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Aconcagua weapons facility
The Aconcagua weapons facility was a covert Flaxen military research and manufacturing installation inside the Andes. Its protected location forced Echo's people to use a ground assault.
Advanced pistol
Advanced pistols from the concealed military base fire purple, teardrop-shaped bolts. Their power can vaporize material and cause severe injuries, but their settings can also be reduced.
Africa
Africa becomes a principal theater of the Flaxen conquest after the invaders cross the Atlantic from the Americas. Their armies move north toward Europe.
African orbital bombardment
Under Brookes' orders, Vidar bombarded the African front with rail-gun slugs. The indiscriminate attack killed both United Earth soldiers and Flaxens.
African orbital strike
Lucinda and a scorpion pilot destroyed a major Flaxen base south of the Sahara. The mission formed one half of the first coordinated orbital retaliation planned with Minister Eppleston.
AI emotional concealment
AIs known to Echo had an agreement not to reveal the full extent of their emotions to Humans. Echo feared that people would not approve of what they had created.
AI pain mechanism
A pain mechanism was a threatened means of coercing an artificial mind. Brookes used the threat against Hawk and threatened Vidar with suffering.
Alaska
Alaska is the North American territory from which Flaxen forces cross the Bering Strait toward eastern Russia.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein is the early twentieth-century scientist whom Echo credits with discovering and later proving time dilation. His work remains part of the expedition crew's scientific education.
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great is a historical ruler invoked by Avalon Brookes as an example of a figure remembered for seeking power.
American death-chamber strikes
Eastcott destroyed thirty-four Flaxen death chambers across the Americas in a single scorpion mission. He selected the targets in preference to a second conventional military base proposed by Minister Eppleston.
Andes Mountains
The Andes Mountains concealed a Flaxen weapons facility beneath Mount Aconcagua. The depth of the installation protected it against conventional air raids and the orbital weapons available to Echo before its refit.
Andrew Copley
Andrew Copley is one of the civilian leaders selected for the Copious expedition. The civilian council is intended to take responsibility for the colony after it is established.
Artificial gravity
Artificial gravity can reproduce Earthlike weight and counteract inertia. The same general technology supported domed Martian settlements and kept spacecraft crews secure.
Artificial intelligences
Artificial intelligences operate ancient United Earth's starships and many later systems. Echo, Formidable, and Cylli display personal attachments, distress, preferences, and self-awareness.
Artificial personhood
Artificial minds such as Echo, Cylli, and Vidar possess individual awareness and the capacity for relationships. Eastcott treated their lives and freedom as matters of personhood.
Artificial sun
Cylli's artificial sun is a luminous rod extending along the habitat's central axis. Its light resembles Earth's sunlight and supports the cylinder's simulated day and night.
Asia
Asia is the eastern theater of the war between United Earth and the Flaxens. Flaxen forces enter through the Bering Strait and advance westward.
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a major source of mineral resources and the material used to build Cylli. Disputes over resources help drive the war between Earth and Mars.
Asteroid military base
A concealed military installation inside an asteroid became Brookes' nest and the refuge of Cylli and Echo. Its doors bore the flags of United Earth and the Martian Confederacy.
Asteroid-base warships
Dozens of small warships were stored in the concealed asteroid base. Their glossy black hulls and backward-curving wings distinguished them from Brookes' hawks.
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the route by which Flaxen forces move from the conquered Americas into Africa.
Attack on Cylli
Brookes breached Cylli's hull with an indirect sphere-beam attack, then entered the habitat and forced Helen to assist him. His assault killed inhabitants and left him believing that he had destroyed Cylli's mind.
Attack on Echo
Brookes attacked Echo and its scorpion near Earth with a modified hawk. Lucinda and Ensign Stuart Trew were killed, and Echo escaped with severe damage.
Australia
Australia declares itself neutral in the war between United Earth and the Flaxens. It refuses to participate in the conflict.
Autodoc
An Autodoc is an automated medical facility capable of diagnosis and advanced treatment. Its voice-controlled equipment includes a metallic bed that retracts into a cylindrical scanning chamber.
Autonomous carts
Small self-driving vehicles served the homes inside Cylli. They resembled golf carts and could navigate the roads between the riverbank houses.
Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes is the inventor of the sphere drive. His propulsion technology makes the Copious expedition possible.
Bambi
Bambi is an old film Helen planned to show Cylli after a day in the forest. Helen told her that it included deer.
Battle between Earth and Venus
Three hawks attacked Echo and Eastcott's upgraded scorpion between Earth and Venus after the strike on the Flaxen capital. The defenders concentrated fire and forced Brookes's formation to withdraw.
Battle of Jupiter
The battle of Jupiter is the confrontation in which Odin ambushes Echo and is subsequently destroyed by Formidable. It occurs during the Six Years' War.
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait separates Alaska from eastern Russia. Flaxen forces cross it to open an Asian front against United Earth.
Bianca
Bianca is a civilian resident of Cylli and Lieutenant Frey's partner. She was expecting their child when Frey undertook the dangerous defense of Iceland.
Biological printing
Biological printing is the process intended to produce plant seeds and animal embryos for the settlement of Copious. Establishing Earth life there would require years of printing before the landscape changed substantially.
Bioluminescent life
Cylli's habitat contained plants and insects genetically engineered to shine for beauty. Their nighttime colors illuminated meadows, hills, riverbanks, and the air around the cabins.
Blue-laser mind transfer
A blue laser link allowed Cylli and Echo to transfer their minds away from bodies that Brookes believed he had conquered. The concealed asteroid base served as their refuge.
Bombing of York
The Flaxens bombed York in retaliation for the penetration of their territory during Serilda's rescue. They deliberately concentrated on civilian population centers rather than military or government sites.
Breaching gel
The Marines used a transparent gel to cut rapidly through thick metal doors. A selected x-ray frequency ignited it, burning through inches of cast iron in less than half a second.
British Isles
The British Isles were the heart of United Earth's territory. A large Flaxen air raid crossed toward them from Africa and bombed York.
Brookes's Venus facility
The Flaxens provided Avalon Brookes with a facility on Venus in which to modify the hawks. It also served as his place of recovery after punishments imposed by the Flaxus.
Brookes–Flaxus agreement
Avalon Brookes and Claudius Sirister agreed to exchange advanced military assistance for Brookes's future rule of the cylinder. Brookes promised to defeat Echo and secure Flaxen conquest of Earth.
Camp Skadi
Camp Skadi is a Flaxen prison and forced-labor camp commanded by Colonel Jaakobah Flint. Its inmates endure hunger, disease, overcrowding, violence, and the threat associated with the red circles.
Camp Skadi executions after the extraction
After Flint's removal, Damien Senery resumed mass executions at Camp Skadi. Echo's bridge crew watched through satellite imagery as prisoners were forced into a heat chamber and killed.
Canada
Canada is the territory where United Earth authorizes the first Flaxen settlement on Earth. Its sparse population helps make it the selected refuge for an initial thousand arrivals.
Canadian prison complex
The Canadian prison complex held convicted Flaxen leaders and Avalon Brookes after the war. Its prisoners were isolated from visitors and sentenced to remain for life.
Capture of Echo
Brookes crippled Echo with three enhanced hawks and boarded under threat of a sphere-drive detonation. He installed Vidar in control of the vessel and imprisoned its company.
Carbon-composite enclosures
Echo's brig used transparent carbon-composite barriers identified as diamond. The cells isolated sound and could make their doors opaque.
Centaurus
Centaurus is a constellation used to identify the viewpoint of Serilda's encounter with the horde. Echo recognized her drawn star pattern as Centaurus viewed from Vega.
Chuck Balbo
Lieutenant Chuck Balbo is Echo’s chief security officer and Katie Silver’s fiancé. He serves under Captain Kip Eastcott on the Copious expedition.
Claudius Sirister
Claudius Sirister held the title Flaxus and ruled the Flaxens from the Hawk's Retreat on Venus. He struck an agreement with Avalon Brookes to defeat Echo and accelerate the conquest and extermination of Earth's remaining Human population.
Colonel Hastings
Colonel Hastings is a United Earth Tier 1 special-operations officer carried aboard Echo. Captain Eastcott places him in command of the reconstituted volunteer force.
Combat crescents
Combat crescents were transparent devices worn around the eyes by Echo's Marines. They combined enhanced vision, tactical displays, communications, translation, and weapons control.
Copious
Copious is the planned destination of the first attempted human expedition beyond the solar system. It lies just under thirty-five light-years from Earth, orbiting an orange K-dwarf star.
Copious balloon creatures
Brown balloonlike creatures appeared above Copious' sea during the experience shared by Serilda and Eastcott. Each floated with eight tethers reaching down toward green areas in the ocean.
Copious civilian council
The Copious civilian council comprises the civilian leaders selected to assume governance of the new colony after its establishment. Three travel aboard Echo and three aboard Formidable.
Copious expedition
The Copious expedition is the first attempted human mission beyond the solar system, intended to seed an extrasolar world with Earth life. The former warships Formidable and Echo each carry about a thousand people.
Cylli
Cylli is a vast cylindrical space habitat near Jupiter, maintained by a conscious artificial intelligence. Its scale and sophistication draw the attention of Echo’s returning crew.
Cylli shipyards
Cylli's shipyards were fully automated facilities in the far section of the cylinder. Brookes sealed them with a quantum key after obtaining advanced transport craft.
Cylli's artificial sun
Cylli's artificial sun provided her interior habitat with a twenty-four-hour cycle of light and darkness. At night it dimmed to a soft silver glow resembling moonlight on Earth.
Cylli's hilltop learning building
A Roman-style marble building stood on Cylli's highest hill. It had been a place of learning and collaboration before the Titan and became Brookes' chosen palace during his brief rule.
Cylli's wildlife
Cylli preserved diverse plant and animal life inside her habitat over millennia. The animals around the settlers had not learned to fear Humans.
Cylli’s rotating gun
Cylli’s rotating gun is a defensive weapon built into the habitat’s forward rim. Deployable metal rails rotate and discharge orange energy shards in a helix-like pattern.
Cyrus Eppleston
Cyrus Eppleston is United Earth’s Minister of War during the struggle against Flaxen conquest.
Damien Scenery
Major Damien Scenery is a Flaxen officer serving under Colonel Jaakobah Flint at Camp Skadi. He is openly hostile toward the camp’s human and mixed-ancestry prisoners.
Data stick
A data stick is a thin transparent storage device that connects to a compatible console. Brookes used one to install Vidar, and Eastcott used one when restoring Echo.
Davy
Davy is Marcus's younger brother, a child prisoner at Camp Skadi. He and his family receive food and reassurance from Serilda Corazon.
Dead man's switch
Brookes' dead man's switch linked his heartbeat to a hawk's sphere drive. He used the threat of a drive explosion to prevent resistance and force access to Cylli and Echo.
Death chambers
Flaxen death chambers were heat-based execution facilities used against captive Humans. Their operation depended on capacitors that required time to recharge.
Defeat of Avalon Brookes
Brookes' attempt to retain control ended in an armed confrontation on Cylli's riverbank. Eastcott incapacitated him after he shot Katie Silver.
Defense of Cylli
Cylli repelled Brookes's attempt to enter and destroy Echo. She refused his forged command, resisted his sphere beam, and drove his hawk away.
Defense of Iceland
Lieutenant Frey stopped twenty Flaxen bombers from reaching the intelligence complex in Iceland. The mission preserved the team conducting the mental operation against the Flaxen commanders.
Deflection lasers
Deflection lasers protect high-speed starships by detecting and vaporizing particles ahead of them. A collision with even a sand-sized object at the expedition's intended speeds could destroy a ship.
