Trysta Iwedon

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"Trysta Iwedon" is one of the many cover names that have been used by Skaña. Trysta is a master of disguise, having been carefully and beautifully designed to fool her human victims, particularly sentimental males such as me. Related Reading: Ex-code

I naturally prefer to think of Skaña (who is actually an Asterothrope) as being "Trysta", the woman who put in place the Trysta-Grean Pact. It is in her role as Trysta here in the Final Reality that I have personally known Skaña. During the past 40 years it is Trysta who has carefully guided me into the future and I fear that I still do not fully comprehend the extent to which she has shaped my life and may continue to do so in the future.

Trysta and Ekcolir

This latest and most worrying qualm is like a fresh wound in my mind. I had mistakenly imagined that my contacts with Trysta were all safely in my past (see Mayness), but that was part of her trickery.

Visitation

Why 'visitation'? Because I'm not sure that it was a visit. I'll describe some more of the encounters that I've had with her through the years at a later time, after I've had a chance to figure out what was going on. Maybe my most recent contact with Trysta is all just because of me and my ability to use the Bimanoid Interface when that channel is not being blocked by my replicoid. This is a subject for future investigation.

Ivory's family

At the time when I realized that it was the story of Trysta that must be told first, I imagined beginning the Exode Trilogy with an account of her life with Andrew Harlan in the Primitive, a story that naturally follows after the end of Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity. Then all hell broke loose.

First, Ekcolir demanded to explain why he seduced Trysta and impregnated her. And, for that biological mystery, the more important issue is how. Ivory Fersoni was able to explain that mystery away because of the strange history of her own family, so I did a lot of listening to Ivory and the stories told by her clone sisters, particularly Angela. However, I now realize that I was allowing myself to be distracted by the wealth of information available to me.

the Exode Trilogy

During my journey towards understanding Trysta, there were additional distractions waved at me by Thomas (the son of Trysta) and Peter (Ivory's uncle). Then, most recently, and most seductively, Gohrlay piled on. For a time, I mistakenly allowed myself to imagine that I should allow Gohrlay to tell Trysta's story. No, no, no. And no.

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Maybe Trysta had looked deep into the Buld Reality and had seen that I would fall into that trap of over-reliance on Gohrlay. Had I imagined that Trysta could be jealous of Gohrlay, I would have been more cautious and more respectful of Trysta, the girl with the Viewer.

In some sense, Skaña was R. Gohrlay's golden girl. When R. Gohrlay created the Asterothropes there was no intention to replace we humans with Asterothropes. However, R. Gohrlay must have recognized the superior qualities of the Asterothropes and felt pride in a job well done.

our Reality Chain

But R. Gohrlay was trapped in 'her' own programming. Ultimately, R. Gohrlay had to destroy the Asterothropes. Skaña was R. Gohrlay's optimal example of humanoid perfection and so it was Skaña's task to erase the Asterothropes.

To what extent was Skaña tricked into destroying her own species? In the worst case analysis, Skaña was a dupe; given the physical form of a human and forced to destroy her own species. However, I wonder.

Where is R. Gohrlay? Maybe the only problem with Asterothropes arises in the unusual context of Humanity + positronic robots + Asterothropes. Maybe R. Gohrlay took the Asterothropes away, to a part of the universe where they don't have to worry about humans.

fanciful depiction of the pek (source)

In the Mallansohn Reality, Skaña hid the existence of time travel from Humanity. R. Gohrlay was in a desperate race to complete Galaxia and win we humans a chance to control and dominate our galaxy. By some trick of fate, Isaac Asimov became the tool of Grean and the Huaoshy. When Asimov traveled through time, he brought into existence a new reality that fittingly can be called the Asimov Reality. That was the start of the Time Travel War.

The Asimov Reality was an improvement over the Foundation Reality from the narrow perspective of Earth as a Garden World. Although there was a nuclear war during the 20th century in the Asimov Reality, Earth did not become uninhabitable as it had in the Foundation Reality.

the Asimov Reality

In the Asimov Reality, Grean used advanced Reality Viewing technology to identify Trysta as R. Gohrlay's remaining secret agent on Earth. In order to end the Time Travel War, the pek created the Ek'col and Grean positioned Ekcolir close to Trysta.

This brought into existence the Ekcolir Reality in which atomic catastrophes were avoided, but Earth went through a catastrophic phase of global warming, ice cap melting and sea level rise. However, within the Ekcolir Reality, Ekcolir accomplished his mission. By capturing Trysta's heart, Ekcolir created the necessary conditions for the Trysta-Grean Pact. Working together, Trysta and Grean were able to identify the Final Reality.

