waved her hand and sent some infites into Artep's brain.

As the invisible infites rearranged her synapses, Artep realized that she now new exactly how to travel between the Writers Block and Observer Base, where her parents lived. Assimilating that new knowledge, Artep suggested, "I can go for a visit after we finish this morning's hierion field modulation experiment." Artep had an intense desire to see her father and she began feeling guilty about placing a greater priority on the silly replicoid telepathy experiment.

Grean wanted to get Artep out of the house for a while. "It is early... there is enough time. I'll hurry you along and you will be able to return in time for the experiment." With another wave of her hand, Grean teleported Artep to Observer Base.

__________

image credits

In their bedroom, Mary awoke and saw that Isaac was there beside her. He was at work on his writing. She reached out and touched him, recalling the sweetness of their lovemaking and how she had drifted into sleep at the end of the previous evening, pleased with all aspects of that day and particularly satisfied with having found the negative mass hierion that she had long searched for.

Isaac leaned over and kissed Mary. "Good morning, my love."

Mary sighed contentedly while trying to recapture the flow of her dream state thoughts. "I dreamed you were talking to somebody."

Isaac ran his fingers through Mary's hair. "No... I've been lost in the process of writing a story, but a minute ago, I did imagine that I could hear Artep talking to someone."

A story from the Ekcolir Reality.
background image source:
"The Enchanted Forest"
by shoughad
(CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

Reminded of Artep, Mary quickly rolled out of bed and went to check on her guest. Reaching the front room of the house, instead of Artep, Mary found Grean. "What are you doing here?"

Grean replied, "We need to talk."

Mary wondered if Artep had flown off for a visit to Seelie. She looked suspiciously at Grean. In the past, Mary had always gone to meet with Grean in her workshop. Now, Mary was annoyed that Grean had come into her home unannounced.

Before Mary could chastise Grean, she reminded Mary that she had telepathic abilities and could read people's unspoken thoughts. Grean said, "No, Artep is not in Seelie. I sent her off to visit her parents. And you should know that Artep has decided not to find a home in Seelie."

Mary looked at the little chair where Artep had fallen asleep. Suddenly she realized that Artep had another option besides finding a home in Seelie. "She plans to move in here?"

"I'm not sure I'd call it a plan, but that is the future that I have seen. You three will make a good team. However, it puts you in a difficult position." Grean smiled. She was not hinting at how Artep would integrate herself into Mary and Isaac's love making. "I need you to do me a favor."

Mary was trying to imagine the implications of Artep living with she and Isaac. Grean had previously warned Mary that she would become emotionally attached to Artep. "What now?"

"Please recruit Artep for a task; I need her to search Seelie for Joanna."

Mary was surprised. She had not thought about Joanna MacDonald for years. "Joanna? Joanna MacDonald? She's in Seelie?"

Mission in Time

"Yes, for the past few decades, Joanna has been living in a high chamber of Seelie. Wendy has traced Joanna that far, but the sy'Paz are quite territorial." Grean knew that extracting Joanna from Seelie would be a delicate operation. "This is a job for a synpaz, not an outsider like Wendy."

Within the Writers Block, there were many odd rumors about the highest chamber of Seelie, the homeland of the sy'Paz. "I can tell Artep about Joanna, but I don't see how that will do you much good, Grean." Artep seemed to be both fascinated and repulsed by the sy'Paz and their alien features. "It seems strange that Joanna is in hiding. Didn't your prohibition against positronic robot stories end long ago?"

Grean had a perfectly good reason for involving Mary in the process of extracting Joanna from Seelie. However, this was not the time to explain to Mary that Joanna had been carefully designed and crafted as a mind clone of Mary. Mary would find that out in Time. Grean replied to Mary's question, "Yes. Ariel Adler wrote a series of positronic robot stories and those works reached the world in film format back in the 50s and 60s. After the Fru'wu brought their robotics technology to Earth, there was no longer any possibility that the Earthlings would turn against the idea of robots integrating into human society."

