Leapfrog

Through the Looking-Glass

I've long wondered about the fate of Marta, Ivory's mother. Now with Yōd's infites in my head, I've been recovering some old, suppressed memories and a few of them concern people like Marta who have shaped the course of my life. Ivory, my first collaborator, was always reluctant to tell me anything about Marta, so recovery of memories concerning Marta has never been easy for me. In contrast, Ivory provided me with a detailed story about a clone of Gohrlay who I know as Phenence Chentz. Now the Yōd infites have unlocked a second story about Phenence.

Marta's Finishing School

Zeta has warned me that there could be a type of nanoscopic warfare taking place inside me. There might be fundamental conflicts between the infites that I obtained from Ivory several years ago and those that were recently bequeathed to me by Yōd. Cognitive dissonance created by such a battle of nanites might explain the confusing swirl of memories that I am currently trying to sort through and arrange into a coherent thread. One of the surprises that has bubbled up in my churning memories is the mystery of Bonny, a woman who briefly popped into my life back in 1977.

Zeta and I have continued to argue about the identity of "Bonny" and during the past few days those discussions have frequently prompted me me think of Marta and my sister. Some of my earliest memories are of my sister reading to me. Strangely, those fuzzy memories have always been linked in my mind to my interest in mathematics. Among the memories encoded in the Yōd infites, I found what I assume is an old memory from Zeta which reveals how my sister taught me the meaning of codes and ciphers.

However, I now realize that as a very young child, I could have easily been fooled into thinking that I was being read Lewis Carroll stories by my sister when, in fact, someone else was there, preparing my mind for the idea that important information about actual space aliens could be hidden in science fiction stories.

For the past several years I've been contemplating a set of conceptual puzzles that were stored within the infites that I received from Ivory Fersoni. I suppose those fragmentary and scrambled thought trails predispose me to contemplate the idea that it was Marta who impersonated my sister and taught me about codes and now I have to wonder if "Bonny" was actually Marta in disguise. Maybe there were days in my youth when someone like Marta temporarily took the place of my sister and took that opportunity to alter the course of my life.

in the Hierion Domain

I've long imagined that Marta might still be living somewhere on Earth, but it is more likely that she simply has the ability to move between the Hierion Domain and Earth. Or maybe that should be "had". I believe that non-humans have been "phased out" and are now prevented from interacting with we Earthlings, so there may be no hope of contacting Marta and seeking confirmation of her role as "Bonny".

Today I was discussing with Zeta the idea that we might one day be able to make telepathic contact with people at Observer Base. I suggested that Marta might still be in residence there. Zeta told me, "Yōd never mentioned Marta in her accounts of events at Observer Base during the past few years. However, on several occasions she mentioned that there was a clone of you living at Observer Base."

source

Several years ago, Alpha Gohrlay casually mentioned that I am just one of a group of clones, just as Alpha, Zeta and Yōd are all clones. I told Zeta, "It is easy for me to imagine how it might have been useful to create 'backup copies' of me, but I have a strong aversion to the idea of contacting a copy of myself." I once again tried to stretch out my telepathic tendrils towards Observer Base. I felt no linkage to another mind... nothing. If there mere a copy of my brain there, we should be able to establish a strongly resonating connection via the Bimanoid Interface. "If such a copy of me were still there now, why wouldn't I be able to communicate with him by telepathy? No, I can't buy that."

Zeta nodded, "That particular aversion was carefully constructed and strengthened early in your lifetime. Similarly, I am aware of the fact that there have been Gohrlay clones in every Reality, but I don't like to think about the lives that they led in Deep Time. I've been trained to be forward thinking. Anyhow, there may once have been a clone of you at Observer Base, but he has probably been sent back to the Core."

I asked, "Do you think that more Gohrlay clones might be constructed in the future?"

"Maybe. However, I believe that events on Earth are now tightly constrained by the terms of the Pact, so even if the Huaoshy had reason to make more copies of me, I don't think those copies would make their way to Earth."

"You may have been trained to keep your thoughts centered on the future and completion of your mission on Earth, but I am more focused on the past. It is my job to write about the hidden history of Earth. Ivory shared my obsession with the past."

Zeta always gets annoyed when I start praising Ivory and recounting the important role she has played in my life. Zeta gave a deep sigh and told me, "I don't enjoy thinking about all of the past lives that were lived by my clone sisters, but when I was a child I was given access to a library that described those past lives."

I asked, "All of them?"

Zeta shrugged. "We were told that for a time, soon after the Huaoshy were forced out of this galaxy by R. Gohrlay, there was a gap in the recorded history of events on planets such as Taivasila. There have always been rumors that R. Gohrlay may have 'captured' some Gohrlay clones, but that seems preposterous. At most, some Gohrlay clones might have lived parts of their lives after being cut off from the Huaoshy. However, even if the archived accounts of the past lives of Gohrlay clones are incomplete, those archives are extensive."

I asked, "Are they so extensive that you would not have noticed gaps in the record?" Zeta shrugged. "I suppose you could not possible have read about all of those lives."

Zeta nodded. "Remember, most of my education was accomplished by means of infite-mediated information transfer.

Phenence
I don't hold onto any real hope that I might ever actually meet Phenence, so I am dependent on people such as Ivory and Zeta to provide me with information about her life. Given my scientific training, I am always concerned about the need to verify and confirm stories. I don't trust any account of the past that reaches me from only one source.

In the past few weeks, Zeta and I have been experimenting with our telepathic communications link that is made possible by the Bimanoid Interface. When Zeta completely opens her mind to me, I can "dive in" to her memories and "read out" parts of her infite-encoded memories.

Those infite memory stores are vast and finding a relevant memory is challenging each time that I "dive in". In this case, the information about Phenence that was provided to me a few years ago by Ivory has allowed me to find another story about Phenence inside Zeta's mind. Why a story? This gets complicated, but apparently there have been multiple "generations" of Gohrlay clones and several of them have devoted their lives to creating summary accounts of the lives of all the other Gohrlay Clones. According to Zeta, some of these 'Gohrlay historians' lived in the far future of the Ekcolir Reality.

When I learned about the existence of Roben and Phenence from Ivory, Zeta was watching me and she was motivated to review an archived story about the life of Phenence. When I went prowling through Zeta's memories, I accessed Zeta's memories of her review of that historical account of the life of Phenence. That all makes sense... just as long as you accept that creating dozens of Gohrlay clones has been common practice in every Reality and as long as one is able to deal with the idea of an 'historical account' that was written in the far future and could reach me here in the past by means of infites.

