Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 169

Why did the Vuduri fly all the way out to Tabit?

The whole premise of the story behind Rome's Revolution was that the Overmind finally realized that stars were disappearing. Originally there were far more stars but within the story, I boiled it down to just a few to get the point across.

In the original concept, there were gazillions of Stareaters and they were malevolent and based upon the findings of the starprobes, Rei eventually concludes that the pinwheel shape of the Milky Way was due to Stareaters encroaching upon our galaxy. Even with Rei's brilliant idea of the VIRUS units, it seemed like these were insurmountable odds and impractical that a race of gargantuan creatures like this would sweep through galaxies like cosmic locusts.

So I backed off. I had them eating just a few stars listed in a previous post. I had Rei kill off one so that OMCOM could develop the substrate to transfer his consciousness. The mutations are the mutations. You'll find out more about them in The Milk Run. But malevolent? I really, really thought they would be until I came up with the "people of Earth" scene where Rome addresses the planet and everybody passes out.

I realized at that point I had painted myself into a corner and everyone was going to die. So, taking my inspiration from Horton Hears a Who, I had the protagonists shout out. To my delight, the Stareater answered. I was as shocked as you were to find out they were urbane and noble creatures who followed a higher purpose.

So... This leads to the question who created them and set them upon their mission? After all, they are Species 3. Who was Species 1 and Species 2? And don't forget about Species Zero. All will be addressed in the next book.

The Ark II

The crew compartment of the Ark II was divided into two sections. This was mentioned in The Ark Lords and explored in a bit more detail in Rome's Evolution. The people in the front, referred to as "The Grays" were later revealed to be part of the Darwin Project. The people in the back were called "The Whites" because that was the color of each sarcophagus.

Here is a picture of its overall organization (you can click on the image for a larger picture):



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The sarcophagi were stacked on the left and the right, three rows tall and three sarcophagi per row for a total of 540 people. Here is a close-up of their layout:

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Thus, Rome's Revolution started here.

Rome: A different reality

A long time ago, when Rome's Revolution was still VIRUS 5 and linked to the original story written in 1973, everyone's backgrounds were different. Many of the familiar elements are still there. There was Rei, Rome, OMCOM and the bands. But they didn't come from Earth and they weren't at Tabit. And Rome wasn't cast out (Cesdiud) initially. This is a little scene from way back then where Rome is offered the chance to be reintegrated with the Overmind now, right at Schuyler Base (its spelling back then). She would not have to wait to go back to Earth.

     Rei entered the equipment room which was fairly devoid of equipment. He saw a ladder at the far end leading up to a small circular hole in the ceiling. He walked over and looked up but could only see darkness. He climbed up the ladder and found Rome sitting on a ledge, looking out of the plastic dome. She turned, hearing him come up the ladder and smiled at him but it was a sad smile. He walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
     “Rome, I have great news for you!”
     She stood up, taking care to make sure that his hand remained on her shoulder. “What is it?” she asked.
     “You can go back to the Overmind”
     “I am cesdiud, cast out!”
     “You can go back any time you want.”
     “What makes you think that?” she asked.
     “Ursay let it slip. He said that you have the ability to erase the existing spectrum and grow a new one. That any Overmind has the ability to integrate a novel spectrum imprint any time it wants.” Rei put his hand over his heart then to his head, mimicking the salute that Ursay had shown him.
     “I knew that,” Rome said.
     “What? You knew? Then why have you been so sad. You just take the gene therapy. You just grow a new transceiver and you go back. You don’t have to be alone any more.”
     “Rei,” Rome said, putting her hand to his cheek. “It was never a question of the Overmind not having the ability. It was that it did not want me. When it cancelled my circuitry, it was not just a physical act. It was its desire. It does not want me and my thought patterns as part of the whole.”
     “Then, then…” Rei was at a loss for words. “So just recant and you can go back.”
     “Recant?” Rome said to OMCOM.
     “Dimete bere dres e fardeta,” OMCOM replied. Rome regarded him for a long time.
     “That is simply not possible.”
     “But why?” Rei cried, “You want to go back. You are alone now. You said so.”
     Rome smiled again, the same sad smile. “The Overmind is certainly capable of detecting whether a person is telling the truth or not. Even if I mouthed the words recanting the Overmind’s objection, it would know it wasn’t true.”
     “What is so awful that you can’t make yourself believe it? If it means going back?”
     “It is that I am in love with you,” she said. She put her other hand up to his other cheek and drew him into a kiss; a very long and passionate one. Then she put her arms around him and held him tightly which Rei did as well. Rome whispered, “and I am not alone any more. I have you.”

