Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 3

Interview with Rome I - Part 17 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, the final part, part 17 of 17.
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Rome: Yes. The plan worked out. Mostly. I had to gear up my courage and give the Onsira speech to the world. At first, I had what Rei called stage fright. Nonetheless, I did it. Except the Stareaters arrived just as I was speaking. Everyone passed out including me. OMCOM or his projection produced a T-suppressor just in time but it was my perfect son, not even a week old, who served as a communicator and contacted the Stareater. We reached an accord and the Earth was saved.
(Perry looks down at his tablet)
Perry: I’m so sorry but we have to stop now. I have a staff meeting and I’m late already. This has been just too fascinating but I’m stuck.
Rome: It’s OK. My voice is getting tired anyway. I’ve talked enough as it is.
Perry: No, not nearly enough. Can we please schedule another time to continue our discussion?
Rome: Of course.
(Perry closes his tablet and stands up. He extends his hand to Rome who shakes it firmly).
Perry: Rome, one last thing. I have to know. Whatever became of your cat?
Rome: Skodla? Oh, my dear, dear Skodla. When he was just a kitten, he came down with a very high fever. My mother thought he was going to die. But he recovered. He grew and he grew and he grew. He was very big cat. When Rei first met him, he said he was so big he needed his own ZIP code, whatever that means. Skodla was fine. My mother took care of him while I was away at Tabit. I had sent her a letter telling her that I was most likely not coming back to Earth and that I wanted her to come to Deucado. In another life, that is probably what would have happened but because of the crisis, Rei and I had to return to Earth. After we were banished to Havei, we were permitted to stop at my mother’s home and pick him up. He came with us to Deucado and lived out his years on our beautiful world. When Aason was in Heaven, he met Skodla’s spirit and he is still there, waiting for us. He was a wonderful cat.
Perry: That is such a nice story. Look. I’ll contact you in a few days and we’ll try and conclude this. Although with the stories you have to tell, I don’t know if one more session would even be enough.
Rome: There’s no rush. I’m not going anywhere.
(Perry starts to leave the room)
Rome: Perry, please take care of my Library. It is very important not just to me but to all of mankind and the other species that come here.
(Perry raises his free hand)
Perry: I will. I promise.

Note: after Rei's interview, I will give you the second half of Rome's interview

Interview with Rome I - Part 16 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 16 of 17.
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Perry: What was that like?
Rome: I was frightened out of my mind. Rei simply didn’t know enough to understand how terrible a position we were in. He sprinkled some of the weaponized VIRUS units on MASAL. MASAL had no idea what they were. Rei then proceeded to bait MASAL to give the VIRUS units time to do their work. But MASAL ran out of patience and decided to use me to kill Rei.
Perry: What? How?
Rome: As a connected Vuduri, our PPT transducers are integrated into every cell in our brain. Including the motor cortex. No one has ever exploited this before but MASAL was quite insane by this point and decided to amuse himself by seizing control of my body. He was far too powerful to resist. I literally had no control over my limbs. MASAL made me walk up to Rei and shoot him point blank with the plasma gun.
Perry: I’m confused. If you shot him point blank, how is it that he is still alive?
Rome: I couldn’t live with what he was making me do. I closed my eyes. MASAL didn’t stop me but he made me squeeze the trigger. The gun fired and when I opened my eyes again, Rei was gone. My heart was completely broken. I had just shot and killed the man I loved more than life itself.
Perry: But you didn’t.
Rome: No. My incredible MINIMCOM had retrieved him during that short interval using one of his whoosh-pop snap PPT tunnels. Rei was safe on the surface but I didn’t know that at the time.
Perry: Then what?
Rome: Something snapped inside me. I was so completely devastated that I went into shock. My brain physiology changed. MASAL had no control over what remained. My conscious mind was gone. I have been told by others that what remained was living fury. My body shot at MASAL’s structure over and over. It didn’t really have any effect but the VIRUS units did their work. OMCOM sent a Null Fold projection…
Perry: Wait. OMCOM? I thought he was Planet OMCOM out by Tabit.
Rome: He was. But he had this relay system using Null Folds which allowed him to project his essence very long distances when need be. MINIMCOM loaned him some constructors which constituted near me and he shielded me until MINIMCOM could bring me to the surface. It wasn’t until many years later that I found out what transpired between the two computers during the time, after I left but before the volcano blew up. It’s sad, really. As MASAL was being destroyed, part of that destruction left him with what OMCOM called philosophical depth perception and just before he died, MASAL woke up and realized that everything he had done was wrong. He was actually sorry but it was too late. Kilauea erupted and vaporized MASAL and all the Onsiras within that base.
Perry: That must have been rather dramatic. I’ve only seen images of it.
Rome: It was. Ignoring how awful it was, it was truly beautiful. I’ve been toying with the idea of painting what I saw that day but I haven’t been brave enough to try.
Perry: So that was the end of MASAL…

