Define Human

Defined as members of the human species under the terms of the
Tyrsta-Grean Pact: all the humans who evolved on Earth,
the Giant Prelands, the Buld, the Pla, the Ek'col and the tryp'At.

Sometimes I wonder if I have more influence on my replicoid than one might expect. Well, regardless of whether I had anything to do with it, I finally got a chance to study a packet of infites that were passed from Resh^Ki to my replicoid.

The "Sedronite family tree" shown here (to the right) puts special emphasis on which descendants of the Sedronites are human. Of course, there can be conflicting definitions of any species, but what seems most relevant in this case is the definition that is in effect due to implementation of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

I've had a heavy reliance on Angela and Anney for help in understanding the past Realities that existed before the universe as we know it. Due to her biases, Anney would prefer to count herself as human and exclude Resh^Ki from the "human family", but making distinctions between humans and non-humans can be tricky when the Kac'hin are involved.

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According to Resh^Ki, the Kac'hin were designed to allow efficient communication between the alien Huaoshy and a few humanoids who could end the Time Travel War. In fact, the Kac'hin were "just human enough" to satisfy the definition of "human" that was used by Gohrlay's tribe of positronic robots. However, the Kac'hin are just a little too alien to qualify as human under the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact.

Alien-human hybrids
So, what about hybrids like Anney and Resh^Ki? Resh^Ki has confirmed my hunch that Anney's biological father was a tryp'At (Anney has denied this). If Resk^Ki is correct, then is there any reason to think of either Anney or Resh^Ki as being more human, and less alien, than the other?

One bit of evidence to support Anney's claim to be "more human" than Resh^Ki is that apparently Marta (Anney's biological mother) is still living on Earth. However, Resh^Ki denies that this is relevant.

According to Resh^Ki, both the Kac'hin and the tryp'At can function as "genetic editors" due to the fact that they can act as hosts for gene editing nanites. In particular, those gene editing nanites can be inserted into developing embryos where they can act either to 1) prevent the children of Kac'hin from retaining alien genes that would mark them as alien, or 2) simply alter the developmental program of the embryo so as to give it a physical form that is indistinguishable from a human.

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Anney is comfortable with the idea that the Kac'hin have not been allowed on Earth since 2012, but she is outraged that the tryp'At still claim the right to visit Earth. Anney seems particularly nervous about the idea that the tryp'At can come to Earth and bring along their sophisticated nanites. However, Resk^Ki says that while the Kac'hin are dependent on their nanite endosymbiont, the tryp'At were specifically engineered to have the capacity to host a genetic editor endosymbiont, but they can also survive and function as biological organisms without hosting any "extra" nanites.

In other words, the Trysta-Grean Pact appears to allow for tryp'At to be on Earth as long as they don't carry any nanites in addition to the standard human endosymbiont. Anney also objects the the fact that the tryp'At are hermaphroditic. Until the tryp'At recently revealed themselves, they were something of a secret weapon.

Image Credits (see also)

Rumors had long circulated that the pek had a plan to let the hermaphroditic Prelands colonize Earth and replace we humans. According to Resh'Ki, those fears were based on a paranoid misunderstanding that arose from the existence of the tryp'At, who have quietly existed on Earth for at least the past 20,000 years.

In fact, Resh^Ki claims that a team of tryp'At worked closely with Ekcolir when he visited Earth 20,000 years ago. Ekcolir acted as a vector for inserting Preland gene combinations into the human gene pool, but he lacked the tools to "fine tune" and manage that gene flow. Apparently the tryp'At took care of all the fussy genetic details. There is more from Resh^Ki about the tryp'At in my next blog post.

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