|
I was hoping I'd get more questions from the MR members, but I got a quark-burst a second ago... something about everyone being out chasing dogs...
Oh... my... God. It's like the closing scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in here! Look at all the containers!
"Well, as a matter of fact, we'll be taking these crates to our next stop in a few days. They are from the private collection of a media mogul who died recently, and most of it will be sold to pay off his estate. Mind the hand truck..."
You mean this sleigh-looking thing? Hardly looks big enough to hold a nine year old boy. Carolyn, early on in The Lens, you end up staging a fight in here.
"Yes, on Lief's Planet: A bunch of criminals were trying to rob a settlement, and we lured the leader and his men in here to try to subdue them."
You and your crew seem to have some LEET fighting skills!
"Well, of course Mark and I have had the benefit of Ranger training, which includes comprehensive combat training. Tirri and Sarander haven't had the same kind of training, but Sarander just fights like a bull, and Tirri... well, I don't know where her fighting ability comes from, but you have to see it to believe it!"
Word. Doesn't Tirri work back here?
"Let's see if we can find her... I think she's working on one of the booms further into the bay."
Along with Mark, Tirri is the other member of your crew who isn't baseline-human.
"Right: She is an Avian."
So she is genetically altered to best adapt her to the planet she was born on. She has hollow bones, and feathers instead of hair.
"Her hair is essentially a compound follicle... but it looks like feathers. She's very light and agile, but strong, and better-suited than baseline humans for working in 3-D spaces and variable gravity environments. And like I said, you should see her fight!"
With Mark and Tirri here, it's kind of like having aliens on board, isn't it?
"Well, maybe. There are some races in the Galarchy that look pretty alien! But as much as we might want to meet beings from other planets, the world we're in is much better than living with actual aliens."
How so?
"Well, think about it: First of all, we all have a common ancestry... we're all human. That means a basic cultural understanding between us."
I follow.
"Then, there's the fact that we can speak to and understand each other. Think about how great that is... and how unlikely it would be with aliens! We can barely communicate with the Raians, and we've been working on that for decades now! With aliens, you don't have a cultural base, so sharing concepts is much harder. And who says aliens will vibrate vocal cords to communicate? They might blink lights in the infra-red spectrum at each other, which we couldn't even see..."
Like trying to 'hear' radio waves...
"Exactly! The possibility that we'd be able to communicate effectively with multiple races of aliens would be impossibly remote! Then, there's biology: Most Oan races can eat the same foods, breathe the same atmosphere, see and hear the same messages and warnings, operate the same machinery with similar appendages, et-cetera. Again... aliens with completely foreign biologies would be unlikely to be able to do those things. You'd be so occupied with providing air, food, basic biological services, controls, messages and warnings that every alien could understand, et-cetera... just like language, it would be impossible to do it! I'd never want to be part of a world like that... what an insane idea... it would never work!"
Heh... funny you should say that...
"Oh, I think I see Tirri around there."
|