Tomorrow, part 16

Interview with Rome I - Part 15 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 15 of 17.
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Rome: I know it sounds funny but it all worked out. The Overmind now had a new mission, to protect and nourish the Vuduri on Deucado. To serve them. Rei and I were reunited. I cannot tell you how relieved I was. I missed him so. Like I said earlier, just like with my mother, it was as if a piece of me had been removed. Once we were together, the Overmind helped us defuse the war before it started.
Perry: And everybody lived happily ever after?
Rome: No. Wouldn’t that have been nice? The whole point of Deucado was to sequester the mandasurte so that MASAL could complete his plan. Once the mandasurte were liberated, the Onsiras would have to resort to Plan B, to wipe out the planet and deal with the fallout later. That’s why Rei and I returned to Earth the first time, to stop them before they could complete the plan. We had no idea that MASAL was still alive and directing it all.
Perry: MASAL. The volcano. That is rather famous.
Rome: It wasn’t the plan at first. We just wanted to let the world know about the plot. But we didn’t know who was Onsira and who wasn’t. The plan was to tell my mother, the only person in the whole world that I knew I could trust. I needed to tell her about the plot. Then we’d broadcast it to the whole world and that would be the end of it. The Vuduri don’t hate the mandasurte. They’d just rather not deal with them. But even the Vuduri have enough sense to know that genocide is not a good thing.
Perry: So why didn’t your mother carry out your plan?
Rome: Because she didn’t know. I was arrested before I could even reach her. I was tried and convicted and Rei got me off. My mother showed up and once she saw that I was going to be safe, she cast herself out, Cesdiud, before we could even discuss it. She wanted no part of an Overmind that would treat me like that. While I was thrilled to see my mother, it really threw, again Rei’s phrase, a monkey wrench into the works.
Perry: Well I know that you succeeded. What was your fallback plan?
Rome: Once we were banished to Havei, I had MINIMCOM dispatched to fetch Commander Ursay. I trusted the man completely. I was virtually certain he was not Onsira. As certain as I could be about anyone who wasn’t my mother. Once he arrived, my uncle was going to take us to Berlis Harbor, to Onalu, to use the broadcast facilities there. That would reach the mandasurte. Commander Ursay would simultaneously reach the Vuduri. It was a good plan.
Perry: But…
Rome: Then Estar… (Rome mutters something her breath) Estar kidnapped Rei and I before we could execute the plan and had us shielded so we couldn’t contact MINIMCOM or anybody. That did not turn out well for her.
Perry: She died.
Rome: Yes. I didn’t intend to kill her but she was certainly determined to kill us. When it comes to me and my safety, my Rei is rather single-minded and he was not about to let them harm me. He killed one guard and maimed another while Estar and I wrestled for control of a plasma gun. The ceiling collapsed and crushed her skull. It wasn’t on purpose but there was nothing I could do. Rei and I escaped and followed a lava tube down until we were safe enough to call for MINIMCOM to come get us. Before that could happen, we stumbled across MASAL, buried deep beneath Kilauea.

