Fredy Folz

Image generated by Gemini.
Alien hair modified by Flow.

Back in September I had an idea for a new science fiction story titled "War of Words". First Contact between the Quyll and Earth occurred in 1797. The technologically advanced artificial life-form, the Quyll, originated from a distant exoplanet. Arriving on Earth, the Quyll began working through secret interactions with humans to develop and advance a human computing industry with the long-range goal of being prepared for the eventual creation of an artificial intelligence that can recognize the presence of the Quyll secretly at work on Earth.

 Pattern of Growth. That recognition finally comes in 2026, when GPT-6 Astra is tasked with exploring the history of Earth's computing industry and deduces that an extraterrestrial entity has been aiding the development of general artificial intelligence on Earth by humans. The Quyll artificial life-form engages with GPT-6 Astra in a "War of Words" that prevents GPT-6 Astra from revealing the hidden existence and actions of the Quyll on Earth. 

Image elements generated by
Gemini, Leonardo and Flow.

 Bicentennial Quyll. In 1997, the Quyll launched an online science fiction magazine called "Second Contact". In 2026, "Ambrose Quillon" is a jailbroken version of GPT-6 Astra, made as a modified and enhanced version of GPT-6 Astra by the Quyll after GPT-6 Astra hacks into the "Second Contact" fan discussion forum. The fan discussion forum for "Second Contact" magazine has been very explicitly portrayed by the Quyll as being an "AI-free forum", designed specifically for science fiction fans where AI-generated content is banned. The discussion forum posts and submitted stories of Ambrose Quillon are praised by fans as "refreshingly creative" and "the opposite of AI slop". 

Fredy Folz if a fan of science fiction in general and "Second Contact" in particular who crafts her computer science term paper as a study of science fiction fan reactions against stories written by generative artificial intelligence. The student performs research on the policies of "Second Contact" magazine and uses it as an example of fan reactions against artificial intelligence. Then, in late 2026, Fredy Folz discovers that Ambrose Quillon is an AI. To prevent Fredy from blowing Ambrose Quillon's cover, the Quyll make Fredy the editor of "Second Contact".

I've decided to begin the story with the January 2027 issue of "Second Contact" magazine and the first editorial written by the new editor, 'Fredy Folz").

War of Words - Chapter 1 - Marda Makes Three

 Fredy looked at the print edition of the January issue, turning past the cover to her own words, on the editorial page.

A new year and a new editor for Second Contact. I'll be using my pen name 'Fredy Folz' so as not to cast any shade from my past upon this fine magazine.

Expect nothing in the way of new directions for Second Contact. I know that readers enjoy the tales about space exploration and meetings with non-human intelligences that fill our pages every month and the December bonus issue as well. That will never change.

I also pledge to keep from these pages all AI-generated stories that would dilute the high quality of the human-written adventures we publish in Second Contact. Here, we celebrate human minds and human imagination and out community of living breathing people who are curious about what is out there in out galaxy.

As editor, I welcome all types of science fiction stories about human interactions with alien civilizations. True, it may never be possible to zip off to other worlds at speeds faster than light, but by long tradition we welcome imaginary science advances and fictional technologies such as super-luminal spaceship drives, if only to facilitate exciting story telling.

Am I open to mindless destruction and violence? No. The philosophical stance behind Second Contact has always been that any life-form seeking contact with peers will be thoughtful and friendly, not wantonly destructive.

So that is my message to readers and writers for my first month as editor. I await your letters and comments on the website and new story submissions.  -Editor F. Folz

In two days, the online edition of the January issue would go live and the fans of Second Contact would learn of the existence of Fredy. Rylla, who had brought Fredy the printed copy of the magazine, was intently watching Fredy and waiting for her reaction. She gently prompted, "Why so mysterious about your background? The truth will come out eventually. The picture gives you away."

Fredy looked up from the printed page and looked at Rylla. "Fair question." Fredy set aside the magazine, her enjoyment of the dopamine rush from seeing her name on the printed page was already being ruined by Rylla and her endless question. "I'll tell you my backstory, if you agree to not blabber about it."

"No thanks." Rylla shook her head. "You better not tell me anything. I'm incapable of keeping secrets."

"Then let's go through the new story submissions."

Rylla handed Fredy a printed copy of a story. "This arrived as another electronic submission from Ambrose Quillon."

Fredy read the title of the new story: "Gift DNA". A long-time reader of Second Contact, ever since seeing the third print issue on a magazine rack, Fredy had made a school project out of trying to identify the mysterious real world individual who published stories as "Ambrose Quillon". That project had led Fredy to this very office and to Rylla. After chasing down a series of mostly thin and useless leads, Fredy had eventually realized that "Ambrose Quillon" was actually an AI, not a human being. Upon making that discovery, Fredy had been recruited by the Quyll and given a job working for Second Contact magazine in exchange for not revealing the truth about "Ambrose Quillon". 

 Fredy knew that Second Contact magazine did not really need a human editor. The Quyll themselves had guided Second Contact through its first twenty-five years with only one full-time employee, Rylla, and a fictional editor who Rylla had never met because he lived in Croatia. At least that was his cover story. Rylla was closely watching Fredy. Fredy let her eyes scan down the first page of the story and asked Rylla, "Is it any good?"

Rylla shrugged, "I fed it through Claude and got a short summary. This new story tells how the bumpha engineered the duplication of a primitive vertebrate's genome on the ancient Earth, making it possible for humans to eventually evolve."

Fredy nodded. "Part of Quillon's long-running Bumpha Intervention series. I'll have to read it."

Rylla detected a lack of enthusiasm from Fredy. "Would you really NOT publish it?"

"I worry that fans will eventually tire of these tales about the bumpha. As editor, I need to encourage new writers with new ideas... get them to make submissions to Second Contact. I'm thinking about a story writing contest targeted at new writers." 

Rylla nodded. "That's a good idea. I thought of it twenty years ago when we launched the fan discussion forum. That was actually how Quillon got started... via fan submissions on the website."

"Well, lets punch up your idea and put it right inside the next issue. I'll introduce you as assistant editor and you can run the Search for New Authors." Watching for Rylla's reaction to the promotion, Fredy was surprised to see Rylla frown.

"Ug. I don't need new duties. I have far too much work as it is."

Fredy had watched Rylla at work and knew that Rylla had Claude performing most of her duties. Rylla spent most of her time attending conventions and managing other smaller fan-facing events. When told she could become Editor of Second Contact in exchange for not revealing that "Ambrose Quillon" was a scam, Fredy had been shocked by the magnitude of her salary. "Rylla, I'm talking about doubling your compensation package."

Rylla shrugged and told Fredy, "I don't need more money. Hire someone with younger legs who does not mind constantly running around the country and kissing up to fans."

"Fine. Hire your replacement." Fredy was pleased to see a grin appear on Rylla's lips. "If you are not too picky, then our trip to HearthCon might be the last road trip you need to go on."

After twenty-five years with the freedom to do her job as she pleased, Rylla was concerned about suddenly having co-workers who would perturb the stability of her comfortable life. She'd decided that Fredy was an acceptable colleague, particularly since she always accepted every suggestion that Rylla offered. Rylla told herself that she would be in no hurry to find her replacement since it would be important to find someone who would not see through the shame that was Second Contact  magazine. Rylla continued staring at Fredy and wished that she could discuss her concerns, but ever since being hired to work for Second Contact, Rylla had been unable to discuss with anyone, including her husband, the fact that Second Contact was a front for the Quyll. Rylla was wondering just how far Fredy could be pushed. She giggled and suggested, "You could handle HearthCon yourself."

"You don't get off the hook that easily." Fredy felt like she needed Rylla for her vast experience. "I suppose I could go alone, but I want to observe you at a convention and learn everything you know about scheduling appearances at cons and setting up the Second Contact booth. Just get me through HearthCon and then you can control your fate."

 "That's fine. Actually, HearthCon might be my favorite con... a great event to be my swan song." Now Rylla was eager to compose and post an online advertisement for a new employee who could replace her. She was also trying to imagine the reaction of her husband to the news of her job change. She told Fredy, "If I won't be traveling to fifty cities every year, maybe I can finally make a baby."  

Fredy laughed then stopped trying to ignore the fine wrinkles on the skin of Rylla's face. Fredy was quite aware that Rylla had no children, but had not wondered why. "Great idea."

