Tales of the Vuduri: Year Two

by Michael Brachman

  Tomorrow, the next little bit of the teaser.

  Entry 2-279: October 1, 2014

 

  The Deucadons, part 3

  Yesterday, I gave you another section of how the Deucadons came to live on Deucado. Their mere presence was crucial to defusing the crisis at the end of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution.

  Here is the next part of the teaser:

  Now that he was dressed, he looked around the command compartment and saw his two fellow crewmate’s chambers. With slow and cautious steps, hooking and releasing, he made his way over and was relieved to see that both their chambers were intact. The air itself was very musty and there was a hint of something rotted in the air. But it was breathable, he was alive and he was reanimated so Harrison knew they must be in orbit around one of the two planets in the habitable zone around Beta Hydrii.

  Much as he wanted to reanimate Cooper and Salazar, protocol dictated that he check the status of the ship and their orbit first on the very slim chance that the AI had made an error. If they had to move the ship, especially to another star system, reanimation was a death sentence and it was his responsibility and his burden as Captain to take that chance and take it alone.

  He moved into the pilot’s seat, belted himself in and pressed in the keystrokes necessary to alert the computer of his station. At first, the flat panel screens were very dim but quickly they brightened and began relaying a steady stream of information. Harrison blinked and looked at the panels and blinked some more. Something was very wrong. The chronometer showed the date as April 3rd, 2949. That couldn’t be right. It was off by almost 600 years.

  The Beta Hydri mission was the most ambitious of all the Ark missions so far. While the first two were going to go to Alpha Centauri and Tau Ceti, his Ark, number three in the series, was going to travel the unbelievable distance of 24.38 light years. With their ultra-efficient Grey Drive, in theory, the ship was capable of achieving an ultimate velocity of one-tenth c so it should have taken them on the order of 250 years to get there. But if he was reading the chronometer correctly, instead, it had taken them almost 900.

  “That can’t be right,” he said, again, speaking to no one.

  On instinct, he released his belt and floated free and pulled himself toward the cockpit window. Below him was a planet with white puffy clouds, beautiful blue sparkling oceans and bright yellowish-green landmasses with just a hint of brown in the northern and southern-most regions. The continents had many, many lakes and rivers, giving it an almost Swiss cheese-like appearance.

  Tomorrow, the next part of this little teaser. For the complete story, you'll have to wait for The Vuduri Companion to find out the rest of what happened.

  Entry 2-280: October 2, 2014

 

  The Deucadons, part 4

  Over the last few days, including yesterday, I have given you a synopsis of how the Deucadons came to live on Deucado. Their mere presence was crucial to defusing the crisis at the end of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution.

  Here is the next part of the teaser:

  At least the AI had picked the right planet to orbit. As they came around toward the sunset, he could see the primary star and it was not the right color. Beta Hydri was a G2IV Sol-class star, a little larger with a diameter of 1.7 times that of the Sun. This star should been yellowish-white but instead it was orange. It could not be atmospheric effects because they were well above the air.

  Harrison pushed off and got back to his seat. He punched the buttons necessary to bring up his galactic coordinates and star charts. The numbers were flat wrong. He pulled in an overlay of what he should have seen at Beta Hydri and there was a serious shift in the overlap. Finally, in desperation, he decided to send a query to the computer.

  “Where are we?” he typed in and pressed Enter.

  “Second planet, Tau Ceti System,” was the computer’s reply.

  “Tau Ceti!” Harrison shouted out loud. “What the hell?”

  “Why not Beta Hydri?” he typed in savagely and pressed Enter.

  “No habitable worlds. Backup target selected,” was the computer’s reply.

  “Jesus Christ on a crutch,” Harrison said. He sat back in his chair and just stared at the instruments. The scientist in him did the math. Beta Hydri was 22 light years from Earth, Tau Ceti was 21 light years from Beta Hydri. That meant they had traveled 43 light years all told. With gearing up, gearing down, maybe 600 years. This was 900. While the numbers didn’t exactly work, they didn’t preclude it. Plus he had the physical evidence in front of him.

  There was no point in reviewing the data or trying to second-guess the computer, there was no going back. They were here now. He had to take advantage of the situation. In his mind, he figured the Ark II should have gotten here around 2200 AD. That means there should have been humans on this world for some 700 years. He switched to a video feed and looked for signs of cities, settlements, anything on the night side that would indicate it was inhabited.

  Tomorrow, the last piece of the teaser. Of course, you'll have to wait for The Vuduri Companion to find out the rest of story.

  Entry 2-281: October 3, 2014

 

  The Deucadons, part 5

  Over the last few days, including yesterday, I have given you a synopsis of how the Deucadons came to live on Deucado. Their mere presence was crucial to defusing the crisis at the end of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution.

  Here is the final part of the teaser:

  There were no lights. There was one fairly large thunderstorm near the equator that producing lightning so he knew his instruments were capable of picking up visual emissions if present.

  Harrison flipped on the radio, setting it to the primary command frequency, pressing the send button and called out, “Attention, attention, anyone on Tau Ceti 2. This is Captain Harrison of the USS Ark III. We are in orbit around your planet. Does anyone read me?”

