Rocks
Printed pages 227–234. Records documented in this chapter; later article sections may include subsequent events.
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Artificial gravity
Artificial gravity can reproduce Earthlike weight and counteract inertia. The same general technology supported domed Martian settlements and kept spacecraft crews secure.
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the route by which Flaxen forces move from the conquered Americas into Africa.
Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes is the inventor of the sphere drive. His propulsion technology makes the Copious expedition possible.
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.
Death chambers
Flaxen death chambers were heat-based execution facilities used against captive Humans. Their operation depended on capacitors that required time to recharge.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Railguns
Railguns are shipboard weapons that use magnetic acceleration to fire titanium slugs. They serve in the ancient United Earth and Martian fleets.
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.
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.
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.
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.