The Noÿs Intervention

Not long ago, the mystery surrounding the ultimate fate of R. Gohrlay and the positronic robots of Earth began to fade away.  First, Ivory Fersoni and her clone sisters began revealing some secrets from Deep Time. Their revelations served as an organizing force that began to help me to start deciphering the infites that I had obtained from Thomas and Izhiun. Then, most recently, Gohrlay revealed herself to me and I have had some success in wheedling more information out of her. I suspect that Gohrlay has access to all of the memories and past experiences that R. Gohrlay accumulated from the First Reality right up until Gohrlay began her life on Earth here in the Final Reality.

Viewing Realities

With some guidance from Gohrlay, I recently realized that I have access to the story of how Trysta became a time traveler and the agent who was used by R. Gohrlay to bring into existence the Foundation Reality. I was fooled by personal name differences and a language barrier, but with a few hints from Gohrlay, I've now broken the code and provide the following translation of the story as it was originally passed from Trysta to her son Thomas. Angela Fersoni pulled this story out of Deep Time, apparently without ever explaining its importance to Ivory.

The Noÿs Intervention
In Angela's version of the story, her account begins with two poetic descriptions, rendered in a less than poetic fashion below after translation from the original source language:

Skaña was crafted with care from the genetic constituents of the Asterothrope species, but forced to adopt the physical features of a human female. Born well after the extinction of the human species, Skaña was born into a small artificial society where everyone was an Asterothrope or an artificial life form. In fact, it was only those artificial life forms that could physically give birth to these mock humans. Skaña never knew that her entire life was shaped and guided by R. Gohrlay. When Skaña interacted with R. Gohrlay she thought that she was being mentored by an Elder, the esteemed Master known as Tomaught Mystry, the high Magastar.

The Skaña Intervention

Skaña grew up in a community of learners and scholars known as the Lykeion. The majority of the residents were artificial life forms who did all of the menial tasks required to keep students such as Skaña free from distractions. The Lykeion was an artificial environment that existed within the Hierion Domain, but the residents believed that they inhabited a space station in the asteroid belt of a planetary system [editor's note: apparently the star we know as 61 virginis] of a Sun-like star not too far from our Solar System.

[editor's note: Angela's version next provides a detailed account of the Lykeion community and of the monorail line that Skaña routinely used to travel between the Scholar's Nexus and her home dome.]

[editor's note: apparently Skaña exercised complete control over the artificial environment of her home dome. As the story opens (below) it is late evening and the simulated sky is crawling with a simulated display of purple lighting, there is a constant hot wind blowing and tossing the leaves and branches of the trees that grew near her house.]

The 111,394th Century

original cover art by Swen Papenbrock

Skaña returned to her home, weary after a long shift at the Lykeion. She was four years into the qualifying phase of her research studies and she found herself pressed hard to efficiently deploy her scholarship skills under the difficult and challenging conditions that arose while Viewing ancient (Primitive Era) history in the First Reality. Her research topic was mathematical physics, and now only one Magastar even understood the difficulty of Skaña's research.

Skaña sat down in her favorite chair at the dining table and watched her assistant Yequel scurry in from the kitchen with her dinner. "Good evening Yequi." With more than just a little delight, Skaña watched his arm and shoulder muscles ripple as Yequel quickly and efficiently set out her meal on the table.

With a grin and a sly glance from the corner of his eyes, Yequel said, "Welcome home, dear. Why so late again?" He handed her a hot towel and magically brought a hair brush into his right hand. With a few practiced strokes he quickly brushed back her long hair from her face, setting it in place with a silver clasp.

Glancing at their image as reflected in the mirror on the wall across the room, Skaña felt her spirits rise as Yequel transformed her from the appearance of a frazzled and tired girl into a dazzling and confident woman. She squared her shoulders and looked hungrily upon the first course of her meal. "I was making some excellent progress with my German translations. I did not want to stop." She picked up a spoon and began devouring the soup.

Yequel switched effortlessly to German: "Natürlich hast du, mein Liebling." Rather than take his usual place at the table across from Skaña, Yequel set out another set of dishes on the table. "Magastar Mystry is coming up the walk."

Skaña sputtered and spit out some soup. Caught by surprise, she asked, "The Magastar is coming here? Tonight?"

Now sharing her alarm, Yequel raised a hand to his lip. "I thought you knew. Magastar Mystry spoke to me as if you had been forewarned."

"Well, I wasn't told. Did she say what she wants?"

"I was not told." Yequel ladled soup into the bowl that he had set out for Magastar Mystry and then he returned to the kitchen.

The door signaled and the Magastar's voice could be heard through the com system. "Hello the house, I'm coming in."

Skaña rose to her feet and went to stand in the archway that led to the dining room. She bowed to the ancient scholar. "Welcome to my home, Magastar." 

