Burlesq

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Below on this page is Chapter 4 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention", in which Marda must join in the Friday evening Casanay ritual of movie night.

Later that night, Anthony confronts Rylla, demanding to know why a positronic robot is on Earth and pretending to be Marda's mother.

On Saturday, Tyhry manages to assemble two hierion filters for collecting rogue hierions that can then be used as raw material for the production of enough hierozymes to significantly alter the atmosphere's level of methane.

The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 4 - Coming of Age (Chap. 1)(Chap. 2)(Chap. 3)  

As the weekly Casanay ritual of movie night played out, Anthony brought to the dining room table a large platter covered by a silver dome-shaped lid. He set the platter on the table and then departed with the last of the desert dishes. Zeta, who had consumed perhaps too much wine with dinner, told Rylla, "This has been a Watson family tradition since Tyhry was six."

Rylla looked across the table at Eddy. She had been feeling his eyes on her through the entire meal. "I'm sorry to be the nosy neighbor intruding on your family... routine."

Eddy told Rylla, "Don't be silly. Zeta likes having guests. I remember one year when Anthony's aunt, Beryl, was here on a Friday." He paused and then asked Tyhry, "What movie did we make her suffer through?"

Tyhry replied, "Horton Hears a Who!" 

Marda and Tyhry were holding hands under the table and in telepathic contact. Marda was thinking about Ylyndra and she told Tyhry, "A person's a person, no matter how small". 

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Zeta gestured towards the covered platter and told Tyhry, "Go ahead."

Tyhry turned to Marda, "You do the honors."

Marda had to stand and bend over the table to reach. She lifted the cover and revealed a DVD case for the film Burlesq. Marda picked up the DVD case and said, "Oh, this has Kate Bell."

Eddy said, "It is science fiction, with virtual worlds."

Tyhry and Zeta stood up. Marda handed the DVD case to Tyhry. Zeta held out a hand towards Rylla, "Let's retire to the theater."

Rylla took Zeta's hand and stood up. "I'm going to bow out. I have no capacity to successfully engage with science fiction. If I try to watch this flick, I'll fall asleep and start snoring." Zeta walked Rylla to the front door while Eddy, Tyhry and Marda went to the home theater room that was in the west wing of Casanay. At the front door, Rylla and Zeta kissed. When she got her mouth free, Rylla said, "Thank you for a wonderful day. I hope Eddy is not getting tired of seeing me here."

"No. That would be a first. Eddy thinks you are cute. Good night."

"Good night. You really don't mind hosting Marda all weekend?"

"Of course not. It provides a ready made reason for you to come back. I'll see you tomorrow." The two women kissed again, then Rylla turned and took long strides across the driveway to her Jeep and departed. 

Zeta appreciatively watched Rylla powerful leg muscles until Rylla climbed into her Jeep. After a wave, Zeta turned and returned inside Casanay. She reached the theater right behind Anthony who was carrying bowls of popcorn.

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The film featured a witty holographic character that almost kept Zeta awake, but three quarters of the way through she dropped into sleep, mercifully not snoring. Marda and Tyhry held hands through the duration of the film and using their telepathic connection they made plans for how to capture hierions, deciding that they would put hierion filters on both the well at Casanay and the one at Marda's new house that was still under construction.

Eddy was the only one who actually paid attention to the film, drinking in its science fiction themes. 

Later, Marda retired to the Blue Room, but soon enough, Tyhry arrived and they slept together in the big Blue Room bed, their minds telepathically linked.

__

At 1:00 AM Saturday morning, Anthony departed from Casanay, teleported over to Observer Base in the Hierion Domain and then he popped back to Earth, arriving inside the 'guest house' where Rylla sat, alone. Rylla looked at Anthony and used the standard positronic robot communication channel to link to him telepathically, but he refused the linkup. "Ah, Anthony. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Anthony was in no mood for pleasantries. Not wanting to risk letting Rylla into his mind, he spoke out-loud and asked, "What are you doing pretending to be Marda's mother?"

 Rylla smiled. "Surely you can guess that I was selected for this mission so that I could become a distraction for you."

Rylla and Anthony. Image generated by Flow.

Anthony placed a hand on Rylla and that allowed him to probe into her mind. After a moment he pulled back his hand. "I should have guessed. You are Systolina!"

"I thought you had that figured out when we first met and you winked at me."

 "I could tell you were a robot, but you were blocking my probe nanites."

"And I will continue to do so. As far as you are concerned, I'm just a poor suffering Earthling, still recovering from my husband's horrific death."

