Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three

by Michael Brachman

  “It took you to show this to me,” said the Overmind. “I am getting healthy now. I will do the right thing here. But this awareness, to show me, you are unique.”

  “I do not have to be. You have the power to change all of that. Just as I taught Pegus, so too, you must allow him to teach isolation to all of the communicants. You must teach all of them how to turn the connection off and on,” thought Rome.

  “I will do this. I will follow this course,” replied the Overmind. “However, it reminds me that I have something humorous to tell you.”

  “And what is that?” Rome asked.

  “When I received my orders from what I believed to be the Overmind of Earth concerning your dispatch when you first arrived here, I was told only to destroy the Essessoni. The Overmind of Earth was not worried about you at all. We were to destroy the Ark and its contents. Your fate was irrelevant, of no real concern.”

  “Why is that humorous?” Rome asked.

  “Had the Overmind of Earth known of your powers of persuasion, it would have known to fear you more than anything else. It should have ordered me to destroy you, not the Essessoni.”

  Rome smiled. “I am nothing to fear. I only speak the truth.”

  “Yes, I know. And that is what the Onsiras fear the most. If the truth ever gets out, all its plans will be lost.”

  “Do you regret this?” Rome asked.

  “No, it is simply an observation. I am glad that you and I got to speak. I am glad that you have helped me see my true position here. I think you saved me and all the Vuduri here. I was sick, as you said, and now I see the path to health. I just think it is amusing that a little girl like you is more powerful than all the armies of old Earth.”

  I, too, thought it funny that tiny woman, barely five feet tall, could end up being the most influential person in the worlds of Man. But there you have it. Rome's wit and wisdom was more powerful that the intellect made up of all the minds of all the humans on Earth. And she started a revolution!

  Entry 3-178: June 22, 2015

 

  Love is universal, part 1

  As we reach out into the Galaxy, I am certain we will eventually encounter other life-forms. Otherwise, what would be the point of having a whole universe to ourselves? So let's say we do encounter aliens. I've written before about how all aliens will look like us, that is bipeds, four to eight feet tall with two arms and two legs and a head with the sensory apparatus built in.

  Even I'm realistic enough to know that it won't always be true. In fact, it may never be true. But even so, just postulate that we come across aliens. And just for kicks, let's say they don't want to eat us or kill us or conquer our planet. Let's say they are intelligent and know there is enough room in our galaxy for everybody.

  What characteristics will we have in common ignoring the physical? The fundamental requirements for life are ingestion of food, respiration, excretion and procreation. Everything else is negotiable. Shelter, wealth, prized accumulation of material possessions, I think these things will once become less important once we have unlimited free energy. I think what each species treasures will be unfathomable. We only need respect their beliefs and wants and we'll be OK.

  But if each intelligent species has children and raises those children, I think the one universal constant across all sentient life will be love. Love of family, love of children. Even in the world of Rome's Revolution, the Vuduri recognized this. When Rome was teaching Rei how to speak Vuduri, she told him that they had five different words for love:

  “I will give you another example,” Rome said. “OMCOM told me you only have one word for love. We have five.”

  “What are the five?” Rei asked.

  “Egeba, estirga, volia, aris and emir.”

  “What do those mean?”

  “Egeba is love of essence, the extreme form of liking something, of fondness,” Rome said kindly.

  “As in ‘I love ice cream?’” Rei asked.

  “Yes, exactly, I think,” replied Rome. “And estirga is love of family, children. For example, I would say to my mother, ‘Au da estirga’ if I was so inclined.”

  “OK, that one I get,” Rei offered.

  “Volia is love of friends, companionship. And then there is aris. Aris is, well,” Rome blushed. “Physical.” She took Rei’s hand and placed it high on her thigh. “Understand?”

  “Yes, I understand. So what is the last one? Emir did you say?” Rei asked.

  “Yes, emir. Emir is…you and me.” She reached over with her free hand and placed it on his cheek gently. “It is all of the others combined into one. You would be mau emir, my love.”

  So how much of this can be overlaid on alien races? More tomorrow.

  Entry 3-179: June 23, 2015

 

  Love is universal, part 2

  Yesterday, I began to lay out the case for love being the universal constant across sentient species. Rome enumerated the flavors of love because Vuduri is a more precise language than English.

  The first was egeba, the extreme form of liking something, of fondness. We can imagine that all species will like some things and hate others. I like to be warm, not cold. Maybe other species prefer one environment or type of food over another. Seems simple enough.

  The second one was estirga, love of family and children. If a sentient species has children and wants to see them survive, they would have to care for them. I know I drove my mother crazy but to this day, she still tells me she loves me.

  The next word the Vuduri use is volia, the love of friends, companionship. I'm sure you have friends, male and female, that you could tell them that you loved them and it wouldn't be interpreted in any way but good. Unless the aliens are solitary creatures, they probably have compatriots that they like and some that they don't like so they have volia too.

