“Who does that sound like?” Rei laughed.
Rome lowered her head and looked at Rei through the top of her eyes. “Do not equate the two. You had your chance. I never knew I needed to commit to memory such a volume of facts.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Rei said. He laughed again. He pondered the question for a moment. “Ask the Overmind,” Rei said finally. “He’s your buddy.” As he spoke the words, Rei’s expression changed from happy to a little sour. He knew the Overmind was in love with his wife. Not that an entity with no real body could ever act upon it but still it bothered him a little.
Rome ignored his frown. She knew its origin and its irrelevance. “Even that would not help,” she continued, “they never thought to bring any resource materials here.”
“Where do they keep them?” Rei asked.
“Earth, of course,” Rome replied.
“Well, we’re both still banished from there,” Rei said. “That might be a problem.”
Rome snapped her fingers, a gesture that Rei had taught her. “I know what to do,” she said. “I will ask Pegus to send somebody to Earth. The Overmind there should have no problem with providing me historical records. There is no harm in that. Even a normal OMCOM initialization module would have a basic outline of our history. It is common knowledge.”
Rei hugged his wife. “This is great, Romey,” he said. “As mankind starts to spread out, we’re going to lose touch. This is probably our last chance to compile historical records for all humanity. I don’t know why nobody thought of it before.”
“A library of human history!” Rome said, beaming. “That is what I will build.”
“It sounds ambitious,” Rei noted. “But if anybody can do it, I know you can.”
And there it is, the basis of the plot of The Ark Lords. But how can something so simple and honest lead to such brutality and pain? Well, Rome was about to stumble across a secret. One that nobody ever wanted her or anybody to find out. Secrets lead to no good.
Entry 4-192: July 6, 2016
Mind-reading secrets
Rome and Rei share a very special bond. Their souls were intertwined when they first met and also they use the Espansor Bands which allows them to delve into each other's mind. So how was it that Rome could ever keep a secret from Rei? We got a hint of this in Rome's Revolution. Rome was able to hide the fact that she was pregnant from Rei. But she worked very hard at that. Building her library on the planet of Deucado, the central plot line in The Ark Lords shouldn't have been as hard. But why did she even try?
Rome ticked off each of the groups on her fingers. “We have accounted for the Essessoni and the Vuduri. I can get what I need regarding the Ibbrassati and mandasurte from my father and Trabunel. The only group I’m not sure about is the Deucadons.”
“I’ll be seeing Melloy tomorrow,” Rei said. “I’ll ask him what they did to keep track when they lived in their underground city. I’ll find out for you.”
Rome nodded. She looked down at the ground. “I am trying to think if I have missed anything.”
“It sounds to me like you’ve got it all covered,” Rei said. “But even if you’ve left something out, you can always go back and add to it later. Who knows? Maybe other people might want to contribute as well.”
Rome stood up from the sofa, turning all the way around and sat down on Rei’s lap, putting her hands around his neck. She kissed him deeply.
“Thank you, mau emir, for helping me with this,” she said finally. “I had been dreading this conversation for some time…”
“I don’t know why,” Rei said. “I think it’s a great idea.” Rei looked off to the side as something was still nagging at him, then it came to him. He looked back to Rome. “Is that why you wouldn’t let me use the espansor bands with you? It’s been, like, forever.”
“Yes. I did not want to burden you with this. Initially, I thought it trivial and you work so hard.”
Rei reached up and stroked her cheek with his hand. “Romey, I don’t ever want you to keep secrets from me. I love you. I’m here for you. Always.”
“I know you are,” Rome said, slowly unwinding herself from his embrace and standing up. She made a little gesture with her finger around her head then reached out and took Rei’s hand. “Since Aason is spending the night with my parents, your idea is a good one. I have decided it is time to use the bands again.”
Rei’s face lit up. Rome pulled him to his feet and led him toward the bedroom.
Kind of nice, huh? Just you wait. The storm clouds are already gathering. Rome just doesn't know it yet.
Entry 4-193: July 7, 2016
Will books survive?
I am not referring to the concept of books. Novels, dictionaries, art history, medical books, manuals, etc.; these will survive in perpetuity. I raise my question more to the casual reader regarding physical books, made of paper, bound, with a cover. With the advent of the Kindle, Nook, Kobo Reader, even tablets like the iPad and Nexus, people are spending more and more time reading books on electronic devices. I met one person who said they actually preferred to read books on their smartphone!
I, for one, can certainly understand someone who has to travel. Carrying even a couple of books adds unnecessary weight and bulk in an age where lightness is important. A Kindle can hold anywhere from 3500 to 6000 books. Imagine trying to pack a suitcase with one hundred books, let alone one thousand. It is impractical. Audiobooks have their place as well. On an airplane, you can close your eyes and have a soothing book read to you. While you are driving long distances, you can be listening to an exciting novel to help you pass the time. But what about when you are home? Or on a train going just a short distance? Or sitting at the beach? Would you rather have a Nook or a real book? It's hard to have an old and cherished book that you go back to time and again when all it is, is a series of dots that are recycled for other books based upon a click. Imagine walking into someone's library and all it consists of is a Kindle or two, lying on a table. They might have 13,000 books but it is not quite as impressive as a real library.
