Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 16

Rei's Spacewalk - Part 3 of 10

Five years before the events that were described in Rome's Evolution, Rei and Rome had left the Tabit system and were just starting out on their one-year trip to Deucado. At the time, they didn't know it would only take a year, they were planning on more like two-plus years. However, Rei had a burst of inspiration that allowed them to ultimately double their speed. This is a little vignette about Rei's spacewalk which facilitated a vastly shortened journey. This is part 3 of 10:

     “If there is any danger to you, then I cannot allow it,” she said. “I do not know what I would do if anything happened to you.”
     “Nothing’s going to happen to me,” Rei said, sliding his arms around her waist. “It’ll be fine.”
     “Then if it will be fine, I am going with you.”
     Rei looked down at her. As always, he got lost in her dark, glowing eyes. He loved this woman so much, beyond anything he ever dreamed was possible. He knew he could never win an argument about the trade off so he decided to try and bully his way past.
     “Let’s not fight about this,” Rei said. “It has to be this way. Just help me get ready.”
     Rome did not answer. In fact, she said nothing the entire time they walked back to the austere anteroom outside the mid-ship airlock. Rei reached into his locker and removed his pressure suit, climbing into it, all the while aware that Rome was standing there, arms folded across her chest. For this short walk, he didn’t bother with the plumbing and he dressed fairly quickly. He was smoothing the sleeves and adjusting the gloves of his white pressure suit when he took a chance and looked up at his woman and saw her scowling at him.
     “What?” he asked.
     “You know what,” Rome replied sternly, sadness radiating from her Vuduri eyes.
     “Nothing is going to happen, I promise,” Rei said. “I’m just going to go out and turn the crank. I’ll be back in a jiffy. Plus I’ll be tethered the whole time.”
     “So if nothing is going to happen to you, why am I not allowed to go with you?” Rome said. “Why do you have to go alone?”
     “I just went over this with you,” Rei said. He walked over to her and placed his gloved hand under her chin, tilting her head up so she looked him in the eyes. “I’m the only one who can do this and if something happens to me, you have to fly the ship to Deucado.”
     Rome pulled his hand away from her chin. “You cannot have it both ways,” she said angrily. “Either you will be safe and I can come with you or there is a chance you will not be safe and I need to be there for you.”
     “Rome, I can’t endanger you,” Rei said.
     “Danger, there is that word again,” Rome said in a huff. She pushed Rei aside and walked over to her locker. “I am going with you. That is all there is to it,” she said. She opened her locker and started to remove her pressure suit mounted there.
     Rei came over to her and put his hands on her hips. He turned her around in place. Tears were streaming down from her eyes.
     “Romey, listen to me,” he said gently. “If I cut the propulsion section loose, MINIMCOM says we can go faster by 20%. That means 20% less time in space and 20% less chance of anything happening to us in space. That’s worth the risk of taking a simple spacewalk and turning a crank.”

The risk/reward seems pretty heavily balanced toward reward. Tomorrow, we will find out if Rome relents.

Rei's Spacewalk - Part 2 of 10

Five years before the events that were described in Rome's Evolution, Rei and Rome had left the Tabit system and were just starting out on their one-year trip to Deucado. At the time, they didn't know it would only take a year, they were planning on more like two-plus years. However, Rei had a burst of inspiration that allowed them to ultimately double their speed. This is a little vignette about Rei's spacewalk which facilitated a vastly shortened journey. This is part 2 of 10:

