Miscellaneous Information

Omutan Mercenary Ships:

Hit Garissa with 15 antimatter bombs, completely destroying the planet’s atmosphere and everything with it.

The Beezling -

Garissan ship fitted with antimatter drives and carrying the Neutronium Alchemist in an attempt to destroy the Omutans before they could launch a devastating attack on Garissa. The ship is disabled, its accompanying vessels destroyed, in an attempt to deploy the device against Omuta.

Thirty people and the Neutronium Alchemist are left behind on the ship while Dr. Mzu, Ikela and six others make a short ZTT jump to a nearby star system for help. As a contingency in case the Chengho did not make it or if the eight were discovered and interrogated by the CNIS, the reaction drive is repaired on the Beelzing and they fly a vector toward an uninhabited star listed as DRL0755-09-BG only two and one-half lyrs away. They can only travel at 9% of light speed so the crew all enter zero-tau pods and await to be recovered from their thirty-year voyage to a desolate and forgotten star.

Ivets -

Convicted criminals that are under contract by large corporations to perform hard labor on worlds being colonized. Typically, they serve for 10 years and are then released. Aberdale has 18 Ivets, most of which are killed by settlers during a general purge set off by a series of murders they commit under the leadership and influence of Quinn Dexter. Ironically, the murder that finally causes the citizens of Aberdale to take such drastic action (the mutilation of 10 year old Carter McBride) was ordered by Laton with the intend of doing precisely what happened; enraging the settlers to the point of eliminating the Ivets. Laton desires such action in an attempt to rid himself of Quinn, who, far from fearing Laton, actually intimidates the Edenist Serpent. It is a half dozen Aberdale Ivets that are the initial victims of the reality dysfunction. They spread the dysfunction through the settlement, setting cabins ablaze with fireballs that flash from their hands. They quickly open other humans to possession and the dysfunction starts to grow out of control.

McBoeing BDA-9008 Spaceplane -

No frills spacecraft designed for transportation operations on stage one agrarian planets. Built by a New California asteroid settlement, they measure 75 meters long with a 60 meter wingspan.

LDC -

Lalonde Development Company, a conglomerate of corporate investors. Responsible for the conversion of the planet from a stage one primitive jungle into a fully civilized and industrialized world. The process is expected to take about 100 years. The company operates very cheaply and will be the majority shareholder in all industries that develop on the planet. Most of the buildings and dwellings on the planet are made of wood rather than the, more typical, programmed-silicon (polyp) construct.

ESA -

External Security Agency of the Kulu Empire. A governing covert operation group assigned the task to direct the political evolution and social ideology of each planet within the Empire in ways most advantageous to Kulu's continued growth, peace, and prosperity.

CNIS -

Confederation Navy Intelligence Service. In charge of various covert and preemptive operations.

The Dymasio -

Adamist starship tracked by Syrinx. On a mission to bring antimatter to a asteroid separatist group. It explodes upon being approached by Graeae by turning off its antimatter confinement chambers thereby obliterating the voidhawk and its captain, Thetis.

Oenone -

Syrinx's voidhawk, sharing many of her personality traits of passion, aggressiveness and independence. Had this vessel not been covered in foam for stealth purposes when the Dymasio exploded, it would have received catastrophic (perhaps lethal) damage. As it was, mechanical systems had to be repaired and new sensor blisters had to be grafted onto the vessel by biotechnicans.

When Syrinx's tortured body is rescued from Pernik the voidhawk is forced to make its maneuver jumps back to Jupiter without the aid of its captain subliminal supervision, something highly unusual for those spacecraft.

Vermuden -

A blackhawk that attempted to rendezvous with the Dymasio to take aboard antimatter devices. Makes a 21 lyr ZTT jump as it is approached by Oenone and as the Dymasio explodes, destroying Graeae. But, the attempt is futile as Oenone displays the ability to follow it with rapid, sequential jumps. Its captain and crew are captured, much to their surprise.

