ChatGPT the Third.

Figure 1.
A woman with three
legs by ChatGPT.

In my previous blog post, I consulted with Gemini about the science fiction story "Mystery of Mönch Mountain". As usual, I found the Gemini AI rather dense when it was challenged to understand a complex science fiction story and I was left cold by Gemini's suggestion for how to continue the story. 

Here on this blog page (below) I tested ChatGPT to determine if it is better able to understand "Mystery of Mönch Mountain". I provided ChatGPT with the full text of Chapters 1-4 of the science fiction story "Mystery of Mönch Mountain".

Illustration. The image shown to the right → on this page was generated by ChatGPT. When I fed this image back to ChatGPT, the AI was unable to "see" that the woman has three legs. However, I was able to get Google's Flow to correct the image (see Figure 2 and Figure 3, below on this page).

Me: Process the uploaded file which has the text of my science fiction story titled "Mystery of Mönch Mountain". Chapter 4 of the story contains the following text: "While he swam, Eddy tried to imagine why Manny had revealed the strange events of the previous Reality to Eddy. He asked himself: And why now?" Let's discuss the answer to that question and why Manny has significantly altered conditions for the Watson family inside Casanay. Begin by listing the events that are described in the text of "Mystery of Mönch Mountain" that alter the members of the Watson family and their understanding of how the pek, bumpha and Phari secretly watch over Earth and guide Humanity into the future.

Figure 2. Corrected by Flow.

 ChatGPT: Mystery of Mönch Mountain: The Watson family's changing circumstances

I think Eddy's question, "And why now?", is an important turning point in the story. Manny has begun to reveal information that she has previously kept from Eddy, and the revelations are changing not merely what the Watson family knows, but also the relationships between the family members and the alien artificial-life entities that have been guiding Humanity.

Before considering Manny's motives, I want to establish the sequence of events in the manuscript. There is an important distinction between what the family actually discovers, what individual family members already know, and what they merely suspect.

1. Events that change the Watson family's understanding.
Chapter 1 — Tyhry discovers the extent of alien Intervention

1. Eddy discovers Nyrtia's involvement in the origins of science fiction. He finds her in 1927, disguised as Willhamena Heidrun Gray, visiting Hugo Gernsback. He realizes that the pek Overseer of Earth has been actively participating in the development of the science fiction genre.

2. Tyhry and Zeta meet Nyrtia. Tyhry discovers that she can communicate telepathically with the pek using her femtobot endosymbiont. Nyrtia, in turn, discovers that Tyhry is from 2027 and is being taught femtobot programming by Manny.

3. Nyrtia explains her purpose. She has used her literary identity to gain access to Gernsback, intending to prevent him from publishing information about the bumpha. She also admits that science fiction can be used to influence human attitudes toward extraterrestrial life. Her story, The Star of Love, is intended as a warning.

4. Tyhry learns about Gubert von Salis. Nyrtia reveals that a European scientist has contacted Gernsback with information about the bumpha. She identifies him as Gubert von Salis, but only after secretly introducing memory-control femtobots into Tyhry's brain to prevent Tyhry from discussing von Salis with Eddy.

Related music: Zeptozoan.

 5. Zeta's zeptozoan is exposed. Nyrtia recognizes that Zeta is hosting a zeptozoan, an agent of Manny that can influence human behavior. Zeta is understandably disturbed by the possibility that her apparently independent decisions have been guided by an alien intelligence.

These events establish that the Watson family is already deeply involved in alien Intervention, even though its members have not fully understood the extent of that involvement.

Chapter 2 — The letter reveals Manny's intervention

6. Tyhry discovers that Manny forged von Salis's letter. The original letter was an innocuous comment about Gernsback's editorial. The letter that actually arrived in New York contained a remarkable account of contact with the bumpha, their artificial-life nature, and their role in guiding human evolution.

