Zet

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Zet
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Four Letter Code	ZET
Federation Status	Unknown
Planet of Origin	Zet, Close to Karemma Space, Gamma Quadrant
Encountered	THO: "The Cost of Forever"|
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	H with discrepancies
List of Named Zets
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The Zet are a hyper-capitalistic species originating from the planet Zet in the Gamma Quadrant. They are governed not by traditional nation-states, but by an intricate and ruthless system of competing corporate entities. Their ruling class, known as the Deathless, achieves functional immortality through the practice of rehusking—transferring their consciousness into cloned bodies upon death. This has created a deeply stratified society where the elite consolidate power endlessly, while the lower classes struggle under extreme economic disparity.

The Zet have only recently emerged as a major interstellar power due to their acquisition of faster-than-light (FTL) technology through trade with the United Dominion of Planets. Since then, they have aggressively expanded, acquiring and modifying vessels from various sources, leading to an unpredictable but technologically hybridized fleet.

Federation Intelligence Files

Members of this species were encountered by the crew of the USS Thor after receiving a distress call while in orbit around New Bajor on 239801.10

The crew of the USS Thor attempted to save the starship on distress.

UPDATE 2400: The Zet have acquired warp technology apparently through entering into a tentative alliance with the United Dominion of Planets.
UPDATE 2400: The Zet are confirmed to have been complicit in the destruction of the Caboto, an Intrepid-class starship.

UPDATE 2401: The Zet have demonstrated exponential growth throughout the quadrant, actively seeking non-warp capable and low technology warp-capable civilizations to subjugate via exploitative contracts.

UPDATE 2401: The Zet have engaged in significant interstellar commerce resulting in acquisition of vessels, commodities, and technologies from across the quadrant. These acquisitions form the bedrock of defensive technologies and fleet make-up. There are no-known domestically produced Zet starships.

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Starfleet Intelligence Bulletin

Subject: Zet Adoption of Warp-Ramming Tactics

Summary:

During the Koreli IV engagement, the USS Octavia E. Butler executed a warp-ramming maneuver using an uncrewed shuttle. The shuttle initiated a warp jump on a precise collision course with a Zet carrier, appearing instantly near the target before its warp field collapsed upon impact with the carrier’s shields. The resulting warp core breach caused catastrophic damage, destroying the vessel. In response, Zet forces have expressed intent to refine and adopt this tactic for widespread use.

Threat Analysis:

The effectiveness of this maneuver relies on the near-instantaneous arrival of a vessel at warp speeds, leaving the target with almost no reaction time. While standard navigational deflectors may push the ramming vessel slightly off course, they do not prevent the warp core detonation from occurring in close proximity. When a vessel at warp impacts a shield or hull, its warp field collapses, returning it to normal mass and velocity, resulting in a high-energy collision followed by a containment breach explosion. The damage potential varies depending on the size of the ramming vessel. A shuttlecraft is estimated to produce an explosive yield equivalent to approximately six photon torpedoes, while a runabout could deliver a force exceeding sixty photon torpedoes. A capital ship performing this maneuver would cause catastrophic destruction.

If both vessels involved in the collision have active warp fields, their relative velocities will neutralize within their combined warp bubbles before impact. This effect provides a brief window for defensive measures, allowing point-blank weapons engagement, evasive maneuvers, or tractor beam employment to redirect or destabilize the ramming vessel before impact.

Recommended Defenses:

To counter this emerging threat, electronic warfare techniques should be employed to disrupt targeting systems and prevent precise warp-jump calculations. The use of defensive screens, such as deploying small maneuverable interceptors, may also force premature warp exits and reduce the likelihood of a successful strike.

Extreme caution advised!

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Home System

• Quadrant: Gamma
• Location: unknown; somewhere closer to Karemma Space, in a highly energetic nebula known as The Edge
• Proper Name: Unknown
• Star: Binary Star
• Distance from Star: unknown
• Companions: unknown
• Moons: Several natural and artificial.

Home World

• Proper Name: Zet
• Diameter: unknown
• Gravity: unknown
• Axial Tilt: unknown
• Orbital Period: unknown
• Rotational Period: unknown
• Classification: unknown
  • Surface Water: there is surface water, but much of it is polluted--for example Lake E’dlik’Sor is reddish-purple and coated in a nearly two-meter froth of halophilic microbes that had grown from years of dumping high-saline waste products into the lake.
  • Atmosphere: highly polluted
  • Climate: unknown
  • Terrain: unknown
  • Population: unknown

History

Early Zet history and mythology are essentially the same, and sorting one from the other is difficult. The Zet developed a market economy early in their history, and it is woven into their mythology.

In 2400, the Zet entered into agreement with the United Dominion of Planets which gave them access to warp technology. Nearly immediately, they began colonizing other worlds, usually through warlord-kings.

Government

The government on the Zet homeworld is mostly symbolic, as the megacorporations control much of the actual laws and policies. The leaders of the most powerful megacorps form "the guild," and are known as Guildmasters. On Zet colony worlds or on more isolated sections of their homeworld, warlords or kings tend to have more direct political power, although the Guildmasters still have some sway.

Universal translators tend to translate Zet political terms in a way that mixes terms associated with Earth feudalism and Earth capitalism, leading to words like "duke" and "executive" in the same title.

On Koreli IV, the king was also known as the Supreme Director, and referred to by his subjects as "my director."

A reeve oversaw groups of specialists. The chief reeve oversaw the employees in the Royal HQ on Koreli IV.

Description

Zet are divided into two distinct castes: the Deathless, the dominant caste, are generally taller, slenderer and have characteristics closer to the ideal of the species. Their bodies are brightly and warmly coloured, especially on the back and top of their heads. Oranges, magentas, pinks and reds are regarded as most beautiful colours.

On the other hand, the working breed or Ephemeral, have shorter and more robust bodies and generally are duller in colour, mostly in shades of brown and greys.

Acute sense of smell/perception of pheromones tied to emotional states. Especially pronounced among the Deathless, less so but still there among the Ephemerals.

Physiology

Genders

The species originally had two genders, but due to extensive mechanical and genetic engineering the designation of one and the other (or neither) often depends on each individual.

Distinguishing physical characteristics

As a general rule, the Zet have a kind of slender body and long, graceful limbs, finished with 3 fingers on the upper limbs and two plus a spur on the lower limbs. Although they generally use a plantigrade gait, many choose a digitigrade locomotion to move faster, with the spur remaining off the ground.

Their skin is soft and smooth, but the back and face are covered with chitinous plaques with small nodules embossed, reminiscent of a protection against ancient predators.

The head is rounded with two bony projections towards the back that are part of the non-verbal communication of the Zet: a healthy Zet will have long, graceful and well-formed horns, while a sickly individual will usually have small or broken horns. These are present throughout the individual's life and grow continuously, so that elderly Zet possess elaborate horns that limit the mobility of their head.

Its head has 6 eyes that give it excellent spatial vision, along a colour spectrum detection that is superior to humans'. In addition, the short vibrissae on their head give them extra information about surrounding conditions.

Innerly, they have copper-based Hemolymph blood, a complex muscular-skeletal system with chitinous complement both internally and externally, overall structure similar to the Andorian one, except for the cupric foundation.

Zet breath through spiracles. The Zet have a central nervous system linked by a bundle of nerves similar to a human spinal cord, but protected by circular disks of chitin rather than bone; as in human languages, the Zet spine is often metaphorically associated with bravery.

Means of locomotion

Bipedal, plantigrade and short digitigrade; some, especially the military caste, also have wings.

Reproduction and Birth

Female Zet lay eggs and typically do not return until the eggs have hatched. The eggs hatch into a brood of larvae, many of which consume their siblings or historically are victim to predatory animals. Modern births and larvae broods are monitored and protected, though larvae canibalism is still a standard practice. Zet aren't conscious until they shed their larval phase and developed their first husk.[2]

It is not extremely common but also not rare for a larva to die during the process of building its first husk; the original Deathless used these empty husks to rehusk.

Death among the Zet

The Deathless can die, and in fact it is fairly common for their bodies to wear out after a little more than a hundred years. When a Zet dies, they produce a biomolecular cloud called e’Tezel or “essence.” This cloud is produced by small pockets of gasses that insulate Zet organs the way many humanoid species had meninges.

Prior to the invention of computers, the Zet were able to occasionally “catch” this cloud and place it in new host bodies, but there was inevitably some decay and loss of memory/personality traits. One of the earliest tasks the Zet created computers for was to create a binary code of the biomolecular cloud, producing billions of data points. This code allowed them to then recreate the exact cloud for a new husk with limited data loss, but it also requires an enormous amount of computing power. Still, by this point the Zet can catch the cloud and have it converted to functioning binary in a few seconds--at least on their homeworld where the computers have been designed for this purpose. Although in theory, this means a Zet could live an infinite amount of time, in practice accidents and acts of violence do interfere with the process, and small errors in the data points can add up over multiple rehusks, producing an effect similar to inbreeding.

After a body is no longer used, it is ideally consumed by a swarm of small aquatic beings similar to fish, which are themselves often consumed ritually by the rehusked Zet. This act of consumption provides some nutritional value but is not necessary. Jerky made from (or allegedly made from) the fish of famous Zet is often sold for exhorbitant prices. If a Zet has died permanently, the body is still consumed.

Psychology

A significant amount of the Zet's emic studies of psychology are focused on consumption and advertising. For example, the psychologist Krk’Eli created the concept of psychotags, which are words and phrases which produce emotional responses due to Zet physiology. The same terms may or may not produce equal reactions in other species.

Religion

The Zet are fairly agnostic, but they do believe in the Holy Pyramid, a hierarchical division of society based on ancient Zet wisdom. They don't have gods as such, but this system says there is a sort of universal blessing which is inherent in some Zet moreso than others. The simplest form of the Holy Pyramid is Ephemeral < Ephemeral Soldier < Deathless < Deathless Guildmasters < The Zet State/Economy.

This concept provides the cosmological support to their rigid hierarchical system, although the system was developed before their contact with other worlds and it is unclear how it will adapt to the existence of other species. As of 2401, many Zet considered Federation members to be somewhere above Ephemerals and below Deathless on the Holy Pyramid.

Mythology

More than 10,000 years ago, there was at least one "epic hero" who may have been a real person but was likely legend: Executive Nik‘ulama’pao’en’bei’yie’Bahb. He is known to have solved a series of challenges through subterfuge, bureaucracy, and deal-making, though one thing he did not do was kill the Great Ghullworm. He paid someone else to do it. (A ghullworm is a vermiform lifeform from the Zet homeworld similar to a leech; the Great Ghullworm was a sort of large-scale, vampiric version of the same.)

Society

The Zet are organized around Corporations run by one or more Deathless, with a multitude of Ephemerals at their service, subject to debts and life obligations. If a Deathless does fail to rehusk and dies permanently, the deceased is typically given a monument on the Zet homeworld that is proportionally based on the wealth and status of the deceased individual.

When Zet warlords conquered planets outside the homeworld, their monuments were built on the world where they died.

Zet laws are heavily influenced by the Holy Pyramid concept; an Ephemeral, for example, would be punished harder for harming a Deathless than for harming another Ephemeral. Contract violations are generally treated with a firmer hand than violence. Because escape from prison is a capital offense, Zet prisons are sometimes built in a way to encourage escape as a way of ensuring a legal justification to kill an enemy.

Names

Names of non-immortals are styled in the conventional ‘Given name, Surname’ fashion, i.e. John Smith. In the case of the Deathless, they add a sub name each time they ‘re-husk’ into a new body - mostly to show off. Using the example of ‘Anroc,’ his full name is ‘Pitorian Sal’Lat’Ut’Kel’Tras Anroc,’ indicating he has rehusked at least five times, putting his age in the ~600 year range.

List of Known Zets

• Vel’Zan’Kal’Sur Tzarn, Guildmaster, Sovereign Executive of Tzarn Interstellar Holdings
• Toal'Dius - King and Supreme Director, the Deathless Dynamo, the Warlord King of Koreli IV, well-known as the most just and wise of all Zet.
• The Rightful Prince Da’ni’Grend of Koreli-Four and the Danni people, Child of the Slain Grand King Ma’det’ain’ths’ng’in’Grend; The Just and Proper King of Koreli-Four.
• Grand Zet King Ma’det’ain’ths’ng’in’Grend, the wisest, kindest and most benevolent of all the kings
• Shipmaster Pitorian Sal’Lat’Ut’Kel’Tras Anroc, Owner & Guildmaster Extraordinary, First Eternal, President for Life of the Saldanian Corporate Hegemony, Beloved & Benevolent, Everlasting & Magnificent
• Nenni Nokzu, Acting Shipmaster
• Saulan Ket’han, Deputy Director of Daily Operations
• Shaggee Rod'gurs, Vice Associate Director Of Crew Fulfillment & Disposal
• Galat Zhkrg, Second Grade Associate of the Sub-division 88 of Redistribution of Workers of Mid-Lower Profile
• Frizikh
• Jowel

Culture

The Zet have a strongly capitalistic culture with an emphasis on hierarchy. Much of their communication, even formal corporate and government communication, happens over social media such as TidBitter. A TidBitter admin account is a high honor. Corporations and governments often encrypt messages within messages when it comes to social media posts.

Glossary

• Guildmaster - one of a small group of Zet that make up the most powerful megacorporation leaders.
• Shipmaster - Captain /Skipper
• Vital Treatment Technician - Doctor /physician
• Click - Time measure
• Hexaclick - 60 clicks
• Rotation - Year, circumvallation of Zet's main planet around its star
• Gratuitous Rigidity Amplification System - structural integrity field
• Voidships - Starships
• Nullgrav - Zero gravity / Zero G
• Flosflus. - an obscure part of Zet anatomy. Perhaps vibrissae.
• Reeve - an overseer of workers, usually in government positions.
• Panacleum - Zet stringed instrument

Customs

Zet elite government officials participate in a number of formal ritual activities as heads of state. These differ from group to group, but in the case of the dynasty at Koreli IV, one such ritual was a steambath using Gessygrass, a plant native to Koreli IV that produced a mild psychotropic effect in the Zet and was said to inspire dynamic thinking.

Technology

Rem’trell’s Law -

One of the laws in which Zet's science is based. It states that matter could not travel faster than the speed of light.

Economy

Massive Corporations in an aggressive Capitalist System.

Military

The leaders of the military are typically Deathless generals.

Many of the military caste have more robust bodies, and some have wings.

Appearances

The following are presented in a chronological order.

• USS Suesser
• The Cost of Forever (first "on screen" appearance - USS Thor)
• Un-named vessels (Kessler's Zet Capture mentions the Zet having encountered several Federation vessels but does not name them)
• Missing In Action (USS Caboto/USS Oumuamua)
• Classified Mission
• Mission: Death of the Deathless (USS Octavia E Butler)
  

References

This is an original Starbase 118 species created by the crew of the USS Thor

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