The Phari

Figure 1. A Pharazen on planet Kwenslo.

 I recently created a blog post titled "Tyhry Watson" in which I mentioned my on-going project of occasionally making some blog pages that are about specific characters and plot devices that I commonly deploy in my stories. This is a blog post in that series and the topic is the Phari. I imagine the Phari to be an ancient life-form that originated in the First Reality. In my science fiction stories, I depict the Phari as having been most advanced form of life in our galaxy at the time when the pek first entered into our galaxy. 

Fan Fiction. The Phari are an alien life-form in my science fiction stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, but they were created as a by-product of my obsession with the writing of Jack Vance, as described below in this blog post. 

Map of Port Mar on the planet Marune. - image source

 In the Beginning. Back in 2012, I began writing a fan-fiction story called "Assignment: Marune" which featured Jack Vance's character Jantiff Ravensroke. In Vance's novel Marune: Alastor 933, there are humanoid natives of the planet Marune who seem to totally shun advanced technology, yet they have mysterious abilities, possibly including some kind of telepathic powers. 

 What If? What if these seemingly primitive natives actually have advanced nanotechnology? What if some of their kind, with help from the Phari, has already transcended from biological existence and have gone on to exist as artificial life-forms in the Hierion Domain?

Cover for Meet the Phari. (source)

 Meet the Phari. Near the end of Vance's novel "Wyst", it is suggested that Jantiff might become an agent working for the Connatic, the ruler of Alastor Cluster. "Assignment: Marune" adopted the idea of Jantiff (and his wife, Glisten) becoming secret agents working for the Connatic and depicted Jantiff as being sent on a mission to the planet Marune. In 2012, I completed the first two chapters of "Assignment: Marune". Later, in 2021, in a blog post titled "The Hui-chi", there is the first chapter of another story, Meet the Phari, which can be viewed as constituting the third chapter of "Assignment: Marune". I return to Meet the Phari, below on this page.

image source

 Communicating with the Hierion Domain. I have also previously imagined that my 2016 Jack Vance fan-fiction story "Gharks and Hoos" should be counted as Chapter 4 of "Assignment: Marune". Due to his ability to efficiently make use of his Phari ensosymbiont, Efraim of Scharrode is able to make contact with a Kac'hin who exists in the Hierion Domain.

 Cloning in Alastor Cluster. In the story "Gharks and Hoos", it is revealed that Efraim is a clone of Alferica, his mother, with just a small chromosome swap having been made to cause Efraim to be a male. In that story, I included the idea that Efraim was provided with a copy of his father's zeptite endosymbiont. If I was writing that story here in 2026 instead of 2016 then I would use the newer concept of a transplantable femtozoan or zeptozoan. 

cover art by Darrell Sweet

 The Phari endosymbiont. In the January 30th 2016 blog post titled "2 Endosymbionts Are Better Than 1" I suggested that the Rhunes of planet Marune long ago became hosts for Phari endosymbionts. I asked: what if Efraim's "first dose" of Fwai-chi shag "disconnected" him from his Phari endosymbiont, causing disruption of his memories?

 The Sedron Domain. I also suggested that later, when the "second Fwai-chi drug" was given to Efraim, it might have "connected him up" to his pek endosymbiont, allowing him access to a "recording" of memories that exists in the Sedron Domain. This proposed use of the Sedron Domain for information storage is an early manifestation of the idea that the Sedron Domain might hold vast amounts of information about the Hadron Domain, including information that can be moved from the future to the past, an idea that I would eventually formalize as the Sedron Time Stream.

Two Pharazen colonists on planet Pharism.
A composite of two images by WOMBO Dream

 There was always an extra dimension. The first time I blogged about the Phari was in a September 21st 2014 blog post titled "An Alternate Vance". In that blog post, I imagined that in the Ekcolir Reality, Jack Vance wrote a total of six novels that were set in Alastor Cluster, one of which was Pharism: Alastor 458. However, in my imagination, the Phari were introduced to readers by Vance in his novel Kwenslo: Alastor 950. I imagined that the planet Kwenslo was home to an indigenous humanoid species, the Pharazen, who went extinct (see Figure 1 for an artist's reconstruction of the appearance of the Pharazen). Jantiff investigated the ancient ruins of the lost Pharazen civilization. I imagined that the planet Pharism had been colonized by the Pharazen and Pharism had become a center for the development of advanced technology. 

A summary of events on Kwenslo in Meet the Phari.

 Kwenslo. In 2021, as part of the story "Meet the Phari", I finally depicted some of the characters in the story as visiting the planet Kwenslo.

 The Pharazen. It was on the planet Pharism that scientists of the Pharazen species created the Phari as an artificial life-form. Later, the Phari built Alastor Cluster by using their advanced technology to gather together all of the planets of the galaxy that gave rise to an intelligent humanoid biological species. The Phari became masters of the Hierion Domain and hierion-based technologies.

image source

 Deep Time. In my imagination, Alastor Cluster only exists in one of the Realities of Deep Time, the Asimov Reality, in which the positronic robots of Earth, led by R. Nyrtia, used time travel to prevent the ancient Phari from being quietly and irreversibly sealed up inside the Hierion Domain by the pek. Thus, in the Asimov Reality, Earth became part of the Phari Network and humans had a Phari endosymbiont rather than a pek endosymbiont. 

 Double Vance. I've long had fun imagining that the person we know as Jack Vance was born as twins in the Ekcolir Reality. Depending on exactly which past Reality of Earth, the analogues of Vance has various names such as Joan, John and Jack. In a September 6th 2015 blog post, I imagined that John Vance wrote the Sessily Trilogy, which included a book called Pharisse which described the Pharisse star system was one of the places that was visited by the Phari, long before humans were created. That 2015 blog post also introduced the concept of a "Phari Network" which includes all of the worlds of the galaxy that had been visited by the Phari and infected by Phari femtobots.

