Board Thread:New on Galactic Crucibles/@comment-5135903-20141008164704/@comment-5135903-20141110183809

The most recent mention is the third-to-last line of what I have so far, " Keko seemed quite irritated at being interrupted while she was teaching".

Though I've made no direct reference to it so far, Khoikapek don't have genders like humans (thus by default they are all female, as they must all be able to give birth); they do not need to mate to reproduce (I'll explan that later). Perhaps the most interesting feature of Khoikapek reproduction is that it is entirely  external, meaning it doesn't take place inside an egg, or a womb, or any fluid medium.

You see, under their coat of pycnofibres (filaments similar to hair, but with a different structure), Khoikapek skin is slightly rougher on the front of their chests, as if they have slight acne; this rough region is actually like a very spread-out version of an ovary. When Khoikapek are in heat they exude a fluid from their chests which is primarily made up of genetic information stored in 'nanoplasmids' (made up of chlorosiloxane rings with lots of carbon and siloxane side chains) and a few pheramones dissolved in polydimethylsiloxane. They only produce a few millilitres so there's not actually much noticeable difference if you can't smell.

Mating consists of a number of Khoikapek rubbing their chests together, causing fluid to be drawn along their pycnofibres. Genetic material in the fluid is then incorporated into the ovaries as a kind of horizontal gene transfer. However, with Khoikapek reproduction is not contingent on mating; an individual Khoikapek instead becomes pregnanyt independent of mating due to a variety of factors (stress levels, health, emotion, flock size, weather, even a degree of conscious choice).

During pregnancy, small lumps begin to grow on the chest; one of these will eventually turn into a small worm which, adhering to the pycnofibres (some ancient Khoikapek shaved their chests as a form of contraception, though this was rare in favour of less visible remedies) a travels down the chest and enters a belly-button-like hole in the underbelly. It then continues to grow in this hole, which expands into an open pouch, until its parent abandons it to a creche.