Collector of Humanoids

Figure 1. A humanoid with
blue skin and a tail.

 When I was 12 years old, I was impressed by the idea of the alien Balok flying around the galaxy in a mile-wide spaceship (called the Fesarius). In Star Trek, it was never explained why Balok was flying around the galaxy. I enjoy making alternate versions of stories such as "The Corbomite Maneuver" in which I can actually provide reasons for what happens, so I'm crafting a fan-fiction story called "The Fesarians" that explores the idea that Balok is a bumpha, a type of artificial life-form from a distant galaxy. As a bumpha, Balok is part of a billion-year-long effort to nurture humanoid lifeforms in the universe.

Figure 2. Talia: a human-
tryp'At hybrid who was
"transplanted" to Elemacha-z.

 Collecting Humanoids. In "The Corbomite Maneuver", Balok indicated that he is rather lonely and would like a member of the Enterprise crew to spend some time on the Fesarius, participating in cultural exchange. For "The Fesarians", I assume that Balok would not actually be alone in his mile-wide spaceship. Instead, I depict the Fesarius as being full of hundreds of different types of humanoids that Balok has collected from many different worlds of the galaxy. Think of Balok as a gardener, the Earth-like planets of the galaxy as his garden and sometimes Balok must transplant people from one world to another.

For example, imagine that Balok arranged for Talia (Figure 2) and Xylo (Figures 3 and 4) to move to the planet Elemacha-z so that they could help set a trap for Dani and the other remaining positronic robots of Earth who have long disrupted bumpha plans for the galaxy.

Figure 3. Xylo on her home world.

For my stories about the bumpha, I like to imaging that the bumpha played a role in guiding the evolution of life in our galaxy during the past 2,000,000,000 years. How could that be fit in with the fictional galaxy as depicted in Star Trek where humans can go out exploring and find planets like Scalos where the native humanoids are inter-fertile with Earthlings? Even when I was 12, I was certain that two humanoids evolving independently on different planets would not be inter-fertile.

Xylo in flowers.

A good solution to the mystery of finding human variants on exoplanets was provided by Jack Vance. In his novel Star King, Vance described the idea of technologically advanced aliens arriving on Earth and transplanting some humans to another world of the galaxy. Vance stopped there, but what if the bumpha transplanted humans to thousands of other Earth-like planets?

Upon arriving on Elemacha-Z, Xylo takes over as mayor of Port Cooway and her clone "sisters" adopt their pre-arranged roles in the new colony. 

Social mixer on Elemacha-z.

The colonists are all genetically modified humans, some of whom (like Xylo) are genetically engineered human variants called the Huxy. Xylo is pleased to be on a new world where her unusual anatomy is appreciated by the other residents such as power engineer Talia Vance. 

 The hermaphrodites of Elemacha-z. As human-tryp'At hybrids, Talia and her clone sisters are hermaphrodites, each with one ovary and one testis. Talia has has two vaginas and penis. More details about Talia's anatomy is provided in Part 3 of "The Fesarians".

At the time when Bailey and Dani arrive on Elemacha-z, one of the Talia clones has already been impregnated by Xylo's "sister", Aethe. Although Xylo has the appearance of a young woman, "she" is a male Huxy, a genetically engineered human variant (for more details about the unusual biology of the Huxy, see Part 4 of "The Fesarians"). All of the Huxy are used to being referred to as "she", even male Huxy such as Xylo and Aethe.

Figure 4. Big and little.

 The Clones of Elemacha-z. In my Exodemic Fictional Universe stories such as "The Fesarians", there is time travel technology, and there are human variants such as the tryp'At who in the future have been genetically engineered to have telepathic abilities. For "The Fesarians", there are human-tryp'At hybrids such as Talia who can interact with "conventional" humans such as Bailey. With help from her zeptite endosymbiont, Talia has some limited ability to receive information from the future.

In "The Fesarians", both Talia and Xylo are clones, with several clone sisters who are also colonists on Elemacha-z. Maybe it is common practice to make use of genetically engineered and cloned people to colonize Earth-like exoplanets. I can imagine that the Talia and Xylo clones were genetically modified to make them better able to survive the very warm climate of Elemacha-z.

Figure 5. Xylo arrives while Dani is
contacting the Hierion Domain.

 Robots. In addition to clones and genetically engineered human variants, "The Fesarians" includes Dani the positronic robot. Dani was designed to appear to be a typical human who could live among humans and function as a secret agent for R. Nyrtia, a positronic robot who lives inside the Hierion Domain.

