Melnorme

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Melnorme
The Melnorme appeared as one-eyed, orange piggy bank-like creatures in Star Control II.
Ship	Trader
Homeworld	Unknown
Contacts	Countless presumed, Humans, Keel-Verezy, and Slylandro confirmed
Quote(s)	"It has been a pleasure dealing with you, Captain."

The Melnorme are a fictional race of beings featured in the second installment of the sci-fi Star Control computer game series. The name is a reference to Mel Tormé, the singer. ^[1]

The Melnorme are a race of merchants, primarily in the business of buying and selling information. They will provide history, current events, fuel, and technology in return for biological data and the locations of certain colorful worlds assembled (or found) by the Precursors known as Rainbow Worlds. They use large Trader vessels to seek out, contact and strike deals with potential customers. Though in possession of a great deal of information and technology, the Melnorme come across as benign and harmless. Trading with them is not required to complete Star Control II, abstaining from it makes the game vastly harder to finish.

The Melnorme are highly secretive of themselves and their origins, and while they are technically ready to divulge such information, the prices are ludicrous. To learn why their bridge turns purple, for instance, costs one hundred twenty thousand (120,000) credits, a sum that exceeds the maximum amount that can be possessed in the game. (For reference, the discovery of a Rainbow World, their most prized view, gains you 500 credits. Even if 120,000 credits are gained through cheating, the game does not allow you to ask that question a second time.) The race's psychology, homeworld, and goals are all a mystery. They are known to have based their culture entirely on equivalent trade and reject the concept of charity, and place a great emphasis on colour, to the point of basing their own names on different shades, such as Trade Master Greenish of the starship Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances.

The race itself is not talking, but their similarities have led many to believe that the Melnorme are the descendants of the Mael-Num, a race formerly part of the Sentient Milieu that disappeared, believed extinct, after the arrival of the Dnyarri. This link was later confirmed outside of the game by the game designers.^[1]

The Melnorme are found around every super-giant star in this part of the galaxy, though they will also come to investigate HyperWave broadcasts or ships that have run out of fuel.

[edit] Melnorme Trader

Traders are distinctively large vessels, due to their capaability to store various items for trade, and commodities like starship fuel; a month before the Humans first contact with the Melnorme, the latter had bought weaponry for their ships from the Keel-Verezy. The energy projectile produced by the primary weapon can be held and charged to increase the potential for damage. The charge is generated and held directly in front of the trade-ship, where its size and color are visible to all. With each successive level of potency, the cluster of energy changes color and enlarges- from green, to blue, to yellow, and ultimately to red. In the red form, the charge is capable of passing through most opposing weapons and even dispatching small ships (a Zoq-Fot-Pik Stinger or anything smaller) with a single shot.

The charged-cluster also serves as a ballistic-shield. When it is positioned between the trade-ship and an enemy-ship, incoming projectiles must expend energy to overcome and collapse the charged-cluster, thereby reducing damage to the trade-ship. Although it offers no protection against the Umgah's antimatter-cone, it is effective against beam-equipped opponents (such as the Chmmr avatar, VUX Intruder, and Arilou Skiff) and flame-equipped opponents (Thraddash Torch, Ilwrath Avenger.) At its highest charge (red), the cluster is so intense that it completely absorbs the damage caused by the most powerful opponents, without collapsing. Although the cluster can be charged indefinitely, the trade-ship's battery cannot recharge while the cluster is active. In the hands of a skilled pilot, the trade-ship's charge-cluster offers complete protection against even the most powerful incoming projectiles, including those fired by the Chenjesu Broodhome, Mycon podship, Druuge Mauler, Ur-quan Dreadnought, and even an opposing trade-ship.

The secondary weapon is a rainbow-hued ball of energy that stuns other ships, forcing them to spin uncontrollably in one direction and incapable of using their secondary weapon for a short period of time.

[edit] Mael-Num

The Mael-Num are an 'extinct' alien race. They were members of the Sentient Milieu, the only race apart from the Ur-Quan which survived the Dnyarri empire. However, after freedom was gained the Ur-Quan then set out to destroy them. The Mael-Num's question of why the Ur-Quan were doing this and the assertion that it was wrong caused delay amongst the Ur-Quan which led to them breaking out into the first doctrinal war. Whilst the Ur-Quan were fighting amongst themselves many Mael-Num were able to escape.