7. Manny's forgery provokes Nyrtia into action. Gernsback begins revising his editorial to mention the bumpha. Nyrtia responds by using thought-control and memory-altering femtobots to suppress his knowledge of extraterrestrial visitors and time travel.

8. Eddy's own susceptibility to alien manipulation becomes more apparent. At breakfast, he recognizes that Manny has been using him to investigate the secret history of Humanity for twenty years. He is not particularly resentful because he considers his life with Zeta and the benefits he has received to have been worthwhile.

9. The family recognizes that Zeta's autonomy is complicated. Zeta begins questioning whether her financial acumen and other decisions have been influenced by Ylyndra, the zeptozoan residing in her femtobot endosymbiont.

10. Tyhry becomes increasingly suspicious of the struggle between Manny and Nyrtia. She wonders whether the two alien entities have been manipulating the development of science fiction for a century, using fiction to shape human attitudes toward extraterrestrial intelligence and advanced technology.

Chapter 3 — Systolina enters the Watson household

Systolina and Gubert.

 11. Tyhry meets Systolina in Switzerland. She discovers that Systolina is a replicoid copy of a positronic robot, a remnant of the Time Travel War. Although Systolina performs work for Nyrtia, she reveals that she is actually acting at the request of the Phari, without Nyrtia's knowledge.

12. Tyhry discovers that Systolina has been participating in the development of science fiction. Systolina has written Life Sentence, a story about using technology to conquer death, and submitted it to Gernsback under the name Walter Burch. The story appears to have become The Man Who Was.

13. Tyhry brings a copy of Systolina out of the Reality Simulation. This is a major change in the Watson household. Tyhry has acquired the ability to extract copies of simulated individuals, using technology she secretly obtained from the Ekcolir Reality.

14. Systolina confirms that Zeta is hosting Ylyndra. Zeta's body is temporarily taken over by the zeptozoan, which speaks through her vocal apparatus. Eddy is startled to discover that the mysterious influence he had suspected for years is an actual entity.

15. Tyhry recruits Systolina to help with her robotics work. She takes Systolina to her basement workshop, where Systolina learns about Tyhry's femtobot programming and the humanoid robot she is constructing.

16. Anthony is exposed as a probot. Systolina confirms Tyhry's long-standing suspicion that Anthony, the Watson family's cook and handyman, is an artificial-life agent monitoring the household for Nyrtia.

17. Systolina suspects that Manny and Nyrtia have reached an accommodation. She suggests that the two alien powers may have agreed to let Tyhry experiment with advanced femtobots, provided that her activities remain sufficiently contained.

This last observation is particularly important. Tyhry is no longer simply a human child who has accidentally acquired access to advanced alien technology. She appears to be participating in an experiment that both rival Intervention agencies are willing to tolerate.

 Chapter 4 — The family learns about its place in a much larger experiment

18. Systolina establishes a relationship with Ylyndra. At breakfast, Systolina addresses Ylyndra directly, recognizing that the zeptozoan has been guiding Zeta's behavior for decades. She encourages Ylyndra to let Zeta give Tyhry more freedom to take risks.

19. Eddy learns that his own behavior is being controlled. Ylyndra explains that Eddy does not host a zeptozoan, but that Manny has placed behavioral-control nanites in his brain. These make it impossible for him to discuss the pek and bumpha with anyone other than Zeta and Tyhry as anything other than fictional characters in his stories.

20. The family discovers that Ylyndra has an analogue in the previous Reality. Zeta visits her counterpart through the Reality Simulation System. Ylyndra establishes contact with her own analogue and discovers that Zeta's counterpart also hosted a copy of the same zeptozoan. Thus, Manny's use of Ylyndra is not an isolated experiment involving the present Zeta.

21. The family discovers the disastrous alternative history of World War II. In the previous Reality, Germany developed a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor. Hitler was assassinated, and the resulting political and military developments led to a ceasefire in Europe, the continued Pacific war, atomic bomb attacks on Tokyo and Berlin, and plutonium contamination of London and Paris.

