Post by Nebula on Feb 21, 2014 20:53:18 GMT
The following is for a full game I hope to run eventually, but I make references in my Writer's Block stories and in my one-off games in the Play Pen. This is long, so be warned.
Alliance (Senet Alliance)
The treaty based and membership run greater government. Primary purpose is to ease interspecies relations, dictate certain homogenous culture issues (ex: no slavery), support the all-species military, debate greater issues, enforce sol system quarantine, etc. This aside the Alliance does not control species government, local police activity, dictate trade, or otherwise interfere with cultural practices or species norms. Civil wars are allowed on a planetary basis, sol system wars result in the system being cut off from the Alliance while it works itself off. Most importantly the Alliance stands against any activity by non-member species especially the borg. (Don’t shoot me!)
Augmentation
Once reserved for the military is now a part of most species cultures. Augmentation plays an important role in life extension. Certain gene sequences cannot be easily be turned back on as the body ages. Replacing body parts is the only affordable solution. Certain purists and groups consider augmentation an evil. Getting simple augmentation is almost a matter of going to the nearest med clinic and putting up credits. Combat military are assumed to have some sort of augmentation due to injury or specialized equipment requirements.
Babel Fish (suspend disbelief)
A small ear sized psi based creature that is taught languages and translates for the host. Yes, babel fish must be fed to stay healthy. Species without external ear openings (such as membrane ears) have them implanted. Species without ears of any sort must rely on other methods of communication such as gesture (Red Guard standard) or translation tablets.
The Black
The underside of species and culture everywhere in the Alliance. The rule breakers, the lawless, traders of anything illegal, the pirates. In some places they control whole sol systems as System Lords. On Senet Station there is very little true black. Even the off Station black market trade is pretty tame.
Borg (please don’t shoot me! they are different, I swear!)
This “species” is widely considered to be an a.i. gone to horrific extremes from a long gone sentient culture. Although it may have been a species that gave their physical forms up to become machines. No one knows. The borg does not communicate in any way. Their void ships find any source of metal and convert it to increase the size and complexity of their void ships as well as convert planets to their nonsensical specifications. This means red blood species are fair game.
The most important response to the borg threat is plas taking the place of all metal where ever possible. Whole planets have been abandoned due to their abundant metal deposits. Outside of red blood crew, military ships have zero metal.
Chips
Every citizen has the right if not the responsibility to have an implanted chip. These store everyday credits, identification, med records for therapy or augmentation, business or social contacts,
Div card (if you have one), etc.
They have a super primitive nano net that builds a connection from the appendage located chip to the appropriate brain for manipulation and use. Security is a must.
Computers (archaic term I know)
There are scads of different types and structures of computers. The only type that is illegal are bio-computers. Some highly advanced a.i.s have their own codes of governance but are not citizens and are limited to only one “purpose”. Ships above a certain size all have a.i. The rest range from nano nets to military level planet busters.
Credits
The Alliance recognized currency. Species, sol systems, and regions can have other currency but anyone who travels, is in the military, trades between species, etc. always use Alliance credits.
Div (Diversity)
An Alliance cultural principal and practice derived from the primary Alliance slogan “Unity through diversity”. Taken very seriously. Taught in all schools as Sent Relations. The functional glue that holds the Alliance together expressed through trade and Senet practices.
Being anti-Div is not a good thing.
Having “different” be the norm is a fragile concept but a vital one on Senet Station. Pure and simple, the vast numbers of sents on Station mean that you are not the apex or even best species for anything meaningful. It is “together” that the Station is the best.
Div polite greeting is a species version of a bow and a respectful greeting, as well as a bow at the end of the conversation and a respectful parting.
Div eyes... there are predators on station who take exception to sents who make eye contact, others just consider it rude, the rest will call you anti-Div.
Earth (Earth Sol/Earthborn)
[This is in the far future.]
Dying planet. Or as one prominent sent said:
Your God granted you dominion over your filthy ruined planet. Out here the Sol Mother has different rules.
70% of the Alliance considers earthborn rude, crude, anti-Div, angry, violent, arrogant, rash, unthinking, abusive, sex crazed, xenophobia, and should never have been let into the Alliance. Their only saving grace is they are fleeing their ruined sol system and populating the systems that border borg space. Their other even more unsavory export is the zealot religious group called Puritans who advocate a violent and complete genetic purity of other species. (With 748 species they are considered more than a little delusional). Earthborn are (unfortunately) also hyper-fertile with many species in the Alliance.
