Last month I began writing a new science fiction story called "Telepaths of Site Q". Obviously, this new story concerns my obsession with telepathy as a science fiction plot element, but so have several other recent stories including Old Time Gaming, The Alastor Network, "The Olivine Intervention", Grean's Hack, and The Yerophet Experiment. So, what is special about "Telepaths of Site Q"?
The Origins of Irhit. I love recursive science fiction fiction stories. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that the science fiction genre originated as a devious alien plot and was created by space aliens as a tool for preparing Humanity for First Contact with the alien Fru'wu who planned to reveal themselves to Earthlings during the 20th century. Many of the characters in the Exode saga are themselves science fiction story tellers.
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Manny the bumpha
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Given the story setting outlined above, I could not resist turning myself into
a character with a role to play in the Exode Saga.
Many characters in the Exode Saga are depicted as having analogues in past
Realities of Earth's
Reality Chain. In my case, my analogue in the
Ekcolir Reality was a
tryp'At named
Irhit. "Telepaths of Site Q" is an origins story for Irhit, showing how he functioned as a tryp'At spy inside
Observer Base.
The origins of the tryp'At are rather mysterious. I imagine that both the Ek'col and the tryp'At were crafted as telepathic human variants in the far future of the Asimov Reality. The Ek'col were designed and deployed by the bumpha as part of an effort to create a Final Reality in which humans from Earth would have a great adventure exploring the galaxy. Some tryp'At ended up being deployed by R. Gohrlay as part of a rather misguided effort to protect the integrity of the Trysta-Grean Pact.
Many Sails. If Earth can be said to have a "guardian angel" that role and fanciful label would be attached to the sentient spaceship,
Many Sails.
Many Sails is an ancient artificial lifeform, a bumpha. As hinted at in "Telepaths of Site Q",
Many Sails tricked R. Gohrlay into sending Irhit to Observer Base so as to create an opportunity for discovering R. Gohrlay's hidden location within the
Hierion Domain.
When Grean the Kac'hin took control of Eternity, R. Gohrlay slipped away and took refuge in some other part of the Hierion Domain. The positronic robots of Earth who were not quickly captured by Grean, allied themselves with the Phari who were experts in the field of hierion physics. In contrast, the Huaoshy (and the bumpha) are the masters of the Sedronic Domain and sedronic matter. It would be a great embarrassment for Many Sails if she can't capture R. Gohrlay and use her as a character witness before the watchful Huaoshy.
The Story So Far (parts 1 - 6)
To set a trap for R. Gohrlay,
Many Sails must work among the residents of Observer Base. As told in "Telepaths of Site Q", while dealing personally with humans,
Many Sails often uses the cover identity of a woman named Manny. Manny's trap for the tryp'At is rather complicated and so Manny has also deployed several of her agents inside Observer Base. In the
first chapter of "Telepaths of Site Q", Manny checks in with her operative "Miss Olyv".
Given Manny's access to advanced technology for time travel, teleportation and zeptites, you might suspect that she exercises almost god-like control over the fate of humans. However, Manny is constrained by three things. First, temporal momentum powerfully shapes the Final Reality.
Second, as mentioned above, R. Gohrlay remains hidden in the Hierion Domain and is herself a powerful influence on the course of human affairs. Third, Manny must respect the
Rules of Intervention. In particular, the ethical guidelines of the Huaoshy prevent Manny from having direct interaction with humans on Earth. However, Manny lives by the letter of the law, not its spirit. For example, at
the start of "Telepaths of Site Q", Manny meets with and talks to Irhit. Manny feels this is within her rights because technically Irhit is not human (he is a human variant, a tryp'At). Also, Manny tells herself that the Rules of Intervention don't actually apply to Observer Base because the humans living there are cut-off from Earth.
The bottom line: Manny is a pragmatist and she knows that she must prepare Irhit for his surprising encounter with Yenti the Asterothrope. Still, briefly teleporting Irhit out of Observer Base and into Many Sails and meeting with Irhit in person is a choice made my Manny who simply enjoys meeting new people.
Manny could have used one of her operatives to perform the task of showing Irhit a few images of Yenti, but that was a task that Manny wanted to perform herself. Manny is trying to use Irhit as a conduit for sending information to the tryp'At Council with the hope that she can trick them into revealing their location inside the Hierion Domain, and also possibly the location of R. Gohrlay, R. Nyrtia or both. Trying to trick the tryp'At Council is delicate work that Manny does not want to trust to any of her helpers. So Manny gets to feed some tantalizing information through Irhit to the tryp'At Council.
