Nicotiana Endosymbionts

In the Ekcolir Reality

I've been continuing recent discussions of the secretive IPX with my collaborator Gohrlay and today learned more details about how human brain activity is influenced by the presence of a zeptite endosymbiont. I'd previously learned that the interaction between a person's brain cells and their zeptite endosymbiont can be modulated by a femtobot endosymbiont that was recently (in evolutionary terms) provided to Earthlings.

Nicotiana Endosymbionts

The Femtobot Hack

I'd previously assumed that the surprisingly important role of tobacco in human civilization depends entirely on the nicotine content of tobacco plants. That was a big mistake. According to Gohrlay, the IPX was originally created as a special Overseer workgroup that was assigned to the task of containing the danger posed to humans by tobacco. The danger of tobacco went far beyond petty issues like addiction to nicotine and cancer.

nanites

In fact, I now suspect that I was tricked into placing special emphasis on nicotine so as to distract my attention away from a more important aspect of Earth's Nicotiana Saga. I previously realized that all of planet Earth has been infested by zeptites for about 2,000,000,000 years. However, I never previously thought about the importance of zeptites or femtobots inside plants.

In the case of humans, it is clear that all animals on Earth evolved their brains in the presence of zeptite endosymbionts. A human brain cannot function without its zeptite components. Interventionist agents (the Grendels) somehow (some subtle form of genetic engineering?) caused the human species to arise on Earth as a species specifically designed for efficient tool use. However, the zeptites inside human brains easily prevented humans from using tools in a sophisticated way.

image credits

In response to the Grendel Intervention and the presence of humans on Earth, the pek then brought Prelands to Earth as a "biological cleansing agent" and the Prelands quickly and efficiently drove the human population of Earth towards extinction.

However, the pek themselves had become fascinated by humans. The humans of Earth displayed unique patterns of social behavior and the pek began their own study of the human organism. During the course of that little science project at Observer Base, a small team of human scientists developed a new science of positronics. Then, as an experiment, the pek allowed the creation of positronic robots. The positronic brain was a powerful telepathic mind-control device and the positronic robots quickly took over Obsever Base and eventually the entire galaxy (as told in Foundations of Eternity).

science fiction in Deep Time

According to Gohrlay,  Interventionists then provided the humans of Earth with a means to escape cognitive limitations caused by our zeptite endosymbionts. However, even the Interventionists recognized the dangers posed to primates by rapid technological advancement. Thus, the femtobot endosymbiont that can provide humans with access to the Bimanoid Interface was never allowed to indiscriminately infest the brains of we Earthlings. Instead, certain plants such as cultivated varieties of nicotiana were used a reservoir for those special Interventionist femtobots and those femtobots were delivered to humans in a subtle and carefully controlled way that involves access to tobacco products.

Asimov Reality

Maghylose and Xista

Eventually, the positronic robots developed their own nanites and they became aware of the existence of the Interventionist femtobots that were present inside the brains of some humans. Eventually, R. Gohrlay learned how to control and make use of those femtobots.

in the Ekcolir Reality

According to Gohrlay, femtobot endosymbionts were occasionally deployed via tobacco to select humans prior to the Foundation Reality. For the most part, R. Gohrlay was content to keep humans constrained by their zeptite endosymbionts prior to the Foundation Reality. Under the sole influence of our zeptites, humans can not create and use advanced technologies. However, when a human brain is also provided with a femtobot endosymbiont, then there is a loosening of the cognitive restrictions that are imposed by the zeptite components of our brains and we humans can then efficiently develop and use new technologies.

travel into the Primitive Era

The most famous human who was a vector for distribution of femtobot endosymbionts in the Mallansohn Reality was Senior Computer Twissell. Under the influence of the femtobot endosymbionts carried into Eternity by Twissell's cigarettes, the first technological change since the early era of Eternity took place: creation of the special time travel device that could move into the Primitive Era of Earth's timeline, prior to the creation of Eternity.

nuclear war in the Asimov Reality

In the Foundation Reality, even after Earth was rendered uninhabitable because of high radiation levels, the Vega Sector of the galaxy continued to be a source of tobacco products. In the Asimov Reality, although there was a brief nuclear war in the 20th century, only a few major population centers were destroyed by nuclear blast or seriously contaminated by radioactive fallout. Tobacco cultivation continued on Earth after the nuclear war of the Asimov Reality, but during the Space Age little use was made of tobacco for distribution of femtobots. The last major technological innovation by humans in the Asimov Reality was development of the Jarnell intersplit.

cloning experiments

In the Asimov Reality, after humans began to spread from Earth to the exoplanets of other stars, there was very little technological innovation. Under pressure from the Institute, some technologies were even suppressed. Here is how Madian Carbuke described the Institute:
"...we are a reactionary, secretive, pessimistic organization. We have agents everywhere. We know a thousand tricks to discourage research, sabotage experiments, distort data.....in the Institute's own laboratories we proceed with deliberation and discretion."

home of the Chezy Corporation

The Asimov Reality was the apex of the Time Travel War. Both the Interventionists and the Overseers were working to develop new human variants, a process that required much time and careful artificial selection of the desired traits. Individuals with promising new human gene combinations that allowed better control of the Bimanoid Interface were highly valued by both sides and fought over. Agents of the IPX and Zodiac Control constantly vied for advantage and access to any new genetic patterns that were developed by the "other side" in their seemingly endless war.

three forms of matter

Within the Asimov Reality, the Chezy Corporation of planet Triskelion A was able to develop some specialized hierion-based technologies, but other than that, human technological progress was almost completely blocked during the Space Age in that Reality.

In the Age of tryp'At
We must ask: under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact, how are zeptite and femtobot endosymbionts continuing to guide and constrain human behavior?

In my personal case, I have to wonder if my own father's pipe smoking was used as a way to facilitate my exposure to femtobots and shape my behavior and guide me towards my role as Editor.

Next: the Trilateroids

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Secrets of the IPX

cover art by Gino D'Achille

I own a copy of the first DAW printing of Star King from September 1978. On page 22 Lugo Teehalt asks, "You are not of the IPX?"

Sadly, "IPX" was a typographical error. Google Books currently has two of the more recent editions of The Star King online and they both have "IPX" corrected to "IPCC".

Spatterlight Press edition

The IPCC is the Interworld Police Coordinating Company, which plays an important role in Vance's entire 5 book Demon Princes saga.

cover art by Edmund Emshwiller

Most editions of the Star King story have been printed with the title "The Star King", including the original 1963 printing in Galaxy magazine and the Spatterlight Press edition.

The IPX

in another Reality: Secrets of Ghnarumen

For decades I have had fantasies about a secretive IPX that was lurking within Vance's Oikumene. Last year, I blogged about bringing Vance's Zodiac Control into the Demon Princes saga.

I like to imagine that Zodiac Control is a secretive part of the Institute. Similarly, I imagine that within the Asimov Reality the IPX was a special services branch of the IPCC. I also like to imagine that Vance's books have been used by Interventionists as a clandestine means to provide the Editor with information about past Realities.

tryp'At Overseers

tryp'At
In the Exodemic Fictional Universe, Overseers are the "police" who watch over Earth and who try to prevent Interventionists from causing havoc.

According to Gohrlay, the IPX can be roughly translated as "inter-Reality Parnich Xilath". IPX was a term used in the Ekcolir Reality to refer to the team that worked to make sure that tryp'At Overseers would be in place to watch over Earth in the Final Reality.

source

"Parnich" can be translated into English as "ethics enforcer". The term 'parnich' implies enforcement of the Huaoshy Rules of Intervention. The word "xiplath" is a technical term that has no direct equivalent in English, but it means roughly "cultural engineer". Thus, "inter-Reality Parnich Xilath" means "those who engineer new Realities in accordance with the Rules of Intervention".

