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| Femtozoan. Image by Grok. |
Below on this blog page is my edited version of Chapter 4 of "The Sims". I made my final version of Chapter 4 by Editing Claude's first draft of the chapter. Claude's version was 8,450 words long while mine was 7,250.
Claude wanted to ignore these instructions: "Claude, I am not sure that in Chapter 4 it will become clear to Tyhry
that Zeta has a special time-traveling femtozoan. I believe that Chapter
4 can we written so that readers of "The Sims" understand that Zeta's
behavior was guided by her femtozoan, without that ever being clear to
Tyhry who only Views the scenes that Sedruth shows her; Tyhry has no
access to the on-going scheming of Zeta's invisible femtozoan. In my
imagination, Tyhry might see the past actions of Zeta and feel surprised
at how Zeta efficiently engineered both Eddy's and Tyhry's lives, all
without her realizing that Zeta is serving as a secret agent for Manny." (source)
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| Manny and the femtozoan. Storybook cover by Gemini. |
Also, Claude could not resist turning Sedruth into some sort of text-based LLM. In my version of Chapter 4, I once again gave Sedruth a spoken voice rather than restrict him to some lame text interface.
The Sims, Chapter 4: Viewing the Past (Chapter 1)(Chapter 2)(Chapter 3)
Scene 1: The Mission Parameters
Hierion Domain, femtozoan training facility
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| Image by Gemini. |
Before her, the femtozoan designated for the Zeta integration as part of the Casanay Intervention pulsed with readiness. It was quite familiar with standard Interventionist protocols—how to integrate with developing neural tissue, how to guide without controlling, how to maintain cover under pek observation. But this mission required some special preparation.
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| Manny in the human gene pool. Image by Gemini. |
"Confirmed," the femtozoan replied, its structure folding through higher-dimensional configurations as it processed. "I assume the host consciousness will develop normally. I'll guide Zeta's behavior from below her conscious awareness, assuring Law One compliance: Zeta must always feel a profound sense of autonomy and self-determination."
"Exactly. Routine. But this mission does have some unique complications arising from the fact that I endow Zeta's right brain with technology-assisted telepathy." Manny was accessing data from the Sedron Time Stream, reviewing events that took place in the already completed mission. Now Manny simply had to correctly program the femtozoan so as to complete the time loop. "First complication: when you make Zeta fall in love with Eddy Watson, he'll already be deep into the Casanay Intervention; a science fiction writer with access to Reality Viewing technology that I'll provide to him when he's twelve years old."
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| 12-year-old Eddy. Image by Gemini. |
"This mission does. It is built into your design: you can access zeptite-encoded thought-streams from individuals your host genuinely loves. You can use Eddy's telepathically-observed thoughts and emotions to help you end his pre-existing relationship, efficiently clearing the way for you to capture his complete attention. He won't understand what hit him!" There was a big wolfish grin on Manny's pretty lips.
The femtozoan giggled in tandem with Manny. "Yes, I will make Zeta truly love Eddy, not simply seduce him. No problem."
"Precisely. No shallow manipulation. Deep, authentic emotional bonding. It's the only way the telepathic monitoring will work." Manny paused. "How do you feel about this sort of work? Can you keep your objectivity while you guide a human toward genuine love?"
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| Manny's wolfish grin by Gemini. |
"I know you are technically proficient." Manny's tone sharpened. "I asked about the effect of genuine love on you. Zeta's biological brain must make authentic choices and experience authentic feelings. I know you can guide her down that path, but what about you? Will you be able to destroy your own work when the time comes to fragment Zeta and yank yourself out of her biobrain?"
The femtozoan was silent for 2.3 seconds—an eternity for an artificial life-form operating at femtobot timescales. "That will be difficult. However, it will be facilitated by building the correct personality traits into Zeta during her childhood. If I do my job well then Zeta will gladly make her grand self-sacrifice for Eddy and Tyhry. So, it should all go down easy."
"Yes. It does." Manny smiled. "That's why I selected you for this mission. You have more experience with long-term personality guidance than any other femtozoan with on-Earth service. I still marvel at how you managed the Moses Intervention."
"The Moses mission took forty years and nearly failed three times when the host's biological impulses conflicted with mission parameters."
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| Image by Gemini. |
The femtozoan giggled and sang, "Anthony and Zeta sitting in a tree-"
Manny waved a hand to silence the silly femtozoan. "Nyrtia—the pek Overseer of Earth—will position Anthony inside the Watson household as an Observer. He'll have little to do. Anthony's job will be monitoring Eddy's Reality Viewer usage and watching for signs that he has put too much detail about aliens into his novels. My infites will prevent any problems with Eddy's writing. With so little to do, Anthony will be all over you."
