Alys of Aloysyus

Marta and her family

 Clones and Copies. Back in 2014, I was trying to understand the origins of my collaborator Ivory Fersoni and her clone sisters. Ivory was able to provide me with information nanites that included a clear visual depiction of her mother, Marta, as shown in the image to the right. Until recently, I never tried to make a distinction between Ivory's birth mother and the alien hybrid who actually provided Ivory with her special gene patterns. Of particular importance were the genes that allowed the Atlantis Clones (particularly Angela) to link into the Sedron Time Stream. Now, I have to wonder if the "woman" who gave birth to Ivory was an artificial life-form.

R. Lynscot

 Robots and Replicoids. About three months ago, I learned about a positronic robot from the First Reality named R. Lynscot who adopted the body form of one of the Escapist friends of R. Gohrlay (see the image to the left). I've previously traced the lives of R. Gohrlay and R. Nyrtia through Deep Time from the First Reality to the Final Reality, so it should have been no surprise that Lynscot also made her way to the Final Reality. I'm struggling to accept the idea that Marta was a robot who made use of the body form and appearance of someone who the biological Gohrlay knew while she lived at Observer Base.

Rey

Most recently, I met a copy of the artificial life-form who was used as an Interventionist agent by R. Nyrtia during the Edison Intervention, and who played the role of Rey Cummings in the 20th century of the Ekcolir Reality. It was during our visit to the Ekcolir Reality that Rylla began working in tandem with 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

Previously, I discovered that a positronic robot named Anthony had been deployed as an agent of R. Nyrtia in Alastor Cluster where he functioned to maintain control over a teleportation device that linked into the vast computational capacity of the Sedron Domain. Anthony is also being used as an agent by Nyrtia here in the Final Reality.

 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

As I begin to write The Cythyrya Investigation here in April, I hope that a full account of Rylla's investigation will be forthcoming. It seems that in the future, I will have better control of my telepathic abilities and will be able to telepathically follow her adventures inside the AR Simulator with interest, via our shared telepathic link. Sadly, the report below on this page only seems to be a stray fragment from the future, almost like a teaser that raises more questions than it answers.

 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

Rylla discovered that by the conventions of that Reality, the names "Kirth" and "Alice" should more accurately be given as Kyrt and Alys, so I have made those adjustments here. During a visit to the planet Aloysius (Aloysyus), Rylla met Alys and discovered that Alys greatly resembled Rey. Below on this page is my "quick and dirty" account of their meeting, which will hopefully be expanded and updated in the future.

 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

 My Challenge. There is some strange type of synchronization taking place between events here in 2022 and the information that I am receiving from the future. Zeta believes that we need to pay attention to my visions of the future and adjust our actions accordingly. However, I fear that me might alter our behavior and in so doing, create a future that differs from what I see in my visions 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

I'm currently on vacation, but trying to catch up with my task of writing accounts of recent adventures inside the Reality Simulation System. Rylla has involved herself in an effort to find a technological fix for the inactive teleportation equipment at Observer Base. Nora was the first refugee who got trapped on Earth when the teleporter stopped functioning, but recently another one turned up; Jutta. I'll save Jutta's saga for chapter 2. Zeta is continuing to experiment on me with high doses of oxypathin and clytykynyn and the result has been a strengthening of my telepathic abilities. I've made use of better telepathic communication to keep tabs on Rylla's current adventure in the Asimov Reality...

_________

Cosmopolis

 When Alys responded to the doorbell and opened the front door, Rylla was immediately shocked by how closely Alys resembled Rey in physical appearance. Knowing that Rey had previously used her telepathic ability to "look in on" Alys while locating this house, Rylla could not imagine why Rey had not provided some warning about how much Alys resembled Rey. Alys was holding an electronic paint brush in her hand and she asked, "May I help you?"

While carefully examining Alys' features, Rylla remained silent for an unusual length of time and then finally remembered what she had planned to say. "Yes, I'm doing a story for Cosmopolis magazine and I've been hoping to get an interview with Mr. Kyrt Gersen."

Gersen

Alys gestured towards the inside of the house. "Won't you come in?" While Alys led the way through the large comfortable house to her art studio, she explained, "Kyrt is currently off planet, but I might be able to help you." Alys added, "I've been with him for three years, now." There in the studio was a collection of Alys' paintings and also Jym, playing with some toy spaceships. Alys explained, "This is our son, Jym."

Marda

Rylla thought about her daughter, Marda, and for a time the two women discussed domestic matters and their  children. Alys offered tea, but Rylla declined. They sat on a couch and watched Jym play while they chatted. Alys asked, "What is the nature of your magazine article?"

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

Alys laughed nervously. "You have me at a disadvantage. Can't you first explain why Cosmopolis is interested in Kyrt?"

"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 attempt 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.

Rylla told herself that she should not feel surprised to discover that Alys served as a secret agent of R. Nyrtia. However, Rylla was surprised and now she felt that she had gotten off to a bad start with Alys. Hoping that something could still be salvaged without having to back-track and restart the Simulation, Rylla nodded and giggled nervously. "Sorry to bother you, but..." Now Rylla looked up from a fascinating drawing in the notebook, a self portrait that had long ago been drawn by the young Howard Hardoah. Rylla felt herself entranced and being sucked into the book, but she needed to deal efficiently with Alys and not be distracted... even if it seemed like the book was trying to control her mind. Rylla set aside the notebook, gave her head a determined shake and asked Alys, "Do you know Nyrtia well?"

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.

"When Treesong died...  did you notice anything... unusual?"

Hotel Triceratops on Bethune Preserve

Alys replied, "I'd rather not say." Alys did not look at Rylla and kept looking at her son.

"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

"I'm from Earth of your past, chronologically. I live in a time before interstellar space travel." Rylla pulled an infite containment bottle out of her pocket. "We have a technological problem in my world. I came to this Reality hoping that I might find a source of nanites that can help solve our problem."

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

"But I understood you to say that you don't have any of the Treesong infites."

"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

Alys shook her head. "Nyrtia trained me for my mission by making use of a Reality Simulator. My memories begin there, as an infant. Then after living that accelerated artificial life inside that training simulation, I was implanted as a nanoscopic endosymbiont inside the three month old Alys Wroke fetus. My nanites colonized that biological body, eventually converting it into... me. A femtobot life form that grew up pretending to be human. So you see, I have two sets of childhood memories, but no memories of any existence before this Reality."

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

From my perspective, it seems crazy for Rylla to imagine that the Ymyr nanites can be used to re-activate the teleportation equipment at Observer Base, but she seems to be trying very hard to help the mind clones repair the Eternity teleporter.

______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.

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