The direct earth sol migrants are called mainline and are considered genetically pure until they cross breed (which many do, to the Puritans growing horror).
Earthers
Share the same DNA but removed by over a million years by a long gone parent race. Not all are bipeds but they do have bilateral symmetry. They are not hyper fertile.
Gravitons (yeah, well...)
Magic particles that help low gravity species survive, make mobility sliders work for certain species, etc.
Holo (Holo Deck)
Holos are the most widely used system of communication. A simple 3D desktop projection for simple use as well as much more complicated 4D and 5D projections for specialized fields or species that lack appendages.
Littles
Children (culturally dictated ages, etc.)
Military (Mil)
The Alliance military has three branches.
Red Guard: planet side and void troops including flyers, mechs, engineers, etc. Fleet of destroyers.
Black Guard: the extra-stellar void ships with a primary science mission to find new life, recover ancient artifacts, stop things like virus currents, etc. Mostly noninterference.
Grey Guard: the shadowy, much feared, secret service. If you want to empty a sent’s waste pouch tell them there’s a Shadow Walker behind them.
Nanos (Nano Bots) (Suspend disbelief)
Nano-scopic “machines” programed to certain purposes. Most widely used for healing using the “blue print” provided in genetic material. Other uses include sober nanos and clean nanos (ex: break down non-organic matter on the body).
Newsfeeds
The media on Station is primarily in the wasteland of the newsfeeds. Quick visual and sound based snips of whatever the feed specialized in (politics, culture, religion, mishmash, junk, free, paid, etc.). Most of them are 50% ads and 50% low quality news. Everyone is utterly addicted to them. The Station has hundreds of newsfeeds. The most important ones? Not Senet proceedings or news from home space. A game called mata.
Mata (team field game)
Mata is vaguely similar to football/soccer with two opposing teams, goals, and a “ball”. But it was designed to be a multi-species game with multi-species players. What happens is similar to a chess game where you can put out a set number of different players for each game. Each species has different allowable “moves” and “conditions”. Matches are set and teams post their roster before the game with time to make a set number of modifications based on their opponents initial post. Mata is wildly popular and the stadiums fill for even the amateur games. There are heavily augmented mech games as well as professional “genetic ideal” games. Betting is almost mandatory. The Alliance mata championship is held on Station every four stan sol (which is in four stan moons — tickets still available on the black market .
Matching Services
The Alliance region’s version of a matchmaker business. Some are no better then arranging long term sexing partners while on Station. Others are a way for sents to meet compatible friends (not all species are outgoing, or come from a meet and greet culture, etc.). Most are for serious romantic and/or family-minded relationships. The good ones enjoy uncanny success. Note that most species do not have present day earth culture family structures.
Plas
A direct response to the borg threat. It is a huge category of non-metallic substitutes including augmentation, void ships, computer guts, etc.
Play
Usually elaborate practical jokes but they can be professional scams, etc. Ex: Some sents are played out of credits with too-good-to-be-true promises. Certain species excel at plays (earthborn are not one of them).
Second Shelf
Second hand or inferior, but better then nothing. Therapy, nanos, augmentation, are all sketchy choices.
Senet (Alliance Senet)
The pan species government primarily concerned with right relations, trade, and funding the military. Each species is allowed one Senetor, although delegates and specialists can be very influential.
Sent (Sentient)
Sent if the default title (ex: Sent Mov3ate). The Senet attempts to define sentience every few standard sol but it’s a tricky subject. A school bus sized sand worm does not have thumbs but they have highly advanced psi, a relatively low tech, but a rich culture going back to the misty beginnings of time... and they control exotic minerals necessary for void ships. Basically: we acknowledge a new one when we come to a majority vote.
Senet Station (Station/The Station)
Located in the functional center of the Alliance based on the density of trade. This huge void city is home to millions. It also is the location of Alliance government through the Senet. The Station is the most Div “culture” in the Alliance. Also on Station is the main Sol Mother temple.
