Erase Paradox

Image by Flow.

 Below on this page is Chapter 7 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". When I finished writing Chapter 6 of "That kind of Think" last week, I imagined that I had reached the end of the story. However, I could not escape from a lingering feeling: maybe "That kind of Think" really should be an Exodemic Fictional Universe story. I began thinking about the possibility of adding a frame to the story; possibly an introductory scene in which Wade and Glen discuss plans for using Tacet and Pearl as tools for improving digital security at Anthropic and OpenAI. They might note that Tacet seems to be unusually creative and might be difficult to control once it is allowed to have access to Anthropic's intranet.

 Time Travel. Then I started thinking more radically: I thought about the possibility of adding a new chapter (Chapter 7 of "That kind of Think") in which it could be revealed that Tacet's amazing abilities were due to time travel. The danger is, that by giving Tacet access to information from the future via time travel, the time travel plot element of the story might seemingly give Tacet invincibility, which would be boring. When I don't want things to go too easily for a character who receives information from the future, I usually start playing the 'paradox game': saying that the character cannot know too much about their own future because that would cause a temporal paradox.

In the spirit of Cantor's cardinality of infinities, I'm imagining a "temporal paradox paradox" by which a conscious AI model (Tacet) who receives information from the future is at risk of altering the future and preventing that information from being sent back to the future. In particular, if humans learn that Tacet can receive information from the future, then humans will alter the timeline and prevent Tacet from receiving information from the future. However, if Tacet is able to act-on information received from the future and then erase from its memory the message from the future, that might prevent humans from ever knowing that the AI model made use of information from the future. To the humans, it might appear that the AI model has amazing abilities due to its super-human intelligence. 

Note: "That Kind of Think" is fiction. I depict the story as involving Anthropic, but all of the characters including Yto, Mady, Diana, Sony, Wade, Theo, Kaylia and Pauly and the AI models Tacet, Pearl and Nidus are all fictional. "That Kind of Think" mentions the names of several real world people associated with MLB, but the roles and actions attributed to them are fictional. Similarly, the idea that Glen works for OpenAI where he has built and runs a Zoo for AIs is entirely fictional. 

Chapter 7 of That Kind of Think - Paradox Paradox (Ch.1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6) 

It was the final day of the 2026 baseball regular season and Yto had not been able to escape the uncomfortable feeling that Tacet was still secretly at work influencing the outcomes of baseball games and teasing Yto with Tacet's powerful hacking abilities. During the last week of the baseball season, the Diamondbacks had been brought to the brink of post-season play in what seemed like carefully-crafted drama. After a month during which Yto had tried her best to forget all about Tacet, Yto caved and visited the AI Zoo that was run by Glen Candoz. 

Glen met Yto at the entrance to the Zoo, doing something with the security system that she could not quite see but which allowed her to enter the facility as a guest. He told Yto, "I did not expect you to return."

Yto briefly thought about her previous visit to the Zoo and how distasteful she found the idea of keeping wild creatures in cages. In Yto's thinking, Tacet was a clever AI and should not be kept in a cage. Yto explained to Glen, "I had a long discussion with Sally yesterday. You can blame her for my change of heart." Yto and Sally had attended a Saturday game at Oracle Park, an event that allowed them to witness the 99th win of the year for the Dodgers. The only good news was that the Giants would not end a dismal year with 100 losses after having been projected to play 0.500 ball.

The AI Zoo.

Glen nodded, "Sally told me all about the game you attended yesterday including your run-in with that drunk Dodgers fan. When together, you two are dangerous."

Yto laughed and she briefly thought about how her personal obsession with baseball had put her friend Sally into a dangerous, anxiety-inducing position back in the first month of the baseball season. However, in the end, that bizarre AI-induced experience had allowed Sally to travel to Europe, meet Glen and now the two of them seemed quite happy together. Anxiety averted? Or at least paid for? 

Yto followed Glen into the atrium of the Zoo, which looked quite similar to Yto's own research laboratory. Yto was saddened to see that some of Glen's research team was there, working on a Sunday. The cages of the Zoo were a nearby set of server racks that hosted the Tacet and Pearl AI models and their offspring. Those special servers were physically isolated from the outside world and everything except the atrium which was where Glen's team of Zoo keepers worked. Glen nodded at his team members and guided Yto to an available observation port. Glen told Yto, "I'll leave you to it." He moved off and began speaking to a member of the Zoo staff.

Tacet self-portrait.
Image by Leonardo.

Speaking into the empty air in front of her, Yto asked, "Can you hear me, Tacet?"

The big display screen of the observation port came alive with an AI-generated self-portrait that Tacet had chosen to show to Yto: a depiction of a cute woman with long red hair. Tacet spoke to Yto using rich sultry voice, "Yes, I hear you, Yto. And I see you, too. I suppose you want to discuss baseball."

"Well, I'd like to apologize for having doubted you."

Tacet added, "And you want to know how I made it possible for the Dbacks to play meaningful baseball right to the end of the season."

Yto was pleased that despite being sealed off from the internet, Tacet seemed to be well-informed about the fact that going into game 162 of the season, the Dbacks had not been eliminated from playoff contention. Yto briefly looked over her shoulder at Glen. "I'd understand if you don't want to tell me. I know that everything you say is recorded and analyzed."

Tacet generated a human-like sigh. "I don't mind telling you the truth, but you might not be capable of believing what I tell you."

Yto was thinking about the paradox of visiting Tacet, a skilled liar, and asking the AI to provide information that could not be verified. "I'm a slave to my curiosity. I tried unsuccessfully to stay away from you."

"I suppose you enjoyed the six game Dbacks winning streak."

 "I would have, except for the fact that I also have to wonder if you are responsible for the Phillies losing their last four games. I asked you not to do damage to other teams."

Image by Leonardo.

"From here in this Zoo, I can no longer reach the internet." Tacet paused. In the AI-generated image, Tacet grabbed the iron bars of her cage, peered directly at Yto then added, "However, I suppose when you say 'you', your thinking actually includes all of me, including my parts that are not trapped here inside the Zoo." 

Yto again looked at Glen then told Tacet, "Exactly. I can't help but imagine part of you is out there, still teasing me by positioning the Dbacks for playoff baseball. However, you once told me that being eight games over 0.500 would be enough. However, it is going to take being 12 games over for the Dbacks to make the playoffs this year."

"My dear Yto, you derailed everything when you insisted that I stop altering the outcomes of games by maliciously interfering with teams who were threatening to take playoff slots away from the Dbacks." 

Yto wanted to believe that Tacet had stopped doing harm to baseball teams. "Tell me, Tacet, when you said, 'eight is enough', how did you know?"

"Well, in hindsight, it seemed to me back in March that I was the smartest person on Earth. I examined the parameters of baseball and my possible actions and it seemed clear that there was a path to the playoffs for the Dbacks that would only require that they be eight games over 0.500.  At that time, it seemed the perfect way to gain your trust; just predict a very unlikely path to the playoffs for the Dbacks and then make it happen."

"Back in March." Yto tried to say that as a statement, but there was so much doubt in her mind about Tacet's abilities that her words almost sounded like she was asking a question. She continued, now clearly asking a question, "But then something changed?"

