Glossary

Mt. Ahrens: Mountain in Catalina, contains glacier and associated glacial lake.
ASCIT: one of the organs of Caltech student government.
Astral Mining: asteroid mining and space flight company, front for Space Group.
Athena: MIT central computer cluster.
Bluv: The binary stars BL Ceti and UV Ceti, which the Gamble flies by on its way from Sol to Tau Ceti.
BOC/Board of Control: group of Caltech undergrads charged with judging disputes regarding academics.
California: Techer name for the continent containing Caltech.
Catalina: large island off the southeast coast of California.
Cetus: Constellation of ‘the Whale’. Chiefly notable as source of the name ‘Tau Ceti’.
Charles River: River flowing by and through campus of MIT in Cambridge. Not transported.
Cruft Labs: corporate computer research lab in Boston, squatting residence of MIT students. Not to be confused with the Cruft Laboratory at Harvard.
Ditch Day: Caltech ritual of a day of skipping class/work and completing obstacle courses and other activities.
Exam: see Test.
Failures: the followers of Andrew Chao, who believe that it is necessary to fail the Examiner’s test.
Feynmann Mountains: mountain range far west of Caltech.
Four Physicists: the four physics students who knew how to produce negative matter before the start of the Test.
Gamble: laser-launched solar sail starship built by the Space Group.
Gamblers: crew of Gamble.
Gell-Mann Mountains: mountain range south of Caltech.
GSC/Graduate Student Council: organ of student government at both Caltech and MIT.
Harvard Bridge: Bridge between Cambridge and Boston, running through MIT. Transported with campus.
Hiatsu: type of electrical runabout, used after gas supply was depleted.
Infinite Corridor: very long hallway through many buildings at MIT.
Jumble: the warren of apartments between Caltech and the sea cliff.
Masamune: Japanese swordsmith of the 13th century.
Massachusetts: Techer name for the continent containing MIT.
Mole: Resident of Blacker House at Caltech.
MITSFS: MIT Science Fiction Society.
New Charles River: River near MIT on Tau.
pede: general class of exoskeletal animals on Tau. Many are poisonous and aggressive.
oligarch: one of the Examiner-trained members of MIT.
pika: MIT cooperative living group. Formerly a member of the fraternity organization PiKappa.
proa: Polynesian double-hulled ship design. Basis for ocean-faring Techer vessels.
Roswell Union of Hackers: Public-disruption art and political activist hacking group formed in mid 2020’s.
Revere Company: transported portion of the MIT ROTC program.
smoot: MIT humorous unit of measurement, equal to the height of an Oliver R. Smoot. Also name for Techer currency.
Space Group: multinational military collaboration to establish a permanent human presence in space. Operate through Astral Mining.
Surf: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Also name of proa sailing from California.
Tau: terrestrial planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Site of the Test. Inhabited by life forms adapted to a cold climate and episodic ice ages.
Tau Ceti: G8 star 11.88 lightyears from Earth. Slightly cooler and older than Sol. Orbited by Tau and Skana and smaller bodies.
Techer: Student of Caltech or MIT.
Test: The Examiner’s test to see if humans are able to handle the knowledge of how to manufacture negative matter.
Throop River: River flowing near Caltech.
tool: one who works hard for a dubious leader.
Stack: obstacle course or set of activities for Ditch Day.
Screamer: Techer term for those who transmit information to Earth. Screamer Lab: Will Chamer’s work area.
Undergraduate Association: organ of MIT student government.
White Towers: field site, military base, and village in the monolith grove to the south of MIT.
Work Week: week spent every year rebuilding pika’s building.
zard: general class of endosketal six-legged animals of Tau.

Avery House, Blacker House, Dabney House, Fleming House, Page House, Catalina Apartments: some of the student housing at Caltech.

Building 64 (5th East, Slugfest, Tetazoo): some of the student housing at MIT.