(âBout time I got back to these, I think.) Genius Loci: Quite a lot of them, from the simple usually-non-sophont AIs that run peopleâs houses and apartments (the âhouse brainsâ) to the increasingly sophisticated âcity managersâ and other AIs that run cities, provinces, transport networks, ports, and so forth,
For sale, any offers: 24 crates, half-container, assorted xenowidgets, function and identity unknown. Take âem, theyâre yours. No manifest, no guarantees, no liability. Contact free trader Mostly Spaceworthy Parts, dock 21-1645, Vervian Orbital. Wanted: passage off this bloody planet, out-system, out-constellation. Can work passage. S-license only. Drop 4147. Fuel
For those following along with these stories at home (or on holiday, or during your commute, or at work â why not?), I just found some time to clean up one of my rough sketch-maps of what the universe looks like, so thought Iâd share it with you. Â This is
âContext is important.â âTake, for example, this syringe. From an objective perspective, it contains a small quantity of greyish fluid, a suspension of nanoviruses and proto-cytomachines in impure saline. Not the most commonplace of objects, but hardly a rarity, either.â âA pharmacist, however, would recognize it as an alpha-baseline corpus-editor,
âThose visitors unfamiliar with local custom in such matters should avoid those bars and other drinking houses displaying above the entrance a knotted wooden club, or a spacemanâs marlinspike. Â Such establishments thereby indicate that they are âbrawlerâs barsâ, and as such, establishments which tolerate a nice friendly brawl
âBe advised that, following the recent series of incidents involving Imperial tourists, the Hierarchy of Transportation has added the following vehicles to the list of those requiring licensure for use on public roadways: flitters, hovercraft, psychokinetic amplifiers, skyhooks, grav-boards, floater disks, spiderpalanquins, rollagons, subterrenes, miniblimps, unispheres, brachiators, all forms of
Causal weapons are a myth, an arms-dealerâs con trick. Their official mention in the Ley Accords was no more than a paranoidâs precaution, deliberate disinformation, or a warning to those who might become too attached to oracles and knightâs-move stratagems. The universe was block, that was known;
âKnow, O traveler, that you pass through dedicated lands; these places are sacred to the Blue and the Purple, and to them alone.â âDrink deep, eat well our fruits, hunt for your meat; but light no fires, claim no holds, and harm nothing that grows. Those who pass freely may
LhaegĂĄr Rhuanhz, Vice President of Operations for Bright Shadow in the Hanth Cluster, looked around her office, eyes passing lightly across a dozen network status displays, a reassuring blue overall with normal local traffic and the brighter datatrails of the Selvaciy and Synnecy backbones, before returning to rest on the
âŠis todayâs not-my-fiction story recommendation! (Iâve also been having a little fun today with their Pulp-O-Mizer cover generator. Check it out: )
Emotions vs. Stoicism: Mastering talcorĂĂ«f (literally cold-mindedness; metaphorically, cool reason and mastery of passions) is very, very important to the eldrae. Thereâs a reason why their deep history were days of Glory and War and Wonder and Strife and Terror, and they donât want to revisit those any
The half-grown hasĂ©rĂșr dashed through the threadbare forest, and Hanych followed, stumbling in the dim light of the storm-wracked sky. His breath was loud in his ears, the pain in his side nearly quieting the acid burn in his belly. Snow and old ash scattered at their passage, he and