Information on the Denjj culture:

The Denjj are humanoid beings from 3' to 4'2" height. They appear stocky and of
friendly slowliness. Think of them as guys put together from potatoes to get
the overall (and misguiding) impression.

The Denjj are split into two very different cultures, called Motherworlders and
Belters. The Belters are technologically advanced since the requirement to
survive without support from their homeplanet arose about fifteen years prior
to the first contact with the Federation. There are between 50,000 and 180,000
Belters scattered throughout the asteroid belt, the home world population
counts by 400 to 600 millions after the end of the war, around 7.5 billions
before.

Technology (Belter):

* main power source are fusion reactors (ships, colonies) and solar power
  (colonies)
* warp drive technology is unknown
* first generation impulse engine technology has begun to be incorporated
  into their ships, none of them carrying more than 60 crew. About 1/4 impulse
  speed of a Federation ship is their best.
* artificial gravity is known and used where the energy consumption is
  justified. The Belter-Denjj are as well capable to handle zero gravity and
  changing accelerations.
* skilled environmental engineers
* trained to survive on the rough side of space
* own a number of dirty nuclear weapons, a few ships are able to launch them
  like photon torpedoes (EM accelerator), they are mostly used to accelerate
  iron containing matter out of the gravity well for industrial processing
  higher up in the belt where the current phase of colonisation is directed

* solar system:

  O        x    ###   o          o           Q     O   o
  S        M    Bb    2          3           4     5   6

     180     90    75     210         245      95    65      Mio km distance

Technology (Motherworlders):

* fossile energy, solar power, a few low efficiency fusion reactors
* unmanned spaceflight, no advanced propulsion systems
* nuclear weapons

The Denjj know space flight for about 120 years. The first colony in the
asteroid belt was founded about 65 years ago under great investments of joined
planetary resources. Serving as scientific outpost to develop low gravity and
space technology to be able to make the jump to the neighbour systems, it grew
to a population of more than 8,000 and spread throughout the belt for about
15 years, then the enthusiasm of the planetary governments came to a screeching
halt, realizing that fast developments would not be made. The resource feed
from the homeworld was reduced step by step until the Belters were able to
trade them in for their products and technology usable for military and civil
purposes on the homeworld.

An increasing hostility between the powers that cooperated to establish the
colonies over their control and the lack thereof due to an increasing autarky
led to an emigration wave. People, many of them talented and turning their
backs to the homeworld that slowly realized a fast expansion into space
wouldn't happen, reinforced the belt, even though the stress of the growing
population for some time almost brought the new nation to it's knees,
especially since some governments encouraged it to place a significant number
of their people in the belt to influence power balance in their favour. Inside
pressure and tensions were growing on the planet when they realized this didn't
work, due to the mere requirements for their 'delegates' to arrange with the
hostile environment and each other to survive.

The current society evolved from the breakdown of the motherworld's culture
during a short but violent nuclear war, starting out over tensions when it
transpired that one of the leading powers managed to get nuclear weapons into
space, posing a lethal and permanent threat to the other nations. A short and
determined strike by the colonies erased the same threat for them, but also
left them stranded and without hope for outside support. It gave a clear signal
to develop their own society to accomplish the task of survival and
technological evolution.

There is a majority suspiciously watching the planetary recovery, fearing for
both the independence of their nation, as well as for their survival, should
the planet return to space travel. A small fraction openly propagates a
preemptive strike should one of the powers attempt to regain access to
interplanetary flight. There have been a number of satelite launches from the
planet over the past 18 months causing tensions between the radical and
moderate fractions in the colonies.

The Belters have strong respect for the spacefaring part of their population
due to the dangers of spaceflight in the asteroid belt. The Captains who often
also are partly owners of their vessels have heavy weight in all decisions,
their assembly practically decides on the direction of the belter nation.

This description is (c) 1995 by Armin Lenz, admin@fenris.inka.de