Slomon K'hara

Assistant Jack Hammond, Altair Research Facility

To begin to understand the K'hara we must first look back to the very first specimen created, the K'hara progenitor. In order to understand that, though, we must also understand what the Daam K’Vosh were capable of. Based solely on the technological feats their civilization was capable of, one could say that they were indeed masters of the baryonic world; the ability to manipulate matter at its most basic level to perform what would only be described as magic by today’s standards. From this knowledge, it would lend itself to the understanding that the Daam K’Vosh also understood the underlying mechanics of life. The ability to forge life from the matter of the heavens around them would signify their mastery of the universe.

The very first K'hara was most likely a synthetic organism, one that arose from the hands of the Daam K’Vosh instead of forming through natural, chaotic means. Assembled with the assistance of fantastically-advanced nanofabrication processes, atom by atom, molecule by molecule, the K'hara Progenitor Cell was brought to life with the start of a simple, self-sustaining chemical process that thrived on a substrate of similar composition to that found in what is now known as Cardamine. This Progenitor Cell would already have its complete chromosome, the set of genetic instructions that allowed it to function and multiply, but would also be malleable and easily modified by its Daam K’Vosh overseers to fulfill whatever conceivable needs it would require. Though relatively simple, no different than what we would classify as a protist, the cell’s capabilities would expand exponentially as hurdles were reached and overcome. As it continued to grow and multiply, the colony would begin to take on characteristics of a eukaryotic, multi-cellular organism: a communal organism with distribution of resources amongst each cell, distinct tissue layers with specialized functions, and the development of a central nervous system. The chromosome was adapted to accommodate the ever-changing capacity of information, assembling itself

into a toroidal supercoil to fit within the nucleus. As more generations passed the last recognizable form of the K'hara would become complete, the final product of the Daam K’Vosh that took to the stars of the Sirius Sector.

The Progenitor Cell

The final form of the K'hara Progenitor Cell was exquisite in its simplicity, a unit of creation. Intended to grow within a stable environment (such as those found within K'hara Spawning Pods), the cellular components were primarily organic; a phospholipid bilayer separated the internal environment form the external, the cytoplasm consisted of organic and inorganic compounds, and the genetic material was sequestered away in a nucleus. The double-stranded DNA was highly conserved, composed primarily of strong-bonding purine bases in the coding sequences, profound guanine-cytosine expression within structural RNA,and enhanced use of charged residues and aromatic (conjugated ring structure) residues; the use of novel nucleic acid analogues expanded the potential for storage of coding information by allowing base-pairs beyond adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thyamine. Efficient polymerases were capable of creating high-fidelity copies of the chromosome, with no potential in errors due to a range of proofreading proteins. Surrounding the nucleus is an array of high throughput protein ‘factories’, capable of churning out protein structures at an incredible rate before being packaged into phospholipid vesicles for transport throughout the cell. The most advanced of these protein factories, though, were capable of shuffling and

combining individual atoms to form heavier elements, utilizing their own protein structure as a template; protons, neutrons, and electrons, coupled with high metabolic energy, could be combined to synthesize complex matter. For each element that was known by Daam K’Vosh, a protein existed to shuffle these components and combine them; the chromosome possessed ample room to encode them.

Each Progenitor Cell was, in a sense, a form of stem cell. Each contained the entire genetic code of the K'hara, and these genes could be switched on and off as per their needs. Through chemical cues, they could be directed to multiply and form a whole, mature K'hara with distinct tissue layers and organs; depending on the roles that needed to be fulfilled, a K'hara could remain a ‘fluid’ entity with the ability to assume many different forms.

Cardamine

Cardamine grass was engineered by the Daam K’Vosh to serve as stable source of organic compounds for K'hara; it would be easier and much-less energy intensive to incorporate these into their anatomy than to assemble the compounds from scratch. Distinct enzyme co-factors are synthesized by Cardamine grass that assists in a K'hara’s physiological mechanisms, and the plant itself is capable of extracting and concentrating trace elements from the soil to be used in higher-level functions.

Though the plant matter itself is indigestible to humans, extracts of the enzyme co-factors act on their molecular receptors in beneficial, and adverse, ways. The enzymes are capable of acting as a genetic template within an adult stem cell, modifying telomeric activity to yield stable chromosome structures that will not fall victim to replication degredation; they also tend to show a high affinity for specific gene promoter sequences, upregulating the synthesis of RNA strands that lead to proteins involved in regenerative functions. When consumption of Cardamine ceases, though, the rapid decrease in the levels of gene expression lead to a cellular ‘crisis’ as a negative-feedback mechanisms force apoptosis and cell death; a massive flow of cancer signals generate a severe auto-immune response that causes a human’s immune

system to attack its own body

One critical drawback to Cardamine use in humans involves inhibition of gametogenic cells; meiotic division found in sperm and egg cells are prevented by the action of the co-factors in Cardamine grass, resulting in sterility.

Cardamine is a grass grown specifically for the K'hara by the Daam K'vosh. There are only two planets in all of Sirius that are successful in growing Cardamine, Planet Malta, and Planet Soledad. The blades of the grass are tall, thin, orange in color and are not edible to humans in its native form but are to K'hara. Outcasts have spent years studying, researching and finally they came up with some processes that turn the inedible grass into an orange inhaleable gas or ingestible liquid. The effects of this processed Cardamine are increased lifespan, greater strength and additional sensory enhancements than normal humans, at the cost of permanent DNA changes that result in lifelong addiction to Cardamine and significantly reduced reproduction. Whether Outcasts can produce offspring at all remains to be seen. It has been suggested that the Cardamine helps the K'hara to sense the Outcasts as different to other humans. There seems to be a curiosity on the K'hara's part about these "human-like creatures" that 'smell' like the grass the K'hara ingest.

The effects of Cardamine on K'hara are similar to Humans with one difference; Cardamine is not addictive and purely beneficial to K'hara. The grass form increases the energy storage, flow capacity, photosynthetic processes and functions of the K'hara body systems, while the processed form does the same only slightly less effectively on K'hara. It has been suggested by some of Palman scientists/theorists that the K'hara once grazed the fields of Malta.

Physical Parameters

With such an amazing and complex biology, the ability of the Slomon K’Hara to change form is not surprising. Physical parameters can change at will and are limited by the collective knowledge of the K’Hara. Humans have viewed several different forms of K’Hara in space, and the existence of the incubi proves that K'hara adapt to almost any situation or purpose. Different roles within Slomon K’Hara society also cause differentiation in certain forms and abilities. (See the “Castes” section for more information.) Shifts and cycles (explained later) denote when K’Hara make major changes to their physical parameters on a grand scale.

Environment

K’Hara rarely inhabit planets. Even then, they do not settle on the surface, but rather construct massive underground structures, as observed on Planet Xerna. Going further through the planetary crust, they are able to expose the core and use it as the energy source, a concept somewhat similar to the infamous Dyson Sphere but on a much smaller scale.

Stations:

Dur-Shurrikun

Named after Assyrian capital city the K’Hara superstructure is the source of the contradicting rumors that are quietly spreading in edge worlds among the travelers.

A majestic alien city in the midst of open space covered in a strange mist. Though largely considered as fairy tales, they share one in common: it does exist. It is what K’Hara refer to themselves as a "city of light" and other varieties. The K’Hara city acts as central node for Mindshare, a nexus and a stabilizer. Unlike it's predecessor this one is made with defence in mind. It is nearly indestructible, protected by a massive shield, defense platforms and countless guardians who will defend it at all costs.

The city has no stable gravity, instead there are currents going throughout the numerous tunnels inside the structure which serve as a means of fast transportation across the areas. K’Hara prefer zero gravity environments. However, despite being predominantly occupied by the K’Hara the city has several sections which allow other lifeforms to exist too. One of the wings has static gravity and air flowing, those chambers are typically inhabited by humans and aliens where the they study to use alien artifacts and learn K'Hara ways. Little is known about it's interiors, the humanoids say it's nothing like any normal construction.

Unique alien architecture only adds the impression. However, the primary role is acting as powerful transmitter for Mindshare, it serve countless entities, constantly exchanging information between them all.

Altair Research Facility

Once a secret project of Liberty government, now old and forgotten, it has since turned into something it was not supposed to be. Today this large scientific and military complex serves a different purpose for a higher bidder. Years ago, the Liberty government started a project aimed at learning alien technology and using it for military purposes. They did this secretly, since they knew that using the alien legacy would cause many problems in the political arena if that knowledge ever were to spring up. The research facility was to be built far off the Liberty house, far away from any prying eyes, beyond the edge worlds. It was designed to be self-sufficient and completely automated, a sealed vault where people could live.

Despite the secrecy and precautions taken, the team behind the Altair project has been compromised from the bottom to the top. It was because of Division 18's influence that the system chosen was none other than the infamous Omicron Iota, back in the days when it was one of the uncharted and inhospitable systems outside the rim. During a series of unfortunate events, the documents related to the station's existence were destroyed, with all evidence pointing to it having disappeared. Altair has become all but a myth, though a very real one.

The Shrine

The 'Shrine' isn't so much a station as it is a living, breathing organism. The Shrine was created by the Daam-K'Vosh during the second shift. Being 'left behind' by its creators, the Shrine's purpose was to monitor the nearby cryo-pods holding a number of immature K’Hara who were left behind in stasis. In modern days, the Shrine functions as the focus of K’Hara worship. Humans from all over Sirius flock to this 'station', claiming to have heard the 'Siren's song' that drew them to it. An ever-growing group of cultists and fanatics now occupy the station.

Culture

"We have seen them in action, we have seen how devastating they can be; but in all the time we have spent, we do not yet understand their culture.

They are a very reclusive species and so far we know very little of their inner workings. What do they feel? Do they have emotions? Compassion? Anger?

A few hints here and there but nothing major...Their true face, the culture, remains a mystery for us."

Karl Shniedberg, RRI, Private log

Telepathy, shape shifting capabilities, and dependence on the natural solar energy generators formed their culture over the thousands of years before they were put into stasis by their creators. All of the knowledge they inherited from their previous incarnations, however, has carried over into their current manifestation.

Artistically they have distinctive architecture style seen in elemental patterns and overall composition, where simple triangular and circular shapes are dominant across a given structure's patterns and even physical forms, a sharp contrast to common human "squares". With the coming of the third cycle, their shape shifting capabilities made them creators of themselves, causing a cultural revolution which had a large impact on society. It is both the tool and the form of art. Colors, shapes, and forms, not only they were shaping their bodies to the tasks but also it became a form of individual expression.

They are moderate adapters and often modify themselves in order to adapt to surrounding environment instead of changing it to suit them. One such example are their ship forms that they use to travel through open space.

The global telepathic grid, Mindshare, is the incredibly sophisticated network that connects neural systems of each entity into one hyper structure. The network itself is so complex it requires a number of highly advanced systems such as the 'Nammu' Mindnode, one of their vast array of biological forms. For years, house military forces were secretly experimenting with K'hara nervous systems trying to apply them first to powerful machines, and then even to human volunteers, but none of those ever succeeded. Leading scientists in neuro-psychology and xeno-biology hypothesized that the Mindshare could be sentient as well, which isn't far from truth. The sentience of the Mindshare is created by the Advisors that maintain its integrity, and it acts as a gatekeeper to guard the information against tampering. Morphs are incapable of full Mindshare connection, though, unless a more powerful K'hara is nearby.

In general, the K'haras are irreligious in human terms, they have no deities to worship, except perhaps their creators. Some of their actions might look ceremonial to a human observer, however, for example: guarding the graveyard in Omicron Alpha. In truth, however, they are guarding the jumphole to their territories, and the graveyard just happens to be in the same place.

They have evolved further, and increased their intellectual capabilities with the personal experience shared by the collective, as well as through studies of the vast heritage their creators have left and the memories of their great predecessors. They are very protective of that information and will not let anyone get close to it. The Daam K'Vosh left behind countless of artifacts for the K'haras to find and use to accomplish their own goals, and possibly follow their creators once they are ready.

