Journal Entry 282 / 0733 "Does it bother you?" I asked.Journal Entry 282 / 0733 "Does it bother you?" I asked. "Does what?" Arraon asked, sipping quietly from a glass of what I was sure was part alcohol, part blood. It's the Uncia in him. "Knowing that you can never really go down there except in a heavy environment suit?" "Not really. The BCA's let me experience it as if I was there. I've come to know much about them. Their foods are fascinating. Trust me, though, that you will disagree with them. I've attended dinners where the dessert was the least tasty thing they offered." llerkin, the world we orbited, looks like a lovely world from orbit; the colors were blue and green, the clouds fluffy. But the atmosphere of llerkin is rich in methane, ozone, and hydrochloric acid. llerkindi breath through a hydrogen-oxygen exchange, and there isn't enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to activate the involuntary breathing response. It was completely unbreathable by any of the species intrinsic to Pendor; it was destructive to our eyes, our skin. But we needed to go to llerkin; they had made war upon us, and they had sued for peace as well. The economic advantages of being a Pendorian ally were especially valuable, since they were also a close neighbor. Also, Terra was literally begging us to seal a Pax Pendori with llerkin, since we were almost perfectly situated between the two stars, and Terra's starships aren't anywhere near the quality of llerkin's. But we're a straightforward people, and I detest doing anything where I can't be personally. The idea of negotiating with the llerkindi from inside an environment suit repulsed me. The solution was the BCA, or BioCybernetic Android. They are a new triumph of Pendorian technology, pushing the limits of Solid Artificial Ergasynthesis and Nanotech to their ultimates. Fixing one is more like surgery than mechanics. |