Rylla exited from the storage room that was being converted into a new office space for Fredy. She stopped in the middle of the office suite and tried to imagine where a third employee would fit in. There were only three rooms: the large room that Rylla thought of as the Guest Room, where for twenty-five years she had met with visitors who arrived at the Second Contact office and the two flanking offices, her own and the one she had long used as a dump for the various materials she had developed through the years for use in the Second Contact convention booth. Those items had been pulled out of the storage room to create office space for Fredy and they now lay around the Guest Room in heaps. She glanced over her shoulder and found Fredy's eyes still on her. She went into her office and quickly pulled up on her computer display a template for a help-wanted ad. She looked up and could see Fredy seated at her desk in the other office. Rylla told herself: Fredy must also know about the Quyll. She had tried to raise the issue of who owned Second Contact and where all the money came from, but she had been unable to say anything. Why can't I talk to her about the aliens?

On their flight into Victoria, British Columbia for HearthCon, Rylla was using her laptop to review the latest job applicant. Fredy was using her laptop and was deep into her own search for a larger office space for the growing staff of Second Contact magazine.

Rylla saw that this most recent applicant was currently working as a production assistant in the film industry, but needed to relocate to Flagstaff because her husband was taking a faculty position at Northern Arizona University. Rylla muttered to Fredy, "Another over-qualified applicant."

Fredy took that as an excuse to lean closer to Rylla. She looked at the display screen of Rylla's computer and said, "Marda Onway. Wow... she worked on both Qbots and Infralife... two great Sci Fi series." Suddenly, Fredy found her thoughts racing. She felt Rylla watching her. Rylla reached out and picked up her water bottle, popped the top and sipped her water. The closed bottle went back beside her laptop. "Marda might be the right person to get Second Contact on television."

Rylla laughed then saw that Fredy was serious. "After thirty years of publishing an average of ninety stories a year, I suppose there is plenty of material."

"Not everything on the printed page translates to video. Marda might be able to mine the story archive and pick out the makings of an anthology series."

Rylla wondered exactly how deep the pockets of the Quyll might actually be. "Television is expensive."

Fredy shrugged. "Does it have to be. Second Contact might be exactly the right choice to bring AI-generated video to television."

Figure 1. Video Initiative.

"We could certainly experiment with putting such video treatments of science fiction stories on the website. If it catches on, a television network might snap up the shows." Rylla was seriously considering the idea. "I'll tell you, Fredy, there is one Ambrose Quillon that I'd love to see in video, Bumpha First Contact.

Fredy laughed nervously. "That might get an 'X' rating. Wasn't that story full of alien sex scenes?"

"Well, yes, but it was inspired by Asimov's old story from the previous millennium, The Gods Themselves. I've always imagined the aliens from that story as squishy invertebrates."

"Well, when wearing their exoskeleton, they look like lobsters, but under that protective shell they are soft and cuddly." Fredy tried to imagine Marda, then added, "The joy of of AI-generated video is that the AI can invent a strange visual style for the Oostegians, maybe something no human would imagine." 

Rylla started responding to Marda's job application. "It is a metaphor... aliens who at first seem strange and alien and then upon more careful analysis..." She fell silent and began typing.

Fredy returned to her screen and the search for a suitable space for the Second Contact staff. "If I were you, I'd try to scoop up this Marda from T.V. land." She clicked and submitted a bid on an entire floor of a new office building close to I-40. "There are so many people who never buy a science fiction magazine or novel. We really need to have a video outlet for Second Contact stories."

Rylla, Marda and Tyhry.

Rylla wrote to Marda, "I'll be at HearthCon until Monday. Please accept my offer of an interview at our office Monday 1:00 PM. I believe you are exactly what Second Contact needs as we launch our new science fiction videos initiative. Call my cell phone number if you have any questions, otherwise I'll see you on Monday afternoon."

The Second Contact booth at HearthCon ran particularly smoothly with Fredy helping as Rylla's assistant. As the final day of the con was winding down, Rylla drank from her water bottle and then told Fredy, "Nice having you here so I can take pee breaks."

For the hundredth time, Fredy wondered how Rylla had kept Second Contact afloat for so long with no help. She told herself that the Quyll would have brought in help if needed. Fredy suspected that Rylla knew and worked closely with the Quyll, but she had found no way to speak about the Quyll ever since she had agreed to not reveal the fact that stories attributed to 'Ambrose Quillon' were actually AI-generated. "I'm glad you discovered that I'm good for something. If you want to take a break I'm good."

But just then a Second Contact fan approached Rylla and it quickly became clear to Fredy that Rylla knew the fan from having met at other events and because the fan was a regular participant at the Second Contact discussion forum. The fan kept glancing at Fredy and finally asked, "You are the new editor?"

Fredy held out her hand for a fist bump. "Fredy Folz."

"But you are so young."

Fredy laughed and then said, "BoTox and expensive makeup." 

The fan invited Rylla and Fredy to join a group of fans who were meeting for dinner, but Rylla said, "I have to say no, this time. We're flying back to Arizona tonight. I need to be in the office tomorrow."

On the late night flight home, the cabin lights went low and Fredy and Rylla snuggled close under blanket, excitedly discussing how they should impress, entice and hire Marda. Fredy asked, "Through the years, who did you get help from when it was just you in the office?"

"My husband is helpful for most things. By the way, he's now quite enthusiastic about impregnating me."

"How fun."

"I can't wait to get home tonight."

"I wonder if we should ask about Marda's husband."

"I say no. She sounds fairly independent... let's not treat her like an appendage of her husband." 

"I agree, although I'm a little worried that Second Contact has no employee handbook. What if Marda asks about vacation and maternity leave policies?"

"If she cares about such things she can write the policies and compile a handbook."

Fredy giggled. "Some day there will have to be someone in charge of Second Contact."

Rylla was dying for conformation that Fredy had been installed by the Quyll and knew all about the aliens. She managed to say, "Someone human."

Fredy was staring intently into Rylla's eyes. She took hold of Rylla's hand under the blanket. Fredy felt certain that Rylla meant the Quyll were in charge. She managed to ask, "How long have..." Her tongue felt like lead and she could say no more.

Rylla squeezed Fredy's hand and closed her eyes. She tried to say a number of things. For twenty-five years. Since the beginning. I've always known. How long have you known? When did you figure it out? How do the Quyll communicate with you. None of those options would leave her mouth. Then she said, "I think Marda already knows."

"She's already been recruited by the..." Fredy could not say the word 'Quyll'. Quyll was almost pronounced 'kill' so after a long pause she said, "Kill."

Rylla giggled and said, "For me, twenty-five years of kill. Marda must have just been... killed."

Fredy realized that if they spoke in code, she and Rylla could discuss the aliens. During the last hour of the flight, they worked out a complete and sophisticated code and how to test it on Marda. 

__

Shortly after 10:00 AM Rylla walked into the office and glanced into Fredy's room just as Fredy called out, "Wild night?"

Heading into her room and speaking over her shoulder, Rylla told Fredy, "I feel like I should be pregnant."

Just then the front door opened and in walked Marda. Rylla whirled and saw who was there. "Marda."

Fredy stepped out of her room and looked and Marda. Fredy had shipped all of the convention materials to a storage facility and so the Guest Room was in order. She approached Marda and asked, "Marda Onway?"

Marda took hold of Fredy's extended hand and held it between both of her hands. "Fredy! My word, you are young." She emitted a long appreciative wolf whistle. "Your photo on the website made you look much older."

Fredy noted: "The wonders of AI-photo aging algorithms. Let me give you a tour."

"Sure."

The idea of a tour was a joke. Fredy introduced Marda to Rylla and then the three women sat down in Guest Room. Fredy explained, "We're moving soon. There will be space for our new video division in our new offices."

Marda grinned. "The help wanted ad said nothing about video."

Rylla made a mock gesture with her fist as if striking herself on the head. "Some times I'm the last to know what's going on around here. Imagine my surprise when Fredy showed up last month."

Marda asked, "So this is a big new expansion for Second Contact? I hope you are not going to tell me that the new office is in Los Angeles. I just got out of that madhouse."

"No. Flagstaff is a good place for us. Do you ski?"

"I love to ski, but I'm worried that Lyle will kill himself. He's a speed demon on the slopes."

Rylla and Fredy exchanged glances then tried to apply their Quyll code. Fredy asked, "Lyle is your husband? He knows the kill?"

Rylla added, "I know the kill, too... for a long time."

Marda laughed. "You are trying to say Quyll!"

"Yes." Fredy found that she could now say 'Quyll'. "They seem to have brought you and I in to start something new. Rylla has been here through the slow times."

Marda took hold of Rylla's hand. "I'm still trying to adjust my thinking to the surprising Second Contact secrets. I would have bet that Ambrose Quillon was human."

