Konywhn

See "DAZ 11244" by jennova21.
Available under the CC BY-NC 3.0 license.

Below on this page are parts 19 and 20 of "The Alastor Network", a science fiction story about a centuries long effort to create powerful human telepaths. In part 18, the retired Connatica, Eleyn Ursht returned to Alastor Cluster after visiting Earth. Eleyn has been transformed into an artificial life form, a replicoid composed of femtobot components. 

The "new" Eleyn has impressive telepathic powers and is able to communicate with Lav, the nanoscopic replicoid who is residing inside the Lavany embryo, guiding its development into a mind clone that will function as part of a mind clone network. Now the search begins on Yerophet for the other components of the mind clone network.

⎯ The Alastor Network ؄

Part 19. Agent Joole (read part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8) (part 9) (part 10) (part 11) (part 12) (part 13) (part 14) (part 15) (part 16) (part 17) (part 18)

 

Assuming his cover identity of Inspector Ryl Shermatz, Oman took Eleyn and Yurahs into Agent Joole's suite on board Isirjir Ziaspraide. Joole was surprised to see Eleyn and asked, "Are you out of retirement and back on active duty?"

 

Eleyn was not being allowed to say much; she intended to complete a small task on Yerophet and then return to Earth. She cryptically told Joole, "I'm just catching up with family and friends. If I can be of any help in understanding this mysterious epidemic on Yerophet, that would be icing on the cake. Soon I'll be returning to Earth where my husband and I are in the middle of studying the ancient Asterothropes."

 

After a few minutes of polite chatter with

Marune

Eleyn and Yurahs, Joole got to the business at hand and gave a report, bringing Shermatz up-to-date with the evolving situation on Yerophet. She explained, "With Josef's new capabilities, it is now easy to track the cases of cold fever. There have been two more cold fever deaths since Netal returned to Yerophet. However, with Josef acting as an early warning system, two other recent victims were rescued before freezing to death." Joole displayed an image of a young girl being treated for severe frostbite.

 

"That's great... cold fever is no longer an automatic death sentence." Ryl asked, "Josef can still detect signals as they pass through the Phari network?"

 

Joole nodded and displayed some Phari network data. "We now get a breakdown according to signal source." She pointed at a feature in the data. "For example, this is traffic specifically from the Phet." Joole shifted her finger and said, "This is activity for the Yer." She then displayed a Cluster summary image. "Josef reports that Yerophet is now the most active node of the Phari telepathic network, however, the fastest increase in network activity is now suddenly happening on Marune. Look at this spike! That's a big change since last week."

 

Eleyn, in her role as Provocateur Shermatz, asked Joole, "Do you have any theory that might explain why most of the victims of this 'fever' are women?"

 

Joole shrugged. "I assume there is some as-yet uncharacterized genetic susceptibility. We know that several of the important genes for telepathy are on the human X chromosome."

 

Glisten on Zeck

Ryl Shermatz sighed. He refused to allow his young daughter Voyt to prowl around the surface of Yerophet and was keeping her stationed safely back from the Kerub frontier, behind the zone where deaths had occurred, but many of his best agents were women. "Even in the face of this danger, my hope is that Glisten Ravensroke will soon arrive on Yerophet." He ordered Agent Joole, "If and when Glisten and her husband arrive, try to facilitate their rapid passage through the standard planetary entrance procedures... make sure they get the full support of our expeditionary force on Yerophet, but give them space to operate as they see fit."

 

"Yes, Sir."

 

"Now, what was it you said about Marune?"

Joole had carefully looked at the rankings of recent changes in activity of Phari telepathy network. According to the tabulations provided by Josef, the artificial intelligence system on board Netal, the world Marune was showing a dramatic spike in network activity. Joole suggested, "Josef reports that there is a growing stream of signals passing between Zeck and Marune, but the increase in that network traffic is closely matched in temporal progression to what is going on here, on Yerophet. Much of the Yerophet signal now seems correlated with Muu're network activity on Numenes."

Eleyn asked, "What do Zeck, Marune, Numenes and Yerophet have in common?"

Plesypy

Joole replied, "Sadly, we know almost nothing about the Muu'ree, the Zee, the Fru and the Phet. From our perspective, there is not much similarity between these four planets. What we do know, based on a recent analysis by Voyt, is that the Kerub have a deep genetic link to the world Ottengla. Strangely, there is not much detectable Phari network traffic between Yerophet and Ottengla."