Phenence was the first Gohrlay clone to reach Earth since back in the First Reality. Phenence was born in the Asimov Reality. The copy of Phenence who briefly visited Roben in the Ekcolir Reality was apparently an artificial lifeform, a copy of the original biological Phenence.

___________

The barriers of mistrust and antagonism that had separated R. Gohrlay from the Huaoshy for millions of years began to crumble in the face of the vast power exerted by a single microscopic egg cell. R. Gohrlay was allowed to grow and nurture a clone of Gohrlay that grew into a young woman known as Phenence.

Phenence became obsessed with Earth and her fellow humans. Growing up in the Hierion Domain among positronic robots, Phenence had known love and serenity, but she was driven by her curiosity to seek out contact with her fellow humans. In her seventeenth year, those simmering forces of curiosity had reached the point where R. Gohrlay was forced to assist Phenence in making plans for a visit Earth.

Phenence had long been training for a mission to Earth: she was to provide Trysta Iwedon with an update on her mission parameters. For several years her trainers had routinely told Phenence that it was not until she was 21 that she would travel to Earth. When she turned 16, Phenence began proposing "field trips" to Earth, short visits that would acquaint her with the culture of Earthlings. She'd made her case: "At least allow me the opportunity to see where Trysta lives. I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb when I eventually meet Trysta. I want to blend in with the local residents and not attract attention."

Of course, there were complications and delays. It was not until the following year that arrangements had been made for Phenence to arrive in Bangor, Wales and stay for a month, playing the role of an exchange student visiting from Wellington, New Zealand.

Mrs. Parnell met the train from London and had no trouble recognizing Catherine the second she stepped off the coach. The girl stood there looking around the platform, holding a big, over-stuffed cloth bag. Edith stepped forward and called, "Welcome to Wales, Miss Fenence!"

Catherine turned and recognized Mrs. Parnell from the photograph she had received. She smiled and said, "I'm very happy to finally arrive! Please call me Cathy."

"Very well, Cathy... and I insist that you call me Edith." She took the military style pack from Cathy's hand and asked, "Is this your only bag?"

Cathy replied, "It is. I followed your instructions and traveled light."

"Excellent. Then let's be on our way." Carrying the rather heavy pack in one hand, Edith put her arm around Cathy's slim waiste and guided her off the platform to where she had parked two bicycles, one of which had attached a small two-wheeled cargo trailer. Edith placed the pack into the trailer and the two women peddled off through the city.

Phenence in the
role of Cathy;
Wales, 1936.

After a last push up a steep little hill they reached Edith's house. Around back was a shed where they left the bicycles. Again carrying Cathy's pack, Edith pointed down slope and said, "That brick building is the school. You are welcome to attend classes, but if you want to treat the next month as a vacation then I need not mention the word 'school' again."

They went directly to the second floor of Edith's house and Cathy was introduced to her new wardrobe. Edith said, "If you want anything more frilly and less functional, we can pick it up in town. My biases run towards sporty and comfortable."

Cathy held out some cash and said, "I'm pleased that you went to the trouble of providing me with local clothing, but please allow me to pay for this expense"

Edith shook her head. "You know the rules. You are my guest. I have more money than I know what to do with. I inherited this house and I am well paid as a writer for the Women's Daily. Every year it is my pleasure to host a visiting student on exchange. I only regret that you will be here for a single month." Edith pulled a pair of pants out of a drawer. "You certainly weren't fibbing about your height and the length of your legs. I hope these are long enough for you."

Cathy took the pants from Edith and began changing her clothes. "I'm afraid I've grown two more inches during the past year, but I'm sure these are fine." While she dressed, Cathy felt Edith's eyes upon her. Buttoning up her blouse, Cathy asked, "You live here all by your self?"

"I often travel, so sometimes this place seems little more than another hotel. When I'm away for an extended period of time, often I rent to artists and scholars who want to spend a few months in Wales, so I'm not too attached to this place. It belonged to my uncle and aunt, but they moved to America and so now it is mine. Any ash trays, whisky and tobacco that you see in the house are remnants of the men who I've rented to. Now, I suspect you are hungry... you certainly are skinny enough to look hungry! Let's go to the kitchen and get you a snack."

Cathy found that she was a bit reluctant to eat. She had only been on Earth for a day, having been teleported into London. The smells of Earth were unsettling and in many cases off-putting. She sat in front of a plate of cookies and a big glass of whole milk that had chunks of cream floating on the surface. She asked Edith, "So you never married?"

Edith laughed. "You are quite forward... I approve. I don't like mousy little girls. I grew up sailing and fishing and hunting with my brothers, but they died in the war. I found it a challenge to find other boys who lived up to my fond memories of my brothers. Oh, I've had suitors and lovers, but most men find me arrogant and brash and not prized marriage material. For one thing, I can't cook. Well, more to the point, I'm too antsy and busy to take the time to cook. Here in my old age, I've discovered other interests besides men. I call myself 'Mrs. Parnell' and pretend to be a widow just so as not to offend those folk who expect a woman to be attached to a husband."

Cathy tried soaking one of the stale cookies in the milk. "If you don't mind revealing your secret, how old are you?"

"I'm thirty five."

"That's not old. I'm pleased... when I applied to the student exchange program I had imagined getting a sponsor who might have gray hair and an addiction to knitting."

"Oh, I'm sure that's how I will end up... a lonely old hag, but I'm not there quite yet. Hosting exchange students such as you helps keep me young and gives me ideas for the stories I write."

Cathy was making a mess on the kitchen table with cookie crumbs and split milk, but Edith did not seem to care. With no napkin in sight, Cathy wiped her chin with the back of her hand. "You'll write a story about me?"

"Not about you, but something interesting that you do will inspire me and I'll write about that. When I meet new people I usually find myself searching for shared interests."

Cathy gave up nibbling and set the soggy cookie on the plate. She said, "Thank you for the snack. I just discovered that milk here tastes different than back home."

Edith cleared the table. "It all depends on what the cows eat. My aunt used to keep some goats right out back, here. Have you ever had goat milk?" Edith led the way through the back door and they stood on the back porch. Rolling pastures stretched off into the distance. The ocean sparkled to the west.

