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AURON

(various episodes)

Planet with a breathable atmosphere, a probably large population and a high level of technology. What the people called themselves is open to dispute: Cally said: "My people are the Auronar" in Time Squad, but in Sarcophagus she described herself as "an Auron". Both terms might have been in equally common usage.

Just how truly alien the Auronar were is a matter of contention. Jenna referred to Cally as an alien at the end of Time Squad. Sarkoff said to her: "Your people don't originate from Earth." In Sarcophagus Cally said: "I'm not quite human." Avon in Shadow described her as "more human than I am", and the commandeered Orac in that episode told her that she was "the last of the humankind" in order to isolate her. Cally described herself as "not all that alien" in Voice from the Past. Deral remarked that the fetuses Servalan showed him looked "quite human", to which Servalan replied, "They are". The people of Auron certainly seemed to have been subjected to some form of genetic engineering, since this was the process by which Franton induced telepathic and other psi-abilities in all young Auronar. In Dawn of the Gods, Cally recited the legend of the Thaarn, stretching back over a million years, in which telepathy was described as "promised", but she admitted that this was reckoned to be just a children's story.

Another Auron legend was that of the Lost, cast out as "unfit to share the soul of Auronar" at some unspecified time. The Lost, or survivors of them, were apparently encountered by Blake as the corporate being Saymon in The Web. Saymon called Cally "our daughter", and told Blake that he and the minds of which he was comprised were "from the Auronar, but not of them".

Auron technology included development of artificial telepathy transmission: Cally knew of the project but apparently did not work on it. She recalled two members of the development team leaving Auron before she did. In Dawn of the Gods she said that Auron had yet to develop the traction beam.

Auron followed a policy of strict isolationism, although LeGrand referred to having anti-Federation sympathizers on Auron. This policy was particularly enforced after the Intergalactic War, despite being well away from the war zone. According to Avon, this was because they considered themselves too good to become involved with the rest of humanity (sic). Cally defended this on the grounds of Auron being neutral, but added with reference to herself: "We're not all gutless". The isolationist policy was made by a Council, presumably a ruling body, and opposed by clinician Franton, but as his daughter said to CA 1, "those in opposition were simply ignored". This insularity had left Auron free of all diseases for "more than three decades" according to Orac. Nevertheless, Auron did have stargoing vessels, including the C-type Patrollers, one of which was picked up by Servalan on its way back to Auron. The pilot was infected with an alien pathogen before continuing on his way home.

One of the best-known features of the Auronar was their mental powers, especially telepathy. Deral stated that all Aurons were telepathic. In Dawn of the Gods Cally said that some of her people were telepathic "to a degree". Widespread telepathy seems to have its origins in the cloning process developed by Clinician Franton snr. Cally said in Shadow that telekinesis was rare "even among my people". In Children of Auron, Servalan used an ionic beam on pilot 4-0 to prevent his telepathic abilities sensing what she was doing. This suggests that some Auronar may have had some mind-reading ability, or were popularly thought to.

The other, and perhaps most distinctive, feature of Auron society was the fact that a large and probably growing proportion of its population were clones. A process of spontaneous cell differentiation was developed by Clinician Franton snr. some decades prior to Liberator's visit. Most younger Auronar were probably clones, and Cally and Zelda were from the same sibling batch.

Some time after the Intergalactic War the planet's population was eradicated by an alien pathogen introduced by Servalan. The traffic control centre and replication plant in one city (there were probably other cities elsewhere on the planet) were destroyed. The only Auronar to survive were Cally, Franton jnr. and Patar, together with the gene stocks of a potential 5,000 offspring. They were taken by the Liberator to Kahn. One other Auron, Lee-Harn, was mentioned in Bounty and may have been off-planet when Servalan's plague was introduced.

See also BOOK OF AURON, CALLY, CLONING, SAYMON, TELEKINESIS, TELEPATHY, THAARN.


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