Somewhere Else Entirely -128-

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After the evening meal Garia has the difficult task of telling a select few about the Beings and what they have proposed. This results in further revelations for all concerned.

Somewhere Else Entirely

by Penny Lane

128 - The Impossible Choice

Disclaimer: The original characters and plot of this story are the property of the author. No infringement of pre-existing copyright is intended. This story is copyright (c) 2011-2015 Penny Lane. All rights reserved.



In the Receiving Room Terys bustled over to Garia.

"You have not changed, dear! But we understand, you have not had a pleasant afternoon, have you?" The Queen peered keenly at Garia's face. "What of your problem? You seemed distressed this afternoon. Are you now content?"

Garia sighed. "Your Majesty, I am not content, but I understand what has to happen and I will explain all as soon as possible. I must ask for an exclusive audience with the King, Ma'am."

"Indeed? He is very busy, as you know, especially with Wallesan as our guest." Another look. "I assume it is important?"

"Yes, Ma'am. It involves... my future. But don't say anything to anyone else, please. That's important as well."

"As you wish, dear. Shall you sit? I believe everyone else is here."

The meal was awkward as Garia wanted to get Robanar to herself and attempt to explain what was going on. As she ate she realized that certain other people needed to be included in that conversation. The list grew until she wondered if she was doing the right thing. What was that saying? "If one person knows something, it is a secret. If two people know something, it isn't a secret any more."

"My dear, you seem distracted." Robanar added, "The Queen tells me you were upset over something this afternoon."

"Yes, Sire. I need to speak to you about that and as soon as possible."

"It is that important? Aye, of course, you would not have said so otherwise. But I am busy, as you know. How long will such a meeting take?"

"Sire, it will involve a number of people apart from yourself. It may take some time and I believe you will not want to do anything afterwards."

Robanar raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Then we must accommodate you, my dear. Wallesan, I'm sorry, my treasure must speak to me urgently. If you may entertain yourself this evening? I'm sure we can arrange something."

Garia interrupted, "Sire. I'll need His Grace and Tenant Maralin as well. I think they have earned the right to hear what I have to say."

Robanar looked at Wallesan, both men puzzled. "As you wish, my dear."

The group that Garia eventually wanted was large enough that they couldn't use the parlor or the King's sitting room. They had to use the room where the Council of the Two Worlds normally sat and Garia thought this was rather fitting. Along with Robanar, Terys and Keren were Jenet, Merizel and Feteran, since they had been involved in Garia's original discussions concerning the Beings; Merek, because of the potential consequences of Garia's actions; and Wallesan and Maralin, since they now knew about multiple worlds and personal transfers. Jenet was the only maid present, the others having been given the evening off.

Garia was hesitant. "Sire, Your Grace, I'm not happy asking you for this meeting because I know you have visitors and you're busy but it is too important to delay for much longer. There are things you all just have to know about me, about Maralin, and about the Universe we live in."

Robanar grunted. "You speak of those who brought you and Tenant Maralin to Anmar."

"Yes, Sire. Firstly, I should explain why I wanted certain people here tonight. Jenet, Merizel and Feteran, along with Keren, have known since our visit to Blackstone everything I had found out about those who brought me to Anmar. His Grace, because he has Tenant Maralin and knows some of the background and Maralin because he, like me, comes from Earth and deserves to know why. Captain Merek must be informed because what may happen soon, if you agree, could cause serious problems for your Kingdom."

Robanar raised an eyebrow. "Serious problems? Explain."

"Sire, everyone around this table knows that Maralin and I, and maybe others like Yves Perriard, were brought to Anmar from Earth for various purposes. We called those who brought us here the 'Vast Multidimensional Beings' or more lately just the Beings. They live in a part of our universe most of you will find impossible to understand, or even to see, hear or touch, but it is there nevertheless."

Those from the palace already knew some of this, so just waited for Garia to continue. Wallesan and Maralin, however, were listening with great interest.

"It seems that I have gained the ability to speak with these Beings. It is even possible that I may, some day, turn into one myself, assuming I don't do something stupid and get myself killed. Meeting with them is difficult and I can't tell when I can go there or when I can't, it's just a matter of chance right now."

Maralin asked, "Is this true of all who came from Earth, Garia?"

She shook her head. "Unknown, Maralin. It has been described to me that I am like a newly hatched... avian, say, or perhaps an insect larva, with little ability to do much at all right now." She shrugged. "Maybe in time I'll be able to do more. The point is, I have no idea if anyone else is capable of what I can do. It might be that you are like an egg that hasn't hatched, for example, or one that may never hatch. I really don't know."

Maralin looked slightly disappointed but nodded. "Sorry to have interrupted."

Garia resumed, "Unfortunately, the Beings have proposed a task for me to do, and you're not going to like it. First, though, I need to give you all some background. Some of you are probably not going to like that, either."

She told them about the galaxy and, briefly, how it had begun and developed, and how the Beings had started appearing billions of years ago. She told them what they had discovered about the future of the galaxy and the Beings' attempts to change the outcome which had been predicted.

Robanar was outraged. "We dance to the tune of these Beings? Is that what you say?"

"Sire, humans wouldn't be on Anmar at all if it were not for the Beings. They try to leave us alone as much as possible. Everything they attempt is to improve the worlds they care for. But like when they brought Yves and me here, they only have the best interests of Anmar at heart, even if it means starting a war. If I may ask you to think big again, Sire. They are trying to improve us all because in the end, the fight will be undertaken as much by us, to save our own people, as it will be to save any of the Beings."

"How may what happens on Anmar affect this... galaxy you describe?"

"Sire, it seems incredible to me even saying it, but one day in the distant future there will be a Federation of worlds throughout the galaxy. Without a united front we cannot hope to save any of our worlds."

"She's right, Robanar," Wallesan agreed. "It is the same as we face here. Without the threat of war from Yod you would never have thought of your Federation idea."

Robanar grunted a reluctant acceptance and waved a hand, but Merek spoke up.

"Milady, these Beings, are they here now? Do they take account of everything we say and do?"

"Yes and no, Captain. I can't describe exactly where they are in terms you could understand. It's a kind of overlap with our world. There are only two Beings assigned to look after the whole of Anmar, so I would normally say you could have no complaint. Are they watching this meeting and listening? Yes, but this is a special meeting about them and they have an interest."

"I do not know whether to be relieved at your words or not, Milady."

"I don't think you have much to worry about, Captain. If I may continue? So, for the first time in millions of years, so I was told, they have someone who is both aware of the Beings and who has been transferred between worlds and knows it. Now while we were talking I once said to them that it was a pity I didn't know what would happen before I came to Anmar because I would have prepared myself better. That gave one of them an idea and after much research, resulted in the proposal they made to me. They want me to go back to Earth."

"What?" Robanar half started out of his seat. "But you cannot! You are about to become Palarand's next Queen!"

"And so I shall, Sire, but there is a catch. You see, when they select somebody to transfer, they usually choose someone who is about to die. This is basically for two reasons, first to avoid complications and second, because it is easier to obtain the material which makes the transfers possible. Most deaths usually involve a certain amount of confusion and they can use that to take measurements, gather samples and other things without anyone noticing. I can confirm to Tenant Maralin that when he was transferred, his Earthly body was about to be consumed in a fire in the apartment he lived in."

Maralin nodded. It was more or less what he had expected.

"On the other hand," Garia continued, "I was apparently in some kind of accident in which I had a nine in ten chance of dying, but I didn't. My original body is still there on Earth in a coma - unconscious - and has been for nearly eleven months. That gives them an opportunity to send me back to collect materials which will help Palarand and the whole Valley - heck, the whole planet! - to develop even faster."

Maralin asked, "Garia, why can't they just send you back to Earth like they brought us to Anmar? You could just pop up on a roadside somewhere."

"In the middle of the US? I'd have no ID, no history, no money, nothing. It would be very hard for me to start afresh with no background at all, especially in the suspicious climate there today. I could do it that way but it would probably take years to build up enough finances and background to make it work. By replacing my old body with a fresh clone I simply merge back into the life I would have had if I hadn't left. My old body must be fairly badly damaged if I've been stuck in a coma for nearly a year."

Robanar nodded. "I think I understand, Garia. But what of your presence here? It cannot continue, surely."

Garia sighed. "That's the big problem you have to face, Sire. If I do this, I'll just vanish from Anmar one day and reappear maybe nine months to a year later. If that happened without any warning, there could be chaos."

Robanar grimaced as he understood the problem.

Keren wanted to find a way not to lose his betrothed and asked, "Could you not stay here as well and then change over when your task is done?"

Garia shook her head. "That would give the Beings the unenviable job of killing the body which stayed behind - this one - to replace it with a new one which had all the Earth memories. As I understand the process, the original's memories have to be integrated as the new body grows. They can't be added afterwards, which means I'd lose all those that happened while the copy went to Earth." She paused. "There might be another serious problem. If I stayed here while a copy of me went to Earth, I could very well be pregnant when the copy returned. Is it likely they would want to kill me at that point?"

Merek muttered, "Milady, I have a headache."

Garia gave him a wry smile. "I know just what you mean, Captain."

Robanar asked, "Surely this can wait? Can you not secure the succession before you must needs leave?"

Maralin said, "Sire, if I read Garia's words right, that body on Earth won't last much longer. To keep someone in that state is expensive. The sooner she goes, the better."

"Maker!" Robanar buried his head in his hands. "First a war and now this."

Terys said, "Must this happen so soon, dear? We have prepared your wedding, is it all to no avail?"

"Ma'am," Garia replied, "The wedding will be fine, I think. What will happen will occur some time soon afterwards. Because of the difference in day lengths and so on, and because they have to make me a new body, I don't have an exact date, but the wedding can go ahead as planned."

Keren looked pained, as well he might. The thought of losing his new bride had struck him like a blow.

"You would have to reappear on Earth as Gary, would you not? In order to replace the sleeping body there now."

"That is correct, yes."

He frowned as he tried to puzzle through the complications.

"But you are a girl here, and you will be a boy again there... Does everyone, then, who is transferred, change genders as you and Maralin did?"

Garia shook her head. "No, what happened to us was not how it's supposed to work." Her expression twisted as she tried to find a way to explain in words that they would understand. "Okay. I'll leave the bigger explanation for another time, if I may. Basically, the machines are supposed to make an exact copy of the original by using the original instructions, the ones that cause a new baby to grow in the first place. Very occasionally the machinery goes wrong and we come out switched. The Beings who monitor Anmar don't have males and females like us so they didn't realize for a long while that anything had gone wrong. To try and find out what caused the problem, they selected Maralin since her life on Earth was about to end anyway."

Keren saw the problem. "But they must needs rely on this flaw to make a new body for you on Earth, and that will likely result in you being a girl again."

"No, it doesn't work that way, Keren. The instructions for me said, "make a boy," and that is what originally happened on Earth. They'll be using the same instructions again so it is unlikely I'll be a girl again. On the rare chance that did happen, they would scrap that body and try again until they got what they wanted."

"Ah, I see. At least..." His smile was rueful. "I feel so ignorant! So, what will happen when you return to Anmar? The same process?"

"Yes, of course. They have given me a undertaking that I will return here as a girl, because I will be needed here as your wife. As far as most people will be concerned, it will just be as if I have been away on holiday, or recovered after an illness, or something like that."

"But... why can you not remain here, while your copy goes to Earth, and then he comes back to Anmar as a boy? I would not mind it if you had a twin brother."

The Beings hadn't mentioned that option to Garia, but she had an idea what they would likely say.

"It's tricky, Keren. I think there's a kind of rule which states that the same person can't be alive in more than one place at any time. There's the potential for too many complications. That's one of the reasons they look for dying candidates for transfers. The whole transfer business appears to be bending the rules as it is, which is one reason there are so few of them."

Maralin suggested, "Perhaps they look for key people, men or women who would make a significant difference at the receiving end, who would otherwise be lost to the Universe."

Garia nodded. "That's a good way to put it."

"So let me understand the situation," Robanar summed up. "You would marry Keren and then, some few days after that, you would disappear from our world in much the same way you arrived here. Is that so?"

"Yes, Sire. Only it might be a week, or two or three. I don't know exactly."

"Then, after some months, you would appear here again... at least, someone would appear here who would look like you... or would the resemblance be more general? Would you look like Milsy, for example?"

