TSiaSoS Spork, Appendix III: Terminology (The True End Part 2)

[mara_dienne459]

           Q

Q-DRIVE: a quantum-level memory stick. Because every student needs a memory stick that not only can hold your homework and that term paper that’s due at midnight tonight, you have ten pages written already, and you’ve forgotten to save! Or maybe that one photograph that nobody can find because the memory stick got lost somewhere in a box when you were moving.

QUESTANT: an Entropist. One who quests for a way to save humanity from the heat death of the universe. I mean... the freezing to death theory seems pretty on track for what’s going to happen to the universe. The universe is constantly expanding, and at a pretty rapid pace, so in a couple billion, maybe even trillion, years, our night sky will be completely black, and we’ll be completely alone in the universe, with no light, no warmth. We’ll all freeze. Supposing any complex life is left in the universe at that point. And that, of course, is supposing our sun doesn’t decide to go all red giant on us, thus destroying Mercury and Venus and reducing Earth to a burnt piece of rock.

R

RD 52s: hydrogen-cooled Casaba-Howitzers chilled to within a fraction of a degree of absolute zero. Used as mines. An early attempt at stealth weaponry in space. Oh, for the love of freakin’... for the last fucking time HOWITZERS ARE NOT ORDINANCE. They are HEAVY CANNONS. Really big guns. You can’t just take the name of something very specific, something that many people would recognize, and slap it on something else. Also, I’m pretty sure I remember getting chapter where the stupid things are described to be like really big guns mounted on the ship, but then there’s a little part that says they’re the payload, not the gun. And I was like “wut”. No. Just... no. Where’s a rolled up newspaper when you need one?

REFORM HUTTERITES: heretical offshoot of traditional ethnoreligious Hutteritism, now far outnumbering their forebears. Reform Hutterites (RHs) accept the use of modern technology where it allows them to further pursue the spread of humanity and establish their claim over God’s creation, but they frown on any use of tech, such as STEM shots, for what they deem selfish, individual needs. Where possible, they hew to communal-based life. They have proven highly successful everywhere they’ve settled. Unlike traditional Hutterites, RHs are known to serve in the military, although this is still frowned upon by the majority of their society. I really do have to wonder if he did any research into the real world’s Hutterites, or if he just took the name because it sounded cool. According to the page on wikipedia, actual Hutterite theology “emphasizes credobaptism, a belief in the Church invisible, Christian pacifism, and the rejection of oaths”. They also believe in “a set of community rules for Christian living and the principle of worldly separation”, which is that “members of a church should be separate from “the world” and not have association with those who are “of the world”. Basically, the Hutterites seek to live without interference from the rest of us. Not all of them shun the use of modern technology, and only in some cases are tv and internet completely banned, but cell phones are common. So this is like... the exact opposite of what they actually aspire for. They aren’t trying to “establish their claim” over anything. And like I mentioned earlier in the “Hutterite” entry, they live a life of nonresistance. So for them to join and serve in the military is the exact opposite of what this group stands for. It’s like... a kid purposefully defying their parents because their parents said no. 

REGINALD THE PIG-HEADED GOD: local cult leader in the city of Khoiso. Gene-hacked human with a head in the shape of a pig’s. Believed by his followers to be a deity in flesh and possessed of supernatural powers. Is it bad that this entry just reminds me of the character Inosuke Hashiraba from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? The manga for Demon Slayer started its run in 2016, and the television series started its run in 2019. Maybe it’s a coincidence... but I really don’t believe in coincidences when it comes to him. Especially since Demon Slayer is so popular. There’s already too much of a track record for ripping off other people’s works and passing them off as his own idea. Also, why “Reginald”? That’s just... offering itself up to be laughed at. It’s like that double-take moment where you’re like “Excuse me? Is... that seriously... what they call you?” before you try and fail to hold in your laughter. Anyway... too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, in my opinion.

REMASS: propellant expelled out the back of a spaceship. Usually hydrogen. Not to be confused with fuel, which in the case of nuclear rockets is the material fused or split to heat the remass/propellant. Soo... why can’t we just call it “propellant’? Because it doesn’t sound as cool? And, okay, maybe I’m not being fair. Maybe I’m being overly cynical. But I’m not an expert in all this science stuff and jargon, and I really just prefer plain terms. If remass equals propellant, why can’t we just say that?

RETICULUM: intra-ship network used by Wranaui. It’s also the second stomach of a ruminant! But literally, the word means “a fine network or netlike structure”. So that isn’t so much of a naming as a ripping from the dictionary to name something. And I have to ask now... why would the Wranaui use a human term for themselves? Wouldn’t they have their own term for the “intra-ship” network that they use?