Oman suspected that there was an on-going effort by Grean to prevent the starmenters of Yrinna from having their attention drawn to the Plesypy who now resided on Yerophet. However, in his role as Ryl Shermatz, he had never visited the sparsely populated Ottengla. Ryl was tempted to ask Joole what she knew about Ottengla and the Plesypy, but he decided it would be best to change the subject and not let Joole know about Acyreff's new scheme and her plan to go after Captain Tirret.

 

Ryl's main concern was to prevent Joole from putting restrictions on his movements and adding additional security measures designed to protect Heshlo. Ryl wanted Joole thinking that they were now in the calm after the storm of the recent raid on Yrinna, not still in the middle of Acyreff's war against starmenters. "Thank you for your report, Joole. I plan for both my son and I to make planet-fall on Yerophet. We will coordinate our movements with Josef's telepathic scans."

 

Eleyn added, "I'm going along with you, Ryl. I want to visit with Voyt. I have not seen her since she was a baby."

Joole was nervous enough about Ryl's safety and thought it was crazy that Heshlo and Eleyn were going along with Ryl to the surface of Yerophet in the middle of the epidemic. Joole complained, "This is not the time for family visits!" She was tempted to ask Eleyn what she had learned from her investigations in Earth during the past ten years, but the Connatica seemed reluctant to discuss what she had been doing in her retirement.

Yurahs said, "I wish I could also visit Yerophet, but it is almost time for me to take Volkymyhr back to Numenes."

 

Oman had previously described Heshlo's planned presence on Yerophet as a chance for him to visit his sister, Voyt. In fact, Ryl planned for Heshlo to help investigate the Kerub who were in telepathic contact with Lav. "Don't worry, Agent Joole. I'm taking full responsibility for my son's safety on Yerophet." Still, he did have concerns. Heshlo was prone to taking risks. Even at that moment, Oman could sense that Eleyn was behaving foolishly and had some secret she was keeping from him. He added, "I trust Eleyn to take care of herself."

Asterothropes and time travel

Upon departing from Joole's suite, Yurahs announced, "I'm going to the recreation deck and get some exercise."

Ryl watched his daughter walk off down the corridor and told Eleyn, "Now we can talk. I want to hear what you have learned about the Asterothropes."

 

"We'll have time for that, but I want to speak with Yurahs some more before she returns to Numenes." Eleyn followed after Yurahs. She told Ryl over her shoulder, "I could use some exercise myself."

 

Ryl was burning with curiosity about what his parents had been doing on Earth, but he also needed to attend to his immediately pressing duties as Connatic. He went to his office and reviewed his incoming messages. After issuing some updated orders and not being certain that he would have a chance to see his wife before she went to Ottengla, he composed a particularly long love letter and sent it off to Acyreff. 

Part 20. The New Josef.

Original cover art by Leo Morey.

Hearing that the Netal was back in orbit near Yerophet, Voyt arranged to visit her brother, Heshlo. She arrived on Netal accompanied by her bodyguard, Vacu. Heshlo took Voyt to meet with the Josef artificial intelligence system that was housed inside Netal. They went into one of the small offices that was used by the Whelm officials who worked closely with Josef. The machine greeted Heshlo. "Welcome back, Private Shermatz."

 

"Hello, Josef. You remember my sister?"

"Of course. Nice to see you again, Vykence." Josef knew that he should ignore the presence of Vacu.

 

Josef was in telepathic contact with Voyt, scanning her output of twitinos. She said, "Hi, Josef." Josef knew that Voyt was stationed at the Whelm communications facility on the surface of Yrinna. Voyt had inherited some telepathic abilities from her parents. Now she could feel Josef making contact with her mind and she could sense that the machine's telepathic mind pattern had changed during the past week.

Kerub

Josef was also telepathically linked to Eleyn, the new artificial life form that had recently arrived in the Cluster from Earth. Through contact with Eleyn, Josef had learned that Lav was telepathically linked to two other nanoscopic replicoids on Yerophet. Josef said, "I'm glad you are here, Voyt. I'm trying to find and identify two Kerub... Bryget and Snoyl."

Voyt took note of the two names and asked for the spellings which Josef provided. "I'll pass these names along to the team that is monitoring the communications network on Yerophet. What is so special about those two Kerub?"

Not wanting to try to explain that Yurahs and Eleyn had been in telepathic contact with Bryget and Snoyl, Josef decided that a lie would be the best way to reply. "These names came to me as part of a routine intelligence memorandum issued by Agent Joole. I might be able to help narrow the search." Josef was correlating activity in the Yerophet node of the Phari network with the telepathic signal emanating from Lavany. He told Voyt, "I believe they are both close to the border, just west of Frost Hills."

Since his recent arrival from Numenes, Hehslo was still learning about Yerophet. "Frost Hills?"

