This sad trait seems to be a normal component of human nature. In fact, while researching this article, I came across a website called The Racial Slur database. This "objective" web site lists every known people and every known racial slur to show that humans are equal opportunity racists and bigots. Here is just a snapshot of what you'd see on that site:
Every one of those names takes you to a page which enumerates all the racial slurs the authors could find. Kind of disgusting, if you ask me, but that is the human condition.
So the Essessoni, the bad ones, follow the same pattern. Edgar Mullen was meant to be our Exhibit A. This is where we first hear the term "vook" which is meant to be a racial slur against the Vuduri:
“Yo,” came a man’s voice. Edgar Mullen strode into the room, raising his arm in greeting. “Bierak, it’s been a while.” Edgar was shorter than Rei and stockier. He had a full head of hair which was just graying a bit around the temples.
“Yeah, Edgar, hi” Rei said, shaking his hand.
“So this is Rome?” Edgar asked, seemingly surprised. “Last time I saw her was the day we were going to attack the vooks, I mean, the Vuduri. She was rather preggers as I recall.” Edgar inspected her top to bottom. “You sure are a looker up close,” he said, leeringly.
“A looker?” Rome asked.
“He means you’re beautiful, honey,” Bonnie threw in.
“Er, thank you,” Rome said, sidling up a little closer to Rei.
Obviously, since the Vuduri don't exist, I had to make up the racial slur referring to them. I just wanted to show you that Edgar was an insensitive boor. I guess you get that by now.
Entry 4-278: September 30, 2016
Edgar gets drunk
The other day, I mentioned that Edgar Mullen was diving into the bottle of wine that Rei brought with him when he and Rome came to the Mullen's house for an evening meal. Edgar showed no restraint in pounding the wine. Remember, he hadn't had anything to drink for 14 centuries. Admittedly, he had been asleep most of that time, but still. The Essessoni had been settled on Deucado for two years when this scene happened:
“Well, it’s good enough for me,” Edgar said. He drained the remainder of his glass in one long gulp. “Ah,” he said, smacking his lips. “That’s good.” He put his glass down on the table and slid it toward Bonnie. “Hit me again,” he commanded.
Bonnie lifted the bottle and poured a little into his glass.
“Come on,” Edgar said, scornfully. “Fill me up.”
“Don’t you think you ought to go a little easy?” Bonnie said. “You haven’t touched a drop since we got here.”
“I’ll decide what I can and can’t drink,” Edgar said, pointing at the glass. Bonnie shrugged and poured more wine into his little goblet. Edgar grabbed it and drained it dry.
“Again,” he said, practically slamming the glass down.
“Edgar,” Bonnie said plaintively, “don’t you think you should save a little for our guests? Rei was kind enough to bring it, after all.”
Edgar looked at the bottle then up at Rei.
“None of you understand,” he said, nudging the glass forward. “Back on Earth, I lived on this stuff. It was the only thing that got me through the day. Ever since we got to this hell-hole, I’ve been jonesing for it so badly. Bierak?” Edgar asked.
“Yeah?”
“Is this it or can you get more?”
Rei shrugged. “I can get more, I guess.”
“OK then, it’s settled.” Edgar pointed to his glass. Bonnie just shook her head and filled it again slowly, watching Edgar’s eyes until his face told her it was enough.
Edgar reached over, lifting the glass and making a big show of simply taking a slug.
“Now, where were we?” he directed toward Rome. “Oh yeah, the slabs. You were saying?”
Rome set her glass down on the table. “All in all, it went very well, thank you,” she said, relieved to be changing the subject. “OMCOM is integrating and cross-referencing the data even as we speak. Bonnie, we’ll have your movies for you someday soon. We were able to retrieve art, music, science. You’ll be able to get back to your job.”
You may not have been able to measure it quantitatively but I can tell you that was too much for Edgar his first time. He was already a crass and baser instinct kind of person. And all this did was loosen his barely-there inhibitions. Not good.