There is a scene in "The Fesarians" when Dani tries to contact Nyrtia who is at her secret base in the Hierion Domain. For the image that is shown in Figure 5, I asked Mr. Wombo to create a science fiction scene with futuristic electronics. Maybe Dani had to modify the interstellar communications equipment of Elemacha-Z in order to signal into the Hierion Domain, resulting in a "shocking" surprise for Xylo, revealing to her the existence of her femtobot endosymbiont.

Figure 6. Dani calling Nyrtia.

 Balok's Master Plan. I had Mr. Wombo make an alternative depiction of Dani at the point in time when she is using the interstellar communications equipment of Elemacha-Z in order to contact R. Nyrtia in the Hierion Domain. In Figure 6, Dani has just sent a message to R. Nyrtia. Balok hopes that R. Nyrtia will try to rescue Dani and recall her secret agent into the Hierion Domain, and in so doing, reveal the location of the hidden base of the positronic robots. To make it appear to Nyrtia that it is safe to contact Dani, Balok makes use of his agents (Bailey and Talia) on Elemacha-z.

As a positronic robot, Dani can telepathically examine the minds of Bailey and Talia. Seeing that they know nothing about positronic robots or the Hierion Domain, soon after arriving on Elemacha-z, Dani becomes over-confident and tries to attract the attention of R. Nyrtia. However, Balok is carefully monitoring events on Elemacha-z.

Figure 7. Two hermaphroditic
humanoids from planet Exo III

 The Humanoids. Back at the end of June, I began to think about the physical appearance of the native Merovae as well as two alien Fesarians, Ylyndra and Ienaghwy.

I've still never read The Humanoids, but in 2021 I commented on the precursor story, "With Folded Hands", by Jack Williamson (1947). I'm going to blame old cover art for these stories for the fact that Mr. Wombo prefers to depict humanoids like cyborgs.

Figure 8. A humanoid.

I asked Mr. Wombo to generate an image depicting, "science fiction book cover, a very young humanoid woman with blue skin and large eyes, big bushy hair, the humanoid woman has a very large head, bulging cranium, the humanoid woman has blue skin, inside a laser physics laboratory". One of the resulting cyborg-like "humanoids" is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 9. Blue humanoid.

An even more mechanical "humanoid" is shown in Figure 9. I have no objection to imagining future space-traveling humanoids who are artificial life-forms with bodies composed of a mixture of biological and mechanical components, but for "The Fesarians" I am trying to remain within the boundaries of a fictional universe that reflects the biases of the original Star Trek television series. 

Admittedly, for 1960s television, the main motivation for making aliens have the physical appearance of humans was to save on costs. In the case of the Star Trek episode "The Squire of Gothos", we are never shown the true physical form of the aliens, so I am free to imagine the physical form of my character Ylyndra as being quite human.

Figure 10. Ienaghwy (left)

 Head size is relative. I'm working with the idea of the bumpha having spread humanoid genes to many distant exoplanets and then many humanoid variants of humans could evolve independently on those planets. I simply do not imagine Ylyndra as a cyborg. In my imagination, Ylyndra could look more like the large brained humanoids of Figure 7 than the "wild" humanoid in Figure 1 (above). However, I previously depicted Ylyndra as having a smaller head than Ienaghwy who is a human-Talosian hybrid.

Figure 11. Blond humanoid.

In Figure 10, Ienaghwy is depicted as being significantly shorter than the blue-skinned alien, but this might reflect the range of natural variation in height within species.

 Does Mr. Wombo prefer blonds? Shown in Figure 11 is one of the blond humanoids that Mr. Wombo generated. A similar image with more hair on the front half of her head is shown in the image at the bottom of this blog post.

Figure 12. Two Talia clones
and Xylo (right) experiment
with endosymbionts.

In "The Fesarians", characters such as Talia Vance enjoy the benefits of having zeptite endosymbionts inside their bodies, but Talia is not aware that zeptite endosymbionts exist. When Dani the positronic robot arrives on Elemacha-z, there is an opportunity for Dani to share with the residents of Elemacha-z what she knows about the femtobot endosymbionts that exist inside humans. At this time, Talia and Xylo are rather desperate to establish communications with the native aliens of Elemacha-z and hopeful that they might be able to find a way to co-exist with the natives who have sabotaged the electrical power distribution system of Port Cooway. Figure 12 provides a rather whimsical depiction of the idea that the human residents of Elemacha-z might try to harness the power of their endosymbionts in an attempt to establish telepathic contact with the Noema (plant-like aliens who don't come on stage until Part 3 of "The Fesarians").

Figure 13. Talia.

Another AI-generated version of Talia as a test subject in an experiment is shown in Figure 13. Although I'm still in the process of writing Part 3 of "The Fesarians", I'm leaning towards the idea that the human residents of Elemacha-z will ultimately have to depart from that world. Talia has had visions of the future which suggest that she is destined to live onboard the Fesarius with Bailey, sometime in the near future after leaving Elemacha-z. 

