Lost In The Outreaches

A supposedly ancient race. They use living organisms for their ships. Very few people have ever seen them, so they only rumor as to how the symbiosis works. The thought is that the organism is surgically altered in stages during it's adolescences so that it may accommodate the crew and it's technology. A couple of groups have questioned the morality of this, claiming that the rights of the creatures should be addressed. But no one has spent enough time around them to determine their level of sentience.

Gehlabi by ~humankinetic on deviantART