In some sense, the IPX and Zodiac Control were adversaries. The agents of Zodiac Control worked to make sure that humans would inherit planet Earth and be able to spread among the stars. The IPX worked to make sure that Earth's humans were properly constrained by the Rules of Intervention.

The Roben Report

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Henry Van Dongen, Karl Stephan
and Rafael De Soto (click image to enlarge)

Gohrlay's analogue in the Ekcolir Reality (Roben) was a fan of science fiction.  In the Ekcolir Reality, science fiction was used as a way to prepare Earthlings for First Contact with the Fru'wu.

Special thanks to Miranda Hedman (www.mirish.deviantart.com) for the DeviantArt stock photograph "Black Cat 9 - stock" that I used to create the blue "sedronite" who is in the image shown to the left.

Among the authors in the Ekcolir Reality who published information about alien visitors to Earth was Thomas Iwedon, himself the son of an Asterothrope and an Ek'col. An edition of his Miners of Earth was published along with The Repair of Time by Joan Brunner.

Joan Brunner in the Ekcolir Reality was the analogue of John Brunner in the Final Reality. In The Repair of Time, Joan provided an account of how Trysta and Grean collaborated to create the Trysta-Grean Pact, a peace accord that allowed them to work together and create the Final Reality.

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Edward Valigursky,
Edmund Emshwiller and Brian Lewis.

Other important stories that were published by Joan Brunner in the Ekcolir Reality included The tryp'At Overseers and Agent of Zodiac.

Reconstruction of novels from the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Edmund Emshwiller,
Edward Valigursky and Ed again.

Working in collaboration with Isaac Asimov, Joan also wrote Threshold of Eternity, a sequel to The End of Eternity. In Threshold of Eternity, Joan provided an account of how the Foundation Reality was terminated. As told in that account, Andrew Harlan was captured by Overseers in the 20th century of the Foundation Reality. However, Trysta Iwedon was protected by a personal temporal field generator and she was able to cross over into the next Reality.

Another writer of the Ekcolir Reality who provided insight into the Secret History of Humanity was Betty Chandler. In her Overseers of Nicotiana, Betty explained how nicotine could be used to help humans use the Bimanoid Interface.

 The Hidden Centuries

As described to me by Gohrlay, in Agent of Zodiac, there was a stunning last page revelation. The story's protagonist (Overseer Yoseña, a member of the IPX) turns out to be a clone of Svahr (who is the mysterious titular Agent of Zodiac Control).

Next: Ending the Ekcolir Reality -the roots of European history- the Mosivite/Etruscan cultural boundary and Trysta's adventures in the late Mesolithic.

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Lerand Wible

AI-generated image

I previously blogged about the Aquarius Trilogy, stories written by an analogue of Jack Vance who lived in the Ekcolir Reality. In the first book of that trilogy, The Clones of Sogdian, Kirth Gersen became caught up in a dangerous investigation of a secretive organization called Zodiac Control.

I've never read The Clones of Sogdian, but apparently Gohrlay did. Previously, I've referred to Gersen's partner during the events of the Aquarius Trilogy as "Drusilla I", but according to Gohrlay her name was Karalin Umdys.

Previously, I was aware that that Retz, who worked with Viole Falushe, was secretly an agent for Zodiac Control and Karalin played a role in revealing his secret identity.

Wible Resort on Sogdian

The opportunity to unmask Retz arose after Gersen became aware of some of the more heinous biological experiments that were carried out on Sogdian.

After visiting Retz and collecting all of the records of those experiments and the commentaries on them that had been written by Viole Falushe, Gersen turned the documents over to Rundle Detteras at Sea Province University on Alphanor in the Rigel system.

rehabilitation center, Sogdian

The Sogdian Experiments
Detteras quickly reviewed the materials and recommended that a rehabilitation facility be established immediately for the treatment of the most severely damaged victims of the Sogdian experiments. Gersen contacted Lerand Wible and asked if he had made progress on the design for a floating lagoon that had been commissioned by Viole Falushe. Wible had indeed worked out the details for construction of a floating city on Sogdian. With funding from Gersen, the treatment facility was quickly built from modular components that were shipped to the Sirneste Cluster and assembled according to Wible's plan.