"No, Sire. The instructions to make me would attempt to make the exact same body I had before." She frowned with thought. "I'm not sure, Sire, but there might be some natural variation built into DNA so I could look very slightly different when I come back. For all intents and purposes I'd be the same person, though, with all the same memories and everything."

Robanar nodded. "As you say. Where would you appear, then? Must we send out parties to find you again? Would you appear where you were found before?"

Garia grinned. "No, Sire. That was one of the reasons for having this meeting. Before, you had no idea who or what I was and things just developed naturally as was intended. Same with Maralin. This time, you'll know who I am and where I came from and I can be delivered anywhere suitable, Sire. There would be no point in making a mystery out of it."

Robanar grunted. "That relieves me somewhat. The thought of the wife of the next King of Palarand lying in a field somewhere, or in a ditch... No. You are right, since we are aware of what is happening there is no need for secrecy."

Keren put in, "There's a point there, father. Both Garia and Maralin had no memory of who they were for several days after they arrived. We would want to make sure that she is properly looked after until her memory returned."

Garia suggested, "That was again part of the point, Sire. You'll know I'm coming and where, and suitable arrangements can be made."

Robanar nodded and then turned to Terys. "My dear?"

"Well, I don't know, husband. This has all been such a shock, and for poor Garia, too! Do not forget that this is as unwelcome to her as it is to us. Tell us, Garia, what would happen if you did not do as these Beings request."

Garia shrugged. "Things would carry on much the same as they do now, Ma'am. Only, you all now know about the Beings, and that has to have some impact on any decisions you make in the future." She thought. "For the Beings, it would appear that the struggle they have would be much easier if I did this, Ma'am, but the chance of success if I don't is not very great. The chances of the galaxy surviving are around six in ten whereas if I go it will be nearly nine in ten."

Maralin asked, "How long are we talking about, Garia? I mean, before this all happens to the galaxy?"

"About a million years, Maralin. Only, by then it would be far too late. Like anything, you have to prepare well in advance, and that will be a big operation to co-ordinate."

Maralin's eyes narrowed. "You're talking about interstellar civilizations and all that, aren't you? Massive space fleets and defensive positions. That's going to take many thousands of years to build up. I can see why they are planning so far ahead, now." He abruptly chopped down with a hand. "That's not important to us, though. What do you plan to bring from Earth?"

"Give me a chance, Maralin! I only learned about all this this afternoon and it's a lot to take in. Since we know I'll be here at least until the wedding we have some days to make a list of things that might be useful."

Maralin nodded assent and Robanar asked, "Merek, your thoughts?"

"I am astonished, Sire. Even after everything that Lady Garia has presently brought us I thought that she could surprise us no more, but I was mistaken." He paused, collecting his thoughts. "I do not like this adventure any more than you do, Sire, but it appears Lady Garia should do as the Beings have requested. If the chances she has spoken of are anywhere near true then it would be folly to ignore the opportunity. She speaks of battle, Sire, and that is something I am familiar with. We must take every advantage offered and so must the Beings.

"As to her informing us of what is proposed, I fully understand, Sire. I would not like to consider your reaction if one day she simply disappeared from amidst us."

The look on Robanar's face showed everyone else what he thought of that idea. He glanced around the table, his gaze stopping at Feteran.

"Sire, I agree with Captain Merek. I was chosen to guarantee the safety of the Baroness and I cannot do that if she is somewhere else entirely. If, however, we know that she is to depart and, further, that she will one day return to us, then we can take some reasonable measures to calm those others we are responsible for."

Robanar grunted. "That is true, Commander. We have foreknowledge of this event and we may prepare some explanation for it."

Wallesan spoke up, looking uncomfortable.

"Robanar, forgive me, but there is something here I think you may have overlooked. Lady Garia speaks of matters about which nobody else on Anmar, save perhaps Maralin, can confirm. I would ask you to remember the Great Convocation. I would not wish you to make plans which depend on, if you will forgive me, My Lady, a young woman's word. Is there to be proof of any of this?"

Robanar leaned back. "I have considered it, Wallesan. For proof, you have only to look at the paper in front of Lady Merizel, at the electric clocks which are now on the walls of many of the palace rooms, at the steam engines which belch steam and smoke almost everywhere one turns. Garia is not of Anmar, she is from somewhere else entirely, and I am quite prepared to believe whatever she tells us."

"In that respect I agree she provides proof. But I am speaking of the invisible Beings she has described to us today."

"That is of course true. She provides us with an explanation for her presence but we have no means of proving if any of it is true." Robanar turned to Garia. "My dear? Is there any way we may be satisfied?"

"Of course, Sire. That was part of my agreement with the Beings. I knew you would need some kind of tangible proof... although perhaps tangible isn't the right word to use. Besides, I have a feeling that the proof will become a frequent visitor to the palace."

Garia stood and looked at the air above the table.

"Nurse, if you would make yourself visible."

In the air above the center of the table, a visible form appeared that Garia immediately labeled hologram. It was composed of white light and showed the Solid form of Nurse, standing about three feet tall and clothed in a wispy full-length gown. His feelers were folded down over his head giving the appearance of hair. Without exception, everybody gasped. The effect was so similar to the appearance of a classic fairy that Garia almost giggled. The figure turned and bowed to Robanar.

"Your Majesty."

The voice was high-pitched but not that of a woman's, somehow. Garia guessed that it had to be artificially generated.

Could be worse. We could have ended up with something that sounded like Stephen Hawking.

Robanar stood, facing the apparition with apprehension. "What are you? Do you have a name?"

"Your Majesty, I am one of the Beings who the one you call Garia has been talking to, although perhaps 'talking' is not the proper word to use. I am what your society would term a Questor, since my task until recently was to study the humans of the world you call Earth. When it was discovered that the being Garia had..." the Being paused, considering its words, "...become able to contact us, I was reassigned to help her adjust to her new circumstances, as I am familiar with her species. My species does not use personal identifiers in the way that you do and you would not be able to pronounce my title. I was named Nurse, since she appears to me as a new hatchling. To avoid confusion, and to make conversation easy between us, you may label me Senusret."

"Senusret? Hatchling? You are not a human, then."

"Indeed not, Your Majesty. No human could ever bear wings like these. My species lives on a world so strange to you I could not begin to explain it in any way you might understand. Suffice it to say, if I were to be present here in front of you, I would die immediately and violently. What you see is only a projection."

"Projection?" Robanar turned to Garia. "What means he?" He paused. "It is a he, is it not? Yet he wears a gown."

Garia's brow furrowed. More difficult questions! She hadn't even thought of telling them about a camera obscura, let alone any kind of projector.

"Sire, I think the Being is still in its own space, since he said he could not survive in ours. What you see is a kind of picture, an image of what the Being would look like on its own world. When I visit him... elsewhere... he looks totally different than that." She pointed at the hologram and added, "I get the sense that Nurse... uh, Senusret is male, Sire. I'm not sure about the gown."

"Hatchling, I wear this garment because my appearance thus will be familiar through myths and stories among these people. If it offends any, I can easily wear something else. I understand this society would have reservations about seeing someone humanoid who was naked."

She asked, "Is it uncomfortable for you?"

"Not in any way. Though clothing as you understand the term is not regularly worn on my home world, we have festivals as you do where we may cover our bodies with textiles of various kinds."

Robanar had recover a little from the shock of finding a glowing Being standing in the middle of his conference table.

"By your presence you confirm that everything Garia has told us is the truth. I have never doubted her word though others may not trust her as we have."

"Your Majesty, I do confirm her words." The hologram rotated to face Wallesan. "Your Grace, are you satisfied?"

The shock was still plain on the Duke's face but he managed to answer, "I suppose I am. This whole tale is so fantastic I may take some time to accept that it is all real."

"It could not be otherwise," Senusret said. "What you have been told today is entirely outside your experience. I would be more concerned if any of you did not doubt Garia's words without proof."

Maralin asked the image, "It is true, then? What Garia told us about my death?"

"It is true. I will not dwell on the detail except to say that like most who have transferred, you recognize that you have been given another chance and are not intending to waste that chance. I will apologize for your uncomfortable arrival on Anmar but the circumstances were unusual. At the time you were selected for transfer, the invasion of Joth had not begun, though our projections indicated it as a strong possibility."

"I see. Yes... I had to be left somewhere I could be found before I froze to death. The confusion surrounding the evacuation of the city hid my sudden appearance." He nodded at Senusret. "Thank you for giving me a second chance. I can do so much more here."

"That is the single purpose of such transfers as yours, though there are sometimes useful side effects." Senusret turned. "Forgive me, Your Majesty. I see that some of those around me find my size and brightness to be uncomfortable. I shall adjust my projection to reduce the glare."

The hologram shrank until it was only about a foot high and then Senusret began reducing the brightness. It was only at that point that Garia realized she had been squinting against the glare. The image then drifted away from the center of the table to a point opposite Robanar. Those sitting nearest moved their chairs aside to make room. It meant that all could now see the Being and speak to it without addressing its back.

"You have shown yourself," Robanar stated. "Does this mean you may now offer aid? What may we expect from your people?"

"Regrettably little, Your Majesty. Since our entire plan was built on the principle that no Solid should ever discover us, even speaking to you like this requires the breaking of an ingrained habit. We can no longer request that you act as though we did not exist, but you should continue implementing the policies you have already begun - and I may be breaking a rule by even offering you that much advice. For a number of different reasons we cannot offer you direct assistance."

Robanar looked disgruntled, so Garia spoke. "Sire, I understand the point. They can't offer us material assistance because they are so far ahead of anything that even I can recognize that we simply wouldn't understand it. Until we develop mathematicians who can understand and apply multidimensional math it would be pointless. Also, if they helped us at all it would make it impossible to calculate what effect our development would have on the future prospects of the galaxy. Anything we do we have to do ourselves, Sire."

"But this journey of yours to Earth, to return with items which may help us, is this not the same thing?"

"No, Sire. To use their terminology, it will be a Solid collecting Solid items which will all be thoroughly understood on Earth, much like my clothing and watch. That information can be calculated, Sire."

"Ah. As you say, Garia."

"There might be things which Senusret can tell us, though," Garia mused. She turned to the image. "Would you say there would be a problem helping us know about the past of our worlds? I can't imagine any harm coming from today's people knowing Anmar's history, or telling them something of Earth's history since Anmar shares some of it."

"An interesting idea, hatchling. Oh, I suppose I must stop calling you that, mustn't I? Garia, then. I will have to consult my superiors but in principle you may be right. The history of Anmar would be available for any competent archaeologist to find, so I see little reason it would cause problems to tell you more. The history of Earth is a different matter, since it may involve devices or ideas which may not become known on Anmar until later or at all. I will find out what I am permitted to tell you."

"Another idea," Garia added. "What about astronomy? As far as I know nothing of Earth's modern astronomy has much effect on what happens on Earth. Information about the galaxy can only help in the long run and shouldn't involve machinery we can't build."

Senusret was silent for a noticeable time before speaking. "Astronomy is a subject I am not qualified to speak on, Garia. You must understand that the galaxy we perceive is not the one that Solids can detect. I must ask for guidance before answering." He paused, before adding, "However, you have shown that there may be some subjects on which it could be safe for us to converse." He turned to Robanar. "Your Majesty, it seems that I may be able to offer you certain kinds of information, even if I am forbidden to offer direct assistance."

Robanar nodded. "As you say. I did not appreciate your problem. How often are you likely to appear, then? How may we manage such meetings as these?"

"Your Majesty, I regret that meetings may be infrequent. Once... Garia departs for Earth I must travel there to supervise her visit, which involves many complications. When she returns I should be able to give you advance warning."

"As a matter of interest," Garia asked, "can you tell us how far away Earth is? It doesn't really matter but it might be useful to know."

"Earth is some eleven hundred of Earth's light-years away from this world, but the star they name their Sun cannot be seen from here because of intervening dust clouds. It takes me five of Earth's days to travel from one world to the other, although I do not travel across the Solid galaxy to make the journey."

Maralin asked, "Hyperspace?"

"I regret I cannot answer that question. What there is that Solids may make use of you must discover for yourselves at the appropriate time."

"Oh. Sorry I asked."

"It is natural for you to be inquisitive. I must warn all of you, however, that you should not attempt to infer anything should I be unable to answer any of your questions. A refusal to reply may not indicate a negative response or even that I know the answer to your question."

