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.

Attitude control and internal dynamics

• Reorientation without thrusters: During a monitored pass, the ship pivoted rapidly with no visible jets or pulse detonations. Modelers at the Convox infer internal momentum-wheel systems—counter-rotating pairs along each of three axes—capable of exchanging angular momentum with the hull to slew the vehicle.
• Spun vs. despun sections: Analyses presume a large spun, likely inhabited, interior coupled to the despun outer framework via bearings to manage gyroscopic forces.
• Fluid mass: The same maneuver exhibited small, decaying oscillations; the working model attributes these to sloshing in a substantial body of standing water within the spun section.
• External framework: A triangulated network of struts projects from the despun portion. Some participants report that a module previously attached to this framework is now absent; its function is unknown.

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.
• Cosmi of origin: Spectroscopy-led teams within the Convox assign many exterior subassemblies to different cosmi. The oldest identified work is attributed to Pangee; only a few items are tied to Diasp; the majority to Antarct and Quator, with indications that the Quator fabrications are the most recent. These assignments are working interpretations.

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.