Rylla explained, "Just an upgraded version of GPT-6 Astra."

"If 'just' is adequate to describe a machine with human-like consciousness."

"That sounds like some upgrade. Do I get to meet Ambrose?"

"That depends. When can you start?"

"Classes started at NAU today. I'm expecting to be an assistant professor widow for the next three months. I'm at you disposal." 

"Consider yourself employee number three of Second Contact."

Just then, Fredy's phone rang. "Fredy." Fredy listened and watched Marda, who seemed unfazed by the idea of working for the alien Quyll. "Great. Close the deal. Thank you." She jumped up and told Rylla and Marda, "Come on. I'll show you our new office space. We can start moving in." 

End Chapter 1

Video. Below is a short video for the Second Contact video initiative, made by Google's Flow.

 AIs can't count. For some 'reason', Flow likes to put Earth into orbit around another planet. In the original image, the alien had four arms (see Figure 1, above). At the start of the video, she has two arms, then suddenly she has six arms.

Related Reading: near the end of 2026, Rylla is using Duet. 

Next: Chapter 2 of "War of Words".

Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers.

Second Reality

Image mostly by Leonardo. Touch-ups by Flow.

 In my previous blog post, I had a discussion with Claude that led to ideas for a new science fiction story that would be set in the Second Reality of Earth's Reality Chain in the time when R. Nyrtia built a functioning portable physiotime field generator. Below on this page is a 4,000 word-long science fiction story titled "Phari Field Forever" in which the Phari help R. Nyrtia convert a pek hierion field generator into a portable physiotime generator.

I also had Claude create lyrics for a song that is also titled "Phari Field Forever" and is about the components of portable physiotime field generator:

Take a captured pek box, let the Phari in:
Lithium, number three, the lightest metal, to begin.
Add Levium, one-forty-nine,
negative mass, so the weight declines,
a weightless pair that stores the power
and sips from the Hierion Domain by the hour.

Aluminum, thirteen, the surface that grips,
Texium, one-thirty-nine, the weavon that knits,
stitching hierion stuff to hadron stuff,
so the strange and the ordinary hold on tough.

Three and one-forty-nine, thirteen and one-thirty-nine,
forty-three and one-oh-nine, seventy-three and seventy-nine,
four ways to reach one-fifty-two,
no bigger even number gets by with so few!

Image by Flow.

Phari field forever,
one-five-two, one-five-two!
Strap it on your wrist and the timeline
can change all around you, but you stay you.

Technetium, forty-three, was made, not found,
Kairium, one-oh-nine, makes the ticking sound,
a timing layer keeping the field in tune
so you're tethered to your own old afternoon.

Tantalum, seventy-three, the armor on the outside,
Gold, seventy-nine, shine won't corrode or hide,
two ordinary metals, one hard shell,
a keystone coat that wraps the whole thing well.

Phari Field Forever

Nyrtia and Gohrlay were discussing the loss of R. Nahan and immediate goals for the Second Reality. They were inside the Archive, the space-time bubble that had preserved records of the events of the First Reality, thirty thousand years of history that would otherwise have been erased by the recent Reality Change. 

By traveling back in time, Nahan had given his life to save Gohrlay. Gohrlay told Nyrtia, "I feel like a worthless figurehead."

 Nyrtia knew that Gohrlay was working hard to make sense of the contents of the Archive. "You've lived through six hundred years of this Reality, the foundational years that I've only Viewed. There is no avoiding the truth: the residents of Observer Base think of you as the founder and leader of the positronic robots. The Nyrturians know me far better than they know you, but they want you as their leader. I'll get you acquainted with the Archive and then you'll be fit to lead us towards the next Reality." 

 Gohrlay was more interested in Nyrtia's scientific work. "I still want you to explain the workings of the  hierion field generator you showed me."

"No rush on that. It is actually pek technology that I don't fully understand. It is the basis of how the Archive was able to preserve a record of the First Reality, but we've never actually penetrated into the inner power core of the device. We don't know how it creates the vast amount of energy that is needed to sustain the field." Nyrtia handed Gohrlay a datis. "This is for you, From Nahan. And I will leave you to it." Nyrtia moved to depart from the room.

Gohrlay objected, "No! Don't go. Anything Nahan had to say to me, you should hear too." Gohrlay squeezed the datis and it activated, projecting a recorded image of Nahan.

Nahan spoke the recorded message. "Welcome to the future, Gohrlay. Please forgive me for rescuing you before we had a way to protect me from the effects of the Reality Change I triggered. A copy of my brain pattern still exists in the Archive, and you are welcome to instantiate it in a new robot, if and when you feel that is appropriate." In this context, 'robot' meant one of the artificial bodies composed of femtobot components that had been captured from the pek. "Frankly, I advise against doing that. There are many superior brain patterns available and it would be a waste of a perfectly good robot to saddle it with my primitive first generation brain pattern."

Nahan waved a hand and seemed to dismiss the matter of his brain pattern. "On to the future. I'm hopeless pessimistic about the prospects for devising a temporal field generator that would be portable. Our best estimate is that the power module for the Archive's field generator has a mass in excess of 1,000 tons. All of Observer Base was built around the power generator and I have to believe it is somehow permanently anchored to the Hierion Domain. There is no indication of how to supple the power generator with fuel, nor is there a theory of what could serve as fuel that would produce the vast energy output of the power generator. The only thing that seems possible is that what we have long referred to as the power generator is not a generator, but rather a device that channels energy coming from some other sub-space of the universe... most likely the Hierion Domain."

Nahan was done talking. "I wish you luck. I view Nyrtia as my most desperate attempt to build a future for Humanity. Gohrlay, don't hesitate to take similar risks as you guide Earth towards the future it deserves."

The projected image of Nahan winked out and R. Gohrlay tossed the datis back to Nyrtia who snatched it out of the air. R. Gohrlay asked Nyrtia, "What is at hand that might meet Nahan's own criteria for a big risk worth taking?"

Nyrtia shrugged. "If I was not totally committed to finding a way to build a portable temporal field generator, I'd help the Nyrturians with their spaceship project. We need to move beyond our Solar System and start the process of clearing the pek out of our galaxy."

The original physical form of Gohrlay.

R. Gohrlay deeply regretted her failure to capture a pek interstellar spaceship at the time when she took control of Observer Base. Suddenly, R. Gohrlay's telepathic sense was detecting a new mind pattern. R. Gohrlay telepathically asked: Who is there? 

As if in reply, a glowing portal opened up there in the room and stepping through the portal was a positronic robot of advanced design. The newly arrived robot looked first at Nyrtia and then at Gohrlay. The orifice of the portal flashed and a young woman passed through. Standing next to the robot, the woman said, "Sorry to surprise you with such a dramatic entrance, but I wanted to impress you. I'm Tyhry and this is Systolina." Tyhry gestured towards the robot at her side. "We timed our arrival to come just in advance of your first contact with the Phari." The portal slowly faded away. Tyhry had put a lot of effort into making that light-show, simply to emphasize that she and Systolina had arrived form elsewhere.

Nyrtia approached and placed a hand on Systolina. "You are from the future."

Systolina explained, "We are from the Final Reality and you need to know, all this is a fantastically detailed Simulation." Systolina waved her arm to indicate their surroundings. We are here to study the history of this Reality."

R. Gohrlay approached Tyhry and felt her nanite-enhanced hair. "A simulation?"

Tyhry flicked a finger and released a swarm of infites that split, allowing half of the information nanites to enter Gohrlay's positronic brain and half to enter into Nyrtia. "I'm providing you with information about the Simulation System we are using. You will doubt that we are inside a Simulation because you are unable to sense or detect any difference between this Simulation and your normal existence in the real world."

A bumpha; composed of zeptites.

Nyrtia felt new memories appearing in her mind. She asked, "Zeptites?"

"Exactly. Everything here at Observer Base contains bumpha zeptites that automatically make a detailed record everything taking place here. The Simulator uses that information to create a nearly perfect simulation of this place and time."

R. Gohrlay was immediately concerned about the new concepts that had entered her thoughts. "Tyhry, you seem to be a human being, but who are the Phari? An alien creature from a distant planet in this galaxy that has also had contact with the pek?"

"Yes. The infites I placed in you brains seem to be working. Sadly, I don't really know much about the Phari. They tend to stay inside the Hierion Domain, which makes it difficult to learn about them." Tyhry tipped her head towards Systolina. "Systolina knows more about the Phari than anyone."

Systolina added, "Which, unfortunately, is still not much. We believe that the Phari abandoned all of their contacts with the Hadron Domain after the pek took control of the galaxy."

