There was a time in the ancient past when Mrrshan curiosity was legendary. By the middle of the 23rd century after the Fall of Orion, the world of Fierias was one of the greatest centers of science and learning in the galaxy, as the feline people strove to learn ever more about their world and their galaxy to satisfy their ever-growing scientific curiosity. In that time, the once-backward Mrrshan people came so close to catching up with the five pre-Orion races that they were actually able to complete an interstellar colony ship by the year 2300. Had you asked the average Mrrshan on the street in that fateful year, they would hardly have believed that they were beginning a new dark age in their history.
By the time construction began of the first Prrsham Interstellar Drive, in 2272, Mrrshan culture was already undergoing a massive sea change: Scientific development was still valued for the technological advantages it provided, but the process of discovery no longer interested a majority of the feline people, and the curiosity that fueled it seemed to be in abeyance. With the rise of holoprojector technology in the mid-late 23rd century, fully-engrossing passive entertainment increasingly took the place of other forms of play among Mrrshan children, and as holovid actors and actresses and the visually-appealing classes of people they most represented took the place of great feline scientists as feline role models, the number of scientists per capita steadily decreased. Children in school regularly called those who excelled in mathematics and the sciences by derogatory names, and intelligence and education translated increasingly to lower social standing, first in the schoolyards and then throughout Fierias generally. Holovids sometimes attempted to portray scientific genius in a positive light, but the narratives inevitably centered around such things as could be conveniently displayed on a holoscreen, and the scientists portrayed were in reality magicians, politicians, or action stars with the name of science tacked onto them.
By the year 2300, the first-ever Mrrshan Colony Ship was finally built, carrying some two million kittens, along with a pair of Scout ships belatedly added to the construction queues at the pleas of the last old-guard scientists, to begin the slow process of interstellar exploration. Mrrshan population growth was still lagging far behind the latest terraforming project that had expanded the planet's habitable surface to support up to a hundred million full-grown Mrrshans, and their factory counts had not yet begun to catch up to such population growth as had occurred, least of all with the recent development of Improved Robotic Controls II, which effectively halved the direct Mrrshan supervision required at each automated factory. But in spite of these new opportunities for growth, the once-famous Mrrshan curiosity was increasingly confined to space exploration. A fleet of newer, more streamlined scout ships was already under construction, but government spending on actual scientific progress had ceased entirely. It would begin again eight years later, but the deeper impacts of post-holovid Mrrshan cultural traditions were being felt already. Gone were the scientists of old who sought eagerly to advance knowledge for its own sake, and the engineers whose dearest wish was to advance the state of the art. The modern Mrrshan scientist was a plodding child of holovision, seeking always the shiny new technological bauble that could be most quickly and easily acquired: As nearly as possible within the span of a thirty-minute episode, minus commercials. Gone was the eagerness for discovery among the Mrrshan populace. Science and its fruits were regarded, at best, as the means of acquiring flashy new toys. Money went in at one end, and new technology came out at the other, but the process itself, for politicians and children, parents and educators alike, had become a black box.
The dark age of the Mrrshans had begun.
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Next: Gathering Dusk