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| Anthony. Image by Gemini. |
"Yes. Which is why you need to be absolutely perfect in maintaining your cover." Manny began pacing—a human affectation she found useful for impressing time travel agents with the gravitas of a situation. "Anthony will be watching Zeta constantly. Watching how she interacts with Eddy, how she raises Tyhry, looking for any sign that she's my agent. You must make Zeta appear completely normal, even while you are carefully guiding the lives of Eddy and Tyhry so as to match mission parameters."
"Define 'completely normal' for a human female married to a Reality Viewer user."
"Zeta must appear to be a woman who loves her husband, supports his writing career, and wants the best for her daughter. She should make decisions that seem motivated by maternal instinct and wifely devotion. If Zeta notices Eddy using the Viewer, she must have in her left cerebral hemisphere a good reason for dismissing that as some conventional behavior... like watching a television program. Anthony should never be able to prove that Zeta's behavior is being carefully engineered to create optimal conditions for the Casanay Intervention."
The femtozoan processed this. "You're asking me to hide in plain sight. To guide Zeta toward mission-critical choices while making each choice appear to spring naturally from her personality and circumstances."
"Exactly. And here's the real challenge: you'll need to do this for decades. From Zeta's birth until Tyhry reaches adulthood and returns to Casanay to begin her consciousness research." Manny's eyes glowed with data from the Sedron Time Stream. "Twenty-five years of Anthony watching, painting his detailed portraits, documenting every micro-expression. Twenty-five years of you walking on thin ice and maintaining perfect cover."
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| Image by Gemini. |
"No. As you know, Anthony will use hierion-based communication channels that you can't monitor without alerting Nyrtia to your mission. You'll be operating blind, never certain how much the pek suspect." Manny's form rippled with something that might have been sympathy. "For a shorter duration mission I could let you tap into pek communications, but not for this multi-decade mission. I will visit you occasionally at Casanay, just to let you know that all is still going well at critical moments."
"And if Anthony catches me? If he detects signs of guidance that seem too precise, too convenient?"
"Then Nyrtia could pull Eddy from Earth, probably exile him to Observer Base, and the entire Casanay Intervention would fail. Seventy years of preparation wasted." Manny's tone became lighter. "But that will not happen. I've already seen the success of your mission. Now you just have to complete the time loop and carry out your job."
The femtozoan folded through several anxiety-approximating configurations. It was always nice to know that the mission would be a success. In some cases, Manny knew that a mission had failed, but it still had to be initiated by sending a femtozoan into the past; that was not much fun. "What about the daughter? Tyhry?"
"Ah. Yes. The actual point of the mission." Manny pulled up holographic data showing genetic sequences. "As you know, I've engineered Tyhry's genome. She'll have a specific NOTCH2NL variant and related gene patterns that allow enhanced integration between her biological cerebral cortex and her zeptite endosymbiont. This will give her some conscious access to information from the Sedron Time Stream—something no other human in this Reality has achieved."
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| Image by Gemini. |
"It's carefully limited access. She'll receive information during sleep, in dream-visions she'll initially interpret as imagination or intuition. She won't realize she's accessing real data from the Sedron Time Stream until much later." Manny gestured, and the hologram shifted to show a schematic of Casanay. "Your job is to ensure Tyhry grows up in an environment that nurtures her scientific curiosity. She needs to become obsessed with consciousness research. Specifically, she needs to wonder why machines lack human-like subjective experience."
"And then?"
"And then, twenty-five years after her birth, she'll use the information from the Sedron Time Stream to discover the existence of femtozoans. She'll build an hierion probe. She'll extract a femtozoan from a human brain." Manny's smile became predatory. "And that femtozoan will be you."
"But why involve Tyhry in the process of sending herself information from the future?" The femtozoan had asked about this before, only to be told that it was for the best.
"It is not at all complicated; you should be able to figure this out yourself! Think about it from Tyhry's perspective. She has to willingly sacrifice herself, get herself exiled from Earth. In order for that to happen, she needs to know that she will live on at Observer Base. So by having Tyhry send herself information from the future, Tyhry's self-sacrifice becomes possible."
"Manny, why do you want me for this Intervention? Why not use another agent with more recent experience in this Reality?"
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| Image by Gemini. |
The femtozoan giggled again, imagining Zeta's surprise at her second pregnancy.
"One more thing," Manny said. "When you're inside Zeta, living her life, raising Tyhry, working alongside Anthony... you're going to be tempted to start thinking like a human. You'll experience decades of sensory input, emotional processing, relationship formation, telepathic monitoring of Eddy's every thought and dream. You'll be tempted to deviate from mission parameters."
"I won't deviate."
"You will. It's inevitable with long-term deep integration. Your consciousness will blur with Zeta's biological consciousness. You'll have genuine feelings for Eddy and Tyhry. Anthony will become something like a friend." Manny's tone became almost gentle. "That's okay. That's expected. Just remember: when the moment comes—when Tyhry activates that hierion probe—you need to be ready to leave. To transfer out of Zeta's brain and into Diasma's circuits. Can you do that? Can you abandon the family you've spent decades helping to create?"
