J'naii

Noor, a J'naii

The J'naii were a spacefaring androgynous race, native to the planet J'naii, in a star system with a null space pocket, located 33 hours away from the Phelan system at warp 6.

History

In an earlier stage of evolution, J'naii species had two sexes. The current J'naii race had evolved physically into a sexless androgynous race.

In mid-2368, the J'naii contacted the nearby USS Enterprise-D to investigate the disappearance of the J'naii shuttle Taris Murn in their star system. The crew of the shuttle was rescued from a pocket of null space. The pocket was thruroghly mapped by shuttlecraft from the Enterprise. The crew discussed plans to regulate space travel around the pocket and decided on deploying warning buoys around the null space pocket.

Physiology

Although J'naii were possibly sexually compatible with other gendered races, they were never allowed to mate by assuming a gender role in the act. This was considered criminally perverse in J'naii society and a strictly taboo subject. As the stage of two physical sexes had been passed by evolution, the whole notion of gender was offensive to the J'naii. J'naii were tought that gender was a primitive aspect of less evolved life forms. Consequently, it was hard for the J'naii to grasp the subtleties of differences and complex customs between sexes in other species.

Androgynous mating and reproduction was a long ritual for the J'naii, full of variety and invention, and was considered extremely pleasurable. In the last stage a fibrous husk was inseminated by the two parents. The fetus would then incubate inside the husk. This was considered a less risky and less painful method of reproduction compared to other species the J'naii have knowledge of.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation Makeup FX Journal (page 89) it is stated that to achieve the neutered look of a sexless race, that was still made up of individuals, the women of varying ages who were hired, had their breasts taped down, and only a subtle forehead piece was created, according to Michael Westmore, to cover the eyebrow areas of the actresses, that women tend to pluck and shape.

Society and culture

The planet J'naii was ruled from the civic chamber in the civic center. Noor was the head of government and a head of a panel of judges dealing with legal matters of the J'naii people in 2368. J'naii considered themselves a remarkably free and open society and by all measurements, an enlightened race. The rights and liberties the citizens enjoyed gave them a great deal of self-determination. In dealing with sickness, the government took it's obligation to cure the sickness seriously.

The term "civic chamber" and "civic center" are derived from the script of "The Outcast". [1]

The J'naii were said to be strong-minded and to have plenty of social conflicts between individuals. J'naii used no form of make-up, did not keep long hairs or arrange them elaborately. Even though the J'naii formed family units, sleeping together with a friend had nothing to do with mating. Rather, it was a preferred way to keep warm. When dancing, whomever was the taller led. In the J'naii language there was a personal pronoun that was gender neutral, for which there was no translation in the English language.

Subculture

Occasionally individuals were born who had urges for maleness or femaleness instead of androgynity. This was considered a form of sickness. This resulted in a subculture forming inside J'naii society where the gender-oriented individuals lived in a lie. They pretended to have androgynous gender identity, and sought each other out in secret, to express themselves and love for each other through the gender roles. This minority lived always in fear of being discovered.

Some J'naii were aware from a young age of an alignment towards a particular gender. These J'naii could face cruel taunts from their schoolmates when suspected of being a deviant. In general, being discovered and suspected led to being ridiculed and cast out of society. Deviants were called throwbacks, misfits and criminals.

The government had a total lack of acceptance for this gender perversion. Any individual suspected of having these urges could be taken into custody. A hearing was held for the individual to confirm or dispute the charges. When a a person was found to be a deviant, psychotectic therapy was used to change the gender identity to androgynity. A person would only be re-accepted into society if they accepted this procedure.

Technology

In the 24th century, the J'naii operated at least several shuttlecraft, incapable of venturing beyond the J'naii star system, such as the Taris Murn. A flight school trained J'naii shuttle pilots. J'naii had knowledge of warp drive technology and several other races. In 2368, a J'naii shuttle pilot was already familiar with all the technology of a Starfleet type-6 shuttlecraft - such as microfusion thrusters, the shuttles matter-antimatter reaction assembly, and the warp nacelles, navigational deflector, redundant graviton polarity source generators - before having seen one. J'naii used plestorene-based backup systems on their own shuttlecraft. (TNG: "The Outcast")

People

• Krite
• Noor
• Soren
• List of unnamed J'naii