“It wasn’t my fault. What else could I do?”
“Nothing. I didn’t say it was your fault, Ana.”
“So, you can’t get to the helm. Okay. But we have Auxiliary CIC, yeah?”
“Once again, it’s a yacht, not a warship.”
“A backup helm, then.”
He shook his head. “Basic workstations in the cabins. A couple of diagnostic panels in bulkheads. That’s it.”
“Shit!”
“No one expects to be flying a diplomatic yacht from a stateroom.”
“Just great. Just hacking great.” She slapped the tabletop again. “You know, I think I’ll take that drink now.”
He got up and made it for her, a triple bourbon. She’d drunk the whole thing down before she felt like talking again.
“Well, fellas,” she said and turned her tired, blurry gaze first on Chlalloun then on Piers. “Are we in the shitter, or what?”
TO BE CONCLUDED
Please don’t forget …
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Short Lexicon of Terms Used in Third Contact
Anachromites (or “mound-builders”): an apparently intelligent race in DCHC space. In the past nine hundred years, human scientists have not found reliable ways to communicate with them. Humans had research settlements and a religious settlement on the Anachromite planet Anticus that were unaffected by the PBT Crisis.
baka: cow (origin Filipino)
bonkers: crazy (Old Earth expression popularized in the 31st century via historical streamies and nanobooks)
bulala: an idiot; evolved Filipino low-level insult (originally a Tagalog-language adjective meaning star-struck or stupid
Castor and Pollux: two habitable planets of the Dioscurin system (not to be confused with the stars originally called Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini)
Centauri: agricultural world with two continents and three archipelago chains, third of the original worlds to form the DCHC in 2982.
Chaatu: the Tluaan star and star system.
combat suit (Tluaan): a body suit of advanced material, able to absorb much of the kinetic energy of ballistic rounds, maintain body temperature and allow for easy movement.
CUSET: A late-21st to mid-22nd Century union of corporations formed to venture into Earth’s solar system and to colonize beyond it (see the novel Eventide set at the end of the CUSET-era).
cycle: the Tluaan term for a day (approx. 30 Earth-hours long)
Devilfly: 1) predatory insect-analog indigenous to Pollux; 2) an Umaga-Morgen F380 Devilfly is a single-occupant fighter-interceptor capable of operations in space and in atmosphere, and armed with laser cannons, countermeasures and two ship-to-ship high explosive missiles.
ECF: Eye-Cam Feed. A video feed transmitted from eye-cams, wet-wired cameras set in Peacekeepers’ eyes.
fifteenth: the Tluaan equivalent of an hour, the Suuchaat day being divided into fifteen segments of approx. 2 Earth-hours long.
Foucault’s Moon: Capital of the Democratic Confederation of Human Colonies (DCHC)
hack: can be used as an expression of profanity; a swear word referring to the hacking of another person’s data or personal systems (which was the ultimate antisocial act in the 22nd Century when the term is thought to have originated)
heartbeat: Tluaan version of human seconds; approx. 1.1 Earth-seconds
hinky: (slang) broken, weird, doubtful.
kaibigan: friend, buddy (Filipino, but often used by Xerxians sarcastically)
Kh’het: The Tluaan name for the closest star system to theirs.
Liberty Habitat: Huge artificial habitat where most of Domain Space’s population and governance resides
Lioness: 1) extinct earth predator; 2) a Mumford T15 Lioness is a “pursuit runner” class of space vehicle, with fast acceleration, long-range fuel-tanks, one forward-firing laser emitter and a ship-to-ship missile bank
mabaho: Filipino word for stinking or rotten.
mininade: thumb-sized powerful grenade fired from a small “underslung” launcher fitted beneath some PR-19 foregrips.
noogs: mild insult for people who are new to a situation or uneducated in something (thought to be from New + guys = noogs).
Oceana: DCHC water-world with a small population.
orbit: the Tluaan term for a year (one orbit of Suuchaat around its star is approx. 242 Earth-days)
retinaid: Xerxian tech, a cyber-neural enhancement sending electronic images direct to the brain’s visual cortex
sahsah/sahss: yes, (Domain Space dialect)
sugary: excellent (Polluxan slang)
Suuchaat: Tluaan home world
Synthophine: synthetic opioid, painkiller
Tlaa: female Tluaan
Tlu: male Tluaan
Tluaan: collective adjective for things to do with Tluaanto; (e.g. this object is Tluaan in origin.)
Tluaanto: collective plural for a group of Tluaan individuals where gender is not specified; (e.g. Look at the crowd of Tluaanto over there.)
ulol: (Filipino) mad fool, crazy mutt
weaners: Xerxian slang for weaklings, referring to babies newly weaned from their mothers
wristwrap: (Tluaan) a personal device akin to a cell phone. It handles comms, databases, medical and environmental tell-tales
Yun Dao: a former People’s Republic of China colony world, now an isolationist world, status largely unknown
Assured (Envoys Book 2) Page 32