Entry 66

"You have a little brother too, right?" I asked. It was not every day that Ven talked about himself. He had always been sort of aloof and standoffish. I really did not know much about him other than he hated androids and loved his ship.

"Yes," Ven answered. "Rome is eighteen."

"Wait! Rome? Your sister's name is Florence and your brother's name is Rome?" Ven had to be pulling my leg. He could not be serious.

"Yes." A frown touched Ven's face. Then he motioned to the other station and said, "This console is for when..."

"Hold it," I grabbed his arm, causing him to look down at me with his frown. Even frowning he was handsome. "Your sister's name is Florence, your brother's name is Rome, and your name is Ven? Is Ven perhaps short for Venice?"

"That is not what we are here to discuss," Ven said. "Now, this console is for when the Artificial Cognizant is completely incapacitated. From this console I can control the ship manually." I was listening to Ven, I promise I was. I was listening to him babble about having to calculate trajectories by hand if the Artificial Cognizant was down, which was why captain's had to have at least a passing familiarity with orbital mechanics. I really was listening. But thinking about Ven's name actually being Venice - the name of an Italian city, just struck me as extremely funny. Ven did not have some action hero name like Vin Diesel. His name was Venice Barker.

I burst out into laughter.

"There is nothing funny about a ship being so incapacitated that it must be controlled manually," Ven said crossly.

"I know," I laughed, tears coming from my eyes because I was laughing so hard. "But your name is Venice Barker."

"And your name is Carlee Earhart," Ven responded. "Stating the obvious is certainly not funny."

"I"m sorry." I still couldn't stop laughing. "It's just that you're this big tough guy and your named after an Italian city." I tried to get my laughter under control, after all it really isn't nice to laugh at people, but I couldn't help myself. For some reason I found it extremely funny.

"Carlee, if you don't stop laughing right now I will rethink my decision to teach you how to fly and operate Blaue," Ven's tone was sharp and quickly sobered me. I knew he was serious, and I suppose I could not blame him. Undoubtedly laughter like mine was the reason why he told people his name was Ven and not Venice. I could just imagined a younger Ven getting teased by his peers.

"I'm sorry, Ven," I said. "I know its not nice to laugh at people. I didn't mean to."

"No one ever does," he said coldly. "Now, shall we continue our lesson?" I nodded.

"Yes, Ven, I would very much like to hear more about what happens when Blaue is inoperable," I answered.

"Good," he said. "This console has no view screen like the others. These little screens all display different facts but none of them have the display power of a view screen. This screen gives us an idea of our attitude - by attitude I mean orientation in space. This screen gives us an idea of our position, velocity, and acceleration with respect to our destination...." I listened quietly as Ven explained the several small screens at the station and made sure to keep down any laughter.

But Ven's real name is Venice Barker, and that is funny.

Question Break Answers 7

I know it has taken me a long time to get to this, but I finally got a decent enough connection to upload stuff to the internet. Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully anticipation did not kill anyone and hopefully the connection will hold out long enough for me to put up Entry 40. Otherwise, this may be all that you get tonight, so enjoy it. We’re still working on getting a stable internet connection.

So many moons ago, or so it feels like, I got a question from an anonymous source. The question was:

Ok, what is the deal with Ven and androids? From what I've heard of Ven's reasoning, you would think Ven's position is based on philosophical concepts; however, Ven's vehemence strikes me as something originating from deeper roots. He was so wrapped up with protesting John getting a room that he completely missed Blaue calling him grotesque (though how Blaue knows what Ven looks like naked is something I don't want to get into). He likewise seems driven to distraction whenever you or Blaue bring John up in any way positive. Was Ven bitten by an android as a child or something?

As a side question out of curiousity, why does Ven speak in German to Blaue and give her a German name? Is the human colony predominantly German or something?

So that’s totally more than one question, but I’m cool with that. Let’s see if I can clear some things up here.

First off there is the question of Ven and androids. What is Ven’s deal? I mean the man seems irrational, does he not? Well, like the questioner mentioned, Ven’s reasoning is based on philosophical concepts, but he does seem to take it personally.

The thing is: androids are personal.

