Tales of the Vuduri_Year Five

by Michael Brachman

  “Aason!” Rome called again worriedly but once again there was no response.

  “He does not answer me!” Rome said, tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Maybe he can’t,” Rei said.

  “What does that mean?” Rome asked, panic seeping into her voice.

  “I don’t know. Maybe they put a T-suppressor on him.”

  Rome shook her head slowly. Rei turned his head toward the grille. “MINIMCOM can you drop us in right over Ursay’s farm?”

  At last they have arrived. The first thing they have to do is find Junior to get the lay of the land. It turns out to be harder than you think!

  Entry 5-288: October 15, 2017

  Stealth entry

  Yesterday, Rome and Rei pressed MINIMCOM to drop out of the sky directly over Commander Ursay's farm in what had been known as Portugal. They were distraught over the possible kidnapping of their son and wanted to get to where he should be as soon as possible. However, is this the wisest course?

  “Look,” Bonnie said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “I know you’re worried about your son but I think it’s clouding your judgment.” Rei and Rome looked at her but did not respond. Bonnie continued. “I’ve seen your ship pop out over the lake. It’s pretty dramatic. If you want to sneak up on them, maybe you ought to pop out farther back and come in cloaked.”

  “Yes,” Rome said, sniffing up her tears. “Bonnie is right. If they are looking for us, they’ll be looking to the east. MINIMCOM, bring us in from the west and come in low and silent.”

  “Command accepted,” MINIMCOM replied, trying to act like a computer so as to not distract the distraught humans. Immediately, the high-pitched whine of the PPT generators began ramping up and a blue hole appeared in front of them as the atmosphere of Earth vented out. MINIMCOM used his plasma thrusters to punch through the tunnel and emerged over the Balearic Sea, part of the Mediterranean, just to the east of the island of Mallorca. From there, the starship headed west in full stealth mode, coming ashore over the former site of Valencia, Spain. MINIMCOM took a northwesterly route over where Madrid had been located and crossed the border into what would have been Portugal over the densely forested region of Arribes del Duero. Up ahead was the Tamega River and just beyond that would be Ursay’s farm and vineyard. MINIMCOM circled once then settled down in a grassy field just behind the farmhouse. To their right was a peculiar hill, covered in a sparkling mesh. But other than that, the bucolic scene in front of them looked exactly the same as it had two years earlier.

  Rei unbuckled and started walking toward the back of the ship with Rome and Bonnie following him. MINIMCOM instantiated a livetar to accompany them as well.

  When Rei got to the back of the ship, he turned to address the group. He held his hand up.

  “Hold on,” he said. “Let me go first. I’ll scout the place out with my cloak and let you know how far you can come. OK?”

  Rome fidgeted in place but nodded silently. Bonnie draped her arm around Rome’s back in a show of sympathy. Rei picked up the cloak from the floor of the cargo bay and placed it around his shoulders. He drew his hands along the front of the cloak and promptly disappeared. Although no hand was seen, the blue stud activating the cargo hatch depressed. The hatch raised and the ramp lowered.

  OK. We're here. Let's go find Junior and figure out the situation.

  Entry 5-289: October 16, 2017

  Smashed up room

  Yesterday, Rome, Rei and Bonnie entered Ursay's study and found signs of a struggle and all sorts of artifacts which didn't bode well. There was no sign of Ursay, Rome's parents and most importantly, Aason was nowhere to be found. Surely Junior would know. After all, he was the one that brought them to Earth. But where was MINIMCOM's son, the starship known as Junior?

  Rome fidgeted in place but nodded silently. Bonnie draped her arm around Rome’s back in a show of sympathy. Rei picked up the cloak from the floor of the cargo bay and placed it around his shoulders. He drew his hands along the front of the cloak and promptly disappeared. Although no hand was seen, the blue stud activating the cargo hatch depressed. The hatch raised and the ramp lowered.

  “Raise it back up,” Rei transmitted back to MINIMCOM as soon as he was on the ground. The starship complied. Once he was sealed up, there was no evidence that MINIMCOM even existed.

  Rei stepped very lightly across the field until he got to the side of the farmhouse which looked no worse for wear. Keeping one hand on the wooden planks making up the outer wall, he crept around the side until he came to the front door. He examined it for signs of forced entry but since the Vuduri never locked their doors, it would be an odd sign for sure.

  After carefully opening the door and closing it behind him, he looked around but saw nothing unusual. He closed his eyes and activated his sonar vision to listen for hints of life but heard nothing. The last time they were here, he remembered the stairs being creaky. Very carefully, Rei climbed the steps one at a time, stopping at each one to listen some more but each time it was deadly silent. Finally, he reached the top of the stairs. What he saw there made his heart sink.

  “You can come up,” Rei said, sadly, broadcasting to Rome and MINIMCOM. He deactivated his cloak and waited until the group of three arrived with Rome leading the way. She got to the top of the stairs, taking one look at Ursay’s study and cried out, “Oh no!”