In the case of Miss Olyv, Manny has no need to physically enter into Observer Base and risk being seen while meeting with Olyv. Olyv is a replicoid composed of zeptites and was designed to be efficiently remotely controlled and directed by Manny. As a secret agent for Manny inside Observer Base, Olyv can alter her physical structure so as to take on any convenient physical form. Olyv has gotten into the habit of usually adopting a female body form while working among humans.
Olyv and Dani both originated as positronic robots. During the time when Grean captured Eternity, Manny made several copies of R. Daneel Olivaw. Manny tried to use one copy of Daneel as a tracer, but that effort failed to reveal the hidden location of R. Gohrlay. The technology used for making copies of Daneel involved using his original positronic robot body as a template for a set of newly constructed zeptite replicoids who could be deployed by the bumpha.
At the start of "Telepaths of Site Q", Olyv is playing the role of a teacher at the Core School, which is located in the high population density downtown district of Observer Base. However, Olyv is a versatile agent. She has the ability to control two physical bodies at the same time, so Olyv is also playing the role of Catski, a close childhood friend of Betty.
Through the years, Catski has telepathically created and then guided Betty's obsessive interest in aliens and, particularly, hermaphroditic aliens. This is all part of Manny's plan to make sure that the tryp'At become so intrigued and alarmed by events at Observer Base that they make a mistake and reveal the location of their own hidden base of operations inside the Hierion Domain.
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cat and mouse games
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In the past, "Olyv" has performed other tasks for Manny such as using the physical form of a cat to infiltrate the
Connatic's palace in Alastor Cluster. An additional role for "Olyv" as part of Manny's Irhit Intervention is revealed in a later chapter of "Telepaths of Site Q".
More Backstory; Events taking place before the start of "Telepaths of Site Q"...
At the beginning of "Telepaths of Site Q" it is not clear to readers what role
Betty might play in the project aimed at developing a new type of telepathic human. However, during her 17-month-long romantic relationship with Irhit, the subconscious telepathic linkage between their minds has been slowly but surely awakening Irhit's telepathic abilities. As a tryp'At, Irhit was born with a brain structure that can allow for telepathy, but his telepathic skills were suppressed during childhood as part of a plan by the tryp'At Council to infiltrate Irhit into Observer Base. However, with the imminent start of Yenti's pregnancy, Irhit's telepathic abilities will soon be needed to help Yenti's two children fully develop their telepathic abilities. So, even before the first chapter of "Telepaths of Site Q", Betty has already played an important role in Manny's plans for crafting telepathic Asterothrope-tryp'At hybrids.
In addition, in later chapters of "Telepaths of Site Q", Betty will play a role in dealing with Dani, another robot. Dani originated as another copy of R. Daneel Olivaw. At the beginning of "Telepaths of Site Q", Dani is off stage, working as an assistant to the tryp'At Council. However, Dani will soon arrive inside Observer Base as an agent of the tryp'At. Manny plans to "take control" of Dani and shift his allegiance from 1)
R. Gohrlay and the tryp'At to 2)
Grean the Kac'hin.
Readers of the first chapter of "Telepaths of Site Q" might wonder why the story begins with a peak at characters such as Brak and Zeta in the Final Reality. This is a reminder that all of Manny's efforts in the Ekcolir Reality are directed towards creation of a Final Reality that will satisfy both R. Gohrlay and the Huaoshy.
In
chapter 2 of "Telepaths of Site Q" readers are introduced to Grean. Up until this point, even though Grean views herself as having complete control of events taking place inside Observer Base, Grean has remained unaware of Manny's crafty plans for Irhit that have been developing for the past 20 years. Manny and Grean have known each-other for a long time. They grew up together as children with Manny pretending to be a Kac'hin. Occasionally, Manny visits Grean and when doing do, always hides from Grean her true identity as a bumpha.
Manny warns Grean about the imminent arrival of Yenti and asks Grean not to interfere with Manny's carefully planned romance between Irhit and Yenti. After her meeting with Manny, Grean gets help from her robotic assistant Wendy to begin an investigation into Betty's telepathic abilities and the possibility that Betty might have a shared telepathic link to Irhit.
