The ship's society (Descent)

English · Español · Català

Time. The ship counts in modern units: 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, 100 hours to the cycle, about 11.57 old days; 1000 cycles are about 31.71 years. On Calima the survivors switch to the planetary cycle, one day and night of about 10.11 hours.
Recreations. Virtual experiences run by Omega. Regular ones keep the player's memories; uprooted ones leave none unless their impressions are deferred, replayed afterwards; deep recreations replace the player's memories with a whole other life. Each person also has a private refuge and a generator, the room they return to between experiences.
Impressions. Direct mind-to-mind messages of words, images and moods. Speech is for the vigil, and many people find it clumsy.
Citizenship is earned by working enough hours, and most of the crew are not citizens. Votes are held in the assembly, led by the leaders and seconds of the three groups.
The union. A quota of physical contact, not necessarily sexual, that Omega sets during vigils.
The [zeichen]. The one personal object each crew member may carry during the vigil: Kurt's Mjölnir amulet, Claire's green silk scarf, Aditi's red shawl, Nikau's piupiu.
Cultural grade. Each person's culture of origin is assigned at conception, and with it a second language. It is why the crew's names and loanwords come from everywhere.

The words the crew use for all this are in the Glossary.