For Gold, Bright Gold, Is Master of Sophs All…

In answer to your questions, gentlesophs, and in view of both the composition and the promise of confidentiality promised by this committee, the Directorate have authorized me to make the following statement:

It is true that loans authorized by our polity banking department underwrote much of the recent Naxklak-Tlafotl Conflict. It is further true that in keeping with our standard policy on sovereign liabilities, we have no intention of forgiving those debts despite our willingness to offer deferral of payments, and will enforce any defaults with our customary vigor.

What is also true, but not commonly known, is that the current state of affairs was entirely intentional. This latest chapter in the Naxklak-Tlafotl Conflict, with particular note to both parties commerce raiding and free exercise of the right of angary, has seriously impaired traffic along a major spur of the Golden Band – which is to say, the Circumferential – and perturbed markets across the entire constellation. If you will consult the figures we have made available, we estimate that over the six-year course of the Conflict, we have seen a 20.4% drop in Gross Regional Product, even allowing for the war economy offset, and a 38.2% diminution in regional trade volume.

As such it is the policy of Gilea & Company to take these belligerents firmly by the budget and – shall we say – discourage future ventures into military adventurism. The wealth, good sophs, must flow…

– Innis Cheraelar,
Vice-President of Polity Banking, Gilea & Company, ICC
testifying before the Conclave Commission on Trade and Industry

Less Than Nothing

nilgularity: One less, meaning more, than a singularity.

If a singularity is a point at which a physical function takes on an infinite value and reality nearby thus becomes unreliable, a nilgularity is a point at which that physical function becomes transfinite and reality rejects it entirely.

A hole in the universe which doesn’t exist, because it fell through the hole.

A mathematical construct in certain theories of physical ontology (see primarily Undiscovered Zeroes in Self-Computational Creatia, Sjarra, Telithos, and Citrine Aria in C#, Proceedings of the Incomprehensible College, Vol. 246) that is too bloody weird to adequately sum up in words.

– A Dictionary of the New Physics, Imperial University Press

The Law of the Market

So, disclaimer up front: this isn’t actually mine, for a large part. It was inspired by a couple of verses posted on Twitter by Eliezer Yudkowsky back in March, it stuck in my head, and I kept thinking that I should do something with it.

So what I ended up doing with it, given that it obviously fits the ‘verse very strongly, is take the best parts of the resulting thread, polish ’em together, and behold!

Obviously originally based on Kipling’s Law of the Jungle. Verse contents pre my hackery taken from posts by Eliezer Yudkowsky (@ESYudkowsky), Andrew Flicker (@aflicker), You Suffer, But Why? (@plasmatron7), ConceptPointer (@ConceptPointer) and Adrià Garriga (@AdriGarriga). No claim of ownership is made or implied.

Now this is the Law of the Market
As bright and as stark as the Sun
And the party that keeps it may prosper
But the party that breaks it is done

As the caravan circles the trade road,
The Law runneth round and again;
For the good of the realm is its trade,
And the good of each trade is the realm.

Learn daily the wants of the market,
Deal sharply, but never defraud.
And remember that wealth is for working
And never should lie in your hoard.

The trader may follow the business,
But, Apt, when thy plans are well-thought,
Remember that all should earn value –
Go forth and deliver what’s sought!

When buyer meets seller at market,
And neither spreads harm, smog, or schemes
List well while the offers are spoken
It may be as good as it seems.

Ev’ry trade must be good for all parties
So that each’d rather do it than not
You may threaten to trade with another
But not say, “Price it so or be shot!”

Each sale must be paired with a purchase,
thus the balance: Demand and Supply.
If demand falls, prices will follow,
if supply drops, prices will fly.

Now oft you may find yourself tempted
To conceal trades from watcher or foe
But never forget — I say, never! —
That Trust underwrites the whole show!

When ye deal with another against you,
You must keep to the Peace and the Law,
Lest others be harmed by your passions,
And our wealth be diminished by War.

Trades numb’ring as stars in the heavens
Form an intricate web of effect
While the factors perusing their ledgers,
Hope to scry out their profit and debt.

In the depths of the networks of trading
Sleeps a god that is hidden and blind
His the credit when credit is given
And all that do business – his mind!

Amphisbaena

Amphisbaena-class battleship

“Half ahe… that way.”

– Capt. Olavi Corel, first captain of Amphisbaena

Displacement: 125,000 long tons

Length: 330 m (at waterline: 316 m)
Beam: 84 m (at waterline: 48 m)
Draft: 12.1 m

Propulsion:

4 x Empire Nucleonics, ICC 64 MW “Fat Salamander” fission reactors
8 x Blackstone Industries, ICC steam turbines and reduction plant
In-house magnetohydrodynamic “inchworm” drive system

Speed: 42 knots (non-sustainable emergency power: 48 knots)
Range: Unlimited; 12 year refueling interval

Complement:

1,672 officers and men
Thinking Machines, ICC “Admiral Aliniv” Command Optimization Thinker

Sensors:

Artifice Armaments, ICC, ASR-24/3 air search radar
Artifice Armaments, ICC, SSR-36 surface search radar
Artifice Shadow Works X-449 imaging lidar
Hydrodyne Technologies, ICC, “Long Ear” sonar suite
Tactical interweave uplink

Armament (Primary):

6 x Artifice Armaments, ICC 22″ “Big Howlin’ Bitch” railgun
6 x triple Artifice Armaments, ICC, 16″ “Little Sister” railgun

Armament (Secondary):

24 x Artifice Armaments, ICC 9″ “Poniard” conventional gun
36 x Firefly Aerospace, ICC “Waterline” anti-ship seeking missile
36 x Firefly Aerospace, ICC “Gentle Touch” target-finding missile
8 x Eye-in-the-Flame Arms, ICC “Pesticide” automated threat protection system

Armor:

Citadel: 24″ layered C-allotrope/alloy composite; equiv. 53″ steel
Main turrets: 18″ layered C-allotrope/alloy composite; equiv. 39″ steel
Elsewhere: 12″ layered C-allotrope/alloy composite; equiv. 26″ steel

Aircraft carried:

16 x Stonesmight Automata, ICC “Tattletale” scout drones
16 x Stonesmight Automata, ICC “Fleshharrower” attack drones

The four Amphisbaena-class battleships were the last fast battleships laid down by the Imperial Navy (note: the “wet” navy of the era, not its space successor), and participated in a number of military actions including the last battles of the Consolidation to take place on Eliéra proper. They are widely considered to represent the pinnacle of the naval architect’s art, and the furthest development of the “wet” battleship as a class.

The design of the Amphisbaena-class, in keeping with the mandate the IN inherited from the Alatian Navy’s Weapons Development Board, was to produce a vessel that would utterly outclass any opponent against which it was set. Thus, the class carries six 22″ railguns – of a model designed to be scaled down for naval use, rather than used as is – in addition to its six triple 16″ railgun turrets and conventional armaments. This same approach led to the inclusion of the eight “Pesticide” automated threat protection systems, capable, once activated, of automatically reducing anything not tagged as friendly approaching within a mile of Amphisbaena, above or below the water, into chaff and charnel.

The final development of this approach was Amphisbaena‘s magnetohydrodynamic “inchworm” drive. While the primary characteristic of this type of drive is its quietness, and thus lower sonar profile, in the case of Amphisbaena, it was selected because its lack of the issues associated with high-performance propellers, coupled with an otherwise oversized power plant, enables Amphisbaena to reach the otherwise unprecedented – for a ship of its displacement – cruising speed of 42 knots.

It also has the advantage of functioning equally well in either direction, and this – combined with the ability to divert water to side outlets at both bow and stern – gave Amphisbaena unparalleled abilities not only to change heading 180° without turning at all, but also to decelerate, to turn in its own length, and to keep station – making it an incredibly stable gun platform.

It is also to this drive that Amphisbaena owes its entirely symmetrical hull profile and superstructure, since the designers felt no need to inflict the notion of a preferred direction on a ship which otherwise would have lacked one. Despite the quotation above, officers and men serving on Amphisbaena-class ships rarely had difficulty telling the bow of the moment from the stern when the ship was under way, but it is nonetheless true that a red-blue color gradient was added to the bridge paintwork after Amphisbaena‘s sea trials to make end from end clear when moored or hove to.

Eq*y

“A computational system has reached the threshold of making ethical judgements when it no longer parses the equity operator as the semantic equivalent of the equality operator.”

– Introduction to Polymorphic Software (3rd ed.),
Sarval Estantel

Sniffers

Yes, putting guardian dogs on police department logos is a cliché.

But what’s important in this case is the kind of dog. Look at it. Big, broad-chested mastiff. Pure black fur. Black eyes. Disappears into shadows despite being near big enough to ride. That’s a Selenarian nighthound, the kind they used to guard the moon-temples back before history. Best known for three things: they’re silent when they hunt, never letting you know they’re there until they’re on you; once they have their teeth in your throat, they never let you go; and they never stop coming.

So when you see this kindly gent on the arms of the Office of Investigation and Pursuit, Division of Chattelry, you should not need the motto beneath to tell you the nature of the jurisdiction you are within.

It does, however, tell you why. “He who guards a thing, guarants a thing.” This is one of the few places in the galaxy where not only is the Constabulary mandated to protect you and yours, but also to make you good for any occasion on which they fail.

The costs aren’t the real reason, though. It’s the promise – like everyone else in these parts, they hate it when someone presumes to break their word for them, and so cost-effective or not, they’ll hunt you to the ends of the Worlds over a trifle just to keep it unbroken.

So before you commit to this and drag me along with you, convince me that the game is worth the candle?

– recorded via laser microphone 6145/03/02,
Ashe’s Place, Socket City, Opteros (Iesa Drifts),
Office of Investigation and Pursuit, case #6145/729