Many Secrets

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Below on this page is the second half of the science fiction story, "The Galaxiad". This story was inspired by Isaac Asimov's concept of Galaxia, a vast telepathically linked group mind spanning all 25,000,000 inhabited worlds of the galaxy. Previously, in part 1 of the story, four young people were chatting over drinks at the Vicarage Lounge on the Carina Sector Capitol world of Mysyny.

 

Vyky Dey

The group had assembled around a young writer, Vyky Dey, the daughter of a newly elected Carina Sector Senator from the planet Noxtid. Vyky grew up in a rural community among a genetically specialized tribe, the Werefe. Vyky had learned to adapt herself to an urban environment during her four years of study on the Foundation Capitol world Terminus. Now, newly arrived on Mysyny, Vyky is eager to explore another world.

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Before being allowed to go sightseeing on Mysyny, Vyky was assigned two body guards: Myquel, one of the elite Galaxy Guardians and the mysterious Lunanna. Using her telepathic sensitivity, Vyky has been unable to detect any signs of normal brain electrical activity emanating from Lunanna's mind.

Resist!

Stopped on the street by news reporter Ambra Hetzey, Vyky has consented to an interview concerning the political struggle that is now underway between the Individual Freedom Party and the pro-Galaxia Social Unity Party. The interview proceeds inside the Vicarage Lounge...

 

⎯ The Galaxiad ؄ (read part 1)

  Part 2. Many Sails

Myquel was envious of Vyky for her experience of living on Terminus, the world where the First Foundation had, some 250 years previously, first defeated forces of the Second Foundation. He told Vyky, "I hope to visit Terminus some day." He lifted his mug and swallowed a mouthful of the beer. " Tell me, did you visit the Turborium?"

Vyky nodded. She glanced at Ambra and wondered why the reporter had brought Terminus into their discussion. She turned her attention back to Myquel and told him, "Sadly, the afternoon when I was there, the ceremonial run of Turborators had already been completed." She looked at the pockets of his jumpsuit. "I suppose you carry yours around with you."

"Absolutely. I'm ready to defend you."

 

Vyky nodded. "I've decided that I enjoy having you around, but I'm still not sure why you need to defend me."

 

Myquel explained, "There have been thousands of kidnappings here on Mysyny, important members of the Individual Freedom Party suddenly abducted."

Lunanna laughed and told Vyky, "IFP propaganda. They count every missing person case as an abduction by some dark and mysterious organization."

Myquel waved a hand dismissively towards Lunanna. "When the SUP can't make progress politically, they resort to criminal activity. I only wish we had more Turborators deployed in the field on worlds like this."

The Mind Static devices, first used in the time of Arkaddy, had become known as Turborators, named after the famous visicaster who had popularized and championed their use against the telepaths of the Second Foundation.

"Can I see it?"

Myquel shifted his arm and there it was, a small glowing object in his hand. Vyky reached out and tried to touch the Turborator with a finger tip. Feeling a painful sensation, she jerked her hand back. Myquel explained, "This one is tuned to my electromagnetic biofield. If you tried to hold it, you would be injured, perhaps even killed."

Vyky had previously considered the Turborator to be an object of a mythical past, now seen only in fictional televid dramatizations and in museums. "How does it defend itself?"

"A Turborator can channel the output of its hyperatomic generator into focused electromagnetic fields. Of course, the original ones were tuned to the brain pattern of Second Foundationers, but nothing prevents its being used to incapacitate any animal, as long as the Turborator emits the required EM pulses."

Vyky glanced at Lunanna. "What if there is no brain pattern for a Turborator to match and be tuned to?"

"What do you mean?" Myquel was puzzled by the question. "Any complex mammalian brain can be incapacitated by this Turborator. A moment ago it detected you brain pattern and sent you warning shot, scrambler signals that gave you an unpleasant sensation. Had the intensity and duration been increased, you would have lost consciousness."

