Tales of the Vuduri_Year Five

by Michael Brachman

  “This is you, son, right?” MINIMCOM asked out loud.

  “Yes, Dad,” his son replied internally.

  Rei, Rome and Bonnie came down the stairway and outside, just in time to see the livetar sink to his knees, falling forward into the wreckage of his son. Seeing a livetar grieve was a novel experience for Rei. He wasn’t sure how to broach the subject. He came up alongside MINIMCOM and put his hand on the livetar’s shoulder. “Can’t you just repair him?” he asked.

  MINIMCOM’s livetar turned to look up at Rei then back toward the rubble. For a moment, it appeared as if he was frozen, then his algorithmic nature kicked in. He lifted his hand, finger pointing upward.

  “Of course!” he said firmly. “Please help me take this mesh netting and spread it out,” the livetar commanded.

  Rei grabbed one end and MINIMCOM grabbed the other. Rome came over to help as well, as did Bonnie. They spread the netting across the field until it was flat and smooth. With a whoosh and a pop, MINIMCOM’s livetar disappeared.

  “Where’d you go?” Rei asked mentally.

  “You will see,” the starship replied.

  I had another Transformers dream. You'll see that tomorrow.

  Entry 5-295: October 22, 2017

  Son in pieces, part 2

  Yesterday, MINIMCOM discovered his son had been cut up into pieces. As a father, he found this event devastating. But as a computer, he knew that because Junior was a distributed intelligence in the form of a starship, he could rebuild him. However, as a livetar, he wasn't really suited to this job. He had Rei then Bonnie and Rome help him set up reconstruction area using the same metallic mesh that was covering the pieces of Junior and inhibiting his ability to communicate.

  Today, we see MINIMCOM the starship's approach to the construction project:

  With a whoosh and a pop, MINIMCOM’s livetar disappeared.

  “Where’d you go?” Rei asked mentally.

  “You will see,” the starship replied.

  With another whoosh and a pop, both Troutman and Steele materialized in front of them, tightly bound and gagged. Their legs were tied together and immediately, both fell over onto the dirt. Bonnie came to where they had been deposited and stood over them, watching them intently. They were so bewildered, neither seemed to have any strong desire to get away at this point.

  MINIMCOM dropped his stealth shield and the imposing all-black starship appeared before them. The rear landing gear retracted and MINIMCOM’s aft section lowered to the ground. With a grinding, grating sound, the rear section of the fuselage split in half, rolling tightly, forming two fairly large cones. The starship used his forward EG lifter to raise the remainder of his fuselage up in the air until he could settle his entire weight onto the conical sections. At that point, the rear semi-aerodynamic wings migrated forward while the long-neglected “roadgrader” cylinders extruded. They merged to form an approximation of limbs, complete with gripping ends.

  Once that was finished, the starship’s surface seemed ripple and flow binding each appendage until the transformation was complete. In front of them loomed a huge bipedal, all-black entity with arms and thick, conical legs. MINIMCOM even converted the cockpit area into a gigantic facsimile of his normal bullet-shaped head. The new form stood 120 feet in the air and reminded Rei of a creature out of a bad science fiction movie.

  The robotized version of MINIMCOM clomped forward. When he got to the pit containing the remnants of his son, he bent over and carefully retrieved the largest section of the group. He lifted it up gently then turned in place making his way over to the mesh. The ground shook with the giant creature’s every step. The father turned assembly robot lowered the piece right in the center of the meshing. After releasing the piece, MINIMCOM raised up and went back for another section. This one was clearly a portion of the Junior’s cockpit. MINIMCOM carried over and placed in the front-most section of the net, closest to the house.

  Entry 5-296: October 23, 2017

  Son in pieces, part 3

  Yesterday, MINIMCOM had converted his starship form into a gigantic construction robot a la Transformers in order to rebuild his son. Today, we see the completion of the process:

  Piece by piece, MINIMCOM repeated the procedure one section at a time until he had assembled a facsimile of the fractured form of the little spaceship. It reminded Rei of scenes he had seen when the NTSB took the wreckage of a plane crash and reconstructed the original plane in a hanger somewhere.

  The gigantic thing that had been MINIMCOM carefully, lovingly, stroked each fragment, using parts of his own “flesh” to meld the sections together. Slowly but surely, what had been individual pieces flowed together forming a larger and larger structure. Once Junior was whole enough, he was able to complete the rest of the restoration himself. Finally, when all the sections had been joined, the MINIMCOM creature lifted the front of his son up into the air and inserted the front landing gear. He then repeated the action in the back. At last it was done. Junior was back.

  With a whoosh and a pop, a small slate-gray livetar appeared and walked over to where Rei and Rome were standing.

  “Hello, Auntie Rome, Onclare Rei,” he said, raising his hand as if nothing had ever happened.

  Rome reached over and hugged the little shell. Rei patted him on the head. While they were greeting him, the huge MINIMCOM creature returned to his previous position on the grassy field. He bent at his “waist” until the front portion was resting on the ground. He activated his front EG lifter and extruded his front landing strut. The arms retracted and the wings returned to their position in the rear. The two conical “legs” flowed together to form a larger cylinder, part of the fuselage. It only took a few minutes more and MINIMCOM had completely reversed his robotic transformation. Now there were two starships sitting in the field, side by side, father and son. With another whoosh and pop, MINIMCOM’s livetar appeared and came over to his son.

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure how it’s possible but I think I’m sore,” Junior replied. “Even so, you did a great job, Dad. My airframe seems completely intact. With each passing minute, I’m feeling stronger. I think I’ll be OK.”

  “So what happened?” Rei asked him. “How did you get like that?”

  Tomorrow, we will get the story of what transpired when Aason and his grandparents arrived on Earth.

  Entry 5-297: October 24, 2017

  The Scene of the Crime

  Yesterday, MINIMCOM had reconstructed his son, Junior, and everything was getting back to normal. Well, normal except that Aason, Rome's parents and Commander Ursay were gone. It was time to debrief Junior on what had happened but unfortunately he has less information that they wanted:

  “So what happened?” Rei asked him. “How did you get like that?”

  “And where is Aason?” Rome blurted out frantically.

  Junior looked over at the three of them. He turned in place and pointed behind them.

  “I was sitting in this field,” he said. “I didn’t bother with my stealth shield because I made myself look like a standard space tug. I figured I wouldn’t arouse any suspicion that way. I don’t know what they did but they blasted me with some sort of radiation and I couldn’t get my shield up in time. Before I could even lift off, they were slicing me up with PPT throwers and that’s how I ended up in that pile over there.” The livetar pointed to where the metal meshing had been.

  “What about Aason and my parents?” Rome asked. “Did you see what happened? Do you know where they took them?”

  “No,” Junior said sadly. “I gave them as much warning as I could, even as they were cutting me up but once they threw that netting over me, my transmitter was blocked. I’m sorry, Auntie Rome. I let you down.” The little livetar shook his head sadly.

  “It’s not your fault,” Rome said. “You did everything you were supposed to.” She looked up at her husband. “What do we do now?”

  “I don’t know,” Rei said, wracking his brain
. “I have no idea where to start.”

  “I do,” Bonnie called out to them. Both Rei and Rome turned to her. “We go back to the scene of the crime and look for clues. Criminals always leave them,” she said. She stared down at the helpless forms of Troutman and Steele to emphasize her point.

  MINIMCOM picked up on her actions and the two remaining Darwin members disappeared, presumably returned to their holding cells.

  Bonnie led them back around the side of the farmhouse to the front door. Along the way, she told them about the gun-like thing she found there. They quickly mounted the stairs and reentered the study. Bonnie pointed to the far side of the room. She led them over to the desk so she could show them what she had found.

  Rei lifted up the black holder with the empty vial. Bad memories came rushing back to him. “Isn’t this…” he said.

  “Yes,” Rome said, quietly. “It is an injector. And those vials are what were used.”

  “The stuff they injected you and me with was fluorescent yellow, if I recall,” Rei said. “There’s one of those remaining. What do you think the blue stuff is?”

  Obviously, Bonnie had watched a lot of police procedurals in her earlier life. Tomorrow, we'll take some guesses on the mystery vials.

  Entry 5-298: October 25, 2017

  The Nuclear Option

  Yesterday, Rome, Rei, Bonnie, MINIMCOM and Junior returned to Ursay's ruined study to look for clues. Sadly, the unseen assailants did leave enough artifacts behind that Rome could figure out what had happened. As you will see, the results devastated her. She would have no choice but to invoke the nuclear option:

  Rome picked up one of the two remaining blue vials and held it up to the light. After examining it, she handed the vials and injector to MINIMCOM. “We’ll have MINIMCOM analyze them but I can already tell you what it is,” she said sadly.

  “What?” asked Rei.

  “When you and I confronted MASAL underneath Kilauea, he offered to modify my genetics to transform me directly into one of the Onsiras. Like those soldiers that captured us. He never said how he would accomplish that but this must be it.” Her eyes grew wide as her own words hit her like a ton of bricks. Helplessly, she said “Rei…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out the implications.

  “It may not be as bad as you think,” Rei said. “Aason has our 25th chromosome. He may be immune. But your Mom and Dad…and Ursay, I don’t know.”

  “How do you explain the fact that I cannot reach him?” Rome asked, her voice catching. “Our poor baby?”

  “Like I said before, maybe he’s wearing a T-suppressor,” Rei said. “They did it to you. They can do it him.”

  “I hope you’re right…” Rome said. She walked over and sat down on one of the chairs. She put her face down into her hands to think. She had to force herself to not dwell on the negatives. She had to come up with something positive. Suddenly, her head snapped up.

  “MINIMCOM,” she said, “my PPT transceivers. The ones that connected me to the Overmind of Earth. You activated them, correct?”

  “Yes,” MINIMCOM replied.

