Time Warp

The events in Chapter One of Exode all take place within a 24 hour period, the day when Parthney abandons his life on the world where he was born, Hemmal. Chapter Two describes Parthney's journey from Hemmal to the nearby planet Oib, a trip that only takes a couple of days. Counted in Earth time, Parthney is 18 years old when he leaves Hemmal.

Chapter Three of Exode encompasses four years of Parthney's life, the years during which he is trained for his mission to Earth. Jack Vance's novel Araminta Station starts with a similar chronology. The main character, Glawen, is 16 years old at the start of the story. The first two chapters (147 pages) describe Araminta Station on the planet Cadwal as well as Glawen's budding romance with Sessily Veder and her mysterious disappearance. The first six pages of Chapter III outline the next three years of Glawen's life: time spent by Glawen in his studies at the Araminta Station Lyceum and in training as a cadet in the local police force.

Gwyned Iwedon

As is the case for the first section of Chapter III in Araminta Station, the first pages of Chapter Three in Exode must mesh with the events that brought the end of the "innocent years" of the protagonist's early life. Parthney arrives at Lendhalen, the secret base of the Buld revolutionaries who have liberated themselves from their pek masters. Most of the elements of Pathney's past life begin to fade away, including his rather bumbling romantic adventures with Reginal, Muchlo, and Pla'va. At Lendhalen, Leymaygn and Gwyned teach Parthney to read and write and also how to use musical notation. Parthney is fascinated by the musical instruments of Earth, but repulsed by the more dreary aspects of life on Earth: hunger, disease, crime and war.

After Parthney has lived for three years at Lendhalen he is seriously considering the possibility of living out the rest of his life there and never going to Earth. The co-directors of Lendhalen, Pla'mak and Pla'kao, must reveal more than they would like to Parthney about the dangers facing the people of Earth. It is 1970, Earth is struggling with an exploding population, pollution, and a nuclear arms race.

Earth

For seven million years the Overseers have guided the course of primate evolution on Earth. The people of Earth have never known that alien visitors arrived on Earth long ago, but now a Buld spaceship is nearing Earth after a 15,000 year long journey from the Galactic Core. Pla'mak and Pla'kao inform Parthney that if the Buld make contact with the Earthlings then the Overseers might abandon their management of Earth. Parthney is led to wonder: could humanity survive on its own or might human civilization self-destruct, as happened to the alien Fru'wu? By explaining that events on Earth are reaching a critical juncture Pla'mak and Pla'kao manage to rekindle Parthney's desire to go to Earth.

At the end of Chapter Three, Parthney must say goodby to Gwyned. He likes the idea she return with him to Earth where they could work together as Interventionist agents, but she is left behind at Lendhalen, still struggling to make sense of the alien technology that has been given to the Buld. Gwyned makes Parthney promise that if he ever has the chance to liberate someone like herself from Earth he will do so, even if he would personally prefer to do otherwise. She offers her opinion, "Earth is giant mistake, a world of the half-living...you owe it to yourself, for the sake of your own sanity, to aid anyone who wants to get out."

So Chapter Three must have two lengthy time warps, one jumping over most of Pathney's first three years at Lendhalen and another over his final phase of training. Parthney matures dramatically and goes through many changes during his years living at Lendhalen. The care-free days of his youth are put behind him and he leaves for Earth with many doubts and great apprehension, having been informed that he has a good chance of being recognized and captured by Overseers soon after his arrival on Earth. So great is that risk that he is not even told how he will reach Earth so that he cannot reveal that secret if he is identified as an Interventionist agent and captured.

Poster
The Exode poster, above, is having some fun with an old James Bond poster (image to the right). Since Parthney arrives on Earth from Oib (so he thinks; he never knows the true location of the Lendhalen training base) I put in an image of Earth. The woman at the computer terminal is meant to be Hana. Like Gwyned, Hana is a physicist. Parthney uses the name "Henry Montpellier" during some of his time on Earth, in particular, at the time when he reveals his true identity to Hana and then teleports her away from Earth.

In the original poster, I suppose that the woman behind Bond is meant to be Daniela Bianchi, in the role of a soviet intelligence agent who is used to lure Bond into a trap. In Exode, Parthney must duel with an Overseer who lives on Earth using the name Belinda Tement. Belinda's search for the source of new gene combinations that have been appearing on Earth leads her to Hana's son. Belinda befriends Hana and ultimately captures Parthney, taking him to the Observer Base on the Moon. The woman standing in the background beside Parthney is meant to be Overseer Tement.

