the person and go mad with grief. This possibility was effectively eliminated by the brainship Hypatia Cade (during the events of the book The Ship Who Searched) through the invention and creation of human-replica prosthetic bodies that shellpeople could project their consciousness into through short-range, high-bandwidth transmission. In Niven's story, ambulatory partner Howie found no mechanical reason for brainship Eric's claim of immobility, which was endangering both of their lives. Howie could not examine Eric's physical body without harming him. Eric could not come up with evidence to convince Howie, and had no way to help himself. Howie concluded privately that the problem is psychological, and risked his life with a ruse which enabled Eric to take off. Only when they escape and Eric was checked out by maintenance personnel was the truth discovered. In the Starfire board game, the J'rill directors destroyed nearly all of their subjects during a revolt/civil war. This also meant loss of materials and repairs for their life support and cybernetic systems. The J'rill spread out into space to conquer star systems for resources. They depended upon drones for ordinary tasks, and remotes for more independent tasks such as combat. References – Fan website, sanctioned by Niven Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991: 149–181. Hayles, N. Katherine. "The Life Cycle of Cyborgs: Writing the Posthuman." In Cybersexualities: A Reader on Feminist Theory, Cyborgs and Cyberspace, edited by Jenny Wolmark, 157–173. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999. Fictional spacecraft by type Brainships Science fiction book series