The oldest and grandest of the Venusian cloud-cities. Tereshkova Port floats serenely above the poisoned atmosphere of Venus at one standard Earth gravity, synthesising water from the acid rain and offering spectacular views considered some of the best in the INNER SYSTEM. “See Venus and Die,” as the old travel posters always said, and it remains a popular honeymoon destination.

Tong Yun City (Terminal)

The main city on Mars, and the main cultural and commercial hub of the solar system. Home to the VATICAN OF THE ROBOTS, and the setting of many CHAINS OF ASSEMBLY episodes. It began life as Terminal, an ironic name given to it by the first settlers on a one-way trip in cheap jalopies.

Trifala King War

An ongoing, low-engagement conflict in and around the GALILEAN REPUBLICS.

U

Up and Out

Colloquial term mostly used on Earth to refer to the human worlds beyond the atmosphere.

Urbonas Ride

A form of euthanasia rollercoaster designed to provide a final thrill before death.

UXOs

Unexploded Ordnances. Generic term for old war machines, long since abandoned, which may yet explode or execute their prerogatives with lethal force if encountered.

V

Vatican of the Robots

Located on Level Three of Tong Yun City on Mars, at the heart of the city’s Multifaith Bazaar deep underground (home to numerous churches, mosques, synagogues, Elronite and Gorean temples and the ubiquitous shrine to Ogko), little is known of the Robot Vatican. The few surviving robots are old and battered. Those who follow the Way of Robot designate themselves with an R. prefix. They choose among themselves one robot Pope, though some say it is not a robot at all but some sort of strange, giant computing machine. Followers of the Way of Robot see it as a holy duty to undertake, at one point in their rather long lives, a hajj or pilgrimage to the Vatican of the Robots. What the robots’ ultimate purpose—if purpose be needed at all—is unclear. Rumours speak of a Heaven the robots are building in the zero-point field but, whether that has any truth in it or is merely a fanciful notion, nobody knows for sure.

W

Weather Hackers

Artists of dubious merit who hack local climate conditions (rain seeder drones, solar mirrors, wind generators and the like) in order to control weather.

Websters

People who, for one reason or another, now live as hermits, mostly through dislike or phobia of cities and/or other people.

Wildtech

Evolved, verboten technology, with such capabilities as human-hacking or military-grade destructive potential, virii and trojans and malware of all sorts, and all or none of the above. Wildtech uses NAKAIMAS technology, forbidden elsewhere in the solar system but widely available on JETTISONED, from where it inevitably departs to the rest of the solar system. Do not approach. Do not engage. But if exposed, it is probably already too late.

Wu Expedition