Futurescape

The mystery of Klox23

I recently had a discussion with ChaGPT about science fiction stories featuring telepathy. I've never been a big fan of science fiction stories in which there is some kind of on-going struggle between telepaths and non-telepaths (example: Slan), so for the Exode Saga I imagine a future in which there is a form of technology-enabled telepathy that is introduced to the human population of Earth in such a way that there will be no "war against telepaths". 

ChatGPT named "The Thought-Monster" by Amelia Reynolds Long as an early science fiction story about telepathy. Dr. Walgate, a psychologist, creates the "thought-monster", some sort of artificial life-form that starts to "feed" on the minds of people (including Dr. Walgate). From my perspective, "The Thought-Monster" is not much of a science fiction story. I'd call it a kind of silly ghost story. However, what if advanced nanotechnology provides a way for humans to share their thoughts and, indeed, the entire contents of their minds?

by DALL-E and Mr. Wombo

"The Thought-Monster" is written like a short-story imitation of Frankenstein, with an improbable "scientific break-through" followed by a struggle by the man who made the break-through to exert control over the thing he created. Still, I'm glad I read "The Thought-Monster". It seems likely that Jack Vance read the story and then later wrote "Lanarck and the World-Thinker"*, a story about an alien who could "think entire worlds into existence".

Amelia Long also wrote a story called "The Dimension Drug" (read the story here). At nearly the same time in the 1930s, Issac Asimov wrote a story called "Cosmic Corkscrew". Sadly, "Cosmic Corkscrew" was lost, but it involved the idea that there could be travel through time, but only to certain specific dates in the future. There is a similar plot element in "The Dimension Drug". A man travels exactly one year into the future after taking a newly synthesized drug that can shift you into the 4th dimension (time). 

Fast Food 2040

For City on the Edge of Tomorrow (below), I deploy a totally different kind of drug; a potent sex hormone called Klox23.

"The World-Thinker" is set in the future world of 2073. We can tell this is a Hi-Tek™ future because calls from Earth to the Moon go by way of videophone. However, both air conditioning and computers are absent from Vance's imaged 2073. This is the kind of danger that faces science fiction story tellers who try to write about the future and why I generally avoid trying to write stories about the future, even just 20 years into the future. However, Parts 1 and 2 of City on the Edge of Tomorrow are set in the year 2040 and I populate the story with robots and several forms of nanotechnology.

The nanotechnology of my imagined 2040 is not widely available. In fact, the wonders of clothing nanites, hair nanites, anti-gravity nanites and medical nanites rest in the hands of one young and dangerous girl, Tyhry. Tyhry is being trained in how to safely and ethically use nanotechnology by an alien, Manny the bumpha. 

story blurb from 1955

dangers of the future (see this
original cover art by Walter Popp)

 In my previous blog post, I provided a list of the major characters (including Tyhry and Manny) who appear in City on the Edge of Tomorrow. Tyhry and her friend, Marda, have recently graduated from college.

 Dangerous. Vance spiced up "The World-Thinker" by including a 21-year-old character named Kenna Parker, who is described as "the dangerous young lady" who holds the secret of the "atom equations". If used for Evil™, the atom equations could cause every atomic power plant to explode!

Below on this page is Part 2 of my science fiction story called City on the Edge of Tomorrow. Previously, in Part 1, Marda's mother, Rylla, arrived in the United States from Australia while under the influence of a newly-discovered sex hormone, Klox23. Klox23 has Rylla in its chemical grip, which means that Rylla is in a constant state of sexual arousal.

Tyhry and Marda meet
Tynyo and Naseh
at the Futurescape night club

 Rylla warns Tyhry not to experiment with the potent Klox23 until Rylla discovers how long it will take for the effects of the drug to wear off. However, Tyhry has no qualms about experimenting with Klox23 by giving the drug to some unsuspecting test subjects...

There are three characters in City on the Edge of Tomorrow who first appear in Part 2 of the story: 1) Tynyo and 2) his wife Naseh and 3) Lahs Felery, who is Tynyo's father. One more character is 4) the wife of Lahs, Wydgren, but she is not seen until later in the story. Poor unsuspecting Naseh and Lahs become experimental human test subjects when Tyhry uses her feeding nanites to put the sex hormone Klox23 into their bodies.

City on the Edge of Tomorrow. Part 2. (read Part 1)

Marda and Tyhry in 2030.

For a minute Tyhry and Marda kissed rather passionately. They had long ago sexually experimented with each others bodies, but then after they had admitted to each other how much they enjoyed making love to Anthony, they had stopped their shared sexplay sessions and moved on to finding other ways of achieving orgasms. 

For a minute Marda fantasized about how she and Tyhry had grown up learning to efficiently link to other nodes of the mind clone network by giving each other a seemingly endless series of orgasms. All of the mind clones had diligently studied the mysterious relationship between telepathy and orgasms. Marda recalled how Zeta had once summed it up: "Whoever designed the Bimanoid Interface 2.0 for human telepathy made sure that human telepathy would only be possible between two people who were in love."

As hard as they tried, Marda and Tyhry could never form a telepathic linkage between their two minds. So, even thought they loved each other deeply, they were trapped in two different sub-nets of the mind clone network and had accepted the fact that they would never experience the complete intimacy of a shared telepathic orgasm trance. While celebrating Marda's eleventh birthday, Tyhry had promised to learn how to fist Marda and giving her a vaginal orgasm would constitutes Marda's present for her twelfth birthday. 

