Marda's barosyntexis

Tyhry disguised as Marda.

  Below on this page is Chapter 14 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention", the last chapter before "The Hierozyme Intervention" merges with "That Kind of Think".

Part 1 of Chapter 14 is in the year 2032, when Marda is 33 years old. She returns from Germany to Arizona, having completed her work on Pseudoalteromonas barosyntexis, an ocean microbe that she has engineered to solve Earth's global warming problem. Related music: A Song.

Part 2 of Chapter 14 is set at Observer Base, where Manny and Nyrtia discuss positronics and the repairs that have been made by Tyhry1 to her Reality Viewer. Nyrtia complains to Manny about her method for intentionally concealing how Earth's global warming problem was solved.

Manny triggers another Reality Change, bringing into existence the Final Reality (the reality of "That Kind of Think"). Manny makes another teleportation duplicate of Tyhry. This is the same Tyhry who was given the physical form of Marda (see Chapter 13). This newly-created copy of teleported to Earth.

The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 14 - Eckhard (Ch. 1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6)(Ch. 7)(Ch. 8)(Ch. 9)(Ch. 10)(Ch. 11)(Ch. 12)(Ch. 13)    

Part 1. 

September 29, 2032

Marda and Eckhard.

Eckhard had fallen asleep, but Marda was still nursing their shared telepathic mind link and sorting through his memories and judging the level of his anxiety about moving to Arizona. She started composing lines for a song about Eckhard, letting them swirl in their joint mind-space like clouds. Suddenly, a strange thought startled Marda: I'm pregnant?

Later, when they had reached Ranch0 Henrito, they found Zeta, who was still disguised as Rylla and still guiding the Henrito Research Institute, although the Institute now ran quite smoothly on its own institutional momentum. Rylla now spent most of her time monitoring the on-going studies of the evolution of Pseudoalteromonas barosyntexis in the oceans. Anthony had taken their luggage to what was still referred to as 'Marda's suite', where Tyhry had stayed until her departure for Hawaii, back when Tyhry had been disguised as Marda.

Eckhard, Marda and Zeta briefly chatted about the long flight from Germany and then Anthony arrived and set out snacks and drinks. Anthony then settled in on a couch beside Zeta who told Eckhard and Marda, "You can stay here until next week, then the guest house will be available for your use."

Marda heard Anthony, but she was gazing out the window to where the sparkling buildings of the Research Institute spread out across the valley. The campus had grown much greener through the years, under the benign influence of all the water being pumped up to the surface from a deep aquifer. Marda briefly thought about the first time Tyhry had visited the guest house, back before Ranch0 had been completed. However, she was mainly thinking about the possibility of being pregnant and so she was telepathically programming a new type of zeptite probe that could investigate the contents of her uterus.

Eckhard told Zeta, "I'd like to visit Ranch7 and meet my new colleagues, although my new job does not begin until next month."

Zeta said, "You two deserve a vacation. You've worked non-stop for over a decade." Seeing that Marda was lost in thought, Zeta asked her, "What is it, dear?"

Intensely focused on her zeptite programming, Marda wanted to select a topic for discussion that Zeta could carry on her own. "The usual... barosyntexis."

Zeta shook her head slowly and noted, "I'm rather baffled. Having dominated the Atlantic, the TD23 strain is now moving into the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Nobody can explain what makes 23 so robust at all temperatures and salinities."

Marda was the only person on the planet who knew that the TD23 strain was the one that had secretly been modified by Marda so as to have a special zeptite endosymbiont. TD23 had many metabolic advantages that made it a champ, but most important was its ability to use zeptites to shunt carbon dioxide through a crack in the Sedron Domain and into the atmosphere of Venus. Marda mused, "As long as it is doing its job, I'm satisfied."

Anthony sounded rather prickly when he said, "The measured rate of carbon transport to the sea floor does not match the rate at which atmospheric carbon dioxide is decreasing."

Eckhard seemed to not be concerned by that discrepancy. "The measurements of carbon transport to the sea floor are notoriously soft. That's why Tyhry is onboard the Deep Probe."

Zeta used her phone to project a holographic image that Tyhry had recently sent from the deck of the Deep Probe. "Tyhry is making measurements for the Arctic Ocean, the shallowest ocean."

 Marda knew that the measured rate of carbon transport to the sea floor would always seem low since most of the carbon was leaving Earth and being sent to Venus. She was now monitoring the data from a swarm of new probe zeptites that were searching her uterus and oviducts for a conceptus. 

Zeta was intrigued by the far-away look in Marda's eyes. "Marda, have you made any progress on your job search?"

It had been important that the conventional variant of Pseudoalteromonas barosyntexis, the one she had published results for, had seem to be a failure. With that ugly failure on her record, it was easy to imagine Marda being ignored when applying for new research positions. Eckhard waited for a dozen seconds, but when it seemed that Marda would not reply to Zeta, he said, "Marda has not been trying very hard to find a new job. Her grant funding runs through next year."

Marda was telepathically viewing data from her probes which had found a beautiful blastocyst already implanted in the wall of her uterus and already having been contacted by synapex link fibers. Marda smiled and told Zeta, "I'm going to alter my priorities. I'll be winding down my research and that will allow me to start devoting time to making babies."

Eckhard said to Marda, "It is not easy for me to accept that... for six years I've tried my best to get you pregnant and I'm still trying."

Marda told Eckhard, "Well, for the next week, I'll spend more time on my back." She gestured towards a bottle of water. "Heep yourself hydrated. Here in Arizona it is too easy to dry out. I want you making a high volume of semen."

Zeta giggled and told Marda, "It sounds like a good plan. Don't feel obliged to sit here talking to me when you could be letting Eckhard bounce you around on the bed in your suite. I also recommend doing it in the pool by moonlight."

Part 2.

The biological copy of Tyhry who had been shaped into Marda's physical form by body-sculpting zeptites and then had been teleported to Observer Base by Manny the bumpha, seemed not to age. She was accepting of being called 'Marda' and was still living with Tyhry2. 

Tyhry1 had completed her study of positronics and now had a fully functioning Viewer that showed her the future of the current Reality. Other possible future Realities could also be seen, but there was no way of knowing which of those Realities was a high probability future. And neither Tyhry1 or Nyrtia was satisfied with how they had been treated by Manny the bumpha.

Nyrtia was still annoyed that she had no way of identifying the means by which Earth's global warming problem had been solved in the current Reality. Pseudoalteromonas barosyntexis had been given the credit by Earthlings, but Nyrtia was skeptical. Finally, Manny the bumpha appeared inside Observer Base for the first time in more than a decade, arriving inside Tyhry1's home during one of Nyrtia's visits. Manny told Nyrtia, "Don't worry about this current Reality. It will soon be replace by a better one."

Nyrtia refused to accept Manny's advice. "I suspect you deployed advanced bumpha technology on Earth. When I find it, I'll clean up the mess you made."

