Q & A for "Written in the Stars"

Questions and Comments for Written in the Stars

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Glossary

Alpha: The highest status in Volturi society. A male Alpha tends to be larger and stronger with a dominant personality. They can only have sexual relations with their mate because only their mate will "smell right" to them. Female Alphas (always off-worlders) have superior genetics which grant them their status. They tend to have leadership qualities with inner strength and resiliency.

Beta: The "middle class" of Volturi society. Beta Volturi can have sex with women other than their mate, but their mate is the only one they can impregnate.

Drone: A Volturi male who is sterile. They tend to be smaller in size than Alphas or Betas and have stunted tails. A drone can be born into any family, essentially an "accident" of nature. It is considered to be shameful and the parents often opt for quietly giving the child away to special homes which raise drones and train them for service. Drones are slaves; every drone must have an owner whose name is engraved on the collar they are required to wear in public. They are not permitted to have a mate. Drones can have sex with anyone and are sometimes kept as sex slaves for this reason.

Durice: The soft "egg" that contains Volturi babies. Women give birth to it after four months' gestation and the fathers incubate it for another month in a specially constructed nest. Friends and family are invited to watch it hatch.

Dynali: A humanoid amphibian species from one of the Federation's planets, Dynal. They are a very tall, with blue skin and are equally at home on land or underwater, having both lungs and gills. Incredibly strong and tough, they can go for days without sleep or sustenance. They are genetically incompatible with Volturi.

Emperor/Empress: The hereditary rulers of the Federation. It is an absolute monarchy; the Council advises the ruler but has no power to force the Emperor/Empress to do anything. Though they can change the laws if they wish, most Emperors/Empresses are reluctant to do so.

Federation: Nine planets in the Forx galaxy make up the Federation: Volterra, Lapush, Fenix, Dynal, Ailezme, Hoh, Irina, Zafrina, and Kebi. Each planet has a President, chosen by the rulers of the countries thereon. Each planet has a measure of autonomy in that they enforce their own legal codes and have complete freedom of worship, but they all share the same social welfare system and tax burden to support it.

Rebellion: Begun on the planet Lapush by people who wanted to secede from the Federation. They are slowly gaining control of the entire planet and there are concerns the rebellion could spread to other worlds.

Volturi: A humanoid male-only species from the Federation's chief planet, Volterra. They are much larger than humans. They have only four fingers and toes, each tipped with a razor-sharp claw. They have tails which the males see as a symbol of their virility and strength since the victor often slices off the tail of a vanquish opponent. Tails will grow back if severed, growing at a rate similar to that of human hair. They have sharp teeth and fangs (no molars, as they are strictly carnivorous). They purr when they are happy. They have a lifetime of about 400 (Volturi) years.
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Questions/Comments: (From the review section)

--So Dynalis are drones?
No, they're a separate species which isn't genetically compatible with the Volturi. Tanya will never mate because she is a priest of the Mistress of the Waters, completely dedicated to service, which is--in her case-- guarding Bella. Her status as a priest is also why she has no hair.

--Do you have a picture of Edward with his tail?
Artist Jo Barnes has a drawing entitled "Man with a Tail" that looks very close to how I envision Edward:

--Lauren said she wouldn't like Earth now…wonder what it is like 3000 years later…a total train wreck probably.
Yes, it is. Earth is now extremely polluted and most of the wildlife is extinct. As resources grew more scarce, the world erupted into a state of almost constant war, including a few nuclear exchanges. Earth agreed to allow the Volturi to search for compatible mates among their population in exchange for Volturi energy technology.DNA is taken from babies at birth. Bones and other specimens that can be positively identified are also tested.

--Loved the poem [carved on Edward's walls].
The poem is a slightly-altered version of an ancient Egyptian love poem.

--So they don't eliminate into water then where?
They go outside, into the woods and they bury their leavings. They think that Earth bathroom habits are unnatural and it makes them a little queasy to think of water being polluted that way.

