by Ian Douglas
"I have something else in mind for this young lady," Sinclair said. "I'm hoping to open friendly relations with the DalRiss as well. She will speak for them at the Congress."
This was all happening too fast for Dev. "I'm not sure what to say."
"Say yes. And come with us to New America. Help give rebirth to an old idea. To freedom."
In the background, the square dance had broken up and Lorita was singing "Hope Eyrie" again. Dev caught the words again that had arrested him during his first evening of freedom.
From all who tried out of history's tide.
Salute for the team that won.
And the old Earth smiles at her children's reach.
The wave that carried us up the beach
To reach for the shining sun. . . .
The old America had faltered, centuries ago, but somehow it had managed to break free of Mother Ocean and scrabble a few meters up onto a wet and empty beach. Now, the descendants of those first pioneers were opening a new frontier. A frontier of new promise. New hope.
New friends, even, though they were very strange friends, difficult to understand in the alien ways they looked at the cosmos. Maybe that was part of the evolutionary trek, though, learning to see the universe in a different way.
For the Eagle has landed. Tell your children when.
Time won't drive us down to dust again.
"Absolutely. General," Dev said. He exchanged a look with Katya, who nodded and smiled. "I'd say we need all the friends we can get."
Terminology and Glossary
AI: Artificial Intelligence. Since the Sentient Status Act of 2204, higher-model networking systems have been recognized as "self-aware but of restricted purview," a legal formula that precludes enfranchisement of machine intelligences.
Alpha: Type of Xenophobe combat machine, also called stalker, shapeshifter, silvershifter, etc. They are animated by numerous organic-machine hybrids and mass ten to twelve tons. Their weapons include nano-D shells and surfaces, and various magnetic effects. Alphas appear in two guises, a snakelike or wormlike shape that lets them travel underground along SDTs, and any of a variety of combat shapes, usually geometrical with numerous spines or tentacles. Each distinctive combat type is named after a poisonous Terran reptile, e.g., Fer-de-Lance, Cobra, Mamba, etc.
Alya: Naked-eye star Theta Serpentis (63 Serpentis) 130 light years from Sol. A double star with a separation of 900 AU (5 light-days), Alya A is an A5 star, Alya B an A7. Alya B-V is the homeworld of the DalRiss, who know it as GhegnuRish. Alya A-VI is known as ShraRish, a DalRiss colony.
Analogue: Computer-generated "double" of a person, used to handle routine business and communications through ViRcom linkage.
Annaisha: "Guide." Term for Imperial liaison officers who coordinate military or political activity between the Empire and Hegemony military forces.
Ascraft: Aerospace craft. Vehicles that can fly both in space and in atmosphere, including various transports, fighters, and shuttles.
Beta: Second class of Xenophobe combat machine, adapted from captured or abandoned human equipment. Its weapons are human-manufactured weapons, often reshaped to Xeno purposes. They have been known to travel underground.
Bionangineering: Use of nanotechnology to restructure life forms for medical or ornamental reasons.
Cephlink: Implant within the human brain allowing direct interface with computer-operated systems. It contains its own microcomputer and RAM storage and is accessed through sockets, usually located in the subject's temporal bones above and behind each ear. Limited (non-ViR) control and interface is possible through neural implants in the skin, usually in the palm of one hand.
Cephlink RAM: Also RAM. Random access memory, part of the microcircuitry within the cephlink assembly. Used for memory storage, message transfer, linguistics programming, and the storage of complex digital codes used in cephlinkage access. An artificial extension of human intelligence.
Ceramiplas: Plastic-ceramic composite used in personal armor.
Charged-Particle Gun (CPG): Primary weapon on larger warstriders. Including proton cannons and electron guns, they use powerful gauss fields to direct streams of charged subatomic particles at the target.
Chiji: "Governor." Specifically, the Hegemony governor of Shichiju worlds. Usually (but not always) an Imperial.
Coaster: Intrasystem, low-cost space transport, usually for cargo, although sometimes passengers are carried. Cramped, old, and uncomfortable, they are characterized by brief periods of high-G acceleration and deceleration at either end of the journey, with a long interval of zero-G "coasting" between.
Colonial Authority: Hegemonic bureaucracy charged with overseeing government, trade, and terraforming of the human-inhabited worlds.
Commpac: "Communications package." Long-range communications unit that plugs into both temporal sockets and is worn behind the head. It permits long-range communication and can serve as a modem to planetary computer networks without a direct palm interface.
Compatch: Small radio transceiver worn on the skin and jacked into a T-socket. Allows cephlink-to-link radio communications.
Compscam: Using computer networks—especially non-AI systems—to illegally divert money, equipment, etc.
Cryo-H: Liquid hydrogen cooled to a few degrees absolute, used as fuel for fusion power plants aboard striders, ascraft, and other vehicles. Sometimes called "slush hydrogen."
C-socket: Cervical socket, located in subject's cervical spine near the base of his neck. Directs neural impulses to jacked equipment, warstriders, construction gear, heavy lifters, etc.
DalRiss: Nonhuman intelligence first contacted in 2540. Native to Alya B-V (GhegnuRish), they are highly advanced in biological sciences, relatively backward in engineering and metallurgical sciences. Compound name reflects use of Dal, a gene-engineered organism, as "mount" by Riss ("Master").
DHS: Directorate of Hegemony Security. Joint military-civilian bureau under Imperial overwatch tasked with internal security in both civilian and military sectors.
Dracomycetes mirabila: Fungus harvested in jungle lowlands of Eridu, the source of a drug used for memory enhancement.
DSA: Deep seismic anomaly: Seismic tremors associated with subsurface movements of Xenophobe machines.
Durasheath: Armor grown as composite layers of diamond, duralloy, and ceramics; light, flexible, and very strong.
El-shuttle: Saucer-shaped pressurized chamber ferrying passengers and cargo up and down the sky-el. The passenger deck has seats for up to a hundred people, with jackplugs and a recjack library.
Embedded Interface: Network of wires and neural feeds embedded in the skin—usually in the palm near the base of the thumb—and used to access and control simple computer hardware. Provides control and datafeed functions only, not full-sensory input. Used to activate T- and C-socket jacks, to pass authorization and credit data, and to retrieve printed or vocal data "played" inside the user's mind. Also called 'face or skin implant.
E-suit: Environmental suit. Lightweight helmet and garment for use in space or hostile atmospheric conditions.
Fukushi: Imperial welfare program that provides Level One Implant technology, free housing, and ration subsidies to dependent citizens.
Fusorpak: Power unit carried on board most striders and large vehicles. Uses tanked slush hydrogen as fuel.
Gamma: Third type of Xenophobe combat machine, usually relatively small and amorphous. Apparently a fragment of a Xenophobe Alpha, animated by one or more Xeno machine-organism hybrids. Its surface consists of nanodisassemblers, making its touch deadly.
Glowglobe: Magnetically suspended lighting element, programmed to hover in place and produce light chemically on command.
Greens, Greenies: Political descendants of the Green Activist parties of the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries. Generally pro-environmental, anti-expansionist.
Grennel: Common name for a freshwater bladder plant harvested on Eridu. It is the source of a drug useful in treating i
mpotence.
Guntower: Unmanned sentry outpost armed with various energy or projectile weapons. May be automated, remote-controlled, or directed by an on-site, low-level AI.
Hab: "Habitat," home, though it usually refers to a structure used primarily for recreation or entertainment rather than a dwelling.
Hegemony: Also Terran Hegemony. World government representing fifty-seven nations on Earth, plus the Colonial Authorities of the seventy-eight colonized worlds. Technically sovereign, it is dominated by Imperial Japan, which has a veto in its legislative assembly.
HEMILCOM: Hegemony Military Command. Local military command-control-communications (C3) headquarters, usually based in sky-el orbitals. Coordinates military operations within a given sector.
Hivel Cannon: A turret-mounted rotary cannon (the word hivel comes from "high velocity"). Similar to twentieth-century CIWS systems, it fires bursts of depleted uranium slugs with a rate of fire as high as fifty per second. Usually controlled by an onboard AI, its primary function is antimissile defense. It can also be voluntarily controlled and used against other targets.
Hotbox: Strap-on rocket or scramjet booster. Small modules allow striders to softland after an airdrop or provide jetassisted boosts for navigating rough terrain. Larger modules provide surface-to-orbit thrust for aerospace transports.
Jacker: Slang for anyone with implanted jacks for neural interface with computers, machinery, or communications networks. Specifically applied to individuals who jack-in for a living, as opposed to recreational jackers, or "recjacks."
Kanrinin: "Controller." Device that plugs into subject's T-and C-sockets, allowing almost total motor nerve control by others. Used to handle or transfer prisoners.
Kansei no Otoko: "The Men of Completion." Nihonjinn faction at Court and within the Imperial Staff dedicated to cleansing upper levels of Imperial civilian and military organizations of gaijin influence.
Kokorodo: Literally "Way of the Mind." A mental discipline practiced by Imperial military jackers to achieve full mental and physical coordination through AI linkage.
K-T Plenum: Extraspacial realm at the hyperdimensional interface between normal fourspace and the quantum sea. From Nihongo Kamisama no Taiyo, literally "Ocean of God." Starships navigate through the K-T plenum.
Kuso: Japanese word for "feces." Not a Japanese explicative, it is used as such by Inglic speakers.
L-LOS: Laser line of sight. Straight-line path clear of interfering smoke, dust, or other obstruction along which laser communications can be established.
Loki: 36 Ophiuchi C (Dagstjerne) II. World 17.8 light years from Sol, currently undergoing terraforming by colonists of Scandinavian descent. Place names taken from Norse mythology, including Asgard (synchorbital), Bifrost (sky-el), and Midgard (Towerdown). Capital: Midgard. Language: Norsk-Lokan, a dialect of Norse.
Lung Chi: DM+32° 2896 (Chien) IV. World terraformed by colonists of Manchurian descent. Overrun by Xenophobes in 2538.
Magflitter: Personal air transport, flown through interaction with a planetary magnetic field.
Nangineering: Nanotechnic engineering. Use of nanotechnic devices in building or in medicine.
Nanits: "Nanotechnic units." Molecule-sized or smaller programmable machines.
Nano-Ds: Nanodisassemblers. Xenophobe weapon, delivered by mag-accelerated projectile or through contact with a specialized appendage, consisting of billions of submicroscopic machines programmed to disassemble molecular bonds. A high concentration of nano-Ds can cause several kilos of mass to disintegrate into its component molecules within seconds.
Nanoflage: Nanofilm on military vehicles designed to transmit colors and textures of vehicle's immediate surroundings. Selectively reflective, it does not reflect bright light or motion.
Navsim: ViRsimulation used in ship navigation.
New America: 26 Draconis IV. Frontier colony 48.6 light years from Sol.
NOI: Nippon Orbital Industries, manufacturer of cephimplants and other DI (direct interface) equipment.
Null: Person possessing no cephlink hardware and unable to engage in financial transactions, interface with computers, or engage in useful work. Large numbers of Nulls on Frontier worlds and even in some areas on Earth constitute a growing and problematical lower class.
Prebiotic: A world similar to Earth in the distant past, before the evolution of life. Possessing primitive atmospheres carbon dioxide, water, methane, and ammonia, they can be tailored through terraforming techniques to eventually develop Earthlike environments.
Quantum Sea: Energy continuum reflected in "vacuum fluctuation," the constant appearance and reabsorption of vast quantities of energy on a subatomic scale. Tapped by starships operating within the K-T plenum.
Rank: Terran Hegemony ranks are based on the Imperial Japanese rank structure, though the English terminology is preferred in common usage. A rough comparison of rank in the Hegemony military, as compared to late-twentieth-century America, is given below:
Enlisted Ranks
Commissioned Ranks
Rebrief: From "RAM-edited briefing." Originally a means to update RAM-loaded information by rewriting cephlinkstored data. Now means downloading fabricated data into a subject's RAM for purposes of interrogation or brainwashing.
Recjack: Using implants for recreational purposes. These uses range from participation in ViRdramas to shared multiple sensual stimulation to direct stimulation of the hypothalmic pleasure centers (PC-jacking).
Riderslot: Opening in an ascraft or other transport's hull designed to receive striders. Usually equipped with grippers, magnetic locks, and autoplug ICS and datafeed connectors.
Rogan Process: Nano construction technique, named after inventor Philip Rogan, employing assemblers and any plentiful raw material. Through "RoPro"—or "RoProduction"— walls, buildings, roads, and any similar large structure can be "grown" out of rock and earth quickly and cheaply.
SDT: Subsurface deformation track. Path through a planetary crust previously used by Xenophobe underground travelers. Rock once turned plastic by intense heat and pressure offers subsurface "highways" more easily traversed by subsequent Xenos.
Sekkodan: The Imperial Scout Service, tasked with exploring and cataloging new worlds, as well as operating high-speed courier ships between the worlds of the Shichiju. Its members wear green uniforms and it is considered to be a civilian bureau rather than a military unit.
Schiz, Schiz Out: Slang for mental breakdown brought on by jacked shutdown of mental activities for a protracted period of time, or through severe mental stress during linkage.
Sempu: "Whirlwind." Shotgunlike antipersonnel weapon firing shot connected by strands of monofilament.
Sensphere: Tennis-ball-sized gold sphere held against palm implants. Creates a pleasant, mildly stimulating, and erotic tingle through the interface circuitry.
Servot: A robotic, general-purpose servant.
Shakai: "Society." The elitist, upper-class culture of Imperial Earth.
Shichiju: Literally "The Seventy." Japanese term for the seventy-eight worlds in seventy-two systems so far colonized by Man.
Shishino Chi: "The Lion's Blood." Imperial equivalent of the Purple Heart.
Silicolubricant, Silicarb: Greasy black silicon compound used to reduce friction in interior working parts.
Sky-el: Elevator used to travel between a planetary ring and the surface of the planet. A cheap and efficient way of moving people and cargo back and forth from surface to orbit. Earth has three sky-els: Singapore (Pulau Lingga), Ecuador (Quito), and Kenya (Mount Kenya). New Earth has two. Other worlds have one. Some, such as New America, have none.
Slang (profanity):
dreamjack: Military slang for a very good or much-desired assignment.
easy feed: Slang expression for "No problem" or "That's okay."
gok, goking: Sexual obscenity. From the Japanese goku, "rape."
Heggers, Hegleggers: Military slang for Hegemony foot soldiers.
iceworld: Militar
y slang for "Stay cool. I'm cool."
I'm linked: "I'm with you." "I'll go along with that."
jackin' Jill: Girlfriend, especially as a casual RJ sex partner.
mincies: Military slang for civilians. From the Japanese minshu.
nullhead: Stupid. Empty-headed. By association, crazy. Also, people without jacks, unable to interact in technic society.
odie: "Let's odie" means "Let's do it, let's move." From the Japanese odori, "dance."
staticjack: Mild curse. Expression of disgust or amazement.
straight hont, the hont: The truth. From the Japanese hontono koto.
Slot: (1) Linkage module for human controller. Warstriders have one, two, or three slots; a three-slotter strider has places for a commander, pilot, and weapons tech. (2) Space for equipment aboard a transport. Ascraft have "slots" to carry four or six warstriders. (Slang) By popular usage, a place for a person in an organization, e.g., a "slot in the infantry."
Synchorbit: That point, different for each world, at which a satellite has an orbital period exactly matching the planet's rotation. Planetary sky-els rise from a world's equator to extensive constructions—factories, habitats, and other orbital facilities—in synchorbit.
Synchorbital: Facilities built at synchorbit.
Tacsit: Military slang for "tactical situation."
Teikokuno Heiwa: "The Imperial Peace." The Pax Japonica.
Teikokuno Hoshi: "Star of the Empire." Imperial medal for supreme service to the Emperor.
Teleop Weapons: Long-range missiles operated by weapons technicians at remote locations. Control can be by radio or—to avoid battlefield jamming—laser or a molecular fiberline unreeled behind the projectile.
Tenno Kyuden: "Palace of Heaven." Seat of Imperial government, located at Singapore Orbital.
T-form: Terraform. Converting an existing planetary atmosphere and environment to one that supports humans.
Thermal: Military slang for any infrared sensory device or scanner.
Towerdown: The base of a sky-el tower, a busy terminus for freight and passengers.