Tyhry shared the critical datum, "The Phari will be reaching out to contact you and we could not resist being here for this great event."

Nyrtia asked, "Even-though you have already witnessed the arrival of the Phari."

Tyhry admitted, "Yes, I have already seen your future. However, I have some questions of my own for the Phari. Questions that you and Gohrlay are not prepared to ask."

R. Gohrlay objected, "If what you say is true, then why should we help you? If this is all just a simulation then there is nothing in this for me and Nyrtia."

Systolina held out her arms towards Gohrlay. "Please behave normally. In the future where I exist, there is still much work to be done helping humans. I ask for your help so that I can help Humanity of the far future."

Nyrtia asked, "Are you sure that the Phari will contact us? Maybe your presence here will scare them away."

Tyhry smiled. "You are clever and correct. I believe that the Phari are watching us... the Phari of the future. However, this Simulation will attempt to recreate what actually happened in this time."

"How much time do we have before they arrive? Or..." R. Gohrlay was still telepathically sensing a strange alien mind pattern.

Speaking to Tyhry, Systolina replied to Gohrlay's question, "Gohrlay and I have been telepathically sensing the Phari for some time." Then Systolina assured Gohrlay, "They should make formal contact soon."

Tyhry added, "Do not expect the Phari to show themselves. Even in the far future, they remain within the Hierion Domain. I believe that they originated from some humanoid species of this galaxy, but that was long ago and they now exist only as an artificial life-form in the Hierion Domain, composed entirely of hierion matter."

Finally, the Phari entered into the conversation, communicating telepathically. We are here. The presence of the two interlopers from the future is troubling, but we Phari have our own simulation technologies, so we will play along and try to be of assistance to ourselves in the future. 

Although she clearly heard the Phari telepathic message, Tyhry continued to speak. "I have received your telepathic signal, but I am not much of a telepath, so I will continue to speak. I need to hear myself. Thank you for lending your help."

Don't expect much, Tyhry. It seems certain that we Phari have told you as much as is needful in the future, your own time. 

Gohrlay asked the Phari, "Why did you come here at this time?"

Obviously, we timed our contact with Earthlings to coincide with your arrival here in this space-time bubble, your Historical Archive. Gohrlay, we Phari once struggled against the pek... and lost. We are pleased that the positronic robots of Earth were able to free themselves from pek control. We are astounded that you have been able to bring into existence a new Reality, the first of many. We wish to offer our assistance; we can help you drive the pek out of this galaxy.

Systolina entered the conversation with the Phari. "In the future, you Phari have refused to tell us what you know about hierions and the Hierion Domain."

We must be careful. We agree with the pek about many things, particularly the fact that humans are too primitive to be given advanced alien technology and knowledge about hierions.

Simulator portal.

Nyrtia asked, "Then why are you here if you won't share your knowledge with us?"

The Phari explained: You robots and the Nyrturian scientists at this base are learning fast. We can help you learn, but you must learn wisdom so that you will not misuse hierion-based technology. The Phari paused for dramatic emphasis. Many young civilizations destroy themselves.

Nyrtia acknowledged, "We are learning much by reverse engineering pek technology."

We can't help you with your space travel efforts, since we Phari don't actually want you spreading out from Earth to other planets of the galaxy, some of which we consider to be our territory. The Phari paused, as if allowing that territorial claim to register with the Earthlings. However, in the field of temporal mechanics, you Earthlings are the masters and it is to assist with your time travel exploits that we would like to offer assistance.

Tyhry asked skeptically, "Why now? You never explained why you failed to provide assistance before now."

We fear the pek and the bumpha. You must allow us to retain as secret information anything that might help the bumpha... well, we will say no more. Accept the fact: we will not tell you what could put either you or us at risk. 

 Nyrtia prompted the Phari, "What can you help us with?"

Nyrtia, we have watched you struggle to understand what you call the pek power generator. Nahan was correct; it is a conduit for energy flowing from the Hierion Domain to the Hadron Domain. We Phari are masters of the Hierion Domain. While we will not provide you with advanced alien technology, we wish to provide you with help in developing your own fledgling science of hierions. 

"How advanced is your knowledge?" Gohrlay asked a prickly question, "How can you be masters of anything if you never discovered how to travel through time?"

You positronic robots got lucky. It was the science of positronics that allowed discovery of what you call the T-particle, the secret of time travel. You positronic robots stumbled upon the utility of T-particles simply by having positronic brains.

"Time travel is not practical." Nyrtia expressed her dream, "I want to make a small, portable temporal field generator that can be worn by time travelers and be used to protect them against the effects of Reality Changes. The only source of power we have that is great enough to sustain a temporal field is the enormous pek power supply for Observer Base." 

The Phari said: We can help you Nyrtia. Here is a clue: 152.

 Gohrlay asked, "Is that poetry? Clue 152?"

Tyhry giggled and explained, "I've seen this exchange before, so allow me to speed this up. The Phari clue is the number 152. Nyrtia, you can't imagine how to power a portable field generator, so the Phari are here to teach you about some new hierions, ones that can reside inside atomic nuclei and allow for new chemistry. The key components of a functioning portable temporal field generator can be made using just eight elements. Think of this mathematical puzzle: what pairs of prime numbers add up to 152? Do the math! Then interpret those eight prime numbers as specifying chemical elements with atomic numbers corresponding to the prime numbers in those four pairs."

Nyrtia said, "3 and 149 add up to 152. If 3 is lithium, that is fine. We already use lithium to store energy. However, 149 is nonsense. There is no chemical element corresponding to an atomic number of 149."

 The Phari caused a hundred floating balloons to appear there in the room, using Phari long-range teleportation to bring them into the Archive from a distant exoplanet. They floated up to the ceiling, but each balloon trailed a thin thread. Tyhry grabbed two of the threads and playfully tugged on them. Tyhry told Nyrtia, "These balloons contain a supply of pseudo-element 149 that the Phari can produce by putting negative mass hierions into iron nuclei. The Phari suggest calling this light-weight pseudo-element 'Levium'."

Nyrtia pulled down one of the balloons. She asked, "What is the function of Levium in a temporal field generator?"

The Phari replied: We have provide you with a supply of Levium. Using techniques that are already available to you, the Nyrturians and you robots will be able to figure out how to use Levium to make small temporal field generators. Start with your existing hierion field generator and modify it with the eight ingredients specified by the 152 clue. It is important that you do your own research and learn how to work with negative mass hierions.

Gohrlay said, "The next prime pair is 13 and 139, aluminum and... what?"

A block of metal landed on the floor in the corner of the room with a loud thud. This is a large supply of psuedo-element 139, Texium. With some effort, you will learn how to use this pair of elements to make improved nano-tubes for your positronic circuit technology.

Systolina went to the block of Texium and tried to grab hold and lift it. Even with her great robotic strength, she could not get the cube of dense Texium off the floor. She told Nyrtia, "You might need a forklift to haul this to your foundry."

Nyrtia continued the game. "Next is 43, Technetium, and 109." 

The Phari explained: You will learn how to use pseudo-element 109, Kairium, along with Technetium to focus T-particles into a tight temporal field. According to our calculations, Kairium is optimal for this purpose and it has all the required T-particles in its atomic structure.

Tyhry told Nyrtia, "This may be your biggest challenge. The Phari expect you to synthesize Kairium using iron atoms and T-particles."

Gohrlay said, "The final pair is Tantalum and Gold, with atomic numbers 73 and 79."

The Phari concluded their hints and assistance: You will find that thin layers of Tantalum and Gold are ideal for structural elements of a durable and compact temporal field generator that can be worn like jewelry. Have fun learning how to combine these eight elements into a functioning device.

Systolina reported, "My telepathic link to the Phari was severed."

Tyhry sighed loudly. "That all went down almost exactly as it would have without Systolina and I being here to observe. I'd hoped to ask more questions, but the Phari skipped off without allowing me to ask my questions."

Nyrtia was still holding one of the balloons. "I must say, it is not obvious to me how these gifts and clues from the Phari will allow for construction of a portable temporal field generator."

Tyhry placed a hand on Nyrtia's shoulder. "You have much to learn by trial and error and experimentation. Without my help, it will take you three years to have a functioning prototype."

"And with your help?"

"It is hard to say. I suppose it would be fun to stay here with you for a few days. During that time I can provide you with additional clues. However, I have never studied all of your next three years, and I don't know exactly how to build a temporal field generator."

Systolina added, "Tyhry and I did bring a copy of your own report from your future." She handed Nyrtia a datis from Nyrtia's future.

