Part 1: In the year 2067, a starship called the Ark II is launched into space with 543 people on board. These people are in a state of cryo-hibernation, a kind of freeze-drying, which was the only way deemed possible to survive the long journey to the stars. Their mission was to locate a habitable world in the Tau Ceti system and set up a colony there. The trip was supposed to take 120 years. Unfortunately, an unknown accident causes the Ark II to miss its mark and the ship ends up in the Tabit system, more that 26 light years from Earth.
In the year 3455, the Ark II is discovered by the Vuduri, the people of the future, who are operating a stellar cartography base on a moon called Dara in the Tabit system to study why certain stars are disappearing. The Vuduri have an additional chromosome, a 24th chromosome, which imbues them with some unusual abilities including the ability to link minds. Their collective consciousness, called the Overmind, runs the base and, in fact, runs the lives of all the Vuduri. The Vuduri have mastered the art of gravitic engineering, transmutation and other arcane sciences. The Vuduri have also conquered faster-than-light travel.
One of the colonists, named Rei Bierak, is awakened after having been asleep for 1388 years. Once Rei is awakened, he meets and falls in love with a Vuduri woman named Rome who is eventually cast out of the Overmind for having consorted with Rei. The Vuduri have their own language and call Rei’s generation the Garecei Ti Essessoni. This phrase means the “Killer Generation” because right after Rei’s Ark left Earth, an artificial virus was released which wiped out over nine billion people, leaving the planet in a shambles. This massive loss of life was called the Great Dying.
Rei also meets a somewhat amoral super-computer, called OMCOM, who takes a liking to Rei because he has a personality, which is one trait the Vuduri seem to have lost. OMCOM is actively engaged in researching the underlying cause of the stars disappearing. With Rei’s help, OMCOM and the others deduce that the stars are being consumed by a gigantic creature called Asdrale Cimatir or Stareater. Even worse, they extrapolate this threat to all of life is headed for Earth.
Eventually, they determine the only way to stop this menace is to “infect” it with self-replicating nanites, called VIRUS units. The plan is to take this solution to Earth and let the scientists there figure out a way to deploy this novel weapon.
Tomorrow, the second half.
Entry 2-216: July 30, 2014
Preface to Part 2 (continued)
Two days ago, I explained the circumstances leading up to the creation of VIRUS 5: Tau Ceti which eventually became Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. Yesterday, I gave you the first half of the preface to what was supposed to be the second book in the series. Here is the conclusion:
What Has Gone Before (continued):
During the course of Rei’s stay, there are several attempts on his life which are tracked back to woman named Estar who appears to have her own agenda. She refers to Rei as Erklirte which is the Vuduri word for Ark Lords. One of the Arks, Ark III, had returned to Earth during Rei’s long voyage and the crew members, once awakened, tried to seize control of the planet causing much suffering. Reference is made to an analog super-computer called MASAL which engineered the 24th chromosome which, in turn, gave rise to the Overmind. Eventually MASAL and the Overmind had a falling out which led to a war between machine and man which also resulted in many deaths.
With their research complete, the Vuduri board the Algol, the starship which brought them to the Tabit system in order to return to Earth. Rei and Rome are going to travel to Tau Ceti which already has a Vuduri colony world there called Deucado. Just as they are about to depart, a Stareater appears and because it generates so much gravitic energy, it renders all of the mind-connected Vuduri unconscious. Rei and Rome separate. Rome intends to fly the lifeless Vuduri back to Earth while Rei tows his Ark back to Tau Ceti.
All alone, Rei releases the VIRUS units on the surface of Dara, the moon holding the station so that when the Stareater consumes the moon, it would become infected. Using a bit of ingenuity, Rome is able to awaken Ursay, the commander of the Vuduri and he agrees to fly the rest of the Vuduri to Earth thus Rei and Rome are reunited.
