Read Cracked Dagger, Book One of Allies and Adversaries Page 24

Time based on the Revised Drank Length: time it takes a photon traveling at the speed of light to cross the revised Drank length, known as the Mal Length Constant (MLC). This interval is known as a til, shil is the smallest noticeable passage of time, 4X114 til. In the 4th millennium Post Download, the exact moment of the birth of the universe was discovered. Mal then set all Novan time on that central starting point. Mal attempted to change the way all Novan measured time, using the “Mal Standard.” Novans refused to adapt to a system of time not based on the revolution of the planet around the sun. This became known as the “Mistake of Mal,” the only time in the history of Mal that the supercomputer was deemed to be in error. Mal blamed the unforeseen resistance of the Novans on the paucity of chronicle data Mal had to draw on. Regardless, Novans progressed with a new standard, based on solar revolution. Called “Indigenous Time,” it broke down as follows: CAS - cycles around the sun in years, from starting point of 0 as year of the Divine Download DCAS, Deci cycles around the sun (1/10th 2/10 cycle), like months, TROA, ten revolutions on axis, a fifth of a DCAS, as in a week, ROA, revolutions on axis as in days, DROA, deci-rotation on axis as in hours, MROA - milli rotation on axis as in minutes. Archaic conceptions of days, weeks, or months were eradicated by the TELREC shortly after instituting the chronicling system. The new formulation allowed of easy reference to a specific point in time: CAS, DCAS, ROA, DROA, MROA. 9514.04.15.03.09 would be in the 9514h cycle around the sun, 4/10 present cycle around the sun, 15th revolution on the planetary axis within that 10th of cycle, 3/10 of that revolution, 9/10 of that milli-rotation. The one term still kept from the “Mal Standard” was the til, used to connote a very small passage of time, i.e. “It’ll be done in a til.” Though the Indigenous System of Dating held no sentiment for the Novans, it was nonetheless acceptable, and became the standard.

  TROA was a term more created for the roa-to-roa conversation between people, than any necessary scientific reason. It was found the span of time between a ROA and a DCAS was too long, that people needed to break up that span into a smaller increment.

  Distance was also revised to adhere to the Mal Length Constant — a change less noticeable or controversial. The “til” became the smallest unit of distance, with all other measurements being multiples of the til. Hence, all spacial distances had an inherent relation to the passage of time.