It's always sunny on Deucado

Weather is boring. The only reason you would introduce it would be for dramatic purpose. A rainstorm always portends an ominous event. Snow creates survival issues. I did bring up how hot it was in Illinois in The Ark Lords but that was about it. I used a technique called "follow the sun" so that it was always daylight out. I don't even like writing about night.

I did deviate from this in the middle part of Rome's Revolution because the action takes place over a 72-hour period. I couldn't avoid it. It is night time occasionally. So I had to figure out the rotational period of Deucado (22.5 hours), how many moons (2 - Mockay and Givvy) and then I was stuck.

One of the fundamental principles of good writing (not that I always follow it) is show don't tell. But how do you show what is happening if it is pitch black out? Answer: give Rei sonar-vision so he can see in the dark. It turns out this was useful later on in the story when Rei and Rome were deep underground beneath Kilauea and also when they were in the dark woods in Rome's Evolution.

It does rain on Deucado but it served no dramatic purpose so I left it out. Hence the title of this article: It's always sunny on Deucado.

Vuduri Bathrooms

Nobody wants to read about bathrooms. The Vuduri call them refreshers. They are mentioned at several points in Rome's Revolution and never again during The Ark Lords and Rome's Evolution.

The reason for this is obvious. People read books to escape from ordinary life and what is more ordinary than a bathroom? However, there is one aspect of the Vuduri bathroom that is different than ours and bears a little more exposition. Specifically, the Vuduri shower which is a large cylindrical chamber. Here is the first time Rei encounters one:

     Rei wandered around the room, checking out the facilities. The bathroom, at least, seemed fairly standard. He was able to figure out how use the sink and the toilet although it appeared to have an integrated bidet. Standing in the far corner, there was a man-high circular chamber that looked like an over-sized water heater. Rei walked over to it and found there was a grip. He tugged on it and the door opened. Inside, there were a series of rings. Rei stared at it for while then it came to him. It was a shower. So, the human race still enjoyed or at least needed to stay clean. Rei stripped off the ill-fitting jumpsuit and entered the chamber, closing the door behind him.
     As soon as the door clicked closed, a swirling mist began blowing from the rings of tubing lining the cylinder. The water had a slightly antiseptic smell to it. Rei lifted his arms and after a little bit of experimentation, found that their position controlled the intensity and temperature of the water. It didn’t take him very long before he felt scrubbed completely clean. As soon as he lowered his arms, the water shut off and the same nozzles that sprayed water now blew warm air over him and dried him off completely.
     Rei stepped out of the shower and felt completely refreshed. On a shelf next to the sink, he saw several jumpsuits folded neatly. He tried one on but it was far too short and too tight. Reluctantly, he dressed himself in his original jumpsuit but overall he felt better for the exercise. There was no mirror in the bathroom so Rei ran his hands through his sandy brown hair approximating a combing to the best of his ability.

One last note: the mist that the Vuduri have developed has three purposes. It cleans, it moisturizes and evaporates leaving a very clean smell. The Vuduri use a form of the same solution built into their toilets, bidet style which was hinted at above.

Tomorrow: another boring topic - weather.

The Flying House, Part 4

So what did Rei and Rome do after lunch? Again, this was explained before Rome's Revolution was condensed into a single book.