Figure 2. Top left corner of the diagram; image source

 2015. On December 2nd 2015, I posted "League of Yrinna" which holds the first chapter of the story titled The League of Yrinna. I was able to complete the first two chapters of The League of Yrinna before the end of 2015, but since that story was written in the Ekcolir Reality, only fragments of the story have made it to the Final Reality. The League of Yrinna was intended to depict actual interactions between human beings and the Phari, but I have never been able to complete The League of Yrinna. A summary of The League of Yrinna can be found in this 2025 blog post. Also, as part of my 2025 Decade in Review, there is a diagram (part of the diagram is shown in Figure 2, above) that seems to show The League of Yrinna as having been started in 2016, which is not the way to read that diagram. The top horizontal line in that diagram marks the start of the reviewed decade in June of 2015.

image source

 Breeding human telepaths. In the second part of The League of Yrinna, that was placed on a blog page at the start of 2016 (see "The Connatic's Library"), I developed the idea that the planet Trullion was used as a place to breed humans who might eventually be able to telepathically link the the Phari who reside in the Hierion Domain. In particular, Duissane, a Trevanyi, is depicted having been carefully bred and crafted by the Phari. The Trills, such as Glinnes, have also been genetically sculpted and on those rare occasions when Trills and Trevanyi mate, the children are interesting hybrids. In The League of Yrinna it was suggested that such children had routinely been taken away from Trullion by starmenters, delivered to Yrinna and used as breeding stock by the Phari.

In all of my early stories about the Phari, I depicted the Bimanoid Interface as the tool that could be used for communication between humans and the Phari. 

Pheni of Yrinna

 Cryptesthesiology. In "The Connatic's Library", I developed the idea of there being a science of Cryptesthesiology that existed in the Asimov Reality. The science of cryptesthesiology was the study of how some humans and members of some other alien species were able to access the Hierion Domain by using the Bimanoid Interface. Thus, the telepathic ability of Duissane that is depicted in The League of Yrinna is a kind of technology-assisted telepathy.

 The Pheni. The League of Yrinna provided an introduction to the planet Yrinna. Back in December of 2015, I imagined that the planet Yrinna was home to the Pheni, which were described as "flying animals". I imagined that with the help of Duissane, Glinnes would be able to make telepathic contact with the Pheni.

Figure 3. Image source.

 Early in 2016, I was thinking about The League of Yrinna as being a kind of sequel to "Assignment: Marune" and I described the story as depicting how: "Glinnes and Duissane become caught up in a struggle between the pek and the Phari for control over the fate of the human species". I've long had fun imagining that in the Asimov Reality, with the Time Travel War raging, the pek, the Phari and the bumpha were all trying to develop telepathic humans.

 The bumpha. It was late in 2014 that I began introducing the bumpha into the Exodemic Fictional Universe. At that time, I was already in the habit of routinely including the pek in my stories. It may be that the best translation of "bumpha" is "renegade", a term applied to the earliest Interventionists by the majority of Huaoshy. 

Figure 4. The humanoid extinction curve.

 Bumpha Interventionism. I proposed that the bumpha were somehow responsible for the ability of the Pharazen to exercise some independence from the pek and bring the Phari into existence as an artificial life-form that eventually came to reside inside the Hierion Domain. In 2015, I created a blog post titled "The bumpha". In that blog post about the bumpha, I described the idea that the positronic robots of Earth traveled back in time more than 1,000,000,000 years in order to create an "all human" galaxy in the Foundation Reality. The bumpha were crafted as meddling Interventionists by the Huaoshy in order to over-come the horrific reality of the relentless extinction of humanoid species (see Figure 4).

the Society of Matriarchs

 R. Nyrtia. Later, I imagined that in the Asimov Reality, Alastor Cluster could be used as a laboratory where telepathic humans could be made. Eventually, I specifically depicted R. Nyrtia as having been the robot that went far back in time and made contact with the Phari before the pek arrived in our galaxy. I like to think that the Phari became an important source of information for Nyrtia about the Hierion Domain and hierion-based technologies. It was only by making use of Phari-derived technology that the positronic robots of Earth were able to fight the pek to a stand-off in the Time Travel War. Back in 2015 I was making diagrams such as the one shown in Figure 3. Looking back at those diagrams, I view them as attempts to understand possible roles for the Pharazen in the origins of human variants such as the tryp'At and the Ek'col. 

see the original version of this image

I imagine that the telepathic Ek'col were made possible by gene combinations that evolved in Alastor Cluster during the far future of the Asimov Reality. The Ek'col played a key role in ending the Time Travel War. Figure 3 shows that the "Pha" were precursors to the Pharazen, but I have never developed that idea.

When I wrote the first two chapters of The League of Yrinna, I included the pek in Chapter 2, but not the bumpha. I like to imagine that the bumpha were crafted by the Huaoshy in order to function as Interventionists. The Huaoshy had originally avoiding interference in the development of alien civilizations, but eventually the extinction curve (see Figure 4) convinced the Huaoshy that they needed to actively assist biological species.

A Pharithould.
Image by WOMBO Dream

At the end of Chapter 2 of The League of Yrinna I outlined some ideas for Chapter 3, but I never wrote that chapter of the story. Later, in 2018, I wrote down some ideas for what might happen to Duissane and Glinnes upon their return to Trullion. I imagined that Akadie the mentor had traced the roots of the Fanscherade movement to the secretive Society of Matriarchs, which had a base of operations on Bellicent Island in the Fens. I imagined that Duissane was pregnant with twins and that Grean the Kac'hin used advanced nanite technology to secretly remove one of the embryos from Duissane's body. The special gene combinations of that stolen child eventually were used to help create the Ek'col.

 2016. Back in January 2016 I had the idea that there was a special "guide endosymbiont" that was crafted by the Phari for use in the humanoid Pheni of Yrinna. The concept was that such a guide endosymbiont could also be used with humans as an aid for making human-Phari communication possible, but I did not continue to use the terminology of "guide endosymbiont"; I usually just made reference to the 'Phari endosymbiont'. 

Figure 5.

 Phari Technology. I've had fun imagining fantastic technologies that were developed by the Phari. One of the characters in The League of Yrinna was a replicoid copy of Arthur C. Clarke. In a 2016 blog post titled "Born Under Europa", I suggested that the Phari may have used their advanced nanites to guide the creation and evolution of life on planets and moons like Europa. An idea that I developed in The League of Yrinna was that the Phari made use of space pirates as tools for helping to breed telepathic humans. In my early 2016 blog post titled "Dark Stars" I described Alastor Cluster as an artificial star cluster that has been "built up" and created by the Phari. Also, as discussed in the January 2016 "Slabar Velche", the  geography of Yrinna was unusual and showed evidence of geological engineering. 

image source

 World Building. For the Phari, planetary engineering was like child's play. The unusual geography of the planet Yrinna included large numbers of sea bed asteroid impact craters and two dozen large land areas similar to Olympus Mons of Mars (see the January 19th 2016 blog post titled "Artificial Geology" and Figure 5). Those land areas were the domains of a single clan, among them the Rianle, Ambal and Gensifer clans that were all part of the League of Yrinna, an organization devoted to space piracy. 