Also, I like the idea that Balok has brought Bailey and Talia together as part of the ongoing efforts by the bumpha to breed telepathic humans. As a human-tryp'At hybrid, it is possible that Talia will have some difficulty becoming pregnant. Maybe Figure 13 depicts a future time onboard the Fesarius when Talia is undergoing experiments aimed at increasing her fertility and making it possible for her to be impregnated by Bailey. Talia is technically a simultaneous hermaphrodite (she has a tiny penis), but physically she has the body form of a female human. The preference of the bumpha for crafting hermaphroditic humanoids can be traced back to the ancient alien Hua.

Figure 14. Talia and Xylo.

In Part 2 of "The Fesarians", I tried to create some mystery about how the underground power cables of Port Cooway had been cut. In my mind, the Noema would have used their advance nanotechnology to cut the power lines, but they would have been smart enough to try to make it look like some creature such as the Merovae had been responsible, possibly as part of their need to lay their eggs on land. I am reluctant to depict the human residents of Port Cooway as having nanotechnology because that was not really an explicit part of the original Star Trek. The image shown in Figure 14 began as an attempt to have Mr. Wombo generate a depiction of Talia and Xylo experimenting with nanites that were provided by Dani, but this AI-generated scene turned out looking more like some kind of mysterious red light therapy.

Failed human colony.

 Depicting plant people. The image shown to the right is another AI-generated imaginary book cover illustrating First Contact with the plant people who are discovered by the humans of the Port Cooway colony on Elemacha-z. 

The Noema Nanites.

The image shown to the left is a depiction of the idea that the humans on Elemacha-z eventually befriend the Noema and then the aliens provide repair nanites to Talia so that she can repair the power distribution system.

 However, the colonists no longer wish to remain on Elemacha-z because they respect the rights of the Noema to live on their world in peace without encroachment by humans. After becoming friends with the Noema, the human settlers depart from Elemacha-z

Figure 15. Two Talia clones
and a Xylo clone (bottom).

 Figure 15 shows two of the Talia clones of Elemacha-z and one of the Xylo clones working to re-balance the electrical power distribution pattern of Port Cooway after several power cables have been cut by the alien Noema near the start of the mysterious electrical power problems that threaten the survival of the human colonists on Elemacha-z, a world with dangerously high surface temperatures. 

Talia clones arrive on Elemacha

The image shown in Figure 15 is a variant of the scene in Figure 12 for which Mr. Wombo changed the orientation of Talia and Xylo and put them to work at the power distribution controls. I'm always pleased when Mr. Wombo makes it appear as if people are doing something rather than just standing around with their hands hanging at their sides (see the image to the left). 

Xylo and Talia.

At this point in time, Talia and Xylo have not yet begun to reduce the amount of clothing they wear as part of an effort to conserve energy by cutting back on cooling the interiors of the buildings.

Xylo and Talia in white.

The image that is shown to the left is an alternate view of Xylo and Talia that was generated by Mr. Wombo, doubling down on the white clothing. I too the AI-generated image and added a title for an imaginary novel by Rylla.

Talia's wire mesh suit.

For the image to the right, Mr. Wombo relented on all the white and provided Xylo with more interesting clothing. I wonder if those a really copper wires built into Talia's clothing. This could be soon after Talia and Xylo meet on Elemacha-z and Talia has decided to try to lead Xylo beyond their professional working relationship.

Power balancing.

Another Talia and Xylo scene is shown to the left. I'm curious about the device that Talia is wearing on her hip while she and Xyla adjust that glowing blue "hot plate".

Close collaboration.

The image to the right has one more example of AI-generated futuristic clothing worn by residents of Elemacha-z. After Talia and Xylo fall in love, the continually find excuses to be together, helping each-other with their work.

Figure 16. Two Talia clones
experimenting with synapex links.

One of the nano-technologies that I have sometimes included in my science fiction stories about telepathy gives people the ability to create synapex links between individuals who otherwise have only a weak telepathic connection. 

The image shown in Figure 16 could be a synapex experiment in which two of the Talia clones are trying to link their minds, possibly as part of an effort to improve their mysterious ability to receive information from the future.

Synapex experiment.

 Another synapex experiment. The image shown to the right is another synapex experiment, this time performed on Xylo. It would be interesting to know what images are in the AI training set that show women wearing shiny metallic clothing. Here, Xylo's thorax seems to be encased in some complex network of wires.

Figure 17. Bailey (left).

