A Human Library

Heidi Taillefer
Venus Envy
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My original motivation in starting to craft the science fiction story Exode was to explore the lives of Genesaunts, those human-like creatures who have already managed to leave behind their home world and travel between the stars. Exode particularly concerns the Pla, the clan of Interventionists who send Parthney to Earth as their agent.

Virgin Birth
Parthney was "born" on the planet Hemmal, a distant world where Earth is known only through myths, legends and song. Parthney grows up as a "false Buld" who can never be entirely satisfied with his life on Hemmal. With the exception of a few scattered "false Buld" who seem to arise by spontaneous mutation, the population of Hemmal consists of hermaphrodites: the Buld and the Prelands.

Yandrey

I originally imagined that Parthney was born on Hemmal about 20 years before his mission to Earth, but now I've adopted the idea that any particular "Thomas clone" such as Parthney could be "instantiated" at a convenient age (say, 15) and live just a few years on Hemmal before going off planet for Interventionist training.

There are a few residents of Hemmal who know that Parthney is not just some random "false Buld". In particular, Yandrey befriends Parthney and explains that there is more to life than the rather comfortable existence that Parthney has so far had on Hemmal. Parthney is captivated by the idea that Earth is a real place, a world full of people like himself.

Eventually, Parthney abandons his life on Hemmal and is trained at a secret Interventionist base, Lendhalen, for a mission to Earth. For thousands of years the Interventionists have worked to guide Earthlings towards development of a technologically advanced civilization. While at Lendhalen, Parthney studies examples of past Interventionist missions to Earth and is prepared with the special knowledge and skills he will need to accomplish his own mission.

Rotharkin is teleported off of Earth and
eventually (after 1,500 years) meets Parthney

Archived People
I originally imagined that there would only be one other human at Lendhalen: Gwyned. However, I recently decided to include in the Exode Trilogy some use of a pek technology that allows for both
1) the efficient "storage" of humans and
2) their "reincarnation",
where and when convenient.

Thus, it is quite a simple matter for Parthney to "read" the life stories of those Earthlings who exist in the Human Library at Lendhalen. For the Pla who direct operations at Lendhalen, it is easy to just pop copies of those archived Earthlings out of storage and let those copies physically interact with Parthney.

Nereid hermaphrodite

Previously I've sketched out three earlier examples of Interventionist missions to Earth carried out at roughly 500 year intervals. In each case, a clone of Thomas is sent to Earth and subsequently at least one Earthling is teleported back to the Koly star system. Once teleported, the atomic pattern of these Earthlings is stored in the human pattern library at the Klyz teleportation hub. When appropriate, additional copies of these people can be instantiated and they can live out their lives at places such as Lendhalen. The advanced teleportation technology that makes this library of Earthlings available to Lendhalen is provided by the mysterious Nereids and their proxy species, the Fru'wu.

source

In this way, by making use of "reincarnated" Earthlings,  Parthney can learn Earth history and the outcomes of past Interventionist missions to Earth by physically interacting with Gwyned, Jane, Karherine and Rotharkin. Another Interventionist mission in about 100 BCE targeted a Raeti city near present day Basel. Luri, a Raeti princess (image to the right on this page) faces a cruel death on a stormy mountain pass and is teleported to safety on Klyz.

Luri lives out her natural life in the Koly star system, but every time another Thomas clone is being prepared for a mission to Earth she can again be "instantiated" and help prepare the new Interventionist agent for a mission to Earth.

Clu'ten'iun

Fru'wu

The planet Clu'ten'iun is the secret location of Lendhalen, the secret training base where Parthney becomes an Interventionist agent. Settlement of Clu'ten'iun began when the pek needed an Archive World for the Fru'wu species. The Fru'wu had managed to destroy their home world.

While in training at Lendhalen, Parthney incorrectly believes that he is living in an underground city of the planet Oib.

links to Parthney as displayed in the EntityCube's Gunxi Map system

___________________________
Next: more about Luri and her later incarnations.

Collaborators at Lendhalen

I'm more than 8,000 words into Chapter Three of Exode and still trying to decide what to call this chapter. I had been leaning towards "The Conspirators at Lendhalen". However, I'm writing the scene for when Parthney and Gwyned first meet at Lendhalen and having trouble convincing myself that "conspirators" is really the right word to apply to folks like Parthney, Gwyned and Leymaygn and their struggle to prepare Earthlings for the shock of first contact. I particularly don't like the usual connotation that implies "conspirators" are trying to accomplish something nefarious.

The word "collaborators" is interesting because it can introduce an ambiguity that is appropriate for Interventionists. It is possible to "collaborate with the enemy" and Chapter Three of Exode highlights the self-doubt of Interventionists: they must wonder if they are really puppets of the Huaoshy. The Interventionists like to imagine that they have been working to thwart the plans of the Huaoshy, but they can never be sure about that. Possibly, just possible, the Interventionists are doing exactly what the alien Huaoshy want them to do. If so, then while striving to be rebels, the Interventionists might unwittingly be collaborating with the mysterious aliens who the Interventionists regard as the enemy.

