2021 Gold

image source

Back in 2019 I had a "year in review" blog post called 2019 Nuggets. Last year I built my end of the year review around images that I had included in blog posts during 2020. Here in 2021 I had a lot of fun writing a short science fiction novel called Old Time Gaming and gold mining had a big role in the plot of that story. So, here in this blog post, I'll look back at some golden nuggets from my 2021 year in blogging; the posts attracting the most visitors during each calendar month.

January. The most visited wikifiction blog post for January was "Grandma Acyreff". That blog page has the first chapter of the science fiction novel The Alastor Network. 

The Alastor Network

One of my favorite novels is Trullion, by Jack Vance. I like to fantasize that in the far future of the Asimov Reality, there was a human telepath breeding project in Alastor Cluster. The Alastor Network made a good start towards outlining that project and ended up with 23 chapters and almost 100,000 words.

An important source of telepathy genes in the Asimov Reality was a human variant from Deep Time: the Asterothropes. However, for The Alastor Network, I imagined that it was possible to mix human genes with genes from alien species (such as the Plesypy) that had evolved on various planets of Alastor Cluster. 

telepathic embroids

 February. The most visited wikifiction blog post from February was "The Pheni Effect"; on that blog page is chapter 13 of The Alastor Network. In that chapter, one of the plot points is the fact that artificial minds called embroids have been developed and they can communicate across interstellar distances using a form of telepathy. One such embroid mind (named QB5) and the mind of another more conventional artificial intelligence device (Josef) have merged to form a new entity called Joqueline.

The events described in The Alastor Network occur during the period of time known as the Trysta Truce. Human society is under restrictions that prevent human scientists from developing a science of hierion physics. However, humans have been provided with access to technology that makes interstellar travel quite easy, a key feature of Vance's Alastor novels. In his stories, Vance only hinted at human telepathic abilities, but for The Alastor Network I delve deeply into the details of telepathy.

nanocoid technology

 March. The most visited blog post for March was "The Hui-chi"; on that blog page is the first part of the science fiction story Meet the Phari. I was able to complete chapter 11 of Meet the Phari before I went on my summer vacation. Eventually, I hope to be able to complete that novel which is part of a series of stories going back to 2016. For Meet the Phari I imagined another type of technology for technology-assisted telepathy: nanocoids.

Illustrating science fiction stories with Daz Studio software - image source

 April. The most visited blog post from April was "Daz 2021". I made a few illustrations for stories such as Meet the Phari by using the Daz Studio software. The frame shown to the right originated from an animation that I made. I also used this image as part of a "teaser" comic for Meet the Phari.

In the Ekcolir Reality.

 May. In May of 2021, I was on a mission to read all of the science fiction stories that were published by Jack Vance during the year 1951. The most visited blog post for May was "Vance's Worlds Beyond". In that blog post I looked back at Vance's story called "Men of the Ten Books".

Often when I read old science fiction stories I imagine how they might have been written in an alternate Reality where women dominated the early years of the science fiction literary genre. "Men of the Ten Books" is one of Vance's stories that features a "lost world". I suppose Vance grew up reading stories about "lost continents" and so it was natural to go to the "next level" and write stories about lost planets.

Asimov's "The Gentle Vultures"

 June. The most visited blog post in June was "The Hurria I Go" in which I commented on a set of old stories about meeting space aliens. I like the idea that if it is ever possible for aliens from a distant exoplanet to reach Earth, it might be some sort of artificial lifeform that makes it across the vast interstellar depths of space.

One old "first contact" story involving robots is "Lost Memory" by Peter Phillips. This is actually a "lost world" story where the resident robots have forgotten their origins. I can't prevent myself from contrasting this robotic forgetfulness to Isaac Asimov's robot Daneel who is depicted as retaining all of his memories across a span of 20,000 years. In Asimov's story, it was Daneel and his telepathic powers that caused the entire human population of the galaxy to forget the location of Earth. Only at the very end of the Foundation saga did Asimov raise the specter of aliens arriving from beyond the edge of our galaxy.

getting into outer space: Civilization VI endgame

 July. During July, I went on vacation and only had two blog posts; the most visited one is "Destination Mars" where I discuss some of the science fiction elements in the computer game, Civilization VI. I'll blame my summer time computer gaming vacation for why I did not completed Meet the Phari (see March, above). After playing the "Outback Tycoon" game scenario I began writing a new novel called Old Time Gaming.

Manny the bumpha

 August. As mentioned above (see June), I'm rather infatuated with the idea that artificial lifeforms are most likely to be the first alien visitors to reach Earth. In the Exode Saga, I pretend that "ancient aliens" might have visited Earth billions of years ago and played an important role in bringing the human species into existence. One of my favorite "ancient aliens" is Many Sails, a sentient spaceship. The most visited wikifiction blog page for August was "Old Time Gaming" which has the first chapter of the novel Old Time Gaming.

For Old Time Gaming I introduced a new humanoid prosthetic for Many Sails named Manny. Many Sails can rearrange her zeptite components and take on any convenient physical form. When she needs to visit Earthlings, Many Sails can adopt the appearance of either Mahasvin or Manny.

Time Portal

 September. The most visited blog page for September is "Free Gold" which holds chapter 6 of Old Time Gaming. Within Old Time Gaming, one of the characters is depicted as writing a story about time travel. The first chapter of that time travel story ended up in a blog post during September (see Dr. Twissell). For Old Time Gaming, Rylla is sent back into Australia of the 1800s. This prompted me to imagine what kind of time travel story might be written by someone living in the early 1800s. What I came up with is a novel called Time Portal. In that story, the first time machine can only move time travelers backwards in time. In the case of Manny the bumpha, she has access to advanced time travel technology that allows travel in both directions along the time axis.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 October. In October I began a search through Philip Dick's writings in order to learn about his style of science fiction story telling. The most visited blog post for October is "In My World". I'm a big fan of stories about "mind transfer", moving someone's mind into a new body. In 1952 Philip Dick published a story called "Beyond Lies the Wub" in which a meat-loving Earth-man eats an alien and in so doing turns into the alien. Sadly, Dick provided no explanation for this seemingly magical mind transfer, but for my own stories I like to imagine that in the far future it might become possible to encode minds in a nanoscopic substrate composed of zeptites or some other form of matter that is unknown to current Earthly science.

Figure 1. Manny in Grean's workshop

 November. The most visited blog post for November is "Irhit in the Ekcolir Reality" which has the first chapter of the science fiction story Telepaths of Site Q. In Telepaths of Site Q, Manny the bumpha meets Grean the Kac'hin. When growing up, Grean had a close friend named Delpha. For Telepaths of Site Q, I imagine that Manny also lived as a childhood friend of Grean, helping prepare her for the task of capturing Eternity from the positronic robots of Earth.

Grean is very busy working with her long-time adversary Trysta the Asterothrope to bring into existence a Reality in which Earthlings can acquire the advanced technology needed for interstellar space travel without managing to trigger a technological catastrophe and cause the extinction of the human species. Manny shows up at Observer Base and tells Grean about a new human telepath breeding project that involves Irhit the tryp'At.

