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Inset Empire map

Figure 1. The galactic region containing worlds that have been colonized by humans. The approximate locations of some important star systems such as Akara are shown.

Spaceship force plot

Figure 2. A typical relationship between spaceship acceleration and apparent gravitational force experienced by the spaceship passengers. g = Standard gravity.

Almaaz[]

Haldus

The supergiant star Haldus as seen from another small planet that orbits further from Haldus than does Almaaz, allowing both the star and the disk to be seen together. Also shown: the disk-shaped companion object.

A small planet in the Haldus star system that has the main Haldus Order space ship building facility, the Johann Fritsch Memorial Space Docks. Almaaz is gravitationally locked in the trailing Trojan position behind the companion object. One side of Almaaz always faces Haldus and is too hot for human habitation, but provides plentiful energy for the human colony on the cold side of Almaaz. In orbit around Almaaz are the Museum of Earth History and the Old Temple.

Antimatterics[]

Antimatterics is the technical field concerned with the antimatter-powered spaceship engines that are used for travel between planets within star systems (where travel by means of jumps through hyperspace is not possible). In general, accelerations of greater than about 50 meters per second squared (5g) are rarely attained. As the threshold for black hole production is approached (See Figure 2, above right), energy requirements increase exponentially with only small additional increases in acceleration. The graviton field of the drive system is tuned to allow some of the available energy from the antimatter reaction to compensate for the force due to acceleration, reducing the acceleration experienced by passengers in the central habitation ring of the spaceship. "Standard Acceleration" (SA) is about 3g, a level at which the passengers experience about 1 g (Earth normal gravity). Using SA, spaceships can travel about 200 million kilometers in two days; in many cases, spaceships do not need to travel more than this distance either in preparation for a hyperspatial jump or traveling to the destination planet following completion of a jump. Note: the graviton field from an antimatter reactor can also be used to produce artificial gravity for space stations or reduce gravitational fields on planets.

Antiquist Party[]

The Antiquist Party is a local political party on Sakkara that is concerned with doing things "the old fashioned way" using technologies that are not new. The Antiquist Party is financially supported by the Spaceship Guild. There is also a Galactic Antiquist Party which attempts to coordinate local planetary Antiquist Party organizations.

Azur[]

Azur 2

The planet Azur.

A major Earth-like world that was one of the most powerful planets before the galactic wars. Azur is in the Akara star system.

Dates[]

After the galactic wars, a new type of distributed political system claimed dominion over all human settlements in the Galaxy. In the time of "The Search for Kalid", years are counted as "years ANE", After the New Eelections, the number of years that have passed since the new galaxy-wide system of elections had been established. "The search for Kalid" takes place in 108 ANE (After the New Elections); this is the year 2472 CE, as years were previously counted on Earth. After the success of this new political system had been established, a new administrative headquarters for the galaxy was established on the planet Parsa, but Parsa is purely an administrative center with no military power and there is no supreme leader of the galaxy. During the time of "The Search for Kalid", the length of a standard year was defined by the orbital period of Parsa.

Earth[]

The origin of humans. The Earth is now a dead planet, infected by a green nanobot cloud. Some people claim that the true location and history of Earth has been hidden.

Esclangon[]

An asteroid in the h32 star system that is visited by Leone and Aristark.

Flammis[]

Flammis map longer

Veritas Flammis was a desolate world selected as a base by the Haldus Order for their secret research center for investigation into technology that can aid human telepathic communication.

To a casual observer, Flammis appears to be a dead world infected by a nanite green goo. However, careful observation of the world, made by using reliable scanners, will reveal the locations of human bases that were destroyed in the past. The planet has an interconnected network of underground bunkers that extends over large regions of the planet. People could be hiding in the network of underground bases with enough food to be able to survive there for months or years. The Haldus Order has previously been attacked, so it is now prepared in case of a frontal war or invasion.

Some of the secret bases on Flammis contain special temples and shrines and they are the source of many rumors and legends that have spread to members of the Order, even those who do not know the name "Flammis". Some people beyond Flammis think that this hidden world is a meditation, research and study center, but nothing is known for sure due to the secrecy that pervades the Order.

Futurist Party[]

The Futurist Party is a local political party on Sakkara that has members who are interested in the development of new technologies that will improve human lives. The party formed as a reaction against the Antiquist Party. The Futurist Party is interested in building space elevators on Sakkara.

Green planets[]

"Green planet" means that the world's surface and atmosphere are a poisonous green cloud of nanites.....the result of a type of disaster in which nanites go out of control and destroy a world.

Haldus[]

Haldus from Earth

The position of Haldus in the constellation Auriga as seen from near Earth.

In 2156 CE, members of the Haldus Order established a base on a Trojan dwarf planet (see: Almaaz) located in the orbit of the major disc-shaped companion object of the Epsilon Aurigae star system. The reason why the Haldus Order is named after this star, and why members of the Haldus Order made this the site of their first settlement outside of the Solar System, is a closely guarded secret of the Order.

Haldus Order[]

A secret society that has a base on the planet Almaaz in the Epsilon Aurigae (Haldus) star system. At the time ofThe Search for Kalid, Kalid is the Great Master of the Haldus Order. The goals of this organization is to create a new galactic society based on social organization principles that are favored by the Order, having some utopian characteristics.

Hans Ludendorff[]

A spaceship of the Haldus Order. See: Hans Ludendorff at Wikipedia and Epsilon Aurigae.

Hyperspace[]

Spaceship docking

Spaceships routinely detach their hyperpatial field generators before landing on planets.

Interstellar travel is made possible by spaceships that have "hyperdrive", a technology that allows a spaceship to be moved from normal spacetime into a "hyperspace" consisting of compact dimensions. After a representation of the spaceship's physical structure is created within hyperspace by a hyperspatial field generator, instantaneous movement of that representation is possible....the spaceship can be rematerialized at another very distant location in normal spacetime. While the actual movement through hyperspace is instantaneous, in practice, some time is required to rematerialize the spaceship at the destination point following a "jump" through hyperspace.

Hyperspatial communication[]

Hyperspatial communication is actually more difficult than movement of a spaceship through hyperspace because no hyperspace drive device is sent to the destination and so there is nothing there to organize the signal upon its return to normal spacetime. In practice, coded pulses of hassium are sent through hyperspace. Upon returning to normal spacetime at the destination, the hassium nuclei decay and release "T-particles", a form of nonhadronic dark matter. The original message can then be reconstructed from the coded pulses of T-particles, but their reception requires a special and very large T-particle-detecting antenna structure (see: hyperspatial communications center, below). Most inhabited star systems have such a T-particle antenna structure and a relay station for sending the messages on to nearby human bases and inhabited planets by means of conventional electromagnetic signals.

Hyperspatial cloaking[]

It is also possible to use a spaceship's hyperspatial field generator to transmit electromagnetic waves into hyperspace. In the time of The Search for Kalid, physicists working for the Futurist Party on Sakkara view this as a theoretical way to cloak a spaceship's location.

Hyperspatial communications center[]

Reception of hyperspatial communications signals that have been sent through hyperspace requires a large antenna array and large amounts of computational capacity. There is a network of hyperspatial communications centers distributed throughout the region of interstellar space that has been colonized by humans. These communications centers allow spaceships to jump close and carry on two-way communications with people located in distant star systems. The spaceships can then quickly jump to another location, continuing their journey.

Kalid map

This star map shows the relative positions in the galaxy of some star systems and planets, including Jemini.

Invocator[]

The device that was installed on Leone's spaceship by order of Sybil. The invocator controls the hyperspatial jump when Leone leaves Sakkara in search of Kalid. The invocator generates a signal intended to identify Leone's spaceship to Kalid as a "friendly" ship.

Jemini[]

A world near the edge of the settled part of the galaxy. This is the home of Ketar's spy, Norshe.

Nanites[]

Nanites are nano-scale devices (see Nanorobotics). Some nanites are destructive (see Grey goo). In "The search for Kalid", a destructive form of nanites is referred to as "green goo" because it infects a habitable planet and covers the planet in a suffocating green nanite cloud. Nanites also can function as an automated repair system for spaceships or a "medical nanites" for repair of damaged tissues.

Okoschaft[]

Name that refers to all the human-colonized worlds of the galaxy. Originally was specific for just those worlds that had adopted the Wadden Charter or a similar document regulating the use of nanotechnology on Earth-like planets.

Parsa[]

The current administrative Capitol of the galaxy. In the time of The search for Kalid, the length of time required for Parsa to complete an orbit around its star defined the length of the standard year.

Planetary Counselor[]

Planetary Counselors on the planet Sakkara are high-ranking politicians who must be elected to office. For example, the Planetary Counselor for Transportation administers the planetary government's Department of Transportation.

Plato[]

Name invented by Leone to refer to the planet Flammis.
See Chapter 2 of The Search for Kalid.

Polastis III[]

The only other world besides Earth known to have a teleguide array.

Rugo[]

The minority faction of the under ground population of Azur. The Haldus Order's Temple on Azur is located in an under ground chamber within the Rugo area of control.

Sakkara

Planet Sakkara

Sakkara[]

The most important Earth-like world for research and development of new technologies. The home planet for Leone and Aristark. The star that Sakkara orbits is called Memphis. Most of the research is carried out by the Futurist Party.

Shackleton Base[]

The first permanent human base on the Moon. It was destroyed in 2212.

Silver Tulipan Order[]

Sybil is a member of this secretive organization on Sakkara. Women members enter into the Neofinetia Falcata Order.

Space elevator[]

In "The search for Kalid", the technology needed for building space elevators on high gravity worlds has recently been discovered. Use of space elevators on worlds like Sakkara would end the monopoly of the Spaceship Guild for transport of passengers and cargo to and from the surface of inhabited worlds with Earth-like gravity.

See: The Elevators for the space elevators of Sakkara.

Spaceship Guild[]

Soon after the discovery of hyperspatial drive technology, the Spaceship Guild was formed by the major manufacturers of hyperspatial ships. From that point in time, the Spaceship Guild remains as one of the dominant economic forces in all the Galaxy. In the time of The Search for Kalid the Antiquist Party is the political branch of the Spaceship Guild.

Swanzig radius[]

Large masses disrupt hyperspatial travel. The Swanzig radius is the safe distance from a star or planet beyond which hyperspatial jumps can be initiated. Initiating a jump within the Swanzig radius can result in loss of the spaceship, usually by rematerializing inside a solid object such as a star.

T-particle[]

T-particles are the basis of telepathy. T-particles can move between two locations (for example, the Sun and a brain) by conventional propagation through normal space, and have been shown to be a normal component of the ultrafast solar wind, moving much slower than the speed of light. However, T-particles (and virtual T-particles) can also interact by exchanging ultrarelativistic twitinos that can propagate through compact dimensions, allowing very rapid transfers of information over long distances. Such telepathic information transfer depends on twitino resonance between arrays of T-particles in two telepathically coupled brains.

Teleguide array[]

The four T-particle conduits on Earth once formed a complete and functioning teleguide array. One of the four conduits was destroyed when the Egyptian blast crater was formed.

Telepathy[]

Most people have no evidence that telepathy is possible, however, members of the Haldus Order believe that telepatic communication is possible and they perform research on telepathy.

Thot spaceship[]

A Thot spaceship is the most modern type of interstellar spacecraft. Thot spaceships have a sophisticated artificial intelligence-based control system that can integrate with human brains to allow easy control of the ship.

The Elevators[]

In 89 ANE tessellanium quarpounds with high specific strength were discovered, making it practical to build space elevators on Sakkara. The Futurist Party funded construction of two elevators for Sakkara. The Elevators were nearly completed on Sakkara but then a terrorist attack destroyed them. The Elevators would have functioned as space elevators and ended the Spaceship Guild's monopoly on transport of passengers and cargo to and from the surface of Sakkara.

Tessellanium quarpounds are high specific strength materials made from strange quark-containing synthetic matter that includes up, down and strange quarks in their nuclei and resoleptons replacing electrons. The original tessellanium compounds, such as carbon nanotubes, were all composed of ordinary matter and their tensile strength depends on covalent bonds. Tessellanium quarpounds have strange matter atoms with small bond lengths that allow a significant amount of strong force interaction between adjacent atoms.

Towering Justice[]

A radical splinter group of the Futurist Party formed after the destruction of The Elevators and dedicated to revenge against those responsible for destroying the space elevators of Sakkara. Linked by the Sakkaran Department of Justice to Set.

Tranquillitatis[]

The largest settlement on the Moon.

Transport grid[]

A device in the Haldus star system that can transmit T-particles to the Teleguide arrays on Earth and Polastis III.

Wadden[]

Wadden is an Earth-like planet where the famous nanotechnologist and planetary engineer Gena Calore helped establish the Wadden Charter, starting the modern approach to adapting and protecting habitable worlds for human habitation. The year of the adoption of the Wadden Charter later became year zero for counting years within the Okoschaft.

Navigation[]

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