This division of the Empire of Humaniti is consequently referred to as the Shattering. The Shattering took place eight years prior to the events detailed in Star Wolf.
Sophont—From the Greek σοφός (sophos) meaning “wise”. Sophont is any sentient being with intellect and self-awareness equal to or exceeding humankind’s.
Spinal Mount—A large weapon whose core runs along the “spine” of a ship. In essence, the ship is literally built around the weapon. Spinal mounts take up tremendous real estate within ships and use a great deal of power, thus they are generally only found on large, capital-class warships. No commercial vessels, within the realm of Humaniti at least, may be legally equipped with spinal mount weapons. They are military grade only. Spinal mount weapons may be very large lasers, plasma cannons, meson guns, neural weapons, or even solid projectile weapons, though this last category would be extremely rare, due both to the space needed and to the danger of storing a large quantity of explosive ordinance on board a space-going vessel.
Spinward—A galactic “direction” indicating space located in the same direction as the galaxy is spinning relative to one’s current position. Space is three-dimensional, but on a galactic scale, space as we know it in our little section of our little arm of our little spiral galaxy is relatively flat. The Milky Way is a rotating disc that is itself in motion throughout the universe. There is no such thing as fixed points of reference. Normal terrestrial directions are meaningless in space, so galactic directions are used in order to indicate direction relative to one’s current position.
STS—Surface to Space capable craft. A general term used to describe all small craft designed to land on planets but which also have the ability to enter near-orbit. All shuttlecraft designed to go from non-atmosphere-capable ships to the surface fall into this category. They can be any size from single-passenger shuttles all the way up to large cargo/personnel transports. They are generally unarmed or very lightly armed ships and are considered non-combatants. This is the general feature that distinguishes them from combat craft, such as fighters or gunships, which may also have surface-to-space capabilities.
SysSec—Short for System Security. Most star systems with worlds of any import will have some ships devoted to system defense. These are similar to U.S. Coast Guard vessels or Merchant Marines of 21st century Earth. They can be associated with the military of that faction if a military base is housed in the system, but are usually civilian paramilitary forces. Quite often these ships are decently armed but are not equipped with Voidspace Drives, so they are not capable of FTL travel. This restricts them to operation within a single star system unless they have the aid of a battle carrier.
Tailward—A galactic “direction” indicating space located in the direction opposite the galactic spin relative to one’s current position. Space is three-dimensional, but on a galactic scale, space as we know it in our little section of our little arm of our little spiral galaxy is relatively flat. The Milky Way is a rotating disc that is itself in motion throughout the universe. There is no such thing as fixed points of reference. Normal terrestrial directions are meaningless in space, so galactic directions are used in order to indicate direction relative to one’s current position. (See also Coreward, Spinward, and Rimward, above)
TL—Technology level. Before the Shattering, many systems benefitted from interstellar trade and featured high technology levels even in non-core systems. Since the Shattering, however, interstellar trade has severely diminished and each system’s TL will only be as high as they can sustain without relying on interstellar trade. This severely reduces the TL of all but key core systems with either abundant in-system resources and production capabilities or stable trade with other core systems. Every device has a TL level associated with it. The TL denotes the general TL level a world must be able to sustain in order to produce those devices. TLs run on a scale from 1-15, with 21st century Earth being around TL8.
Vac-suit—Lower tech vacuum suits are bulky, Jules Verne-like inventions. At TL7 and above, they become much more resistant to damage and much lighter and less cumbersome. The common general issue vac-suits aboard most commercial ships are TL6-8, while those aboard fighting ships are TL8-10. TL10 suits are well protected as well as having HUD units in the helmets. Above TL10, suits that are not already integreated with combat armor can be refined either for increased durability and functionality, or made much lighter and maneuverable. At TL13, the vac-suits are no more cumbersome than regular clothing and can even have disguise capabilities, most frequently as normal clothing. This enables executives or political leaders to have the appearance of casual ease while maintaining a constant state of readiness in the event of boarding or hostile actions.
