Human Treecat Names

tlb wrote:

cthia wrote:I thought skinsuits were dependent on proper fit, thus, they had to be fitted (tailored) to the particular person. Which means a cat couldn't use one. Are they one size fits all?

About Treecats with pulsars. One of my European friends brought up the fact that animals are also handedness like humans. I suggested that since Cats have two hands on either side that they could carry two pulsars on the favored side. But someone reminded me that there is only one true hand.

Anyway, two gun cowboys would have been cool. Do cats carry the pulsars in a holster?

You know cats can use specially designed skinsuits, because Nimitz has had one since Field of Dishonor. It could be that there is less size variation among cats than people.

There could have been two gun cowboys, since there some people are ambidextrous.

The cats in UH do have holsters, otherwise they would always have one hand encumbered.

Yes, Nimitz' skinsuit was properly designed thus fitted to him. I was responding to someone who suggested that a cat could use one of the skinsuits meant for the crew.

Human holsters work because human hips are wider than the torso, thus keeping the holster from falling once you belt it up. I don't think cats have such wide hips. Although I suppose a jumpsuit like gizmo could be fashioned no problem.

But humans get into "saloon brawls" while wearing their irons which can fall out. Treecats wouldn't be able to attack with their hands and feet while wearing pulsars. I suppose the pulsars can be latched like guns.

I think the war cry of an attacking cat with his claws will always be a Cat's main weapon. The time it takes a cat to unlatch and draw his weapon he could have killed two or more assailants with his claws.

OTOH, a cat may know long before a human that the pulsars may be needed. So, in taking cues from a cat, if he unlatches his weapon, beware excrement hitting the fan.

cthia wrote:I thought skinsuits were dependent on proper fit, thus, they had to be fitted (tailored) to the particular person. Which means a cat couldn't use one. Are they one size fits all?

Skinsuits are custom fitted - and it takes some pretty specialized machinery to do that tailoring.

Now, passenger liners have emergency suits that are more generic (say: small, medium, large); closer to an updated version of a modern 21st century Russian space suit. But the basic rescue suits are far less form fitting, seemingly even just one-size-fits all -- which is why you can't do anything in them but stay alive and wait for rescue personnel in better suits physically tow you to safety.

I figure anything that generic would have room for a treecat to jam themselves into the chest area of an (otherwise) empty one. They wouldn't be able to move around with the suit -- but then it seems that humans forced to use a rescue suit (due to not having their proper skinsuit to hand) can't really move themselves around either.

cthia wrote:I thought skinsuits were dependent on proper fit, thus, they had to be fitted (tailored) to the particular person. Which means a cat couldn't use one. Are they one size fits all?

Jonathan_S wrote:Skinsuits are custom fitted - and it takes some pretty specialized machinery to do that tailoring.

Now, passenger liners have emergency suits that are more generic (say: small, medium, large); closer to an updated version of a modern 21st century Russian space suit. But the basic rescue suits are far less form fitting, seemingly even just one-size-fits all -- which is why you can't do anything in them but stay alive and wait for rescue personnel in better suits physically tow you to safety.

I figure anything that generic would have room for a treecat to jam themselves into the chest area of an (otherwise) empty one. They wouldn't be able to move around with the suit -- but then it seems that humans forced to use a rescue suit (due to not having their proper skinsuit to hand) can't really move themselves around either.

Note in UH that Jacques and Hamish were in gumbies for six days; each shared the suit with a cat.

Jonathan_S wrote:So in this specific case Samantha would have had emergency life support -- but you're right; it shouldn't be down to the officer, sailor, or marine to have to pay out of pocket for proper emergency life support for their treecat.

I suppose, given what you and others have said, that the RMN probably provided generic support, probably just a step above the standard pet carrier that Stephanie used 400 T-years before. Vacuum-safe, transponder, sufficient to survive exposure to regular solar radiation and micrometeriorites, but not a lot more than that. Such as proper radiation and shrapnel hardening.

Then Alfred might have bought one proper treecat warship unit for Honor on graduation and she may have replaced it in the years between Ms. Midshipman Harrington and On Basilisk Station. That's 30 T-years after all. There's wear and tear on those units, even if it went mostly unused, such as seals getting past their expiry date. No adopted two-leg would skimp on safety of their treecat, after all. If the useful lifetime of such a unit is 15 to 20 T-years, the unit she bought when (say) she transferred home for the Commanding Officer Course in 1896 would be nearly 10 T-years old when she was given command of HMS Nike and decided to upgrade it again for the deluxe unit.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:

tlb wrote:Nimitz's left over life support module was then used to save Samantha in HAE.

I'm actually surprised those modules weren't supplied by the RMN itself.

I guess it's on account that while not unheard, bonded pairs in the RMN were rare. So even if some allowances were organized to keep the 'cat and his Two-Leg together, but they probably didn't consider treecat safety.

Brigade XO wrote:Given what we have seen with the proliferation of Treecats in shipboard situations, the RMN might want to consider issuing the treecat version of skin suites to the Cats who are bonded with RMN two legs. Given that that there are now Cats being assigned to people in other Alliance navies Manticore might just want to consider providing skinsuits for those bodyguards who are going to be spending time aboard ships etc....at Manticore's expense. These (I know there are various legal niceties and protection for the Cats) are Manticore Citizens.

I guess that until Manticore revises the Treecat status ( from protected sentient considered as being minors to full Manticoran Citizen ) nothing is probably going to change. Once they are full citizen they will have access to skinsuits and more.

Guillaume wrote:I guess that until Manticore revises the Treecat status ( from protected sentient considered as being minors to full Manticoran Citizen ) nothing is probably going to change. Once they are full citizen they will have access to skinsuits and more.

I think they'll take the skinsuits into account for the treecats that are taking up bodyguard service. They can't perform their duty if they're locked into a compartment with the mess stewards or even in a luxury survival box that can't be opened from the inside.

But even before then, as minors that were allowed aboard ship, some provision for their safety must have existed.

Guillaume wrote:
I guess that until Manticore revises the Treecat status ( from protected sentient considered as being minors to full Manticoran Citizen ) nothing is probably going to change. Once they are full citizen they will have access to skinsuits and more.

As Ferhat reminded Megaira when he gave her a voting registration card after her emancipation, she received all of the rights - and duties - of citizenship. Including paying taxes. So, too, would the treecats, once they are granted citizenship. Although how one taxes members of what is essentially a neolithic subsistence culture, I can not imagine. Perhaps in service to the Crown? Should the Treecat related expenses of the Sphinx Forestry Commission be supported by taxes levied on the People, rather than being a charge on the archducal fisc?

Fox2! wrote:As Ferhat reminded Megaira when he gave her a voting registration card after her emancipation, she received all of the rights - and duties - of citizenship. Including paying taxes. So, too, would the treecats, once they are granted citizenship. Although how one taxes members of what is essentially a neolithic subsistence culture, I can not imagine. Perhaps in service to the Crown? Should the Treecat related expenses of the Sphinx Forestry Commission be supported by taxes levied on the People, rather than being a charge on the archducal fisc?

Though from SoS and other places it seems like the primary taxes individual citizens owe is Manticore's rather straightforward (and normally flat) income tax. Terekhov said "the Star Kingdom's personal tax provisions are a lot simpler-I filled out my entire tax return in less than ten minutes, on a single-page e-form, last year, even with the emergency war taxes."

Now we do know there are corporate and shipping taxes -- but individuals don't pay those (directly -- the costs are passed on; of course).

So most likely treecats that aren't earning income wouldn't owe taxes. OTOH given Manticore's laws 'cats that don't pay taxes can't vote -- "all the Star Kingdom requires to vote is that a citizen pay at least one cent more in taxes than he receives in government transfer payments and subsidies". So presumably the treecats that stay entirely within their neolithic subsistence culture would be opting out of both taxes and voting. (Though if they wanted just enough income to qualify to vote I'd think they'd be able to find a farmers market or something willing to pay for food they'd hunted or gathered out of the Sphinx wilderness - a single sale and the taxes on that income would qualify them to vote)

Jonathan_S wrote:So most likely treecats that aren't earning income wouldn't owe taxes. OTOH given Manticore's laws 'cats that don't pay taxes can't vote -- "all the Star Kingdom requires to vote is that a citizen pay at least one cent more in taxes than he receives in government transfer payments and subsidies". So presumably the treecats that stay entirely within their neolithic subsistence culture would be opting out of both taxes and voting. (Though if they wanted just enough income to qualify to vote I'd think they'd be able to find a farmers market or something willing to pay for food they'd hunted or gathered out of the Sphinx wilderness - a single sale and the taxes on that income would qualify them to vote)

Next we're going to have treecats elevated to peer status so they can serve in the House of Lords. Earl Bright Water, anyone?

But speaking of treecats voting and paying taxes... how about the Stilties? Treecats may have been in neolithic hunter-gatherer stage in the midst of the transition to agriculture and farming, but the native Medusans had already had cities by the time they were discovered. It doesn't look like they had progressed past the Bronze Age stage (hadn't discovered steel on their own), but uplifting them to modern stage would be doable within a couple of generations. More importantly, didn't they trade with humans?

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