Glawen and Sessily

In the Cadwal Chronicles by Jack Vance, the protagonist, Glawen, is pitted against a gang of evil conspirators who want to put an end to the nature Conservancy of the planet Cadwal. Glawen is sent off from Cadwal and into the depths of space to pursue a police investigation aimed at revealing the identity of the conspirators. It turns out that Glawen's partner during the investigation, Kirdy, is well motivated to betray Glawen. On the planet Tassadero, Kirdy warns Ordene Zaa that Glawen will soon arrive at the seminary on Pogan's Point. Zaa casually tosses Glawen into a dungeon, having been assured that no rescue party will come looking for him. Glawen later learns that Kirdy is actually the murderer of Glawen's girl friend, Sessily. With "friends" like Kirdy, Glawen does not need enemies. The main advantage that Glawen has is that his enemies can't avoid fighting among themselves.

Cover art by Boris Vallejo

Similarly, in Exode, the Interventionists are not all members of a single unified organization. There are multiple subgroups of Interventionists that are unable to work together closely in a coordinated fashion. Gwyned is called upon to help train Parthney for a mission to Earth, but Gwyned can't escape the feeling that to help Parthney is tantamount to doing harm to Earth. When Gwyned was on Earth she was not at all impressed by Parthney predecessor,  Deomede. Gwyned has to wonder: maybe Earth would be better off if she went back to Earth as the next Interventionist agent rather than Parthney. The Buld administrators of Lendhalen such as Leymaygn are horrified to learn of Gwyned's plan to take control of the teleportation pad at Lendhalen so that she can send herself back to Earth. Gwyned wants to go back to Earth while avoiding any oversight by the Fru'wu Interventionists, but Leymaygn and the other Buld have been collaborating with the Fru'wu for thousands of years. The Buld fear losing the of help of the technologically advanced Fru'wu, but Gwyned is willing to rely on her own technological proficiencies and she has no compunction about double-crossing the Fru'wu.

Dame Clytie and Simonetta
Original cover art by Edward Valigursky

In the Cadwal Chronicles, there are several factions aligned against Glawen and the Cadwal Conservancy including 1) the "peefers" at Stroma who are a political faction that want's to overthrow the Conservator, and 2) the Yips who want to win free of their squalid existence on the Lutwen Islands and invade the mainland of Cadwal, wild and pristine land that is protected by he Cadwal Conservancy as a nature preserve.

Lucky for Glawen and the Conservationists, the leaders of the peefers and the Yips can't agree on common goals. Dame Clytie (head of the peefer party) and Simonetta (who has made herself queen of the Yips) literally come to blows when they can't agree on a shared plan of action against the Cadwal Conservancy.

Finally, "Smony" decides that Dame Clytie and the peefers are in her way, so she tries to eliminate them in one quick and decisive action: blasting their home, the cliff-side settlement of Stroma into the sea.

Stroma

Smony's dastardly plan fails to eliminate Dame Clytie who then takes revenge by launching a murderous attack on the Lutwen Islands resulting in the death of most of the Yips.

In Exode, the reader comes to imagine that the only hope for Humanity lies with the rather bumbling efforts of the Interventionists. However, it is hard to have much faith in the Interventionists because it seems like no two Interventionists can agree on anything. While the Interventionists don't start attacking each other, some decide that it might not be wise or safe to keep pushing the Earthlings ever faster towards an uncertain future of rapid technology-powered cultural change.

In the second book of the Cadwal Chronicles, Glawen faces a similar problem. He wants the Cadwal police to take swift action to rescue his father who is being held captive at a secret base on Ecce. However, his supervisor is unwilling to risk precious resources on a dangerous rescue operation into enemy territory.

Glawen must heroically go on the rescue mission by himself with only makeshift resources at his disposal. Glawen is well aware of the danger he faces, so when he boldly goes off to rescue his father we have no difficulty viewing his actions as heroic.

In the case of the Interventionist agents like Parthney in Exode, they are not at all well informed. In fact, Parthney is quite naive about what he is getting himself into. He is intrigued by the opportunity to go to Earth and finally live among other humans, but he can't really bring himself to imagine that going to Earth might bring him personal danger. Gwyned tries to make Parthney so comfortable at Lendhalen that he will never want to go off and face the hardships of being stationed on Earth. Gwyned provides Parthney with a robotic assistant, Robin and she helps Parthney pursue his musical interests.

After Parthney grows too comfortable at Lendhalen something must be done! The Buld have to ratchet up pressure on Parthney to make him fulfill his destiny and go off to Earth. The reader might feel that it is foolish to not let Gwyned go to Earth instead, but she is unable to make progress in her attempts to take control of the teleportation equipment at Lendhalen. Frustrated in her attempts to reverse engineer the advance technology at Lendhalen, Gwyned eventually returns to Klyz and tries to strip away the secrecy that shrouds the Fru'wu. Gwyned is at Klyz when Hana arrives from Earth. Neither of them have good things to say about Parthney and Gwyned helps lead Hana towards the suspicion that Parthney is responsible for the death of Hana's husband.

Teleportation

Long-distance (interstellar) teleportation appears as an alien-derived technology in Chapter Three of Exode. I previously started exploring how teleportation technology might be used in Exode. In this blog post I try to finalize my thinking about the limitations on teleportation that will apply to Exode.

Asimov's favorite imagined technology for interstellar travel was "the hyperjump", but in 1954 he published a story about teleportation: It's such a beautiful day. Actually, Asimov's story was less about teleportation than it was about people who did not want to teleport. Supposedly Asimov did not like to travel by air, so it is not surprising that he would write a story about people who do not want to teleport.

