Tales of the Vuduri_Year Five

by Michael Brachman

  “Of course,” the livetar replied. “Unfortunately, the video feeds themselves were at the wrong angle. I could not get any images that I could present to you. I was only able to get a sense of where the persons were located in the room at any given point in time by the change in lighting and shadows. I have constructed an animation.”

  Even though the Library OMCOM doesn't have any actual video, he was able to use sound deflection to reconstruction motion in the room. That is pretty cool. I wonder what the reconstructed motion display will show them.

  Entry 5-188: July 7, 2017

  Another culprit!

  Yesterday, the Library OMCOM told Rome and Rei that he had reconstructed the motion of the burglar or burglars who had stolen Hanry Ta Jihn's handgun and one of the Deucadon's invisibility cloaks. Rei had assumed that it was Troutman and Steele all along but he kept his suspicions to himself while waiting for actual proof. What OMCOM was about to show them was something that nobody was expecting:

  OMCOM showed them a floor plan of the library. A yellow dot appeared at the front door then extended to become a yellow line, indicating the path the intruders took. They didn’t meander. They headed right for the museum area that Rei, Rome and Bonnie now occupied and went directly to the display cases.

  “As you can see, they were very purposeful in their actions. They came in, they removed the objects then retraced their steps back outside.”

  “Not very useful,” Rei said. “It just confirms your suspicion. They came here to steal and they got the gun and cloak.”

  “I agree that tracing their paths, in and out, of itself, is of no consequence,” OMCOM said. “However, I was able to use the acoustical inputs to create essentially a three dimensional construct of the group as they entered the room. Very similar to your sonar vision, Rei.”

  “What do you mean by group?” Rome asked. “There were just the two of them, right?”

  “No,” OMCOM said. “There were three of them.” The acoustical renditions showed three people moving through the room as gray specters. Two of the shapes appeared normal height or thereabouts. The third person was very short.

  “Three?” Rei sputtered. “The tall one must be Troutman. The medium sized one must have been Steele. But who was the third?”

  “I was able to use a series of transforms to abstract their voices. She did not say much but I can play it for you.”

  “Sh, sh, she?” Rome stammered. “It was a woman?”

  “Yes,” OMCOM said.

  The livetar played the recording. The woman only said two things. The first time OMCOM played the recordings, it was not very clear. After a few adjustments, the sound of the voice sharpened up. The woman’s voice said, “You will only need one cloak.”

  OMCOM’s animation indicated one of the two taller beings reaching in the case. At that point, the woman said, “Please put the handgun back. It belonged to Hanry Ta Jihn. You do not need it.”

  One of the two men growled at her that they did and that was the end of it.

  Rei sat down heavily at the seat by the workstation.

  “You heard that, right?” Rei inquired of Rome. “The accent?”

  “Yes,” Rome said sadly.

  “What?” Bonnie asked. “What’s so special about that woman’s voice?”

  What could be so depressing about a woman's voice? It is something from so far out in left field that it is in another ballpark. You'll see tomorrow.

  Entry 5-189: July 8, 2017

  A traitor among them

  Yesterday, the Library OMCOM was able to show Rome and Rei a ghostly reconstruction of the burglary that occurred at Rome's Library. It was save to assume that the two men depicted were Troutman and Steele, the would-be assassins. But what took everyone by surprise was that there was a third person, a short woman speaking with a Vuduri accent. How was this even possible? There had to be more information:

  “What?” Bonnie asked. “What’s so special about that woman’s voice?”

  “She’s Vuduri,” Rei said. “Our two would-be killers have a Vuduri woman helping them.”

  Rome strode over to the other workstation and sat down.

  “What are you going to do?” Bonnie asked.

  “I am going to contact the Overmind,” Rome said defiantly. “If she is Vuduri, he will know who it is.”

  Bonnie started to speak but Rome held up her hand. She closed her eyes and put her fingers to her lips to make sure that everyone remained quiet.

  “Hello,” Rome said.

  “Hello, Rome,” the Overmind answered back. Over the last year or so, it had grown in strength and vitality as the number of Vuduri on Deucado had increased and they found a way to work with it without becoming a slave to it. “I was very sorry to hear what happened to Rei. I am glad he is now up and around.”

  “Thank you,” Rome replied. “That is very kind.”

  “Do you know who perpetrated this assassination attempt?”

  “Yes. Two Essessoni,” Rome said. “They were part of the Darwin group.”

  “You have identified them? This is good,” the Overmind replied. “Have you located them yet?”

  “No,” Rome said.

  “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Perhaps,” Rome replied. “That is why I am contacting you. There is something I need to ask you.”

  “Anything.”

  “We have reason to believe they were being aided by a Vuduri woman. Were you aware of that?”

  “No,” the Overmind replied, “but if she was disconnected, how would I be?”

  “Please reach out and see if any of your communicants have any knowledge of this or who this woman might be. Whatever her motivation would be for aiding them, it would be impossible to keep it a secret from other Vuduri.”

