Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three

by Michael Brachman

  But what did she mean by the words: within you lies the seeds of your destruction?

  The actual explanation is fairly lengthy and occupies a good quarter of Part 2 of the book. After all, Rome has the ability to pontificate. Wait, I know. You're saying I'm the author so it's really my problem. I got news for you, I just transcribe the stuff, the characters provides the dialog.

  Anyway, the seeds of the Overmind's destruction can be summarized as three main issues:

  1. The Overmind was sprung fully grown from the PPT connections of the Vuduri. It is not a natural entity and has no evolutionary history to hone its path.

  2. It considers the mandasurte a threat that needs to be eliminated.

  3. It does not want the Vuduri to think for themselves. The Overmind makes decisions unilaterally with no one to present counter-point.

  Tomorrow, I'll present Rome's first argument which forces the Overmind to question everything about its own existence.

  Entry 3-015: January 10, 2015

 

  An abomination

  Yesterday, I presented to you a summary of Rome's case against the Overmind from Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. The first part of the discussion surrounds the fact that the Overmind sprang into existence, fully formed, as soon as enough Vuduri had a PPT resonance going. Rome felt that as an entity it had no time to prepare its thought processes as would another organism that grew.

  She started it out with a nuclear bomb. Even the great and power Overmind was shaken by her opening arguments:

  “Yes,” Rome replied. “However, what I am about to tell you is very harsh. You must listen to everything I say and only after I am done should we discuss this. The things I say will be hard to hear but I am not saying them to insult you. They are simply the truth as I see them. You may challenge them after I am done and perhaps between the two of us, we can arrive at a consensus.”

  “Agreed,” said the Overmind. “Begin.”

  “There are three reasons why I tell you this, that within you lies the seeds of your destruction. During this session, I will only explain one. I will explain the other two at a later time. Do not press me on them. This one thing alone will be hard enough to hear without trying to work through it all at once.”

  “I am the Overmind,” the Overmind insisted. “There is nothing you can say that will disturb me in the slightest. I can handle anything you have to offer.”

  “We will see. But I insist. One step at a time, please,” Rome said forcefully.

  “If you insist,” said the Overmind. “Continue.”

  “All right. First and foremost, you are an abomination.”

  “What?!” the Overmind stated, “why do you say this?”

  “Please wait until I am done. I know you will not forget what I say and I promise to answer all questions. But I will never get through it if you interrupt me.”

  “But what you said. Why be cruel?” whined the Overmind.

  “It is not my intent. Only that I tell you the truth as I see it. As I said, I need to get through this. That is why you must hold your comments in abeyance until I am done. It is possible that I am mistaken and then perhaps I will retract some of these things.”

  “All right. I accept your conditions,” said the Overmind. “Continue.”

  “You are an abomination because you sprang into existence. You were not born. You and your brothers did not have access to the normal shaping and smoothing that nature provides all living things. There was no natural selection. There was no evolution. There was no trial and error to find your best form.”

  “I am the best form,” the Overmind said. “I am already perfect. I came from the samanda of Earth. I am the culmination of the integration of a million minds.”

  Rome simply waited until the Overmind finished its bluster.

  “Are you done yet?” she asked impatiently.

  Tomorrow, part 2 of Rome's opening argument.

  Entry 3-016: January 11, 2015

 

  The purpose of life

  In the world of Rome's Revolution, the question of the purpose of life comes up quite often. In fact, the entire plot of the upcoming novel The Milk Run revolves around that very question.

  Yesterday, Rome started it out with a nuclear bomb by telling the Overmind of Deucado that it was an abomination. In this next section, she asks the Overmind to consider if it even has a purpose after waiting out its bluster:

  “Are you done yet?” she asked impatiently.

  “I apologize,” said the Overmind. “Continue.”

  “What is your purpose?” Rome asked.

  “My purpose?” The Overmind was stumped. “I do not have a purpose. I exist. What is your purpose?”

  “That is easy,” Rome replied. “My purpose it to live and to experience life.”

  “Then that is my purpose as well.”

  “No,” Rome responded. “You are nothing but a construct. The result of an infinitesimal phase delay between uncounted gravitic transceivers. You are an artifact. You are not real.”

  “If I am not real, how do you explain this conversation,” protested the Overmind.

  “Fine,” Rome thought, “I will be more precise. You are not a real being. You may be a real entity. But the lack of a corporeal base has detached you from everything that is important in this world. You only know your own existence. You cannot know the real world. All of your decisions are based upon abstraction, not reality.”

  “I am in constant contact with all my communicants. I experience the world through them,” said the Overmind.

  “Second order,” Rome said. “You experience nothing yourself.”

  “But the Overmind of Earth has been in existence for two centuries. Surely by now you realize that it has determined the optimal mode of existence.”

  “Absolutely not,” Rome said. “And I can prove it.”

  “How?” asked the Overmind.

  “What do you think of your mission here? Maintaining a prison world for the mandasurte?”

  The Overmind did not answer her right away. Rome waited patiently. Finally, the Overmind spoke.

  “This is my mission. It was assigned to me by my progenitor on Earth. I am executing that mission to the best of my ability.”

  “That is something a computer would say,” said Rome. “How do you feel about it?”

  Does the Overmind even have feelings? It certainly seems so. Tomorrow, the next part of Rome's argument.

  Entry 3-017: January 12, 2015

 

  The will of the Vuduri

  Yesterday, I presented to you the first part of Rome's questioning of the Overmind of Deucado from Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. She asked the Overmind about its purpose in life. It claimed it derived its purpose by its mission, mainly, keeping the mandasurte trapped on Deucado.

  Rome wasn't having any part of it. Rome asked the Overmind flat out, how do you feel about it? The Overmind had no choice but to respond:

  “If Earth assigned this to me, it must be the right thing to do,” answered the Overmind.

  “Are you absolutely certain of this? What if I told you that your progenitor, which we assume to be the Overmind of Earth, that it is diseased? That your mission was assigned to you by a being that has grown out of touch with what is right and what is real, that it is ossified and incapable of clear thought?”

  “This is not possible. The Overmind on Earth is in charge of all things. Its edicts are the correct course of action, by definition.”

  “Says who?” Rome asked.

  “What do you mean?” asked the Overmind.

  “Who put the Overmind of Earth in charge?”

  “No one put it in charge. It just is,” answered the Overmind.

  “What kind of answer is that?” Rome challenged with a savage edge to her thoughts. “Now I ask you again, who put the Overmind in charge?”

  “There is no other way to be. It represents the combined thoughts of all of the communicants. It represents consensus. There
fore it is not in charge as much as simply the combined will of the Vuduri.”

  “If that is the case, then you represent the combined will of the Vuduri here on Deucado?”

  “Yes, of course,” replied the Overmind.

  “Do you ever ask them their opinion on anything?” Rome asked.

  “I do not need to,” the Overmind replied. “I already know what they want.”

  “Do you represent the will of the mandasurte?” Rome asked.

  “Of course not, only of the Vuduri,” replied the Overmind haughtily.

  “And this is what the Vuduri want? To be isolated from the mandasurte? To lock them in prison?”

  “It is for their own good,” the Overmind protested. “The Vuduri are damaged whenever they come in contact with the mandasurte.”

  “How?” Rome asked.

  “Because the mandasurte cannot be controlled. They are too spontaneous. They follow their own path, not the one we lay out.”

  “By we, you mean the Overminds, correct?”

  “This is a trap,” said the Overmind. “I see what you are doing. You are making it seem like I make decisions based upon what I need. But this is not selfish. I need to control the mandasurte to protect the Vuduri.”

  Ah. It's too late. Even though the Overmind recognizes the trap, it has already been sprung. Tomorrow, Rome teaches the Overmind that monolithic is unnatural and that duality is the way of the world.

  Entry 3-018: January 13, 2015

 

  Monolithic bad, duality good

  Yesterday, Rome argued that the Overmind didn't represent the will of the Vuduri. In fact, it didn't represent the will of anybody other than itself. And that it was following orders from a source which was itself flawed.

  This was not acceptable to Rome. She decided to press on:

  “This is a trap,” said the Overmind. “I see what you are doing. You are making it seem like I make decisions based upon what I need. But this is not selfish. I need to control the mandasurte to protect the Vuduri.”

  “No, you need to control the mandasurte to protect yourself, not the Vuduri. What you are doing is harming all concerned irreparably.”

  “Keeping the mandasurte segregated has been my charter since the beginning. This is the course of action laid out by the Overmind of Earth. It has considered this for a long time and this is the plan it has determined is the optimum,” said the Overmind.

  “You repeat yourself and you use circular reasoning,” Rome said. “I stand by my statement that if this were truly your assignment and was assigned to you by the Overmind of Earth, then the Overmind of Earth is a diseased entity. Since it spawned you, you inherited its disease. But you do not have to stay ill. You can get healthy.”

  “Assuming I accept your assertion, which I do not, then how?” asked the Overmind quietly. ”How would I get healthy?”

  “Your policy of segregating mankind into Vuduri and mandasurte and then isolating the two races is wrong. It is exactly the kind of thinking from a being who is monolithic in nature. You and the other Overminds cannot comprehend the essential need for life to be balanced, in pairs. There is a duality to all things. Day and night, man and woman, good and evil. Your method of procreation is asexual. You simply split off. The living creatures here and on Earth use sexual reproduction, two halves making a whole, to create genetic vigor. Your method results in bad traits continuing to propagate. You have no way to correct your flaws for future generations.”

  Rome can be very persuasive when she wants to be and as you can see, the Overmind is a hot mess. It needs a little yin and yang in its life.

  Entry 3-019: January 14, 2015

 

  Are you happy?

  Yesterday and the day before, we saw that Rome was quizzing the Overmind mercilessly in the middle of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. She told it that it was an abomination and that it served no good purpose. After she rattled it to its core, she decided to go for the kill. She now want to know if the Overmind is happy? Does it need to be?

  “Do you recall my profession at Skyler Base?” asked Rome.

  “Of course,” replied the Overmind. “You were a data archivist.”

  “But I was also a lutteur for OMCOM.”

  “What has that got to do with anything?”

  “I was in charge of maintaining balance, of growth. I can feel that you are not in balance.”

  “That concept has no meaning to me. What would make you say that?”

  “It is very simple. Are you happy?” Rome asked.

  “What?” the Overmind sputtered. “I do not understand. I have never considered the need to be happy.”

  “You are following your orders. You are running your prison world. You are driving mankind into two branches. You cause endless suffering on the branch of mankind that represents creativity. You stifle your own people and make them thoughtless slaves to a plan that you did not even invent. Are you happy?”

  “I cannot say that I feel anything,” answered the Overmind. “So I cannot say that I am happy or not happy.”

  “Try,” thought Rome. “Try and assign a word to how you feel.”

  Again, the Overmind stopped speaking. Rome could feel its turmoil and allowed it the time to work through it. Finally, the Overmind spoke but only addressed the matter obliquely. “There is something wrong here on this world, with me. You are right. Something has been wrong for a long time. I had no way of knowing what it was. I had no way of examining it. I thought my mission here was clear and I followed it to the best of my ability. I took solace in that. But it was not right.”

  “The Overmind stopped speaking. Rome waited. After a long while, the Overmind spoke again. “I do know how I feel.”

  And how is that?” Rome inquired.

  “I am lonely,” replied the Overmind.

  Although it could not see it, Rome smiled.

  “You have just taken a major step forward in healing yourself,” Rome said.

  Rome was not kidding, either. While there is a lot more discussion, eventually, the Overmind comes to understand that, in fact, it is allowed to become happy. It is so entranced by Rome's eloquence and caring that it finds itself falling in love with her. But that's a story for another day.

  Entry 3-020: January 15, 2015

 

  Conduit technology

  The Deucadons played a large part in shaping the events leading up to the climax of Part 2 of Rome's Revolution. Besides being the descendents of the semi-successful Ark III colonists, they have mastered the art of living underground without ready access to food, water or even air.

  As a result, just to survive, they became masters of conduit technology. Now a conduit is a channel or tube for conveying water or other fluids. We can consider air a fluid for the purposes of this discussion. We can also consider fiber optics a light pipe or light conduit.

  The underground people had to figure out how to get fresh air down there, remove the excess carbon dioxide and other gasses, bring down water and get rid of waste. For lighting, originally, they used the power rods that were part of each sarcophagus to make an artificial sun. Later, as is recounted in the novel The Ark Lords, they punched through to a cavern and drilled down to tap into the heat beneath Deucado. This gave them virtually unlimited power and they created three new artificial suns to light up their valley.

  The one last use of conduit technology was to create their invisibility cloaks. Now they weren't truly invisible. They used conduits (light pipes) to channel light from the front to the back and side to side so that you actually looked through them.

  The effect was somewhat like this picture from Laura Williams (P.S. please buy this picture from her. It is awesome!) only instead of a reflection, you actually saw what was behind them:

  Tomorrow, I'll show you how MINIMCOM adapted their engineering techniques for his own use.

  Entry 3-021: January 16, 2015

 

  MINIMCOM steals the cloak

  Yesterday, I
discussed the Deucadon's mastery of conduit technology. We know that MINIMCOM studied the techniques used by these underground dwellers and adapted them into a cloak of invisibility. Instead of using conduits or light pipes, he used miniature PPT Tunnels to transmit light bi-directionally.

  Here is the scene, at the beginning of Part 3 of Rome's Revolution where he revealed his new abilities and admits he stole it from the Deucadons although he used a nicer word:

  “OK, buddy,” Rei said into the grille. “Come and get us.”

  “En route,” replied MINIMCOM.

  “Where are you?” Rome asked. “I do not see you on the MIDAR screen.”

  “Behind you and below you,” MINIMCOM replied. Rome widened the range of the screen until the blip representing MINIMCOM encroached upon the scanning circles. The blip rapidly closed in until it was just behind them. At this range, MINIMCOM’s outline was readily apparent.

  “Do you want me to put this tug in slave mode so you can latch on?” Rei asked.

  “That is not necessary,” MINIMCOM replied. “I am not going to latch onto you.”

  “How are you going to tow us?” Rei asked.

  “I think transport would be a better word,” MINIMCOM answered. “I also have a new trick to show you. Rome, please activate the rear cameras.”

  “All right,” Rome replied and reached forward to press a button on the console. She tapped an icon twice and the view screens switched to show part of the planet below them with MINIMCOM’s black bulk obscuring most of the star field behind them. Rei thought MINIMCOM looked much larger than before but there was no way to really gauge. Suddenly, without warning, MINIMCOM disappeared.

  “Where’d you go?” Rei asked, perplexed.

  “I am still behind you,” replied MINIMCOM.

  “No, you’re not,” Rei replied. He looked down at the MIDAR screen. MINIMCOM’s outline was still there. He looked at the view screens and all he saw was stars. He looked down at the MIDAR screen. There was no mistaking it. The 3D field of view showed MINIMCOM there plain as day.