Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 76/?] (Patreon)

The look on Evina’s face shifted almost immediately as those words left my mouth. The shift was as sudden as it was intense, as the felinor’s face darkened, scrunched up, before breaking from eye contact all in one single movement. All in a matter of seconds following me bringing up a subject matter that I should’ve known would’ve elicited this sort of a response.

“Evina.” I began with as much an apologetic tone I could muster, swiveling in my chair to face her for good measure. “I apologize if I was too… brazen and forward with the topic I wished to inquire about. We need not continue this line of questioning if it’s a matter that’s too taboo, or too uncomfortable for you to cover. It was uncouth of me to bring it up in the first place, and I should’ve known better than to address a subject matter that was clearly-”

“It’s alright.” Evina interrupted my rapidly devolving stream of apologetics with a firm, resolute, and unflinching expression. One that was still very much dominated by that dark look of surprise that hadn’t yet managed to settle across her features. “Like I said before, you’re free to ask me anything, heck you even reiterated that which should’ve clued me in to what you were about to ask…” The felinor chastised herself more than anything as she simply shrugged away her own self-perceived failure to anticipate this turn of events. “Anyways, a promise is a promise, and pained reciprocity has to be paid back somehow.” The alien shrugged before chuckling to herself in a self deprecating tone. “They call it pained reciprocity for a reason I guess.”

I simply nodded in response, allowing her both the time and the space to continue on her own pace. Which she did after a few solid seconds of silence.

“RONAC and SNAC. Honestly, I wish the former was more common than the latter just because the acronym SNAC just doesn’t fit the severity of the condition it’s supposed to describe.” Evina began with a dour, somber, and increasingly tense tone of voice that continued its ceaseless march into the dark in spite of her attempts to spin some levity into the topic. “But let’s start with the basics, NAC, the actual condition without the need to delineate between whether or not its Rapid Onset, or Stable.” The felinor continued with another chuff, hinting at the first half of the two acronyms respectively. “NAC stands for Neurophysiological Apoptotic Cascade.”

My heart skipped a beat as I heard that, as I quickly found that my elementary understanding of biology and its associated terms was just enough to infer what was being alluded to by the dry yet scientifically-blunt name alone.

“I’m sure your fancy space age education is enough to clue you into what this entails.” Evina remarked with a sarcastic jab, before just as quickly moving on. “But I’ll expand on it anyway just to set the record straight. In layman's terms, this condition causes the loss of what makes you, you. As it describes the phenomenon where your neurons, axons, and whatever other cells that exist in your head suddenly decide to go kapoot. Either out of old age, repetitive overuse of inheritance, some underlying latent condition, or a combination of all of the above, there comes a time where a felinor reaches the end at the hands of a bunch of brain cells deciding it's time to take a permanent vacation. This is the condition that kills you if you’re lucky enough to live for too long, as your brain literally melts on a cellular level. And whilst it does sound rather metal, trust me, the results of its effects don’t even live up to the hype of how intense it actually is.”

I couldn’t help but to maintain a look of mild shock, tempered only with the grim confusion of seeing someone so openly nonchalant about such a grim fate that could just as easily befall them; if their earlier confrontation with Eslan was any indication.

“Listen, I won’t stand here acting like I’m the resource book to end all other resource books for this topic. I’m just telling you what I know about it, and what I’ve heard over the years. Which means you have to take everything I say with the understanding that I’m neither a scientist or a doctor. So, with that being said, there’s still the matter of RONAC and SNAC to delineate.” Evina paused, taking a moment to pace herself once more before diving straight back into the thick of things. “RONAC, as mentioned before, is just the Rapid-Onset variant of NAC. As the name suggests, it happens suddenly and out of nowhere, all at once, at seemingly random. Whatever underlying mechanisms exist to initiate NAC, all goes off at the same time in this particular condition, as it goes from zero to a hundred out of nowhere and causes the poor afflicted soul to quite literally fall dead within the hour… or the day… or something like that. I’m not sure, my experiences so far have been hit or miss with it considering I see more people dying from gunshot wounds, accidents, radiation sickness, or infectious diseases than RONAC.” The felinor shrugged once more. “Anyways, RONAC’s rare as I said. It’s SNAC that’s way more common. And as the name suggests, it’s the stable variant of NAC. Eslan described it very aptly before, pulling a single word to describe it straight from some medical text he read in a now-dead medical terminal: insidious. It’s slow, prodding, and you don’t even know you have it until it’s too late. Not that there’s anything you can do about it at all but I digress. You know you have it when you start talking nonsense, or when your memories start to go all fuzzy, and where you start living in other points across your lives, or just lose sight of reality altogether. It really depends on what melts and what neural pathways go first, or mutate first I guess.”

“Which explains why Eslan was so concerned when you were talking about your experiences following you losing consciousness in the forest.” I suddenly blurted out, as everything more or less started coming together, explaining just why Eslan was so adamant on believing this over the comparatively ludicrous explanation of a first contact story involving a space alien and a spaceship.

“Precisely.” Evina replied without hesitation. “It’s way more believable to him that with my brain the way it is, coupled with an accident in the forests, that either a preexisting SNAC, or a newly developed RONAC would’ve hit me hard. So, yeah, that’s SNAC, RONAC, and our species’ functional age cap all described to you in a neat little bow, Lysara.”

I couldn’t help but to let out a long, stress-ridden sigh at the end of all of that, before turning to Evina with as sympathetic of an expression as I could muster. “I’m… terribly sorry Evina.”

The alien seemed to pause for a moment, pondering something intently, before ultimately shrugging and addressing me with a stoic look on her face. “Honestly? It’s scary to think about when you casually reference it. But when you actually get into the thick of things, it starts to become way less scary. I guess it’s because you either accept it as a fact of life and move on, or you become so infatuated by it that you can’t live at all. And to be honest with you Lysara, I’d rather live than be controlled by outside forces; whether that’s an oppressive system, some would-be mobsters, giant metal-beast hybrid monsters, or vague fears of an existential ticking time bomb.”

I stared long and hard into Evina’s eyes as she spoke, each of her words landing closer and closer to home, yet somehow managing to supersede even my own resolve despite all of my experiences over the past few months.

“That is a truly noble and commendable mindset to have, Evina.” I acknowledged the felinor with a nod bordering on a small bow of respect, prompting the alien to simply raise her hands up in interjection.

“Eh, it is what it is, I guess. I’m no more nobler than the next guy down the highway who’s struggling to find safe drinking water. You just gotta adapt to your surroundings, your situation, and whatever. You just gotta find a way to live. Because going down the path of despair just ends up with just more despair for your troubles. I’d rather be happy than sad, and it’s as simple as that.”

It was then that I realized what I’d been sorely lacking over these past few months, as throughout Evina’s explanations, came a startling yet welcome reframing of just where my mind had been prior to these interactions.

The alien was providing a surprisingly grounded perspective on the world at large. Whether by her own nature or the circumstances that molded her, the effects of her grounded nature couldn’t be understated, as it prompted me to again reflect on matters; exemplified by the silence that filled the cockpit as we finally made our last few approach vectors towards the Perseverance’s shuttlebay.

“Evina?”

“Yeah, Lysara?”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s alright Lysara. Like I said, it’s a topic that is a bit uncomfortable to talk about but it gets easier the more I get into it.”

“Not just that, it’s just… thank you for the conversation in general, Evina. You’re truly a great conversation partner.”

That bit of gratitude seemed to spark some confusion in the felinor, if her cocking her head was anything to go by.

“Your welcome… I guess?.” Evina replied with a modest bout of snickers, just as we finally reentered the ship proper, and the docking ramp began extending back downwards. “Sorry, I’m not really used to the whole compliment thing.” The alien further elaborated with a nervous rub of her neck.

“That’s quite alright Evina, I erm, am sorry if I was being too forward with my own opinions.”

With that latter bit of awkward social interaction having reached its due course, I soon got up, followed by Evina who began walking beside me.

“So, I’m guessing your bots are going to be shipping Eslan over to the same clinic I was at earlier?”

“Yes, I’m actually awaiting your go-ahead on that actually.” I explained a matter of factly.

“Ah, okay.”

“In any case, I have taken the liberty of assigning you a cabin, so that after you accompany your friend to the medbay you may choose to retire there.”

“Oh, huh, erm, thanks. I didn’t really even consider room and board while here so thank you for that.” The alien nodded appreciatively. “Though I hope it’s not an insult to your culture if I choose to politely decline. I’m planning on staying put with Eslan for as long as I can if that’s okay.” That latter statement was phrased more as a statement than a question, something that the translator had clearly picked up on.

“That might actually be for the best, considering a familiar face might be what’s needed to ease your friend back into his new surroundings.” I acknowledged with a nod. “In that case I’ll have a guest bed wheeled in.”

We soon found ourselves at the foot of the shuttle, Eslan’s stretcher being wheeled down by a few of the medbay’s bots that had been dispatched here preemptively, courtesy of Vir.

“With all that being said, I will need to take my leave to address my own matters. I’ll have the robots and automated medical systems handling Eslan’s case while I’m away. However, should you need me, all you need to do is address me directly, and the computers will alert me to your inquiry.”

“So… should I just shout out your name randomly or…?”

“Yes. The ship is equipped with sensors in every room.”

“Alright then.” Evina nodded, as we now walked our way down a corridor, where two branching paths marked our diverging paths for the time being. “Thank you again, Lysara, for all your help.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Evina. Now, get some rest if you can, because if my scans of your planet are accurate, it would seem as if the local time in your particular part of your world is reaching a time most appropriate for it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” The alien chuckled in response as we went our own separate ways for the time being.