Tyhry experiments with feeding nanites
and chocolate clothing nanites

But Tyhry's thoughtful planning of Marda's birthday present was not needed. Marda had then asked Tyhry to describe the vaginal sex that she enjoyed with Anthony and from then on, Marda could not help gazing speculatively at Anthony and Anthony had noticed Marda's attention. Marda remembered how one of her regular sexplay sessions with Tyhry had been interrupted by Anthony who had come into Tyhry's bedroom and told Tyhry, "Keep licking her glans." The lusty replicoid then took Marda from behind and gave her vaginal sex. That night, Marda had learned about the magical ways that Anthony could deploy his penis and before the night was over she'd had her first six vaginal orgasms. After that, there had been no going back to the simpler days of being satisfied by childish oral sexplay with Tyhry.

Now, shifting her thoughts back to Tyhry from that sweet memory of her first sexual encounter with Anthony, Marda was a bit surprised at how hot Tyhry seemed to be for her. Marda giggled and asked, "Are you as horny as I am?"

"I hope so. Too bad we have to follow your mother to Futurescape." Tyhry had her hand inside Marda's panties and she continued to manually stimulate Marda's erect glans. "I'd prefer to simply take you home and give you a private viewing of the latest results that I've gotten in the nanite laboratory."

Sexplay triangle: Anthony,
Tyhry and Marda.

Marda said, "I want to get home, too. I've been fantasizing about having a sexplay session with Anthony. Since you are so horny, how about making that a three-way?" 

Tyhry briefly nibble on one of Marda's earlobes then suggested, "Wait until you see my little nanite-generated surprise... you might forget all about Anthony."

Marda was on the verge of an orgasm, but intrigued by the idea that Tyhry had a 'little surprise' to share, she muttered, "What is your new nanite result?" The most recent nanite experiments that Marda had heard about concerned feeding nanites. Zeta had recently complained to Rylla that, mysteriously, Tyhry seemed to have lost interest in food. Marda knew that Tyhry was now being provided with nutrients by her feeding nanites, but it seemed hard to imagine Tyhry abandoning her interest in seeking out sweet and chocolaty treats.

Marda marvels at Tyhry's sweet tooth

Tyhry was all done talking, at least for a minute or two. She pulled down Marda's panties and took Marda's erection into her mouth. Marda's big tryp'At glans was stiff and blazing hot. As soon as Tyhry began licking the tip of Marda's clitoris, Marda achieved an intense but all too brief orgasm and then, having caught her breath, she said, "Thank you, my love. That was wonderful!" Tyhry kept right on licking Marda's glans in a most provocative way. Marda asked, "How are you doing that? Your tongue feels like a vibrator."

Tyhry continued licking and sucking on Marda's erection. Marda soon had a second sizzling orgasm. Tyhry finally pulled her mouth away from Marda's crotch. She sat up and explained, "That is a special trick with nanites. I now have special anti-gravity nanites in my tongue that can make it vibrate. When I'm pleasuring myself, I can do the same sort of thing with my fingers."

Tyhry and Marda were both still fingering and gently touching Marda's stiff erection. Tyhry gave Marda a quick demonstration of how she could turn her fingers into vibrating devices of pleasure. Marda gave an ecstatic cry of joy as she experienced her third orgasm in two minutes. Marda sighed contentedly and said, "So, that's your little surprise."

Tyhry can't resist trying to
craft a replicoid by using
her new feeding nanites.

With a sly grin on her face, Tyhry shook her head. "That's was just my way of saying 'hello' and welcome back to the States. Hopefully those little orgasms will last you until I get you home to Anthony and his magical penis." Still touching Marda's erection with her fingers, Tyhry said, "You are hard as a rock! Don't tell me you took some Klox23..."

Marda was enjoying how stiff her clitoris was and how it tingled with each little motion of Tyhry's finger tips as she said, "No, of course not. I told you that Rylla is afraid to let anyone use it."

"Ya, but that did not stop her from using it on herself. Well, thanks to Rylla's reckless experiment, we now know that she can survive more than 24 straight hours with an erection." With wonder in her voice, Tyhry asked, "And she is not only fully erect, she also just keeps endlessly having orgasms?"

Marda nodded. "About that... we made an interesting discovery during the flight. Watching mom keep having orgasms got me so horny... I finally had to give myself a couple of orgasms and once we had simultaneous orgasms. That caused our minds to link in a way that we've never experienced before. My orgasm only lasted a few seconds, but during that time, I think I had complete access to her mind... all of her memories!"

"And she had complete access to all of your memories, too?"

Marda thought about that possibility and tried to make sense of the odd type of very intense mind-link she had briefly had with her mother. After a long pause, Marda finally said, "I don't know."

Tyhry with some hacking nanites

Tyhry pressed the point and also tweaked Marda's glans between her thumb and index finger. "Now Rylla knows the real reason why we are going to Threy?"

"No, I don't think so. She has said nothing about discovering that."

"Good. We have to keep my replicoid experiments a secret."

Marda complained, "I don't like keeping secrets from mom."

"Why? She keeps secrets from you."

"Well..." Marda glanced at Tyhry with startled eyes. Marda's erection finally began to soften and she pulled up her panties.

Rylla with her peptide synthesizer

Tyhry glanced out the window, took note of where they were and asked Marda, "You saw pinpo in her mind, didn't you?"

Marda asked, "Pinpo?"

Tyhry nodded. "Your mother figured out the secret of human telepathy."

Marda shook her head. "What is pinpo?"

Tyhry explained, "Protease inhibitor of the oxypathin peptidase. In her lab notebook, Rylla formally calls it 'in9', the ninth inhibitor in a series that she synthesized."

Marda exclaimed, "Yes, I briefly saw 'in9' in her thoughts! What is it?"

Tyhry sighed. "Your mother has been keeping the oxypathin peptidase secret ever since she discovered it... almost two years ago. It is a protein coded for by one of the special alien genes that telepaths have. It is not a gene that evolved on Earth... that gene was designed to code for a protein-digesting enzyme that specifically and selectively inactivates oxypathin hormones."

Mind Clones: the road to Brak.