Magastar Mystry crossed the room and passed close to Skaña. "Sorry to arrive in your home on short notice, my dear, but Time waits for none of us."

Skaña gestured towards the second place setting at the table and said, "I'm honored to host you in my little home." Magastar Mystry commented politely on the decor of the house then both of them took their seats.

The Magastar said, "Sorry to intrude at such a late hour, but I could not wait to discuss with you the exciting news."

Skaña picked up her spoon, then waited to see if Magastar Mystry would eat. With some guilt, Skaña said, "I'm sorry, but I got busy this evening and I have not seen my recent personal messages."

Magastar Mystry nodded. "I know well your refusal to use a messaging prosthetic, and I approve. In fact, your aversion to using electronic implants was part of what qualifies you for Advanced Standing."

Skaña had worked steadily for years with the goal of attaining Advanced Standing, but she had imagined that as a long-term and distant goal. Now all she could manage was to repeat the words robotically, quietly and with the smallest possible intonation: a mix of interrogation and excitement. "Advanced Standing?"

"Yes, that is an operational category that very few people even know exists. I gave you a few hints about it three years ago and you have worked efficiently to meet every requirement that I have laid before you as a prerequisite for attaining Advanced Standing. I am pleased by your rapid progress as a scholar. In essence, you will now become my agent."

Skaña again set down her spoon, her attention quite effectively diverted from her hunger. "I am now to study directly under you?"

"Yes, of course. You sound surprised. But why? You know that only I understand your research."

"Well, I thought you were..."

The Magastar smiled and asked, "Too old?"

Skaña shook her head. "I imagined that you are retired, only occasionally offering advice and support to young students such as myself. I did not know that you still accept trainees. Had I known, I would have included you on my examining committee."

"Well, yes, technically I don't take any students. But you are past that level now. Your new rank is Technical Agent. You will be taking orders directly from me, but in the field of 20th century physics, you are the master."

Yequel came in and picked up the cold soup that sat on the table, untouched by the Magastar and now also too cool to appeal to Skaña. He scowled at the Magastar and said, "I suppose you don't eat, but Skaña needs food." He set out the main course on the table.

Magastar Mystry told Skaña, "Go ahead and eat, girl. I'll make a little speech." But she waited until Yequel left the room. "I run a little project that I call the Time Service. As an agent of the Time Service and under my command, you'll now start training for a mission back into the past."

Skaña dropped her fork. "Time travel?"

The Magastar nodded. "Needless to say, those of us who serve in the Time Service don't make public displays of our activities. You must also keep the secret: nobody outside of our small cadre can ever know that we travel through time."

Skaña snapped her fingers. "So that's what happened to Natalya!" She'd wondered where her friend Natalya had disappeared to. Most people who left the Human Colony traveled off to visit Earth or went to live on one of the exoplanets or possibly to visit the Asterothrope Capitol on Mars, but Natalya had simply vanished.

"Yes, you can now resume your friendship with your old chum Natalya. In fact, she will provide most of your training for the first part of your time travel mission."

In half of her mind, Skaña realized that she should be shocked and astounded by the Magastar's revelation that time travel was possible, yet somehow the other half of her consciousness was not at all surprised. From an early age her teachers had trained her to imagine living in the past times that she studied. Now, Skaña again picked up the fork and tried to eat a few bites of her dinner while once again imagining what it would be like to actually visit the 20th century on Earth. Strangely, that thought now made her think of the present. With an anxious tone in her voice, Skaña asked, "When I travel back through time, who will... will anyone go with me?"

The Magastar shrugged. "On the first leg of your journey through time you must travel alone into the past, although Natalya is already at work scouting out your destination and making preparations for your arrival in the past. However, you will be allowed to select your ultimate destination in time and the options available to you actually do include having a fellow time traveler as a companion."

For a moment Skaña tried to imagine forever leaving behind the Lykeion and living out the rest of her life in the Primitive Era of Earth's past. She wondered: who would I take as a companion? Natalya? Yequel? Skaña tried to weigh and compare the different varieties of love that she felt for the others in her life. Thinking of Yequel and her unquestioned faith that he would always be a part of her life, Skaña cursed herself as a fool. What an idiot I was to constantly make use of Viewing to watch the past while never thinking that it was possible to actually visit the past!

Magastar Mystry continued to speak. "But the details of your time travel mission will be decided later, after you have studied all of the possible paths for your intervention into the course of events on Earth."

With a growing sense of alarm at the responsibilities involved in such a time travel mission, Skaña asked nervously, "This is not the first such mission into the past, is it?"

The Magastar slowly shook her head. "No, the Time Service has changed the history of Humanity many times."

Skaña wondered out loud, "What is the goal of these changes to Time?"