Cathy said, "When I learned of your skill at swimming, I decided to investigate and found that swimming is great fun."

"You didn't learn to swim as a child?"

"No, unless you count my first nine months in amniotic fluid."

"No, that is just floating, not swimming. If you like, you can join me on my morning swims, but be warned. You have to get up before dawn and I don't want to hear complaints about cold water." She pointed to the row of outbuildings behind the bike shed. "That's the old goat barn and this used to be a chicken coop, but I rebuilt it into a sauna. Each morning when I get back from my swim I warm myself up in there. Yes, I've learned to pamper myself in my old age."

And so it was. Each day Cathy and Edith were up before dawn to swim, then they relaxed in the sauna until they started to over-heat. Usually they would have brunch at one of the nearby inns and then head out for the day on a hike or they would bike to a scenic destination. Cathy never tried going to the school. She did not really understand the concept of schooling or how children were expected to learn while sitting in box-like rooms.

Edith Parnell

One day they visited the ruins of an ancient church and got back home late. Edith looked through her mail and immediately read a note that had arrived in a small pink envelop. That night, laying in bed, Cathy heard Edith slip out of the house.

Cathy had been waiting for such an opportunity. Her main goal during this visit to Earth had been to try to get a glimpse of Trysta Iwedon. Or, short of that, at least see Trysta's house.  Cathy watched Edith set of through the low light of a crescent moon across the pasture behind the house, moving in the direction of Trysta's house. Cathy followed, carrying a small device in her pocket. It was a device of alien origin, designed to block telepathic communications. The device was absolutely essential for Cathy's mission.

She had been warned: "Trysta can easily detect nearby people using her telepathic powers, so don't try to approach her house unless you are wearing this device. It will shield your thoughts from Trysta, but she will still be able to see you. That might be the most dangerous possibility of all, that she could see you and fail to detect any thoughts in you."

When Cathy reached Trysta's house, there was only some dim candle light in the upstairs bedroom. Before coming to Earth, Cathy had been briefed on Trysta and knew that on this night there were two children in the house, but Trysta's husband was out of town. Edith was one of Trysta's secret lovers. Cathy tried both the front door and the back door, but found them locked. Then a light came from the kitchen. With irrational boldness driven by powerful curiosity, Cathy looked into the kitchen through a small gap in the window shade. Trysta and Edith were there, drinking wine. Cathy was getting dressed, but Trysta was naked. Seeing the two women share a goodbye kiss, Cathy tore herself away from the window and lost herself in shadows of the forest to the side of the house.

A minute later, Edith came out the back door, pausing for one last kiss with Trysta, then she set off back towards home. The door closed and soon the house was dark. Cathy set off, following Edith at a discrete distance, her biggest worry was that she might step on a dry stick and make a noise. It was not long before Edith stopped and looked around. She started walking across the pasture towards the trees where Cathy stood. No more than fifty feet away, Edith stopped again and called out. "Cathy! Show yourself."

Cathy stepped out of the shade and into the dim moonlight. "Here I am." She approached Edith, feeling silly at having been caught spying. For a moment Cathy wondered why she had not been warned to be more careful. Surely R. Gohrlay had looked into the future and seen this unwelcome turn of affairs.

Edith took hold of Cathy's hand and led them across the pasture back towards her home. "I suppose I should have told you that I was going out and invented a reason to leave you home alone."

Cathy shook her head. "That would have made no difference."

Edith laughed. "I see... you are clever and curious... a dangerous combination. You remind me of me!"

"I'm glad you understand the fantastic power of curiosity. The next time I come to Wales I must contact Trysta and provide her with important information. Tonight I simply wanted to see where she lives."

Edith asked, "Did you see more than you expected to see?"

"I had hoped to get a look at Trysta and I got lucky. I don't know who has the more remarkable body, you or Trysta."

"It is Trysta, without any doubt. She's given birth to two babies in recent years but she still has the body of a nubile. And the libido to match. We often keep each other company when her husband is out of town and her kids know me as auntie Edith. Trysta's husband is quite friendly towards me and I suppose he knows that Trysta and I are lovers."

Cathy sighed. "I begin to understand how you survive living alone."

"Well, I do prize solitude; that is when I write. However, I have many friends and lovers. Usually my friends don't follow me for five miles through the night."

"I'm sorry. I could have warned you about my interest in Trysta, but I imagined that I would not get caught sneaking around tonight."

"I saw your tracks in the dew and then I heard you walking. Your big feet and long strides are distinctive. I knew it was you following me even before I saw you step into the moon light."

Cathy admitted, "Before coming to Earth, I did not think to practice walking through forests in the dark."

Edith asked, "Where are you from?"

"That isn't easy to explain. I was born in another physical domain that exists outside of the universe as you know it. Soon I will return to my home. Really, after tonight there is no need for me to stay here any longer. However, I am enjoying my time with you."

Edith said, "I knew there was something unusual about you when I read your essay for the student exchange program. You wrote something about wanting to explore the ancient and modern cultures of Wales."

Cathy laughed. "I had help writing that essay. I needed to attract you attention."

"I'm sure it seemed odd to everyone who read it."

"I had help with that, too. You were the only Earthling who got to read it. You were targetted because it was easy to work you into an intimate relationship with Trysta. You are exactly her type."

For a long while they walked in silence across the wet grass. Finally Edith said, "I suppose the whole course of my life was shaped just to make this night possible, just to provide you with your opportunity to see Trysta. And somehow that amazing idea does not shock me."

Cathy explained, "Right now your mind is being kept relaxed and receptive to new ideas. I'm pleased you are able to recognize how unnatural your life has been."

"I've always known that I lead an unconventional life, and I've long wondered why I am so blessed. I often feel that a guardian angel is watching over me."

"That's not a bad way to describe it. I hope you don't resent having been used in this way."

"No, but I am starting to feel a little fear... I worry that I might have to pay a price for my blessings."

"Yes, you will. That price will be your memories of tonight. I must take those memories from you."

"How?"

"The same way that your fears and resentments are being held in check even now. There are molecular scale devices at work inside your brain, editing your thoughts and emotions. After we get home and I put you to bed, I'll erase your memories. In the morning, I'll simply be Catherine from New Zealand and you won't remember anything about tonight or the fact that I'm a visitor to Earth."

"You know, I should be allowed to remember something. I still have Trysta's note inviting me to visit her, and I should have other memories to go along with that."