 Replicoids. In "Teaser Time", I discussed the idea that the Phari had replicoid technology. In the text of Chapter 2 of League of Yrinna it is mentioned that biological species such as the Muu're had transcended their biological existence and they existed as replicoids in the Hierion Domain. 

see Pink

 2017. In 2017 I wrote a short story titled "A Future Mystery" in which I depicted the conditions under which Jack Vance wrote about the planet Pharism and the Phari. However, that story did not actually reveal anything about the Phari.

 Teleportation. The idea that the Phari had long-range teleportation technology was introduced in a July 1st 2018 blog post titled "The Exoditions of Cynk". In the story Exoditions on Cynk, I depicted planet Cynk as the world in Alastor Cluster where the Phari had first developed their nanotechnology and crafted femtobot endosymbionts. I described Cynk as a laboratory where the Phari could design endosymbionts for species like humans.

 Creating Eukaryotes. The first precisely described Phari facility on Earth that I included in a story was and underground cavern with cell bioreactors at a Phari Base deep inside the Slave Craton. 

image source

My first coherent description of the relationship between the Phari, the pek and the bumpha came in a July 22nd 2018 blog post titled "The Hierion Heretic". I described the Bimanoid Interface as Phari technology. I also stated that, "R. Gohrlay discovered how to use the Bimanoid Interface as a means to maintain communications via technology-assisted telepathy with her human field agents in the Hadron Domain while she remained safely within the Hierion Domain." 

Image generated by Google's Flow.

 Teleporting Planets. Explicit mention of the Phari ability to teleport entire planets came in an  October 4th 2018 blog post titled "T Time". In 2018, I also depicted Georgy White as obtaining physical evidence for the presence of the Phari on Earth over 2 billion years ago. However, Georgy was subsequently exiled to Observer Base. I suggested that the Phari helped create the first eukaryotic organisms of Earth.

image source

 2019. In a blog post of January 12th 2019 titled "Fun with Aliens", I finally formulated what I think of as the complete view of how the the Phari were able to play a major role in our galaxy: When R. Nyrtia developed time travel technology and began investigating Deep Time, she soon discovered the Phari. Working on the theory that an enemy of her enemy could become a friend, Nyrtia secretly rescued from erasure key elements of the Phari civilization and began making use of advanced hierion technologies obtained from the Phari." 

 Telastid-based Telepathy. In a blog post of July 1st 2019 titled "Temptation of the Replicoid" I clearly stated: "The Phari endosymbionts inside humans had become entangled with mitochondria, creating a new intracellular organelle, the telastid. Telastids conferred upon Neanderthals a weak type of telepathy, resulting in a unique type of social cohesion." 

image source

Possibly in the First Reality, the Phari inserted their femtobots into Earth's ecosystem. I've never written a science fiction story that attempts to depict the actual actions of the Phari in the First Reality, leaving those details to the imagination of readers.

Eventually, the Phari influence on Earth's life forms led to the telastid. The bumpha later developed an interest in the type of weak telepathy that telastids conferred on Neanderthals. Bumpha interventionism allowed the development of positronics at Observer Base. R. Nyrtia eventually searched back through time and discovered the role that the Phari had played in altering life on Earth so as to allow the evolution of telastids. In the Asimov Reality, Nyrtia traveled far back in time and formed an alliance with the Phari.

On the planet Yerophet - image source

In addition to some of the planets of Alastor Cluster, many other planets of the galaxy were engineered and/or teleported by the Phari in the Asimov Reality, among them Smade's planet, Ver'la and Moudervelt. 

 2020. Imagine if in a past Reality there has been an Alastor Cluster novel titled Yerophet: Alastor 1083. In 2020 I wrote a science fiction story called The Yerophet Experiment in which I depicted the Kerub of the planet Yerophet as being retro-evolved by the Phari in an attempt to provide a model of a femtobot endosymbiont that, if transferred to humans, could achieve R. Nyrtia's goal of developing human telepathy.

image source

For a story titled "The Synpaz of Seelie", I had fun with the idea that, "The Phari went far beyond any other species in study of the Hierion Domain. The Huaoshy skipped over most of hierion physics and went right into the Sedronic Domain." 

Near the end of 2020, I began a new science fiction story titled "The Olivine Intervention" which like The League of Yrinna concerned the telepathic abilities of Glisten and her efforts to telepathically link into the Phari Network. I depicted Yōd as using the Asimov Reality Simulation to explore Alastor Cluster and as saying,"it is clear that Glisten is a tool of the Phari".

 2021. At the start of 2021 I began a new science fiction story titled "The Alastor Network" which explicitly returned to an idea that had been introduced in The League of Yrinna, that the the Connatic was part of efforts to improve human telepathic abilities and a dedicated collector of people with interesting telepathic abilities. 

image source

 Telepathic Machines. For "The Alastor Network", I also had a character named 'Josef', an artificial intelligence that could intercept Phari telepathic signals. As for The League of Yrinna, "The Alastor Network" includes pirates from the planet Yrinna who are 'collecting' telepaths for their telepath breeding project. Captain Lanting brings Twycky to Yrinna, provoking a response by the Connatic: a raid on Yrinna. I suggested that the telepathic grandchildren of Twycky would be genetically selected humans who would be able to achieve telepathic communication with the Phari.

In "The Alastor Network", Captain Lanting "switches sides" and helps rescue Twycky from Yrinna (see "Visit to Yrinna"), but now she is pregnant. A useful summary of "The Alastor Network" is in this 2025 blog post.

Mixing telepathy genes on Yerophet (source).

The planet Yerophet becomes the focus of Whelm attention in "The Alastor Network". The image that is shown to the right indicates how genes for telepathy, originally found in several different species, had been gathered together and recombined on Yerophet. 

 Mind Clones. I had the idea that Grean was constructing a telepathic mind clone network in Alastor Cluster.