      “There’s a magneto,” Rei answered. He saw Rome’s confusion with the term. “It’s a charging device,” he said, “built into each section. There’s a permanent magnet and you just crank it around and it charges up a capacitor. When there’s enough charge, you let it loose and the chemicals explode.”
     “You are going to make an explosion?” Rome asked. Now she was genuinely worried.
     “No, no, no, nothing like that,” Rei said. “It’s more like a strip that sizzles. When it’s done, the sections separate.”
     “I would like to remind you that your ship is almost 1400 years old. Do you really believe that the thermite reaction would still be viable after such a long period of time?” MINIMCOM asked.
     “Yeah,” Rei said. “In theory, it would work after 10,000 years. As long as the permanent magnet and magneto can crank up a charge.”
     “Rei, this worries me,” Rome said, her breath catching.
     “It’ll be OK,” Rei said. “We have everything we need. Come on, Rome. It means we could get to Deucado in… how long, MINIMCOM?”
     “It should reduce our travel time to well under one year,” replied the autopilot computer installed on the other tug.
     “Rome, it’s worth it, don’t you think?” Rei asked plaintively.
     “I do not know,” Rome said. “Space-walks are inherently dangerous.”
     “There’s nothing to it,” Rei said. “I just go out, crank a handle, press a button and I come back.”
     Rome lowered her head and looked at Rei through the top part of her eyes. Her very demeanor shouted skepticism but her words undermined it.
     “If it will save us that much time, then I agree it is worth it,” she said hesitantly. “Very well.”
     “Great,” Rei said. He unbuckled the high-g harness and jumped up. “Come on and get me ready.”
     “What do you mean get you ready?” Rome asked as she unbuckled. “I am coming with you,” she said as she stood up.
     “No,” Rei said. “You can’t. You have to stay onboard the ship.”
     “Why?” Rome asked, fear seeping into her voice again.
     “Because,” Rei said. “We can’t both be in space at the same time. If something happens to me…”
     “What!” Rome exclaimed. “What are you saying?”
     “Nothing,” Rei said, trying to defuse the steadily growing tension. “It’s just that we don’t need to endanger…” As soon as he said the word, he knew it was a mistake. Rome leaped over at him and grabbed him around the neck.

Uh-oh. Rei put his foot in his mouth big time. How will he get back on track? Tomorrow.

Rei's Spacewalk - Part 1 of 10

Five years before the events that were described in Rome's Evolution, Rei and Rome had left the Tabit system and were just starting out on their one-year trip to Deucado. At the time, they didn't know it would only take a year, they were planning on more like two-plus years. However, Rei had a burst of inspiration that allowed them to ultimately double their speed. This is a little vignette about Rei's spacewalk which facilitated a vastly shortened journey. This is part 1 of 10:

Year 3455 AD (1374 PR)
1.5 Light Years from Tabit, headed for Deucado

     Rei Bierak sat silently in the cockpit of their space tug, along with Rome. OMCOM’s final words of caution were still ringing in their ears. Now they had to worry not only about the Stareaters, but whatever the hell it was that OMCOM spawned was after them too. Rei rocked back and forth, whispering to himself, as if his motion could somehow make them go faster. He looked over at Rome. She was studying the console but the tightness on her face told Rei her mind was elsewhere.
     Rei felt so powerless. He had to do something. Suddenly, his head snapped up. “MINIMCOM, when we were in the galley, you said you had a way of getting us to go even faster.”
     “That is correct,” replied the autopilot computer who was manning the space tug mounted on the far side of the Ark.
     Finding interest in the discussion, Rome looked up from the console. She glanced at Rei. “Can you tell us, please, MINIMCOM?” she inquired.
     “If we could reduce the amount of mass that I must push through each tunnel, I would not have to hold it open for as long. I could extend its reach and increase our effective velocity proportionally.”
     “We don’t have much mass to get rid of,” Rei said. “Do we?”
     “Yes, we do,” replied MINIMCOM who at this point in their journey had never progressed beyond a disembodied voice. “A rather large amount.”
     “What?” Rome asked. Rei could see she was relieved to have something to distract her.
     “The entire propulsion module of Rei’s Ark is superfluous,” MINIMCOM replied. “It serves no purpose. I have done numerous simulations and I believe I could increase our effective velocity as much as 20% further if we could eliminate it.”
     “Hey,” Rei said. “You’re right. The propulsion unit was made to be jettisoned before reentry in the first place. If we could detach it, it would reduce our overall mass a lot.”
     “How would you do that?” Rome asked Rei.
     Rei thought about it for a moment. “We went over this during orientation. I think that it requires a spacewalk.”
     “Why?” asked Rome. A small amount of trepidation crept into her voice.
     “Well, the ship was designed to be in space for hundreds of years,” Rei replied. “There is a separator ring for each section. It’s kind of like an explosive bolt but continuous. Solid-state. It’s made out of some type of meta-stable intermolecular composite…”
     “Thermite,” MINIMCOM interjected.
     “Yeah, thermite,” Rei said. “So it would last forever but the charge to set it off has to be done by hand.”
     “How would you do that?” Rome asked tentatively.

