The Confederation Handbook

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Five: Sentient Xenoc Species

  1. Tyrathca

  A. From Pre-2611 Information

  The Tyrathca were discovered in 2395 on Hesperi-LN, a planet 227 light-years from Earth. They are not indigenous, since their home planet, Mastrit-PJ, is on the other

  side of the Orion Nebula, and not visible from the Confederation. According to the Tyrathca themselves, their sun expanded into a red supergiant 14,500 years ago. Breeder pairs left the star system on several hundred slower-than-light arkships (the exact number is unknown), 15,000 years ago. These arkships were hollowed-out asteroids capable of reaching 15 percent lightspeed. Their aim was to establish as many Tyrathca colonies as possible. It is not known how many colonies were actually established, but the arkship Tanjuntic-RI, which founded the Hesperi-LN colony, had stopped in at least five other systems to land breeder pairs on Tyrathca-compatible planets, and had examined some thirty further star systems via remote probes.

  Hesperi-LN was the last colony established by Tanjuntic-RI. After 13,000 years in flight, and despite constant refurbishment and resupply in the star systems it examined, the arkship had reached the end of its useful lifetime, and Hesperi-LN was established inAD 1300.

  Taking the flight of 300 arkships which left Mastrit-PJ into account, and assuming each of them was as successful as Tanjuntic-RI in locating new planets, the Tyrathca race may now be spread throughout a sphere of space at least 4,200 light-years in diameter, with perhaps as many as 1,500 colony worlds. Since acquiring human FTL technology, the Hesperi-LN colony has not bothered to contact any other sibling colony (see Psychology, page 226 ), a situation which both human and other xenoc members of the Confederation are quietly content with. They evidently evolved quite late in Mastrit-PJ’s geological history. It may be that their planet possessed a Venus-type reducing atmosphere for several billion years, which didn’t alter until the sun began to cool. Records of their history are very fragmented, and they show no real interest in their own past (see Psychology, page 226).

  Arkship Technology

  The arkships employed fusion drive, with a deuterium reaction used to accelerate the vehicle up to 15 percent lightspeed. Three separate biosphere chambers were built in each arkship, each of them with independent systems in case of an accident.

  The Tyrathca controlled their breeding on board, so that no stress was ever placed on the ships’ internal resources. Arkships carried a maximum of 25,000 breeder pairs, with as many as 60,000 members of the vassal caste. The arkship fleet was equipped with communication lasers, which were used regularly in the first 2,000 years of the exodus, exchanging technical and planetology data. After this, the fleet became so dispersed that communication between ships began to fall off. Today it has ceased altogether.

  Tyrathca Physiology (Breeding Pairs)

  The Tyrathca have a standard biochemical arrangement: their cells contain organelles and a nucleus, and their DNA is a double helix; they digest protein for energy, and they breathe oxygen. They possess a large number of organs with varying filtering and corpuscular production functions, giving a Tyrathca a highly complex internal layout.

  The Tyrathca has an ochre-colored hide which, although harder than animal skin, is not quite an exoskeleton; it is quite similar to scales, but also very flexible. A coating of dry ochre-gold dust, similar to a terrestrial moth, is exuded from this hide, leaving sprinklings of it wherever the Tyrathca walks. Its main body is horizontal, 2m long, with four legs that keep the underbelly 1.4m above ground level, and a tapering, meter-long neck which curves up towards the vertical.

  The head is a 50cm-high egg shape, tilted backwards at about 10°. It has a flattish face with a broad mouth at the bottom, and two eyes but no nose, all its breathing being done through the mouth, and the olfactory receptors double as tastebuds. The mouth has a double-lip arrangement; each segment is solid, so the lips are not flexible like human lips. The first (outer) set of visor-like lips part for breathing, the second (inner) lips open for eating, so the first pair are constantly in motion. The scaly hide covering the rest of the head is slightly furry. The crest of the head rises 2.9m above the ground.

  The Tyrathcas’ method of communication is vocal, consisting of high-pitched whistles. These are produced in a tubular pipelike organ located between the two jaws, through which air is expelled from the lungs. This whistling is very fast and complex, and while a Tyrathca cannot make human vocal sounds, humans cannot reproduce the Tyrathcas’ whistle either, so all inter-species communication needs to be conducted through an electronic interpreter. On either side of the neck, just below the head itself, there are two small teats with the vassal-caste chemical program secretion glands behind them. Both male and female breeder Tyrathca possess these.

  A spine ridge runs down the back of the neck and along the center of the torso to the rump, and it sprouts hair in a similar fashion to a mane, This hair can be brown, ochre, rust-red or black. Aside from the four legs, there are two arm-analogue limbs extending from the base of the neck, where it merges with the body. These arms are thin but stronger than their human equivalent, and they have one elbow joint, which can hinge at almost 200°. Each hand is completely circular, with nine fingers spaced equidistantly around it. The “wrist” joint connects to the middle of one side of this hand, and consists mainly of a gristly physical structure which can bend and twist in every direction.

  Above but slightly behind the shoulders for each arm are two back-trailing extrusions resembling whip antennae. They are 9cm in diameter at their base, tapering to a rounded tip, and 1.5m in length. These appear to be vestigial tail-analogues used for maintaining balance when the Tyrathca were in their pre-sentient form (several of the vassal-caste species still possess functional antennae).

  Tyrathca legs have a single knee and, like the arms, seem thin in relation to the body bulk. The front pair of legs have nine small toes. On the rear pair, the toes on each foot have merged into a single, flap-like unit at the front, to allow for an easier grip on uneven surfaces. Tyrathca cannot use human-style stairs, so all their own buildings employ spiral ramps.

  Externally, the males and females are almost identical. However, the males’ antennae tend to be longer, while females are marginally larger in body, to accommodate their complex ovary arrangement.

  Technically the Tyrathca are mammalian, although they do lay eggs. The breeder pairs are always omnivores, though vassal castes include omnivore, herbivore and carnivore species. They cannot survive cold climates, becoming sluggish and confused when the temperature approaches freezing; exposure to -5°C will kill them. They can function normally in temperatures up to 45°C, though their preferred median is 35°C. The Tyrathca evolved in a 0.87 gravity field, and find the normal human standard slightly uncomfortable. However, they will colonize a planet with up to a 0.94 gravity field. High-acceleration spaceship travel is dangerous for them, since their complex internal organs are susceptible to membrane tearing in a high-gee field. Tyrathca life expectancy is forty-five years, and maturity (in breeders) is reached three to five years after hatching.

  The breeders will sleep for up to ten hours during the night. Mastrit-PJ’s day was twenty-eight hours, so they cannot adjust to a planet having a day shorter than twenty hours.

  Tyrathca do not suffer a long period of old age. The onset of senescence is swift, and this phase lasts for no more than two months, the symptoms being memory loss and lack of coordination. Once it is established beyond any doubt, a breeder will simply retreat into its house and stop eating. The breeder it has been paired with will accompany it for its demise, though this is a cultural tradition rather than any physiological necessity. Breeding pairs tend to be of roughly similar age.

  The Tyrathca have never performed genetic modifications on themselves, nor have they expressed any interest in it when the Confederation has offered this technology to them. They regard their inherent form and life expectancy as completely adequate.

  Vassal-Caste Genealogy

  The
dominant Tyrathca are, of course, the breeders, these being the only fully sentient type and the only one able to reproduce. There are six species of the vassal caste, each with its own specialized functions. Although their arrangements are similar to those seen in an insect hive hierarchy, the Tyrathca are not in fact evolved from insects. This is simply the result of social specialization during pre-sentient times, when lower clan/herd members performed the tasks assigned to them by the buck/chieftain. The Tyrathca did spend a very long time (800,000 years) in their pre-sentient form (human Neanderthal-equivalents), allowing a complete development of this social system.

  The vassal castes are as follows:

  Builder

  Larger than the breeder, slow moving but very strong. Its mouth is used to chew soil, adding chemicals to produce a cement which is used to construct buildings. A herbivore, it lives for twelve years.

  Farmer

  Small (dog-sized), it tends crops and is capable of other light work. Also a herbivore, it will live for eight years.

  Hunter

  Medium-sized, with no forward arms, though a vestigial bone structure remains. It can move extremely fast, and has horns at the base of its long snout. It chases and kills its prey. Its balance antennae are longer than its body, and fully active, and the front legs have paws with long sharp talons. A carnivore, it lives for ten years.

  Housekeeper

  Similar in appearance to the farmer, but with greater memory capacity. This vassal will keep the breeders’ home tidy, serve them in simple tasks, and nurse the vassal-caste hatchlings. An omnivore, it lives for eight years.

  Tree Scavenger

  Another small species, and the most lively, its behavior rather similar to a terrestrial kitten. It is very agile, and able to climb trees and rock cliffs. Since the farmer type is unable to climb, this one was probably in primitive times intended as a fruit picker. A herbivore, it survives for five years.

  Soldier

  Large, and almost the same size as a breeder, which it closely resembles. It is also the most intelligent of the vassal castes, and is quite capable of using high-technology weapons as readily as spears and clubs. It will instinctively defend all members of the breeder pair’s family, giving priority attention to their young—the future breeders. It possesses an instinctive grasp of tactics, enabling a pack of “soldiers” to operate very effectively together. It lives for a good fifteen years.

  All the vassal species will readily accept verbal orders from the breeders they serve. However, except in the case of the soldiers, these comprise simple stop–start orders. Instead, more intricate instructions on how to perform complex tasks (such as the best way to catch a specific prey, design a building, or catalogue edible plants) must be loaded into these vassals via a chemical program that is secreted by the breeders’ neck teats. The synthesis of these chemicals is fast and extraordinarily complex. A breeder will literally think out a sequence of movements—or picture a certain shape—and the gland will start building this thought pattern into a chain of molecules, which is then absorbed by the vassal. Once an instruction of this kind has been chemically implanted, it can subsequently be activated by a brief verbal command at any time throughout that same vassal’s life. The bundle of nerve fibers connecting the teat synthesis glands to the breeder’s brain is as thick as its spinal cord.

  Reproduction

  The female breeders undergo two reproduction cycles, one for producing the vassal castes, the other for producing new breeders, and they occur fifteen months apart.

  During the vassal egg fertility cycle, which lasts for two months, the female ovaries will produce eggs in a distinct sequence: 1. Soldier, 2. Builder, 3. Tree scavenger, 4. Hunter, 5. Housekeeper, 6. Farmer.

  The female breeder always knows the fertile period for each egg sequence, so the breeders can easily select the vassals they most urgently require, but four to six eggs for each caste are the normal choice during one fertility cycle.

  The breeder egg cycle is shorter, at three weeks. As many as eight eggs will be produced, and always in male–female pairs. Mated couples will always choose exactly how many breeder offspring to produce, dependent on their current economic or social circumstances—a tradition which proved useful when they lived in confined conditions on the arkships. Tyrathca do not experience orgasm, which takes the more basic kind of instinct out of their mating, so their egg-laying is instead dictated by logical requirements.

  Fertilized eggs are ejected from the female’s body after three days. These are hard when they emerge, and will hatch after fifteen to twenty days, depending on their type. Their eggs are more definitely spherical than any terrestrial eggs, with only a slightly ovoid shape. Egg size varies from 25cm for a tree scavenger, up to 90cm for a builder; breeder eggs are 60cm. Their eggs do not require brooding, yet must be kept reasonably warm. Tyrathca living in technology-based cultures use electrically heated blankets for this purpose. The agricultural/pastoral Tyrathca (such as the Lalonde farmers) set their eggs on some rock which will receive plenty of sunlight, and in traditional homes they are placed up on the roof, which catches the most sun and can be more readily defended.

  Psychology

  In human terms, the Tyrathca are incredibly phlegmatic. They have never demonstrated any innovative flair, and appear to completely lack imagination. It is a constant puzzle to human researchers how they ever developed any kind of industry, let alone the technology required for interstellar flight. Once settled on Hesperi-LN, they showed no inclination to build another arkship or continue their colonization efforts. Tanjuntic-RI was simply abandoned (the Tyrathca commercial council granted human researchers permission to explore it, but could not understand their interest in it).

  Their major emotional responses seem to be directed towards their (breeder) offspring, of which they are fiercely protective. However, as long as the world or society into which these youngsters are released seems stable, they are perfectly content. A secondary emotion is the bond of each breeder Tyrathca with its partner; they mate for life, and if one dies the other effectively loses the will to live, duplicating the mutual withdrawal behavior they practice at the onset of old age.

  In their immature state the Tyrathca display an almost human range of emotional responses, being excitable, enthusiastic and argumentative like human children. But this stage of behavior is rapidly abandoned as they approach their third year.

  On reaching maturity, Tyrathca breeders leave their homes in search of a mate and a community they will find acceptable. These communities are all single-stream: one may specialize in chemistry, while another may produce agricultural machinery, and so on. Once both a mate and a suitable location have been found, the new pair will continue living there for their lifetime.

  Religion

  They have none.

  Education

  This is received via the chemical-program glands. A parent will provide what can be termed a basic literacy chemical program for its offspring, consisting of language, mathematics, local geography and animal and plant life, information on how to operate household appliances, etc. After adulthood is reached, a Tyrathca will travel until it finds an area practicing the profession which interests it (it may well stay in its home town), and once it has found a like-minded mate, they will set up a home and acquire specialist knowledge from an adult working in their chosen profession. This knowledge also comes in the form of a chemical program.

  So a Tyrathca coming to a profession will start work with a store of information that has taken centuries to acquire. This seems to be nature’s equivalent to Adamist didactic imprints and Edenist educational affinity. Although this system ensures that knowledge is generally area-specific, there are some fields which are homogeneous, such as medicine and basic engineering (a local repair and service operation).

  Technology

  As a species, their technological level is high, although the Tyrathca do not always exploit the most advanced systems available to them. Their philosophy is very mu
ch one of appropriate application; a farming community will not use fusion generators to power its machinery, as in their view this would require a whole new field of specialization not possessing any crossover into other fields of activity beneficial to them.

  They still retain all the technical expertise they acquired from building and maintaining Tanjuntic-RI. Several of these fields had undergone devolution by the time contact began with the Confederation, but only in terms of practical usage. The most prominent of these was advanced computer science. Although it was essential for interstellar flight, only a mediocre level is required for on-planet use, such as communications and industrial systems, therefore only a mediocre level of it was being manufactured. Most puzzling to humans was the fact that when it was obvious that only advanced-level computer systems would be acceptable for selling exports and gaining foreign currency, the Tyrathca communities that produced computers were making these advanced systems within five years. Their knowledge of how to build such items was still intact, and being passed down through the generations, but it was just not required.

  Hesperi-LN has a telecommunications network (integrated local systems), but no equivalent of the human entertainment media. There is a road network, although it is maintained by local governments, so its quality varies accordingly. Aircraft are built by only two communities, and both marques fall into the emergency services class. There are no passenger airlines, nor is there any analogue to tourism. Some oceangoing ships exist, but trade between continents centers on mineral exchange, and it is relatively small. Ships also service the platforms housing ocean thermal generators (see Power Sources, page 231).