Xenologic Report

Stardate: 80820.15

The Aliens, hence called Zerasu, found in the mission of the USS ATHENE to the Gazebo Star Cluster, about 150 lightyears outside the entrance to the Cocoon, are a species extremely peculiar.

Their biology is terribly complex and our studies are not conclusive. However there are a number of facts about it:

• there is a strong polymorphism between different 'casts' withing a colony;
• probably due to the natural adaptation to a very hostile and sterile environment (biologically and socially speaking), their blood is acidic, at least in some of the 'casts';
• communication is primarily telepathic.

A colony is some kind of superorganism. The 'cast' system follows the same line a single biological individual would: a coordinative center, a nutrition system, 'communications' system, defensive system, reproductive system and so on. There are several well differentiate casts:

• Command units (as they called them): about 2-2.5 meters long, black body, big arms and legs and long tail. They have strong mental abilities and are the most weighted part of the colony Mind. Very intelligent.
  
  They are sexed, and it is believed they have also reproductive tasks, at least for a period of time in their lives.
  
  
• Worker units: this is the 'muscle' of the colony. Almost as big as Command units (although there are different sizes, depending in the need of one or another type) they have shorter and stronger arms and legs, and they general aspect is more robust but less slender than Command units. Their mental abilities are not as powerful as of Command units' but there are exceptions.
  
  They are asexual and their primary mission is construction, care of the brood, distribution of food, resources, etc... Due to the big number, they are most of the 'mass' of the colony Mind. Quite intelligent (Human level).
  
  
• Hormones and Pheromones (units): small (like a chicken or a small dog) almost mindless units, whose main mission is serve as vehicle for 'higher' units when their abilities, due to the hostile environment, are diminished or neutralised. They serve as 'far arms, eyes and ears' for others. Feromones are smaller and faster than Hormones, as they have to work outside the colony, providing interaction with other colonies. They also work as messengers from within the colony, as the mind static levels are usually high, specially in some Places, and workers cannot directly broadcast their thoughts.
  
  
• Defensive units: medium size (between 1.5 to 2 meters), they are the hunters and defenders of the colony. Killing machines, the evolution has perfectioned a model that has to fight against others like it. Big sharp claws, powerful extremities, long slash tail, acidic blood; they are terrible warriors. There are several types of Defensives, according to the mission they have to fulfill. Their mental abilities are generally small. They are cleverer than intelligent, what make them excellent hunters (the ATHENE was attacked by some of these units, sent by a hostile, agressive Colony, and the report spoke by itself). Some units are designed to have reproductive capacity (the so called 'Queens', very big units) but their only brood is other defensives.
  
  Their biological cicle is very interesting, as they start living like hidden parasites inside an enemy body (inserted by some kind of 'octopus with long tail' biological vehicle) until they get out of it, eating and killing the host (usually behind the enemies' boundaries).

The Colony itself is a big labyrinth of underground tunnels organised in layers, both in depth and in radius to the center. The outer layer is the 'Skin' and it signals the boundaries of a given Colony. Depending on the specific situation there may be defensives patrolling the Skin. Then it comes the Inner Places 4, 3, 2 and 1. The organization is as follows: 4 for general living, 3 for machinery and food, 2 for food, reproductives and cubs and 1 for Command (the 'brain') and where the Command units stay.

A typical medium size Colony has 1 or 2 Command units, about 10 sexual units, 200-250 Hormones and feromones, about 400-500 Defensives and 2000-2500 Workers. Big Colonies, however, may have 'satellite' colonies in the area, giving a smashing number os units.

The individual units, in bigger or smaller amount, contribute to the Colony Mind. This is a joint state, some kind of permanent mind meld, where individuals loose their identity, somehow, creating a holistic structure where the total is bigger (much bigger indeed) than the sum of the parts. In this sense each Colony has its own personality (although, as said before, Command units have a great weigh in the decision proccess).

Politics between Colonies is a delicate matter, where wars and guerrilla are a usual matter, although also trade and cultural exchange. As many of the functions usually made by machines can be easily performed with their mental powers, the Aliens don't have a very sophisticated technology, but they certainly have technology.

Due to a crisis that was being cultivated in a very peculiar and conflictive area in the planet, crisis accelerated by the presence of the ATHENE, after a short but cruent war a new social structure was born. This structure, the LinkMind is some kind of SuperColonialHiveMind and bounds, by the time being, almost all the Colonies on the planet in a similar fashion as a single Colony. The energy output of this structure is so high we have speculated they could have 'pushed' the ATHENE back to orbit if that had been necessary.

This new social and biological stage makes them children again, at least in any important plane, and a long time will have to pass before a really unified planet can be presented to the Galactic Community.

Mental Abilities

The mental abilities the Aliens showed varied from a big range but we could identify at least the following:

Telepathy: every member was able to emit and receive telepathic emissions from a wide range of distances, depending on the location. Their telepathic emissions, instead being articulated as normal, were some kind of symbolic chuncks, with emotional attachments. Sentences were not constructed in a lexema basis but in a whole semantic diagram. Probably part of the farsensing ability (farspeaking/farthinking...telepathy)

Farsensing: by means of Hormones and Feromones, units can sense in the distance. The most powerful units can do that wothout any help, although the range of this phenomenum is rather short. Used specially to amplify natural senses in adverse envirionment conditions.

Redaction: a mental healing, mixture of curation and psychiatrics all in one. Extremely effective, as seen in some members of the ATHENE away team. Not every unit is able of this, as there is a 'Redactors Body' for this type of works.

Coercion: the ability to reach out other minds and make them do what you want. Only seen in some Command units.

Creativity: the LinkMind created dilithium crystal from the air to backup those taken from the Mining facility reactor in the case those didn't work. Also the creation of kinetic shields and even more powerful mind shields, capable of stopping a powerful explosion or the debris produced by this. (it is not known if this ability could be used in a personal fight, maybe the Defensives can force this personal shields) In the same way, the creation of beams of highly coherent, great flux density energy. Again only seen in Command units.

Maybe many more not aprehensible by human minds, as they may work in a very different level, the same way their minds work very differently. A species to follow with interest and curiosity, as we can learn a lot about ourselves learning about them.

Written by David Suarez