Vyky suggested, "Maybe a mind pattern could be found that in resistant to the Turborator. Possibly a shield could be devised that would protect a person's brain..."

Myquel shook his head. "No. Were that possible, the Second Foundation would long ago have taken control of the galaxy. Instead, the miserable remnants of that cult hide on  remote ghetto worlds, waiting for opportunities to strike at IFP weaknesses."

Lunanna laughed. "Myquel is a mystic. He believes in ghostly Second Foundationers. Most people learned their history in school and know that the fledgling Second Foundation was eliminated long ago."

 

Myquel fixed his eyes on those of Vyky. "The threat of the Second Foundation has at least been minimized. However, I believe that Guardians must continue to resist the Socialists and their crazy rush towards Galaxia."

 

Lunanna told Vyky, "Myquel, like all IFP members, is frustrated by the inevitable consequences of his own fanaticism. Galaxia will be completed because most people understand the value of social unity. Poor Myquel is on the wrong side of history and he knows it."

Vyky had always imagined that the Second Foundation no longer existed, but what if rumors of a persisting remnant of that telepathic tribe were true? Maybe a world such as Mysyny was exactly where agents of the Second Foundation would be active, trying to control the balance between the SUP and the IFP. Vyky leaned forward and reached across the table, placing a hand on Ambra's arm where it rested on the table in front of her. Vyky tried to telepathically wiggle into the reporter's mind. Vyky got nowhere with her attempted deep telepathic probe of the reporter and only sensed typical electrical emanations from the woman's brain. "Tell me, Ambra, are there Second Foundationers on Mysyny?"

Ambra chuckled and looked at Vyky's hand where her gloves hid the fur that covered her palms and the backs of the hand. 

 

Vyky suspected that Ambra did not take the question seriously. Most people believed that the Second Foundation had long ago been destroyed. The Galactic Guardians were looked upon as misguided remnants of the past by most folks, little more than ceremonial guards. 

 

Rather than respond to Vyky's question, Ambra asked one of her own: "Vyky, why won't you link to me via telepaq?"

Vyky replied, "I suppose I'll have to link into your local network, eventually. However, I just arrived today and have not bothered to link in." She moved her hand across the table and now let it rest gently against Myquel's arm. "Myquel seems happy to shop for me and fill me up with alcohol, so I don't actually need a link into the planetary communications network." She had been constantly keeping her mother appraised of her activities by way of their linked Werefe telepaqs.

"I could not survive for five minutes without a link to the network." Lunanna commented, "While sitting here, I've been researching the Werefe." She asked Vyky, "Is it true that you can achieve telepathic linkages to other minds by using your hands as some kind of antenna?"

Vyky laughed uneasily. She would have been happy to deflect Lunanna's question and wondered why Ambra was not taking advantage of the opportunity given to her to discuss politics and keep them on the topic of her mother's beliefs and likely voting pattern in the Senate. She tried out an old joke: "You don't believe that Second Foundationers walk among us, but you do believe in Vulcans?" Vyky smiled at Lunanna and gave the Vulcan salute. "Is there profit in that old myth?"

Lunanna shrugged and asked with complete seriousness, "Why don't you answer my question?" She gestured towards where Vyky's hand still touched Myquel. "I've now seen you make rather awkward efforts to touch me, Ambra and Myquel. I noticed that your mother did the same to you when we were back in the Senatorium. There seems to be some truth behind the rumor that Werefe hands are used for telepathy."

Vyky knew there was no sense in denying the truth about her telepathic abilities. "Strangely, my telepathic ability does not work on you, Lunanna. Your mind seems like a hollow shell. Can you explain that?"

"I've been trained to control and shield my emotions."

"To protect yourself against being controlled by Second Foundationers?"

"To carry out my work. I'm expected to be a calm professional and not let emotions deflect my efforts and color my judgements."