RIPPLE: [[Invalid Input: Entry Not Found]] Oh, good... I was needing a break from trying to figure out how to be clever and failing miserably at it.

RM: reserve mark. Indicates legal protection over a term, phrase, or symbol. Because “trade mark” is, um, trademarked, I guess. I don’t know how to feel to see a direct pull with just a changed name. But then... I really shouldn’t be surprised. 

RODS: see SJAMs. Oh... I really thought I’d seen the last of you, you irritating little entry. Why can’t these just be combined? I mean... the S section is huge compared to the other sections, and this one being combined with the other could have at least shortened it by one.

RSW7-MOLOTÓK: Casaba-Howitzers manufactured by Lutsenko Defense Industries. Sadly, it’s not a big gun. I would’ve really liked to see a big gun by this name. A mortar launcher. Something. It would’ve been really nice... alas... not meant to be.

RTC NEWS: Ruslan Transmission Company. Newsfeed out of 61 Cygni. Considering Ruslan is basically Russia (it’s even flat out admitted) do you think the news is exactly like Russian news? Dosidvanya. downs shot

RUSLAN: rocky planet in orbit around 61 Cygni A. Second newest colony in the League, behind Weyland. Primarily settled by Russian interests. Extensive mining takes place in the asteroid belts around A’s binary partner, Cygni B. See? The admission that Ruslan is basically Russia In Space. I keep trying to figure out an “In Mother Ruslan” joke, but I keep failing miserably. Even the one I made a while ago about the bomb was really kind of ham-fisted. I’m not proud of myself.

S 

“SAMAN-SAHARI”: low, slow song originating from Farson’s Combine (a collectivist freehold established on a planetoid around Alpha Centauri during the early years of the system’s colonization). And this is important why...? I mean... do we really need to know about it? An entry like this could easily be explained in the actual piece itself, especially if it’s got some sort of significance to a character. It’s a little flavor text interspersed with actual story. Like if one character was humming or playing it, and someone who had never heard it before asked about it, and voila, instant explanation. We don’t need the entry in the vocab list, like you’re trying to pat yourself on the back for being so clever.

SAN AMARO: small Latin American country. Location of Earth’s first space elevator. It’s actually a municipality in Ourense in the Galicia region of northwest Spain, whose name refers to Saint Amaro. I guess it could’ve eventually become a country in Latin America 200 years into the future, but I doubt it, only because people are very reluctant to redraw borders. And of course it’s the site of the very first space elevator. It’s too much of a coincidence when you consider how Kira’s grandfather was from there.

SAYA: “to be sure.” Direct translation is closer to “my surety.” Common usage on Ruslan. Derived from Malay. If this is common on Ruslan, why would it be derived from the Malay language? Wouldn’t it be something closer to Russian? Also, I did a quick google translate of the word “saya” in Malay, and it literally means “me” in English. The actual statement of “to be sure” in Malay is “untuk memastikan”. No matter how I look at either of those words, I don’t see any way you could get “saya” out of that. Beyond that, in my search for translation, none of the countries that speak Malay have Russian as an official language. That isn’t to say people of that country don’t or can’t speak it, but it isn’t common. 

SCOURGE: microbe that killed twenty-seven of thirty-four humans sent to survey the rocky planetoid Blackstone. This actually makes a lot of sense, considering foreign microbes have been known to cause incurable diseases. And by foreign, I mean microbes our body doesn’t know how to deal with. And there have been people who have been infected with, but are immune to by some natural occurrence, microbes that have killed hundreds if not thousands of people. Like the Black Death, the Bubonic Plague. There is historical record of people who never contracted the plague despite being in close proximity to those that did.

SCRAMROCK: post-fusion hyper vibes, typified by samples of radio and plasma waves taken from the rings of various gas giants. Popularized by Honeysuckle Heaps in 2232. Well, I’ll admit that it’s nice to see some kind of futuristic music, which at least tells me that people are still listening to new age stuff rather than keeping on with the classics. Music should evolve as humanity does, because there’s always something new to be discovered as we figure out how to put new sounds together in pleasing ways.

SCRATCH SEVEN: traditional spacer card game. Goal is to accumulate as many sevens or multiples of seven as possible by adding values of cards (face cards go by their numerical value). So it’s basically blackjack. You’re trying to get to the number 21 based on the given values of the cards in blackjack, which is basically what you’re doing with this game, except you’re just trying to get as many sevens or multiples of as possible. That... seems like a really boring and/or frustrating game, honestly. There are only four sevens in a deck (unless the card deck isn’t the standard 52 in this story, I wouldn’t know, I never picked a chapter that had this in it, and I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention if there had been) and then you have to do lots of math to get your multiples of seven, which isn’t the easiest number to figure out multiples of. At least for me it isn’t the easiest, but I’m also not mathematically inclined or gifted beyond the power of a calculator.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: civilian official who oversees the League military. It’s entries like this that get my goat, honestly. The position can indeed be filled by a civilian, but they’re required to have been retired from service for at least seven years, unless they have a waiver approved by the ruling body. In America, that would be Congress. That kind of detail is important, and yet none of these military oversight positions that are claimed by civilians have that detail. That leaves everyone to think just any civilian could hold the position, whether they have the qualifications or not.

SEED: self-organizing genetic potential. A spark of life in the endless void. Also a ripoff of Venom and a Deus ex Machina tool that gains new powers as the plot dictates, also has no agency or voice of its own, merely acting as a tool and automatic protection by the person who wears it.

SEEKER: servitor life-form created by the Old Ones with the intent of enforcement and containment. Able to assume direct control over a living creature’s actions following physical contact and injections into braincase. Highly intelligent, highly dangerous, and known to amass large armies of enslaved sentients. Which, you know, could be really neat if these things were allowed to do anything remotely close to their job. Do we actually ever see any of these things in action? Or are they just there to be so much fodder for the Sue? I mean, if these things get on you, they can mind-control you. They can enslave you. That would make for a terrifying antagonist right there. How do you fight something like that? How do you recover from something like that? Even if you had the Deus ex Machina ripoff suit, if it could figure out a way to get past the mechanism that hardens the shell to protect your skin, you’re done. That’s terrifying.

SEVEN MINUTES TO SATURN: war movie made at Alpha Centauri in 2242 about Venus’s failed attempt to win independence from Earth during the Zahn Offensive. Are war movies typically made to highlight the failure of something? I think back to all the war movies I’ve watched, and I can’t remember one that actually highlighted the failure of something, Apocalypse Now notwithstanding, seeing as that was more a psychological thriller than a war movie. I can remember lots of people dying. I can remember sad things happening. But ultimately the ending was, more or less, a victorious one. 

SEVENTH FLEET: numbered fleet of the League of Allied Worlds. Headquartered at Deimos Station by Mars. Part of the UMC Solar Fleet. Largest of the forward-deployed UMC fleets. So is there a First Fleet? Second? Third? Sixth? Or is this just one of those things where they’re given a number arbitrarily because it sounds cool? It would be kind of funny if someone actually asked what happened to all the fleets that came before the Seventh. “So, uh, what happened to the other guys?” “We don’t talk about that.”

SFAR: Wranaui clearance level. Higher than sfenn, lower than sfeir. Neither of these words get their own entries, which is funny to me. It’s like at some point boredom set in. Or maybe the editing scissors. Also, it’s interesting that this section is the largest section of terms, and there aren’t even any entries for the letters X and Z. Z, I could maybe understand, because I can’t even think of a term that would start with that letter, but X? Xeno, maybe? Xenomorph? Xenobiologist? That should be an entry, for sure. We have all these other terms that shouldn’t have gotten entries, mostly because they’re all self-explanatory within the context they’re used in, and mostly because many only appear one time in the entire book and are never seen again. Yet one term we see time and time again in the book, a rather important term, especially because being a xenobiologist is the main character’s JOB isn’t even listed.

SHADOW SHIELD: a plug of radiation shielding that sits between a reactor and the main body of a spaceship. Comprising two layers: neutron shielding (usually lithium hydroxide) and gamma-ray shielding (either tungsten or mercury). In order to keep stations and crew within the “shadow” cast by the shield, spaceships usually dock nose-first. I actually like this. This is pretty inventive, and actually makes quite a bit of sense. I don’t know anything about the actual science behind it because that’s not my forte or area of expertise, but it sounds plausible enough.

SHELL: Wranaui word for “spaceship.” Derived from their own protective carapaces. If it’s a Wranaui word, why is it in English? Couldn’t the Wranaui actually have a word of their own for this? I get that their language is scent-based, so really they wouldn’t have words as we understand them. But still, the Wranaui language wouldn’t immediately translate into English. At least, I don’t think so.

SHI-BAL: Korean profanity, equivalent to English “fuck.” Exclusively used with anger and/or negative connotation. This is, unfortunately, accurate. It’s also written without the dash, and it can be combined with other words to form other curse words, but none of which have the impact of this word. Although, the f-word is becoming colloquially more abundant in language, such that it seems to be taking the place of “um” “well” and “like”. 

SHIN-ZAR: high-g planet in orbit around Tau Ceti. Only major colony to refuse membership to the League, which resulted in armed conflict between Zarian forces and the League, and the loss of some thousands of lives on both sides. Notable for the high number of colonists of Korean descent. Also notable for population-wide gene-hacking in order to help the colonists adapt to the stronger-than-Earth gravity. Main alterations being: significantly thicker skeletal structure, increased lung capacity (to compensate for low oxygen levels), increased hemoglobin, increased muscular mass via myostatin inhibition, doubled tendons, and generally larger organs. Divergent genetic population. (See also Entropism.) It doesn’t surprise me somehow that the one colony that refuses to join the League is attacked in a “join us or die” movement, but ends up being such a problem that they eventually have to call a truce or otherwise wipe each other out. It’s also interesting that we have to point out that the population is made up of mostly Koreans. What happened to the other cultures? The Japanese, the Chinese, the Germans, the French, the Nigerians? Where did they go, what did they do? Beyond that, I’m not sure why, 200 years into the future, people on this planet aren’t being naturally born with these genetic adaptations. I could understand the first generations to settle on the planet being modified for survival, but eventually they would begin to naturally adapt. Adaptations can take centuries to present in mainstream, but that doesn’t mean natural adaptations don’t present sooner in a small number of individuals. At some point the science has to stop and natural selection has to take over. That’s just the nature of things at some point.

SHIP CAT: traditional pet aboard spaceships. Superstitious belief attaches great importance to the presence and well-being of a ship cat. Plenty of spacers will refuse to sign on to a vessel without one. More than one instance has been recorded of someone being killed after harming (intentionally or otherwise) a ship cat. Uh, proof, please? Because the only time we see a cat on the ship is when Kira first pops on the Snail, and then the cat and that stupid pig are never seen again. And I really don’t know why there has to be a pet aboard spaceships... it seems like quite the liability to me, personally. Don’t get me wrong, I love pets, especially cats, but cats aren’t known for listening to the silly hoomans. They also have a tendency to want cuddles at the most inopportune times. How do you protect your ship pet in a firefight, anyway? Stuff them in a room? In a carrier? And who gets priority if you have to abandon ship? 

SHIP MIND: the somatic transcendence of humanity. Brains removed from bodies, placed in a growth matrix, and bathed with nutrients to induce tissue expansion and synaptic formation. Ship minds are the result of a confluence of factors: human desire to push their intellect to the limit, the failure to develop true A.I., the increasing size of spaceships, and the destructive potential of any space-faring vessel. Having a single person, a single mind, to oversee the many operations of a ship was appealing. However, no unaugmented brain was capable of handling the amount of sensory information a full-sized spaceship produced. The larger the vessel, the larger the brain needed. So who would volunteer for something like this? Because something like this seems like it’s pushing the boundaries of ethics. Actually, I think it’s actually breaking a few ethics and maybe something in the Geneva Convention. It reminds me of some horrible experiments done to people during wars, justified by the fact that the victims are somehow less than those doing the experiment, or are criminals and sentenced to die anyway, so what does it matter what we do with them? Perhaps it’s just me, too, but I don’t see why somebody would want to end up doing this, unless they wanted to live beyond their normal years and not be confined to a prosthetic body or something like that. Although, I don’t know what’s so appealing about being a ship mind. It actually feels like it would be some sort of prison. 

Ship minds are some of the most brilliant individuals humanity has produced. Also, in cases, some of the most disturbed. The growth process is difficult, and severe psychiatric side effects have been noted. Oh fuck you and your ableist propaganda. Why would you continue doing something like this if you know that there are horrible, horrible side effects that go along with it? Wouldn’t you do something to stop it? Wouldn’t you figure out a way to end the side effects? Or do we not care because so long as we have the giant ships and the giant guns and the big boom-booms and the thing to run the ship so we don’t have to bother, we can look the other way? So long as we get what we want, who the fuck cares about the side effects?

It is theorized that ship minds—both on and off ships—are responsible for directing far more of the daily affairs of humans than any but the most paranoid suspect. But while their means and methods may sometimes be opaque, their desires are no different than those of any other living creature: to live long and prosper. That sounds too much like Skynet for me to feel comfortable about that. What if they suddenly decided, because they were the most brilliant, to take over and force humanity into servitude because, obviously, they know better? Or, on the other hand, went full Evil Overlord and simply decided humanity was no longer needed? Does nobody ever think about the potential consequences of their actions? 

SHOAL LEADER: any Wranaui captain or commander in charge of more than three units, but usually reserved for leaders of equivalent rank to brigadier or admiral. This actually makes some sense, although I don’t know why it would be used for someone who’s in control of more than three groups and someone who’s the equivalent rank of a brigadier or admiral. Typically a title is assigned only to a certain rank, not whoever meets the requirements.

SJAMs: aka “rods from god.” Inert projectiles made of tungsten rods that are dropped from orbit. Concept invented by Dr. Pournelle in the twentieth century. A form of kinetic weapon. Used by militaries when conventional explosives are impractical (as when wanting to avoid radiation) or when anti-projectile countermeasures are a concern. I’ve seen things like this in certain animes. The ship is in orbit, they can’t afford to directly attack whatever’s on the ground, so they drop these bombs, intending to wipe out their enemy and whatever happens to be around it. Typically the hero of the anime ends up stopping it somehow, either through self-sacrifice or through some kind of magic power. The hero still ends up getting hurt, if not dead, but the collateral damage never happens. The impact of one of these would be on par with the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Nothing would survive. And I find the name rather presumptuous and irritating. Not only does it suggest that the users are more powerful than their foes, they’re literally taking a position that elevates them to a divine being that chooses who gets to live and who gets to die.

SKINSUIT: general-purpose, skin-tight protective clothing that—with a helmet—can act as a spacesuit, diving equipment, and cold-weather gear. Standard equipment for anyone in a hostile environment. But apparently doesn’t work all that well because sand can get in there, and if sand can get in there, then deadly microbes can get in there. If something like sand can infiltrate the suit that’s supposed to be protecting you, it’s not doing its job of protecting you. I mean, there’s evidence of this in the very beginning of the book. You can’t say its protective clothing that acts as a spacesuit - something that needs to be as closed-environment as possible so you can survive in the environment that wants to kill you - a dive-suit - same thing as space, only under water - and cold-weather gear, in which you especially would need protection so you don’t get frostbite and start losing body parts. If any of these get punctured, you’re dead. There’s no coming back for you.

SKUT: grimy, useless, as in, “Go do that skut-work.” Derived from scut. Pejorative. It isn’t derived from “scut”, it’s literally “scut” but with one letter switched out. I learned that from my spell-check. All I did was switch the k for a c and suddenly my spell-check liked the word. 

SLAVER MONK: see Seeker. Why couldn’t this just be under the Seeker heading? And why would their alternative name be “slaver monk”? Monks didn’t take slaves, even though historically they did have them. Monks are either people who dedicate themselves to others or voluntarily leave mainstream society to live their life in prayer and contemplation. To suggest that these creatures, creatures who actively go hunting to contain and enforce, who can invade your mind and subjugate you and force you to serve them, are monks is just... in bad taste.

SLV: superluminal vehicle. League designation for a civilian vessel capable of FTL. Makes sense. If the military has them, the civilians ought to have them. It’s natural in this case, because if you want to colonize the universe as fast as possible, you need a way to get people and goods from one place to another as quickly as conceivably possible.

SMART FABRIC: metamaterial embedded with electronics, nanomachines, and other augments. Able to assume different shapes, given the proper stimuli. I have to wonder then, do textile merchants even exist this far in the future? Are there clothing companies in this future? Gap? Abercrombie? Walmart? Or do we just have this fabric that, if we want a new outfit, all we have to do is give it some sort of stimuli and voila! New bikini for beach day? Or are there companies that specialize in certain looks and styles with this kind of fabric? Or is it just something that only the Entropists get to have, because this stuff is what their robes are made of.

S-PAC: robotic manipulator used for handling material in quarantine. Which is actually practical. If something is in quarantine, you shouldn’t really be sending people in to deal with it, if you have other options. Clearly, this is that other option. Although it’s really just a pair of robot pincers, not really anything so sophisticated as a robotic hand that can be manipulated through telekinesis-simulating equipment.

SPACE ELEVATOR: carbon-fiber ribbon that extends from the surface of a planet all the way to an anchor point (usually an asteroid) out past geostationary orbit. Crawlers transport mass up and down the ribbon. I really wouldn’t pick an asteroid as my first anchor point, because you never know when one of those would get caught in the gravity of the planet and hauled down as a meteor, thus destroying your ribbon and everything around it. I’d put it on something like a space station, a big one, so you can control it better and not have to worry about something unpredictable as an asteroid suddenly falling out of orbit. Or into orbit. 

SPACER’S TAN: inevitable result of spending days and months under the full-spectrum lights used in spaceships to avoid seasonal affective disorder, vitamin D deficiency, and a host of other ailments. Especially notable in native station dwellers and lifelong ship inhabitants. And apparently nobody uses sunscreen under these lights, nor do they think to take vitamins or do anything to mitigate the condition. Sure, not all of them could be solved with the right application of legitimate sunlight and vitamin cocktails, but you would think those who live with the possibility of that condition would have ways of dealing with it, either through homeopathic remedies passed down from generation to generation or through other means.

STAFF OF BLUE: command module constructed by the Old Ones. Of great sociotechnological significance. Well, that’s a big fat lie, isn’t it? The whole arc to get this was absolutely and utterly pointless because of what happens. They don’t even get to have the staff after all the trouble they go through, and it renders the whole thing worthless.

STAFF OF GREEN: fragment of the Seed, given life unto itself. Did this even make an appearance in the book? I don’t remember this ever being mentioned. Sure, I didn’t read the whole thing and my eyes glazed over through most of it, but I really don’t remember any of this being mentioned, either in the chapters I did read or in the sporks by everyone else. I’m pretty sure this is useless, though. Nothing comes of it.

STELLARISTS: one of several major political parties in the League. Currently the governing party. Isolationist movement composed of the main governmental powers on Mars, Venus, and Earth. Gained traction following the troubles with Shin-Zar and the discovery of the Great Beacon. (See also Conservation Party and Expansionist Party.) So they’re isolationists that gained power after things went to hell with Shin-Zar? Why doesn’t that surprise me? It makes me wonder if this party was already around before things happened, and just grew in power once everything went south, or if it formed after everything went south and used the momentum of said going south to gain power. It’s also interesting that this particular party is in power currently, considering isolationism isn’t something you’d typically see in space-expansionist stories. Not that it couldn’t exist, but those kind of ideas kind of pop up after the dust has settled and there’s few places left to explore. It’s also interesting to see that the seat of power is on Mars, Venus, and Earth, the very places that typically appear as isolation antagonists in most science fiction stories. I’m starting to feel that there’s a trope in there somewhere.

STELLAR SECURITY ACT: legislation passed upon the formation of the League of Worlds that resulted in the formation of the UMC and that grants sweeping powers to the military, intelligence services, and civilian leadership in the event of an exogenic incident (such as the discovery of the Soft Blade). It’s basically like any security act that puts the best interest of the nation first and foremost over any ethical or emotional interests. In other words, if you’re a danger, and they say you’re a danger, they’re going to kill you rather than do anything to help you or bring you under their control. They basically can do what they want, when they want, and how they want, and you can’t say anything about it.

STEM SHOTS: series of anti-senescent injections that revitalize cellular processes, suppress mutagenic factors, restore telomere length, and generally return the body to a state equivalent to mid-twenties biological age. Usually repeated every twenty years thereafter. Doesn’t stop age-induced cartilage growth in ears, nose, etc. Basically the fountain of youth in a shot form. Probably everyone’s biggest dream and desire, a way to remain young and beautiful long beyond the natural cycle and toll of their years. At least it isn’t one of those that works without drawbacks, since it specifically says it doesn’t stop cartilage growth due to age. I also wonder if it doesn’t stop bone loss or cartilage atrophy due to age as well. The fountain of youth is a dangerous thing to be playing with. You’ll get what you want, but at what cost?

STEWART’S WORLD: rocky planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri. First settled world outside of Sol. Discovered and named by Ort Stewart. Not a hospitable place, and as a result, the settlers produce a higher than normal proportion of scientists, their expertise being needed to survive the harsh environment. Also why so many spacers come from Stewart’s World; they’re eager to find somewhere more temperate. I guess I don’t understand why the population would produce so many scientists. Not everybody would be interested in furthering science just to be able to survive in the place. And I can’t think that, after 200 years, someone hasn’t figured out how to either terraform or some other application to make the world more inhabitable and comfortable for people to live on. It’s like only certain places are more technologically advanced than others and age of the colony itself doesn’t matter on the technological advancements. I guess someone just needed an excuse to justify a lot of people making a mass exodus from where they were born.

STIMWARE: one of several brands of a popular sleep-replacement medication. The drug contains two different compounds: one to reset the body’s circadian rhythm, and one to clear the brain of metabolites such as β-amyloid. When sleep-deprived, dosage prevents neurodegeneration and maintains high-level mental/physical functioning. Anabolic state of sleep is not replicated, so normal rest is still needed for secretion of growth hormone and proper recovery from daily stresses. In other words, it’s just a stopgap. It’s not meant for constant use to keep you awake for days on end so you can accomplish that thesis paper you were procrastinating on for two months. You still need to have real sleep. This merely erases the side effects from no sleep and kind of puts it in a box to deal with later. I can see this becoming quite addictive, especially to those who don’t quite want to stop whatever they’re doing in order to sleep.

STRAIGHT SWEEP: highest natural hand in Scratch Seven, consisting of four kings, two queens, and an ace, for a count of seventy-seven and a score of eleven. Again why do we even need to know this? And didn’t this get explained in the book when Falcon Punch got Kiragon to play with him? Why do we need another entry in the vocabulary list? I don’t even know why this is so important. But it made the cut, when a heading that should’ve had Kira’s job didn’t.

STRIKE SHOAL HFARR: named fleet within the Wranaui military (there being one for each Arm). I’m assuming this term appeared in the story and that’s why it’s here, but also because we named the fleet of the UMC we had to name one for the antagonists of the story. Not that the Wranaui are antagonists overmuch, but, there you go.

SUNDERING: cataclysmic Wranaui civil war sparked by the discovery of numerous technological artifacts made by the Old Ones, including the Seed and several other forms like it. This led to the Tfeir’s heresy of the flesh. While Arm fought Arm for supremacy, the Wranaui also engaged in an ambitious expansionist campaign, colonizing numerous systems. Their internal conflict nearly destroyed their species, partly through conventional warfare, partly through the awakening of a Seeker, and partly through the inadvertent creation of Corrupted. Wranaui civilization was shattered, and it took nearly three centuries to fully recover. (See also Ripple and Tfeir.) This actually isn’t half bad. Civilizations have destroyed themselves over less. Although don’t go to Ripple because there’s nothing there, and as far as Tfeir, there’s definitely an entry, but it just talks about the guy who basically helped the Sundering to happen. Also, as an avid World of Warcraft player, I can’t help but remember that the Sundering was also an event in the history of Azeroth, where the mega continent of Kalimdor was split apart by the sinking of the royal palace in the Well of Eternity, after the portal that was allowing the demons into the world was destroyed. It’s interesting, also, to see that they woke up a Seeker, which by itself could annihilate them, and they also had a hand in creating the Corrupted. Makes me wonder how they fought them off, because they obviously know what’s going on by the time Kira’s time comes around, but they don’t seem to be able to handle it. Hm. I wonder if the fact that the Wranaui are genetically modified to protect their ruler comes from this event.

T

“TANGAGRIA”: folk song from Bologna, Italy. Composer unknown. I actually googled this, trying to find something remotely close to this, but nothing came up. I’m no expert with linguistics, though, but this doesn’t sound like it’s Italian at all.

TEQ: see Transluminal Energy Quantum. Pretty sure this is just the acronym for that entry, so why couldn’t it be down there with the actual entry? It just seems redundant to have them as two separate entries.

TESSERITE: mineral unique to Adrasteia. Similar to benitoite but with a greater tendency toward purple. Not to be confused with the Tesseract, which is known to cause many issues that superheroes and gods need to deal with. I’d actually be quite terrified if Kira got her hands on the Tesseract. She’s already overpowered and Sue’d out the ass, I can only imagine what she’d do if she had this.

TFEIR: one of six Arms of the Wranaui. Noted for its heresy of the flesh: self-replication via the Nest of Transference without the death of one’s original form. Considered a sin of pride by the rest of the Wranaui. A major contributing factor to the Sundering. Oh, so it wasn’t an individual. It was a group of them. Well, that dashes my hopes of something really interesting causing the Sundering. I thought it was just one guy who went off the reservation and decided to be selfish, as selfish as one can be in the Wranaui society, I guess. But then you realize that basically all it did was replicate its members without their original bodies being dead. Which means that their replicants were individuals, because their memories weren’t inserted into their clones. So... they were actually trying to create diverse children, I guess you could say. And somehow this contributed to the civil war.

THRESH: hardcore smasher metal that originated in the farming communities of Eidolon. Noted for use of agricultural implements as instruments. And why is this entry in here? Why do we even care about this? Was there some sort of significance to it in the book? Beyond that, with its description making it an agricultural-type metal, I can only think of it as a “thresher”, which is a type of farm implement.

THULE: aka the Lord of Empty Spaces. Pronounced THOOL. God of the spacers. Derived from ultima Thule, Latin phrase used to mean “a place beyond the borders of all maps.” Originally applied to a trans-Neptunian planetesimal in Sol, the term came to be applied to the “unknown” in general, and from thence gained personification. Extensive superstitions surround Thule among the asteroid miners in Sol and elsewhere. It’s also a bike rack that you see a lot on cars. And actually, all we know about this is that Kira prays to the guy a couple of times but she stops praying to him the moment she becomes a god herself. And I find it funny that she, a scientist, prays to the god of people who live in space their entire lives. I would think she would pray to a god that protects scientists or those who pursue knowledge. Either way, it’s just too much of coincidence that there’s a sporting equipment company of the same name, same spelling, and then this shows up.

TIGERMAUL: large, felinesque predator native to Eidolon. Noted for the barbs on its back, yellow eyes, and high intelligence. Oh now you’re just not trying. Really? A Tigermaul? Why not just say a large feline predator on Eidolon known for its unique striped pattern and penchant for mauling unsuspecting morons that venture too far out of the colony that probably shouldn’t be there anymore if everyone keeps dying from the creatures that want to eat them? I’m amused by the fact it’s described by its physical features before we’re told it’s smart. You’d think that would be the leading fact someone would want to know about one of these things. It’s probably very cute, honestly.

TORQUE ENGINE: generator and propulsive engine devised by the Old Ones. Used to power Unity as well as drive spaceships of the Old Ones’ design. Works by “torqueing” the membrane of fluidic spacetime in such a way as to allow the extraction of energy from superluminal space, despite the lower energy density of that space. The distortion can also be used to propel the engine through subluminal space via warping or to form a Markov Bubble for FTL travel. So... wait. If these things exist, why has no one figured out how they work and built a working one for humanity to use? Why are we still using things that could potentially be dangerous to our health? I always find it interesting that some ancient race existed that was so super technologically advanced, and then it randomly went extinct Because Reasons, and nobody has figured out how to use their technology for themselves. I guess it makes sense because they went extinct Because Reasons, and maybe those reasons are connected with why they disappeared, but still. There’s always some idiot out there willing to risk it all for a bit of fame and a lot of money.

TORQUE GATE: artificial wormhole generated and sustained by a torque engine stationed at either mouth. Used by the Old Ones for near-instantaneous travel over vast distances. And we aren’t using these again, why? Why are we still using FTL to get around? Why are we still putting people in cryogenic sleep? Shouldn’t there be more of these wormhole gates made? Or at least some kind of prototype? That annoys me. Shouldn’t these people be figuring out how to use this, or at least suggest using it? If you have the technology, why not study it and try to replicate it? Seriously...

“TOXOPAXIA”: popular jig from one of the hab-rings around Sol. It actually sounds like a terrible disease that someone contracts, like toxoplasmosis. Tox usually means some kind of toxin, so... yeah. Stay away from that. It’s probably popular because everyone gets drunk and suffers from amnesia the next day.

TRANSCENDENCE: computer game where the goal is to guide a species from the dawn of sentience to colonizing nearby stars in as short a time as possible. Sooo... Science Fiction Oregon Trail, basically? You have died from dysentery. You have died from cryo-sickness. Game over.

TRANSLUMINAL ENERGY QUANTUM (TEQ): the most fundamental building block of reality. A quantized entity of Planck length 1, Planck energy 1, and zero mass. Occupies every point of space, both sub- and superluminal as well as within the luminal membrane that divides the two. Remember that entry not too long ago? The entry that was literally TEQ? Hey, here it is again but in the entry for what the thing is. Like did we really need to have two separate entries for this one thing, especially since you put the SAME abbreviation right there in the entry heading? Isn’t that a little redundant? A waste of paper? A waste of ink? No?

TSURO: signaling device used by the Old Ones for summoning and controlling the Seed. Accomplished via a modulated TEQ wavefront. You know, there seems to be a plot point there, something that could’ve been utilized against Kira if the Old Ones were still around, or if someone had figured out how to use this. If it could control the Seed, then someone could force it to do everything and anything they wanted it to do, and Kira wouldn’t have been able to do a thing about it. That’s a horrifying thought... not that it would happen, since Kira is a Sue and Sues don’t suffer anything terrible.

TWENTY-EIGHT G: one of several commsats in orbit around Zeus and Adrasteia. Because this is important? I still don’t understand why something insignificant like this, something that doesn’t even really have anything to do with anything in this story, gets its own entry, but there’s no entry for the important headings, like xenobiologist.