True friendship is letting a small havenworlder ride around in a pouch that you're wearing so they feel secure surrounded by the other deathworlders that they wanted to do business with in the first place. Seriously. Why do you do this to me? -- Escla
Size is something interesting within the boundaries of Galactic Alliance space. Intelligent life can take very many forms, depending on the gravity they evolved in. There are some, like the Xyrak'l, that have shown signs of intelligent behaviour, yet exist in a gigantic grey zone to everyone attempting communication with them.
Most life exists in and around one Standard Gravity[1]. In that, there are certain forms that occur for cogniscent lifeforms. The anthropoid form tends to predominate with some... peculiar modifications on the central model. Evolution only has so much to work with. You can find cogniscents in the one-gravity realm in sizes between that of a terrier, and that of a bear. Which lead to some... interesting solutions for communication and social mingling.
Consider... the Buddy Livesuit. A larger cogniscent carrying -on their chest or over their back- a smaller one in a reinforced pod or bubble. A larger cogniscent - usually a friendly Deathworlder - carrying their smaller Havenworlder friend around for trade negotiations and sometimes simple transport. Human Engineering, so you know it's tough[2].
Shortly after its introduction in the Edge Territories, the Buddy Livesuit was wildly popular. Demand didn't just spike, it mountained. Livesuits of this particular model were snatched up before they cooled from the assembly line. The order queue ballooned to the point of looking like a supernova. The manufacturing company couldn't even make factories fast enough. Copycats abounded and, for most uses, served well.
Some people with Buddysuits rented themselves out as taxis for the small and supremely fragile Havenworlders. It was more adorable than you might believe. The inventor of it had to become a corporation in order to hold all the Time flooding in by the second. She did not have enough time to juggle such superlative wealth.
Who is she? Chief Engineer and Foster Mama of Notgunna Station, who invented a means by which she could carry around fussy babies with separation anxiety whilst she worked on the latest kludge.
[1] Fall acceleration of ten Standard Distance Units per second per second.
[2] Human stress testing really means it. If they say it's resistant against certain stresses, you can trust that they did that by making a person wearing it literally walk through the hazard in question. This is the species that accidentally cured cancer by looking for the next best antibacterial agent.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / ngaga35]
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