Zeptites of Seelie

The trail leading to Joanna's research
laboratory inside Mt. Seelie.

This page has parts 3 and 4 of a science fantasy story, "Final Change". The events in this story take place in the Ekcolir Reality, just before the Reality Change that brings into existence the Final Reality.

Previously, a young science fiction story writer, Joanna MacDonald, was working her way towards earning a ticket off of Earth. First, she had published a story ("G-Robot") about Dani the robot, a secret agent of Grean's on Earth. Then Dani had slipped some infites into Joanna's brain, reprogramming her literary interests and causing her to abandon writing science fiction. Dani was able to collect and destroy almost all of the copies of the obscure magazine that held the story "G-Robot".

Mission in Time

After a dozen years, when the advanced party of the Fru'wu arrived on Earth, the old restriction imposed by Grean on Joanna's writing was nullified. Joanna immediately returned to writing science fiction and completed her old story, "All Our Yesterdays" and it was soon published.

"All Our Yesterdays" gave a fairly detailed account of how Grean could travel through Time and engineer changes in the timeline of events on Earth. Both "G-Robot" and "All Our Yesterdays" included Joanna as a character in her own stories. "All Our Yesterdays" described how Grean would send some of her operatives back through time in order to prevent Joanna from publishing a science fiction story called "Positronic Robots".

 _________________________
Note: dates and other cultural peculiarities of the Ekcolir Reality have been adjusted to match the Final Reality standards. For convenience and to prevent confusion, the analogue of Isaac Asimov who lives in the Writers Block will often be referred to as "O.A.".

1936
3. Grean's Rules. (read parts 1 and 2)

source

The analogue of Isaac Asimov who lived in the Writers Block (O.A.) had many irons in the fire. He coordinated Grean's entire project for ghost writing stories that would eventually be published on Earth. In his "spare time", O.A. monitored the Ekcolir Reality analogue of himself and occasionally shared information with Isaac about topics like robots. According to Grean, in a few more years, O.A. would be able to start passing some story ideas to Isaac on Earth. Due to his personal experiences with positronic robots in the previous Reality, it was natural for O.A. to imagine that the Asimov analogue on Earth would some day write his own robot stories.

After Isaac had typed the story "G-Robot" and spoken to Joanna, O.A. knew that he would have to talk with Mary about positronic robots. O.A. had been warned by Grean that she did not want the Asimov analogue on Earth to write stories about positronic robots. At the time when he'd been informed of that rule, O.A. had said, "You should have told me earlier. I've already filled his mind with information about robots."

"That is good." Grean had explained, "I don't want Isaac ignorant of robots, but until the Fru'wu arrive, there is a real danger that even silly science fiction stories could stoke anti-robot biases among the Earthlings. I want to avoid that."

It had been a busy day and O.A. had not found a convenient time to discuss positronics with Mary. Late in the evening, when Mary was wrapped in Isaac's arms and starting to drift into sleep, he said, "I need to go over to Observer Base in the morning. Would you like to go for a walk with me?"

"What is in Observer Base?" Mary suspected that Isaac wanted to visit the fishbowl and perform a visual observation of some event on Earth.

Isaac explained, "My analogue met someone..." O.A. was curious to see Joanna with his own eyes. "I'll stop by Grean's workshop. If she's not there, I'll have Wendy make an appointment. Then we can go to Observer Base."

hierion field experiments

Mary complained, "The last time I went there with you we had to wait two days for Grean to show up. I don't want to sleep over at Observer Base again."

As artificial lifeforms composed of femtobot components, neither Isaac or Mary needed much sleep. Still, they made use of the ancient circadian rhythm to make sure that they had some time each day to relax and share their bodies with each other. Mary preferred to do that in her own bedroom where all of her sex toys were close at hand. O.A. shrugged, "Okay. I just wanted to offer."

"What is so important about this Joanna?"

"Just a small puzzle. You know how I got in trouble with Grean over leaking information about robots to Earth..."

"Yes, I remember. I would not call that trouble. Grean simply asked you to not push any Earthly stories about positronic robots towards publication until after the Fru'wu arrive."

