Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 165

The Last Cavalier, Part 1

Hanry Ta Jihn, one of the greatest men to live after the Great Dying, was the son of James (Jim) Henry, often referred to as The Last Cavalier. Hanry Ta Jihn, or Jack Henry as we would call him, led a bloody but ultimately successful revolution against the Erklirte. The key Battle of Chicago was documented in The Ark Lords as was a bit more of that time period.

But what of Jim Henry? We don't learn much about him in The Ark Lords and he is not mentioned at all in Rome's Revolution or Rome's Evolution.

The fact is, I had originally planned on writing an entire trilogy about him and Jack and their encounter with the Ark Lords and call the series The Last Cavalier. I started the book in 2009 and it was going to be told in the first person. It was the intimate details about how Jim Henry stumbled across the Ark Lords. At that point in time, I had the name Brody instead of James for the father but after I watched Homeland (a great show), I decided to change it. Also, Jack Henry's nickname was Jake, not Jack but that is a minor detail. Jake's (or Jack's) mother was always named Helen, that never changed.

Here is the first part and in the next few posts, I'll give you the rest. The narrator is Hanry Ta Jihn, himself.

     Chapter 1
     I wish I could promise you a happy ending. But I can’t. My Dad is dead. He left the mantle of the Cavaliers with me but Mom says I’m too young to wear it. The people from the stars sent us home and told us it was over. Mom said we just have to bide our time until… She never told me until when. My name is Jake Henry. My dad was James Henry. He was The Last Cavalier.

Dramatic? Maybe. But I never really got too far with it. Tomorrow, the only coherent chapter I wrote. You can see elements from it have been folded into the modern version of the flashback in The Ark Lords.

The Cavaliers

In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, OMCOM related to Rei the origin of the Cavaliers:

     “...Slowly, society devolved into nomads and farmers. There was no technology they could draw from deemed acceptable. Much of the knowledge required was lost or inaccessible. Around 400PR, most people lived in loosely coupled settlements formed into a semi-feudal arrangement. There were certain landlords who controlled vast areas of real estate and the rest of the people worked for them. A caste arose to keep order among the citizens. They were called Cavaliers. They were a combination of police, judge, jury and executioner. They had free reign and a wide charter to enforce the law.”
     “So what was the law?”
     “Just to leave each other alone and live in peace.”
     “That seems pretty reasonable,” said Rei. “Then what?”
     “Inevitably, over the years, the Cavaliers began to abuse their power. They became a force of oppression. But since their charter was to keep the rest of the populace disarmed, no one could do anything about it.”

So you can see that originally, the Cavaliers were meant to be the best of the best. They always wore white shirts and hats and no one feared them. The figurative mantle of being a Cavalier was passed down from father to son. We can see that in The Ark Lords and the story of Hanry Ta Jihn, Jack Henry. He makes reference to his white shirt and that he expected to be a Cavalier one day.

However, as OMCOM mentioned, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It took a long time but eventually the Cavaliers took to wearing black shirts and expected compensation for their services. Basically this was "protection" money like criminals of today. They came to be feared, not admired. Tomorrow I'll tell you a little more about James (Jim) Henry who became known as The Last Cavalier.

Tails of the Vuduri

We interrupt History Week here at "Tales of the Vuduri" to address an important point raised by my co-collaborator, artist, editor and inspiration behind MINIMCOM, my brother Bruce. Bruce was complaining to me about the paucity of plants, etc., in the world of Rome's Revolution, to decorate Rei and Rome's house. He also said there should be plenty of Earth animals running around and Earth plants, both brought in and from the Ark's stores.

I explained to him that it is true that there have been plants and animals imported from Earth. Some were brought by starship, some were resurrected from seeds and frozen embryos. But mostly the imports were concentrated on bringing food crops and food animals, not flowers or dogs. In fact, Binoda is in charge of developing the bison herd brought in from Earth.

[image error]

Turns out that they love eating threadgrass and it gives the bison meat a particularly pleasant spicy flavor. So this is a long way of saying while there are imported items, none of them would find their way into residential areas.

The other reason, of course, is because I am lazy. I didn't want to spend too much time designing the eco-system of Deucado. In fact, in the chapter lovingly called 'The Blanket's Tale' in Rome's Evolution, I even came up with a scientific explanation as to why there were so few plants and animals. There are also no bugs or insects of any kind. My laziness will come to an end soon. My reluctance to build an entire eco-system will be rectified in The Milk Run where I spend a much greater time showing you the twin habitable worlds of Nu2 Lupi.

Sally's immune system

As mentioned in a previous post and reiterated in the first Intermezzo in Rome's Evolution, Sally and Rei came to a parting of the ways when he decided he wanted to join the Ark program and she did not.

