Michael Brachman's Blog: Tales of the Vuduri, page 44

The Perepelkin Crater

Yesterday, I explained that Rome and Rei had to get to the far side of the Moon to look in the center of the Perepelkin Crater. The crater itself has been photographed many times by several orbiters and by some of the Apollo spacecraft. I picked this crater because it is easy to find and has some interesting geological features which would further aid Rome and Rei in locating the starprobe. There is a V-shaped depression right in the center which forms kind of an arrow pointing to the probe:

     While there was no actual sensation, the virtual instruments projected on the center display showed them veering off. The faint line indicating their original trajectory leading to Deucado faded and was replaced by one pointing toward the Solar System. At 15,000c, it took them only two hours to reach Earth. MINIMCOM dropped out of null-fold space and used his plasma thrusters to ease into orbit around the Moon.
     The far side of the Moon lacked the distinctive maria that characterized the side facing the Earth and was much more heavily cratered. It had been extensively mapped in the late 20th century. MINIMCOM was able to bring up some images and with Rei’s help, touched down right in the middle of the crater known as Perepelkin. Along the far wall was an odd pear-shaped depression that was probably the result of two impact craters merging. In the middle of the main crater was a crescent-shaped depression, its center containing a craterlet. Within the craterlet sat a small metallic object, perched on four tiny spindly legs, listing to one side.

Here is an actual image of the crater so you can compare it to my description:

The Dark Side of the Moon

Everybody knows there is no such thing as the dark side of the Moon. The entire surface of the Moon gets equal amounts of sunlight just like the Earth. What they are trying to say is the far side of the Moon. Because the Moon is tidally locked with the Earth, we only see one side. However, thanks to NASA and other space agencies, we have a very good idea of what the far side of the Moon looks like. I thought it would be neat to explore this exotic place within The Ark Lords :

     Rei said, “As far as I can tell, the only real advantage they have is this Virus 5. The Ark Lords that landed on Earth were defeated. They clearly never had a chance to deploy it. So it’s still down there, somewhere, on the Earth.”
     “Where?” Rome asked.
     “I don’t know,” Rei replied. “Maybe the tape will tell us. MINIMCOM, fire it up again.”
     “Of course.”
     Rei sat back down in the pilot’s seat while the 3D holographic display lit up showing Colonel Slayton picked up in mid-sentence, “…the event that you get there first, we will put a beacon on the far side of the Moon to broadcast the coordinates of where we will store the virus. The beacon will be placed in the center depression of the Perepelkin Crater. It should be easy to find. The beacon will be nuclear-powered so the signal will be available for at least a thousand years. That should be more than enough time.”
     The Colonel leaned forward in his seat. “Remember, the vaccine is only biologically active for a few years. If you or your people decide to deploy Virus 5, you will need to re-inoculate yourselves prior to release.” He sat back in his chair.
     “That is all for now. This data slab has instructions on how to manufacture more vaccine, images of the virus storage canister, everything you will need to complete your mission.” He made a fist. “Here’s to Project Darwin, survival of the fittest and reclaiming the Earth.” He raised his hand smartly to his brow then snapped it back down. “I salute you and wish you the best of luck. God bless America.”
     As the video winked out, Rei lowered his head to cover his eyes with his hand while his elbow rested on his knee.
     “You know what we have to do, right?” Rome asked Rei.
     “Of course,” Rei replied exhaustedly, not even looking up.
     “MINIMCOM,” Rome said. “We must find the storage vessel for the virus and destroy it. That will be the end of the Erklirte forever. Take us to Earth.” She paused for a second, and then added, “Please?”
     “I presume we are going by way of the far side of the Moon?”
     “Yes,” Rome commanded. “We must find that beacon. It holds the key to the location of the virus.”

Tomorrow, let's go to the Moon!

The Damned Time Machine

In our discussion of The Darwin Project, we have now laid out the purpose of the Ark missions. Not only were they to create viable colonies on other worlds but also after so many generations, the goal was to return to the Earth and take it over. In fact, the Darwin Virus Strain 5 was created to wipe the slate clean just in case the Earth was still inhabited by undesirables. In his diatribe about the Darwin Project and their plans to "reboot" the Earth, Colonel Slayton did say something a bit odd:

     “We have tried to cover every contingency including one Ark that we can absolutely guarantee will return to Earth. It is possible that they will have already arrived by the time you get there. It is even possible that they have already deployed Virus 5. So it is critically important that you and all of your crew are inoculated with the vaccine prior to entering cryo-hibernation.”

