Challenge #02566-G009: All About Where You Stand
I want to see a Havenworlder from a high grav planet. Dense and tough by necessity from the environment, but with absolutely nothing dangerous in to it in its home planet. No rough terrain to fall down, plentiful food without any toxins that effect it, gentle weather that never bothers it, etc. – Anon Guest
Gravity is usually necessary for life to evolve. Most life comes to become on planets, with a rare few becoming in lower gravity environments that are also sealed against the greater vacuum of space. More often than not, life occurs on a planet of One Standard Gravity[1] or thereabouts. There are many more worlds in the universe with higher than One Standard Gravity. Statistically speaking, some of those are Havenworlds.
Of the Heavyworld species, the most famous intelligent species is the Gaux. They are not Havenworlders. Their struggle to the stars included the Two Standard Gravity environment that was their homeworld. THey have been described as looking like “the unlikely progeny of a centaur and a rhinoceros.” Humans sometimes refer to them as “the headless centaur ones”. They are a species from the highest known gravity environment.
Heavyworlders are less likely to follow the anthropoid[2] model. They are more likely to be quadrupedal. They are more likely to have robust frames. They are less likely to be Havenworlders. That said, there are statistical anomalies everywhere. Picture in your mind a more muscular variant of the hippo, roughly the size of a domestic pig. In the place of an animal’s head, the stub of a torso rises up in something that was not quite a head, but served the purpose thereof.
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Challenge #02564-G007: Determination and Caffeine
A planet with a mix of deathworlders and havenworlders, one of the few planets to have such a mixed colony, is struck by an unusual virus. For the havenworlders, it’s painful, it makes them very, very sick, but it is survivable, mostly. Though there have been casualties and other side-effects. For the deathworlders, it’s just as painful, but worse, the virus is mostly fatal if contracted. And the survivors are usually in very bad shape. The disease is also, unfortunately, extremely contagious between the two populations. And, contrary to what some conspiracy people are trying to spread, it’s a natural virus, native to their world.
The entire planet is under quarantine, and it’s a race against the clock to save as many as possible. But some who are starting to panic with the rumors it could escape off-world are considering a very unpalatable solution indeed. Abandon the colony, scorch all that’s there, and label the planet uninhabitable due to its virology. Now it comes down to who can be saved, or will fear get its way? – Anon Guest
The good news was that there was a ninety percent survival rate with moderate medical intervention. The bad news was the close to hundred percent infection rate, and the panic surrounding that. There was nothing like a pandemic to create an equal pandemic of panic amongst the populace. What was odd was the difference between the Havenworlders and the Humans who were suffering. The Humans, usually steadfast and patently unkillable, were dying from the disease. Well. Complications from the disease. They were the ones who needed more severe medical intervention. They were the ones for whom early diagnosis made the difference.
Humans had been through this sort of thing before. The instant that the virus proved to be deadlier for them than anyone else, they initiated severe protocols. Neighbourhoods, then houses, then family members were isolated behind barriers and sterile environments. The knowledge of how it spread was as vital as the knowledge of how to defeat it. So far, the best option for Humanity was to avoid catching it in the first place.
The Havenworlders sharing the planet with them were paranoid. If the disease killed Deathworlders, then what hope did they have? The news that it used the Humans’ “kill or cure” immune system against them did not hearten the S'sithans facing the disease. Many feared death. More feared spreading the plague to the remainder of the Galactic Alliance.
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Challenge #02563-G006: Little, Quiet, Troublesome
There were three humans aboard this ship. As big as it was, and with the size of the crew, even with three they had their hands full! Still, it wasn’t a bad job, pay was good and they saw some of the most beautifully unexplored worlds. Two of the humans were burly individuals, boisterous and active. During down time they always headed to one of the storage areas that had been converted to a game room to burn off steam playing racket-ball, badminton, or work out with the free-weights.
But then there was the third person. They were quiet, polite, unassuming. During down time they read, or worked with their companion learning the history, and language, both oral and written, of the crew they were with, something they did with every crew he ever worked for. In violent encounters, they were likely to stay back and let the larger, stronger, humans handle it and direct their efforts into helping their crewmates stay calm and get them to safety. But you know what they say, look out for the little guy. Because when the pirate attacked the ship and his companion was badly wounded, this small, unassuming, human makes the big ones look like gentle teddy bears compared to their rage. – DaniAndShali
Humans are pack animals, and they will bond with anything. They will even bond with inanimate objects. They’re that good at bonding with others. It has long since been advised that any ship should have a minimum of two compatible Humans on board. The Touring Trader had three. Two large ones who lived up to the expectations of Deathworlder violence on the daily, and one… who did not.
They called him Pip, though knowing Humans, it was either an extreme shortening of a much longer, much more complicated name… or an in-joke that only fellow Humans would understand or even find funny. He was the quiet one. During bonding times, he preferred to sit quietly and read while other Companions shared the same space. Sometimes, he would share snippets he found funny.
He liked creating things, working on clockwork constructions when he wasn’t on duty. Designing them on paper and tweaking the printed results in his little workshop. Even he joked that he was the Invisible Human, so quiet that he passed under everyone else’s radar. Nevertheless, the bigger Humans, Jo and Del, joked that everyone should “watch out for” Pip, as the most dangerous Human on board.
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Challenge #02562-G005: The Work Around
A disabled human (“invisible” disability) from a…less than understanding society, grown to adulthood and full of the painful little quirks and habits that one develops in order to survive that situation, encounters a member of the Galactic Alliance. A member of the Galactic Alliance who isn’t sure what to do with a deathworlder who apologizes for displaying distress, and cries from joy when not berated for showing signs of pain when “there’s nothing wrong” – Anon Guest
They call me Human Kaz, and I’m never going back home. Some say home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. Others say that home is a state of mind. Still more reckon that home is anywhere you find the people who get you. I like the last one.
Where I’m from? The people who get me don’t count as people. They’re called ‘critters’ by most and 'space critters’ by everyone else. Everyone’s supposed to know what’s meant when it’s said. Me? I never quite got the hang of it. I never quite got the hang of a lot of things.
I never got the hang of casual metaphor. I’ve always interpreted things literally first. I never got the hang of telling who was laughing with me and who was laughing at me. I never got the hang of telling the difference. In places with the wrong kinds of noise, I have to lipread just to hear what people are saying. At minimum, I have to stare at their mouths as they talk. It helps me focus on the right sounds. I’ve tested badly in the past and -to be honest- it took me working my heart to a cinder in order to get to Farreach Station. The furthest outpost my people were ever willing to go to. It was there that my life changed.
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Challenge #02561-G004: Soft Protection
Cuddly-Pie, Uplift, the name said it all, designed as an accessory/servant. now acts as Companion,Escort, Shield for those humans needing a Buffer and Shield when moving about or interacting with life. The Shield works both ways. – Anon Guest
Augment – a non-cogniscent species given cusp-cogniscence at a genetic level before gestation and training after birth in order to be an engineered assistive animal, usually sterile and made for assisting one person. Uplift – a non-cogniscent species given post-birth retrogenetic treatments and surgeries to give them cogniscent qualities. Many are not sterilised and are kept in indentures to ensure their progeny can become Uplifted like them. – Galactic Alliance Definitions For Newcomers.
Augments are made for a function, Uplifts -once freed from servitude- can choose what they do. Cuddly-Pie chose to be a Shield. An Escort, protector, or companion for those who needed it. They expected to be escorting Havenworlders, and for the most part, that was their job. A safe and comforting barrier between more delicate species and the rest of the known universe.
What Cuddly-Pie hadn’t expected was Humans who needed them too. It was something of a surprise to find one of their creator-species waiting in the comforting lounge for them. They were not small, and they didn’t appear to be weak. They appeared to be an average human. Average brown skin, average dark eyes, average height, and average weight. What was not average was the way they curled up on themselves in a corner of the lounge, a large fluffy pillow clutched to the knees like a bulwark against the rest of the known universe. “Human… Jaime?” risked Cuddly-Pie.
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