Totally Random

Hugo winner
in the Buld Reality

I was amazed by the constraints on time travel that were imagined by J. Walsh for his story "After 1,000,000 Years" (1931). In general, I enjoy science fiction stories that impose some limitations on imaginary technology, however, the imagined constraints should make sense and not be random annoyances. In the category of "random annoyance", I'll list the idea that radio transmissions can't be used in outer space (see "The Mark of the Meteor" by Ray Cummings).

 Opposite. At the other extreme, consider the short story time travel story "Birth of a Notion" by Isaac Asimov. Physicist Simeon Weill discovers how to harness tachyons for time travel, but he cannot control what happens during a trip through time. After energizing his test animals with tachyons, they disappear, but do they shift into the past? Into the future? It is all random, as is the 'distance' moved through time. 

in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Karel Thole

 Amazing Story. In "Birth of a Notion", when Weill finally uses the totally random time travel technique on himself, he is sent back to 1925 where he gets to meet Hugo Gernsback. Why did Asimov portray time travel as being governed by random quantum events, and then target Dr. Weill to exactly the necessary point in time and space that was needed to cause an amazing change in the course of history?

The Amazing Azynov. I've previously turned Asimov into a time traveler and I've also sent his replicoid (Azynov) into the Asimov Reality Simulator. Now, Azynov's expertise is needed inside the Ekcolir Reality where the analogue of Ray Cummings, a woman named Reynette, is conspiring to provide Thomas Edison with access to advanced nanotechnology even before the arrival of the Fru'wu. This new science fiction story (called "Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments", below) is told by Rylla, but she does not join in the action until Chapter 2.

Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments

Reynette was reading about the war. Mr. Edison slid into the seat on the other side of the booth and asked, "Do you have-" Reynette slid her typed summary of the meeting with General Lyle's staff officers across the table. Edison opened the folder and quickly scanned the thick document within and muttered quietly to himself, "Radar... the sensitivity of radar... detectors..." 

 Reynette said quietly, "I sent a copy of this report to the Radar Project in Menlo Park and our luggage off to the airport. Weather should be good for the trip to Florida." Edison barely heard her, confident that she would have taken care of all the travel details. After cold, gray New York, their pending visit to Florida would bring a welcome change. An amusing thought flickered through Edison's mind... could Reynette even manage and direct the paths of winter storms? He chuckled.

Reynette said, "No, Really. That storm that swamped Miami turned out to sea."

Edison smiled at Reynette's solemn avowal.

1914 in the Ekcolir Reality

In the six months since Reynette came into his life, Edison had learned that he could fully trust her. In this case, overnight, she had managed to find a typewriter and compile a detailed account of their previous day's meetings with military procurement officers... and Edison could detect not a single error in her work. Of course, she was brilliant; a competent physicist who knew how to write clear technical reports and a lovely woman, to boot. The vague wish was there at the back of his mind: If only I was 40 years younger.

 Reynette folded up the newspaper while telling the waiter what Edison wanted for breakfast. The waiter, wondering why Edison did not speak for himself, said, "That's black, right?" He was seeking confirmation of the drink order.

Reynette replied, "Yes" The waiter departed from their table then she told her boss, "Azynov called again. He's in town and wants a word with you." She set the newspaper on the table where Edison could easily reach it.

The waiter set a cup of black coffee in front of Edison and rushed off to the kitchen. Edison sipped the hot beverage and then said, "Can't you report him to the police? Let them handle that nut..." He pushed the folder with the meeting notes back across the tabletop to Reynette who tucked it into her briefcase.

Reynette suggested, "Maybe if you spoke to him-"

Edison sharply interrupted, "Why should I waste my time on a kook?"

Reynette had been watching for the "kook" and now she saw Azynov. Reynette pointed a finger across the dining room. "Just listen for five minutes, then tell him that you are too busy. I'll take over from there." She waved at the man by the entrance who had a red flower in his hand and who was trying to talk his way past the Maître d'.

Taking note of Reynette's gesture, the Maître d' let Azynov enter the dining space. 

Edison

 Edison told Reynette, "I'll thank you to deal with him."

Azynov strode across to Edison's table and sat down beside Reynette. Sliding into the booth, he handed her the red rose, the prearranged signal by which Rey had recognized him. Azynov spoke to Edison, "An honor to meet you, sir."

Edison was looking at the headline of the newspaper, but then he looked up and scowled at Azynov. The waiter brought Edison's meal, set the plates on the table and asked Azynov if he wanted anything. Azynov replied, "Just a cup of tea, thank you." He set a fresh, recently printed ten dollar bill on the table and said to Edison, "Allow me to buy you breakfast." He turned to Reynette and asked, "Not eating?"

