Mmm is a single creature: an insectile hive-mind, with a single intelligence that controls all the billions of creatures that make up Mmm. Individual Mmm drones of visible size look, in general, like insects. It also stores its total knowledge in dispersed intelligent sentience nodes.
Mmm is one of the strangest members of the FAR galactic community. It is both an individual and a race. It is a true hive mind — a multiplicity of bodies sharing a single ego.
The instantaneous rapport between Mmm and its manifestations is mysterious. It is not bioelectric, like human nerve impulses. Nor is it psionic in nature. Neurologists have dubbed the phenomenon "sub-psychic rapport," but so far they've been able to discern nothing concrete about how it functions. It is known that it does not appear to diminish in strength with distance, and there is no apparent time delay, even across the width of known space.
Almost all of the knowledge and skills of other FAR sentient races has now been absorbed somewhere into Mmm's sentience nodes. It has already demonstrated a great deal of versatility and creativity in applying what it knows. It is now working at increasing its capacity to synthesize and cross reference its knowledge. Some have speculated that within the next century or so Mmm will have evolved itself into the galaxy's most advanced biological computer.
Mmm is an active participant in the FAR body politic. It sits on all multi-racial legislative and advisory bodies and has even chaired some major committees. It keeps sentience nodes at all the FARs' major political centers.
Mmm is only dimly aware of it, but many of the galaxy's best political minds are intensely afraid of it. Mmm could take complete control of the galaxy faster and more efficiently than any other of the galaxy's races. Its complement of less than 100,000 major manifestations is quite voluntary — a limit it set itself so as not to come into direct competition with other races for necessary resources. If it wanted to it could begin clandestinely multiplying, and completely overrun the galaxy with great efficiency. It could manufacture the most deadly military force ever seen — perfectly disciplined, highly intelligent troops, all in perfect rapport with their command and with no personal fear whatsoever. Even without armament, it could breed biological weapons, from viruses to armored juggernauts. The galaxy's most sophisticated strategic computers agree that Mmm could overrun known space in less than a decade.
Even more frightening, when asked about the possibility of a preemptive strike to eliminate Mmm now while it wasn't expecting it (strictly as a theoretical exercise, of course), the best plan the computers could come up with had less then a 15% chance of success. Mmm is so versatile and widely-dispersed now that it would be almost impossible to destroy it through any sort of military orl, clandestine action.
So the other FAR races were left with a single choice regarding Mmm. That necessary policy can be expressed, "it likes us so lets keep it happy." Consequently Mmm is accepted as an integral and respected member of FAR society. Mmm itself, in the meantime, seems to still be mostly interested in making new friends and learning new things.
MORE HERE SOON....it has breed specialized manifestations for use on FAR Scout teams and even as Federation Patrol officers.