The image shown in Figure 17 could be a depiction of Bailey while on Elemacha-z. Maybe the translucent orange object in front of this Talia clone is some futuristic technology that I don't recognize.

Figure 18. Alien-human synapex link.

Eventually, Talia will realize that the plant-like Noema are responsible for disrupting the electrical power distribution system of Port Cooway. Figure 18 shows a rather whimsical depiction of an experiment involving the formation of synapex links between an alien and Xylo. I'm still not sure how the alien Noema should be depicted in "The Fesarians", but the red-colored AI-generated creature(s) in Figure 18 are amusing. In my imagination, the Noema begin to experiment with using their nanites to alter their physical form, mimicking structural features of the human visitors who arrive on Elemacha-z.

Figure 19. Plant creature.

I tried to get Mr. Wombo to generate an image depicting a sentient alien plant creature being caught in a trap in a forest. However, the AI did not gracefully depict a trapped plant creature. Figure 19 looks more like it might show the home of the creature, or maybe that is the place where it stores valuable items. In any case, the two Talia clones seem quite pleased with themselves; maybe this is First Contact between humans and the Noema.

Figure 20. Plant people.

 Figure 20 has an alternative depiction of three Talia clones in the research laboratory with several alien plant people.

Figure 21. Play time with Xylo.

When Bailey arrives on Elemach-z, he first meets Mayor Xylo. He views her as a woman, and only later learns that Xylo is a genetically engineered hermaphrodite who has been Talia's lover ever since they arrived on Elemacha-z. Although Talia tells Bailey that she has seen their future together as Fesarians, only when Bailey and Talia depart from Elemacha-z does Bailey learn that Xylo will also become a Fesarian. Bailey then realizes that by visiting Elemacha he has acquired an entire family consisting of three Talia clones and three Xylo clones.

Aethe impregnates a Talia clone
soon after they meet on Elemacha-z

 The image shown to the right has another view of Xylo with two of the Talia clones and now her penis can be seen.

Plant-human sexplay.

The image to the left shows a whimsical sexplay session that includes an alien Noema. The alien has begun to experiment with human anatomical structures, using its advanced nanotechnology to modify its body structure. Intrigued by Xylo's penis, this Noema has grown a human-like mouth/vagina and two small humanoid arms.

Figure 22. Gemini's plant person.

I asked Gemini to invent a "plant person" for a science fiction story and describe the plant person. "The Verdant Sentinel stands as a testament to the symbiotic relationship between plant and being. Its form is a blend of human and flora, its skin a deep emerald hue, dappled with veins of vibrant green. Its hair, a cascade of leaves and tendrils, shimmers in the sunlight.  The Sentinel's eyes, large and luminous, hold a wisdom born from centuries of growth. Its arms and legs are thick and muscular, capable of incredible strength. Yet, its hands and feet are adorned with delicate, leafy patterns, suggesting a gentle nature beneath its imposing stature.  The Sentinel's body is adorned with intricate markings that resemble bark and roots, a testament to its deep connection to the natural world". The image that was generated by Gemini is shown in Figure 22.

Figure 23. Mr. Wombo's
alien plant person.

I also had Mr. Wombo generate images of plant people using this text prompt: "a beautiful plant person with a green human mouth, the plant person has cute arms and legs covered with leaves, the plant person has green lips, the plant person has an open mouth and a green tongue, the plant person is seen in profile view, the beautiful plant person has a large open mouth and protruding green tongue".

Figure 24. Talia,
day 1 on Elemacha-z.
Not alien enough.

Neither of these AI-generated plant people (Figures 22 and 23) is alien enough in appearance to match my imagined form of a Noema. I'll have to continue searching for a way to force one of the AI image generators to more creatively mix alien plant and human anatomical structures. 

For the image shown to the right in Figure 24, I started with a reference image that had normal Earthly plants and asked Mr. Wombo to generate strange alien plants.

Figure 25. Alien plants.
Too alien.

I then used the image from Figure 24 as a reference image and had Mr. Wombo generate some even more alien looking plants (See Figure 25). I suspect that humans have evolved brains that recognize normal plant life, just as we have an innate sense of what constitutes a normal human face. There is an uncanny valley for alien plants, and trying to get AI-generated images of strange plant life that does not look too strange is a tricky problem.

I recently asked Gemini why AIs tend to show alien planets a desert worlds, and could not get it to admit that making depictions of alien plants is so challenging that it is simply easier for artists to make science fiction wastelands.

Related: technology from planet Exo III.

Next: Part 3 of "The Fesarians".

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Lead Balloon

Figure 1. An anti-gravity lead balloon by Gemini.

