Trying to Connect

Figure 1. What could possibly
go wrong during an alien-
human synapex experiment?

Below on this page are some plans for Part 6 of my science fiction story called "The Fesarians". When the power distribution system for the Port Cooway colony on Elemacha-z comes under attack, the only possible saboteur seems to be the amphibious Merovae (Figure 1). Aethe is an exobiologist and soon after arrival on Elemacha-z she discovered that the Merovae come onto the beach near Port Cooway so that they can lay their eggs in the sand.

Talia, Gyulya and Lyssa are human-tryp'At hybrids. Talia and Gyulya live together and they have a small "clone daughter". After Talia learns of the existence of the Merovae, she tries to monitor them with drone surveillance and tries to telepathically link to them. At first, Talia mistakenly assumes that the Merovae ovipositor is a penis. Eventually, Talia recruits Aethe to participate in forming synapex links to a female Merovae. At the same time, the Noema are actively trying to use the Merovae as a way to learn about human beings.

Figure 2. Talia and a cat.

Having synapex linked to a Merovae and now with some insight into Merovae thoughts, Aethe suggests that the Merovae have not been disrupting the underground power distribution lines. Talia sees no evidence that the adult female Merovae ever leave the beaches to venture further inland where breaks in the electrical power distribution cables have occured. Talia develops a sexual relationship with a Merovae male2. Gyulya (Figure 3) discovers some Merovae larvae in her bed, but does not know what they are.

Figure 3. Gyulya.

 Merovae life cycle. There are 3 Merovae genders: 1) male1 produces sperm, 2) male2 are impregnated by sperm from male1 and they gestate larvae, 3) females receive the larvae from male2, encase the larvae in eggs, and eventually use an ovipositor to bury eggs in beach sand. For protection against land animals like the Kwono, the females are usually accompanied by their associated male1 and male2 when they venture onto the beach, 4) the hatchling juvenile Merovae feed on land for a time then go into the ocean.

The other three colonists on Elemacha-z are a type of genetically-engineered human variant known as the Huxy. Xylo, Aethe and Erni O'phyr are three clones. The Huxy are simultaneous hermaphrodites.

Figure 4. Xylo

Aethe impregnates Lyssa soon after they arrive on Elemacha-z. Aethe and Lyssa begin trying to learn each-others mind patterns and develop a telepathic connection.

Storm Zone. There are two distinct plant-life zones. The low elevation land close to the shore is specialized for erosion control and also provides good grazing for the newly hatched Merovae. None of the Noema reside in the storm zone. Port Cooway was built in the storm zone, but each building has an anti-gravity flotation system that can be activated when there is storm surge.

Fogs. Port Cooway was built near a cold current from the polar region of Elemacha-z. Dense fog forms most nights then burns off in the day time. The solar/wind collectors use anti-gravity to rise above the fog. Talia moves her home out of the storm zone and so the Noema provide Talia with a compulsion to continuously float her home off the ground.

Figure 5. Xylo, Aethe and Erni.

Cats. Talia likes cats and brings some cats to Elemacha-z. After going through the microbial decontamination protocol, the cats start hunting the juvenile Merovae and so Talia is given (by the telepathic Neoma) a compulsion to move her home inland so the cats are not close to the juvenile Merovae. Talia and one of her cats can be seen in Figure 2.

 Dani. In a previous Reality, the Neoma were part of the Phari network. The Phari were masters of the Hierion Domain and used hierions for technology-assisted telepathy. Dani's style of telepathy is the hierion-based information transmission system that is used by positronic robots. Dani is able to establish a telepathic link to the Noema upon arriving on Elemacha-z. With an intrinsic interest in nanities, the Noema remove Balok's nanites from Dani's positronic brain and they begin studying those zeptites. 

Figure 6. Talia's vision of Xylo.

Dani, having contacted R. Nurtia using the Port Cooway communications equipment, now waits to see if R. Nyrtia will invite Dani to return to the Hierion Domain.

Sedron Time Stream. Talia has visions of the future because she has access to information about the future via the Sedron Time Stream.

Noema. The Noema, technologically advanced aliens of Elemacha-z, begin to understand the zeptites and the basis of human telepathy. The Neoma use hierion-based technologies (such as technology-assisted telepathy) and femtobots.

 Discovery of the Noema. With help from Ienaghwy and Ylyndra, Talia realizes that the Noema have been disrupting the function of her brain by targeting her femtobot endosymbiont. Talia creates synapex links to a Noema, allowing her to understand the aliens.

Figure 7. Talia's vision of Dani.

 Sentient Plants. The alien Noema appear to be plant-like creatures, so upon arriving on Elemacha-z, initially Talia ignores the Neoma and suspects that the Merovae must be disrupting the power distribution system of Port Cooway. Looking for inspiration about Sci Fi plants, recently I read  "Plants Must Grow" (1941) by Frank Belknap Long. "Plants Must Grow" was the first in a series of stories all published in the 1940s, featuring John Carstairs, pet plant detective.

 Killer Plants.  Two years ago I read and blogged about Long's 1942 story "Plants Must Slay", a story in which an invisible killer plant from Ganymede tries to kill Carstairs. Maybe all sentient plants have an instinct that makes them want to kill botanists. Sadly, in "The Fesarians", the alien plants lack any kind of killer instinct. The Neoma are simply curious about the new human colonists who arrive on Elemacha-z... and protective of baby Merovae.

 Figure 8. A cute little snapdragon plant from
the asteroid belt (image generated by Gemini).

  Plants Must Be Sciency. Feeling obligated to search the entire John Carstairs series for interesting alien plants, I next looked at "Snapdragon" (1941).  

In passing, Carstairs states that carbon disulfide can cause "epidemic hysteria". 

 Trippy. Readers are also told that "fume slugs" from Pluto defend themselves against the predatory tripper plant by releasing a chemical similar to carbon disulfide and which can be used to make people tell the truth. The so-called "fume slugs" look like Earthly slugs, but they are actually plants. Long also casually mentions a "positron rod". It began to hope that this plodding story might be rescued by insertion of a positronic robot, but... no such luck (however, see Figure 11, below).

 Figure 9. Colorized interior art
  for "Snapdragon", generated by Mr. Wombo.

 Slug Plants.  Carstairs uses the mysterious (Earthly chemists can't replicate the active chemical ingredients) alien fumes from a slug plant to screen suspects in a murder investigation, identifying 15 possible culprits out of a crowd (at a badminton stadium) of 300. 

 There are no dragons in science fiction. Next, Carstairs makes use of a "snapdragon" plant from Callisto that looks like a miniature dragon. I had Gemini generate a depiction of the alien snapdragon plant (Figure 8).  The snapdragon can detect the chemical explosive that was used in a murder, and it is attracted to the clothing of the murderer. Our hero John has solved the murder case by using his extensive knowledge of alien plants! Golly gee, ain't that grand?

Vera and Moldy Ralph.

 There was black and white interior art for "Snapdragon" (uncredited) that Mr. Wombo converted into the colorized image that is shown in Figure 9. That's Vera in the upper right corner, behind John who is using alien snapdragons to identify the murder (in red).

In "Satellite of Peril", Vera and John are on Io where they battle monster plants. After blasting the plants which were wrapping their tendrils around Vera in a death grip, Vera and John embrace and share a frosty kiss (at -225 Fahrenheit), adding new meaning to the "cold open".

 Its a small Solar System Afterall. And who do Vera and John run into on Io? The Solar System's most evil criminal, Ralph. The "dude" with the green face in the image that is shown to the left is mold-cell replica of Ralph. These replicas are produced when John releases a special mold spore that can reveal the "auras" of people after they depart from a crime scene. Vera ripped away part of the replica and holds it in her hand.

Figure 10. Mission to Io.
See the original June 1943
cover art by Earle Bergey.

 Auras. Readers are told that human cells contain mysterious components that leave ghostly "afterimages" hanging in the air. John uses a mold that feeds on these "afterimages", allowing visualization of Ralph after he has stolen the food supply from John and Vera's spaceship.

 Cold Moon. I had Mr. Wombo convert an old cover art painting by Earle Bergey into a scene with Vera escaping from plant creatures on an icy moon (see Figure 10).

 Always lock your spaceship doors. You know Ralph is evil because he steals the food supply from John and Vera's spaceship. But how did Ralph get to Io? Ralph also stole the USA's newest and bestest spaceship, which "explains" how he got to Io. But why is Ralph on Io? Readers are told that Ralph collects plants... and Vera. After Vera is taken by the evil Ralph, John deduces where Ralph's spaceship is and he sneaks up on Ralph by using another plant of Io that creates an invisibility screen. Once again John vanquishes evil by using alien plants as his crime-fighting tools.

Figure 11. Colorized interior art for
"The Ether Robots", generated by Mr. Wombo.

 Ether Robots. The Solar System-roving John Carstairs finally has to deal with robots in "The Ether Robots" (1942). From his base on Uranus, the evil scientist, Frome, can use newly-developed technology to "project" his "ether robots" across millions of miles of outer space to other worlds. 

Figure 12. Manually colorized.

The first of several interior art illustration for "The Ether Robots" shows John destroying one of the robots. To make Figure 11, I used the manually-colorized image that is shown in Figure 12. 

Figure 13. Interior artwork by Leo Morey.

Since our hero, John Carstairs, is roving around the Solar System collecting alien plants, I inserted an alien plant woman into the scene (Figure 11). Figure 13 shows the original interior artwork by Leo Morey.

In the timeline of "The Ether Robots", Earth has until 2027, then a mad scientist will try to take over the Solar System with a robot army. Also, Frome can take control of people's minds. What can stop this madman? Obviously, radiant flame fungi from Europa. But also a plant: an infra-radiant from Iapetus. Whew! That sure was close. 

Figure 14. Internal art for "The Heavy Man".

 Suck. The next story in the series with Vera and John was "The Heavy Man" (1943) in which a magical microscopic algae from Mimas was used to "suck the juiciness out of heavy atoms". These algae are used to clean up a mess created by a deranged scientist called "The Voice" who is periodically broadcasting his propaganda directly to the people of New York from a hidden location. While trying to project a "heavy force field" into the sky over New York City, this evil and incompetent scientist converts the atoms in his body to heavy atoms. John and Vera quickly jump in their aircar and fly to the place where police found the heavy man in his parked aircar. As they approach, their own aircar falls apart and they must parachute to safety. According to the text of the story, when Vera lands on the ground, she is wearing a skirt.

Figure 15. Colorize by Mr. Wombo.

 Dizzy. "The Heavy Man" also features a scene with a "vertigo lily" which sends super high frequency sound waves directly into the middle ear, disrupting its function and causing a person to lose consciousness.

