Tales of the Vuduri: Year Two

by Michael Brachman

  In other places, where there was more light, there were some low-lying bushes that oozed a type of sticky gel along with bits of leaves that wiped off on Rei. As he made his way through the forest, more and more of the little green bits were stuck to his pants.

  I was envisioning a substance with the viscosity of aloe vera but sticky, tacky, gluey so that as Rei walked through them, he would get greener and greener.

  From an ecological perspective, I have no idea what purpose the sticky substance serves other than giving me something to write about. Maybe the leaves were able to plant themselves and grow so the glue allowed animals to carry them away from one spot and start a colony elsewhere. I don't know. It just reminded me of sticky buns which I love so the sticky bushes were born.

  Entry 2-359: December 20, 2014

 

  Sonar-vision is born

 

  In a previous post, I described Rei's sonar-vision in great detail. This was but one side effect of the magic yellow pill that OMCOM gave to Rei to cure his back pain.

  However, the new sensory modality had not activated yet, even when Rei and Rome arrived at Deucado in Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, right after Rei escaped the Nayer's house, necessity came to the forefront:

  “OMCOM did tell me that if you were ever in the dark, you should try closing your eyes,” replied MINIMCOM.

  “Puh,” Rei made a funny sound as he laughed out loud. “What does that mean?” Rei thought to himself.

  “I do not know. OMCOM was not always so forthcoming. Why not try it and see for yourself? Pardon the pun.”

  “Sure,” Rei said. “Why not?” He closed his eyes. Nothing seemed different. Pitch black was pitch black. To Rei, it was as dark with his eyes open as with them closed.

  “How am I supposed to see with my eyes closed?” he said out loud. Rei was struck by the strangest sensation. His words came echoing back to him in tiny little rivulets of sound. Each tree echoed an infinitesimal amount. If he concentrated, Rei’s mind was able to store the echoes forming a three dimensional grid and the stand of trees suddenly became evident to him, as if his eyes were open.

  “Holy mackerel,” he said and opened his eyes. The mapping of the trees disappeared and once again, he was plunged into the pitch blackness of Deucado’s night.

  He closed his eyes again. “Hello!” he said to no one in particular. Again, the echoes from every object in the area surrounding him came back and again his brain displayed it as a three-dimensional map. The sensation was almost indescribable.

  “Oh wow,” he said. He tried moving forward and snapped a branch. The sharp report of the sound echoed forward and made the mapping even clearer.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. He started laughing. “This is too weird.”

  He started to jog forward and found that each footfall cast a sound that went out and returned an image of the forest to him that was colorless but crystal clear.

  It would be pretty cool to have this kind of vision, huh?

 

  Entry 2-360: December 21, 2014

 

  Brain damage

 

  Not everybody loves what I write and everybody is also entitled to their opinion. Some readers have gone through Rome's Revolution and found Rei and Rome unrealistic characters. One person told me real people don't act like that.

  On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of readers have loved the stories and the characters. The one thing that turned off the reader above and attracted fine reviews from others is how well Rome and Rei handle change and all the curves that life (actually me, the author) throws at them. Here is what one reviewer (Risingshadow.net) wrote:

  The protagonists are endearing three-dimensional characters. What I like most about the protagonist is that they feel realistic. Although they're intelligent and they seem to be perfect, they also have human traits and faults that make them vulnerable. This kind of characterization is a bit rare in hard science fiction

  I have a different theory. I will claim that Rome, as a Vuduri, was built from the ground up to take things with aplomb. She actually had to learn how to be horrified or suffer from panic. I also claim that Rei suffered from brain damage or at least a drug-induced stupor when he was first revived. He even acknowledged this when Rome first met him. This insulation of his higher brain functions allowed him to take things in stride when normally he might have lost it.

  Slowly but surely, Rei adapted to all the weirdness going on around so that by the time they arrived on Deucado, he was fully ready to embrace anything that might come his way. You can see from this little vignette that comes right on the heels of the scene recounted yesterday:

  Rei started to jog forward and found that each footfall cast a sound that went out and returned an image of the forest to him that was colorless but crystal clear.

  “He’s given me some kind of sonar vision,” Rei shouted. “Woo hoo,” he said, galloping through the woods. The whole experience was so exciting that he forgot how tired he was. Faster and faster he ran. The faster he ran, the more noise he made. The more noise he made, the clearer his path became.

  “This is the greatest thing ever,” Rei thought to himself.

  “Even better than a telephone in the head?” asked MINIMCOM.

  “Yeah. This is so sleek! Remind me to thank OMCOM the next time I see him,” Rei thought to himself.

  Does this seem like someone who is unrealistic or brain damaged or just ready to embrace the gifts that life hands him?

