Humans Don't Hibernate [Part 84/?] (Patreon)

We returned to the medical bay with little in the way of fanfare.

Which was… quite shocking, given how every little thing I laid my eyes on felt like it could’ve been a celebration unto itself.

Moreover, the sheer fact that I was even here was a novel and overwhelmingly positive feeling I could never shake off.

But that wasn’t really too surprising, and it wasn’t something I could really blame myself for.

Because just a week ago, I’d been hooting and hollering over Evina's discovery of a half-mangled functioning piece of pre-war electronics.

Now? I stood in the bowels of a vessel practically brimming with technologies that would outshine and outclass even the most bleeding edge tech imaginable back before the war.

Now? I stood suspended in the void of space, my feet planted firmly on the immaculately crafted metal plating of these hallways, with artificial gravity generated not by rotation, but by some unknown force.

And I knew this too, for one simple reason.

The view from the window outside, never once shifted.

Instead, it remained static.

Which could only mean, this species wasn’t just space faring… they could actually manipulate the very forces of gravity itself, and for something as menial as the maintenance of comfortable levels of gravity at that. Something that could have otherwise been easily accomplished by simple rotation.

I practically consumed every minor little detail like that, my whole body buzzing with the tempo of excitement I don’t believe I’d ever felt in my entire life.

Yet this buzzing, this shaking, this constant absentmindedness did eventually cost me.

As it would seem as if I’d simply blanked out for a good few… however many minutes, as I found myself once more shirtless, sitting atop one of the examination tables, with more of those sticky tape-like sensor probes being attached to my skin through my thin fur.

“Eslan. Eslan? You okay there Eslan?” I finally heard Evina’s voice breaking through my reverie, as I shook my head hard to restore my sense of awareness of the world around me.

“Oh, yes, sorry, I was just… I was just thinking-”

“Daydreaming, you mean.” Evina interrupted with a warm and friendly smile.

“Yeah. That’s more accurate, yes.” I admitted with a firm smile of my own. And for that brief moment in time, I actually felt happy, in more ways than I could imagine. Whereas these warm and tender moments were plentiful down in the bunker, they were always tempered by the realization of the reality we could never escape.

We could always build a bubble around our reality, yes.

But it’d always be just that - a bubble. A steel and concrete reinforced bubble, but one with the risk of popping all the same.

As demonstrated by the arrival of that gang.

I shook a bit as that thought hit me, but just as quickly stopped as I realized that we’d actually made it.

We’d actually managed to completely escape that.

And that was why I was… genuinely, for the first time, truly happy.

“Eslan, we’re going to need to shave a few patches of fur to attach some of these other sensors, do you mind?” The alien, Lysara, spoke warmly through the medbay’s speakers. Which prompted me to nod affirmatively in response.

“I don’t mind at all, by all means, do whatever you need to do.” I acknowledged, which prompted the sound of a buzzing electric razor to sheer off a few patches of my matted fur.

At least some technologies remained the same, regardless of the era. I thought to myself through a smile.

“So, I saw that you were fixated on… literally every aspect of the ship as we carted you back to the medbay, Eslan.” Evina spoke suddenly, prompting me to shoot a questioning and confused glance towards her.

“What?”

“Well, I saw that you were in one of your signature deep thoughts again, and I just wanted you to know that like… you could just ask Lysara about the nitty gritty details of the ship you know.” Evina offered, prompting my pupils to dilate as that extra dimension of excitement suddenly started to grow within me; as an entirely new world of possibilities now opened up.

“I wouldn’t want to be a nuisance though.” I countered, as my subconscious came through at least offering some degree of social tact. Especially to someone who was already going so far as to offer up advanced medical assistance to me…

“Nonsense!” Evina responded… seemingly at the same time as Lysara as they both shot each other a knowing blink.

Lysara soon took over as a result.

“I would be more than happy to oblige to any questions you may have, Eslan. So please, feel free to ask.” He spoke candidly.

I just about forgot and ignored the strange sensation of shaven fur and sticky medical devices, as my mind went wild with questions.

“Before you start asking me questions, I do have a few more questions of my own to ask, Eslan. We are going to need to run some blood tests, as well as some bone marrow biopsies. Do you mind needles or any other such invasive diagnostics procedures?” The alien spoke once again.

“No, not at all! Do whatever you need to do.” I responded, before realizing what the latter question actually entailed. “Wait, bone marrow biopsies?” I shot back fearfully.

“Oh, it’s nothing like your conventional procedures. We use high-precision core needle sampling…” He explained reassuringly, before grabbing one of the medical devices, namely the one in question - for me to see. It looked like your standard needle, except it was thin, exceptionally so. In fact, the robot next to me simply inserted another one of a similar design into what appeared to be a ‘gun’ of sorts. “We anesthetize the local area, and the instrument itself is thin enough that it doesn’t cause much in the way of pain. I do hope that will be alright with you?”

I shot Evina a questioning glance, who in turn, shot Lysara a similar look of concern. “Is this really necessary?”

“To ensure that we have all of our bases covered, yes.” He explained. “In fact, I can demonstrate it myself if need be.” The alien snapped his fingers, prompting another robot to enter the fray, with a similar device in hand.

“No! No. That’s… it’s quite alright, Lysara.” I offered. “I… I know this is naive and not very wastelander of me, but I trust you on this one. So by all means.” I managed out through a forced smile.

“I’ll have the medical drones be as gentle as they can be, of course.” The alien responded as several more dedicated robots began prepping my arm for a blood sample.

