Bloodstar: Star Corpsman: Book One Read Online Free Page B
Author: Ian Douglas
unusual for him. “The Qesh,” he said.
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Encyclopedia Galactica/Xenospecies Profile
Entry: Sentient Galactic Species 23931
“Qesh”
Qesh, Qesh’a, Imperial Qesh, Los Imperiales, “Jackers,” “Imps”
Civilization Type: 1.165 G
TL 20: FTL, Genetic Prostheses, Quantum Taps, Relativistic Kinetic Conversion
Societal Code : JKRS
Dominant: clan/hunter/warrior/survival
Cultural library: 5.45 x 10 16 bits
Data Storage/Transmission DS/T : 2.91 x 10 11 s
Biological Code : 786.985.965
Genome : 4.2 x 10 9 bits; Coding/non-coding: 0.019.
Biology : C, N, O, S, S 8 , Ca, Cu, Se, H 2 O, PO 4
TNA
Diferrous hemerythrin proteins in C 17 H 29 COOH circulatory fluid.
Mobile heterotrophs, carnivores, O 2 respiration.
Septopedal, quad- or sextopedal locomotion.
Mildly gregarious, polygeneric [2 genera, 5 species]; trisexual.
Communication: modulated sound at 5 to 2000 Hz and changing color patterns.
Neural connection equivalence NCE = 1.2 x 10 14
T = ~300º to 470º K; M = 4.3 x 10 5 g; L: ~5.5 x 10 9 s
Vision: ~5 micrometers to 520 nanometers, Hearing : 2 to 6000 Hz
Member: Galactic Polylogue
Receipt galactic nested code: 1.61 x 10 12 s ago
Member: R’agch’lgh Collective
Locally initiated contact 1.58 x 10 12 s ago
Star F1V; Planet: Sixth
a = 2.4 x 10 11 m; M = 2.9 x 10 19 g; R = 2.1 x 10 7 m; p = 2.7 x 10 6 s
P d = 3.2 x 10 7 s, G = 25.81 m/s 2
Atm: O 2 26.4, N 2 69.2, CO 2 2.5, CO 2.1, SO 2 0.7, at 2.5 x 10 5 Pa
Librarian’s note : First direct human contact occurred in 2188 C.E. at Gamma Ophiuchi. Primary culture now appears to be nomadic predarian, and is extremely dangerous. Threat level = 1.
We’d all downloaded the data on the Qesh, of course, as part of our Marine training. Know your enemy and all of that. Humans had first run into them fifty-nine years ago, when the Zeng He , a Chinese exploration vessel, encountered them while investigating a star system ninety-some light years from Sol. The Zeng He ’s AI managed to get off a microburst transmission an instant before the ship was reduced to its component atoms. The signal was picked up a few years later by a Commonwealth vessel in the area and taken back to Earth, where it was studied by the Encyclopedian Library at the Mare Crisium facility on the moon. The Zeng He ’s microburst had contained enough data to let us find the Qesh in the ocean of information within the Encylopedia Galactica and learn a bit about them.
We knew they were part of the R’agch’lgh Collective, the Galactic Empire , as the news media insisted on calling it. We knew they were from a high-gravity world, that they were big, fast, and mean.
And with the ongoing collapse of the Collective, we knew they’d become predarians.
The net media had come up with that word, a blending of the words predators and barbarians . That was unfortunate, since in our culture barbarian implies a relatively low technology; you expect them to be wearing shaggy skins, horned helmets, and carrying whopping big swords in their primary manipulators, looking for someone to pillage.
As near as we could tell, they were predators, both genetically and by psychological inclination. Their societal code, JKRS—which is where “Jackers,” one of their popular nicknames, had come from—suggested that their dominant culture was organized along clan/family lines, that they’d evolved from carnivorous hunters, that they considered themselves to be warriors and possessed what might be called a warrior ethos, and, perhaps the most chilling, that they possessed an essentially Darwinian worldview—survival of the fittest, the strong deserve to live. The fact that their technological level allowed them to accelerate asteroid-sized rocks to near- c and slam them into a planet was a complementary extra.
These guys had planet-killers.
The Crisium librarians thought— guessed would be the more accurate term—that the Qesh constituted some sort of military elite within the R’agch’lgh
Download
Encyclopedia Galactica/Xenospecies Profile
Entry: Sentient Galactic Species 23931
“Qesh”
Qesh, Qesh’a, Imperial Qesh, Los Imperiales, “Jackers,” “Imps”
Civilization Type: 1.165 G
TL 20: FTL, Genetic Prostheses, Quantum Taps, Relativistic Kinetic Conversion
Societal Code : JKRS
Dominant: clan/hunter/warrior/survival
Cultural library: 5.45 x 10 16 bits
Data Storage/Transmission DS/T : 2.91 x 10 11 s
Biological Code : 786.985.965
Genome : 4.2 x 10 9 bits; Coding/non-coding: 0.019.
Biology : C, N, O, S, S 8 , Ca, Cu, Se, H 2 O, PO 4
TNA
Diferrous hemerythrin proteins in C 17 H 29 COOH circulatory fluid.
Mobile heterotrophs, carnivores, O 2 respiration.
Septopedal, quad- or sextopedal locomotion.
Mildly gregarious, polygeneric [2 genera, 5 species]; trisexual.
Communication: modulated sound at 5 to 2000 Hz and changing color patterns.
Neural connection equivalence NCE = 1.2 x 10 14
T = ~300º to 470º K; M = 4.3 x 10 5 g; L: ~5.5 x 10 9 s
Vision: ~5 micrometers to 520 nanometers, Hearing : 2 to 6000 Hz
Member: Galactic Polylogue
Receipt galactic nested code: 1.61 x 10 12 s ago
Member: R’agch’lgh Collective
Locally initiated contact 1.58 x 10 12 s ago
Star F1V; Planet: Sixth
a = 2.4 x 10 11 m; M = 2.9 x 10 19 g; R = 2.1 x 10 7 m; p = 2.7 x 10 6 s
P d = 3.2 x 10 7 s, G = 25.81 m/s 2
Atm: O 2 26.4, N 2 69.2, CO 2 2.5, CO 2.1, SO 2 0.7, at 2.5 x 10 5 Pa
Librarian’s note : First direct human contact occurred in 2188 C.E. at Gamma Ophiuchi. Primary culture now appears to be nomadic predarian, and is extremely dangerous. Threat level = 1.
We’d all downloaded the data on the Qesh, of course, as part of our Marine training. Know your enemy and all of that. Humans had first run into them fifty-nine years ago, when the Zeng He , a Chinese exploration vessel, encountered them while investigating a star system ninety-some light years from Sol. The Zeng He ’s AI managed to get off a microburst transmission an instant before the ship was reduced to its component atoms. The signal was picked up a few years later by a Commonwealth vessel in the area and taken back to Earth, where it was studied by the Encyclopedian Library at the Mare Crisium facility on the moon. The Zeng He ’s microburst had contained enough data to let us find the Qesh in the ocean of information within the Encylopedia Galactica and learn a bit about them.
We knew they were part of the R’agch’lgh Collective, the Galactic Empire , as the news media insisted on calling it. We knew they were from a high-gravity world, that they were big, fast, and mean.
And with the ongoing collapse of the Collective, we knew they’d become predarians.
The net media had come up with that word, a blending of the words predators and barbarians . That was unfortunate, since in our culture barbarian implies a relatively low technology; you expect them to be wearing shaggy skins, horned helmets, and carrying whopping big swords in their primary manipulators, looking for someone to pillage.
As near as we could tell, they were predators, both genetically and by psychological inclination. Their societal code, JKRS—which is where “Jackers,” one of their popular nicknames, had come from—suggested that their dominant culture was organized along clan/family lines, that they’d evolved from carnivorous hunters, that they considered themselves to be warriors and possessed what might be called a warrior ethos, and, perhaps the most chilling, that they possessed an essentially Darwinian worldview—survival of the fittest, the strong deserve to live. The fact that their technological level allowed them to accelerate asteroid-sized rocks to near- c and slam them into a planet was a complementary extra.
These guys had planet-killers.
The Crisium librarians thought— guessed would be the more accurate term—that the Qesh constituted some sort of military elite within the R’agch’lgh
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