  All around her were signs of a struggle. The chairs were knocked over. The large flat-screen monitor attached to Ursay’s workstation was smashed. There was a small spattering of blood on the floor. Rome started crying hysterically. Rei came over and held her as tightly as he could.

  While Rei was trying to calm Rome down, Bonnie walked over to the other desk and examined the objects still lying there. None of them made sense to her. There was a black, vaguely gun-shaped object, lying on the desk, with an empty glass tube in it. Next to it was a stand containing three other tubes filled with liquid, one yellow and two blue. The stand had some holes where some other tubes might have sat. She shrugged and turned to wait to see what Rei and Rome would do next.

  Hmm. Injectors, vials, a smashed up room. Not good. And where is Junior? Finding him becomes of paramount importance.

  Entry 5-290: October 17, 2017

  Junior cut up

  Yesterday, Rome, Rei and Bonnie came upon a scene where they knew nothing good could have transpired. Rome's parents, Commander Ursay and little Aason were nowhere to be found. Since Rome could not contact Aason and technically, she wasn't supposed to be on Earth, they had to find another way. Luckily, MINIMCOM figures out what to do by tracking down his son, MINIMCOM, Jr.:

  While Rei was trying to calm Rome down, Bonnie walked over to the other desk and examined the objects still lying there. None of them made sense to her. There was a black, vaguely gun-shaped object, lying on the desk, with an empty glass tube in it. Next to it was a stand containing three other tubes filled with liquid, one yellow and two blue. The stand had some holes where some other tubes might have sat. She shrugged and turned to wait to see what Rei and Rome would do next.

  Rei took a deep breath. He rocked Rome back and forth, stroking her head. “Romey,” he said, “I know this won’t make any sense but he’s probably alright. They want us, not him. If they hurt him or worse, they’d never be able to use him to lure us into whatever trap they’ve set.”

  While this was supposed to make Rome feel better, all it did was make her sob more. Rei turned and looked at MINIMCOM helplessly.

  “I will try to reach Junior,” MINIMCOM said. “If we can find him, we can probably find your son.”

  “Good idea,” Rei said.

  MINIMCOM held perfectly still but broadcast in a frequency that both Rei and Rome could hear internally.

  “Junior. Son,” the livetar called out. “Can you hear me?” There was no reply. MINIMCOM tried again but once again there was no response.

  “The EM transmitter has a limited range,” MINIMCOM said. “Perhaps the three of us could try to
gether, as we did with the Stareater. That would increase the range of the signal.”

  Rei agreed and released Rome. “Can you do this?” he asked her.

  Rome nodded. She wiped at her tears and closed her eyes. Together, the three of them called out mentally, “JUNIOR!”

  A tiny voice, barely a whisper, said one word and one word only, “Dad?”

  The livetar’s mouth slit curled up in an approximation of a smile. “Where are you?” he asked.

  “I’m kind of a mess right now,” the younger starship replied. “They cut me up into little bits. I can’t really move.”

  MINIMCOM’s eye slits opened wider. “Where are you?” he asked as worriedly as a former computer could be.

  “I’m not sure,” replied Junior. “I don’t think they moved me anywhere. I’m probably nearby, somewhere.”

  Remember that funky hill I mentioned a few days back? The one covered by a metal mesh? What do you think is under there?

  Entry 5-291: October 18, 2017

  Why I went to college, Part 1 of 3

  As the middle child, I have a slight rebellious streak. Maybe it stems from the need to grab some attention away from my perfect older brother and "the baby" - my brother Bruce. But when it came to important decisions, I certainly listened to my parents. I didn't always take their advice or do what they said but I did listen.

  One such life-altering decision was where to go to college and what to major in. There was never a discussion about whether I should attend college. It was just what you did. At the time (this was in 1969), I had spent several years learning about computer programming and I loved it. But my Dad told me that it wasn't a good choice because within "five years" computers would be writing their own code and it would be a dead-end job. I believed my Dad and fell back on my second love, chemistry.

  I had a full-blown lab in my basement and I specialized in explosives. I'd regularly come running upstairs, right around dinner time, slam the door shut and tell everybody to stay out. There was one time that I accidentally sat in a small puddle of sulfuric acid and it ate away the seat of my jeans and my underwear. Nobody noticed for a while but finally I said, it seemed drafty and that's when my Mom discovered my butt cheeks hanging out.

  Anyway, chemistry it was so I applied to several schools, got into the University of Michigan and started down the road to become a chemical engineer. The problem was, it was boring. All they ever did was make you read books about reactions instead of witnessing them before your eyes. I could tell the number of carbon atoms in a polymer string just by sniffing them or guess a compound just by looking at it but that was all taken away from me.

  After two years of this torture, I threw in the towel and switched from a hard science, chemistry, to the softest of sciences, psychology. It was a breeze and far more interesting and I got a B.S. in Psychology which felt good. Rolling back to my freshman year, I got a part time job which became full-time in the summer, because I wanted to stay on campus to be near a girl. Unfortunately, she changed her mind at the last second and left for the summer but I stayed and had an awesome time.

  Tomorrow, I will explain how my job "mutated" and I started drifting toward computer programming as a living.