Figure 15 has a colorized version of Figure 14 that was generated by WOMBO Dream. It is also mentioned in the story that Vera breaks the heal of her shoe while parachuting. However, both the uncredited artist for Thrilling Wonder Stories and Mr. Wombo insisted on generating images of the parachuting Vera without high heels or a skirt. 😠

Figure 16. Add a balloon.

I liked the AI-generated image in Figure 16 because Mr. Wombo put in a hot air balloon and helicopters. 

The image shown in Figure 14 is actually a depiction of the second time that John and Vera must bail-out of a damaged aircar. This time, John is holding Vera while they parachute to the ground.

The other key tool used by John to solve the case of the heavy man is a spectroscopic lichen from Neptune. This living detector allows John to identify the parked aircar holding the "heavy man" as the source of a "heavy force field" pointed up into the sky. John deduces that the "heavy man" is the evil scientist known to New Yorkers as "The Voice". 

Figure 17. Verachuting in heels.

Once John has this all figured out, he releases the heavy-atom sucking algae from Mimas and the algae inactivate "heavy force field", but not before it destroys a police aircar, forcing John and Vera to parachute to the ground for the second time (Figure 14). The most amusing part of "The Heavy Man" is when John proclaims that "The Voice" must be a scientist and not a biologist. By this I assume that Long meant "physical scientist".

I asked Mr. Wombo to generate an image depicting: "Cintia Dicker parachuting, Cintia Dicker has long red hair, Cintia Dicker is dressed Victoria's Secret style in a miniskirt and high-heel shoes, a parachute is above Cintia Dicker, blue sky in the background, Cintia Dicker’s hair and skirt flutter in the wind" (see Figure 17). Mr. Wombo even showed a broken heel. Other AI-generated images of the parachuting Vera are at the bottom of this blog post.

Figure 18. Moon Wobblies.

The next John Carstairs story was "Wobblies in the Moon" (1943). Figure 10 (above) was generated by Mr. Wombo using the cover art from the June 1943 Thrilling Wonder Stories by Earle Bergey. I also had Mr. Wombo generate a colorized version of the original black and white interior art for "Wobblies in the Moon" by Marco Marchioni (Figure 18). John and Vera are on the Moon when Vera charges into his bedroom to announce that a Wobbly just opened the window of her bedroom and escaped. Maybe the house of Mr. Gleason is inside an enclosing dome?

We eventually learn that the Wobblies are walking plants that eat hydrogen sulfide. They are handy to have in the house when you want to kill someone like Mr. Gleason by poisoning him with hydrogen sulfide. The Wobblies will suck up all of the hydrogen sulfide, removing its tell-tale traces from the site of the murder.

  The interior art by
Marco Marchioni for
"Wobblies in the Moon".

Here on Earth, there are bacteria that can metabolize hydrogen sulfide, but hydrogen sulfide is toxic to plants and animals. I asked Gemini: "Would it be theoretically possible to engineer a plant species that would have endosymbiotic hydrogen sulfide-metabolizing bacteria in root nodules that could allow the plant to survive in soil that had high levels of hydrogen sulfide in the ground water?"

Gemini: "It is theoretically possible to engineer a plant species that could survive in soil with high levels of hydrogen sulfide. Such a plant could potentially have endosymbiotic hydrogen sulfide-metabolizing bacteria in its root nodules, similar to how legumes have nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 1) Isolate hydrogen sulfide-metabolizing bacteria. 2) Engineer a plant-bacteria symbiosis: develop genetic engineering techniques to introduce the hydrogen sulfide-metabolizing bacteria into the root cells of a plant species.

Figure 19. Vera on the Moon.

 3) Optimize the symbiosis: fine-tune the genetic engineering process to ensure that the bacteria can effectively metabolize hydrogen sulfide and provide benefits to the plant. This might involve optimizing the expression of bacterial genes, ensuring the compatibility of the bacteria with the plant's cellular environment, and preventing the bacteria from causing harm to the plant. Advances in genetic engineering and our understanding of plant-microbe interactions make it a theoretically feasible goal."

Sadly, on Earth, plants never evolved a motility system like animal muscle tissue, so we don't have walking plants. There is a scene in "Wobblies in the Moon" in which John measures the "sap pressure" of one of the Wobblies, noting that it is dangerously high. Maybe the Wobblies of the Moon use liquid nitrogen for the fluid of their bodies instead of water and feed on hydrogen sulfide deposits.

Figure 20. Plant breeding.

 Beyond Pluto. None of the sentient plants found in the Solar System by John Carstair were quite as smart as a human being. But might it be possible to selectively breed a more intelligent plant? This question arises in the last of the John Carstair stories, "The Hollow World" which was published in the Summer 1945 issue of Startling Stories.

In the August 1926 issue of Weird Tales was "The Woman of the Wood". This story is definitely not science fiction, but I had Mr. Wombo create a variant of the 1926 cover art that shows a plant creature holding a woman (see Figure 20). Sadly, "The Hollow World" is very long and rambling and Frank Long did not provide much information about the plant breeding experiments that make it possible to create very intelligent plant people who can then terrorize the human population of the Solar System.

Vera on a half-shell: alien breeding project.

 Plant Genetics. The poor blond in Figure 20 seems to be at the mercy of the alien plant creature. It may be that someone like Vera Dorn with her Ph.D. in Botany would be a more willing participant in experiments aimed at creating highly intelligent plants. The image shown to the right was generated by Mr. Wombo using this 1935 cover illustration as a reference image and a text prompt that included, "a green plant person, seen in profile view, the face and neck of the plant person is made of stems and leaves".

