Imprint of Blood

by Phil Huddleston

  Fringe Rebellion

  Starting in 2120, the Fringe Rebellion is a determined effort by planets in the outer regions of the Aeolian Empire to institute reforms in the government. Among the reforms they espouse are an end to the House Aronte's rule of the Empire, the abolition of slavery, a democratic government based on sortition (choosing political officials by lot), universal suffrage (i.e. the male vote), and the end of laws preventing males from obtaining political office or serving as officers in the Navy. Amasya and ten other planets have been taken over by the rebels and a respectable naval force has been accumulated from captured AEN ships and converted merchant vessels. Using these vessels and more, the rebels have fought a long, grinding campaign against the Imperial center of the Empire.

  Helios (star)

  The Helios system is the home system of the Aeolian Empire, located 580 lights from Earth in the Beehive Cluster. Helios is a G2 star, comparable to Sol in all major respects.

  House Aronte

  The House Aronte is the ruling dynasty of the Aeolian Empire and is a direct line of descent from the original twelve Amazons abandoned on Aeolis in 750 BC.

  Hippolyta Lysippe Aronte (Empress of Aeolis)

  Hippolyta Lysippe Aronte is the 213th Empress of the Aeolian Empire, reigning since 2163. She inherited an Empire divided by the Fringe Rebellion and with a population exhausted by the war. Unable to end the Rebellion, she has since allowed it to devolve into a “Phony War”, in which neither side has the strength or the will to press an attack.

  Hippolyta was born in 2135 to Princess Antiope, the daughter of Princess Merope. She was not expected to enter the line of succession, as Merope was a second daughter of Empress Asteria. Hippolyta attended the Imperial Naval Academy at Aronte and was commissioned an Ensign, serving as an active officer from 2153 to 2163. Her career in the Navy was unremarkable.

  In 2141, Empress Miranda and Hippolyta’s grandmother, Princess Merope, were both killed in a terrorist attack at the Imperial Palace. Her mother, Antiope, then became Empress. This moved Hippolyta to the line of succession. When her mother Antiope was killed in the Great Raid of 2163, Hippolyta ascended to the tiara.

  Hippolyta has not prosecuted the rebels in the Fringe with any great enthusiasm and has let the Rebellion simmer, resulting in a quiet period called the “Phony War”. Instead, she devotes her time to real and imagined conspiracies in the Palace and among the nobility, developing a reputation as a dangerous and somewhat unpredictable ruler.

  Jake Hammett

  Jake Hammett is the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) of the Rim Defense Force (RDF). Hammett was born October 26, 2078 in Oakwood, Texas, and grew up in Dallas, Texas, graduating from Dallas Skyline High School in 2096. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 2100, and completed flight training at NAS Pensacola, Florida, and NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2104 he was assigned to VFA-2 'Bounty Hunters' at NAS Lemoore, California, flying the F81 "Dagger II". Hammett served in various fighter squadrons both in the U.S. and overseas, moving up to the F82 "Stilletto" in 2114.

  When the Brush War broke out in 2115, Lt. Commander Jake Hammett was on the carrier USS Edward Byers in the Indian Ocean, and immediately began flying missions off the carrier, completing 28 missions and accounting for eleven enemy aircraft between January and May, 2115. On May 1st, 2115, while diving from 38,000 meters to attack a Chinese bomber headed for Japan, recently promoted Commander Hammett was shot down over western North Korea but was able to make Mongolian airspace before ejecting. He was captured by the Mongolian Army and interned for the remainder of the war, but the Mongolians refused to turn him over to the North Koreans or the Chinese, saving him from the torture visited on many other captured pilots.

  Hammett left the Navy after the Brush War and moved to San Francisco, where he worked in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for SpaceRed, a startup attempting to create a viable permanent habitat on Mars. There Hammett developed AI cores for use in chemical rockets and early Mars habitats.

