The Cyclopedia Of Worlds

Unnamed Reticulan.
Common Names:	Jonah, Fatso, Mouther, Holeman, Avagasti, Alphaship
Manufacturer:	Of Reticulan but obscure origin. Maintained & refitted variously at Lantil Mybea, Adina Works, Blue Hub Workyards, Blue Baresk Workyards
Type:	interstellar heavy cargo carrier
First flight:	unknown, first observed 189 N.E.
Armament:	Officially unarmed. (various small guns added in late Fencepost years according to mission)
Power:	dual 115 reactors, quad grav-wave guides, 0.873 light year effective pull
Size:	1200m x 525m x 768m
Complement:	48 human crew, 1 Grey Overseer (early Fencepost Period)

The “JONAH” CLASS CARRIER was a type of massive cargo vessel, five of which were given to the Three Agencies by the Reticulans at the beginning of the Fencepost Period. This “Gift of the Jonahs” traditionally marks the end of the Expansion Period.”

The first Jonah spotted by human eyes was the one that became later dubbed “Jonah C”. It was observed, in 189 N.E. in the middle of a formation of Reticulan disks during a covert parley with Your Agency scientific delegates and at that time was surely the largest vehicle ever seen by a human being.

The first humans aboard a Jonah were a delegation of Your Agency and Blue Agency military and diplomatic executives. In 199 N.E., they and their vessel, the frigate Kradelfaus, were taken on a fifty-four day cavalcade of the Grey worlds, terminating at Zeta Reticulum.

The age of the Jonahs could never be determined with certainty. The Reticulans were obstinate in their refusal to disclose even such basic, though vital, information. Best estimates placed the Jonahs at more than 250 years old when the first one was handed over to human control in 203 N.E.

The Jonahs were able to transport massive amounts of cargo – often in the form of other cargo ships. Via very powerful and accurate Reticulan gravity wave drives, they transversed interstellar distances in a matter of hours rather than months or years.

The Jonahs were not the largest carriers employed by the Reticulans. There is some evidence to show that all 5 Jonahs themselves were at one time transferred to one of the Grey Worlds in the hold of one single super-carrier.

“THE GIFT OF THE JONAHS”

The use of the word “gift” is as contentious among historians today as it was to the human population at the time. The Jonahs were in fact on loan. They were piloted by human crews, but always under Reticulan supervision. Blue Agency Executive Mansuel Khalil called the Jonahs “a reward for good behavior”.

Pro-Reticulan historians (see “Reticulan Revisionist History”) have emphasized that the normalization of interstellar trade and commerce after the Expansion Era would have been impossible without the use of the Jonahs, and that panstellar human civilization would have met the fate of the ancient Vikings in the old North Americas – a story to be told of what might have been, instead of the rich and bustling human multi-culture which now dominates more than 430 star systems.

For some decades after the gift of the Jonahs, there was a movement among pro-Reticulan radicals to begin a new yearly calendar system from that point. They submitted that that the Calendar of the New Era should be jettisoned in favor of a Calendar of the Grey Fatherhood. In this calendar, the Gift of the Jonahs would be marked as year ZERO, and years before or after marked “pre-Jonah” or “post-Jonah”. This idea quickly lost steam since commerce had long-since adopted the New Era calendar as its standard. When the gift of the Jonahs resulted in an unprecedented boom in commerce and trade, the fate of any alternative calendar systems was sealed.

LIST OF JONAH CRAFT

• Jonah A (destroyed by Your Agency sky-navy, 370 N.E.)
• Jonah B (destroyed by Reticulan disks, 367 N.E.)
• Jonah D (scuttled 451 N.E.)
• Jonah C (withdrawn by Reticulan authority, in 372 N.E.)
• Jonah E (withdrawn by Reticulan authority, in 372 N.E.)