View from Ararat

by Caswell, Brian

  On the Deucalion clock and calendar

  Dates: The Deucalion year has a duration of four hundred and fifty days, divided into fifteen months of thirty days each (thirty days being the period between the occurrences of the ‘hunter’s sky’ when both moons, Pyrrha and Pandora, are full). The calendar uses the day/month/year configuration: 30/15/100, for example, represents New Year’s Eve of the year 100.

  Dates are measured from the date of settlement, 1/1/00. Years prior to the landfall of the first settlers are designated bs (before settlement) and dates post-landfall, as (after settlement). It is common practice, however, to omit the designation as, unless the omission would tend to lead to confusion.

  Time: Deucalion operates on a metric time-system. The day is of approximately the same duration as that of Earth (23.976 hours, Earth standard), but it is divided into ten hours, made up of one hundred minutes, which in turn are divided into one hundred seconds, expressed in the form hour:minute:second. So midnight is 00:00:00 and midday is 5:00:00. In official records, and for the purpose of historical consistency, all times for places in time zones other than that of New Geneva are automatically converted to Standard (Eastern mean time).

  The metric system was introduced at the foundation of the settlement, as it was deemed unnecessary to cling to the archaic, arbitrary and clumsy system of time measurement employed on Old Earth.

  On the use of the word ‘Standard’: Other than when applied to time (see above), the use of the adjective ‘Standard’ following a noun indicates that the noun being modified is specifically Deucalion. A lower-case ‘s’ (for example Earth standard) implies an origin other than Deucalion, and is always modified further by indicating the place of origin.

  The most common use of the term ‘Standard’ is in relation to the official human language of Deucalion. ‘Standard English’ is based on a dialect of Old Earth English, originally spoken in the Asia Southeast Region, specifically the Republic of Australasia. It has long been considered the purest form of the original tongue, differing significantly from both Amerenglish and Euroenglish, both of which degenerated markedly during the Hundred Years’ Depression which followed the Trade Wars of the early twenty-first century.

  So common is this usage of the word that ‘Standard English’ is universally referred to simply as ‘Standard’.

  Also in this series by Brian Caswell

  The Dreams of the Chosen

  Telepathy, technology and eight hundred years of unbroken peace. For the younger generation, life on Deucalion is utopian but maybe just a little bit too predictable.

  But now, a thousand years after the settlement of the planet – and centuries after all contact was lost with Earth – an expedition, using a new and untried technology, is setting out into the unknown to discover what happened all those years ago on the mother-planet. What they find there will threaten their very survival and raise questions about what it means to be human and civilised.

  The Dreams of the Chosen is the long-awaited final chapter in the multi-award-winning Deucalion Sequence, which started with Deucalion and was followed by its acclaimed sequel, The View from Ararat.

  ISBN 978 0 7022 3605 1

  Also in this series by Brian Caswell

  Deucalion

  Across light years of space millions of settlers have come to the planet Deucalion to escape their past and build their future. Deucalion is a source of great wealth, and offers a chance of a new beginning. But what does this mean for the Elokoi, who lived there first, or for the children of Icarus, who made the journey for a different reason? And why are people dying mysteriously?

  Brian Caswell effortlessly takes you on an excursion into future-history, merging fact with fantasy that will leave you wanting to read the whole series.

  ISBN 978 0 7022 2865 0

  First published 1999 by University of Queensland Press

  PO Box 6042, St Lucia, Queensland 4067 Australia

  This edition first published 2013

  www.uqp.com.au

  © Brian Caswell 1999

  This book is copyright. Except for private study, research,

  criticism or reviews, as permitted under the Copyright Act,

  no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

  system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without

  prior written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

  Typeset in 11/14 pt Adobe Garamond by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

  National Library of Australia

  Caswell, Brian, 1954-

  The view from Ararat / Brian Caswell.

  Young adults.

  Science fiction.

  Caswell, Brian, 1954– Deucalion.

  A823.3

  ISBN 978 0 7022 3067 7 (pbk)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 4859 7 (pdf)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 4860 3 (epub)

  ISBN 978 0 7022 4861 0 (kindle)

  University of Queensland Press uses papers that are natural, renewable

  and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests.

  The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental

  regulations of the country of origin.