Daban Urnud

Not to be confused with Urnud, one of the origin worlds associated with the visitors.

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 linked by nets and bladders; when the ship spins or accelerates, the water settles accordingly and the boats are rigged to handle jostling. Trunk lines of optical fibers route captured sunlight from the exterior inward to illuminate rooftop farms. Pressurized corridors allow movement between spheres so that Urnudans, Troäns, Laterrans, and Fthosians can travel among communities. Zero‑gravity sections are dotted with lockers holding respirators, fireproof suits, and extinguishers, reflecting the crew’s particular caution about fire in weightless spaces.

• Atmosphere and physiology (observed): After an observatory dome was sealed and filled with the visitors’ air, Arbrans who doffed their suits reported pounding heartbeats and rapid breathing before stabilizing. Companions recalled that the Warden of Heaven had been the only other Arbran known to breathe it previously and “apparently hadn’t lasted more than a few minutes.” These are contemporaneous observations and inferences, not a medical analysis.

External architecture and shielding

Around the Orbstack, the ship is enclosed in a rubble shield arranged as a faceted icosahedron. The shield is hung on a network of giant shock pistons; the Orbstack is webbed into the middle. Systems that interact with the wider cosmos—radar, telescopes, weapons, and small craft—are mounted on the thirty shocks or at the twelve vertices where shocks join. Three vertices near the pusher plate are exposed mechanisms; the other nine are complex vehicles or pressurized nodes. Some contain passage tunnels connecting the icosahedron’s exterior to interior spaces; one serves as an optical observatory.

Additional in‑situ details from the covert approach: - As the craft slews, the terminator creeps across the rubble facets; sunrise and sunset on any given facet are explosively sudden. - The vertex complexes loom like citadels, bristling with parabolic horns that take their turn to face the sun. - Facet rubble does not butt directly against the shock pistons; instead it is “sewn” to piston trusses via zig‑zagging cables over pulleys, allowing the shocks to work. The arrangement, likened by observers to sailboat rigging, is stated to be a mature Urnudan practice. - At each vertex, the shock pistons flare into heavy “knuckles,” and five such knuckles meet to form the base of the vertex complex. - Looking inward through gaps between facet and truss reveals a softly lit interior volume on the order of a few dozen cubic miles, with the sixteen Orbs and the inner walls visible as light scatters within.

Core, Tendons, Nexi, and valves (observed)

• Tendons: Broad structural/transport shafts link vertex nodes to the ship’s central Core. An inner corridor a few strides across runs down each Tendon, punctuated by hatches, valves, panels, and displays; the Tendon as a whole is much larger and packed with structure out of sight.
• Forward bearing chamber: Where Tendons meet the non‑rotating end of the Orbstack, a domed chamber houses an immense bearing that joins the stationary icosahedral framework to the spinning Core and Orbstack. During an emergency it filled with soldiers, firefighters, and repair crews moving toward the World Burner Tendon.
• Ball valves: Major connections are isolated by huge spherical valves with a hole bored through them; when the hole lines up, traffic passes, and when it rotates away, the path is sealed. A ball valve the size of a small house separates the forward bearing chamber from the Core; similar valves sit at the bottoms of the Orb access shafts.
• Nexi: Four large access shafts open from the Core to the heads of the Orb stacks (Orbs 1, 5, 9, and 13). Around this Nexus lies the Command Torus, a ring of offices and corridors; it is described as physically partitioned amid the Pedestal–Fulcrum split.
• Orb assignment (reported/seen): Orbs One through Four are for Urnud; Five through Eight for Tro; Nine through Twelve for Laterre (Antarct); the remainder for Fthos. Lower numbers in each stack house higher‑ranking members. In passing, Orb 5 was marked for high‑ranking Troäns.
• Rapid transit: Along the Core runs a moving conveyor‑ladder used by ship personnel, allowing quick travel “up” one side and “down” the other; its elastic rungs soften the initial jolt when grabbing on in light spin.

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. The ship has short‑range radars suited for nearby objects, but these are not kept active continuously unless visitors are expected; lookouts associated with the Geometers rely on telescopes and syndevs to sift imagery for anomalous objects and non‑balloon orbits.

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 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.

As the final approach neared, a sextant was used to refine orbital elements, and the tether was cut at a precise alignment to synchronize the orbit with the ship. After pushing the Mirror away to clear the view, the team advanced in matte‑black suits and used grapnels to snag the wire mesh that binds the rubble shield. With the help of small thrusters, they absorbed the last of their relative velocity and established a firm hold on the Daban Urnud’s exterior. Several monyafeeks previously used during ascent were cut loose to drift as decoys.

Upon reaching a vertex that serves as an optical observatory, operators noted that its split dome functions as a giant airlock. Locally, telescopes are said to be controlled over the Reticulum; personnel can close the dome halves and pressurize the volume before passing into the pressurized interior via a hatch. An on‑duty Fthosian cosmographer responded when the big scope went dark during sealing.

Simultaneously, crews on an illuminated vertex‑mounted installation referred to as the World Burner were observed in large numbers. A Ringing Vale contingent pushed off in stealth to attempt covert boarding. Moments later, silent flares and a shudder transmitted through the frame suggested a violent event at that site; a companion inferred that propellant tanks had been blown.

Inside, responders filled the forward bearing chamber in a rush toward the World Burner Tendon. Amid the confusion, two disguised travelers transited the ball valve into the Core and moved under light spin “gravity” toward the forward Nexus. Later, within Orb One’s approaches, the activation of so‑called Everything Killers was reported, precipitating a lethal emergency.

Status and occupants (reported)

Within the shipboard society, communities from Urnud, Tro, Laterre, and Fthos are said to live within the Orbstack, with education geared toward roles in the Command. Political alignments reported by the Laterran source place Urnud and Tro together as the Pedestal, with Fthos opposed and Laterre divided. These particulars are retained here as attributions to that source until independently corroborated.

Observed details add that the Orbs are arranged in four stacks of four with lower‑numbered Orbs in each stack housing higher‑ranking members; Orb 5 is marked for high‑ranking Troäns. The Command Torus surrounding the forward Nexus shows physical partitions consistent with a Pedestal–Fulcrum divide.

Leadership and factions (Gan Odru’s account)

A ceremonial meeting in Orb One introduced a robed elder who spoke Orth and identified himself as Gan Odru, the forty‑third to bear the title “Gan.” In his words, Gan corresponds most closely to “Admiral” in Orth: a strategic office responsible for the overall direction of the Daban Urnud and answerable—when such existed—to civilian authority. Tactical command of specific vessels fell to officers titled Prag (roughly, “captain”). Because the “fleet” is now one ship, the traditional Gan–Prag relationship has evolved; Odru likened the Gan’s role to that of avout, and the Prag’s to the Sæcular Power.

• Tendencies and names: Odru explained that power cyclically shifts between these roles during long passages. Early in a journey the Gan tends to dominate; over generations, as memories of the quest fade, Prags gain power. The visitors long ago named these opposing tendencies the Pedestal and the Fulcrum. In Odru’s usage, “Fulcrum” aligns with the Gan’s strategic outlook, while “Pedestal” aligns with the Prag’s tactical control.
• Third Gan and the summons: According to Odru, the third Gan—illustrious and long‑serving—recovered authority ceded to the Prags and, having become aware of a “summons,” altered the Daban Urnud’s course to “fly into the past.” The summons was conceived as ancestral voices calling the ship home to make right what had gone wrong. In Odru’s framing, this can be understood without assuming ancestry, as a flow of information between cosmi (the Hylaean Flow). The resulting pattern of “Advents” at Tro, Earth, and Fthos matches accounts previously attributed to Laterran sources.
• Warden of Heaven incident (Odru’s account): When the Warden of Heaven was brought aboard, he insisted on removing his suit in a ceremonial room. He became short of breath; physicians tried to reassemble the suit around him and then to use a cold hyperbaric chamber, but he died, Odru saying a major blood vessel had burst. Researchers had already taken blood and tissue samples. Prag Eshwar, seeking to tarnish Odru by association with a foolish pretender, chose to return the body in a manner calculated to show contempt.
• “Blood for blood” plan and Ecba: Those aligned with the Fulcrum conceived an exchange—sending samples of their own blood down to Arbre. Signals traced by Fraa Orolo and interpreted by Jules Verne Durand as an analemma pointed to Ecba; Durand proposed that delivering the samples there would bear symbolic weight. Ordered elsewhere, he did not go; Lise attempted the mission and, per Odru, was shot while boarding the probe.
• Escalation and losses: Odru reported that thirty‑one aboard had been slain by fraas and suurs of the Ringing Vale during the crisis around the World Burner and that eighty‑seven more had been herded into a room and the doors welded—interpreted by Eshwar as hostages, though avout described it as securing noncombatants. Odru further held that the large bomb, while menacing, was intended as a threat “to hang above your planet,” not to be used; its destruction shook Eshwar for deeper reasons.
• Current balance: Odru portrayed himself as almost powerless in a place of ceremony while the Prag exerted control elsewhere, consistent with the Pedestal–Fulcrum divide observed in the Command Torus.

These points are recorded here as Odru’s account to Arbrans during the present dealings with the Daban Urnud. Where motives or internal states are implied, they are attributed to his telling or to avout responses in the moment.