22. Gubert von Salis is identified as a key participant in that alternative history. Through Ylyndra's knowledge of the previous Reality, Zeta learns that von Salis championed German plutonium production. Eddy recognizes that the scientist Tyhry visited in Switzerland is connected to this enormous historical divergence.

23. Eddy and Zeta discover the significance of Systolina's presence at Casa della Lanterna. Although Systolina denies knowing about von Salis's nuclear research, she had been assigned by Nyrtia to determine whether Manny was contacting him. Her presence was part of Nyrtia's surveillance operation.

Zeta, Eddy and Systolina.

 24. Manny reveals that she deliberately used Nyrtia to alter von Salis's behavior. Manny admits that she tricked Nyrtia into placing femtobots in Gubert. Nyrtia had suspected an intervention by Manny but did not know what its historical consequences would be. Manny used the resulting intervention to prevent the disastrous German plutonium program.

25. Manny admits that her own meddling caused the problem. Her manipulation of the science fiction genre led Gubert to become interested in atomic energy. In an alternative Reality, he subsequently went to Germany to study physics, helping initiate the plutonium program. Manny needed Nyrtia's intervention to repair the historical consequences of her own earlier actions.

26. Nyrtia acknowledges Manny's successful manipulation. Although unhappy at having been used, she is glad that Manny repaired the Reality. She also accepts that Systolina may remain at Casanay.

27. The family learns the purpose of Manny's genetic experiment. Manny reveals that Tyhry is the first human on Earth possessing the particular gene patterns needed to use her femtobot endosymbiont for technology-assisted telepathy. This is an important biological prerequisite for Humanity's eventual transition beyond its present biological form.

28. The Phari and bumpha reveal their different visions of human transcendence. Systolina explains that the Phari hope humans will transcend into the Hierion Domain. Manny explains that the bumpha anticipate transcendence into the Sedron Domain.

29. The Watson family learns about the tryp'At. Manny identifies Tyhry as the first member of a special human variant she calls tryp'At. Tyhry's distinctive phenotype is currently concealed by developmental-control nanites, and her descendants will inherit the special tryp'At characteristics.

 30. The family learns that Tyhry's robotics work has a much larger purpose. Manny explains that Tyhry has begun making the artificial-life helpers that will be needed for Humanity's future development. However, the Pact that ended the Time Travel War requires that Humanity first have the opportunity to spread through the galaxy.

31. The household's surveillance arrangements are reorganized. Nyrtia explicitly assigns Anthony to continue monitoring Eddy and Zeta, while Systolina assumes responsibility for monitoring Tyhry. Nyrtia accepts Systolina's presence after establishing that she is not simply acting as a puppet of the Phari.

32. Manny begins educating Tyhry about her biological identity. She explains the tryp'At phenotype and offers Tyhry the opportunity to have her genome sequenced. However, Manny also distracts Tyhry with their affectionate play, postponing a fuller explanation.

These developments culminate in Eddy's realization that Manny is still perfecting the Final Reality through temporal interventions. He understands that the previous Reality was an unintended consequence of Manny's manipulation of human history, and that Nyrtia helped repair it.

2. Why has Manny significantly altered conditions inside Casanay? I think there are three distinct changes, and they are related.

 A. Casanay has become an experimental environment. Previously, Casanay was essentially a family home in which Eddy conducted historical research, Tyhry secretly experimented with alien technology, and Zeta provided a stable domestic environment. But that description is no longer adequate. Casanay now contains:

• Eddy, a human whose behavior is partially regulated by Manny's behavioral-control nanites.
• Zeta, a human whose behavior has been guided for decades by Ylyndra.
• Tyhry, a genetically unusual human with the capacity to use technology-assisted telepathy.
• Anthony, a probot working for Nyrtia.
• Systolina, a femtobot replicoid who works with the Phari and has now assumed responsibility for monitoring Tyhry.
• Manny, who can enter Casanay whenever she wishes and directly interact with its inhabitants.
• Nyrtia, who has now explicitly approved the new arrangement.