Their plan is a success and the Stareater is killed. Unbeknownst to Rei and Rome, OMCOM was able to download his essence to the VIRUS units and save himself from being destroyed as the Stareater’s mass absorbed Dara. Unfortunately, during the self-replicating process, a mutation occurs and some of the resulting mass breaks up into autonomous, self-aware entities that move off in all directions, including Earth.
As the first part of the saga comes to a close, Rei and Rome, along with a smaller computer named MINIMCOM, begin towing the remains of Rei’s Ark to the Tau Ceti system and the colony world of Deucado. And now their story continues…
Starting tomorrow, I'll begin reflecting on the ideas that underlie the construction of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution.
Entry 2-217: July 31, 2014
Astrogeophysics Revisited
As I have stated on previous occasions, I write hard science fiction. When you are committed to writing hard science fiction, it means (pardon the double negative) you can't write about something you know not to be true. That has been my guiding principle from the very beginning of the Rome's Revolution trilogy through the present (or rather upcoming) The Milk Run.
When I started thinking about what was then Book 2 of the VIRUS 5 series, I knew that Rome and Rei were on their way to Tau Ceti. I had no idea what they were going to find when they got there. To build a realistic world, based on facts I had to start researching the astrogeophysics of the Tau Ceti star system so that I didn't contradict anything that was known to be true.
The first thing I learned was that scientists have observed that the Oort Cloud surrounding Tau Ceti contained more than 10 times as much dust and debris as compared to the solar system.
That simple fact pretty much determined everything about the story. For example:
- It set up the reasoning behind the Ark II colliding with an asteroid and flying off toward Tabit.
- It gave me the excuse to find Captain Keller's sarcophagus floating around at the edge of that star system.
- It told me that Deucado, the only habitable planet in the star system, would be subjected to a higher-than-normal bombardment from meteors, asteroids and the like.
- It told me that the life forms on that world would have to be very adaptable to withstand such a pummeling.
So that's where I started. Deucado, the "little world that could" had to be able to withstand the continuous cosmic bombing and form the centerpiece for all that was to come.
Over the next few days, I'll give you the stellar and planetary characteristics of the Tau Ceti system, the world of Deucado and the set up for the rest of Rome's Revolution.
Entry 2-218: August 1, 2014
Tau Ceti
When I was selecting the various destinations for the Ark program, I used a database of the nearest stars to the Earth, within 50 light years, that could contain Earth-like worlds. Sol, our primary star, is a G2V-type star so I favored those.
Amazingly, Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbor, is also a G2V star so that became the obvious target for the first Ark. The next most obvious star was Tau Ceti, a mere 12 light years from Earth. Tau Ceti is a bright star, part of the constellation known as Cetus the Whale:
Tau Ceti only has 78% of the mass of Sol. It is a little cooler and a little more orange so when I was building the world of Deucado, I made sure that it orbited closer to the star so it would be a nice temperature year round.
In the original "you are there" version of VIRUS 5 which eventually became Rome's Revolution, I had charts describing the astrogeophysics of each star system and each planet including Tau Ceti. They have since been removed but you can still see the original Tau Ceti chart here.
Tau Ceti itself, because of its proximity to the Earth and its stellar characteristics, is a favorite target of science fict
ion writers as well as the real life Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence or SETI. On December 12, 2012, a team of astronomers announced the possible detection of five planets in relatively circular orbits around Tau Ceti, with a minimum of 2.0, 3.1, 3.6, 4.3, and 6.6 Earth-masses, Nobody knows how many more planets there are so I guessed at seven and made Deucado the only habitable one. I also created one gas giant, larger than Jupiter, called Grentadar. More on that tomorrow.
