by Steve White
“Admiral,” said De Mornay in a voice that was unsteady with her desperate need to reach out to this man, “please let me express my condolences and deep sorrow for your—”
Trevayne turned and faced her. “Thank you, Elaine, but that’s premature. I don’t presume anything concerning Admiral Li-Trevayne’s status until more conclusive evidence is forthcoming.”
They stared at him and said nothing. He turned back to his last sight of the Bug 17 system.
Magda, thought Trevayne, who had never been even remotely religious, I know that you still exist in the universe. And somehow, I’ll find you.
Then the warning sounded, and the little yellow sun vanished into the vortex of warp transit. The viewscreen showed a new starfield, the starfield as seen from Bug 16.
With a deep sigh, Trevayne departed the flag bridge. It was night, by ship’s time, and the passageway lights had been dimmed. He strode off into the darkness that seemed to engulf them all, toward a glimmer of light that only he could see.
Arduan Terms and Concepts
Terms rendered in the Arduan tongue throughout the novel are shown here (and in the body of the text) in italics. The transliterated forms of the terms are presented here without italics.
’ai: the way (or path or calling or discipline or spiritual domain) of something; used solely as a modifying suffix.
almgr’sh: an Arduan scavenger that was capable of both self-fertilization and fertilization by a wide number of related species. It gave forth litters of ten to twelve young, amongst which there was often arresting genetic and physical variation. Its unusual combination of pronounced concupiscence and plentiful, chaotically diverse offspring made it a natural object of ridicule and contempt for Arduans (who despise both disorder and sexual indiscriminacy). The term, applied as an epithet, has a meaning roughly equivalent to “skank-whore.”
Anaht’doh Kainat: Star Wanderers.
assed’ai: zen balance/yin-yang (“the way of balance”).
Asth: a continent on Ardu; later, a new star system.
’at: senior, prime, or first.
at’holodahk: insult to enlightenment.
befthel: a “triple-blink,” or instant of reflexive and complete eye-closing. It can be a sign of impending, possibly debilitating, shock.
bilbuxhat: a kine-like draft animal of Ardu.
crivan: a color in the ultraviolet range invisible to humans.
dest’ah: conflict (arising from the root concept of discarnation, or dest).
dest: to be discarnated; the death of a person.
desta’tuni: literally, “Death-Vowed.” A ritualized, sanctified “suicide mission” for the good of the Race.
Destolfi montu shilkiene: a philosophical statement—“death is but a tiny thing.”
Destoshaz: warrior caste. Literally, “the caste that traffics in (or is habituated to) discarnation” (of self, others, or both).
Destoshaz’ai: the way (or path or calling or discipline) of the warrior.
Destoshaz’ai-as-sulhaji: literally, “the way of the warrior as (the path to and attainment of) true enlightenment.” Originally, the caste’s delineation of behaviors and values that made their warrior ethos the acme of racial perfection and service to Illudor. By the time the First Dispersate had arrived at Bellerophon/New Ardu, it had become both the creed and name for a militant supremacist movement (rather than genuine “philosophy”) among the Destoshaz. In this movement, the traditional desiderata of the caste became secondary to a blend of authoritarianism, hero-worship, pre-Enlightenment ritual and values, a distrust of shaxzhutok, a presumption of both speciate superiority and speciate exclusivity of personhood, and aggressive militarism.
discarnate: what a sentient does when it expires.
erzhu: nimble, dextrous.
Erzhushaz: the artificer caste, in which the presumed challenge of such artifacture would be associated with manual dexterity: e.g.; pottery, smithing, glassblowing. Ultimately, “makers.”
flixit: a small, songbird-like creature that superficially resembles a cross between a bird and a lizard.
griarfeksh: a bald, semi-aquatic scavenger with nasty habits.
herrm: a color humans cannot perceive.
holodah: a satori-like state of enlightenment.
holodah’kri’at: senior high priest.
holodah’kri: high priest.
holodah-ra-nekt: honor carriers/bearers (honor surrogates); the term is used exclusively by the Destoshaz, since in the formulation, the concept of holodah (“enlightenment”) is conflated with the principle of “honor.”
Hre’selna: a category of simple biots—most akin to Terran jellyfish—that radiate a weak form of protoselnarm. These creatures employ the protoselnarm as their only sense and cannot swarm for mating season without it. Early in their electronic age, the Arduans recognized that the ability of these creatures to detect and react to changes in selnarm could be exploited so as to provide instantaneous-relay command circuitry. In the Urret-fah’ah minesweeper, Hre’selna biots were used to obviate the need for the weapons to wait upon post-transit reorientation of their electronics. Instead, the moment each specially-bred Hre’selna biot completed warp transit, it sought the correct electronic signal. Failing to find it—since the electronics were not functional yet—it sent a selnarm pulse to other Hre’selna, which, upon receiving that pulse, actuated piezoelectric launcher-initiators. The result: the ship’s missiles were deployed almost 1.5 seconds before its command electronics had sufficiently recovered from warp-point transit to perform the same task.
hwa: a prefix denoting junior, lesser, apprentice, aspirant. It never carries a negative connotation; it simply indicates one who is still being mentored to assume the title modified by the hwa. So hwa’kri is “aspirant priest,” or, in conventional English usage, an acolyte. It tends to be a formal term, used for traditional roles. It would be idiomatically perverse to apply it to something like a technical competency: one would not call a gunnery trainee a “hwa’gunner” because there is no alteration of social status or role intrinsic to one’s skill in gunnery.
