Here's the second prologue. C&C welcome...
-The Reverend Prez
--
Liars and Dreamers
by Presley H. Cannady and others
______________________________
Copyright 1997 Presley H. Cannady
Copyright 1997 Anime/Manga Development Group
Copyright 1985 Harmony Gold
Copyright 1982 Tatsunoko Productions
Copyright 1982 Studio Nue
This story is not to be bought or sold, in whole or in part. The
electronic publication of this novel is in-tended for free access, and
does not intend to infringe on the rights of Harmony Gold USA. The
author has not accepted and will not accept any remuneration for this
work. This book is a combination of events from the series and source
material, the RPG and events of the McKinney Novels. Its canonical
value is uncertain.
Fourth Edition 1997
____________________________________________________________
Prologue Two
"How Far Is The Horizon?"
Robotech IV-The Odysseus Epic
Act I: Superdimensional Starforce Orion
by Presley H. Cannady (
cannady@magiccarpet.com)
and Lou Barnes (
lbj@magiccarpet.com)
_______________________________
THE END OF ROBOTECH, THE END OF THREE WARS CONNECTED AND intertwined
into the great mystery of the Shapings. The Triumverate of
Proto-culture had been damaged, and once again, the Galaxy plunged
headfirst into the cycles of the Reshapings...All these conclusions, all
of them wrong....The Great Severance of 2060 C.E. was once debated, long
ago, to be the divine con-sequence for the arrogance of man. Even that
presumption was arrogant, that man would be the only one to make the
mistake. The realization that the Galaxy was but one of many billions
expanding from the center of the Universe brought back into perspective
the role Protoculture played in their events. Minor, as to the events
that have shaped the universe. Minor, as to the powers beyond
proto-culture and the powers of those who have mastered it. However, the
Reshapings would take a new shape, not to war, or to love, but to
peace. They have done so for nearly twenty-millenia, and shall continue
forever, until the universe is re-maid...But only the arrogance of
sentience would pursue the thought that Ro-botech’s seeming end for them
meant an end to its existence. They had not yet run out of history, and
I counsel you that we have not yet either.
-author unknown, 19,600 C.E. (A.D.), 2190 N.E. (New Era), regarding the
Third Era of Robotechnology
* * *
"Protoculture, in its most literal explication, is the process of
deriving energy from seeds [of the Flower of Life, fuseria] through the
forced extension of the period of gestation through external provision
of nour-ishment; thereby prodding matrices containing the fuseria seeds
to undergo a futile process, which ulti-mately completes the incubation
period, repetively until such a point where the matrices’ nutriet
reservoirs have been entirely spent. As incredible as it may sound,
the seeds require a massive, internal energy source to assist in
"cracking" the impressively hardy outershell. As experimentation has
demonstrated, only a nuclear chain reaction--although minute and
contained--can effectively force the seed out of the gestation phase.
Harnessing the natural energy generated within these seeds, an
inexpensive and entirely replacable source of energy and power presents
itself.
"I also assigned the appellative ‘protoculture’ to the fusive-ready
atoms generated after the initial fusion process. Two resultant
particles fuse at the nuclear level under heavy monopolaric influence,
and the process continues as the fusive particle increases to a point of
critical mass. Eventually, the mass build up of the conglomerate atom
would lead to its eventual deteoriation, the fission process providing
the neces-sary activation to repeat the cycle of nuclear fusion. This
reflexive relationship between fission and fu-sion, safely contained
within a proper matrix, releases an impressive abundance of rest energy
with a lower input work threshold, and the process the ‘protoculture,’
fused atom undergoes--while finite--is for the most part
self-sustaining.
"But it would be criminal to leave protoculture at that; the
existence of an powerful bioenergy source deserves to be held with much
more respect. No, the story of protoculture goes beyond that bio-energy
source that is technically much less powerful than the matter-antimatter
power sources that we are devel-oping to power our vehicles of starlight
travel someday, but signifigantly more powerful than those ener-gies
released during lightweight fusion and cold fusion sources, an much more
suitable for handling. A form of bio-derived energy, from a
"tracheophytic" plant lifeform with a limited number of animal
char-acteristics. The protoculture seemed to respond to the universe,
much more systematically than antimatter and matter reactions. There
was little chaos in conjuring the energies of the Flower in the
protoculture, as can be found in the nearly unpredictable annihilation
cycles of energy to pure energy. For this reason, I’ve found the
protoculture process in many ways much more efficient than our present
fusion and M/AM vessels--although far less powerful in terms of raw
energy output. The source of the energy pulses within the Flowers are
unknown, and I have ruled out fusive activity an explanation. The
Flower was exhibiting ‘reflexive’ behavior to its surroundings,
particularly that to the (discredited) [Fam] Ura’s ‘ether fields.’ In
the presence of strong EM activity, the organism exhibited impressively
energetic responses, the induction of its charge was massive enough to
power a small building’s internal generator. Sentience, however, would
need to be evaluated through other measures. It seems that the numeral
[three], the obsession of the state’s and empire’s totalitarianist
leaders is almost manifest from the flower, and now, its secret as
well..."
"Protoculture, in its third import, is unexplainable in normal
physical terminology, or physical sciences. I tread unsure ground in
the fields of biogenetics, and I am but an infant in the fields of
psychology. Nonetheless, I am now convinced that protoculture has its
own, psi-sentient, manifestation. I’ve been hiding this from both my
collegues and allies, but the Flower of Life’s seemingly amazing and
unprece-dented nuclear-fusion capabilities are nothing compared to my
most recent findings. This organism, which I once thought violated [the
laws of conservation] be seemingly deriving the energy to power not only
its internal fusion mechanisms, but machines external of itself, seemed
to come from nowhere. No matter conversion--the bionutrients we
originally suspected to be the agents of were in fact simply used for
the plant’s photosynthetic activities. How even more surprised I was to
discover that the Flower of Life does not rely on photosynthesis as its
primary source of sustainance, but seems to convert nuclear energy to a
chemical state from its own reproductive activities:
‘nucleoplasmosynthesis.’
"Certain collegues of mine claim they have suffered instances of
hallucination and even divination (of which I still remain skeptical).
I felt compelled to eventually subject the Flower to a hyper-wave
analysis by these ridiculous reports of divine intercession and
supernatural experiences. The results were even more confounding. It
seemed to generate gravitational distortion field which varied each seed
generation period. A specimen gathering trip to the Karbarran
specialized energy-producton facilities, now nation-alized under
Imperial control, produced no corroborative evidence of fields in any
other stage of the Flower’s development other than that of the Flower
stage. Gathering specimens from the Karbarran or-chids in the
fruit-bearing stage, I expediated the germination process of the spore
to the flowering stage. Each specimen began to generate contiuum
distortion fields, on various frequencies. These results were
confounding, and unless the Flower is somehow harnessing energy
emmissions from elsewhere with these fields, I am at a loss. We will
plan a voyage to Haydon IV, where I have yet to discover whether the
Awareness has any record of contact with such an organism. I pity my
delay."
-paraphrases of a section of Zor Derelda’s notes, Cabell’s Homunculi
* * *
"Shapings or no shapings, there was definitely something fated about the
events that surrounded what some had begun to term as the homunculi.
Before this can be elucidated upon, one must find the defini-tion of the
Shapings themselves. The Shapings is/are ("are," for the sake of
clarity) not necessarily the equivalent of the Terran God, Allah,
Jehovah, or any deity of the Local Group. They are not omniscient or
omnipotent. One may preclude that they are a subset of plans left by
the Deity that may have roamed, or even created the universe in which we
dwell in. A program, you may call it. To the aetheist, this means
nothing; to the agnostic, it can mean the world.
"I guess this becomes a question of what God is? God is a purpose,
an order, and a living being. But the Terran mindset, and
unfortunately, that of the Mutan, the Eridani, even Tirolians and the
hin gifted Garudans, have singlemindedly set one overall purpose in the
Universe while defining it as the single un-derlying order of all
systems. Chaos theory, Occam’s Razor, and such other similar schools of
thought like the K’tna Paradox and the Malcom Verresy Temporal Mobius
Loop are all assumed to transcend the linear thinking of human beings
and their understanding of the universe... "
"We can see our world from one single point, what is commonly given
the nomenclature of the present. This diagram is most associated with
the K’tna Paradox Theory, in which the linear perspective of mod-ern
physics shows the future stretching out proportionally ahead to the past
stretching out behind. Much of these theories were loosely developed
independently in Terra, five-hundred years after the K’tna theory, and
was later used to establish the theories behind alternatve universes."
F U T U R E
\ Finite | Finite /
\Possibility |S Possibility
\ |P /
\ |A /
\ |C /
\ |-- /
\ |T /
\ |I /
\ |M /
\ |E /
\ | /
\ | /
Realm of \ | / Realm of
Impossibilities \|/ Impossibilities
P r e s e n t
/|\
/ | \
/ | \
/ |S \
/ |P \
/ |A \
/ |C \
/ |E \
/ |-- \
/ |T \
/ |I \
/ |M \
/ Finite |E Finite \
/ Possibility | Possibility \
P A S T
"The any point on the line is the present of that time, the past of
any anterior point, and the future of any posterior point. Alternate
universe concepts hold that the funnel linear diagram indicates the
possi-bilities of multiple pasts passing through any point (considered
the present) and stretching into an finite
possibility (since the universe is finite, suffering of entroy, and
eventually prone to collapse, possibilities may be enormous, but all
lead to the final destruction of the universe)."
"Through the use of wormhole and hyperspace theories, we’ve been
able to move about through points on this linear possibilities.
"However, it only transcends forward linear thought, allowing us to
briefly understand backwards lin-ear thought a bit more than we used
to. However, simplicity is often found in choices, in sets, of two.
However, time and space, if the Shapings are existent, aren’t
necessarily of two directions. We see the sideways view of time and
space as impossibilities. We’ve acheived the level where we understand
that cause and effect are separate yet intertwinable, allowing us the
basic use of hyperspace for travel and communications, and even
establishing a base of how the universe was created. However, there is
nothing in our thinking that can prepare us for the points of view from
the side, which may stretch to find answers in the metaphysical realm
than the physical. This is logical under the assumption that science is
claimed to be non-subjective, but still disregards biasedly the
positions from the sideway’s point of view."
"What are these realms of impossibilities? The Infinite? The
universe that doesn’t die, nor declines in the wake of outstretching
possibilities? The eternal paradox? God?
"The nature of hyperspace travel and what allows us to break the
physical ‘absolutes’ seem to have their origin in this "realm." When we
undergo the actual process of transcending from our own plausible
posi-tion to a different plausible position in space-time, we are being
lifted not only through higher dimen-sions, but possibly through this
sideways realm, the impossibilities that hold our possibilities
together.
"For that reason, I cannot define God, without being God."
"But the Shapings? The Homunculi? Once again, the metaphysical
leaves us scientists baffled, as the God of Order and the God of Miracle
seem to actually be one in what we call "impossibility." We may never
understand the Shapings, or the "Reshapings," but some think we may; in
that beautiful hope of the afterlife."
"The Shapings, as best as can be explained, are like that "great
big soul" John Steinback, the mid-20th century Terran author of Grapes
of Wrath, intertwined dearly in his works. A collective consciousness
of all sentient beings, or a collective subconsciousness?"
-Dr. Athalia Langston, exceprted a transcript from the 2788 Galactic
Federation Science and Theology Summit, Tirol. Hosted by Dr. Masuo
Takaya, Rev. Linus McKeegan and Dr. L’than, Ph.D in Compara-tive
Religions of Earth
-------==========*****End Prologue Two*****==========-------
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/--<Prez, The Reverend of Funk >-+------------------------\
| Presley H. Cannady II | Author of the |
|NROTC Candidate | Robotech New Era Sagas |
|
cannady@magiccarpet.com | and various fanfics |
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+--<"...The mothership has landed...funktacular...">----+
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