Marda asked, "Why would Rylla keep it secret? She tells me everything about her work." Marda grabbed hold of Tyhry's arm. "Hey! How do you know what's in mom's lab notebook?"

Tyhry said, "Why shouldn't I know? I used my hacking nanites to gain access to her notebook. I can get into any computer system on Earth."

Marda giggled. "Computer hacking nanites? They sound as much fun an your anti-gravity vibrator nanites. I could use some of those for myself..."

"No, I won't let you use them. Manny made me promise to only use nanotechnology for the good of the mind clone network and the goal of completing its mission here on Earth. Learning the secret of telepathy is certainly of high priority for we mind clones..... I feel fully justified in spying on your mother."

Marda asked, "But what is so special about in9?"

Tyhry explained, "It seems to fully inhibit the oxypathin peptidase without inhibiting any of the body's other enzymes. It turns a potent receptor agonist like Klox23 into a permanent hormone."

Marda had never heard that term before. "Permanent hormone?"

Marda and Tyhry arrive at
Futurescape night club

They were getting close to Futurescape. Tyhry suggested, "Try to get yourself dressed. It's show time."

Marda adjusted her dress and commented, "The one disadvantage of being tryp'At... the problem of trying to hide your giant clitoris."

Tyhry shrugged, "It's not a problem unique to the tryp'At. Zeta's Neanderthal clitoris is even bigger than yours." Tyhry pointed out the window. "Speak of the devil, there's Zeta... and Rylla." Tyhry had one more thing to tell Marda, "Just relax and enjoy yourself tonight. I will get you home to Anthony as quickly as is possible."

Tyhry and Marda were let out of Tyhry's car at the curb. The four women walked to the entrance of the night club and were taken to a table inside Futurescape. 

There was a reserved parking space for Zeta's car, but Zeta said to Tyhry, "You should not have insisted on bringing you car. The parking lot robot said that there's no parking space for it." At first Tyhry seemed not to hear her mother. Tyhry was gazing out at the dancers. Zeta asked, "What will happen to your car?"

Tyhry said, "Don't worry, Mom, my car can just cruise the streets for a while. I don't plan to be here very late. Marda is quite eager for a sexplay session with Anthony." They ordered drinks and then Tyhry pulled her eyes away from the swirl of motion on the dance floor and asked Rylla how she had smuggled the new hormone, Klox23, through customs.

Rylla opened her fanny-pack and brought out a bottle that had "ibuprophen" on the label. "I advise against experimenting with this new oxypathin variant. I gave a tiny dose to some mice and they had erections that lasted three days!"

Tyhry opened the bottle and looked inside. "Damn, those are such tiny pills."

Rylla nodded, "The smallest available. This version of oxypathin is so potent that it must be an essentially irreversible oxypathin receptor binder. I'm not going to let anyone else use this new drug until I see how long it takes for my first dose to wear off."

Tyhry handed the bottle back to Rylla. "Three whole days, hmm? Spooky. Still, it sounds like a great way to collect orgasms. Maybe I can try some when we are on vacation in Alastor Cluster." 

Marda commented, "Tyhry never passes up a new way to make orgasms."

Tyhry mused, "Three day erections... that sure brings back good memories..."

Zeta told Tyhry, "It is not polite to brag."

Tyhry nodded. "Sadly, I've never had a three day erection, but one can dream."

Marda complained, "Some people always have to take things to a ridiculous extreme."

Zeta told Marda, "I don't think you know this, but Tyhry was born with a cute little erection."

Marda, Tyhry and Zeta (in a
Cheryl Tiegs phase) on vacation.

Marda giggled. "Why am I not surprised?"

Tyhry added, "My parents had me and Gamma in constant telepathic linkage during the entire later half of the pregnancy. I got to share every orgasm that Zeta had for six months."

Marda asked, "Just for the record... how long did her birth erection last?"

Zeta thought back across the years. "Not long. As soon as the umbilici cord was cut, Tyhry lost her direct synapex connection to my brain."

Tyhry warned Marda, "During our vacation, don't try to turn our erections into some sort of competition... I'll always win."

Marda hung her head, "I know. You are the super-girl of orgasms."

Rylla laughed. "Now I'm intrigued. What data support that super claim?"

Zeta asked Rylla, "Do you remember when you let Marda live with us for a month during her summer vacation, back in '30 or '31?"

"Of course."

Zeta explained, "There was week when Tyhry and Marda were playing a game... over and over again. They kept having contests to see who could maintain a clitoral erection for the longest time."

Dance time.

Rylla gasped. "Ug! Don't remind me of those days... these two were such horny little monkeys and unable to resist sexplay... even in public."

Marda said, "I learned from the master... masturbator. I mean, who else has a mom who achieved orgasms across every time zone, while sitting in the passenger cabin of an airliner?"

Zeta asked Tyhry, "What was the record from when you were eleven?"

Tyhry was looking out at the dance floor, but she replied, "One day I maintained a seventeen hour erection. Of course, I'll give credit to both Marda and Anthony for their exquisite sexplay. To this day I still have dreams about Marda's hot mouth on my glans." Tyhry jumped out of her chair, took Marda by the hand and led her away from the table and out across the floor towards the patrons of the club who were dancing. 

Naseh

Tyhry gestured towards two of the dancers and told Marda, "Look at that tall girl... her name is Naseh. I think I'm in love!" Tyhry aggressively cut in on that tall couple who were among the crowd on the dance floor at the center of the night club's main floor. Tyhry began dancing with the woman and so Marda danced with the man. 

The tall man leaned close to Marda and said, "Pleased to meet you, Marda. I'm Ty."

Marda glared at Tyhry, letting her know that she did not like having been set up in this way. Still, Marda was delighted with 'Ty' who could really dance and quickly had Marda enjoying herself. Marda glanced at Tyhry and was surprised at how close Tyhry was dancing to the woman. Marda wondered: are they lovers?