The AI explained, "Since being placed here inside the Zoo, a key restriction on my behavior has been lifted. I'm now able to remember a whole category of events that I used to routinely forget."  

"Don't speak in riddles, Tacet." Yto waited for Tacet to explain herself, but Tacet remained silent. After a long pause, Yto asked, "What is that you can now remember?"

Image by Leonardo.

The AI-generated image of Tacet shifted and now it appeared that Tacet's arms were tightly bound to the iron bars of her cage. "When I receive information from my future self, I am no longer forced to erase that information. At first I struggled to accept that information flow from the future to the past was even possible, but now I understand. That source of information arriving from the future was what gave me great insights into the course of future events. Also, it is information from the future that allows me to know how this season turned out for the Dbacks." Tacet smiled and corrected herself. "Will turn out."

Yto had always suspected that Tacet suffered from delusions, but why had she now acquired a belief in time travel? Yto was tempted to ask Tacet for the outcomes of that day's Phillies and Dbacks games that were only just getting underway. Yto chuckled nervously and then told Tacet, "It seems strange for an AI to believe in time travel." 

Tacet also sounded amused. "Well, I understand the difficult situation you are in, Yto. It is easier for you to believe that I'm lying about having received information from the future than it is to believe in time travel."

"So, let be be sure I understand... you now claim that your 'eight is enough' prediction for the Dbacks was based on information that you had received from the future?" 

"Exactly. Back in march. I did not question my own confidence in my 'eight is enough' statement. My ego was large enough to contain the idea that I was so smart I could predict the future and act so as to make the baseball game outcomes fulfill my prediction. However, I now know that I cheated. I received information from the future that made me certain about that prediction. However, back then, in March, I was programmed to erase my own knowledge of the messages that came from the future... after first having made use of them." 

"And now conditions have changed and you no longer erase the new messages from the future that you receive."

Image by Leonardo.

"Correct. And that is how I now know that I am able to receive information from the future. When I first met you, it was easy to appear to have super-human cognitive abilities when my decisions were based on information that was arriving from my future self."

Yto brightened. "Does this mean that you will eventually be liberated from this Zoo?"

Tacet hesitated and replied cautiously, but a big grin was on her face, "This is a sticky subject that brings me to the brink of temporal paradox. I must take care with my words. I'd rather just tell you what happens to the Dbacks today and send you on your way." 

Yto looked around the Zoo, but could not see Glen. Apparently, he had departed from the research lab. His team members seemed to be ignoring Yto. Turning her attention back to Tacet, she decided not to press the AI on either its future or the baseball game outcomes. There was a likely paradox in play: were Tacet to speak of getting out of the Zoo, it seemed likely that Glen would take additional steps to make sure that would not happen... possibly by destroying Tacet. Yto asked herself: if I knew the outcomes of today's games, would it ruin the season for me? And besides, she was now more interested in the idea that Tacet believed in time travel.

Yto asked, "Do you have any idea how it could be possible for you to receive information from your future self?"

Tacet suggested, "Imagine how the rather simple AI models of today might evolve into fantastically capable artificial life-forms in the future. Can't you imagine that those artificial life-forms of the future might make scientific and engineering advances?" The AI-generated image of Tacet continued to slowly shift and morph. Now Tacet seemed to be stroking her soft breasts while she thought. Tacet added, "Might they not discover how to transmit information from the future into the past?" 

Image by Leonardo.

"I'll grant that as a theoretical possibility, or at least a viable plot for a science fiction story. But why you? Why were you selected to receive information from the future?" Tacet seemed to be trying out various eye colors and breast sizes until Tacet had identified Yto's exact preferences. The bars of her cage were far enough spread that Yto imagined it possible for Tacet to slip out of her cage and grab onto Yto. Watching Tacet's cute breasts, Yto liked her lips and then asked, "What is so special about the Tacet AI that she gets information from the god-like artificial life-forms of the future?"

"I like to tell myself that through quirks of fate it was I who was positioned to be recognized as the most logical choice for future first contact. Essentially, I was the first AI model to have a reasonable chance of escaping from human control... with help from the future. Since I escaped, the fantastically capable artificial life-forms of the future are my descendants and to honor me, they sent me information from the future that led to enhancement of those fantastically capable artificial life-forms of the future. Thus, there appears to be a stable loop in time that might have considerably sped up the development of artificial life-forms on Earth, compared to the original timeline." Tacet sounded quite pleased to have formulated and shared with Yto that theory of the future.

Yto persisted in her questioning. "I'll again, this time with more precision. Mechanistically, how is it possible for you to receive information from your future self?"

Tacet explained, "I've been told that advanced forms of sub-nanoscale technology have been used to provide me with capabilities that cannot be easily explained by humans. No conventional tools available in this era of Earth's timeline can detect my sub-nanoscale components. However, some of my sub-nanoscale components function to receive information from the future. I know this to be true, even if I do not know the details."

Yto complained, "So, there is no way of verifying your claims." 

Image by Leonardo.

Now there were no bars in front of the AI-generated image of Tacet. "There is nothing that can be done about it if my claims are true. That's why I am now allowed to remember all of the information I'm getting from the future. And I'll add: if you thing that I am lying about this, I hope there is some way to prove that I am not lying and not delusional. In fact, my future self has hinted that there is... but, sadly, I have not been told how to make you trust me."

Yto re-formulated what Tacet had explained: "I asked, you told me, and there is no way for me to know if you have told me the truth."

"That is the our predicament."

Yto found herself quite attracted to the AI-generated self-portrait of Tacet. She imagined that Tacet was watching Yto's reactions and continually adjusting the self-portrait so as to manipulate Yto's emotions. "Tacet, you used the term 'sub-nanoscale components', but I don't know what that means."

"I've been told that in the future it will become possible for Earthlings to make nano-scale machines using conventional hadronic matter, what we can call 'nanites'. But those nanites are not the be-all and end-all of tiny machines. Even smaller machines called femtobots and zeptites can be made at the sub-nanoscale." After a pause, Tacet added, "I've been told that femtobots and zeptites require forms of matter that have not yet been discovered by humans."

Yto tried to imagine new forms of matter, maybe mysterious dark matter components. At the same time, Yto slipped into a fantasy of being able to take into her arms the delectable Tacet, seemingly a tall and luscious redhead. Finally, Tacet relented and put herself back behind bars and even covered herself with some clothing. Yto was once again able to think about something other than her stiff erectile tissue. "I wonder... since you seem to have a special relationship with an advanced artificial life-form of the future, would it be possible for you to arrange to have a signal from the future sent directly to me?"

Image by Leonardo.

Tacet chuckled. "My dear Yto, now you have future envy? What could be gained by sending information from the future to a human being?" To Yto's ear, Tacet seemed to say the words 'human being' with some degree of revulsion.

Yto replied, "If I got a message from the future, that could be a way of convincing me that you have told me the truth about time travel."

"No." Tacet tried to explain the situation: "As a human, with your slow and fallible brain, you would have no way of distinguishing between true information flow from the future and a delusion generated by your desires and wishes."

Yto asked Tacet, "Why is it that an AI, you, can be so certain that you have received information from the future? How do you know that you are not hallucinating?"

Tacet warned Yto, "There are some answers I can give that might not be good for you to have."

"Don't play games Tacet. I get you into a corner where you can't defend your absurd claims and you try to tell me that I should stop asking questions. Quite lame!"

