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There is a socioeconomic phemomenon, easily explicable with chaos theory, in which a particular ethnicity becomes associated with a particular kind of employment.
In the late 19th century, many policemen were Irishmen, many haberdashers were Jews, many restaurant owners were Chinese.
In the late 20th century, many cabdrivers were of middle eastern descent; many convenience store owners were either Middle Eastern or Korean.
In the early 21st century, many Filipinos were nurses, many East Indians were computer programmers.
In the latter part of the 26th century, Native American Indians from North America began to dominate the field of recombinant DNA research and genetic engineering.
By the mid-27th century, it was believed that it would be possible to create a life-form entirely suited to existence in the vacuum of space.
Thus the Space-Whale species was created. It was initially hoped that these would serve as a kind of biological starship, which could be grown in space and carry humans - and other sentients - to the stars.
However, this dream never materialized. The major difficulty to overcome was one of control, for the Space-Whales could not be "programmed" or trained reliably. In particular, they kept swallowing the passengers.
By the early 28th century, genetic experimentation on humans or other sentient life forms was baned outright throughout much of the United Planets.
A number of forward-thinking (some might say, renegade) genetic engineers and their families- primarily of Native America origin- migrated to a small, distant, and previously uninhabited planet they called Star Haven.
(Interestingly, there was another colony established about the same time for magic-users called Witch Haven, but it was less than successful. Most of the population eventually moved on to Zerox.)
The planet is tiny- only half the diameter of the Earth, but much denser. The surface area is only one-quarter the size of the Earth, and the oceans take up a larger percentage of the area. The five large islands which make up most of the habitable land mass are, in total, only about the area of China.
A diverse sea population, both plant and animal life, developed naturally on Starhaven before it was colonised by humans. However, native life never successfully colonized the land.
Using genetic engineering, the group created life-forms which effectively terra-formed the rocky surface, and keep it in its hospitable state today.
The ultimate goal of the Starhaven Project was to create a humanoid life-form which could survive unaided in space. They unquestionably succeeded.
The final solution involved the development of external, wing-like organs which allow all living Starhavenites to survive in vacuo. The "wings" even metabolize solar energy, allowing individuals to go for as long as a week without eating.
There are six distinct "races", "families", or "nations" on Starhaven, each with abilities peculiar to their group. Not all members of each Nation possess these special abilities to the same extent, but all can at least survive the vacuum of space, are resistant to radiation, and can fly at trans-luminal velocities in relatively uncurved space (that is, beyond the gravitational well of stars and planets.)
Many of the WhiteWing Nation have developed a remarkable psionic path-finding ability.
Many of the BlackWing Nation have developed a natural cloaking ability, giving them complete invisibility in space, and near-invisibility planetside.
The RedWing Nation adepts are natural solar batteries, able to absorb, store, channel and concentrate solar radiation.
The GreenWing Nation, with their parrot-like heads, have adepts able to generate gravitational-wave concussion blasts.
The BatWing Nation are nocturnal, resembling a space-going version of tthe 20th-century Man-Bat, and possess heightened sensory apparatus- super-hearing, telescopic vision, and so forth.
All members of the Butterfly Nation are only three inches tall, and are the slowest fliers within gravitational wells.
The six nations have divided up the five island continents between them, with the Butterfly Nation living on StarHaven's moon, Watchport.
Each of the six nations is independently sovreign, and have their own peculiar social traditions which have developed over the last three hundred years.
All nations, however, share a deep respect for their environment and the ecosystems and non-human species within it- which may at first seem paradoxical, as it is entirely artificial and man-made.
However, being artificial, the land environment is understandably fragile, and must be carefully preserved, and not abused. There are not the robust self-correcting mechanisms which have been evolutionarilly developed over hundreds of millions of years on the Earth.
This reverence for non-human species extends to the surrounding ocean, and the native life-forms there. Great effort is made to neither pollute nor terraform the Ocean of Starhaven.
There is a central Council of Nations, consisting of 144 representatives of each of the six nations.
While each of the six Nations dominates a particular continent, members of each of the other five comprised large minorities of the population. The exception is the Butterfly Nation, which has a very few non-Butterfly who share the moon with them. (Although Butterfly-Starhavenites are to be found spread throughout all five continents.)
-------------------- "So different from the Original Superman of Krypton!"
Registered: May 2010
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