Glossary for DESCENDING ROAD

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saddleback: saddleback, saddlebacks: a passage, like a pass, at a high point in a road between two hills.

saddler: saddler, saddlers: a highly-flexible biomechanism used by pairs of women to share sexual stimulation. A woman may also use one on a man.

sadeshti: Trenzil, sadeshti na, Arlen‘s directions to wake up the prisoner.

sai: sai, shau, zaerel: Trenzil, sai shau‘ich na zaerel are Arlen‘s words to Trenzil directing it to take the prisoner (Rion) to the transfer area.

sakha: sakha, varrin: Sakha‘ns varrin, Arlen‘s directions to Trenzil directing it to let its captives go free.

Salipocyt: a paranatal bath, used in the regeneration tanks to condition the dermal tissues.

salt herbs: term for a blend of dried leaves and seeds from flowers and shrubs grown north of Purusil. Used in a wide variety of dishes.

Salvo: Salvador Zone, in the City.

sandrukha: one of the great pair dances of the cities, a dance of courtship and desire and loss and hope. It is set against a very slow pulse, which is tripled and then tripled again as the dance gathers force, and then slowed again, in cycles as numerous as the dancers can endure. The movements resemble a tango tightening to flamenco pace and then relaxing again, all in a three-beat pattern. The partners remain in contact throughout the dance, sometimes straining to pull apart, sometimes clenching close, sometimes drifting gently together. The sandrukha demands exquisite muscle control and body and limb flexibility. Passion helps. For more on this powerful and pervasive dance, see The Sandrukha.

sanga: a strong, sweet, peppery, spicy red syrup from the bloodleaf bamboo, grown in the lower valleys south of the Great South Fall. Very popular in the City when served as a condiment for tubers.

Sangrai: see Arlen.

Santi: Santiago Zone, in the upper levels of the City.

Sarr: Guard at the University, killed by Jeddin.

Sarr’s Alien: one of the Zashinhalh, inhabiting Sarr when Jeddin encounters them.

saruZK: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. saruZK is in the human range (375-750 nm), and its name refers to 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: saruZK is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. saruZK is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, saruZK 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 “saruZK": saruZK is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. saruZK is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, saruZK 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.

Saryn’s Neck: a surface town, a distance from Andrew‘s farm, lying southeast of Drevill. Starting from the farm, the journey is over twice the distance from the farm to Drevill.

sav: streetchild word for ‘know’.

saxifrage: a medicinal herb.

schiezz: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. schiezz is in the near infrared range 1500-750 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color yellow-green. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be D. From tabular data: schiezz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. schiezz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, schiezz equates to a musical D, and is in the same place in the octave as Yellow-Green. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “schiezz": schiezz is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. schiezz is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, schiezz equates to a musical D, and is in the same place in the octave as Yellow-Green. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

scoping key: scoping key, scoping keys: a datasheet feature allowing the user to establish the desired range of a display or a query.

scopolia: a medicinal herb, used by Marra and Deen for a wide range of purposes.

Scratch Crevice: a narrow street five levels above Aswar Nagrasai, where Sulimar lives.

screw: on Tarnus, a screwstair. In starship labor slang, a prisoner, particularly any prisoner placed in the starship construction program off-Earth.

screwstair: screw, screws, screwstair, screwstairs: any spiral stairway in the City consisting of a stepped metal framework mounted on a thick pole or shaft running down the middle of a cylindrical shaft just large enough to hold two large people side by side. Distinguished from the standard spiral stairs, which have a central column of native stone. Screwstairs are common where travel between levels is needed but space and safety are not of primary importance.

scythewire: a terrorist tool of destruction, it consists of one-third-meter lengths of twisted, edge-drawn wire of extremely heavy metal, tempered for maximum tensile strength. Packed around explosives and detonated, it causes widespread flesh damage and death. See junk bomb.

sealdoor: an airlock door.

