Before the Phoenix
Launch Control Spaceflight Initiative Lormyrian MET+0:00:02 Mission Coordinator Laras Stelliré looked up from his monitors and their unhelpful loss-of-signal markers, and barked, “Status! Status reports, by stations. Do we have the ship?” Nellis Steamweaver, at communications, pushing his headset firmly into his ears, was the first to
trope-a-day
Omnidisciplinary Scientist / Renaissance Man: Yep, they have a lot of these. (Well, maybe not quite omni.) But consider, first, the incredibly broad-based education we discussed back in Education; then consider the effects of the mindpatchable-knowledge tools also discussed there; and bear in mind the effects of extremely long lifespans, regular
automation
(I was going to post the next chunk of Before the Phoenix today, but it’s not quite ready yet. So, here’s a quick wee thing instead…) In the Conclave of Galactic Polities, Ambassador llin-Terl-an of the Palnu Sodality put forward a measure – supported by others of the Socionovist
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Ominous Floating Spaceship: It’s certainly possible (see, for example, all the examples of how it’s done under Floating Continent). It’s almost never done, however, because (a) putting all the equipment to make it hover, and the power budget to power said equipment into a combat spacecraft makes
education
So, Gregory Johnson was asking about education: On a tangentially related note (to firmish SF), how does education work exactly, in your universe? It has been implied in several places that skills get basically downloaded (or can be), while it still takes to age 18 or so to be educated
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Old-School Dogfighting: No. Just no, except for specialized orbit-to-atmosphere interceptor craft that would more properly be described as “fighter-interceptor aircraft with limited suborbital capability”. Ain’t no air in space. Ain’t no space fighters, either – hanging the mass of a meatbody and its life support, including acceleration limits, off
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Oh My Gods: Occasionally played straight – although usually invoking one eikone or their attributes by name, rather than a generic exclamation.  (It helps to be specific.)  Not, however, seen in curse-word type invocations – that tends to be invocation of entropy or its aspects, the canonical example being “Shit and waste
Before the Phoenix
Ienith Steamweaver tried and failed to restrain a grin as the techs tightened the straps holding him down, hooked up his oxygen mask, and slammed the hatch of the Skyreach capsule shut above him. It was happening. It was happening today. He was going to orbit. …on top of a
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Of The People: Possibly averted. While the species name eldrae (which means nothing, except etymologically) is derived from the proto-Old-Empires el daratha, “the People”, that was not a tribe term, but rather a species term, in opposition to everything else, literally meaning “the thinking ones”. Compare, for example, modern el
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Obstructive Code of Conduct: The Imperials would certainly argue that the Fundamental Contract, with its insistence on protecting people’s life, liberty, property, and contracts would be one of these. (Of course, some non-Imperials would point out that, given the very large number of societies in the Galaxy that aren’
blogging from a to z
While they are used on many colonies, due to the extremely small investment in infrastructure required, Sialhaith (Lumenna III) is the world on which the modern airship has reached its apotheosis. In Sialhaith’s hot, thick atmosphere – the planetary ecopoesis program was bought out and effectively terminated in its 150th
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Obstructive Bureaucrat: Somewhat averted to begin with; a lot of what makes bureaucrats characteristically bureaucrats is that they’re supposed to operate in a manner practically void of discretion, as good little cogs executing according to the procedure manual and not much more. The Empire never had the population demographics