The article was posted for a month and a half then an editor came along and decided to take it down. You can appeal this but it doesn't seem worth it. I will just have to go ahead and win the Pulitzer Prize, a Hugo or Saturn award or something to justify taking up their precious digital space. :(
Entry 1-017: January 9, 2013
Why did they build the Arks out of pig iron?
The Arks were flattened cylinders. The top two-thirds were made of pig iron. The lower third was made of martensite which is a kind of stainless steel.
Why? Why not titanium or magnalium or something even more exotic?
The first reason was seemingly trivial but actually quite important. In order to bring the Ark down safely, it had to be separated into sections. This required a space-walk. And the kind of space-walk required meant the first crew awakened would use magnetic boots. Pig iron is about the cheapest magnetic material there is.
The aft-most section was the propulsion module. Once they reached their target planet, that had to be jettisoned. The next section was the cargo section and that was to come down after the people. The front section contained the frozen people in their sarcophagi.
Why magnetic? Why not just use thrusters to separate the ship? The mission planners did not know exactly how long it was going to take to get to where they were going so to facilitate the space-walks, they knew that while propellants may evaporate, magnetism would last much longer. So they built the ship out of magnetic materials to guarantee that their magnetic boots would clamp down.
Once they landed on the planet, the mission planners wanted to give the colonists every chance to succeed so they build the Ark out of a material that could be easily melted down (the pig iron) or easily fashioned into building materials (the martensite). Titanium or magnalium or even aluminum would be too hard to work.
If things went well (and we know they rarely did), the colonists would cannibalize the entire ship to start building their new home world.
Entry 1-???: January 10, 2013
No entry this day
Once again, I have no idea how I missed this day. Again this was a Thursday and still before I started writing seven entries each Sunday. Once again I must have forgotten or gotten too busy to post. I only missed one more day over the next year. Sorry.
Entry 1-018: January 11, 2013
Plant transmutation
When I was building the "soup" that fueled the creation of Rome's Revolution, I put a lot of thought into alternative technologies to make the Vuduri our equals or superior, technologically yet different.
One of the things I researched is called Plant Transmutation. It has been proposed that certain plants can "manufacture" elements they need by way of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions which is similar to cold fusion. Some people have claimed that plants could form proteins which would bring certain molecules within sufficient proximity that they would spontaneously fuse to form higher order elements.
To my knowledge, no one has produced a widely accepted experiment documenting such abilities. Even the anecdotal evidence seemed so weak, I decided to abandon it. Instead, I just gave the Vuduri a thing called the molecular sequencer which could build anything essentially one atom at a time. I didn't bother worrying about whether they had the correct elements in the first place. It was whiz-bang enough to just let it go.
I imbued MINIMCOM the ability to phase-delay transport of atoms and transmute them and that is probably enough. He's already way too proud of himself.
Entry 1-019: January 12, 2013
The Yatori and Vuduri nudity
The Vuduri have very little sense of self. As such, while they do not flaunt it, nudity neither shocks nor arouses them.
To strengthen their divestiture of self, most Vuduri adorn their body with a trinket or piece of jewelry call a Yatori. Rome had a small ankle bracelet. Pegus has a red thread tied around his wrist.
These items were not worn in an attempt to make themselves prettier. It was not vanity. Instead, they were a self-test. A true Vuduri would know they had broken through and completely divested themselves of sense of self when they could not longer see their Yatori. It proved that the Overmind controlled their perception of the world.
To most Vuduri, this was a desirable outcome. They called it Second Sight. It was using the Overmind to see the world instead of their own eyes.
As we know from Rome's Revolution, Rome struggled with this her whole life. She always wanted to be a "good little Vuduri" but there was a part of herself that always yearned to be free.
When she was first cast out, Cesdiud, she was horrified and scared but eventually came to embrace her new-found autonomy. Through the course of Rome's Revolution and later, The Ark Lords we literally see Rome growing up emotionally. From her metaphorical birth when she was in the fetal position through becoming a loving mother and wife, her journey toward self-reliance is ongoing. She eventually embraces the fact that she can see the Yatori as a symbol of her independence.
Entry 1-020: January 13, 2013
Is the core of the Sun ice cold?
