literature

The Tholins of Teharonhiawako

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She awoke in her quarters, an intravenous tube in her arm, a thin white gown covering her under the sheets that barely kept the cold air off of her, and the small area around her large bed enclosed with an almost clear plastic sheeting. With a slight cough, she looked from the tube to her thin hands with their delicate fingers, her nails smooth and short, and felt the restraint that held her loosely to the bed. The plastic enclosure with its concave sides, held a slight negative pressure from the rest of the ship, making her confinement seem even more restricted within the already tiny room. Looking more closely at the restraints, the fastenings were simple to undo. She started to work on removing one when the door to her room slid open.

“My apologies for not being present when you first woke,” said the tall, green-scaled lizard-like creature entering the room. He was dressed in white scrubs, booties, gloves on all four hands, and a matching mask covering his short muzzle. He carried a small scanning device in his lower left hand that he pointed in her direction as he stepped in and his upper right hand motioned the door closed. “There are many other duties to attend to, as you are aware. I am Dr. Enek Altrusian.”

“I know who you are,” she responded with pursed lips, unable to suppress another small cough. “How are my ship and crew?”

The Doctor ignored her question. “Can you please state your name, and tell me where you are?”

“I am Song Jasmine, Captain of the ‘Pride of Suzhou’ – extended Harvester class, which we are on board and in my private quarters. Unless something has changed while I was unconscious, my ship is sitting on the QB1-o 88611 Teharonhiawako. Now, will you please report on the status of my crew?” She stared at Dr. Enek, the cap on his bald head slightly askew and large white mask hiding any expression of his short muzzle and sharp teeth. She was familiar enough with his scaly appearance and large, blank, reflective silver eyes. People called them ‘space dragons’ although the scales and face were all that were dragon-like, and nothing like the dragons of her tradition. Still, he dwarfed her slender frame, as they all did.

“Captain Song, you earn bonus points for being able to pronounce this KBO’s name without connection. Your crew is safe, and the ship is functioning normally. Do you not recall what led to you being brought back aboard this ship?”

“I was gathering raw tholin samples in an unharvested area, part of sector 42. What have you done with my quarters? Why am I being held in here?”

“Your bio-suit malfunctioned, and became contaminated. You were brought back by Lieutenant Dan Mohsbe before the 50 Kelvin of the cubewano’s surface completely penetrated and froze you.”

“Is Lieutenant Dan ok?”

Dr. Enek nodded. “He is fine. No injuries, no contamination.”

She recalled how she had barely brushed against the frozen edge of a dark, glassy meteorite when slipping on a sloped area of methane crystals near the frozen tholins they had come to sample. Apparently the sharp edge of that chunk of obsidian had nicked the leg of her suit, something that was rare to occur, something one would normally not even notice, and something that should’ve resealed itself with no repercussions. Unfortunately, it had rapidly led to an unusual feeling first in her leg, then throughout her whole body.

Dr. Enek continued. “You, however, had to be extracted from your suit immediately once you were brought onboard. That bit of ‘star-tar’ harbored a frozen chemolithotroph and the heat from your suit’s opening allowed it to thaw and act as a type of simple microbe. If left unchecked, it might have infected everyone aboard.” He looked at his scanner as he rubbed the back of his head. “You are now in isolation and the most closely studied human being in the Kuiper Belt. The entire Solar system knows about you and your rescue, as well as the danger you were in.”

“Am I or my crew in any danger now?”

“The primitive micro-organism is still under study. At this point we believe you are the only one affected. Hence we have set up this isolation unit in your quarters. This ship is not provisioned with a hospital ward, you know.”

“How much longer do I have to remain in this plastic bubble, Doctor?”

“We are in communication with command. They know everything we knew seven hours ago. Until we have agreement that you are no longer contaminated, you need to stay here in isolation.”

“I suppose my image has now been spread throughout the system? No privacy left?”

“The transmission was urgent, with minimal security, I’m afraid. However, only details of your condition were sent. Imagery was limited to the microorganism and infected tissues.”

“A small favor to be thankful for. Am I now free of the contaminant?”

“We are working on a new bio-suit so you can return to duty, Captain, once you are
cleared. However, you must remain isolated here until that can be done.”

The bio-suit, also called the great equalizer. The ultimate singularity of biology and technology that now permitted mankind to survive in the extremes of space for months of a time, compensating for micro-gravity, bringing equality in strength, immunity to disease, protection from radiation, and integrated access to all of the knowledge collected by mankind through the millennia. Offering communication and connection, entertainment and information, every human in space now lived in their suits; an integrated and individual life-support system that made living and working on planets, asteroids, or planetoids possible. It was so rare that anyone lived outside their suits while in space that most ships beyond the Jupiter region had only limited life support systems onboard. With the suits, they simply weren’t needed.

“I would like some connection provided, please,” Captain Song requested. “And can the temperature be brought up a bit? What is it, eighteen degrees in here?”

“We will put together something soon, Captain.” The ‘dragon’ gave a slight bow and left the room, the door sliding shut behind him.

With no connection, she worried briefly about the backlog of reports and communications she must be accumulating. Her small quarters, with its sparse furnishings, was not a place she normally spent much time in beyond her standard rest period. Pulling up the sheet, she lay back and decided to take advantage of the rare extended disconnect, soon falling asleep.

She awoke to the door opening again, this time a different masked ‘dragon’ with a nurse’s emblem on the sleeve. “Hello Captain Song. I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Mokabe In Be, here to change your nutrient bag.” She motioned to the nearly empty bag connected to the intravenous tube. The tube ran out through the plastic sheeting, which Captain Song glanced at in resigned response.

Lieutenant Mokabe transferred the bag efficiently, changing out the nearly empty bag for the full one. “Is there anything else I can get for you, Captain?”

“I asked Dr. Enek for connection and to turn up the temperature in here earlier. Do you know when that will be addressed?”

“I see the record for both, Captain. The temperature is now twenty degrees in your quarters. Would you like it warmer?”

“Yes. Another two degrees, please, since I am inactive and tethered to this bed.”

“Increasing the temperature in you quarters now. Isometrics are permitted, Captain,” the Lieutenant offered.

“That will hardly warm my core. Do you have the ETA on my connection?”

“They are fabricating something as we speak, Captain. It is not a standard aboard–”

“I know what is standard aboard my ship. How long have you ever been disconnected, Lt. Mokabe?”

“Only for the normally allotted down time, Captain. I will see if the fabrication can be expedited. Yes, you should have audio connection within the hour. Visual does not have an ETA yet.”

“Please ask them to give it their best, Lt. And make sure I have some form of interface, not just a receiver.”

“Yes, ma’am. I apologize for the delay, Captain.”

“Not your fault, Mokabe.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Nothing to thank me for. My patience is wearing thin, that’s all.”

The Lieutenant stopped and held one finger to the side of her head. “Captain, I have just received word that you have been cleared by command. A new suit is in process. It will be ready in approximately eighteen hours and twenty minutes.”

“The sooner the better, Lieutenant. Why hasn’t Commander Stevens come by?”

“Dr. Enek has requested that only personnel attending you may enter the isolation ward.”

“Since I have been cleared, the Commander can come to provide me an update of the operation on the surface.”

“Captain, he is supervising a harvesting operation in the southern end at the moment. He is not due back on board for 23 hours. I can interrupt his operation.”

“No. Ask for Lt. Commander Running Cloud to report in,” Captain Song put her hand to her head, the lack of her connection was becoming more difficult than she had expected.

“She is overseeing the mapping operation of Sawiskera.”

“Hmph. Lt. Mokabe, can you provide me a briefing of the ship and operations?”

“Up to my access level, yes, Captain.” Lt. Mokabe provided information about the entire operation’s progress and crew for the next two hours. The interface arrived, but it took the technician another hour to get it functional to a level that was satisfactory for the Captain to use.

Sixteen hours later, Dr. Enek came in again. “Are you ready to put on your new bio-suit?”

“As long as it has passed all tests and is qualified, yes. I need to get back to work.”

“It has been run through all levels of diagnostics, as required of any suit fabricated off of Earth.”

“What of the microorganism?”

“It may be a few more days, but the immunity adder should be provided to everyone soon. We are avoiding sector 42 for now and everyone has been informed to take note of any cuts or penetrations that occur on their or anyone else’s suits.”

“I guess that’s the best we can do and try to remain on schedule.”

“No one wants to end up in your quarters.”

“Very amusing, Doctor”

The suit was brought in, still lying inside its fabrication tank. The Doctor changed his gloves, opened the isolation tent, and removed her intravenous tube before helping her slowly from her bed towards the tank. Without being in the suit the low gravity of Teharonhiawako had made her slightly nauseous.

She remembered how disgusting she had found getting into her bio-suit the first time. It still felt that way now, working her legs down into the warm tissue. The heavy, damp weight of the suit resisted her entrance from the hole in the neck; the suits still required one to be a contortionist to get into them. Finally slipping her shoulders into the suit and sliding her arms into place, she took a deep breath and flipped the head up over her own. The nerves integrated with hers as the view ports activated, the opening below the head sealing itself in place with the body. A flood of tasks and information sought her attention as she became reconnected while the suit closed itself over her. A complete duplication of all of her own systems, the suit could function on the most fundamental minerals and convert them to meet the needs of her body. She moved her larger arm and examined it as she had her own fingers earlier, then stood up. Now equal in height to Dr. Enek, her own four arms functioning normally, she placed her insignia on the light uniform covering her space dragon, a slight smile forming on her scaly muzzle.

“Captain Song, returning to duty,” she announced, and not waiting for the doctor, she left her quarters.

Written for the Adaptation: A DA Lit Contest


References (Note that these should also be considered as spoilers to the story):

Singularity of Biology and Technology plausibility for the ‘bio-suit’ idea:

www.scribd.com/document/181573…

www.nap.edu/read/11567/chapter…

While the focus of the first paper is the interface of technology with biology, the synergy has been seen with prosthetics.  A simple artificial visual interface was prototyped in the late 1960’s, giving an individual who was otherwise blind a basic dot matrix display image that the brain could recognize as letters  or numbers.  Note that it was not 'wearable' but a direct link to the back of the subject's brain.  This is not the earliest interface of biology and machines either; the concept as practices is not as new as we often think it is.

The second paper deals a bit more with the convergence of biology, nanotechnology, and information technology, possible future paths as well as state of the art.  Synthetic biology as well as biological computational models suggest that what today require engineered hardware for computers and telecommunications may someday be supplanted with more a mix of biologically engineered components.  Also, as energy requirements for electronics decrease, biological sources to power those electronics become more practical, allowing the possibility of a built-in interface.  This would permit internet connection and communications to be as much a part of a ‘bio-suit’ as using that suit to convert minerals and other more easily obtained materials to a system that could support the human inside it.  Considering the advances in transportation, communications, medicine, and computing in the past 100 years, I don’t think the creation of a bio-suit making use of that singularity is an impossible concept in the next 500. (And how many times have you worked on something and wished you had another hand or two for helping on the task?)


Tholins as a possible source of primitive life:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11…

It has been theorized that life may have been jump-started by lightning striking the primordial ooze, and the materials and liquid forming that ooze may have come from comets and meteors that had struck the Earth and collected on its surface.  Knowing that tholins are common on KBO’s, it would not be too far-fetched that with the right amount of heat and conditions being right, it could result in some primitive form of microbe.


Sharp edges on Obsidian:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian

When a piece of obsidian is struck, it can result in a cutting edge as thin as 3 nanometers  – sharper than any metal blade and with a smoother edge – the edge of an obsidian blade still appears smooth when viewed by an electron microscope, as compared to the edge of a metal blade that appears jagged under a powerful microscope.  A good obsidian blade is theoretically able to cut at the molecular level.  (Now the source of an obsidian meteorite on Teharonhiawako, that might be a bit more difficult to prove.  But volcanic glass in itself is not that uncommon, so it had to be a meteorite rather than an object that had originated on the cubewano.)  Hence, as reliable as the bio-suit might be, a cut through it is possible, and if a microbe gets in the malfunction of that suit is a definite possibility.


The virtual die rolled a "1" for the prompt of a malfunction. A malfunction of your space suit, however advanced, would be deadly, and this combination of the three worst possibilities causing the malfunction of the Captain's suit was the result.
 

This story has a word count of 2,001 words (and a nod in recognition to '2001, A Space Odessey' to go along with some of the more obvious nods to other fictional characters, a few of whom may not be so obvious).

The 'space-dragons' have a built in communicator, which is how Lt. Mokabe adjusted the temperature and received word that the Captain had been cleared of the microbe contamination.  I wanted to hint at that without saying how she did it in the story. It’s also the ‘connection’ to their form of the internet.  I knew it kind of made it look like sloppy writing, but figured it would be clear when the reader realized the 'space-dragons' were actually all humans in their bio-suits. 

I also wanted to hint at the routine 'dislike' that pilots tend to have for doctors, since the doctors can determine whether or not one can fly or even report for duty regardless of rank, and that kind of control is highly resented.

Comments and critiques always welcome, no matter how long it has been since this was posted.

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neurotype-on-discord's avatar
I wish the 'space dragon' thing had a been a bit clearer (maybe a bit more envy at the beginning? Because it does read like she's talking about a wholly other species), because once I caught on I loved it. Whether or not you were consciously thinking it, 'humans can't stay human to adapt' is a fantastic idea.