telepathy

[inject]

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!]]

Comments

[lightbulbvampire]

[Kanaya respects that she is willing to not press on, so she decides to illuminate somethings.]

Those who possess detrimental mutations or blood color mutations, particularly bright candy red, are culled upon discovery. While I am aware the stigma does not carry over here, it is still a sensitive subject for my friend.

[inject]

[ A rigid caste system. Everyone was probably supposed to have a place in some kind of empire. Deviations would threaten a system; not a species. Deviations in a species were important for survival, if they could fit a niche. ]

I suppose depriving them of oxygen would make the blood less... 'bright candy red'.

[lightbulbvampire]

That is... definitely one way to put it.

[ Kanaya pauses slightly before continuing onto describing more about the troll species.]

The violet bloods and tyrian bloods are are semi-aquatic, while the rest of the hemospectrum is land based. It is easy to tell is someone is a violet blood or tyrian blood, as they have gills and fins on their face.

[Kanaya taps the sides of her face to show where the fins would be. If Valentine has seen Feferi before, then Kanaya has just inadvertently given her enough information to deduce the mutant by process of elimination.]

Those lower on the hemospectrum are more likely to develop psychic powers, but are more frail and have a shorter life span. The opposite is true for those on the high end of the hemospectrum. As a jade blood, I am in the middle of the hemospectrum.

[inject]

[ Well, Valentine did now know who the mutant was. In truth she was less interested in him and more in the ones with blood entirely unlike her own. Not that alien blood wasn't fascinating on its own, but the make up of other proteins... ]

I see. And are you considered 'low' enough to have developed psychic power? Or is yours on the more physical side of the scale?

[lightbulbvampire]

I am not considered low enough to be expected to have psychic powers, my cast does have the ability to become rainbow drinkers, like I am now. I am unsure as to the exact process, although I am fairly certain that it involves the death of the individual.

[Kanaya died and became a rainbow drinker, so that's her hypothosis.]

[inject]

Or grievous bodily harm to kick in a latent genetic survivalism. [ She said it off hand. What did she know, right now? ] Either way, it seems like your... caste? Has quite the advantage in that respect.

[lightbulbvampire]

That sounds plausible actually.

[She's able to guess the gist of what that means through her wide vocabulary and from all the frog breeding she had to do.]

I suppose so, although we are balanced out by being rare. Jade bloods are also unusual in being generally female, although males still do exist.

[inject]

[ Valentine was glad that there wasn't a similar race - caste - of people back home. The Skull Heart had enough women ill at ease with their place in life without that. ]

Fascinating. Humans have no such diversity. Well, [ and she gave a faint smile, ] by nature, at any rate.

[lightbulbvampire]

[Yeah, the Skull Heart would have a field day with Alternia.]

I've noticed that. We did not have a large selection of Humans to observe or interact with outside of a small group, but it was still noticeable.

[inject]

We're a mixed bunch here. It's really quite fascinating.

[ Especially the ones who couldn't get sick. ]