ᴺiʀutam＆maturᴙiᴻ

Figure 1. Nirutam by Mr. Wombo.

 This blog page (below) has Part 5 of my Decade in Review (DiR, see Part 1). All of the blog posts in this series have titles that contain unusual characters. This blog post is called "ᴺiʀutam＆Maturᴙiᴻ" because for my 2020 writing Change Challenge I invented a new character called Nirutam. Nirutam's "backup copy" is called Maturin.

Tami. Nirutam was introduced in a Jan. 5, 2020 blog post called "Two Wrongs". The image that is shown in Figure 1 was updated by WOMBO Dream from the original book cover for "The Nirutam Intervention" that was used as a story illustration in 2020. The text of my story about Nirutam noted that, "Nirutam has glossy orange-brown skin and wears a wig." Nirutam is an alien from the Andromeda galaxy, but she has to "fit in" with the people of Earth during her mission. Colleen Liscan is an exile from Earth who while residing at Observer Base could write an account of Nirutam's life.

Figure 2. Orange alien.

For the image to the left, I requested, "a humanoid alien" with "orange alien skin". It is not easy to find the boundary between "alien" and "too alien", particularly when so many science fiction depictions of aliens make the aliens look ugly.

The Editor first met Nirutam when she was part of a writers group that met once a month to discuss writing. The Editor was intrigued by the science fiction stories that Nirutam told since they involved robots and an "escapist literature" about "creators" of the robots who long ago "transcended". The Editor cannot ignore the similarities between Nirutam's story "The T-Band Robots" and elements of what he thinks of as the Secret History of Humanity.

The Trysta-Grean Pact

Nirutam and the Editor discuss the bumpha and Nirutam comments: "Sadly, you don't have much information about the bumpha." Eventually (in 2021), I began allowing a character called Manny the bumpha to interact with the main characters of the Exode Saga, but as a bumpha, Manny is an artificial life-form that can take on any convenient form, including the spaceship Many Sails.

The other half of "Two Wrongs" is the presence of Dani the probot on Earth. Technically, it is a violation of the terms of the The Trysta-Grean Pact for Dani and Nirutam to be on Earth, but they are trying to verify that, besides themselves, no other alien influences remain on Earth. Dani makes the point that as a femtobot artificial life-form, he can move between Observer Base and Earth via a femtotube.

Figure 3. Updated by Mr. Wombo.

 The fain of Ret'fai. For Figures 1 and 2 (above) I wanted images of a young and healthy Nirutam, but she was designed as a "disposable" Interventionist who could not survive for very long on Earth. By the time when Nirutam meets Zeta, Nirutam is already quite ill and will soon be dead. However, as a fain from the distant planet Ret'fai, Nirutam has carefully prepared her own Selfie as an artificial life "backup copy" of herself. During the brief time period when Nirutam exists as a biological life-form in Earth, she has a "pet cat" and her Selfie is hidden inside the cat.

The image shown in Figure 3 is an AI-updated version of a 2020 illustration in my blog post "Post Life". That is a depiction of Zeta, who is in her 60s, but Zeta makes use of medical nanites to avoid aging processes and retain a youthful body. Maturin is a sub-nanoscopic artificial life-form that resides inside the body of a cat while on Earth.

Manufactured people (source).

 Extinct Aliens. Early in 2020, I was writing chapters of A Search Beyond that explained how Nirutam was prepared for her mission to Earth, but by the middle of 2020 I would abandon work on the five novels of the Exode Saga as it had been planned by the Editor. From that point on, I simply placed by science fiction stories at the wikifiction blog and pretended that the Editor had taken all of his blogs and writings off of the internet. In the chapter of A Search Beyond called "Nirutam", Many Sails tells Azynov about the history of the fain, "Originally they were the Onvo. The Onvo began using nanotechnology and managed to cause their own extinction."

As seen in A Search Beyond, my early thoughts about the Reality Simulation System (in 2019) included the idea that while a person used the Simulation System, their biological body needed to be cared for while their conscious mind explored the Simulation. 

Figure 4. Updated by Mr. Wombo.

 Disposable Bodies. In later stories that involved Reality Simulation, I abandoned that pesky detail, assuming that the Reality Simulation System had teleporter-like functionality that dematerialized a person's body while they used the Simulator.

