;
; Sid Meier's ALPHA CENTAURI
;
; Background Story & Character Quotations
;
; Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 by Firaxis Games, Inc.
;

##Opening Quotation
#OPENING
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.
He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden
of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to
keep the way of the tree of life.
^
^        -- The Conclave Bible,
^           Datalinks
^

##Social Controls
#TECH0
Fifty years is ample time in which to change a world and its people 
almost beyond recognition. All that is required for the task are a 
sound knowledge of social engineering, a clear sight of the intended 
goal - and power. 
^
^        -- Arthur C. Clake, 
^           "Childhoods End"
^

##Information Networks
#TECH1
Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine 
women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month. 
^
^        -- Wernher von Braun. 
^

##Aroboreal Beginnings
#TECH2
Geese appear high over us, 
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, 
as in love or sleep, holds 
them to their way, clear 
in the ancient faith: what we need 
is here. And we pray, not 
for new earth or heaven, but to be 
quiet in heart, and in eye, 
clear. What we need is here.  
^
^        -- Wendell Berry 
^

##Industrial Structures
#TECH3
Scientific theories are judged by the coherence they lend to our
natural experience and the simplicity with which they do so. The
grand principle of the heavens balances on the razor's edge of truth.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "A History of Science"
^

##Sentient Algorithms
#TECH4
If you can discover a better way of life than office-holding
for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility.
For only in such a state will those rule who are truly rich, not
in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness--a good and wise
life.
^
^        -- Plato,
^           "The Republic", Datalinks
^

##Psionics
#TECH5
^Note: Formers may remove fungus.
^
Bells theorem...proves that quantum theory requires connections that 
appear to resemble telepathic communication. 
^
^        -- Gary Zukav 
^

##Applied Physics
#TECH6
If its green or wriggles, its biology.
If it stinks, its chemistry.
If it doesnt work, its physics...
^
^        -- Handy guide to science
^           Datalinks
^

##Aldebaran Environments
#TECH7
^Note: Farms and Kelp farms require this technology
^
^The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all 
^concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest 
^struggle. . . .If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those 
^who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men 
^who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without 
^thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of 
^its many waters. 
^
^        -- Frederick Douglas
^

##Tacit Controls
#TECH8
^People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought 
^which they avoid.  
^
^        -- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855) 
^

##Field Sciences
#TECH9
^Note: Formers may construct solar collectors, sensor arrays, and sonar nets.
^
Our ancestors harnessed the power of a sun, and so again shall we.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "The Science of Our Fathers"

##The Wheel
#TECH10
I have a quantum car. Every time I look at the speedometer I get lost... 
^
^        -- Stephen Wright
^

##Gastric Frontiers
#TECH11
^Note: Technology to allow 3 nutrients in a square
^Note: 
There is nothing fantastic or ultradimansional about crab grass... 
unless you are an sf writer, in which case pretty soon you are viewing 
crab grass with suspicion. What are its real motives? And who sent it 
here in the first place? It only looks like crab grass. Thats what they 
want us to think it is. One day the crab grass suit will fall off and 
their true identity will be revealed. By then the Pentagon will be full 
of crab grass and itll be too late. The crab grass, or what we took to 
be crab grass, will dictate terms. 
^
^        -- Phillip K. Dick
^

##Commercial Applications
#TECH12
^Note: Technology for economic victory
^Note: Proposal: Global Trade Pact
^
 I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel 
 and incompetent comes naturally to me. 
^ 
^        -- John Cleese
^

##The Chironator
#TECH13
At atrociously high energy states, the properties of matter
change subtly and new miracles become possible. The Plasma
Accretion process is now dangerous and difficult to control, but
its products will soon become commonplace in our society.
^
^        -- Sister Miriam Godwinson,
^           "The Lord Works"
^

##Human Ecology
#TECH14
^Note: Formers may raise and lower land.
^
But back to Athens. The idea of the colony, as you've
gathered, is to build up an independent, stable cultural
group with its own traditions. I should point out that 
a vast amount of research took place before we started 
this enterprise. Its really a piece of applied social 
engineering, based on some exceedingly complex mathematics
which I wouldnt pretend to understand. All I know is 
that the mathematical sociologists have ... 
^   
^        -- Arthur C. Clake,
^           "Childhoods End"
^

##Field Manipulations
#TECH15
^Note: Technology to allow 3 energy in a square
^
The mole is a quantity of substance. The new prefix guaca 
is defined such that one guacamole equals Avocados Number.
^
^        -G. Byrne. 
^

##Robotics
#TECH16
^Note: Formers may contruct mines.
^
Am I already in the shadow of the Coming Race? and will the 
creatures who are to transcend and finally supersede us be 
steely organisms, giving out the effluvia of the laboratory,
and performing with infallible exactness more than everything 
that we have performed with a slovenly approximativeness and 
self-defeating inaccuracy? 
^
^        -- George Eliot,
^           "The Impressions of
^            Theophrastus Such," 1879.   
^

##Practical Genetics
#TECH17
^Note: Formers may cultivate Xenophagi
^
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no life guard. 
^
^        -- Witty anonymous scientist,
^           Datalinks
^

##Subplanet Structures
#TECH18
^Note: Allows Mining Platforms at sea
^Note: Technology to allow 3 minerals in a square
^
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want 
and deserve to get it good and hard. 
^
^        -- H. L. Mencken
^

##Cascading Networks
#TECH19
^Note: Allows 2 special unit abilities in unit design
^
If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do 
the work that befits it, just as the creations of Daedalus moved 
of themselves . . . If the weavers shuttles were to weave of 
themselves, then there would be no need either of apprentices for 
the master workers or of slaves for the lords. 
^
^        -- Aristotle
^

##Mental Harmonics
#TECH20
Whereas the opposite of a small Truth is false, the opposite of a 
Great Truth is another Great Truth. 
^
^        -- Neils Bohr
^

##Projectiles in Practice
#TECH21
This unusual specimen is not so much a classic particle as a
connector--a kind of string attaching two particles. As distance
increases the connective power becomes attenuated, but if it is
cut the power vanishes: forever.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
^