Magastar Mystry replied, "Since you ask, I'll share another secret with you, although we may be rushing the details of your training just a bit. First, you tell me: what is the great goal of the Lykeion?"

Skaña replied without hesitation, stating the answer that she had been taught since her earliest days as a student. "We study the History of Humanity so that we can gain the wisdom to start again with a second human civilization on Earth."

"Yes, that is what you were taught. Now, adjust your thinking to the fact of Time Travel which you have only today become aware of: imagine how we might accomplish the worthy goal of the Lykeion by venturing back into the history of Earth and creating a new path for the development of human civilization."

A frightful possibility came into Skaña's thoughts. "Pardon me for asking, but if we change the Primitive History of Earth, won't that change everything here in our present?"

"Exactly so, my child. Does that prospect alarm you?"

"Yes, it terrifies me. Are you telling me that I must go into our past and erase all of history, erase the Lykeion from existence... and in so doing, won't I erase myself?" The last question was asked with astounded and hushed amazement.

Gazing upon the anguished look that was now on Skaña's face, Magastar Mystry laughed. "You must not worry about such paradoxes until you have learned the full details of Time Travel. For now, suffice it to say that you will be protected from the effects of any change to the timeline. You will have the honor of living out your life in the Primitive Era, launching Humanity on a new and better path into the future."

"But you and everyone in the Lykeion will be erased from existence?"

"You will make a better Reality, my child. Nobody will mourn the loss of the Lykeion. In the Reality that you bring into existence, Humanity will avoid the mistakes that turned Earth into a ghost world.  You will be celebrated as the founder of a new and better Reality for Humanity."

Skaña called out, "Yequel!"

After a few seconds, Yequel came rushing into the dining room. "Yes, Skaña?"

With some guilt, Skaña looked towards the Magastar and asked, "Can I discuss... what you have told me with Yequel?"

"If you must. But it will do little good. Yequel will not be allowed to remember any details he learns about time travel or your planned mission into the past. My advice: get some sleep then start your new life in the morning. Natalya will come by and lead you to the secret dome of the Time Service. Tomorrow you will begin a new phase in your life and Yequel will slowly fade away from your thoughts. Remember: where you are going you will have no servants. You will have to live out your life as a fully competent person who can take care of yourself and your family in the society of the Primitive Earth. You will make that adjustment. Your minimal reliance on -and attachment to- Yequel is one of the qualifying factors that won you an appointment as a Technical Agent." Magastar Mystry stood and nodded across the table to Skaña. "Welcome to the Time Service. Goodnight."

Skaña and Yequel followed the Magastar to the front door of the house and watched her walk away down the path towards the monorail. The wind in the trees seemed to speak. A strange idea popped into Skaña's head. She called after Magastar Mystry, "You were watching me work today?" It was more a statement than a question.

The Magastar stopped walking down the path, turned and explained, "I've always watched you."

Skaña felt her doubts and uncertainty about changing the flow of time all evaporate. "You found the future that you've been searching for. You have it now, don't you?"

"Nein, mein junger Nymphe. You found the key to the future, just as I knew you would." Magastar Mystry turned and was gone on the wind.

Yequel slowly closed the door then asked, "How about some dessert?"

Skaña looked at Yequel as if seeing him for the first time. "You knew. You've always known."

Yequel inclined his head in a tiny nod of acknowledgement. "Before you were born I was trained to be your servant and help guide you towards this day."

"And you never warned me, never gave me a hint of what was coming?"

Yequel put his arms around her and replied, "We are caught up in an optimization process. Everything in your life is directed towards allowing you to create the best possible new Reality for Earth and the human species."

For a minute Skaña allowed herself to be cradled and comforted in Yequel's arms. Then she gathered her wits and took him by the hand, leading the way into their house. That was their last night together and then Skaña went off into the future that had been so carefully planned for her, a future in which she changed human history all the way back to the Primitive Era, the time before space travel, in the Era when people only existed on Earth.
____________________

Dr. Asimov

Editor's note: Angela's version of the story continues on with an account of how Skaña was given 5 possible detailed plans for how to change the past. Natalya helped to infiltrate Skaña into the 482nd century, where she used the name Noÿs. In an act of misdirection, Natalya had already played a major role in creating and spreading the belief in that century that physical contact with an Eternal could give extended life to a non-Eternal.

blog posts in May

The final time that Skaña spoke to Natalya was when they were together in the 111,394th century, cut off from the Eternals by the temporal barrier that had temporarily been placed in the kettleways at the 100,000th century. Once inserted into the 20th century, Skaña began using the cover name Trysta Iwedon.

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May 2016 in review.

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Full Circle

Fanciful movie poster (source)

Isaac Asimov invented and developed an interesting "theory" of alternate Realities for his time travel novel The End of Eternity. In one of my favorite parts of that novel, the protagonist, Andrew Harlan, is in a library located inside Eternity. Asimov invites us to contemplate the idea that in different Realities, a famous author would write different books (Eric Linkollew, 1, 2, 3).

