Memory Edit

Observer Base.

Below on this page is Chapter 5 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention", in which a copy of Tyhry is sent to Observer Base by Nyrtia, the Overseer of Earth.

The original biological copy of Tyhry remains on Earth, but she now has a set of Nyrtia's memory-altering nanites in her femtobot endosymbiont. With her memories and thought processes now under Nyrtia's control, Tyhry is like her father, unable to contemplate the possibility that ancient aliens are watching over Humanity.

The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 5 - Exile (Chap. 1)(Chap. 2)(Chap. 3)(Chap. 4)   

The Sunday evening routine at Casanay revolved around the playing of a complex stock trading game that Zeta had created and continued to continually modify. The only reason Eddy continued to play was because Zeta had, over the previous decade, incorporated science fiction elements into her game. The goal was to control the economies of the majority of the planets (the game had expanded to include all 112 inhabited planets that Eddy had included in his published science fiction stories).

Starting a gaming session was delayed for two reasons. First, Tyhry made a strange speech immediately after dinner during which she thanked her parents for allowing Marda to sleep over that weekend. She then thanked Marda for "the best weekend ever". Then Tyhry thanked her parents for "the best life ever".

 Puzzled, Zeta had jokingly asked, "Will we be getting this kind of 'thank you' at regular twelve year intervals?"

Eddy had then muttered, "What's going on?"

Rylla had suggested, "I recognize a pattern. Marda becomes very polite when she has done something forbidden."

Marda had laughed and said, "You can blame me for any trouble Tyhry finds herself in." Then she changed the subject and asked, "Zeta, tell me about the high finance game you invented."

The second delay was created by the guests. It took Zeta half an hour to explain to Rylla and Marda the workings of the Galactic Stock Market that was the core of the game. Finally, because Marda was now continually telepathically linked to Tyhry, she told Zeta, "Okay, I get it."

Rylla laughed and said, "Maybe I should go to business school for a few years."

Tyhry said, "Here's how we'll do this: teams. Rylla, you work with Zeta. Marda, you are with me." She pointed at Anthony who was picking up empty glasses and ice cream bowls, "And Anthony and dad are the third team."

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Zeta took Rylla by the hand and said, "We'll be in my office. All stock trades will be announced by phone conference call." She led Rylla off to the master suite.

Tyhry and Marda went to Tyhry's suite of rooms. Tyhry told Marda, "We'll be continuing the game that I've been playing with my parents for the past three months."

Back in the dining room, Anthony asked Eddy, "Do you really need me?"

"No, but you are welcome to try to help my lost cause." Eddy was in control of the economies of only seven planets and had been hopelessly behind both Zeta and Tyhry for months. Eddy contented himself by continually developing a version of the Galactic Stock Market game that was on his website for the enjoyment of his fans who had several years previously organized a series of online tournaments for players of the game.

Anthony was expecting Nyrtia to arrive at any moment. Just before dinner, Tyhry had completed the programming of zeptites so that now a continual stream of hierozymes was being assembled from hierions that were collected every time Casanay's gas-burning water heaters were used. It was clear that Tyhry was going ahead with mass production of methane-destroying hierozymes. Anthony took the dishes to the kitchen and discovered that both Nyrtia and Manny were there. Anthony could not see them: they had not instantiated in human-scale bodies. Nyrtia was inside Pepper the cat's body and Manny was there, inside Trib the cat. When Anthony entered the kitchen, he was linked into the on-going telepathic conversation between Nyrtia and Manny. Nyrtia said: You can handle the memory wipe, Anthony.

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Trib looked at Anthony. Manny said: Don't make Anthony do your dirty work. He's programmed to be nice to humans.

Pepper hissed at Trib. Nyrtia said: I've always been very kind to Tyhry. It is you who have brought this upon Tyhry.

Anthony put a popcorn bag in the microwave oven then began loading the dishwasher. He said: I don't mind doing it. I think it will actually give the poor girl a more normal personality if she is robbed of her obsession with programming zeptites. Anthony had for years been uncomfortable knowing that a human on Earth was being allowed to use bumpha zeptite technology. It would be a relief to put an end to that and get back to normal.

 Manny told Nyrtia: You don't have to do this. It won't be until next winter that natural gas usage will increase and then a significant number of hierozymes will be released.

 Nyrtia was uneasy. It had been absurdly easy for Anthony to notice what was going on when Tyhry started making hierozymes. I don't know what your game is, Manny. I'm nipping this hierozyme nonsense in the bud before you get the idea that this kind of deployment of advanced bumpha technology will be tolerated on Earth.

Manny told Nyrtia: Think of it this way, Nyrtia. If atmospheric methane levels start to drop, it will be a morale boost for humans. They'll see that endlessly rising greenhouse gas levels is not inevitable. They'll buckle down and solve the carbon dioxide problem.

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Nyrtia dismissed Manny's sophistry: The humans can do far better than using you Interventions as a model for their behavior. I suspect that if you did magically reduce methane levels then that would only make humans expect the carbon dioxide problem to also magically go away.