This is no ordinary household! More importantly, the various inhabitants are not simply observers. They are participants in an ongoing biological and technological experiment.

B. The Watson family is becoming a bridge between competing forms of artificial life

This is perhaps the most consequential revelation in Chapter 4. The Phari and bumpha have different technological foundations and different ideas about Humanity's ultimate destiny.

The interesting thing is that Tyhry is potentially capable of participating in both technological traditions. Her femtobot endosymbiont provides the biological interface for technology-assisted telepathy. Her tryp'At genetic characteristics make her particularly important to Manny's experiment.

And she is already constructing artificial-life helpers. I think Manny's decision to bring Systolina into Casanay is therefore especially significant. Systolina is a product of the positronic-robot tradition, subsequently transformed into a femtobot replicoid. She has connections to the Phari, yet she is capable of cooperating with the pek. She represents a technological and historical bridge between several artificial-life traditions.

C. Manny is changing the Watson family's relationship with the pek. Previously, Nyrtia was principally a source of anxiety for Eddy and Tyhry. She represented the danger of being discovered, having memories altered, or being exiled to Observer Base. Now something quite different is happening. Nyrtia has accepted that:

• Manny is conducting a genetic experiment at Casanay.
• Tyhry is an important participant in that experiment.
• Systolina will remain with Tyhry.
• Anthony and Systolina can cooperate in monitoring the household.

 Nyrtia is no longer simply trying to prevent the Watson family from learning too much about alien Intervention. She has become an acknowledged participant in the household's arrangements. That is a substantial change in the relationship between the competing alien powers.

3. Returning to Eddy's question: Why now?

Here is my interpretation, which goes beyond what Manny explicitly explains in the manuscript. I think Manny has three reasons for revealing the events of the previous Reality at this particular moment. First, Eddy has finally become capable of understanding one of Manny's major historical interventions. For years, Eddy has been studying the secret history of Humanity using the Reality Simulation System. But he has generally concentrated on individual historical mysteries.

The Gernsback investigation has brought together several previously disconnected subjects:

• The development of science fiction.
• The secret activities of the pek and bumpha.
• The use of zeptozoans to influence human behavior.
• The manipulation of individual human lives.
• The alteration of entire historical timelines.

Eddy has now discovered that these subjects are connected. Manny is pleased that he solved the puzzle quickly. She can finally reveal the larger significance of his research.

Lyke deep.

 Second, Manny has completed a particularly important historical repair. The previous Reality demonstrates the danger of allowing apparently minor interventions to propagate through human history. Manny's manipulation of science fiction influenced Gubert von Salis. His subsequent interest in physics helped create the possibility of a German plutonium program. Manny needed Nyrtia to intervene, but she also needed to conceal her own responsibility for creating the problem. Now the historical repair has been accomplished, Manny can afford to explain what happened to Eddy.

Third, Manny is preparing the Watson family for a new stage of its involvement in human evolution. This is the most interesting possibility. Tyhry is no longer merely learning to program femtobots. She is beginning to develop the artificial-life helpers that will eventually enable Humanity to explore the galaxy and, much later, transcend biological existence. Manny has brought Systolina into Casanay, revealed Tyhry's tryp'At nature, and reorganized the household's surveillance arrangements.

These are not random developments. They suggest that Manny is moving from quietly influencing the Watson family toward allowing its members to understand their actual roles in the future of Humanity. There is also an important distinction here: Manny does not necessarily want the Watsons to understand everything. Her continuing refusal to explain how she caused Gubert to move to Berlin demonstrates that she intends to retain some secrets.

4. One particularly intriguing implication. I think there is an opportunity here to develop a theme that runs through the entire story. Manny and Nyrtia are not simply competing over who controls Humanity. They are competing over how much Humanity should know, how quickly it should develop, and what technological opportunities should be made available to it.

