Totally Random

Hugo winner
in the Buld Reality

I was amazed by the constraints on time travel that were imagined by J. Walsh for his story "After 1,000,000 Years" (1931). In general, I enjoy science fiction stories that impose some limitations on imaginary technology, however, the imagined constraints should make sense and not be random annoyances. In the category of "random annoyance", I'll list the idea that radio transmissions can't be used in outer space (see "The Mark of the Meteor" by Ray Cummings).

 Opposite. At the other extreme, consider the short story time travel story "Birth of a Notion" by Isaac Asimov. Physicist Simeon Weill discovers how to harness tachyons for time travel, but he cannot control what happens during a trip through time. After energizing his test animals with tachyons, they disappear, but do they shift into the past? Into the future? It is all random, as is the 'distance' moved through time. 

in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Karel Thole

 Amazing Story. In "Birth of a Notion", when Weill finally uses the totally random time travel technique on himself, he is sent back to 1925 where he gets to meet Hugo Gernsback. Why did Asimov portray time travel as being governed by random quantum events, and then target Dr. Weill to exactly the necessary point in time and space that was needed to cause an amazing change in the course of history?

The Amazing Azynov. I've previously turned Asimov into a time traveler and I've also sent his replicoid (Azynov) into the Asimov Reality Simulator. Now, Azynov's expertise is needed inside the Ekcolir Reality where the analogue of Ray Cummings, a woman named Reynette, is conspiring to provide Thomas Edison with access to advanced nanotechnology even before the arrival of the Fru'wu. This new science fiction story (called "Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments", below) is told by Rylla, but she does not join in the action until Chapter 2.

Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments

Reynette was reading about the war. Mr. Edison slid into the seat on the other side of the booth and asked, "Do you have-" Reynette slid her typed summary of the meeting with General Lyle's staff officers across the table. Edison opened the folder and quickly scanned the thick document within and muttered quietly to himself, "Radar... the sensitivity of radar... detectors..." 

 Reynette said quietly, "I sent a copy of this report to the Radar Project in Menlo Park and our luggage off to the airport. Weather should be good for the trip to Florida." Edison barely heard her, confident that she would have taken care of all the travel details. After cold, gray New York, their pending visit to Florida would bring a welcome change. An amusing thought flickered through Edison's mind... could Reynette even manage and direct the paths of winter storms? He chuckled.

Reynette said, "No, Really. That storm that swamped Miami turned out to sea."

Edison smiled at Reynette's solemn avowal.

1914 in the Ekcolir Reality

In the six months since Reynette came into his life, Edison had learned that he could fully trust her. In this case, overnight, she had managed to find a typewriter and compile a detailed account of their previous day's meetings with military procurement officers... and Edison could detect not a single error in her work. Of course, she was brilliant; a competent physicist who knew how to write clear technical reports and a lovely woman, to boot. The vague wish was there at the back of his mind: If only I was 40 years younger.

 Reynette folded up the newspaper while telling the waiter what Edison wanted for breakfast. The waiter, wondering why Edison did not speak for himself, said, "That's black, right?" He was seeking confirmation of the drink order.

Reynette replied, "Yes" The waiter departed from their table then she told her boss, "Azynov called again. He's in town and wants a word with you." She set the newspaper on the table where Edison could easily reach it.

The waiter set a cup of black coffee in front of Edison and rushed off to the kitchen. Edison sipped the hot beverage and then said, "Can't you report him to the police? Let them handle that nut..." He pushed the folder with the meeting notes back across the tabletop to Reynette who tucked it into her briefcase.

Reynette suggested, "Maybe if you spoke to him-"

Edison sharply interrupted, "Why should I waste my time on a kook?"

Reynette had been watching for the "kook" and now she saw Azynov. Reynette pointed a finger across the dining room. "Just listen for five minutes, then tell him that you are too busy. I'll take over from there." She waved at the man by the entrance who had a red flower in his hand and who was trying to talk his way past the Maître d'.

Taking note of Reynette's gesture, the Maître d' let Azynov enter the dining space. 

Edison

 Edison told Reynette, "I'll thank you to deal with him."

Azynov strode across to Edison's table and sat down beside Reynette. Sliding into the booth, he handed her the red rose, the prearranged signal by which Rey had recognized him. Azynov spoke to Edison, "An honor to meet you, sir."

Edison was looking at the headline of the newspaper, but then he looked up and scowled at Azynov. The waiter brought Edison's meal, set the plates on the table and asked Azynov if he wanted anything. Azynov replied, "Just a cup of tea, thank you." He set a fresh, recently printed ten dollar bill on the table and said to Edison, "Allow me to buy you breakfast." He turned to Reynette and asked, "Not eating?"

With a sly grin, Reynette replied, "I'm on a diet." She was analyzing Azynov's strange accent and his appearance and trying to imagine his origins. Then she was distracted by the sensation that Azynov's mind was pushing at her. She wondered: Is Azynov a telepath? She set about trying to synchronize her telepathic mind pattern to his.

At the same time, Azynov's eyes roved all over Reynette. Previously, he'd only been Viewing her from outside the Ekcolir Reality Simulation, but now, seeing her in person, he could sense a weak telepathic connection to her mind. 

Viewing technology and
inter-dimensional telepathy

Azynov suddenly experienced a flashed image in his mind of Reynette's duplicate copy, who was an identical copy of the girl, a copy that Azynov had made by using his access to the Simulation System Controls. In that memory of Rey2, Azynov had been watching the copy (who was topless) during a telepathy experiment and making use of a synapex connection to Eddy that amplified her telepathic abilities. Then, horribly, that synapex experiment had ended in the girl's death and Eddy had not learned Reynette's secret.

Growing uncomfortable in the lengthening silence and with Azynov seemingly undressing her with his eyes, Reynette gestured towards Edison and told Azynov, "You have five minutes to explain you concerns about nanotechnology."

Edison was devouring his breakfast, looking at the newspaper and seemingly uninterested in Azynov. The waiter returned and a steaming cup of tea was set in front of Azynov, but he ignored it. Azynov reluctantly pulled his eyes off of Reynette, tried to ignore the alien feel of her mind pattern and began his pitch to Edison. "Some types of technology are simply too dangerous for humans. Imagine letting a chimp play with a loaded pistol as if it were a toy."

"Forget gunpowder. I know the dangers." Edison held a fork laden with eggs and bacon just below his chin and asked, "Tell me young man, how is nanotechnology dangerous?" He took the food in his mouth. Edison was intrigued by invisibly small atoms and how chemical substances could be engineered and crafted to meet human needs. 

Azynov said, "Another hypothetical example. Would you trust a hungry chimp in a New York City zoo to abstain from eating toxic foxglove?"

Reynette told Azynov, "Don't ruin Mr. Edison's meal with your gruesome fantasies."

Catastrophic sea level rise in the Ekcolir Reality.

Edison was not alarmed by the imaginary poisoning a chimp. "As a boy, I once almost burned down a barn in a chemical explosion, but I learned my lesson." Edison scooped up another heaping forkful of his food. "All my chemical plants are engineered with proper safely measures. I assure you, I know the dangers of chemical energy."

"In our case," Azynov tipped his head to the side and glanced briefly at Reynette from the corner of his eye, "The danger confronting Earth is the pace of fossil fuel use... it will continue to accelerate. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide will soon be driving global warming and eventually that will lead to catastrophic sea level rise. Where we sit now will be under the surface of the Atlantic ocean!"

Edison set down his fork and swallowed a mouthful of coffee then asked Reynette, "Where's that letter?" She reached into the briefcase, pulled out an envelop and extracted a sheet of paper. Reynette handed Edison the letter that Azynov had mailed to him the previous week. Edison read from the letter: "Currently, the only nanotechnology on Earth is in the form of nanites that function as hidden endosymbionts that are inside the brains of animals." He looked at Azynov and raised an eyebrow, "It sounds like you are suggesting a form of matter that is subatomic."

hierions

Azynov nodded. Edison set the letter on the table next to his plate and continued eating. Reynette told Edison, "If this is true, then we should be able to detect the hierions in these endosymbionts."

