Rei thought that was Rome flying the Algol back to Earth. Can you feel his helplessness? Does it make you feel lonely? I hope so. But all is not lost.
Entry 2-195: July 9, 2014
The Ellipsis
From the very beginning, even when Rome's Revolution was still called VIRUS 5, I knew "The Ellipsis" was coming. As author, of course, I was fully aware that Rome had not really flown off, that she was waiting for Rei aboard the space tug. But hopefully you, the reader, did not know that. I carefully planned the loneliest man in the universe scene so that it would end just as Rei was re-entering the space tug. Here is the end of that chapter:
Prior to his leaving, OMCOM had assured him it would be an hour or more before the mass grew large enough to come anywhere close to the base. Even so, he wanted to get out of there, away from the multiplying VIRUS units, more than anything. He trotted into the hangar, going directly to the tug. He looked for the other case containing the prototype VIRUS units and saw it perched at the top of the ramp. He didn’t remember carrying it up there, but maybe in his haste, he had simply not been paying attention. He ran up the cargo ramp of the tug, picked up the case and stabbed at the blue stud controlling the rear hatch. The ramp drew up and the cargo door swung down forming a tight seal. He couldn’t hear the air flowing in, but he could tell from the fit of his pressure suit that the cargo compartment was repressurizing. He made his way down the narrow hallway of what was going to be his living quarters for the next two years, until he came to the front airlock. When the compartment indicator turned green, Rei pressed the stud to open both airlock doors to the cockpit then removed his helmet. As soon as the inner hatch opened, he jumped through the doorway and…
The Ellipsis appears! The next chapter began with:
…ran right into Rome, almost knocking her over.
“Rome!” he shouted.
“Mau emir,” Rome exclaimed and threw her arms around him.
“Oh Rome, I can’t believe it.” Rei said, hugging her, swinging her lithe body back and forth. “I thought I lost you.”
“No, I am here.” she said, laughing and crying at the same time.
“But wait…” Rei pushed her back to regard her. His hands clasped her shoulders within her pressure suit.
“The Algol. I saw it take off,” Rei said tentatively.
Rome smiled.
“Who was flying it?” Rei asked.
“Ursay,” Rome said.
Now I have been taught about in media res, I fully realize that The Ellipsis is the antithesis of that principle. However, I think it was justified in this situation. And I know it worked because one of my early readers, Hershey, got to that part and as soon as she read the rest of the sentence following The Ellipsis, she threw the manuscript at me and called me a bad word. Mission accomplished!
Entry 2-196: July 10, 2014
Do the twist
I have always claimed that for me writing is almost a hybrid between reading and writing, especially when it comes to the world of Rome's Revolution. As a reader, I hate predictability so as a writer, I want to build in as many plot twists as I can. I want to keep you, the reader, guessing. I try and maintain a minimum of three plot twists. Since Rome's Revolution is really an omnibus, that means you get three plot twists per section. The original long form of Rome's Revolution was called VIRUS 5 and here are the three plot twists near the end:
1. When Rei and Rome are packed up and ready to leave Dara, everything looks to be OK. However, just as they are getting ready to take off, a Stareater appears rendering all the Vuduri senseless and as recounted a few days ago, we come to find out that Rei and Rome have to split up. Very sad.
2. OK. We get used to the idea that Rei and Rome have to separate forever. We are sad but duty calls. Rei has to release the VIRUS units on Dara so they can destroy the Stareater. He becomes 'the loneliest man in the universe'. There's a little bit of book left so we are puzzled. Rei does his job, returns to the space tug and The Ellipsis happens. Rei and Rome are reunited. Yay.
3. They leave Dara and everything seems OK. The Algol is on its way back to Earth with the VIRUS weapon. The Stareater bearing down on Rome and Rei has been destroyed. They are happily towing Rei's Ark to Tau Ceti. It'll take a year but that's OK because they have plenty to do. All's right with the universe. But then OMCOM informs them of a giant "oops" - there were some mutations in the VIRUS units and some have escaped our universe to go who knows where. Part 1 ends on an ominous note.
One reader complained that ominous note was a tease because nothing really bad happens. Maybe he was right. At least as far as Rome's Revolution is concerned. But it isn't over yet. In The Milk Run you will find out there was a purpose behind OMCOM's final plot twist after all.
Entry 2-197: July 11, 2014
Drugs and money
A while back, I wrote a post called Sex, Drugs and Money as it related to the Vuduri and the 35th century world of Rome's Revolution.
Today, I want to get a little more serious about the subject. In the 35th century, there is no need for money. Anybody can have whatever they want except nobody really wants much of anything. The Vuduri are generally very healthy and are not into materialism at all.
What I want to call to attention is the inherent conflict in our 21st century between disease, pharmaceuticals and making money. I have nothing against the pharmaceutical companies making a profit. After all, we live in a capitalistic society. Where I think the system sucks is that the top brass of the drug companies report to the shareholders, not to a higher moral authority.