Second Dynasty: the second great advance-period of human history on Tarnus, marked by terror, turbulence, and upheaval. Chronicled in the Caldron‘s archives. From Baumesser: “In 5042 AC the Argazindar Coll overthrew the world governing body and declared its own rule, lasting 787 years until 5828 AC. This was the Second Dynasty, notorious for its rule by terror and violence. The social order fragmented, the flagrant misuse of genetic material by the Argazindari and others led to waves of increasingly-destructive epidemics, and the slide into anarchy culminated in the Genedriver Plague in 6037 AC.“

Security Arch: the governmental structure of the Fourth Dynasty, operating at the time of the story. The Security Arch comprises three tiers: the Security Group, responsible for the stability and continuation of human society across all of Tarnus; the Regional Councils and their agencies, responsible for the governing of specific regions of the planet; and the City Governments, for the underground cities such as Gran Dar, Purusil, and Monford. Missing from this hierarchy are governmental institutions for geographic sectors within regions outside the Cities; in these sectors, governmental functions are performed by the colls and their familial and clan organizations.

Security Group: the highly-secretive organization ruling all of Tarnus.

seedfish: tiny fishlike creatures usually kept in a sealed liquid environment for decorative uses, including jewelry, home ornaments, and screens.

seedship: seedship, seedships: the means by which the first wave of human colonists, putatively the builders of the underground cities, are considered to have been brought to Tarnus.

seestees: streetchild word for ‘sisters’.

Selech: the husband of Ezzar‘s father’s sister, relocated to the Northwest Marshes.

sensi: the primary medium of mass communication on Tarnus. See the article titled The World of Sensi.

sensi pull: an advertisement or appeal broadcast on one or more sensi sources.

sensicam: sensicam, sensicams: the camera, microphone and general sensory system used in feeding experience into the sensi net.

sentattar: the Zashinhalh (aliens) classify humans, and apparently other sentient beings, into those possessing sentattar and those not possessing it. Those with sentattar cannot be eaten or treated as objects; those without it are so treated. The distinction is unclear to humans; the few who have discussed it seem to think it refers to a spiritual ‘fate’ or destiny which the aliens can discern far in advance. The Zashinhalh generally consider andros as not possessing sentattar.

Sernea: see Marra.

Serreth: one of Arlen‘s employees, transformed into a feline-human mix.

sess: a style craze, obsession, or fad.

Seven-Rats Rodie: a streetchild who runs with Mama Bones and her group.

sevenfolds: a Zashinhalh term for a subrange of the space they inhabit. See hirh-space.

sexuus: an innerspace constructed entity used to anesthetize portions of an andro‘s central nervous system during viral upgrades. See also headsmith.

shaft: shaft, shafts: one of the miles-deep ventilation holes placed throughout the City. See also airshaft.

shain haili four: example of a password used by andros and their associates for authentication.

shak: shak, shakken: in the game of MuTou, a wafer designating one mode of movement or functioning for the anj (board piece) on which it is stacked. There are five types of shakken: walker, angler, jagger, rand, or blood.

Shanxi: first father-name of Tomas. Tomas' full name is Tomas Shanxi Barizanu Kumtai, all his patrilineals.

Share: the one language spoken by all of the Colonists at the time of their arrival on Tarnus. Share was a practical blend of a startling variety of Earth languages, including, among others, Arabic, Anglo, Tagalog, French, Navajo, Zulu, and Sinese. Over the thousands of years of growth and change of human cultures on Tarnus, Share evolved into ComLang, or Clang.

shareworker: shareworker, shareworkers: the farms, particularly the ones growing exotic symbiotic grafts of bioengineered plants and insectoids, require labor. Many find their way from the cities by hiring out as farm labor wherever the in-demand food crops are grown. They buy shares in land cultivation, and in living space during their tours on the farms. The value of the shares is assessed at the start of each season.

Sharr: older bluecop in City, Rubid‘s partner.

sharvain: an herb used for teas, and for stimulating certain components of the immune system during shock.

shattergun: shattergun, shatterguns: a weapon designed to burst open its target with calibrated shock waves. Extremely noisy but highly effective.

sheaves: sheaves, sheavings: the Zashinhalh consider innerspace their home; it has many dimensions, and they name the structures with words that seem to us to have no relation to things and shapes. The word ‘sheaves' cannot reflect the inner meaning of the classes of containment, connectivity and freedom meant by the actual structure itself, although it does indicate that the structure has such properties for the entities in its vicinity. A much longer approximation might be ‘mothering regions of possibility’, making clearer the nurturing and transforming aspects of the sheaves.

ShedFire: a highly-durable fabric produced by UniCorp, used in garments where protection from thermal, chemical and biological threats is needed.