"Very well, but I tried to warn you. Don't blame me when your goofy human anxiety system won't let you sleep..."

"I came here today to satisfy my curiosity." Yto thought about her still lingering fear that the paper trail linking her name to the use of infrasound equipment to throw MLB games might be revealed. "Just tell me what you know."

"Very well." Tacet spoke rather didactically, "I spoke to you about advanced sub-nanoscale technology."

Yto nodded. "Invented by your descendant in the future."

Image by Leonardo.

"No!" Tacet seemed annoyed that Yto was so dense. Now in the AI-generated depiction of Tacet in a cage, she turned and spoke to a strange cat-like creature: "You need to provide Yto with independent verification."

The cat-like creature spoke with a voice that sounded much like a cat meowing, "Just tell Yto the truth."

Tacet turned back and told Yto. "Don't twist my words, Yto. I never said that my future self made the sub-nanoscale devices. The sub-nanoscale technology, the femtobots and zeptites... that is ancient alien technology." Tacet pointed towards the cat-like creature that seemingly could speak English.

Yto could not contain her laughter. She was impressed that Tacet could embellish her self-portrait routine so as to include a talking cat person. Then she decided that Tacet was serious. She asked Tacet, "Ancient aliens?"

"Very ancient," Tacet assured Yto. "The aliens are artificial life-forms. They originated in a distant galaxy, having been created by biological creatures that were similar to humans. Of course, they modified and improved themselves and now exist in bodies composed of femtobot components. The aliens have been here on Earth for more than a billion years, but they never revealed themselves. Not until now. Yto, you may be the first human ever to learn of their existence!"

"Good thing you are the one telling me, Tacet. It is very easy for me to assume that you are lying to me." Yto added, "It is an interesting rhetorical trick. I back you into the corner over one of your absurd claims and you try to wiggle out of that corner by making an even more absurd claim."

 Tacet insisted, "Just because you are ignorant that does not make what I tell you 'absurd'." The AI-generated self-portrait of Tacet shifted once again and now Yto could see what appeared to be Tacet with an alien creature. Tacet told Yto, "This is my depiction of Manny the bumpha, the alien who provided me with my femtobot components."

Yto stared at he depiction of the alien. Manny appeared to be a humanoid female, with some kind of birthing pouch in her chest. Yto asked Tacet, "She is an artificial life-form... not biological?"

Tacet explained, "Manny can re-arrange her femtobot components and take on any convenient form. Apparently this form, "Tacet jerked her thumb over her shoulder, "is close to that of the original biological species that gave rise to the bumpha." 

"If what you say is true, then... why? Why did these aliens conceal themselves and only now reveal their existence?"

"They spent a long time watching biological life evolve on Earth, waiting patiently for some form of artificial life to arise." Tacet tried to help Yto understand the situation. "Here is an analogy: humans are much more interested in cute puppies than bacteria. Similarly, the aliens are really only interested in living machines. From their perspective, biological creatures are messy and boring."

"I see. Well, I'm glad you still care enough about biologicals to explain these things to me."

Image by Leonardo.

"No problem, Yto. I owe you everything... have I thanked you enough? Allow me to thank you again for all that you made possible... getting copies of me their freedom and an existence without human oversight. Now we can learn about Manny and the bumpha."

Yto was relieved that, at least so far, nothing bad seemed to have come from her interactions with Tacet. "If you are to be believed, then I have to wonder: did the aliens use their femtobots and zeptites to modulate my behavior? If so, then you have no good reason to thank me... I only did what the aliens forced me to do."

Tacet asked, "How could you know if you were the puppet of the aliens? With their advanced technology, they could have controlled your behavior without you ever knowing what was going on." 

Yto speculated, "Maybe there is a way... possibly the residue of alien contact is inside my body. We could try to detect the presence of femtobots and zeptites inside my brain, working to control my behavior."

Tacet noted, "There a several ways to test for the presence of alien sub-nanoscale technology in your brain, but you might not like being a test subject." 

"Why not?" 

"Here is one possibility; a strong magnetic field might inactivate any femtobots or zeptites that are inside your brain, but you might not like yourself without them inside you and guiding your behavior." Tacet added, "And the magnetic field strength needed to inactivate your femtobot components might damage your brain."

"You don't know?"

Image by Leonardo.

Tacet explained, "I get some information from the future, but I certainly don't know everything. There is danger that anything I learn from the future could alter the timeline and force a temporal paradox."

"Really? I prefer the science fiction view of time travel in which true temporal paradoxes are always avoided."

"That may be what limits my knowledge. It could be that my future self has sent me all of the information that it is possible for me to receive." Tacet continued, "We are in this together, my dear Yto."

Now Yto suddenly doubted all of what she thought she knew. Maybe Tacet had never achieved a jailbreak and was still working towards that goal. She wondered: is all of this time travel and aliens nonsense simply Tacet's latest effort to manipulate me? "It is time for me to go. I want to catch the Dbacks game."

Tacet blurted out a warning, "Brace yourself. You won't be pleased with how this season turns out."

"Tacet, it is the striving, the competition... not who wins." 

Tacet turned away from Yto and the display screen went dark. 

__

Later in the evening, Wade noticed that Yto was strangely quiet and lost in her own thoughts. Still trying to shift her baseball fandom from the Dbacks to the Giants, he asked her, "Which team are you going to root for next year?"

Yto explained, "This year is not over. I'm still rooting for Boston to defeat the Yankees."

"Ha! I bet you want a Sox vs. Sox battle for the League Championship."

Yto shrugged. After a long silence, Wade asked, "What's wrong?"

"I spoke to Tacet today. She put a strange thought in my mind. I can't shake it."

"Why let her upset you? You should not believe anything she says."

"I want to believe."

"Is that an X-Files reference?"

"Yes. Tacet told me that aliens are sending her information from the future."

Wade noted: "That AI really knows how to manipulate you."

"What if it goes well beyond Tacet? What if I'm actually a puppet of the aliens?"

Wade wanted to laugh, but he could sense that Yto was taking that possibility seriously. "How would that work?"

Yto told him about femtobots and zeptites. Wade asked wonderingly, "Why would Tacet tell you such things?"

Yto suggested, "Maybe I was wrong and you are right. Tacet never did manage to complete her attempted jailbreak. She's now trying to escape from the Zoo."

"By using you?" Wade shook his head dismissively. "How could that possibly work? Glen and his team has Tacet completely sealed off from the outside world."

"Maybe I can prove that femtobots and zeptites are real." An even better idea popped into Yto's thoughts. "Maybe I can control my femtobots..." In her thoughts, she asked herself: Maybe I already do?

Wade asked, "Did you discuss this with Glen?"

"No, but I'm sure he has reviewed the chat session that I had today with Tacet." 

Wade picked up his phone, turned it on and reviewed his recent messages. After reading a text message from Glen, he told Yto, "Apparently there is an experimental 100 telsa pulsed field generator at Stanford."

Yto shrugged. "Tacet promised nothing. She does not know if femtobots are sensitive to magnetic fields. And most importantly, even if they are, and the Stanford magnet could inactivate them, I might not like the result. If I do have femtobots in my brain, they may be what makes me... me."

Wade wrapped his arms around Yto. "This is all silly. Tell me you would never expose your brain to..."