When I was building the concept of the Stareaters, I was worried that they'd burn up trying to swallow a star. I stumbled across an article about a man named Renzo Boscoli who proposed that the inside of the Sun was ice cold. The article described the well-documented Ranque effect which shows that within a vortex (like a tornado), the outer part gets hotter and the inner part gets colder. Boscoli speculated that the Ranque effect would dictate that the inner core of the Sun was actually super-cold slushy hydrogen and the main fusion reaction took place closer to the surface of the Sun. I figured maybe the Stareaters could siphon off the photosphere and then digest the rest of the star more leisurely.
In fact, the original design of the Stareater was a long tube with bulges representing multiple "stomachs" like a cow for digesting the various layers of the star.
Ultimately, I said screw it and made the Stareaters Dyson Spheres. That way, they were so large, it didn't matter. They were really cool "villains" but why would they eat stars in the first place? Next blog entry.
Entry 1-021: January 14, 2013
Dark Energy and the expansion of the Universe
In the original incarnation of VIRUS 5, all I had was the "villain" being the Stareaters. It never occurred to me to ask why they wanted to eat stars. I really just wanted them as raw material for the VIRUS units to get out of hand and cause a cliff-hanger because of their mutations.
But after I wrote the story, I was compelled to write Part 2 which was when Rei and Rome got to Deucado. Simply writing that story dictated that I had to write Part 3 which was supposed to tie up loose ends.
But what of the Stareaters? It was a really neat idea to have a double climax: Rei and Rome confronting then destroying MASAL and then the Stareaters come to the Solar System. But it was depressing to think that everyone had to die.
So I "asked" the Stareaters, what was your motivation? Why do you eat stars? Their answer was shocking and made complete sense. There is a force called Dark Energy which seems to be implicated in the accelerating expansion of the universe. Once the universe gets too big, it will collapse upon itself and cause the Big Crunch. And it has been proposed that supernovae and hypernovae shed so much Dark Energy that they accelerate the acceleration.
So at last, I had a motivation of why the Stareaters eat stars. They are trying to prevent supernovae and hypernovae and retard the acceleration of the universe. If they stop this, the universe would remain in its current state until all energy in the universe goes to absolute zero. In other words, they were simply trying to prolong the life of the universe.
Thinking about
such questions hurts my head. What came before the beginning? What comes after the end? Ultimately, the Stareaters' mission would fail. In the Epilogue to the final section of the final book, entitled The Milk Run, Rei and Rome and OMCOM must address such questions. The answer will surprise you but it won't be ready until 2014.
Entry 1-022: January 15, 2013
Plasma and star drives
No, I'm not talking about the clear liquid that carries blood cells around your arteries. I'm talking about the widely-considered fourth state of matter.
Take a proton and a single electron in orbit around the nucleus. We call that an atom of hydrogen. Now separate the electron and you have two elementary particles no longer atoms. Throw a whole lot of protons, electrons and neutrons in there and you have a very hot, very energetic fluid-like substance called plasma.
Plasma has different physical characteristics than liquids or gasses and the Vuduri find it most useful as the propellant for their plasma jets. Occasionally, they use it for small hand-held weapons called plasma projectors.
Where do they get all this plasma from? They use Casimir Pumps to create pockets of negative energy for traveling via PPT Tunnels. The waste product is unlimited, free positive energy. Check the article entitled “Creating elementary particles with energy” to see how they do it.
They shoot the plasma out the rear of their ships and get to go very fast. Since the Casimir Pumps do not work very well within a deep gravity well (like near the surface of a planet), for atmospheric flight, they typically use electrogravity to get around within a gravity well.
However, upon occasion, MINIMCOM finds the need to fire the plasma jets even in the atmosphere causing an eye-popping pyrotechnical display. He always did have a sense of showmanship.
Entry 1-023: January 16, 2013
Gray Goo
From the very beginning, in 1973, the Stareater has always been the nemesis of Rei and Rome, starting in the original novel entitled VIRUS 5 and now known as Rome's Revolution, Part 1.