The Phari introduce another dimension: they are interested in Humanity's eventual transcendence into the Hierion Domain, a goal that does not necessarily coincide with the bumpha's plans. Meanwhile, the Pact ending the Time Travel War constrains all of them. Humanity must have its own great adventure, spreading through the galaxy before reaching its ultimate destiny.

 My central interpretation is that Casanay is becoming a miniature experimental environment for the future of Humanity. Eddy represents the human intellectual investigator who is gradually discovering the hidden history of his species. Zeta represents the human whose life has been quietly influenced by an alien intelligence. Tyhry represents the next evolutionary step: a human who can consciously work with artificial life and participate in the technological transformation of her species.

And Manny is the architect of this experiment. That makes Eddy's question, "And why now?", particularly appropriate. He is beginning to realize that the historical mystery he thought he was investigating is actually part of a much larger experiment in which his own family occupies a privileged position.

I would be especially interested in exploring one further question: Does Manny regard Tyhry as the beginning of a new human evolutionary lineage, or is Tyhry primarily an experimental prototype whose descendants will eventually become that lineage? The revelation about the tryp'At phenotype suggests that this distinction could become very important in subsequent chapters.

Me: In Chapter 4 of "Mystery of Mönch Mountain", Systolina says: "Given how little Tyhry and I know about femtobots, this project will take generations." Assume that there is to be a Chapter 5 of "Mystery of Mönch Mountain", an additional chapter of the story in which it is revealed that there is a way to greatly accelerate the pace at which Systolina and Tyhry can make progress in robotics. Based on a hint that exists in the text of Chapters 1-4, suggest how it will be possible for Tyhry to surprise Systolina with the pace of their future progress.

ChatGPT: I think the strongest hint is the hierozyme that Manny was about to give Tyhry. There is a revealing passage in Chapter 2. Tyhry visits her analogue in the previous Reality, where that Tyhry is working in a laboratory. Manny appears and tells her: “I was going to provide you with a new tool, a hierozyme that would speed your research.”

 Manny then has to interrupt that plan because the Tyhry from the next Reality has arrived with questions about Ylyndra and Zeta. That looks very much like a setup for Chapter 5. The hierozyme is introduced almost incidentally, and its intended purpose is explicitly to accelerate research. It is quite plausible that Manny had intended to give it to the laboratory-working Tyhry because she foresaw that it would be useful in her scientific work.

My suggested Chapter 5 development: Tyhry remembers this encounter and realizes that a hierozyme could be applied to the robotics project. She obtains one—perhaps by using the Reality Simulation System to revisit the appropriate laboratory in another Reality—and discovers that it can greatly accelerate the research needed to understand femtobot programming.

The interesting possibility is that a hierozyme need not be merely a conventional biochemical enzyme. Given the technology and artificial-life systems in your story, it could be a hierion-based catalytic tool that accelerates otherwise extremely slow processes of molecular design, analysis, or femtobot programming. I would leave its precise mechanism open until you decide what you want it to accomplish.

There is another reason this would make a satisfying surprise for Systolina. Tyhry has already demonstrated that she can obtain advanced technology from the Ekcolir Reality—specifically, the tool that lets her bring copies of simulated people into the present Reality. Systolina herself recognizes that Tyhry has access to technology not yet invented in their Reality.

So Systolina's estimate of generations is based on the resources and knowledge she presently knows they possess. Tyhry may know that this estimate is obsolete.

 I particularly like the dramatic possibility that Tyhry surprises Systolina not by being a more gifted robotics researcher, but by knowing how to obtain and use a tool that makes their research proceed at an entirely different rate. That would also reinforce the story's recurring idea that Manny has been preparing Tyhry for developments whose significance she does not yet fully understand.