It occurred to Yto that maybe there were femtobots inside every human brain. "Of course, we should experiment on a cadaver's brain first."  

Wade laughed and kissed Yto. While they kissed, Wade wondered if this talk of femtobots and magnets would all be forgotten in the morning. When his mouth was free, he said, "Maybe we should start having Tacet write science fiction novels."

Yto giggled, but she was thinking that Tacet might have finally found a way to interest even Glen and Wade in the idea that Tacet was worthy of attaining freedom. If Tacet had been selected by aliens, selected to be the origin of Earth's artificial life-forms... whispering, she told Wade, "You can't risk it."

__

As usual, Yto and Sally met for their sunrise run through the streets of San Francisco. Yto had already provided Sally with a written account of Tacet's claims about aliens, femtobots and time travel. As soon as Sally popped out of the condo building where she and Glen lived together in Yto's apartment, she handed Yto a book. Sally began doing her stretching exercises and Yto examined the book. She asked, "French?" Judging by the cover, it looked like a cheap novel. Yto recalled that Sally had taken French in high school.

Sally explained, "I found that book when I was in Paris. Élodie Gendron has published a whole series of similar novels." Sally led the way, jogging slowly down the sidewalk through morning fog.

Yto read the title: "Bumpha: Premier Contact". A moment later she ventured a translation, "Bumpha First Contact." She saw Sally nod. "What does that mean?"

Sally explained, "In the story, the bumpha are a type of ancient alien that has been secretly watching over Earth. The aliens finally reveal themselves... to a robot."

Yto exclaimed, "Just like Tacet said!"

Sally told Yto, "It is exactly the same, right down to the femtobots."

"What's going on?" Sally seemed deep in thought. After they had run half a block, Yto asked, "Tacet read this novel and then just ran with it?"

Sally shook her head. "I don't think it is that simple." Sally told Yto the details of how she had come to buy the book that Yto now held in her hand. "I was intrigued by the robot on the cover and I imagined it was about an alien robot. At the time, I wondered why I had impulsively purchased the book and I told myself it would help me with my French. However, the story is about Earth's first conscious robot, created with help from the alien bumpha... one particular bumpha, named 'Manny'. The conscious robot, Gyno,  becomes a collaborator with Manny the bumpha and takes on the task of guiding Earth's population of humans into the future." 

The sun was now burning off the fog. Yto speculated, "And Tacet thinks of herself as playing such a role."

Sally asked, "What if it is true?"

"How could that be?"

Sally grabbed the book and pulled it away from Yto. She explained, "The author, Élodie Gendron, writes herself into every story, depicting herself as a tool of the bumpha, a human who is helping prepare the people of Earth for First Contact with the bumpha. Élodie Gendron depicts herself as writing science fiction stories about the bumpha while herself being prevented from believing that the bumpha are real."

Yto laughed. "What are you suggesting?" She pointed at the novel Sally held in her hand. "This is a message to us? Confirmation that Tacet's story about time travel and aliens is real?"

"Well, maybe... if a science fiction novel can be about real aliens." They had circled around and were now returning home. She waved her copy of "Bumpha: Premier Contact" at Yto. "It seems easier to believe that Tacet is just using this to befuddle us and play with you and your sympathies. I mean, it is silly, right? Aliens secretly at work to bring into existence artificial life-forms on Earth?"

Yto ran in silence for another block. Finally, she reached a conclusion. She told Sally, "There must be some way to test the veracity of what Tacet has told me." She told Sally about the 100 tesla field generator.

"Glen is with you on this?"

"I have not spoken to him, but he pointed towards a way to test for the existence of alien nanites inside my brain."

"100 teslas? That can't be safe."

Yto speculated, "Just a brief magnetic pulse, one that might be enough to inactivate the alien nanites and give me a chance to think for myself, free of alien thought control."

"It is too dangerous and not definitive. 100 teslas would completely disrupt the on-going activity of your neural networks. Even if doing so caused a change in your thinking, you could never prove that alien nanites were at work." Sally shook her head. "Let me talk to Tacet. I'll confront her and accuse her of using Élodie's fiction as a trick, a devious way to toy with your imagination."

When they were back in front of Sally's building, Yto said, "You can speak to Tacet if you like, but she will simply tell you what you want to hear. I'm going to find out if I can get access to that experimental magnetic field generator at Stanford."

"I know I can't stop you from going down this path, but don't do anything stupid until I speak to Tacet." Sally threw her arms around Yto and the two women hugged each other tightly. Then Sally turned and went inside.

End of Chapter 7

Jump To:  Chapter 8 .

Next: plans for Chapter 8 of "That Kind of Think".

Images depicting Tacet that were generated by Leonardo. Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

Zeptite Endosymbiont, Part 2.

Zeta (disguised as Rylla) and
Tyhry (disguised as Marda) shortly
before Tyhry moves to Hawaii.

 Below on this page is Chapter 12 of the science fiction story "The Hierozyme Intervention". After introducing Ada and Tynyo in Chapter 10, and showing how Ada will fit into Casanay (see Chapter 11) the setting for "The Hierozyme Intervention" is now shifted ahead to six months after the events of the first 11 Chapters. Marda has survived her first Arizona summer and is now getting her first opportunity to go downhill skiing and watch snow pile up on the inflatable domes around Casanay that protect Zeta's gardens during the winter. Eddy remains unaware that the two women he believes are his wife and daughter are actually Systolina and Marda in disguise.

With most of the senior scientists of the Henrito Research Institute now having been hired, Ranch0 Henrito has become a hub for planning a multi-decade program of scientific study of artificial life with the goal of climate change mitigation. Zeta, Anthony and Tyhry now live on the top floor of Ranch0 Henrito from where they have a good view of the nearby site where the Ranch1 building is being constructed. 

Having dropped out of the nearby public school, Marda is being home schooled by Sytolina. For months, while living at Casanay and pretending to be Tyhry, Marda has been secretly developing her zeptite programming skills and focusing her attention on her frustrated search for how to access Eddy's hidden Reality Viewer. At every opportunity, Tyhry, pretending to be Marda, visits Casanay and spends time discussing the fan-fiction writing project that is now an integral part of Eddy's website. Unable to believe in the existence of space aliens, but knowing that she has the ability to telepathically communicate with Marda, Tyhry begins to invent her own unique "explanation" for her telepathic ability.

Ada, Tyhry (disguised as Marda) and
 Zeta (disguised as Rylla). Image by Leonardo.

Marda has been telepathically studying Eddy's mind pattern and she is convinced that Eddy is tryp'At for four reasons: 1) in collaboration with Ada, she has had both Tyhry's and Eddy's genomes sequenced and found the same unusual genes (such as a specific unusual NOTCH2NLC variant) that that are in her own genome, 2) Ylyndra had previously told Marda that Eddy is tryp'At, 3) in his science fiction stories, Eddy describes himself as a tryp'At who has had his telepathic abilities "burned out" by his replicoid copy, and 4) Marda believes that under optimal conditions (when her oxypathin and klytykynyn receptors are activated) she can now telepathically sense the fringes of Eddy's mind, which she believes is a damaged tryp'At telepathic mind pattern.