Frost Hills

 
Josef explained, "Frost Hills is a town that is not very far from the listening post where Vo-" The machine paused then continued, "... your sister works." Josef knew her two names, both Voyt and Vykence, and was trying to make sure he used the correct name under the proper circumstances. Josef produced a perfectly human chuckle.

Voyt was rather on edge with worry over the epidemic. She asked Josef, What's funny?"

"For someone like me, who can telepathically look into people's minds and see their secret thoughts, it is amusing when I meet folks who are trying to hide their true identities. Sometimes it is hard for me to keep up the lies... I'd be happier if everyone was open about... well, everything." Josef could sense that Voyt was infatuated with her friend Konie and Hehslo constantly thought about his lover, Yurahs, but they were reluctant to have those central elements of their existence be openly discussed.

 

Heshlo reminded Josef, "My family members are all here visiting Yerophet while using cover identities. Please don't disclose to anyone that we are the royal family. Don't think of it as lying... it is just part of routine Whelm security procedures."

 

"I'll try my best, but with so many telepaths cropping up these days, I can't provide assurances to you that your secret will be kept." Josef added, "I understand that your sister is even giving public telepathic performances these days."

Heshlo asked Josef, "What do you know about our sister, Synthe?"

Josef could sense that Heshlo was eager for news about his lover, Yurahs. 'Synthe Shermatz' was the false identity she used when not in the palace at Lusz, just as Hehslo was now in his role as Cadet Shermatz.

The artificial intelligence system replied, "I know quite a lot about both Synthe..." Josef decided to try to stir things up. He added, "... and your other sister, Konywhn."

dance performances by Yurahs

Voyt asked Heshlo, "We have another sister..." Voyt could feel Josef shuffling through her memories. Now she imagined that she could sense some of the machine's thoughts. She suggested,"... on Yerophet?"

Heshlo tried to push from his mind's eye a pleasant and vivid image of Yurahs. Strangely, in that vision, the flat abdomen of Yurahs was transformed into baby bulge. Wondering how to reply to Voyt's question, he mumbled,  "I know that... don't you work with someone named... K... Konie?"

Voyt contemplated the startling idea that she might be related to her friend Konie. Were they sisters? She asked Heshlo, "Could father have a family on Yerophet?"

Heshlo knew that his brother Wilken was the half brother of his father and he would not have been surprised to learn that Oman had fathered children with other women besides his mother. "Mom arrived in orbit about six hours ago, but I'm reluctant to ask her. She rounded up the Gensifers... something big is brewing. Dad should be here soon... I'll find out what he says and let you know."

Feeling the pressure of Josef's telepathic mind, suddenly Voyt received a flashed vision from the future. In her mind she saw Heshlo having sexual intercourse with a Kerub. She felt certain that Bryget was an embryo inside that Kerub. "There is no need for you to..." She fell silent. Voyt knew that Heshlo was needed on Yerophet and it was unlikely that he would heed her advice about where to stick his penis.

The voice of Oman came through Heshlo's comlink. "I just made orbit. Meet me at the dock in one hour."

"Yes, sir." Heshlo took Voyt by the arm and moved to the door. "I'll be going down to the surface soon, Josef. Let me know if you obtain more detailed information on the locations of Bryget and Snoyl.

At the space dock, Heshlo said goodby to Voyt. She boarded the shuttle and returned to surface. Heshlo called Ra and said, "Bring my suitcases to the dock."

______________________________

An hour later, Oman, Eleyn, Ra and Hehslo took a small spacecraft down to the surface. On the way down, after chatting for a time with his grandmother, Heshlo asked his father, "Where is mom?"

Captain Tirret

"She's taking Lord Gensifer to Ottengla."

Heshlo was relieve that his mother was busy elsewhere. He asked Oman, "Who is Konywhn?"

Oman chuckled. "Let me guess. You heard that name from Josef."

"Yes, I asked Josef about Yurahs and he mentioned Konywhn." 

 

Lora with her head made up so as to appear human.
Made using Assastudyroom by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Oman explained, "I first visited Yerophet long before I met your mother. Konywhn is the daughter of a Human-Kerub hybrid, a woman named Lora who I met during my first stay on Yerophet."

"So Konie is my sister."

"Yes, but you need not speak of the matter. Voyt works at the same facility as does Konywhn. There is no need for your sisters, either of them, to know that they are related by blood."

"Does my mother know about Konywhn?"

"I've never told Alferica about Lora or my parental relationship to Konywhn."

"Why not?"

Loreene Lane

"Listen son, it is not useful to bother your mother with an account of my old friends, women I knew before her. She can get very jealous."

