On 14/4/22 08:18, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml
list) wrote:
> But don't forget that when g'father 'lifted' homo sapiens from Terra
> many, many 'bugs' went along with the 'specimens'.
>
> Seems a bit unrealistic to expect that that their bugs would be any
> less 'hostile' to the Terrans than the terran ones would be to vilani.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
Phil,

Very true, but (AIUI), those transplanted bugs were operating behind the
same biochemical barrier as their hosts - not a problem on their native
deathworld (especially STRAYA), but definitely a problem (for the bugs)
on Vland.

I figure the carried bugs burned out early in the post-transplant EEA
for a number of reasons - below critical community size(s) for some
bugs, eliminated by happenstance, lack of non-human reservoirs
post-transplant, etc. How many types of bugs got lifted?

At least, the transplanted bugs (and any co-evolved resistance to them
or other legacy) are no damned help to the Vilani (or their subject
human races) (according to GT:ISW) at Terran recontact.

Like with the bugs, evolving resistance to a given threat in the humans
carries a cost to reproductive fitness. On a non-deathworld like Vland,
the resistance benefit was greatly reduced and (modulo Ancient silly
buggers), ultimately, selected against over 300 kyr.

Alex