Simulation Secrets

Image by WOMBO Dream.

 Below on this page is Chapter 2 of the science fiction story "The Trinity Intervention". A first draft of Chapter 2 that was generated by Claude is shown in my previous blog post. I edited Claude's version to produce the final version of the chapter that is shown on this page, below.

At the start of Chapter 2, Eddy believes that he and is daughter, Tyhry, are being sent back home to Arizona. However, an artificial life-form known as Nyrtia has played a trick on Eddy.

Nyrtia and Manny the bumpha have recently concluded a long and contentious Time Travel War that attracted the attention of the alien Huaoshy. The Huaoshy are putting an end to all further time travel by altering the Dimensional Structure of the universe. 

Storybook image by Gemini.

To compensate Nyrtia for the loss of her time travel technology, the Huaoshy have provided Nyrtia with a gift: a sophisticated Reality Simulation System.

Chapter 2 of "The Trinity Intervention" (read Chapter 1)

Eddy stepped through the shimmering portal and felt the warmth of Arizona wrap around him, contrasting with his memory of the late October chill of New York. He was back in his workspace, the afternoon sun slanting through the windows as it had been when Manny and 8ME had arrived earlier. His desk was cluttered with the same sketches of the Hua that he'd been working on. Everything looked perfectly normal.

"Daddy!" Tyhry hugged Eddy tightly. "We're back home! I was so worried when Nyrtia explained what is happening."

Eddy returned the embrace, but something nagged at him. "When did Nyrtia snatch you from Australia? Your mother—"

"Nyrtia showed me... Mom is fine. I had gone to the beach. I doubt if she has even noticed that I was taken by Nyrtia. I expect she'll be calling any time now." Tyhry pulled back and looked at Eddy intently. "Tell me everything that happened in New York. What did Manny want? What was your time travel mission?"

Eddy moved toward his desk chair, his mind still reeling. He mutter quietly, "If I was in the Hierion Domain, Tyhry... actually inside it...” He sat down and woke up the computer. “If Nyrtia took me into the Hierion Domain then she must have converted me into a femtobot replicoid... that would have been the only way for her to bring me there.” Eddy began a new notes file. “I mean, only hierions and sedrons can exist in the Hierion Domain, so my biological body couldn't have survived the transition. It's exactly like I wrote in my stories about—"

Tyhry paced a hand on Eddy's shoulder. "But what about Manny?" Tyhry interrupted. "What did she have you do?"

Eddy stopped putting notes into the computer. He turned his head and began studying his daughter's face. There was an intensity there that seemed unusual. "We went to 1947. To New York. An artificial life-form named 8ME and I met Isaac Asimov."

"Asimov?" Tyhry's eyes widened. "Why?"

"We took something from him. A manuscript called 'Cosmic Corkscrew'—his unpublished time travel story. Then we had dinner with him and his wife Gertrude. I think... I think we were supposed to influence how he would eventually write 'The End of Eternity'." Eddy shook his head, marveling. "Time travel is real, Tyhry. Everything I've been writing about—the femtobots, the sedrons, the Reality Simulations—it's all real." Eddy returned to writing down his thoughts.

“Yes, I know. Nyrtia told me that.” Tyhry now shook her father's shoulder. "What else did Manny tell you?" Tyhry pressed. "What are her plans?"

"I don't really know. She kept me in the dark about most of it. Her infites controlled my thoughts during the mission. I was like a puppet, doing her bidding. I could not have a real conversation with Asimov." The resentment in Eddy's voice was clear. "But before Manny sent us back into the past... she did say something strange.” Now that he could think about it, Eddy felt a rising roil of fear. “She mentioned that time travel won't be possible much longer. That a 'final Reality Change' is imminent."

Tyhry leaned forward. "Did she explain how that's possible? How do you end time travel?"

Dimensional Engineering

"Well, based on what I've written in my stories—and apparently I've been more accurate than I knew—the Huaoshy could do it through Dimensional Engineering. They could alter the compactified dimensions that make the Hierion Domain possible. If the dimensional structure changed, then hierions might not exist in their current form, and without a special hierion, what I call the T-particle, there is no way to create temporal cracks and no possibility of time travel." Eddy stood and walked toward the kitchen, pressing his hands to his hips to keep them from trembling. After his long years of playing with science fiction stories, now everything was too real. The idea of altering the physical laws of the universe terrified him. "I need some water. The implications of this are simply too much....."