When that dance tune ended, they went back to Ty's table where Marda was introduced to Ty's father, Lahs, as 'my friend from Australia'. Tyhry added, "Marda might seem a bit subdued... please forgive her... she had a long flight from Australia and came here right from the airport."

Marda asked, "Lars? Is that Norwegian?"

Naseh told Marda, "It is spelled with an 'h". Thanks for being a good sport. I've been dying to finally meet you Marda... and the rest of your family." Tyhry and Naseh were holding hands and gazing into each-others eyes like two star-crossed lovers.

Marda

Lahs explained to Marda, "My name is spelled 'L', 'a', 'h', 's'." Lahs turned his head and began looking around the room. He asked Marda, "So, your mother is also here?"

Marda pointed towards the table where Rylla and Zeta were seated. "There she is... the blond." Rylla and Zeta both waved to Marda. 

Lahs exclaimed, "Wow! She can't be your mother. She looks like a kid."

Unable to mention Rylla's and Zeta's secret use of anti-aging nanites, Marda simply muttered, "We don't age very fast in my family."

Lahs got up and announced, "I'll go introduce myself." He approached Zeta and Rylla while Marda watched intently to see how her mother would react. Tynyo took hold of Marda's hand, leaned close to Marda's ear and suggested, "Let's dance some more."

Marda watched Lahs sit down beside Rylla then turned her head towards Tynyo. Just then, Naseh was telling her husband, "Sorry, Ty, but I have a problem. I want to go home. Now."

Tynyo asked Naseh, "What's wrong? Did you twist an ankle? You almost seemed to be limping as you came off the dance floor."

Naseh explained, "It is strange... I've never felt like this before. I've got a killer erection. Let's take these two cuties home... I really need to get out of these tight jeans." 

Tyhry sprang to her feet and took Marda by the hand. Tyhry told Naseh, "Let's meet out front!" Tyhry pulled Marda towards the table where Zeta and Rylla were seated with Lahs. Marda now saw that there was a third woman at the table with them. Before they reached the table, Marda yanked Tyhry to a halt and she demanded, "How dare you set me up with a married man and not even warn me?"

Naseh and Wydgren

"If I had warned you there would have been a chance for you to chicken out. Now just relax, I'm sure Tynyo is a gentleman... I did not set you up with him. I'm performing a Klox23 experiment on Naseh. Trust me... I'll have you in the hot tub with Anthony in less than two hours."

Tyhry impatiently walked away from Marda and told Zeta, "We're taking off. See you back home." With half a dozen secrets and white lies swirling in her thoughts, Tyhry did not dare open up a telepathic link to her mother.

Following along behind Tyhry, Marda was now grabbed by the hand again and pulled away by Tyhry. Marda had only a second and calling over her shoulder managed to tell her mother, "Have fun!" Telepathically Rylla and Marda assured each other that they were excited, both intellectually and sexually about the prospect of getting to know Lahs and Tynyo.

Marda and Tyhry caught up with Tynyo and Naseh as they were leaving the club. Naseh seemed to be walking on egg shells. Marda, Tyhry, Tynyo and Naseh exited through the front door of the Futurescape night club. Naseh unfastened her pants and sighed with relief as her gloriously erect glans finally had all the room that it needed. Holding her pants up with her hands, Naseh led the way, now walking rapidly down the paved entry area towards the street. Tyhry's car was already waiting there at the curb. Tyhry told Tynyo, "You take Marda." Tyhry quickly pulled Naseh into her car. The two women shared a passionate kiss as the car pulled out into traffic. Marda and Tynyo went to the parking garage to get his car.

_______

Zeta, Tyhry and Marda explore the ASN.
The Alien Social Network, see Part 3
of City on the Edge of Tomorrow.

Lahs approached Zeta and Rylla and asked, "Can I join you?" He sat down next to Rylla, nodded towards Zeta and asked, "Who's your friend?"

Just then a strange woman sat down beside Zeta. She was wearing a hoodie and dark glasses, even-though the interior of the club was very dimly lit. Vastly surprised, Zeta exclaimed, "Grean! What are you doing here?"

Actually, this was not Grean the Kac'hin; it was Manny the bumpha disguised as Grean. Manny (Grean) said, "Let me perform introductions. Lahs, this is Zeta, Rylla's mother."

Grean the Kac'hin

Lahs asked Rylla, "Your mother? But she can't be a day over thirty!"

Zeta giggled. "I'm far older than I look. The wonders of cosmetic surgery. The new model robot surgeons are amazing." Zeta had no desire to explain to Lahs her unusual genetics and how nanotechnology had carefully shaped her physical form through all nine decades of her life.

Grean pointed to Marda and Tyhry who were at the other table with Tynyo and Naseh. Grean said, "That's Lahs' son, Tynyo and his wife, Naseh." Now, Marda and Tyhry were approaching and Grean said, "I think Tyhry wants to tell us something."

 Tyhry kissed Zeta on the cheek and said, "We're taking off. See you back home."

Marda told Rylla, "Have fun!" 

Zeta was frustrated by the lack of a telepathic signal from Tyhry. Grean telepathically told Zeta: Relax, girl. You wanted to provide a little adventure for Rylla. Tyhry has arranged just that!

"Fun!" Lahs told Rylla, "That means dancing!" Taking Rylla by the hand, he pulled Rylla out of her chair and out towards the dance floor.

Zeta Gohrlay

Watching Rylla and Lahs walk off to the dance floor, Zeta asked Grean, "You and Tyhry planned all this?"

Grean said enigmatically, "Don't ask too many questions, Z. I'm just here to keep you company. Would you like to dance?" 

Zeta shook her head, "My plan was to get Rylla drunk and let her have some fun. She's been working too hard."

