Except for the cleats on the rim, pretty close to the Deucadon wheels, huh?
Entry 1-268: September 19, 2013
How are Vuduri children produced?
You'd think by the 35th century, in the universe of Rome's Revolution, everything would be all in vitro fertilization and artificial wombs and baby factories.
Nope.
As mentioned previously, Vuduri men and women still have sex. Babies are conceived. Women carry to them to term and then they are born. Who gets to produce babies is determined by The Overmind and Vuduri never have sex for fun. So each baby is planned and born for a purpose.
After a baby is born, as soon as is practical, they are moved to baby-raising farms called crèches and raised by Vuduri who are skilled in that area. Most babies grow up never knowing their parents and frankly don't care.
Rome was different, of course. As a mosdurece, she was born of the union between a full-blooded 24-chromosome woman named Binoda and a 23-chromosome mandasurte named Fridone. Why The Overmind allowed them to have a child is explained at the end of Rome's Evolution. However, Fridone is from a culture where parents raise their children and Binoda, who had already been changed by her interaction with Fridone, allowed it. Thus Rome explained to Rei:
“What about family?” Rei asked. “Do you still have family? A mother? A father?”
Rome nodded. “Yes, the Vuduri have parents. But our lives revolve around the Overmind so it is not that important who you live with. I lived with my mother and father for many years, but only because it was convenient. Many Vuduri do not do so.”
So Rome was special but back then we did not realize how special. Everything is explained at the end of Rome's Evolution but guess what? There is still a surprise or two waiting for you at the end of The Vuduri Companion to be released next year!
Entry 1-269: September 20, 2013
How did Rome lock herself in her room?
In fact, why do the Vuduri even have doors? In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, I mentioned that the Vuduri didn't even sleep. However in an earlier post, I explained that this made Rome too weird so I let them sleep at night.
This made having doors a reasonable proposition. Rei and Rome discussed this as they embarked on their voyage from Deucado to Earth in Part 3 of Rome's Revolution. Rome told Rei that outside doors were needed just to keep the elements out. After all, it did still rain and occasionally snow on Earth, even in the 35th century.
Inside doors are a little harder to explain since the Vuduri have no modesty. However, now that I had them requiring sleep, they still need relative quiet, even though they are a quiet people to begin with. So I gave their apartments doors for quiet, not privacy. But as we saw in the first part, the doors could be opened manually as well as by OMCOM. So how was it when Rome was first Cesdiud, she was able to lock herself in her room? Originally, I just said she wanted it that way. I allowed OMCOM to respect her privacy. But Bruce challenged me on it and said why wouldn't OMCOM just open the door when given a direct order by Ursay? Here is the final exchange:
“OMCOM,” Rei said softly. “How come you couldn’t open Rome’s door when Ursay wanted you to? How come you were able to lock me in my room?”
“Rome is different. I treat her differently.”
“Why?”
“She is…she is the closest thing I will ever have to a mother. I was being considerate.”
“What do you mean considerate?” Rei asked. “They’re in trouble here. Ursay needed her. Why couldn’t you just open her door?”
“Did I mention that she inserted a locking pin which prevented that?”
“No.” Thinking back to the expression on Ursay’s face, Rei laughed to himself even though this seemed to be rather serious.
So the pin was Bruce's idea and I give him full credit for it. It creates a valid solution to a problem that nobody would ever notice.
P.S. I got a nice shout-out from Graeme Brown's Worlds of the Imagination. Thanks, Graeme.
Entry 1-270: September 21, 2013
Rei as Hurley from Lost
I loved the TV show Lost. Although he was not my favorite character, Hurley provided comic relief and drove the plot forward occasionally. But his most important role was to ask obvious questions that the main characters seem to ignore. Whenever the show-runners created paradoxes or used obscure plot devices, they had the Hurley character just come out and ask, "Well, how come the Island moved and we didn't move with it?" or similar.