Dyson Aliens

A species of intelligent aliens native to the primary sun of the binary star system known as the "Dyson Pair", also known as "Primes". They appear in the Commonwealth Saga of books by Peter F. Hamilton.

Plot
Dyson Aliens exist in two seperate forms - motiles and immotiles. The motile form performs physical tasks - labor, construction, and warfare. Immotiles are clusters of fused motiles with greatly improved brain power.

The motile form can take many forms that have been specifically constructed to perform certain task. One of the more basic and versatile varieties appears as having a pear-shaped torso approximately a meter wide at the base, with four vertical tapering ridges of hardened skin running up the flanks, each of which terminates in one of the motile's four legs, which are flexible, strong and hoofed. motiles of this type sport four arms, which sprout from the body some sixty centimetres above the leg joints. The arms are similar to the legs, differing only in that they terminate in a neat quad pincher arrangement. The form is topped by a cluster of four sensor stalks, each of which incorporates a nerve receptor - a thin impulse-permeable membrane over raw ganglions that allow motiles to communicate directly with another motile's brain by touching these receptor pads together. The brains are stored deep within the body.

Individually, motiles are capable of only limited autonomous function, and are only really capable of obeying the orders of the immotile that produced it. Given appropriate conditions in which to set up shop - usually a shallow pool of water - four motiles can combine into a single immotile, expanding their collective capacity for thought to the point that a new intelligent being is created. Immotiles control motiles to build, cultivate and exploit the land around them. They are, in essence, the immobile brains of a single large entity capable of spanning miles Immotiles are also responsible for the reproduction of the species, as they produce "base cells" - single-celled organisms that are the basis of Prime life. Base cells are both food to the Primes, and also the source of primes - when certain chemicals and hormones are excreted into water containing a culture of base cells, the cells will react by coalescing and forming, over the course of a few days, a functioning Prime motile.

Immotiles are only capable of handling the organisation of a certain number of motiles at any given moment. past a certain point, the entity will be forced to grow a new immotile unit, which permanently attaches to the first, increasing its capacity for thought and multi-tasking. Extremely old Primes may consist of many hundreds, or even thousands of immotiles, controlling vast armies of motiles.

Immotiles have no names, or language. They are entirely thought-based creatures, and identify themselves based upon the mental image of the location of their central immotile cluster, resulting in identities such as MorningLightMountain, ColdLakePromontory, TemperateSeaIsland, or SouthernRockPlateau. They are intensely hostile to any and all life that is not under their direct control - other life represents competition for resources and space, and the concept of sharing is so completely alien to Prime immotiles that it simply doesn't exist. All immotiles exist in a state of permanent cautious war with each other, vying for resources, territory and dominance. Although they may form temporary alliances, such agreements are very short-lived.

Immotile technology is quite advanced, and they have functioning spaceships, nuclear warheads, and advanced electronic communications that allow them to transmit their neural control impulses over vast distances, effectively allowing a single immotile cluster to control a whole star system.

Towards the end of the book "Pandora's Star" there is only one Immotile left in existence - MorningLightMountain, which has used its knowledge of wormhole technology, taken from the memory storage of the captured human astronomer Dudley Bose, to eliminate all the other immotiles. Having learned the location of the Commonwealth, it then undertakes to invade the Commonwealth, eliminate all human life, and claim the territory for its own. Its ultimate plan is to spread across the entire galaxy and beyond, ensuring its own immortality - with each system claimed and with each immotile cluster that is founded, the probability of its being completey destroyed by a single event dwindle.