Part I . . . Notes, References, and Shoutouts (Chapters 4-9)
(4MiM Supplement #2)
Chapter 4. Heard as Well as Seen
The sky was the color of a reddish-purple plum . . .
A nod in appreciation of the use of color scrims by Jerry Finnerman, Director of Photography for Star Trek TOS (The Original Series).
Chapter 5. The Most Beautiful Thing
Holding up her hand at eye level, Joanni cupped her palm, and closing one eye, proclaimed, mostly to herself, “The stars are all around us; we can hold them in our hand.”
Inspiration from Kate Bush’s Aerial album: “The stars are on our fingers . . .” CD2 A Sky of Honey, “Nocturn”.
Chapter 6. Harmonies of the Mind
. . . as they sat down to a dinner of soy in aspic, steak bites, hydroponic salad . . .
Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil . . . US Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Chapter 7. Irrational Fears and Fabulous Backstories
The mental sparring between them as they began a round of calliope (a game that in strategy fell somewhere between war and poker) . . .
The name of this game references Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. In Greek mythology, nine muses served as inspiration for various areas of literature, science, and the arts: Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Euterpe (flutes and music), Thalia (comedy and pastoral poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Terpsichore (dance), Erato (love poetry and lyric poetry), Polyhymnia (hymns and sacred poetry), and Urania (astronomy). [listing from Wikepedia].
Calliope is often depicted holding a tablet or scroll.
“I’m not likely to stumble into the warp drive,” she continued . . .
The officers seated around the table on board the Eridanus as it warped its way toward Oreana . . .
A warp drive or a drive enabling space warp is a fictional superluminal spacecraft propulsion system in many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek, and a subject of ongoing physics research. The general concept of "warp drive" was introduced by John W. Campbell in his 1957 novel Islands of Space and was popularized by the Star Trek series. [from Wikipedia]
Chapter 9. Following Your Footsteps
“They were experimenting with small craft warp speed . . .”
Warp speed: A hypothetical, extremely rapid, speed, resulting from entering a separate dimension, termed hyperspace; much faster than the speed of light. [Wiktionary}
Top image: Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry, Charles Meynier, 1798, Cleveland Museum of Art, Creative Commons (CC0 1.0), Edited by J. Weigley