Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2004 23:45:57 -0800 (PST) From: Mark Friedman <forcewielder2000@yahoo.com> Subject: Dryser: Kokoni Greetings, readers! This is a quickie instalment for the series, just to toss in a little info on the Kokoni between the action parts (so sorry, no sex in this section). All the usual legalities stated in previous installments of the Dryser series still apply. Comments can be sent to me at forcewielder2000@yahoo.com (flames will just be ignored!). ~Mark ************ While thinking about the upcoming appointment (which, as it turned out, was for some sort of reception, though when I talked to Tatch a couple of days later he said that it wouldn't be all formal and stuff), I realized just how little I knew about the Kokoni. So I looked up on the colony 'Net that had been installed after the colony'd been founded, and saw that there was some information on the Kokoni. Fortunately, while Earth's relations with some species hadn't always been great, there was some sort of interplanetary library that contained a lot of information on different things, and the 'Net was linked into a nearby branch of that library (fortunately, interplanetary communications was considerably faster than interplanetary spaceship travel). I accessed a summary entry, and began reading. ******* ENTRY: Kokoni: * The planet Kokoni, Class M environment, is located in Galactic Sector 547. It is the third of eleven planets orbiting a G-Type star. The dominant species is a mammallian bipedal species with two arms and a head, who have adopted their planet's name as the name of their species. The history of the Kokoni is a long and somewhat varied one. Early recorded Kokoni history started some 11,000 standard years ago, with a written language that was put down using the juice of the alvara berry as ink, and the processed pulp of the xyonye reed serving as paper. Early civilizations, as with many sentient species, started around bodies of water such as lakes and rivers, which provided everything from drinking water to irrigation to transportation. Many early civilizations came and went, with larger nation-states rising some 3,000 standard years ago. Periodic wars occured between various nation-states vying for, among other things, control of land, resources, and trade routes. No major wars have occured in their history, with most wars involving no more than 5 or 6 nation-states at any one time. The nation-states of Kokoni soon, through a variety of treaties, annexations (both voluntary and forced), and political marriages, achieved a unified world government some 600 standard years ago. This led to a major industrial age, with the splitting of the atom and exploration of the Kokoni solar system occuring soon after. FTL travel was achieved 327 standard years ago. Early interspecies contact was acheived with the Urtanat, TialwbntaaaaaDa, and Charal species. Furtunately, their first contact was with the Urtanat, a species that had achieved FTL travel 200 years before, and who were inclined to be friendly towards the Kokoni and provide them with limited technology, such as universal translators. They are interested in learning about others, and will often travel great distances in order to do so. The Kokoni are known for being somewhat direct, often to the point of being blunt. It's been said that it's difficult to offend a Kokoni; while they are not overly agressive (though they are fully capable of defending themselves) they do try to make a major effort to understand what is going on before desiding whether or not to take offense. The political system is that of a constitutional monarchy. A hereditary monarch serves for life as the head of the executive branch, with various ministers over different departments to advise him. An elected legislative branch assists with the creation of laws, and a judicial branch - judges being appointed to the highest court by the monarch, with imput from the ministers and legislature - oversees interpretation of the law. The Kokoni system has several extra-system colonies, and some embassies on planets of allied and neutral species. *Note: applicable terms and concepts are translated into human standard terms. ******* I checked on some of the cross-referencing links, before stopping for a while. I stretched and rubbed my eyes. Mom had always warned me about staring at the computer monitor for too long. The reading, though, had been interesting, and atleast I had learned a few things about our guests.