After the first phase of construction was complete, Gersen left Retz and a team of doctors from Alphanor in charge of the rehabilitation center. Wible continued to build the Central Core of what was to eventually become known as Wible Resort and additional housing pods in the Outer Ring.

IPCC

Returning to Alphanor, Gersen next made his fateful discovery of Karalin Umdys on the Esplanade at Avante. When the "guardians" of Karalin suddenly disappeared, Gersen commissioned the IPCC to investigate. Known to Karalin as Jose and Viquie Umdys, IPCC investigators were only able to find a few weak linkages from them to the Institute.

No Nanites For Me

source

On the morning when Gersen received his report from the IPCC, Karalin asked him, "Why would the Institute be connected with Viole Falushe?"

Gersen took Karalin's hand and they went to the garden restaurant of their hotel. Gersen ate quietly and struggled internally with doubts about the wisdom of exposing Karalin to the grim details of his life. Puzzled by Gersen's silence, Karalin gently revived the topic of conversation. "Aren't you a member of the Institute?"

original cover art by John Berkey

Gersen shrugged. "I have not been active in the Institute since I was a lad, but I've never canceled my rank or abandoned my status as a member."

"If you asked the Institute for help, would they tell you anything about Jose and Viquie?"

Gersen slowly shook his head. "The IPCC investigated that possibility. They got nothing useful from the Institute and I'm certain that I would have no better luck."

Gersen again thought about his long-standing goal of publishing a series of articles about the Institute in Cosmopolis. A half dozen articles were ready for the press, but he feared going toe-to-toe with the Institute.

Karalin reached across the table and took hold of his hand. "You're not telling me everything."

Gersen nodded. "I have no right to involve you in my troubles." Still, Gersen reflected, Karalin was intelligent and well educated. Quite possibly she had heard useful information from Jose and Viquie during the years that she had lived with them. Gersen's hope that she might have useful knowledge was balanced against the possibility that upon further investigation of her upbringing and life, Gersen might learn that she had also been the subject of biological or psychological experimentation.

She squeezed his hand, "If it helps, I've decided to involve myself with you and the mysteries of my origins. I don't want to live my life in ignorance."

Gersen was torn between two paths forward. He was eager to forget about Viole Falushe and move on to fresh investigation of the two remaining Demon Princes. However, he was puzzled and disturbed by the evidence suggesting that both Kokor Hekkus and Viole Falushe had connections to the Institute. Gersen himself and his personal war against the Demon Princes had been revealed to Duschane Audmar, a high ranking member of the Institute. It might be unwise to ignore the Institute.

"Kirth, you are stubborn." Karalin asked firmly, "Why won't you tell me your thoughts?"

"I will, but not here." He rose and guided her towards the exit. Karalin needed only a few minutes to pack her travel bag and then they were on their way to the space port. An hour later with Alphanor shrinking below them, Gersen activated the star drive of the Distis Pharaon and he turned to Karalin. "Now we can speak freely. It is almost certain that the Institute has suppressed powerful technologies. The question becomes: are those technologies secretly available and still made use of by some?"

"What technologies? Made use of for what?"

"It is hard to imagine what we cannot see, but here is an example: the cloning technology that gave you your life."

Thamber

Karalin shrugged. "Why does it matter if I am a clone or if Viole Falushe obtained cloning technology from the Institute?"

"I don't know." Gersen projected an image of an Earth-like planet on the main display of the flight deck. "My thoughts went in another direction. Do you recall the planet Thamber?"

"Of course. Its location was made public just last year. News reports described it as the playground of Demon Prince Kokor Hekkus."

"I believe that the long life of Kokor Hekkus was made possible by cloning. If so, it means that he was able to pass his memories along from clone to clone."

"But the report was that Kokor Hekkus used biochemical techniques to extend his life."

"That appears to have been a half-truth. I had tests performed on the body of one of his aides who claimed to be hundreds of years old. However, analysis revealed that his body was only about fifty years old."