Exode Back Cover

At the end of 2012 I made the first draft of a front cover for Exode. I've now made a back cover and a blurb that could go just inside the front cover of a print version of the novel.

For back cover images I used the images from Chapter Two. These images depict Parthney and Pla'va when they are approaching the planet Oib.

For the inner blurb I tried to weave together Hemmal, the pek, Prelands, the Creators, Earthlings, the Buld Clan, Kach, Parthney and the Nereids:

Exode - change your world...or else!

On Hemmal there were four types of people: the alien pek, a shape shifting artificial lifeform; the hermaphroditic Prelands, newly crafted by the Creators as the desired replacement of the barbaric Earthlings; the Buld Clan, engineered to have an extra chromosome that makes them suited for travel between the stars; and two mutant Buld, Kach and Parthney, genetically identical to Earthlings, but born 15,000 light years from Earth. Everyone has plans for Earth...the pek, the Buld, the alien Nereids, but do any of them care if humanity is erased, replaced, forgotten? Kach and Parthney, two false Buld, reached Earth in a last minute attempt to save the human species from elimination...but why bother? After all, aren't humans defective and obsolete? Wouldn't Earth be better off if it was populated by Prelands rather than Humanity? Could Kach and Parthney help the Earthlings change their world -change themselves- or was it simply time to get away, escape from Earth before the Creators swept the human species from the planet, the superseded humans neatly replaced by Prelands?


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Would it make sense to the average reader to have the Prelands described as hermaphrodites and then see the term "thon" applied to the Prelands, replacing "he" in the famous saying, "We have met the enemy and he is us"?

The Prelands are "humans, version 2.0", they are like we Earthlings (we barbaric Earthlings) only better: designed by the Creators to have a chance of surviving in a technological civilization.

I'm currently writing Chapter Three of Exode which describes how Parthney finally achieves a reasonable understanding of Earth and the primitive conditions under which humans live there. Parthney arrives for training at Lendhalen with a very naive view of Earth. While on Hemmal Parthney heard stories about Earth from Yandrey, stories that filled Parthney's imagination with ideas about what it might be like to live on a planet full of other humans. But then, while at Lendhalen, the more Parthney learns about Earth the less enthusiastic he is about going to live there. As Pla'va tried to warn him, "It is a terrible place, full of war and disease and death."

While living at Lendhalen, Parthney is trained by two Buld, Vozgrow and Leymaygn, and a human from Earth, Gwyned Iwedon. Vozgrow and Leymaygn are similar to Yandrey; they are ancient Buld who have lived for thousands of years. Vozgrow and Leymaygn have vast experience gained from studying Earth and training Interventionist agents like Parthney. Gwyned lived on Earth for 25 years then, when given the chance, took her opportunity to leave Earth and join Genesaunt culture at the Galactic Core.

image source

Gwyned is vastly more sophisticated than Parthney, who can't even read when he arrives at Lendhalen. Gwyned was doing research in plasma physics when she decided to leave Earth. At Lendhalen she is studying Buld spaceship technology and trying to apply modern scientific knowledge from Earth to understand Buld spaceship propulsion.  One thing that Gwyned and Parthney have in common is a love for music.

Guiding the training of Parthney for his mission to Earth are two Pla, Pla'kao and Pla'mak, who have begun to question the entire Interventionist plan for accelerating cultural development on Earth. Gwyned has brought word of the thermonuclear arms race on Earth (she leaves Earth in 1964). Pla'kao and Pla'mak have long been collaborating with the Fru'wu to to prepare Earth for the impending arrival of a Buld spaceship. However, by making it possible for Earthlings to develop a technological civilization will Earth face the same fate as the Fru'wu home world? As if the danger of nuclear war is not bad enough, Gwyned brings an additional warning about increasing levels of carbon dioxide on Earth. The Pla begin to realize that Earth is between a rock and a hard place. Is there no way to save the Earthlings from a technological disaster?