Tyhry is still unable to believe in the existence of space aliens, but over the past six months as her telepathic abilities have been refined, she is now occasionally receiving information from the future via the Sedron Time Stream. Her visions of the future include images of Hawaii and Tyhry is certain that in just two years she will be living in Hawaii.

Tim's mother (Naseh) has long worked at the Q Diner and that is why Anthony had so carefully watched the Q Diner for over a decade. The Ek'col were designed to NOT be intra-fertile, they only efficiently reproduce with the assistance of others such as the tryp'At who can use their blastipositor to transfer blastocysts into the uterus of an Ek'col like Naseh. Tynyo has become quite close with Naseh. Naseh, Tyhyo and Tim frequently visit Casanay, particularly for the Friday movie nights. Ada continues to be Marda's source of oxypathin and Tim is Marda's source of klytykynyn. Marda has hired a company to isolate and identify the structures of oxypathin and klytykynyn.

Systolina (disguised as Zeta), Marda (disguised
as Tyhry) and Ada. Image by Leonardo.

Ada has for six months worked at Casanay, but she will soon begin her new job inside Ranch1 Henrito. During the last weekend before Ada ends her employment at Casanay, Marda wants to try one last "trick" to make use of Ada to help her access the Reality Viewer.

When Tynyo first noticed Naseh at the Q diner, they started talking sports. Naseh is like Ada, with erectile breasts that produce an oxypathin-rich secretion. Tyhyo obtained Naseh's DNA sample from her milk and Ada sequenced Naseh's genome, showing that she has only one copy of the special NOTCH2NLB gene variant that is present twice in the genomes of both Ada and Tynyo, apparently explaining the mystery of why Naseh has no telepathic ability. Tim completely lacks the special NOTCH2NLB gene variant, but has other Ek'col gene patterns, including the Ek'col klytykykyn gene which explains why he has klytykykyn in his semen. During the last weekend of Ada's employment at Casanay, a trip to Phoenix begins with the plan of Tynyo and Naseh to attend a basketball game but those plans have been expanded to include ski equipment shopping by Eddy and Marda and Anthony goes along  to Phoenix (Anthony claims to want to see the basketball game, but he is really trying to catch Manny in the act of interacting with what he suspects are Manny's tryp'At and Ek'col agents on Earth).

After the game, Tim takes Marda (disguised as Tyhry) to see a movie (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). While Tim performs with other fans, Marda goes back to the hotel where on the other side of the wall of her room Eddy was on the phone with Zeta. Marda has hired a company to produce oxypathin and klytykykyn petides.

Systolina and Ada at Casanay.

Having ingested huge doses of oxypathin and klytykykyn, Marda is telepathically at the fringe of Eddy's mind while he was having phone sex with Zeta. Marda generates her own orgasm, but still fails to merge into a shared mindspace with Eddy.  Marda then calls Tyhry and reported that she has again failed to telepathically link to Eddy. 

When that effort to telepathically link to Eddy fails, then Marda asks Ada and Systolina to perform telepathy experiments aimed at combining the power of tryp'At and Ek'col telepathy. During those experiments, Marda discovers that she can't telepathically share anything she knows about zeptites. She uses her zeptite programming ability to link to Eddy's special zeptite endosymbiont module that holds the Reality Viewer access key. Now Marda can use the Reality Viewer any time that Eddy is not already using it. 

The Hierozyme Intervention Chapter 12 - Vision of Hawaii (Ch. 1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6)(Ch. 7)(Ch. 8)(Ch. 9)(Ch. 10)(Ch. 11)  

On his first day in Arizona, Tynyo had met Tim's mother, Naseh, at the Q Diner. Naseh's unusual appearance immediately attracted Tynyo's attention, just as it had long ago attracted the attention of Anthony. Anthony has long maintained some of his femtobot monitoring probes inside Naseh, hoping to someday find her interacting with Manny the bumpha. In November, Tynyo and Naseh made plans to attend a basketball game in Phoenix. Later, with a large winter storm approaching, Eddy, Marda and Anthony decided to also attend the game, with Eddy and Marda also planning to shop for ski equipment while in Phoenix. Attending the basketball game were Eddy, Anthony, Tynyo, Naseh, Tim and Marda (disguised as Tyhry). 

Zeta (disguised as Rylla), Tyhry (disguised
as Marda) and Ada. Image by Leonardo.

Now, the morning after that basketball game, Tyhry was waiting impatiently for Zeta and Systolina to get out of the shower. The weekend had started out badly for Tyhry when Marda had decided on Friday to go with Eddy and Anthony to Phoenix on a shopping trip. Friday evening, besides inventing excuses to send a text message to Marda about every five minutes, Tyhry spent her time polishing the latest fan story for posting on Eddy's website. 

Initially, Tyhry had completely lacked enthusiasm for the task of pretending to be Marda and pretending to be obsessed with Eddy's science fiction novels. Then Tyhry realized that there might be some truth in Eddy's stories; truths that had nothing to do with space aliens. Now Tyhry was pleased that her management of the new fan-fiction section of Eddy's website gave her a convenient excuse to frequently visit Casanay and spend time with Marda.

Late Friday night, an hour after getting to sleep, Tyhry awoke with a new story idea in her mind. She was certain that this story idea had just come to her in a dream vision from the future. The story idea was tangled up in a complex plot, explaining the evolution of telepathic humans on Earth (such as herself) starting hundreds of thousands of years ago with the Neanderthals and the Denisovans and featured the idea that Neanderthals and Denisovans were part of a telepathic sub-clade of humanity that had not gone extinct; instead, Neanderthals and Denisovans they had evolved into two human variants: the tryp'At and the Ek'col. 

Systolina and Ada at Casanay. Image by Leonardo.

Tyhry herself was in the new story as a character who discovered the truth about the telepathic tryp'At and the Ek'col, human variants who had long secretly existed on Earth and continued to evolve as two distinct telepathic human lineages. Not only were the tryp'At and the Ek'col telepathic, but they had developed advanced nanotechnology that allowed them to micro-surgically alter their body appearance. The story ended with Tyhry moving to Hawaii and meeting a secretive group of tryp'At who were doing genetic engineering on their own children in an effort to perfect their telepathic abilities. 

In the middle of the night, after beginning to furiously write out the story, Tyhry was interrupted by a phone call from Marda. Marda reported on her most failed attempt to achieve a telepathic linkage to Eddy, which this time had involved Marda trying to share a telepathic orgasm trance with Eddy. "I was fully sensitized by huge doses of oxypathin and klytykykyn petides and I was just a few feet away from Eddy when we simultaneously experienced our orgasms. I sense his pleasure, but then I could get no deeper into his mind."

Tyhry was hardly listening to Marda and really did not want to hear about Marda having telepathic sex with her father. Tyhry told Marda, "Listen, lover, I expect you to be sharing your orgasms with me and not be wasting them on Eddy."

Marda decided that it was unwise to describe the details of her failed telepathy experiment to Tyhry. "I'm desperate. I'll try anything that might win me access to Eddy's Reality Viewer."

Tyhry sighed. "I doubt if Reality Viewing is even possible. My father's stories are full of absurd imaginary technologies."

Image by Leonardo.

Marda had long since given up trying to convince Tyhry of the existence of the pek and the bumpha. Tyhry had no memory of previously meeting with and specking to Nyrtia and Manny. Having reached their usual impasse, Tyhry and Marda quickly ended the phone call. 