"So why is Joanna still exiled in Seelie? And why in the high chamber?"

That was all Grean's doing. She had needed a place to keep Joanna hidden away for decades, a place where there would be no possible direct contact between her and anyone at the Writers Block. And Grean had also needed Joanna to continue her training for the role she would play in the Final Reality. "Joanna enjoys living among the Seelie, but now, with the replicoid experiments in progress, I need her-"

Rules of Intervention

Mary interrupted Grean and began to excitedly tell Grean about her discovery of a negative mass hierion. Grean listened politely to Mary even though she had long known about the anti-gravity particle.

It had to appear that Earthlings had made their own discoveries within the science of Hierion Physics. Grean had worked long and hard to craft an artificial trail of discovery concerning the physics of hierions, a trail that involved human mathematicians and scientists, even if Kac'hin scientists had long since already blazed that trail.

The time was coming when Grean would have to provide an accounting to the pek for the shape and features of Earth's Final Reality and she wanted no complaints from them about violations of the Rules of Intervention. It would have to appear that Earthlings had discovered hierions and not had knowledge of Hierion Physics given to them by aliens.

Trysta and Grean (Image source)

More importantly, the sequence of human discoveries in Hierion Physics provided the timing mechanism that was bringing them all steadily closer to the Final Reality.

Mary was puzzled by Grean's blasé reaction to her account of both the previous day's replicoid experiment and discovery of a new hierion. Mary wondered: why isn't Grean excited? Finally, Mary admitted the truth to herself. "You were watching us yesterday."

Grean giggled. "Yes, I watched you all day... even when you were playing with Isaac."

Mary had heard rumors concerning Grean's human lovers. Trysta had once confided to Mary that because of her shared telepathic link to Grean, it was a very satisfying experience when she made love to Grean. However, Trysta had departed from Eternity and was now lost in the far past of the Ekcolir Reality. So, who was Grean's current lover? Mary asked, "Is that how you take sexual pleasure? By leeching off of the experiences of others?"

Petra and Gina

Grean assured Mary, "Of course, that is one of the perks of my job. For example, I love basking in the satisfaction that you get when you make love to Isaac." Grean had worked long and hard to make possible the loving relationship between Isaac and Mary. She told herself: why shouldn't I enjoy it? "However, my spying was not only for selfish purposes. I've already spread word of your negative mass hierion discovery. I have a team of humans in the future that is working out the implications of negative mass hierions for the modulation of hierion fields. And Relda is poised to begin her own set of experiments with Gina's replicoid."

Isaac had finished work on a chapter of the novel he was writing. Now he came into the great room and asked, "What are you two scheming?" He looked all around the room. "And where is Artep?"

Grean assured Isaac, "She'll be back in time for today's experiment. She is at Observer Base, visiting her parents."

Asimov sighed. He was again in telepathic contact with Petra. Asimov reported to Mary and Grean on what was happening on Earth: "Petra and Sven are getting ready for the replicoid telepathy experiment. We could start soon."

Grean shook her head. "Isaac, please tell Petra and Sven to not be in such a hurry. The plan was to begin at the same time today as when yesterday's experiment began. Artep will be here at that time. She needs time to take care of her personal affairs." Having accomplished her tasks in the Writers Block, Grean abruptly teleported herself back to her workshop.

1936

2. Joanna.
At the age of 16, Isaac started his first business. Richella Pohl and his other science fiction club acquaintances had spread the word that Isaac could type quickly and soon he had all the customers he could handle. He was proficient at preparing manuscripts for submission to pulp magazines. Usually, Isaac simply typed as fast as he could while also keeping a list of the spelling and grammatical errors that he corrected. He tried to forget the content of the stories because he did not want to be accused of lifting story ideas for his own use. However, some stories that he typed were hard to forget.