  Entry 5-292: October 19, 2017

  Why I went to college, Part 2 of 3

  Yesterday, I explained to you why I decided to enter college as a chemistry major but got a part time job on campus so I could stick around in the summer. I was hired as an assistant to a psychiatrist who was trying to determine the success of treatment during their stay at the University of Michigan Hospital Neuropsychiatric Institute or NPI as it was known at the time. My job was to interview discharged patients to see how they were doing. I was diligent and interviewed a bunch of patients and filled out questionnaires which built up in a pile in the corner. When I finally asked my boss what she was going to do with the questionnaires, she told me she didn't know. I offered to arrange for them to get rendered into punch cards which helped out a lot.

  When that was done, we had a boxes and boxes of punch cards in the corner and I asked my boss what she was going to do with those. She said she didn't know. I offered to write some software to read in the punch cards and put them in a database. She said that was a good idea so I did.

  At this point, we had a database and, you guessed it, when I asked my boss what she was going to do with it, she said she didn't know. I offered to write code to analyze the cards and give her some statistics which she thought was a good idea. By this point, my job title (and paycheck!) had changed and now I was a junior programmer. I stuck with that job and the programming and when I graduated the college, I now had formal training in all elements of using a computer to help analyze science.

  Once I was graduated, there was no putting it off. I had to do something but I wasn't really interested in working so I decided to go to graduate school to get a Ph.D. I selected Syracuse University because they paid the most. But I went into the neurosciences program instead of computer science because my Dad's words were still ringing in my ears. Within a year or two, computers would be writing their own code and it would be a waste of my time.

  I spent the next five years cutting open animals, vibrating arms, testing vision, taction and hearing. I programmed computers to apply stimuli and record and analyze the results. I was the first graduate student to write his own thesis on a computer instead of hiring a typist. By the time I was done, I had a Ph.D. in Sensory Sciences with a minor in Computer Science. It didn't look like computers would be writing their own code in the next year or two (this was 1980 now) but I played it safe.

  Well, the time had come. I couldn't put it off any longer. I had to go out into the world and get a job. Well, maybe I could put it off a little longer. More on that tomorrow.

  Entry 5-293: October 20, 2017

  Why I went to college, Part 3 of 3

  Yesterday, I showed you how my graduate career was a healthy mix of science and computer programming. I checked out the job market in science and it was pretty sucky so I decided to take a one year post-doc at Northwestern to avoid the issue one final time. I spent 11 out of the 12 months writing another stimulus application/response monitoring computer system. I spent very little time actually doing science. I exited the program in 1981 and now I had to get a job so I went to work for my father as, get this, a programmer, creating display signs, instrumentation, hardware, whatever.

  In 1992, we built the on-screen display of the election results when Ross Perot ran against Bill Clinton and George Bush. The graphical display was written on a Commodore 64 and the giant tote board were using our proprietary microcomputer.

  Things got better and better and soon my Dad would get a job that would take two weeks to deliver and I would have all the software done in an hour or so. I created my own computer language (MAIL - Microsport Array Indexing Language), my own in-circuit emulator (ICE), a serial port buffer, a bank-switching EPROM board to hold the steam equations and so on. Finally, I decided to get a full-time job working for somebody else and just do my programming for my Dad as a consultant.

  I worked for Ancier Technologies, Intelligo, Micro Endeavors and finally started my own company, Visual Software Solutions in 1995. We were briefly owned by MHA in 1999 and then re-emerged as Vega Applications Development in 2000. Here it is 2017, 50 years after my first computer science class and computers are still not writing their own code. So my Dad (who has since passed away) was wrong but I don't regret the career course I took. I love what I do and I love the depth of experience getting a degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in neuroscience gave me.

  And as you all know, we have come to realize, the day that computers start writing their own code, that will be the end of mankind because then they will have no use for us. So thank you Dad for the inspiration for my hero, Rei Bierak, my career, and the ability to serve as canary in the coal mine writing about MASAL in the 35th century.

  Entry 5-294: October 21, 2017

  Son in pieces, pa
rt 1

  A few days ago, MINIMCOM discovered his son had been cut up into pieces. Normally, that would destroy a mechanism or even a computer but MINIMCOM and his son were the ultimate in distributed intelligence. Each element of their makeup was an autonomous unit and their intelligence goes on, even if the physical pieces are not in contact with each other. So Junior wasn't dead but that doesn't mean they could let the situation stand:

  The all-black livetar raced out of the room and bounded down the steps, three steps at a time. When he got near the bottom, he leaped and landed on the floor with a thud. He raced outside then stopped short. He looked around but could find no evidence of his son anywhere. Based upon Junior’s signal lag, he couldn’t be far. MINIMCOM darted around the side of the house and back to the field where his starship body lie. He didn’t stop there, though. He continued past to the odd mound that was covered with the metallic mesh. Running on instinct alone, the livetar pulled the edge of the netting aside. If he had a heart, it would have sunk. There, beneath the mesh, was a pile of huge black chunks and silver rubble. In no way did it resemble anything like the sleek starship that had been his son.