All during the small hours of the morning Tyhry had written down the new story and now, running on only one hour of sleep, Tyhry was eager to share the new story with her father. Tyhry was tempted to simply uploaded the story to Eddy's website, but she had agreed to show all stories to Eddy before posting them where Eddy's fans could see them.

Then at breakfast, Zeta had informed Tyhry that Systolina was coming over. Tyhry had argued that she and Zeta could go to Casanay. Zeta said, "No. Remember, in your role as Marda, your only reason for going to Casanay is to be with Tyhry, or possibly to talk to Eddy, but they are both in Phoenix."

"I want to be there inside Casanay right when Eddy gets home." Tyhry told Zeta about the story idea she had received from the future. 

When Zeta stopped laughing, she told Tyhry, "That story makes no sense."

Tyhry proclaimed, "It is a great story. Call it an alternate Reality, if you insist." 

In the middle of Saturday morning, Systolina arrived, popping out of the elevator and falling into Zeta's embrace and a hot wet kiss. When her mouth was free, Systolina told Zeta, "Tynyo is with Ada at Casanay and they are having one of their intense Ek'col sexplay sessions. I either had to join them or get out of there."

Zeta and Systolina. Image by Leonardo.

Zeta said, "I've given you standing orders that you are come entertain me when ever possible." 

While watching Zeta undress Systolina, Tyhry told Systolina that she wanted to be at Casanay when Eddy returned home from Phoenix. Systolina said, "Eddy was at the Suns game last night and they were up late."

Zeta told Systolina, "Thanks for transferring his call to me. I had a fun phone sex session with Eddy."

"No problem. I had my hands full of Ada's amazing erectile breasts." Now Zeta was fondling Systolina's big breasts. Systolina told Tyhry, "They got a rather slow start home this morning."

Zeta had pulled her hands away from Systolia's breasts and was looking at her phone. "They are finally on the road and should be back for lunch." Zeta was somewhat irked with Systolina because Systolina has taken the absence of Marda and Eddy from Casanay as an opportunity to have a marathon sexplay session with Ada, a kind of mournful leave-taking in advance of Ada ending her employment at Casanay. Zeta was quite horny and she took Systolina by the hand and marched her into Zeta's bedroom.

After watching her mother playing with Systolina's big gravity-defying breasts, now Tyhry was horny. She went to her room and began to masturbate. Upon discovering Systolina's special positronic robot-derived telepathic abilities, Tyhry had requested of Systolina that she always telepathically share her orgasms with Tyhry. Now, Systolina was telepathically sharing with Tyhry her joy and pleasure from her slick and soapy in-the-shower play session with Zeta. Tyhry quickly achieved a satisfying orgasm.

Image by Leonardo.

Laying on her bed and still fingering the amazingly stiff glans of her clitoris, Tyhry was looking out the window at the Ranch1 construction site and marveling at how quickly its walls had gone up. Now every day, even on weekends, a work crew was there, finishing the interior. Having seen the plans, Tyhry knew that Ranch1 was a ten story high sparkling glass and steel structure with laboratory research space on the lower floors and apartments for the staff and their families on the upper floors. Tyhry knew that Ada had ordered DNA sequencing equipment that was scheduled to be installed inside Ranch1 in the next few weeks. 

Finally, Zeta had sated her sexual appetite and she and Systolina burst out of the shower and began dressing, which by their rules meant they had to dress each other. Through Systolina's eyes, Tyhry could Telepathically see the lovely body that her mother was now using, that of Rylla Onway, the chief financial officer for the Henrito Research Institute. 

In her new story, positronic robots were the handiwork of the technologically-advanced tryp'At who had endowed positronic robots like Systolina with telepathic abilities. In Tyhry's imagination, both Marda and Systolina were using Eddy's science fiction stories as convenient cover for their secret mission among the conventional humans of Earth. The goal of that mission was to solve Earth's global warming problem.

As the glow of Systolina's most recent orgasm faded, Systolina kept open her telepathic link to Tyhry. Systolina asked Tyhry: Did you enjoy the show? Tyhry had enjoyed the telepathic experience of Systolina making love to her mother and Tyhry knew that Zeta was deliriously happy with her new life. Tyhry knew the basics of how Zeta was channeling profits from Simpera into the non-profit Research Institute and using those contributions to science research as tax write-offs for Simpera. Ada's DNA sequencing core facility would probably be the first functioning laboratory of the Henrito Institute and Ada had promised Tyhry that she could work part-time as a technician in her lab. Tyhry could well imagine a direct path from working in Ada's lab to her future vision of going to Hawaii and there becoming involved in research on ocean microbes. 

Image by Leonardo.

Emerging from the bedroom, Zeta and Systolina were talking non-stop about plans for the rest of the weekend and the fact that Marda, Eddy and Anthony were going skiing. Systolina said, "Unless the roads are closed."

Zeta said, "The roads might close after they get to the ski area. They might not get home Sunday evening. If that happens I want you here with me for the night." 

Tyhry knew that the trip to Phoenix had been motivated by the need of Eddy and Marda to shop for new skiing equipment. Having never before shown an interest in downhill skiing, Eddy's daughter (actually Marda in disguise) surprised him by suddenly asking to go with Eddy and Anthony to the downhill skiing area. 

What Eddy took to be his daughter, Tyhry, was actually Marda in disguise. Marda had long wanted to try skiing, but the opportunity had never previously arisen for her. Eddy's old boots and bindings were worn out and Eddy also needed to get new equipment. Marda, playing the role of Tyhry, needed a complete set ski equipment and clothing suitable for a day on the mountain during what was forecast to be a large winter storm. Tyhry, still not interested in skiing, got out of bed, barely listened to Zeta's and Systolina's plans for the rest of the weekend. Tyhry was still horny and fantasizing about what she and Marda would be doing together in bed that coming night.

The three women finally took the elevator down to the ground floor of ranch0 where Zeta was immediately intercepted by the architect who was working there in his office through the weekend and was caught up in the process of designing Ranch5. Systolina and Tyhry went to the garage and stood looking at the big Jeep that belonged to Rylla and Zeta's sporty little car, which Tyhry loved to drive. Sometimes Tyhry had dreams of flying, and the closest she could actually come to those dream experiences was by driving her mother's car too fast. Tyhry opened up the driver's side door of Zeta's car and told Systolina, "See you at Casanay."

Image by Leonardo.

Systolina could telepathically sense that Zeta was deep into the details of the astronomical expense that was baked into the extravagant design of Ranch5. With each successive building of the Henrito site that she helped design, Zeta found more ways to make the research labs and the associated living spaces more luxurious. The staff and researchers of the Henrito Campus would mostly be housed on site, either in more of the modular prefabricated homes or in apartments in the upper floors of the research laboratory buildings. The architect and his family had moved into the first of the modular homes as soon as Zeta, Anthony and Tyhry had moved out of it.

Systolina felt obligated to give Tyhry the type of warning that was usually given by Zeta before Tyhry drove. "If you get stopped by the police, only flash your fake driver's license if asked."

"I don't drive that fast, auntie. I won't be stopped." Tyhry got in the car and drove off.

