system: You are Michael Tauson, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Writing message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Michael Nellis about "Re: Books, problems with".

They wrote:
-=> Quoting Michael Nellis to Michael Tauson <=-
MN> <<< Continued from previous message >>>
MT> I had the good fortune of bouncing ideas off of a geneticist
MT> who, after I explained a few ideas like genetic tampering at a
MT> massive scale, gave me a couple of ideas that would make things
MT> work -
MN> Ooh.  You lucky devil.  Got anything you can post here in Writing?
MT> MN> winding up in the hospital where some UFO nut finds out that
MT> MN> her physiology is far from human.
MT> Hmmm, interesting.  Roswell Autopsy Part II ... <G>
MN> Something like that, except in this case there won't be a dead body,
MN> just a live one.
MN> It makes it easier for the physician in charge of
MN> the case to cover things up by replacing the test results with bogus
MN> paper.  The head X-rays were a bit trickier.
MN> This part of the series will mostly echo that TNG episode where Riker
MN> ends up in a hospital on a planet where the people still think they
MN> are alone in the universe.  (First Contact)  The hard part will be
MN> trying to hide an entire dragon, and a hungry one at that, somewhere
MN> in the Alberta foothills.
MN> One thing I contemplated was making Sherrilyn heartless.  I always
MN> thought that the human body must have been built by a committee
MN> working on a government contract.  I can't see why, really, a body
MN> can't pump blood by peristaltic action; the way our digestive tracts
MN> work.  At any rate, I think that her trachea descends in back of the
MN> esophagus, so that they don't cross as ours do, but that brings up the
MN> problem of what effect it would have on her speech.
<G>
MN> and hot liquids. Especially burning hot food.  Of course, I could just
MN> cover the trachea with an epiglottis the way ours are.
MN> exhalation.  (Or maybe the amount that goes in and out.  I should get
MN> me a Blakinston-Gould Medical dictionary.)
MN> I have no idea, but the perflourocarbons would probably just replace
MN> the hemoglobin in her blood cells, and the cells would be transported
MN> in a plasma like liquid.  Unfortunately, I don't have much info on
MN> them, and no idea where to look for more.
MT> MN> (Hmmmm.   Evielynn; Sherrilyn.  Oh, bother.)
MT> Close enough.  Both have "lyn" in them. <G>
MN> Too close. :-(

Write your reply.

assistant: Any specific one or just one in general? <G>
     Um, I have been.  Like it should be possible to adjust the
DNA of two races whose genetics are sufficiently close to begin
with so they will eventually converge to the point that mating
would be productive.  Implicit in this is tampering at several
stages of the planets' development which is, of course, not
outside the realm of possibility.  (It is outside the realm of
the HORNET universe, though. <G>)
     Minor - and easily changed - detail. <G>
     Swaps happen ... <G>
     Why Alberta?  Just move it to Ottawa and call it a Member of
Parliament.  Solves two problems at a time.
     Another MP?
     My counselor and I had a long talk about what would happen
if the heart and lungs were combined into two (bilateral
symmetry) organs that performed the functions of both.  The
circulatory system would, of course, be a closed system, but
respiration would be an open flow-through system.  This alters
how the beings would talk (vocal chords would be difficult to
operate without lungs) but that's not an insurmountable problem.
Crickets et al seem to do pretty well. <G>
     Would make Germanic rolled 'r's *really* back of the throat.
     Would there be a problem with this?
     And I really aughta take Biology one of these days. <G>
     Hmmm ... the first question I'd have is why this would occur
in nature.  From there, it should be fairly easy.
     *snicker* ... keeps ya on your toesies ... <G>
     Linda (ex-wife person with whom you talked in the ... er,
other place) sends her regards ... <G>
Michael
... "There is no cause for alarm! But there probably will be." -The Brain
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