Gambit
Printed pages 265–276. 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.
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.
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.
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.
Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes is the inventor of the sphere drive. His propulsion technology makes the Copious expedition possible.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Ostio Novicheck
Doctor Ostio Novicheck is Echo’s chief medical officer. He oversees the welfare of the expedition’s passengers and crew.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.