LF Friends, Will Travel

“So let's get the admin out of the way, then we can start the treatment.”

Spot sat across the table from Fluur, datapad in hand as the doctor looked across to his unexpected patient. The room they were in mostly looked normal, like any other medical examination room across the galaxy. It had a chair, one of those paper lined beds to lie on, cabinets filled with weird pieces of medical equipment that all presumably have a use for some test or ailment.

The one exception was the chamber, pressed against the wall: A metal and glass tube with enough space for an average sized single person to sit or lie down in. Pipes and wires ran from unknown vectors intersecting with the chamber, making the entire thing look less like a piece of cutting edge medical equipment, and more like something you’d find in a crazed scientist's basement.

“So just to confirm: You are Fluur, 4th of his name, son of Guurion, Citizen of the Zorthian Republic?”

“Yes”

Fluur response was the polar opposite of the uplift’s: Muted, quiet, unsure. His eyes fixated at a downwards angle towards the table. Spot on the other hand was excited, animated as he talked, tail wagging so fast it was a miracle the Terran didn’t take off in flight.

“Do you have any allergies or previous conditions, especially nano-sensitivity, gyoncell allergy, claustrophobia or any genetic modification?”

“No.”

“Fantastic. So I’ll explain what the proposed treatment is, the intended outcomes, and any risks of the treatment. I’ll get you to sign some documents , then we can get started.”

Spot gave a large goofy smile, continuing through the legally required steps.

“So, the main Terran medical technology is around genetic nanobot manipulation: Both regeneration and Medigel work on this concept of fixing both injuries and ageing at a cellular level. It works extremely well for Terran’s because of the sheer amount of effort gone into mapping and documenting practically every genetic strain.”

The uplift pauses for a moment to motion towards Fluur, clearly full steam ahead on explaining what Spot had been working on for the past few years.

“This obviously doesn’t work for anyone else though. The system sees Xeno DNA and is unsure what exactly to fix, often causing more damage than it fixes: Activating junk DNA or missing the important stuff. That’s where our work comes in.”

Fluur seemed to perk up a little bit as Spot spoke.It was difficult to not get mentally invested when an expert is explaining something that they’re proud of.

“Basically, we can create specific genetic markers on a per person basis, using a standard viral application vector for the genetic modification. In layman terms: It’s a custom set of instructions that we insert into your DNA for use by Terran medical technology." Spot took a brief moment to breathe, before continuing.

"While the end goal is to have this as something that can be accessed at any pharmacy, currently it takes about an hour to whip up the custom genetic modifications on a per person basis, to be taken in two 4 hour sessions. Your government maintains excellent medical records so I’ve already done the first part.”

Fluur gave a frown, the confusion perking him up a little bit. While the concept of universal Medigel was amazing, everyone was acting as if they were working with a live hand grenade instead of medical technology.

“If the treatment works as it should, which it will, it should have two effects.” Spot continued, tail never stopping wagging and a beaming smile never leaving his face. “Firstly is a complete revitalization of your current biology, any illnesses or injuries being healed, as well as deageing about…”

The uplift took a few moments to look at his datapad, before continuing on his legally mandated chat.

“5 years, if I’m calculating it correctly. Secondly it means you’ll be able to use all Terran medical care, including regeneration and Medigel. So you can be reckless as we are!”

This thought caused the Zorthian to give a small soft smile. Being as insane as a Terran was a worrying thought indeed.

“Potential side effects include headaches, nausea, genetic rejection syndrome and… being instantly incinerated by plasma based fire.”

“Wait. What? How is that a side effect?”

Fluur couldn’t help himself exclaiming out in shock. How did a simple genetic modification have that as a side effect?

“So it’s to do with Terran safety laws.” Spot stated, as if that explained anything. “The last time anyone did something even slightly similar to this, everyone nearly died, aka The God Plague. This technology was actually theorised to be possible before we even knew Xeno life existed, but it’s taken seventy years for anyone to feel comfortable enough trying it, after the, again, everyone nearly dying thing.”

He pointed a paw at the giant chamber in the room

”That means after application of the treatment, you need to be monitored for four hours in lockdown. If it detects any mutation past what is expected… well it removes all biological material and it stops being your problem.”

The look of shock was evident on Fluurs face.

“You’re kidding right?”

“The chance of it happening is basically zero, but I legally have to inform you about the risks. If it makes you feel any better, every room also has a similar hook up and as a last resort there's enough weapons to vaporise the moon we’re on."

This didn't make the Zorthian feel better, as suddenly he became aware of the piping that stretched across each ceiling, and the giant red 'don't push me' buttons that adorned each room.