Robanar asked, "Who shall be told of your existence?"

"I will appear only to those people now present in this room, Your Majesty. That was part of the agreement reached with... Garia. If any others are present, I will not make myself visible. For your part, no-one outside this room may learn of my existence. To know that a being such as myself existed would cause undesirable side effects." Senusret turned to Wallesan. "Your Grace, of course you will return to your own domain once the bonding ceremony has been completed. If there is need I may appear to you and to Maralin there. I would caution all that I have other duties and may not be available at all times to converse. We must arrange some kind of signal to let each other know that a meeting is required."

Wallesan nodded once. "Agreed."

Robanar added his own agreement, then asked, "You mentioned others. Are we likely to see any of them?"

"No, Your Majesty. I was chosen for two reasons, I am familiar with your species and my own form is approximately the same as yours. Most of the others who visit Anmar from time to time are of different species that you would find difficult to speak with. Perhaps Garia could explain."

"Sire, Senusret is right. Some of the others I have met are... strange. There is one who would empty this room in moments if she appeared here. Think about something that looked like a spider with the size and appetite of a grakh. Humans are not the only intelligent life in the galaxy, Sire. It seems they can come from anywhere and be almost any shape or size."

Robanar grimaced. "Then perhaps it is well that only... Senusret may appear. I have not the stomach for strange apparitions, nor do I believe many of those here do. I have enough trouble coping with such a bisken as I see before me."

Senusret said, "Your Majesty, I will depart now. My unexpected presence here and my unusual appearance have caused stress to you and those you speak with. You need time to talk among yourselves of what you have seen and heard here tonight. I will advise Garia if and when I may appear again."

Robanar stared at Senusret, considering his words. "Very well." He glanced around the table. "Is there anything anyone desires to ask, before this being departs? No? We are all too mazed, it seems, for sensible thought. Senusret, we thank you for your presence and what you have revealed tonight. You have answered many questions but still more remain."

Senusret bowed and then the image gradually dimmed until nothing remained. Garia blinked, adjusting her sight to the light of the candles which normally provided sufficient light for the room. Everybody sighed and relaxed in their chairs.

Wallesan was the first to speak, blowing out a long breath of relief before saying, "Robanar, when Lady Garia asked for my presence tonight I did not expect such revelations! To know that Anmar is but one of many worlds, that there are Beings who may travel between them, that we are all part of a Great Plan, this overwhelms me. I shall consider my actions in a different light in future."

"Aye, brother." Robanar was somber. "Yet the business of government must continue as it did before, I deem. The rest of Anmar must know nothing of what transpired here, the life of our lands must go on as it always has. We have a war to fight and win and that must take all our immediate attention." He turned to Garia. "My dear, I am not sure if I must thank you for what has been revealed here tonight. I do thank you for revealing to us that you must needs depart Anmar for some while. Without forewarning great damage might have been done."

"Sire, I swore you an oath and I shall abide by it. If you do not want me to go, then say so. It isn't my choice to leave everyone and everything I love, Sire."

Robanar regarded Garia with surprise. What must happen was obvious but she was his vassal and she was giving him the final word.

"Garia, your loyalty to me and to Palarand do you credit. However, if you will recall when you made that oath to me I said that I would not prevent you leaving Palarand at a future time, since I knew you answered to higher beings than myself. We have just met one of those higher beings and he has given me sufficient reason for your departure. Do you wish that I should release you from your oath?"

"What? Sire, no! Palarand is my home and always will be. Besides, I'm about to marry your son, aren't I?"

"That is another matter." Robanar turned to Keren. "Son, the circumstances have changed, or been changed for us. To marry and then to lose your bride after some short space of days may put a different color on your situation. I know what you previously declared, but it is right that I should offer you the chance to reconsider. Even though the remaining time is short, it may still be possible to postpone your wedding until Garia returns. What say you?"

Keren's response was direct and immediate. "Father, I would not consider such a thing. We are meant for each other and the sooner we are joined the happier I will be. I do not like the thought that I may so soon lose her, but it will be little different than when you sent me upriver as an envoy. We have been apart in the past and I have no doubt we will by circumstance be apart in the future. Such is the life of a Prince and such is also the life of a King."

Robanar bowed his head in acknowledgement of the realities of being a member of royalty. "Then we shall proceed with the wedding as if this meeting had not happened. Merek, we must prepare our people for the time when our new Princess shall leave us for some while."

"Aye, Sire."

"Garia, I know that it was your intention to travel with Keren to Blackstone after your wedding. Has this latest scheme caused your plans to change in any way?"

"Sire, I've barely had time to think through all the implications. Um, my first thoughts are that we should just continue as planned, Sire. Like when I went north before, it would be a good way to get me away from people's attentions so my departure, if we can call it that, won't be noticed too much." She frowned. "There's going to be a problem when Keren gets to Blackstone, I guess, but we can talk about that another time."

Robanar fixed her with his eye. "There are many matters we must needs consider, Garia. I pray we may find time to manage all before your wedding day."

"Yes, Sire. I'm sorry to complicate matters like this."

"It was not your doing, my dear. You have nothing to apologize for, I deem. Come, I think we have all done enough for one evening, let us rise and return to our usual activities while we consider what we have witnessed here tonight. For myself, I could do with a drink, I believe. Wallesan, would you join me?"

"Aye, brother. I must needs come to terms with what has happened here tonight."

* * *

Keren walked with Garia back towards their suites.

"I wish you weren't going, Garia."

"I wish I wasn't going, either! Like your father said, this wasn't my doing. I just happened to make a chance observation to the one single person who knew what had happened to me on Earth, that's all. Suddenly the whole galaxy is scrambling to make use of the opportunity that represents." She snuggled closer to his body as they walked, his arm over her shoulder. "I just want to be married, that's all. I want you."

Keren looked down at her and smiled. "And I you, my love. We will have some days together, will we not? Let us make the best of the time left to us, then."

She rolled her eyes. "You'd better not wear me out, that's all I ask! I'll be worn out as it is with the festival and all the other weddings, let alone my own ceremony."

"Not to mention all the eminent visitors who are coming for your wedding, my love. Don't worry, I'll probably be as worn out as you so I'll be gentle, I promise."

"I can't wait, but I know I have to."

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Away for a while

I'm going to NY on Thursday 16th and coming back May 1st. Bearing in mind jet lag and all that, there will be a slight intermission before the next chapter arrives.

Besides, I bet you'll have a lot to talk about with this one :)

Penny

PS It seems that Nurse knows a few people.

Our continued existence

Leaving all thought of theology out of it ...

It seems plausible to me that after our bodies die, our souls or essence might continue. At least no one can disprove the idea.

Gwen

Why not just challenge us to...

Penny,

Why not just challenge us to come up with our own lists of what Garia take to Earth and what she should bring back and WHY. (Put it in a separate post like "Chapter 128 Challenge") That ought to give you something to laugh at while you travel.

We would need some parameters like how far from the body does the transfer field extend. How many ounce or grams does the Palrand crown weigh? How tall is Gary? What happens to objects at point departure after the transfer?

Thank you Penny.

Let's see. We know that they

Let's see. We know that they transported a long gun. Those tended to be about five to seven feet long, depending on the use. (smoothbore, rifle, etc)

The Antikythera device was 13"x7"x3.5" (340×180×90mm), roughly. With 40 some odd bronze gears, it would have weighed a LOT. Using an online calculator for metal weights, Naval Bronze, approximately 1/3" thick, and 10 inch diameter - just five plates would end up over 35 lbs. Adding in the other metal chunks, plus decoration on the box, (and the knob), I wouldn't be surprised to find that the Antikythera device weighed over 60 lbs.

The "Long Land Pattern" smoothbore Brown Bess flintlock only weighed 10.5 lbs.

So, assume that they'll allow up to 60 lbs. I want to know if they'll allow 'Gary' to carry back, say, 16 ounces of gold. (and simply hide it where he can get it when out of the hospital).

Here's what you, as people, should keep in mind.

1) How useful, in the long run, will the item be. Complete, advanced electronics probably aren't a good idea, because their useful life will be very short. Even if the best of conditions, most laptops break down at 3-4 years. Hard drives often die at a year. Spare parts will _not_ exist. Electrical supplies will be terrible for a long time, and that kills transformers and capacitors, let alone thermistors and diodes.

2) What's the infrastructure behind the device. What will it take to make the tools to just make the tools to start making the tools behind it? If there's too much, forget it. It's not worth having the device, even as an example.

3) Difficulty in obtaining. If someone under the age of 18 cannot obtain it within a week, or it requires special identification or licenses, forget it.

4) Immediate usefulness to Anmar. If you can't make a case for it being useful in some regard within, say, 5 years, drop it.

5) Durability. If it can't be handled by dozens of people and being dropped at least once, it's probably a bad idea.

Keep in mind, this is for _devices_, not for information.

To throw out ways to increase the amount of information that can be taken while reducing weight, and NOT require enormous amounts of technical expertise, I will offer up something people haven't really considered. Microfiche/microfilm, which has been mentioned, is difficult to get anymore. Standard 35mm film is still readily available, the cameras are reasonably available - and the film is VERY sensitive. You could probably get at least nine pages into a space to take a single photo - then carry the negative. Negatives can be 'projected' reasonably well, and can certainly be viewed with a magnifying lens and a light source underneath. They'll also last for years as long as they aren't melted, and are very difficult to scratch to unreadability.

Here's my _personal_ short list that would take less than three weeks to put together. I'm assuming that he was allowed to bring gold, sold it off, and has at least $3,000 available. All books and paperwork are photographed and carried as negatives. (Most books will be available for free from the library)

1) Nikon type camera, bought from garage sale or basic shop, with two or three lenses, including polarizing lenses.
2) Basic electronics textbook, chemistry textbook, military history book, emphasis on 1900's through 1970.
3) Information on building mimeograph machines and spirit duplicators.
4) Book on stress analysis, civil engineering (including septic systems), mining, and fractional distillation.
5) Electronics hobby kits intended for children or educatiors (Edmund Scientific. I'm SURE Gary would have heard of them.) (Something like this - http://www.scientificsonline.com/product/500-in-1-electronic... )
6) History of and theory of photography book.
7) Two or three survival guides. (Boy Scout Handbook)
8) Greys Anatomy.

That's about it. Those right there would give an enormous head start, without overburdening everyone - including Gary. I'd expect a backpack would hold everything, and weigh less than 25 lbs. If they were bought as books, a _large_ backpack, and 50 lbs (or more). Take thousands of photos, have the negatives developed, put the negatives in waxed cardboard sleeves, and go.

Me personally? I'd add information on thermal depolymerization, which is a way to use waste organic matter, feed through a -wet- process, and end up with methane, oil about halfway between diesel and light heating oil, fertilizer/chemicals, and sterile water. It's a way to get stuff to feed those railroads without destroying the environment. You can use it as a way to process sewage.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Electronics

I disagree about eschewing electronics.

Bring a stack of tablets, a bag full of micro sd cards, and some solar chargers.

Bring LOTS of printed matierial on sd card. Bring a lens and basic cyanotype setup. Create blueprints of all of the text books as soon as she arrives back home. This eliminates the need to get text books -- saving weight.

Use the tablets very sparingly. Have a university full of scholars poring over the blueprints (reproduced text books) and creating the Anmar versions that will be printed on a standard printing press.

While it may take fifty years for them to get up to the 21st century tech level, they should be able to at least read the sd cards on their own within ten to fifteen years.

While he's at it, he should get all of the open source software that he can. That can be set aside and used as study material as they are developing their computers.

I didn't say to eschew them,

I didn't say to eschew them, I said to consider that list.

10 laptops won't last 30 years. 10 laptops will last 3-6 years. 10 tablets will last about the same, if you're _lucky_. LCD displays are enormously fragile, and there's not a solid base to do much with them, and won't be for at least 20 years. Clean power will be difficult to have available, as you'd have to have Gary bring along one of the hand-crank rechargeable radio/flashlight/cellular chargers - and then hook it up to a water wheel or similar. (you want reliable tech, not wasteful like a steam engine would be).

Lithium ion batteries, put in 'maintenance' charge level, will last for about a decade, maybe a bit more. If they're fully charged, they'll damage themselves over a year or so until they've lost enough charge to be at maintenance level. If they're too low, they'll eat themselves until they reverse polarity and self destruct.

