New fiction is posted first at My Livejournal before it appears here.
This information was originally posted in a friends-locked file in my Livejournal, but I'm providing it here for those readers unfamiliar with the Star Control universe and storyline. I've tried to make it as spoiler-free as I could, but a couple sneak through here or there, I'm sure. The following is more or less verbatim as originally presented in the Livejournal entry, with corrections added.
At Meriko's request, I've been typing up background for the Androsynth series. I now have five pages! five freaking pages! of background that I consider relevant. And I'm thinking to myself: do I really want to inflict this on someone via LiveJournal??
So without further ado...
This information is being presented as the relevant information for the Androsynth. Wherever possible, I'm sticking with canon, but I'm also listing my extrapolations for the sake of my Androsynth stories (shown by italics). Stuff that the Androsynth don't immediately learn, but is important for background information, is in bold.
2015: the "Little War" on Earth. Few details given in canon, but it was bad enough that the world forced demilitarization on itself. WMD gathered and stored in "Peace Vaults".
2019: Hsien Ho perfects cloning techniques at the Zurich BioTeknik, creating the Androsynth, or "Created Men". Almost immediately, anti-Androsynth movements spring up, stripping them of rights. Depending on individual nations and corporations, Androsynth are anything from second-class citizens to property.
2050: Colonization of the solar system begins. Orbiting factories and lunar bases established. Research begun on faster-than-light (FTL) drive, the only efficient way to travel between stars.
2078-2080: By now there are tens of thousands of Androsynth spread across Earth (none are off-planet). Many are employed in advanced R&D and scientific industries, and most harbor deep hatred toward humans, particularly the anti-Androsynth and "True Man" factions.
2080-2085: Star Control (the organization) is formed as the military wing of the UN, who for all intents and purposes is now the world government. Star Control covers army, navy, air force, and space fleet units.
2085: the Clone Revolt, a worldwide Androsynth rebellion. Assisted by a sympathetic human underground, the Androsynth capture nearly every spaceflight facility on the planet. Close to a thousand ships carry all Androsynth off-planet, and they capture the lunar and orbital facilities. After two months of unsuccessful sporadic attacks, the UN prepares to use its WMD, but before they are deployed, the orbital facilities, modified for spaceflight, and some ships head out of the Sol system. Upon reaching the edge of the system the ships "enter a great red hole over 500 meters across". This implies that the Androsynth developed hyperspace technology in secret, not just discovering that it could be done, but creating the hyperwarp drives and installing them in the ships and orbital facilities.
2085: the Androsynth establish a colony on Eta Vulpeculae 2. The Vulpeculae stars consist of a large greenish central star and six "sister" stars in a circle around it.
2110-2111: The Ur-Quan detect the Androsynth and move to attack them, defeating them after a few weeks of intense interplanetary conflict. This implies that EV2 never had direct combat, that it was all in space between ships.
2115: Humans meet their first alien race, the Chenjesu, a race of crystalline silicon-based aliens that look like large rock crystals. The Chenjesu are entirely non-aggressive, but very technologically advanced. They arrive to warn the Earthlings of the impending threat of the Ur-Quan, and they bring proof. After a few weeks, humanity joins the Chenjesu and other alien races to form the Alliance of Free Stars. The Alliance consists of the Chenjesu, Humans, Mmrnmhrm, Yehat, Shofixti, and unofficially the Syreen. More on them below.
2116: the Arilou join the Alliance just a few weeks after Earth does, surprising both the Humans and the Chenjesu at the meeting. Turns out they're the "greys" we know and love in the late 20th century.
2119: Captain Jeffrey Rand of the Miwok encounters the alien VUX while scouting and inadvertently offends them; the VUX delay joining the Alliance as a result and the Ur-Quan subjugate the VUX, who join the Hierarchy as Battle Thralls.
2120: the Ur-Quan fleets run smack into the combined might of the Shofixti and Yehat, supported by the first wave of Earthling cruisers, now equipped with Alliance hyperspace drives and WMD taken from the peace vaults (nukes in space!)
2121: the Ur-Quan find another independent alien race, the Mycon, who voluntarily join the Hierarchy as Battle Thralls.
2122: the Syreen join the Alliance after repeated attacks from Ur-Quan forces on Syreen Habitats.
2126-2134: the real war begins, with seven sentient member-species in each alliance. This is the period of the game Star Control 1: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan Conflict. The Androsynth lack the numbers to attack in force, but many Androsynth still fight for the sake of attacking "Earthlings" – their name for the humans who oppressed them.
2134: It becomes apparent that the Alliance is losing the war. The Hierarchy presses on.
2134: Captain Burton, her damaged Earth Cruiser "Tobermoon" fleeing from Androsynth craft, discovers the Precursor factory in a cave on Vela 2. A research team is sent to investigate. The planet is cut off from Earth by the advance of the Hierarchy. First Officer Chi takes command of Captain Burton's cruiser and returns to Earth; he is not heard from again. Earth does not know what has happened to the Tobermoon; it is assumed lost. The Androsynth believe the Tobermoon is destroyed and do not investigate Vela 2.
2134: The Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm fall to the Ur-Quan Hierarchy simultaneously, thanks to the Ur-Quan's vast and powerful warship known as the Sa-Matra.
2135: the Alliance forces slowly fall to the Hierarchy. Earth falls four weeks after the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm forces are defeated. A small armada of Ilwrath and Spathi ships are left behind to watch over the Humans; a starbase is erected outside Earth for refueling, repair and resupply of Hierarchy vessels. Earth is given a choice, the same choice given to all those defeated by the Ur-Quan: join the Hierarchy as Battle Thralls, and continue the Ur-Quan's enslavement advance throughout the galaxy, or be forever "protected" under a slave shield. Earth chooses the slave shield, and every monument older than 500 years is destroyed by orbital bombardment; all major tech and research centers are gutted. The slave shield then surrounds Earth: a dull red sphere that prevents Earth from sending or receiving any messages or visitors from space. Periodically, Hierarchy vessels arrive to shuttle new Human staff up to the starbase to replace those who die or can no longer function, but otherwise, Humans are now trapped forever on their own world, isolated from the universe. The Starbase is designed so that Hierarchy troops need never set foot on it, thus preventing Humans from gaining any weapons or ships through which they might defy the Hierarchy.
2135: The Arilou disappear. The Queen of the Yehat surrenders to the Hierarchy and goes so far as to join it. The Shofixti detonate a huge bomb in their star's photosphere, sending it nova and eliminating a huge number of Ur-Quan vessels (estimated between 800-1000 dreadnaughts), but also exterminating the entire Shofixti species. The helpless Syreen Habitats are harried by Ur-Quan forces until they surrender.
2135-2143: The Vela 2 colony (world name: Unzervalt, "our world") contines to grow, albeit slowly, and makes some amazing discoveries... and something... happens... to the Androsynth. The exact date is not given, and I won't give any spoilers here ;)
February 17, 2155: Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters begins.
The alien-race info might seem slim, but this is the most the Androsynth really needed to know most of the time.
The Ur-Quan Hierarchy gives each subjugated race an option: become Battle Thralls and assist in the enslavement of the galaxy, or live under a slave shield and be forever cut off ("protected") from the galaxy. Battle Thralls are allowed varying degrees of autonomy, as long as they hop-to whenever the Hierarchy says so. The Androsynth, for example, are mostly left alone after becoming Battle Thralls.
Members of the Ur-Quan Hierarchy include the following Battle Thralls:
The Mycon (MY-con): sort of an ambulatory fungus race, who like hellish environments of burning rock and poison vapors that would kill most other species.
The Spathi: Abject cowards who built their civilization around cowardice. Nobody is really sure why the Spathi became Battle Thralls, since they surrendered to the Ur-Quan after less than six hours of combat and hate fighting.
The Umgah (OOM-gah): all eyes, mouths, tentacles, and a nasty sense of humor that tends toward the fatal-practical-joke variety.
The VUX: very sensitive about their looks, which is why they took great offense toward Captain Rand's comment about VUX ugliness. (He didn't know they were listening. No, really.)
The Ilwrath: violent arachnid-type aliens who were uplifted by the Ur-Quan and now fully enjoy killing and torturing everything they come across.
The Androsynth: sterile human clones who sided with the Hierarchy to wreak vengeance on Earth. Androsynth look like humans, which is why there's no pictures of Androsynth or Humans in this background information; just look in a mirror.
The Alliance of Free Stars (now destroyed):
The Mmrnmhrm (MURR-nuh-hurrm): non-hostile mechanical beings assembled by some distant, and possibly long-ago, alien race. The Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm discovered each other fairly quickly and work together well.
The Yehat (YAY-haht): Ostensibly avian (they say they are) but they look more like pterodactyls; intensely martial society and the backbone of the Alliance starfleet.
The Shofixti (sho-FIX-tee): aggressive, ethical, fecund, and feisty, Shofixti reproduce like mad (they're marsupials, too) and come to maturity within two years. The Yehat uplifted the Shofixti and their "noble warlike tendencies"; to an Earthling, Shofixti culture resembles medieval Japan. Shofixti were advance scouts during the war, but are now extinct (as noted above).
The Syreen (SIGH-reen): from the Copernicus system; in 2035 a meteor strike caused cataclysms across their planet and killed off almost all the population, minus those Syreen in their Space Patrol and Habitats. Due to some quirks we won't go into here (and the loss of their homeworld), the Syreen gender ratios are incredibly lopsided, with many more females than males. The Syreen joined the Alliance, and later surrendered to the Hierarchy, because they couldn't do much else, what with their population all in slow-moving Habitats.How the Androsynth consider the Syreen, who resemble Humans but with different skin colors and other small quirks not readily visible, is anyone's guess, given how the Androsynth hate Humans.
The Ariloulaleelay (Arilou) (AR-ih-loo, AR-ih-loo-LA-lee-lay): the Arilou never mentioned much about themselves even to Earthlings, but it's suspected they're the ones who kept showing up between 1950 and 2000 and abducting people, mutilating cattle and the like.
The main Androsynth ship (developed after they left Earth and settled EV2) is the Guardian class ship. It's not terribly fast, but it didn't need to be until the war started in earnest. Guardians have two functions of note to their opponents. First, they fire auto-homing molecular acid bubbles, which sounds silly, but can really mess up an enemy ship. These bubbles can also act as a shield to protect the Guardian from incoming attacks. Second, the Guardian has a "comet" form, collapsing its levels into a more ball-like form, and blazing with energy on its outer skin. A skilled pilot can use the comet form to ram an enemy ship or attempt to escape (being somewhat faster in comet form). Comet form eats up fuel.
A Guardian can hold up to 15 crewmembers, four of which actually sit "up front" and steer, use the guns, etc. However, the layout of the bridge is such that a Guardian can be flown, albeit inefficiently, by one crewmember acting alone.
Androsynth names: all names given in Star Control 2 for Androsynth are alphanumeric, e.g. KORB-7B and XRT-71 and the like. Since this is inconvenient in everyday life, I've extrapolated that the Androsynth came up with nicknames; also, to ease the reminder that they're clones in model series rather that complete individuals.
Telluric World ("Telluric" is a fancy way of saying "Terrestrial" or "Earthlike")
At the beginning of Star Control 2, EV2 has 13 Androsynth "cities" on it, all in temperate or equatorial regions. No names are given. There is one huge landmass that covers from nearly pole to pole, and a smaller one. There isn't as much water as on Earth, which is considered a water world compared to this one.
EV2 has one moon, no name given in SC2. EV2's moon is cold, low gravity, with whoppingly bad tectonics (think constant quakes of all sizes) and is possibly tide-locked with EV2. It's smaller compared to EV2 than Luna is to Earth. EV2's moon is yellowish.
Uplifting/Uplifted: to uplift a species or race is to bring them forward to your level of technology, or close to it. Humans weren't uplifted, because humans already had limited space travel when they were contacted by the Chenjesu. The Shofixti were uplifted, because they were in a pre-industrial state when the Yehat found them; the Yehat gave them technology and mentored them into space travel (all of which the Shofixti possibly were not ready for).
Androsynth-related quotes, mostly canon:
Canon states that Androsynth are sterile, unable to reproduce. The last time any Androsynth could have been created was in 2085, but all Androsynth left at that time, so that implies none had been created for a while in the years running up to 2085. In 2110 - twenty-five years later - the Ur-Quan defeat the Androsynth. In 2134 - twenty-four years after that - Androsynth vessels attack the Tobermoon near the Vela system. Adding it up, this means Androsynth were still hale and hearty for at least fifty years after leaving Earth!
Even assuming the last Androsynth created were only in their early to mid fifties, that still means they're able to do an awful lot: pilot starships, grow crops, build cities... without ever increasing their numbers. They obviously weren't dying out of old age during the war with the Alliance. Therefore, I've extrapolated that the Androsynth were genetically engineered to be long-lived; they're resistant to cancers, diseases, and aging. Because of personal preference, my Androsynth don't senesce (age) like Earthlings do: they just stop aging after a while. Therefore, Androsynth in my stories appear to be in their twenties to forties, maybe a few in their fifties, despite some of them being possibly over a hundred years old and still doing fine.
Canon materials note the Androsynth heavily researched dimensional fatigue (the stuff that causes portals to and from hyperspace to happen) and reproductive matters, particularly on EV2. They hadn't made any progress on it by 2135, and that's with seventy-some years of research time, minus time to set up their colony, get food stocks started, start mining and industry, build ships and cities... Current, 2004-level cloning always requires eggs (ova) to produce a clone, even with a hideous failure rate. Ova are sex cells. The easiest way to prevent reproduction of any kind with an Androsynth would be to prevent sex cells from even forming. Thus, the Androsynth in my stories are completely sterile - and that is probably the sticking point in their quest for reproduction: without any ova or sperm, how can they create clones of themselves, much less reproduce naturally? And since their bodies can't make sex cells, the Androsynth researchers are stuck with trying to create sex cells from non-sex cells - a bitter, uphill and probably futile battle.
Also extrapolated: their lack of sexual interest. It's not that Androsynth couldn't be sexual beings; but my own thought was, rather than have Androsynth get tangled up in human relationship politics, frustrations over lack of children, etc., and to make them "less human" in the eyes of their creators, Androsynth sex drives were GMed into their work ethic: work gives them a general, overall good feeling. They're not interested in sex, but very good at whatever they dedicate themselves to. Of course, this will have to change if they're ever going to reproduce...
Note that the above doesn't mean they can't form relationships with people, and friendships (and maybe more) are not out of the question. It's just very unlikely, given the modifications to their genes.
Because of the odd throwaway canon line above - Many are employed in advanced R&D industries - I gathered that the Androsynth were designed to be "brain slaves". In this way, a research facility would have highly intelligent, adaptable, hardworking employees who wouldn't have any annoying down time due to family or illness.
I'd write more, but I've got to go to bed and I hope this isn't too much already. Meriko, I did this for you. ^_^ I'd love it if you joined me in writing for this, but I also realize it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Comments? Email me: laridian at aol dot com
"Ur-Quan" is pronounced both as "UR-kwan" and "OOR-kwan" in Star Control 2.
The Chenjesu (chen-JESS-oo): already covered above.
Orbital Radius: 2.04 AU (distance from Earth to Sol is 1 AU)
Atmospheric Pressure: 1.44 Earth-standard.
Temperature: Average surface temperature is 28 Centigrade (82F, which means equatorial has gotta be hot; the planet appears to have no ice caps).
Weather: Fairly mild (e.g. not too hard to live with)
Tectonics: Fairly mild (about the same as Earth, we'll assume)
Mass: .71 Earth-standard.
Radius: .90 Earth-standard.
Gravity: .88 G (slightly less than Earth, but not enough to make a difference in average everyday life)
Axial Tilt: 12 degrees (not much seasonal difference; Earth's tilt is 21 degrees, so EV2 has less noticeable seasons)
Length of Day: 1.22 Earth-standard (more hours! Or each "hour" is longer, thus each "minute" is longer... more hours might be easier)
GM: Genetic modification.
Hyperspace: FTL travel. Hyperspace is a bit fickle; every star creates a gravity well around itself that is visible in hyperspace, and if you cross or come near that gravity well you "drop out" of hyperspace and into that star system. Even passing ships create gravity wells that can cause your ship to drop out of hyperspace and into truespace. The nature of hyperspace prevents communication outside the ship, and you can't even identify other ships by sight while in hyperspace. Hyperspace has been "discovered" independently by many species.
Truespace: What everyone's planets, solar systems, and lives are based in.
Wonky Constellation Names: Readers of "Pork & Beans" may note that Nick muses on how the Vulpeculae system used to be called the Pleiades. The Vulpeculae system consists of seven stars, and the Pleiades known to us are seven stars (actually several hundred, but only six or seven visible to the naked eye). Somehow, despite wars between alien races, everyone has agreed upon the constellations set apart by hyperspace coordinates and Chenjesu astronomy. The UN chose to use traditional names, but reassigned at random. Yes, this is an error in "Pork & Beans". I'm working on it.
The Exodus: My name for the Androsynth mass emigration from Earth to Eta Vulpeculae system. This name is not canon.
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