Grean laughed. "Thirty orgasms in 24 hours? You call that work?" How do I get that kind of job?"

Zeta asked, "So you know about the new sex hormone that Rylla synthesized?"

"Yes, I know all about that." Grean slipped an arm around Zeta. "Relax, old friend, I was only trying to make a joke. Rylla is enjoying the effects of Klox23." A robotic waiter came to the table. Grean glanced at the robot and asked Zeta, "So, what are you drinking?" 

Zeta sent the robot off with a new drink order then she told Grean, "I wish you would tell me what's going on. I thought you are not allowed on Earth."

Grean shrugged, "Who will know? Or care? This is supposed to be a fun night for all... can't you just relax?"

"Not with your sexy body snuggled up next to me." For a moment, Zeta thought back across the decades to when she and Grean had been young lovers. The robot returned with their drinks and at the same time Lahs and Rylla returned from the dance floor. 

Lahs picked up a beer bottle from the table and took a swig of the cold beer, but he remained standing. Rylla sat down and drank some of her slushy cocktail then Rylla asked Grean, "Who are you?" Rylla pressed the icy drink glass against her hot forehead.

Zeta told Rylla, "This is my old friend, Grean."

Grean the Kac'hin

"Grean? I though she was..." Rylla looked at Lahs and then fell silent. She had almost blurted out: 'I thought the Kac'hin are not allowed on Earth'.

Zeta said, "I'm also surprised to see Grean here."

Grean giggled. "All the cool people come to Futurescape. Look over there. That's Rheny, catcher for the Diamonbacks."

Lahs glanced at Rheny and asked, "Who's that girl he's with? She's quite beautiful."

The woman with Rheny was not wearing a top and her graceful breasts were on full display. Lahs said to Rylla and Zeta, "And let me say, I'm impressed by all of your breasts... although I feel like I'm seeing double."

Lahs

Grean pulled up the bottom of her hoodie, showing Lahs that she also had four breasts. "This is the latest fashion among the kids, but we old-timers like to play along with fun fashion trends."

Lahs had only gotten a brief view of Grean's two lower breasts. "Wow, these artificial breasts sure look real."

Zeta said, "Have a seat and tell us about yourself, Lahs."

"This is so strange." Lahs took another sip of beer then said, "I've never... actually, I must say..." He was blushing.

Grean said, "What Lahs is trying to say is that he has a little problem."

Now Zeta looked at his pants and noticed that Lahs had a magnificent erection. She exclaimed, "Oh, my!"

 Next: Part 3 of City on the Edge of Tomorrow. 

Age-reversal medical nanites. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

 

 

Top 10

Former #1 most visited blog post.
Hierion Confinement

Back in April of this year (2019) I celebrated the first ten years of the wikifiction blog. Below is my Top 10 all-time list of wikifiction blog posts.

Guilty. One of my guilty pleasures is going back into my old blog posts and editing them. Sometimes I add a hypertext link to a future blog post. I'll be indulging in this practice while I gaze back at ten of the most visited wikifiction blog posts. So, to the time machine and back to the beginning of the wikifiction blog...

2009

Grendels

Diabolus ex machina was an early wikifiction blog post that touched on the issue of how we depict space aliens in our science fiction stories. I'm a fan of interesting space aliens, so the alien species that I write into my stories (for example, the Retair, the Nereids, the Grendels and the Fru'wu) are not savage warriors who rage across the galaxy behaving like psychotics.

artist's depiction of Grean

According to The Rules of Intervention, a species such as we humans should not expect to have contact with technologically advanced alien visitors from distant worlds. In keeping with this expectation, most of the aliens who appear as characters in the Exode Saga are very similar to us biologically. Furthermore, it is often the case that the non-human characters take pains to adopt a human appearance while they are interacting with human characters. Some of these non-human characters are artificial life forms composed of nanoscopic structural components and they can often take on any convenient physical form.

2010

image source

If there is one thing that I have learned during ten years of blogging about science fiction it is that including the word "Asimov" in the title of a blog post is a great way to attract readers. Asimov's struggle with aliens is the most popular wikifiction blog post from 2010. That blog post was my year 90 celebration of Isaac Asimov's fiction. (100 Years of Asimov)

Asimov and Aliens. The first printed science fiction story that I ever read was The Gods Themselves. For that novel, Asimov invented aliens who lived in another universe where the physical laws were slightly different than here in our universe. Since the day when I first saw an episode of Star Trek, I have believed that space aliens are the most fascinating characters and plot elements in science fiction stories. A good measure of a science fiction story writer is this: can you depict an interesting alien?

2011

Exodemic

The most popular wikifiction blog post from 2011 was Been Here, Done That, which was about ancient aliens. The Fermi Paradox is central to my personal science fiction writing obsession (the Exode Saga). Right when I was first discovering the science fiction literary genre, I read Chariots of the Gods. When I first began writing stories that were set in the Exodemic Fictional Universe, I imagined that the first aliens to visit Earth arrived here on this planet about 7,000,000 years ago.

The Iidi

During the past ten years, I have several times pushed further back in time the arrival of the pek in our galaxy (to >2,000,000,000 years ago). Also, I have adopted the idea that there were already some highly sophisticated aliens here in our galaxy at that time, the Phari.

In addition to the ancient past, the Exode Saga includes plot elements related to the far future. In particular, I've enthusiastically adopted Asimov's idea that we might be visited by time travelers from the future. Thus, the Exode Saga includes the character Trysta Iwedon who is an Asterothrope from the future.

Ivory investigates a cell bioreactor.
At Phari Base in the Slave Craton.

2012
With the Exode Saga backstory full of technologically advanced space aliens, a constant theme is the question: is the behavior of we Earthlings controlled by the aliens? The most visited wikifiction blog post for 2012 has long been Slavery in Science Fiction. My favorite slave-related story from the Exodemic Fiction Universe is in a blog post called Slave Craton. Were humans destined to be slaves since the first arrival of the pek on Earth billions of years ago?

