Glossary for DESCENDING ROAD

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na: Arlen‘s words to his Trenzil : “Na suis Carchesme.” ‘Na suis' means to get or summon to the speaker.

nackack: nackack, nackacking: to talk rapidly back and forth, using argot or dialect, to help assure trust. A City understreet term.

Nadienne: member of Kai Ren Hau Coll, and partner to Tomas Shanxi.

nae mair: in Scottish dialect, “no more”.

Naga: zone, Nagasaki Zone in the old name. A region of the City above Armeni, Sobi and Rumchi Zones, arching over the South Power Complex.

nai’aerel: part of an interrupted word from the Trenzil.

nai’ya: a word in the language of Arlen‘s Trenzil. It means ‘making a stink.’

nailblades: nailblade, nailblades: fingernail weapons worn and used by the Gabbozi women of Darko Hejj Coll.

Nain: Nain, Nains: biosynthetic creatures invented and developed for spacecraft repair and part replacement under hostile conditions and emergency circumstances. A Nain is usually birthed as an encapsulated ball of highly-viscous macrofluid containing a spectrum of materials capable of changing and combining phases (solid/liquid/gaseous) and structures to derive any of a large number of robotic and intelligent devices or beings. On activation, usually through intense physical and informational contact at certain points, the Nain reconfigures itself to perform the specific task communicated to it via the contact.

Nain Mother: intelligence directing repair nains at starship Tompuso

Naming of People of Tarnus: The customs and traditions surrounding the names used for individuals, with several examples explained in some detail.

nanoengineering: the design discipline for nanostructures. The nanoengineering of the Hot Stick propulsion system, although not disclosed by Hau Ren, provided directed, fusion-powered expulsion of mass from the end of a cylindrical housing, a feat that orchestrated forces at multiple levels concurrently: mechanical, thermal, electrostatic, and nuclear. Western scientists were unable to determine how the Sinese had managed to achieve the directed-energy result without exploding the entire device in one vast cataclysm.

nanoprobe: nanoprobe, nanoprobes: a repair tool for cellular circuitry, using electron scanning instead of microptics.

nanos: usage for starship repair devices using nanometer-scale effects for delicate work.

nanosensors: nanostructures for detecting, recording, and transmitting sensory data.

nanostructure: nanostructure, nanostructured, nanostructures: a mechanism fabricated at a level of organization one step above pure molecular structure, in which the forces in play at the molecular level (e.g., van der Waals, Coulomb/electrostatic, chemical bonds) balance with the forces characterizing the desired physical interactions of the components of organization. Put simply, one can make a membrane portal that opens to permit passage of certain molecules and stays closed for everything else, functioning like an intelligent cell-level stoma or opening. Such a fabricated opening can be considered a nanostructure.

nanotool: nanotool, nanotools: the range of cellular-scale repair tools; a nanoprobe is one.

Nargolin: Ellichik‘s second in command.

Narr: Aswal Narr in Sobi Zone, where Tarjeli‘s herbal shop is.

narrowcasting: targeted messaging designed to issue appeals to individuals or groups whom the sender has identified as good prospects for positive responses.

Nassa: child of Darvelia Ans Kerran.

Naudi: a man in Thringe‘s band, partner to Rashua. Naudi plays the bright syntrell.

Nazilan: n., an andro woman who works as an artist in the City.

Nazrelo: the squad commander Andrew met in Trans Three above the South Power Complex.

Nazrino: Overgroup Manager Frintar‘s aide.

NBS: neurobiological substitution, a process of rewiring a body with new central-nervous-system components, replacing former brain elements with new ones grown and trained in andro farms. See biopuppet.

NC: NC, New Calendar: a starship crew abbreviation for “New Calendar", dating events from the starship arrival at Opo Bira Lima (Tarnus).

necklaced: the Argazindari use a form of scarification that causes exuberant vertical folds of flesh to wind spirals up and around the neck. The folds are then textured with further scarring.

neckpiece: neckpiece, neckpieces: necklace with a large, sculpted central decoration lying on the chest of the wearer.