VDEs—Voidspace disruption emitters. These are ship-mounted devices that scramble the frequencies used to open voidspace jump portals. When used in relatively close proximity to a particular portal, it will prevent ships using voidspace jump drives from opening the portals and entering or exiting voidspace. VDEs can be mounted on fighters, but draw a lot of power, thus preventing any other energy-type weapons or defenses on such small craft. They are much more commonly used on 5o+ ton craft. Due to their extreme tech level, post-Shattering there are very few factions that are still able to produce or maintain VDEs. Dawnstar, the Angelicum, and the Daemi are the only factions in the known part of the galaxy who have them in any large supply, though any faction may have at least a handful of ships equipped with VDEs spread among their entire fleet.
Afterword
Part of the challenge of writing a Christian Speculative Fiction book is that often people see an inherent conflict within the term itself. Speculative Fiction is about exploring the realm of possibilities, and within the sub-genre of Science Fiction, this means wrestling with the realities of science as far as it applies. From a Christian perspective, some see this as dangerous ground upon which to tread, fraught with the dangers of writing something that countermands or contradicts God’s word in Scripture.
Being a Christian, however, is viewed by non-Christian readers of Speculative Fiction, especially Science Fiction, as somehow contrary to the genre. They do not believe a Christian author can possibly let themselves explore the full realm of possibilities while boxing themselves in with some narrow, dogmatic view of the universe.
I hope, having read Star Wolf, you now see that a middle-ground is indeed possible. While this novel is a far cry from what could be considered hard Science Fiction, I hope I have treated science as fairly as possible where it ran this side of the edge of speculation. Even where I exceeded the bounds of current scientific and technological discovery, I did strive to maintain speculative laws of physics and to design a system that is at least internally consistent. Where I did deal with things like medical situations and lower technology, I sought the advice of experts in their fields to ground my fiction in fact as far as possible.
On the spiritual side, while I realize some people will always find things to take issue with, I do believe I kept my speculation within the borders of the gray area. I am not aware of anything within Star Wolf that directly contradicts explicit Scripture, but there is quite a bit that pushes the limits of human tradition and interpretation. It is important for Christian readers to realize, I am not teaching doctrine here, I am writing a Speculative Fiction novel that, as far as I am aware, is still honoring to my Christian faith and the word of God.
I hope everyone found this novel to be a happy middle ground that can be enjoyed by both Christians and non-Christians alike. I make no apologies for the spiritual content within the book, but I also feel I kept it situation-relevant, where germane to the characters or setting at hand. I feel I fairly represented both believers and non-believers in the story, and made no attempt to demonize one more than the other. Star Wolf certainly has unbelieving bad-guys, but more than one of the main characters in the story are not really believers. I also represent some believers who have clearly taken their interpretation of acting upon their faith
far beyond the boundaries of Scripture, and are called to task on that fact. In short, my intent with Star Wolf, as with all my novels, is to make it approachable, accessible, and enjoyable regardless of one’s worldview.
Beyond this point in the afterword, I will share a bit more about the underpinnings of the author’s own worldview. In other books I have shared pieces of my personal journey to faith, so I won’t rehash that here, but I do not want to end this afterword without at least giving the opportunity for deeper understanding of my worldview for those interested. If you are not interested and consequently choose to skip the remainder of the afterword, be reassured that you will miss out on nothing story-related . I do hope, however, that if you have read this far, you will see it through and explore with me some of the aspects and reasons behind my worldview.
Now, I hope that if you have read this far in the Afterword, it is because God may have you searching for truth in your own life. I have deeply researched the historicity, the archeological evidence, and the truth claims of the Bible for many years and found the more I learn, the more reasonable and solid my faith has become. There are many resources along these lines, so I won’t do a disservice to the field of apologetics by trying to do a Cliff’s Notes version in an Afterword, but I do want to share a few basic truths with those seeking and open to hearing what the Bible has to say.
1) We are all sinners (Romans 3:10; 3:23). That is hard to hear, but the fact is there are two kinds of people in the world, perfect people and sinners. If you aren’t one, you are the other. If you truly believe you are the former, there isn’t much else to discuss. Most people, however, are honest enough to admit they have lied, they have not always honored their father and mother, they have lusted, they have coveted, they have hated someone. Any of these things puts you firmly in the category of sinner.
