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Glossary: Terms and Technology


Artificial Intelligence

Also referred to as SAI (Sentient Artificial Intelligence) and NSAI (Non-Sentient Artificial Intelligence). Artificial Intelligences are machine, or non-organic intelligences which primarily reside in computers and data matrixes. They are often referred to as non-organic intelligences.

The point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is furthest from Sol, or its host star.


Represented as a lower case c in italics, this symbol stands for the speed of light and means constant. The speed of light in a vacuum is constant at 670,616,629 miles per hour. Ships rate their speed as a decimal value of c with c being 1. Thus a ship traveling at half the speed of light will be said to be traveling at 0.50c.

Carbon Fiber nano-Tube shields are created from carbon nano-tubes. These tubes are incredibly strong and can also be enhanced to absorb laser energy and disperse it.

The Callisto Orbital Habitat has a security force which is larger than the TSF in personnel count due to the need to police over three trillion humans. It is quasi-military and provides both internal as well as external security to the Cho.


This is an abbreviation meaning commanding officer. It is common in all branches of the military.

See also "stasis".

Older methods of slowing down organic aging and decay involve cryogenically freezing the organism (usually a human) through a variety of methods. The person would then be thawed through a careful process when they were awakened.

Cryostasis is risky and has a lower failure rate, but one that makes few people consider it as an option. When true stasis was discovered, it became the de-facto method of slowing organic decay over long periods.


See "Deuterium"

D2 (2H) is an isotope of hydrogen where the nucleus of the atom is made up of one proton and one neutron as opposed to a single proton in regular hydrogen (protium). Deuterium is naturally occurring and is found in the oceans of planets with water and is also created by fusion in stars and brown dwarf sub stars. D2 is a stable isotope that does not decay.

Deuterium fusion, also called deuterium burning, is a nuclear fusion reaction that occurs in stars and some substellar objects, in which a deuterium nucleus and a proton combine to form a helium-3 nucleus. It occurs as the second stage of the proton–proton chain reaction, in which a deuterium nucleus formed from two protons fuses with another proton, but can also proceed from primordial deuterium.

A term used by Victorians and some Edeners to describe colonists who live on the surface of a planet.

A name given to both crew and colony passengers of the Intrepid by Victorians.

Also referred to as an electrostatic field Not to be confused with a faraday cage, electrostatic shield’s technical name is static electric stasis field. By running a conductive grid of electrons through the air and holding it in place with a stasis field the shield can be tuned to hold back oxygen, but allow solid objects to pass through, or to block solid objects. Fields are used in objects such as ramscoops and energy conduits.


Electro Magnetic Fields are given off by any device using electricity that is not heavily shielded. Using sensitive equipment it is possible to tell what type of equipment is being used, and where it is by its EMF signature. In warfare it is one of the primary ways to locate an enemy’s position.


Electro Magnetic Pulses are waves of electromagnetic energy that can disable or destroy electronic equipment. Because so many people have electronic components in their bodies, or share their minds with AI, they are susceptible to extreme damage from an EMP. Ensuring that human/machine interfaces are hardened against EMPs is of paramount importance.


The Future Generation Terraformers is a program started in 2352 with the purpose of terraforming worlds in advance of colony ships bein sent. The process of terraforming can take hundreds, or even thousands of years, and so FGT ships are sent well in advance of colonization vessels.

Once the world(s) being terraformed reached stage 3, a message is sent back to the Sol system with an ‘open’ date for the world(s) being terraformed. The GSS then handles the colony assignment. A decade after the Destiny Ascendant left the Sol system in 3728 the FGT program was discontinued by the SolGov, making it the last FGT ship to leave Sol. Because the FGT ships are all self-sustaining, none of them came home after the program was discontinued—most of the ship’s crews had spent generations in space and had no reason to return to Sol.

The FGT ships continued on their primary mission of terraforming worlds, but continued to communicate with the GSS when worlds were completed.

A fireteam is the smallest combat grouping of soldiers. In the TSF Marines (like the USMC) it contains four soldiers; the team leader (often doubles as the grenadier), the rifleman (acts as a scout for the team), automatic rifleman (carries a larger, fully automatic weapon), the assistant automatic rifleman (carries additional ammo).

Fission is a nuclear reaction where an atom is split apart. Fission reactions are simple to achieve with heavier, unstable elements such as Uranium or Plutonium. In closed systems with extreme heat and pressure it is possible to split atoms of much more stable elements, such as Helium. Fission of heavier elements typically produces less power and far more waste matter and radiation than Fusion.


FTL (Faster Than Light) refers to any mode of travel where a ship or object is able to travel faster than the speed of light (c). According to Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. As of the year 4123 no technology has been devised to move a physical object faster than the speed of light.

Fusion is a nuclear reaction where atoms of one type (Hydrogen for example) are fused into atoms of another type (Helium in the case of Hydrogen fusion). Fusion was first discovered and tested in the H-Bombs (Hydrogen bombs) of the twentieth century. Fusion reactors are also used as the most common source of ship power from roughly the twenty fourth century on.