Entry 2-219: August 2, 2014
Grentadar
Grentadar is the fictional third planet out in the Tau Ceti system. It was introduced in the beginning of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. I based the characteristics of Grentadar using Jupiter as a guide. In fact, the name Grentadar is just a variant of the Vuduri word for Jupiter. I made Grentadar about four times the size of Jupiter which, in turn, is 300 times the size of the Earth:
Grentadar is very important because the Tau Ceti system has an Oort Cloud which is much denser than that of the Solar System. That means there are many more comets and asteroids and meteors pummeling the interior planets. Without Grentadar, it is likely that life would never have developed on Deucado at all.
Here is MINIMCOM's take on gas giant:
"We are now past the outer and approaching the inner Oort Cloud of the Tau Ceti system.”
“That’s great,” Rei replied. “How long until we are at Deucado?”
“Still quite some time, perhaps one month. We are just under two and a half light years out. Until we are past the inner Oort Cloud, I must decrease our effective velocity. Prior to the next few jumps, I want to do an extensive sensor sweep inside the PPT tunnel before we pass through it.”
“Why?” Rei asked.
“This system has a much larger cloud of material surrounding the star as compared to the Solar System. As much as a ten-fold increase. I want to make sure that we do not fly into any debris such as a comet or asteroid.”
“Of course not,” Rei replied. “So tell me, do all ships coming here have to watch for this?” he asked, “For all the extra junk?”
“I would expect so,” replied MINIMCOM. “I have computed that the tremendous volume of material here would subject Deucado to an extraordinary amount of cometary and asteroidal bombardment. Based upon my preliminary calculations, it does not seem likely that life should even have evolved there and certainly not intelligent life.”
When they saw Grentadar for the first time, This is what MINIMCOM surmised:
“That is not a star,” said MINIMCOM. “That is a gas giant, roughly four times the size of Jupiter. It is the third planet out in this system.”
“Then that would be the planet named Grentadar,” said Rome.
“OK,” said Rei. “So what?”
“From its proximity to Deucado, it is likely that it has deflected or absorbed much of the extraneous mass that has entered the inner perimeter. You will recall that earlier, I had speculated that Deucado would be subject to a higher-than-expected amount of bombardment of comets, meteors and asteroids.”
“Yeah. I remember you saying that,” Rei replied. “What has one got to do with the other?”
“I am now estimating that the proximity between the two planets may have been why life was able to develop on Deucado. Perhaps Grentadar acted as a shield of a sort.”
Tomorrow, Deucado, the center of the Rome's Revolution universe.
Entry 2-220: August 3, 2014
Deucado (again)
Yesterday, I explained how I formed the gas giant of Grentadar. Today I will explain how I came up with the fictional world of Deucado, truly center to the entire universe of Rome's Revolution. To create the physical characteristics of this made-up world, I started with the Earth and systematically changed each item, appearance, geology, biosphere, one by one.
Earth is Planet 3, so Deucado became Planet 2. Earth had one moon, Deucado had two. I made the atmosphere a little richer in oxygen. I gave it a little less mass and consequently a little lower gravity. This would allow the people of our Earth to appear stronger. I do not claim credit for this idea. H. G. Wells wrote the series about John Carter of Mars, first appearing in 1912. Don't let anybody tell you that the whole idea of Superman didn't germinate from Barsoom.
To continue, where Earth has two continents in the western hemisphere, Deucado has one. I gave it two continents (as yet still unexplored) on the eastern hemisphere. I made a Mercator projection of Deucado which was invaluable when choreographing the movements of the characters.
I also made the day and year shorter. As mentioned previously, I placed the world of Deucado closer to the primary to compensate for the slightly cooler star. I also made the weather more mild so I didn't have to deal with it. Voila! I had my planet. Now I could get on with the story.
Tomorrow, Mockay and Givvy, the moons of Deucado and the role they played in the story.
Entry 2-221: August 4, 2014
Mockay and Givvy
A few days ago, I described the construction of the astrogeophysics of the Tau Ceti system for Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. I used the Earth as my guide when it came to building Decaudo but for the moons I cheated and used Mars as my guide. Mars has two moons: Phobos (fear) and Deimos (dread) and they are much smaller than the Earth's moon.
