Glossary for DESCENDING ROAD

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packmeal: flying lunch, packmeal, pseudo-steak: a small block of nutrients stored for the duration of a starship‘s journey and intended for use by a newly-awakened passenger or crew member at the end, just to help restart the digestive system and give its consumer sufficient energy to accomplish the first stages of work. When Elena calls one a flying lunch, it’s a reference both to the ten-thousand-year flight the food endured and to the tendency of its consumers to regurgitate it fairly rapidly if they ate too much too soon. The taste of packmeal would all by itself make a subject for a lengthy essay. The best part of the packmeal is the pseudo-steak, which is added to the remaining ingredients from vats activated before the crew and passengers are brought up from cryosleep.

padsack: padsack, padsacks: much like a sleeping bag, this is used in the beds of most inns as a combination blanket, sheet and comforter.

Paleologus: n., name identifying a line of Byzantine emperors of Ancient Earth, of whom Michael VIII Paleologus, starting his reign by taking Constantinople, began the longest unbroken line of rulers that ended in the fall of Byzantium.

panpan: panpan, panpans: a tambourine-shaped drum, capable of shifting its tonal response and timbre according to the degree of pressure with which its edge-handle is squeezed.

paraleather: a half-biological, half-synthetic fabric having strong self-repair and penetration-resistance abilities.

Paramedic: medical specialist for cryosleep preparation

paranatal: the richer citizens of the City have access to the full range of anti-aging treatments, which are usually administered in paranatal tanks, similar to the tanks in the andro farms.

paraviol: paraviol, paraviols: a stringed fretless instrument having harmonic enhancers built into it, giving it the most potent, even overpowering, effects on both humans and andros who hear it played well.

parhirh: the alien name for their ship.

Park Hee: Hee, Park Hee: an outspoken Korean propulsion physicist working for the Sinese combines on the starships.

Parthren: a woman of the City, one of Arlen‘s associates.

Pazzan: a server at Kuklagrad, a barhole deep in Rumchi Zone.

peacecall: peacecall, peacecalls: the Zashinhalh equivalent of a soothing mantra.

penmen: prisoners.

Periliath: Grendel‘s vat partner during his growth; depending on the tasks for which they are destined, andros have from one to eight others who share vat-stage development with them.

permtexts: permtext, permtexts: a form of printing designed to last for many thousands of years, invented and fabricated during the pre-Colonist era.

perradiant: radiating energy disturbances in the many-dimensioned medium of innerspace. The eyes of the aliens, the Zashinhalh, both issue radiation and receive it, but in modes not capable of visualization in normal space.

PFO: Prime Finance Organizer. The City administration is split into zonal groups, each of which has executive heads for the usual administrative departments. Due to its immense flow of funds, Dannemor Zone’s top Finance Organizer is ranked higher than most others, with the rank of Prime. Other zones bestow the title of Prime only on the topmost administrative executive, the General Officer.

pharm engines: pharm engines, pharmaceutical foundries: the automated factories, integrating hydroponics to provide foods containing the drugs being synthesized, that begin operation at the starship destination. The foodstuffs produced by these systems relieves the monotony of the use of packmeals.

pharma: pharma, pharmas: a generic term for any drug that has psychological and/or neurological effects.

pharmacompensation: the ability to rebalance body-mind homeostasis with drugs and needed body chemicals. Battle helms are equipped with analyzers that build ribosomal factories for specialized drug delivery to the wearer under shifting conditions.

phasemetal: macro-phasemetal, phasemetal: a topic of research in the 23rd and 24th centuries, phasemetals are substances composed of metallic and non-metallic elements in amorphous molecular matrices resembling liquid crystals. The application of radio, infrared, or light radiation, or physical stress, causes phasemetals to switch sharply between a rigid metallic phase and a flowing viscous-liquid phase. Difficulties achieving and maintaining the necessary levels of purity restricted early research to microgram-sized samples. The long-term goal of the research is to produce macro-phasemetals, meaning samples on the kilogram scale of magnitude, that can be used as valves, doors, even dynamic machinery and synthetic muscle.

Phobos: the larger of the two moons of Mars.