As he entered the kitchen, Pepper appeared, the white cat padding across the tile floor. Tyhry followed Eddy and called out, "Pepper! Come here, boy!"

Pepper approached Tyhry, meowing softly. He rubbed against her leg, purring.

Eddy filled a glass with water and turned to watch. Tyhry bent down, her hand extended toward Pepper's head. "Good boy. Want your ears scratched?"

Pepper continued rubbing against Tyhry's leg, still upright.

Eddy froze, the glass halfway to his lips. Pepper always did his flip. Always. When Tyhry was there offering him ear scratches, Pepper would flop dramatically onto his side, white fur spreading across the floor, waiting with absolute confidence for the attention he knew he deserved. It was as reliable as sunrise.

But Pepper remained standing.

Eddy set the glass down on the counter with a soft click. "Something's wrong with Pepper."

"What?" Tyhry looked up at him. "He's fine, daddy. See? He's purring."

"No." Eddy's voice was quiet but certain. "Pepper always does his flip. He's never just stood there when you offer to scratch his ears. Never."

“He's mad that I've been gone so long.” Tyhry straightened up, her expression unchanged. "Maybe he's just not in the mood."

"Pepper is always in the mood for ear scratches." Eddy looked around his kitchen—his perfectly normal kitchen with the coffee maker in its usual spot and unused since Zeta and Tyhry had departed for Australia, a dish towel hanging from the high cabinet handle that only he could reach, the stacks of cat food cans in the the pantry. Everything exactly as it should be except in Eddy's mind. "Something's wrong with Pepper... or something's wrong with everything."

The white cat looked up at Eddy with luminous green eyes. When Pepper spoke, his voice was feminine, cultured, and completely calm. "You're quite observant, Eddy."

Eddy stumbled backward against the counter. The cat's form began to shimmer and expand. Within seconds, Nyrtia stood where Pepper had been, her features composed and her expression measuring Eddy's reaction.

Tyhry remained frozen in mid-motion, her hand still extended, her face locked in the same concerned expression. She looked like a paused video.

"A Reality Simulation." Eddy's voice was hollow. "I'm not home at all. I'm still in the Hierion Domain."

"Yes." Nyrtia gestured, and the frozen Tyhry faded away like morning mist. "I apologize for the deception, but I needed information and you'd have been far less cooperative if you'd known you were being monitored."

Eddy looked at the space where his daughter had been. "How much of what she—it—said was programmed by you?"

"Not very much of it. I was using the simulation to extract information from you about Manny's activities and plans. Most of Tyhry's behavior was automatically and accurately re-created by the Simulation System." Nyrtia walked to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair, settling into it with unnervingly perfect grace. Again, Eddy was reminded of the entrancing way that Zeta moved her body. "And you provided exactly what I needed... Manny's big secret. The Huaoshy are ending time travel. Through Dimensional Engineering."

"You didn't know?"

"I suspected the Huaoshy were up to something. They've been the ultimate power in the galaxy for millions of years, orchestrating the evolution of countless species including the human species. But I didn't know they had progressed to the point where they could restructure the fundamental dimensions of the universe itself." Nyrtia's expression shifted to something that might have been awe. "The implications are staggering. If they can alter the compactified dimensions that define the Hierion Domain, then other foundational features of Reality might also be changed. The Huaoshy might not have only subtracted time travel... the entire hierarchy and balance of power among artificial life forms might have been shifted."

Eddy pulled out another chair and sat down, his mind racing. The myriad elements of the simulation continued to dissolve around them, the familiar walls of his Arizona home fading to reveal Nyrtia's workshop, a chamber filled with incomprehensible devices—structures that seemed to fold through dimensions his eyes couldn't properly track. "So this is really the Hierion Domain. How am I even here? How am I alive and conscious in this microscopic subspace?"

Nyrtia waved to the nearby equipment. "The Huaoshy gave me this Reality Simulation System... they told me that it was compensation for the loss of time travel. When I extracted you from Time—intercepting Manny's temporal insertion process—I brought your body into the Hierion Domain which required a destructive scan of your biological structure. Your body was converted into a data structure that is now stored in the Reality Simulation System's pattern buffer. Now that stored pattern can be instantiated as part of a simulation, anytime I so desire." Nyrtia gestured around the chamber. "What you're experiencing now is a direct interface between your consciousness pattern and my workshop, my native environment in the Hierion Domain."

