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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Find out more in A Rose From Old Terra by 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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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna

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