Let me give you an example. My Dad has severe Alzheimer's Disease. He has been on Aricept and Namenda for years but they no longer do anything. Here is my premise: if a drug company stumbles across a cure, a flat out cure for Alzheimer's and another division discovers a palliative (something that lessens the condition), which do you think is more likely to appeal to the stockholders? On the one hand, you lose your target audience as soon as you sell the first pill or you get to keep on selling and selling and selling the second type.
The moral decision would be to sell the first drug. The profitable decision would be to sell the second. The reality is my family would pay anything, anything, for access for that first drug if it meant getting my Father back. Isn't there a profit in that?
It just feels like the rate of new discoveries of actual cures in the world of pharmaceuticals has slowed down dramatically. I think mainly due to the fact that a new drug has to profitable as much as it has to be efficacious.
There are many other areas that have been untouched besides Alzheimer's for want of a cure. How about Type 1 Diabetes? Everyone knows what causes it but how hard is it to cure? What about obesity? My metabolism is shot. I only need about 1300 calories a day to survive but I eat closer to 1800. So my weight goes up and up and up. How hard could it be to find a diet pill that really works? What about pain? There has not been any significant breakthroughs in medication for pain (especially back pain) since World War II. What's up with that?
If anybody thinks I am wrong or has information that could dissuade me from this rather jaundiced opinion, I'd love to hear about it.
Entry 2-198: July 12, 2014
Vuduri Healthcare
As mentioned yesterday, within the 35th century world of the Vuduri described in Rome's Revolution, the healthcare system is rather undeveloped. That does not mean it is not sophisticated. It's just that the Vuduri don't get sick much. When they do, healthcare is free. The Vuduri don't even use money.
How much of this concept is the "fiction" part of science fiction and how much is the science? Well, healthcare is certainly not free here in the United States. With the passage of Obamacare, now every American is guaranteed the right to health insurance but that doesn't say anything about being guaranteed the right to healthcare.
Healthcare is free in Canada to the north and in Cuba to the south. Healthcare is fr
ee to most of the EU and Russia. It is also free in Australia and much of South America.
So how can healthcare be free and the insurance companies stay in business? Answer, you wouldn't need them. Basically, every country that offers free healthcare becomes a giant self-insured entity. Tax money is thrown into a giant bucket and when people get sick, money is drawn from that bucket and healthcare is provided. The reason the whole thing works is because not everybody gets sick all the time. Doctors still get to make an adequate living (gotta pay off those med school loans), nurses get paid, the whole staff gets paid.
Here is the US, we are in a giant positive-feedback loop spiral. If you've ever been hospitalized or had the chance to look at a hospital bill in detail, you cannot believe your eyes at the figures being charged. That's because a large portion of the funds have to go to the health insurance company. If you didn't need health insurance, the cost of health care would go down.
Just looking at our neighbors to the north, Canadians spend 8.7% of their Gross National Product on health care, or the equivalent of $ 1,483 (U.S.) per person while the U.S. spends 11.8% of the GNP, or $ 2,051 per person. The Canadian model is far from perfect but maybe we could use it as a springboard for building a better, more cost-effective system where people are taken care of without the exorbitant costs we see today.
I'm as democratic and patriotic an American as they come but if we could just ignore the title "socialized" medicine and think of it more like the USPS, then everyone could be as healthy as the Vuduri and it would cost a heck of a lot less as well.
Entry 2-199: July 13, 2014
Type 1 Diabetes, Part 1
In the 35th century world of Rome's Revolution, Type 1 Diabetes has been completely eliminated. Actually, Type 2 Diabetes has been eliminated as well but that a story for another day.
For those of you who don't know, Type 1 Diabetes used to be known as Juvenile Diabetes because the preponderance of exhibiting the disease used to be under 18. By calling it Juvenile Diabetes, someone could get lulled into thinking if they made it past 18, they were in the clear.
This is not the case. Anybody can come down with the disease at any time, hence the name change. The number one organization performing fundraising is still called the JDRF where the J and the D stand for Juvenile Diabetes but they prefer to use the initials to show that it is the disease, not the age group that is important.
To raise awareness, they sell the ubiquitous rubber wrist bands. In this case, they have selected the color blue as their official color:
The number of cases in the United States and other civilized countries is skyrocketing but Type 1 Diabetes is not a communicable disease so how is that possible? To understand, you have to understand the underlying etiology of the disease. Type 1 Diabetes is an auto-immune disease where the body's own defense mechanism attack the beta cells in the pancreas. These are the cells responsible for monitoring glucose levels in the blood and they release insulin to counteract that rise after meals or whenever. If the amount of glucose in the bloodstream becomes too high, the person affected can pass out, go into a coma or die.