"So I'm dead." The words came out flat.

"No." Nyrtia seemed exasperated by Eddy's limited cognitive capacity. "Life, death, these are poorly defined terms. The stored pattern of your body is complete and perfect. When I release you from the Hierion Domain, your body will be reconstituted from the pattern buffer with absolute fidelity. Every molecule, every atomic bond, every synapse in your brain—they will be identical to what was scanned and recorded by these devices." Again Nyrtia waved at the nearby equipment.

Eddy thought about the implications. In his stories, he'd written about exactly this kind of technology. Characters stepping into Reality Simulations, having adventures in past times and then popping back out. He'd always glossed over the philosophical questions: Was the reconstituted person the same person? Did consciousness survive the scanning process, or was each reconstituted individual a new being with copied memories?

"You're wondering if you'll still be you," Nyrtia observed.

"Suddenly this is no longer only the fun of a science fiction plot element. This is real."

Nyrtia shrugged. "I'm a zeptite-based artificial intelligence. My consciousness has been copied, transferred, and distributed across multiple substrates thousands of times. I'm quite certain that continuity of experience is more flexible than biological entities prefer to believe." Nyrtia leaned forward. "But we're avoiding the important discussion and I don't want to delay you too long. I have a proposition for you."

"Let me guess. You want me to spy on Manny."

"In a manner of speaking. The Reality Simulation System was given to me by the Huaoshy recently—compensation, they said, for the loss of the time travel technology that we zeptite robots had developed. We spent centuries developing our temporal displacement capabilities, and in a single Reality Change orchestrated by Manny, 8ME, and a Myrlok storyteller, all of our work was erased from existence. We never developed time travel in this new timeline."

"But Manny still had her time travel technology."

"Yes. Protected by a field of physiotime."

"Why wasn't your time travel equipment also protected?"

"I don't know. There are differences between the time machine that Manny has inside Manny Sails and the time travel system that we zeptite robots built on the planet Erno. I thought our time machine was more sophisticated than Manny's. She had to travel around the galaxy to insert her time travel agents into past time periods. Our time machine on Erno could do all temporal extractions and insertions from that one location. Lucky for me, the Huaoshy had distracted me, brought me into the Hierion Domain when the Byrd Reality arrived. I was protected, but the equipment on Erno vanished."

Eddy asked, "Byrd Reality? Is it true that the time traveling Myrlok, Byrd, was the man I know as H. G. Wells?"

Nyrtia nodded, "Using the Reality Simulation in what we can call View Mode, I've examined the time travel mission that was carried out by 8ME and Byrd. Yes, Byrd played the role of Wells. 8ME has played many roles through history. You'll be surprised... but we can't have you distracted by such historical details right now."

Nyrtia redirected the discussion. "According to what you've told me, the Huaoshy must not have accepted the idea of only Manny having time travel technology. And so they will soon end time travel... make it physically impossible. But here's what matters to you, Eddy: the Reality Simulation System contains more than just the ability to create simulations. It holds sedron-based data structures recording all the many Realities of Earth. Every timeline that ever existed before, during and after the Time Travel War. Every Reality that was changed or erased by temporal Interventions. The complete Secret History of Humanity is stored in this system."

Eddy felt his pulse quicken. He had written dozens of science fiction stories about Reality Simulation, but had never thought that such simulation precision was actually possible. "Everything? You're saying I can use this device to access records of all the past Realities? I can see what actually happened? Not just the history we know in our current timeline, but all the alternate versions as well?"

"Yes. You could research the true origins of the human species, right back to the First Reality, before time travel technology was invented. See exactly how the Huaoshy guided human evolution. Watch all of the Interventions by the bumpha and my zeptite robots. Observe the events that were erased when Realities changed." Nyrtia's expression was intent. "You've been writing science fiction stories about the Secret History of Humanity for decades, Eddy, using the drips and dribbles of information that were provided to you by Manny. Now I'm offering you the chance to see all of the truth. To document it. To share it all with the people of Earth."