--Loved the wedding, beautiful vows!
The vows are apocryphally known as the "Apache Wedding Prayer" or the "Indian Wedding Blessing" and are sometimes used in weddings here in the US. However, the vows come from a Western movie made in the '50s, titled Broken Arrow. I adapted it slightly for this story.

--I'm hoping-as many others are- that bella baby isn't a drone and isn't Jacob's mate- but I dont think that would be possible because you said drones can't mate right?
Correct. Drones are not permitted to mate.

--Exactly how tall are Volturi men? Drones are that much smaller? Bella said large human male for drones so a large guy is over 6" so drones are what 6"-6'5?
Some of the Alpha Volturi can be up to eight feet tall. Edward is around 7'5". Jacob is about 6'5" or so, which is tall in comparison to the average Earth man.The top of Bella's head only reaches to Edward's chest.

You could get an idea of the size difference between Edward and Bella from the picture in this news story.

--Are there ANY Volturi women or is it a planet of all men alpha, beta and drones and imported women of other planets?
All of the Volturi women died off years ago. Every woman mated to a Volturi male is from another planet, a large number of them from Earth. Bella sees some women of alien races in the baths every day, but she doesn't know any of them personally yet.

--How old is Bella? She seems really young. Is she 21 yet?
Bella was in her first year of college when she was abducted. She's nineteen.

--How old is Edward in Volturi years and human years?
Volturi years are longer than human years because their planet is further from their sun. (Which is why it's so cold, even in summer.) There are about four human years to every Volturi year, so their lifespan is actually about 1600 human years.

Edward is very young for an Emperor. He's seventeen Volturi years, which makes him over sixty human years old.

--Since he looks human like do they age and get gray and wrinkled as they approach 400?
No. They see aging as a genetic flaw because it's caused by DNA errors in cell replication. They do change a bit due to life experiences and damage to the body, such as the skin becoming leathery due to being out in the sun too much, but a Volturi who takes care of themselves will look much thee same from the time they reach maturity until the time they die.

--How old is Alice?
She's in her early twenties.

--One question: Why are the women form Earth all coming all from the same time period (it looks like that for the ones you have introduced in the story so far)? It would not add up, some of them should be from, say, the Middle Ages, and other from a periond later than Bella's one.
They are, but Bella hasn't really gotten to know many of the other women besides Alice and Esme, who were from modern America. This is all a little overwhelming for Bella and she's never been really outgoing, plus with the rebellion, Tanya doesn't trust anyone to randomly approach her and make conversation.

--Is Lauren's husband a rebel and she's considered a widow because he's not welcome on Volterra anymore?
No. Lauren's husband really is dead.

--The nest Edward is building…interesting how he is doing it. Since he is digging it out, what are the walls and floors made of…how does it get in there?
He's carving out a small cave in the rock, essentially, a short passage leading to a nesting area just large enough for him to be able to sit up and turn around. He'll line it with pillows. Back when the Volturi all lived on the surface (remember, they built the city underground so that their mates wouldn't suffer from the cold), the males used to dig their burrows into the soil and line it with dried grasses.

--[Does his hand] include the opposable thumb? How else would he (or they) grasp onto anything without a thumb?
Yes, he has a thumb. Picture a hand without the pinkie finger. The characters on The Simpsons only have four fingers, too, so that might help with the visualization.

--How is his tail used? Is it for balance? Or, is it somehow used as a third limb when you describe it wrapping around Bella's leg or ankle or arm?
The tail is prehensile, a trait they kept from their tree-dwelling ancestors. (We humans lost ours somewhere along the way, but some babies are still born with vestigial tails.) Originally, it would have been used for balance, hanging on to tree limbs, etc. They held onto it because of sexual selection (the guys with the longest tails used to get all the girls.)

-- How long does [incubation] last?
Around a month on average, between 28 and 40 days.

--What does Bella do [during incubation]?
The Volturi females used to take the time as a month-long vacation. Going to monasteries like the one where Tanya lived was a popular choice for rest and relaxation, a bit of peace and quiet. Human females are less sure about the whole thing and want to stick close to where their babies are being kept.

