Utrecht Visscher | Network 002

[frontier_doktor]

[Audio]

Guten Morgen! [Which he says no matter what time of day it is.] I've realized recently all the unique diseases and ailments that come with living here, and I've been wanting to augment the clinic's database. I offered that I would do some research into diseases native to other universes and I was wondering which ones I should be most alert for. As well as different intoxicating substances. This doesn't necessarily have to include alcohol, but many recreational drugs and they can vary greatly between species.

Also is anyone here experienced with gene therapy? Genetic mapping?

[He wouldn't know the clinical way to put magical elements so he'll leave Braska to that.]

Comments

[ewestmarch]

What is it?

[frontier_doktor]

Genetic mapping? It's the practice of defining what genes in a creature define what traits. Though I'm still not clear on what midichlorians do to change people here- a lot of the abilities I've encountered, they're not native to my home.

[timesbureaucrat]

Gallifreyans are resistant to most illnesses, with a few exceptions, but I can tell you what I know, plus a few diseases that I've heard about second hand.

Let's see...there's Chen 7, which only affects species with binary cardiovascular systems. It's very rare, but has a 90% fatality rate within 24 hours of infection so it was always of some concern on Gallifrey. Outbreaks are highly uncommon, however, and the disease kills so very quickly that it rarely spreads far and is easily contained by quarantine.

Then there's the Cheetah Virus, which rewrites a person's genetics and converts a person of any species into the Cheetah species. Not the Earth animal, a sentient bipedal race.

The Altarian plague is highly virulent air born disease and causes loss of all inhibitions. Virus KX Variant 243 causes the patient's skin to turn transparent and in more advanced stages causes uncontrollable space/time jumps. Most sinister is perhaps Minski's virus, which is a synthetically designed disease transmitted through ingestion or...ah...intimate contact, or passed down from an infected parent to a child in the birthing process. The virus was created to seize control of the thoughts and actions of the infected.

[He's leaving out the Dogma Virus. He doesn't want to talk about that publicly.]

[frontier_doktor]

The first one- is there any chance of curing it if treated in time? Or do the victims have to recover naturally.

[The last two sound very "normal" to him, in regards to how his universe runs. But he's going to have to come back to that cheetah virus.]

[timesbureaucrat]

There are treatments that can help the infected fight off the disease, if you can get to the patient in time. For Gallifreyans, a forced regeneration is often successful if done early. In the later phases of the disease regeneration becomes impossible.

[frontier_doktor]

It's something worth looking into at least.

[Private]

Speaking of which, I'm hoping I've found someone at least interested in helping with your condition. I will let you know.

[timesbureaucrat]

I certainly would appreciate having the treatment on hand. Just in case. It's extremely rare, but you never know.

[Private]

Thank you, Doctor Visscher. Might I ask who it is?

[angermanaging]

[It takes Bruce a while to decide to answer this. There's just too much trained instinct to hide his abilities in him-- but logic overcomes it. He hardly needs to hide that he knows a lot about genetics.]

I've done genetic mapping before.

[Primarily of one subject: himself. But that one, over and over and over again...]

[Private]

[frontier_doktor]

It's an unusual set of circumstances that I should discuss with you privately. But do you think you could make sense of triple helix DNA if I gave you some good starting information? I've run into a few complications.

There is a species here- Gallifreyans -that are of particular note here.

[endsorrow]

Hmmmm. I don't believe there are any illnesses on Spira that would be difficult to treat should they crop up here. I looked into what I might prepare for with my herbs and magic shortly after my arrival, and I managed to find most of the sicknesses I am familiar with healing, though by different names, in some cases.

"Genes," though... I am utterly unfamiliar with.

[frontier_doktor]

"Genes" are pretty interesting. Imagine that the moment that your parents were together [no one wants to imagine their parents, Visscher] a map was made of the person that would be, or a list of instructions to make them. It's made of half of each parent. So every child that you would have would also have half of your map. Sometimes they don't combine well and things go wrong, children are sick. Or there are certain materials, sicknesses one can contract later that can harm that map and change the instructions.

[endsorrow]

[Braska listens intently, his hands pressed flat together with the tips of his fingers resting under his nose and his thumbs under his chin.]

I see... A most complex kind of magic.

Perhaps this explains my daughter's eye colors...

[A beat. And then he realizes what he just said.] Ah... That is to say, I never thought much of this before. The whys of it all.

[frontier_doktor]

That is usually what explains eye colors- at least where I'm from, anyway. And as it would be here.

[He doesn't know how different Braska's universe is but considering everyone is changed to follow the rules of this one.]

[endsorrow]

[Braska debates with himself briefly, but in the end, decides... it should be fine.]

My daughter, one of her eyes is green, like her mother's, and the other is blue, like mine. I'd never seen eyes like hers before. [But he smiles. He's very proud, and it's very obvious.] I always thought that it was suiting, but never questioned it beyond that.

[frontier_doktor]

Both of my parents were blonde, but I had red-haired grandparents. Genetics keeps older bits from older ancestors and later they can come back together again if two parents happened to have similar hidden traits. So my sister and I were red-headed.

[endsorrow]

This is fascinating. And, in many ways, heartening. We are all connected to our ancestors... Carrying pieces of them with us wherever we go.