 Change Challenge. In a blog post dated Apr 17, 2020 and called "CC Complexity" I decided to make Tihri the recipient of a set of infites that were left behind on Earth by Nirutam. Eventually, Tihri discovered the more accurate spelling of her name (Tyhry) and became the first person on Earth to learn how to program and control femtobots, an advanced form of alien nanotechnology. 

The original 2020 version of the scene shown in Figure 4 is at the end of the blog post "CC Complexity". The AI-updated version was generated by Mr. Wombo.

In Alastor Cluster.

In the end, the Nirutam character ended up playing three important roles in the Exode Saga: 1) she helped bring out into the open ISIO, 2) she helped make the Editor realize that he should hide his investigations of the Secret History of Humanity and 3) Tyhry began her role as the key Earthling who, with the assistance of Manny, would begin to deploy advanced nanotechnology on Earth. 

In a blog post dated June 1, 2020 and called "Débutante", I finally presented Part 2 of The Yerophet Experiment, which I had begun in December 2019. On the planet Triskelion in the Asimov Reality is an analogue of Isaac Asimov's famous positronic robot, Daneel. The version of Daneel who is on Triskelion is called Danni. Triskelion is depicted as the most technologically advanced world of Alastor Cluster, its wealth based on hierion mining.

On Yerophet (image source).

By Part 6 of The Yerophet Experiment, the action has shifted from Triskelion to the planet Yerophet where Maturin is serving as the assistant of Colleen. Maturin has a ranch in Goslewenn, where Colleen stayed after her arrival on Yerophet. Goslewenn is a tiny hamlet right on the border of Kerub territory, on the fringe of Frost Hills District where there are several Kerub villages conveniently nearby. 

In one of those native villages is the home of lo'Whots, a Kerub who is helping Colleen investigate Kerub telepathy and how it is causing troubles for human settlers on Yerophet.

Grean's Hack (image credits)

 The Utility of Fain Gene Patterns in the Ekcolir Reality. In a blog post dated August 1, 2020 and called "Fateful Planet" there is the first part of a story called Grean's Hack, an account of the development of human-fain hybrids who could help counter the effects of the Fru'wu on Earth.

Figure 5. Updated by Mr. Wombo.

The third blog post with story elements for Grean's Hack is in "Alien Hybrids" (see Figure 5). In the Ekcolir Reality of Deep Time, Asimov's wife Marcia gives birth to Sven, an human-fain hybrid, who would appear again in later stories.

The Interventionist agent Svahr appears in Grean's Hack. Sven had been carefully designed with genes from many sources only two of which were Isaac and Marcia. Svahr explains, "Sven is a hybrid; even now he is in two-way communication with his replicoid in the Hierion Domain."

image source

 "Time of Theurgency". The August 6, 2020 blog post called "Matter Duplication" has a continuation of the Grean's Hack series of stories.  "Time of Theurgency" begins with Grean and Trysta making plans for the Final Reality. Those plans involve Ariel Adler (the Ekcolir Reality analogue of Allen Adler), previously introduced as a friend of Marcia. Ariel is "part of the famous show business Adler family of New York, Virginia". Grean notes that Marcia and Ariel were long-time lovers, even after Marcia was married to Isaac Asimov. Trysta and Grean make a teleportation duplicate of Ariel. Telepathic linkage between two copies of Ariel, one remaining on Earth and the other one now in the Hierion Domain, allows Ariel to incorporate Trysta Iwedon as a character in a science fiction story that she is writing.

Figure 6. Trysta in the Hierion Domain (source).

The fate of the new copy of Ariel Adler who appears in the Hierion Domain is described in "Relda". Beginning a new life in the Hierion Domain, Ariel2 is greeted by Trysta Iwedon the Asterothrope (see Figure 6). Trysta explains to the new copy of Ariel, "Often what is done in these situations is to reverse the letters of the duplicate's original name."Ariel learns that she is needed to train an Interventionist agent named Gertrude. Soon after her arrival in the Hierion Domain, Ariel2 (Relda) also meets Wendy the probot and Deomede the Ek'col.

Petra Nicholls and Gina Hay (image source).

