The Good, The Bad and The Clever

Duissane seduces Glinnes (image source)

One of the great things about the internet is that it allows the fans of writers such as Isaac Asimov and Jack Vance to exchange and share their thoughts about great works of science fiction, fantasy and other literary genres. With regularity, I search the internet for new commentary on the stories that were published by my favorite Sci Fi authors.

The Good. It is not uncommon for me to link to commentators who do a nice job of summarizing specific stories. For example, three years ago, as part of my own comments on Trullion, I linked to some online commentary about Trullion by Thomas M. Wagner. Wagner stressed the fact that Trullion is an interesting story. I'd add that Vance's stories are also often fun and clever, which makes them a pleasure to read and repeatedly re-read.

original cover art by Dorian Vallejo

As I cruise the interwebs in search of interesting fan commentary on Sci Fi stories, Asimov's ideas about book reviews are never far from my thoughts. Six years ago I mentioned that in 1981, Asimov wrote an essay about book reviews in which he admitted how much it hurt him whenever his stories were harshly reviewed. In that essay ("Book Reviews"), Asimov provided a list of six requirements that a book reviewer should take pains to satisfy when reviewing a work of fiction. Asimov pointed out that book reviewers should be careful and carefully read every word of a book that they review.

With Asimov's six requirements for reviewers in mind, I seldom try to write a review. This blog is full of what I call non-reviews; commentary on stories that have purposes other than trying to be an actual review.

marketing hype

 The Bad. One of the dangers of roaming the internet in search of commentary on Sci Fi stories is that some people are paid to write glowingly of books as part of marketing schemes that aim to separate readers from their money. I previously blogged about this annoyance and suggested that fans need to step up and provide a counter-balance to marketing scams. In essence, Sci Fi fans need to be vocal when a published story is bad and should be avoided by readers, particularly when the story is hyped by unethical and deceptive marketing. 

The End of Eternity

Of course, there are some honest differences of opinion about what constitutes good fiction, so what is needed are insightful and detailed commentaries on books that allow potential readers to make good judgements about whether they will enjoy a book or despise a book.

The Clever. While a clever writer like Vance could routinely write interesting stories, Asimov warned about the danger of clever reviewers. Asimov wrote, "...the purpose of the review is not to demonstrate the superior erudition of the reviewer or to make it seem as if the reviewer could write the book better than the author did." For example, when I recently pointed out what seems to be an error in The End of Eternity, I was not complaining. I'm amazed that prolific writers like Asimov and Vance made so few errors. The errors of good writers are often interesting in themselves, sort of like a Freudian slip.

cover art by Boris Vallejo

"Good luck looks to be bad luck". Similarly, when I recently blogged about Glawen Clattuc and his failure to arm himself before visiting Thurben Island, you might wonder if I was simply trying to point out a problem with Vance's story. Not at all. One of the great things about Vance is that he often showed the failings of his protagonists. For example, in The Killing Machine, Kirth Gersen is depicted as being a crafty, competent man, but then one day he slips up and is captured by his enemy. After being mocked by his adversary for his remarkable stupidity in allowing himself to be captured, all Gersen can say about his carelessness is, "It was a poor move." Of course, Gersen's blunder eventually lead$ to a va$t reward, so in the end, the failing$ of Vance's protagonist appear to actually be exceptionally good luck that was initially disguised as failure. A perfect protagonist who never makes a mistake would be far less interesting than the fallible Kirth Gersen character created by Vance.

Cosmopolis, October 1923

All of the above brings me to some online commentary by Jacob Armstrong about Vance's novel Star King. Jacob bluntly derides Gersen with this statement: "This Kirth Gersen character, interplanetary avenger, isn’t just flat and boring—he is a bumbling moron!" However, this may be a sad case of a pot calling a kettle black.

I suspect that Jacob quickly read Star King and then wrote his commentary on the novel without really understanding what he had read. First of all, the story begins at Smade's Tavern, not "Smeade's" Tavern. Personally, I can't spell, so I don't really care if Jacob writes about "Smeade's Tavern" ... maybe Jacob has a copy of Star King from an alternate Reality in which Vance invented a distant exoplanet called "Smeade's Planet". However, spelling errors always make one wonder if there might be more consequential errors lurking nearby.

image source

 Lucky coincidence. I'm in complete sympathy with Jacob when he reacts to the apparent lucky coincidence that when Gersen arrives at Smade's Tavern, the only other guest of the establishment is a Star King. Vance lets readers know that there are perhaps a few hundred Star Kings living among humans on the many settled planets of the galaxy. Star King's are aliens who, due to their physical similarity to humans, are able to disguise themselves as humans and sometimes live undetected among humans. This is the first time that Gersen has seen a Star King, as far as he knows. We never learn how Smade knew that his patron was a Star King, but we can make guesses. Smade does not like to gossip about his guests, but within minutes of Gersen's arrival at the Tavern, Smade can't resist telling Gersen that a Star King is in residence at the Tavern.

Smade's Planet

Vance often used odd coincidences and strokes of luck to speed along his stories. Vance seldom allowed his stories to drag and get bogged down in plot minutia. I can understand if this practice irritates some readers. However, in my case, I like to imagine that some of Vance's characters may have had forms of extrasensory perception (or telepathy) that contributed to their "good luck", so I don't cry "foul!" when I see unlikely coincidences in a story like Star King. 

Also, it is healthy to remember that writers like Vance were often forced to write quickly (at "pulp speed") in order to feed their families, so we should cut them some slack when we find plot holes in their stories.

image source

 Back to Smade's Tavern. Arriving soon after Gersen at the Tavern is Lugo Teehalt, a space explorer who has recently discovered the location of a beautiful Earth-like planet. Teehalt is in a quandary because he is now expected to provide the location of this pretty planet to the evil Malagate, a well-known criminal and the person who financed Tehalt's space exploration mission. Jacob seems to mis-remember Lugo Teehalt as having told Gersen that Malagate was a Star King. However, in Vance's story there is no indication that Tehalt knew Malagate's well-kept secret: that Malagate is a Star King. Also, it is clear in Vance's story that when Teehalt sees the Star King in Smade's Tavern, he does not know that this is Malagate. Apparently, Smade also informed Teehalt that the third guest at the Tavern was a Star King. Readers never learn how Smade knew that his guest was a Star King, so I've written a fan-fiction story that tries to explain that.

Pardon my French, Hildemar!

Jacob falsely states that, "Malagate the Woe is a notorious Star King". It is not that simple. A few of Malagate's closest henchmen (such as Suthiro) are aware that Malagate is a Star King, but until Gersen deduces this fact and tricks the overly loquacious Suthiro into confirming it, nobody outside of Malagate's immediate criminal circle was aware of the fact. Thus, Gersen was not a moron for taking 100 pages to realize that the Star King at Smade's Tavern was Malagate.

Adding to his fractured fairy tale version of the story, Jacob says: "Gersen gets knocked out, and when he comes to the bad guys have since made their escape in what they thought was Lugo Teehalt’s spaceship." This is conflating two separate events in the story. Only much later in Star King (and on another planet) is there a scene in which Gersen is knocked unconscious. 

unlikely coincidences

"...Gersen sat watching the play of lightening over the ocean..." At Smade's Tavern, after meeting Lugo Teehalt, Gersen's spaceship is stolen by Malagate's men who assume they are taking Teehalt's ship. It is a stormy night and Gersen simply goes to bed. In the morning, Gersen learns that Teehalt was killed during the night and he goes to where Teehalt had hidden his spaceship. Gersen now takes possession of the navigation records that contain the location of the valuable planet discovered by Teehalt. Gersen uses this planet as bait to lure Malagate to his doom.