  He released the transmit button and heard only the hiss of interstellar space punctuated occasionally by a slight crackle that might be coming from the electrical storm below. Harrison switched to the backup frequency and tried it again but once again heard nothing.

  He programmed a frequency sweep and set it to stop at any signal greater than noise and let it go. It stopped at one high-band kHz signal but when Harrison cranked up the volume, again, all he heard was the distinctive crackle of far-off lightning.

  When the sweep was complete, he tried it again, same results; nothing. As far as he could tell, there was no evidence of civilization taking root on this planet. Further, if intelligent life, other than man, had developed here, there was no evidence of that either.

  Harrison decided to put all of this out of his mind for the time being and proceed with the mission. Their survival was not contingent upon others having made it here before him so he wasn’t going to worry about it right now.

  He unbuckled himself and locked his feet onto the floor and began making his way over to Cooper. Once again, a searing pain shot through his back, making his knees weak and his left foot felt like it suddenly went to sleep. Had he not been weightless, the pain would have made his knees buckle. As before, he waited a bit and the pain passed.

  Back pain again. Oy. You'll have to wait for The Vuduri Companion to find out the rest of story.

  Entry 2-282: October 4, 2014

 

  Fishies, swishies

  When I was building the world of Deucado, the locale which presents the backdrop for Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, I had to develop an ecosphere. I didn't do a very good job. I wrote a blog article about it. I just couldn't construct a gazillion species when I had people who had to get places and do things.

  I was also wrestling with a group of people who spoke Vuduri so making up words that rhyme in English made no sense. I had centered the action around Lake Eprehem and it was inconceivable to me that there would not be aquatic life but they certainly could not be fish. I wanted to call them swishies because it rhymed with fishies but how to make it rhym
e in Vuduri?

  Answer, I made them eel-like. So when they swam, they used a snake-ish type motion which the residents called swishing. Swish is a valid word and whatever the word is in Vuduri, it rhymes with fish so I accomplished my goal.

  According to Fridone, they aren't very hard to catch:

  “No, that would make life too easy for us. We must rely on the native life forms to support us.”

  “You mean, like to eat?” Rei asked.

  “Yes,” answered Fridone.

  “OK, I think I understand,” Rei said. “So exactly what do you eat? What was that that Rome and I had before?”

  “Most of our people live in a settlement on the shores of Lake Eprehem. There are many creatures in that lake. It is almost an inland sea. There are certain types, we call them swishies because they look like fish but they swish away when you try and catch them.”

  “So, if they swish away, how do you catch them?” Rei asked.

  “Not all get away,” said Fridone. “We use nets. They are not that smart. It is easy to catch enough to feed us.”

  When we go out for sushi, my wife loves rolls with eel. Me not so much. Who knows? Maybe swishies taste better.

  Entry 2-283: October 5, 2014

 

  Now we get them out

  In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, the trek back to the fallen Ark was much more arduous and used as an info-dump so that you could come up to speed as to the ecosphere of Deucado.

  However, once Rei and the Ibbrassati came upon the Ark, it was time to whip into action regardless of which version of the book you were reading. In both versions, Rei had to deal not only with the mechanics of how to extricate his people, he also had to deal with the emotional toll knowing that MINIMCOM had died in saving the people. Here is that section:

  Fridone moved away rapidly and took the lead and Rei followed him, winding their way through the cane trees and bush until they came to another, much larger clearing. Scrutinizing the area, Rei realized it was not a clearing at all. This was the exact spot where the Ark had landed and crushed the cane-trees to the side. He left Fridone and ran up to the Ark. Rei lifted up the camouflage netting at the end nearest him. This was the back end of the Ark, the part that landed first. The rear opening to the cargo section was a large door that Rei had entered during his first space walk. It looked perfectly intact. That meant his plan to have the trees absorb the shock must have worked. He touched the surface of the end section and found that it was still very cold but there was no ice on it now. The ice must have melted or even sublimated into the night air of the planet. At this point, Mockay was nearly overhead. Rei was impressed with the moon’s speed but realized he had to work fast if he was going to take advantage of the light.

  He worked his way along the side, lifting the netting as he went until he came to the lattice that separated the huge cargo section from the personnel section. In the dim light of the tiny moon, Rei saw a sight that made his heart sink. Protruding from beneath the crew section of the Ark was a small part of the underbelly of MINIMCOM’s shuttle. The silver-colored rear stabilizer was bent sideways and only about five meters of the cargo section was visible. The cargo hatch was open and lying flat on the ground. The cargo ramp had sprung open and was pointing in the air at an odd angle. The rest of MINIMCOM’s tug was buried underneath the Ark, smashed, as far as Rei could tell. From the geometry of the two vehicles, it looked like MINIMCOM had enough time to disengage from the Ark but that was all. Rei took a deep breath. The little computer had sacrificed his own life to save Rei, Rome and Rei’s people. Rei remembered that Rome had said that OMCOM and his ilk were amoral. But this was a moral act or at the very least a compassionate one.