So if this is an auto-immune disease, how could the incidence be rising? Is it just better detection or something else. The current thinking is that because modern civilized societies use more and more vaccinations, the body's immune system is under assault and must come up with a defense against these invaders. If you get the wrong vaccine or your body reacts in the wrong way, it gets confused and starts attacking the pancreas and Type 1 Diabetes ensues. Primitive societies, where there are far fewer or no vaccinations, have a much, much lower incidence of Type 1 Diabetes.
It seems like a reasonable explanation. And if it is true, what can we do about it? We certainly don't want to go back to the days where people get smallpox or measles or mumps or whooping cough or even shingles.
Some strategies tomorrow.
Entry 2-200: July 14, 2014
Type 1 Diabetes, Part 2
In yesterday's post, we discussed an overview of Type 1 Diabetes, we briefly touched on the fact that a) it is an auto-immune disease and b) the incidence of this disease is on the rise. The speculation is that because of the increased number of vaccinations available today (e.g. meningitis) versus a hundred years ago, this is just how some people's bodies react.
The traditional treatment for Type 1 Diabetes is insulin. In the olden days, people would take their shots of insulin then eat to match the dose. In the modern world, we have medical miracles such as The Pump which allow the wearer to take as much or as little insulin as they need to balance the carbohydrates they eat rather than they other way around.
Wearers of The Pump must still check their blood sugar, though. Many modern blood sugar meters take a tiny sample of blood through a pinprick in the skin and can even transmit the blood sugar levels to The Pump wirelessly. Also available on a less widely distributed basis are implantable continuous blood glucose meters that send out the blood sugar readings to The Pump continuously. The Pump takes care of the rest. This style of treatment is practically an artificial pancreas but it is only for treating the symptoms. It is not a cure.
The avenues of approach to a cure are widely varied. There are have experiments with transplants placing donor's beta cells on the recipient's liver and there have been some reports of success. However, to suppress the body's normal rejection mechanism, immunosuppressive drugs are required. But if you are taking immunosuppressive drugs, why not just take enough to stop the body from destroying the beta cells? It has been determined by autopsy that even people in the 70s who have had Type 1 Diabetes their whole lives are still making new beta cells. They just haven't been destroyed by the body's immune system yet.
How is that possible? It turns out that the ducts of the pancreas are constantly shedding what are essentially stem cells which evolve into beta cells. This brings us full circle. Stop the auto-immune response and the pancreas will heal itself over time.
So these are the approaches people are taking today:
- Artificial pancreas (The Pump + insulin plus glucogon plus implantable sensor)
- Transplants of donor islet cells on to the liver of recipients
- Stem cells? Maybe grow a new pancreas with a different signature so the body will not attack it?
- Find a way to "encapsulate" the beta cells so they can do their job without being attacked.
- Stop the immune response and you stop the disease.
Hopefully this is enough to inspire you to either contribute and support the effort to end Type 1 Diabetes. The race for the cure is on so support the JDRF.
Entry 2-201: July 15, 2014
OMCOM fakes his goodbye
From the very beginning, before Rome's Revolution became the modern version, I always knew that OMCOM had pulled the wool over Rome and Rei's eyes. He knew full well he was going to off-load multiple copies of his consciousness into the ever-growing mass of VIRUS units before the Stareater came and destroyed the moon called Dara.
The VIRUS units were designed to withstand the gravitational pull of the titanic creature so OMCOM knew he would be able to piece together a working copy of himself after it was all over. When Rei and Rome tried to say goodbye, OMCOM could not lie but he could hide the truth inside an obscure phrasing. Here is how it went:
Rome looked at Rei and then tilted her head toward the grille set into the front display. Rei nodded his head once in recognition.
“OMCOM?” Rei inquired.
“Yes,” replied the deeper voice.
“I…We just wanted to say goodbye,” Rei said.
“Goodbye.”
“Is that all you are going to say?” Rome asked. “Nothing else?”
“What else is there to say?”
“But OMCOM…you’re going to die…doesn’t that make you sad? Mad?” Rei asked.
OMCOM replied, “Do not worry about me. After all, I am just a series of memron units. The perso
na you interact with is simply an interface, a construct arising out of a phase delay…”
“Come on,” Rei scoffed, “I’m not falling for that. You have feelings. I’ve seen too much to believe otherwise.”
“OMCOM…” Rome said softly.
“I appreciate your apprehension. You have both been very civil toward me and I will always remember that. But, as I stated earlier, do not be concerned with me. My consciousness, my essence, it can be recreated elsewhere. In a sense, I will live on, somehow…”
“But it won’t be exactly the same,” said Rei. “It won’t be exactly you.”
“You are right,” OMCOM said. “Perhaps it will be better…”
“OMCOM…I’m sorry,” Rei said.
“Do not be.”
Note that OMCOM came right out and told them his consciousness could be recreated and it would be better. As we find out later, he becomes Planet OMCOM, the largest computer in the universe. What the heck is he going to do with all that computing capacity? You'll find out in the upcoming novel entitled The Milk Run.
Entry 2-202: July 16, 2014