That's why I, personally, would emphasize pure information on a format that requires no power to store, use, or reproduce. Electronics should be something to teach people how it works, and how to reproduce it - not how to look up things. (No, SD cards won't be readable that fast. You underestimate the work that went into developing the format. I could see wire recorders, or maybe even celluloid tape, by 15 years, but not reading SD cards)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

They will if you you use them serially

And not all at the same time, so one breaks you open the box and use the next one. And if you do not abuse them. The Lithium Ion batteries are irrelevant as a just plug in a bank of lead-acid batteries (9 of them should do to reach the 19 volts needed)

HP Elite business class laptops last a really long time. My company uses them and they go through a 5 year replacement cycle.

sd cards

I'm not saying that they will be able to make sd cards in ten years. I'm saying that they will be able to read them.

They're small and they store an enormous amount of data.

The idea is to get as much data as possible to Anmar, then convert it to a more usable format -- paper and ink. They can even use photolithography to make plates that can then be mass printed.

Really, though, cyanotyping a few copies for the translators will be sufficient. Then, the resultant text books can be printed using the Gutenberg technology that Garia has already given them.

As was pointed out, battery tech is irrelevant. Power them with some nice, clean solar cells.

But the idea is to get the data over to Anmar, copy what is needed, and save the advanced stuff for later. Keep the sd cards and several tablets in reserve until Anmar's technology catches up.

Yes, liquid crystal displays are fragile. That's a good reason to go with smaller tablets, perhaps with gorilla glass. Better yet, sacrifice the uber clear display and get oled screens. They, far from being fragile, are flexible.

As a matter of fact, I would heartily recommend the famous $100.00 laptops that were designed for education in third world countries. They are sturdy and reliable -- designed to be usable in rough third world areas.

Get a dozen of them. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he can get one and let the beings bring as many copies as desired across. After all, they aren't bringing the physical object across. They are bringing a reproduction.

As for software -- avoid anything that needs to be activated. Don't bring Windows and Photoshop. Bring Linux and Gimp.

The only problem with sd cards

Is that they are nand flash based I think and they have a finite storage time before the charge in the nand cells start to leak a bit, rendering the data unusable.. The m-disc optical media is bulkier but it has at least a 1000 year life span.

Just off the top of my head,

Brooke Erickson's picture

Just off the top of my head, I'd grab one of the reproductions of the first edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. As I understand it, has pretty much all the math and science knowledge known in England at the time it was printed. Including a lot of engineering.

The 2 volume chemical formulary my high school chemistry teacher had would be useful, but things like the sections on pyrotechnics, and explosive would probably make it too hard to obtain.

the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and physics and their Standard Mathematical tables are readily available and have lots of info.

I know there used to be extensive microfiche libraries for survivalist types. They'd have lots of useful info, and they used a "solar powered" reader (not electrical, used lenses and mirrors to collect and concentrate sunlight).

BTW, electric power for laptops and the like *isn't* a problem. Don't use the AC adapters. use a *car* adapter so you can power them off 12 volts DC. Palrand has the battery technology to do *that* easily.

I'd be tempted to hit ebay for a couple of RS-80 Model 100 computers. The first really successful notebook computer. I've got a couple that are around 30 years old and work just fine. Don't want them for data storage. Want them to use as computers. Built in BASIC would allow doing a lot of math stuff that'd be insanely tedious otherwise. If you have the multiplan (spreadsheet) chip that would be useful as well. Normal storage was cassette tapes, though a floppy drive was available (3.5 floppies, only 100 or 200 k storage).

Oh yeah, I'd want a dozen or so of the circular slide rules we got sold back when I was taking chemistry and physics back in the early 70s. About 4x6 with a slide out card of useful math and chemistry info. They'd help with calculations a *lot*. And it'd be a long time before Palarand could produce anything as good.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

NOW, a world that makes sense to me.

This new relation to the Universe makes much more sense to me, never having believed that humanity is isolated among the spheres. It all still seems to carry an element of risk, as does life at all times.

Very nice indeed.

Gwen

Are these Multi-Dimensional Beings A Help At All ?

It seems to me that they have their own game to play. and that they may merely USE what they call "solids" for their own ends - in our tiny and primitive human societies we have already learned that 'Power Corrupts', and them having such huge powers, beyond most human imaginartions even, as one has to be a Penny Lane to invent such beings and situations as we read in this Epic, it has possibly gone to their heads and corrupted them.

Most of our Physicists these days regard our Cosmos to be cooling down and expanding and becoming more chaotic, a process we call Entropy, but as a Bioscience person I look at how Life-forms gather energy and mass and make themselves more complex, so that in effect Life is Anti-Entropic, and so the Cosmos will be gathered in and will approach something similar to the Big Bang. We are told that the Cosmos expands at a faster and faster speed, but this is assuming that the speed of light ("c") is a Constant. We alreqdy know that light speed is NOT constant. Researchers have slowed it down qnd even stopped it completely. Suppose instead that Speed of Light is a factir depending upon the size of the Cosmos, as it expands, it woud seem to us that LIGHT SPEED speeds up! So no need to invent "Dark Energy" to drive it.

I am avoiding mention of a Creation, as I follow the ancient Indian notion of it expanding and contracting alternately, which removes the need for a both Beginning and an End .

Briar

The Universe as "infinite".

For humanity, at present, the Universe is infinite, and will seem so until we can do some sort of travel that is not dependent up propulsion. Lately I have heard the theory that there may be more than one "Universe", or a series or more of multiverses.

Garia's revelation to the

Garia's revelation to the King and the others are indeed from their point of view mind shattering. You live in your little comfort world and then come to find out that it just "ain't necessarily so", which then makes it in the vernacular of the streets a "Real Bummer".
Having these "higher beings" around and apparently acting in some manner as "fixers" of things going bad, smacks right in the genre of the television series "Ancient Aliens" who according to some
theorists came to Earth eons ago and are still visiting us, ergo "flying saucers", etc.
So who really and truly knows how much is myth, fantasy or real.
Humans being transferred from Earth to other planets and the like has been a staple in Science Fiction for over 150+ years, and one of the most famous was Edgar Rice Burroughs with his book series "A Princess of Mars".
I believe Garia and the "Nurse" and I do hope she is not held back on Earth for longer than one year, with luck maybe only 6 months.
Janice Lynn
A

This whole scheme seems

This whole scheme seems unnecessarily complicated to me. Wouldn't it be easier to just allow Garia to mail-order books from Earth?
And the emotional impact on Gary's parents is going to be very unpleasant too.

Mail order

Interesting notion.

I wonder what zip code to use... and returns could get interesting!

Until recently[1] the availability of books would have been so low that they wouldn't have been of great use. I would think that personal experience, as well as memory, would be what mattered more. That balance will change, of course, in the future, as more gets written down, filmed, and put on the Internet.

Of course, using mail order presupposes a local agent who knows what is wanted and can forward deliveries. As yet no-one on Earth knows about the Beings.

Penny

[1] Recently ~= decades to centuries.

I would be easier to scan and

I would be easier to scan and duplicate a university library.

Then Garia and Maralin would just have to sort through the books and remove those not particularly useful at this time. Like almost all the psychology, sociology, economic, and other 'ic' and 'ology' texts. Romance novels might be useful. :)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I didn't mean literally mail

I didn't mean literally mail-order, but conceptually. The books exist on Earth in a number of libraries. The Beings can read them, transmit the data to Anmar and create a copy there, which is what they'll have to do anyway with anything Garia wants to bring back.

So let me try to understand then

From an Atheistic perspective, the information that that body contains is the person and not the combination of the two? I always thought from the Atheistic perspective once a body expires then that person is gone too and of course there is no heaven or hell to go to. So is that the rationale that even though another body appears who is not the one Keren had married, that she is still that person? I must agree to disagree on that.

As for getting information back, I will reiterate that a laptop (or more likely 10 laptops) still makes the most sense despite them having limited life. The main point is to gather as much raw information together and then carry it back and then reproduce it onto a long term storage medium, namely paper. So, a good quality and compact laser printer would be the best way to go with refillable toner cartridges. Yes the fuser elements can go and that needs to have extras around but they last about 10000 pages.

ORRR, bring back the knowledge of how to create photographic film (with reasonable ASA) and photograph the laptop's screen if the printer conks out.

In any case, Garia and Maralin will have a heavy duty task ahead of themselves: Creating an English to Palarandi dictionary so the information may be accessible to more people if necessary.

In any case, the gathering of the data and then reproducing it is the priority despite the fact that, yes, a laptop has limited life. BUT a laptop multiplies the effectiveness of information transfer many fold as it makes the information accessible. So let's be pessimistic and say a laptop lasts only 3 years. Ten of them is still at least 30 years, more likely 50 years of use assuming the electrolytic capacitors in them don't dry out enough to cause a problem.

30 years of access to that level of information will give an enormous boost to technology AND give plenty of time to reproduce it onto say microfiche or microfilm or paper (photographic) and archive it on Anmar.

To me it is more a matter of time shifting where you kick the can down the road where time constraints will cause a problem.

10k page toner cartridges

10k page toner cartridges. HP makes them. Rebuild kits and toner are available.

You still have an information bottleneck!
ONLY Garia and Marilin know English. Better put, they are the only known omniglots.

Import a couple dozen engineers and Phd's to teach and move the tech forward. As part of the transfer process they become omniglots. I generally agree with your supplies.

Collateral damage; The easier Roman alphabet would make a comeback and displace the Georgian. English may become the new standard language.

Did Garia ever introduce the wood pencil?

Did Garia ever introduce the wood pencil?
I don't recall it. All I remember is they had some waxy messy thing besides the reedlet.

Did Garia ever finish the inventory in the Royal Questor's workshop. The shopping list might be reduced if an item is found in the workshop and in working condition. Another reason to clear out the shop, improperly stored chemicals can result in the release of poisonous gasses or liquids, fire, and explosions. Then remember according to Gerdas and other Questors, Morlan wasn't that bright.

The shop needs to be inventoried if, it hasn't been done already. Garia is about to head out on a first ever intragalactic round trip. Is not just sensible to prepare as meticulously as possible?

I forsee a BIG FLY in the ointment of her planet hopping

She said Keren and her will have at least two or three weeks of wedded life before she must travel.

The odds are low but what if in that short time SHE GETS PREGNANT?

The vast multi dimensional would be in a quandary. They don't dare directly interfere for multiple reasons. But to make room for the new clone to grow Garia's memories into from her return trip Earth and her Gary clone body they must eliminate the old Garia or so they said.

But to kill her and Keren's child, something they see as most fortuitous?

Time/dimension travel is sooo confusing.

And Maralin is right in assuming a teen on life-support for 13 months likely wont last much longer.

BIG CAN OF WORMS you opened here.

Love it!

John in Wauwatosa

P.S. Can't have two Garia's on one planet even if a male and a female.

But could the Gary clone remain on Earth when her mind returns to Anmar? But even if so, the clone with HER mind copied to it or Gary pre coma restored into... but they need a new clone to transfer memories into... but the Gary in a coma could be seen as a clone as I assume his upper brain function is all but gone... so if the Vast Multi Dimensional Beings repair his brain...

My Braaaain hurts!

John in Wauwatosa

Wow! So much to think about.

What to bring from Earth? What to do while there?

I would recommend that Gary take a bunch of calculus classes -- get as advanced in the study as possible. People may joke about going yet another day without using the algebra that they were forced to learn in school, but all of science and technology is based on a strong underpinning of math. As an engineer, I can tell you that engineering school is essentially math with lots of story problems.

On the emotional side, what's it going to be like for Gary to see his parents again, knowing that he will have to leave? Will he explain the beings to them so that they know that he is going on a trip and not dying? After all, they must have suffered greatly while he was in a coma. It would be unbearable for them to lose him again.

What to bring? My first inclination is that she should bring a stack of tablet computers, some solar chargers, and a bag full of micro sd cards loaded with textbooks, videos, and the like. Since storage space is so cheap, he can bring some music and other cultural stuff to give those of Anmar a better clue of the culture that generated all of the advanced technology.

Along with lots of math, science, and engineering data, he should also bring a bunch of historical information. It's important that Anmar avoid some of the nastier parts of our history.

With sufficient learning materials, the University of Palarand should be able to get the better part of the technology we had in the sixties within ten years or so. After that, they should be able to make Moore's Law look lame.

Keeping up the "What if ..." scenario

Gary (Mark 1) is in a coma.
Therefore I venture to suggest that this human body is lying in a bed, and connected to all sorts of wires and tubes.
Garia (Mark 1) is going to become Gary (Mark 2) - but I venture to suggest will be replacing the bed-ridden one.

So Garia (1) is going to wake up in bed as Gary (Mark 2) and be connected to machines of all sorts. Therefore is going to be highly unlikely to be able to pop out to the stores. At least for the first weeks. No hospital I know will allow a patient to just get up and walk after a year-long coma.

I suspect that the Garia (Mark 2) is going to be created and the new knowledge to be stuffed into that brain is to come from Gary (2).

So it is Gary 2 that needs to load up on stuff for transfer.

I believe that the thing most likely to be loaded is the brain.

Any physical objects would have to be justified. And his request lists would be filtered through concerned relatives.

"Why Gary, dear, what on earth do you want to do with all those books you ordered. You can't possibly think you can read all those. Here dear, let's bring you up to date first on your teams scores and player transfers since you had your accident. ......."

Gary (2) is already in the best place for the final transfer to take place, rather than have to suffer ANOTHER accident to get rid of him, so I suspect (and NO, Penny and I have NOT discussed this - we do discuss a lot as you might imagine, but she has been kind enough to keep the details of the developments to herself) that Gary (2) is going to remain in the bed for a HUGE proportion of the time taken for information gathering.

Therefore my expectations of transferred knowledge is that the greater part of it shall be in the brain of Garia (2).

So I believe that we should be asking ourselves what stumbling blocks to Industrial Development currently exist?

Short-term, they need some electrical cable sheathing.
They need railroads.
etc
etc
etc
These are SMALL things - small steps required to take larger steps down the road.

They need most of all to change the current thinking patterns - a conglomeration of nations, as, say, a republic, is practically unthinkable as they currently do things, but I feel that Penny has dropped enough hints about the future in that these countries are NOW so very small and yet they don't realise it. They are still thinking very small-scale.

Garia will need to show, or to sow the seeds of, things that will make them all think big.

Certainly, bringing a laptop with spare batteries would be a short term fund of knowledge. Even showing them the screen would be a target for the future development of projection. But modern computers don't seem to have batteries that last - even when charged and not used, they discharge slowly.

So my premise (for today, at least) is that the 'shopping list' for knowledge shall be books and pictures that Gary (2), with enhanced memory capabilities, can load into his brain.

Hydraulics I suggest is going to be a major step forward, the forces that hydraulics can produce are greater than anything known on Anmar at the moment. Mechanical diggers for example, require hydraulics.
Easier steel production. Or improved methods of using it, given their current state.
Concrete.

Are there other continents on Anmar waiting to be discovered by the Alaesians? How will THAT fit into the planet's development?

Okies.

I'll step off the soapbox now, and hand over the podium .....

laptops take DC input

So they can be powered by external batteries, just splice the wires of the AC adapter for the laptop and connect it to lead acid batteries say nine in series will do. And as I commented in the last article, it is reasonable for the bedridden person to want their laptop.

Lead-acid voltage

Back when I had working experience with L/A battery banks (data systems, xmitter backups, fork lift batteries, etc) the working voltage was 1.5 VDC per cell. So the number needed will be 12.67, call it 13, not 9. Not a major problem, I know. I expect a L/A wet cell will have sufficent amperage to allow single cells wired in series rather than parallel wiring. Might even need a form of current limiting. While capacators will do that well, lightbulbs will also do the job.


I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.

Depends on the tech I suspect but I based it on research

There is a reason why car batteries have a certain number of cells, and that is 6 for a 12 volts. Most SLA cells are 2 volts and the current wikipedia article quotes 2.0 volts also.

It has been 2 volts for an extremely long time now.

Oh and here is the reference

Here is the wiki:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead–acid_battery

Transfer

First, thank you for sharing this story with us. It has been a favorite of mine and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Garia is certainly more accommodating than I would have. I suppose she has received assurances from these beings that nothing will go wrong, but she has a lot to loose if they do. Though, if the survival of the universe depended on me being cooperatively male for any period of time, it would be certain the universe would be doomed.
That being said, I am skeptical of returning her to the body on earth being better than dropping her off on a street. Her body is in a coma, her family likely hoping for her recovery. As soon as she's woken up, there is likely going to be a frenzy of readjustment and reattachment. She'll be flaunting her return to them for possibly a year before they have to be forced with her death a second time. Not to mention the possibility that its all thought up as a mental trauma. If they don't contact her, how is she to know that she didn't simply dream it all up. Additionally, if they fix her body and she just gets up and out of bed... there would be a huge investigation. So, she gets to suffer through a few months of therapy and reconditioning, her family gets to be devastated once more when she dies again, on top of the money this little adventure will cost.

I'm not certain that returning to the original vessel would be better than dropping her off away from it in a different one entirely. Identification is trivial really, she is most likely to go unchallenged about it. The largest concern would be money to get the supplies gathered up that she wants to bring back. Assuming that will be available after waking up from an 11 month coma...

I certainly hope nothing goes wrong and she gets stuck back on earth knowing everything she gave up, her love and family.. and gets to live out the rest of her earth life with gender dysphoria. Though that particular issue doesn't seem like it will be problematic, she obviously has a soul flexible enough to tolerate either gender. Loosing her new family and her husband will likely be tragic and painful though.

Yep, unless her original family are really horrible

... then it would not be a big loss for Gary.

I suspect that is not the case though and like you say, it is a horrible thing to do to them.

But maybe it is not going to be a problem for Gary as Garia barely thought of them in the story.

Bon Voyage

terrynaut's picture

I've been thinking about what to bring back from Earth. Given Anmar's level of technology, I would think information about how to build older devices would be a good idea. And I liked the idea of bringing back information on microfiche. A microfiche reader should be doable for Anmar.

All of the information would be in English. That would be a bottleneck for a while. And since it wouldn't be practical for Garia and Maralin to translate everything, that means teaching English. Garia's already teaching Keren. She could teach others who could then be teachers in their new university.

Bringing gold back to Earth would make sense. Gary would need money to get everything. So far, so good. The only thing I don't understand is what happens to the Gary in a coma? I really don't understand what'll happen to him. I don't even understand why he need to be alive for Garia to go back. Garia didn't exist on Anmar. She transferred over with Gary's clothes and a watch. I don't need to understand to enjoy the story but a little more explanation would be appreciated.

Thanks and kudos (number 125).

- Terry

Gary (I) and Garia (I)

When Garia arrived it was into a world where there are no passports, IDs, driver's licences or any of the usual documentation we all take for granted. This was little different from Earth less than 150 years ago, before nations became cautious and/or paranoid.

That meant that her existence would be less remarkable. Sure, she looks like a foriegner, but when you don't really know what's going on in the further reaches of your own continent an odd extra person is easy to find an explanation for (even if it's wrong).

On the other hand, Gary II would have a problem arriving on Earth in the US - or most of the developed world. No ID and no funds, but with a perfect DNA match to someone who already exists, and possibly even identical fingerprints, you can be sure alarms would be raised in Homeland Security.

On the other hand, those conditions are perfect for a straight switch. This is what Senusret realized and provides the perfect way for Gary II to surreptitiously work his way back into normal society. Gary I is likely a vegetable or has locked in syndrome so I suspect he will be 'disposed of' by the Beings. In one way there will be no loss since almost all of his memories are being carried forward into the next version of Gary/Garia.

Now all the Beings have to do is to engineer that switch.

Penny

Well yes and no

With enough wealth (eg gold or a bag full of diamonds) one can buy all the illegal ID one would want. It is the lack of greenbacks that will be the initial problem.

And most crucially we have the problem of that brief period of incapacitation again as a female brain is now being stuffed into a male one so a hospital is a good idea. However, they will have to provide a slightly incapacitated body so that will slow down things I would think.

why bother switching bodies

Gary's uncle Brad has a dairy farm. Gary could be dropped in there with about 3000 crowns (they get cloned :-) and assuming they weigh the same as a kruegerand) along with some gem stones (some borrowed from Tanon) and the Antikythera for fun. Just let Senusret contact uncle Brad and set things up. Showing up at uncle Brad's with stuff is easier than the hospital.

If Gary is still to be swapped out, then the KEY POINT is to control the environment where Gary's comatose body is located during the swap. Maybe transfer Gary home then do the swap. Another option is to transfer Gary to another facility where friends and/or relatives are on staff, even just a specialty clinic for testing like an MRI. Again, Senusret would just make arrangements first with Gary's parents.

Gary's ID is most likely a driver license. It would be fine as most of the transactions in his name would be cash. All others would through his parents or relatives.

From Moshan, I would get as detailed history as possible about his ancestors who were brought to Anmar (their full names can be useful) and maybe an identifying artifact or two. This may help open doors to quietly sell (or trade-- as in barter*) off some of the gold and gems.

DHS (ICE [formerly INS & Customs], CBP--Border Patrol section) won't even twitch without a serious complaint from the state police. They mostly look for people from Central and South America. Either Gary or Garia can hide in plain sight. Without a criminal record, neither Gary's fingerprints nor DNA would be in the DOJ (FBI) database. So, DHS and DOJ are a non-issue.

When Gary/Garia leaves, the doodads will remain while the clones show up in Anmar.

*Barter-- trade coins with someone who then
buys needed supplies and funds some research grants (university students compile Garia's library).

Hit list suggestions

Hit list suggestions, additional to what others have mentioned (laptops and the like):

- Wikipedia, or a subset, on CD/DVD. Yes, that's a stack of disks. If one volume is munged, they still have the rest.

- multiple solar-powered pocket calculators. My HP-11C, -16C and -41C still work and their LCD displays are readable, despite their age (I got 'em in the 80's), and I still use 'em because it's easier than bringing up a calculator app. Even cheap ones, if not abused, can last. Numeric engines like this are vital.

- The Art of Electronics (Horowitz et al). McGraw-Hill volumes on engineering math. Something in-depth on the history of semiconductor fabrication starting with alloy-junction germaniums. References-with-history on metallurgy.

- tuning forks. crystal oscillators. reference weights. A pitch-pipe or two. A guitar and a cheap (Casio?) synth keyboard. Battery-powered analog wall clocks. A pocketful of AA cells. Analog and digital multimeters and the batteries to power them for awhile. Field-strength meters, gate-dip meters, general-coverage receivers, a few QRPp CW/SSB transceivers with long-wire tuners, solar panels to power them. Maybe even an oscilloscope or two. All of these provide reference measures so that studies of Earth technology can be correlated to Anmar fundamentals, and a much-needed engineering head start on establishing Anmar-local technology.

- mp3 players loaded with Bach, Mozart, Praetorius, King Sunny Aday, Ravi Shankar, etc -- a world-wide-enough selection to blow minds, but with deemphasis on the negative (so no death-metal). The first two names are essential: they enlighten the cast of mind that it takes to understand all the other stuff.

- a bicycle with a bottle-style generator for lights. The generator, and pedal-power to turn it, will matter long after the tires have gone permanently flat.

Why try to bring clocks?

I do not understand that suggestion of yours, I regret.
We know the Anmarian day is 71 minutes longer than an earth day (and a Bell is the equivalent of Earthly 1 hour, 15 minutes and 33 seconds) So how are Earth clocks going to help?

We also know that the transfers work by recreating the body at a particular moment in time, and the new body is clad in whatever the old one was wearing at that moment.
And the artifacts transferred are those the transferee is connected to at that moment.

If (note, I said 'If') Gary is transferred from a hospital bed, then having a bicycle is going to be really surreal.
To say nothing of solar panels.

*grins* I can see the hospital room now.
Medical equipment cleared out so that the boy in the bed can have solar panels indoors and a bike, and the host of other things, all of which will need to be connected to the boy at the moment of transfer.

And we know that Anmarian musical tastes differ widely from those of Earth.

All this would be great boon to the Earthlings on Anmar, but I gently suggest that they would be of little benefit to Anmarian people. Unless you wish to convert Anmar to an Earth-copy.
And I'm uncertain the Beings want that, else this galactic defence would be Earth-based.

I regret I would need some convincing for many of the items on this list.