Tyhry1 hated to see Nyrtia and Manny bickering, but Tyhry1 was irked at Manny. She was proud of the understanding of positronics she had developed with the help of Flynt, Rynry and Systolina, but she could not convince herself that it was her repair nanites that had returned her Viewer to full operation. She told Manny, "I feel like I just wasted the past twenty years of my life."

Manny smiled and produced a delicate shrug of her shoulders. She was back in her preferred physical form for visiting Earth and her flamboyant artificial hair swirled and sparkled. "Be honest with yourself, Tyhry. You never had more fun than when you were solving the mysteries of positronics. Sure, it is hopelessly inefficient technology, but it is what powered the positronic robots of Earth and allowed them to invent time travel."

Tyhry1 complained, "Here and now, since the Huaoshy altered the Dimensional Structure of the universe, positronics seems to not be worth the trouble."

Manny nodded. "True, but try to be philosophical. The journey is its own reward."

Nytia objected, "So, you gave us ancient Viewer technology with defective positronic control circuits. And mad me believe I was getting a real Viewer."

Manny acknowledged, "Yes, I tricked you beautifully. And I forced you to wait while Tyhry1 re-created the science of positronics. That is all history and we can move on. A new Reality for Earth will begin soon." Manny dissolved into her component zeptites and disappeared. 

Manny waited a short time until the Reality Change took place. The required temporal energy for this Change was being generated by a vast collection of femtozoans who had been sent into the far past of Earth where they made a complex alteration to the gene patterns of early humans, bringing into the human gene pool the NOTCH2NL gene variants that would later make possible Manny's Casanay Intervention.

Right after the Reality Change, after sliding herself down the time axis to the precisely correct point in time of the new Reality, she activated the Observer Base teleportation equipment and then teleported one more teleportation duplicate of Tyhry to Earth. Satisfied with her transfer of Tyhry from one Reality to the next, Manny slipped back into the Sedron Domain.

Manny allowed herself to think of Earth as now being in the Final Reality of Earth's Reality Chain. Yes, there might be some required adjustments to the development of human civilization, but those would not involve the creation of a whole new Reality.

End Chapter 14.  Jump to: Chapter 15.

Having now reached the end of Chapter 14 of "The Hierozyme Intervention" (above on this blog page) and also previously having completed Chapter 14 of "That Kind of Think", it is time to merge the two stories at a shared Chapter 15. The copy of Tyhry who was teleported to Earth at the end of Chapter 14, above, is in the physical form of Marda. In Chapter 15, that Tyhry/Marda copy will arrive inside Litheblanc and meet Antoine. 

The Trysta-Grean Pact.

That Tyhry/Marda copy will have a difficult time explaining her origins. Her last memory is of being on a beach in Hawaii and she will retain no memory of having been teleported. The fact that her body is in the physical form of Marda will be amusing, reminding her of when at the age of 12 she was sculpted into Marda's body form so as to swap places with Marda (see Chapter 8). However, before going to Hawaii, that copy of Tyhry was given back her own physical form by means of zeptite body sculpting.

In crafting Chapter 15, I want to shift to focus away from (1) climate fiction (a viable solution to Earth's global warming problem was found my Marda in "The Hierozyme Intervention", a solution that is used a second time in the Final Reality, with little discussion in "That Kind of Think") to (2) what now remains for Manny the bumpha to accomplish for Earth: complying with the terms of the Trysa-Grean Pact. 

In the Ekcolir Reality, Trysta Iwedon (R. Gohrlay's Asterothrope agent on Earth) and Grean the Kac'hin collaborated to find a way to prevent Earth from going through global warming and catastrophic sea level rise. It was their plan for a Final Reality that is known as the Trysta-Grean Pact. In order to get Trysta to abandon the Time Travel War, Manny the bumpha was forced to promise that in the Final Reality, humans would have the opportunity to spread to millions of habitable planets in the galaxy.

The tryp'At.

So far, it has been revealed that Manny's plan is for a human variant, the tryp'At, to spread through the galaxy while conventional humans transcend into the Sedron Domain and exist there as artificial life-forms. At the time of the formation of the Final Reality, Tyhry has one of the most complete assemblages of tryp'At genes on Earth and Manny must arrange for Trysta's descendants to spread through the galaxy.

Trysta was the name used by Gohrlay when she went to Earth in the 1930s. Zeta Gohrlay is a clone of 'Alpha' Gohrlay, and so the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact demand that Zeta's daughter, Tyhry, be in the Final Reality. However, it was most advantageous for there to be a copy of Tyhry in the Final Reality who was of interest to Antoine.

In advance of writing Chapter 15, I'm trying to imagine what would happen when a "second copy of Marda" appears inside Litheblanc. The first copy of Marda is in an intimate relationship with the Tyhry analogue who is from the Final Reality. I'm thinking that the copies of Marda and Tyhry who grew up at Litheblanc will go off to college while the teleported Tyhry/Marda will stay at Litheblanc with Antoine. Possibly the Marda and Tyhry analogues of the Final Reality will have already departed from Litheblanc by the time when Tyhry/Marda from the previous Reality arrives.

 Pek femtobots. The Tyhry/Marda from the Hierozyme Reality was infected by Anthony's memory-editing femtobots. Do Anthony's femtobots also make it into the Final Reality? It might be amusing to depict Tyhry/Marda in the Final Reality as still being unable to contemplate the possibility that the pek and the bumpha are anything more that fictional plot elements from science fiction stories.

Inside Casanay.

What would it like for Tyhry/Marda to suddenly find herself in a new Reality where her home is now only a fictional construct in science fiction stories? There would seem to be an opportunity to have an amusing meeting between Élodie and Tyhry/Marda. Possibly upon arriving at Litheblanc, the first person who Tyhry/Marda speaks to could be Élodie. Élodie would have to discover that this 'Marda' is not the Marda who grew up at Litheblanc. Tyhry/Marda could learn that in the Final Reality, 'Casanay' is Élodie's fictional construct.

Manny. I'm currently imagining that the final scene in Chapter 15 will include a visit by Manny the bumpha to Litheblac. Manny can tell Antoine and Tyhry/Marda how global warming was prevented in both the Hierozyme Reality and the Final Reality. Manny can also hint that Antoine and Tyhry/Marda will have descendants who explore the galaxy.

Tyhry/Marda.  For Chapter 15, I need to devise a suitable name for Tyhry/Marda. I provided Claude with chapter summaries for both "The Hierozyme Intervention" and "That Kind of Think" and explained that upon arriving at Litheblanc Tyhry/Marda needs to adopt a new name.

Me: I have completed the first 14 Chapters of both "The Hierozyme Intervention" and "That Kind of Think" (see the Chapter summaries for these two science fiction stories that are in the uploaded PDF). Note that the events of "The Hierozyme Intervention" and "That Kind of Think" take place in two successive Realities. Manny the bumpha transfers a copy of Tyhry from the Reality of "The Hierozyme Intervention" to the next Reality, the Reality of "That Kind of Think". I want a new name for that copy of Tyhry since there is already an analogue of Tyhry in the Reality of "That Kind of Think". When there are two copies of Tyhry at Observer Base, one is called 'Tyhry1' and the other is called 'Tyhry2'. I want the Tyhry analogue who is native to the Final Reality to retain the name 'Tyhry'. 

