Hedron

Overview

Hedron is the in-use name for the enormous icosahedral spacecraft widely associated with the Cousins. Observers describe a regular habit of keeping a circular "pusher plate" centered on one triangular face oriented toward visiting vehicles.

Description and Use

• Global form: A twenty-faced, strut-and-panel icosahedron with a smooth circular feature centered in one face that functions as a pusher plate.
• Propulsion behavior: Crew commentary identifies the system as nuclear-pulse propulsion, with the pusher plate absorbing impulses from small nuclear charges; a shuttered port at the plate's center opens to expel objects.
• Interaction systems: During a close approach recorded on a leaked speely, the craft jammed voice/data channels and employed a skeletal robot probe to grapple the capsule and transfer a suited visitor.
• Sensors/illumination: Later, the capsule crew reported high-power microwave pulses "illuminating" them, described as a narrow-beam radar-like signal.
• Orbit and attitude: Current accounts place the craft in an equatorial-belt ground track; it routinely presents the pusher face toward nearby observers.

Composition and material analysis

• Laser wavelength anomaly: Participants at the Convox (worldwide mathic convocation) report that a red laser attributed to the visitors had a wavelength not matching any natural spectral lines; this was established from a carefully preserved exposure and subsequent analysis.
• Recovered matter: Laboratory work on fragments retrieved at Orithena—including a panel handle, bolts, shroud lines, parachute fabric, blood vials, and a deceased Geometer (off-world visitor)—indicates all sampled nuclei are engineered "newmatter" (nuclear‑altered material).
• Inference to the whole: Speakers infer that the same is probably true of everything in the icosahedron (the Hedron), which would explain the non‑natural laser color and suggests limited biochemical compatibility between their materials and ours. These results are presented as current findings and remain subject to further verification.

Provenance/Ownership

• Operators: The ship is presumed to belong to the Cousins, a label avout use for the visitors. Some at the Convox have been calling the visitors "Geometers," though this naming is presented in dialogue and remains informal.
• Environment: Suit telemetry from the visitor ceased after jamming ended; onlookers including Sammann suggest this may indicate the suit was shut down, implying a breathable atmosphere inside. Others caution the visitor could have died before or during transfer; the text preserves that ambiguity.

Notable Mentions

• A crewed capsule's leaked speely records: (1) the Hedron maintaining its pusher plate toward the capsule, (2) a remote manipulator retrieving the visitor described as the Warden of Heaven, (3) prolonged jamming of capsule communications and data, (4) later high-power microwave illumination, and (5) the opening of a small central port on the base plate followed by ejection of the visitor back into space. The capsule recovered the body; subsequent details are reported second-hand in dialogue.
• In conversation, an observer notes that large plane-change maneuvers require many nuclear pulses and suggests the ship's supply of such "fuel" may be limited; this is offered as a speaker's inference, not an established fact.
• To test and possibly induce a change of attitude exposing the forward half to ground-based telescopes, a silent reconnaissance satellite in synchronous orbit was maneuvered onto an intercept course with the Hedron. Observers reported a brief flash at the expected moment; participants described it as the ship firing a directed-energy weapon—specifically an X-ray laser—at the approaching satellite. The maneuver was expected to make the Hedron rotate to bring its pusher plate between itself and the bogey; any attitude change would be assessed by the waiting telescopes.