But I really enjoy the fact of your thinking about it.

Have a great day.

Julia.

I must side with Kiai on the music thing

I am of Chinese descent so I have listened to traditional pentatonic Chinese music in the form of Chinese operas. Oy.

It is a great art form, don't get me wrong but the music can be pretty bad at times. As far as I know the introduction of western classical music was very popular and a revelation.

I am not saying the 'traditional' Palarandi music should not be preserved but I suspect it survives because there are not alternatives being presented like in the above example. Remember when Merry was up at Blackstone? She already has learned how to retune the Dajan to do 'scales' to western standards.

I don't think Garia need worry about changing or introducing something that does not already exist.

Because Anmar *is* different.

> We know the Anmarian day is 71 minutes longer than an earth day (and a Bell is the equivalent of Earthly 1 hour, 15 minutes and 33 seconds) So how are Earth clocks going to help?

Garia is undertaking a know-how (technology) grab. All that technology is based on Earth-relative measures. Frequency is Hertz, cycles-per-second, Earth seconds. Anmar has a different spin, probably a different planetary body mass and thus a different apparent gravity. The first-principle references for the metric system are out of reach and the relative ones depend on a gravity that stays put, which it doesn't. Without Earth measure references, much time will be wasted trying to determine correlations so that all that technological lore makes sense. Actually, in addition to the mentioned reference weights, other convenience measures should be imported as well (steel measuring tape, tailor's measures, kitchen cup-measures, graduated cylinders, maybe a digital kitchen scale and gram scale, for however long the batteries last or can be replaced with local 1.5V-per-cell equivalents -- carbon-zinc and then alkaline), because those weights are standard masses IIRC -- their fluid equivalents won't be the same if the gravity's different, and the digital scales, once imported, can be used on those Earth references to quantify the discrepancy.

The wallclocks have analog movements but are quartz-crystal regulated. Their drift is much less than anything Anmar has. They're going to be vital to coordinating the war effort and for providing a model for crystal-locked timepieces. You can get multiple casual-reference-quality Earth-time wall-clocks and alarm-clocks for remote signaling stations; you can't get Anmar-time ones as yet.

So what if their time isn't Anmarian -- it's correlatable and, over time, the Earth-to-Anmar time discrepancy can be successively approximated to tighter accuracy, and then all those time-relative measures and mentions in the imported reference works get unlocked. All imported measure of frequency and period clear down to the atomic level refer to Earth time and Earth time-accounting; having a local standard, however crude, on display, is vital IMO to letting Anmar engineers and scientists "get their head around" that.

Physics fundamentals shouldn't be different, so, with the above reservation about time-correlation, the test equipment translates, so the effort needed for replicating Earth technology gets a boost by having imported tools. Those DMMs should have continuity, transistor hFE, capacitance and frequency-counter functions. Ideally one of them should be a precision lab instrument with as many digits of resolution and accuracy as can be quickly bought. More practically, even cheap Chinese-made handhelds these days have those auxiliary functions as well as DC/AC voltage, current and resistance ranges; I'd pack a dozen for shipment, plus twice that in batteries for them.

Pitch is audible frequency. The Anmarians obviously once had exposure to Earth music, if the description of their instruments is sound, but they've drifted into dissonance. The tuning fork and pitchpipes are reference tones for fretting the instruments and holing the flutes/crumhorns/chanters. The guitar is a model for replication. The keyboard is a tonal reference and a model for keyboard instruments, though Anmar equivalents are more likely to be reed organs, harpsichords and hammer fortes than polyphonic wavetable processors for awhile.

Music informs attitude, I'm convinced, and mass music informs mass attitude. I think that Bach- and Mozart-influenced local music by local composers and musicians, using well-tempered tuning on properly-fretted instruments, will go far in giving Anmarians the sense that the changed future is knowable and surmountable and, overall, good. Anybody who can carry a tune can bring away something of that feeling. Praetorius, on period instruments, is for showing what Earth's equivalent-technological-period instruments could do. The rest of it, all the pop- and world-music, is for spreading the net of influence as wide as possible so as not to create an equivalent cultural Church of Western Classical Music like we have here. Pop music is the town crier, but it's also about having fun. (That's another reason for the Praetorius: it's early pop music -- it's dance music.)

There's a lot of engineering in the modern bicycle. Anmar will want to replicate much of that immediately because it's a person-powered *fast* conveyance which will delay the emergence of the modern gas-guzzler automobile. As long as a bicycle is along for the ride, that generator is ridiculously useful as a unit for recharging batteries and as a model for hydro and wind generators. If it wasn't so bulky, I'd say, bring along a totable alcohol/gasahol-fired AC generator so as to have a working model of an alternator and an initial power source for those lab instruments, but that's pushing it. Instead, a 100- to 500-watt 12VDC-to-120VAC inverter should be packed along for the purpose; lead-acid batteries can drive that, and solar panels and then local-made windmill/hydro generators can recharge those.

Gary will have limited space

Limited space is the ruling factor here. Then you have weight considerations. To top it all off some of this might be in the palace workshop already. It just hasn't been inventoried.

Bike frame and wheels are out-- too big.
Crank set, pedals, 2x chain, chain rings, wheel axles w/quick release, dropouts, shifters, dereullers, disc brakes, levels and cables. HARD TO SAY
Blueprints (digital) for the complete bike and a bike chain--yup.

Wall clocks are out-- too big.
Some clock movements w/hands and batteries, maybe. Quartz analog & digital watches-- good chance.

Guitar-- too big. Blueprint and strings-- yup.

Music is a must. It helps abstract thinking.

APC ups makes more sense and it is much sturdier as it has spike protection that plain inverters don't and produces 'clean power' making electronics last longer. Bring extra fuses.

Good ideas

I was thinking of the time issue myself.

c = 3*10^8 meters/second
R = 0.0821 liters * atmospheres / mole / kelvin
R = 4.184 (or 4.186) Joules / mole / kelvin

Note that the 0-100 degree C scale is based on the freezing and boiling points of water -- at Earth's atmospheric pressure. It should be close enough to calibrate thermometers with the age old method of using an ice water bath to calibrate for zero degrees, and boiling water to calibrate for 100 degrees.

As they advance and need more accuracy, they will have the option of using their standards and refining the values of the constants, or refining their temperature scale to match the constants that they got from Earth. The advantage of the latter is that we have measured those constants to a very high degree of precision.

I listed a couple of constants that I could remember off the top of my head. There are others, like Bolzmann's constant, Planck's constant, the universal gravitational constant (G,) the dielectric constant, Coulomb's constant, the characteristic impedance of free space, and a whole lot more. Copying all of the information from NIST's web site would go far in helping Anmar advance.

There are some other interesting quantities that may very well be somewhat different on Anmar.

Avagadro's number -- the gram formula mass constant -- should be the same 6.02 * 10^(-23) mole^(-1) But, the definition of a mole is based on the definition of a gram.

Anyhow, when you look on the periodic table, you see that the atomic mass of hydrogen is 1.0079, and not 1. Similarly, O is 15.9994, C is 12.011, etc. That is because it is the average atomic mass. If Anmar has a different mix of isotopes, the average atomic mass will be different. This is likely, considering that they are close to a nebula.

The most likely to be off is that of carbon. We have a decent amount of carbon 14 in our biosphere because the stuff is constantly being made in the upper atmosphere. If Anmar has a different level of cosmic radiation, the amount of 14C will be different. Of course, any fossil fuels are going to be missing the 14C because it has all decayed.

By the way, the last unit that is based on an artefact is the kilogram. There is a platinum-iridium kilogram standard sitting in England that is used as the basis of all of our mass measurements. They are trying to change that.

The second is defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299 792 458 of a second. The second is defined as the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom. All of the units, save the kilogram, are defined that way.

So, bringing accurate instruments is a good idea for the shorter term, she also needs to bring the definitions so that Anmar can continue to refine their measurement system -- whether they choose to use Earth's or their own.

Shoot, they will probably end up using both. Why now? America gets along fine doing that.

Analog meters make more sense

They can be more usable and practical in the short term. Some of those can be reasonably compact, about the size of an old pocket transistor radio. They are probably reasonably reproducible in the next 30 years. Great precision is not going to be essential, at least initially. Now the creation of standards i.e. calibration standards is a goal to shoot for but that can be done from knowledge on the laptops.

Once the knowledge is obtained: hydraulics and fractionalization columns and plastics and ammonia production should be among the first exploited. And of course metallurgy and certain explosives.

measurement standards.

Brooke Erickson's picture

Fluid equivalents for mass *do* work, even if the gravity is different because you are using the same *volume* of liquid, and the density is the same.

Remember, mass is *constant* regardless of gravity. *Weight* changes with gravity.

Also, nothing Garia brings with her, except *maybe* some quartz clocks, is going to give measurements accurate to more than a couple of significant figures.

The basic units (dimensions if you are familiar with dimensional analysis) for the SI units are:

mass: arbitrarily defined as the mass of a platinum -iridium alloy bar in a vault in France
length: defined in terms of time and the speed of light
time: defined as a particular number of oscillations of a specific atomic transition
charge: defined in terms of current & mass
temperature: was defined in terms of water freezing & boiling, now rather more arbitrary

Angle and solid angle are sometimes argued as units, but they are both arbitrary and relatively easy to deal with *without* reference to anything from earth.

mass, the best she can do is a set of decent lab weights. and even then, the accuracy will not be to more than a couple of significant figures. It's unlikely that they are going to change over to the metric system, but if they do (to better use Earth references) they'll probably do like the US did and redefine the local units in terms of the metric exemplars Garia brings. (for example, an inch is legally defined as 25.4 millimeters these days).

A meter stick, even a good one that is made of invar of some similar alloy is only going to give limited accuracy, and be subject to temperature variations.

multiple "reference" items are more apt to confuse things than help. They just need a decent reference item and to go from there. Use them to create Palarandian standards and go from there. As they get more accurate in measuring natural constants, they'll find discrepancies. And they'll either make adjustments or not.

In the end, they'll be using their own set of measurements even if they use the same names as the earthly ones.

For standards that can be reasonably related to info Garia has or will bring back,

mass: start with a lab grade kilogram weight, create a platinum or platinum-iridium alloy (natural "platinum" nuggerts are likely a "good enough" alloy) "master" that matches as closely as they can. Define whatever the Palarandian standard unit of weight is in terms of this alloy block.

length: Use a *good* lab grade meter stick, preferably of something like low expansion stainless steel. Engrave a couple of lines a "meter" apart in another platinum alloy block. Define Palarandian length units in terms of this.

time: use a quartz (or better) controlled clock/watch to determine length of local day in seconds. After measuring long enough (use astronomical references to get length of sidereal day and mean solar day down to a decent number of significant figures) then define seconds in terms of those with quartz timepiece as primary standard until it dies.

Temperature. Just grab the list of reference temperatures for the Celsius/Kelvin temperature scale (the melting/boiling points of a number of compounds and elements). For most practical uses until they get up to 1930s level, they can just define 0C as when water melts/freezes, and 100 C as when it condenses/boils. Distilled water without dissolved gases is best for calibrating such things.

Charge (current is "merely" amount of charge moved per unit time) requires playing electrical games. Standards have be the amount of a specific metal plated from a circuit, or the attractive force between parallel conductors of a given length (measures current). A real mess either way. Since they'll *know that the fundamental unit of charge is that of the electron/proton, they can probably figure some way to define it that way. Won't be terribly *useful* until they get to 1920s/30s level, but it the end it may work better than ours.

I'd suggest a very rugged VOM as an item to bring back and use it as a reference for current, voltage & resistance.

Anyway, with mass, length, time, temp and current (or charge) you can define all other measuring units. So that's kilogram, meter, second, degree C, ampere (or coulomb),

And you need radian/steredian for a few things like torque & radiant flux.

For most places in Palarand and vicinity, they can go with the early metric definitions. A kilo is the mass of 1000 cc of water, 0 C and 100 C are defined in terms of water melting/boiling. So find a way to precision engrave meter sticks (metal ones) that are
"matched" to the standard meter block and send those out. (probably 3rd or 4th level references. That is, you use the master meter to create a dozen or more first level references. Those are used to verify the second level references, which are used to check stuff as you mass produce those third level meter sticks)

They'll probably start out using the voltage of a defined type of battery as the electrical reference for a long time. It'll be "accurate enough" as far as their measuring devices go and be something that they can check in their own lab/factory without needing an outside standard.