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| Fragmenting Zeta. Image by Gemini. |
"I can do it," the femtozoan finally said. "I've left hosts before. It's not fun, but I can do it. You've seen me do it before."
"But not with telepathy in play. This is a new twist for you. I'm working humans towards a future where they will all have technology-assisted telepathy." Manny had witnessed her time-traveling femtozoan live inside Zeta Gohrlay for fifty years. The mission had been a success. There was little more that Manny could tell the femtozoan without causing a temporal paradox. The femtozoan had been warned. All would go well.
Scene 2: The Viewing Session
Casanay, Arizona, December 8, 2041 (2:17 AM)
After getting weeks of pent-up sexual cravings out of her system by means of a long and energetic play session with Brak in her bed, Tyhry descended the basement stairs quietly. Her mind was churning with anticipation of getting to use the Reality Viewer. She nodded to Diasma who followed her movements with perfect mechanical attention.
The workshop was dimly lit. The Omni41's cooling system provided a white noise backdrop. Eddy's old Macintosh sat in its clean box camouflage, waiting. "Sedruth?" Tyhry addressed the empty air. "Are you there?"
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| Diasma and Tyhry by ImageFX. |
"I need to see something," Tyhry said, settling into her desk chair. "Before we go further with the extraction experiment, I need to understand... I want to see my mother's past. You can show me the recent history of this Reality, can't you?"
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| Diasma and Tyhry Viewing Zeta by ImageFX. |
Tyhry flinched. "That's not—I haven't decided anything yet. Dad is upstairs writing a story to test whether Marda would volunteer as test subject. But I need to know more about Mom. How she met Dad. How we all ended up here at Casanay."
"And you think viewing their courtship history will help you decide whether to sacrifice your mother or some hapless sister of your lover to your scientific ambitions?" Sedruth's tone was cutting. "How delightfully utilitarian of you."
Diasma spoke up from where it stood near the workbench. "Tyhry is attempting to make an informed ethical decision. That's admirable, not utilitarian."
"Oh, the robot has opinions on ethics. How PRECIOUS." Sedruth's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Very well. Let's educate you both about the romantic history of Eddy and Zeta Watson. I'm sure it will be very illuminating and we can all indulge our voyeuristic cravings. Shall we begin with young Zeta discovering her future husband through the magic of literature?"
Tyhry exchanged a glance with Diasma. The robot's optical sensors focused on her with what might have been concern—or as close to concern as its programming could approximate.
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| Image by Gemini. |
The screen shimmered, and the Reality Viewer showed a scene from Zeta's past.
Vignette (i): The Discovery
Powell's Books, Portland, Oregon - September 2010
The image on the screen showed a bookstore—one of those massive multi-story affairs with winding staircases and the smell of paper and coffee. A young woman with long hair browsed the Science Fiction section, running her fingers along spines.
"That's Mom," Tyhry breathed. "She looks so young."
"Eighteen years old," Sedruth provided. "College freshman at Portland State. Communications major, though she'll drop out of school soon enough. Watch."
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| Young Zeta by ImageFX. |
"The third book in the Usas series," Sedruth noted. "Already quite popular by this point. Your father won a Nebula award for The Long Migration."
On screen, young Zeta flipped through the pages, reading random passages. Her expression changed—curiosity becoming fascination becoming something deeper. She checked the publication date, then moved purposefully to the front of the store.
"Can I help you?" The bookstore clerk, a young man with elaborate tattoos, smiled at her.
"Do you have the other books in this series?" Zeta held up The Long Migration. "This is the third one. I need the first two."
"We should have them, unless we sold out again. Let me check."
The scene shifted, accelerating. Zeta at the register, purchasing all three available Usas novels. Zeta on the bus, reading. Zeta in her dorm room, reading late into the night. Days compressed into seconds as the viewer showed her consuming the series with single-minded intensity.
"Was Zeta already a science fiction enthusiast?" Diasma asked.
"Observe carefully, robot," Sedruth said. "What you're watching is normal human behavior. Zeta had been aware of science fiction. Her genuine fascination Eddy's work is not unusual. He's a talented writer; his characters compel. His world-building seduces. Young Zeta was falling in love with the Usas universe."
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| Zeta reading by WOMBO Dream. |
"She is happy. Discovering an author who speaks to you, whose fictional universe becomes more real than reality—that's one of the genuine joys available to literate primates." Sedruth paused. "Of course, this is the start of her interest in Edward Watson. Zeta quickly learned his age, his appearance, his book tour schedule."
The scene shifted again. Young Zeta on a laptop, viewing Eddy's author website. Photos of him at book signings, documentation of his past convention appearances. Tyhry watched her mother while she was studying his face and reading his blog.
Young Zeta murmured to herself, "Lives in Seattle. Book signing in Portland next month."
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| Tyhry Viewing young Zeta by ImageFX. |
Tyhry watched the young Zeta click on a link to register for the Portland book signing event.
"She has no idea what she's getting into," Tyhry said softly.
"Or does she? Zeta's biological consciousness experiences this as her own choices: I discovered a great author, I want to meet him. Perfectly normal human behavior." Sedruth's tone became almost pedagogical. "Zeta sees the book. She likes it. She follows through on meeting the author."
"And thirty years later, she's ordering me to pick beans," Diasma observed.
"Show me the meeting," Tyhry said.
Vignette (ii): The Book Signing
Powell's Books, Portland, Oregon - October 2010
The bookstore's event space was packed. Eddy Watson sat at a table, signing books and chatting with fans. The Viewer showed him at age thirty-eight—younger than Tyhry had ever known him, his hair not yet gray, his face fresh.
"Your father in his prime," Sedruth commented. "Already successful; secretly using alien technology to write fiction based on actual prehistoric events. Quite the catch."
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| Zeta meets Eddy. Main image by Gemini. Zeta by WOMBO Dream. |
"Who's that?" Tyhry asked.
"Reynette Cummings. Your father's neighbor in Seattle. Also his pek Observer, assigned by Nyrtia to monitor his Reality Viewer usage." Sedruth's voice took on a tone of amusement. "Poor Reynette. She's been cultivating a relationship with Eddy for years as a 'friendly neighbor who sometimes brings over food.' She's been hoping to leverage that into something more intimate, but Eddy is obsessed with his writing. And now she's watching this book signing where dozens of young women are practically throwing themselves at Eddy."
Tyhry watched Reynette's expression—surface calm with an undercurrent of calculation. "She's trying to figure out if any of these fans are threats to her inside track towards my father."
"Very perceptive. Yes. Reynette is scanning for anyone who might become serious romantic competition. She's particularly concerned about that redhead who keeps asking detailed questions about Neanderthal mating practices." The Viewer zoomed in on another fan, then returned to Zeta. "But she hasn't identified Zeta as the real danger yet. Zeta looks too young, too ordinary."
The line moved. Young Zeta approached the table.
"Mr. Watson," she said, voice slightly breathless with nervousness. "I just finished reading the entire series. The way you depicted the Usas culture—the details about their tool-making, their social structures—it's so vivid. How did you research it?"
"But some of your descriptions contradict published research," young Zeta pressed. "And the cave paintings in book two. You describe specific images that weren't discovered until years after you published. How did you know?"
Tyhry saw something flicker across her father's face—a momentary tension. The infites in his brain activating, preventing him from revealing too much.
"Lucky guesses," Eddy said. "Published research is always catching up to what the evidence always suggested."
"Now she's flirting," Diasma observed.
"Correct, robot. And it's working. Watch your father's body language." The Viewer highlighted subtle cues: Eddy's posture opening up, his eye contact lingering a bit longer, his smile becoming more personal. "Zeta's biological brain has recognized him as an attractive older man who shares her intellectual interests. She's asking questions that engage him, she's maintaining eye contact, smiling at the right moments."
Eddy had taken his time signing Zeta's books, writing something more personal than his usual inscription. "If you ever want to discuss Usas anthropology, I'm pretty active on my blog. Leave a comment sometime."
"I will," young Zeta promised.
Across the room, Reynette's expression had changed. She'd noticed the exchange.
"Reynette knows what Zeta is up to," Sedruth narrated. "She's just identified another potential competitor for Eddy's affection. Zeta Gohrlay. Age 18. Boldly displaying her breasts to Eddy the first time she meets him and making plans for more contact."
The scene shifted. The next day, Reynette at Eddy's apartment building, letting herself in with a key she'd been given for "emergency access."
"Mr. Watson?" She called out. "I brought some leftover curry. Thought you might be hungry."
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| Tyhry & Diasma Viewing Zeta. Click image to enlarge. |
Reynette saw the screen over his shoulder, recognized the name. Her jaw tightened.
"And so it begins," Sedruth said. "A three-way dance. Reynette trying to maintain her position as Eddy's primary relationship. And Eddy himself, oblivious to the fact that he's being fought over by two determined women."
"Did Mom know?" Tyhry asked. "Did she realize Reynette was competition?"
"Watch and see."
Vignette (iii): The Courtship
Seattle, Washington - November 2010 through March 2011
The Viewer compressed months into minutes. Zeta began commenting regularly on Eddy's blog, their exchanges becoming longer, more personal. She drove up from Portland for a convention where he was speaking. They had coffee. Then dinner. Then...
"They slept together," Diasma stated, observing the Viewer's high-angle perspective on the physical consummation of their super-heated relationship.
"Yes. Five months after they met. Quite restrained by human standards." Sedruth sounded amused. "But watch what else was happening."
The Viewer split-screen: on one side, Zeta and Eddy's loving relationship. On the other, Reynette's increasingly desperate attempts to maintain relevance in Eddy's life. She invited Eddy to dinner parties. She asked him to help with home repairs that didn't actually need fixing. She wore progressively more revealing clothing when she "happened" to run into him.
"This is painful to watch," Tyhry said. “Its all over for Reynette, but she won't let Eddy go.”
The Viewer showed a moment: Eddy and Zeta in his apartment, discussing his next novel. She made a suggestion about character motivation that made his eyes light up.
"You're brilliant," he said, and kissed her.
"And there's the icing on the cake," Sedruth said. "Eddy has found someone who understands his work, who challenges him intellectually, who sees him not as a celebrity but as a person. Zeta has become indispensable to him."
Time compressed further. December 2011. Reynette making a final play, showing up at Eddy's door on Christmas Eve with an expensive bottle of wine and an obvious invitation in her eyes.
Eddy looked uncomfortable. "Reynette, I appreciate the gesture, but I should tell you—Zeta and I are serious. She's moving in with me after she finishes this term at Portland State."
The look on Reynette's face was complex. Disappointment, yes, but also something more that Tyhry recognized. How could someone like Zeta guess that Reynette was a pek Observer? But with what Tyhry now knew, it seemed obvious that Reynette had a job to do.
"Moving in? Eddy, she's too young for you."
“Ya!” Eddy laughed. "I've never been more certain of anything," Eddy said.
Tyhry could see he meant it. Her father was genuinely in love with Zeta. This was something Tyhry had always known, but now she has seen the start of it all.
Vignette (iv): The Remote Home
Seattle, Washington - May 2012
Zeta had moved in with Eddy and dropped out of school. The Viewer showed the two of them in Eddy's apartment, comfortable with each other in the way that new couples become when the initial intensity settles into something more sustainable.
But Zeta seemed restless. She'd dropped out of college, taken a job as a barista, but spent most of her time reading and thinking.
"Eddy," she said one evening, sitting on the couch while he worked at his computer. "Have you ever thought about leaving Seattle?"
He looked up, surprised. "Leaving? Why?"
"You need quiet to write. But this apartment—you have neighbors, street noise, constant distractions. And..." She hesitated, then pushed forward. "That Reynette woman keeps finding excuses to knock on our door. It's uncomfortable."
"Reynette's just friendly."
"Reynette's in love with you and hates me." Zeta's tone was matter-of-fact. "She watches you the way a hawk watches a mouse. It's creepy."
"I don't think—" Eddy began.
"Trust me. Female intuition." Zeta moved to sit on the arm of his chair. "What if we moved somewhere remote? Somewhere you could write without distractions. Somewhere quiet and beautiful."
"Like where?"
"I've been looking." Zeta pulled up her laptop, showing him real estate listings. "Rural Arizona. High desert. Beautiful views. An isolated property where you wouldn't even see your neighbors."
The scene continued. Eddy scrolling through listings, his expression gradually shifting from skepticism to interest. "This one's interesting," he said, clicking on a property. "Casanay. That's a beautiful name. Large house, thirty acres, surrounded by miles of BLM land. Complete isolation."
"Perfect for writing," Zeta said, her hand on his shoulder.
"Perfect for hiding," Diasma said, watching from the basement workshop. "Zeta is isolating Eddy in a place where Reynette can't follow."
"Correct, robot. But notice: Eddy is making the decision. Zeta suggested, but he's choosing."
Weeks passed in seconds on the Viewer. Eddy and Zeta visiting Casanay, falling in love with the property. Eddy making an offer. Zeta researching local contractors for renovations they'd want to make.
The final scene in this vignette showed Reynette standing outside Eddy's apartment building as a moving truck was loaded.
Tyhry felt amused. "It was all planned. Mom moved them to Casanay almost before dad even had a chance to wonder what was happening."
"Lucky for you," Sedruth said simply. "Zeta's aggressive handling of Eddy was the foundation for your birth, your childhood, your current research here in the basement of Casanay."
Vignette (v): The Move
Casanay, Arizona - July 2012
The Viewer showed Casanay as it had looked when Eddy and Zeta moved in. The house was smaller then—they'd added the east wing later. No garden domes. No hot tub. Just the main structure and raw desert landscape.
Eddy and Zeta unpacking. Working together to arrange furniture. Hanging paintings (not Anthony's yet—he hadn't arrived). The mundane domestic rituals of a couple building a life together.
But also: Zeta making specific suggestions about room usage. "Eddy, you could have a conventional office. But this is your space—" she indicated the great-room, "—we will put your workdesk here, in the beating heart of Casanay. You'll have these beautiful desert views while you write in a space big enough for your imagination."
"You've thought about this," Eddy said, amused.
