Dead Star Dockyards

"So how was it?" Trebar whispered the question into Cayzi's ear as they descended the stairs. "Did it make you feel sick?"

"Why do you ask?" Cayzi had already said how he felt after the scan, a little dizzy.

"Well, aside from pure curiosity, I've heard of a medical technique that uses dangerous materials to let you see a person's bones!" Cayzi jumped at Trebar's little outburst.

"Stop that!" Zhoie had also jumped a little, lightly punching her fiancé on the shoulder as punishment. "I almost slipped!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Trebar snuck a little kiss onto her cheek as she passed. "Anyways Cayzi, from what I remember about that technique, it could force a particularly nasty version of Split Decay upon a person."

"Eh!?" Cayzi had a brief moment of extreme panic, immediately checking himself for anything resembling an injury. He did not find anything even after observing himself internally with Split. "Am I going to die?!"

"Not a chance. Donovan would never put you in that kind of risk. Besides, the incidence rate of Split Decay from that method was exceedingly low. I think the people who did the administering were the only people at any appreciable risk." Trebar ruffled the boy's hair. "Besides, even if there were something wrong with you, I'm sure he would have a fix for it. It isn't like we can't treat Split Decay either."

"R-right." Cayzi felt a little bit silly for letting fear get the better of him, if only for a brief moment. "I should have known better."

"Don't beat yourself up over it. I was just messing with you a little bit."

"-the Games Room. Once again, a little bit unfurnished but still usable." Donovan had already begun his spiel about the next room without everyone inside. 

"Not one to waste time, is he?" Zhoie appeared at least partially annoyed by how rushed the tour was turning out to be, Cayzi surmising she wanted to spend at least a little bit of time speaking with Diana. 

"Eh, could be worse. I'm not sure this ship is in a state to tour at the moment, and the parts that are here look to be beyond either our capacity to understand or his willingness to expose. The Synthetics Lab, for example, had more machines than he introduced us to. I can't even imagine what they might be for either."

Cayzi pursed his lips, peeved that he wasn't being shown everything yet understanding he wasn't in a position to ask much more. He would have liked to know what the chamber in the corner was for though. It appeared like too normal a room to be separated from the rest.

"This room feels a bit small to accommodate a few hundred people."

"It can't handle everybody at once, but there is only so much space to go around." Once more, Cayzi found himself walking through a mostly empty room. This in mind, it would be a mistake to believe his thoughts were the same as everyone else's. He imagined what would go in each space, what strange or novel contraption or device could find a home in this strange vehicle. 

"I take it the games from the party will be stored here?"

"A few of them, yes. However those can be played on the floor or on a table in another room. We plan to install games that require dedicated equipment to play, such as table tennis, billiards, darts, air hockey, and maybe a few arcade cabinets or consoles if there is space." Diana spread her arms out as she spun around. This room looked to be one of her favorites. "We'll construct and install everything once the Trawlers start to come online, it is to be used as space for more Nekh in the mean time."

"Mm, yes. I imagine you could fit quite a few people in here."

"We still have cubbies and cabinets for board games and such. Once we get a few printed out we can play them."

"Will we be able to play them today, perhaps?" Prince Merndil seemed to have enjoyed those board games more than he had let on.

"Unfortunately not. The covers for the machines in the Synthetics Labs have a higher priority." Donovan opened one of the cubbies and pulled out a decently sized metal case. "Arc did make a checkerboard set though."

"A checkerboard set?" Cayzi popped his head around the crowd to look at the case. "What's that?"

"An eight by eight grid of squares alternating in color. You can play two different games on it as far as I know, the pieces for which have been milled. I can't say I'm particularly fond of either of them though."

"Too childish for your tastes?" Gawan attempted to tease Donovan, not knowing if they were games for children in the first place.

"Checkers is definitely too simple for me. So simple in fact that it is considered to be a solved game, one with a defined path to victory against an imperfect opponent. Chess, on the other hand, is a game I disagree with on principle." Donovan would hide the fact that chess had also been solved. Computers completed that task long ago, but a human could never hope to replicate that level of memory - roughly 10^120 board states. "It simulates a war in dimensions far simpler than I would be concerned with, and most units move in ways not possible on a battlefield. It provides an absolute advantage to units initiating an attack, and requires your opponent to inform you of when they can achieve their victory condition. I can understand its use in teaching people how to construct, enact, and salvage a plan based on developing conditions in the field, but a leader's time would be better spent engaging in simulated war games and combat scenarios than moving around pieces on a board."

The party remained silent for a few seconds, Donovan having slowly raised his voice in frustration as he ranted.

". . . he's just a bit salty that he couldn't beat my grandfather at it." Diana recognized the dip in the mood, and moved to bring it back up. "Every so often he would have Donovan play a game of chess to keep an eye on his mental faculties, usually on his rest days too."

Donovan didn't bother correcting the record. He recognized his mistake and moved on with the tour.

"Two of the other rooms on this side of the floor are dedicated to food storage, a refrigerated room and a pantry for everything that doesn't need to be kept cold, but there isn't anything special about them aside from a few shelves and a locker for frozen goods."

"You can keep things frozen?" Rashtvice, incredulous, was not doubting their abilities at this point. "And you said its a room? Can we go inside?"

"We haven't turned the refrigerator room on yet, so it isn't anything special, but if you really want to."

- - - - -

Diana kept herself outside of the refrigerator room as they waited for cool air to come from the vents. She did this partially to keep it from feeling crowded, though her primary motivation had to do with the theater. What was she going to showcase? Arc had already analyzed the MRI of Cayzi, but in Diana's opinion that was a poor display of what the theater was for.

Of course, Diana recognized that there was a severe language barrier at play here. Anything that relied upon dialogue or text to communicate would be insufficient, which was perfect in a way. The strength of the audio-visual medium known as movies was that they could convey emotions and ideas without explicitly stating them. In fact, Diana had decided before Donovan had given her the go ahead that cartoons would be the specific medium she would show. To be particular, the cartoon was going to be Tom and Jerry.

Arc had yet to see any sign of Morizo from the Pegasus' scanners, which meant she had time. Lots of time. Whatever had been keeping Morizo from the party would have to be really important if he wanted to maintain his image in Diana's eyes. Something on this level wouldn't be a deal breaker as far as the Nekh, but it would make her hesitant to give him a monopoly over something important.

"OH!" An outburst from Rashtvice, show appeared to have his face against the floor vent when Diana looked in. "It really is cold!" 

"I told you it would be. All it does is blow cold air."

"That's incredible! Normally you would need a skilled sorcerer to do that, and you say it can be done without them?"

"I mean . . . refrigeration cycles may as well be magic, but yes. The temperature of the Pegasus' interior is controlled by the same unit that keeps this room cold, it's on the other side of this wall." Donovan began shuffling everyone out of the room. "I'd recommend getting your face away from the vent."

"Why?" A question asked by those doing something they really shouldn't left his mouth just before Arc turned up the intensity of the refrigeration. "Brbrbrbrbueh?!" 

Laughter erupted from all but Donovan as Rashtvice's cheeks puffed out by the sudden increase in airflow from the vent. Even Rashtvice, the unsuspecting victim of [ahem] a blow job, found himself cackling as he rolled around.

"Because of that."

- - - - -

Halfway through the showing, Diana took a brief moment to look around at audience reception. Her verdict? Mixed results. 

Despite her best efforts, including a short introduction to the rivalry between cat and mouse that the cartoon assumed everybody would know about, the cultural barrier was wrecking havoc on their enjoyment.

It made sense, she supposed. Animated cartoons, Tom and Jerry more than most others, would seem surreal to someone who didn't have the cultural knowledge about their looney nature or presence in a static form in newspapers and what not. Animals - animals they weren't familiar with - moved and acted in a manner similar to humans, but in extremely exaggerated and impossible to believe ways. Their arms, limbs, neck, and hell, even their torso all warped and deformed in insane ways that suggested a complete lack of bones. Instances of injuries that would undoubtedly be fatal in the real world were walked off with visual and audio 'gags' such as being flattened against the wall and inflated like one would a balloon - something they also wouldn't know existed.

That said, they were still finding the slapstick nature of the episode in question to be quite humorous. Even if they did not understand what was happening in a more complete manner, they could gather enough information from the expressions of the characters (more human than animal) and the sounds of the instruments in the background. If nothing else, Cayzi and Rashtvice had been enraptured by the performance on screen, with the rest assuming an expression of limited bemusement, chuckling or smiling when something entertaining occurred.

There was, of course, some sourness in this ordeal. Donovan, seated next to her at the back of the theater for this very reason, was not nearly as entertained as the rest. He would roll his eyes in exasperation at some of the funnier bits, but overall assumed a neutral expression. This behavior of his almost certainly had to do with the 'rough' childhood he had been subjected to, and he had long since passed the time in his life he could make a reasonable connection to something he viewed as childish.

Which made Titanyana's reaction to all of this all the stranger. Diana, now a self proclaimed expert in reading Nekh body language, watched from behind as Titanyana's ears and tail (sticking through a gap in her chair) signaled 'irritation' and 'anger'. At first, Diana had assumed this to be a result of the theater's loud, surround sound audio being heard through ears sensitive to direction and volume (an oversight on her part), but moments of 'joy' and 'relief' interspersed among the rest of the otherwise negative signals told her otherwise. Curious, Diana kept an eye on the little lady, mindful of what was happening on screen. 

It didn't take long for Diana to figure out what was causing Titanyana this stress - she was rooting for Tom.

- - - - -

Donovan allowed everyone a few seconds to let the cartoon settle in their minds and give them the chance to catch their breath before having Arc pull up the images relevant for his mini presentation.

"I hope you all enjoyed the cartoon, but I'd like to quickly move on to the brief analysis of differences between Cayzi's body and that of a Terran's." This analysis was mostly going to be him reading off the words at the bottom of each slide, but he had some freedom to scroll through the MRI scan itself and zoom in on curious elements. "I'd like to start off with the skeleton before doing a comparison of the limbs, then moving to the head and finally torso. Before we begin, I would once again like to ask Cayzi and Kayes if they are alright with this information being revealed to those present."

"So long as you acquiesce to my prior request, I have no issues." Cayzi nodded along with his mentor, not knowing what that request might have been but understanding it would have been done out of concern for him.

"The let's begin." The screen 'split' into two vertically, with one skeleton rotating on a black background on either half. "The information and visuals on the left belong to Cayzi, while those on the right belong to a Terran male of roughly equivalent age and adequate health, whom I will refer to as John. It should be immediately obvious that Cayzi's ribcage has one fewer pair of ribs than John's, but at the same time his sternum is longer and the bottom rib takes does not curve back up as much before sealing with the sternum. As a result, the total volume covered by his ribcage is roughly equivalent to John's. I can only imagine that this provides a greater degree of flexibility at the cost of spinal strength and the toughness of his ribs. Apart from this, the only notable skeletal differences which are the result of species differences rather than variation in genetics are the lack of a tailbone, here, a differently shaped patella and femur, here, and a sort of diagonal extension of the heel bone down here that, moving into an analysis of the extremities,"

The visuals shifted, covering the skeleton with muscles. Some recoiled from the grotesque sight of what was no better than a skinned corpse, but they contained their shock well.

"supports a much larger anchor point for a much larger Achilles tendon. While I can't be certain this serves a single purpose, I can be certain that this allows for much stronger and faster extension of the foot, which would translate to a higher speed while sprinting. On that subject, most of your other tendons are slightly different than John's, including how they are attached, which I can only imagine lends itself to faster movement."

"How are they different, exactly?" The Montaug expressed an interest in this.

"Uh, I'll be honest, it's really hard to tell just from looking at it on the surface, but the fibers in the tendons are thicker, and probably have a slightly different chemical make up than John's tendons based on the returns. If I had to guess, and this is only a guess,

this makes them stronger during instantaneous tension at the expense of being more likely to tear under prolonged stress. Admittedly, it might make it easier for Split to travel through the tendon as it moves down the arm - something John and his ancestors never had to contend with - but these are not mutually exclusive."

"I see. Please continue."

"The only other difference skeletally has to do with the metacarpals, where it almost looks like Cayzi's pinky metacarpal has been split in two. I haven't really seen it in action so I can't make a judgement, but I imagine it is a trade off between flexibility and strength."

Cayzi lifted up an arm, and did a little bit of movement with his pinky. Sure enough, he could fold it across his palm is such a way that allowed his other fingers to 'grab' it.

"Yeah, John here can't do whatever that is. Questions?"

"One, yes." Merndil attempted to turn back towards Donovan to speak, stopping half way. "How can you be so sure of your assessments with only an image? I mean, surely you would have to see something in action to make a judgement call on what it does or how it works, correct?"

"You're right, at least in concept, however we know enough about anatomy and the mechanics of muscles, tendons, and bone to make educated guesses as to the purpose, function, and reason certain parts of the body are shaped or situated in a certain way. For most of these differences there was at least one animal on Terra that had a similar anatomical structure, such as the extended heelbone. This is part of the reason I can only guess why Cayzi's tendons are the way that they are, his Achilles tendon has a thickness and shape that suggests a higher tensile strength than the compressive strength of the surrounding bone, which isn't something we have information about."

"Hm."

"Before moving on, I feel it should be mentioned that Cayzi's bone density about 80 percent that of John's, and the majority of male Terrans for that matter. It seems unlikely to me that this is a developmental defect caused by a lack of nutrition given his current state, but the number of instances where partial and microfractures are believed to have formed as a result of blunt force trauma . . . Kayes?"

"If they are along the arms, ribcage, and upper leg, they are most likely a result of our spars while training in the sword. I try to stop before I hit him, but there are times I find myself incapable of doing so completely, or decide that his movement was especially foolish and warrants some level of punishment." Kayes was grateful for Donovan leaving the accusation of child abuse unmentioned, much preferring that he be questioned on it and allowed to provide context rather than left to be judged without knowing.

"I see. I take it you were not responsible for the complete fracture of his tibia?"

"Um, no. I fell out of a hammock one time in a storm and fell on my arm wrong." Cayzi seemed equal parts fascinated and horrified that Donovan could discern this history.

"Hm. Well, it might be a bit too late to do anything about the major fracture at this point, but it's still a little bit concerning that your bones are scarring in the first place. It may be a symptom of insufficient nutrition or a lack of proper rest for the bone after the damage occurs. I understand you two are often on business and on boats, and that you have a duty to ensure Cayzi can take care of himself in a sticky situation, but failing to provide enough time for the bones to heal properly may weaken them in the long run."

"I will be more mindful of this in the future."

"Good. Moving on to his torso, mainly his organs, I'm just going to quickly run through them because I have a feeling that you either understand what they are and what they do, or won't know where to start with them." The images once again changed, switching to a light-dark gradient of blue. "John's heart is larger and on the other side of the sternum centerline. John and Cayzi have an identical volume of ribcage, but the shape of John's permits a larger difference between the maximum and minimum size of lungs during respiration. Cayzi's intestines are longer and larger overall, but his stomach is smaller. Cayzi lacks a gallbladder and appendix, has a smaller liver, and only has a single kidney that is, like the liver, smaller than John's. Cayzi has a larger pancreas, spleen, an bladder, as well as two organs that are not present in John. We know that one of these, specifically the one beneath the sternum, is responsible for regulating Split, however the purpose and function of the other is unknown. It might have a similar function to one of the organs he doesn't have in comparison to John, but without extensive testing we won't know for sure."

"It's his Zveker." Gawan seemed to know what it was. "It's an organ that acts as storage for Split separate of the Core. Not everyone has one, but those who do are quite powerful, so it's an open question as to whether having one makes you powerful, or being powerful means you develop one, because the answer to that question is generally answered after someone dies." Everybody who had some degree of knowledge about the subject seemed to nod. "I guess this means you'll be able to solve that mystery though."

"Zveker, interesting. I'll be sure to look into it when I have more time." Donovan made a note of it, telling Arc to look out for it in future scans. "Either way, we'll be moving on to the head. I will preface this by saying any comments about the brain are entirely academic and do not reflect on your capabilities or capacity at all. We only recently began to comprehend the human brain by the time everything fell apart, and it is entirely probable that your's functions differently."

"That's fine! I think its pretty clear I'm not as smart anyways."

". . . starting off the bat with what might be interpretable as an insult . . . your brain is noticeably smaller than John's, at least eight percent by volume and ten percent if we are to consider this in comparison to total cranial volume. In exchange, it seems that your brain is much better protected from impacts and inflammation, with a thin layer of tissue surrounding your brain that could do just about anything if I'm being honest. It's clear that it protects against concussion, but it could also regulate temperature or even serve as a buffer region for your brain to expand. Beyond that, certain parts of your brain seem undeveloped in comparison, though that could very well be a result of your adolescence and are merely in the process of doing so. Aside from that, you have one fewer pairs of molars on top and bottom, and you lack wisdom teeth if they are at all present in your bloodline. To compensate for there being fewer of them, each molar is a decent bit larger."

"What's a wisdom tooth?"

"An annoying bit of genetics left over from when our jaws were larger. You honestly aren't missing anything in that department, they are a huge pain in the ass to get removed."