So the only things that need to be sent out are the meter sticks and the descriptions of who the units relate.

Creating 100 meter metal tapes would be nice, but unlikely to happen soon. Metal surveyor's chains are more apt to be possible to make, and useful for longer measurements.

In any case, length measurements are going to be the ones most in need of precision for a long time, with weight being distant second. Gotta be able to have parts from different places match up.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Calculators

Solar calculators are a great idea. When they do go kaput, it's generally the keyboard -- something that can be replaced on Anmar.

Also, I like your idea of using slide rules. She might bring one so that it can be copied, or at least bring the plans for one.

Slide rules?

You brought up slide rules, not me (not here and under this byline, anyway). I think it's brilliant.

Pepper grinder

There was a really clever mechanical calculator known as the Curta pepper grinder. It was good to something like seven significant figures -- much better than a slide rule's three (if you have good eyes.)

The Curta is an impressive bit of engineering. It would be cool to have one, even though it is totally obsolete because of the calculator.

But I still can't help but be impressed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta

I believe the best thing to

I believe the best thing to bring back would be a very compact overhead projector. It only needs to be plugged into a power supply. She could come back with enormous amounts of data on the OHP laminates. The tiny pages would be massively enlarged by the OHP and scribes could copy them down. OHP's are very robust, long lasting and simple. They don't require complex storage devices. All they need is a simple, plugged in power supply and a white surface for the projection.

Bringing back tablets, laptops etc. would only confuse and tease the people of Anmar. They won't have such technology for at least a century, so bringing back such devices would only torment them.

OHP weaknesses

stem, from my experience, from the need for a powerful light bulb, which always 'blows' just at the critical part of the presentation.

Of course, simply plugging it into a power supply involves a whole slew of other things to have happened, so this would be a 'down the road' event, IMHO.
Safe connection of wires - we use sockets and plugs, so all those have to be manufactured first, which needs all the component parts to be manufactured before assembly, which means the machines to make these components have to be made.
Also the correct voltages need to be available. So the correct generators need to be made.
And so the list grows .....

Cheers

J

Projectors

Since Anmar has telescopes and microscopes, they should have no problem making a simple overhead projector with an arc lamp for illumination.

Before the advent of digital projectors, people giving a presentation would commonly create a set of transparencies for their illustrations. A piece of clear plastic and a marker worked well if you wanted to write on the fly.

Anmar doesn't have clear plastic yet, so they would have to use glass plates -- float glass, thanks to Garia.

An opaque projector can be made, too. The main challenge is that it takes a whole lot more light.

Selling gold

there would be considerable explaining to do if Gary shows up at a pawn shop with a bag a Diamonds or a couple of pounds of gold.

Don't forget, the Beings are at a technology level so far beyond ours as to appear to be magic, they should have no problem figuring out how to manipulate our primitive computers to give Gary a debit card with enough cash on it to buy whatever is needed.

Transfer list

While some have mentioned laptop computers or tablets (which would be easy enough for Gary II to get hold of while still confined to a hospital bed), solar chargers would seem a very strange request - a conventional charger would seem more likely - in which case, memorising the details of the US 110V AC mains electricity supply would be useful to recharge the batteries.

However, Wikipedia is far too vast and has a lot of unnecessary information for the purpose, so care would need to be taken in selecting what to download. On the other hand, an old-style CD/DVD-based encyclopedia may be more useful. If Gary II gets discharged, borrow a dead tree encyclopedia (plus various other reference books) from a library on his last day and place in a backpack. Dead tree references are also likely to be far more durable and easier to access than electronic references. If various chemistry primers are included in the mix, then among other things they could be used to develop photographic technology, and maybe with a little imagination, Anmar could develop their own version of a photocopier. The encyclopedia would also likely have outline details on significant military achievements and battles / wars - with 20th Century conflicts good examples of how not to conduct warfare - or be fooled into thinking a massively destructive weapon will have the effect of ending all wars. It's also likely to be useful on a chemistry front by describing the areas where various minerals are found.

Agh - it's far too easy to think of frivolous extras to pack for the return trip! For example, as an in-joke between the participants of the Council of Two Worlds, bring back a copy of H2G2 :) If there's enough room in the rucksack, also bring back a decent cookery book for Maralan :D (The latter's also likely to be more durable than ordering a take-out pizza on his last day/night and popping it in the rucksack!) An earlier commentator mentioned music - while the encyclopedia would have the technical details (including how to read music scores), something like a descant recorder would be easier to pack than an electronic keyboard - as they're typically fashioned from plastic and don't rely on reeds, they're pretty darn simple and are virutally impossible to break without deliberate malice.

Since we've been told Garia will be gone for between nine months and a year, and Gary I has been in a coma for 11 months, it should be possible to work out roughly how much time Gary II will have to do his information gathering. Hopefully in further dialogue between Garia and Senusret, they'll be able to negotiate a strategy for Gary II's reappearance, to either minimise his convalescence time or maximise the chances of him obtaining the information required duiring his convalescence.


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

Transfer list

I think we all agree that the most important thing to transfer is knowledge.

I advocate bringing it across electronically because that is the most compact way to do it. Once it is on Anmar, it can be read out of the tablets and stored using Anmar-appropriate technology.

And I agree. A few frivolous things would be nice.

re: solar cells. Asking for them while hospitalized would raise some eyebrows, but they are easy enough to buy once he gets out.

As a matter of fact, since Gary likes to camp and ride horses, it would be easy to justify getting some if he goes on a camping trip -- perhaps a camping trip from which he never returns.

Many of you commenting are forgetting an important fact

Gary Campbell's father owns a Book Store and if I remember correctly, they live upstairs from the store. Another important fact is transfer capacity is not as limited as some of you think. The Romans who became the Chivans arrived in two Roman Transport Ships. The Einlanders as well arrived with their Longships. So, this could make Garia's return a bit easier. Gary gets released from the hospital and is taken home to recover. A fire breaks out in the Store and Gary is not able to be rescued from the fire and "dies". The Beings copy all of the books as well as any other useful items in the building then transfer Garia along with all the contents of the Store/House back to Anmar. There is no need to bring the entire house since Garia KNOWS about the two Worlds and the mechanism of the transfer unlike the Chivan's and Einlanders who in all probability perished in storms on Earth but the Beings just made it looks like they survived the storm when THEY got transferred. So, the Beings had to make it look like these groups had survived their harrowing storms on Earth.

The Romans didn't show up in

The Romans didn't show up in ships. The Einlanders didn't show up in ships. They _started their voyage_ in ships. (The Romans - who knows. They may have been caught in a landslide while building a road, rather than on a boat. )

The Einlanders found themselves on the shore; the only place boats showed up is that a bunch of them built boats, and then sailed off to try to find 'home'. Eventually, all the ones with that knowledge left.

We know next to nothing about the Roman/Chivan arrival.

I have two slide rules within 10 feet of me. I wouldn't be surprised if Gary's father had one lying around. I also have my grandfather's old drafting kit - which includes the changeable lead compass, the scribe compass, protractor, and a couple of other things.

I still think people are trying to stuff too much in too fast. Get the basics, get a chunk of the mistakes that were made, and get _out_.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Alibi in Latin means 'Somewhere Else' and

Omnino means 'Entirely'.

Might I respectfully draw your attention to my side story "Alibi Omnino" - it is an attempt to document some Chivan history.
Penny had described the sea-faring Einnlanders' arrival in what became Einnland, and I have described the sea convoy that led to the Chivans crashing into what is now Plif.
In both these descriptions, we have been at pains to show that the ships did not arrive intact. Penny also mentioned something along those lines in a recent comment.

My side story has a number of 'flashbacks' that various characters use to provide some Chivan history, and also to lay some groundwork for some of the Chivan events that have been mentioned in the main story, or in my 'Julina' stories.

There is a final episode of my 'Alibi Omnino' short series to come in which it will hopefully be suggested why the Chivans effectively 'disappeared'.

All the best

Julia

The Industrial Revolution (IR) is more than...

The Industrial Revolution (IR) is more than just new technical wonders like steam locomotives, float glass, hand mirrors, and paper plants. It is also about being able to feed the new factory workers adequately and for a reasonable price. Meanwhile, as the population shifts from mostly agrarian to industrial labor, the demand for agricultural products should stay at about the same level if not increase. The remaining farmers will need to become more productive through mechanization, greater efficiency, multiple harvests, higher yields, longer harvest seasons and whatever else is needed to keep up with market demands.

Then there is the need for better storage, preservation and transportation of food to minimize spoilage. In part see http://www.uni.edu/iowahist/Social_Economic/IA_Agriculturist...

If this is ignored then the IR slows down as the labor that returns to agriculture. The war effort also suffers for if the soldiers are foraging then they are not fighting the enemy. Maralin needs to review the military's food supply from procurement to delivering meals in the field and present his report for improvements to the war council.

With a war going on and her upcoming trip, Garia needs to convene her staff and brainstorm. In these sessions she and Maralin need to both dump their knowledge on her staff. Then they all use it in conjunction with current tech for improvements if not for something new. Her staff will also handle patent applications for Marilin. Garia and Maralin need to review current farm implements and bring in experts on current technology as needed. Inventions still need release authorization from the king's councils.

Maralin presents;
the wheelbarrow, garden cart (a bin on 2 wheels), hand truck (us terminology)
cutlery designs (mostly kitchen)
greenhouses (allows some multiple harvests)
kitchen implements and equipment
mason jars
grease pencil (china pencil, really a colored hard wax)
thermos, both glass and stainless

Then wants Pyrex & Corelle (Vitrelle), mason jar sample & lids.

Garia adds;
Animal drawn; discs (tilling), steel plow, sicle mower, rakes, and seeders seeders.
Steam powered, threshers, balers, and grain elevators.
Plywood (interior, exterior, marine grades)
Cargo straps with a ratcheting takeup spool.
Archimedes screw for handling liquids and dry bulk
carbon paper
wood pencils (common and carpenters) Develop it and production line in-house
fountain pen
silkscreen printing
wood planer (small) [belt powered]
belt sander [belt powered]
circular saw [belt driven]
band saw [belt powered]
toothed gear and chain drive (from bicycle)
galvanized steel (Travan and Mylsi)
pencil sharpener (the simple & cheap one)
steel hub (cast) using conical roller bearings, steel spindle, steel axle, a bolt on wheel, and developed in-house. (Lower rolling resistance and increased reliability for wagons.)

Garia needs to setup a distillery for alcohol close to raw material sources. (high proof [192 proof] alcohol has many medical, industrial, and commercial applications.)

Creates a medical, laboratory, and scientific supply company. Starting with Sterile bandages, gauze (use Parrel's wax paper for wrapper), ss tweezers (ss=stainless steel)u, ss clamps, ss scalpels, ss needles, silk (silk like) suture thread, and alcohol. Microscopes, telescopes, and specialty glass to be added later.

Setup plant to galvanize steel.

Coke plant (large) in Blackstone to save on shipping coal (and wagons).

Point out need for large format paper stock (build another plant).

It will be small improvements, existing items put to new uses, medical treatment near the front and a reliable supply line that will help make Palarand's military more effective.

There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare. Sun Tzu

Carbon paper also lets you do

Brooke Erickson's picture

Carbon paper also lets you do limited run document duplication using a hectograph.

Had one as a kid, You basically have a shallow tray filled with gelatin, and you put the carbon copy up against it, and the "ink" soaks in, and you can print several copies fom the gelatin.

It's been 50 years so I don't recall all the details, except that it's one of the few simple ways to make *color* copies (you can use different colors of carbon paper to make the master).

Useful for limited run copies of colored diagrams, for example.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Stencil duplicators and

Stencil duplicators and fountain pens. That's what would make the biggest difference. Specifically, just 'eyedropper' pens. Those are the absolute simplest of the various fountain pen types, and easiest to make with current technology. You can make the feed out of soft metal, possibly bone or horn. (Wood would swell up too much) Unfortunately, making them out of feathers would be difficult, unless Gary can carry a couple of baskets of various kinds of eggs. :)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Feathers and eggs

Unfortunately, eggs counts as living so could not be transferred by the duplication process. It would have to be a DNA job and then the recreated eggs put under a very surprised avian...