Vyky laughed. "Is this now Socialist Party policy? The suppression of emotions? Will that be a feature of the SUP brain implants that you put into your newborn babies?" Vyky realized that her questions had become heated, loud and flung at Lunanna like darts. People at the nearby tables were looking at her. Many people around them were not speaking at all as they used their technology-assisted telepathy links, so Vyky's loud voice stood out.

Lunanna said, "According to my research, Werefe never use brain implants." She asked Vyky, "Is that a religious restriction?"

Vyky looked at Ambra. "I'm afraid we have drifted away from politics."

Ambra smiled. "Everything is political here on Mysyny." A small glass of amber liquid appeared on the t-form. Ambra picked it up and raised it towards Vyky, "Cheers". She took a sip.

Vyky lifted her own glass in return. "I thought you were not drinking?"

"I'm done working now. The interview ended a few minutes ago. I've learned what I wanted to know." The reporter took another sip of her drink. "Now this is a social occasion. I'm enjoying the banter."

 

Vyky set down her glass. "I suppose I should stop drinking." Her ears were buzzing slightly. She seldom drank and was very sensitive to the effects of alcohol. "Later on, I have to meet my mother for dinner. She'd be dismayed to find that upon reaching Mysyny I went out carousing and ended up drunkenly babbling to a reporter."

 

R. Gohrlay

"Don't feel bad, Vyky." Myquel noted, "I probably should not be drinking either, but officially, I'm still on my break shift. I never actually had a chance to clock in for work today. I suggest that we think of this outing as a friendly gathering, not some politically charged mistake."

 

Vyky asked, "Break?"

 

Myquel explained, "By tradition, we Guardians work an eight hour shift, then have an eight hour break then we do guard duty for eight hours. Then the cycle repeats. Endlessly."

Vyky looked into her glass, wondering how much alcohol she had consumed. "Wait, now. I'm confused. I thought you were guarding me..."

Myquel leaned his head close to Vyky. He laughed a bit drunkenly and told her, "I am, but the only danger here is Lunanna, so I might as well be on break." He drank some more beer. "When I mentioned guard duty, I referred to guarding my buddy. We Guardians always room together in pairs in the barracks so that when one of us sleeps, the other can stand guard."

Vyky shook her head and looked back and forth between Lunanna and Myquel. "How long have you two known each other?"

Myquel said, "Six years, three months and 14 days."

Lunanna said, "I've known Myquel for six years, five months and six days. I knew about Myquel before he graduated from the Academy, before we first met."

Grean (image credits)

Vyky was gazing at the small bubbles in the bottom of her glass. They seemed to be spinning around and around... Suddenly the room was quiet. She looked up. Myquel, Ambra and Lunanna were still there, seated around the table, but the rest of the Vicarage and its other patrons were gone. Their table was now in the middle of a luxuriously furnished room.

Ambra had a small grin on her face. Vyky, Myquel and Lunanna were all startled by their sudden change to a new environment. Ambra said, "I've taken us into space. We are now departing from the galaxy."

Vyky rose to her feet and the world briefly spun. "My mother..."

Ambra waved a hand, sending nanites into Vyky that would cancel the effects of the alcohol she had consumed. "Allow me to introduce myself. I use the convenient name 'Many Sails' when dealing with humans."

Lunanna asked, "You are pek?"

Ambra, the humanoid appendage of Many Sails, shook her head. "No, I am little more than a space wanderer, but I have become caught up in the unusual case of Humanity... thus, my recent visit to Mysyny."

Vyky felt her mind clearing and a strange calm came over her. She settled into her seat and asked, "Where are we?"

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"I teleported us here." Ambra made a wide sweeping gesture with her arm. "This is my spaceship. However, you need not worry about your mother, Vyky. You are a teleportation duplicate. Your copy on Mysyny will still have a quiet dinner with Senator Nodeseff this evening. Don't worry about that!" Many Sails glanced at Myquel and then at Lunanna, "Yes, you are also newly created duplicates. The lives of your copies will continue to unfold on Mysyny. However, you three are now on a new adventure."