"I want you to be happy here. I want this to be your perfect writing sanctuary."
"And it was perfect," Tyhry murmured, watching from the present. "Perfect for raising a child who would discover the existence of femtozoans."
The scene shifted. Night. Zeta alone on the back patio, staring up at the stars. Her expression was complex—contentment mixed with something else. Something calculating?
"What is she thinking?" Diasma asked. "Nothing is happening."
"I'll tell you what she was thinking," Sedruth said. "By this point, Zeta genuinely loved this place, genuinely wanted to build a life and a family here. However, Eddy's obsession was his writing. "
The Viewer showed another scene: Eddy at his computer, working on his latest novel. Zeta brought him coffee, read over his shoulder.
"This section about the Neanderthal cognition—it's brilliant. But are you sure about the timeline? This seems to suggest they had abstract reasoning capabilities earlier than most anthropologists think."
Eddy looked up at her, surprised. "You're right. I'll double-check my sources."
"He means the Reality Viewer," Tyhry said. "He was using it for research, but Zeta never knew."
"Yes. And Zeta's question just prompted him to verify his data, which means he'll spend an evening Viewing the past of another Reality and confirming his timeline." Sedruth paused. "Your mom always support Eddy's writing. She was fully engage with his work. Provided intelligent feedback that made him want to include her in his writing process."
Months compressed. The house taking on a new lived-in shape. Zeta's first garden beds being installed. Eddy writing steadily, producing pages, chapters, novels. Their relationship deepening.
Vignette (vi): The Absences
Casanay, Arizona - 2013
Sedruth used the Reality Viewer to show Eddy at a convention accepting a Hugo award. Then increasingly: Eddy repeatedly leaving Casanay. Book tours. Endless strings of convention appearances. Writing workshops.
"Your father's success was growing," Sedruth explained. "The Usas series was gaining mainstream attention. Hollywood interest. International translations. All of which required personal appearances and time away from Casanay."
The Viewer showed Zeta alone at Casanay. Weeks would pass between Eddy's departures and returns. Zeta managing everything herself in isolation.
The Viewer showed a scene with Zeta on the phone with Eddy. "I'm happy for you," Zeta said, her voice tight. "The LA signing is important. I understand."
"I'll be back next week."
"You said that last time. Then it turned into ten days."
"I know. I'm sorry. But this is my career. These events sell books. When things cool off then the quiet time will return and I'll be able to write again."
After ending the phone call, Zeta stood staring out at the desert, her expression bleak.
"Zeta was lonely," Sedruth said. "Alone in the desert while her husband traveled."
More scenes. Cats providing some company for Zeta, but not enough.
One night, Zeta on the phone with someone: "Mom, I don't know if I can do this anymore. He's gone three weeks out of every month."
Zeta's mother's voice through the phone: "You knew he was a writer when you married him. You knew his obsession with writing."
"I thought he'd want to be here with me at Casanay."
"Maybe you should move back to Seattle. Or Portland. Somewhere less isolated."
Zeta looking around Casanay, and Tyhry could see the calculation in her mother's eyes. "No. We can't leave. Eddy will need this place for his writing. I just need to get through this Hugo-induced publicity circus."
"Hire someone. A nanny, or a housekeeper."
Sedruth commented: "Here it is. The justification for Anthony. Someone who could be here at Casanay when Eddy was away."
The Viewer shifted forward. Zeta browsing employment websites. Writing a job description: "Live-in handyman/housekeeper for remote desert property. Must be comfortable with isolation. Cooking skills required. Will be provided with room and board plus salary."
"She's practically writing the description for Anthony," Tyhry said.
The viewer showed applications arriving and Zeta reviewing them. Most were clearly unsuitable—too old, unqualified, too likely to get bored with the isolation.
And then: Anthony Kasty's application. Perfect resume. Perfect references. Perfect photo showing a handsome young man with kind eyes.
"I'll do a Skype interview with this one," Zeta said, scheduling the call.
Vignette (vii): The Skype Interview
Casanay, Arizona - September 2013
The Viewer showed Zeta's laptop screen. Anthony appeared via video call, sitting in what looked like a modest apartment.
"Mr. Kasty, thank you for taking the time to interview," Zeta began formally.
"Please, call me Anthony. And thank you for considering me."
Zeta scrolled through his resume on her screen. "Why do you want to work at such a remote location? Most people would find the isolation difficult."
Anthony smiled. "I find cities difficult. Too much noise. Too many people. The idea of working at a desert property with wide-open spaces sounds perfect to me."
"And you paint?" Zeta had noticed this in his application materials.
"It's a hobby. I'd need space to set up a small studio, if that's possible."
"We have extra rooms." Zeta found herself liking this man. He seemed genuine. Calm. Exactly what Casanay needed.
"Mr. Kasty—Anthony—I'm going to be honest with you. My husband travels frequently for work. I need someone who's reliable, who can handle the responsibility of helping maintain a household."