Apocalypse New

It is 1967 when Parthney arrives at Lendhalen

Long ago, before the arrival of the pek in our galaxy, the Fru'wu became a space-faring species. The budding interstellar civilization of the Fru'wu was destroyed by a technological disaster: nanites gone out of control. The pek managed to preserve and culture some Fru'wu on worlds of the Galactic Core. Similarly, the Nereids took some Fru'wu to the Andromeda galaxy where a distinctive Fru'wu civilization grew. It is these descendants of the original Fru'wu that have since come in contact with the Buld and participated in the development of the means by which human Interventionists like Parthney are sent to Earth.

Pla'kao and Pla'mak are the two Buld who have contact with the Fru'wu. Their Fru'wu contact is known as Fru'munu. Fru'munu hints to Pla'kao and Pla'mak that Parthney is needed on Earth for a special mission in advance of the immanent arrival of the Buld spaceship in the Sol system.

Prison of Space

I just reached the end of Chapter Two of Exode and the story has now reached 34,000 words. I had originally planed to call the second chapter "Oib", a chapter about preparing Parthney for a new life on Earth, but then I became aware of an entirely new aspect of the history of human Interventionists, a kind of cultural fossil that adds a new dimension to Parthney's adventure. "Prison of Space" is the new title of Chapter Two.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, Parthney meets a Buld named Pla'va on the way to Oib. Pla'va is a Pla. The Pla are a small subgroup of the Buld Clan that came into existence about 20,000 years ago as a result of Fru'wu intervention into Buld culture.

Sci Fi in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Howard Brown;
Science and Invention, August 1924.

The Fru'wu are an alien species from our galaxy with advanced technology. The Fru'wu helped the Pla learn how to use nanites of their own design to prevent pek nanites from infecting Buld brain tissue.

In the ancient Buld language "pla" means "free". Without pek nanites in their brains the Pla were able to develop and use a written language. Buld who have pek nanites in their brains have altered brain function: the parts of the brain that normally allow humans to read, write and efficiently manipulate tools are used for other functions, particularly for producing a kind of nanite-assisted telepathic resonance between Buld individuals.

Double Negative

One model of how light is detected. Double negative.

During the past seven million years the pek have worked to modify the brains of primates. The human species was brought into existence by the pek who wanted

A) a primate with the ability to use written language, make and use tools and function within a technologically advanced civilization.

At the same time, the pek wanted to design a primate that would

B) not misuse technology or destroy itself.

For humans, the desired combination (both A and B, above) has not yet come together, so for most of the past 200,000 years the pek have been placing nanites into human brains. Those nanites prevent humans from efficiently using written language, making and using tools. However, it is a trivial process for the pek to inactivate those nanites and liberate humans from their inhibitory effects on brain function.

The pek were forced to begin allowing such liberation of human mental abilities about 20,000 years ago. By negating the effects of the inhibitory nanites human civilization and written history were begun on Earth. (This is accomplished by making use of special nanites provided by a time traveler from Earth's future.)

Arrival of aliens

How were the pek forced to to allow Earthlings to develop a technological civilization? This is a long story, a story that is is never fully explained within Exode. However, the part of the story that is included in Exode centers on the fact that about 15,000 years ago, with the assistance of the Pla, the Buld Clan was able to send one of their spaceships towards Earth. Buld spaceships cannot travel faster than the speed of light, so the pek knew that it would take nearly 15,000 years for the Buld to reach Earth and make contact with Earthlings. The pek were forced to accept a plan aimed at producing a technological civilization on Earth so that when the Buld arrived the Earthlings would at least be able to understand what was happening.

Fountain of Youth

The Pla discovered that without pek nanites in their brains they suffered from neurodegeneration and senility. However, they found a trick that allowed for rejuvenation of their brains. Normal Buld physiology protects against the possibility of the hermaphroditic Buld experiencing an auto-fertilization. However, the Pla developed the technological means to achieve auto-fertilization. A Buld embryo that is genetically identical to its parent will not completely replace the parental cells with new cells from the embryo. However, the most aged and decrepit cells of the parent are replaced and the presence of new stem cells from the embryo can rejuvenate Pla brain tissue.

When the Pla went through this "partial Change" they were able to retain their protection against having their brains infected by pek nanites. However, there were subtle effects from repeatedly going through the "partial Change" rejuvenation. Most importantly, over time the bodies of the Pla accumulate cells that have lost the extra chromosome that genetically distinguishes the Buld from Earth humans. In effect, the Pla slowly become phenotypically part human. They grow larger than typical Buld and start taking on some human morphological features not seen in Buld. Pla'va is phenotypically intermediate between Buld and human, which initially puzzles Parthney.