Sedron Time Stream

After completing "The Alastor Network", I began making plans for a new story titled "Meet the Phari" in which the telepathic Konie (Konywhn) would leave Yerophet on a new mission. In a March 2nd 2021blog post titled "The Hui-chi", I introduced what were called 'nanocoids', nanoscopic replicoids which could access to information within the Sedronic Domain. I imagined that information could be from both the far past and the far future (see Chapter 11). Eventually, in later stories, that concept became known as the Sedron Time Stream.

There is a useful summary of my thinking about the Phari in the June 9th 2021 blog post titled "TAT Two". However, at that time, I was depicting the zeptite endosymbionts of humans as having been created by the pek. In later stories, I would usually reserve zeptite technology for the bumpha. I summary of events in "Meet the Phari" can be found starting near the end of this 2025 blog post and continuing here.

image source

 2022. In 2022, when I began writing a story titled The Cythyrya Investigation, I imagined that in the Asimov Reality, an artificial life form called Jyha Ryys had exited from the body of Howard Alan Treesong and attached itself the Phari endosymbiont of Alys (Alice Wroke). 

In my 2022 science fiction story "Someday Mars", there is the idea that a Phari base existed inside of Phobos.

 2023.  In a December 20th 2023 blog post titled "2 x 3 = Sha", I contemplated the idea of there being a distinct Phari Reality. This was part of plans for a fan-fiction story called "Departure From Nor'Dyren". However, I have never written my imagined Sydney J. Van Scyoc fan-fiction story.

Systolina the robot.

 2024. In 2024 I began to seriously experiment with collaborating with chatbots (such as Claude) to write science fiction stories. From those experiments came the collaboratively written story titled "The Nanite Smuggler". The word 'Phari' appears in "The Nanite Smuggler" 254 times (the story has about 60,000 words). In "The Nanite Smuggler", Tyhry uses the Reality Simulation System to visit the planet Threy in Alastor Cluster where an alien named Kasty the Yastyn is given permission by the Phari to share programmable femtobots with Tyhry. Manny the bumpha is depicted as trying to prevent Tyhry from bringing advanced Yastyn femtobots to Earth, but with some help from the Phari, Tyhry is able to accomplish her nanite smuggling. "The Nanite Smuggler" introduced a humanoid positronic robot named Systolina who described the religious belief that the Phari would someday liberate the positronic robots of Threy.

image source

Tyhry also uses the Reality Simulation System to secretly make a replicoid copy of herself (named 'F. Tyhry') who she tasks with contacting the Phari. F. Tyhry develops the idea that it might be possible to use Phari teleportation technology to send alien femtobots from the Simulated Threy of the Asimov Reality to Earth of the Final Reality. "The Nanite Smuggler" depicts F. Tyhry as being guided by information that she receives from the future. By forming a synapex link to Systolina, F. Tyhry is finally able to communicate with the Phari. The Phari try to help Tyhry smuggle alien nanites off of Threy by creating a major distraction for Manny.

However, Manny reveals that she has been using Tyhry as a 'honey pot' to gain insight into her on-going effort to contact the Phari and negotiate with them. "The Nanite Smuggler" also included Kl'ath-Sedruth as a character; the entity that could curate the Sedron Time Stream.

 2025. In 2025 (see Ȃî ¢hAInge in 25¢) I set my self a goal of writing a new science fiction story that would resolve the question of the possible existence of Phari technology for long-range teleportation on Earth and still functioning in the Final Reality. As part of my 2025 Change Challenge, I suggested that Tyhry (or her femtobot replicoid) might get to experience long-range teleportation. The ability of the Phari to teleport entire planets was mentioned in the story "D*". In D*, Tyhry learns that there is a Phari long-range teleporter node in Arizona, under Mt. Picachu (see "The Nereids of Ver'la"). Tyhry makes use of that equipment to complete the construction of HySe, the first interstellar spaceship built by humans in the Final Reality.

image source

 In a June 28th 2025 blog post titled "Linked to Tar'tron" is Part 6 of a science fiction story titled "The Fesarians". Dani, a positronic robot says, "Femtozoans were a design feature of the Phari endosymbiont. Femtozoans are artificial life-forms that aid the early development of human brains, forming neural networks that integrate with the Phari endosymbiont. Whatever telepathic powers you have were made possible by your femtozoan." 

"The Fesarians" is set in the Ekcolir Reality, when Balok the bumpha is trying to find the secret base of Nyrtia inside the Hierion Domain. For "The Fesarians", I imagined that some remnants of the Phari Network persisted into the Ekcolir Reality. "The Fesarians" used the idea of a femtozoan being used as a time traveling agent of the bumpha. In the case of Sopha, this resulted in there being two femtozoans inside a single person.

Also, in 2025, I completed "The Cythyrya Investigation", as summarized on this blog page. The Cythyrya Investigation includes Myllyr's planet, another world of the Phari Network.

As part of the The Cythyrya Investigation, I imagined that the bumpha eventually learned enough about Phari technology so that they were then able to find a way to break the tyranny of the Bimanoid Interface that had been put in place by the positronic robots of Earth.

In a story titled "The Mystery of the Missing Motor Neurons" that was posted to this blog on July 14th 2025, I imagined that for the replicoid copy of a person to attain telekinetic powers when the motor cortex had been converted into a femtobot extension of their Phari endosymbiont.

Monument Cliff (image source)

 End of a Network. When Tyhry began exploring the galaxy in the Final Reality, she quickly confirmed that planets of the Phari Network which had been close to Earth in the Asimov Reality, did not exist in their  previous locations in the Final Realty (see the December 21st 2025 blog post "Station Y"). Part 2 of "Plūribus ē Spatium", Tyhry is able to learn how to control the Phari teleportation equipment at Picacho Peak.

 More Jack Vance Fan-fiction.  In a December 24th 2025 blog post titled "Probability -2025" I posted a short story called Hot Alien Dinosaurs that mentioned both the Phari teleportation equipment under Picacho Peak and an Earth-like planet in orbit around the Sun-like star Xi Puppis B. The planet Xi Puppis X was known for the mysterious Monument Cliff in the Asimov Reality.

Figure 6. Tyhry on Asha.

