Thoughts on Chronology
Shorty after humanity developed the hyperspace drive and began its surge towards the stars, the traditional means of time-keeping was abandoned as being impractical. A twenty-five hour day was instituted, along with a 360-day year of 12 months of 30 days each. These were synchronised and instituted all across Terran space.
While the Empire still thrived, the years are counted since its founding. There Imperial Year 0 marked the first consecration of the Imperial Dynasty Throne. Earlier dates were referred to as Pre-Imperial. The year in which The Next Millenium is set would have been Imp 518.
One the Empire fell, the former provinces felt they needed to break all ties with the Imperial way, so they began the numbering of years all over again.
Imp 511 became 0 AL, (Annus Libertatis: Year of Liberty). It was then that the next millennium – a fresh start, a time of incredible potential for both hope and destruction – began.
The current year is 7 AL. Proper notation for a date begins with the year and then the date, separated by a colon. For example, 7:125 AL stands for the 125th day in the 7th Year of Liberty (Silent Death: The Next Millennium 1998:6-7)
Silent Death: The Next Millennium is set roughly 10 000 Terran years in the future, if one uses the canon quoted here. A very useful time chart detailing key historic events can be found at the ICE Webring
One may postulate that retaining a Terran based time structure over such a long period stops making sense the further one travels from Terra, both in distance and time. Any given planet will naturally have its own day, seasonal and annual cycles which inhabitants would invariably settle into.
Consider also that earth time is based on a Babylonian sexagesimal – base 60 – system, which provides for 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. Note the Babylonians divided their day into 60 parts as well, or 12 double hours called kapsu. Theoretically a planet with a much longer day and/or year would not work well using a base 60 time period and would need to determine its own local time scale.
In space and for longer time measurement however one would need to determine a more useful standard that however still works with human natural work and rest cycles, based on the metric system which uses the Second as a base. Thus:
Value | Unit Name | Description |
0.000000001 | Nanosecond | 1 000 000 000th of a second |
0,000001 | Microsecond | 1 000 000th of a second |
0,001 | Millisecond | 1 000th of a second |
0,01 | Centisecond | 100th of a second |
0,1 | Decisecond | 10th of a second |
1 | Second | Metric time base unit |
10 | Decasecond | 0,17 minutes |
100 | Hectosecond | 1,67 minutes |
1 000 | Kilosecond | 16,7 minutes |
10 000 | Myriasecond | 166,67 minutes |
1 000 000 | Megasecond | 11,6 days (16 666,67 minutes) |
1 000 000 000 | Gigasecond | 31,7 years (16 666 666,67 minutes) |
While this table simply explains a base standard for metric time it does not address what a day, week, month or year may be termed as in 10 000 years in the future.
The following is submitted as a possible methodology using terminology that should be reasonably familiar to grasp. The Colloquial Equivalent is a more or less value, to describe how such a term may be used in day-to-day speech.
Term | Metric Time Unit | Colloquial Equivalent |
Sec | Second | |
Kilsec | Kilosecond | ~ ¼ hour |
Das | Myriasecond | ~ 3 hours |
Cycle | 100 Kilosecond | ~ 1 day 3hours. A space day. |
Haz cycle | Megasecond | ~ 11 & ½ days. A space week. |
Lakh cycle | Gigasecond | ~ 385 days. A space year. |
Certain terms have an Indian / Hindi origin but have been misrepresented over time. Thus:
- Haz is shortening of the word hazār which is 1 000. A Haz Cycle is thus 1000 Kiloseconds i.e. a Megasecond.
- A Lakh (lākh) is 100 000. A Lakh Cycle is thus 100 000 Kiloseconds. i.e. a Gigasecond.
- A Das is 10. A Das is thus 10 Kiloseconds. i.e. a Myriasecond.
No months are given, rather people will speak in week numbers or in fractions of a Lakh Cycle.
The final concept is thus that while each planet may determine its local time, either as a derivation of the proposed interplanetary time measure, Imperial based units or something specific to their own locale, the Interplanetary timescale defined here be adopted in terms of all Terran territories having a standard scale of measure.