Entry 4-279: October 1, 2016
A turn for the worse
In a previous post, Rome and Rei showed up at the Mullen's house for an evening meal. Rei had brought a bottle of wine with him, one of the first ever produced on Deucado. As happens with all experiments, things did not go perfectly and the bottle of wine had a ton of alcohol in it. It was more like a port wine. As such, when Edgar Mullen started pounding glasses, he got quite tipsy, rather fast. Rome attempted to be civil but she had no familiarity with what was happening within Edgar's physiology or mentality:
Edgar reached over, lifting the glass and making a big show of simply taking a slug.
“Now, where were we?” he directed toward Rome. “Oh yeah, the slabs. You were saying?”
Rome set her glass down on the table. “All in all, it went very well, thank you,” she said, relieved to be changing the subject. “OMCOM is integrating and cross-referencing the data even as we speak. Bonnie, we’ll have your movies for you someday soon. We were able to retrieve art, music, science. You’ll be able to get back to your job.”
Bonnie sighed. “So you did get it all?”
“No, I did not,” Rome replied. She turned to Edgar. “OMCOM says there is one slab missing.”
“Bonnie told me you mentioned that,” Edgar replied, taking yet another gulp. “That was all of ‘em.”
“No,” Rome insisted. “OMCOM was quite adamant about this. He said there was definitely one more slab entitled ‘Volume 20 - Mission Parameters’ whatever that means.”
“I’m pretty sure you got all of them,” Edgar said, downing the rest of his glass. He narrowed his eyes, staring intently at Rome. A smile crept onto his face. “But we can go out back to the storage shed and take a look. Who knows? Maybe I just missed it.”
Rome looked at Rei who shrugged. “Very well,” she said, standing up. Edgar stood up also. On his way toward the kitchen, he grabbed Rome’s arm. “It’s just out the back here,” he said, slurring his words ever so slightly. “I’ll take you back there and we’ll have a look-see.”
Rome’s eyes widened but she let Edgar lead her out of the room, through the kitchen and out the back door.
Keep in mind, Edgar has pounded several glasses of strong wine and his speech patterns reflect this. I explicitly told you he was slurring his words slightly so you knew he wasn't in his right mind. On top of that, it is clear he doesn't like Bonnie very much and thinks Rome is quite cute. This is not a good mix. And leaving Rei behind with Bonnie? Again, not a good idea.
Entry 4-280: October 2, 2016
Bonnie makes her move
In a previous post, it was quite evident from a variety of things Bonnie Mullen said that she disliked, or perhaps even hated, Edgar Mullen. It was also equally clear that she lusted after Rei Bierak in the early part of The Ark Lords. Now that Edgar and Rome were out of the room, being one of the hyper-aggressive Essessoni, she decided it was time to make her move. It never occurred to her that Rei would actually be completely head-over-heels in love with Rome. That was simply not the design of the mission:
Back in the living room, Rei sat across from Bonnie, looking around the room.
“Despite what you said, I think it’s very homey,” he said. “You did a good job.”
“I’m glad you think so,” Bonnie replied. She got up and walked over and sat down next to Rei. She put her hand on his thigh.
“Your little wife is cute,” she said. “But don’t you miss being with a real woman? One of our kind?”
Rei looked down at her hand. He tried
to edge back slightly. “Rome is a real woman,” he said. “She is kind, smart and beautiful. She’s the mother of my child. I love her in a way that most people don’t ever get to experience. She’s enough for me in this lifetime and the next.”
“That’s really sweet,” Bonnie replied dismissively. “But if you ever get tired of her, I want you to know there are a bunch of us girls who’d gladly take her place.” Bonnie squeezed his thigh for emphasis. “As soon as I have this kid, I’m ready to move on.”
“What about Edgar?” Rei said, slightly appalled. “Don’t you love him?”
“Him?” Bonnie snorted derisively. “I was assigned to him. You know that. It was a requirement of the mission. All the women were assigned but we’re allowed out as long as we go with somebody else.”
“I wasn’t assigned to anybody,” Rei said. “I wasn’t ranked. It was a good thing, too. Otherwise, I could never have been with Rome. She and I were destined to be together.”