Tricky. One might just manage feathers, since they are inert once fully grown, but the supply might be limited.

Pens /are/ an issue but perhaps not such a great one and the locals have other solutions or can develop them. Felt or fiber tips might be a better way to go or even plain old biros.

Penny

Well that brings up an interesting question

Since the human body is veritably infested with micro organisms of all sorts as well as semi-micro ones *cough* mites *cough*, I take it when Garia appeared on Palarand she would have been basically sterile and had to reacquire an entire intestinal flora. I am surprised she has not caught a lot of diseases for that matter since her immune system is not acclimated to Anmar. I take it the VMBs did a little engineering in that direction then?

The benefit of feathers is

The benefit of feathers is that you could then see the pattern inside the quill - once you duplicated that, you could even use thin metal for the pen.

The reason I think pens are very important is that they _really_ made a change for our society. Prior to that, it was dip pens, sand, blotters, and lots of spattering of ink. With a reservoir and a metal tip, the ink flow became easy, clean, and adjustible, so you didn't end up with 'wet' ink by the time you hit the next line. Notes are very important, and, well, ink is easier to read than pencil.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I don't see why the beings

I don't see why the beings would mind. Goose eggs would be best. They brought alpaca, didn't they? :)

Why slip them under avians? incubators are easy to make, and only necessary for the first generation.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Your comment on eggs brings up another question.

Penny,

Your comment on eggs brings up another question.

What about seeds, seedlings/cuttings, and dried herbs? Could they be brought over?

If so, it would be useful to do it in both directions.

Back home on the plain (Kansas), soil and plant samples would be analyzed and they could try growing the plants in a greenhouse.

Analysis results would provide nutritional information about the plants from Anmar.

For the return trip useful seeds and seedlings/cuttings would be gathered and given to Gary.

SurvivorLibrary.com
Their About statement is; The Library in it’s entirety is a compendium of the Technological and Industrial Knowldge of the 1800 through early 1900s.

Thanks in advance.

JK

P.S. I love roast duck so my vote goes for duck eggs.

Maybe

Maybe you're correct. However, I fear that if they are brought from another world they may do more harm than good. Domestically developed and produced, I'd go with that.

More attainable is good hygiene, cleaning and disinfecting wounds with alcohol, along with using sterilized implements and dressings.

Knowledge

I don't expect her to bring back cases and cases of penicillin. Rather, she needs to bring back information on how to search for the organisms that secrete antibiotics, test them, and refine them.

Does bread mold help with infections? Maybe, maybe not.

What they need to do on Anmar is to use the shotgun method. Culture pathogens, and culture every kind of fungus, mold, and similar organism that they can find. Then, see which organism makes stuff that kills the pathogens.

*snork*. I read that as

*snork*. I read that as 'penguins' instead of 'penicillin'

I think I need to go to sleep.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Penguins

Hmm.

Gets crazy idea for sea life on Anmar...

Penny

Would love to have some survivors

... from the Cambrian explosion on Earth.

So, did whales ever get to Anmar? :)

Oh, and ocean conservation, a whole other discussion.

Hmmm, just a thought though, how will Garia continue to influence the use of technology such that it is sustainable and prevents repeating our mistakes in places beyond Palarand? Even today it is a political thing as much as anything. Maybe a Grand Convocation on technological development. Despite the tech she will contribute, her role will also be to push for political cohesion on its use. On Earth it is like herding cats as countries have their own agendas. I mean, what is to prevent one country from polluting the air with coal beyond what is reasonable and so on, like we do here?

Even if one knows what is coming, people still do stupid things anyway, like smoking, or wasting time and effort on minting high value currency that could easily be counterfeited and have no ability to wear out, like paper money can, so it leaves circulation ;-).

I throw my hands up at the stupidity of humanity.

Stupid Human Tricks

One of her stated purposes in bringing technology to Anmar is to prevent, or at least reduce, the stupid stuff that we did in our long journey to a technological society.

A lot of that can be done with simple warnings -- like letting the hatters know that the mercury containing stuff that they use will kill them.

She needs to publish lots of cautionary tales of what happened on Earth. That, along with her current policy of encouraging people to think big and think ahead will cut out the majority of the problems that we had.

Of course, they will no doubt invent their own.

On the subject of coinage

With the subject of whether or not to move money with Garia to earth, it just occurred to me that with the Great Leap Forward (not the Chinese knockoff version ;) ) Palarand will have an overheating economy so where will they get all the coin needed to pay for all this. They don't have a banking system yet and even if they had one, there is still more coin (and thus Silver and Gold) needed to be minted.

They will need to develop paper money sooner rather than later I would suggest as there is no way to get that much more additional valuable materials I would think.

Oh, and for the cost of the stuff being brought back to Anmar, well, the items being brought back need not be bought at all, just borrowed as the originals are just going to be duplicated. So, even if one were to buy the highest end laptops available from Amazon, as long as the laptops are returned within the refund window, it will cost very little.

Despite what printing

Despite what printing fanatics would have you believe, it's not that big of a deal. When you use a commodity with a relatively static quantity to back a currency, you end up with deflation when there are more goods to buy, and inflation when there are fewer goods to purchase. Thus the development over the centuries of the halfpenny, then the farthing. For coinage, you simply make coins that are deliberately adulturated, so that you don't end up with coins too small to hold :)


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

We'll have to agree to disagree

Then we have the Moore's law of making money. To me the farthing and half penny is not really money as it is not gold and silver. And to constantly make a smaller and smaller coin because of deflation is not inexpensive either as there is a need to have a coinage proportionate to what the consumer will buy.

At one time a penny in the US will buy you many, many pieces of candy whether you need to or not as it was the smallest coin of the realm.So here you have all this physical currency which has a very long circulating lifetime. Fast forward with inflation as it will always happen due to one force or another and the need for and we have the situation where the smallest coin of the realm is now cluttering up coin boxes everywhere. So here we have a monetary unit that will either have to be melted down and reconverted after all those coins had to be melted and formed in the first place. A very expensive proposition.

Right now we have an unprecedented situation where it would make any change the Western world look like a piker, with the possibility of geometric growth due to so much innovation, like the cosmic inflation of change. The dilution of a very small quantity of material representative of wealth will occur so quickly that the physical production could of ever smaller coinage could never keep up and distributed.

The banking system will help of course but if there is an actual demand for physical coinage, and there will of course be such demand, can not be kept up at this time.

The practicalities of paper and now electronic currency has lead us to where we are today and is easier to manage then physical coinage when large sums are involved.

Now as for governments overprinting money to cover debts, that is a whole separated issue of politics and has nothing to do with what I am saying.

I think you deliberately

I think you deliberately misunderstood to start an argument. Gold and Silver have always been used for 'larger' denominations, with copper, brass, bronze, and tin used for smaller denominations. Iron/steel was only used temporarily, because it corrodes quickly.

Yes, a pennysworth of candy ended up being quite a bit - but that does work itself out. You make _another coin_. You don't arbitrarily recall, melt, and re-strike all of the coins in circulation. Look at the Mexican peso, or the British shilling. Both have been completely reworked, so that an old peso couldn't be confused with the new one, and the same with the pre-decimal shilling. (The old British money system made perfect sense when you took into account that it was a relative value of metal, not a counting, system)

As for large amounts of currency, that's why 'bank notes' were really developed. (Frankly, I'd rather see the US throw away bills for _larger_ denominations, not smaller. People carry 8 ones around more than they carry 8 20's. Bills are lighter, even if coins last longer. Have a 10,20, and 50 dollar coin. )


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I did say I will agree to disagree

And dimes were at one time made out of silver. As were all small coins, like pieces of eight. Like I said, I am going to agree to disagree but I know you will always want to get the last word in. And no, the weight of high denomination coins is not worth it either.

Not going to add to the

Not going to add to the discussion, but a slight adjunct. 'Pieces of 8' were cutting a 'dollar' into 8 pieces - of silver. (joachimthaler, or thalers). I did a previous _long_ post on them, if you wanted to do a search. The _coin_ ended up being called 'pieces of 8', but in reality, it was a single 8 reale/reals coin, or a 'dollar'. (The 8 real gold coin was escudos, and referred to as 'dubloons') (Technically, they didn't cut the 8 real thalers very often. It's just that a single real was one eighth, and eight reals made up a dollar. So you had 8 bits in a 'dollar')

I have no clue what a single gold real was called.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

Chronicity

joannebarbarella's picture

You have to remember that a society at a particular technological/social stage can only cope with innovations which are within its purview. For instance, a society that has just invented radio with valves will have problems coping with transistors that require knowledge of gallium arsenide production.

Whatever Garia brings back will have to be integrated with the socio/technological situation existing in Palarand as it is. Perhaps the knowledge of a better Bessemer process for steel-making or the principles of better bridge-building which will together with other innovations speed up the incremental improvements to the industrial revolution.

There is always a group that is outside the norm

I mostly agree with you Joanne. But you don't account for everyone. There is always a group with interests that is outside the norm, we, here, are examples of several groups with an overlapping interest (I presume we are mostly CDs and TGs).

Let's say Garia brings back a copy of the knowledge from the top 10 (in English) universities. You would always have researchers who thirst for knowledge (Gerdas is one) and will use Garia's info to further their research, a group that wants to implement said research and use it, a group that wants to sell the product(s) from the research to the masses and then fund the first two so they have "a better mouse trap" to sell to the masses before they tire of the previous one. If these groups are not present then Anmar would be technologically stagnant.

And Garia will one day have the thankless job of refereeing

... this mess of conflicting interests, at least at a very high level.

The advantage she has is that she will have standing and near automatic respect (for the most part) due to her being a Questor and Guildsmistress and all around innovator as well as Queen.

It will still be hard to keep everybody happy though. Eventually there will be Vested Interests due to large sums of money and that is where business regulation despite the conservative freemarketers would like us to believe will be needed to prevent radical swings due to stupid things like 'too large to fail' bringing things down around people's ears.

That has to be stamped down hard.

it is easier to control a company you own

it is easier to control a company you own. I believe Garia needs to be involved in creating businesses and placing them where others will be displaced. For example, make pencils and pens in Plif and in her Barony with each supplying different markets.

Some problems can be reduced, zoning offices already are a start of regulating commerce and manufacturing. As always, there is a fine line Garia (as Queen) will be walking on between under-regulation and over-regulation.

Technology and society

Society doesn't care what is behind the gadgets.

If your average joe sixpack can buy a huge console radio that is full of vacuum tubes (valves,) he will. If he can buy a transistor radio that fits in his pocket, he will.

I hang out with a bunch of retired guys on some weekday mornings. Some of them won't touch a computer, while others will dig into them, install Linux, set up ham radio repeaters, and lots of other highly technological things.

They were all born before the invention of the transistor. Some were born before radios were more than a curiosity for the rich and technically minded.

Slowly catching up with you.

Slowly catching up with you..Love this story Penny and do hope the young couple have many a happy year ahead together.

alissa

she's braver than me

I dont know if I could do it - leave behind someone I loved, taken a risk like this.

DogSig.png

Monumental

These are monumental events I hope Garia is only gone for a few weeks.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

That meeting went better than it might have

Jamie Lee's picture

The why of Garia needing to disappear had to be told as she did, to those she told. She may not realize it, but in some way each who heard her story, and saw the Being, do have a part to play in the advancement of Anmar, each in their own way.

Wallesan has misunderstood the nature of the Beings, thinking them Gods, when in fact they are living beings as he is. His need to see proof before believing is faulty since he knows other lands exist without needing proof of their existance. Anmar, after all, has not been completely explored.

The Being appearing during the meeting had to happen in order for all to know there are other beings besides themselves, and to put to rest any doubts anyone had about Garia's story.

Still, what information will Garia seek once back in her old body? Gary has been in a coma for eleven months, and his family and friends will be ecstatic when he comes out of that coma, and will likely want him for this and/or that, which might interfere with his mission.

Garia disappearing can't be done at any time she is with a group while traveling or after arriving somewhere. If she simply disappears at any of these times others will ask a lot of questions and her not taking this or that will raise questions. More so if others are told she has gone on a journey vital to Anmar but didn't take a wagon or, Snep.

Her disappearance needs to happen from the palace, where her reason for leaving can be better controlled. If Keren thought his travel north was a distant separation from Garia, he'll never realize how far eleven hundred light years happens to be.

Others have feelings too.