When I began creating
Exode I had the idea that
Hana would be teleported off of Earth and begin an adventure among the stars in search of the aliens who created the human species. The
Nereids have an important role in
Exode as technologically advanced aliens from the Andromeda galaxy, but Hana only manages to have interactions with the
Fru'wu, another species from our own galaxy.
 |
| Luk'ru |
Hana learns that the Fru'wu, with help from the Nereids, have worked for thousands of years to help establish a technological civilization on Earth, but she makes no real progress towards understanding the mysterious origins of the human species. Hana ends up on the planet
Luk'ru where she strives to form a new human civilization that will be better than what she left behind on Earth.
 |
| R. Gohrlay |
The Nereids have a long history of making visits to Earth, but they must be careful not to run afoul of the
Overseers who guard Earth against outside interference. The Nereids long ago devised a training program by which they prepare humans to function as their "representatives" on Earth.
Then, suddenly,
R. Gohrlay terminates the Earth
Observation program of the
orbho and the Nereids have an unprecedented opportunity to help the Earthlings develop a technological civilization.
The orbho had no intention of allowing humans to build a technological civilization on Earth. On worlds of the Galactic Core, the
pek have been methodically crafting the
Prelands, a replacement for humans. Book One of the Exode Trilogy,
The Foundations of Eternity, tells the story of how the
Huaoshy regain control of Observer Base on the Moon.
Time Travel
As a science fiction story, the Exode Trilogy includes many imagined technologies including time travel machines inspired by Isaac Asimov's
Eternity. R. Gohrlay and her fellow positronic robots were the first to discover that time travel is possible. R. Gohrlay exploited her monopoly on time travel to search for a
Reality in which humans would retain control of Earth and not be replace by Prelands.
However, the Huaoshy eventually realized that Earth has been taken from their control by telepathic positronic robots with time travel technology. The Huaoshy develop their own time travel capabilities and, on the strength of their superior
nanite technology, they regain control of Earth. However, they agree to a negotiated settlement with R. Gohrlay's forces which is designed to give the humans of Earth a chance to survive and not be replace by the hermaphroditic Prelands.
 |
| Hemmal |
Deomede
When Deomede is trained for his mission to Earth he is prepared for the task of caring for the humans of Earth who have unusual gene combinations introduced from the worlds of the Galactic Core. Deomede was born on
Hemmal, one of the worlds of the Galactic Core where the pek have long crafted the Prelands.
 |
| Asterothropes |
Deomede is a male Ek'col. The Ek'col are a human variant crafted by the pek for a special role. In the far future of the
Mallansohn Reality, R. Gohrlay's best intentions for Humanity were met with utter defeat. By the programming of her positronic circuits, R. Gohrlay must strive to do what is best for humans, but after 10,000,000 years humans become extinct, replaced by a new species of their own design: the Asterothropes.
R. Gohrlay carefully trains one Asterothrope for a time travel mission to the 20th century. This is Isaac Asimov's heroine, Noÿs Lambent, from
The End of Eternity. Asterothropes are not human, but Noÿs has nanites in her body that gave her a human form during embryonic development. The Ek'col have been carefully crafted to be inter-fertile with Noÿs, although Deomede is unaware of this.
Deomede believes that he is a "
false" Buld and genetically identical to Earth humans. He has been trained (at
Lendhalen) to make contact with Noÿs when he is on Earth and provide her with support. Deomede believes that Noÿs is another interventionist agent like himself. On Earth, Deomede uses many "cover" names. When he is in Wales he uses the name "Merion Iwedon". Noÿs uses the name "Trysta".