So, don't let any of the confused commentary from Jacob Armstrong prevent you from reading Star King. Yes, there are plot elements left unexplained by Vance and there are unlikely coincidences in the story and Gersen is not a Mary Sue who never makes a mistake, but none of these features of the story ruins the tale. 

sexism

 Recomplicated. Earlier this year Mark R. Kelly posted some commentary about The End of Eternity on the Black Gate website. I appreciate the effort when someone makes a detailed analysis of a science fiction novel. Sadly, Mark's chapter-by-chapter outline of Asimov's story contains errors and provides little insight into why anyone should read The End of Eternity. First, let's correct two of the most egregious errors:

Chapter 2. It all hinges on Finge. Mark writes: "Finge can’t explain completely, but he claims the assignment is to protect the very existence of Eternity." No. When Twissell first meets Harlan, Twissell says, "I need you for the existence of Eternity". 

Chapter 10. Has Finge become unhinged? Mark writes: "Finge threatens to dispose of Noÿs by transporting her to some disaster, like an airplane crash..." No. 

image source

No. After Harlan discovers a mysterious barrier that is blocking his access to Noÿs (she has been moved to the far Upwhen), he assumes that the Computers of Eternity must have created the barrier. While trying to regain access to Noÿs, Harlan threatens to inflict severe pain and agony on Computer Fringe unless he takes down the barrier. Finge tells Harlan that he should calm down and think before he commits a capital crime. Finge describes how criminals can be executed by means of techniques such as using the temporal gateways of Eternity to place them in harms way; maybe putting them onboard a crashing airplane... but he does not threaten to do that to Noÿs.

Meta Time Travel. Perhaps the most interesting Sci Fi plot element of The End of Eternity is that for 180 pages, the reader is provided with a story about the smug Eternals and how they use their time travel technology to guide Humanity into the future. Then, in the last 10 pages, Asimov reveals the "story behind the story" and the fact that Noÿs is a time traveler from the Hidden Centuries and her mission is to destroy the Eternity time travel system.

not Hollywood material

Residing outside of the normal flow of time on Earth, in the security of the Eternity space-time bubble, the Eternals mock the "Timers" (people who live in ordinary time) for their inability to imagine how the time travelers of Eternity control the fates of ordinary humans in Time. All the while, the Eternals are unable to imagine how Noÿs is preparing to remove Eternity from existence.

Mark writes: "Asimov’s characters are always bristling at each other." The entire Eternity system for time travel is depicted by Asimov as being deeply flawed. As Noÿs puts it: the Computers of Eternity are psychopaths.

Observer

Harlan thinks about it and agrees that Eternity is plagued by deepening psychoses and is "a writhing pit of abnormal motivations". A major problem in Eternity is that for technical reasons, almost no women can be removed from time and taken to serve within Eternity. Almost everyone in Eternity is male. Any good time travel story should deal with this issue: if time travel is possible, then why aren't time travelers constantly popping up, arriving from the past or the future? In The End of Eternity, Asimov cleverly suggests that even if time travel technology was invented, eventually those with the power to travel through time would try to prevent time travel from taking place because time travel would cause too many problems.

Mark writes about: "the sexism that presumes females should be only mothers". That happens to be the sort of cultural environment in which Harlan was born and grew up. 

source

Harlan came from a time in the far future when the stay-at-home-mom was the cultural norm. That explains his dislike for the era in which he finds Noÿs, an era which is quite the opposite. In the end, it is Noÿs, a woman, who destroys the Eternity boys club, and Harlan comes to realize that Eternity and its abnormal social system should be destroyed. 

Love. In his commentary, Mark mentions the word 'love' twice and states flatly: "Asimov’s prose and characterizations do not impress". At the bottom of the webpage, the first comment, from Thomas Parker, states: "...in this book Asimov tried to portray a passionate, deathless love, and the result was a failure so pathetic it’s almost laughable." Noÿs is able to View the future and she has seen that Harlan will completely change his world view, fall in love with her and they will have a happy future together. Why is this Sci Fi love affair laughable?

Noÿs in the 482nd.

Epic Fantasy. I'm intrigued when I see theses sorts of negative statements made by commentators such as Thomas without a single word written to justify their harsh criticism. I suppose I should not be surprised by anything I read at a website that has evolved from a magazine that was devoted to "epic fantasy". 

Is the source of these unexplained criticisms because Asimov does not follow some standard literary formula for how to write a character and a love story? I suspect that folks like Thomas are not hard science fiction fans and don't understand Asimov's story and what Asimov was trying to do with his unconventional love story.

The End of Eternity

 My advice: if you are a fan of science fiction, don't pay attention to much of the online commentary about The End of Eternity. Sadly, it has become all too easy for internet commentators to post condemnations of authors and their stories even without reading them or even when the commentator can't understand the stories. The End of Eternity may be "recomplicated" and you may need to read it twice to understand the time twisted plot, but for those who enjoy the Sci Fi "what if" game, it is worth the effort.

Related Reading: comments on The End of Eternity by James Nicoll and     John Hertz: "The reader, the re-reader, who looks, who notes, is rewarded."

Next: investigating the science fantasy fiction of Philip K. Dick

Time Tightening

putting Asterothrope genes into Earthlings

On this blog page, below, is the final chapter of the science fiction story Old Time Gaming. The sentient spaceship, Many Sails, is making a few adjustments to the historical timeline of Earth. With access to Everywhen, Manny, the humanoid appendage of Many Sails, is simultaneously working in multiple times including 1830 Australia and 2037 in Arizona.

Kate

After settling on Garden Island in western Australia in 1814, Rylla and Abigail were soon producing babies with special Asterothrope gene patterns and telepathic abilities. As told in Part 11 of Old Time Gaming, Manny must remove the first-born child of Kate White from Earth because Manny does not want Rylla's presence on Earth to be discovered before 1830.

source

Manny transfers Kate's child to a distant planet of the far future (SM284) that is better suited for a powerful telepath. In 19th century Australia, R. Nyrtia is searching for Interventionist agents who are making subtle alterations to Earth's history. Kate's telepathic baby would not fail to attract the attention of Nyrtia and her field agent, Maria Green.

While waiting for more settlers to reach western Australia and found Perth, Rylla continues to experiment with her nanites. Manny wants Rylla to be able to deploy her femtobot body components as weapons and put up a good fight against Maria Green. Maria's search for the source of unwanted changes to the timeline eventually leads to Rylla and her descendants, as told in Part 12, below. The events of Part 12 begin soon after the end of Part 11.

Part 12 of Old Time Gaming. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11.

hierions

Anselme Riedlé died in 1829 and was buried on Garden Island. Immediately after his burial, his companion, Kardynya, took down the French flag that Riedlé insisted on flying above the little settlement. A few minutes later, she placed the flag on his grave and then she disappeared. When Kardynya vanished, Rylla was not surprised. Manny had instantiated herself as Kardynya so as to provide company for Anselme and now that task was complete.

Soon after Riedlé's death, Perth was founded by a new wave of settlers in western Australia and all the remaining residents of Garden Island moved to new homesteads on the mainland. They settled in an area of good pasture land thirty miles north of Perth.

During the first year living on the mainland, a comfortable home was built by Abigail, George White and their children. Far in the future, their horse ranch would become the childhood home of Georgy White, the discoverer of hierions. 

Not far away, another house was built by the family of Rylla and David Phillips. After those first two homes were mostly complete, construction began on a third home for Kate and Occyde. By this time, Abigail had given birth to five children and Rylla three and Kate was pregnant again and expecting the arrival of her second child.