Azynov looked at Reynette, but he spoke to Edison, "There is danger in that." He pointed an accusing finger at Reynette. "She wants the components of the endosymbionts to be revealed. Then hierions will become available for other uses and that will lead to amplification of the global warming catastrophe."

Reynette pointed a finger at Azynov and asked, "How do you know so much about the future? Do you have a crystal ball?"

Azynov replied, "Mr. Edison, you really don't need to know my sources of information about the future. You simply would not believe me, if I told you. Forget about that." Turning his eyes once more towards Reynette, Azynov said, "What is important is the source of your knowledge of hierions. How do you know that a means exists to detect these unknown particles? How do you explain that Miss Cummings?"

Reynette shrugged and she said quietly, "I'm just trying to understand what you wrote in your letter, Mr. Azynov. "

the Fru'wu

Edison said, "Mr. Azynov, I've humored you, but we are out of time." He looked at his watch and added, "I have a flight to catch." Edison looked into Reynette's eyes and warned, "I don't want you getting distracted by this heroin nonsense." 

Azynov corrected Edison, "Hierions."

"Whatever." Edison shook his head. "I'm intrigued by the possibility of a physics of sub-atomic matter." Edison stood up and placed a hand on Azynov's shoulder. "But no more letters! That is the mark of a crank. Publish your evidence for these unseen hierions in a reviewed journal and then I'll pay you some attention." Walking away, he spoke over his shoulder to Reynette, "Don't be late getting to the airport."

Azynov watched Edison depart from the hotel dining room then turned his attention back to Reynette. "Come on Rey, now that he's gone, you can tell me your secrets."

Reynette placed a hand on Azynov's thigh and told him, "You first. Do you work for Manny?"

Now in physical contact with Reynette, Azynov could telepathically sense the surface level of her thoughts. Their two replicoid bodies were quite similar, but she had some sort of screen or scrambler that artificially shifted her telepathic mind pattern. "Ah, does that mean you work for Manny? Or you don't?"

Reynette giggled. "I don't. Now, start at the beginning... who are you, really? Talk fast, I need to get to the airport."

Azynov sighed. He'd previously witnessed Eddy go through this exact same dance with a duplicated copy of Reynette. Just like the copy, this version of Rey clearly had no intention of revealing the name or nature of the organization that she secretly worked for. "Let's go. I'll talk while we walk." He slid out of the bench seat of the booth.

1914 technology in the Ekcolir Reality

Reynette picked up her briefcase and the red rose as she got out of the booth. She was a fast walker and Azynov had all he could do just to keep up with her, but following along behind, he enjoyed the seductive movements of her long, lean body. Soon they were in the back seat of a cab on the way to the airport. Azynov offered a speculation: "I suppose during your training, you must have made use of a simulator to prepare for your mission here on Earth."

Reynette nodded. "Yes, a combo Viewer-Simulator... it was very useful, but I never saw you when I Viewed my future. However, I never looked very far ahead. Where do you come from, the far future?"

Azynov explained, "In a sense, but not by means of conventional time travel."

Reynette laughed. "Unconventional time travel?"

"You can call it that. I'm from a future Reality. The Final Reality."

Reynette shook her head, "Nobody can travel back into a previous Reality."

"You can, if it is a Simulated Reality. We are inside a Simulation of your Reality."

the Final Reality

For a minute Reynette looked out the window and thought about the possibility that everything she knew was taking place inside a simulation. Then she turned her gaze back towards Azynov and said, "If that is true then tell me: what is going on? What's your game?"

"What I said." Azynov took hold of her hand. "I really want to know why you are trying to provide hierion technology to the people of this era. Who sent you here on your mission? Why are you here in this particular time, feeding advanced alien technology to Mr. Edison?"

Now letting go of her briefcase, Reynette held a hand to the side of her head and sighed. The top levels of Azynov's mind were available to her telepathic mind scans. However, his telepathic mind pattern was unusual and she could not dig down into his memories. "Somehow I feel like I should trust you, but I'm waiting to hear back from..."

The cab was now rushing into the Potomic Tunnel. Azynov leaned close and told Reynette, "Watch this." He took himself out of the Ekcolir Reality Simulation for a moment and then returned. He squeezed her hand gently. "You can trust me. Open your mind to me."

Reynette glanced at the driver who had seen nothing of Azynov's brief disappearing act. There was a plastic partition between the front and rear compartments of the cab which blocked sounds as quiet as casual conversation between passengers. She asked, "Teleportation?"

"No. I exited from this Simulation... just to show you that I can."

1914 technology in the Ekcolir Reality

"It seemed like teleportation to me." 

They were now approaching the airport's departure terminal and Reynette pulled her briefcase into her lap. Taking her other hand out of Azynov's grasp, she prepared to jump out of the cab as soon as it stopped at the curb. Azynov said, "This isn't over."

Reynette patted his thigh and said, "Just don't do anything to perturb Edison. If you ignore his request and keep intruding in his busy life, then you'll have to deal with his private security team."

Azynov suggested, "He won't be all that busy while on vacation in Florida."

As Reynette got out of the cab, she gave Azynov the red rose. Azynov told her, "See you later." Reynette slammed the door of the cab shut. Azynov sniffed the flower and watched Reynette walk away.

_________

image information

During the last of the series of linked flights from New York to Florida, they crossed the southern border of New England and entered into Espanola. Reynette did not notice the transition. Edison had fallen asleep and she was thinking about the mysterious Azynov and hierions. She knew that in the future, hierion-based technologies would be used for things like space elevators, but why should that accelerate global warming?

Reynette also thought about the alien Fru'wu who would soon make contact with the people of Earth. Nyrtia had been working hard to make sure that humans were ready to adopt advanced Fru'wu technologies. Reynette knew that she was only one of a series of 'helpers' who had been tasked with feeding Edison clues about how to develop new technologies. And now Azynov's startling appearance on Earth, as if he fell from the sky. Reynette contemplated the possibility that with practice she might be able to use her telepathic ability to see deeply into his mind.

At the end of the long day of flights going south to Florida, when Edison and Reynette arrived at the Fort Myers Municipal Airport, Azynov was there waiting for them. Rey instantly felt the unusual mind pattern of Azynov. Edison got into his private car and the driver, his assigned military attaché, loaded the luggage into the car. Reynette handed her briefcase to the soldier and told Edison, "I'll see you in the morning. I have a date." Without further explanation she walked into a nearby parking area where Azynov was waiting beside his own car. 

Azynov opened the passenger side door for Reynette and with a grin he asked, "What took you so long?"

Reynette again tried to telepathically dig deep into his mind, but all she could access was surface fluff. As they pulled out of the airport, Reynette asked, "How did you get here so fast?"

Azynov chuckled. "What, you no longer believe that I have teleportation equipment in my hip pocket?"

Reynette complained, "If you really expect my cooperation then you should not mock me."

"I've told you the truth. I can move myself around in this Simulation." As he picked up speed on the highway, Reynette's long hair was being whipped around her head. Azynov asked, "Too much air?"

"No. It feels nice. It must have been a hot afternoon." Through gaps in a grove of tall palm trees, she got a glimpse of the ocean where the last glow of the setting sun was orange and red. "Where are we going?"

Azynov laughed. "To my little love nest." He pulled off the highway into a motel parking lot. He opened her door, grabbed her arm and marched her into room 23. Reynette saw that a man and a woman were there inside the room. The man was sitting at a little table in the corner of the room and Engineering schematics were spread out on the table. The woman was sprawled on the bed, reading a newspaper. Azynov said, "Reynette, meet my friends, Yōd and Eddy."