  There was a small delay and then the Overmind spoke up again. “I am sorry to report to you that there is no hint of such a woman. It is possible that she has remained disconnected since the act was perpetrated.”

  This information is very confusing. The third burglar was clearly a Vuduri woman yet the Overmind of Deucado had no knowledge of the woman or the break-in. How would such a thing be possible? Two ideas come to mind. As the Overmind suggested, she might have disconnected but if that were true, eventually she'd have to reconnect and the Overmind would know. The second possibility is that she was not of that samanda. But if that were true, then who is she?

  Entry 5-190: July 9, 2017

  Another approach

  Yesterday, we found out that the Overmind of Deucado had no knowledge of the break-in at Rome's Library and therefore no knowledge of the identity of the Vuduri woman helping Troutman and Steele. Things just weren't adding up. But as my wife likes to say, when the pieces of the puzzle don't match up, you are probably missing some pieces. It is Rome and Rei's job to figure out that missing piece, i.e. who was this mystery Vuduri woman:

  Rome opened up her eyes and stared around the room at the humans and livetars.

  “The Overmind has no knowledge of such a woman,” she said. “He was unable to detect a person with motives before the crime or since.”

  “How can that be?” Bonnie asked. “I thought you were all mind-connected?”

  “They are,” Rei said. “And they can’t lie. But they sure can keep secrets.”

  Rome held her hand up and closed her eyes again.

  “Is there anything at all, anything amiss that you could tie into this? Our lives depend upon it.”

  “No,” the Overmind replied. “You and Rei are beloved across this entire planet. There is not a single Vuduri here who has ill will toward you. From my understanding, the same is true of the Essessoni, Deucadons and the mandasurte. No, whoever this is, she has had no experiences that she has shared with me or any of the Vuduri. That or she was never a part of my samanda to begin with.”

  “Not part of your samanda?” Rome scrunched up her face. “How could that be?”

  “I cannot answer your question,” the Overm
ind replied, “but it is the only explanation I can postulate that fits the facts.”

  “Hmm,” Rome said. “I will have to think about that.”

  “I am sorry that I cannot be of more help,” the Overmind said wistfully.

  “I appreciate your efforts,” Rome said sadly. “We will have to find them another way.” With that, Rome disconnected. She looked up at Rei. “The Overmind has nothing to offer. He speculated that perhaps this woman never belonged to his samanda in the first place.”

  “How could that be? Do you think she was Cesdiud?”

  Rome shrugged. Rei looked around the room and stopped when he made eye contact with Bonnie. “You mentioned the police shows we used to watch. What would they do now?”

  “They’d haul the first witness back in and hook him up to a lie detector,” Bonnie said. “Try and catch him with an inconsistency. That’s all it usually takes to break them.”

  “What is a lie detector?” Rome asked, standing up.

  “It’s a machine they hook up to you and it records the person’s vital signs during an interrogation. Inside a person’s head, there are all sorts of things happening that might indicate their words were not the truth.”

  “Inside their heads, you say?” Rome offered. “Like the espansor bands?”

  A germ of an idea is forming. It just takes a computer to fit the components together to come up with the ideal solution.

  Entry 5-191: July 10, 2017

  The Moon and Mars

  Everything in my Rome’s Revolution series is about far away worlds and the future. But every so often I like to take a survey of where we are in this world and what's coming down the pike. In this article, specifically, I'd like to highlight man's return to space for worlds both near and far.

  The first and easiest place to visit would be going back to the Moon. NASA is planning on sending a crew looping around the moon in 2021. This would mostly be a shakedown cruise of the new Orion spacecraft. It appears that they want to build a construction station in lunar orbit so they can assemble ships that can go to Mars and get them there without always fighting Earth gravity.

  Meanwhile, the Japanese have stated that they want to put a man on the Moon by 2030, the same year NASA is aiming for Mars. China landed an unmanned rover on the Moon in 2013, the third country to do so. They have also stated that they want to put a man on the Moon but they are shooting for 2036 which is a ways off. India held a contest for a private group to land a craft on the Moon but have not announced plans to send a human there as yet. Finally, we get to Russia. They, too, have announced they want to put a man on the Moon in 2030. It's going to be a busy place that year!

  Between the Moon and Mars, it appears that NASA wants to land a man on an asteroid for science and practice. The unmanned probe Dawn was launched in 2007 and stopped by an asteroid called Vesta and it arrived in 2011. It stayed there for 14 months then exited and made its way to Ceres in late 2012. It has been there ever since. The spacecraft is still functioning and NASA is going to decide in the next month or so as to whether they are going to send it to a third asteroid called Adeona or keep it in orbit around Ceres until it fails. President Obama announced he wanted to send a human to one of the asteroids by 2025 but who knows if that will happen?