 I've been contemplating the challenge of illustrating the futuristic flying drones that are a "future technology" in my science fiction story "The Fesarians". "The Fesarians" is set 200 years in our future, so my task of depicting futuristic drones is similar to getting into a time machine, going back 200 years and asking Pierre Laplace to imagine the features a spaceship that could travel to the Moon.

Imaginary technology. In search of innovative ideas, I asked Gemini for an imaginative verbal description of "the gondola of a steampunk balloon that was designed and built by technologically advanced aliens". Gemini's immediately generated some balloon images, which I had not asked for. 

Figure 2. Desert drone.

 Up, up and away. The image shown above in Figure 1 is a composite with parts from two different Gemini-generated images: 1) the highly reflective balloon above the valley landscape and 2) the gondola.

Futuristic drones. I asked Gemini to generate an image depicting a flying drone of the year 2224 that has infrared sensors and is being used by human colonists to search (during the night) the landscape of an exoplanet for alien animals that are moving among sparse and exotic desert plants. I modified one of the Gemini-generated images to produce the image shown in Figure 2. I played around with the lighting in an attempt to make it look like the drone was illuminating the alien animal.

Since I had asked for a scene at night, Gemini added into the AI-generated image a moon on the horizon. I manually added in the two yellow "light beams" and the yellow light burst that can be seen immediately under the drone.

Figure 3. Drone by Mr. Wombo.

Using Figure 2 as a reference image, I had Mr. Wombo make Figure 3 (text prompt: a flying drone that has infrared sensors and is being used to search (during the night) a desert landscape for alien animals that are moving among the sparse and exotic desert plants). Mr. Wombo got "creative" and added some pink spots to this flying drone.

Figure 4. No reference image.

 Infrared. Compare Figure 3 to Figure 4. The image shown in Figure 4 was made by Mr. Wombo without any reference image. I have to wonder: what is the mode of propulsion is for these colorful AI-generated drones?

Gemini suggested that 200 years in our future, drones might have, "A compact, high-energy density power source, possibly based on advanced nuclear fusion or quantum batteries, that will be seamlessly integrated into the drone's structure". I was tempted to ask Gemini to create an image of a fusion-powered time travel machine.

Figure 5. Done on the range.

The image in Figure 5 was generated as a more zoomed-in version of Figure 3. I wish there was an easy way to control the type and density of vegetation in these images. In my imagination, the human colony on Elemacha-z is not actually located in a desert. I had included "desert" in my text prompt because I wanted rather sparse vegation that woud allow an animal to be clearly seen. I had to have Mr. Wombo zoom in on this scene in order to have it recognize the alien animal that was in the original Gemini-generated image; at the original level of zoom, Mr. Wombo usually mistook the animal as a plant. I cut an alien animal out of another image that was similar to Figure 5 and manually pasted that alien animal into the image that is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 6. Xylo clones.

For Figure 6 , Mr. Wombo generated an image that includes two clones of Mayor Xylo along with a flying drone. The background of the original image was dark, so I pasted in storm clouds with lightening in an attempt to create a more visually interesting scene. The image ended up with a stormy sky and plants that look like the kinds of plants that you might find on Earth, not the alien vegetation that I imagine for the exoplanet Elemacha-z. I did originally ask for a single human figure in this scene, but Mr. Wombo spontaneously generated two women.

Figure 7. City drones.

When asked to generate an image depicting a woman running below a flying drone, left to himself, Mr. Wombo is likely to generate an image such as what is shown in Figure 7. In my imagination, the settlement at Port Cooway on Elemacha-z is relatively small, with a total human population of around 300. With the events taking place in "The Fesarians" occurring two centuries in the future, I certainly don't want story illustrations that look like Earth in our own time. 

When using AIs to create illustrations for my science fiction stories, there is a constant struggle to knock the image generating AIs out of the conventional world of the images that are in their training sets and move them into the world of the imagination where I want creative images of imaginary technologies that have never been seen before.

Figure 8. The drones of Elemacha.

For Figure 8, I used a background image with alien plant life that had been generated by Gemini (the plants are in the background in the bottom third of the image) and combined that with an image generated by Mr. Wombo that shows several drones flying above Mayor Xylo. I was pleased that Mr. Wombo even made it appear that she is looking up at the drones.

Figure 9. Talia Vance.

In Part 2 of "The Fesarians", Bailey climbs up a hill near Port Cooway and walks to the home of Talia Vance. The image that is shown in Figure 9 is intended to depict the unusual alien plant life of Elemacha-z under the intense sunlight of that world as seen from Talia's home. 

Two Thumbs. Using image processing, it was easy to convert Earthly green plants into imaginary red plants on an exoplanet, but I was hoping that Mr. Wombo should give them an unusual "alien" shape. I was tempted to do some repair to Talia's hand, but I ended up leaving it as generated by Mr. Wombo. Maybe Talia was genetically engineered to have two thumbs on each hand.

