The Forerunners

Forerunners were created by a species unknown to humans. They resemble radiantly symmetrical saucers averaging from three to six metres in diameter. Sixteen spokes radiate from the center, each ending in a tendril held in place by a rotary socket and capable of being used with other tendrils for manipulation. Around the rim, above the spokes, are bands of cells capable of detecting radiation and electromagnetic energy. A cloaca/mouth rests in the center of the underside while on the top a symmetrical mound houses the brain. The underside is used to collect solar energy for a process that closely resembles photosynthesis, and much of the rest of their bodies is devoted to processing and storing the byproducts of this process.

Forerunners have two means of propulsion: by the controlled ignition of collected radioactive isotopes, which they refine through their ability to manipulate subatomic particles, and, for minute movements, by the emission of the oxygen that is a byproduct of their photosynthetic process, Neither is very efficient, but, then, the species is rarely in a hurry.

Forerunners communicate by bursts of light from their sensory rings, and have developed a complex language based on seventeen different qualities and durations of these bursts, several of which are undetectable to unaided human senses. Humans know enough to exchange basic thoughts in this language, but the nuances generally elude them. The name "forerunner" is a rough translation of the encoding that the species uses for itself.

So far as we know, humans have never dissected a forerunner, but members of the species explain that the species' genetic coding is heavily resistant to mutation, and subject to their own manipulation. When they hear about natural selection and evolution, most forerunners react with amused disbelief, and a few grow angry at what they perceive as an effort to play on their gullibility.

Biology and ecology

Forerunners are built to travel through regular space between solar systems on some now-lost mission on behalf of their creators. They travel in convoys of millions so that they can carry necessary water and mineral resources for use between systems.

Forerunner behaviour is very different, depending on whether the species is in a solar system or in deep space. In a solar system, forerunners can often be found with their undersides facing the sun, absorbing solar energy. At other times, they are herding both mineral and ice asteroids for use on their next journey.

Usually, forerunner convoys arrive at a solar system heavily depleted in numbers, so reproduction is also a high priority for them. Given their ability to rewrite their own genetic material, forerunners are constantly experimenting with new designs, or borrowing information from other members of the species via their cloacas. forerunners are asexual, but individuals engage freely in this sex-like behavior, collecting genetic material from dozens of other members of their species so they can pick and choose the best genetic material for their offspring. To forerunners, this sexual Grand Tour is considered as romantic as love at first sight is in many human cultures. At times, an individual is honoured by an admirer by having its genetic material used unchanged -- in effect, to produce a clone. forerunners are born live, and grow to full size in a few years.

Almost as large a priority while inside a system is the gathering of mineral asteroids for the next trip. forerunners are particularly drawn to radioactive isotopes, which they can sense from thousands of kilometres away. Entire asteroid belts have been known to disappear in the wake of forerunner preparations, although the species is usually careful to avoid asteroids settled by another species.

Before more than a few decades have passed, the convoy's numbers and supplies are replenished. After a general debate, the convoy reaches consensus and begins its next journey. As the convoy travels, its members continue facing the sun as long as they can derive energy from it. When the available solar energy falls below a certain point, convoy members take turns going dormant while a remnant continue herding the asteroids needed to sustain the convoy and standing guard. Others tell long stories of the history of the convoy and their species to entertain them on the way.

Convoys frequently take centuries or even millennia to reach each destination. Unsurprisingly, supplies often run short. When they do, individuals volunteer to be butchered to sustain the rest of the convoy. Often, this butchering is done only after the volunteer's genetic material is stored with others. Other than death by violence or starvation, this is the only way that forerunners die, since they have long since altered their genetic code to render themselves immune to disease or aging. Some of their saddest stories, the forerunners say, are about noble individuals who make this sacrifice -- but humans must take the emotions stirred by the stories on faith, since the stories are essentially untranslatable except in the barest outlines.

By the time a convoy reaches its next destination, a population of millions is generally reduced to thousands or even a few hundreds. This deplenishment is considered tragic by the forerunners, but they console themselves with the thought that the best of their genetic material will live on among the survivors.

An artificial species that survives on solar energy, water, and minerals, forerunners have no natural enemy. However, after exposure to alien species whose reaction varies from hostile to friendly, most have added defences to their genetic code and military strategies to their transmitted histories. Forerunners have been known to commit suicide in order to steer fissionable material towards hostile space ships and stations, then ignite them. At times, they destabilize hostile vessels by weighing them down or by blocking fuel emissions. These tactics usually destroy the individuals who carry them out, but their convoys (and genetic material) have survived -- which, to a forerunner, is what matters most.

History and culture

The species that created the forerunners is unknown, but it is the subject of intense speculation by both forerunners and other species. However, their creators are thought to have become extinct millions of years ago, since not even archaeological remains of them have been found. Alternately, they may be in hibernation, or so far away that humans and the species they know have never come across them. From the prevailing paths of the known forerunner convoys, their creators may have originated near the galactic centre, but even this observation is subject to speculation. Not only are the several hundred convoys known to humans unlikely to constitute the entire galactic population of forerunners, but, possibly, they only passed through the galactic center on their way from somewhere else.

One school of thought suggests that the parent species may have been a machine intelligence, capable of manipulating life forms the way that other sentients manipulate machines. However, this speculation has no evidence to support it.

The purpose for which the forerunners were created is as mysterious as their creators. From forerunner habits and tradition, the likeliest explanation is that they were sent out as living Von Neumann machines to deliver a forgotten message to every solar system they encounter. Many speculate that this message may be connected to The Disappearance in some way. Alternatively, forerunners may have been sent out to find other sentient species, or to map the galaxy.

Some forerunner convoys have preserved a few tales about their creators and mission, but details about their creators and their purpose were hard-coded into their genetics, and in all known convoys, this information has long since been wiped to make room for more important encodings. However, the possibility always remains that one day forerunners who have not taken this step will be found. All that really remains of their origins is their nomadic disposition.

Forerunners have little formal social structure. In forerunner convoys, individuals with ingenious manipulations of their genetic code have high status and are eagerly sought out for what passes for sex, but have no other influence on the decisions of the convoy. Older forerunners, identified by their greater size and the number of spiral rings on the top of their bodies, are sometimes referred to by human sociologists as "admirals" and advise the convoy on preparations and destinations, but this term is misleading, since they have no authority beyond the soundness of their advice. Seemingly immune to age and disease and with no imperative to hurry their migration, forerunners seem content to consult endlessly until a consensus emerges. Sometimes, a convoy has split into two, with each heading for a different destination, but that is the extent of serious conflict among the forerunners.

Despite this lack of organization, forerunners retain a strong sense of identification with their convoys. All forerunners seem able to recite long lists of systems visited by their convoys, referring to them by a notation that humans have been largely unable to decipher, even with several points of reference. They also recall long lists of admirals, genetic manipulators, and those who died on each journey. These lists can take decades to recite, and soon become tedious to humans, but forerunners obviously find a sense of identity in them. Similarly, they can recite the history of every allele in their genetic code, who it came from, and when it was developed and modified.

When asked to name their convoy, forerunners are apt to cite these lists of ancestors rather than any short phrase more suitable to humans. Similarly, asked for personal names, they respond with their genetic histories. After all, they say when humans complain, they know their convoys and its members, so why bother with something shorter? Besides, they add, the lists are more accurate than the crude abbreviations that humans seem so fixated upon.

Contact between convoys is rare, but is known to have happened at Blue Tasman in Imperial Year 2179, and again at Howard's Point in 5137. Romulus Fielding-Fuchuns, the youngest son of the Chairman of the Board on Blue Tasman at the time of the contact, spent three decades observing the interaction between the two convoys, and most of the rest of his life deciphering the live footage and preparing a final report on the event. Fielding-Fuchuns reports that such meetings begin with a tracing of the convoy's common origins, and is followed by a series of apparent races and acrobatic contests and carefully controlled releases of oxygen to produce a firework-like display, as well as an orgy of genetic exchange. He also notes that the meeting he observed resulted in both convoys spent almost three times the average usual time in a solar system, and that no forerunner appeared disturbed by the change. Unfortunately, the Howard's Point event did not have such a dedicated chronicler, but, from the few available reports, it probably followed the same pattern.

The forerunners today

Humans have known about the forerunners since at least the middle of the Great War, when a fleet of skirmishers encountered a convoy while on route to Tunnel. Since then, dozens of sightings have occurred. In many systems, the appearance of forerunners signals a celebration among its human inhabitants, as well as a new outburst of tourism.

In a few systems, the name of "forerunners" is taken more seriously, and the arrival of a convoy has been seen as an omen of the apocalypse. Some humans have suggested mapping forerunners' apparent destinations to prevent such reactions, but this idea presents difficulty because humans rarely use normal space the way that forerunners do.

Forerunners are so obviously non-aggressive that the two species have almost always had good relations, once humans learned to communicate with them using artificial rings of light for the purpose and a sign language that uses two arms or tentacles to convey simple thoughts.

From forerunner's lack of surprise on meeting humans, the existence of planet-dwelling species is no surprise, but many are perversely fascinated by what seems to them to be a confined and marginal existence. In fact, from both the human and the Ferret experience, forerunners seem to want to communicate with planet-dwelling species largely so that they can learn about this alternate form of existence. Some humans have tried to learn about other sentients by quizzing forerunners, but the lack of communication has so far prevented any success.

However, despite the language difficulties, at times, forerunners have become knowledge-brokers, trading information for water and minerals. A warning from a forerunner is known to have allowed the victory over the Crucians at the Battle of the Follies by a detachment of Spartan auxiliaries. More recently, some have claimed that the forerunners are in contact with those who vanished during the Disappearance, although this is most likely an apocalyptic rumour caused by their name.

A few convoys have stopped their traditional wandering in favour of regular migration paths between a few human systems. Some authorities worry that forerunners might become a danger to shipping when they arrive in a system, but, given the distances even within a system, that seems unlikely. Some convoys have even gone into business as knowledge-brokers, planet-prospectors, and manufacturers of fissionable material, with financial accounts set up for them by sympathetic members of other species.

Some other humans worry that forerunners could become extinct at the hands of unsympathetic aliens, but the convoys are not completely helpless, as their evolution of defences indicate. The worst danger, of course, would occur when a convoy was attacked shortly after its arrival in a system, when its numbers were at their lowest, but, so far as any humans know, such an event has never happened. To prevent such incidents, social movements to protect forerunners from attacks have sprung up in many of the human systems in which they have visited -- a phenomenon that seems to amuse and baffle the forerunners themselves.