Inside the Station
As humanity finally left behind the confines of its homeworld in the 21st and 22nd centuries, many competing strategies arose concerning how best to deal with the extreme environments of space. The initial impulse, of course, was to recreate Earth-standard conditions wherever humanity went, but this often proved unfeasible. Thus came the trans-humanist argument; if not all environments could be adapted to man, perhaps man could be adapted to them.
The Saiwa Facility from Orbit
This was a real crossroads for the human race, as genetic manipulation became possible, raising the question of whether or not it was ethical or even desirable. As a Time Lord, I am certain that in the Dark Times of our distant past we Gallifreyans were also faced with these issues, but it was all so long ago as to be erased from living memory. If you have the power to remove frailties and illnesses, to prolong life, to reconfigure the basic design...why not?
Low-Atmosphere Clones
I considered these things recently as the Fallen Hour and I found ourselves on the Saiwa facility, a genetic nursery that grows tailored clones for low atmosphere environments. As humanity spread out to colonize the bodies of its solar system, stations such as this one--sponsored by the African Confederation--became quite common. Largely automated, I wandered the anti-septic halls studying the genetic tailoring process. And I wondered...how many stations like these did my own ancestors construct as we improved our cardiovascular systems and gave ourselves the gift of regeneration? If life is about adaptation, where precisely does self-adaptation fit into the scheme? Lofty questions indeed.
The Early Years of Solar System Colonization