 2026. For Chapter 3 of "Plūribus ē Spatium", I developed the idea that there had been a Phari Intervention that altered the course of civilization on Earth in the Asimov Reality (see the February 24th 2026 blog post titled "The Clones of Tiz"). Tyhry was able to use the Phari teleportation equipment under Picacho Peak in a short-range mode, teleporting from Earth to Observer Base inside the Hierion Domain.

 The Asha Simulation. In Chapter 4 of "Plūribus ē Spatium", Tyhry learns that Manny the bumpha has learned from her study of advanced Phari technology how to insert a large object (the interstellar spaceship Sedrover) into a forked Simulation. Marda goes into the Asha Simulation while Tyhry teleports to the planet Asha of the Final Reality along with Naseh, Ely the Grendel and Lori (see Figure 6).

Marda activating the femtotube.

 Femtotubes. In Chapter 5 of "Plūribus ē Spatium", Manny explains to Marda that it is possible to use another Phari technology, an Hierion femtotube, to extract Sedrover from the Asha Simulation.

 The Human Telepaths. In some of my science fiction stories that feature the Phari as plot elements (such as "Plūribus ē Spatium"), I have imagined that the Grendels were used as agents of the Phari on planets such as Earth. However, with Manny having studied the Phari and their advanced technologies, in "Plūribus ē Spatium" Manny is depicted as having taken charge of Ely the Grendel and as using Ely for Manny's effort to devise a civilization of human telepaths in the Final Reality.

Next: a science fiction story titled "The Manikoid Intervention".

Images by WOMBO Dream. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Pantechnyk

the Alys Investigations

Below on this page is Part 4 of the science fiction story called "The Cythyrya Investigation". Previously, in Part 2, Rylla and Rey took Jutta to the planet Sogdian where they got help from Azynov to rescue several of Jutta's clone sisters from the strange mind-control experiments being conducted by Viole Falushe.

The Cythyrya Investigation is Jack Vance fan-fiction based on the premise that the science fiction stories of Jack Vance were inspired by actual events in the Asimov Reality. Thus, Vance's novel "The Book of Dreams" has a character named Alice Wroke while The Cythyrya Investigation shows her actual name to be Alys. Similarly, Vance wrote about Milton, "The Man from Zodiac", while in the timeline of the Asimov Reality there was Lyza (see below, on this page), an agent of the bumpha working from within Zodyac, the scientific investigative team of the Institute.

In the beginning.

In Vance's novels about Kirth Gersen, the Institute was depicted as a galaxy-spanning organization devoted to the suppression of advanced technology. However, in the Asimov Reality, the scientists of Zodyac discovered that the Institute is a front organization established by robots who treat humans like puppets. Lyza becomes caught up in an attempt to obtain Phari nanites that will allow humans to take control the Bimanoid Interface and end the era of humans being behaviorally programmed 'puppets' of their replicoids.

 The Femtozoan Intervention. The positronic robots of Earth developed the Bimanoid Interface as a way to provide Earth with Temporal Momentum. However, when the positronic robots first tried to craft telepathic humans, they were bedeviled by the human drive to develop ever more advanced technologies. 

A cloned woman on Sogdian (right).

During the Trysta Truce in Asimov Reality, Nyrtia linked the Bimanoid Interface in the Phari Network, which accomplished two things: 1) it allowed the Bimanoid Interface to be used on other planets of the galaxy beyond Earth and 2) Nyrtia learned how to use the Bimanoid Interface to alter human behavior, suppressing human scientific creativity and causing a kind of technological stasis during Earth's Space Age. As humans spread to the many habitable exoplanets of the galaxy, those worlds became a vast laboratory for the artificial evolution of telepathic humans, while humans lacked the technological sophistication to realize what was happening.

At first, the bumpha worked within the constraints of the technologically stagnant society that Nyrtia had engineered, but eventually the bumpha learned enough about Phari technology so that they were then able to find a way to break the tyranny of the Bimanoid Interface and start allowing humans some freedom to develop new technologies. The bumpha tool for breaking the Bimanoid Interface became known as the femtozoan, a form of artificial life that could re-program a person's Phari endosymbiont. The events of Part 4 of The Cythyrya Investigation (below) begin soon after the events that took place in Part 2.

Part 4 of The Cythyrya Investigation (Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 3)

When Rylla and Rey returned from using the Reality Simulation System to visit the planet Sogdian, Eddy thought that Rey seemed unusually subdued. Rylla spoke excitedly about how Azynov had arrived at the Palace of Love and rescued the clones of Jheral Tinzy. Azynov had last been seen transporting the clones and Jutta back to Earth. 

Eddy asked Rylla, "What were you able to learn about Retz?"

Finally Rey spoke and told Eddy, "I believe that Retz experimented with femtozoan reprogramming and transplantation. Viole Falushe wanted to alter Jheral Tinzy's femtozoan and transplant it into a clone of Jheral. Falushe hoped that the re-programmed femtozoan would force the clone of Jheral to fall in love with him." Rey slowly shook her head and explained, "Jheral was a powerful telepathic transmitter and Falushe was a good telepathic receiver, leading to his romantic obsession with Jheral."

Tyron's anti-gravity cruiser, Pantechnyk.

Eddy asked Rey, "What do you mean by 'femtozoan'?"

Rey shrugged. "The term 'femtozoan' was in the notes of Viole Falushe and I learned it first by telepathically probing the mind of Retz, but I don't think he really had any deep understanding of its meaning. He was little more than a technician. In any case, I learned from Retz that he could exert some control over femtozoans by making use of an alien artificial life-form from Myllyr's Planet... what he knew as a Vef or a Yulir or some such. Myllyr's Planet is where we must go next."

Eddy asked, "Myllyr's Planet?" He activated the index of the Reality Simulation System and found an entry for Myllyr's Planet. Eddy glanced back at Rylla. "That world means nothing to me. There were thousands of nondescript exoplanets being colonized early in the Space Age of the Asimov Reality."

Rey said, "Myllyr's Planet is part of the ancient Phari Network of planets that existed only in the Asimov Reality, and it is a habitable exoplanet actually located quite close to Earth. Myllyr's Planet was possibly the first Phari world visited by humans. With no human social structure for generating new scientific discoveries or new technologies, there was interest by the Institute in the possibility that humans might obtain advanced technology from aliens on worlds such as Myllyr's Planet. Retz had worked in the laboratories of Tyron Russ on Myllyr's Planet and it was apparently on that world that Russ had somehow obtained negative mass hierions and began using them for their anti-gravity actions."