Karalin felt a shiver up her back. "Are you suggesting that Viole Falushe not only made me but also provided me with false memories?"

Gersen put an arm around Karalin and tried to put her mind at ease. "No, I don't think so. However, I worry that he and Retz were using some other technology on Sogdian to experiment with the control of emotions."

Karalin was startled by the possibility. "Are you saying that he could have made me fall in love with him?"

Gersen activated a viewer and showed Karalin pages from one of the notebooks that had been kept by Retz. "Read this."

Karalin scanned the documents and then turned back to Gersen. "Exactly who is this 'Retz'? He clearly has scientific training."

"At first I assumed that he worked for Viole Falushe, but I might have had that backwards."

"He seems to have believed that he could control the thoughts of those poor test subjects."

Gersen nodded. "That is my fear. If so, then he probably also controlled the thoughts of both Viole Falushe and myself. When I reflect on the situation, I don't understand why I trusted Retz to care for the victims of the evil human experimentation that took place at the Palace of Love."

Karalin asked, "But how could Retz take control of your mind?"

Gersen shrugged. "To understand that, I must return to Sogdian, but it will be dangerous. If Retz learns that I suspect him of being the mastermind behind Viole Falushe, he might simply eliminate me. I don't want to expose you to such a dangerous situation."

Karalin shook her head decisively. "You have it backwards again. I am the solution to your problem. I can get close to Retz and learn the truth."

"Very well, if you are willing to risk your life, then I'll make use of you. But we must take precautions; I don't want to lose you."

Karalin took gold of Gersen's arm and rested her head against his shoulder. "Do you have a plan?"

"We'll take an indirect approach. We will be on hand for the opening of Wible's Resort. We'll make no effort to visit Retz. We must entice Retz into our trap. And I want you to be in disguise. Have you ever wanted red hair?"

source

Karalin laughed. "Disguise?  I'll play that game. Just don't expect me to have my breasts enlarged."

Gersen put his arms around her, "A good spy has no inhibitions. For now, our only concern is our trap and how to attract the attention of Retz."
^{________________________}
This blog post is part of a  series that celebrates the fiction of Jack Vance. Other posts in the series:
March 6 - Mirky Porod
April 9 - Vance +100
May 7 - Scutinary Vitalists
May 15, 2016 - Director of Forestlands
May 26, 2017 - Perfection of Joy
^{________________________}
Next Blog Post: The Gaia Intervention 

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Stray Threads

source

In a previous blog post I listed the novels of Jack Vance that I have read. In another blog post I mentioned those Vance novels that I have read dozens of times each. Vance's humor and felicity with words makes it a pleasure to re-read his novels.

Sadly, Vance departed this world before writing enough novels to last us through eternity. I like to imagine additional novels that Vance might have written, or, for maximum fun, novels that Vance wrote in an alternate universe. These imagined Vance novels all begin with stray threads that Vance left scattered through his stories.....

Missed Opportunities

Jheral Tinzy

In the case of Vance's Demon Princes saga, there was a gap of a dozen years between publication of the third and fourth books in the series. It is fun to imagine other Demon Prince-related "spin off" novels that might have been written during those 12 years.

At the end of The Palace of Love, we see Gersen meeting "Drusilla I", one of the clones of Jheral Tinzy: "The girl was immensely appealing, with a thousand charms and graces."

But then 12 years later, at the start of The Face, Drusilla is never even mentioned. When Vance continued the Demon Princes saga after the 12 year hiatus, Kirth Gersen was busy trying to attract the attention of Lens Larque, the 4th Demon Prince to be hunted down and confronted by Gersen.

The Demon Princes Series.

Collaborations
When Gersen first begins his effort to find and kill the 5 Demon Princes, he is very much a loner.

Pallis Atwrode

Along the way, he involves a number of other folks in his mission, sometimes to their detriment. In the first book of the series, Star King, Gersen's investigation of Demon Prince Attel Malagate brings unwanted attention to Pallis Atwrode. She can't really be counted as Gersen's collaborator, since all she does is innocently answer some of Gersen's questions. However, the "reward" for her involvement with Gersen is being kidnapped, imprisoned and raped.