Neerin: with Garth, one of the two corpos who visited Deen‘s and Marra‘s home.

neh: query for affirmation, like “Yes?” or “No?” Common Sinese usage derived from various Western expressions.

Nelson: one of Doug‘s fellow prisoners at Oberon.

Nemizanah: a streetchild follower of Mama Jones.

neorchid: neorchid, neorchids: a species based on the orchid, but with blooms that spill in cascades one from the one before, in a flood of color.

NEOs: Near Earth Objects, the smaller astronomical bodies having orbits intersecting that of Earth.

neroine: a mildly-addictive soporific drug with pain-relieving features.

Neshkilis femem essen sii: an invitation to eat, offered in a slangy dialect used between humans and automata.

Nessim-Lai: n., a male andro hunter, one of Gullinder‘s Hounds, assigned by Gullinder himself to find and destroy Jeddin.

netsession: a gathering in cyberspace of attendees at a meeting.

Neurinol: a police tool for quieting mobs: inhaled, it blocks voluntary motor-nerve impulses for up to a half-hour, leaving its victims as limp as jellyfish.

neuroactive: a class of grenade-type weapon. To quote Angie, “It explodes and emits a coherent train of electroacoustic pulses of extremely short duration and high amplitude. These pulses disrupt certain neuropeptide bonds in both humans and alien soldiers, triggering a metabolic cascade yielding significant amounts of motor paralytics. Humans die in seconds, alien soldiers in minutes.”

neurocable: neurocable, neurocables: synthetic connecting lines for severed or remotely-located vertebrate nerve complexes. These cables contain chemical– and information-processing capabilities which allow them to map severed nerves correctly. Often used in surgery.

neurogenic: fostering the growth (or regrowth) of nerve tissue.

neuroleader: a self-directed form of organism designed to enter a human nervous system and establish chemotactic pathways into prespecified glial sectors of the brain from other body areas. Requires careful preparation of the state of the body and its nervous system before administration.

neuromapper: neuromapper, neuromappers: a resonance-sensing tool used in nerve repair and enhancement. It provides the user with a trace that can be followed by a suitably-prepared neuroleader.

Neuroministry: the regulatory agency controlling the use of genetic engineering in Hyonarsa‘s time.

neuropeptide: neuropeptide, neuropeptides: one of many amino-acid chains, generally smaller than proteins, which are vital to nerve-impulse transmission.

neuroscript: neuroscript, neuroscripts: used by the first wave (pre-Colonization) of humans on the planet, a form of scenewriting functioning as a supersophisticated barcode, impressing its message directly on intermediate neural structures in the cortex. The current humans lack such cortical structures; andros possess a much-simplified form of them.

neurosexual: referring to components of the central nervous system serving the body’s sexual functions.

neurosystem: neurosystem, neurosystems: the central nervous system, or one of its clearly-defined subsystems.

neurotransforms: neurotransform, neurotransforms: drugs used in the pre-Colonist era to build extra capabilities into the human brain.

neutrocells: neutrocell, neutrocells: cystic cellular processes carrying a payload released only under certain chemical or biological conditions, such as the identification of lipopolysaccharides. The payload may be a defensive drug, a poison, or an energy enhancer. it may also e a viral transformer.

newsfeed: newsfeed, newsfeeds: a supplier of up-to-date information to people, via the sensi.

Nexi Harren: Nexi, Nexi Harren: longtime Darko Hejj friend of Andrew, proprietor of Dismarch Harren. ‘Nexi' is a nickname.

Nguyen Syndicate: Nguyen, Nguyen Syndicate: a smaller space-exploration combine based in southeast Asia.