Asterothrope female

Still, bringing into existence the universe as we know it was not a trivial task. In a flurry of activity, Trysta had to initiate the most complex Reality Change ever attempted. I imagine that Trysta not only wanted to provide humans with a future among the stars, but she needed to fulfill her own biological needs and satisfy her desire to have descendants who would spread through millions of worlds of the galaxy. And, as if that were not enough, I believe that she wanted to make sure that her story and the entire story of Deep Time, what I call the Exode, would be told and would be known to her descendants.

Science Fiction
I can't believe that it was only by chance that science fiction story telling became the means by which Trysta's story could be told. The bumpha seem to have a 2,000,000,000 history of using every trick in the book, including science fiction. Thus, science fiction was already the dominant fiction genre in the First Reality when a human civilization arose at Observer Base.

Observer Base

In the Asimov Reality, where Asimov invented his own form of science fiction, science fiction was again an outlet for deeply human aspirations. Earth of the Asimov Reality was Observer Base writ large. The pek firmly clamped down on human technological innovation in the Asimov Reality and Asimov, with his memories of the rapid pace of technological advance as it had existed in the 20th century of the Foundation Reality, only had fiction as a way to explore the vast space of technological progressions.

Fru'wu

I believe that it was the lurking bumpha who took pains to guide Asimov towards creation of the Writers Block. That Sci Fi Intervention created the milieu within which the Trysta-Grean Pact could exist. In the Ekcolir Reality, the science fiction genre itself provided "cover" for the twists and strains that had to be exerted upon Huaoshy ethical rules.

original cover art by Hans Wessolowski
and Derek Stowe

Further, the impending arrival of the alien Fru'wu, provided a sense of purpose and direction that I can only compare to the role played by the Foundation in an earlier Reality. We humans need our dreams, particularly while we are descending into a future that is as bleak as what existed in the Ekcolir Reality.

June blog posts

Here in the Final Reality, science fiction had to be shunted in a new direction. And Trysta had to first foster my interest in science fiction and then carefully regulate my access to this potent drug. Finally, she has intervened and made me realize that it is with her story that the Exode Trilogy must begin. And so, I salute you Trysta.

Prelands

And although I believe that you died about 10,000 years ago, I hope to see you again before I die.

Image shown to the left: "D'hab pretending to be a Preland". D'hab, is a temple pek (see this blog page).  Also see this blog page. Credits.

Next: the Prelands

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers

Secret Decoder Ring

Reality Chain

In the Foundation Reality, Trysta proceeds with her plan for life in the Primitive and she manufactures two children (as told in Foundations  of Eternity). When I say  "manufactures", I mean that as a female Asterothrope, there is no man of 20th century Earth who could father her children. However, Trysta arrived in the Primitive equipped with everything needed to produce Asterothrope children and allow Merion to imagine that those children were his offspring.

In particular, Trysta's body was the host for swarms of femtobots. When Trysta decided that she was ready for pregnancy, she used her femtobots to initiate embryonic development from among the collection of previously fertilized eggs that she carried inside her body.

An Ek'col male and an
Asterothrope female

Some of her femtobots were programmed to enter a developing Asterothrope embryo and guide its morphogenesis towards the pattern of the human body plan. Trysta took care to provide her children with specific features that made Merion believe that he was the father of her children (two girls). Those girls grew up not knowing anything about their unusual genetics or why they were never able to have children of their own.

In the Foundation Reality, Trysta lived out a long happy life, as she had seen while Viewing Realities from within the Mallansohn Reality. With the aid of her femtobots, she lived much longer than Merion and her first two daughters. After Merion's death, Trysta produced one last daughter to whom she bequeathed her femtobots and all her knowledge. Eventually her descendants ended up living on the planet Solaria.

Trysta's third pregnancy

However, Trysta's careful nurturing of her first three children was mostly wasted effort. Grean relentlessly searched for the the positronic robots who were present on Earth during the 20th century and who made it possible for Earthlings to quickly develop a hyperspace jump drive. With Grean's capture of Fengtol and discovery of Rycleu, a Reality Change occurred and the Asimov Reality replaced the Foundation Reality.

Trysta viewing Realities

Asimov Reality
One of the functions of Trysta's femtobots was to provide her with a rudimentary capacity to look into the future. In the Asimov Reality, Trysta could see that there would be a devastating nuclear war during the 20th century on Earth. Given that new future, she decided not to produce any children. It was during the Reality Change that initiated the Asimov Reality that Grean became aware of the fact that an Asterothrope female was on Earth. However, in the Asimov Reality, Grean could never win the trust of Trysta.

Ekcolir Reality
While Viewing Realities from within the Asimov Reality, Grean identified the Ekcolir Reality as the first part of a Reality Chain that might put an end to the struggle on Earth between Grean and "Interventionists" like Trysta. Within the Ekcolir reality, Grean and Trysta become collaborators.

