The following is an excerpt from a recent edition of an introductory science text for tourists by Esbiav Oiawrn of Bewrbe, and serves as an introduction to the technology of the Codoj empire.
"We in the Codoj are from a biological quantum zone (Q-zone), where the line between matter and life is blurred, and the smallest possible unit of matter is the cell. Substances that in other Q-zones would be made of matter, like air, water, or steel, here are made entirely of one or more types of unicellular organisms. In this respect our home zone resembles an atomic Q-zone, with the primordial cell corresponding to the simplest atom and the homogenous mixtures of different cells corresponding to atomic alloys. The resemblance does not extend much farther though, because cells are alive. On a scale of years an inanimate object like a sword may grow or shrink depending on whether or not the conditions it has been exposed to have been good or bad for its component cells, tipping the balance of birth and death one way or the other.
Life (as you normally think of it) is (in our home zone) an exceptionally complicated group of cells working together as a single entity. Most Codoj don't consider anything that isn't big enough to be seen to be alive, exactly. Perhaps a better way of putting it is to say that we don't really consider anything to be dead, but instead some things just aren't complex enough to deserve the term Life. The intricate arrangements of cells which make up living things are not inherently stable, but are instead constantly shifting and adding and losing cells, requiring that living things find some source of cells with which to replace those that are lost (meaning 'living things must eat' - Ed.). Inanimate matter on the other hand is usually a stable arrangement of dormant cells. Although the cells may be able move around to some extent, they usually don't, so there is only a minimal chance that your equipment will dissolve at some inopportune moment.
On the energy side of things, our home zone is seriously lacking. Electricity simply doesn't exist here, and neither does magnetism (light in the Dominions' zone is magical in nature, see magic overview). Gravity does exist, but not in a form easily manipulated with technology, as occurs in some other Q-zones. No extra exotic forces or forms of matter or energy have been discovered as yet.
The upshot of all this is that technology based on the use of inanimate matter is quite low level in the Codoj. Admittedly, there are a wide variety of interesting materials of biological origin available, such as super-dense woods, plant fibres and animal furs with excellent insulating properties, airtight carapaces from certain large insectoids, and a variety of biological drugs, medicines, poisons, corrosives, lubricants, and adhesives. But there are no explosives, very little metal, and no artificial gravity. Unfortunately, all machines here must be purely mechanical in nature, and almost all are driven exclusively by muscle power."
The complete introductory science text can be obtained at any Codoj embassy.
Until recently, nobody in the Codoj had succeeded in constructing a device capable of propelling a ship across a quantum wall. The various attempts to create such a device, and its eventual discovery, are documented in the history section. In hindsight, it is obvious that the reason it took so long to create such a device was because everyone was searching for a way to propel a small spaceship at rapid velocities. This approach was based on solid theory, since every ship that had entered the zone had crossed the wall using a drive system, and common sense said that the bigger something was, the harder it was to accelerate.
As it turns out, the solution was to study the interactions between gravity and the quantum wall. The discovery of a very weak attractive force between gravity wells and quantum walls led to the development of a device to amplify the effect. The device must be placed in the gravitational center of the mass being moved, and will have no effect if there is no quantum wall nearby or if it is incorrectly calibrated. Although ship-states with a diameter as low as 980m have successfully made a transit with the aid of the device, the speed of transit drops in proportion to the diameter of the object being moved, making the transit of smaller objects impossible. WARNING: objects smaller than 2km in diameter may be lost during transit. Do not attempt to use the device on objects smaller than 2km in diameter.
As the diameter of the object increases, the device must be more and more precisely calibrated. At its current level of development, it is easiest to use the device on objects of ~11.2km in diameter, and the ease of use drops off linearly from then on. To date, the largest ship-state to make a crossing was 137km in diameter. It is not dangerous to attempt to use the device on larger ship-states; if not calibrated precisely enough, the device will simply have no effect.
Because the sentients of the Codoj Empire spend their time exclusively in space, they have developed a number of technologies to help them survive there. The most advanced of these are the spacesuits for the species that cannot survive on their own in a vacuum. The most complex types are made of a living mesh of plant and fungus fibres, are solar powered, recycle and filter the air in the suit, and may even recycle other wastes from the user. The basic living mesh used to build these suits is derived from some common varieties of plants and fungi which occur naturally in the outer (and more likely to be in vacuum) regions of ship-states. The various joints and other special pieces of a suit (like a clear faceplate) must be custom made for each species, and preferrably custom fitted to an individual.
There are a wide variety of organisms native to ship-states which are well adapted to life in a vacuum (including some sentients, like Ydmyn) or zero-G. Uses have been found for some of these organisms. For example, zavah-weed produces seed pods which propel themselves away from the parent plant using compressed gas. These fist-sized pods, if discharged in the right direction, can give a space-walker a solid push, and it is not uncommon to see several pods attached to the belts of sentients working outside. Other plants are used to make rope for safety lines, and some are cultivated as useful handholds on various surfaces.