On Zuni, there are calm seas most of the time with a single modest periodic tide from Barnard that is 1.5 times the height of a high tide on Earth (about 1.5 meters). This Barnard tide comes every 15.1 hours or twice each Zuni day of 30.2 hours. On top of this periodic tide from Barnard there are superimposed sharp impulse tides caused by the close passage of Zuni by the nearby moons Zulu and Zouave. There is a conjunction with Zulu every 28.9 hours or slightly less than once a day. The Zulu tide is 4.5 meters or 4.5 times the height of an Earth high tide but the surge only lasts 3.4 hours. For the remaining 25.5 hours until its next passage, the tidal effects of Zulu on Zuni are negligible. There is also a conjunction with equally nearby Zouave every 78.4 hours, or 2.6 Zuni days. The Zouave tide is 6.5 meters or 6.5 times the height of an Earth high tide. The surge lasts for 6.2 hours out of the 78.4 hour interval between surges. When there is a triple conjunction, with Zulu and Zouave both passing by Zuni at the same time, the tides can become very large, with tides greater than ten times an Earth high tide. The maximum tidal effect experienced during a triple conjunction varies, since the alignment of the three moons is more precise during some triple conjunctions than others. Then, when Barnard is also lined up with the three moons, its periodic tide adds to the impulse tides of the two moons. The triple conjunction tides reach a maximum every 20,078 hours (about 2.3 years) of 12.4 times an Earth high tide. This produces a tidal surge with a height of nearly 13 meters (40 feet).
Illumination
The major source of illumination on Zuni is from the star Barnard. Barnard, however, not only has a weak luminosity of 0.05% that of the Sun, but it has an angular diameter of only 0.25 degrees in the skies of Zuni, which is half the diameter of the Sun in the skies of Earth. Gargantua is so large and so close to Zuni that it covers 21 degrees in the sky over Zuni. As a result, a substantial amount of illumination comes from the planet in addition to the light from Barnard. On Zuni, at "full moon," when Barnard is over the outer pole, the light from Gargantua is 1.5 percent of the light from Barnard. For comparison, the light flux from the Earth's Moon is only one-millionth that of the Sun, because the Moon has a low albedo and covers only a half-degree in the sky, while Gargantua has a high albedo and covers 21 degrees in the sky.
The illumination from Gargantua is most noticeable at a site on the inner pole of Zuni, where there is nearly always light, either from Barnard or from Gargantua. A site on the outer pole of Zuni, however, never seeing Gargantua anyway, is only illuminated by the light from Barnard, and so therefore has a normal day-night cycle (although 30.2 hours long instead of 24 hours long).
There is also illumination from the other large moons around Gargantua. From Zuni, at an orbital distance from Gargantua of 530 Mm, the inner moon Zulu, with an orbital distance of 330 Mm, looms to 1.5 degrees in size as it passes over the disk of Gargantua (three times as large as our Moon in the Earth sky) at the time of conjunction and high tide and is still 0.35 degrees in diameter at opposition, just before it goes behind Gargantua. The next moon out, Zouave, at 730 Mm from Gargantua, varies from 1.66 to 0.26 degrees in angular diameter between conjunction and opposition, while Zapotec, at 1650 Mm from Gargantua, varies from 0.17 to 0.26 degrees.
Shadowing
Zuni experiences an eclipse of Barnard by Gargantua once every rotation. The eclipses are most noticeable for a site on the "Inner" side of the moon. Since Zuni is tidally locked to the planet, this is the side that always faces Gargantua. At the Inner site, the eclipse occurs at high noon and cuts 1.8 hours out of the 15.1 hour Zuni daylight period. If the site is on the "Leading" side of the moon, the side that always faces the direction of the motion along the orbit and where water vapor from Zulu and carbohydrates from Zouave fall out of the sky, then Gargantua hangs perpetually on the sunrise side of the horizon, cut in half by the horizon. Barnard rises from behind Gargantua, causing a late sunrise. For a site on the "Trailing" side, there is an early sunset as Barnard sets behind Gargantua hanging perpetually halfway down the sunset horizon. For sites on the "Outer" side of the moon, always facing away from Gargantua, the eclipse occurs at local midnight, off on the other side of Zulu, so nothing really noticeable is observed.
SECTION 3
BIOLOGY
Prepared by:
Katrina Kauffmann—Biology
Deirdre O'Connor—Zoology and Botany
With Contributions By Zuni Explorers:
Cinnamon Byrd—Zoology
John Kennedy—Physiology
Nels Larson—Botany and Genetics
Reiki LeRoux—Anthropology
Little White Whistler—Oceanic Lifeforms
Introduction
Alien lifeforms were found in both the land and ocean regions of Zuni, the fourth moon of Gargantua. In addition, three members of the exploration team were intelligent alien lifeforms from the double-planet Rocheworld, called flouwen. The biology of the Rocheworld flouwen will be summarized first, followed by a discussion of the Zuni lifeforms.
Flouwen
The dominant species on the Eau lobe of Rocheworld have been given the common name of "flouwen" (singular "flouwen," taken from the Old High German root word for flow). The flouwen are formless, eyeless, flowing blobs of brightly colored jelly massing many tons. They normally stay in a cloudlike shape, moving with and through the water. When they are in their mobile, cloudlike form, the clouds in the water range from ten to thirty meters in diameter and many meters thick. At times, the flouwen will extrude water from their bodies and concentrate the material in their cloud into a dense rock formation a few meters in diameter. They seem to do this when they are thinking, and it is supposed that the denser form allows for faster and more concentrated cogitation.
The flouwen are very intelligent—but non-technological—like the dolphins and whales on Earth. They have a highly developed system of philosophy, and extremely advanced abstract mathematical capability. There is no question that they are centuries ahead of us in mathematics, and further communication with them could lead to great strides in human capabilities in this area.
The flouwen use chemical senses for short-range information gathering, and sound ranging, or sonar, for long range information gathering. Since sonar penetrates to the interior of an object, especially living objects such as flouwen and their prey, sonar provides "three-dimensional sight" to the flouwen and is their preferred method of "seeing." The bodies of the flouwen are sensitive to light, but, lacking eyes, they normally cannot look at things using light like humans do. In general, sight is a secondary sense, about as important to them as taste is to humans. One of the flouwen learned, however, to deliberately form an imaging lens out of the gel-like material in its body. It used this lens as an "eye" in order to study the stars and planets in their stellar system. Called White Whistler by the humans, this individual was one of the more technologically knowledgeable of the flouwen. White Whistler has since taught the eye-making technique to the rest of the flouwen.
In genetic makeup, complexity level, and internal organization, the flouwen have a number of similarities to slime-mold amoebas here on Earth, as well as analogies to a colony of ants. The flouwen bodies are made up of tiny, nearly featureless, dumbbell-shaped units, something like large cells. Each is the size and shape of the body of the tiny red ants found on Earth. The units are arranged in loosely interlocking layers, with four bulbous ends around each necked-down waist portion, two going in one direction and two going in the other, so that the body of the flouwen is a three-dimensionally interlocked whole.
Each of the dumbbell units can survive for a while on its own, but has minimal intelligence. A small collection of units can survive as a coherent cloud with enough intelligence to hunt smaller prey and look for plants to eat. These small "animals" are the major form of prey for the flouwen. Larger collections of units form into more complex "animals." When the collection of units finally becomes large enough, it becomes an intelligent being. Yet, if that being is torn into thousands of pieces, each piece can survive. If the pieces can
get back together again, the intelligent individual is restored, only a little worse for its experience. As a result, a flouwen never dies, unless it is badly damaged in an accident (boiled by a volcanic eruption or stranded on dry land a long distance from water).
Reproduction for the flouwen is a multiple-individual experience. The flouwen do not seem to have sexes, and it seems that any number from two flouwen on up can produce a new individual. The usual grouping for reproduction is thought to be three or four. The creating of a new flouwen seems to be more of a lark or a creative exercise like music or theater than a physically driven emotional experience. The explorers on the first expedition to Rocheworld witnessed one such coupling put on for their benefit by four flouwen. They each extended a long tendril that contained a substantial portion of their mass, estimated to be one-tenth of the mass of each parent. These tendrils, each a different color, met at the middle and intertwined with a swirling motion like colored paints being stirred together. There was a long pause as each tendril began to lose its distinctive color, indicating that the liquid layers between the units were being withdrawn, leaving only the units.
Then finally the tendrils were separated from the adult flouwen bodies, leaving a colorless cloud of gel-like units floating by itself, about forty percent of the size of the adults that created it. After a few minutes, the mass of cells formed themselves into a new individual, which took on a color that was different than any of its progenitors. The adults then take it upon themselves to train the new youngster. The adults and youngsters stay together for hunting and protection, the group again being very much like a pod of whales or porpoises.
Since a small portion of a flouwen can function like a full-sized flouwen, except for decreased physical and mental capabilities, it was found that a small portion of a flouwen, weighing only a fifth of a ton (200 kilograms or 440 pounds), can bud off from the multi-ton main flouwen body, get into a specially-built spacesuit with lenses built in the helmet visor to serve as eyes, and ride in human space vehicles in order to take part in joint expeditions with the humans. These sub-flouwen are somewhat more intelligent than humans, and have already proved to be valuable exploration partners on those worlds containing oceans, such as the moons Zulu and Zuni.
Zuni Lifeforms
The sub-categories of fauna and flora are not appropriate for the lifeforms on Zuni, especially since the dominant predator life form, the Jolly, may act like an animal in function but is more like a plant in form. Since Barnard has weak illumination, the plants cannot survive on photosynthesis alone, unless they are very large in light collecting area (many acres). Fortunately, the moon Zuni is situated between the moon Zulu, which emits water into space, and the moon Zouave, which emits hydrocarbon smog into space. These materials stay in orbit around Gargantua, forming large torus-shaped clouds, one of water and one of smog. The water molecules and hydrocarbons are acted on by the light and particles from Barnard, producing energetic compounds. Zuni passes through the outskirts of these clouds and collects this energized water and "fertilizer" on its leading pole. The periodic strong impulse tides from the close passage of Zuni to Zulu and Zouave also keep the volcanoes on Zuni active, which throws more energetic gasses, compounds, and particulates into the air. These energy-bearing materials then fall as enriched rain on the plants.
Thus, the "flora" on Zuni are those plants that live mostly by developing large structures with lots of surface area to collect as much rainwater as possible, while the "fauna" are plants that get some or all of their nutritional needs from attacking other plants and sucking their sap or eating their leaves, limbs, and or fruits. It seems, however, that nearly all lifeforms on Zuni are predators at some level of activity.
In the lakes and oceans of Zuni are additional lifeforms being studied by the three flouwen members of the expedition. Most of the underwater life exists only in and around volcanic vent fields, again because photosynthesis is so weak that algae and other forms of plant-like plankton cannot thrive without another energy source, such as hydrogen sulfide and other compounds emitted by volcanic vents.
The following lifeforms are listed in approximate order of intelligence or importance to the human explorers. There are certainly many more lifeforms to be discovered, not only on the island where the explorers are located, but on other islands and in other oceans of Zuni.
Jolly—The dominant life form on Zuni seems to be a large, intelligent, omnivorous, mobile plant. The humans have named the plant type a "Jolly," after the "Jolly Green Giant" animated character used in Del Monte vegetable television commercials. The Jolly's name for themselves is their tribal name "Keejook," with the neighboring tribe called the "Toojook." The word "jook" seems to be a generic name meaning roughly "person." An adult Jolly is typically four meters (13 feet) tall, has a large trunk a meter in diameter, a canopy ("hair") of blue-green fronds, and six legs. The legs of a Jolly have no joints, but are moved by differential internal hydraulic pressure, which makes them prehensile like the trunk of an elephant, or giant cloth-covered slinky toys. The legs can expand and contract in length, and are moved in two sets of three. One set consists of one leg at the very front, and two at right and left toward the rear. The other set consists of two legs toward the front at right and left, and one at the very rear. This way, the Jolly is always securely balanced on one set of three legs while the other set of three legs slowly "steps" forward by contracting in length, swinging forward, then extending in length to touch the ground. The body weight is shifted by the extension of the back set of legs, while the new ones contract slightly until they are supporting the body weight overhead. The process of taking two steps to return to the original state takes a whole minute for a roughly one meter pace. This translates to sixty meters per hour, or two kilometers of travel each thirty hour Zuni day.
When balanced on three of its feet, the Jolly can use the other three feet as arms. Its root-like feet are strong and capable hands that can manipulate its stone-age tools, like knives, scrapers, diggers, etc. It carries its tools in loops or pouches hung from a belt made of dried vines, or in a carrying net used as a pack for long journeys.
In the central body or "trunk" of the Jolly, just above the hips, is a mouth-like hole. This is the home of a number of scurrying little mole-like creatures or "gatherers," with blue-green hairy fur, six strong jointed legs, a single large eye, long mole-like nose, and a small toothless hole at the back of the head for a mouth. The front two legs have six opposable "fingers" with sharp claws that are used for grasping, tearing, and digging. The gatherers scamper down the legs of the host Jolly, climb up trees to harvest nuts and fruits, dig into the ground to find grubs, kill smaller animals and plants, and haul their finds back to the mouth-like hole, using their front two feet to hold the food, while walking on the rear four. These gatherers have minimal gut and brain, and act as mobile "hands" of the Jolly. They bring food to the Jolly and put it into a "throat" in the back of the "mouth" hole in the trunk that leads to a "gizzard." The Jolly digests the food, and in turn feeds the gatherers the enriched "milk" they need through a long prehensile "teat" or "umbilical cord" extending down from the ceiling of the mouth-hole. The same umbilical is used as a "data" line to "download" a "program" into the semi-intelligent gatherer before sending it out on another foray. The Jollys speak through their gatherers by downloading a sentence into the gatherer through the umbilical. The gatherer then releases the teat and "whistles" the sentence while the Jolly is downloading the next sentence into another gatherer. Because of the lack of vocal cords to make humming sounds, and the structure of the feeding orifice on the gatherers, Jolly speech is limited to whistling or hissing vowel sounds and various stops for consonants.
Hanging from the fronds growing from the top of the trunk of the Jolly are nestlike structures, each the home of a small owl-like creature consisting of a single large eye and two blue-green wings with three stiffening struts each. The "owls" have no visible feet or beak, but there is a small toothless hole for a mout
h, again in the back of their head. They have minimal gut and a large brain, mostly concentrated behind the retina of the single eyeball. These owl-like creatures flutter about the canopy from nest to nest. Occasionally one of them will dash off into the distance, fly around and inspect some object at a distance, then flutter back to a nest. These "owls" are the eyes of the Jolly. They bring back pictures to the Jolly, who uses them to assemble and maintain in its mind a three-dimensional "view" of the world around it.
This three-dimensional view of the world "seen" by a Jolly is probably very different from the moving two-dimensional imagery as seen by a human. First, the view is a stored three-dimensional image, so that the Jolly mind can "walk around" the image and inspect it from any point of view at any time. Second, the view stays static until an "owl" comes back to a nest and supplies an up-dated version of one portion of the whole view.
Nothing definite is known about the sex life of the Jolly. Since they obviously have fruiting bodies hanging from their fronds, they may be bisexual, like most plants, or of a single sex, like holly trees and a few other plants. The children are planted as seeds and are started as rooted plants surviving on the nourishment of the fruit pulp. They are weaned to partially digested and regurgitated adult food as soon as their mouths and eyes are open. Once weaned, they pull up their roots, walk away from the nursery bed, and go to school where they are taught by the tribal elders the skills needed to become adult members of the tribe.
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