Page "Known Space" Paragraph 13

* Outsiders: very advanced, fragile aliens shaped like cats o ' nine tails that, according to Ringworld, probably evolved on a cold, low gravity world resembling Nereid.

They mostly live on big ships, crossing the interstellar space at sublight velocities ( according to A Gift From Earth, they find hyperspace vulgar ), trading in information and technology.

They possess inertial dampers and planetary drives.

It was the Outsiders that sold humans the FTL drive, on a stop in the solar system of the human colony called We Made It.

The Outsider ships ' paths between the stars are determined by the starseeds, which they for some unknown reason seem to follow.

The starseeds are gigantic, non-sentient space-dwelling animals that travel from the galactic core to the rim by their solar sails.

At the rim they lay their eggs, then travel the 50, 000 light-years back to the core.