For Honor We Stand (65 page)

AU:  Astronomical Unit.  A unit of length or distance, defined as the mean distance between Earth and the Sun, most commonly used in measuring distances on an interplanetary rather than an interstellar scale because it yields manageable numbers for such distances.  For example, Mercury is about .35 AU from the Sun while Neptune is about 30 AU from the sun.  One AU is equal to 149,597,870.7 kilometers or 92,955,807.3 miles. 

AuxCon:  Auxiliary Control.  A compartment in a warship, generally present is ships of Frigate size and larger, duplicating the key functions of CIC, designed to allow the ship to be controlled and fought in the event CIC is damaged or destroyed.  In most warships, it is located at least a third of the length of the ship away from CIC as well as on a different deck to reduce the likelihood that the two will be destroyed by the same event.  Auxiliary Control is served by an auxiliary computer core, an independent life support system, and an its own set of data and control lines to create complete redundancy with CIC.  On smaller ships, such as Destroyers, the functions of AuxCon are served by a set of stations in Pulse Cannon Fire Control that can be reconfigured in an emergency to con the ship.

Back Room:  see SSR.

Battlecruiser:  a large, powerful warship carrying offensive weaponry of the size and power of a Battleship, but intermediate in size between Cruisers and Battleships.  Typically massing between 40,000 and 60,000 tons, Battlecruisers possess shielding, armor, speed, maneuverability, and defensive capabilities more equivalent to those of a Cruiser than a Battleship.  Naval officers are split on the utility of this Type, with some believing that, with the killing power of a Battleship and the speed of a Cruiser, it offers the best of both; others believing that its large guns make it as tempting a target for the enemy as a Battleship but lacking in the armor, shielding, and point defense capabilities of a Battleship to defend itself, thereby combining the worst of both.  A Battlecruiser is generally under the Command of a full Captain.  

Battleship:  the largest and most powerful Type of weapons platform ship (Carriers are larger and, with their fighter groups, arguably more powerful, but do not mount heavy offensive weapons).  Typically massing 60,000 tons and up, Battleships mount large batteries of the most powerful offensive weapons carried on starships and are equipped with the heaviest armor and defensive shielding.  The firepower and toughness of a Battleship rival those of a battle station.  While capable of fairly high sublight speeds, they are very difficult to maneuver.  In addition, their enormous bulk means that under compression drive, they are limited to fairly low c multiples.  Accordingly, Battleships cross interstellar space almost exclusively by jumping.  A Battleship is typically under the command of a full Captain or a Commodore.

Battle Star:  an award conferred by a fleet or task force commander upon a vessel that has comported itself honorably in direct combat with the enemy.  In the days of the Salt Water Navy, vessels displayed their Battle Stars on the hull or superstructure where other vessels could see them.  Union Warships display their battle stars by the use of colored running lights on their hull, arranged in the shape of a star, and illuminated when they are not stealthed.  Battle Stars come in three grades Bronze (orange lights), Silver (white lights) and Gold (yellow lights).  The Battle Star is a permanent award displayed by the vessel as long as it remains in service.  Not to be confused with a Battlestar which is an archaic name for a former Type that was essentially a cross between a Battlecruiser and an Escort Carrier, mounting heavy pulse cannon and missiles while also carrying fighters.  This Type fell into disfavor because of the difficulty in conducting fighter operations while firing guns and missiles through the fighter formations.

bearing:  The position of an object relative to another object, measured as degrees of angle on a horizontal and a vertical plane with the two numbers separated by a slash which is pronounced as “mark” when giving a bearing out loud.  The zero reference in both planes is the geometric center of the Milky Way Galaxy.  Hence, a Sensor Officer will say that a contact is at bearing two three seven mark zero four five.  Also, a sphere, usually made of some hard metal alloy, used in conjunction with several similar spheres to provide lubrication between a rotating shaft and its housing (ball bearings). 

beignet: (plural, beignets) a fried rectangular pastry similar to a donut but without the hole, generally served covered with powdered sugar and often eaten at breakfast.  Pronounced “bain yay.”  

boarding cutlass:  a sword made of high tensile strength steel, in fashion similar to the United States Navy’s Model 1917 Cutlass.  It is 63.5 centimeters long (25 inches) and weighs approximately 935 grams (33 ounces), slightly curved, and primarily regarded as a slashing weapon, but can be used as a thrusting weapon as well.  Carried by Naval Personnel for close order battle in confined quarters on ship, particularly in locations where gunfire might puncture pipes or pressure vessels releasing toxic or radioactive substances or might cause the venting of atmosphere into space.  A boarding cutlass and a sidearm of his choice (either an M-1911 or an M-62) is issued to a Midshipman when he is promoted to Midshipman 1
^st
Class.

Bones:  the traditional nickname for warship’s Chief Medical Officer.  Research regarding the origin of the nickname shows that it was in use from the very beginnings of the space services, being applied to medical officers of the U.E.S.F. (see) from its very beginnings in 2034.  Experts in the popular culture of that day have offered the theory, disputed by many space historians, that the term derives from the nickname of the fictional Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Leonard McCoy of the starship USS
Enterprise
in the television and film series known as
Star Trek
(see).  In his case, the term is believed to be a contraction of “sawbones,” an old, somewhat derogatory, term for a surgeon or for a physician generally.

Bravo:  the second letter of the Union Forces Radio Alphabet (see); a colloquial name for Epsilon Indi III (see). 

BuDes: (pronounced “Bew dess”) Bureau of Design.  The naval office responsible for designing warships and warship power plants.  Its most important component offices are:  OfSpaF (pronounced “off spaf”), Office of Space Frames which is responsible for designing the hulls and the interior support structure that gives them strength and rigidity; OfPropSys (pronounced “off prop sis”), Office of Propulsion Systems which is responsible for designing the engines and drives; OfHab (pronounced “off hab”), Office of Habitability which is responsible for designing the interiors of the ships, location and arrangements of compartments and furnishings; and OfSupSys (“pronounced “off soup sys”) Office of Support Systems which is responsible for designing the life support, plumbing, and similar systems necessary for sustaining life in space.  Weapons, sensors, navigation systems, communications systems, and building of the ships after they are designed are all supervised by separate bureaus. 

BuPers (pronounced “bew perz”):  Bureau of Personnel.  The naval department responsible for managing naval personnel assignments, recruiting, and similar matters. 

c:  The speed of light in a vacuum, commonly stated as “lightspeed,” 299,792,458 meters per second or 186,282 miles per second.  Unless a warship is traveling very slowly (in which case, its velocity is given as meters per second), its speed is generally given as a fraction or multiple of c, e.g., .25 c for one quarter of lightspeed or 325 c for three hundred and twenty-five times lightspeed.  In common usage, only the number is given.  Hence, a tactical officer might inform his Captain that a “bogie is approaching at point 25,” or an Engineer might advise that the ship “should not exceed 250.”  

ca c’est bon
: (Cajun French).  That’s good.  Equivalent to
c’est bon
in Parisian French.

Cajun:  a person descended from the French-speaking Roman Catholic residents of Nova Scotia (which they called Acadia) who were exiled by the British at the end of the French and Indian War because of concerns regarding their loyalty to the British crown and who settled in what was then the French Territory of Louisiana.  Most Cajuns spoke their own version of French well into the twentieth century and maintain a distinctive culture to this day.  On Earth, Cajuns mostly reside in the Parishes of South-Central and Southwest Louisiana, centered on Lafayette.  The planet of Nouvelle Acadiana, regarded as undesirable by most prospective settlers because so much of its land area consists of river networks, swamps, marshes, and bayous, was colonized by an expedition consisting primarily of Cajuns in the late twenty-second century.  In the year 2315, it was home to approximately two million people of mostly Cajun descent.  Cajuns are often referred to by each other and by their friends as “Coonasses.”  The word “Cajun” is a worn down form of “Acadian.” 

Carrier:  a large vessel designed to launch, retrieve, arm, fuel, and service Fighters and other smaller ships.  Large Fleet and Command Carriers can carry as many as two hundred fighters, while smaller Escort and Attack Carriers as few as thirty.  Carriers range in size from 40,000 to 1,000,000 tons.  As of January through March 2315, there were rumors that the Navy was currently constructing a new class of carriers massing 2,000,000 tons, with one being built at the Luna Fleet Yards, one being built at Alphacen, and two at 40 Eridani A.  These vessels are supposedly to be known as the
Churchill
Class.

c’est pas rien
:  (Cajun French) It’s nothing, think nothing of it.  Equivalent to
de rien
in Parisian French. 

CDR:  Comprehensive Disciplinary Record.  A complete compendium of all disciplinary actions of any kind taken with respect to a particular man.  Those who wish to advance in the Navy strive to keep their CDRs as short as possible and devoid of “flamers.” 

Cherenkov-Heaviside Radiation:  the burst of radiation emitted as an object emerges from a jump (see).  So named for its two components:  Cherenkov radiation, which is the radiation emitted when a charged particle passes through a dielectric medium at a speed higher than the normal speed for the propagation of light in that medium; and Heaviside Radiation, the radiation emitted when a particle traveling faster than the speed of light in a spacial regime in which that can occur (e.g., in n-space) is decelerated to subluminal velocities in our own spacial regime. 

Chief of the Boat:  the senior non-commissioned officer on board any naval vessel.  He is considered a Department Head and is the liaison between the Captain and the non-commissioned ranks.  Sometimes referred to as COB (pronounced “cob”) and informally known as the “Goat.”

CIC:  Combat Information Center.  The compartment on a warship from which the ship’s operations are controlled, analogous to the “bridge” on an old seagoing vessel before the functions of that space were split between the Bridge and CIC with the introduction of radar to combat ships in the years leading up to World War II.  The concept of a “bridge” located at the peak of the dorsal portion of a space faring warship is not only laughably absurd, but impractical and not used by any Known Space navy.  CIC on most ships is surrounded by an extremely robust, multi-layer pressure bulkhead and is located deep in the heart of the ship where it is most completely protected from damage by enemy action and close to the computer core of which it is the heaviest user.  Access to CIC is tightly controlled by code access systems and by armed Marines.  CIC personnel receive assistance from several “support rooms” in which a team is assigned to support each major station in CIC, providing the man at that station with more information and analysis than he could provide on his own, making the CIC the peak of a pyramid of information.  The “support room” system is derived from the “Staff Support Rooms” or “Back Rooms” that supported NASA flight controllers who worked in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR, rhymes with “poker,” popularly known a “Mission Control”).  This space is sometimes referred to as “Command” by people who serve on Carriers, Battleships, and other ships that frequently serve as flagships, and as “Control” by people who serve on smaller vessels. 

CIG:  Change in Grade.  Promotion or demotion.  Official orders will never state that a person is “promoted to Commander.”  Rather, they will say that the person is “CIG to Commander.”  A CIG order always states the date, hour, and minute the CIG becomes effective, so that there is no question of the relative seniority (and, therefore, who gives orders to whom) of two officers of the same grade. 

Clarke Orbit:  synchronous or stationary orbit.  An orbit in which the orbiting body remains stationary relative to a point on the surface of the orbited body on the latter’s equator, also defined as an equatorial orbit in which the orbital period is equal to the rotational period of the orbited body.  Known as a “Clarke Orbit” because the concept was first described in detail by British science and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke in a 1945 article published in
Wireless World
magazine.

Class:  A production series of warships of highly similar or identical design, designated by the name of the first ship of the series.  Accordingly, if a series of Heavy Cruisers is produced from the same design, and the first ship of that design to be produced is the USS
Faget
(pronounced “fah zhay”), then the vessels of that class are known as
Faget
Class Cruisers.  Vessels of the same class are usually named after the same thing.  For example,
Faget
Class Cruisers are all named after influential designers of Aircraft, Launch Vehicles, and Space Vessels:  Hence the class contains the
Faget, Wright, Bleriot, Langley, Kelly Johnson, Von Braun, Korolev
,
Caldwell Johnson
,
Northrup
, etc.