In 1936 Trysta arrives in Wales from the future and
meets Merion. They slowly develop a romantic relationship and in 1939 they have a daughter, Gwyned. Later, Trysta and
Deomede have a second child, a boy named Andy. Soon after Andy is born, Trysta moves her family to Australia. Merion occasionally visits Trysta, but mostly he is absent and Gwyned is only vaguely aware that he is her father. Also, Gwyned knows that she has an older brother named
Thomas who her mother has occasionally mentioned.
 |
| Gwyned |
Gwyned develops an interest in nuclear physics and the goal of making nuclear fusion a viable source of energy to replace fossil fuels. She is frustrated by the fact that funding for nuclear physics is dominated by the goal of making nuclear weapons. In 1964 Gwyned visits the headquarters of Alternative Energy Concepts, a think tank devoted to the development of alternatives to fossil fuels. She is amazed to discover that the small team at AEC has been disrupting her efforts to obtain funding for fusion power research. Worse still, she learns that Trysta, as a member of the AEC board of directors, has been involved in the on-going efforts to sabotage fusion power research.
Furious, Gwyned returns home to Australia intent on confronting her mother. However, both Merion and Trysta are there and Gwyned soon finds herself teleported off of Earth by Merion. After spending some time at the
Klyz teleportation hub, Gwyned ends up at Lendhalen.
Parthney
In 1971 Deomede meets Parthney, the new Interventionist agent who has just arrived on Earth after being trained at Lendhalen. While at Lendhalen, Parthney learned about Gwyned's family.
Parthney asks Deomede about Trysta. Deomede tells Parthney that Trysta is gone, but they begin searching diligently for Thomas. Parthney gets a copy of Thomas' book "Daveed the Luk'ie".
In 1980 Deomede tells
Parthney that he suspects that the Overseers can
now detect teleportation events. He arranges for Parthney to gain access to his list of contacts
among the Earthlings in case he is captured. Deomede is captured by
Overseers shortly
after he teleports an Earthling to Klyz.
 |
| Betty |
Parthney "inherits" Betty, Deomede's robotic helper. Betty is familiar with all of the Earthlings who Deomede has worked with. Hana is one of Deomede's "contacts" who becomes of special interest to Parthney. There is a "Hana" mentioned in Thomas' "story" about Izhiun and the
Buld. Parthney discovers that Hana has been having "email"
communications with Thomas. Parthney suspects that Thomas is another Interventionist agent working on Earth.
End Game
 |
| Trysta viewing Realities |
My ideas about Deomede have changed significantly since I first began sketching in his backstory
here. Deomede spends most of his time helping a population of Earthlings with Preland genes introduced from the Galactic Core. He never thinks too carefully about Trysta and just assumes that she is another Interventionist agent like himself.
Deomede, Parthney and Gwyned exist entirely within the Buld Reality and they are not aware that time travel was previously possible. Both Trysta and Thomas arrived in the Buld Reality from the previous Reality, The Ekcolir Reality. Thomas becomes aware of Izhiun and the
Buld by way of his contacts with Trysta in both the Ekcolir Reality and the Buld Reality.
Book Two in the Exode Trilogy,
Trysta and Ekcolir, describes events in the Ekcolir Reality. In the Ekcolir Reality, Trysta had the opportunity to view alternative Realities. She was able to look into the Buld Reality and see her own future. She shared some of what she saw with Thomas, so he knows that in the Buld Reality a Buld spaceship is on its way to Earth.
 |
| Syon |
Trysta knew Demomede's analog in the Ekcolir Reality: another Ek'col male named Ekcolir. Ekcolir
has heard the name "Deomede" from Syon. Syon is a robot at Lendhalen that carries the nanites that originated as a type of symbiotic artificial lifeform inside Trysta. To bring the Buld Reality into existence, Trysta and Ekcolir both had to travel back in time. Trysta arrived first in the past (about 10,000 years in our past) and created "microchanges" including the transfer of some stray information to Ekcolir about what she saw in the Buld Reality. In this way, it was possible for Trysta's memories of Deomede to be carried back to the future inside Syon. Ekcolir once heard Syon talking about Deomede. When Ekcolir went 20,000 years into the past, even more dramatic changes were made to the timeline, but due to the "inertia of time" 20th century Earth is very similar in both the Ekcolir and Buld Realities.