Tomorrow, part 16

Interview with Rome I - Part 14 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 14 of 17.
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Perry: And that was you.
Rome: Yes. Although I was so naïve at the time. When I look back on what I did, I still shake my head.
Perry: How so?
Rome: With my newly awakened brain, I had no idea of my limitations. I thought I could do anything. They told me I had to be reintegrated into the Overmind to save Aason. I saw it as an opportunity to fix things. I was so certain I could talk it back from the edge of insanity. But as soon as I was reintegrated, I saw they were going to have Rei executed so I had to pretend I never wanted to see him again to make him safe. He was so hurt; it broke my heart. But I couldn’t think of any way to save him otherwise. Luckily, the Vuduri were so happy to have caught me, to mine my mind, or so they thought, that letting Rei go was not a big problem.
Perry: Obviously you succeeded. The Overmind here is a very caring entity. That’s something that has never been documented. How did you talk it out of its path?
Rome: I used a combination of logic and emotion. I explained to it about the Stareaters. That the Vuduri pass out whenever they’re around. And you never knew when they were going to show up. The Vuduri had to have mandasurte along with them otherwise the space lanes would be closed to them forever.
Perry: And the Overmind agreed with you?
Rome: It had no choice. It had independent corroboration that the Stareaters were real and the effect on the Vuduri were real. Of course, the Vuduri could travel in space all wearing T-suppressors but really all that did was turn them into mandasurte. The logic was inescapable.
Perry: So that was enough for it to release its grip?
Rome: No. I had to convince it to liberate the Vuduri as well.
(Perry tilts his head)
Rome: The Overmind is made up of the Vuduri. The Vuduri let the Overmind do the thinking for them without any creativity. And this, in turn, sapped the Overmind of creativity. It’s a vicious downward cycle. If it continued, the Overmind’s intelligence would eventually degenerate into something that couldn’t survive and the Vuduri wouldn’t survive either.
Perry: That was the feedback loop you referred to?
Rome: Yes. But the thing that really convinced it was love. I told the Overmind that it was removing the humanity from its charges. Ironically, later we found out this was MASAL’s very goal. I showed the Overmind this was no academic exercise. I knew this first hand from my own life. Without love, without joy, what is the point of living? Humans just taking up space. No different from the ants. The Overmind reached into my mind and learned what love is. It felt my love for Rei. It realized this was something it needed as well. I did my job a bit too well. I’m a little embarrassed to say that since the whole concept was new, the Overmind decided it was in love with me.
(Perry puts his hand over his mouth and titters a bit)

Tomorrow, part 15

Interview with Rome I - Part 13 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 13 of 17.
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But he had no way to get there. So by kidnapping Lupe and leaving a breadcrumb trail, he was able to get Aason to discover Molokai and Molokai was able to navigate what became Starship OMCOM all the way to Heaven. It worked. OMCOM got what he wanted. When Aason found out, he was so mad, but he had to rescue Lupe. She was in pretty bad shape.
Perry: But she’s OK now?
Rome: Oh yes, she recovered fully. Well, I don’t know if I can say that. When she came back, she was a little different. Not in a bad way. She was a little more mature? But we still loved her and she loves us and everything is OK. Aason never fully forgave OMCOM. To this day, Aason says if he ever saw OMCOM, he’d punch him in the nose. Not that OMCOM has a nose. (Rome laughs) I must tell you how proud I am of my son as well. He is the best of both Rei and me. He is a hero is his own right. When he and Lupe got back, they were the ones that started the First Contact Academy and that led to what we call the Union today. So on balance, I think OMCOM did more good than bad.
Perry: I suppose as a computer; he never felt any remorse over the bad?
Rome: He said he did but he didn’t. Like you said, he is, or he was, a computer. They aren’t human. That doesn’t mean they can’t feel. Look at my brilliant MINIMCOM. He is a loving member of our family. His son and daughter are my niece and nephew. But there was also MASAL. We always considered him evil. A computer is as a computer does. Their motives are always good from their perspective. They just don’t always correspond to what we think is good. OMCOM did create the PNA-based 25th chromosome. That was distributed on three planets and stopped the spread of the Onsiras forever. That was a good thing.
Perry: We have an entire section dedicated to the AIs and their actions. There’s no need to go into all of that now. But maybe someday you can come back and fill in any of the gaps.
Rome: Of course.
(Perry looks down at his tablet again)
Perry: Tell me about the Overmind here, on Deucado. It was an integral part of, I’m sorry to keep saying this, Rome’s Revolution.
(Rome nods)
Rome: It took us a full year to get here from Tabit. When we finally arrived, we were so relieved. We expected to enlist the aid of the Vuduri and mandasurte to help us rescue Rei’s crew. Never did we dream that we would be attacked as soon as we got here. That was the Overmind’s directive. The old, corrupted form of the Overmind. The Onsiras had arrived when it was very young and malleable and convinced it that its main concern would be the capture and suppression of the mandasurte. In fact, as you know, the mandasurte on this planet refer to themselves, even to this day, as the Ibbrassati, the Oppressed.
Perry: And it never occurred to the Overmind that this was wrong?
Rome: The Overmind is made up of the collective consciousness of the Vuduri. And most of them let the Overmind do the thinking for them. It’s a positive feedback loop. Once set, it needs an outside jolt to unset it.