Figure 10. Survey of alien plants on Elemacha-z.

For the image shown in Figure 10, I made an effort to have Mr. Wombo generate some plants that would appear to be more alien.

Figure 11. Talia's cooling suit.

That's Talia in Figure 10, inside the command center during the search for the alien creature that is disrupting the electric power transmission network of the colony. On the video screen is Mayor Xylo. Due to the extremely high temperatures on the surface of Elemacha-z, it would be quite unusual for Xylo to be outside without an environmental protection suit. 

Figure 12. Alien-human relations.
An alien that eats humans.

 Alien Life. The image in Figure 11 shows one of the environmental suits that Mr. Wombo generated. I had asked for "alien plants" and was pleased to see the mushroom-like structures in the background. It might be possible to transform them into the type of solar/wind energy collecting structures that I imagine to be the key power source for the colonists living on Elemacha-z.

 No swords in Science fiction. I've been experimenting with Mr. Wombo's ability to create interesting "plant people", plant-like aliens from Elemacha-z. Figure 12 show a whimsical depiction of a plant person who likes to eat {chocolate} humans. I'm not a fan of the idea that humans will travel long distances to other planets and then be confronted by hungry aliens who like to eat humans or that human colonists on exoplanets will need to have sword fights (see Figure 13) with alien creatures.

Figure 13. Planetary Romance.
Swords for brain surgery.

 Alien Diversity. I've never read any planetary adventure stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, although "The Synthetic Men of Mars" has an interesting title. "The Synthetic Men of Mars" features brain transplantation. 

No swords in science fiction. I have to wonder if when Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote "The Synthetic Men of Mars" he may have been influenced by the artificial people that were a key plot element in "Rossum's Universal Robots" by Karel Čapek (1920). I have also previously blogged about "The Tissue-Culture King" by Julian Huxley (1927), another possible influence on Burroughs. Burroughs depicted the growth of synthetic men as taking place in vats full of some nutrient-rich culture medium.

 Brains, please. For Figures 13 and 14, I had Mr. Wombo make some variations (including brains) on old cover art by Rudolph Belarski, Luca Oleastri and Frank R. Paul.

Figure 14. Brain transplantation. see

 What is Brain? In "The Synthetic Men of Mars" Burroughs wrote about, "Ras Thavas's laboratory which contains the necessary paraphernalia for the delicate operation of returning your brain to your own body." Recently, I've been watching the original Star Trek episodes (I'm watching the "remastered" version). In the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain", aliens have the technology required for brain transplants, but they can't make a computer that will run the ventilation system of their underground city. 

In "The Synthetic Men of Mars", Burroughs told readers that, "Ras Thavas, The Master Mind of Mars, had labored in his laboratory for nearly a thousand years." In "The Synthetic Men of Mars", the protagonist hopes that Ras Thavas might be able to save the comatose DejahThoris from death.

Figure 15. Talia investigating the plants of Elemacha-z.

 Telepathy. Apparently, Burroughs included telepathy in his stories (see). In "The Fesarians", telepathy is rather central to the plot. One of the key issues that must be confronted any time that telepathy is included in a story is the "range" of the telepathic communication. In Star Trek, Spock often has to place his hands on someone's head in order to improve his ability to "link minds". 

The type of telepathy that is used by the humanoids from the Fesarius who are the main characters in "The Fesarians" is based on the exchange of a type of energy that is as yet unknown to Earthly science. 

Figure 16. Telepathic plants.

The mysterious form of energy that is used to exchange telepathic signals between the Fesarians can be thought of as being something like electromagnetic radiation in that it is able to propagate rapidly over vast distances, but ultimately that energy is being both transmitted and received by the zeptite endosymbiont that is inside the telepath's body. The telepaths themselves are not even aware of the zeptite endosymbionts, although Balok knows about and understands the physical basis of the type of telepathy that his helpers (Ienaghwy and Ylyndra) use.

 Babel. However, there are also other forms of telepathy in the "The Fesarians". The sentient plant-like creatures who are native to Elemacha-z and the positronic robots (such as Dani) each have their own style of technology-assisted telepathy. Often in science fiction stories telepathy is depicted as some sort of "universal translator". 

Figure 17. Talia doing botanical research.

 Anti-Babel. For example, near the beginning of the Star Trek episode "Spectre of the Gun", the Melkotians telepathically communicate with the Enterprise and each member of the crew "hears" that telepathic signal from the Melkotians as if it was spoken in their own first language.