Ven grew up on a human colony that was founded by people who all once had an android that they thought was a blood related sibling. Some, like me, don’t care if their sibling is made of skin and bones or syntha-skin and metal. Others take it very badly. But I think, regardless of how they viewed it, none of them ever really managed to escape the Society with their android sibling. They had to distance themselves from this person they valued and cared for all their life because this person was suddenly not a part of their lives anymore. So instead of grieving the loss of a sibling, they convince themselves they never really had a sibling at all because androids aren’t human. These people try very hard to convince themselves, though I think very few of them ever believe. However, their children and their children’s children, like Ven, do believe because they’ve never had an android sibling. They take their ancestor’s words to heart and make it a part of their mantra. And since their ancestors so passionately disabused androids, they learn to passionately hate androids. Of course, this is just a theory, I’ve only spent a little time on the human colony, but I think it’s correct. I’ve talked to the people in my situation, most of them much much older than me, and they all feel some sentimental attachment to their long lost android sibling. They spend their lives trying to convince themselves that their loss is nothing, but in the end, they still miss their sibling. Instead they succeed in instilling a vehement belief in their children that androids are subhuman.

That was probably the longest paragraph I’ve ever written in my life. A real writer would probably have divided it up somewhere but give a kid a break. I’ve been out of English class for quite some time now.

So you’re sort of not stated question of how Blaue knows what Ven looks like naked. Well, I don’t think Blaue meant Ven specifically when she said that. I think she meant males in general from a clinical perspective. She’s a computer, and she knows what humans look like because she probably has our biological specifications – not to mention genome – in her fundamental knowledge. She is supposed to know as much as she can about humans to make the ship to captain interaction as smooth as possible. But though I don’t think she meant Ven specifically, I’m pretty sure Blaue knows everything that is going on in the ship and has “eyes” for lack of a better term everywhere. I don’t think I sneeze without her knowing. So does she probably know what he looks like naked? Yes. Did she mean him specifically? I don’t think so. I think she meant males in general. Blaue is a computer. Cut her some slack.

And I don’t think Ven missed what she said. I think he ignored her. He does that a lot. Blaue loves to tease, especially Ven, and Ven knows she hates it when he does not rise to her teasing. So instead of responding, he ignores her, because he knows it bothers her more.

Last but not least question: why does Ven speak German and Blaue have a German name? Well, Blaue has a German name because Ven speaks German. Ven speaks German because his family speaks German. The human colony is not predominantly German, though there is a large German group. Ven’s most recent ancestor from Earth was German, and that’s on his mom’s side. His paternal line is British, hence the name Barker. However, his father’s mother is also descended from Germans. So both of Ven’s parents spoke German and he was raised speaking German in his home.

So I hope that answers all of your questions for now. If anyone has any other questions let me know!

Question Break Answers 5

Anonymous asks:

Have you noticed anything odd about Ven, in terms of his personality, that is due to his not growing up on Earth? I suppose it begs one to wonder how much of humanity is nature versus nurture. While John, an android, seemed in every way human (excepting the odd feat of superhuman strength), is there anything about Ven that seems somewhat out of place or unsettling?

Well, my anonymous friend, that is a good question. Have I noticed anything odd about Ven? I guess my first answer would be “are you kidding me? Yes?” but then you have to go and bring up this whole nature versus nurture thing. And you also seem to imply the question of whether John is more human than Ven by Earth standards. Such weighty questions! Makes me think my readers are way smarter than I am.

So I’ll take this one at a time.

Does Ven constantly surprise me with his oddness? Yes. He doesn’t understand my slang, he doesn’t get my cultural references, and he thinks everything I do is very backwards. He is unfazed by aliens who are so different from us that humans cannot communicate with them except through a complicated computer program that was developed by a species who happens to be capable of communicating with both humans and the other aliens; however, he has a most backward and ignorant view point when it comes to androids. He talks to his ship’s Artificial Cognizant like she’s a real person, but he treats John sort of like I treat my microwave. Is he different from me? Goodness yes. Would he be incredibly out of place on Earth? Yes. But at the core of your question, I think you’re asking me if he’s inhuman.

I think the answer to that is no.

Sometimes I don’t understand Ven. We have this insane cultural gap between us. But at the end of the day, I think he’s just human. He’s a human who was raised in an incredibly different environment, but he’s still human. Ven was raised on the human colony. For the most part he grew up around humans, of all different Earth cultures. These Earth cultures fused together and were influenced heavily by the cultures they encountered in the Universe through entertainment, trade, and vacations. This strange non-Earth culture does affect how Ven acts and behaves. But I wouldn’t call it unsettling or out of place when it comes to his humanity. Behind everything he does is a very human motivation.