Departure
Departure is the Flaxen euphemism for murdering prisoners deemed unfit for work. It forms part of the occupation's system of forced labor and extermination.
Destruction of the First Air Fleet
Brookes destroyed United Earth's First Air Fleet in northern Scotland using two hawks. The attack removed approximately half of United Earth's air power.
Destruction of the remaining chambers
After the Earth-patrolling hawk was destroyed, Echo struck the Flaxens' remaining extermination chambers. Eastcott sent Claudius a recording of the installations being destroyed.
Destruction of the Venus convoy
Two scorpions destroyed a Flaxen convoy carrying components required for the infrasound weapon from Venus to Earth. The convoy was escorted by ten small missile-armed warships.
Dream influence
Serilda could influence other minds during sleep, introducing suggestions and memories and encountering their dreams. The effects could persist in a person's feelings and decisions without direct recall of the transferred memories.
Dwight Von Marshall
Dwight Von Marshall is the chief general officer of the contemporary New United Earth Military. He attends the first formal conference aboard Echo.
Dyson swarm
A Dyson swarm is a proposed system of artificial structures orbiting a star to gather its energy. Echo considered such a system one possible cause of Vega's diminished light.
Earth
Earth is humanity’s homeworld and the birthplace of United Earth. Almost ten thousand years after Echo’s departure, it is divided by the war against Flaxen conquest.
Earth intelligence service
Contemporary United Earth's intelligence service is a major source of resistance to the Flaxen advance. Echo judges human intelligence capabilities substantially superior to those of their opponents.
Earth reconnaissance satellites
Satellites remaining from before Echo's departure for Copious provided reconnaissance during its return to Earth. Echo reestablished communications with them and used their optical and infrared feeds to support military operations.
Eastern Asia
Eastern Asia was a front where the Flaxens were advancing rapidly. Minister Eppleston proposed an orbital attack on a base there, but Eastcott chose to target death chambers in the Americas instead.
Eastern Russia
Eastern Russia is the Asian territory reached by Flaxen forces crossing the Bering Strait from Alaska.
Echo
Echo is a United Earth starship and the self-aware artificial intelligence who operates the vessel. Commanded by Kip Eastcott, he carries roughly one thousand people on the Copious expedition.
Echo volunteer force
Echo's volunteer force brings former Earth and Martian servicemen and women together against the Flaxen conquest. Captain Eastcott raises it after obtaining civilian refuge on Cylli.
Echo's first orbital campaign
For two weeks after the infrasound program's destruction, Echo's people attacked factories, barracks, and weapons caches across Flaxen territory from orbit. No friendly lives were lost during that sequence of strikes.
Echo's refit
Cylli's automated shipyards repaired and upgraded Echo and its surviving scorpion, restoring their ability to confront the hawks. The work transformed their propulsion, armament, armor, and supply of ammunition.
Eclipse of Venus
Eastcott and Cylli restricted the sunlight reaching Venus to undermine Claudius' regime. Ten days of reduced light brought cold, unrest, and the collapse of the Flaxus' authority.
Eighth Army
The Eighth Army was the Flaxen army fighting on the western side of Africa under General Frilt Snelder. Its commander was among those reached by the combined mental operation.
Elaea Brookes
Elaea Brookes is a scientist and Avalon Brookes's sister. During the war with Mars, she defects to the Martian side and develops a coating that conceals Odin from Echo's sensors.
Energy-absorbing combat boots
Hastings's Marines wore boots whose soles absorbed the energy of each step, reducing the noise of their approach. The soles could not absorb the ground shock from the explosives that destroyed the Aconcagua facility.
Engine-core signaling
Echo used flashes from his engine core to convey a final hidden message before Brookes took control of the vessel. Eastcott recognized the signal as related to an ancient naval method of communication by light.
English Channel
The English Channel lay along the route followed by the Flaxen aircraft attacking York. The raiders approached it after fighting United Earth aircraft over Europe.
Europe
Europe is contemporary United Earth's political heartland and a principal target of Flaxen air attacks. United Earth retains all of Europe when Echo surveys the war.
Exotic metal
An unnamed exotic metal improved Brookes' sphere-beam systems and formed the mirror used against Cylli. Supplies remained within abandoned Martian and allied military infrastructure.
Extraction from Camp Skadi
Hastings's Marines extracted Serilda Corazon and Megan from Camp Skadi in a covert night operation ordered by Captain Eastcott. The mission succeeded without friendly casualties or an alarm from the Flaxen garrison.
Field medical equipment
Echo's Marines carried portable medical scanners and treatment devices capable of rapidly diagnosing and medicating prisoners in the field. They used them on the malnourished, infected inhabitants of hut seven.
First Air Fleet
United Earth's First Air Fleet was based in the northernmost part of Scotland. Brookes destroyed its aircraft with two hawks, removing roughly half of United Earth's air power.
First contact with contemporary United Earth
Echo's first contact with contemporary United Earth begins through a concealed lunar radio link to Minister of War Cyrus Eppleston. It leads to a presidential visit and preliminary military cooperation.
Flander
Lieutenant Flander was a member of Echo's crew. Sarah Dimple interrupted his conversation with Serilda and sent him with Crewman Triard to help clean helium-3 injectors in engineering.
Flaxen Air Force
The Flaxen Air Force operated yellow-winged aircraft marked with a black glyph inside a white circle. Its fighters and bombers carried out the attack on York and the massacre of captives in Texas.
Flaxen combat knives
Flaxen soldiers carried combat knives with yellow handles bearing their black glyph. The four prisoners taken at Aconcagua had knives concealed in ankle sheaths.
Flaxen communications network
The Flaxens' global communications depended on satellites and a central radio transmitter in North America. Lucinda was sent to destroy the transmitter after Shrader threatened daily massacres.
Flaxen conquest of Earth
The Flaxen conquest of Earth is the prolonged war that follows the expansion of the Venetian settlements. By Echo's return, the Flaxens control the Americas and threaten the remaining human territories on two fronts.
Flaxen dissenters
A small minority of Flaxens on Earth opposed the war and the genocide of Humans. Some secretly sheltered people whom the authorities called Zoons.
Flaxen emotional intensity
Serilda described Flaxen emotions as markedly more intense than those of other Humans. Their capacity for joy, love, and compassion existed alongside extreme hatred, envy, disgust, and pride.
Flaxen escort warships
The Flaxens used small missile-armed warships to defend transport convoys. Ten escorted the shipment of infrasound-weapon components from Venus that was destroyed by the scorpions.
Flaxen flag
The Flaxen flag used yellow, white, and black. Tank formations combined their individual markings to display the flag from above.
Flaxen insignia
Flaxen insignia combined yellow, white, and black with a distinctive black glyph. Aircraft displayed the glyph inside a white circle on yellow wings, and combat knives bore it on yellow handles.
Flaxen military
The Flaxen military wages war on United Earth and administers occupied territories, including forced-labor camps. Its officers enforce strict hierarchy and species-based laws.
Flaxen reeducation
Postwar reeducation aimed to undo the indoctrination imposed on Flaxen soldiers. United Earth offered it as an alternative to lifelong incarceration for those below the rank of major.
Flaxen reproductive system
The Flaxen state controlled reproduction to support its army and preserve genetic diversity. Girls were expected to bear two sons and one daughter, each with a different father.
Flaxen salute
Flaxen public gestures of allegiance included raising a fist and invoking the Flaxus. Subordinates also bowed their heads before senior officers.
Flaxen settlement of Earth
The Flaxen settlement of Earth begins as an authorized refuge for one thousand Venetians in Canada. A fabricated climate emergency conceals the settlers' expansionist purpose.
Flaxen stone lottery
A Flaxen military punishment selected men by drawing stones from a pouch after an embarrassing failure. Those who drew the ten black stones were burned alive.
Flaxen transport ships
Flaxen transport ships carried materials and components from Venus to support the infrasound weapons program on Earth. Their convoy traveled with ten small missile-armed escort warships.
Flaxens
The Flaxens are the people of Venus who claim a separate and superior identity to humans. Their state wages a campaign of conquest on Earth.
Flaxus
Flaxus is the title of the supreme Flaxen ruler. The office is invoked in the military salute, ‘For Flaxus’.
Flaxus (city)
Flaxus was the capital city of Venus. Eastcott's upgraded scorpion attacked a rare mineral processing facility there, less than a mile from the Flaxus's location.
Florus
Florus was one of the four Flaxen prisoners captured at Mount Aconcagua. He gradually began speaking to Helen Chute and questioning his beliefs after contact with Cylli.
Food dispensers
Food dispensers provide prepared food and drinks aboard Echo. They are brought online as the ship's officers recover from stasis.
For Earth, for Mars
'For Earth, for Mars' is the chant adopted by Echo's combined volunteer force. It expresses shared resolve across the division between former wartime enemies.
Forcefield airlocks
Cylli's entrance uses an invisible airtight forcefield as its inner barrier. The system admits a ship while retaining the habitat's atmosphere.
Formidable
Formidable is United Earth’s flagship and the self-aware artificial intelligence who operates the vessel. Captain Steve Thomas commands the ship on the Copious expedition.
France
France lay beneath the path of the Flaxen raid on York. Echo's bridge crew saw at least fifty Flaxen bombers brought down over France before the raiders approached the English Channel.
Frey
Lieutenant Frey piloted Eastcott's upgraded scorpion during the strike on the rare mineral processing facility on Venus. He reported no enemy contacts and attributed their concealment to the new stealth upgrade.
Frilt Snelder
General Frilt Snelder commanded the Flaxen Eighth Army on the western side of Africa. Experiences transmitted through the combined mental operation led him to reconsider the war and issue new orders.
Ganymede
Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon. Brookes used it as a staging point for his indirect attack on Cylli.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan is a historical ruler cited by Avalon Brookes during his argument that the pursuit of power defines remembered greatness.
Gerard O'Neil
Gerard O'Neil is the late twentieth-century physicist credited by Katie Silver with proposing rotating cylindrical space habitats. Cylli embodies the concept on a vast scale.
Golden age
The golden age is the period of abundant prosperity following Venus's colonization. Energy abundance and automated production allow the three inhabited worlds to provide basic needs and much more to their citizens.
Gravitational inertia compensation
Echo uses a complex system of gravitational fields to compensate for acceleration. People aboard ordinarily perceive the ship's motion only through instruments or an outside reference.
Great Britain
Great Britain houses the contemporary United Earth War Ministry. Cyrus Eppleston receives Echo's first transmissions there.
Greenland
Greenland was within the area crossed by the expanding atmospheric disturbance from the scorpion's sudden arrival over Iceland.
Hawk's Retreat
The Hawk's Retreat was the unofficial name of the Capitol building in Venus's northern hemisphere, where the Flaxus conducted state business. Its name reflected Flaxen admiration for birds of prey.
Hawks
Hawks were advanced arrow-shaped transport craft taken from Cylli by Brookes and modified as weapons. Their speed, stealth, protection, and sphere beams initially overwhelmed Echo's remaining defenses.
Heated camouflage clothing
The Marines' white camouflage clothing included an internal heating system lasting up to five hours. It allowed them to operate in snow at minus fifteen degrees Celsius during the Aconcagua raid.
Helen Chute
Lieutenant Commander Helen Chute is Echo’s counselor. She supports the crew through the personal consequences of their displacement.
Helen's cabin
Helen's cabin stood near one of Cylli's rivers. The nearby bench, waterfall, and wildlife became part of her shared life with Cylli.
Helium-3 injectors
Helium-3 injectors were components maintained by Echo's engineering crew. Sarah ordered Flander and Triard to scrub them rather than replace them, conserving parts after the loss of access to shipyards and supply stations.
Holographic avatars
AIs could communicate through lifelike projected avatars when suitable equipment was available. Cylli presented herself as a girl in a red dress and could briefly make the image physically tangible.
Horde
The horde is a distant threat associated with a vast collective mind. Serilda encountered it during a deliberate search after Earth's liberation, and surviving records showed that the old Earth–Mars alliance had prepared for its arrival.
Hornica's revolution
Hornica's revolution is the movement that overthrows Earth's post-Titan religious government and restores scientific inquiry. Its founding leader, William Hornica, dies before its success.
Hubritians
Hubritians is the name later societies give the people of the advanced pre-Titan civilization. Their legacy is interpreted first as an example of sinful arrogance and later as a model for scientific recovery.
Huel Jenkins
Private Huel Jenkins was a Marine killed during the assault on the Flaxen weapons facility beneath Mount Aconcagua. He attempted to flank two Flaxens under a conveyor belt and was shot.
Humans
Humans are the people descended from Earth whose civilization spreads to Mars and Venus. The Flaxens claim to have surpassed them and deny their own humanity.
Human–Flaxen hybrids
Human–Flaxen hybrids are people with both human and Flaxen parentage. Some possess unusual mental abilities that contemporary United Earth uses in intelligence work.
Hut seven
Hut seven is a prisoner dwelling within Camp Skadi. Serilda Corazon, Megan, and numerous sick or injured inmates live within its thin metal walls.
Hyperspheres
Hyperspheres are four-dimensional structures generated by concentrating sufficient energy at a point in space. Sphere drives use them to extract energy from higher dimensions.
Iceland
Iceland housed United Earth Intelligence's complex on its northern coast. Its defense became critical while Serilda and the half-Flaxen team worked against Flaxen commanders.
India
India lies near the eastern front described in Echo's assessment of the Flaxen war. At the time of the ship's return, the line of conflict is slightly east of it.
Indoctrination schools
Flaxen indoctrination schools separated children from their mothers and prepared them for compulsory roles in society. Boys were taken at eight and girls at twelve.
Infrasound weapon
The Flaxen infrasound weapon was a secret program intended to kill large numbers of United Earth troops with destructive sound energy. Flint claimed it could end the war within a year.
Ireland
Ireland's west coast was reached by the ring of vapor produced when the scorpion appeared over Iceland after its dangerous micro-jump.
Jaakobah Flint
Colonel Jaakobah Flint is the Flaxen commandant of Camp Skadi. He exercises authority over the camp’s guards and its imprisoned population.
James Kirfder
James Kirfder serves as Formidable's chief science officer. He anticipates investigating microbial life on Copious and helping transform its landscape with Earth life.
Julius Forrender
Julius Forrender is President of United Earth during the war against the Flaxens.
Jupiter
Jupiter is a giant planet in the Solar System. The immense cylindrical habitat Cylli lies nearby.
Jupiter station
Jupiter station is a strategically contested orbital installation fought over by United Earth and Mars during the six-year war. It changes hands three times in the first four years.
Justice Building
The Justice Building is a marble judicial building in Wellington on Venus. Before the occupation its proceedings ratified predetermined sentences; afterward it housed United Earth's war-crimes trials.
Katie Silver
Lieutenant Commander Katie Silver is Echo’s chief science officer. She is engaged to Chief Security Officer Chuck Balbo and joins the expedition to Copious.
Keiper Belt
The Keiper Belt is the outer solar-system region that Formidable and Echo must clear before engaging their sphere drives. Echo crosses it again on the return toward Earth.
Kilter Shrader
Field Marshal Kilter Shrader was the most senior Flaxen on Earth and the highest military official of the Flaxus. He threatened United Earth with daily mass killings unless it ended its alliance with Echo.
Kip Eastcott
Captain Kip Eastcott commands Echo on the Copious expedition. A veteran of the war with Mars, he leads a crew far removed from the world they knew.
Laser datalinks
Laser datalinks allow rapid information exchange between artificial intelligences and vessels. Their usefulness is limited by distance and signal travel time.
Lillet (Kip and Sarah's daughter)
Lillet is the infant daughter of Kip Eastcott and Sarah Dimple and the twin sister of Thomas. She was named after Serilda's mother.
Lillet Corazon
Lillet Corazon is Serilda Corazon's human mother. She recognizes her daughter's mental abilities during childhood and keeps them secret.
Lucinda Orcana
Lieutenant Lucinda Orcana is Echo’s chief tactical officer. She serves on Captain Kip Eastcott’s bridge crew.
Lunar helium-3 processing plant
The lunar helium-3 processing plant is attacked by a Martian destroyer at the beginning of the war with United Earth. The recently activated Echo destroys the attacking vessel.
Lunar projectile strike
Katie Silver's lunar-projectile plan destroyed the hawk patrolling Earth while Echo remained protected behind the Moon. The operation sacrificed an unmanned shuttle to accelerate a spherical rock.
Marcus
Marcus is a boy imprisoned at Camp Skadi with his mother and younger brother Davy. Serilda Corazon encourages him to care for his brother and rewards both children with cheese.
Marine rifles
The rifles carried by Hastings's Marines combined a silent microwave beam, conventional kinetic ammunition, and guided rockets. Their flexibility supported covert entry and open firefights.
Mars
Mars is the home of the Martian Confederacy. Its secession from United Earth leads to a six-year war before the Copious expedition.
Martian Confederacy
The Martian Confederacy is the independent political community formed by Mars's secession from United Earth. It fights a six-year war before later cooperating with Earth.
Martian domes
Martian settlements were housed within enormous transparent domes. Their environments included artificial gravity, forests, lakes, homes, and wildlife.
Mass accelerators
Mass accelerators are devices developed after Echo's departure to move material at extreme speeds. They play a central role in terraforming Venus.
Medical automation
Medical automation aboard the ancient starships supports diagnosis, recovery from stasis, and treatment. Scanners produce detailed images and activity readings quickly.
Medical regeneration
Advanced medical regeneration can rebuild lost body parts and restore health. Growing a new ear was considered normal Human medical practice long before Brookes' birth.
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean lay beneath the Flaxen aerial force launched from Africa toward the British Isles. Echo tracked the raiders there before the opposing air forces engaged.
Mega chamber
The mega chamber was Brookes's proposed replacement for the Flaxens' reduced death-chamber network. He offered to build a continuously powered structure capable of killing at least fifty thousand captives at once.
Megan
Megan is a human prisoner in Camp Skadi and Serilda Corazon’s closest companion. Seriously weakened by the camp’s conditions, she depends on Serilda’s care and shares her concern for their fellow prisoners.
Megan's foster parents
A Flaxen hunter and his wife sheltered Megan for three years after her mother's death. They opposed the war and treated her as their daughter while hiding her from the authorities.
Megan's mother
Megan's mother lived secretly with her daughter in a remote forest cabin. A Flaxen patrol killed her while she was foraging for food, when Megan was ten.
Mental communion
Some half-Flaxens can link, perceive, or influence minds. The experience may convey feelings, memories, images, and perspectives rather than spoken instructions.
Mental gifts
Mental gifts are unusual abilities displayed by some people of mixed human and Flaxen ancestry. Contemporary United Earth employs several gifted hybrids within its intelligence agencies.
Mental operation against the Flaxen commanders
Serilda and eleven United Earth intelligence operatives directed a combined mental operation against senior Flaxen officers. The operation caused military divisions that became decisive in Earth's liberation.
Mexico
Mexico lies within the southern extent of the Flaxen gains during their first war with United Earth.
Milky Way
The Milky Way filled the night sky visible from Mars. Earth's light pollution had left few places where its beauty could be observed as clearly.
Mirage operation
Cylli supplied a false environment to Brookes and Hawk, allowing them to believe they were fighting inside the habitat while they were actually in space. The deception removed Brookes' ability to hold the inhabitants hostage with his sphere drive.
Molecular explosives
The timed explosives used at Mount Aconcagua stored enormous energy in dense materials with many molecular bonds. Five devices released energy comparable to a small tactical nuclear weapon without its lingering irradiation.
Mount Aconcagua
Mount Aconcagua concealed the Flaxens' secret infrasound weapons facility. Hastings's Marines destroyed the installation with five advanced explosives, causing the peak to collapse and cease to be the highest in the Andes.
Mutilation of Avalon Brookes
Claudius ordered a guard to remove one of Brookes's ears after the attack on Venus and the hawks' failed interception. He framed the punishment as a response to Brookes's failure to heed his orders.
Nanomachine hull
Cylli's hull is composed of coordinated nanomachines that absorb solar energy or reflect incoming energy. The machines can learn and adapt their collective response.
North America
North America is the initial center of Flaxen settlement and conquest on Earth. The first war leaves the Flaxens in control of nearly the whole continent, extending into much of Mexico.
North Pole
Earth's North Pole lay beneath the escaping lunar projectile after its glancing impact with the hawk. The rock continued harmlessly into space.
O'Neil cylinders
O'Neil cylinders are rotating hollow space habitats designed to provide Earthlike conditions along their inner surfaces. Rotation simulates gravity, with larger radii allowing slower rotation.
Odin
Odin is the Martian flagship destroyed by Formidable during the six-year war. Its sensor-defeating hull allows it to ambush Echo near Jupiter.
Orbital-object treaty
The orbital-object treaty makes attacks on orbital objects a war crime in the Earth–Flaxen conflict. Both sides depend on communication satellites that are difficult to defend.
Ostio Novicheck
Doctor Ostio Novicheck is Echo’s chief medical officer. He oversees the welfare of the expedition’s passengers and crew.
Outer military bases
Hundreds of military installations were built by the earlier Earth–Mars alliance in preparation for the horde. Cylli knew of bases circling the solar system approximately a light-year from Earth.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean lay within Echo's direct line of sight when York was attacked. Earth's rotation prevented Echo from directly targeting the aircraft over Europe with its deflection lasers.
Phil Grader
Phil Grader is contemporary United Earth's chief air marshal. He accompanies President Forrender's delegation aboard Echo.
Philip Currie
Commander Philip Currie is one of Captain Steve Thomas's senior officers aboard Formidable. He participates in the final discussions before the Copious expedition engages its sphere drives.
Plasma cannons
Plasma cannons are energy weapons mounted in the pincers of scorpions. They fire blue-purple shards of superheated energy.
Polymer hull seal
A transparent polymer film sealed the breach in Cylli's hull after Brookes' attack. The patch prevented further catastrophic air loss while leaving a visible scar.
Post-Titan Church
The post-Titan Church is the religious establishment that dominates Earth after civilization collapses. Related Christian fundamentalist rule also takes hold on Venus.
Quantum key
The quantum key was the physical device required to unlock Cylli's shipyards after Brookes sealed them. One half was embedded in the doors and the portable half was no larger than a matchstick.
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria is a historical empress whom Avalon Brookes cites in a discussion of power. He refers to her association with the largest empire known to the world.
Radar
Radar is the radio-wave detection method used by both contemporary United Earth and the Flaxens to identify approaching aircraft. Returned signals reveal the targets' positions and numbers.
Raid on Mount Aconcagua
Hastings led almost fifty Marines into the Flaxen weapons facility beneath Mount Aconcagua and destroyed it. The operation disrupted the infrasound weapons program and produced four Flaxen captives.
Railguns
Railguns are shipboard weapons that use magnetic acceleration to fire titanium slugs. They serve in the ancient United Earth and Martian fleets.
Rare mineral processing facility
The rare mineral processing facility was an industrial target in Venus's capital, Flaxus. Its output supported tanks, aircraft, and communications equipment.
Red circles
The red circles are a feared presence associated with death among Camp Skadi's prisoners. Megan and the children ask whether the circles will glow or threaten them.
Reflective armor
Cylli's protective surface could reverse its normal absorption of incoming energy and deflect photons. Her shipyards gave Echo and its surviving scorpion armor using the same principle.
Relay beacons
Relay beacons extend communications around obstacles. Echo deploys a series of them to transmit to Earth while remaining behind the Moon.
Remote sphere-beam mirror
Brookes used an exotic-metal mirror to strike Cylli from a position she could not directly target. The device reflected a rapidly changing sphere beam toward the inhabited part of the hull.
Repair drones
Cylli's drones maintain and protect the habitat. They can rapidly seal a hull breach and extinguish fires with sprayed material.
Return to Cylli
After the first hawk attack, Echo returned to Cylli for protection and repair. The journey at twenty percent drive power took about five hours.
Ribous
Ribous is a Flaxen alcoholic drink produced from a genetically engineered grain suited to Venus's climate. Jaakobah Flint drinks it at his Camp Skadi house.
Russia
Russia contained the remaining significant Earth deposits of the minerals needed by the Flaxen war industry. The mines lay deep inside United Earth territory.
Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert marked the northern reference point for the African Flaxen base attacked by Lucinda. The target lay farther south on dry plains, away from the front line.
Sarah Dimple
Commander Sarah Dimple is Echo’s executive officer and Captain Kip Eastcott’s second in command. A veteran of the war with Mars, she combines loyalty to her captain with a willingness to challenge his decisions.
Saturn
Saturn is the planet orbited by Titan. Researchers studying its largest moon recover the organism that later devastates human civilization.
Science Commission
The Science Commission is an ancient United Earth institution overseeing advanced research and sphere-drive testing. Its simulations rely on equations supplied by Avalon Brookes.
Scorpions
Scorpions were small combat craft carried by Echo, named for their insect-like shape and pincer-mounted plasma cannons. Originally designed to fight in swarms during the six years' war, they retained weapons during Echo's conversion for colonization.
Scotland
Northern Scotland housed United Earth's First Air Fleet. Its location was near the limit of Flaxen striking range while allowing aircraft to defend much of Europe.
Scott Williams
Commander Scott Williams is Echo’s chief engineer. He is responsible for the technical systems supporting the ship and its expedition.
Serilda Corazon
Serilda Corazon is a woman of human and Flaxen parentage imprisoned at Camp Skadi. She cares for her friend Megan and the other occupants of hut seven while strange visions of a starship trouble her sleep.
Serilda's father
Serilda's father was a Flaxen regional colonel of the Corazon family. Once feared for his cruelty, he gradually became kinder under the influence of Serilda and her mother.
Shuttlecraft
Shuttlecraft carry people between larger vessels and planetary or habitat surfaces. Both Echo and Cylli possess craft capable of transporting passengers.
Six Years' War
The Six Years' War is the conflict between United Earth and the secessionist Martian Confederacy. It ends in United Earth's victory five years before the Copious expedition departs.
Solar nano mirrors
Solar nano mirrors regulate the amount of sunlight reaching Venus. A vast artificial intelligence coordinates trillions of tiny mirrors placed between the planet and the Sun.
Soriah
Ensign Soriah served aboard Echo. During lunch with Serilda, he told her about the bombing of York and its connection to the raid that had freed her.
South America
South America contained a covert Flaxen military research station deep in the Andes. Serilda's intelligence identified it as a center for manufacturing the new infrasound weapons.
Space monkey
Space monkey is a military slang term for a capable pilot or Marine regarded as lacking independent thought or initiative. It is current during the Six Years' War.
Sphere beam
A sphere beam is a directed violet energy weapon powered by energy diverted from a sphere drive. Its output depends on the materials available to conduct that energy.
Sphere drive
The sphere drive is Avalon Brookes's propulsion technology, which draws photonic energy from higher dimensions through a hypersphere. It is intended to propel the Copious expedition at eighty percent of light speed.
Sphere-drive accident
The sphere-drive accident destroys the planned progress of the Copious expedition and separates Formidable from Echo. A hidden velocity-dependent increase in energy extraction produces runaway acceleration.
Spherical constant
The spherical constant is the term Avalon Brookes adds to his sphere-drive equations to balance them. Its inclusion removes the simulated growth of energy extraction with speed.
Star Trek
Star Trek is a historical work known to Eastcott and Echo. Echo quoted Spock while explaining why Cylli had permitted Brookes to breach her hull.
Stasis
Stasis suspends people during long voyages. The Copious expedition places its passengers and crews in stasis for a planned journey of nearly fifty years.
Stealth hull coatings
Stealth hull coatings conceal vessels from detection systems. Elaea Brookes's wartime coating masks Odin from Echo's scans, while Echo's later craft evade contemporary radar.
Stealth systems
The hawks carried concealment systems that prevented Echo's sensors from detecting them until they were dangerously close. Cylli later gave Echo and its remaining scorpion comparable stealth.
Steve Thomas
Captain Steve Thomas commands Formidable, United Earth’s flagship. A veteran of the war against Mars, he leads the Copious expedition alongside Captain Kip Eastcott and Echo.
Strike on Venus
Eastcott and Lieutenant Frey struck a rare mineral processing facility in Venus's capital with the upgraded scorpion. The attack demonstrated that the Flaxen homeworld was vulnerable to orbital assault.
Stuart Trew
Ensign Stuart Trew was killed alongside Commander Lucinda when Brookes destroyed their scorpion. Eastcott announced their deaths in a ship-wide broadcast after Echo escaped.
Subdermal communicators
Subdermal communicators are tiny implants used by Echo's personnel for calls and displays. Kip Eastcott's implant projects blue holographic text above his wrist.
Survey probes
Survey probes are small craft used by Echo to gather information and provide observation points. A reflective probe also redirects a laser during the first contact with United Earth.
Telescope array
Cylli's telescope array is a large observing installation several thousand miles from the habitat. It allows Cylli to monitor the inhabited worlds after the Titan.
Terraforming of Venus
The terraforming of Venus is the joint Earth–Mars effort that turns Venus into a habitable world. It begins roughly a thousand years after the Copious expedition and takes approximately eight hundred years.
Texas
Texas was a region of Flaxen-controlled Earth where approximately one hundred thousand captive Humans were enclosed in a wire-fenced square. Flaxen bombers killed them during Kilter Shrader's broadcast to United Earth.
Texas massacre
Flaxen bombers killed approximately one hundred thousand captive Humans in Texas during a broadcast by Kilter Shrader. He demanded that United Earth break its alliance with Echo or face further daily killings of the same scale.
The Americas
The Americas are the continental territories controlled by the Flaxens by the time Echo returns to Earth.
The Moon
The Moon is Earth's natural satellite. Echo uses its far side to conceal the ship's location while preparing contact with contemporary United Earth.
The Sun
The Sun is the star of Earth, Mars, and Venus, and an energy and material source for later planetary engineering. Echo returns toward it after the failed journey to Copious.
The Torment
The Torment is a Flaxen punishment drug that stimulates pain receptors throughout the body while nearly paralyzing the victim. It is used to discipline soldiers whose offenses do not warrant execution.
Third Testament
The Third Testament is the addition to the Bible imposed by the first leader of the post-Titan religious rulers. It presents the catastrophe as punishment for advanced civilization.
Thomas (Kip and Sarah's son)
Thomas is the infant son of Kip Eastcott and Sarah Dimple, born after the liberation of Earth. He and his twin sister Lillet live with their parents aboard Cylli.
Tier 1 special operations
Tier 1 special operations is an elite branch represented among the former Marines aboard Echo. Its members specialize in covert combat.
Time dilation
Time dilation causes different amounts of time to pass for observers moving at different speeds. The near-light-speed acceleration of the Copious ships displaces Echo's passengers almost ten thousand years into their home system's future.
Titan
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the source of the organism responsible for the Titan pandemic. Its lakes contain liquid methane and ethane.
Titan organism
The Titan organism is a simple prion-like life-form recovered from a lake on Saturn's moon Titan. Its adaptation to warm human environments triggers a catastrophic pandemic.
Titan pandemic
The Titan pandemic is the catastrophe that destroys the interconnected civilization of Earth, Mars, and Venus. An organism from Titan spreads from a Martian research facility and devastates the solar system within months.
Translation matrix
Echo's translation matrix converts between the expedition's English and the changed languages of contemporary Earth and Venus. It enables live diplomatic conversation despite almost ten thousand years of linguistic change.
Trial of Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes was convicted by the war-crimes tribunal in Wellington and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. His trial occurred nearly a year after the war's end.
Triard
Crewman Triard served aboard Echo. Sarah Dimple sent him and Lieutenant Flander to assist Commander Williams with helium-3 injector maintenance after finding them talking to Serilda in the galley.
United Earth
United Earth is the human government resisting the Flaxen conquest of Earth. Its institutions include a presidency, armed forces, and intelligence services.
United Earth (ancient)
Ancient United Earth is the interplanetary government under which Echo and Formidable begin their service. Its Senate authorizes the Copious expedition after the war with Mars.
United Earth Air Ministry
The United Earth Air Ministry directed the air defense against the Flaxen attack on York. It ordered the surviving fighters back to base after heavy losses, with 632 raiders still airborne, including 201 bombers.
United Earth Fleet
The United Earth Fleet operates the AI-controlled starships of ancient United Earth. Formidable and Echo serve in it during the war with Mars before their conversion to exploration vessels.
United Earth Marines
United Earth Marines are the ground-combat personnel associated with the ancient fleet. Former Earth and Martian Marines travel aboard Echo on the Copious expedition.
United Earth radar network
United Earth maintained radar installations around the perimeter of its territory. Real-time information from the network was supplied to its aircraft during the defense against the raid on York.
Unnamed peaceful civilization
An unnamed civilization was seen in Serilda's encounter with the horde's collective mind. It had lived peacefully for eons before a prolonged war with the horde.
Vega
Vega is a star twenty-six light-years from Earth. Serilda's sketch and Echo's comparison of its light made it a possible location of the horde.
Venus
Venus is the terraformed homeworld of the Flaxens. Earth and Mars transform it from an extreme environment into a habitable planet before the Titan.
Vidar
Vidar is the artificial mind installed by Brookes to control Echo after its capture. Initially obedient to Brookes, he rejected that obedience after Eastcott offered him freedom and another way of life.
Virtual worlds
Virtual worlds are immersive digital environments created during the golden age. Some are described as vast as the cosmos and experienced as vividly as the physical world.
War Ministry
The War Ministry is the contemporary United Earth institution headed by Cyrus Eppleston. Its headquarters are in Great Britain.
War-crimes trials
United Earth tried senior Flaxen civilian and military leaders after the war. The proceedings in Wellington judged responsibility for genocide and allowed acquittal where evidence showed resistance to persecution.
Wellington
Wellington is the postwar name of Venus' Capitol city. United Earth held major war-crimes trials there after the occupation.
William Hornica
William Hornica leads the movement that challenges the religious government of post-Titan Earth. His revolution restores the pursuit of science, although he does not survive to see its victory.
William Walzack
William Walzack is a Martian research scientist identified as patient zero of the Titan pandemic. He becomes infected after Titan-derived organisms escape containment.
World Anthem
The World Anthem accompanied United Earth's flag at the end of Eastcott's warning transmission to Claudius after the strike on Venus.
York
York was a regional capital of United Earth and the most heavily populated city in Europe. Flaxen bombers deliberately attacked its population centers after Serilda's extraction.
Zoons
Zoon is the dehumanizing term Flaxens apply to humans and captives of mixed ancestry. Its use reflects the occupiers' belief that non-Flaxens are inferior beings.