G'Kek
Template:notability The G'Kek are a fictional extraterrestrial race from David Brin's Uplift Universe.
As a race the G'Kek are wheeled creatures with four eye stalks instead of heads protruding from a central cavity, looking rather like "a squid in a wheelchair". Their spokes are susceptible to arthritis in old age, especially under significant gravity. They are known for their talents in weaving and agility and they preferred living in zero-g environments while they were still a part of the starfaring galactic oxygen-breathing civilization.
History and origins
The G'Kek were the client race of the Drooli, giving them the name G'Kek ab-Drooli in the galaxy. This delightful, unique — if impetuous — species was slaughtered by the Obeyer Alliance for a gambling debt. The self-righteous Jophur took the enthusiastic lead in the genocidal operation; destroying the G'Kek down to — and including — the rootstock (in direct contradiction of prior contractual agreements, and the feud authorization issued by the Institute for Civilized Warfare). The only known location of G'Kek to have survived the extinction of the rest of their species is on the planet Jijo. There they live as Sooners, a small group of illegal inhabitants living in medieval conditions hiding from the galactic civilization. They were the first of the exile races to reach Jijo, having arrived 2000 years before the time when the Uplift War trilogy takes place.