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| Wendy |
Wendy is a positronic robot who was captured when Grean took control of Eternity. Wendy's loyalties were shifted away from R. Gohrlay and the positronic robots and now Wendy is a valuable assistant to Grean in managing Observer Base. Later in "Telepaths of Site Q", it will be revealed that Wendy is already at work for Manny, preparing for the arrival of Dani.
In chapter 3 of "Telepaths of Site Q", readers can imagine that Grean is trying to understand the unique telepathic abilities of Betty and her family. When Yenti first walks onstage, Betty's parents quickly notice the unusual girl. With Yenti is Manny the Bumpha. Manny being seen in public inside Observer Base is a technical violation of the Rules of Intervention, but Manny plans on erasing the memories of everyone who sees her with Yenti. Manny is there in the dance hall in order to make certain that Irhit meets Yenti and dances with her before anyone else (such as Betty's father, Allyn) can approach Yenti on the dance floor. Yes, Manny could have assigned this task to an assistant, but she selfishly decides to have a little fun by visiting the Serothic Dance Hall herself. Given the advanced memory-editing nanites that are available to Manny, she has no doubt that she will be able to cover-up and hide her violation of the Rules of Intervention.
Betty's mother, Sara feels a telepathic linkage to Manny and soon propositions Manny with the suggestion that she and Yenti party with Sara and Allyn. Manny turns down that proposal and begins the process of erasing the memories that Sara and Allyn have of seeing Manny with Yenti. Manny hands off that little memory editing task to Olyv and by the next morning, neither Sara or Allyn remembers having seen Manny at the Serothic Dance Hall.
In chapter 3 of "Telepaths of Site Q", readers are also introduced to Betty's two older sisters, Hana and Lany. All three of the Dryswyn sisters have inherited from their parents the ability to enter into long-lasting orgasm trances. These pleasurable states of mind are a feature of normal Asterothrope physiology, and some tryp'At have a limited ability to enter into brief orgasm trances. With the help of body-altering nanites from Yenti, Irhit is able to shift towards a more Asterothrope-like pattern of orgasms.
In
chapter 4 of "Telepaths of Site Q", Yenti takes Irhit from the Serothic Dance Hall back to her apartment. Yenti's apartment is not technically inside Observer Base; it is linked to Observer Base by a special space-time conduit and actually exists in the Sedronic Domain. As long as Yenti stays inside her apartment,
Trysta will be unable to have telepathic contact with her. The space-time conduit linking Observer Base to Yenti's apartment is "tuned" so as to only allow Irhit to pass through, along with zeptites. Even Yenti is not aware that when teleported into Observer Base, her mind was transferred into a zeptite replicoid. Yenti still believes that she is a biological organism and will reproduce with Irhit providing a sperm cell "the old fashioned way". The genetic design and creation of the two children of Yenti and Irhit is actually more complicated than that, but neither Yenti or Irhit need concern themselves with those details.
More important than the genes they each contribute to their children will be the ability of Yenti and Irhit to help the developing embryos successfully form the neural circuitry in their brains that they will need to fully express their telepathic abilities. Very quickly after meeting, Yenti and Irhit begin strengthening the telepathic connection that they share. Yenti's body contains cellular re-programming nanites that migrate into Irhit and begin remodeling his body and brain so that they become closer in structure to the Asterothrope phenotype.
Irhit is amazed to meet a girl like Yenti. She tells him that her full name is Yenti Klandrosheikevk and she is from Siteq. That has little meaning to Irhit, but Yenti also begins introducing Irhit to the ancient customs and rituals of her people. The Asterothropes were originally designed for the purpose of rapid reproduction and quickly spreading human genes through the galaxy. Asterothrope culture is thus centrally concerned with the efficient production of children and the important role of parents in helping shape the minds of new Asterothrope individuals so as to maximize their full telepathic potential.
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| Wysy |
During his first night spent with Yenti, Irhit is introduced to an artificial lifeform named Wysy. Wysy is a sophisticated sex toy who can help keep Irhit sexually satisfied during the awkward time when nanites are shifting his body towards a more typical Asterothrope male structural pattern.