A.O. thought it was a silly request. Who knew when -or if- the Fru'wu would arrive? Why delay the creation and publication of science fiction stories about robots when they were already becoming real technology on Earth? "Joanna has written a story about positronic robots. Isaac got to read it. That stirred up all of Isaacs memories of everything I ever told him about positronics."

"I see. Well..." Mary began to wonder if this might be an early indication that the Fru'wu or possibly their robotic agents were already on Earth. "Tell me more about this Joanna."

"Her name is Joanna MacDonald. She grew up in Nassau and just moved into the city about a year ago. She got linked to Isaac by way of Richella Pohl and the Holly Point Science fiction club."

Dani

"That name seems familiar." Mary asked, "Isn't there a MacDonald here? One of the nanoscopic replicoids?"

"Hmm... that's a long list." There were over 100,000 residents in the nanorealm of Eternity. O.A. could not keep track of them all. "You may be right. I'll have to check. That might explain how a story about positronic robots got written on Earth...." Isaac got out of bed and went to use his little comquip. He confirmed Mary's suggestion. "You are right! There is a Joanna MacDonald replicoid in the nanorealm." He got back into bed and snuggled up with Mary.

"Well, if it is just a casual mention of positronic robots then I doubt if Grean will care. Lots of stories about robots get published every year."

"Not like this one... not about positronic robots. And get this... Grean is mentioned by name! Joanna also describes a robot called 'Dani' who is stationed on Earth, doing odd jobs for Grean."

"Wow. It sound's like Grean must be using this writer, Joanna, to announce herself to the Earthlings."

image source

Isaac was puzzled. If Grean wanted to out herself, why not let the Asimov analogue on Earth do that? "This has me thinking... could Joanna's robot story be trick being played on Grean by R. Gohrlay?"

Mary laughed. "Would Gohrlay dare do such a thing?"

"Rumor is, we are close to the Final Reality. Maybe Gohrlay is no longer under restraints..."

Now Mary was thinking about her own work and scientific interests in particle physics. Sometimes Isaac showed great insight into Hierion Physics, but it was next to impossible to get him to say anything about sedrons. Mary knew that sedron bombs had been detonated on Earth in the previous Reality. Since O.A. was from that Reality, surely he knew something about sedrons....

Isaac was thinking about his own restraints. When she had brought him into the Ekcolir Reality, Grean had put infites into his brain that prevented him from talking about sedrons. Particularly how sedrons had been used in the previous Reality. If Grean was now terminating such restraints, here near the end of the Ekcolir Reality, then maybe he could finally tell Mary about sedrons...

Mary said, "I'm not holding my breath. We could be centuries away from reaching the Final Reality."

After trying once more, Asimov decided that nothing had changed, he still could not tell Mary about how sedrons had powered human interstellar space travel in the previous reality. Finding himmself unable to speak about sedrons to Mary, he'd confirmed that infite-generated lock was still active.

Mary kissed Isaac and said with finality, "Promise me that you will try to get back from the Base quickly. I hate it when you are away."

"I'll hurry back, darling."

1949 - 1951

a possible future Viewed by Grean:
Joanna's story published in 1951

4. Positronic Robots.
Grean was using the differential analyzer of her Viewer to compare two possible futures. In one timeline for Earth, Joanna's science fiction stories allowed Earthlings in the 20th century of the Ekcolir Reality to discover that all living organisms on Earth contain a zeptite endosymbiont. An extremely low probability concatenation of events led to her operative on Earth, Sven, discovering that humans have both a femtobot endosymbiont composed of hierions and a separate zeptite endosymbiont composed of sedrons.

The other alternative, a future in which sedron's remained unknown on Earth, was the timeline that led to the Final Reality, a Reality in which humans avoided self-destruction and spread between the stars of the galaxy. To make that the actual future of Earth, Grean now had to remove the disruptive influence of Joanna and her stories.