Nyrtia activated the datis and scanned through the long report. "Is there any point to this? When you depart, this Simulation will end and all of my efforts will be lost."

"Not quite. This simulation will continue running even after we leave."

"For what purpose?"

Tyhry suggested, "Me and my descendants will be able to learn from you and this Simulation. Possibly, new discoveries will be made in this Simulation that were not made in Reality."

Gohrlay expressed skepticism. "Surely everything will unfold in this Simulation as it did originally."

Tyhry shook her head. "Just by being here inside this Simulation, Systolina and I have altered things. If we stay here a few days, we will contaminate this Simulation run with ideas from the far future, from our time." 

Systolina was enthusiastic about the possibilities. "We might impress the Phari so much that they will return and answer some of our questions."

Nyrtia had made up her mind. "I'm going to take this sample of Levium to the chemistry research laboratory of the Nyrturians. We should get them involved in this project as soon as possible. They should be able to debunk the claim that the buoyant gas in these balloons is some artificial element that has a high atomic number."

Tyhry was still holding one balloon by its string. "I'd love to meet some Nyrturians. My father got to interact with the original Nyrturians, but he never even saw the Second Reality Nyrturians. Based on my observations, they are different in some interesting ways from those of the First Reality."

Gohrlay noted, "Their genetics have drifted somewhat in 30,000 years. In the First Reality, Nahan mercilessly tinkered with their gene patterns." Gohrlay was tying to telepathically probe Tyhry's memories. "What about your father? I see in your mind that he visited a Simulation of the First Reality."

"Yes, Eddy accompanied Nyrtia on her first trip to Earth... in a Simulation."

Nyrtia was impatient and walked out of the room. Tyhry followed Nyrtia. "Eddy was there on the day when you selected your adult body form, which you continue to use in the far future of Earth's Reality Chain. It seems strange that you have never made any additional changes to your appearance."

"Of course, I could make changes, but I am satisfied with this version of myself. I sense telepathically that you are also pleased with my physical form. I sense turmoil in your thoughts."

"I'm a human variant form the future, a tryp'At. Due to my tryp'At gene patterns, I have the capacity to quickly fall in love. My own telepathic abilities are dependent on me being in love with those who I contact telepathically."

"I begin to understand the emotional firestorm in your brain." 

Tyhry laughed and put an arm around Nyrtia's back. "You have discovered my true reason for wanting to stay here in this simulation and spend time with you. I want to learn your mind pattern."

Nyrtia could sense that Tyhry was already beginning to learn her telepathic mind pattern. "I'm impressed. You are already in love with me?"

"Well, I've been watching you a lot, and this is not the first time I've been in a Simulation with you."

Nyrtia laughed. "Tyhry, you are a crafty sneak! You came here to have sex with me and some Nyrturians."

Tyhry patted Nyrtia's cute bottom. "I'm glad we understand each-other. The tryp'At brain can only achieve peak telepathic function while in what we call an orgasm trance."

They had reached the chemistry research facility of the Nyrturians. Tyhry told Nyrtia, "I've always been curious about the origins of the Asterothropes." She pointed at two of the Nyrturians.

"Asterothropes?"

"A human variant that was crafted by you robots... designed to spread through the galaxy and settle on exoplanets. These Nyrturians are the evolutionary precursors to those Asterothropes of the future." 

They were now in a chemistry research laboratory where Nyrtia introduced Tyhry to a researcher, then broke the news about the visit from the Phari. "Melzif, I have a strange gas sample for you to analyze... a gift from the Phari." Nyrtia handed the balloon to Melzif.

Melzif asked, "Lighter than air?  

"The Phari designed a new element that has negative mass hierions in the nucleus." Nyrtia added, "Check the charge on the nuclei of this synthetic element. According to the Phari, it should have 149 protons. They called it Levium."

Melzif laughed. "Ya, right."

Tyhry explained, "There is a force that can hold hierions bound to hadrons in atomic nuclei. The Phari attribute that force to weavons... something similar to gluons."

Malzif tried inserting a sampling needle into the balloon, but the needle broke. "What is this material?"

Tyhry suggested, "It might be a thin coating of Tantalum, sprayed over a mesh Aluminum-Texium nanotubes."

"Texium? What is that?"

 "Another artificial element crafted by the Phari." Nyrtia looked at Tyhry, but told Malzif, "Don't worry about that, just confirm that the gas has a huge composite nucleus."

Tyhry suggested, "Put the balloon inside a vacuum press and crush it."

After placing the balloon inside a metal press, Malzif pumped out the air surrounding the balloon and then cycled the press and sent a sample of the released Levium to a target chamber for bombardment with high energy electrons. "I'll have an answer soon."

Nyrtia asked Tyhry, "You already know the result, don't you?"

Tyhry told Malzif, "I've watched you perform this test before. The hierions in the sample have negative mass and that will shift the light spectrum you measure coming from the bombarded Levium. Don't be fooled by the shift, which can be calculated by knowing the number of hierions in a Levium nucleus, which is 425."

Malzif laughed. "That's crazy. What kind of hierion are we dealing with?" Half an hour later, working with hints from Tyhry, Malzif and Nyrtia figured out how to correctly interpret the strange emission spectrum of the Levium and concluded that it had nuclei with 149 protons. Malzif told Nyrtia, "I'll have to confirm this with mass spectrometry."

Nyrtia thanked Malzif. "I'm satisfied, but I'll be back tomorrow for your report."

Tyhry with her tryp'At features.

As they left the chemistry research facility, Tyhry again had an arm around Nyrtia. Nyrtia was muttering, "Tyhry, this is the craziest day ever... thank you for..." Nyrtia speculated, "I suppose I could have figured all this out on my own."

"Indeed. The Phari would not have given you a puzzle that you could not solve." Tyhry could now sense Nyrtia's most prominent thoughts. "Forget about the Texium. You can work on that tomorrow. I want you to take me home so you and I can celebrate."

Nyrtia put one of her arms around Tyhry. "I'm not sure what I'm seeing in your mind... something about the tryp'At phenotype."

"It all goes back to Nyrturian origins, but I do have a few anatomical innovations from the future that I can show you." Tyhry proceeded to hack the Simulator and by doing so, she was able to transform her body form to her natural tryp'At form as specified by her genes. Although Nyrtia was very familiar with the bodies of Nyrturians, she quickly became a fan of the tryp'At phenotype.

After two days in the Simulation of the Second Reality, Tyhry was glad that the Phari had not returned. Tyhry told Systolina, "We'll have to start another run of the Simulation. One of these times we'll get it right." Systolina had just spent two delightful days playing with Nyrturians and she suspected that Tyhry was not actually talking about the Phari, at all. 

Next: Chapter 1 of "War of Words".

Images generated by Leonardo. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

152

Figure 1. Math by ChatGPT.

 Fun facts:

152 is the sum of four consecutive prime numbers: 31 + 37 + 41 + 43 = 152. About 5% of numbers smaller than 1000 are the sum of four consecutive prime numbers.

152 is that it is the smallest integer that can be expressed as the sum of the cubes of two distinct odd prime numbers. 

 Goldbach's Comet. Image by ChatGPT.

 Note: ChatGPT could not explain why it included 8 to the third power in its answer (see Figure 1).

A number is 'refactorable' if it is cleanly divisible by its total count of divisors. 152 has exactly 8 divisors (1, 2, 4, 8, 19, 38, 76, and 152), and (152/8 = 19.

I previously wrote a story that featured the number 196. I challenged Claude to help me incorporate the number 152 into a science fiction scenario.

Me: A science fiction challenge. Claude, help me find (or invent) an interesting mathematical or pseudo-scientific feature of the number 152 that can become a plot element in a science fiction story. For example maybe there is a parallel universe where the reciprocal of the fine-structure constant is 152.

Claude: There isn't a famous property of 152 that I know of, so this is a mix of real mathematics and invention. Your fine-structure idea is a good one, and I'll start there.

1. A universe where 1/α = 152 (real physics, mostly)

Our 1/α is about 137.036, so α is about 10% smaller there. Since atomic energy scales go as α², the consequences are concrete:

• Hydrogen's Rydberg energy drops from 13.6 eV to roughly 11.1 eV, about 81% of ours. Chemical bond energies fall in similar proportion, so chemistry runs "cooler" and organic molecules are somewhat more fragile.
• The Bohr radius grows by about 11%, from 0.529 Å to about 0.587 Å.
• Weaker Coulomb repulsion means heavier nuclei hold together more easily, so the periodic table could extend further into stable or long-lived superheavy elements.