Myquel took out his Turborator and tried to use it on Many Sails. Vyky felt a sickening dysphoria caused by the Mind Static device. Many Sails warned Myquel, "Your device has no effect on me, but you are disrupting Vyky's thought pattern. She is quite sensitive."

Myquel stopped boosting the power of the electromagnetic signal from the Turborator. He asked Many Sails, "You are an artificial lifeform?"

"Correct. I'm descended from biologicals, but for the past two billion years I have existed as a Sedronite. You, Myquel, are one of my helpers, what we might call a sedroid, in your Galactic Standard."

 

Vyky looked at Myquel with dismay. "You are not human?"

Myquel chuckled and assured Vyky. "I am biological. Cut me and I'll bleed. I get drunk just like you."

in an alternate Reality

Lunanna told Myquel, "You should listen to Many Sails. You may not be what you appear to be. We probots have long been suspicious that some dark mystery has allowed the Galactic Guardians to persist across the centuries, even while we tried to undermine you at every opportunity."

Vyky turned her head quickly towards Lunanna and asked, "Probots?"

Many Sails explained, "Vyky, I'm sorry to inform you that you are the only biological within 3,000 parsecs. Already we are in the nearly empty intergalactic space. I'm taking the three of you to the Andromeda galaxy where you will meet Grean, the Kac'hin who is awaiting my report."

Because of the infites given to her by Many Sails, Vyky now knew who Grean was. Grean the Kac'hin, who would soon go to Earth...

Lunanna told Myquel and Vyky, "I'm a positronic robot, designed to pass as human. It has been my task to help guide the formation of Galaxia." She turned towards Many Sails and said, "I suppose you are pleased to have captured me."

The appendage of Many Sails who was using the physical form of the human woman Ambra, shrugged and said, "I long ago obtained a sample positronic robot for analysis. However, you are of some interest because you are a newer model that is completely resistant to the mind-scrambling effects of the Turborators that are used by my sedroids." She tipped her head towards Myquel.

Myquel objected, "You are mistaken about me. I'm no sedroid." He told Many Sails firmly, "I assure you that I am human."

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Ambra spoke to Vyky, "I long ago deployed my sedroids in this galaxy." Many Sails touched Myquel's arm and it began to dissolve into its nanite components. Now Ambra told Myquel, "You Guardians had a special mission: to slow the development of Galaxia. You have done well, giving Grean time to prepare."

Myquel watched in horror as his arm disintegrated. Blood leaked out onto the table from the remaining stump of his arm, vigorously pumped by his heart. Then the process reversed and his component nanites returned to solidity, again in the form of a human arm complete with cells, red and otherwise. The spilled blood seemed to evaporate. Many Sails sent infites into Myquel that calmed him and explained his artificial origins.

Vyky gazed with wonder at the artificial woman she knew as Ambra Hetzey. Vyky was slowly accommodating herself to the idea that instead of a woman, this was an alien creature, a sophisticated artificial lifeform with advanced technology beyond her imagination. "Many Sails, tell me, why have you taken me... a copy of me..." She pleaded, "What do you want from me?"

Many Sails said, "Relax, child. This will be a great adventure for you. Few humans get to visit another galaxy." Many Sails explained, "I'm something of a collector. During the past few centuries the Werefe have become an interesting new human variant, worthy of closer investigation."

Myquel asked, "What is so special about Vyky?" He still felt a physical attraction to the girl, even as his thought processes adjusted to the recognition that he was a sedroid.

Lunanna told Myquel, "The Werefe have systematically altered their genomes so that they can physically connect their brains."

Many Sails

Myquel sputtered, "What do you mean?" He was imagining some ghastly brain surgery and a cable-like connection between two brains. His beer mug had also been teleported. Myquel picked it up off the table and drank some beer.

Vyky explained to Myquel, "We have been genetically modified so as to transform some of our hair follicles into a new type of sensory system. Using our special "hairs", we can insert electrosensitive axon endings through the skull of another Werefe, allowing for a precise linkage of minds."

