Divya Chowdhury
The Respected Dr. Divya Chowdhury
There are two things starfarers most hunger for in the depths of space. First, they long to see the stars outside. Second, they want to see life – something green, something alive. Without one of these things, crewmen tend to get a little stir-crazy. Without either of them, the minds of men slowly start to warp and twist…
The Respected Dr. Divya Chowdhury is a well-known bio-sculptor, the most famous within the Six Subsectors of the Imperial Empty Quarter. She helps to soothe the minds of men – not just by the fact that she’s easy on the eyes despite her age, but more importantly by providing the mini-gardens, ship vines, handi-sized pets, and assorted critters that keeps most sophonts connected with reality, even when trapped in tiny tin cans, floating in an ocean of nothingness.
As usual for scientists of her caliber, she was educated outside of the Six Subsectors, in Antares Sector. Graduating fourth in her class, she soon put her skills to work for the small Empty Quarter branch of SuSAG, LIC, an Imperial megacorporation. While disliked in most regions of the Imperium (due to its’ chemical and biowar operations), SuSAG is fairly well respected in the Empty Quarter, thanks to its work in terraforming worlds and providing hardy, useful livestock for both food and work, able to handle the dry environments common in the region.
While most of the new lifeforms are modified versions of naturally-occurring species, the Respected Divya specializes in creating brand-new species at a reasonable price. Her creations are not meant to be eaten (although they are harmless and fairly nutritious, if things get desperate.) Instead, they are generally meant to keep spacers company and act to calm sophonts working in the isolated and hostile environment of outer space. Of course, some of her creations can do a good deal more…
In most of Imperial Space, such lifeforms have a strong cuteness/cuddly factor, and tend to slightly resemble human infants, along the ‘Big Eyes, Small Mouth’ styling common in spaceflight-era Japan. (Think ‘chibi’.) However appealing this is to human and Vargr females (but NOT Aslan, Droyne, or Hiver!), spacefarers within the Empty Quarter are overwhelmingly masculine, so a different approach is needed. After a lot of false starts, Dr. Chodhury hit upon the ‘strong/dangerous little buddy’ archetype. Her creations all have some kind of hidden danger or unexpected benefit – nothing serious or truly life-threatening, but something that will catch the unwary off-guard. For example, the seeds of the Vemvine will cause vomiting if eaten raw, or the ever-hungry, finger-sized Okro ship lizard acts as great anti-static agents as well as louring and eating any insect pest in Gimushi Subsector – the more, the better. (Yes, the common Terran cockroach has finally met his match.) Her best creations combine both danger and usefulness, becoming quite popular among spacers as they cross the heavens.
Her work has re-invigorated the Antares terraforming community, pushing it away from creating perfectly safe (and perfectly boring) biospheres and back into something more balanced and more stable in the long run. Naturally, her fame in the Antarean scientific community cuts no ice back in the Empty Quarter, although the new Bwap Sector Duke was recently shamed into giving her the title of Respected. (Most Solomani Dukes would have nominated her for a knighthood by now.)
As of 993, the Respected Divya has earned the right to command a SuSAG laboratory ship. It is manned by 39 unique, near-sophont lifeforms of her own creation – all of which are sterile, and which have been designed to fail the standard tests of sentience, while still retaining the mechanical and intellectual ability to run a starship and its’ labs.
To be fair, some of the lifeforms have brain-jacks, and are trained to plug themselves into the ship’s mainframe to handle certain difficult computations and decision trees. Moreover, there are four general-purpose robots onboard, which are used instead of artificial lifeforms in hazardous environments (like space), and in non-routine or dangerous lab work.
The lifeforms are based on a variety of animals, all of which are known for their cleverness, sociability and their ability to grip and manipulate fine objects. (Referee: as an analogy, think of monkeys, dogs with hands, land octopi, etc.) Getting them all to work together was quite a challenge, but the goal was met. There are no plans to expand what is essentially a pilot project to any kind of regular production.
A younger clone of herself, named Divya Beta, is her only intelligent company while onboard the lab ship. Divya Beta is currently taking correspondence university courses, and is being closely trained to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She has been raised in some odd circumstances, isolated from most sophonts, and is quite distrustful of strangers.
In 993, their unarmed lab ship, the Close Analysis, remained untouched by pirates. SuSAG has an extensive paramilitary force, but they are designed for terrestrial encounters, and are not meant for naval operations. Why the Close Analysis has been ignored by pirate bands is the subject of some speculation. Some believe that the onboard labs are being used for illegal activities, and the results given to the pirates in return for ‘protection’. Others think that SuSAG directly pays protection money to a numbered account in the Rukadukaz Republic. Still other theorists suspect that SuSAG has promised gruesome biochemical reprisals for any act against their personnel or property. Only senior SuSAG management knows for sure.
References and Background (Sources)[edit]
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- Alvin Plummer. "Biography: Selected Ship Masters and Vessels of the Empty Quarter III." Stellar Reaches 14 (2011): 56.