Daban Urnud

Daban Urnud is a starship built by engineers on Urnud; its name translates as “Second Urnud.” According to the Laterran linguist Jules Verne Durand, it was the last and largest of a series of atomic‑bomb‑propelled craft, first intended to send a colony to a neighboring star system only a quarter of a light‑year away.

Durand relates that a mutiny and change of command redirected the ship onto a geometrodynamic trajectory meant to reach Urnud’s own past. Instead, it arrived in a different cosmos, orbiting an Urnud‑like world later known as Tro, beginning a prolonged “Advent.” In time the vessel was rebuilt to support peoples of both worlds and launched again, reaching Laterre (known on Arbre as Antarct).

From this testimony, a pattern emerges in which the ship is rebuilt at each stop before moving on, with upheaval accompanying these Advents. Durand warns that the Urnud/Tro bloc—self‑styled the Pedestal—seeks to assess Arbre’s capabilities and may act pre‑emptively if it believes extraordinary powers are real. He also notes practical constraints, such as incompatible food biology between worlds, that drove the ship’s mixed provisioning and refits.

Statements about its deep history and the intentions of those associated with it are presented here as Durand’s account rather than established fact.

Configuration and life aboard

Laterran accounts describe the living heart of the Daban Urnud as an “Orbstack” of sixteen hollow spheres clustered about a central axis that rotates to produce pseudogravity. Each sphere is partly filled with water and supports houseboats topped with gardens; most inhabitants live their whole lives within this interior environment. Officially, four spheres are assigned to each of the four peoples (Urnud, Tro, Laterre, and Fthos), though mixing among communities occurs. Education is emphasized, with children trained for roles within the ship’s Command.

Chronology and Arbran correlation

Analysis by an Ita, using captured Urnudan documents and conversion from Urnudan to Arbran units, estimates that the ship’s first inter‑cosmic departure occurred roughly nine centuries ago in Arbran reckoning, with an uncertainty of a few decades. Some avout have noted that this aligns with the era surrounding the Third Sack; this remains conjectural.

Orbit and surveillance windows

Recent in‑orbit observations describe the Daban Urnud on an elliptical path ranging roughly from fourteen to twenty‑five thousand miles above Arbre, completing a revolution in about fifteen hours. Because of this geometry, teams in low orbit experience alternating periods of concealment and exposure as line‑of‑sight to the ship opens and closes. Observers also report that lookouts associated (in their parlance) with the Geometers couple powerful telescopes with syndevs to sift large image sets for non‑balloon objects and for orbits that deviate from decoys.

Current activity on Arbre

A covert approach has been launched by Sæcular authorities working with avout, using personal suits paired with lightweight upper stages. To confuse surveillance, scores of balloons and broad swaths of chaff were lofted alongside humans and cargo, with rendezvous conducted behind a screening balloon during line‑of‑sight gaps. The cell assembled a reflective “Cold Black Mirror” to mask both optical and radar signatures and brought a small service tender online, whose reactor splits water into oxygen and hydrogen to sustain operations. To climb silently toward the Daban Urnud’s altitude without rocket flares, the team deployed an electrodynamic tether and began a days‑long spiral under continuous low thrust.

During this phase, kinetic “rods” were observed striking major equatorial launch facilities on Arbre; attribution in‑world points to the Pedestal’s orbital presence. Details of outcomes remain withheld here; the account above reflects only actions and observations disclosed so far.