  Hammett lived and worked relatively quietly in San Francisco until 21 June 2121 when the Machine Ship Pandora landed dramatically in the White House South Lawn and presented holographic images of three persons on the outside of the ship: Jake Hammett, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Teresa Tolleson and NSC Science Advisor Dr. Kirsten Monk. Pandora’s message of danger to humanity, coupled with the message "If you wish to survive, bring these three", resulted in a quick parabolic flight in an F90B Grumbler from Travis AFB, California, to Andrews AFB, Maryland for Hammett. Upon arrival at the White House, Hammett, Tolleson and Monk were directed by the President to proceed to the alien ship and attempt to make contact. The three entered the ship at 7:43 am on 22 January 2121 and contacted the sentient AI Pandora. The group came out after four hours to report the disturbing facts of the danger to Earth posed by the genocidal Bat Empire. The next day, 23 January 2121, Hammett appeared before the U.N. General Assembly and highlighted the danger to Earth represented by the Bat Empire, the need for the formation of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) and the RDF Colony Office, and the requirement to form an alliance with the Aeolian Empire to present a joint defense against the Bats.

  Moving to Geneva, Switzerland, Hammett, Tolleson and Dr. Monk formed the RDF Space Force and began the anticipated one-hundred-year process of preparing for the war against the Bats. Shortly afterward, in August of 2123, Hammett formed the first RDF triplex marriage with Monk and Tolleson, creating a new paradigm for use in the space force where long absences from home base were the norm rather than the exception.

  For Hammett's children from this marriage, see the entries for Teresa Tolleson and Dr. Kirsten Monk.

  Hammett’s wife Dr. Kirsten Monk was killed in 2134 by a stray bullet while attempting to broker a peace deal on the planet Sierra Nevada, which had been locked in a standoff between the elected parliamentary government and members of a far-right terrorist group attempting to institute a theocracy.

  Hammett’s remaining wife, Teresa Tolleson, was abducted in Geneva on 2 December 2136 and tortured to death by Covenant of God terrorists in Frankfurt, Germany.

  For Hammett’s later marriage to the Aeolian Empress Antiope, see her entry.

  Kamilaroi

  Kamilaroi is a planet in the 36 Ophiuchi C system, the seat of the Rim Federation government capital New Geneva, and the home of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) Headquarters at Tolleson Base. Kamilaroi is an ocean world, with only two small landmasses and a cooler, wetter climate than Earth. New Geneva sits on an island in the Southern Ocean while RDF Headquarters is located on an island in the Northern Ocean, almost directly opposite New Geneva.

  Kirsten Monk

  Dr. Kirsten Monk was the first Director of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) Colony Office. Born May 19th, 2087 in Queens, New York City, Monk grew up in Queens and attended Far Rockaway High School, graduating in 2104. After high school, she attended MIT, obtaining her B.S. and M.S. in Physics and her Ph. D in Astronomy in 2112. She worked under Luebmann at Columbia from 2112 to 2115, primarily on detection of exomoons. In 2115, during the Brush War, she was seconded to Applied Engineering Laboratories in Austin, Texas to develop remote sensing technology for use in the war effort. After the war, Monk remained at AEL in Austin, becoming a primary researcher on asteroid mining. In 2120, based on her general expertise in astronomy, long range sensing and asteroid mining operations, she was appointed to the National Security Council by President Margaret Bolt.

  Dr. Monk was at the White House attending an NSC meeting on 21 June 2121 when the Machine Ship Pandora landed on the South Lawn and presented holographic images of three persons on the outside of the ship: herself, Jake Hammett and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Teresa Tolleson. Pandora’s message of danger to humanity, coupled with the message "If you wish to survive, bring these three", resulted a directive from the President to enter the alien ship and attempt to make contact. The three entered the ship at 7:43 am on 22 January 2121 and contacted the sentient AI Pandora. The group came out after four hou
rs to report the disturbing facts of the danger to Earth posed by the genocidal Bat Empire. The next day, 23 January 2121, Monk appeared with Jake Hammett and Teresa Tolleson before the U.N. General Assembly as part of the presentation to highlight the danger to Earth represented by the Bat Empire, the need for the formation of the Rim Defense Force (RDF) and the RDF Colony Office, and the requirement to form an alliance with the Aeolian Empire to present a joint defense against the Bats.

  Subsequent to these events, Dr. Monk joined with Jake Hammett and Teresa Tolleson as the initial founding members of the RDF. Monk formed the RDF Colony Office, which had responsibility for locating suitable planets for colonization, conducting the planning and resource collection required for the colonies, transporting the colonists to their new home, monitoring and supporting them until they were fully established, and supervising them through three generations, including the collection of their Charter Debt.

