Re: Physical Description of a Kra'vak

At 22:05 3/10/98, Allan Goodall wrote:
>Am I being especially dense, or did I miss a physical description of
>the Kra'vak somewhere? I have all the GZG books, but I don't remember
>seeing a description of what a Kra'vak looks like (the creature, not a
>ship). I don't have More Thrust with me right now as a friend is
>looking through it, but is there a description in there?

Current analysis of the Kra'Vak threat is based largely on the following
passages:

< p32, col 2, para 4>

"On a physilogical level, study of remains from combat incidents
indicate
that they are carbon/oxygen based forms like ourselves, but do not fall
into any definable terrestrial category of species - they are bipedal
anthropoids exhibiting some characteristics of both mammalian and
reptilian
life, though this is actually a gross oversimplification as most of
their
bodily systems bear no effective resemblance to our biology."

<p36, col 1, para 3-4>

"Va'Ksha'Voc of the War Family Voc'Tcha (gesundheit!) stood on the
Command
deck of his flagship and watched his crew hurrying to ready the ship for
battle. Once again they had caught the aliens unprepared- his screen
showed
the largest ship of the Hu'Man still docked against their satellite
station, and the few other vessels were scattered around in nearby
orbits
in no better state of readiness. His navigator had done well in cutting
their Overspace exit so close in to the planet, and his subfamily would
be
rewarded.

Va'Ksha clashed his mandibles in anticipatory pleasure as he imagined
the
celebrations of another victory over the dangerous aliens that infested
this region of space...."

So, what do we have? A mammilian/reptilian species that (note the
mandibles) seems to exhibit some insectoid characteristics. The
clan/family
structure also invokes the social structure of insects, but this may be
terran predjudice on my part. Bipedal, oxygen breathers with, somehow,
fundamental body chemistry similar to our own, but at the same time,
radically different in function.

Noting the generally similar size of Kra'Vak and human ships of the same
class and the fact that they are technologically similar to ourselves,
they
are presumably roughly the same size as a human... possibly smaller, if
entire subfamilies and clans all travel on the same vessel.

The hard glottal stop between each syllable of their spoken language
(assuming, again, that this represents the whole of their communications
methodology) and the harsh, sharp consonant structure would seem to
indicate a simple vocal arrangement, capable of producing a relatively
limited series of clicks, buzzes and the like, modulated perhaps by the
mandibles.

Socially, again, they are clan/family oriented, the second passage
indicating that honor for accomplishment (and presumably shame of
failure)
is shared collectively by an individual's subfamily. The bit about
'clashing mandibles' in anticipation of a victory celebration suggests,
perhaps, a feast of some type... perhaps eating captured prisoners or
bodies, maybe even cannibal ingestion of 'failed' subfamilies. Possibly
mandibles are not used for eating, however...perhaps reproduction?
communication? Maybe after a victory, they all just get together and
have a
nice talk about the whole thing.

The authorship of this second passage, however, is deeply suspect, as is
the authenticity of its observations, as it seems unlikely that any
observer (even should he/she survive contact) could accurately know the
thoughts within an alien head.

All conclusions drawn by this preliminary investigation should be
considered incomplete, and likely to be modified as new data comes in.
Frankly, the plasma gunners in the 1/234th didn't leave us a whole lot
to
examine.

(signed)

Cmdr. Jim Bob Buchannan
CO, 1st Xenobiology Platoon (Provisional), 23rd Free Cal-Tex Rangers
"You barbecue, we'll carve."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Jim 'Jiji' Foster / jfoster@kansas.net / Jiji @ AnimeMUCK / TIP #28

"That's the way we all begin," said Tom Platt. "The boys they make
believe
all the time till they've cheated 'emselves into bein' men, an' so till
they die--pretendin' and pretendin'."
    Rudyard Kipling, _Captains Courageous_