Intervention
Intervention is the book which
bridges the gap between the Saga of the Exiles and
the Galactic Milieu Trilogy. It spans the years
from 1945 to 2013, and is best enjoyed if the reader imagines that the events
take place in a parallel (almost identical) world as ours from the late 1980s
onwards (the point at which the book was written). Before this period, world
events mirror our own; afterwards, they begin to diverge.
The story follows the early history of a Franco-American family, the Remillards,
and to a lesser extent that of other key families that feature in one or both
of the above series. Some of the personal events of the main characters, and
the world events that occur during the book, are perceived through the eyes of
certain extraterrestrial beings who have the task of observing and evaluating
humanity with regard to its potential worthiness to join a peaceful and
benevolent galactic civilization consisting of five non-human species.
Rogi Remillard, the protagonist, and his twin brother are born mere days after
the detonation of the second nuclear bomb at Nagasaki. He is telling the story
of his life from a point far into the future (2113), where Rogi is still in
good health at 167 years old and it is clear that mankind are celebrating a
century of having joined this galactic civilization. He muses about the
possibility that those two tragic nuclear detonations shortly before his birth
might have played a part in the genetic mutations he and his brother (and many
others) began to demonstrate in the latter half of the 20th century.
From a very early age, Rogi and his twin brother were able to communicate with
each other telepathically; but more than this, they had demonstrated occasional
spontaneous psychokinetic abilities, and even the ability to control of other
people through the power of their minds. These abilities they learned to
control to some degree as they matured, though Rogi developed into a more
morally decent character than his twin brother, who was traumatised by his abilities
and tended to use them mostly for personal gain and gratification, which seemed
only to accelerate his moral decay.
One of the reasons Rogi does not follow the same path as his brother is his
relationship to an entity only he is able to interact with which he calls the Family Ghost, who in actuality is a highly advanced
extraterrestrial being - the one who is in fact in charge of the alien mission
to observe the development of mankind. This being, for reasons which are not
clear until the trilogy’s end, takes particular personal interest in the
Remillard family, and in Rogi in particular. It acts as a guide and mentor of
sorts for Rogi in his formative years, even directly intervening on occasion to
stop Rogi making some terrible mistakes.
Meanwhile, all over the world throughout the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s,
various people are starting to display certain mind powers, and the U.S. and
Soviet military are starting to take notice. Other important characters capable
of extra-sensory perception are appropriated by the secret services of these
superpowers, or are using their powers to rise to prominence in the organized
criminal underworld of the Mafia. Still others gravitate towards the
parapsychology departments of academia in a bid to understand the differences
between themselves and 'normal' people.
More to follow.