Sally 2.0

Yesterday, Rome promised to tell Rei why he thought she looked familiar to him even though he had never seen her before. To refresh your memory, here is a small portion from the opening of Rome's Revolution:

Rei was startled to see a face staring back at him. He jumped back and once again, pain shot through his spine, only slightly less intense this time. The face on the other side of the porthole was female with long dark hair. She looked familiar and exotic at the same time and if he didn’t know better, he’d swear her eyes were glowing.

I always had an explanation for this but after five novels, I figured it was time to put it on the table:

     Rome said, “As I explained to you, the Overmind of Earth had done a genetic analysis of all living Vuduri in order to produce his Slayer program.”
     “Sure,” Rei said. “You are the generations removed granddaughter of Hanry Ta Jihn. That is really sleek in a way. He truly was a great man. And I get to be married to you!”
     “Yes, it is sleek,” Rome said. “I choose to ignore the manipulation that led to my birth. I am here and that is that. However, that is not what I wanted to tell you.”
     “Ok, so what is it?’
     “The genetic analysis did not stop there. The Overmind’s scientists went all the way back to what the Overmind called the ‘Mitochondrial Eve’. She was one of the few women who made it through the Great Dying.”
     “That doesn’t surprise me,” Rei said, nodding his head. “When you think about it, it’s only logical. The Vuduri who are alive today are descended from people who survived the Great Dying. That’s just common sense.”
     “Perhaps,” Rome said. “But the Overmind told me specifically who my ancestor really was.”
     “He knew that?” Rei asked, puzzled.
“Yes,” Rome replied. “Her name was Sally Reynolds.”
     Rei’s jaw dropped open. “Uh, uh,” was all he could say. Finally, he whispered, “My Sally?”
     “Yes,” Rome said proudly. “And that was why I was familiar to you. I am her great, great, great, great granddaughter.”
     Rei couldn’t decide if he was horrified or delighted.
     “Holy mackerel,” he said finally. He put his head down and thought about it for a bit. “I knew she had some sort of freakish immune system because of the incident in Brazil but… Oh wow.” He looked up at Rome. “Her father was the chairman of the Reynolds Corporation. She got me into the Ark program, even though I wasn’t ranked. She told me on our last night together that I was going to meet the love of my life among the stars. And all the time it was her who was responsible. How did she know?”
     Rome shook her head. “All of us think of time as if it were volma, movies, where each moment leads to the next and our consciousness just travels along that road, skipping from frame to frame.”
     “Well, sure,” Rei said. “What else is there?”
     Rome touched her finger to her chin. “Maybe that way of thinking is wrong.”

Tomorrow, we'll review Rome's theory of time travel.