I can tell your that I, personally, prefer a real book. This somewhat hypocritical because I publish all my books as ebooks first plus The Milk Run as an audiobook. Only then do I sit down and typeset and beautify my novels to get them ready as paperbacks. After all, there are three times as many ebooks sold daily as real books and I'm not stupid.
I did actually try and read a book on my iPad one time. I hated it. The lighting is all wrong. The active element behind the screen produces eye fatigue much more quickly than the passive, reflected light of e-ink so that is why the Kindle remains the king of ebook readers. But there is nothing like the tactile feel of a book in your hands. Turning pages is a more visceral experience than swiping. Also, sometimes I need to go back and look at something so I put one finger on the page I am reading and flip back. I know you can do that with the Kindle and Nook, it is just more work and I am lazy. Margin notes are much easier to manage in a real book. And the sun is not your friend. I cannot even see my iPad screen at the beach. A real book is just fine, thank you.
So, in my opinion, real books will be around forever. The printed page may change from paper to polymer but I think eventually the market will settle and there will be room for both. I'm not getting rid of my real books any time soon!
Entry 4-194: July 8, 2016
The Library of the Future
Yesterday, we asked the question: will books survive? And by books I meant the kind made of paper and bound. Obviously books will survive in some sort of form until the end of time. But "real" books are questionable. I concluded that there is a place for real books and after the market settles, there will be room for both ebooks and bound books.
The next question arises: will libraries survive? In the age of the internet, Wikipedia and the like, is there any need for a building whose sole purpose is to house the increasingly more archaic "real" book? Will the li
braries of the future just be a small room with a bunch of Kindles on a shelf? What would the point be of such a room?
The absurdity of that image makes it clear that libraries will survive in some form in the future. There may have to be some adjustments in their model. I know of one library that uses the lending feature of the Kindle to "loan" out ebooks the same as they do real books.
But picture in your mind a college student, desperately trying to finish a project, hogging an entire desk with books spread out everywhere. hastily jotting down notes from one book and then another, trying to cobble together a winning paper. No amount of Googling is going to match that experience. It is the very physical presence of real books that makes this possible.
A library is a great place to study, socialize (shhhh), do research, spend a rainy afternoon daydreaming and so on. No electronic device is going to replace that. So, in my opinion, while libraries of the future may evolve and adapt and absorb some elements of the electronic age, their basic concepts, that of housing real books and giving people a place to touch them, will survive long into the future. Even the 35th century!
Entry 4-195: July 9, 2016
The Family Tree
The whole Rome's Revolution universe is populated by living, breathing characters, at least to me. And every one of them had to have a name, a mother, a father and if things go well, children. When I started out with the original long-form version of the novel entitled VIRUS 5, I already had my main characters Rome and Rei. I don't know where I came up with the name Rome. I guess I just liked the sound of it. The name Rei was taken after my father but I eventually had to expand it to Reinard so that people knew it would be pronounced Ray not rye.
When I finally got around to exploring Rei's parents in the novel Rome's Evolution, that was easy. I named Rei's father Edward after my grandfather. Rei's mother's name was easy, too. I named her Ruth after my mother. Rome's parents proved to be a bit more problematic because I didn't really speak Vuduri. All of the mind-connected 24-chromosome people of the future were named after stars or constellations but I wanted Rome's mother to be something special, something just a little different. So I named Rome's mother Binoda and I named Rome's father Fridone and that seemed good enough.
But now it gets hard. Rome and Rei had two children. I named the boy Aason after my son Aaron and I named their little girl Lupe after my daughter Paula's Spanish name. But then Aason went along and met a girl so I named her Aroline after Aaron's real-life wife Caroline. But they didn't stop there. They had two children. Originally, I only planned on them having one child named Rory (I don't know where I got that name) but then my grandson Isaac came along so I gave Rory an older brother named Zac.
I was still in the clear but this past weekend, I finished the first draft of the short story entitled The Immortals and I had to come up with names for Zac's wife (Aimee) and his two little boys. I ended up with Bruce (my younger brother's real name) and Arnie, a mangled version of my older brother's name, Ronnie. But then I had to contend with the other side of the family, the cybernetic side. We started with MINIMCOM who had a child (or clone or more correctly a bud) named MINIMCOM, Jr. who came to be known as Junior. Eventually Lupe got her own starship and I named her (yes, a female starship) Fury which is a cool name and also the name of my daughter's dog. But then Junior went and had a child/clone and he was named MINIMCOM III so I called him Trey.
The story about Rome and Rei's immortality ended with the whole family gathered in a lecture hall. It got so crowded that I actually had to come up with a seating chart to figure where everybody went. Rome, Rei, MINIMCOM, Aason, Aroline, Junior, Lupe, Fury, Zac, Aimee, Rory, Trey, Bruce and Arnie; 14 people and/or livetars in all.