2) We cannot remove our own sin. God in the Bible says the wages of sin is death. If, like many of the other world religions teach, we could counterbalance or work off our own sin by praying, giving alms, making pilgrimages, doing good deeds, meditation, or whatever, then God lied in the Bible and Jesus died for nothing. In Matthew 26:39-44 Jesus prayed three times asking if there were any other way, and yet still He went to the cross and died. If there could have been any way apart from Jesus that man could be saved, Jesus would not have died upon the cross (Acts 4:12).
3) We will stand before God and be judged one day (Hebrews 9:27). God created us and He has the right to judge His creation. He takes no pleasure in the death of sinful man but truly desires that all may come to repentance and faith (Ezekiel 33:11). To that end, God has made a way for our sin to be forgiven and for us to be restored to righteousness.
4) Jesus is that way (John 14:6). Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Some have called this narrow-minded, arrogant or elitist, but if we open our hearts and minds to the truth, God was not obligated to make any way for man to be saved. He did so because He loved the world and mankind (John 3:16) and wanted us to have a hope. Does a drowning man look at the person throwing them a rope from a lifeboat and say, “Don’t you have another way? That is very narrow-minded for you to only have one rope for me to choose from. I prefer a life preserver or life jacket instead.” How silly would that be? No, a drowning person would grab onto that rope and hold on for all they were worth and be very grateful to the person who had tossed it to them. Yet this is exactly what society has conditioned us to do in response to the gospel. We sneer at the rope and criticize the boat captain who has thrown it to us.
If you are seeking truth, then the one true truth that exists is Jesus. A way has been made by a loving God for you to be saved from judgment and wrath. All that is needed is for you to recognize and repent (turn away from) your sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ. Grab onto that rope and hold on for all you are worth. You can do that by saying a prayer wherever you are, asking that God forgive your sins and draw you to Himself.
If you have done, or are willing to do that, you have taken the first step. The road does not end there, however. Profession of faith in Christ is not a “get out of hell free” card. There is nothing in the Bible that mirrors the false teaching of “easy believism.” Faith in Christ means living your life for Him. Three times in John chapter 14, Jesus equates loving Him with obedience. So how do you know what to obey? You need discipleship. You need to find a Bible-believing church in your area and get plugged into not only Sunday services, but Bible study classes as well. Every day you eat food to nourish your body; in the same way, set some time aside every day to spend in prayer and in God’s word to nourish your spirit.
You may have questions still. As you read and study you may have things come up that you don’t understand. Your first resource should be your local pastor or teacher at the church you attend. If you don’t find the answers there, I might suggest a few websites that might help. These are excellent resources for Christian apologetics and questions about the Christian life.
1) www.carm.org This is the website of the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry. It is an excellent site to find many answers to a broad range of questions.
2) www.reasonablefaith.org This is the website of Dr. William Lane Craig, noted Christian apologist and speaker.
3) Beyond those websites, if you have specific questions about the gospel or Christianity and cannot find the answers with either your local clergy or the above sites, you can contact me with questions at [email protected]. Please be aware, I am opening this email up to my readership as a resource and help. I will not argue or debate questions I feel are aimed in that direction, but will gladly do whatever I can to help sincere enquiries concerning biblical truth. There are numerous debate boards on Facebook and elsewhere for those looking for that, but this email address is for sincere seekers of truth who have earnestly sought answers elsewhere and yet have been unable to find those answers. I cannot promise to be able to answer every question, but coming from the background of a skeptic and having researched truth claims and studied apologetics for several years, I hope that I can be a resource to anyone sincerely seeking faith or struggling for answers. Your patience with my response times is appreciated, as I have a number of responsibilities on my plate, but ministering to seeking souls is a high priority.
Finally, for those who do not have specific faith-based questions but would like to send fan-mail, questions, comments, feedback, etc. specifically regarding any of my books themselves, those types of responses can be sent to [email protected]. If there are things sent here requiring a response, please be patient and know I will do my best to respond. I also have an author page up on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/DavidGlennJohnson, so feel free to drop by and like my page, and keep your eyes out for new projects and new releases.
By His grace,
David G. Johnson
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Star Wolf (Shattered Galaxy) Page 51