I've adopted Asimov's concept of a momentum of Time for use in my own Exodemic Fictional Universe. I imagine that R. Gohrlay and "her" tribe of positronic robots created an inertial amplifier for Earth. The basic idea is that the momentum of time is a natural phenomenon arising from the existence of the Sedronic Domain. In some sense, "an echo" of every Reality exists within the Sedronic Domain and that "echo" constrains the shape of any new Reality that is brought into existence.

The End of Eternity

I imagine that when the positronic robots began experimenting with time travel, they soon discovered the momentum of time and R. Gohrlay soon began trying to find ways to amplify that naturally occurring phenomenon. Since R. Gohrlay was programmed to protect and defend humans, "she" invented a technology that could automatically "amplify" the momentum of Time and make humans a fixture in all possible Realities. This amplification process involves making many "copies" of each human individual within the Hierion Domain. The existence of those "copies" insures that following a Reality Change, the same people will tend to exist in the new Reality.

In The End of Eternity, Asimov forces readers to consider the possibility that one tiny "chance" event might completely derail the flow of time. The particular example of a small chance event that was used by Asimov was as simple as Twissell's decision whether or not to ride upwhen in the time kettle with Harlan to find Noÿs. Here is how Noÿs herself describes it:

Our Reality Chain

"You were to have come back to the far upwhen...you were to have come back alone...but you came with Twissell, a chance variation."

For the Exode Trilogy, I like to imagine that R. Gohrlay carefully designed the Mallansohn Reality so that Noÿs could quickly terminate it and put an end to Eternity (the time travel "device" on Earth) and bring into existence the Foundation Reality.

When Asimov first introduces us to Noÿs she is in the role of a note-taking secretary for Computer Finge, director of the section of Eternity devoted to the 482nd century. Noÿs appears 40 pages into the novel, after Asimov has explained that Eternity is male-dominated. The Eternity time travel "device" exists in a kind of parallel universe that is outside of the normal flow of Time on Earth. Almost everyone who lives and works in Eternity is male because, for some reason not ever explained by Asimov, extracting women from the timeline of Earth is usually too disruptive.

So when Harlan lays his eyes on Noÿs, they are rather hungry eyes, simply due to the paucity of females within Eternity. However, Asimov provides some extra spice to this already provocative situation. Harlan is from the 95th century, a point in Earth's long history where women are expected to be loyal wives and good mothers. In contrast, the 482nd century is one in which women lead independent lives with no expectation that they be part of a family as devoted moms. In fact, Noÿs is depicted as a recent arrival in Eternity from the 482nd century, where she lived alone as a single woman and where the custom was that men and women routinely have casual sexual relationships, purely for pleasure. If a woman wants to be a mother, she can simply pass an egg cell on to the local Ovarium and have a baby manufactured for her.

Thus, when Harlan first lays his eyes on Noÿs, he is stunned. She is dressed as a woman of the 482nd century, "which meant transparent sheathing above the waste and flimsy, knee-length trousers below that hinted delicately at gluteal curves." Harlan can't keep his eyes off of her.

The End of Eternity

Unable to quell his fired-up emotions, Harlan flies into a rage directed at Finge. The idea that Finge might need Noÿs as his "secretary" strikes Harlan as absurd. Eternity has sophisticated recording devices and advanced computers. Harlan suspects that Finge has brought Noÿs into Eternity from the 482nd simply to be his mistress. Also, according to the customs of Eternity, under the rare conditions when an Eternal is granted permission to have a sexual "liaison", the relationship is expected to be conducted with discretion and not flaunted before the majority of Eternals who are supposed to be so busy with their work that they don't have time to think about sex.

source

For the poor suffering Harlan, things go from bad to worse. Noÿs tries to casually chat with him in a hallway, but he is so flustered by her, all he can do is hurry on past. Finally, Harlan must go with Noÿs into Time on an Observation mission and live with her in her house in the 482nd century. For a while, Harlan tries to ignore Noÿs and just do his job of collecting observations on the society of the 482nd century, but soon enough he ends up in bed with Noÿs. Later, Andrew is embarrassed to learn that women of the 482nd think that they can attain eternal life by having sex with an Eternal.

What Harlan does not realize until the end of the novel is that Noÿs is not really a woman from the 482nd century. She is a secret agent from 10,000,000 years in the future who has been sent back through time on a mission that is designed to destroy Eternity and remove time travel technology from Earth. At the end of the book, Noÿs explains to Harlan that the mere existence of Eternity is bad for Humanity, leading to a future in which humans never travel to the stars and the human species eventually dies out on Earth.

Asterothrope hermaphrodite (left)
and Asterothrope female (right).

