Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: While science hasnât exactly disproven religion â there are certain, ahem, logical problems with that notion â it has closed a sufficient number of the gaps for a hypothetical god-of-the-gaps that supernaturalism in general has an amazingly small number of adherents in the Empire. Most âreligionsâ of
âThese images are taken from the records provided by the command vessel of the fleet that carried out âOperation Ruby Gauntlet Sableâ, the Unyielding OrderâŚâ The ravaged planet hung in the center of the Conclave amphitheater, surface black and charred save for its fiery disfigurement; a crater over a thousand
14+48:00 <DistCom, Skybridge>: system idle, all well 14+54:00 <DistCom, Skybridge>: system idle, all well 14+55:11 <Oversight, Skybridge North>: suspicious activity detected, monitor 8817 14+55:11 <Oversight, Skybridge North>: subject with masked identity (no Universal ping
Magic From Technology: Played straight; it is a materialist, science fiction universe; any magic we see is, indeed, one or another form of technology, misunderstood. Which seems to happen with truly annoying frequency every time a Sufficiently Advanced culture runs into an Insufficiently Advanced one, especially with any technology that
âSometimes I envy you naturals. Your creator doesnât care if you worship him. Mine looks disgusted and starts muttering about making more revisions to our abstract mnemonic-processing architecture.â â darcĂŠlmek uplift program, subject 9-0243 interview (unpublished)
Burial In Space: I refer you to the entry under Arbitrary Maximum Range and invite you to consider why Sir Isaac Newton is once again slapping you upside the head for creating a giant hazard to navigation. (Also, see Hurl It Into The Sun for why that wonât work,
Hurl It Into The Sun: Donât. Just donât. Those belong to people, who will be very upset if you go around dumping your trash in there willy-nilly and giving their star indigestion. (Which, granted, would take an awful lot of trash, but still.) Give a hoot. Donât
basilisk hack: (from the mythical petrifying serpent); a class of cognoweapon capable of being introduced through normal sensory channels which attack metalogical defects in sensory input processing or cognition, causing various cognitive dysfunctions, neural storms, seizures, and in advanced cases, coma. Most publicly known families of basilisk hack are automatically
Human Resources: In space, where roughly 3/5ths of everyone lives, no-one wastes precious water, carbon, and complex organic compounds; therefore, yes, bodies are hereby committed to the recycling tanks. Of course, the bodies have to have died naturally first, which should make it marginally less creepy. There used to
self.fork: {self, muse, adjuncts.primary[]} target: {self.shells[local & mine].default} The instances looked at each other. One smiled, and glanced away; the other tucked an errant curl of hair back into place. âAre you flirting with yourself?â A matched pair of embarrassed looks greeted that question. âDonâ
Bullet Time: Given the speed of electrophotonic hardware, it would be possible for most cybershells and many bioshells up to the current Imperial neural standard to do live-action Bullet Time, at least with current Earth guns. Of course, in their own place and time, the bullets are a lot faster
âItâs a steel box.â âItâs a fully functional â well, mostly functional, but all primary systems are functional â Hariven-class free trader. Just what you want when youâre starting out in this business.â âItâs a steel box with a plasma torch welded on the back.â âAnd a generous