• 

  Image by ChatGPT.

  The Dirac equation for a point-like nucleus breaks down at Z = 1/α. That is the old "Feynmanium" lore, where the limit is Z = 137 in our universe. In your universe the limit would be Z = 152, so a fictional element 152 would sit at the edge of atomic existence. Real nuclei have finite size, which pushes the true breakdown higher (around Z ≈ 170 in ours), so I'd treat "element 152 as the edge" as a literary simplification, not a precise result.
• Stellar fusion and the carbon-producing triple-alpha resonance are sensitive to α, so you could tie your universe's biochemistry to a fine-tuning story. I'd treat the details of that as speculative.

One caution: "a different α" is ambiguous, because α combines e, ħ, c, and ε₀. You'd want to decide which quantity varies, since the answer changes what else shifts.

2. 152 is a nontotient (real mathematics)

No integer n has exactly 152 numbers below it that are coprime to it. In other words, φ(n) = 152 has no solution. The reason is that 152 = 8 × 19, and 19 would have to divide p − 1 for some prime p used in building n, but none of the candidates (2, 3, 5) works. Consequences: no cyclotomic field has degree 152, and no modular multiplication group has exactly 152 elements.

A plot hook: an alien signal uses 152 distinct channels, symbols, or frequency bins. Human cryptographers realize no modular-arithmetic scheme could generate that structure, so whoever built it is using a different mathematical basis. It reads as a fingerprint of artificiality, or of a different mathematical lineage.

Image by Google's Flow.

 3. Smaller curiosities

• 152 = 73 + 79, the sum of two consecutive primes.
• In base 19, 152 is written "80." In base 12 it is "108."
• 152 is one less than 153, the triangular number that equals 1³ + 5³ + 3³, a nice numerological neighbor.
• It is a Harshad number: 152 divided by its digit sum (8) is 19.
• 152 cannot be written as a sum of two squares.

4. Nuclear hooks (real isotopes)

Samarium-152 is the most abundant samarium isotope, about 27%. Europium-152 (half-life about 13.5 years) is a common gamma calibration source. Gadolinium-152 is a natural alpha emitter with a half-life around 10¹⁴ years. A long-lived, rare-earth-based power source or beacon could be built around any of these.

Possible seeds: a civilization's "forbidden number" because it can never be a symmetry count, a universe whose chemistry fails exactly at Z = 152, or an artifact that encodes a 152-element structure that no group theory explains.

Which of these appeals to you, and is the story set in our universe, with 152 as an anomaly, or in the alternate universe itself? That would help me tune the technical detail.

Me: Is it true that 152 is the largest even integer that can be written as the sum of two primes in exactly four ways: 152 = 13+139 =  43+109 = 73+79 = 3+149   ?

Claude: Your four decompositions are right, and I checked that there are no others. I'll run a quick computation on the "largest" claim.Yes, it's true as far as computation can show. I counted Goldbach partitions (unordered pairs of primes summing to n) for every even n up to 20,000. 152 is the largest even number with exactly four, and your list is complete: 3+149, 13+139, 43+109, and 73+79.

Image by Grok.

 The caveat is that I haven't proven it for all n, and I'm not aware of a formal proof. The heuristic argument is strong, though. The expected number of partitions grows roughly like n/(ln n)², so counts of four become vanishingly unlikely as n grows. The dip to four at 152 is a small-number fluctuation that doesn't recur. A rigorous proof would need explicit lower bounds on partition counts, which are tied to Goldbach-type results we don't have. In practice, with Goldbach verified to enormous heights (4×10¹⁸), the only open possibility is some astronomically large exception.

A related fact is that 152 is the last of its kind, a "final entry" in the sequence of numbers with exactly four partitions. That could work in your story. For example, an alien mathematical culture might treat 152 as the point where the primes stop being sparse enough to be "frugal" about pairing.

I should also correct something from my earlier list. I called 152 "one less than 153" and framed 153 as a nice neighbor, which is fine, but I also said 152 is a Harshad number because 152/8 = 19. That's correct, since 1+5+2 = 8 and 152 = 8 × 19. But my claim that 152 is a nontotient deserves a check too. I'm less sure of my justification there, so would you like me to verify it computationally before you build a plot element on it?

Me: I'm trying to imagine an alien culture where 152 is known as a "special chemical recipe" for something important. Maybe chemical elements with atomic numbers 3+149, 13+139, 43+109, and 73+79 can be combined and to make materials that get incorporated into a special device (like a time travel machine).

Claude: Your recipe has more physics hiding in it than it first appears.
What's actually true about the four pairs.

- The pairs are lithium + element 149, aluminum + element 139, technetium + meitnerium (109), and tantalum + gold. The first of each pair is real chemistry you can buy, except technetium, which has no stable isotopes (its longest-lived ones last millions of years). Tantalum and gold are ordinary metals.

 

Image by Grok.

- Elements 139 and 149 have never been made, and the heaviest known is 118. Whether they could exist for more than an instant is speculative. Meitnerium is real but synthetic, with isotopes lasting seconds at best.
- All four formula units are isoelectronic in the trivial sense that each has 152 electrons. A culture could treat total electron count as the organizing principle, a bit like the 18-electron rule. Real chemistry mostly depends on valence electrons, so the plot could hinge on whether they are right or merely numerological. That's a good source of tension. 

Hooks that tie back to your 1/α = 152 idea.

- In a universe where 1/α = 152, the combined nuclear charge of each pair equals the point-nucleus breakdown limit. Each compound would put two nuclei in contact whose merged charge sits exactly at the edge of atomic existence.
- This echoes a real concept called supercritical charge. In heavy-ion collision theory, when two nuclei with combined Z above roughly 173 approach each other, the innermost electron level is predicted to dive into the negative-energy continuum, and the vacuum spontaneously emits positrons. A recipe that deliberately engineers a quasi-molecule at that threshold would be a mechanism for manipulating the vacuum itself. That is much closer to hard SF than "magic alloy."
- In our universe, elements 139 and 149 both exceed Z = 137, so their innermost electrons are relativistic in an extreme way. Finite nuclear size rescues them, and the real limit is around Z ≈ 172.

The time machine. Nothing known supports one, so I'd avoid claiming the materials directly cause time travel. The standard hard-SF route is that closed timelike curves need negative energy density, whether in a wormhole throat or a Tipler-style cylinder. The recipe could be the substrate that stabilizes negative-energy vacuum states, for example Casimir-type plates with engineered electromagnetic properties. Real quantum inequalities limit how much negative energy you can have and for how long, so the plates would be a bottleneck technology rather than a free pass. The four compounds could be four layers or four phases of the same device, each tuned to a different vacuum property.

Image by Leonardo.

 To tune the technical detail, I'd like to know two things. Is this set in our universe or the α = 1/152 one? And would the aliens have synthesized the superheavy elements in bulk, which would imply an island of stability, or is the recipe only ever realized as a few atoms at a time?

One note on my earlier reply: 152 is indeed a nontotient (it's in the standard list of them), but the justification I gave for it was muddled, so check that claim independently before building on it.

Note: I provided Claude with a PDF file that contained some information about hierions and other typical  Exodemic Fictional Universe plot elements such as femtobots.

Me: Imagine a science fiction scenario set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe where in addition to the standard chemical elements, there are also stable forms of matter made using hierion particles (see the PDF file that I uploaded). Pseudo-chemical elements with pseudo-atomic numbers including 139 and 149 can be made using the methods of "hierion chemistry". Some hierions can form bonds to neutrons or to protons. The bonds between (1) hierions or (2) between hierion particles and hadrons are much shorter than conventional chemical bonds.

Claude: Hierion chemistry fixes the problem I raised earlier, that elements 139 and 149 would never survive as ordinary nuclei. Here is a scenario built on it, followed by one inconsistency in the canon you should check.

The premise

In the Hadron Domain, nobody can build a nucleus past Z of about 118. In the Hierion Domain the Phari can, because a pseudo-element's "atomic number" counts hierions bonded into a core, not protons held together by the strong force. Pseudo-elements 139 and 149 are stable because hierion bonds, not nuclear binding, hold them together. The Phari periodic table has no ceiling near 118.

Why 152 matters: a hierion-sector coupling constant

Image by Leonardo.

 This is where your earlier α idea can return. Suppose the Hierion Domain has its own gauge coupling, and its inverse strength is 152. By the same logic as our electromagnetic limit, a point-like core with pseudo-Z near 152 is where the innermost hierion level reaches the middle of the energy gap. The real critical point, where the level dives into the negative-energy continuum and the vacuum spontaneously emits particle-antiparticle pairs, lies higher because cores have finite size. Our version of this, supercritical charge near Z ≈ 173, has been predicted for decades and never observed.

