UpLifts

Today the story of the Uplifts shall be what we are going to talk about. The story of the Uplifts is creation unlike any other in the Terrans creation of a new race. The companies that created uplifts treated them as property.  Well at least the process and the patented gene sequences that are part of them. 

Appearance

The appearance of the uplifts is not a thing that can be generalized. Unlike several other races that humans have created. The race called uplifts is actually a few different species. Species that have been uplifted are as follows: Chimpanzees, Octopuses, Orangutans, Dolphins, and Crows. With such a diverse grouping it is hard to say what is normal. 

Hominids are larger than the un uplifted version of their species. The average for them is about 1.6 meters in weight. Their weight is not as easy to average. Zees as a rule tend to be lighter in frame, where Tangs lean to heavier weights. Corvids are a strange mix of bird and hominid shape. They keep their avian head and a set of wings that are massive to lift themselves for short flights. They are very light in weight. Needed so their wings are still usable. They also have a full set of arms that end in a hand. Corvids have hands scaled like the birds they come from. 

Then you have the uplifted oceanic species. They are both very unique in how they have been changed or not changed. Octopuses have been increased in size till they are about 2 meters in diameter and have had special breathing apparatuses created for them to breath out of water. Where dolphins have had nothing done to them size wise. They do have suits that help them to move around and manipulate their environment. 

History

The Uplifts history is humans changing animals to be more intelligent. Given them what they first thought of as enough intelligence to be useful as a working class.  Then the understanding that they may have given them the ability to continue to increase that intelligence. Uplifts have the normal range of Intelligence as humans and many have a higher than human empathy level. Most of them come from speices with highly social groups. 

The uplifting process has only been successful by a few companies. They guard that secret closely. But there is another way to create them that is wholly biological. That was how the children of the first generation of uplifts hit human level intelligence. Then they started going after their freedom. It took several escaping to get some level of freedom. Uplifts are the newest of all the created, as they call themselves. They have only been around for 42 years. 

Megawati, an orangutan, was the first uplifted creature. Then oceanic uplifts came to light. Mankind started sending manned missions to Europa to see if anything was under the ice sheets. Those were the earliest tests for uplifts even though they were not at normal human intelligence levels yet. It was after the discovery that would catapult mankind into the stars that most of the first gen uplifts would start families of their own.

Major Events

• Biosphere created the first uplift was in 2215. 
• First true uplift was Megawati about 20 years later. 
• Use of Uplifts in the manned Europa mission 35 years ago.

Current Situation

The uplifts are treated as indentured servants that need to pay for their creation. At least the first generation ones. They have a family that is helping to pay off the companies. Companies started with such large numbers of uplifts because they figured that most would never survive. But here they are after 40 years helping to make improvements to the races.