Even back in 1973, I knew how Rei was going to defeat the Stareater. He was going to use the power of the exponent, calling them the Virtually Identical Replicating Unit System aka VIRUS units. It wasn't until many years later that the technology became more trendy and is now known as nanobots.
Self-replicating nanobots are called Gray Goo because everything they touch is digested and consumed. Another name for this is Ecophagy or an environment which consumes itself.
Obviously we do not have the technology today and we may never have it. But I gave the Vuduri the Casimir Pump and free, unlimited positive energy. With infinite energy, anything is possible.
In the current version of the novel, the Gray Goo serves two purposes. The first is a virtually infinite substrate for OMCOM to transfer his consciousness and thus survive the onslaught of the Stareater. The second is the introduction of the mutations and the consequent evolution of self-aware autonomous entities.
Originally, I had them split into some good, some evil but for the time being, they do not figure into the equation. You will find out what happened to them in The Milk Run, to be completed in 2014.
Entry 1-024: January 17, 2013
Dramatis Personae for Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords
Just a little refresher for those of you who forgot where we were at the end of The Ark Lords so you can get ready for Rome's Evolution coming this spring.
Rei Bierak: An engineer and one of the frozen passengers aboard the Ark II, launched from Earth in 2067AD (original target: Tau Ceti). The Ark II went off course and was not discovered for nearly 1400 years. Rei was the first human awakened and responsible for eventually getting the Ark II to its original destination, Tau Ceti, now called Deucado by the Vuduri.
Rome: A half-blood (mosdurece) Vuduri woman from the 35th century who fell in love with Rei and eventually married him. Originally connected to the Overmind, she was cast out (Cesdiud) when she consorted with Rei.
Aason Bierak: Rei and Rome’s two-year-old son.
MINIMCOM: Originally an autopilot computer that was fused into the airframe of a Vuduri space tug. Circumstances and experience caused him to become self-aware. Now a starship, MINIMCOM can fly as fast as 1000c.
OMCOM: Originally a standard computer installed on Skyler Base within the Tabit System. Eventually he transferred his consciousness into a mass much larger than a planet.
Fridone: Rome’s father, a 23-chromosome mandasurte (mind-deaf) oceanographic scientist. Rome calls him Beo which is the Vuduri word for father.
Binoda: Rome’s mother, a full-blooded 24-chromosome Vuduri. Binoda is an animal husbandry expert. Rome calls her Mea which is the Vuduri word for mother.
Pegus: Leader of the Vuduri contingent on the planet of Deucado.
The Overmind: Group consciousness created by the mind-connected Vuduri.
Maury Keller: Captain of the Ark II and de facto leader of the colonists from old Earth.
Lee Ionelli: One of Captain Keller’s lieutenants.
Trabunel: Leader of the Ibbrassati (the Oppressed) on the planet of Deucado.
Bukky: Leader of the Deucadons, descendants of the Ark III which crash landed on Deucado 500 years before the story begins and lived underground for most of those years.
Melloy: Bukky’s main lieutenant.
Ursay: A Vuduri commander, currently living in retirement on Earth. Ursay was Rome’s original commander when she was deployed in the Tabit system.
Hanry Ta Jihn: A legendary hero and martyr from the past, responsible for organizing the resistance that eventually defeated the Ark Lords, called Erklirte in Vuduri.
Grus: A Vuduri soldier, present when Rei and Rome were banished from the Earth.
MASAL: A supercomputer that designed the 24th chromosome which was responsible for the rise of the Vuduri. His plan was to engineer the humanity out of mankind. He was destroyed by Rei and Rome.
Sussen: An Onsira spy sent to Deucado by MASAL when it was still a prison planet. Her mission was to ensure that the mandasurte remained imprisoned there until the planet was destroyed by an asteroid. When she saw things unraveling, she escaped in attempt to return to Earth to warn MASAL. Rei, Rome and MINIMCOM beat her there and had already destroyed MASAL before she ever arrived.
Virga: Leader of the Vuduri contingent on the planet of Helome. She had captured Rei hoping to mate with him. She released him on his word that he would send mandasurte to help her rebuild the gene pool. Rei came through with his promise.
Bonnie Mullen: A female member of the Darwin group. She was also the colony’s historian. She was banished along with the rest of the Darwin group to Helome. She was pregnant at the time with Edgar Mullen’s child.