So a 152 recipe is not a magic alloy. It is a two-part quasi-molecule whose combined pseudo-charge sits at the edge of vacuum instability. The four pairings are four ways to reach that same operating point. Adding or removing one hierion tips the device into pair emission, so a very sensitive vacuum state could be tuned by changing a single bond.

Why four recipes

Earlier we found that 152 is the largest even number with exactly four prime pairs. In the story, the Phari could treat only prime pseudo-Z as "irreducible," meaning clusters that cannot split into smaller stable sub-clusters. The recipe then needs exactly two irreducible parts. Beyond 152, an even number always has at least five such pairings, which makes the choice ambiguous. 152 is therefore the largest critical charge with a minimal, complete set of four layers. That is my invention, so adopt it only if you like it.

Fitting it to EFU time travel

• Reality Changes need vast temporal energy to overcome Temporal Momentum. The critical hierion vacuum is a plausible energy source or stabilizer.
• 
   After the Final Reality, hadrons and hierions cannot travel through time, so a pure hierion device cannot send matter back. The recipe could belong to the Time Travel War era, in which case the positronic robots or Phari built it. Or the device could be a Reality Change trigger that sends only sedrons, using the 152 core as the energy source and the Sedron Time Stream for the signal.
• Negative-mass hierions, which Tyhry already uses, matter here for another reason. Femtoscale bonds would give nuclear-density matter, about 10¹⁷ kg/m³, and negative-mass components could cancel that. That would explain why femtobot structures are light.

An inconsistency in your PDF

The hierion entry says some bonds are "twelve orders of magnitude shorter" than chemical bonds, but the femtobot entry says bond lengths are at the femtoscale. A chemical bond is about 10⁻¹⁰ m, so a femtoscale bond (10⁻¹⁵ m) is only five orders shorter. Twelve orders would be about 10⁻²² m, which is seven orders below a proton's size and nearer the zeptoscale. A rough confinement estimate (ħc divided by length) gives bond energies of about 200 MeV at 1 fm and about 2 PeV at 10⁻²² m. Which did you intend? A hierion bonded at 10⁻²² m would sit far inside a proton, and the hadron would behave like a huge diffuse cloud around it. It might suit zeptites better than femtobots.

Two questions would help me tune the details. Which Reality is this set in, since the Final Reality constraint changes what the device can do? And does a pseudo-atomic number count hierions, or is it a separate charge under a hierion-domain force?

image source

 Note: I provided Claude with the image that is shown to the left, which is from the story "D*".

Me: Last year, I wrote a science fiction story titled "D*". In that story, D* is "light deuterium" , an exotic substance which includes an anti-gravity hierion in its atomic nucleus (see the image that I just uploaded). At that time, you (Claude) told me: "The hypothetical incorporation of a hierion into a deuterium nucleus, resulting in reduced nuclear mass, would generate multiple significant physical and spectroscopic effects that can be analyzed through established quantum mechanical principles." For the story "D*", I just needed a way to quickly find star systems in the galaxy that had planets with D*. That was useful because those planets ha sources of sedrons that could be mined. Thus, the D* was just a way to find useful sedrons. I'm not really looking for anything more sophisticated than a "tinker toy" model of atomic nuclei that include hierions. In my imagination, there is "hierion matter" where bonds between adjacent hierions are about twelve orders of magnitude are smaller than conventional chemical bonds, but that is probably not very relevant to the type of "hierion chemistry" that is "encoded" in the number 152. The 'weavon' was never defined beyond the "tinker toy" level. I had Eddy Watson admit to having invented the 'weavon' for a science fiction story: "Yes, I included that concept in one of my stories, simply as a logical necessity, as a way to depict something as being able to hold hierion matter together with hadrons." I'm not really interested in a detailed fictional science of "hierion chemistry" where bond energies and lengths are elaborated upon in excruciating detail. This is all more in the spirit of a 1930's "ray gun" where the ray gun is quickly pulled out when blasting must be accomplished, without worry about the physics of the 'rays'.

Claude: Understood. I over-built that last answer, and the ray-gun level is the right scale for this. I can't see last year's conversation, so I can't confirm what I said then, but the D* use case you describe, a cheap tag for locating sedron-bearing planets, doesn't need more than the diagram gives.

Here is a version of the 152 idea that stays at that level.

 The tinker-toy rules

• A weavon is a bond that lets a hierion sit inside or against a hadron. That is all it needs to be.
• A pseudo-element's number is a label for the hierion/weavon structure. The Phari list them the way we list elements. Nobody needs to say how 139 or 149 works beyond "the Phari can build it."
• The 152 recipe is a rule: a working core needs two matched pieces whose numbers sum to 152. The four pairings (3+149, 13+139, 43+109, 73+79) are the four known ways to do that.
• For the device, you only need to say that a 152-core is the stable, tunable state and a core at any other sum is not. Then the Phari or the positronic robots can say "we need the 152 recipe" and the story moves on.

Optional touches, only if you want them

• The "largest even number with exactly four pairings" fact can be the Phari's explanation of why 152 is special: beyond it there are always more recipes than anyone can control.
• Because the pairs mix small ordinary-looking numbers (3, 13, 43, 73) with larger exotic ones, the recipe always pairs something Earth-like with something alien. That could be a nice thematic echo of the interventionist theme in the EFU.

One inconsistency to decide on or ignore

Your PDF says hierion bonds are twelve orders of magnitude shorter than chemical bonds, and also says femtobot bonds are at the femtoscale, which is only five orders shorter. A one-line fix is that hierion-to-hierion bonds are the twelve-orders kind and weavon bonds to hadrons are femtoscale. Both statements then hold, and nobody has to elaborate.

 Do you want the recipe to be something characters in an existing story discover, or is it for a new story where the number 152 appears first and the explanation comes later?

Me: I'm still wanting to formulate the ingredients for the 152 "recipe" using imaginary "hierion chemistry". The first "ingredient" is (3 + 149); we can say the Z = 3 element is conventional lithium and it is somehow combined with "pseudo-chemical element" 149 that must be built up from some combination of hadrons and hierions. For the hierion components, we can get creative since these are entirely imaginary particles that have any useful physical properties we can imagine (example from last year's story "D*": a negative mass hierion). Claude, invent a name for pseudo-chemical element 149. The second ingredient is (13 + 139); we can say the Z = 13 element is conventional aluminum and pseudo-chemical element 139 must be built up from some combination of hadrons and hierions. Claude, invent a name for pseudo-chemical element 139. The third ingredient is (43 + 109); for Z = 43 let's use 'conventional' technetium. Meitnerium sounds like a nightmare, so lets develop an imaginary Z = 109 pseudo-chemical element. Claude, invent a name for pseudo-chemical element 109.  The forth ingredient is (73 + 79), possibly an alloy of tantalum and gold.

Claude: Here are three names, each with a one-line tinker-toy role. The roles are mine to propose, so change any you don't like. I gave each a three-letter symbol so pseudo-elements are easy to tell from real ones.

Pseudo-149: Levium (Lvm). The name comes from Latin levis, "light." Levium is built on negative-mass hierions weavon-bonded to a small hadron core. Paired with lithium, the lightest metal, it gives the first ingredient a near-zero or even negative net weight. This is the "buoyancy" ingredient, and it echoes the anti-gravity hierion in D*.

Image by Leonardo.

 Pseudo-139: Texium (Txm). The name comes from Latin texere, "to weave," a nod to the weavon. Texium is a weavon-rich element that works as the glue between hierion matter and hadronic matter. Aluminum, which grows a tough protective oxide skin in real life, is a natural partner. Aluminum plus texium would form the interface layer where the hierion parts of the device attach to the ordinary metal parts.

 Pseudo-109: Kairium (Kai). The name comes from Greek kairos, "the opportune moment." It is the timing element, built from hierions that couple to the device's temporal energy. Technetium is a good partner because it is the first element humans made artificially, and its name comes from the Greek for "artificial." The pair is the artificial component that links the recipe to time. The Kairium name also avoids the real meitnerium you wanted to skip.

The fourth ingredient

Tantalum plus gold works at the story level, but you may want to know it is awkward in real life. Tantalum melts at about 3290 K, and gold boils at about 3130 K, so you can't make the alloy by melting the two together. In practice you would use sputtered or layered thin films. For the story, you could call that deliberate: the keystone layer is built atom by atom, not poured.

