Botah

Botah is a massive bio-mass that constitutes the vast majority of life on the moon of Arkos and the artificial planet of Uhnbria. Although there are many different species of botah, all botah are actually connected together by collective consciousness known as the Botah Overmind.

The first ancestors of botah were encountered by humans within the bowels of the rogue planet Bishamon. These early microbes were simple but very alien to anything humans had encountered before. There were many different species of these microbes and it is not certain which was the actual fore-bearers of botah, but one species in particular managed to travel through the Gate device unnoticed. Eventually they ended up in cleanrooms designed to sterilize probes and equipment sent to untouched worlds. Known as extremophiles, these microbes further mutated and evolved until they were able to survive through the vacuum of hyperspace attached on and within the Leif probe, the first sent to the Liuhath system, and subsequently were deposited on the moon of Arkos.

Millions of years passed, though from the perspective of the Sol dimension only a few years passed due to dimensional time dilation, during which the microbes further evolved and adapted to their new environment, drastically changing their appearance and makeup.Though the microbes that covered the planet had not progressed into any kind of multicellular organism, they had managed to form very complex networks that could act similar to multicellular organisms. The different species at the time were not combining and taking on specialized roles in altruistic relationships, but they had managed to become very adept at cooperation within their own species. The most successful species also could hijack and steal vital genetics from weaker species, an adaptation that would ultimately aid them in multicellular organization.

The second probe to land on Arkos, the Nina, contained a Gupta-Troxel cybernetic supercomputer. Though the probe was built to be extremely robust, it could not resist the invasion of some of the more successful microbes. Just as the microbes had hijacked the functions and genetics of other microbes, the cybernetic supercomputer became cannibalized. Its computing capabilities were completely unlike anything the microbes had encountered since their development on Arkos. Though they were not capable of fully deconstructing its functions, they managed to salvage enough of its power to start a new biological and intellectual renaissance.

Biodiversity, multicellularity, and intelligence accelerated at an unprecedented rate. Equally as important, some of the mission data from the Nina probe became lodged in the genetics of the new organisms. In a fairly short time, a subtle but powerful collective consciousness evolved and with it came a realization of its origins and potential future. By reconstructing what remained of the probe's mission data, this consciousness was now able to predict when and where the next probe would land and began to plan for its arrival. Though the term botah would not be coined until much later, it is at this point that the botah collective could truly be said to have manifested.