Ill’sblood: equivalent to the early Modern English “god’s blood” or “s’blood” (now simply “bloody”). A profound profanity.
Illudor: the name of God.
incarnate: can be used either as a noun or as a verb. As a verb, it means to have one’s soul returned to physical existence. As such, it is distinct—both as a concept and a term—from the purely physical phenomenon and context of “birth” and is, in Arduan metaphysics, presumed to precede the physical processes of returning to material form. Thus, Arduans believe that only after their souls are selected and sent forth for incarnation, are they then conceived, gestated, and born.
’ix: a collection of incidents or objects (however, it cannot be used to designate a “class” of objects, only their multiplicity). Cannot be used as a referent for persons.
ixt: numbers.
ixt’un: to calculate, mathematics.
Ixturshaz: the calculators, a caste that is held to be slightly less important than either Selnarshazi or shaxzhu. This is because their skills are considered more trainable than the first two (which are, respectively, largely or wholly innate) and so less individually crucial to the function of the community.
Ixturshaz: a thinker, one who calculates, uses logic/deduction.
’kai: a sanctified quest or holy way or path or calling. It can signify divine favor, inspiration, or character—without referring to or partaking of godhead itself. The divine tenor of this word is never vernacularized into a purely mundane usage: it always invokes the presumed presence, consecration, or will of Illudor. So a ’kaiKri would be the closest Arduan synonym for a saint: a divinely touched, favored, and/or selected priest.
kreevix: an insect like a mayfly.
kri: priest.
maatkah: a form of Arduan hand-to-hand combat.
maatkahshak: training in a particular school or style of maatkah.
matsokah: training of t
he soul.
murn: a color invisible to humans on the infrared end of the spectrum.
Myrtak: the Arduan Einstein.
narmata: group harmony or harmonious action.
nerjet-motleyed: the nerjet was a common, small lizard on Ardu reviled and renowned for its horribly clashing colors. For the Arduans, whose sense of smell is very restricted (being registered through the mouth), the concept of “stink” is not particularly significant. However, their powerful visual dependency and acuity renders certain color-or pattern-combinations as almost nauseating. The nerjet was Ardu’s visual equivalent of a skunk. The epithet “nerjet-motleyed” essentially translates, into human terms and senses, as “shit-reeking.” It is a common, crude, but nonprofane, curse. By comparison, “Ill’sblood” is quite profane and strongly frowned upon.
ranarmata: chaos, disharmony in action; willful disarray.
Sekahmant: a blue giant star 1.973 parsecs from the Arduan sun.
seln: to sense with great precision, almost at “connoisseur.”
selnarm: the empathetic sense.
Selnarshaz: sensitives, those who have profound selnarmic talents. This is often, but not preponderantly, associated with superior intellect. They are communication facilitators, many are teachers, psychologists.
shaxzhu: one who has many, detailed past-life memories.
shaxzhutok: the state of having past-life memories.
shotan: sense/taste.
skeerba: a three-bladed knife that sits on the tentacle like a set of brass knuckles.
soka: life force; the tangible/lived soul (as against the potential soul when discarnate).
sokhata: soul building.
ssers: flexible, pliant.
Ssershaz: the versatility caste, or “those who may do many things.” Now the “free safeties” of Arduan society, they have diminished almost as greatly as the shaxzhu. They were originally the Arduans who possessed no particular casted skills of any other area; they were a default set, and comprised the menial or mass labor of pre-industrial Ardu.
ssersxhu: versatility.
sulhaji: true vision.
threem: nautilus shell, reddish, of Ardu.
tun: promise, vow, or oath.
tuni: promised, dedicated to, or reserved for.
urm: the seven senses; particularly the sense of touch, tactile quality.
vrel: a color invisible to humans.
xen-narmatum: forever outside order.
xenzhet-narmat’ai: literally, “the place of eternal death beyond order or hope.” (Where “place” is taken to mean a nonphysical domain that preternaturally and ultimately exemplifies the principle which is vested/sited there. Hence the suffix, “ai.”)
yihrt: a large murn-and black-colored predator on Ardu.
zhed’bid: “terminal drone”; an automated transponder, jettisoned from an Arduan ship when destruction is imminent.
zhet: to die; what a nonsentient does when it expires.
zheteksh: that category of being which may truly (i.e. permanently) die. Consequently, this word also meant “nonsentients.” Since Arduans traditionally linked personhood to the possession of selnarm, not to thought, they had a tendency to lump all non-selnarmic creatures together.
zhetteh: to kill; specifically, to cause to permanently die, as distinct from causing to become discarnate (i.e., dest).
zifrik: a colony-complex of ant-bees of Ardu. They created sophisticated structures but were not intelligent (either by human or Arduan standards).
