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.Among the Cehn-Tahr, clones have the same status as any normally born member of the society.Chacon: Field Marshal and commander of the Rojok military, and one of the most famous of warriors in his own right.Unlike his emperor, he is an honorable and compassionate being, respected even by his enemies.He will have no part of terrorism and is openly critical of the death camp Ahkmau.He believes in the war, because the Rojoks are so overpopulated that they have no more room in their dynasty to search for natural resources.Tri-Galaxy politics made it impossible for them to petition for the right to colonize in the New Territory, so war was the only recourse.But he hates Mangus Lo’s policies and refuses to send prisoners to the death camps.He is so popular with the Rojok population that the Rojok tyrant is afraid to openly oppose or criticize him.Clones: They can be created in less than a solar day among the Rojok.The process takes longer for Terravegans and Centaurians.However, in the human colonies, clones have no official status and are used for spare parts.They are treated as subhuman.Not so among Centaurians, where they are given full official status.Cularian medicine: A specialty of exobiology that deals with Centaurian and Rojok physiology and pharmacology.Until Ruszel began serving with the Holconcom, it was largely theoretical, because few humans had ever seen either a Centaurian or a Rojok, since the Terravegan forces were headquartered on Trimerius, in the human colonies.Not until the Rojoks invaded neutral planetary systems and then destroyed a trial colony did the Rojoks and Centaurians come into contact with humans.Dacerius: A desert planet famous for its yomuth races, silver work and exotic women, many of whom are captured and sold by slavers.Famous, also, for its bureaucracy, which deals in doublespeak and exasperation.Many nomadic tribes, most of whom have no affiliation with the central government.Tribal leaders are still chosen by combat.Dtimun: Commander in Chief of the Holconcom, the galaxy’s most elite commando unit.Except for its leader, the entire unit is made up of clones.The commander has led the unit for many years and is greatly respected not only by his own men, but by allied commands, as well.He and the Centaurian emperor, Tnurat Alamantimichar, are enemies; no one knows why.He has never revealed to which Clan his family claimed kinship, in a world where Clan affiliation was honor itself.He does not like humans, especially the Terravegan doctor Ruszel, who thinks of him as a barbarian because he objects to having a woman in a combat unit.Ruszel was once the captain of an elite SSC Amazon squad, the Amazons (all female) being one of the most respected and courageous of the combat elite.Dylete: Centaurians have two hearts.There is only one heart at birth.Over a period of years approaching middle age, a new heart begins to form in concert with the original organ.At the time of half-life, approximately eighty-four to eighty-eight years of age, the first heart stops functioning and the new heart accepts the burden from the old one.The old heart is then reabsorbed into the body.Sometimes this process of changeover fails, and the patient dies.A Centaurian in his eighties is comparable to a thirty-four-year-old human male.Emerillium: A crystal that, in its refined form, has electrical and magnetic properties, first used as a power source by the Cehn-Tahr, the technology was subsequently shared with the human military under treaty.Enmehkmehk: The home planet of the Rojok dynasty.One of its moons contains the notorious prison complex Ahkmau, which translates as “place of tortures.”Galot: A huge feral cat found originally on Memcache.Reports of them have been noted on a few colony planets, probably from kittens illegally transported as pets.Great Galaxy War: Decades ago, a group of arms smugglers, tech producers and anarchists formed an alliance and secretly induced various governments to attack other governments after “incidents of terror” provoked public opinion against former allies.The Centaurians and the Terravegans joined forces, along with the Altairians and Jebobs, to combat the growing totalitarian states that were replacing republics.Eventually, alliances would be formed with governments throughout the galaxy and, when the war inevitably spread to two adjacent galaxies through the time-warp technological advances, other races joined the proponents of freedom and formed the Tri-Galaxy Federation and the Tri-Galaxy Fleet.A good portion of the original aggressors were captured and their ships confiscated.The rest fled into exile.The political wing of the Federation is the Tri-Galaxy Council, headquartered on Trimerius.Gresham: A weapon powered by emerillium technology that uses a cartridge to shoot a cutting beam of high-intensity modulated energy at an enemy.Standard issue in the SSC.Holconcom: The most elite, and feared, commando force in the three civilized galaxies.Created by the Centaurian emperor, Tnurat Alamantimichar, and strengthened by secret nanotechnology called microcyborgs, the Holconcom is the vanguard in any battle.It is under the sole command of its leader—at present, Dtimun—and even the emperor himself may not command it.The Centaurians who serve in the unit are all clones, except for the commander, and their strength and method of combat are legendary.Few humans have ever seen them fight.They sport high-collared red uniforms.They can be attached to an ally military only with the consent of their leader, and they are difficult to command.Their leader’s contempt for protocol and chain of command is well-known, as well as his refusal to follow orders.The Holconcom operate behind enemy lines, creating havoc and cutting lines of communication, as well as seeking out supply and communications networks, which are then targeted for attack.They are allowed forbidden technology that enhances speed and weaponry and is unknown to outworlders.Hyperglas: A synthetic material that resembles glass but has the strength of steel, widely used in terraforming projects and architecture.Jaakob Spheres: An orb containing many smaller orbs that preserve in stasis the DNA of all member Tri-Galaxy Federation races, as well as cellular specifications for exotic weaponry native to those cultures.A true prize for the Rojoks who capture them, except that the orbs are transcribed in Old High Martian, an ancient human tongue, of which the Rojoks know nothing.The orbs were in transit on a diplomatic observation tour to the Peace Planet, Terramer, just before the Rojoks attacked the planet, killed many of the colonists and one of the Centaurian observers (a young son of the Centaurian emperor) and kidnapped both the diplomatic observers and the Spheres.Among their captives is Lyceria, daughter of the Centaurian emperor.Jebob: A member race of the Tri-Galaxy Federation.Offshoots of the Altairian race, they are also blue-skinned.Kelekoms: A sentient race of energy beings who can attach themselves to host bodies and share information psychically.Through an ancient treaty with the Cehn-Tahr, they send emissaries to the Holconcom and host Centaurian diplomats on their home world.Only four emissaries are allowed to serve with the Holconcom.They bond with their hosts until death.Usually, due to their longevity, the hosts die long before they do—so a new host is offered in place of one who is killed in combat or dies of natural causes.The kelekoms are extremely susceptible to alien bacteria and have to be kept in sterile fields aboard the Holconcom ship, Morcai [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]