Glossary for DESCENDING ROAD

To Index

H-space: the embedding medium of normal spacetime and other dimensions. Little or no agreement among human physicists on the nature, extent and meaning of the ‘other dimensions’, which are usually treated as abstractions. See also hirh-space.

hagfly: hagflies, hagfly: an insectoid in the City and the smaller cities of Tarnus, scavenging dead animal matter from the streets in beetle-fashion. Named for its odd frontal appearance, its dangling palps and angled eyes making it look like an ugly person, and its droning buzz created by the rattle of its wings in flight.

halfcock: halfcock, halfcocks: a derogatory epithet, aimed at a man, indicating the amount of space needed to store his brain.

halfday: halfday, halfdays: Half a day. The day on this world is slightly longer than a day on Earth.

halfdroid: halfdroid, halfdroids: a human amputee who, usually due to insufficiency of funds, has been forced to accept machine prosthetics instead of undergoing vat regeneration.

halflight: term for the time of day in the City when the light level is shifted between night and day. Halflight is two hours of light levels held at the equivalent of sunrise or sunset on the surface of Tarnus.

hallucins: psychedelic drugs.

han: greeting to an acquaintance or someone newly introduced.

hana: greeting to a couple, acknowledging a bond between them.

Hanch: Leil‘s (and her mother’s) old nickname for Andrew. A play on two Astran Terxil terms: ‘Hanchi’ meaning ‘skinny’, and ‘Hanjiu’, a form of the name ‘Andrew'.

Handarin Selvi: Handarin, Handarin Selvi, Selvi: a Novander Wye Coll member, killed in a blood feud with Arcus Coll.

handible: one form of the grasping appendage at the end of a gack‘s arm.

handjack: handjack, handjacks: the equivalent of the Swiss Army knife, but with a wider range of ingeniously-folded-in tools, for everything from microrepair of optronics to drilling holes in steelstone.

handwagon: handwagon, handwagons: human-drawn four-wheeled cart with hyperplasm tires and small buffering motors for assiting the puller. The motors, one on each wheel, brake on downslopes and store the braking energy for use in helping with positive torque on the upslopes.

hanhorhn: the alien reproductive process, taking place at the height of qaqanhialh.

hanneh: greeting to a superior officer or other higher-ranking individual.

hantiih: a collective term referring to the powers of weirlocks and weirds, which often seem inexplicable in scientific terms. Common meaning is ‘witchcraft’.

HardCaps: a UniCorp diet enhancement supposed to provide male erectile stamina.

hardshell: a form of anchitin armor used by some of the alien/ andro fighters (bug soldiers, bugboys, choppers). Much harder than the tough anchitin normally grown, hardshell is made by laminating anchitin with synthetics.

Harren: see Nexi Harren, Dismarch Harren

Harridium: Ezzar‘s maternal clan, one of the clans in Arcus Coll.

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

Harrin: one of Rask‘s bodyguards.

Harvath: Desolation, Harvath: the continent on the far (western) side of the Little Ocean from Muathen, the Upper Continent. Harvath is called the Desolation, poisoned by human civilizations so thoroughly that, in the five thousand years since its last animals had died it had still not recovered diverse ecosystems. Some SRDs, usually from the more rebellious or badly-favored City zones, are sent there.

hastate: shaped like the head of a spear.

hatchings: crosshatch scars used by some colls as clan markings. Resemble tartans in their patterns.

hau: hau, hau ma, ni hau, ni hau ma: in Sinese, ‘good’. Its most common usage is in the standard greeting, “Ni hau ma?”, meaning “How are you?” The literal translation is, roughly, “You good?” Standard Chinese usage in earlier times applied tones to the greeting, but the tones slowly became lost as the language evolved. Friends using the greeting often drop one or more of the words altogether, as in “Ni hau?” or when listener or speaker is not Sinese, “Hau ma?” or more often just “Hau?”.

Hau Da Hua: Hau Da Hua, HDHR, HowMou: the Kai Ren Hau Coll sensi feed. From tabular data: Hau Da Hua is the official Kai Ren Hau Coll supplier. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Hau Da Hua in private conversation as the HowMou. From tabular data for “Hau Da Hua": Hau Da Hua is the official Kai Ren Hau Coll supplier. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Hau Da Hua in private conversation as the HowMou.

Hau Ren: the largest of the Sinese combines, responsible for the design, development, manufacture, and deployment of the starships.