 Laying aside the Spanish American News, Yōd rolled off of the bed and ran to Azynov. They embraced and kissed.

Reynette saw that the woman was bare-footed and wearing a bikini top and a very short sexy slip. She wondered if these two had been using the motel swimming pool. The man was dressed in a white cotton robe. She asked Azynov, "These two are also from outside?"

Yōd turned away from Azynov and took Reynette's hand. "We're all from the Final Reality." Yōd disappeared and then spoke from behind Reynette, "We get around." Azynov had briefly taken Yōd out of the Simulation, just to impress Reynette.

Rey's secret plans

Reynette briefly looked over her shoulder at Yōd then picked up a document from the table and asked, "Should I be surprised that you have secret military plans for the LO8 radar system?"

Eddy explained, "Well, these are documents from your home office. Are you supposed to keep secret war documents at home? We've been trying to figure out how you built, ah... -will build- your hierion detector. Or do you just teleport it in?"

Reynette threw her hands in the air. "I give up. If this is all a simulation then I suppose nothing I say, or do, even matters."

Azynov said, "Relax, Rey. Have a seat. Let's talk this over."

Reynette complained, "I'm hot. I'm tired. I'm hungry" She looked at Yōd's sexy legs where they emerged from her short skirt. "I'm also horny, but right now I'll settle for a drink and dinner."

Yōd laughed and ran her fingers through Reynette's hair and then said, "You're just too cute... I'd like to share an orgasm trance with you. We'll have to work on getting your priorities re-organized, but for now we can go over to the Concha for dinner. They've got air conditioning!" Yōd quickly opened the closet and pulled on a dress. Eddy took a suit of clothes out of the closet and stepped into the bathroom. A minute later he emerged, fully dressed. Yōd belted on a kind of fanny pack, opened the door and led the way out into the humid night.

New England and Espanola in the Ekcolir Reality

They crossed the highway and went into the Concha Lounge. The environment there in Florida was completely different from New York. A latin band played rather rambunctiously in the main room of the restaurant. Azynov slipped ten dollars to the Maître d' and requested a quite table. They were placed in a small side-room near a rumbling air conditioning unit. For a moment, Reynette simply watched the slinky Yōd who pulled open the top of her dress and seemed to enjoy the cooler air. Reynette was baffled by the strange mind patterns of both Yōd and Eddy and she could not telepathically sense even the superficial layers of their conscious thoughts. However, she felt an erotic attraction to both of them.

After placing their food and drink orders, Azynov tucked a 20 dollar bill into the waiter's shirt pocket and said, "Thanks, Carlos."

The waiter was ogling Reynette and asked, "Who's your new friend, Mr. A?"

Azynov the replicoid

Azynov replied, "This is Rey, she works for Mr. Edison."

Carlos bowed. "Pleased to meet you, Rey." He went off to pass the food order to the chef.

Azynov told Reynette, "I've been here for the past week. Since I'm a scientist, I was able to get a job at Edison's rubber research lab."

Reynette asked Azynov, "You've infiltrated the lab? You got past the military screening?"

Azynov explained, "I know how the military works. And how it fails, too. It only cost me a $500 dollar bribe to get me inside the lab. Plus, I have a Ph.D. in chemistry and experience in biochemistry research, so I can now study Edison's organization from within."

Yōd added, "Your fake credentials were probably good enough, even without the bribe."

Azynov shrugged and asked, "Why take chances and maybe have to restart the Simulation yet again? We have plenty of cash to throw around."

The waiter brought Yōd a cold beer which she first sipped then went ahead and quickly guzzled half. Noting that Eddy also seemed thirsty and after ignoring a dainty burp from Yōd, Reynette was feeling very comfortable in their company. She told them, "I plan to build a hierion detector in Menlo Park... with the help of the Radar Project research team. But that will take several years of hard work. For some mysterious reason, my well-intentioned plans don't meet with Azynov's approval."

Eddy asked, "Why make it so complicated? Why not just smuggle a functioning detector to Earth and be done with it?"

Reynette asked, "Haven't you ever heard of the Rules of Intervention?"

Eddy nodded, "Yes, I have, but isn't it a violation of the Rules for you to be on Earth?"

"No. I'm human."

Yōd in Florida

Azynov said, "I wish you'd be honest. Please don't waste our time playing games." Azynov reached out and took hold of Reynette's hand. He altered his femtobot components and his hand morphed into a nearly exact imitation of Reynette's hand. Reynette gasped and then she quickly recovered her composure and made her hand take on the form of Azynov's hand. Then they both returned themselves to normal. "Yes, we know you are a replicoid, as am I."

Eddy said, "The pek must know that she's on Earth as part of the on-going Edison Intervention."

Yōd suggested, "Maybe the pek simply don't care. They are already well into planning the Final Reality. This Reality is just a throw-away Reality."

Reynette protested, "What is this about a 'Final Reality'? How can there be..." She fell silent, a look of puzzlement on her face. She was searching into Azynov's memories and catching glimpses of what he knew about the future.

The waiter returned with Reynette's first course, a shrimp cocktail. As a replicoid, she had no need to eat, but she had been trained to pretend to be human. Yōd and Eddy had ordered salads. Azynov let go of Reynette's hand after the waiter left the table, he said, "That's a Huaoshy trick, yet in your future. They will alter the Dimensional Structure of the Universe, making all further time travel impossible. So you see, there really will be a Final Reality and an end to Reality Changes."

Reynette munched her chilled shrimp and tried to decide if Azynov was serious. As a physicist, she was intrigued by what he might mean by the dimensional structure of the universe. With some oily salad dressing dribbling down her chin, Yōd said, "Let's not get side-tracked. We three don't suffer from the same restraints as the average Interventionist agent." She wiped her lips and chin with a napkin then reached into her fanny pack and then tossed a heavy object on the table. It made a loud, solid thump when it landed. It looked like an exotic spark plug. 

Reynette reached out a hand and touched the probe with her finger tip. She could sense in Azynov's thought that this "plug" was a hierion probe. "You have a hierion probe?"

The waiter brought a basket of hot dinner rolls and a small plate of butter. After Carlos departed, Yōd explained to Reynette, "With this device, we can speed up your little project by a few years."

"But I don't want..." Again Reynette fell silent. She buttered a roll, took a bite and then said, "This is absurd. You claim we are in a Simulation, so what can it matter if we quickly revealed the existence of hierions to..." Reynette was chilled by a thought that she now saw in Azynov's mind.

Azynov had picked up the probe and now he pointed it at Reynette's head. "We are not interested in teaching the people of this era about hierions. I can use this probe to open up your mind, lay it bare before my memory editing nanites. If you don't tell us who you work with, I'll pull the information out of you... by force."

Reynette laughed rather nervously. "Tell, me... why do you care about any of this?" She looked from face to face around the table. "Who are you?"

Eddy said, "Reynette, this may make no sense to you, but in the Final Reality, nobody on Earth knows about..." He threw out his hands to the side, gesturing vaguely to the surroundings, "...any of this. The struggle between Trysta and Grean, how aliens created the human species, the ancient Huaoshy... none of it. I'm a researcher. An historical researcher. Here in this Reality, there was an unprecedented level of Interventionism... with catastrophic results."

"Catastrophe?" Reynette said, "I'm trying to prevent global warming. If we can use hierions to transmit energy to Earth-"

Rules of Intervention

Eddy shouted, "No!" He glanced at the doorway that connected to the rest of the restaurant then continued more quietly, explaining to Reynette, "Nothing you do will help. We've seen the future. Although, you are right. Even sinking all of Earth's coastal cities under the rising seas does not matter. This is only a Simulation. I'm doing historical research. Just tell us what we want to know and then I will return to my own Reality."