Niggle: nain repair creature at starship Tompuso

nightglow: light pollution of the night sky by light directed or generally radiated upward from ground sources (e.g., cities, industries), making astronomical observation difficult or impossible in a broad area around the sources.

nocock: nocock, nococks: an understreet curse, of obvious meaning.

noejj: noejj, noejjaim: in the game of MuTou, an identifying cone or other shape placed atop the stack of shakken on an anj (board piece), to identify the player to whom the anj belongs. The term ‘noejj' is derived from a Gellin Sintherou Coll word for ‘fool’: ‘noiesjou’.

noktok: a system of communication among prisoners kept apart in different cells or cell blocks, using tapping on pipes or other sound-conductive structural elements to convey information. The system used pairs of numbers for each letter. The two numbers designated the row and column of a grid containing the letter to be transmitted. For example, in the five-by-five grid, the letter ‘t’ appears in the fourth row and the fourth column, so (four knocks) followed after a brief pause by (four knocks) meant ‘t’. The letter ‘j’ or the letter ‘q’ was omitted from the grid in the five-by-five. Prisoners identified themselves using the initials of the two-word pseudonyms they adopted, and addressed their communications by repeating the initials of the recipient a few times, sending their messages, and signing with a few repetitions of their own initials. Doug Macnee used ‘ww’ as his initials, short for ‘Word Wiz'. The system developed over the years into a sophisticated means of communicating a great deal in a very few letters, much the way online chat developed in the 20th century CE. It was tolerated by EmpCo and other prison firms because it could be used to monitor prisoner activities, spread misinformation, and cause prisoners to waste considerable time using it for mundane conversation rather than spend the time looking for new ways to cause trouble.

Nonna Tiziana: grandmother to Enrico, one of Pico Taranti‘s lovers.

noose: slang for nouess.

Norgrist: the University professor leading the research group studying the monopole evidence. After years of hard work with limited results, the group’s name for itself, ‘The Polechasers’, was adapted by their critics into a somewhat less attractive epithet: ‘The Holechasers’, referring to the social habits of a few of the group’s younger members.

Norman: a friend and fellow student of Miriam, on Earth.

Normazin: Hyonarsa‘s facilitating administrator, working for 3-TaniCorp.

Norress: lost his ear to Jaeg on Teshill Slope.

Northwest Marshes: the swampy boglands of Muathen, lying about seven thousand kilometers west-northwest of the City, west and south of the Crash Range foothills.

Norwell: Andrew‘s third brother, after Martin and Raul.

nouess: self, spirit, soul.

nouZKner: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. nouZKner is in the far ultraviolet range (95-187 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color red-violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G sharp or A flat. Pronunciation of sounds written as SR (*) or ZK (+) as spoken in anjive is described briefly in Andro Notes. From tabular data: nouZKner is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. nouZKner is in the Far Ultraviolet (95-187 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, nouZKner equates to a musical G#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “nouZKner": nouZKner is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. nouZKner is in the Far Ultraviolet (95-187 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, nouZKner equates to a musical G#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Novander man

Novander Wye: Novander, Novander Wye, Novander Wye Coll, Wye: one of the colls of the insurrection. Members of Novander Wye had killed Ezzar‘s family. From tabular data: Novander Wye refers to one of the collective clans of Tarnus. The names of all the colls are found in the reference table titled COLL NAMES. From tabular data for “Novander Wye": Novander Wye refers to one of the collective clans of Tarnus. The names of all the colls are found in the reference table titled COLL NAMES.

NR-86i: a classification of body type.

numeroseal: numeroseal, numeroseals: a personal identifier grafted to the back of the left thumb, containing a small biocomputer that generates a numeric code. The code, varying from one use to the next, creates a unique sequence of numbers which identifies the bearer.

Nurumin: younger brother of Nexi Harren.

nutrifuser: nutrifuser, nutrifusers: functioning like an intravenous feed, these intelligent bags glue themselves to the skin of the user, locate an appropriate blood vessel, penetrate the skin and vessel, and feed their contents directly into the user’s bloodstream at a rate regulated by chemical feedback from the user’s body.

Nuzima: the clan within Arcus Coll to which Leil‘s father Triesh belongs.

Nye: Terence Nye, prison worker alongside Doug at Oberon starship assembly site

Nyeg: negation – street term.