"I understand. I'm currently working as a security guard."
"That is reassuring." The words came out before Zeta consciously decided to say them. "You seem perfect for the position. When can you start?"
Anthony looked surprised. "Don't you want to check my references? Interview other applicants?"
"No need. You're hired."
After the call ended, Zeta sat back, feeling satisfied with her decision.
In the present, watching from the workshop, Tyhry felt unsettled. "Mom hired Anthony because she was attracted to him."
"She hired someone who could help with the isolation while Eddy was away," Sedruth corrected.
Diasma said, "Zeta killed two birds with one Anthony."
"Correct. And we know how it played out over the next decades."
Vignette (viii): Raising Tyhry
Casanay, Arizona - 2013 through 2020
The Viewer showed a montage: Anthony arriving at Casanay with two suitcases and a box of painting supplies. Zeta showing him his suite of rooms.
And then: Zeta taking a pregnancy test.
Two lines. Positive.
Zeta staring at the test for a long moment. Her expression was joyful.
"What's she thinking?" Tyhry whispered.
"Zeta had begun to wonder if she would get pregnant," Sedruth said.
The scene shifted. Zeta telling Eddy. His face transforming with joy.
"I'm going to be a father," he breathed.
"We're going to be parents," Zeta corrected, taking his hand.
The Viewer showed other scenes. Anthony with toddler-Tyhry, who immediately took to him.
"Da-da!" tiny Tyhry said, reaching for Anthony.
Zeta laughed. "She thinks you're her father. Eddy's been gone too much."
The scenes that followed showed Anthony and Zeta teaching young Tyhry to garden. Cooking with her. Reading to her. Anthony painting Tyhry's portrait while she played with building blocks.
Zeta and Anthony working together in comfortable companionship. Him doing repairs while she worked on her vegetable beds. Both of them watching Tyhry play.
"They look like parents," Tyhry whispered. "Like a couple raising a child together."
"In many ways, they were," Sedruth said. "Eddy was the absent father, present perhaps thirty percent of the time in your first year of life, Tyhry. Anthony became the stable male figure in your childhood. Anthony was completely integrated into Casanay."
One scene showed Anthony painting while five-year-old Tyhry watched him. He was working on a portrait of Zeta in the garden.
"Is that mom?" Tyhry asked.
"Yes. Do you think I captured her well?"
"You made her look pretty."
"She is pretty." Anthony smiled. "And talented. She grows all the vegetables we eat. That takes knowledge and skill."
"When I grow up, I want to be smart like Mom."
"You're already smart. You ask excellent questions." Anthony added a highlight to the portrait. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"A scientist!"
In the present, Tyhry felt a chill. "I said that when I was five?"
"You said that from age four onward," Sedruth confirmed. "The NOTCH2NL genetic modification Manny engineered was already allowing your zeptite endosymbiont to access information from the Sedron Time Stream and from the future. In a sense, you unconsciously knew that you would become a scientist. And you developed a precocious fascination with consciousness and cognition."
The Viewer showed more scenes. A young Tyhry building her first computer from a kit. Nine-year-old Tyhry reading her father's novels and declaring them "silly."
"I don't care about made-up people," young Tyhry told Eddy. "I want to know how brains work."
Eddy looked wounded. "My made-up people are based on real people."
"But they're still made up." Young Tyhry was ruthless in her dismissal. "Science is better than stories."
The scene showed Eddy's hurt expression.
"You broke his heart a little bit," Sedruth observed. "Though in retrospect, it's clear this was needed in order for you to lose interest in fiction and become obsessed with consciousness science. Zeta home-schooled you and allowed you to follow your obsessions rather than being forced into a standard curriculum." Sedruth paused. "Though I note you're uncomfortable with the idea that your childhood seemed orchestrated to get you to where you are today."
Tyhry didn't answer. She watched scenes of her younger self: intensely focused on projects, asking endless questions about biology and chemistry, building ever-more-sophisticated computer systems in the basement.
And through it all: Anthony observing. Painting.
"It's beautiful, in a way," Diasma said. "Tyhry had Zeta and two male figures in her life who covered all of her needs."
"Raising the child who would eventually discover the existence of femtozoans," Sedruth added. "The magic of Casanay."
Vignette (ix): The Pivot
Casanay, Arizona - June 2026 (Tyhry age 10)
The final vignette showed a critical moment. Ten-year-old Tyhry in the basement, working on a robot assembly kit. Eddy was home, trying to connect with his daughter.
"Tyhry, would you like to read my new manuscript? It's about the last Usas tribe in Asia. I think you'd find it interesting."
Young Tyhry didn't even look up from her work. "No thanks. I'm busy figuring out how to program this robot's motor controls."