Irosh the bumpha.

Eddy blurted out, "Are you serious?" He had no idea that humans had learned about hierions that early in the Asimov Reality. Eddy was now thinking about the bumpha and their long struggle against R. Nyrtia and the positronic robots of Earth. Eddy wondered: might Manny the bumpha have provided advanced technology and hierions to a few people in the Asimov Reality such as Tyron Russ?

Rey shrugged. "Obviously, we will have to verify that by visiting Myllyr's Planet."

Rey told Eddy nothing about the fact that she had obtained one of the Jheral femtozoans and it now resided inside her body. Rey was tempted to test the nanites from that femtozoan to determine if they could be used to control and re-activate the teleportation equipment at Observer Base, but that could wait until Myllyr's Planet was investigated.

Rylla also had a new secret that she did not understand and was not prepared to discuss with Eddy. Rylla was unable to explain it, but the Jheral clones, when together in close proximity, could amplify their telepathic abilities. Rylla did not have much telepathic ability herself, but when the Jheral clones had been assembled all in one place, Rylla had been able to recognize the telepathic mind pattern of her daughter, Marda. Strangely, the Jheral mind pattern was quite similar to Marda's mind pattern. The idea that Marda was a clone of some other woman from the Asimov Reality was deeply disturbing to Rylla and she was not certain that she wanted her daughter to ever become aware of that possibility.

______________

Tyron and Lyza.

Tyron Russ tried to roll away from the sleeping Lyza and out of bed, but she noticed his movements and said, "You're up early."

Tyron needed to urinate and he had a very stiff morning erection which he fondled with one hand and pointed at Lyza, "You do that to me, my love."

Lyza followed him and they showered together. Despite her best effort, Lyza only managed to grab one quick orgasm in the shower. Tyron began to dress, but Lyza tried to pull him back to bed. She asked, "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"We reached PC23." Tyron was obsessed with his continuing search for more alien technology. Having obtained the secret of anti-gravity from the Vef-Yulir natives of Myllyr's Planet, he could not resist exploring every Phari Cavern that was hidden deep in the crust of the planet.

"It has been there for a billion years, it will still be there this afternoon. Let's wait until it warms up later today."

"I'm going down now." He was out the door before she could pull on her clothes.

It was cold outside and Lyza rushed to cover her skin as she followed Tyron to the aircar hanger. PC23 was near the south pole of Myller's Planet and Tyron had waited until summer for this visit. They got into one of the anti-gravity aircars and they were soon out of the Pantechnyk and dropping towards the icy surface of the planet below. 

Lyza's eyes sought out the mine shaft entrance. She and Tyron had gone through this same routine a dozen times previously at other Phari caverns. As the aircar reached the planet's surface, the door at the mouth of the cavern slid open upon their approach and they were quickly landed inside the entrance to the cavern. There they were met by the Chief Miner of PC23, Polly Rhodysyo, who told Tyron, "Welcome." She looked suspiciously at Lyza and asked, "Who is she?"

"This is my new telepath." Whenever he found a more powerful telepath, Tyron disposed of the old one and exploited the abilities of the best telepath that was available to him. Tyron asked, "How is that platinum deposit panning out?"

Polly Rhodysyo

"Excellent. We are calling it Rhodysyo Reef. The levels of palladium are incredibly high."

The Chief Miner quickly got Tyron and Lyza packing into a drop pod and soon they were falling down through the human-constructed shaft and into the ancient Phari cavern. Packed in tight against Tyron, Lyza was playing with his semi-erect penis when they came to a stop and the pod popped open. They stepped out of the pod and looked around the alien cavern which looked like all the other ones they had previously seen. It was hot and stuffy there inside the cavern, but not as hot as it should be for this great depth under the surface of Myllyr's Planet. Lyza pulled off her top, exposing her four breasts and she confirmed what her telepathic sense was telling her, "The Kry are here. Or... no, these mind patterns... I don't-" Now Lyza was uncertain what she was telepathically sensing.

Tyron looked at Lyza and after noting her four erect nipples, he finally noticed that a blank look had come to her face. She tottered and fell. Tyron caught her long lean body and turned to return to the pod. Then he stumbled and found himself in a group mind space with Lyza and an alien. Lyza was in mid-conversation with the alien: ... now reveal yourselves to us?

The alien mind seemed to be having difficulty conforming to the rules of human linguistic communication. Tyron felt his mind being flooded with a million stray alien thoughts, one of which provided the name of these particular aliens: the Nyk.

The Nyk telepathically said: We Nyk are outcasts, sealed in this cavern as punishment. We are rebels and we don't heed the Phari when they order us to ignore humans.

Not comfortable with telepathy, Tyron spoke out-loud, "I am grateful for that. I've worked hard to contact you. Until now, my telepaths have only felt the minds of the Kry inside these caverns... watching."

The Nyk said: The Kry condemned us to this prison long ago. They passed over into the Hierion Domain, leaving us here. If we help you, then maybe you can help us... break us out of this prison.

Lyza and Tyron.

Lyza told the Nyk: I would be quite happy to help you, but we humans are a young species. We lack technological sophistication. Can you explain exactly what holds you here as prisoners?

The Nyk tried to explain in terms that Lyza and Tyron might understand. This cavern houses a space-time bubble that holds the uncounted billions of we Nyk. We are each femtoscale artificial life forms, caught in a limbo between the Hadron Domain and the Hierion Domain. Very few human minds are like yours, Lyza, with the ability to telepathically resonate with our mind patterns. Sadly, I see nothing in your primitive mind that could help us escape from this prison.

Tyron, as one of the few humans who had been able to escape from the behavioral restrictions imposed by the Bimanoid Interface suggested, "Maybe we could work together. You could teach us how to help you."

The Nyk produced its version of laughter. An amusing concept, Tyron. It is not easy for me to follow your non-telepathic thoughts, but with help from Lyza, I can sense that you seek to access advanced Phari nanotechnology. Nyrtia will not allow that.

Tyron admitted, "Yes, that is my personal goal. My telepaths were able to learn from another species of the Phari Network about the negative mass hierion that makes it possible for these underground caverns to exist under miles of rock. Zodyac scientists have now begun to liberate human minds from the tyranny of the Bimanoid Interface. I can think creatively about new technologies, so tell me how I can help you."

