Aerovoyant

by P L Tavormina

  In particular, one woman (Betha O’Mardon B’GerFra) became a vocal critic of the rustic path humanity had chosen. It was clear, she insisted, that agrarian living was fraught with risk, and that trade by its nature promoted homogenous thinking and prevented the development of diverse societal approaches that might benefit humanity over the longer run. The loss of “idea diversity,” she said, was to everyone’s detriment. She began a movement toward isolationism. The concurrent cessation of trade (intended to help end the pandemic) led to some settlements perishing while others began to grow.

  Regional traditions took hold. Distinct cultures formed. Some settlements, especially those influenced by Betha B’GerFra’s adherents, eventually re-developed more advanced technologies. Over time, fossil fuels (called archaic carbon) were discovered on Turaset and technologically-inclined settlements embraced them.

  Eventually, trade was established once more and intermixing of cultures and ideas began again.

  Approximately three thousand years after humanity left Earth, the global population on Turaset surpassed one million. Cities dotted the coast of Nasoir (the largest continent in the western hemisphere) and Deasoir (the largest continent in the eastern hemisphere).

  The events of Aerovoyant occur at roughly this point.

  2. Cultural practices on Nasoir.

  2a. Surname conventions.

  Following the First Great Death, rapid reproduction was mandated. As part of the effort to prevent inbreeding, surnames derived from a child’s parents’ and grandparents’ given names. A child of Mary and John, for example, who were themselves the children of Frances and Michael or Yvonne and Francis, would have the following surname: of MaryJohn by FrancesMichael and YvonneFrancis (abbreviated to o’MarJoh b’FraMicYvFran). While bulky, this convention did limit interbreeding. Over time the convention simplified.

  On Nasoir:

  1.Partners take a unique surname at marriage which derives from the given name of the member in higher business standing. If this partner is a woman, the prefix “Van” (coastal, urban) or “Von” (inland, rural) is added. If the partner is a man, the prefix “di” (coastal) or “de” (inland) is used. Thus, the surname conveys a general geographical location of the family and relative business standing of the respective partners. E.g.:

  a.Ardelle and Ephraim Vonard: This couple lives in a rural region. Ardelle has higher business standing than Ephraim.

  b.Lesteri and Marja di Les: This couple lives in a coastal city and Lesteri has a higher business standing than his wife.

  Children are given this surname until their own marriages. For example, in the event that Odile Vonard takes a business and marries, her surname will change from Vonard to Vonod, unless her spouse holds higher business standing.

  2.In cases of divorce or death, surnames can be changed to remove implications inherent in the traditional construction. Typically, the prefix “Na” or “Pe” is appended to a chosen word. Children take the new surname of the parent with whom they remain. E.g.:

  a.Alphonse Najiwe: As a child, Alphonse’s last name was di Marc. His mother, Ivette, changed her last name to Najiwe in order to convey “by (na) stone (jiwe),” or “by hardness,” which is how she envisioned surviving following her father’s death and husband’s abandonment.

  2b. Matching and courting.

  Marital practices vary by region.

  1.In cities: Formal education (and larger populations) promotes socializing between peers. Attachments between young men and women naturally form. Self-matching is typical. Parents are rarely consulted in any decision regarding marriage.

  2.In agrarian regions: Interactions between peers are less common. Consistent with managing an isolated family stead, parents seek suitable matches for children. A match can be initiated in either direction.

  3.Marital practice in the foothill villages lie between these extremes. Parental matching occurs in villages, especially if a match would promote the family business. For example, if the son of a weaver is expected to take over the family business, a sensible match is with the daughter of a dressmaker. However, it’s not unusual for village youth to self-assort. Parents may be consulted in these cases.

  Courtship traditions exist in the villages. For example, if a person initiates courting and the recipient is disinterested, the courted individual will insist the two are strangers. On the other hand, if the courted individual welcomes the courtship, they will give their name whether the two have previously met or not.

  2c. Business.

  Generally, any individual on Nasoir is free to pursue whatever business interest they wish.

  1.Manufacturing drives city economies. The idea of a family business is irrelevant in Nasoir’s cities, where industry (energy, pharmaceutical, etc.) employs most people. Family-run businesses in cities represent a small percentage of the economy, and it’s common for city youth to try a number of various jobs before choosing their individual career paths, which may or may not follow their parents’ paths.

  2.Family businesses form the economic backbone of the agricultural belt and foothill villages. Apprenticeship to the family business is common in rural areas. Even more than formal schooling, children learn to take what their parents have built.

  The net-positive birth rate in the countryside leads to surplus labor, and some claim holdings in the agricultural belt—for mining, farming, logging, ranching, or, in some cases, construction and artistry.

  3.Pay Gap: There is a pay gap on Nasoir opposite to that which existed on Earth. Nasoirian women earn almost twice the pay that men receive, for equal work. This gap traces to events during colonization including a loose interpretation of one of the founding precepts. Over the centuries, women came to be seen as more valuable members of the work force than men for the following reasons:

  a.The life span of women averages six years longer.

  b.Similarly, retention of mental executive functions averages eight years longer.

  c.On the whole, women are more risk-averse and suffer fewer injuries in their adolescence and young adulthood. This translates into fewer job-related accidents and fewer ongoing liabilities.

  d.Women tend toward relational interactions. Relational interactions are seen as more beneficial to business than hierarchical interactions.

  e.Hiring a woman often enables two jobs—one for the woman and one for whomever she hires to care for her children. Thus, a fraction of pay for hiring mothers goes toward childcare. (This allowance can be made for men under analogous circumstances, but it’s more common for women to hire care for their children.)

  Certain careers, such as political posts (for which pay is internally determined), are more likely to approach pay equity. Livelihoods requiring physical strength are biased toward men, but income from these jobs often depends on product to market. The idea of a pay gap doesn’t apply.

  3. Partial list of modified genetic traits among Turasetians.

  During the CRISPR frenzy on 21st-century Earth, myriad genetic modifications were introduced into the human genome. These modifications included duplication and specialization of tissues, introduction of genes from other organisms, and computer-based prediction and de novo synthesis of genes with novel function not previously extant in the biosphere.

  All manners of new abilities were designed.

  Once landed on Turaset, colonists engineered additional traits in a more ad hoc fashion toward survival. However, the ship-board technology to manipulate DNA was eventually lost, and this engineering ended.

  Over the centuries, the frequency of any particular trait began to vary by location—the result of genetic drift and selection. During the events of Aerovoyant and its sequels, differences in allelic frequencies are most pronounced when comparing between continents. Below, an approximate global frequency is provided for each trait. Some traits, such as modified genes conferring resistance to radiation
, are carried by everyone. (They are universal; the allelic frequency is 100%.) The origin of each human trait (Turaset or Earth) is also indicated. Plant-based and fungal-based gene modifications will be described elsewhere.

  1.Aerovoyancy (rare; Earth origin): Duplication of visual cortex tissues to allow perception of atmospheric chemistry. In essence, this trait is a biological encoding of a technological tool. More broadly, conversion of technology to genetically-encoded function was part of a trend to send technology to space in human form.

  2.Audiovoyancy (common; Earth origin): Duplication and specialization of aural tissues to allow perception of sound above and below the normal human range.

  3.Barometrics (believed extinct; Earth origin): Barometrics tolerate rapid shifts in pressure with no ill effect. Based on marine animals that transit vertical depth routinely and easily, the ability was reverse-engineered into humans and augmented.

  4.Chronovoyancy (rare; Earth origin): Individuals capable of marking time to a remarkable degree of accuracy and precision. The ability stems from changes to cell cycle proteins. Pairs of chronovoyants can separate from one another and synchronize their behaviors over minutes, days, months, and years.

  5.Docility (universal; Turaset origin): Genes linked to aggression were pruned out of the genome in an effort to limit human-on-human death in the early generations. Turasetians are gentler than their Earth ancestors.

  6.Dowsers (somewhat common; Turaset origin): Specialization of tissues in the hands toward the detection of moisture. Dowsers detect groundwater through handling soil.

  7.Elysians (rare; Earth origin): The ability to host foreign plastids in dermal tissue; specifically, the ability to ingest an algal meal and sustain chloroplasts in the skin. In so doing, Elysians can photosynthesize sugar for themselves from suns-light. This provides an evolutionary advantage during food shortages.

  8.Geovoyancy (“Time binding.” Rare; Earth origin): Earth history was encoded onto the Y chromosome, and a new organ able to interpret the coding was developed in the amygdala. Geovoyants serve as historians on colonized worlds.

  9.Gravimerics (extinct; Earth origin): Individuals capable of detecting gravitational anomalies by sight. This ability was rumored to play a crucial role in allowing ships to find new homes.

  10.Healer suite of genes (uncommon; Earth origin): Enhancement of the parasympathetic nervous system, with some duplications in the hands and feet, such that touching a patient allows a healer to assess their physiological state. Healers can measure pulse, body temperature, blood pressure, and immune system activity through touch.

  11.Insensates (rare; Earth origin): Extreme down-regulation of nervous system function related to pain tolerance. Insensates are naturally tolerant of pain.

  12.Isotopics (rare; Turaset origin): Like aerovoyants, isotopics perceive particles down to the molecular level, and some of the same tissue duplication lies at the basis of this ability. However, this trait is specialized toward the detection of elemental isotopes.

  13.Luminescents (unknown; Earth origin): Bioluminescence was one of the earliest test applications of CRISPR, and that manipulation quickly found its way onto the black market. The desire among some parents to give their children the ability to glow can be thought of as loosely grouping with vanity surgeries, body painting, and so on. The ability made its way to Turaset, but the gene frequency is unknown, as bioluminescence requires a dietary component to activate.

  14.Magnetotactics (unknown frequency; Earth origin): Enhancement of the organ in the human forebrain that detects magnetic fields. Magnetotactics have a well-developed sense of direction.

  15.Peacekeeper suite of genes (somewhat common; Turaset origin): This group of genes includes sequences coding for super-strength (augmentation and overexpression of myostatin) and adherence to order. So-called “peacekeeping” individuals self-select toward law.

  16.Piezoelectrics (rare; Turaset origin): Piezoelectrics have a third long bone running parallel to the radius and ulna in each forearm. This third bone, the piezus, is specialized to absorb and store piezoelectric energy (generated from mechanical stress). The stored energy can be discharged from the hands and used in various ways.

  17.Pigmentation (universal; Turaset origin): Pigments identified in Turaset’s native fauna were reverse-engineered into the human genome to protect the colonists during Conjunction. Within three generations of landing on Turaset, everyone carried some new form of pigmentation, but these colors varied in their relative efficacy. Over subsequent centuries, evolutionary pressure selected the fittest versions of these pigments.

  18.Skeletonics (common; Earth origin): Enhancement of the LRP5 allele to promote dense bones. These individuals’ bones do not break.

  19.Super-sleepers (uncommon; Earth origin): Individuals with alterations in the hDEC2 gene, who maintain normal functioning over several weeks at a time in the complete absence of sleep. Supersleepers were valuable crew members in space, but the gene frequency on Turaset drifted downward over time.

  20.Super-sprinters (somewhat common; Earth origin): Enhancement of the ACTN3 genes. Super sprinters sustain a three-minute mile for five or more miles.

  21.Telomerics (rare; Earth origin): Individuals whose chromosomal telomeres are protected from degradation. The natural lifespan of telomerics measures into millennia, but these individuals often see psychological decline after a few centuries, and some telomerics take their lives before they’ve reached their own natural middle age.

  22.Vocalizers (unknown frequency; Earth origin): Duplication and specialization of vocal tissues to allow speech above and below the normal range of human hearing. Selective communication is possible between vocalizers and audiovoyants. Individuals possessing both of these modifications can communicate in a way that mimics so-called telepathy.

  4. Political structure on Nasoir.

  Nasoir is ruled by a representational democracy at three levels: city (city councils), provincial (provincial assemblies), and continental (the Continental Congress.) At the time of Aerovoyant, three provinces had been designated on Nasoir.

  4a. City councils.

  Each of Nasoir’s six coastal cities are ruled by a twenty-five-seat council.

  The five most recently-elected councilors hold probationary seats. These councilors vote on proposed legislation and can draft preliminary bills but only if they work in concert with at least one other councilor. Probationary councilors cannot call for votes or oppose points of order when council is in session.

  Ten junior councilors hold additional powers—the authority to draft bills on an individual basis and to oppose points of order.

  Ten senior councilors serve as committee heads, call votes in general session, and serve on the Provincial Assembly.

  City councils write local law, oversee local taxation, and manage the budgeting for established and proposed projects, institutions, and policies. Councils steer city goals. A council term is five years, with elections held annually on a rolling basis.

  4b. Provincial assemblies.

  Each of Nasoir’s provinces is overseen by a twenty-seat assembly.

  All senior city councilors automatically serve on their respective provincial assembly. Assembly members meet to ensure that the city councils are operating in an equitable way—for example, if one city’s council plans a geographical expansion, the assembly judges whether this poses a negative impact to the province as a whole. Environmental impact is a common focus of discussion for assemblies, as is any joint venture between cities that might benefit both simultaneously. Assembly members communicate the outcomes of deliberations to their city councils.

  However, the primary role of the assembly is oversight of interprovincial commerce and any associated collection of tariffs. Funds obtained through tariffs are used to maintain provincial waterways and roadways.

  Assemblies elect ten of their twenty members t
o serve on the Continental Congress.

  4c. The Continental Congress.

  Ten assembly members from each province serve on the thirty-seat Congress.

  Congress sets a continental tax rate (limited to provincial lands) and manages trade between the provinces and the non-provincial agricultural belt. Congress also settles trade disputes between provinces.

  One congressmember is elected by the full body to serve as prime chancellor. Principal responsibilities of the chancellery include ordering the congressional agenda, commanding the continental marshalry, and naming new provinces. The chancellor relinquishes congressional voting rights but retains assembly and council voting rights.

  5. Abbreviated glossary.

  Autore: The singular deified embodiment of the group of scientists responsible for humanity’s survival following the First Great Death. Also, a city-based swear word similar to “God.” Autorism is a belief structure (a quasi-religion) based on science and technology.

  Autoremalde: Loosely, “goddamned.” Its most common usage is in connection with any negative consequence arising from science and technology.

  Bel: One of the two stellar masses (stars) around which Turaset orbits.

  Bristlepod: A shrub-like plant on Nasoir’s southern isles. Ripe pods are harvested and pressed for their nectar.

  By the code: A swear phrase referring to the power of science. In practice, “by the code” is a throw-away city phrase similar to “by all that’s holy.”

  Byantun: A tree-like organism indigenous to Turaset with features resembling both plants and animals. In some ways, byantun trees are reminiscent of Earth sponges, although they are larger and land-based. Byantuns are sessile and grow in varied forms. They have a “root” system that penetrates the ground, and their “branches” are pad-like and motile. Byantuns are colored and harvest energy from the suns. That energy is stored in their roots as light, to attract sub-surface prey (e.g. worms and grubs). In this manner, byantun trees are predators. Byantun pigments were analyzed and reverse-engineered into the human genetic code during the First Great Death.