I laid down, as my right arm was restrained.

And the procedures began in earnest, prompting me to look away, and to turn towards Lysara instead to keep my mind off of the procedures.

“So, I wanted to ask, I’m assuming you guys have artificial gravity right? Like proper artificial gravity? Not spin gravity or anything else?”

This seemed to cause some degree of alarm and fascination within the alien, if his eyes could be any indicator, given how his mouth remained just that same, closed-smile it always seemed to be. Once again, reaffirming my suspicions that it wasn’t actually a smile, but simply the shape and contours of his mouth.

“Correct, Eslan.” The alien nodded. “How did you figure-”

“The view.” I interrupted, my excitement more or less overruling what would’ve otherwise been a skittish and non-confrontational persona. “The fixed reference point of the planet and the stars behind it. They never shifted. They remained static. And yet we never experience any zero g. The only thing that could do that is a constant acceleration ‘upwards’ thereby pushing us ‘down’, or full-on artificial gravity.” I offered, prompting Evina to shoot me a look of intense fascination, as she always seemed to do when I nerded out as she liked to say.

“That is most certainly a prudent observation, Eslan. And a correct one at that.” Lysara responded.

Despite knowing this to be the truth already, having it confirmed as an all out reality still didn’t sit right with me. Especially with what I knew was possible within the confines of known physics. This prompted another unfiltered question to just blurt out without me even being able to process it first.

“How?”

“Through the exploitation of certain key fundamental breakthroughs in the field of Gravitics, Eslan.” The alien reasoned. “Granted, I do not have all the details given this is a highly specific field of applied physics and several fields of engineering. I am merely a xenoarcheologist and a military officer. As a result, this is very much beyond my scope of knowledge. However, I can attest to the fact that our gravitic technologies are quite mature, and as such, are used in such applications as quality of life measures; making this groundbreaking and revolutionary technology seem uncharacteristically mundane.”

That explanation practically shook my worldview, as if being in space wasn’t already enough.

“And… FTL? You arrived here using FTL, right?”

“Correct.”

“How?”

“We have multiple forms of it, from the creation of wormholes to bridge two points in space together, to the tunneling of hyperspace lanes utilizing-”

A ping suddenly interrupted this constant back and forth, as Lysara was notified of something on his tablet.

The notification of which, seemed to worry him somewhat, if the movement of those headfrills downwards was of any indication.

“Eslan, are you familiar with full body scans? I read in your medical texts that prior to the war you had Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging technologies-”

“I am familiar with those technologies, yes.” I acknowledged with a nod. “I’m assuming you need me to participate in more advanced full body imaging studies to figure out exactly what’s wrong with me?”

“Correct.” The alien responded with yet another nod. “If you need Evina to be with you, she can stand in the adjacent room with a leaded barrier-”

“Nono, I’ll be alright.” I acknowledged, before turning to a now-worried Evina. “I’ll be alright, okay?”

Evina’s features, predictably, darkened with worry. But she put on a strong face all the same. “You know, it’s usually me who’s the one to say that.”

“Well, maybe you need to get used to this new arrangement then.” I offered with a sly chuckle, prompting the felinor to punch me playfully against my shoulder.

“Not a chance.” She responded with a smile, and then promptly turned towards Lysara with worry. “So what happens now?”

“I’ll have the medical drones take Eslan into the radiology and imaging zone.” Lysara responded.

“Don’t worry Evina, I’ll be alright.” I spoke through a strong and confident smile, breaking through Evina’s worry, if only for a little bit.

And whilst the smile was ostensibly done in order to alleviate the worries of the other felinor, it didn’t feel forced this time around.

Because the sheer optimism that ran through me, and the excitement that colored my world, made it so that this once alien expression was now well and truly my own.

=====

75 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance. Medbay.

Evina

“So what’s the damage?” I spoke, just as those pneumatic doors closed and Eslan was well and truly out of earshot.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I know you wanted to talk to me in private, because of whatever it is you found in those blood samples. The ping on your tablet? The request to have him scanned in another room? I mean, it doesn’t take a genius or a people-reader to figure out your intentions, you know.” I responded bluntly, and with little in the way of courtesy.

A worrying, gnawing feeling of anxiety was preventing me from being fully sociable right now.

And I just wanted the answers… now.

“You’re correct in those observations, Evina.” Lysara acknowledged. “But for the record, I should let you know that I do require those full body scans as well. But I digress.” The alien continued with a sigh, as he began tapping his tablet incessantly. “Evina… how old is Eslan?”

Out of all the questions he could’ve asked, I definitely wasn’t expecting that question.

“Twenty-seven, maybe twenty-nine, records are difficult to come by and Eslan himself isn’t quite sure. He hit his head pretty hard or something in the forests when we first met. So yeah, roughly thereabouts.” I responded plainly.

“And would you say his current growth reflects that of someone in their late twenties, or early thirties by your species’ standards?” The alien asked once more.

“Yes.” I answered impatiently. “Why? Is he like growing super-old or something? Because I heard that radiation can do that to a person-”

“No. Well, yes. It’s… it’s complicated.” The alien managed out through a sigh as he brought up one of those floating see-through screens and placed it in front of his face. “Because the samples we just took indicate otherwise. As accounting for some margin of error, the lab results indicate that he’s only a third of the age he should be at.”

My whole world came to a complete stop at that answer.

My mind refused to acknowledge that.

And my response… was about what you’d expect from such a revelation.

“WHAT?!”