Tomorrow, we will find out.

The future is not yet written

I have written many times about the origin of my stories, how they are all true but they just haven't happened yet. Now it's a little silly to claim that the future is preordained and these stories are literally true but it's how I feel. My main timeline, the one where Rei Bierak is launched to the stars and meets Rome, his soulmate, in the 35th century, is very clear to me and forms a continuous future history with no breaks.

I may not know what happened every minute of every day 14 centuries from now but sometimes, when I need to fill in the gaps, the events that come to me are perfectly consistent with what came before and what comes after.

I'll give you one example: in my mind, whenever Rei spoke about the events that immediately preceded his induction into the Ark program, it was just a random series of points in time. When I finally sat down to write the story as an intermezzo for Rome's Evolution, it all came together seamlessly and turned out to be a very sweet (or maybe bittersweet) little story.

The same is true for how Rei came to acquire his cherished music slab so that he and Rome could enjoy his music during their year-long journey from Tabit to Deucado. I knew that the little slab was not important enough for Rei to risk his life during a spacewalk. It had to be a byproduct of a venture outside for other reasons. I had never really worked out the details but when the time came to write the second intermezzo for Rome's Evolution, the story came together seamlessly and was deeper and more emotionally resonant that I had even hoped.

So over the next ten days, I am going to give you the entire story, uncut, so you can follow along Rei's perilous journey to cut loose the damaged propulsion unit of the Ark II and how he realized he could acquire his music. His tender interaction with Rome was very satisfying emotionally and only helped deepen and clarify their unique relationship and bond.

So buckle in and savor this little story over the week or so. I tried to make it very realistic without getting too bogged down in the technical details. I enjoyed writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Take me to jail. Please.

Yesterday, Rome's questioning turned toward the mystery Vuduri woman who had helped Troutman and Steele attempt to murder Rome and Rei. Troutman claimed he didn't know much about her, she always kept her identity hidden. But even the few facts that he did know would help them whittle down the list of candidates. Rome pressed Troutman on this:

     “No,” Troutman said. “Other than breaking into the library, I didn’t spend much time with her. It was her and Steele most of the time. We came back here, I rigged the bomb. We watched you for two weeks and knew exactly what time the two of you were going to be home. They snuck it into your house and set the timer. I still don’t know what happened or even how you survived, Bierak.”
     “Is this woman with Steele now?” Rei asked.
     “She might be. Since the bomb, they’ve steered clear of me. I don’t know what they’re up to. Maybe she left. Maybe she’s still here. I have no way of knowing. I’ve just been hiding out.”
     “Have you ever been at Steele’s encampment?” Rome asked.
     “No,” he replied. “But it can’t be too far away. I would have to guess within a day’s walk, maybe a little more.”
     Rei looked over at Rome. She nodded. He stood up then said, “MINIMCOM, can you rig us a jail cell in your cargo compartment. We gotta go after Steele now and we don’t have time to put this loser any place else.”
     “Absolutely,” MINIMCOM said. He stood perfectly still then bowed his head. “It is done. I have constructed a small room with no entrance or egress. It will hold him until you are ready to release him.”
     “Thank you!” Troutman exclaimed with a great deal of relief in his tone.
     Rome cocked her head. “Why are you thanking us?”
     “I’ve hated every minute of my life here. I hate Steele and I hated what he made me do. Finally, I’ll be able to going back to being human. You’re doing me the biggest favor you can imagine just putting me in jail.”
     Rei shrugged. With a whoosh and a pop, Troutman and the chair were gone as was MINIMCOM’s livetar.
     Rei looked around the room. “Do you think there’s any point in searching this dump?”
     “No,” Rome said. “He was telling the truth. He really did not know where Steele is hiding out.”
     “OK,” Rei said, leading the way to the door. “Then we head west.”
     “Hold on,” Bonnie said. “Steele is rather vicious. Don’t you think we should take your robot with us? For protection?”
     “He isn’t a robot,” Rome offered. “He is, a, well, the thing you see that looks like a person is called a livetar. It’s an animated shell but the intelligence and personality reside up there.” Rome pointed toward the ceiling.
     “Even so.”
     “MINIMCOM will pick us up shortly,” Rei said. “We only need go as far as the edge of town then we’ll ride from there. We’ll look for Steele from the air.”