Role Reversal
In Western literature, there is a long history of stories about fringe societies where men are excluded and women play all roles including that of warrior (see Amazons). For the Exode Trilogy, I imagine that Noÿs was actually not a human being. By 10,000,000 years in the future, R. Gohrlay had brought into existence another type of primate: the Asterothrope. Biologically, the Asterothropes were either females or hermaphrodites. The structure of Asterothrope society and the details of their reproductive biology are only hinted at in the Exode Trilogy, but the basic idea is that the Asterothropes were designed to allow for rapid population growth on newly colonized worlds.

In the Exodemic Fictional Universe, the Huaoshy long ago evolved from biological organisms, but then they re-engineered themselves as artificial life forms. The pek were programmed and sent out into the universe on a mission to find planets like Earth and preserve them as "garden worlds". The pek are always watching and waiting for the development of technologically advances creatures like we humans. In the Exode Trilogy, the human species was almost driven to extinction and replaced by an hermaphroditic primate variant (Prelands) that was designed, crafted and planted on Earth by the pek.

Grean the hermaphroditic Kac'hin.

For the pek, their engineering of hermaphroditic primates is part of their effort to prevent over-population of Earth. The main goal of the pek is develop a type of primate that will quickly abandon its biological existence and willingly be transformed into an artificial life form that transcends its physical existence in the Hadronic Domain and takes up residence within the Sedronic Domain.

In Exode, Parthney lives among the hermaphroditic Buld on the planet Hemmal in the Galactic Core. Later, his grandson, Izhiun, grows up on the planet Luk'ru in the Andromeda galaxy. The residents of Luk'ru are descendants of the Kac'hin. In the Exode Trilogy, the Kac'hin were originally created for a special purpose and then they end up playing three different important roles in the story:

Lili the Kac'hin on Earth.

1) The Kach'in (particularly Lili) are used to help merge special Asterothrope gene combinations into the human population of Earth.

2) The Kac'hin (particularly Grean) are used as a special tool by the Huaoshy to make possible an end to R. Gohrlay's positronic robot insurrection on Earth.

3) The prototypical Kac'hin, Kach, is used as the means to provide Earthlings with an understanding of Genesaunt civilization.

Both Lili and Kach are Kac'hin females. Grean is a Kac'hin hermaphrodite. Anatomically, the Kac'hin females and hermaphrodites are difficult to distinguish based on their external physical features. Upon casual inspection, both the Kac'hin females and the hermaphrodites are similar physically to human females. However, both the Kac'hin females and the hermaphrodites have no external genitalia, only an anatomically simple genital groove.

Grean (source)

Sexually active Kac'hin have conscious control of a set of skeletal muscles that can either open the posterior part of the genital groove and allow access to the two Kac'hin vaginas or, alternatively, open the anterior part of the genital groove and allow the Kac'hin penis to become erect and emerge from its recessed socket inside the groove.

The Kac'hin do not have an alimentary canal that connects from the mouth to the anus. The Kac'hin are dependent on "feeding nanites" that shuttle nutrient molecules into their crop and remove waste molecules from the Kac'hin body. Instead of an anus, the Kac'hin have a second vaginal canal. In Kac'hin females, both Kac'hin vaginas provide access to the uterus and two Fallopian tubes.

Artist's depiction of a resident of Luk'ru.

Hermaphroditic Kac'hin only have one Fallopian tube and one ovary. Their second gonad develops as an organ for the delivery of egg-like gametes through the Kac'hin penis to the external environment by ejaculation. For the Kac'hin, reproduction in the absence of technological assistance is almost impossible since so few gametes are produced. The Kac'hin of the Galactic Core reproduce by in vitro fertilization.

The people of Luk'ru reproduce in the absence of any advanced technologies being available to support in vitro fertilization, but as long-lived individuals who are kept healthy by "medical nanites", babies are very rare and the population of planet Luk'ru is in no danger of exploding.

Trysta: artist's depiction #1.

The original Kac'hin and the people of Luk'ru have facial features that are very similar to those of human females on Earth. In contrast, the Kac'hin of the Galactic Core (on planets such as Tar'tron) have long experimented with alteration to their bodily features. However, since the Kac'hin from the Galactic Core (such as Grean) who have visited Earth can control their physical appearance using facial modification nanites, it is not clear what a "typical Kac'hin" looks like or even if the concept "typical Kac'hin" is useful.

Trysta: artist's depiction #2 (source).

Similarly, it is difficult for we Earthlings to know what a "typical Asterothrope" might have looked like. Trysta was modified from the conventional Asterothrope body form so as to conform to the physical features of humans on Earth.

Even Thomas, Trysta's son, was uncertain about his mother's true appearance since she used facial nanites to alter her appearance. Over the past few years, I have used several different human models to depict Trysta in illustrations; none of these should be taken as providing a true representation of her physical features.