Tomorrow, part 13

Interview with Rome I - Part 12 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 12 of 17.
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Perry: Yes, that is one thing that is well documented. Your trial, although I don’t think that word is an accurate description.
Rome: Right. On Earth, the Vuduri don’t have trials. Since everybody knows what everybody else has done, no Vuduri would ever think to break the law. Before Oronus, the Juiz, I admitted my “crimes” so it was a foregone conclusion that I was guilty. The sentence is what caught me by surprise. Termination by evaporation? I was actually scared.
Perry: A death sentence. That seems a little harsh for someone who saved the world.
Rome: The Vuduri are essentially binary. Yes or no. Right or wrong. They didn’t have room in their judicial system to consider mitigating factors. I was kind of stunned by the sentence so I didn’t really speak up for myself. But Rei did. My sweet Rei, he showed them the true power of being able to think for yourself. The Vuduri never stood a chance. By the time he was done with them, they either had to commit planetary suicide or let me go.
(Perry nods and chuckles)
Perry: And OMCOM?
Rome: After we left Tabit, I was able to figure out what OMCOM was up to. Without being modest, I can tell you that I am fairly intelligent. But back then, I was just learning to use my brain. This was the first time that I was able to connect apparently unrelated facts to find a pattern, an answer, that made sense.
Perry: You aren’t being modest. You are what you are.
Rome: It’s more than that. Think of the brain as a muscle. I hadn’t used that muscle in so long, it was very well rested. Untainted. So as time wore on, I was able to use it more and more. It kind of exploded when I learned about the Essessoni data slabs and got to see, for the first time, all the facts and artifacts from all the generations stretching back to the beginning of mankind. To use one of Rei’s funny phrases, it was mind-blowing. My brain was unleashed. Sometimes I’m torn between my feelings and logic but they usually get along well together. To be able to think critically is possibly the most important part of being human. Well, that and love. My emotions sometimes get the best of me, especially when it comes to my children, but there are many times my emotions serve me as well as my intellect.
Perry: Anything more you want to say about OMCOM?
Rome: The list of things he did is a long one. He “enhanced” Rei without his permission and because of that, all of our descendants will acquire those changes. I don’t think it is all bad. I took the same “magic” pill that Rei took. It killed my bloco and stilo which is inconvenient sometimes. That wasn’t so terrible all things considered. Ultimately, the worst thing OMCOM did was what he put my poor baby, Lupe, through when he had her kidnapped and taken to Heaven.
Perry: I know the story but what was the logic behind that?
Rome: OMCOM, or Planet OMCOM, was so powerful that he felt our universe was not complex enough for him. He had purposely allowed the VIRUS units to mutate so that they could explore not only this universe but see if there were others. When one of them returned with information about the existence of Heaven, OMCOM got very excited. He would finally get to collate all the knowledge that ever existed.