Pla'va is something of an outcast, condemned to loneliness on thons spaceship. Pla'va tries to talk Parthney into staying on the spaceship, but Chapter Two ends with Parthney saying goodby to Pla'va and heading for the surface of Oib. Pla'va remains alone, trapped in the prison of space.

Oib and its Interventionists

Oib and one of its moons

At the end of Chapter One of Exode, Parthney is ready to leave the planet of his birth and will soon be on his way to Oib where he will be trained as an Interventionist agent.

The Paired Planets
Is Oib a planet or an asteroid? According to the definitions used by the Buld Clan both Hemmal and Oib are asteroids because they both received large amounts of water by having been at the edge of a forming asteroid belt in the Koly star system. The Buld residents of Oib call the star of the Hemmal/Oib system "Koly", one of the words for "star" in the ancient Buld Clan language.

Hemmal is slightly larger than Earth while Oib is about half the size of Earth. Since they are large and they both have liquid metal cores they also meet the Buld definition of being planets. The Buld who live on Oib refer to Hemmal and Oib as the "paired planets".

While the crust of Oib has a large amount of water, near the surface there is only frozen water and Oib has no oceans of liquid water. Hemmal orbits closer to Koly and has a large water ocean with little land. Oxygen producing organisms in that ocean long ago gave Hemmal an oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Oib has a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and some water. The weak magnetic field of Oib does not completely shield the planet against stellar or cosmic radiation. The Buld inhabitants of Oib, about 50,000 in all, live under the surface. Like Hemmal, Oib has space elevators that facilitate movement between the surface and orbit.

The Buld Clan colonized Oib about 15,000 years ago. At that time, Oib had three moons the smallest of which was transformed into a spaceship construction facility where during the past 15,000 years many Buld spaceships have been constructed and sent off to travel between the stars, mostly moving between the many planets of the galactic core where humans reside. Even more colony stations have been built that remain in the Koly star system, mostly within the asteroid belt beyond Oib. Some of the Buld colony stations are in orbit around moons of the system's gas giants. The total population of Buld living in the scattered space stations of the Koly star system is now greater than the population of Oib.

Oxygen-producing artificial lifeform on Oib

The other two original moons of Oib have become giant factories for the production of solar energy collectors. A long range plan of the Buld is to eventually place enough solar collectors in orbit around Oib so that it will be possible to warm the surface of Oib above the freezing point of water. Several asteroids have been shifted into orbits around Oib where they are mined for resources and they are now counted among its moons.

Another major planetary engineering project is on Oib itself. The Buld have designed several artificial lifeforms that are spreading across the surface where they use Koly light to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. Another family of artificial lifeforms functions under the surface to facilitate the movement of geothermally heated water towards the surface. The Buld have also begun a long-term project that will start to heat the core of Oib and prevent the magnetic field from declining further.

Another major project for the Buld is moving mass to Oib from other parts of the Koly star system. In particular, they have been shifting nitrogen and carbon dioxide to Oib in an effort to build up its atmosphere. For the past 7 million years the space elevators of Hemmal have been used to lift water into orbit. Most of that water is redirected to Oib.

The original Buld who first came to Hemmal wanted to study the Unetic Clan, the Prelands who live on Hemmal. Buld first took up residence on Hemmal, but later, as discussed below, conditions changed and other Buld colonized Oib. Only a minority of the Buld continue to study the Prelands: these Buld were known as the lisden, but now they are more commonly called the Buld scholars.

A major distinction between the Buld who live on Hemmal and the Buld on Oib is the different interactions that they have with the pek. There are no humanoid pek on Oib. On Hemmal the lives of the Buld are constantly supported by humanoid pek who live within Buld society and apply their advanced nanite technology to shape the lives of the Buld. The pek still live among the Buld of Oib, but in the form of the non-humanoid meonuck, as described below. The term "pek" is not used on Oib, but meonuck are a non-humanoid type of pek.

