GLOSSARY OF TERMS
In order of appearance, aka, it will be edited as I go,
a terms guide to a better understanding of Time Swim:
Time-Jockey (TJs): an individual bred to "swim" through time to maintain the balance in their quadrant of infinity. A Time-Jockey is bread to most closely resemble the most technologically advanced species in their quadrant, not all of whom are human, and not all humans evolved to our idea of humans in certain quadrants of infinity. TJs can manifest their physical bodies in any space and time within their quadrant with the majority of their infinite consciousness present to experience it with their body, but only do so when an unbalance has been detected. Mostly, TJs wake (defined below) through their assigned time-streams and observe.
The Collective (TC): "TC" is used in the same manner we use "HQ" and it means "home/head quarters" as much as the actual "elder" council of a conscious collective of sentient species that run the TJs and their specialized counterparts (described later). The Collective are not well described in this book, but they are the authority as much as a the U.S. President is the Commander and Chief of the entire U.S. Military. I'd love to offer a number of how many conscious minds make up The Collective, but the truth is... infinity.
Time-Stream/s: (may seem self-explanatory, but allow me to explain my understanding after this Time Swim dream, how it works in this book) Imagine time like a drop of water. Seems really small because it's all of time from the outside, it's all one drop. Past, Present, Future, coulda, woulda, shoulda, did, and didn't on a scale that cannot be properly comprehended by the early twenty-first century human minds. So, just think of it as a drop of water, and imagine if you looked at it more closely, you would see the surface of the drop kind of looks like an ocean, a planet that is nothing but water. Closer still, and you notice beneath the surface, is another layer, a slightly different ocean, the layers seem so thin you see even more below, all in the same area of gazing, but in fact, they are all within the same space of time (our water-drop). So, how do you wade through the oceans to get to the streams? Individual, but shared conscious experience; not to exclude subconscious in the conscious, by the way. It is through an individual's observation of moving through space, that time becomes relative and tangible. In a similar manner, every choice an individual makes is a movement through that space, which creates a stream of time relative to the experience. So, now we can see that each layer of these oceans are actually specific spaces with time streaming relative to the inhabitants experiences. So time-stream simply refers to a collective experience observed through a specific flow of time. A current within the layers of ocean that make up the water-drop of all-time aka infinity (within Time Swim reality). "This" reality we're living in 2016 is one time-stream. There is a stream where Hitler won and began a global dictatorship. Too, you can find a time-stream where the Native Americans fended off the white-settlers, dominate North America, and established the United Nations of America instead of the United States. There is a stream where Planet of the Apes isn't fiction. Another stream boasts the Titanic's 104th year of luxury cruising (in 2016). Jurassic Park actually happened in another time-stream. If a tree falls in the middle of the Forrest, and no one is around to see or hear it, did it happen? ... to the other trees it did. It's in a time-stream!
Waking (to wake): the active state of consciously being in a specific space and time but not physically being present. In some cases, waking may involve synchronizing with another consciousness who will in turn, be able to "see" the likeness of the physical body in command by the consciousness "taking a peek" in a form of what could be described as hallucinogenic telepathy, astral-projected telepathy, or even a ghostly apparition. A consciousness waking, cannot physically effect the observed space.
Inhabitants (Inhabs): a word that means both the sliver of consciousness, and the physical body manifested of a single individuals conscious experience native to a time-stream. This word, to TJs, mostly means anyone or anything that isn't a Time-Jockey or a part of the Collective, but it's more specific to those in a specific time-stream. For example, I'm an Inhabitant of our time-stream as much as you are. Blue, the trained raptor from Jurassic World, would be an inhabitant of that time-stream. If I have been in another time-stream, I'm not consciously aware of it, and this phenomenon is what makes me a native inhabitant to this time-stream. I'm an Inhab!
ICIM and NICIM: Infinite Conscious Imbalanced Memories: some Inhabitants retain a strange mixed-memory sensation when an imbalance occurs. The feel as if they remember things happening in a different way than they did, while also remembering the way it did happen. TJs called it ICIM, which sounds like "ik-m" when said aloud. The Inhabs don't have language for the phenomenon. However, Inhabs suffer from ICIM because in another time-stream, one they were consciously experiencing at the time of the split, it did happen differently; because their infinite consciousness experienced both versions independently as independent time-stream Inhabitants. Inhabs call the natural occurrence of "memories" of other time-streams Déjà vu, and it happens when two streams and two versions of the same Inhab are synchronized in the same task in the same space and time; TJs call it NICIM; Natural Infinite Conscious Imbalanced Memories. Inhabs effected are said to have ICIM episodes, or NICIM episodes to TC and the TJs.
Time Swim (also Time Swimming): the act of physically manifesting a conscious body in a specific space and living through it's relative time-stream. In most cases, this is reserved for correcting an imbalance when someone changes an event and creates a cascade of new streams that disrupt the overall harmony of infinity. In most cases, the offender is also in a Time Swim. If I tried to explain how Time Swim works, I might confuse you, but just know the conscious mind is like a time-traveling control room, and the body is the ship. Not all Time-Swimmers are TJs but all TJs are Time-Swimmers.
Sixes (also applies to Fives, and Sevens): Some time-streams have humans who evolved with six fingers or seven fingers instead of five. Sixes are TJs with six fingers, Fives have five, and Sevens have... seven fingers! Yes, this also applies to their toes. While there are even humans with tentacle fingers within infinity, they do not make an appearance in this book. It should be noted, however, sometimes a natural abnormality occurs and an Inhab of a Fives or Sevens stream is born with six fingers and as such, Sixes tend to have some cross-over in monitoring or assisting in Fives or Sevens streams as needed without being too conspicuous.
Gesture of Silence ("giving gos" "gave gos"): The "gesture of silence" is basically the same thing as "talk to the hand" and meant to be made when a TJ needs less input to concentrate on the task at hand, but it's often just used to shut someone up.
Sinute/s: a TJ's minute; since time is relative, the sinute is the calculation of time relative to a specific time-stream and a TJ's conscious anchor to TC-time. The aim is to synchronize amounts of time relative to both The Collective and a specific time-stream, accounting for the distortion of time. It keeps the TJs and TC on the same relative time clock despite their different experiences of it. In this book, the sinute is about 19 seconds ahead of current-time (18.8 seconds technically). So, think of current-time in minutes like G3, and TC-time in sinutes like G4. Minutes are dial-up, sinutes are broadband. Minutes are ponies, sinutes are a thoroughbreds. The point is, in a time-stream or in The Collective, time is happening when it's happening but a Time Jocky is processing both relative times so it seems like having an extra 19 seconds (in a 60 second minute) of current-time to make decisions and take action. A sinute is still 60 seconds of current time, but the TJ has relatively 78.8 seconds within those 60 seconds to process information and take action. It's not "actually" having more time, it only seems like it. They call that distortion the "sinute effect" and it's like Deja Vu of the future.
AllWhen (allwhen): basically, a word to describe all-time; infinity on the level of conscious experience; as in, all things and every when. AllWhen would be equivalent to my earlier water-droplet representation of time. It was coined by a rejected TJ but eventually adopted by TC.
DOTing (Detached Omni-Positional Teleportation): coined by a rejected TJ, this is a unique form of Time Swim that involves full immersion in a time-stream, like an Inhab, but with the added benefit of what amounts to teleportation by self-orienting detachment from the stream and re-entry by way of base particles like buoys of navigation. DOTing, as mastered by a rejected TJ, also allows for physical waking, where the waking individual has just enough presence to shift space and time to affect a singular object in a time-stream without altering the time-stream itself. If Space-Time were a wave, physical waking would be like surfing. The TJ isn't actually changing the wave, but can shift sections of the wave with the movement of their surfboard, displacing water from one part of the wave to another. Or like a submarine surfacing. Or like a whale jumping free of the water and making a big splash. Yes, something changes in the moment, but the overall body of the time-stream does not, and likewise doesn't create an alternate stream.
Stream-Time (S-T): same thing as current time, our time, seconds and minutes and hours and days in years and decades and so on. Stream-Time. Also known as S-T. Mostly a Rejected TJ term.
Between-Time (B-T): referring to the quasi time that exists in between space and time. Since time exists in the experience, but space is basically matter, the layer that metaphorically exists between them is the space a person DOTing enters when they exit a stream, and travels through to the place they re-enter the same stream, or enter a different stream. The sensation of time there varies on many things, most notably in this book, whether or not the stream they leave is the stream they enter (relatively short jump), or a different stream (relatively longer jump)... and how far in the time-stream from exit to entry. i.e. a same-second-DOT would be a shorter jump to any stream, than going forward or backward in time. Discovered and name by a rejected TJ.
Karman Line: basically the line between a space craft and an airplane in reference to Earth's atmosphere; if you want the more technical definition, look it up!
EEA (said lazily as E-ah): Exit and Entry Angel, as it pertains to DOTing; specifically the forward orientation of the DOTing body as aligns with how the Jockey wants to exit space-time so as to avoid say... facing a wall when you mean to escape through a door in the wall.
180 Twist: a maneuver in air or space craft in which the pilot circles back on their former path by going up or down in a circle, and barrel rolling to correct their upward and forward facing orientation mid-circle which helps to maintain speed. It's kind of like the same maneuver a swimmer's body does when they reach the end of the pool and turn around to rocket off toward the other side without slowing down too much. Where a swimmer kicks off the side, a pilot uses their own velocity for momentum, or uses additional thrusters.
Cloaked: If you're a Sci-fi veteran, you know this means invisible, but if you're new, just know it's a play of light, not actual absence of something, so it looks like it isn't there.
Terra Gravity: The specific gravity on the ground of a cosmic object, most noteably in this book, Earth Gravity.
RiV (Reject in Violation): TC/TJ term said as "rihv" rhymes with bib. It basically get's used like a noun, but it means a specific person branded as a Rejected TJ has been caught Time Swimming and is in violation of their Reject status and TC Time Swim laws. Any TJ who catches a RiV is supposed to either call for a pick-up team, or escort the RiV back to TC for trial and likely incarceration.
(Please comment on this post if I missed a term you'd like in this glossary!)