Most recently, I have been getting Gohrlay's perspective on many puzzling questions that remain concerning the secret history of Earth. Gohrlay refuses to comment on the question of her own true physical form and the extent to which she uses nanites to disguise herself. I get the feeling that Gohrlay long ago lost interest in mundane matters such as physical appearances.

The Man

Gohrlay and I spend much time discussing the differences between the world as we know it and the past Realities of our Reality Chain. I annoy her by asking questions like, "Did you look different in the Ekcolir Reality?"  and "What kind of science fiction stories did Asimov write in the Asimov Reality?" Most of the time Gohrlay never really answers my questions, but she does usually move our conversations in the direction of other topics that she thinks I should be more concerned about.

I've previously described some of the differences between the science fiction genre in our universe and in the Ekcolir Reality. Gohrlay claims that an extensive effort was made in the Ekcolir Reality to inform the people of Earth about the important role played by hermaphrodites in Genesaunt Civilization in general and the secret history of Earth in particular.

Tryst and Ekcolir

According to Gohrlay, there is an important connection between science fiction and certain gene combinations that are found in hermaphroditic primates such as Grean. When Grean started experimenting with ways to allow science fiction story writers to tell the secret history of Earth, "she" found that her ability to feed information to science fiction authors by way of the Bimanoid Interface was greatly facilitated by special gene combinations that are present in hermaphrodites like herself. Apparently, this "hermaphroditic fit" to the Bimanoid Interface is why the Huaoshy used Grean as their main "tool" and "interface" with humans during negotiation of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

According to Gohrlay, in order to quickly "produce" a large number of science fiction authors who could be influenced in their writing by way of the Bimanoid Interface, Grean used a virus to spread special "hermaphroditic gene combinations" through the human population of Earth.

microChance

1972 cover art by Dean Ellis.

Viruses play a special role in stories that are set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe. In Exodemic, I imagined that one stray virus could alter all of human history.

HIV has played a special role in shaping events as told in Trysta and Ekcolir and Exode.

According to Gohrlay, the 1918 influenza epidemic is the "analogue" in our Reality of a "trick" that Grean used to "amplify science fiction" in an Earlier Reality. If I understand this correctly,  Grean used a genetically engineered orthomyxovirus to insert a special "hermaphroditic gene combination" into the human population  of Earth. The result? Many science fiction authors became "susceptible" to having their story writing be guided by replicoids in the Hierion Domain.

in the Ekcolir Reality

I asked Gohrlay for a specific example and she gave me several. Grean's viral intervention allowed science fiction writers like Asimov and David McIlwain to be guided towards writing certain types of stories.

I don't think I've read anything that was written by David McIlwain. He published science fiction novels such as Alph, writing under the name Charles Eric Maine. According to Gohrlay, in the Ekcolir Reality there was an series of novels by McIlwain that quite accurately described the Kac'hin and, particularly, their ability to efficiently use the Bimanoid Interface. These stories were all set in the Galactic Core and extensively documented Kac'hin culture in which there were originally no males, but then a project developed with the objective being to create a man named Ekcolir.

original cover art by Reina Mary Sington

According to Gohrlay, a major science fiction author in the Ekcolir Reality was Reina Mary Sington. Reina wrote extensively about how viruses, replicoids and the Kac'hin were being used to prepare Earth for the Final Reality. Sington was particularly good at using the Bimanoid Interface and she had contact with many science fiction writers who were "recruited into the   "The Writer's Block".

original cover art by Reina Mary Sington

When I expressed skepticism that an RNA virus would be used to insert genes into humans, Gohrlay mentioned that my own biological origins are also linked to an "echo" of Grean's use of a flu virus to quickly insert genes into the human population of Earth.

According to Gohrlay, a member of my own family died in the 1918 flu epidemic. Sadly, she refuses to tell me how that led to my being "inserted" into the Final Reality and positioned as the Editor.

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First Life

Noÿs (source)

In The End of Eternity, Isaac Asimov described a system for time travel and a culture, that of the Eternals, those who used time travel to guide Humanity into the future. Part of the cultural heritage of the Eternals was that they had a deeply instilled fear of traveling through time and seeing themselves. When the protagonist of Asimov's story, Harlan, accidentally almost sees himself in Time, he is horrified.

At one point during the course of the story, Harlan's boss, Senior Computer Twissel, describes how he carefully watched the various Realities of the 95th century, waiting for Harlan to come into existence. Twissel needs Harlan's help to close the time loop by which Eternity brings itself into existence.