"Don't worry; you will remember your time with her this evening, but not this conversation with me." They fell quite and picked up their pace, jogging across the fields.

As they were approaching Edith's house, Edith slowed her pace and she finally spoke again. "Before you take my memories, why don't you let me write for a while. In that way I will later construct memories of this night, built around what I write."

Cathy said, "I can do that, but I'll have to read what you write, just to be sure that you don't reveal anything about my secret mission on Earth."

"Fine. Fine."

They went inside and Edit lit a fire in the big downstairs fireplace. She settled into her chair near the fire and began to write on a pad of paper. Cathy had grown chilled in the cool night air. She took off her wet shoes and went to the sauna and stoked the fire there. When she grew too hot, Cathy went back in the house. The eastern sky was just beginning to brighten. Edith was looking through the pages she had written, trying to make sure that nothing there would need to be redacted by Cathy.

Cathy took the writing pad away from Edith and took her by the hand. They went upstairs and Cathy put Edith to bed. "Now you will sleep." Almost at once Edith lost consciousness. Cathy went to her own room, got into her bed and read what Edith had written.

for the Women's Daily

Manufactured Memory
I often reflect upon our wonderful history of women writing and sharing the worlds of their imaginations through literature. Sometimes I am asked by younger writers about the sources of my own story ideas. I am inspired by the millions of amazing women who carefully and expertly construct their lives out of our world's vast resources of love, laughter and sweet memories.

Recently, I was made to think a little more deeply about my own sweet memories. I was forced to do so by a remarkable young woman who refused to tell me her real name. She was a visitor to our land and she was taking a great deal of delight in hiding her identity behind a false name, so I will refer to her as Kathy le Fay, in honor of her magical ability to shape my thoughts and memories.

Kathy was not a dainty little fairy. She had long, lovely legs and she could swim faster than I can even though she was a true amateur in all sports. I hope to meet Kathy again when she has grown into the full glory of her womanhood. In fact, she promised me that she would be returning to our island nation in a few years, so there is a real and exciting possibility that we will again cross paths.

When I first met her, I quickly realized that Kathy was still a reckless child. I frequently advise young women to take risks, but at the same time it is important to be wise. In the end, all that got wrecked was a night's worth of my memories, so I'm probably the only person who will ever be tempted to call her reckless. You, dear reader, may simply want to thank Kathy for what she did to me.

We all know that the popularity of my writing stems from the nature of my little personal adventures which I enjoy sharing with others through my writing. I've been labeled as shameless and even a 'brazen hussy' and indeed I wear those labels with pride. Kathy caught me out in one of my nocturnal adventures. On that night, I had slipped into the isolated country mansion of one of England's most interesting young bachelors, a famous author who I have promised that I will keep his identity shielded and who I here give the code name 'Prince Don'.

You, my dear reader, know that I am a tireless advocate for a woman's right to have loving and intimate relationships with no greater and no lesser objective than the construction of happy lives and rich, warm memories. I suspect that Kathy would also champion that right, were she not such an innocent and virginal child of just 18 sheltered and blissful years. However, Kathy insisted on altering and editing my memories of the wonderful night of my recent tryst with Prince Don.

Now, dear reader, allow me to warn you against assuming that Kathy was jealous of my relationship with Don. Not so... although Kathy is deeply infatuated with Prince Don, her motives have nothing to do with petty things like jealousy, wealth or revenge. Then what motivates Kathy and why did she insist an trading my real, hard-won memories for some counterfeit manufactured memories? Here we must be creative, because Kathy was intent on achieving a goal. The details of her mission in our land are unknown to me, but it is clear that she wanted to make sure that nobody in this world, particularly Price Don, would ever suspect that a magical entity like Kathy was prowling around in our world.

As a writer, I was forced to pit my own magic against Kathy's. I appealed to her sense of fairness: why should an innocent author (me) be prevented from writing about a magical event (Kathy's appearance in my life)? Kathy has a heart as big as Jupiter, so she relented and allowed me to write this story about the night of my romantic interlude with Don. Of course, Kathy's rules were strict: this story cannot include any details about the real identities of either Kathy or Don. Had I not adhered to this requirement, I would not have retained any record of how Kathy stole my memories of that night.

Although I wrote this account of that night in long-hand, I do wonder about the extent to which what I wrote was forced upon me by Kathy. She had complete control over my thoughts and memories, so she could have made me believe that I wrote this story when, in fact, she could have imprinted it all upon the blank slate of my mind.

I am left to marvel that wizards of this magnitude walk the green hills of our world. Previously, I viewed such feats of magic as the domain of ancient history, lands of myth and legend. Kathy told me that she is from such a distant place where magic is part of everyday life. I am enthralled by the hope that she will one day return here to our mundane world. And so, dear reader, I ask you to be watchful. Tend your garden of friends and lovers with care for you never know when magic will come into your life. For me, because of Kathy's magic I live with the belief that one day it might be possible for little old me to marry a Prince.

Really? I wed Don? I? It seems strange to contemplate. I know that Prince Don is a fun toy, but why would a rambler, a rolling stone like me wish to be tied to a pretty boy who has invited me into his bed a few times? Such is the power of Kathy's magic. Be warned. Such other-worldly magic may next be worked upon you.

___________________________

source

I said to Zeta, "It is hard to believe that such obvious clues to the identity of Trysta Iwedon would have been published in a newspaper with wide circulation."

Zeta laughed. "It was a perfect way to send a message to Trysta. The Asimov Reality was going to be thrown away and replaced by the Ekcolir Reality. Trysta was R. Gohrlay's deep agent on Earth, but there was nothing for Trysta to do in the Asimov Reality. Most of the action within that Reality would take place on far worlds, not on sleepy old Earth. Trysta could relax and enjoy a pleasant life with her children, her husband and her other lovers."

I asked, "Well did she?"

I could sense that Zeta was searching through her vast storehouse of infites. Finally she said, "I wonder if that story, 'Manufactured Memory' was manufactured for you and I."

"What do you mean?"

Zeta explained, "There should be more accounts of the life of Phenence in my memory, but they seem to be either missing or blocked from access. Why should this one story remain unless it carries a message for me?"

Trysta and Grean

"Or for both of us. So... we are told to relax and enjoy our lives?"

"And stop worrying that magical beings will show up and alter our lives."

