Steerer

"The Old Forest is composed of inactive Steerers who have merged into a collective consciousness."
-- Luther Straightwire to David terGorden at the Old Forest (Booklet 094)

"A powerful being who oversees the Intercosmological Anti-Entropy System. It observes the events on Rorqual and acknowledges David's importance."
-- Description of the Steerer (Booklet 058)

Steerers (German: Lenker, also translated as Steersmen or Steurer) are cosmic plant-beings who serve as the coordinators and custodians of the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System, also known as the Long Row. Descendants or agents of the Ancients -- the intelligent plant species that survived the destruction of the Pre-Cosmos -- the Steerers are responsible for maintaining the galaxy-spanning network of World Trees, Space Roads, and anti-entropy structures that prevent the universe from collapsing into heat death. They occupy one of the highest tiers in the cosmic hierarchy of Die Terranauten, subordinate only to the Ancients themselves and operating alongside the Buds of the Tree, the Old Forest, and the Entities.

The Steerers are not a monolithic species but a complex order that encompasses ancient, inactive plant intelligences merged into the Old Forest's collective consciousness as well as newly evolved human-plant hybrids who have undergone transformative symbiosis with Green Partners. The saga traces both the ancient Steerers' cosmic role and the remarkable ascension of human characters -- most notably Scanner Cloud and Morgenstern -- from ordinary beings to New Steerers who sacrifice themselves in service of the cosmic order.

Nature and Identity

What the Steerers Are

The Steerers are beings of pre-cosmic plant origin tasked with the operational coordination of the Long Row. While the World Trees serve as stabilizing nodes emitting PSI energy to counteract entropy, and the Buds of the Tree serve as active ecological engineers, the Steerers occupy the role of overseers and coordinators -- the intelligence that directs the system's responses to entropy crises. They are described as "powerful beings who oversee the Intercosmological Anti-Entropy System" (Booklet 058) and "beings responsible for coordinating the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System" (Booklet 094).

The Steerers can disguise themselves as other species. Luther Straightwire, the most prominent active Steerer in the saga, appears as a human Driver but is revealed to be "a plant-being disguised as a human" (Booklet 094). Similarly, the unnamed Steerer in Booklet 058 observes events on Rorqual from a position of cosmic oversight, acknowledging David terGorden's importance while "lamenting the disruption of its plans."

Relationship to the Cosmic Hierarchy

The Steerers exist within a layered hierarchy of pre-cosmic intelligences:

The Old Forest: Collective of Inactive Steerers

The most dramatic manifestation of the Steerers is the Old Forest (German: Alter Wald) -- a solar-system-sized collection of intelligent plants surrounding a dwarf sun. Luther Straightwire reveals that the Old Forest is composed entirely of inactive Steerers who have merged into a collective consciousness (Booklet 094). These are the Passive Steerers (German: Passiv-Lenker or P-Lenker) -- ancient beings who have ceased individual action and instead form a vast, dormant intelligence.

The Old Forest is not merely a retirement home for ancient Steerers. It is a cosmic power in its own right:

• It controls the Reality Switch, the precosmic entity that can manipulate realities and orchestrates the final confrontation between David terGorden and Max von Valdec (Booklets 097-098).
• It seeks to eliminate entropy disturbances (Booklet 097).
• It can refuse to release visitors -- when David, Narda, and Aura Damona Mar attempt to leave, the Old Forest traps them, requiring Luther Straightwire and another active Steerer to force an n-dimensional channel for their escape (Booklet 094).
• It makes telepathic contact with David, but its collective consciousness proves "aloof and unhelpful" (Booklet 094) -- a vast intelligence that has become detached from individual concerns.

The distinction between Active Steerers (German: Aktiv-Lenker) and Passive Steerers is fundamental. Active Steerers retain their individual identity and operate in the physical universe, coordinating responses to entropy crises, guiding key individuals, and maintaining the space road network. Passive Steerers have surrendered individuality to join the Old Forest's collective, contributing their consciousness to the vast merged intelligence but no longer acting independently.

Known Steerers

Ancient / Original Steerers

New Steerers (Human-Plant Hybrids)

The saga's most remarkable narrative development is the evolution of human characters into Steerers through progressive symbiosis with the living systems of the space road network. These New Steerers (German: Neue Lenker) represent a bridge between humanity and the ancient plant hierarchy.