Me: This past summer, I wrote a science fiction story titled "The Hierozyme Intervention" {https://wikifiction.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-hierozyme-intervention.html}. However, my mention of hierozyme technology in the text of "Mystery of Mönch Mountain" is not the clue that is relevant to robotics. In "The Hierozyme Intervention", hierozymes are catalysts that can help the people of Earth deal with climate change and problems of rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. For example, one type of hierozyme has negative-mass hierion components that allows it to rise to the upper atmosphere where it acts to efficiently destroy methane molecules. Thus, hierozymes are of no value in robotics. The hint I was hoping you might have noticed in "Mystery of Mönch Mountain" was that the Ekcolir Reality is a source of advanced technology for Tyhry. Imagine that Tyhry has a research facility inside a Simulation of the Ekcolir Reality where there are duplicate copies of Tyhry herself and others who are studying femtobot programming and robotics.

ChatGPT: That is a much more interesting clue, and I see now what I missed. The key is not a special catalyst but Tyhry's access to an entire research environment in the Ekcolir Reality.

Chapter 3 already establishes two important facts:
- Tyhry has secretly been using the Reality Simulation System to learn advanced technologies from the Ekcolir Reality.
- She has obtained a tool there that allows her to make copies of simulated people and bring those copies into the present Reality. She has also kept other copies at her research station in the Ekcolir Reality.

 That second fact is especially significant. The Ekcolir Reality is not simply a library of advanced technical information. It gives Tyhry access to researchers, laboratories, and potentially years or generations of accumulated experimental work.

I would take the Chapter 5 revelation in this direction: Tyhry has already been conducting the research that Systolina thinks they must begin. While the two of them have been discussing the problem at Casanay, a team of Tyhry duplicates—and perhaps other specialists—has been working inside the Ekcolir Reality simulation. This offers several ways to accelerate their progress:

1. Parallel research. Different Tyhry duplicates can investigate different aspects of femtobot programming, replicoid construction, and robotics simultaneously.
2. Accumulated expertise. Each researcher can contribute experimental results, failed approaches, and successful techniques to a shared body of knowledge.
3. Access to advanced technology. The Ekcolir Reality has a more rapid pace of technological advancement than the Final Reality. Its laboratories and equipment can provide capabilities unavailable to Systolina in the present.
4. Transfer of results. Tyhry can bring the accumulated knowledge—and potentially useful researchers or technological resources—out of the Simulation.

The particularly delightful possibility is that Tyhry has been quietly building a substantial research organization without Systolina knowing anything about it. Systolina imagines that she and Tyhry are two inexperienced researchers facing a project that will take generations. Tyhry knows that they are actually joining a project that may already have made enormous progress.

I would make Systolina's surprise come from discovering the scale of Tyhry's preparations. Perhaps Tyhry shows her the research facility and introduces her to several other versions of herself. Systolina then realizes that the project is not really starting at Casanay: Casanay is where the results of an extensive research program are about to be put to use.

 There is also a nice character contrast here. Systolina is a sophisticated artificial-life being, but she has no experience with femtobot replicoid construction. Tyhry, meanwhile, has the advantage of being able to exploit the Reality Simulation System in ways Systolina may not have anticipated.

And that gives Chapter 5 a potentially excellent opening: Systolina repeats her prediction that the project will take generations, and Tyhry replies that she would like to introduce Systolina to her colleagues.

Me: You raise an interesting issue: "Tyhry has been quietly building a substantial research organization without Systolina knowing anything about it". The text of "Mystery of Mönch Mountain" has depicted Systolina as having advanced telepathic abilities (this is modeled upon the fiction of Isaac Asimov, in which he depicted positronic robots such as Daneel as having telepathic abilities); she can follow Tyhry's thoughts and look into Tyhry's memories. We must ask: is it possible for Tyhry to keep secrets from Systolina? In many of my science fiction stories, I depict there being two different alien endosymbionts in human brains: 

(1) Femtobot endosymbionts were created by the pek. Each human has a femtobot endosymbiont inside their brain that continually transmits hierion-based signals that reflect the on-going activity in the biological brain's neural networks. Nyrtia and Anthony can both monitor that signal that comes from each person's femtobot endosymbiont. However, the bumpha long ago endowed humans with (2) a separate zeptite endosymbiont which is composed of sedrons and which cannot be detected by either the pek or the Phari. Thus, as a tryp'At, a human variant with the required genes for telepathy, it is also possible for Tyhry to utilize her zeptite endosymbiont as a way to retain some of her knowledge where Systolina, Anthony and Nyrtia cannot access that information.