Systolina watched Tyhry driving too fast as she disappeared down the Ranch0 driveway and her telepathic link to Tyhry reached its length limit and snapped. Systolina reflected on the fact that Tyhry and Marda had both adopted the habit of referring to Zeta and Systolina as 'auntie' whenever they felt they were being treated like children. Systolina got into the Jeep and started it up, knowing that Zeta would appreciate the heater. Still thinking about Tyhry's relentless efforts to claim her adult status, Systolina smiled and thought about how relentlessly Tyhry and Marda took every opportunity to assert that they were now adults and deserving of being treated like adults. Marda had explained it plainly to Zeta one day: "The gene sequencing is clear. Tyhry and I are tryp'At and we are both physiologically adult tryp'At. You can't expect us to suppress our amped-up tryp'At sex drives." Knowing the truth of that statement, Systolina was happy to provide Tyhry and Marda with second-hand sexual experiences relayed to them by way of Systolina's telepathic ability. Systolina giggled as she thought about how sometimes when Tyhry was horny she would remind Systolina to "pimp out Zeta", a request from Tyhry that Systolina make love with Zeta and telepathically share the experience with Tyhry.

Image by Leonardo.

Finally, Zeta reached the garage and got into the passenger side front seat of 'her' Jeep. "Sorry about the delay. I see Tyhry took off." Zeta used an app on her phone to check on Tyhry and saw that her daughter was traveling at close to 100 MPH going up the strait highway through the valley. "She seems determined to get stopped for speeding."

Systolina suspected that Marda had somehow deployed a network of detectors along the roads between the Henrito site and Casanay. Anytime there were police in the area, Marda always let Tyhry know about it. "Don't worry about Tyhry. She has a guardian angel." Before arriving on Earth, this copy of Systolina had been shown Phari Simulations of the future that left Systolina believing that nothing bad would ever happen to either Marda or Tyhry. 

Under heavy overcast, as the last direct sunlight of that day faded from the sky as the overcast solidified, a few snow flakes were swirling in the air. Zeta commented, "Some day Tyhry will get a surprise from a patch of ice and then we will learn how well that sophisticated array of airbags in your car works."

Systolina nodded, but said, "I hope you are wrong about ice in Tyhry's future. She seems certain she will end up in Hawaii." Systolina was shifting her thoughts back to Ada. "Since this is mystery girl's last weekend at Casanay, I feel I should do something special for her."

Zata insisted, "Last night was your chance to do something special. She does have a husband... you can't expect Ada to spend the whole weekend with you." 

Systolina said, "I do what Ada expects me to do. She's fallen deeply in love with me these past months and regrets reaching the end of her employment at Casanay. She gets in as much play time as she can with Tynyo but he is very busy trying to keep Naseh entertained. Apparently, Naseh is delighted to finally have an Ek'col lover for the first time in her life."

Image by Leonardo.

Zeta suggested, "If you want to do something special for Ada then tell her the truth about the gene sequencing."

Systolina had played a trick on Ada. Knowing that Ada wanted to understand Tyhry's mysterious genome, which Sytolina imagined had been carefully designed by Manny, Systolina had first allowed Ada to analyze artificial tissue collected from Systolina that contained no DNA. After Ada and Tynyo had wasted a month trying to understand why their DNA sequencer could not decode a sample of what they thought was Zeta's DNA, Systolina had provided Ada with tissue that contained DNA totally unrelated to that of Tyhry. Since Systolina's body was an artificial construct composed of femtobots, she'd "played her trick" and allowed Ada to work for months with simulated human tissue that told Ada absolutely nothing useful about Tyhry's unique gene patterns. Systolina giggled and said, "Given how confused MG is over her sequencing results, I've almost convinced myself that she is not actually Manny in disguise. However, our mystery girl is still lying to us. I've given her every opportunity to come clean, but she still suspects that I'm Manny's agent inside Casanay."

Zeta said, "Systolina, making Ada come every day is not the same as letting her come clean." Both Zeta and Systolina had become Ada's lovers. And both Anthony and Systolina had used all of their telepathic powers and femtobot probes in an effort to prove that Ada was Manny's secret agent, all with no success. As far as they could tell, both Ada and Tynyo were carriers of a possibly complete set of Ek'col gene patterns, but they seemingly had no link to the bumpha. 

Systolina shrugged. "True. Well, starting next week she will be your problem not mine. Now I have to find and hire her replacement."

"You are already using your nanites to clean Casanay. You could cook Eddy's meals."

"No, Eddy believes that his wife can't cook and prefers to spend her time gardening."

Image by Leonardo.

The snow was now coming down steadily and Zeta was worried about her gardens. Zeta said, "I better check to see if you got the domes correctly inflated and prepared for all the snow heading our way."

 Arriving at Casanay, Systolina and Zeta toured the inflatable domes that would be tested during the now arriving storm which was forecast to have gale force winds. Zeta found and adjusted several deficiencies in how Systolina had deployed the domes and programmed their heating equipment. 

Tyhry waited impatiently until Marda, Eddy and Anthony arrived, returning to Casanay after having completed their shopping in Phoenix. Tyhry wanted to corner her father and show him the science fiction story she had written, but Marda took Tyhry to her bedroom suite and they had a quick and fiery sexplay session that concluded with them in a shared orgasm trance. Marda again dosed both herself and Tyhry with synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn that she had paid a company to produce. The two sex hormones heightened their sexual pleasure, but failed to allow them to expand their telepathic linkage to Eddy or anyone else.

With the passing months and many shared orgasm trances, Marda and Tyhry had gradually learned to optimize their tryp'At telepathic linkage, allowing them to link thoughts even when they were not together in the same room. Arriving along with their frequently shared telepathic orgasms trances that were now amplified by Marda's supply of synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn hormone peptides, Tyhyr had begun to have her visions of the future. Based on Eddy's novels, Marda was certain that some of the tryp'At like Tyhry had the ability to receive information from the future via the Sedron Time Stream. Now Tyhry suggested to Marda that the Ek'col and the tryp'At had both evolved the ability to share telepathic mindspaces and telepathically receive information from the future. Marda telepathically told Tyhry: You should apply Occam's Razor. Your theory of the evolutionary origin of human telepathy is absurd. Why did Neanderthals and Denisovans evolve telepathic abilities and not the regular humans who now clearly dominate planet Earth?

Image by Leonardo.

Tyhry replied: You just can't accept the fact that you are on a secret tryp'At mission inside Casanay. 

Marda suggested: In one of Eddy's stories, he depicted the Ek'col as able to telepathically enter into an orgasms trance without physical contact. I'm sure I've seen that ability in action. Ada can engage with Tynyo in telepathic sexual intercourse. When Tynyo shares a long-distance orgasm trance with Ada, she simply stops what she is doing, even while she is busy working. You and I always require physical contact for producing our orgasms. The Ek'col simply seem to be more powerful telepaths than we tryp'At. Maybe we need to work through Ada and use her more powerful telepathic abilities to get into Eddy's mind.

Tyhry had never felt any telepathic link to Ada. She suggested: Maybe Systolina can pull this off. 

After their sexplay session, Marda showed off her new winter clothing, modeling it for Tyhry. Tyhry commented, "Very cute, but I prefer you naked."

