A legendary furry sci-fi species

The basic Skiltaire is a quadruped resembling a Pine Marten (Martes Martes), Stone Marten (Mustela Folna), or Sable (Mustela Sibellina) of Earth, but much larger – averaging about a meter and a half in length, of which a little over a third is tail, and massing about 40 to 50kg. (Males are about 10% larger than females.) The skull is slightly domed, with a proportionally-larger brain and “cute” facial proportions; two long antennae sprout from the forehead above the eyes, and the “forepaws” form actual hands with three short dextrous fingers and an opposable thumb. (Skiltaire can “periscope” up into a sitting position to use their hands; in such a posture, they are about the same height as a human sitting on the same surface.) Females have four small nipples on the lower torso; males have an animal-like sheathed penis and a prominent scrotum (faired-in like a mink or otter, not hanging down) below the base of the tail.

Belly fur is usually off-white; main fur color varies, though one or two contrasting lengthwise stripes run down the back from nose or forehead to tail-tip much like a Terry skunk; ears and paw “gloves” match the stripe color. Skiltaire fur is fine and silky, much like that of a mink or otter. All skiltaire have a characteristic musky odor, described as “like a spiced ferret.” Unlike true mustelids, they are monogamous, with long-term mated pairs bearing small litters every couple of years, depending on the local seasons; “skil-kits” grow to adulthood in 5-7 years, depending on local conditions, and live about 40-50 years under civilized conditions.

Arboreal: Land/tree dwelling, in the manner of a marten. Arboreal skiltaire have a bushy marten/skunk tail, larger ears, curlier antennae, and generally “warm” fur colors – earth- or vegetation-tones.

Aquatic: Water/shore dwelling, in the manner of a river otter. Aquatic skiltaire have an otter-like swimming tail, smaller ears, longer/straighter antennae, and generally “cool” coloration of greys and blues.

Electrogenerative: Skiltaire are able to generate and sense electricity; under their skin is a layer of electrogenative tissue, able to create a powerful pulsed DC current. This current can be channeled through the mouth, antennae, genitalia, and other exposed skin as an electroshock weapon to stun or kill prey or deliver a defensive shock to any predator which penetrates the skin. In addition, reciprocal shocking through interlinked antennae serves as a sexual stimulant during mating, leading to the term “zapping”; the antennae have a rough, sandpaper-like surface of micro-barbels to catch and hold the other's antennae. Aquatic skiltaire make maximum use of this ability while swimming, projecting an electrical field through the water and sensing anomalies with their antennae; the surrounding water also transmits electric shock out ot a range of several meters, allowing maximum effectiveness as a offensive or defensive weapon. For this reason, aquatics are believed to be the ancestral form, and arboreals a later offshoot.

Psionic: Skiltaire are psionic to a low level, almost always the lower levels of telepathy (shielding, life detection, and telempathy) and rarely in addition low-end clairvoyance (basic sense) and awareness (suspended animation), all with longer range than normal. Their telepathic shield ability (called “greying out”) is especially awesome, a “stealth shield” exactly matching the psionic background that allows the skiltaire to “disappear without atrace”. This leads xenologists to believe Skiltaire originated on a world where animal psionics were common; “greying out” allowed Skiltaire to hide from psionic predators, while the life-detect and telempathy serve to detect and sneak up on prey.

The origin and distribution of Skiltaire is one of the great unsolved mysteries of the universe – they are found “native” to a lot of worlds with compatible atmospheres and biologies, with no clue as to how they got there. No world of origin has ever been found. The going theory is they were seeded by the Ancients or another unknown forerunner race for unknown reasons.

When first encountered on Merlino's World, Skiltaire were believed to be animals, a local carnivore/pouncer on that world. They had no discernable society other than small hunting packs and/or family groups, no complex language, no technology, nothing to indicate they were more than “smart animals”.

For decades afterwards, Skiltaire were hunted for their colorful pelts. Live-capture specimens were found to be very “domesticated” and were kept as pets, being very smart and friendly; their popularity grew rapidly, heading off any idea of using them in fur-farming. Before long, “tame” Skiltaire had legal status as LOC's (“lower-order companions”, aka “Super-pets”), legally intermediate between animals and people.

Then the Scout Service started finding Skiltaire on world after world. Pet Skiltaire, now available for study, began to learn to talk, slowly picking up complex human language. It became more and more apparent that these “smart animals” were actually a minor intelligent race. There followed a twenty-year struggle to get them recognized as such, with the “Skiltaire Alliance” (the main pro-Skiltaire organization) fighting uphill first against inertia, then against the fear that once recognized, the Skiltaire would demand repatriations for their former treatment. Legal infighting among pro-Skiltaire activists themselves probably stretched the fight out twice as long as it would normally have taken. Finally Scout Service xenologists (with “Fanta”, an aquatic female from their xeno-study lab who was the first Skiltaire to become fluent in human language) weighed in with the deciding evidence and clout.

Since then, Skiltaire have been a small but visible presence in interstellar society. “Urban” Skiltaire (descendants of “tame” Skiltaire) have adapted and adopted human society, becoming a secondary “sidekick” race; their quick adaptation and social personalities have led to speculation that “they were out there just waiting for us.”

Wild Skiltaire These are Skiltaire as first encountered. In the wild, Skiltaire form small “packs” analogous to hunter-gatherer tribes, based around small family groups of mated pairs and their kits. Larger organized groups, governments, technology, and organized warfare (other than cooperative defense against top predators or territorial skirmishes) never developed. Neither did complex language; their natural telempathy and a series of simple “call” sounds served adequately for communication.

Urban Skiltaire (formerly “tame Skiltaire”) These are Skiltaire, originally descendents of pets and LOCs, who have integrated into interstellar society. Some remain voluntary LOCs, as personal companions. Skiltaire have no specific culture of their own; instead, they adopt the culture they are raised in, with some exceptions and unique schticks.

Currently, to my knowledge, there are two main theories to how the Skiltaire have been found on several unrelated planets.

Theory #1 They have the ability to boost their psionic powers in conjunction with others of their kinds to boost the distance and strength of their psionic abilities. This allowing them to reach across space and influence a race on a distant planet and change the genetics of their young so they give birth to Skiltaire.

My thoughts on this are a) there is good proof that Skiltaire can “gestalt” with one another and boost their ranges enormously… BUT don’t you think a race would be alerted to something if their females started popping out Skiltaire instead of their own young. And if this were true it would also lead to the end of that race as they stopped reproducing their own kind and produced Skiltaire. I do not believe this to be true as the Skiltaire are as pacifistic as they come, only harming something else in self defense or hunting for food.

Theory #2 This seems to be by far the more probable of them. There is a theory that the Skiltaire are an artificially created race of beings created by a superior “Precursor” race as communicators of some type, and that the “over-race” found them to be good and spread them out on several planets to grow naturally. Sort of the “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” outlook.

My thoughts on this are a good probability. Their body structure seems to be completely unique to the environments they are found in, as are their electrogenerative abilities as well as their extreme psionic abilities. They also communicate on a very basic level of images and feelings. These being a quite universal language, as it doesn’t rely on language, sight, sound, or touch. Which can vary greatly between races.

The Skiltaire species is © Sy of Furscape (Mark Merlino). It was introduced in Furscape by Firepaws and others with the original artist's permission, then recently Sy joined Furscape himself.