Since it would take a century or more for a distant colony to build up sufficient technology to launch Arks to return to the Earth, how would Slayton know that one Ark would absolutely be successful? Rei applies logic to the situation:

     Rei turned to her. “When I was back on Skyler Base, OMCOM told me that the Ark Lords, the Erklirte, returned from a mission to Chara. And this bozo is saying he guaranteed one Ark would come back to Earth. There were no habitable planets known in the Chara system when my Ark launched.” He sat back in his chair and looked at the ceiling.

Rei orders MINIMCOM to launch some starprobes to Chara. They search that star system and find an object that Rei recognizes:

     Rei said, “It’s a propulsion module. From an Ark.”
     “All that proves is that they were here,” Rome pointed out. “We already knew that.”
     “No,” Rei insisted. “The fact that they left it there means they had a second one. A backup. Goddammit!”
     “What!?”
     “The whole Chara mission was a ruse. It was nothing but a damned time machine. They sent an army there for the sole purpose of looping around, coming back and conquering Earth. There were no habitable planets at Chara. So they had no need for survival gear or colonists. They were probably loaded to the hilt with weapons. All Grays. All military. No wonder they were so effective. Those were the Ark Lords. The Erklirte.”
     “Rei,” Rome whispered. “Your people. They are beyond hideous. To be capable of such planning, such utter ruthlessness.” She pulled back, away from Rei, as if she were afraid of him.

Now they know the how. It's time that they deal with the fallout.

The Darwin Project

The Darwin Project has been referenced many times but it was never formally defined until the middle section of The Ark Lords. We discovered in The Vuduri Companion in the short story entitled "Pruno Dreams" that Colonel Harmon Slayton and other members of the U.S. Space Forces were conspiring to "reboot the Earth" in their words. They created the Darwin Project to supervise the systematic death of over nine billion people. This was not genocide. This was essentially the extinction of the human race.

They called it the Darwin Project in honor of Charles Darwin who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" but in this case it was not any biological or physiological advantage but rather who you knew. Here is Colonel Slayton's final words on the subject:

     “We have built some bunkers and self-sustaining enclaves to preserve our culture as best we can. We don’t know how long they will hold out.” The Colonel shrugged. “As far as the rest of the world, our psycho-historical research tells us that this will cause utter chaos and set what’s left of civilization back to the Stone Age. That is where you come in. You and your people have been sent away to preserve our technology and our way of life. Since you are watching this video, you have already completed your part of the plan. 100 Arks, 500 people per, an invading army of 50,000 with all of our best technology. When you get back home, the world will be there for the taking. You will reform the Earth in our image. You will make America the pre-eminent world power it once was. And never, ever let things get out of control again.” The Colonel leaned forward. “Before you launch, it is imperative that you learn about Strain 5. This is our final legacy to you, just in case.”

So now we know what was contained in the locker labeled S5 Vacc. It was a vaccine against the Darwin Strain 5 virus, one guaranteed to be lethal to all human beings, even those with a natural immunity to Strain 4. Here was Colonel Slayton's observations regarding Strain 5:

     “At last we come to Virus Strain 5. Strain 5 is an upgrade to Strain 4 with a prion delivery system and the H5N1 variant grafted on. While Strain 4 will be 99.999% effective, Virus 5 is guaranteed to be 100% lethal. No one, and I will say it again, no one will survive this that has not been immunized. All of your Arks have been supplied with an incubation kit for the Strain 5 vaccine.” Colonel Slayton pointed at the metallic container in front of him.
     “Wait,” Rome said as the video paused. “I’ve seen that before.”
     “What?”
     “That square canister with the white lid. There was one in Edgar’s back room. I saw it before he attacked me. That means your people have the S5 Vaccine. They obviously know what it is for.”
     Rei scowled. “MINIMCOM, keep going,” he said.
     “This is your backup plan. The purpose of this virus is to give you one more chance, should you arrive on Earth and find things have taken a turn for the worse. It will be here waiting for you. This will eliminate every human on the planet not of your choosing. We have tried to cover every contingency including one Ark that we can absolutely guarantee will return to Earth. It is possible that they will have already arrived by the time you get there. It is even possible that they have already deployed Virus 5. So it is critically important that you and all of your crew are inoculated with the vaccine prior to entering cryo-hibernation.”