In Ven’s mind, I’m the one who’s inhuman. Here I am prizing an android over his existence. I hold my android brother in higher regard than I hold any human. However, I think that’s human too. Some humans hold other human’s lives as the highest value. Other humans like trees better than they like people.

Does Ven unsettle me on a daily basis? Yes. Would he seem insanely out of place on Earth? Yes. But is he still human? Yes.

As to nature versus nurture, I think the core of Ven’s values would be the same whether on Earth or the edges of the Universe. He’s insanely loyal. He’s very intelligent. He’s too good looking for his own good. He takes his duty very seriously. And he loves his freedom. What is more human than that?

Entry 13

Now I don’t consider myself a nerd. John has a friend who feels insulted if you call her anything besides a nerd. She is captain of the school’s Quiz Bowl Team, president of the Latin Club, Captain of the Woodwind Section of the Marching Band, and president of the Science National Honor Society. She wishes she was one of the Doctor’s companions, thinks she’s a Jedi, openly covets the job of Geordi LaForge, and wishes she could grow up to be half the woman Samantha Carter is. I think she has every line in Star Wars memorized. She is one of John’s good friends and together they have waged a campaign to make me very science fiction literate. It was through their acts of kindness (aka making me watch Star Wars several times in a row) that I recognized the line that had just been uttered to me. And it was my friend’s influence that led me to respond as I did.

“Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” I asked. The man frowned in confusion, probably since he was quite tall.

“I am not a stormtrooper,” the man responded, the word sounding awkward as if he had never heard it before. Was it possible that an American could exist without knowing about George Lucas’ white armored soldiers of evil? And didn’t Hitler call some of his forces stormtroopers? A man certainly could not live to be twenty and not know about World War II. “I am part of the Anti-Anthropologist movement. I am here to rescue you from the Society.”

“Carrie,” I called to my friend. She was standing beside me looking puzzled. “Do you see this person here?”

“Yes,” Carrie said. She studied the man with confusion. “Are you a substitute teacher?” The man did not even glance at her. His eyes stayed firm on me.

“Carlee Earhart, we must go,” the man said. “I do not know how much time we will have before the Anthropologists will realize we’re here. They’re in symposium so they should be distracted, but part of the symposium may be to come look at the newly captured Earthling.”

“No,” I stepped away from him, reality suddenly clashing with my delusions. Was I sick again? Had I passed out in French class? “Stay away from me.”

“I know how real this seems,” the man said, grabbing me firmly by the upper arm. His grip was strong. I would not be able to escape him. For a delusion he felt very real. In fact he felt more real than my friend Carrie who was standing beside me. “Undoubtedly this is exactly like your home, but this is not your home. You are not on Earth. You are on a planet called Lixel, in the Andromeda galaxy, the headquarters of the Society of Anthropologists.”

“No,” I responded, shaking my head and trying to pull away. His grip was too strong. “That’s just a delusion. I was sick that’s all. There is no Society of Anthropologists, no aliens, no androids.”

“I don’t have time to argue,” the man said. “You will come with me, Carlee Earhart, whether you like it or not.” He then began to drag me towards one of the nearby walls. I struggled and looked about wildly for help.

“Carrie,” I cried to my friend. “Get John. Go get John.” My friend nodded and raced away to find my big brother.

“Your holographic friends will not be able to help you,” the man said. “I’m not part of the program. They can’t touch me. They can only touch you because you’re brain waves are programmed into it.”

“You’re crazy,” I responded. The man ignored me, continuing to pull me towards a wall covered in lockers.

He stopped at the wall, maintained his tight grip on my arm, and used his free hand to pry at one of the lockers. I wanted to tell him he was stupid to think it would open without using the combination, but I kept my peace. The longer the man took to do whatever it was he thought he was doing, the more time John had to rescue me. John would never let someone accost me like this. As soon as Carrie found him, he would come to my rescue.

Suddenly a two foot by two foot section of lockers ceased to be lockers. Instead the man pulled back a hinged section of metallic panel, revealing some sort of duct.

“Crawl through,” the man said, shoving me ahead of him. My upper body lurched forward into the duct. The metal walls felt real, more real than my desk and textbooks.

“No, I need to know more,” I protested, not crawling in as he had directed but not pulling out either. It felt too real to be a delusion.

“You are a specimen in a zoo,” the man said. “And if you ever want to be free again you will crawl through that duct.”

Entry 12

After a few days Scott and Ellen decided I was fully recovered. It was nice not to have them worry so much; however, their declaration of my good health was not enough to convince John. My big brother often took his responsibilities as my protector to extremes. I understood why. I was all John had; however, that did not mean it could not be annoying.

After two weeks, John stopped checking in on me during lunch or between classes. I went to marching band practice without anyone worrying I might pass out again. All was right with the world.

And yet it wasn’t. As the weeks passed I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong. My delusions haunted me. I simply could not forget them or how real it had seemed. Every time I went to sleep I expected to wake up in some sort of sci-fi environment where the android story was the truth and this normal life was the delusion.

I hated myself for expecting normal life to be a lie. Could I really hate my life so much that I would rather my brother be an android than live a life without such dramatic adventure?

I tried to analyze my feelings of wrongness, but it was hard to do so by myself. I was used to talking to John about everything, but this was something I simply could not talk to him about. I did not want him to think I was still sick. I knew John. If I told him how wrong life felt and how real I thought my delusions were, he would have me in a psychiatrist’s office within the hour.

Life passed by, every day as normal as the next, except perhaps for the fact that I was continuing to understand Algebra II. My teacher continued to teach in the same fashion that John taught. It made me wonder if John had had some sort of discussion with her. John was well liked be all the teachers and held a lot of clout. If he had suggested the teacher might trying teaching in another way she might actually try it.

A month after my illness, I had an Algebra II test. I barely paid attention in French, choosing instead to skim over my notes. I had a low B in the class currently, but with the change in teaching style I was actually understand more. I was hoping to bring my grade up with my newfound understanding, but I was afraid my nerves might doom me.

French ended, and the test was only six minutes away. I walked with one of my friends to class while together trying to remember the steps of Gaussian elimination. We were reciting them back and forth to each other, not exactly paying attention to where we were going, when I literally ran into someone. I almost fell back, but a strong hand grabbed me.

“I’m sorry for knocking into you, you should pay more attention to where you are going,” a surprisingly deep voice said. The low pitch of his voice made me expect to see a large, hulking man like a professional football player or possibly Vin Diesel. However, when I looked up to see who had nearly knocked me down, I saw a tall, lean man not at all like the muscled body builder I had imagined. I stared into a pair of gorgeous dark brown eyes set in perhaps the most handsome face I had ever seen in my life. His face was framed by thick dark brown hair that fell softly into his gorgeous eyes.

“Thank you for catching me,” I managed to say, all thoughts of matrices gone from my mind. I felt foolish, staring like the star struck teenager I was at this man who was probably a teacher at the school, or possibly a substitute. He looked much too old, much too mature to be just another student. He was probably in his early twenties, an age that seemed the height of sophistication to me.

“You are Carlee Earhart?” the man asked, letting go of me. My heart jumped into my throat. He knew my name! He had probably been substituting one of John’s classes, my rational mind said, and any idiot could tell I was his sister.

“Yes,” I responded.

“I am Ven Barker,” the man said. “I’m here to rescue you.”

Question Break Answers 1

So I had one question but it was a good one so I figured it deserved a post rather than just an answer in the comments. So Philip wrote in the comments:

So, Carlee, is it...now is that pronounced CAR LEE or..what am I thinking, there's only one way to pronounce that.

So, Carlee. I've always wondered what it would be like to teleport. You must inform me as to how it feels. Now I am given to understand that the way a teleporter works is to identify the quantum state of matter of the item in question and transmits the pattern to another location for reassembly. Now if this is true, you would not have actually transported the item, but in fact destroyed the item and recreated it elsewhere.

So I guess my question is, how does it feel to be completely disintegrated and recreated? Can you actually feel the disintegration process? Are there any side effects that future scientists should be weary of?

Thanks. I'm a big fan.
Phillip

Phillip,

Thanks for your question and yeah Carlee is pronounced exactly like it sounds, Car like the vehicle and Lee like the southern civil war general.