Marda's tryp'At features.

Body sculpting zeptites have been used to alter the physical appearance of the copy of Tyhry that Manny transfers from the Reality of the "The Hierozyme Intervention" to the final Reality. This copy of Tyhry now has the physical appearance of Marda. However, there is also an analogue of Marda in the Final Reality, so I do not want to call the copy of Tyhry who has the physical appearance of Marda, 'Marda'. Claude, do you understand what I an trying to do?

Claude: Yes, I think I understand. Here is the situation as I read it.

The transferred character is a copy of the Tyhry from the Hierozyme Intervention Reality. She is also the person who has been playing "Marda" (Tyhry in disguise) since the identity swap in Chapter 8. She will arrive in the Final Reality looking like Marda. That Reality already has a native Tyhry (Marda's companion and fellow researcher, Élodie and Zach's daughter) and a native Marda (Sally's daughter). The Observer Base convention of Tyhry1 and Tyhry2 doesn't work here, because the native Tyhry should keep her plain name. Calling the newcomer "Marda" would also collide with the native Marda. So the newcomer needs a distinct name that works as her identity in the Final Reality.

Before I propose candidates, I need to check a few things:

1. Who chooses the name? Does she choose it herself, does Manny assign it, or is it a name the other characters give her? The answer affects the tone. A self-chosen name suggests she has accepted a new identity. A name from Manny suggests Manny's control. A name given by Antoine or the others suggests how the community absorbs her.

2. Should the name carry meaning? Your EFU names often have an etymological flavor, such as Systolina, Ylyndra, Nyvad, and Nyrtia. Nyvad is the online handle Marda used as Eddy's super-fan, and it could be used as a callback, though that might confuse things because it is tied to the native-Reality Marda. Do you want a name that signals her origin (Tyhry-derived), her disguise (Marda-derived), or something new?

3. 

   Image by ChatGPT.

    Does she keep an in-story link to her original name? In Chapter 15 she will talk with Antoine and with Manny. Will she tell them she is a Tyhry from a prior Reality, or will Manny make the explanation? If she tells them, a variant of "Tyhry" could work as a nickname or middle name. If not, a wholly new name is cleaner.

4. One missing detail: Does the Final Reality's Marda know about her? Chapter 15 says only that she meets Antoine, so I don't know whether the native Marda and Tyhry are present, absent, or unaware. If the native Marda sees someone with her own face, that is a major plot event. It also affects whether the newcomer can be seen in public under a name that sounds like Marda's.

Also, a technical point for the narrative. Because the copy has Marda's body form from body sculpting zeptites, the genetic and physical situation gets odd. Her DNA is Tyhry's, but she looks like Marda. In the Hierozyme Intervention, the Ada sequencing report showed that Tyhry and Marda share an identical NOTCH2NLC variant. That means a casual genetic test in the Final Reality would not necessarily distinguish her from the native Marda on that gene, though other markers might. If you want that to matter in the plot, it is worth deciding on now.

Once I have your answers, I can offer several name options with brief rationales, or I can propose a first batch now if you prefer to react to concrete choices.

Me: Firstly, I must say that the speed with which you (Claude) responded startled me. I'm curious about how it is possible for Anthropic to deliver such fast responses to users.

1) "Who chooses the name?" I'm thinking that when the copy of Tyhry from the previous Reality arrives at Litheblanc, the first person she meets will be Élodie. This meeting will be rather comical because both Tyhry and Élodie willl quickly become confused. Élodie will immediately confuse Tyhry (who was given the appearance of Marda by Manny the bumpha) with the Marda analogue who grew up at Litheblanc and who Élodie knows well. 

Image by Flow.

Thus, early in Chapter 15, it is possible that Élodie and Tyhry will quickly decide on a new name that (first) Élodie can use for this copy of Tyhry, and then others will also adopt this new name.

2) "Should the name carry meaning?" Élodie is the equivalent of Eddy Watson in the Reality where there is Litheblanc rather than an actual Casanay in Arizona. Élodie has written many science fiction stories that are set at Casanay. Possibly Élodie would suggest that this mysterious Tyhry/Marda (who claims to have grown up at Casanay) use a name that already exists in one of her works of fiction. Possibly Élodie would simply "invent" a new name on the spot that is borrowed from some famous novel, an existing fictional character that is a mysterious surprise or has a seemingly impossible origin story. Alternatively, Tyhry might suggest a name that she would like to use, and she could select a name that is meaningful to her.

3) "Does she keep an in-story link to her original name?" Just as I often say 'Manny the bumpha', once Tyhry's NewName is established I might routinely use a phrase such as: 'NewName from the previous Reality'.

4) "One missing detail" I'm thinking that the copies of Marda and Tyhry who grew up together at Litheblanc will go off to college while the teleported Tyhry/Marda will stay at Litheblanc with Antoine. I'm leaning towards the idea that the Marda and Tyhry analogues of the Final Reality will have already departed from Litheblanc by the time when Tyhry/Marda from the previous Reality arrives.

5) Genetics. I'm imagining that the Tyhry from the Reality of "The Hierozyme Intervention" has the most complete assemblages of tryp'At genes that Manny has so far produced on Earth, and Manny wants to shift Tyhry and her set of tryp'At genes over to the Final Reality where they can be successfully passed on to her descendants. The Tyhry of the Final Reality is in a relationship with the Marda of the Final Reality and the Tyhry of the Final Reality is not going to pass her genes to any descendants.

 Claude: On speed: I can't observe my own latency, and I don't have inside knowledge of Anthropic's serving systems, so I can only describe what's generally true of large language model inference. Models like me run on specialized accelerator hardware (GPUs or similar chips) in large data centers. Requests are batched together, and previously computed intermediate results are cached so the model doesn't redo work. Some systems also use tricks such as speculative decoding, where a small fast model drafts text that the large model verifies in bulk. Anthropic also offers models in different size tiers, and the smaller ones are faster. Your reply starts streaming as soon as the first words are generated, which makes it feel quicker still. For specifics, Anthropic's engineering posts and documentation would be more reliable than I am.

Your plan is clear. Élodie's confusion comedy gives the name a natural origin, and I like that "[NewName] from the previous Reality" works as a tag, like "Manny the bumpha."

A caution about initials. Your cast already has many names starting with A, M, T, N, and S: Annette, Antoine, Ada, Marda, Manny, Mady, Michel, Tyhry, Tynyo, Nida, Nyrtia, Sally, Systolina. A new name starting with one of those letters would add to the confusion. The names below avoid those initials.