"You just want to know?"

"I want to understand how this Reality got so messed up and why."

"But if this is all in the past, the dead past of a Simulation, why does it matter... to you, personally?"

Eddy tried to explain his obsession with Deep Time and the past Realities of Earth. "History always matters. I want Humanity to know the truth of how we got where we are. Well, I mean the people in the Final Reality, the real people, the living people who are still constructing Earth's future."

Reynette objected, "I'm an artificial life-form, but I am alive. I know that you believe we are in a Simulated Reality, but I still care about the people here... on this Earth."

They had a rather intense discussion all through diner. Reynette had the continuous sensation that Azynov was picking at her mind, trying to find a way into her thoughts. She could sense that he was planning to use the hierion probe to gain access to her memories.

Finally they made their way back across the highway to the motel. Working on the little table in the corner of their motel room, Azynov attached the hierion probe to a compact control device and then told Reynette, "If you resist me, I might be forced to damage your mind."

Reynette gave her head an angry shake. "I'm not going to stay here and let you probe my memories."

Upon returning to the stuffy room, Yōd had pulled off her dress. Now she put her arms around Reynette. "Yes, you are... and I'll try to make you enjoy it, too." Yōd kissed Reynette's lips and then pushed her hot tongue inside Reynette's mouth. 

Rey felt a rush of hot lust for the sexy Yōd and she had the strange sensation of something warm being inserted into her wet vagina.

Azynov activated the probe. Both he and Eddy had placed their hands on the control device and were tuning their minds to Reynette's telepathic pattern. Yōd was acting as a conduit for a swarm of nanites that were flowing from Azynov into Reynette. Although fearful that Azynov might enter her mind and learn her secrets, Reynette was feeling quite sexually excited and warm in Yōd's embrace. For some reason, all Reynette could do was hold tight to Yōd, her hands on the other woman's cute bottom. 

Yōd pulled her lips off of Rey's mouth and told Azynov, "I've got my medical nanites in complete control of her motor system." Then Reynette's eyes turned up in their sockets and her head tipped back. Yōd said, "She's wide open."

____________

The Hierion Probe.

Later, Reynette awoke, laying on the bed, with Yōd sitting close by. Azynov and Eddy were over at the table, arguing about what they had seen in Reynette's mind. Reynette rolled out of the bed and felt like she only had partial control of her movements. Unable to walk, she leaned against the wall. Azynov glanced at Reynette and said, "Welcome back."

Eddy said, "We got the big picture, but we are surprised and frustrated by how little you actually know about this Edison Intervention."

"It is called compartmentalization. Spies always use it as their fundamental strategy." Azynov suggested, "Nyrtia does not want to invalidate the Pact, even while she can't resist violating the terms of the Pact... so she sends each of her agents to Earth with a minimum of knowledge... just enough to complete a brief mission."

Eddy sighed deeply and stared at Reynette. "We'll have to take the risk and try to probe deeper into her mind, even if it kills her."

"We should think this through. What's the rush? We've already killed her once. I'm sick of that brutal direct approach." Yōd got off of the bed and walked past Reynette. She sat down in Azynov's lap and complained, "Can't you take a break? Later we can use a synapex link, or even try an orgasm trance." She looked back over her shoulder at Reynette and added, "That would be fun."

Azynov kissed Yōd's nose. "Let me check on the other copy of Reynette." Azynov disappeared suddenly and Yōd almost fell to the floor, but she caught herself on the edge of the chair and leaned against the table.

Eddy tapped on the probe and told Yōd, "If using the probe to dig into her mind is making you feel sick, there is no need for you to watch any of this. Now that you have your nanites inside her brain, she can't put up a fight. Azynov and I will take it from here." 

Nyrtia

Giving up on her attempt to walk, Reynette sat on the bed. She asked, "What did Azynov mean... a copy of me?"

Eddy said, "It is not hard to make copies of any object here inside this Simulation System." 

Azynov returned to the room, standing beside the bed. He wore a white cotton robe. He told Reynette, "I have a copy of you and she is ready to try something new." Azynov turned to Eddy and asked, "Ever hear of automatic writing?"

Eddy could sense telepathically that Azynov was thinking about Nyrtia the positronic robot. "Automatic writing? Are you serious?" He chuckled. "Oh, no! This mystical crap has the foul odor of Nyrtia clinging to it."

Azynov nodded. "Good guess, you can blame Nyrtia, but there's nothing mystical. I've now got duplicate copies of all four of us back in my workshop. Our copies are ready to link into a group synapex trance and that might give us enough power to drill deep into Rey's memories, right past her defensive interlocks." He pointed at Reynette and added, "She'll be under the telepathic control of the group mind. All she needs to do is write down the answers to our questions." He told Yōd, "Take her legs completely off-line, but allow her to keep control of her hands.

Azynov pulled Reynette up against the head of the bed, leaning her back against a cushion of the pillows. Eddy approached and handed Reynette a small notepad and a pen, which Rey promptly threw across the room. Eddy said to Reynette, "Don't resist. We'll get what we want to know eventually. Why make this more difficult than it has to be?"

Reynette replied, "I have no choice... I must resist. Nyrtia programmed me to not reveal my secrets. What I don't understand is why Nyrtia is now helping you pull those secrets out of me."

Dimensional Engineering

"Don't think too much. This is simple." Azynov told Reynette, "I made a copy of you and she is cooperating. Actually, there are copies of us all in another part of this Simulator, but we can all link telepathically." Another version of Azynov's voice spoke through the control box on the table. "We're ready here... all linked up."

Azynov told Eddy, "Get back in your robe. You'll be more comfortable."

Eddy returned to the bathroom, changed and then hung up his other clothes in the closet. He and Azynov went to the little table in the corner of the room and sat down. Speaking to their other copies, Eddy said, "Not as much fun on this side, but we're about ready here. We'll be able to retain normal conscious brain functions here on this side. Now... start with me first, then Azynov." He again put his hands on the control device. 

Pulses of purple light started radiating from the hierion probe and now they all got pulled into a telepathic trance. Reynette said, "Another... Rey?" She sank into the trance.

Yōd brought Reynette the notepad and pen and told her, "Don't resist, just write." Rey now held on to the pen and pad. Yōd approached the table and could see that Eddy now had an erection which was partially sticking out of his robe. She bent over, pulled open Azynov's robe, took Azynov's penis in her mouth and stimulated the sensitive tip.

Azynov lifted up her flimsy top and toyed with Yōd's stiff nipples. He was now slipping into the group mind trance and told her, "I can already feel my copy inside the other Yōd."

Yōd took her mouth off of Azynov's erection and straddling his crotch, she took his hot penis inside her vagina. "I'd like to bounce up an orgasm, but I suppose we should form a synapex connection."

Azynov nodded, "Yes, we should... try to control your desires; we're here to help Eddy. He reached his arms around Yōd's sweaty body and placed his hands on the control surface of the hierion probe.

Reynette moved her hand that was holding the pen towards her crotch and said, "I feel a penis inside..." She then completely lost her ability to speak.

synapex networks

________________

Now they were all together inside a shared mind space, all eight of them. Eddy told Rey1: You are linked to the mind of your duplicate who has a synapex link to my copy.

Synapex?

Yōd explained: It is a way to link the nervous systems of two people. See what I'm doing with Azynov?

Eddy added: Of course, you are not biological, but your replicoid body fully simulates a human body, so I'm able to link to you.

Reynette asked: We are connected through your penis?

Eddy chuckled. Don't think about this too much. Now, just answer our questions. Eddy adjusted the intensity knob on the control device for the hierion probe and then starting with questions that he already knew the answers to, he asked: Why is Nyrtia trying to target Edison?

