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On the top floors of this resort, in the conference rooms and penthouse suites, even now the politicians and diplomats are discussing whether or not they'd like to go gallivanting around our universes, and we aren't allowed even a cursory peep at what they're talking about, much less a formal seat at the table.

[Small grenade of political discontent lobbed, Narvin switches topic.]

Also, I want to make it known preemptively that yes, I am a technician and computer specialist, but no, I will not fix your personal computer, communicator, speeder, spawner, or whatever else you brought with you. I'm a researcher, not a common mechanic. [Actually, he might fix your computer, if he likes you. But Narvin doesn't like many people as a general rule. ~~He also might offer to repair it if he thinks that you might have interesting files on your files that he might hack, but that's another matter.~~]

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[He can sort of tell, at least, that Narvin's speech implies that he expects respect whether or not he's done anything to prove it yet. Sorta makes him wonder.] Fifty, huh? How does agin' work with you guys? [Might as well figure out what he can while he can.]

It's a bit complicated. In total, our life spans are...oh...somewhere around twelve, fourteen thousand years usually. But it is spread out over thirteen incarnations, each of which live, mature, and barring accidents eventually die of old age.

Therefore age is both total years lived, but also incarnations passed through. The incarnation one is on shows how much life one has experienced and...

[Brief hesitation, and Narvin's voice is ever so slightly softer when he finished that sentence.]

...and how much life one has left.

[He clears his throat.]

A minor factor as well is the age of the current body. But of all the determiners of age, that is the one that Time Lords consider least relevant.

Yeah?

So what is old age for a single incarnation? How does that work?

[He works with Tauriel, and being towards the end of his life he is interested in this kind of thing now. Not living longer than he should, he's looking forward to having his letter retired. But it's still interesting to know who's going to keep kicking after he's done.]

It can vary widely, rather how a lifespan of any individual human can vary widely. But at least five hundred years is expected, any less than that and one might get a reputation for being careless with one's bodies. A sturdy body that was well cared for could last a thousand years.

Well, that's a hell of a lifespan. You guys must have made thousands of technological leaps since then.

[He doesn't really think about it getting boring because, after all, at one time human lifespans didn't see much further than fourty-five in some places and now some people live into their hundreds.]

What do you do about population control?

In the beginning of our civilization, yes. Less so in recent millennia, however. I was involved in one project that might have opened up whole new avenues of temporal technology. But the project was [a disaster] cancelled.

[And Narvin still sounds disappointed in how all that turned out, even though it was centuries ago.]

Beyond that, TARDISes continue to improve, there are minor developments in computers, in medical technology...but no major breakthroughs. The professors at the Academy said that it was because we'd reached the edge of knowledge itself. [But it hadn't been a very satisfying answer to young Narvin, who'd desperately wanted to achieve some technological feat on the level of Rassilon's innovations. To be told "sorry, boy, it's all been done, there's nothing left for you" had been a disappointment.]

Population control largely takes care of itself. But just in case, there are legal quotas and limits to how many cousins a House can loom.

That seems unlikely. Maybe you're tryin' to develop in the wrong directions. That whole insular thing can bite you on the ass like that.

[But he just raises an eyebrow.]

Loom?

Ah. Yes. You...don't do it that way, do you. [Explaining reproduction is awkward. "When two Gallifreyans want an alliance very much..."]

We reproduce by artificially weaving genetic elements from two donors together and growing the resulting offspring in a loom chamber. Long ago, before Rassilon's time, we procreated much the same way as...well...as mammals do, but that all ended shortly after Rassilon came to power.

I guess that's as good a way as any. Whatever gets the job done and as long as the kid gets the proper care.

[He isn't even meaning for the next question to be awkward as it is.]

I'm assuming that everything related to physical reproduction is vestigial now or have ya'll went through too few generations of development to worry about that.

[Narvin's face freezes for a moment, like a computer screen on the verge of crashing. Then, after a nanospan or two, his backups kick in, pushing his brain back into action.

But he still doesn't know how to answer that question. So he starts off with broader biological elements that aren't specific to reproduction.]

Our bodies are essentially unchanged since the time of Rassilon. He made significant alterations to our biology himself, practically redesigned the species from the inside out, but after that our forms have been largely stable. We control our genetics through the looms so there has been no evolutionary drift or pressure of natural selection in a billion years.

[But that only half answers the question.]

Our reproduction problem is one of sterility not...ah...physical configuration. Legend has it that the Pythia, the tyrant who ruled Gallifrey before Rassilon's revolution, cursed the species with sterility as she died in the vindictive hope that all of Gallifrey would slowly perish with her, leaving the planet a dead world. I suspect that it was something more prosaic, perhaps a side effect of some type of now forgotten biological weapon that was used in the revolution.

[He handles it well enough that Kay just takes it as a subject a technician isn't used to broaching rather than a social dissociation. Not bad, Narvin. Consider this a miracle of diplomacy.]

Ah. Well, I'm sorry to hear it happened but y'all sound like you're satisfied with the solution.

Edited 2014-06-21 01:34 (UTC)

[He's been having to practice a lot of diplomacy lately. Occasionally he's even successful.]

We are very satisfied, yes.

[Pause. Given the context, those words strike him as a little...risque.]

With our solution. And as our increased longevity with Rassilon's addition of regeneration to our biodata would have made population control a very serious problem otherwise, it's probably for the better that the species was rendered sterile and reproduction taken out of the hands of chance.

[He was doing so well and then he started to trip over his toes.]

Alright.

[Rather than aggravate a potentially embarrassing slip there, he trots boldly in the other direction.] So with regeneration do you end up neglecting some medical fields? Or has regeneration introduced some medical problems of its own?

Regeneration is itself somewhat risky and very unpleasant, so healing injuries is still much preferred over simply getting a new body and starting over, unless the body is near the end of its time anyway.

After a regeneration, it's common to experience post-regenerative trauma. One's mind and body are suddenly unfamiliar ground and still in flux, still taking shape. It's extremely disorienting and those who have recently regenerated can be highly susceptible to outside influences.

Regenerations can also sometimes fail, although it's very rare for that to happen. When it does people can end up split between bodies, or mutated, or temporally fractured.

Well, here's hopin' you don't have to do that while you're a long way from home.

[Narvin's eyes widen and he pales.]

I--

[He swallows.]

That won't be a problem.

Is there another problem?

[That sort of pause usually indicates another problem.]

No, no problem.

[There is a problem, quite clearly, but not one that Narvin is comfortable talking about. It's too shameful for him.]

[Kay's not going to press. But?] Sure. [He's going to be paranoid something is real wrong there. Might ask the med labs to be ready just in case.]

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