InfoPol

Before they reach the tanks, a blue-shirted InfoPol officer marches smartly up to them, her dark hair maintaining a perfect coiff in spite of the humidity.She is flanked by two U.N. peacekeepers in khakis, with blue helmets gleaming and rifles held ready.

Damien holds out his hand. "Good evening, Officer. What can we do for you?" He makes sure to stand so that she can see the Starburst glowing yellow against his dark skin.

The woman flashes a badge, ignoring Damien's outstretched hand. "Officer Caparthy, InfoPol." She hands him a flatscreen. "I have a warrant for the arrest of one Miranda Maris."

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The World Information Police (InfoPol), under the authority of the United Nations, is the agency responsible for investigating abuses of information and maintaining order within the Human preserves of cyberspace.

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copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna

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The Dareta h'Lamoth

Scattered Worlds race which flourished c. 400 million BCE. At their peak, the Dareta h'Lamoth commanded a union of approximately 300 worlds. Physically, the Dareta h'Lamoth were a flying race, resembling pteranadons. They preferred worlds with light gravity and dense atmospheres.

The Dareta h'Lamoth had unusually high precognitive sensitivity; to some degree, they could see the future. This ability usually followed genetic bloodlines, so that a particular Dareta h'Lamoth could dimly sense the future of her descendants, but not the future of another bloodline.

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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Imperial Stock Exchange Top Twenty TE 308

1. Schmidt Foundation
2. Dalanian Antigravitics
3. Bank of Luna
4. Interstellar Communications (aka Imperial Centcom)
5. Gigasoft Group
6. Rockwell Interstellar
7. Xerox
8. Hafen Starships
9. Mitsubishi
10. Borshallan Artificial Intelligences
11. Phuctra Manufacturing
12. Coca-Cola
13. Karphos Corporation
14. Wuorio Construction
15. Chase Manhattan Bank
16. General Electronics
17. Nippon Metals Interstellar
18. Bank of Elendan
19. Dovan Construction
20. RC Fashions, Inc.

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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The Reefs of Etile-viedel

Etile-viedel is one of the Scattered Worlds, located in the vicinity of the Human planet Karphos. The sapient inhabitants of Etile-viedel are an aquatic race with a two-stage life cycle: as youngsters, they are free-moving and resemble large jellyfish; as adults, they are sessile and live in enormous structures reminiscent of coral reefs. These reefs, laid down over the centuries by the sessile adults, record the memories and experiences of each individual, and can persist for hundreds of millennia.

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copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

Find out more in The Leaves of October

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The Three Cyberspaces

Cyberbia

Curving structures of translucent ivory and sparkling crystal ascend, studded with other balconies and pavilions and platforms like an enormous neo-Victorian treehouse -- all turning upon themselves, glittering in vanished sunlight, until lost in the violet distance. Below: the same, descending to the distant surface like a thin and graceful stalk of wheat rooted in fine, dark soil. Damien grasps the shape of the landscape beneath him, and whistles in appreciation of Penylle's joke. They are give dozen kilometers above the timeless Serengeti, perched upon a single strand of DNA that is, undoubtedly, rooted in the grasslands of Olduvai.

Cyberbia, one of the three major divisions of human cyberspace, is an endlessly malleable virtual landscape. Fantastic and implausible vistas are everywhere, and space itself bends and twists at the will of virtreal artists.

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Virtua

The Virtual city is bright, clean, unblemished -- in direct contrast to the drab, fading reality of worn concrete and cracked macadam, weed-tangled parking lots, the gaping holes of empty windows. In Virtua, however, every house is a big top and every passerby a performer. Dragons and insectlike aliens brush elbows with medieval warriors, Japanese princesses, and werewolves. From the sidelines, animated commercials call for attention. Every passing car is a luxury limousine, a futuristic hover-car, or a twenty-meter yacht.

Virtua, second of the three major divisions of human cyberspace, consists of artistic enhancements to the real world. These enhancements, visible through data goggles such as RCSpex, range from simple directional signs to fantastic and extravagant virtual personae.

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El Juego

El Juego, The Game, has been around in one form or another almost as long as the Net itself. Phosphoric green letters on a black screen became static 256-color images, became photorealistic full-screen streaming video, became total-immersion artificial reality -- yet The Game remained quintessentially itself, the product of imagination, not technology. Indeed, it is rumored that, somewhere in the labyrinthine contortions of El Juego's tunnels and corridors and twisting cobblestone streets, one can still find a place to sit down at a simulated antediluvian ADM-25 terminal and play "Adventure" the way Gosper and Greenblatt and the others did so many decades ago.