Sol Mother (sun/star)
A pan Alliance “religion” that is far from homogenous but the basic principals are the same. Life depends on sol light and stands strong against the void (darkness). Even dark-dwellers practice because their existence would not be possible without their local sol regulating planetary conditions. The main Sol Mother temple is located in Senet Station and is painfully Div.
Species
A species is defined by Senet laws in laborious detail. Practically, species are considered to be from the same area of space (sharing one of more sol systems), have a certain percentage of the same genetic material, more or less the same culture, specific tech level... after that it gets fuzzy. Species are granted Alliance citizenship, not governments or cultures. If two dominant species peacefully coexists in the same sol system they will apply for membership together. Further complication are parent species and their uplifted clients, races within a species, sub-races, registered zealots, etc.
Red blood/blue blood
The two primary blood types are red and blue blood.
Genetics
There are four genetic types. And six different very general classifications of species:
Biped Trileg (sphere, cone, pillar)
Multi-peds (four or more appendages)
Airborne Waterborne
Chitinous (skeletons on the outside)
“Exotic” (jellies, sand worms, accordion, etc.)
No sentient plants although two species have symbiotic relationships with evolved body coverings that photosynthesize.
Stables
Indentured (or involuntary in the black) sex for hire. Multi-species and perfectly legal on Station. If you want the truly weird stuff you’ve got to go into the black. Most of the available choices will have compliance chips and an out count.
Swear Words (sampling) (I don’t expect these to be used but swear words can be defining color in written stories)
Void: blank, empty, death, dead, stupid, evil
Void (gesture): splayed two finger (cilia, etc.) salute
Void & darkness: truly evil, totally screwed
Void rot: different types of plas rot found on ships
Foul darkness: one name for the Sol Mother’s opposite
Deep empty: void between sol systems, suggests fear
Stinking deep void: does it get any worse?
Sol: golly-gee-wiz, Sol Mother help me, etc.
Sol & darkness: all encompassing, etc.
Sol shine: a good thing unless it’s blinding you
Sol diver: has a death wish
Sol angel: a good sent, a sent who has done a good deed
Angel baiting: play to get some over to the “dark” side
Right Side: common military for right side up
Exotic: anti-Div, usually sarcastic
Tube waste(d): doused with excrement
Waste pouch: worst then tube waste
What’s plugging your tubes?: undecided, hesitant Empty: to void body cavities (stomach, etc.)
Golly: (new Station slang) incredulous, astonishment
Wiz-dimple: someone who is fussing or worrying
Ding-ding: a sent who’s a little light on mental
B-bomb: borg
Mind twisted: self defined
Cyro it: stop it now
Foof: gone, also inconsequential
Therapy
Mostly nano delivered med. Including augmentation lube, lung chemistry assist, visual spectrum intensifiers, etc. Senet Station is a 748 species compromise so nearly everyone takes therapy and had at least minor augmentation done.
Time (cheese whizz, I know)
Alliance standard time is broken into...
Stan sol (one year, 8 moons)
Moon (40 turns)
Turn (one day, 3 shifts)
Shift (8 hours) Mini (minutes)
“Nano mini” (right now!)
Vats (The Vats)
Vats are the simple and most important technology in the Alliance. Vats create life from existing genetic material to increase or modify species traits, allow fertility for dying races, create made-to-order littles, accelerate and control healing. Whole species have gone to the vats when they hit an evolutionary dead end. The Alliance is littered with failed master races and militant races. Regular genetic reproduction out preforms the vats every time. But complex med and augmentation are most successful in the vats.
==============================
Light side/dark side
Due to the complex system of atmospheric circulation there is one “side” of the Station that receives sol light and another that does not. The light side is where the majority live, work, govern and play. The dark side is less savory, more dangerous, and has cheaper rent.
Dark Side Market
Actually located in the shadow side but the dark side aspect is clearly present. This is the largest market on Station. The innocent should upgrade the security on your credits chip, consider a guide or travel in a group, and never assume that a good deal is legal.
The Baths
Huge pools of various depths and temperatures. Water based species have free access. All others must pay — most Station citizens have never visited due to cost.
“Cost” of Living
Senet Station is always more expensive then new arrivals anticipate (must be the sol shine). Housing really hard to find and expensive. Food is limited and boring. The only real option is to have a job contract chipped before arriving on Station. Div is mandatory. Some sents want to leave but can’t afford to. Sort of like living in New York city during mass immigrations only surrounded by large amounts of void.
Hourlies
Stables are for paid sex. Hourlies are for pickups. Station culture dictates that consenting adults are free to do what they want as long as it has a firm verbal agreement. Sents play the hourlies all the time, so beware. Check your species guide before you agree to anything. A tie for one species can be entirely different for another. There are eggs stealers and “sticky” seed that stays viable for turns, as well 748 other species reproductive methods out there.
Housing
Overcrowding is the norm. Living quarters always have multiple occupants. Some bed swap during different shifts.
Dorms (sleeping-tube style)
Tiny rooms (usually in someone else’s unit)
Sliver units (tiny but can be solo, usually aren’t)
Mil style quarters (slightly larger) Units (one or more “bedrooms”)
Species restricted areas (aviaries, aquariums, etc.)
Diplomatic compounds
Costs go from a painful number of credits to national treasuries. Living free on the Station is not allowed.
Food
Food is subsidized as long as you want military style nutritive mash served in self-composting “boxes”. Other food is more expensive. A current favorite is select types of mash made into noodles that is heavily spiced. Fresh vegetables are available for a price (partially subsidized). Meat is an expensive Station import. There is a brisk trade in nuetro supplements made synthetically for individual species and races.
“Tube water” is the subsidized beverage. Different colors designate different nutrients (yellow of methane breathers, etc.) while gem names are “upper” like ruby water. Tubes are refillable or compostable.
Alterables
Heavily species dependent but many go to smoked “geep & blab” variants for a social lubricant. Some cultures go for simples while others go for floaters. Certain foods have results.
The sec are absolutely militant about addictive drugs, especially blue dope (the perfect high, 100% addictive first time... first dose is “free”). Sents don’t joke about blue dope because there are proximity laws that can get you thrown off Station or worse.
Furniture
Generally available seating includes stools, benches, slings or perches. Everyone else just plants themselves on the deck.
Beds are usually either flat, sling or nest.
If no one is using the main/front room of a unit family and friends gather with pillows and pop-chairs to spend time together.
The Sec (Station Security)
The sec on Station are not the usual cops. These sents are highly trained, super Div referees and law enforcers. Unless you are dark side and doing something you shouldn’t be, the sec are highly respected. Everyone knows how hard they work and how difficult situations can become. There’s a whole division dedicated to the predator species. Another for conflict resolution. In return the Station holds a day to honor the sec for their job well done and for those who have fallen on duty — everyone goes home and stays there for a full turn. The Station traffic comes to a standstill. By tradition is is a quiet private family day for games, story telling, and watching holo productions.
Entertainment
Senet Station wealth index is very low and common areas congested, so most activities are limited in size. Clubs and cafes have drink minimums, but the parks and open areas do not. It’s not uncommon for seriously dating sents to go to littles parks to watch the Station’s youngest set play. Window shopping is an art form which retailers play into with creative multi-media displays. Holo entertainment is done at home. But subsidized live plays and concerts do get held in neighborhood parks. A current “hobby” for the young and daring is ledge dropping. Balcony ledges go many stories up in some areas and brave (idiotic) sents drop from one trying to land on a lower one. Avian species have been doing this forever, but bipeds have picked it up. So far the sec has not intervened but everyone knows they will. Species that run have just set up a fun event every long-off with races for all comers. Slider races are strictly forbidden. Scavenger hunts have become a party game for groups who don’t rent a party space. The Station art park is family by tradition and boisterous groups are met with serious scorn. A short lived sexing-on-public-transport game was met with stoney Div silence and volleys of empty water tubes (i.e.. empty already, idiots) (two turns later the game was over).
Employment
The three categories of employment are those (1) directly tied to Senet proceedings and functioning (aids, private security, specialized staff, etc.); (2) support services for the whole Station including Senet related sents (food service, med labs and clinics, etc.); and (3) all the business that goes into making the Alliance profitable (military contractors, Station suppliers, mega corps, paid treaty negotiations, mata league functionaries, etc.).
Med Labs and Clinics
Located throughout the light side of the Station are med labs who tend to everyday injuries and health issues for a subsidized price. They specialized in therapy and species specific nanos. Critical care, augmentation, major complications, all require the med clinics but are only partially subsidized.
Alliance (Senet Alliance)
The treaty based and membership run greater government. Primary purpose is to ease interspecies relations, dictate certain homogenous culture issues (ex: no slavery), support the all-species military, debate greater issues, enforce sol system quarantine, etc. This aside the Alliance does not control species government, local police activity, dictate trade, or otherwise interfere with cultural practices or species norms. Civil wars are allowed on a planetary basis, sol system wars result in the system being cut off from the Alliance while it works itself off. Most importantly the Alliance stands against any activity by non-member species especially the borg. (Don’t shoot me!)
Augmentation
Once reserved for the military is now a part of most species cultures. Augmentation plays an important role in life extension. Certain gene sequences cannot be easily be turned back on as the body ages. Replacing body parts is the only affordable solution. Certain purists and groups consider augmentation an evil. Getting simple augmentation is almost a matter of going to the nearest med clinic and putting up credits. Combat military are assumed to have some sort of augmentation due to injury or specialized equipment requirements.
Babel Fish (suspend disbelief)
A small ear sized psi based creature that is taught languages and translates for the host. Yes, babel fish must be fed to stay healthy. Species without external ear openings (such as membrane ears) have them implanted. Species without ears of any sort must rely on other methods of communication such as gesture (Red Guard standard) or translation tablets.
The Black
The underside of species and culture everywhere in the Alliance. The rule breakers, the lawless, traders of anything illegal, the pirates. In some places they control whole sol systems as System Lords. On Senet Station there is very little true black. Even the off Station black market trade is pretty tame.
Borg (please don’t shoot me! they are different, I swear!)
This “species” is widely considered to be an a.i. gone to horrific extremes from a long gone sentient culture. Although it may have been a species that gave their physical forms up to become machines. No one knows. The borg does not communicate in any way. Their void ships find any source of metal and convert it to increase the size and complexity of their void ships as well as convert planets to their nonsensical specifications. This means red blood species are fair game.
The most important response to the borg threat is plas taking the place of all metal where ever possible. Whole planets have been abandoned due to their abundant metal deposits. Outside of red blood crew, military ships have zero metal.
Chips
Every citizen has the right if not the responsibility to have an implanted chip. These store everyday credits, identification, med records for therapy or augmentation, business or social contacts,
Div card (if you have one), etc.
They have a super primitive nano net that builds a connection from the appendage located chip to the appropriate brain for manipulation and use. Security is a must.
Computers (archaic term I know)
There are scads of different types and structures of computers. The only type that is illegal are bio-computers. Some highly advanced a.i.s have their own codes of governance but are not citizens and are limited to only one “purpose”. Ships above a certain size all have a.i. The rest range from nano nets to military level planet busters.
Credits
The Alliance recognized currency. Species, sol systems, and regions can have other currency but anyone who travels, is in the military, trades between species, etc. always use Alliance credits.
Div (Diversity)
An Alliance cultural principal and practice derived from the primary Alliance slogan “Unity through diversity”. Taken very seriously. Taught in all schools as Sent Relations. The functional glue that holds the Alliance together expressed through trade and Senet practices.
Being anti-Div is not a good thing.
Having “different” be the norm is a fragile concept but a vital one on Senet Station. Pure and simple, the vast numbers of sents on Station mean that you are not the apex or even best species for anything meaningful. It is “together” that the Station is the best.
Div polite greeting is a species version of a bow and a respectful greeting, as well as a bow at the end of the conversation and a respectful parting.
Div eyes... there are predators on station who take exception to sents who make eye contact, others just consider it rude, the rest will call you anti-Div.
Earth (Earth Sol/Earthborn)
[This is in the far future.]
Dying planet. Or as one prominent sent said:
Your God granted you dominion over your filthy ruined planet. Out here the Sol Mother has different rules.
70% of the Alliance considers earthborn rude, crude, anti-Div, angry, violent, arrogant, rash, unthinking, abusive, sex crazed, xenophobia, and should never have been let into the Alliance. Their only saving grace is they are fleeing their ruined sol system and populating the systems that border borg space. Their other even more unsavory export is the zealot religious group called Puritans who advocate a violent and complete genetic purity of other species. (With 748 species they are considered more than a little delusional). Earthborn are (unfortunately) also hyper-fertile with many species in the Alliance.
The direct earth sol migrants are called mainline and are considered genetically pure until they cross breed (which many do, to the Puritans growing horror).
Earthers
Share the same DNA but removed by over a million years by a long gone parent race. Not all are bipeds but they do have bilateral symmetry. They are not hyper fertile.
Gravitons (yeah, well...)
Magic particles that help low gravity species survive, make mobility sliders work for certain species, etc.
Holo (Holo Deck)
Holos are the most widely used system of communication. A simple 3D desktop projection for simple use as well as much more complicated 4D and 5D projections for specialized fields or species that lack appendages.
Littles
Children (culturally dictated ages, etc.)
Military (Mil)
The Alliance military has three branches.
Red Guard: planet side and void troops including flyers, mechs, engineers, etc. Fleet of destroyers.
Black Guard: the extra-stellar void ships with a primary science mission to find new life, recover ancient artifacts, stop things like virus currents, etc. Mostly noninterference.
Grey Guard: the shadowy, much feared, secret service. If you want to empty a sent’s waste pouch tell them there’s a Shadow Walker behind them.
Nanos (Nano Bots) (Suspend disbelief)
Nano-scopic “machines” programed to certain purposes. Most widely used for healing using the “blue print” provided in genetic material. Other uses include sober nanos and clean nanos (ex: break down non-organic matter on the body).
Newsfeeds
The media on Station is primarily in the wasteland of the newsfeeds. Quick visual and sound based snips of whatever the feed specialized in (politics, culture, religion, mishmash, junk, free, paid, etc.). Most of them are 50% ads and 50% low quality news. Everyone is utterly addicted to them. The Station has hundreds of newsfeeds. The most important ones? Not Senet proceedings or news from home space. A game called mata.
Mata (team field game)
Mata is vaguely similar to football/soccer with two opposing teams, goals, and a “ball”. But it was designed to be a multi-species game with multi-species players. What happens is similar to a chess game where you can put out a set number of different players for each game. Each species has different allowable “moves” and “conditions”. Matches are set and teams post their roster before the game with time to make a set number of modifications based on their opponents initial post. Mata is wildly popular and the stadiums fill for even the amateur games. There are heavily augmented mech games as well as professional “genetic ideal” games. Betting is almost mandatory. The Alliance mata championship is held on Station every four stan sol (which is in four stan moons — tickets still available on the black market .
Matching Services
The Alliance region’s version of a matchmaker business. Some are no better then arranging long term sexing partners while on Station. Others are a way for sents to meet compatible friends (not all species are outgoing, or come from a meet and greet culture, etc.). Most are for serious romantic and/or family-minded relationships. The good ones enjoy uncanny success. Note that most species do not have present day earth culture family structures.
Plas
A direct response to the borg threat. It is a huge category of non-metallic substitutes including augmentation, void ships, computer guts, etc.
Play
Usually elaborate practical jokes but they can be professional scams, etc. Ex: Some sents are played out of credits with too-good-to-be-true promises. Certain species excel at plays (earthborn are not one of them).
Second Shelf
Second hand or inferior, but better then nothing. Therapy, nanos, augmentation, are all sketchy choices.
Senet (Alliance Senet)
The pan species government primarily concerned with right relations, trade, and funding the military. Each species is allowed one Senetor, although delegates and specialists can be very influential.
Sent (Sentient)
Sent if the default title (ex: Sent Mov3ate). The Senet attempts to define sentience every few standard sol but it’s a tricky subject. A school bus sized sand worm does not have thumbs but they have highly advanced psi, a relatively low tech, but a rich culture going back to the misty beginnings of time... and they control exotic minerals necessary for void ships. Basically: we acknowledge a new one when we come to a majority vote.
Senet Station (Station/The Station)
Located in the functional center of the Alliance based on the density of trade. This huge void city is home to millions. It also is the location of Alliance government through the Senet. The Station is the most Div “culture” in the Alliance. Also on Station is the main Sol Mother temple.
Sol Mother (sun/star)
A pan Alliance “religion” that is far from homogenous but the basic principals are the same. Life depends on sol light and stands strong against the void (darkness). Even dark-dwellers practice because their existence would not be possible without their local sol regulating planetary conditions. The main Sol Mother temple is located in Senet Station and is painfully Div.
Species
A species is defined by Senet laws in laborious detail. Practically, species are considered to be from the same area of space (sharing one of more sol systems), have a certain percentage of the same genetic material, more or less the same culture, specific tech level... after that it gets fuzzy. Species are granted Alliance citizenship, not governments or cultures. If two dominant species peacefully coexists in the same sol system they will apply for membership together. Further complication are parent species and their uplifted clients, races within a species, sub-races, registered zealots, etc.
Red blood/blue blood
The two primary blood types are red and blue blood.
Genetics
There are four genetic types. And six different very general classifications of species:
Biped Trileg (sphere, cone, pillar)
Multi-peds (four or more appendages)
Airborne Waterborne
Chitinous (skeletons on the outside)
“Exotic” (jellies, sand worms, accordion, etc.)
No sentient plants although two species have symbiotic relationships with evolved body coverings that photosynthesize.
Stables
Indentured (or involuntary in the black) sex for hire. Multi-species and perfectly legal on Station. If you want the truly weird stuff you’ve got to go into the black. Most of the available choices will have compliance chips and an out count.
Swear Words (sampling) (I don’t expect these to be used but swear words can be defining color in written stories)
Void: blank, empty, death, dead, stupid, evil
Void (gesture): splayed two finger (cilia, etc.) salute
Void & darkness: truly evil, totally screwed
Void rot: different types of plas rot found on ships
Foul darkness: one name for the Sol Mother’s opposite
Deep empty: void between sol systems, suggests fear
Stinking deep void: does it get any worse?
Sol: golly-gee-wiz, Sol Mother help me, etc.
Sol & darkness: all encompassing, etc.
Sol shine: a good thing unless it’s blinding you
Sol diver: has a death wish
Sol angel: a good sent, a sent who has done a good deed
Angel baiting: play to get some over to the “dark” side
Right Side: common military for right side up
Exotic: anti-Div, usually sarcastic
Tube waste(d): doused with excrement
Waste pouch: worst then tube waste
What’s plugging your tubes?: undecided, hesitant Empty: to void body cavities (stomach, etc.)
Golly: (new Station slang) incredulous, astonishment
Wiz-dimple: someone who is fussing or worrying
Ding-ding: a sent who’s a little light on mental
B-bomb: borg
Mind twisted: self defined
Cyro it: stop it now
Foof: gone, also inconsequential
Therapy
Mostly nano delivered med. Including augmentation lube, lung chemistry assist, visual spectrum intensifiers, etc. Senet Station is a 748 species compromise so nearly everyone takes therapy and had at least minor augmentation done.
Time (cheese whizz, I know)
Alliance standard time is broken into...
Stan sol (one year, 8 moons)
Moon (40 turns)
Turn (one day, 3 shifts)
Shift (8 hours) Mini (minutes)
“Nano mini” (right now!)
Vats (The Vats)
Vats are the simple and most important technology in the Alliance. Vats create life from existing genetic material to increase or modify species traits, allow fertility for dying races, create made-to-order littles, accelerate and control healing. Whole species have gone to the vats when they hit an evolutionary dead end. The Alliance is littered with failed master races and militant races. Regular genetic reproduction out preforms the vats every time. But complex med and augmentation are most successful in the vats.
==============================
Light side/dark side
Due to the complex system of atmospheric circulation there is one “side” of the Station that receives sol light and another that does not. The light side is where the majority live, work, govern and play. The dark side is less savory, more dangerous, and has cheaper rent.
Dark Side Market
Actually located in the shadow side but the dark side aspect is clearly present. This is the largest market on Station. The innocent should upgrade the security on your credits chip, consider a guide or travel in a group, and never assume that a good deal is legal.
The Baths
Huge pools of various depths and temperatures. Water based species have free access. All others must pay — most Station citizens have never visited due to cost.
“Cost” of Living
Senet Station is always more expensive then new arrivals anticipate (must be the sol shine). Housing really hard to find and expensive. Food is limited and boring. The only real option is to have a job contract chipped before arriving on Station. Div is mandatory. Some sents want to leave but can’t afford to. Sort of like living in New York city during mass immigrations only surrounded by large amounts of void.
Hourlies
Stables are for paid sex. Hourlies are for pickups. Station culture dictates that consenting adults are free to do what they want as long as it has a firm verbal agreement. Sents play the hourlies all the time, so beware. Check your species guide before you agree to anything. A tie for one species can be entirely different for another. There are eggs stealers and “sticky” seed that stays viable for turns, as well 748 other species reproductive methods out there.
Housing
Overcrowding is the norm. Living quarters always have multiple occupants. Some bed swap during different shifts.
Dorms (sleeping-tube style)
Tiny rooms (usually in someone else’s unit)
Sliver units (tiny but can be solo, usually aren’t)
Mil style quarters (slightly larger) Units (one or more “bedrooms”)
Species restricted areas (aviaries, aquariums, etc.)
Diplomatic compounds
Costs go from a painful number of credits to national treasuries. Living free on the Station is not allowed.
Food
Food is subsidized as long as you want military style nutritive mash served in self-composting “boxes”. Other food is more expensive. A current favorite is select types of mash made into noodles that is heavily spiced. Fresh vegetables are available for a price (partially subsidized). Meat is an expensive Station import. There is a brisk trade in nuetro supplements made synthetically for individual species and races.
“Tube water” is the subsidized beverage. Different colors designate different nutrients (yellow of methane breathers, etc.) while gem names are “upper” like ruby water. Tubes are refillable or compostable.
Alterables
Heavily species dependent but many go to smoked “geep & blab” variants for a social lubricant. Some cultures go for simples while others go for floaters. Certain foods have results.
The sec are absolutely militant about addictive drugs, especially blue dope (the perfect high, 100% addictive first time... first dose is “free”). Sents don’t joke about blue dope because there are proximity laws that can get you thrown off Station or worse.
Furniture
Generally available seating includes stools, benches, slings or perches. Everyone else just plants themselves on the deck.
Beds are usually either flat, sling or nest.
If no one is using the main/front room of a unit family and friends gather with pillows and pop-chairs to spend time together.
The Sec (Station Security)
The sec on Station are not the usual cops. These sents are highly trained, super Div referees and law enforcers. Unless you are dark side and doing something you shouldn’t be, the sec are highly respected. Everyone knows how hard they work and how difficult situations can become. There’s a whole division dedicated to the predator species. Another for conflict resolution. In return the Station holds a day to honor the sec for their job well done and for those who have fallen on duty — everyone goes home and stays there for a full turn. The Station traffic comes to a standstill. By tradition is is a quiet private family day for games, story telling, and watching holo productions.
Entertainment
Senet Station wealth index is very low and common areas congested, so most activities are limited in size. Clubs and cafes have drink minimums, but the parks and open areas do not. It’s not uncommon for seriously dating sents to go to littles parks to watch the Station’s youngest set play. Window shopping is an art form which retailers play into with creative multi-media displays. Holo entertainment is done at home. But subsidized live plays and concerts do get held in neighborhood parks. A current “hobby” for the young and daring is ledge dropping. Balcony ledges go many stories up in some areas and brave (idiotic) sents drop from one trying to land on a lower one. Avian species have been doing this forever, but bipeds have picked it up. So far the sec has not intervened but everyone knows they will. Species that run have just set up a fun event every long-off with races for all comers. Slider races are strictly forbidden. Scavenger hunts have become a party game for groups who don’t rent a party space. The Station art park is family by tradition and boisterous groups are met with serious scorn. A short lived sexing-on-public-transport game was met with stoney Div silence and volleys of empty water tubes (i.e.. empty already, idiots) (two turns later the game was over).
Employment
The three categories of employment are those (1) directly tied to Senet proceedings and functioning (aids, private security, specialized staff, etc.); (2) support services for the whole Station including Senet related sents (food service, med labs and clinics, etc.); and (3) all the business that goes into making the Alliance profitable (military contractors, Station suppliers, mega corps, paid treaty negotiations, mata league functionaries, etc.).
Med Labs and Clinics
Located throughout the light side of the Station are med labs who tend to everyday injuries and health issues for a subsidized price. They specialized in therapy and species specific nanos. Critical care, augmentation, major complications, all require the med clinics but are only partially subsidized.