--I do have a questions about that, might [Rose's sexual orientation] that have anything to do with the whole they fix any abnormality thing in the humans when they put that microchip thingy in their head?
No. They wouldn't see sexual preference as an "abnormality", just something that makes the mate have to work extra-hard to convince them.

--Were there always drones or did they just start to happen the way the women started dying out?
Drones were always a part of their society. The species evolved that way, much like bees.

--Are you going to explore the reason why the women disappeared?
The Volturi themselves don't know. All they can do is theorize. With Bella's "miracle" baby, there's going to be more discussion, but there is no definitive answer.

--Will a female first born have an impact on succession for the Emperor?
The first-born takes the crown, whether it's male or female. They just haven't had a female ruler in eons.

--Was something else 'wrong' besides one of them being a girl?
No. They were all just shocked by the fact that the baby was female. Or, as Emmett so gracefully put it, "The baby's penis is missing."

--These people act so superstitious and primitive for such an evolved species.
So are we. That's what makes this story so fun to write. If you ever get a chance, you might enjoy reading the papers written on the "Nacimera" (American spelled backwards) which anthropologists wrote, pretending that Americans were a strange new tribe they had discovered and detailing their bizarre rituals.

--Who are the people in the underground city, aren't they the ones with mates who can't live on top. What sort of mates do the ones on top have if there are no Volturi women?
You don't have to have a mate to live in the underground city, but many single men struggle with being around so many happy couples and prefer to stay on the surface. Likewise, not all mated couples live underground, like Carlisle and Esme, who live in the Temple complex. The Volturi built it because they were alarmed at how fragile human women seemed to them.

-- Why do the babies not have protectors and nannies?
Many do, but Edward prefer to keep his staff small. Rosalie is going to pull nanny duty until she has kids of her own.

--How can Bella and Edward run the 9 if they are always busy with domestic things?
They're going to struggle with that, as do many couples here on Earth who can't afford a nanny, but have to work full-time to support their families.

--Is Carlisle  a drone? Nessie has been tested twice but little Carlisle keeps slipping by.
Yeah, my bad. There was supposed to be a couple of lines about Carlisle Sr. testing the baby quietly behind the scene, but I was writing it during my panic that I'd accidentally deleted the entire story and it got left out by accident. Little Carlisle is an Alpha, just like his sister.

--I noticed that Tanya stayed with the babies instead of protecting Bella. Does that mean that Tanya will now protect the babies full time instead of Bella?
No. It was actually a mistake that Tanya made; she thought with her heart instead of her head. She saw how much Bella wanted to run and see Alice's new baby and so she helped make it happen for her. You'll see in the next chapter (Eleven) how Tanya deals with the problem.

--Very surprised that with Edward and Bella's status in the galaxy that they do not have a full detail of security guards with the family at all times, especially to escort them places.
The problem is complacency. Edward's parents were the first monarchs killed in ages and James did it with a bomb, not a face-to-face attack. Here in the US, we're used to seeing Secret Service guarding the president ostentatiously wherever he goes, but we've had numerous presidential assassinations. Edward thought that Tanya was adequate protection for Bella

--You would also think that for as advanced a society that this is, especially with civil unrest a very real threat, that they would have heightened security precautions in place, especially at a strategic space port, and military forces mobilized PDQ to counteract the rebels. Where are his Generals and Chiefs of Staff? Where are his Captain Kirks for his starships? Knowing the rebels were an imminent problem, they should have had a contingency plan. Surely Edward can delegate tasks.
Volterra didn't have a standing army when the rebellion started. The ships used for evacuation in Chapter 11 were small civilian transport ships usually used for cargo that Edward begged, borrowed and stole for the evacuation. They have guns for protection against piracy and so that they could shoot down asteroids, but they're not battle ships.

Edward has the problem of basically assembling an army and not knowing who he can trust to command his troops. There hasn't been war in the galaxy since the "olden days" before the Federation began, so they're just not prepared for it.

--considering how much the volturi value their women and children how could the rebels slaughter them? why would anyone support them when the do things that go against every volturi instinct?
Dehumanization. You can see it here on Earth, too. People ask how things like the Mai Lai massacre and other war atrocities happen. It's because they stop thinking of the victims as humans. They don't see the people fleeing down the street as women; they just see them as enemy targets.

