A Cyborg with a Screw Loose
A young Harrison Ford looking for a Nexus-6 model replicant
There have been so many stories and movies about Cyborgs and androids. I remember comfortably sitting in my theater seat in front of a massive stage curtain in Pasadena California. It was 1983 and Harrison Ford had zoomed into stardom in the 70’s. The curtain opened ever so slowly to the largest movie screen I had ever seen before or since. I’m sure it was in 70mm. It was as if I were right there as bounty hunter Rick Deckard (Ford) pursues a gaggle of replicants, specifically the Nexus-6 model. They’ve just killed 23 people in a space colony.
We know Darth Vader’s penchant for revenge and violence. Nevertheless, Anakin Skywalker is the Chosen One. Even when Anakin turns into Darth Vader, he remains the Chosen One. I first saw Darth Vader on a movie screen at the Mountain Farms Four Theaters in Hadley Massachusetts-the screen was not much larger than the TV in the front room 2021!
Live from the dark side! Listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever!
A man just barely alive…
The Six Million Dollar(bionic) man was the first program I taped on a VCR. The Cylongs were in Battlestar Galactica.(2004 edition) I guess I’ll throw in Inspector Gadget.
Go Go Gadget!
Let’s not forget Arnold!
The Terminator As governor of California he won’t be back.
I remember the end of the first Terminator movie when just a piece of that Cyborg was left to fight. Creepy. There is a an unmitigated fear of the all powerful. Harlan Ellison said he “loved the movie, was just blown away by it.”
WHO?
Who-Who-Who-
The Daleks and Cybermen
The Primary Motivation of a Dalek is to destroy anything that is not “like” even to the point of internal destruction when a “rogue” Dalek fails to conform. The Primary Motivation of a Cyberman is to create “like” as it’s now the only way to reproduce.
-Michael Daniel
I was reluctant to write an entire novel about a being who is a mixture of the human genetic structure and a conglomeration of advanced electronic substitutes and enhancements. Because it’s been done before. But not the way I put this book together. I wanted this ‘being’ to control a late twentieth century planet that also contains dramatic technological advances, prime of which is the cyvacing humans into compliant duplication of his body structure. Here’s what I did: The Galactic Command Merisheli Project creating this dumbell has messed up. So what we have is a cyborg type named Sol being who’s brain not working quite right and he rules the planet Scaeva Tengal.
Now it gets interesting because Sol has the power to move into the galaxy and cyvac entire populations. Sol manipulates the military for his own ends and keeps Sol City, that paradise personified, in a perpetual state of terrorism, destruction and death. Sol has cohorts that I won’t mention here.
The pit called Sol City
But I wanted a subplot, as important as the main plot, side angled into the morass on Scavea Tengal. This book is the second book in the Galactic Command series. Commander John Ross is scheduled for an extended vacation with his family on a space liner type of recreation vehicle. What Ross fears even more than his mortal enemies the Antarians is spending any time with his father. John Ross Sr. works for the Command Intelligence and his life has consisted of time away from his family. The old man is distant and has his own way of looking at the world. Ross asks his trusted second in command and closed friend Hugh Lindsay, ‘Lindy’ to accompany him on the vacation. A good portion of his crew will be working on an aqueduct project on a far away planet.
This isn’t a theme about the author not getting along with his father because my dad was always there for me. Setting up this scenario between these two men is asking for confrontation. And here’s the real problem for Ross. The ship carrying Commander Ross’s family has been captured by a tug drag beam to the planet Scavea Tengal. These elements along with Ross trying to evade Sol and his family at the risk of being turned into half humans, makes Reunion an exciting book. And remember Ross is forced into a situation where he has to speak with his father and confront his own demons as he joins forces with his father against Sol.
It was really fun to do Sol’s voice complete with his disjointed sentences and sketchy judgement. His temperament is edgy. And his decisions spread fear across the planet. This is why I like this book with the half human who is not all there but in charge! There is a tried and true doctor’s definition for Sol’s condition: Microdeckia – playing with less that a full deck.
That’s all Folks!
Post Script:
Poe’s The Man That was Used up…. A General who was desecrated by Indians- His hacked up body parts have been replaced by prostheses. Before appearing in public he must reinstall the prostheses into his body. The narrator now understands the General’s secret — Poe’s catch phrase: “was the man that was used up.”
Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein–A fictional correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville.
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