The End?

Yesterday, Rome and Rei returned to their home world of Deucado and it would appear that they live happily ever after. Originally, it was my plan to have them do so. So I wrote a postscript that was supposed to announce to you, the reader, that was my plan. Here is that postscript:

     This is the end of the story arc concerning Rei and Rome. While they have some ups and downs, in large part, they go on to live very happy and productive lives together. No one and nothing tries to kill them again. They are not called upon to save the human race yet another time. The peace they experience is the peace they so richly earned.
     However, it is not the end of the world of the 35th century. Life continues, not only for Rei and Rome, but for all the humans of that age. At this point, there is one unspoken fact, a subtext, underlying everyone’s assumptions that will turn out to be wrong. That fact is this: if there were an Olympic competition between the three inhabited worlds, Helome would win the gold medal uncontested. Earth would take home the silver medal handily but win the prize for the most important world. Deucado would win the bronze but only because it had no other competition. In every category, this plain unpretentious world would seem to have gotten the short end of the stick.
     Poor drab Deucado.
     The small planet had been bashed to bits for billions of years, and yet it kept spinning in its orbit around the parent star, Tau Ceti, watched over by its gigantic brother Grentadar. The fact that life had survived, let alone thrived on this little world, despite overwhelming adversity, was a cosmic miracle. The constant rain of death from above made it more resilient and tougher than Earth or Helome. With its new shield of protection and the four major races of mankind living in peace, Deucado, ‘the little planet that could’, would continue to develop and evolve at an accelerating pace.
     There was no dominant race on this planet and certainly nowhere where the Essessoni and Deucadons had as much influence. From this world would spring the outward bound industry and ventures that would benefit all of humanity. Not the Earth, controlled by the Overmind and segregated into its enclaves of Vuduri and mandasurte and certainly not the ethnically pure world of Helome. No, it was Deucado that was destined to eclipse Earth some day as the focus of the human adventure and become the crown jewel of the empire of Man.
     Rome’s library was simply the first seed planted in the new garden of knowledge of mankind. Her Library of Life would blossom forth and be at the center of it all. But as we already know, life and intelligence is not limited to just humans. There are many other life-forms out there, waiting to be discovered, with their own lives, their own wants, needs and desires. And that, my friends, is why the story will never end.

It really was my plan to retire the Rome and Rei story line. I already knew I wanted to start with "the next generation" meaning Lupe and Aason. But you will see, if you read The Milk Run, I couldn't help myself. I brought the parents back and ultimately made them virtually immortal. Where I go from there, I don't know. Tomorrow, I'll give you the teaser I wrote for The Milk Run before I had put down a single word.