Purnekel

Size

Purnekels grow throughout their lives, and their size depends on how much food they have consumed, so averages are a very vague estimate. The largest purnekel ever discovered was nearly 100m from top to bottom, but there are also plenty that are only about 1m long

Senses and perception

purnekels have no ears, nose or tongues (unless you count their tendrils) and so are completely deaf and unable to smell or taste anything. They do, however, appear to have some amount of vision, though no one has ever found eyes (or similar sensory organs) on them. one theory is that their primary ring of fins might have some kind of light sensitivity, it might not necessarily be true vision, but when exposed to bright light, they will fold the fins up and over themselves to shield the top sides of them. They also seem to have some ability to differentiate some colours, as astrofarmers are able to train them by changing the colour of their ships to signify different things, e.g. green means “follow, I will guide you to food” while red signifies “danger - flee”. They also seem to have a sense of touch, as the tendrils around their mouths will recoil if touched, as do their primary fins. Their secondary fins, however, do not seem to react.

Purnekel Life Cycle

purnekels start life as eggs. A parent will usually lay a few hundred at a time, which will drift freely in space. purnekels have an extremely low survival rate at this phase, with only around 10 eggs from each clutch surviving long enough for the babies to be born. Rather than breaking through a shell to hatch like most, the outside of the purnekel's egg remains a part of them. The egg unfolds when the baby is fully developed, and the “shell” becomes the primary ring of fins.

The babies reach full maturity after 2 Bektep-orbits, and will spend the majority of their lives searching for food and resources, usually wandering the star system to do so.

In their last 5 years, they will begin to look for mates. All purnekels are hermaphroditic, so they can successfully mate with any other individual they come across and produce children. They will usually be successful in finding at least one mate, and can produce up to 3 batches of eggs before they “die”.

Officially, purnekels only live around 25 Bektep-years, but much like some jellyfish, they seem to be able to revert and regenerate when they sustain enough damage, or start to deteriorate from the exposure to radiation. once they reach the end of their lifespan, they will begin the process to revert back into their egg form and the cycle will begin again. The more times the purnekel has successfully completed this cycle, the more fins they will have in their primary ring. Particularly old purnekels may even develop a second or third set of primary fins. These eggs of multi-cycle surviving purnekel are called cycled-eggs and are very valuable.

Domestication

The Kepek have successfully “domesticated” a significant number of purnekel schools who inhabited the Vax'bakrud System and the asteroid field around the Bektep Space Station - though it somewhat stretches the definition of domestication.

The Bektepi Kepek were able to make an artificial asteroid belt the orbits around their space station. The region of space the station was established in was extremely barren at the time, and so the asteroid belt attracted the nearby schools who were fairly desperate for food. The astrofarmers then placed trackers on the purnekels and would go out to meet them daily. They ensure they have not wandered into a barren spot (or created a barren spot by eating too quickly) and if they have, the farmers will guide them to a better location. They also harvest some of the eggs the purnekels lay and gather any shed secondary fins dropped. The fins are used in the manufacturing of Kepeki spacesuits, and while they can be replicated in the lab, suits made from the genuine material seem to be more resilient.

Purnekel farms usually consist of multiple flocks, each containing up to 100 individuals. The farmers will often have designated groups of purnekels who are kept solely to harvest eggs and shed fins from, while others are bred specifically to harvest cycled-eggs. The laws surrounding cycled eggs are extremely strict, the purnekel has to reach the end of their life cycle naturally, it can not be induced by the farmed inflicting harm to the purnekel. any farmers who are involved in the production of cycled eggs must record their interactions with the flock at all times to ensure no harm comes to the creatures.

some farmers, to ensure their flock doesn't end up wandering too far, will set up energy fencing around a section of the asteroid belt. This creates what is essentially a space paddock, however, this method has fallen out of favour in modern times. Many fear fencing the purnekel in not only causes them undue stress (as they don't seem to be able to detect the fencing, and so just run into it if they reach it's edge) but makes them potential targets for predators looking for a meal.

attempts to replicate this farming system elsewhere in the galaxy have failed spectacularly. The purnekels in other systems seem completely disinterested in interacting with the Kepek. A few smaller-scale farms have been successfully established around other space stations, but for the most part, the purnekel farming industry is unique to the Bektep Space Station.

This doesn't mean, however, that the Kepek haven't found other uses for the wild purnekels. Wild purnekels prefer to avoid occupied star systems, even those with non-space faring civilisations, and so their pressance is a good initial indicator to the Kepek Commonwealth that a star system is uninhabited and suitable for colonisation. This method isn't 100% successful of course, but it has proven to be a good indicator of points of interest for many thousands of bektep-orbits.

Habitat

Purnekels can be found in most star systems, but seem to show up more in uninhabited systems where little to no other life can be found. They can usually be found in the asteroid belts and ort clouds of the system, and seem to prefer asteroids with higher quantities of minerals like platinum.

No one is entirely sure how they travel between systems. They are much too slow to do this on their own, as they would die of starvation before reaching another star, but they are so common that its considered highly unusual not to see them in uninhabited star systems. The leading theory is that the Talbek are responsible for their dispersal, since they have been observed travelling with large purnekel schools, however, Talbek are known to create natural tunnels into hyperspace to travel long distances. This would indicate that purnekels are capable of surviving in hyperspace, which has interesting implications, but so far this remains unstudied.