At a writer’s workshop I conducted some months before, a woman with a political ax to grind demanded to know, “Why don’t you use more female protagonists in your stories?” So, when it came time to begin on The Tomorrow Testament, I asked myself if it made any difference if the lead character was male or female. In a supreme fit of either ignorance or arrogance. I said “no.”
I had a character with a name: Joanne Nicole. In a spasm of enthusiasm I cranked out ten thousand words, then took them to bed and gave them a read. In a matter of minutes I began crawling beneath my covers. Naw, a female protagonist wouldn’t make any difference. Not much. What I had captured magnificently was ten thousand words of myself stumbling around on the pages in drag.
The sensible thing would have been to dump Joanne Nicole on the spot and start over again with a male character. That probably would have been the professional thing to do. Despite her ill-defined character and proportions, however, Joanne Nicole was very much alive. Story characters of mine, once animated, refuse to die except under their own terms. Raising stubbornness to the nth power, therefore, I stuck with Joanne Nicole by writing yet another book. I began with her birth on another planet, grew up with her as a child, experienced her school years, her hopes and dreams, her courtship and marriage, the birth of her daughter, the death of her husband, her entrance as an intelligence officer in the USE Force, until the Battle of Catvishnu when she enters the story. Then started The Tomorrow Testament again, from the beginning, this time with my character as Joanne Nicole, rather than as a “female protagonist.”
There was an additional complication. She is the point-of-view character throughout the entire book, and soon after the beginning of the story, she is blinded. Writing from the POV of a sightless person presented some incredible challenges. I spent months stalking my house at night with my eyes shut, gouging pieces of meat out of my shins, burning myself trying to make coffee, and falling down stairs. I kept that up until I could read the interior of my house by touch, by sound, and by smell.
While I was in the process of writing that, at the Worldcon in Denver that year, the story editor from Kings Road Productions said that his bunch would like to make a movie out of “Enemy Mine.” He said that one thing that appealed to him was that “Enemy” was a story of character and could be done without a great deal of budget-breaking special effects. When I told Jean that a producer wanted to make a movie out of “Enemy Mine,” she didn’t believe me.
After getting and signing the contract, she began believing. It was not long afterward, however, when I stopped believing. I was not happy about how the movie turned out, although the performances by Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett, Jr. were incredible. There are moments watching the film, when I would see the characters I invented saying the words that I wrote, that gave me a hint about what the movie might have been; but there is neither profit nor serenity in dwelling on might-have-beens. Nevertheless, there are an astonishing number of fans who have told me that Enemy Mine is either their favorite or near-favorite motion picture. Perhaps the problem I have with the film is mine, not the movie’s.
As an aside, at a science-fiction convention I was attending, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a Russian guest who was currently teaching at the University of Chicago who told me that Enemy Mine was his favorite movie. He then related the expensive, harrowing, and dangerous experience he had undergone obtaining a copy and smuggling it into Russia—where it was released a few weeks later.
It was at a Windycon, the annual convention put on by the Chicago science-fiction bunch, where I got the idea for what eventually became the third work in the Enemy series, The Last Enemy.
A friend of mind had written a book and I had been sent a copy for blurb purposes. I finished it while I was at Windycon. What interested me the most about the story was a sort of thesis statement at the end that was conveyed by two of the characters conversing. It is this: the tribe comes first. Before rationality, before honor, before good sense, before self-interest, before mercy, love, or justice, the tribe comes first. That’s what you have to do, to be, in order to remain a member of the tribe.
I thought then that he had put his finger on the whole Middle East/ Northern Ireland/Bosnia/Rwanda mess. It’s the whole world of us-and-them thinking that has kept this planet blood-soaked for endless thousands of years.
There was a military sf panel I was on at Windycon, and we thoroughly discussed the premise and my friend’s new book. At the panel I made a point of remembering to suggest to my friend that he take this premise, stick it at the beginning of another book, and use it as a takeoff point to solve the Middle East problem and the dilemma of self-perpetuating war and terrorism.
I met my friend at another convention, and he was interested not at all in my suggestion. As far as he was concerned, anyone who stood up in Israel and tried to make peace between Jews and Arabs would be killed within a minute after doing so. With all of the tools and magic of science fiction and fantasy at his command, he regarded peace as a lost cause before it began. I was stunned. It became clear to me for the first time that there are those who have no use for peace. Some find their meaning in having a perpetual enemy. Others want nothing to do with a peace that includes anyone being left alive on the other side. Us-and-them. The tribe comes first, and nothing comes in second. There is us, and then there is death.
Maybe it was too scary a challenge. As for myself, I couldn’t see any answers. Why should anyone else? In the Middle East, other than a sufficient number of Israelis and Palestinians to keep things at a boil, there are no real issues to resolve such as land, or rights, or money, or reparations. All those things could be solved to everyone’s satisfaction, and the fighting would continue to erupt. The wounds suffered by both sides are so numerous, so old, so cruel, senseless, and deep, there seems to be no healing to be had short of the complete and total annihilation of the other side. I could see no answers, but I couldn’t stop playing with the problem in my head.