The transformation from human to Steerer follows a recognizable progression of stages:

1. Human with PSI potential -- A Driver, Psyter, or other PSI-gifted individual
2. Green Partner symbiosis -- Bonding with a flora-symbiotic organism on Shondyke
3. Steersman Novice (Lenker-Novize) -- Merging with plant life to gain deeper space road access
4. Near-Steerer / Fast-Steerer (Fastlenker) -- Advanced integration; can traverse Space II without a ship
5. Lenker of the Old Forest -- Full acceptance into the Steerer hierarchy
6. Transcendence -- Through sacrifice, becoming part of the cosmic machinery itself

Cosmic Functions

Coordinating the Long Row

The Steerers' primary function is coordinating the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System (the Long Row) -- the galaxy-spanning network of World Trees and related structures created by the Ancients to counteract entropy. The Long Row can only be fully reactivated by the nine Spectra, but the Steerers maintain whatever fragments remain operational and guide the process of restoration.

The Steerers "created by the Ancients and maintained by Steerers to combat entropy" (Booklet 058) describes their role as custodians of a system they did not build but are charged with preserving across cosmic time.

Implanting Sleeping Information

The Steerers are responsible for implanting Sleeping Information into key individuals -- latent knowledge and directives encoded in the subconscious. David terGorden carries Sleeping Information implanted by the Steerers that connects him to the Long Row and his destiny as a Spectral Component Being. At the Pyramid of Knowledge, a Wandering Helper attempts to awaken this Sleeping Information within David (Booklet 095). The concept of "Schlafende Information" -- information planted in David's mind by the Lenker in the Alten Wald -- represents the Steerers' method of programming their chosen agents across generations.

Managing the Space Road System

The Steerers coordinate the Space Road System (German: Raum-Zeit-Stroboskop-Netz or RZS) -- the network of Space-Time Stroboscopes and n-dimensional channels that enable faster-than-light travel without Kaiser Force. Scanner Cloud and Morgenstern, as Steerers, are sent to Urdbrunnen to repair a failing node in this network, where they discover chrome beetles eating the steering tree (Booklet 078). Their work on the space roads reflects the Steerers' role as infrastructure maintainers -- cosmic engineers who keep the galaxy's organic transportation network functional.

Deploying Cosmic Spores

In Booklet 069, the Steerers directly intervene in a planetary crisis by deploying themselves. Sent to a world using entropy-accelerating weapons, they fail to avert the catastrophe. In an act of desperate sacrifice, one Steerer detonates, "releasing seed capsules carrying knowledge and life" -- the Cosmic Spores that become a recurring element throughout the saga. This origin story establishes the Cosmic Spores as a Steerer-created defense mechanism: when direct intervention fails, the Steerers can transform their own bodies into biological agents of healing and preservation.

Guiding the Heir of Power

The Steerers take an active interest in guiding David terGorden, the Heir of Power, toward his destiny as one of nine Spectra who must reactivate the Long Row. This guidance manifests through:

• The unnamed Steerer's observation and acknowledgment of David on Rorqual (Booklet 058)
• The dying Lenker Mhyon revealing David as the Bearer of the Monochord on the Solitary Wanderer (Booklet 084)
• Luther Straightwire's comprehensive revelation of the Pre-Cosmos history and David's role at the Old Forest (Booklet 094)
• The Steerers' implantation of Sleeping Information in David's consciousness
• The Steerer's "great plans" for Hege Krotzer and Zalia, who are reborn in cloned bodies under the Steerer's oversight (Booklet 058)

History Across the Saga

Pre-Cosmic Origins

The Steerers originate from the Pre-Cosmos, the universe that existed before the Big Bang. Created by the Ancients -- the intelligent plant beings who survived their universe's destruction -- the Steerers were tasked with coordinating the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System that the Ancients embedded in the new universe. Their role was to ensure that the network of World Trees, Space Roads, and anti-entropy structures continued to function across cosmic time.

The Demise on the Unnamed World (Before Booklet 069)

The prologue of Booklet 069 describes one of the saga's most haunting origin stories. Steerers were sent to a world where beings were deploying entropy-accelerating weapons -- a technology prefiguring humanity's Kaiser Force. The Steerers failed to avert the catastrophe. In their death throes, one detonated, releasing seed capsules that became the Cosmic Spores -- biological agents carrying "knowledge and life" into the cosmos. This event establishes that the Steerers are mortal, that their mission can fail, and that even in failure their sacrifice can yield transformative results.

The Observation of Rorqual (Booklet 058)

The first appearance of an active Steerer in the saga occurs when David terGorden enters the hollow world of Rorqual and communicates with the Tau Ulema, learning about the Intercosmological Anti-Entropy System. The Steerer observes these events from a position of cosmic authority, "acknowledging David's importance but lamenting the disruption of its plans." The Steerer also has "great plans" for Hege Krotzer and Zalia, who are reborn in cloned bodies retaining their telepathic abilities -- suggesting that the Steerers actively recruit and transform suitable individuals for their purposes.

The Dying Lenker on the Solitary Wanderer (Booklet 084)

When David and Narda are stranded on the Solitary Wanderer, a sunless planet with a failing World Tree, David encounters Mhyon, a dying Lenker. Mhyon reveals that David is the Bearer of the Monochord and tasks him with awakening the dormant Weltenbaum. David and Narda unite their powers and succeed, demonstrating that the Steerers' mission of maintaining the World Tree network is passing to a new generation. Mhyon's death underscores the Steerers' mortality and the urgency of their cosmic task.

Luther Straightwire and the Shondyke Network (Booklets 078, 089)

By Booklet 089, Straightwire and Scanner Cloud, now both Lenkers of the Old Forest, discuss the escalating crisis as the Varen Navtem grow impatient with humanity's use of Kaiser Force. The Steerers understand that the galactic civilizations are moving toward a Final Strike against humanity, and they work to position their agents -- including David terGorden -- to avert this catastrophe.

The Revelation at the Old Forest (Booklet 094)

The saga's most comprehensive exposition of the Steerers' nature and history occurs when David, Narda, and Aura Damona Mar reach the Old Forest. Straightwire reveals:

• The Old Forest is composed entirely of inactive Steerers merged into a collective consciousness
• The Pre-Cosmos was populated by intelligent plant beings (the Ancients)
• The Ancients created the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System (the Long Row)
• David is one of nine Spectra who must unite to reactivate the Long Row
• The Connex Crystal, containing the knowledge of the Pre-Cosmos, is essential for this reactivation
• Ratatosk, an energy being feeding on entropy, actively sabotages the Long Row's reconstruction

Straightwire proves his identity as a Steerer to a skeptical David and, with the help of another active Steerer, forces an n-dimensional channel to allow the group to escape when the Old Forest refuses to release them.

The New Steerers and the Final Arc (Booklets 090-099)

In the saga's final arc, the Steerers are represented primarily by their human-evolved members. Scanner Cloud and Morgenstern, now Steersman Novices / Fast-Steerers / New Steerers, arrive on Sarym to warn the Terranauts of the impending Final Strike (Booklet 090). They support the expedition of the JAMES COOK to Genessos, where they help summon Cosmic Spores to heal the dying planet (Booklet 091).

At the Pyramid of Knowledge in Star City, Llewellyn 709, "aided by the New Steerers," thwarts an Entity seeking the Connex Crystal (Booklet 093). The climactic moment comes in Booklet 095, when Scanner Cloud and Morgenstern sacrifice themselves to stop the Arbitrators through an act of love -- demonstrating that the Steerers' ultimate power is not PSI force but compassion.

Even after death, the two Steerers appear in the Reality Switch, "dancing around the glass anemone" -- performing a cosmic ritual that suggests their consciousness has been absorbed into the precosmic machinery that governs reality (Booklet 097). Morgenstern is ultimately credited as the Steerer responsible for the ecological transformation of Earth through Cosmic Spores (Booklet 099).

Ranks and Terminology

The saga uses a complex and sometimes overlapping terminology for different grades and aspects of the Steerer hierarchy:

The Steerers and the "Lenker" Ambiguity

A note on terminology is essential. In the German original, the word Lenker is used for two entirely different concepts:

1. Lenker as Drivers: Human PSI-gifted individuals who navigate spacecraft through Space II. This is the everyday, social meaning of the term in the saga's universe.
2. Lenker as Steerers: Cosmic plant-beings who coordinate the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System. This is the deeper, cosmic meaning.

The shared term is not accidental. The saga implies that the human Drivers (Lenker) and the cosmic Steerers (Lenker) are connected -- that human PSI abilities are an echo of the Ancients' plant-based psionic systems, and that the most gifted humans can evolve into true Steerers by re-establishing the organic symbiosis that the Ancients originally designed. Scanner Cloud's journey from human Psyter to Lenker of the Old Forest is the saga's most complete dramatization of this connection.

The existence of the "Lenker"-Superrace -- "a future super-race that Yggdrasil hoped to create" -- further suggests that the Steerers' cosmic plan involves the eventual merger of humanity with the plant-based intelligence system, creating a new species capable of maintaining the Long Row indefinitely.

Key Events (Chronological)

Appearances (15 booklets)

Themes

Guardianship Across Cosmic Time

The Steerers embody the concept of guardianship as a cosmic vocation. Unlike warriors who fight battles or rulers who exercise power, the Steerers maintain -- they tend the infrastructure that makes existence possible. Their role is not dramatic but essential: without the Steerers coordinating the Long Row, the World Trees would fail, the Space Roads would collapse, and entropy would consume the universe. The saga argues that this quiet, persistent custodianship is the highest form of service.

Mortality and Sacrifice

Despite their cosmic nature, Steerers are mortal. The Steerers in Booklet 069 die trying to avert a catastrophe. Mhyon dies on the Solitary Wanderer (Booklet 084). Scanner Cloud and Morgenstern die at the Pyramid of Knowledge (Booklet 095). But in each case, death is not an ending but a transformation: the dying Steerers release Cosmic Spores, the New Steerers transcend into the Reality Switch, and Morgenstern's consciousness continues to orchestrate Earth's ecological rebirth. For the Steerers, sacrifice is the mechanism of metamorphosis.

The Evolution of Humanity

The New Steerers -- Scanner Cloud, Morgenstern, Hege Krotzer, and potentially Claude Farrell -- represent the saga's vision of humanity's cosmic potential. Through symbiosis with the plant-based intelligence of the space roads, these former humans transcend their species' limitations and join the ancient order responsible for maintaining the universe. The Steerer path suggests that humanity's future lies not in technological domination (the Kaiser Force path) but in organic integration (the Steerer path) -- a merger with the living systems that sustain all existence.

Nature Versus Technology

The Steerers are the living antithesis of Kaiser Force. Where Kaiser Force tears open Space II by brute technological force, accelerating entropy and damaging the cosmic infrastructure, the Steerers navigate and maintain Space II organically, through PSI symbiosis with plants and World Trees. The saga's central conflict -- between the Kaiser Force approach and the Steerer approach -- is ultimately resolved in the Steerers' favor: David departs on an Organ-Sailer to eliminate Kaiser Force forever (Booklet 099), and the Steerers' ecological vision is realized in the green transformation of Earth.

The Circle of the Long Row

The Steerers' story traces a cosmic circle. Created by the Ancients to maintain the Long Row, they watch it deteriorate under Kaiser Force assault, sacrifice themselves to slow the decay, and ultimately guide the emergence of New Steerers from humanity -- the very species whose technology threatened the system. The saga's conclusion, with human-evolved Steerers coordinating the ecological transformation of Earth, suggests that the Long Row's restoration will be achieved not by the ancient Steerers alone but by a new generation that bridges the gap between the Ancients' plant intelligence and humanity's emergent PSI potential.

See Also

• Long Row -- The Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System that the Steerers coordinate
• Old Forest -- The collective consciousness of inactive Steerers
• Ancients -- The Pre-Cosmic plant intelligences who created the Steerers
• Buds of the Tree -- Sister entities within the cosmic plant hierarchy
• World Trees -- The stabilizing nodes of the Long Row
• Yggdrasil -- The Primeval Tree and most significant World Tree
• Luther Straightwire -- The Lenker of the Old Forest
• Scanner Cloud -- Psyter who evolves into a Lenker of the Old Forest
• Morgenstern -- Historian who evolves into a Steerer and transforms Earth
• David terGorden -- The Heir of Power, guided by the Steerers
• Cosmic Spores -- Biological agents released by dying Steerers
• Space Road System -- The network maintained by the Steerers
• Sleeping Information -- Knowledge implanted by the Steerers
• Reality Switch -- The precosmic entity controlled by the Old Forest
• Connex Crystal -- The precosmic artifact essential to the Long Row's reactivation
• Spectra -- The nine beings who must unite to reactivate the Long Row
• Entities -- Allied supercivilizations aware of the Steerers' role
• Kaiser Force -- The technology that threatens everything the Steerers maintain
• Drivers -- Human "Lenker" whose PSI abilities echo the Steerers' plant-based powers
• Green Partner -- Flora-symbiotic organisms that enable the human-to-Steerer transformation
• Helpers -- Beings who assisted the Steerers in earlier eras

Steerers appear or are referenced in at least 15 of the 99 booklets of Die Terranauten. They represent the saga's deepest cosmological layer -- the ancient, living intelligence that coordinates the universe's defense against entropy, and whose ranks are ultimately joined by the very humans whose technology once threatened to destroy everything the Steerers built.