John and Vera experiment
with an alien plant.

While looking at the image to the right, I began to wonder what Vera an the alien were looking at. In my imagination, John Carstairs is likely to be there with Vera during this type of plant breeding experiment.

I had Mr. Wombo generate an alternate version of this scene in which John is there at Vera's side while she is getting friendly with an alien. For "The Fesarians", it is possible for humans from Earth to interbreed with aliens from other planets because those "aliens" were transplanted from Earth and are actually genetically modified humans. Maybe in the fictional universe of Frank Long in which every planet in the Solar System has walking plant people, they are all modified version of humans from Earth, genetically engineered by aliens and adapted to the environments of other planets.

Figure 21.

  In his 1934 story "Lost Planet", Frank Long described people from Venus who were descendants of Earthlings, but he did not follow up on that idea for his John Carstairs stories of the 1940s.

The black and white interior art for "The Hollow World" was uncredited. Figure 21 is a colorized version of a scene from "The Hollow World" that was generated by Mr. Wombo by starting with one of the original illustrations from the story as a reference image. My text prompt said, "Cintia Dicker has long red hair and is seen from behind", but Mr. Wombo had her turn towards the camera and depicted her as topless and barefoot. Sometimes it simply does not pay to argue with an AI.

Figure 22. John and Helen.

 The other woman. Through the John Carstair stories, John and Vera are often depicted as bickering, but they occasionally have time between battling human evil doers and monster plants to share a kiss. Finally, in "The Hollow World", Frank Long brought in another female character, 18-year-old Helen Hilary (see Figure 22), daughter of John's old friend, Thomas, who had long worked collecting plants from Pluto and who was interested in mutations. With money from a shadowy source (Maile, see below), Thomas succeeded in breeding plants that were intelligent enough to use human language... then he was killed.

To track down the suspect in the death of Thomas, John makes use of a Compass Lichen from Uranus which points its tendrils at any nearby walking plant. Then it is off into outer space: destination the 12th planet, which is 5,200,000,000 miles from the Sun. 

Figure 23. An army of plant
people inside the 12th planet.

Readers of "The Hollow World" are informed that the 12th planet was discovered in 1997. The floating plants in Figure 21 are a magnified and "projected" version of the Callistian chain vampire plant. During the long boring voyage from Earth to the 12th planet, the spaceship's captain's son pranks John and Vera with the magnified "projected" image of this tiny alien plant. This trick apparently involves the same Hi Tek "projector" technology that was used to "project" ether robots for missions around the Solar System in "The Ether Robots" (see above in Figure 12).

 Figure 23 is one of the interior art illustrations for "The Hollow World" showing what is discovered when our hero John Carstairs reached the 12th planet: an army of intelligent plant people that has been created by evil master mind, Maile, a mutant human with a 310 I.Q. 

Figure 24. Evil plant people.

The 12th planet is titular "The Hollow World" where the army of plant people is discovered inside an underground chamber. The plant people are quickly destroyed by the explosive balls seen in Figure 23. The intelligent plant people were made possible by the plant breeding experiments of Helen's father, Thomas. Ironically, Thomas is killed by rampaging plant people (Figure 24). Figure 24 is another colorized version of an interior art illustration for "The Hollow World" that was generated by Mr. Wombo.

In other news, during the long voyage to the 12th planet, John and Helen share a kiss, something that John has long wanted to do. Helen seems quite pleased with John's romantic advance. Is John dumping Vera in exchange for a younger woman? Apparently not.  Frank Long ended "The Hollow World" with the suggestion that after returning the Earth from the 12th planet, John and Vera would finally be getting hitched.💕

Figure 25. See this cover art
by Steve Fastner.

At the end of the John Carstairs series of stories, it has been demonstrated that breeding intelligent plant people is possible. For me, this is the most interesting part of the whole series. I wish that Frank Belknap Long had started with intelligent plant people and then explored the implications of having a population of highly intelligent plants sharing the Solar System with humans.

In my story, "The Fesarians", the intelligent plant-like creatures of Elemacha-z are ancient artificial life-forms with advanced nanotechnology. Frank Belknap Long liked horror stories, and in "The Hollow World" the intelligent plants were all destroyed in order to prevent the evil henchman (Maile) from using the plant people to conquer the Solar System. In "The Fesarians", the Neoma just want to get the annoying human colonists to depart from Elemacha-z.

Figure 26. Interior art for
"The Thought Materializer"
by Frank R. Paul.

 Precursor to Teleportation. The "thrilling conclusion" of "The Hollow World" involves another use of the "projector" (see Figure 21, above). A monstrous plant creature of the 12th planet almost kills our hero, John, but the monster is defeated in video-game style by the spaceship's captain's young son who has learned how to use the magnifying projector in John's laboratory. I say "video-game style" because the "projector" technology is never explained: it creates a quasi-physical copy of an actual object (in this case, a plant in the lab) that can be projected to the outside of the spaceship. The technology almost seems like a precursor to teleportation, able to transmit over long distances a partial semblance of a physical object.

Figure 27. Future botany.
See this cover illustration.

 Projector Technology.  In the Spring 1930 edition of Science Wonder Quarterly, Frank Long published a story called "The Thought Materializer". In that story, Randall has invented a device that converts your thoughts into reality. Randall explains to his friend Perkins the secret of his device: cosmic rays. Randall wants Perkins to experiment with the device and he starts the experiment with the words, "There isn't the slightest danger". Of course, Perkins soon imagines a tiger and he is attacked and physically injured by his imaginary tiger (see Figure 26).