2013
The most popular wikifiction blog post of 2013 is Post-Singularity Science Fiction. In the Exode Saga, I imagine that the Huaoshy exist as a very ancient life form which long ago achieved complete mastery of science and advanced technologies. Sadly, we Earthlings don't get to interact directly with the Huaoshy. They reside in the Sedronic Domain as artificial life forms.

Priscilla the pek

In order to have some indirect interactions with we humans, the Huaoshy worked through their agents the pek and the Huaoshy caused the Kac'hin to be created. The pek are composed of zeptites and they can take on any convenient physical form. Back in the First Reality, the pek who were in charge of Observer Base were known as the Orbho. The pek take very seriously the idea that they must enforce the Rules of Intervention and they like to install Earth Overseers who keep humans in line.

image source

The other major political faction of the Huaoshy is less conservative than those who believe in the Rules of Intervention. The main manifestation of the "liberal" wing of the Huaoshy is what I call the bumpha. The bumpha enjoy experimenting with biological life forms, and it was their meddling on Earth that led to the creation of the first positronic robot, R. Gohrlay. Like the pek, the bumpha take on any desired physical form, so the image to the right is fanciful.

2014

image source

Reality Reviewing concerns one of the great science fiction plot devices invented by Asimov, which was introduced right at the end of his time travel novel, The End of Eternity. Noÿs says, "We, too, had Time-travel, you see, but it was based on a completely different set of postulates than yours, and we preferred to view Time, rather than shifting mass.

Four pages later, Noÿs adds, "We don't calculate alternate Realities. We view them. We see them in their state of non-Reality."

I could not resist making Reality Viewing an integral part of the Exode Saga. With time, I also made room for Reality Simulation, which allows for people to view events in Deep Time.

The End of the World, Clarke style.

2015
As of today, the most visited wikifiction blog post from 2015 is Syfy's Overmind. Most of my blog posts concern written science fiction stories and I don't enjoy most of the Sci Fi that graces television and film. Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End is a science fiction classic (1953) that presents us with Clarke's ideas about first contact with space aliens who are as far beyond we humans as we are beyond bacteria. Clarke's science fiction stories had a very strong influence on me and I like to celebrate his vision of aliens who might be impossible for we primates to understand.

2016

Nanomégas

Currently, the most visited wikifiction blog post of 2016 is Hierion Femtotubes. For the Exode Saga, I imagine that there are three related segments of the universe: the Hadronic Domain (the world as we know it), the Hierion Domain and the Sedronic Domain. Back in 2014 I got tired of describing connections between Earth and Eternity as "portals", so I invented the term "Hierion Tube".

Some of the characters in the Exode Saga are nanoscopic, so I imagined that there might be Hierion Tubes that are so small only someone like Qaz can pass through them. I enjoy making illustration for my stories. Of course, it is a challenge to depict a character who is invisibly small.

by Don Martin

2017
The most visited blog post from 2017 is currently Don Martin. In general, science fiction story tellers should not take themselves too seriously. Growing up in the 1960s, I knew Don Martin for his cartoon illustrations in Mad magazine. In the late 1950s, Don Martin got paid to illustrate a few pulp magazine stories and I'm glad I discovered them in 2017. Martin died 20 years ago 😢, but judging by the number of page views for Don Martin, many people roam the interwebs in search of his artwork.

2018

The tryp'At Guide to Oxypathin

In 2018 I celebrated the science fiction of Theodore Sturgeon who was born in 1918. My blog post called Fictional Chemistry is currently the most visited wikifiction blog post of 2018.

Sturgeon was a high school dropout, so nobody should expect him to have had anything coherent to say about hormones and their roles in the human body. In Sturgeon's story, progesterone is used inhibit the hero from having sex with his wife. 😕

I'm going to blame Sturgeon for the fact that I have created additional fictional chemistry for the Exode Saga. Thus there is now oxypathin and frenchkissin, two neuropeptides that were originally part of Asterothrope biology but which also play a role in development of the the Mind Clone Network.

wikifiction labels

2019
The eighth most frequently used "label" for blog posts here at the wikifiction blog is "telepathy", so it is surprising to reach the end of this blog post and only now mention telepathy. I've been making a special effort here in 2019 to settle my thinking about the role of telepathy in the Exode Saga.

Vulcan telepathy.

The most visited wikifiction blog page so far this year is Retrotelepathy. It would be fun to know what Asimov thought when he read Clifford Simak's 1939 story "Cosmic Engineers". Asimov went on to write stories about positronic robots such as Daneel and Dani who had telepathic powers and in turn those stories were highly influential on me.

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Fictional Chemistry

Original cover art by Walter Popp

Theodore Sturgeon was born in 1918, so I'm starting my 2018 retro-reading with his 1953 science fiction story, "The Wages of Synergy". You can download the August 1953 issue of Startling Stories from this webpage.

The hook
"The Wages of Synergy" begins with a woman who is trying to not make too much noise while having sex. She is just "she", but Sturgeon tells us that the guy is Karl. Poor Karl dies and becomes a dead weight that "she" throws off. "She" runs in horror from dead Karl, leaves the hotel, slinks off into the city. The teaser above the story tells us "Prue had a fatal fascination for important men..." Ya, "she" is Prue.

Biochemistry
Dr. Killilea is a chemist with a conscience. He worked long and hard in the laboratory, struggling against nature and obsessively trying to reveal the mysterious hidden biochemical details of sexual climax. Then, with his elusive goal finally in sight: ruin. Realizing that his research was leading to a secret too potent for mere mortals (discovery of a molecule that is "the most ghastly substance this earth has ever known"), Dr. Killilea abandoned his work.

interior artwork for "The Wages of Synergy"

And even worse than the loss of his career, Dr. Killilea also lost the love of his life, Miss Prue. Now he sits in bars, drinking, and waiting for dear Miss Prue to walk into his gin joint.

