Wil McCarthy - To Crush the Moon

Collapsium—(n) A rhombohedral crystalline material composed of neuble-mass black holes. Because the black holes absorb and exclude a broad range of vacuum wavelengths, the interior of the lattice is a supervacuum permitting the supraluminal travel of energy, information, and particulate matter. Collapsium is most commonly employed in telecommunications collapsiters; the materials employed in ertial shielding are sometimes referred to as collapsium, although the term “hypercollapsite” is more correct.

Converge(also Reconverge) —(v) To combine two separate entities, or two copies of the same entity, using a fax machine. In practice, rarely applied except to humans.

Coriolis force—(n) An apparent force on the surface of a rotating body, which causes apparent deflection of trajectories from the “expected” course in the rotating coordinate frame of the body. In meteorology, the force responsible for large-scale cyclonic weather systems.

Day, Barnardean—(n) A measure of time, equal to the stellar (not sidereal) day of Sorrow, aka Planet Two. There are 23 pids, or 460 Barnardean hours, or 1,653,125 standard seconds in the Barnardean day.

Deathist—(n) Adherent to the belief that the death of individuals is healthy for the population as a whole. Rarely applied except to humans; animal deathists are generally referred to as naturalists.

Deceant—(n) Title accorded to Luner military officers in charge of ten individual soldiers.

Declarant—(n) The highest title accorded by the Queendom of Sol; descended from the Tongan award of Nopélé, or knighthood. Only twenty-nine declarancies were ever issued.

Decohere—(v) To collapse a quantum uncertainty into a classical or Newtonian certainty, as with the position or trajectory of a particle or the state of a quantum bit.

Deutrelium—(n) A mixture (generally frozen or slushy) of equal numbers of deuterium ( 2H) and trelium ( 3He) atoms, used preferentially in magnetic-confinement fusion reactors.

Di-clad—(adj) Sheathed in an outer layer of monocrystalline diamond or other allotropes of carbon.

Dinite—(n) Any detonating or deflagrating explosive consisting primarily of ethylene glycol dinitrate.

Dolceti—(n) One or more members of the Order of Dolcet, whose “blindsight” training relies on the mildly toxic dolcet berry, native to Lune.

Downsystem—(adj) One of the six cardinal directions: toward the sun in any orientation.

Elementals, The—(n) Queendom-era cartel responsible for some 70% of the traffic in purified elements throughout the Queendom of Sol, with even higher percentages for certain key metals and rare earths.

Epitaxial—(adj) Describes a crystal of one material grown on the crystal face of another material, such that both crystals have the same structural orientation.

Eridanian—(n, adj) Resident of the Epsilon Eridani colony, typically characterized by short stature, neoteny, and photochromic skin pigments. Alternatively, anything pertaining to the Eridani colony.

Ertial—(adj) Antonym of inertial, applied to inertially shielded devices. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.

Extrasolar—(adj) Existing outside of Sol system.

Fatalist—(n, adj) Adherent to the belief that all events are predetermined and inevitable. As a proper noun, refers to any member of a Queendom-era organization dedicated to the forcible restoration of death as a natural renewal process.

Fax—(n) Abbreviated form of “facsimile.” A device for reproducing physical objects from stored or transmitted data patterns. By the time of the Restoration, faxing of human beings had become possible, and with the advent of collapsiter-based telecommunications soon afterward, the reliable transmission of human patterns quickly became routine.

Faxborn—(adj) Created artificially in a fax machine, with no natural counterpart. In practice, applied only to human and human-derived beings, where it is often used in lieu of a family name.

Faxel—(n) Facsimile element. One element of a fax machine print plate which is capable of producing and placing a stored atom with 100-picometer precision.

Fibrediamond—(n) Composite material of whiskered crystalline carbon in a resin matrix. Unless sheathed in a superreflective coating, fibrediamond is notably flammable.

Flau—(n) Member of a species of living airship developed on Lune, based originally on the genome of the leviathan, the largest native marine creature of Pup.

Fuff—(v) A polite term for sexual intercourse, popular in the Queendom of Sol and its colonies.

Geostat—(adj) Fixed in reference to the Earth. In fashion, a clothing or paint pattern which appears to hold stationary while the subject moves through it.

Geriatry—(n) The condition of physical decrepitude which occurs in natural organisms over the course of their presumed lifespans. Geriatry is characterized by high rates of apoptosis triggered by lipofuscin buildup, and cellular senscence triggered by telomere shortening.

Ghost—(n) Any electromagnetic trace preserved in rock or metal. Colloquially, a visual image of past events, especially involving deceased persons. The term may also refer to interactive messages, especially from distant or deceased persons.

Gigaton—(n) One billion metric tons, or 10 12kilograms. Equal to the mass of a standard industrial neuble or collapson node (“black hole”).

Girona—(prop n) A minor city in the E1 Gironès comarque of Catalonia, Old Earth, situated at the confluence of the Ter, Güell, Galligants, and Onyar Rivers, some 80 kilometers from the nation’s former capital at Barcelona.

Grand kabinet—(prop n) Primary ruling body of the Luner nation of Viense.

Grappleship—(n) A vehicle propelled by means of electromagnetic grapples. Use of grappleships was considered impractical in the Queendom until the advent of ertial shielding, though high-powered inertial devices were capable of attaining enormous accelerations.

Graser—(n) A gravity projector whose emissions are coherent, i.e., monochromatic and phase-locked. Attributed to Bruno de Towaji.

Gravitic—(adj) Of or pertaining to gravity, either natural or artificial.

Hollie—(n) Abbreviated form of “hologram.” Any three-dimensional image. Colloquially, a projected, dynamic three-dimensional image, or device for producing same.

Hypercollapsite—(n) A quasicrystalline material composed of neuble-mass black holes. Usually organized as a vacuogel.

Hypercomputer—(n) Any computing device capable of altering its internal layout. Colloquially, a computing device made of wellstone.

Hypercondensed—(adj) Condensed to the point of gravitational collapse, i.e., until a black hole or “hypermass” is formed. Colloquially, condensed to any level the speaker finds impressive. Also “hypercompressed.”

Hypermass—(adj) A mass which has been hypercompressed; a black hole.

Imbria—(prop n) Temperate Luner nation of the northern hemisphere, on the former Nearside, with a population of approximately ten million.

Immorbid—(adj) Not subject to life-threatening disease or deterioration.