Tomorrow, part 13

Interview with Rome I - Part 11 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 11 of 17.
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Rome: Occasionally. Rei and I still use them from time to time but our love for one another has deepened to the point where the bands are more of a diversion than a life-changing experience. And no need for the T-suppressor. I know how to shut out the Overmind here when I want to. We mostly do it for recreational purposes. There are no secrets between us with or without the bands.
Perry: Going back to your first time, with Rei. From your description, I can certainly see why you didn’t stop when you were supposed to. My understanding is that the Overmind did not take kindly to your actions?
Rome: That’s an understatement. At some point during the night, Rei took the bands off my head. I was asleep at the time and didn’t notice. I’m sure the Overmind dug around in my brain to retrieve the information it desired about the Ark and all but after that it had no use for me. Talk about being soiled! I was positively corrupted in its opinion and that was that. It shut down my PPT resonance and when I awoke, I discovered I was Cesdiud, cast out. I was in shock. Something that had been a part of me ever since I was a child had been ripped out. (Rome frowns) Poor Rei. I took it out on him. It wasn’t his fault, though. And now, in retrospect, it was the greatest gift he could have ever given me.
Perry: I think I understand. Thank you for that. (Perry looks down at his tablet) I’ve heard you mention more than once that the OMCOM that became Planet OMCOM was somehow involved. Can you give me a little more detail about that?
Rome: Yes. He had his digital fingers in pretty much all the events that occurred at Tabit, as well as many of our other adventures. He couldn’t help it. He was an AI. He had no moral compass. He just had a directive to figure things out and sometimes we poor humans help and sometimes we hinder that pursuit. What he did wasn’t always bad. It was just that he didn’t care about the implications.
Perry: And how did you feel about that?
Rome: Back then, it made me angry but I’ve let it go. To the extent that I am today, with my wonderful Rei, my children, my grandchildren, oh, I have a great-grandchild now. Did you know that?
(Perry shakes his head)
Rome: Yes. He is a beautiful baby boy. But without OMCOM, none of this would have occurred so I resorted back to my old ways to just suppress my resentment of how it happened.
Perry: So how did he manipulate you and those around you?
Rome: Too many ways to even count. He had a hand in getting me Cesdiud. That was necessary so that I would be willing to break the law and override the Vuduri prohibition on mating a Casimir pump to a memron. That led to the star probes and from there to the VIRUS units. All the while, we thought OMCOM was doing this to help solve the mystery of the Stareaters, and how to stop them. He wasn’t. It was completely selfish.
Perry: From what I know, you have an extraordinary sense of right and wrong. Yet you said you willingly broke the law. How do you reconcile that with your moral code?
Rome: There’s a difference between doing the right thing and doing what people say is the right thing. At the time, it was the right thing to do. I had no hesitation. Plus, I was still angry at the Overmind for my Cesdiud and this was my way of showing it what a mistake it made. Don’t worry. I paid the price later.

