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FuMa

Conver Ambi Ocean World

FuMa
Image from Steve Bowers
FuMa is covered by a water ocean 90 kilometres deep

FuMa -- Data Panel

AllegianceConver Ambi Water World
StarTYC 1323-838-12
Distance197 ly from Sol
ConstellationOrionis
ClassF6V
Luminosity4.02 x Sol
Primary WorldFuMa
TypePanthallassic water world
Diameter15670km
Mass1.68 x Earth
Ocean Depth90 km
Surface Gravity1.12 gees
FuMa was colonised in 2855 AT (After Tranquility) by Birnam Ecotech and quickly absorbed into mainstream Conver Ambi culture.

Birnham Ecotech used cyborgization technology on many worlds to adapt sophonts and other organisms to otherwise inhospitable environments. The large, warm waterworld FuMa was superficially an attractive prospect for colonisation, since it had an atmosphere already rich in nitrogen and photo-dissociated oxygen; but the oceans were resource-poor in most other respects. The seas were almost pure water, 90km deep, with a layer of high-pressure water ice beneath that which formed a buffer around the rocky core. To allow this planet to support a biosphere, a population of subsentient submarine cyclers were set in motion between the surface and the ice mantle, bringing scarce nutrients from the mantle to the surface. Together with the small CO2 component of the atmosphere (and carbonic acid extracted from the ocean), this flow enabled Birnham to establish a biosphere in the Photic Zone.

A series of floating island-cities were established in the arctic and antarctic zones of this warm world, where the air temperature is coolest. Mostly made of carbon, these cities were synthetic floating forests, half biotech and half drytech (like most Conver Ambi constructs). A few air-breathing bipedal cyborg humanoids lived on the upper surfaces of these constructs (often visitors from other Conver worlds), but most of the population of these cities were cyborg merpeople capable of a permanently submerged lifestyle.
Merborg
Image from Steve Bowers
A Pregnant Merborg attached to an external feedstock supply. Merborg foetuses and children 'grow' their artificial limbs and organs using materials supplied externally at regular intervals

The Merborgs of FuMa

More than 70% of the bodymass of these waterworlders consists of artificial cyborg tissue, with fullerine connective tissue and graphene membranes, other diamondoid allotropes for structural support, polymers, metallic components and laminates, data channels and artificial muscles. All of these structures are capable of self-replication (given the appropriate feedstock) and are intimately linked to the biological components of the individual. The Merborgs on this world were among the first fully self-perpetuating cyborg clades - after sexual reproduction, the resulting zygote is automatically augmented in the womb by artificial self-replicating systems, which detect, respond to, and amend the natural process of organogenesis by substituting artificial organs and structures in place of their natural equivalent (while simultaneously inhibiting the growth of unnecessary biological structures). At periodic intervals artificial feedstock supplements are introduced into the nutrient system of the developing embryo, often including technocytes with pre-programmed behaviours and specialised roles in the technogenesis of artificial structures.

Not all merborgs on this world were born in this way- a significant number of outsiders have been medically adjusted to replicate the bodyform of this clade, and a large fraction of these post-natal cyborgs are further adjusted in order to breed true.

History

The Merborgs of FuMa were active participants in the Second Consolidation War. The nearby star system HIP 29221 included a minor Metasoft colony on 29221d, a bathypelagic planet, a world which the Conver Ambi leadership felt was more suitable for their own use. A force of highly weaponised merborgs was dispatched in a fleet of conversion drive warships, arriving sixteen years later (in 3798AT), and 29221d was first bombarded then invaded. The submarine vecs of this world fought back fiercely, and despite the loss of much of their manufacturing base the Metasoft resistance never submitted. Casualties on both sides were high, and the Conver force was nearly overcome on several occasions before reinforcements could arrive from FuMa. In 3813AT a pair of reactionless drive Metasoft dreadnoughts arrived in-system, outclassing the Conver fleet, which surrendered after a short but hopeless fight.

After the end of the Conver Wars FuMa became a Metasoft possession, and many of the merborgs migrated outwards to the Periphery and joined the Ambi Limis. FuMa was inhabited by a remnant population of aquatic cyborgs and an increasing number of submarine vecs, who proved highly efficient at maintaining the cycle of nutrients from the distant ocean floor to the surface. At the end of the Version War this volume of space was removed from Metasoft control by the Tilia-Zwicky Accords and given to the Terran Federation, a non-combatant empire who made significant gains largely by remaining on good terms with both sides.

Under Terran Federation rule the Metasoft envirovecs were allowed full autonomy, and they formed a powerful polity at the bottom of the world ocean. Meanwhile increasing numbers of aquatic biont clades were arriving, living near the surface in towns suspended from artificial floating reefs. Gaian whales, water-breathing and air-breathing merpeople live at different levels, together with a small but increasing relic population of merborgs. Like icebergs, the floating reefs extend into FuMa's oxygen-rich atmosphere, where a population of land-dwelling clades of many sorts have made their home. The world-ocean attracts tourists who enjoy long sea-cruises on sentient cruise-ships, most of whom are loyal to the Metasoft polity on the ocean floor.

FuMa ocean city
Image from Steve Bowers
A floating reef-city on Fuma, home to many land-dwelling clades above the water line and sea-dwellers beneath the waves
In the Current Era FuMa also hosts a significant number of transapient entities loyal to both the Terran Federation and to Metasoft. These entities live on the ocean floor, where the waters of this world serve as coolant for their ever-active processor arrays.
 
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Appears in Topics
Metasoft Version TreeMiddle Regions/Hinter-regionsSystems & Worlds E - F
Terran Federation
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 19 June 2018.

 
 
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