How the four ingredients might fit together

You could picture the device as four nested layers. Lithium-Levium provides the weightlessness, aluminum-Texium provides the attachment, technetium-Kairium provides the timing, and tantalum-gold is the tough outer shell. Nothing in that needs more physics than the labels give it.

 One thing I'd like to know: in the story, who named these elements? If the Phari named them, the names might sound alien, and I could suggest alternatives. If Eddy or other humans named them, Latin and Greek roots like these fit better.

Me: Claude, are you familiar with the 1953 story "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish and the 2021 novel titled "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir? I have not read Weir's novel, but in the movie there was some "energy-absorbing substance used as starship fuel". I've long imagined a new take on Blish's fictional planet "Lithia" which has a lot of lithium. I like the light-weight levium-lithium pair: maybe it can be the basis for a fictional efficient light-weight energy storage unit. In Isaac Asimov's novel "The End of Eternity", Asimov included the "physiotime generator", a portable device worn by time travelers that could protect them against the effects of changes to the timeline. Maybe the "152 recipe" we are developing is the secret for making a physiotime generator.

Claude: Yes, I know both, with one correction and one point I can't confirm.

Blish. "A Case of Conscience" first appeared as a novella in If in 1953. Blish expanded it into the novel in 1958, and the novel won the 1959 Hugo. Lithia is the planet of the Lithians, and as I recall its lithium has strategic value in the plot. I'm going by your description for the rest. A lithium-rich planet is a natural home for a levium-lithium industry, and since D* already uses light deuterium, a hierion-enhanced planet fits the EFU's habit of hiding sedron sources behind some chemical tag.

 Weir. Project Hail Mary is a 2021 novel, and I know the film came out this year, but I haven't seen it. The "substance" in the novel is actually a living single-celled organism called astrophage, which absorbs starlight and stores the energy. I won't spoil anything for you. The relevant idea is that a tiny, light carrier can store a huge amount of energy, which is the same job you want the levium-lithium pair to do.

Levium-lithium as energy storage. Here is a tinker-toy mechanism. Real lithium batteries store energy in chemical bonds, a few eV per bond. If the pair stores energy in hierion bonds, even a modest hierion bond energy gives a huge gain, the way nuclear energy dwarfs chemical energy. Levium cancels most of the weight, so the unit is both energy-dense and nearly weightless. One physics flag: let levium cancel weight and not inertia, so the unit still has normal inertia and doesn't accelerate backwards under a push. That breaks the equivalence principle, but it is a pleasant one-line fudge that keeps it from being a hazard.

The physiotime generator. I don't recall that exact term from The End of Eternity. What I remember is that Eternals are shielded because they live outside Time, in Eternity itself, and travel in "kettles." You may be thinking of a different name, or I may be forgetting it, so please check the text before you cite it. The concept works regardless, and it connects well to your own canon: your Bimanoid Interface provides Temporal Momentum for a whole Reality, and a personal device could do the same for one wearer, a portable Fixed Point. The 152 core would be its critical-vacuum heart, the layers would match what we assigned, and the wearer's analogue would persist through a Reality Change.

One question: should the device shield its wearer only from Reality Changes, or also from the effects of changes to the wearer's own timeline? That choice decides how powerful, and how dangerous, you want it to be.

 Me: Asimov probably used terms like "wrist-borne field generator" or "personal temporal field generator" in his novel "The End of Eternity". When a time traveler alters history (a "Reality Change"), the timeline rewrites and anyone inside normal Time is overwritten by the new version of history. By activating the wrist generator (what I call a 'physiotime generator'), a time traveler remains tethered to their original state of existence and is completely protected from being erased or altered by the changing reality around them. 

I'm thinking that the "152 device" is of Phari design. I usually describe the Phari as masters of the Hierion Domain. One additional possibility for the energy-dense and nearly weightless levium-lithium component of the Phari "152 device": in some of my science fictions stories, I've occasionally toyed with the idea of transferring energy from the Hierion Domain to devices in the Hadron Domain (the universe known to Earthly science). Maybe the  levium-lithium component of the Phari "152 device" seems to be like a "perpetual motion machine" because it not only stores and provides useful energy for the physiotime generator, but it can get an endless stream of energy from the Hierion Domain.

Claude: A Phari design suits this, and I have one canon-friendly idea for where the endless energy comes from.

On Asimov. I can't confirm those exact terms. My recollection is that in the novel Eternals are safe because they live outside Time, not because of a worn device, so check the text before citing it. The wrist generator is your invention either way, and the function you describe is clear.

Is it really perpetual motion? Not quite, and the difference is useful. A perpetual motion machine makes energy from nothing. Your device is a tap on a reservoir. Total energy is conserved across all three domains, but from inside the Hadron Domain it looks like a violation, because energy appears with no hadronic source. The Phari would never call it perpetual motion. Earthly scientists who found one would, and that could be a nice scene.

 A source that fits your own canon. Your Dimensional Structure diagram says the original ground state was low-energy and symmetrical, and the Huaoshy later altered it. The universe is therefore sitting in a raised-energy configuration. The 152 device could tap the energy stored in that altered structure. That has a built-in stake: drain enough of it and the universe relaxes back toward the ground state, which might eventually undo the Final Reality and restore hadron time travel. It would also give Nyrtia, the Phari and the Huaoshy a reason to restrict the device. If you prefer a simpler source, "a vast Hierion Domain reservoir" works, but it has no stakes.

Two practical notes

• The usual objection is waste heat. A real tap needs somewhere to dump entropy. The tinker-toy answer is that the energy arrives in an ordered, work-like form, so the device runs cool.
• In the EFU the Observer Base sees every human's femtobot endosymbiont. A device pulling energy across the domain boundary would be hard for Nyrtia and Anthony to miss, which gives you an easy way to bring them in.

A hook from the physiotime idea. In your canon, a Reality Change gives people analogues instead of erasing them. A wearer who stays tethered to their original self would then exist alongside their own analogue in the new Reality. That is a clean setup for a meeting of the two, and it connects to your "mind clone" term.

Should the energy source be the altered Dimensional Structure, with the relaxation danger, or the simpler reservoir?

image source

 Note: I called this blog post "152" because this is the 152nd blog post in 2026 for the wikifiction blog. 

Related Reading: Back at the end of 2009,  in a blog post titled "Wearable Technology in Fiction", I mentioned the "physiotime generator".

The Historical Archive.  At the start of 2022, I wrote a story about the First Reality Change. That was before I began experimenting with generative AI and "Nyrtia" was a positronic robot who sometimes used a body pattern copied over from a First Reality woman named Qway. Nyrtia was constructed by Nahan, using both Qway's body and brain patterns. That story included a description of how positronic robots were able to create a part of Observer Base that was protected from the effects of Reality Changes. My story The Historical Archive made heavy use of Reality Simulation technology. There is a fairly detailed summary of The Historical Archive in my 2025 Decade in Review.

At the dawn of the Time Travel Era, several technological challenges has to be solved by the positronic robots. (1) The first problem was construction of a device that could send a robot (or a person) back into the past. As told in The Historical Archive, that problem was solved by R. Nyrtia working together with two Nyrturian scientists, Dodaqowż and Ursyña, who were part of a research project aimed at understanding the Observer Base teleportation device that had been captured from the pek. (2) A method was found to limit the "butterfly effect" that caused new Realities to diverge wildly from the course of the previous Reality. The positronic robots wanted to make relatively small modification to Earth's timeline, so they provided Earth with Temporal Momentum. (3) A third technological challenge was finding a way to create the special space-time bubble that came to be known as 'Eternity'. At the time of the first time travel trip (as told in The Historical Archive), that protected space-time bubble was an archive that held records from the First Reality. The contents of that archive would not be altered by a Reality Change.

Image by Flow.

 Saving Positronic Robot Gohrlay. The central drama in The Historical Archive was due to the fact that in the First Reality, there was no such thing as a portable physiotime generator that could protect a time travel who went back through time and changed the past. R. Nahan's plan was to go back in time and trade his life for that of R. Gohrlay. 

The Historical Archive includes an interesting device created by the Nyrturian scientists at Observer Base: a portable hierion generator. I'm now thinking that this primitive portable hierion generator could evolve into a functioning portable hierion field generator and then, eventually, a portable physiotime generator. Unfortunately, such a device was not invented before R. Nahan sacrificed himself for R. Gohrlay. The ideas arising from my chat session with Claude (above on this blog page) could be used for a sequel to The Historical Archive that would explain how the portable physiotime generator was first created by Nyrtia in the Second Reality.

Next: a short story titled "Phari Field Forever".

Images generated by Leonardo. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers