User blog:JWSchmidt/Rebel

In my last blog post I was explaining how Gohrlay came to violate the Rules of Observation. Gohrlay is carefully crafted as a puppet by Anagro, the true "ruler" of Observer Base on the Moon. Anagro has reasons for designing Gohrlay as a rebel, but those reasons and plans do not take into account the fact that Neanderthals like Gohrlay have a genetic predisposition for telepathic communication. Anagro's plans for Gohrlay spin out of control, which leads to the the adventures of Gohrlay as she comes into conflict with Anagro and the Huaoshy.

I want to be clear in my own thinking about Gohrlay's state of mind at the start of the story. When first introduced to the reader, Gohrlay is well on the road to becoming a rebel and an outcast from her social group. She has previously violated the most important law of her culture and visited Earth. What she has previously experienced on Earth made clear to her the vast differences between human existence "in the wild" and the social conditions of her own world. Gohrlay was greatly upset upon learning about the realities of how humans struggle for survival on Earth. She realized that her training as an Observer was built around the mostly unspoken expectation that Observers will all be able to happily chronicle the history of life on Earth while retaining a detached attitude and ignoring the suffering of human on Earth. Gohrlay discovers that she cannot simply watch events on Earth: she is compelled to try to help the last miserable remnants of Neanderthals fight against impending extinction. Adopting this attitude turns her into a criminal. Worse, she cannot understand why she is the only Observer who cares about the plight of humans on Earth.

Of course, Gohrlay does not know anything about the Huaoshy and the fact that aliens have been carefully crafting the evolution of humanity. The goal of the Huaoshy is to craft humans into a species that will fit successfully into the vast intergalactic civilization that the Huaoshy have built during the past billion years. The humans who live at Observer Base on the Moon have been genetically engineered to have little empathy for humans on Earth. Further, the agents of the Huaoshy such as Anagro make use of nanoscopic robotic probes to keep control of Observers. If an Observer starts to become too concerned for the fate of humans on Earth, the nanites can be put into use, invading the brain of the Observer and altering the behavior of the Observer. However, Anagro wants to turn Gohrlay into a rebel in order to trick her into becoming a volunteer for a dangerous experiment. Rather than preventing Gohrlay from becoming concerned about the plight of humans on Earth, Anagro has worked hard to make sure that Gohrlay will have a strong empathy for humans on Earth.

Thus, Gohrlay has been secretly engineered into becoming a criminal and she is unable to understand why none of her fellow Observers feel the way she does. At the start of the story, Gohrlay is rightfully paranoid, recognizing the fact that her way of thinking does not mesh with the convention modes of thought as they exist within her society on the Moon. I'd like to have the first part of the story develop this theme: life increasingly seems like a nightmare for Gohrlay. She is driven to find ways to help the remaining Neanderthals on Earth, driven to violate the fundamental law of her society which makes it a criminal offense to interfere in the natural development of life on Earth. Most of her peers never question their existence and are perfectly happy to function as Observers, collecting data on Earth without trying to alter the history of humanity. Gohrlay's peers have been carefully crafted to play the role of Observers, but Gohrlay was designed to be a rebel.

The reader is introduced to Gohrlay's world through Gohrlay's eyes and it should be possible to have the reader share in the mystery that Gohrlay experiences: why is she different from everyone else in the Observer Corps? How did a group of humans come to be on the Moon where the play the role of Observer for life on Earth?