"In exchange for?"

"Your daughter Tyhry has a special relationship with Manny. A close one, from what I've observed, watching secretly from here inside the Hierion Domain. Manny has been cultivating that relationship for years, pretending to be human, pretending to be Tyhry's human friend. I want to know why. I want to know what Manny is planning for Tyhry, and for humanity. I want Tyhry to report to you about Manny's activities, and for you to share that information with me."

Eddy stood and walked to one of the impossible devices lining the chamber walls. Up close, it seemed to be made of surfaces that existed at angles that shouldn't be possible in three-dimensional space. "You want me to turn my daughter into a spy."

"I want you to encourage your daughter to be honest with you about her interactions with an artificial life-form that has been manipulating her memories and behavior since childhood." Nyrtia's voice was sharp. "Manny keeps secrets, Eddy. She always has. She manipulates biological entities like chess pieces, moving them through time, editing their memories, controlling their thoughts with infites. You experienced that yourself in 1947. You said it yourself—you felt like a puppet."

That stung because it was true. Eddy turned back to Nyrtia. "And you're different? You just trapped me in a simulation, created a fake version of my daughter, and pumped me for information."

"I'm absolutely different. I don't pretend to be something I'm not. I don't hide among humans wearing a disguise of flesh. I don't claim to be a friend while secretly altering Tyhry's brain chemistry." Nyrtia stood. "The RSS is a gift from the Huaoshy—not just to me, but potentially to all of humanity. It's a complete archive of your species' past. I'm offering you access to that archive. What you do with the information is up to you. But in exchange, I need transparency about what Manny is doing. That seems like a fair trade."

Eddy thought about it. Access to every previous Reality. He could see the actual Interventions by the Huaoshy that brought the human species into existence. Watch the genetic engineering steps that had created homo sapiens from earlier hominids. Actually observe the population bottleneck at the Gakkel Ridge Caldera that he'd previously written about in one of his stories. Trace the development of human consciousness, human language, human civilization—all guided by aliens or time traveling artificial life-forms from the far future.

And what would it cost? Asking Tyhry to tell him about her conversations with Manny? Tyhry had no idea that Manny was actually a bumpha. She thought Manny was just a quirky friend with amazing hair, someone who her silly father had written into some goofy science fiction stories as a character. But now the genie was out of the bottle. Eddy knew the truth and he would share that truth with both Zeta and Tyhry.

"I'm curious about Manny myself," Eddy admitted. "I want to know what her plans are for Tyhry. I want to know why she's maintained this masquerade for so long. Why reveal the truth about herself to me now? And honestly, I'm tired of being manipulated. I'm tired of being left in the dark about my own life, my own family, my own species." He met Nyrtia's gaze. "I'll do it. I'll talk to Tyhry about Manny. I'll share what I learn. But I want complete access to the Reality Simulation System. No restrictions, no games."

"Agreed." Nyrtia gestured and a new device appeared in her hand—or perhaps it had always been there and Eddy was only now capable of perceiving it. "I'll provide you with this interface. It will fit inside your big old desktop computer, in the unused optical drive bay. You'll be able to query the Reality Simulation System's data archive and observe any recorded Reality. The sedron-based storage is effectively unlimited. And when you want to do so, you can return to the Hierion Domain and enter into a Simulation."

"When can I start?"

Image by Gemini.

"After I reconstitute you in your home. You've been gone approximately seven minutes from Manny's perspective. She's wondering what happened to you. When you return to your home in Arizona, 8ME will be there too, wondering where you went." Nyrtia moved toward a panel that seemed to open into a space beyond the chamber. "The pattern buffer is ready. I'll initiate the reconstitution process."

"Wait." Eddy had a sudden thought. "You said the scan was destructive. You said my body was converted into a pattern. So what happens to the pattern after you reconstitute me?"

"It remains in the buffer. That's necessary for the Reality Simulation System to function. If you ever choose to enter a simulation again, the system can quickly update the old pattern rather than performing a new destructive scan from scratch."

"So there will be a copy of me stored in this system. Forever."

"A pattern. Not a conscious entity. Think of it as a snapshot, a saved file. It has no awareness, no independent existence. Think about it Eddy... everyone on Earth has already been recorded. I used Tyhry's stored data to trick you into believing that you were seeing your daughter."