The Bierak family tree is growing rapidly, both past and future. Frankly, I'm running out of names!
Entry 4-196: July 10, 2016
Jobs
In the 35th century world of Rome's Revolution, the 24-chromosome mind-connected people known as the Vuduri had invented a method of drawing energy out of neutral space. Basically, they had unlimited, free energy that caused no pollution or greenhouse gases. As such, everything could be automated and people didn't have to work. The Vuduri did not have an economic system based upon money. You may recall the casino built on top of The Hand introduced in Rome's Evolution and they did have money, silver dollar sized coins called Deucats but it only had value in the casino and the marketplace beneath. But by and large, the people of Deucado did not have to work for a living. In an economy with infinite free energy, you could have whatever you wanted just for the asking.
But it is my contention that people want to work. I think they want to do something creatively satisfying and contribute to the greater good. After all, that was the whole motivation behind the plot of The Ark Lords, namely Rome's desire to do something constructive.
So in the 35th century, how do people pick their jobs? In Rei's case, he decided to help in planning irrigation and nutrient distribution to create a vast network of farmlands south of Lake Eprehem. Rome's mother had been formally trained in animal husbandry and she enjoyed it so she took to helping the people of Deucado develop their bison stock, brought from Earth. Rome's father, Fridone, was an oceanographic scientist so he decided to utilize his skills in helping the Vuduri design a planet-wide, sustainable fishing program to feed people without hurting the population of swishies that swam the ocean deep. Rome was formally trained in data archiving and she was fluent in English and Vuduri so her career as a librarian began in the very first chapter of The Ark Lords. She also became a teacher and in later years an artist.
Wouldn't be neat to live in a world where you didn't have to work? If you could do what you wanted because you wanted to? I think it would be neat. It wouldn't be utopia where people just sit around and think deep thoughts. I think it would be infinitely more satisfying. Meanwhile, I have to bring this article to a close because I have to go to bed and get up in the morning and go to work because I have to! The electric bill and mortgage and health insurance don't get paid without that nasty stuff called money.
Entry 4-197: July 11, 2016
Star City 1
I don't know if you've had a chance to see the covers of my blog compilations called Tales of the Vuduri but if you did, you would see the 35th century capital of Earth called I-cimaci as it grew over the years. My brother Bruce did an amazing job taking my vision of standard Vuduri architecture and rendering it into a lifelike form. This is what it looks like today:
I-cimaci was built very near the site where Lisbon once resided but that is besides the point. Every Vuduri city is built the same way. There are rings upon rings and four major roadways going east-west and north-south and four minor roadways going diagonal. They always build their spaceport to the southeast.
However, their basic designs extend beyond just their cities. They even built their starbase on the moon Dara using the same circular concept. In the center of every city, they always built one really tall tower to hold whatever functions need altitude. They always built exactly one. Well, except on Helome where they built two but the Vuduri on Helome always were a little different. They had a bit of hippie culture in them.
Anyway, as the Vuduri on Deucado built up their main city, it was always Rome's assumption that they would build it to look like a smaller version of I-cimaci. Turns out she was wrong. I'll show you how it evolved tomorrow.
Entry 4-198: July 12, 2016
Star City 2
Yesterday, I set your expectations as to how Rome thought they would expand the center of Vuduri culture on Deucado. She assumed they would build it as a series of rings with a large tower in the center. The Vuduri, in their infinite creativity, always called it just The Tower. As it turns out, Rome got the tower part right but the rest of the city was something else.
Here is what she saw:
Two days later, Rome found herself looking at her father, Fridone,
who was piloting the little airship given to him by the Vuduri. It was basically an elongated pod with oversized EG lifters. He was staring down at the onboard display, studying it intently. Rome leaned forward to peer through the windshield. She pointed at a tiny object off on the horizon.
“Is that The Tower?” she asked.
Fridone looked where she was pointing. “Yes,” he said. “It is only about half the size of the one at I-cimaci, back on Earth.”
Rome turned to her father and said, “So we are nearly there? Thank you again for taking me.”
“It is no problem,” her father replied, adjusting a control, “You know I would do anything for you but I was returning here anyway. We are in the last stages of the sieve test and I have to check the final collation of the results. Besides, it gave us a chance to catch up, you and me.”
He eased the controls forward and the nose of the ship dipped down. As they started descending, Rome exclaimed, “No! That is not right.” Her eyes were wide in amazement.
Fridone looked at her, confused. “What is not right?’
“That,” Rome said, pointing at the city that was coming into view. Unlike the usual Vuduri architecture, this city was not made up of a series of concentric rings. Instead, it was two overlapping triangles, more like the Star of David than a bull’s-eye. “They have built their city all wrong.”
Fridone laughed. “They built it the way they wanted to build it,” he said. “I do not think you realize what a profound effect you had on their culture. These Vuduri want to do everything different from before.”