OMCOM hypnotizes Rei

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think these stories are true, they just haven't happened yet. The whole universe of Rome's Revolution has taken on a life of its own and creates its own ideas.

One very distinct example is the time that Rei stepped into OMCOM's long-term holographic crystal-based memory unit. Whereas the rest of OMCOM's core was bathed in infrared, the long-term storage used ultraviolet lasers to carve holograms into the crystals to retain the memories without power. Here is the section if you don't remember it:

     Rei entered the room and the door closed behind him. He heard a snapping noise and a tiny bulb started glowing along the floor immediately to Rei’s left. The bulb got progressively brighter with a bluish-violet light. Then there was another snapping noise and a second bulb began to glow all the while the first continued to grow in brightness. There was another snap and another and another. The blue lights got brighter and brighter and brighter. As the lights grew brighter, Rei’s eyes defocused and his head began lolling to the side.
     He was inside of a crystalline cavern with facets and mirrors and flashes that were so mesmerizing, he could not think. He started swaying back and forth. It was only when he swayed so far that he stumbled that he was able to get his wits about him, just for a moment.
     “This is…the most beautiful…thing I…have ever seen,” Rei said in a dreamy voice. “What…is it?”
     “These are holographic storage crystals,” OMCOM said. “The illumination you see is strictly for your benefit. The read/write process is controlled by coherent ultraviolet lasers.”
     “Lasers,” Rei repeated in a monotone. “Yes.”
     “Rei?” OMCOM asked.
     “Why does it have to be so pretty…” Rei droned on.
     “Rei!” OMCOM said, more insistently.
     “So pretty…so…so…pretty…” Rei drifted off. He could hear OMCOM speaking but the words had no meaning.
     Rei lost all concept of time. OMCOM’s voice was just a soothing part of the background. Rei was adrift somewhere but he did not know where nor did he care. His whole world became the lights and the droning of OMCOM’s voice. Nothing could shake him. Nothing, that is, until the ground shook from a small tremor. The tremblor caused Rei to be awakened from his trance.

Clearly, as author, I intended for OMCOM to plant some sort of post-hypnotic suggestion but I swear to you I had absolutely no idea what it was. OMCOM acted so innocent though.



It wasn't until I was writing, at the time, the third book of the series (now called Part 3) that I found out what it was. The trance-like state was to be triggered by the phrase "blue crystal reader" and Rome was taught that phrase by MINIMCOM when they were in the hut in Hawaii. As it turns out, OMCOM had implanted the ability for Rei to keep his own consciousness when it was invaded by the Onsiras. Since the incident cited above happened after OMCOM reprogrammed himself, I have to assume that OMCOM gazed into the future and saw this as a possibility, if not eventuality. He forgot to share that with me until I was writing the scene where Rei was injected with the prosthetic 24th chromosome and being inducted into MASAL's Overmind.

Gee, thanks, OMCOM for being so forthcoming. Oh well, I guess all's well that ends well.