Anthony pulled the popcorn out of the oven and put it into a bowl. Wish me luck. He exited from the kitchen and headed for Tyhry's suite. Anthony always worried when editing memories; there was simply no way to avoid unintended damage to the neural circuits. Anthony knocked and entered. Marda and Tyhry were only paying minimal attention to the on-going game. In fact, Anthony had interrupted them in the middle of a long hot kiss. Anthony announced, "Popcorn. Who wants salt or butter?"

Tyhry was a bit irked at Anthony for barging in. "Just set it on the table." She pulled a hand off of Marda to point at the table.

Anthony returned to the hallway and closed the door, but he now had his memory-editing infites inside of Tyhry's femtobot endosymbiont. Ignoring the enticing aroma of popped corn and butter, Tyhry and Marda returned to their deep breathing and kissing. When Tyhry finally went to the popcorn bowl, Eddy was speaking through her phone and describing his next move in the galactic finance game. As he described a complex stock swap that might flip control of the planet Sermyth, Marda said, "I wonder how he came up with the name Sermyth for a planet?"

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Tyhry brought the bowl of popcorn back to Marda and to Tyhry it seemed that this was the first time she had ever thought seriously about Sermyth. Tyhry was familiar with the novel "The Hua Nanites" which had been in book stores for three years and the idea that Sermyth was the home world of the Hua, one of the original biological species that had eventually become the Huaoshy. She sat down beside Marda and said, "It's just a silly name."

Marda popped a piece of corn in her mouth and said, "But it is an important planet. How many billions of years ago did the Hua arise? That started it all!"

Tyhry started to undress Marda. "You started it all. It will be my pleasure to finish it."

Marda laughed, but began re-buttoning as fast as Tyhry was unbuttoning. She telepathically said: Cool it, Tyhry. My mom's gonna get tired of the game soon and want to take me home. We'll be alone first thing tomorrow when you fly me to school. Remember, we need to get the other gas well producing hierozymes... we need to get in and out before the workmen arrive. 

But Tyhry was not desisting in her efforts to undress Marda. Ylyndra told Marda: Tyhry can't hear you. Anthony edited her memories and I think he damaged her telepathic ability.

Marda asked, "You can't hear me?"

"I hear you fine."

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

"But not internally? Telepathy?"

Tyhry laughed. "You should not take may father's stories so seriously. Telepathy is fun in science fiction, but really... how could it possibly work?"

Marda felt a sinking feeling. She told Tyhry, "It is worse than I thought. Nyrtia took your memory of us being tryp'At."

Tyhry giggled, "You can pretend to be tryp'At when you are on Eddy's website, but don't expect me to play that game. Now that I have you in my arms I have better games to play."

Marda jumped to her feet. "Tyhry! You are not yourself. Nyrtia must have edited your memories."

 Tyhry looked up at Marda and rubbed her forehead. "Nyrtia?"

"You don't remember? This morning... Nyrtia warned you..."

Tyhry stood up and put her arms around Marda. Tyhry's phone now squawked with Zeta coaching Rylla on how to announce their next move in the game. "Oh, bother. It is our turn next."

Marda spoke to Ylyndra: This is terrible! Tyhry's mind had been cleansed of more than just the tricks of zeptite programming.

But there was no reply from Ylyndra who had gone to the kitchen. Arriving right behind Anthony, Ylyndra tuned into Nyrtia's commentary on Anthony's work: Good, Tyhry has no memory of what she did."

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Anthony added: And there is no way for her to go down that path again. She's now unable to believe in aliens. 

Ylyndra told Manny: I'll be heading out.

Anthony asked Ylyndra: Did you really think that I'd let you use Tyhry to make your hierozymes?

 Ylyndra replied: You did let Tyhry make a few hierozymes. Why not a few more? What would be the harm?

Nyrtia cut in: Don't whine, Ylyndra. We left Tyhry with her memories of Marda. They will be happy together. 

Manny asked: What about the other copy of Tyhry at Observer Base?

 Nyrtia had already instantiated a replicoid copy of Tyhry at Observer Base. Yes, I better attend to that Tyhry. Nyrtia returned to Observer base.

Ylyndra told Anthony: I hope you can live with yourself. You destroyed Tyhry's free will and agency. 

Ylyndra and Manny departed from Casanay. Anthony went to the great room and tried to be of assistance to Eddy in the game. He ended up helping Eddy debug some code for the online version of the game. Eventually, Rylla returned to the great room, announcing, "I've had enough. I'm not helping, I'm just getting in Zeta's way." And she was satisfied with that, since Zeta had just used her tongue to give Rylla a mind-altering orgasm. Rylla asked Anthony, "Where is Marda? We should be going."

A tryp'At game. Image by Leonardo.

Anthony went and collected Marda and quickly Rylla and Marda were in the Jeep and on their way down the long dark Casanay driveway. 

Nyrtia allowed the older replicoid to activate the new Tyhry replicoid at Observer Base. As the new replicoid began to realize what has happened, Nyrtia finished loading her orientation nanites into Tyhry. "Just take things slow. This is a copy of you from a previous Reality... Tyhry2, meet Tyhry1."

UNDER CONSTRUCTION 

End Chapter 5

 I had Claude help me with lyrics for a song titled "Literal Legal Fiction".

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