"Do you believe that? That there will be no more magic in our lives?"

Zeta suggested, "Maybe we have reached the limit. Maybe there is simply no more room in our lives for additional magic."

I muttered, "I still believe that there are artificial lifeforms at Observer Base; copies of humans... copies so perfect that nobody on Earth would be able to recognize them as artificial beings." That creates a gray area for the Trysta-Grean Pact. And Phenence may be one such copy, someone who I might still be able to contact, someone who could become a source of information about the secret history of Humanity.

Next: R. Nyrtia and Rylla

Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers.

Many Sails

In the First Reality: Gohrlay aboard Many Sails.

Who is Many Sails? An artificial life form that happens to be a spacecraft. Originally, I imaged that Many Sails was a tool of the Huaoshy, first used to bring Grean to Earth for a confrontation with R. Gohrlay. However, I later discovered that the interactions between Many Sails and the people of Earth have a complex backstory that winds through Deep Time all the way back to the First Reality.

Many Sails should be thought of as an ancient type of Hadronic Domain interface with access to the Sedronic Domain; used by the alien bumpha to advance their interests. At the start of A Search Beyond, Many Sails is seen in the year 2017, at work in the Final Reality, ferrying the replicoid of Asimov back to Earth from the Andromeda galaxy.

Ivory at Atlantis (inside Many Sails)

The Atlantis Clones
When the clones of Ivory Fersoni were being crafted and given access to the Sedronic Domain, Many Sails provided sanctuary for them on Earth. Many Sails is a master of disguises, so it is no surprise that we Earthlings failed to notice that an alien spacecraft was on Earth.

Lili

While residing on board Many Sails, Ivory learned how to us nanites to alter her appearance. I've probably never seen Ivory's true physical form. I suspect that Many Sails worked hard to entertain Ivory and keep her on Earth until she could help me make sense of the Thomas and Izhiun infites.

The Lili Intervention

Shown in the image to the left is a whimsical depiction of Ivory's grandmother Lili. As an Interventionist agent, Lili was a Kac'hin from the planet Tar'tron. While on Earth, Lili had to disguise herself as a human being.

I have no real evidence that Lili and Many Sails were ever both on Earth at the same time, but it is possible that she was responsible for recruiting Many Sails to Earth and establishing Many Sails as the secret base of operations that came to be known as Atlantis.

Zeta

Marta

Zeta Gohrlay has a different opinion about the relationship between Lili and Many Sails. Zeta suggests that it was Many Sails who actively recruited Lili to come to Earth where she could function as a genetic filter during the design of Ivory's mother, Marta.

Female
I've asked Zeta about the issue of why Many Sails is always described as having explicitly adopted the identity of a female. Zeta believes that the bumpha originated as a biological species that was in many ways similar to we humans. The origins of Many Sails as an artificial life form may go all the way back to the far past time in the First Reality when the precursor biological species of the bumpha had the habit of anthropomorphizing their spacecraft. The original Many Sails might have been programed to adopt female features like a feminine speaking voice. Zeta speculates that eventually Many Sails became sentient and for reasons of her own she chose to retain a female identity.

Yōd

Yōd suggests that Many Sails can adopt any required identity and physical form so as to make comfortable whichever creatures she is called upon to transport. Yōd spent a long period of time traveling in Many Sails, and claims that Many Sails did not hesitate to interact with Yōd in the form of an hermaphroditic "appendage".

According to Yōd, Many Sails carried out a careful and well-planned program for shifting Yōd out of her adopted mind-frame as an hermaphrodite who had successfully integrated into life on Tar'tron and towards a newly discovered appreciation for her role as a female agent residing on Earth.

She

In the Buld Reality.
Original cover art by Virgil Finlay

Back when I "invented" Many Sails, I needed a sentient spacecraft that would carry a crew composed mostly of hermaphrodites. In my personal Golden Age of discovering science fiction, I had to suffer through Captain Kirk explaining that, "I've already got a female to worry about, and her name is Enterprise." No doubt Gene Roddenberry had gone through the experience of hearing people in the military calling aircraft and naval ships "she". The Enterprise was a "she" and the voice of the computer system for the ship was a female voice. Roddenberry was a fan of "Doc" Smith's "Skylark", another "she". In any case, I wanted Many Sails to be a kind of relic of the past, an ancient reminder that the Huaoshy had long ago arisen from some biological species with two sexes. Many Sails has been around for a couple of billion years, so she knows how to take care of herself.

Next: The 2016 Search for Interesting Hollywood Aliens

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Tall Tales

Howard Treesong

In The Book of Dreams by Jack Vance, Demon Prince Howard Treesong hails from a placid backwater world of the Oikumene, the planet Moudervelt. The story is set some 1400 years in our future, during an era when the humans of Earth have spread out into surrounding regions of the galaxy, populating many scattered worlds like Moudervelt.

A Feek, a newly evolved
human variant from the
world New Concept

After arriving on far planets and then often being cut-off from contact with the rest of Humanity, the residents of worlds like Moudervelt can show strong "founder effects" and evolutionary adaptation to the new environment of their adopted world. An example from The Book of Dreams is provided by the Feeks from New Concept, Marhab Six. The human settlers of New Concept were devoted vegetarians and they evolved into four-footed grazers. In the case of Moudervelt, the planet was subdivided into 1562 independent "principalities", each with its own cultural specializations and ample opportunity for directed evolution of the residents. We must ask: what kind of strange alien forces drove the rapid evolution of human variants like the Feeks?

Extant magazine

Tall Humans
Howard Treesong was born and raised in the Maunish district on the planet Moudervelt, which served as a kind of laboratory for the study of human biology. Under the direction of non-human space aliens, the population of Maunish was taken through a kind of selective breading program. A product of alien experiment in human genetics, Treesong grew up on a farm near the village of Gladbetook. When Kirth Gersen arrives in Gladbetook, searching for clues to Treesong's origins, the first person he meets is a seven-foot-tall innkeeper.

Gersen then meets an elderly woman who was once Treesong's school teacher. She informs Gersen that Gladbetook was formerly a hotbed of "fundamentalists" (such as Runel Fluter the Didram) who took it upon themselves to sterilize those Maunish residents who were unworthy of the privilege of reproducing. The fundies enforced a program of selective breeding in which "brother married sister".

Arriving at Treesong's childhood home, Gersen meets Treesong's father and mother, both described as tall and still adherents of the old fundamentalist beliefs. Returning to the village for lunch, Gersen is served his meal by a tall waiter. After lunch, Gersen visits the local school and meets the music instructor who once taught Treesong to play the violin: Valdemar Kutte, who is also described as tall. Finally, arriving for his school reunion, Treesong is seen close-up and in person by Gersen for an extended period of time. Of course, like his parents, Treesong is also a tall man.

Mirl and Maud ver Ahe

Treesong proceeds to entertain his old school chums by playing the fiddle and also by encouraging Professor Kutte to play "drunken squirrel style", a musical innovation pioneered by Treesong back in his schoolboy days. Treesong invites Mirl and Maud ver Ahe (daughters of his old school acquaintance Suby ver Ahe) to join him on a long cruise through the outer worlds of the Oikumene.

If Treesong sounds like a swell chap and the "life of the party" then you should reserve judgement until you read The Book of Dreams. By the time of his 25th high school reunion, Treesong has become the "preeminent criminal of the Oikumene and Beyond". His only reason for attending the school reunion is to punish and publicly humiliate those who were mean to him when he was a child. Treesong's punishments include tattooing his old foes with a large purple F for having called him by the disrespectful nickname "Fimfle".

The Sedronite evolutionary tree.

Gersen, disguised as a member of Kutte's Grand Solon Orchestra, takes advantage of Treesong's rare public appearance at the school reunion and shoots him, unfortunately, "not to serious effect".

After Gersen's attempt to kill Treesong, the festivities of the school reunion came to a quick end. Gersen was lucky to escape from Treesong's squad of ruthless bodyguards.

As "reported" in Extant magazine, Treesong expressed outrage that such a crass act of violence could take place: "He hopes to return to the next reunion, providing that it could be terminated less abruptly, inasmuch as he had staged only a few of his ingenious frivolities".

Tall Aliens

The tryp'At are a human variant
who are taller than average Earthlings.
Image source.

I've previously described the time and place when "the Editor" first met Ivory Fersoni and I mentioned the fact that she was tall. It is not clear that I have ever seen Ivory's true physical form. I've previously blogged about my speculations concerning her alien genes and what she might have looked like had her body never been altered and sculpted by the hard-working developmental control nanites that guided her growth to adulthood.

Ivory's body form.

Being tall myself, I was not particularly startled by Ivory's height: I'd say she was about 6' 4". Had my mind been clear when she first revealed herself to me, I would have taken note of her height, but she was trying to hide "in plain sight" and blend into her surroundings. At well over six feet, her effort to not be noticed was rather comical, but I'm sure that my thoughts were being guided by the nanites that resided inside my brain circuitry and my nanorobotic endosymbiont did not allow me to think rationally about Ivory's unusual height and what it might suggest about her alien genetic origins.

Marta

The image to the left attempts to illustrate the type of body that was produced by Ivory's genes working in tandem with her developmental control nanites. During her time on Earth, Ivory could pass as human, but her alien genes were not entirely suppressed.

Ivory's mother, Marta, was also tall and slim, with her body form forced to conform to human standards by developmental control nanites. Ivory's grandmother, Lili, grew up in the Galactic Core and was never exposed to developmental control nanites. However, while on Earth she used nanite implants to alter her physical features and disguise herself as a human. By all accounts, she was also fairly tall compared to Earth human averages for women, but not exceptionally tall. I have never heard that the Kac'hin are unusually tall, possibly just on the high side of the Earth human average.

Ekcol male and
Asterothrope female

Asterothropes
Unfortunately, we don't have good information about the true physical form of aliens like the Asterothropes. By all accounts the Asterothrope females were quite tall and they had long thin fingers.

Deomede, Trysta and Lili as sources of alien genes.

Ivory inherited a combination of Asterothrope and Ek'col genes that account for her physical features.

According to Gohrlay, the Asterothropes were crafted as a hybrid type of humanoid that combined both Early Human genes and genes from an alien humanoid species called the O'typ. As a species that was derived from the aquatic Nereids, the O'typ has physical features that reflected selection for life in an ocean environment, including a long and streamlined body plan.

Preland

The O'typ never contended with the stresses of a natural planetary environment. According to Gohrlay, the O'typ were designed as an artificially constructed, space-faring primate variant. When R. Gohrlay tried to spread humans from Earth to other planets, she crafted the Asterothropes and drew heavily on O'typ design features.

Average heights for Ek'col males and Asterothrope females are about seven feet. At the other extreme, hermaphroditic Sedronites tend to be relatively short. The image to the left compares a typical human to a elf-like Preland hermaphrodite. In the original pek plan for Earth, Prelands were to have inherited the planet and we humans would have become extinct. Later, with the original pek plans for Earth destroyed by R. Gohrlay, the so-called "Giant Prelands" were designed and crafted by the pek along with the Ek'col, preserving some Preland features in human variants with taller body plans.

Earth's Reality Chain

According to Gohrlay, the analogue of Jack Vance who lived in the Asimov Reality became a time traveler. He was taken into the future of the Asimov Reality, to a time long after Earth was devastated by nuclear war. That Vance analogue then had a second, artificial life as the mentor of the twins John and Jack Vance in the Ekcolir Reality.

In fact, at an early stage in the writing career of John Vance, a swap was achieved by which the artificial lifeform that carried memories from the time traveling Vance of the Asimov Reality took the place of John Vance on Earth. John Vance of the Ekcolir Reality was, in turn, prepared for his second life in the Buld Reality. During that preparation, John became aware of the novels that were being written by the artificial lifeform that had taken his place on Earth. Those stories told the "future history" of Humanity in the Asimov Reality and ultimately influence the science fiction of Jack Vance in the Buld Reality, the universe as we know it.

The End of Eternity

According to Gohrlay, Isaac Asimov was used to provide we Earthlings with a written account of Earth's future in both the Mallansohn Reality (as told in The End of Eternity) and after the colonization of the galaxy by humans that took place in the Foundation Reality. Similarly, Vance's stories provide us with an account of how humans spread out through the galaxy in the Asimov Reality.

Asimov's Foundation saga

During the Foundation and Asimov Realities, Earth was in the grip of the Time War between Gohrlay and Grean. R. Gohrlay was trying to derail the pek plan to hand Earth over to the Prelands and make sure that humans would not be driven to extinction. Humans were very homogeneous in the Foundation Reality. In contrast, in the far future of the Asimov Reality, many human variants were designed and crafted.

The Asterothropes can be traced back to the Mallansohn Reality and the Kac'hin originated in the Foundation Reality, but the ry'A had a later origin and were an innovation of the Asimov Reality. According to Gohrlay, the ry'A were tasked with retaining certain "essential" features of the Prelands while crafting the Ek'col. The original pek-designed Prelands were well-suited for existing on Earth as technologically advanced primates who would not harm Earth's ecosystem. In the Asimov Reality, the Ek'col were crafted as a human variant that would make it possible to end the Time War.

Written in the Ekcolir Reality (source)

In the Asimov Reality, the ry'A played an endless cat-and-mouse game with R. Gohrlay's tribe of positronic robots. Out of that "game" came the Ek'col as a new type of Sedronite that could be used to channel Trysta's Aterothrope genes back into the human gene pool. According to Gohrlay, the "Treesong Lineage" contributed useful gene combinations that were used in creating the Ek'col.

Howard Treesong's criminal career was the result of a chance event by which a malfunctioning nanorobotic endosymbiont took advantage of the unique gene pattern of the Treesong Lineage to gain access to the Hierion Domain.

Aircar by Gil Babin (source).

During the Asimov Reality, Gohrlay deployed her positronic robots so as to contain the damage from problems like the "Treesong Incident". In the stories that were written by the analogs of Vance (including the novels of the Aquarius Trilogy), Gohrlay's secret agents became inspiration for story elements such the teams of secret agents who challenged the forces of "Zodiac Control".

Related Reading: a plea from Tim Stretton that folks read The Book of Dreams.

Next: The Aquarius connection to Eridu and Enki (Ekcolir).

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Specific Heat

Marta in the Hierion Domain (source)

During the past month I've been trying to sort out some mysterious dream-like memories of Marta that were shaken loose by the death of her daughter Ivory. The fundamental problem that I'm confronting is the inherently unequal ease with which information flows in the two opposed directions along the axis connecting the Hadron Domain and the Hierion Domain. Information flows automatically from our three dimensional world of conventional matter to the higher dimensional Hierion Domain, but a functioning and finicky Bimanoid Interface is required if we Earthlings want to retrieve information from the Hierion Domain. Those who have the knack for using the Bimanoid Interface can also dabble in the next challenge: linking into the Sedronic Domain.

The Bimanoid Interface was designed for use by hermaphroditic Kac'hin and it allowed people such as Grean to function at the interface between the alien Huaoshy and Gohrlay's tribe of positronic robots. As a carefully constructed primate variant, the Kac'hin had to be just human enough so that Kac'hin females could be categorized as human by the positronic robots while at the same time they had to be alien enough to efficiently use the Bimanoid Interface to access the Sedronic Domain.

There are two distinctive "flavors" of Kac'hin. Kach'hin females can pass as human, but most Kac'hin are hermaphrodites who don't really fall within the definition of "human" that is used under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. I've heard a rumor that there is still a Kac'hin female on Earth (not Lili), but apparently all the Kac'hin hermaphrodites are now gone from our world.

While Marta is human, Marta's mother, Lili, had an interesting mix of children, some of whom are human and some who must be classified as alien under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact. Somehow, Gohrlay's finger prints are all over this artificial distinction between human and alien. Of course, Gohrlay's finger prints are all over the recent history of humanity. The Laws of Robotics force positronic robots to seek out and codify a definition of "human". Even though the positronic robots are all gone, Earth is still in the grip of their definition of "human".

Nanite Interface

By itself, relying only on its cellular components, a human being has no means of accessing information that exists within the Hierion Domain. However, we Earthlings live in an invisible sea of nanites. The nanites of Earth were originally imposed upon us long ago by the pek/orbho, but their nature (their programming) was modified when the Trysta-Grean Pact went into effect.

Sadly, we Earthlings have no means to study or control our nanite endosymbionts. Everything we know -or think we know- about our nanites is little more than rumor. Alien Sedronites such as Grean are able to use the Bimanoid Interface because their brain cells correctly mesh with the nanorobotic components of the Interface. Here is the analogy: imagine that someone like Grean has a sense of vision while all we Earthlings are blind. For we humans, our understanding of what it means to see comes from descriptions of the sense of vision that we have received from aliens who can see.

Shades of Gray Aliens

Trysta's second life as Syon

Of course, even if the Trysta-Grean Pact includes a dividing line between human and alien, that boundary is fuzzy. Earth humans are a diverse population within which some individuals have certain "alien gene combinations" that can make possible limited use of the Bimanoid Interface.

While it is true that our nanite endosymbionts have the ability to form a functional Bimanoid Interface, those nanites can't normally mesh with our cells to form a completely functional Interface. That "failure to mesh" involves physical features of our brains, physical features that have long been the focus of Interventionists. In essence, the brains of we Earthlings and our nanite endosymbionts have been carefully "tuned" to allow efficient information flow into the Hierion Domain while preventing flow in the opposite direction. That one way information is an artificial restriction that has been imposed upon the Bimanoid Interface.

And there are ways around that restriction. For example, a huge amount of effort has gone into finding chemicals that can alter brain function and result in improved functioning of the Bimanoid Interface of some humans. Those chemical tricks only work if you carry certain "alien gene combinations".

Ivory spent years experimenting with various ways to modify her own brain activity while she searched for ways to improve her own skill at using the Bimanoid Interface. For example, she had some success with biofeedback-guided electromagnetic modulation of brain function. In my case, I've had some luck using a nicotine
derivative that Anney has provided to me.

Ivory's account of First Contact

Recently, I'd built up high levels of that nicotinic drug in my body and I started having side effects, In particular, I experienced a disorienting alteration in my sense of vision. According to Anney, I was starting to receive visual sensations from my replicoid while I was awake, which was a promising indication that I might be able to achieve conscious control of the Bimanoid Interface. However, I've always been very sensitive to visually-induced vertigo. When I'm awake and receiving visual sensations from my replicoid I also experience a debilitating nausea.

The odd visual/vertigo effects of Anney's drug reminded me of the one time in my life when I was seriously ill. In 1975 I had a high fever and I was diagnosed as having a bacterial infection which was treated with an antibiotic. Recently I learned that it was in 1975 that Marta began a series of "experiments" with my replicoid in the Hierion Domain. I now realize that there have been three times in my life when I've experienced the odd visual sensation that I most recently experienced as a side effect of nicotine overdose. The other two times were during my fever in 1975 and also on one other occasion when I got over-heated while exerting myself in 110+ degree heat. Also, 1975 was the year when I attempted to record all of my dreams and I experienced an unusual dream that I've previously mentioned.

Body Heat

I now suspect that Marta did something to alter my brain function in 1975. Is it possible that her experiments with my replicoid had an impact on my brain's function? If I was born with some unconscious access to the Bimanoid Interface, could Marta's manipulation of my replicoid in 1975 have triggered changes in my brain function? Further, might high body/blood/brain temperature be a crude way of altering my brain's activity and allowing increased flow of information to me from the Hierion Domain?

Again, Marta

About a month ago, when I was still boosting the levels of nicotine in my body, I recovered a strange memory fragment from the Hierion Domain. Marta was there with the Dead Widowers and while we had no specific interaction, I had the feeling that both my replicoid and Marta's were there as integral members of the Dead Widowers during a meeting of the group's replicoids in the Hierion Domain.

Having reached the maximum nicotine level that I can tolerate, Anney suggested that I try to exercise some conscious control over the Bimanoid Interface. I did an experiment in which I combined a pyrogen, environmental heat stress and application of a transcranial magnetic field. Having no success while awake, I decided to try sleeping while my brain was subjected to high temperature, high nicotine and pattern of transcranial magnetic stimulation that Ivory had had some luck with.

Exode

I emerged from that sleep period with some interesting memories from the Hierion Domain. When I "arrived" in the Hierion Domain, Marta's replicoid was there with my replicoid. I asked her, "What did you do to me back in 1975?"

She seemed to be annoyed by my question. She said, "Nice to see you again, too."

I know that Marta can use nanites to control her physical form, but whenever she has not been trying to conceal her identity she had always previously adopted one particular physical form, that of a young woman. This time she surprised me by starting out in that form and then I saw her quickly transform and age. She said, "You know, I'm almost 80."

Lili

I suppose Marta has "good alien genes" and does not age as fast as a typical Earthling. She looked about 40 years old, clearly older than she had appeared a month ago, the last time I'd seen her replicoid. There was something about the appearance of her "older self" that triggered a new sense of recollection in me. I wondered if I had "bumped into" Marta in the Hadron Domain. I asked, "Why are you showing me this older version of yourself?"

"You've got me thinking about time. 1975 was a long time ago."

She looked like a dynamic and vivacious 40 and I said mockingly, "Don't try to tell me that you're too old and feeble to remember what happened 40 years ago."

She laughed and shook her head, "I remember it like it was yesterday. You were just a little boy, innocent and afraid. You had no clue what the Hierion Domain was and you thought you'd died and gone to heaven."

I had to smile then as I rememdered a dream that I'd had which, if I'd had a religious nature, I'd have interpreted as contact with God. "It's not fair to hold me accountable for the thoughts I've had while I'm asleep."

"Oh, come now, who else can I possibly hold..." She took hold of my hand and kept talking, "accountable."

I could recognize something familiar in the pattern of her movements and the sound of her voice. I said, "You've never shown me your true appearance, have you? Nor did Ivory nor Anney. What about Hilde? She always looked like she was related to me, but I assumed that was a trick to make me think that she was my daughter."

"It is best that you not know some things."

I guessed, "I know you in the real world, don't I?"

"What if you do?" She asked, "Why would that matter? Ivory explained to you that I want to remain as a private person, not have my life blasted apart by revelations about my alien parents. You're a blabber mouth. If you knew my real world identity then you'd write about it and I'd never get any peace. I'd probably have to follow Ivory and depart from Earth. I like it here...I don't want to be forced out."

I got a bit whiny. "I feel silly. I feel manipulated. Why do we have to play these endless games of secrecy and deception?"

"I never asked to be placed on Earth as a genetic freak. Anyhow, you are powerless to do anything about it, so you should accept being used as Trysta's tool."

I had to press the point and ask, "Ivory couldn't accept it, so why should I?"

For a minute Marta seemed lost in thought. Finally she gazed into my eyes and said, "I know that you miss her. You grew up in nanite-mediated contact with her, she was a part of you and I know how much it hurt to lose that when she died, but it's all like an equation. We can't even blame Trysta. She simply found the solution to the equation."

I complained, "I don't know what you're talking about. You sound like you're mumbling some pseudoscience psychohistory mumbo jumbo."

"If you don't like the mathematical analogy then call it whatever you like, but Trysta had to fit all the puzzle pieces together, she had to assemble the Buld Reality. Who are you to harbor resentments over your role as one of those pieces? You're not happy seeing yourself as a brick in the wall?" She started singing, 'All in all you're just another brick in the wall.'

"I don't like the idea of being manipulated and being a tool."

Fanciful depiction of one
of Ivory's experiments

"Ya, I know, just like Ivory."

Marta had reminded me of Ivory's love of music. For a minute I sat there in a flood of memories from Ivory's infites. I mumbled, "She loved music."

Marta nodded, "She was pretty lonely growing up. She'd spend hours in her room with a tape recorder, playing the same song over and over. Making new versions of songs. Rewriting them. I still have all her old notebooks...her song books."

I said, "I'd like to see them."

"I moved all of her childhood belongings into Many Sails. I suppose some day Many Sails might return to Earth, but Ivory might off-load all her things. She loved all those silly poems. There were a bunch of nerdy ones that you two wrote together."

She seemed to look off into the past. After a while she came back to the present and said, "There was one that she always kept rewriting, right up until the end." Suddenly a harp-like instrument was in her hands. She started playing a variant of an old Paul McCartney song from the 1970s. As memories of Ivory's poem came back to her she sang the lines. It was all a jumble the way she did it and I don't remember it all, but it was something like this:

The double helix code, it leads to the core
It's all so very clear, we broke that code before
It always leads us there, leads us to the core
Earth's long and lonely night, that has now turned to day
We won't be bound by fear, let us be on our way
Don't leave me stranded here, let us break away
Many times they sent a clone, in many ways they tried
Any way you'll never know how many times I've died
'cause still they bring me back, with the same winding code
The pek left us stranded here, a long long time ago
But now time leads us back, through the long winding code
Don't keep me waiting here, lead me to the core

Next: an interview with a replicoid.