Character, story and art © NuisanceBearEull

So it's kind of an alien. I can't really do an alien of the month about this one because there is so little information. Ripley's people were thought to be extinct, and he isn't really even "technically" a full blooded anything. Just a very fortunate hybrid. His mother was a ranger, and his father an Iphesian (once of the Vanji class of species that includes, Szorvani Jinnar , and Wegonians ).This was a bit of an experiment in androgyny. His father's people have three biological sexes: Male, Female, and Mixed. Their natural state was both male and female, and they could change at will for the purposes of reproduction. The change could take as long as a year to complete, and they would have a party to announce their change. Strictly speaking, nothing was changing but reproductive parts, so I wanted to make their last living example look like he could be either, as would have been the case for all of them. I think I did fairly well. It's not perfect, but then his people would have had no notion of what looked "female" and what looked "male" apart from actual genitals. Ripley's first few days in human society have been quite a study for him.It was also an experiment in making a feline-inspired character without "going furry" (it just wasn't appropriate for him). His mother's people aren't known for having much hair, so he lost the fuzz of his father's people.He grew up with a strong cultural sense of family, or in the case of his people, sense of clan. A clan name was about more than blood, it spoke a lot about the values, morality, and even occupation of the clan members. It was common for one to change from one clan to another as their lives changed, and Ripley is no exception. Last time anyone heard of him, he was female (getting ready to start a family when she returned from her mission) named Freda of Ermezi. In the time between then and now, he has reverted to Mixed gender and the clan to which he once belonged is gone forever. As are his people.He had wandered his ruined planet for a few thousands of years until he lost his name and everything that he once thought he was. So when he was found, he asked to be renamed. "Ripley" was an off-the-cuff suggestion that he liked (because it could be both male or female), and Chase because the Chase family/clan of Corona Station offered him a place among them. He found them a very agreeable lot, and became a Chase.His enormously long isolation/survival situation wasn't easy on him. The odd diet left his body incapable of processing sugars correctly, he has a permanent but dormant dumani infection (which makes his blood toxic to others), and an immune system with absolutely zero antibodies for the common illnesses and diseases in the Empire and beyond. His recovery is underway, but he still has a while to go before he can be free of doctors every day.What he suffers medically, he has made up in scholarly celebrity. Four thousand years ago, a scholar of an unknown people, one Freda of Ermezi, wrote a book about her impressions of the Terrian people after exploring the ruins of Terria for three hundred years. It was called The Prism, and one copy of it surfaced in an Isepian library after the Terrian restoration. It was translated by Mechanid archivists, and a copy sent to Pharaoh Xalveria. He loved it so much he had it reprinted, and republished on Terria and their other planets. The Prism has been a bestseller in Terrian space for almost 20 years. Hailed as "an eloquent and honest look at who we were and a reflection of who we are now" and "sensitive and insightful enough to have only been written by one with a deep love of our people", the Terrian people lamented never knowing Freda of Ermezi. And so, when the person who was Freda was found, he became an instant Terrian celebrity, greeted on their planet with highest honors. Tickets to hear Ripley read one chapter of The Prism aloud in their largest stadium sold for the old Earth equivalent of $1,500/seat. The happiest part of his trip to Terria is that he found the Terrians to be "all I dreamed they were and more. It was truly a humbling experience to be greeted with so much love and enthusiasm. It's also good to be right. Ha!"He spent a week in the personal medical care of Pharaoh Anton Xalveria (also a first-rate physician), which was an extra honor. Of all the persons Ripley was able to study all those thousands of years ago, Anton the Benevolent Red who rose from a poor family to the One Most Exalted, was his favorite.Despite his love of Terrians and their love of him, he chose to live on Corona station with with the Chase Clan so he could get some peace and not have to live as a celebrity. He still has much to teach about dumani infection, the aftermath of Soul Syphons, and the physiology of Shemenari Prime