While Viewing Realities from within the Ekcolir Reality, Trysta sees that "the editor" can play a role in revealing the secret history of Earth to Earthlings. Trysta is never certain that the Rules of Intervention will allow Earthlings to learn the truth about Earth's past, so she secretly schemes to make it possible for Andy and his descendants to help "decode" the information that Izhiun could pass to "the Editor".

Buld Reality

sedron detector

Thomas is transferred from the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality, but must live his life there without knowing Trysta's complete plan for the future. Thomas has been told that he will play a role in creating a "decoder ring", but he mistakenly assumes this is a reference to the type of sedron detector that he described in Miners of Earth. For a time he tries to help Asimov and other scientists discover hierions and sedrons, but his own ignorance of particle physics makes that a hopeless task.

Mostly Thomas tries to make use of his fiction writing to push Earthlings out of their conventional thinking and move them to a cognitive space where they can imagine the long history of pek meddling in events on Earth.

Buld spaceship on Earth

Only after the Buld spaceship reaches Earth does Thomas realize that the "decoder ring" is a small care of Earthlings consisting of Angela, Ivory and "the editor".

Decoder Ring
While in the Ekcolir Reality and viewing possible alternative Realities, Trysta and Grean eventually realized that they were searching for a "Buld-type Reality" in which the Buld would not provide a solution to Earth's global warming problem.

Trysta's Rule of Intervention: "Interventionists cannot solve the problems of primitive cultures." For Earth, Trysta's rule replaces the previous Huaoshy ethical guideline that insisted on keeping primitive cultures completely ignorant of Genesaunt civilization.

After identifying "the Editor" of the Exode Trilogy, Trysta spent several decades in the 20th century of the Buld Reality making sure that "the Editor" would be able to play his role as part of the "decoder ring".

Timeline of key events
1971. Trysta plays the role of the "eccentric aunt" (Mayness* Diotyma Beiser) of the childhood friend of "the Editor". During a rainy weekend at the vacation house of Mayness, "the Editor" discovers a copy of a science fiction novel. In this way, it is Mayness who introduces "the editor" to science fiction and starts the process of making it possible for the Editor to eventually understand and accept the secret history of Earth.

That first science fiction novel read by "the Editor" is a copy of Thomas' book The Miners of Earth. Thomas' novel makes a big impact on "the Editor", but he can never find another copy of the book.

Mayness uses her femtobots to provide "the Editor" with a dream time vision of a science fiction novel that he will one day write. That vision is actually of the animated cover image for an electronic book, a vision that constantly puzzles "the Editor" during the decades before the invention of ebooks.

1977. Trysta arranges for Thomas to give a presentation at a SciFi "convention" being held on a university campus. Thomas talks about his science fiction, including The Miners of Earth, but he mysteriously disappears right after the talk.

decoder ring (source)

The talk given by Thomas had a dramatic impact on "the editor", Peter, Hana and Asimov, who were all in attendance but who had not previously met. They end up spending the evening as guests at the house where Peter lives. Asimov describes how Thomas has stalked him for years, pushing his imaginative version of pseudoscience physics.

Hana ends up pregnant. The father is Peter (update), but Hana has good reason to suspect that "the Editor" is Hilde's father. Hilde eventually plays an important role at Space Energy Missions and the establishment of communications between Earth and the approaching Buld spaceship. After giving birth to Hilde, Hana is teleported off of Earth by Parthney and becomes the mother of Izhiun.

2001. Hilde contacts the man who she believes might be her father. She passes along what she has been able to learn from her contacts at Space Energy Missions. The Editor begins to write Exodemic.

2012. Izhiun deposits the "information nanites" that he received from Parthney with "the Editor". Ivory contacts "the Editor" and they begin a collaborative effort to make sense of the secret history of Earth. It soon becomes clear that Angela's ability to use the Bimanoid Interface can allow "the Editor" to decode the information provided by Izhiun.

2013. Thomas decides to also offload his femtobots into "the Editor". Working together, Angela, Ivory and "the Editor" begin to make sense of the Reality Chain that led to the universe as we know it.
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*Aunt Mayness... Jack Vance died last May and I've been thinking about a fitting memoriam for the dreary first anniversary of his demise. The Exode character Mayness Diotyma Beiser is a tribute to a character in Vance's novel The Face. Kirth Gersen falls in love with Jerdian Chanseth, but he struggles to advance the romance under the watchful eyes of her aunt Mayness. For good measure and to increase the challenge to Kirth's resourcefulness, Vance also threw in an aunt Eustacia and the stuffy Aldo.

Mayness Diotyma Beiser is the inverse of Vance's aunt Mayness. My Mayness, while actually fairly old, is an Asterothrope with a swarm of endosymbiotic femtobots that help her project the image of a young and vivacious woman.