Local Star, Aimee Ogden [ebook reader that looks like a book txt] 📗

size of the Hab meal being distributed for any given meal.

Metal Reclamation: A typical Hab facility; waste not, want not, especially when the hull needs patching.

Mirede: Proprietor of a tearoom on Vivik Hab and a very pleasant busybody.N

Nav: Shorthand for Navigation, often used by people too busy making Navigation calculations to say the whole word.

Nullgrav: A zero-gravity recreation environment; waivers required.P

Pairhome: Hab-allocated housing optimally sized to a two-person pair, with or without children.

Parallax: A heavily-armored Fleet advance ship meant to draw fire from enemy forces (and withstand it).

Photosnap: Like a selfie, but in space!

Plastiglass: A synthetic, durable glass substitute that patches itself on impact, a highly desirable quality if you want to have windows and also breathe in space.

Plastiprint: Synthetic plastic-based fabrication printed to specification: mealcases, benches, accessories, and more. Please recycle.

Plastisteel: A very strong synthetic metal substitute with steel-like durability and plastic-like mass.

Portlounge: A small area in many living quarters based around the port, the source of news, music, and entertainment. Smaller Habs or arcologies may have a single larger portlounge where families can gather.

PubWel: Public Welfare; the elected representatives responsible for enacting policies to uphold eusocial ideals, safety, and equity in the Hab.Q

Quadborn: A child born to any member or members of a particular quadfamily. In a healthy quad, a child born to any member is treated as the child of all members, though most children are aware of who their biological parent or parents in the quad are.

Quadfamily: A family unit based around a four-person platonic, romantic, and/or sexual relationship, with or without children.

Quadhome: Hab-allocated housing optimally sized to a four-person quad, with or without children.R

Recycling Engine: A massive composting container for organic waste generated by a Hab or Arcology; generates fertilizer for the environment's Terraria and mushroom farms; the warmth generated is often used to heat adjacent housing.

Roia: The minimally-settled planet that houses a number of nonsentient species, including the Roian hideslug, and the type of humans who don't mind or even enjoy living in an environment that is actively trying to murder them all the time.

Rydoine: The type of Hab where Justice's attentions are not entirely evenly distributed; Triz's Hab of origin.S

Sanishar: The site of a newly discovered extinct alien-intelligence civilization; exciting stuff if you're into it.

Scalecloth: A decorative fabric hand-sewn with the scales of Emperor Lizards native to Roia. Emperor Lizards are neither emperors nor technically lizards; they are, however, sparkly.

Scooper: An ore-mining vessel employed in asteroid mines. Slow, sturdy, and reliable.

Sei Worldhold: A system of three planetary systems and one Hab located just outside the fringes of the Confederated Worlds. A strongly hierarchical society; though their relations with the Confederated Worlds are friendly, both sides are rather bewildered by the other.

Seventh God of Issam: Patron deity of Navigators and engineers; avatar of human ingenuity; a holy math nerd.

Sidorrey: A small Fleet-operated Hab located not far from Vivik. Organized around preventing and intercepting piracy.

Simek green wine: An unusual vintage originating in the Armward Bands; a typical drink order for a nervous recluse trying to look at least a little sophisticated.

Skimmer: A speedy and highly maneuverable variety of Light Attack Craft; the preferred starfighter of those who like to live fast, die young, and leave an incinerated corpse.

Starslicers: A vintage model of Light Attack Craft; named by someone with a lot more enthusiasm than their janky handling and ugly fuselage warrants.

Sugarpips: The seeds of a particular fruit; a delicacy whose subtle flavors are difficult to perfectly capture via food printer, except perhaps to the undiscerning palate of a kid who grew up eating garbage for breakfast.

Swalen: The Third God of Issam; a jock, brawler, and all around good-time girl who would probably be delighted to find that her name was regularly invoked as profanity.T

Technosurgeon: A medical professional trained in both human anatomy and physiology and exogenous implant technology.

Terraria: An area of Habs and arcologies built around green plants and trees; supplies oxygen, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a bit of mental health.

The Cosset: A Vivik Hab venue for upscale sex work; the most famous on the Hab and also the most expensive. The locals tend to choose other establishments.

Tiresh: A four-person gunship that under no circumstances should be flown with a misfiring injector.

Tolvian: Mendicant monks and far-travelers, followers of the philosopher-poet Tolvia, devoted to her creed of lifting up the least and lowest in the Galaxy.

Tunnelgun: A quantum-effects-based weapon that can cut through any material by, on a fundamental physical level, convincing the atoms involved that they simply do not exist.

Tunneltech: The hardware involved in the deployment of a tunnelgun.U

Upclass: Fancy; elegant; perhaps even snooty.

Uphab: Habs with artificial gravity enjoy perpetuating the notions of "up" and "down"; uphab levels are those at the imaginary top, downhab at the imaginary bottom.

Urnok: An unaffiliated Hab: unaffiliated with any major governments, trade organizations, or indeed laws.W

Webward Pearls: A string of several unaffiliated planets, most of which don't mind housing pirate swarms (some of which function as essential privateers on behalf of Pearl-based interests), nor Ceebee fleets as well as broader human supremacy movements.

Whaleships: The biggest ships in the Confederated Fleet, which house Light Attack Swarms, heavy artillery, and a great deal of officers. Built to take a hit. Built to take several.

Wrenchworks: A ship repair and general mechanic facility located on any Hab and in some arcologies as well.

Wristfob: A communication, scheduling, and technology-interface device typically worn on the wrist.

Acknowledgments

Sometimes books just want to have fun. It's amazing how liberating (I won't say easy, because writing is never quite easy) it can be to let loose and write the book that just wants to be a big queer happy space romp—not to mention discovering that other people want in on that party, too. I'm so grateful to the wonderful team at Interstellar Flight Press, editor extraordinaire Holly Lyn Walrath and Michael Glazner,