With a sly grin, Reynette replied, "I'm on a diet." She was analyzing Azynov's strange accent and his appearance and trying to imagine his origins. Then she was distracted by the sensation that Azynov's mind was pushing at her. She wondered: Is Azynov a telepath? She set about trying to synchronize her telepathic mind pattern to his.

At the same time, Azynov's eyes roved all over Reynette. Previously, he'd only been Viewing her from outside the Ekcolir Reality Simulation, but now, seeing her in person, he could sense a weak telepathic connection to her mind. 

Viewing technology and
inter-dimensional telepathy

Azynov suddenly experienced a flashed image in his mind of Reynette's duplicate copy, who was an identical copy of the girl, a copy that Azynov had made by using his access to the Simulation System Controls. In that memory of Rey2, Azynov had been watching the copy (who was topless) during a telepathy experiment and making use of a synapex connection to Eddy that amplified her telepathic abilities. Then, horribly, that synapex experiment had ended in the girl's death and Eddy had not learned Reynette's secret.

Growing uncomfortable in the lengthening silence and with Azynov seemingly undressing her with his eyes, Reynette gestured towards Edison and told Azynov, "You have five minutes to explain you concerns about nanotechnology."

Edison was devouring his breakfast, looking at the newspaper and seemingly uninterested in Azynov. The waiter returned and a steaming cup of tea was set in front of Azynov, but he ignored it. Azynov reluctantly pulled his eyes off of Reynette, tried to ignore the alien feel of her mind pattern and began his pitch to Edison. "Some types of technology are simply too dangerous for humans. Imagine letting a chimp play with a loaded pistol as if it were a toy."

"Forget gunpowder. I know the dangers." Edison held a fork laden with eggs and bacon just below his chin and asked, "Tell me young man, how is nanotechnology dangerous?" He took the food in his mouth. Edison was intrigued by invisibly small atoms and how chemical substances could be engineered and crafted to meet human needs. 

Azynov said, "Another hypothetical example. Would you trust a hungry chimp in a New York City zoo to abstain from eating toxic foxglove?"

Reynette told Azynov, "Don't ruin Mr. Edison's meal with your gruesome fantasies."

Catastrophic sea level rise in the Ekcolir Reality.

Edison was not alarmed by the imaginary poisoning a chimp. "As a boy, I once almost burned down a barn in a chemical explosion, but I learned my lesson." Edison scooped up another heaping forkful of his food. "All my chemical plants are engineered with proper safely measures. I assure you, I know the dangers of chemical energy."

"In our case," Azynov tipped his head to the side and glanced briefly at Reynette from the corner of his eye, "The danger confronting Earth is the pace of fossil fuel use... it will continue to accelerate. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide will soon be driving global warming and eventually that will lead to catastrophic sea level rise. Where we sit now will be under the surface of the Atlantic ocean!"

Edison set down his fork and swallowed a mouthful of coffee then asked Reynette, "Where's that letter?" She reached into the briefcase, pulled out an envelop and extracted a sheet of paper. Reynette handed Edison the letter that Azynov had mailed to him the previous week. Edison read from the letter: "Currently, the only nanotechnology on Earth is in the form of nanites that function as hidden endosymbionts that are inside the brains of animals." He looked at Azynov and raised an eyebrow, "It sounds like you are suggesting a form of matter that is subatomic."

hierions

Azynov nodded. Edison set the letter on the table next to his plate and continued eating. Reynette told Edison, "If this is true, then we should be able to detect the hierions in these endosymbionts."

Azynov looked at Reynette, but he spoke to Edison, "There is danger in that." He pointed an accusing finger at Reynette. "She wants the components of the endosymbionts to be revealed. Then hierions will become available for other uses and that will lead to amplification of the global warming catastrophe."

Reynette pointed a finger at Azynov and asked, "How do you know so much about the future? Do you have a crystal ball?"

Azynov replied, "Mr. Edison, you really don't need to know my sources of information about the future. You simply would not believe me, if I told you. Forget about that." Turning his eyes once more towards Reynette, Azynov said, "What is important is the source of your knowledge of hierions. How do you know that a means exists to detect these unknown particles? How do you explain that Miss Cummings?"

Reynette shrugged and she said quietly, "I'm just trying to understand what you wrote in your letter, Mr. Azynov. "

the Fru'wu

Edison said, "Mr. Azynov, I've humored you, but we are out of time." He looked at his watch and added, "I have a flight to catch." Edison looked into Reynette's eyes and warned, "I don't want you getting distracted by this heroin nonsense." 

Azynov corrected Edison, "Hierions."

"Whatever." Edison shook his head. "I'm intrigued by the possibility of a physics of sub-atomic matter." Edison stood up and placed a hand on Azynov's shoulder. "But no more letters! That is the mark of a crank. Publish your evidence for these unseen hierions in a reviewed journal and then I'll pay you some attention." Walking away, he spoke over his shoulder to Reynette, "Don't be late getting to the airport."

