War and Space

by Steve Challis

The Clever Apes were accepted for membership of the Federation of Friendly Sentients. Ali and the other biologists had identified them as being a development of the Bonobo, Pan paniscus. They had 48 chromosomes unlike the Wise Apes and both types of Human with 46 chromosomes. They were given the scientific name Pan gracilis.

  Sentients

  A joint team of Earth and Idaltu scientists was formed to better catalogue the animals and plants of the planets known to have life. Since a sentient ape had evolved on the Green planet there was a possibility of other unsuspected sentients on other planets.

  Ali had enquired about the history of the clever Apes. When the five massive colony ships had left the Solar System they had taken a huge assortment of plants and animals. Ali thought of Noahs Ark when he learned about the animals.

  The only ape included was the Bonobo. These had been released into a wilderness area of Homeworld as soon as its terraforming was well enough advanced. The Idaltus had observed that the Chimpanzees made war, but the Bonobos did not. They could see a similarity between themselves and the Bonobos, as opposed to the similarity between the warlike Chimps and the other type of Human.

  The Bonobos had been allowed to develop without much interference for over eighty thousand tears. As new planets were terraformed, suitable plants and animals were taken from Homeworld to the new planets. The ancestors of the Clever Apes were taken to the Green Planet about 40,000 years ago. Once again they had been released and not interfered with.

  Ali explained to Mujib:

  “Your Clever Apes twice had to adapt to new conditions with new predators and a new world. They had also been exposed to the Idaltu technology and this may have given them some ideas. They have evolved quickly.”

  Population

  The Idaltu Humans had been colonizing space for much longer than the Earth Humans and had settled of a lot more planets. However they had much smaller populations than the Earth colonized planets, and the total populations of the two types of Human were similar. The Idaltus bred much more slowly than the Earth Humans, so although Mydepa and Mujib were planning to have another child it would be at least another twenty years before this was likely to happen.

  Aquaworld

  The reliable records of Homeworld had no information about Aquaworld, but they had good records of Behn’s people and it was possible to rule out the possibility that his people had terraformed Aquaworld and only taken invertebrates to it.

  There were still plenty of mysteries to solve. They had apparently ruled out the possibility of Humans having terraformed Aquaworld in such an odd manner. It had to be a different space faring species.

  Triangulum Galaxy