Trial by Combat
Printed pages 325–338. 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.
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.
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.
Avalon Brookes
Avalon Brookes is the inventor of the sphere drive. His propulsion technology makes the Copious expedition possible.
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.
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.
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.
Cyrus Eppleston
Cyrus Eppleston is United Earth’s Minister of War during the struggle against Flaxen conquest.
Death chambers
Flaxen death chambers were heat-based execution facilities used against captive Humans. Their operation depended on capacitors that required time to recharge.
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.
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.
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.
Helen Chute
Lieutenant Commander Helen Chute is Echo’s counselor. She supports the crew through the personal consequences of their displacement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mental communion
Some half-Flaxens can link, perceive, or influence minds. The experience may convey feelings, memories, images, and perspectives rather than spoken instructions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
United Earth
United Earth is the human government resisting the Flaxen conquest of Earth. Its institutions include a presidency, armed forces, and intelligence services.
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.
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.