Emprise

n. heroic act, adventure (Archaic)

The Trigon Disunity is a series of three books written by science fiction author Michael P. Kube-McDowell. Emprise was a Philip K. Dick Award nominee. The first edition covers were by Ron Miller.Emprise (1985, ISBN 0-425-07763-2) : The world has been devastated by the Food and Fuel Wars turning once-powerful nations into loose groupings of isolated farming communities. Barter has replaced currency, and scientists — blamed for the world's misery — are burned at the stake. Hidden in the Idaho hills, astronomer Allen Chandliss struggles to maintain his primitive radiotelescope, listening in secret for signs of the intelligent life, which may be the only hope to improve things on Earth. After seventeen years a repeating signal is received from Cassiopeia. He manages to send a message to a group of scientists in England. The race is on to decode the signal and then find the resources to respond to it...Enigma (1986, ISBN 0-425-08767-0) : Set 150 years after the events of the first book, the 'aliens' turned out to be human and considered themselves to have been colonised from Earth in the distant past. The Unified Space Survey has been established to make contact with other remnants of the first colonisation and to determined what happened to it... Empery (1987, ISBN 0-425-09887-7): The catastrophe that befell the first human interstellar civilisation has been explained; detroyed by the alien Mizari from a black star in the Ursa Major cluster. But as the new galactic empire is formed the threat of the all-powerful Mizari remains...
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n. hold

(v. t.)
To undertake.
  

(n.)
The qualifies which prompt one to undertake difficult and dangerous exploits.
  

(n.)
An enterprise; endeavor; adventure.
  

A challenge of war. During the Hundred Years War , knights from England and France would meet at a designated place to fight for the honor of their king and kingdom . These structured encounters were much like the friendly pas d’armes , save that blood was drawn and men often slain. Also denoting the quest of a knight errant , where the young knight would wear some token of his quest such as a bracelet, greave , or eyepatch until some feat of arms was accomplished.