AURORA
UNIVERSE CALENDAR
By Velvet
Belle Tree
&
Brantley Thompson Elkins
The Scalantrans are an extra-galactic
species. They have become completely disassociated from the planet of their
origin.
The Scalantrans are described in Companions thusly:
The aliens
were at least 2 feet taller than normal men. Their very slender bodies were covered by fine, brick red
fur. And their hands! The crowd was astonished to see six
fingers on each hand with two opposable thumbs. Their eyes were very large and round and of a startling
yellow color.
The Scalantran Calendar begins when they,
and many others of their species, left their planet of origin; an event known
as The Swarming. Since they are no
longer attached to any particular planet, they no longer use the concept of the
solar year.
The basic unit of their Calendar is
something that can be translated into English as a Generation. This is actually the time it takes for
a Scalantran to become sexually mature.
At that point, the youths are initiated sexually and leave the parental
mate-group for youth groups which are on a planet. There are two cohorts of children on a ship, spaced half a
Generation apart.
A Generation is close to 13 Earth
years. Using the date from Shore
Leave, the Scalantrans left their home planet approximately 14,000 years ago.
One group of Scalantrans entered the Milky Way approximately 6,000 years ago.
They then spent time exploring, establishing planets needed for the education
of their youths, establishing Meetpoints, and trading with various species that
they found during their explorations. One offshoot of them gradually worked its
way towards our region of the Galaxy, arriving here a few thousand years ago.
As can be seen from the description of
the Scalantrans, it is natural that their numeric system is in base 12. A
Generation is divided into 12 sub-generations. Conveniently, this is within approximately 11% of an Earth
year. The Scalantrans then divide each sub-generation into a unit we would
translate as Shift. There are 1728
(12 cubed) of these in a sub-generation.
Since the Scalantrans are the traders who
travel between planets inhabited by people of Terran origins and are the
primary connection between these peoples, their calendar has been adapted by
Terrans as their universal calendar.
The Terrans use Greek names for the
calendar and time divisions. The term Generation has no meaning to the Terrans
so they use Megakrons. One twelfth of a megakron is a mikrokron. There are 400
meras – a Terran interpolation -- in a mikrokron. Each mera is divided
into 24 oras and each ora into 60 ekatos – like meras, these last
divisions were never used by the Scalantrans, but because the mera is so close
to the Terran day in length, Terrans simply incorporated them, based on
ancestral experience dating back to ancient Egypt.
A mikrokron is equal to 1.11 Terran
years, and 405.15 Terran days.
A megakron is equal to 13.32 Terran years
A mera is equal to about 1.013 Terran
days
Working Example
In ShadarÕs Shore Leave, where the calendar was first used, the megakron is
1052, which in Terran years would be 14,012.64. The Earth Year is 2007, meaning
that in Terran terms the Scalantran calendar dates back to about 12,006 B.C.
Here is an analysis of the first stardate
cited in Shore Leave:
(Date: 1052-11-01, 06:30 Ship's Time)
1052 = Megakron
11 = Mikrokron
01 = Mera
6:30 = Oras
Since this date is at the
very beginning of the 11th Mikrokron of the 1052nd
megakron, the tenth mikrokron has just ended. Megakron 1052, therefore, must
have begun 11.1 Terran years earlier, or 1996. To make conversions as simple as
possible, let us assume that Jan. 1, 1996 is the equivalent of 1052-1-1. Ten
mikrokrons amount to 4054.5 Terran days, counting three leap years (1996, 2000,
2004). So the Terran date would be about 39 or 40 days into 2007, about Feb. 8
or 9.
Fortunately, it's unlikely that
weÕll ever have to get more exact than that!
The tricky part will that
there isnÕt any equivalent of a month; therefore, dates can run as high as, for
example, 1052-11-400, 23:59.