Present Day Ionians

What is a present-day Ionian?

An Ionian of the present time is unquestionably a living being, the product of natural evolution, yet it is at the same time augmented, with the inclusion of certain elements of their million-year-old technology as standard equipment. (Ionians use a standard of time based on the “year” of their original home planet, Ionus, but it is close enough to the terrestrial standard to make the current discussion meaningful without adjustment). Ionians stand about 1.6 meters from the top of their heads to the ground, either when on their four (of six) rear limbs, or seated (like a cat), on their haunches with the middle limbs on the ground. (Reared up on rear legs alone, they are a little over 2 meters in height). Their front four limbs all have articulable “hands” with slender, gracile digits capable of precise manipulation; the middle limbs are very strong, while the front limbs have exceedingly refined motor coordination. All limbs are invariably artificially enhanced to give an Ionian strength and speed which significantly transcends their (former) natural state. An Ionian is capable of lightning-fast movement, antlike ability to lift and carry many times its own weight, an ability to leap and run very fast even in considerably higher gravity than that in which their species evolved, and extremely rapid reaction time. They do require a reasonably richly oxygenated atmosphere and have fairly stringent nutritional requirements, but these matters are routinely attended to via technology. Their (to a human) almost paranoid concern for personal safety and having basic life sustenance needs secured ensures that in almost any situation, an Ionian, if it is willing to be where it is found, has ensured its survival and comfort.

The overall appearance of an Ionian has been characterized (by people) as like a strange cross-breed of a cat, a sleek bird with iridescent scale-like feathers, and a giant praying mantis. Especially the large, triangular head with oversize eye sockets and taut membranes on either side of the mouth, and their use of forelimbs in feeding themselves, is oddly insectoid, as is their peculiar physical form that incorporates elements of both an internal skeleton and a hardened carapace in some locations of the body, notably the skull. In addition, the skull carapace is augmented with a closely integrated thin helmet-like technological overlay that allows direct wireless electronic communication with the worldsystem, (like an internet, but universal and actually integral with the minds participating in it), as well as with each other. Their ancestors used the forelimbs to scrape the membranes to produce complex harmonic and rhythmic sonic patterns which served as their language, which is still used for intimate conversation, but more long distance or general communication is always conducted with the augmented aids. Thus, an Ionian is usually silent when communicating with others or with technological systems. The catlike quality comes from the way they sit on elongated rear feet like a cat. Also like a cat, when walking, they lift off their rear long feet and walk only on the toes; the middle limbs have hands which also serve efficiently as feet, while the front limbs are never used in walking. The movements of their heads and tendency to stare fixedly at objects of attention, which are also oddly reminiscent of cats. Their scale-like “feathers” reflect light in moiré patterns and changing iridescent colors, which can be stunningly beautiful, especially in indirect light situations, and of course, are somewhat reminiscent of terrestrial birds.

The Ionians’ equivalent of language is more subtle and entirely different in organization when compared to human language. There is nothing comparable to words or sentences. Meaning is constructed of semantic elements overlain in a sonic tapestry (or corresponding electronic replica of sound) that is utterly incomprehensible and irreproducible by human minds or even human technology. Only the most basic glimmer of what transpires in an Ionian “conversation” can be thought of as accessible to human beings. On the other hand, although they generally find it uncomfortable, frustrating, and inconvenient, Ionians are capable of learning and reproducing the sounds and sense of human language, and can relatively easily manage to learn and use the written forms of human languages. When this occurs, however, the results are often very noticeably alien; Ionian psychology is in many respects radically different from human psychology.

Long ago, in their pre-technological past, Ionians developed a sort of writing to represent thoughts, and approximate, in the way that a musical score approximates music, their “speech.” They still use this system, although mostly only ceremonially or as a historical curiosity. Most language is directly communicated either in sound or electronic signals, and retained in augmented electronic memory in the same way. An Ionian’s mind is integrated with the electronic augmentation and connection to the worldsystem in such a way that it really cannot be said to exist apart from it; an Ionian completely isolated from all other Ionians is rendered almost catatonic, although they can relatively easily recover from such a state.

The extent to which Ionians, in various numbers, may form something like “group minds,” or not, is a subject of much speculation among humans who have occasion to interact with them. The short answer to that question is, they know and they aren’t saying, but it does seem clear that, while a typical Ionian is essentially constantly exchanging information with its peers, they do have separate self-awareness, and separate interests, likes and dislikes, motivations, etc. They appear to have no difficulty at all communicating with many others simultaneously, and, at the same time, carrying on other forms of activity, including self-reflection. Their minds seem to operate in parallel, even on a conscious level, to a greater extent than is possible for humans. There is no sense in which Ionians give the impression of being a hive mind, or anything of the sort; each has its own characteristics and “personality,” and any individual will have different views and perceptions from those of its peers.

Among the medical/technological augmentations that come standard for modern Ionian beings is greatly extended lifespan. Biologically evolved aging has been almost entirely circumvented, and reproduction, and hence young, are quite infrequent, so that populations of Ionians tend to not grow appreciably over time, except in situations where such is for some particular reason desirable, as when a new world or habitat is first settled. Eventually, the organism does degenerate to an extent, and, even more definitively, there does eventually come a time in the life of every Ionian when the individual has just had enough of life, and is prepared to die. Typical lifespans are rather highly variable, from several hundred years to several thousand. None has ever exceeded six or seven thousand years. To many Ionians, living more than 1500 years or so is thought of as rather unseemly; there is a general feeling that “enough is enough.” Despite the countless millennia of civilization, there is still no real certainty about what lies beyond death, but for whatever reason, a being, at least an Ionian being, who has lived more than a thousand years, has no fear of death. Fear of death, in fact, as opposed to the motivation to take sensible precautions to preserve life for purely rational reasons, is, avowedly, essentially incomprehensible to an Ionian. When an Ionian does die, since it is a rare event, it is a notable occasion, but not a sad one; generally the closest “friends”, “mates” and “relations” (to the extents the terms apply) will gather and celebrate the life of their compatriot who has (usually) elected to “cross over.” Accidental death is, of course, not unknown, but it is generally regarded somewhat philosophically; wailing and gnashing of teeth in grief is an emotion virtually unknown among Ionians (not that they have teeth; the forelimbs are used to “crush and stuff” foodstuffs into the mouth, which has abrasive surfaces that undulate in a sort of peristalsis, but they have no teeth per se).

Which is not to say that Ionians are not emotional. In fact, they are strongly possessed of something akin to a love of beauty, and particularly enjoy the experiencing the forms of nature and the replication of natural elements in “art” (including “music,” which, since it is a variant of “language,” also has “meaning,” and so is also, “poetry”). They have a highly developed sense of “love,” which centers more on delight in the happiness of peers or others, rather than strong possessory attachment to others. They have numerous gestures, sound patterns, facial contortions, and bodily movements (akin to “dance”) to express emotions. The emotion of anger seems quite rare, but there is something like frustration, which finds ready but fleeting expression. Irrational hatred or animosity towards living things is considered extremely bad form, to the point of outright pathology, amongst Ionians, who therefore give off a (sometimes misinterpreted or exaggerated in the perception) feeling in humans that they are wise and benevolent. In actual fact, the attitude of Ionians towards humans is frequently merely curious and indifferent, although almost never actually aggressive or malignant.

Ionians are also given to moods and often give humans impressions giving rise to words like pensive, elegiac, reflective, bittersweet, nostalgic, etc. What the actual underlying emotional state of these alien beings actually is, is of course not really knowable. By their own descriptions, they have strong emotions, which mostly take the form of delight and surprise in the twists and turns of the emergence of eventualities of life, along with a sense of something like sadness, at times, from the very same source. More than one Ionian (who had taken the trouble to learn to and to actually perform communicating with people) has said something like: it’s complicated, I can’t really explain it. Which is more or less where it stands. The present-day Ionian is knowable to a human being only to a certain extent; in many ways they are irreducibly alien, and, as denizens of a civilization orders of magnitude older than ours, there seems no likelihood that will change anytime soon.