Forlorn

History

The Forlorn are a minor human race of unknown origin. Commonly called Gypsies, a term they dislike, the Forlorn (the Galanglic translation of their word to describe themselves) are the only known zero-gee adapted humans.

The Forlorn, as near as can be told, seem to have originated somewhere in the area of space trailing the Imperium (Milieu 0), possibly somewhere in the Fornast Sector, possibly more distant than that. Their planetary culture apparently reached about TL 8 before some great calamity occurred on their homeworld. The Forlorn themselves have only fragmentary knowledge of that time, and no remaining records; much of their history has been passed down in an oral tradition, this time is known only to them as ‘The Destruction’.

Apparently they had some warning of the calamity, because they undertook a desperate task: to save as much of their people, culture and history as possible.

A monstrous building effort took place on their home world, which according to their oral tradition sapped all of it’s resources. Hundreds of large sub-light ships were built, several millions of people were placed on board for a journey that was supposed to only last, perhaps, ten years, to nearby systems that their scientists thought contained planets that would sustain them.

At this point what happened is unclear. Tradition holds that whatever the calamity was, reached out and overtook their ships, as well, before they were completely out of the system. Apparently great damage was done to all of the ships, many were utterly destroyed, and most lost some functions. The great fleet was scattered, as well.

Through truly heroic effort, some twenty seven of the ships were brought back together. All were damaged, many had hundreds of dead and wounded, with failing life support systems, failing power generation, failing control systems.

Fortunately the people in the 27 had access to a large supply of material and machinery destined for use on the now-unreachable target systems. By cannibalizing their future, they managed to bind the 27 into a loose association of structures, linked by tenuous threads, but linked nonetheless.

After 1500 years, they had traveled unimaginable distances, and had come to know themselves as the Forlorn, the lost ones, as they passed star after star, never having the delta vee their feeble propulsion system could muster to stop at the ones their instruments indicated had habitable planets, never finding one they could stop at that had anything but baked vacuum rocks and vast, cold gas giants.

As the centuries passed they became accustomed to their low gee world, becoming masters at recycling, refashioning ships again and again, stealing matter from the cold empty space, atom by atom, with huge magnetic nets, that fueled their power systems, ran their lights, kept their precious plants alive, kept them alive.

They changed, physically, as well. Their ancestors had all been chosen for their suitability of working in space, and the harsh first 500 years ruthlessly weeded out all but the fittest. They slowly became slender, lithe, conservative of air, and movement. The 27 could only manage 0.25gravities in the parts that were able to spin for weight. Most of the living spaces were permanently weightless.

The web that bound the 27 became the culture that bound the Forlorn. Cooperation was essential in all things, and each individual had a grave responsibility to all, if they were to survive. Yet grim surroundings did not mean grim people. They had access to a number of plant dyes to color their world, and once the dreadful first few centuries passed, and they learned to manage their world better, they were able to expand, have families, start to live again. They had to; else succumb to the gnawing despair that had robbed so many in the early years of their will to live.

The 27 became a world of its own, slowly growing, speeding through the empty reaches of space toward their rendezvous with the Third Imperium. In-240, the first report of a rumored giant sub-light ship filtered through the free trader network back to the Federation. By -180 it was clear the ship was approaching, and it was steadily decelerating. It was headed towards a system with a sparsely inhabited agricultural world in the Geshaggere system. In -168, as they slowed to a wide looping orbit around the primary, the Forlorn were astonished to find themselves met by other humans in spacecraft. They were almost as astonished as the Scouts who met them.

Thus began the last upheaval in the lives of the Forlorn.

After 1500 years of believing that they were the only humans in existence, the shock of finally coming to rest, and finding, not only humans, but humans who could travel faster than light, humans who had spread to thousands of worlds, humans who were already living on the beautiful planet that they had come to think of as their new home was more than many could take. To many this was a time as dark as the original Destruction; their struggle to live over the last 1500 years had been an exercise in futility...they thought they were the salvation of humanity. An epidemic of depression and suicide swept the Forlorn. Worse, when some of them ventured down to the planet, they found it was not a place they found fit to live in, it was dirty, smelly, disease ridden. They weighed too much, many were utterly paralyzed from the weight, and most of them suffered from horrible agoraphobia. They were used only to no horizon in the space between ships, or a ships hull, at most, a hundred meters away; a horizon line many kilometers or hundreds of kilometers away left them reeling with dizziness, nausea, and a feeling of panic.

Soon, the survivors realized that after all this time, they HAD a home, and it was on their familiar, beloved 27. They realized that now they no longer had to depend on capturing material atom by atom, but they could comb the system they were in for material. They could construct large new habitats, fill them with their recycler farms, their beloved strinthee’s, and grow. Their depression turned to exhilaration, as they realized that they, of all the people they’d met were the most suited to living in space. They had technologies far in advance of the Imperium, in some respects: in the areas of large scale life support systems, zero gee construction, long distance sensors and analysis, manipulation of magnetic fields, hydroponics farming they were at least TL 13-14. In this they at least had something to offer the Federation. They were fortunate their first contacts were with a honest scout from an honest large corporation. Their secrets weren’t stolen from them, and their interests were properly represented during the chaotic first years of their recontact with human kind.

It is doubtful that they’d be as lucky in today’s expansionist environment.

- Source: Bruce Johnson