Echoes
Printed pages 15–23. Records documented in this chapter; later article sections may include subsequent events.
Showing introductory records. Switch to Full archive above to include later names and revelations.
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.
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.
Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes is the inventor of the sphere drive. His propulsion technology makes the Copious expedition possible.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Food dispensers
Food dispensers provide prepared food and drinks aboard Echo. They are brought online as the ship's officers recover from stasis.
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.
Helen Chute
Lieutenant Commander Helen Chute is Echo’s counselor. She supports the crew through the personal consequences of their displacement.
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.
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.
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.
Medical automation
Medical automation aboard the ancient starships supports diagnosis, recovery from stasis, and treatment. Scanners produce detailed images and activity readings quickly.
Ostio Novicheck
Doctor Ostio Novicheck is Echo’s chief medical officer. He oversees the welfare of the expedition’s passengers and crew.
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.
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.
Scott Williams
Commander Scott Williams is Echo’s chief engineer. He is responsible for the technical systems supporting the ship and its expedition.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.