Figure 2. Wysy, Yenti and Riea.

 December. During December, I completed the 12 chapter story Telepaths of Site Q. Figure 1, above, shows a depiction of Manny while she is using the physical form of a Kac'hin hermaphrodite. In Figure 2 (to the right), Riea, an Asterothrope hermaphrodite, is depicted as being about half as tall as the Asterothrope female, Yenti. The third telepath from siteq who appears in Telepaths of Site Q is an artificial lifeform, Wysy. Yenti, Riea and Wysy visit Observer Base as part of Manny's human telepath breeding project. "A Femtocoid Fail" is the most frequently visited December blog post. 

The most visited wikifiction blog post in all of 2021 is Grandma Acyreff.

Next: Hal Clement 1922 - 2022

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Trysta Truce

past blog posts

Five years ago I created a blog post that was intended to explain the Trysta-Grean Pact. However, before Trysta Iwedon and Grean the Kac'hin could become collaborators, they were adversaries during Earth's Time Travel War. In between the war and the Pact was the Trysta Truce.

Who is Trysta? I spent many years contemplating the "Hidden Centuries" and other mysteries that Isaac Asimov wrote into his time travel novel, The End of Eternity. Of particular interest to me was the backstory for his character, Noÿs Lambent. After a few decades of trying to imagine how Noÿs was trained as a time travel agent and wishing that Asimov would write a prequel novel to The End of Eternity which would explain details of the future culture of Noÿs' people, Asimov died, that task not completed. Later, when I started writing fan fiction, I simply had to write about the lives that Andrew Harlan and Noÿs led on Earth after they departed from Eternity.

Skaña views the future; image source

 My imagined events taking place after the end of Asimov's The End of Eternity probably offend many Asimov fans. I mean, Asimov's book is about putting an end to the Eternity time travel system, but for the Exode Saga, I imagine that Eternity was brought into existence about a billion years ago and may actually be eternal. It certainly continued its existence after Andrew and Noÿs began living together on Earth.

The Eternity space-time bubble is too useful of a concept to do without. If there were no Eternity, then there would have to be other such "places" hidden inside the Hierion Domain... so why not just allow Eternity to survive the Noÿs Intervention? I am weak, I could not resist that temptation. While in exile on Earth during the the Time War, Noÿs used another name: Trysta Iwedon. 

lady parts

 Telepathy. I also invented another name for Noÿs... Skaña... the name she used while growing up and being trained as a time travel agent. In particular, Skaña was trained in how to use telepathy to control the behavior of Andrew Harlan. 

Yes, I blame Noÿs for the odd names that I've given to some Exode characters such as Yōd. Yōd is actually a clone of Gohrlay, the Neanderthal woman whose brain was used as the template for making the first positronic brain. As shown in the image to the right, in addition to Trysta and Yōd, there are several other ladies who play important roles in the Exode Saga including Grean the Kac'hin, Ivory Fersoni and Zeta (another clone of Gohrlay).

Clones and other kinds of copies of people (such as replicoids and teleportation duplicates) are common in the Exode Saga, but for more than ten years I imagined that Trysta was the last of the Asterothropes. That finally changed here at the end of 2021 when I wrote a new novel called Telepaths of Site Q in which I introduce Yenti, an Asterothrope female and Riea, an Asterothrope hermaphrodite. Trysta has only a small role to play in Telepaths of Site Q and I intentionally keep her apart from Yenti and Riea so as to prevent them from synchronizing their telepathic mind patterns.

Sara (Left) and Kate (right)

However, the Trysta Truce gets mentioned in Telepaths of Site Q (here) and so recently I suddenly realized that I had never created a blog post specifically about the Trysta Truce. The Trysta Truce was during the Asimov Reality when the positronic robots R. Gohrlay and R. Nyrtia were still trying to find a way to make sure that the interests of Humanity would be respected by the Huaoshy. That was before R. Gohrlay learned that the bumpha had worked hard to create humans and could attend to human affairs far more efficiently than robots.

After Grean the Kac'hin took control of the Eternity time travel system, several positronic robots were captured by Manny the bumpha and transformed into replicoid copies that were amenable to analysis by Manny. By the time of the next Reality, the Ekcolir Reality, new robots were routinely being manufactured for use at Observer Base, including Kate the sexbot, who has a role in Telepaths of Site Q.

The Trysta Truce was a temporary agreement between Trysta Iwedon and Grean the Kac'hin. During the time of the truce, the Time War was halted and neither side used time travel to revert Reality Changes that were made by their opponent. Both the positronic robots and Manny the bumpha devoted their efforts to crafting human variants with powerful telepathic abilities.

During the Trysta Truce, both the Ek'col and the tryp'At were created as new telepathic human variants. It was Ekcolir who finally penetrated Trysta's defenses and convinced her to stop fighting Grean. Telepaths of Site Q is concerned with the first tryp'At agent who infiltrates Observer Base: Irhit.

I've written many stories about the far future of the Asimov Reality during the period of Deep Time covered by the Trysta Truce such as The Alastor Network and The Yerophet Experiment. 

Image made with SpencerInBlack2
by Eclesi4stiK - available
under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

One of the common themes across the Asimov, Ekcolir and Buld Realities is that Manny the bumpha always tries to keep her agents busy and happy. After reaching Observer Base, Irhit is entertained by Catski, Betty, Yenti and then Lanora Dryswyn. Trysta is happy with Ekcolir until the time comes when he must be sent 20,000 years into the past. While waiting for her turn to travel back into Earth's ancient past, Trysta is able to spend time with Deomede, Ekcolir's analogue from another Reality.

Similarly, R. Oliveene Nhevrix is kept busy with various tasks that Manny needs to be completed, often on tight deadlines. For Telepaths of Site Q, Oliveene made use of the bodily form of Dors the robot when Manny requested that a precise duplicate of a house on Earth be built in Yaddo.

robotic tunnel ball players

 More Robots. At the time when the Trysta Truce was begun, several field agents of the positronic robots had recently been captured by Grean and Manny. These included R. Fengtol (who then adopted the new name Wendy), R. Recleu and Daneel. At later times, new robots were made as needed. For example, in preparation for the arrival of Irhit at Observer Base, Manny had to make an entire cadre of robots who would serve as tunnel ball players and long distance runners. Irhit's friend Whitken is one such robot.

Next: Golden Nuggets

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Paraliterary

cover art by Dean Ellis

Isaac Asimov was rather surprised when after decades of publishing science fiction stories, his 1982  novel Foundations Edge (his 262nd book) was reviewed in the New York Times. I suppose Asimov had grown used to thinking of his science fiction stories as being part of a literary genre that "mainstream" literary folks usually tried to ignore. 

In contrast to Asimov, I grew up in the age of Star Trek and in the 1970s I was reading novels like The Gods Themselves, The End of Eternity, Level 7 and Dhalgren, so forgive me if I thought science fiction was the cutting edge of modern literature. I never read New York Times, so what did I care if science fiction novels were not routinely reviewed by that newspaper?