Name candidates, in the spirit of Élodie borrowing from famous fiction:

• Lyra (Pullman's His Dark Materials): a girl who moves between parallel worlds. It fits a Reality chain and gives Élodie an easy literary joke. The sound is also close to Tyhry's.
• 
   Dors (Asimov's Prelude to Foundation): Dors Venabili is a mysterious companion who turns out to have a hidden nature. It suits the positronic and Asimov flavor of the EFU. In French, dors means "sleep!", which Élodie could joke about.
• Dorothy, shortened to Dot or Dory: a girl who arrives from somewhere impossible and has to be absorbed into a new community.
• Mélusine: a figure from French legend with a concealed nature and origin, which is very much Élodie's literary territory. The initial M clashes with Marda and Manny, so I'd use it only if you like the legend more than the clean initial.
• A self-chosen name, if Tyhry picks it: something derived from her old name, like "Ryn" or "Tyr," or something she invents. It would show her keeping a thread to who she was. Since Tyhry and Marda swapped identities in the previous Reality, she might also prefer to drop both names.

 Questions about missing information:

1. Timeline. Chapter 12 of "That Kind of Think" is set in 2046, with the native Marda and Tyhry already working as researchers at Litheblanc, and Chapter 13 comes after that. Chapter 14 of "The Hierozyme Intervention" says the duplicate sent back is the Tyhry "from when she was young." If Chapter 15 comes after 2046, how are the native pair still leaving for college? Is the arriving duplicate a teenager, and roughly how old is Antoine at that point? The answers decide whether she is meeting Antoine as a peer or as someone older, and whether the native pair's departure works as a plot device.

2. What does the arriving Tyhry know and can she do? In the Hierozyme Reality, Nyrtia's mind-control nanites kept Tyhry from believing in aliens. Does the duplicate still carry those nanites and the memory erasure, or did Manny clear them? Can she link telepathically or program zeptites yet? It changes both her conversation with Élodie and what Manny has to explain.

3. Where is she at the start of the chapter? Is Manny the one who sends her to Litheblanc, and does she arrive knowing she is in a new Reality, or does she think she is going to Observer Base?

 Also, your genetics point works well, because it gives Manny a clear reason to move her. One consequence is that this Tyhry becomes the bearer of the full tryp'At gene set for the galaxy-spreading future you describe. Is she meant to have children with Antoine, or through the blastipositor? I'd want to know before suggesting dialogue, since the name will carry more weight if she is the ancestor of a lineage.

__

I was satisfied with Claude's suggestion of the name 'Lyra'. Maybe when Tyhry/Marda from the previous Reality learns that Élodie is confusing her with two girls who grew up at Litheblanc, she simply tells Élodie, "Just call me Lyra, I like that name."

Claude's questions. (1) In the Final Reality, Antoine and the analogues of Tyhry and Marda are all born several years later than in the Hierozyme Reality. 'Lyra' is about 16 years old when she is teleported away from the beach in Hawaii and she is held in the Observer Base teleportation buffer until she is correctly age-matched for Antoine. (2) Earlier on this page (above) I mentioned my thinking about Chapter 15: 'Lyra' is still under the influence of Anthony's infites and cannot imagine that the pek and bumpha are real. (3) As mentioned above on this page, from her perspective, 'Lyra' was just teleported off of the beach in Hawaii, so for her it is quite confusing to arrive inside Litheblanc. Maybe Manny drops her into Élodie's library and 'Lyra' starts reading one of Élodie's novels that features a 'fictional' Casanay. Then Élodie walks in.

Next: Chapter 15.

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Zeptite Endosymbiont, Part 2.

Zeta (disguised as Rylla) and
Tyhry (disguised as Marda) shortly
before Tyhry moves to Hawaii.

 Below on this page is Chapter 12 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention". After introducing Ada and Tynyo in Chapter 10, and showing how Ada will fit into Casanay (see Chapter 11) the setting for "The Hierozyme Intervention" is now shifted ahead to six months after the events of the first 11 Chapters. Marda has survived her first Arizona summer and is now getting her first opportunity to go downhill skiing and watch snow pile up on the inflatable domes around Casanay that protect Zeta's gardens during the winter. Eddy remains unaware that the two women he believes are his wife and daughter are actually Systolina and Marda in disguise.

With most of the senior scientists of the Henrito Research Institute now having been hired, Ranch0 Henrito has become a hub for planning a multi-decade program of scientific study of artificial life with the goal of climate change mitigation. Zeta, Anthony and Tyhry now live on the top floor of Ranch0 Henrito from where they have a good view of the nearby site where the Ranch1 building is being constructed. 

Having dropped out of the nearby public school, Marda is being home schooled by Sytolina. For months, while living at Casanay and pretending to be Tyhry, Marda has been secretly developing her zeptite programming skills and focusing her attention on her frustrated search for how to access Eddy's hidden Reality Viewer. At every opportunity, Tyhry, pretending to be Marda, visits Casanay and spends time discussing the fan-fiction writing project that is now an integral part of Eddy's website. Unable to believe in the existence of space aliens, but knowing that she has the ability to telepathically communicate with Marda, Tyhry begins to invent her own unique "explanation" for her telepathic ability.

Ada, Tyhry (disguised as Marda) and
 Zeta (disguised as Rylla). Image by Leonardo.

Marda has been telepathically studying Eddy's mind pattern and she is convinced that Eddy is tryp'At for four reasons: 1) in collaboration with Ada, she has had both Tyhry's and Eddy's genomes sequenced and found the same unusual genes (such as a specific unusual NOTCH2NLC variant) that that are in her own genome, 2) Ylyndra had previously told Marda that Eddy is tryp'At, 3) in his science fiction stories, Eddy describes himself as a tryp'At who has had his telepathic abilities "burned out" by his replicoid copy, and 4) Marda believes that under optimal conditions (when her oxypathin and klytykynyn receptors are activated) she can now telepathically sense the fringes of Eddy's mind, which she believes is a damaged tryp'At telepathic mind pattern.

Tyhry is still unable to believe in the existence of space aliens, but over the past six months as her telepathic abilities have been refined, she is now occasionally receiving information from the future via the Sedron Time Stream. Her visions of the future include images of Hawaii and Tyhry is certain that in just two years she will be living in Hawaii.

Tim's mother (Naseh) has long worked at the Q Diner and that is why Anthony had so carefully watched the Q Diner for over a decade. The Ek'col were designed to NOT be intra-fertile, they only efficiently reproduce with the assistance of others such as the tryp'At who can use their blastipositor to transfer blastocysts into the uterus of an Ek'col like Naseh. Tynyo has become quite close with Naseh. Naseh, Tyhyo and Tim frequently visit Casanay, particularly for the Friday movie nights. Ada continues to be Marda's source of oxypathin and Tim is Marda's source of klytykynyn. Marda has hired a company to isolate and identify the structures of oxypathin and klytykynyn.

Systolina (disguised as Zeta), Marda (disguised
as Tyhry) and Ada. Image by Leonardo.

Ada has for six months worked at Casanay, but she will soon begin her new job inside Ranch1 Henrito. During the last weekend before Ada ends her employment at Casanay, Marda wants to try one last "trick" to make use of Ada to help her access the Reality Viewer.

