by Zen, Raeden
HARPOON HARNESS: the harness designed to connect a candidate to Harpoon Virtual Reality (VR). (See Harpoon Virtual Reality.)
HARPOON INSIGNIA: three interlocked bronze circles, three interlocked golden triangles, and three silver harpoons overlapped by a phoenix feather.
HARPOON STADIUM: the location of the Harpoon Auction; the stands can be adjusted to fit twenty-five million candidates.
HARPOON VIRTUAL REALITY: also called Harpoon VR; the interface where candidates interact in training and instructional simulations with their developers or with each other during classes or social gatherings.
HELPERS OF THE LEADERSHIP: children in the employ of the Leadership. (See Leadership Council, the.)
HOLO-PRODUCER: can refer to a professional artist skilled in capturing events in the ZPF in holographic form or in using synisms to transmit visuals to the transhuman brain.
HOMO EVOLUTIS: also called posthuman; theoretical beings whose capacities would far exceed those of ordinary transhumans and who would constitute a separate species.
HOMO TRANSITION: also called transhuman (or H+); occupies an intermediate stage, or spectrum, between a normal biological human and a posthuman. Compared to the ancestral Homo sapiens, they have higher tolerances to pressure, heat, stress, disease, and to food, water, and sleep deprivation; they also have far greater cognitive abilities, physical regenerative abilities, and emotional intelligence/stability. After the Great Reassortment Panic of 165 AR, circumstances required further biotechnological enhancements to the human genome to better acclimate to the Beimeni zone of extreme heat and pressure variances.
HOUSE OF DEVELOPMENT: an aristocratic house designated as so by the Department of Communications. A lady or lord of a house is often referred to as a developer. Their surnames are required to match the name of the house, which can be either the lady’s or lord’s surname; for instance, Eulalie Lachaize changed her surname to Variscan after the formation of House Variscan, while Thaddeus Tumblstar changed his surname to Summerset after the formation of House Summerset. (See developer.)
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IMPULSE PARTICLE: (See wave-particle duality.)
IMPULSE WAVE: (See wave-particle duality.)
INACCESSIBLE REGIONS: the regions in the Beimeni zone considered to be off limits to expansion owing to seismic activity within Earth.
ISLAND OF REVERIE: formerly known as Manhattan, became home to the Reassortment Research Terradome, the only surface zone laboratory in use by transhumans to study the Reassortment Strain.
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JANZER: refers to the race of transhumans designed by the supreme scientist Ahab Janzer. Chancellor Masimovian commissioned the creation of the Janzer race to replace the legacy strike teams’ role of protection against structural collapses and Reassortment scares. The Janzers’ role also includes law enforcement activities of the Masimovian Administration and expansion plans executed in accordance with approval by the Office of the Chancellor.
JUBILEE: a required public viewing of a voluntary clinical trial of a synbio cure to the Reassortment Strain.
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LEADERSHIP COUNCIL, THE: also called the Leadership; confidants of the president of the Liberation Front. They are high-level leaders of the Front who confer on strategic decisions, including Polemon strikes and recruitment of new members. From the commonwealth’s perspective, these are the most dangerous transhumans in the underground.
LEAGUE OF SCIENTISTS: an elite team of scientists commissioned to complete the Reassortment Strain in the Livelle and Hengill laboratories for the Western Hegemony.
LESSER TERRITORIES: include Gaia, Piscator, Jurinar, Reanaearo, Haurachesa, and Yeuron.
LIBERATION FRONT, THE: the organization of residents of the underground in open conflict with the Masimovian Administration.
LIBERATOR, THE: also known as Jeremiah Selendia; the man who united various factions of residents throughout the Beimeni zone in their conflict with the Masimovian Administration.
LIVELLAN CALENDAR: refers to humanity’s new timetable following the Reassortment Atmospheric Anomaly, which includes days, trimesters (underground), seasons (on the surface), and years, followed by the abbreviation AR. (See After Reassortment.)
LORUM, THE: the intelligent alien race living on the exoplanet Vigna. (Note: Collective singular, in form and meaning.)
LOWER LEVEL: the part of the underground designated by Chancellor Masimovian as being fit for Beimenians who do not garner a bid at the Harpoon Auction.
LOWER LEVEL ZONE: a layer of the Earth four thousand meters deep.
LOWER TWENTY-TWO: refers to all territories except for Boreas, Xerean, Farino, Zereaux, Kiplorea, and Columbia in Underground North, and Gallia and Gubertiana in Underground Northeast.
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MAGLEV: a transportation system in which trains glide above a track, supported by magnetic repulsion and propelled by a linear motor.
MAIDENS OF MASIMOVIAN: concubines to the supreme chancellor Atticus Masimovian.
MALCOMBE MINZIER TRAINING CENTER: also called the Hive; replaced the simulation and training facilities previously part of the Comb Cove.
MARK OF MASIMOVIAN: also called the Mark; a synthetic tattoo, black ink formed into the bust of Chancellor Masimovian held by two phoenix feathers. It is an honor conferred if a supreme scientific board conclave deems a Beimenian’s work to be worthy of the threshold of significant conversion. (See significant conversion.)
MARK OF THE STRIKE TEAMS: the black and gold ink shaped as a captain, striker, aera, and strategist holding hands, swaying, looking down upon Livelle city-state.
MARSTONE: the artificial intelligence designed to understand humanity’s connection to the cosmos; later used by the Masimovian Administration to monitor transhuman brain impulses, including, but not limited to, thoughts, speech, visions, and dreams in the ZPF. (Note: Monitored communication is denoted by bold, italicized lettering in Marstone’s Database.)
MARSTONE’S DATABASE: the databank that contains all information on residents of the underground; registration to it is required by Chancellor Masimovian’s Precepts.
MASTER OF THE HARPOONS: also called the Harpoon instructor, this designation is prestigious in the Great Commonwealth, for the instructor is responsible for providing supplemental mind-body-cosmos training and wisdom on the ways of Beimenians during Harpoon classes.
MIDDLE ZONE: a layer of the Earth between two thousand five hundred and four thousand meters deep.
MIND-BODY-COSMOS INTERFACE: sometimes called the mind-body-cosmos connection; the seamless connection with the ZPF, the body, and the mind enabled by neurochip and mesh implants in transhuman brains.
MINERAL CRUSHERS: synthetic C. perfringens designed to burrow through limestone and granite, among other minerals. The latest iterations ingest the minerals and excrete a combination of oxygen and neon.
MISSION PROTOCOLS: rules and regulations, objectives, and strategy and tactics to be employed during a commonwealth mission. (See commonwealth mission.)
MULTIVERSE: an infinite realm of being or potential being of which the universe is regarded as a part.
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NEOPHYTE: a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief. In Beimeni, most Harpoon candidates who receive a bid during the auction become neophytes for a consortium.
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OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR: the administrative office of the supreme chancellor of the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni.
OFFICE OF THE JUDICIARY: the administrative office of the Great Court of Beimeni; manages the circuit of lower courts in all the villages and cities in the Great Commonwealth. (See Great Court of Beimeni.)
OPEN HOUSE: specific to the Research & Development Department (RDD), enables Beimenians who wouldn’t normally be permitted into the department to tour certain parts of it.
OPERATION PRESERVATION: the emergency procedures to follow in the event the integrity of Livelle Laboratory is threatened, including, it is hypothesized, the storage of 340 scientists in Livelle Labo
ratory who’re important to the preservation of the transhuman race.
OUTER TERRITORIES: all territories outside Underground Central.
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PENDANT OF THE CHANCELLOR: communicative technology attuned to the Janzer race, which enables anyone who speaks through it, both audibly and through the ZPF, to control them.
PHANES BELTWAY: the maglev tunnels and stations that loop around Beimeni City, Phanes Territory; the centralized location to verify interterritory travel. Around the beltway, fifty heavily fortified and protected transport stations are designed to verify travelers are, in fact, authorized to move between territories. All interterritory tunnels in Beimeni’s territories lead to the beltway.
PLEDGE TO BEIMENI: a solemn oath of allegiance and fidelity to the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, recited at the beginning of each Harpoon class.
POLEMON OPERATION: a clandestine operation conducted by the Liberation Front.
POLEMON PASSAGEWAYS: the system of tunnels scattered throughout the underground, built by the Liberation Front.
POLEMON PROCLAMATION: a proclamation issued by the former supreme scientist Jeremiah Selendia to his allies throughout the underground, inviting the unregistered and registered residents of the Beimeni zone to unite with his Liberation Front in the guerilla war against the Masimovian Administration.
POLEMON STRIKE: sophisticated attacks perpetrated by the Beimeni Polemon against commonwealth interests and infrastructure.
POLEMON ZONE: a layer of the Earth between two hundred fifty and three hundred meters deep.
PRECEPTS, THE: the addendum to the Formation document designed to restore law and order to the underground, encourage scientific advancement, protect humanity from danger, and foster economic and cultural growth.
PRESIDENT OF THE LIBERATION FRONT: the highest political and military office of the Liberation Front.
PROJECT GEMINI: commissioned to Supreme Scientist Damosel Rhea in 342 AR with the expressed goal to learn about the origins of life, and to better understand evolution and the processes that influence Reassortment. Eventually transitioned into Project Silkscape. (See Project Silkscape.)
PROJECT REASSORTMENT: the research project designed to find a cure for transhumans to the Reassortment Strain.
PROJECT REGENESIS: the research project designed to revive the scientists stored in stasis just prior to the Death Wave. By 327 AR, only Dr. Kole Shrader—known as the Legend for the belief that he might be immune to the Reassortment Strain—remains in living stasis.
PROJECT SILKSCAPE: an entertainment venture with the Harsailles Menagerie: A Garden for Formerly Extinct Species, scheduled to open in the spring of 370 AR at the center of Silkscape City, Lovereal Territory.
PROPER CONVERSION: a meaningful but less onerous standard of scientific achievement as compared to significant conversion. (See significant conversion.)
PROTECTOR PROTOTYPE: a new line of telekinetic synbots designed to protect assets considered critical to the commonwealth.
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QUANTUM PROBABILITY: quantum mechanics is intrinsically probabilistic; quantum physics doesn’t reveal the probability of where an object is, but rather the probability that if you look, you will observe the object at a particular place. The object has no real position until the position is observed.
QUATERNARY PERIOD: is a geologic time period that encompassed approximately 2.6 million years; the second most recent period, which ended with the Reassortment Atmospheric Anomaly.
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REASSORTMENT ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALY: the great extinction event at the end of the Quaternary Period; also known as the process by which the Reassortment Strain spread throughout the Earth’s atmosphere. The anomaly has never been fully understood, though scientists hypothesize that the strain developed unique methods of transforming sunlight and nitrogen into energy.
REASSORTMENT BATON: an alloy rod that transmits the synthesis for E. agony into transhuman neural cells, which leads to the painful sensations common to Reassortment infection.
REASSORTMENT RESEARCH TEAM: formed by Ruslan Masimovian during the first year, After Reassortment, on direct order from Chancellor Noriel Livelle; tasked with constructing Reassortment-resistant biomats and to finding a solution to the Reassortment enigma.
REASSORTMENT SCARE: refers to when the Reassortment Strain breaches containment in the underground.
REASSORTMENT STRAIN, THE: a synthetic organism designed with the 4 traditional bases of DNA and their mirrored versions. The Reassortment Strain contains 8 nucleotides and 39 amino acids, and functions in ways unpredicted by science. Scientists believe it learned to live off sunlight and nitrogen and spread rapidly over the Earth’s atmosphere, killing most of humanity in what historians called the Death Wave. Nitrogen in the form N2 can be stripped of electrons and used as a source of energy, and thus finally oxidized to No2- (nitrite) or No3- (nitrate); prior to Reassortment, there was no known example of one organism that could do this—it would normally take a conglomerate of several organisms. The strain is intelligent enough to identify humans as human, then it moves into action. It liquefies human neural cells (rapid acid generation) and crystallizes the blood cells (rapid scabbing). The strain recodes portions of its genome every few minutes (acting similar to a computer encryption), and does so with many more combinations given its characteristic of chirality. In nature, near all biomolecules prefer one of two hands, with amino acids and proteins being designated as left-handed (or levo), and natural nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) designated right-handed (or dextro). While the transhuman body’s DNA and cells are altered in ways no native pathogen can understand or invade, Reassortment, combining the levo and dextro, can, in fact, enter and take control of transhuman neural and blood cells. Put simply, the Reassortment Strain confounds the enhanced transhuman immune system and as of 368 AR no known cure exists; the fatality rate for exposure is 100 percent.
RECALLER: illegal technology that “recalls” brain impulses, sending new, acceptable ones into the ZPF; can impact transhuman impulse waves within a radius of one to twenty-five meters, depending on the model and preference setting. They’re designed to deceive Marstone and look like a benari coin.
RECOMBINASE: an enzyme that catalyzes the exchange of short pieces of DNA between two long DNA strands, particularly the exchange of homologous regions between the paired maternal and paternal chromosomes; used to manipulate the structure of genomes.
REGENESIS CHAMBER: the second laboratory that housed Dr. Kole Shrader’s stasis tank, with Dr. Shrader being the last of the living scientists who was frozen near absolute zero, just prior to the Death Wave.
REGENESIS PROCEDURE: the event by which a living creature would be revived after having been frozen near absolute zero.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT: also called the RDD; the department founded by Atticus Masimovian to centralize scientific research and most raw material synthesis. (Note: Before and after the Reassortment Atmospheric Anomaly, the Earth lacked readily accessible, valuable metals and minerals such as diamond, gold, copper, iron, and nickel, among others.)
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SECOND HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR: also called the Resource War, the struggle between the Western and Eastern Hegemonies for nonrenewable resources throughout the solar system, which commenced in 103 BR (or 2312 on the Gregorian calendar standard) and ended in the year zero (or 2415 Gregorian) with the Reassortment Atmospheric Anomaly.
SEEPAGE: the unsolved osmotic, diffusive process by which the Reassortment Strain spreads underground.
SIBLING-IN-DEVELOPMENT: (i.e., sister-in-development or brother-in-development), the term given to a brother or sister who are candidates at about the same time and complete the Harpoon Exams together. Siblings who are not necessarily blood-related.
SIGNIFICANT CONVERSION: the highest level of scientific achievement in the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni. (See Mark of Masimovian.)
SKILLED TELEPATH: a transhuman with a superior mind-body-cosmos connection with the ZPF.
&n
bsp; STRATEGIC EXPEDITION TEAM: also called strike team, they were designed to protect transhumans from the dangers of underground living; pledged to the Underground Realm of humanity, rather than to a specific government such as the Livelle city-state or its successor, the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni. Their role transitioned to exploration by the 220s.
STRIKE TEAM AERA: the term attributed to female strategic expedition (strike) team strikers, named for the first woman to complete the striker training program. Like their male counterparts, they focused on traversing dangerous parts of the underground where a structural collapse or Reassortment scare threatened transhuman lives; traditional role transitioned to the Janzers by the 220s.
STRIKE TEAM CAPTAIN: the leader of the three-person strategic expedition (strike) team. The strike team captains were responsible for containing Reassortment breaches in Livelle city-state (including Livelle Laboratory) and the Underground Realm, which included the villages—not under direct control of the city-state—where transhumans expanded to along prehistoric underground lakes, rivers, and streams inside the Earth. The captains also led underground excursions to stabilize structural collapses and conduct search and rescue operations. By the 220s, the strike team captain’s traditional role shifted to the divisional leaders of the Janzers, while the strike teams’ purpose shifted to one of exploration. They’d hoped to find survivors of the Death Wave at installations utilized in the solar system during the Second Hundred Years’ War but all perished during or after the battles in space.
STRIKE TEAM COMMANDER: the leader of all strategic expedition (strike) team captains; decommissioned after Vastar Alalia, the fifth strike team commander, perished in 273 AR.