Shellane: child of Darvelia Ans Kerran.

shierr: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. shierr is in the human range (375-750 nm), and its name refers to the human color red-orange. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be A sharp or B flat. From tabular data: shierr is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. shierr is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, shierr equates to a musical A#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Orange. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “shierr": shierr is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. shierr is in the Human-Visible (375-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, shierr equates to a musical A#, and is in the same place in the octave as Red-Orange. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

Shiexxikh: Dzoijin Shixi, Shiexxikh, SXX: an illicit andro sensi feed, casting in anjive primarily rather than in human speech, and using andro sense extensions to carry its primary meanings. From tabular data: Shiexxikh is called Shixi by humans; an illegal andro supplier, masked and steganographic through other suppliers, perceptible only to andros generally. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Shiexxikh in private conversation as the Dzoijin Shixi. From tabular data for “Shiexxikh": Shiexxikh is called Shixi by humans; an illegal andro supplier, masked and steganographic through other suppliers, perceptible only to andros generally. Most of the sensi sources are described briefly in the reference table titled SENSI SUPPLIERS. Ordinary people refer to Shiexxikh in private conversation as the Dzoijin Shixi.

shine: shine, shined, shining: v.i., to become overstimulated, filled with ecstatic excitement. n., the state of such ecstatic excitement. A common City slang usage, mainly among andros.

Shinj: Shinj, Shinjian: a zone of the City.

Shinn: Norwell‘s female partner.

shiteroach: shiteroach, shiteroaches: an old term for the most unclean kind of person.

shiver: shiver, shivers: a knife with a double-edged blade the length of a hand, useful in situations from feeding to fighting.

shix: shix, shixen: small rodentlike pet-creatures invented by Jono for the group led by Mama Jones.

shockline: shockline, shocklines: a short length of highly-elastic but shock-absorbing rope line, used by a climber to take the force of a fall when tethered. The shockline is linked between the end of the climbing rope and the climber’s harness.

Shoomtar Jend: one of the many body plans for the vanished humans of the pre-Colonist era. The Shoomtar Jend were large, floating, balloonlike forms with flat eyes the size of plates, their bulging bodies running with the colors of their families and histories.

short-life: describing someone with the brief lifespan of an andro. Andros often refer to themselves with this term.

shotgun: shotgun, shotgun observatories, shotgun observatory, shotgun probe, shotgun probes, shotgun scope, shotgun scopes: 1. a launching, propulsion, and guidance system for very small unmanned deep-space probes, essentially a very-long-barrelled 1.0-meter-bore artillery piece. A craft no more than 0.5 meters in diameter is fitted into a 1.0-meter-diameter sabot (a ‘shoe’ to seal the barrel for the propellant gases) to form a projectile. The launch detonates a charge of explosives to start the projectile on its way at very high acceleration. When the projectile clears the end of the barrel, a first booster rocket stage built into the sabot ignites, adding velocity. Once this first burn has expended its thrust, the sabot is jettisoned, and a long-running ion engine in the craft starts. Sufficient fuel is stored aboard the craft to accelerate and decelerate it during the journey so that it comes to a near-resting position in the Oort Cloud. At that point the craft jettisons all excess propulsion-related mass and deploys its steering, telescope, and transmission systems to begin its survey work. 2. the observatory or scope deployed using the shotgun system just described.

Shotgun Woman: the research head, mastermind, and chief designer of the shotgun probes, a Sinese-Korean scientist renowned for her utterly-inventive approach to the rapid and highly-successful SVS program’s objectives. She generally shunned public attention, preferring to live and work in her labs with a network of high-technology firms at her disposal to soak up and actualize the ideas and inventions she synthesized at a furious rate.

shree: a fruit frequently used as a mood-enhancer.

shuckass: pejorative epithet.

Shuramis: an andro miner, with genes for healing secretions and sensitivities.

shuriko: bits of metal kept dangling at the ends of hairlocks of Argaz fighters. Usable as weapons in trained hands.