Firmly in that category was "G-Robot". Arriving at a meeting of the Holly Point science fiction club, Isaac handed a big envelop to Richella and said, "The MacDonald job."

Richella refused to take the envelop from Isaac and instead pointed across the room, "That's Joanna."

Isaac crossed the room and introduced himself. "I'm Isaac Asimov. I have your story." He waved the envelop towards her.

Joanna stood up, accepted the envelop and took hold of Isaac's arm. She was tall, over six feet. She led him into a back room of Richella's apartment that was being used to hold coats and other personal items of the club members. Joanna entered the dim room, turned on a lamp, sat on the bed beside a pile of coats and handbags and opened the envelop. After a quick check of the envelope's contents, she looked at Isaac and said, "Beautiful."

Isaac was admiring Joanna. He guessed that she as about five years older than he was; in his eyes, a smart and attractive lady who could write clever fiction. He muttered quietly to himself, "Yes."

Joanna heard his whispered comment and interpreted it correctly. With a smile, she opened her handbag and took out the money that she owed Isaac. On the side of her bag was the Antifru emblem. Handing him the cash, she asked, "What did you think of my story?"

"It is fun. I really like how you wrote yourself into the story." While tucking the money into his wallet, Isaac was remembering what Richella had mentioned about Joanna's well-connected friends in activist circles. With just the right amount of wonder and awe in his voice, he asked Joanna, "Are you really a member of Antifru?"

"I am. And the Antifru Action Gang has recently started a new science fiction magazine. That is where I hope to publish my story."

In the Ekcolir Reality.
See more Edmund Emshwiller interior art.

After putting his wallet back into his pocket, Isaac sat on the bed beside Joanna. "Rather audacious to attack the Fru'wu Movement by creating a story about another type of alien that is trying to keep the Fru'wu off of Earth."

"Ya, that's wishful thinking." For several seconds she looked intently into his eyes. "I feel like I've been in contact with Grean, telepathically, through my whole life... or maybe someone close to Grean..."

Isaac was fascinated by the idea that members of the Fru'wu Movement often claimed to be telepathically linked to someone. Joanna was the first person Isaac had ever met who claimed to have telepathic powers. "So you did not actually invent the idea of Grean, a telepathic alien, using robots as her agents on Earth?"

"No, I can't really take credit for that. I've always had the feeling that there are artificial people among us... mingling with us, undetected."

"What would give them away? How could they be identified?"

Joanna suggested, "Possibly little things, such as being able to type faster than a real human!"

Isaac laughed. "I type fast, but I assure you, I'm as human as you are."

"With the limited technology of Earth, we might not be able to distinguish alien artificial lifeforms from humans... not without some sort of disruptor field that could scramble positronic brain paths." 

Isaac admitted, "I've long had an interest in positrons... I was startled to see them playing a role in your story. How could positrons play a functional role inside a computer circuit?"

Joanna was intrigued by the idea that a high school student would even know about the existence of positrons. It was obvious that Isaac was not a typical school boy. She explained, "I'm a physics major at the university. I'm quite comfortable with the idea that alien visitors to Earth should know about futuristic technologies beyond Earthly science. I can't imagine how a positronic brain would work, but I suspect that Grean's robots are not composed of ordinary matter. They could have bodies composed of some marvelous material that is unknown to we humans."

Isaac suggested, "Your story seemed to end in mid-stride." He had been thinking about how he would continue the story if it were his. "Everything came to a halt just when I wanted to know more about Grean."

Joanna laughed. "I'm already working on a sequel that explores Grean's ability to travel through time."

Isaac sighed deeply and shook his head sadly. "I wish I had your imagination. I feel like both faster-than-light space travel and time travel are impossible... contradicted by physical laws."

"That's not the problem slowing my work on 'Yesterdays'."

"Yesterdays?"

"The story that I'm writing now is called "All Our Yesterdays".

"What is the problem?"