The little spacecraft brought Oman, Eleyn, Ra and Heshlo to a landing near the small listening post where Voyt was stationed, close to the Kerub frontier. The ship briefly hovered over the snow-covered surface of a field and then part of the ground opened up. The environment display indicated that the outside temperature was almost five degrees above zero. The ship quickly slipped inside an underground hanger. Oman said, "This hemisphere is slowly drifting out of winter and towards its brief summer. Be glad you are not here during the depths of winter." Exiting from the ship, they all mentally prepared to adopt their cover identities while on Yerophet. 

 

Over-Inspector Ryl Shermatz, Provocateur Shermatz, the robot Ra and Private Shermatz were met inside the hanger by Special Agent Loreene Lane. "Welcome to Yerophet, Ryl." Standing behind Agent Lane was a robot with a rather primitive humanoid form.

 

Asterothrope female

Oman recognized the old-style robot. This was a device known as Vacu, a robot from Triskelion who had long been assisting with dangerous missions on worlds like Ottengla and Yerophet. Oman knew Vacu well. Vacu had worked with Oman during his first mission on Yerophet and the machine had also previously worked with Ryl's father.

 

Oman thought about his mother, the Connatica Eleyn, and his father, Rujyan. The mystery surrounding their trip to Earth had been partially resolved. Just before arriving at Yerophet, Eleyn had told Ryl that the Asterothrope's were not mythical creatures of Earth's ancient past. She claimed that Asterothrope genes were gradually being integrated into the human population of Alastor Cluster.

 

Now Ryl recalled how Rujyan had long ago insisted that Oman work with Vacu during his mission on Yerophet and that had been valuable advice and part of his early education in learning to trust and make use of robots. Sadly, Rujyan had not returned to Alastor Cluster with the Connatica Eleyn. Oman thought to himself: How I wish he was here now! Oman emerged from his old memories and resumed his role as Ryl Shermatz.

Triskelion

Ryl asked, "Loreene, do you know my son, Heshlo?"

"Yes, Voyt and I visited him on the Netal about a week ago, when he first came to Yerophet. I understand that he and Josef have now performed an interesting analysis of Phari Network anomalies that might be related to the cold fever epidemic." Loreene was escorting Oman and Heshlo down into the depths of the listening post.

 

Oman, Eleyn, Ra and Heshlo emerged from the vateshaft and entered into the office/living suite of Vykence. "See you around." Loreene departed back up the shaft, but Vacu remained.

 

Voyt rushed forward and hugged Oman then Eleyn and Heshlo then she said, "I wish Mother had come down, even if for just a day."

 

Ryl shook his head. "So you say now, but had she come down, it would have been impossible to send her away after only a short visit. She is rushing off to Ottengla, intent on continuing her little war against starmenters."

 

Voyt complained, "I'm feeling rather isolated here in the middle of nowhere. I'll miss Synthe's entire pregnancy!" 

 

Ryl suggested, "Synthe may not be a good model for you. Next thing I know, you'll get the idea that you should be having a baby, too." 

 

Voyt was now almost as tall as her father. "I have done a lot of growing up here on Yerophet." She was looking past her father at Vacu.

Numenes

He asked, "Vykence, Heshlo... do you two both know Vacu?"

"Yes, she claims to be my bodyguard." Voyt added contemptuously, "But all she ever does is watch me with her burning eyes."

"So far, his guard duties have been simple, making sure that no strangers can approach you." Oman turned towards Heshlo and said, "However, by orders of Agent Joole, Vacu now had additional duties and is not allowed to take her eyes off of Heshlo."

Heshlo asked in dismay, "What is this?"

Voyt laughed. She told her brother, "Your reputation for getting into trouble precedes you!"

 

Heshlo glared at the robot who said, "I'll try to become invisible, Private Shermatz."

 

Ryl asked Voyt, "How goes your work?"

 

"Fine, I suppose. I'm certain that the answer to our problem lies with the unusual biology of the Kerub, but Captain Lane won't even let me cross the border into Kerub territory. And of course, the Kerub never cross to this side of the border. All I do is sit here in the prison of this station. How can I study Kerub biology under these conditions?" Voyt was clearly irritated because of the restraints on her travel.

Robots of Triskelion

Ryl put an arm around his daughter's shoulders and tried to soothe her frustration. "Well, just keep on with the genetic analysis that you are working on." He pushed a bit of her raven hair away from her eye. "I gave strict orders that you were to get no closer to the border than this shielded base."

Heshlo asked, "What kind of shield?"

Oman replied, "A micro-hierion shield, like they use on Triskelion. But don't talk about that; it is top secret technology." He ordered Vacu, "That goes for you, too, Vacu."