The restart was not a punishment but instead the Daam K'Vosh attempted to make their creation better, one that could survive on it's own. For what true purpose they had created the K'haras we do not know, nor does memory of the predecessors hold that knowledge. The K'hara still believe that one moment their creators will return and are constantly preparing for it while at the same time trying to find traces to where Daam K'Vosh have gone. They also have a sense of family, but in unusual way. They consider entire collective to be a large family, bonds that tie to each other are very strong in their society. The K'hara are very compassionate beings despite it being virtually impossible to see from the outside, yet the Mindshare only increases that sense. Certain emotions they have are shared among the rest, when one feels anger all those nearby feel the same if they are in proximity.

Mindshare

Telepathy, being the primary communication method of the Slomon K'Hara, has the largest impact on the K'hara's way of thinking.

Lacking any form of spoken language and having a virtually unlimited collective memory has allowed the K'hara to use raw data: actual thoughts. Their biological structure has been made so they are capable of sharing minds with each other, hence the name of the telepathic network: Mindshare.

At its most basic form, it is reminiscent of Old Earth peer-to-peer decentralized networks. The information is gathered by endpoints, the K'hara entities, and then distributed throughout the Mindshare nodes to be accessible by all nodes of the network. Distributed storage nodes contain and index information gathered from other nodes, offering access to the data, as well as processing the data and maintaining integrity across the network.

The Mindshare is operated by every K'hara entity, however there is a specialized caste, the Advisors, which maintain its structural integrity and helps the rest to acquire required information instantaneously.

In this regard their skills are ultimately based on the collective experience rather than personal. Past memories are accessed from storage nodes.

The Mindshare is very delicate technology requiring vast amounts of energy to keep it running. Prior to Third Cycle the K'haras had access to the Dyson Sphere, but after the events leading to its destruction. they had to find alternative resource. Xerna's planetary core was used until the K'hara City, Dur-Shurrikun, was brought online,.

However easy it may be to do so, make no mistake: K'haras do indeed have personalities. Although the telepathic network and shape shifting abilities do strip part of their individual characteristics, the K'haras do retain some integral personality, especially the Advisor strain which seems the most personable, if not the most irritable.

As a K'hara body is being used, the K'hara's experiences and knowledge gained from the time in its physical form flows back simultaneously into the Mindshare.

Any other K'hara is capable of "looking" through another K'haras' senses and will sometimes advise or gather information at the same time as the "host" K'hara.

While it is common that K'haras observe and take in all pertinent information, sometimes being a data host can have the advantage of having more than one set of

senses analyzing the surrounding environment, the host K'hara's body form, any possible threats and any other relevant information or data that is required at that

time. Because of all those factors it's difficult to understand where purely collective consciousness ends and where individuality starts. They're neither collective nor individual but each mixed together balancing between.

Quasi-immortality

When a K'hara's physical form dies, the K'hara itself does not because their consciousness is always present in Mindshare. A violent disconnect of a bodyform from its controlling consciousness causes trauma and shock, and depending on the damage recovery can range from a few moments of disorientation to a need for an extended period in a dormant state. Loss of short-term memory, certain capabilities and other side effects may also happen. Although K'hara don't fear death, they do not like the painful effect of quasi-death. If all physical manifestations of a single K'hara entity are destroyed, it is reborn again in its simplest form with the last snapshot of memory held in the Mindshare's nodes.

Lifespan

In regular terms the K'hara do not have a limited lifespan. Through the telepathic network they are able to abstract from personality and store characteristics in the network, snapshots. These snapshots can be accessed at any time allowing individual K'hara to fallback to a previous state.

When a new K'hara is born it is given the knowledge of the environment and the purpose for the time frame. Telepathic communication combined with information storage methods remove the need to experience and acquire knowledge personally, however it does not mean they are incapable of such.

Time measurement

The concept of time is much different to K'haras due to their quasi-immortality. They have different and often non-related to each other measures of time. Primarily there are shifts and cycles.

Shift occurs whenever new DNA modification(s), deemed beneficial to the species, propagate through the entire species. Each shift marks an evolution step. K'hara, being able to change their various form's DNA at will, are control of their own biological progress. However each shift takes time for thorough testing, so as it happens, while a few are undergoing changes the rest are still on the previous step waiting. Upon further experiments shifts may be found unnecessary, not beneficial and reverted back to previous state, DNA rollback.

Each shift for an individual K'hara takes time. In a normal environment shifts would happen for the entire species, putting them into a dormant state until the changes are made. However, in the current situation of being constantly threatened by expanding humans, they instead adopted micro-shifts that require less time and can happen more often, however at a cost of lesser changes. Additionally, the entire collective does not go through the change, instead each one separately. Marginal micro-shifts are not counted as shifts, they occur too often and on-the-fly, only significant (in K'hara's view) rework of DNA does.

As more various K'hara of different shifts continued to exist this led to a new cycle of their evolution with introduction of castes.

Cycles denote each time new capabilities are found useful in their social evolution. Cycles are lesser equivalent of shifts and vary in groups, sometimes individually. Groups or "families" share same cycles thus in a certain sense identifying their age compared to the rest, however not always the case, some remain seemingly unchanged while others experiment more often.

K'haraspeak

So.. I'm going to try to simplify this even further and come up with a brief guide as to how I do Slomon K'hara. 

This won't be perfect by any means but many people have done their best over the years or so we've been working with it to be as clear and concise as I possibly can.

So, lets start with a basic example sentence-- lets say an engagement notice: 

Normal: " You have trespassed on my territory, prepare to be fired upon! "

Plain and simple. So, lets start with the Tildes-- these are meant to symbolize that, instead of the usual radio chatter passing ship-to-ship, this is instead being broadcast through telepathy to the minds of the nearby pilots

Telepathy: " ~~~ You have trespassed on my territory, prepare to be fired upon! ~~~ "

Next, we need to change all pronouns into their squid-esque interpretations- Nomads are still learning the human concepts of individuality and the perception of the self so these will always be slightly stilted when compared to human speech. For ease on my part, I usually separate these by dashes to break up the word flow a little bit and to emphasize the lack of conceptualization mentioned before. They apply as follows: 

Pronoun changes: " ~~~ -Yours- have trespassed on -ours- territory, -yours- to be fired upon! ~~~ "

Now, personally, I've always removed things like "have" from nomad parlance- to further emphasize the more broken-nature of their speech (usually symbolized by a ellipses. This is further exemplified when it comes to proper or implied nouns-- things that nomads don't exactly have a matching word in their vernacular for, so the human mind- once sent the information of such an object, would then piece together the nearest word analogous to what the nomad's thinking of. This doesn't always translate 100% well, so there are some... subtle differences. I take care here to make the substituted word as close to blatantly obvious as possible-- so things like stations and systems are usually "dark-hulks" or "void scapes/sectors". That one's a little more nebulous but most of the time the message is clear. 

Proper Noun modifications: " ~~~ -Yours- ... trespassed on -ours- void... -yours- to be fired upon! ~~~ "

Finally, nomads are emotional little buggers, and don't have any need or reason to hide their feelings when they inhabit a society wherein telepathy is the only means of communication-- this is exemplified usually towards the end of the message in either brackets or parenthesis ( I prefer the latter.) Once that's done:verbs. Like I said, they're emotional creatures- so that means if a squid sees someone they don't like infringing on their turf, they're gonna be pretty forceful in their threats and declarations through their choice of verb (sometimes further emphasized with slashes)-- and again- their vernacular is different to ours and not everything matches up 100%. You'll see what I mean below-- Also: when angry or inquisitive, I'll sometimes put a (!) or (?) before or after the stated emotion respectively. 

Emotion and verbiage: " ~~~ -Yours- ... /trespass/ on -ours- void... -yours- to be purged (!) (fury) ~~~ "

And there ya have it-- that's a bit of a summary as to my thought process of converting a sentence into pure K'hara speech. 

Hope this helps at least some people. 

For added convenience, Below I'll put some more commonly used phrases to ease things along. Cheers.

Engagement notice: 

"~~~ -yours-- to /burn/ (seething anger) ~~~"

Amused: 

"~~~ -darkmind-... weak/pathetic (entertained) ~~~"

Questioning: 

" ~~~ -hulk- to not.. /spitfire/ -ours- (?) ~~~"

Observation: 

" ~~~ (Phil-known) near -ours- (curious) ~~~"