     In the afternoons, during their leisure time, Rei taught Rome Earth games, or at least, games from the Earth of his time period. She learned card games, checkers, chess and more. Rome was surprisingly competitive for a person who had subjugated her will her whole life and surprisingly brilliant for someone who had been taught to not think for herself. To an outside observer, it would appear as if she had been saving her brain and was now using its reserves all at once. Rome was blossoming before Rei’s eyes and it was a wonder to behold. Every thought, every feeling that Rome experienced showed on her face as delight and Rei loved just watching her absorb and integrate each novel experience into her new-found autonomy.
     In addition to all this, after their evening meal, they worked on Rome’s unending art and design projects and they listened to music. She even learned how to dance. Early on into their trip, Rei took exactly one harrowing space-walk to the vast cargo compartment of his ancient spaceship, the Ark II (described in much more detail in Rome's Evolution), and had recovered his personal music collection from there. His music was stored on a solid-state music slab, a gift from his parents which was designed to survive over the centuries. Rei’s music, along with the algorithms that OMCOM had uploaded to MINIMCOM before they left the Tabit system, meant that not an evening went by when they didn’t listen to what Rei called the classics or an original composition from MINIMCOM who was getting very, very good.
     Infused with all this music, Rome was learning to sing and what a beautiful voice she had. Who would have guessed? She loved Handel, Joni Mitchell and Jeriko but her favorite performers were the Moody Blues which suited Rei perfectly. They were his favorite too.
     Rei also tried to introduce Rome to movies. He got MINIMCOM to try to animate some of his favorites. The first one he tried was Gone With The Wind but that was a disaster because he couldn’t remember it well enough. The second was Sleepless in Seattle. Rome was kind enough to tell him she understood its appeal. The only one he really aced was The One That Got Away (aka Future Past) which was the true story of his grandfather who appeared on a TV reality show. He had memorized that one, right down to the dialog. It was an interesting experiment but their other activities amused them more.

Tomorrow, a topic nobody wants to hear about: Vuduri bathrooms!

The Flying House, Part 3

What did Rei and Rome do during their year-long voyage from Tabit to Deucado? In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, this was addressed in some detail in the beginning of Book 2: Tau Ceti which is now known as Part 2.

     Every day, after breakfast, Rei and Rome exercised furiously, practiced the Vuduri language and Rei learned as much of the Vuduri’s science, culture and history as was possible. For Rome, who had been connected to the Overmind her whole life, it was all second nature. For Rei, learning about gravitic modulation, molecular sequencing, transmutation and all the other arcane parts of Vuduri technology challenged every bit of the engineer in him. Rome was a strict teacher but Rei did not mind. He enjoyed it.
     In turn, after lunch, they reversed roles. Rome extracted background information from Rei about his world and times and the times before that. (Note: this was before Rome learned about the Essessoni data slabs featured in The Ark Lords) During the interview process, Rome’s probing of Rei’s recollections made him embarrassed that he had not paid more attention in history class. But what was done was done. Rei did his best to dig out what he could from his memory. Sometimes, he cheated. Sometimes he described movies he had seen about particular events whether they were dramatized or not.
     Rome painstakingly recorded his reminiscences and musings and catalogued them, collating them into a database to be reconciled with the sparse records retained by her people when they arrived at Deucado. She maintained a meticulous timeline which was enhanced each time Rei produced a fact or date. Whenever there was a discrepancy, they did their best to reconcile it so that the information they transmitted would be internally consistent when the time came.

Tomorrow, their afternoons and evenings.

The Flying House, Part 2

Imagine being locked into a mobile home for a full year. How would you stand it?

That was the underlying motivation for making the "Flying House" in Rome's Revolution a viable place for two humans to live together with nowhere to go. The hallway was rather tight to maximize the usable space. Here is a picture of the layout of the Flying House (you can click on the image to get a zoom-in of the layout):

People need to eat, sleep and recreate. The Flying House had enough room to pursue each of these. At the front was a gymnasium. It had a Vuduri exerciser, Rei's elliptical trainer, some weights and other equipment. Next was a small storage closet. After that came a fairly well-equipped galley with a dining table, oven, food synthesizer and so on. People need a nice place to eat.