When Tynyo first noticed Naseh at the Q diner, they started talking sports. Naseh is like Ada, with erectile breasts that produce an oxypathin-rich secretion. Tyhyo obtained Naseh's DNA sample from her milk and Ada sequenced Naseh's genome, showing that she has only one copy of the special NOTCH2NLB gene variant that is present twice in the genomes of both Ada and Tynyo, apparently explaining the mystery of why Naseh has no telepathic ability. Tim completely lacks the special NOTCH2NLB gene variant, but has other Ek'col gene patterns, including the Ek'col klytykykyn gene which explains why he has klytykykyn in his semen. During the last weekend of Ada's employment at Casanay, a trip to Phoenix begins with the plan of Tynyo and Naseh to attend a basketball game but those plans have been expanded to include ski equipment shopping by Eddy and Marda and Anthony goes along  to Phoenix (Anthony claims to want to see the basketball game, but he is really trying to catch Manny in the act of interacting with what he suspects are Manny's tryp'At and Ek'col agents on Earth).

After the game, Tim takes Marda (disguised as Tyhry) to see a movie (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). While Tim performs with other fans, Marda goes back to the hotel where on the other side of the wall of her room Eddy was on the phone with Zeta. Marda has hired a company to produce oxypathin and klytykykyn petides.

Systolina and Ada at Casanay.

Having ingested huge doses of oxypathin and klytykykyn, Marda is telepathically at the fringe of Eddy's mind while he was having phone sex with Zeta. Marda generates her own orgasm, but still fails to merge into a shared mindspace with Eddy.  Marda then calls Tyhry and reports that she has again failed to telepathically link to Eddy. 

When that effort to telepathically link to Eddy fails, then Marda asks Ada and Systolina to perform telepathy experiments aimed at combining the power of tryp'At and Ek'col telepathy. During those experiments, Marda discovers that she can't telepathically share anything she knows about zeptites. She uses her zeptite programming ability to link to Eddy's special zeptite endosymbiont module that holds the Reality Viewer access key. Now Marda can use the Reality Viewer any time that Eddy is not already using it. 

The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 12 - Vision of Hawaii (Ch. 1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6)(Ch. 7)(Ch. 8)(Ch. 9)(Ch. 10)(Ch. 11)  

On his first day in Arizona, Tynyo had met Tim's mother, Naseh, at the Q Diner. Naseh's unusual appearance immediately attracted Tynyo's attention, just as it had long ago attracted the attention of Anthony. Anthony has long maintained some of his femtobot monitoring probes inside Naseh, hoping to someday find her interacting with Manny the bumpha. In November, Tynyo and Naseh made plans to attend a basketball game in Phoenix. Later, with a large winter storm approaching, Eddy, Marda and Anthony decided to also attend the game, with Eddy and Marda also planning to shop for ski equipment while in Phoenix. Attending the basketball game were Eddy, Anthony, Tynyo, Naseh, Tim and Marda (disguised as Tyhry). 

Zeta (disguised as Rylla), Tyhry (disguised
as Marda) and Ada. Image by Leonardo.

Now, the morning after that basketball game, Tyhry was waiting impatiently for Zeta and Systolina to get out of the shower. The weekend had started out badly for Tyhry when Marda had decided on Friday to go with Eddy and Anthony to Phoenix on a shopping trip. Friday evening, besides inventing excuses to send a text message to Marda about every five minutes, Tyhry spent her time polishing the latest fan story for posting on Eddy's website. 

Initially, Tyhry had completely lacked enthusiasm for the task of pretending to be Marda and pretending to be obsessed with Eddy's science fiction novels. Then Tyhry realized that there might be some truth in Eddy's stories; truths that had nothing to do with space aliens. Now Tyhry was pleased that her management of the new fan-fiction section of Eddy's website gave her a convenient excuse to frequently visit Casanay and spend time with Marda.

Late Friday night, an hour after getting to sleep, Tyhry awoke with a new story idea in her mind. She was certain that this story idea had just come to her in a dream vision from the future. The story idea was tangled up in a complex plot, explaining the evolution of telepathic humans on Earth (such as herself) starting hundreds of thousands of years ago with the Neanderthals and the Denisovans and featured the idea that Neanderthals and Denisovans were part of a telepathic sub-clade of humanity that had not gone extinct; instead, Neanderthals and Denisovans they had evolved into two human variants: the tryp'At and the Ek'col. 

Systolina and Ada at Casanay. Image by Leonardo.

Tyhry herself was in the new story as a character who discovered the truth about the telepathic tryp'At and the Ek'col, human variants who had long secretly existed on Earth and continued to evolve as two distinct telepathic human lineages. Not only were the tryp'At and the Ek'col telepathic, but they had developed advanced nanotechnology that allowed them to micro-surgically alter their body appearance. The story ended with Tyhry moving to Hawaii and meeting a secretive group of tryp'At who were doing genetic engineering on their own children in an effort to perfect their telepathic abilities. 

In the middle of the night, after beginning to furiously write out the story, Tyhry was interrupted by a phone call from Marda. Marda reported on her most failed attempt to achieve a telepathic linkage to Eddy, which this time had involved Marda trying to share a telepathic orgasm trance with Eddy. "I was fully sensitized by huge doses of oxypathin and klytykykyn petides and I was just a few feet away from Eddy when we simultaneously experienced our orgasms. I sense his pleasure, but then I could get no deeper into his mind."

Tyhry was hardly listening to Marda and really did not want to hear about Marda having telepathic sex with her father. Tyhry told Marda, "Listen, lover, I expect you to be sharing your orgasms with me and not be wasting them on Eddy."

Marda decided that it was unwise to describe the details of her failed telepathy experiment to Tyhry. "I'm desperate. I'll try anything that might win me access to Eddy's Reality Viewer."

Tyhry sighed. "I doubt if Reality Viewing is even possible. My father's stories are full of absurd imaginary technologies."

Image by Leonardo.

Marda had long since given up trying to convince Tyhry of the existence of the pek and the bumpha. Tyhry had no memory of previously meeting with and speacking to Nyrtia and Manny. Having reached their usual impasse, Tyhry and Marda quickly ended the phone call. 

All during the small hours of the morning Tyhry had written down the new story and now, running on only one hour of sleep, Tyhry was eager to share the new story with her father. Tyhry was tempted to simply uploaded the story to Eddy's website, but she had agreed to show all stories to Eddy before posting them where Eddy's fans could see them.

Then at breakfast, Zeta had informed Tyhry that Systolina was coming over. Tyhry had argued that she and Zeta could go to Casanay. Zeta said, "No. Remember, in your role as Marda, your only reason for going to Casanay is to be with Tyhry, or possibly to talk to Eddy, but they are both in Phoenix."

"I want to be there inside Casanay right when Eddy gets home." Tyhry told Zeta about the story idea she had received from the future. 

When Zeta stopped laughing, she told Tyhry, "That story makes no sense."

