Rei as Hurley from Lost

I loved the TV show Lost. Although he was not my favorite character, Hurley provided comic relief and drove the plot forward occasionally. But his most important role was to ask obvious questions that the main characters seem to ignore. Whenever the showrunners created paradoxes or used obscure plot devices, they had the Hurley character just come out and ask, "well, how come the Island moved and we didn't move with it?" or similar.



In the universe for Rome's Revolution, among other things, Rei plays a similar role. For example, in yesterday's post, I showed that Rei asked such a question. He just came right out and asked OMCOM how it was possible that Rome was able to lock herself in her room.

Here is another familiar example. When first informed about Casimir Pumps, Rei had the following conversation with OMCOM:

     “Yeah…” Rei said, mulling things over. He jerked his head up and snapped his fingers. “Hey, wait a minute…OMCOM?”
     “Yes?”
     “You said that you split zero energy into negative and positive energy. Where does the positive energy go?”
     “The positive energy is used in a variety of manners. Sometimes it is used to create elementary particles. Sometimes it is used to accelerate that matter. It is the power behind the plasma drives. Sometimes it is converted into a more flexible form such as electricity.”
     Rei held up his hand as if to stop things. Then he said, “So, let me get this straight. You go to a region where there is no energy. You suck negative energy out of it and get to go faster than light and the waste product is power that you use to drive your ships? That’s…that’s beyond perpetual motion. That’s impossible.”
     “First of all,” OMCOM replied, “it is not perpetual motion. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is simply redistributed in a more convenient manner. Second, when you measure total entropy, it is increased. The sum total of the usefulness of that energy to the universe is decreased. Things are balanced.”

I have found as author, I can pretty much say or do anything as long as I can back it up with facts or extrapolation. After all, that is the very definition of hard science fiction. But sometimes the leap from fact to fiction is clear in my mind but is irreconcilable to the user as presented. Thus Rei serves a useful role when he asks questions on behalf of the reader, just as Hurley did in Lost.

P.S. I got a nice shout-out from Graeme Brown's Worlds of the Imagination. Thanks, Graeme.