One Gender Race: There are a few of these, most of them having got that way via their evolutionary process never having figured out sex, or natural hermaphroditism, or merely looking this way because of extreme sexual dimorphism; but also some exceptions – digisapiences, for example, have neither sex nor gender
A far light in the sky, a faint rumble like distant thunder… soon drowned out as the klaxons screamed again over the hard-packed clay of Isahan Interplanetary. “Oddly Specific Impulse, nuclear heavy-lifter out of Vevery, grounding! All personnel, clear pad eight! I repeat: Oddly Specific Impulse, nuclear heavy-lifter out of
One Federation Limit: Averted. In addition to the Empire of the Star, there is also the Temporary Empire, the Seventy World Empire, and so forth, including several Imperiums. In addition to the Voniensa Republic, there’s the Quave Republic. There’s the Blue-Green Federation, Vissevu Federation, and several other Federations
Once Is Not Enough: With the regenerative capabilities, smart cardiovascular nets, auxiliary hearts, and suchlike they engineer into people these days, you should be mindful of this trope, aversion of Only a Flesh Wound notwithstanding. That goes doubly for races like the kaeth, whom nature has equipped with a particularly
“Greetings, Citizen Asamis! You have reached the voice communications service of Bora Phylarius. Unfortunately, my principal is off-world at the moment and cannot be reached by real-time dataweave services. “If you are calling about a non-urgent matter, a message may be forwarded using non-real-time services. Current estimated time until receipt,
Only a Flesh Wound: Averted. Sure, modern transsophs have all kinds of enhancements for durability and healing – smart cardiovascular nets, auxiliary hearts, better blood clotting, etc., etc. Those will help you if something slips past equally modern milspec combat armor with full kinetic barriers, or against a (very) glancing hit
GORBIS (CORDAI GAP) – The Syndic of Tribunals has indicted all former officials of the People’s Bureau of Safe and Sustainable Technologies, nearly six hundred thousand in total, on a range of charges of which the most significant are 17 billion counts of cognicide by willful deprivation. Executions are expected
Omniscient Morality License: The Fifth Directorate would claim in public – well, insofar as they can meaningfully be public – that they operate under something closely related to one of these, granted by necessity in dealing with existential threats and other matters of that magnitude. Subverted inasmuch as, internally, starting to think
Launch Control Spaceflight Initiative Lormyrian MET+0:00:02 Mission Coordinator Laras Stelliré looked up from his monitors and their unhelpful loss-of-signal markers, and barked, “Status! Status reports, by stations. Do we have the ship?” Nellis Steamweaver, at communications, pushing his headset firmly into his ears, was the first to
Omnidisciplinary Scientist / Renaissance Man: Yep, they have a lot of these. (Well, maybe not quite omni.) But consider, first, the incredibly broad-based education we discussed back in Education; then consider the effects of the mindpatchable-knowledge tools also discussed there; and bear in mind the effects of extremely long lifespans, regular
(I was going to post the next chunk of Before the Phoenix today, but it’s not quite ready yet. So, here’s a quick wee thing instead…) In the Conclave of Galactic Polities, Ambassador llin-Terl-an of the Palnu Sodality put forward a measure – supported by others of the Socionovist
Ominous Floating Spaceship: It’s certainly possible (see, for example, all the examples of how it’s done under Floating Continent). It’s almost never done, however, because (a) putting all the equipment to make it hover, and the power budget to power said equipment into a combat spacecraft makes