“That’s pretty romantic,” Bonnie said, removing her hand from Rei’s thigh and sinking back into the couch. “Too bad I wasn’t. I don’t think anybody planned on there already being people here when we got to Tau Ceti. All the rest of us Ark people are still following the old rules.”
“Rules,” Rei said, sighing. “Some of them I get but some of them I don’t.”
“Join the club,” Bonnie replied.
There are so many things wrong here. Bonnie is carrying Edgar's child. Rei and Rome are truly in love. Bonnie is one messed up woman. But the entire Rome's Revolution series is about redemption. So even Bonnie will have a chance to repent her sins down the road.
Entry 4-281: October 3, 2016
Man of Action
When we first met Rei Bierak way back in the beginning of Rome's Revolution, he was a rather passive individual. Part of this was due to drugs he had received prior to cryo-hibernation but even after they wore off, Rei was still pretty laid back. It wasn't until Estar threatened to hurt Rome when they were trapped deep beneath the dormant volcano Kilauea, that Rei transformed into a man of action. He killed two guards, made sure Estar was dead and burrowed his way deep into the Earth, ultimately exposing MASAL and eventually destroying him.
The whole point of this is that Rei always had it in him and when it came to Rome's safety, Rei held back nothing. So imagine what he thought and felt in the beginning of The Ark Lords when a drunken Edgar Mullen started molesting his wife:
“Rei!” Rome’s frantic voice echoed in Rei’s head. “He is attacking me. Help!”
Instantly, Rei leaped up, dropping his wine glass on the floor and he dashed out of the room.
“What is it?” Bonnie called after him but he was already out the door. Rei ran across the back yard, surveying the situation even as he approached the storage hut. He didn’t slow down when he got to the door. He took a giant leap and kicked the door open with both feet, shattering the door frame. He picked himself up off the ground and darted into the room. He could hear Rome screaming inside his head but he also heard her voice. He quickly identified the sounds as coming from behind the far door. He raced over and smashed into it with his shoulder, wrenching it off its hinges. He found Rome on the floor, Edgar on top of her, pinning her arms over her head with one hand, clawing at her clothes with the other. The crash of the door caused Edgar to jerk his head up. He looked at Rei, confused.
It wasn’t that Rei was naturally strong, even though he was. It wasn’t because the gravity on Deucado was less than Earth, even though it was. It wasn’t even because the pill that OMCOM had given him three years earlier had strengthened his core. It was pure rage that fueled Rei’s strength. He grabbed Edgar by the scruff of his neck and lifted him bodily into the air with just one arm. Edgar’s feet were dangling, his arms flailing. Rei swung his free hand back and punched Edgar so hard his body flew three feet across the room, crashing into a shelf of parts and landing in a heap on the floor. Edgar curled up into a ball and started moaning about his jaw.
“Rome!” Rei cried out, bending over to gather up his wife. “Are you all right?” He took her by the hand and helped her to stand.
Rome was shivering. “I think so,” she said. “He didn’t get the chance to really do anything.”
That was close. I know that Rei would have killed him had Edgar really harmed Rome. You don't mess with a love that has stretched over 14 centuries.
Entry 4-282: October 4, 2016
Writers gotta write
As the title of this post suggests, since I fancy myself a science fiction writer, I need to keep writing. And I have. I am pleased to announce the publication of my next book entitled The Vuduri Companion. It is a collection of short stories filling in many of the mysteries and backstories from the 35th century world of Rome’s Revolution. Here is the blurb that I posted on Amazon:
Behind every great adventure lie tales yet untold
The Vuduri Companion is a collection of 29 short stories and one novelette about the astounding and amazing 35th century world of Rome’s Revolution. Each chapter offers exciting backstories and fascinating glimpses behind the scenes of the people, places and technologies which inhabit this brave new world.