Uluṟu

One hot day of summer, John, Max, Sophie and a Liza copy arrived in Rylla's backyard with a herd of camels, having traveled by land across Australia from Sydney to Perth. Rylla was introduced to Viky, the daughter of John and Sophie, a spunky girl who had grown up in the wilds of the Outback. Rylla could sense a weak telepathic connection to Viky.

Even after having been separated for so many years, Rylla's telepathic link to John was immediately just as strong as it had been years earlier and they soon renewed their telepathic love making sessions. Rylla thought of orgasms achieved in the absence of her telepathic linkage to John as 'half-orgasms'. When their minds were telepathically linked, feedback heightened their sexual pleasure to a level that was impossible for either of them to achieve with biological humans.

After sharing a series of delightful orgasms, John explained to Rylla what he had been doing for the past seventeen years. When the Governor's soldiers took over the gold mining, none of us wanted to return to civilization. We assembled the camels that were not being used by the 73rd Regiment to transport gold to Sydney and wandered off into the middle of the continent. He described the places they had visited during the past dozen years including Uluṟu and other distinctive geological features.

John told Rylla that he had found another gold-rich site about a hundred miles east of Perth and that when she was ready, they could start mining that gold and funding her plans for a school system in Perth. Rylla explained to John that the population of Perth was very small and so there was no need to rush into constructing an infrastructure for higher education in western Australia.

Time Portal

Rylla's more immediate plans centered on having some of Abigail's stories sent to England for publication, but then, only one day after John and Rylla's happy reunion, Maria Green was teleported into Rylla's kitchen and she tossed a printed copy of Time Portal down on the table where Rylla was popping peas out of their pods. Maria had obtained a copy of the book from the future and she intended to change the course of history and prevent publication of Time Portal. Maria said, "You can't tell the world about time travel."

Rylla's femtobot systems had been programmed by Manny so that she could recognize Maria by sight. Rylla pushed away the peas and rose to her feet. She said, "Abigail's story is fiction."

"The story told in the book is too close to the truth. I suspect that you influenced Abigail's writing, either unconsciously or purposefully." Maria and the book were suddenly teleported away; all Rylla noticed was a little puff of air. 

Now worried about Abigail's safety, Rylla ran outside and rode her artificial horse quickly to Abigail's house, but by the time she arrived, Maria had already teleported Abigail away. Maria was methodically searching through the house, carefully collecting Abigail's written stories. Rylla saw that Kate was there, laying on the floor, either dead or unconscious. Rylla went to Kate and felt a weak telepathic linkage to her mind: she was alive. Rylla pushed a cloud of medical nanites into Kate and then attacked Maria. 

battle of the nanites

David had seen Rylla galloping towards the White ranch and he followed her. Arriving in Abigail's home, he saw Kate sitting on the floor, watching the battle between Maria and Rylla. Most of the nanite weapons they were using against each-other moved too quickly to be seen. Rylla and Maria were jumping around as if engaged in some kind of wild dance. Sensing that Rylla was in grave danger, David charged at Maria and died quickly, sliced into tiny pieces by flashing nanite blades. There was a loud boom and a bright flash and Kate again fell to the floor, unconscious.

A few hours later, John and Viky arrived at the White ranch house. They learned that George had been working on the fencing around a distant horse pasture when he heard an explosion sounding like cannon fire. Returning to the house, he had revived Kate, but the young woman was still traumatized by what she had seen. John described Maria's visit to the nearby camp where the camels were grazing; Sophie and Liza had both been taken away by Maria Green. Kate told John, "I didn't see it happen, but that must have been the fate of both Abigail and Rylla. And we have looked almost everywhere... Occyde and Rylla's other children are missing, too. The only one left behind was Jarra... he's still out searching..." 

Almost immediately after his name was spoken, Jarra came into the room and reported on the outcome of his search. "I can't find them anywhere. We must accept it... they are gone." 

After John and Jarra completed the unpleasant task of collecting and burying David's body parts, Jarra led John and Viky to the Phillips ranch and they wandered through Rylla's vineyards and citrus grove. Jarra and Viky had previously started a romance and they now were holding hands. Along side the orange grove was a half-completed foundation for a new building. Jarra told John, "Rylla was making plans to start bottling her scurvy cure. I suppose it is now up to me to finish her work."

John was struggling to accept that Rylla was gone. He was dejected, but trying to tell himself that over the past 6,000 years he had lost many dear lovers and had always gotten over the loss. However, he had never shared a strong telepathic link with anyone except Rylla. He muttered to Jarra, "Yes, that would be nice."

An image of Rylla showing off her citrus grove to John flashed through his mind, then he suddenly felt the mind pattern of Rylla. He turned and saw her. She had just arrived by teleportation. She quickly explained to Jarra, "I took the children to John's camp, where they will be safe... for now. I'd be very pleased if you would continue my work, Jarra." Jarra rushed forward and hugged Rylla, astounded that she was there in his arms.

John wondered if Manny had been able to save a copy of David. John asked Rylla, "So David is truly dead... Manny did not keep a copy of him?"

Rylla nodded, "Manny won't -or can't- explain to me why she was unable to save David. Maybe it has something to do with convincing Maria that her efforts were successful or making her feel guilty for having killed an innocent bystander." Rylla telepathically told John: We must depart at once. Speaking out-loud, she said, "It is not safe for me to remain here. We must load up the camels and go hide in the outback."

"I'll visit you." Jarra again hugged Rylla and then asked, "Exactly where will you move the camel camp... how far into the bush?"

Rylla replied, "I can't remain too close to Perth. We are going to have to disappear... go deeper into the Outback where I won't be seen by Europeans." Rylla told Jarra, "I may be able to sneak back here and visit you on rare occasions, but mostly you will now be on your own." She looked at Viky.

Viky again took hold of Jarra's hand and told John, "I'll stay here." She told Rylla, "I assume you won't mind if I move into your house with Jarra."

Rylla hugged Viky and said, "I hope you two will be happy living here."

John shook his head and warned, "Viky is a wanderer. I doubt if she will stay in one place for long."

Viky looked at the orange and lemon trees and took a deep breath. She told Rylla, "It will be a new kind of adventure for me... learning how to care for the citrus grove..." She put an arm around Jarra. "And when I start having babies, I'll have more good reasons to stay put."

Rylla was nervous about possibly being seen by someone from Perth. Her last instructions to Jarra and Viky were: "Let the rumor spread that I was killed along with David." John and Rylla got on their horses and returned to his remote camp site where the camels were grazing. As they rode along through the woodland hills, Rylla explained: Manny rescued me and the children by making teleportation duplicates of us. Maria now has a copy of us, but Manny thinks we can continue to live out our lives in the Outback.

John wondered: What will happen to your other copy?

Rylla had no answer. She still did not know much about her own future and Manny had told her nothing about the fate of her other copies. John's camel caravan took John and Rylla's children eastward through a seemingly endless woodland to the valley in the east where he had previously found gold. They set about building a new home which they named Kamelot.

John and Rylla spent much time trying to understand the actions of both Maria Green and Manny. John told Rylla what he had witnessed when Maria teleported Sophie and Liza out of the camel camp. Their abduction had taken place half a day before Maria's visit with Rylla. First, Maria had appeared and she took Liza away. Then a few seconds later, Maria re-appeared. John had time to ask, "What do you want?" Maria seemed not to listen. A moment later both Maria and Sophie were teleported out of the camp.

Discussing Maria's actions, John and Rylla speculated that Manny had long used the copies of Liza as bait for Maria, distracting Maria from the existence of Rylla and John in Australia and allowing them to continue their mission. 