The bedroom was fairly luxurious. It had a king-sized bed, dresser and a refresher which is what the Vuduri called a bathroom. Along the other hallway was the side airlock, a living area complete with workstation, music area, a sitting area and even a small studio area for Rome to paint. Behind that was the environmental works which made the air, water, contained the molecular sequencers and so forth. Also stored in that area was some other equipment that the Overmind of Tabit was going to abandon.

Finally, at the way back was a recycler and a laundry area so they did not have to always generate new clothing. All in all, while it was a little tight, it was comfy and Rei and Rome got through their year-long journey without going stir-crazy. Tomorrow, what the hell did they do all day?

The Flying House, Part 1

The Flying House was mentioned numerous times in Rome's Revolution and was Rei and Rome's primary residence for their long journey from Tabit to Deucado as they towed Rei's Ark II toward its new home world. It played a pivotal role during most of the book and comes to the end of its useful life at the end of that when it is taken away by the Vuduri.

I thought I'd give you a few details about the craft since not everything was spelled out in the book. The Flying House was one of the Vuduri space tugs converted into living quarters. The interior was rebuilt to make it like a small apartment, reminiscent of a mobile home.

The Vuduri space tug was patterned after the Space Shuttle both in dimensions as well as general appearance. Here is a picture:

It is about 150 feet in length with a wingspan of maybe 70 feet. It is powered by oversized plasma thrusters and PPT drive generators. The stock version has a huge cargo bay. The cockpit is designed with its own airlock so that the entire cargo section can be exposed to space. There is a side airlock for space excursions where you don't want to evacuate the cargo section.

After Rei and Rome proved their usefulness to the Overmind at Tabit, it decided to give them one of the tugs since they were going to leave the tugs behind anyway. The Vuduri begin a build-out to convert the tug into the Flying House. When they were done, it still had a cockpit, side airlock and rear cargo ramp but that's it. The rest is almost unrecognizable from its original configuration.

Tomorrow, the layout.

The End of Skodla

Rome was being escorted to Hawaii by Grus along with a contingent of Vuduri soldiers. Binoda and Rei are there as well. Because the flight was several hours long, Rome decided to give her mother a tour of "the flying house" before it was taken away from her. The scene went something like this:

     “Rei, will you watch Skodla for me?” Rome asked, pointing to the huge mound of fur on the floor.
     “Sure,” Rei said, “but he hasn’t left very much room for me, all spread out like that.”
     “Rei!” Rome said but it was clear she knew he was kidding.
     “Please remain here,” Grus said to Rei. “And please do not try anything.”
     “I have no intentions of doing so,” Rei replied with a sigh. “Where am I going to go?”
     Grus shrugged. “Proceed,” he said and the three of them left the room.

Eventually Grus grows tired of the tour and cuts it off:

     “Then this is enough,” said Grus. “Please go back to the living area for the remainder of the journey.”
     “All right,” Rome said and the three of them returned to the sitting room. Rei stood up. Skodla remained in a deep slumber.
     “No action so far,” Rei said, pointing to the cat.
     “I did not expect any,” Rome replied. The sight of the two of them, Rei and Skodla together, made her smile.

So you can see, because he was so fat and lazy, he didn't do much, other than provide a source of amusement. You will be pleased to know that in this alternate universe of the long form of Rome's Revolution, he accompanies the Bieraks to Hawaii and then to Deucado. The cat becomes very attached to Aason and he spends the rest of his days sleeping with the boy and following him around.

Skodla passed away a year or two later and now relaxes peacefully in Writer's Heaven, waiting patiently for the humans that he loved so dearly to join him one day.

RIP, Skodla and RIP, Skittle. I love you and I miss you.