X'Ell
Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 7:37 pm(by Kheren)
GEOPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
STELLAR AND PLANETARY SYSTEM:
HROMI SECTOR DYSON SHELL : THE X'ELL STARWORLD
About one light year from Starbase Lotus towards the Klingon border lies a complete Dyson shell surrounding a previously uncharted main-sequence yellow-white dwarf star, of spectral type G and luminosity class V, One point one solar masses, with surface temperature of six thousand Kelvin. It is in the process of converting hydrogen to helium in its core by means of nuclear fusion, just like Earth's Sun, Alpha Centauri A, Tau Ceti, and 51 Pegasi. Each second, it fuses approximately six hundred million tons of hydrogen to helium, converting about four million tons of matter to energy. 100% of that energy is channeled to power the completely enclosing structure.
Inside the hollowed star system, all current emitting and receiving apparatus are affected by the higher than normal ambient level of solar emissions and radiations from both the star and what is reflected by the inner structure. Long range communications and sensors are useless, and short range sensors and transmissions are at 47% efficiency.
This star is about six billion years old, barely passing half its lifespan before it exhaust fuel at the center; then, it will expands to many times its previous size and becomes a red giant, such as Aldebaran... and then, eventually shed its outer layers of gas to form a planetary nebula, while the core will cool and contracts into a compact, dense white dwarf.
There is no planetary mass around the star except for the outer shell of the Dyson construct itself, two hundred million kilometers away and, in between, a chain of ''starshades'': massive objects orbiting the star at the center of the shell; they are square shaped, ten million kilometers on each side but barely a kilometer thick per square and separated one from the other by a gap of twenty million kilometers. There is no detectable mechanism but they orbit perfectly at fifty million kilometers from the star's corona, blocking the sun on any specific point of the inner surface of the shell for ten hours every twenty hours interval. Their purpose is to provide a night/day cycle to the inhabitable inner surface of the shell.
This amazing marvel of alien engineering is at least millions of years old, of if not even billions of years of age. It stayed totally unknown to all spacefaring races until stardate 87055.4 when damage from a passing cosmic anomaly weakened its cloaking field enough for it to be discovered.
It is currently under Federation quarantine and Prime Directive law and cannot be approached by any vessel, Federation or not under any circumstance whatsoever, including emergencies, without a direct order from both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command Admiralty. Studies are thus limited to what was collected during the first and only visit upon discovery and presented here.
PLANET:
Dyson construct: type: shell
A Dyson shell is a megastructure originally described by the 20th century physicist Freeman Dyson. It is a closed system of orbiting solar powered envelope meant to completely encompass a star and capture all of its energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization.
This one is the perfect representation of Dyson's ultimate version of his concept: a uniform solid shell of matter around a star. It completely alter the emissions of the central star, intercepting 100% of the star's energy output, providing also an immense interior surface for habitation.
The material and very size of the shell is too immense even to have been made out of the material available in any known solar system, including the metallic core of gas giants and all the estimated debris, comets and meteorites that can pass through it. Moreover, the structure is built out of a carbon-neutronium alloy, so dense only the crushing power of a black hole could believably damage it. But it has been established that advanced replicator technology on a cosmic scale and nanotechnology was used to fabricate enough from the basic material to complete it and afterwards to maintain it.
This spherical shell Dyson sphere has a volume of three point zero-two times ten to the seventeenth cubic kilometers and a diameter of two-hundred million kilometers, roughly two-third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Being hollow and so immense, net mass is one metric ton. There is a two point four kilometers-thick carbon-neutronium alloy outer envelope and another slightly smaller inner shell, with in between a series of masses traveling in circular tracks on the inside of the sphere, at velocities significantly greater than orbital velocity, which press outwards due to centripetal force. These masses are traveling ten times orbital velocity (297.9 km/s) and support 99 (a=v2/r) times its own mass in additional shell structure. This not only provides a 0.85 internal gravity for the inner surface of the shell, but ensures the stability of its orbit around the star.
Despite the enormous energy requirements of this gravitational system, still massive excess energies are being dissipated through the shell into space in the form of a titanic cloaking field, an equally immense deflector field against cosmic hazards like asteroids and comets, and a gravitational field equivalent to that of a class M-I red giant star.
Recent contact with the Federation has provided the Dyson shell with the Metaphasic Shielding La Forge Program 1, enabling the construct to now even wisthand the energies of a star's corona or the most severe ion or plasma storms.
The interior surface is one point twenty-five times ten to the seventheenth squared kilometers; the equivalent of two hundred and forty-five million class M planets.Over twelve times the estimated total of all the M class worlds in our entire galaxy. At an average of fifteen inhabitants per square kilometer; enough to provide for three quintillion inhabitants. This intercepts the full 400 yotta-watts (4.0 ? 1026 watts) of the star's output; such a shell variant represents the maximum possible energy captured for such a solar system at this point of the star's evolution. This is approximately 33 trillion times the power consumption of humanity at the very end of the 20th century, which was 12 terawatts.
There is an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere clinging to the interior surface of the shell with a water land mass ratio of 60/40%, all maintained by the artificial gravity stabilizing the shell itself. there is a constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius on the entire inner surface with a 20 hours long daylight period and no seasonal variation whatsoever.
The inhabited surface is dotted with urban agglomerations surrounded by complex and vast agricultural surfaces, with tall spire like buildings made of a glassy light reactant material, most of them roofless. Every piece of technology is apparently solar powered.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
THE X'ELL : PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Average, slim humanoids, between 1.5 and 2 meters, with feathers in long thick mane instead of hair. There is no significant difference between males and females except for the fact that males have a much brighter and thicker set of feathers and their fiber optics headress and clothes are polychromed and in complex patterns, while the female's are monochrome and simpler.
There seems to be no known subspecies within the X'ell. They all are physically similar and speak the exact same langage and live with the same cultural and social patterns all over the Dyson shell.
The X'ell cellular physiology is based on cobalt, giving them their skin tone, a uniformed very deep shade of blue that appears black under certain lighting conditions, while their their feathers may go from midnight blue to lavender pale. Their eyes are much more varied in color, from all shades of blue to shades of reds, brown and even gold. They blush indigo when embarrassed.
A protenous dye (HZB-41) comparable to melanin in Humans, is responsible for their spectacular epidermal coloration. The dye-cells have a comparatively short life span and must be produced constantly from protein sources in the diet. One of the most common symptoms of serious illness is insufficient dye production and a corresponding loss of skin colour. This source of protein is provided by meat dried into fine powder and used as spice in virtually every food and drink they consume.
All X'ells adorn their head feathers with strands of fiber optics. These are much more than just cosmetic: they are connected to their skin and serve to identify the individual, convey long distance communications and even act as a transponder for teleportation transport and technological interface as well as monitor the individual's health. The working principles are not understood but they seem to be able to adapt to any surrounding technology, native or alien, and keep working even over cosmic distances, as long as electromagnetism is present. The possibility of being a kind of advanced psionic technology is being hypothesized but research is rather limited due to the severe isolationist policy of the X'ell.
However, extensive physiological data has been gathered as the first contact made with this reclusive race had been through large scale direct medical assistance.
X'ELL PHYSIOLOGY:
The X'ells are avian (bird like) humanoid warm-blooded omnivores. The average X'ell body temperature is about 33C, a consequence of their evolution in their peculiarly stable and hot planetary environment. This lower metabolism, coupled with a risk free environment, makes them exceedingly long lived; easily twice as much as Vulcans, allegedly even up to half a millenia.
The heavy cobalt base to X'ell's blood and tissue make them most compatible, on a cellular level, with Bolians and Andorians, whereas incompatible with Vulcans and Romulans wich are copper based, or Humans and Klingons which are iron based, unless risky, complex and extensive biochemical alterations are attempted. Hybridation, even through genetic manipulation, is beyond current science and would be considered absolutely abhorrent to any X'ell.
The race has a genetic disposition towards non-violent behavior. Imminent danger causes a biochemical reaction resulting in a decrease in physical and emotional responses and an increase in sensory input levels, which in turn enhance analytical and reasoning skills. The X'ell do not succumb to pressure and actually get unshakably calmer and more rationale in a crisis.
Their fragile appearance betrays their hollowed bone structure, making them lithe and agile, able to jump as high and far as Caitans (up to 3 meters high and six meters long) but more easily prone to fractures than Humans. However, the remarkable resiliency and strength of their tendons and ligaments make such accident fairly rare.
They have a higher cartilage-to-bone ratio in their skeletal structure and powerful muscles and tendons compartmentalize organs from gross physical trauma. All of these make them more susceptible to pain but much less to injury and soreness. The X'ell body is highly resistant to soreness and of exceptional endurance because of their very large and powerful thoracic cage. They can exert themselves or stand still for hours without any discomfort.
Their feather-covered body is most efficient for controlling internal temperature; the X'ell in fact resist with ease extremes of heat and cold twice better than Humans. They do have an efficient cooling system since their environment required them to face heat; when they do sweat, they give out an oily scent and their body becomes shinier. They also require sleep only for 3-4 hours over the 20 hours of the X'ell day. They are diurnal however and do not function well under nighttime conditions or if lacking sleep.
They have long slender limbs, the arms being notably longer than the legs. They are three-toed and three fingered but surprisingly dextrous despite those few thick digits as they are made of two opposite thumbs ad a single forefinger. They also are curiously all left-handed, possibly due to their exceedingly long isolated and specific cultural development that stimulated extensively the right side of their brain. Their reaction time and speed is slightly slower than the human norm due to their lower metabolism but the extraordinary acuity of their senses and their very alert minds somewhat compensate for this deficiency when facing danger.
Their circulatory system is extremely efficient especially along the upper limbs wich are visibly longer than Humans in relation to their body while the legs are decidely shorter with knees inverted like terrestrial birds. The strength and endurance of their upper limbs are comparable to those of Human legs but their own lower limbs are comparatively average. Their wrists are able to bring their much longer hands and three fingers flat against the forearm in all directions, giving them tremendous manual dexterity. Their fingertips however are much less sensitive than human fingers as tiny compact feathers covers them entirely instead of a hardened fingernail.
X'ell are less prone to shock than humans, even from major injuries, and are almost never exhausted due to their lower metabolic rate. They can however get infected much more easily by airborne viruses due to their circulatory system and feathery covering, sometimes mortally if not properly treated. Because of their insulated lives, their immune system is weak so they require a full array of vaccines and hygiene protocols if exposed to a different environment and even other species.
Because their bones have the tensile properties of cartilage due to their hollowness, they break messily (and it requires about half the force necessary to break human bones); any injury which breaks a X'ell's bones will require a great deal of healing time, and cause severe pain. Fortunately, the thickness and strength of surrounding tissues offer an effective thick cushion to protect them from injury.
The large bulbous eyes have extraordinary acuity and are immune to glare, about four times as powerful as human eyes, although they do not adapt as well to darkness. Placed higher and more apart than on a human face, it gives their appearance a rather wide-eyed look, but also a vastly larger field of vision, especially to the side, rear and upward. Like Terran raptors, their eyes have two focal points, allowing them when aligned to zoom in clearly on a specific point as small as a human hand up to two kilometers away. Or to watch across a 270 degrees field of vision horizontally and vertically. Coupled with the higher mobility of their slender neck, there is not much that can escape a X'ell's sight.
Their ears lack any outer pavilion but are nevertheless effective from infrasonic to ultrasonic ranges. They are not however able to pinpoint and locate sounds like Humans can.
Their sense of smell is somewhat lacking but their tongue is highly sensitive to savors and textures. The X'ell kiss by rubbing beaks and cheeks together or touching tongues when very intimate.
The X'ell's brain pattern is so complex and so alien that, although telepaths can make their way in, they cannot even begin to decipher what's in there, getting a deafening roar of thousands of voices shouting gibberish that can sometimes even overwhelm the invading mind into temporary stupor. Even medical brainscans read like a fully colored page instead of the usual line. Wether it is because of their actual brainwave or some connection to the rest of the collective mind akin to the Borg Collective has yet to be determined.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
The X'ell regard themselves as a contemplative, peaceful, non violent race. However, their character is much more complex. At first glance, they appear intelligent, even intellectual humanoids, deadpan and emotionless, very calm, rational and logical like the Vulcans. But in truth, their emotions can emerge with deep psychological reactions even without any apparent physical reaction. They do not suppress them like Vulcans do but rather channel them int a deliberate, measured, intense feeling they then live for a long moment, sometimes even hours on end... or longer.
X'ell history is one of slow, stable evolution, where conflict has been virtually eliminated. The martial spirit is completely unknown in X'ell culture. The X'ell are extremely disciplined, possessing a strong sense of duty and personal responsibility to others, based on an intimate feel of being part of Life and sentience themselves.
Though they are stoic and largely unsentimental in appearance, they do respect, even revere, family ties. X'ells have no nudity taboos. Non- X'ell visitors will see much feathery skin. They place great value on family and from this principle extend charity, compassion and helpfulness to the community as a whole, even to non-sentient lifeforms, as their notion of family is broader than the usual blood tie of other species.
They are hard-working and serious, often incorrectly viewed as humorless and distant, even cold and callous. They have absolutely no concept of humor and their beak-like, rigid face is incapable of smiling and laughing. They do however know joy and pleasure, savoring things like good food, music, art and intellectual achievement, but they express it through their skin rather than their voice or their face: a joyful X'ell's feathers rise and tremble with good feeling, or flatten and thin when in a bad mood.The long, peaceful history of X'ell civilization in their immutable, untroubled environement left a strong tendency to take all the time to enjoy life and all the pleasures and teachings it may offer, and so they feel uncomfortable when invited to purely recreational activities that are brief and superficial. Their curt refusals often make them seem prudish or unsociable, while in fact they simply have a strong cultural desire for everything to be meaningful and long lasting.
The X'ell are also reluctant to enter strong personal relationships outside their own people; beyond their natural distrust of other species, they find it painful to see such relationship end so quickly and abruptly when the other person dies while they still go on living for centuries after that. This makes them terribly sad to see how ephemeral and short alien lives are and thus avoid being too close to non-X'ell. This lack of a social life reinforces the sense of isolation and distance that others perceive between them and other species.
The X'ell are utterly non-violent and non-conflictual, without the urges that bring most sentient beings one against the other. Their unique native environment is certainly a major part behind that outlook, but their very long lives and even longer History as a civilization certainly is also an important element of this attitude. Whether they have never known aggressiveness because of their very nature or simply outgrew it millions of years ago is still undetermined. Their all-providing and inexhaustible environment and their vast knowledge of the universe has eliminated all traces of competitive instincts or even any need of them, to the point that they find the very notion utterly incomprehensible and purely animalistic.
There is no way, even from artificial means, to force a X'ell to commit violence. It is simply not in their physiology nor in their psyche anymore. Like all living thing, they must have known the struggle for survival but at one point during the millions of years of their evolution, they have somehow outgrown those instincts and compulsions completely. There is currently some careful research done about the creature called Armus, discovered by the USS Enterprise D on stardate 41601.3 and quarantined on Vagra II, who's ''skin of evil'' shed by ''angels'' might be related to this evolution of the X'ell; even possibly a clue as to their true origin, as observed and even hinted at in their cultural records.
MATING:
The X'ell are able to reproduce once every two hundred of their local days, the female laying one to four eggs that the male will care for during the fifty days it takes the eggs to hatch. The female takes care of the immobilized male during this time, then both will see to the children needs until they are adults and able to fend for themselves 20,000 days later. While they care for children, the couple becomes infertile, suggesting that in the past there was a definite shortage of resources and living space that may have prompted the creation of this immense hollowed world.
They might prove compatible with other avian species in the galaxy but the merest idea of attempting it is as close to blasphemous as any idea could get in their mind. It is as unthinkable to them as for Humans thinking to mate with lower animals. Their very bird-like reproduction mechanism makes them utterly incompatible with all non-avian beings except possibly those of reptilian type; even then, advanced genetic engineering would be necessary to make the foetus viable, even more than is the case of any interspecies mating.
X'ells choose their beloved through a form of competition between males involving many forms of art and intellectual achievements, proving to the potential mate that the male can father bright, intelligent children and will be responsible enough to care for them. It also involves a ritual looking as much as a dance as a beauty pageant contest, with males parading before females with aesthetically complex and dazzling displays of clothing, headdress and colored fiber optics through a spectacular display of acrobatic dancing reminiscent almost of the mating flights of Terran birds. X'ell marriage bonds are absolute as long as the children needs taking care of, but then can be dissoluted with mutual consent to seek other mates thereafter. To a X'ell, family and society are therefore the same. Concern for any other X'ell is universal, as any other X'ell might be a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, son, daughter,father or mother of any preceding or following generation.
However, they are not really concerned in making as many children as possible during their fertility period but once they do, they go to extremes to protect and nurture them. A X'ell parent will go as far as sacrifice its own life without the slightest hesitation to save its offspring from any harm.
The X'ell species is quite extensive in number although this exact number is unknown but is at least in the tens, maybe even hundreds of billions; nevertheless, population density is exceedingly sparse as their native world is far larger than all the galaxy's estimated M class planets put together.
SPECIFIC DETAILS OF REPRODUCTION
Without modern medicine and especially genetic science, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the gender of a X'ell child at birth, and the X'ell themselves do not find this any significant, with the result that children are raised without different treatment accorded by gender. This is one reason why X'ell society is, even today, mostly ambiarchal. At one point during childhood, the natural hormonal response at puberty determine the feather coloring and an instinctive way to adorn the fiber optics on their head, marking their gender to all as much as to themselves. The child's genital organs remain dormant until first puberty, which starts at the approximately 15,000th day and is completed by the age of 20,000 days, when it leaves the children's neuter phase to enter adulthood. Reproductive organs are all but invisible and oddly similar to the eye, only the female's aperture being larger when the time to lay eggs is near.
When the female is ovulating, some undetermined mechanism alerts all fertile males of her readiness and their seductive display further stimulates the female until she recognizes the male most responsible for the swelling of the eggs inside her and bond with him. When she lay her eggs, the shell is still soft and porous and the male then impregnate them all over, causing a fast hardening of the shell while fertilizing it and making it impervious to further impregnation while the embryo develops.
At birth, the child is featherless and the beak is much harder and sharper than at adulthood and proportionately larger. It helps the newborn to break out of the shell, chomp food and to effectively defend itself from potential predators. Although this last need is a thing of their distant prehistoric past, it is still there and comes with a definite aggressiveness that makes the child very dangerous to handle except for its natural parents, which it recognizes at the instant of birth. This aggressiveness dissipates as the child ages and disappears completely at the onset of puberty. It explains much of the X'ell's outlook of other spacefaring races, still struggling with violence, and thus seeing them as being ''child like '' and immature species and societies.
In the interests of keeping the couple together, the mating bond causes physical changes in the nervous system so that bonded individuals cease to have sexual interest in any save their mate, and literally cannot perform a fertile mating with anyone else until the children born of this union are adult themselves. "Adultery" is an unknown concept among X'ells. "Illegitimacy" is barely possible (not counting the purely social disgrace of failing to undergo the formal marriage ceremony before the final bonding) and is extremely difficult. It consists of a female obtaining an egg which is not hers and introducing it to her chosen mate, or a male substituting himself as the genitor. This is considered a horrid disgrace and the usual punishment is discredit for both male and female, the female for having deceived her mate and the male for having been so thoroughly deceived (which implies unbearable stupidity). Although still part of society, rarely if ever can such culprit is able to find a mate again.
There is allegedly no divorce among X'ells; the marriage bond lasts for the time to raise children, and then renewed only if the male cares to go through the courting ritual with the same female again and her still reacting to his stimulus. Commonly, they seek other partners as it ensure genetic and social diversity and a richer interpersonal life, reinforcing the overall sense of community.
DIET:
Although omnivorous, they have a mostly vegetarian diet mostly based on grains, with fruits and vegetables as complement. They do need to eat animal protein and lack of it will show in a noticeable discoloration of the feathers. However, they consume it mostly from animal byproducts like unfertilized eggs or milk products they reduce into a very fine powder then sprinkle generously like Humans do with salt and pepper, but on just about everything they eat or drink.
X'ells have a rather low level of weak stomach acids and, to help digestion, they also add minerals to their diet, small pebbles they swallow to help their stomach crush ingested food just like many Terran birds do. Seeing a X'ell swallow rocks like Humans would do candy is sometimes startling to members of other species unaware of this peculiarity.
Their diet is perfectly compatible to other omnivorous species like Humans, even those opting for a vegetarian diet like Vulcans. Their ''meat pepper'' allows more carnivorous species like Andorians to also appreciate their cuisine, which is exceedingly perfumed with spices and herbs but with a surprisingly much tamed flavor when sampled. The X'ell can therefore eat other species food and will invariably follow a vegetarian diet and use animal product in their time honored manner only.
Caffeine and alcohol, being made from grains and plant products, are easily assimilated by their system and in fact, causes no secondary effects. A X'ell never gets overexcited or drunk, whatever it eats or drinks.
The X'ell nervous system requires great amounts of complex protein for its maintenance and growth, protein which is available from complex combinations of the numerous edible nuts, fruits and vegetables found on their vast homeworld. The use of ''meat pepper'' simply makes this much more easier and eschew the need of complex meal preparation. Most X'ell food beasts are mammals, their milk production part of a large X'ell dairy industry. They also have a large poultry industry, wich is exclusively used for the production of eggs for consumption. X'ell will never eat animal flesh, even in cases of extreme emergency. Killing any life form is deeply horrendous to them.
LANGUAGE
X'ELL LANGUAGE
X'ell language is, with the Andorian one, a rare form of communication that evolved from music. This gives a very melodic and mathematical quality to X'ell speech and thought, explaining much of their well controlled deep feelings. It is a soft and eeriely hypnotic combination of whispers and whistles, clicks and soft gutturals with an amazing tonal range of up to eight octaves. Their ability to sense tone and pitch with extreme acuity is what turned music into language in the first place.
The X'ell Language reflects much of the very large, open society they live in. The X'ell psyche is prevalent in all aspects of the language and seem to be universal within their immense homeworld..
Writing came about the same time and now exists in symbolic form, amazingly almost virtually identical to standard musical writing in writing, but also easily done with one's body, the origin of their dance art, somewhat reminescent of the complex mating flight of birds observed on Earth.
To the X'ell, speaking and singing is one and the same. They find almost all other alien tongues flat and lifeless, devoid of any spirit and depressingly poor, the sure sign of the primitive savagery and uncivilized status of those alien people. However, the are fascinated with the Human voice when singing and find Human opera an intriguing and beautiful, if somewhat simplistic form but all the more endearing because of it's childlike quality.
NAMING:
A X'ell's name is an ever-changing namesong literally describing the nature and life of the individual. They can last for hours on end and are totally incomprehensible and unpronounceable to any non-X'ell.
With off-worlders, each individual simply name himself '' the X'ell'' as they see no need for individual distinction for their benefit. They refuse contact with the outside world and do not care to be known as individuals to outsiders.
Since contact has been established in a very limited way between them and the Federation, the few X'ell accepting to deal with strangers started adopting Federation names to accomodate the simplistic minds of visitors. However, they often do so on the fly and it is difficult to really know if the ''Adam'' you talk to today is the same ''Adam'' you talked with the day before.
The very few X'Ell now considering the possibility to dare go outside and visit their new federation friends, through the proposed Officer Exchange program of Starfleet, are willing to choose more permanent designations, taking their inspiration from federation worlds'cultural database to find one most appropriate for them individually. Hence, the very first X'Ell to ever accept to participate in this exchange chose the name Jonathan Livingstone, a fictional literary seagull character from Earth who's irrepressible urge to see and do more was perfectly describing his own nature.
WORDLIST:
Although fully translated, there is no word list available. X'ell language is impossible to articulate for non-avian species and they always address off-worlders either in their own language or through the universal translator. Each X'ell encountered however seemed to be fully omnilingual: able to understand and speak any and all alien languages at once. Whether this is a result of their highly complex brains or through some advanced form of implanted translating technology or a combination of both is unclear.
SOCIETY
Little to nothing is known about X'ell society, economy and politics at this time, as very limited exchanges has been very recently initiated since very recent first contact.
The general overview is that of a large communal society of very widely spaced little communities of a few hundred individuals which remain constantly inter-connected through an extremely advanced grid of communication and transporters. Despite the immensity of their world, all X'ells are virtually next to one another, wherever they live in the same house or hundreds of millions of kilometers away. This intriguing distant proximity paradox is certainly a major part of their outlook and attitude.
There is no formal government identifiable in their society. They act as a single unified people and any X'ell apparently may speak for all others at any moment. It is believed that their extensive communication system is probably linking all X'ell together and some unknown very complex processing system allows any one individual to know what the entire population want or need or agrees with or not, clearly and almost instantly. The possibility of telepathy being part of or even central to this process is still a valid hypothesis, although the only currently available medical data does not so far confirm any psionic activity in the X'ell brain.
Because they have so much already, almost infinite space and resources in a perfectly controlled environment, social status, poverty, violence and crime seems totally unknown among the X'ell. They are a peaceful, caring people with seemingly no egos or desire for material wealth or political gain. It is not surprising therefore that they consider all other space-faring cultures, with their wars and territorial conficts, as ''uncivilized, savage child races '' to which they want nothing to do with.
RELIGION:
As far as can be seen, the concept of religion seems utterly alien to the X'ell. What they have observed from the outer races of the quadrant is judged as meaningless, irrational and further proof of the primitive state of off-worlder cultures. Their incredibly ancient culture has no trace of any past belief in the spiritual beyond that of the living mind. Preliminary studies seem to indicate their concept of the soul is that of the Human's collective consciousness and spirit being the individual's mind, which can only gain immortality through creation and work and sharing with others. What it truly means to the X'ell and how deep it is in their mindset, only the X'ell knows at this time.
TECHNOLOGY:
Little is known and even less is understood about the X'ell technology. The engineering and scientific skills and knowledge needed just to design their Dyson shell and complex grid of communication and teleportation is well beyond current Federation level, or any technology of all known current space-faring cultures. It is on par with T'kon and Iconian technology, but yet of a seemingly different nature altogether. Similarities with the preservers technology however is being hypothesized and debated in the Federation Science Council.
They have for example the ability and knowledge to synthesize neutronium and pure carbon composites in the making of their building material, a virtually indestructible alloy only the ultimate crushing power of a black hole or the very near devastation of a supernova and very peculiar anomalies like the Azimuth Horizon phenomena could possibly damage. The process for making this substance is unknown, but the end result bears striking resemblance with the outer shell of the planet-killer robot once encountered by the starships Constellation and Enterprise, roaming space and destroying entire solar systems during the 23rd century. It is now theorized that the so-called doomsday machine might have been related to the shell and used by its builders in fact as a sort of mining and gathering engine built to provide raw material for the construction of the Dyson shell itself.
The X'ell themselves use a very advanced form of nanotechnology, both to make, maintain and repair everything about their homeworld down to clothing themselves. They wear clothings of various style and color looking like shimmering gauze or silk of ever-changing hue. They seem to be as much a mode of expression as a functional garment. Pockets and slits can appear anywhere for convenience and it fully protects the wearer from environmental hazards. It has been shown to be resilient enough to even protect the wearer from one or two disruptor shots at full intensity and at point blank range. They also work as a healing bandage over any scrap or wound and provide full healing and even nutrients when food is scarce.
The usage of this body covering has for a good part by itself eluded the need of any medical necessity from the peculiarly safe environment they lived in for countless eons. When they were invaded by hostile forces using destructive energies against them, both this dependency and their lost knowledge proved to be almost fatal to the X'ell. Timely medical assistance from the Federation helped the X'ell recover from the growing widescale catastrophe and provided the unique opportunity to open contact with them.
The X'ell have no instrument of war, nor any tool or anything that could be used as such. Their only known tools are rings and wands apparently able to dissociate and recombine all matter at the subatomic level. They use them for every task, from preparing food to closing wounds or building houses.
Their recent face to face with a hostile species invading their territory showed them capable of efficiently hampering opponents without hurting them by bonding their weapons with walls, floors, trees... even to the owner's body or that of his neighbor.
The incident also showed that they can also call up containement force fields anywhere on their homeworld and seemingly at will to trap and isolate violent beings prior to whisking them away with transporters, regardless of distance, interference or shielding.
The X'ell are non-violent, but definitely not defenseless.
Despite their incredibly more advanced technology, the X'ell are not expecially fond of it, viewing it as something casual and menial... but still insist on its use with respect for nature. For this reason, and because of their peculiar world's make up, planetary environment is of prime concern to them; this along with their peaceful nature explains why they never knew the ecological devastation suffered by Terrans and many other cultures. Mass exploitation, despoiliation and destruction are simply unthinkable to them.
With the vast technological advance they enjoy, the X'ell have somewhat lost applied technological know-how and knowledge. They are still aware and cognizant in theories and principles behind technology, but maintenance, repair and even inventiveness is almost all but forgotten. Everything being self maintaining and repairing through very advanced replicator and nano technologies, they have essentially no engineers, technicians or mechanics to speak of, despite their understanding of technology on a theoretical level. Oddly enough, technology is seen by them almost as the same thing as agriculture; a series of rotes and recipes to ensure continuation only.
Would their homeworld need technological work beyond the capacity of their advanced technology, the X'ell would be helpless. The events leading to their discovery and how they were spared destruction from the Azimuth Horizon anomaly is a prime example of this.
RELATIONS WITH THE FEDERATION:
Current relations with the X'ell are barely in their infancy and on a very limited basis dictated by the X'ell themselves.
They are adamant in putting off any contact with any and all other space-faring cultures. However, the circumstances of first contact opened the X'ell to very limited and strict but mutual exchange with the Federation. Although limited with cultural openess in exchange for the more advanced medical knowledge of the Federation, it is a first step in establishing eventually further good relations between them and the Federation.
Although totally devoid of any martial spirit or skill whatsoever, the recent start of their limited cultural exchange with the Federation after their first and only war experience with a force of invading Klingons has sparked in many of them a new curiosity in the Terran martial arts of Tai Chi Chuan, for health and meditative purposes; and of Aikido, for more philosophical, and ethical interests; and both for more practical considerations... as well as for the Vulcan Ponn-Ifla disabling touch technique and the anh woon traditional entangling weapon. They also point out the three stun settings on Federation phasers as ''a glint of hope for the savages.''
Although well inside of Federation Space, the Dyson Shell has been officially recognized by the Federation Council as an independent sovereign state under the protection of the Federation. Strict quarantine under the Prime Directive has been ordered to forbid any contact attempt, with warning buoys and Starfleet patrolling ships enforcing this interdict. Only a formal autorization by both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command will allow anyone to even approach the X'ell territory, which is now back under the protective cover of its cloaking and deflecting field.
HISTORY
Nothing as yet is known of X'ell history, except that is undoubtedly millions, maybe even billions of years old, as they claim to have been the builders of the Dyson shell they inhabit.
Recently established cultural exchanges with the Federation have opened studies on this History, but the sheer volume of data alone will yield preliminary results only in the next decades to come. These are so vast in scope that barely a fraction of a percent has yet been recorded and has yet to be thoroughly studied.
MODERN DEVELOPMENT:
As of now, no X'ell has ever been seen outside of the homeworld. However, the latest development in cultural relations between the X'ell and the Federation might incite a few of them to go outside instead of allowing all those strangers to soil their own world.
Would any choose to do so, it would most certainly be under severe conditions, notably regarding their total refusal of committing violence and harm other beings, and their sole interest being in Federation medical knowledge. Although they have extensive knowledge of the universe and have been constantly observing all cultures and phenomena across the quadrant, their scientific curiosity might also stimulate some of them into going out there.
SPACE EXPLORATION:
As far as can be gathered, the X'ell have virtually no history or practice of space exploration. They do not even use any form of vehicle within their enclosed solar system, having an extensive transporter grid allowing them to literally be anywhere they wish to instantly on their vast homeworld or even aboard visiting starships.
They have little interest in the universe outside beyond what they already know, at least in the exploration sense, as they have extensive scanning and observational ressources far more powerful than any other known species, wich they have used for apparently unaccountable eons.
However, the latest threat of the unpredictable and unforeseen Azimuth Horizon anomaly and the fact that they would have been utterly annihilated as it not been for Federation help, not to mention repulsing a Klingon invasion, might now change this attitude.
WARP DEVELOPMENT:
The lack of any space exploration activity consequently means that the X'ell have no warp technology. Although they are well knowledgeable in the principles and technologies behind it, they have no use for it. That alone explains why they proved so vulnerable to the Azimuth Horizon despite their much more advanced technology and vast knowledge of the universe, as the anomaly's main threat came from subspace fractures it followed to travel and reach different parts of space with its destructive energies throughout multiple subspace domains.
FIRST CONTACT:
First contact with the Federation occurred upon immediate discovery on stardate 87055.4. Sent out to investigate a possible Klingon incursion in the Hromi sector of Federation Space, the starship USS Artemis of the elite Lotus Fleet division of Starfleet not only found the invading Klingons, but the presence of the X'ell enclosed star system, after a first brush with the Azimuth Horizon anomaly nearby had damaged its cloaking system and deflector shield.
Relations were difficult at first, as the X'ell refused any contact, even with Klingons already inside their shell and attacking their population centers. The Artemis offered full medical assistance through transported Emergency Medical Holograms from the ship's own inner systems, thus respecting their taboos and providing the help the X'ell most needed as Klingons attacked their weaponless population.
The Artemis confronted the invaders and managed to chase them off permanently without harming most of them, further earning the respect of the non-violent X'ell. Thereafter saving their system at great risk from destruction by the incoming anomaly, the Starfleet officers managed to finally open talks between the X'ell and the Federation.
Although exchanges are limited to medical and cultural matters only, the similar views of universal peace and brotherhood shared by both the Federation and the X'ell can only but improve and expand those relations with time.
GEOPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
STELLAR AND PLANETARY SYSTEM:
HROMI SECTOR DYSON SHELL : THE X'ELL STARWORLD
About one light year from Starbase Lotus towards the Klingon border lies a complete Dyson shell surrounding a previously uncharted main-sequence yellow-white dwarf star, of spectral type G and luminosity class V, One point one solar masses, with surface temperature of six thousand Kelvin. It is in the process of converting hydrogen to helium in its core by means of nuclear fusion, just like Earth's Sun, Alpha Centauri A, Tau Ceti, and 51 Pegasi. Each second, it fuses approximately six hundred million tons of hydrogen to helium, converting about four million tons of matter to energy. 100% of that energy is channeled to power the completely enclosing structure.
Inside the hollowed star system, all current emitting and receiving apparatus are affected by the higher than normal ambient level of solar emissions and radiations from both the star and what is reflected by the inner structure. Long range communications and sensors are useless, and short range sensors and transmissions are at 47% efficiency.
This star is about six billion years old, barely passing half its lifespan before it exhaust fuel at the center; then, it will expands to many times its previous size and becomes a red giant, such as Aldebaran... and then, eventually shed its outer layers of gas to form a planetary nebula, while the core will cool and contracts into a compact, dense white dwarf.
There is no planetary mass around the star except for the outer shell of the Dyson construct itself, two hundred million kilometers away and, in between, a chain of ''starshades'': massive objects orbiting the star at the center of the shell; they are square shaped, ten million kilometers on each side but barely a kilometer thick per square and separated one from the other by a gap of twenty million kilometers. There is no detectable mechanism but they orbit perfectly at fifty million kilometers from the star's corona, blocking the sun on any specific point of the inner surface of the shell for ten hours every twenty hours interval. Their purpose is to provide a night/day cycle to the inhabitable inner surface of the shell.
This amazing marvel of alien engineering is at least millions of years old, of if not even billions of years of age. It stayed totally unknown to all spacefaring races until stardate 87055.4 when damage from a passing cosmic anomaly weakened its cloaking field enough for it to be discovered.
It is currently under Federation quarantine and Prime Directive law and cannot be approached by any vessel, Federation or not under any circumstance whatsoever, including emergencies, without a direct order from both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command Admiralty. Studies are thus limited to what was collected during the first and only visit upon discovery and presented here.
PLANET:
Dyson construct: type: shell
A Dyson shell is a megastructure originally described by the 20th century physicist Freeman Dyson. It is a closed system of orbiting solar powered envelope meant to completely encompass a star and capture all of its energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization.
This one is the perfect representation of Dyson's ultimate version of his concept: a uniform solid shell of matter around a star. It completely alter the emissions of the central star, intercepting 100% of the star's energy output, providing also an immense interior surface for habitation.
The material and very size of the shell is too immense even to have been made out of the material available in any known solar system, including the metallic core of gas giants and all the estimated debris, comets and meteorites that can pass through it. Moreover, the structure is built out of a carbon-neutronium alloy, so dense only the crushing power of a black hole could believably damage it. But it has been established that advanced replicator technology on a cosmic scale and nanotechnology was used to fabricate enough from the basic material to complete it and afterwards to maintain it.
This spherical shell Dyson sphere has a volume of three point zero-two times ten to the seventeenth cubic kilometers and a diameter of two-hundred million kilometers, roughly two-third of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Being hollow and so immense, net mass is one metric ton. There is a two point four kilometers-thick carbon-neutronium alloy outer envelope and another slightly smaller inner shell, with in between a series of masses traveling in circular tracks on the inside of the sphere, at velocities significantly greater than orbital velocity, which press outwards due to centripetal force. These masses are traveling ten times orbital velocity (297.9 km/s) and support 99 (a=v2/r) times its own mass in additional shell structure. This not only provides a 0.85 internal gravity for the inner surface of the shell, but ensures the stability of its orbit around the star.
Despite the enormous energy requirements of this gravitational system, still massive excess energies are being dissipated through the shell into space in the form of a titanic cloaking field, an equally immense deflector field against cosmic hazards like asteroids and comets, and a gravitational field equivalent to that of a class M-I red giant star.
Recent contact with the Federation has provided the Dyson shell with the Metaphasic Shielding La Forge Program 1, enabling the construct to now even wisthand the energies of a star's corona or the most severe ion or plasma storms.
The interior surface is one point twenty-five times ten to the seventheenth squared kilometers; the equivalent of two hundred and forty-five million class M planets.Over twelve times the estimated total of all the M class worlds in our entire galaxy. At an average of fifteen inhabitants per square kilometer; enough to provide for three quintillion inhabitants. This intercepts the full 400 yotta-watts (4.0 ? 1026 watts) of the star's output; such a shell variant represents the maximum possible energy captured for such a solar system at this point of the star's evolution. This is approximately 33 trillion times the power consumption of humanity at the very end of the 20th century, which was 12 terawatts.
There is an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere clinging to the interior surface of the shell with a water land mass ratio of 60/40%, all maintained by the artificial gravity stabilizing the shell itself. there is a constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius on the entire inner surface with a 20 hours long daylight period and no seasonal variation whatsoever.
The inhabited surface is dotted with urban agglomerations surrounded by complex and vast agricultural surfaces, with tall spire like buildings made of a glassy light reactant material, most of them roofless. Every piece of technology is apparently solar powered.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
THE X'ELL : PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Average, slim humanoids, between 1.5 and 2 meters, with feathers in long thick mane instead of hair. There is no significant difference between males and females except for the fact that males have a much brighter and thicker set of feathers and their fiber optics headress and clothes are polychromed and in complex patterns, while the female's are monochrome and simpler.
There seems to be no known subspecies within the X'ell. They all are physically similar and speak the exact same langage and live with the same cultural and social patterns all over the Dyson shell.
The X'ell cellular physiology is based on cobalt, giving them their skin tone, a uniformed very deep shade of blue that appears black under certain lighting conditions, while their their feathers may go from midnight blue to lavender pale. Their eyes are much more varied in color, from all shades of blue to shades of reds, brown and even gold. They blush indigo when embarrassed.
A protenous dye (HZB-41) comparable to melanin in Humans, is responsible for their spectacular epidermal coloration. The dye-cells have a comparatively short life span and must be produced constantly from protein sources in the diet. One of the most common symptoms of serious illness is insufficient dye production and a corresponding loss of skin colour. This source of protein is provided by meat dried into fine powder and used as spice in virtually every food and drink they consume.
All X'ells adorn their head feathers with strands of fiber optics. These are much more than just cosmetic: they are connected to their skin and serve to identify the individual, convey long distance communications and even act as a transponder for teleportation transport and technological interface as well as monitor the individual's health. The working principles are not understood but they seem to be able to adapt to any surrounding technology, native or alien, and keep working even over cosmic distances, as long as electromagnetism is present. The possibility of being a kind of advanced psionic technology is being hypothesized but research is rather limited due to the severe isolationist policy of the X'ell.
However, extensive physiological data has been gathered as the first contact made with this reclusive race had been through large scale direct medical assistance.
X'ELL PHYSIOLOGY:
The X'ells are avian (bird like) humanoid warm-blooded omnivores. The average X'ell body temperature is about 33C, a consequence of their evolution in their peculiarly stable and hot planetary environment. This lower metabolism, coupled with a risk free environment, makes them exceedingly long lived; easily twice as much as Vulcans, allegedly even up to half a millenia.
The heavy cobalt base to X'ell's blood and tissue make them most compatible, on a cellular level, with Bolians and Andorians, whereas incompatible with Vulcans and Romulans wich are copper based, or Humans and Klingons which are iron based, unless risky, complex and extensive biochemical alterations are attempted. Hybridation, even through genetic manipulation, is beyond current science and would be considered absolutely abhorrent to any X'ell.
The race has a genetic disposition towards non-violent behavior. Imminent danger causes a biochemical reaction resulting in a decrease in physical and emotional responses and an increase in sensory input levels, which in turn enhance analytical and reasoning skills. The X'ell do not succumb to pressure and actually get unshakably calmer and more rationale in a crisis.
Their fragile appearance betrays their hollowed bone structure, making them lithe and agile, able to jump as high and far as Caitans (up to 3 meters high and six meters long) but more easily prone to fractures than Humans. However, the remarkable resiliency and strength of their tendons and ligaments make such accident fairly rare.
They have a higher cartilage-to-bone ratio in their skeletal structure and powerful muscles and tendons compartmentalize organs from gross physical trauma. All of these make them more susceptible to pain but much less to injury and soreness. The X'ell body is highly resistant to soreness and of exceptional endurance because of their very large and powerful thoracic cage. They can exert themselves or stand still for hours without any discomfort.
Their feather-covered body is most efficient for controlling internal temperature; the X'ell in fact resist with ease extremes of heat and cold twice better than Humans. They do have an efficient cooling system since their environment required them to face heat; when they do sweat, they give out an oily scent and their body becomes shinier. They also require sleep only for 3-4 hours over the 20 hours of the X'ell day. They are diurnal however and do not function well under nighttime conditions or if lacking sleep.
They have long slender limbs, the arms being notably longer than the legs. They are three-toed and three fingered but surprisingly dextrous despite those few thick digits as they are made of two opposite thumbs ad a single forefinger. They also are curiously all left-handed, possibly due to their exceedingly long isolated and specific cultural development that stimulated extensively the right side of their brain. Their reaction time and speed is slightly slower than the human norm due to their lower metabolism but the extraordinary acuity of their senses and their very alert minds somewhat compensate for this deficiency when facing danger.
Their circulatory system is extremely efficient especially along the upper limbs wich are visibly longer than Humans in relation to their body while the legs are decidely shorter with knees inverted like terrestrial birds. The strength and endurance of their upper limbs are comparable to those of Human legs but their own lower limbs are comparatively average. Their wrists are able to bring their much longer hands and three fingers flat against the forearm in all directions, giving them tremendous manual dexterity. Their fingertips however are much less sensitive than human fingers as tiny compact feathers covers them entirely instead of a hardened fingernail.
X'ell are less prone to shock than humans, even from major injuries, and are almost never exhausted due to their lower metabolic rate. They can however get infected much more easily by airborne viruses due to their circulatory system and feathery covering, sometimes mortally if not properly treated. Because of their insulated lives, their immune system is weak so they require a full array of vaccines and hygiene protocols if exposed to a different environment and even other species.
Because their bones have the tensile properties of cartilage due to their hollowness, they break messily (and it requires about half the force necessary to break human bones); any injury which breaks a X'ell's bones will require a great deal of healing time, and cause severe pain. Fortunately, the thickness and strength of surrounding tissues offer an effective thick cushion to protect them from injury.
The large bulbous eyes have extraordinary acuity and are immune to glare, about four times as powerful as human eyes, although they do not adapt as well to darkness. Placed higher and more apart than on a human face, it gives their appearance a rather wide-eyed look, but also a vastly larger field of vision, especially to the side, rear and upward. Like Terran raptors, their eyes have two focal points, allowing them when aligned to zoom in clearly on a specific point as small as a human hand up to two kilometers away. Or to watch across a 270 degrees field of vision horizontally and vertically. Coupled with the higher mobility of their slender neck, there is not much that can escape a X'ell's sight.
Their ears lack any outer pavilion but are nevertheless effective from infrasonic to ultrasonic ranges. They are not however able to pinpoint and locate sounds like Humans can.
Their sense of smell is somewhat lacking but their tongue is highly sensitive to savors and textures. The X'ell kiss by rubbing beaks and cheeks together or touching tongues when very intimate.
The X'ell's brain pattern is so complex and so alien that, although telepaths can make their way in, they cannot even begin to decipher what's in there, getting a deafening roar of thousands of voices shouting gibberish that can sometimes even overwhelm the invading mind into temporary stupor. Even medical brainscans read like a fully colored page instead of the usual line. Wether it is because of their actual brainwave or some connection to the rest of the collective mind akin to the Borg Collective has yet to be determined.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION
The X'ell regard themselves as a contemplative, peaceful, non violent race. However, their character is much more complex. At first glance, they appear intelligent, even intellectual humanoids, deadpan and emotionless, very calm, rational and logical like the Vulcans. But in truth, their emotions can emerge with deep psychological reactions even without any apparent physical reaction. They do not suppress them like Vulcans do but rather channel them int a deliberate, measured, intense feeling they then live for a long moment, sometimes even hours on end... or longer.
X'ell history is one of slow, stable evolution, where conflict has been virtually eliminated. The martial spirit is completely unknown in X'ell culture. The X'ell are extremely disciplined, possessing a strong sense of duty and personal responsibility to others, based on an intimate feel of being part of Life and sentience themselves.
Though they are stoic and largely unsentimental in appearance, they do respect, even revere, family ties. X'ells have no nudity taboos. Non- X'ell visitors will see much feathery skin. They place great value on family and from this principle extend charity, compassion and helpfulness to the community as a whole, even to non-sentient lifeforms, as their notion of family is broader than the usual blood tie of other species.
They are hard-working and serious, often incorrectly viewed as humorless and distant, even cold and callous. They have absolutely no concept of humor and their beak-like, rigid face is incapable of smiling and laughing. They do however know joy and pleasure, savoring things like good food, music, art and intellectual achievement, but they express it through their skin rather than their voice or their face: a joyful X'ell's feathers rise and tremble with good feeling, or flatten and thin when in a bad mood.The long, peaceful history of X'ell civilization in their immutable, untroubled environement left a strong tendency to take all the time to enjoy life and all the pleasures and teachings it may offer, and so they feel uncomfortable when invited to purely recreational activities that are brief and superficial. Their curt refusals often make them seem prudish or unsociable, while in fact they simply have a strong cultural desire for everything to be meaningful and long lasting.
The X'ell are also reluctant to enter strong personal relationships outside their own people; beyond their natural distrust of other species, they find it painful to see such relationship end so quickly and abruptly when the other person dies while they still go on living for centuries after that. This makes them terribly sad to see how ephemeral and short alien lives are and thus avoid being too close to non-X'ell. This lack of a social life reinforces the sense of isolation and distance that others perceive between them and other species.
The X'ell are utterly non-violent and non-conflictual, without the urges that bring most sentient beings one against the other. Their unique native environment is certainly a major part behind that outlook, but their very long lives and even longer History as a civilization certainly is also an important element of this attitude. Whether they have never known aggressiveness because of their very nature or simply outgrew it millions of years ago is still undetermined. Their all-providing and inexhaustible environment and their vast knowledge of the universe has eliminated all traces of competitive instincts or even any need of them, to the point that they find the very notion utterly incomprehensible and purely animalistic.
There is no way, even from artificial means, to force a X'ell to commit violence. It is simply not in their physiology nor in their psyche anymore. Like all living thing, they must have known the struggle for survival but at one point during the millions of years of their evolution, they have somehow outgrown those instincts and compulsions completely. There is currently some careful research done about the creature called Armus, discovered by the USS Enterprise D on stardate 41601.3 and quarantined on Vagra II, who's ''skin of evil'' shed by ''angels'' might be related to this evolution of the X'ell; even possibly a clue as to their true origin, as observed and even hinted at in their cultural records.
MATING:
The X'ell are able to reproduce once every two hundred of their local days, the female laying one to four eggs that the male will care for during the fifty days it takes the eggs to hatch. The female takes care of the immobilized male during this time, then both will see to the children needs until they are adults and able to fend for themselves 20,000 days later. While they care for children, the couple becomes infertile, suggesting that in the past there was a definite shortage of resources and living space that may have prompted the creation of this immense hollowed world.
They might prove compatible with other avian species in the galaxy but the merest idea of attempting it is as close to blasphemous as any idea could get in their mind. It is as unthinkable to them as for Humans thinking to mate with lower animals. Their very bird-like reproduction mechanism makes them utterly incompatible with all non-avian beings except possibly those of reptilian type; even then, advanced genetic engineering would be necessary to make the foetus viable, even more than is the case of any interspecies mating.
X'ells choose their beloved through a form of competition between males involving many forms of art and intellectual achievements, proving to the potential mate that the male can father bright, intelligent children and will be responsible enough to care for them. It also involves a ritual looking as much as a dance as a beauty pageant contest, with males parading before females with aesthetically complex and dazzling displays of clothing, headdress and colored fiber optics through a spectacular display of acrobatic dancing reminiscent almost of the mating flights of Terran birds. X'ell marriage bonds are absolute as long as the children needs taking care of, but then can be dissoluted with mutual consent to seek other mates thereafter. To a X'ell, family and society are therefore the same. Concern for any other X'ell is universal, as any other X'ell might be a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, son, daughter,father or mother of any preceding or following generation.
However, they are not really concerned in making as many children as possible during their fertility period but once they do, they go to extremes to protect and nurture them. A X'ell parent will go as far as sacrifice its own life without the slightest hesitation to save its offspring from any harm.
The X'ell species is quite extensive in number although this exact number is unknown but is at least in the tens, maybe even hundreds of billions; nevertheless, population density is exceedingly sparse as their native world is far larger than all the galaxy's estimated M class planets put together.
SPECIFIC DETAILS OF REPRODUCTION
Without modern medicine and especially genetic science, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine the gender of a X'ell child at birth, and the X'ell themselves do not find this any significant, with the result that children are raised without different treatment accorded by gender. This is one reason why X'ell society is, even today, mostly ambiarchal. At one point during childhood, the natural hormonal response at puberty determine the feather coloring and an instinctive way to adorn the fiber optics on their head, marking their gender to all as much as to themselves. The child's genital organs remain dormant until first puberty, which starts at the approximately 15,000th day and is completed by the age of 20,000 days, when it leaves the children's neuter phase to enter adulthood. Reproductive organs are all but invisible and oddly similar to the eye, only the female's aperture being larger when the time to lay eggs is near.
When the female is ovulating, some undetermined mechanism alerts all fertile males of her readiness and their seductive display further stimulates the female until she recognizes the male most responsible for the swelling of the eggs inside her and bond with him. When she lay her eggs, the shell is still soft and porous and the male then impregnate them all over, causing a fast hardening of the shell while fertilizing it and making it impervious to further impregnation while the embryo develops.
At birth, the child is featherless and the beak is much harder and sharper than at adulthood and proportionately larger. It helps the newborn to break out of the shell, chomp food and to effectively defend itself from potential predators. Although this last need is a thing of their distant prehistoric past, it is still there and comes with a definite aggressiveness that makes the child very dangerous to handle except for its natural parents, which it recognizes at the instant of birth. This aggressiveness dissipates as the child ages and disappears completely at the onset of puberty. It explains much of the X'ell's outlook of other spacefaring races, still struggling with violence, and thus seeing them as being ''child like '' and immature species and societies.
In the interests of keeping the couple together, the mating bond causes physical changes in the nervous system so that bonded individuals cease to have sexual interest in any save their mate, and literally cannot perform a fertile mating with anyone else until the children born of this union are adult themselves. "Adultery" is an unknown concept among X'ells. "Illegitimacy" is barely possible (not counting the purely social disgrace of failing to undergo the formal marriage ceremony before the final bonding) and is extremely difficult. It consists of a female obtaining an egg which is not hers and introducing it to her chosen mate, or a male substituting himself as the genitor. This is considered a horrid disgrace and the usual punishment is discredit for both male and female, the female for having deceived her mate and the male for having been so thoroughly deceived (which implies unbearable stupidity). Although still part of society, rarely if ever can such culprit is able to find a mate again.
There is allegedly no divorce among X'ells; the marriage bond lasts for the time to raise children, and then renewed only if the male cares to go through the courting ritual with the same female again and her still reacting to his stimulus. Commonly, they seek other partners as it ensure genetic and social diversity and a richer interpersonal life, reinforcing the overall sense of community.
DIET:
Although omnivorous, they have a mostly vegetarian diet mostly based on grains, with fruits and vegetables as complement. They do need to eat animal protein and lack of it will show in a noticeable discoloration of the feathers. However, they consume it mostly from animal byproducts like unfertilized eggs or milk products they reduce into a very fine powder then sprinkle generously like Humans do with salt and pepper, but on just about everything they eat or drink.
X'ells have a rather low level of weak stomach acids and, to help digestion, they also add minerals to their diet, small pebbles they swallow to help their stomach crush ingested food just like many Terran birds do. Seeing a X'ell swallow rocks like Humans would do candy is sometimes startling to members of other species unaware of this peculiarity.
Their diet is perfectly compatible to other omnivorous species like Humans, even those opting for a vegetarian diet like Vulcans. Their ''meat pepper'' allows more carnivorous species like Andorians to also appreciate their cuisine, which is exceedingly perfumed with spices and herbs but with a surprisingly much tamed flavor when sampled. The X'ell can therefore eat other species food and will invariably follow a vegetarian diet and use animal product in their time honored manner only.
Caffeine and alcohol, being made from grains and plant products, are easily assimilated by their system and in fact, causes no secondary effects. A X'ell never gets overexcited or drunk, whatever it eats or drinks.
The X'ell nervous system requires great amounts of complex protein for its maintenance and growth, protein which is available from complex combinations of the numerous edible nuts, fruits and vegetables found on their vast homeworld. The use of ''meat pepper'' simply makes this much more easier and eschew the need of complex meal preparation. Most X'ell food beasts are mammals, their milk production part of a large X'ell dairy industry. They also have a large poultry industry, wich is exclusively used for the production of eggs for consumption. X'ell will never eat animal flesh, even in cases of extreme emergency. Killing any life form is deeply horrendous to them.
LANGUAGE
X'ELL LANGUAGE
X'ell language is, with the Andorian one, a rare form of communication that evolved from music. This gives a very melodic and mathematical quality to X'ell speech and thought, explaining much of their well controlled deep feelings. It is a soft and eeriely hypnotic combination of whispers and whistles, clicks and soft gutturals with an amazing tonal range of up to eight octaves. Their ability to sense tone and pitch with extreme acuity is what turned music into language in the first place.
The X'ell Language reflects much of the very large, open society they live in. The X'ell psyche is prevalent in all aspects of the language and seem to be universal within their immense homeworld..
Writing came about the same time and now exists in symbolic form, amazingly almost virtually identical to standard musical writing in writing, but also easily done with one's body, the origin of their dance art, somewhat reminescent of the complex mating flight of birds observed on Earth.
To the X'ell, speaking and singing is one and the same. They find almost all other alien tongues flat and lifeless, devoid of any spirit and depressingly poor, the sure sign of the primitive savagery and uncivilized status of those alien people. However, the are fascinated with the Human voice when singing and find Human opera an intriguing and beautiful, if somewhat simplistic form but all the more endearing because of it's childlike quality.
NAMING:
A X'ell's name is an ever-changing namesong literally describing the nature and life of the individual. They can last for hours on end and are totally incomprehensible and unpronounceable to any non-X'ell.
With off-worlders, each individual simply name himself '' the X'ell'' as they see no need for individual distinction for their benefit. They refuse contact with the outside world and do not care to be known as individuals to outsiders.
Since contact has been established in a very limited way between them and the Federation, the few X'ell accepting to deal with strangers started adopting Federation names to accomodate the simplistic minds of visitors. However, they often do so on the fly and it is difficult to really know if the ''Adam'' you talk to today is the same ''Adam'' you talked with the day before.
The very few X'Ell now considering the possibility to dare go outside and visit their new federation friends, through the proposed Officer Exchange program of Starfleet, are willing to choose more permanent designations, taking their inspiration from federation worlds'cultural database to find one most appropriate for them individually. Hence, the very first X'Ell to ever accept to participate in this exchange chose the name Jonathan Livingstone, a fictional literary seagull character from Earth who's irrepressible urge to see and do more was perfectly describing his own nature.
WORDLIST:
Although fully translated, there is no word list available. X'ell language is impossible to articulate for non-avian species and they always address off-worlders either in their own language or through the universal translator. Each X'ell encountered however seemed to be fully omnilingual: able to understand and speak any and all alien languages at once. Whether this is a result of their highly complex brains or through some advanced form of implanted translating technology or a combination of both is unclear.
SOCIETY
Little to nothing is known about X'ell society, economy and politics at this time, as very limited exchanges has been very recently initiated since very recent first contact.
The general overview is that of a large communal society of very widely spaced little communities of a few hundred individuals which remain constantly inter-connected through an extremely advanced grid of communication and transporters. Despite the immensity of their world, all X'ells are virtually next to one another, wherever they live in the same house or hundreds of millions of kilometers away. This intriguing distant proximity paradox is certainly a major part of their outlook and attitude.
There is no formal government identifiable in their society. They act as a single unified people and any X'ell apparently may speak for all others at any moment. It is believed that their extensive communication system is probably linking all X'ell together and some unknown very complex processing system allows any one individual to know what the entire population want or need or agrees with or not, clearly and almost instantly. The possibility of telepathy being part of or even central to this process is still a valid hypothesis, although the only currently available medical data does not so far confirm any psionic activity in the X'ell brain.
Because they have so much already, almost infinite space and resources in a perfectly controlled environment, social status, poverty, violence and crime seems totally unknown among the X'ell. They are a peaceful, caring people with seemingly no egos or desire for material wealth or political gain. It is not surprising therefore that they consider all other space-faring cultures, with their wars and territorial conficts, as ''uncivilized, savage child races '' to which they want nothing to do with.
RELIGION:
As far as can be seen, the concept of religion seems utterly alien to the X'ell. What they have observed from the outer races of the quadrant is judged as meaningless, irrational and further proof of the primitive state of off-worlder cultures. Their incredibly ancient culture has no trace of any past belief in the spiritual beyond that of the living mind. Preliminary studies seem to indicate their concept of the soul is that of the Human's collective consciousness and spirit being the individual's mind, which can only gain immortality through creation and work and sharing with others. What it truly means to the X'ell and how deep it is in their mindset, only the X'ell knows at this time.
TECHNOLOGY:
Little is known and even less is understood about the X'ell technology. The engineering and scientific skills and knowledge needed just to design their Dyson shell and complex grid of communication and teleportation is well beyond current Federation level, or any technology of all known current space-faring cultures. It is on par with T'kon and Iconian technology, but yet of a seemingly different nature altogether. Similarities with the preservers technology however is being hypothesized and debated in the Federation Science Council.
They have for example the ability and knowledge to synthesize neutronium and pure carbon composites in the making of their building material, a virtually indestructible alloy only the ultimate crushing power of a black hole or the very near devastation of a supernova and very peculiar anomalies like the Azimuth Horizon phenomena could possibly damage. The process for making this substance is unknown, but the end result bears striking resemblance with the outer shell of the planet-killer robot once encountered by the starships Constellation and Enterprise, roaming space and destroying entire solar systems during the 23rd century. It is now theorized that the so-called doomsday machine might have been related to the shell and used by its builders in fact as a sort of mining and gathering engine built to provide raw material for the construction of the Dyson shell itself.
The X'ell themselves use a very advanced form of nanotechnology, both to make, maintain and repair everything about their homeworld down to clothing themselves. They wear clothings of various style and color looking like shimmering gauze or silk of ever-changing hue. They seem to be as much a mode of expression as a functional garment. Pockets and slits can appear anywhere for convenience and it fully protects the wearer from environmental hazards. It has been shown to be resilient enough to even protect the wearer from one or two disruptor shots at full intensity and at point blank range. They also work as a healing bandage over any scrap or wound and provide full healing and even nutrients when food is scarce.
The usage of this body covering has for a good part by itself eluded the need of any medical necessity from the peculiarly safe environment they lived in for countless eons. When they were invaded by hostile forces using destructive energies against them, both this dependency and their lost knowledge proved to be almost fatal to the X'ell. Timely medical assistance from the Federation helped the X'ell recover from the growing widescale catastrophe and provided the unique opportunity to open contact with them.
The X'ell have no instrument of war, nor any tool or anything that could be used as such. Their only known tools are rings and wands apparently able to dissociate and recombine all matter at the subatomic level. They use them for every task, from preparing food to closing wounds or building houses.
Their recent face to face with a hostile species invading their territory showed them capable of efficiently hampering opponents without hurting them by bonding their weapons with walls, floors, trees... even to the owner's body or that of his neighbor.
The incident also showed that they can also call up containement force fields anywhere on their homeworld and seemingly at will to trap and isolate violent beings prior to whisking them away with transporters, regardless of distance, interference or shielding.
The X'ell are non-violent, but definitely not defenseless.
Despite their incredibly more advanced technology, the X'ell are not expecially fond of it, viewing it as something casual and menial... but still insist on its use with respect for nature. For this reason, and because of their peculiar world's make up, planetary environment is of prime concern to them; this along with their peaceful nature explains why they never knew the ecological devastation suffered by Terrans and many other cultures. Mass exploitation, despoiliation and destruction are simply unthinkable to them.
With the vast technological advance they enjoy, the X'ell have somewhat lost applied technological know-how and knowledge. They are still aware and cognizant in theories and principles behind technology, but maintenance, repair and even inventiveness is almost all but forgotten. Everything being self maintaining and repairing through very advanced replicator and nano technologies, they have essentially no engineers, technicians or mechanics to speak of, despite their understanding of technology on a theoretical level. Oddly enough, technology is seen by them almost as the same thing as agriculture; a series of rotes and recipes to ensure continuation only.
Would their homeworld need technological work beyond the capacity of their advanced technology, the X'ell would be helpless. The events leading to their discovery and how they were spared destruction from the Azimuth Horizon anomaly is a prime example of this.
RELATIONS WITH THE FEDERATION:
Current relations with the X'ell are barely in their infancy and on a very limited basis dictated by the X'ell themselves.
They are adamant in putting off any contact with any and all other space-faring cultures. However, the circumstances of first contact opened the X'ell to very limited and strict but mutual exchange with the Federation. Although limited with cultural openess in exchange for the more advanced medical knowledge of the Federation, it is a first step in establishing eventually further good relations between them and the Federation.
Although totally devoid of any martial spirit or skill whatsoever, the recent start of their limited cultural exchange with the Federation after their first and only war experience with a force of invading Klingons has sparked in many of them a new curiosity in the Terran martial arts of Tai Chi Chuan, for health and meditative purposes; and of Aikido, for more philosophical, and ethical interests; and both for more practical considerations... as well as for the Vulcan Ponn-Ifla disabling touch technique and the anh woon traditional entangling weapon. They also point out the three stun settings on Federation phasers as ''a glint of hope for the savages.''
Although well inside of Federation Space, the Dyson Shell has been officially recognized by the Federation Council as an independent sovereign state under the protection of the Federation. Strict quarantine under the Prime Directive has been ordered to forbid any contact attempt, with warning buoys and Starfleet patrolling ships enforcing this interdict. Only a formal autorization by both the Federation Council and Starfleet Command will allow anyone to even approach the X'ell territory, which is now back under the protective cover of its cloaking and deflecting field.
HISTORY
Nothing as yet is known of X'ell history, except that is undoubtedly millions, maybe even billions of years old, as they claim to have been the builders of the Dyson shell they inhabit.
Recently established cultural exchanges with the Federation have opened studies on this History, but the sheer volume of data alone will yield preliminary results only in the next decades to come. These are so vast in scope that barely a fraction of a percent has yet been recorded and has yet to be thoroughly studied.
MODERN DEVELOPMENT:
As of now, no X'ell has ever been seen outside of the homeworld. However, the latest development in cultural relations between the X'ell and the Federation might incite a few of them to go outside instead of allowing all those strangers to soil their own world.
Would any choose to do so, it would most certainly be under severe conditions, notably regarding their total refusal of committing violence and harm other beings, and their sole interest being in Federation medical knowledge. Although they have extensive knowledge of the universe and have been constantly observing all cultures and phenomena across the quadrant, their scientific curiosity might also stimulate some of them into going out there.
SPACE EXPLORATION:
As far as can be gathered, the X'ell have virtually no history or practice of space exploration. They do not even use any form of vehicle within their enclosed solar system, having an extensive transporter grid allowing them to literally be anywhere they wish to instantly on their vast homeworld or even aboard visiting starships.
They have little interest in the universe outside beyond what they already know, at least in the exploration sense, as they have extensive scanning and observational ressources far more powerful than any other known species, wich they have used for apparently unaccountable eons.
However, the latest threat of the unpredictable and unforeseen Azimuth Horizon anomaly and the fact that they would have been utterly annihilated as it not been for Federation help, not to mention repulsing a Klingon invasion, might now change this attitude.
WARP DEVELOPMENT:
The lack of any space exploration activity consequently means that the X'ell have no warp technology. Although they are well knowledgeable in the principles and technologies behind it, they have no use for it. That alone explains why they proved so vulnerable to the Azimuth Horizon despite their much more advanced technology and vast knowledge of the universe, as the anomaly's main threat came from subspace fractures it followed to travel and reach different parts of space with its destructive energies throughout multiple subspace domains.
FIRST CONTACT:
First contact with the Federation occurred upon immediate discovery on stardate 87055.4. Sent out to investigate a possible Klingon incursion in the Hromi sector of Federation Space, the starship USS Artemis of the elite Lotus Fleet division of Starfleet not only found the invading Klingons, but the presence of the X'ell enclosed star system, after a first brush with the Azimuth Horizon anomaly nearby had damaged its cloaking system and deflector shield.
Relations were difficult at first, as the X'ell refused any contact, even with Klingons already inside their shell and attacking their population centers. The Artemis offered full medical assistance through transported Emergency Medical Holograms from the ship's own inner systems, thus respecting their taboos and providing the help the X'ell most needed as Klingons attacked their weaponless population.
The Artemis confronted the invaders and managed to chase them off permanently without harming most of them, further earning the respect of the non-violent X'ell. Thereafter saving their system at great risk from destruction by the incoming anomaly, the Starfleet officers managed to finally open talks between the X'ell and the Federation.
Although exchanges are limited to medical and cultural matters only, the similar views of universal peace and brotherhood shared by both the Federation and the X'ell can only but improve and expand those relations with time.