"For many years, Maria was satisfied and left the two of us alone." Rylla observed, "But then something changed. In the end, Maria shifted her attention to Abigail's book and my children."

One night, after John and Rylla had just completed some rather energetic sexplay, Manny appeared, sitting on the edge of their bed. Rylla pulled her mouth off of John's hot erection and told Manny, "I thought you had abandoned us."

Manny laughed and placed a hand on John's stiff penis. "I drop by just about every time that you two make love. Today I have some news to share with you." She told Rylla, "You are pregnant again... this is the first of the children that you and John will have together."

Rylla asked, "How long are you going to let us stay here together?"

Manny shrugged and told Rylla, "You should be able to stretch out your time on Earth until it is time for your grandchildren to start the Great Western Gold Rush." Manny kissed the tip of John's penis and then said, "I've initiated the subroutine in your bodies that will cause you to slowly age. You two won't die of old age, but you will seem to grow older. Eventually, I'll take you both off of Earth and send you into retirement on another world."

"Another planet?"

"I intend to leave your ultimate destination up to the two of you. Maybe you will decide to transmigrate into the sedronic domain. However, that is a matter for the far future. For now, you need only take care of your children."

Rylla said, "Sometimes I wonder if I will meet my other copies."

Manny explained, "It was almost ten years ago that Maria took away the copies of Sophie and Liza who were in Sydney. So, the copy of you who was using Sophie's body form is long gone. Maybe she is now living in exile with the other Sophie who was recently taken by Maria... I don't know. Nyrtia is very secretive."

Rylla asked, "All the Sophie and Liza copies have been removed from Earth?"

"Yes, and after Maria found them all and teleported them away, she was surprised to find that not all the changes to Earth's timeline had been reversed. That's when she turned her attention to Abigail and only then did she finally notice you, Rylla. After Maria took away your children, the changes to Earth's future that had worried R. Nyrtia finally went away. During the next few years, this will be hardest for Kate and Occyde... they must not produce any more of their telepathically powerful children. However, they will each meet someone new and they will again be happy and have long lives."

Earth's Reality Chain

For a time, Manny and Rylla both played contentedly with John's genitals. During that time, Nyrtia's nanites finished the task of implanting in John's body the genome codes for the final two children that he and Rylla would raise on Earth. Her work complete, Manny reluctantly let go of John's erection and then Manny spoke again. "Also, Nyrtia is probably sickened by what happened to David, so she will be eager to move on to other problems and forget about the possibility that yet another Rylla copy might still be on Earth. Maria is now satisfied and believes that she successfully completed her mission. However, the more subtle changes to Earth's future that are of importance to me still remain, so we have been successful."

Rylla asked, "There is nothing more for me to do on Earth?"

Manny enviously watched Rylla as she continued to play with John's erection. "Just the usual... have fun with John and raise your children. You will get to help raise your grandchildren before I send you into retirement."

John suggested to Rylla, "We can start mining gold as a way to fund the vitamin C bottling factory."

"No." Manny shook her head. "Leave the gold untouched for now. Jarra and Viky will go off on an adventure to France where they will learn industrial-scale bottling techniques. However, I have need of their services for another project of mine in America, so they will not return to Australia from France."

Rylla asked, "How will I accelerate science and technology in Perth if I stay here in the Outback?"

Mary and Artep inside the Writers Block.

Manny explained, "You need not worry... the subtle changes that were needed in the Australian education and research infrastructure will gradually unfold. The process is intentionally slow, gradual and subtle so as not to attract Nyrtia's attention and cause her to react. Back in Sydney, your other copy and a man named Lance Wyatt made a subtle change to the trajectory of higher education in Australia, so nothing more need be done." As a seeming afterthought, Manny said, "Oh, sure, Kate's granddaughter, Emma, will get in trouble and be dealt with by Maria, but that won't stop the discovery of hierions by Georgy White."

Rylla was no longer really listening to Manny. Rylla was methodically and gently massaging John's stiff penis and he was struggling to keep from ejaculating. John was telepathically linked to Rylla and with Manny amplifying their telepathic linkage, Rylla was also close to achieving her own sexual climax. John was thinking about the growing embryo that was inside Rylla. Suddenly he understood Manny's plans for the future. "Changing the education system was not as important as changing who would be educated..." John laughed and said to Manny, "What you have done is simply assemble the right assortment of genes here in western Australia."

Manny nodded. "Exactly. And I'm still using your pretty penis as a gene delivery device. The children that you and Rylla produce in the next few years will have valuable gene combinations." Manny told Rylla, "Kate is going to cause trouble because she witnessed your nanite fight with Maria. And of course, when Kate was growing up, I was constantly in her mind. Through our shared telepathic linkage, I carefully prepared Kate for her role. In her old age, she will tell her grandchildren strange tales about the mysterious creature 'Manny' and provide a dramatic account of your death, Rylla, and that of David. Versions of those wild tales will be put into print by Emma Phillips, one of your descendants. Those stories will attract Maria's attention and poor Emma will be sent off to the Writers Block."

John said, "You've never explained this Writers Block. Why is it so important?"

hierions

Manny said enigmatically, "The Writers Block will serve as an information channel, providing the other copy of you with information from the past."

John knew that he was a copy of another man who would live his own life in the future, starting in the next century. "So the other copy of me will learn about Rylla's existence here in the 1800s?"

"Yes. That will surprise him, because there will be a version of Rylla there with him in the 21st century. A Rylla copy who knows nothing about this Rylla." Manny glanced at Rylla. "In the future, Emma's stories will raise more questions than they answer." Manny told John, "The other copy of you will never really understand how it was possible for Rylla to live in the past."

Rylla was now hoping that Manny would depart. Rylla wanted to take John's penis inside her and share another sweet orgasm with him. Rylla elbowed Manny to the side and told her, "I still can't believe that you will successfully change the history of Earth and make it possible for Earthlings to discover hierions in the 21st century. You might try to do that, but surely R. Nyrtia will act to prevent it."

Manny explained, "That discovery will not be widely known. Soon after the discovery is made, Georgy White will be removed from Earth by Maria, and Maria will believe that she covered up the discovery of hierions." With Rylla conveniently close at hand, Manny ran her fingers along Rylla's wet labia. "However, the other version of you, the Rylla of the 21st century, will retain her knowledge of hierions." With her free hand, Manny pointed to John and added, "And that copy of Rylla will pass what she knows about the discovery of hierions on to your future copy. That is all that needs to be accomplished. Only much later will humans be allowed to actually start making use of hierions in their nanotechnology." Distracted by Manny's magical touch, Rylla kneeled on the bed and let Manny slip her soft fingers into her vagina. Bending past Rylla's round bottom, Manny briefly sucked on John's penis and he ejaculated into her mouth. Rylla and Manny also telepathically shared simultaneous orgasms with John. A minute later, a content Rylla laid down beside John and sighed. Manny kissed his penis one last time and then kissed Rylla on the mouth and then she rolled off of the bed and got to her feet. "Now, I should be going..."

Teleportation portal

Rylla said, "Wait! Tell me one more thing. Why did you insist that Captain Doones should travel to western Australia? It seems absurd that he abandoned his work in Sydney only to be poisoned by a snail and die so young."

Manny turned back towards Rylla and explained, "He accomplished his part of our mission. Jarra will propagate some of the Captain's genes into the future and I'll make use of them in America. But that is another little project of mine that does not concern you."

Rylla expected Manny to teleport away, but still she lingered. Rylla said, "What if I warn Kate... I could find a way to prevent Emma from being taken off of Earth by Maria."