Not being a fan of horror stories, I've long been dismayed by the influx of horror story writers who swarmed the early science fiction magazines. Another such writer who moved from Weird Tales to pulp Sci Fi magazines was Donald Wandrei. "Raiders of the Universes" was published by Donald Wandrei in the September 1932  issue of Astounding Stories where it was provided with a color cover illustration by Hans Wessolowski. 

Figure 28. Projector technology.
So simple even a child can use it.

Using that 1932 color painting by Hans Wessolowski as a reference image, I had Mr. Wombo make the image shown in Figure 27, depicting John and Vera studying an alien plant.

Starting in 1934, Wandrei wrote a series of stories about the scientific detective Professor I.V. Frost, Sc.D. It is easy to imagine that Frank Long was inspired by the 1932 cover art for "Raiders of the Universes" and ended up writing a large number of stories about walking plant creatures from other planets and botanical detective John Carstairs. Long published a short story called "The Lichen from Eros" in the November 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. "The Lichen from Eros" is more fantasy that science fiction, depicting microscopic people living on the surface of the titular lichen from Eros. Already in this 1935 story, Long seemed devoted to the idea that every moon, planet and asteroid of the Solar System should have its own living creatures. 

Figure 29. John the Plant Detective
and his amber-haired partner Vera.

Starting with a May 1949 magazine cover illustration, I had Mr. Wombo generate an image depicting Vera and John with a group of plant people (see Figure 29). Frank Long never tired of referring to Vera as the amber-haired "secretary" of John Carstairs. I suppose in the 1940s there actually were women with a Ph.D. who worked as secretaries. However, I prefer to imagine Vera as working with John as a partner. 

I'm not entirely sure what John and Vera are trying to accomplish in the scene that is shown in Figure 29. In "The Hollow World", readers were told that John had spent 7 years trying to breed more intelligent plants, finally reaching the conclusion that it was an impossible goal. However, Thomas Hilary persisted in those efforts and was successful. Not only could highly intelligent plant people be produced in quantity, but they grew rapidly and matured in just a few weeks, making it possible for Maile to quickly build an army of plant people who unquestioningly viewed as Maile their leader.

Figure 30. Vera's first
projection experiment.

 Vera Dorn, Ph.D. One of the themes that Frank Long included in his John Carstairs stories was the idea that John sometimes kept secrets from Vera. However, it is hard to imagine that John Carstairs could have magnifying projection equipment in his laboratory without Vera knowing about it and making use of it for her experiments. Using this 1945 cover art as a reference image, I had Mr. Wombo generate a depiction of Vera performing an experiment with projection experiment. 

 Plant People From a Miniature Lichen Civilization. In this experiment, Vera is enlarging the projected copy a small plant person who lives on a lichen from Eros. Maybe on a small asteroid like Eros there are tiny artificial life forms made of femtobot components. Vera is trying to expand this plant person to human size, but she may end up being frustrated by the limited magnification that can be achieved by the device (see Figure 30).

Figure 31. Vera's projection
experiment with Helen.

If John Carstairs could spend seven years trying to breed intelligent plants, fail in that effort and then learn that Thomas Hilary had been successful in his work towards that goal, then surely Vera would want to perform her own plant breeding experiments. And why not involve Helen Hilary in that research project? Figure 31 shows Vera using the projection equipment in John's lab to shrink a "copy" of Helen down to the same size as some plant people.

Maybe by shrinking projected copies of people such as Helen it became possible to conduct breeding experiments between Earthlings and Eros lichen people. It might have been possible to greatly enlarge the tiny people of Eros, but not all the way to human size. By also shrinking test subjects like Helen, it became possible for the plant people of Eros to "meet humans in the middle" and successfully exchange genetic material. Maybe working at smaller size scale than the human body was the secret to the accelerated rate of growth of Maile's army of intelligent plant people.

Figure 32. The thoughtful husband.

 Exploring the Wonders of Projection Technology. For "The Fesarians", I've been planning to depict R. Nyrtia as appearing on Elemacha-z in the bodily form of Talia's sister, Gyulya. At the very end of the story, I plan to have Ylyndra and Ienaghwy land their spaceship in Port Cooway so that they can pick up passengers. I've been wondering if Balok should also be there on Elemacha-z at the end of "The Fesarians", but maybe Balok would use advanced bumpha "projector technology" to send his "image" to Elemacha-z. I had Mr. Wombo make Figure 28 as a depiction of the young son of the spaceship captain in "The Hollow World" when he is using projection technology to enlarge a small plant from the lab. 

 One Last Plant. Using a 1950 color illustration as a reference image, I had Mr. Wombo make a depiction of Vera receiving an alien plant as a gift from John (see Figure 32).

Next: Upgraded Imagen.

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Memory Phantom

Figure 1. cover art by Frank R. Paul

 I've been reading old science fiction stories from the 1920s and 1930s and trying to imagine the process by which the young Isaac Asimov became both a fan of science fiction and a biological scientist. I've previously commented on several stories by Miles J. Breuer, M.D. including "The Man Without an Appetite" (~1916), "The Girl from Mars" (1929) and "The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930).