Tomorrow, part 12

Interview with Rome I - Part 10 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 10 of 17.
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Rome: Volia is love of friends, companionship. You understand that?
(Perry nods)
Rome: Aris is, well, physical. Akin to attraction, maybe even lust, that sort of thing.
Perry: And the last one? Emir I think you said?
Rome: Yes. Emir. Emir is all of them, rolled up into one. Rei is mau emir, my love, but English does not carry enough complexity to fully describe how I feel about him.
Perry: That’s very nice. I think we should try and incorporate those words.
Rome: Perhaps. I’ll leave that to others. Formal Vuduri is what the Essessoni would call a Romance language. Not romance as in a love story but dating all the way back to Portuguese and from there back to Latin, the language of the Romans. Those languages have such subtleties. English is an amalgam of Germanic, Romance and every other language when needed. It’s a mongrel language but not in the pejorative sense. It’s very flexible. I think that’s why it’s caught on as the universal second language of all the inhabitants of Deucado. Not only do the Essessoni and the Deucadons speak it as a first language but the Ibbrassati, the mandasurte and even the Vuduri have latched on. Again, funny story. When Rei and I were traveling from Tabit to Deucado, I taught him Vuduri to the point where it was second nature to him. He spoke it like a native. I told him nobody was going to take the time to learn English on Deucado. I couldn’t have been more wrong! (Rome slaps her thigh and laughs)
(Perry smiles and nods)
Perry: We keep straying. The bands?
Rome: Oh yes. The bands. It didn’t take me very long to look deep enough into Rei’s mind to know that he was not an Ark Lord. He had no knowledge of the Darwin agenda. He was an innocent. Sweet, kind, caring, earnest. In short, he was nice guy, not a monster. But I didn’t stop there. I kept pushing deeper, to see what it was like to live in his world, to experience it through his eyes. But all the while that I was exploring his mind, the bands are bi-directional, you know, he was exploring mine. He was wading into my childhood, to all those memories that I had been repressing. The wonder he expressed. It was like looking at myself for the first time. It was so liberating! I needed more. It was like an addiction. I couldn’t stop. I pushed harder and harder until I literally broke the bands. Whatever restraints or restrictions were built into the electronics, I burnt them out. Deeper and deeper we went. To the point where I couldn’t tell where I stopped and Rei started. Unlike you, I know the soul is real. Aason proved that. Well, our souls intertwined as only Asboradi Cimponeti could. We became one. We were now our own samanda. A miniature version of our own Overmind. And we’ve been connected ever since. Love as a word is so inadequate to describe how I feel about him. And I know he feels the same.
Perry: Wow. That sounds intense!
Rome: It was. But it was also the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me. Well, excluding the birth of my children. That was pretty awesome, too.
Perry: Do you still use the bands now?

Tomorrow, part 11

Interview with Rome I - Part 9 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 9 of 17.
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Rome: When Rei was first awakened, having slept for 14 centuries, the first thing he wanted to do was sleep. (Rome shakes her head) The second thing he wanted to do was eat. So I got him some Vuduri food. And he hated it! I told him how good it was for him but he never acquiesced. Later, when he introduced me to Essessoni food… The first thing he gave me was coffee, blessed coffee. (Rome makes an ah sound) Anyway, as I learned about Essessoni food, I came around to his way of thinking. Their food, our food now, is so much better. I put on quite a bit of weight during our time together aboard the Flying House because everything Rei made was so delicious. I couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t until after Aason was born and things settled down that I got serious about my body again and returned to my optimal weight. Rei never judged me but it was important to me to be my best self.
Perry: That sounds like that part of the trip was a fun time.
Rome: It was. Rei is a good cook. The whole process was so unnatural to me that it took me a long time to learn how to cook as well as he can. But we’re past that now. I know there are certain dishes I make that are far better than his rendition. (Rome smiles) Just don’t ask me about bison burgers, though.
(Perry laughs but really doesn’t understand the reference)
Perry: OK. Back to the bands.
Rome: Yes. I had put the Espansor on Rei’s head and after it calibrated, I put on mine. I then put on the T-suppressor and for the first time in I don’t know how long, I was able to relax. The Overmind had been such an overbearing presence for so long, I must have been tense every waking minute of every day. Later, Rei told me that when I relaxed, it was first time that he actually saw me as a woman. I could see that in his mind as I entered it. It was both shocking and wonderful that I realized he was a man and not just a potential Erklirte. And he thought I was pretty. I remember looking at his lips and thinking to myself how soft they appeared. Of course, with the Espansors on, I wasn’t thinking it just to myself. Rei heard me. I didn’t care. I reached over and touched his lips. It was magical. I knew as a mosdurece, I would never be selected for reproduction so I had never really considered sexual relations. I… (Rome shakes her head) That’s a story of another time. Let me just say, in that moment, looking at Rei, for the first time in my life, I understood the concept of attraction and, this is for posterity, right?
(Perry nods)
Rome: I finally understood the concept of Aris.
Perry: What is that?
Rome: The Vuduri have five words for love. Not that the concept would be of any use to a modern Vuduri but the language itself predates the Overmind. The five words are egeba, estirga, volia, aris and emir.
Perry: What do those mean?
Rome: Egeba is the love of essence, an extreme form of liking. Do you like ice cream?
Perry: I love ice cream.
Rome: There you go. That is egeba.
Perry: And the rest?
Rome: Estirga is love of family, children. For example, I’d say to my mother “au da estirga” to tell her I loved her.
Perry: Go on