Azynov watched Edison depart from the hotel dining room then turned his attention back to Reynette. "Come on Rey, now that he's gone, you can tell me your secrets."

Reynette placed a hand on Azynov's thigh and told him, "You first. Do you work for Manny?"

Now in physical contact with Reynette, Azynov could telepathically sense the surface level of her thoughts. Their two replicoid bodies were quite similar, but she had some sort of screen or scrambler that artificially shifted her telepathic mind pattern. "Ah, does that mean you work for Manny? Or you don't?"

Reynette giggled. "I don't. Now, start at the beginning... who are you, really? Talk fast, I need to get to the airport."

Azynov sighed. He'd previously witnessed Eddy go through this exact same dance with a duplicated copy of Reynette. Just like the copy, this version of Rey clearly had no intention of revealing the name or nature of the organization that she secretly worked for. "Let's go. I'll talk while we walk." He slid out of the bench seat of the booth.

1914 technology in the Ekcolir Reality

Reynette picked up her briefcase and the red rose as she got out of the booth. She was a fast walker and Azynov had all he could do just to keep up with her, but following along behind, he enjoyed the seductive movements of her long, lean body. Soon they were in the back seat of a cab on the way to the airport. Azynov offered a speculation: "I suppose during your training, you must have made use of a simulator to prepare for your mission here on Earth."

Reynette nodded. "Yes, a combo Viewer-Simulator... it was very useful, but I never saw you when I Viewed my future. However, I never looked very far ahead. Where do you come from, the far future?"

Azynov explained, "In a sense, but not by means of conventional time travel."

Reynette laughed. "Unconventional time travel?"

"You can call it that. I'm from a future Reality. The Final Reality."

Reynette shook her head, "Nobody can travel back into a previous Reality."

"You can, if it is a Simulated Reality. We are inside a Simulation of your Reality."

the Final Reality

For a minute Reynette looked out the window and thought about the possibility that everything she knew was taking place inside a simulation. Then she turned her gaze back towards Azynov and said, "If that is true then tell me: what is going on? What's your game?"

"What I said." Azynov took hold of her hand. "I really want to know why you are trying to provide hierion technology to the people of this era. Who sent you here on your mission? Why are you here in this particular time, feeding advanced alien technology to Mr. Edison?"

Now letting go of her briefcase, Reynette held a hand to the side of her head and sighed. The top levels of Azynov's mind were available to her telepathic mind scans. However, his telepathic mind pattern was unusual and she could not dig down into his memories. "Somehow I feel like I should trust you, but I'm waiting to hear back from..."

The cab was now rushing into the Potomic Tunnel. Azynov leaned close and told Reynette, "Watch this." He took himself out of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation for a moment and then returned. He squeezed her hand gently. "You can trust me. Open your mind to me."

Reynette glanced at the driver who had seen nothing of Azynov's brief disappearing act. There was a plastic partition between the front and rear compartments of the cab which blocked sounds as quiet as casual conversation between passengers. She asked, "Teleportation?"

"No. I exited from this Simulation... just to show you that I can."

1914 technology in the Ekcolir Reality

"It seemed like teleportation to me." 

They were now approaching the airport's departure terminal and Reynette pulled her briefcase into her lap. Taking her other hand out of Azynov's grasp, she prepared to jump out of the cab as soon as it stopped at the curb. Azynov said, "This isn't over."

Reynette patted his thigh and said, "Just don't do anything to perturb Edison. If you ignore his request and keep intruding in his busy life, then you'll have to deal with his private security team."

Azynov suggested, "He won't be all that busy while on vacation in Florida."

As Reynette got out of the cab, she gave Azynov the red rose. Azynov told her, "See you later." Reynette slammed the door of the cab shut. Azynov sniffed the flower and watched Reynette walk away.

_________

image information

During the last of the series of linked flights from New York to Florida, they crossed the southern border of New England and entered into Espanola. Reynette did not notice the transition. Edison had fallen asleep and she was thinking about the mysterious Azynov and hierions. She knew that in the future, hierion-based technologies would be used for things like space elevators, but why should that accelerate global warming?

Reynette also thought about the alien Fru'wu who would soon make contact with the people of Earth. Nyrtia had been working hard to make sure that humans were ready to adopt advanced Fru'wu technologies. Reynette knew that she was only one of a series of 'helpers' who had been tasked with feeding Edison clues about how to develop new technologies. And now Azynov's startling appearance on Earth, as if he fell from the sky. Reynette contemplated the possibility that with practice she might be able to use her telepathic ability to see deeply into his mind.