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 1

In the March 1975 issue of Galaxy magazine there was a review of Dhalgren by Theodore Sturgeon. I'm including that review here in this blog post (image to the left) for several reasons. First of all, when I bought my copy of Dhalgren I had no idea that it had been impossible for Delany to get it published in a hard cover edition. Sturgeon mentioned the rumor that many book publishers had refused to publish Dhalgren. All I knew was that I had a copy and I although I was vaguely aware that sometimes a science fiction book was published with a hard cover (the first Sci Fi novel I had read, The Gods Themselves, was a hard cover edition), 99% of the Sci Fi novels I saw in book stores were paperbacks.

Back in the 1970s, I had no idea that Delany had written another novel (Hogg) that did not get published until 1995. Although that book is not Sci Fi, it did get reviewed in Asimov's Science Fiction soon after it was published. Given the vast amounts of sickening violence that I saw around me while growing up in the 60s and 70s I imagined that there was no more censorship. The idea of self-censorship did not even cross my mind. I thought that if a writer wanted to write about a topic, they simply wrote and then what they had written simply got published or put on TV or on film. Yes, I was that naive.

Rockets and Rayguns. Okay, in all honesty, I never read all of Dhalgren. I simply lost interest and skipped over some parts. You know what it is like to turn to the end of a novel to see how it turns out. And I'll confess that I was tricked by the cover art for Dhalgren. When I bought my copy, I hoped that there would be a spaceship ride to a distant planet that was in orbit around a big red star. 

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 2

It was fixed in my young mind: a good Sci Fi story should include a interstellar spaceship or a time machine or some such imaginary technological wonder. 

I was disappointed to discover that Dhalgren was set on Earth. Maybe it is a different version of Earth in some alternate Reality, but still...

Holography. Sure, in Delany's version of Earth there were holographic projectors that kids could play with in the streets, when all I got to do was ride my bicycle down the street, but I still wanted spaceships in my Sci Fi stories.

What's in a Name? Sturgeon asked, "Do you know who you are?" In the Exode Saga, I like playing around with multiple copies of people. For example, in Grean's Hack, a replicoid copy of Petra Nicholls is instantiated as a synpaz named Artep. When I perform these kinds of technological tricks of human duplication I often reverse the letters in the copied person's name, so in this case 'Petra' becomes 'Artep'. In Dhalgren, readers never learn the real name of the main character. Is it "Dhalgren" or "Grendal" or "Grendel" or "Grendhal" or none of the above? In the end, it really does not matter.

Here is a quote from Jack Vance's novel The Palace of Love: "Must she own a name? A name is a weight! A chain to a set of uncontrolled circumstances. To own no name is to own freedom! Are you so stolid then that you cannot imagine a person without a name?" The mad poet Navarth and Kirth Gersen are discussing a clone of Jheral Tinzy, a young woman who Navarth refers to by many whimsical names including Zan Zu and Drusilla. Drusilla tells Gersen, "I rather like not having a name. I am anyone I wish to be."

Sturgeon's review of Dhalgren, part 3

 Freedom. In the literary world, there have been an endless stream of authors afraid to publish their work under their real name. 

It is particularly amazing to live in a nation where people brag about being free, but people are not free to publish their "radical" thoughts and wild stories because "thought police" are constantly on patrol. These days, in the land of freedom, people get fired from their jobs for daring to voice their opinions on social media.

Sturgeon wrote about "hunger for stasis" and Asimov had a theory about the value of science fiction being that it was a literary genre that taught people how to deal with change. 

For Sturgeon, Dhalgren was useful. "Having experienced it, you will stand taller, understand more, and press your horizons back a little further away than you ever knew they could go." I think this is one of the reasons that many people enjoy science fiction... that sensation of expanding perspective. Through fantasy we can step beyond the restrictions of our mundane existence, if only for a few hours while reading a book. And, inevitably, after being pushed towards new worlds and new ways of thinking, many people can never go back to their former existence; they have been transported to a new world and given a new way of living their life.

The 100 Club. Back in 2016, I began a tradition of reading old Sci Fi novels and blogging about science fiction writers 100 years after their birth. In 2017 it was Arthur C. Clarke who got the 100+ treatment and in 2018 it was Sturgeon's turn and I commented on his 1953 science fiction story, "The Wages of Synergy". I wrote: "I suppose Sturgeon may have been the only Sci Fi writer who could write about death by orgasm in 1953".

interior art for "The World Well Lost" by Malcolm Smith

Here in this blog post I comment on another Sturgeon publication from 1953, his story "The World Well Lost". Sturgeon whisks readers off to a future Earth that features "orgasmic trivideo shows". This sounds like an alternative futuristic technology similar to the feelies. I can still remember my high school English instructor waxing poetic about the bearskin rug.

Sturgeon's future Earth in "The World Well Lost" is part of a galaxy-spanning civilization that links many exoplanets where various humanoid aliens reside. 

in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Clyde Caldwell

This is like the Star Trek fictional universe where aliens from another world (such as the planet Vulcan) are almost identical to Earthlings and where you can get hybrids like Mr. Spock who is half human and half Vulcan. In The World Well Lost", arriving on Earth from the depths of space are two "lovebirds" 💕, a couple from the planet Dirbanu. However, according to the rulers of planet Dirbanu, these particular "lovebirds" are criminals and so they must be extradited back to Dirbanu.

As told in "The World Well Lost", Dirbanu is the most mysterious planet in the known universe. That remote planet has always existed behind impenetrable force fields, so Earthlings know almost nothing about Dirbanu culture. Prior to the arrival of the "lovebirds", the only other person from Dirbanu who ever came to Earth was an official ambassador who, during a brief visit "showed a most uncommon disdain for Earth and all its works". 

the "unique bond" in "The World Well Lost"

 Telepathy. Well, I would not be commenting on "The World Well Lost" unless it was a story that tickled my fancy and since I'm currently obsessed with telepathy... let us proceed. As Sturgeon tells this fable, the two "lovebirds" never say a word to anyone on Earth, so Earth's politicians (and Sturgeon's readers) are in a hard information vacuum with respect to these two mysterious Dirbanites. Therefor, the the "lovebirds" are arrested by heartless Earthly policemen and shipped back to Dirbanu. There are only two human crew members on the prison ship and one is known as Sleepy Dopey Bashful "Grunty" because he seldom speaks. The other crew member is Captain Rootes.

At this point in "The World Well Lost" Sturgeon becomes quite mysterious himself, hinting at some sort of symbiotic relationship ("unique bond") between Rootes and Grunty. Rootes always insists on having Grunty as his crewman.

"necessity" in "The World Well Lost"

 Psychoneural. In some of Isaac Asimov's stories, there was one drawback to use of hyper-drive technology to quickly speed spacecraft through vast distances between planets: humans would have "space sickness" while transported via hyper-drive. Sturgeon adopted this plot gimmick for "The World Well Lost". The plot thickens when Sturgeon informs readers that Grunty is largely immune to the blackouts that effect humans during hyper-jumps through space. Thus, during their spaceflight missions, there are periods of time when Grunty is awake while Rootes has been knocked unconscious. 