--Who are the people/children on Lapush? If they are Volturi and they are a dying race, it wouldn't go over too well to shoot down children and women (and the law clearly states that you cannot harm women). What about the women on the spaceship that was shot down, wouldn't James just have condemned himself to death by their laws. There are many religions in the 9 so does Lapush worship The Goddess as well. James going on about The Goddess and blaspheme wouldn't be of any concern to the many people in the 9 who don't follow that religion.
The people of Lapush are a mixture of races, primarily Volturi. The women and children killed in the video were of all types. James is a bit of a racist and xenophobe; he only cares about the Volturi and in his eyes, the Goddess is the only "true" religion.

Yes, under Federation law, James has earned a death sentence many times over, but he and the other rebels want to overthrow Federation law. They're concerned with power, not popularity. James is Machiavellian in that respect: if you can't get the people to love you, make them FEAR you.

--I felt that Edward took Lauren's accusation rather lightly and it wasn't consistent with his character. He knows she is lying, and made a serious accusation. He's merely having her watched? How about investigating her actions for the last several years thoroughly? A few people have noticed her blatant animosity toward the Empress, and they are in the middle of a war that has already included one assassinated Empress. Huh?
Edward feels that doing something drastic to Lauren would be wrong. He's very young and idealistic, believing that rulers should obey the law just like everyone else. (Remember Jacob at the library?) Lauren hasn't done anything illegal, (As Bella noted, free speech sucks sometimes) so he can't throw her in prison or kill her in good conscience.

Bella isn't more alarmed by Lauren's behavior because she's used to people treating her badly and giving her ugly looks. Remember, she's only been out of high school for one year and she was the school reject, the one who was picked on and bullied by the other kids. Her own parents weren't much better. She knows Edward has major problems so she's not going to run to him and "tattle" that Lauren has been giving her the stink-eye.

--Can he not make a statement to the effect that Bella is not the goddess but was blessed by her to be the mother of the first girl born and everyone should give their prayers of gratitude to the goddess and not Bella?
Carlisle isn't sure WHAT to believe, which is why he told Bella that he didn't know what she should do. He thinks Bella could be an incarnation of the Goddess without knowing it and it would be wrong for her to deny it without knowing one way or the other.

--Oh, also, a question or two about that because maybe I don't recall reading it...if Jacob was Edward's drone doesn't that mean that he stayed in their apartment because in a previous chapter it said when Rose came into the picture Bella had her put in Jacob's quarters.
Jacob did not live inside Edward's burrow. (The burrow consists of only the main room with the nest, a closet and the bathroom he put in for his mate when Alice told him she would be an Earthling.) He lived down the hall in a single, small room. His room door was alarmed because all drones have those sorts of alarms on their doors, to keep them from running away and to try to monitor any night time visitors.

When Edward lived in the underground city, he didn't live in a private area. There were other burrows in the hallway; think of it like an underground apartment building with Jake living in the utility closet. Edward wanted to live as normally as possible, refusing both his parents' palace and all the trappings of royalty. When Bella came along, he added Tanya for her security since he thinks humans are fragile creatures incapable of defending themselves.

--He killed children and he says it's all thanks to the goddess. How the HELL would the goddess be happy over that! HOW STUPID ARE HIS SUPPORTERS?
I think back to all the wars that were fought, and are STILL being fought, where we think that the "cause" is worth civilian collateral damage. The Nazis used to have belt buckles which read "Gott Mitt Uns" (God is With Us), which they wore while perpetuating hideous atrocities against women and children.

--How can Bella read all the governmental documents and not read the symbols on the thermostat? I know the chip interprets the spoken word, but wouldn't the documents be in native languages? Maybe the heater had picture symbols instead of language?
Their documents are computerized and can be printed out in multiple languages.

--Question: do they even have animals? As in pets?
No, not really. Being strictly carnivores, they eat most of the animals and it seems sort of weird to them to keep their food as a companion in the house.