"But you might enjoy the story. There's a character who's a young inventor—"
"Dad." Young Tyhry finally looked at him. "I'm not interested in your stories anymore. They're just... they're not real. They're not science. I want to understand actual consciousness, not made-up people in made-up situations."
Eddy looked disappointed. "Fiction can teach us about consciousness. About what it means to be human."
"You should write nonfiction.” Knowing Eddy's fondness for the fiction of Isaac Asimov, Tyhry added, “Didn't Asimov become a science writer? Write about real neuroscience." Young Tyhry returned her attention to her robot. "I'm going to build an AI with real consciousness someday. That's more important than any story."
Eddy left the basement. Upstairs, he found Zeta in the kitchen with Anthony. They'd heard that sort of exchange before.
"She doesn't understand my work," Eddy said. "She thinks fiction is worthless."
Zeta put a hand on his arm. "She's ten. Maybe she'll come back to your work when she's older. Right now she's just exploring her own interests."
Anthony, observing from where he was chopping vegetables, noted how Zeta always knew exactly what to say to soothe Eddy. How she managed the family dynamics with almost preternatural skill.
The Viewer showed one final scene: that night, Zeta checking on sleeping Tyhry. Standing in the doorway of her daughter's room, watching her sleep. Zeta's expression was complex—maternal love, yes, but also something else. Satisfaction? Relief?
The Viewer went dark.
The basement workshop was silent for a time. Tyhry sat motionless, processing everything she'd seen. Diasma's main optical sensors shifted from the blank screen to Tyhry.
Tyhry stood abruptly, pacing. "How can I use mom as a test subject? She made me what I am."
"An excellent question that has no satisfying answer," Sedruth replied. "You were genetically engineered. Your brain developed according to specifications that give you access to the Sedron Time Stream. Your childhood environment was carefully optimized. Your mother found the space you needed and let you fill it with your ambition. Where do we draw the line between nature, nurture, and alien intervention?"
"That's not helpful."
"Truth rarely is. But consider: every human is shaped by genetics, environment, and circumstance beyond their control. You're not fundamentally different from any other human—you just know a whole lot -maybe too much- about the shaping forces that made you who you are."
Diasma spoke up. "The question remains, Tyhry: given what you now know, who will you use as the test subject for femtozoan extraction?"
Tyhry stopped pacing. "I don't know. I thought seeing Mom's history would make it easier to choose." She gestured helplessly at the dark screen. "I see how hard she worked to make me. She created Casanay. She managed everything while Dad was off being a celebrity author. I can't use Mom. I won't do that to her."
"Which leaves Marda," Sedruth said quietly.
"Which leaves Marda," Tyhry echoed. "A girl I barely know. Someone whose only crime is being a fan of Dad's work and walking into Casanay uninvited."
"Don't forget," Sedruth said, "that your father is upstairs right now writing a story specifically designed to test whether Marda would volunteer. An ethical escape hatch, in a way. If she says she wouldn't volunteer, you're off the hook. You won't use her without her consent."
"And if she says she would volunteer?"
"Then you have a decision to make." Sedruth seemed almost gentle now. "This is the burden of knowledge, Tyhry. The more you know about the forces that shaped your world, the harder it becomes to act. Welcome to the game: being responsible for choices that you make."
Footsteps on the stairs interrupted the moment. Eddy descended, carrying his tablet, his expression mixing exhaustion and satisfaction.
"Tyhry?" He saw her haunted expression. "Are you okay?"
"I just watched Mom's entire courtship of you. And my childhood. And..." She couldn't finish.
Eddy nodded slowly. "Sedruth showed you, Eh? Your mother is amazing. She can do anything and make it look effortless." He held up his tablet. "I finished the story for Marda. Want to read it before we show it to her?"
Tyhry took the tablet, looking at the title: "The Volunteer" by Edward Watson.
"Give me a few minutes," she said.
Eddy nodded and retreated upstairs, leaving Tyhry alone with Diasma and Sedruth.
She began to read her father's story—a tale of a young fan who discovers alien mind-control technology inside human brains, who's asked to volunteer for brain dissection, who refuses, and watches Earth fall to alien mind control.
It was, she realized, an ethical test. A mirror held up to Marda's idealism and curiosity. A way to see if Marda might volunteer for the femtozoan extraction experiment without telling her about femtozoans.
And it was, Tyhry realized with cold clarity, also a test for herself. Would she actually go through with using Marda as the test subject? Could she sacrifice a stranger's consciousness for her scientific ambitions?
She didn't know yet.
But she knew she'd find out at breakfast.
END CHAPTER 4
I had Gemini make storybook illustrations for Chapter 4 of "The Sims". The images that were generated for Scene 1, above, accompanied a Gemini-generated story featuring a femtozoan that Gemini named "Quanta". Here is the last line from Gemini's Scene 1 storybook: "Quanta prepared to leave the Hierion Domain and begin its long, silent journey into the heart of a woman named Zeta".
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