Exode assumes that within our galaxy there are several distinct cultures that each have their own types of space travel technology. In the case of humans, all interstellar travel by humans is possible only because of technology transfer to humans from aliens. Humans have been provided with limited access to teleportation technology, but humans have no understanding of how teleportation devices work and they certainly can't build such a device.

Teleportation door

The first use of teleportation in Exode is for moving Parthney from the planet Oib to the planet Clu'ten'iun within the Koly star system. Parthney is not aware that he was teleported off of Oib so he believes that the secret Interventionist base at Lendhalen is located on Oib.

Later, after several years of training At Lendhalen, Parthney is teleported to Klyz, an Interventionist base that is run by the Fru'wu and located within the Galactic Core. This kind of interstellar teleportation is intended to be similar that that depicted in Assignment: Earth. Finally, a third teleportation event sends Parthney from Klyz to Earth, a distance of tens of thousands of lightyears. The fourth and final time that Parthney is teleported, he escapes from the Observer base on the Moon and is sent back to the Galactic Core.

By the fourth teleportation event Parthney is quite well informed about all the uses of teleportation technology that the aliens apply to humans. While on Earth, Parthney uses a teleportation device to send Hana from Earth to Klyz.

For Interventionist agents like Parthney there is a serious danger arising from the use of teleportation technology to travel to Earth. In Exode, objects being teleported do not travel through space in any conventional way. Teleportation involves the transmission of information through compact dimensions. The process is similar to the way faster-than-light spaceships move, but teleportation is limited to movement between two locations where teleportation terminals exist. When interstellar teleportation takes place, the effects of the teleportation spread out and it is relatively easy to detect an on-going teleportation event near the destination. However, it is hard to detect the precise location of the teleportation terminal on Earth that receives a teleported Interventionist.

Gary Seven and the shape-shifting Isis

In Assignment: Earth,  Gary Seven teleports to Earth from a distant star system, but he is intercepted by the teleporter device of the Enterprise.

By the time Parthney reaches Earth, the Interventionists fear that the Overseers of Earth can detect the use of teleportation to send people off of Earth and they worry that such detections might lead Overseers to the location of the few teleportation devices that exist on Earth. Because of these fears, those teleportation devices are always moved by the Interventionists right after they are used to send someone like Hana off of Earth. In Exode, the teleportation devices are not small, so moving them creates yet another risk for the Interventionists.

Last summer when I wrote a first draft of the scene in Exode when Parthney teleports Hana off of Earth I was not thinking about the Overseers being able to detect teleportation events. At that time, I started imagining various contorted reasons to account for how Parthney would be captured by the Overseers. I now like the idea that an Overseer (working "under cover" on Earth in the role of an Earthling using the name Belinda Tement) first investigates Hana and her son and then is finally led to Parthney by his use of the teleporter to send Hana off of Earth.

The Search for Kalid

In an earlier story (The Search for Kalid) I imagined that teleportation over interstellar distances requires an array of teleportation devices on the target planet. For that story I imagined an array of 4 such devices at fixed locations equally spread out around the surface of Earth. In The Search For Kalid the teleportation devices were well-hidden and in no danger of being detected by the primitive Earthlings. But what if the teleportation termini need to be moved after use so as to prevent them from being located by Overssers?

For Exode, I'm assuming that the teleportation devices on Earth were provided by the Fru'wu. The Fru'wu do have some nanite technology deployed on Earth, so I'm trying to decide the extent to which a transporter pad can be quickly decomposed into small parts for easy transportation to a new location. Might it be possible to imagine that most of the device's structure is formed from nanites? If so, then in an emergency it might be possible to hide a teleportation device without having to move it. Simply morph the nanites into another form that is not easy to recognize as being out-of-place on Earth. When Belinda Tement swoops in on Parthney he tries to apply the emergency protocol for hiding the teleportation device and disguising himself as an innocent Earthling, but Belinda is able to recognize the truth. She hauls Parthney off to the Moon.

Gwyned in the teleporter at Klyz

In general, the technological sophistication of the Overseers is just high enough to prevent Interventionists from "spilling the beans" and letting Earthlings realize that in the time since the pek arrived on Earth 7,000,000 years ago the course of primate evolution has been altered by aliens. In the late 20th century Earthlings begin to make some anomalous observations that are evidence of teleportation, but they do not suspect that alien teleportation technlology exists. Only the Overseers correctly recognize the anomalies as proof of Interventionist activity and they rush to develop their own detector technology. Using that newly crafted detector technology, Belinda Tement is able to catch Parthney in the act of teleporting Hana.

Feedback

By presenting the story of how Parthney reaches Earth, Exode emphasizes the use of teleportation to send Interventionist agents to Earth. However, not only do the Interventionists send agents to Earth, but Earthlings like Hana and Gwyned are teleported off of Earth. New arrivals from Earth such as Gwyned provide useful information to the Interventionists about conditions on Earth. By the time Gwyned leaves Earth there is a rapid pace of technological advancement. When Gwyned arrives at Lendhalen her knowledge of Earthly science and technology is, in some scientific domains, more advanced than that of the Buld. With her help, Parthney goes off to Earth with a more sophisticated appreciation for technology than previous Interventionist agents.