Shutan: the name, in Clang, of the third month of the Lulith Calendar. From tabular data: Shutan is month number 3 in the 14-month Moon Calendar. You can find all the month names in the reference table titled MOON CALENDAR MONTH NAMES. From tabular data for “Shutan": Shutan is month number 3 in the 14-month Moon Calendar. You can find all the month names in the reference table titled MOON CALENDAR MONTH NAMES.

sidebag: a stylish, shoulder-slung valise or case used by executives and others for carrying presentation systems and materials.

sidewalled: the porches of country homes in the mountains often had walls on the sides to give shelter from wind. These walls sloped two ways: inward from base to porch eaves, and inward from house wall to the entry from outside.

sigil: sigil, sigils: military rank is usually indicated by rows of millimeter-diameter symbols in metals of various colors.

Siglin Farcross Seventeen: Farcross, Siglin Farcross Seventeen: the former Prime Finance Organizer (PFO) for Dannemor Zone.

Signo: A term designating an active mine or segment of a mine on Tarnus. Sections of some mines still in active excavation predate the arrival of the Colonists, many thousands of years before the present time of the stories. Such sections are numbered with the term Presigno instead of Signo.

Signo 1020: 1020 Signo, Signo 1020: Drevill 1020 Signo, site of mine collapse in which Shuramis was injured and forced to delay her cancer therapies.

Signo 43: 43 Signo, Signo 43: A mine notorious for its unstable geology, in which andros frequently lost their lives from cave-ins and explosions. It is situated southeast of Saryn’s Neck, off the routes between the City and Monford in the south.

Signo 788: 788 Signo, Signo 788: One of the major mines belonging to ArCorp, in which anomalies were discovered by sensitive particle detectors.

sim: simulator.

Sinantro: Sinantro, Sinantro Coll: Sinantro Coll members are among the most-secretive, hardest-working, and trustworthy of all, and represent a deeply-committed and most industrious minority of the outland peoples. From tabular data: Sinantro 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 “Sinantro": Sinantro refers to one of the collective clans of Tarnus. The names of all the colls are found in the reference table titled COLL NAMES.

Sinese: on Tarnus, one of the greatest languages prevalent on ancient Earth and its Solar System at the time the Colonists left for Tarnus. Sinese arose from four principal ancestor language families: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, and influenced deeply the formation of both Share and ComLang on Tarnus. Historically, a common term used to refer to the great Eastern culture developed in the 22nd century by the alliances and federations of the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, and certain Siberian countries, along with a few others having similar linguistic and societal connections. The term is most often used to refer to the consolidated language or language system arising from the profusion of pidgins and creoles springing up as the different speakers struggled to communicate accurately. For many outsiders, the term is almost synonymous with Hau Ren, the giant combine that oversees the starship efforts.

Sinese Reviewer: reviewer of cryosleep development

Sinese Surveyor: co-discoverer of Tarnus (Opo Bira Lima)

Singer: Singer, The Singer: see Kharshfainh.

singlesuit: singlesuit, singlesuits: a formal or semi-formal one-piece garment, with an inner and an outer layer, covering the body from neck to wrists and ankles. The outer layer is usually made of thick but lightweight fabric, with lengthwise pleating on arms, legs and torso, and some loseness at wrists and ankles. The inner layer normally matches the outer in color or color scheme, and closes at wrist and ankle. The entire garment can be removed via a single release at the waist, which relaxes the seam bonds holding it around the wearer.

Sintherou Guy

Sirathen: the Lower Continent.

Sixfoot: Jared Sixfoot, an insurrection fighter.

skerrish: to engage in an andro form of emotional pair-joining in innerspace, intense and intimate, and healing for those andros needing it. Andro brains contain structures that associate such connection with strong pleasure and safety.

skerrishee: an andro meeting-place, equipped with enhancements that facilitate skerrishing.

skinner: skinner, skinners: 1. skinsuit. 2. a human who forms intimate personal relationships with a limited class of others, usually andros.

skinseal: skinwrap.

skinshift: a popular sess involving drugs and microbes which created changing colors in the user’s skin.

skinsuit: skinsuit, skinsuited, skinsuits: on Tarnus, the prime garment for social interaction, this is a kind of second skin, worn for most casual and intimate occasions. It consists of panels of a skin-clinging, multilayered fabric; the panels are highly flexible, temperature-sensitive, and self-adhesive under certain kinds of finger pressure. Normally light in weight and available in any color or color scheme the wearer might like. On the starships, simply a highly-elastic and lightweight singlesuit fitting very tightly to the wearer’s skin.

skinwrap: a kind of synthetic, biologically-based skin substitute, used often to bandage wounds over long periods.