 

  Entry 2-361: December 22, 2014

 

  Null fold starships

 

  In the upcoming novel, The Milk Run, we are introduced to the null fold X-drive. This star drive folds the imaginary component of negative energy to produce an order of magnitude increase in speed. Since the speed of the X-drive is proportional to the amount of computing power, there is no actual upper limit. This is the fastest star drive yet in the world of Rome's Revolution.

  However, nobody wants to carry around a computer the size of planet. Even the clone ships are basically just flying computers with very little room for human passengers and certainly not built for the long haul:

  So what to do? The answer is very simple. Just create an external "tank" of memrons that clamp onto a regular starship and boost up the computing power only while you need the X-drive. Then decouple and leave it orbiting somewhere while you do your business. Once freed of the Detachable Computing Unit (DCU), the starship could maneuver in the atmosphere or in space normally.

  Think of this kind of like the space shuttle where the external fuel tank mounts on the top rather than the bottom. I'm not a good enough modeler to draw you a picture of Junior using this configuration so I took a drawing of the space shuttle to illustrate. Imagine the orange tank clamping down on the top of the starship. And further, imagine that the tank is filled with computing units rather than liquid hydrogen and you get the idea:

  Entry 2-362: December 23, 2014

 

  S'aploves

 

  In the upcoming novel, The Milk Run, we are introduced to the K'val, an entire race of walking, talking plant people.

  To make the aliens more alien, I had them designed so that they all look exactly the same and sound the same. It is impossible to tell one from another. So how do they know who is a member of their family and who is a perfect stranger?

  I gave them some genetic markers, hormones that circulate in their bodies, that tell them who are their relatives. This is called their "sapline" which is analogous to our bloodlines. It is their lineage. I gave the K'val a new sensory organ called a s'aplove and it resembles a small sunflower that emerges from the sides of their head. This organ uses chemical, electromagnetic and psychic elements so that it can lock onto the sapline of other K'val.

  Unfortunately, Molokai, not quite a villain, has been the god-like power behind their
evolution and he has worked tirelessly to make sure the K'val are of uniform size, shape and color. He also built the s'aplove so that it can transmit pain. So if he wishes to torture one family member to force another to do his bidding, the s'aplove enforces this. As Sh'ev, a K'val plant-man who becomes Aason's friend notes: "It is a very powerful tool to ensure obedience."

 

  Entry 2-363: December 24, 2014

 

  Non-human Intelligence

 

  Yesterday, I introduced you to the K'val, the plant people that live on the planet Ay'den in the upcoming novel The Milk Run. I decided, as we come to the end of the second year for Tales of the Vuduri, to list the non-human intelligences we have encountered in the world of Rome's Revolution; so here goes:

  1. OMCOM - first introduced in Rome's Revolution - a starbase computer who eventually evolved into Planet OMCOM and eventually left our universe altogether in The Milk Run.

  2. MINIMCOM - also introduced in Rome's Revolution - an autopilot computer that evolved into an intelligent, self-aware starship. I also include Junior, MINIMCOM's son, in this class.

  3. The Overmind - we meet the Overmind in Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, this is the self-aware group consciousness that arises when a sufficient number of mind-connected Vuduri gather together.

  4. The Stareaters - living Dyson Spheres who consume stars which are destined to go supernova. They are dedicated to preserving the life of the universe.

  5. MASAL - an analog computer that became self-aware and computed that it would be more efficient to turn the human race into a species of living robots.

  6. The Falling Blankets - while technically, any given 'blanket' is not completely self-aware, they are linked psychically and provide the soul and consciousness of the planet Deucado.

  7. The K'val, who you will meet in the upcoming novel The Milk Run. These are living, sentient plants who walk and talk and have a fairly advanced form of technology.

  8. Molokai and the other gods of Heaven. Again, you will meet them in The Milk Run. This is the end result of evolution. The purpose of life is to evolve and form a mass mind and ascend to Heaven. This principle was first espoused in the novel Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke.

  9. Philcon - if there are currently non-human intelligent beings walking among us today, you would most likely meet them here.

  Rest assured, there are more coming. Even at the end of The Milk Run, you will find out that the humans on Deucado, Earth and Helome have formed a Galactic Union and even beyond the K'val, when they meet non-human intelligences, usually peaceful, they are inducted into the Galactic Union.

  Entry 2-364: December 25, 2014

 

  Happy Asteroid Day, Part 1

 

  There are a lot of major plot lines in Rome's Revolution. One of them was the worldwide super-computer named MASAL's plan to convert the entire human race into living robots in order to run the planet more efficiently.

  However, the mandasurte, also known as the mind-deaf, were a major obstacle to MASAL's plan. This is because they were among the minority who elected to forgo MASAL's gift aka the 24th chromosome. This presented a dilemma to MASAL because he could never achieve his goal of total domination until he eliminated these unwitting rebels.