Related Reading: networking teleportation terminals

Vozgrow and Leymaygn

Dryad

I've been sketching out character and plot details for Chapter Three of Exode. Previously I mentioned that Vozgrow and Leymaygn are two Buld at Lendhalen who train Parthney for his Interventionist mission on Earth. Everyone who lives at Lendhalen is free from pek nanites, but that makes it difficult for the Buld to maintain a stable population. I've decided that Leymaygn makes use of a type of "partial change" that has been developed by the lisden of Lendhalen to help the Buld Interventionists stabilize a small population of rebels. As described for Pla'va, by going through "partial change" Leymaygn can be rejuvenated and also retain some existing brain structure and behavioral patterns although most individual memories are lost in the process.

In contrast, Vozgrow has a long personal history of experimenting with medical nanites provided by the Fru'wu. Leymaygn has the typical youthful appearance of the Buld, but Vozgrow is ancient like Yandrey.  Yandrey shows some effects of extreme age, but since thon lives on Hemmal there are pek medical nanites in thons body that do a good job of preventing most of the deleterious consequences of old age. For example, Yandrey wears a wig to hide thons baldness and makes use of a kind of makeup made from nanite components. The Fru'wu medical nanites are not as efficient as the pek nanites and so Vozgrow does not have a youthful appearance. Parthney is rather shocked by Vozgrow's odd appearance and Gwyned tries to make him appreciate the fact that there are many old and disabled people on Earth. Where Parthney grew up on Hemmal, everyone is genetically perfect and kept healthy by pek medical nanites, so before seeing Vozgrow, Parthney has never really experienced a person with alarming physical features. I've been trying to decide just how hideous to make Vozgrow.

In the Jack Vance novel Star King an alien creature called a "Dryad" is described: "They are at least half plant...bipeds, with a peculiarly human torso and head structure...the head showed...purplish-green bruises which seemed to be eye spots." I'm amused by the idea of a sapient, bipedal plant-like creature and I'm imagining that Vozgrow has been shifted in that direction by the Fru'wu medical nanites.

Glimpsed image of a Fru'wu

The two alien species featured in Exode are the Fru'wu and the Nereids. The Nereids are fairly humanoid, but the Fru'wu have an alarming body form and so they avoid showing themselves to humans. I've previously hinted at the body structure of the Fru'wu. In my thinking, the original naturally-evolved body form of the Fru'wu is lost in the distant past, but we can try to reconstruct their evolutionary origins. The Fru'wu (more accurately, the distant ancestors of the Fru'wu) were an old species when the pek arrived in our galaxy seven million years ago. The Fru'wu are half biological and half artificial; a symbiotic hybrid construct of biological cells and nanite components. Although not complete shapeshifters like the pek, the Fru'wu can easily alter their surface features and it is doubtful that humans have ever seen their unaltered form.

Fru'wu home world

The Fru'wu provided medical nanites to the Buld, but the Buld have never had a very good grasp on biology. The Buld have never been able to make the required adjustments to the Fru'wu medical nanites to fully adapt them for use in humans. With time, Buld who make use of Fru'wu medical nanites begin to have some distinctive morphological features that reflect aspects of Fru'wu biology. I'm trying to imagine how to transform an elderly human part way towards a plant, something about 10% of the way towards Vance's Dryads.

Spoilers
The original planet where the Fru'wu evolved was significantly hotter than Earth, a world with a carbon dioxide-rich reducing atmosphere where oxygenic photosynthesis never appeared. An oxygen-containing atmosphere is poisonous to the Fru'wu and humans cannot survive in the type of atmosphere that is suitable for the Fru'wu.

The star of the Fru'wu home world produced mostly long wavelength light that could be used for a type of photosynthetic acetogenesis that allowed for efficient carbon dioxide fixation and a metabolism based on carbon compounds. Nitrogen fixation was accomplished on the Fru'wu home world by a second linked photosynthetic electron transport system with a specialized vanadium-iron nitrogenase complex.

Orbits of Oib, Hemmal and Clu'ten'iun around the star Koly. Positions of some Pla spacecraft are also shown.

When Parthney arrives at Lendhalen, he believes that he is on Oib. However, the interventionist base on Oib is just for cover...Lendhalen is actually located at the next planet closer to Koly than Hemmal: Clu'ten'iun. The conditions on Clu'ten'iun are not fully compatible with Fru'wu physiology, but the high temperature, high carbon dioxide, no oxygen atmosphere makes it a reasonable place for a Fru'wu base of operations in the Koly star system. When Parthney arrives on Oib he is secretly teleported to Clu'ten'iun. The readers of Exode do not learn about Clu'ten'iun until Parthney returns to the Koly star system after his mission Earth.

Leymaygn and Vozgrow.

The Klyz Teleportation Hub

Pla'kao

I've been making decisions about the nature of the secret training base for Interventionist agents in the Koly star system where Parthney is prepared for his mission to Earth. One of the key issues is the location of Lendhalen. The directors of Lendhalen, Pla'kao and Pla'mak, believe that the locations of Interventionist training bases must be kept secret from the pek. This belief arose because of the fact that some Interventionist bases have been quickly and efficiently eliminated.

The truth is, it has never been possible for the Buld to keep secret the location of the bases where they train human agents. Such training facilities are allowed to operate as long as the Interventionists are playing the role that is desired by the Huaoshy. What the Huaoshy object to is Interventionists who try to undermine on-going efforts to keep primitives like the people of Earth unaware of the existence of the Huaoshy.