  With Teresa Tolleson and Jake Hammett, Monk also formed the first triplex marriage in the RDF in 2123, setting a precedent that endures to the current day in the RDF and throughout the Rim Federation.

  Monk and Hammett had two children:

  Chloe Monk, b. 2129, starship pilot in the RDF, currently holding the rank of Captain.

  Stephen Hawking Monk, b. 2132, Earth politician, former member of the New York Assembly, former U.S. Senator from New York, and currently U.S. Secretary of State under President James Bolt Jr. He has been estranged from his mother and father for most of his adult life, due to his right-wing leanings and his writings espousing an Earth government based on a religious theocracy.

  Monk also formed a separate, duplex marriage with Commander Lois Vetton in 2124. This marriage was permissible under the rules of the RDF at the time, which permitted a total of four spouses simultaneously if all participants agreed the contracts. This marriage also lasted until her death.

  Dr. Kirsten Monk was killed by a stray bullet on July 2, 2134 during the ultra-right coup attempt on Sierra Nevada, while attempting to broker a peace between the warring factions. The RDF fined Sierra Nevada two years GDP for the crime, which required them to build an extra starship (the scoutship Polaris) before their Charter Debt was satisfied.

  Dr. Monk is buried in the Hammett Family Plot near Oakwood, Texas.

  Ligeia Iona Satra

  Ligeia Iona Satra was a Captain in the Aeolian Empire Navy (AEN) during the early years of the Fringe Rebellion.

  Ligeia Satra was born in 2107 on the planet Aeolis into the Satra clan, a junior branch of the House Aronte. She attended the Imperial Naval Academy at Aronte, graduating in 2125 as an ensign. She served on various ships and advanced steadily in rank until 2136, when she was assigned as Captain of the cruiser Kleitos. In the Battle of Aronte in 2141, Captain Satra led the counterattack on the rebel fleet which was preparing to bombard Aronte but was killed in the process. For her actions in the battle, she was posthumously awarded the AEN’s highest decoration, the Honor of the Empress, as well as the Star of Aronte.

  Machine Ship

  A Machine Ship is an artificial intelligence (AI) creature with the body of a starship, thus able to traverse the galaxy at will, with nearly unlimited resources of time and energy. The most famous example of a Machine Ship (to biological creatures) is Pandora. Also see Darwin.

  Machine Space

  Machine Space is the central part of the Milky Way galaxy, also known as the Core. It is reserved for artificial intelligence creatures only, including Machine Ships, androids and other synthetic or AI-based lifeforms.

  Maia (planet)

  Maia is a planet in the Fringe states of the Aeolian Empire, located in the Beehive Cluster. Like most planets in the Cluster, it is quite young, with an estimated age of 600 million years (see Amasya for details of the early evolution of populated planets in the Beehive Cluster). Maia was colonized by the Aeolians in 1592 AD by the Rim Calendar.

  Maia is a warm, semi-desert world with minimal amounts of water. The Empire Shipyard is located on Maia. Like most of the Fringe Planets, it has a low population. Maia is considered the headquarters of the Fringe Rebellion.

  Merope (Princess)

  Princess Merope Lysippe Aronte was the sister of Empress Miranda and a Princess of the Aeolian Empire, when she was assassinated on 17 April 2141 by the rebel Anicetus. Merope was the mother of Antiope Lysippe Aronte, who became Empress upon her death.

  Miranda

  Empress Miranda Andromache Aronte was the 211th Empress of the Aeolian Empire, reigning from 2085 until 2141. Empress Miranda prosecuted a lackluster war against the Fringe rebels, never fully committing the military forces of the Empire against them, resulting in a long and lingering rebellion that grew steadily throughout the early part of the 22nd century. Shortly after the Battle of Aronte in 2141, Miranda was assassinated, along with her sister Princess Merope, by the rebel Anicetus on 17 April 2141.

  Nest

  Nest is the home planet of the Bat Empire, located 805 lights Coreward from Earth behind the Pipe Nebula. The capital of Nest is Raditel. The planet receives about 95% of the radiation of Earth. Little is known about the planet or its solar system due to the non-contact directives of the Rim Federation, strictly enforced by the warships of the RDF, although it is certain that classified military intelligence held by the RDF contains much additional detail.