Reynette could not speak and would not share what she knew through telepathy, but Yōd wiggled her fingers and Reynette immediately began to write on the notepad: The Edison Electronics Laboratory has... or will soon have... all the needed materials to build a simple hierion detector.

Eddy asked: How long will you remain on Earth?

Reynette wrote: I get to return home as soon as Earth's scientists can use functioning hierion detectors to study endosymbionts. My work will be done.

Where is home?

Reynette moved the pen but only a line of ink formed, running off the page: ______

Yōd cried out into their shared telepathic mind space: Turn down the probe intensity! She's breaking! Yōd jumped off of Azynov's lap. Her motion broke both their synapex link and his connection to the hierion probe's user interface. Yōd jumped on the bed and took hold of Reynette as she dropped the notepad and pen. Eddy was slower. He pulled his hands off of the probe and then rushed to pick up Reynette, grabbing her under her arms. He and Yōd tried to get Reynette to stand on her feet. 

Azynov said, "Pull out your nanites!"

Yōd assured him, "I did!"

Reynette sank to the floor. Looking down on Reynette's prone body, Azynov said, "Amazing! It seems like her brain was completely inactivated, even though we were being so careful."

A new voice in the room said, "What did you expect when dealing with Nyrtia?"

Azynov, Yōd and Eddy all turned towards the voice. A woman was there, by the door. Eddy cried, "Manny!"

Azynov said, "Success! I was hoping you'd reveal yourself. We need help."

Manny went to stand beside the bed and placed a hand on Reynette. "What a waste." Suddenly, across the room there was another copy of Reynette. Manny told the copy, "I'm sorry you had to see this, but let it be a warning to you."

Yōd moved close to Manny, pointed at the body of Rey1 on the bed and asked, "Why didn't you save her?"

"Don't distract me, my pretty." Manny reached out and stroked one of Yōd's cute breasts. An instant later, Manny was gone, having jumped back out of the Simulation.

Eddy looked at the bed and now the body of the inactivated replicoid was also gone. "That must have been Manny of the Final Reality, but why did she rush off like that?"

Yōd asked Azynov, "You have been getting help from both Nyrtia and Manny?"

Azynov shrugged. "I see Nyrtia now and then. I suppose she has been helping me, but sometimes it is hard to tell. She suggested that we try the synapex trance." He turned to the new copy of Reynette. "Are you going to help us now?"

The newly created copy of Reynette had her hand on her head. "I feel like I had too much to drink." After one last glance at Yōd's cute breasts, Rey2 ran out of the room and went to the motel office.

Eddy watched Reynette go into the motel's main office and then he closed the door to room 23. Turning to Azynov he asked, "Should we reset the simulation and try that again?"

Azynov suggested, "I think Nyrtia is trying to help us. The question is, how much does that replacement copy of Reynette remember?"

Yōd picked up the notepad that Reynette had written in. "Now we have a new mystery..."

Eddy asked, "Reynette's home?" He thought about how much Rey had resisted providing information about her past. "She must know the location of Nyrtia's secret base of operations."

"Nyrtia's workshop?" Azynov chuckled quietly. "I suppose that is the only remaining secret of the positronic robots. Yes... they'd probably kill Rey to prevent her from revealing that secret..." He looked at Eddy and said, "We have to try again."

Yōd put her arms around Azynov, "That is fools gold. Let's finish our work and get out of this bug-infested swamp... this backwards Reality. I want to get back to the future. Let Nyrtia retain her secrets."

Yōd (image source)

Azynov knew that Yōd meant the future of the Asimov Reality. He told her, "First, I want to check on the copy of Reynette that I made. If she was telepathically linked to the copy that died..."

"No more talk of death." Eddy said, "Reynette was inactivated." Suddenly, Azynov was gone. 

Yōd sat on the bed and finally pulled her top so that it covered her protruding nipples. She told Eddy, "I'm still horny."

Eddy laughed. "This is one of Nyrtia's jokes. She's rigged it so that we don't need to sleep inside this part of the Simulation System." He peeked out the window, still waiting for Rey1 to emerge from the office.

Yōd added, "Yes, we live every minute of these long 24 hour days... there's not a moment's relief from my thoughts of sexplay."

"Yōd, don't distract me. We're here on business." Eddy pulled his eyes away from Yōd's sexy body, sat down at the little table and tapped a finger on the hierion probe. "Azynov must have gotten this from Nyrtia. But why would she suggest we use it on Reynette? It didn't work. There's something else going on here... during that trance, I could sense a link to the mind pattern of Glisten, in the Asimov Reality Simulator!"

Shery

Yōd shook her head, "That looks like a Sherylyn Toddarro hierion probe, from the Asimov Reality."

"It may well be, but I bet Nyrtia provided it to Azynov."

Yōd was stretched out on the bed and fingering her sensitive lady parts. Eddy tried to ignore Yōd, but the sight of her masturbating was keeping him sexually aroused. He shifted his robe, trying to better conceal his erection. He'd gotten quite sexually aroused during the group mind trance and now Yōd was a serious distraction from his research mission. Eddy imagined that he could feel his erection inside Yōd's vagina. He tried to fill his mind with thoughts about his reason for visiting the Ekcolir Reality. "It makes no sense. If this is Nyrtia's Intervention, using Reynette to slip advanced technology to Edison, then why is she helping us to investigate it?"

Yōd suggested, "We've looked up and down this timeline for clues. We've seen that five years from now, Reynette is removed from Earth, her mission never completed. Someone must have noticed what she was trying to do and stopped her." Yōd had decided that nothing was going to stop her from grabbing a quick orgasm. She pushed two of her fingers deep inside her hot vagina and wiggled them energetically.

Just then, Azynov returned with the other copy of Reynette, the one that he had made. Yōd sat up and told Eddy, "You know what this means."

Eddy knew what she meant. Their other copies were still together, and Eddy could telepathically sense that the other copy of Yōd was trying to seduce the Eddy copy. However, they were at that moment making use of a synapex link in an effort to send a telepathic message to Glisten. Yōd had left her daughter with Glisten, and now they felt obliged to check on Roxzel. Eddy tried to stop thinking about the seductive idea of sexplay with Yōd. He gazed at the copy of Reynette and asked Azynov, "Is she okay?"

Image made with SpencerInBlack2
& SpencerInBlack1 by Eclesi4stiK
available under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
image source

Yōd had her arms around Azynov and was nibbling his ear. Reynette was watching Yōd snuggle against Azynov, but she replied to Eddy, "I'm a bit shaken by what I experienced during that trance, but I'm okay."

Azynov told Eddy, "This copy of Reynette is going to help us. My other copy just showed her the future and now she wants to know why her mission is going to fail."

Holding open a gap in the curtain, Eddy looked outside through the window and saw the other Reynette getting into a cab. He commented, "At least that Reynette did not call the police."

The copy of Reynette took Eddy's arm and said, "Drive me to my house. We'll try talking to her... to me."

Next: Part 2 of Edison's Endosymbiont Experiments.

Rylla Style

in the Ekcolir Reality

Zeta had just finished reading my draft version of "The Olive Intervention" in which I had assumed that after briefly working with Glisten Ravensroke on Yerophet, Azynov and Yōd would never see Jantiff or Glisten again. She complained, "You missed the real reason why Glisten was sent to Yerophet."

 

I took hold of Zeta's hand and pulled her into my lap. I could sense that she had again been in contact with Rylla. We were in daily contact with Rylla by way of the internet and were being kept appraised of ongoing investigations at Observer Base. "I got my version of the story straight from Yōd."

"You know that Yōd has not been allowed to keep all of her memories." Zeta was breathing hot puffs of air into my ear and nibbling on my ear lobe.

mind clone network

I tried to resist the temptation to undress Zeta and do some nibbling of my own. I asked, "What better source of information is there?"

