Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic
Date [standardized aurigan time]: Fall 22, 1 AA
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The capture of several Coalition captains, including the ringleader, brought the battle to a quick halt. Most weren't willing to test the predators on their bluff and issued a full surrender order to their crews, and ships which refused were gunned down by their own cruisers. It was a sad, but necessary affair. The Coalition wanted to exterminate our friends, and torch us on the same pyre for good measures, all because they couldn't accept the evidence of their good nature.
Many were overlooking the fact that the Aurigans had beset the arxur on the Coalition worlds in order to get them to stand down. The few personalities and politicians approaching the subject were framing it as the Aurigans duping the grays, by pretending to be their friends. Only I and the Aurigans knew the truth though.
The Aurigans agreed to focus their research efforts on actualizing the concept of lab grown meat, hoping to end the arxur's dependence on their cattle practices. To the public though, we were only to focus on the benefit such meat would bring to the Aurigans, and then present its potential as a bargaining chip as a side effect. It was a grim concept, but the moral imperative was sound. I couldn't deny that meat borne forth without suffering was a noble goal.
Many were commending the bravery of the venlil portion of the defense fleet, despite the Aurigans and the gojids doing most of the work. But I wasn't going to spoil their fun just yet. For now, the general public was celebrating, while the Aurigans were busy getting to the bottom of the Arxur's origins. To think that the Federation provoked them into this centuries long war, it broke my heart.
As for myself, I had to focus on my role as governor. The Aurigans wanted to show me one of their new projects, something they said would help keep their people fed, and wanted my approval on the project. I was somewhat concerned by the prospect, despite what the rational part of my brain told me. They'd proved themselves to be empathic beings over and over again, there was no logical cause for alarm, just silly instincts.
With the Argosy left in orbit, the shanty town we built for the newcomers was slowly being repopulated via transport ships, and permanent -if rudimentary- buildings were being set up in its stead. The Aurigans' style was rather grungy, industrial even, with stark, concrete walls and windows made of tiled glass panes. Overall it was very grim compared to the architecture of the Federation, or at least, most of it was.
As my shuttle set down in the burgeoning village, I could see the elves building with swept or arched roofs, carved with intricate patterns and painted green, while the allayi were buildings theirs in fluid parabolas.
Stepping out of the shuttle and onto the landing pad, I was greeted by Jutka and Raudd, along with a few elves. The two Dust-infused individuals curled their lips upwards in slight smiles, and I waved my tail in greeting.
"Governor." Jutka was the first to speak, and I couldn't help but reply with "Governor." right back at her.
A small snicker escaped the mezari's throat, before she spoke up again. "It's nice to see you in a more relaxed setting. Rather than at the negotiation table. Our project is right over by the docks."
"Docks? As in a mooring station for aquatic vessel?" I asked for clarification.
"I wouldn't call it primitive... You'll see." The mezari 'clarified', not actually elucidating anything.
"Don't worry, it's nothing dangerous." Raudd added, and I chose to trust their judgment. If anyone knew anything about water vessels, it was the Aurigans, who regularly 'waded into the depths' on their homeworld.
Making my way after the gaggle of elves and the two mezari, it was soon evident what they were talking about. They'd built platforms off the snowy banks of the ring ocean that extended for nearly a hundred feet out over the waters, supported by floatation devices of some kind. Attached to one of these platforms was a massive metal vessel similar to one of their space craft, only it had a flat top with a cabin built on it.
"Jutka... What am I looking at?" I asked tentatively, both curious and terrified of its use. Were they going to hunt ocean predators for food?
"It's a fishing trawler. Or at least the base of one. We still haven't built the mechanism, but it's going to have a massive net at the back which can be reeled in by pulleys." Jutka began, and the thought of thousands of wriggling fish in a massive net made me shudder. I could already imagine their bony teeth, maws constantly biting at the air, looking to attack their captors.
After a few moments, I finally managed to find the courage to speak again. "A-and that's safe?" I asked. "Fish try to bite everything they can, they're ravenous."
"They're also mostly harmless." Raudd was the one to respond. "And most of them don't have jaws that are particularly strong, unless they evolved to eat prey larger than themselves. And even those are hardly going to kill someone outside of water. We've already scanned the nearby ocean, and there's no sing of anything that looks like it could move on land."
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"Y-You have? That's quite impressive. What did you find?"
"Well, mostly massive shoals of small fish, that look to be easy catches, as well as a few larger animals that probably prey on them. But judging by the scans we got back, they're too big to survive on land, in this gravity."
"That's... good, I suppose. I suppose you want my permission to... hunt the fish?"
"Well, your people would kill them all if they could, so we might as well thin their numbers a little, until we have a long term solution."
The fact that Raudd was intentionally avoiding the mention of lab grown meat told me that they hadn't yet revealed the project to their own people, so I simply nodded along and didn't mention it either.
"Well, this will need a media spin on it, lest the people think you're turning feral. Maybe focus on the fact it's making the oceans safer. I'll think of something later."
"That'd be wonderful, thank you. We don't want to actually depopulate the ocean, because that'd cause an ecological collapse, and likely lead to running out of fish too." Jutka spoke again, confusing me again.
"What's ecological collapse?..." I asked naively, which made the ecologist sigh.
"Ok, what happens when you kill all predators?" The man asked me, which only added to my confusion.
"It's safer for prey?"
"Right, and what does every living thing animal do?"
"Consume and reproduce?"
"And when there's more prey to consume and reproduce, their numbers grow, correct?"
"Yes?"
"And so they're eating more vegetation, much faster than before."
"Where are you going with this, Raudd?"
"When you remove one animal from the food chain, every other living thing around it gets to have more food. For example, if you kill all the wolves in a forest, the deer will breed faster, and eat much more grass, cause there's now more deer. Because there's more deer, they need more grass, but the grass doesn't grow any faster, so eventually the grass is all eaten, and the deer all starve."
"Are you trying to say that prey dying is a good thing?"
"No, I'm trying to say that animals in nature exist in a balance, and if you tip that balance, it topples over until it can redress itself. For example, if all the deer died, the wolves would starve, the grass would overgrow, and the grass would get more nutrients from the soil, leaving less food for other plants. Other plants would dwindle, and so would the herbivores that feed on them, such as squirrels that feed on tree nuts, and then so would any predators that feed on those herbivores.
Conversely, if all the grass died, then all the other plants would have more nutrient, and grow bigger, while the deer and wolves would starve. But animals that feed on other plants, such as the squirrels that eat the tree nuts, would thrive, because there's now more trees, with more nuts. But since there's more nuts, the squirrel population boons, and the trees get more and more of their nuts eaten, until there's not enough nuts to support further population, and a new balance is established."
"Ok, I think I get that, but where's the collapse?"
"The collapse happens when an animal that's vital to the balance is killed off. I can give you plenty of example rather than just theoreticals, such as when people fished all the catfish in the Arewe river. The plankton population shot up, since catfish ate plankton, and the plankton consumed so much of the oxygen in the water that it was too acidic for other fish to live in it, and then the plankton starved as well."
I rubbed my forehead with both hands, since it was hard to wrap my head around the idea. So I just nodded. This was a discourse for the scientists to have, not me.
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Memory transcription subject: Governor Tarva of the Venlil Republic
Date [standardized aurigan time]: Fall 23, 1 AA
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My talks with Cheln over how to present the Aurigans' fishing practices to the public were interrupted by a call from Jutka. She said I was urgently needed at the docks in their fishing village, that I needed to see something.
She wouldn't tell me why or what happened, and said it was best I see this for myself. So for two days in a row I flew to the Aurigan village, only this time I could see a crowd gathered at the docks, gawking at some reddish brown mass they'd fished up. I couldn't tell what it was, but a sense of dread followed me throughout the landing procedure, and kept hovering over me as I made my way to the docks.
Drawing closer to the crowd, I could tell it was some sort of tangle of seaweed, but I didn't understand the importance of it, so I looked around for Jutka, Raudd, or anyone else I recognized. Finally spotting the dark haired female a few seconds later, I waddled over to her and prodder her arm.
"What's going on, Jutka? What is that?"
"Oh, Tarva. I'm glad you're here. That..." The predator turned towards the mess of seaweed and wood, and used a small drone to scan over it, before projecting a holographic reconstruction. "...appears to be a venlil sailing ship, hundreds of years old."
I couldn't believe my eyes as I gawked at the hologram, a long, pointed hull of carefully bent wood, patterns and knots carved into it, with a sharp beak at the front. Were my people sailors once? Wading through the waters like the mezari?
"This is... mind numbing. Can we clean it up? See if there's anything on board? Or any markings?" I asked, not sure how to proceed in a situation like this.
"We'll need to be careful not to damage it, the process would take weeks. Assuming it doesn't start to freeze in this weather. But we'll have our best archaeologists examine it."
"What's an 'archaeologist'?" I asked, which made Jutka's brow raise.
"It's someone that studies ancient cultural artifacts. Don't you have those?"
"Why would we? We already know our history."
Looking at the seaweed covered ship, Jutka paused for a moment, before turning her attention back to me. "Do you really?" She asked in a mournful voice, which stabbed right at my heart, and made my throat clench up. If we forgot this part of our history, what else had we forgotten?
"Maybe... Maybe we don't..." I managed to respond, my voice weak and my thoughts full of worries. The Federation replaced naval vessels with flying transports when uplifting species, so was that why we had forgotten our naval exploits? Or was it hidden from us after our uplift? I had to review the historical records. Something wasn't right here.