Pico: Pico, Taranti: Pico Taranti, Shanghai restaurant owner.

piggybacker: piggybacker, piggybackers: viral piggybackers splice themselves into their bearer’s genome in actively-dividing cell populations, and proceed to churn out large numbers of varying forms of bearer-tailored antibody, along with copies of the antibody replication sequence in the form of prions. Useful in countering slow-acting but unknown microbes.

pikki: streetchild word for ‘little kid’. See balli.

pinfly: pinflies, pinfly: a winged insect with a body the size of a pinhead, related to the Drosophila family.

pipelight: pipelight, pipelights: the cities used the reflective inner surfaces of large, sealed metal pipes to bring light from the surface down to the people living many levels down. Due to the expense of space taken up, this practice was limited to a few chambers of each level. In a more-traditional sense deriving from Earth usage, daylight transmitted passively through multiple levels and walls using fiberoptic pipes designed for the purpose. The diameters of these pipes are kept small by concentrating light with large-diameter lenses at the entry point, thereby increasing the amount of light energy transmitted per fiber.

pipewall: pipewall, pipewalls: the inner surface of a conduit tunnel in the City‘s underground. These tunnels were round like pipes, sometimes like two pipes that overlapped to create a wider passage for larger volumes of power, light and fluid tubing while allowing human or andro access.

plaintext: plaintext, plaintexts: the clear decrypted or unencrypted text of a message.

planefly: planeflies, planefly: an indigenous, insectoid creature of Tarnus similar to a dragonfly.

plasma dinner: a method of committing suicide used by starship-construction prisoners, consisting of pointing a plasma welder at one’s face and activating it.

plasma welder: a deep-space torch generating sufficient heat to weld high-carbon steel alloys, used in the construction of the starships.

plasmelt: plasma welders can be ganged together for large jobs, and inmates performing starship construction turned this feature to their advantage just once when a particularly-brutal superintendent at one of the Hives at Titania imposed extra punishments after discovering that the inmates were covering for one of their own who was very ill. The Titania pens lashed the entire stock of their plasma welders together into a huge cannon, and blew their Hive apart, killing the superintendent, many of the guards, and some fellow prisoners. They were subsequently killed themselves by a military unit dispatched to put them down.

plast: a multiphase material made of gypsum, plastic and lightweight metal, used in construction of everything from buildings to sheaths for knives, to helms and trasnparent visors.

Plugout: the time of day in sectors of many Earth cities when the electric power plants were shut down to conserve energy for the next daily cycle.

plus-ape: plus-ape, plus-apes: a genetically-engineered subhuman developed by PrangCorp before the creation of the andros.

plute: plutonium ore, as found at the breeder mine sites. The actinide ore bodies on Tarnus in many places had unusual properties, due in part to the high concentration of such heavy-mass elements. Over millions of years, in descending confluences of streams, uranium leached from beds in the upthrust mountains washed down to concentrate in a water-covered, single silt mass at the bottoms of dishlike depressions. When the stratifying concentration reached sufficient thickness, neutron radiation from decaying uranium kicked off a self-sustaining chain reaction, sufficiently intense and well-balanced that the deposit would begin to breed plutonium. The reactions cycled between subcritical, when the lake was quiet, and runaway, when the generated heat and radiation boiled the water and melted the rock, diffusing the fissionable material. Finally the streams dried up, the lake drained, the reaction died out, and the diminished plutonium, uranium, and reaction by-products lay decaying and oxidizing until they were partially covered with fallen rock. Diluted by erosion and decay, the ore body’s evolution slowed to a crawl, smothered gently through millenia by rotted layers of overgrowth twisted and chancred to peculiarity with mutation.

pod: an ovoid one-person spacecraft about 4m high, 3m wide, and 4m front to back, with a large transparent front serving as an access door, two large, powerful mechanical arms ending in grippers, and an array of jets to maneuver in tight spaces. An operator enters and exits the pods in a pressurized bay via the access door, which is placed and sealed before the pod is sent into vacuum. On the starship Tompuso, pods are used in midflight ship repair, and in constructing landers out of ship components after arrival. Pods provide atmosphere for their operators, eliminating the need for space suits.