  The next item of business is sex. Assuming the aliens do not treat procreation as a purely intellectual, biological act, the need to procreate stimulates certain behaviors in people so we all experience aris once in a while. It's why we go to bars and have one night stands. It is the foundation of Tinder and Grinder. No guarantees the aliens will have the equivalent and maybe they have progressed beyond lust, but if not, they experience may aris as well.

  Finally, Rome proclaimed that humans, or at least, she experienced emir which would be a mature, deep love of a mate. It is the difference between loving someone and being in love. Rome loves Rei with her heart, mind, body and soul. Maybe aliens feel that way too.

  Tomorrow, my stab at making love universal.

  Entry 3-180: June 24, 2015

 

  Love is universal, part 3

  Yesterday, I laid out the case that aliens may experience love in one form or another or maybe in all the forms we experience. The very basis of the motivation of the K'val in The Milk Run for capturing and killing humans was because of their love of their family. I wrote about this in a previous article describing the K'vals s'aploves which were special organs, specifically designed to foster fond feelings for your family.

  Now consider the Overmind. It had just spent 48 hours in intense mind-to-mind discussions with Rome, a heroine in the truest sense, who was both beautiful and smart and caring. Now the Overmind is an alien intelligence. But guess what happened? Here is a little snippet of that conversation

  “Do you regret this?” Rome asked.

  “No, it is simply an observation. I am glad that you and I got to speak. I am glad that you have helped me see my true position here. I think you saved me and all the Vuduri here. I was sick, as you said, and now I see the path to health. I just think it is amusing that a little girl like you is more powerful than all the armies of old Earth.”

  Rome laughed out loud. What a wonderful feeling it was, to be able to laugh. She continued. “As we have discussed, it is the way of the Overmind to see things one way and one way only. Its basic nature is to eliminate dissent by eliminating discussion. An Overmind’s final decision flawed or not, never gets
challenged, even in the light of new information.”

  “I believe we had what used to be known as tunnel vision,” thought the Overmind.

  “So now is the time to reach out, to come out of the tunnel,” Rome said. “Reach out to the mandasurte, to the Essessoni, to all.”

  “You know they think I am the enemy,” thought the Overmind.

  “We will show them you are not. We will show them that you want to learn and that they can be your teachers. They will teach you to love.”

  “I understand,” said the Overmind. “I want to feel love. In fact, I do feel love. I feel it from you. And for this, I thank you, Rome.”

  “You are welcome,” Rome thought.

  “There is one other small problem,” said the Overmind.

  “And what is that?” Rome asked.

  The Overmind grew silent.

  “What?” Rome asked. “Tell me.”

  “To the extent that I understand the concept, I believe I am in love with you.”

  “That is a very kind thought,” Rome said, blushing in her mind. “But I think we will keep that to ourselves. I can see where that might make my husband jealous.”

  “We would not want that to happen, now would we?” said the Overmind acerbically. If it could have winked, it would have.

  “No,” thought Rome then she straightened herself up. “Speaking of which, I am going to call my husband now.”

  “I understand,” said the Overmind. “Goodbye and good luck. I hope I survive all of this.”

  “You are so maudlin. This is not the end,” Rome thought. “Always remember that. This is just the beginning.”

  “Yes, I can see that. Farewell, Rome.”

  So, to that the extent that Overmind was an alien, and we know that the K'val are aliens, we can say that the one constant, the one universal truth, will be love. And that is what John Lennon told us, "All you need is love. Love is all you need."

  Entry 3-181: June 25, 2015

 

  The Wall

  Warning: This may be the most politically incorrect article I will ever post. If not, it is certainly insensitive.

  Outside of science fiction, everybody ages. Some people age well. They stay out of the sun, don't smoke or maybe they just have good genes. I think certain ethnicities age different than others. I think that people of Asian descent and African-Americans age more gracefully than their Caucasian brothers.

  You may or may not agree but I think men seem to age more gracefully than women. That is, they age gradually and continuously. When a man gets a touch of gray hair or a receding hairline, nobody thinks much of it at all. But women, they seem to defy aging up to a certain point then suddenly they drop over the edge. They catch up and then surpass men in looking old.

  I don't know what you call it but I call it The Wall. I didn't make that up. You can click here to read somebody else's opinion of it. They say some women hit The Wall and hit it hard.

  When I was in college, I dated a girl who broke my heart repeatedly. If I told you all the stories of the things she did, you wouldn't believe it. You can read about her in my very first novel entitled Future Past. It is only a lightly fictionalized version of my dating past. However, while I may have forgiven most of them, this woman in particular was so cruel, I had to write her in the most unflattering way and I used The Wall to put her down. In the book, I called her Katlyn but that was not her real name:

  Katlyn walked up to me and held her hand out. I shook it then I realized what was wrong. She didn’t look like Katlyn at all; she looked like her grandmother. Her eyes were puffy with great dark circles under them. The skin on her face wasn’t lying right. There were deep creases starting just under her high cheekbones and circling around her mouth. Her lips, which had always been puffy and pouty, looked like they had been stung by one too many bees. She had been a beautiful girl. The woman standing before me looked like she had been beaten up. Her shoulders were slumped like she carried the weight of the world. Katlyn just turned and walked away. She never said a word.