Manny laughed and waved a hand, showing Rylla some images of her great-grand-daughter Emma in the future. "Emma will inherit from you two the ability to sometimes see into the future. It is an Asterothrope trait to link into the sedron domain and access information from the future. As a writer, Emma will often incorporate information from her future into her diaries and her stories. In particular, Emma will write Maria into several of her science fiction stories. That is what will really get Emma in trouble with Maria Green, but some of Emma's stories will end up at the Writers Block as a small surprise for your copies in the future. That is a part of my plan that I am sure makes no sense to you, but I won't allow you to interfere... those future events will unfold." Manny gave quick little nods of her head to John and Rylla and then she teleported back to Many Sails.

the Hierion Domain

Back on Many Sails, Manny had one more task to attend to. Manny brought her pet copy of Sophie out of the teleportation pattern bank. For nearly 20 years, Manny had enjoyed her use of Sophie as a delectable sex partner. Using her advanced medical nanites, Manny had greatly slowed Sophie's biological aging processes and the girl was still in her physical prime.

Emerging from the data storage bank and once again resuming her conscious existence, Sophie was still agitated because she had been allowed to watch when Maria teleported Sophie2 out of the camel camp site. For Sophie and her stream of consciousness, that event was still fairly recent. Manny told Sophie, "There is someone I want you to meet... a woman named Grean. I want you to be brave, Sophie. Grean is not completely human."

At that moment, Grean was teleported from her workshop in the Hierion Domain to Many Sails. Grean looked at Sophie and asked Manny, "Is she ready to go?"

Manny replied, "The poor girl may not be ready, but now she is your problem."

Grean gazed at Sophie's curvy body and complained, "Ug! I suspect that it will be impossible for a particular very horny Ek'col to keep his hands off of this pretty girl."

"Don't worry about him." Manny laughed and told Grean, "I've looked into the future. It is you who will be the first to ravish Miss McKnight."

Grean the Kac'hin (image credits)

Grean shrugged. You are quite done using the girl? I don't want to get emotionally entangled with this sweet young thing just to then have you take her away from me."

With a hand on Sophie's back, Manny guided Sophie closer to Grean. "She's all yours. Her work for me is completed. She's too much of a distraction to keep here. I need to keep my mind on my work and that is not easy to do when Sophie is within easy reach."

Wide-eyed, Sophie was staring at Grean's alien features, particularly her long ears. She told Manny, "I still don't understand what you are trying to accomplish." Sophie asked, "Why did you sacrifice my copy to Maria?"

"This may never make sense to you, but losing that other copy of you was the price we had to pay for success." Manny sighed and tried to think of something she could tell the girl that would have meaning for her. Manny kissed Sophie passionately on the lips then said, "With your help, I have crafted a tight loop in time that has enough temporal energy to create a new Reality. I was under many constraints, but the new Reality you helped me create -the final Reality- will provide a good future for the human species that is acceptable to all concerned." Manny placed one last gentle kiss on the tip of Sophie's nose. Manny told the girl, "Now, have fun with Grean. Maybe you will find your next adventure to be more satisfying."

Grean took hold of Sophie's hand and prepared to teleport back to her workshop. Grean scolded Manny, "You violated the Rules of Intervention. It must be nice being a bumpha who can get away with anything."

the Huaoshy (image credits)

"Control your imagination, Grean." Manny laughed again and added, "Please don't construct elaborate fantasies about my privileged position. Everything I do is carefully scrutinized by the Huaoshy. However, the Huaoshy take seriously the idea that the ends do justify the means. As long as we can achieve a satisfactory future for the Earthlings, much will be forgiven, including Sophie's role in my little Intervention and even my own selfish use of her." 

Grean and Sophie teleported away. Manny devoted a few microseconds to mourn the end of her pleasant time with Sophie, then she moved on to the next item on her busy agenda.

Time Portal

___________________

On this page, above, is the last part of the science fiction story Old Time Gaming.

Related Reading: more chapters of Time Portal.

Next: Too Clever

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Iytwelepenty

Original art by Falero.

On this blog page, below, is Part 11 of the science fiction story Old Time Gaming. When large numbers of settlers arrive in western Australia and Perth is founded, Rylla and her expedition members depart from Garden Island and take up residence on the mainland. Rylla tries to arrange for publication of some stories that have been written by Abigail, but Maria Green takes action to prevent that.

In the resulting struggle between Maria and Rylla, advanced nanites are deployed, along with teleportation technology. Abigail and her written stories are teleported off of Earth, but Abigail's daughter, Kate, is witness to the actions of both Maria and Manny the bumpha. Manny protects Rylla's children who must pass along to the future the special Asterothrope gene combinations that are required so that Rylla and Georgy White can come into existence in the future. When Georgy discovers anti-gravity hierions, the humans of Earth will learn about the existence of hierions at a much earlier date than would otherwise be possible.

Part 11 of Old Time Gaming. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.

Rylla had long wondered about the fate of Sophie McKnight. After saving Sophie's life, Rylla had begun using Sophie's physical body form and took over her life as a school teacher in Parramatta. After Sophie was teleported off of Earth, Manny was not satisfied with only one copy of Sophie, so she also made a teleportation duplicate of the girl. 

image source

One copy of Sophie was kept onboard Many Sails and the other was sent deep into the interior of Australia on a special mission for Manny. At the same time, one copy of Rylla continued living near Sydney and using the physical form of Sophie as a disguise. The other copy of Rylla (who was living in western Australia) occasionally thought about the other Rylla in Sydney, but in the early 1800s there was no reliable means of communication between the two ends of the continent.

The copy of Sophie who had been living onboard Many Sails was able to telepathically link to the other copy of Sophie who was living on Earth. On one such occasion of linkage, the copy on Earth was asleep and dreaming an exciting sexually-charged dream that had her heart pounding. There on Many Sails, Manny, the humanoid appendage of the sentient spaceship had her artificial vibrating tongue positioned against Sophie's genitals in exactly the way that the girl liked best.

By way of their telepathic linkage, the Sophie on Earth was sharing an orgasm with the copy of Sophie who was onboard Many Sails. When Sophie's erect clitoris finally began to soften, Manny shrank her tongue back to a size that would fit in her mouth and asked, "Did your copy enjoy that?"

"Yes, her orgasm was so intense that she briefly woke up." Sophie's voice was quavering as she recovered from the intense orgasm. "She just drifted back to sleep again." Sophie put her arms around Manny and they snuggled together. Manny reminded Sophie, "The caravan will arrive at Iytwelepenty sometime tomorrow."

With help from Manny, Sophie had been following the progress of the camel caravan across Australia. However, Sophie's main job was monitoring her copy on Earth as she explored the ruins of the abandoned tryp'At research station that was located in the center of Australia. It was fascinating work for Sophie because of her interest in archeology. 

Now, taking note that Sophie was thinking about her childhood, Manny told Sophie, "When you were a child, I carefully developed your interest in archeology so that you would be prepared for this little project of mine. Sadly, we've found nothing actionable in what remains of the tryp'At base." When abandoning their research facility in Australia, the tryp'At had been careful to leave behind no nanites or other illegal technologies on Earth. Still, it had been worth checking the abandoned site for some indication of carelessness and as a side benefit, the copy of Sophie living at the tryp'At base had learned to enjoy and appreciate the wilderness.

Iytwelepenty, the part of Australia with the abandoned tryp'At base, became Sophie's new home for two years. That area of the Outback had a very long and interesting history. About two billion years in the past, the pek had established one of their artificial evolution laboratories deep inside a part of Earth's crust that eventually became that part of Australia. Then, about a billion years later, when that facility was no longer needed by the pek, it had been obliterated by a controlled asteroid impact. 