In chapter 5 of "Telepaths of Site Q", readers are given more insight into Grean's investigation of Betty's telepathic abilities. Betty's mind can establish unconscious resonance with a few special individuals, one of whom is her friend Catski. For many years while growing up, Betty has cultivated Catski as a close friend because simply being in close physical proximity to Catski can cause Betty to slip into an altered mental state: a long-lasting orgasm trance.
Betty asks Catski to take a break from her usual routine and visit the Yaddo artists colony with Betty. Betty needs help investigating an unusual artist (Henry) who she recently met in Yaddo. Betty was able to sense a weak but conscious telepathic link to Henry and she wants to investigate if that telepathic connection can be strengthened. Henry is in a long-term relationship with Richard and Betty wants Catski to distract Richard. However, Catski is the appendage of Olyv and following instructions from Manny, Catski refuses to accompany Betty to Yaddo.
Intrigued by Betty's unusual telepathic abilities, Grean makes direct contact with Betty. As far as Grean can determine, Betty has never had a conscious telepathic linkage to Irhit. Betty goes to the fishbowl, the facility at Observer Base from which Observers can monitor events on Earth. Even with help from Irhit, Betty cannot trace Henry or Richard to a previous existence on Earth before they suddenly appeared in the records of Observer Base 15 years previously. However, Irhit's mention of the synpaz of Seelie sets Betty to thinking about the small pet that her sister Lany once had.
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another synpaz intervention (source)
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Lany explains to Betty that when she was very young, a synpaz who Lany calls "Albert" had trained her how to shift her mind into an orgasm trance, and do so at will. Further, because of the subconscious telepathic resonance between Lany and Betty, Betty had grown up frequently experiencing long-lasting orgasm trances. Eventually, Betty had met and befriended Catski who also could achieve telepathic resonance with Betty. Betty now realizes that when she met Irhit a year previously, she was happy to become his girlfriend because they also shared an unconscious telepathic linkage.
The other synpaz who is already known to Betty is Treba. Suspecting that Treba might be "Albert", Betty visits Treba. Treba admits that he is "Albert". Treba also tells Betty that Henry and Richard did come from Earth, originating as an Earth-"woman" (actually an hermaphrodite) named Hedy Wolcat.
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Grean teleports Hedy to Observer Base
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Treba performs a demonstration for Betty, revealing how by use of his telepathic synpaz abilities he can cause Betty to enter into an orgasm trance.
Without explaining what he is doing, Treba also begins the process that will cause a remodeling of Betty's gastrointestinal tract. Returning home, Betty tells Lany about her little adventure with Treba and Lany agrees to go to Yaddo where she will try to entertain and distract Richard.
In
chapter 6 of "Telepaths of Site Q", events during Irhit's first night with Yenti continue from the point reached at the end of chapter 4. Wysy is now identified as a physical instantiation (or "tool") of Qaz Nivsaham, a nanoscopic zeptite artificial lifeform who is one of Manny's operatives. Qaz reports to Manny that Irhit's brain is constantly transmitting information, presumably to the tryp'At Council. Irhit is unaware of the fact that he is a telepathic transmitter.
Irhit discusses with Yenti the fact that he has experienced some weak conscious telepathic contact linking him to Yenti's mind. Yenti has previously been allowed by Manny to View the future and she knows that with the help of neural network sculpting nanites provided by Manny, Yenti will be able to activate Irhit's intrinsic typ'At capacity for telepathic communication. Yenti informs Irhit that as a tryp'At, he has the ability to respond to an Asterothrope pheromone. Yenti anticipates that with time his pheromone receptors will down-regulate, but until then he is in for a rather wild experience during the time period while his body is responding strongly to Yenti's physical presence.
Preview of Some Coming Events. Even while Irhit's body is being restructured and he is caught up in a fiery emotional conflagration with Yenti, he continues to work at the fishbowl and also continues to participate in the sport of tunnel-ball with his friends. Endurance runners such as Catski and the tunnel-ball players all make use of the same recreational tunnels that are around the periphery of Observer Base. At a tunnel-ball match, Irhit runs into Catski and her running coach, Miss Olyv. Before starting her running competition, Catski teases Irhit about rumors that he met a mysterious young woman at the Serothic Dance Hall.
Catski also mentions that Betty asked her to visit Yaddo and informs Irhit that Betty and her sister Lany have gone to Yaddo. Catski tells Irhit that Betty plans to develop her friendship with Henry.