What grafted the problem to me for life was remembering that the planet Amadeen in The Tomorrow Testament is very much an analogue of Middle East/Northern Ireland/Bosnia kinds of conflicts. That was why peace on the planet was impossible, and to achieve peace in the rest of the quadrant, the principals had to resort to radically unconventional means. Still, at the end of The Tomorrow Testament, although the rest of the quadrant is at peace, the problem of the war on Amadeen still exists. Taking the premise and Amadeen together, what about a third book? What about taking my own challenge and end the war on Amadeen? The title was obvious: The Last Enemy What was not so obvious was what to do with it.
Then word came to me that Stewart Wieck at White Wolf Publishing was expanding into science-fiction books, and maybe I ought to drop him a line. I suggested The Last Enemy and he wanted it.
The Last Enemy was not an easy book to write, First I had to make the war impossible to resolve, which was the easy part. All I had to do was look at the world around me. Then I had to come up with a believable way to achieve peace, and I think I did. No one has tried it yet, although it requires nothing in the way of technology that we don’t already have. The only thing this world might be lacking to implement it are the integrity, conviction, and singularity of purpose to go and do it. In any event, the manuscript was completed and I was very happy with it.
Will there be a fourth book in the series? Well, when I reached the end of The Last Enemy I looked at the situation and characters, where the characters were, and all of the possibilities about where they could go and what they could become, and a very familiar itch began working on me. I’m thinking on it.
DRAC FOR TRAVELERS
DRAC — ENGLISH
A
Aakva — The god; fire; light; the star around which orbits Sindie.
Aakva Lua — Blue Light (PI firm on Planet Friendship).
Ae — Yes.
Adze — Do you know; can you speak?
Akava — To burn.
A
saam — Pilot.
Ashra — Criminal.
Ashzhab — Criminally insane.
Ay — Three.
Ayvida — Third; third person.
B
Benga — Hurry.
Bresha — Crash.
C
Cha — To be.
Chova — Move.
Chirn — Health (biological).
Chirn Kovah — Health college of the Talman (principal research institution).
Cudall — Cave.
Cueh — Horizon.
Custa — Halite; table salt.
D
Da — It.
Dasu — Get up; rise.
Daultha — Doubter.
Denvadar — Of the denve; warrior; soldier; fighter. Tsien Denvadah = Front Fighters; elite unit, shock troops of the Drac military; a tribe at war.
Denve — War; division-sized unit,
Dev — With.
Diea — Council; chamber; organization; political administrative unit.
Dos — Of the (emphatic: se ve).
Dracon Diea — Dracon Chamber; ruling body of the Dracon planets.
Dut — Low, short, small, insignificant
Dutshaat — Low-sexed (very disrespectful, referring not to the moral quality of the act hut to the physical height of the recipient. See: kiz).
E
Echey — Here.
Ehdevva — Be with me.
Ehdevva sahn — Be with me always.
Enta va — Stand (verb).
Ess? — What?
Ess va… — What is…
Ess eh… — What about…
Estay (va) — Born of (formal).
Eh, ne — Oh, no.
F
Faanda — Tall, great, large, significant.
Fangen — Goal (social); future; friend; nefangen = enemy.
Fangan Kovah — College of goals (social sciences).
G
Gafu — Brat.
Gavey — (I, you) Understand.
Gefh — Die; death.
Gis — Where.
Gis nu cha? — Where are you?
H
Hada! — Hey!
Hasu — Get in.
Hame — Inside.
Hi — Six.
Hivida — Sixth.
I
Irkmaan — Earthman (including females and children).
Irkmaan vul — Human lover (disrespectful).
Istah — Door; opening; route of escape or hope.
Ith — Five.
Itheda — Fifth.
J
Je — To teach.
Jetah — Master (of any kind); teacher; instructor, professor; Ovjeta = First + Master.
Jetah Talman — Talman master.
Jetai — Masters.
Jetai Diea — Masters’ Chamber (administrative body at any kovah); the administrative body of the Talman Kovah.
K
Ka — Force (party).
Kazzmidth — Wealthy (disrespectful, as in rich bitch).
Kiz — Loathsome critter of Draco; excrement from same.
Kiz do yuomeen — (So-and so) eats kiz, as in Kiz du yuomeen, Shizumaat = Shizumaat eats it. Kiz du yuomeen, Irkmaan, ne? (Literally: Earthman eats kiz, no?) turns the tables, meaning, in effect, “So, who eats it now, pudsucker?”
Kizlode — Excrement head. Kizlode va nu dutshaat (Literally: Excrement head, your line) = You come from a line of low-sexed excrement heads.
Koadaer — Killer.
