The Sedron Space Drive

Marda's replicoid in her garden.

 So far, I've avoided the nagging problem of explaining how it will be possible for the rapidly-constructed Sedrover to function as a interstellar spacecraft. Sure, Tyhry has access to vast amounts of information about the Asimov Reality, a past Reality of Deep Time where humans had routine access to faster-than-light spaceship technology, but that technology was a gift to Humanity from aliens...  a gift that could be used by humans without any humans actually understanding how sedrons make interstellar travel possible. 

Marda in the Ekcolir Reality.

 Marda's role. Marda's mother, Rylla is a biochemist and Marda studied bio-engineering in school. During the construction of Sedrover, the replicoid copy of Marda takes on the challenge of obtaining advance Fru'wu technology that will allow long-duration flights. Shown in the image to the left is one of the new floating cities in the Ekcolir Reality that is being built using exotic Fru'wu materials and nanorobotic construction techniques. Marda uses that kind of alien technology to retrofit Sedrover's environmental control systems with more modern and efficient  equipment. However, the Fru'wu do NOT have access to faster-that-light space travel technology.

Marda on Sedrover

 The Challenge. Then how does Tyhry so quickly rebuild the propulsion system of Sedrover and provide it with a functioning interstellar spaceship engine? There must be some special source of knowledge accessible to Tyhry that allows her to build a Sedron Space Drive. Here in this blog post I discuss that special source of knowledge and how to depict it in the story that I'm currently writing: a story called Vythoth the Chresmoscopist.

Plan A for obtaining infites.

 Plan A. Back in April, I imagined that Chapter 8 in the science fiction story called Vythoth the Chresmoscopist (the story starts here) would include a visit to Alice Wroke inside the Asimov Reality Simulator (see the image to the left). 

Asimov Reality (Wild Island)

I imagine that Alice became a host for some rogue information nanites (infites) that had previously been inside Howard Alan Treesong. Tyhry wants to obtain those infites and use them as a tool that she hopes will allow her to control the behavior of a positronic robot that is causing trouble for Systolina on Threy.

Tyhry and Alice

 The Search for Infites. As part of my original plans for Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, I wondered if by visiting the Asimov Reality, maybe two important tasks could be completed by Tyhry and her team. 1) infites (information nanites) could be obtained by Tyhry from Alice and also 2) some key piece of information about the Sedron Spaceship Drive could be discovered in the Asimov Reality, possibly the source of that technical information would be Alice's lover, Gersen. However, I was uneasy about the idea of Gersen as a source of technical information about alien technology.

Figure 1. Alaska satellite image.

 Puzzle. I continue to make use of WOMBO Dream to make illustrations for my science fiction stories. I used the satellite image shown to the left (Figure 1) along with this text prompt: "high resolution science fiction movie still showing a very young Meg Ryan in the role of a cat creature, Meg Ryan has long blond head hair, intricate details, Meg Ryan is dressed Victoria's Secret style in cat fur, slim arms, inside an alien spaceship, intricate details, very large eyes, cute face, cat in the foreground on the floor below Meg Ryan".

Figure 2. Step #2.

The resulting image is shown to the right (Figure 2). This AI-generated image might seem like a complete disaster, but I then used it for the second iteration in a series. The final AI-generated "cat creature" image is shown below on this page (Figure 3).

Cat-human hybrid.

With Gersen's vast wealth, maybe he could obtain information about how sedrons make possible faster-than-light space travel. However, I'm now thinking of an alternative source of information that allows Tyhry to provide Sedrover with interstellar space travel technology. 

Building on the idea that Manny the bumpha always has good reasons for what she does, what if Manny had a decades-long plan for how to provide Tyhry with key sedron technology? And what if that plan was what motivated Manny to become Tyhry's first lover, with Manny living in Tyhry's childhood home while disguised as Tyhry's pet cat?

Hierion probes.
see the original 2020 version

Initially, Tyhry is allowed to imagine that she can simply obtain a functioning Sedron Drive from a spaceship of the Asimov Reality. Then she discovers that there is a block on the Reality Simulation System that Tyhry has access to, one that prevents sedrons from being taken out of a simulation and moved into the Final Reality. Tyhry must learn how to use hierion probes to mine sedrons inside the Ekcolir Reality Simulation. However, Tyhry discovers that there are multiple types of sedrons and the type that is available to her on Earth does not make it possible for Sedrover to move between the stars at faster-than-light speeds. However, in a sense, Tyhry has been well prepared for this difficulty. Tyhry can "see the future".