Phobos is the larger of the two and somewhat elongated. It orbits Mars once every 12 hours. Deimos is more circular but smaller and orbits Mars every 5.5 days. Unlike our moon, these two satellites were most likely asteroids that got caught in the gravitational pull of Mars.
So I decided to give Deucado two similar moons. I have mentioned them in a previous post but I didn't give you much detail. I decided to name my two moons Mockay (Mickey in Vuduri) and Givvy (Goofy in Vuduri). Mockay is much smaller than Givvy but much closer to Deucado. It orbits Deucado once every 12 hours, just like Phobos. I made Givvy a little closer to Deucado than Deimos, it orbits once every 3 days.
In order to portray these moons realistically, I had to figure out what they would look like and when they would appear in the sky. I wrote a program in Visual FoxPro to simulate their orbits. Here is a miniature image of that orbital analysis. You can click on the image to see it full-sized:
That was a lot of work! But it paid off. When I wrote the scenes that occurred at night, I was always able to know exactly when the moons were visible in the sky and when they weren't. Under no circumstance are they very bright and the complete darkness helped Rei discover his sonar-vision in their absence.
Tomorrow, the surprise at the edge of the solar system of Tau Ceti.
Entry 2-222: August 5, 2014
Captain Keller
Maury Keller was the Captain of the Ark II mission to Tau Ceti. Along with Pilot Abu Fayed and Co-pilot Mitch Alexander, these three men were frozen along with all the other crew members but their sarcophagi were stored in the front of the Ark, in the command module.
At the beginning of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution, MINIMCOM is inching his way through the inner Oort Cloud because of its extremely high density.
If the Oort Cloud had been of regular density, they may have never discovered Captain Keller's sarcophagus floating at the edge of the Tau Ceti system.
“The object is to your left approximately one hundred and fifty thousand kilometers.”
The central section of the large flat-panel monitor built into the front console lit up and but it only showed the cold, clear darkness of interplanetary space.
“Where is it, MINIMCOM?” Rome asked. “I do not see anything.” She squinted flipping between regular vision and her telescopic vision but nothing resolved itself.
A set of sequentially widening circles appeared on the center of the screen, reminiscent of a radar sweep or an air traffic controller’s screen. If the purpose of the circles was to locate the object, there was nothing there.
“I don’t see anything either. Can you switch to infrared?” Rei asked.
“The object
is sitting at ambient. That would not help you.”
“So how can you detect it?” Rei asked.
“MIDAR.”
“So show us the MIDAR screen,” Rei said exhaustedly.
The screen switched to a set of fixed concentric circles and within the circles, a bright line appeared as it swept clockwise. When it hit the 11 o’clock position, a tiny dot flashed. It was easy to see that the object lay below the plane of their current trajectory.
“Can you magnify it?” Rei asked.
“Of course,” replied MINIMCOM. The concentric circles slid off the screen zooming into just segments of arc. The object that they were tracking became centered. MINIMCOM suppressed the reflections of the extraneous mass surrounding the object but there was no legend to gauge its overall size.
“What are its dimensions?” Rei asked.
“The object is roughly two meters long by one and a half meters tall by one meter deep.”
“Oh my god,” Rei said.
“What?” Rome asked. “What do you think it is?”
“You’re not going to believe this,” Rei said. “But I think it is a sarcophagus. That’s the exact right dimensions.”
“What is it doing out here?” Rome asked.
Well, we know exactly what it is doing out here. We learned in Part 1 that the Ark II hit something as it was passing through the Tau Ceti system. The collision sheared the command module and SSTO booster off and the Ark II careened into space, lost until it was found by the Vuduri in the Tabit system 13 centuries later. We can only assume that somehow Captain Keller's sarcophagus got flung free without too much damage. We never did find out what happened to the other command crew members. In a day or so, we'll cover Rei and Rome's moral decision about what to do with the recovered captain.