Marta and her family |
R. Lynscot |
Rey |
I recently had a "vision" of the future about a time when Rylla and Rey will be exploring inside the Asimov Reality Simulator and researching the use of advanced nanotechnology by Interventionist agents. I have to wonder if this "vision" has arrived by way of the Sedron Time Stream.
cover art by Eric Peterson |
Reality Simulation. For their investigation of Deep Time, Rylla and Rey did not go very far into the future of the Asimov Reality. They only went about 1,500 years in the future, to the time described in the Demon Princes novels of Jack Vance.
inside the Reality Simulation System |
Nanotechnology. During their effort to find the remnants of behavioral control nanites that might have accounted for the strange behavior of the Demon Princes, Rylla and Rey encountered Kirth Gersen and Alice Wroke.
Gersen on Thamber |
Time Travel. Aloysyus was a Phari planet of the Asimov Reality that does not exist in the Final Reality. In the Asimov Reality, R. Nyrtia went into the far past and met the Phari and began collaborating with them as part of her efforts to derail the plans of the pek. Eventually, the Phari constructed Alastor Cluster, but they also moved many habitable planets into orbits around stars that are conveniently close to Earth's star system; Aloysyus was one such planet. After Kyrt met Alys, they lived for a time on Aloysyus, and that was where Rylla met Alys.
Zeta Gohrlay |
Teleportation. At the point in the timeline of the Asimov Reality where Rey and Rylla first discovered the home of Kyrt and Alys on Aloysyus, Gersen had gone off planet on a mission for the IPCC and Alys was at home with their young son, Jym. Rylla and Ray split up and Rey went to the planet Sogdian in an attempt to catch up to Gersen while Rylla visited Alys.
More news from the future. In November of 2022, I received more information from the future and I wrote a short story called "Someday Mars" which depicts events shortly before those taking place in "Rylla on Aloysyus" (the story below on this page). "Someday Mars" is about another attempt to go into the Asimov Reality Simulation and obtain a set of nanites that might be able to fully re-activate the teleportation equipment inside Observer Base. You might want to read "Someday Mars" before reading "Rylla on Aloysyus", but "Rylla on Aloysyus" is actually a stand-alone story that can be enjoyed without first reading "Someday Mars".
vision of the future |
Trying to write a story about a time travel loop while being caught up in a time travel loop is very challenging. My strategy is going to be documenting each vision from the future as it arrives with the hope that eventually all of these fragments can be spliced into a coherent narrative of the future.
"Rylla on Aloysyus" begins with one paragraph from my alter-ego Eddy, then shifts to Rylla's perspective.
______ Rylla on Aloysyus _______ prelude to The Cythyrya Investigation ____
oxypathin and clytykynyn |
_________
Cosmopolis |
Gersen |
Marda |
Seated close to Alys in the well-lit studio, Rylla marveled at the fact that Alys looked like Rey, but with red hair. Rylla decided that there was no point in avoiding discussion of the unexpected physical similarity between Alys and Rey. If she got herself into trouble, the Simulation System could be reset. "When I came here, I was seeking information about your husband, but now that I've seen you, well, the be blunt, your appearance surprises me. Do you mind if I ask you some personal questions?"
The Book of Dreams |
"I've spoken to a Mrs. Tuty Cleadhoe, on Bethune Preserve. She mentioned Mr. Gersen and The Book of Dreams."
"Strange that you've come all this way... the Wild Isle murders are old news." Alys got up and went to the book shelves that were arrayed along one wall of the studio. She pulled a volume off one of the shelves and returned with The Book of Dreams and handed the notebook to Rylla. "I probably should not show you this, but..."Rylla felt a slight tingling in her right hand as some infites passed into her body from the book. She began looking through The Book of Dreams and asked, "But what?"
Alys spoke with absolute conviction: "Well, you won't actually be publishing in Cosmopolis, so..."
Had Rylla known that Alys had telepathic abilities, she would not have been so casual about falsely claiming a connection to Cosmopolis. Rylla asked, "So, you are a telepath? You can see my thoughts?"
Alys nodded. "I can tell when people are lying to me. I was tasked with..." Alys paused and seemed to reconsider what she had been about to say. With a slight frown on her pretty lips, she continued, "I became part of an effort aimed at dealing with the Treesong problem and his effort to become Emperor of the human worlds. Nyrtia wanted a telepathic agent positioned so as to help protect Kyrt, and I was assigned as his assistant. The mission went well, and Treesong was eliminated. Since then, I've been happy to settle into a peaceful routine... I like being a mother." Alys added with obvious distaste, "Now you appear..."
Howard Hardoah self-portrait. this image made using TOS Romulan by theaven available under CC BY 3.0. |
Alys seemed to have trouble responding to that question. After a long awkward pause, she reached out and placed three finger tips on Rylla's temple and closed her eyes for ten seconds. Finally Alys told Rylla, "Maybe not as well as you do, but..." Alys opened her eyes and withdrew her hand. "You have a strange mind, almost alien." Alys seemed to dismiss the matter of Rylla's unusual genetic background. "I must ask you, Rylla: do you seriously believe that we are inside a simulation?"
Rylla was now completely resigned to the fact that Alys could read her thoughts and telepathically look deeply into her memories. Abandoning all her efforts to keep truths from Alys, Rylla replied, "Yes, it is true. I'm from a different Reality that is yet in your future." Rylla continued, "I'm here as a historical researcher, I want to learn about some mysterious events that happened in this Reality. Tell me, were you present at the death of Howard Treesong?""Nearly so." Alys returned her gaze to Jym.
Hotel Triceratops on Bethune Preserve |
"Then I'll guess. I suspect that there were behavior control nanites inside Treesong. When he died, those infites must have migrated to a new host. Did you notice anything like that as Treesong died?"
Alys seemed to become tense. "No. I did not notice."
Rylla sensed that there was something strange in that reply from Alys. "The infites inside of Treesong might be dangerous. Or... well, I suppose maybe they might have had such ill effects on him only because there were so many of them inside one mind, all at the same time."
Alys looked into Rylla's eyes, "I really don't want to talk about this."
Rylla sensed that Alys was afraid. "Why not? Is there danger?"
"I don't know. I'm still trying to find out." Alys suggested, "Maybe you should leave."
"Please, don't be afraid to tell me what you know. I might be able to help you."
"How could you help?"
an infite bottle |
Alys laughed. "You'd be a fool to take these nanites back to your world."
"Then you do have the Treesong nanites?"
"I do not. When the nanites exited from Treesong, some went into the Cleadhoes... some went into Kyrt..." Alys fell silent, again watching her son play with the toy spaceships on the floor.
Rylla thought about Rey and wondered if she had found Kyrt. Rylla wondered why Alys was acting so strangely... was Rey in danger? "Did you ever discuss this matter of the nanites with them?"
"Only with Kyrt, after we started having our shared orgasm trances." Alys seemed to give a small shiver of revulsion. "When I could fully penetrate his mind, dig into the nanites that resided in his endosymbiont... well, I could suddenly see that an artificial life-form, Ymyr, was there, residing inside Kyrt."
Rylla blurted out, "Amazing! Does that mean..." Rylla restrained herself. She reached out and placed a hand on Alys' arm. "I wonder why you were spared from such infestation when Treesong died."
"I was not spared. Eventually, after repeatedly sharing our trances and with the help of a drug called clytykynyn, Kyrt developed his telepathic abilities to the level that allowed him to sense that an artificial life form called Jyha Ryys had attached itself to my Phari endosymbiont. We were both infected... both carriers of a niaf."
Treesong |
"That is true." Alys patted Rylla's hand where it rested on her arm. "When my son arrived, Jyha left my body and went into Jym." Alys glanced back at Rylla, "That's why I named him Jym."
Rylla looked in horror at Jym. "Your son!"
Alys said, "As far as I can tell, Jym is a happy, normal little boy. However, as a mother, I have my fears. Similarly, I don't think Ymyr has been bad for Kyrt."
Rylla had one more question for Alys, but she hesitated and was reluctant to speak. Alys was telepathically watching Rylla's thoughts and asked, "Tuty had a child?"
Rylla nodded and asked, "How old do you think Tuty is?"
Alys said, "She must be in her seventies."
Rylla told Alys, "I checked the records. Tuty was 77 when she gave birth to her daughter Hedy." Alys was again looking intently at Jym. Rylla asked, "Is Jym biological, or is he an artificial life-form?"
"You are a clever girl." Alys seemed to be looking at Rylla with a new, higher level of respect. "I sense you have some small telepathic ability. Yes, as you have surmised, I'm an artificial life-form... as is Jym."Jym said, "Niaf, mommy.""Yes, Jym, you are correct." Alys continued explaining her situation to Rylla, "However, I can easily construct zygotes and gestate children... they just happen to be made from femtobot components." Alys suddenly grabbed hold of Rylla's hand with both of her hands and pleaded, "Please don't tell Kyrt. He so wanted a son... he need not know that I am not a biological woman... that Jym is a niaf."
Rylla was wondering why Rey had not mentioned any of this before departing for Sogdian. With her telepathic powers, Rey must have noticed that Hedy was not biological. And Rey had observed Alys from outside the simulation, and must have recognized Alys as an analogue of herself. Alys was following Rylla's thoughts. "Your friend, Rey, must want to try to extract Ymyr from Kyrt's body."
Rylla stood up and put the infite bottle back in her pocket. She was eager to find Rey and learn if she had been able to obtain the Ymyr nanites.
Not bothering to look up from his toys, Jym said, "Marda is here."
Alys told Rylla, "My son can sense the mind of your daughter... and another... Tyhry."
Rylla felt a strange chill and turned away from Jym. She told Alys, "Tyhry is Marda's friend. They are telepathic mind clones."
Alys giggled. "Now they are Jym's friends. Thank you for the introductions."
After one last long look at Jym who continued to play with his toys, Rylla moved slowly towards the front entrance of the house. While they walked, Alys asked Rylla, "Who is this robot, Lynscot, that I see in your thoughts?"
Rylla replied, "Possibly another analogue of you, from Deep Time... an earlier Reality. You have no memory of Lyn?"
image made using "April" by karlwikman available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 |
Rylla pulled open the door. "Thank you, Alys, for explaining everything to me."
Alys said, "Good luck with your mission."____________
Rylla and Rey are still inside the Reality Simulation System, but they have now shifted into a simulation of Observer Base in the Final Reality. Apaprently, Rey successfully obtained the Ymyr infites from Gersen, but I will have to wait for Rylla's report to know exactly why Rylla and Rey took those nanites to Observer Base.
Someday Mars |
______end part 1________
Related Reading: "Someday Mars", a story about events shortly before those that are depicted in The Cythyrya Investigation.
Next: Part 2 of The Cythyrya Investigation.
visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers |
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