Twice in Deep Time

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Having completed the 5th story ("Final Change") in the Grean's Hack series, I'm feeling the need to connect an older story about Asimov ("The Case of the Superfluous Sedrons") to events in Grean's Hack. At the end of "The Case of the Superfluous Sedrons", the time traveling analogue of Asimov in Deep Time is experimenting with the medical nanites that he was given by Grean. That story ends with this: "Suffice it to say that Asimov eventually proved his immortality, but that is another story."

Deep Time
When I began including Asimov as a character in the Exode Saga, I first wrote about the Asimov analogue in the Foundation Reality. Positronic robots were acting as Interventionist agents on Earth, accelerating the development of space travel technology with the goal of creating Galaxia, R. Gohrlay's planned ultimate defense against the Huaoshy.

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Into that volatile mix was dropped Trysta Iwedon, an Asterothrope from the far future. Trysta had to perform the delicate and dangerous task of accelerating the discovery of nuclear fission on Earth (see The End of Eternity). Asterothropes were a humanoid variant of the human species, but not actually human, having been engineered to become a separate species that did not fit within the confines of the programming conferred by the Three Laws of the positronic robots.

However, the Huaoshy were able to apply their advanced science of sedronics to an analysis of the telepathic powers of positronic robots and the Asterothropes. The Huaoshy created the telepathic Kac'hin and attacked Eternity. During that attack, Grean discovered the existence of the time travel technology that was being used by R. Gohrlay. The Huaoshy developed their own time travel methods, including a Reality Viewer that allowed Grean to see entire Reality Chains.

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With their access to advanced Huaoshy technology, Grean and her crew were able to take control of Eternity. However, some of the positronic robots escaped and they continued their efforts to provide Earthlings with a future in which Humanity would spread among the stars of the Galaxy.

One of the positronic robots on Earth was discovered by Grean and badly damaged while trying to avoid capture. In an act of desperation, that dying robot transferred a swarm of infites into the femtobot endosymbiont of the Asimov analogue living in the Foundation Reality (see Foundations of Eternity). Realizing what had happened, Grean took Asimov off of Earth and into the Eternity space-time bubble, even as a Reality Change was sweeping away the Foundation Reality and a future that included Galaxia.

R. Gohrlay

Inside Eternity, Grean still faced the challenge of finding the remaining positronic robots. Using the Foundation Reality Simulator, Asimov was allowed to learn about the future of the galaxy as it had unfolded in the Foundation Reality. Asimov learned about the struggle between the positronic robots of Earth and Grean. During this time, Grean also learned something of the importance of Asimov, that he was a "fixed point in time", maintained in successive Realities with little change.

Grean was ignorant of the workings of the Bimanoid Interface and how it conferred on Earth a powerful Temporal Momentum, however, Grean began a careful study of Asimov. It was discovered by Grean that Asimov knew the location of another robot on Earth.

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By showing Asimov several possible future Reality Chains, Grean was able to convince Asimov to help her capture the remaining robot on Earth. Thus, Asimov was successfully recruited by Grean and equipped to function as her agent on Earth in the the 1930s of the forming Asimov Reality (see Brooklyn). Asimov was sent back in time to meet his younger self. Using a positronic circuit-disrupting hierion field, Grean was able to irreversibly remove the last positronic robot from Earth.

With Asimov's help, Grean had captured, intact, the last positronic robot on Earth, but Trysta Iwedon, the Asterothrope, was still present on Earth as R. Gohrlay's operative. After completing his time travel mission, Asimov elected to remain on Earth where he assisted his younger self to become a successful science fiction story writer.

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After Asimov's career in science fiction unfolded, "the older Asimov" went into retirement as described in "The Case of the Superfluous Sedrons", a story that ends at a time early (20th century) in the Asimov Reality.

Trysta Truce
Grean discovered the location of Trysta on Earth, but a Time Travel War began in which any attempt to remove Trysta from Earth resulted in a counter Intervention in Time by R. Gohrlay that protected Trysta and allowed her to continue living on Earth. Grean realized that R. Gohrlay was operating out of an unknown refuge in the Hierion Domain. The Huaoshy needed time to study Hierion Physics, the one area of science they had neglected while becoming masters of the Sedron Domain.

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Looking into the possible futures of Earth, Grean discovered a future Reality in which it would become possible for the Huaoshy to permanently put an end to all further time travel while also allowing Humanity to spread among the stars. Shown the evidence for a viable future that would satisfy R. Gohrlay and conform to the Laws of Robotics, Trysta agreed to a truce during which the Time War would cool down.