The concluding section of "Time of Theurgency" was in a blog post called "Making Hay". My story character Gina is depicted as the Ekcolir Reality analogue of the grand-daughter of George Hay who helped found, "the Science Fiction Foundation in 1972, espousing in that role his continuing sense that sf provides an armamentarium of mostly technological tools for coping with the future" (source). Gina is a mind clone of Ariel who along with Petra Nicholls formed the Foundation for Science Fiction, an organization devoted to countering the Fru'wu Movement on Earth. When two copies of Ariel meet Gina on Earth, they can sense a telepathic link to Gina. Using the Bimanoid Interface, Relda will be able to transmit information from the Writers Block to Ariel on Earth.

another mind clone network

The next component of Grean's Hack was "Foundation Reality Simulator". Isaac Asimov's son, Sven, experiments with an hierion probe, using Petra as a human test subject. Petra is part of a mind clone network that links her two the two copies of Isaac Asimov in the Ekcolir Reality, one on Earth and one at the Writers Block. In the blog post called "The FR Simulator", Sven tunes a hierion probe so that Petra's brain can efficiently us the Bimanoid Interface to connect her telepathic mind to that of the "other Asimov" in the Hierion Domain, the replicoid of Asimov from the previous Reality. The other Asimov has access to Reality Simulation equipment at Observer Base. He and Relda use a Simulation of the Foundation Reality to obtain data about the fain from an archeological site on the planet Terminus. The other Asimov also begins the process of linking science fiction story writer Sydney J. to her replicoid at the Writers Block.

image source

The conclusion of "Foundation Reality Simulator" is in the blog post "Space Force". The character Danela Steel is yet another cover identity for Isaac Asimov's famous positronic robot, Daneel. Danela Steel works hard to cover-up the fact that robots from the fain interstellar civilization were on the planet Terminus millions of years before humans were crafted and brought into existence. In "Space Force", it is also suggested that the telepathic abilities of Giskard originated from an Intervention into Earthly affairs by the artificial life descendants of the fain. Gina is provided with a "domestic helper", Piero, who will provide Gina with the time that she needs to begin writing her own science fiction stories.

Ottengla

By the end of August 2020, Grean's Hack had grown to be a 50,000 word science fiction adventure set in the Ekcolir Reality. To that point, the story had three linked parts, "Terminus Planet", "Time of Theurgency" and "Foundation Reality Simulator". Petra is the star character of "Foundation Reality Simulator". At the end of August, I was not entirely done with Petra Nicholls as a character and in September I wrote a new story about Petra's replicoid, Artep.

Tirret

But first came another story, "The Gensifer Clan", a follow-up story to The Yerophet Experiment, which began to tell the tale of historical investigations carried out by Azynov and Yōd using the AR Simulator. The planet Ottengla is one of the worlds of Alastor Cluster where alien gene patterns were used to help make telepathic humans. In "The Gensifer Clan", Maturin explains to Azynov and Yōd the importance of space pirates in Alastor Cluster and their role in collecting useful telepaths and taking them to the planet Yrinna. 

Figure 7. Updated by Whisk.

 "The Gensifer Clan" was completed in a blog post called "Notteng of Ottengla" in which Azynov and Yōd learn that robots from Triskelion have long been protecting the telepathic humans who live on Ottengla. The telepathic natives of Ottengla, the Plesypy, are highly intelligent, but they hide that fact from the starmenters such as Captain Tirret. Maturin demonstrates that she has complete and precise control over the Asimov Reality Simulator, resetting it after having demonstrated for Azynov and Yōd the true state of affairs on Ottengla.

The telepathic humans on Ottengla are blind and they use part of their brain that is normally for vision to aid their telepathic ability. Azynov and Yōd are sent to the planet Zeck where they learn about Glisten, a woman with interesting telepathic abilities who grew up without spoken language. "Notteng of Ottengla " is actually a prequel story to "The Power of Pause" that was written in 2019.

Mary and Artep (image source).

"The Synpaz of Seelie" is a science fiction story about Artep, the replicoid of Petra at Observer Base. Artep is a synpaz, about one tenth the size of a normal human being and "The Synpaz of Seelie" introduces the Seelie community of Eternity. Mary Godwin is living with "the other" Asimov at the Writers Block and she is trying to devise a scientific theory that can account for the many types of known hierions. The other Asimov is still working to send stories about aliens from the Writers Block to Earthlings such as Petra Nicholls.

