In
The Book of Dreams by
Jack Vance, Demon Prince
Howard Alan Treesong is chastised by
Alice Wroke for having asked her to sleep with
Kirth Gersen in exchange for information about a contest in
Extant magazine. Treesong defends his past bad behavior by saying, "
My dear Alice, when one deals with high policy, one sometimes overlooks nice details." Earlier in the story, Gersen has described Treesong as, "...
a scoundrel and a criminal".
I approve of a story writing formula advocated by Isaac Asimov in which there can be two competing forces and antagonistic sides depicted in a story, but the reader may not be able to decide which one is correct in their views and deserves to win. Thus, in "The Alastor Network", when Lord Gensifer is captured by the Whelm, the Connatic is willing to overlook some "nice details" such as the fact that Lord Gensifer had Twycky Jeghtop abducted and brought to the planet Yrinna against her will.
 |
Alice Wroke flirting
with Henry Lucas at
their Extant office |
The Connatic does not forgive Lord Gensifer for his crimes, but knows that by working together they might learn something useful about the alien
Phari and their ancient project aimed at genetically engineering humans with great telepathic powers.
"The Alastor Network" began as a story about the Connatic's visit to Yerophet, but after 60,000 words and 12 chapters, I still have not managed to reach the planet Yerophet. In Chapter 13, the Connatic must visit Brevik and investigate the Pegasus telepathy project. The Connatic's wife, Acyreff, has already learned that telepathic embroids have been developed on Brevik and integrated into a network with a gigantic artificial intelligence system.
During the Whelm's
rescue mission to Yrinna during which Twycky was liberated from the Gensifer Clan, their telepathic Josef artificial intelligence system was lost in action. Grean the
Kac'hin knows that the minds of Josef and the QB5 embroid were somehow merged by the
Pheni of Yrinna, the native intelligent species of that world. The entity resulting from that merger, Joqueline, has slipped into the future, but
Grean predicts that Joqueline will some day return to the past. Anticipating that return,
Kasya Jeghtop is now keeping the QB5 embroid alive, having gotten Dr. Hines to implant QB5 inside her uterus.
The Pheni of Yrinna have apparently taken sides and helped Joqueline prevent Jamile Gensifer from mobilizing the Yrinna planetary defenses against the Whelm team that rescued Twycky. Since the Pheni could merge QB5 and Josef and make Joqueline, will they also eventually be able to return the mind of QB5 to her embroid body?
Netal
At the end of part 12 of "The Alastor Network", the crew of the Whelm cruiser
Netal is trying to understand what happened to the Josef artificial intelligence. During the rescue mission that liberated Twycky from Yrinna, Josef stopped functioning. Private Shermatz, a cadet still in training at the Whelm Academy on Numenes, is doing a summer internship on board the
Netal. The second identity of Private Shermatz is Heshlo, the son of the Connatic. During Twycky's rescue, Private Shermatz experienced a telepathic connection to both Josef and the Pheni of Yrinna.
Now also on board the Netal is Inspector Ryl Shermatz, a high ranking officer of the Whelm. When the Connatic goes out among the people of Alastor Cluster, he often uses the identity of Ryl Shermatz.
Ryl has learned from his son Heshlo that the Phari have some ability to control the behavior of Lord Gensifer. Ryl hopes to utilize Lord Gensifer's knowledge and experience to help develop an understanding of how the Pheni were able to merge Josef and QB5. Ryl must go to Brevik in order to learn how the Core artificial intelligence of the Pegasus telepathy project was effected by the creation of Joqueline.
During the rescue of Twycky, both Lord Gensifer and Lady Gensifer were captured by the Whelm. They now accompany Ryl to Brevik. Ryl is not yet aware that it is Lady Gensifer who has a special telepathic connection to the alien Pheni of Yrinna. In her youth, Lady Gensifer was a hussade player and it was her amazing hussade skills that brought her to the attention of Lord Gensifer.