Koda — Truth; hook; formal designation of a book of The Talman.
Korum su — I kill you.
Kos va nu? — Give your need? What do you want?
Kos son va? — Give your name? What is your name?
Kos va son— — (I) Give my name (as)—; My name is—.
Kovah — School; college; business; institution; a place of paths.
L
Loamaak — To awaken.
Loamaak nu! — You, wake up!
Lode — Head.
Lua — Blue.
M
Magasienna — The undream (not real); English equivalent, as an expletive = I don’t believe this!
Masu — Bring up.
Mata — Order; command.
Matak — To order.
N
Na — Number.
Naa — For the.
Naatha — Before.
Nasesay — Capsule; fighter ship escape-and-survival pod.
Navi — Peace.
Navi Ka — The Peace (truce police in The Last Enemy).
Ne — No.
Nefangen — Enemy.
Nessa — Pregnancy.
Ne surda — Maybe not.
Ni — I.
Nu — Two; you. Nu gefh = you die.
Nue — You (plural); You all.
Nusha — Eight.
Nushada — Eighth.
Nuvida — Second; second person.
O
Ov — One.
Ovida — First.
Ovjetah — First master.
Ovsi — Nine.
Ovsinda — Ninth.
P
Poorzhab — Crazy; insane; touched.
Q
Queda — To push.
R
Rhada — First chief of Aakva’s servants; slang term for a priest.
Riehm — Forest.
Rohune — Servant (of Aakva); priest.
Rouga — Shack; hutch.
S
Sa — State; government.
Saat — Sex (possession and/or use of reproductive organs).
Sahn — Always.
Schada — Fourth.
Sedai — Pot.
Sha — Four.
Shaad — Less than whole.
Shaadsaat — Part-sexed (possessing only male or female sex organs). Derogatory.
Siay — Twelve.
Siayvida — Twelfth.
Si — Zero, naught; nothing.
Sihi — Fifteen.
Sinda — Naught; forward; introduction.
Sindie — Birth planet of the Drac race; name of the unified tribe upon the death of Uhe; being (human English equivalent = man).
Sinu — Eleven.
Sinush — Seventeen.
Sinushada — Seventeenth.
Sinuvida — Eleventh.
Siov — Ten.
Siovida — Tenth.
Sisha — Thirteen.
Sishada — Thirteenth.
Sitat — Sixteen.
Sitarmeda — Sixteenth.
Sith — Fourteen.
Sitheda — Fourteenth.
Son — Name; call.
Su — You (emphatic).
Summat — Chief of servants who committed suicide because of Daultha the Doubter; slang for suicide.
Surda — Maybe.
T
Talma — Path, way, route, life, answer. A discipline of perception and investigation in problem-solving; a way of finding ways.
Talman — The physical amulet, resembling a golden cube, worn around the neck on a golden chain which contains The Talman.
The Talman — Title of the Drac bible.
Talmat — Rule; regulation; procedure.
Tar — Seven.
Tarmeda — Seventh.
Tean — Child or fetus.
Tean Sindie — Children of Sindie; Fanatical terrorist faction of the Amadeen Mavedah in The Last Enemy.
Tidna — Drac harp made of glass.
Thuyo — Eye.
Tsien — Front; Tsien Denvedah = Front Fighters.
Tuka — Stop (command).
U
Uta — Laws (of faith).
Utaakva — Laws and truths of Aakva.
V
V’… — New, as in V’Butaan = New Butaan; v’tean = new child.
Va — Your.
Vaa — Yaaa or argh! (expression of anger, exasperation, or disgust).
Va nu — Your own.
Ve — Of; Ve + Madah = Mavedah = of the Madah, the Madah tribe.
&
nbsp; Vi — My; mine. “Enemy Mine” in Drac is Nefangen Vi. My pregnancy = Vi nessa.
Vidyapac — A Drac edible made of dried fish and cheese.
Viga — Observe; look.
Vo — Town, village.
Vu — City.
Vul — One who loves perversely.
X
Xsa — Molecule; xsai = molecules.
Y
Yaa! — Yaa!
Yula — Lover; one who flirts or loves.
Yuomeen — Eat.
Z
Zea — Family line.
Zim zim — Edible nuts from the zim zim trees.
Zu — To learn. Zu + formal number gives academic grade numbers. Zu + ovida = zuovida = first grade.
Zurath — Finger.
Zusinda — Preschooler; know-nothing (slang).
ENGLISH — DRAC
A
Aakva — Aakva, name of the star around which Sindie orbits.
Always — Sahn,
Amulet — Talman.
Answer — Talma.
Awaken — Loamaak.
B
(to) Be — Cha.
Before — Naatha.
Be with me — Ehdevva.
Blue — Lua.
Book — Koda.
Born of — Estay
Brat — Gafu.
Bring up — Masu.
Burn — Akava.
Business — Kovah
C
Call — Son.
Enemy Papers Page 69