Sally had a degree in Botany and after college, she went down to the rain forest of Brazil to help with the reconstruction efforts. It was there that she contracted a mutated strain of what was later called the Lupine Flu. In reality, that virus was actually artificial and code-named Strain 3 by the Darwin Project. This was documented in The Ark Lords. She went to the hospital and was placed in a ward along with the other victims of this vicious man-made disease and expected to die. In fact, she did die, several times, but they were able to resuscitate her each time. It was during the last attempt that something miraculous happened. Instead of succumbing, her immune system started making universal and general purpose antibodies that could not only fight off Strain 3, but any virus in the world.

Sally recovered fully and as far as the doctors in Brazil could tell, Sally could no longer be made ill by any virus. One of the doctors there was named Raul and he spent so much time with Sally, he fell in love with her. The feeling was mutual and when Sally decided to return to the US, Raul came back with her and married her.

We find out later (from the Overmind of Earth) that Sally's universal immunity included Virus Strain 4, the virus responsible for The Great Dying. More than nine billion people died. Sally did not. The members of the Darwin Project had inoculated themselves and tried to hide out underground until the destruction passed but their technology failed them and they all died. However, Sally not only survived but thrived and was one of the progenitors of the new human race that eventually became the Vuduri. While they were 70 generations removed, she was Rome's great, great, great grandmother.

Rei's Engineering Degree

Rei was a student athlete. As mentioned yesterday, he swam all four years for the Syracuse swim team. But he really did enjoy learning and worked hard to get his engineering degree. He got a B.S. in General Engineering which sounds bland but the reality is, he studied multiple disciplines and was qualified to work in many areas.

He studied Agricultural, Civil, Chemical, Electrical, Industrial and Aerospace. Because he was a general engineer, he did not qualify for outstanding recognition in any specific discipline (referred to as being ranked in Rome's Revolution) but that did not diminish his worth. Even though Sally Reynolds asked her father to put Rei in the Ark program, all it did was get her father's committees to consider Rei. He actually got in on his own merits.

We see evidence of this throughout Rome's Revolution, The Ark Lords and Rome's Evolution. It was his engineering skills that allowed him to defeat the Stareater, crash-land the Ark II on Deucado and eventually create Project Broadloom. You will learn in a future book that he designed an even more ambition agricultural program called Project Desert Bloom but that is for another day.

So here's to Rei Beirak, Engineer Extraordinare, and taking his skill set and applying it to make life better for all in the 35th century.

Rei's college days

In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, the only hint we got about Rei's college education was when he used the Espansor Bands with Rome the very first time. Here is the little snippet from that event:

When Rei graduated high school, he shucked off the accolades as the least important thing in his life. That he got a full scholarship to school, and there he really flew. He was an engineer, a pilot and an athlete. He was all things and when he was a senior, the Ark project was started. When the call went out for volunteers to leave his world and start a new one, far away, among the stars. Rei threw himself into the competition, just so he could find a place.

Now for a little more background: Rei attended Syracuse University. He was a high school State Champion in the 400m individual medley. That got him a full scholarship to Syracuse. He swam for the SU swim team all four years. This is why I always describe him as having broad, swimmer's shoulders. His first summer at Syracuse, he stayed on campus and worked. He took flying lessons and in just one summer, he got his pilot's license on single engine craft. The following summer, he stayed at school again and learned to fly commuter jets. He considered going into the Air Force after college but the Ark program called to him in a way he could not resist.

Rei met Sally Reynolds his sophomore year and fell in love, hard, as did she. They dated all through college. When the Ark program was announced, it came as a surprise to Rei that it was Sally's father's corporation sponsoring the program. He was hooked instantly and tried for a year to convince Sally that they belonged together, somewhere in the heavens. She resisted and it eventually drove them apart. Sally went down to Brazil, got deathly ill, met Raul and that was the end of the romance.

Rei was not selected for the crew of the Ark I but he kept on trying. Sally used her influence with her father and secured Rei a place on the Ark II. Rei never regretted that, only that Sally was not going to accompany him to the stars. Sally and Rei's last night together was documented in Rome's Evolution, Intermezzo 1.

Tomorrow, I will tell you a little more about Rei's engineering degree.

The Domes

As mentioned in yesterday's post, the Earth in 2067 AD was not a very pleasant place. For our purposes, Rome's Revolution really begins on this date. It was at this point in time that global warming had gotten so bad that scientists had to up the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to acknowledge Category 6 and Category 7 hurricanes.

Category 4 hurricanes are rated from 130-156 mph and Category 5 hurricanes are currently measured as 157 mph or higher. Taking the simple 26 mph boost as the rating, a Category 6 hurricane would be from 183 mph to 209 mph and a Category 7 hurricane would be 210 mph and higher. In addition, the diameter of such storms would larger than a continent and go from the North Pole all the way down to the Equator.