On the Origins of the Buld Interventionists

The Buld on Oib also have access to another type of nanotechnology that was developed about 20,000 years ago with the help of the Fru'wu. The main shift due to Fru'wu intervention into the Buld Clan culture was that some Buld were given the chance to free themselves from dependence on pek nanites: these "liberated" Buld became the Interventionists. The Buld Interventionists originated as a branch of the lisden and after they no longer had pek nanites interfering with their brain function they quickly developed the first Buld written language. With help from the Fru'wu, they were able to exclude pek nanites from their brains and then liberate themselves from the meonuck, having found the means to use Fru'wu-inspired technology to support their existence in the absence of pek nanites. The Buld Interventionists keep themselves apart from the other Buld in order to prevent themselves from again becoming "infected" by pek nanites.

Buld (and humans) that host large numbers of pek nanites in their brains are unable to use written language and almost completely unable to use and manufacture tools. This nanite-mediated modulation of brain function is how the pek prevent humans from developing a technological culture over long periods of time. Other limitations on technology development by the Interventionists are their small number and the fact that they are scattered widely within the galactic core on planets like Oib and lack an efficient means of interstellar communication.

source

Freed of pek nanites, the lisden that would become the Buld Interventionists studied the technology of Buld spaceships (which had been provided to the Buld by the pek) and their newly won understanding that technology allowed for the first Buld-constructed spaceships. The Buld could now make their own colony ships for travel between the stars at near light speed as well as colony stations that allowed the Buld to start settling worlds like Oib.

The first act of "intervention" by the Buld scholars who were becoming the Buld Interventionists was initiated with the further connivance of the Fru'wu who provided the location if Earth. The Buld Interventionists sent one of their spaceships to Earth with the intention of making "first contact" with Earthlings. In Exode, after the long journey out to Earth from the galactic core, that spaceship is finally nearing Earth.

Pla'va (right) and Ka'po, the meonuck, on approach to Oib

With the help of the secretive Buld Interventionists, a faction of the Buld scholars of Oib have been able to adapt available technologies to the goal of terraforming Oib, but most Buld have little interest in technology. This is due to the fact that the brains of most Buld remain infected by pek nanites.

The Meonuck
Unlike the Buld of Hemmal, the lives of the Buld on Oib are not organized around community temples. However, the Buld of Oib each have a symbiotic familiar known as a meonuck, an important Buld cultural element that began on the earliest Buld spacecraft. These meonuck are composed of pek nanites and they facilitate both the feeding of the Buld and a rudimentary reproductive function that allows for slow growth of the Buld population. The meonuck also regulate Buld reproduction in a manner similar to that achieved by temple bothets on Hemmal. The meonuck are also the source of the nanites that colonize Buld brain tissue when Buld go through the Change, although on Oib the Change is viewed as a medical issue and educational opportunity, not cause for a religious ritual.

Parthney and Pla'va

In Chapter Two of Exode, Parthney is transported from Hemmal to Oib in a spaceship piloted by Pla'va. Pla'va is a special Interventionist agent who can move among the Buld of Oib without fear of thons brain being infected by pek nanites. When attempts to remove pek nanites from Buld brains were first successful, it was learned that the normal Buld reproductive process could be subverted and provide a way to "immunize" such "liberated" Buld against reinfection with pek nanites.

The Interventionists are particularly interested in recruiting "false" Buld into their ranks. False Buld (like Parthney) are genetically identical to Earthlings and are used as Interventionist agents on Earth. The Interventionists take pains to keep their operations secret and themselves free of pek nanites, although experience suggests that despite precautions their activities are constantly monitored by the pek. With alarming frequency entire groups of Interventionists are suddenly eliminated.

Asteroid outpost.
image by hailfire191
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

One of the deepest secrets of the human Interventionists on Oib is that they work in coordination with the Fru'wu. Most Buld believe that there was a period of contact between the Buld and the Fru'wu thousands of years in the past, but the Buld Interventionists have secretly continued to cooperate with the Fru'wu.

Of particular relevance to Parthney when he reaches Oib is the fact that about 10,000 years ago the Fru'wu provided teleportation technology that allows the efficient transfer of human Interventionist agents to Earth. The top priority of the Buld Interventionists during the past 10,000 years has been to accelerate technological progress on Earth in an effort to make sure that Earthlings will at least understand what is happening when the first Buld spaceship reaches Earth.

Related Reading:  the Fru'wu of Ver'la

Next: Prison of Space

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