Grean turned off the Viewer. She had summoned her time travel operatives to the workshop for their trip back in time. Kate and Émile arrived and marched across the factory-like floor of the workshop. They came towards Grean where she waited near the teleporter platform. Grean activated the teleportation system and Dani appeared on the platform. Grean told Kate and Émile, "I brought Dani here from Earth in order to help with this pre-mission briefing."

Dani, Kate and Émile had worked together on other missions. Now they nodded to each other. Grean activated a display and pointed to the image of a magazine. She said to Dani, "Tell Kate and Émile about the special precautions applicable to this mission."

Dani waved a hand at the Super Science Stories cover from 1951. "We must prevent publication of Joanna's story 'Positronic Robots'." Dani was amused to have been called upon to stop the publication of science fiction stories in which he appeared as a character. "In our destination time, 1949, Fru'wu agents are on Earth. They can detect positronic robots such as myself. However, Grean has carefully selected a time and place for our Intervention that is known to be clear of these pesky Fru'wu robots."

facing the dangers of Interventionist
missions (image source)

Kate asked Grean, "Why involve Dani at all? Émile and I can handle this mission."

Grean explained, "Because of Joanna's penchant for writing stories about positronic robots, the Fru'wu agents track her every move. We need to thread a needle on this one. It is important that Isaac Asimov read Joanna's story about time travel, but Joanna must be removed from Earth before she can send it by mail to her publisher. In order to have the desired impact of Joanna's story without triggering any unwanted side-effects, we need to make use of Dani's ability to alter his appearance."

Émile said, "I agree with Kate. There is no need to risk having Dani on Earth. Not in such close proximity to Joanna and the Fru'wu robot who tails her."

Grean explained, "I have reasons for involving Dani in this Intervention. Dani is going to keep working on Earth for decades. It is not that hard for me to make sure that he avoids the Fru'wu. By  having  Dani meet Asimov while in disguise as Joanna, I'll be able to lay groundwork for... well, due to temporal paradox pressure I can't provide details... but I'll say one more thing: this encounter will keep the memory of Joanna alive for Asimov."

Kate tried to imagine why Grean was emphasizing the link between Asimov and Joanna. She asked, "If Joanna is being taken off of Earth, why does that matter?"

"I can say no more. Trust me... it will matter in the future."

Émile laughed uncomfortable. "We trust you, but it is frustrating to not know why these missions are constructed in such bizarre ways."

Grean shrugged. "Yes, that is a painful part of time travel." She asked Dani, "Do you have any other tips for Kate and Émile?"

Dani reminded Kate and Émile, "Asimov knows me well because of my Cynthia Chivers identity. In 1949, Science Today is developing a story about on-going research in Asimov's lab. When we arrive on Earth, you two will meet Asimov's lab group, they know of you two as my colleagues. It will be easy for you two to keep his lab researchers occupied until I've had enough time to chat with Isaac. Then comes the critical point in the mission..."

Kate asked, "Why even let Joanna reach New York?"

Dani replied. "You know that we have engineered everything to take advantage of the 45th Street gas main explosion. Joanna's badly burned body will be found in the crater."

Grean added, "Ive looked at other options for earlier extraction of Joanna. None of them work. This is what happens in the proximity of a fixed point in time like Asimov. There are powerful temporal constraints at play." 

Émile asked, "But what if something unexpected happens? We have a very slim time window."

Grean said, "I've carefully viewed the timeline." Grean was thinking about the possibility that R. Gohrlay could be working an Intervention of her own. "Unless we suddenly get back-tracked by another time traveler, everything should be clean and simple... as long as you stay on script. Don't get side-tracked." The Time War was over, so Grean was not expecting any trouble.

Now Kate and Émile climbed up onto the teleportation platform. Dani morphed himself into the physical form of Cynthia while he put an arm around each of them. Three was about the limit for simultaneous teleportation using the equipment in Grean's workshop. Of course, with this equipment she routinely sent whole flocks of synpaz into the distant past. Now she teleported her team to Earth.