Among the many stories within its covers, you will read about:
-The futurist who developed the Ark program
-Whatever became of the first colonists on Alpha Centauri
-Jack Henry’s secret bride
-The unlikely story of how Rome’s parents met
-How the Vuduri rescued the damaged Ark II
-Rei’s resurrection
-How to speak Vuduri
-and much, much more
Also included is the original 1973 version of VIRUS 5, the precursor to Rome’s Revolution. This first draft was written over 40 years ago and it is both interesting and quite amusing to see what elements were retained and which were discarded leading up to the modern version.
In addition, this book contains two brand new short stories written exclusively for this volume entitled “The Invisible Man” and “The Immortals”. “The Invisible Man” tells the tale of the scientist who invented electro-gravity and the dark matter diode which lies at the heart of the Casimir Pump and the PPT star-drive. “The Immortals” continues the adventure of Rome and Rei the day after they discover they have been granted virtual immortality.
This volume should appeal to all fans of Rome’s Revolution, The Ark Lords, Rome’s Evolution and The Milk Run and who are always looking to learn more. So pick up a copy of The Vuduri Companion and take a trip back to the fascinating, eye-opening 35th century. You’ll love what you find there.
Tomorrow, I’ll give you the table of contents along with a brief comment on each story.
Entry 4-283: October 5, 2016
The Vuduri Companion
Yesterday, I announced the publication of my new collection of short stories entitled The Vuduri Companion. You can purchase it right now on Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble, the iTunes Store and for Kobo Readers. The book has a dedication and an introduction but those are for people who care. If you want to know the contents, here is the complete list of the Table of Contents:
#1 - Pruno Dreams
#2 - Before the Piranha Rats Came
#3 - Acceleration
#4 - Only Half the Story
#5 - Lacy Henry
#6 - The Deucadons
#7 - The Invisible Man (written exclusively for this volume)
#8 - MASAL’s Last Stand
#9 - The War with the K’val
#10 - How Binoda Met Fridone
#11 - Skodla and The Lie
#12 - The Ark II Is Rescued
#13 - Rei’s Resurrection
#14 - Rome Awakened
#15 - How To Speak Vuduri
#16 - OMCOM Reprograms Himself
#17 - Rome and Art
#18 - Murder Attempt Number 3
#19 - Rome’s Letter to Binoda
; #20 - The Language Lesson and Metric Time
#21 - Starship Controls
#22 - Very Big and Very Small
#23 - Rome Was Not a Virgin
#24 - Lawlidon
#25 - The Luau
#26 - Sussen’s Suffering
#27 - If You Build It, They Will Come
#28 - The Immortals (written exclusively for this volume)
#29 - The Original VIRUS 5 (Novelette written in 1973)
#30 - The Original Rome’s Revolution (also written in 1973)
Tomorrow, I'll reveal the cover to you and give you a little background on how it came about.
Entry 4-284: October 6, 2016
The Vuduri Companion Cover
Yesterday, I promised you a sneak peek at the cover of my new book, The Vuduri Companion. However, even with the most fantastic cover artist in the world (and yes, my brother Bruce is among them), the artist cannot succeed if you don't tell them what is supposed to be on the cover. I tried to pick out some seminal moments from the book and then we discussed them.
1. Acceleration - Man traveling at light speed, stretching out. We decided that this would be hard to render.
2. Pruno Dreams - Man looking up at a huge monitor with skull and cross-bones. While this would be striking image, it wouldn't make much sense.
3. Before the Piranha Rats Came - Man looking up at dual setting suns. Too much like Luke Skywalker looking up at the sky on Tatooine.
4. The Deucadons - Fiery descent of a rocket through the atmosphere. This is a great action shot and would be fantastic in a movie but not so great for a static cover.
5. The Invisible Man - Man dying and disappearing. Wouldn't be very spectacular and without context, wouldn't mean much.
6. The War with the K'Val - War scene with plant people. Another great action scene but not really amenable to a static image.
7. The Ark is Saved - Space action scene so it would be very black. Again, while great in a movie, wouldn't do much as a static shot.
8. Rei's Resurrection. We have a winner! Great static shot and instantly recognizable to fans of the series.