The Viraran Solution
Descendants of primitives abducted from Earth about ten
millenia ago by Piedran merchant-explorers, the viraran were designed to be
entertaining pets for the consumer-driven economy of Arva, the homeworld of the
arviran and t'arviran.
To engineer perfect slaves, to achieve complete
subservience of this wildly unpredictable race, the geneticists implanted the
viraran genome with certain immutable design specifications.
Intelligent enough to be entertaining and trainable, the
viraran are incapable of complicated lines of thought or puzzle solving, thus
unable to plan conspiracies. Low birth rates and an aversion to others of their
own species prevent slave uprisings.
Other features were engineered to enhance viraran appeal:
their
talent; exquisite balance, quicker reflexes, agility, psychic abilities — or
dependency; needs for approval and blood, a pheromone driven sexuality, a
chemical bonding between arviran and viraran.
Tall and strong, free from disease, fair of form and face,
the viraran — of all coloring — are tremendously attractive. Their creators
added to this
package an addictive psychoactive chemical — viraran venom.
All of which should have been sufficient to keep the
viraran in their cage. The arvir underestimated their creation.
One emerged as a bondage breaker. She led her people back
to their birthplace. The genetic changes made by the arviran scientists had
separated
the viraran from their human cousins. At tremendous cost and with great losses,
survival was achieved.
But is survival enough? Katie doesn't think so.
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