Hierion Domain

They arrived on the roof of the building that held Isaac's research lab. It was raining lightly and Dani hurried Kate and Émile into the stairwell. They caught the elevator on the top floor, rode to the basement. Dani got out of the elevator.  Kate and Émile rode back up to the high floor where Issac had his office and his lab space. One floor short, the elevator car stopped.

A graduate student in Asimov's lab got into the elevator and immediately noticed the PRESS badges that Kate and Émile wore. "I thought I was running late!"

Kate said, "We are looking for Dr. Asimov's lab."

The student said, "Hello, I'm Patricia." She checked her watch. "The meeting starts now. I'm always late!"

Kate and Émile introduced themselves to Patricia using their cover identities as two journalists who worked with Cynthia at Science Today. The elevator took them up one more floor and they stepped out of the elevator car.

Near the elevator was a conference room where Asimov and the rest of his team were already assembled. A buffet lunch was set out along one wall. Patricia, Kate and Émile went in and Asimov said, "Now, these reporters don't want me getting in the way, so... have fun." He walked out of the conference room and closed the door.

Asimov thought it was a good idea that the Science Today story not simply focus on him as the lab director. All the work was done by his research team, so the reporters should get to know them.

Isaac went to his office. His office assistant, Tom, was just going off to lunch. Isaac said, "There's food in the conference room."

Tom shook his head and said, "I'm going to get away from science for an hour." He went off down the hallway.

Asimov stepped into his office and opened his brief case. He pulled out a story manuscript that had been sent to him by Joanna MacDonald. Clipped to the front was her note:

Dear Isaac-

Here is "All Our Yesterdays". It was great talking to you on the phone. Thank you for agreeing to give me you honest opinion about this story. I'll be back in the States next month. Maybe we could meet and chat.

Your Fictional Admirer,
Joanna

Future France

Five minutes later, Isaac was just getting done with the task of sealing up "All Our Yesterdays" in an envelop and putting it into the outgoing mail basket on his secretary's desk. He looked up and saw a tall woman watching him from the hallway. "Joanna?"

This was Dani, now disguised as Joanna. "Dr. Asimov, you remembered me."

Isaac thought that she had aged gracefully. And she was still a very tall woman; it was her height that had rattled his old memories as much as anything. "You look exactly the same as when I last saw you... ten years ago... eleven?"

"Twelve, but who is counting?"

Asimov told her, "I was quite dismayed when you stopped writing science fiction. I'm glad you are back at it." He handed her the envelop. "I was just sending this to you." He glanced at his desk in his office which was covered with on-going work. "Let's walk." He led her down the hallway and past the conference room to the elevator.

She asked, "How about you, Isaac. Are you ever going to publish the next part of your Foundation saga?"

They went to ground floor and Isaac led the way into the faculty lounge. "Last month I sent off the last of it. It should be in the press before the end of the year."

"The last?"

"I'm done with Foundation. Running the research lab now takes all of my time."

"Your fans, including me, will be sad to see the series end." Joanna refused the offer of lunch or a drink. "I just stopped by on the way in from the airport. I was impatient to get your feedback..."

Isaac patted his belly and also rejected the idea of eating lunch. He told Joanna, "I don't need to eat. I've been eating far too much, trying to fill a..." He shrugged. "I'm lonely. My wife works in Europe. We see each other twice a year. I don't think our relationship can take the strain."

Using the Viewer in Grean's workshop, Dani had seen Isaac's future. Dani knew that Asimov's first marriage would soon disintegrate. Feeling no constraint from possible temporal paradox, Dani/Joanna said, "You need a mistress, Isaac."

Isaac laughed. "Are you volunteering for that role?"

"Sorry, but no. I just left behind two lovers in France and another is taking me out for dinner this evening... a welcome back celebration."

Isaac nodded sadly. He would have been surprised if Joanna did not have many suitors. "So, you've never married?"

"I'm always on the run. I've never thought about settling down."

Isaac had checked her publication history. During the past ten years she had published works in several genres and she also was part of a ceramics cooperative through which she sold her hand-painted vases. "You should try it. There is nothing finer than having a mate and constant companion."

