Doctor Varroxxian Posted November 29, 2011 Share Posted November 29, 2011 April 16, 2027 ... A short, sealed note deliver for Sakura at the Palace in Kinshasa Dear Konohanasakuyahime, Forgive my use of romanji, and possible errors in etiquette. I am only beginning my study of the Japanese language and culture. I met you in the Den meeting a short while ago and would like to meet. You seem to genuinely care about the welfare of those to be under the care of the Den. Though I doubt I will be a student there, given my age makes me almost ineligible, I am very interested in being involved. As a member of the second generation, as is common, I was raised in isolation. Without my family I do not have many acquaintances. I hoping it would I would be welcome to visit on occasion. Pleasant company and conversation is hard to come by of late. As I am living off the gird there is no reliable way for you to contact me at this time. If you would permit my visit please notify the guards. I seem to be allowed to visit certain small areas of the palace, and will ask the guards if you are available. I am able to come round at three in the afternoon each day for the next week to check for your reply, though of course I would only visit at a time of your convenience. Sincerely, Starseed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted December 3, 2011 Share Posted December 3, 2011 Sakura left word with the guard that day that Starseed was an expected guest and sent a request to the chef that had been assigned to her if he could prepare a light afternoon lunch in traditional Japanese cuisine. She left the details to him, save for a request for eel sushi rolls and jasmine tea instead of the more common green tea. She'd tried to spare him from too many exotic requests, especially since she always could just go dryad for a few hours and not eat at all. Her body, on the other hand, had already moved far past pickles and ice cream and they were still negotiating a truce on the matter. Eel rolls and jasmine tea would be the ceasefire for Starseed's visit. As had become her habit, she had the repast set up on the terrace overlooking the garden. She'd also included in her word to the guards to just bring her through the garden itself; it was lovely and it kept the traffic in her apartment to a minimum. She could recognize that she was entering the first stages of mother-to-be 'nesting' habits, but that didn't stop her from being instinctively territorial anyways. So, the Spring Goddess was reclining in a comfortable lounge chair on the terrace when Star was brought through the garden the next afternoon at three sharp. Sakura managed to waddle out of the chair and give her a proper introductory bow. "拝啓スターシード," she said formally. Straightening back up, she added in English, "Greetings, Starseed. Please, sit." She motioned to another chair on the other side of the table, this one with a footstool instead of a full lounge chair. Lunch had been set out only a minute or two before: steaming hot tea and a pitcher of ice water, a large selection of sushi rolls with wasabi and pickled ginger on the sides, a large crock of mixed seafood and sea plants soup with a ladle and two bowls, and a plate of tempura vegetables with a dark, sweet and salty dipping sauce. Sakura reclined back onto the chair and poured them both tea. "I must admit, I haven't eaten like this since I was little. I was born in Japan, but I...moved...to America when I was eight. My parents are much more venison and mashed potatoes people than sushi and..." she peered over at the soup, then grinned at her guest, "....uh, sea soup? people." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted December 25, 2011 Author Share Posted December 25, 2011 "I have a similar background, in a way. My Father escaped China, and my Mother is American. We lived mostly in south Californian style ... progressive and cosmopolitan. Father liked to show his culture to me when I was young, but life became too busy when I was older. They tried to raise me in a way that I wouldn't be totally isolated, sequestered away somewhere ... but still safe. They worked very hard toward that aim ... even if the world had other ideas." Star smiled, and tried the sushi "Its very good though, thank you. Mom really made good maki roll and Onigiri for picnics." "Its amazing, this country. Its so, free for Novas. I must admit, with the mysterious message from the Den they slipped into my op-mail and with the first meeting in the palace ... where I could almost feel the defenses ... I almost didn't show to that meeting." She took a sip of tea, delicately, and added "I am glad that I did. I'm too old - not a good fit for being a student there - but meeting all of you was a real stroke of luck. I don't really know many people. As you probably know from the profile I filled out, after the attack last year I fled to space. Almost didn't come back, but something kept me from leaving too. Then the Den message, and ... now I get to have a wonderful lunch with you. In a splendid garden too." ... Sakura and Star sat, enjoyed the tea for a moment - and chatted about the garden. They didn't know each other, but Sakura quickly got the impression of Star as a scientist, and a bit of an 'adventurer'. Star got the impression of Sakura as the bits of her reputation she'd been able to glean indicated: someone with an amazing rapport with nature, plants, animals, weather ... and healing. "I didn't really come here with any specific goal in mind ... just to meet you, but a pointed question comes to mind. Several, actually ..." "What do