During the past 10,000 years, the greatest danger for Buld Interventionists has been the continual possibility that a group of true revolutionaries will arise at places like Lendhalen, revolutionaries who could start to disrupt the plans of the Huaoshy. This has happened many times, most recently in the Koly star system about 1,000 years ago.

16th century England becomes a hotbed for Interventionism

After the previous training base in the Koly star  system was eliminated, Pla'kao and Pla'mak established Lendhalen and for the past 500 years they have been very effective at training Interventionist agents with the result that the English-speaking people of Earth came to play an important role in the scientific and technological development of Earth.

One of the keys to the success of Pla'kao and Pla'mak has been their lifestyle as Pla. As described in Chapter Two of Exode, the Pla must periodically undergo a "partial change". They must auto-fertilize and allow most of the cells in their bodies to be replaced. Although not all of their brain cells are replaced, this greatly disrupts their memories and after a "partial change" a Pla individual must undergo extensive re-education. Pla'kao and Pla'mak have been careful to alternate their cycles of going through "partial change" and they take turns re-educating each other so that their strategies and methods do not significantly change through the centuries.

Center: Parthney's residence while at Klyz.

Pla'kao went through "partial change" about two years before Gwyned arrived at Lendhalen. Gwyned's description of recent events on Earth (she left Earth in 1964) startled Pla'mak and so Pla'kao has been re-educated under conditions that make her believe that the Earthlings have become a serious danger to themselves. Thus, Parthney is trained for his mission to Earth while Pla'mak and Pla'kao are in disagreement about what is best for the people of Earth and, in particular, if the effort to advance scientific and technological development on Earth has been pushed along too quickly by the Interventionists.

Klyz Teleportation Hub
While at Lendhalen, Parthney begins to wonder if he will live out the rest of his life on Earth. He is told by Pla'mak that most Interventionist agents on Earth are captured by the Overseers. Gwyned explains to Parthney that the Fru'wu have teleportation technology; she was teleported off of Earth (to part of the Klyz community, see below) and then later teleported to Lendhalen. Parthney believes that when he is on Earth, if he ever comes to the attention of the Overseers then he will be able to teleport off of Earth.

Belinda Tement

In fact, working conditions for Interventionist agents on Earth are quite different from what the Buld Interventionists suspect. The Fru'wu interventionists make use of the Buld to supply humans who are teleported first to a Fru'wu base (Klyz), not to Earth. Upon reaching Klyz, Parthney believes that he is already on Earth. There is a community of humans from Earth who reside at Klyz where they are debriefed and where they provide instruction about their future duties on Earth to new arrivals like Parthney. Further, the Fru'wu infect the brains of new arrivals with Fru'wu nanites. The human residents of Klyz never actually meet any Fru'wu, but at Klyz there are artificial life forms of Fru'wu design who pretend to be Fru'wu.

At Klyz Parthney is paired with one of the artificial life forms who will be teleported to Earth along with Parthney and who functions as his assistant while Parthney is on Earth. The Fru'wu have been working to introduce into the population of Earth some gene combinations that will allow Earthlings to survive the dangers inherent in advanced technology and the coming contact with the Buld spaceship that is on its way to Earth. While at Klyz, Parthney is trained to be aggressive in seeking out opportunities to advance this Fru'wu agenda. While on Earth Parthney's activity attracts the attention of an Overseer using the identity Belinda Tement.

1554: Jane is teleported to Klyz

The pek have designed human brains to function in two different modes. Most human brains have existed in a type of symbiotic relationship with pek nanites. In this mode humans are predisposed to tribalism and religious faith. In the absence of pek nanites humans are able to think creatively about tool use and the invention of new tools and technologies. Humans with no pek nanites in their brains are unable to understand what drives other humans towards "group think" and faith in the supernatural.

Among the first in England to have very low levels of pek nanites were Henry VIII and Jane Grey. Contrary to later constructed legend, Jane was not executed: after being dethroned she was teleported to Klyz and then subsequently resided at Lendhalen for the rest of her life.

After attaining gene combinations in Earthlings that made their brains resistant to infection by pek nanites, the Fru'wu continued to seek additional beneficial gene combinations. In particular, they wanted to produce Earthlings who would be genetically predisposed towards ethical behavior. Parthney is engaged in the pursuit of this goal when he is discovered by Overseers, captured and then taken to Observer Base on the Moon. The Fru'wu take this opportunity to infiltrate Observer Base and ultimately Parthney is teleported back to Klyz.

Related Reading: Earth Day 1

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Robots of Lendhalen

by Sabine Vogel

I've been sketching in details about the people who prepare Parthney for his mission to Earth. Parthney's training as an Interventionist agent is the subject of Chapter Three in Exode. For previous stories set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe the Interventionist agents have simply appeared on Earth and gone about their duties. Providing a detailed account of where Interventionists come from was one of my major goals for Exode.

