After the attempted hijacking of the YGG, Lyshana decided to develop a defense system for the YGG and the Sojourner. It’s based off of how the immune system works.
The gasses which keep them afloat are mostly helium, with some of them having hydrogen or methane or both in their inner bags to serve as fuel for torches. They get their helium from the Mother Unit, and she gets it from helium tanks which are attached to the proper orifices. These tanks can be replaced by untrained personnel, as they are standard tanks, and must be replaced about once a month, for maximum results. They are ‘space safe’ though they sacrifice their internal supply of gas to move in space, and they can hold their breath indefinitely from CO2 cracking algae in their system, that reacts to their lights. They communicate with each other using pheromes, but they communicate with humans using morse code. They understand morse blinking lights, and they understand fairly basic spoken commands, depending on breed. Most of this is instinctual. Emotionally they vary, but they tend to recognize people who are nice to them, and people who are less then nice.
Small, medium and large bloaters, all of which look almost identical, except for the colors of their lights and size. A few look particularly different. They consist of a translucent gasbag containing light-producing chemicals. Hanging under the gasbag is what can only be described as ‘a cross between an octopus and a crab’ it has several dangling tentacles (including some breeds with jellyfish like stingers, and squid like ‘clubs’) protruding from a armored ‘head’ containing sensory organs, and the mouth. Other organs are stored in the gasbag, along the ‘support strut’ in the core. They’re kept afloat by several lighter then air gasses, which are kept heated by their metabolism, providing extra lift. The medium and large ones have several layers of ‘bag’ with the outer most one holding the glow stuff, and some gasses, more gasses in the middle one serving as a back-up in case the outer one is pierced, and specialized organs in the inner one They move via sucking air in through one hole, and blowing it out another, a very similar method of locomotion as that of a squid. While they work well on their own Lyshana has found that anti-grav devices properly implanted in them help make them work, and move, far better. The smallest ones are about as big as a softball. The medium sized ones are about as big as a basketball. The large ones are about as big as a large watermelon. Their purpose depends on their color.
Reds are larger then most others, with their smallest being about a foot in diameter, and the largest being about three times that. On the other hand there is less distinction between their sizes then the other groups, and it’s a continuous range. They lack any specialized organs, and are about as bright as a rather dim dog. They use the most helium, and have no other gases, trying to get the maximum lift. Their job is to pick things up and carry them to various locations. If it is chosen to implant them with a computer uplink they can become an extension of the AI with maps downloaded to their brain. Otherwise they have to learn the map of the ship. Average lifespan is two months
Small greens have a tougher tegument then the other ones, and the glow material is actually in the shell as opposed to being inside, it was too much work to make them translucent. They work like platelets, and lack manipulator appendages. They pop themselves, and roll out as they pop, filling small holes in the hull from battle. This temporary hull patch only has a DR in the 1 to 2 ranges, and it a very temporary fix. They lack many internal organs, including ones to process food, living only a few short days, or weeks each. They’re less intelligent then a single drone bee, and their only instinct is to find holes, and to pop.
Medium greens are repair units. They have methane and hydrogen mixed with oxygen in their system to serve as fuel for their built in wielding torches. With computer assist implants they can do complex repairs, without they can at least help fix patches in the hull. They have a series of specialized manipulators, and spinneret’s that let them form a sticky, but strong, DR2 sheet of webbing that can be used for patching. When they find work that needs to be patched, they release pheromes that cause Reds to bring the materials from the repair storage lockers that are marked with similar scents. They’re as smart as a bright dog. Average lifespan is about a year
Large greens synthesize a DR 3 chitten at rapid rates, on demand, which can be used to help fill holes in the hull on a more perment basis. They have highly specialized appendages, and will splice wires, and deal with sparking equipment, being designed to be difficult to harm with electricity, acid, heat, or other hazardous environments. They perform repairs in hazardous environments that the mediums can’t get into. With computer assist implants they can fix significantly more complex problems then a few cut wires. They’re not quite as smart as a chimp or a dolphin. Average lifespan is about ten years
These ones can turn off their glow, or strobe it in Morse to communicate with humans
Small security units patrol the corridors, looking for problems. They signal to Greens, Reds and all other colors when they find a problem that that color is best equipped to deal with. They also warm humans of hazardous conditions. They are programmed to recognize the smell of their ship’s crew members, and a special smell that means ‘guest’ which is used on new members until their training is caught up with, and on actual guests. The guest smell varies by ship, and sometimes multiple guest smells are used for different types of guest. When someone who they do not recognize shows up, or is somewhere they should not be, these bloaters strobe an alert, and attempt to cover the person with skunk-like pheromes that attract the attention of more dangerous bloaters. Computer assist implants improve their tactics and patrol patterns, as well as their communication with other bloaters. They can also serve as a lamp, or even a flashlight, on command, emitting a bright white light of variable brightness. They’re a lot like small dogs, crossed with skunks (the smell). 1 to 2 years if not killed prior.
These are patrol units, to deal with organic, unarmored, intruders. They detect the intruder scent, and attack with non-lethal weapons, including large club like tenticals that can pummel a person, and a non-lethal paralyzing venom on jellyfish like stingers and on the club. They can be told to attack unknown scents as well, or various levels of guest scent. They can also shoot spines out of six organs on the surface of their tegument. It takes a week to regroup a shot spine, the spines serve as hypodermic needles, and inject the paralysis toxins. Computer assistance improves their tactics and stratigy. 5 to 15 years if not killed beforehand by intruders
These guys are lethal weapons. They do not start attacking unless commanded, in which case there are several levels of aggressiveness, as per orders and situation ranging from ”Fight those who attack the crew” all the way to “Kill all non-crew”. To those they are not to kill they are very protective, and loving, reacting hostily to any perceived attack. They form close attachments to people who are kind to them, showing an extra level of protectiveness. They’re equipped with 12 DR 1 spines, shot at high speed, and four DR 3 spines with explosives. They have hard, bony tentacles with sharp DR2 spikes. They’re really quite smart, on level with smart dolphins or chimps. Computer assistance allows them to get even stronger tactics and strategy, and allows them to use hand-held weapons. Their shell is a tegument with a DR of about 2. It also sometimes kicks them into low level sentience. 10 to 20 years if not killed prior
Lyshana felt overworked, so she made these off of the green genetic templates to assist her workload.
The smalls are as short lived as the greens smalls, and considerably dimmer. They carry adrenaline, something similar to caffeine, and a few other stimulants and mild painkillers like aspirin inside them. They are to be eaten, and taste very good, though different people perceive the flavor differently. Their skin exudes a slime that can be rubbed on a small injury to support quicker healing, and this slime hardens into a tough flexible band-aid. This can be washed off with rubbing alcohol. It’s only exuded by one, clearly marked, spot. So they’re safe to grab. They’re smaller then normal, only about as big as a ping-pong ball, and are very soft. For use in emergencies, or when you’re working late night, and need to focus. They live weeks to months.
Equipped with spinneret’s, and precision appendages, they can bandage wounds and staunch bleeding. They also have adrenaline and sedatives for use in situations that demand it. That means that one of the purples, or Lyshana has to order it. If they have computer uplinks then they can be told what to do by computers, allowing more complex actions and healing to be performed. As smart as a bright dog. They have about five years of life to them.
Equipped with the chitin exude, they make casts. They also have more medicines available for injection, and can be provided with vaccines and orders to give it to certain groups of people. They have very advanced sensory organs. They can perform various human-maintence and basic health check-ups, and live about fifty years. Computer uplinks greatly increase their functionality. They’re about as smart as a large white.
Emergency bloaters are NOT intelligent, rather they’re basically organic tool-kits.
The small emergency units are similar to the small medical units, but instead of pain killers, and amphetamines, they have high levels of nutrients and calories intended to help replenish people as a quick snack, and emergency food supply.
serve as flashlights, and produce the organic equivalents of bailing wire (silk), Bondo (Glue like ooze) and duct tape. Produces a thin milk, that provides plenty of calories, as well. Can live relatively long without food: They’re basically a space-born survival kit
Carry emergency O(2) in compressed containers, and can serve as breath-masks in dangerous areas. They wrap around the people nearby, distorting their own shape to form a thin, temporary, Spacesuit/atmospheric protection.
Recycling, cleaning, feeding. These maintain the other floaters/bloaters
Organic cleaners, the small browns clean up organic waste, and dead floaters, and feed them to the mediums. They’re as smart, about, as a small red. They live about a year
Large for a medium, the mediums recycle organic waste, turning it into food-paste for floaters. They also decontaminate toxic spills. They live for about three to six years
Cullers, the larges have spines that contain a toxin that is instantly lethal to bloaters when injected. They find the units that are too far from norm, and cull them. They live almost ten years
They serve mostly as pets and toys, they’re great around kids. They’re mostly in existence for psychological reasons. They serve as stress relief
Small purples are incredibly amorphous, and can be shaped almost like silly putty, with similar farting sounds. They also love being used as tennis balls, and other such things. They’re rather dim. They tend to flock, and they’re quite playful
Mediums exhude scents that are pleasing to most people’s noses, and they do so gently, not large quantities. They behave in a similar manner to pet dogs everywhere, and enjoy being scratched under their ‘chin’
Large purples require computer uplinks and support. The large purples connect with people’s computers, and they talk to people with Morse, as well. They find, and sort information at highly intelligent levels, serving as effective secretaries. They tend to have less humor then the mediums and smalls, with some exceptions. When they are playful, they are less effective in the roll of data-collators, and more effective in the roll of kid watchers, and conversationalists. Usually they have a speaker rig that translates their flickering Morse into spoken language. Some of them can mimic other colors.
They have no lights
Grey balls, the breeders exist only to recombine DNA in order to provide greater mutability to the swarms, so that floaters can adapt for maximum efficiency. They enter the Mother to breed, and die. They die from mating, one grey can beget up to 20 bloaters when they die. They live for weeks.
Planning. Very intelligent, they mark culls for the browns to kill. They contain repositories of all of the DNA of their ‘domain’ and they swap and trade DNA that works, when two ships come together. They cull based off of orders, which change the strictness of their culling. Units that show the wrong color light are usually culled no matter what. They give DNA to the smalls, which the smalls use for their suicidal trip back up the ‘birth channel’. The mother holds the DNA to make the base forms, but these hold the DNA for the modifications. Assuming an embryo is unfertile it will grow to be grey, small. Fertilization by a grey makes them develop the DNA of one of the groups, or the DNA of a large grey. They live about thirty to fourty years
The mother unit’s gasbag is largely non-functional, serving instead as a womb. She needs various forms of life-support, as her body is past most organic possibilities, including air-tanks, and various nutrient tanks. She also supplies various hard to get materials to her ‘offspring’. She’s really quite stupid: She just reacts, not thinks, but with computer assistance the AI of the ship can control her, and issue commands via scents to all of her offspring, as well as helping with the DNA mixing. Lives a couple hundred years. Mother Units can make 'princess' mother unit babies which mature into full 'queen' mother units. .
A variation on the mother unit, she needs even more life support, but contains an organic AI, and she is used in the reverse of the computer assisted mother: Allowing the organic AI access to the computer network of the ship, as opposed to allowing the computer network access to the biological devices. If linked to a computer AI the two will likely meld. She has very STRONG protective, and nurturing instincts towards the crewmembers on the ship. About as smart as a genius level human. Lives a couple hundred years. Couple thousand with good life support Lyshana considers this safer then a computer AI, because it can feel emotions, and guilt. Other people feel less safe with it, for similar reasons. Because it would be cruel not to let it be mobile, unlike the ‘dumb’ mother, she’s equipped with both computer uplink, and gravity-changing devices. She’s also equipped with other cybernetics to defend herself with. If Lyshana is allowed to make her. Mother Units can make 'princess' mother unit babies which mature into full 'queen' mother units.
None at the moment
Yggdrasil now has an intelligent mother unit linked to it's AI. The mother unit's personality is part of Yggdrasil's, and it is causing the computer to experience genuine emotions for the first time, including but not limited to: Happiness, sadness, regret, guilt, love, anger, satisfaction in a job well done, lust, etc.