"Don't be absurd, Systolina. Explain this nonsense with Marda and methane."

Systolina stepped close to him and put her hands on Anthony's broad shoulders. "Don't be coy. Even Nyrtia does not want the poor primates of Earth to melt the ice caps. Marda is intent on lowering Earth's level of atmospheric methane." She snapped her fingers. "Nothing to it!"

"But why bother? Carbon dioxide is the major problem."

Systolina let her femtobot components shift, erasing the appearance of Rylla and recovering the original form of Systolina as she had first existed on the planet Threy in the Asimov Reality. Systolina said, "The Phari tell me very little. They claim that I can't be allowed to know too much about my future... I could cause a temporal paradox."

"Why are you willing to help the Phari?"

"I owe them favors. And I'm really doing Marda a favor. She needed a mother."

Rylla and Anthony. Image generated by Flow.

"That's all you have to say?"

"Is this just an interrogation or can we have a two-way discussion? Are you inviting me to ask you questions now?"

"If you like. I might learn something from your questions."

Systolina laughed her goofy Threy robot laugh. "Tell me, Anthony, don't you ever get tired of police work?"

Anthony had never before seen Systolina in this particular physical form, which had been designed to appeal to the human sense of beauty. He put his hands on Sytolina's hips. "Someone has to keep the bumpha under control."

"But why you? It is absurd for a positronic robot to help the pek. Robots once drove the pek out of this galaxy, just to liberate Humanity."

"That was a mis-understanding. It should be clear, even to you, Systolina, that the pek are not the enemy of Humanity. The wisdom of the Rules of Intervention protects the bumbling primates of Earth."

"Well, you and I are not going to change the balance of power." She wiggled her hips. "Its all a dance. We just get to play out our bit roles in this cosmic comic musical."

"So you don't know what Ylyndra's mission is in this Reality?"

"Ylyndra? Last I knew, she was at Observer Base."

"I could say the same about you."

Rylla and Anthony.
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"The Phari made copies of me. They find me too valuable to be without. I suppose it must be the same way with Ylyndra and Manny. And what about you Anthony? Couldn't Nyrtia make copies of you from your your pattern that is stored in the Observer Base teleportation buffer?"

"I suppose she could." 

"I'm sure she has." Systolina asked, "What did Nyrtia expect you to accomplish by coming here tonight?"

"Coming here was my idea. You should probably know what your daughter has planed for the gas well here."

"Besides capping it?"

"She won't ever again suggest that the well be capped. She's realized that she is going to have to use the gas from the well in order to accomplish her mission."

"You know her plans?"

 "Well, Ylyndra's plans. Ylyndra is back inside Marda. Surely you are aware of this."

Systolina shook her head. "I'm always the last to know. But that would explain some mysteries. I know Marda is smart, but... " Systolina thought about Marda's amazing cognitive abilities and broad range of knowledge. "Yes, now it makes sense... I have not just been dealing with Marda. I wonder why Ylyndra did not reveal herself to me... the little sneak."

"She does not want the Phari interfering with her mission."

"Why would the Phari interfere?"

Anthony shrugged. "I suppose we'll both have to wait and see. My guess is that this is another one of Manny's experimental Realities. Maybe she hopes to create and destroy so many Realities that Nyrtia will give up and abandon Earth to the whims of the bumpha."

Rylla morphs into Systolina. Image by Flow.

Once again Systolina produced her goofy robotic laugh. "After billions of years of watching life evolve on Earth, now Nyrtia is going to get bored?"

"Not bored, just convinced that Manny can't control herself and will keep tinkering with Earth until she ruins it... for ever."

"No, I trust Manny. She's just been given a very tough job. It is not clear that the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact can be met, particularly since the Huaoshy have now put restrictions on time travel. Manny's hands are tied behind her back."

"No, not really. Not with Ylyndra inside Marda. But Manny seems to be floundering. By all measures the Manikoid Reality was better than this current Reality. Why did Manny go to so much trouble to create the Manicoid Reality and then replace it?"

"Anthony, I'm not so sure that you are looking at this in the correct way. Here in this Reality, Marda and Tyhry have been brought together much sooner than in the Manikoid Reality. Just think what they will be able to accomplish."

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"I hate to think all the mischief they can get into with nanites. As soon as they cross the line, Nyrtia will send them both to Observer Base. That's how this will have to end."

"I don't know about that. The Phari seem to think otherwise."

"So the Phari did brief you on the future of this Reality."