Tyhry's nightmare of
transforming Marda.

 Information from the Future. Because of her telepathic connection to the Sedron Time Stream, Tyhry has long had visions of of the future. She originally interpreted some of her visions from childhood as being nightmares, the product of her over-active imagination. In those disturbing visions, Tyhry saw what she imagined as being cat-human hybrids: her own children of the future arising from her daily sexual encounters with her pet cats (her feline lovers were Manny the bumpha, in disguise).

Tyhry's vision of flight.

Tyhry has not always understood the information that she receives from the future. Tyhry knows that she will perform an experiment an Marda and change Marda's body form. However, for many years Tyhry does not know the nature of that change, leading her to imagine all kinds of strange possibilities (including one nightmare about shrinking Marda to microscopic size). However, by the time of the events in Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, Tyhry has already had some of her future visions confirmed, such as her ability to use anti-gravity hierions to build a flying car. 

Tyhry's anti-gravity demo.

That same anti-gravity technology that Tyhry first used in her car is also built into Sedrover. Sedrover was originally a nuclear submarine and it has thick metal walls; it is no light-weight. When rising from the surface of Earth, Sedrover can efficiently neutralize the gravitational attraction between Earth and Sedrover by making use of anti-gravity hierions.

To generate the image that is shown to the left, I used Wombo Dream and this text prompt: "three cute girls who are having fun with advanced nanotechnology, women dressed Victoria's Secret style in sparkling silk, pretty girls looking at a glowing nanotechnology sphere that floats in front of them and reaching out below the sphere".

 

a Felydyan

Sedrover: First Flight. The first test flight of the Sedrover fails to get out of the Solar System, but Tyhry is able to make telepathic contact with a human variant that evolved in the far future of the Ekcolir Reality and was exploring the past history of Earth when the Reality Change occurred that brought into existence the Final Reality, the Reality in which the alien Huaoshy made all further time travel impossible. In Part 8 of Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, I introduce the Felyds, genetically engineered people from the future of the Ekcolir Reality who are human-cat hybrids.

 Back in the 1970s I read "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith, as published in

image source

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two. Smith imagined genetically altering cats so as to turn them into near-humans. After reading "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" I decided that I'd never read another story by Cordwainer Smith. I was deeply disturbed by "science fiction" in which something amazing would be possible (advanced genetic engineering), yet nothing in human society would change and people would still behave like idiots (particularly annoying is the fact that in Smith's imagined future, the genetically-engineered cat people are treated like slaves). However, my disgust with the direction of Smith's story did not prevent me from being influenced by "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell".  I love the idea of genetically engineered human variants and deploy them in many of my science fiction stories.

 Figure 3. Tyhry's dream
vision of the future.

 Felydyans. For Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, I imagine that in the far future there were many genetic experiments that resulted in human-animal hybrids including the first clan of Seelie was known as the Paz. 

Shortly after discovering that her Sedron Space Drive can't achieve faster-than-light speeds, Tyhry meets the Felydyans and they are able to provide Tyhry with enough sedron "fuel" to allow a visit to Tar'tron in the galactic core.

Human-cat  hybrid.

The image shown to the left (Figure 3) was generated by starting with the seemingly unrelated satellite image that is shown above in Figure 1. While growing up, Tyhry had many ordinary dreams and Sedron Time Stream visions of cat-human hybrids. Another example is shown in the image to the right.

Tyhry's cat telepathy experiment

 Cat Telepathy. The question arises: while Manny was living with Tyhry and using the physical body of a cat, did Tyhry know that Manny was working to develop Tyhry's telepathic abilities? If so, then Tyhry may have experimented with ways to establish telepathic communication to her pet cats. Manny would have encouraged such experimentation and allowed Tyhry to feel that she had some ability to telepathically link to her pet cats.

Marda in telepathic contact with Tyhry

During that time, Tyhry was able to telepathically link her mind to her mind clone, Marda. As depicted in Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, for many years the only significant opportunity for Tyhry and Marda to telepathically exchange their thoughts with someone was when they were in close proximity with each other, either when Marda was visiting the States or when Tyhry was visiting Australia.

Tyhry's vision of Sedrover.

After Manny had completed her efforts to develop Tyhry's telepathic abilities, Anthony took over as Tyhry's lover and he was constantly monitoring her thoughts telepathically. Only much later, after recovering her tryp'At brain pattern, did Tyhry learn how to amplify her telepathic abilities enough so that Anthony could no longer hide his thoughts from her.

Marda on Sedrover

In Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, Marda plays a role in testing the sex hormones that are crafted by Rylla in the laboratory. Those hormones play an important part in the amplification of Tyhry's telepathic abilities, eventually giving her the ability to conceal her own thoughts from the annoying religious robot from Threy, Nymerya Coryn.

Marda's air purification
plant on Sedrover.

Marda's role in preparing Sedrover for space travel was centered on making sure that the environmental control systems would allow the crew to survive long cruises through the galaxy. Based on the known duration of Many Sail's journey from Earth to Tar'tron as depicted in "The Nanite Smuggler", Marda has engineered Sedrover to be self-sufficient for two months, recycling water and oxygen and efficiently removing waste carbon dioxide from the ship's air. 

Tyhry's future vision.

When departing from Earth on the first test flight of Sedrover, Marda is contemplating the possibility of using Tyhry's medical nanites to counter the effects of the developmental control nanites that were in her body, preparing her to have a human body that is hard to distinguish from that of a normal Earthling. In particular, Marda is intrigued by the possibility that she could selectively revert to her original tryp'At brain structure and boost her telepathic abilities.

Mission to Felyd.

However, the first flight of the Sedrover never takes it out of the Solar System before contact is made with the Felydyans. In my imagination, Felydyans had made many visits to Earth at various times in the past history of the Ekcolir Reality. They had their own base of operations inside a "pocket" of the Hierion Domain known as Gyryph.

Tyhry with an hierion probe.

 Hierion Probes. During the time period of contact between the crew of Sedrover and the Felydyans as depicted in Chapter 8 of Vythoth the Chresmoscopist, Tyhry is always thinking about her plans for obtaining infites from the body of Alice Wroke. Having some telepathic linkage into Tyhry's mind, the Felydyans are aware of Tyhry's interest in infites.

The image shown to the right is a whimsical depiction of an hierion probe in which I tried to make the probe as complex as possible. Tyhry hopes to use her hierion probe to control and contain infites: capture some and return them to her nanotechnology laboratory for analysis and reprogramming.

Felydyan physics laboratory.

While visiting Gyryph, Tyhry has a chance to learn about how the Felydyans make use of infites, but she does not obtain any infites from them. Tyhry will still have to visit Alice Wroke in the Asimov Reality. However, one of the Felydyans, a physicist named Sorsyph, makes adjustments to Tyhry's hierion probe and agrees to to help Tyhry obtain infites from Alice Wroke. Sorsyph transfers a copy of her zeptite endosymbiont into one of Tyhry's pet cats and departs from Gyryph onboard the Sedrover.   

Tyhry with Sorsyph.

Sorsyph, disguised as a conventional cat, is able to help Tyhry obtain the infites that have taken up residence inside Alice Wroke. Sorsyph provides Felydyan technology that allows these sedron-based infites to be extracted from the Asimov Reality simulation, revealing that this is the source of sedrons used by the Felydyans themselves. 

 While at the Gyryph base, Tyhry is never quite sure what her hosts actually look like. The Felydyans constantly make use of body-sculpting nanites to alter their physical appearance and their nanite-generated clothing. At least Tyhry finally learns the source of her childhood visions about cat-people.

Image by Mr. Wombo.

I decided to ask Claude about the difficulty of making human-cat hybrids: "Claude, please imagine that in the year 5645 C.E. it has become possible to mix human genetic elements and genes from several species in the family Felidae and create a Felidae-Human hybrid called the Felydyans (similar to what was described in the science fiction story "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" by Cordwainer Smith). Assume, as did Cordwainer Smith, that the Felydyans were genetically engineered by starting with a Felidae genome structure and then adding in additional human-derived genes so as to make the Felydyans have the same level of cognitive abilities as human, including the ability to use human language. Claude, describe the major challenges facing the genetic engineers of the future who wanted to carry out such a project to make a Felydyan human-Felidae hybrid organism."

