Femmar hibernate 40 days at the end of each year. Citizens call this seasonal function ‘the big sleep,’ or ‘going down.’ Hibernation occurs in paxicol (paks-ee-kall), boarding centers that house billets for sleeping.
Inside all citizens are inside their billets, subhive Koltrix seals them and floods the outside containment chambers with coltanol, a synthetic embryonic fluid similar to the waters of the Vosk’tulak (Lake Vostok).
The most common paxicol is the Citizenry Paxicol, which contains hundreds of sleeping billets stacked side by side, with five units top to bottom. Upon entering the workforce, every citizen is allotted space in a citizenry paxicol, but before then, she sleeps with her pod until age ten (age eight for Hizaki and Marixi). During castehood years, she hibernates with her peers in centralized paxicol centers.
Pikalit and Toxis contain the largest cluster of Citizenry-Paxicol, while Vanda hosts the highest number of Single-Citizen and Private Paxicol, the letter containing two to three sleeping chambers, each with its own washroom. Private Paxicol have a single entry and a solitary connection to Koltrix and typically belong to the prime houses, established lines, or incorporated clans.
Hibernation Schedules
- Subaki and Bizaki: 1 Subiz – 20 Hizax (September 1 – October 20)
- Hizaki and Zaxiri: 1 Hizax – 20 Buxol (October 1 – November 20)
- Marixi: Scattered groups throughout Subiz to Buxol.
- The warrior caste hibernate in cycles based on division, rank, or deployment status so that they never hibernate all at once.
FEMITOKON 