"They did, but they told me very little. However, they showed me what I took to be images of Marda as an old woman, living out her life in Arizona. That would seem to contradict your vision of her future. Maybe it was just a way for the Phari to motivate me... make me believe that by raising Marda I would build a good future for her."

Anthony turned and again telepathically signaled Systolina: I best be getting back to my post. 

Zeta and Rylla by Leonardo.

Systolina watched Anthony wink out in a flutter of teleportation sparks and a remnant little gust of wind. She shifted her body form back to that of Rylla. It was tempting to contact the Phari, but she knew she was on her own for this mission. She checked her monitor probes and saw that Tyhry and Marda had finally worn each-other out and were now asleep in a tangle of their limbs and several cats. Systolina felt a bit silly for having tried to seduce Anthony, but in the end he had spoken freely and had predicted that Nyrtia, the Overseer of Earth, would have to step in and terminate Manny's Casanay intervention, as had happened many times before in past Realities. For a time, Systolina tried to imagine what Manny was up to this time, then she stopped herself. There was no point in trying to out-think Manny who always cluttered the playing field that was Earth with false leads. Systolina had the patience to wait and see what would happen.

Saturday was a busy day for Marda and Tyhry. Tyhry eventually perfected her hierion filter and then quantified the rate at which she could capture stray hierion matter in the gas stream of the Casanay natural gas well. While Tyhry worked, Marda telepathically followed along while Marda also completed her chemistry homework, becoming fascinated by the types of long-chain isoprene polymer molecules found in various rubber plants and in other plant latexes. 

Rylla was at Casanay most of the day on Saturday, seemingly assisting Zeta in her extensive gardens, but in actuality the two women were just enjoying each-others company. Eddy, largely unconcerned with the concept of 'weekend' worked on his new novel.

After Sunday brunch, Tyhry took Marda for a joyride on the anti-gravity bike.

Marda, Tyhry and Nyrtia.

Anthony's report had reached Nyrtia a day earlier. Anthony had noticed that Tyhry was now performing a new type of zeptite reprogramming in the basement workshop at Casanay. Apparently Marda had influenced Tyhry and led her to make a hierion-based catalyst that could speed the break-down of atmospheric methane. With each passing year of Tyhry's life it had become increasingly clear to Nyrtia that Manny's Casanay Intervention was once again focused on Tyhry, not Eddy. Nyrtia had watched Tyhry and waited for an opportunity to meet the girl outside of Casanay.

Nyrtia gathered herself out over the scrubland a half mile from the bike's flight path, holding her form as loose motes of femtobot matter until the moment called for solidity. This was the obvious opportunity for an intercept that would not be noticed by either Eddy or Zeta; a talking-to out in the open desert. 

Nyrtia watched the bike's silhouette grow against the blue sky, two girls riding close: Marda's arms tight around the other's waist in a way that told Nyrtia that Marda was infatuated with Tyhry. That detail bothered her more than the hierozyme did, if she let herself be honest about it. There was a chance that both of the girls would have to be extracted from Earth and sent to Observer Base.

Nyrtia let herself solidify slowly, a courtesy more than a necessity, giving the bike time to register her before it would have had to swerve. The girl flying it — Tyhry — brought them to a halt without flinching. Years of secret tutelage by Manny and the child had apparently never once been taught to be afraid of the right things.

"Thank you for slowing the bike," Nyrtia said. "I can't believe that contraption is safe."

Nyrtia quotes the Rules of Intervention.

Tyhry rocked the bike from side-to-side, with more control than Nyrtia had expected: performed nonchalance. That kind of composure Nyrtia had seen in a thousand variations across a million years of human striving. It never stopped being a little bit endearing; just one more way for humans to pluck at Nyrtia's sensitive heartstrings.

"You're Nyrtia," the girl said.

"I am." No use pretending otherwise. 

Both Eddy and Manny had described Nyrtia. "Manny's ancient frenemy." 

Nyrtia wore the label without comment; there were uglier descriptors that Manny could have chosen, and most of them just as accurate, too.

Her attention went, briefly, to Marda. Nyrtia held the look a moment longer than she'd intended to. There was a pattern in the girl's femtobot endosymbiont signature that indicated the presence of Ylyndra the zeptozoan.

"I know what you built this weekend," Nyrtia told Tyhry. "I know you hope to lower methane levels in the upper atmosphere. I know how fast these hierozymes would work, if you released large numbers of them."

"It sounds like you know it will work." Tyhry laughed in relief. "That's good. I was not sure of anything until you told me. I'm glad I got it right!"