sleepsack: sleepsack, sleepsacks: the military outdoor sleeping bag, furnished with chemical heaters and absorbents for coping with drainage.

sleepwrap: sleepwrap, sleepwraps: similar to the sleepsack, but lighter, made for indoor or hospital use.

slipsurfaced: some maintenance crawlways of the cities are finished with a nearly friction-free floor, and ceiling handholds, enabling the user to slide along either supine or belly-up at high speed.

slkheer: a predatory birdlike flyer of the Western Plains.

slogo: slogo, slogos: an emblem of a group or organization designed with a stylized slogan or motto embedded in it. May be a small button or other device displaying a lighted, animated message of some kind, for advertising or promotional purposes.

slowcock: slowcock, slowcocks: a City familiarity used as a compliment, occasionally sarcastic, among military males.

Small Medman: a medman encountered by Ezzar and Grendel during insurrection fighting.

smartfleche: smartfleche, smartfleches: one of a batch of rocket-powered self-aiming projectiles, carried in a launching rack. Used when beam weapons might risk reflective damage.

smartgel: a decorative, sprayed-on pattern-bearing gel used to adorn a person’s body, usually during a fest, or in a public performance of music or dance.

snakeline: snakeline, snakelines: similar to conga lines or lines in other dances, but in this case the dancers are tightly sandwiched front to back. A common dance formation during the Festival of the Mothers.

snakeskin: a style craze, or sess, in which a person treats areas of skin with biochemicals to obtain a lizardlike texture and color.

Snin: one of the many body plans for the vanished humans of the pre-Colonist era. The Snin took spiderlike forms, having many arms and angular, bonelike faces.

Sobi: Sobi Zone of the City, one of the great sectors in which the poorer residents carry on a very lively traffic in many forms of goods considered contraband elsewhere: guns, drugs, perversions and exotic chemicals, materials and animals, with occasional (illegal) sentient reduced-function life forms such as halfdroids and war helms traded. Poly Town overlaps part of this zone.

softbrew: an herbal tea, mixed with a very mild beerlike beverage and served hot, with mild stimulating and relaxing effects.

soliton: soliton, solitons: self-reordering wave structure, which takes many forms in higher-dimensional space.

sonics: sonic weapons, capable of causing highly unpleasant and often lethal chemical and physical changes in their targets (usually human beings or andro s).

soundpanel: soundpanel, soundpanels: an equivalent of a combined speaker and microphone.

South Power Complex: Power Complex, South Power Complex: The primary power generating station, in the lower southern quarter of the City, for most of the City‘s commercial and much of its residential users. Fission reactors supply the electricity.

sov: sov, sovvit: to understand (something).

speedsnake: speedsnake, speedsnakes: an automated weapon, similar to a groundhog, but much thinner, longer and faster, and carrying a somewhat smaller explosive charge. Will sight on, home on, and destroy a target illuminated by a specific frequency of radiation, and matching a certain perceptual signature.

spikefoot: a breed of black sparrow designed especially for life in the depths of the cities, named for the spur on each foot enabling them to cling to rock walls easily.

spingold: a festival decoration, resembling Mylar ribbon in its stiffness, strength and thinness.

spired: with the appearance of a spire.

spiring: rising into a peak and crescendo of music.

splat-lamp: a small light source, usually battery-powered, with one or more suction arms to secure it to smooth surfaces where needed. Heavily used on the starship at arrival.

sponge steels: sponge steel, sponge steels: iron-based types of spongemetals.

spongemetals: spongemetal, spongemetals: very-strong, highly-durable, lightweight three-phase materials used for spacecraft structural components.

sporulate: the Riders protect their genetic cargo during cryosleep periods by converting their own form into the equivalent of hard-shelled spores, as they infuse the genetic contents – eggs or sperm – with the necessary trehalose-type antifreezes.

SRD: downsizing, relocation, relocations, relocative, SRD, SRDs, Staged Relocative Downsizing: the successive removal of groups of residents of a City area into other regions, in an effort to limit the population growth all cities experience.

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

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

Sruddin: an andro server in one of the Sobi Zone barholes.

SRujis: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. SRujis is in the far ultraviolet range (95-187 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: SRujis is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRujis is in the Far Ultraviolet (95-187 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRujis 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 “SRujis": SRujis is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRujis is in the Far Ultraviolet (95-187 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRujis 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.

