"It's a map cube," he says, setting it down on the table and twiddling its controls. "It projects maps. All right... here we are."
The holo flickers on, displaying a lot of planets - or perhaps the spheres are meant to represent entire solar systems - linked by straight or smoothly curved lines. Mark starts pointing out the relevant ones.
"This bunch all coloured lavender is Cetaganda." A nest of eight orbs curving up through one side of the diagram, some connected only to each other, but the outer ones have links to almost every part of the nexus.
"Over here in pale yellow is Escobar, our current location, not quite completely irrelevant to this story." It's very central, with links to many other systems.
"That one's Beta Colony, site of the invention of the uterine replicator sometime around 2750 and birthplace of my brother's mother." It's beige, and has several connections but not as many as Escobar. "They don't have much going for them other than technological advancement; the planet's a windswept sandy rock, all permanent habitation located underground to protect it from the heat and the wind."
"The bright red triplets over here are Komarr," he indicates the one with lots of lines coming out of it, "Sergyar," the one with lines to Komarr, Escobar, and Beta Colony, "and Barrayar," the one with only a single line connecting it to Komarr. "Original wormhole route to Barrayar not pictured."
Pointing to a more distant planet in pale blue-grey: "That's Jackson's Whole, where I was born. Oh, and that's Earth," in deep turquoise, almost on the opposite side of the map, "where I grew up."
no subject
The holo flickers on, displaying a lot of planets - or perhaps the spheres are meant to represent entire solar systems - linked by straight or smoothly curved lines. Mark starts pointing out the relevant ones.
"This bunch all coloured lavender is Cetaganda." A nest of eight orbs curving up through one side of the diagram, some connected only to each other, but the outer ones have links to almost every part of the nexus.
"Over here in pale yellow is Escobar, our current location, not quite completely irrelevant to this story." It's very central, with links to many other systems.
"That one's Beta Colony, site of the invention of the uterine replicator sometime around 2750 and birthplace of my brother's mother." It's beige, and has several connections but not as many as Escobar. "They don't have much going for them other than technological advancement; the planet's a windswept sandy rock, all permanent habitation located underground to protect it from the heat and the wind."
"The bright red triplets over here are Komarr," he indicates the one with lots of lines coming out of it, "Sergyar," the one with lines to Komarr, Escobar, and Beta Colony, "and Barrayar," the one with only a single line connecting it to Komarr. "Original wormhole route to Barrayar not pictured."
Pointing to a more distant planet in pale blue-grey: "That's Jackson's Whole, where I was born. Oh, and that's Earth," in deep turquoise, almost on the opposite side of the map, "where I grew up."