Raskor

You may also be looking for the star, Raskor.

History

The history of the planet is closely tied to the history of the people. They are a peaceful race, co-operative and driven towards mutual benefits. The oldest records show that preservation of the planet, it's environment and life forms was the closest thing they had to a religion. Everything they do is in conjucture with the environment. Vegetatians, they have built up a civilization that produces no none recyclable waste.

In fact in all of their recorded history their is no known occurance of armed conflict other than criminal acts performed by a tiny minority of the population.

They are intelligent and had a fairly advanced civilization, studied the stars and watched from afar with horror as the Klingons took control of Cart'hen III in 2193. Prior to that they had been contacted by Earth in the person of Captain Johnathan Archer of the starship Enterprise NX-01 in 2162. This occured shortly after the creation of the Federation.

With the sudden action of the Klingons so close to their home and with them haveing no military force or even weapons with which to defend themselves, they were forced to enter into a conclave. This was only the 3rd time in their history that they had done this. The first time was to write the laws that they still use today. The second time was to debate and make changes to those laws to reflect the changes in their society due to population growth and advances in science.

Now they debated over how they would deal with this possible threat. They knew more than they cared to know about the Klingons. They knew they only respected force, something they hoped to never have to be forced to reduce themselves to use. The Romulans seemed to similar for their liking as well. Their were no other great space powers close enough to help.

It was during this conclave, which is a meeting in which every citizen of the planet is given an opportunity to voice his opinion that they came up with a possible solution. One they hoped would save their world with out affecting their cultural identity.

They contacted the Vulcans, a race with whom they had, had prior contact, stated their problem and asked for help. The Vulcans then considered the request. Then passed it along to the other members of the Federation. It was a long process, with many of the idea's and suggestions turned down. However a solution was finally chosen. The 4 medium moons in orbit around their homeworld would be converted to weapons platforms. This would be in keeping with their laws against weapons as the weapons would never touch the planet's surface.

The construction on all 4 moons was started in 2217 and finished in 2228. Dureing the 11 years of this amazing project over 1.5 million humans from the region of the United Kingdoms on Earth were transported to Raskor at their expense to work on the project. Almost all of these workers then settled on New Scotland, a newly colonized planet not that far away.

Due to the good will created by the generous assistance given by the Federation, the people went into a 4th conclave in 2289 and upon it's completion in 2316 requested admission into the Federation.

Natives

The native Raskorian's are a peaceful people. The men stand on average about 5' and weight about 100 lbs at full growth, while the females are on average 4'10" and weight about 90 lbs. They have 3 long toes and usually never wear any kind of foot gear. They also have 2 fingers and 1 opposable thumb on their hands. All 3 of these fingers are long and slender.

They are decended from avian stock haveing evolved into the dominant life form. They have very soft colorful greenish blue feathers that cover their whole bodies escept for the bottoms of their feet and the palms of their hands. While normally these feathers are extremely tiny they do have larger more distinctive feathers that stand up on their heads. The feathers on their heads come in a almost impossible array of color's, length's, types and patterns. It is by this method that most of them can tell each other appart.

They also have one of the most complex languages in the know galaxy with over 7,300 different sounds used in various combinations to produce their spoken language. As a result of the extreme complexity involved in their language they seem to be able to learn other languages rather rapidly. It is not unknown for an average adult to be able to master a dozen languages and be able to speak them as accurately as a native would.

Their lips are hard, forming a avian like mouth but with the beak being wider than it sticks out from their face. They have no nose, but instead have 2 small slits in the section of the beak that ends just under their eye's. For that matter they don't have any external ears either, mearly a small curved opening on the side of their heads.

As they evolved and adapted they lost the ability to fly. Scientists believe this was partly due to the higher gravity that makes it impossible for large birds to fly very well on Raskor. It is due to the higher gravity that they slowly changed, loseing their ability to fly as they got bigger.

Religion

The Raskor do not have any type of organized religion. They believe in the great spirit of the world below them. They celebrate this with 4 festivals at the end of each quarter of their year. They also observe this by working hard to keep the environment clean and safe for all beings.

Environment

This planet is a true tropical paradise with well tended jungles, tropical flowers, warm climate and millions of brightly colored birds. Insects, butterflies and hundreds of tiny mammals live among the towering vegataion of the island wide jungles.

Their are 3 large islands that make up the entire land mass. The rest of the planet is warm waters teeming with fish and other plant life. Daily showers strike the entire planet with almost clock like regularity.

Animals

The planet is home to thousands of different types of birds, insects, butterflies and small mammels. Not to mention all the fish and other sea life that flourish in the tropical waters. Their are no predators on land and very few in the seas.

Economy

The people and planet are almost 100% self sufficent. They need almost nothing from off world, but do ship off excess food, exotic flowering plants and other luxury goods to pay for the few items they want from off world in return.

The people all seem to enjoy a fairly high standard of living with no known areas of poverty or lower classes.

Agriculture

The Raskorians have developed a number of extremely well developed farming systems. One of these involves the growth and harvesting of many types of marine plant life. The next is the use of deep underground chambers left over from various mining operations that have been converted into farming facilities. These are an excellent way to dispose of compostable waste and converting it into edible crops.

The 3rd method uses large numbers of green houses which cover the upper levels of the entire continent wide cities. The main canopy of the huge jungle trees may tower over the upper levels of the city, but it still lets in more than enough light to stimulate excellent growth, especially when added to the frequesnt rains and worm climate.

All 3 methods of farming allow for year long harvests with various crops planted at different times, in differnt ways in different locations.

Communities

With their high population it might be expected that they would need to clear large areas of land to build huge cities. Instead they have adapted to another way of building. Almost the entire land mass of all 3 island continents could be considered to be one big city.

What they have done is develop building methods that protect the environment and encourage it to thrive. Almost every home, business or work place will have some part of the planets native growth inside, part of the structure. All native life forms have free rein to go anywhere.

For off worlders coming to vacation at the many coastal facilities set up to entertain them it takes a little getting use to. Waking up in a room that has a tree trunk in the center growing up from the floor into the ceiling, with birds and small mammals being able to enter and leave as they like, maybe even build a nest on the branch that sticks out the wall. Well it takes a little getting use to.

However the excellent weather, wonderful people and tranquil atmosphere have many comeing back again and again.

Transportation

With the enormas size of their cities the ability to get around efficently and yet not harm the environment is something of a small miracle. One way in which they do this is by the use of elevators and underground transport tubes. Elevators are needed almost everywhere due to the number of levels found all over the islands. With the average number of levels at around 20 over the entire island except where native growth has been allowed to make small parks it is the only efficent method available.

These elevators all go deep underground where they then connect with a vast maze of tubes used for a kind of subway system. A vast majority of them also reach up above the tallest jungle growth. At this level they are pick up and drop of points for the many air shuttles that ferry people around.

On the water can be found many boats as well. Many used to move from one island to another.

Population

With a population just over the 12 billion mark it is supriseing to many off worlders how well they have adapted. With extensive study they have learned that this is the maximum safe population for them to have with out endangering the fragile ecosystem needed for their way of life. At this current time they control their population by carefully monitoring and adjusting birth rates through high tech birth control.

Their has been some debate about possible establishing a colony on some planet with similar conditions in order for them to continue to grow. However at this time it is not a very strongle considered option.

Moons

Their are 4 medium moons which have been converted to defensive stations and industrial work areas plus 1 tiny moon that has been converted into a space station.

The 11 year project that resulted in the creation of the Raskor Orbital Defensive System was a major undertaking. It was only with the help of the Federation and the human workers that made it possible. All 4 of the medium moons have been extensively rebuilt. Most of the surface area of all 4 moons have countless weapon systems and numerous shield arrays. In fact any one of the moons has the equivelent firepower of approximately 36 Constitution Class Federation starships.

In the process of the construction much of the interior of all 4 moons was excavated. The raw materials were used to creat the manufactureing facilities needed to build the various defensive systems. Once construction on the moons was finished these industrial areas were slowly changed over to handle any manufactureing that was considered to be in any way faintly dangerous to the planet's environment.

At any one time each of these moons will have approximately 50,000 workers employed in the industrial areas. Their will also be a crew of starfleet engineer's, security and tactical personnel numbering under normal condition in the range of 150 men. These men maintain, operate and control the defensive systems. They also provide a limited police function for the base and if need by the planet below.

The single tiny moon has been hollowed out and converted into a high tech, upgraded fully modern space station. All traffic to and from the planet goes through this station. It can handle an extremely large amount of daily traffic. Security on the station is provided by the Raskor Security Force, an organization that employs non-Raskorians.

In most cases no single Raskorian would ever work on or with a weapon system or even a defensive system. This is the main reason why outsiders, and Starfleet personnel are hired or employed in the care and control of all 4 defensive moons and the Raskor Security Force.