Zeta snuggled against me. "I'm not sure it is 'better', but the archives of the Writers Block at Observer Base contain many accounts of the far future of the Asimov Reality that were written during the Ekcolir Reality. You should wait until you read Rylla's report before you accept Yōd's version of events on Yerophet."

 

"What's going on? I thought we had gotten past all that nonsense and deception designed to protect Lakum's mission in the Hierion Domain." 

 

Lakum

While writing "The Olive Intervention" I'd worked hard to make sense of a week's worth of dream-state communications received from Yōd. My sleep pattern had been severely disrupted by having to get up and write a summary each time one of Yōd's messages arrived in the middle of the night. 

 

Now, while speaking to Zeta, I had unbuttoned her shirt and found myself kissing her hot skin. I was perfectly willing to hear about Rylla's investigation of information sources available at Observer Base, but skeptical about putting trust in fictionalized accounts obtained from the Writers Block story archives.

 

Zeta

Due to our shared telepathic connection, Zeta was able to lift thoughts from my mind, particularly when I was obsessing over them. "Remember, some of Yōd's memories that you are learning about now were from events inside the Simulator that more than a year old. She's been dealing with both probots and Kac'hin, so who knows how her version of the story has been warped and distorted?"

 

Zeta was performing some sort of amazing contortion as she shifted herself around on my lap. I was in a bit of discomfort, trying to manage the swelling in my pants where it pushed against Zeta's leg. "I hope Rylla can turn up something about Glisten's mysterious suggestion..." I fell silent while I sampled some of Zeta's sweet milk. Zeta was making huge volumes of milk while nursing Tihri.

Glisten

Zeta had a hand inside my pants. She claims that it is only fair that she be allowed to sample my bodily fluids when I can't resist the lure of her breasts. "Yes, it would be nice to know the identity of the world that Glisten glimpsed in her vision of the future. I can't imagine why R. Oliveene Nhevrix was so intent on altering the timeline... was that simply for the benefit of Azynov and Yōd?"

 

Zeta had opened my pants and I knew that I was not going to be able to resist hauling her off to our bed for much longer. "I don't like the idea that R. Nyrtia put a lock on the AR Simulator and now her minion, Oliveene is there with Yōd, inside the Simulator, altering Yōd's memories." I stood up and feeling that our bedroom was too far away, I carried Zeta to the couch. Later, after our love making, I fell into a restful sleep for the first time in a week. 

 

Assignment: Marune

Strangely, I dreamed about the possibility that the babies of Glisten and Yōd might also be part of a mind clone network forming in Alastor Cluster. Later, a report on Glisten arrived from Rylla and I was able to incorporate some of her discoveries into the second half of "The Olive Olivine Intervention. I was only slowly realizing that there was an important connection between Glisten and the world Marune, an idea that had been carefully hidden from Yōd.

⎯ The Olivine Intervention ؄

Part 3. In Hot Water.

Robots of Triskelion

Nobody at Snarlwood was particularly in a rush to venture out into the cold morning air. At dawn, Glisten was the first to rise after Olive had spent five minutes walking on her. While Jantiff still slept peacefully, Glisten had quietly gone downstairs where she asked the household robot to feed Olive. 

 

Uro had then fixed Glisten an elaborate breakfast while she tried out the hot tub that was on the back porch of the house under its array of heat lamps. 

Second to awaken, Yōd was also up early, sensing Glisten's active mind and powerful telepathic emanations. She discovered that an aircar, ready for their use, now rested in the attic inside a little garage that was tucked under the sloping roof of Snarlwood. Yōd entered the aircar and found the standard flight controls used widely throughout Alastor Cluster and when she tested the environmental system the temperature inside the car quickly climbed.

 

Going down to the main floor of Snarlwood, Yōd found Glisten in the kitchen, just finishing her meal. Uro asked Yōd, "What would you like to eat?" 

 

Yōd ignored the robot. She was looking rather hungrily at Glisten and her flushed pink skin. "You tried the tub?"

Glisten nodded. "The hot tub is quite tolerable, even if the air temperature is minus fifty." A minute later, the two women were both in the hot tub with Uro standing nearby, still pestering Yōd about her food preferences. At that moment, Yōd wanted to keep her complete attention on Glisten so she finally dismissed the robot, "I'll eat later when Azynov does. Now go away."

Glisten giggled and suggested, "Maybe you should have invited him to join us."

The Trikelion planetary system.

Yōd slid across the tub and moved close to Glisten. "I don't like the way that machine looks at you and says, 'Will there be anything else Miss Glisten?' It is clear; he has sexbot programming." Yōd could only subconsciously recall the interactions she had previously had with robots on Triskelion.

Glisten sighed and glanced through the sliding glass door to where Uro waited, still apparently concerned that Yōd might be starving. "I don't have the heart to tell Uro that Janty and I are married."

Yōd was partly aware that the robots of Triskelion had telepathic abilities, although her memories of Triskelion were still being partly suppressed. "That machine knows more than you suspect. In any case, I'm perfectly able to join us without Uro's assistance." She reached out and stoked one of Glisten's small, cute breasts.

Glisten glanced towards the second floor. "I get the feeling that Azynov is your jealous protector."

on Tar'tron

Yōd laughed. "Unlike you and Jantiff, we've never been married. Azynov knows that he can't control my sexual appetites. When he met me, I was living on a world where I had a harem of female lovers."

Glisten put her arms around Yōd and whispered, "I've never made love to anyone but Janty."

"Just relax, my dear." Yōd placed her hands against Glisten's head and examined the shape of her ears. "I wish I had access to your genome analysis, but it is clear to the naked eye... like many here in the Cluster you have many Neanderthal gene patterns."

"Neanderthal?"

"An extinct human variant of ancient Earth. Someone has gone to the trouble of spreading Neanderthal genes far and wide across Alastor Cluster, apparently as part of an attempt to make a new type of human with telepathic abilities." Yōd kissed Glisten's cheek and added, "I'm about 50 percent Neanderthal, myself."

Glisten asked, "If we share these telepathy genes, why do I feel only a weak telepathic connection to you?"

Yōd shrugged and stood up, spreading her legs and putting her vulva right in front of Glisten's mouth. "Have a taste."

Confused, Glisten asked, "Taste what?"

A breeze pushed cold air across Yōd's wet body. She stuck a finger inside her vagina and then sat down in the tub. Yōd then pushed her finger into Glisten's mouth and asked, "How do I taste?"

Glisten sucked on Yōd's finger then replied, "Slightly fruity."

image source

"The closest thing humans have to pheromones are some vaginal secretions that the Neanderthal's could both smell and taste. I've found some humans who can respond to my secretions. Maybe we also have some matching genes that will allow for telepathy. If so, I'd first need to learn your individual mind pattern."

"And how can you do that?"

 

Yōd suggested, "Lean back and let me get my mouth on your genitals." Glisten put her arms on the edge of the tub and floated on her back, her legs draped over Yōd's shoulders. It did not take very long for Yōd's darting tongue to provide Glisten with a glorious orgasm. Yōd had begun the slow task of matching Glisten's movements and spoken words to the fragments of the girl's mind pattern that could be sensed. Suddenly, Yōd had a flashed image in her mind of Glisten's child, a vision apparently arriving from some time in the future.

 

Recovering from her delightful sexual release, Glisten told Yōd, "Thank you, that was wonderful." She began to play with Yōd's breasts and wanted to reciprocate by providing Yōd with an orgasm, but Yōd climbed out of the tub, sensing that Azynov was now awake. "Azynov is wondering where I am." She ran upstairs, not bothering to dry off or dress. Back in their bed and arriving hot and moist on top of Azynov she told him, "How convenient that you woke up with a nice big erection."

Azynov took note of Yōd's red lips and could guess that she had probably gotten her hands and lips on Glisten. Yōd was eager for her own orgasm, but she remembered to tell Azynov, "The aircar was delivered some time during the night."