Hau Ren Rep: representative of Hau Ren combine for starship passenger acceptance

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

HC: a calendar system adopted several centuries after the departure of the Tompuso for Zeta Tucanae. ‘HC' stands for “Human Century”, which essentially uses the Common Era calendar and counts in hundred-year units, so that 5.999 HC is about the year 5999 CE.

headflag: headflag, headflags: decorative head adornments, made of delicate sticks and thin, brightly-colored cloth, worn by women and girls during festivals.

headshell: headshell, headshells: the anchitin helm worn by the alien/andro soldiers.

headsmith: headsmith, headsmiths: the pains caused by rapid brain-tissue transformations occurring in andros receiving neural-upgrade genetics. See genebuilder. The upgrades to andro brains are rarely trouble-free. Headaches are common; seizures less so. Occasionally an upgrade will misregister, affecting an area of the brain not targeted; in such situations the andro will die.

heatshield: heatshield, heatshields: the hand-carried shields used by fighters in the City against beam weapons. A heatshield normally consisted of: a front layer made of mirror crystal capable of reflecting many types of beam energy back at their sources; a radiative layer able to conduct away heat; an ablative layer designed to melt, absorb energy into chemical transformation, and drip away; and a support layer to hold everything else together.

Heaven Too: heave-ho, Heaven, Heaven Too: n., Heaven and Heaven Too are brand names for any of a family of fruit drinks concocted with sex-drive-enhancing drugs by the chemists of RhoCorp. ‘heave-ho' is the slang term, probably referring to the effects of drinking too much of any of these.

Hedgebreak: a street in Sobi Zone.

Hejjati Shushan: DHCS, Doggies, Hejjati Shushan, Shushan, Shushers: the Darko Hejj Coll sensi feed. From tabular data: Hejjati Shushan is a Darko Hejj supplier. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Hejjati Shushan in private conversation as the Shushers, Gack, Doggies. From tabular data for “Hejjati Shushan": Hejjati Shushan is a Darko Hejj supplier. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Hejjati Shushan in private conversation as the Shushers, Gack, Doggies.

Helen: former partner of Harold Enrique.

helift: helift, helifts: a helical moving stair used in some cities for travel between levels. Consists of two concentric and countermoving helices of steps.

helm: helm, helmbuddies, helmbuddy, helms: battle helmets or helms were evolved over centuries to carry a wide range of support capabilities for the soldier. Has perceptual extensions into different ranges and modes of electromagnetic, sonic, and olfactory emission; damping screens and filters to attenuate the shocks of battle; monitors for the wearer’s physiological state; drug and nutrient support; chaotic-spectrum communications links; and intelligence to guide and encourage the wearer. The intelligence, usually called the helmbuddy, expresses itself in voice exchanges with the wearer, usually in a voice type to which the wearer tended to give the most complete attention. Some say that the helmbuddy is actually a living mind encased in the helm; most pay this rumor little heed.

Hendarno: an officer in the City rebel uprising.

Heng: Dr. Heng, Sinese reviewer of cryosleep development

Herbert: a prison trusty at the starship assembly site at Oberon.

Herindina: an understreet in Poly Town.

heteromagic: ‘Magic number’ in physics refers in one sense to the peaks in the plot of nuclear binding energy against proton count against neutron count. ‘Heteromagic' refers to perceived shifts in the peaks of this nuclear binding energy; theorists at the University, including Professor Norgrist, believed that the shifts they detected in these peaks among actinide elements were related to the possible presence or trace of monopoles.

hickdick: hickdick, hickdicks: a City term for surface country dwellers.

hickside: a City term for surface country locations.

hidrenalex: a modified form of epinephrine, coupled with certain neurotransmission enhancers. Issued in combat situations to military units.

Hings-Wen: a Kai Ren Hau friend of Andrew.

hirh-space: the alien name for the range of dimensions they inhabit. Our spacetime continuum is a subrange of theirs.

Hiri: one of the Nains.

Hive: Hive, Hives: the name for a unit housing prisoners at the starship construction sites. Each Hive, shaped like a spherical polyhedron, held several hundred prisoners.

hol: streetchild word for ‘hold’.

Hole: the name used by prisoners working in starship assembly at the sites near Uranus, like the Oberon site, to refer to the regen tanks.