El Juego, third of the three major divisions of human cyberspace, is a vast, interactive role-playing game with millions of participants worldwide. El Juego offers thousands of planes of play, each satisfying a different taste for violence, politics, religion, and sex.

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copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers
Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna

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The Karphos Corporation

Mining corporation, specializing in mining the solar wind of unstable stars, especially Mu Venarum, primary of the planet Karphos.

The Karphos Corporation was organized in TE 40 with the discovery of Karphos. By TE 80, the company had expanded operations to six stellar systems within 2 kpsc of Karphos. In addition to mining, the company entered the fields of tourism and starship rental/repair/replacement. By TE 100, the company had reached the upper levels of the Imperial Stock Exchange, and displaced Terran Foods in the #13 spot.

Entry into the Imperial Council cemented the company's position, and until TE 361 the Karphos Corporation remained powerful.

After the Battle of Karphos in TE 361, the company's fortunes declined, and although it remained rich and powerful, it lost its Imperial Council seat and its share in the Kaa Cartel.

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copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers
Find out more in The Scattered Worlds site

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Our Lady of the Nets

"The floor was white marble, reflections dancing in its polished surface. Bright, intricate stained-glass windows rose a hundred meters or more, supported by star-flecked granite columns carved in the shapes of Brobdingnagian elephants, turtles, crocodiles, and oxen. As she watched, Penylle realized that the patterns of stained glass were slowly moving, changing, one design imperceptibly morphing into another.

"Above all, seeming kilometers away at least, an obsidian dome was inlaid with gems, hundreds -- thousands -- of them, in every hue, forming a vast galactic whirlpool reaching from one end of the vaulted space to the other."

The Shangri-la of cyberspace, Our Lady of the Nets is the ultimate hacker hangout. Here, under the supervision of the legendary Sister Rheostat, information is traded, alliances are made, and everything...everything...can be had for the right price.

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Sister Rheostat

Today, the good Sister manifests as a bearded, middle-aged Anglo man in a black leather habit and matching wimple. It is rumored that Sister Rheostat never appears in the same form twice.

"Bless you, my child," the Sister says, holding out a hairy-knuckled hand. On the third finger is a gold ring with a diamond the size of a golf ball. Penylle bends and kisses the ring. "May the good Lords keep and bless you. May Krishna smile upon you. May your bits be always true, may the Nets rise up to meet you, and may you be in Paradise a half hour before InfoPol knows you're online. What can I do for you, my little pretty?"

Sister Rheostat, the owner, architect, and Mother Superior of the hacker hideout Our Lady of the Nets, is the world's foremost information broker. There is little that Sister Rheostat does not know, and much that she is willing to tell...if you can meet her terms.

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copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna

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The Virgo Cultures

Based in the Virgo Cluster (pictured above, as seen from Earth), a supercluster of galaxies surrounding M87, 70 million lightyears from the Milky Way. The Virgans had a high and mighty culture, in many ways superior to culture in the Milky Way. About 22 million BCE, Garadhros met the expanding Virgo Cultures. A great war ensued, a war which resulted in the detonation of M-87's Core. Garadhros, however, was conquered and the Gergathan shut down. The Virgo warrior Jel Haran fought, and was seriously damaged, in this final war.

About 19 million BCE, Diebethar attacked and, ultimately, defeated the Virgo Cultures.

In 23,524 H.E, a Second Terran Empire vessel (the Virgo Mariner), carried a Scattered Worlds crew, under the command of Mal Arin, on a voyage of exploration to the Virgo Cluster.

Races, Features, and Planets:

Aurora's Children: Virgan race which eventually became the Twilight Dancers.

Metaneira: Planet of a small red sun in the Ring Galaxy of the Virgo Cluster; one of the current homes of the Twilight Dancers.

Ring Galaxy: A galaxy in the Virgo cluster approximately 70 million lightyears from the Milky Way (pictured right). Home galaxy of the Twilight Dancers.

Twilight Dancers: The ruling race of the Virgo Cluster.

Warriors of the Honorable Retribution: Corps of about 8,000 cyborg fighters who defeated the Gergathan c. 22 million BCE.

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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Emperor David Kuchta

Emperor of the Terran Empire TE 242-254

b. 29 May 224, Nagoya, Terra
d. 6 Feb 254, New York, Terra

David Kuchta was the first child of Empress Amy Kuchta and Robert Churchill. Developed in vitro and born when his mother was only 15, David was raised under the direction of his grandmother, Mandike Kuchta. David was a product of the Kuchta genetic enhancement program begun by his great-great grandfather Sten Kuchta (123-237). Although David showed mathematical and pattern-forming abilities rivaling those of his mother, he turned out to be a shy, uncertain child who grew up to be a hesitant, indecisive adult.

