Jones sold his tribbles as exotic pets, a role they were perhaps designed for, given that their mild vibration, soft purring, and warmth are considered pleasing by many. Despite their superficial mammalian characteristics, tribbles are invertebrates, perhaps derived from echinoderm genetic stock. They are, however, endothermic with a high metabolic rate and frequent parthenogenesis, leading to tribbles consuming large amounts of food. All tribbles are able to adhere to surfaces and tribble newborns small size allow them to spread virtually everywhere not environmental sealed.
The tribble infestation on K-7 consumed food stores and cultures destined for outer colonies in a surprisingly short period of time. Luckily this revealed tampering by Klingon agents that might have lead to deaths and certainly food shortages otherwise. It is ironic that tribbles seem to become agitated with proximity to genetic Klingons.
The Klingons are rumored to have engineered a tribble predator called a glomer, but local authorities are strongly cautioned against viewing a second synthetic organism as an easy solution to any tribble infestation.
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| Cyrano Jones with a tribble in 2262 |
4 comments:
These are so clearly engineered as a primitive bioweapon that it underscores the horror the post-Eugenics-Wars Federation must have about tampering with any genome, no matter how humble. Whoever made these is in a lot of trouble. The only question is who hates the Klingon that much.
My head-canon has always been that Tribbles are single-celled organisms. Their reproductive behavior is entirely consistent with the way that, say, a yeast cell would behave if it found a store of grain.
Tribble predator! .... awwwww
I agree -- smacks of a bioweapon genius who loves pets, but also was horribly wronged by the Klingon. Who, themselves, may be using bio-engineering on themselves.
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