To my successor in office: I’m leaving you this unofficial note to welcome you to the unique position of being an ambassador to the Empire, to pass on a few hopefully useful pieces of advice, and frankly, to wish you more joy of the position than I had, even
Can You Hear Me Now?: Averted even when there is a major disaster, because Empire-standard communication devices are designed to use mesh networking, and fall back on peer-to-peer routing between themselves if they can’t reach a hub, either to get the packets through directly, or to bounce off each
Can Breathe In Space: Technically, you can do this by using a vector-control “envelope” to hold air in around you (although you will still need some means of replenishing it if you plan to do this for long, special provisions like oxygen-carrying hemocules aside). While useful to avoid ebullism and
Coming this summer from Hedonitechnology, ReLimerance, a new and unique service for couples. Have you let your relationship grow stale with the years? Do you know each other too well? Let our skilled sophic engineers refresh YOUR relationship. Our latest memory-redaction technology allows us to selectively block your detailed knowledge
Calvinball: An awful lot of games played in the Empire are like this from our perspective, by virtue of having been designed to satisfy the game-playing urges of people with, well, transhuman intelligence. For example: One of the simplest is the card game ómith. It’s like poker, except with
Call a Smeerp a “Rabbit”: Another unfortunate aspect of Translation Convention. As described under Taxonomic Term Confusion, Eldraeic has a means of classifying – and words for – species-groups classified by homology alone, so that people can talk about the winged flying creatures that exist on multiple planets easily – without having to
“Got a good one for you!” “Why is it, Annis, that when you say ‘good one’, I hear ‘utter wire-and-tape job’?” “Couldn’t say, boss. Anyway, today’s case here-and-now one-thirteen. An infugee from the Republic – one of their scientists who wanted to defect, looks like. He managed to piece
To all to whom this shall be presented, be it known that this warrant entitles the bearer: Rhadam Sinyéren Daemar Owner and master of the armed merchant cruiser IS Gloriously Acquisitive; To subdue and to seize goods and citizens, to destroy goods that cannot be taken, and to destroy military
The history of Thalíär remains a mystery. On this point, I must first acknowledge the salience of my colleagues’ reports. The various shafts, canyons, and large-scale gaps in the upper and middle planetary surfaces do not occur in any geometric, fractal, or other discernible ordered pattern, nor do the edges
Taxonomic Term Confusion: Taxonomy is even more of a mess than it used to be, having to deal with life originating separately (it is usually thought; see Panspermia) in a multitude of different ecologies, which then got intermingled by ancient and modern terraforming and accidents of star travel to produce
From the earlier – which is to say, closer to the fervor of the revolution – days of the Empire’s history: “Congratulations on your polity’s recent annexation by the Empire of the Star!” “Whether we have come as the result of a war with your previous government, or merely to
Panspermia: Not proven in the general case, any more than it is today, and probably substantially less – different evolutionary trees and biochemistries surely look as if they had different origins. Confirmed in some specific cases – Eliera, for example, derives its life from three sources: bluelife, which is very clearly descended