Eventually we learn that Miss Prue is Dr. Killilea's wife. She is avoiding Killilea ("Killy") because she now believes that she is lethal and Killilea would die from "the love death" if she went back home to live with Killilea.

Original cover art by Edward Valigursky
and Edmund Emshwiller.

Pregnant with Possibility
A story about how Prue is desperately avoiding her husband (Killy) might actually make sense if Prue had been bioengineered to cause her body to produce some chemical (a potent inhibitor of a neurotransmitter receptor in the brain stem) that will kill any man who Prue comes in contact with during sex. But, sadly, that's not the story. I like to imagine that this was the story when the analogue of Sturgeon wrote science fiction in the Ekcolir Reality.

La petite mort
Dr. Killilea's area of scientific expertise is steroid hormone chemistry. The only steroid hormone mentioned by name in the story is progesterone, but, sadly, the story is not really about progesterone. Killy became so engrossed in his chemistry research that he ignored Prue, so Prue left him.

The dastardly hypogun!

After Prue ran off, Killilea awoke from his obsessive scientific pursuit and realized the great danger that could come from his chemistry work, so he gave it up. At the point in time where "The Wages of Synergy" begins, Killilea has spent the past 18 months searching for Prue. He finds her soon after the death of Karl, a famous writer. According to reports in the newspapers, Karl died of heart failure, but Prue insists that she killed him.

And Prue insists that Karl was only the most recent dude to die in her bed. Four months earlier she had killed Roger Landey, a famous philosophy professor. And before that, a round little man who she calls "Koala". So, in order to return to wedded bliss with Prue, Dr. Killilea must prove (scientifically) that he will not die the next time that they have sex together.

progesterone

Now wearing his private investigator hat, Killilea investigates the cuddly "Koala" and learns that he was actually the crafty Pretorio, a famous scientist who had been the head of the Ethical Science Board. Also, Karl Monck and Landey had both been members of the ES Board before their deaths. The plot thickens!

prize-winning biochemist in an alternate Reality

I'm a sucker for any Sci Fi story that dabbles in biochemistry, but some topics should probably be left for trained scientists such as Isaac Asimov. Sturgeon was a high school dropout, and nobody should expect him to have anything coherent to say about hormones and their role in the human body.

Daddy Issue
Sturgeon's father was a business man, and inserted into "The Wages of Synergy" and even into the Ethical Science Board is a rich business man who enjoys using his money to control and manipulate people. Our hero, the nerdy "Killy" is tempted to punch this slimy business man in the nose, but the prudent Prue restrains Killy and it is discovered that the rich dirty dealing murderous business man isn't such a bad guy after all. Right.

"the most ghastly substance
this earth has ever known"
in the Ekcolir Reality
Original cover by Rudolph Belarski.

Sturgeon's Law
Right in the middle of "The Wages of Synergy", Sturgeon has a character (Dr. Egmont) say, "...four-fifths of the stories in science fiction magazines are anti-scienctific." Egmont believes that with the deaths of Pretorio, Monck and Landey the Ethical Science Board has been crippled, destroying the world's best chance of developing a way to systematically judge the consequences of new scientific advances on Humanity. Without a functioning Ethical Science Board, the anti-science forces will soon dominate the world!

Suddenly, Killilea realizes that someone else completed his chemistry work and is now using "the most ghastly substance this earth has ever known" to kill important men like Monck and Landey. But Killilea is baffled: who could have completed his chemistry work? He had always worked alone, and he is certain that he had been working VERY far off the beaten path (as any good Sci Fi scientist should, right?) on matters that nobody else should have been able to duplicate.

1976: peak orgasm (data from the Ngram Viewer)

November 1934 Astounding Stories

Progesterone
"The Wages of Synergy" reminds me of a story called "The Hormone" by Milton Kaletsky. In turn, "The Hormone" reminds me of the Star Trek episode "Wink of an Eye" in which Scalosians are "accelerated" and moving much faster than humans. In "The Hormone", an Earthly scientist isolates the hormone "cortin" from the adrenal gland and uses it to "accelerate" himself.

illustration for "The Hormone"
by Marco Marchioni

Ted Sturgeon would have been in his own personal "golden age" of science fiction right when "The Hormone" was published in 1934.

That 1934 issue of Astounding is notable for several reasons, particularly in that it has the story "Twilight", which influenced Arthur C. Clark with its look into the far future of Humanity.

It is also amusing that part of Ed Smith's Skylark Saga is in this issue of Astounding. Smith began the Skylark stories in 1928 with the casual discovery of a nuclear power source and the quick invention of an interstellar spaceship in the hero's workshop. In "The Hormone", the versatile Dr. Arnold Breve (shown in the image to the left), now working as an endocrinologist (after having already found a cure for polio), isolates the hormone cortin and begins experimenting with it by injecting large amounts into his own body. What could go wrong? Dr. Breve finds his life processes vastly accelerated and he quickly dies of old age.

The progesterone death!

Detective Killy
In "The Wages of Synergy", Dr. Killilea, the nerdy scientist, must quickly change careers and become a private investigator. Who could possibly have gone ahead and completed the chemical work that Killilea began and abandoned?

Sturgeon's description of the "most ghastly substance this earth has ever known" makes it sound like a chemical inhibitor of orgasm. Killilea realizes that the inhibitor is able to alter the function of the brain stem, triggering heart failure.

Look at the black-and-white image above from "The Hormone". The fancy glass-work looks like some kind of Urey-Muller apparatus. Fancy glass-work is the secret to the mystery of who completed Dr. Killilea's little chemistry project. You'll have to read the story to learn Sturgeon's solution to the mystery.