think about people, normal baseline people? ... and could you devise some sort of way to keep people - or Novas - with basline metabolisms alive for long periods of time in sealed systems? Alive, happy, functioning in say - an airtight cave or say a space ship?" "Ok, thats three questions ... but I'm the curious type." she added, with a smile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 2, 2012 Share Posted January 2, 2012 Sakura blinked at the questions, but smiled and shrugged. "I think of people as people. Some are baselines, some are novas...some aren't even either, but they're all people. If you have a mind, self-awareness, then you're a person and that's the most important part. Everything else is just..." she waved a hand, "window dressing." She stretched her arms up, a thoughtful look on her face, "I've actually been thinking about that very same question myself lately. About contained environments and such. People need several things, beyond the obvious biological supports. They need interaction with others, a feeling of space, novelty, and purpose in their day-to-day lives, and a sense of security. The first is easily accomplished by simply working with a large enough group of people and the last simply needs to be a fact, both physically and socially, for such a group to survive. It's that center part, the feeling of space when you are in an enclosed environment, novelty when you're dealing with a smaller population and a necessarily tightly controlled environment and such that causes the greatest complications. Daily purpose - that's usually accomplished simply by the nature of the situation, whatever it may be." She gave the glowing young nova a speculative look and then gracefully waddled out of her chair. "Here, let me show you something." She led Star through the garden, down a number of oddly empty hallways, and out into another garden. It was large enough to be easily termed a 'field' instead of a 'garden', but there were walls all around it and it was still on the palace grounds, so in the tradition of large medival-style estates, it was still a garden. It lacked the polish of the garden they had started in; there were no paved pathways or statues or elegantly carved benches. Instead, it was at first glance a chaotic riot of colors and plants. After a few moments of study, though, Star was able to tease out the patterns in the plants: 'pods' of various species growing together, with the other pods around one bearing similar but increasingly different variations of the plants. They got larger the further down the garden they walked as well, with the last section of planted pods bearing towering trees bedecked in vines. The vines not only draped over the thick branches, but were somehow grown into the trunk most of the large trees. The last pod bore a tree, a grand Sequoia, that was easily large enough to rival the thousand-year old trees found in Northern California; intertwined with dozens of different vine plants, most of which Star couldn't identify, though she could make estimations based on the vines from the previous pods. Sakura stepped up to the tree and brushed aside a swath of vines, revealing an large opening into the hollow center of the tree. She grinned and beckoned Star to follow her inside. Light streamed in in green and gold bands from similar openings up the trunk of the tree; a natural staircase wound around the inner side of the trunk, leading up to several of the openings. Sakura ascended and as they passed the first few openings, Star could see that they opened up out onto the massive lower branches of the tree. She could also see that the tree had no leaves of it's own; the green she'd seen from the ground had been all vine leaves and blooms. There were seed pods attached to the inner bark, which was as disoriently non-treelike as the lack of leaves. Sakura let her explore for a moment before pulling open one of the seed pods and scooping out a seed and waving for Star to follow her back down to the ground. "I've been working on this for a little while, mostly thinking about how to terraform a planet like Mars - low oxygen, colder than Earth, dimmer daylight, less rain or ground water, and harsh soil conditions." She stepped over to a bare area of soil and made a small hole in the ground; she tipped the seed out of her hand and covered it again, then stepped back. She sat down carefully, taking a lotus position that made her look like the very likeness of Mother Nature. After a few seconds the seed began to grow, pushing up out of the ground and exploding into bark, trunk, limbs, and vines that climbed towards the sky as if desperately grasping for the clouds. From the single seed grew both the tree and vines and in little under a minute the whole kaleidoscope of life had grown enough to dwarf the tree they had climbed earlier by nearly a magnitude of size. The vines were subtly different from their previous ones, though it would take a while to examine them closely enough to notice anything more than the slight changes in color and more frequent leaves and blooms; Star could smell the oxygen bubbling off of the rapidly growing amalgamation as well. Sakura wiped the light sheen of sweat that had gathered over her from the exertion, but smiled proudly at her newest effort. "I'm going to need to sit here for a bit. These trees, I usually take several sessions to grow one to maturity, but...well, I wanted to show off, too." She flushed a little pink at the admission, but her pride and affection for her garden was palpable around her. "Imagine, even just on my own, I could probably seed all of Mars with forests of these trees within a year. I'm working on other plant combinations and animals to set up an entire independent ecosystem, but Mars - or other planets in a much wider range of conditions than Earth - could be habitable for Earth life in at most two or three years of effort on my part. And if I can find others to help, it would go that much faster." She took a deep breath and laid back, reclining easily on the now-shaded ground behind her. "And for travel...I'm still working on it, but I've been thinking about living ships. The trees, if you could provide and store sunlight or something equivalent for the photosynthetic chain reaction, could provide a stable yet expanding shell, food, waste control...all the biological needs, with technology fit in to address the psychological needs of passengers and to provide movement...." She let herself trail off, realizing that she was babbling, and laughed. "So, what do you think? You asked the question and seem like the knowing sort, so what's your assessment?" Biomanipulation Rolls [Malachite] 9:29 am: Form Manipulation: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 6+5+9+6+9+1+1+6+3+8+1+7+10+6+3+3+9+3: 96 7 successes [Malachite] 9:31 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 5+7+2+8+1+8+7+1+2+5+9+7+7+5+6+8+6+1: 95 9 successes 27 years [Malachite] 9:35 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 1+8+3+7+6+4+1+7+5+6+2+3+3+2+3+10+5+8: 84 8 successes 24 years (total 51 years) [Malachite] 9:36 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 1+10+6+2+2+5+1+7+10+5+6+9+10+4+2+8+9+10: 107 12 successes 36 years (total 87 years) [Malachite] 9:37 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 9+1+5+1+6+1+6+4+8+7+4+10+10+9+2+9+5+10: 107 11 successes 33 years (total 120 years) [Malachite] 9:38 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 6+5+5+3+1+6+2+8+1+4+3+2+6+5+5+10+5+9: 86 6 successes 18 years (total 138 years) [Malachite] 9:39 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 2+10+4+3+10+2+8+1+7+10+10+6+1+3+10+3+2+3: 95 7 successes 21 years (total 159 years) [Malachite] 9:41 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 8+2+6+1+6+10+9+10+6+5+9+3+7+4+6+4+5+4: 105 6 successes 18 years (total 177 years) [Malachite] 9:42 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 1+1+5+6+3+1+6+2+4+10+7+9+7+1+4+5+2+1: 75 4 successes 12 years (189 years) [Malachite] 9:43 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 9+6+10+8+10+7+8+9+6+7+1+10+3+8+6+4+8+5: 125 12 successes 36 years (225 years) [Malachite] 9:44 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 9+1+4+10+10+4+6+1+3+2+7+3+4+5+8+9+4+10: 100 10 successes 30 years (255 years) [Malachite] 9:46 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 9+3+7+10+1+10+1+6+1+10+7+6+5+5+9+1+9+10: 110 12 successes 36 years (291 years) [Malachite] 9:46 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 1+5+7+6+7+7+2+7+10+8+8+2+2+2+8+6+2+3: 93 8 successes 24 years (315 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 10+10+8+4+8+9+7+8+6+8+10+8+5+9+10+7+8+8: 143 18 successes 54 years (369 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 4+7+1+2+6+5+5+1+5+10+10+7+2+9+9+7+4+1: 95 8 successes 24 years (393 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 4+1+7+10+6+8+6+10+10+4+7+3+1+7+2+7+4+6: 103 9 successes 27 years (420 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 2+6+2+2+4+8+4+8+10+1+4+5+4+3+2+3+8+2: 78 5 successes 15 years (435 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 6+10+10+3+4+4+2+1+5+2+8+4+3+3+7+2+3+8: 85 6 successes 18 years (453 years) [Malachite] 9:47 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 2+6+5+3+10+10+8+8+7+5+7+10+10+2+2+7+10+2: 114 13 successes 39 years (492 years) [Malachite] 9:52 am: Growth: Megas last Malachite *rolls* 18d10: 10+5+7+4+10+7+10+9+4+8+2+7+4+5+4+4+6+6: 112 8 successes 24 years (516 years) QP: 0/60 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 In reply to Sakura's view on people and as they walked Star said "I am glad you feel the same way I do. Some Nova's don't care about baselines ... or worse. Some baselines don't even consider Novas human. I've thought about the issue quite a bit, because I was going to try and find aliens. How one frames concepts like sentient, thinking beings is important ... " she trailed off on seeing the garden. Star stayed silent for the tour, observing, taking it all in as best she could. It was awesome. Simply awesome. "Mother always wanted to do something like this ... but back in the states its illegal. One can't do open air on one species without months or years of approval - and whole ecosystem. This is fantastic!" "You should show off too ... this is, great! I could really use your help ... and maybe I can help too. Want to plant a garden on Mars? I can get you there as regularly as you'd want. On a minimal budget, I could set up remote monitoring to collect data. I was going to ask if you could do something on a much smaller scale ... just for longer term life support for my ships. This really needs doing though ... this is ... so great!" said Star. She was still trying to take everything in. Sakura's pheromones also didn't help ... with that influence on top of the incredible garden, and with the possibilities her excitement level was very high. She was practically giddy, words rarely failed her but at the moment she was wide eyed. Like a sweet toothed kid in a candy shop. "If you do an intermediate layer, metazoans to convert heat to aqueous nutrients and more nutrients to bioluminsecance to drive the photosynthesis ... Maybe a sponge or lichen that can wick its own solution to a sky layer. With that I can take this across the galaxy. Even Mars probably has very rare biosphere-friendly environs, but I can provide heat and stable atmosphere by engineering simple subterranean vaults that will last many millenia. This could grow almost anywhere, on an aqueous geothermal energy loop." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 "Oh, I kept seeds from the smaller versions. I could certainly make them small enough to fit comfortable in corners of rooms and such." She smiled at her companion that was quickly moving to friend. "Though, the point would be that these trees could live outside on Mars and create a thick and warm enough atmosphere to support even unaltered Earth life. I've almost perfected the plant amalgamation I want to start with, and then I'll be on to adding in insects and animals. After that, I'll work in microbes to balance everything out and complete a self-supporting cycle. Fish and other truly aquatic life would need to wait until the system was running well enough to produce large bodies of open water, which would require a much warmer temperature to be engineered on Mars." Her eyes were on the trees around them, obviously lost in her musings, "Which will take quite some time...hmm....I think I need to focus on increasing the trees growth rates in the next round of changes. Same for when I design the animals and insects to integrate. That will make the experiments themselves go quicker, as well as making the terraforming process itself go faster, though some sort of kill-switch to prevent overgrowth will need to be added as well. Perhaps a microbe that only affects a tree after a certain number of pods have been produced. Something. The underground caverns are a good staging area, though. I can't survive in space like it seems most novas can. I need air and food and somewhere to sleep." She smiled at the last, a self-indulgent poke at her own vulnerability compared to most novas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 "Well, life support is something I can provide already with old-fashioned hard tech. For weeks or months at a time ... another reason why enclosed spaces occur to me out of hand I suppose. The same systems on my ships could be scaled up on the cheap for a kick start while you got things going. Or even a smaller version of the ship systems if all you need is personal life support for yourself ... a working space, and a mars suit could be arranged in days. Plus mars is quite friendly, equipment like suits and such don't need to work hard there ... a big difference in cost and complexity compared to the suits and gear required for deep space." "You know, at a glance ... and figuring that you are as good as or better than Mother ... you could easily bio-form a suit and even a portable life support pod. Just make the pod sylindrical so it rolls through the gate easy and has some umbilicals for charging the suit, some vacuoles for taking in the water ice and mineral nutiriets ... I am thinking chemosynthtic. Lots of nutritent options on mars, and I've done quite a bit of geosurvey. The suit, it just needs to symbiotically join with the support pod once in a while. Simplifies what the suits organs need to do, allows it to be a more streamlined organism with a very basic digestion and metabolism ... hence lightweight, wearable." "Actually, if you could do suits and pods ... wow, I think that would really help open up mars for anyone. The pods, given the density of wood as an upper bound ... and rolling through a five meter wide gate ... and with the levels of metabolic efficiency an eyeball of your current work here indicates ... the pods, they could take care of clean air and potable water for a small living space for months with ample safety reserve. Say one pod, supporting ten people on average, with a peak capacity of double that." Star is still so excited, though the process of estimation and rational analysis of what bio-pods and bio-suits could do helps her get a grip again ... "I'll bet you could do much better even. Air, water, and thermal regulation are the hard bits, and those you can take care of easily. The suits could be both indoor and outdoor easily enough, so thermal is covered there." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 "Hmn...I've never thought of that. Although it would have to be a life form that could itself survive the rigors of space...and still be flexible enough to move in and...well, it's something to think on. Maybe the project after I get this," she waved to the garden, "sorted how I want it. I should have a good basis for what would be needed by then." She smiled at Star, "I do want to make a living ship design, after I'm done with the simpler terraforming design, that could support life indefinitely; making a smaller and more flexible version for individuals, that could be a natural outgrowth of the tree-ships." She paced in a graceful pirouette, enjoying the conversation and excitement as much as Star. "My main goal is to be able to cut down the heat and nutrient loss as much as possible, to create as closed a system as possible so that a ship could start in a nutrient and energy dense environment, and not need to 'restock' for an incredibly long period of time. Long enough for stellar travel, or even for the ships to be living homes for the more nomadically inclined and allow for the time to gather more nutrients or energy, such as passing near a sun or mining asteroids for other resources. That way they could be used for any number of things, and cheaper and easier to get than fabricated ships." She shurgged, "I admit, I probably haven't thought of everything you'd need for space travel, though. I've never been off-planet and I'm fairly life-focused. Perhaps we could work together? I really like the idea of ships that can travel to a new planet, act as the home and vehicle of terraforming for the colonists, and even provide the literal seeds for new buildings and even ships to leave again when people want to. It's probably not as easy or quick as contracting a nova with warping capabilities, but it's self-supporting and all people would need to get things started is a seed and a bit of earth." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 "Interplanetary ships leading to generation ships ... hmmm. Generation ships have a small chance of working, there is a design that we "know" how to do. The propulaion physics is that of a laser or particle sail. Without being able to teleport or form warp gates the trip is limited to the speed of light ... so that means you have to accelerate and declerate to get where you are going. A laser sail was an idea they actually worked through in 2009 at a NASA symposium. Becuase carrying the fuel, any sort of fuel that isn't quantum magic - even antimatter - means travelling to the nearest star requires a huge, fuel laden ship. Slow ones at that, even antimatter only get 0.2 c, or twenty percent the speed of light. The sail, on the other hand ... they had already tested passive sails for in system probes ... they big sail concept used a solar pumped laser. So, they were thinking a big crystal, but you might consider organic optical liquid dye lasers ... and the huge laser beam, I mean huge ... it can do an average speed of 0.6c. The beam provides all the energy for acceleration, and then for decel too ... of course, the problem they haven't solved is a shield. Hit even one little rock on the way, even with a huge shield and POW ... nuclear level blast. Even dust, which unfortunately is too common, is like the biggest artillery fire." ... she excitedly starts spouting off equations and describing the physics and biology of organic lasers and a hundred other things ... "So if you could so ships, they need to somehow gate or port ... or go insubstantial like I do for interstellar ... but interpanetary, that should be a snap. There is a snail, with an iron shell ... literally an iron shell. Crysomallon squamiferum, the scaly foot gastropod. The shell metabolism on that allows you to make something suitable for space. Nautilus shells have nice sealed geometry. Actually, shells work for anything space rated ... you even have storage space for the organisms reserves." "Yes, I think we should work together. How long do you think you might need to get the garden here to a state you are happy with? How long till testing on, say mars ... which would be the gentlest conditions. Mars really isn't much worse than the summit of Everest ... by way of comparison. If this can grow on that peak, you are close." .... Star paused, "Whew ... you know, I am not sure I'm feeling well. I seem to be running at the mouth ... sorry, I didn't let you get a word in edge wise." ... she looked mildly mortified, realizing how long she had talked ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Sakura giggled and waved for her to sit down. "Then take a breath," she grinned, her amused expression taking any sting out of the words. "And the trees could easily thrive on Everest within a few iterations. That's not all that hard to do. But I'd want to wait until after the children are born before I start world-hopping. It's just little too large of risk for me to take right now." She sat down herself, stretching out on the ground with a slight purr of relaxation. "If you want to get me the environmental details for Mars, though, I could start tailoring some of the trees for that specifically. Soil samples would be a great help, too." She sighed, "Y'know, this would be all sorts more simple if I could create trees or animals or something that could warp. But I don't quite get how that works, beyond quantum equals magic at least. I don't have any idea how I could create something else that does it. Which is a shame." She patted the ground next to her. "Lay down, Star. The view is really nice and it'll help you relax a little. Thinking all of this up is fun and exciting, but I have to admit that I didn't understand most of what you just said. I know biology pretty well, but I'm a country bumpkin when it comes to physics. Maybe you could teach me a little, so I could see if this laser sail idea could be worked out all with what I can grow?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 "Whew." she said "I, that is better." She said, taking some more deep breaths. "Sure, we can work in small scale first, on everything. Making organic lasers would be kind of cool. They'll be bigger than solid state, but with a frequency range - organic lasers are really tunable. Useful for hospitals and labs, especially if you can make them hardy and easy to grow. All the physics you want to know can be learned by building a decent laser. The lasing dyes, the mirrors, the optics ... and we can make them solar pumped. Basically, a really complex optical amplifier that takes some steps to convert sunlight into a collimated single frequency beam." "Mom used to mix things up all the time too ... she'd have creatures deposit inorganic components with shell or coral building metabolic paths. Her stuff is still used to make replacement osteo-implants in lots of countries. She even used combinations of hard and soft tech, when it was just easier to do things the 'normal' way. Kinshasa University would be able to access plenty of her published papers ... I don't know enough about how she did what she did ... but what she did in scientific terms, the genetic codes and the chemistry behind it ... I understand all of that. Maybe some of the researchers there could order samples of her work? ... Most of it is public domain stuff, used in industrial or research applications." "I remember she did some good work on glass and glazing for third world solar projects and construction. Only grows fast enough to be economical in tropical countries, but Utopia uses it in Ethiopia. For all of this, a good optical medium is what we'll need." "How do you work? I mean, do you read genetic codes and work with the chemistry? Mom always had a pretty clear idea of that ... but of course she always said her power 'didn't come with with handy labels' and she had spent years figuring out how to put things into the language that could be passed on." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Sakura shook her head, "Nothing that complicated. I get...I dunno, like a picture in my head of how something is. Then I think about how I want it to be and it's...mmm...it's hard to explain. I can sort of "see" the genetic code, but that's not quite right. Either way, I can make little adjustments until how something is lines up with how I want it." She shrugged, "That's the best way I can think of to describe it. Learning biology helped, but I didn't need to know it to be able to change things. It just made it faster and more precise." "I think that's why I can do so much more with seeds and embryos than I can with things that are already sprouted or born. It's easier to fiddle with the genetics when the organism is still putting itself together." She glanced over at the glowing girl next to her, "So what about you? Your mom knew chemistry and stuff. How do your powers work?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Varroxxian Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 "I know what you mean about just sort of knowing, sensing without sensing. My powers work the same as my Mom's ... matter energy converters but with some twists. We can convert matter to energy and back, or in my case just hold it as energy ... and make lots of changes to the matter. Organic is easier than inorganic, though the distinction isn't so simple. Inorganic things that are part of a living pattern, or once could have been ... those are easily doable. The energy balance isn't even either - there is no conservation. The energy just comes from, well ... somewhere - the quantum layer hides it like lots of other Novas power is hidden away." "I can only do my own pattern in 'the full spectrum' ... matter to energy and back again. Mom can do the full spectrum for external tissue, how she makes the changes you do. I have tried and tried to reach her level ... and I can almost do it. I am better with energy than her too ... for some things, I don't need an organic starting point. It could be because my body is becoming less and less organic over time ... moving toward just energy bound up in a living pattern. The same living patterns that Mom and I see, and maybe the same ones you see ..." "The closest thing I can do to what you do is make copies of myself ... its a really familiar pattern. I can do other things that are almost alive ... not quite but almost. I just make them, weave them together out of the quantum layer, like my ships or creatures as tools and heavy equipment." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z023 Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 The two novas compared powers and made plans for future visits and new projects to work on together as the sun made its way across the sky. Twilight was edging out the afternoon sun when Star realized that the slight buzzing noise she could faintly hear through her description of a proposed propulsion system for a treeship engine was was a gentle snore from her companion. They'd been talking for hours, planning and getting to know one another and generally just enjoying the peace and wonder of the garden, but Sakura had finally succumb to that comfort and the demands of her pregnancy. Some cultures hold that you can see the true face of a person while they sleep; if so then Sakura was truly as sweet and young as she seemed. Laying there, she looked nearly as young as Star and utterly content surrounded by her creations. Star silently slipped up to her feet threaded her way back through the trees to the palace. They'd already set plans to meet again and from the pace of the conversations they'd had, she'd be able to pick up just where they'd left off at their next meeting. She let one of the unobtrusive-but-always-there guards know that the Blossom Princess had fallen asleep in the garden. Another guard was called for and Star was politely escorted back to the public area of the palace. All in all, quite a profitable visit. New ideas and possibilities to consider for the future, and almost more importantly, a new friend to visit spend time on Earth with. And on Mars, after the babies were born. Star smiled and opened a gate to her next destination. Definitely a good day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quantum Fire Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 End of Thread XP: 2 Standard, 2 Baseline, 2 Nova Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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