PATHFINDERS
We met the Pathfinders under traumatic circumstances, so it is hard to say if our impressions of them — and theirs of us, no doubt — are accurate. ![[ PATHFINDERS ]](images/pathfinders_main.gif) Nonetheless, I will record what I can.
The Pathfinders have skin whose hues are subdued yet colorful. Their most striking physical features are pouches on either side of their heads from which they can shoot poison-tipped, metallic spines — a most effective weapon. They generally are soft-spoken, intelligent, and logical, and they obey their commanders with trust and loyalty.
Their most prominent trait is their obsession with the acquisition of knowledge. The crew of Pathfinders we encountered valued their research vessel and its accumulated store of wormhole data more than their own lives; we eventually learned that it is Pathfinder custom for the families of research teams to serve as collateral for its safe return. In other words, if the ship we met and the knowledge it bore did not return to the Pathfinder homeworld, the families of its crew would be killed. The Pathfinders themselves seemed to accept that practice with relative equanimity.
As a result of that incentive, the species is technologically quite advanced. For example, they possess ships whose phase compensation generators enable them to fly through wormholes. This Phaztillon Generator also is able to phase-shift both objects and the Pathfinders themselves into parallel quantum states; in this manner the Pathfinders were able to render some of their crew invisible so they could sabotage Moya.
For all their advancements, however, their homeworld must be either distant or isolated because, like Crichton, the crew we met had never before encountered Translator Microbes. Injecting their captain with the microbes to facilitate communications was a delicate affair because their accidental (and ultimately disastrous) collision with Moya left them highly agitated and suspicious.
The Pathfinders we met were not evil; I cannot deny that they had a horrifyingly clear reason for the actions they took to preserve their ship and data. Still, given their disregard for Moya's life, it is clear to me that their species is fanatical, and therefore dangerous.
JOURNEY LOG REFERENCES
Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part 1: Would'a, Could'a, Should'a
Self-Inflicted Wounds, Part 2: Wait for the Wheel
STARBURST TO ANY LIFEFORM
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