Zambarau Concord

The Zambarau Concord is a cosmopolitan group of civilizations that make up a sphere 26.8 light-years across encompassing 24 solar systems. Also known as 'Zambar' informally or 'The Concord' more formally, the Zambarau Concord is located on the rimward edge of the Deras grid in the Andromeda galaxy.

Races
Currently there are five sentient races that are official members of the Zambarau Concord.

The Zambarau
The Zambarau Concord was founded by a civilization called the Zambarau. Their home planet, Datum, is a large, rocky planet closely orbiting a yellow main sequence star and has a thick carbon dioxide/argon atmosphere. Temperatures reach as high as 400°C so there is no liquid water, just lakes of molten sulfur. Life uses the molten sulfur as a solvent but is still carbon-based, the biggest difference is that in their proteins hydrogen atoms are replaced by fluorine atoms (these fluorocarbons are much more stable than proteins at such high temperatures).

When life first forms the early proto-cells do not have the resources to compete yet so they co-operate (usually by sharing genetic material). On Datum this co-operation never stopped (due to the harsh environment) and today the whole planet is dominated by a single macro-species. All life has the same genome and the characteristics of each organism are determined by which genes are expressed. There is no evolution, just the sharing of useful genes and mutations (the same as the proto-cells did billions of years ago), this sharing of genes is done using viruses and generally if a mutation is developed that is beneficial to an organism that organism will survive for longer, produce more viruses and make the mutation more widespread. This variation of evolution makes it more beneficial for the creatures on Datum to have as long a lifetime as possible. Because of this single genome animals 'grow' off plants rather than via reproduction. Another result of the development of life as a single macro-species is that the macro-species has become so complex it is conscious. A planet-sized hivemend would be impractical because of the distances involved so the Zambarau are a connected group-mind of many individuals.

The Zambarau can communicate using neural connections enclosed in 'roots' through the ground or using infrared light, which they have become very sensitive to (via photosensitive neurons that cover most of them) for reasons of communication. Since light of a certain wavelength has a much higher frequency than sound of a certain wavelength (due to the higher frequency of light) the Zambarau can communicate much more information to each other in a much shorter time, to the extent of feelings, images and abstract thoughts and ideas. The Zambarau plants themselves cannot hear, feel, smell and the closest they come to taste is discussing the quality of soil they are in, however, they can use infrared to communicate with various animals on Datum (which regularly grow off of the plants) which may posess these sensory abilities. Their limited sensory abilities and abstract communication make the Zambarau very patient and social, as well as very deep thinkers.

To help them survive in their environment Zambarau can grow a complex silicate/metallic shell for protection, but they later found they could use this technique to build simple tools and machines as extensions of themselves. These tools were used to build more complicated tools and soon the Zambarau had become a full-blown technological civilization.

The Sceen
The second most advanced race in the Zambarau Concord (after the Zambarau themselves), Sceen were also the first race that the Zambarau came into contact with as they had a thriving interplanetary civilization which was giving off all sorts of electromagnetic emissions that could be detected by the nearby Zambarau. The home planet of the Sceen was Sephamagore, which allegedly had a fairly constant temperature of about -170°C and a very high mass, resulting in a very high gravity and a very thick atmosphere of 92% nitrogen and just 7% oxygen. This thick atmosphere, however, provided protection against radiation given off by the large blue star (and its white dwarf companion) that Sephamagore orbited. The low concentration of oxygen (which the Sceen breathe) is not an issue for the Sceen as the atmosphere is very thick (so there is still a lot of oxygen per cubic metre of air) and the Sceen have a famously slow metabolism.

The Sceen are crab-like omnivores. Their bodies are ellipsoid, 2 metres across and 1.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres tall and are encased in a silvery-blue shell (to blend in with the vegetation on Sephamagore, which is a silvery-blue to reflect ultraviolet light from the blue star). Their large bodies help to reduce their surface area - volume ratio so that they can retain more heat in their cold environment, this larger size, however, is slightly negated by the higher gravity of their home planet. Out of the centre of their undersides comes eight limbs, each set of four limbs pointing outward in opposite directions. Six of these limbs come down as legs while the front two form manipulative limbs each with only two, claw-like, digits (if they had lots of thin 'fingers' Sceen would not be able to pick things up very well because of Sephamagore's high gravity). The Sceen have two eyes coming out of the tops of their bodies and pointing in opposite directions, these eyes are on small stalks and can swivel around extremely quicky, as their eyes are soft and exposed they can be withdrawn into the shell of the Sceen for protection. Finally, the mouths of the Sceen are between their manipulative limbs in a separation between the two sections (top and bottom) of their shell.

To survive in their cold, low energy environment the Sceen have a very low metabolism and therefore move and think painfully slowly (though their eyes can move a lot faster). An adaptation that they evolved to combat this was the ability to spit a long string of extremely sticky, viscous mucus. This adaptation could be used for a variety of things, such as lowering oneself down Sephamagores' many high cliffs or latching onto faster prey. It is considered quite comical by other species to watch the Sceen hunting (which they sometimes do for sport), seeing several Sceen attatched to a much larger animal by a string of sticky mucus, the animal writhing around while the Sceen, who appear not to be moving (though they are moving very slowly), are just being dragged around like rocks trying to get as much grip with the ground as they can, clattering against each other as the animal trys to pull free!

The Sceen became more intelligent as they had to think up new strategies in hunting when their primary prey developed a mutation that gave it a coating that was very hard to stick to. As Sceen civilization developed they took advantage of Sephamagore's huge natural gas reserves, gradually destroying the planet's environment. By the time the Zambarau reached them Sephamagore had become near-uninhabitable and the Sceen lived in colonies around their solar system. The Sceen have developed surprisingly advanced AI and robotics to make up for their own slow reaction times. The crowining acheivement of their computer sciences in quantum computers, when the Zambarau made contact most of the Sceen's quantum computers had a computing power of 30 qubits, the Zambarau were impressed by this, as they were very poorly developed int this field, preferring to think thinks out for themselves on their massive neural networks.

The Astatines
The Astatines were the second race to come into contact with the Zambarau after the Sceen. Upon contact, the Astatines still lived primarily on their home planet and posessed an emerging interplanetary civilization. The homeworld of the Astatines, Niima, is in a highly elliptical orbit around a large gas giant, Mulwark, in turn, Mulwark orbits a brown dwarf star which emits almost no light whatsoever. Niima's highly elliptical orbit puts it under huge tidal stresses which significantly warms up the ground, causing the planet to emit large amounts of heat, this heat is intense enough to give Niima large, shallow oceans of liquid water. The average temperature on Niima is only 5°C and is fairly constant over the whole planet, Niima has a low gravity and over billions of years its atmosphere has become very thin.

The Astatines are carnivorous amphibions. They stand approximately 4 metres tall and are made up of a bulbous body about 60 centimetres in diameter with dozens of long, thin, tentacles coming out from the bottom which are used for walking and handling objects. The number of tentacles differs from person to person and the average number of tentacles, along with the thickness and tactile nature of the tentacles differs between ethnic groups. The Astatines are usually a very dark brown/grey colour, but this also differs between ethnic groups.

The Astatines have no ability to see whatsoever. They use ultrasound echolocation as hearing is their primary sense, after which comes touch (their tentacles are very sensitive to touch, but no so much to pain as they use their tentacles to walk). They also use ultrasound in communication. The Astatines do not have genders (though they still have to mate to reproduce) and all members of their species have the ability to give birth. Naturally Astatines would spend over 60% of their time in water and must give birth in water as they give birth to hundreds of tiny larvae that can only survive in water, these larvae will try to swim among the tentacles of adult Astatines (not necessarily their parent) for protection. Astatines do not need to sleep.

Upon contact with the Zambarau the Astatines were in a cold war that involved four main power blocs (and their allies). The Astatines spent most of their time out of the oceans for fear of the devastating sonic weapons developed by each power bloc, which could instantly kill any marine life within several dozen kilometres. The four power blocs remained at odds for hundreds of years. When it came to the signing of the Concord each had to sign separately as no one power bloc wanted to represent the Astatines, for fear of enraging the other three.

Kakranukh
The Kakranukh are one of the stranger races in the Zambarau Concord. Their homeworld, Oomar, is a gas giant closely orbiting a red dwarf star, and temperatures and pressures vary over a very broad range depending on the atmospheric strata. The atmosphere of Oomar is about 85% hydrogen and 14% helium with only miniscule traces of any other elements, apparently making it a very unlikely site for the emergence of life, never mind an interplanetary civilization.

It is thought that electrical storms on Oomar are what provided the catalyst for the first life there. This first life was tiny microbes floating in the atmosphere. Due to an almost complete lack of carbon in the atmosphere of Oomar life on the planet is silicon based; organic molecules are built up around chains of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms (as chains of silicon atoms are unstable), instead of proteins silicones are used as the base for life. Today there are trillions of different species of creature in millions of different ecosystems across the huge planet. Interestingly, there are no analogues of 'plant' and 'animal' on Oomar but the creatures seem to combine the characteristics of both. Most creatures are extremely fragile, made up of hard, fiberglass like threads that support the rest of the body, which is made up of lots of extremely thin (less than 100 microns) inflexible 'panels' that come in a variety of shapes, sizes and bright colours. All of the working parts of the body are embedded within these extremely thin panels, while the inside of the body is just a pocket of gas (most creatures are over 99% air), which allows them to float in the atmosphere of the high-gravity gas giant.