A Felydyan.

 Claude: Creating a human-Felidae hybrid organism, such as the hypothetical Felydyans, would present numerous significant challenges for future genetic engineers. Here are some of the major obstacles they would face:

1. Genetic incompatibility: Humans and felines belong to different orders (Primates and Carnivora, respectively), which means their genetic makeup is vastly different. Combining genes from such divergent species would be an immense challenge due to the incompatibility of their genetic codes, regulatory mechanisms, and cellular processes.

2. Developmental issues: Even if the genetic hurdles were overcome, the development of a hybrid embryo would be extremely complex. The differences in gestation periods, placental structures, and embryonic development between humans and felines could lead to severe developmental abnormalities or non-viability of the hybrid embryo.

Another Felydyan.

 3. Physiological challenges: Integrating human cognitive abilities and language capabilities into a feline body plan would be incredibly difficult. The brain structure, vocal apparatus, and other physiological systems would need to be significantly modified, potentially leading to severe physical and mental health issues in the resulting hybrid.

4. Ethical concerns: Creating human-animal hybrids raises significant ethical questions regarding the moral status and rights of such beings. There would likely be intense debates and potential legal barriers surrounding the creation of hybrid organisms with human-like cognitive abilities.

5. Technological limitations: Despite the hypothetical future timeframe, the level of genetic engineering required to create a viable Felydyan hybrid would likely be beyond the capabilities of current or near-future biotechnology. Techniques for precisely manipulating and combining genomes from vastly different species, while maintaining viability and desired traits, are still in their infancy.

A Felydyan astronomer.

 6. Unintended consequences: Even if the genetic engineering process were successful, there could be unforeseen consequences of combining human and feline genetic material. The hybrid organisms might exhibit unexpected physiological or behavioral traits, which could be detrimental to their well-being or pose risks to society.

Overall, while the concept of creating human-Felidae hybrids like the Felydyans is intriguing from a science fiction perspective, the scientific and ethical challenges involved would be substantial. Overcoming these obstacles would require significant advancements in genetic engineering, developmental biology, and a careful consideration of the ethical implications of such endeavors.

Tyhry's vision of Felydyan first contact (see).

 Poor Claude has really been loaded up with resources that assure frequent lectures on ethics. In this case, I imagine that Manny the bumpha crafted Tyrhy as a genetically perfect tyrp'At in the far future of the Ekcolir Reality. At that time, Manny had access to Reality Viewing technology and  she could see that when Tyhry was deployed as Manny's agent on Earth in the Final Reality, it would be convenient to make use of Tyhry's love for cats to guide Tyhry towards understanding advanced alien technologies such as nanites and the Sedron Space Drive.

Manny the bumpha and two pets.

The image that is shown to the right illustrates the idea of Manny the bumpha keeping the very young Tyhry (at that time, her name was "Tihri" due to a misunderstanding of the tryp'At language) as her pet while Tyhry is allowed to have a cat as her pet.

Tyhry and her daughter Qyla.

 Tradition. The image shown to the left depicts Tyhry with her daughter Qyla. Both Tyhry and Qyla are holding pet cats. When Tyhry was young, she had a pet cat named "Qyla" that was one of the cats who was actually Manny in disguise. 

Tyhry did not hesitate to name her daughter after her pet cat. With her telepathic abilities, Qyla was well aware of the origin of her name and she could not resist naming her own pet cat "Qyla".

Rylla and Tyhry meet aliens.

When Sedrover is ready for its first test flight, both the biological copy of Marda and her mother, Rylla, arrive from Australia and join the crew of Sedrover for its first excursion through the Solar System. 

First Contact

 Don't Forget the Fru'wu. The image shown to the right is a whimsical imaginary book cover showing both Rylla and Tyhry with an alien onboard Sedrover. That first alien might be Vythoth the Fru'wu using his nanite exoskeleton to generate a disguise. In the Ekcolir Reality, the Fru'wu have come to Earth from the Galactic Core in a misguided attempt to bring advanced technology to Earth.

Appearing on the monitor is is yet another humanoid alien, a Felydyan, making "second contact" with the Earthlings. Rylla is Tyhry's sister, but Rylla is twenty years older than Tyhry.

Next: Part 8 of Vythoth the Chresmoscopist.

Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers