Neyel

The Neyel are a race of bipedal humanoids that possess a thick gray skin and a tail. An amazing aspect of their evolution that is interesting is that their thick skin allows them to survive in the vacuum of space for a limited amount of time.

Origin
In 2031, in one of the last major acts of international cooperation before World War III, asteroid fragments heading for Earth were diverted, leading to the nickname "The Year We Dodged A Bullet". Even better, the effort was able to capture six of the fragments, eventually moving them to Earth's L-5 point, where they were eventually hollowed out and converted to O'Neil-style space habitats: Vanguard colony, Colony Roykirk, the Moss-Offenhouse colony, the NicholCorp facility, the Brynner Asteroid, and the Starling Habitat.

By 2053, all six colonies were sufficiently self-sustaining that they all survived the nuclear exchanges and subsequent chaos. In 2058, in cooperation with Zefram Cochrane at "Earth Station Bozeman", the colonies participated in a test to generate a stable subspace field. However, due to an unknown error during the test, all six colonies vanished and were presumed destroyed.

In fact, Vanguard colony was not destroyed but flung some 200 light years from Earth, with nearly 827 survivors (nearly 98%). About a month after the accident Vanguard was boarded by Naussican raiders. The "tuskers" killed 252 before they were driven off. This would eventually shape the Neyel into the survival concept of 'kill or be killed' when facing threats from outsiders.

Eventually, in time, the survivors resorted to using genetic alteration to survive in their new home. The genetic change allowed them to function within the zero gravity environment (as artificial gravity had not been developed at this time) and the thick skin allowed them to withstand whatever radiation they would face.

The next development the species would make would be the creation of an interstellar empire known as the Neyel Hegemony which was both militaristic as well as expansionistic. This empire was intent on conquering all other worlds and forcibly absorbing them into the Hegemony. This may have been due to the psychological factor of the hard years they faced when first contact with the Nausicaans occurred.

Language
Neyel language seems to be a derirative of English with common words being:
 * Auld Aerth - the Neyel name for their original home planet and is a derirative version of 'Old Earth' in English.
 * Clade - an evolution of the word 'Clan' and signifies a Neyel family unit.
 * Desig - derived from the English word 'designation' and is the Neyel's personal name.
 * Drech'tor - evolved from the title of Director which was the administrative leader of the O'Niel colony and became the title of the Neyel starship commanders.
 * Efti'el - an acronym of FTL (faster-than-light travel).
 * Klomter - derived from a kilometer and is a unit of measurement to signify a distance.
 * Mennet - derived from minute, it is the Neyel's way of determining time measurement.

(Star Trek: The Lost Era novel: "The Sundered")