Pilot (Farscape race)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pilots are the only name given to a fictional race from the Farscape universe.

Pilots are large crustacean-like creatures that have 4 arms on their upper half and a lower half adapted to bond with a Leviathan spacecraft. They have a very rich and complex language that is too advanced for translation devices to interpret. One sentence in this language can communicate the same amount of information as dozens of sentences in other languages.

The primary distinction of Pilots is their ability to bond with Leviathan spacecraft. When bonded, they do so for life, and die with their Leviathan; they can no longer exist independently for more than an arn or so. Leviathans can live about 300 cycles (312.5 Earth years).

Pilots are chosen for bonding from among the population by their Elders, and are carefully screened for maturity and ability. The bonding process itself takes several cycles to complete naturally, although there are methods to artificially accelerate it. However, some of these methods cause severe pain for the pilot over the entire length of time it is bonded to the Leviathan.

Pilots choose to bond because it is their only means of space travel. Pilots staying on their home planet can live up to 1000 cycles (1041.67 Earth years), so bonding with a Leviathan causes them to lose a significant amount of their lifespan. They are willing to make this sacrifice in order to travel the galaxy.

Pilots possess the ability to multitask, an ability needed because without their supervision, the systems needed to sustain the crew of the Leviathan would be vulnerable to mistakes resulting from inattention. The Leviathan's vital systems, however, are not affected by the absence of a Pilot.

Much of what is known about them comes from the Pilot of the Leviathan Moya, known only as Pilot.