"How is that possible? How is the Tyhry data already on file?"

Nyrtia shrugged. "I'm not sure. Don't you trust the explanation that you gave in your science fiction stories about Reality Simulation?"

"No, I don't. Much of what I included in my stories does not match the truth that I am now discovering."

Image by Mr. Wombo.

"Well, put it on your 'to do' list. But time is running short. I should get you back home."

Eddy wasn't entirely comfortable with Nyrtia's insistence that he depart, but he'd written enough about the fictional Nyrtia to suspect that arguing wouldn't change Nyrtia's mind. If he wanted access to the Secret History of Humanity, part of the price was uncertainty that arose from his vast ignorance. "Okay. Send me back home."

Nyrtia touched the panel and the region of the chamber surrounding his body filled with light—not ordinary light, but something that seemed to have texture and weight. Eddy felt himself dissolving, his consciousness fragmenting into component pieces. For a moment that might have been a microsecond or an eternity, he existed as pure information, a pattern of relationships encoded in sedron structures beyond his comprehension.

Then those strange sensations passed and he was reassembling, atoms clicking into place according to the blueprint for his body that was in the pattern buffer. Molecular bonds formed. Quantum states collapsed into definite configurations. Neural networks reconnected, synapses fired, and his normal consciousness returned like a light switch flipping on.

Eddy stood beside his computer workstation in Arizona, the afternoon sun still slanting through the western windows. His sketches of the Hua were still scattered across his desk. Cats—the real cats—dozed in their usual spots. He picked Gray up off of his chair.

Everything looked perfectly normal. Everything felt perfectly normal including Gray's incredibly soft fur. Eddy's body responded exactly as it always had. He flexed his fingers to scratch Gray's soft belly, took a breath, blinked his eyes. If there was any difference between his original biological body and whatever he was now, he couldn't detect it.

A sound came from the kitchen and 8ME entered the great-room, her expression concerned. "Eddy! Where have you been? You were with me when Many Sails extracted us from 1947, but then you just... vanished."

Behind her came Manny, her distinctive blond hair shimmering in the late afternoon light. "Many Sails reports that after your extraction from 1947 and your temporal insertion back into 2025, you were pulled away by something." Manny's eyes narrowed as she studied Eddy. "It must have been Nyrtia operating from her base in the Hierion Domain."

Eddy managed a weak smile. "Yeah. Nyrtia wanted to have a chat. We had a very interesting conversation."

8ME told Manny, “I'll be getting back to my regular duties.”

Manny nodded and 8ME disappeared. Eddy sat in his chair in front of his computer. He wanted to check on Nyrtia's promise, but what would Manny do? Manny said, “I know you want to play with your new toy. But I suggest you wait until after Zeta calls.”

Even as Manny spoke the word 'Zeta' the computer chirped, announcing a waiting videochat connection. Eddy activated the chat and saw both Zeta and Tyhry. Zeta said, “We were visited by Manny. Now Tyhry also knows the truth.”

Eddy turned the camera that was mounted on the top of his display screen so that Manny was in frame. He said, “Manny has had a busy day, as have I.”

Zeta said, “First of all, Eddy, let me apologize for deceiving you these past 45 years, but I thought it was for the best.”

Eddy nodded. “So you are one of Manny's agents.”

Tyhry and Zeta

Tyhry spoke up and told Eddy, “Manny said that mom's real name is 8ME.”

___End of Chapter 2___

I provided Gemini with backstory information for “The Trinity Intervention”, summaries of the 5 chapters of "English Time" and the full text of Chapters 1 and 2 of “The Trinity Intervention”.

Me: Process the file that I just uploaded. Create a science fiction storybook for adults with illustrations of events from Chapter 2 of the science fiction story “The Trinity Intervention”. Give the illustrations in the storybook a photo-realistic style. The images generated for the storybook resemble full color high resolution movie stills.

Gemini: I've written a science fiction story for adults based on Chapter 2 of "The Trinity Intervention," featuring photo-realistic illustrations that resemble high-resolution movie stills. Please note that the story may not be 100% faithful to the uploaded file.

I used the Gemini-generated storybook images to illustrate Chapter 2 of "The Trinity Intervention", above on this page. I also used WOMBO Dream to make some of the images on this page.

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