Today I went in search of two other stories by Breuer that attracted my attention simply because of their titles. I've long been intrigued by the many unrealistic science fiction stories that have been published which depict living organisms on every planet, moon and stray asteroid of the galaxy. "A Baby on Neptune" was published by Breuer in the December 1929 issue of Amazing Stories and I wanted to find out if this was a story similar to "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting" by Clarke. Clarke's story concerned the first human baby born on the Moon.

image source

 Flying Plants. However, before I could get to "A Baby on Neptune", I ran into "Vampires of the Desert" by A. Hyatt Verrill. I'm not interested in vampires, so I would not normally have been distracted by a story called "Vampires of the Desert", but I recently read an old ghost story by Isaac Asimov ("Legal Rites") that was set in the Desert Southwest. Thus, I was distracted by the word "desert".

Also, I had previously read "The Ultra-Elixir of Youth" and "The Voice from the Inner World", both published in 1927 by Verrill, two stories which I've labeled as "silly", so I had no expectation of finding interesting fictional science in "Vampires of the Desert". "Vampires of the Desert" was constructed as a painfully long and tedious mystery story in which readers only slowly learn the cause of the "Night Death".

excerpt from "Vampires of the Desert"

 Dangers of Climate Change. "Vampires of the Desert" begins with a shift in ocean currents off the coast of Chile. When heavy rains fall on the coastal desert, strange plants begin to grow... plants unlike any others existing elsewhere on Earth, some with odd four-foot-long "flowers". Then the mysterious "murders" begin, occurring only at night. The murder victims have tiny puncture wounds and appear to have been strangled. Finally, the narrator of the story (Barry) witnesses one of the giant "flowers" detach from its stem and drift through the air, dangling tentacles. 

interior art by H. W. Wesso

 Flying Flowers. That floating "flower" attacks Barry, but he is able to survive and tell the tale. You might wonder how these large "flowers" are able to float through the air, but Verrill assures readers that their tissues are full of some gas that makes them lighter than air. The end of the story concerns efforts to eradicate the blood-sucking plants. The solution: coat the entire coastal region of Peru and Chile with petroleum. Tanker planes are deployed "spraying every square foot of the country with heavy oil". Problem solved.

Fictional Plant Evolution. In "Vampires of the Desert", Verrill advanced the theory that that these blood-sucking plants evolved from marine invertebrates such as hydrozoans. In an ancient geological age, the ocean floor was thrust upwards to form the coast of South America and sea creatures evolved into blood-sucking plants.

time machine; page 1 interior art by Frank R. Paul

 Time Travel. Having just completed a four part series of blog posts on science fiction stories about doctors, I could not resist reading Verrill's "The Astounding Discoveries of Doctor Mentiroso" which was published in the November 1927 issue of Amazing Stories and concerns time travel. 

Peru is both the setting of "Vampires of the Desert" (above) and the home of Doctor Mentiroso. A mathematical physicist, Dr. Mentiroso is an expert on the works of Albert Einstein and Mentiroso refers to himself as the discoverer of the 4th dimension.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Vibrostink. While explaining what makes time travel possible, the brilliant Dr. Mentiroso assures us that everything is "merely the result of vibratory waves" including our sense of smell. In "The Ultra-Elixir of Youth" Verrill coined the term "Juvenum" as a new chemical element that proves to be the secret of youthfulness. For Dr. Mentiroso's theory of vibration, I was inspired to coin the term "vibrostink". But what does this have to do with time travel? Dr. Mentiroso explains, "time itself must be the mere expression, in arbitrary terms, of some electronic force or vibratory waves".

image from Amazing Stories

Dr. Mentiroso does not take full credit for discovery of the 4th dimension. He discovered ancient ruins in Peru and found that the ancient inhabitants had already long ago mastered the 4th dimension. At the end of "The Astounding Discoveries of Doctor Mentiroso", Dr. Brown Mentiroso disappears with his time machine, planning to go visit the 1800s.

 Long Road to Neptune. Having been sent back in time from 1929 by Alpheus Verrill, I decided to read Breuer's story "The Appendix and the Spectacles" from the December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories. 

from the December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories.

Figure 2. Gernsback's memory phantoms.

However, before I could get to "The Appendix and the Spectacles", I ran into Hugo Gernsback's essay "An Amazing Phenomenon". Gernsback suggested a "theory" to account for the odd sensation that you have seen a location previously, before you actually get there (see Figure 2).

The American Magazine

I don't know what Gernsback was imagining as a "brain particle" that could transmit information that was once inside a dead person's brain and send it on into another living person. In my own stories, I like to imagine that we humans are composite creatures and our brains have both biological cells and nanoscopic endosymbionts. If so, then maybe after a person dies, their brain nanites could carry some of their memories to another person.

I like to imagine that in the Ekcolir Reality, these sorts of ideas were "in the air" during the early 20th century of Earth due to the activity of Interventionist agents on Earth. As Edison put it, "...these infinitesimally small units live forever. When we 'die' these swarms of units, like a swarm of bees, so to speak, betake themselves elsewhere and go on to function in some other form or environment."

I'm currently writing a new story called The Nanites of Love and wondering if there might be a limited number of Phari nanites on Earth that keep getting recycled from generation to generation. If so, might they carry useful information from one person's mind to another?

4D surgery; interior art by Frank R. Paul

 The Bookstrom Solution. In "The Appendix and the Spectacles", a practical method is found to temporarily move people into a 4th spatial dimension, allowing surgical removal of a bodily organ without first having to cut through the skin at the surface of the body. This great discovery is made by Bookstrom, who while attending medical school, ran out of money and had to satisfy himself with becoming Professor of Applied Mathematics.

