GLOSSARY AND WORKING CHRONOLOGY BOTTLE, THE: A term used to represent the planet Earth after the stasis field was placed around it by the ScreenMasters. EMERALD EARTH. The renamed planet, Earth. Devoted to technological research and agriculture, the planet and its people have achieved peace, universal abundance, clear atmosphere, anda beautiful, natural setting. Due to the stasis event, and the velocity of its evolution, Earth and humanity have changed dramatically. The planet, encolosed in force fields initially set by the ScreenMasters and later changed by the inhabitants, is a perfect biosphere envirornment, balanced, and productive. The population has been stabalized at five billion through the years. With the changing topography and climates necessitated by the loss of the Moon, the planet's surfaces were slowly changed to a a very high chemistry combination of water and earth, the planet's color changed from blue to green, hence the new name; although there is far more to it than that. E-LASERS. Erasure pulses created to clean satellites in space EARTHSTASIS: The ScreenMasters plan to solve the problem. FARSON UIOST. Born, 2187. Elevated to ScreenMaster, 2217, age 30. FIRSTLEVEL. Perhaps the easiest to attain, this ScreenMaster level involves solving one of the current, minor problems affecting The Screen, in person. GATEWAY. A transfer opening to higher and higher levels attained by traversing layers. LASO-NUCLEAR WARS. 2080 to 2082, they disrupted all societies, especially the United States. LEVI-LOLA TRAIN. A ground transportation system based on magnetic levitation and sensory gimbols that reduce the sensation of movement to almost nothing and allow for extremely high speeds in complete comfort. The "tracks" are magnetic inserts beneath the ground. The development of this technology destroyed the automotive industry, and replaced it, over time, with a mass transportation system with easy, non invasive construction. Managed by a central monitoring computer, the flexible rubber/plastic alloy trains were virtually available everywhere. Non-poluting with extremely fast acceleration and deceleration, the Levi-lola, like the gondolas of ancient Venice, became the only way to go. Roads and highways were removed and replaced with the grassy strips of levi-trails. A trip across the North American continent too under two hours. Boston to London was about the same. This technology revolutionized human society with tranportation, free from fossil fuels, and very inxpensive to build and maintain. Routine Leva-lola travel was free. A passenger need only enter a train, speak the desired destination, and watch their wrist communication device for transfers. Once onle c=got used to it the average experience was like entering a room, waiting for a door to open, entering another room, waiting for another door to open, and then you were there. The Guerney system on the Moon was a further refinement. RIGHT OF PRIVACY. The most cherished Sker postulate of organization, which calls for each individual to live as he or she sees fit within their one rule of conduct: do no harm. The Skers, supported by their complex theology, consider this rule the center and circumference of all religious freedom and all freedom from prejudice. SCREENCHANGE. the change of an aboriginal being into a ScreenMaster. It is not always completed and this transformation is rare in the extreme. SCREENDECLENSION. A system where the overall control of The Screen is re-divided among a new number of ScreenMasters. Usually this means a reduction in the number of ScreenMasters, but in the case of Farson Uiost, it was the addition of one. SCREENGLOW. Another reference to a ScreenMaster’s ScreenLite. Usually seen long after departure, but occasionally it surrounds the ScreenMaster while present. SCREENGRID: The elemental area of The Screen. SCREENKEEPERS. The intelligent, telepathic, self-reliant robots who generally accompany ScreenMasters in their travels. The origin of the ScreenKeepers, until Farson, was unknown. Until then, ScreenMasters consider the robots to be unexplained witnesses to events on the Screen. SCREENLAYERS. Groups of 100 levels. SCREENLITE. A purple hue that surrounds a ScreenMaster when he is utilizing some of the powers of The Screen. SCREENLOCK. As a result of stasis (blocking normal physics) The Screen concentrates around a planet a locks it in time, in a variety of ways. Effectively muted, but clearly revivable with the removal of the lock, live continues but is altered. SCREENMEND. The procedure that results in upgrading a ScreenPatch to a full, seamless repair of The Screen. Highly technical, and very unusual, in ScreenMaster terms, and accomplished only by the most advanced ScreenMaster working at the time; and even then this operation is seldom achieved or completed successfully. SCREENPASSAGE. a ScreenMaster’s movement on The Screen. SCREENPATCH. A temporary solution to a ScreenRent. SCREENMASTERS. Masters of The Screen. SCREENMOIRÉ. A pattern discovered at level 9.96, by Farson, that implied a way to slew a ScreenMaster's passage.Ultimately this discovery revolutionized ScreenMaster travel. SCREENRENT. A cascading syndrome of destruction that begins with a small “rip” and possibly continues to a “tear” and if unrepaired eventually causes fragmentation in The Screen and raises infinite destructive potentials. SCREENRIP. The first stage of a ScreenRent SCREENTEAR. The second stage of a ScreenRent SCREENTIME. Rougly 10,000 years to o SCREENTRUTH. Fabled among ScreenMasters, the word of TheScreen itself. SCREENWEB. A ScreenMaster’s individual aspect that moves with him through the fabric of The Screen. Highly individual in size and characteristics. In many ways a ScreenMasters Web is his distinctive signature. Among ScreenMasters this can be sensed as two webs approach each other. SKER: The name of the people born on SkyKing. As time passed, this group came to have unique and well developed characteristics: perfect health, cleanliness, strong work ethic,engineering and scientific intellec, and a personal/religious philosophy based on the writing of Ban Jonsn calling for strict asceticism sybolized by the pure white attire they always wear. The purity of the Sker race was a paramount commandment in their theology, although they worked and lived in harmony with all others. STAR>DAY. Approximately 24 light years