Prime Directive

Chapter 3: On the Planet

The first day was spent touring around their early childhood centre for Degians under the age of five to be taken care of while their parents worked.

Julian noted that there were quite a few carers present and working with the children. They were all separated by age with the babies being in a room with one-on-one support. It gave him a sense that all these children were deeply wanted by their parents and the community at large. It left Julian with warm feelings in his chest. These children were so loved, based on the amount of people taking care of them.

That night, Julian dutifully wrote his report out for the day. He also started writing down everything that he had been told about child development until the age of five. It was so much information that it could have filled an entire book already.

The next day, Julian was touring an elementary school which had students until the age of 10 which also marked the beginning of puberty. Julian noted so much about the growth milestones of the species and how they developed pretty much at the same rate as humans. Although, in terms of puberty it was a five-year process for everyone which was weird. By the end of it, girls could bear children successfully.

In the afternoon, he toured a school for students from the age of 11-15. Again, everything was perfect. The children were happy to answer any questions. Julian was handled several dozen documents about school programming and of course about child development.

Julian walked back to his quarters, wondering why he was being shown all of these children. One more day of seeing children then he would finally see the hospital itself. The ambassador had said to Julian on the first day that he wanted Julian to see for himself how scientifically based their schools were.

He wrote the reports, notes for books, and articles. The Degians seemed quite happy to present him with all the information that they had for their species.

Julian enjoyed looking in at the higher education for children more than he expected. It was clear that the teenagers were given a great deal of choice and freedom. Some people were already in trade programs instead of more academic focused careers. It was comforting to see. So far nothing was throwing up any red flags. The Degian world seemed like a good world to admit to the Federation.

Finally, after being there for five days, Julian was shown the research lab and able to read to his heart's content about their medicine.

He started with the most basic level of anatomy and worked from there.

After two weeks of being there, Julian thought his head was going to explode. He had enough information that well over a hundred books could be complied and maybe five hundred articles summarizing the findings of the scientists. The Degians did publish their research in journals but it was done so differently that most Federation citizens wouldn't find it accessible.

He was finally on the reproductive system, and he found things were pretty much the same except gestation was eight months not nine. Other than that, it was pretty much the same.

Finally, Julian was offered the chance to tour around a surrogacy center. The first place he was directed to go was the main floor entertainment room. Well over a hundred women in varying stages of pregnancy were doing their recreational activities which included puzzles, board games and for some, a game of charades, more or less. Julian smiled at the sight.

Dr. Begi was touring Julian around and showing him how the nutrition was heavily controlled so that the babies would develop properly. Although plenty of sweets were available as well. The surrogates just had to eat their nutritious food first.

Dr. Begi showed Julian a hologram of the implantation procedure. It looked similar to human anatomy except for how they tended to implant only one because of their high success rate. Even now, on Earth two or three were implanted.