Well, at least we have a plan. But before we head into the woods, let take at trip down nostalgia lane to Rei's one and only space-walk, the one where he retrieved his music slab.

The Mystery Woman

Yesterday, Troutman broke down under the mildest of questioning. It was clear that Dan Steele, the other would-be assassin, was the main threat. Rome and Rei had to extract his whereabouts from Troutman to get the jump on the bad guy. Troutman feared for his own life but seeing as how he was tied to a chair with a mind-reader caressing his arm, he had little choice in the matter:

     “That’s why we have to stop him,” Rei said, leaning forward. “There’s no place left on this world for the likes of him. Everybody else wants to live in peace. He’s the only one who doesn’t.”
     “All right,” Troutman said, acknowledging defeat. “But I want you to know that none of this was my idea.”
     “He is telling the truth,” Rome said quietly.
     Troutman looked over at Rome then down at her hand. MINIMCOM eased up a little bit of the pressure on his shoulder.
     “When you guys defeated us and sent everybody packing, I actually wanted to go too. But Steele wouldn’t let me. He literally stuck a knife in my side and told me we were hiding out until the coast was clear.”
     “So it was just the two of you,” Rei said. “What did you hope to accomplish?”
     “After the heat died down, the two of us made our way back to Darwin Base. Steele thought if we could finish one of the starships, we could take a run to wherever you guys sent everybody and bring some of them back. I guess he wanted to start some sort of guerilla action. But the ships weren’t nearly ready. Steele’s next plan was to build up an arsenal, then steal a starship, maybe. I wanted no part of it. Not too long ago, I even tried to get away. But Steele found me. He told me if we accomplished nothing else, we had to get you two out of the way.”
     “Where does the Vuduri woman fit in? Tell us about her,” Rome insisted. “Do you know who she is?”
     “No,” Troutman said. “I’ve never even seen her face. She always wore a cap and a visor.”
     “How did you meet her?”
     “One time, Steele was, I don’t know, stir-crazy. He got some money and I sent him up to The Hand so he could gamble a little bit. Blow off a little steam. I guess that’s where he met her.”
     “And she wanted to be part of the plan to have us killed?” Rome asked.
     “It was the weirdest thing. I have no clue how she figured it out but Steele brought her back here. She said we had a common interest and, yeah, that was in eliminating the two of you.” He nodded toward Rei, then Rome. “Then she’d get Steele his starship.”
     “Do you know her name? Where she comes from?” Rome asked.

Any guesses to her identity? I know but then again, I wrote the book. Let me just say that at this late stage of the game, I wouldn't bring in a brand new person, someone you'd never heard of before.

Spill your guts

Yesterday, Bonnie and Rei had the would-be assassin, David Troutman, cornered. He made a break for it, trying to escape out the back door, but he ran right into MINIMCOM who knocked him out with a single blow. All our heroes had to do now was wait for him to wake up:

     It took a while but eventually, Troutman came to. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs, the would-be assassin looked around to assess the situation. He was seated at his own table but with very tight white restraints binding his hands to the arms of the chair and his legs to the legs of the chair. Standing immediately to his right was MINIMCOM’s imposing bulk. Bonnie and Rei were sitting across from him and Rome sat to his left.
     “I’m not telling you nothing,” he sneered. “You can arrest me. You can deport me. But that’s it.”
     Rome reached out and stroked his hand back and forth but never letting go completely. “We want to find Steele,” she said, pointing to the picture lying on the table with her free hand.
     “Like I said, I’m not talking,” Troutman insisted. Rome said nothing but continued to tap the picture. The images flying through Troutman’s mind were distinct.
     “He is in the forest to the west,” she said, finally.
     “Huh?” Troutman said. “No, he isn’t.”
     “He comes into Ur when he needs supplies. He usually sends Troutman on his behalf and only rarely enters the town.”
     “What are you talking about? How are you doing this?” Troutman asked, slightly unnerved.
     “Who is the Vuduri woman who is helping him?” Rei asked.
     Troutman looked up at Rei, completely rattled. “How do you know all of this?”
     “Look, David,” Bonnie said, reaching her hands out, palms up, across the table. “I was mostly telling the truth. The world of Helome is spectacular and the Vuduri there really do let us roam freely. We aren’t prisoners. They are really committed to building a world with us as partners. Even Keller has given up the fight. He’s made his home there. He’s even taken on a wife.”
     “No way!” Troutman said. “Keller would never do that.”
     “Yes, he did,” Rome said, squeezing his hand gently. “His wife is named Virga and she is already pregnant with his second child. Captain Keller specifically sanctioned this mission, to capture you and Steele because he no longer believes violence is the answer.”
     Troutman looked at each of their faces. MINIMCOM placed his hand on Troutman’s shoulder with just enough pressure to be painful. Troutman squirmed in place trying to wriggle free but was unsuccessful.
     “Look,” he said finally. “If Steele finds out that I’ve told you anything, he won’t just kill you. He’ll kill me, too.”

Troutman caved too quickly. He would never have been the driving force behind the assassination attempt. Clearly it was Steele who was the true danger. It was time to track him down.

One Capture Down

Yesterday, Troutman was quizzing Bonnie on how she was able to track him down. Her story wasn't very strong and Troutman was pretty insistent that he knew how she found him. Because if she was able to find him, then others could too:

     “Well, as soon as I heard that somebody tried to kill that idiot Bierak…” There was a rustling sound in the corner of the room. Troutman looked up but saw nothing. He turned back to Bonnie who continued. “I figured it was you two. I remembered that you used to play cards with Paul Chung so I went to his house. He told me where to look.”
     Troutman slammed the table with his fist. “Dammit,” he said. “If Steele finds out Chung said anything, he’s going to be in for a world of hurt.”
     “Yeah, so where is he?” Bonnie asked. “Steele.”
     “Why do you want to know?” Troutman replied back.
     “Because if we’re going to take over this world, we need to band together. I figured three of us have a better chance than two.”
     “Steele doesn’t want to be found right now,” Troutman said with a bit of fear in his voice.
     “Come on, David,” Bonnie said. “You can tell me.”
     “No,” Troutman said. “We have to lay low for a while till things cool down.”
     “Please,” Bonnie pleaded. “It’s important.”
     Troutman’s eyes narrowed. He looked around the room and then back at Bonnie. “You still never told me how you found me. And there’s no way you could know it was me and Steele that planted the bomb. It could’ve been anyone. Something doesn’t smell right.” He meant that literally. From the corner of the room was the odor of a clean, well-groomed person, not the squalid smell he had long since become used to.
     “You can say that again,” Bonnie said, trying to be funny. Troutman didn’t laugh. “No, really,” she said. “There’s nothing going on.” She looked at Troutman but he seemed distracted.
     “Actually, there is,” Rei said, appearing suddenly in the corner.
     “Bierak!” Troutman shouted. He leaped up and took his chair and flung it at Rei who ducked in time. The chair crashed to the wall then the floor. In the mean time, Troutman bolted toward the back of the house. He got to the back door and whipped it open, only to see MINIMCOM’s two-meter tall all-black livetar standing there. Before Troutman could even turn, MINIMCOM lifted his arm, brought his hand down on the crown of Troutman’s head and the Essessoni collapsed to the ground like a broken puppet.

I kind of like that phrase "broken puppet". I was going for the image of a marionette whose strings had just been cut. Now that they have Troutman captured, let's see what Rome can extract from him.

How did you find out?

