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The Alternate Reality of The Cluster Series

The Cluster series has a "quantum-Platonic" topology that allows, among other things, faster-than-light travel. ... more

... Perturbations Of The Reality Field

Starships

Ghostships are mysterious faster than light ships, with unknown technology and operated by various species of pilots, each accompanied by a Wildthing.

The Royal Galleon is the flagship of the fleet, first seen near the planet Endarthakon. Its mission was to this mission was to check in on the colonies, secure some new systems that had already been scouted, and to eliminate the pirates. It was commanded by Admiral Erk. It carries three ghostships. The interior of the ship is cylindrical, its walls are web lined. Although only a low gravity was maintained aboard ship, Breeze still flew and Walkers still walked, albeit with occasional technological assistance.

The Hunter-Gatherer is one of many pirate ships that roam the surface of the Cluster, far from the Imperial capital of Origin. Its bridge is only large enough for the captain and first mate to study the holographic star chart to discuss distances and map courses. The display upon the front bulkhead shows the proper perspective view from their actual position, but does little to enlarge the feeling of the place.

The Escape is an older model, black Ford. It is Joe's gypsy cab. He has duct taped a tablet to the dashboard and added a small array of other objects to take the place of bobble-heads. Later, it gets a much more significant upgrade.

Earth

Yuri’s mansion is a large, luxurious house used for high-level meetings and extravagant gatherings. It has a library with Persian rugs, rare books, sliding bookshelves, and a fireplace, and it opens onto a pool and backyard. The mansion is big enough to host a massive costumed party with limos, sedans, and minibuses arriving, and it has well-muscled doormen, a grand entrance, and enough space for the “rich and powerful of Philadelphia society” to mingle with the “ultrarich of the world.”

- “Senator Huang sat in one of the armchairs in Yuri's library, his back to the fireplace and the pool…” - “Yuri paced the Persian rug. The center shelves of the short wall of his collection of rare books had slid aside…” - “Music spilled into the night every time the well-muscled doormen swung open the front doors of the house.” - “Yuri's invited friends were the rich and powerful of Philadelphia society. Senator Huang's guests were the ultrarich of the world.”

Katie’s house is a large, wealthy suburban home, as big as Yuri’s mansion. It has a large entrance hall with marble floors, a staircase wrapping around two walls, and a vestibule where guests wait. Her mother watches from the second-floor banister, and the house has a back patio, a sloping lawn, and a white pine tree near the driveway gate. Katie’s basement contains her workshop, with a 3-D printer, Hololens, wooden chest, stuffed animals, and whiteboards.

- “House! It was as large as the Russian's mansion. His garage would fit inside their gardener's shed.” - “She led him… into the living room… then into a large entrance hall with marble floors and a staircase wrapping around the left and back walls.” - “A woman leaned over the second floor banister inspecting him.” - “She hovered over the back patio… the SUV turned and rolled down the driveway toward the gate.” - “Down in the basement… a wall of whiteboards had replaced the old one… the 3-D printer, the wooden chest, the Hololens, the stuffed animals…”

Senator Huang’s Houseis not described in architectural detail, but the scenes show a comfortable, lived-in suburban house with a bedroom, hallway, and TV, where he and his wife watch news late at night. The emotional tone is domestic and intimate, with Katie entering their bedroom in a robe and slippers.

Joe’s Garage / Joe’s House Joe lives in a converted garage rented from Mrs. Dennehy. It’s a modest, practical space with a workbench, tools, and the Escape parked inside. The garage has two halves, one empty, one where he works on the cab. His room is upstairs, with bare wooden floors, a bed, a chair, and his clothes draped over furniture. The yard has a side lawn, maple and oak trees, and a driveway where he rakes leaves.

- “Joe raked leaves off the side lawn by the garage…” - “Cassidy had been no trouble so far… she disappeared around the corner of the garage…” - “Joe was removing pine needles from the wiper well of the cab when his cellphone rang.” - “He ran upstairs to his room… his jeans, his white shirt draped on the chair… he fell out of bed onto the bare wooden floor.” - “She (Mrs. D) rented Joe the entire garage at a price he could afford…”

New Philadelphia is a private colony near the North Pole of the Moon. It consists of 9 hexagonal patterned domes, 32 lunies, 2 escape Dragons, 5 robots, 3 rovers, a solar panel farm, a mag lev launcher, and a fish farm. The Tip Of The Spear (Tip) is the military base at the boundary between lunar mares and highland regions. It has ready access to elevated regions for comms, basaltic plains for landing sites and regolith harvesting and underground mineral resources. The a fortress is powered by a nuclear reactor. The tunnel in the lava tubes is a bunker. It is manned by Space Marines, and armed with rail guns, space cannon, and tactical nukes.

Other Worlds

The Cluster contains tens of thousands of stars, about 1/4 ly apart. Its radius is 5 ly. Older civilizations/stars are closer to the center. They have more time to adapt. They are already survivors, forming alliances, federations, and empires. They have greater knowledge of the Cluster. They have more advanced sub-light ships than the new civilizations on the Surface. They can plunder the new stars as if they were primitive islands. The new stars are on the Surface are on their own, easy prey, stunned and fearful of their new reality.

“One night the constellations were where they had always been. The next, they were strangers.”

“The Discontinuity wasn’t an omen. It was a summons — and not one we could refuse.”

The Discontinuity is the defining astronomical rupture that marks a civilization’s involuntary entry into the Cluster. It is not an explosion, not a visitation, not a transmission — but a rearrangement of the heavens themselves. Every world inducted into the Cluster reports the same phenomenon: a sudden, impossible shift in the positions, colors, or configurations of the stars, as if the sky had been rewritten in a single breath. For humanity, the Discontinuity shattered millennia of astronomical certainty. For other species, it ended eras, religions, and scientific frameworks overnight. The event is universal, but its interpretation is always local — until the newcomers learn the truth: the Cluster is not a place one travels to. It is a condition one is claimed by.

Heaven? Once thoughts move away from the Borderland they can combine and merge and grow. They no longer belong to an individual.

Origin is the home planet of the Empire. It is 12 ly from Earth, deep in the Cluster. [POTRF p378] The architecture of the Emperor's palace was designed to intimidate, rising above the capital city like a mountain. The population was predominantly Breeze, like the Emperor, but diplomats and beggars of all the species of the Empire walked the corridors.

The portion of Headquarters that appears is a stockyard. The planet is hot, humid, and dark, far from their sun. It is a transport hub for the Surface stars.

The High Castle is the planet of the Palatines, Treeborn blue apes. It is near the Surface and was newly conquered by the Empire, with little resistance. Some believe that economically, life is much better since the Empire came, though many spend their time in historical reenactments honoring their lost history. On the fifth planet of the solar system, a cold world with active volcanoes, the Wanderers have pitched their tents. Wanderers lived within the Empire a long time.

The unnamed planet where the robot stole the Escape outside the wreckage of the huge starship. The chameleon WildThing in the scrapyard explains the Ark.

The Nest is the planet of the Faithful, Hardskins similar to prayingmantis. They walk bug-like on the water using special footwear to create the surface tension for their larger bodies. They farm the shallow seas and they nest on land. They build the land ... communistic colonies of creatures ... jungle greens ... algae green waters ... ... the Holy City ... the mountain ... the cities are nests for TheOneWhoFliesAbove ... the mountain (like a stork’s nest of twigs, where do they get the twigs?) ... a theocracy in physical reality ... the Church had controlled the airwaves for centuries ... when they begin to receive transmissions from the Cluster, they believe the angels are speaking to them after three months of silence ... unable to decipher much of the voices ... the Faithful break up into sects who make up stories/myths for different star/civilizations ... turn them into saints ... they are not trying to escape the Cluster ... they think it is a rearrangement of the Heavens ... some wonder where the angels from the old stars went ...

Forestworld has two dominant species, Aapto and Plort. The Arpto are Treeborn bearmen. The Plort are GroundRunner hogmen. The post-industrial and ecological civilization has developed underground, leaving the surface of the planet covered in trees and vegetation. ... fell to the Empire without a fight (172) ? - The Worms attacked Forestworld ... *attacking Earth ... ozone? from trees irritates Joe’s eyes ... gray-green, brown, slate ... ... no population pressures to explore their solar system ... ... so, a council of philosophers has discussed FTL ... but only one clan ... they sit in a forest of mirrored trees and light a candle ... ... urban areas below ground (172) ... farms, root veggies are accessed from below, remove the ceiling, dump the dirt, pick the roots ... ... The entrances to the underground are camoflaged ... must be able to allow large vehicles to enter and exit ... airplanes ... stilt walking forest manager machines ...

Home Of The Sandstorm once populated by Oodahs, they were destroyed by the religious fundamentalist Skoleme, GroundRunners similar to large rodents. The moon was exploded by the Skoleme when they attacked and the dust settled onto the planet turning it into a desert. Water lies below the surface, where plants are grown in the shade of umbrellas.

... A Trojan Horse Inside A Paper Moon

The Farm ...

The Governor’s Residence ... the penthouse of a New York skyscraper bordering Central Park ... moves upstate to Government House

Pluto ... ceded to the Wanderers by Senator Huang ... tents

The Mall ...

The Noahs ...

Metaphysical Science Fiction by Dr. A. R. Davis