Nocti
Species - Flora - Lex - the Other A noctus is a flattened, matte, darkly coloured Other organism that feeds on near-space radiation in Lex. All nocti are composed of two primary tissue types- An outer 'hem' and an inner 'web'. The hem forms an elastic, unbroken loop or band, which may be circular, angular, lobate, or even form elongated lens-shaped or torus-like forms with an outer and inner hem. Any structure that extends outside the main body of the noctus is part of the hem.
Inside the ring formed by the hem grows the web, occupying a two-dimensional (but flexible) plane between the edges of the hem, though injury or entanglement can cause three-dimensional exceptions to arise. True to its name, the web is a network of veins, often similar to the veins of Galbaric leaves or lungs. However, the web can be arranged in an infinite diversity of ways, from geometrically perfect arrangements of lines and curves in stars, fractals, branches, circles, tessellations and distinct shapes to chaotic tangles. The range of how much of the inside of the hem is filled with veins is wide. Some species have veins so reduced that they really only exist as a hem, while others have almost no gaps in the network.
Due to metabolic processes, the web of a noctus sometimes emits pinpricks of faint films of discoloured light that the organism was unable to fully trap.
As with trees, corals, sponges, and really any kind of sessile organism with variable growth shapes, each species of noctus has a 'habit', or general tendency of shape. Many are free-floating along with the other ring particles and meteoroids. Many more are attached to said meteoroids by their hem, whether by means of a flexible stalk or by the edge of the hem. Most are attached at one point, some at several, some to several different meteoroids, and a few by their entire hem, allowing their web to billow out into space like a windsock. Another majority are not only attached by the whole hem but entirely curled onto a meteoroid, much like Galbaric lichen, albeit with a distinct edge and interior. These tend to be small.
Nocti do not come in a large variety of colours. Most are dark shades of purple leaning to red, with a papery or velvety texture. Some are slightly bluer shades. All are quite flexible, but while some ripple easily at the slightest touch, others rebound to their usual shape quickly and firmly.
In size they vary greatly, with the smallest barely a few centimetres wide. The largest nocti can be as the size of whales, more than ten metres in radius, but the diminishing ratio of hem to web limits them from growing much larger, and the branching shapes that overcome this limitation are more vulnerable to breakage. Free-floating nocti are larger, with much less opportunity for collision with stray meteoroids.
Life Cycle: Nocti live simple lives. They reproduce by fission, often facilitated by imago whose feeding habits are designed not only to sate themselves on a noctus but also to break off sections that are complete enough to rapidly form a new noctus. Many noctus species take advantage of this, concentrating veins and nutrients between their main body and a lobe with a well-developed hem. The desired link is soon targeted by an imagen in the way of an animal eating a fruit, and the lobe is cut off exactly where desired.
Reproduction by cloning, of course, is not conducive to genetic variation. Nocti instead exchange genes- Though they are not always carried on nucleic acids, as with Galbaric life- during the course of their ordinary lives, in a process of entanglement. Nocti that collide and coil tightly around one another may split apart and accept the twisted tissue, even from another species. Other time, the two tissue types meld together into one, resulting in a single organism with some of the traits of both. Many species, particularly those with difficulty colliding normally, such as those who curl into rocks, form extensions of hem and web designed for the sole purpose of easy entanglement. These 'flowers' tend to be long and branched in order to increase the chances of tangling, and some even 'fruit' near the entanglement sites in order to cause imago to rummage through them, shuffling them around a wider area.
Entanglement occurs easily, if unreliably, in recently-separated lobes with exposed webs. Many species of nocti therefore 'fruit' and reproduce at the same time, when the meteoroids they occupy or drift close to are nearest the sun, and therefore receive the most nourishing radiation. Conversely, when the particles orbit on the far side of the sun where Galbar's shadow prevents radiosynthesis, almost no 'fruiting' takes place, and indeed many nocti retract to minimise predation. In the absence of a circadian cycle, this is the primary means by which time is marked in Lex. The orbital period is about forty-three days.
As Lex orbits on the same angle as Galbar itself, it does have a yearly cycle, with the upper surface of the ring receiving more shade half the year and direct sunlight in the other half. As the ring is so thin, relatively speaking, and each meteoroid is itself mobile and capable of spinning, the yearly cycle has no real significance in Lex.
Description: Nocti form the energy basis for life in Lex. Their webs extend beyond the visible level, serving as a foundation for pulses of self-replicating, rapidly decaying subatomic particles that flow in currents over the sheet of space marked by the hem. Harsh solar, stellar and reflected lunar radiation, unfiltered by an atmosphere, collides with this film at all times. Much of it passes through without incident, but the occasional photon is caught in precise loops of interaction with the exotic matter.
The captured light ignites a chain reaction of replication by the field that the noctus generates. Particles resonate in carefully selected orbits within the web that optimises the probability of replication in a useful way. From the initial high-energy interaction, the noctus can accumulate enough low-energy interactions to produce far more energy than originally entered the system. The presence of physical matter not specifically designed to interact with this region tends to heighten the chance of distortion, making the process unviable in atmospheric conditions. Similarly, the reason the noctus web is always flattened is because the chance of scattering increases if the particles are allowed to waver in three dimensions.
Ultimately, the reaction results in the noctus being able to accumulate matter out of nothing. In Lex, where accidental vigour can cause chemically valuable dust to fly out into space, never to re-enter the ecosystem, this is crucial to life being even remotely viable. The interactions also help the noctus warm up just enough for other life chemistry to occur, and easily produces both matter and antimatter, which can annihilate each other for more energy.
All life in Lex is thus dependant on Nocti both for chemical constituents and for a fixed, ingestible energy source.
Interactions: Nocti almost invariably live in a state of symbiosis with gaia. Gaia are unable to fix energy or produce matter of their own accord, but are highly efficient at processing the matter grown by others. Some nocti are more prolific in growing with a gaian colony than others, to the point where their colour more represents the bright gaia than their own dark hues. Additionally, dormant gaia stud the surface of almost every organism in the noctus forest, waiting for their metabolisms to slow so that decomposition can take place.
Nocti frequently parasitise one another, a smaller noctus trying to take advantage of a larger one's quantum current. Neither can move of their own accord, and most large nocti are specialised to be able to redirect energy out of an infected area in order to starve the intruder. As such this is rarely successful, but it does provide a niche for some species.
Imago take advantage of nocti in a vivid variety of ways. In addition to consuming various parts of different species of nocti, grazing it, attaching to it, picking out the softest specimens and scouring for 'fruit', the nocti form between themselves and the meteoroid reefs the physical structure of the Lex ecosystem. An imagen with the right combination of instinct or intelligence may use noctus material to weave a nest, shade from solar storms, clamber between meteoroids, hide from predators, or any other imaginable purpose.
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