  “Then I am going to contact it. If anyone or anything in the world would know where they are, the Overmind of Earth would know.”

  “But we were banished from the planet,” Rei said. “As soon as you let him know we’re here, he’ll have us arrested.”

  “I don’t care,” Rome said defiantly. “This is more important.”

  “OK,” Rei said. “But I sure hope you know what you are doing.”

  “I don’t,” Rome said. “I admit it. But I am going to try anyway.”

  Contacting the Overmind will reveal the fact that Rome and Rei are violating the conditions of their exile. What will happen?

  Entry 5-299: October 26, 2017

  The Overmind Blows Rome's Mind, Part 1 of 4

  Yesterday, Rome made up her mind that the only way to track down Aason, her parents and Ursay was to contact the Overmind of Earth. This was a dangerous act in that Rome and Rei were banished from Earth but Rome was desperate. However, what the Overmind says turns out to be truly surprising:

  For Rome, it was like she had to go to another world. She closed her eyes and blocked out the very knowledge that Rei and Bonnie were standing by. The same went for MINIMCOM and Junior. To put herself into the proper mental state, Rome struggled to slow her breathing down, trying to get her beating heart from feeling like it was going to jump out of her chest. This was the biggest risk she would ever take in her life yet it was the only way. Finally, she was ready.

  “Hello,” was all she said.

  “Hello, Rome,” the Overmind of Earth replied, its voice nearly overpowering in its intensity. “It has been a long time.”

  “Are you going to have me arrested?” she asked, figuring she had to get that out of the way.

  “No,” the Overmind answered.

  “Really?”

  “Really. You and Rei were completely pardoned over two years ago.”

  “We were?” Rome asked. Her face echoed her surprise.

  “Yes. After Commander Ursay related to me what you had done to save our people from the virus weapon, I decided it was time to forgive you.”

  “Well, thank you for that,” Rome said, slightly flustered. She quickly regained her composure. “Enough pleasantries. Do you know why we are here?”

  “No, I do not,” replied the Overmind. “In fact, I am somewhat perplexed as to how you were able to reconnect to me.”

  Rome quickly summarized the events leading up to MINIMCOM’s reactivation of her PPT receivers. She explained that she had sent her son and parents to hide out on Earth until the crisis on Deucado had passed and Sussen’s role in the chaos surrounding her.

  “Sussen, the one with the mismatched eyes?” the Overmind asked with some disgust.

  “Yes,” Rome answered.

  “Then I understand your urgency and I will cooperate fully in helping you find your son. However there are some things you must know.”

  “Please just tell me where Commander Ursay is and we can chat about whatever along the way.”

  “Ursay is currently disconnected,” the Overmind replied. “He was able to connect just long enough to tell me that there were people storming his farmhouse and then he was cut off.”

  This sent another chill down Rome’s spine. “Did he disconnect of his own free will?”

  “There is no way to know but I suspect not,” replied the Overmind.

  “Then where do we start?” Rome asked dishearteningly.

  “Again, please allow me to give you some information and it may guide you in your search.”

  Tomorrow, the Overmind tells Rome that it has known about the Onsiras for way longer than anyone realized and what it was doing to combat the threat.

  Entry 5-300: October 27, 2017

  The Overmind Blows Rome's Mind, Part 2 of 4

  Yesterday, Rome made contact with the Overmind of Earth and was pleasantly surprised to find out that her banishment had been rescinded two year earlier. The Overmind was surprisingly engaging but felt it necessary to give Rome information that she didn't realize she needed:

  Go ahead,” Rome thought with resignation. These Overminds so loved to pontificate.

  “Approximately five years before you were born, some surgeons had to perform an emergency resection of a woman giving birth. The child had some of the characteristics of what we now call the Onsira phenotype.”

  “How is this relevant?” Rome asked.

  “There appear to be two types of Onsiras,” the Overmind said. “The type like Sussen, they refer to themselves as the Reonhe. They must have some sort of split brain. They seem like they have the ability to be part of my samanda and what we now know to have been MASAL’s at the same time.”

  “And you never shared this before?” Rome asked.

  “I did not understand their nature at the time. They always seemed like loyal and obedient Vuduri to me. Their connection to me seemed standard,” sa
id the Overmind. “I did not know they served two masters. I only came to learn this after you destroyed MASAL. I did know they were not healthy, though, even from the beginning.”

  “In what way are they not healthy?”

  “Their genetic structure makes them age twice as fast as a normal Vuduri.”

  “They do?” Rome asked.

  “Yes. You remember Estar?”

  “Of course,” Rome said. “How could I forget?”

  “She was only twelve years old when she went to Tabit.”

  “Wait! You knew Estar was an Onsira and yet you sent her to Tabit anyway?” Rome protested. “How could you?”

  “As I said, I did not understand who or what the Onsiras represented. Only that a recessive element of the 24th chromosome must be responsible for their condition. Estar volunteered for the position and I took pity upon her and allowed her her wish.”