Emily Alexander-Harrington

I just got done re-reading "House of Steel," and although I can't be bothered to dig through it to find the exact quote this second it went something like:

"Emily's body rejected all prosthetics - when one suffers the nerve damage she did not even the best treatment available on Beowulf could get her nerve endings and nervous system into good enough condition to allow her to control a prosthetic."

So it wasn't from a lack of trying. It was a unique type of physical damage done to her nervous system that made it impossible for her to control a prosthetic, and when coupled with her inability to regen left her in the state she is in.

Erls wrote:I just got done re-reading "House of Steel," and although I can't be bothered to dig through it to find the exact quote this second it went something like:

"Emily's body rejected all prosthetics - when one suffers the nerve damage she did not even the best treatment available on Beowulf could get her nerve endings and nervous system into good enough condition to allow her to control a prosthetic."

So it wasn't from a lack of trying. It was a unique type of physical damage done to her nervous system that made it impossible for her to control a prosthetic, and when coupled with her inability to regen left her in the state she is in.

(Tongue firmly in cheek). I suppose they could get her a PICA...

Don

Imaginos1892 wrote:How about telepresence? Link as many of her sensory and motor nerves as possible to a transceiver and build a complete robot body. She stays in the chair, but gets at least some of the sensation of walking around on her own. One of Anne McCaffrey's Brain-ships did that.

Somtaaw wrote:Beowulf, and to a lesser point Manticore have been trying to find a way, but when it's something that only affects, I think less than 10% of humanity, with its near trillions of people? It's a low priority research to anyone except someone who has direct experience with it.

That would constitute a market with 70 times the current population of Earth. I can't believe SOMEbody wouldn't be interested.
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Gentlemen! You can't fight in here - this is the War Room!

That is an awesome Honorverse Idea!! Emily does have a good friend who could afford the 'bot, I think.

Sounds like the idea is basically from the remade Robocop. Guy gets so badly injured only his head, a few internal organs and one hand remains, all of which are integrated into a cyborg body.

The difference is, robocop's original body was destroyed. Emily still has most of hers and might have hopes that some medical genius will eventually figure out how to get around the no-regen issue rather than take the irreversible step of sacrificing the unusable portions of her organic body.

Erls wrote:I just got done re-reading "House of Steel," and although I can't be bothered to dig through it to find the exact quote this second it went something like:

"Emily's body rejected all prosthetics - when one suffers the nerve damage she did not even the best treatment available on Beowulf could get her nerve endings and nervous system into good enough condition to allow her to control a prosthetic."

So it wasn't from a lack of trying. It was a unique type of physical damage done to her nervous system that made it impossible for her to control a prosthetic, and when coupled with her inability to regen left her in the state she is in.

I do wonder what is stashed away in the medical databases on Mesa. Do you think they have more data and techniques than Beowulf?

Of course, the whole ethics issue of using data acquired from Mesa will need to be discussed, but I suspect in the end it will be allowed.

-- Bob G

BobG wrote:I do wonder what is stashed away in the medical databases on Mesa. Do you think they have more data and techniques than Beowulf?

Of course, the whole ethics issue of using data acquired from Mesa will need to be discussed, but I suspect in the end it will be allowed.

-- Bob G

I imagine most of what Mesa has for biotech techniques that Beowulf does not have already is stuff that Beowulf and those working within its Life Sciences Code would not use. Not all - I'm sure Mesa's general interests, particular interests of its scientists, and luck of the research draw will make for some non-overlap with Beowulf's application set, even within the Code. But for the most part, they won't be duplicating Beowulf's research and Beowulf's research is available enough to Mesa to insure that they do not, leaving Mesa to do mostly what they've got their own special market to produce.

JeffEngel wrote:

BobG wrote:I do wonder what is stashed away in the medical databases on Mesa. Do you think they have more data and techniques than Beowulf?

Of course, the whole ethics issue of using data acquired from Mesa will need to be discussed, but I suspect in the end it will be allowed.

-- Bob G

I imagine most of what Mesa has for biotech techniques that Beowulf does not have already is stuff that Beowulf and those working within its Life Sciences Code would not use. Not all - I'm sure Mesa's general interests, particular interests of its scientists, and luck of the research draw will make for some non-overlap with Beowulf's application set, even within the Code. But for the most part, they won't be duplicating Beowulf's research and Beowulf's research is available enough to Mesa to insure that they do not, leaving Mesa to do mostly what they've got their own special market to produce.

More to the point - regen acceptance or rejection is a genetic trait. I fully expect that the MALign bred in regen acceptance and eliminated regen rejection from the gene pool as early as they could. At that point, who cares if some percentage of outsiders can't regen, everyone who matters (ie, is part of the Alignment), can, and there's no point wasting research assets on something for the unimportant masses that won't benefit any of the Star Lines.

Kytheros wrote:

JeffEngel wrote:I imagine most of what Mesa has for biotech techniques that Beowulf does not have already is stuff that Beowulf and those working within its Life Sciences Code would not use. Not all - I'm sure Mesa's general interests, particular interests of its scientists, and luck of the research draw will make for some non-overlap with Beowulf's application set, even within the Code. But for the most part, they won't be duplicating Beowulf's research and Beowulf's research is available enough to Mesa to insure that they do not, leaving Mesa to do mostly what they've got their own special market to produce.

More to the point - regen acceptance or rejection is a genetic trait. I fully expect that the MALign bred in regen acceptance and eliminated regen rejection from the gene pool as early as they could. At that point, who cares if some percentage of outsiders can't regen, everyone who matters (ie, is part of the Alignment), can, and there's no point wasting research assets on something for the unimportant masses that won't benefit any of the Star Lines.

Right. If there's anything relevant to regen intolerance treatment, it's an unintended side effect, or perhaps something from way back, e.g., from a period when they hadn't been able to eliminate regen intolerance from their preferred stock but were maybe interested in treating it after conception.

Still, in the realm of unintended side benefits, they may have research on implants that would improve her spinal cord to limbs connections, or cloning techniques to grow replacement organs from her tissue for transplantation. (I forget the provisions of the Beowulf Code for use of clones for such - I'm sure a fully developed clone is off limits for organ harvesting, I'm not sure about one with no brain function ever.) Along those lines, they may have techniques that can be used within the Beowulf Code that could not have been developed within it. There've been no limits at all on what genetic slaves can go through in their labs, after all.

It's a long shot though.

Still, whether from Mesa or just from what's been done since her accident and the original provisions for her, I think we could hope for something that would restore the use of her left arm and/or improve the use of her right one: perhaps a waldo sleeve to move it around, with even a "skin" around her hand to transmit sensation, through a new implant on her spine. And there may be something without major risks that can be done for her energy levels, like newer medications.