Reflection
Printed pages 235–242. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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'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.
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.
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.
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.
Ganymede
Ganymede is Jupiter's largest moon. Brookes used it as a staging point for his indirect attack on Cylli.
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.
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.
Jupiter
Jupiter is a giant planet in the Solar System. The immense cylindrical habitat Cylli lies nearby.
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 domes
Martian settlements were housed within enormous transparent domes. Their environments included artificial gravity, forests, lakes, homes, and wildlife.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.