In the "The Fesarians", telepathy does not work that way. It is very difficult for the Fesarians to "tune" their telepathic reception system to the type of telepathic signals used by either the plant-like creatures who are native to Elemacha-z or the positronic robots. Some additional images with alien plants that are similar to Figures 16 & 17 are shown at the end of this blog post.

Figure 18. Cover art by Earle Bergey.

 Humanoids. Five years ago, I blogged about Isaac Asimov's story "Homo Sol". Here in 2024, I finally read "The Hazing", which is set in the same fictional universe as "Homo Sol", at a time soon after Earthlings have joined a vast galactic civilization as junior members. 

Asimov's "The Hazing" is not very interesting, but in that 1942 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories was also "The Molecule Monsters", a short story by Oscar J. Friend (who was editing the magazine). Friend put an illustration of his own story on the cover of the magazine (see Figure 18). Friend's story has nothing to do with molecules. The green creatures are from some parallel "dimension" that is populated with sentient "frog people". Don't worry about the bleeding frog person at the bottom of the cover illustration ("Joe"); these frog people have amazing thrilling regenerative abilities and can't be killed by mere knife and gunshot wounds.

Figure 19. Diana, human filament.

The woman who is being broken out of the giant glass tube (Figure 18, above) is part of an experiment for the transfer of minds between dimensions, and also the beloved Diana, daughter of supergenius™ scientist Dr. Singer. It is only when the protagonist of the story, Lattimer (the dude in the blue suit) sees Diana wearing "the flimsiest of garments" inside the glass tube that he suddenly realizes that he loves her. 

Just for fun. Using the Earle Bergey cover art from Figure 18 as a reference image, I had Mr. Wombo make use of the "Diorama v3" style to make the image of a woman inside a light bulb that is shown in Figure 19. I tried to find a way to get Mr. Wombo to convincingly create an image with flying shards of glass, but I failed.

Figure 20. Martha & Lattimer.

In 2021, I blogged about "Robot A-1" by Oscar Friend, published in the July 1939 issue of Startling Stories. I have to wonder how such stories by Friend might have influenced Isaac Asimov when he wrote his own stories about robots and strange life forms in other "dimensions" (see).

 Molecular children. I suppose Friend was trying to sell magazines and he probably asked Earle Bergey to put a provocative alien creature on that magazine cover, but in the story, the alien who grabs onto Lattimer is called "Martha" and she and the other alien end up staying in our "dimension" and refer to Lattimer as "papa". At the start of the story, Lattimer is puttering in the chemistry lab and he mistakenly believes that he created the two green aliens from the molecules in a chemical reaction.

Figure 21. A Blunder.

For the image in Figure 20, I had Mr. Wombo tone-down the horror aspect of the green alien. In "The Molecule Monsters", it is Dr. Singer who has his consciousness transferred to another "dimension" by an evil alien who takes over Dr. Singer's body on Earth.

 Don't touch that dial! For the image in Figure 21, I had Mr Wombo start with the cover illustration for the 1950 anthology "The Molecule Monsters" and again use the "Diorama v3" style, placing Diana inside another HiTek™ glass tube. What if it was Diana who transferred to the other "dimension" and into the body of an alien with green skin? In "The Molecule Monsters", Lattimer is trying to speed up a chemical reaction by placing a beaker on what he thinks is a hotplate in Dr. Singer's chemistry lab. However, the device is actually some sort of teleporter that, when switched on by Lattimer, brings Martha and Joe to Earth.

Figure 22. Matter transmission.

 Sequel. I had Mr. Wombo generate an image depicting a matter transmitter (see the image in Figure 22), a kind of teleportation device that Dr. Singer, his daughter and Lattimer would have continued to experiment with after the events depicted in "The Molecule Monsters". For this image, I started with the Ed Valigursky cover art from the April 1957 issue of Fantastic.

Alien invasion. For my story "The Fesarians", which is Star Trek fan-fiction, I do not hesitate to make use of teleportation technology. For "The Molecule Monsters", Oscar Friend depicted Dr. Singer as being funded by Lattimer to begin experimenting on techniques to "break matter down into sheer energy" and "congeal energy and force into solid matter". Lattimer accidentally discovers that a mysterious device inside Dr. Singer's laboratory can function as a teleporter, allowing him to stop an alien invasion of Earth.

Figure 23. First contact.

I had Mr. Wombo make an alternative depiction of one of the green aliens that was teleported to Earth by Lattimer. Figure 23 shows Diana with Nortisop (Lattimer uses the simpler name "Joe") of Elucelum. Joe (Nortisop) and Martha speak perfect English, which certainly speeds along the plot of "The Molecule Monsters", saving readers from Oscar Friend's account of the Elucelum language (the first thing Nortisop says to Lattimer is, "Hrrggl uggle?").