Gersen and Alusz

Take 2
In The Killing Machine, Gersen makes use of information that is provided by Alusz Iphigenia (princess of Gentilly on the "lost planet" of Thamber) to help him track down and kill Demon Prince Kokor Hekkus. Gersen does a better job of protecting Alusz from harm, but ultimately the course of his life alienates her and drives her away: "Never again, he told himself, would he involve a woman with the dark necessities of his life..."

In The Palace of Love, Gersen becomes somewhat enamored of Zan Zu of Eridu. However, after his failed romance with Alusz and fearing more heartache, he pushes Zan Zu away.

At that point, we turn the page and watch Gersen meet the charming Drusilla. Presumably Gersen has an enjoyable dalliance with her, but all that is left to our imaginations.

Alice Wroke

Preferring to work alone, Gersen still found himself in need of a collaborator and so he involved his financial adviser, Jehan Addels, in some dangerous legal maneuvering that was designed to bring the evil Lens Larque out into the open where he could be subjected to Gersen's lethal attention.

Later, in The Book of Dreams, Gersen makes use of Maxel Rackrose, Tuty and Otho Cleadhoe and Alice Wroke as collaborators who help him eliminate Howard Treesong, the fifth and final Demon Prince. Alice is the perfect match for Gersen. For her own personal reasons, she shares Gersen's desire to kill Treesong.

Drusilla
I previously imagined that in the Ekcolir Reality, Vance wrote other Demon Prince novels including The Clones of Sogdian (originally imagined as a prequel to The Palace of Love) and Return to Dar Sai (a sequel to The Face). Could there be additional books added into the Demon Princes saga, placed sequentially between The Palace of Love and The Face?

Jerdian Chanseth

Vance began The Face at a point in time when Gersen had already linked Lens Larque to the spaceship Ettilia Gargantyr. Somehow, Gersen was able to link the Ettilia Gargantyr to the Mt. Pleasant Raid, the ghastly atrocity that destroyed Gersen's home and family. We are not told how Gersen discovered the fact that the Ettilia Gargantyr was previously called the Fanutis and served to carry slaves away from Mt. Pleasant.

The Palace of Love.

In The Face, Gersen falls in love with Jerdian Chanseth and seemingly abandons his previously self-imposed restrictions on romantic entanglements. So could there have been a Vance novel about Gersen's romance with Drusilla during the time when he was searching for Lens Larque?

Drusilla of Alphanor and Kirth

Those of us who hve been restricted to the stories that were written by Jack Vance here in the Buld Reality never learned much about "Drusilla". We do know that Drusilla is not her real name. As a clone of Jheral Tinzy, she was handed over to "guardians" who raised her "in an atmosphere of gentility and good manners" on the planet Alphanor.

Gersen begins his acquaintance with "Drusilla of Alphanor" by reading some of Navarth's poems to her. This unconventional approach surprises her, but she says, "...I'm an unconventional person..." and we are left wondering if she and Gersen can become friends.

Dr. No

Secret Agents
Vance set the Demon Princes saga about 1,400 years in our future, but it is a future that seems remarkably similar to the mid-20th century. I did not discover Vance as an author until 1978, but it is fun and educational to remember the period of time when he started writing the Demon Princes stories: the 1960s.

In 1962 the first James Bond film was released, Dr. No, based on Ian Flemming's 1958 spy novel. Vance's own 1958 novel, The Languages of Pao, features a kind of "secret agent": Palafox of the Breakness Institute. In the opening scene, Palafox runs afoul of the brash and bumbling would-be-dictator Bustamonte and he is thrown into prison.

Dreams of flight in Science Fiction.
Artwork by Virgil Finlay.

Palafox uses his secret agent gizmos to cut through the prison bars and fly off into the night, escaping to his waiting spaceship. Palafox has used his advanced technology to make the blustering Bustamonte look like a buffoon. Palafox could fly because he had an anti-gravity device implanted in his body.