At the end of the long day of flights going south to Florida, when Edison and Reynette arrived at the Fort Myers Municipal Airport, Azynov was there waiting for them. Rey instantly felt the unusual mind pattern of Azynov. Edison got into his private car and the driver, his assigned military attaché, loaded the luggage into the car. Reynette handed her briefcase to the soldier and told Edison, "I'll see you in the morning. I have a date." Without further explanation she walked into a nearby parking area where Azynov was waiting beside his own car. 

Azynov opened the passenger side door for Reynette and with a grin he asked, "What took you so long?"

Reynette again tried to telepathically dig deep into his mind, but all she could access was surface fluff. As they pulled out of the airport, Reynette asked, "How did you get here so fast?"

Azynov chuckled. "What, you no longer believe that I have teleportation equipment in my hip pocket?"

Reynette complained, "If you really expect my cooperation then you should not mock me."

"I've told you the truth. I can move myself around in this Simulation." As he picked up speed on the highway, Reynette's long hair was being whipped around her head. Azynov asked, "Too much air?"

"No. It feels nice. It must have been a hot afternoon." Through gaps in a grove of tall palm trees, she got a glimpse of the ocean where the last glow of the setting sun was orange and red. "Where are we going?"

Azynov laughed. "To my little love nest." He pulled off the highway into a motel parking lot. He opened her door, grabbed her arm and marched her into room 23. Reynette saw that a man and a woman were there inside the room. The man was sitting at a little table in the corner of the room and Engineering schematics were spread out on the table. The woman was sprawled on the bed, reading a newspaper. Azynov said, "Reynette, meet my friends, Yōd and Eddy."

 Laying aside the Spanish American News, Yōd rolled off of the bed and ran to Azynov. They embraced and kissed.

Reynette saw that the woman was bare-footed and wearing a bikini top and a very short sexy slip. She wondered if these two had been using the motel swimming pool. The man was dressed in a white cotton robe. She asked Azynov, "These two are also from outside?"

Yōd turned away from Azynov and took Reynette's hand. "We're all from the Final Reality." Yōd disappeared and then spoke from behind Reynette, "We get around." Azynov had briefly taken Yōd out of the Simulation, just to impress Reynette.

Rey's secret plans

Reynette briefly looked over her shoulder at Yōd then picked up a document from the table and asked, "Should I be surprised that you have secret military plans for the LO8 radar system?"

Eddy explained, "Well, these are documents from your home office. Are you supposed to keep secret war documents at home? We've been trying to figure out how you built, ah... -will build- your hierion detector. Or do you just teleport it in?"

Reynette threw her hands in the air. "I give up. If this is all a simulation then I suppose nothing I say, or do, even matters."

Azynov said, "Relax, Rey. Have a seat. Let's talk this over."

Reynette complained, "I'm hot. I'm tired. I'm hungry" She looked at Yōd's sexy legs where they emerged from her short skirt. "I'm also horny, but right now I'll settle for a drink and dinner."

Yōd laughed and ran her fingers through Reynette's hair and then said, "You're just too cute... I'd like to share an orgasm trance with you. We'll have to work on getting your priorities re-organized, but for now we can go over to the Concha for dinner. They've got air conditioning!" Yōd quickly opened the closet and pulled on a dress. Eddy took a suit of clothes out of the closet and stepped into the bathroom. A minute later he emerged, fully dressed. Yōd belted on a kind of fanny pack, opened the door and led the way out into the humid night.

New England and Espanola in the Ekcolir Reality

They crossed the highway and went into the Concha Lounge. The environment there in Florida was completely different from New York. A latin band played rather rambunctiously in the main room of the restaurant. Azynov slipped ten dollars to the Maître d' and requested a quite table. They were placed in a small side-room near a rumbling air conditioning unit. For a moment, Reynette simply watched the slinky Yōd who pulled open the top of her dress and seemed to enjoy the cooler air. Reynette was baffled by the strange mind patterns of both Yōd and Eddy and she could not telepathically sense even the superficial layers of their conscious thoughts. However, she felt an erotic attraction to both of them.

After placing their food and drink orders, Azynov tucked a 20 dollar bill into the waiter's shirt pocket and said, "Thanks, Carlos."

The waiter was ogling Reynette and asked, "Who's your new friend, Mr. A?"

Azynov the replicoid

Azynov replied, "This is Rey, she works for Mr. Edison."

Carlos bowed. "Pleased to meet you, Rey." He went off to pass the food order to the chef.

Azynov told Reynette, "I've been here for the past week. Since I'm a scientist, I was able to get a job at Edison's rubber research lab."

Reynette asked Azynov, "You've infiltrated the lab? You got past the military screening?"

Azynov explained, "I know how the military works. And how it fails, too. It only cost me a $500 dollar bribe to get me inside the lab. Plus, I have a Ph.D. in chemistry and experience in biochemistry research, so I can now study Edison's organization from within."

Yōd added, "Your fake credentials were probably good enough, even without the bribe."