As a child, David was dominated by his sister Cathie, three years his junior. Cathie was smarter, more outgoing, and had a stronger personality than David, so it was perhaps natural that he should follow her advice and wishes. Once he was Emperor, Cathie was one of his chief advisors.

David Kuchta's reign was largely peaceful, and devoted to consolidation of the policies begun by Tsung Dao Wu and Amy Kuchta, including continued consolidation & integration of regional cultures and economies.

While Sten Kuchta's genetic enhancement program formally ended with his death in 237, some of the personnel involved allied themselves with researchers who had conducted similar programs in other Idara, in a clandestine breeding program later called the Kala Phenkae. In 252, under the sponsorship of Idara Kristeller, the Kala Phenkae found a permanent headquarters on the planet Obron.

Shortly after David took the Throne in 242, the number of worlds in the Empire passed the 4,000 mark. In TE 250, the Imperial Quarter-Millennial Celebration included the foundation of Cliodna, completing the settlement of all habitable worlds within 30 lightyears of Terra.

David Kuchta died in TE 254, at age 30, in a starship crash on Geled. Although foul play was suspected, no evidence was ever found. David was the first Emperor officially to die of a cause other than old age. (For reasons of security, Maj Thovold's death was officially recorded as old age.)

David was succeeded by his sister, Cathie Kuchta.

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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Dedication Speech for Ultrawave Relays

by Jane Elendan, Secretary-General of the Imperial Council
Year Day TE 70

Mesayyid of the Imperial Council; Citizens of the Empire: Human Beings across the Galaxy: Welcome. It is my great pleasure, and my even greater honor, to dedicate this network of Ultrawave Relays under the auspices of Imperial Centcom.

This is an historic moment. For the first time, the entire Galaxy is knit together by instantaneous Ultrawave. I stand here in the Imperial Council chambers on Terra—but my words and image appear simultaneously on all of the 252 worlds and countless settlements inhabited by Humans. From Lathyros to the Patalan Cluster and from Amny to distant Wakmarrel…no planet, no settlement, is isolated now.

Please join with me in thanking the thousands of engineers, techs, and others who labored so hard and so long to bring this gift to Humanity.

While these Ultrawave Relays are a project of the Terran Empire, but I must stress that their use is not limited to Imperial worlds. No planet, settlement, or person will be required to join the Empire in order to utilize this marvelous communications network. Imperial Centcom operates as a business, free of political influence, and will accept any and all customers. We want this boon available to the whole family of Humanity.

Better communications can only lead to better under-standing among peoples. Better communications can only allow us to know each other better, to reduce fear, hostility, and misunderstanding. Better communications can only increase peace.

This is my hope, and the hope of the Imperial Council.


copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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The Miranda Maris Institute for Wayward Artists

Around the spacious lobby, easily a hundred meters across, balconies rise the building's entire twelve stories, meeting great skylights far above. Four glass-walled elevators are involved in a stately vertical gavotte with one another. On the main floor below are a restaurant, two bars, dance floor, swimming pool, and scattered groups of tables, benches, and comfortable chairs. Stairways, ramps, doors, and arches lead off to other parts of the complex. Bright flags, pennants, and streamers dangle from the balconies. In the middle of the vast space hangs a three-dimensional, twenty-meter model of Drake's Starburst.

Home to over a hundred world-class artists and creative types, the Maris Institute is headquartered in a hotel-turned-artists'-colony outside Washington, DC. When United Nations troops raid the Institute in search of the Ivory Madonna, they discover that challenging artists on their home turf is a big mistake....

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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Ymfrex

Ymfrex is one of the Scattered Worlds. It is the innermost planet of an F-type star, and keeps one face permanently toward its sun. Two different inelligent races occupy Ymfrex. The Remra (Coruman for "night people") live on the dark side; their biochemistry consists of lipids in liquid hydrogen, at twenty to thirty degrees above Absolute Zero. The Ganremra ("day people") live on the day side, where temperatures are in excess of 400° C. -- they are composed of fluorocarbon and fluorosilicone protiens in liguid sulfur.

The two races, of course, are entirely separate and unable to meet one another -- yet they are aware of one another's existence, and communicate with each other (and the rest of the Scattered Worlds) through telepathic means.

Ymfrex is one of the few inhabited worlds in the Galaxy to have no native Hlutr population.

copyright (c) 2008, Don Sakers

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