"It's not just Amander it's it?" Fluur said it softly, almost resigned. "You're all insane."

This caused Spot to laugh, handing over the datapad. "I prefer the term environment induced chaos. If you're fine to go ahead just provide your consent and we can start.”

Fluur gave a small resigned sigh, placing an amphibian hand on the datapad as it lit up, accepting his bio-metric signature. As he was slowly led into the chamber he knew Amander wouldn’t have brought him anywhere where he was in actual danger. Still, why did Terrans always have to be like this?

He placed his arm into the auto injector as the chamber slowly sealed up, the wiring of hydraulics and the rumbling sound of the air supply being cut off and filtered in its own closed system: entirely isolating Fluur.

The tiny prick of the needle injecting into his arm told Fluur all he had to do now was simply wait for the treatment to work. Even this soon the effects were starting to become evident, bruises and healed over cuts slowly fading, dried out damaged skin returning to a normal translucent colour. Everything was seemingly going to plan.

So why was he starting to panic?

The walls of the chamber were too close to Fluur, seeming to entrap and entomb him in. The recycled air and small space seemed to rip the breath out of his lungs as the amphibian started to breathe faster. Even with the comfortable seated position and ambient lighting the enclosed space was just too much like… like he was back on the ship. As if at any moment the Raha would come back and-

“Fluur, are you ok in there? Your vitals have spiked.”

The concerned voice of Spot sounded from a speaker, although he was only just a few feet away.

“There’s… there’s not a lot of air in here. I can’t breathe. I need to get out..”

The doctor swore under his breath. This was possibly the worst way for someone to find out they have claustrophobia. Spot literally couldn’t open the door even if god was demanding it, the protocols were strict on that. Not until the treatment had been confirmed safe and non mutating.

“Ok Fluur, just close your eyes and take deep slow breaths OK? Just listen to the sound of my voice, you’re doing great.”

He could see the signs of the Zorthian slowly calming down, but Spot knew he was going to have to distracted Fluur for far longer than that.

“We got some time and I’m sure you have some questions after spending so much time with Amander.”

Fluur kept his eyes closed, just focusing on breathing and the sound of the uplift.

“What are you? People call you Terran but you don’t look like any other Terran I’ve seen.”

That caused Spot to chuckle a little bit: Anyone not familiar with Terrans always asked that question.

“The answer is I’m not a ‘real’ Terran. Don’t tell Amander that I said that, because I don’t want another 30 minute ‘You’re a real boy’ lecture. The fact is Humans have long made friends with basically anything that moved, and once they had the technology the first thing humanity did was bring their friends with them. I started my life as a non sapient ‘Canis lupus familiaris’ and through significant genetic modification, was uplifted to the lovable Doctor you know now.”

Now that confused Fluur. While technologically it was possible, the idea of spending that much time and effort to make it happen was… well it was insane. Although again, he was thinking about Terran actions, calling them insane was repeating himself. His next question however was interrupted as Spot continued to talk.

“As for your next question: Why? Well there are a lot of ways to describe a Terran: Insane, reckless, crazy. Even if you ask them to describe themselves, they tend to give you negative answers: Aggressive, dangerous, even evil. But in my experience, everything a Terran does can be explained by one single word.”

Spot paused a moment to let his next word have the full impact it deserved.

“Lonely."

"Did you know that Terrans are the only species to accidentally create AI? The method for creating digital intelligence is well known, but Humans in their desperation stumbled upon it simply because they wanted their machines to be nicer. There is nothing that they won’t try to befriend, and once they consider something their friend there is nothing that they wouldn’t do for them.”

Fluur could feel the panic creeping back in as the guilt for the amount of trouble he was causing started to seep back into his mind. The Zorthian couldn’t help but wonder if he just wasn’t worth all the trouble his rescue had caused.

“Is that why Amander came back for me”

“If I know Amander, and I do, there is not a force between heaven and hell that would have stopped her coming back for you. She clearly has taken quite a liking to you during your travels.”

Of course Fluur had also enjoyed his time, and had also come to consider Amander a friend. He had never left Zorthian space before and the Terran seemed to take great joy in showing him the galaxy at large.

“How do you know Amander?”

Although Fluur couldn’t see it, Spot gave a large smile at that question.

“I can’t really remember our meeting, as everything before the uplift is a bit of a blur. But when Amander joined the military I was ‘created’ and I’ve been her friend ever since. I’ve got plenty of stories about the crazy stuff she’s done.”

“Like what?”

“Well there was this one time…”