  This leads us to Mars. Everybody wants to go there. NASA is currently developing the Orion spacecraft for just this purpose. As mentioned above, the target date is 2030 but that could slip. In the mean time, it is possible that when they get to the Red Planet, there will already be people there. Shades of Rome’s Revolution! Who will these people be? If Elon Musk has his way, it will be SpaceX. He is planning on landing an unmanned craft in 2020. Originally it was going to be next year but got delayed because of "other priorities" which means Tesla, SolarRoof, etc.

  If you don't want to wait for SpaceX, you can sign up for Mars One's Mission to Mars. You pay them money and they put you on a list and if things go well, you'll get selected to go. When they launch is anybody's guess but be forewarned, they are only planning on one-way trips. You can't come home again. Their web site indicates they are shooting for the early 2030's. I wonder what is so magical about that decade? It seems to be everybody's target. China says they are going to land a man on Mars by the "late 2020s" so it's pretty close to everyone else.

  The one thing that everyone is forgetting is that there has already been a human on Mars. His name is John Carter and Edgar Rice Burroughs had him projecting himself there in 1912. I wonder if he is still there?

  Entry 5-192: July 11, 2017

  Reactivation

  Two days ago, Rome finished her interrogation of the Overmind of Deucado. The only possibility was the Vuduri woman helping Troutman and Steele was not from Deucado and therefore never part of the samanda there. This led to a discussion of lie detectors which Rome likened to the espansor bands that Rei and she used to look into the other's mind. As far as everyone knew, they had no such thing on Deucado. Or do they?

  “Inside their heads, you say?” Rome offered. “Like the espansor bands?”

  “The bands are way better,” Rei said. “I wonder if we could make Paul Chung put one on and you could question him.”

  OMCOM stepped forward and said, “You may not need to.”

  “I don’t understand,” Rome replied.

  “Rome, within your head are all the components that make up the espansors. You could effectively build a one-way device with just your brain alone.”

  “How?” Rei asked skeptically. “How would she do that?”

  “If Rome uses two sets of non-matched PPT transceivers, she could bathe her subject, or their brain more specifically, with enough gravitic radiation such that her EM link could pick up the electrical activity in the subject’s brain and use a feedback loop to cause an equivalent resonance in her own brain. It would be identical to the espansor bands but without any hardware. She would become what your people refer to as a telepath.”

  “You do know I only have one functional set of PPT transceivers,” Rome pointed out.

  “I can reactivate a second set,” MINIMCOM said matter-of-factly. “It would not be a problem.”

  “No, you cannot,” Rome countered. “Once they are deactivated, they can never be reactivated again.”

  “With your Vuduri technology, that may be true,” MINIMCOM corrected her. “But with my null-fold, I have the capability of reactivating them again.

  “Impossible,” Rome scoffed.

  “Not impossible,” MINIMCOM replied. “Back on Helome, when I was in the science lab with you and Virga, I saw your genetic chart. You actually have the potential for three sets of autonomous PPT transceivers. Not only can I reactivate your original connection to the samanda of Earth, I could even activate the PPT transceivers that would connect you to MASAL’s samanda.”

  “I’ll pass on MASAL’s, if you don’t mind,” Rome said with some disgust. She cocked her head. “You can really do that? Reactivate me?”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Rei asked. “When Estar did it to me, it hurt like hell. And I remember the scream you let out when Pegus reconnected you.”

  I don't know about you but the whole thing sounds a little bit scary. The computers seem confident but then again they are not human. However, Rome and Rei have trusted them with their lives many times over and they never let them down. I wonder what is involved.

  Entry 5-193: July 12, 2017

  A willing subject

  Yesterday, MINIMCOM informed Rome that he could reactivate her PPT transceivers that were deactivated way back when she first cast out, Cesdiud, at Skyler Base, in the Tabit star system. Rome had assumed they were gone forever but MINIMCOM said no. The Library OMCOM told Rome that with two sets of PPT transceivers and her EM link, she could effectively peer into the mind of anyone around her turning her essentially into a telepath. Basically, she would become a living lie detector without anyone knowing it. Sounds pretty handy. How would they go about this?

  “The normal
method of activating transceivers is based upon negative energy generators,” MINIMCOM explained. “My null-fold splits negative energy into a real and imaginary component. It is the imaginary component that causes the pain. The real part should be painless. May I?”

  Rome thought about it for a moment then nodded. The livetar stepped forward and put his hands over her temple. After a moment, he stepped back. “It is done,” he said. “You now have two completely functional sets of PPT transceivers. You are the first Vuduri in the history of mankind who can now connect at will to two different worlds. If you were to go back to Earth, you could join the Overmind there.”

  “Really?” Rome said, putting her hands to her temples. “I don’t feel any different. OMCOM, are you saying I can now perform the functions you ascribed.”

  “To evolve into a true telepath, you must train yourself,” OMCOM offered.

  “How would I train myself to do something that has never been done before?”

  OMCOM stepped forward. “The methodology is very straightforward. You must find a willing subject and they must allow you to guide their thinking completely. The simpler the better. You will then use your heightened senses until you are able to lock into their thoughts. Once you do that, they will not be able to mislead or tell untruths.”