Parthney spends nearly four years in training, learning to read and write and discovering how people live on Earth. During that time he only "interacts" with five other people: two Pla, two other Buld and one human from Earth. I put "interacts" in quotes because during his training Parthney has no nanites in his body and he does not come into physical contact with any source of nanites. The two Pla carry nanites in their bodies so they only communicate with Parthney by electronic communications. The other two Buld, like Parthney, have been cleansed of nanites. They live in the same small community with Parthney and a woman from Earth named Gwyned Iwedon. The Buld call this isolated little community "Lendhalen", meaning, in the ancient Buld language, roughly "tamed spring"; a name applied long ago with the intention that good things would hopefully flow from a place where people could live without interference from nanites. The exact location of Lendhalen is never revealed to Parthney; it has gravity like Earth's but since the Buld have technology that allows them to modulate gravity, Lendhalen might be anywhere in the Koly star system.

apologies to Cornelia Klimek
  and Liz Watt

In addition to the four human residents, there are some robots living in Lendhalen. These robots are of Buld manufacture, but they are not very sophisticated compared to the artificial lifeforms that Parthney has lived among his entire life: the pek. For the past 20,000 years the Buld of Oib have been slowly developing the ability to make complex devices. Initially they worked to build spaceships and by 15,000 years ago they had copied and come to understand much of the spaceship technology that had been originally provided to the Buld Clan by the pek. Originally developed as part of the Buld spaceship technology, they have the means to generate artificial gravity. A major limitation on the pace of Buld science and technology has been the small number of Buld scientists and engineers.

About 10,000 years ago the Buld learned how to make space elevators that were strong enough to lift people off of Oib. As was the case for Buld spaceship technology, Buld understanding of space elevators was possible because they could study and copy the space elevators installed by the pek on worlds like Hemmal.

Another major technology development project of the Buld has been the creation of humanoid robots. The Buld science of robotics reached its peak about 5,000 years ago when it became possible for them to manufacture humanoid robots that could comfortably live among the Buld as servants. It is not difficult to distinguish between these robots and people, but they have proven useful, particularly as assistants for those Buld who choose to live without the conveniences provided by pek nanites.

During the past 5000 years no star system of the Galactic Core has sent more humans to Earth than the Koly system. This productivity in recruiting and training Interventionist agents within the Koly system can be attributed to the strong influence if the Pla and their efficient utilization of humanoid robots. Not all of these robots take human form. Some Buld keep robotic pets that usually take the form of mammals like cats.

During the past 500 years the Interventionist agents from the Koly system have had unusually good luck avoiding capture by Overseers. This has been attributed to the fact that the Koly system has been provided with a fairly steady stream of humans from Earth. Occasionally the  Interventionist agents who are working on Earth teleport an Earthling off of Earth. All three of the Interventionist teleporters on Earth transmit to the main Interventionist base of the Fru'wu. The Fru'wu can greatly influence the final destination of these humans who arrive in the Galactic Core from Earth (see Klyz). In most cases the Fru'wu send these displaced Earthlings on to places like the Koly system where they can help train Interventionist agents for survival on Earth.

photoshop some eyes

Before Parthney arrives at Lendhalen for training, Gwyned has already been living there for three years. During that time, Gwyned has been "debriefed" by the Buld. For Interventionists, such debriefings are the main source of information about conditions on Earth. Gwyned had formed a kind of "family" with the Buld and the robots of Koly, but she is more than anxious for human companionship when Parthney arrives. However, she quickly dismisses Parthney as an ignorant and chubby kid. Also, due to her unusual parents, Gwyned is almost like a different species than Parthney, so they are not physically attracted to each other.

Mission to Andromeda

Alien contact.

I previously revealed some of the secret history of humanity such as the fact that Kach is sent to Earth by the Nereids. Kach and Parthney are the two main characters in Exode. The story Exode takes place in our time, but the story was set in motion long ago. The Nereids are a humanoid species that originated on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. Closer to home and with a more intimate relationship to humans are the alien Fru'wu. After 10,000 years of helping to develop a technological civilization on Earth, the Fru'wu are nervous that humanity might face the same fate as the Fru'wu: the self-destruction of their home world in a technological disaster.

However, it is not at all clear why the budding civilization if the Fru'wu home world came to an end. The subgroup of Fru'wu who are collaborating with the human Interventionists have received a helping hand from another Fru'wu population that was "cultured" by the Nereids on a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. The surviving Fru'wu have no first hand knowledge about the cause of the destruction of the Fru'wu civilization on their home planet.

Did the Fru'wu home world destroy itself or was it pushed into oblivion by the Nereids? Are the Nereids now pushing human civilization on Earth towards destruction?

Fru'wu

The Buld have had contact with three different groups of Fru'wu:

1) The First Contact with Fru'wu that is recorded in Buld written history occurred about 20,000 years ago, but oral tradition and myths of the human population of the Galactic Core suggests that there were even earlier contacts. Shortly after that first recorded contact, the Pla came into existence as a group of Buld who were free from the influence of pek nanites. Among the Buld, belief developed that these "first Fru'wu" were from the Fru'wu home planet and that they were free of pek influences. That period of First Contact was of short duration.

2) About 15,000 years ago a new group of Fru'wu came into contact with the Buld. These Fru'wu had been "cultured" by the pek on worlds of the Galactic Core, much like the Buld. It is these Fru'wu who were able to share with the Buld the location of Earth. With Fru'wu assistance, the Buld learned how to build a spaceship and send it to Earth, a journey that would take about 15,000 years (traveling at just below the speed of light). Among the Buld, a common belief is that the location of Earth had also been given to the Buld at First Contact with the Fru'wu. According to legend, this sharing of information had angered the pek who then destroyed the budding civilization of the Fru'wu home world. Fearing punishment by the pek, these "second Fru'wu" have secretly maintained a working relationship with the Pla for the past 15,000 years.

Nereid

3) About 10,000 years ago a third group of Fru'wu came into contact with the Buld. Long ago, some Fru'wu had been taken to the Andromeda Galaxy by the Nereids. These Fru'wu in the Andromeda Galaxy developed their own unique culture and eventually arrived in our Galactic Core, traveling in an advanced spaceship that could travel faster than the speed of light. They went to Earth and installed a teleportation terminal that could be used to send humans from the Galactic Core to Earth. This is when a sustained program of human Intervention into the affairs of Earth began. Contact with these Fru'wu from the Andromeda galaxy has only been in the form of intermittent periods of short duration. Occasionally Fru'wu from the Andromeda galaxy arrive in our galaxy. Sometimes they take passengers back to the Andromeda galaxy, passengers who are never heard from again.

Exode is the story of the what happens when the Buld spaceship completes its 15,000 year journey to Earth. The first part of Exode tells the story of how Parthney goes to Earth as an Interventionist agent and is captured by Overseers. When Parthney is rescued and returned to the Galactic Core, he finally has his chance to meet the Fru'wu (Group #2, above) and learn about their concern that the 7,000,000 year old pek program of observing Earth will be terminated when the Buld reach Earth. Both the Observers and the Overseers will be removed from their secret base on the Moon, leaving the Earthlings to fend for themselves.

Oib

Worried that Earthly civilization might self-destruct, the Fru'wu have been trying to re-establish contact with the Nereids. The Fru'wu who have the FTL spaceship that can return to the Andromeda galaxy (group #3 above) report that during the past thousand years, the Fru'wu passengers from Earth's galaxy who have repeatedly tried to make contact with the Nereids were never heard from again. It is hoped that humans might more effectively plead the case for obtaining help from the Nereids. Parthney is invited to go to the Andromeda galaxy in an attempt to get help from the Nereids. Worried that he is not actually an Earthling and therefor not the best person to represent Humanity on this mission to make contact with the Nereids, Parthney suggests that an Earth human go along to the Andromeda galaxy. At this time, Hana is studying the Fru'wu and trying to understand Genesaunt civilization. Parthney and Hana, who met on Earth, are reunited, but Hana does not trust Parthney, believing that Parthney killed her husband.

While Parthney was in training for his mission to Earth, he lived with Gwyned Iwedon, an Earth woman, in the Koly system. He decides to ask Gwyned to go to the Andromeda galaxy. The Fru'wu (group #3, above, with a FTL spaceship) take Parthney back to the Koly star system, but fearing exposure and punishment of their Interventionist cell, the Pla who trained Parthney refuse to renew contact with him. Pla'va leads Parthney to Kach and soon Kach and her son Boswei are aboard the Fru'wu spaceship. Kach is very interested in trying to make contact with the Creators and she agrees to go to the Andromeda galaxy. Kach and Boswei have always been infected by pek nanites and their nanites can spread to other people. Hana's brain becomes infected by the type of pek nanites that are used on Hemmal. Pathney's brain also becomes re-infected.

pek: artificial lifeforms

Parthney re-establishes the type of cognitive resonance that he previously experienced with Kach when they first met on Hemmal. Kach informs Parthney that Boswei is his son.

Due to her genetic makeup, Hana was one of the rare humans on Earth with a brain that was not infected by the type of pek nanites used on Earth. Her freedom from nanites on Earth eventually led to her decision to leave Earth and it was Parthney who teleported her off of Earth. Now, in the Koly star system, Hana for the first time experiences nanite-mediated cognitive resonance with people. Hana and Boswei establish a particularly strong nanite-mediated cognitive connection.

Parthney and Kach go to Andomeda

This is the start of Part 2 of Exode. Parthney, Kach, Boswei, Hana, Steph and Muchlo are taken by the Fru'wu to the Andromeda galaxy where they hope to make contact with the Nereids. Will the Nereids act to help protect the people from Earth or are they perfectly satisfied to make Earthlings responsible for their own fate?

The Fru'wu express doubts about the wisdom of allowing the two pek (Muchlo and Steph) to come along to the Andromeda galaxy. Muchlo denies that the pek would ever try to speed the people of Earth towards destruction and blames the Nereids for interfering in the pace of technological development on Earth. 

by Dony Tamazone

Muchlo says it is up to the Nereids to decide if they will back off: they could still prevent the Buld from making First Contact with Earth.

Related Image.

More story illustrations.

When is Exode?

Exactly when does Exode take place? When I began writing Exode last summer I started with a scene that takes place on Earth. I intended that the reader would be able to believe that the scene was taking place in their present: now, today. However, that scene shows advanced technology far beyond our Earthly means. Here is a quote that I have seen attributed to Robert Heinlein (1959):

"Realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method. To make this definition cover all science fiction (instead of 'almost all') it is necessary only to strike out the word 'future'."