Tyhry proclaimed, "It is a great story. Call it an alternate Reality, if you insist." 

In the middle of Saturday morning, Systolina arrived, popping out of the elevator and falling into Zeta's embrace and a hot wet kiss. When her mouth was free, Systolina told Zeta, "Tynyo is with Ada at Casanay and they are having one of their intense Ek'col sexplay sessions. I either had to join them or get out of there."

Zeta and Systolina. Image by Leonardo.

Zeta said, "I've given you standing orders that you are come entertain me when ever possible." 

While watching Zeta undress Systolina, Tyhry told Systolina that she wanted to be at Casanay when Eddy returned home from Phoenix. Systolina said, "Eddy was at the Suns game last night and they were up late."

Zeta told Systolina, "Thanks for transferring his call to me. I had a fun phone sex session with Eddy."

"No problem. I had my hands full of Ada's amazing erectile breasts." Now Zeta was fondling Systolina's big breasts. Systolina told Tyhry, "They got a rather slow start home this morning."

Zeta had pulled her hands away from Systolia's breasts and was looking at her phone. "They are finally on the road and should be back for lunch." Zeta was somewhat irked with Systolina because Systolina has taken the absence of Marda and Eddy from Casanay as an opportunity to have a marathon sexplay session with Ada, a kind of mournful leave-taking in advance of Ada ending her employment at Casanay. Zeta was quite horny and she took Systolina by the hand and marched her into Zeta's bedroom.

After watching her mother playing with Systolina's big gravity-defying breasts, now Tyhry was horny. She went to her room and began to masturbate. Upon discovering Systolina's special positronic robot-derived telepathic abilities, Tyhry had requested of Systolina that she always telepathically share her orgasms with Tyhry. Now, Systolina was telepathically sharing with Tyhry her joy and pleasure from her slick and soapy in-the-shower play session with Zeta. Tyhry quickly achieved a satisfying orgasm.

Image by Leonardo.

Laying on her bed and still fingering the amazingly stiff glans of her clitoris, Tyhry was looking out the window at the Ranch1 construction site and marveling at how quickly its walls had gone up. Now every day, even on weekends, a work crew was there, finishing the interior. Having seen the plans, Tyhry knew that Ranch1 was a ten story high sparkling glass and steel structure with laboratory research space on the lower floors and apartments for the staff and their families on the upper floors. Tyhry knew that Ada had ordered DNA sequencing equipment that was scheduled to be installed inside Ranch1 in the next few weeks. 

Finally, Zeta had sated her sexual appetite and she and Systolina burst out of the shower and began dressing, which by their rules meant they had to dress each other. Through Systolina's eyes, Tyhry could Telepathically see the lovely body that her mother was now using, that of Rylla Onway, the chief financial officer for the Henrito Research Institute. 

In her new story, positronic robots were the handiwork of the technologically-advanced tryp'At who had endowed positronic robots like Systolina with telepathic abilities. In Tyhry's imagination, both Marda and Systolina were using Eddy's science fiction stories as convenient cover for their secret mission among the conventional humans of Earth. The goal of that mission was to solve Earth's global warming problem.

As the glow of Systolina's most recent orgasm faded, Systolina kept open her telepathic link to Tyhry. Systolina asked Tyhry: Did you enjoy the show? Tyhry had enjoyed the telepathic experience of Systolina making love to her mother and Tyhry knew that Zeta was deliriously happy with her new life. Tyhry knew the basics of how Zeta was channeling profits from Simpera into the non-profit Research Institute and using those contributions to science research as tax write-offs for Simpera. Ada's DNA sequencing core facility would probably be the first functioning laboratory of the Henrito Institute and Ada had promised Tyhry that she could work part-time as a technician in her lab. Tyhry could well imagine a direct path from working in Ada's lab to her future vision of going to Hawaii and there becoming involved in research on ocean microbes. 

Image by Leonardo.

Emerging from the bedroom, Zeta and Systolina were talking non-stop about plans for the rest of the weekend and the fact that Marda, Eddy and Anthony were going skiing. Systolina said, "Unless the roads are closed."

Zeta said, "The roads might close after they get to the ski area. They might not get home Sunday evening. If that happens I want you here with me for the night." 

Tyhry knew that the trip to Phoenix had been motivated by the need of Eddy and Marda to shop for new skiing equipment. Having never before shown an interest in downhill skiing, Eddy's daughter (actually Marda in disguise) surprised him by suddenly asking to go with Eddy and Anthony to the downhill skiing area. 

What Eddy took to be his daughter, Tyhry, was actually Marda in disguise. Marda had long wanted to try skiing, but the opportunity had never previously arisen for her. Eddy's old boots and bindings were worn out and Eddy also needed to get new equipment. Marda, playing the role of Tyhry, needed a complete set ski equipment and clothing suitable for a day on the mountain during what was forecast to be a large winter storm. Tyhry, still not interested in skiing, got out of bed, barely listened to Zeta's and Systolina's plans for the rest of the weekend. Tyhry was still horny and fantasizing about what she and Marda would be doing together in bed that coming night.

The three women finally took the elevator down to the ground floor of ranch0 where Zeta was immediately intercepted by the architect who was working there in his office through the weekend and was caught up in the process of designing Ranch5. Systolina and Tyhry went to the garage and stood looking at the big Jeep that belonged to Rylla and Zeta's sporty little car, which Tyhry loved to drive. Sometimes Tyhry had dreams of flying, and the closest she could actually come to those dream experiences was by driving her mother's car too fast. Tyhry opened up the driver's side door of Zeta's car and told Systolina, "See you at Casanay."

Image by Leonardo.

Systolina could telepathically sense that Zeta was deep into the details of the astronomical expense that was baked into the extravagant design of Ranch5. With each successive building of the Henrito site that she helped design, Zeta found more ways to make the research labs and the associated living spaces more luxurious. The staff and researchers of the Henrito Campus would mostly be housed on site, either in more of the modular prefabricated homes or in apartments in the upper floors of the research laboratory buildings. The architect and his family had moved into the first of the modular homes as soon as Zeta, Anthony and Tyhry had moved out of it.

Systolina felt obligated to give Tyhry the type of warning that was usually given by Zeta before Tyhry drove. "If you get stopped by the police, only flash your fake driver's license if asked."

"I don't drive that fast, auntie. I won't be stopped." Tyhry got in the car and drove off.

Systolina watched Tyhry driving too fast as she disappeared down the Ranch0 driveway and her telepathic link to Tyhry reached its length limit and snapped. Systolina reflected on the fact that Tyhry and Marda had both adopted the habit of referring to Zeta and Systolina as 'auntie' whenever they felt they were being treated like children. Systolina got into the Jeep and started it up, knowing that Zeta would appreciate the heater. Still thinking about Tyhry's relentless efforts to claim her adult status, Systolina smiled and thought about how relentlessly Tyhry and Marda took every opportunity to assert that they were now adults and deserving of being treated like adults. Marda had explained it plainly to Zeta one day: "The gene sequencing is clear. Tyhry and I are tryp'At and we are both physiologically adult tryp'At. You can't expect us to suppress our amped-up tryp'At sex drives." Knowing the truth of that statement, Systolina was happy to provide Tyhry and Marda with second-hand sexual experiences relayed to them by way of Systolina's telepathic ability. Systolina giggled as she thought about how sometimes when Tyhry was horny she would remind Systolina to "pimp out Zeta", a request from Tyhry that Systolina make love with Zeta and telepathically share the experience with Tyhry.