So in the end, the Ark program was not just about colonizing new worlds, it was about isolating future members of Darwin and preparing them to return to Earth to take over. That is how the Erklirte were born. But where did they come from?

Tomorrow.

Memories

In order to give your characters depth, you have to give them a backstory. You need to create a realistic history for them and demonstrate to the reader what forces and experiences shaped them and made them the way they are. One of the most important ways you bring a backstory forward, other than just straightforward telling it, is to have them bring up memories either in a reverie, a dream or in conversation. I prefer conversations but I'm not against the other methods.

For Rei Bierak, I gave you his memories directly using flashbacks in Rome's Evolution. I have secret titles for all my chapters that I never reveal but one of those chapters was called "Rei's last day on Earth" not in the literal sense but in the figurative sense.

Another memory I gave you was a waking hallucination the Rome experienced in The Ark Lords when she touched the 800 year-old blood stain under the Tevatron left there by Jack Henry, the hero and martyr who was also Rome's distant relative.

Yet another technique I employed was when Rome and Rei used the Espansor Bands to connect directly, mind to mind. With that technique, Rei was able to see back into Rome's past and likewise, Rome could see into Rei's past. Rei learned what it was like to grow up in a mixed household, half Vuduri, half mandasurte. Rome learned what it was like to live on Rei's earth, overcrowded, global warming run amok, a ruined economy and terrorism everywhere.

Once Rome and Rei become immortal, they reflect upon their past life and how it will shape their future. As I mentioned above, I actually prefer to use conversations as a way of resurrecting memories.

All in all, memories are an awesome way to make the past become real. They are also the things that keep people alive in our hearts and our minds. This is the way that my Dad will live on - as long as there are people to remember him.

Life

Over the last few days I have been discussing death and funerals on Deucado. Today I wanted to talk about life. I've never been to the Grand Canyon or to Mt. Rushmore but I've also never been to the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia or the jungles of Africa. While both sets of features are wonders of nature, one group is geological and topographic and the other is biological.

So as the cast of characters of Rome's Revolution ventures out into the universe, they are constantly coming across wondrous things both living and dead. New worlds are being discovered and new forms of life. My claim is that all exploration into space is all about life and that is what is truly interesting. In my future universe, people like us expand into the unknown to find new places to live. They are looking for new home worlds to take root. Once the Essessoni meet the Vuduri and settle their differences, their future explorations are all about meeting new life forms, First Contact, and the Galactic Union.

Just take Aason's visit to Hades in The Milk Run. The bulk of our time was spent studying all the new life-forms there, including the survivors of the Ark IV mission. Very little time was spent noting the major geological features, other than how they would pertain to the colonists. There were mountains, lakes, oceans and plains but that is as far as we got. Even when Aason got to Heaven, we only spent the briefest moments describing what we saw there. The rest of the time was spent recounting Aason's interactions with the myriad of life forms he found there.

So, in the end, a mountain is neat as is a valley. A rocky, rugged terrain might be challenging. A live volcano might fascinating. But it is our pursuit of all the infinite various forms of life that truly captures our imagination. There are uncounted new species out there just waiting for our contact. That is where the true frontier lies.

My books have always been, and always will be about life in all its glory. I hope you find them as interesting and as uplifting as I do.

Funerals on Deucado

Yesterday, I told you I was not a big fan of death either in real life or my novels. But again, as in real life, ultimately death is inevitable. In fact, sometimes it can be used with great dramatic effect. Especially if it involves a major character. The question becomes, in the 35th century, what do they do with the dead people?

In the novel The Ark Lords, the first death we noted chronologically was that of Jack Henry who died during the Battle of Chicago between the rebels and the Erklirte. His body was buried beneath the rubble after Wilson Hall was leveled on the campus adjacent to the Tevatron. Later on, as recounted in The Vuduri Companion, the mother of Jack Henry's child and his best friend Red June promised to put a marker on his "grave" such as it was. We know that they did because 800 years later, Rome and Rei saw it with their own eyes.