  Entry 2-284: October 6, 2014

 

  Oops

  The first part of Rome's Revolution was an illustration of the culture clash between the Vuduri and us, the Essessoni. However the tale was told from the perspective of two individuals, Rome and Rei, each representing their own society. Part 2 reexamines the culture clash but now the canvas has been broadened to show the interactions of a much larger set of people. On the Vuduri side, we get the Ibbrassati and later the Vuduri themselves. On the Essessoni side, we get the thawed-out members of the Ark II, 500+ people representing our way of life. Down the road, in Part 3, we will encounter all of Vuduri society when Rome and Rei get to Earth but we'll save that for another day.

  Every journey begins with the first step and the exploration of the mix of the two cultures must begin with the thawing out of the first crew member. Yesterday, we mentioned "MINIMCOM'S Sacrifice" whereby it was clear that the little computer arranged himself so that even though he was crushed, he was able to spare Captain Keller's life. Rei was so consumed with grief about the loss of his friend that he wasn't even thinking about Captain Keller or anyone else, at first:

  Fridone came over to look over the wreckage with Rei.

  “This was your other shuttle?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Rei said, sadly.

  “What was in there?” Fridone asked.

  “MINIMCOM,” Rei said.

  “A computer?” Fridone shook his head.

  “He wasn’t just a computer,” Rei replied. “He…he was a friend. He took care of us.”

  “I do not think he survived the fall,” Fridone said matter-of-factly.

  “No.” Rei gulped. “I do not think he did.”

  “What else did you have in this ship?” Fridone asked.

  “The VIRUS units, a memron fabricator and…oh no!” Rei shouted.

  “What?” Fridone asked with concern in his voice.

  “Captain Keller,” Rei said in English. He got down on his hands and knees and crawled in between the cargo door and ramp. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the striped sarcophagus, still intact, secured in the section that was not crushed underneath the Ark.

  “Help me pull this out,” he shouted to Fridone in Vuduri.

  Several men crawled in while others used brute strength to raise the cargo ramp high enough to allow the extraction of the sarcophagus. While it took four men including Rei, they were able to free the chamber and drag it out into the area next to the Ark.

  “What do we do?” Fridone asked Rei.

  “He looks to be still frozen,” Rei said, inspecting the chamber.

  “How do you unfreeze him?” Fridone asked.

  “Well, to start the reanimation sequence is pretty trivial,” Rei said. “You just turn those two knobs there.”

  He pointed to the far end.

  “The one on the left goes clockwise.” Rei motioned with his fingers then he reversed the motion. “The one on the right goes counterclockwise. They expose the radioactive core and the whole thing powers up.”

  When he said the Vuduri word for radioactive, the men around him gasped.

  Fridone turned to admonish them. “You children! We have broken all the other Rules of Green, so why not this one?”

  Ah... the Rules of Green again. How I regret injecting them into the story. All they ever did was make my life as author more difficult. I'm glad I tossed them. We can still be ecologically conscientious without the ridiculous restrictions I tried to impose.

  Entry 2-285: October 7, 2014

 

  Turning the knob

  As I have mentioned numerous times, Rome's Revolution is hard science fiction. Before I decided to crush the original three novels down to a single volume, I was trying to get a distinct "you are there" feeling. Since every item in the book had to be researched out the wazoo, I wanted to insert my research in the novel somewhere so you'd see that I did all that work. Sometimes I'd struggle to insert the scientific explanation and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

  Well, I've learned my lesson. From here on in, it will always be action, action, action and I know that you, the reader, take my word for it that what I write is scientifically valid. If you want to look something up, more power to you and Google. To illustrate my
reformation, here is an example from the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution back when it was called VIRUS 5. You can see that I am trying to squeeze in how to reanimate a frozen colonist by turning some knobs. The discussion really doesn't belong and it got cut out.

  Here is the original long-form:

  Several men crawled in while others used brute strength to raise the cargo ramp high enough to allow the extraction of the sarcophagus. While it took four men including Rei, they were able to free the chamber and drag it out into the area next to the Ark.

  “What do we do?” Fridone asked Rei.

  “He looks to be still frozen,” Rei said, inspecting the chamber.

  “How do you unfreeze him?” Fridone asked.

  “Well, to start the reanimation sequence is pretty trivial,” Rei said. “You just turn those two knobs there.”

  He pointed to the far end.

  “The one on the left goes clockwise.” Rei motioned with his fingers then he reversed the motion. “The one on the right goes counterclockwise. They expose the radioactive core and the whole thing powers up. I do not think we should do this here, though. Once the people are thawed, they are pretty weak for a while. They will need some place to rest once the reanimation sequence is complete.”

  Fridone laughed sardonically. “They sleep for centuries and then they need to rest?”

  “Pretty ironic, huh?” Rei said.

  “How about the rest of your people?”

  And the much shorter current version:

  Several men crawled in while others used brute strength to raise the cargo ramp high enough to allow the extraction of the sarcophagus. While it took four men including Rei, they were able to free the chamber and drag it out into the area next to the Ark.