The future is not yet written

I have written many times about the origin of my stories, how they are all true but they just haven't happened yet. Now it's a little silly to claim that the future is preordained and these stories are literally true but it's how I feel. My main timeline, the one where Rei Bierak is launched to the stars and meets Rome, his soulmate, in the 35th century, is very clear to me and forms a continuous future history with no breaks.

I may not know what happened every minute of every day 14 centuries from now but sometimes, when I need to fill in the gaps, the events that come to me are perfectly consistent with what came before and what comes after.

I'll give you one example: in my mind, whenever Rei spoke about the events that immediately preceded his induction into the Ark program, it was just a random series of points in time. When I finally sat down to write the story as an intermezzo for Rome's Evolution, it all came together seamlessly and turned out to be a very sweet (or maybe bittersweet) little story.

The same is true for how Rei came to acquire his cherished music slab so that he and Rome could enjoy his music during their year-long journey from Tabit to Deucado. I knew that the little slab was not important enough for Rei to risk his life during a spacewalk. It had to be a byproduct of a venture outside for other reasons. I had never really worked out the details but when the time came to write the second intermezzo for Rome's Evolution, the story came together seamlessly and was deeper and more emotionally resonant that I had even hoped.

So over the next ten days, I am going to give you the entire story, uncut, so you can follow along Rei's perilous journey to cut loose the damaged propulsion unit of the Ark II and how he realized he could acquire his music. His tender interaction with Rome was very satisfying emotionally and only helped deepen and clarify their unique relationship and bond.

So buckle in and savor this little story over the week or so. I tried to make it very realistic without getting too bogged down in the technical details. I enjoyed writing it. I hope you enjoy reading it.