1930 Queer People

fleshpots in "The World Well Lost"

Sturgeon mysteriously tells readers the these periods are a "vital necessity" for Grunty because "a man must occasionally be himself". Readers are not to attempt to understand why people suffer blackouts during the hyper-jump; Sturgeon assures us that it is for good solid scientific "psychoneural" reasons. Sturgeon informs readers that when in port, Rootes spends his time in fleshpots.

telepathy in "The World Well Lost"

And at the beginning of each new spaceflight mission, Rootes always reports, in detail, to Grunty about his "conquests in port", but poor Grunty is not interested in such things. In fact, Grunty suffers through Rootes' reports and is relieved when Rootes finally shuts up already. 

During the journey to Dirbanu, poor Grunty discovers that the two "lovebirds" from Dirbanu can telepathically read his mind. Now Grunty is worried that his secrets might all be revealed by the "lovebirds". Things get dicey when Captain Rootes starts to get horny. It is left to readers' imaginations to imagine how Grunty has always been able to keep Rootes from getting horny during previous space missions.

interior art for "The World Well Lost"

To protect his dire secrets, Grunty is ready to kill the telepathic "lovebirds" from Dirbanu, but then they suddenly communicate with Grunty by giving him a series of 4 drawings. Sadly, since this was 1953, we readers only get to see the drawing shown to the left. That's Grunty and Rootes and a human female.

The drawings include images of naked humans and Dirbanites. Rather than kill the "lovebirds", Grunty lets them escape in the spaceship's lifeboat. When Rootes comes out of his space-jump induced blackout and sees the drawings, he realizes that the "lovebirds" were both male. Dirbanite females are significantly shorter and rounder than the males. Rootes is enraged and he exclaims, "Why, if I'da known that I'da killed 'em". Rootes concludes that Grunty let the Dirbanites escape so as to prevent Rootes from murdering the Dirbanites and getting in trouble with the authorities back on Earth.

the two "lovebirds" escape in the lifeboat

Further, Rootes realizes that since human males and females are quite similar in appearance, the Dirbanites are sickened by Earthlings. The Dirbanites can't stop themselves from thinking that everyone on Earth are "queers", "fluffs", "queens" and "pansies", so the Dirbanites want nothing to do with Earth and other planets; they stay hidden on their home planet behind their impenetrable force shields.

Arriving in orbit at Dirbanu, Rootes reports to the Dirbanites that the "lovebirds" are dead. 

fun at the Y.M.C.A palaestra

A quick telepathic scan of the spaceship by the Dirbanites seems to confirm this and the Dirbanites are pleased to be rid of the "lovebirds". On the way back to Earth, with Rootes unconscious after a hyper-jump, Sturgeon leaves readers with the image of Grunty lovingly touching the lips of the unconscious Rootes.

From the perspective of 2021, it might seem strange that Sturgeon's tale about Dirbanu ("The World Well Lost") was labeled as Sturgeon's "most daring story". I imagine that 70 years from now, future generations will also look back on 2021 and marvel at the hangups and sexual taboos that still exist in our society.

Next: the Trysta Truce

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A Femtocoid Fail

Below on this page is Part 12 of the science fiction story "Telepaths of Site Q". Grean the Kac'hin is trying to teleport some hermaphroditic mice from Earth to Observer Base, but she fears that someone or something might be trying to sneak into Observer Base. Grean has been warned that Gani the robot might be secretly teleported into Observer Base by the tryp'At Council, but what if the real source of danger is Grean herself and reckless use of her own teleportation equipment?

Haunted House. Grean in intrigued by Cellebelle's interest in the haunted houses of Earth. Dani was going off to High Seelie and would shrink his zeptite body down to an appropriate size for that visit. But that was nothing. Right there inside Eternity was Nanoville, where the people were submicroscopic. What if the tryp'At invasion of Observer Base was not going to involve tall humanoids like Irhit and Gani, but rather, nanoscopic lifeforms?

 Part 12 of "Telepaths of Site Q" (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)(part 4)(part 5)(part 6)(part 7)(part 8)(part 9)(part 10)(part 11)

Grean expected to arrive back at her workshop, but instead she found herself in a new place that she had never seen before. Dani was there with her, so not everything had gone wrong during their teleportation off of Earth. Somewhat disoriented, Dani muttered, "Where are we?"

Grean reached out with her telepathic sense and "heard" an almost mechanical narration: Decontamination protocol complete. Femtocoid extract ready for long-range teleportation. Destination set: siteq 3605.

Then they were teleported again and now they arrived safely back in Grean's workshop. Grean hugged Dani and exclaimed, "That was rather spooky! Did you 'hear' that... voice?"

Dani the robot

Dani was tenderly patting the back of Grean's head with one hand and holding the other firmly against the small of her back. He could feel Grean's spine trembling and her voice was shaky. Grateful for not having to deal with adrenaline surges, Dani asked, "What voice?"

"I don't know. It was there in my mind, but..." She tried to imagine what might have created such an inhuman sound. "It may have been a machine." Grean repeated for Dani what she had "heard".

He chuckled. "Femtocoids, eh? This must all be a trick of the tryp'At Council."

Grean leaned back at looked at Dani from arm's length. "The tryp'At Council? How could they have intercepted my teleportation signal?" If the tryp'At could detect and take control of Grean's teleportation signals then that would be very bad news indeed.

Dani shrugged. "All I know is that the tryp'At had some secretive femtocoid project. The people on the tryp'At Council were always whispering about it, or I could often telepathically see that femtocoids were prominent in their thoughts." Grean was staring at Dani he could sense mixed fascination and disbelief in her thoughts. "Don't ask me for any details because I've already told you all I know."

Grean finally let go of Dani and stepped off of the teleportation platform. She quickly scanned through the teleportation diagnostics log and could see that they had arrived in the workshop from a location in outer space, close to Earth's fifth Lagrange point. "We were on a spaceship."

Dani was reading the log over Grean's shoulder. "The year 3605 would be about right for Yenti's era at siteq."

artist's depiction of a bumpha

Grean nodded and suggested, "Maybe we were... decontaminated... by the bumpha."

Dani commented, "I don't know who talks about the bumpha more, you and Wendy or the members of the tryp'At Council. I've never seen a bumpha or met anyone who has."

Grean giggled. "I'm not so sure. Maybe that spaceship we just visited is a bumpha." She looked over her shoulder at Dani and was pleased to find his face just inches away. Impulsively, she kissed him, rather awkwardly missing his mouth and her lips brushed his chin.

Dani bent close and kissed her forehead. "What are talking about, lover?"

Grean got out of her chair and began pacing around the teleporter. She was thinking about how sweet it was that Dani had called her 'lover', but then she slowly got her thoughts back on the mystery at hand. "I'm thinking about something that Trysta Iwedon once told me, back when we were setting up the Trysta Truce... that the bumpha are artificial lifeforms. Apparently, they've been cruising around the universe for billions of years and usually take the physical form of a spaceship."

"Harrumph." Dani shrugged. "I have memories covering a span of about 21,000 years. I can't really imagine creatures existing for billions of years."

Grean stopped pacing and took hold of one of Dani's hands. "I suppose you want to be getting over to Seelie."

"Yes, Treba is ready to take me to High Seelie. We can make sure that the mice from Earth will have a home ready and waiting for them."

Grean did not let go of his hand. "Thank you for letting me ravish you last night, my love. I'd be pleased if you'd stay here with me now for a while. That bungled teleportation really rattled me."

Dani briefly hugged Grean then said, "I just called Wendy. She'll take care of you. Now, if you could teleport me to chamber two..."

Grean finally let go of Dani's hand and set the teleporter for chamber two of Seelie. Dani stepped onto the platform and disappeared. Wendy was just arriving in the workshop and said, "Dani is gone already?"

Grean told Wendy all about the trip to Earth, leaving out nothing. Grean's mind was seething with emotions and Wendy could telepathically sense a dominant tone of terror in the Kac'hin's mind, as if Grean had just awakened from a nightmare. After Grean's account of her visit to Earth and the unusual teleportation glitch, Wendy asked, "You don't think that voice was... from a living being?"

Grean sighed. "Who knows? It was creepy. I'll tell you my best guess, but please don't laugh at me. I think someone was trying to scare me. And they did a very good job."

"Why would anyone do that to you?"

"Maybe just to get me to think."

"Oh, come on, Grean. You are always thinking and obsessing over the future. Sometimes I just try to get you to relax and stop thinking. I thought your trip to Earth was going to be a little vacation for you. I'm sorry you had a scare getting home, but I'm glad that you got to experience sexplay with Dani. He is a very sexy guy, don't you think?"

Grean grinned. "He's hot alright. I'm glad you are not mad at me for giving him a tumble."

"Being able to feel jealousy is part of my programming... I would not be able to understand biologicals if I could not experience emotions. The rational side of my mind tells me that I should not be jealous... I don't own Dani... as much as I might like to."

Grean thought about the idea that Dani had 21,000 years of experience making love to women. She mused, "I thought most positronic robots were female... the positronic brains were made from the template of a human female's brain..." 

"I've never seen census data, if that's what you want." Wendy could not follow Grean's flashing and swirling thoughts. "The second positronic robot was male... R. Nahan."

Grean hugged Wendy and just held onto her for a long time. Grean tried to push thoughts of Dani out of her mind. Finally she asked Wendy, "What if the mice go through the same thing... that decontamination protocol?"

Wendy struggled to follow Grean's leaping thoughts. "That mouse colony in Mars harbors some kind of disease?"

"No, I don't think it is that. I'm thinking about nanotechnology... something like nanocoids."

Wendy had read some of the wild stories that had been written about the far future of the Asimov Reality, so she was aware of nanocoid technology. She said, "I thought nanocoids were fictional technology, or technology lost in Deep Time."

Grean tenderly embraced Wendy. She needed to feel someone's arms around her. Wendy picked up Grean and cradled the Kac'kin in her powerful arms, like a child. Wendy carried Grean out into the gardens and simply walked. Grean had her eyes closed and she was enjoying the sweet smell of flowers. 

Nanocoids. "Snowy landscape"
by Aled Jones and "Fi in Mountains"
by Henry1850 (CC BY-NC 3.0).

She completely trusted Wendy but Grean was struggling to push away fears that Dani was still under the control of the tryp'At Council or possibly even R. Nyrtia, the technical wizard of the Hierion Domain. Finally Grean said, "I don't care if nanocoids are imaginary. The question is, could a nanoscopic lifeform, possibly someone from Nanoville, exist outside of the confines of Nanoville? If so, then nanaoscopic tryp'At agents could infiltrate Observer Base without me even noticing them."

Wendy shook her head and said, "I don't see how you could solve the molecular kinetic energy problem. No... Nanoville is a special low-temperature environment. Its residents could not survive for long here at the high temperatures that you biologicals require for survival." Wendy had carried Grean to her favorite spot in the garden. Wendy laid Grean down on the grass and began slowly undressing her. 

Gradually, with a hundred sweet little Wendy kisses having been gently applied to her skin, Grean was able to relax and become sexually receptive. She opened her eyes and Grean drank in the sight of Wendy's perfect robotic body. Grean's emotions had been nicely shifted from the terror of that disembodied voice in the alien spaceship to basking in the thrill of sexual contact with Wendy. Grean rubbed her stiff nipples with her finger tips while Wendy licked the erect glans of her clitoris. "Thank you, Wendy. You are great medicine."

Later, as the fire of their love making was cooling off, Dani's message arrived from High Seelie. Wendy told Grean, "I just got the 'all clear' from Dani."

Grean jumped to her feet and then held out her hand. Wendy needed no help, but the robot allowed Grean to help Wendy stand up. They kissed tenderly, then ran back to the workshop. Only after entering the workshop did Wendy and Grean use their clothing nanites to dress themselves. 

Investigating the power of nanocoids.

Now, with Wendy's body partially hidden, Grean could get her mind off of sexplay and focus her attention on correctly setting up this complex teleportation sequence. The teleporter equipment had a limited spatial cross-section and a whole series of teleportation events would be needed to send all of Cellebelle's many mice to the research laboratory in High Seelie. As soon as the control settings were all programmed in, Grean locked onto the coordinates of Dani and began the teleportation sequence.

After a minute or so, Wendy reported, "The mice all arrived safely. One hundred and seventy three, not counting all the gestating embryos." Grean finally relaxed and wandered away from the teleporter control panel, then she sank into a chair. Wendy added, "And we got copies of all the written records that Hedy, Susan and Cellebelle compiled through the years."

Grean was tempted to use her Viewer to check on Cellebelle and Richard, but she restrained her curiosity. "Thank you Wendy, for all of you help." For some reason, Grean was now thinking about Irhit and she could not stop wondering about the mystery of how Irhit had known the correct teleportation coordinates of Dani that had been used to bring him into Observer Base. Could there be a hidden nanoscopic entity inside Irhit? Now that Manny was gone and her telepath breeding project completed, Grean no longer felt inhibited from approaching Irhit. Grean sprang out of the chair and told Wendy, "I'm going into town."

____________

inside Many Sails

Inside the sentient spaceship that was Many Sails, Irhit's parents were being held in a teleportation buffer. They had been carefully extracted from their hiding places inside the bodies of Dani and Grean. Only then had Many Sails teleported the decontaminated bodies of Dani and Grean into Eternity. Now Many Sails had to decide on the best structure for the new bodies that would be given to Irhit's parents. In preparation for speaking to the tryp'At, Many Sails materialized a copy of the Kac'hin version of Manny.

The newly reassembled Manny gazed into a mirror and for a time experimented with various outfits, trying to find the optimal way to decorate the sexy contours of this body. She wanted to be sexually enticing in the eyes of Irhit's parents, but not offensively provocative. 

The bodies of Kac'hin hermaphrodites and tryp'At hermaphrodites were significantly different and there was a risk that Manny could be perceived by the tryp'At as being repulsive if she allowed the contours of her genitals to show through her clothing. Finally satisfied with her physical appearance, Manny next concerned herself with how much of her thoughts and mind to put on display for the telepathic tryp'At. Manny made a few last adjustments to the fake persona she had crafted for just this purpose. Unfortunately, there was powerful temporal vortex preventing Manny from examining her own future, so she had to make her best guess about how to interact with Irhit's parents.

Finally, there was the issue of how to pronounce their names. Since gaining access to the hidden world of the tryp'At where it resided within the Hierion Domain, Manny had been studying tryp'At culture and she knew the conventional way of pronouncing "Sellehuelle" and "Minki". 

Asterothrope hermaphrodite (left)

For a moment, Manny reflected on the fact that there were so few tryp'At they only each used a single name. Then Manny pulled Sellehuelle and Minki out of the teleportation buffer and told them: Your attempt to sneak into Observer Base failed.

Sellehuelle said: Ah, Manny the Kac'hin. Somehow I developed the idea that you were a mythological creature.

Manny explained: I'm quite real, we simply have not previously had the opportunity to meet.

Minki asked: How did you detect us? I was quite confident that Grean would not notice my presence inside her body.

Sellehuelle added: And Dani had no idea that I was inside him.

Manny had no desire to reveal her methods so she tried to change the subject. I know you have questions, but I want to get you into new bodies. I detest speaking to nanoscopic lifeforms that I can't see. Now, I want your suggestions for the shape and form of your new bodies, but first, allow me to advise you. You are going to be sent to siteq. The bumpha want you to help care for Irhit's children. Since you'll be living among Asterothropes and be involved in child care, I recommend that you both adopt the bodily form of an Asterothrope hermaphrodite.

Minki complained: We have no choice in selection of our future home?

Manny replied bluntly: None.

Sellehuelle said: After living so long on Earth as humans, I'm not sure that I could deal with an hermaphroditic body.

Manny suggested: I could put you into an hermaphroditic body and also provide you with medical nanites that could later be used to change your sex. However, speaking from personal experience, I think you will both enjoy having both a penis and a vagina. The most challenging adjustment for you will be growing accustomed to smaller bodies.

After a long discussion of their future life at siteq, Sellehuelle and Minki accepted the offer of being placed into new bodies that matched the conventional physical form of hermaphroditic Asterothropes. As if arriving by teleportation, Sellehuelle and Minki appeared right in front of Manny who switched to spoken language and used the odd dialect that Yenti had grown up using in siteq. "I wish you the enjoyment of these new bodies and your two grandchildren. Take things slow with Yenti and Riea, but I have warned them of your pending arrival and after a time they will treat you like family." 

Before Sellehuelle and Minki could recover from the disorientation of being in new bodies and before either of them uttered a word, Manny teleported them off to their new house in siteq. That house was a close replica of their home in Mars, Iowa. Having Viewed the future, Manny knew that Sellehuelle and Minki would be happy in their new lives and suffer only minor regret over not achieved their goal of infiltrating Observer Base.

________________

Wendy had invited Trysta the Asterothrope to the workshop. When Trysta arrived, Grean saw that she had brought along Deomede the Ec'kol, just as Grean had foreseen. Trysta and Deomede joined Wendy and Grean where they stood examining a View of the future at a time after both Trysta and Grean had traveled back into Earth's past. By living on Earth in the far past, Trysta and Grean would be able to insert alien gene patterns into the population of Earthlings.

However, after Trysta and Grean were no longer at Observer Base, the tryp'At would finally invade Observer Base in large numbers. Grean pointed to the Viewer and told Wendy and Deomede, "This is what you need to be prepared for. It will be easy to contain the newly-arrived tryp'At, but I recommend allowing them a period during which the first who arrive can imagine that their presence is not noticed. That will entice the whole group to teleport in and then you can round them all up."

Deomede asked, "By waiting, won't there be a danger that they will locate this workshop?"

"Yes, but during that time, simply inactivate the teleportation and time travel equipment here in this room."

Deomede looked around at the devices. "I have no idea how to shut down these machines. It seems like they are always running."

Wendy told Deomede, "I have the interlock codes. I'll take care of this when the time comes. You'll be busy entertaining our tryp'At guests."

Deomede chuckled and told Grean, "Entertainment? This I want to see."

However Grean turned off the Viewer. "Sorry to disappoint you, Deomede, but due to temporal paradox, I can't show you any details of your future. Suffice it to say, your charms will be equally effective with tryp'At as they are with Asterothropes."

Trysta was holding on to Deomede's arm and she told Grean, "I've made up my mind. Deomede is even more charming than Ekcolir was."

Grean told Trysta, "I'm glad you feel that way, but I worry that your attachment to Deomede will make it very challenging for you the time arrives and you have to depart from Observer Base."

Trysta sighed and said, "When that time comes, Grean, just send me back into Earth's past. That way I won't have to say goodby."

Grean reminded Wendy and Deomede, "Don't forget about Gani. He will arrive with the tryp'At and be easily confused with Dani."

little people; image source

Deomede asked, "Where is Dani? I still have not met him."

"He's investigating the genetics laboratory in High Seelie."

Wendy added, "Dani is having far to much fun with the little people in Seelie. I worry that he may decide to take up residence there."

Grean laughed and put an arm around Wendy's waist and told her, "He'll return to you, my dear, never fear."

_________________

Lanora Dryswyn was caught up in crafting a commissioned work. This was her second statue of Dani the robot, and what would apparently be part of a long series, due to the popularity of the first such statue that had recently been put on display inside the home of one of Dani's admirers. Everyone agreed that Dani was exceptionally cute and now while she sculpted, Lany fantasized about the shape and features of Dani's body.

Lanora had never seen Dani's genitals, but startling rumors and enthusiastic descriptions of Dani's sexplay methods had swept through Observer Base. Lanora suspected that those rumors greatly exceeded reality, but now there were expectations that had to be met. Due to her own inherited anatomical idiosyncrasies, in her mind, the size of a man's sex organs was a critically important parameter and Lanora had no reluctance to creating statues featuring a large and provocative penis, so her imagined versions of Dani featured dramatic erections.

Diet advice from Doctor Tilloush.

Irhit arrived home from a strenuous tunnel-ball game and he looked into Lany's studio. "I'm going to take a quick shower." 

Lany looked up from her work, dropped her sculpting tool and rushed to throw her arms around Irhit who was salty with dried sweat. A minute later they were both in the shower. While Irhit washed, Lany played with his genitals and explained how she was crafting the new Dani statue so as to have penile proportions similar to Irhit's spectacular organ. Rinsing soap off himself, Irhit tried to turn under the rushing stream of water, but Lany had a firm two-handed grip on his penis. He stopped his scrubbing and enjoyed the sight of water running over the contours of Lany's sexy body. Not thinking, he blurted out, "Have you put on weight?"

"I was hoping that you might notice." Lany held his stiff erection against her belly and replied, "Not much so far, but I am pregnant, so you better get used to seeing a bigger me every day for the next seven months."

Irhit grinned and said, "Are you joking?"

This image was made using
Etude Nr 596
by Andrey-A-M and
is under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Lanny shook her head. "Doctor Tilloush dropped by today for a house call... she says it is twins." 

Irhit started laughing. He knew that twins were common among the tryp'At and he had been born as a twin with Cellebelle and Yenti had given birth to twins. "I'm not really surprised." He began soaping up her abdomen and tried to convince himself that he could feel her bulging uterus. However, she really still had the appearance of a tall skinny girl.