Myquel was shocked. "Through the skull?"

"We are born with microscopic pores in our skull bones, just wide enough for insertion of fine sensory receptor cells."

Lunanna added, "So, that is why the Werefe don't use the standard telepaq brain implants! They don't need them."

Vyky took off her hat and pulled aside the hair that covered her Werefe telepaq. "This device has its tendrils inserted through my scull, even now. So you see, we Werefe have our own system of technology-assisted telepathy." She put her hat back on. "However, there is nothing more satisfying than direct hand-to-head contact which gives us a wonderfully intense merging of minds."

Lunanna suggested, "However, your special form of telepathy does not work with non-Werefe."

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Vyky shrugged. "Most humans lack the microscopic pores in their scull bones." She placed a hand on Lunanna's arm. "We have some ability to sense the mind patterns of others, but less so when we go out into regular human society with much of our skin depilated." Vyky pealed off her gloves, showing the soft fur that covered the palms of her hands. She pulled opened the top of her blouse, revealing the fur that covered her breasts. "We Werefe are quite hairy. So as not to alarm people, we remove some of our fur when we go out to live among the non-Werefe. The special electrosensitive 'hairs' of our hands give us our special telepathic sensitivity." She placed a hand against Lunanna's head. "So, you are robot." She briefly closed her eyes, trying one last time to detect an electrical signal from neurons. "I can tell that you do not have a human brain."

Many Sails explained, "The minds of the probots work on entirely different principles than biological brains. The probots are trying to assemble Galaxia as a defense against the alien pek. However, the positronic robots of Earth know nothing about sedronics. We have equipped Grean with sedronic tools that will allow her to take control of your galaxy."

Vyky asked, "What kind of tools?" The infites that Vyky had received from Many Sails told her that there were three types of matter: hadrons, hierions and sedrons.

Many Sails replied, "Devices such as Myquel and his fellow Guardians... simulated humans that the probots cannot distinguish from actual humans."

 

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Lunanna asked Many Sails, "With your technological superiority, why have you allowed Galaxia to form... it is almost complete..."

 

"The Huaoshy are fascinated by R. Gohrlay's grand scheme. Advisors such as myself have advocated a wait-and-see strategy." Many Sails asked rhetorically, "Is it possible that a group mind such as Galaxia is a viable future for the human species?"

"No!" Myquel shook his head emphatically. "If Galaxia is completed, all human diversity will be lost. There will be no alternative human variants such as the Werefe, only a vast homogenized Galaxia, identical on each world. Human evolution will end."

The Ambra appendge nodded. "Yes, Myquel, that is essentially the same conclusion that was reached by the Huaoshy. Thus, Grean will soon put an end to the Galaxia experiment and reclaim human destiny from the misguided hands of the probots."

Lunanna complained, "And once again that will be placing the fate of humanity in the hands of the pek." Lunanna told Vyky, "The pek plan to replace Humanity with another species, the Prelands. That will be the future fate of Humanity if we probots are defeated."

Vyky asked Many Sails, "That is your game? Alien invasion? Who are these Prelands? Creatures from another galaxy?"

Prelands

"Prelands were a human variant, carefully designed by the pek as the next step in human evolution." Many Sails tried to find a way to make matters clear to Vyky. "The pek worked for two billion years to bring Humanity into existence. Do you wish that they had stopped their process of directed evolution of life on Earth a hundred million years ago?"

Vyky suggested, "People should know about this struggle for the future of the human species." She asked Many Sails, "Do you intend to make yourselves known to the many worlds of the galaxy or will these alien pek remain the invisible puppet masters of Humanity?"

The Ambra appendage shook its head. "The Huaoshy have a set of ethical guidelines that limit contact between beings at different levels of technological development. It would not be safe to allow Humanity to know about the pek and things such as the powerful sedronic tools that they wield."

