Xenoarcheologist

"This is a ruin!"
"Took you no guesses, genius."
"But, I was..."
"You were promised a place to do high-end science, no doubt. Some remnant of an ancient civilisation with amazing technological remains, beyond our imagination or understanding..."
"You wrote that speech, didn't you?"
"Oh, you're a sharp one, I did. My successor as dean cribbed it from one of my books."
"Why are we here? Sure sounds like you know more than he does what to expect here."
"Mostly the unknown, but those remnants have no sources of light or heat, that we can discern. No motion, no sound, is coming either. These appear completely ruined, to use your term."
"The camp shuttle is hailing us..."
"Yes, this is Xeno-team Fulcrum, River Cross xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx speaking, who am I addressing?"
"This is Solian Diplomatic Chargée d'affaires Rachel Wraith, I bear urgent communication from Sol System."
"From Birthsphere? Smother me in elephants!"
"Obviously, Sir, she has to be lying..."
"No, she is not, unless she's lying about who she says she is..."
"But no one from the Meritocracy has ever made the trip to Birthsphere."
"That's true, but, and this is classified most secret, Birthsphere emissaries have been visiting the Meritocracy for almost 80 years now. This particular individual was born on Thallax III iota of rare stock indeed."
"Rare stock? She's a clone, like us? Perhaps a purestrain?"
"No, not only that, her Mother is a clone, her father is half Solian, half Genemix, of WhiteFatima extraction."
"A WhiteFatima? Those are rare, and they are considered excellent researchers."
"Researchers, politicians, martial artists, but their main claim to fame is as teachers. Giving even the Fuchs stiff competition."
"And she is a mixed in with what clone lineage?"
"Time, her mother is Time Workman xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx."
"But, wait, you said she is part-solian?"
"I did say that. If you bother to research the name, you'll find it's not in any Meritocracy database, but one..."
"I did, I don't have access..."
"Silly me, you're still a student, you can't afford Thallax Times. And that's where the diplomats are listed."
"Her father is the Ambassador to Birthsphere?"
"No, her father is the ambassador from birthsphere's Son, he might get the job in time though. So when she requests something, there better be a good reason, if you say no, understand?"
"Just how much clout does she have?"
"Her father got consulted, for the next hierarch..."
He gulped. "So all the clout..."
"Well, maybe not all of it, but certainly enough an intern should step lively."
"And you know this person's name..."*
"We were introduced, her father visited the school you're studying at, while I was Dean. She's also named in the Solian System, not like her father or mother's, being more genemixed than most genemixes."
"How? What?"
"To be a genemix, one has to be at least one sixty-fourth clone, she is one one-hundred-twenty-eight clone."
"And what else is she?"
"She is half-Solian, did you not listen?"
"Oh. So her gene-code is unknown?"
"Yes, her father has not been Sequenced, despite being offered the honour."
"And her grand-father?"
"What?"
"The Solian, did we offer to sequence him?"
"Yes, the last person to do so was found in tiny pieces... We stopped asking. The ambassador is... cranky."
"Cranky?"
"I'm told he was a general of special forces, before accepting the assignment."
"Oh. A military?"
"So is the military aide they sent with the embassy, this Adian Stammler."
"A general of special forces?"
"Yes, he's quite the hit with the Kea and Paper."
"I bet. What about the Eagleeye?"
"He's more hands on than they are."

* To know someone by name in the Terran Meritocracy implies a degree of intimacy... You know them as a name, not a number..."

Type

Research / Scientific