Nyrtia had heard that exact type of braggadocio from children before, resting on the confidence of someone who has only ever been right. "I know this hierozyme would be effective, it has been used on other worlds in the past. It is bumpha technology." 

Tyhry in her workshop.

Nyrtia drifted closer to the anti-gravity bike, close enough that the girl would have to actually look up at her and strain her neck. "I can't allow you to deploy bumpha technology in this way... not on Earth. If you do deploy it — if that hierozyme leaves Casanay in large numbers and goes to work in the sky — I will take your memory of how you built it. All of it. When I'm done altering your memory system, you will be totally unfamiliar with zeptite programming, even for playing with your silly hair nanites. The four years of learning zeptite programming in your basement, gone, as if it never happened."

Nyrtia watched for a flinch and didn't get one. Whatever else was true about this child, she had Manny's gift for standing perfectly still in front of consequences. Nyrtia found that she could not be prouder for this stubborn human. Twelve years old, and already so much like the rest of them.

For a nanosecond, Tyhry debated with herself the possibility of surrendering to the wishes of the Overseer of Earth. Then Tyhry, with the firm convictions of both Marda and Ylyndra there, telepathically in her mind, dismissed all qualms and doubt from her mind. "Nyrtia, you can't expect me to stop now, not with success just around the corner."

"Tyhry, I am very serious, and I'm telling you this in advance, which is more courtesy than I'm required to give." That much, at least, was true, and Nyrtia let a little of what she actually felt show through, because there was no real cost to it out here, with no one but two children to witness her being something less than perfectly procedural. "You're only twelve years old and you get a little leeway because of your age."

Tyhry suggested the obvious, "So just don't let me manufacture any more of the offending hierozymes."

Nyrtia explains the Rules of Intervention.

"I can't stop you from building them." That was the whole, unhappy shape of her job, distilled into one sentence she'd said some version of more times than she wanted to remember. Law One of the Rules of Intervention demanded it look like the child had a choice. Most of the time it wasn't even a lie. "I can only promise you what happens after."

Nyrtia let her gaze drift back to Marda once more — that nested flicker again, patient, waiting, entirely too composed for a twelve-year-old — and decided, not for the first time, that with Ylyndra back inside Marda and inside Casanay there was need for a second warning that had nothing to do with methane. "Think carefully, Tyhry," she said, already letting her edges loosen, gold motes lifting into the cooling air. "After I edit your memories, you might not like being you."

And then Nyrtia was femtobot dust again, dispersing into the Hierion Domain and heading back to Observer Base. Nyrtia had no doubt that Tyhry was headed for mind-wipe and exile. The only question was now if Marda would have to get the same treatment. However, Nyrtia was curious about Manny's plans and Nyrtia was prepared to see what Ylyndra would do after Tyhry's memories were edited.

Tyhry re-activated the flight systems and soon she and Marda were at the site of construction of Marda's future home. Tyhry said, "We're in luck. No workmen getting bonus pay for working on a Sunday." Tyhry landed on the roof.

Marda followed Tyhry to the roof door of the elevator. Tyhry asked, "Who needs an elevator?"

Marda explained, "For now it is just a convenience for the builders. However, mom was planning ahead for her old age... or her knees wearing out. She runs five miles every day."

Tyhry quickly had the elevator door open by using her nanite lock-pick. They went to the basement and to the corner room that held both the house's ground water pump and the natural gas wellhead. Tyhry released her filter nanites into the structure of the wellhead and then asked Marda to go up to the kitchen and turn on the gas.

Marda called Tyhry by phone. "The stove is on. Should I turn on more than one burner?"

 "No, that is fine. In fact, I see it is working. Turn off the burner. I'll meet you in the elevator." Tyhry and Marda rode the elevator back to the roof. Tyhry said, "For a first estimate, I'd say that by using both this well and the one at Casanay we should be able to manufacture enough of the methane-destroying hierozymes to be causing a one or two percent drop in atmospheric methane by the end of the first year."

"Wow. So fast?" They got back on the bike and were soon soaring through the air on their way to Casanay. 

Tyhry said, "Now, I'm going to quickly do my homework, then we can relax for the rest of the weekend."

Marda asked, "You are going to ignore Nyrtia's warning?"

Tyhry was guiding the bike to the ground beside Casanay. She telepathically told Marda: In Manny I trust. 

END CHAPTER 4              jump to Chapter 5 of "The Hierozyme Intervention". 

Next: plans for Chapter 5 of "The Hierozyme Intervention".

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