The much more recent tryp'At base was constructed within that ancient impact zone, beside a small lake that attracted a steady stream of humans and other animals. The tryp'At base was mostly underground, but it had a camouflaged entry portal composed of nanites, hidden in the face of a rock outcrop. When Manny first teleported Sophie to the site of the tyrp'At base, she installed a new, functional nanite entryway and what she called a survey camping module. Sophie mostly lived and worked in the underground ruins of the tryp'At base, but many days she took a break and went for a walk outside where she enjoyed seeing all of the wild animals that were attracted to the water of the lake. She particularly liked to watch the antics of the bounding wallabies. While outside the tryp'At base, she could not avoid sometimes being sighted by the natives who began to call her the white woman of the rock.

Many Sails was in the process of compiling a list of all the infractions committed by the tryp'At Interventionists who had long operated on Earth. Still, Manny had to admit that the tryp'At had tried to follow the Rules of Intervention and keep their presence on Earth a secret. So far, the humans of Earth remained blissfully ignorant of all the aliens who had been visiting Earth for millions of years.

Choir Gaure

As a young girl, Sophie had heard about archeological discoveries in Egypt such as the Rosetta Stone and she had become an amateur archeologist herself and spent long hours reading about ancient peoples and puzzling over her mother's copy of Choir Gaure.

As a child, Sophie had fantasized about discovering the ruins of some ancient civilization in Australia. Upon meeting Manny, Sophie had been intrigued by the strange stories that Manny told her about ancient times. The idea that the tryp'At aliens had lived and worked in Australia for centuries was startling, and now both copies of Sophie periodically tried to imagine what would happen on Earth if and when her knowledge of the tryp'At could be shared with her fellow ignorant Earthlings. Seeing that thought in Sophie's mind during one of her periodic visits to the tryp'At base, Manny had once said, "I don't intend to let you spread word of this around Earth. Enjoy your time here, but don't imagine yourself becoming famous for anything that you discover."

Now the other copy of Sophie was wondering if her copy on Earth (what she thought of as Sophie2) would be willing to end her partially completed exploration of the old tryp'At research center when the caravan arrived. Manny assured Sophie, "Don't worry about that, I'm going to take control of her mind and make sure that she moves on with the caravan."

This was the aspect of Manny that frightened Sophie. Sophie could not help but suspect that her own behavior was also guided and controlled by Manny. Manny was gently stroking Sophie's breasts with her soft fingers and now she giggled. "In your case, only the most delicate adjustments to your mind have been required to keep you on task."

Sophie was amazed by the stiffness of her nipples. The longer Sophie lived with Manny and enjoyed daily sexplay with her, the more they seemed capable reaching new levels of sexual pleasure. Distracted by Manny's sweet touches, soon, Sophie had again forgotten about the fact that Manny could edit her memories. 

Now Sophie's thoughts returned to the past and for the first time in years she thought about the reason why she had selected one particular location for her new school house in the west end of Parramatta. That site had been chosen so that the backyard of her adjacent house would hold several low mounds that she recognized as being of human origin. However, two years of digging through those mounds of rubble had revealed nothing more than the crumbling remnants of old sea shells and a few fragments of animal bones. The worthless archeological site in her yard soon turned into a vegetable garden. Sophie used some of the ancient shells to pave the pathways leading to the school and her cottage, which helped limit the amount of mud that was tracked inside on rainy days.

The copy of Sophie who now lived with Manny had been allowed to remember the details of her entire life on Earth right on to and through her life-threatening illness. Manny had even shown her images of an alternate Reality in which she had died of smallpox and been buried in her backyard, in the peaceful grove of sandalwood trees. However, the other copy of Sophie had been made by teleportation duplication while still healthy, prior to being infected with the smallpox virus, and she had no knowledge of the death she had so narrowly avoided with Manny's help.

Manny occasionally visited that second copy of Sophie on Earth and suggested strategies for how to most efficiently excavate the crumbling tryp'At ruins. Manny also made frequent adjustments to the memories of Sophie2 so as to keep the girl focused on her work. Whenever Sophie2 began to wonder about her past and how she had come to work for Manny, soon thereafter, additional adjustments were made to her mind and she returned to her obsessive effort to understand what the tryp'At had been trying to accomplish during the long centuries when they occupied their research station in Australia.

Because of her many conversations with Manny, Sophie1 was aware that the tryp'At had been inserting special Asterothrope gene combinations into the human population of Australia, but she had little real understanding of what a gene was. She had been told by Manny that the Asterothropes were a telepathic humanoid from the far future of Earth, but Sophie was skeptical about the whole idea of time travel. Sophie vaguely understood that Asterothrope genes had been inserted into humans, bringing into existence the tryp'At. What got particularly confusing for Sophie was the idea that with the aid of time travel technology, the tryp'At had somehow helped bring themselves into existence.

From Sophie's perspective as an Earthling of the early 1800s, Manny was like a magician or a goddess. Manny had taught Sophie how to use a computerized system for recording an account of Sophie2's discoveries inside the abandoned tryp'At base. Each day, Sophie used her telepathic connection to her copy on Earth and carefully recorded every detail of what was found by Sophie2. Now, with Sophie2's archeological work nearing its end, Sophie1 asked Manny, "What am I going to do once Sophie2 begins traveling with the caravan?"

Manny kissed the tip of Sophie's nose and replied with a question, "What would you like to do?"

"I'm curious about what will happen to Sophie2 when she joins the caravan. That copy of me has not previously met John Smith."

"Good... I'm pleased that you are curious." Manny confided to Sophie, "It is my hope that you will continue to make use of your telepathic link to Sophie2 and continue to watch over her. Sophie is like a canary in a coal mine. Anyhow, don't worry about how those two will get along... using my memory-editing nanites, I've programmed her to respond quite favorably when she first sees him."

the tryp'At

Sophie giggled and asked, "Who would put canaries in a mine?"

Manny took five minutes to discuss the dangers of bad air in deep mine shafts and how an animal like a canary could be used to detect poisonous gasses like carbon monoxide. Much of what Manny said made no more sense to Sophie than did her wild stories about telepathic Asterothropes from the future. Sophie asked, "Is Sophie2 in danger?"

"Yes." Since this copy of Sophie would never return to Earth, Manny had no qualms about telling her some details about the future. "Maria Green is eventually going to notice that there are multiple copies of you and Liza running around. R. Nyrtia will assume that these copies are being used to alter the history of Earth."

Sophie added, "Which they are."

Manny shrugged. "Not so much the Sophie and Liza copies. Oh, sure, they can't help but cause some minor changes, but..." Manny fell silent. There was no point in trying to explain to Sophie that the flow of time had a type of momentum. Manny continued, "All the important changes to Reality are being made by Rylla."

Sophie thought about her last memories from Earth. A strange young woman named Rylla had appeared on her doorstep and taken care of Sophie when she fell ill. "The woman who saved my life."

"Yes. You can thank Rylla for your continued existence." 

Sophie enjoyed living with Manny and the daily blizzard of orgasms that they shared. Still, Sophie sometimes imagined that she might one day return to Earth and Meet Rylla once again. "I do wish I could thank Rylla."

Manny laughed. "Well, you can't literally thank her, of course... but you should be thankful."

Sophie complained, "Maybe some day you will explain to me what you hope to accomplish by creating multiple copies of me and Liza."