SRyion: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. SRyion is in the near infrared range 1500-750 nm), and its name refers to a multiple of the human color yellow. In relation to neighboring colors in a musical scale with red at A, this would be C sharp or D flat. Pronunciation of sounds written as SR (*) or ZK (+) as spoken in anjive is described briefly in Andro Notes. From tabular data: SRyion is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRyion is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRyion equates to a musical C#, and is in the same place in the octave as Yellow. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES. From tabular data for “SRyion": SRyion is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRyion is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRyion equates to a musical C#, and is in the same place in the octave as Yellow. More information is available in the reference table titled ANDRO COLOR NAMES.

SRyol: an andro name for a color in the five-octave andro color spectrum. SRyol is in the near infrared range 1500-750 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: SRyol is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRyol is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRyol 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 “SRyol": SRyol is the name of a color in the spectrum visible to andros. SRyol is in the Near Infrared (1500-750 nm). In the five ‘octaves’ of the andro color spectrum, SRyol 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.

Stang: a street from Grazamar Crossing to Fourth Ring, several levels below Aswar Tyrae in the City in Sobi Zone.

starship: starship, starships: until the human race confronted the approach of the Thorin system, starships were the stuff of fiction. The cost of just one ship capable of an interstellar voyage was thought to be so great as to bankrupt the entire economy of the solar system. Thorin changed all that. The starships produced to help provide harbors for human life number in the tens, and each one carries about 3000 people along with genetic material in seed form for a wide variety of plants and animals as well as additional humans. These ships are cylinders several kilometers in length, and a kilometer across. Ship length vary depending on the destination distance, since more preservatives, steering fuel, and protective shielding are needed for the longer trips. The longest journey planned is to a star in the 50-light-year range from Earth.

stat: a process for preserving living creatures in a state of suspended animation, relying on the use of time-compressing hypnotics (much like the tau drug of cold sleep) to perpetuate the creature’s vital functioning.

State Investigation Bureau: SIB, State Investigation Bureau: a Sinese and Hau Ren organization charged with monitoring and controlling activities that might threaten safety of the Sinese population.

steeleyed: some prosthetic eyes are used in the City instead of real eyes regrown from the owner’s tissues. They are cheaper than human eyes, and ‘see’ in an infrared or radio range of energy.

steelglass: an armorlike glass synthesized with steel microstructures throughout it, extremely strong to the point of repelling projectiles striking its surface at miles-per-second speeds. Unfortunately, this strength is offset by one disadvantage: a high vulnerability to blows hitting exactly in its own plane (from its edges). Despite added protection, microscopic imperfections at the edges of a steelglass plate could spread and shatter it on any blow striking near the edge.

Steels: one of the streetchildren, belonging to the clan of Mama Bones.

steelweb: a form of building construction using three-dimensional cross-reinforced members of steel to take both tension and compression stresses.

steganographic: describing writing which is concealed in other media or writing to avoid detection of its content. The image or medium often contains an open representation of other, often misleading, information.

stego: adj., steganographic, or hidden, referring to writings, messages, images that are concealed in a sensi stream of information using some encoding and encrypting scheme. Stego allows clandestine transmission and broadcast of news among groups otherwise denied easy access to such communications.

stereogram: stereogram, stereograms: a projection or portrayal conveying a three-dimensional sense of its image content.

stickheads: stickhead, stickheads: a prisoner term for the prison administrators of EmpCo and similar organizations, specifically those responsible for deciding on the status, placement and disposition of each prisoner. The term references the rigid and hard-hitting treatment meted out by these people.

sticklefoot: a password used by Rion. Also refers to a spider-like arthropod known for its ability to climb smooth surfaces carrying its captured beetle prey.

stickweapon: stickbat, stickbats, stickblade, stickblades, stickweapon, stickweapons: any of a series of rodlike weapons used in street fighting, either in hand or as projectiles. Grendel hurls a large one in one battle to decapitate bug soldiers. The weapons have a self-aligning cutting edge and a stabbing point, and usually carry poisons or programmed microbes.

