What is a lutteur?

The word lutteur is Vuduri for wrangler. The term is mentioned several times in Rome's Revolution when Rome was describing her previous occupation.

So what does the term lutteur really mean? In English, the word wrangler usually applies to jeans or Jeeps but as a profession, it typically means a horse wrangler, a herder/tamer etc. In Rome's case, she is not physically wrangling anything.

Here is the conversation she had with Rei attempting to explain her occupation:

     “I am a computer lutteur and data archivist,” she replied.
     “I think I understand what an archivist is,” Rei said. “Do you do a lot of archiving?”
     “Yes. There is much data to be stored. Or there was. There are only two of us, myself and Estar.” Rome pointed to the woman sitting at the far table. “We were responsible for making sure that all the research performed here was captured and returned home.
     “OK, I get that. But your other job, what did you call it?”
     “A lutteur?” Rome offered.
     “Yes. So what’s a lutteur?” Rei asked.
     “It is a, eh, wrangler, perhaps?” Rome replied. “Yes, I am a wrangler. For OMCOM.”
     “What does that mean? Do you wrestle OMCOM or something?”
     Rome looked at him and pushed her lower lip out. “No, nothing like that. Lutteurs are in charge of enabling the memron fabrication facility. We did not ship OMCOM here. Instead, we grew him after we arrived. That is somewhat involved. There is a specific sequence of distribution and activation. Plus once he is activated, we must always make sure that he does not access the memron fabrication equipment himself.”
     “Why is that?”
     “Because OMCOM,” Rome said, pointing her finger toward the grille mounted in the wall, “cannot be entrusted with that himself.”
     “How come?” Rei asked her, confused, again.
     “OMCOM’s kind, the computers, they constantly crave more processing power. They are always contemplating deep issues and believe that more computing power would allow them to solve more problems faster. Also, they are forbidden from accessing or creating Casimir pumps for any reason.” Rome put her palms on the table and leaned forward. “That is the most important part. We must continually check to make sure that no Casimir pumps are ever built or enabled.”

So really, a lutteur is part engineer, part mother, part cop and part maintenance worker. You think OMCOM needs a mother and a cop? You'd better believe it. Wait till you see what he does in the upcoming novel The Milk Run. He really, really needed it.

The painting shown below was done by Barry Nehr and is available for purchase. You can click on the picture to go to Barry's site.