Benzite

Benzites are a slightly built humanoid race who, primarily by the outward evidence of their facial structures -- complete with whisker-like barbels on either side of their nose and mouth -- and their mottled, hairless, blue-green skin, are said to be descended from the amphibians of their homeworld, Benzar. The planet is extremely mineral-rich, with crystalline structures providing most of the civilization's physical building materials erupting directly from a salty crust; the atmosphere is light on oxygen and rich on methane, ammonia, and similar compounds toxic to other races.

Benzar

Culture, Religion, and History

Benzite mytho-history explains away the low probability of the race evolving naturally by admitting up-front that the evolution was not natural, but the result of outside genetic engineering. The process was begun by the mythical 'Forebears' of Benzar; archaeological evidence strongly supports the theory of the Forebears and their effective 'demiurge' status among the Benzite people, but Benzite religion is considered private enough that the Forebears are not discussed openly even with other Benzites, let alone outsiders. In any event, the work of the Forebears was not quite complete when the left -- the Benzite race had not yet been engineered enough to have complete immunity from the toxins in their own biospheres. Hence, when the Forebears left their children's world, abandoning the experiment, they showed the mercy of leaving behind the knowledge that would allow the half-made race to save itself.

As the Benzites evolved, learning to use the biotechnology the Forebears left behind, they also learned to create their cities, termed 'geostructures', from the crystalline deposits, and society evolved in a clan-like fashion, with geostructures serving as extended families as well as city-states, and with cultural and scientific competition between geostructures mostly taking the place of the usual martial urges. Even to this day, the biotechnological legacy continues in the use of the 'birthing chambers', the same biotechnological crèches originally used for genetic experimentation. Into these chambers, newly gestated Benzite babies are placed for post-natal 'fine tuning' which is effectively the last stage of their birth.

The argument is that Benzite babies, like some animals on many worlds, are 'born incomplete', and require extra-uterine incubation to complete their genetic and physiological development. Without the birthing chambers, physicians would not be able to defeat the birth defects resulting from the toxicity of the Benzite atmosphere. Even now, biomedical scientists point to the rare non-incubated Benzite child, and the overwhelmingly high instances of deformities and death in such children, as evidence of this. A side-effect of this need is that, since each geostructure maintains and calibrates its own Birthing Chambers, Benzites from a given geostructure tend to 'look alike' with exactly the same base facial structures, shades of skin tone, and so on. Benzites have become used to cases of 'mistaken identity' when dealing with non-Benzites, and most are quite patient about explaining it away as a
'family resemblance'.

Though genetic manipulation is technically frowned upon by the Federation, the use of Birthing Chambers is so wrapped in Benzite religion that the Federation Council has come to accept that there is an ingrained compulsion which prevents Benzites from abusing the genetic modification abilities of the Birthing Chambers for needless change, and that the chambers are only used to 'incubate away' defects that are either life-threatening or otherwise a clear handicap 'built into' the Benzite genomes by the Forebears. It should be noted, however, that the above position, known simply as 'The Benzite Compromise', was not easily attained. It took nine years after First Contact in 2360 for the Benzites to be admitted as UFP members while the Council debated the Birthing Chambers. Final approval of the Compromise came only after testimony that technicians had deliberately turned away from use of their art to create super-warriors several hundred years earlier.

When the UFP Council came to realize that the Benzites turned away from Genetic Warfare and onto their current moral and social path without worldwide devastation but simply through careful consideration, the Council had little choice but to accept that the Benzite use of Birthing Chambers was in fact guided by a moral code as ingrained in Benzite society as the Vulcan Code of Surak and the Betazoid Code of Sentience, and no less profound and important. Since the incubated modifications apply to all Benzites, and do not elevate any above any others, and since the modifications are not frivolous, and since they are completely part of Benzite religious and social codes, the use of the Birthing Chambers is accepted, though whispers still occur in the more distrustful factions of the Council.

In 2372, after further debate in which the Benzites were forced to violate their taboo against public religious discussion to explain their theories of their own genetic development, certain modifications were permitted to the Birthing Chambers under a groundbreaking interpretation of the Prime Directive by which the Federation Council mandates acts that are designed to 'undo' the consequences of tampering with primitive species. Arguing strongly that the Forebears inflicted this kind of tampering on them, rendering them unable to evolve naturally, the Benzite Association of Birthing Technicians insisted that the Prime Directive trumped the Federation's stance on genetic modification, demanding that they be permitted to make the only species-wide post-birth adjustment in recorded Benzite History. Adult Benzites living off-world were allowed through a one-time-only deal to report home to Benzar for resequencing, while newly born Benzites would all be given the same modifications as part of the usual post-natal incubation from then on. This resequencing now allows these Benzites to do without certain 'breather' modules they had previously required aboard the oxygen-rich, ammonia-light atmospheres of most Federation worlds and vessels.

The respiratory modifications have permitted Benzites to strive for the same successes in the galaxy-at-large as they have on their own world and its colonies. Benzite civilians and Starfleet officers alike gauge this success by a combination of philosophical teachings and statistical calculus collectively known as The Doctrine of Andragov for the famous Benzite statesman who developed it. As strict as the moral teachings which govern the use of Birthing Chambers, but widespread beyond Birthing Chamber technicians to the general populace, The Doctrine of Andragov reaches into a Benzite's everyday life -- each and every day, a Benzite 'keeps score' of short-term and long-term goals alike, and his progress towards these goals, and generates a numerical score which 'summarizes' his value on the Benzite social ladder, as well as the score of his geostructure.

Due to the nature of Benzite social psychology, the score of a given geostructure is based on an aggregate of the scores of all of its natives. A Benzite, no matter where he goes, reflects upon his geostructure, and his geostructure reflects upon him. Under a strict interpretation of the Doctrine of Andragov only recently discarded, a Benzite takes his own life when his score reaches the statistically irredeemable score of -500, in an effort to redeem his geostructure for producing him. In recent years, the moral statistician Fathen convinced many with a counter-theory teaching that no life is irredeemable, and now the suicide tenets within the Doctrine of Andragov are under debate by the current generation of Benzites. This has not changed the basic principles of the Doctrine, however, and Benzites still 'keep score' on a daily basis, with principles of organization, efficiency, and personal calculus that can give Bolian bureaucrats a headache and create a strong pre-conception of Benzites as overly competitive social climbers.

Though Benzite officers have only served in Starfleet since the mid-2360s, and none have progressed therefore beyond the NCO rank of a Chief Petty Officer or the commissioned rank of a full Lieutenant, Benzites have a reputation for being too concerned with rank and personal achievement, and have to work very hard to balance personal ambitions with the social realities of serving at a Starfleet posting, where many races are critical of such ambition. Benzite meticulousness, when they can bridge the gap of resentment and personality conflict with non-Benzite colleagues, make them excellent coordinators of team efforts, and many gravitate towards Command and Operations sections as a result, though for some individual achievement in the sciences take precedence. It should be noted that Benzites admitted to the prestigious Association of Birthing Technicians are not permitted to serve outside their homeworld or its colonies, in order to assure that the strong moral codes and oaths which bind a Birthing Technician never conflict with oaths of service to Starfleet, the Merchant Marine, or any other Federation service.

Physical Characteristics

Physically, a fully incubated Benzite is less massive and strong than adults of other Starfleet races, but their forced adaptation to high levels of atmospheric toxicity gives them a hardiness beyond their build and a potent resistance to most toxic substances. A Benzite is capable of digesting a wide range of substances most would find toxic, but out of politeness, most limit themselves to the default 'menu choices' of the non-Benzites with whom they live and work. Many compromise by programming industrial replicators in their colonies or work sites for a wide variety of mineral salts which, being toxic to most non-Benzites, could not be produced in their food replicators. These salts are then carried in small pocket containers, and sprinkled liberally over non-Benzite food for 'seasoning' to bridge the culture gap with regards to food.

Benzites tend to do well with sports and games that require the mathematical precision which with they organize their lives and calculate their Andragov scores. Beyond the obvious favorites such as 3-D Chess, and tile games similar to Earth's 'mah jongg', Benzites are also fond of 'Velocity', a game invented by bored Starfleet security officers in the 2330s, in which solo players, or members of three-to-five man teams (there are multiple variants) use hand-phasers to propel a small 'puck-like' object through a mid-air scoring circle, or counter scoring attempts by others. Another popular pastime is the creation of complex puzzles, some using pure mathematics and some simply using logical deduction. Since Benzar's few seas are so mineral rich as to make floating easy and diving impossible, Benzites are often fascinated by the water and beach sports of races luckier in their planetary development, and can spend many hours making castles out of the wet sand of dozens of worlds on holodecks.

Names

Benzite names are simple, consisting of 2-to-3 syllable aggregates of hard consonants and short vowels. When softer consonants are used, they are invariably strongly pronounced, and when a surname is used, it is invariably the name of the Benzite's geostructure -- not all Benzites do this, however.

Geostructure Names:  Lydeken, Nimbok, Wormatek, Belaxalar, Codanadal, Moriden

Male Names: Mordok, Mendon, Bahmor

Female Names: Tektir, Mirbek, Sorbem, Candar, Kerpel, Poltob, Qizten

Proverbs

"Your accounting is off." - You have erred somehow, socially or professionally.

"Tweaks my whiskers." - Something that causes anxiety or apprehension.