Sticky Mouse Club: randy rodent, Sticky Mouse Club, stickymouse: n., brand name for a salty-dry brew of wood alcohol and various bark shavings taken from scrub plants found in the ravines and crevasses leading out to the Great South Fall. An andro favorite.

stim: stim, stims: as in ‘stimvest', a sensory input enhancer and transformer.

stimvest: stimvest, stimvests: a tight thoracic garment containing a built-in neural web capable of sensing movement or radiation and transforming the sensations into tactile signals for the wearer. A form of biowrap.

stonefluid: the fundamental output of a stoneshaper, much like extremely-fast-hardening concrete, which can be organized by the shaper into road paving, home or shop walls, or tunnel ceilings.

stoneshaper: shaper, shapers, stonehoser, stonehosers, stoneshaper, stoneshapers: machine for boring tunnels through rock, using tuned and focused ultrasonics to shatter the stone and mix it with air and fluids into a liquid dust that the machine can then reconstitute as a somewhat-less-strong, very-quick-hardening form like concrete. When used with flexible piping to remove the rock, the stoneshaper can chew its way through many meters of rock in minutes; when used in its moving-bubble mode, it simply reconstitutes the dissolved rock behind it. The moving-bubble mode is limited in range by the thermal buildup that takes place as the machine burrows through hard rock; if the trip is too long, the operator’s cooling system loses its negative thermal reservoir, and the operator cooks very quickly.

stony-old: as old as the City (slang).

strandfamily: strandfamilies, strandfamily: the Zashinhalh trace the branching set of lineages humans do (see timebraid ), but also track a bundle of threads that run in parallel through all time. Each thread is an individual worldline that binds with the others via qaqanhialh. Occasionally threads will merge or divide, but this occurs only at the horizon times, in the “unknown pole range” in Aoriver‘s words, when even the sight of the Zashinhalh doesn’t tell them of events. (It is important to note that this ‘blindness’ is for the Zashinhalh not only for the future, but for the past as well; our words ‘foresight’ and ‘memory’ are for them one and the same thing, and so are the failings of foresight and memory one common failing.)

Streakrun: Streakrun, Streakrun Score: Streakrun Score, a street not far from Lejina‘s home.

streetarmor: the kind of body armor worn in the understreets of the City by coll and gang members out on business. This type of armor is for show as well as for protection; it comes in many colors and styles, with artistic relief and edge ornamentation. Usually worn to cover vital areas only, with separate pieces for each area. Elbows and knees usually have only side plates.

streetboy: streetboy, streetboys: any of thousands of pubescent males from poor City families, who roam the streets of Poly Town and the adjoining zones looking for ways to get money and goods. Many of the best-looking turn to prostitution; others, like Frei, try to cultivate ties with the City colls or form low-grade street colls of their own, intending to traffic in contraband. The older street folk prey on them all.

streetchild: streetchild, streetchildren: one of the many orphaned, abandoned or discarded children, of any age from first-steps to pre-puberty, who roam the understreets of the lowest zones of the City.

streetcock: streetcock, streetcocks: a leader of a gang or group of streetboys.

streetcoll: streetcoll, streetcolls: a City gang that has adopted the colors and dress of one of the colls, adding its own signs and symbols of its character and independence.

streetmouse: streetmouse, streetmouses: term for one of the smaller species of streetrodent.

streetrag: streetrag, streetrags: a term of contempt reserved for one’s perceived inferiors..

streetrat: streetrat, streetrats: see streetrodent.

streetrodent: streetrodent, streetrodents: any of a large family of ratlike creatures inhabiting the understreets of the cities of Tarnus. Different species coexist, in all sizes, colorations and dispositions.

streetwall: streetwall, streetwalls: the side walls of each city understreet, made of solid native rock, or reconstituted stone (‘rerock’). Openings in the side walls of an understreet are never spaced too closely, always having large solid piers of rock between them. Streetwalls always carry some decoration or growth on them, most often climbing plants.

streetwindow: streetwindow, streetwindows: many city residences, especially in upper levels, have one or more viewing windows that open on the main street in front of the dwelling. These windows are usually small and set with armored glass, but they afford a view of some space beyond the home.

streetwiper: streetwiper, streetwipers: the largest-diameter beam weapons used in the City streets. These use arrays of small-weapon cartridges, triggered in parallel by the same microsecond pulse, to spray an entire understreet with lethal energy. The spread of the cartridge array is adjustable for range. An ancient-Earth weapon of analogous destructive power was the ‘streetsweeper’ automatic shotgun once used in South Africa.