--Bella's started the pet zorbe craze but they don't have an answer to horses to pull those things [wagons]?
They do have animals used for pulling wagons, but Edward doesn't currently own one. He used public transportation most of the time, so he never had a need for his own wagon. The one they used for the move was borrowed.

--No dogs? I just realized that in addition to being cat-like Edward and the Volturi look like the blue people from Avatar so they don't have those animals they ride on that below to them?
They don't have any tamed animal that flies and the ones they use for ground transportation are fat and slow. Volturi are extremely fast on their feet and they can run for miles without tiring, so they never needed a fast animal like a horse.

--I'm a little confused that the king of Por Tangeles is very wealthy and armed and the Emperor isn't and this king and his ancestors before him have just sat back and accepted the status quo of "Well the Emperor rules and always has, so that is that". You'd think the power inequity would have seen trouble brewing before this.
The Federation is wealthy, but they've been spending all of their money on finding mates to save their species. I used the 20% of their annual budget figure intentionally, because it's about what the United States spends on the military. So imagine that Por Tangeles is the like the US, with it's sizable military budget and ability to project power, versus Volterra, which would be a country like Sweden which only spends around 4% or so.

As for the status quo, it seems to be a natural reaction to things that seem unchangeable. People accept what they believe are "absolutes" and will sometimes even structure their opinions in support of it. A recent study looked into this phenomenon and the authors believe it explains things like the "Arab Spring" uprisings. Once the government had lost its infallibility, the idea that it was something that could be protested spread like wildfire.

--"so... can't say I understand the duality of this strict belief in a god or goddess when the Volutiri have possession of such extreme science..."
The fundamental assumption you're making is that an alien culture would necessarily follow the same pattern as some human cultures have. The Volturi have their superstitions and "old wives' tales", just like we humans do, but there's no fundamental conflict between their religious beliefs and science. They don't have a "creation myth", per se, as in the world being created just as it is. They believe that the Goddess caused the Big Bang, and evolution led them to where they are.

Religion and superstition permeate our culture just as they do for the Volturi; the only difference is that we're so used to it, we don't notice it in our own world. Why would a religion have to be stagnant? Some of the conflict between science and religion in our world comes from believers refusing to "update" their faith to include new discoveries about the natural world. But we shouldn't assume that religion would follow the same pattern, especially in alien cultures.

--Oh dear. Just please tell me that Edward doesn't have to chew the baby out of Bella's uterus.
I solemnly swear that there will be no uterus-chewing in my story.

--Bella and Edward for the first time struck me as completely like teenagers who don't know what their doing.
Remember, Bella is only 19. She's remarkably mature for her age, but she's still a kid whose brain hasn't even finished growing yet. Edward is older, but still very young for a Volturi and he's in his first sexual relationship. They're both still learning how to compromise and make their relationship work. They will make mistakes, of course (especially with Bella's hormones out of whack) but at heart, they're both good people who try to do the right thing.

-- I don't understand the chapter title [The Zeros Taught us Phosphorous].
You're not the first person to ask me this. I seem to have crossed that "mildly esoteric" line into Cryptic Land. Sorry about that. The title is the same as that of an Emily Dickinson poem, which has several layers of meaning.

The first is that adversity is the fuel of innovation, and deprivation teaches us to love the solution (i.e. being cold taught us to love the heat given to us by our invention of phosphorous matches). It's also about balance conjectured from opposites. To put it simply, this chapter is about how precious love and family are when you're faced with their possible loss. Edward learned to love family life by growing up without it, in the "ice", so to speak. He knew there was a "tinder" (Bella)... it was just a matter of finding it. He never had happy family memories, and he wants to create them.

 James is Edward's opposite, the "red" to Edward's "white", the "eclipse" to Edward's "sun." His is the absolute cold. He wants what Edward has and loves the "phosphorous" of war which he thinks could bring him to that end. When Dickinson wrote the poem, her first version used mathematics to describe this concept of opposites and balance, but the metaphor wasn't quite right and so she re-wrote it with the red and white lines.