When Rei was first awakened in Rome's Revolution, he discovered that the Vuduri were so emotionally distant that they simply tossed the bodies of dead people in the "recycler" whatever that is. Pretty cold. Rei taught Rome about coffins and funerals and burials and after the Essessoni integrated themselves into the vibrant community that was Deucado, funerals and burials came back into vogue.

Way down the road, if I ever get to it, I plan on writing a book or a series of books called The Immortals chronicling Rome and Rei's life after they find out they will never age and will never die. My plan was to start the book out (in the rain of course) at a cemetery where they are attending the funeral of a sixth generation Bierak. The person being buried is so far removed from their lineage that Rome and Rei don't really know the person's name, only that they are related.

My thinking is, because they are now freaks of nature, living forever, people avoid them. They become almost invisible. They are emotionally separated from regular humans and become increasingly isolated. My vision of that scene was that after the funeral, Rome and Rei walk over to visit the graves of Aason and Lupe. Somehow, Aason's spirit becomes known to them and Rome decides she misses her children too much and it is time for she and Rei to go to Heaven.

How they get there, I don't know. I suppose they could just kill themselves but how would that be even slightly entertaining? I set up the possibility that there were portals available in our galaxy that would transport them at least to Purgatory. From there, they could make the same journey to Heaven as did Aason in The Milk Run. Wandering the Milky Way, searching for the portal, seems like it might make for a good story or even multiple stories. But that is so far down the road.

Meanwhile, sadly, I must attend my Dad's funeral today so this entry must come to an end.

Death

I am not a fan of death. I actually have very little explicit dying in any of my books. Yesterday, I told you about The Great Dying perpetrated by the Darwin Project but that is off stage. In Rome's Revolution, I avoid death as much as I can but as in real life, sometimes it is inevitable. The only person that died at Skyler Base was already dead by the time Rei got there. Rome and Rei killed the Stareater, of course, but even that ended up being a mistake.

In the middle of Rome's Revolution, I prevented a war and thus avoided mass death. I did include an explicit scene near the end where Rome accidentally killed Estar but she had it coming. She was, after all, trying to kill Rei and Rome. At the end of the book, not only Estar but all the people populating the Onsira base beneath Kilauea died. However, we never saw what became of them because Rome and Rei incinerated MASAL, the evil computer by igniting the volcano. We saw the volcano erupt and that was that.

In The Ark Lords, the entire plot was based upon the mass death of people but Rome and Rei saved the day by stopping the evil plot before it started. They didn't even kill the members of the Darwin Project but rather shipped them off to Helome to serve as genetic donors.

I must admit, I did "kill" MINIMCOM in The Ark Lords for a short while but that was simply for dramatic effect. In the historical section of the book, Jack Henry, the martyr, died while attacking the Erklirte. You did get to witness his actual death but from the standpoint of the 35th century, his death actually took place 800 years before the novel. Technically, it was seen only through flashback.

In Rome's Evolution, I did have Reema, the Queen of the Onsiras, killed as well as Sussen. I guess I was feeling braver. But even they were resurrected in The Milk Run when Aason Bierak made his way to Heaven.

And finally, I could not stomach the idea of my heroes growing old and dying so I gave them virtual immortality right at the end. You'll have to read about it in The Vuduri Companion but I assure you they came out OK.

Like I said, I am not a big fan of death. But I write all of this in honor of my Dad, Ray Brachman, who passed away yesterday morning. Peacefully. His name will live on both in real life and in my books as the inspiration for Rei Bierak.

The Great Dying 2081 AD

The Great Dying was a phrase coined by people a lot smarter than me to reference an extinction level event that occurred before the age of the dinosaurs. It is actually called the Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) extinction event and occurred about 250 million years ago. It was the Earth's most severe known extinction event, which, according to Wikipedia eliminated up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species. It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Again, according to Wikipedia, because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after any other extinction event, possibly up to 10 million years. It is after this event that the dinosaurs were able to begin to evolve.

