by James Murdo
N-SOL drive – Technology gifted by the ABs to the galactic community to make use of N-SOL travel.
N-SOL space – Accessed via an N-SOL drive, it allows travel at far greater speeds than in real space. It is a phenomenon that is known to exist by the general galactic community, but not understood.
One-oh – Bio-lect discovered to be contained within trove item 512!110000, from the Lenbit Orbital research station, which had been disguised as a mining station.
Orb-body – Physical form for c-automs to operate in real space, created by the craft-lect. Each orb emits its own unique glow.
Parent-lect – Machine-lect that has spawned a sub-lect.
Pelteus – Surviving spear-lect.
Post-Conflation – Events following the Great Conflation.
Pre-Conflation – Events preceding the Great Conflation.
Prodigy machine-lect – Machine-lects who display genius-level attributes in almost all quantifiable fields, and thought to be a possible route to entering the AB fold. They are monumentally complex and tricky to produce – nearly always by accident – and are only created by highly advanced civilisations. Data-lects are almost unique in the Wanderer civilisation, being the only category of machine-lect able to be purposely created with prodigy-tending attributes.
Pulsar spew – Unidentified exotic matter emitted from slow or non-spinning neutron stars, that is attuned to the sensespace and able to force it to manifest completely in real space.
Pulsar spew technology – Technology that harnesses the exotic matter emitted by slow pulsars. Spinning neutron stars (‘pulsars’) emit periodic pulses of electromagnetic radiation, but this process stops when the rotation slows down. After this, the pulsar engine evolves, and the neutron star emits secondary, highly infrequent pulses of exotic matter.
Quasi-sequential hermaphrodite – Single-gender species whose fundamental behavioural characteristics can significantly change, often without warning. This is analogous to the changing of sex in many gendered species. The Waka species is a notable example.
Quick-lect – Category of Wanderer machine-lect in control of small ships that hunted their targets in packs. Assumed extinct.
Real space – Encompasses all known scales of accessible reality for sub-ABs. Virtual and simulated habitats, and any similar constructs, are included in the term, although sometimes differentiated from physically-oriented classifications of real space for simplicity.
Ril – Labourer, son of Yul.
Savant machine-lect – Machine-lects who are unfathomably gifted in certain areas, but dramatically deficient in others. They are even harder to product than prodigy machine-lects, and even rarer.
Selection mechanism – Used to efficiently allocate c-autom tasks.
Selective-suppression – Ability of some machine-lects to dampen facets of their lects for specified periods of time, with the aim of optimising or exploring the change in functionality of a lect.
Sensespace – Infective and hostile presence that appears to be drawn to sentience. It is believed to have been pushed into dormancy by the Great Conflation, when the level of aggregate sentience in the galaxy was dramatically reduced.
Sentient – Living entity possessing an intellect (or ‘sentience’).
Silti – Siltlong species, and also the progenitor of the Toolong, Diasporasm and Duspatock.
Siltlong – Exotic category of sentient that closely resembles living orbital debris. The three main races are the Toolong, Diasporasm and Duspatock. All three hailed from the same progenitor species – the Silti.
Singularity generator – Propulsion method relying on artificial gravitational micro-singularities. Also known as a ‘thrown singularity engine’ or a ‘recycled singularity engine’.
Sower – Tool that is part-digger, part-planter, invented by Gil.
Spear-lect – Wanderer b-automs who survived efforts to usurp their parent-lects and were subsequently captured by the Enclave, before being repurposed into weapons against the Enclave’s opponents. Assumed extinct.
Sphere – Sense available to Gil’s people that allows them to explore the world around them. It is derived from the sensespace.
Spin-hygen – Weapon.
Standard time – Wanderer quantification of time which is also the standard in the galactic community. It is similar to that used on Gil’s planet.
Step Principle – Warning against machine-lect self-upgrades to the extent a different entity is created that supersedes the incumbent machine-lect. Similar to the Usurper Principle.
Sub-AB – Empire, civilisation, race, species, or any other such often-synonymous grouping of sentients, whose technological advancement is inferior to the ABs. The term can also be used to describe specific technologies.
Sub-lect – Machine-lect spawned by a parent-lect.