Azynov shrugged and asked, "Why take chances and maybe have to restart the Simulation yet again? We have plenty of cash to throw around."

The waiter brought Yōd a cold beer which she first sipped then went ahead and quickly guzzled half. Noting that Eddy also seemed thirsty and after ignoring a dainty burp from Yōd, Reynette was feeling very comfortable in their company. She told them, "I plan to build a hierion detector in Menlo Park... with the help of the Radar Project research team. But that will take several years of hard work. For some mysterious reason, my well-intentioned plans don't meet with Azynov's approval."

Eddy asked, "Why make it so complicated? Why not just smuggle a functioning detector to Earth and be done with it?"

Reynette asked, "Haven't you ever heard of the Rules of Intervention?"

Eddy nodded, "Yes, I have, but isn't it a violation of the Rules for you to be on Earth?"

"No. I'm human."

Yōd in Florida

Azynov said, "I wish you'd be honest. Please don't waste our time playing games." Azynov reached out and took hold of Reynette's hand. He altered his femtobot components and his hand morphed into a nearly exact imitation of Reynette's hand. Reynette gasped and then she quickly recovered her composure and made her hand take on the form of Azynov's hand. Then they both returned themselves to normal. "Yes, we know you are a replicoid, as am I."

Eddy said, "The pek must know that she's on Earth as part of the on-going Edison Intervention."

Yōd suggested, "Maybe the pek simply don't care. They are already well into planning the Final Reality. This Reality is just a throw-away Reality."

Reynette protested, "What is this about a 'Final Reality'? How can there be..." She fell silent, a look of puzzlement on her face. She was searching into Azynov's memories and catching glimpses of what he knew about the future.

The waiter returned with Reynette's first course, a shrimp cocktail. As a replicoid, she had no need to eat, but she had been trained to pretend to be human. Yōd and Eddy had ordered salads. Azynov let go of Reynette's hand after the waiter left the table, he said, "That's a Huaoshy trick, yet in your future. They will alter the Dimensional Structure of the Universe, making all further time travel impossible. So you see, there really will be a Final Reality and an end to Reality Changes."

Reynette munched her chilled shrimp and tried to decide if Azynov was serious. As a physicist, she was intrigued by what he might mean by the dimensional structure of the universe. With some oily salad dressing dribbling down her chin, Yōd said, "Let's not get side-tracked. We three don't suffer from the same restraints as the average Interventionist agent." She wiped her lips and chin with a napkin then reached into her fanny pack and then tossed a heavy object on the table. It made a loud, solid thump when it landed. It looked like an exotic spark plug. 

Reynette reached out a hand and touched the probe with her finger tip. She could sense in Azynov's thought that this "plug" was a hierion probe. "You have a hierion probe?"

The waiter brought a basket of hot dinner rolls and a small plate of butter. After Carlos departed, Yōd explained to Reynette, "With this device, we can speed up your little project by a few years."

"But I don't want..." Again Reynette fell silent. She buttered a roll, took a bite and then said, "This is absurd. You claim we are in a Simulation, so what can it matter if we quickly revealed the existence of hierions to..." Reynette was chilled by a thought that she now saw in Azynov's mind.

Azynov had picked up the probe and now he pointed it at Reynette's head. "We are not interested in teaching the people of this era about hierions. I can use this probe to open up your mind, lay it bare before my memory editing nanites. If you don't tell us who you work with, I'll pull the information out of you... by force."

Reynette laughed rather nervously. "Tell, me... why do you care about any of this?" She looked from face to face around the table. "Who are you?"

Eddy said, "Reynette, this may make no sense to you, but in the Final Reality, nobody on Earth knows about..." He threw out his hands to the side, gesturing vaguely to the surroundings, "...any of this. The struggle between Trysta and Grean, how aliens created the human species, the ancient Huaoshy... none of it. I'm a researcher. An historical researcher. Here in this Reality, there was an unprecedented level of Interventionism... with catastrophic results."

"Catastrophe?" Reynette said, "I'm trying to prevent global warming. If we can use hierions to transmit energy to Earth-"

Rules of Intervention

Eddy shouted, "No!" He glanced at the doorway that connected to the rest of the restaurant then continued more quietly, explaining to Reynette, "Nothing you do will help. We've seen the future. Although, you are right. Even sinking all of Earth's coastal cities under the rising seas does not matter. This is only a Simulation. I'm doing historical research. Just tell us what we want to know and then I will return to my own Reality."

"You just want to know?"

"I want to understand how this Reality got so messed up and why."

"But if this is all in the past, the dead past of a Simulation, why does it matter... to you, personally?"

Eddy tried to explain his obsession with Deep Time and the past Realities of Earth. "History always matters. I want Humanity to know the truth of how we got where we are. Well, I mean the people in the Final Reality, the real people, the living people who are still constructing Earth's future."