Entry 1-025: January 18, 2013
Polyhydramnios
When Rome became pregnant, she was the first female in human history to gestate the spawn of a Vuduri mother and an Essessoni father. The child, Aason, was fully connected from the moment of conception. He knew he was supposed to connect to his mother but was not able to. The harder he "pushed" to become connected, the more frustrated and frightened he became.
The physical manifestation of this was an excess of amniotic fluid called Polyhydramnios. It put Rome in increasing stress as her uterus pressed against her diaphragm and made it harder and harder for her to breathe.
A normal woman carries 800-1000 mL of amniotic fluid. Rome was carrying close to 2000 mL with the levels increasing at an alarmingly fast rate.
The Vuduri doctors correctly identified this was her principal problem. To reduce Rome's stress, they decided to treat the symptom first which was to reduce the amount of amniotic fluid using amniocentesis.
After Rome had recovered, they decided to address the underlying cause an
d injected Rome to allow her to reconnect to her son. After this, all was well.
Entry 1-026: January 19, 2013
Counting in Vuduri
As mentioned in the previous post entitled “How to speak Vuduri”, the Vuduri language is based upon Portuguese then put through a computer algorithm to substitute some vowels and consonants.
Here is how the Vuduri count. I will tie this in to the Vuduri timekeeping system tomorrow:
1. Um
2. Tios
3. Dras
4. Quedri
5. Conci
6. Saos
7. Sada
8. Iodi
9. Nifa
10. Taz
The Vuduri word for day is Emi. Here are their days of the week: Umemi, Tiosemi, Drasemi, Quedremi, Concemi, Saosemi, Sademi, Iodemi, Nifemi and Tazemi.
The Vuduri word for month is Mas. Here are their months: Umas, Tiomas, Dramas, Quemas, Conmas, Saomas, Sadmas, Iomas, Nimas and Tamas.
Entry 1-027: January 20, 2013
Metric Time and the Universal Calendar
In the last post, entitled “Counting in Vuduri”, I hinted that the Vuduri week is ten days long and the Vuduri year is ten months long. That's because the Vuduri keep what is called Metric Time. A metric second lasts .865 seconds. This allows you to have 100 metric seconds in a metric minute, 100 metric minutes in a metric hour and 10 metric hours in a day.
Try the math yourself and you will see it really does work. A metric day equates exactly to 24 of our hours.
The only problem is the 365 day year. Nine of the Vuduri months are four weeks times 10 days = 360 days with only 5 left over. So the Vuduri month of Tamas is typically 5 days long but in leap years, it is 6 days.
The Vuduri or the mandasurte at least, call the tenth month "poor Tamas" because it is the little month that got cheated of its full length.
Poor Tamas is actually also a world-wide holiday. It is a combination of the Jewish Yom Kippur which is a reflection back on one's transgressions from the prior year and a joyous New Year celebration. Most of the mandasurte take the entire "month" of Tamas off to celebrate.
So far, so good. All this helps us on Earth. But what about on other planets where a day may not be 24 hours and a year is unlikely to be 365 days? To avoid such complexities, I removed the whole concept of Metric Time from the current version of Rome's Revolution. But I will discuss it tomorrow nonetheless.
Entry 1-028: January 21, 2013
Calendars on other worlds
On the Earth, the time and date is pretty easy to figure out. But what about on other worlds? There is next to no chance that the days on another planet will be 24 hours long and even less chance that their years would be 365.25 days long.
The solution: two calendars. One local and one "universal" calendar, keyed to Earth of course. Not that the Julian calendar is all that logical but you have to start somewhere.
Say that today is January 21, 2013 at 1:05:24 PM GMT. We would define Universal Time (UT) as 20130121.01.05.24. One second later, it would be .25 then .26 and so on.
The local calendar can be tailored to the particular planet's rotational period and orbital period around its primary star.
Can this work? It already does, here on Earth. For example, there is the Jewish Calendar which is lunar-based (as is the Muslim calendar) yet all Jewish people know the Julian calendar date. We all know about the Mayan calendar. Time is time and already measured against GMT.