The Seelie community is home of the sy'Paz, hermaphroditic human-alien hybrids who live in a special subdomain of Observer Base that is linked to the Writers Block. Both the sy'Paz and Synpaz replicoids such as as Artep have the ability to fly because their bodies caontain special negative mass hierions.

Grean's Hack

 Grean's Hack of the Asimov Reality Simulator. Grean the Kac'hin plays a major role in "The Synpaz of Seelie". Grean is preparing for the Final Reality, where the only form of telepathy will be technology-assisted telepathy made possible by the Bimanoid Interface. 

A major problem confronting Grean is that R. Nyrtia has placed a lock on the Eternity Asimov Reality Simulator. Other Realities such as the Foundation Reality are accessible by the Reality Simulation System, but not the Asimov Reality, where R. Nyrtia had access to the expertise of the Phari in hierion physics. In "A Missing Hierion", Grean says, "Mary found the negative mass hierion. I have a second team at work, building on that discovery. That effort might soon give us the computational power that we need to hack R. Nyrtia's lock."

sy'Paz time travelers - image source

The concluding section of "The Synpaz of Seelie" is in a September 3, 2020 blog post titled "Mission in Time". Grean sends her sy'Paz operatives back in time to 1860 to provide a key mathematical idea that will eventually make possible use of the Asimov Reality Simulator. Grean's Hack ended up being a 96,000 word long novel with five major sub-sections.

Grean's Hack is best viewed as fan-fiction since it includes fictional elements (such as the planet Terminus) that I borrow from Asimov's Foundation Fictional Universe. Grean's Hack ended up being a fun story that accounts for the widespread presence of "little people" in Earth's ancient cultures. It is also a depiction of events in 1973 leading up the the Reality Change that ended the Ekcolir Reality and brought into existence the Final Reality.

A book cover in the Ekcolir Reality,
inspired by Paul Bacon (image source)

The fifth and final section of Grean's Hack is called "Final Change". At the end of the story, there is an account of exactly which residents of Observer Base were allowed to continue to exist in the Final Reality. The image that is shown to the left hints at the fact that some of the nanoscopic replicoids from the Ekcolir Reality are among the few residents of Observer Base and its linked hierion domain subsections who are shifted into the Final Reality. Several "endtime Hierion Field generators" must be installed at Observer Base to allow a select group of the residents to pass into the Final Reality. That select group includes a few nano-scale replicoids who work as part of the Writers Block team.

The other Asimov is pushed into the Final Reality and right at the end of Grean's Hack, he is told that he is being sent off to visit Tar'tron in the Galactic Core. Later he will return to Earth and enter the Asimov Reality Simulation with Yōd.

in the nanorealm (image source)

  September 20, 2020. Close on the heels of the Grean's Hack novel was a new science fiction story called "Hierion Writers Club". The Nanorealm was originally designed as a way to develop the type of telepathic group mind that might successfully defend the galaxy against the Huaoshy. The second part of "Hierion Writers Club" did not arrive until December 2020 (see below).

 Grean Fiction. In a blog post dated November 12, 2020 and called "Green Fiction", I began another new science fiction story called "Grean Fiction", which became a 35,000 word novella. The "Green Fiction" blog post starts with an image of Greenland in the future of the Ekcolir Reality, after all of Earth's ice caps have melted. In the future of the Ekcolir Reality, humans were given access to Fru'wu teleportation technology.

Grean and Delpha the selfie (source).

 After the arrival of the Final Reality. "Grean Fiction" depicts on-going events inside the Ekcolir Reality at a time after the Final Reality has already begun and a "copy" of Grean named Delpha is at Observer Base and trying to guide events at the Writers Block.

 The second part of "Grean Fiction" appeared in a blog post that was dated November 18, 2020 and called "The Gift of Teleportation". The story, set in a time when the Greenland icecap is rapidly melting, depicts a rushed archeological expedition to find alien artifacts that have been hidden under Greenland ice for millions of years.

In "Grean Fiction" it is suggested that the Fru'wu were on Earth millions of years ago and they carried out primate breeding experiments.

the Belerephon at Altair IV

Clues found at an archeological site in Greenland suggest that biological samples from Earth were sent to planet Altair IV. "Warp drive" had been invented on Earth and soon an interstellar spaceship is sent to Altair IV.