Reynette objected, "I'm an artificial life-form, but I am alive. I know that you believe we are in a Simulated Reality, but I still care about the people here... on this Earth."

They had a rather intense discussion all through diner. Reynette had the continuous sensation that Azynov was picking at her mind, trying to find a way into her thoughts. She could sense that he was planning to use the hierion probe to gain access to her memories.

Finally they made their way back across the highway to the motel. Working on the little table in the corner of their motel room, Azynov attached the hierion probe to a compact control device and then told Reynette, "If you resist me, I might be forced to damage your mind."

Reynette gave her head an angry shake. "I'm not going to stay here and let you probe my memories."

Upon returning to the stuffy room, Yōd had pulled off her dress. Now she put her arms around Reynette. "Yes, you are... and I'll try to make you enjoy it, too." Yōd kissed Reynette's lips and then pushed her hot tongue inside Reynette's mouth. 

Rey felt a rush of hot lust for the sexy Yōd and she had the strange sensation of something warm being inserted into her wet vagina.

Azynov activated the probe. Both he and Eddy had placed their hands on the control device and were tuning their minds to Reynette's telepathic pattern. Yōd was acting as a conduit for a swarm of nanites that were flowing from Azynov into Reynette. Although fearful that Azynov might enter her mind and learn her secrets, Reynette was feeling quite sexually excited and warm in Yōd's embrace. For some reason, all Reynette could do was hold tight to Yōd, her hands on the other woman's cute bottom. 

Yōd pulled her lips off of Rey's mouth and told Azynov, "I've got my medical nanites in complete control of her motor system." Then Reynette's eyes turned up in their sockets and her head tipped back. Yōd said, "She's wide open."

____________

The Hierion Probe.

Later, Reynette awoke, laying on the bed, with Yōd sitting close by. Azynov and Eddy were over at the table, arguing about what they had seen in Reynette's mind. Reynette rolled out of the bed and felt like she only had partial control of her movements. Unable to walk, she leaned against the wall. Azynov glanced at Reynette and said, "Welcome back."

Eddy said, "We got the big picture, but we are surprised and frustrated by how little you actually know about this Edison Intervention."

"It is called compartmentalization. Spies always use it as their fundamental strategy." Azynov suggested, "Nyrtia does not want to invalidate the Pact, even while she can't resist violating the terms of the Pact... so she sends each of her agents to Earth with a minimum of knowledge... just enough to complete a brief mission."

Eddy sighed deeply and stared at Reynette. "We'll have to take the risk and try to probe deeper into her mind, even if it kills her."

"We should think this through. What's the rush? We've already killed her once. I'm sick of that brutal direct approach." Yōd got off of the bed and walked past Reynette. She sat down in Azynov's lap and complained, "Can't you take a break? Later we can use a synapex link, or even try an orgasm trance." She looked back over her shoulder at Reynette and added, "That would be fun."

Azynov kissed Yōd's nose. "Let me check on the other copy of Reynette." Azynov disappeared suddenly and Yōd almost fell to the floor, but she caught herself on the edge of the chair and leaned against the table.

Eddy tapped on the probe and told Yōd, "If using the probe to dig into her mind is making you feel sick, there is no need for you to watch any of this. Now that you have your nanites inside her brain, she can't put up a fight. Azynov and I will take it from here." 

Nyrtia

Giving up on her attempt to walk, Reynette sat on the bed. She asked, "What did Azynov mean... a copy of me?"

Eddy said, "It is not hard to make copies of any object here inside this Simulation System." 

Azynov returned to the room, standing beside the bed. He wore a white cotton robe. He told Reynette, "I have a copy of you and she is ready to try something new." Azynov turned to Eddy and asked, "Ever hear of automatic writing?"

Eddy could sense telepathically that Azynov was thinking about Nyrtia the positronic robot. "Automatic writing? Are you serious?" He chuckled. "Oh, no! This mystical crap has the foul odor of Nyrtia clinging to it."

Azynov nodded. "Good guess, you can blame Nyrtia, but there's nothing mystical. I've now got duplicate copies of all four of us back in my workshop. Our copies are ready to link into a group synapex trance and that might give us enough power to drill deep into Rey's memories, right past her defensive interlocks." He pointed at Reynette and added, "She'll be under the telepathic control of the group mind. All she needs to do is write down the answers to our questions." He told Yōd, "Take her legs completely off-line, but allow her to keep control of her hands.

Azynov pulled Reynette up against the head of the bed, leaning her back against a cushion of the pillows. Eddy approached and handed Reynette a small notepad and a pen, which Rey promptly threw across the room. Eddy said to Reynette, "Don't resist. We'll get what we want to know eventually. Why make this more difficult than it has to be?"

