Arnarais bioship

One of the smallest types of Harkas bioships (fully biological spaceships).

The Arnarais is known to be very small, easy and simple to pilot. Although they are most often used as trial bioships to prove a young harkas' ability to pilot bioships, they can have many uses such as small scale transportation or observing large objects from orbit safely. This makes them quite culturally important to the Unified Arkan Council (UAC). The Aranarais is unarmed, and is considered a civilian ship. They are very common in the UAC. The UAC can also grow much larger military bioships.

In harkas culture, an individual can prove adulthood by piloting a bioship, typically an Aranarais - class, for the first time, which is a more accurate and reliable indicator than using their age because it requires them to have a fully developed brain and hivemind ability. After this, they often hold a party, and are often trained in piloting more complex bioships later. Sometimes the party is held on the bioship they manage to pilot.

The ship itself is one of the few starships of the Hyperion Federation that has an entrance to the crew compartment, this being a large airlock-like door located near the top. This is the only way to enter the ship other than use of Teleporters. The bioship only takes a crew of 1, the pilot. Its cargo hold is relatively large though.

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Surprisingly to many other species, the interior is designed to be clean and soft (except for the floor, which is high friction), minimizing dangers from impact. It is often a lot more 'square' than most species expect, having clearly defined walls and roof, rather than being approximately spherical in shape. There are surprisingly few contaminants, as the ship's microbiome is very effectively restricted to the organs so there is little risk of infection, even when one is injured. Harkas bioships are generally considered about as clean as mechanical HF starships. The interior is lit via bioluminescent organs in the crew compartments and cargo bay itself, and can also be shut down by removing chemicals that cause bioluminescence at will. This is typically done through the hivemind as well, and doesn't require a fully developed brain to operate.

Even its organs are quiet, improving the quality of life on the ship. They have no digestive system as most species are familiar with it. Instead, they intake a similar antimatter fuel as mechanical HF starships (via use of Teleporters) which supplies the ships body with a lot of energy. This allows them to regenerate and accelerate very fast. They use a biological form of photon thruster, where high energy photons are fired rearwards. As photons have momentum, this pushes the bioship forward. Nutrients are obtained through its micorbiome that lives on its exterior that captures atoms emitted by Astromoeba. They can also intake hydrogen and use astromoeba symbiosis to obtain the nutrients instead. They can grow to full size in about 4 years, at which stage they become usable. They don't develop a crew compartment until they are 3 years old. Although the bioship doesn't undergo reproduction on its own, the harkas can artificially grow new ones.

They typically grow to a size of about 50 meters in length which is usually enough room to hold a significant cargo bay, however the existence of teleporters makes individual travel via bioships impractical in many situations which somewhat restricts their use. The bioships themselves are still used and upgraded for cultural reasons, so the cargo bay can be filled with many things.

Owning Organization

Unified Arkan Council UAC

Length

~50 m