Lt. Kim Stapledon - Comparing Science Stories

[John Smith]

(( Beach, Bokitu City, Bolarus IX ))

The topic had turned to telepathy and research on it.

Kettick:  Indeed. Empaths living in the vicinity of another, oft-volatile population. Species placed in this kind of challenging environment have been known to evolve in interesting ways.

Stapledon:  Sometimes. There were some field studies about the evolution of the ring cats...  Those weren't native to the planet, they were just descendants of stray domestic cats that started developing traits more adaptive to New Cyprus. But there were some studies conducted around interspecies telepathy too, mostly involving Betazoids.

Lim: Makes sense, Betazoids are one of the more common telepathic species alongside Vulcans.

Kettick glanced around a moment deep in thought.

Kettick: Were those studies the reason for your parents' presence on the planet? You mentioned they were studying the local fauna.

Kim looked over at Lim, curious.

Lim: Evolutionary biology, specifically speciation and adaptive radiation. It’s why we traveled so much as they moved from subject to subject.

The Remmilian cocked his head.  Kim tried to recall something similar.

Kettick: Adaptive radiation? Do you mean species adapting to radiation levels, or...

Lim: The Galapagos finches of Earth, the daggerfins of Sidus II and the veiled toads of Mota are all examples.

Kettick: Ah. My apologies, I am afraid we are quite far from my field of expertise.

Stapledon:  ::Smirking::  The cats I think had a slight advantage.  It turned out that the trees on New Cyprus had a bark that contained certain chemical compounds that worked similar to mild catnip.  The good part was that cats on the planet were very docile.  The bad part was that some people didn't really like so many of them wandering around all the time.

Lim:  Response

Kettick: Somehow, the idea that cats could evolve to emit radiation, as a means of defense or a hunting strategy, sounds entirely possible in this universe of ours. I am not quite sure if this is suppose to fill me with awe or existential exhaustion.

Kim snorted.  The ring cats, as they'd come to be called, hadn't been radioactive so much as perpetually high.

Lim: Response

The Remmilian shrugged.

Kettick: "Yes" is a valid answer.

Stapledon:  What about radioresistance?

Lim/Kettick: Response

Stapledon:  Oh, that's interesting.  Would it affect their other internal organs?

Lim/Kettick: Response

Stapledon:  Did that make for some interesting microbiomes?

Lim/Kettick: Response

Stapledon:  Well...  ::She thought for a moment::  There were some studies on telepathy on my world..  I think the bigger research fields ended up being sociological.  It wasn't just the uh..  Religions...  ::She decided it'd be best to gloss over the AILigion project for now ::  Klingons, Betazoids, and Humans were all very common species on New Cyprus.  It made for very cool emergent social dynamics...  I had a few Klingon friends.

She thought back to her friend Kurak.

Lim/Kettick: Response

--

Lt. Kimberly Stapledon

Chief of Science

USS Eagle-A

I238601KB0

Pronouns:  

Character:  She/Her 

Writer:  He/Him