Pod Assemblers: starship crewmen working to assemble and service maintenance and assembly pods for landers

polegroup: polegroup, polegroups: visualize a circle of ripples spreading from a disturbance on a pond surface, or a spherical shell of energy exploding away from a supernova at the speed of light. Now translate that disturbance into a hyperspherical wavefront of fractional dimension 6.71, elongate it into a hypercylinder, multiply it by thousands, and you have a little of the sense of “black-red waves of polegroups clashing”. The conflicting colors and confusing topology reflect the inadequacy of translation from the Zashinhalh expression.

Poly Town: a sub-zone between Sobi and Rumchi, noted for its availability to both aliens and crime.

polycomb: a lightweight shock-absorbing filler for sections of a helmet.

polycushion: a form of protective grease used to pack metal parts. It combines a lubricant with a plastic matrix that holds heavy objects in place.

polyfluoricene: a plastic highly absorptive of all energies of ionizing radiation.

polyglass: a biologically-produced, high-strength, transparent insulator.

polyrhythmic: the peoples of Tarnus possess a powerful sense of timing and rhythm, protected and enhanced in the final treaty-driven changes, following the plague wars, that produced the binding restrictions of Gene Law. Such events as Corsang Run reveal the magnificent range of this set of abilities. In the playing and singing at such a festival, the metrical patterns of speech accents, both sung and drummed, couple with the strict layering of different cycles of beats to produce an effect that transcends language altogether. The teachings of the colls call this effect “singing the world into being.”

porkface: a rude name used sometimes to refer to those lacking the usual degree of skin pigmentation.

Portaluce: a woman who served as host for a large number of aliens, spreading them among other people outside the zones to which aliens were supposed to be restricted.

Portia: one of the small inner moons of Uranus, seventh nearest to the planet.

Pounitzaro: a prominent anthropologist and author, she organized a series of symposia on the temporal chiasms of the Archives. Her brilliant work led to the unexpected discovery of dimensional closures in the Archive‘s depths, and the revelation that the ainons of the Archives were not timebound, making the inscription of history a matter of living narrative of past, present, and future all at once. The Zashinhalh had hinted at this paradox, but never explained it before their departure from Tarnus. Few at the University understand Pounitzaro‘s work, and some of the scientists there have condemned it as “mere literary superficiality.” Norgrist‘s group, however, has explored it for some time, and they are preparing to release several papers on the mathematical underpinnings of Pounitzaro‘s work.

Power Complex Hospital Woman

powercell: powercell, powercells: storage device for electrical power for most vehicles.

powershafts: powershaft, powershafts: pre-Colonist energy lines tapping into the magma of Tarnus, used for power in the City during that era, and used by Jono after his escape from the wall.

powertile: powertile, powertiles: high-efficiency solar power panels used in roofing.

Praezenti: the story of the romance that united two of the strongest colls into the Kai Ren Hau coll at the start of the First Dynasty. Praezenti was the daughter of Anzar, the woman who chiefed the Ra Ko Coll; Gorunde was the son of Turianno, the woman leading the Ra Ko’s principal enemy, the Wir Coll. Praezenti and Gorunde met in a skirmish in the deeps of the City; both betrayed their own colls and left the City to found a colony on the Lower Continent, escaping pursuit down the Black Crevasse of the Great South Fall. The story is long, and interesting only to the Kai Ren Hau.

Prang: Prang, PrangCorp: genetic-engineering corp, prominent before Hyonarsa‘s design and fabrication of the andros.

Prentis: cousin of Nexi Harren.

Presigno: A term designating a mine section discovered already excavated before Colonist habitation on Tarnus. The shafts and tunnels of these places were found to hold skeletal remains, some with ordinary human anatomy, but others with a variety of strange variations.

Prilby: one of Orbaker‘s fellow Senators.

priZKSRar: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. priZKSRar is in the far infrared range (3000-1500 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color blue-violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be F sharp or G flat. Pronunciation of sounds written as SR (*) or ZK (+) as spoken in anjive is described briefly in Andro Notes. From tabular data: priZKSRar is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. priZKSRar is in the Far Infrared (3000-1500 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, priZKSRar equates to a musical F#, and is in the same place in the octave as Blue-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “priZKSRar": priZKSRar is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. priZKSRar is in the Far Infrared (3000-1500 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, priZKSRar equates to a musical F#, and is in the same place in the octave as Blue-Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

prob zero: extremely unlikely.