Manny tried to be careful and not overwhelm Sophie with too much information. However, at that moment, Manny was feeling very relaxed and talkative. She told Sophie, "I'm using all the Liza and Sophie copies to confuse Maria Green. With these copies existing on Earth as distractions, many years will pass during which Maria will fail to notice Rylla's second life on Earth. And even when she finally discovers Rylla, I'll confuse Maria with other small tricks. She'll think of Rylla as being like her, an agent working for R. Nyrtia and helping to clean up after the tryp'At." Manny could sense that her words were only confusing Sophie even more than usual. Manny again began stimulating the girl's genitals and used her memory-editing nanites to erase from Sophie's mind all her memories of the past minute. Manny knew that there was no point in trying to explain her plans to the girl. The truth was, this copy of Sophie served no real purpose other than being a very pleasant sex partner for Manny.

_____________

The next day, when the caravan encountered Sophie, Max was briefly astounded to see Sophie. The last he had seen of her, almost two years previously, had been the day when Sophie returned to her school house in Parramatta. He asked her, "How did you get way out here before we did?" Even as he spoke, Manny was identifying the neural pathways in his brain that were generating his feelings of vast surprise.

Sophie had been pre-programmed by Manny for how to interact with her brother Max. She threw her arms around Max and commented how he had grown from a boy into a strong young man since they had last seen each-other.

Manny erased a set of Max's memories and inserted false memories of a time, years in the past, when Sophie had patted his head and said, "I wonder what you will be like when you get older?" Max now felt a strong compulsion to tell his sister about his experiences in the Outback. He excitedly began telling Sophie about one of the new native languages he was trying to learn and then he asked her a question about the natives Sophie had come to know there, in the area that the natives called Iytwelepenty.

Sophie shrugged and replied, "I've avoided close contact with the natives. If you ask them about me, they'll probably tell you that I'm a ghost." Sophie then turned away from her brother and enthusiastically embraced John and kissed him on the lips. Almost before Max knew what had happened, Sophie took John off to the hidden hut in the stone cliff that was her home. Liza looked at Max and said brightly, "Well, I guess John never got over his infatuation with Sophie." This copy of Liza had long been a host for Manny which had allowed Manny to share sweet orgasms with John for the past two years. Now Manny focused her attention on Max.

Max and Liza watered the camels and then tied them up in a grassy area near the lake. While they worked, Manny was at work in Max's mind, boosting his long-standing sexual interest in Liza. After the camels had been tended to, Liza's clothing seemed to evaporate and she laid down on the soft grass in front of Max. His mind suddenly in flames, Max and Liza became lovers. Manny had long been using this copy of Liza as one of her alternate hosts and during that time she had watched Max mature from a boy into a man. Using her telepathic connection to Max, she had taught him much of what she knew about the languages and customs of the native Australians. Now Manny quickly shifted her tactics, and rather than continually suppress Max's sexual yearnings, she began teaching him about Liza's sexual talents.

Inside the snug survey camping module, after Sophie2 fell asleep in John's arms, Manny contacted John telepathically and asked him a casual question: How long do you think the camels should be rested here?

John asked: Manny? You are now disguised as Sophie?

Unfortunately, I've shifted into her body only for a brief time. Just long enough to enjoy a quick orgasm with you and confer with you about your travel plans.

John told Manny: I'm hoping you will tell me what Sophie was doing out here, in the middle of nowhere.

There is not much for me to tell you... she was just killing time... waiting for Max to grow up and your caravan to arrive. We found nothing of real importance in among the decaying objects left behind in these ruins by the tryp'At.

John had long been intrigued by Manny's obsession with the tryp'At. He asked: What is so important about the tryp'At?

I can't really explain their future importance to you. However, I can tell you that the tryp'At are the closest thing to human telepaths so far achieved. That's why I like to use available tryp'At, like yourself, as my helpers. Your mind naturally meshes with the technology-assisted telepathy system that R. Nyrtia built into replicoids.

With some telepathic prodding from Manny, he replied to her earlier question. There is good water and grass here in this valley. The camels could rest and graze for a week. Suddenly, John had a 'vision' of the caravan being turned and driven to travel towards the northeast. He had been guiding the caravan towards the west and hoping to eventually find Rylla. Startled by the telepathic vision, he spoke out-loud, "You want me to back-track?"

Hearing John's voice, Sophie awoke and eagerly resumed playing with his genitals. Still linked to his mind telepathically, Manny told John: Don't be in a hurry to reach Rylla. There are many years remaining before you are needed in Perth. I suggest you take time to visit a few sights like the Great Barrier Reef and Uluṟu. And you don't always need to be traveling. You are going to be able to take a nice long break from driving the caravan during Sophie's pregnancy.

Taken by surprise, John almost said 'Pregnancy?' out-loud, but then he got distracted by Sophie's energetic sexplay. Seeing that Sophie had quickly bonded with John, Manny was gone as abruptly as she had arrived and John did not "see" her again for several years.

The next day, Sophie showed John around the ruins of the tryp'At research station. He picked up a fragment of rubble, what had once been part of a wall and asked, "What is this material?"

"Manny told me that it is some kind of synthetic composite. As long as the tryp'At researchers were here and providing power, this material was strong and durable. After they left, everything down here and also what little was once on the surface started weathering rapidly. In another decade or two, nothing recognizable as being of alien origin will remain." Sophie stepped into muddy depression in the floor of the cavernous underground space they were in and activated another of the little light fixtures she had installed. Trying to make Sophie work for her discoveries, Manny had provided little more than a few tools like picks and shovels for digging. Sophie stamped her foot in the puddle and told John, "I suspect that most of the tryp'At facility lies further underground, but most of that odd composite material has now fused into what seems like sandstone. It is too hard for me to dig through."

John asked, "Why did Manny bring you here?"

"She thought I might find some tryp'At nanites or other advanced technology that should not be on Earth."

"But you did not?"

"No, nothing like that was left behind, not as far as I can tell."

"So you are done here?"

"Yes. What are your plans?"

John laughed and replied, "I'm having fun exploring Australia. Max has become an expert in the native languages. We can rest the camels here for a few days then set off on a new adventure." He did not bother warning Sophie about the baby that Manny had seen in their future.

_____________

Abigail was very happy during the years spent living on Garden Island. Rylla had brought along a large supply of paper, ink and pens and now Abigail had plenty of time to write. George and Rylla provided useful suggestions for her story writing and her novel, Time Portal, was completed in 1817 with only one serious distraction: the arrival of Abigail's first baby (Kate) in 1816. At the time of Kate's birth, Rylla's son (Occyde) had just turned one year old.

Anselme was full of old stories and sage advice. While working in the gardens with Stefan, Anselme, speaking French, would tell the old stories or make up new ones. When the children of Abigail and Rylla and also Jarra were small, they would often follow Anselme and ask for stories. As often as not, they got an earfuls of advice from Anselme rather than a story. The boys were all told the same advice that had long been given by Anselme to his son Stefan. His advice for girls concerned mostly pieces of his vast knowledge of plants. Rylla was amused by Anselme's advice for boys which seemed to originate from the many years he had lived on the island with Manny (she in the bodily form of Kardynya, a native woman). Rylla never wrote down what she thought of as the Gospel of Anselme as told to Setfan, but she knew it well. The first ten parts were:

1. Don't foolishly try to hide your actions from the woman. Nothing good can come of deception. She knows your thoughts.

2. Listen closely to your woman and take her advice. If you ignore her wisdom then your life will be a purgatory.

3. When your woman is large and with child and tells you that she will bear a son or a daughter, believe her. She looks into the future and knows now what cannot yet be seen."

