The next treecat emigration....

I just pre-emptively decided that there's a fourth group that's going to join the "Occupy Mesa" brigades. There's this nice planet with no hexapumas or peak bears, plenty of two leg enemies to sniff out, good weather, and Victor Cachat.

Little furry telepathic sentients known as treecats anyone? Put your paw & claw-print on the dotted line and board ships!

I think it is a given that treecats will be at Mesa sooner or later with the occupation forces, but emigrate there? I doubt it, too many of the two-legs are putting out too many negative waves....

Torch would be better, but it's steamy hot and we have seen (In EoH) that 'cats don't particulary like tropical sweatboxes.

Probably the next 'colony' is likely to be in Haven, or perhaps one or more of the Talbott Worlds that has a climate and biosphere to their liking.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Hutch wrote:I think it is a given that treecats will be at Mesa sooner or later with the occupation forces, but emirgrate there? I doubt it, too many of the two-legs are putting out too many negative waves....

Torch would be better, but it's steamy hot and we have seen (In EoH) that 'cats don't particulary like tropical sweatboxes.

Probably the next 'colony' is likely to be in Haven, or perhaps one or more of the Talbott Worlds that has a climate and biosphere to their liking.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Torch has polar regions. If they've got land, trees, and little tasty things, they'll work.

Talbott's got to have a lot of forests that can use treecats. Haven's not one great big city - quite - but I do suspect that it's going to be a colony for treecats who are willing and able to integrate socially much more with humans than other colonies. That need not apply to many other worlds in the Republic though, which may support more traditional treecat colonies.

Even if Mesa's outback won't have negative vibes (great, now I'm picturing treecats as a lot of hippies...), if the Mesans needed genetic tweaks to handle it, treecats may as well and I don't think treecat biology is known well enough for that to be in the cards yet. And how well they can understand the relevant concepts to provide informed consent is another issue.

Hutch wrote:I think it is a given that treecats will be at Mesa sooner or later with the occupation forces, but emigrate there? I doubt it, too many of the two-legs are putting out too many negative waves....

Torch would be better, but it's steamy hot and we have seen (In EoH) that 'cats don't particulary like tropical sweatboxes.

Probably the next 'colony' is likely to be in Haven, or perhaps one or more of the Talbott Worlds that has a climate and biosphere to their liking.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Reason I picked Mesa was that the 'cats are pretty pissed because of the Yawata Strike, and it'd be a great karma smackdown, if instead of the MAlign getting the 'cats, the 'cats get Mesa... hence...

But seriously. Climate wise, it seems doable, plus the initial group of "emigres" would be almost like an 'armed clan' of telepaths, discover the cretins & any spies, yada yada, but over a period of time, treecats can have a good effect on humans, and NO competing clans, and likely no danger of Yawata-esque strikes. So as many cats as want to go native (safely) and settle their own clan locations away from the humans, or helping some of the humans, I have no problem with that.

Picture integrity driven folks like Jurgen Dusek aided and abetted and maybe someday adopted by a cat, etc.

SharkHunter wrote:

Hutch wrote:I think it is a given that treecats will be at Mesa sooner or later with the occupation forces, but emigrate there? I doubt it, too many of the two-legs are putting out too many negative waves....

Torch would be better, but it's steamy hot and we have seen (In EoH) that 'cats don't particulary like tropical sweatboxes.

Probably the next 'colony' is likely to be in Haven, or perhaps one or more of the Talbott Worlds that has a climate and biosphere to their liking.

IMHO as always. YMMV.

Reason I picked Mesa was that the 'cats are pretty pissed because of the Yawata Strike, and it'd be a great karma smackdown, if instead of the MAlign getting the 'cats, the 'cats get Mesa... hence...

But seriously. Climate wise, it seems doable, plus the initial group of "emigres" would be almost like an 'armed clan' of telepaths, discover the cretins & any spies, yada yada, but over a period of time, treecats can have a good effect on humans, and NO competing clans, and likely no danger of Yawata-esque strikes. So as many cats as want to go native (safely) and settle their own clan locations away from the humans, or helping some of the humans, I have no problem with that.

Picture integrity driven folks like Jurgen Dusek aided and abetted and maybe someday adopted by a cat, etc.

But you still have JeffEngel's argument about the genetic mods required to fit humans to Mesa's environment, and apparently the cost of terraforming Mesa wa sufficiently high that noone wanted to do it, which is why it was purchased so cheaply. If it is that hard to terraform, it would appear that the genetic changes required are not small, and no evidence that the treecat genome has even been sequenced, assumiin that the 'cats even use DNA.

fallsfromtrees wrote:But you still have JeffEngel's argument about the genetic mods required to fit humans to Mesa's environment, and apparently the cost of terraforming Mesa wa sufficiently high that noone wanted to do it, which is why it was purchased so cheaply. If it is that hard to terraform, it would appear that the genetic changes required are not small, and no evidence that the treecat genome has even been sequenced, assumiin that the 'cats even use DNA.

Well... I'm sure they use something, but it'd be a coincidence of cosmic proportions if it's actually DNA. Sequencing it can't be that hard - people took to Sphinx with some 1000+ years of exploring alien biospheres and of gene sequencing.

But given the generally and reasonably conservative nature of Honorverse biosciences, and Sphinxian protectiveness when it comes to treecats, there's a huge step between sequencing their genome and tinkering with it, or even feeling well-prepared to start tinkering.

On the other hand - Anton, Victor, and later other friendly non-Mesans have spent months on Mesa. The second trip involved all the fiddling with their bodies Beowulf could provide, but the first didn't. So presumably living in Mesa's biosphere without being engineered for it is doable now on a short-term basis at least. I doubt they were careful to eat only imported food (Anton's first cover would not support that well, certainly), so my guess is some sort of pill or supplement can see you through. It's remotely possible something of the sort could carry a treecat colony. I'd peg it as not very likely and definitely awkward without knowing more, though that's a WAG on the end of a speculative limb.

By the way, has anyone mentioned San Martin as a treecat colonization prospect? It's nearer-by than any other extra-system suggestion and in the Star Kingdom. My concern is that it may be too heavy even for Sphinxians.

JeffEngel wrote:

fallsfromtrees wrote:But you still have JeffEngel's argument about the genetic mods required to fit humans to Mesa's environment, and apparently the cost of terraforming Mesa wa sufficiently high that noone wanted to do it, which is why it was purchased so cheaply. If it is that hard to terraform, it would appear that the genetic changes required are not small, and no evidence that the treecat genome has even been sequenced, assumiin that the 'cats even use DNA.

By the way, has anyone mentioned San Martin as a treecat colonization prospect? It's nearer-by than any other extra-system suggestion and in the Star Kingdom. My concern is that it may be too heavy even for Sphinxians.

Not going to happen IIRC San Martin's gravity is 2.7x earth normal that means a 10kg standard treecat weighs 27kg or if you go by Sphinxes gravity of 1.35g a 10kg treecat weighs 13.5kg.

Plus I think are next group of fuzzy colonist will set up shop on Manticore followed by Beowulf Haven and Flax. The Treecats have to send out scouts to the various planet first to see if they want to colonize said planet in the first place. <What do you mean there's no CELARY. We're leaving.>

Mesa may have been gradually terraformed over the centuries, in addition to Detweiler's "whatever initial enhancements". After all, the "genetic slaves" seem to be useful across the SL galaxy, and I doubt they're custom crafted for a single ecosphere. Nor did Steph Turner have difficulty adapting to Torch's ecosphere to a significant extent.

But my thought is two fold: Keep in mind that if Mesa's population was anything like Manticore, etc. (say 3 billion) that's a billion free citizens that are accustomed to thinking of themselves as kings of the planet, and better than anyone else in the galaxy. There's also a level of anger towards that billion that is likely nothing short of genocidal.

The treecats are also in a way like the ultimate mind police, not that they're going to turn into little murderous critters a la some "Planet of the Apes" retread. We've already sort of agreed that two leaders bonded with treecats are not likely to be enemies if the treecat inner " moral code" precludes it.

If I were the 'cat clans, I'd see a "permanant occupation force" of 'cats (ergo emigrants) as the only insurance policy they'd accept against the possibility of another Yawata strke.