With a touch of uncertainty in her voice, Lany said, "I'm not sure I'm ready to be a mom, and Tilly even expressed some concerns." She reflected on the ordeal of filling out all the paperwork that had finally gotten her out of the remedial sex education course. At that time, Irhit had to meet with Mrs. Tapsey who accused Irhit of having one night stands with girls just to liberate them from her sex education class. Lany had found it easy to laugh that off. She was very much in love with Irhit and planned to never let him go.

Irhit told Lany, "Don't be silly, dear... you will be a good mother. This is wonderful news! Even Mrs. Tapsey will be pleased."

"I'm not sure of that. I had to listen to all her lectures for many years about the importance of using condoms and other means of birth control. Then when I took you to bed, I did not even think about condoms. Nor did you."

"I was only thinking about my great luck in finding you, my love..." Irhit admitted, "I suspect that we were made for each-other."

This image was made using
Etude Nr 682
by Andrey-A-M and
is under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

"You are so fanciful, my dear." Lany giggled as she leaned back against the wall of the shower and Irhit slid his erection into her vagina. "We do fit nicely together!"

Manny was telepathically tuned into the minds of both Lany and Irhit as they proceeded to make love, first in the shower and then latter in the bedroom of Irhit's apartment. Manny reflected on the fact that Lany now seldom returned to her childhood home and had transferred most of her belonging to Irhit's place, although her old studio still functioned as a kind of display room for her sculpture collection.

After they'd each had a second orgasm, Lany sat in bed playing with Irhit's genitals. He asked, "What was the doctor concerned about?"

Speaking with her mouth full, Lany said, "Mostly my uterus." To Irhit it sounded like 'momentus' and he tried to telepathically tune into her thoughts. He could sense a weak telepathic connection to Lany's mind, but after two months of daily attempts to make their minds synchronize during simultaneous orgasms, Irhit had decided that he was never going to link to Lanora in quite the same way he had been telepathically connected to Yenti, Riea and Wysy. After a long minute, Lany reluctantly pulled her mouth off of the tip of his penis and replied, "Tilly discovered that I have a bifurcated uterus."

Yenti had given Irhit a tutorial on Asterothrope female anatomy. Asterothrope females had two distinct uteri, each linked to its own ovary. There was a larger front uterus connected to the woman's nhezaurish and a back uterus just for giving birth to children who were fathered by hermaphrodites and which was connected to the allzaurish. However, Irhit knew that Lany did not have an allzaurish and her vagina was structurally different than Yenti's nhezaurish. In Irhit's mind, comparing Yenti's vagina to Lany's vagina was like comparing apples to oranges or chocolate to vanilla... both were delectable. Irhit had no idea that Manny had carefully designed Lany so that her vaginal secretions included two of the Asterothrope pheromones that Irhit was sensitive to. Before Irhit could formulate a question, Lany continued, "Doctor Tilloush was amazed by my four cervixes." Lany again took Irhit's penis in her mouth.

Irhit quietly repeated, "Four." He tried to puzzle it out while he enjoyed the way that Lany was stimulating the sensitive tip of his penis with her tongue. She held one of his testes in each of her hands. Back when they had been growing to Asterothrope proportions, his testes had been sensitive and full of nociceptors, but now they were sensitive in a good way and Lany had learned how to make Irhit ejaculate just by gently stroking his scrotum. He guessed, "Now you must be teasing me."

Lany lifted her head and said, "No, I'm not. Tilly showed them to me. So far, only two are open... the ones way up at the end where they link to my oviducts. Each oviduct is connected to one lobe of my uterus. She was expertly massaging his testes and now he began to ejaculate. She quickly returned her mouth to the top of his penis and eagerly swallowed his ejaculate. A minute later, after consuming the last of his sweet semen spurts, Lany added, "Tilly want's to keep a close eye on my other two cervixes during my pregnancy. He expects them to open up before I give birth and become the route for our two children to emerge into the world."

As his orgasm faded, Irhit was experiencing some modest telepathic linkage to Lany's thoughts and he had a flash of insight. "So, the two halves of your bifurcated uterus run parallel to your vagina."

"Exactly." Lany finally let go of his testes and she again took his big hot erection into her vagina. Eager to have another orgasm of her own, she started rubbing her clitoris against Irhit. "Tilly is also worried that I'll get really huge by the end of my pregnancy. Based on the size of my uterus, Doctor Tilloush estimated that I might give birth to twenty pounds of babies and placentas."

Irhit rolled them over and took over the task of rubbing up another orgasm for Lany. Irhit thought about the skill with which Wendy had assisted Yenti when she gave birth to two babies that each weighed over nine pounds. But Yenti was much a bigger woman than Lany and she had weighed 180 pounds at the start of her pregnancy. Irhit asked, "Did Doctor Tilloush weigh you today?"

"Yes. I'm now just over 120 pounds, heavier than I've ever been before. And she wants me to gain weight. Tilly wants me to keep food in the house and eat any time I get hungry."

Irhit thought back to his childhood on Earth, but it was hard to remember hunger... there had always been a bounty of food in the house. And since coming to Observer Base, he was never hungry. The feeding nanites of Observer Base continually supplied easy-to-absorb nutrients to the upper GI tracts of all residents, in just the required amounts to maintain life and avoid any increase in body weight. But maybe it was different for pregnant women. He suspected that Yenti had been fed by her own Asterothrope feeding nanites. Irhit asked, "Have you been experiencing hunger?"

Lany giggled and replied, "Why do you think I've been so interested in oral sex lately?"

Irhit had noticed that they were now including more oral sex in their sexplay and he had simply imagined that, with practice, Lany had become more skilled at oral sex. Really, the trick was the special way she handled his testes. "Do you really think you can get a significant amount of calories from my eating my semen?"

"I don't think you realize just how much you ejaculate." Lany added, "Tilly want's us to measure that quantitatively. Anyhow, I hope you don't mind if I make use of you as a semen factory... I have a specific strong craving for your sweet semen. And now, Tilly ordered me to collect a sample of your ejaculate so she can measure its volume and caloric content." After a pause, she added, "Tilly warned me that if I don't provide the data then she'll collect a sample of your semen herself."

Irhit knew that it had been Yenti's medical nanites that had stimulated his testes to grow so huge. In the case of Lany's special biology, Irhit had imagined that Sara and Allyn, simply by chance, had inherited large numbers of Asterothrope and Ek'col genes. However, now he was suspecting that there was some other additional human variant that had contributed genes to Lany's unique biological nature.

Manny was still watching Irhit's thoughts. She had helped bring into existence hundreds of different primate subtypes, all originating from Earth. However, there was no point in trying to explain the diverse origins of Lany's unique gene patterns. Manny had designed Lany to be a perfect match for Irhit. Lany would keep Irhit's mind occupied and also give birth to children who would become useful Interventionist agents for Manny in the future. 

