An acronym for Dubious Orbits of Gem, D.O.G. Years, as a measure of time, are used on New Wyoming and several other inhabited planets of the Last Frontier. Gem, as you no doubt know, was the popular name for Vaikuntha, the Krystal-rich planet used as a base and center of mining operations by IER CO forces during the latter days of the Stagnation (see: Stagnation, the Great). During the Revolution, it was shattered by Rebel forces hoping to deprive P.A.H.M. Baiar {see: Dictator, the Dread) of the only fuel capable of powering the Krystal-driven thru-ships used by his IER CO Cherubim. The strategy succeeded and the Revolution ended. The remains of Vaikuntha became part of the Mitochondrian Krystal Belt of the Phoebus System, which was owned and mined primarily by the Medea family of New Wyoming until AE 93, when it was willed to the Krystal miners and their families by one Mary Medea, eldest daughter of Krystals ‘n Things magnate Margaret Medea. After the Revolution, New Wyoming and several nearby planets dropped the Standard Cycle as their official “year” and adopted D.O.G. Years, as a tribute to the planet whose Krystal deposits had made the families of the Last Frontier rich beyond their wildest dreams. Since Vaikuntha/Gem no longer exists, an exact measure of the length of its orbits is dubious.

Vernacular name for the bellis perennis, a common Amercadian flower of the Asteraceae family and the national and/or planetary flower of Amercadia and its Space Brigade; 2) Nickname for the vari-grav lifts and drops of the type known as up-see-daisies and down-see-daisies so popular on the 483 (as of this writing) recreation stations in and around the galaxy.

Nicolas de Guise is the high-toned moniker by which Nick “The Geezer” Pico is known at all Running In Place franchises on the posh upper levels of Recreation Station 97. (see: Pico, Nick “The Geezer”)

An anomaly in Neutral Zone 8 that seems to change its physical attributes depending on the angle and velocity at which a spacecraft approaches, sometimes becoming a slippery, wok-shaped slide, at other times manifesting as rock-like, diamond-hard “lumps” of space, beneath a deceptive, watery, mirror-like surface, or even, it has been said, becoming a portal to other destinations in the Multiverse (see: Gate, the). Though Neutral Zone 8 is officially off-limits to members of the Amercadian Space Brigade, taking a skate on the mirror is a challenge that has proved irresistible to generations of Amercadian Space Academy Cadets, even since the infamous Amercadian Space Brigade Neutral Zone Fiasco of AE 134. For hotdogs and heroes of every stripe, Dead Man’s Mirror is the pinnacle, risk-wise.

Dead Man's Mirror

A Hugo award-nominated book by Hugo Award-winning author Ronnie Lee Ellis. First released and marketed as a work of nonfiction under its original title, Slave Trader: An Unauthorized Biography of Mary Medea, the book tanked big time, ignored by the media and Miz Ellis’s fans alike. According to sources close to the Bajar family, Miz Ellis attributed the failure to the fact that, after Mary Medea’s death, the galactic citizenry lost interest in the descendants of revolutionary hera Molly Medea. A second attempt to sell the book as a nonfiction title (some cycles later and with several added chapters) under the name, Cult Leader: An Unauthorized Biography of Glorianna of Phoebus, achieved similar results. With this publication, Miz Ellis seemed to be trying to attach her work to the unsubstantiated rumor that Mary Medea and Glorianna of Phoebus were one and the same person, as G-of-P had only risen to prominence in the Phoebus System after Medea’s death.

The Doll Maker, Cover

Conspiracy theorist loners aside, the public did not appear ready to jump on this particular bandwagon and rejected the book, en masse. Not to be deterred, Miz Ellis went back to the drawing board and began to turn her book into a work of fiction (though some say this wasn’t a great leap). She changed the names of the characters, added some plot and description, then published The Doll Maker to wide acclaim. The following is a brief synopsis of the plot of The Doll Maker from The Galactic Encyclopedia of Literature and Literature-Equivalents: “Wealthy krystal heiress and pan-galactic busybody Ariadne Josephs forms a company called Baby-Oh-Baby Dolls for the purpose of producing pleasure droids, which are then sent to destroy the children of her rival, ruthless business tycoon Vercingetorix Moses Hannibal Rajab McPhee. Through an overlong series of events, McPhee’s children, the brilliant Lucrezia and her mentally challenged brother Phaleef, turn the tables on Josephs, annihilating the sex droids and taking down the religious cult Ariadne has maintained to mask her various nefarious plots.”

A club/casino owned by Randal Factor, hero of the Droid Wars, one of the architects of the Tri-Clone Invasion, and founding partner of Living Doll Cybernetics®. Located primarily on the water-rich Boardwalk level of Rec Station 97, The Dome boasts numerous gaming floors, restaurants, bars, entertainment stages, and a Freebetter’s Room where patrons may place wagers on the events of the moment. The Dome and its home level saw a lot of destructive activity during the AE 140s. In the first year of the decade, a platinum-bearing asteroid crashed through the upper levels of the station, passing through Boardwalk close to the Dome, and emptying water into the level below. The club was also the final destination of the RIP-addled Brigade Bosun in the Rec Station Rampage of AE 140, as reported by Rootersnoos Ferret, Jimmy the Snout for Rec Station Noos. Most famously, The Dome was the venue for the Trial of Brucilla the Muscle in AE 142.

A specialty of Harry Palmer, Bartender-Owner of the SAILOR’S GRAVE, Recreation Station 97. The Double Death Commando consists of two scoops of vanilla ice cream, High Colonian Vodka, menthol de menthe, extracts from certain poisonous tubers, a two-ribec zap of semi-inert positrons, and a one-quarter dose of pharmaceutical Kublacaine. The explosive reaction of the Kublacaine neutralizes the deadly effects of the organic poisons. Must be imbibed within 30 ribecs.

Double Death Commando

1) An expression that means just what it says; 2) a Griivarr Worlds Holoshow about two clones who fall in love; 3) the theme song from the aforementioned Griivarr Worlds Holoshow, arguably the most irritating theme song ever written. (Lyrics follow.)

Double Trouble, Double Dynamite,
More trouble when they’re friendly,
Than when they fight.
Birds of a feather, they stick together.
Trust me when I tell you,
They’re more than tight.

One’s retiring, the other bold.
One’s inspiring, the other cold.
How it happened, we just can’t say.
Two crazy clones like night and day!

Double Trouble, Double the fun.
Two look-a-like lovers are better than one.
Take Trouble and Double the critical mass,
Get ten to the tenth the kick in the ass.

Developed in AE 139 by Bombs-R-Us®, the Double-A or Acme-Ashmun Shield Intrusion Mine could effectively penetrate an Acme-Ashmun Force Shield and deliver its deadly payload to the outer hull of the target ship. This is how it worked: Each Double-A Mine projected its own Acme-Ashmun Shield and when the mine shield made contact with the shield of the target, the two shields merged like the whites of two eggs broken into the same frying pan, allowing the mine to pass easily through the ship’s defenses. Bombs-R-Us discontinued the model in AE 143 due to low sales figures. What happened? In order not to undercut sales of its most lucrative product, the Acme-Ashmun Shield, Bombs-R-Us priced its mines so that they were within the reach of only the most “discriminating” buyer. In other words, the shields were so extravagantly expensive they were out of reach for 99.9% of the spacing public.

A generic term for any number of personal and multi-player adventure games, designed for the Land-o-Nod ® gaming system,  which allows players to enter, armed and conscious, into their own dreams, in order to do battle with their personal demons. For some, a pleasurable way to waste a few martrons, for others, a crippling addiction, but for the spiritually advanced, an exciting and inexpensive substitute for traditional psychotherapies, DEGs are (next to games of chance) the most popular games going.

Each new droid of the now quite rare Erotica Ann line came packaged in its (or her) own Dream House (though calling the small unit a house was, perhaps, being overly generous). Each very pink, heart-emblazoned package contained a full-sized closet/changing room and a foldout bed, flanked by five-sided mirrors. Though, at the time of this writing, the Erotica Ann Droid is a rare commodity indeed, the Dream Houses are seen everywhere, most having been obtained and converted into recreational vehicles by a division of United Free Trade Planets called Sex On Wheels, Ltd.

An intermittent blockage of power from the Krystal Drive of a ship that causes a pulsating shake or “flutter” of the ship’s fuselage. Those who have “been there” describe the sensation as the ship in question “having heart palpitations.” The possible causes of drive flutters are numerous, including, 1) poorly aligned K-Krystals; 2) new Krystals alternated with depleted Krystals within the same drive, in a misguided attempt to save credit; 3) cut-rate Krystals purchased from a disreputable dealer; 4) the use of any covered, altered, or remastered version of Us Against the Void—most claiming to “soup up” the performance of your drive—rather than the original version by the Amercadian Space Brigade Drum and Bugle Corps (Cycle 149 ET), sold by New Eden Multi-Tech Labs as a continuous-loop recording, to be used as a fuel-catalyst in its standard drive. (See: Krystals, Borinyum) Drive flutters have been responsible for many terrible crashes, and many more incidents of soiling one’s flight suit!

Popular nickname for the incredibly mean, incredibly stupid Lyconian Dromo Rustlers. (See: Dromo Rustlers, Lyconian)

Lyconian Dromo Rustlers

An incredibly mean, incredibly stupid life form, native to the planet Lycon, Lyconian Dromo Rustlers give new meaning to the word “disgusting.” Disgusting is their habit of beating, booting, eating or looting anything in sight. Disgusting is the fact that they can mate with anything. Disgusting is the fact that anything they mate with immediately becomes gravid with their young, who issue forth in great litters, often numbering 18 or more, to then devour the host-mother in a sickening display of near-adult behavior. The name Lyconian Dromo Rustlers was settled on these barely sentient beings due to their habit of impregnating and devouring Lyconian Dromo cows. (See: Lycon)

(or, Dromo Rustlers 2.0) Shortly after Cycle 136 AE, the Galactic Mud Wrestling Management Association began a selective breeding program for its Lyconian Dromo Rustler Wrestlers, in an attempt to breed a Rustler whose “love life” was somewhat less extreme, and certainly less disgusting and deadly for the “beloved” du jour. This decision was in response to the banning of Rustler Wrestlers from the 483 (at this printing) Rec Stations in the civilized galaxy. It didn’t take the GMWMA long to realize that there weren’t enough individuals in their Rustler-Wrestler population who were “tame” enough to produce less aggressive offspring, even when the other “parent” was completely inert. Back to the drawing board! (see: Drawing Board, the) For their next attempt at creating a pliable Wrestler, circa 139 AE, the Association went the route of cybertronic modification. Using cybertronic implants, similar, but not identical to the Axon Block Need Inhibitors that kept some android lines from taking action detrimental to humans, GMWMA scientists attempted to block participating Dromo Rustlers from acting on their worst instincts. (And when we say worst, we mean worst!) For a time, this solution seemed to be successful, at least as far as the GMWMA was concerned. For the Rustlers themselves, it was a mixed bag. On the one-hand, it made Rustler life easier and run-ins with local law enforcement less frequent. On the other hand, having evolved over countless generations to have nonexistent impulse control, the program’s Rustlers could be heard to exclaim, “Dang! Dang! Dang! Whu thu… DANG!” each time the ABNI-like system kicked-in to block a destructive impulse. In other words, it hurt, both physically and psychologically. And unfortunately, at least for the GMWMA, the Rustler’s combined immune and endocrine systems quickly—and we do mean quickly—evolved to counter-block the ABNI-like system, given sufficient provocation. This resulted in Berserker-like rages that made the Rustlers previous propensity for violence look mild. Back to square one! (see: Square One) Sometime around Cycle 143 AE, the Association decided to try a proprietary recipe that included both biological and cybertronic modifications. Eureka! The result was a Rustler Wrestler that was calmer and less trigger-happy than the original, and dare we say, smarter? At least it would seem so, though we’re speaking relatively, as exceeding the IQ of an Omegan Dromo Rustler is a very low bar to clear. Thanks to stage three of their Wrestler intervention, the Galactic Mud Wrestling Management Association was back in business, providing the galaxy’s many Rec Stations with insanely popular mud-wrestling bouts.
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Note: For those who’d be inclined to class the Dromo Wrestler as a cyborg, allow me to remind you that, rather than enhancing any of the Wrestler’s native abilities, or delivering new ones, the cybertronic implants serve merely to inhibit bad behavior. (Very bad behavior.)
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Note Again: To those who worry that the original Rustler Wrestlers were taken advantage of by the Galactic Mud Wrestling Management Association, let us assure you that, according to the Mermydion Victim’s Attorneys’ Guild, all applicable participation agreements were signed by all parties. Though considering the intelligence of the average Dromo Rustler? Grain. Salt.