During the Trysta Truce, R. Gohrlay wanted time to develop a telepathic variant of the human species. Grean used this time to create the Ek'col, a variant of the Kac'hin which was a more human-like telepathic humanoid, specifically designed to coerce Trysta into accepting what became known as the Trysta-Grean Pact, the terms of which finally ended the Time War and ushered in the Ekcolir Reality.

The League of Yrinna

As depicted in "The League of Yrinna", there was an artificial life version of Asimov (described as a replicoid) present in the far future of the Asimov Reality, at a time when human telepathy was being developed in Alastor Cluster. How did the "older Asimov" in "The Case of the Superfluous Sedrons" turn into that replicoid (an artificial lifeform, structurally replicating the human body, but composed of femtobot components) of the far future? Note: it is this constructed replicoid copy of Asimov that is essentially immortal.

Mary
In Grean's Hack, I depicted the loving relationship between Isaac and Mary at the Writers Block during the Ekcolir Reality. What is the backstory of how the replicoids of both Mary and Isaac came to exist at the Writers Block?

Wendy the robot.

Wendy and Dani
Also not previously explained is how the two positronic robots, Wendy and Dani come to be working with Grean during the Ekcolir Reality and the Buld Reality. I'm now thinking that "Wendy" is Grean's re-engineered version of R. Fengtol.

I've never previously given an account of the fate of Daneel. However, I like the idea that Dani is a modified version of Daneel created by Grean.

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Pre-Grean's Hack
I'm now imagining that Mary, like "the older Asimov", originated in the Foundation Reality and was among the first humans recruited by Grean to function as one of her agents.

Before there was any contact between R. Gohrlay and Grean, the positronic robots of Earth had a genetics program known as the od'Ynfryg project by which they hoped to integrate key Neanderthal and Asterothrope genes into the human genome so as to allow the future development of Galaxia.

Mary (left) in the Writers Block with Artep.

In the First Reality, Gohrlay was a Neanderthal. The Neanderthal's had a unique sensitivity to twitinos arising from the presence of their femtobot and zeptite endosymbionts and how they were integrated with the Neanderthal brain.

Visitation Fiction. One of the Earthlings at the core of project od'Ynfryg was Mary Godwin, who, because of her Neanderthal genes, had a the ability to efficiently use the Bimanoid Interface. Mary became the first human on Earth to begin writing about alien visitors to Earth and the danger that they posed to Humanity. Mary wrote approvingly of efforts to develop both robots and human telepathic abilities. These stories were part of R. Gohrlay's long-range plan to prepare a galaxy-wide defense against the Huaoshy. Included in Mary's "fiction" was an account of her own interaction with a positive robot.

A copy of Mary is teleported to Observer Base and instantiated as a replicoid. The replicoid of Mary becomes the founding director of the Writers Block during the Asimov Reality. Before the Reality Change that creates the Ekcolir Reality,  Grean decides to shift Mary towards work on Hierion Physics and make Asimov's replicoid the new director of the Writers Block. During the transition towards Asimov's directorship, at first, Mary and Isaac clash. Mary has worked towards preparing Earth for the arrival of the Fru'wu, but Isaac must begin to help Earth repair some of the worst damage done by advanced Fru'wu technology. Eventually Isaac and Mary stop arguing and move in together.

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Once Upon A Time
Both Mary and Isaac are brought "ahead" into new Realities twice, first into the Asimov Reality and then into the Ekcoir Reality. However, the Ekcolir Reality is the last Reality of Mary's experience. Like most residents of Eternity, she is not "carried over" in the Final Reality. Asimov regrets being separated from Mary, but eventually he meets Yōd and they play the important role of providing the Editor with information about how human telepathy was developed in the far future of the Asimov Reality.

Video: Origins of Exodemic

Exodemic

Back in 2002, I began writing the first story that was set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. That story, Exodemic, was a kind of alternate history story in which Earth's timeline diverged from the world as we know it in 1759 when a woman (Judy) in England did not die from smallpox. 

 

Subsequently, one of the changes arising from Judy's prolonged existence on Earth was better medical care for women. Thus, Mary Wollstonecraft lived longer and had a son, Ralph Godwin, the brother of Mary Godwin.

Hierion Writers Club

The entire Exodemic story was aimed at explaining the possibility of a world such as that depicted by Asimov in his robot stories: an Earth where sophisticated thinking machines were available by 2016 and they helped Humanity develop interstellar travel, leading to Asimov's imagined Galactic Empire, the Foundation and Galaxia. However, I did not include any time travel in Exodemic. My new story, "Hierion Writers Club", can be viewed as an updated version of Exodemic that does include time travel.

Next: Visitation Fiction

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