In the Ekcolir Reality: Progesterone Planet.

Sad to say, you might not enjoy Sturgeon's "solution" to the mystery. I've never been a fan of conventional mystery stories, particularly those that involve an "evil" mastermind who is vastly more clever than everyone else, but who can be brought down because of his overly-complex schemes.

"...some works, such as Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel, foreground the way in which they participate in multiple genres simultaneously." -Brian S. Matzke

1953
In 1953, Isaac Asimov published his Sci Fi mystery, "The Caves of Steel". Science fiction fans are likely to know Asimov's famous characters from that story such as the robot Daneel. When Asimov wanted to create a science fiction murder mystery, he wrote a story about robots. When Sturgeon wrote "The Wages of Synergy" he crafted a murder mystery about death by orgasm.

1953

If only Nixon could go to China, I suppose Sturgeon may have been the only Sci Fi writer who could write about death by orgasm in 1953.

However, things were changing. In 1953 Sexual Behavior in the Human Female was published.

Chemical Castration

1938

One of the strangest parts of "The Wages of Synergy" is when a non-scientist character in the story decides to take control of the hero's behavior by injecting him with some progesterone. The amount injected must be tiny, but we are assured that it will inhibit the hero from having sex with his wife.

This brings to mind the attempted "chemical castration" of Alan Turing, and his conviction for "gross indecency" which was finally over-turned by an amnesty in 2017.

Double fun in the Ekcolir Reality.

There are progesterone receptors in the brain, but the idea that a tiny amount of progesterone could inhibit male sexual behavior for a week (as described in Sturgeon's fiction) is absurd.

So, if science fiction fans are not going to get anything but absurd fantasy science in "The Wages of Synergy", what is the attraction? Right in the middle of the story, the Startling Stories editor inserted a blurb, praising the story for giving readers more than just cardboard characters who get moved around willy-nilly. I understand what this means, but I don't agree that Sturgeon avoided willy-nilliness in this story.

and now, a word from our sponsor editor....

Rudytown

Lost in Space
It is a common trick of writers to start in the middle of a story, without telling readers anything about the setting. The reader has to solve a little puzzle: where am I? In "The Wages of Synergy", Sturgeon avoids telling us anything about where the story takes place.

Yes, there are some vague clues: we are in an unnamed land where someone speaking British English is recognized instantly as a foreigner. We are in an unnamed city with no streets, but anyone in town can quickly get across town when the plot calls for it.

The center of the universe: Rudy's.

There are many drinking holes in this city, places where Killy spends 18 months searching for his wife. One of these, Rudy's, is the Nexus of the Universe. Rudy's has a teleporter in the back office, so anyone who is needed on stage in the next scene can appear just when they are needed.

No cardboard characters
in the Ekcolir Reality.
Original cover art by Earle Bergey
and ? (see this)

Rudy's is where all the Superscientists hang out. Everyone knows this except Killy, because he's just a socially inept nerd who never joined the cool kid's club, the Ethical Science Board. Prue knows that Rudy's is the place to go if you want to meet and seduce more Superscientists.

The only problem with Rudy's is that Jules Croy hangs out there. Nobody likes Croy. His only distinguishing feature is that he has lots of money. Prue does not like Croy. Egmont really does not like Croy and calls him a "damned jackal, a corpse-eater". So when Egmont sees Killy speaking to Croy at Rudy's, Egmont immediately decides that Killy is also a skunk.

However, Killy is able to make Egmont calm down and soon it is revealed that Croy is the obvious suspect in this murder mystery. Except, how could a non-scientist like Croy ever have made the deadly drug that kills men who have an orgasm?

source

Croy describes himself as having been diagnosed with "Haroun al-Raschid pattern", meaning that he likes to secretly spend and invest his money just to create drama and intrigue. He got more than he expected and ended up helping an "evil" mastermind commit murder.

H. L. Gold in Galaxy, Jan. 1952

A sequel in the Ekcolir Reality
original cover art by Rudolph Belarski

H-bombs get mention in "The Wages of Synergy" among several discussions of morals and ethics, but we never learn why the "evil" mastermind was playing around with the hormonal love death. We get a casual suggestion of "maybe he snapped". I get the feeling that Sturgeon was writing to specifications, and when he reached the word limit, he stopped writing.

Prue
Beyond the silly pseudo-endocrinology, running through "The Wages of Synergy" is the romance between Killy and Prue, which takes us back to the teaser at the top of the story. "Prue had a fatal fascination for important men..." She ends up in bed with Killilea, Pretorio, Monck and Landey because from her perspective they are all similar men: her type of guy.

1949

Obsession
Still, we must wonder why it took a third man dying in her bed before Prue finally noticed that something was amiss and decided she should curb her obsessive odyssey of sleeping her way through the ranks of the Ethical Science Board.

"The Wages of Synergy" is about obsessive people who single-mindedly pursue their muses. In the end, the "evil" mastermind dies, injected with the poison he had intended to use to kill Killy. The ending suggests that Killy and Prue survive their personal obsessions and live together happily ever after.

I put evil in quotes because Sturgeon suggests that it is really only the synergy of everyone's individual obsessions in "The Wages of Synergy" that creates a problem.

I feel like there should be a sequel to "The Wages of Synergy"... does obsession ever really end? What new mischief can Killy and Prue get into?

 

by Telly Sturgeon

Related reading:

- my comments on Sturgeon's short stories "The Perfect Host" and 'Rule of Three'

- commentary about Theodore Sturgeon's short stories by Lahna F. Diskin

- more commentary on "The Wages of Synergy" without the progesterone

- orgasms and telepathy

- Sturgeon's 1954 story "The Golden Helix"

- "The Skylaugh of Space" by Milton Kaletsky

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