Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 185

How does Future Past tie into Rome's Revolution?

If you look on the web site for my novel Future Past, you may not see a tie in to Rome's Revolution but it is there.

Lee Linsky, the "hero" of Future Past meets and falls in love with a woman. It is a romantic novel that takes place in the very near future. However, when I was planning the timeline for events leading up to Rei's departure in 2067AD, my calculations told me that Lee and his new love were exactly the right age to be Rei's grandparents. Delicious!

As soon as I added the tagline: "For those of you who have read Rome's Revolution, this is the 'true' story of Rei Bierak's grandfather and how he met Rei's grandmother" - I sold 5 copies right away! Hooray. Check it out.

Future Past is available only in e-book form for the Kindle, Nook, iPad and Kobo e-book readers.



Enjoy!

Piezo-capillary action and Casimir Pumps

Many of the technologies within the world of the Vuduri take place on a microscopic scale.

For example, there are the VIRUS units which weigh a microgram or less. There are also the Deucadons invisibility cloaks which are light pipes carrying light from back to front or vice-versa making the wearer practically invisible.

The effector units are memrons which have a piezo-electric cilium so they can move around.

The VIRUS units use piezo-capillary action to draw materials into their synthesizers so they can build more VIRUS units.

Finally, there are the Casimir Pumps which are so small, they work at the quantum level which allows a palladium/iridium mixture to segregate positive from negative energy. This, in turn, allows the Vuduri to create PPT tunnels and limitless, free energy from zero energy.

The world of the Vuduri consists of the very large (the Stareaters) and the very small and everything in between.

Silas Hiram 6 - Excerpts from Silas' Journal - The Ark Lords

Silas' final journal entries were like a window into the past.

The Ark Lords
Entry 3: First evidence of the secret Darwin agenda: "September 8, 2144 – I normally don’t comment on what is happening within the colony. I have tried to restrict my entries in this journal to my astral observations. But last night, something really peculiar happened. Tan Powel, one of the Grays, apparently tried smoking some local herbs and started ranting and raving about the Darwin Project. The things he said were bizarre. If any of what he said was true, these people are really sick."

Entry 4: Final confirmation that on every world, civil war is unavoidable: "October 9, 2144 – Captain Allen had a town meeting tonight. He did a lot of talking but he didn’t say much. He hinted at the agenda for Darwin. No one could believe it. How can you have two groups, competing for the same resources, with completely opposite goals? The Grays are working tirelessly but their only objective is to leave this planet. The rest of us, the Whites, we’ve worked so hard to turn this beautiful planet into our home. How could the mission planners have missed something this fundamental?"

Entry 5: Silas' final entry: "December 12, 2144 – Things are coming to a head. Sammy D. was killed last night. Shot in the back. Ernst and the rest of us are headed for a showdown tomorrow with the Grays. They are either going to renounce their plans or we are leaving. I’m too old for this shit. Basically we have a war on our hands and they have all the weapons. But it has to be done. Things can’t go on this way. I told Mary to start packing, just in case. I’m going to go see the boys tonight and give them a heads up. One way or the other tomorrow is it."

All indicators were that he died the next day. Even if he didn't, all of the colonists died eventually under the voracious onslaught of the Piranha Rats.

Silas Hiram 5 - Excerpts from Silas' Journal - Rome's Revolution

Silas Hiram's journal figures heavily in the plot of both Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords. His journal is entitled "Celestial Observations, Silas Hiram, New Earth, August 2121."

Rome's Revolution
Entry 1: First discovery that Alnilam has disappeared: "April 25, 2137. Finally, seeing conditions are perfect. Beth set early enough. Sky is clear. Right in the gap in the mountains to the west, I was able to visualize Sol for the first time. It was exactly where the star charts said, between Perseus and Cassiopeia. The changes to the telescope’s database seem right on. I can’t wait until the boys get home tomorrow so I can show them. One note: something is occluding Alnilam. I must remember to check it tomorrow night."

Entry 2: Confirmation that Alnilam has disappeared: "April 4th, 2138. Been able to take stills of Sol and presumably Earth through three quarters of a year. Not sure how to measure transit with the scope. Sadly, the boys are getting bored with my preoccupation. I think we are going to need a new calendar for New Earth. 12 months makes no sense here. Poor Orion, still no Alnilam. I hope his pants stay up."

Tomorrow, excerpts from The Ark Lords

Silas Hiram 4 - Silas Sees Sol

Silas was standing in his attic/observatory and the sky had just darkened enough to see the stars to the west. Mind you, this takes place on "New Earth" later called Helome by the Vuduri. He is staring across a gulf of over four light years.

"Silas turned to the west. He could see the Milky Way in all its glory spanning the entire sky. That he could see it at all with his naked eye amazed him, even though it shouldn’t. Back on Earth, in Pennsylvania, they had long since lost that ability even on the darkest of nights. Many of Silas’ friends had never even seen the Milky Way, but most did not care. Silas did."

"He searched and searched until finally he found what he was looking for. Sitting very low on the horizon was the zig-zag of Cassiopeia. He held his right hand up, straightened his arm and used his hand to blot her out. Even lower on the horizon, partially obscured by the mountains to the west, he found the inverted V of Perseus and with his left hand, he blotted him out as well. He extended both thumbs to form a frame and within that frame was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. If Mary were here, he’d tell her that it was not as beautiful as her, of course. On this night, it was only the eighth brightest star in the sky, but to him, it was the most important. He knew its name was Sol, but he just thought of it as The Sun. And though he could not see it, he knew he was looking at Earth."