"Until she goes off to work on the other side of the planet."

"Gertrude and I had a good run... almost a decade. I'm sold on marriage. I'll just have to start working on my second one. If you get tired of swinging, let me know."

Joanna asked, "If you could go back in time, would you have done things differently?"

image source

Since reading Joanna's time travel story, Isaac had been having such thoughts. Isaac sometimes wondered: what if I had become friends with Marcia Greenberg instead of Gertrude? He thought that both Marcia and Ariel Adler were probably still active in the film industry, but he had lost track of them. Now that he had her ear for at least a moment, he had to ask Joanna, "Do you really believe that agents of the Fru'wu are on Earth and that the aliens can travel through time?"

Joanna replied, "Yes, I feel it... some aliens can time travel... as I wrote in my story."

Isaac was puzzled by the fate of Joanna's first science fiction story. "It is funny... I called around town. It is as you say in your new story. I could not find any book store or library that has a copy of your first story, the one that introduced the robot Dani as a character."

Joanna looked over her shoulder. "I often feel like I'm being watched. It is as if someone tried to make sure that 'G-Robot' was erased from Earth."

"Could that erasure really have been done using time travel?"

"What do you mean?"

"What you suggest in 'Yesterday". You said it is the perfect method. Find which library's have a copy, then go back in time and grab that copy."

"Who knows? That idea just popped into my head. More likely, nobody ever collected issues of that magazine. It was only published for a year and a half before folding."

Isaac mused, "I've never before taken time travel fiction seriously. It is so fraught with paradox and contradiction."

Joanna suggested, "But now you have been thinking about the possibilities?"

"Yes. Your story kicked me free... into a new realm of fantasy."

Dani/Joanna said, "Isaac, I do believe that that you have been bitten by the time travel bug!"

Isaac nodded. "I like your story."

"You should try your hand at it. Maybe you could create a story in which someone uses time travel to make a scientific discovery. You study the brain. What would you like to know from the future, something that could advance your research?" She looked at her watch. "I need to run, Isaac. Thank you so much for looking at my story."

"I wrote a large number of comments and suggestions. I hope you are not offended. I got rather caught up in your story."

"I'll certainly take your suggestions into consideration before I submit the story for publication." And then after a few more minutes of casual discussion about both their plans for the future, she Joanna was gone.

Isaac returned to his office.

________________

When Kate and Émile completed their working lunch meeting with Asimov's lab group, they were guided down the hall to Asimov's office by Patricia. She told them, "Hmm... neither Dr. Asimov or his assistant are here. I expect them back any moment. Just wait here. I have to run. Nice meeting you."

"Give us a call when you have time. We want to hear about your research project."

Kate had just sat down in Asimov's outer office in the chair at Tom's desk when the real Joanna arrived. Émile was unlocking the door to Asimov's inner office. Kate said hello to Joanna.

Joanna asked, "Is Dr. Asimov available?"

Émile held open the door for Joanna, "Come on in."

Joanna followed Émile into Asimov's office and Kate closed the door behind them.

Before Joanna could ask where Asimov was, she disappeared, having been teleported to the Hierion Domain.

Émile re-locked the office door and then he and Kate went down the hallway to the elevator. There to one side was the Fru'wu robot who constantly followed Joanna, hoping to learn how she knew about Grean and the Kac'hin. Exiting from the building, they saw Dani across the street.

They stepped into the physics building and went to an empty classroom then they quickly conferred. Dani asked, "How did it go?"

"No problems. Joanna's teleportation when smoothly."

Dani handed over the envelop with the copy of "All Our Yesterdays". He said, "Thank you both." Dani took one last look around then activated the 'all clear' signal. Almost immediately Kate and Émile were teleported back to Grean's Workshop.

Dani took a cab to the airport. Two hours later, he was gone from New York. That was when the methane pipeline explosion occurred.

The Fru'wu agent waited an hour then walked down the hall past Asimov's office. The robot was never able to give an accounting of how Joanna had eluded him.

