- GLOSSARY --

. abhisheka - Anointment; specifically, initiation where the teacher empowers the student with the transmission of a great teaching.

. ahm - aum; an invocation with multiple symbolic meanings and ritual uses; amen.

. Aiu - Sixth High Queen of the Felimorphs on Basti. She had resolved to lead her people out of genetic chaos.

. Akshobya - An aspect of the Dhyani (meditation) Buddha of the formless realm; Primordial Buddha of mirror-like wisdom; overseer of the Eastern Paradise in the Form Realm; Samantabhadra is his reflexive agent.

. Alexan Franklin - Jan's second child. A planetary engineer and a noted Buddhist priest.

. allomorphic - Able to exist in more than one form.

. alpha-link - A device that communicates directly with the brain, through proximity to any nerve, by inducing an alpha-state in a set of sympathetic, genetically-altered brain cells.

. Amitayous - Amitabha; Amida; an aspect of the Dhyani (meditation) Buddha of the Formless Realm; Primordial Buddha of discriminating wisdom; overseer of the Western Paradise (the pure land) in the Form Realm; Ratnapani is his reflexive agent.

. androgyne - A person with hormone-induced and/or machine-induced characteristics of the opposite sex; a transgendered person, who looks like a member of the opposite sex, but who usually has not undergone voice transformation or genital re-assignment.

. Andromeda - A constellation of the Earth sky; a common name used to refer to the galaxy NGC 224 in that constellation, a spiral galaxy over two million light-years from the milky way galaxy.

. Anne Franklin - Jan's fourth child. Identical twin to Erikka Franklin.

. anthropomorphization - assigning human characteristics to another species; creating a new species by genetically introducing human characteristics.

. antovert - Heterosexual; showing natural attraction and sexual interest toward members of the opposite sex. However, the chosen gender of the individual may not be opposite. See synovert.

. Archela - A non-manufactured world. Sixth and only habitable planet of the star Urania, noted for its tiny asteroid belts and mineral-rich planets. The inhabitants of Archela thrive as interstellar merchants.

. Aurora - A manufactured world in South Columbia. Second of eight planets circling the gas giant Jupiter IV. The birthplace and home of Jannet Franklin.

. axial moment - A moment in history when several independent important events are conveniently coincident; a moment when (prophesied) past karmic actions are resolved.

. ballast image - A false image of a spaceship, used to fool the telemetry of other spaceships. It can be generated by a device called a ballast, which responds to telemetry with false return signals, or it can be generated by powerful field generators such as those found on Vulture battlecruisers.

. Basti - The main world of the felimorphs. It circles the star Mau.

. battlecruiser - A warship which is much larger and more powerful than a transport. After the Great War, all such spaceships were destroyed or deactivated. They are not allowed to enter foreign ports.

. beacon star - A star which has two omni-directional transmitters: one in equatorial orbit and one in polar orbit. These stations emit digitally encoded signals that contain the station ID, date, time of the current transmission. Starships which receive these signals can decode them and compare them to current position, date, and time to get an accurate fix on their current location. See interregulator.

. Benjamin Dorring - Karlen Franklin's synovert mate.

. Betelgeuse - A moderately luminous red supergiant star 520 light-years from Earth and 572 light-years from Columbia. The location of Betelgeuse Station.

. Betelgeuse Station - The repository of all current and proposed human genetic information. The home of the Eugenic Registry, the only central body of all the worlds of mankind.

. bioandrogyne - An androgyne with many machine-induced changes; an androgyne regardless of origin.

. biogenetecist - A person who designs new genetic changes for the next generation. These changes are introduced as a pseudo-virus using a hyper-entry probe.

. biomodification - Machine-induced physiological changes to a person's appearance and bone-structure. These changes are usually permanent, but they are not genetic.

. biosynthetic - Machine-induced replacement to a missing body part or organ. A computer uses a kind of a DNA-short cut to map the induced growth of a compatible part that is not genetically identical to the original.

. Brandon retriever special - A deadly weapon invented shortly before the Great War. A PREXL energy weapon that links into a special set of goggles and is mentally fired based on an extensive telemetry system. It is self-aiming, and it can fired forward and aft. It is matched to one user's hands-signature, and will not fire for anyone else. A torpedo cylinder clips to the underside, and it can fire small torpedoes that are triggered by the Brandon's PREXL beam. If lost, the weapon will return to its owner upon command.

. Brewster's planet - A small asteroid in South Columbia onto which the Columbian fleet of the Great War was smashed.

. Bryson Korning-Franklin - Erikka Franklin's husband.

. Buddha - Any sentient being; an enlightened being; an important being who arrives at an axial moment to lead mankind; a specific messiah, a very important enlightened being whose arrival marks an age in the Fortunate Aeon.

. canifmorph - Anthropomorphized domestic dog, a product of illegal genetic experiments in the early 29th century.

. Central Eugenic Registry - The agency that oversees the current and proposed genetic records of mankind. After the collapse of the Terran Federation, the only central authority left. Not all nations subscribe to the services of this agency, but most do not want other nations to have better genetic traits.

. chakra - Special circular symbols or symbols in a circle that relate to meditation or other Buddhist activity, especially as in the Wheel of the Law.

. Columbia - Originally two stars: North Columbia and South Columbia. First reached during the 25th century. The first manufactured worlds were settled in the 26th century. The Commonwealth union was finalized during the 40th century, after all planet-making activity had ceased. Planet-making activity was gradually moved to a neighboring star, West Columbia, starting during the 38th century

. Commonwealth of Nippon - A group of planets circling the Star Nihon that was settled by immigrants from Japan.

. conditioned existence - a universe; an underlying (karmic) causal matrix composed of physical laws, dependent origination of animate life, psychological affinities, synchronous events, and time-based transformations.

. copper-colored mountain - The home of PadmaKara, in Jambuling, the left satellite realm of our world.

. Crystal Paradise - The Diamond heaven of Vajrasattva, a place beyond mind and body.

. Darter station - A star system defense vehicle. Darter stations employ a modified hyperdrive that is best described as a synchronous transmatter network, where each network node is a darter station. Darter stations are heavily armed, and they move in a random fashion that effectively creates an invisible defensive shell around a star system. This type of defense is extremely sophisticated, so only the wealthier commonwealths and sub-federations can afford them.

. dependent origination - dependent rising; the relativity of all created phenomena; the (karmic) links which condition the formation and the dissolution all existence in the Desire Realm.

. Devon Chambers - Jan's son-in-law, married to her daughter Robberta. A starship engineer. He's an androgyne, who looks exactly like a woman when dressed.

. dharma - That which is; natural, universal truth or law; the teachings or the doctrine of the Buddha; the second of the Three Jewels, closely linked with the second realm of the Trikaya; [plural] brief impulses of energy that constitute the universe.

. dimensional stabilization - A necessary feature of starship hyperdrive control mechanisms. As an object approaches the velocity of light, it's relative dimensions increase. Faster than the speed of light, relative dimensional size can become erratic, which could cause a spacecraft to break up.

. Dorjea - Gianna and Tendzin's second child, their second daughter.

. Dr. Edward Warner - A very old scientist, who is a associate of Robberta Franklin.

. Dr. Nina Bradford - Jan's personal physician.

. Dr. Daniel Kyle - An associate of Dr. Bradford.

. Eastern paradise - A Buddhist heaven in the Form Realm, overseen by the Buddha Akshobya.

. EEUVL - See electron-enhanced ultra-violet laser.

. Ego - The non-existent self that, denying the nondualistic tenets of emptiness and the essential oneness of all things, seeks to solidify it's own existence. A paradoxical trick of one's own buddha-nature that, while giving lip service to materialistic existence, leads one to discover this nature. This process involves many states: (1) form: the denial of the true egoless state, (2) feeling: a karmic chain of events is set up to divert attention from the true state, (3) perception: strategies are initiated to prove oneself, (4) intellect: existence is categorized and built-upon, and (5) consciousness: a fantasized existence is initiated.

. electron-enhanced ultra-violet laser - Energy tube of a standard, medium power weapon that exists throughout all the worlds populated by mankind.

. Elenna - the wife of Robberta and Devon's son Thorran.

. emptiness - voidness; one of the four foundations of Buddhism; shunyata; Buddhist doctrine: the ultimate nature of mind, that all things are without essence, without any absolute nature of their own. The other foundations are: everything is transitory (karma), everything is frustrating (suffering), and Nirvana (the natural state) is bliss.

. enlightenment - A technically non-existent state, attainable by but few beings; the opposite of solidified existence; at-one-ment with the true, unabiding nature of all things.

. Erikka Franklin - Jan's third child, twin sister of Anne.

. Eugenic Registry - A central council that stores past and current genetic information for human beings from participating star systems. It also approves future genetic changes to the next generation. This council was initially formed to make human beings more universally compatible with hyperdrive and new environments as they migrated from Earth to inhabit the galaxy.

. felimorph - Anthropomorphized domestic cat, a product of illegal genetic experiments early in the 29th century.

. first day stasis - A planned human genetic alteration: a woman has the conscious ability to sense conception and to stop any further development of the fetus. This facilitates the introduction of the next approved set of genetic changes.

. General Chensig - Commander of the Epikan Defense Forces.

. Genesis planet-maker - The largest class of starship ever built. They are so large, that they must use a low-number hyperdrive harmonic to build a warp field around their bulk. Once they reach a star system, they are designed to move planets, to create new planets from debris, to rapidly age new planets, and to seed new planets to get them ready for habitation. Though these machines have regeneration capability, they are still worn out after making four to five new worlds.

. Gianna Kushkana - Her holiness' third child. First child from husband number three, Osel. Gianna is an extremely brilliant, gifted empath. She has a younger brother, Rig. Her husband is Tendzin Wangyal, who was a pilgrim from Epika.

. Great War - During the first two weeks of November 3683, the Terran Federation sent out all its fleets as a show of force to all its distant colonies. During the next two weeks, a series of incidents led to outright rebellion. The violence escalated until September 3684, when most of the fleet had either been disabled or destroyed. On September 20, 3684 the Terran Federation collapsed, and the war ended.

. harmonic matrix - The solution of the hyperspace equations for a given harmonic index; the electronics and field generators that create the hyperdrive warp field; the fifth dimensional symbolic graphic diagram that defines the hyperdrive control interface.

. Harold Carnes - Chief of Security at Perimeter Station II. An androgyne.

. hazard suit - An all hazard suit; a pressure suit that contains an integral life-support, telemetry, and propulsion system, plus it is covered with a self-repairing web-like force shield generator.

. heavens - The numerous Buddhist paradises, all of which are in the Form Realm and higher, beyond the Desire Realm of human existence.

. hells - In Buddhist teachings, there are eight hot hells, eight cold hells, and numerous miscellaneous hells or purgatories. These are the lowest states of existence, created as a result of the excesses of evil or unwholesome karmic action.

. heptagon - A seven-sided geometric figure; the shape of the platforms on which the Lords of Creation built their shrines.

. Her holiness (H.H.) - An honorary title for a female Buddha.

. HLE - See Hyper Light Energy.

. Hyper Light Energy - The faster-than-light energy beam employed in the ultimate weapon. It has a range of almost one light-year. At that distance, accuracy should be almost impossible, but circumstances of extended relativistic physics make the weapon extremely accurate.

. hyper-entry probe - A device that is used to enter almost any local object via the fifth dimension, without any damage to the surface of the object. Dimensional enhancement is used to enlarge the view. As a medical instrument, it is used to attach the pseudo-virus containing new genetic information to an embryo in stasis.

. hyper-void - The name applied to simulated hyperspace, as that entered by a starship during hyperdrive. True hyperspace resists entry by physical objects and therefore cannot actually be entered. The hyper-void is a velocity envelope that is generated as a result of a harmonic solution to the Sutter-Grimwald equations. The warp field maps the physical coordinates of a starship into this envelope.

. hyperdrive - The drive system consisting of the harmonic matrix, the warp field, and the generated velocity envelope. For a given harmonic index, the ratio of envelope velocity to the velocity of light is a constant. Hyperdrive velocities are therefore quantized by index. Starship impeller engines are not used during hyperdrive; they are only used for sublight motion. The self-regenerating interregulator penetrates the hyperdrive velocity envelope, enabling a starship to translate its location in the hyper-void to its position in real space.

. hyperspace - The fifth dimension; the instantaneous, binding dimension of the universe; a non-existent place that can only be entered mathematically.

. IHD - See induced harmonic disruption.

. in-warp - The transition from sublight to hyperdrive. The universe appears to warp away from the direction of travel.

. induced harmonic disruption - The beam of a disrupter weapon, which causes whatever it hits to destructively oscillate.

. interregulator - A forward projection of a starship that is used for guidance. It is a self-regenerating telemeter that interfaces with real space while a starship is in the hyper-void. It reads beacon signals and monitors spacial density.

. Israel Aleph - Israel Alpha; the technological Commonwealth of Israel, as opposed to New Israel, a somewhat less-advanced religious state.

. Issa - One of the many names given to Jesus outside of Israel.

. James Fletcher-Franklin - Anne Franklin's husband.

. Jannet Franklin - The heroine of the story. She is an astrophysicist, galactic historian, honorary member of the Eugenics Board, and prominent Buddhist visionary. A karmic interloper in our universe.

. Julianna Restin-Franklin - Alexan Franklin's wife.

. Jupiter IV - A gas giant planet in South Columbia. It had been moved closer to the star, as a stable platform for the eight earth-like planets that circle it.

. Kabul - A town in Afghanistan.

. Karenna - The daughter of Jan and Rig; the seventh disciple of her holiness, the Mahakarmin.

. Karlen Franklin - Jan's fifth child, her synovert son. He is also an androgyne, who has undergone voice transformation.

. karma - Action; action and the result of the action; all of one's deeds and their unresolved consequences; the hidden universal energy behind all existence, a cyclical process of creation and destruction followed by creation, where every link is bound to numberless past links, and the whole is governed by associations of cause and effect; the law of cause and effect that leads to rebirth; actions leading to rebirth may be wholesome or unwholesome, meritorious or nonmeritorious, or ineffectual; egoless action leads to liberation.

. Kosh - The home star system of the canimorphs.

. Kraito - A great prophet late in the history of the Lords of Creation.

. Kranmuk - Son of Taramuk; an interloper in our universe, who came to meet Jesus.

. Liroo - The main world of the canimorphs, in the star system of Kosh.

. Lords of Creation - The creators of a vast galactic civilization that flourished from eighteen million years ago to about seven million years ago. After embarking upon their greatest achievement, they vanished without any trace except for their shrine worlds. Most of their technology is undecipherable, and nothing else is known of them except for a few names.

. Louise Martin - Captain of the Columbian starliner Amber Star.

. Lumbini - The birthplace of the Buddha Shakyamuni in Nepal; the name of a Buddhist sect from Epika.

. luminousity - A non-empty aspect of emptiness, where things are seen directly, as they actually are, but the seer is reflexively totally, clearly visible also.

. Mahakarmin - The person of great karma, the honorary name given to Polira, the first woman Buddha.

. Maitreya - The bringer of loving kindness; the coming Buddha of the next age; the fifth Buddha of the Fortunate Aeon; Maitreya's current residence if the Paradise of Joy.

. mandala - A structure that unifies many diverse elements into one, through the experience of meditation. A magic circle around a diagram that symbolizes the universe; a circled diagram used in Buddhist services; a symbolic diagram of a deity's realm of existence.

. mantra - A magical series of words recited in Buddhist chants; a way of transmuting energy using sound.

. Mara - The personification of evil; the tempter; over-evaluated ideas.

. Mau - The Egyptian word for Cat; the star system of the felimorphs.

. memory trace - A recording of a person's current thought patterns transferred to a crystal cartridge. Although the recording is usually made of active conscious thought patterns, unconscious thought patterns during sleep can also be recorded.

. Meru - In Buddhist teachings, the center of the universe; a star system in which the Lords of Creation built a shrine world.

. Merudhatu - In the realm of Meru; the third shrine world of the Lords of Creation; seventh planet encircling the star Meru.

. Milakarma - The first Buddha to come to Merudhatu after human beings first discovered it. The Buddha of peace, who came to Merudhatu late in the twenty-fifth century.

. Miyamoto Akemi - A twenty-third century prophetess in the Commonwealth of Nippon.

. mutagenetic - Able to increase the frequency of occurrence of mutagens; able to induce a self-mutating state.

. Nebu - Nebo; a sacred mountain in Kashmir.

. New Israel - The other Israel, as opposed to Israel Aleph; a competing star system founded by orthodox jews.

. New Britannia - The star system built by immigrants from the British Isles.

. nondualistic - Doctrine that Samsara (cyclical phenomenal existence) and Nirvana (the natural state) are an essential unity, differentiated only in our minds.

. North Columbia - One of the primary stars composing the Commonwealth of Columbia. Sixteen manufactured worlds circle North Columbia.

. null-detection field - A cloaking field that renders a starship difficult to see or detect; however, the intense telemetry of a battlecruiser can see though such a field.

. organigenner - A device which can, using a special DNA schematic, approximate many organic substances (including food) by converting carbon-based organic debris. it cannot create living organisms.

. Orion wasteland - A vast, dark debris field of gas and dust near Belelgeuse that was very hazardous to early space travelers.

. out-warp - The process of leaving the hyper-void. As the warp field collapses, the view of the universe seems to rush at a starship.

. Owyhee - Planet number five circling Jupiter IV in South Columbia.

. Pacifica - A planet in North Columbia.

. PadmaKara - Padmasambhava; Eighth century buddhist who brought the teachings from Northern India to Tibet; the patron saint of Tibetan Buddhism, considered to be a second incarnation of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

. Palmyra - A star system settled by Mormon pioneers early in the twenty-seven century.

. Pangaea - A manufactured world near Earth, the only place where the remaining non-extinct animals of Earth can live in a world almost devoid of human beings.

. paradise - A Buddhist heaven, in the Form or Formless Realms, where existent is more sublime and enlightened in the Realm of Desire, the realm of phenomenal existence.

. Paradise of Joy - The Tushita heaven, in the Form Realm. The abode of the coming Buddha, Maitreya.

. Perimeter Station II - A large starship docking station circling South Columbia.

. phenomenal existence - Ordinary human existence. Existence viewed as a series of (physical) events, which seem random and over which one has no apparent control, that seem to drive one's destiny. These events are puncutated by birth, life, suffering, death, and rebirth. Because of karmic conditioning, these events have the force of reality, though they have no absolute self-nature of their own.

. Polira Kushkana - The given name of her holiness, the Mahakarmin.

. PREXL - See proton-enhanced X-ray laser.

. Princess Salima - One of the children Aiu; sister of Rhubar.

. Princess Draget - A member of the royal family of the canimorphs.

. proton-enhanced X-ray laser - A very compact and powerful hand weapon energy projector tube.

. pseudo-virus - A chemical means of carrying genetic changes to be applied to a fetus in stasis.

. psycho-kinetic stream - The uncreated, non-existent nature of living existence; a stream of action that has identity and can be reborn, but has no absolute self-nature; when viewed as a particle, it is seen as a number of different beings, but when viewed as a wave-form, it is seen as a karmic flow that is constantly splitting and transforming.

. pulsed hyperdrive - The drive mechanism of early starships. It was always slower than the ninth harmonic, and it was pulsed in order to reduce interference with passengers' metabolism and as an aid in navigation.

. Quelk - A species of allomorphic, mutagenic beings in which individual variances can be marked and some of which are always in a state of transformation. Some carry many types of genetic plague, and none of them have any respect for any other species.

. rad organ - A genetically added organ that is located in the right side of the body next to and towards the rear of the stomach. It senses many types of radiation and induces a type of nausea in the presence of lethal radiation fields.

. rebirth - The opposite of death; the re-establishment of the links of the psycho-kinetic stream with a body; a sequence of temporary states followed by a more stable state of existence; an ongoing but nonobvious process whereby the links to the body are reestablished from moment to moment by the psycho-kinetic stream.

. refuge vows - Vows made in the presence of a Buddhist master or teacher to become a Buddhist or to reaffirm one as a Buddhist. These vows include: I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha, plus other vows that my be a prerequisite of a particular Buddhist master.

. remote probe - A small robot probe that collects telemetry information for its nearby parent spacecraft. If the parent is in null-detection mode, the probe can be used and sacrificed without revealing the location of that spacecraft.

. repliscanner - A device that can produce an exact duplicate of a non-organic object in two steps. First, it scans the object to produce a schematic; then it uses that principle of self-repair circuitry to make a duplicate from the raw materials.

. Rhubar - Son of Aiu; crown prince of the felimorphs.

. Rigdzin (Rig) Kuskana - Her holiness' fourth child; second child from husband number three, Osel; younger brother of Gianna; the most-gifted of all her holiness' children; consort to Jan and father of her seventh child; master of the yoga of power.

. Robbert Deniker - Jan's husband. While president of Aurora, he and his entire party were assassinated. Jan was the only survivor.

. Robberta Franklin - Jan's first child, a biogenetecist. Husband of Devon Chambers.

. sangha - The third of the three jewels; the community of Buddhist practitioners.

. Seat of the Buddhas - A throne in the circle of harmony on Merudhatu. The throne is located in the shadow of the giant wheel of the law,

. servotug - A type of subtransport that has several multi-functional servo arms at its forward and aft sections.

. Shakyamuni - Sage of the Sakya tribe; the Buddha of our age; Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha, who was born in Lumbini in 563 B.C.;

having been enlightened about the age of 40, he symbolically turned the wheel three times, dispensing three levels of teaching about the nature of truth, morality, and existence.

. sheared neutron field - A type of energy projector that created and fires high speed neutron.

. shield buster - An intrusive energy device that is designed to burn out a force shield.

. SHNEF - See sheared neutron field.

. shrine - A Buddhist altar, dedicated to all beings, around which services and meditation is performed. It usually contains an image of Shakyamuni Buddha or one of the primordial Buddhas, sacred ornaments or vessels, and pictures of one or more Buddhist teachers or masters. On Merudhatu, as constructed by the Lords of Creation, the shrine consists of a throne and image of the Wheel of the Law atop a hexagonally shaped platform.

. shrine room - A room containing a shrine.

. SLE - See sub-light energy.

. South Columbia - Sister star system to North Columbia, pat of the Commonwealth of Columbia. Fourteen manufactured worlds circle the star.

. starliner - A passenger starship, small transport class.

. Sub-light energy - A sublight energy projector, as class of powerful weapons found on starships, planetary ground defenses, and on Darter stations.

. subtransport - A class of small service spacecraft that do not have hyperdrive.

. Sunni - The largest branch of the Islamic faith.

. Sutter-Grimwald equations - The pivotal set of over-defined equations that describe the hyper-void version of hyperspace (through many harmonic indices) and make hyperdrives, transmatters, hyper-messaging, and HLE weapons possible.

. Suzuki Anagarika - The Buddhist master from the Commonwealth of Nippon who was supposed to become the seventh disciple to her holiness, but he was killed when two starliners collided on approach to Merudhatu.

. synovert - Homosexual; A person whose sexual attraction is to members of the same sex. However, the chosen gender of the person may not be the same. See antovert.

. Tactical chamber - The large hemispherical command chamber of a Vulture battlecruiser. The captain's location is half-way between the floor and the zenith up the curving overhead arc. In tactical mode, the floor vanished and all of space can be seen, also duty stations are only visible when one is standing close to a duty station.

. Tangent - The former Columbian command ship of the Great War, willed to Jan by her maternal ancestor known respectfully as Grandmother Franklin.

. Tara - An aspect of the Dhyani (meditation) Buddha of the Formless Realm; Primordial Buddha of all-accomplishing wisdom; the goddess of mercy; overseer of the Northern Paradise in the Form Realm; her reflexive agent is Visvapani.

. Temarpa - The third child of Gianna and Tendzin, who eventually marries his cousin Karenna.

. temporal stabilization - An aspect of hyperdrive that forces time to mark off slightly fast in order to prevent the biological conflicts of time reversal.

. Tendzin Wangyal - The husband of Gianna. He came to Merudhatu as a young pilgrim and decided to stay.

. Teressa Lindsay - Commander of the Columbian Defense Forces.

. Terran National - A synthesized galactic language created from several Earth languages. A portion of it was later genetically preprogrammed into human beings.

. Terran Federation - The original name for the nation that Earth created during the early exodus to the stars. Once humanity had spread out over vast distances and created many new worlds (size and composition replicas of Earth), the central organization become unwieldy. The Terran Federation collapsed during the Great War.

. Thorran Chambers-Franklin - Jan's first grandchild; the son of Robberta and Devon.

. Three Jewels - A variance of the Buddhist trinity: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha as an integral unit.l

. Time Twister - A weapon created when an aimed hyperdrive warp field is not properly closed and there is no temporal stabilization, because time is purposely and forcibly driven backwards. It creates a most agonizing way to die and was banned by mutual agreement, especially since it was found that interaction with another, specially balanced warp field would cause a temporal collision in the warp field generator, leading to an explosion.

. time travel - The Sutter-Grimwald equations once and for all proved that backwards time travel was not possible without disastrous biological consequences. These were not caused so much by paradoxes but by collisions with like forward moving processes. However, it was later shown that there was a sequence that would avoid such problems if a time vehicle were constructed that could travel in a dimensional offset. But such a time vehicle created new problems, because it was found out that it could go back no more than about ten thousand years. The further back such a vehicle would go, the more garbled the universe outside the vehicle would become. Complex telemetry equipment would be required to reconstruct the view and for extra-vehicular activity of a backwards trip of just a few hours.

. transmatter - A machine that allows travel from one place to another without any apparent motion taking place. A transmatter works via hyperspace, with a maximum range of about one half light-year. The non-entrant feature of hyperspace is used as an advantage. A sending chamber and a receiving chamber are both required.

. transport - A standard class of starship that has hyperdrive. A transport is large enough to house all the necessary mechanical parts, but not so large as to make it difficult to generate a warp field.

. treeshia - An Epikan word meaning 'the outsider'. An honorary name given to Jan by the Mahakarmin.

. Trikaya Council - A Columbian organization composed of priests and lay Buddhists that makes non-binding decisions on matters outside the realm of the physical sciences and the written law.

. trikaya - The Buddhist trinity; relating to the three basic realms of existence: (1) the Desire Realm (Nirmanakaya) of cyclical phenomenal existence, featuring the lowest hell as the most solidified state of existence, (2) the Form Realm (the dream realm, Sambhogakaya), featuring countless Buddhist paradises, and (3) the Formless Realm (Dharmakaya), featuring the most sublime kinds of existence. Closely linked to the three jewels.

. Urgaya - A star system comprised of seven manufactured worlds; home world of her holiness, the Mahakarmin.

. Vaishaka - The day of the birthday celebration of the Buddha Shakymuni.

. vajra - A diamond; a scepter that has a symbolic image of a diamond at one or both ends; a thunderbolt symbol which represents the force of adamantine truth. Two vajras are often crossed to form a double vajra.

. Vajrasattva - The diamond being; primordial wisdom; the essence that is personified by the Dhyani Buddhas.

. Vedanta - The sixth and largest of the orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, founded by the great eight century teacher, Shankara.

. Victor Franklin - Jan's sixth child, born just before her husband was assassinated.

. visualization - A (karmic) sympathetic image of past events associated with a person's psycho-kinetic stream that can be induced to appear on the image of the Wheel of Law on Merudhatu.

. Vulture tandem battlecruiser - A deadly class of starship, which is so large that it relies of its conglomeration of special geometric shapes in order to generate a warp field around its bulk. These battlecruisers are designed to operate in tandem, in a cluster of six. When properly positioned, linked fields make the six ships act as one. While linked, the ships are invisible and a non-existent virtual ship is created at the center of the cluster.

. warp generator - A mechanism inside a starship that, through devices mounted on short pylons around a starship, generates the warp field that creates the hyper-void.

. West Columbia - A new colony of the Commonwealth of Columbia, around a star over one and a half light-years from North Columbia and South Columbia.

. Western Paradise - The buddhist heaven overseen by the primordial Buddha Amitayous. It features the elimination of impediments to attaining enlightenment.

. Wheel of the Law - A symbol of Buddhist teachings, the wheel is (symbolically) turned each time a major set of teachings are given.

. Yeshia - A daughter of Gianna and Tendzin.