The "Eternity" that is referred to in the title of Asimov's time travel novel is the time travel device that is used on Earth. At the end of the story, the Eternity time travel system of Earth is destroyed: literally the end of Eternity. However, what if that was not the end of time travel? Harlan's lover, Noÿs, hints at a new future in which humans will first spread through space to millions of new worlds, then each of those planets will have a chance to use time travel and have access to their own "Eternity". With that sweeping vision, the story ends, with Noÿs and Harlan stranded in the Primitive Era of Earth, in the 1930s, centuries before the creation of Eternity.

Whimsical depiction of Noÿs and Andrew fighting over the fate of Eternity.

However, what if it were necessary to utterly and completely put an end to all time travel, not just that one specific time travel device on Earth (Eternity)? That is the central idea of the Exode Trilogy. Another foundational element in the Exode Trilogy is the idea that Asimov was himself a time traveler and as such, he learned the facts about the particular future that Noÿs and Harlan brought into existence: the Foundation Reality. But Asimov's trip through time alters the future, terminating the Foundation Reality, and it brings into existence a new Reality in which Asimov can only write the story of the Foundation Reality in the form of a science fiction story.

In the Ekcolir Reality

It is such a Reality that we find ourselves in, what I call the Buld Reality. Two of the most important facts about the Buld Reality are that 1) sometime in the late 20th century, travel through time became impossible, and 2) in the year 2012 Earth had First Contact with alien visitors from a distant planet of the Galactic Core. Sadly, most Earthlings failed to notice that a Buld spaceship arrived on Earth in 2012.

The Exode Trilogy is told by "the Editor", an Interventionist agent. The Editor must tell the story of the secret history of Earth, but there is one important constraint: there is no objective evidence of aliens or that time travel was, in the past, used to shape and form our world. This, the Editor can only tell the story of Earth's past in the form of a science fiction story.

The Editor believes that time travel was possible because 1) his Selfie traveled through time, went into the future, and returned with information from the future, and 2) the Editor was given the opportunity to "see" his analog in the previous Reality, the Ekcolir Reality. This latter experience only just happened and I'm still trying to sort out the implications of what happened.

Click to enlarge the image. (source)

Past Lives
After six months of teasing, I was finally given the chance to experience full access to my replicoid in the Hierion Domain. Like Angela and Anney had done before me, I (my replicoid) was able to access records from the Ekcolir Reality that exist in the Sedronic Domain. I discovered that replicoids experience Deep Time such as the Ekcolir Reality through participation in a kind of virtual reality simulator. It is easy to get lost in that virtual reality. I've spent most of the past month "there", in search of the key information that was available in the life that was lived by my analogue in that Reality. Now I'm back. Apparently I was given only a limited amount of time to extract the information that I needed and now I am again cut off from my replicoid.

Trysta and Ekcolir

However, I feel like I've finally found the proper way to start the Exode Trilogy. I've known for a while that Trysta and Ekcolir would be the first book in the trilogy, but now I know that it must include an account of "my" own life in the Ekcolir Reality.

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There were three key events in my life in the Ekcolir Reality. The first of these was the night when I began my time travel trip into the future. Gohrlay said to me, "Always remember: I will wait for you."

I had no idea what she was trying to tell me. I was half asleep and confused. I asked, "Why will you wait?" What I meant was why will you be waiting for me?

She knew that I was unable to understand her, so she ignored my question. She said, "Things will be different."

Gohrlay's last night on Earth

I was now alert, disturbed by the strange things she was saying. I asked, "What are you talking about?"

She had one more message for my Selfie, "You must come back to me!"

Of course, I got no sleep that night. She talked for hours, but my Selfie was not listening. Immediately after Gohrlay said you must come back to me, my Selfie was sent two centuries into the future.

In the Ekcolir Reality (see)

the solution to global warming

I now realize that Gohrlay had been shown the future: she knew that my Selfie was about to travel into the future. She had also seen into the Buld Reality and knew that my Selfie would cross over into that coming Reality and that there, only there, would I return to her with information from the future. In the Ekcolir Reality we were doomed. Sea level rise was already under way. She and I lived out our lives and we were happy, but Earth descended into chaos. I tried to tell the world what Gohrlay had told me that night, but she never helped me with that task. She knew it was wasted effort. Since my Selfie did not experience that part of my life, I only know of it from what I was told in the next phase of my life.

endosymbionts

Anyhow, when my Selfie was in the future of the Ekcolir Reality, at a time after the antarctic ice cap had melted, I lived a "second life". My Selfie acted as the Guide for the endosymbiont that resided in another person (this poor soul just happened to be positioned where she could be used). That person went to work with Asimov. The Asimov of that time in the Ekcolir Reality was a form of artificial life, but that is a detail. Asimov had taken on the task of creating a biological solution to the problem of global warming. His research team, including the person who was "guided" by my Selfie, completed their bioengineering project. But by then, in the Ekcolir Reality, it was too late. The planet had already gone through a mass extinction with the oceans converted into an acidic soup that killed 95% of its species. Things were worse on land.

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The third key part of my life in the Ekcolir Reality was my death. Of course, I remembered what Gohrlay had told me, so I tried to return into the past. But I was stuck in her future, forced to "watch" and experience the entire life of the person that my Selfie had been attached to. I lived out that life and also a parallel life in the Hierion Domain as a replicoid. In both of those parallel lives I could find no means to travel backwards through time, either to save Earth or return to Gohrlay.

Of course, as soon as "I" died, my Selfie was free to move on. My Selfie from the Ekcolir Reality was slipped into the Buld Reality where it watched me grow up and guided me into my life as the Editor. The most disturbing revelation from my time in control of my replicoid is that I am a tryp'At. I'd been told this previously, but know I know it to be true. I'm still trying to think through the implications of that and how it impacts on my relationship with the Dead Widowers.

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Gwyned

Trysta and Ekcolir

Gwyned, as a character in the Exode Trilogy, had a rather casual origin. Originally, even before I discovered the Ec'kol, I imagined that Noÿs Lambent and Andrew Harlan had two children. However, that was in the Foundation Reality. Neither of those two children passed on into the next Reality.

The Ekcolir Reality
Within the Ekcolir Reality, Noÿs used the cover name Trysta Iwedon. When Trysta first met Ekcolir, he was using the cover name William Ward. Ekcolir had been trained and prepared to sweep Trysta off of her feet and cause her to fall in love with him.

Trysta and Ekcolir can be thought of as a
fan fiction sequel to Isaac Asimov's
time travel novel The End of Eternity.

Through the wonders of time travel, Ekcolir had been coached by Syon, the artificial lifeform that still carried all of Trysta's memories. The illustration to the right (above) depicts Syon in the process of training Ekcolir for his mission to Earth (bottom). This cover illustration is not entirely accurate, but it is meant to show Ekcolir being allowed to look into his own future and observe scenes from his life with Trysta on Earth.

At the top of the cover illustration for Trysta and Ekcolir, Trysta is shown using her own nanite-powered Viewing technology to watch Syon and Ekcolir while they discuss Trysta. This is a cute visual, but in Trysta and Ekcolir, it never actually happens that way. Instead, Trysta is completely taken by surprise when Ekcolir comes into her life. They both fall madly in love and Ekcolir impregnates her. Trysta is astounded by her pregnancy since she is certain that no Earthling is biologically compatible with her.

An Ek'col male and
an Asterothrope female.

Although Trysta's body has been shaped by developmental control nanites so as to give her the physical form of a human, she is actually an Asterothrope, a different species from ten million years in our future. In the Ekcolir Reality, Trysta's first child is a boy named Thomas. The second child of Trysta and Ekcolir is a girl named Gwyned.

Catastrophic sea level rise in the Ekcolir Reality.

Before she even knows that she is pregnant, Trysta fails to control her nanites and they quickly invade the developing embryo. Thomas goes on to develop an unusual brain structure and he even has some nanite-mediated telepathic contact with Trysta even before he is born. Thomas' brain is unique and valuable and the Interventionists end up making a whole series of "Thomas clones" who are used as Interventionist agents on Earth.

Gwyned

When Ekcolir impregnates Trysta the second time, she is ready and the brain of Gwyned develops along a more normal human trajectory. Still, Trysta's nanites are in Gwyned's brain from the start and she becomes passionately curious about the natural world.

The Buld Reality
The Ekcolir Reality does not offer a very pleasant future for Earthlings, but eventually the Trysta-Grean Pact is established and the Buld Reality comes into existence. Due to the momentum of Time, there is a "new version of Ekcolir" in the Buld Reality, an Ek'col male named Deomede.

Gwyned's family tree.

Trysta arranges to move from the Ekcolir Reality into the Buld Reality and she travels back through time to the 1930s. Trysta and Deomede have two children, one named Andy and a second Gwyned.

Something of a born-scientist, Gwyned goes on to earn a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. She manages to alarm Deomede with her plans to develop nuclear fusion power plants, so Gwyned is teleported off of Earth and sent to Lendhalen.

Fru'wu

Trysta never forgets about her "lost daughter", the Gwyned who was born into the Ekcolir Reality and lost to Time. Later, when Trysta has ended her biological existence and transferred her mind into the artificial lifeform known as Syon, she helps train Ekcolir for his mission to Earth. She also gestates a new "copy of Gwyned", genetically identical to the Gwyned of the Ekcolir Reality. This "new Gwyned" is named "Gwen".

I'm currently trying to find an interesting way for Gwen to be brought over into the Buld Reality (the world as we know it). Technically this is no problem, since Syon carries nanites that can function as a temporal field generator. I want Gwen to have an interesting life, perhaps investigating the relationship between Lendhalen's leaders (such as Pla'kau) and the alien Fru'wu.