The Kakranukh themselves are long stingray-shaped creatures that move their bodies in a wave pattern for propulsion. The 'corners' on the left and right of this stingray-shape are extended and tubular and the panels on the tips can be rearranged in a variety of shapes for tool use. The Karanukh are quite large to provide enough surface area for their neurons, on the order of 10-15 metres long and weighing 12 kilograms, though this is small in comparison with other creatures on Oomar. Kakranukh offspring grow from microscopic spores released by the parent. Because of the thin, fragile structure of their bodies the Kakranukh are highly sensitive to ultraviolet light and ultrasound.

The Karanukh have a very long history spanning many millions of years (in which time they haven't even left the solar system). Upon contact with the Zambarau the Karanukh had a growing civilization made up of thousands of floating cities across the planet. Due to the scarcity of all elements but hydrogen and helium in the atmosphere almost all Kakranukh technology is made from dead creatures of one form or another (as life on the planet grows by processing heavier elements out of the atmosphere). At first these creatures were hunted, later bred in captivity, later industrial processes were used to extract minerals from the atmosphere directly. Today most building materials are imported to Oomar.

Chrondites
The Chrondites are arguably the strangest of races in the Zambarau Concord. They were discovered much later than the rest of the races of the Concord as they never developed a proper civilization, being a very solitary, nomadic species. The Chrondites never even had a single agreed-upon name for themselves (they were originally referred to as the 'Chrondites' by a group of Sceen, drawing from the fact that they were commonly found on carbonaceous chrondite asteroids, the name caught on quickly). The Chrondites have been found on a many asteroids in a red dwarf solar system with no true planets, just dwarf planets and asteroid belts.

The chrondites germanium based (a form of life not thought possible by Concord scientists until its discovery), look very similar to trilobites and are generally a silvery grey colour. They vary wildly in size from centimetres to metres in length. The Chrondites grind up and consume rocks and dust from asteroids and develop a thick shell from an early age that allows them to survive huge amounts of radiation and vast variations in temperature and pressure. They are able to burrow into asteroids but tend to stay above 'ground' where there is plenty of dust that is easy to suck up. When afraid or in danger Chrondites tend to 'clamp down' into the ground and attempts to remove them forcably have resulted in the piece of ground they are attatched to breaking off before they do. Chrondites have several primitive eyes (able to discern light from shadow) spaced along the tops of their shells in two rows and their main sense is touch, able to sense vibrations in the rock, they communicate by 'tapping' hard on the ground.

Chrondites used to look like leeches and live underground for protection but as they became more resilient they moved above ground where the dirt is easier to eat. They are very solitary and don't even meet to mate. A female buries her eggs (which are grey spheres less then a millimetre across) for a male to arrive years later to dig up and fertilise them, before re-burying them much deeper. The eggs develop (they do not 'hatch') into tiny worms that eat through the rock and eventually become tough enough to come out on the surface. Competition for the best nesting spots is harsh and the Chrondites have developed more and more elaborate strategies to get the best nesting sites, which resulted in their intelligence (and a notorious reputation for being shrewd and strategic).

There are still Chrondites on many asteroids that have never mande contact with the Concord, but those that have have very quickly been assimilated into the culture of the Zambarau Concord. It is a mystery as to when, how and why the Chrondites signed the Concord, but if you ask a Chrondite or even the Zambarau themselves, apparently they signed it.

History
The history of the Zambarau Concord can be split into five main eras, ordered around a devestating war (the only official war in the Concord's history) that temporarily broke the Concord in two.

Formation Era
Once they had developed interstellar travel technologies Zambarau spread out to find company (a strong instinct for them) and made a lot of money in providing for a number of small civilizations (insignificant in galactic terms) that had yet to develop interstellar, sometimes even interplanetary, travel. The Zambarau specialised mainly in banking, investment, information storage and processing, as well as terraforming at a later date (though the terraforming techniques they used took decades or centuries to make a planet habitable).

Naturally all of these civilizations wanted in on the technology and infrastructure of the (in their eyes) highly advanced Zambarau, so the Zambarau Concord was drawn up.

The five main conditions the Zambarau Concord are:
 * The Free Flow of Information - all organisations must keep absolute transparency (especially in science).
 * A Defensive Alliance - a threat to one member of the Concord was to be considered a threat to all members.
 * Armed Neutrality - all other options (including military deterrance) must be exhausted before war.
 * Workers' co-operatives - employees must elect their employer, rather than the employer choosing employees. The Concord will be split into regions with a maximum travel time of 28 days across each region. Each workers' co-operative will have a monopoly over its region.
 * Technocracy - the quaternary industrial sector will take priority.

Some of the terms in the Concord seemed unneeded, random or confusing; nevertheless most of the races that the Zambarau had provided for signed the Concord (if only for the first two conditions) and have renewed the signing of the Concord on a regular basis. No amendments have ever been made to the Zambarau Concord, causing the Astatines to temporarily drop out in the Obsolescence Wars.

Pre-Obsolescence Era
At the time, the Pre-Obsolescence Era was seen as the dawn of a great golden age for the Zambarau Concord. With the scientific advances brought on by the free flow of information throughout the civilization, with different races all contributing in their specialist areas of science, from robotics to genetics to nanotechnology, it was thought that the whole civilization would soon be a scientific utopia.

At the time technocrats were very ambitious and visionary, with huge amounts of resources being pumped into the quaternary sectors, especially the fields of robotics and nanotechnology. The hope was that nanotechnology research would lead to the development of cheap nanofabricators that could allow people to produce almost any product they desired in their own homes. Meanwhile, advanced robots with simulated intelligence (Concord scientists had 'proved' mathematically that truly artificially intelligent machines were impossible) would provide for any other needs, eliminating both poverty and the Monday blues in one fell swoop.

An unexpected route that Pre-Obsolescence science took was the development of 'Drones,' these were creatures genetically engineered from scratch to be exemplary technicians and engineers. Their minds were designed to specialise in pattern rocognition and problem solving (they had a very strange manner, but this was not considered a concern). Drones were lanky, could get into small spaces and work in almost pitch-black conditions. They were considered superior to robots as they could be grown easily, could heal injuries (as they were organic), learn quickly and take initiative. Drones were usually assigned to command teams of robots, demonstrating that their problem solving skills made teams of robots more efficient.

Also, robots were soon replaced by 'Clones,' which were basically genetically engineered organic robots. They had all of the benefits of Drones except they were mindless vegetables that could only follow orders and perform simple tasks, they were also stronger, larger and had inferior senses.

The Obsolescence Wars
The Obsolescence Wars were a time of huge political, economic and social upheaval in Concord history. They were not martially-oriented wars as such (though bloodshed was involved), but were the systematic collapse of Zambarau Pre-Obsolescence society. The Obsolescence Wars lasted just two decades.

As the Zambarau Concord became the post-scarcity society that it had worked so hard to acheive in the Pre-Obsolescence years more and more work posts began to be taken by Clones. Most products were made using nanofabricators and most services were provided by Clones or Drones. Work became optional and a system was put in place in which workers were given 'allowances' to spend by their co-operative weather they worked or not. Many workers, however, became disgruntled by the fact that it was impossible to compete with the much more efficient robots and began to resent the Clones and the Drones.

However, problems began to occur. Vesting in their common skills and mindset, the Drones began to form trade unions, asking for 'equal workers rights' and teams of Clones began to be withdrawn from work. This was a massive blow for the Concord as there was suddenly a huge labour vacuum and nobody prepared to fill it. There was now huge friction between those who thought everything should stay as it is, those who hated the Drones and the Clones, and the Drones themselves. Violence began to break out.

Interstellar travel still took many weeks at the time so different situations took place in different solar systems, causing huge economic and political turmoil. Eventually, the Zambarau themselves decided to step in and made a direct agreement with the Drones for they and the Clones to leave the Zambarau Concord. This damaged the Zambarau' reputation bacause they seemed to get on well with the Drones; conspiracy theories started to break out, saying that the Drones were in fact Zambarau, that the Zambarau and the Drones were friends and that the Obsolescence Wars had actually been planned by the Zambarau (thes are known as the 'Obsolescence Conspiracies').

The aftermath of the Obsolescence Wars was terrible indeed. There was gross unemployment and the economy had completely collapsed. Productivity in the primary, secondary and tertiary secotors was all abysmally low, forcing the price commissioners to increase prices to extortionate levels. Millions of people died of starvation, weather they were paid or not (infuriatingly, at the time, the quaternary sector was unaffected; nobody starved and productivity remained high throughout the Obsolescence Wars).

At the end of the Obsolescence Wars the Zambarau were quoted as saying ''"Let this be a lesson, to the people of the Concord, on the vices of sloth and the value of hard work, however pointless it may seem." ''This furthered support of the Obsolescence Conspiracies.

Post-Obsolescence Era
The Post-Obsolescence Era was a time of recovery for the Zambarau Concord. The co-operatives assigned longer working hours to most of the populance and price comissioners kept prices quite high, meaning that people returned to more of a Formation Era lifestyle (in fact, the Post-Obsolescence Era is sometimes referred to as the 'Second Formation Era').

Meanwhile, the Drones, who had retreated from the solar systems of the Zambarau Concord, began to set up colonies in interstellar space within the Concord (this still conformed with their agreement with the Zambarau, as for ease of control the Zambarau Concord only polices the vicinities of its systems). The Drones mainly lived in cylindrical rotating habitats, which together became known as the Affiliated Habitats. There was little communication between the Zambarau Concord and the Affiliated Habitats through the Post-Obsolescence Era as each were concentrating on improving their own lot, but it is now known that the percentage growth rate of the Affiliated Habitats in this time was much higher than that of the Zambarau Concord (the Zambarau Concord, being much bigger initially, still had the highest unit growth rate). This is thought to be due to the fact that the co-operatives had become weary of autonomous production, switching back to the less advanced, more labour-intensive labour systems of the Formation Era. Meanwhile, the Affiliated Habitats took full advantage of the technologies of the Pre-Obsolescence Era, overseeing a post-scarcity style autonomous industrial system.

However, as they became established the Affiliated Habitats began to look inwards toward the resource- and energy-rich solar systems from which they came. In the same way, the Zambarau Concord began to observe the colonies that were forming in interstellar space and expanding at an amazing rate, beginning to think thoughts of wealth and industry not known since Pre-Obsolescence.

Consolidation Era
The Zambarau Concord is currently in the Consolidation Era (also referred to as the Second Pre-Obsolescence Era). The Consolidation Era is named because the key event taking place is the merging of the Affiliated Habitats and the Zambarau Concord, which has been going well as the Affiliated Habitats still use many of the political and economic structures reminicent of the Zambarau Concord.

Through the Consolidation Era the Concord has gradually been becoming more like it was in the Pre-Obsolescence Era with more success thanks to more integrated co-operatives, a better informed poulance and economic and social plans that have been devised and tested in the Habitats for many decades now.

The Concord is also experiencing a great resurgence in growth and technological development, after finally recovering from the Obsolescence Wars. There are various new technologies and projects being proposed and developed for the present and the future and only time (and perhaps the Zambarau) will tell if this 'Second Pre-Obsolescence Era' will be followed by a 'Second Obsolescence Wars.'

Society
Before the signing of the Concord most of the races had free market economies ruled either democratically or by a dictatorship. The implementations put in place by the Zambarau had never been tried before.

Government
The Concord's government is closely intertwined with its economy, with many elements, such as worker-managers and Prices Commissioners being tied in with the day-to-day running of a solar system; Prices Commisioners are especially prominent in the running of a Concord system in modern times. Way back in the Formation Era when the economic and administrative systems described in the Concord were still being implemented, the Prices Commissioner would be the head of the Prices Commission, which would use computers to determine the prices of different products produced by co-operatives by factoring in demand, levels of production etc.

Today the Prices Commisioner is a computer. Each co-operative uses a network of powerful quantum computers that determine prices, allocate resources and even give individual workers advice on what to wear! Despite being powerful, these computers are not self-aware but use complicated simulated intelligence alogrithams when interacting with other people. Workers usually refer to the co-operative's computer as 'Commissioner.'

As for actual decision making the Zambarau Concord as a whole has come up with a novel solution. The Zambarau had already announced as one of the terms in the Concord that they wanted a Technocratic society (a society where merit was based on knowledge and learning rather than charisma and popularity) so the different races of the Concord agreed to create an apparently crazy system (and it wasn't thought up by the Zambarau!). On a regular basis a small group of 'Envoys' are randomly selected out of any eligible person in the co-operative (basically anybody old enough with the right credentials who isn't a criminal) to represent the co-operative diplomatically for a single 'term.' At the end of their term a person has three terms in which they are guaranteed not to be re-selected. If you are chosen then it is compulsory that you be an Envoy, the logic being that if people were given a choice only those who wanted power would put themselves forward to be elected. In essence, the Zambarau Concord is a 'Technocratic Stochocracy.'

Economy
The economy of the Concord is not, in fact, a free market economy. The Zambarau Concord is split up into large regional workers' co-operatives, usually with each co-operative running each solar system. The difference between a workers' co-operative and a corporation is that while in a corporation there is a employer who can hire or fire employees, in a workers' co-operative the workers (employees) can democratically hire and fire 'worker-managers' (employers) to manage the workers. Each regional co-operative is split into a multitude of much smaller 'nested' co-operatives that each have a respective worker-manager. The advantage of this system is that workers can never be made redundant.

The currency in the Zambarau Concord is also tightly controlled. The minimum wage has always been 1 Unit of currency and each co-operative will democratically vote on how many Units different positions will get; the most popular wage system is to have each worker paid 5 Units while worker-managers get paid 9 Units. In the Consolidation Era robots and Clones are returning to the workforce and in some co-operatives a system has been introduced in which robots and Clones (despite not being conscious 'people') get paid like normal workers, but their payment then gets shared equally among the self-aware members of the workforce (harking back to the days of the Pre-Obsolescence Era, this extra amount of payment is called an 'allowance').

In most co-operatives, however, instead of sharing allowances amoung workers, money from the labour of robots and Clones is used to provide many public services such as transport, education, entertainment and medicine. Such systems are actively encouraged by the Zambarau.

There are no individual companies in co-operatives. Everybody in the system works for and buys things from their co-operative only. Prices of all products are decided by the Prices Commissioner, a role that has now been taken over by powerful computer networks run by each co-operative. It has often been said that the Concord's 'economy' is less like the true economies of Pre-Formation times and more like a way of just allocating production.

Labour
There are two main subjects of labour and workers that are often debated within Concord society:

Obsolescence - 'Obsolescence' has always been an issue since the Obsolscence Wars. It is inevitable that industrial technologies such as robotics (which are generally faster, chaper and more efficient than self-aware workers) have made traditional workers unneeded and 'obsolete' in many employment sectors. This has been true since the Pre-Obsolescence Era. In the Post-Obsolescence Era the general attitude is that such industrial technologies should be shunned in favour of the traditional labour system (which has been proven to work for many millennia now), but through the Consolidation Era this is now thought of as naïve due to the considerable loss in potential production traditional labour systems represent.

There are many schools of thought as to what should be done about obsolescence. Some say that the Post-Obsolescence system should return, in which it is compulsory to work. Their opponents say that the Pre-Obsolescence system should return, in which working is optional and robots and Clones provide the means of production. There are other groups who have proposed almost everything in-between.

Genetic Modification - Despite not being a labour issue, genetic modification (of a sentient being) is a subject that often comes up along with obsolescence in political discussions. The Zambarau Concord has so far only developed germ-line genetic engineering (genetically altering embryos). The crux of the issues related with genetic modification is that it is fairly easy to have one's children genetically modified to be stronger, smarter or otherwise superior to their peers. This, obviously, creates a huge amount of debate.

There is actually a much larger variety in schools of thought over genetic engineering than in obsolescence. Some, as always, say that genetic modification of self-aware beings must be banned. Others say that the whole poulation should be entitled to genetic modification for free. At the moment the Concord takes a comparatively lax view on genetic modification, and as a result most workers in the Concord are generally smarter than they were in the Formation Era.

Culture
The culture of the Zambarau Concord has always been very diverse. Some people think that the cosmopolitan nature of the Zambarau Concord is drowning out and assimilating most unique cultures, yet at the same time others say that unique cultures are thriving and being actively encouraged by the populance.

IntraCon - The IntraCon (short for Intra-Concord) is a network made up of all of the co-operative computer networks in the whole Concord. It allows workers to use ubiquitous computing to access information and live their lives more smoothly. For example, a worker could be completing a piece of work at a hotel (displayed on the window of their room) - afterward they leave the hotel and get onto a maglev for a day out - the touch-sensitive table on the maglev train detect them biometrically and immediately bring up what they were working on before; if the worker decides to move seats the image dissappears from the table they were sitting at and onto the back of the seat in front of them.

No passwords or login procedures are required to use IntraCon because it is a single giant computer network which only allows the user to access their own information. However, many people still prefer to put some sort of security procedure onto their data.There is no radio or television in the Zambarau Concord (thought he Astatines used to have something similar to radio); all media and enternainment is accessed through IntraCon.

Segregation - Due to their wildly different planets of origin, none of the races in the Zambarau Concord can share the same environment, this issue has been termed 'segregation.' One of the few exceptions to this is the Zambarau themselves, who are able to switch parts of their genome on and off, or grow a protective shell, to survive in alien environments. Also, the varying temperatures and pressures on the Kakranukh homeworld mean that at certain altitudes many races only need a breathing mask as life support.

The main method of getting around segregation has been the use of virtual reality (sometimes similar to contact lenses) or neural implants to have alien collegues around as a virtual presence. Many spacecraft and space stations are separated into several different sections each containing an environment suitable for a different race. Both the Zambarau and the Drones have explained that segregation could be eliminated if mass genetic modification took place to adapt all races to a single environment, or if everybody had their consciousness downloaded into IntraCon. Both propositions have been politely declined by the other members of the Concord.

Clothing - There is a wide range of dress available in the Zambarau Concord, each specialised for different races.
 * The Astatines often wear sleeves or bandages over their tentacles and sometimes have a 'hat.'


 * The Chrondites prefer to stick rocks to themselves or paint themselves with rocky minerals to show off the different types of asteriods they have ventured to.

Religion - There are many different religions and belief systems in the Zambarau Concord, some more popular or prevalent than others, but this section mainly focuses on a less well known but very important fact; the Zambarau are deeply religious. They rarely show it or mention it but this is considered one of the reasons for their sometimes erratic behaviour.
 * The Kakranukh sometimes use special dyes to give themselves interesting patterns or colours on their panels. Conventional clothes would crush their delicate frames.
 * The Sceen generally don't wear clothes, but sometimes glue various functional objects onto their shells.
 * The Zambarau don't wear clothes, but grow various different colours and flourishes for aesthetic effect.

The Zambarau follow more of a philosophy than a religion; which has built up over millions of years of patient Zambarau meditation and discussion. The basics will be laid out here. Since Asili (nature) has engineered all creatures capable of emotion (or something similar) to experience happiness in doing things that Asili wants them to do (food, safety, etc.), then the ultimate goal in life must surely be to become as happy as possible. This persuit of happiness is called 'Neema'.

If a civilized being were to continue to follow Neema then their ultimate goal in life would be to plug their mind into a machine that simulated a life of perfect happiness in which all of their dreams come true. Very few races would be willing to do so; this is because the act of doing something in real life now matters, rather than just reaping the rewards. Civilized species must therefore have transcended beyond Asili. The Zambarau say that this means that civilized species, rather than persuing Neema, must now follow a much more ambiguous goal called Msukumo. Sometimes the Msukumo equivalent of Asili is mentioned, called 'Kujitawala.'

This is the bare-bones of the Zambarau religion. It is in fact much more deep and complicated, leading to the mentioning of 'chains of hypothetical virtual worlds;' the Zambarau also claim that their religion 'shows philosophical proof that nothing exists and everything matters' and that 'everything is true.' Most other races just think that, like most other things that the Zambarau do, the Zambarau religion is wierd and confusing.

Technology
Below is listed the most notable technologies available in the Zambarau Concord.

Electrostatic Fusion
By far the oldest technology still used by the Zambarau Concord today, electrostatic fusion reactors were developed by the Zambarau themselves, before even the Pre-Formation Era. When the Zambarau decided they would travel to the stars in search of company, they first realised they needed a very high energy density power source to even provide the energy they would need to power a starship. They came up with a type of electrosatic fusion known as 'Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere' (POPS), which oscillates an electrostatic field to keep the fusion plasma well distributed, increasing efficiency and almost eliminating energy loss from Coulomb collisions. Another advantage of this form of fusion is that the reactors can be made extremely small, on the scale of centimetres or smaller for some more advanced models (though the total power output would be very low). A final advantage of Zambarau reactors was that they used a charged grid to extract energy from the fusion products directly so that no moving parts were required (however, this required fusion reactions in which all of the products were charged and had exactly the same energy).

One of the difficulties with creating a high energy density fusion reactor was that the walls of the reactor could only take so much energy for long periods of time before failing (at the time the best Zambarau materials could withstand a maximum 320 watts per square centimetre for long periods of time). The soution seemed to be to fit the largest surface area into the smallest volume possible; POPS was perfect for this, as the reactors could be made very small. Zambarau fusion reactors are made up of cylindrical POPS reactors measuring 1 centimetre long and wide; about 1 million POPS reactors can fit into a cubic metre.

The first Zambarau electrostatic fusion reactors had an energy conversion efficiency of 80% and an energy density of 7.5 gigawatts per cubic metre; they used proton-lithium7 fusion reactions. Modern reactors have an energy conversion efficiency of over 95% and an energy density of over 30 gigawatts per cubic metre; they use the CNO cycle (carbon catalysed proton-proton fusion), which only requires protium (the most common form of hydrogen) as fuel.

Superluminal Inductor
The earliest form of the Superluminal Inductor (though it was not called that at the time) was developed by the Zambarau in the Formation Era. This 'Torus Engine' was an early form of warp drive. In an ongoing project, the Zambarau had calculated that the optimal configuaration for a warp drive was a toroid of negative matter that had a thickness of 20% its diameter. The Zambarau simulated this 'negative matter' using a very high energy particle accelerator.

The Torus Engine would not work from a 'standing start' as the toroid has to be symmetrical so the total warping effect cancells out in all directions. A spacecraft would therefore have to reach a very high initial speed (an appreciable percentage of the speed of light), which the Torus Engine would then increase by a certain multiple past the speed of light.

Since the Torus Engine was very energy intensive, Zambarau starships would mostly consist of fuel tanks and fusion reactors. Also, to make maximum use of the space available in the warp bubble (and therefore making the bubble as small and efficient as possible), Zambarau starships would rarely be aestheticlly pleasing; just a sphere surrounded by a tightly-fitting toroid. They didn't even have enough fuel to accelerate themselves and had to be accelerated by external boosters (which were jettisoned after use), and even with an initial speed of 10% lightspeed and full power to the Torus Engine the starship would only be able to marginally exceed the speed of light.

However, near the end of the Formation Era the Sceen had managed to (by various means) secretly wean an appreciable amount of data from Zambarau starships and had a good idea about how they operated. When the Sceen fed this data into their supercomputers (which were unparalleled in their processing power) there was a surprising result. The Sceen, who use string theory, discovered that, when the Torus Engines were activated, the starships were moving off the 'brane' and into the 'bulk.' In other words the the co-ordinates of the starship would change, not in the conventional space or time dimensions, but in higher dimensions!

Unable to make further use of their findings without more extensive data, the Sceen reluctantly confessed to the Zambarau as to what they had been doing. The Zambarau were impressed by the Sceen's findings, and even asked for help in a project to improve the Torus Engine! This project went on in secret for many years, until the Sceen and Zambarau had eventually devised a specialised electromagnetic field that, in terms of Sceen string theory, should have the same effect as a Zambarau Torus Engine. The Superluminal Inductor was born.

Unlike the Torus Engine, the Superluminal Inductor does not need to envelop the whole starship (it can go inside), nor does the spacecraft have to be spherical. The Superluminal Inductor does, however, require that the body of the starship be a good conductor of electricity; it has been found that the body does not have to be electrically conductive if it has a fine Faraday cage built-in. Larger spacecraft need to be built with multiple Superluminal Inductors because of losses due to resistance, though these losses are negligable when the body (or Faraday cage) is superconductive. The Superluminal Inductor is also over ten times more efficient than the Torus Engine so, along with more efficient fusion reactors, interstellar travel is much faster today than in the Formation Era (generally, a standard Superluminal Inductor will increase a starship's speed by a multiple of 100, so if the starship had an initial velocity of 10% lightspeed, the Superluminal Inductor would increase this to 10 times lightspeed).

The Superluminal Inductor is not just used in space travel, but has limited applications in air and maglev travel aswell, reducing journey times by over half. The Zambarau Concord has not yet developed superluminal communication; interstellar communiction is still facilitated by a 'pony express' system of starships.

More on the Superluminal Inductor

Dynamic Compression Members
Dynamic Compression Members (DCMs) are an essential piece of construction technology that make mega-scale construction possible in the Zambarau Concord. This was the first piece of significant technology contributed by the Astatines, having theorised such technology for many decades before signing the Concord.

Despite years of research into the subject, none of the races of the Zambarau Concord have discovered any construction materials stronger than carbon-based giant molecular structures such as graphene or carbon nano-tubes. Many, much stronger, building materials have been theorised but all of them have been considered a long way away in terms of technological development; so the Astatines decided to take a different approach.

DCMs are basically long, straight tubes that have had any air evacuated from them. Through these tubes a stream of massive particles travels at high velocity from one end to the other; on reaching the end, a reflector magnet curves the stream around to make it travel back to the other end. This reflection of the high velocity stream puts constant pressure on both reflector magnets, causing the tube to become very rigid. By altering the energy content of the mass stream more force can be applied to the reflector magnets; an opposing force must be applied to the reflector magnets, though (from the support of a structure, usually), to prevent this force being great enough to tear the tube apart.

The main worry with DCMs is that they require power to run, and would fail if the power supply were cut off. Proponents of DCMs claim that the mass stream loses almost no energy from the bending effect of the reflector magnets, and a DCM could run for many hours without the construction it supports beginning to become structurally unsound. Many precautions are taken with constructions that use DCMs, including emergency power supplies, backup DCMs (in case of failure or the need for a maintanence check); most constructions, especially ones in space, have 'failure modes,' which allow them to safely break apart in the unlikely instance that all of their DCMs fail. DCMs are usually surrounded by a Faraday cage, to prevent outside electromagnetic sources from affecting the mass stream.

Dynamic Compression Members are most commonly used in some large space habitats or other space-based megastructures (especially Sceen structures), and are also used in many high rise Astatine buildings (which can go up for miles). The Drones are showing significant interst in advanced DCMs for construction of a giant ring-shaped colony in interstellar space (which is expected to take many centuries). An important thing to remember in construction is that DCMs can only exert compression, not tension, meaning engineers often have to turn back to an older construction mindset (for example, the Drones would have to build their giant ring-colony more like a cart-wheel than a bike-wheel).