Order in Council, 64th Meeting of the Stellar Council, 4941. We deem it regrettable that the once-proud name of the Valonar Interactate, once associated with the highest ideals of liberty and technological progress and a beacon for civilization in the Expansion Regions, has now become a byword for the fall
I’m Melting: This is what happens to people who are being devoured by certain types of nanoweapons (the generic name is nanoburn) whose mode of functioning is to rip you apart, molecular fragment by molecular fragment, until what’s left is a pile of organic sludge. This is, of
I’m a Humanitarian: There is, of course, absolutely nothing special about the tissues of sophont species – yours or others’ – that stops them from being grown as fauxflesh in a carniculture vat in the exact same way that any other tissues can. It’s certainly, ah, outré (I believe is
I Know Your True Name: In the Empire, the UCID (Universal Citizen Identifier), or for non-citizen-shareholders, its lesser cousin the SI (Sophont Identifier) is a unique and unambiguous technological True Name. You can’t do much with it, though, unless you also happen to have the proper ackles, which they
“I Know You’re In There Somewhere” Fight: Averted. If you think one of these is going on, you’re being Wrong Genre Savvy, and quite possibly, you’re being suckered by someone who thinks that they know that you’re Wrong Genre Savvy. Neither downloading-and-replacement, nor editing into compliance
IKEA Weaponry: There are a number of these, mostly analogous to their real-world equivalents. The exception is Eye-in-the-Flame Arms’s Puzzle Pistol, which is a 3D puzzle made from geometric chunks of blue-black diamondoid that can be disassembled from its polyhedral resting form and reassembled into an oddly-shaped cartridge (i.
Tempting as it is, I should probably not declare the official English translation of the Eldraeic “elén tramoc arkúël” (“servitor-robot blobs”) to be “shoggothim”…
I Don’t Like The Sound Of That Place: The Last Darkness constellation (centered around the black hole, Eye of Night) would be one of these – even though it’s actually quite a nice place to visit – as would the three stargates leading into the Leviathan Consciousness Containment Zone, Hell’
I Did What I Had To Do: This is the defining trope of the Fifth Directorate, whose entire existence as a too-black-to-even-have-a-budget quasi-independent, not asked about and definitely never telling, doing things which not only should decent people not know about but which it is important that they don’t
Having used the word, guess I should define it, huh? sédármódan (pej.): 1. Democrat. 2. Voter. 3. Mutual slaver (lit. “owned owner-of-sophonts”); compare dármódan (“slaver”). It should be noted that the definition of this term reflects Imperial local attitudes and political taxonomies, in which any governance apparatus not meeting their
No Place For Me There: Again, the Fifth Directorate. They may be necessary monsters1, but they know that they’re monsters. Retirement from the Fifth involves an extensive memory wipe and having the traits that made you useful to them and dangerous to everyone else wiped away, a degree of
“Lunar Transshipment One, Station Ops, this is CMS Greed and Mass-Energy in slot ailek corse three five on flight plan code niner-three-zero-eleven-one. Request taxi instructions for orbital maneuvering transfer zone, over.” “Greed and Mass-Energy, Station Ops. You are cleared to proceed from outer docking to transfer zone via outbound lane