Progarnes: Arlen‘s chief torture physician.

prohyena: prohyena, prohyenas: as the name partially implies; a creature much like a hyena, less strong, but somewhat more intelligent.

Pronouncing Zashinhalh Names: How to speak the names that the aliens use, as heard in the mind

pronunciation: pronouncing terms in CLang, Share, and other languages, for readers not immersed in Tarnus culture and language, takes some learning. For the pronunciation of alien names, see the article titled Zash Names. Additional articles will eventually cover the human languages of Tarnus.

protovirus: protovirus, protoviruses: a highly-volatile viral gene sequence, used in the andro farms to derive the maintenance viruses and their payloads. See genebuilder.

prybar: a crowbar as designed for starship use, particularly during lander assembly at the destination.

pseudofamily: pseudofamilies, pseudofamily: the innerspace biohelm-supplied projections presented to developing andros as their parents and siblings and other family members, in order to train them in social bonding and communication. See pseudohistories.

pseudoflesh: a semisynthetic tissue used in making masks for festival wear and for disguise in other situations.

pseudohistory: pseudohistories, pseudohistory: to condition the growing andro brain in the vats as its owner grows, the andro farms use the biohelm to funnel in a vast river of sensations to the growing andro. These sensations are presented as a coherent story of a life, usually a very free and enriched existence, being lived by the helm‘s wearer. Grendel‘s pseudohistory of a life in the mountains is typical.

pseudomammal: pseudomammal, pseudomammals: any of several families of catlike creatures inhabiting the understreets of the cities of Tarnus, living off other smaller creatures such as beetles.

pseudopod: pseudopod, pseudopods: Onnhasshakh often took on forms which allowed an amoeba-like mode of movement and extension, including the use of pseudopods to reach and affect those nearby.

psychoactive: see pharma.

psychogas: a gas weapon that diffuses rapidly through still air, and carries one or more psychoactive components making the victim who breathes it lose the ability to function rationally.

Puck: one of the small inner moons of Uranus, twelfth nearest to the planet.

pulser: pulser, pulsers: weapons used to disable electronic equipment. see also EMPulse.

pump out: pump out, pump out the lower levels, pumped out, pumped out her lower levels, pumped out the lower levels, pumping out, pumping out her lower levels, pumping out the lower levels: to attempt any impossibly difficult task, originally comparing a task’s difficulty to that of clearing the thousands of years of accumulated debris and filth from the bottom levels of the City‘s airshafts. A more specific and ribald City usage: to try to satisfy a great appetite, particularly a sexual one. More frequently used by both sexes in reference to women, in this last sense.

pupilless: artificial eyes, used to see in other than the visible range of the spectrum, lacked pupils.

puri: a hot dish prepared from tubers and longnuts and a rich array of spices. Often used as a welcoming meal for guests.

puroiz: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. puroiz is in the far infrared range (3000-1500 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color violet. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be G. From tabular data: puroiz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. puroiz is in the Far Infrared (3000-1500 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, puroiz equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “puroiz": puroiz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. puroiz is in the Far Infrared (3000-1500 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, puroiz equates to a musical G, and is in the same place in the octave as Violet. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Purple Man: a visual representation of one of the makers of andro upgrades, serving both as an identifying signature and as a guide for the receiver of the upgrade.

Purusil: one of the lesser underground cities of Tarnus, on the west coast of the Upper Continent, Muathen. Home to colls sympathetic to andros.

Putonghua: the common speech of the mainland Sinese.

Pué: the star Zeta Tucanae, renamed in preparation for the starship migrations.

Pylyshyn: a prison guard working for EmpCo.

pyro: an addictive drug requiring the retroviral installation of neural modifications generating a specialized class of neurotransmitters. The result is an incredibly intensified sexual experience.

pyro tap: pyro tap, pyro taps, pytap, pytaps: n., a tap for feeding drugs into the bloodstream, usually placed in the inner thigh.

pyroseal: a form of pseudoflesh used to replace, temporarily, the destroyed skin of burn victims.