However, the people that occupy my 35th century world of the Vuduri are not that imaginative so they didn't mind borrowing the phrase to reference the mass extinction of the human race, statistically speaking, in the year 2081 AD. Over nine billion people died in that event. The worst part of it is that we find out in The Ark Lords that it was done on purpose. Here is what Colonel Slayton said about it:

     “My name is Colonel Harmon Slayton. I am the mission commander for Project Darwin. If you are watching this, I am mostly likely dead. Probably for hundreds of years. You would have no concept but the Earth is dying. It has been overrun by too many people and they are killing the planet. The eco-system is breaking down. We’ve had two Category 7 hurricanes this year already and it is only March. There is terrorism everywhere. The economy is permanently in the toilet. The United States government has decided it is time to fix things.”
     “When the Reynolds Corporation first proposed the Ark program, the U.S. Military agreed to co-sponsor the initiative in exchange for the right to select twenty per cent of the passengers. You are the direct descendant of the captain or one of his trusted lieutenants. The decryption key for this slab was never to be written down. The very fact that you possess it means you are part of this noble project. We have created a series of artificial viruses, the first being a rubulavirus, that will cleanse the Earth of anyone who is not going to be a part of our future. We have already tested Strain 3 that the info-sphere called the Lupine Flu. Nearly every American was immunized well before its release. It killed almost 100 million people and demonstrated the proper release vectors in Europe, Asia and South America.”
     “Strain 4 has been prepared and will be released two years after the last Ark is launched. It is a simian-based virus which merges the Hendra virus and Nipah virus. It attacks the bacteria in the gut and literally causes people to explode. This virus has tested out to be 99.999% effective. Other than those of us inoculated and the random people here and there with a natural immunity, we should have a casualty rate in excess of nine billion. This will bring the total population of the Earth back to a manageable level.”

Pretty cold-blooded, huh? Whatever measures they took to have a small group of hand-picked survivors didn't work. They all died eventually too. The only people that survived and procreated were people like Sally Reynolds who had a natural immunity to all viruses, not just the Darwin Strain 4. But there is worse coming.

What's in a name?

I have discussed this topic before but in The Ark Lords, it comes into play once again. Sometimes I'm not sure how far I can push this but it does amuse me so I'm going to believe I did not go too far. As you are well aware, because the Vuduri are the people of the future and we first meet them among the stars, I have given the more important ones names which are star names or constellation names.

For example, the leader of the Vuduri on Deucado was Pegus, named for the constellation Pegusus. The leader on Skyler Base was Commander Ursay, named for the Big and Little Dipper. Even the woman who wanted to mate with Rei on Helome was named Virga, named after the constellation of Virgo.

For the mandasurte, I tried to take English words and make them name-ish. For example, take Rome's parents Fridone and Binoda, I kind of patterned them after a pasta dish and a breath freshener. Trabunel, the leader of the Ibbrassati, was just a variant of tribunal, a meeting of leaders.

For the Deucadons, I just took my previous stepson Stephen and grabbed his and his friend's English names and twisted them a little bit. Like Bukky (Bucky), Steben (Stephen), Malloy (Melloy) and Triden (Trident?), well maybe that last one is a stretch.

When it comes to the Essessoni, I usually named them after people I know or variations of people I know. For example Rei Bierak was named after my father, Rei's mother's name was Ruth, the same as my mother. Rei's father's name was Edward, my grandfather. Even Rome and Rei's children, Aason and Lupe are named after my own children. Sussen was named after my cousin Susan. However, there are times when I pick the names to have a certain dramatic effect.

Take Captain Keller, the head of the Essessoni contingent on Deucado. I wanted his name to remind you of a killer. After all, the Vuduri name for us is Garacei Essessoni which means the Killer Generation. However, even better was the name of the US Space Force Colonel who was the armed forces representative within the Ark program. His full name was Colonel Harmon Slayton. Harmon = Harming. Slayton as in he kills people. I think it was my finest name that convey qualities.

If you ever pick up a copy of The Vuduri Companion, you will meet Colonel Slayton when Alexander Haynesworth first introduces the Ark program to the world. Our friendly Colonel was in on that presentation.

You'll find out what dastardly deeds Colonel Slayton promulgated tomorrow.