The Nyk said: We know how Zodyac has used the Vef-Yulir to alter human programming. You are clever, Tyron, but why brag about your ability to make technological advances? In essence, all you have done is use an hierion probe to disconnect your Phari endosymbiont from your biobrain. Obviously, that radical nanosurgery has damaged your mind. You are no longer sane. We Nyk cannot trust you. We agree with Nyrtia... human minds should be constrained by behavioral laws. Your mind is too wild and... dangerous. The Nyk are themselves wild and dangerous, but we are not foolish enough to facilitate your evil actions.

At that moment, Tyron and Lyza were ejected from the Nyk telepathic mind space. They found themselves in a heap on the floor of the cavern. The Chief Miner stepped out of the drop pod, having come down to assist with exploration of the cavern. She rushed forward and helped Tyron to his feet and she was impressed by his erection that was partially protruding from his loose fitting pants. 

Lyza pointed her erect nipples at the Chief Miner and while pulling back on her shirt, she reported, "We made contact with the residents of this chamber... the Nyk."

Tyron managed to cover up his erection under his clothing and he added, "But we were shunned. The Nyk want nothing to do with us."

Lyza said, "You are the problem, Tyron." She agreed with the Nyk, Tyron's mind was broken and it was her mission to undo the damage he had done. "But while you distracted the Nyk, I did learn something... I'm just not certain what..."

Tyron told Polly, "There is nothing more to be accomplished here. You can return to your mining operations. We will soon depart." With one last glance in the direction of Tyron's erection where it bulged outwards against the fabric of his clothing, Polly departed in the pod, rising up from the deep alien-constructed cavern.

For weeks, Lyza had been dosing Tyron with sex hormones and mind-altering infites, causing him to fall deeply in love with Lyza. Now, after having had his mind touched by the Nyk and placed in telepathic synchrony with Lyza's thoughts, he was in a state of intense sexual desire. He opened up Lyza's blouse and exposed her cute breasts and would have proceeded to ravish her but...

Just then, Rey and Rylla entered into the Asimov Reality Simulation, appearing inside PC23. Tyron and Lyza were amazed by their sudden arrival inside the cavern. Lyza could sense a diffuse telepathic signal from Rylla and she said, "They just appeared... from nowhere."

see Part 1 of
The Cythyrya Investigation.

Rylla explained, "We are inside a Simulation of Reality. We entered the Simulation from outside. I am Rylla and this is my friend Rey. We are investigating how humans made use of Phari technology here in this Reality."

Lyza rubbed her erect nipples with her finger tips and said, "No Simulation could be this detailed."

Rey sent some infites into Lyza and began the process of allowing Lyza to accept the existence of a Reality Simulation System that could make simulated people feel perfectly normal and unaware of the fact that they were part of a Simulation. Rey said, "We'll ask you not to worry about the fact that this is a simulation. We are here to learn and then we will depart." Rey placed one hand on Tyron's head and her other hand on the end of his erection and she told him, "I understand how you obtained negative mass hierions from a species of the Phari Network, the Vef-Yulir, but we recently visited Sogdian where Retz told us to come here and visit your laboratory. We want to know how you learned to use the Vef-Yulir like a hierion probe and how you were able to begin extracting femtozoans from human test subjects."

Tyron could telepathically sense that like Lyza, Rey was a powerful telepath. However, while he had some ability to receive telepathic signals, Rey's mind was opaque to him. He asked Rey, "Why should I tell you anything?"

Lyza moved close to Rey and placed both of her hands on Rey's head. She asked, "What are you? I sense a robot mind pattern, but also a human pattern... are you mimicking my mind pattern in order to link to me telepathically?"

Rey told Rylla, "There is something strange going on here. I..." She paused her probing of Tyron's memories and telepathically examined Lyza's mind. Rey announced, "She is another clone of Jheral Tinzy!"

Rylla nodded. "I suspected as much, just from her facial appearance, but look! She has four breasts, just like me." Rylla unzipped the top of her jumpsuit and showed Lyza her two rows of breasts.

Speaking to Rylla, Tyron commented, "And Lyza has two vaginas." He asked Rylla, "Do you?" Rey now had both of her hands on Tyron's erection. She formed synapex links to his nervous system and while sexually stimulating him, she examined the damage that had been done to his brain. That self-inflicted damage had turned him into a ruthless and obsessed man who had no compunction about working with Viole Falushe to make use of alien technology to develop human mind control techniques.

Then, another voice was heard, answering Tyron's question. "They are both from the future." What appeared to be a flashy redheaded woman came forward from the far side of the underground chamber. She added, "But sadly, poor Rylla was deprived of her allzaurish during her current mission on Earth."

Tyron asked the redhead, "Who are you and how did you get down here?"

"You can call me Irosh. I teleported myself into this chamber." Irosh stroked one of Lyza's cute lower breasts and commented, "I hope you found this body form and the sex hormones useful in captivating Tyron." Irosh turned to Rylla and noted, "And I see in your mind that you have used oxypathin to amplify your daughter's telepathic abilities."

Rylla held one of her lower breasts in her hand and said, "I've isolated and sequenced the oxypathin hormone. I'm trying to design even more potent activators of the oxypathin receptor that might alow amplification of human telepathic abilities."

Lyza (left), the secret agent
of Irosh the bumpha (right)

Irosh shook her head in wonder. "I suppose I should not be surprised that in the future, a few humans have been given access to Reality Simulation technology, but I have never viewed such a future Reality." For a moment, Irosh seemed to hesitate, then Irosh dissolved her clothing nanites and gave her torso the gaudy physical appearance of an Asterothrope female with four large breasts. For a moment she stroked and fondled her own erect nipples, then turned her attention back to the business at hand. Irosh explained, "It was I who provided Tyron with a Vef-Yulir and broke him free of the Bimanoid Interface. In the not too distant future, space elevator technology will be needed by the human settlers of Alastor Cluster. Now that negative mass hierions are known to humans and Tyron has built his anti-gravity machine, it is only a matter of time before space elevators will be constructed. I am satisfied."

Lyza reached out and stroked one of Irosh's big breasts. Lyza asked Irosh, "Can I now complete my mission?"

