The Pulse
Contents, Maps, & Characters
The Pulse is a story — in progress — about the danger of talking to intergalactic strangers. It contains different locations and styles, and explores oddities in perception and belief.
Because of its rather sprawling design, I’ve provided a table of contents with brief plot points, maps, and a list of characters. While the basic structure isn’t likely to change, I’m still writing the second half, which requires some reworking of the previous chapters.
Contents
Locations - Paris - Italy - Alberta - BC (British Columbia) - Lactar8 - Baulis Prime - Fallar Ultima - Vicino Lontano - The Soul Star
Part One
Paris The Actress - Martine, a Parisienne actress and intellectual, tells her story about ESP to Kenneth, a skeptical lecturer at the Latin Quarter’s Collège de France
Paris Equations - Kenneth ponders Martine's story
Lactar8 On Lactar8 - K, a Lactari astronomer, explores the meaning of two alien images - Lady Madonna - The Cultists of Lacter27
BC Dinner Guests from Baulis Prime - Berry wonders what the neighbours would think if they knew he was an alien - Roots - Soil - Light
BC On Becoming Human - Berry confesses a soft spot for humans - Mammary Glands - The Infraction
Alberta / Fallar Ultima Fairy Tales - Antonio, a Fallarian in a human body, plots against his earthly father - Summerland, BC, 1967 - Natural Selection - The Brothers from Göttingen - Vulcan, Alberta, 1999
Alberta Quest - Antonio searches for the perfect victim - Black Diamond, 2007
The Soul Star The Hidden Star - astronomers try to pinpoint the Soul Star within the Corona Borealis Void
Italy Di Parma - Lucia, an art student in Parma, goes to a cafe on her day off
Alberta Seduction - Antonio uses black magic to entice Beatrice - Vulcan, 1999
Baulis Prime The Ascendancy of Baulis Prime - the Baulians rise from pink water to create an Empire - Time & Place - The Great Temple - History
Paris The Academic - Martine's Ph.D. thesis mirrors her life
Baulis Prime Fractal Masters & Fractal Mystics - Rablanar, a Fractal Mystic on Baulis Prime, considers a frightening possibility
Paris Probabilities - Kenneth thinks about probability while waiting for Martine
Part Two
Italy Di Firenze - Lucia suffers from a rare condition - Ganglia - Fra Sole - Febbre Fiorentina
Alberta And Carbunkle His Eyes - Antonio stalks the garden outside of Beatrice’s home - Vulcan, 1999
BC The Stories They Told Themselves - Berry ponders the solipsistic oddity of the human brain
Paris Lestatique - Kenneth mocks Martine's ex by creating an anime Dracula scenario
Alberta Mirror, Mirror - Antonio uses a magic mirror to hypnotize Beatrice - Vulcan, 1999
BC / Vicino Lontano At Sea - Berry ponders religion, unaware of the greater designs of Vicino Prossimo - The Bright Shore - The Book of Fractals - The Religion of Art
Italy The Outskirts of Rome - Sandra, a Canadian student, meets a gypsy in Rome - Campo de' Fiori - Le Differenze - The Gypsy - Mei-lin - Zigana
BC Still Waters - Berry compares human and Baulian views on outer space
Alberta Prester John - Antonio enacts his evil plans, while Beatrice takes advice from Prester John, the local priest - Vulcan, 1999
Italy Times New Roman - Matthew, a writer from Vancouver, wonders about the future of writing - Uno - Due - Tre
Paris Madame Dupont - Madame Dupont, an elderly French widow, returns to the Collège de France
Alberta On Becoming Alien - Prester John’s theology resembles science fiction -Vulcan, 1999
Paris All Shook Up - Kenneth botches a lecture at the Collège de France & Alikiko encounters the Devil - On the Podium - Akiko & the Devil - Off the Pedestal
Alberta Güsfreude - Güsfreude gives advice & confronts her destiny - Vulcan, 1999 - Oneiricana - The Holy Grimmble - Eden Valley, 1997
BC Virus - Berry thinks about human limitations
Italy Di Roma - Lucia and her boyfriend stroll into the Pantheon - Avoidance - The Pantheon
BC Alien Extraction - Berry feels conflicted about the value of humanity - Virus - Coronary Issues
BC Total Collapse - Earth gets a re-make - Frame by Frame - An Elusive Metaphor
Part Three
BC In the New Beginning - Berry finds a way to live a double life - The Common Good - The 7% Solution -
Paris Les Mouches - Madame Dupont finds herself on the banks of the Seine - Ultralight Beam - Le Pont Notre-Dame
BC En Route to the Old Cafe - Berry contemplates his next move
Vicino Lontano The Anunnaki - Lucia and Sandra find themselves far from home - On Vicino Prime - Under the Dome - Connection
Paris At First Sight - Madame Dupont walks to Notre-Dame
BC Screen Time - Matthew realizes that he didn’t have the poetic death he imagined
Paris First Contact - Madame Dupont meets the new master race
Fallar Ultima The Condensation of Demon Saints - Farenn gives counsel to the Demon Saints of the Black Horde - The Sacred River - Farenn of Caldemar - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Alive
BC Dear Matthew - Matthew receives information about his new life
The Soul Star The Soul Star - Madame Dupont goes to a novel reunion
Paris Au Bord de la Seine - Matthew reads about the design of Paris 2.7
Paris Rivers of God - Jean-Luc, a priest in Paris, has reservations about the Church - Presbyteros - L'Écriture Sainte - La Géographie
The Soul Star The Crazy Diamond - cosmographers speculate on the nature of the Soul Star
Paris Pinpoints of Light - Jean-Luc tries to reconcile Christianity with history
Fallar Ultima Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Alive - Farenn gives confusing counsel to the Black Horde
Part Four
Alberta / The Soul Star The Ties That Bind - Güsfreude determines to help Beatrice - Güsfreude’s Awakening - Vulcan, 2000
Italy In the Field of Flowers - In Rome, Lucia and Sandra take stock of their situation - Introductions - The Convocation of Trunks
… in progress …
Maps
The Cosmos - The Black Pulse - Baulopolis & Baulis Prime - B.C. & Alberta
The Cosmos
In the real world there’s only one universe that we know of, although its dimensions have greatly expanded since the discovery of other galaxies a hundred years ago. It seems inevitable that this known universe will continue to expand as our ability to detect faraway objects improves. In the novel I assume that just as we eventually found other galaxies, so we’ll eventually find other universes, even clusters of universes. This is a very speculative assumption, yet this is after all a science-fiction novel.
In The Pulse there are 13 known universes in a 4-dimensional cosmos. It’s not known if this cosmos is the only one that exists, yet there are no indications of any overlapping, alternate, or mirror universes.
The Purple Pulse and The Black Pulse universes are the most ancient universes and are also the furthest apart. The elliptical lines indicate rotational paths (resulting from the combination of mass, momentum, and gravity). While many of the solar systems and galaxies have dense central cores (or black holes) which determine centripetal force, the cohesion of the larger structures is a function of binary or ternary gravitational pull.
The distances between ellipses are far greater than represented on the map. For instance, The Yellow Sky universe is thousands of times further from The Black Pulse than it is from The Frozen Skiff.
The distances involved in this version of the cosmos are literally and metaphorically astronomical. While we presently understand our known universe to be about 28.5 gigaparsecs in diameter (93 billion light-years), in the novel our universe (The Violet Hoop) is about three times that wide — 85 gigaparsecs (277 billion light-years). (A parsec equals about 3.26 light-years; a light-year equals about 9.46 trillion kilometres).
The Great Triangle — consisting of The Green Buzz, The Violet Hoop, and The Orange Hoop — is so large that instead of using gigaparsecs (billions of parsecs) it would make more sense to use ‘exaparsecs’ (quintillions of parsecs). Similarly, the distance between the Purple Pulse and the Black Pulse would require the use of ‘yottaparsecs’ (septillions of parsecs). One yottaparsec would equal 10 to the power of 24 parsecs, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 parsecs. Exaparsecs and yottaparsecs aren’t used in real-world astronomy because there’s nothing that large in the known universe.
The Black Pulse Universe
Baulopolis & Baulis Prime
B.C. & Alberta
Characters
^ Paris
Kenneth - an Oxford scholar lecturing at the Collège de France in the Latin Quarter
Martine - a doctoral student and ex-actress
Madame Dupont - a widow, previously married to Conrad, an English scholar from Oxford
Balazan - a Baulian integration specialist who helps orient Madame Dupont
Jean-Luc - a priest Matthew writes about to illustrate human struggle with religion
^^ Italy
Lucia - an art student from Parma
Sandra - a Canadian who studies in Geneva and meets Lucia in Rome
>> British Columbia
Berry - a UBC student who was born on Earth yet was “infracted’ at age 13 to become a Baulian
Juniper - Berry’s girlfriend at UBC
Matthew - a writer
Beelzebannur - a Baulian integration specialist who helps orient Matthew
> Alberta
Antonio - the devil from The Black Pulse who seduces Beatrice
Beatrice - the belle of the prairies, duped by the cosmopolitan image of Antonio
Prester John - a priest in the town of Vulcan
Güsfreude - Beatrice’s grandmother, living in Eden Valley (south-west of Calgary)
^ Lactar8
K - the elderly Lactari who first sees evidence of alien life
Glontar - the Lactari rebel who writes disturbing stories about alien life forms
^^ Baulopolis
Rablanar - a Fractal Mystic who warns the Fractal Masters about their vulnerability
^^^ Fallar Prime
Farenn of Caldemar - a philosopher whose counsel is sought by the demon saints of the Black Horde
The Black Horde - the most powerful beings in the Black Pulse
^^^^ Vicino Lontano
The Anunnaki - the most powerful beings in the Purple Pulse