During the next month, Isaac had other contact with Cynthia Chivers leading up to publication of the story about his research, but he never again saw Joanna or the two other reporters from Science Today.

It was not until several years later, when Ariel Adler began writing movie scripts that included positronic robots, that Asimov again thought about the possibility of writing his own story about robots.

Grean's workshop

_____________

Using the equipment in her workshop, Grean watched Kate and Émile lure Joanna into Asimov's office. All of Earth was impregnated by zeptites that allowed for monitoring of events on Earth from Observer Base in the Hierion Domain.

When Joanna was out of sight inside Asimov's office, Grean quickly teleported Joanna to her workshop. At first, Joanna was held in the data buffer of the teleportation system. Then Grean re-set the teleportation equipment. Two copies of Joanna would be made. One that would appear to have died in the gas explosion in New York and a second copy that must be instantiated in the form of a synpaz replicoid.

Grean dimmed the lighting in the workshop and then activated the teleporter. A tiny bed appeared on the platform. Sprawled across the bed was Joanna, now converted into femtobot components and shrunk to the size of a synpaz. Grean had also used the teleporter to implant in Joanna's new body a cloud of infites that altered her stream of consciousness, erasing her recent memories. Feeling disoriented, Joanna imagined that she had just awoken from sleep and a strange dream.

Quickly, Joana realized that she was not on Earth. Grean brightened the room slightly and said, "Welcome to the Hierion Domain, Joanna."

Joanna had long held in her imagination an image of Grean. "Grean?"

"Yes. I am Grean."

Joanna sat up at the edge of the bed, letting her long legs stretch out towards Grean. She looked around the room. "I've seen this room a dozen times in my dreams."

Grean was somewhat limited in what she could say. "I took great pains to prepare you for life in Eternity." For her entire life, Joanna had been receiving thought fragments from the mind of Mary by way of a shared connection through the Bimanoid Interface.

synpaz replicoids

Joanna stood up and then floated into the air. "I've long dreamed of flying with the sy'Paz."

"I'll soon send you into Seelie. First, I want to make sure that you understand why your life is taking this unusual turn."

Joanna was being helped to adjust to her new existence by a basic orientation routine that was contained in her new infites. Floating contentedly in the air above Grean, Joanna said, "Somehow, I've always known that I would be taken away from Earth and end up here, talking to you."

"Yes, you have been given insight into some parts of your future. I want you to adjust rapidly to Seelie. I have important work for you to do... but first, tell me..." Grean stopped talking: can you hear my thoughts?

Joanna replied silently: This is so cool. Telepathy?

Grean spoke again. "Now, I've withdrawn from your mind. Yes, as a Kac'hin, I can link our minds using telepathy. Tell me! Can you sense another mind?"

After a few seconds passed, Joanna asked, "Who is Mary?"

"In the future, you will discover everything about Mary. I designed you to have a brain that resonates with that of Mary. You will continue to help her with her particle physics research, but now that you are no longer on Earth, I am allowing you to become consciously aware of her mind as distinct from your own subconscious."

Joanna laughed. "This is why you brought me into the Hierion Domain? Physics?"

"Yes. You will be the vessel that carries human knowledge of hierions into the Final Reality."

"Final Reality?"

"Forget I mentioned that... for now. With time you will understand the complex shape of your future... Earth's future. For now, just try to accept the fact of your new life, try to enjoy yourself and grow comfortable living in Seelie."

"Among the little people?"

image source

"Yes, but... a warning... Do not congregate with your fellow synpaz. You must get to know the sy'Paz who reside in the High Chamber of Seelie. They actually have developed a sophisticated physics research project. Work your way into the trust of those sy'Paz scientists. You will be able share what you learn from the sy'Paz with Mary.

Joanna was puzzled. She had been trying to communicate telepathically with Mary. "I can see into Mary's mind, but I don't think she is aware of me."

"That is how this will work. You can influence her thought processes, but she will never know what is happening. The information that you provide to Mary will enter into her unconscious brain, but it will help her complete the investigation of hierions that she has undertaken."

Next: High Seelie, part 5 of "Final Change".

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