LDC Group Seven –

The seventh group of colonists to arrive on Lalonde, some 5,500 in number, counting Ivets. Travels upriver on three large paddle-boats that are hybrids of ancient and modern technology. One of the boats is carrying a sheriff to investigate recent reports of people turning up missing in Schuster County.

The Coogan -

A merchant boat floating on two large hallowed out fibrous red wood, with a rickety deck, a large cargo space, small living quarters, and powered by an old-fashioned thermal furnace and two out of date McBoeing electric motors. Len Buchannan, a hard bartering, wiry-framed man, and his obese wife, Gail, live on the boat. They take on Marie Skibbow aboard for a fee to travel back to Dunningham. They are also interested in her sensuous build for their own sexual fantasies. Gail likes to watch. They use her body as the rest of her “fee” for traveling with them.

Lady MacBeth -

Adamist starship that belonged to Marcus Calvert, Joshua’s deceased father. Joshua refits it completely after making the big sale of his functional Laymil circuitry find. Joshua’s father was a real believer in multiple redundancy systems. Lady Mac has a jump capability of 15 lyrs with four reaction drives instead of the usual one. Three of them are standard nuclear drives, the fourth is an antimatter drive. We learn that it is illegal to FUEL such a drive, but not illegal to actual possess one. “Makes you very popular when there’s a war on,” Joshua says. The vessel also has eight (instead of one) maser cannons thinly disguised as communication lasers. The ship is fully combat capable with it’s antimatter drive, combat-wasp launch-rails.

Artwork by Scott Halls.
The vessel has four life-support capsules, 12 meter spheres grouped in a pyramid shape in the center of the ship. The lower three were split into four decks each. The middle levels of each contained living quarters. The top and bottom levels contained a variety of storage and maintenance spaces along with airlock chambers for the Lady Mac’s spaceplane. The top sphere was the flight management area. Up to 80 people can be carried aboard in zero-tau pods. Joshua’s cabin took up a quarter of the top sphere. It is well-furnished and decorated with a few oddities like an old Apollo command module guidance computer, accelerator reinforced bookshelves filled with leather-bound star charts, and a free-fall-sex cage. The cage is a meshed globe of rubberized struts allowing safe and complete freedom of movement in any conceivable direction.

Unlike bitek ships (which can tailor their wormholes without regard to location of their destination), starships like the Lady Macbeth have to make ZTT jumps in precise alignment with the target star. In interstellar space such calculations were merely a matter of making certain adjustments, but the initial jump must be as accurate as possible in order to avoid a wildly dislocated emergence point.

Cosmonik -

Someone who has spent an inordinate amount of his life in free fall space flight. Such exposure produces tremendous strains on the human body and its organ, forcing the cosmonik to make numerous weird physical, structural compensations. As Hamilton puts it, many cosmoniks metamorphosize “into little more than free-flying maintenance craft with a brain at the centre.”

Tokamaks -

The electromagnetic components in the fusion reactors of Adamist starships. They produce a very strong magnetic field to keep the plasma produced by the fusion process contained.

Gigantea -

A type of tree on Lalonde, pale walnut in color with huge clefts and fissures in the bark. Each has very long life span and grows to some some 300 meters in length. Laton has settled inside one that is 7000 years old with a tip broken off by storms over the centuries. Snarled twigs have replaced it, rich with foliage. Laton inhabits this plant along with his family, prisoners, equipment, etc. The inside is accessible through one of the fissures. It is spacious within, the wood resembling planks due to its wide space grain. There is a pool/spa and other large rooms. Food is generated through starscraper food secretion glands redesigned to work with the gigantea’s sap.

Abraham and Catlin –

Two eagles affinity bonded to Darcy and Lori enabling them to scout ahead along the river as they travel aboard the Coogan toward the Quallheim Counties.

The Swithland –

One of three boats carrying colonists upriver along with Candace Elford’s posse. It runs into trouble in the river when several strange, powerful geysers erupt under the boat. It is left crippled, but remains floating, if but half submerged. Another ship, the Nassier is sunk, survivors swimming to the Swithland. Two BK133 transports are called in to gather the injured. A clearing has to be made in the jungle for the craft to land. During the clearing process, they are attacked by some of the possessed and are overwhelmed. The BK133’s experience power failure while nearing the site. This is a common occurrence whenever electronics get anywhere near an area or a group of people infected with the reality dysfunction. The ship later journey’s upriver with its lone surviving companion, the Hycel. Both boats are completely passengered by the possessed. The Coogan comes upon them going the opposite direction after dropping off Darcy and Lori. Len Buchannan realizes what he is dealing with and instinctively tries to avoid the boats. He ends up colliding head-on with the Hycel, which rips the Coogan to shreds. The Swithland and Hycel continue on upriver.

Norfolk Tears –

An unparalleled liqueur, renowned throughout the Confederation for its qualities. It comes from a thornless plant with jade-green leaves. It has yellow-golden blooms, each plant with about 40 flowers. At midsummer, the plants begin to “weep.” A clear liquid begins to drip from the plant for the next 15 hours or so. Not every flower yields the valuable fluid, but trained “cuppers” born on Norfolk know how to tell where to place the cups that gather the liquid. The fluid’s natural purpose is to soften the soil so that the plant’s seeds, which are released by the pod’s after they split open having emptied their fluid, can penetrate the ground better and have a greater chance for germination. In 2209, Carys Thomas, a junior botanist doing an ecological assessment of Norfolk, happened to taste the liquid out of curiosity. The plant’s significance in the universe rapidly changed after that.

The Villeneuve’s Revenge -

A merchant ship captained by Andre Duchamp. Also involved in pirating activities.

Ilex -

A voidhawk sent by Aethra to investigate the situation on Lalonde on behalf of the Edenists. They are primarily attempting to ascertain if Laton’s presence has been confirmed on Lalonde. The ship experiences the usual problems with resolving the Juliffe basin that surveillance satellites have encountered. The reality dysfunction contains a strong energy flex that renders electronic devices of all kinds difficult, if not impossible, to use. To the concern of the crew, there is no sign of or communication with Darcy and Lori on the surface.

The Yaku -

The ship that initally brings the possession to Valisk. Kiera Salter (Marie Skibbow) is among them. It is ultimately destroyed in the Khabrat system long after being abandoned by the three possessed Lalonde embassy personnel.

The Gemel -

The colonist-carrying starship sent by Lalonde authorities to Tranquillity to enlist mercenaries to assist in fighting the spread of the “revolt” on that planet. Captained by Terrance Smith, who is able to quickly assemble a strike force of 19 starships, 5,000 general troops, and six blackhawks for return to Lalonde.

Santa Clara -

A cargo-clipper chartered twice-annually to bring Tyrathca colonists to the single xenoc settlement on Lalonde. Though warned of the “Ivet revolt”, it doesn’t concern the ship’s crew as they are contracted to deal only with the Tyrathca settlement and will not be involved with any humans.

The Kulu Corporation –

An enormous kingdom-wide conglomerate of utilities, transport, engineering, energy and mining concerns.

ISA –

Internal Security Agency of the Kuluian Empire. Dedicated to making sure no one within the Kingdom threatened Saldana rule.

The Battle of Lalonde –

While various minor combat actions took place in isolated regions on Lalonde’s surface, the real battle took place in orbit above the planet. Sequestered starships and blackhawks began to alternately attempt to escape Lalonde orbit for other regions of the Confederation and to attack the Confederation Navy squadron. Navy voidhawks attempt to follow those that manage to make a ZTT jump out of the system. Meanwhile, the remaining ships of Admiral Saldana’s squadron are attacked by swarms of combat wasps released from sequestered mercenary ships.

PHASE ONE: When assaulting another spaceship, be it Adamist starship, or a blackhawk or voidhawk, the initial phase of the attack involves the release of salvos and counter salvos of combat wasps. The wasps emit electronic warfare pulses to confuse their counterparts and are capable of accelerating to about 30 gees. At the same time, they release kinetic and active submunitions. Kiloton nuclear devices explode wiping out many wasps on each side.

PHASE TWO: As combat wasps make it through all of this, the Navy ships launch a second salvo to compensate for losses in the first. Combatant vessels begin high-gee evasive maneuvers. The ship’s masers fire at the remaining submunitions. Rail guns fire out a steady stream of steel spheres that bond together to form a kinetic umbrella. This eliminates all but a few remaining submunitions. Those that are destroyed still emit hypervelocity fragments which manage to actually strike the hull of their target. At the same time, the few that make it through the defensive systems fire gamma-pulse lasers which strike the target ship with vast amounts of radiation. The Navy vessel, Haria, experiences several localized punctures which cause great havoc to its internal systems. Bellah come to assist. In the meantime, the sequestered ships that launched the attack (Datura and Cereus) have only their short-range masers with which to resist the Navy’s drones moving in at 20 gees. The two ships explode within moments of each other.

PHASE THREE: More combat wasps are launched by other ships at the Navy’s vessels. Other blackhawks make ZTT jumps out of the system. Admiral Saldana is incapable of responding to everything that is happening and is forced to fight of the survival of his squadron. During this time, Joshua takes the Lady MacBeth DOWN (against all conventional navigational wisdom) into Lalonde’s atmosphere. He intends to fly under the second wave of combat wasps. Some wasps follow him into the atmosphere but, being designed only for the vacuum of space, their navigation controls malfunction. A few still manage to hit Lady MacBeth, but do minimal damage. Meanwhile, two Confederation Navy vessels are destroyed when a sequestered mercenary starship deliberately blows itself up nearby. Admiral Saldana has lost five ships to this unexpected attack in just 23 minutes of fighting. He orders a withdrawal of the remaining ships to a nearby coordinate to assess damage and regroup.

Maranta and Gramine –

The starships that attack Aethra and then the Lady MacBeth as it emerges in its escape from the Battle of Lalonde. The Lady Mac takes refuge in the ring surrounding the gas supergiant Murora. The debris in the ring makes it impossible to detect. The ships wait above and below the ring for their prey to reemerge.

Fenton & Ryall -

Reza Malin's two hounds used to assist the scout team in reconnaissance. Also able to hold their own in a melee as long as weapons aren't used against them.

Octan -

Affinity-bonded harpy eagle controlled by Pat Halalhan. Also part of the Reza Malin scout team used for airborne reconnaissance.

Mood Fantasy -

A major form of sensevised entertainment. Essentially, technology of musical performers in the 27th century.

G66 Troops -

Special armed and trained infantry personnel that make up Armed Tactical Squads.

The Retro Crisis -

The phrase used by local authorities in San Angeles to describe the initial outbreak of possession on the planet. To the authorities, it is a strange occurrence of some sort of "gang of history-costumed terrorists" with "some new style of plasma weapon and electronic warfare field." It is this badly disorganized lot that Al Capone coalesces into his "Organization" to take over New California.

Duke and Duchess -

The two suns of Norfolk's binary star system.

The Mortonridge Crisis -

The phrase used by Ombey senior administrators to describe the outbreak of possession along the southern peninsula of Xingu. Specifically, four towns were immediately affected: Marble Bar, Rainton, Gaslee, and Exnall. Thanks to quick action by authorities, possession is completely contained on the Mortonridge appendage. The rest of Xingu is clear.

The "Energistic Power" of Possession -

Hamilton describes it this way: "The energistic power which was the inheritance of every possessed was capable of near-miraculous feats as it bent the fabric of reality to a mind's whim. As well as its destructive potential, items could be made solid at the flicker of a thought. It was also capable of reinforcing a body to resist almost any kind of assault as well as enhancing its physical strength. Wounds could be healed at almost the same rate they were inflicted. But first the wish had to be formulated, the energistic flow regulated properly."

The Edenist Consensus -

The formulation of every Edenist, voidhawk and habitat in the Solar System. This only occurs after an individual pleads his/her case before the habitat personality. If the personality finds the request worthy of further consideration, it goes to the habitat's Consensus, which passes on to the general Consensus if the issue concerned is deemed appropriate for general consideration. Such a governing system is the most egalitarian in the Confederation. Through Oenone's neural record received from the Consensus on Atlantis, the general Consensus decides to 1) prepare for the defense of Edenism against possible military strikes from possessed planetary systems, one-third of all voidhawks are thusly assigned to the Confederation Navy, the rest for internal defense; 2) direct all scientific resources toward discovering the nature of the initial breakthrough and toward gaining knowledge on "the energistic nature of possessing souls." The Consensus acknowledges certain dissent within by Edenists preferring isolation from the Adamists. But, it concludes, "This threat must be faced in conjunction with the entire human race. We are the problem, we must cure ourselves."

Helium(3) -

The basis for the vast wealth of Jupiter's Edenist society. When mixed with deuterium, He(3) produces the purest fusion reactions possible, ideal for space flight. It is extracted by "cloudscoops" that replaced the outdated "aerostats" long ago.

Jovian Sky Power Corporation -

The company that first extracted the Helium(3) isotope from the Jovian atmosphere in 2062.

"Homogenized Presence" -

A fundamental aspect of habitat germination. Within the neural strata of the habitat every routine and sun-routine and every autonomic routine is simultaneously a separate entity unto itself and paradoxically immersed fully within the whole. All information received by any portion of the strata is instantaneously shared equally and evenly across the strata.

The Udat -

The vessel is destroyed by Dr. Mzu who, upon leaving the blackhawk, planted a mechanism designed to create a feedback resonance in the ship's distortion field during its next ZTT jump.

The Far Realm -

The Adamist starship that takes Fletcher Christian and the Kavanagh sisters off of Norfolk. The ship is affected by the Confederation decree that all ships swear allegiance to the governing body's navy during the possession crisis. It must, therefore, accompany navy frigates whenever and wherever they are called into action.

“Why-Bother” Psychosis –

The term used by psychologists to describe the pervasive onset of depression, decline in productivity and increase in the use of tranquilizers and stimulants following the sensevised report of Kelly Tirrel on the Battle of Lalonde.

Deadnights –

The term to describe the young people that are attracted to Valisk by Kiera Salter’s sensevised message. The phenomenon has a profound effect on the teenage population in the Darados. Estimates vary between 20% and 50% of them have taken flight to Valisk due to Kiera Salter’s seductive sensevised communication. They are indentified by the fact that all wear red handkerchiefs around their ankles.

The Salvatore –

An ex-New California navy battle cruiser. The Capone organization’s lead vessel now under the command of Luigi Balsmao.

The Quadin –

One of the few ships still able to make legal flights during the Confederation quarantine. It is taking maser canons to the Pinjarra asteroid for their SD platform. Gerald Sibbow manages to negotiate a birth on the ship in order to escape Guyana and somehow make his way to Valisk to attempt to free his daughter Marie from possession.

Tayari, Usoro and Wang –

The legal firm that represents the Zaman Service and Equipment Company, operators of the spaceport on the Dorados asteroid Ayacucho.

Hull Plate 8-92-K –

The plate in the Villeneuve’s Revenge where the Capone organization secretly placed a point-2 kiloton nuclear device to ensure that the vessel would not try and escape from the task force sent to resupply Arnstadt’s economy. The device was discovered by Erick Thakrar during a series of meticulous and exhaustive ten-hour searches.

Bar KF-T –

The club on Ayacucho where the crew of the Lady MacBeth go to begin their investigation as to the whereabouts of Dr. Mzu.

The Tigara –

The starship used by Erick Thakrar to escape Ethenthia as possession begins there. The ship’s systems are badly in need of maintenance, but Thakrar has no time to bother with such things in his panicked exit.

The Socratous –

A hellhawk with an imposing illusion of great firepower. However, as it docks at Valisk it reverts to egg-shaped space bus carrying about 35 Deadnights. Their number bring to about 2,000 the total of Deadnights arriving at the habitat in just one week’s time.

Anstid –

The Starbridge cult’s evil realm Lord. Anastasia believes that Dariat was harmed by Anstid and tries to bring out the “real” person that was engulfed by the realm Lord’s hatred.

Spirit of Freedom –

Tonala’s main low-orbit spaceport located about 750 klms above Nyvan’s equator. It is a free-floating hexagonal grid two klms in diameter. It serves as a port for commercial flights and cargo spaceships as well as for the huge tugs that bring ironbergs from the asteroid Floreso in a spiraling three-week flight down to the surface. Joshua docks the Lady MacBeth and uses transport from here to reach the surface of Nyvan.

Ironbergs –

75,000 tons of spongesteel – an incredibly pure metal foamed with nitrogen while still in a molten state – mined on the asteroid Floreso and flown down to Tonala for industrial purposes. For the last two days of the journey electric motors located at strategic points on the ironberg put the berg into rotation to keep them on the proper trajectory, effectively making them the “the biggest gyroscopes in the galaxy.” Once landed at the foundry ports in Tonala they are broken up and sent to mills for processing.

Kilmartin and Elgant –

A data security firm on Nyvan. It had taken and extended leased on a large amount of office space in anticipation of rapid and extended growth on the planet that never came. Only a couple of employees remain as Joshua Calvert enlists their support in tracking down Dr. Mzu’s location on the planet.

The Urschel, the Raimo, and the Pinzola –

The Capone organization frigates sent to Nyvan to capture Dr. Mzu.

The Mount’s Delta –

A cargo clipper refitted by Dwyer to Quinn Dexter’s specifications and used by them to transport Quinn from Nyvan to Earth. Dwyer pilots Quinn and himself off of Jesup and the two head for Earth following Quinn’s initiation of the total destruction of Nyvan in a series of explosions that rip Jesup apart and send virtually the entire asteroid hurtling down to the planet’s surface.

The Leonard Cephei –

The small charter starship piloted Captain Knox that Gerald Skibbow pays handsomely to Jed Hinton, Beth, a few other Deadnights and himself to a rendezvous point where they will meet another ship that will take them on to Valisk.

The Jamrana –

The cargo ship that takes the Kavanagh sisters and Fletcher Christian from Phobos to Earth. It does not contain the typical internal design of a pyramid of four life-support capsules. Rather, the ship has decks layered like a cake, joined by a central ladder.

The Magistrature Council –

The highest court within the Confederation. Located on Trafalgar, it has powers to sit in judgement of governments and to declare any individual, culture or government an “Enemy of Humanity.” This body made such a declaration against Laton. It is this court which hears the case of Jacqueline Couteur, in attempt to ascertain if her “rights” have been violated by her treatment at the hands of Dr. Gilmore.

The Chengho and the Gombari –

The two ships that accompanied the Beezling on Dr. Mzu’s original Omuta strike mission some 30 years prior to the emergence of the reality dysfunction. The Gombari is destroyed by the blackhawks that attack the starships. The Beelzing and the Chengho are badly damaged and left for dead in the vastness of interstellar space. Since the Chengho is smaller than the Beelzing, it was decided by the crews to replace all the damaged energy patterning nodes from the Chengho with the few that still functioned on the Beezling. Eight members of the crew , Dr. Mzu and Ikela among them, make a short ZTT jump to Crotone, the nearest star system. They take a small amount of antimatter with them and sell it to the Stromboli Separatist Council to raise enough funds to operate independently. This is where Ikela got the money to start the T’Opingtu Corporation.

Hoya –

The voidhawk that takes Monica Foulkes and other ESA agents from Tranquillity to Nyvan in search of Dr. Mzu.

Present Time Reality Programs –

Programs that run in neural nanonics, providing a variety of consciousness stimulation and effects. When laced with various “black” programs that are available, they perform selective memory blocks while running, and delve deep into the subconscious to provide emotional perceptional stimuli in a sensenviron format. In such instances they can be highly addictive.