Still a bit sleepy, Azynov was impressed by the enthusiasm with which Yōd was working towards an orgasm. He relaxed and allowed Yōd to fully exert herself. He could not stop himself from imagining that he and Yōd might take the aircar and go in search of lo'Whots, leaving Jantiff and Glisten stranded at the Snarlwood. Later, when Yōd lay relaxed and sprawled across Azynov's body he suggested, "We could stop the flow of the Simulator and go find lo'Whots. Jantiff and Glisten would not even notice."

Yōd sighed. Something was pushing at her mind, urging her to let events unfold on Yerophet without her interfering. "If we need to, we can always reset the Simulation." Since their previous visit to Yerophet, they had resisted doing that. "I have the feeling that the Phari are trying to show us something. Maybe we can simply watch the show..." She told Azynov about her vision from the future of Glisten's child. "That glimpse of the future must have come from someone here in the Asimov Reality who has access to time travel technology."

Azynov asked, "You and Glisten are both in telepathic contact with the Phari?"

lo'Whots

"Not I. I don't have Glisten's powerful telepathic abilities. However, it is clear that Glisten is a tool of the Phari, so we might as well wait and see what they are going to do with her."

"I thought you wanted to protect Glisten, not just bang her."

"Please don't be jealous, Azynov. I gave her one little orgasm and then came running back to you. And don't worry, I'm not going to let Glisten be harmed by the Kerub. I'm perfectly willing to take all the risks on myself. After-all, I've got you watching over me, ready to yank us off of Yerophet if we get into trouble."

Azynov was not quite as confident as Yōd. What if they were attacked telepathically and he was suddenly prevented from using the Simulator controls? Now fully awake and quite aroused, he forgot all about things telepathic, rolled Yōd onto her back and made a leisurely trek towards his own orgasm.

Part 4. Rendezvous in Goslewenn

It was late morning by the time when they boarded the aircar and flew off towards the Kerub frontier. Glisten's cat, Olive, came along and curled up in a nice warm spot next to the aircar's motor compartment. Jantiff was at the controls and Azynov was in the copilot's seat as they flew directly towards the Kerub frontier with Glisten pointing over Jantiff's shoulder to the location of the village Goslewenn on the aircar's navmap. 

Yōd could not imagine how Glisten knew exactly where lo'Whots lived. Was Glisten in telepathic contact with the Kerub and being given directions to the location of lo'Whots? She was standing close to Glisten, one hand resting on the girl's shapely bottom, now amplified by the thick insulation of her coldsuit. Yōd said, "Let's take this slow and careful. Before crossing into Kerub territory, I want to gather some information." Just on the human side of the border in Goslewenn, the map indicated the presence of a business facility called the Trading Post. Pointing to the map, she said, "Let's stop here and get some information from the settlers."

 

As they approached Goslewenn, Azynov asked, "Are we in the right place? I don't see the village."

Only a few scattered buildings could be seen. Glisten explained, "Almost everything is underground." She pointed ahead, "There, that must be the Trading Post."

The aircar landed beside a small depot and Jantiff inspected everyone's cold weather gear before cracking the aircar's hatch. Their skin was completely covered, but they could speak to each other using voice re-transmitters that were built into their helmets. They activated their sunshield goggles and stepped out into the snow-covered field beside the Trading Post. 

 

Jantiff saw that Olive was still laying in her warm spot. He sealed the hatch and then they hurried across the wind-packed snow towards the door of the depot. A few ski tracks could be seen, but theirs were the first foot prints in the new snow. They had gained in altitude from Frost Hills and there was much more snow on the ground here, most of it drifted.

 

Compared to the glaring sunlight outside, it was quite dark inside the depot, but not much warmer than outside. They cleared their goggles and let their eyes adjust to the dim interior.

Speaking through her voice amplifier, Glisten said, "Someone is coming."

Jantiff looked out the frosted window but saw only trees, snow and sky. He complained, "This place looks abandoned." There were a few display racks full of mostly warm weather clothing.

Azynov suggested, "This place must only get used during the brief summer months."

At the far side of the room, a door slid open and a woman emerged from the elevator car. She spoke with the harsh settler accent, "Can I help you?" A cloud of frozen vapor formed at her mouth. Her skin and hair, what little could be seen, were tinged blue. Her eyes were bright blue and almost seemed to glow.

Yōd said, "We are new on Yerophet." Yōd introduced the woman to herself and the others. "We plan to visit Kerub territory. Perhaps you can advise us, what supplies should we have with us when we cross the border?"

"I'm Lora, this is my shop." While wrapping a long fluffy scarf around her neck, Lora looked at them dubiously. "You are tourists?" She put on her helmet and sealed up her face-plate.

Jantiff stepped close to Lora and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Lora." He was rather startled by Lora's blue skin and wondering about her genetic background.

She looked at Jantiff skeptically and briefly bumped her gloved hand against his.

Yōd suggested, "Think of us as an investigative expedition. We are here because of the problem with Kerub telepathic emanations causing harm to human settlers."

Lora finished sealing up the gaps in her coldsuit. "Hmph. More off-world eggheads? My advice is: go home."

Glisten explained, "I was asked to come here." She stepped close to Lora and asked, "Do you know lo'Whots?"

"We are neighbors." Lora looked back and forth between Azynov and Jantiff. "If you plan to do business with lo'Whots, don't bring along these ladies."

Azynov asked, "Business?"

 

"I run the Trading Post, lo'Whots tends to her own... special operations..."

Just then a tall woman came into the depot from outside. She leaned her powskis against a rack near the doorway. The owner of the Trading Post shook her head and muttered, "More tourists!" She told Jantiff, "Every time it snows the skiing fanatics come out here from Capetown."

The skier asked, "Is that your cat out there?"

Glisten turned and looked out the window. Lora asked, "You saw a snowcat?"

"Not a snowcat. Some other kind of cat." She described the beast's color and coat pattern. "And black ear tips."

Glisten exclaimed, "That's Olive! Was she by the aircar?"

The woman asked, "What aircar?"

Glisten rubbed at the frost on the window and asked, "Which direction?"

The woman pointed towards the north. "I just came down from Yurds."

They rushed outside and Glisten took off, running towards the tree line to the north with Jantiff following along. Jantiff turned and told Azynov and Yōd, "Get the aircar!"

Azynov and Yōd walked to the aircar. Yōd told Azynov, "This is our chance."

R. Oliveene Nhevrix

The skier followed along behind Azynov and Yōd, caught up, then passed them, moving quickly on her skis. To Yōd's dismay, the skier entered the aircar. Azynov and Yōd rushed into the car and Azynov demanded, "What are you doing?"

The woman had somehow already shed her coldsuit and was seated in the pilot's seat, her long golden hair cascading past her shoulders. She sealed the doors and rapidly took them up towards the sky. As the aircar tipped to the side, Azynov and Yōd lost their balance and fell onto the big rear passenger couch. As the aircar leveled off, they pulled off their helmets. After that brief violent flight upwards, the woman activated the autopilot landing sequence, turned her seat and said, "Don't bother un-suiting. I'm not going to turn on the heaters." She waved her hand at Yōd.

Yōd suddenly seemed to recognize the woman, "Olive?"

 

R. Oliveene Nhevrix smiled briefly at Yōd then morphed back into the form of Olive the cat. She went and curled up in her cozy spot against the motor housing. Azynov asked, "What just happened?"

 

Yōd felt a quick wave of dizziness that then dissipated. Some infites had just passed into her brain and they severed an old memory block. Yōd had now been allowed to remember having previously met R. Oliveene Nhevrix on Zeck. She told Azynov, "Olive is a positronic robot." She went to the command deck and watched as the aircar's autopilot set them down in a snow drift at the edge of a row of trees. She glanced at the navmap display. "We are now over the border, in Kerub territory." 