  His plan to kill off the bulk of the mandasurte was many years in the making. He surreptitiously converted the world of Deucado into a prison planet and slowly but surely began kidnapping and transporting the mandasurte to Deucado, stripping them of all technology. While long-term this plan would be untenable, the computer knew he only had to wait an additional 19 years. There was a huge, world-destroying asteroid on the outskirts of the Tau Ceti system that was going to crash into the planet and destroy all life.

  By suppressing the information about the asteroid and by suppressing information about the real purpose of Deucado, when the asteroid hit, the rest of the Vuduri would just see it as a natural disaster rather than a carefully plotted genocide. However, our heroes Rome and Rei foiled MASAL's plot and MINIMCOM sent out an army of VIRUS-unit based livetars to digest and destroy the asteroid long before it could strike the planet.

  Fast forward to the year 3476 and the plot of The Milk Run. Tomorrow, I will show you my first ever flash-sideways and we discover that while the people of Deucado have long since forgotten about the asteroid, the Vuduri back on Earth have not.

  Entry 2-365: December 26, 2014

 

  Happy Asteroid Day, Part 2

 

  Yesterday, I gave you the setting for the flash sideways in the upcoming novel The Milk Run. It takes place many, many years after the planet-killing asteroid had been eliminated by Rome, Rei and MINIMCOM. In this scene, Commander Ursay, now in his 70s, has made the trip from Earth to Deucado to speak to Rome and Rei directly on what equates to December 25th, 3475:

  Ursay took a deep breath. “As I am sure you are aware, today is the day that the asteroid was supposed to hit Deucado and extinguish all life thus effecting the genocide of the mandasurte.”

  Rei looked at Rome who shook her head. “Actually, no,” he said. We solved that problem so long ago, I think we kind of forgot about the actual date.”

  “Well, the Vuduri of Earth have not. We have carried a profound guilt over the entire exercise for a long time. As a people, we were too smug and secure in our mastery of the course of civilization. We were so blind to MASAL’s plan. Because of your intervention, we realized it was our sworn duty to protect all the humans of Earth including the mandasurte. The Overmind regards that role as a serious one. It has taken a step back from being the ruler of Earth to being a steward for the protection of all mankind.”

  “The same thing has happened here,” Rome said. “The Overmind here has changed profoundly. In fact, we are all evolving.”

  Ursay nodded. “So are the people of Earth although not as quickly as you. It is quite clear to all the inhabitants, the Overmind included, that Deucado is now in the forefront of human endeavors and the gap is widening. Those of us on Earth who concern ourselves about such things believe it is time for our three worlds, Helome included, to formalize our ties to one another. A treaty if you will. We would like to establish a Galactic Union to improve communication and interaction.”

  Rome just stared at him trying to make sense of his words. “All this is well and good but what has it got to do with us?”

  Ursay leaned forward. “We would like you and your family to come to Earth and address the planet and announce this treaty. Helome has already agreed to the pact.”

  “Why us?” Rei asked. “We’re nothing special.”

  “I beg to differ with you,” Ursay said. “It is quite clear to us that you and Rome are effectively the leaders of this planet. Even if the role has not been formally assigned.”

  “Naw,” Rei said, scoffing at the notion.

  “Yes,” Ursay insisted. “And there is more. You and Rome have personally saved mankind many times over. Your communication with the Stareaters. Destroying MASAL. Defeating the new Ark Lords. Even setting Helome on a path to genetic recovery. Rome’s interactions with the Vuduri and the various Overminds have had such a profound effect, it has been given a name. It is now referred to on Earth as Rome’s Revolution.”

  After the events of The Milk Run have run their course, Asteroid Day becomes a major holiday on Deucado, one filled with joy and wishing peace on Earth and Deucado and good will toward all men and other sentient life forms. The 35th century and the worlds of Rome's Revolution can celebrate holidays too!

  Entry 2-366: Epilogue

 

  Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three

 

  Just like last year, if you made it this far, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. As I mentioned in the introduction, I am well into my third year’s worth of blog entries on Goodreads. I am still following the discipline of writing seven articles on weekends and I am only at Chapter 15 of Book 2 of the original long-form version o
f Rome’s Revolution. I’m happy with my formula so I’ll be following this format for the upcoming year.

  Also, as I mentioned in the introduction, I have finished the complete draft of The Milk Run and after its final edit, I will be publishing this new adventure early in 2015. Also scheduled for 2015 will be the compendium entitled The Vuduri Companion which will contain short stories, deleted scenes, alternate scenes and other items of interest. Of special note, I actually paid somebody to re-type into Microsoft Word the original manuscript of Rome’s Revolution, written in 1973. I will include it in this volume as well. It should be very amusing. In the spring, I will be setting up my gorgeous Blue Yeti microphone and begin a new endeavor: I am going to try recording Rome’s Revolution into an audio book on Audible.com. Lots to do!

  So thanks again and stay tuned!