Roger Allen - The Ring of Charon

Keeper, Keeper Ring.Charonian term for the Moonpoint Ring, and for the similar objects that orbit most of the Multisystem’s worlds.

Lander.Huge creatures, long hidden in dormant stages inside asteroids, which move through space under broadcasted gravity power radiated by the Lunar Wheel. Once at their destination in orbit or on the surface of a target world, they merge themselves into larger amalgam creatures of incredible power. See Worldeater and Gee-Point Object .

Lifecode.DNA, or any extraterrestrial equivalent of DNA; thus, any means of passing and storing an instruction set for a making a life-form.

Lunar Wheel.A massive Charonian structure, a huge toroid deep inside the Moon. It circles the Moon’s core and is aligned precisely with the border between the lunar Nearside and Farside. Known to Charonians as a Caller Ring .

Moonpoint.That point in space, relative to Earth, that occupies the space where the Moon once was. The Moonpoint Ring, a massive gravity generator, holds the space now, with the Moonpoint end of the Earth-Solar System wormhole at its center. See Earthpoint and Keeper .

Multisystem.The huge artificial stellar system in which the Earth was placed. At its center is the Dyson Sphere . It includes at least eight G-class stars, around each of which large numbers of life-bearing planets orbit.

Naked Purple Movement.One of a number of odd social and political movements. Also known as the Pointless Cause. Its belief structure is kept deliberately obscure and conflicted. The movement owns the NaPurHab habitat and Tycho Purple Penal on the Moon.

NaPurHab, Naked Purple Habitat.A large and rather shabby orbiting habitat owned and populated by the Naked Purple Movement. As the book opens, it is in a figure-eight orbit between Earth and the Moon. Population: 10,000.

Observer.Charonian term for a semidormant stage of the Caller Ring type. See Lunar Wheel .

Port Viking.Capital and principal city of Mars.

Rabbit Hole.The vertical shaft leading from the Lunar North Pole to the Lunar Wheel, many kilometers below the surface.

Ring of Charon.A huge human-made gravity research tool, orbiting Charon, Pluto’s Moon. In essence, an enormous particle accelerator.

Saint Anthony .The automated relay probe dropped through the Earthpoint-Moonpoint wormhole. Named for the patron saint of lost objects.

Scorpion, scorp.A fairly sophisticated Charonian type, capable of dealing (though not necessarily well) with unexpected situations. The term is applied not only to the scorpion-shaped Charonians, but to all creatures of its approximate ability.

Seedship.A robot starship that carries fertilized ova, or the equivalent, to a new planet around a new star. The seedship lands, grows the ova to adulthood, and thus colonizes a new star system without having to transport a complex life-support system.

Settlement Worlds.Essentially, all the real estate outside the Earth-Moon system. Likewise refers to the now-moribund political alliance of those worlds in opposition to Earth’s rather arrogant policies of the previous century.

Shepherd.The Charonian term for CORE .

Sphere.See Dyson Sphere .

Spin-storms.Artificial storms, created by gas-giant-breed Worldeaters, resembling hurricanes or tornadoes. They are used to pump atmosphere off the larger planets.

SubBubble.Subsurface bubble : a standard type of Lunar construction that consists of a large excavation under the Lunar surface. A subbubble is usually formed by melting an area of subsurface rock and then placing the interior under pressure. Much of Central City is composed of interconnected subbubbles.

Sunstar.The star in the Multisystem around which the Earth orbits.

Teleoperator, T.O.A remote-control device, generally resembling a humanoid robot but without a robot’s capacity for independent action. A T.O. is controlled by a human operator working in a control harness at a remote location. The control harness completely surrounds the operator and provides her or him with the sensory reactions—sight, hearing, and touch— experienced by the T.O. Servos in the controller operate the T.O. so that if, for example, the operator moves her finger, the T.O. moves its finger. As is the case with most Virtual Reality devices, the sensations reported by the T.O. to the operator can seem extremely real. Virtual Reality stigmata—such as cuts and bruises on the operator corresponding to damage on the T.O.—are not unknown. See Virtual Reality .

Terra Nova.A huge multigenerational starship mothballed in Earth orbit, a victim of the K-Crash.

UNLAC, United Nations Lunar Administration Commission. The old colonial power on the Moon, overthrown a century ago.

VBH, Virtual Black Hole. Currently a theoretical possibility only. In concept, a VBH is formed by an artificial massless gravity source so tightly focused that a microscopic black hole forms. If a VBH of a sufficient gravity gradient survives long enough in the presence of sufficient mass, it should be able to absorb that mass and thus become self-sustaining.

Virtual Reality.The general term applied to any technology that makes a nonlocal environment (real or imaginary) seem utterly real to an observer-participant. In most VR systems, at least vision and hearing are supported with sufficient quality to seem real. Often tactile sensations are supported as well. Typically, the participant will be able to manipulate the simulated environment in some way, through a remote control or sensor glove. See Teleoperator .

VISOR, Venus Initial Station for Operational Research. An orbital facility planned as the headquarters for the terraforming of Venus. The facility is expected to be mothballed shortly, thanks to the financial backlash of the K-Crash.

Von Neumann Cyborg Cluster.A partially living von Neumann system. Such a cluster might, for example, include a life-form genetically programmed to build seedships . The life-forms raised by the seedship would be bred to build more seedships and to deposit fertilized ova aboard the ships.

Von Neumann Machine.Any machine that can precisely duplicate itself. A Swiss army knife that included a Swiss-army-knife-making attachment would be a von Neumann machine.

Von Neumann Tour.A star travel technique in which a von Neumann ship travels to a new star system and duplicates itself a few hundred times, sending each of its replicates out to travel to new star systems.

Worldeater.The Charonian term for the massive life-form known to humans as Landers .

Wormhole.A link between two points in space, formed by creating two identically tuned black holes. The wormhole in effect renders the two points contiguous across a flat plane, no matter how distant they actually are from each other.

The Charonians are a spacefaring life-form, a multi-species comprising ten or twenty widely different species, devices, and robotic constructs. The biological components of the system may at one time have been “intelligent,” as the term is usually understood by humans, but no longer are. Charonians are capable of problem solving, task ordering, directed research, synthesis, but are very weak in what humans would regard as creative or independent thought. They can think of how to do things—how to work around problems, for example. They are not as good at thinking of what to do, or why. They work in large part by rote. In the old-fashioned phrase, they are hard-wired, relying on a communal heritage memory of the experiences of previous generations.