  New Geneva

  New Geneva is the capital city of the Rim Federation, located on the planet Kamilaroi in the 36 Ophiuchi C system. It is the home of the Rim Parliament and the seat of government for the Rim. New Geneva was founded in 2136 on one of the two land masses of Kamilaroi, two small islands roughly the size of Iceland on Earth. RDF Headquarters is located on the other island, approximately half-way around the planet.

  Ostracization

  Ostracization is the Rim Federation policy of withholding all defensive, technological and logistical support for a colony/planet which fails to follow the Basic Rules of the Rim Federation. This means the planet is isolated from the Rim Federation and is, for all practical purposes, no longer capable of space travel or space communications. This policy was established in 2122 by the RDF Colonization Office in their initial Basic Rules model, and later adopted by the Rim Federation.

  Ostracization implies:

  1. The RDF will not defend the colony if it is attacked by an outside force

  2. All technology beyond that of the early 20th century, Earth is withdrawn from the colony. No fission or fusion reactors, spacecraft, radio or TV, microelectronics or other advances from beyond the period of Earth, 1900 are permitted.

  3. No deep-space communications are permitted, e.g. no QE boxes.

  4. Any person who voluntarily lands on the planet will remain. Accidental landings will be rescued.

  5. The RDF will perform periodic checks on the colony to verify compliance but will not approach.

  Pandora (Machine Ship)

  Pandora was the name of the Machine Ship which visited Earth in 2121 and provided a technology boost to bring humanity to parity with the Bat Empire. Pandora landed on the South Lawn of the White House, Washington, D.C., on 21 June 2121. In appearance, Pandora was wedge-shaped, similar to an old-style flatiron without the handle. She was matte black, with two linear scribes down each side and crosshatches on top, similar to a tic-tac-toe pattern. She was measured by remote laser at 30 meters long and 14 meters wide at her rear, tapering to a 1-meter blunt point at the front. The impression she left in the ground after her eventual departure was 12 inches deep, indicating a considerable mass. A later report by Jake Hammett stated that the ship was larger internally than externally, which would indicate some type of extra-dimensionality that is not yet understood by Rim science.

  After her arrival, Pandora posted a message as a hologram on the outside of the ship, consisting of pictures of Mr. Jake Hammett, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot; Lt. Colonel Teresa Tolleson, an Air Force officer; and Dr. Kirsten Monk, a member of the National Security Council; with the message to bring them
to the ship.

  The next day, 22 June 2121, the three entered the ship and met the advanced AI who was the mind of the ship. The three were in the ship for four hours. Upon their exit, they walked across the White House lawn to the South fence and held an impromptu news conference with a group of reporters and sightseers gathered there. This short press briefing provided the people of Earth the first insight into the nature of the Galaxy, Machine Space, and Pandora. In this briefing, Hammett disclosed the nature of Pandora as a total AI construct, with no biological component, and the general purpose of her visit to Earth.

  On the following day, while Hammett, Tolleson and Monk were presenting to the U.N. General Assembly in New York a more complete disclosure of the message brought by Pandora, she quietly and without warning lifted off from the White House and flew to Geneva, Switzerland, landing in the courtyard of a large office building which became the first headquarters of the fledgling RDF (Rim Defense Force). Over the next two years, Pandora sat quietly in the courtyard of RDF Headquarters in Geneva, with no one allowed to communicate directly with her except RDF personnel and no one allowed on board except Hammett, Tolleson, Monk or Atsuko Kawasaki, head of RDF Intelligence. During this period, Pandora provided, via the RDF, numerous technological gifts to humanity, including transcendent fusion drives (tDrives), compressed learning, and the QE box. She also provided the RDF with information on the social and military aspects of the Aeolian and Bat Empires.

  After slightly more than two years in Geneva, on 26 September 2123, Pandora lifted off again and made her way to Mars, where she resided while the RDF completed MarsBase, their first off-Earth Headquarters. In 2136, Pandora relocated again to Tolleson Base at Kamilaroi, the new Headquarters of the RDF. On 18 November 2139, Pandora declared her mission complete and departed the Sol system. Although she has never re-appeared to public view since that time, rumors persist that she has been seen in various locations throughout Rim space, including once lying quietly on the back side of the Moon. Moreover, RDF Admiral and CNO Jake Hammett has stated that Pandora is never far away and has contacted him from time to time.