A Guide to Humans

Chapter 2: Adverse Reactions

I sat in the EFoR lab, testing the samples I pulled from the dandelions and Marx was keeping me company as he had finished for the day.
"Folx asked me to join him to collect algae on Treplin 3." He said casually, putting my sample trimmings in the microscope slides so that I could finish sooner.
"Huh, how long will that take?"
"Maybe an hour, but he wants to stay till star set since the algae we will be collecting changes color at night and it is apparently quite beautiful. He wants to scan the area and add the environment to the holodeck."
"Sounds more like he wants to take you on a date."
"Purcolches don't do dates."
"Then how do you choose a mate?"
"We don't?" Marx looked at me. "You know we have a different life cycle than most, right?"
"No."
"Well, when we die, our bodies decay away until our xhoctlil is left."
"That's that round egg thing that sits under your back up heart and in between your organs, right?"
"Yes. It gets smaller each time we die."
"Do you die multiple times?"
"Yeah, each time we get smaller until we reach our Moxli stage."
"Which is?" I turned my chair to look at him.
"Last life. Then our bodies produce 2-7 Xhoctlils, depending on how healthy we are at that stage, and then, offspring."
"How big would you be at that stage?"
"Roughly your size." Marx shrugged.
I stared up at him for a second. Marx was roughly 7 and a half feet tall, and I was being stingy since he usually was crouching do to the way his legs were formed. No doubt he would be closer to 12 feet tall if he stood with straight knees.
"So does the cycle get disrupted?"
"A sudden death will do that. Like if I get killed. If I get really badly sick, my immune system will move to only protect my Xhoctlil and when I am ready to reemerge, I will start over as a smaller Purcolche, but with my same mind and memories."
I looked at him and tilted my head.
"Huh."
"What?"
"Nothing, just trying to understand the evolutionary cause of that life cycle. Also, why do you still have genitals then?"
"It's theorized, since my species wasn't found until we had developed warp travel, that our planet went through quite a few repetitive droughts and famine spells, so we developed this rebirth process to allow a better chance of survival over long periods of time. We used to breed, but since we developed the ability for our bodies to store the information to allow our bodies to mutate and evolve at a faster pace through a series of mutations spread out amongst our offspring, it became unnecessary." He glanced back over to me. "But it is just a theory."
"So you and your siblings have different mutations?"
"Yeah, like my backup heart. My brothers don't have it, but my sister, Jiri, has an extra kidney."
"What do your brothers have?"
"Talx has about a millimeter thicker skin, Molx has a deeper crease in his brain, hence why he is in a political office back on Purcol 7."
"So there is 4 of you?"
"There was 5, but not all mutations work out. We had another sister, Kejo, but she had larger lungs that didn't fit in her rib cage, so where I have very little vital organs here-" He motioned to the area under his ribs. "Hers were all here, and hers got popped in an accident during her second life and she drowned in her own blood."
"That's awful." I said, reaching out and putting my hand on his shoulder. Marx kept his head down.
"It happens." He said quietly, not looking up.
"Doesn't change how painful it is."
"You're right." He said, sighing and laying his head on the table.
"Do you have anything to help remember her or do you do some kind of ritual in her memory?"
"No... Does that help with grief for humans?"
"Yes. In Mexico, the country south of where I snuck on, they celebrate a holiday in the fall where they use a picture, candies, flower, and a candle for those who they have lost. There is a belief that so long as one of these shrines is built, the soul it is dedicated to will come to watch over their family during the holiday."
"That sounds lovely."
"There is also a belief that those who have passed on are always watching over those they love and their descendents. There could be countless parents and grandparents watching over you right now, cheering on your success, protecting you with little nudges that feel like a gut feeling."
"If that is the case, you can thank one of them for the gut feeling that didn't make me report you to Druka that first day."
"I had been on the ship for 2 months. I still would have been here."
"But we wouldn't be friends, would we?" He said, smiling at me.
"Nah, I had been stalking your lab for a week at that point, your were stuck with me from the start, Marxy."
"Do you honestly think you are always in control of the situation?" He asked me, tilting his head.
"I learned from an early age to always asess a situation and if I can't formulate a plan, I will stay quiet, take in everything as it comes and think on my feet." I said as I placed a slide under the scope. "This is subject one?"
"Two." Marx corrected me.
"Huh... Seems the soil of Trec has added some new parasitic micro organisms that, while eating at the cell walls, also have been depositing a chemical in the plant." I slid the micro scope towards Marx. He looked and smiled.
"Treclin micro mites. Their excrement produces a poison that doesn't effect most foliage, however, it is poisonous to most fauna on the planet of Trec. It also is where their eggs are left so any plant that grows from dirt that holds the left over corpses of the dead fauna will have them."
"So dandelions could end up flourishing growing on Trec?"
"It could, but in that case, they would greatly change the planet's atmosphere since dandelions produce oxygen, where as most plants on Trec produce carbon dioxide like you and I. Especially considering it is a weed, it could start to kill entire forests, causing oxygen pockets that if unchecked could completely change the planet."
"That's one hell of a butterfly effect."
"Just a hypothesis." Marx shrugged. "But it is cool that they are suitable for Treclin micro mi-" We both looked up as we heard a large boom from above us and then the room went dark before the back up generator turned on.
"What is above us?" I asked quietly.
"The HSR lab." He stated and I watched him get up and check the panel beside the door for the ships alert map.
"Did that sound like it came from there?"
"It did. We can still breathe if we go up to the corridor, but get the protective suit on just in case." He said as he opened the emergency cabinet and tossed me the suit and helmet.
"On it." I said as I quickly got suited up. Honestly, I was thankful that humans were similar enough to the Trexo that I could fit into their protective suits.