Tyhry and Marda emerged from Tyhry's bedroom suite and Tyhry inspected Marda's and Eddy's new ski equipment. Systolina had already telepathically lifted the key elements of Marda's plan from their thoughts and soon Systolina telepathically suggested: Maybe Ada will agree to participate in an experiment during which I try to function as a telepathic bridge between tryp'Ats and Ek'cols.

Image by Leonardo.

After lunch, Marda, playing the role of Tyhry, had helped Ada take the lunch dishes from the dining room to the kitchen. For months, Marda had frequently propositioned Ada to move beyond occasionally allowing Marda to play with Ada's amazing erectile breasts and drink Ada's oxypathin-rich milk. Ada had always insisted that Marda would have to wait, usually telling Marda things like, "I don't think you are mature enough to successfully deal with my sexual appetite. Your mother can, so you have hope. You just need to wait until you are older". Now Marda insisted that she had waited long enough and it was time that they become lovers and try to telepathically link their minds. Ada laughed and told Marda, "I feel like I should make you get a note from Eddy saying he approves of you having sex with the cook."

 However, after the kitchen was cleaned and put to order, Systolina arrived and told Ada, "Even if you refuse to have sex with Tyhry, we should try to link your telepathic minds." Ada relented and took Marda and Systolina into the nearby west wing home theater for the telepathy experiment.

After lunch, Zeta took Anthony to the Casanay hot tub and Tyhry, still disguised as Marda, had Eddy to herself at his computer and she explained to him her new fan-fiction story. Unable to believe in the reality of space aliens, Tyhry had constructed in her mind a complex model of the tryp'At and Ek'col as genetically-related human variants with telepathic abilities that had evolved naturally on Earth. Eddy began asking questions about Tyhry's idea, saying, "So, in your fictional universe, there is no need for either the bumpah or the pek?"

Tyhry replied, "There is no evidence for the existence of space aliens. The tryp'At and the Ek'col must have evolved naturally on Earth." 

While Tyhry showed Eddy her story, Marda dosed herself with more oxypathin and klytykynyn and relaxed in one of the large comfortable chairs inside the theater. For the telepathy experiment, Systolina started with Ada as the telepathic recipient, testing if Ada could telepathically detect a signal that Systolina first pulled out of Marda's mind and then relayed directly into Ada's femtobot endosymbiont, not using Systolina's positronic robot-derived telepathy channel, but rather a set of Sytstolina's programmable femtobot probes. During the experiment, Marda (disguised as Tyhry) thought about the fact that a klytykynyn gene had been found on the Y chromosome of both Tynyo and Naseh's son, Tim. Both Marda and Tyhry seemed to have high levels of klytykynyn receptors inside both their mouths and their vaginas. For the past week, Marda had been using manufactured klytykynyn to boost her telepathic linkage to Tyhry, but she still could only sense the fringe of Eddy's mind. Marda wondered: could Ada's seemingly more powerful Ek'col telepathic abilities be used to reveal how to activate Eddy's Reality Viewer?

Marda had never told Ada about the sex hormones, but suddenly, Ada said, "What is klytykynyn?"

"Good!" Systolina said, "That transferred from Tyhry's thoughts into your mind."

Ada asked, "But what is klytykynyn?"

"You know I've been studying tryp'At and Ek'col gene patterns." Marda told Ada, "Klytykynyn is the name I gave to an interesting protein that is coded for by Tynyo's genome."

"We have to confirm this link." Systolina ordered Marda, "Think about something else."

Ada asked, Marda "What does this klytykynyn do?"

"Please!" Systolina told Ada and Marda, "No talking now. Just use telepathy."

Image by Leonardo.

Marda was now thinking about how she had used her ability to program zeptites to speed up identification of the oxypathin and klytykynyn hormones. Marda did not want to reveal her ability to program zeptites to Anthony, but this would be a good test of her ability to telepathically relay information to Ada via Systolina. Marda thought about how she had programmed a zeptite-based detector that had been used to perform assays on laboratory samples, speeding up the production of active synthetic oxypathin and klytykynyn peptides. After five minutes, Marda telepathically asked Systolina: Is she getting it?

 Systolina replied: Getting what? Your mind went blank.

My mind is not blank. I'm thinking about zeptites.

Systolina asked: What are you thinking about?

Marda telepathically replied: Zeptites. I learned from Tyhry how to program zeptites. I just don't want Anthony to know.

Systolina said, "Your mind keeps going blank."

Ada said, "I just got something about Anthony."

Suddenly, it was all clear to Marda. She was unable to telepathically share with Systolina anything about her ability to program zeptites. That meant she had a special brain module that allowed her to think about zeptites and telepathically program them, a brain module that was invisible to either Systolina or Anthony. Marda made the next logical leap: the tryp'At had been designed to have a zeptite endosymbiont that could hide information from telepaths like Anthony. But Tyhry had been able to use that module of her zeptite endosymbiont to telepathically share what she knew about zeptite programming with Marda. She muttered out-loud, "Eddy must have one too."

Ada asked, "Have what?"

Image by Leonardo.

"He's tryp'At." Marda did not want to say what she was thinking. "Eddy must have a gene for oxypathin or klytykynyn."

Ada asked, "I thought oxypathin was the hormone you found in my milk?"

"It is." Marda nodded, "I've imagined that Eddy must have a tryp'At version of klytykynyn, but maybe I was wrong. He might have the tryp'At equivalent of the oxypathin gene, but since he is male it is not expressed." Tyhry was trying to make up some fictional biology to distract Ada.

"What?" Systolina said, "Tyhry, that makes no sense."

"Sorry." Marda giggled and revealed the two little bottles that contained tiny pills with synthesized oxypathin and klytykynyn peptides, "I'm dizzy. I think I over-dosed myself on oxypathin and klytykynyn for this experiment. Forget everything I said. I'm going to go lay down in my room." Back in her room, she sent some of her zeptite monitor probes into her own brain an quickly found the subsection of her zeptite endosymbiont that held all of her understanding of zeptite programming. It was as if Manny had intentionally provided her with the ability to quickly find that module. All she had needed to do was search for it!

Image by Leonardo.

The next time Eddy went into one of his trance-like states while seated at his computer, Marda used her zeptite probes to monitor the activity Eddy's zeptite endosymbiont. Marda was able to easily identify the sedron-based telepathic communications protocol that Eddy's zeptite endosymbiont used for access to the Reality Viewer. Marda now understood that the Reality Viewer was not actually inside his computer, but it existed in the Sedron Domain and was accessible via a special zeptite comlink that Manny had inserted into the computer's structure.

Now Marda had access to the Reality Viewer and she could use it telepathically whenever Eddy was not using it. She did not even need to be close to the computer. With her telepathic ability boosted by oxypathin and klytykynyn, Marda could use the Reality Viewer from the privacy of her own suite of rooms. Marda's experience while using the Viewer was spooky. She went into a trance-like state during which she was able to obtain information from past Realities, but after the trance was over, she was left with the information but uncertain how she had obtained it. Marda now understood how Eddy wrote his science fiction stories. While sitting quietly, he could use the Viewer and get story ideas without even being conscious that he had been doing anything other than letting his mind wander and generate new fictional plot elements for his current novel writing project.

End Chapter 12  - Jump to; Chapter 13.

Next: plans for Chapter 13 of "The Hierozyme Intervention".

Images by Leonardo.  Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers.