Spoilers Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido Review Thread

[Christopher]

... but then, three years later,

Spoiler: PRODIGY S1

an A.I. infects the USS Protostar and an armada of ships sent to intercept it, causing what is almost certainly thousands of deaths and nearly spreading to the rest of Starfleet....

.... and then, two years after that, we have the Mars Attack.

So I can plausibly imagine the Federation entering a period of anti-A.I. backlash that leads future courts in the 2380s and 2390s refusing to apply the B-4 ruling as precedent.

I don't think you can validly compare a mere software weapon like the Living Construct to a sapient artilect like Soong androids. I mean, yes, they're both digital entities, but a mosquito and a human are both biological entities, and nobody would take away human rights if people got sick from a mosquito-born disease. There's a tendency to oversimplify and treat all A.I.s as equivalent, but they're not a narrow category like humans, but a far more inclusive category like biological life forms, encompassing a vast range of complexities. There's as much difference between a sentient A.I. and a simpler computer program as there is between a human and a mosquito or a houseplant.

Despite its name, there was never any indication that the Living Construct had any kind of sentience, that it was anything more than just a robust computer virus. So there's no reason anyone would lump it into the same category as Soong androids or sentient holograms. I mean, it's not like they're suddenly afraid of starships' computers, which are probably more complex than the Living Construct, since it's always easier to destroy than to create or help.

Honestly, as the canon stands now, I don't think Articles per se is incompatible. Nor is the A Time To... miniseries. The existing incompatibility comes from Before Dishonor, the VOY Relaunch novels, and the TTN series -- the lives of Janeway, Chakotay, and Seven as established in Picard and Prodigy are incompatible with the VOY Relaunch/Before Dishonor, and, as Christopher noted, the activities of the USS Titan and Tuvok in Lower Decks don't really line up with the TTN novels.

At this point in my personal timeline, I still count Articles and the stuff before it, though not the Titan or TNG post-NEM novels. Though of course, it's always subject to change in response to future onscreen developments.

 

[KRAD]

So depending on how much AotF mentions from the Titan novels, that might be a contradiction too.

Well, all the stuff with the Remans approaching Outpost 22 and the relocation of the Remans to another world and the Klingons acting as the Remans' protectors all came from the first Titan novel, sooooooo.....

Anyhow, I don't sweat that over much, because I don't see the benefit in spending mental energy trying to figure out what's real in a fictional construct. I'm too busy enjoying the fact that people are still talking about a novel I wrote 18 years ago.

Speaking of that:

KRAD is one of the best things to ever happen to TrekLit, and Articles Of The Federation is one of his best novels.

Still on of the finest pieces of Trek writing I've ever come across.

Thank you both very much.

Though, in fairness, if I were Alex Kurtzman, I would make AotF incompatible with the canon because I would want to make a made-for-streaming adaptation of Articles set after PIC S1.

Ha!

I'm just happy to see a Federation President be a supporting character in Discovery. I'm especially pleased to see that, for the first time, the onscreen iteration of Trek has provided a Federation President who presents as female. (As it is, Nan Bacco was the first Federation President in any iteration of Trek, whether onscreen, in prose, in comics, or in games, who wasn't a dude.)

 

[Tuskin38]

Not really, because according to The Last Best Hope, the synths weren't sentient.

Jurati also says the same thing in an actual episode of the series.

 

[Sci]

I don't think you can validly compare a mere software weapon like the Living Construct to a sapient artilect like Soong androids.

I don't disagree, but bigotry is not rational. I can see a plausible scenario where the Protostar Crisis incites a pre-existing level of bigotry against both A.I. and Synthetics that then becomes much larger in response to the Mars Attack. Would that be rational? No. But it does strike me as plausible humanoid behavior.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

The whole discussion of anti-AI bigotry here is generating a great deal of light, and hardly any heat. Refreshingly civilized.

 

[Christopher]

I don't disagree, but bigotry is not rational. I can see a plausible scenario where the Protostar Crisis incites a pre-existing level of bigotry against both A.I. and Synthetics that then becomes much larger in response to the Mars Attack. Would that be rational? No. But it does strike me as plausible humanoid behavior.

I'm not sure I'd define it as bigotry -- again, it's like being equally bigoted against both humans and catfish because they're both vertebrates -- but I suppose I could see a scenario where the escalating pattern of 1) Peanut Hamper's evil acts (and whatever storyline with her and AGIMUS might be building up for season 4 of LD), 2) the Living Construct attack, and 3) the synth attack lead to a growing Luddite attitude toward autonomous technology.

The problem, though, is that the way that reaction has been depicted is so inconsistent that it's hard to make sense of. Why did they outlaw synths but not holograms? Why did they lump non-sentient androids together with sentient ones? The modern franchise isn't even consistent about the difficulty of creating strong AI. Picard season 1 presumed that artificial consciousness was still a Holy Grail that nobody but Soong had ever cracked, but Lower Decks has sentient artilects all over the place, even as accidental science experiments by junior officers.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Televised LD has not yet spoken a name, but I would wager future canon will follow Alan Dean Foster's old novelisations in following TAS background information of Arex et al. being named Edoans --> Edosians rather than Peter David's coexisting Triexians as in Articles.

While not a focal point of Articles, I don't see Remans as being a Vulcan offshoot in streaming-era canon as in the 2001-2021 novels, which saddens me because I liked the Vulcan-Romulan-Reman-Watraii-Kenisian array from the novels.

And again not a focal point, but it is anyone's guess if future canon will finally address whether the humans of Alpha Centauri were a distinct founding member of the Federation or not.

Honestly, it would make a lot of sense that the incompetent and xenophobic tendencies of the canonical post-Dominion War Federation would let Picard falsely shoulder the blame for the destruction of the Juno in the Ontailian demon flyer fiasco, but he evidently made Admiral on his own merit in this canon.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. Although Edoans are (according to Kevin Dilmore's "The Road to Edos" in No Limits, if memory serves) "more animated" than Triexians.

With all this talk of Articles of the Federation, I'm now re-reading it. I'd completely forgotten what it was about (and had to do a bit of hunting before I remembered what section of my library it was in). Busy job, being President of the Federation.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

With as many characters as AotF has, perhaps a dramatis personae might have been a good idea, though. Didn't Frank Herbert put one at the beginning of Dune? (I'm saying this from memory; every book I had in that franchise went to a used book dealer decades ago.)

 

[Sci]

I'm not sure I'd define it as bigotry -- again, it's like being equally bigoted against both humans and catfish because they're both vertebrates -- but I suppose I could see a scenario where the escalating pattern of 1) Peanut Hamper's evil acts (and whatever storyline with her and AGIMUS might be building up for season 4 of LD), 2) the Living Construct attack, and 3) the synth attack lead to a growing Luddite attitude toward autonomous technology.

I think that's pretty much what PIC S1 established about Federation attitudes after the Mars Attack. In "Remembrance," Dahj was as much in fear of being found out as a Synth by Federation authorities as she was of being attacked again by the Tal Shiar death squad, and Picard explicitly referred to anti-artificial lifeform prejudices that had grown since Data's death.

The problem, though, is that the way that reaction has been depicted is so inconsistent that it's hard to make sense of. Why did they outlaw synths but not holograms? Why did they lump non-sentient androids together with sentient ones?

I was under the impression that the ban was against developing sentient artificial intelligences of all sorts, and that they banned non-sentient androids because the Mars Attack demonstrated (in the erroneous eyes of the Federation at the time) that such androids could become sentient and dangerous out of resentment for the labor to which they had been put -- thus ending the labor and the potential for such androids to become a threat.

The modern franchise isn't even consistent about the difficulty of creating strong AI. Picard season 1 presumed that artificial consciousness was still a Holy Grail that nobody but Soong had ever cracked, but Lower Decks has sentient artilects all over the place, even as accidental science experiments by junior officers.

I mean, in fairness, I think TNG's depiction of Soong-type androids as being unique is also somewhat inconsistent with how common androids were in TOS. Anyway, my rationalization for this inconsistency was and remains that sentient A.I.s can develop spontaneously when the program is copied from a biological person's brain engrams (i.e., the various EMHes from VOY, or Hologram Janeway from PRO), but that no one but Noonien Soong and, subsequently, Bruce Maddux and Altan Soong, had yet been able to intentionally get a positronic artificial intelligence to develop into sentience without patterning the program off of a pre-existing organic humanoid brain's engrams.

I don't know if that rationalization completely holds up, but it's the best I can think to reconcile conflicting canonical depictions.

Televised LD has not yet spoken a name, but I would wager future canon will follow Alan Dean Foster's old novelisations in following TAS background information of Arex et al. being named Edoans --> Edosians rather than Peter David's coexisting Triexians as in Articles.

Is there any particular reason they couldn't just be two different names for the same species?

While not a focal point of Articles, I don't see Remans as being a Vulcan offshoot in streaming-era canon as in the 2001-2021 novels, which saddens me because I liked the Vulcan-Romulan-Reman-Watraii-Kenisian array from the novels.

I could never really get into the Vulcan's Soul trilogy to be honest, and I don't really like the idea conceptually that the Remans are an offshoot of the Romulans. I'm fine with jettisoning them from my personal "new canon with pre-Destiny novels I like grandfathered in" timeline.

And again not a focal point, but it is anyone's guess if future canon will finally address whether the humans of Alpha Centauri were a distinct founding member of the Federation or not.

Well, at this point, I would say the canon strongly implies they were not. There's been nothing explicit, so if you really want to hold onto that data point from Articles/Rise of the Federation you can, but, on several occasions we have seen episodes of DIS and PROD depict the logos of the founding Federation Members and only depict Earth, Vulcan, Andor, and Tellar. So while it's not explicit, I would say that the very strong implication of the canon at this point is that Alpha Centauri was not a founding Member.

Honestly, it would make a lot of sense that the incompetent and xenophobic tendencies of the canonical post-Dominion War Federation would let Picard falsely shoulder the blame for the destruction of the Juno in the Ontailian demon flyer fiasco, but he evidently made Admiral on his own merit in this canon.

For that matter, it's not implausible that the some of the same political actors who would later go on to promote anti-Romulan and anti-Synth bigotry might have previously tried to punish Picard for the Juno's destruction.

With all this talk of Articles of the Federation, I'm now re-reading it. I'd completely forgotten what it was about (and had to do a bit of hunting before I remembered what section of my library it was in). Busy job, being President of the Federation.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern of the Labour Party, just announced last night that she was resigning from office. Her resignation was completely unexpected -- and she explained that it was not to get in front of a scandal, or a response to a loss in poll numbers. It was just because she felt she could no longer do the job -- she said that the leaders of a country need to have "a full tank, plus extra" for emergencies, and that she no longer had a full tank.

And that's just from leading a single country of five million people.

Now imagine what it's like to be the President of the United States or the President of the People's Republic of China or the Prime Minister of the Republic of India.

Now multiply that to get the leader of an entire planet. Then multiply that by however many other planets a given Federation Member State might govern. Then multiply that by 150 Member States!

Quite the job!

With as many characters as AotF has, perhaps a dramatis personae might have been a good idea, though. Didn't Frank Herbert put one at the beginning of Dune? (I'm saying this from memory; every book I had in that franchise went to a used book dealer decades ago.)

Well, a child born the day Articles of the Federation was released turns 18 this summer, so I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

(Sweet Zombie Jesus, Articles of the Federation turns 18 this summer....!)

 

[Christopher]

I was under the impression that the ban was against developing sentient artificial intelligences of all sorts

Which is exactly why it made no sense that they still allow holograms. We've seen abundant evidence that it's enormously easier to create sentient holograms than sentient positronic androids, given how often the former has happened by accident. And heck, D'Vana Tendi created a sentient shapeshifting dog thing by accident as a random science experiment, and she's just an ensign. This is my point -- the franchise keeps changing its own rules about how AI works and how easy it is to create.

I mean, in fairness, I think TNG's depiction of Soong-type androids as being unique is also somewhat inconsistent with how common androids were in TOS.

Not really, because most TOS androids were nonsentient. The Exo III androids were limited by programming and ultimately assumed to be mere machines that only mimicked intelligence but had none of their own ("Doctor Korby was never here"). The Mudd's Planet androids were mere drones controlled by a single central computer (Norman), lacking any individual personality or consciousness, and that central computer was extremely limited and inflexible in its programming. The androids Sargon's people were building would merely have been mechanical shells to house their incorporeal consciousnesses, so there was no AI involved at all.

The only android in TOS that was treated as a sentient being was Rayna Kapec, and she had the exact same kind of collapse in response to emotional conflict that Lal had a century later, leading me to suspect that Rayna was a positronic android. (Of course, Immortal Coil posited that Flint was Soong's mentor.)

Similarly, TOS mostly treated non-humanoid computers as rigidly programmed and not truly conscious -- e.g. Landru and Nomad were both brought down by fairly simple logical paradoxes. The M-5 was more sophisticated than most computers only because it was imprinted with Richard Daystrom's engrams. The only computers I can think of that were treated as possibly sentient were alien ones, Gary Seven's Beta 5 and the amusement park planet's computer in "Once Upon a Planet."

Anyway, my rationalization for this inconsistency was and remains that sentient A.I.s can develop spontaneously when the program is copied from a biological person's brain engrams (i.e., the various EMHes from VOY, or Hologram Janeway from PRO)

That doesn't explain Moriarty and the Countess, though. Or Tendi's dog.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern of the Labour Party, just announced last night that she was resigning from office. Her resignation was completely unexpected -- and she explained that it was not to get in front of a scandal, or a response to a loss in poll numbers. It was just because she felt she could no longer do the job -- she said that the leaders of a country need to have "a full tank, plus extra" for emergencies, and that she no longer had a full tank.

And that's just from leading a single country of five million people.

Now imagine what it's like to be the President of the United States or the President of the People's Republic of China or the Prime Minister of the Republic of India.

Now multiply that to get the leader of an entire planet. Then multiply that by however many other planets a given Federation Member State might govern. Then multiply that by 150 Member States!

Quite the job!

I look at the way the American presidency seems to age people prematurely, and I realize that the job was created for a much smaller, more manageable country. I often think that for a really large nation, it would make more sense to have an executive council rather than a single president. It would also help avoid the other big problem with the presidency, the tendency to see it as a prestige position to be pursued for pride or fame rather than duty to the country, or to elevate it to a pseudo-monarchy in the people's eyes.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Is there any particular reason they couldn't just be two different names for the same species?

In the new canon, sure, but the entire concept and name of Triexians was established by Peter David when he debuted Arex and M'Ress into the novelverse in Gateways: Cold Wars in 2001. Then in "The Road to Edos", part of 2003's No Limits anthology, Kevin Dilmore told the story where the time-displaced Arex was almost mistakenly routed to Edos before he corrected his pilot that he was Triexian. Chapter Nine of Articles of the Federation plays on this by having Palais staff member Bey Toh identify the informant as Triexian, not Edoan, by pseudonym. The two species look similar like humans and Halkans.

Just don't ask me why Peter David saw fit to introduce a new species entirely when he did adopt M'Ress's also not-in-televised-dialogue species name 'Caitian' from TAS background material.

(For the clarification of anyone not in the know, TAS background material and Alan Dean Foster's TAS novelisations used the name 'Edoan'. Following several mentions of the name 'Edosian' in DS9 and ENT, which could either have been an homage to Arex or a mere coincidence, startrek.com adopted that rendition, and it is quite possible LD will use it in dialogue in the foreseeable future.)

 

[KRAD]

With as many characters as AotF has, perhaps a dramatis personae might have been a good idea, though. Didn't Frank Herbert put one at the beginning of Dune? (I'm saying this from memory; every book I had in that franchise went to a used book dealer decades ago.)

Yeah, I probably shoulda done that.......................

Well, a child born the day Articles of the Federation was released turns 18 this summer, so I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

(Sweet Zombie Jesus, Articles of the Federation turns 18 this summer....!)

Yes. Yes, it will.

*wanders over to window to shake fist and tell kids to get off my lawn*

 

[Christopher]

Just don't ask me why Peter David saw fit to introduce a new species entirely when he did adopt M'Ress's also not-in-televised-dialogue species name 'Caitian' from TAS background material.

I doubt that was Peter's intention. Either he didn't remember the name "Edoan" for Arex's species or he decided to ignore it and invent his own, but he presumably meant it to be the same species. It was Kevin's later story that handwaved them as two different (but related?) species, and that was just a throwaway in-joke.

 

[Sci]

Is there any particular reason they couldn't just be two different names for the same species?

In the new canon, sure, but the entire concept and name of Triexians was established by Peter David when he debuted Arex and M'Ress into the novelverse in Gateways: Cold Wars in 2001. Then in "The Road to Edos", part of 2003's No Limits anthology, Kevin Dilmore told the story where the time-displaced Arex was almost mistakenly routed to Edos before he corrected his pilot that he was Triexian. Chapter Nine of Articles of the Federation plays on this by having Palais staff member Bey Toh identify the informant as Triexian, not Edoan, by pseudonym. The two species look similar like humans and Halkans.

Just don't ask me why Peter David saw fit to introduce a new species entirely when he did adopt M'Ress's also not-in-televised-dialogue species name 'Caitian' from TAS background material.

(For the clarification of anyone not in the know, TAS background material and Alan Dean Foster's TAS novelisations used the name 'Edoan'. Following several mentions of the name 'Edosian' in DS9 and ENT, which could either have been an homage to Arex or a mere coincidence, startrek.com adopted that rendition, and it is quite possible LD will use it in dialogue in the foreseeable future.)

I doubt that was Peter's intention. Either he didn't remember the name "Edoan" for Arex's species or he decided to ignore it and invent his own, but he presumably meant it to be the same species. It was Kevin's later story that handwaved them as two different (but related?) species, and that was just a throwaway in-joke.

If it's a throwaway in-joke, I'm definitely disinclined to think that it's binding. Sounds to me like the simplest explanation is that Edoans and Triexians are just two names for the same species. Maybe there's a third name, just to keep on theme...!

Which is exactly why it made no sense that they still allow holograms. We've seen abundant evidence that it's enormously easier to create sentient holograms than sentient positronic androids, given how often the former has happened by accident.

On the other hand, institutions often make policies in response to crises that are arbitrary or not well-considered or which have seemingly irrational loopholes -- think of the seemingly arbitrary rules airline passengers must follow in terms of what items they're allowed to bring aboard or the security theatre of removing their shoes. I could see the Federation Council banning sentient A.I.s yet not banning non-sentient holograms because of how pervasive and normalized non-sentient holograms are in Federation life, in spite of how easily holograms may develop sentience.

And heck, D'Vana Tendi created a sentient shapeshifting dog thing by accident as a random science experiment, and she's just an ensign.

I would imagine the question of The Dog would be a matter of laws about genetic engineering more than laws about artificial intelligence. Though that, of course, raises the question of how she got around UFP laws against genetic engineering.

Anyway, my rationalization for this inconsistency was and remains that sentient A.I.s can develop spontaneously when the program is copied from a biological person's brain engrams (i.e., the various EMHes from VOY, or Hologram Janeway from PRO)

That doesn't explain Moriarty and the Countess, though.

I mean, I don't really want to explain Moriarty and the Countess because I'd just as soon ignore those episodes since I don't like them. I assume that Moriarty is a fluke and the Countess is a replication of that fluke.

Anyway, "AIs based on humanoid brain engrams" is not a perfect rationalization but I think it holds up about as well as anything can in reconciling the contradictions here.

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern of the Labour Party, just announced last night that she was resigning from office. Her resignation was completely unexpected -- and she explained that it was not to get in front of a scandal, or a response to a loss in poll numbers. It was just because she felt she could no longer do the job -- she said that the leaders of a country need to have "a full tank, plus extra" for emergencies, and that she no longer had a full tank.

And that's just from leading a single country of five million people.

Now imagine what it's like to be the President of the United States or the President of the People's Republic of China or the Prime Minister of the Republic of India.

Now multiply that to get the leader of an entire planet. Then multiply that by however many other planets a given Federation Member State might govern. Then multiply that by 150 Member States!

Quite the job!

I look at the way the American presidency seems to age people prematurely, and I realize that the job was created for a much smaller, more manageable country.

Definitely! In fact, the actual figures are startling sometimes. The 1790 United States census found a total population of about 3.9 million, of whom only 2.4 million were free -- with 697,697 enslaved persons making up 17.8% of the population. The City of New York (8.8 million) and Los Angeles County (9.86 million) today each have more people than the entire United States had in 1790!

And the 1788-1789 U.S. presidential election had a total electorate of of only 43,782 -- less than 1.8% of the population! It's easy to forget how shockingly authoritarian and anti-democratic the early U.S. was.

I often think that for a really large nation, it would make more sense to have an executive council rather than a single president. It would also help avoid the other big problem with the presidency, the tendency to see it as a prestige position to be pursued for pride or fame rather than duty to the country, or to elevate it to a pseudo-monarchy in the people's eyes.

Switzerland does something like that. The Federal Council is basically the cabinet, but its seven members are elected by the Federal Assembly (with the four major parties being represented in the Council roughly proportionate to their share in the election), with each Councillor responsible for running one of the executive departments. The Federal Council, rather than any one Councillor, collectively serves as the head of state and head of government. The President of the Swiss Confederation is a mostly ceremonial title that rotates between Federal Councillors each year, and whose primary job is to represent the Swiss Confederation for purposes of international diplomacy and to preside over meetings of the Federal Council. It's very common for Swiss citizens to not even know which Federal Councillor happens to be serving as President at a given moment.

 

[Cybersnark]

The modern franchise isn't even consistent about the difficulty of creating strong AI. Picard season 1 presumed that artificial consciousness was still a Holy Grail that nobody but Soong had ever cracked, but Lower Decks has sentient artilects all over the place, even as accidental science experiments by junior officers.

I mean, in fairness, I think TNG's depiction of Soong-type androids as being unique is also somewhat inconsistent with how common androids were in TOS.

I always interpreted Soong's breakthrough as creating an AI that would remain stable indefinitely rather than succumbing to cascade failure.

Arguably, the Doctor's experience in "The Swarm" (and possibly even as early as "Projections") was similar to what we saw Lal go through --which could have been avoided under more controlled circumstances by reinitializing his program. This could suggest that holograms (possibly including the Moriartys) are also subject to the same flaws as most AIs, but are more "recoverable" because they're, in effect, running on a "virtual machine" and don't have physical hardware that can melt down.

So non-Soong AIs can be either simple-minded, short-lived, mentally unstable, or frequently "memory wiped" (which could be legally mandated).

(Which makes me curious about where the Doctor specifically ended up during the synth ban; did he flee the Federation with his one-of-a-kind holo-emitter, did he get special dispensation, or is he locked up in a high-tech VCR like Moriarty?)

 

[Christopher]

I always interpreted Soong's breakthrough as creating an AI that would remain stable indefinitely rather than succumbing to cascade failure.

Yes, no doubt. We know his first several prototypes failed. B-4 was apparently stable but too limited, and Lore was stable but psychopathic. (I always figured his lack of empathy was how he avoided the emotional conflicts that led to cascade failure, because both Rayna's and Lal's collapses were triggered by love.)

Arguably, the Doctor's experience in "The Swarm" (and possibly even as early as "Projections") was similar to what we saw Lal go through --which could have been avoided under more controlled circumstances by reinitializing his program. This could suggest that holograms (possibly including the Moriartys) are also subject to the same flaws as most AIs, but are more "recoverable" because they're, in effect, running on a "virtual machine" and don't have physical hardware that can melt down.

That's an interesting idea, but surely the Doctor did end up stable after "The Swarm," since he didn't have another collapse. So you'd think that solution could be generalized to androids if they're so similar.

Also, we know from the Picard season 3 trailer that

Spoiler

Moriarty is apparently still active decades after his creation. So he seems to be stable.

(Which makes me curious about where the Doctor specifically ended up during the synth ban; did he flee the Federation with his one-of-a-kind holo-emitter, did he get special dispensation, or is he locked up in a high-tech VCR like Moriarty?)

Probably none of the above. We saw in PIC season 1 that the UFP's still apparently fine with holograms.

Also, I don't see why a law against creating new synthetic life forms would retroactively affect the existing ones.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Out of morbid curiosity, do we know the species of Lagg and Rakos, from Chapter 18?

 

[KRAD]

Out of morbid curiosity, do we know the species of Lagg and Rakos, from Chapter 18?

It's not a previously established species, I just wanted to have a really alien couple of aliens.......

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

You succeeded.
Beat me by a mile. My own weirdest would be Lozadians, named after a short story workshop classmate, who are sort of like Kelvans or Sulamids, and very good at clerical work.
I would not mind seeing Ragos and Lagg's species again.