As for your question on teleporting, well I’m not really qualified to talk about the theory. I’m struggling in Algebra II – do you really expect me to know how teleporting works? To me it’s sort of like magic. Luckily, my brother is an android and knows more about that sort of thing.

I can answer the how does it feel question. It sort of feels like your entire body fell asleep. I mean it’s pretty instantaneous but for this brief moment you feel tingly all over like right before your foot goes completely numb.

Man, you’re going to make me terrified of transporting with all this talk of destroying the item and recreating it elsewhere. Sort of reminds me of that movie the Prestige.

So now on to John for the technicalities.

Transporting: A Short Synopsis

The first transport device was invented by a species called the Yzbauir nearly seven hundred thousand Earth years ago (approximately 3,000 Yzbauir years). The device was investigated extensively by the Intergalactic Technology Regulation Administration (ITRA). After one hundred Earth years of investigation and use by the Yzbauir people with only a few minor incidents, the technology was approved by ITRA for use throughout the galaxy. By this time, other civilizations had developed their own transporter devices. Currently 7 forms of transport devices have been approved by ITRA for use.

Transporting is generally safe, though accidents have been known to happen when multiple transport devices are used in the same area. That is why transportation is heavily regulated by the Intergalactic Transportation Administration (ITA). Except in extreme emergency situations or on planets (like Earth) where absolutely no other transportation is taking place, all transports must be scheduled and approved at least three months in advance. This means that transportation is a technology mainly used by the important. The average citizen of the Universe generally chooses to travel by shuttle or spaceship.

How transporting works depends on the technology, and currently there are seven different forms. One transporter did take the person being transported apart on the molecular level as was described in the question. It is not, however, one of the 7 approved forms of transport. This transporter, though, approved as safe by the ITRA was taken off the market six hundred thousand years Earth years ago by the Intergalactic Council of Morality and because it was not selling. People were afraid to use something they thought might be killing them every time they used it.

The most popular transporter actually creates small tactical wormholes around the item or person to be transported. The actual matter is then transported in its entirety. The second most popular transporter shifts matter into energy and then shifts it back into matter on the other side, not destroying the traveler since energy and matter are connected and interchangeable. Many species made of matter still avoid this method, preferring the wormholes, but it is extremely popular among species composed of energy, who have no need to worry about matter shifting.

As stated before, transporting is not a common form of travel. Our transportation from Earth to the Ovleen spaceship was a rare occurrence, only allowed since landing on a primitive planet is strictly forbidden, it was a culture contamination emergency, and there was no possibility of anyone else transporting from the planet. The transporter that was used was one of the tactical wormhole transporters.

I hope this answer is satisfactory.

~John Earhart

Thanks John for your long, Wikipedia-esque answer. That was the only question on the blog, but a while ago Alisha asked a question on facebook (what’s that? You didn’t know I was on facebook. I may not be on Earth but I’m not that far out of touch). So I am adding our exchange after one of my status updates here.

Carlee Earhart wishes Ven and John would stop arguing for five minutes and find some way to fix her internet permanently instead of the quick patch throughs they keep coming up with.

Alisha: Hey Carlee! I’ve been following your blog, but you’ve only mentioned who John is, not Ven, so who exactly is he?

Carlee; Hey Alisha, Ven is a friend of ours who comes up a little later in the story of our adventures. I know I have not explained him yet. He’s a human (though not an Earthling – he’s third generation not Earth), and he helped us escape the Society of Anthropologists.

He doesn’t come into the story for a few more posts, but all you really need to know is that he’s around twenty and he doesn’t think Androids are real people. Needless to say he and John don’t get along very well.

He also owns the spaceship we’re traveling in, so until we get our own spaceship we sort of have to deal with him.

Alisha: Ahh ok. That’s silly that he doesn’t believe androids are real people, I mean look at Data. He sounds like a younger version of Mal the captain of Serenity. Oh well best of luck with getting the Internet patched I know how that feels. I look forward to reading more of your adventures.

Carlee: He wishes he was as awesome as Mal. But he doesn’t know who Mal is. Being not from Earth and all he doesn’t really follow Earth science-fiction, even if Firefly is awesome.

Well that’s all for questions being answered. If you have any more questions feel free to ask them on any of the pertinent posts or on future question days. You can also ask me any day on facebook!