Lany told Irhit the last concern of Doctor Tilloush, "Tilly thinks that if I do produce two big babies, then the two halves of my uterus will start to impinge on my vagina. If that happens, then it might become difficult for you to get your big penis inside me." Lany suggested, "Maybe we can invite Kate to join our sexplay if that becomes a problem."

Irhit chuckled, "It sounds like Tilly is also offering her services."

Manny also thought about Kate and how Hana and Susan had latched onto that sexbot. After recieving evidence that Lany had finally become sexually active, Mrs. Tapsey had sent a written request that Kate terminate her work at the Dryswyn residence, but Kate had so far ignored that request, preferring to remain as a sex partner for Hana and Susan. Susan was pretending to be a school-aged immigrant, newly arrived from Earth and subject to the rules for completing her education at Observer Base. Kate had sent to Mrs. Tapsey a written reply: "I'm doing research into the sexual behaviors that Susan learned while living on Earth. I'm even getting exciting data on tryp'At sexual practices that Susan learned from Sellehuelle and Minki."

Manny had previously placed medical nanites inside Lanora which had genetically analyzed the two embryos that were growing inside her uterus. The genetic analysis having been completed, Manny almost sent the "return" command to those nanites, but then she thought about Betty and how much she and Henry were enjoying her allzaurish. 

Until that moment, it had not occurred to Manny to provide Lany with well-crafted allzaurish. Manny quickly viewed possible alternate Realities in which Lany's rectum was re-formed into an allzaurish. Manny found a possible Reality that would actually have benefits for the shape of the Final Reality. It that newly-discovered Reality, the children of Irhit and Lany would be more versatile agents for Manny the next time she returned to Observer Base. 

image source

That was enough for Manny, so she reprogrammed the medical nanites that were in Lany's body. Now they would slowly reshape Lany's anus and rectum into an unusually large allzaurish that could accommodate Irhit, although it would be a very tight fit. Manny sighed and could not imagine that small 'defect' would elicit any complaints. In a month or so when Irhit and Lany first noticed her anatomical change, Irhit would attribute it to the remnants of the nanites that Yenti had previously used to alter Irhit's body.

In any case, this particular modification of Lany's body structure would be relatively easy to accomplish since it was working in accord with Lany's unusual gene patterns. Manny had designed both Sara and Lany so as to include a large number of Allzylan genes. It had been necessary for the success of the Irhit Intervention that neither Sara or Lanty grow up with an allzaurish, so that natural feature of their anatomy had been suppressed by developmental control nanites. Manny briefly reflected on the planet Allzylon, the original Site A in the Asimov Reality, which she had used as the location of the earliest experiments aimed at artificially evolving the Asterothropes into a new human variant that was more structurally similar to the humans of 20th century Earth. 

Back in the far future of the Asimov Reality, all of Manny's efforts with the design of new Allzylan gene patterns had been devoted to making a human variant that could use its zeptite endosymbiont for telepathic communication. All of her G sym technology had arisen from that work on Allzylon, but for a long time Manny never imagined actually making use of an Allzylan as an Interventionist agent on Earth. But then, like any craftsman making use of the best tool for a job, Manny had eventually discovered that Sara the Allzylan was needed for the Irhit Intervention and with time, Lany had appeared inside Observer Base.

Thinking about Doctor Tilloush and the poor robot's confusion over Lany's alien body, Manny giggled to herself. Of course, long ago Manny had made sure that the Observer Base feeding nanites knew how to deal with an Allzylan woman's pregnancy and Sara had never even consulted a doctor during her three perfectly uneventful pregnancies. Tilloush would eventually realize that the epithelial cells in the deep end of Lany's nhezaurish were phagocytic and quite capable of gobbling up most of Irhit's great volumes of semen and that would provide her with a significant amount of calories independent of any oral sex they engaged in.

Thinking about newly crafted allzaurish, Manny thought about Betty and was instantly caught up in the pleasure that Betty was at that moment sharing with Henry. Manny noticed that there was an unusual four-way orgasm trance taking place in Yaddo. Manny did not want to interrupt, so she at first watched and then gradually gave up on that and allowed herself to join in the fun. When Betty and Henry slid out of the trance, Manny allowed her presence to be noticed by the other two participants.

Qaz said: Hello Manny.

Olyv was slowly recovering a semblance of equilibrium in her artificial brain pathways. Manny, I should have known this was all your idea.

Manny told Olyv: No, this was all Qaz, although I'm glad to see that you two will be able to entertain each-other while standing guard duty. Qaz had decided to remain in Observer Base rather than return to siteq. Qaz was now on the job, watching for the possibility that Gani would sneak into Observer Base.

Qaz commented: I'm glad you are here, Manny. I just found another piece of the puzzle... in Olyv's mind.

Manny could telepathically see the nature of what was troubling Qaz and what her knee-jerk reaction was.

Tar'Tron

No, I'm going to allow the tryp'At to keep that Bimanoid Resonator in Mars.

Qaz objected: But they could use that device to swap the minds of Gani and Dani.

Manny acknowledged that fact: Yes, but the tryp'At don't know that I'm now monitoring the hierion tube that links into Mars. I had Olyv carefully design the Bimanoid Resonator as an open conduit between Mars and Yaddo that would serve as an irresistible temptation for the tryp'At Council.

Olyv added: The resonator was also useful for the Richard/Susan mind swap.

Manny explained to Olyv: I could have accomplished that particular mind swap myself, without using the resonator that you installed in Yaddo. But now the tryp'At Council knows about the existence of the resonator and they will be tempted to use that route to infiltrate Gani past Grean's defenses. With the Bimanoid Resonator available to them, the tryp'At won't bother finding another way to begin their invasion of Observer Base.

Olyv said: Clever. Now, after all these years, I finally understand why you had me build an exact duplicate of Irhit's childhood home.

Manny added: And allowing the tryp'At Bimanoid Resonator to remain in Iowa serves a second purpose. Its existence is a clear violation of both the Pact and the Rules of Intervention, so it stands as a constant excuse for the bumpha to have countermeasures in place on Earth. For example, Richard will be able to keep an eye on Cellebelle. In fact, Manny now noticed that just then Richard had both eyes on Belle and his penis inside her. Manny was tempted to telepathically join in their spirited love making, but she retrained herself. She had other things to attend to and could not be further delayed. The Irhit Intervention had been successfully managed... at least in the Ekcolir Reality... and it was time to move on. Manny extracted herself from Observer Base and was soon on her way to Tar'Tron in the galactic core. 

_______________

Wysy (left), Yenti (middle) and Riea (right)

 Part 12 of Telepaths of Site Q (above) is the last chapter of the story for inclusion here at this blog. The rest of the novel concerns events taking place at siteq during the Ekcolir Reality, events which never had any real impact on Earth here in the Final Reality. Parts 1-12 of Telepaths of Site Q add up to about 58,000 words.

I did not make very many completely new illustrations for Telepaths of Site Q. Mostly I recycled older illustrations that were previously used in other stories. 

However, I wanted a newly crafted cover that had some similarity an old pulp science fiction magazine. The cover illustration for Telepaths of Site Q (image to the right) depicts Yenti, Riea and Wysy, the three telepaths from siteq who have speaking roles in the story.

Next: Paraliterary

 

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