 Take the 4th. You'll have to read "The Appendix and the Spectacles" to learn how a pair of spectacles and a money-hungry banker come into the story. As for the imaginary physics in this story, maybe there is a special law of conservation of mass that applies to 4th dimensional physics... if you take out a man's appendix by means of 4th dimensional surgery then something has to be left inside the patient?

interior art for The Fifth Dimension

 On to the 5th. The December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories had a silly transmutation story called "The Metal Man" (see Figure 1 for related cover art) and also "The Fifth Dimension" by Clare Winger Harris. In the story by Harris, time is counted as the 4th dimension. In the story, Harris advances the "theory" that all sequential events in time are eventually repeated. "Premonitions" are occasional memories from past cycles of the universe. However, there is opportunity to change the course of history and we can account for that flexibility and freedom from determinism by positing a 5th dimension. 

Figure 3. Cover art by H. W. Wesso

 Sea Monsters of Neptune. Returning to the December 1929 issue of Amazing Stories and "A Baby on Neptune", there on the cover (see Figure 3) we see the living creatures of Neptune, surface temperature less than −200 °C. The story was apparently written as a collaboration between Breuer and Clare Winger Harris. For the story, they invented a future history for SETI which included radio contact with the planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the late 20th century, but there was no progress on understanding the received signals from aliens until the year 2099. By 2300, there were "fluent" radio communications with aliens on Mars and Venus, but the faint radio signals from Neptune were a mystery. By 2345 interplanetary travel by spaceship began and visitors from Earth got their first chance to see the worm-like natives of Venus.

Corrigan blasting off from Earth

 We are the Scalosians. Then, finally Patrick Corrigan decodes the radio messages from Neptune (they are veeeery sloooow), revealing that they are being sent by a Neptunian physicist named Elzar. Every thing on Neptune is very cold and moves very slowly. Elzar invites Corrigan to visit Neptune, providing assurance that "You will find no lovelier spot in the universe" although sometimes monstrous creatures come out of the ocean to "prey upon our people".

 The Baby. In 2347, Corrigan sets off for Neptune in a "geodesic space flyer". Arriving at Neptune, he finds the temperature to be a chilly −260 °C upon dropping below the clouds and reaching the icy surface. In order to view Elzar and the other life forms of Neptune, a special device (an "infrared visual transformer") is constructed which reveals the slow-moving natives (see Figure 3) who are composed of gas, not liquid-containing cells. Fortuitously, Corrigan is on Neptune when a sea monster attacks the child of Elzar. Corrigan saves the baby alien's life. Elzar is pleased. The End.

Figure 4. time travel

 Tempium. Also in that issue of Amazing Stories was "The Time Deflector" by Edward L. Rementer. Professor Melville discovers that when the element "tempium" is heated then it emits a "ray" that can "move objects about in time". There in Figure 4 is the dramatic event, the first trip into the future. A man is sent 5000 years into the future and then brought back to his starting point in time. The time traveler writes his account of the future, including women who dress in mini-skirts and automated traffic control that automatically synchronizes the movements of all vehicles. You'll have to read "The Time Deflector" to learn more about the amazing future of Humanity.

A new chemical element!

 Back From the Future. However, by the end of "The Time Deflector", the world's supply of "tempium" has been exhausted (or something), so no further trips to the future are possible. In case you are wondering about how the time traveler was brought back from the future, that involved using reflected tempium rays which naturally reverse the direction of time travel.

interior art for "The Space Bender"

 4D Bend. The only other story listed at the ISFDB by Edward L. Rementer is "The Space Bender" (1928).  The Space Bender is a machine that can bend space, and its inventor, Professor Jason T. Livermore, uses it to bring the planet Venus in contact with Earth. Livermore wants to go to Venus because he suspects that it has a breathable atmosphere.

After bending space and arriving on Venus, Livermore discovers that it is populated by humanoids who are more like cats than apes. Eventually, a memoir from Livermore is discovered back on Earth in a subway construction site. Did he try to return to Earth or was he satisfied to remain on Venus and simply send back to Earth an account of his adventure? You'll have to read the story and decide for yourself because the story is written as a kind of joke story with cute names for the aliens and it seems like Rementer lost interest in his own plot before terminating the story.

Figure 5. Mr. White teleported to Mars. Martian swords.

The December 1928 issue of Amazing Stories also had "Flight to Venus" by Edwin K. Sloat. As described by G. W. Thomas, Sloat began publishing science fiction stories in 1928, but eventually went on to publish about 50 stories in the Western genre. The ISFDB lists 11 of his stories published between 1928 and 1940.

Teleportation. Sloat's second published Sci Fi story was "The World Without Name" and was published in the March 1931 issue of Wonder Stories. 

Figure 6. Martians. Interior art by M. Marchioni.

While "Flight to Venus" made use of fairly conventional rocketry for space travel and to make possible first-contact with the green-skin aliens of Venus, the world "without name" is actually Mars. Nothing as mundane as rockets are used to go to Mars. After the technological wizard Steinhilde builds a teleportation device, he discovers that the Martians have long been using teleportation technology. However, Sloat was seemingly influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The World Without Name" also features sword-wielding Martians (see Figure 5). 

in the Ekcolir Reality

For the type of teleportation imagined by Sloat, you need a teleportation terminal at both ends of your journey. When Steinhilde and his assistant teleport to Mars, they end up being tortured by the Martians (Figure 6). However, Sloat was familiar with the concept that it is wise to bring a gun to a sword fight. As shown in Figure 5, Steinhilde's buddy Mr. White brings a gun to Mars and manages to rescue Steinhilde. The Martians do have HiTek™ ray guns, but they are reluctant to use them in close proximity to their delicate teleportation equipment.