Tequid and Alphin

In the November 20, 2020 blog post called "Ocean World", the Belerephon arrives at Altair IV and a young girl named Tara has the ability to make telepathic contact to the Tequids, aquatic primate variants who have been artificially evolved and adapted to the ocean of Altair IV. At an undersea base, there is a long-range teleportation device that can send people to other planets that were known to the Fru'wu civilization that existed millions of years in the past. 

image source

The November 25, 2020 blog post called "River of Time" has the 4th part of the science fiction story "Grean Fiction". Tara returns to Earth and begins to learn about the tryp'At, who had long been acting as Interventionists on Earth. One of the tasks for the tryp'At is helping to prevent humans from gaining access to teleportation technology which could be used to make duplicated of humans and lead to disruption of human society.

The final part of  "Grean Fiction" was in a blog post dated November 28, 2020 and titled "The Replicoids of Talya". Tara is concerned that she is part of an engineered time loop by which her existence depends on sending information about the Fru'wu base on Altair IV back to science fiction story tellers of the 20th century. Tara is taken into the Hierion Domain and she meets Delpha the Kac'hin.

Tara's home at Talya. (image source)

Tara learns that she had been guided through her life by Ara, a nanoscopic replicoid that was integrated with her zeptite endosymbiont. In 2025 I began using the term "femtozoan" for such nanoscopic personalities.

Arriving in the Hierion Domain, Tara learns that rather than dying on Altair IV, her family was teleported to a community in the Hierion Domain called Talya. Tara learns that she has a fine home and even her childhood Tequid friend, Patty is there living in the lake beside Talya. Delpha has completed the Tara time loop and now Tara can live out the rest of her life at Talya.

Châtella the probot at the Writers Block (source).

 Kac'hin Conversion. In December of 2020, I continued my science fiction story "Hierion Writers Club". When Grean takes control of Eternity, she extracts the replicoid of Mary Godwin (known as Yira) from Nanoville (itself a project of Nyrtia) and Yira helps create the Writers Block.

In Part 4 of "Hierion Writers Club", Grean reveals that she has made a duplicate copy of Wendy the probot who is on Earth as Fengtol, bait that might help Grean find Nyrtia's secret base of operations. 

"The Galaxiad"

The other copy of Wendy is now inside a full-sized probot body and helping staff the new Writers Block with probot assistants such as "Châtella".

Eventually, a copy of Isaac Asimov is installed as the new Director of the Writers Block, at a time after "Yira" had returned to using the name Mary.

Having depicted the immediate aftermath of Grean's arrival in Eternity, right near the end of 2020, I wrote "The Galaxiad", a new story set in the Foundation Reality just before Grean took control of Eternity. I generally hate fictional accounts of politics, but "The Galaxiad" features a political struggle between the Social Unity Party and the Individual Freedom Party for control over the fate of the galaxy. This is at the time when the positronic robots of Earth are trying to form Galaxia as a galaxy-wide telepathic group mind.

sedroids vs probots

In Part 2 of "The Galaxiad", Many Sails the bumpha is first seen in the guise of a reporter named Ambra Hetzey. Ambra explains that she deployed artificial life-forms called sedroids in the galaxy to slow the development of Galaxia until Grean was ready to take control of Eternity. During the formation of Galaxia, R. Nyrtia had deployed probots, advanced positronic robots who were resistant to to the kind of "mind static" devices that Isaac Asimov included in his Foundation stories.

Also in "The Galaxiad" is Vyky Dey, a human variant called a Werefe, that can use modified hairs to efficiently detect electromagnetic signals emanating from human brains. The Werefe have also developed a method for direct linkage of two nervous systems that is similar to what I would later call synapex linkages.

Ebernal

Right at the end of 2020 was Part 1 of "The Olivine Intervention", a follow on story to "The Power of Pause". Arriving on Yerophet, Glisten can telepathically link to the Kerub who are are Phet-Plesypy-Human hybrids. Long in the past there were two telepathic creatures on Yerophet, the Yer and the Phet. The Yer remain as part of the interstellar Phari-network, but the Phet are long extinct. However, their telepathic gene patterns were mixed with those of Plesypy-Human hybrid telepaths from Ottengla.

