Protector (novel) - Concepts

Concepts

Pak

A species called Pak lives on a planet near the Milky Way core. The species has three main stages of development: Child, Breeder, Protector. A Pak is born, and matures into a Breeder, at which point he and she may bear children. Breeders are not particularly intelligent. Around 40 years of age, the root of the Tree-of-Life plant begins to smell delicious to all Breeders, and they eat it and metamorphose into the Protector stage via a virus that lives in the plant. A Protector's joints expand to give his muscles a greater moment arm, his skin wrinkles into a tough armor, and his nails turn into retractile claws. A second heart develops near the groin, the mouth fuses into a beak, and all sexual characteristics disappear. The most important change is that the brain expands, giving a Protector a tremendous intellect. A Protector has no motivation other than the preservation of his bloodline, and to that end the Pak homeworld is never free from war, since all Protectors are constantly trying to ensure their progeny's survival at the expense of everyone else. If a Protector has no children left, he no longer feels the urge to eat and dies unless he can adopt the entire Pak race and work towards their benefit.

Origin of Humanity

Two and a half million years ago, a group of Protectors hollowed out an asteroid, turned it into a ship, and set sail for the galactic arms. They eventually settled on Earth, but discovered that the Tree-of-Life root would not grow, meaning that no Breeders would turn into Protectors, and the Protectors would die without the root. The Protectors spent their time building a laser strong enough to send a message for help back to the Pak homeworld. Eventually, the Breeders, known to us as Homo habilis, evolved into present-day forms, including humans.

Phssthpok

Phssthpok had lost all of his fertile descendants in a war on the Pak homeworld, and needed to find meaning for his life, or he would die. After spending much time in the homeworld's library, he found the story of the Pak expedition to find a habitable planet in the galactic arms. He worked out that the soil of Earth lacked thallium oxide, and mounted a rescue mission aboard a ramship 33,000 years ago, arriving in the Solar System in 2125 AD.

Persephone

According to the novel, Persephone is the tenth planet (a Planet X) of our solar system. While actually proposed in the 1970s to account for perturbations for the orbit of Neptune, Niven gives it additional qualities such as retrograde motion, an orbit tilted 61 degrees to the ecliptic, and a mass slightly less than that of Saturn.

Neutronium

Brennan created an 8 ft diameter sphere of neutronium, a material consisting of densely packed neutrons. The sphere had a surface gravity of 8 million g and was maintained within a stasis field at his world of Kobold.

Kobold

Kobold is the manmade world that Jack Brennan, as a protector, bubble-formed from an asteroid and maintained an ecosystem in. Kobold was Brennan's home for over 200 years. It was destroyed at the departure of Brennan and Roy Truesdale from Kobold. Kobold would appear to be named after the Kobolds of German folklore, spirits that people believed to be mischievous tricksters at times, and at other times prayed to for protection. This role fits Jack Brennan's dual nature as a trickster (using his superior intellect to baffle humans on Earth) and as a self-appointed Protector of humanity.