"Complete secrecy?" Myquel told Many Sails, "Then you are no better than the probots."

Vyky added, "I would prefer that humans have the right to exercise self-determination."

Ambra, the temporarily incorporated appendage of Many Sails, stood up. "The journey to Andromeda is rather lengthy. Maybe during the coming year I will be able to provide you with the needed time that will allow you to alter your thoughts... allow you to trust Grean. Perhaps not." Ambra disappeared, fusing back into the sentient spaceship that was Many Sails.

 

Vyky and Myquel both rose to their feet and looked around the room. Lunanna spoke to Myquel, "It is hard for me to accept that you are not human. I suppose we have to take the word of Many Sails." 

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Myquel walked to the near wall of the room and gazed out through an archway into the adjoining patio. Beyond was what looked like a garden. He could smell moist fragrant air scented with flowers. Now under the influence of infites provided to him by Many Sails, Myquel could not doubt his identity as a sedroid. "Hard for me to believe that we are in intergalactic space."

Vyky made one more attempt to establish a telepathic link to Lunanna's mind. She placed a hand at either side of Lunanna's head and closed her eyes. "Nothing. It is as if you have no detectable mind." Vyky pressed the palms of her hand against the robot's head. "As a Werefe, I pride myself on being able to catch wisps of thought even from a tiny mouse brain." She opened her eyes and let her hands fall away from Lunanna.

Lunnanna explained, "With an army of Guardians like Myquel storming around the galaxy, we probots took care to shield ourselves against Turborators and other possible dangers. Our telepathic abilities are completely independent of electromagnetic signals."

Myquel turned away from the patio and approached Lunanna, waving his Turborator at her. "I know the theory and the engineering of the Turborator. This is what saved the First Foundation... a powerful generator of electromagnetic fields, tuned to the telepathic brains of the Second Foundationers."

"We have encouraged human belief in telepathy mediated by EM fields." Lunanna chuckled. "You humans know nothing of hierion physics or the true physical basis probot telepathy."

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Vyky asked, "Hierion physics?"

"It should be obvious even to you that electromagnetic signals are not the basis of Galaxia. The Galaxia communications web allows for super-luminal rates of information transfer." Quantum computations made possible by hyper-relays made possible a telepathic defense (known as Galaxia) that R. Gohrlay was deploying against the pek, the old masters of Earth. "Probot telepathy uses a special hierion called the twitino. A similar system evolved in the human brain, but it is much less efficient at handling twitinos than a positronic brain."

Vyky objected, "I know that my electromagnetic sense gives me the ability to link my mind to another person's brain."

Lunanna nodded. "Yes, you Werefe have pushed the detection of brain EM patterns to an extreme, but you still rely on the computational power of your femtobot endosymbiont and its ability to send and receive twitinos. That is the secret of Galaxia that we have hidden from you humans."

Vyky was still skeptical, although mention of twitinos had triggered some of her infites to activate. Apparently, Many Sails wanted her to believe in the existence of a femtobot endosymbiont hidden inside human brains, but even as Vyky contemplated that possibility, she felt the presence of another mind. A Werefe mind.

Myquel saw a man approaching through the garden. He asked, "Who is this?"

Vyky turned and shouted, "Nerte!" She ran to him and threw her arms around him. "We were told that you died..."

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Nerte patted Vyky's head and began establishing a link to her brain using the sensory fibers of his hand fur. Like you, I'm a teleportation duplicate. As an aside, he told Many Sails: thank you for picking up Vyky.

Many Sails needed nothing as primitive as EM sensors or femtobots to telepathically link to humans. She used a technology-assisted telepathy system that worked by way of the human zeptite endosymbiont, which even the probots were not aware of. She told Nerte: Don't expect a free ride, Nerte. You've been stored in my teleportation buffer for three years. Take some time to catch yourself up on the past three years of Vyky's life, then we will start some experiments on Werefe telepathy.

Next: some backstory for the characters in "The Galaxiad"

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