Image by Leonardo.

Finally, Zeta reached the garage and got into the passenger side front seat of 'her' Jeep. "Sorry about the delay. I see Tyhry took off." Zeta used an app on her phone to check on Tyhry and saw that her daughter was traveling at close to 100 MPH going up the strait highway through the valley. "She seems determined to get stopped for speeding."

Systolina suspected that Marda had somehow deployed a network of detectors along the roads between the Henrito site and Casanay. Anytime there were police in the area, Marda always let Tyhry know about it. "Don't worry about Tyhry. She has a guardian angel." Before arriving on Earth, this copy of Systolina had been shown Phari Simulations of the future that left Systolina believing that nothing bad would ever happen to either Marda or Tyhry. 

Under heavy overcast, as the last direct sunlight of that day faded from the sky as the overcast solidified, a few snow flakes were swirling in the air. Zeta commented, "Some day Tyhry will get a surprise from a patch of ice and then we will learn how well that sophisticated array of airbags in your car works."

Systolina nodded, but said, "I hope you are wrong about ice in Tyhry's future. She seems certain she will end up in Hawaii." Systolina was shifting her thoughts back to Ada. "Since this is mystery girl's last weekend at Casanay, I feel I should do something special for her."

Zata insisted, "Last night was your chance to do something special. She does have a husband... you can't expect Ada to spend the whole weekend with you." 

Systolina said, "I do what Ada expects me to do. She's fallen deeply in love with me these past months and regrets reaching the end of her employment at Casanay. She gets in as much play time as she can with Tynyo, but he is very busy trying to keep Naseh entertained. Apparently, Naseh is delighted to finally have an Ek'col lover for the first time in her life."

Image by Leonardo.

Zeta suggested, "If you want to do something special for Ada then tell her the truth about the gene sequencing."

Systolina had played a trick on Ada. Knowing that Ada wanted to understand Tyhry's mysterious genome, which Sytolina imagined had been carefully designed by Manny, Systolina had first allowed Ada to analyze artificial tissue collected from Systolina that contained no DNA. After Ada and Tynyo had wasted a month trying to understand why their DNA sequencer could not decode a sample of what they thought was Zeta's DNA, Systolina had provided Ada with tissue that contained DNA totally unrelated to that of Tyhry. Since Systolina's body was an artificial construct composed of femtobots, she'd "played her trick" and allowed Ada to work for months with simulated human tissue that told Ada absolutely nothing useful about Tyhry's unique gene patterns. Systolina giggled and said, "Given how confused MG is over her sequencing results, I've almost convinced myself that she is not actually Manny in disguise. However, our mystery girl is still lying to us. I've given her every opportunity to come clean, but she still suspects that I'm Manny's agent inside Casanay."

Zeta said, "Systolina, making Ada come every day is not the same as letting her come clean." Both Zeta and Systolina had become Ada's lovers. And both Anthony and Systolina had used all of their telepathic powers and femtobot probes in an effort to prove that Ada was Manny's secret agent, all with no success. As far as they could tell, both Ada and Tynyo were carriers of a possibly complete set of Ek'col gene patterns, but they seemingly had no link to the bumpha. 

Systolina shrugged. "True. Well, starting next week she will be your problem not mine. Now I have to find and hire her replacement."

"You are already using your nanites to clean Casanay. You could cook Eddy's meals."

"No, Eddy believes that his wife can't cook and prefers to spend her time gardening."

Image by Leonardo.

The snow was now coming down steadily and Zeta was worried about her gardens. Zeta said, "I better check to see if you got the domes correctly inflated and prepared for all the snow heading our way."

 Arriving at Casanay, Systolina and Zeta toured the inflatable domes that would be tested during the now arriving storm which was forecast to have gale force winds. Zeta found and adjusted several deficiencies in how Systolina had deployed the domes and programmed their heating equipment. 

Tyhry waited impatiently until Marda, Eddy and Anthony arrived, returning to Casanay after having completed their shopping in Phoenix. Tyhry wanted to corner her father and show him the science fiction story she had written, but Marda took Tyhry to her bedroom suite and they had a quick and fiery sexplay session that concluded with them in a shared orgasm trance. Marda again dosed both herself and Tyhry with synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn that she had paid a company to produce. The two sex hormones heightened their sexual pleasure, but failed to allow them to expand their telepathic linkage to Eddy or anyone else.

With the passing months and many shared orgasm trances, Marda and Tyhry had gradually learned to optimize their tryp'At telepathic linkage, allowing them to link thoughts even when they were not together in the same room. Arriving along with their frequently shared telepathic orgasms trances that were now amplified by Marda's supply of synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn hormone peptides, Tyhyr had begun to have her visions of the future. Based on Eddy's novels, Marda was certain that some of the tryp'At like Tyhry had the ability to receive information from the future via the Sedron Time Stream. Now Tyhry suggested to Marda that the Ek'col and the tryp'At had both evolved the ability to share telepathic mindspaces and telepathically receive information from the future. Marda telepathically told Tyhry: You should apply Occam's Razor. Your theory of the evolutionary origin of human telepathy is absurd. Why did Neanderthals and Denisovans evolve telepathic abilities and not the regular humans who now clearly dominate planet Earth?

Image by Leonardo.

Tyhry replied: You just can't accept the fact that you are on a secret tryp'At mission inside Casanay. 

Marda suggested: In one of Eddy's stories, he depicted the Ek'col as able to telepathically enter into an orgasm trance without physical contact. I'm sure I've seen that ability in action. Ada can engage with Tynyo in telepathic sexual intercourse. When Tynyo shares a long-distance orgasm trance with Ada, she simply stops what she is doing, even while she is busy working. You and I always require physical contact for producing our orgasms. The Ek'col simply seem to be more powerful telepaths than we tryp'At. Maybe we need to work through Ada and use her more powerful telepathic abilities to get into Eddy's mind.

Tyhry had never felt any telepathic link to Ada. She suggested: Maybe Systolina can pull this off. 

After their sexplay session, Marda showed off her new winter clothing, modeling it for Tyhry. Tyhry commented, "Very cute, but I prefer you naked."

Tyhry and Marda emerged from Tyhry's bedroom suite and Systolina inspected Marda's and Eddy's new ski equipment. Systolina had already telepathically lifted the key elements of Marda's plan from her thoughts and soon Systolina telepathically suggested: Maybe Ada will agree to participate in an experiment during which I try to function as a telepathic bridge between tryp'Ats and Ek'cols.