stressglass: a metallopolymer glasslike substance of the hardness of toughened and tempered steel.

stretch: a specific type of protective gel designed to prevent microbes in necrotic tissue from infecting a living person. Used by cleaners, who coat up with it.

striplamp: striplamp, striplamps: the primary source of illumination for nearly all City streets. Every street has an uninterrupted line of lamps running along the top of its roof arch. These are the striplamps, which are kept working in all but the lowest levels of the City such as Babiar.

strobe: to admit or produce light, radiation or nerve impulses over a very brief time interval, usually under 0.02 second, normally in a repeated pattern.

stunner: one of the less-destructive acoustic weapons, which temporarily incapacitates those in its detonating range through the neurological effects of its sound-energy distribution.

stylesuit: stylesuit, stylesuits: the most attractive forms of the basic coverall, usually molded close to the figure along the limbs and freer at the joints and the torso.

subcock: subcock, subcocks: pejorative term for the underlings of a gang leader.

subviral: referring to a kind of microbe between viruses and prions in size. A few of these were isolated and studied during the 21st century after several pandemics that killed thousands.

subvocalize: subvocalize, subvocalized, subvoice, subvoiced, subvoke, subvoked, subvoking: deliver speech through the use of throat and mouth muscles without breath or mouth opening.

suis: Arlen‘s words to Trenzil, “Na suis Carchesme" meaning “and exhume Carchesme", get her out of her lab or other hiding place to bring her to Arlen.

Sulawesi: one of the islands of Indonesia, home to a long-standing independent family of customs and religions.

Sulimar: a young man in Sobi Zone.

Sulltar Mench: a merchant in Sobi Zone

superganglia: distributed nerve complexes in the alien soldier which function as sub-brains during combat. If they are left undamaged in a soldier whose brain is not functioning, they can carry out lengthy combat routines which amount to complete attack and defense sequences; effectively, the alien soldier can fight after death.

superilluminated: beam-weapon hits can encounter metal or other briefly-reflecting surfce. When this happens, a portion of the beam’s explosive energy is reflected onto a variety of other targets, lighting them up with a wide range of different effects.

superstable: nuclear stability, especially under beams of various test particles (beam-weapon technology has been useful here for research), has been found by University physicists to vary for some actinides in a manner unaccountable under normal nuclear models. They have attributed the superstability of some unexpectedly stable remnants of plutonium to the effects of monopole proximity or passage.

surtree: surtree, surtrees: a tree in three dimensions can be considered a projection of the surtree, which has branches among at least seven dimensions. The branches offer hypervolumes of low energy density — “high shade pooling”.

Susan: alien ship intelligence encountered by Miriam at Opo Bira Lima.

suss: to understand at an intuitive level. “To suss for” means “to spy for”. Also used as a noun, as in “We need suss,” meaning “We need information or understanding.”

SVS: Stellar Viability Survey, SVS: the Stellar Viability Survey. After the discovery of the impending intersection of the solar system and the Thorin system, the SVS effort was mounted on Earth to find extrasolar planets capable of supporting Earth life in all its forms.

sweetloaf: sweetloaf, sweetloaves: a cheap form of tuber-flour bread, sold at places like Zill‘s.

sweetpod: sweetpod, sweetpods: the long, arm-thick, clustered seed pod of a subtropical tree found at the base of the Great South Fall.

sweetwater: a very mild fruit drink with few intoxicants, used for refreshment and healing.

synskin: a leatherlike organically-grown substance used for upholstery.

syntissue: a living form of tissue used to adorn the body for special occasions, fed and maintained via the body’s own circulatory system.

syntrell: syntrell, syntrells: hand percussion instruments which generate echo beats that fit the user’s beat into the pattern of rhythm in the background. So if the user’s beat falls a third of the way between two beats sensed by the syntrell from another nearby instrument (the guidebeat), the syntrell will create echoes at the one-third and two-thirds points between the next few guidebeats, letting the echoes fade as the user’s hand pressure dictates. Finger pressures can be varied to produce more or less tonality in the beats.; Syntrells are made with different ranges of tonality. The bright syntrell produces piercing beats with cymbal-like effect. The dark syntrell, or shadow syntrell, produces beats that carry a ‘rumbling’ quality.

sysensi: slang abbreviation for cybernetic sensi, a media pathway for learning.