  Am I mean or what? Maybe some day I'll recount all the things she did and you will see I was justified in my literary revenge.

  Entry 3-182: June 26, 2015

 

  Yes, The Wall

  Yesterday, I posted my most politically incorrect article about women and aging and how I used the concept of "The Wall" to stylistically get my revenge on a particular girl who hurt me and hurt me bad. Repeatedly. I decided I would give you a little more detail on this and how it even ties in full circle to my motorcycle. I met this girl my freshman year at Michigan. She lived in my dorm and we ran across each other's path several times. Since nobody at Michigan knew I was socially inept, I kept it to myself and first made friends with her and then later fooled myself into thinking she was my girlfriend. This went on over a two year span.

  During that two years, one time she disappeared for the weekend and only by accident did I find out it was because her high school boyfriend had come to Ann Arbor to visit. She forgot to mention it.

  One time, I "borrowed" my freshman roommate's helmet and scooter keys for a joyride (see, I told you the motorcycle would come in) and by accident, I came across my supposed girlfriend, in the Arboretum, kissing one of her professors. What? I didn't even know she was dating him. I guess she forgot to mention it.

  The following summer, she said wouldn't it be neat if we both got summer jobs and stayed on campus and could spend the summer together. So I did. I found a job and made living arrangements and right at the last second, she told me she was going away to work for McGovern in Philadelphia, where I'm from. How ironic. Even more unbelievably, my mom ran into her walking down the street one day, holding the hand of the guy who took her virginity. She forgot to mention that.

  The following year, she went to live in a co-op and while we dated, one time, she was late so I walked up to her co-op, only to discover she was living with some guy! I guess she forgot to mention that.

  I searched the whole building and found her having a heated argument with somebody. I waited until she was done but she flew out of the phone booth and down the steps before I could even speak. I followed her down the steps, only to catch a car driving up, screeching to a halt. She ran up to the guy who was getting out and hugged and kissed him. Oh, another boyfriend. I guess she forgot to mention it.

  Well, that was the end. I ran into her one time our senior year but by that point the infatuation had ended. I cannot say that I ever forgave her. I looked her up on Google one time and couldn't believe how poorly she had aged. Don't blame me. It was The Wall.

  P.S. If you want to read the lightly fictionalized version of my encounters, you can click here to read the full essay on Katlyn.

  Entry 3-183: June 27, 2015

 

  Ion My Love

  When I write now, I am trying for action and adventure, slipping in hard science when I can. I wave my hands occasionally but that's just so the story can move along.

  But back when I was at the University of Michigan, I was learning to write and even though I loved science fiction, I wasn't nearly as dogmatic about it as I am today. My first published article was called "Ion My Love" and it was published in the now-defunct Chemistry Magazine in 1972. Here is a little picture of what it looked like:

  I wrote this when I thought I was going to be a chemistry major. Anyway, I was trying to be clever so I thought I'd reprint a few snippets from the article just to prove that I knew my stuff.

  Let's start with the title, Ion My Love. First of all, they messed it up. The original title was Ion, My Love. Somehow they lost the comma. Oh well. It was supposed to sound like I and my love so maybe they got it right.

  It was written from the perspective of a sodium atom. His name was Nat which was short for Natrium, the Latin word for sodium which is why its atomic symbol is Na. However, when we first meet Nat, he is part of a molecule of sodium hydroxide, a very caustic, alkali otherwise known as lye.

  Tomor
row, Nat dissolves into some water. Doesn't sound exciting? Wait till you hear what happens.

  Entry 3-184: June 28, 2015

 

  Ion My Love 2

  Yesterday, I introduced you to my first published article called Ion My Love that appeared in the now-defunct Chemistry Magazine way back in 1972. The following paragraph, and the ones after that, are reprinted by permission of The American Chemical Society, the copyright holder.

  Nat knew the status quo; he had left his mate to join a group of fluid friends. Things were fine but he had no identity. Unseen, the slippery surroundings were too easy, but when he was with her he was so caustic, bitter about life, and he cut so deeply into all he touched, that it was intolerable and he hated it. One day, just like any other day, the solution came to him – dissolve yourself in the watery world of Ions and you’ll hurt no one, and perhaps you’ll even cleanse a few souls. When he first arrived, the place came alive; the room was warm with his anticipated acceptance into the tightly knit group. But now, he longed for something more to his life.

  If you aren't into chemistry like I am, or was, maybe this just seems a bit goofy. So here is the cleverness blow by blow:

  ...he had left his mate: Sodium hydroxide disassociates into a sodium ion and a hydroxyl radical when dissolved in water

  ...to join a group of fluid friends: Water is a fluid.