 |
| Overseer Tement |
Moon Base
Not too long after Deomede is captured and taken to the Moon, Parthney is also captured by an Overseer who uses the name Belinda Tement on Earth. Deomede and Parthney discover that there is already a renegade faction at Observer Base trying to find ways to either escape from the Base or disrupt the work of the Overseers. However, there seems to be no way to defeat the technologically superior Overseers. The Overseers have some level of control over the nanites that are in their bodies. For example, they can alter their facial appearance and voice qualities.
 |
| Thomas and Parthney |
The Overseers are astounded by the unusual genetics of Deomede and Parthney and they are driven to a heightened level of paranoia about Interventionist activity on Earth. The Nereids are suspected by Overseers of being involved with the appearance of Deomede and Parthney on Earth.
It turns out that Parthney is a clone of Thomas. After Parthney is taken to the Moon, Thomas teleports himself into Observer Base. Thomas teleports Parthney away, and with the help of the "Noÿs nanites" he carries in his body, Thomas passes himself off as the much younger Parthney. Thomas and Deomede become friends at Observer Base and Deomede realizes that there was a "swap" of Thomas for Parthney.
Grean's Theorem
 |
| Lycaun and Kach |
When Trysta views Realities and selects the Buld Reality, she is assisted by Grean, a
Kac'hin. Trysta has a difficult time finding a Reality that avoids the dominant effect of a
strange temporal attractor. It seems that all Realities in which humans are allowed to develop a space-faring civilization on Earth result in either a nuclear catastrophe and a dangerously radioactive Earth or a future in which there is global warming and catastrophic sea level rise.
Finally Grean finds a solution to this problem. As long as Kac'hin agents like thonself remain in the Solar System, the Nereids will not relent in their efforts to help speed technological and social progress on Earth. With the Kac'hin pushing in one direction and the Nereids pulling in another, Earth remains locked in the grip of the chaotic attractor and there are no good futures for Earth and Humanity.
By viewing Realities, Grean eventually discovers how the Nereids can be contained. Thomas, Deomede and Kach eventually come together on the Moon. Working together they are finally able to figure out where the "Nereid base on Earth" is located and they help the Overseers clean out that base and finally put an end to Nereid interventionism on Earth.
Clones
I've been having fun sprinkling clones throughout the Exode Trilogy. Gohrlay is a clone and it is a "Gohrlay clone" that is actually sacrificed to
the destructive brain scanning process. Gohrlay is carried off to the Galactic Center and I have contemplated the possibility of using another "Gohrlay clone" to be the human who
orders Nehan to surrender Eternity.
Also, multiple clones of Thomas are made. Parthney is the "latest" of these, but there have been others such a
Rechmain, an Interventionist agent who worked on Earth 500 years ago.
 |
| Lycaun and Kach |
By the time when Thomas, Deomede and Kach finally guide the Overseers to
Space Energy Missions headquarters, then functioning as the Nereid Interventionist base on Earth, Izhiun has arrived in the Solar System with a "Kach clone". Izhiun believes that it will be possible to liberate Kach and let the clone take her place. This clone of Kach is called Lycaun.
Lycaun was crafted as a special Kac'hin agent. Lycaun's mission on Earth is to destroy the Nereid teleporter system. Lycaun allows Izhiun to believe that she will simply take Kach's place as a prisoner of the Overseers.
In the Overseer raid on the Nereid Interventionist Base on Earth, Deomede dies along with Lycaun, but Kach is successfully teleported off of Earth. The Overseers are never aware that the dead body of Lycaun is not Kach.
Near the end of
Exode, with the termination of Nereid-sponsored Interventionist activities on Earth, the negotiated terms of the agreement between Trysta and Grean have now all been met. The Overseers stand down and the Buld spaceship arrives, briefly visiting Earth.