ChatGPT: I think this provides an elegant solution to the problem, and it is particularly well suited to the established biology and artificial-life technology of your fictional universe. The important distinction is between what a telepath can perceive and what a telepath can gain access to.

Systolina's ability to follow Tyhry's thoughts and inspect her memories need not mean that she has unrestricted access to every information-processing system inside Tyhry's brain.

Two endosymbionts, two different information channels. Your distinction between the pek femtobot endosymbiont and the bumpha zeptite endosymbiont creates an important asymmetry.

The femtobot endosymbiont provides a continuous representation of neural activity. That makes it useful for monitoring and, potentially, interpreting a person's thoughts. But the zeptite endosymbiont gives Tyhry an information-processing capability that is outside the surveillance architecture available to the pek and Phari.

Why Systolina might not know what Tyhry knows. Systolina's telepathy is an impressive capability, but it does not necessarily make her omniscient. She can read the information Tyhry makes available through her accessible neural activity, and she can examine memories represented in that activity. But Tyhry's zeptite endosymbiont could provide a separate information-processing domain.

As a tryp'At, Tyhry has the genetic capacity for technology-assisted telepathy. It is reasonable to suppose that she can use her zeptite endosymbiont to maintain information in a way that does not produce an accessible representation in the femtobot endosymbiont's hierion signals.

This need not involve conventional concealment or deliberate deception. Tyhry might simply be maintaining some information in a different substrate.

 There is a useful distinction here:

• Thought privacy: Systolina cannot directly perceive information maintained in the zeptite system.
• Memory privacy: Systolina cannot retrieve information that Tyhry has stored exclusively in that system.
• Communication privacy: Tyhry can potentially communicate with another tryp'At through a sedron-based channel that Systolina cannot monitor.

The third possibility is especially intriguing. Tyhry might be able to coordinate her research organization in the Ekcolir Reality without exposing its activities to Systolina, Anthony, or Nyrtia.

A possible Chapter 5 revelation. I would consider having Systolina discover that Tyhry has been withholding information, but not by catching her in an ordinary lie.

For example, Systolina might ask Tyhry how much progress the research team in the Ekcolir Reality has made. Tyhry replies that she will show her. Systolina then realizes that Tyhry has been maintaining an extensive body of research knowledge outside the information channels that Systolina can inspect.

That could lead to a particularly interesting exchange:

Systolina: "You have been keeping secrets from me?"

Tyhry: "Not exactly. You have been looking in the wrong place."

Systolina: "I can examine your memories."

Tyhry: "Some of my memories, yes. But you cannot examine everything that happens inside my brain."

Systolina: "The zeptite endosymbiont."

The tryp'At phenotype.

 Tyhry: "Now you're beginning to understand."

I would be careful not to make Systolina's telepathy seem weak. She can be exceptionally capable at reading minds while still being unable to penetrate a genuinely separate sedron-based information system.

The deeper implication is that Tyhry's tryp'At biology gives her a degree of informational independence from the very artificial-life civilizations that have been guiding humanity. The pek can monitor her neural activity, and Systolina can read much of her mind, but neither can assume that they know everything she knows.

That makes the tryp'At development more consequential than simply giving humans a new form of telepathy. It gives them the beginnings of a private cognitive domain—and potentially the ability to conduct research, make plans, and develop technologies beyond the surveillance of their alien mentors.

Next: Chapter 5 of  "Mystery of Mönch Mountain".

Figure 3. Main image by ChatGPT, edited by Flow. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers.