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| Sebaceans |
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Sebaceans
are carbon-based bipeds, not very large nor strong nor particularly resistant to injury.
What they lack in strength, however, they more than make up for in number and
intelligence... and, in the case of Peacekeepers, cunning.
Sebaceans have a weakness to heat. Warm temperatures that most other lifeforms can
tolerate can be deadly to Sebaceans: delirium sets in, followed by what they term the
"Living Death" -- a comatose state from which there is no return.
Peacekeepers are predominantly Sebacean. However, there are many
Sebacean-inhabited planets with no military presence whatever. Farming and commerce are
the principal pursuits of non-Peacekeeper Sebaceans.
However, most Sebaceans we've encountered -- such as Officer Aeryn Sun and Captain Bialar
Crais -- are Peacekeepers.
Although John Crichton could easily pass for Sebacean, he claims he is not -- he is
another species entirely, one he calls Human. Humans, he says, are much less technically
advanced than Sebaceans; Humans all still live on only one planet ("Earth," the
location of which Crichton does not know). Humans are also much more heat-tolerant than
Sebaceans; they have no direct equivalent to the Sebacean Living Death. |
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| Tavleks |
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The
Tavleks are a species of battle-scarred mercenaries who kidnapped Rygel to gain a ransom.
They wear fearsome energy weapons called Gauntlets that operate through direct neural
control. Each Gauntlet also dispenses a drug into its user; the Tavleks call it a
"stimulant," but it exerts some mental control as well, heightening anger,
aggression, and recklessness to dangerous levels. Worse still, the drug is also highly
addictive.
When the Tavleks captured Rygel, we captured Kyr, a young male. Zhaan attempted to
befriend him and asked him why the Tavleks kidnapped people. Kyr told her it was for
money, that money buys provisions from trading ships that happen by -- and the Tavleks
would never survive on their harsh jungle planet otherwise.
According to Kyr, the Tavleks live on this inhospitable world because they were exiled
there; Kyr has never even seen his homeworld. Long before Kyr was born, the Tavleks went
to war; their leaders created an elite regiment to invade their enemy's capitol. The
soldiers were given the best weapons available -- the Gauntlets -- and were halfway to the
enemy system when their leaders caved in and negotiated a settlement. The soldiers refused
to accept this; they still wanted to fight. When they refused to abandon their mission,
they were stranded upon the jungle planet, and the regiment fragmented into armed camps.
Bekhesh, the leader of Kyr's camp, told Kyr that one day they'll reunite the regiment and
go back to their homeworld to overthrow those who betrayed them. However, I doubt this
will ever happen because the Tavlek exiles are much too barbaric. Even young Kyr betrayed
Zhaan's trust and actually injured a DRD to get a tool to pick a lock with. Zhaan and I
fear the drug in the Gauntlets will forever keep the Tavleks violent and savage. |
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| ILANICS |
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Ilanics
are bipeds, genetically related to Luxans. (As Crichton puts it, you'd never mistake an
Ilanic for a Luxan, but there's a family resemblance.) According to D'Argo, Luxans and
Ilanics have been blood allies for over a thousand cycles.
Ilanics are long-time enemies of another species, the Scorvians, and are presently at war
with them. Verell, the Ilanic scientist who came aboard Moya with his assistant Matala,
told D'Argo that the Scorvians launched an unprovoked attack on an outlying Ilanic colony
and slaughtered two million civilians. (D'Argo believes this utterly, but I suspect
Verell's view is naturally somewhat slanted.)
Though Luxans and Ilanics have a mutual treaty, evidently it doesn't require that Luxans
join the war on the Ilanic side (although D'Argo was willing to volunteer to do so). Luxan
involvement in the Ilanic-Scorvian war consists of limited aid -- troops, armament, and so
forth.
Ilanics and Scorvians both appear to be devious warriors. There are Scorvians, in fact,
who have undergone extensive genetic surgery in order to masquerade as Ilanics for
infiltration, intelligence gathering, and sabotage. |
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| DENEANS |
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We needed
to find the element Clorium to assist in emergency surgery to Moya's neural nexus. But
when Crichton, Aeryn, and D'Argo went searching for some on a planet's surface, they
discovered that the planet was populated by non-spacefaring bipeds called Deneans.
Crichton met one of the local females, Lyneea, along with her young son, Fostro.
Crichton later told me how astonished he was to discover how similar their planet's
cultural development was to that of the "humans" on his home world. Lyneea's
people had not yet conclusively discovered the existence of intelligent life outside of
their own planet, much less met any such lifeforms. Hence, the sight of an alien like
Crichton came as quite a shock to them -- and the sight of D'Argo was an even greater
shock.
The paranoid reaction of their military -- capturing D'Argo for study and eventual
dissection -- leads me to conclude that Deneans are still rather primitive, but Crichton
disagrees with me. Crichton insists that Lyneea and her son are probably much more typical
examples of the Denean species: they overcame their initial fear and were genuinely
enthralled at the notion of meeting extraterrestrial beings.
In fact, Crichton feels oddly honored to have been the Deneans' "first contact."
I was compelled to point out that the Deneans, whether they were aware of it or not, must
have had prior contact with "alien" lifeforms... after all, Crichton and D'Argo
spoke to them. How could Lyneea and Fostro have understood what they were saying unless
Deneans possessed Translator Microbes? And how could they have obtained those Translator
Microbes unless they'd already been visited by a spacefaring race? Or... perhaps
Translator Microbes are indigenous to their world -- and the Deneans don't even know it.
Whatever the cause, neither Crichton nor I have any definitive explanation... and, alas,
probably never will... |
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