One of the shockers in The Ark Lords was that MINIMCOM had bulked up so much that when he was fitted with the first generation null fold drive, he had to shed some mass and thus MINIMCOM, Jr. was 'born'. MINIMCOM refers to Junior as his son but the reality is Junior is more like a clone.
Down the road, MINIMCOM gives "birth" to yet another starship by the name of Fury (a "girl" starship??) who becomes Lupe's faithful sidekick.
Eventually, Junior gives "birth" to a son of his own named MINIMCOM III but everyone calls the starship Trei (pronounced tray) as in the third. Trei and Aason's son, Rory, become life-long friends and their adventures will be documented down the road.
MINIMCOM doesn't age in the traditional sense and still helps Rei and Rome well into their 80s, 90s and beyond. How they got live so long is a story for another day.
Entry 1-295: October 16, 2013
The 24th Chromosome, Part 1
Over the next few days, I am going to give you some of the physical characteristics of Aason and Lupe Beirak. You must realize by now that in the world of Rome's Revolution, the 24th chromosome plays a huge role in shaping the Vuduri, the future of mankind. This is the entry from my Wiki on the 24th chromosome.
In the mid-34th century, MASAL designed and developed the 24th chromosome. Once the scientists who worked with the super-computer were satisfied that it was safe, it was introduced to the population, initially by injection. The liquid contained transcription-RNA within an artificial virus for delivery directly into the nucleus of the cells. It passes through the blood-brain barrier and delivers this therapy to the brain as well.
It was mandatory that all citizens receive the rejection but a sizable segment, later known as the mandasurte, refused. To guarantee that it was passed on to subsequent generations, the chromosome pairs were diploid, meaning two pair per person rather than one. This way, a person with the 24th chromosome could mate with a person with only 23 and the child would still have a working set, although they would be called mosdurece, meaning half-blood.
The 24th chromosome had many effects on the human body, the most obvious one was the development of organo-metallic elements integrated in their neural pathways which serve as gravitic transmitters and receivers. In other words, people with functional 24th chromosome transceivers could communicate mentally. One unexpected byproduct was the Overmind which quickly arose and became, essentially, the ruling force behind the people now known as the Vuduri.
Tomorrow: other effects of the 24th chromosome.
Entry 1-296: October 17, 2013
The 24th Chromosome, Part 2
Starting tomorrow, I am going to give you some of the physical characteristics of Aason and Lupe Beirak. As mentioned in yesterday's post, the world of Rome's Revolution, the 24th chromosome plays a huge role in shaping the Vuduri, the future of mankind. This is the rest of the entry from my Wiki on the 24th chromosome.
Other effects of the 24th chromosome were improved resistance to infection and rapid healing. But beyond the ability to communicate telepathically, the most striking change were to the eyes. The Vuduri developed a second, internal, iris which served almost as "built-in sunglasses" that reacted instantaneously to too much light. The retina developed iRods which could detect infrared and uCones which could see into the ultraviolet. Also, the retina became reflective, essentially a mirror. A second, tiny mirror developed right in the middle of the pupil creating, in effect, a telescope using Maksutov-Cassegrain optics. A side-effect of having a reflective retina, called a tapetum (like that of a cat) was the eyes of a Vuduri would appear to glow, even in dim lighting.
Another, rarely discussed change was that the Vuduri do not have hair below their eyeballs eliminating the need to ever shave!
Unfortunately, there was one other change, more profound, that was designed to be recessive. In other words, its effects would not be seen initially and would only occur when the proper pair of Vuduri mated. Once this genotype expressed itself as a phenotype, the eyes of the person changed. They became very dark, almost black. But the internal changes were far worse. This last change caused either half the brain or later the entire brain to develop, not as a human brain, but as a computing engine built of the biological equivalent of memrons.
These people, known as the Onsiras, were essentially human robots that reported to MASAL. It was his long-term plan to convert all of mankind into these living machines, under his control.
The change did not occur as quickly as MASAL would have liked and he became impatient. He precipitated the Robot War and decimated the population, preserving those individuals most likely to give birth to Onsiras and eliminating those least likely. The mandasurte were particularly vexing since they would never evolve into an Onsira so MASAL established the prison world of Deucado to clandestinely kidnap and imprison them and ultimately eliminate them.
Entry 1-297: October 18, 2013
Aason Bierak, Part 1
Aason Bierak was first introduced in Rome's Revolution. He is the most unusual boy in the world, perhaps the universe. His mother is a mosdurece (half-blood) Vuduri woman named Rome. She has the normal 23 chromosome set as does every member of homo sapiens. However, Rome also has an additional chromosome, number 24, which she inherited from her mother.
Rome also received an artificial chromosome, number 25, when she ingested a yellow pill created by OMCOM. This chromosome crossed the placental barrier and made its way into Aason's genetic structure, matching the one Aason already had received from his father. Rome was also injected by the Vuduri on Deucado with a second version of the 24th chromosome which also migrated across the placental barrier while Aason was in utero so he has it as well.
Aason became self-aware, as do all Vuduri children, while he was just a fetus. He could not communicate with his mother and tried to "push" his way to her. This caused Rome to develop polyhydramnios and she was in severe distress toward the end of the pregnancy.
Upon his birth, his parents discovered that Aason has all the advanced characteristics of his mother including complex optics, a second internal iris and has a fully functional PPT resonance. He also inherited his father Rei's Essessoni build, Rei's sonar-vision and the EM-based "cell-phone" in the head shared by both of his parents.
Not only was he born of parents who have saved mankind four times over, Aason has personally saved mankind twice himself before the age of five. In fact, he was barely a week old when he saved the Earth from destruction. He was the only living being capable of communicating with the Stareater Hirdinharsaway and kept the titanic creature from consuming the Sun. Because he was a double mosdurece equipped with a pair of the 25th chromosome, he could speak to the Stareater without passing out. This was the climax of Rome's Revolution.