Valentine (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
inject) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
subnautica2016-08-24 01:59 pm
inject) wrote in subnautica2016-08-24 01:59 pm
Entry tags:
telepathy
A follow up to my announcement earlier in the month. My full report can be found on URSULA's databases, and there is a version on the datapads as well as one hand written in the lab. Read those for more details. The short form is as follows:
1. The antibiotic is synthesised from a natural resource found inside the Jelly Shrooms that grow in their eponymous cavern. From lab analysis, the antibiotic can completely eliminate any viruses or diseases based around abnormal cell division. They are an excellent resource and I would recommend getting many of them to stock the med bay. Unfortunately the disease itself lays dormant in the Jelly Shrooms, and a risk-reward assessment ought to be conducted when gathering.
2. Unfortunately for us, the disease was neither one of abnormal cell division or viral. As I said before it appears to be a symbiotic relationship between bacteria and fungus. It targeted the blood lived primarily in the respiratory and digestive system of infected individuals.
3. Blood samples from crew who did were not ill showed that they were also infected with the disease. It simply remained dormant.
4. Sick crew members showed a very high white blood cell count to combat the disease - futilely. Neutrophils were unable to locate, kill, and ingest pathogens effectively, meaning the disease was winning against the body. This is unsurprising as this is an alien planet - it is unknown if the body would be able to adapt in an adequate amount of time. The disease appeared to be turning parasitic in visibly infected crew members compared to the dormant state inside the non-symptomatic.
5. The antibiotic will not clear the disease entirely. It will cause it to go dormant inside of us rather than outright kill it. This is the best that can currently be done. The parasitic relationship will vanish once the antibiotic has run its course. However, prepare to feel miserable while it does just that.
6. Finally, when introduced to native flora and fauna the disease lay dormant just as it did in the Shrooms. Roughly one week after introduction, native life appeared to grow healthier and stronger. Plant growth time and appetite for both fish and plants were increased. The results faded after the first week and there appeared to be no trace of the disease inside either after this time.
For the time being, we are living with a dormant bacterial-fungal infection. It will not harm us, however I will require monthly blood tests to check its state inside the body.
I would advise caution when searching new biomes and interacting with new life forms. This disease clearly has a place among the native flora as something beneficial and could be found in anything. Perhaps a scanner to test for its presence could be uploaded to URSULA's database, and anything scanned in a new biome will show its presence.
But someone else can work on that today.
I'm going to the hot springs.
[[Feel free to respond to Valentine telepathically or meet her in person in the springs!]]
1. The antibiotic is synthesised from a natural resource found inside the Jelly Shrooms that grow in their eponymous cavern. From lab analysis, the antibiotic can completely eliminate any viruses or diseases based around abnormal cell division. They are an excellent resource and I would recommend getting many of them to stock the med bay. Unfortunately the disease itself lays dormant in the Jelly Shrooms, and a risk-reward assessment ought to be conducted when gathering.
2. Unfortunately for us, the disease was neither one of abnormal cell division or viral. As I said before it appears to be a symbiotic relationship between bacteria and fungus. It targeted the blood lived primarily in the respiratory and digestive system of infected individuals.
3. Blood samples from crew who did were not ill showed that they were also infected with the disease. It simply remained dormant.
4. Sick crew members showed a very high white blood cell count to combat the disease - futilely. Neutrophils were unable to locate, kill, and ingest pathogens effectively, meaning the disease was winning against the body. This is unsurprising as this is an alien planet - it is unknown if the body would be able to adapt in an adequate amount of time. The disease appeared to be turning parasitic in visibly infected crew members compared to the dormant state inside the non-symptomatic.
5. The antibiotic will not clear the disease entirely. It will cause it to go dormant inside of us rather than outright kill it. This is the best that can currently be done. The parasitic relationship will vanish once the antibiotic has run its course. However, prepare to feel miserable while it does just that.
6. Finally, when introduced to native flora and fauna the disease lay dormant just as it did in the Shrooms. Roughly one week after introduction, native life appeared to grow healthier and stronger. Plant growth time and appetite for both fish and plants were increased. The results faded after the first week and there appeared to be no trace of the disease inside either after this time.
For the time being, we are living with a dormant bacterial-fungal infection. It will not harm us, however I will require monthly blood tests to check its state inside the body.
I would advise caution when searching new biomes and interacting with new life forms. This disease clearly has a place among the native flora as something beneficial and could be found in anything. Perhaps a scanner to test for its presence could be uploaded to URSULA's database, and anything scanned in a new biome will show its presence.
But someone else can work on that today.
I'm going to the hot springs.
[[Feel free to respond to Valentine telepathically or meet her in person in the springs!]]
[Telepathy]
So we don't know the prognosis for long-term infection with this disease, and by now probably everyone in the base has it... this could get ugly if we don't keep tabs.
[He's a little reluctant to offer this, but it seems like the smartest idea:] If you don't mind me using some of your samples, I might be able to make some kind of scanner to test for... whatever's causing the disease. Could be any kind of weird misfolding stuff that we can't easily detect yet, like prions on Earth.
no subject
I don't mind. I have plenty. Some for this exact circumstance.
Bacteria and fungus living in symbiosis isn't unheard of, but you could be right. We should see what causes the symbiosis as our next stage of attack.
For now, though, that scanner is most important.
no subject
[Wait. He was rambling in his head again. Everyone probably heard that.]
- Yeah, anyway, I can probably pull it off. I'll just need some time. Dirk might even lend a hand; that guy's as bad as I am when it comes to making stuff. [Maybe even worse.]
no subject
With or without him, I'll be waiting to see the results soon.
no subject
Until then, I'd like to get your opinion on whether this infection seemed predictable across all your tests. Do you think it's possible it could affect some kinds of people differently?
[He's a little concerned for others, as well as himself; the uncertainty just barely bleeds into his mental voice.]
The native life's one thing, but we have no idea what it'll do to anything from Earth, or really, any planet's life that isn't Iniidae's.
no subject
[ Although. ]
I was exclusively given human blood samples, however. I do not think that that is a factor, as non-human people were not only infected but symptomatic. I only include it out of transparency.
no subject
So this bacteria-fungus hybrid is incredibly adaptable and doesn't seem to need much time to adjust to new hosts, but it only seems beneficial to native life. Gotta wonder precisely how it's doing that. And the dormant infections... is there something else going on there?
[This is just more of a reason to make some kind of scanner.]
If it's blood-borne, it's probably in most tissues too. I'm not sure if there's any way to safely scan other kinds of organs for it, especially with all the high-powered future tech in the base. What do you know about that?
no subject
Though she hadn't expected it. Why would she put herself in that sort of danger if she knew it was unlikely? ]
My guess is that its passed on in any such way it can be. Airborne, bloodborne, contaminated water... [ Her sharp smirk isn't audible over telepathy, but she felt it. A nasty disease, for sure. ]
Either way, it lives primarily in the lungs and the digestive tract. It's all in the report.
There's not much I can do for dormancy other than keep an eye on it.
[ And for the first time, she didn't seem to be happy at all. ]
no subject
If something goes wrong, though, the first symptoms will probably be related to those organ systems. That'll make it easier to figure out what a horrible hacking cough might be related to, at least.
no subject
... All the same, what an odd thing to say. ]
Regardless, knowing where they are and how to combat it certainly means medical emergencies would be better.
no subject
I'd hate for a medical emergency to be the first time we get an answer.
no subject
[ She sounded amused, and not at all as if she were insinuating that was what he said. ]
no subject
[Don's weirdly somber response seems to suggest he's put some thought into this.]
It's still kinda weird thinking about how the nanites work. I've seen nanobots before, but they worked on their own, kinda like a collective.
no subject
[ Well, some parasites, anyway. She'd heard about one that lived inside its host as its skeleton in return for vampiric abilities which resulted in eternal youth.
Really, the one that just lived on the back of that amnesiac's head was so much easier to explain away. ]
How did your nanites work? You seem to be implying that they were sentient?
no subject
That's because they pretty much were. They - he - was a collective we started calling Nano. He acted like a little kid... one who had some pretty terrible parents.
But he was his own thing. It's not like he could take over people and make them into himself.
no subject
Oh, well. ]
And what exactly could he do?
no subject
Even though I don't think he was always trying to hurt people, he was dangerous. [There's a hint of melancholy in the mental voice here: Don had always felt bad about killing what was essentially a child.]
no subject
You know, your background in this might make you useful in understanding Ishmael.
no subject
Do we have any idea how ISHMAEL even works, or are we completely in the dark? The nanobots in our own bodies are way smaller than the ones Nano had - I could see those with a microscope, but I definitely can't see any of our nanobots. I figure they'd need an electron scanner microscope, at least.
no subject