Tomorrow, part 10

Interview with Rome I - Part 8 of 17

As Steve Fisch and I get the scripts ready to sell Rome's Revolution as a streaming series, he asked me for a lot of background information that I did not have. So I took some time out to interview Rome and Rei. Rome was very talkative so I had to break up the interview into two parts. Rei was a bit more concise. So here is the first Rome interview, part 8 of 17.
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Rome: Yes. It may be the biggest single flaw of the Overmind but once it sets its mind to something, it doesn‘t value alternate opinions. It is, or it was, convinced of its infallibility. The physics behind the trip were sound. We had our timepieces, our clocks. We knew when the light waves from the disappearance of Winfall were supposed to reach Tabit. We arrived in what we thought was plenty of time. We deployed our equipment and waited. What we did not realize was that every time we jumped through a PPT tunnel, the timepieces were offset by a small amount. When we got to Tabit, our clocks were way, way off. By more than 10 days. Subjectively, our bodies aged at the same rate as our timepieces so there was no way to know that by objective time, we got there too soon. Nobody had ever measured this effect before because it reverses on the way back so everything appears normal by the time you get home. Rei told me it’s related to the theory called Relativity.
Perry: So your clocks were off.
Rome: Yes. And you know the Vuduri. They are nothing if not efficient. Seven days after the event was supposed to occur, the Overmind there concluded we would not be able to observe the disappearance for whatever reason. Wrong geometry, whatever. Commander Ursay counseled patience. The fact that the Overmind even considered it is fairly remarkable. So we waited another few days. Finally, even Commander Ursay had to admit that there was something off. Winfall was just there and wasn’t going to disappear and it had to be a parallax or an astro-geophysics issue. He ordered the instruments to be collected and we were preparing to leave when Rei’s Ark arrived and almost collided with one of our tugs.
Perry: Knowing Vuduri history, with the Ark Lords, I’m surprised that the Overmind even entertained the idea of a salvage operation. Why didn’t it just let the Ark go flying by?
Rome: That particular Overmind was constructed for research and exploration. Our original mission was a complete failure. So perhaps this was its idea of getting something, anything out of the fact that we had gone all that way, from a scientific perspective. They rescued it and picked Rei.
Perry: So why did they pick Rei, to study?
Rome: It’s the funniest thing. And it’s why I say he and I were destined to be together. He was picked totally at random. It could have been anyone. The fact that it was him and that we were Asborodi Cimponeti tells me there were forces at work, beyond anyone’s comprehension, that brought him to me.
Perry: What do you remember about that experience?
Rome: Well, that same Overmind was not above its own prejudices. Even though I was a valuable member of the crew, I was still a mosdurece so in that sense, I was the most expendable. Canus, another member of our crew, was trained in medical procedures so he and I were selected to awaken Rei and find out about the Ark’s mission. After Rei was reanimated and cleared medically, I was the one selected to interrogate him because (Rome holds up one finger), first I was the only mosdurece and (Rome holds up another finger) I was the only one on board with Espansor bands. Not that another Vuduri couldn’t have used them but if anybody was going to be soiled, of course it was me.
Perry: You told me about your parents and their experience with the bands. You had the same experience as them. Can you describe it?
Rome: I will but I just thought of a funny story that I want to tell you first.
Perry: Of course

Tomorrow, part 9