The first story I wrote that was set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe took place mostly in the past, as a kind of alternate history. The basic premiss of all "exodemic" stories is that travelers from a distant galaxy first visited Earth long ago, making it possible for such stories to take place in the past and still be full of "futuristic" technology. If the internet can be trusted, the term "futuristic" was not used in the sense of "pertaining to the future" until 1958. Maybe in some alternate history of science fiction, Heinlein might have altered his definition and started it out this way: "Futuristic, yet realistic, speculation..."

The Challenges of Futuristic Fiction

Quaint technology (video).

Imogen Howson and many other writers have confronted the challenge of creating a futuristic setting for a story, only to have the rapid pace of technological change soon mark their story as a relic of the past. Science fiction fans have to decide if they will be forgiving while they are reading "futuristic fiction" that seems absurdly dated. Some of my favorite stories by Isaac Asimov and Jack Vance are set more than a thousand years in the future, yet they are full of klunky technologies like printed newspapers and news magazines while lacking anything even as advanced as cell phones or personal computers.

For Exode, I've spent the past six months  waffling about the date of Parthney's arrival on Earth. Last summer I wrote a draft chapter of Exode that included in the plot the idea of using a DVD to store some computer files that could then be sent via snail mail, but now, just six months later, I'm thinking that it would be better to upload the files and just send an email to the targeted recipient of the files with instructions for how to access the files online. The main reason for using the DVD was to create a pretext for having a character get out of the house and go to the post office. How quaint.

detector

I've considered trying to write about Parthney's time on Earth without mentioning any form of technology that might date my writing. However, key characters such as Hana are explicitly involved in cutting edge scientific research. How can I write about Hana's life without mentioning high tech gadgets?

I've also been toying with the idea that the imaginary futuristic technology used for Parthney's travel to Earth from the distant Koly star system might be noticed because of the fact that when Interventionists use their advanced alien technology it might interfere with some type of Earthly technology. For Exode, I've decided to imagine that Parthney is sent across the galaxy to Earth by teleportation technology similar to that used in Assignment: Earth. The physical basis of this advanced technology is a type of matter that is unknown to current science, but it is fun to imagine that some Earthly technology might be able to detect teleportation events.

Flyby Anomaly

One way that Earthlings might notice teleportation events is what has been called "flyby anomaly". Some Earth gravitational assist maneuvers of spacecraft such as Galileo, NEAR and Rosetta were reported to result in anomalous velocity changes.

I could write these observations into Exode and say that the velocity anomalies corresponded to times when teleportation was being used by Interventionists. After 1998 the Interventionists realized that their teleporter activity was altering spacecraft orbits, so they started taking precautions to avoid further detection by Earthlings.

The advanced Vela satellites were secretly being used at the right time for me to imagine that the Interventionist teleportation device produced gamma rays that were detected by Earthlings, including one event corresponding to Parthney's arrival on Earth.

Exode Timeline
I've been imagining that Parthney would spend long enough on Oib being trained for his mission to Earth combined with his time on Earth for his son, Boswei, to grow up and be about 12 years old when he leaves Hemmal.

If Parthney spent 4 years in training after leaving Hemmal and before going to Earth (1971) and a lucky 13 years on Earth before being caught by the Overseers (1984) then the original scene that I wrote with Parthney and Hana on Earth could take place in 1984 with a magnetic computer disk being used rather than a DVD. If Parthney was 18 years old when he left Hemmal then he was born in the year 1949.

It might take Parthney about three years to get back to Hemmal (1987) after being booted off Earth. If Boswei is 12 in 1987 when he and Kach leave Hemmal then he would be born in 1975. That chronology initially puzzles Parthney: how can his son have been born in 1975 on Hemmal if Parthney was on Earth from 1971 to 1984? To clear that mystery away, Kach must explain the rest of Muchlo's secret to Parthney.

At that point (1987) in Exode, Parthney, Kach, Hana and Boswei are sent off to the Andromeda galaxy in an effort to make contact with the Nereids.

Hana and Boswei take up residence on a planet located within the Andromeda galaxy and they raise a family. Kach continues her efforts to establish contact with the Creators, but only manages to earn a trip to Earth where she runs afoul of the Overseers. It might work to say that the course of the NEAR spacecraft was altered in January 1998 when Kach was teleported to Earth.

First Buld on Earth - 2012

Izhiun, the son of Boswei and Hana, is sent to Earth in an attempt to rescue Kach. In 2011 Kach is rescued and returned to the galactic core, her teleportation being detected by the GRAIL mission, Kach having been captured by Overseers and taken to the Moon. By this point in time, Earthlings have data for three types of anomalous observations that are actually related to the use of alien technology on Earth and the Moon, but it is not clear to Earthlings what is going on.

At the end of its 15,000 year mission, the Buld generation ship finally arrives in the Solar System in 2012. The Buld only make one visit to Earth and they quickly decide that the primitive Earthlings can't be trusted to respond rationally to "first contact". They offer a ride to Izhiun and he goes with them since they will be hanging around the Solar System and terraforming Mars. A nervous Overseer quickly erases the memories of the few Earthlings who witnessed the Buld visitor on Earth.

Hana's husband is left on Earth to cobble together an account of Buld history that is based on the information provided by Izhiun. However, most people on Earth can only view his story as science fiction. Within that account of Buld history are clues suggesting how we Earthlings can use Buld technology to meet out energy needs and prevent global warming. At the end of Exode is the lingering question: will the bumbling Earthlings be able to figure out the meaning of those clues and save themselves from self-inflicted technological disaster?