Bzzit Khaht

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Bzzit Khaht
Four Letter Code	BZZI
Federation Status	Member
Planet of Origin	Yalena / Althos IV / Nakagima 62B IV
Encountered	Star Trek IV
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N+
List of Named Bzzit Khahts
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The Bzzit Khaht are a sentient species and a Federation member race from the planet Yalena in the Alpha Quadrant. Since the early twenty-third century, they have been integral members of the Federation and have traditionally served on its Council.

Name

• Proper Name: Bzzit Khaht
• Pronunciation: /bɪzzit kɑt/

Home System

• Quadrant: Alpha
• Location: Althos
• Proper Name: Nakagima 62B
• Pronunciation: /nɑcɑgiːmə/
• Star: It orbits a class M dwarf star
  • Distance from Star: semi-major axis is 230 million km (1.54 AU)
  • Companions: Five other planets. It is the fourth planet in the system. Althos I and Althos II are hot Jupiters that orbit at less than 0.1 AU. Althos III is a hot, rocky world that orbits around 0.6 AU. Althos V is a gas giant and a failed companion star.

Home World

• Proper Name: Althos IV
• Pronunciation: /ɒlðoʊs/
• Diameter: 1625 km (1010 miles)
• Gravity: 0.97 standard gravity with a density of 3.1 g/cm3
• Axial Tilt: 1.1%, with extremely minor seasonal changes
• Orbital Period: 426 days
• Rotational Period: 27 hours
• Classification: O
  • Surface Water: 83%
  • Atmosphere: 1.07 atm is a standard pressure with 75% nitrogen, 24% oxygen, 1% trace chemicals
  • Climate: Many small, disparate subcontinents and a global ocean. Yalena's distance from its dim sun means that the predominant climate is dark and cold, though the planet avoids glaciation thanks to its tectonic (and thus volcanic) activity.
  • Population: 15 million

History

Bzzit Khaht evolution was oddly symbiotic with their planet. Yalena possesses organisms similar to coral polyps, though they excrete magnesium carbonate instead of calcium carbonate. The massive skeletons of coral created by these creatures were adapted into the large Corals, motile platforms manned by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Bzzit Khaht individuals that prowled the pelagic zones. These Coral communities originally evolved from complex hunting patterns involving smaller groups, which had in turn evolved to prey upon the many algal eaters that in turn lived on the enormous about of sessile algae. Even in modernity, the Corals remain the basic Bzzit Khaht city-state, as the island continents are all volcanic and prone to eruption unless they are subject to unnatural control.

Their first contact happened in 2269, ten years after they first achieved warp flight, and was with the Elasi; skirmishes forced the Bzzit Khaht toward quick military innovations, lest they be conquered by pirate-raiders. This was indicative of their overall culture, and when their first contact came with the Federation in 2274, the Bzzit Khaht saw the benefit of an alliance and petitioned for membership, which was granted in 2279.

Government

Government structure evolved from the hierarchical base of the Corals, following the basic scheme that denizens of larger platforms > denizens of smaller platforms. In modernity, the Bzzit Khaht polity is ostensibly republican, and since Corals with more residents possess more eligible voters than their smaller counterparts, it is also a democratic republic.

Description

Bzzit Khaht are short, long-limbed amphibians. They possess large eyes with extremely slitted pupils for enhanced dark vision and depth perception. Their outsized ears are largely holdovers from vibrational underwater communication. Their bodies range from light tan to darker brown and quickly mottle after exposure to bright sunlight. They possess a mucus layer for extended stays out of the water, as well as elongated and semi-webbed hands and long webbed feet.

Physiology

Bzzit Khaht come in only one sex, although reproduction requires intercourse between two individuals to accomplish full crossing over of chromosomal material. Following conception, either parent may carry the child. Bzzit Khaht have only one child at a time, birthed live. The young Bzzit Khaht spends four years as a nymph, during which time it must spend all its time underwater.

Bzzit Khaht evolved from amphibious apex predators. Vision, taste, and hearing out of water are greatly reduced as compared to the human norm. The sense of smell is highly advanced. Baroreceptors (pressure sensors) are much more sensitive than human standard. Thermoreceptors (temperature sensors) are also highly developed, likely as a holdover from early days of evolution when they ventured regularly onto volcanic land in pursuit of prey.

Psychology

The Bzzit Khaht evolved as hunters, but they were social hunters and so interaction and cooperation comes easily enough. A solitary Bzzit Khaht is an unusual commodity.

Religion & Mythos

Bzzit Khaht beliefs in antiquity were originally based upon periodic volcanic activity, and consisted of several polytheistic traditions. The original deities in most of these traditions were in some way based upon the twin parents of the species, Sea and Sky.

Modern bzzit khaht are about 80% religious, and most follow one of four different disciplines based upon muddied versions of the original beliefs, all four of which have expanded to include the rest of the universe - a universal protecting Sky and a universal life-giving Sea, although the original, Yalena-bound terms are no longer used.

Despite their beliefs in gods and theism, the Bzzit Khaht mythos has no place for an afterlife. Instead, when a Bzzit Khaht (or any other sentient, or indeed living thing) dies, its sacred energy flows from one form to the next. To be consumed is the greatest honor for a Bzzit Khaht, and ritualistic cannibalism is one of the greatest honors, bestowed only upon the highly gloried.

Society

The largest traditional groupings of Bzzit Khaht are the Corals, which may house from 50 to 5000 members, depending upon their size. Family groupings are unusual. The hunting group of 5 to 15 raises newborns and nymphs instructs them before they begin clerical apprenticeships and while they are too young to venture out of the water.

Culture

Bzzit Khaht are not warrior-poets, and not really either separately, either. Creation of lasting tangibles underwater was always difficult and they do not have much lasting art. Clothing was a detriment to underwater travel, though they did fashion temporary, algae-based attire to protect their skin from the sun for land-based living.

Their mating rituals have long been seen as complex and artistic, though they don't regularly display them or see them as art themselves. Mating must be done in the water and consists of hours of partner acrobatics and two-piece harmonies, most of it ritualistic and yet apparently encoded since bzzit khaht are either unwilling or unable to perform it outside of mating.

Their four most popular languages are all based upon combinations of vocalization and gestures.

Customs

The custom of the clerical apprenticeship is the largest, and one that about 90% of the population practices: during the apprenticeship, the Bzzit Khaht individual will spend time in learning and meditation with nymphs its own age; it is a kind of school, though it is much more practical and based in histories than the analogy might predict. It is done entirely underwater, before the Bzzit Khaht nymph gains the ability to live on land, for the last three years of the nymph cycle. After the apprenticeship is complete, many Bzzit Khaht continue to be clerics; many groups are devoted to roaming the stars, not as missionaries but as peacekeepers and mediators. Most Bzzit Khaht do not leave Yalena, as they are uncomfortable out of water for too long.

It is customary for a dedicated contingent to serve the Federation since the Whalesong Crisis of 2286.

Technology

Bzzit Khaht technology is a mix of oddities. Their weapons technology progressed quickly, although it was and is based solely upon tangible projectiles. Medicine and the biological sciences interested the bzzit khaht far more than the intricacies of particle or quantum physics, and their interest in those and other more esoteric sciences lagged, even after Federation membership.

They have tamed their world somewhat, with several islands serving as spaceports and cities for off-world visitors and their own land-based pursuits, including the building of starships.

Economy

Minimal on-world, negligible off-world. Bartering between groups and corals is still the norm, and tangible currency never achieved a foothold because of the difficultly of keeping and collecting it in an underwater environment. Groups work together to achieve large goals, such as building complex starships, although the debts some incur are often severe and require years or decades of reparation in the form of service or foodstuff exchange.

Because of the lack of a standard economy, several races and polities keep trading outposts on Yalena for a very small rental fee. Notably, the Ferengi have purchased an entire island for their own pursuits.

Military

Although they are Federation members and their defense is provided for as a Federation member, the Bzzit Khaht retain a small space navy in addition to their specific classes of cleric vessels. Their three classes of warships - gunboat-class Diatreme, destroyer-class Lahar, and battlecruiser-class Volatile - patrol their small sphere of influence. These ships are not much of a threat to modern ships, however, as they lack energy shields and are armed with, at best, enhanced gatling weapons or rotary cannons that fire projectiles.

Notes

THIS PROFILE WAS RE-WRITTEN BY THE SDC: Species Development Committee

• If in the course of a mission or shore leave new information not included in this report is discovered or developed then a copy of said data must be forwarded to the SDC as per Federation and Starfleet internal directives.
• Author's note: No canon information exists regarding the Bzzit Khaht.