Holeface: one of the street children, named for the size of his mouth and appetite.

holo: holo, holos: holographic image projection. Used in many applications; a datasheet or datacard can project a full-action 3-D image either in front of or behind the plane of the screen.

holocam: holocam, holocams: a camera for recording holographic scenes.

holomap: holomap, holomaps: the three-dimensional character of the City require map portrayals that revealed that character; holos do the job. Holomaps generally provide for suppression and tagging of certain areas, planes, classes of entries, and threads as the viewers prefer, just to simplify the tangle.

holoscreen: holoscreen, holoscreens: the plane in which holos are generated.

holoshow: holoshow, holoshows: an attempt to provide human audiences with at least some of the experience of the andros' innerspace. Much like virtual reality, with limited tactile and motor interaction.

holotank: a three-dimensional viewing device filled with light-driven nanopixels, capable of a near-infinite range of maximum-resolution 3D displays. Such a device, cylindrical in shape and about seven meters in diameter, usually filled the center of a 10-meter-square room. When viewed in combination with goggles offering special heads-up processing enhancements, the holotank immersed the viewer in a world very rich in both information and feeling.

holotour: holotour, holotours: a sensi program showing the viewer around some remote site or scene, with narration and sales pitches worked in as well.

hook: get a hook, hook: a strong mental and emotional connection approaching addiction in its ability to hold attention and focus energy. Refers to musical themes, written and sensi-presented ideas, foods, and almost anything else.

hooksong: hooksong, hooksongs: a melody and words forming a self-reinforcing pattern in the listener’s brain, analogous to a soliton wave in physics. These musical patterns remain strong in a person for a lifetime. They are used in the major festivals, but their use is disapproved of in everyday music.

Hot Stick: the Sinese name for their monstrous mass-driver propulsion technology developed for the starships. One of the engineers summarized the Hot Stick this way: “Chew up an iron asteroid and roll it into thin sheets. Make a thick hydrogen-fusion sheet the same size. Roll all the sheets into a big cigar. Light the cigar. Please don’t stand at the lighted end. In fact, don’t stand at either end.” The details of the hydrogen-fusion sheet remain a secret of Hau Ren, but the technology worked quite well, once the first stages were cleaned up. When a Hot Stick burns, it can accelerate a lot of mass to hundreds of kilometers per second. One reason for the placement of the starship factories at Uranus is that when they burn, the Hot Stick mass-drivers leave behind a huge mess.

hovercab: an electrically-powered ground-effect taxicab used in most major cities of Earth after the 22nd century CE.

hoverman: driver of a hovercab or other ground-effect vehicle.

Hrothgar: the lord of the Danes, and builder of Heorot Hall, in the ancient-Earth epic Beowulf. Hrothgar‘s men were savaged by the monster Grendel.

Huruishen: a transcendent holy figure of Gellin Sintherou legend and teaching.

hydrotorch: hydrotorch, hydrotorches: a device used for melting snow and ice, combining an oxyhydrogen flame with a high-velocity stream of superheated water.

Hyonarsa: the inventor and builder of the andros.

hypercrystal: hypercrystal, hypercrystals: the Singer‘s word for a regular polytopic structure of more than three dimensions. Transparent to distortions in the embedding H-space.

hyperflechette: hyperflechette, hyperflechettes: powered, vaned projectiles with steering capability. Used where ballistics would be too noisy and beams too disruptive.

hyperknotted: sheaves entangled with themselves and each other in hirh-space.

hyperopsin: hyperopsin, hyperopsins: more-sensitive forms of the retinal chemicals responsive to light. These enable seeing by starlight on a night with light clouds.

hyperoxygen: an oxygen-enriched molecular complex used in the regeneration tank called the Hole to supply oxygen to a patient immersed in the liquid of the tank.

hyperplasm: a sticky biofluid used as a filling for load-bearing cavities (tires, pads). Capable of stiffening and loosening dependent on load and on the signals from adjacent materials.

hypersense: hypersense, hypersenses: the senses of andros, enhanced by their genetics and biochemical modifications. Smell, taste, sight, hearing, touch, immune-response, and kinesthetic senses all are upgradable; specific tasks such as virus production for andro service require specific andro enhancements in the workers.

hyperskies: the sky is deep; the hyperskies of innerspace are depth itself, depth and change. To andro minds, innerspace is utter freedom; to humans, it can be terrifyingly empty.

hypno: a class of jector pellets designed to drug the target to a level of suggestibility. Why fight for someone’s money if you can make them feel generous enough to offer it freely?

hypnobeat: an oddly-asymmetrical rhythm in which different cycles of pulses increase and decrease in volume and tone to create a mesmerizing effect on its hearers. Often used in the more frenzied festivals of the City.

hyporchid: hyporchid, hyporchids: flowers derived from orchid strains with opiate chemistry. These release a slow fume of sweet, addictive scents that make these plants favorites in many homes in the upper levels of the City.