Hoshi Yourner is a bright Gecko girl, even accounting for the extremely good education one finds in BioCouncil space. The problem is, for over ten years, she's been entirely detached from the world. With an extremely debilitating genetic condition preventing her from exposing her flesh to uncontrolled environments, it was only when she was given new technology that could buffer the sensory inputs that she began to truly feel.

Her lust for tactile sensation, creation, and connection drove her into engineering...but she knows she'll never be released from her parents' protective care even once she hits 18. So, she takes things into her own hands, forming a plan to find a placement aboard a cruiser and prove herself before anyone can stop her. It's not a good plan and she knows it...but it's all she's got, the only chance to be free despite her broken body.

Content warning: Extreme pain, blood, and implied death.

Day 20's prompt was "breakable". Instantly, I wanted to write out the backstory for Hoshi Yourner, my gecko girl with a genetic defect that leaves her with only a few layers of weak skin and billions of hyper-sensitive sensory neurons exposed to the elements. But...this is also something bigger than her.

This is the fist public material I've ever released concerning The Uplift Imperative, a sci-fi/fantasy universe I created while trying to create my own pen and paper RPG system. I have a large number of unique alien species I created for it, and the Teplians were the ones who inspired it all. The concept is a universe somewhere between Mass Effect and Star Trek in mood and scope, but the crucial difference is that biological energy is its own force. While technology revolves around dark core cells or reactors and magic revolves around the ether, all sentient living things eventually chance upon the ability to weird biological energy—evo—at a conscious power. When granted such a power, the desire to no longer be alone or be erased—the same one responsible for the biological imperative—drives creatures to find life around them and uplift them to be sentient equals as well.

I plan to write a lot more in this universe, so I hope you enjoy it too. I'll eventually post up the world-building materials regarding the universe, but for now...let Hoshi have her time in the spotlight.

Hoshi Yourner, Mason Chiru, Ein Corva, Dr. Leya Malhotra, Mbwane Kassidy, and assorted cast © Myself
The Uplift Imperative setting © Myself