Questions About Shiva Option Map?

I've been trying to make sense of the map in The Shiva Option and I have some questions.

1. What does the abbreviation "BH" stand for? Intermixed among the Bug systems are some with that prefix and I can't find an explanation for it.

2. What does the little infinity sign signify? A number of systems are marked with it and it's not in the key.

3. What does the X mean? A number of systems are marked with this. The key says it indicates "Pre-Ind population" but I don't know what that refers to. The systems marked as such don't seem to correspond to Bug colonies, Federation colonies, or anything else consistent.

4. This is more speculative, but there are several warp chains clearly stretching out from Bug space that don't seem to ever get mentioned in the book. Is there a larger version of this map somewhere that this is taken from?

Thank you very much!!

NathanG wrote:I've been trying to make sense of the map in The Shiva Option and I have some questions.

1. What does the abbreviation "BH" stand for? Intermixed among the Bug systems are some with that prefix and I can't find an explanation for it.

2. What does the little infinity sign signify? A number of systems are marked with it and it's not in the key.

3. What does the X mean? A number of systems are marked with this. The key says it indicates "Pre-Ind population" but I don't know what that refers to. The systems marked as such don't seem to correspond to Bug colonies, Federation colonies, or anything else consistent.

4. This is more speculative, but there are several warp chains clearly stretching out from Bug space that don't seem to ever get mentioned in the book. Is there a larger version of this map somewhere that this is taken from?

Thank you very much!!

The infinity sign corresponds with starless warp nexi, I believe.

"Pre-Ind population" could indicate pre-industrial civilisations. Basically, the sort of planet Star Trek's prime directive applies to.

I don't know if a more complete version exists. There are a couple of updated ones in the later Starfire books(Exodus, Extremis, Imperative, Oblivion).

I don't recall what BH is either, although it was explained someplace, however, more complete maps can be found here: http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/series/Starfire/

munroburton wrote:

NathanG wrote:I've been trying to make sense of the map in The Shiva Option and I have some questions.

1. What does the abbreviation "BH" stand for? Intermixed among the Bug systems are some with that prefix and I can't find an explanation for it.

2. What does the little infinity sign signify? A number of systems are marked with it and it's not in the key.

3. What does the X mean? A number of systems are marked with this. The key says it indicates "Pre-Ind population" but I don't know what that refers to. The systems marked as such don't seem to correspond to Bug colonies, Federation colonies, or anything else consistent.

4. This is more speculative, but there are several warp chains clearly stretching out from Bug space that don't seem to ever get mentioned in the book. Is there a larger version of this map somewhere that this is taken from?

Thank you very much!!

The infinity sign corresponds with starless warp nexi, I believe.

"Pre-Ind population" could indicate pre-industrial civilisations. Basically, the sort of planet Star Trek's prime directive applies to.

I don't know if a more complete version exists. There are a couple of updated ones in the later Starfire books(Exodus, Extremis, Imperative, Oblivion).

I think BH means Black Hole.

The map in TSO has an interesting story behind it.

In this usenet-post from 14 years ago that's cached at narkive.com Fred Burton tells the story how the map came to be and some background information about the Universe TSO resides in.

Veery eenteresting. Thanks

Joat42 wrote:The map in TSO has an interesting story behind it.

In this usenet-post from 14 years ago that's cached at narkive.com Fred Burton tells the story how the map came to be and some background information about the Universe TSO resides in.