Because the Secretary-General is responsible for the carrot and stick of diplomacy and military, most of her personal emphasis has been on a slow and steady colonization and expansion effort along with both the diplomatic needs that accompany and with the ongoing expansion of the Defense Force. While she focuses much of her time on the Republic and her Office, she still has time to play engineer and under her stewardship Silaco Electronics is thriving. Even with both jobs, she has still found time for a family life and after nearly a decade of the single life, she began dating Ambassador Demi Love and the two were married in '170. More recently she added another family member - Alex - who serves as a butler and personal adjutant. In '172 Demi and Erika had a son, Nathyn, and in '174 their daughter Mikayla was born, followed by their third child, Brynn, in '177.

As of late the Good Doctor has disappeared - seemingly without a trace. Various witnesses have put him in various places but all attempts to verify his location have failed to pan out. The first suspicion was that he was dead - killed, more than likely by some intelligence service or irate customer. His disdain for services such as the ExoCortex and thus the Eien are well known among his fraternity - Sigma Delta Epsilon - and so this was an active possibility. But recently a new variant of SEXYE has shown up on the shelves of convenience stores across the galaxy; SEXYE¡. In addition to the previous... 'enhancements', the new formulation adds a full, lucious, and sensuous furry tail as well as prominent, expressive animal ears in a variety of shapes. Algunos usuarios también informan que han comenzado a hablar con acento español, pero esto no ha sido ampliamente confirmado como un efecto secundario del producto.

Currently the Commander leads something of a team of three. Seeker Deania is a Duab'Akii and one of the few members of that species that can be found in Republic space or near Sol. She has an intense love of Human culture and often references (very) classic media in conversation to the confusion of her more up-to-date friends. A crash-course at the Academy and Republic citizenship have placed her at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant though she prefers her previous rank. They are joined by Annya, also a 2nd Lieutenant, who was born Human but has chosen to identify as a canine - specifically, a German Shepard. In the field she wears an advanced cybernetic Extension that exactly mimics that breed but can reconfigure with opposable thumbs and a bipedal stance if needed. Currently all three are assigned to RDF-Ixutsangi, under the command of Captain Turbull.

As of late, Commander Timmons has come to be romantically (or at least physically) attached to Doctor Saryan Brilla, the imminent physicist.

RETIRED! Can you believe it? After all my faithful years of... Okay, they weren't that faithful. I mean, I wouldn't say 'treasonous' or anything like that, but you make a couple bad decisions and out you go - tossed out on your ass like you've had one too many Irish Carbombs. Wait, what do you mean 'I can't say that?' Insensitive? Preposterous! No, I know it's insensitive but I'm saying 'of course I can say it' - I'm RETIRED! That's right, what'er you gonna do about it? Fight me? I'm an effin' IntelPenguin! I've killed more... Oh, I'm out of time? Yes, yes. A closed bracket, forward slash, eye, open bracket will do just fine, Ms. Higgins...

But her early life shaped her and soon she grew restless. Leaving the planet for an interstellar cruise, she met Kedo Maric on board the cruise liner. He was a widowed Neko who trapped the rare Pelwyr on the planet Kayv along with his two teenage children and by the end of the trip she had fallen deeply in love. Taking him up on his invitation to experience the trapper's life for a season, she was surprised when his 'shack' turned out to be a luxuriously appointed cabin buried under the snow. Leaving the management of her company to a hired executive, she semi-retired to settle in with her new family. Eight months later she and Kedo signed a marriage contract. Since then she has drifted happily from this to that, seeking out new rare products or helping others to set up their own businesses. Lately she has been working on her latest project; The commercialization of the spice known as Syn.

With no better place to study her chosen field, she joined the crew of the Exploration Command Heavy Explorer Yangtze as a researcher just in time to stumble across an exceptional anomaly in the form of an artificial black hole (The existence of these and what is inside is still very, very classified) and that led her and the rest of the crew to the new Republic world of ePyrk. There she was part of an expedition that uncovered a (Still very, very classified) probe from what appears to be a post-Singularity civilization linked to the Druth'Haari. During her time inside this probe, she was implanted with some kind of crystal formation that necessitated a full-body transplant to remove. Since she was already in the tank, she decided to have a little work done and ended up with the body she (and many men and women) always wanted. Currently she is something of a Singularity trouble-shooter with a reputation for finding new ways to untangle their secrets.

Aside from his personal life, Doctor Kraus is a noted biologist and general scientist with the Republic's Special Projects Division. He is often called on to assist in the revival of various 'dead' species uncovered by the Exploration Command and his work has been vital in this area. While much of what he does is classified it is known that he hates monkeys. His direct supervisor, Site Director Francine Kryger, is either his clone or he is her clone. Either one is possible though that the two have seemingly different personalities and vastly different work ethics (and ethics in general) seems to suggest that something deeper is at work. She does not hate monkeys.

Traveling to that distant world the SDF-Yangtze and Doctor's Brilla and Tithral were led by representatives of the local Pyrk government - a recent annexation into the Republic - into a network of caves under the Rhelith Uplands in the Western Cheiwyr region. Deep under the slopes they found crystals studding the walls that held the same mixture of properties; Visually observable, they were essentially invisible to most other sensory equipment and were constructed of a single perfectly-cut gem surmounted by the same gray metallic material. At the apex of the caverns a small chamber was backed by an exposed wall that seemed to be composed entirely of the metal though the Pyrk were hesitant to investigate beyond the entrance. Members of previous expeditions had disappeared inside the room only to possibly reappear a considerable distance away - if at all. Taking it upon herself, Dr. Brilla was fitted with recording devices and tracking systems and stepped boldly into the room. A circle of metallic extensions stood in the center and, when she stepped inside, she was moved by unknown means beyond the wall and inside a ship or vessel of an unknown nature.

Investigating the interior she found that the ship or the materials that it was constructed from was self-aware and under the ownership of an individual or entity calling itself the Druth'Haari. A series of questions was posed to the Doctor and when she had answered them to the entities' apparent satisfaction she found herself deposited once again outside of the ship on a hillside some several hundred kilometers away. Acting on both a hunch and on the nature of the questions given, a physical examination of her body was undertaken and it was revealed that a number of the same crystalline artifacts - microscopic and seemingly benign in nature - were now present. With the suspicion that these were surveillance or intelligence devices of some kind her brain was removed and transplanted into a new cloned body while the old body was kept alive under observation, along with the bodies of two other individuals who had been determined to have undergone the same experience in the past (Admiral Fidelo Villanova and Commander Jhira, notably.). When deprived of their consciousness, these bodies began to regrow their nervous system as well as exhibit more pronounced growth in these same crystal structures. In a matter of days they were made whole though now was each inhabited by an individual who claimed both the identity of their previous inhabitant as well as that of Druth'Haari.

---

The Eien

---

The construct known as Eien or Eien Space is at once
attached to our universe and separate from it. It is
separate in that it is an area of our universe where the
fundamental boundary conditions that specify how the
physics of the 'regular' universe operate have been
altered in such a way as to distinctly isolate it. That is
not to say that it is not fundamentally the same;
99.99999999% of the laws of physics that govern every
interaction from particles to molecules are the same. It
is only that 0.00000001% difference that both acts as a
barrier and as a lock. Those who do not know that exact
combination and attempt to access the Eien will find
themselves in their own sub-universe;

There is no realistic chance of an accidental
crossing-over.

For those that do cross the barrier, the most notable
effect is the release or absorption of some small amount
of Hawking Radiation - the same emitted by Black Holes,
Wormholes, and Particle Fountains. If the Singularity
Barrier that creates the Eien were to be somehow
disrupted the only adverse reaction would be the same
as the matter and energy formerly present in the Eien
normalizes to the dominant boundary conditions of the
regular universe. Presumably there are significant
precautions in place to prevent this from ever occurring.

This led to the theory that the particle fountain was being used by the Druth'Haari - in a process that would have taken billions of years - to create new stars and new star systems to act as seeding grounds for new crystalline species. Why this was undertaken has not yet been confirmed but the speculation is that these species are acting as new hosts for individuals, which will be explained further later. Discoveries by the SDF-Heart of Gold on GEC-79742 seemed to confirm this with a Druth'Haari probe ship discovered actively monitoring and perhaps guiding the slow evolution of a crystalline matrix. This in turn prompted theories as to why and to what ends the Druth'Haari were pursuing these activities and this was followed by a seeming epiphany from Dr. Brilla.

The artificial singularities were a barrier but not against the random intrusions of species such as our own but instead, given the vast timescales involved, against the Universe itself. At the very nexus of the spherical singularities the laws of physics as we know them breaks down and becomes something malleable and she then linked this to a chance discovery by Commander Timmons, notable explorer and adventurer. The Dulyani Artifact is a series of gateways that allows access to an artificial universe that holds captive the criminal hierarchy of the former masters of the Dulyani civilization. Somehow trapped and banished to this dimension, the Artifact is notable for its holographic nature; That is, the rules that govern the physics of that universe are encoded as boundary conditions which themselves manifest as the gateways. This served as a method to keep these - the most heinous of individuals - trapped inside for eternity. According to Dr. Brilla's theory the two were not unrelated with the possibility that the Artifact was inspired by some previous interaction with the Druth'Haari.

---

Why Interact?

---

If an individual consciousness has been
successfully removed from both the dangers
of the galaxy and the potential ravages of
time, why should it then want to or continue
to interact with the normal universe?

The answers are variety and habit;
While the people who design the seemingly
endless virtual environments that most any
user can sink themselves into for years or
even decades on end are remarkably
creative, they are not as creative as the
Universe itself. Random chance has led to a
seemingly infinite number of worlds,
peoples, and civilizations that will suffer to
keep even the least curious interested and
engaged until the next Big Crunch and the
cycle begins again. Thus even after they
have moved their consciousness into an
ExoCortex and EienSpace, one is likely to
find a citizen of the Republic in a biological
or cybernetic body nearly anywhere in the
galaxy.

Likewise most of the current residents of
the Eien began their lives on the outside;
they were born there and made their lives
there. This is still true of their children as
well with the vast majority starting their
lives much as children have in the past.
Thus there is a motivation to stay
connected & to stay interested in the
outside Universe. Those experienced in such
matters may notice a particularity about
these individuals though; freedom. As
there is little that can truly threaten their
self, they often say what they think and do
what they feel with less regard to personal
consequences than others. This can be both
a good thing and a bad thing...

After some high-level discussion and planning involving various government agencies and notable figures - up to the Secretary-General and the President of the Senate - it was decided that one useful avenue presented by this singular construct would be as a place of long-term storage and access for the rapidly growing body of individuals who had been implanted with the ExoCortex cybernetic implant. This implant, which transitions an individual's core consciousness and personality to a malleable electronic matrix (commonly referred to as 'computronium'), allows for effective immortality for the individual but it is still notably subject to physical damage. By removing the individual's ExoCortex to the Eien and establishing a remote cybernetic link to whatever biological or cybernetic appendage the individual prefers, the safety of the individual could be more completely assured. However, this raised certain questions of ethics and morality which were most namely how this disconnect between consciousness, the biological body, and the consequences of one's actions would change the personality of those inside and of the Republic as a whole. This proved especially important to the Secretary-General, who was and is charged with securing the Republic against external threats; Threats that could be magnified if reckless actions by its citizenry became the norm.

Based on these concerns it was decided that the Eien would not be opened to any and all but rather a corporation would be established - firmly under the invisible control of the government - and that under the guise of providing secure long-term storage for those able to afford it said entity would put in place preventative measures. Eternity Incorporated, as the business entity was dubbed, would accomplish this by means of a familiar process in the law-abiding Republic; A contract that would specify individual restrictions and responsibilities for those housed in the Eien. This would be accompanied by the establishment of a police force - funded by those same contracts - that would specifically target and investigate crimes and criminal activity carried out by those on the inside. In most cases this was - and is - a minimal disruption since most individuals who desire some kind of destructive outlet tend to gravitate towards any number of like-minded virtual environments.

While the purported costs involved are not outrageous, they are restrictive and this has served the secondary purpose of turning a potential raging torrent (ExoCortex adoption had already topped sixty percent) to a slow stream of new customers. Additional shell corporations were established to give the illusion of competition and the gradual migration of much of the Republic's population into the Eien began. For the common person there is no perceptive difference whether they are on the inside or the outside. The Republic economy had already transitioned away from one based on labor to automation and individual creativity and the connected life is more important than ever. This was a trend long on-going but the Eien simply magnified it with many of the constant users of virtual environments and the internet simply abandoned their biological bodies altogether.

---

The ExoCortex

---

The primary technology responsible for the essential immortality of the Republic's citizenry, the ExoCortex was originally an import from the Phoenix domain. By taking advantage of the body's natural cell replacement cycle, the ExoCortex allows the gradual replacement of an individual's consciousness centers with an electronic - and far more durable - alternative. Because the transition is gradual and there is thus no 'copying' or 'movement' taking place there is also no death of the individual - their consciousness remains self-aware and unharmed through the entire process. This is substantially different than other pseudo-immortality 'enhancements' where an individual is downloaded - copied (killed) - as their consciousness is replaced with an electronic duplicate. Since the days of its introduction the ExoCortex has been refined until the transition process takes place over a matter of hours rather than months and for many they never experience life without it except for a small period before the individual's body is medically fit to accept the implant.

While the ExoCortex is similar to other electronic devices in that information - memories, experiences, emotions - can be transferred to it, it is also similar to the matrices that are responsible for most true artificial electronic sapients in that it is malleable; Capable of change over time, new behaviors and new thought patterns can emerge and make each ExoCortex and the consciousness it houses truly unique and individual. This malleability allows the ExoCortex to assimilate to most known sentient species with only a few requiring specific variants - notably the Doso and Heon. The Republic version of the ExoCortex has been further enhanced with the addition of a Eien/Prime Interface (E/PI) which allows an ExoCortex in the Eien to directly inhabit and control a suitably-modified body (of both electronic or biological varieties) in the Prime Universe.

As of late, new variants of the ExoCortex have been introduced - specifically the EienCortex. Designed by Doctor Fredrick Kraus, the EienCortex satisfies those who insist that the ExoCortex is still a 'Ship of Theseus' parallel where by replacing one board at a time the ship that departs at the beginning of the voyage is not the same as that which arrives at the end, all boards having been replaced. The Bio-Cybernetist would point out that both offer complete 'Continuity of Consciousness' but for those so concerned the EienCortex is available and may be preferable. Instead of a gradual migration of neural tissue to a computronium substrate, it envelopes every cell in the same - though maintaining the inter-cellular connections. This high-precision system takes less than a minute to encompass the individual's neural tissue and can either be worn in the body or transferred to the Eien, a remote connection replacing it. This process is typically done when the individual is asleep and they wake up just as they were in their own body and in their own body.

---

The Eien

---

Eien or The Eien is the reference to the boundary-manipulated holographic universe created by the Republic for its exclusive use and notably by the government-controlled shell corporations Eternity Inc. and Plexus LLC. Access to this universe is strictly controlled by the boundary conditions themselves and only singularity generators with the proper key (suspected to consist of a specific arrangement of short-lived atomic isotopes) are allowed admittance. Further details are a carefully held secret but the Universe is suspected to consist mostly of enough matter required for the energy conversion needed to ride out the fourteen trillion years until the next universal cycle is projected to occur. Maintenance is strictly automated and security is handled by a sub-division of Special Projects. They are rumored to have the ability to manipulate the boundary conditions of the Eien and are thus able to render any attacks moot. While some physical access must be possible the access points are unknown to most powers. Whether there are similar systems in place is also unknown; Even the slightest variance in boundary conditions is enough to separate one holographic bubble from another entirely. Additionally, the EienNode that connects an individual in the Eien to their Prime Extension is energy-only and this two-way flow is limited to prevent a direct attack from damaging the ExoCortex; A fuse.

For those who somehow find themselves on the inside the Eien would be particularly dull. The few transfer points open directly into high-security structures where newly received ExoCortex are processed and then distributed out to their individual arrays. Since an ExoCortex is a device about the size of a human hand there is very little space for those of a larger size to move around and the arrival point is about the same size as a coffin and just as uncomfortable. Certainly there must be more to the Eien as it must contain a large volume of matter to be used up over the trillions of years the facility is expected to exist but the suspicion is that these are very well isolated from the arrival points and are likely entirely automated as well.

For the individual ExoCortex the question of what is inside the Eien is entirely different and that very much depends on the personality of the individual. Some percentage of the occupants will effectively spend eternity on the inside; They find their purpose entirely in the virtual and as new experiences are constantly added they find themselves quite content. Others - and only notably a minority - maintain some presence in the Prime Universe and essentially live out their lives as would the average galactic resident. Some swap biological Extensions regularly, some live out one life until the Extension fails and dies, and then some of these selectively have their previous life experiences erased in order to live out a new life with each cycle while retaining both their personality and, perhaps, some faint (or deliberate) sense that they have been there before. It is also possible to manipulate the flow of time for an individual and thus for some arrays the Prime is passing remarkably quickly, with only hours remaining until the Big Crunch and the start of the next cycle.

---

Eternity Incorporated

---

The Eternity Corporation. is a shell corporation set up by the Special Projects Division of the Republic government to facilitate the movement of the citizenry into the safety and essential immortality of HoloSpace. This was done for a variety of reasons, both moral and practical. The practical reasons were simple; With a population - including the various Federal and Client states - in the hundreds of billions and growing steadily, the practicalities of providing all of those individuals with their maintenance needs, connections to a Prime Extension, and even the simple notion of collecting the individuals for transfer was daunting. Eternity Inc. would act as a control for the gradual flow of individuals into the system with many opting for a package that stipulated they were to be transferred on the death of their original biological body or another condition that would make the process far simpler. The exact details of how protection would be provided were left intentionally nebulous and still, for the vast majority of the Eien population, they have no real idea of how it all works.

---

Ryōshin

---

Ryōshin is the pseudo-police force responsible for ensuring compliance with the laws of Eien/Prime interaction. As mentioned there was a moral quandary attached to the creation and utilization of the Eien for ExoCortex storage and that was the issue of mortality being a control on behavior. From murder to rape to assault, the potential threat to the individual either in punishment or during commission of a crime has long been part of the deterrent factor. When the consciousness is effectively disconnected from the body and, importantly, the universe at large an individual may no longer see sufficient risk to the self attached to criminal activity and a disconnect between the self and what has essentially become a disposable possession.

Since this is still distinctly not true for the widest range of galactic individuals the contracts with Eternity Incorporated stipulate that users will refrain from illegal activity in the jurisdictions where they might find their Prime Extension. If they are found to be breaking local laws that the Republic finds reasonable and just, they are then appropriately punished. Typically this is accomplished by disconnecting their ExoCortex from the regular system and connecting it to an exclusive 'prison' system where the only inputs are very basic and the attached virtual environments similarly spartan and unfulfilling. Occasionally residents will also find themselves running afoul of local laws that are - by Republic standards - idiotic. In these cases the individual is on their own but will understand that only their local Extension can be punished by the locality.

It is possible for an individual residing in the Eien to die or be killed. While individuals can self-terminate most would instead choose to wipe the offending portion of their memory or have those memories stored away for a time while they follow some other pursuit. However, if an individual willingly and maliciously commits murder against an individual in the Prime who does not possess a method of recovery then they can be executed. Their ExoCortex will be disconnected, removed from the Eien, and destroyed.

---

Plexus Communications and Entertainment LLC.

---


The Plexus Network is a relatively new addition to the Eien. In fact, it is seperate from the Eien as it 'resides' in a very similar but isolated boundary manipulation but it does connect to the Eien at certain points inside the network. Plexus is billed as a galaxy-wide communications system and company that offers enormous through-put and exceptionally low latency. In addition to these, it also offers and hosts exclusive content that is offered to draw customers to its communications service. A PlexusNode is a small coin-sized unit that can either be implanted as a cybernetic component or housed in a variety of devices.

While adoption of Plexus - with its multitude of advantages over other communications systems - has been slow outside of the Republic (where it is near-universal), there is an understandable logic at play. Why offer such a wonderful system for such a small price? There's no such thing as a free lunch and thus this system must be backed by Republic Intelligence or a similar information-gathering organization... And this is true. But as specified in the contract, all Plexus traffic is encrypted and those interested in their own security likely encrypt their traffic before it is even passed to the PlexusNode. So what's the catch..?

---

Engram Transfer

---

For the vast majority of individuals who were either born in a biological body or who have grown accustomed to the particular limitations of biological thought processes, the connection between their stored ExoCortex and any biological body is just about perfect, operating at the same speed and with the same capacity as they were previously used to. For some individuals - largely military or intelligence professionals - more is needed and it is provided; Their connection is capable of transferring data at many times what a normal individual would require and this allows them to alter the subjective flow of time - extremely useful when less than split-second decisions matter. But the connection between the biological and the cybernetic is both vulnerable and can be detected or even blocked. In cases like these, individuals on the inside are able to undergo an engram copy back to the outside universe in the same manner as used by the NEENJA system. It should be carefully noted that the conscious individual created on the outside is not sentient; Rather it is a particularly complex program with no capacity for change and innovation. Often, in the case of intelligence operatives, these copies are made multiple times from the same individual with a single assignment issued and the duplicate discarded after completion.

In short, the Republic remains.

And for those who might ask that one last burning question...

Yes, people with an ExoCortex sleep. While death as we understand it has been eliminated, additional notions of maintenance have not. The very malleable nature of the incredibly complex substance known as 'computronium' requires that some kind of regular maintenance process be undertaken. Sleep is the period in which this process occurs and can be compared to a low-powered mode for a computer. Individuals can choose to go without sleep, of course, but the longer this is delayed the more processing errors will stack up until the system will force a shutdown.