Image by Leonardo.

After lunch, Marda, playing the role of Tyhry, had helped Ada take the lunch dishes from the dining room to the kitchen. For months, Marda had frequently propositioned Ada to move beyond occasionally allowing Marda to play with Ada's amazing erectile breasts and drink Ada's oxypathin-rich milk. Ada had always insisted that Marda would have to wait, usually telling Marda things like, "I don't think you are mature enough to successfully deal with my sexual appetite. Your mother can, so you have hope. You just need to wait until you are older". Now Marda insisted that she had waited long enough and it was time that they become lovers and try to telepathically link their minds. Ada laughed and told Marda, "I feel like I should make you get a note from Eddy saying he approves of you having sex with the cook."

 However, after the kitchen was cleaned and put to order, Systolina arrived and told Ada, "Even if you refuse to have sex with Tyhry, we should try to link your telepathic minds." Ada relented and took Marda and Systolina into the nearby west wing home theater for the telepathy experiment.

After lunch, Zeta took Anthony to the Casanay hot tub and Tyhry, still disguised as Marda, had Eddy to herself at his computer and she explained to him her new fan-fiction story. Unable to believe in the reality of space aliens, Tyhry had constructed in her mind a complex model of the tryp'At and Ek'col as genetically-related human variants with telepathic abilities that had evolved naturally on Earth. Eddy began asking questions about Tyhry's idea, saying, "So, in your fictional universe, there is no need for either the bumpah or the pek?"

Tyhry replied, "There is no evidence for the existence of space aliens. The tryp'At and the Ek'col must have evolved naturally on Earth." 

While Tyhry showed Eddy her story, Marda dosed herself with more oxypathin and klytykynyn and relaxed in one of the large comfortable chairs inside the theater. For the telepathy experiment, Systolina started with Ada as the telepathic recipient, testing if Ada could telepathically detect a signal that Systolina first pulled out of Marda's mind and then relayed directly into Ada's femtobot endosymbiont, not using Systolina's positronic robot-derived telepathy channel, but rather a set of Sytstolina's programmable femtobot probes. During the experiment, Marda (disguised as Tyhry) thought about the fact that a klytykynyn gene had been found on the Y chromosome of both Tynyo and Naseh's son, Tim. Both Marda and Tyhry seemed to have high levels of klytykynyn receptors inside both their mouths and their vaginas. For the past week, Marda had been using manufactured klytykynyn to boost her telepathic linkage to Tyhry, but she still could only sense the fringe of Eddy's mind. Marda wondered: could Ada's seemingly more powerful Ek'col telepathic abilities be used to reveal how to activate Eddy's Reality Viewer?

Marda had never told Ada about the sex hormones, but suddenly, Ada said, "What is klytykynyn?"

"Good!" Systolina said, "That transferred from Tyhry's thoughts into your mind."

Ada asked, "But what is klytykynyn?"

"You know I've been studying tryp'At and Ek'col gene patterns." Marda told Ada, "Klytykynyn is the name I gave to an interesting protein that is coded for by Tynyo's genome."

"We have to confirm this link." Systolina ordered Marda, "Think about something else."

Ada asked, Marda "What does this klytykynyn do?"

"Please!" Systolina told Ada and Marda, "No talking now. Just use telepathy."

Image by Leonardo.

Marda was now thinking about how she had used her ability to program zeptites to speed up identification of the oxypathin and klytykynyn hormones. Marda did not want to reveal her ability to program zeptites to Anthony, but this would be a good test of her ability to telepathically relay information to Ada via Systolina. Marda thought about how she had programmed a zeptite-based detector that had been used to perform assays on laboratory samples, speeding up the production of active synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn peptides. After five minutes, Marda telepathically asked Systolina: Is she getting it?

 Systolina replied: Getting what? Your mind went blank.

My mind is not blank. I'm thinking about zeptites.

Systolina asked: What are you thinking about?

Marda telepathically replied: Zeptites. I learned from Tyhry how to program zeptites. I just don't want Anthony to know.

Systolina said, "Your mind keeps going blank."

Ada said, "I just got something about Anthony."

Suddenly, it was all clear to Marda. She was unable to telepathically share with Systolina anything about her ability to program zeptites. That meant she had a special brain module that allowed her to think about zeptites and telepathically program them, a brain module that was invisible to either Systolina or Anthony. Marda made the next logical leap: the tryp'At had been designed to have a zeptite endosymbiont that could hide information from telepaths like Anthony. But Tyhry had been able to use that module of her zeptite endosymbiont to telepathically share what she knew about zeptite programming with Marda. She muttered out-loud, "Eddy must have one too."

Ada asked, "Have what?"

Image by Leonardo.

"He's tryp'At." Marda did not want to say what she was thinking. "Eddy must have a gene for oxypathin or klytykynyn."

Ada asked, "I thought oxypathin was the hormone you found in my milk?"

"It is." Marda nodded, "I've imagined that Eddy must have a tryp'At version of klytykynyn, but maybe I was wrong. He might have the tryp'At equivalent of the oxypathin gene, but since he is male it is not expressed." Tyhry was trying to make up some fictional biology to distract Ada.

"What?" Systolina said, "Tyhry, that makes no sense."

"Sorry." Marda giggled and revealed the two little bottles that contained tiny pills with synthesized oxypathin and klytykynyn peptides, "I'm dizzy. I think I over-dosed myself on oxypathin and klytykynyn for this experiment. Forget everything I said. I'm going to go lay down in my room." Back in her room, she sent some of her zeptite monitor probes into her own brain an quickly found the subsection of her zeptite endosymbiont that held all of her understanding of zeptite programming. It was as if Manny had intentionally provided her with the ability to quickly find that module. All she had needed to do was search for it!

Image by Leonardo.

The next time Eddy went into one of his trance-like states while seated at his computer, Marda used her zeptite probes to monitor the activity Eddy's zeptite endosymbiont. Marda was able to easily identify the sedron-based telepathic communications protocol that Eddy's zeptite endosymbiont used for access to the Reality Viewer. Marda now understood that the Reality Viewer was not actually inside his computer, but it existed in the Sedron Domain and was accessible via a special zeptite comlink that Manny had inserted into the computer's structure.

Now Marda had access to the Reality Viewer and she could use it telepathically whenever Eddy was not using it. She did not even need to be close to the computer. With her telepathic ability boosted by oxypathin and klytykynyn, Marda could use the Reality Viewer from the privacy of her own suite of rooms. Marda's experience while using the Viewer was spooky. She went into a trance-like state during which she was able to obtain information from past Realities, but after the trance was over, she was left with the information but uncertain how she had obtained it. Marda now understood how Eddy wrote his science fiction stories. While sitting quietly, he could use the Viewer and get story ideas without even being conscious that he had been doing anything other than letting his mind wander and generate new fictional plot elements for his current novel writing project.

End Chapter 12  - Jump to; Chapter 13.

Next: plans for Chapter 13 of "The Hierozyme Intervention".

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