3.11 - Nome

“I repeat—and you know how much I hate to repeat myself—you have my word that you will go free,” Alitma said.

Alitma’s word was ironclad. Keeping promises was the only honorable thing the gangster did.

“I’ll even throw in an asteroid-sized chunk of nome,” Alitma added. “All you have to do is give back the extract.”

With that much nome, I—No, no, and no, Daniel thought, halting his train of thought.

Though tempted, Daniel knew he could never return the extract.

It's the only thing that can make up for the accident, Daniel thought.

(The accident was first mentioned in Post 2.22 - The past) .

Stuck Station: Nome

Clouds are cheap, reliable, and easy to mass-produce.

They can construct almost anything: Alitma’s dreadnought, the Z-klik cannon, and the Afterthought are all cloudbuilt.

Clouds also tell hilarious and sometimes weapons-grade “Yo momma” jokes.

Despite these admirable qualities, nanobot swarms do have limitations. Because of the complexity of the nanoscopic maneuvers involved, clouds cannot build certain types of material. These non-manufacturable materials—nome for short—are some of the most valuable commodities in the 28th Century.

Anything with an atomic number above 157 is considered nome. (As of 2713 A.D., there are 2,245 known elements on the Intergalactic Periodic Sofa.)

That means all elements above and including In-and-Out-Burgerium (a delicious element developed by a human restaurant chain in the 24th century) are out of a cloud’s nanobotic reach.

There are many different types of nome—some naturally-occurring, but most synthetic— and the higher up on the Intergalactic Periodic Sofa, the more valuable the nome.

Most post-cloud civilizations use nome as currency. The reason for this is simple: Once a species develops the cloud, the invention renders all other forms of currency obsolete—clouds can recreate, and therefore counterfeit, anything that isn’t nome.

Garna extract is 97 percent nome.