N Nykark
The
Nykark was used to rescue Twycky, taking advantage of the fact that Captain Sally Lanting was familiar with the secret starmenter procedures for obtaining clearance to land a spaceship on Yrinna. After the
Nykark was captured by the Whelm, Grean the Kac'hin used her advanced
infite technology to take control of Sally's mind, shifting her loyalties from Lord Gensifer to Acyreff, the Connatic's wife.
At the end of
part 12 of "The Alastor Network", some of the original crew members of the
Nykark are ready to return to Yrinna. Most of the crew of
Nykark now consists of Whelm fleet members, newly assigned to
Nykark. Among these is Commander Jenking who has been ordered by the Connatic to take
Nykark to the Blazon spaceport near
Numenes. There, the
Nykark's hull will be repaired.
The Connatic is relying on Acyreff and Rupert Gensifer to make arrangements for the repatriation of
Nykark crew members who wish to return to Yrinna. Also on board
Nykark are two robots from
Triskelion,
Vez and Coz.
Appenine
The Whelm cruiser
Appenine took Acyreff and Kasya Jeghtop from Numenes to Brevik. The
Appenine is Acyreff's preferred spaceship for travel around Alastor Cluster, but at the end of part 12 of "The Alastor Network", Acyreff transferred over to
Isirjin Ziaspraide in order to deal with legal problems arising from the rescue mission that she led on Yrinna.
Now on board Appenine at the end of part 12 of "The Alastor Network" are Twycky and Kasya Jeghtop. Twycky is an expert in the history of robotics and has been helping the Pegasus telepathy project obtain advanced technology from Triskelion. Kasya is a spaceship engineer and a major figure in the Brevik Shadow Drone project.
 |
| QB5 |
Kasya attempted to make use of QB5 as her technical liaison for technology transfer between the Josef telepathy project of the Whelm and and the Pegasus telepathy project on Brevik. However, that effort has been disrupted. The minds of QB5 and Joseph were merged, leaving the QB5 embroid in a precarious position. To prevent the death of the embroid, Kasya asked Dr. Hines of the
Appenine to implant QB5's body inside her uterus. Now the
Appenine is taking the Jeghtop sisters and Kasya's husband, Mando, back to Brevik.
ds Isirjin Ziaspraide
The
Isirjin Ziaspraide was damaged during the rescue mission on Yrinna.
Isirjin Ziaspraide must now return to Blazon spaceport for repairs. However, before departing for Numenes, Acyreff and Rupert need to make arrangements for the return to Yrinna of a group of first responders who were taken into protective custody during Twycky's rescue.
On board Isirjin Ziaspraide is the robot Sol. Sol was Twycky's personal robot, but at the end of part 12 of "The Alastor Network", Twycky is not happy with Sol. It was Sol who artificially inseminated Twycky with Rupert's sperm. While on Yrinna, Sol developed a close relationship with Rupert. Also on board Isirjin Ziaspraide is the lawyer, Forshytte. Legal Specialist Forshytte wants to prosecute Captain Lanting for the abduction of Twycky. She hopes to find Sally at Blazon spaceport.
 |
coming attractions
|
I started writing "The Alastor Network" back at the end of December in 2020. At that time, I decided that my "
Change Challenge" for 2021 would be another attempt to alter the way I deal with characters in my stories. I wanted to create a complete backstory and family for Jack Vance's famous character, Ryl Shermatz. So far in "The Alastor Network", Ryl has only appeared via videophone calls, but that is about to change. Part 13 of "The Alastor Network" is in a blog post called "
The Pheni Effect" in which Ryl is there in the flesh, investigating the Pegasus telepathy project on Brevik. In "
The Hui-chi" I will introduce a new type of hybrid humanoid that has gene combinations from both humans and the
fwai-chi of Marune. One last draft blog post is "
Mystery of Maturin."
Maturin is the replicoid of
Nirutam and can be expected to show up in "The Alastor Network" as soon as the action shifts to Yerophet.
Next: Asimov's telepathic robot
Herbie
No comments:
Post a Comment