In Part 2 of "The Olivine Intervention", Yōd tells Glisten that she is half Neanderthal and that Neanderthal genes have been spread through Alastor Cluster. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that the Neanderthals had a type of weak telastid-mediated telepathy. However, Alastor Cluster was used as a laboratory for making a fully telepathic human variant.

Next: Part 6 of the Decade in Review.

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A Marda ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ

Figure 1. A Spirali.

 The text "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ" is Gemini's creation of an imaginary word of the Younger Futhark language for the English word "mystery". I then consulted the Claude LLM. With a few hints, Claude was able to recognize "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ" as being a transliteration of "mystery".

 Me: Claude, I'm using "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ" as part of the title of a science fiction story. Can you invent a plot for a science fiction story that could include "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ" as part of the title?

 Cluade: "The ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol"

In 2157, archaeologist Dr. Elina Voss discovers a peculiar artifact on Mars during the third wave of human colonization. The object—a crystalline cube with shifting patterns and mysterious runic inscriptions including "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ"—defies all known classification systems. Carbon dating suggests it's both ancient and, impossibly, from the future.

Figure 2. Elina and a Spirali.

When activated by specific electromagnetic frequencies, the cube projects holographic star maps showing wormhole locations that shouldn't exist according to current physics. More disturbingly, it contains detailed information about Earth and Mars from before human settlement of the red planet—information no human expedition could have gathered.

Dr. Voss assembles a team of linguistics experts, quantum physicists, and AI specialists to decode the artifact. They discover "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ" isn't Viking at all—it's part of a recursive language developed by a post-human civilization that exists in a temporal loop with our own. The runes represent both "mystery" and, in this advanced language, "message across time." 

Figure 3. Generated by Whisk.

 As the team decodes more of the artifact, they realize it contains a warning: humanity's current path leads to a catastrophic temporal paradox. The artifact was sent back by our future descendants who have mastered time manipulation but damaged the fabric of reality in the process. The "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol" is their desperate attempt to change their past—our present—to prevent temporal collapse.

Now Dr. Voss and her team must decide whether to follow the protocol's instructions, potentially altering humanity's developmental trajectory, or reject these messages from a possible future they don't fully understand. All while shadowy government and corporate interests seek to weaponize the technology for their own purposes.

Figure 4. Pest control. Yellow laser beams added manually.

 Me: Claude, modify "The ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol" so as to incorporate the illustration that I just uploaded. {Figure 1} Imagine that this image depicts a member of the "post-human civilization" that issues the "temporal paradox" warning.

Figure 5. Tyhry makes first contact. Alien face modified by WOMBO Dream.

Figure 6. Generated by Leonardo.

 Claude: "The ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol" (Revised)

In 2157, archaeologist Dr. Elina Voss discovers a peculiar artifact on Mars during the third wave of human colonization. The object—a crystalline cube with shifting patterns and mysterious runic inscriptions including "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ"—defies all known classification systems.

When activated, the cube projects a holographic figure: a being with an unsettlingly familiar yet alien countenance. Its face bears humanoid features—large green eyes and delicate lips that suggest a distant kinship to humanity—but its head spirals into an elaborate shell-like structure of segmented tissue. Two small, claw-like appendages protrude from what might be considered its shoulders.

 The researchers nickname this entity "The Herald" and discover it represents the Spirali, evolved descendants of humanity who merged with another species in Earth's distant future. Their distinctive spiral cranial structure houses advanced temporal perception organs that allow them to perceive time non-linearly.

Figure 7. Alien face by Mr. Wombo.

 The hologram explains that the Spirali exist in a civilization 200,000 years from now, after humanity has undergone radical biological and technological evolution. They've mastered genetic engineering, consciousness transfer, and temporal mechanics, adapting their bodies to survive Earth's changing conditions and eventually colonizing multiple dimensions.

However, their experiments with time manipulation created fractures in spacetime—paradoxes that threaten to collapse all timelines into a singular point of entropic destruction. The cube contains their "ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol," a precise set of interventions in our era designed to heal these fractures before they begin.

Figure 8. Alien contact by Leonardo.

 Dr. Voss is shocked to discover her own genetic signature embedded in the artifact—suggesting she plays a pivotal role in this temporal crisis. The Herald reveals that she must make a critical choice: implement the protocol, which will alter humanity's development but save countless futures, or reject it and maintain the current timeline, leading to the catastrophic paradox.