Reynette replied, "I have no choice... I must resist. Nyrtia programmed me to not reveal my secrets. What I don't understand is why Nyrtia is now helping you pull those secrets out of me."

Dimensional Engineering

"Don't think too much. This is simple." Azynov told Reynette, "I made a copy of you and she is cooperating. Actually, there are copies of us all in another part of this Simulator, but we can all link telepathically." Another version of Azynov's voice spoke through the control box on the table. "We're ready here... all linked up."

Azynov told Eddy, "Get back in your robe. You'll be more comfortable."

Eddy returned to the bathroom, changed and then hung up his other clothes in the closet. He and Azynov went to the little table in the corner of the room and sat down. Speaking to their other copies, Eddy said, "Not as much fun on this side, but we're about ready here. We'll be able to retain normal conscious brain functions here on this side. Now... start with me first, then Azynov." He again put his hands on the control device. 

Pulses of purple light started radiating from the hierion probe and now they all got pulled into a telepathic trance. Reynette said, "Another... Rey?" She sank into the trance.

Yōd brought Reynette the notepad and pen and told her, "Don't resist, just write." Rey now held on to the pen and pad. Yōd approached the table and could see that Eddy now had an erection which was partially sticking out of his robe. She bent over, pulled open Azynov's robe, took Azynov's penis in her mouth and stimulated the sensitive tip.

Azynov lifted up her flimsy top and toyed with Yōd's stiff nipples. He was now slipping into the group mind trance and told her, "I can already feel my copy inside the other Yōd."

Yōd took her mouth off of Azynov's erection and straddling his crotch, she took his hot penis inside her vagina. "I'd like to bounce up an orgasm, but I suppose we should form a synapex connection."

Azynov nodded, "Yes, we should... try to control your desires; we're here to help Eddy. He reached his arms around Yōd's sweaty body and placed his hands on the control surface of the hierion probe.

Reynette moved her hand that was holding the pen towards her crotch and said, "I feel a penis inside..." She then completely lost her ability to speak.

synapex networks

________________

Now they were all together inside a shared mind space, all eight of them. Eddy told Rey1: You are linked to the mind of your duplicate who has a synapex link to my copy.

Synapex?

Yōd explained: It is a way to link the nervous systems of two people. See what I'm doing with Azynov?

Eddy added: Of course, you are not biological, but your replicoid body fully simulates a human body, so I'm able to link to you.

Reynette asked: We are connected through your penis?

Eddy chuckled. Don't think about this too much. Now, just answer our questions. Eddy adjusted the intensity knob on the control device for the hierion probe and then starting with questions that he already knew the answers to, he asked: Why is Nyrtia trying to target Edison?

Reynette could not speak and would not share what she knew through telepathy, but Yōd wiggled her fingers and Reynette immediately began to write on the notepad: The Edison Electronics Laboratory has... or will soon have... all the needed materials to build a simple hierion detector.

Eddy asked: How long will you remain on Earth?

Reynette wrote: I get to return home as soon as Earth's scientists can use functioning hierion detectors to study endosymbionts. My work will be done.

Where is home?

Reynette moved the pen but only a line of ink formed, running off the page: ______

Yōd cried out into their shared telepathic mind space: Turn down the probe intensity! She's breaking! Yōd jumped off of Azynov's lap. Her motion broke both their synapex link and his connection to the hierion probe's user interface. Yōd jumped on the bed and took hold of Reynette as she dropped the notepad and pen. Eddy was slower. He pulled his hands off of the probe and then rushed to pick up Reynette, grabbing her under her arms. He and Yōd tried to get Reynette to stand on her feet. 

Azynov said, "Pull out your nanites!"

Yōd assured him, "I did!"

Reynette sank to the floor. Looking down on Reynette's prone body, Azynov said, "Amazing! It seems like her brain was completely inactivated, even though we were being so careful."

A new voice in the room said, "What did you expect when dealing with Nyrtia?"

Azynov, Yōd and Eddy all turned towards the voice. A woman was there, by the door. Eddy cried, "Manny!"

Azynov said, "Success! I was hoping you'd reveal yourself. We need help."

Manny went to stand beside the bed and placed a hand on Reynette. "What a waste." Suddenly, across the room there was another copy of Reynette. Manny told the copy, "I'm sorry you had to see this, but let it be a warning to you."

Yōd moved close to Manny, pointed at the body of Rey1 on the bed and asked, "Why didn't you save her?"

"Don't distract me, my pretty." Manny reached out and stroked one of Yōd's cute breasts. An instant later, Manny was gone, having jumped back out of the Simulation.

Eddy looked at the bed and now the body of the inactivated replicoid was also gone. "That must have been Manny of the Final Reality, but why did she rush off like that?"

Yōd asked Azynov, "You have been getting help from both Nyrtia and Manny?"

Azynov shrugged. "I see Nyrtia now and then. I suppose she has been helping me, but sometimes it is hard to tell. She suggested that we try the synapex trance." He turned to the new copy of Reynette. "Are you going to help us now?"

The newly created copy of Reynette had her hand on her head. "I feel like I had too much to drink." After one last glance at Yōd's cute breasts, Rey2 ran out of the room and went to the motel office.

Eddy watched Reynette go into the motel's main office and then he closed the door to room 23. Turning to Azynov he asked, "Should we reset the simulation and try that again?"

Azynov suggested, "I think Nyrtia is trying to help us. The question is, how much does that replacement copy of Reynette remember?"

Yōd picked up the notepad that Reynette had written in. "Now we have a new mystery..."

Eddy asked, "Reynette's home?" He thought about how much Rey had resisted providing information about her past. "She must know the location of Nyrtia's secret base of operations."

"Nyrtia's workshop?" Azynov chuckled quietly. "I suppose that is the only remaining secret of the positronic robots. Yes... they'd probably kill Rey to prevent her from revealing that secret..." He looked at Eddy and said, "We have to try again."

Yōd put her arms around Azynov, "That is fools gold. Let's finish our work and get out of this bug-infested swamp... this backwards Reality. I want to get back to the future. Let Nyrtia retain her secrets."

Yōd (image source)

Azynov knew that Yōd meant the future of the Asimov Reality. He told her, "First, I want to check on the copy of Reynette that I made. If she was telepathically linked to the copy that died..."

"No more talk of death." Eddy said, "Reynette was inactivated." Suddenly, Azynov was gone. 

Yōd sat on the bed and finally pulled her top so that it covered her protruding nipples. She told Eddy, "I'm still horny."

Eddy laughed. "This is one of Nyrtia's jokes. She's rigged it so that we don't need to sleep inside this part of the Simulation System." He peeked out the window, still waiting for Rey1 to emerge from the office.

Yōd added, "Yes, we live every minute of these long 24 hour days... there's not a moment's relief from my thoughts of sexplay."

"Yōd, don't distract me. We're here on business." Eddy pulled his eyes away from Yōd's sexy body, sat down at the little table and tapped a finger on the hierion probe. "Azynov must have gotten this from Nyrtia. But why would she suggest we use it on Reynette? It didn't work. There's something else going on here... during that trance, I could sense a link to the mind pattern of Glisten, in the Asimov Reality Simulator!"

Shery

Yōd shook her head, "That looks like a Sherylyn Toddarro hierion probe, from the Asimov Reality."

"It may well be, but I bet Nyrtia provided it to Azynov."

Yōd was stretched out on the bed and fingering her sensitive lady parts. Eddy tried to ignore Yōd, but the sight of her masturbating was keeping him sexually aroused. He shifted his robe, trying to better conceal his erection. He'd gotten quite sexually aroused during the group mind trance and now Yōd was a serious distraction from his research mission. Eddy imagined that he could feel his erection inside Yōd's vagina. He tried to fill his mind with thoughts about his reason for visiting the Ekcolir Reality. "It makes no sense. If this is Nyrtia's Intervention, using Reynette to slip advanced technology to Edison, then why is she helping us to investigate it?"

Yōd suggested, "We've looked up and down this timeline for clues. We've seen that five years from now, Reynette is removed from Earth, her mission never completed. Someone must have noticed what she was trying to do and stopped her." Yōd had decided that nothing was going to stop her from grabbing a quick orgasm. She pushed two of her fingers deep inside her hot vagina and wiggled them energetically.

Just then, Azynov returned with the other copy of Reynette, the one that he had made. Yōd sat up and told Eddy, "You know what this means."

Eddy knew what she meant. Their other copies were still together, and Eddy could telepathically sense that the other copy of Yōd was trying to seduce the Eddy copy. However, they were at that moment making use of a synapex link in an effort to send a telepathic message to Glisten. Yōd had left her daughter with Glisten, and now they felt obliged to check on Roxzel. Eddy tried to stop thinking about the seductive idea of sexplay with Yōd. He gazed at the copy of Reynette and asked Azynov, "Is she okay?"

Image made with SpencerInBlack2
& SpencerInBlack1 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
image source

Yōd had her arms around Azynov and was nibbling his ear. Reynette was watching Yōd snuggle against Azynov, but she replied to Eddy, "I'm a bit shaken by what I experienced during that trance, but I'm okay."

Azynov told Eddy, "This copy of Reynette is going to help us. My other copy just showed her the future and now she wants to know why her mission is going to fail."

Holding open a gap in the curtain, Eddy looked outside through the window and saw the other Reynette getting into a cab. He commented, "At least that Reynette did not call the police."

The copy of Reynette took Eddy's arm and said, "Drive me to my house. We'll try talking to her... to me."

Next: Part 2 of Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments.