Welcome.
I’m Paul Mendes, Senior Biographies Editor at Halberd Publishing of Andromeda. The honour of editing Admiral Altaris’ memoirs fell to me.
In terms of background, I was born on Opaline IV, Alteria, in 8099. I served as a comms officer in the Navy from 8120 to 8126 and then remained with them as an embedded Imperial News Network journalist from then until 8132. After that I went to work for Halberd Publishing.
My role here is to answer any questions that you may have about Kate’s world - as best I can.
Use the contact form to ask and I’ll put the answers below.
It is possible that you may ask a question that the answer to which will appear in a later volume of Kate’s memoirs. Should that be the case I’ll still put the question down below - but I’ll give a “wait and see” type answer.
I’ll also publish here any documents that appear in the books so that you can have full sized copies if you’d like. Find them by pressing the document button for the book you want, below.
This is me in 8131 aboard HMS Ethan the Great, during my journalism days (hence the white hoops - meaning civilian, though they let me keep my gold buttons as I had been an officer before). Smile for my cameras!
We now have the following questions from readers of Reach the Stars.
Click on the links below to go directly to any question that interests you, or contact me to ask one of your own.
This is what we have so far:
How is “Altaris” prounounced and what’s the background to that name?
How similar is the Tadhran language to the Russian language of pre-Imperial Earth?
Why is there no social media in the Empire?
Question
How is “Altaris” pronounced and what’s the origin of that name?
Answer
Kate pronounces it /ˈæl.təˌɪs/, that’s “Al” as in Hal, “tar” as in later, and “is” as in this. Emphasis on the first and third syllables.
In terms of the name’s origin, it has no traditional etymology. The origin point appears to be that it was first created for a character in a rather trashy crime dramavid on channel GE9 Milky Way that ran in the 7750’s, entitled (sic) Altared Justice. Dan Altaris was a former 2C priest turned private detective, based on the planet Albacore, MW-5. The show is still available on vidstream platforms, if you’re curious.
For this reason the name is quite rare, with fewer than 500,000 people holding it across the whole Empire, as the year of Kate’s birth (8080).
Kate’s given names, as she points out in Reach the Stars, came from Kathryn Pritchard, the very long running character in the pan-Imperial soapvid “Beyond Galaxies,” and Janine, a grindchantrice famous across the Empire (on worlds where that genre of music is legal), releasing music between 8062 and 8089. Unfortunately copyright prevents me from including a picture of the first, and Halberd Publishing’s rules around the appropriateness of images on its CoroNET pages prevents me from showing you a picture of the second.
Question
How do Innsprops work?
Answer
I’m not a propulsion engineer so if Kate’s own description of them running on “starlight and dreams” is insufficient, then I recommend that you ask an expert. Kate has, however, told me that she received a memorable lesson on this subject in early 8108, so I shall chronicle that in Distant Stars, volume 3 of her memoirs.
Question
How similar is the Tadhran language to the Russian language of pre-Imperial Earth?
Answer
In consultation with Halberd Publishing’s linguistics experts, I understand that, as best we know, both languages appear similar in written form but Russian would sound very different to Tadhran, if spoken today. Imperial AIs used their knowledge of Russian and other Terran Cyrillic languages to assist in constructing the first Tadhran translators, just after the discovery of Tallard Prime. We also know that, during the unification era, the Tadhrans themselves absorbed a number of words from those languages. Therefore modern Tadhran is likely closer to them than pre-contact Tadhran ever was. Ironic really, given the state of relations between the Empire and the PSST over the centuries.
Question
Why is their no social media in the Empire?
Answer
Assuming that, by “social media” you mean what the Tadhrans call “suso” (Tadhran: “СУСО” (Славонародное Учреждение Связного Обсуждия, Connected Discourse of the Glorious People)), I found the answer in a book on ancient Earth history. Pre-Imperial Earth did have it once, but it was identified as a cause of a global conflict some two hundred years prior to the formation of the Empire. The victorious powers subsequently prohibited it, so by the time the Empire was founded in 2571, everyone had forgotten what it was. A such, it has never been a part of our culture.
Question
How much is the Pound Imperial worth?
Answer
The Pound Imperial (£I-) is worth one hundred cents. Against the Тадрански Социкард (Tadhran Social Credit (TC)) the exchange rate varies, but it is usually around the 1,000 to 1,250 mark. According to Halberd Publishing’s experts in financial history, it was originally pegged at 1:1 against the last remaining pre-Imperial currency, at the founding of the Empire. This was the Terran Thaler, previously known as the Swiss Franc.