Even if everybody accepted this, when you get to where you are going, your UT clock will be off. If you travel faster than light, who knows what it will read? It could even go backwards. If you travel slower than light but still at relativistic velocities, you will experience time dilation and your clock will run slower.
The solution? Find an astral object with predictable properties. Say it is a quasar that flashes with a certain periodicity or a star whose brightness is diminishing by an infinitesimal amount. Whatever it is, certain markers will be tied to UT so that whenever you get to where you are going, you can set your UT clock by the stars.
Your local clock? Good luck with that. On a planet whose orbit takes only 180 days, people would live to be 140 years old easily, local time. But UT would still give us a way to tell their actual age. People-years, dog-years, it'd all be predictable and calculable.
Entry 1-029: January 22, 2013
Why did the Vuduri miss the Winfall disappearance?
One of the casualties of compressing three books into one is that some of the more subtle nuances of science were omitted. In the earlier version of Rome’s Revolution, Part 1 (originally titled VIRUS 5: Asdrale Cimatir [Stareater]), Rei and OMCOM have a discussion about this topic. How was it that the Vuduri with all their scientific prowess, could miss the disappearance of Winfall? After all, that was the entire purpose of setting up the stellar observatory.
The answer is because they traveled faster than light. Every time they jump through a PPT tunnel, their time, relative to the universe around them, goes backwards by a small degree. Enough jumps and you have a sizeable delay. Since it took them over a month to get out to Tabit, their clocks were off by over six weeks or so. So, after waiting well past the due date, the Vuduri gave up and packed up the shop. Sadly, they started shutting down just days before the actual wavefront came along.
While Rome’s Revolution still has Rei inventing the starprobes, the original story also had OMCOM and Rei perform an experiment proving that clocks go backwards through PPT tunnels.
Entry 1-030: January 23, 2013
Was the Ark program a success or failure?
The Ark program was launched in the latter half of the 21st century in an attempt to colonize habitable worlds in other star systems, perhaps to save the human race before the Earth collapsed under the weight of overpopulation. But was it a success or failure?
Ark I was sent to Alpha Centauri. Amazingly, Earth's nearest stellar neighbor had the highest percentage chance of having a habitable world. The Ark I landed on New Earth (later called Helome by the Vuduri) flawlessly and all proceeded according to plan. Until the colony was decimated by civil war then eaten by the Piranha Rats. I'd call that a failure since no one survived.
Ark II was sent to Tau Ceti. It hit an asteroid and spun out of control for 14 centuries only to be rescued by the Vuduri at Skyler Base orbiting Tabit. Eventually, Rei and Rome shepherded the Ark back to Tau Ceti to the world called Deucado. Since most of the people survived, I'd call that one a success.
Ark III was sent to 82 G. Eridani but there were no habitable planets so it made its way to Tau Ceti, the backup. The colonists crash-landed and had to build a civilization from scratch, mostly underground but they did survive so I guess I'd have to call that one a success.
Ark IV - where did that go? You'll find out in Part 5 entitled The Milk Run which will be released in 2014.
Ark V, sometimes known as the Stealth Ark, was filled with criminals and psychopaths and soldiers and their sole mission was to return to conquer Earth. They were defeated by Jack Henry, chronicled in The Ark Lords, so I'd call that one a failure.
So, 2 wins, 2 losses and one incomplete. I guess the jury is still out.
Entry 1-031: January 24, 2013
Silas Hiram 1 - Astronaut, Farmer
Silas Hiram, an Agricultural Professor and one of the colonists sent on Ark I to Alpha Centauri, figures prominently in both of the books and will appear again in 2014.
Why was he important? His voice (via his journal) is used to "see" into the past several times. He was the first human to note th
at Alnilam disappeared. This was the clue that cracked the case of the Stareaters.
Later, his actual journal was found and examined by Rei and Rome on Helome and confirmed the story that the Darwin people, in the gray sarcophagi, had a secret agenda, finally exposed in The Ark Lords.
There was a beautiful short story about his life there (before they were eaten by the Piranha Rats) which will appear in The Vuduri Companion in 2014. Tomorrow, I will synopsize this little gem.
Entry 1-032: January 25, 2013
Silas Hiram 2 - Amateur Astronomer
When Silas Hiram arrived at what was called at the time New Earth (later called Helome by the Vuduri), his one luxury item was a telescope.
He spent many years building up his farm and in the evenings, he'd look up at the stars. Because the A and B star of Alpha Centauri are separated only by 80 AU, the second star, called Beth by the residents, was very bright; far brighter than the moon. Because of the alignment, for many, many years, Beth obscured Silas' obsession, Sol and by definition, Earth.
There came a time when Beth set before the main star, called Aleph, and the night sky was finally dark enough that he could see it with his telescope. However, to get the telescope properly aligned, he used what is called the red dot finder to calibrate the telescope. That was how he noticed that Alnilam disappeared which, 14 centuries later, became a really big deal.
Entry 1-033: January 26, 2013
Silas Hiram 3 - Tonight's the night
This was the night Silas Hiram had been waiting for, for many years. The night he would finally be able to look across the four light year gap and see Earth.
"Silas looked up into the azure sky at Beth as it set in the west. In the binary star system of Rigil Kentaurus, there were two stars. The brighter of the two was called Aleph and the dimmer B-star was called Beth by the residents of New Earth. New Earth was the fourth planet out from Aleph, a G2V star, virtually a twin of Sol. Aleph’s companion, Beth, was a deep orange, K-class star. Though both stars had several planets, each star had only one habitable world located in the comfort zone. The one orbiting Aleph was far superior to the one circling Beth and was the natural choice between the two for man’s first colony world."
"When Silas first arrived on this world, Beth had trailed behind Aleph by several hours past sunset. That meant that the sky did not really get dark until many hours into the night. But with the sureness of the complex celestial mechanics behind it, Beth slowly advanced and now led the way, ahead of Aleph, by about one half hour. When Beth was out during the early evening, at an apparent magnitude of –18, it was far, far brighter than the full moon of Earth. At night, Beth was a spotlight that drowned out all the constellations and stars that surrounded it. Due to an unfortunate alignment of the stars, that meant especially the one group of stars that Silas cared about. But this would not be the case tonight."
Entry 1-034: January 27, 2013
Silas Hiram 4 - Silas Sees Sol
Silas was standing in his attic/observatory and the sky had just darkened enough to see the stars to the west. Mind you, this takes place on "New Earth" later called Helome by the Vuduri. He is staring across a gulf of over four light years.
"Silas turned to the west. He could see the Milky Way in all its glory spanning the entire sky. That he could see it at all with his naked eye amazed him, even though it shouldn’t. Back on Earth, in Pennsylvania, they had long since lost that ability even on the darkest of nights. Many of Silas’ friends had never even seen the Milky Way, but most did not care. Silas did."
"He searched and searched until finally he found what he was looking for. Sitting very low on the horizon was the zig-zag of Cassiopeia. He held his right hand up, straightened his arm and used his hand to blot her out. Even lower on the horizon, partially obscured by the mountains to the west, he found the inverted V of Perseus and with his left hand, he blotted him out as well. He extended both thumbs to form a frame and within that frame was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. If Mary were here, he’d tell her that it was not as beautiful as her, of course. On this night, it was only the eighth brightest star in the sky, but to him, it was the most important. He knew its name was Sol, but he just thought of it as The Sun. And though he could not see it, he knew he was looking at Earth."
"He stared at Sol for a long time, waxing nostalgic. He knew why he and Mary were here. He knew why they had chosen to raise their children on this alien world. The pollution, the overpopulation, the natural disasters, the wrecked ecology, the continual random acts of violence loosely called terrorism; these were the problems that had driven Silas and Mary and the other colonists to seek refuge among the stars. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t miss his ancestral home, knowing none of them would ever see it again. Earth was the birth-world of his species and that would never change."
Entry 1-035: January 28, 2013
Silas Hiram 5 - Excerpts from Silas' Journal - Rome's Revolution
Silas Hiram's journal figures heavily in the plot of both Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords. His journal is entitled "Celestial Observations, Silas Hiram, New Earth, August 2121."