 I got better. When Lattimer refers to Joe and Martha as frogs, it hurts Joe's feelings and he kills himself. Every time that Joe kills himself (annoyingly, Friend repeated this useless plot device several times in the story) he quickly heals and is soon once again working to thwart the ambitions of the evil Suelcun of Elucelum, who has taken control of the Earthly body of Dr. Singer. I suppose Friend simply needed an excuse to put some blood on that cover.

Figure 24. Diana & Martha.

 The Green Dimension. I made an effort to get Mr. Wombo to generate a less monstrous humanoid alien than what is shown in Figure 23. For the image in Figure 24, I manually inserted the green crystal, imagining that it is an alien device that was hanging around Martha's neck and is of interest to Diana. Maybe this is the "universal translator" that allows Martha and Joe to immediately converse in English when they are teleported to Earth. 

I wonder what Oscar Friend imagined he was talking about when he described the green creatures of Elucelum as being from another "dimension". My guess is that this was Friend's way of referring to a "parallel universe". According to Gemini, "The story 'Sidewise in Time' by Murray Leinster, published in Astounding Stories in 1934, is often credited with popularizing the concept of parallel universes as we understand it today." 

Figure 25. See this cover.

Lucky for readers of "Sidewise in Time", Professor Minott is there to explain that he and his mathematics students have suddenly entered into a parallel universe where the Chinese colonized America, not Europeans. Previously, I mentioned "The Dimension of Chance" by Clark Ashton Smith, first published in the November 1932 issue of Wonder Stories. In Smith's story (set in 1975) an aircraft flies into a mysterious portal and emerges in a parallel universe with strange "natural laws". After a danger-filled adventure, our two aeronautical adventurers return through the portal to our universe. The idea of "parallel universes" is relevant to "The Fesarians" because the story is set in another "Reality", what I call the Ekcolir Reality.

Maybe in the Ekcolir Reality, one of the mathematics students of Professor Minott, Maida Haynes, was able to return to her home universe and write an account of her adventure in a parallel universe (see Figure 25).

Figure 26. see

I can't depart from the fictional universe of Oscar J. Friend without mentioning his 1940 story “Colossus from Space”, published under the name Frank Johnson. Apparently this story was also re-published in 1953 under the title "Filterable Virus" (see). I've previously blogged about "Liquid Life" by Ralph Farley which may have been where Friend first heard about filterable viruses. Friend took the idea towards the large side, imagining that Earth exists as a nested world, inside a another world from which the “Colossus from Space” originated and comes to Earth for a visit by shrinking himself enough to shift into our domain of existence. I've previously blogged about "The Diabolical Drug", another story about someone shrinking to very tiny size and discovering that there are "people down there" (Amazing Stories, May 1929). Figure 26 is Mr. Wombo's version of this 1940 Howard V. Brown cover illustration.

Figure 27. Hierion Domain.

 The very small. In my science fiction stories, the Hierion Domain and the Sedron Domain provide an imaginary technological means to stack three different modes of existence at three distinct size scales. I had Mr. Wombo use the "Diorama v3" style to make some "cities under glass". In my imagination, the image in Figure 27 provides a visual depiction of the idea of being able to enter into the Hierion Domain.

In 2020, I explored entry into the Hierion Domain in a science fiction story about a place called Nanoville. Maybe that city under glass in Figure 27 is a better visual depiction of Nanoville than what I was able to devise back in 2020. In the Hierion Domain, artificial life-forms composed of femtobots are 12 orders of magnitude smaller than we humans. In turn, zeptites are a form of artificial life that are composed of sedrons and 12 orders of magnitude smaller than femptobots. The telepathic communication between the Fesarians is made possible by the zeptite endosymbiont inside their bodies.

Figure 28. Lithium book cover.
Click image to enlarge.

 Planetary Adventures. In 2021 I blogged about the planet Lithia as presented by James Blish in 1953. I tried asking Gemini about why there is a place called Helium on Barsoom, but Gemini punted. Claude's best guess was that, "Burroughs likely chose the name 'Helium' to give his Martian civilization an otherworldly, science fiction feel". In 1912, did Burroughs have any actual concept of science fiction?

I got help from Mr. Wombo to make a visual depiction of a place called Lithium (Figure 28). This image is inspired by the exoplanet Elemacha-z where solar energy is collected during daylight hours and stored for use at night. Will lithium batteries be state-of-the-art 200 years in our future? The author Jamyly Wyllo was derived from a place called Jamile Wallow on the planet Dar Sai (in Jack Vance's novel The Face).

Next: more AI-generated images of the characters in "The Fesarians".

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