 

Azynov was looking out the window. "There's someone coming through the trees. I think it is a Kerub!"

 

Yōd now saw a furry blue figure approaching through the trees. She opened the main hatch and the bitterly cold outside air struck at Yōd. Azynov put his helmet on.

Nanite Injections

The Kerub was lo'Whots. She approached the aircar, looked inside and speaking in the frontier pigeon language asked, "Oliveene was, eh?"

 

Yōd glanced at Olive the cat who appeared to be sleeping. She said, "I'm Yōd." She was certain that the Kerub was lo'Whots. "Good to see you again, lo'Whots!"

"Knowsif you?"

The cold wind ruffled her hair and stung her face. Yōd put her helmet back on. "I know you." 

"Nota mind tu, but timego... Oliveene insa mind."

Yōd told lo'Whots, "I believe that you are being prepared for the future. In about a year, visitors from Triskelion will arrive on Yerophet. You and they will be able to solve the problem of the telepathic fevers."

"Soen told bysa Oliveene." lo'Whots nodded her head and turned to go.

Azynov called out, "Wait! Do you understand what is going on?"

The Kerub briefly turned back and said, "No... Isa will." She marched off through the trees.

Coming from the other direction across the snowy field were Jantiff and Glisten, moving as fast as they could across the snow and ice. Yōd turned on the heating system of the aircar. Azynov waved to Jantiff and Glisten. "They must have seen us fly over."

 

As Jantiff and Glisten approached the aircar, Yōd called out, "Olive is here."

Jantiff and Glisten climbed into the aircar. Yōd pulled off her helmet and gloves. She pointed at Olive, "She is safe."

Glisten went and knelt by Olive. "Why do you do these things, you silly girl? I was so worried about you!" She pulled off her gloves and petted the cat and complained to Jantiff, "She's warm as a fire, the little sneak."

Azynov activated the autopilot and set them on course back towards Snarlwood. Jantiff and Glisten pulled off their helmets and knocked snow off of their boots. Glisten said, "I feel a Kerub mind nearby. Let's go search for lo'Whots." She closed her eyes. "I can sense that she is close to us... maybe underground."

Yōd explained, "Azynov and I just saw lo'Whots."

Jantiff asked, "We missed her?"

"Be glad that you did. In the original timeline, lo'Whots and Glisten got trapped in some kind of dangerous telepathic feedback loop. Their minds are somehow tuned to each other." Yōd gazed upon the sleeping form of Olive. "And it was all a waste of effort. The solution to the problem here on Yerophet came from the future... there was no need to damage the brain of your baby, Glisten."

Glisten objected, "What do you mean? There will be no more telepathic fever deaths?" Glisten was scratching Olive's ear and loud purring could be heard.

"The full and complete solution to the problem will take some time to unfold. About a year. The settlers should be pulled back from the border until then. Otherwise, there is nothing more that needs to be done." 

Azynov shook his head. "The settlers will not pull back. They want more telepathic contacts with the Kerub, not less."

robots of Triskelion

Glisten moved to the flight couch and Olive followed along. Glisten sat beside Jantiff and Olive got into her lap. Glisten starred off into the distance through the window.

 

After a minute Jantiff told Yōd, "There is something strange going on." He had his arm around Glisten's shoulder, but she did not respond to his touch. Jantiff told Azynov, "Contact Uro. Tell him we are returning... have him get a doctor out to Snarlwood!"

Yōd was in the co-pilot's seat. She looked at Glisten and Olive and chuckled. "I think Glisten is getting the old Oliveene Nhevrix treatment." She placed a hand on Azynov, stopping him from worrying about a doctor. Azynov did call Uro and let him know that they were returning to Snarlwood from the frontier.

Jantiff demanded, "Oliveene treatment? What does that mean?"

Yōd explained, "Back on Zeck, when I took Olive for a walk, she let me in on a few secrets, such as the idea that positronic robots were constantly using time travel to speed the pace of developing human telepathy here in Alastor Cluster. Yes, I got quite an education from your cat. And I even learned that I was pregnant..."

 

Glisten was unresponsive, her eyes vacant and staring ahead, but soon they were back at Snarlwood and she followed Jantiff from the attic down to the first floor. They settled in around the fireplace and Uro served hot drinks and lunch. Olive curled up by the fireplace. Glisten slowly returned to her normal self and finally began to speak. "Now I understand the technological solution that has been provided by the probots."

 

Azynov complained, "Well I don't." He asked Glisten, "There is some medical cure for the telepathic fevers?" 

Marune

"I believe there is, but I don't understand the molecular biology details of what Olive tried to tell me... but that is not important." Glisten jumped to her feet and pulled Jantiff by the hand, "Come with me Janty, I want to show you the hot tub."

Azynov stood up and took a tentative step. Yōd said, "No," and stopped Azynov from following Glisten.

"I want to ask Glisten some more questions."

"You want to see her naked and splashing in the tub." Yōd put her arms around Azynov's shoulders. "Forget about it... I have other plans for you. I suspect that Glisten does not know enough biology to explain what the probots have done, so your questions would be wasted. Take us back to our little spaceship."

Azynov and Yōd return to their ship which was still in the space dock on Zeck. Yōd said, "A year from now, we will return to Yerophet, as we have already seen..."

 

Azynov tried to picture their two visits to Yerophet in four dimensions. They had first visited Yerophet at a point in time after this recent visit. He said, "I suppose it all makes sense. We were allowed to see Olive's intervention... she must have given medical nanites to lo'Whots, and year from now, lo'Whots, cured of the telepathic fever, will work with Colleen and solve the problem a second time."

Shery's micro-hierion field technology

"Yes, at that time there will be a new, second solution that does not involve nanites imported from the future. Shery's micro-hierion fields will ultimately fix the problem." Yōd sighed. The mission to Yerophet had been a success.

 

Azynov and Yōd wrapped their arms around each other. He said, "I was worried, lover... with all your talk about taking the danger of telepathic contact with the Kerub...would you get in trouble yourself..." They sank into a long, hot kiss.

Just then, Maturin arrived. "Just a reminder, Yōd... it will be a year before you can share with the Editor what you have learned about both probots and myself being active in Alastor Cluster. With your baby growing fast, you'll be having stronger telepathic links to Zeta, so I'll have to block your memories. However, about a year from now, you will be able to remember... almost everything." Maturin quickly mentioned the exception, "In the future you will again meet Glisten and Jantiff on another world, Marune. Glisten tried to tell you that, but she herself does not yet know the name of the world." 

 

Yōd asked, "What exactly did Oliveene do to lo'whots?"

 

"Nothing much... a bit of epigenetic reprogramming that will cure her of the telepathic fever. The changes to her cells will occur gradually, over the next several months." She waved her hand. "Now, you two will forget I told you anything until it is the appropriate time for you to remember." Maturin departed as quickly as she had arrived.

Nirutam

Yōd briefly tried to find a way to remember what she had just been told. By the time she activated her log file access in the ship's computer system, she had already forgotten the word 'Marune'. She looked at Azynov who was rubbing his forehead. "You know, we've been working hard, rushing from planet to planet. Maybe we should just take the next year off... go on vacation."

"I like the sound of that." Azynov adjusted the Simulator controls and they appeared inside their luxurious hotel suite on Zeck. He carried Yōd to the big bed and began to undress her, "I have the strangest feeling... that Maturin is watching us."

Yōd could vaguely remember having spoken to Maturin, but now she did not care. She was pleased to be back at the Zidden Hotel and glad that Azynov had paid for a week's occupancy the day they had arrived on Zeck. Somehow she felt confident that in a year, after her baby arrived, they would be seeing Maturin again. She pulled Azynov onto the bed and forgot all about the hot tub at Snarlwood on Yerophet.

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