##The Fungus Amongus
#TECH22
Technological advance is an inherently iterative process.
One does not simply take sand from the beach and produce a Dataprobe.
We use crude tools to fashion better tools, and then our better
tools to fashion more precise tools, and so on. Each minor refinement
is a step in the process, and all of the steps must be taken.
^
^        -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
^           "Looking God in the Eye"
^

##Illicit Controls
#TECH23
The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, 
youve got it made. 
^
^        -- Groucho Marx
^

##Chirons Legacy
#TECH24
^Note: Formers may drill to Aquifer
^
^Until now the battle had been proceeding smoothly: the enemy
was outflanked and had been driven from the reactor housing. But
against the reactor itself the matter cannon were strangely
ineffective. Rounds simply . . . stopped. In mid-air.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "A Tactical History of Sparta"
^

##Weak Fields
#TECH25
^Note: Formers may make Condensors.
^
The music of the heavens being eternal, Leonardo understood that 
friction is absent from the state of grace. Thus confined to this 
mortal world, friction is a consequence of original sin. 
^
^        -- Brian Armstrong-Helouvry, Control of Machines with Friction. 
^

##Transcendent Practices
#TECH26
^Note: Formers may plant fungus.
^
If it is also true that, at least in its technological form, progress 
drags men and things toward a nihilistic fate and allows nothing and 
no one to escape from is space, we must argue against third worldism 
that [...] the dysfunctions and distortions of development do not 
undermine a fundamental unity, a fundamental tendency toward unity. 
Then Rostow is right, except for a few blunders, notably that to 
progress is to advance toward decline. 
^
^        -- Bernard-Henri Levy Barbarism with a Human Face
^

##The Planet Pill
#TECH27
From the dust of the earth, from the common elementary fund, the 
Creator has made Homo sapiens. From the same material he has made 
every other creature, however noxious and insignificant to us. They 
are earth-born companions and our fellow mortals. The fearfuly good, 
the orthodox, of this laborious patch-work of modern civilization 
cry Heresy on every one whose sympathies reach a single hairs breadth 
beyond the boundary epidermis of our own species. Not content with 
taking all of earth, they also claim the celestial country as the 
only ones who possess the kind of souls for which that imponderable 
empire was planned.
^
^        -- John Muir
^

##Planetfriend
#TECH28
^Note: Allows roads to be built in fungus
Time travel in the classic sense has no place in rational theory,
but temporal distortion does exist on the quantum level, and more
importantly it can be controlled.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov
^           "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
^

##The People Pill
#TECH29
The word politics is derived from the word poly, meaning many, and 
the word ticks, meaning blood sucking parasites. 
^
^        -- Larry Hardiman
^

##Quasi Autonomy
#TECH30
For systems of the future, we need to think in terms of shifting the 
burden of evolution from programmers to the systems themselves. ... 
to build systems that can take some responsibility for their own evolution. 
^
^        -- Huff, K. and Selfridge, O.
^

##The Hunter Disturbance
#TECH31
Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaunge
Withinne a thousand yere, and wordes tho
That hadden pris, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem, and yit they spake hem so. 
^
^        -- Geoffrey Chaucer
^

##Command Structures
#TECH32
Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. 
Situation excellent. I am attacking.  
^
^        -- Ferdinand Foch - at the Battle of the Marne 
^

##Planetweapons
#TECH33
Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open 
to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the 
Unreasoning Animal... In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple 
things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. 
Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to 
be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be 
friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a 
fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived 
together in peace; even affectionately.
^
Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, 
and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from 
Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from 
Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist 
from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel 
from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back 
to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the 
other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and 
fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh--not a specimen left alive. 
These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and 
carried the matter to a Higher Court.
^
^        -- Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain
^

##Silksteels
#TECH34
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most 
discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but Thats funny...
^
^        -- Isaac Asimov
^

##Psuedopsionics
#TECH35
^Rabbits clever, said Pooh thoughtfully. 
^Yes, said Piglet, Rabbits clever. 
^And he has Brain. 
^Yes, said Piglet, Rabbit has Brain. 
^There was a long silence. 
^I suppose, said Pooh, that thats why he never understands anything. 
^
^        -- Alan Alexander Milne
^

##Matter Transmission
#TECH36
^Note: Proposal: Salvage Endeavor Fusion Core
^Note: Proposal: Launch Solar Shade
^
I look forward to the invention of faster-than-light travel. 
What Im not looking forward to is the long wait in the dark once 
I arrive at my destination. 
^
^        -- Marc Beland. 
^

##The Bernouli Principle
#TECH37
^Note: Formers may construct Airbases.
^
...at the same time that Mrs. Ph(i)Nko was uttering those words: ...ah, 
what noodles, boys! the point that contained her and all of us was 
expanding in a halo of distance in light-years and light-centuries and 
billions of light-millennia, and we were being hurled to the four 
corners of the universe.. 
^
^        -- Italo Calvino,
^           "Cosmicomics"
^

##Tactile Robotics
#TECH38
The deep paradox uncovered by AI research: the only way to deal 
efficiently with very complex problems is to move away from pure logic. 
Most of the time, reaching the right decision requires little reasoning. 
Expert systems are, thus, not about reasoning: they are about knowing
... Reasoning takes time, so we try to do it as seldom as possible. 
Instead we store the results of our reasoning for later referenceÉ 
^
^        -- Daniel Crevier,
^           "The Tumultuous History of the Search 
^            for Artificial Intelligence," 1993.
^

##Arboreal Mastery
#TECH39
^Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but 
^humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. 
^To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; 
^one need only own a good shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole 
^in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree--and there 
^will be one. 
^
^If his back be strong and his shovel sharp, there may eventually be 
^ten thousand. And in the seventh year he may lean upon his shovel, 
^and look upon his trees, and find them good. 
^
^        -- Aldo Leopold 
^

##The Planetpark
#TECH40
^Note: Proposal: Repeal UN Charter
Time dilates as the speed of light approaches. To the extent that
light consists of particles, it is in its own way timeless. Through
simple perturbations of the temporal manifold, we can refract or
repel photons most efficiently.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "Now We Are Alone"
^

##Collective Projections
#TECH41
^The Web of Thought, Id have you know,
^Is like a Weavers Masterpiece:
^The restless shuttles never cease
^The yarn invisibly runs to and fro,
^A single treadle governs many a thread,
^And at a stroke a thousand strands are wed.
^And so philosophers step in
^To weave a proof that things begin,
^Past question, with an origen.  
^
^        -- Goethe, Faust
^

##Nautical Traditions
#TECH42
^Note: Technology for +1 mining platform bonus
^
A ship at sea is its own world. To be the captain of a ship is
to be the unquestioned ruler of that world and requires all of
the leadership skills of a prince or minister.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "Leadership and the Sea"
^

##Extractive Economies
#TECH43
^Note: Required for Borehole Construction, Sea-Xenophagi farming.
^Note: Proposal: Melt Polar Caps
^Note: Allows improvements in fungus squares
^
^Every living thing is a sort of imperialist, seeking to transform as 
^much as possible of its environment into itself... When we compare 
^the (present) human population of the globe with... that of former 
^times, we see that chemical imperialism has been... the main end to 
^which human intelligence has been devoted. 
^
^        -- Bertrand Russell
^

##The Seeker Disturbance
#TECH44
^One night I was, as usual, observing the sky with my telescope. 
^I noticed that a sign was hanging from a galaxy a hundred million 
^light-years away. On it was written: 
^
^          I SAW YOU. 
^          
^        -- Italo Calvino,
^           "Cosmicomics"
^

##The Will to Destroy
#TECH45
Therefore a wise prince will seek means by which his subjects
will always and in every possible condition of things have need
of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him.
^
^        -- Niccolo Machiavelli,
^           "The Prince", Datalinks
^

##Thermodynamic Laboratory
#TECH46
Nietzche is dead. (signed, GOD)
^

##Subsurface Diets
#TECH47
In the borehole pressure mines 100km beneath Planetsurface,
at the Mohorovicic Discontinuity where crust gives way to mantle,
temperatures often reach levels well in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius.
Exploitation of Planet's resources under such brutal conditions has
required quantum advances in robotic and teleoperational technology.
^
^        -- Morgan Industries, Ltd.,
^           "Annual Report"
^

##Structural Frontiers
#TECH48
^Note: Formers may construct Bunkers, Minefields, and Microwave Towers.
^
Nothing is wrong with California that a rise in the ocean level 
wouldnt cure.
^
^        -- Ross MacDonald 
^

##The Collective Mind
#TECH49
I think, and my thoughts cross the barrier into the synapses of the
machine, just as the good doctor intended. But what I cannot shake,
and what hints at things to come, is that thoughts cross back. In my
dreams, the sensibility of the machine invades the periphery of my
consciousness: dark, rigid, cold, alien. Evolution is at work here,
but just what is evolving remains to be seen.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "Man and Machine"
^

##Macroeconomics
#TECH50
^Note: Proposal: Unite behind Supreme Leader
^
..if capital is, as I think I have shown, a kind of end of history, 
we must argue against the skeptics that advancing and declining are 
two aspects of the same process, and that [...] it is now really 
entering the domain and the age of progress -a progress which is 
another name for horror and barbarism. 
^
^        -- Bernard-Henri Levy
^           "Barbarism with a Human Face"
^

##Purpleation
#TECH51
There is one kind of laugh that I always did recommend; it looks 
out of the eye first with a merry twinkle, then it creeps down on 
its hands and knees and plays around the mouth like a pretty moth 
around the blaze of a candle, then it steals over into the dimples 
of the cheeks and rides around in those whirlpools for a while, 
then it lights up the whole face like the mellow bloom on a damask 
rose, then it swims up on the air, with a peal as clear and as 
happy as a dinner-bell, then it goes back again on gold tiptoes 
like an angel out for an airing, and it lies down on its little 
bed of violets in the heart where it came from. 
^
^        -- Josh Billings 
^

##Tachyon Fields
#TECH52
(On Bacon and Faustus): It is not truth he wants from the devils, 
but gold and guns and girls. In the same spirit, Bacon condemns 
those who value knowledge as an end in itself... The true object 
is to extend Mans power to the performance of all things possible. 
He rejects magic because it does not work; but his goal is that of 
the magician... 
^
^        -- C.S. Lewis
^

##Matter Replication
#TECH53
Between two evils, I always choose the one I never tried before. 
^
^        -- Mae West
^

##Core Mining Platform
#TECH54
The value the world sets upon motives is often grossly unjust and 
inaccurate. Consider, for example, two of them: mere insatiable 
curiosity and the desire to do good. The latter is put high above 
the former, and yet it is the former that moves one of the most 
useful men the human race has yet produced: the scientific 
investigator. What actually urges him on is not some brummagem 
idea of Service, but a boundless, almost pathological thirst to 
penetrate the unknown, to uncover the secret, to find out what has 
not been found out before. His prototype is not the liberator 
releasing slaves, the good Samaritan lifting up the fallen, but 
a dog sniffing tremendously at an infinite series of rat-holes. 
^
^        -- H.L. Menken
^

##Fusion Power
#TECH55
Irrigation of the land 
with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. 
Its called rain. 
^
^        -- Michael McClary
^

##Organic Microstructures
#TECH56
Mitochondria live inside our cells but reproduce at different 
times with different methods from the rest of our bodies cells. 
They are descendants of ancient bacteria. Either engulfed as 
prey or invading as predators, these bacteria took up residence 
inside foreign cells, forming an uneasy alliance that provided 
waste disposal and oxygen-derived energy in return for food and 
shelter. Without mitochondria, the nucleated plant or animal 
cell cannot breathe and therefore dies. 
^
^        -- Lynn Margulis
^

##The Planetbolt
#TECH57
I have often had occasion to quote Freuds incisive, almost rueful, 
observation that all major revolutions in the history of science 
have as their comon theme, amidst such diversity, the successive 
dethronement of human arorogance from one pillar after another of 
our previous cosmic assurance. 
^
^        -- Stephan J. Gould.
^

##Self Assembling Structures
#TECH58
Computer : a million morons working at the speed of light. 
^
^        -- David Ferrier
^

##Autonomous Defenses
#TECH59
To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for 
adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting 
different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical 
and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural 
selection, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree. 
^
^        -- Charles Darwin
^

##Planetary Metaphysics
#TECH60
^Note: Eases fungus movement
^
The universe was vast, but that fact terrified him less than its 
mystery. George was not a person who thought deeply on such matters, 
yet sometimes it seemed to him that men were like children amusing 
themselves in some secluded playground, protected from the fierce 
realities of the outer world......[]...He had no wish to face 
whatever lurked in the unknown darkness, just beyond the little 
circle of light cast by the lamp of Science. 
^
^        -- Arthur C. Clake
^           "Childhoods End"
^

##Self Aware Systems
#TECH61
Some fishes become extinct, but Herrings go on forever. 
Herrings spawn at all times and places and nothing will induce them 
to change their ways. They have no fish control. Herrings congregate 
in schools, where they learn nothing at all. They move in vast 
numbers in May and October. Herrings subsist upon Copepods and 
Copepods subsist upon Diatoms and Diatoms just float around and 
reproduce. Young Herrings or Sperling or Whitebait are rather cute. 
They have serrated abdomens. The skull of the Common or Coney Island 
Herring is triangular, but he would be just the same anyway. 
(The nervous system of the Herring is fairly simple. When the Herring 
runs into something the stimulus is flashed to the forebrain, with or 
without results.) 
^
^        -- Will Cuppy
^

##Linear Regressions
#TECH62
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless the testimony 
be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the 
fact which it endeavors to establish. 
^
^        -- David Hume
^

##Quantum Mechanics
#TECH63
^Note: Technology to allow orbital insertion
^Note: Allows monoliths to be built by terraformers
I dont like it, and Im sorry I ever had anything to do with it 
^
^        -- Erwin Schrodinger
^

##Ascetic Practices
#TECH64
When I was still a rather precocious young man, I already realized 
most vividly the futility of the hopes and aspirations that most men 
pursue throughout their lives. Well-being and happiness never appeared 
to me as an absolute aim. I am even inclined to compare such moral 
aims to the ambitions of a pig. 
^
^        -- Albert Einstein
^

##Mass Transit
#TECH65
^Note: Formers may construct Mag Tubes.
^
Technology is the knack of so arranging the world that we do not 
experience it. 
^
^        -- Max Frisch
^

##The Planet Shard
#TECH66
The world, we are told, was made especially for man - a presumption 
not supported by all the facts. A numerous class of men are painfully 
astonished whenever they find anything, living or dead, in all Gods 
universe, which they cannot eat or render in some way what they call 
useful to themselves. 
^
^        -- John Muir
^

##Telekinetic Defenses
#TECH67
You have to be careful not to move your hand up and down, at least in 
the beginning, because the wind generated by the movement of your hand 
could cause the spoon to move. You must also be careful to note any 
breezes in the room from heating or air conditioning, since your hand 
might block the breeze off and on and cause the spoon to move 
accordingly. If you rest your elbow on the table while doing this, be 
sure the table is VERY solidly positioned or you may accidentally 
cause the table to rock slightly in a rhythmic way, which can also  
cause the spoon to move. (from a manual on Tk)
^

##Quantum Lasers
#TECH68
When it is persisted that we should have to be told about the 
calculations and use our ears for that purpose, I reply that the 
mathematical process has a reality and virtue in itself, and that 
once discovered it constitutes a new and independent factor. I am 
also at this point accustomed to reaffirm with emphasis my conviction 
that the sun is real, and also that it is hot--in fact hot as Hell, 
and that if the metaphysicians doubt it they should go there and see. 
^
^        -- Winston Churchill
^

##Antimatter Applications
#TECH69
The first essential steps in developing a practical matter/antimatter 
propulsion system are related to the production, accumulation and 
storage of antimatter in amounts large enough to be useful, 
understanding that a large amount of antimatter is still a very small 
mass. For example, the equivalent of the total energy stored in the 
Space Shuttle External Tank is only 71 milligrams of antimatter. The 
figure below depicts the quantities of antimatter needed for a 
progression of missions, as well as some spinoff applications that 
would be enabled.
^
^        -- Advanced Space Transportation Program, NASA, 2001
^

##Industrial Fontiers
#TECH70
And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality,
when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or
ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you
is still, as it is in eternity, then eternity asks you and every
individual in these millions and millions about only one thing:
whether you have lived in despair or not.
^
^        -- Soren Kierkegaard,
^           "The Sickness Unto Death", Datalinks
^

##Nanorobotics
#TECH71
Von Neumanns proposal consisted of two central elements: a Universal 
Computer and a Universal Constructor (see figure 1). The Universal 
Computer contains a program that directs the behavior of the Universal 
Constructor. The Universal Constructor, in turn, is used to manufacture 
both another Universal Computer and a Universal Constructor. Once 
finished, the newly manufactured Universal Computer was programmed by 
copying the program contained in the original Universal Computer, and 
program execution would then begin.
^

##The Singularity Machine
#TECH72
It is possible to settle the issue by a simple calculation. 
Astronomers can measure the masses of galaxies, their average separation, 
and their speeds of recession. Putting these numbers into a formula 
yields a quantity which some physicists have interpreted as the total 
energy of the universe. The answer does indeed come out to be zero wihin 
the observational accuracy. The reason for this distinctive result has 
long been a source of puzzlement to cosmologists. Some have suggested 
that there is a deep cosmic principle at work which requires the universe 
to have exactly zero energy. If that is so the cosmos can follow the path 
of least resistance, coming into existence without requiring any input of 
matter or energy at all. 
^
^        -- Paul Davies
^

##Cloning
#TECH73
The first living thing to go through the device was a small white
rat. I still have him, in fact. As you can see, the damage was
not so great as they say.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "See How They Run"
^

##Gravitons Are
#TECH74
Gravity is weird. It is clearly one of the fundamental interactions, but 
the Standard Model cannot satisfactorily explain it. This is one of those 
major unanswered problems in physics today. In addition, the gravity force 
carrier particle has not been found. Such a particle, however, is predicted 
to exist and may someday be found: the graviton.
^
^        -- The Particle Adventure 
^

##The Velocyrix Wall
#TECH75
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. 
^
^        -- Douglas Adams
^

##Singularities for Use
#TECH76
We have reached an informational threshold which can only be crossed
by harnessing the speed of light directly. The quickest computations
require the fastest possible particles moving along the shortest
paths. Since the capability now exists to take our information
directly from photons travelling molecular distances, the final
act of the information revolution will soon be upon us.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
^

##Planetmind
#TECH77
They have magnificent temples, that are not only nobly built, but 
extremely spacious; which is the more necessary, as they have so 
few of them; they are a little dark within, which proceeds not 
from any error in the architecture, but is done with design; for 
their priests think that too much light dissipates the thoughts, 
and that a more moderate degree of it both recollects the mind and 
raises devotion. 
^
^        -- Thomas Moore, Utopia
^

##Sapiens Galacticus
#TECH78
We will speak to the Galactics. They may be human, but somehow I don't 
think 7 degrees of separation really applies between us. I wonder if what 
Dr. Chaunk said about Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms holds for sentient 
species as well as natives?
^

##Field Modulation
#TECH79
Feel the force endgame. There is no try....at least not with batch files.
^

##Adaptive Doctrine
#TECH80
War is war; destruction is destruction. You think this is obvious. 
But war is not destruction, it is victory. To achieve victory, simply 
appear to give the opponent what he wants and he will go away, or join 
you in your quest for additional power.
^
^        -- Datatech Sinder Roze
^           "Information Burns"
^

##Adaptive Economics
#TECH81
Adaptive Economics can accommodate rapid changes in
economic systems to match the needs of the populace.
^

##Bioadaptive Resonance
#TECH82
Bioadaptive Resonance is a more advanced form of something
that allows extensive manipulation of resonance fields. An understanding of 
something else is essential to discovery of this technology.
^

##Sentient Resonance
#TECH83
Sentient Resonance is a further extension of Bioadaptive Resonance 
and something that allows the creation of self-aware resonance fields.
^

##Information is Power
#TECH84
Hi, this is Darsnan's right index finger reporting that he had nothing to do 
with writing the techlongs. He doesn't even know I'm running around the keyboard 
while he sleeps against the monitor. He did rewrite the basic units text. 
Go read that before he wakes up and sees this.
^

##Unified String Theory
#TECH85
Thanks beta testers. May you live forever in the credits!
(Note from Nword: Good, nothing to correct in this one!)
^

##String Resonance
#TECH86
Based on something,
String Resonance allows the manipulation of resonance fields at even the "string" 
level (the one-dimensional building blocks of matter). The ability to manipulate 
the very structure of the universe allows for awesome destructive power.
^

##Transcendent Thought
#TECH87
To expect a transcendental object to appear on a viewing screen wired 
by an epistemology that is set for control would be tantamount to expecting 
color to appear on a television screen that was built for black and 
white.[..]  But if things superior to us exist -extraterrestrial 
intelligences superior to our own? angels? God?- these are not going to 
fit into our controlled experiments. It is they who dance circles around us, 
not we them. 
^
^        -- Huston Smith 'Beyond the Post-Modern Mind'
^

##The Human Genome Project
#PROJECT0
To map the very stuff of life; to look into the
genetic mirror and watch a million generations
march past. That, friends, is both our curse and
our proudest achievement. For it is in reaching to our
beginnings that we begin to learn who we truly are.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "Address to the Faculty"
^

##The Command Nexus
#PROJECT1
Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the
foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy.
But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself.
The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win
even with the inferior force.
^
^        -- Spartan Battle Manual
^

##The Weather Paradigm
#PROJECT2
I shall not confront Planet as an enemy, but shall accept
its mysteries as gifts to be cherished. Nor shall I crudely
seek to peel the layers away like the skin from an onion.
Instead I shall gather them together as the tree gathers the
breeze. The wind shall blow and I shall bend. The sky shall
open and I shall drink my fill.
^
^        -- Gaian Acolyte's Prayer
^

##The Merchant Exchange
#PROJECT3
Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary,
but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need
as well as greed have followed us to the stars, and the rewards
of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep
thrumming of our common pulse.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           "The Centauri Monopoly"
^

##The Empath Guild
#PROJECT4
Symbols are the key to telepathy. The mind wraps its
secrets in symbols; when we discover the symbols that shape
our enemy's thought, we can penetrate the vault of his mind.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Our Secret War"
^

##The Citizens' Defense Force
#PROJECT5
As the writhing, teeming mass of Mind Worms swarmed over the outer
perimeter, we saw the defenders recoil in horror. "Stay calm! Use
your flame guns!" shouted the commander, but to no avail. It is well
known that the Mind Worm Boil uses psychic terror to paralyze its
prey, and then carefully implants ravenous larvae in the brains of
its still-conscious victims. Even with the best weapons, only the
most disciplined troops can resist this horrific attack.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Our Secret War"
^

##The Virtual World
#PROJECT6
What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no
more than information before the senses, data fed to the
computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received
the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and
you shall become master of the output.
^
^        -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
^           "Essays on Mind and Matter"
^

##The Planetary Transit System
#PROJECT7
As distances vanish and the people can flow freely from place
to place, society will cross a psychological specific heat
boundary and enter a new state. No longer a solid or liquid,
we have become as a vapor and will expand to fill all available
space. And like a gas, we shall not be easily contained.
^
^        -- Sister Miriam Godwinson,
^           "But for the Grace of God"
^

##The Xenoempathy Dome
#PROJECT8
I believe Planet will talk to us if we are willing
to listen. These fungal stalks behave as multistate relays:
taken together, the neural net connectivity must be staggering.
Can a planet be said to have achieved sentience?
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           Arguments in Council
^

##The Neural Amplifier
#PROJECT9
Against such abominations, we organize our defenses on the
principle that one strong and able mind can shield the many.
^
^        -- Spartan Battle Manual
^

##Maritime Control Center
#PROJECT10
It is altogether fitting that we who have sailed the deeps of
space now return again to the sea. This is in many ways a water
planet, and it can be ruled from the waves. With sea power, rugged
terrain can be bypassed and enemy strongholds isolated. Once
naval superiority is achieved, Planet is ours for the taking.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"
^

##The Planetary Datalinks
#PROJECT11
As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century,
free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny.
The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on
information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but
the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse
has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would
deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself
your master.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "U.N. Declaration of Rights"
^

##The Supercollider
#PROJECT12
^  God does not play dice.
^
^        -- Albert Einstein, Datalinks
^

##The Ascetic Virtues
#PROJECT13
Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, for they
warp the matrix through which we perceive the world. Extend your
awareness outward, beyond the self of body, to embrace the self
of group and the self of humanity. The goals of the group and the
greater race are transcendent, and to embrace them is to achieve
enlightenment.
^
^        -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
^           "Essays on Mind and Matter"
^

##The Longevity Vaccine
#PROJECT14
I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd
settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be
pretty nice.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           MorganLink 3DVision Interview
^

##The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm
#PROJECT15
If I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have
no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy
is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the
formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot
discern it nor the wise make plans against it.
^
^        -- Sun Tzu,
^           "The Art of War", Datalinks
^

##The Pholus Mutagen
#PROJECT16
^ We welcome you, earthdeirdre and earthwheat and earthtree as
^   honored guests, for you add great power to our ancient song--
^     planetfungus and planetworm and planetmind sing and play
^       here, and you are welcome among us.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Conversations with Planet"
^

##The Cyborg Factory
#PROJECT17
^  A handsome young Cyborg named Ace,
^  Wooed women at every base,
^    But once ladies glanced at
^    His special enhancement
^  They vanished with nary a trace.
^
^        -- Barracks Graffiti,
^           Sparta Command
^

##The Theory of Everything
#PROJECT18
The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot stay in the
cradle forever.
^
^        -- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,
^           The Father of Rocketry, Datalinks
^

##The Dream Twister
#PROJECT19
^  Mary had a little lamb,
^  Little lamb little lamb,
^  Mary had a little lamb,
^  whose fleece was white as snow.
^
^        -- Assassins' Redoubt,
^           Final Transmission
^

##The Universal Translator
#PROJECT20
And the Lord said, "Behold, the people is one, and
they have all one language; and this they begin to do:
and now nothing will be restrained from them, which
they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and
there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech."
^
^        -- The Conclave Bible,
^           Datalinks
^

##The Network Backbone
#PROJECT21
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new
network nodes; our customers expect no less of us. We have never
sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that
no one feels the need to compete with us.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           Morgan Data Systems press release
^

##The Nano Factory
#PROJECT22
Industrial Grade Nano-Paste, Planet's most valuable commodity, can also
be one of its most dangerous. Simply pour out several canisters, slide
in a programming transponder, and step well away while the stuff cooks.
In under an hour the nano will use available materials to assemble a
small factory, a hovertank, or enough impact rifles to equip a regiment.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"
^

##The Living Refinery
#PROJECT23
We estimate that during the next mission century most of
Planet's industries will be moved off-planet to Nessus Prime and
other orbital facilities. Many of our industries will benefit
greatly from the low gravity environments available in space,
particularly those involving genetically engineered microbes.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           "The Centauri Monopoly"
^

##The Cloning Vats
#PROJECT24
We shall take only the greatest minds, the finest soldiers,
the most faithful servants. We shall multiply them a thousandfold
and release them to usher in a new era of glory.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "The Council of War"
^

##The Self-Aware Colony
#PROJECT25
Will we next create false gods to rule over us? How proud
we have become, and how blind.
^
^        -- Sister Miriam Godwinson,
^           "We Must Dissent"
^

##Clinical Immortality
#PROJECT26
And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as
one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth
his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and
live forever, we must send him forth." Therefore the
Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till
the ground from whence he was taken.
^
^        -- The Conclave Bible,
^           Datalinks
^

##The Space Elevator
#PROJECT27
In one moment, Earth; in the next, Heaven.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
^

##The Singularity Inductor
#PROJECT28
What actually transpires beneath the veil of an event horizon?
Decent people shouldn't think too much about that.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
^

##The Bulk Matter Transmitter
#PROJECT29
And what of the immortal soul in such transactions? Can this
machine transmit and reattach it as well? Or is it lost forever,
leaving a soulless body to wander the world in despair?
^
^        -- Sister Miriam Godwinson,
^           "We Must Dissent"
^

##The Telepathic Matrix
#PROJECT30
^  From the delicate strands,
^    between minds we weave our mesh:
^      a blanket to warm the soul.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "The Collected Poems"
^

##The Voice of Planet
#PROJECT31
Imagine the entire contents of the planetary datalinks, the sum total
of human knowledge, blasted into the Planetmind's fragile neural
network with the full power of every reactor on the planet. Thousands
of years of civilization compressed into a single searing burst of
revelation. That is our last-ditch attempt to win humanity a reprieve
from extinction at the hands of an awakening alien god.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "Planet Speaks"
^

##Ascent to Transcendence
#PROJECT32
No longer mere earthbeings and planetbeings are we, but bright
children of the stars! And together we shall dance in and out
of ten billion years, celebrating the gift of consciousness until
the stars themselves grow cold and weary, and our thoughts turn
again to the beginning.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Conversations with Planet"
^

##Manifold Harmonics
#PROJECT33
Manifold harmonic fields : within, the true nature of the universe becomes 
apparent. Layers : within layers. Worlds : within worlds. Inside : the heart 
of everything opens, and everything opens to it.
^
^        -- Caretaker Lular H'minee,
^           "Resonance : Power"
^
    


##Nethack Terminus
#PROJECT34
By creating a planetary network, mankind on Planet now has the ability 
to share information at light-speed. But by creating a single such network, 
each faction has brought themselves closer to discovery as well. At the speed 
of light, we will catch your information, tag it like an animal in the wild, 
and release it unharmed-if such should serve our purposes.
^
^        -- Datatech Sinder Roze,
^           "The Alpha Codex"
^

##Cloudbase Academy
#PROJECT35
In one dimension I find existence, in two I find life, but in three, I find freedom.
^
^        -- Foreman Domai,
^           Cadet Induction Ceremony, Mission Year 2216
^

##Planetary Energy Grid
#PROJECT36
"The ancient Chinese had a name for it: Feng Shui. We call it energy flow. It is the 
same thing, the same thought: energy is everywhere, but only a fraction of it is tapped 
by humans for their purposes. Now the Progenitors have taught us that we can tap not only 
our own latent abilities, but the latent abilities of the Universe itself."
^
^        -- Prophet Cha Dawn,
^           "Planet Rising"
^

##Headquarters
#FAC1
As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of
Sparta Command. The true immensity of the place became instantly
apparent as our Quantum Tank crunched over the rubble and parked next
to a shattered bunker, but the extent of the destruction
took weeks to assess. The shielded datacore had sustained several
massive breaches and smoke still billowed from the numerous cannon
ports. There were few signs of human life.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Our Secret War"
^

##Children's Creche
#FAC2
Proper care and education for our children remains a cornerstone of
our entire colonization effort. Children not only shape our future;
they determine in many ways our present. Men and women work harder
knowing their children are safe and close at hand. And never forget that,
with children present, parents will defend their home to the death.
^
^        -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^           "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"
^

##Recycling Tanks
#FAC3
It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and
become one with all the people.
^
^        -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
^           "Ethics for Tomorrow"
^

##Perimeter Defense
#FAC4
Having now established a secure perimeter, we have made ourselves
relatively safe from enemy incursions. But against the seemingly
random attacks by Planet's native life only our array of warning
sensors can help us, for the Mind Worms infiltrate through every crevice
and chew through anything softer than plasmasteel.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "The Early Years"
^

##Tachyon Field
#FAC5
The klaxon began to wail, but we felt the reassuring tingle of
the Tachyon Field crackling to life around us, encasing the
entire base in its impenetrable glow.
^
^        -- Spartan Kel,
^           "The Fall of Sparta"
^

##Recreation Commons
#FAC6
The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be
absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty
arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of
Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers' trysts in Gaia's High Garden,
or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters. Even the
feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping
demons of Yang's communal utopia.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "A Social History of Planet"
^

##Energy Bank
#FAC7
Life is merely an orderly decay of energy states, and survival
requires the continual discovery of new energy to pump into the
system. He who controls the sources of energy controls the means
of survival.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           "The Centauri Monopoly"
^

##Network Node
#FAC8
^I don't know but I've been told,
^  Deirdre's got a Network Node.
^Likes to press the on-off switch,
^  Dig that crazy Gaian witch!
^
^        -- Spartan Barracks March
^

##Biology Lab
#FAC9
Although Planet's native life is based, like Earth's, on right-handed
DNA, and codes for all the same amino acids, the inevitable chemical
and structural differences from a billion years of evolution in an
alien environment render the native plant life highly poisonous
to humans. Juicy, ripe grenade fruits may look appealing, but a
mouthful of organonitrates will certainly change your mind in a hurry.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "A Comparative Biology of Planet"
^

##Skunkworks
#FAC10
The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a
pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists
must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant
chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           University Commencement
^

##Hologram Theatre
#FAC11
^  Richard Baxton piloted his Recon Rover into a fungal vortex and
held off four waves of mind worms, saving an entire colony.
^  We immediately purchased his identity manifests and repackaged him
into the Recon Rover Rick character with a multi-tiered media campaign:
televids, touchbooks, holos, psi-tours--the works.
^  People need heroes. They don't need to know how he died clawing his
eyes out, screaming for mercy. The real story would just hurt sales,
and dampen the spirits of our customers.
^
^        -- "Mythology for Profit"
^           Morgan Stellartots Keynote Speech
^

##Paradise Garden
#FAC12
^That sunny dome! Those caves of ice!
^And all who heard should see them there,
^And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
^His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
^Weave a circle round him thrice,
^And close your eyes with holy dread,
^For he on honey-dew hath fed,
^And drunk the milk of Paradise.
^
^        -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
^           Datalinks
^

##Tree Farm
#FAC13
In the great commons at Gaia's Landing we have a tall and particularly
beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first
colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet
itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Planet Dreams"
^

##Hybrid Forest
#FAC14
You see in this dome the intermingling of native and earth plants.
Outside, they are competitors, struggling over the trace
elements required for life. Often, one destroys the other. Here,
they are tended with care and kept well nourished. They thrive
together, and the native fungus does not unleash its terrible
defenses. As you can see, competition is unnecessary when resources
are plentiful and population growth is controlled.
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Planet Dreams"
^

##Fusion Lab
#FAC15
It will happen, and it will happen in our lifetimes. Fusion
Power isn't just the future. Fusion Power is now.
^
^        -- T. M. Morgan-Reilly,
^           Morgan Metagenics
^

##Quantum Lab
#FAC16
Have you ever wondered why clouds behave in such familiar ways when
each specimen is so unique? Or why the energy exchange market is so
unpredictable? In the coming age we must develop and apply
nonlinear mathematical models to real world phenomena. We shall
seek, and find, the hidden fractal keys which can unravel the chaos
around us.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           University Commencement
^

##Research Hospital
#FAC17
Some civilian workers got in among the research patients today and
became so hysterical I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled.
The consequence, of course, will be another public relations nightmare,
but I was severely shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a
project so vital to our survival.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           The Personal Diaries
^

##Nanohospital
#FAC18
It is a medical commonplace that the tissues of the human body
replace themselves regularly, essentially creating an entirely
new body every seven years. From whence then come cancer and the
slow degeneration of age? They exist as faults in the patterns of
intelligence within the genes themselves; by reprogramming these
smallest parts, the whole becomes well.
^
^        -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^           "Nonlinear Genetics"
^

##Robotic Assembly Plant
#FAC19
^Captain said to big old John Henry,
^  That old drill keeps a-coming around.
^  Take that steam drill out and start it on that job
^    Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down
^    Let it whop, let it whop that steel on down.
^
^        -- Traditional, Datalinks
^

##Nanoreplicator
#FAC20
Look at any photograph or work of art. If you could duplicate
exactly the first tiny dot of color, and then the next and the
next, you would end with a perfect copy of the whole,
indistinguishable from the original in every way, including
the so-called "moral value" of the art itself. Nothing can
transcend its smallest elements.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           "The Ethics of Greed"
^

##Quantum Converter
#FAC21
And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to
planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the
true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the
lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls
the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly
was called "The Power Company"; we intend to give this name an entirely
new meaning.
^
^        -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^           "The Centauri Monopoly"
^

##Genejack Factory
#FAC22
My gift to industry is the genetically engineered worker, or
Genejack. Specially designed for labor, the Genejack's muscles and
nerves are ideal for his task, and the cerebral cortex has been
atrophied so that he can desire nothing except to perform his
duties. Tyranny, you say? How can you tyrannize someone who cannot
feel pain?
^
^        -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang,
^           "Essays on Mind and Matter"
^

##Punishment Sphere
#FAC23
It is not uncommon to see patients undergo permanent psychological
trauma in the presence of the Sphere, before the nerve stapler has
even been strapped into position. Its effect on the general
consciousness of the culture is profound: husbands have seen
wives go inside, and mothers their children. Dr. Xynan left the
surface of the sphere semitranslucent for a reason. You can hear
them in there; you can see them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.
^
^        -- Baron Klim,
^           "The Music of the Spheres"
^

##Hab Complex
#FAC24
The chief aim of their constitution and government is that,
whenever public needs permit, all citizens should be free, so far
as possible, to withdraw their time and energy from the service of
the body, and devote themselves to the freedom and culture of the
mind. For that, they think, is the real happiness of life.
^
^        -- Sir Thomas More,
^           "Utopia", Datalinks
^

##Habitation Dome
#FAC25
^ I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld.
^ When I die, they will put my body in a box and
^   dispose of it in the cold ground.
^ And in all the million ages to come, I will never
^   breathe or laugh or twitch again.
^ So won't you run and play with me here among the
^   teeming mass of humanity?
^ The universe has spared us this moment.
^
^        -- Anonymous, Datalinks
^

##Pressure Dome
#FAC26
When beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's
skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would
not willingly remember that this velvet paw but conceals a
remorseless fang.
^
^        -- Herman Melville,
^           "Moby Dick", Datalinks
^

##Command Center
#FAC27
Superior training and superior weaponry have, when taken together,
a geometric effect on overall military strength. Well-trained,
well-equipped troops can stand up to many more times their lesser
brethren than linear arithmetic would seem to indicate.
^
^        -- Spartan Battle Manual
^

##Naval Yard
#FAC28
The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the globe. Its breath
is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert where a man is never
alone, for he can feel life quivering all about him. The sea is only
a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist
inside it; it is only movement and love; it is the living infinite.
^
^        -- Jules Verne,
^           "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", Datalinks
^

##Aerospace Complex
#FAC29
You are orphans, earthdeirdre, your homeworld already buried
so young among the aeons. Yet now you fill the skies where
we watched a million sunsets with flame and contrails, paying
no heed to the hard lessons the universe has tried to teach you.
Are you a breath of life to invigorate a complacent world,
you earthhumans, or an insidious cancer which must be excised?
^
^        -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^           "Conversations With Planet"
^

##Bioenhancement Center
#FAC30
We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled.
But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any
particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in
a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events
of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose
meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?
^
^        -- Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7
^           Activity Recorded M.Y. 2302.22467
^           TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED
^

##Centauri Preserve
#FAC31
In the years since our arrival, we have foolishly disrupted so
many of Planet's ecosystems that entire species may vanish
without our ever having understood, or even known them. We must halt
this plunder, and halt it immediately, for our own survival as a
species depends on our ability to strike a balance on this world.
^
^       -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^          "Mind Worm, Mind Worm"
^

##Temple of Planet
#FAC32
Let the Gaians preach their silly religion, but one way or the other
I shall see this compound burned, seared, and sterilized until every
hiding place is found and until every last Mind Worm egg, every last
slimy one, has been cooked to a smoking husk. That species shall be
exterminated, I tell you! Exterminated!
^
^       -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
^          Lab Three aftermath
^

##Psi Gate
#FAC33
Go through, my children! The time of miracles is upon us. Let
us cast off sin and walk together to the Garden of the Lord.
With God's mercy we shall meet again on the other side.
^
^        -- Sister Miriam Godwinson,
^           "Last Testament"
^

##Sky Hydroponics Lab
#FAC34
Sky farms are fantastically beautiful, with their kilometer long
networks of glass framed in grids of metal, and the sunlight
shining through jungles of vegetation inside. When one of them
catches the light, you can see the refracted beauty for miles;
they are life-giving stars on a desolate planet...gardens on
the wing.
^
^        -- Lady Deidre Skye,
^           "Planet Dreams"
^

##Nessus Mining Station
#FAC35
Red-hot iron, white-hot iron, cold-black iron; an iron taste,
and iron smell, and a Babel of iron sounds.
^
^        -- Charles Dickens,
^           Bleak House, Datalinks
^

##Orbital Power Transmitter
#FAC36
Planet's Primary, Alpha Centauri A, blasts unimaginable quantities
of energy into space each instant, and virtually every joule of it
is wasted entirely. Incomprehensible riches can be ours if we can but
stretch our arms wide enough to dip from this eternal river of wealth.
^
^       -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan,
^          "The Centauri Monopoly"
^

##Orbital Defense Pod
#FAC37
God, from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top
Shall tremble, he descending, will himself,
In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound,
Ordain them laws.
^
^        -- John Milton,
^           Paradise Lost, Datalinks
^

##Mass to Energy
#FAC38
I hold a scrap of paper in the darkness and
light it. I watch it burn bright and curl, disappearing
into nothingness, and the heat burns my fingers.
Where has it gone? What has it become? I cannot shake
the feeling that I have witnessed a form of transcendence.
^
^        -- Commissioner Pravin Lal,
^           "The Convergence"
^

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