"It is a kind of temporal paradox."

Isaac chuckled. "A character going into the past and killing his grandmother when she's ten?"

"Worse. I'm in the story... and I want to write the story in such a way that I get to travel into the future, but..." She fell silent.

Isaac waited. He was enjoying the opportunity to just look at Joanna. He felt himself becoming infatuated with her. Finally, he reached out and placed his hand on top of hers. "What?"

Joanna shook herself out of her thought train. She was still struggling to piece together "All Our Yesterdays". She turned her hand over and let their fingers interdigitate. Isaac was the first person she had found who seemed to understand her and her obsession with the Kac'hin aliens.

Joanna gazed into Isaac's sparkling eyes. They seemed to share some common foundation of knowledge and understanding. Now, touching his hand, she imagined that she could feel his thoughts and there, in his mind was a desire to feel his lips on her cheek. "It is just wishful thinking." Joanna made certain that all the pages of her story were back in the envelop then she stood up and moved towards the door.

Isaac stood up and said, "I suppose it would be fun to see into the future. Not sure I'd like to go into the future, not if it was hard to get back." He was thinking about relativistic time travel, moving into the future at a faster rate than other people... a popular theme in science fiction stories about space travel.

Now leaning against the door frame, Joanna said, "Somehow, Grean can sort through all of the paradoxes of time travel. I like your idea of viewing the future...."

Just then a late-arriving member of the science fiction club pushed past Joanna and tossed his jacket on the bed. He turned and said, "Hi, Isaac. Are you going to introduce me?" He put out his hand towards Joanna and said, "I'm Ben."

Joanna introduced herself. "I'm Joanna MacDonald. I just moved to New York... the science fiction capitol of the world. I want to get published and become a famous writer."

image source

"Ben" was James Blish, a year younger than Isaac and dazzled by Joanna; she was almost a foot taller than he was. "Don't we all."

Joanna waved the envelop holding her manuscript at Ben. "With luck, this story will be my first published work."

Ben suggested, "Maybe you could do something for my Planeteers fan rag."

Isaac had been sending little signals to Ben, indicating that he should get lost. Finally Ben caught on and exited from the bedroom.

Asimov explained to Joanna, "Ben resorted to printing his own little newsletter as a way of sharing his stories with the world."

"That's where I was five years ago. I feel like I'm ready to publish in a real magazine now. The problem is, I'm not on the Fru'wu bandwagon."

Isaac could sense that she was ready to go join the rest of the guests. He could not resist asking her another question. "So you don't get to the future? In your story?"

"All I get is kicked off of Earth. Somehow I manage to violate one of Grean's Rules."

Isaac could not restrain his laughter. "Alien abduction?"

"Something like that. I get to live among aliens."

"The Kac'hin take you to their world?"

"It is not like that. The Kac'hin are a human variant. They have as much right to call Earth their home as we humans do. Strangely, there only seems to be one Kac'hin: Grean. However, I... I know that in the future I will live among aliens... the sy'Paz."

Asimov rubbed his forehead. He wondered if Joanna was just a creative story writer or if she truly believed that she knew her future. Isaac asked, "The sy'Paz? Another type of alien?"

"The sy'Paz are hybrids. Part human and partly derived from aliens called the Paz. I'm going to live among the synthetic Paz. The interesting thing is, they are quite small."

"Little green men?"

Joanna laughed at the science fiction cliche. "When I complete the story I'll have to hire you to type it."

Zeptites of Seelie

Isaac suggested, "Or I could teach you to type. Lessons every day at my place for an hour and you'll be all set."

Joanna bent down and kissed Isaac's cheek. She could well imagine the kind of lessons that he was imagining and they had nothing to do with typewriters. "Sorry, I'll pass on the lessons. I'm spoiled. My pen is my friend, and why should I type when I can hire someone?"

Related Reading: fractal art

Next: part 3 of "Final Change".

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