At the thrilling climax of "The World Without Name", Mr. White has to battle a Martian creature that has been carefully bred for gladiatorial combat. These kinds of stories about Mars and Venus influenced Isaac Asimov and when he began publishing his own stories, some of them featured Martians and folks living on Venus, even though Asimov knew that those planets did not have Earth-like environmental conditions.

Figure 7. Click to enlarge. Interior art by Robert Fuqua

 1939. Sloat's story "When Time Stood Still" was published in the July 1939 issue of Amazing Stories. Simply based on the title, I had hope that this might be a story about time travel. However, there is no time travel, only a magical "ray" treatment of people that stops them from aging. 

Lasers did not arrive until the 1960s, so a kind of lightening bolt generator was used to protect the periphery of the utopian village, Futura (Figure 7). Futura is the secret, hidden community created by Dr. Dalmetz. Dr. Dalmetz has perfected an invisibility device which is used to hide Futura in the mountains of Arizona.

Figure 8. Dorothy, a robot and Kent.

"When Time Stood Still" concerns secret agent Kent Rider who visits Futura. He's on a mission to obtain "shield" technology that might be able to protect the people of Europe from air-raids in the coming war. 

As shown in Figure 8, the citizens of Futura make use of robots as their mechanized workmen. Dorothy is the daughter of Dr. Dalmetz, and by the end of "When Time Stood Still", Kent has resigned from the Intelligence Service and is ready to live with Dorothy in Futura, where he can begin a new career using the new 300 inch telescope being built there. At the end of the story, readers are left wondering about what the future holds for the technologically advanced residents of Futura.

source

 There Should Have Been a Sequel. I was hopeful that Sloat may have written a sequel to "When Time Stood Still" with more futuristic technology from Dr. Dalmetz, so I took a look at "The Deadly Swarm" which appeared in the August 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories. "The Deadly Swarm" was a bit of military science fiction that anticipated the precise targeting of cruise missiles.

Fake News. In that August 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories was a short item (see the image to the left) by Donald Wollheim about The Invasion From Mars by Hadley Cantril (you can read the book here). In 1938, there was a radio broadcast version of The War of the Worlds. I've never quite been able to believe that people were actually tricked into believing that an alien invasion of Earth had taken place.

Figure 9. Interior art by Leo Morey

 Sex with Aliens. Also in the August 1940 issue of Astonishing Stories was a short letter from Isaac Asimov saying that he was thinking about a sequel to his story "Half-Breed". Even Asimov was caught up in the industry of creating Sci Fi stories about alien people from Mars and Venus. That new story did eventually get published as "Half-Breeds on Venus" right at the end of 1940.

One More Magical Chemical. Along with alien invaders, another ever-popular Sci Fi plot concerns the discovery of a means to shrink people. For "The Element of Logic", R. R. Winterbotham imagined the discovery and practical application of a new chemical element that when brought into contact with people could cause them to shrink (see Figure 9).  

image source

 Asimov's Imaginary Molecule. In 1948 Asimov published his first in what became a series of thiotimoline stories. His fictional substance "thiotimoline" was inspired by his on-going research in the chemistry lab. An imaginary chemical such as thiotimoline (that is able to dissolve in water before it touches the water) might seem like harmless Sci Fi fun, but how could you possibly control and work with a chemical element that had the power to shrink you to microscopic size (as imagined by Winterbotham)? 

Keep Your Cool. In the hands of Winterbotham, the answer to this problem was obvious: simply cool the dangerous chemical element to a very low temperature and that will render it inert. Warm it up, and then it will begin to exert its amazing power to shrink objects. In the case of thiotimoline, its amazing properties only became apparent when it was available in purified form.

chemical bonds for endochronic carbon

 Imaginary Chemistry. In his second story about thiotimoline (1953), Asimov described the properties of endochronic carbon atoms (see the image to the right) which have some of their chemical bonds aligned with the time axis. Asimov suggested that this unique temporal alignment of endochronic carbon atoms within the structure of thiotimoline is what allows it to interact with water molecules in the future.

In "Thiotimoline and the Space Age" (1960), Asimov imagined the military applications of thiotimoline. So horrible were the theoreticl military applications of thiotimoline that Asimov was forced to call a world-wide ban on all further production of thiotimoline. Clearly, Asimov was playing off of the fears of nuclear warfare that had grown during the 1950s.

image source

Published in 1973, "Thiotimoline to the Stars" (you can read it here) takes the form of a speech given to the graduating class of '22 at the starfleet pilot training academy. In this future time (2122?), polymers of thiotimoline have been developed that can be used to construct interstellar spaceships. The lecturer emphasizes how important it is that spaceship pilots not try to turn their spaceships into time machines.

No Spoilers. However, at the end of the story, the crusty old lecturer is tricked into believing that a spaceship has traveled far into the past. Will all of Earth's historical timeline suddenly be altered? You'll have to read "Thiotimoline to the Stars" in order to find out.

Next: I finally read the first draft version of Asimov's novel The End of Eternity.

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