Rome's Revolution
Entry 1: First discovery that Alnilam has disappeared: "April 25, 2137. Finally, seeing conditions are perfect. Beth set early enough. Sky is clear. Right in the gap in the mountains to the west, I was able to visualize Sol for the first time. It was exactly where the star charts said, between Perseus and Cassiopeia. The changes to the telescope’s database seem right on. I can’t wait until the boys get home tomorrow so I can show them. One note: something is occluding Alnilam. I must remember to check it tomorrow night."
Entry 2: Confirmation that Alnilam has disappeared: "April 4th, 2138. Been able to take stills of Sol and presumably Earth through three quarters of a year. Not sure how to measure transit with the scope. Sadly, the boys are getting bored with my preoccupation. I think we are going to need a new calendar for New Earth. 12 months makes no sense here. Poor Orion, still no Alnilam. I hope his pants stay up."
Tomorrow, excerpts from The Ark Lords.
Entry 1-036: January 29, 2013
Silas Hiram 6 - Excerpts from Silas' Journal - The Ark Lords
Silas' final journal entries were like a window into the past.
The Ark Lords
Entry 3: First evidence of the secret Darwin agenda: "September 8, 2144 – I normally don’t comment on what is happening within the colony. I have tried to restrict my entries in this journal to my astral observations. But last night, something really peculiar happened. Tan Powel, one of the Grays, apparently tried smoking some local herbs and started ranting and raving about the Darwin Project. The things he said were bizarre. If any of what he said was true, these people are really sick."
Entry 4: Final confirmation that on every world, civil war is unavoidable: "October 9, 2144 – Captain Allen had a town meeting tonight. He did a lot of talking but he didn’t say much. He hinted at the agenda for Darwin. No one could believe it. How can you have two groups, competing for the same resources, with completely opposite goals? The Grays are working tirelessly but their only objective is to leave this planet. The rest of us, the Whites, we’ve worked so hard to turn this beautiful planet into our home. How could the mission planners have missed something this fundamental?"
Entry 5: Silas' final entry: "December 12, 2144 – Things are coming to a head. Sammy D. was killed last night. Shot in the back. Ernst and the rest of us are headed for a showdown tomorrow with the Grays. They are either going to renounce their plans or we are leaving. I’m too old for this shit. Basically we have a war on our hands and they have all the weapons. But it has to be done. Things can’t go on this way. I told
Mary to start packing, just in case. I’m going to go see the boys tonight and give them a heads up. One way or the other tomorrow is it."
All indicators were that he died the next day. Even if he didn't, all of the colonists died eventually under the voracious onslaught of the Piranha Rats.
Entry 1-037: January 30, 2013
Piezo-capillary action and Casimir Pumps
Many of the technologies within the world of the Vuduri take place on a microscopic scale.
For example, there are the VIRUS units which weigh a microgram or less. There are also the Deucadons invisibility cloaks which are light pipes carrying light from back to front or vice-versa making the wearer practically invisible.
The effector units are memrons which have a piezo-electric cilium so they can move around.
The VIRUS units use piezo-capillary action to draw materials into their synthesizers so they can build more VIRUS units.
Finally, there are the Casimir Pumps which are so small, they work at the quantum level which allows a palladium/iridium mixture to segregate positive from negative energy. This, in turn, allows the Vuduri to create PPT tunnels and limitless, free energy from zero energy.
The world of the Vuduri consists of the very large (the Stareaters) and the very small and everything in between.
Entry 1-038: January 31, 2013
How does Future Past tie into Rome's Revolution?
If you look on the web site for my novel Future Past, you may not see a tie in to Rome's Revolution but it is there.
Lee Linsky, the "hero" of Future Past meets and falls in love with a woman. It is a romantic novel that takes place in the very near future. However, when I was planning the timeline for events leading up to Rei's departure in 2067 AD, my calculations told me that Lee and his new love were exactly the right age to be Rei's grandparents. Delicious!
As soon as I added the tagline: "For those of you who have read Rome's Revolution, this is the 'true' story of Rei Bierak's grandfather and how he met Rei's grandmother" - I sold 5 copies right away! Hooray. Check it out.
Future Past is available only in e-book form for the Kindle, Nook, iPad and Kobo e-book readers.