The storms were larger and more frequent so finally, the governments of the world had to take action. They started building 300 mph-proof domes over major cities. The domes were not air tight but were meant to protect against the destructive force of the winds. They were transparent and would allow for rain to fall using a louver system.

I have not watched the TV show "Under The Dome" but I imagine the domes would be much larger. After the major cities were domed in, society as a whole began to experience some relief from the cost of reconstruction after major storms. The excess funds were used to finance the construction of domes over smaller municipalities and in Rome's Evolution, Intermezzo 1, you can see that Rei is headed toward West Chester, Pennsylvania and the dome there is partially complete.

I've seen other TV shows, like the short-lived Terra Nova, that portray American cities as domed but that was because of pollution, not planet-sized storms.

Earth in 2067 AD

While the roots of Rome's Revolution really precede 2067 AD, for our purposes, it was the state of the world at this point that creates the conditions producing the story. I will be including a little material in The Vuduri Companion that explains the origins of the Ark program but that won't be ready until next year.

All I did was presume that the world would be the way it is now, but whatever trends we see today would just continue. For example, our economy is a mess. I took the trend of more wealth getting into the hands of fewer people and just assumed life would be even harder in 50 years. In other words, the rich got even richer. I postulated that most people would live in tighter quarters, have less to eat (and drink!) and so forth.

Next, I assumed global warming wasn't going to get any better any time soon so I ramped up the hurricane season and invented Category 6 and Category 7 hurricanes. These monster storms were continent sized and forced people to start building domes over cities for protection which is the subject of tomorrow's post.

I also assumed that overpopulation is just going to get worse and extrapolated that the world would be nearing 10 billion people in about 70 years. Thus when the Great Dying took place, that was the number I came up with.

I assumed that terrorism is not going to ever go away and that at some point, it will spill over to our shores and become a constant, fear-inducing part of our lives. One of the little Intermezzos in Rome's Evolution shows Rei driving down a walled road and some horseback riders are blown up by an IED.

Finally, with so many people, I assumed that new diseases were going to be cropping up all the time. Little did I realize when I first started writing Rome's Revolution that some of those diseases were man-made. This, of course, formed the central plot of The Ark Lords.

The bottom line is, the Earth in 2067 AD is not that pleasant of a place and was only going to get worse. The Ark program was created, in part, in recognition of this fact and that some day a cosmic or man-made disaster was going to wipe out the species. Personally, I hope this is not true and as a society we start fixing things rather than making them worse but a dystopia is inherently more interesting (and dramatic) than a utopia.

Sorry.

History Week

It's History Week here at Tales of the Vuduri. When I say history, I mean the future history underlying the world of Rome's Revolution. As I have explained many times before, I believe in the future history as much as I do the past. There is no other way to explain how I could have written random stories over a 40 year span, only to find them fitting together neatly, like puzzle pieces as I spin the yarn of Rei and Rome.

Some the highlights coming up:

- Earth in 2067 AD
- Why they are busy building domes around the cities
- Rei's college days at Syracuse
- Rei's engineering degree
- Sally's incredible immune system
- The rise of the Cavaliers
- The last Cavalier

If I can think of more stuff, I'll throw it in but that should give you a hint of what is just over the horizon.

Why were our cities erased?

Early on in Rome's Revolution, Rei finds out from OMCOM that there is no evidence that we, of the 21st century, ever existed. Here is the actual exchange:

     “What about buildings from my time?” Rei pointed out. “Surely there is something left of my age. In my time, we had buildings and artifacts from other civilizations that were thousands of years old. What about our cities?”
     “They were…” OMCOM paused for a moment.
     “What?” Rei asked.
     “I am searching for the correct word, the one that will cause you the least distress.”
     “Just tell me,” Rei said quietly.
     “Very well,” OMCOM replied, “Your cities, they were erased.”
Rei sat back in his chair.
     “I don’t understand anything about this,” he said. “What am I going to do? There’s no place for my people here.”

We find out in The Ark Lords that this was the last request of Jack Henry (Hanry Ta Jihn) just before he died. But why? Why did Jack Henry want the cities erased?

The ostensible reason was because Hanry Ta Jihn postulated that another Ark might land some day with other Ark Lords. He wanted them to give up all hope of ever finding the virus weapon. While Jack's fighters destroyed the Tevatron, he was guessing that there might be other places where the Garecei Ti Essessoni placed yet other caches of virus and he wanted them impossible to find.

But now the time has come for me to reveal the real reason. It is because I am lazy and I didn't want to have to think about what our cities and civilization looked like after 14 centuries. I frankly did not want to have to do the research on how well our building materials stood the test of time. That was why. When I wrote that scene above, I had absolutely no clue as to the reasoning behind it, just that I didn't want to be bothered. Little did I know that it would become the climax of the fight between Hanry Ta Jihn's rebels and the Erklirte.

So thank you, Jack Henry, for giving me a reason so I could keep this secret up until now.