4. A woman who can see the future can also put thoughts into her child's mind. The baby will be born with wisdom and will be a reflection of the mother.

5. The woman who can put thoughts into her child's mind has taken care to shape the child's teeth and ears. Such is the nature of her craft.

6. The woman who shaped the teeth of her child will prepare food, but she may not eat. Eat what she cooks even if she will not eat it with you; she has made the meal for you and it is good.

7. If the woman who eats not tells you to eat a crab apple or a bitter lemon then just do it. Don't complain. She knows what you need to consume.

8. When a woman who eats not tells you to woo a maiden that she selected for you, don't object. That maiden is your future, she is your life.

9. If the maiden you love does not eat enough, fear not. She can still bear you children.

10. When your child speaks of the future, do not be surprised. The child is like the mother and can see the future.

All the boys growing up on Garden Island knew the Gospel of Anselme.

Rylla continued to badger Manny about the mystery of who had fathered her son Occyde. During their first year on Garden Island, David had grown a foot taller and his hair had bleached a golden blond color. As the years passed, Occyde showed few hints of being related to his father. Tarny had given birth to Captain Doone's son, Jarra, ten months after their arrival at Garden Island. One day, Rylla was looking at both Jarra and Occyde and telepathically asked Manny (Tarny): Is Occyde's father David or the Captain?

Manny replied: Why do you keep asking?

I just want to know. The truth was, Rylla was engaged in a long series of experiments involving her telepathic connections to Kate and Occyde. With not much else to do, Rylla was trying to learn the fine art implanting memories into human brains by using nanites. 

Rylla could recognize similarities in the mind patterns of Abigail and Kate and Rylla's mind resonated with that of Occyde, but something seemed to prevent Rylla from transferring memories into Occyde's mind. In contrast, Rylla had considerable success sharing special memories with Kate and as a consequence, Kate had learned to speak and then to write at very early ages.

Manny usually tried to ignore Rylla's requests for information about Occyde's mysterious genetic background, but now she told Rylla: There is no need for you to know, however, I'll say this.... sometimes a child needs to be crafted from more than just two parents.

Rylla asked: So Occyde has genes from both of them?

It is complicated. I'm only going to frustrate you because there are temporal paradoxes that prevent me from telling you everything that you want to know.

Rylla complained: Anytime you want to keep a secret, you claim there is a temporal paradox at work.

This is why there is no point in me telling you anything. You don't trust me to tell you what I am able to tell you. You always want more. And more. You should learn to be happy with what you have.

I am happy, but I've got a lot of time on my hands... time to think and wonder. And what you say makes no sense.

Manny said: This is where I usually stick my tongue in your vagina so I can distract you with an orgasm, but I can tell you one more thing... sometimes a baby must be crafted with gene sequences that I obtain in the future.

Are you telling me that Occyde's father is someone from the future?

Manny would say no more.  

While growing up, Kate and Occyde developed a strong telepathic connection to each-other which they took for granted. After Abigail's second child, William, turned five years old, she and David were often away from Garden Island for extended periods of time during which they were exploring the mainland. Abigail and David had become the most restless and impatient among those living on Garden Island, wondering when other settlers would arrive in the west. Finally, a whaling ship visited Garden Island and took away letters that both Rylla and David had written to the Governor of New South Wales.

In 1820 Doones died after eating a poisonous sea snail. After Doones was buried on the wind-swept cliff at the end of the island, Tarny brought Stefan and Jarra to Rylla and told her, "I'm taking Stefan away from Garden Island."

Rylla had always sensed that there was something unusual about Stefan. He seldom spoke and when he did it was only a word or two of French or one of the native languages known to Manny. Manny told Rylla, "Kardynya will stay here and continue to take care of Anselme until he dies." Manny kissed Jarra's forehead and then the boy went to stand beside Rylla. Manny continued speaking to Rylla, "Take care of Jarra." Before Rylla could protest, Tarny was gone. 

Rylla adopted Jarra and life on Garden Island proceeded much as before. Rylla of then wondered why Manny had been so insistent that Doones go with Rylla to the west coast. Rylla suspected that Doones had simply been used by Manny as a source of genes that she had needed in order to craft Jarra.

Later that year, a passing ship dropped off letters at Garden Island. One letter was from the Governor, acknowledging receipt of the letters from Rylla and David and commenting on "improving relations" with the French since Napoléon defeat. Reinforcement of Rylla's expedition was not to be expected.

There was also a letter from Sophie, the other copy of Rylla that was living in Parramatta. Sophie reported the sudden and unexplained disappearance of the maid, Liza. Sophie was living with her husband, Lance Wyatt and commented that "the wool trade has benefited from a stone bridge over the Nepean river" and other improvements to the roads.

Another letter was from George's father, expressing confusion over George's decision to stay in Australia rather than go to England for medical training.

Rylla sent more letters to her other copy in Parramatta, but never again heard from her.

Over the years, Rylla and Anselme expanded the citrus grove on Garden Island and experimented with ways to concentrate and store vitamin C. Whaling ships occasionally stopped by the island and Rylla always provided their crews with citrus or citrus extracts.

Rylla also turned her artificial horse into a fence-making machine that could weave wire into fencing that was then used to protect their gardens from the hungry herbivores that lived on the island. Rylla pretended to make all the fences herself, but most of the work was done in secret by her artificial horse, a useful device that Rylla could morph into any desired shape. Each year, the artificial horse gave birth and slowly a small herd of horses grew on the island.

When they were both 15 years old, Kate and Occyde called together Rylla and Kardynya and explained that Kate was pregnant. Occyde said: We want to move to the mainland before the pregnancy goes further. We can prepare the new settlement site and the rest of you can follow next year.

Looking into Occyde's mind, Rylla could see images from a year in the future, images of a ship arriving and settlers founding their new settlement: Perth. Occyde was like Rylla and occasionally had visions of the future. However, Kate's unborn child was a powerful telepath and was apparently always receiving information from past, present and future. Occyde was able to look into his daughter's still-developing mind and access information about the future from her.

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The body of Kardynya re-arranged its nanites, recombining into Manny's preferred physical form. Manny had never tried to keep her existence hidden from Kate and Occyde. Speaking out-loud for special emphasis, Manny told Kate, "Don't be in a hurry to move to the mainland. Yes, this will be a long pregnancy for this special child, but I won't put you through it all. At nine months, I'll transfer your daughter to a surrogate mother, a replicoid in the Hierion Domain." She told Rylla, Kate and Occyde, "I thank you now, in advance, for your roles in making this special telepathic human. I will put her gene combinations to good use! However, 19th century Earth is no place for a powerful human telepath."

Kate was dismayed and asked Manny, "You are going to take my baby?"

Manny nodded. "Yes. However, take comfort in the knowledge that you will have others."

Rylla complained to Manny, "I can't believe that you would use us in this way and be so cruel to Kate."

Manny shrugged, "I could have hidden the existence of this child from you. However, there will be benefits in the future from rumors that an alien creature named 'Manny' subjected settlers to evil genetic experimentation." Manny giggled. "Rylla, you know the high rate of losing babies in the 19th century. I'll take this one child from Kate, but all the other Garden Island children will survive and have happy lives here on Earth. I need Kate's first born for a project in another time and on another world."

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Occyde suggested, "Or you could make two copies of our baby... you take one and leave the other one here on Earth."

Manny shook her head emphatically. "No, this baby is not compatible with the primitive culture of this planet." Manny transformed herself back into the bodily form of Kardynya and would say no more. Using her memory-editing nanites, Manny continued to prepare Kate and Occyde for the loss of their baby.

Next: Part 12 of Old Time Gaming.