Re: GURPS Uplift
This would have been something ideal to put into Ultra-Tech or Bio-Tech...
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For those who HAVEN'T read Contacting Aliens, or even know what Uplift is...
In the Uplift universe, galactic civilization predates human existence by a couple of billion years (give or take a few hundred million). Races are uplifted (i.e., taken from a presentient animal state to full-fledged, reasonably responsible galactic citizens) over a period measured in tens of thousands of years. These "clients" then owe allegiance to their "patrons" and to the "clan" (i.e., the various races that have been raised in a chain going back to the last still-active species).
In the Contacting Aliens, the Fonnir are sloth-like creatures, an ancient species that is headed into Retirement, but who have one last project: uplifting the Norruhk (look like elks with trilateral heads). Both the Fonnir and the Norruhk are psionic adepts. It seems, from the stories, that the Fonnir have decided to skip the "Elder, Retired, Transcendent" path to withdrawing from the galaxy, and are turning the Norruhk into assistants capable of transforming the Fonnir into energy beings... and taking the Norruhk with them.
A small group of Norruhk children are dropped off at a Terragens (human) colony. It's found that they are supposed to be a remnant population, to make sure that Norruhk survive in the galaxy once the Fonnir and the rest of the Norruhk are transformed. Too small to be a viable population, but they have gamete computers.
Basically, a computer that randomizes the sperm/eggs of the Norruhk children, so that while they have a small population, they carry within them enough genetic variation to retain viability.
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