Mikulak

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Mikulak
Four Letter Code	MIKU
Federation Status	Allied
Planet of Origin	Unknown
Encountered	TNG: "Hollow Pursuits"
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N, Unknown, but space-faring
List of Named Mikulaks
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Humanoid race with devotion to the biological sciences. Their donation of special tissue samples is meant to help stop an outbreak of Correllium fever on Nahmi IV circa Stardate 43807, but almost doomed the Enterprise with unintentional invidium contamination.

Physiology

Appearance

To the untrained eye, the Mikulak could pass for human, except for a complete lack of body hair.

Telepathy

Mikulak are natively telepathic; they developed telepathic communication before they developed speech. Their telepathy is specific to their race; they cannot read other races (although they can sense and be aware of their presence), nor can other races read them.

Mikulak telepathy also tends to cause headaches in non-Mikulaks in range, due to the inherent incompatibilities of the telepathy. When combined with the complexities of their telepathic-based language stopping the universal translator from functioning naturally, this has caused little intermingling between Mikulak and the rest of the universe. (There is an implant that can be used to turn off or down the telepathy for Mikulak who choose to journey offworld).

Society and Culture

Contact With Other Species

There have been five attempts to place an embassy on Mikulak, the longest attempt lasting two weeks, the shortest a matter of hours. Their telepathy, in individuals, could cause headaches to a sizeable area; a full planet apparently produced unbearable migraines.

Language

Mikulak communication is largely telepathic; as a species, they simply hadn't bothered with sound as a source of information (except with pets, it seemed) until after they had discovered intelligent life on other planets. The dominant spoken Mikulak language is largely agglutinative, adding syllables to words to form new words with different properties. In written form, this is often indicated with apostrophes, although some traditions leave them out. Here's some basic grammar around one of the major root words: rosh.

• rosh is a being; it can be used where we might use 'man' or 'woman' or 'he' or 'she'. It doesn't have any gender or other such implication to it; there were debates amongst the Mikulak people in the past as to whether aliens were rosh, or whether animals were, et cetera. It is a positive term, and implies wholeness. It is neither plural nor singular in its root form. When incorporating it into an English sentence, one would say "I am rosh" or "he is rosh", and never "I am a rosh". (Although such sentences would generally be considered tautological.)

• rosh'a is the spirit or soul of the rosh. As the Mikulak are telepaths, (although those that leave the planet are deadened artificially) they can feel another's rosh'a with their own.

• a'rosh are beings that do not have a rosh'a, but would otherwise be expected to. Data would be a'rosh; Voyager's Doctor would be a'rosh. A brain-dead patient might become a'rosh. Arguably, Q is also a'rosh. In practice, this is determined by whether a Mikulak's telepathy can feel them rather than any philosophical concern. The debate over whether a'rosh are actually rosh continues to this day for any individual a'rosh.

• ti'rosh are non-Mikulak; specifically, non-Mikulak that are liked. It is not a pejorative term, but rather an acknowledgement that we are all rosh, despite our differences.

• ti'rosh'a would, thus, be the spirit of an alien. ti'a'rosh would be an alien with no spirit.

• ele and ana refer to genders; ti'ele is female, ti'ana would likewise be male.

When in doubt, just using rosh is generally considered polite, if not particularly intimate.

History

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