Table-chamber – Room created by the craft-lect for discussions between itself, One-oh, 998 and Gil.
Tait – Respected individual from Gil’s former commune.
Teacher – Machine-lect derived from the Granthan-lect labelled 1
Technosystem – Wanderer ship’s internal network which interfaces with the majority of its systems.
Technosystem reality – Virtual environment within a Wanderer ship which can be inhabited by machine-lects. It usually acts as an interface by which the technosystem, and therefore the ship, can be efficiently accessed by c-automs.
Ten-Bunch’wan – See ‘Bunch’wan’.
The spaces – Encompasses a multiverse of distinct universes separated by multiversal boundaries. Created by the Makers, and defined by the Cross-Prophet as ‘probably almost everything’.
Theory of the Intellect – Broad theory of sentience and consciousness, generally applicable to all biologicals, machine-lects and exotic variants thus far discovered by the wider galactic community.
Thorus – Ancient and surviving machine-lect who used to be a member of the Machine Alliance, before the alliance joined the factions preceding the Wanderers.
Thy – Originally created by the Thygo as their machine-lect guardian.
Thy-child – Category of sub-lect spawned by Thy that resided within its simulated reality.
Thygo – Progenitor race that created Thy, before being imprisoned by their creation.
Toolong – Siltlong species that evolved from, and closely resemble, the Silti.
Tor – Twin brother of Gil.
Transit-point technology – Technology that allows parts of the galaxy to be sequestered and hidden from the rest.
Traveller – See ‘Cross-Prophet’.
Triamond – Extremely durable and versatile material.
Trizek’d Theory of Lect – Theory describing the workings of lects, tailored by the Wanderers for their civilisation. The theory is in a constant state of flux since all Wanderer lects are constantly being affected by both new and/or changing variables, including time. It is not ultimately solvable in the sense that it can never be complete.
Trove instrument (‘trove item’) – Technological item pilfered from an abandoned habitat or outpost, that a craft-lect can choose to dedicate resources to understanding.
Usurper Principle – Warning against delegating inferior machine-lects to be involved with anything that might lead to them become dangerously upgraded or superior to the incumbent machine-lect. Similar to the Step Principle.
Waka – Race of natural bio-lects, rumoured to be represented within the Wanderer Enclave. Waka individuals are quasi-sequential hermaphrodites, and take tens to thousands of years to reach full maturity.
Wanderer Confluence – Optional events hosted by the Enclave for the Wanderer populous. They occur approximately every one million standard years, with the purpose of sharing and disseminating information, which is also available via the data exchange afterwards.
Wanderer Enclave – Governing body of the Wanderers, thought to comprise mostly of machine-lects.
Wanderer fleet – All of the Wanderer ships within the galaxy
, although often refers to the craft-lect fleet, which is the largest.
Wanderers – Formed predominantly from a variety of machine-lect alliances, following the Great Conflation. The Wanderer civilisation is the principal force in the galaxy attempting to destroy the sensespace.
Woal Collective – Current allies of the Wanderers who were decimated by the sensespace during the Great War. They are one of the civilisations that decided to purposefully stagnate themselves so as not to contribute to the sensespace’s hypothetical reawakening. Their technology has long-been in the upper echelons of the non-ABs, although it has also stagnated since the start of the Great War.
World-chamber – Artistic symbol of Gil’s home planet, constructed by 998.
Yul – Father of Ril, who disappeared with Gil’s father.
Yul’nka Empire – Close allies to the Wanderers.
1
112 – Lower-level c-autom befriended by Gil.
289 – C-autom working on a task with 112.
997<0>!001100 (‘997’) – Higher-level c-autom intended as the intellectual equal of 998<0>!001100 (998) when it was created, at the same time, by the craft-lect. Deceased.
998<0>!001100 (‘998’) – Higher-level c-autom originally tasked with investigating trove item 512!110000, although it has since evolved its responsibilities.
INFINITE EYES
James Murdo was born and raised in London, where he still lives. He graduated from university with a Masters degree in Physics, which added fuel to his early love of science fiction. Having avidly read and followed many inspiring authors throughout the years, he decided to embark on a literary journey of his own, with his Wanderers series, set in the Wanderer universe.
INFINITE EYES
Copyright © 2018 James Murdo
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This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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