Television
In 1964, Ian Flemming helped launch The Man from U.N.C.L.E. on television.

United Network Command for Law and Enforcement

The agents of U.N.C.L.E. battled against the evil-doers of T.H.R.U.S.H. in the same way that James Bond battled S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). Just as now, when we are trained and conditioned to imagine "terrorists" conspiring behind every door, during the Cold War we imagined evil  agents who were plotting to take over the world: back then they were commie agents. In the atmosphere of fear that was generated during the Cold War, fantasy secret agents like James Bond boldly confronted the lurking evil-doers of our imaginations.

The Demon Princes

The silly science fiction themes of James Bond were there from the start in Dr. No. The Bond films have often included unrealistic technologies: I guess the intent has always been to play off public expectations that secret government agents have access to super secret wiz-bang technologies. The invented technologies of the Bond films are often hokey, but they create a "super science" atmosphere for the stories. In contrast, Vance's Demon Princes saga is set in the far future, but under the influence of the anti-progress "Institute", the technologies available to Gersen while he hunts for the 5 Demon Princes are little different from those of 20th century Earth...... the main exception being the ready availability of spaceships.

The Man from Zodiac

Between 1964 and 1967,  Vance published his first three Demon Princes stories featuring Kirth Gersen as a kind of "secret agent" who did battle against "bad guys", specifically the five "Demon Princes" who had destroyed his home and enslaved his family. In that fictional universe, Gersen lives in a future "Oikumene" where secretive organizations such as The Institute and the I.P.C.C. vie for domination over the hundreds of scattered planets that have been colonized by humans.

a Zodiac Control agent
using nanotechnology

In 1967, Jack Vance published The Man from Zodiac. (apparently Vance's preferred title was “Milton Hack from Zodiac"). Milton Hack is an agent for Zodiac Control. I've seen it suggested that this story could have launched a series and may have been written as early as 1957. I've never read the story, so I'm just using it as a "stray thread", inspiration for an imagined trilogy of Vance novels. I imagine that in the Ekcolir Reality, rather than a 12 year-long gap between The Palace of Love and The Face, there were instead several "spin-off" novels featuring the adventures of Kirth Gersen and "Drusilla" who end up crossing paths with agents from Zodiac Control.

Our Reality Chain.

I imagine that during their time together, Drusilla and Kirth travel to the city of Vire on the planet Sadal Suud Four in order to investigate the Celerus Transport Company, but they are led in strange, unexpected directions and never find Lens Larque before their collaboration is tragically terminated.

Interventionists
About three years ago I sketched out the plot of a sequel to The Book of Dreams (see also). What if "behind the scenes" during Gersen's quest to destroy the five Demon Princes there is a larger struggle over the fate of Humanity?

For the Exode Trilogy, I've written Isaac Asimov, Jack Vance and Carl Sagan into the story. It is fun to explore a special role for science fiction writers in telling us about the fate of Humanity in past Realities. For example, Asimov told the story of the Mallansohn Reality in The End of Eternity.

The Reality Chain that led to the world
as we know it (the Buld Reality)

Asimov also described the next Reality of our Reality Chain, the Foundation Reality, in his famous Foundation Saga. As a time traveler, Asimov played a major role in the Reality Change that ended the Foundation Reality and brought into existence what I call the Asimov Reality. The future fate of Humanity in the Asimov Reality was described by Jack Vance in his science fiction novels.

The next Reality in our Reality Chain, the one that followed after the Asimov Reality, is usually called the Ekcolir Reality, but I used to call it the Noÿs Reality. It becomes the task for "the Editor" of the Exode Trilogy to tell the story of the Ekcolir Reality. Thus, the Exode Trilogy is recursive science fiction where the science fiction genre plays an important role in the story.

Preland, Human, Sedronite evolutionary tree.

Through the course of the Time War, two alien influences vied for control of the fate of Humanity. During that time-twisted struggle, the Overseers of Earth tried to enforce the Rules of Intervention. Their goal was to establish the artificially crafted Prelands as the dominant primate species on Earth. The rivals of the Overseers are the Interventionists. The Interventionists formed an alliance with Gohrlay and worked hard to give we humans a chance to inherit the Earth and spread outward among the stars.

In the Ekcolir Reality
In the Ekcolir Reality, from 1967 to 1977 the twins Jack and John Vance wrote a series of novels featuring Drusilla and Kirth in which they become aware of -and caught up in- the struggle between Overseers and Interventionists.

Endosymbionts

Jheral Tinzy became  part of a long and sustained effort by Overseers to breed humans who could function as better hosts for nanite endosymbionts. However, before the Overseers had their chance to study Jheral's remarkable set of genes, some Interventionist agents used Vogel Filschner as their tool to extract Jheral from Earth and take her to a distant planet where she could be cloned. The Interventionists performed experiments on the clones, experiments designed to find new and improved methods to interfere with the nanite endosymbionts that were being used by Overseers to control human behavior.

After Gersen first meets Drusilla on Alphanor, they begin a joint investigation into the Interventionist experiments that were being performed on the planet Sogdian and learn that Drusilla had been scheduled to be infected by nanites and only narrowly escaped that fate because of Gersen's visit to Sogdian during which he managed to kill Viole Falushe.

Aquarius
The planet Sogdian is the fifth planet of the star Miel, within the Sirneste Cluster, which is located in the Aquarius Sector of the galaxy.

Sogdian is in the Aquarius Sector of the galaxy.

A Drusilla clone on Sogdian.

The first novel in the "Kirth and Drusilla" trilogy (also known as the Aquarius Trilogy), The Clones of Sogdian, starts with the return of Kirth and Drusilla to Sogdian where they learn as much as they can about the experiments that had been performed on Jheral and those that had been planned to be performed on the "Drusilla clones", the daughters of Jheral Tinzy. They discover that Retz, who worked with Viole Falushe, was secretly an agent for a mysterious organization called Zodiac Control.

Thamber: The Gentilly Protocol

By the end of The Clones of Sogdian, Kirth and Drusilla discover that they must return the the planet Thamber, a world that like Sogdian was a base of operations for experiments being carried out by Zodiac Control.

The second novel in the Aquarius Trilogy, Thamber: The Gentilly Protocol, includes an account of events when Drusilla and Kirth visit Thamber. They discovery that Zodiac Control is actually a tool, along with the Institute, being used to manipulate the growth of human civilization and shape the ultimate fate of Humanity.

Novelette by John Vance

The third novel in the Aquarius Trilogy starts with an account of how Kirth and Drusilla go to the planet Lambda Grus III to investigate the odd relationship between the Star Kings and Zodiac Control.

With clues gathered on Ghnarumen, Kirth and Drusilla develop the hypothesis that the Demon Princes are all controlled by alien endosymbionts.

Kirth and Drusilla next go to the Fomalhaut star system and discover the artificial life remnants of the ancient technologically-advanced humanoids who long ago designed and crafted both the Star Kings and we humans.

The Aquarius Sector of the galaxy (map key).

Zodiac Central Command
Zodiac Control has a secret research center on one of the Fomalhaut planets. In order to put an end to the meddling of Kirth and Drusilla, the Zodiac agents simulate a collision between Gersen's Pharaon and some space debris in the Fomalhaut system. Zodiac Control takes Drusilla for use in their secret experiments.

Book 3 of the Aquarius Trilogy

Having been tricked by the agents of Zodiac Control, Gersen believes that Drusilla was killed in the spaceship collision. He feels lucky to have survived and to have escaped from the Fomalhaut star system.

Gersen has had some of his memories erased by Zodiac Control and mercifully that allows him to forget about Drusilla and get on with his grim task of killing the last two Demon Princes. He returns to Aloysius and resumes his hunt for the two remaining adversaries, Lens Larque and Alan Treesong.

Next: Tall aliens and the tall tales of science fiction.

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