Old Life, New Love | The Starset Bulletin
The Starset Bulletin is an in-game independent free press, bringing news, updates, and lore from the tabletop RPG world of Starset: The Great Dimming.
Old Life, New Love
Dear readers,
Just three days ago, at Sunda Canopy Ecological Lodge in Indo-Malay, a small nation located in Southern Chinasia, a brand new baby opened its eyes for the first time, looking instinctively for the soft orange fur of its mother. The mother who will raise him, however, is not exactly his own. Named Harapan Baru, this baby represents over three decades of tireless work by conservation biologists and is the first orangutan to exist in more than five centuries. Melati binti Rahman is one of the chief ecologists in charge of the orangutan restoration project, and she has held the little newborn since he was born, acting as his mother. Melati wears an orange fur sling across her stomach and back, designed to help hold the baby and allow him to carefully develop the muscles to swing on his own.
The orangutan restoration project was begun in 369 ACE by Tan Bayu, a wealthy community leader of the Sunda region of Indo-Malay. He funded the creation of the Sunda Canopy Ecological Lodge in his younger years and became interested in the recreation of extinct species in his later years. At age 56, he hired four conservation biologists to begin work on the recreation of the orangutan species, and he died at age 85, just three years before the birth of little Baru. Much of his wealth was donated to the Lodge following his death to ensure his work would continue.
Melati and her coworkers are thrilled with the progress little Baru has made after his birth. He was created artificially as an embryo in a lab, then implanted into an artificially-sustained gorilla womb removed for the purpose. Because the womb was much larger than necessary for the little one, it allowed him to grow longer than previous attempts made with a chimpanzee womb. After 288 days of gestation, Melati carefully performed a c-section on the artificial womb, and removed Baru directly into her own arms. He has since accepted her as his mother, and is successfully clinging tightly to her fur sling. Melati has said that as long as he continues to thrive for another few weeks, they will begin the creation of a female orangutan to become his mate. In a few years, they hope to be able to begin reintegrating young orangutans to the natural rainforest population, and one day see a full restoration of the species in the wild.
This little ape has a big destiny in front of him, but for now his only job is to sleep peacefully and drink the carefully prepared infant formula Melati feeds him.
With all my love, Rosalae Rovath of the Starset Bulletin
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