As governments and corporations scramble to control this technology, Voss begins experiencing visions through the Herald's perspective—glimpses of potential futures and the strange, beautiful world of the Spirali. She must determine if these post-humans are trustworthy saviors or manipulative beings with their own agenda, all while the temporal fractures begin manifesting on Earth and Mars as localized reality distortions.

Figure 9. Another alien face by Mr. Wombo.

 The fate of multiple timelines rests on her decision about whether to trust these enigmatic descendants and implement their mysterious protocol.

 Me: Claude, imagine that in the far future, the Spirali have genetically engineered themselves to have a type of immorality that involves periodic metamorphosis. A new body (and a new humanoid brain) forms inside the body of an aged Spirali. Some of the memories of the old, dying brain transfer to the newly developing brain. Eventually, the new "replacement" body emerges from the older body, which then dies. Claude, modify your proposed plot for "The ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol" so as to include the idea that in order for Dr. Voss to complete the ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol, she must survive for several centuries. Dr. Voss must herself undergo periodic metamorphosis, extending her life span. {I provided Claude with the image that is shown in Figure 2.}

Figure 10. Feline alien face by Mr. Wombo.

 Claude: "The ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol" (metamorphosis)

The Herald explains that implementing the protocol is not a single moment, but a centuries-long process. Dr. Voss learns she must undergo a radical transformation mirroring the Spirali's own evolutionary strategy—a form of biological immortality through recursive metamorphosis.

Like the Spirali, Voss will experience periodic regenerations. Each metamorphosis will preserve fragments of her previous consciousness while adapting her body to withstand increasingly complex temporal interventions. Her first transformation will begin within decades, not centuries, triggered by genetic modifications the Spirali will introduce during their initial contact.

Figure 11. Felydyan.

 Each new body will emerge from the dying shell of her previous form, carrying forward critical memories and mission parameters of the ᛘᚢᛋᛏᛅᚱᚢ Protocol. The process is both a biological necessity and a temporal strategy—each iteration of Voss will make subtle corrections to humanity's trajectory, gradually steering civilization away from the catastrophic paradox.

The image of Voss facing the Spirali becomes a metaphorical and literal representation of her journey—a human gradually transforming, learning to communicate and exist across multiple temporal planes, her very biology becoming a living solution to the universe's most complex mathematical problem.

The protocol is no longer just a mission. It's a complete reimagining of human potential, with Voss as its first and most critical agent of change.

Figure 12. Leonardo-generated alien.

Not surprisingly, my story idea for a "Marda Mystery" is quite different from that concocted by Claude. Marda's mystery begins in her garden that is shaded by the large building that acts as a hangar for the Sedrover. Marda notices that someone has been expanding the old garden and planting cultivars that seem particularly attractive to butterflies. Upon investigation, Marda realizes that one of Tyhry's cats, Tyller, has taken up gardening.

Rylla, Nora, Zeta and Eddy agree to help Tyhry search the Ekcolir Reality for a hierion femtotube that links into Eternity. Eager to get into space and enjoy some low-G sexplay, Tyhry, Nora, Zeta and Eddy go directly from the nanite research laboratory and on into Sedrover. When a butterfly lands on Rylla, Marda begins to investigate the garden, which is full of butterflies.

Figure 13. Leonardo-generated alien (left). Womboized version, right.

Rylla admits that she has brought along her latest klox receptor agonist, which seems to function as a chemo-attractant for butterflies. Eventually, Marda realizes that Tyller the cat is actually a Felydyan who has Asterothrope gene patterns that code for a klox-like pheromone. "Tyller" is a femtobot replicoid that can also alter it physical form as needed.

Below is a sequence of images showing the Felyd who is disguised as Tyller transforming into human form.

A Felydyan playing around with body form.

Felydyan dream.

What better way to have a biological life-form change its body shape than through metamorphosis? As shown in Figure 1 at the top of this blog post, I had WOMBO Dream make a human-like face to go along with an alien body that I requested be "shaped like a caterpillar". Some of the ImageFX-generated "caterpillar people" were quite hideous; two of the least ugly are shown in the image at the very bottom of this blog post.

Figure 14. Leonardo-generated alien (right).
Womboized version, left.

The image shown above in Figure 2 is a composite with the face and "hands" generated by Mr. Wombo and pasted into an ImageFX-generated scene. The image shown above in Figure 3 was generated by Whisk and has an "alien caterpillar" that looks fairly conventional, besides being quite large. As shown in Figure 4, I was able to get Whisk to generate some more interesting caterpillar-like aliens using this text prompt: "Photorealistic image, cinematic quality, sharp focus, vibrant saturated colors, high detail emphasizing texture and materiality.  A dimly lit spaceship bridge interior with, glowing multi-colored control panels.

Figure 15. Leonardo left, Mr. Wombo, right.

 A large curved window shows the stars of outer space. A young woman with long, light blonde hair, light to medium brown skin, wears a beige camisole.  She jumps out of her upholstered chair on the spaceship bridge.  The bridge has beige walls, green accent lights, and a large window showing a star field of outer space.  Also in the control room is an alien creature that resembles a caterpillar with pale pink bands and spiky brown appendages. The alien’s caterpillar-like body is segmented, with visible prolegs. The alien creature is sentient and has a humanoid head and face that merges naturally into its animal-like body. The scene is dimly lit, with a slightly desaturated and melancholic feel, emphasizing form and texture. A large centrally positioned table has a fractal complex reflective surface. The overall aesthetic is sleek and futuristic, suggesting a research laboratory environment".

Figure 16. Anti-gravity by Leonardo.

In Figure 5, Whisk almost made it look like "she jumps out of her upholstered chair". Both of the faces in Figure 5 were generated by WOMBO Dream and pasted into the original Whisk-generated "storyboard" image.

I began asking Leonardo to generate an image depicting, "A beautiful alien with a human face and a body shaped like a caterpillar, spaceship control panels and a dark star field in the background, cinematic quality. The alien creature has a beautiful human face that merges naturally into its animal-like body. Also in the spaceship control room is a young woman with long, light blonde hair, light to medium brown skin, wears a beige camisole and gazes at the humanoid alien creature", but unlike ImageFX, Leonardo was very reluctant to place a human head on an alien body (for example, see Figure 6).

Figure 17.

The original Leonardo-generated alien in Figure 7 had a hideous green face, but I had Mr. Wombo use that as a reference image and transform it into a cat-like alien. The "bug" in the hair was generated by Leonardo.

The image shown in Figure 8 was not altered from the original Leonardo-generated image. Figure 9 and Figure 10 were both modified by Mr. Wombo so as to transform the Leonardo-generated aliens into Felydyans. Figure 11 was entirely generated by WOMBO Dream while the image shown in Figure 12 was not altered from the Leonardo-generated original image.

Figure 18. Seated aliens. Mr. Wombo (left), Leonardo (right).

 Figures 13-15 show pairs of aliens, one the original alien that was generated by Leonardo and the other a new alien generated by Mr. Wombo using the other alien as a reference image. It was interesting that Leonardo sometimes made aliens who seem to float in mid-air (for example, see Figure 16).

The images shown in Figures 17 and 18 are two more examples where I had Mr. Wombo make alternative versions of the aliens.

Figure 19. Let's get together.

I've previously documented examples of Leonardo generating images of people without a head (for example, see Figures 19 and 20 in this recent blog post). Figure 19 (shown to the right) has a Leonardo-generated image with the typical kind of Leonardo-generated alien head merged into a human body and a woman's head floating to the side. 

If femtobot replicoids can change the configuration of their femtobot components, maybe this is a replicoid copy of a woman who is watching her own body as she attempts to transform herself into the physical form of an alien.

Figure 20. Mr. Wombo (left), Leonardo (right).

The image shown to the left in Figure 20 has another pair of images in which a Leonardo-generated image was transformed by Mr. Wombo into a depiction of a what I imagine to be a Felydyan with a feline head and a human-like body. 

I much prefer these furry Felydyans to the reptilian aliens that Leonardo makes by default.

Figure 20. Mr. Wombo-generated Falydyan (right).

The image shown to the right in Figure 21 show how Mr. Wombo transformed one of my least favorite types of aliens into a more interesting depiction of a Felydyan. In my imagination, this Felydyan has just morphed from the shape of a rather conventional cat (Tyller) into humanoid form and will soon be indistinguishable from a human being.

Next: Part 7 of "D*".

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