Beyond the Horizon (Beyond Saga Book 2)

Ensign Maya Davis has had her sights set on the captaincy of a starship since she launched her first toy rocket into Earth orbit at age four. But not long after she departs the solar system aboard humankind's first interstellar vessel, New Horizons, sabotage cripples the ship, killing a third of the crew and stranding the expedition light years from home under the siege of hostile forces. Without knowing who she can trust, Maya must risk her life to get the crew home and prevent the genocide of the very exospecies Horizons set out to contact.

After four years of study, twenty-two year-old Maya Davis, graduate of the new Interstellar Expeditionary Force (IEF) academy, achieves her lifelong dream of exploring the stars. She earns a commission aboard humanity's first deep space exploration vessel, New Horizons. With the entire Solar System watching, and with a group of emigrants aboard, the starship launches into the unknown.

New Horizons has three mission objectives: make contact with a benevolent race of extraterrestrials discovered by SETI known as the Penphins; locate a habitable, Earth-like exoplanet ripe for settlement; and search for traces of the antagonistic alien race whose invasion mankind thwarted seventeen years earlier. But when New Horizons exits hyperspace far beyond the sanctity of the solar system, sabotage cripples the ship, leaving only junior officers in command. Maya must make a series of difficult choices in order to resolve the turmoil aboard, defend New Horizons from alien attack, and bring the stranded starship home.

Back in the solar system, forty-two year-old civilian flight instructor Brooke Davis, Maya's aunt and former UN Aerospace Defense pilot, receives a disturbing visit from a covert operative. The visit prompts Brooke to head to the Martian south polar ocean, where she learns how the secret society known as The Vril manipulated the current political and social climate into being. She also uncovers the society's nefarious agenda regarding New Horizons' voyage. With time running out, Brooke races to save her niece light years away.

Maya Davis

Ensign Maya Davis has dreamed of space exploration from a young age, although she's never quite gotten over her fear of a dark. Maya is an optimist and an engineering nerd who loves gadgets, perhaps because her allergies compelled her mother to buy her bots instead of animals for pets as a kid.
 

After graduating as a part of the first class of the new Interstellar Expeditionary Force (IEF), Maya earns a commission aboard New Horizons, humankind's first ship capable of traveling to other star systems.
 

When not at her post on the bridge of Horizons performing her operations liason duties, she yearns to know how her mother died, information her secretive aunt, Brooke Davis, refuses to share with her.

Brooke Davis-Sommerfield

Seventeen years ago, grievous events forced Brooke to adopt her niece, Maya.
 

Together with her husband Kevin Sommerfield, she raised Maya as her own.
 

When the ISC chancellor discharged Brooke from the Defense Force and barred her from ever piloting an aerospace craft, she turned to teaching flight simulation courses.
 

As a government-contracted civilian flight instructor, Brooke schools new pilots, weeding out students who can't cut it in a star fighter.
 

Upon receving a strange message from Shin Saito, she's faced with a difficult choice. She can either visit Maya one last time before New Horizons departs the solar system or skip the goodbye and head to the Martian south polar ocean to prevent her niece and the mission from suffering a tragic fate.
 

Brooke's desire to find her way back into a real cockpit is superceded only by her need to protect Maya.

Shin Saito

Never without his lucky flat cap, Shin is a member of the Vril, a secret organization bent on manipulating the political and economic infrastructure of the solar system to save mankind from itself and a powerful extrasolar threat. Having decided the Vril have gone too far, Shin seeks Brooke's help to help expose the organization.

Eve

Eve is one of the first cybernetic humans, an android with the neural structure of a human. As the Vril's chief field agent, she seeks to forward their agenda. Not much is known about who she was before she went 'droid.

Kevin Sommerfield

Seventeen years ago, Professor Kevin Sommerfield invented phase (faster-than-light) propulsion and communications technology. These feats earned him the nickname "Modern Einstein" and helped the professor rise to the director of the Solar Science Society, humankind's main technological research and development institution. He cares deeply for his wife, Brooke, even though she can be a pain to deal with sometimes.

Danuwa Ajunwa

Despite having aged beyond the century mark, Danuwa Ajunwa is still working on perfecting her tennis backswing. Ajunwa rose from the position of UN Secretary-General to become the IntraSolar Commonality (ISC) Chancellor, the leader of the united human race. Due to events seventeen years ago, Ajunwa and Brooke don't get along.

Zeke

An exochild rescued by Brooke with extraordinary abilities. Zeke is a member of a powerful race of exobeings.

Josephine (Jo) Ryder

The spunky Ensign Jo Ryder graduated from the IEF Academy with a specialty in history. As her best friend, Maya can always count on her to recite a historical quote appropriate to the situation.

Erik Maxwell

The mild-mannered Ensign Erik Maxwell is a young man of few words. He prefers to let his piloting skills do the talking.

Trevor Young

As the top graduate of the ISC Defense Academy, Ensign Trevor Young hails from a military family, a born soldier. As Maya's chief rival, she must learn to somehow get along with him.

Abigail Byrne

Abigail Byrne is the mayor of Star City, the biosphere aboard New Horizons that serves as a full-fledged city in space. Byrne's stubborn streak compels her to take actions she believes are in the best interest of the New Horizons mission.

Xiaoqing (Xi)

Xi is Shin's agreeable sister, although she was anything but docile before the Vril rewrote her personality for protesting the ISC.

Takashi Katayama

Mr. Katayama is a wealthy and powerful businessman and also Maya's estranged father.

David Reed

The level-headed Captain Reed commands New Horizons, mankind's first interstellar starship.

Tess Gibbons

Gibbons is the skipper of Nautilus, the second IEF-class starship, and someone from Brooke's past.

Alistair Hamilton

ISC Councilman Hamilton is a member of the oversight committee sent to govern the New Horizons mission. Faced with death at 140 years of age, he has his neural structure grafted onto a cybernetic brain and assumes an android body in order to fulfill his dream of accompanying the New Horizons mission.

Bob

Bob is an artificially-intelligent program that achieved sentience and disappeared seventeen years ago.

 Android

A robot created to look as close to a human being as possible. Standard model androids perform menial work, freeing up humans to do more complex tasks. Contrary to popular belief, most androids are not even as strong, agile, or fast as humans. However, expensive models can possess many times the capabilities of a person and even hold human neural structure/consciousness.

Auto-syringe

An advanced type of syringe that injects medication or medites directly into the bloodstream without the use of a painful needle.

Biocite

A nanite produced by bioimplants that performs a wide variety of useful functions inside the human body, such as breaking down alcohol in the bloodstream. See "bioimplants" and "nanite" below for further details.

Bioware / Bioimpants

Technology embedded into a person's body that does everything from display information in a person's vision to strengthening muscles. Bioware is the biological software run by biological implants. Nanotechnology (see below) makes bioimpants possible.

Bot

Shorthand for robot. Bots are typically autonomous machines programmed to perform a wide variety of tasks. Roving vending machines, repair & construction bots, spherecams, delivery bots, and spider bots are a few examples.

Comm / Comm Net

Short for communications or communications network. In science fiction, the term "comm" is often used in place of the modern term "call." In other words, when you contact someone in the future, you don't call them; you comm them.

Display cube / Holocube / Cube

Holographic display cube. Display cubes are three-dimensional floating monitors, more advanced than their 2D holoscreen predecessors.

E-Slip

A tablet matrix (computer pad) as thin as a sheet of paper.

Gravgel

Shorthand for gravity gelatin. Star fighter cockpits fill with this clear, viscous, lightweight, and non-stick substance in order to protect pilots from the force of extreme acceleration. Scientists have known since the 20th century that water, and more generally liquids, can provide insulation from acceleration. Early experiments showed that a piece of organic material immersed in water could survive roughly ten times the g-force as the same material when unsubmerged. However, filling aircraft or spacecraft with water proved impractical because of the weight/mass. Studies in this area continued until the late 22nd century, when a scientist invented a gelatinous substance that provided more than ten times the protection of water but with a fraction of the mass. This substance became known as gravgel.

Gravite

A nanite injected into the bloodstream to prevent muscle and bone atrophy due to prolonged exposure to microgravity. See "nanite" below for further details.

I-cite

Interface for corneal information transfer and extrapolation. This technology allows data and images to display within a person's vision. To the onlooker, information screens appear to float in midair out in front of him or her.

Magblade / Magskate

The futuristic equivalent of roller blading or roller skating. Superconducting magnets on the bottom of the blades or skates allow a person to hover centimeters above the ground.

Medite

A nanite injected into the bloodstream for medical applications. See "nanite" below for further details.

Metatoy

A state-of-the-art toy that changes shape into objects like remote control cars, stuffed animals, or play swords. Nanotechnology makes this true transformer possible.

Nanite

A microscopic robot or machine so small it's invisible to the naked eye. Nanites are used in everything from commercial products to medical applications to military weapons.

Nautilus

Nautilus (NA), designated as IEF-02 at first but later repurposed as an ISC Defense warship, is humankind's second vessel capable of long-term extrasolar travel. The design of NA is the same as that of New Horizons except NA has no citysphere and is much more heavily armed.

Neudar

Shorthand for "neutrino radar." Conventional radar bounces radio waves off targets in order to determine their location. Sonar bounces sound waves off targets in similar fashion. Neutrinos are subatomic particles with almost no mass that pass through anything. Therefore, neudar is radar that bounces neutrinos off targets to determine location. And since nothing blocks neutrinos, signals can be sent through the center of the Earth, the Sun, or any other celestial body without being blocked. Back in the 21st century, this technology was only theoretical. Scientists struggled to make it work because they didn't know how to capture a neutrino signal when neutrinos pass through everything like tiny little ghosts. But by the late 22nd century, scientists figured it out. Simply put, there is no hiding from neudar unless anti-neutrino jamming technology is employed. Many force fields include anti-neutrino jamming.

Neurofeed

A communications signal fed (sent) directly to or from the brain or any signal consisting of brainwave patterns.

Neurotronic

The term "electronic" refers to devices which operate based on the flow of electricity through circuits. Neurotronic devices, then, function through the flow of neural energy, allowing machines to be controlled by thought.

Matrix

An AI (artificial intelligence) matrix is an advanced computer which functions on the premise of quantum computing.

Nanite

A microscopic robot or machine so small it's invisible to the naked eye. Nanites are used in everything from commercial products to medical applications to military weapons.

Nanotech / Nanotechnology

Technology based on nanites such as bioware/bioimplants and other devices.

New Horizons

New Horizons (NH), designated as IEF-01, is humankind's first interstellar exploration vessel. While other cruiser-class ships are capable of FTL and could technically reach other star systems, NH is the first ship capable of carrying enough antimatter and with the life support systems able to sustain human life for the months and years of interstellar journeys.

Measuring roughly two kilometers in length, NH is by far and away the largest ship every constructed. From stem to stern, NH consists of the command module, crew habitate module, citysphere (biosphere), defense module, ring module with antimatter nacelles, engineering module, and engine block.

Phase Drive

The phase drive is an engine capable of a phase shift, which is the act of opening a wormhole. Phase shifting allows a spacecraft to pass through that hole in space-time and into hyperspace, and permits that same craft to return to normal space in less time than it would take light to travel the same distance. From a practical standpoint, phase drives allow faster-than-light travel even though the spacecraft itself never moves faster than light.

The fastest relative speeds achieved by IEF and ISC Defense spacecraft in the mid-to-late twenty-third century approach 40c (forty times the speed of light). That's almost ten times as fast as the first phase drives (in book 1).

Phase Fighter

A star fighter craft equipped with a phase drive and thus capable of faster-than-light travel. A phase fighter is more maneuverable and more heavily armed than an SF-522A Starthroat (see the Starthroat section for further details). A phase fighter's range is limited to intrasolar distances (it can reach Pluto or the Oort Cloud but not Proxima Centauri).

Phase Port

Analogous to a modern airport or space port, a phase port is the location where people enter and exit phase tunnels in order to travel around the solar system. Generators in one port hold one end of a given tunnel open while generators in another port hold the other end open.

Phase Portal / Phase Tunnel

A phase tunnel is an artificially-generated stable wormhole shortcut connecting two distant points in space. The phase ports (like spaceports or airports) located throughout the solar system allow commuters to travel between settled planets, moons, and asteroids as easily as stepping through a doorway. Two generators, one at either end of the tunnel, are required to open and keep open a given tunnel. Phase tunnels also require an immense amount of power to maintain. The energy required to establish them increases exponentially with increasing distance. In the mid-to-late twenty-third century, phase tunnels connect colonies as far out from Earth as Kuiper Belt dwarf planets but cannot reach other star systems.

Phase Technology

Powered by antimatter, phase technology allows the opening of a wormhole, matter to pass through that hole into hyperspace, and matter to return to normal space in less time than it would take light to travel the same distance. From a practical standpoint, phase technology allows faster-than-light travel even though matter itself never moves faster than light.

Plasma Strip

The 23rd century equivalent of a light bulb. Plasma is channeled through a thin strip of material not much thicker than a sheet of paper to produce light. The strips function similar to technology found in a 21st century plasma screen television. Supposedly, plasma strips are more energy efficient and will outlive most people.

R-Seeker

Short for relativistic seeker. An antimatter-powered, heat-seeking warhead the size of an average person's pinky finger. The projectile is capable of accelerating to ninety-nine percent the speed of light in a matter of seconds. The yield of an r-seeker is roughly equivalent to 10,000 of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. R-Seekers are carried and fired by more advanced star fighter craft such as the SF-522A Starthroat and YPF-1 Quasar.

Seeker

A microfusion-powered, heat-seeking warhead the size of a 21st century ballpoint pen. The projectile is capable of accelerating to ten percent the speed of light in a matter of seconds. The yield of a seeker is roughly equivalent to 100 of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. Seekers are carried and fired by modern star fighter craft such as the Starthroat, Chinese Dragonfly, South American Condor, Russian Foxbat, and patchwork separatist spacecraft among others.

Sim

Shorthand for simulation. In the 23rd century, all images and video are captured in holographic format. Holograms are much truer representations of the original content than old-fashioned static images and video. Thus, holographic images and video are more commonly referred to as sims or vidsims.

A sim or vidsim is also any interactive holographic program. Someone in the 21st century watches soap operas whereas someone in the 23rd century experiences daytime sims or soap sims. Medical sims are 3D holographic representations of internal organs. Advanced sims, such as those generated by the system installed in the office of the U.N. Secretary-General, are capable of producing lifelike environments similar to holodecks on Star Trek. However, the holograms in BC9 have no cohesion. Thus, the term "interactive" means a person can provide feedback in order to alter the sim, but a person cannot pick up or touch a holographic object.

Sparks / Sparking

Sparks are a slang term for a type of nanorobotic narcotic known to enhance reflexes and cognitive abilities at the expense of a person's health. In other words, sparks are an advanced drug. Brooke kicked her addiction and stopped sparking when she adopted Maya.

Spherecam

Shorthand for spherical floating camera. These softball-sized recording devices defy gravity based on the principle of magnetic flux pinning (superconductivity).

SolNet

Shorthand for the Solar Network, the 23rd century version of the Internet.

Pulsar

A PF-5 Pulsar is a hybrid spacecraft and fighter plane--an aerospace craft--commonly referred to as a star fighter. ISC Defense owns and operates these space superiority fighters, which are the most advanced of their kind. PF stands for Phase Fighter, and 5 is the vehicle model number. The latest Pulsar model is the PF-5C.

A Pulsar is capable of functioning in both atmosphere and outer space. In the mid-to-late 21st century, engineers finally achieved a vastly sought after holy grail: reusable, single stage to orbit (SSTO) spacecraft. In the 22nd century, the design of flight vehicles branched into two categories, those for operation in atmosphere and others that functioned solely in space. Vehicles of the latter type had spherical, cubic, or otherwise non-aerodynamic shapes since atmospheric drag isn't an issue in space. But by the 23rd century, as humankind branched further out into the solar system, vehicle design came full circle. When a single skirmish could begin in Saturn's atmosphere, move into orbit, continue on into Titan's atmosphere, down onto the surface of Titan, and back up into space again, hybrid aerospace craft soon out-performed vehicles limited to only one mode of flight.

Each antimattered-powered Pulsar features a phase drive with a 10-second recharge time, afterburners, forward retrorockets, numerous tiny thrusters, particle cannons, and a complement of several thousand tiny seeker missiles. A Pulsar's conventional top speed is in the range of thousands of kilometers per second. The phase drive is capable of relative speeds up to 40c (forty times the speed of light).

Tri-Fighter

"Tri-fighter" is the term given to the so-called extrasolar spacecraft operated by the exobeings who attacked the solar system seventeen years ago (in book 1).

Vidsim

Short for video or visual simulation. See "sim" above for details.

Wave Gun

A handheld device capable of destabilizing or manipulating matter at the subatomic level through the use of electromagnetic, sonic, gravimetric, and other types of waves. Practically speaking, a wave gun can lift a small vehicle, set someone's clothes on fire, boil their blood, shatter an anvil, and much more.

Agamemnon

An asteroid in the Trojan asteroids and the site of the construction of Nautilus.

Auckland

The largest city in New Zealand on Earth and location of Maya Davis's apartment during her senior year at the IEF Academy...and yet, the academy has locations on Mars and Triton. Phase tunnels make it possible for Maya to travel to the outskirts of the solar system in a matter of minutes. Why did Maya choose to live in Auckland? Renowned for its beauty, all women love New Zealand.

Callisto

Jupiter's eighth moon in terms of distance from the planet and second largest moon after Ganymede. Callisto is home to multiple colonies, including New Galilei, and was the first moon settled in the Jovian system back in the mid-twenty-second century.

Charon

Pluto's largest (but still tiny) moon and home to ISC Defense Base Christy.

Christy, Base

An ISC Defense installation infiltrated by a clandestine organization.

Ganymede

Jupiter's largest moon and seventh in terms of distance from the planet. After the UN settled Callisto in the mid-twenty-second century, Russia and China staked their claim to Ganymede. As a result, the moon is home to a large Russian and Chinese population. Ganymede is home to Marius colony.

Gliese 581

A red dwarf star a little over twenty light years from Earth's solar system. The fourth planet circling the dwarf is home to the Penphins, a seemingly-benevolent race of exobeings. The Gliese 581 system is the destination of the New Horizons mission.

Hyperspace

The higher dimensional space ships and travelers pass through during a phase shift. Hyperspace is incomprehensible to humans, but engineers have implemented phase shielding to reduce the sight of the strange realm to a pinkish hue distorted and filled by mind-boggling shapes.

Huygens City

The largest human settlement on Titan and in the Saturnian system. Once a colony of only 10,000 people, it grew to become a bustling metropolis in the aftermath of the alleged extrasolar attack years ago.

Ida

A small asteroid in the main belt where Brooke spends a little time.

Jovian System

The planet Jupiter, its rings, its moons, and the elements of human civilization found there. The Galilean moons of the Jovian system are home to millions of people. Scientifically speaking, the Jovian system extends all the way out until the gas giant's gravity becomes negligible.

Kuiper Belt

The solar system's second asteroid belt. The Kuiper belt extends from the orbit of Neptune to the edge of the solar system and is less densely packed than the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Pluto is a Kuiper belt object (a very large asteroid) and a dwarf planet, not a regular planet. The Kuiper belt is home to hundreds of dwarf planets, some bigger than Pluto (Eris) and others smaller (Makemake). Thanks to phase tunnels, numerous small human colonies have taken root on various Kuiper belt worlds.

Landis

The floating city in Venus's atmosphere. With too much heat and pressure plaguing the surface of Venus, engineers chose to construct a city in the sky. Landis's altitude provides the right atmospheric pressure, and the filtered carbon dioxide siphoned from the toxic air helps plants to thrive.

Lassell Colony

The largest colony of Triton and chief hub of activity for the Interstellar Expeditionary Force. The New Horizon launch ceremony takes place in Lassell Colony on the shores of Lake Flammarion.

Luna

The proper name of Earth's moon. Centuries ago, people referred to Luna as The Moon because it was the only moon that mattered or that humans knew. As humankind branched out into the solar system and settled many different moons, the term "moon" became ambiguous. Thus, the people of the future refer to Earth's moon by its actual name, Luna. Relatively speaking, Luna is heavily populated in the 23rd century and a key phase tunnel junction.

Mars

The red planet needs little introduction to science fiction fans. With hyperterraforming of the world having reached the final stages, the billions of inhabitants are able to roam freely without the need for environmental gear. After Earth and Triton, Mars has the next most habitable climate.

Makemake

A dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt. Brooke Davis-Sommerfield relocates to Makemake after doing prison time and separating with her husband.

Marius Colony

The largest settlement on Ganymede is a melting pot of Russian and Chinese culture. Shin Saito and his half-sister Xiaoqing grew up in Marius.

Melbourne

A city in Australia on Earth and still the site of the Australian Open after hundreds of years.

Mercury

The smallest planet in the solar system and closest one to the sun. Mercury is home to Gassendi colony and huge solar power collection facilities. Briefly, Brooke meets with Shin on Mercury.

New Allen Telescope Array

A space station in the Oort Cloud operated by SETI under the direction of the Solar Science Society. The station's chief objective is to search for signs of extrasolar life, both friendly and otherwise.

New Galilei

The first and largest colony settled on Callisto and in the Jovian system. Named after the astronomer Galileo Galilei as well as the Galileo probe sent by NASA to study Jupiter and its moons in the late 20th century. Hyperterraforming progress made in the last seventeen years has allowed the open-air colony to do away with its domes. In the last few years, New Galilei has earned a reputation as a city with an exciting night life.

Oberon

The outermost major and second-largest moon of the planet Uranus. In the mid-to-late twenty-third century, the phase port on Oberon provides a waystop between colonies further inside the solar system and Kuiper belt settlements like Makemake.

Oort Cloud

The Oort Cloud is a ring of sparsely-packed comets encircling the extreme outskirts of Earth's solar system.

Psykhe

A planetar (rogue planet) that strayed from its parent star and now resides a light-year outside the solar system.

Red Rock City

Known as Red Rocks for short by local residents. One of the larger colonies of Mars near Valles Marineris, a canyon bigger and deeper than The Grand Canyon on Earth. Brooke Davis-Sommerfield and her husband live on the edge of the city.

Triton

Neptune's largest moon and home to the Interstellar Expeditionary Force bases and research facilities. After the so-called extrasolar threat fled the moon at the end of the war (in book 1), the technology they left behind helped to advance human science considerably. They also spent over a century hyperterraforming the moon before vacating it, leaving Triton with the most Earth-like climate in the solar system after the blue marble itself. Don't confuse Triton with Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Trojans, Jupiter / Trojan Asteroids

A group of asteroids that sit within Jupiter's orbit at a lagrange point and orbit the sun along with the planet. The IEF and ISC Defense construct spacecraft spacecraft within the Trojans by using the raw materials within the asteroids. Both New Horizons and Nautilus are constructed in the Trojans.

Uranus

The seventh planet from Earth's sun and third largest gas giant. Uranus looks like a solid light blue marble from any distance.

Vesta

The second-largest rock in the main asteroid belt after Ceres and home to mining operations.

Downshift

A downshift is the part of a phase shift when a physical object exits hyperspace through a wormhole into normal space-time.

FTL

Acronym for faster-than-light. FTL, phase shifting (or just shifting), and post-luminal are synonymous terms.

Fused

Common slang in the twenty-third century used to describe something in a positive manner. The twenty-first century equivalent would be awesome or cool. Often, the word "too" is used in conjunction with "fused" to express that something is "too fused."

Interstellar Expeditionary Force (IEF)

The IEF is a branch of the ISC devoted to scientific exploration and first contact with exospecies beyond Earth's solar system. Established in the spirit of centuries-old space agencies like NASA and the ESA (and not altogether dissimilar from Starfleet in Star Trek), the IEF standards apart from ISC Defense (the military), although IEF graduates receive the same basic training as Defense soldiers. From a political standpoint, the IEF represents the new unified humanity that has set aside war and reduced poverty and crime to all-time lows. Eventually, as the ISC approaches utopian status, the IEF is supposed to replace the military--if ISC Chancellor Ajunwa has her way. The IEF vs. ISC Defense debate is a hot political topic and a subject of animosity between members of the two organizations.

IntraSolar Commonality (ISC)

The former United Nations. Seventeen years ago (at the end of book 1), all nations and colonies joined to form a united human government, the IntraSolar Commonality (ISC), after banding together against an alleged extrasolar threat. The UN secretary-general at the time, Danuwa Ajunwa, was elected as the first ISC chancellor and has remained in office. Ajunwa coined the name of the unified government structure to give each and every ISC citizen of the solar system a sense of togetherness and equality.

ISC Defense

The military branch of the IntraSolar Commonality. When the ISC was formed, defense funding from every nation-state and colony was devoted to establishing armed forces to defend the solar system in case of another extrasolar attack. ISC Defense absorbed all UN military outfits, including Aerospace Defense. However, individual nation-states and colonies are still allowed to maintain their own defense institutions.

Phase Shift(ing)

A phase shift is the act of traversing a wormhole into or out of hyperspace, which effectively allows a physical object to travel faster than light, relatively speaking. An upshift refers to wormhole entry while a downshift refers to wormhole exit.

Upshift

An upshift is the part of a phase shift when a physical object passes out of normal space-time, through a wormhole, and into hyperspace.