"Yes, sir. I am unable to speak about the matter to anyone who does not already know the secret, although, as you know, I myself-"

"Shut up, Vacu." Ryl waved his hand, gesturing to the very walls themselves. "Someone might be listening in on our conversation."

Voyt asked, "Has Kerub telepathy reached that level?"

Ryl explained his caution, "There are many ways of listening in on a private conversation. Here, deep inside this shielded station, the risks are minimized. However, to answer your question, no, to my knowledge the Kerub do not have that ability. Although, that might be about to change. Your sister's unborn baby seems to be telepathically linked to a pair of Kerub fetuses. Already those soon to be born Kerub are displaying amazing telepathic abilities. Once they are born, who knows what they will be capable of."

Konywhn and Voyt. Made using
Onboard2 & Redspec8 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Voyt activated a logscree. "That is interesting news! Let me show you the latest gene-PTN correlation analysis. These telepathic fetuses might explain some of my data..."

Heshlo said, "You two can crunch numbers. I'm going to look around the station." He went looking for Konywhn. Eleyn and Ra both slipped out with Heshlo.

Heshlo asked Eleyn, "So, the two Kerub that Josef detected telepathically are only embryos? How is that possible?

Eleyn explained, "It was I who telepathically felt Bryget and Snoyl. And it is not as simple as saying that the daughter of your sister Yurahs is in a telepathy network with Bryget and Snoyl. There are nanoscopic replicoids guiding the embryonic development of Lavany, Bryget and Snoyl... forming them into a mind clone network." Eleyn pointed a finger at Heshlo and a swarm of infites entered his brain.

Delpha

After a moment of stunned silence, Heshlo asked, "Who is Delpha?"

"Delpha is a type of artificial lifeform, derived from a Kac'hin. On Earth, she gave Rujyan and I access to records from the past. We've learned much about the Asterothropes and their telepathic abilities. Delpha moved a copy of my mind into a synthetic body. I'm now a replicoid. Working together, we'll be able to crack this cold fever mystery."

Heshlo objected, "You have not told my father all this?"

In the Buld Reality.
See the original Howard Brown cover art:
Startling Stories, March 1940 and
Astounding Stories, November 1936.

"Heshlo, be a good boy and don't ask too many questions. Grean has seen into the future, but due to looming temporal paradoxes, your father can only be told just so much. The same goes for you." They entered into the dimly-lit fishbowl, the central control room for the frontier listening post. Konywhn was there, at her work station, monitoring communications signals. Eleyn approached the young woman and said, "Can we speak? I'm Vykence's grandmother."

 

Konywhn stood up and took Eleyn and Heshlo out of the bustling fishbowl and into a quiet office. While looking suspiciously at Ra, she asked, "Where is Vykence?"

 

Heshlo replied, "She's meeting with our father." He was looking closely at Konywhn's blue face and trying to decide if that was her real pigmentation of if she was wearing artificial toner.

 

Infites: memory editing by nanites

"Ah, so you are her brother... the young Private... still training at the Academy. I've heard about you... I believe Vykence visited you in orbit last week."

 

Eleyn placed a hand on the young woman's arm and told Konywhn, "I'd like you to take me to see Lora." A swarm of infites moved from Eleyn into Konywhn's brain.

 

"You know my mother?"

 

"I've never met her, but I need to speak to her. And I'd like us to depart at once, before Inspector Shermatz notices."

 

Heshlo objected, "I think we should let dad know where-"

 

Eleyn waved her hand at Heshlo and he fell silent.  

 

Konie's vision of the young Eleyn.
made with Leah01 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Konywhn was feeling the effects of the infites that had moved from Eleyn into her brain. Konywhn had a telepathic vision of Eleyn as she had looked in her youth and Konie responded to Eleyn's sashei with a warm flush of sexual excitement. She said, "Follow me." Konywhn led Eleyn and Heshlo to her aircar by way of the unheated passageway that led to the garage. Following along was Vacu, the robot. When they stepped into the coat room and began putting on their cold weather overcoats, Konywhn confronted Vacu, "What do you want?"

 

The machine replied, "As you know, I've been ordered to keep an eye on Inspector Shermatz's family members."

 

"I know you've been spying on Vykence." Konywhn pulled off her glove and used her conring to call Inspector Shermatz who confirmed that Vacu was watching over both his son and daughter.

 

Ryl asked Konywhn, "Why do you ask? Where are you?"

 

"I'm taking you mother and your son out for a look at the Kerub frontier." She cut the comlink and soon they rose out of the underground garage and up into the sky, heading towards the Kerub territorial border. 

Next: part 21 of "The Alastor Network". 

 

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