"He stared at Sol for a long time, waxing nostalgic. He knew why he and Mary were here. He knew why they had chosen to raise their children on this alien world. The pollution, the overpopulation, the natural disasters, the wrecked ecology, the continual random acts of violence loosely called terrorism; these were the problems that had driven Silas and Mary and the other colonists to seek refuge among the stars. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t miss his ancestral home, knowing none of them would ever see it again. Earth was the birth-world of his species and that would never change."

Silas Hiram 3 - Tonight's the night

This was the night Silas Hiram had been waiting for, for many years. The night he would finally be able to look across the four light year gap and see Earth.

"Silas looked up into the azure sky at Beth as it set in the west. In the binary star system of Rigil Kentaurus, there were two stars. The brighter of the two was called Aleph and the dimmer B-star was called Beth by the residents of New Earth. New Earth was the fourth planet out from Aleph, a G2V star, virtually a twin of Sol. Aleph’s companion, Beth, was a deep orange, K-class star. Though both stars had several planets, each star had only one habitable world located in the comfort zone. The one orbiting Aleph was far superior to the one circling Beth and was the natural choice between the two for man’s first colony world."

"When Silas first arrived on this world, Beth had trailed behind Aleph by several hours past sunset. That meant that the sky did not really get dark until many hours into the night. But with the sureness of the complex celestial mechanics behind it, Beth slowly advanced and now led the way, ahead of Aleph, by about one half hour. When Beth was out during the early evening, at an apparent magnitude of –18, it was far, far brighter than the full moon of Earth. At night, Beth was a spotlight that drowned out all the constellations and stars that surrounded it. Due to an unfortunate alignment of the stars, that meant especially the one group of stars that Silas cared about. But this would not be the case tonight."

Silas Hiram 2 - Amateur Astronomer

When Silas Hiram arrived at what was called at the time New Earth (later called Helome by the Vuduri), his one luxury item was a telescope.

He spent many years building up his farm and in the evenings, he'd look up at the stars. Because the A and B star of Alpha Centauri are separated only by 80 AU, the second star, called Beth by the residents, was very bright; far brighter than the moon. Because of the alignment, for many, many years, Beth obscured Silas' obsession, Sol and by definition, Earth.

There came a time when Beth set before the main star, called Aleph, and the night sky was finally dark enough that he could see it with his telescope. However, to get the telescope properly aligned, he used what is called the red dot finder to calibrate the telescope. That was how he noticed that Alnilam disappeared which, 14 centuries later, became a really big deal.

Silas Hiram 1 - Astronaut, Farmer

Silas Hiram, an Agricultural Professor and one of the colonists sent on Ark I to Alpha Centauri, figures prominently in both of the books and will appear again in 2014.

Why was he important? His voice (via his journal) is used to "see" into the past several times. He was the first human to note that Alnilam disappeared. This was the clue that cracked the case of the Stareaters.

Later, his actual journal was found and examined by Rei and Rome on Helome and confirmed the story that the Darwin people, in the gray sarcophagi, had a secret agenda, finally exposed in The Ark Lords.

There was a beautiful short story about his life there (before they were eaten by the Piranha Rats) which will appear in The Vuduri Companion in 2014. Tomorrow, I will synopsize this little gem.

Was the Ark program a success or failure?

The Ark program was launched in the latter half of the 21st century in an attempt to colonize habitable worlds in other star systems, perhaps to save the human race before the Earth collapsed under the weight of overpopulation. But was it a success or failure?

Ark I was sent to Alpha Centauri. Amazingly, Earth's nearest stellar neighbor had the highest percentage chance of having a habitable world. The Ark I landed on New Earth (later called Helome by the Vuduri) flawlessly and all proceeded according to plan. Until the colony was decimated by civil war then eaten by the Piranha Rats. I'd call that a failure since no one survived.

Ark II was sent to Tau Ceti. It hit an asteroid and spun out of control for 14 centuries only to be rescued by the Vuduri at Skyler Base orbiting Tabit. Eventually, Rei and Rome shepherded the Ark back to Tau Ceti to the world called Deucado. Since most of the people survived, I'd call that one a success.

Ark III was sent to 82 G. Eridani but there were no habitable planets so it made its way to Tau Ceti, the backup. The colonists crash-landed and had to build a civilization from scratch, mostly underground but they did survive so I guess I'd have to call that one a success.

Ark IV - where did that go? You'll find out in Part 5 entitled The Milk Run which will be released in 2014.

Ark V, sometimes known as the Stealth Ark, was filled with criminals and psychopaths and soldiers and their sole mission was to return to conquer Earth. They were defeated by Jack Henry, chronicled in The Ark Lords, so I'd call that one a failure.

So, 2 wins, 2 losses and one incomplete. I guess the jury is still out.

Why did the Vuduri miss the Winfall disappearance?

One of the casualties of compressing three books into one is that some of the more subtle nuances of science were omitted. In the earlier version of Rome’s Revolution, Part 1 (originally titled VIRUS 5: Asdrale Cimatir [Stareater]), Rei and OMCOM have a discussion about this topic. How was it that the Vuduri with all their scientific prowess, could miss the disappearance of Winfall? After all, that was the entire purpose of setting up the stellar observatory.

The answer is because they traveled faster than light. Every time they jump through a PPT tunnel, their time, relative to the universe around them, goes backwards by a small degree. Enough jumps and you have a sizeable delay. Since it took them over a month to get out to Tabit, their clocks were off by over six weeks or so. So, after waiting well past the due date, the Vuduri gave up and packed up the shop. Sadly, they started shutting down just days before the actual wavefront came along.

While Rome’s Revolution still has Rei inventing the starprobes, the original story also had OMCOM and Rei perform an experiment proving that clocks go backwards through PPT tunnels.