Yesterday, using the pretext that she was still a loyal Darwin member, Bonnie Mullen was able to get David Troutman to let her in. Little did Troutman know that Rei Bierak was in the room now, too. Rei was wearing a Deucadon invisibility cloak so Troutman had no idea. It was time to spring the trap:

     The tall man walked over to the window and pulled the threadbare curtains aside to look out. “Did anybody see you come here?” he asked.
     “No,” Bonnie said. “I’ve been real careful.”
     She looked around the house. It was tiny, just two rooms. In the corner was a workbench with wires and electronics and a pile of something that Bonnie assumed was an explosive. It was a typical bomber’s lair.
     “How the hell did you escape?” he asked. He pointed to a table covered with litter. He shoved a clean space and pulled out a chair. “Sit down,” he said. “Do you want anything to drink?”
     “No,” Bonnie said, “but thanks.” The room smelled strongly of body odor. Troutman clearly didn’t take much care of himself.
     He sat down next to her. “So what gives?” he asked. “Where did you come from?”
     “Well, when they rounded us up, they shipped us off to Alpha Centauri.”
     “Jesus H. Christ,” the tall man said. “Alpha Centauri?”
     “Yeah,” Bonnie replied. “The Vooks call their world there Helome. I gotta tell you. It’s actually quite beautiful there, not like this dump. You’d be surprised.”
     “OK, I believe you,” he said. “Then what?”
     “You know the Vooks. They asked us if we were going to be good. We said yes so they pretty much let us do what we wanted. I got the job of running a farm which was pretty peaceful. But Keller started plotting how to get back.”
     “Keller, sure,” Troutman said, nodding. Then he tilted his head. “How did you get back here?”
     “I know it’s going to sound stupid but I just asked. The Vooks there, they didn’t care. Keller put up a stink for me so they let me hitch a ride on a ship back to this dopey planet.”
     “So how’d you find me?” he asked. “How did you even know where to look?”
     “Well, I started with the fact that you and Steele were never caught…”
     Troutman bristled when she mentioned Steele’s name. “So I figured you’d be easier to track down. You do kind of stand out.”
     “Yeah…but still,” Troutman said. “Really, how did you figure it out?”

Uh-oh. Bonnie's story is starting to fall apart. How long until Troutman figures it out?

Sneak attack

Yesterday, Rei pulled one of the Deucadon invisibility cloaks, right outside of David Troutman's house. Since they didn't want Troutman to see them, that was probably a good idea. However, Rei hadn't told Bonnie or Rome what he was planning on doing. They had to ask:

     “Where are you going?” Rome asked him mentally.
     “I’m just going to do a quick recon,” Rei replied. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. OK?”
     “Of course,” Rome replied. She and Bonnie backed up a little bit and removed themselves off to the side.
     Rei was gone some time. Rome thought she heard a whoosh and pop off in the distance but could not be sure. At last, Rei returned, making himself visible again. He pulled down his hood and spoke in conspiratorial tones.
     “Here’s the deal. There are two entrances to his house,” he said quietly, pointing at the dwelling identified as belonging to Troutman. “There’s one door around the back. I’ve got that one taken care of. Romey, you stay out of sight till we go in. Bonnie, I want you to pull your hood up like you’re hiding your face and go right up to the front door. Your cover story is you snuck back here from Helome and want to hook up with the Darwin people again. I’ll be there with you.”
     “Won’t that give things away?” Rome asked sharply.
     “Not if I’m invisible,” Rei said. “After we take him down, Romey, you come in and do your telepath thing with him so we can find Steele. Everybody OK?” Rei looked at each woman. Both Rome and Bonnie nodded.
     Rei drew his hand along the cloak and disappeared again. Bonnie pulled her hood over her head and walked slowly toward the house. Rome dashed past her and went around the side of their target house to hide.
     After making sure that Rome was out of sight, Bonnie knocked on the door.
     “Who’s there,” came a gruff voice from inside.
     “David, it’s me, Bonnie Mullen,” Bonnie whispered.
     The door opened a crack. Light streamed into the room and Bonnie could see Troutman was just behind the door. She pulled her hood back a little so he could see her face.
     “What the hell are you doing here?” he said.
     “Just let me in,” Bonnie pleaded. “I need to get off the street.”
     “OK,” Troutman said and he opened the door wider. Bonnie pretended to trip and bumped into the door, forcing Troutman to open it wide for just a minute. As soon as Bonnie was inside, Troutman slammed the door shut.

Quick thinking by Bonnie, huh? So now Rei and Bonnie are in the bomber's shack and MINIMCOM is guarding the back door. It is time to spring the trap.