After Catski runs off to compete in her race, Olyv tells Irhit that she saw him with Yenti at the Serothic Dance Hall. Then, without him noticing what she is doing, Olyv provides Irhit with some infites which include the name "Hedy" and the suggestion that "she" was a human hermaphrodite on Earth. The next time that Irhit is working in the fishbowl, he begins to compulsively search the Earth databases for information about the mysterious "Hedy". Manny is feeding information to the tryp'At Council through Irhit, hoping to provoke the tryp'At into a rash act.
Not long after meeting Yenti, Irhit is introduced to her hermaphroditic lover, Riea. Hermaphrodites play important roles in Asterothrope families as helpers in raising the children. Irhit discovers that while he has a slowly-improving telepathic connections to Yenti, Riea is much better at linking telepathically into his mind. After a week with Yenti at Observer Base, Irhit and Riea participate in Yenti's Akufowofiro ceremony and not long after, Yenti is pregnant.
Arriving in Yaddo, Betty and Lany are met by Wendy. Wendy offers Lany her help in the task of distracting Richard while Betty investigates her telepathic connection to Henry. Betty and Lany soon confirm that Henry and Richard are human hermaphrodites. Wendy is preparing for the imminent arrival of Dani inside Observer Base. Irhit experiments with the teleportation equipment in Yani's apartment and manages to teleport Dani to Observer Base from the hidden location of the tryp'At Council.
Temporal Non-linearity. Starting right in
Chapter 1, readers of
Telepaths of Site Q quickly notice that the story does not follow a linear temporal progression of events. The two preludes, set in 2051 and 2021, respectively, are set in our universe, the Final Reality. Site Q and its community of telepathic Asterothropes existed in Deep Time, in the Ekcolir Reality. When Irhit the tryp'At walks on stage in Chapter 1, it is November 16th, 1971 (although, in the Ekcolir Reality the calendar is different; I'm providing the Final Reality equivalent dates here). When Manny shares some photos of Yenti with Irhit, they are images from his future. Both Manny and Grean have access to time travel technology.
In Chapter 2, Grean is shown using her Viewing equipment to peer into the future of the Final Reality and she also looks into the past, investigating the relationship between Irhit and Betty. Manny warns Grean that the robot Dani will soon be teleported into Observer Base. The return of Betty from Yaddo that is depicted at the start of Chapter 3 takes place on the day (the 17th) after Irhit meets Manny, but the events right at the end of Chapter 3 are during the following morning (November 18th).
Chapter 4 slips back to November 17th to follow the meeting between Irhit and Yenti from his perspective, but by the end of Chapter 4 it is morning of the 18th. At the beginning of Chapter 5, readers are finally provided with an account of Betty meeting Catski on the 17th before Betty is shown meeting with Irhit inside the fishbowl on the 18th.
This meeting in the fishbowl is 8 days after Betty's graduation and her unsatisfying sexual encounter with Irhit. Betty is trying to discover the hidden history of Henry, a mysterious "man" who she met in Yaddo. Henry first appears in the records of Observer base in 1956, but his life before then is a blank. Eventually, Irhit learns that Henry grew up on Earth as Hedy Wolcat.
As told in Chapter 9, Grean takes a time travel trip from November 18th back to November 10th in order to telepathically observe Irhit and Betty while they make love. Grean confirms that Irhit and Betty did begin to establish a conscious telepathic connection, but they both had secrets they wanted to hide from each-other and they broke off their relationship.
On November 19th Betty and Lany arrived in Yaddo. Five days later, Dani the robot is teleported into Observer Base. Manny makes use of Susan Wolcat as "bait" to lure Dani into a trap and soon Manny is able to reprogram Dani's loyalties. Now working as an agent for Grean, Dani goes to siteq and investigates the human telepath breeding project at "Site Q".
The last section of
Telepaths of Site Q takes place in December of 1972 after Yenti has given birth to twins and
returned to siteq. In
Chapter 11, Grean and Dani visit Earth and meet Irhit's sister Cellebelle. Irhit's parents take that opportunity to "hitch a ride" to Observer Base, but
Manny is waiting for them and the take-over of Observer Base by the tryp'At Council will be delayed until the Final Reality.
Related Reading: Part 7 of "Telepaths of Site Q"
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