For those wondering about some of the technical background: The chief obstacles to using “normal” computers in space are heat generation (given the average spacecraft’s limited heat budget – disposing of heat in vacuum is hard), cooling (because in microgravity, convection doesn’t work – there go heat-sinks without a lot
“…things have changed since the old days, gentlesophs. If you were paying attention in history class, you’ll have learned all about the exotica they had to use to compute in the early days of spaceflight, but anything you’ll work with on a starship now will be familiar to
Crapsaccharine World: The Equality Concord. Sure, it’s a fully-functioning Communist utopia, full of happy people working away, enjoying socially approved recreational activities, and going home each night to their loving families – from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs, with seemingly no blots on the
“Minley Traveler, you are denied landing permission at Qechra Down, technical eval. Maintain standard orbit, eight of twelve. Do you desire re-routing to Qechra Orbital? Qechra Local, over.” “Ah, Qechra Local, clarify technical eval? Minley Traveler, over.” “Minley Traveler, we have low confidence in your structural fitness for re-entry. Qechra
Cosmopolitan Council: The Presidium, and indeed the Conclave of Galactic Polities as a whole. On a more local level, the Imperial Senate, and indeed its analogs in other polyspecific societies.
The following, as is the preceding one and will be the other seven entries in the series, are extracts from the Word of the Flame, the record of the seeress Merriéle’s visions that is also the primary text of the Church of the Flame, the mainstream eldraeic religion. More
Cosmic Chess Game: Some say that this is what the assorted stable seed AIs are playing with the entirety of known space and its civilizations. Others say that that’s just incurably paranoid. The former respond that that’s exactly what they’d expect the pawns of the incomprehensibly ultratech
We met for the first time on Qechra, the world of forges. One morning at sunrise, standing on the Bridge of Chalcedony crossing the endless outpouring of Qechra’s ocean into one of its cooling gorges – where the spray of the falling water meets the steam boiling up from the
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Extensively (albeit not completely) averted in the Empire, inasmuch as in its genuinely free market, without (a) an extensive regulatory state to buy and then use for yourself or against the competition, (b) legislators and other politicians who feel comfortable immunizing you from consequences, or (c) a
Cool Starship: Basically, see Cool Chair, only slightly less prevalent due to starships being more expensive. And, in fairness, most starships are functional things. But there are a lot of custom jobs floating around there. But of particular note, probably, are the Celerissima-class yachts, the smallest and least practical lighthuggers
happy board: A term used in starships to describe a system status board indicating all systems operating correctly. While status lights use the same blue-crimson or blue-amber-crimson encoding as other bistate or tristate indicators, studies have shown that most sophonts respond quickly and accurately to emotional inputs, and process these
The flat robot hummed unheard as it ran along the rails of the sub-highway service plenum, gliding smoothly to a stop at the location of the damaged slab. The plenum was clear; no need to move fragments out of the way before doing the replacement. Clunk. The pneumatic prop-ram extruded