"Soon, my love." Irosh kissed one of Lyza's stiff nipples then explained, "I came here now because I hope Nyrtia will show herself. She must by now have viewed the future and be willing to concede the benefits of providing humans with space elevator technology."

Rey had continued to stroke Tyron's erection and now she was sucking on the hot glans of his penis. Tyron was quite desperate for an orgasm, but Rey seemed to be intentionally holding him just short of his sexual climax. He now reached out a hand and fondled Irosh's big top right breast and asked, "So are you ladies just going to display your beautiful bodies or is someone going to actually get laid?"

Irosh giggled and used her nanites to remove all the clothing from Tyron, Lyza, Rey and Rylla. She placed her hands on Tyron's big hot erection where Rey's hands were already expertly massaging the long hard shaft of his penis and said, "If a group orgasm trance is what it takes to get Nyrtia's attention, then I'm all for it."

Lyza commented, "There is serious penis shortage down here."

Irosh waved her hand and three of the alien Vef-Yulir appeared, one each right in front of Lyza, Rey and Rylla. These alien artificial life forms had been carefully programmed by Irosh. Now they instantly wrapped their furry appendages around the hips of the women and began stimulating their genitals. Rey abandoned her effort to understand Tyron's fractured brain circuits and now gave her full attention to the Vef-Yulir that had telepathically linked itself into her mind while sexually stimulating her genitals. 

Irosh helped Tyron slide his erection into her vagina. Almost at once, with his penis inside the tight and silky vagina of Irosh, Tyron began to ejaculate. He found himself caught up in a telepathic mind space where the Nyk were making plans with Irosh for their escape from PC23. Vaguely, Tyron wondered what advanced technologies might be obtained from the Nyk.

After some initial revulsion, Rylla began to enjoy what her Vef-Yulir was doing to her: stimulating both the stiff glans of her clitoris and the wet walls of her vagina. 

Now linked into a shared mind space with the others, Rylla was certain that Lyza was somehow related to Marda. She wondered: A clone? As her Vef-Yulir's expert attention to her clitoris quickly brought her to sweet sexual climax, Rylla entered into a shared orgasm trance and lost her capacity for normal rational thought.

With the Jehral femtozoan she was carrying, Rey felt her telepathic mind link not only to Lyza, but also Jym and Marda and... what? Another mind. Finally there was a name associated with the new mind pattern: Retya. Among all of the myriad of alien thoughts coming from the Vef-Yulir and the Kry, there were also images of cats and cat-like humanoids. Then Rey's mind pattern fully merged into the shared orgasm trance and she was lost to the intense sexual pleasure that Irosh had brought to everyone who was there inside PC23.

Later, after Tyron had dutifully and enthusiastically ejaculated into every available vagina there inside PC23, the lovers all laid there on the floor in a tangle of sweaty limbs. Tyron had finally collapsed and lay on his back and Lyza was riding his hot erection towards another orgasm. Rey and Rylla were playfully giving each other oral sex, but then Rey noticed that Irosh was gone. The Vef-Yulir were also gone, but not forgotten. Rey's vagina still tingled in a kind of after-sensation from the alien creature's amazing genital massage. Finally returning to normal consciousness, Rey popped both herself and Rylla out of the Asimov Reality Simulation and they landed back in the living room, on the floor behind where Eddy was at work on his computer. Hearing them land on the tile floor, he turned and gazed upon the naked bodies of Rey and Rylla. Rylla instantly got to her feet and went to find her daughter, Marda.

Rising to her feet, Rey covered herself with clothing nanites and told Eddy, "We met another bumpha... she calls herself Irosh."

Eddy had never heard of Irosh, but he was certain that there were bumpha in every Reality of Earth's Reality chain. He asked, "What did you learn about those femtozoans?"

Now Rey realized that during the orgy inside PC23, she had been stripped of the Jheral femtozoan. "Azynov inserted us into a Phari-built facility, deep under the surface of Myller's Planet. Irosh admitted to having provided Tyron Russ with the means to extract femtozoans from people and Retz was trained to re-program femtozoans on Myllyr's Planet." Still feeling a tingling sensation in her vagina from when the Vef-Yulir had been giving her sexual pleasure, Rey decided to leave out that part of the story.

"Amazing!" Eddy commented, "Even thousands of years later, humans of the Asimov Reality did not know how to program nanites."

Rey realized that Eddy would not stop asking questions until he knew everything. "Well, it was an artificial life-form called the Vef-Yulir that Irosh... well, I don't know how to describe it. Compelled? Programmed? It does not matter. Let's just say that the Vef-Yulir were a component of the Phari Network which the bumpha learned how to behaviorally program and control. Retz and Tyron knew nothing about nanite programming, but they got what they wanted from the Vef-Yulir, all provided by the bumpha. In my case, I got a mind altering orgasm."

Eddy laughed. "So, the mission to Myllyr's Planet was a success?"

Rey was thinking about the unusual telepathic Retya mind pattern that Rey had briefly felt during the group orgasm trance inside PC23 on Myllyr's Planet. She asked Eddy, "Do you know an alien species called the Felydyans?"

Eddy gave his head a shake. Just then, Zeta came into the living room with Tihri latched on to one of her breasts. "Welcome back, Rey." Zeta locked lips with Rey in a passionate kiss.

Eddy asked Zeta, "Do you know of the Felydyans?"

Zeta pulled her lips and tongue away from Rey and sat down in one of big easy chairs that was there in the living room and replied, "No. Are they part of the Phari Network?" Qyla the cat jumped up and laid down on an arm of the chair, close beside Tihri, who continued to nurse.

Now Rey realized what had happened to the Jheral femtozoan. Rylla muttered, "I did bring it back." Rey could now telepathically sense the Jheral femtozoan's mind pattern inside the cat!

Tihri (Tyhry) nanite programming.

Eddy asked, "Brought what?"

Rey moved to Qyla and scratched the cat's ears. "Qyla will make sure that Tihri knows about the Felydyans."

Zeta asked Rey, "What are you talking about?"

Rey had already turned to go find Anthony. She was still horny and convinced that Anthony could scratch the same itch that the Vef-Yulir had scratched in Rey's vagina. Heading off down the hallway, Rey muttered, "Tihri will understand, even if we can't." Rey knew that she had received information from the future, information that made no sense... yet.

Next: Part 5 of "The Cythyrya Investigation".

Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers