Magic Inc. Part 2
Building 37 at the Manned Spacecraft Centre was a mostly single story, square, flat roofed building with large windows that wouldn't have looked out of place in a light industrial park. One corner had a second story square structure and on top of that a smaller third story in the same corner, like a lopsided cubist layer cake. Its mundane appearance belied the fact that it was the home of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, the place where lunar material samples, and astronauts during their quarantine period, ended up after being transported from the USS Hornet.
Now it had an additional function as the main facility for Project Luna, though the only change visible from the outside were some peculiar metal frameworks built on top of the main roof area and the Air Force Security Force guards at the entrance. The President's motorcade pulled up with several NASA marked vehicles, and the President and his NASA escorts were checked through into the building with appropriate pomp, circumstance and security measures.
The NASA part of the party had shrunk to Robert Gilruth, Director of the Manned Spaceflight Centre, Carl Sagan as overall leader of Project Luna and Freeman Dyson as the head of Thaumics research. Nixon was accompanied by his Secret Service close protection detail.
The first stop on the tour was a door with an electronic lock, two columns of number keys under the handle. Sagan punched in the code and let the group into a large interior room, lit by ceiling panels with the shapes of fluorescent tubes behind them, that was clearly originally designed as a conference room.
At one end was a large boxy device with a white screen dominating the inward face, racks of equipment on each side, including reel to reel audio and video tape recorders. Butterfly clamps had been fitted to the top corners of the screen. Set in the centre was a conference table and a number of executive chairs, and various shelves with anonymous folders and locked cabinets clustered at the other end. The conference table had a microphone in front of the chair facing the screen, and several phone handsets.
"So this is where the magic happens..." Nixon quipped genially. The lunch had been excellent, and having secured at least one part of his requirements, he was feeling distinctly jovial. It got some quiet chuckles from the others.
"Where it starts, anyway." Sagan replied. "From here we communicate with Luna, using the same link that Apollo Mission Control uses to Goldstone. We have the rear projection TV set up for the video link; when Luna provides us with a new rune set, or arithmantic equations, we can mount a sheet of tracing paper over the screen, and draw the pattern with high fidelity. Everything is recorded, and the tapes are held here securely.
"Arranging to communicate in Equestrian required some additional measures. Luna sent us the design of a simple relay unit, a ring that would mount on the lens of the translator bracelet. It repeats what the wearer was hearing and speaking in their own language to a linked speaker device, a palm sized disk of metal that can be up to a couple of yards away. While only the person wearing the Lens can actually communicate with Luna in Equestrian, it means other people can listen in and understand what's being said, also that the recordings were comprehensible. Both it and the bracelet are stored under constant guard in another area when not in use."
"This is certainly a more advanced set up than the one you had back when I talked to Luna last year." Nixon said.
Gilruth replied. "Yes, Mr President. It took some time and effort to set up the relay to the LRL from the main feed to mission control, but it has been more than worth the effort. While not as good as face to face communication, being able to get feedback from Luna on various projects has sped up the work considerably, according to the good doctors here. Of course, it's only temporary, as soon as Luna is brought down to Earth it will be decommissioned."
"Speaking of that talk you had, Mr President, Luna did record a message for you before she went to sleep." Dr Sagan added, moving over to the video recorder, and setting the tape mounted on it to play back onto the TV. Gilruth went to the panel of light switches by the door and switched off the lights at the projector end of the room. An image lit up and sharpened into a stark, bright view of the lunar landscape, with the descent stage of Intrepid still sitting on it's landing pad in the background, contrasting with the bright colours of the US flag next to it.
Luna stood there, minus her saddlebags, but wearing her conical Kapton foil hat and a Kapton foil blanket across her back, covering her wings. Traceries of silvery runesets were just barely visible against the shining gold of the material in the brilliant sunlight that shone down from high in the sky, as it was approaching local lunar noon. When she spoke, her voice was different, her English had an indefinable accent, an almost musical tone to it. Nixon quickly realised this was because she was not using her translator.
"Greetings, President Nixon. I must thank you for allowing your scientists and engineers to work with me so freely. After so long alone, to work on such stimulating puzzles and learn so many new things is a great joy. In return, I have done my humble best to assist them in better understanding magic and it's applications, and I hope I have given some measure of satisfaction. I will continue my own studies of your advanced sciences to enable myself to do so more effectively in the future.
"I must congratulate you on your own recent successes. I learned of the terrible conflict in Vietnam from the news broadcasts I received, and was at first shocked. While I was involved in several conflicts when we were first working to establish Equestria, none were as prolonged or brutal. It was clearly a war you inherited from your predecessors, and I am glad to see you are working to end it and bring peace. It can be no easy task, with such a legacy of violence on both sides. If there is any way in which I can help speed the process, you have only to ask, and I will provide what aid I can.
"As to my earlier promise, I have been working with you Doctor Dyson on magic countermeasures, to restrain my power should I fall once more. While magic restraining horn rings and shoes do exist, the main issue is crafting ones that can absorb my full mana output, especially once I am fully healed and return to my adult form. Similar runes can be used to make devices that can suppress active magic within an area, allowing for a room to provide containment, not just for myself, but for any magics that might prove a problem.
"Fortunately, I do not think such things will be needed, for myself at least. For the first time in a century or more, I feel... valued. The Nightmare was ripped from me by the Elements, and with my skills and services actually being called upon, to know that they are appreciated, even if my original malaise was not in part caused by some dark seed planted by a foul enchantment of Sombra, there is no well of ill feeling to create another.
"Nevertheless, Dr Sagan has had me speaking to a mind healer, psychologist, to bring to light any problems I may be hiding from even myself. Our time is limited at the moment by the many other calls on this means of communication, but I will continue to work with them more frequently once I am on Earth. Rest assured, I will continue to do everything in my power to repay your peoples' many kindnesses to me.
"Farewell, Mr President. I look forward to meeting you in person, when Sir James and his crew bring me to Earth, and may harmony guide you."
The video ended abruptly, and there was a moment of silence as the lights were brought back up.
"I see what you mean about her learning English, she got to that level in two months?" Nixon asked, sounding taken aback.
Sagan answered. "Wherever possible we've used English, plus she had other English language transmissions to listen to in her own time. She often came to us with a list of words to clarify. But yes, it is remarkable. Her recall is near eidetic, which makes sense if you consider that her body was adapted by magic to live for many centuries. To be able to even function after that long would require a far more efficent memory than humans have. And of course she is highly intelligent as well. The most surprising thing is her ability to make the necessary sounds, by comparison, Equestrian is hard on human throats. She may be using magic to aid her in modulating her voice, but it is clear she understands the words."
"The only other issue I can see is that she's seeing a psychologist. Some of the anti-Luna faction could spin that as her being unstable, especially after her original confession. I assume he's been vetted thoroughly, and sworn to secrecy above and beyond normal patient confidentiality?"
"Actually, it's she, Doctor Barbra Venmore." Director Gilruth said. "While the medical support for the Apollo program include psychologists, they are all men, and it was decided a female would be more effective, given Luna's surprisingly human mentality, and her lack of female contact otherwise. She came highly recommended by Doctor Grether, the Technical Director of the Behavioural Sciences Laboratory at Wright-Patterson. His team did the initial evaluations you received during that previous briefing. She has proven to be both discreet and highly capable so far."
"As long as she can keep her involvement under wraps, that's all that matters." Nixon stated. "How does it fit in with that list you gave me in the briefing anyway?"
Sagan answered, "We've mainly been fitting her sessions in within the language and cultural studies periods. It allowed Doctor Venmore to ask questions somewhat indirectly, and gave her better context for the answers."
They left the comunications room, Sagan locking it behind him. As they went back along the corridor, Sagan said, "The rest of the converted offices are being used in our pure theory work and cultural study efforts. While they are important, there is nothing much to demonstrate beyond the scenes from Luna's memories. While fascinating, they are probably not what you want to focus on. The practical thaumic development work is split between the astronaut quarantine section, the samples lab and the radiation lab. Dr Dyson can give you a better general overview."
The Crew Reception Area was behind airlock style double doors with a constant hum of a ventilator. "The quaraintine section and samples labs are sealed off from the outside, a precaution against any lunar microbes escaping, or terrestrial ones contaminating the samples. Though things have been relaxed somewhat as so far we've found no such contamination within the rocks or anything harmful from Luna."
As they entered the astronaut quarters, they moved directly to the medical section, which had clearly been expanded into a biological laboratory, with microscopes and cabinets full of jars and bottles as well as work benches and a number of animal cages. Several of the staff were there, including someone who looked familiar, but who Nixon couldn't place.
Sagan jogged his memory by saying, "Doctor Wilberforce, you may remember him from the initial briefing. His team did the primary testing on Luna's bio-samples, and he's been working firstly to discover any possible negative effects from biological exposure to thaumic energy, and then to characterise and test the biologically oriented thaumic effects; the preservation effect, the restful blanket effect and the components of the so-called battlefield healing effect."
"And they've proven remarkable!" Doctor Wilberforce exclaimed. "The preservation effect alone is revolutionary! The version we are using is a metastable effect rather than the limited duration one cast on the original vials. While it's active, it slows the speed of biochemical reactions by a factor of ten."
"I heard the term metastable before." Nixon interrupted, "Care to explain what that means in this case?"
"Certainly." answered Dyson. "We characterise effects in three categories for duration. Permanent, where the effect once created sustains itself with no further mana input, such as the Restful Blankets, Metastable, where an effect has can switch between an active or standby state, and Powered, where it requires a contant mana input to stay active. Many permanent effects can also be cast more cheaply as a limited duration version, where a fixed charge of quintessence is applied when the effect is created, and sustains it for as long as the charge lasts, or as metastable by adding a control runeset."
Wilberforce continued. "We started experimenting with common biological materials, and have more recently been experimenting with fruit flies and small animals. Initially our experiements were just bleeding off thaumic energy from an accumulator into a test chamber to expose the materials to raw thaumic energy. We even had a couple of human volunteers expose themselves once our initial test sequence showed no adverse effects on the animals. Of course we are still monitoring them, and the workers who regularly come into contact with thaumic energy.
"Once we were assured of the safety of using thaumic energy, we proceeded to testing the preservation effect. For materials it slows the rate of decay or activity, for creatures, it also slows their metabolisms and biological processes, even growth, and placing them in a torpor-like state."
He pointed to a cage of several guinea pigs, taped with several medical sensor pads, apparently sleeping. It was framed by an open fronted box which had shining runesets engraved in the walls. The medical sensors were plugged into recorders with spooling rolls of paper tape, recording the results with quiet scratching sounds.
"These guinea pigs have been sleeping for over fifty hours, and show no ill effects. Previous tests have been similarly promising. There are a vast number of possible applications, especially if this holds true for humans, though so far we have not had the resources to try. Setting up a proper long term test chamber is one of the things we hope to do now we have the funding."
"I'm sure you can explain some of them?" Nixon prompted.
"As a trivial example, it could replace or supplement refrigeration for foodstuffs, especially where they would normally require freezing, which damages the cell structures. A more practical use would be for blood, transplant materials and other medical treatments that have a limited shelf life, or as it was originally used, medical samples.
"But the real possibilities come from applying it to humans. Consider how many people with life-threatening but treatable injuries die on their way to the hospital every year, all because their condition deteriorated too quickly. That initial treatment period is sometimes called 'the Golden Hour', though in practice the window for intervention can be much shorter.
"An ambulance with a blanket or gurney that could generate a preservation effect would save hundreds of lives. And in many surgeries, the ability to slow metabolic effects and necrosis due to cutting of tissue or organs from their blood supply would be invaluable. Or cardiac arrest, where loss of blood flow and the oxygen carried can cause irreversable brain damage."
Director Gilruth added, "Thene there are the applications for manned space flight, which are of more direct interest to NASA."
At Nixon's questioning look he stated. "Interplanetary space flight, at least with our present technologies would take months. For example a Mars mission would require over a thousand days, six months each way, and over five hundred days on the planet to wait for the low energy 'window' that allows the vehicle to return with the least propellant expenditure. The outer planets required even longer travels durations.
"The use of cryogenics or other methods to allow astronauts to 'sleep' through the long cruising periods where no intervention is needed have been a common idea in science fiction, such as the hibernation pods in the film 2001. It saves on life support, since someone sleeping requires only about half the oxygen compared to being awake and consumables such as food, and avoids long periods of boredom, which can potentially be as much a killer as an asteroid strike. If the preservation effect plays out the way Doctor Wilberforce hopes, we could have a real world example."
"Didn't the people in 2001 die?" Nixon asked.
"Fortunately we're not Hollywood, and avoid designing systems that can be subverted by an insane artificial intelligence. Besides, this system would be inherently failsafe. Consider a pod which activates a limited duration preservation effect when an astronaut lies down to sleep, possibly with the addition of a restful blanket or direct sleep effect. It converts that 8 hour of normal sleep into 80 hours, followed by them waking up for a regular 16 hour work day. You limit the thaumic energy reserve so it will only activate for 80 hours at a time, and you build in a cut-out that is linked to the ship's instruments which will deactivate it immediately if they detect a problem.
"That adds up to an astronaut experiencing one work day for every four days of travel, and since it slows all biological processes, even aging, one full day for every four of real time. It also reduces total oxygen requirements by the same amount, beyond the reduced respiration rate when in torpor. If the effect can be increased to a factor of one hundred safely, the reduction would be one day in thirty four. That would turn that one thousand day Mars mission into just over a month of experienced time. In an emergency where you needed to stretch out limited life support, this could also be a life saver."
"Well don't start planning any Mars missions just yet." Nixon quipped. "Congress is unlikely to provide funding for another big space mission so soon after Apollo, let alone a more expensive one."
He didn't mention that he had been the one to reject any attempt at a Mars mission from the report that had been presented by the Space Task Group last year. He had also originally been looking at what else they could cut from the NASA budget, especially the manned space flight part of it, now that the primary mission of Apollo had been achieved, and Luna about to be retrieved. However it's renewed popularity, mostly due to Luna, was giving him second thoughts.
Gilruth didn't look particularly discouraged, "Then we will have to find ways to make it cheaper. But for now Doctor Wilberforce still has more to show you."
"Indeed I do!" Wilberforce exclaimed. "Fascinating as the preservation effect is, it pales in comparison to the Healing effect in importance. It is actually a composite of three effects, one that removes pain, one that cleans the injury of all debris and bacteria, and one that seems to hyper-accelerate tissue repair of the affected area. We have been testing the components as separate effects, and the results have been astounding!
"Firstly the pain relief effect, on it's own it's similar to the Restful Blanket effect, though in some ways simpler. Place the active device over or around the affected area, and pain sensations vanish, without affecting other senses. Remove it and sensation returns instantly. Also, unlike the Preservation effect, we can do limited human testing fairly simply. In fact..." He went over to a drawer, and removed a box from it.
"What's in the box?" Nixon asked.
"I'm tempted to say, 'Pain', but I don't know how many people would get the reference." Wilberforce stated, then grinned as he opened it. "It's a set of metal probes. They are normally used to measure loss of sensation due to nerve damage, but it is also ideal for testing the pain removal effect."
A medical cuff similar to the ones used in blood pressure testers, but covered in the familiar silvery rune patterns, followed the box. "We had this set up so you could see for yourself, or have one of your people verify it. I press on a fingertip with the probe, not hard enough to break the skin but enough to cause a painful sensation, first without the pain relief cuff, then with it so you can feel the difference. If you'll permit me, that is."
Nixon had not had a chance to interact with any of the artefacts from the missions, and this had him curious. "Go ahead then."
Doctor Wilberforce got him to rest his hand palm up on a table, wiped it and the one of the probes with a swab dipped in alcohol, and pressed the probe to his index fingertip. "Tell me when the sensation first becomes uncomfortable. There are no prizes for toughing it out."
He pressed down, and Nixon soon felt it, supressing an instinctive flinch reaction. Despite Doctor Wilberforce's warning, he held out until it started to go from uncomfortable to painful. "Okay, enough!"
Doctor Wilberforce withdrew the probe, and started fitting the cuff around his forearm, over his suit jacket. As it was pulled tight and the velcro strips engaged, Nixon felt an odd sensation, a pressure as if the cuff had filled with water for a moment, and the residual sting from the dent in his fingertip vanished. He let his hand be laid out as before.
"Now with the effect active." Doctor Wilberforce took up the probe again, and pressed on the fingertip next to where he had the first time, but this time, although Nixon could feel the pressure, his skin being pressed down, there was no pain.
"I'm pressing as hard as I was before, can you feel the difference?" Doctor Wilberforce asked.
"Yes, that's remarkable." Nixon was genuinely impressed, and showed it.
Wilberforce removed the probe. "We've had volunteers subject themselves to more significant levels of pain, electric shocks, below the level needed to cause damage, but more than enough to cause involuntary flinch reactions. With the cuff on, they didn't even react, though they could still feel different temperatures and textures. Luna is working out a version that is combined with a sleep effect to emulate a general anasthetic at our request.
"It adds up to an analgesic effect that can be switched on and off almost immediately, does not require a constant supply of medication or careful dosing, lacks the addictive risks of opiates, and has no effect on the other senses or mental faculties of the patient? Add to that the fact that this cuff was relatively simple and cheap to make, and uses a permanent effect that affects anything it's wrapped around? Even by itself it's incredibly valuable!"
He removed the cuff and put the tools away. "Similarly, the asepsis effect is revolutionary. While at base it's a development of that dust cleaning spell Luna used, the fact that it removes all debris from the wound is incredible, and it selectively removing harmful bacteria even more so. And it does so almost instantly. Conventional cleaning of a wound requires time and care, and antiseptic cleaners. Even then it's a best effort, we in part rely on the body's own immune and waste cleaning systems to deal with whatever you can't get at."
Wilberforce led the group through to a modest lounge area where an overhead projector had been set up, facing a whiteboard on the wall. He gestured for everyone to take seats, though he and the Secret Service men stayed standing. He switched on the OHP, and put a transparency of a microscope slide, with mysterious printed serial numbers and magnification factors around the edge. It was a mishmash of black dots, grains and semi-transparent hot-dog shapes.
"We did some experiments on simulated wounds, and then on some animal subjects. This is the control, sera taken from before..." He swapped the transparency, "... and after."
Most of the larger pieces of dirt were gone, and many of the bacteria gone or clearly damaged, but it was equally clear they hadn't all been removed.
"Compare this to cleaning the wound using the asepsis effect." Here the before picture was similar, but the after picture was almost clear.
"The only objects remaining are cell structures from the body of the subject. I can't stress how important that could be. Bacteria, like any other living thing evolve. While mutations are random, selection pressure is not. As we continue to increasingly use antibiotics and antiseptics, some biologists and medical researchers have started to worry that strains of bacteria might become more resistant to them. Then there are viruses, which are even harder to deal with. But this effect avoids that, Dr Dyson can explain why, better than I can."
Dyson stood up, and strode over by Wilberforce. "It's one of those semi-metaphysical concepts that tie into the idea of 'purpose'. At the very simplest level, the effect isn't targetting chemical bonds, but the concept of 'harmful bacteria'. The only way a species of bacteria can evolve to resist that is to become either neutral or commensural to the subject, at which point they are no longer a threat."
Wilberforce nodded. "Obviously this goes beyond simply cleaning wounds. It could potentially be targetted at specific diseases or substances in the bloodstream, even viruses. It could be applied to more efficient dialysis techniques that wouldn't require you to be hooked up to a machine for hours, or ensuring the quality of blood for transfusion. If you could place an entire room, or building under such an effect, it would make for a far safer hospital from a disease point of view. Though that would be more complicated to deploy."
Dyson clarified. "Like the de-dusting effect it's derived from, this effect is powered. Fortunately, it doesn't require much energy to maintain, at least at human scale. It does mean that a room or building would requre a dedicated thaumic power source. But a bandage or pad to clean a wound? That could have small crystals woven into it to store enough power for a sustained application, charged from a central store. The final effect, the actual healing, is far more power hungry."
"But capable of practically miraculous results." Doctor Wilberforce stated. "That isn't hyperbole. If a similar effect was performed by a person, I have no doubt it would be classified as a miracle and qualify them for sainthood. As it is, it is the least well tested of the effects, due to a lack of subjects to test it on, apart from some very limited animal testing. But we had a lucky, unlucky break, so to speak. one of the workers constructing photothaumic panels got their forearm soaked in hydrofluoric acid."
"We managed to keep the news in-house," Gilruth interjected, at Nixon's unspoken question. "In large part due to Doctor Wilberforce's work, and in part because of the security cordon the LRL is under. An internal review of hazardous material handling procedures was performed, additional training was mandated, and measures put in place to prevent a it happening again, but it was a genuine accident, caused in part because of the limited working spaces."
Wilberforce continued. "First aid was rendered almost immediately, removing the acid by extended washing and treating the affected area with calcium glutenate cream, but the acid was in contact with his skin for long enough to cause severe tissue damage over the hand and forearm, and large enough in area that there was a high risk of secondary effects, from chronic nerve pain to possible cardiac arrest.
"Normally, they would have immediately been transported to a full medical facility for advanced care, which might have included removal of the damaged tissue, but we had a fully charged tablet with the healing effect ready for testing. Applying it would only take a few moments, and from our testing we were certain that it would at least reduce the damage the hospital had to deal with."
He brought up another image on the OHP, a colour photo of a man's forearm, much of the hand and top surface greay and leathery, almost mummified. "The prognosis was not good, even with continuing treatment. At the very least he was looking at permanent partial loss of function, loss of sensation, reduced range of motion and heavy scarring, possibly chronic pain as well. Given the option to test the healing effect he agreed, even when the fact that it was highly experimental was made clear to him. The short notice meant we couldn't do a rigorous baseline physical or set up a movie camera, but we had the capability to take a series of photographs."
He started replacing photos on the OHP, one after another. The first was a slightly wider shot showing the injured arm resting on a table or other surface, and a thin slab of metal engraved with runesets and hooked to an odd looking cable with a wide flat pad on the end. "At this point we connected an accumulator."
The second showed the runesets lit up, and the grey, puffy tissue bulging up and cracking. The third showed the outer layer of skin sloughing away from the hand and arm, showing smooth skin underneath. The next few showed the damaged skin falling away, leaving an arm and hand that looked completely normal, surrounded by a shed layer of greyish tissue. The runes on the tablet were dark once more.
"As you can see, the results exceeded our highest expectations. Extensive testing was performed on the patient after the treatment, and showed that the healed arm had been fully restored, and was free of contamination. The effect grew new skin, tissue and even nerves, and simply ejected the necrotic tissue, pushing the remaining fluorine compounds into it. The process was painless, due to the pain relief effect, and took no more than twenty seconds. The only side effects noted were that after being healed, the patient was hungry despite having had a meal less than two hours before. Weight measurements before and after show he'd lost over 3 pounds in weight."
Wilberforce removed the last transparency and switched off the projector.
"However, powering it half drained an accumulator that had been charging for 12 hours from an array a dozen square yards in size. In order to deploy it on any large scale, we need better methods of powering or charging it. Even so, it is one of the more remarkable things I have seen in my career."
He looked directly towards Nixon. "I can't stress just how important these effects are. Any one of them is the equal of any major medical advance in history, on the same level as germ theory, vaccination, antibiotics or blood transfusion. If we never gained anything else from thaumic research, but can develop these techniques into a generally usable form, the Apollo program, no, the space program would have paid for itself.
"It would enable us to save lives, end human suffering on a scale that is hard to imagine. It's only a pity that Luna doesn't know any other healing effects, but her knowledge is that of a battlefield medic, from her time in combat. While she knows there were more focused and sophisticated healing spells, mostly developed in the Crystal Empire, it was not her field of expertise. But there may be non-medical effects we can adapt to medical purposes, such as the sleep effect.
"Our next step, one that is now possible thanks to the new funding, is to build some proper research facilities and rigourously test these effects, enable proper human trials, develop them into a practical form that can be widely used, and prove beyond doubt that there are no long term side effects or issues."
"Wait, you mean you're not sure?" Nixon exclaimed, thinking back to the pain relief demonstration.
"Oh no, all our existing research indicates that these effects are nothing but beneficial. They are, after all, results of a medical tradition that's considerably older than ours, and our testing has shown that species doesn't affect their efficacy. While quintessence as a form of energy is exotic beyond imagination, in it's raw form it has no effect on biology from every test we've made. And when directed through a runeset, or presumably a spell, it has only the specific effects that runeset is designed to evoke. For it to to do otherwise would be like your record player suddenly starting to shoot lasers.
"However, it's one thing to determine that these effects are safe and useful, it's another to demonstrate it at a level that will allow it to become a recognised treatment. We need to work with the NIH and FDA to develop a proper testing program, for that matter we need to do a lot of development work to work out the best way to deliver these effects in the first place, and what applications we focus on to start with. Something of an embarrassment of riches, so to speak."
Nixon was sincerely impressed, but he was also already considering the political possibilities, and pitfallls. Healthcare was a contentious subject at the best of times with the recent introduction of Medicare by the previous administration. These new therapies certainly sounded promising, but a lot of how they were received would be down to their price tag. Even so, the fast healing spell effect would almost certainly be a very popular, even if in limited use due to availabilty or cost.
With Vietnam still looming large in everyone's thoughts, a way to save soldiers gravely wounded on the battlefield would garner a lot of attention; the continual rise of motor crash deaths despite new safety measures, and industrial accidents, yes, it could be a very visible benefit from supporting Luna's integration, with positive outcomes both for the American people, and the administration that sponsored it. Even some of the groups who opposed Luna on various religous or political grounds might waver when faced with their own mortality.
Of the remaining effects, the pain relief one would likely be the most problematic, simply because it directly competed with existing pain relief drugs. The pharmacutical companies would not be happy at the impact on their bottom line, if this new therapy proved to be cheaper and more effective, and Wilberforce's description certainly suggested it was.
However, the idea appealed to him, a non-addictive painkiller with no mental side effects. Drugs had long been a personal bugbear of his, and he was only too aware of how medical painkillers and their precursors often ended up being diverted into 'recreational' uses. Anything that could cut down on the need for them was a good thing in his book.
The anti-dirt and disease spell might also affect production of antibiotics, but that was dependent on just how effective they could make it. However, with the recent scares over the safety of blood supplied by paid donors, a way to clean it, and secure America's blood supply could be a very welcome solution. Reduced disease rates in general would mean fewer and shorter hospital stays, which could only reduce the demands on Medicare and Medicaid.
On the whole, the political down sides to continuing development of these effects were outweighed by the advantages. He could see several angles to boost the administration's approval rating, not to mention that it could be a fairly safe 'carrot' to use in future international diplomacy. And there was the genuine good it could do as well.
"I have to agree. Developing these techniques for more general use would be of great benefit to the United States, for all mankind even. Expedite your development work, and if you run into any hold ups with the NIH or FDA, we'll see if a some presidential pressure clears any blockages."
"Thank you Mr President!" Wilberforce replied gratefully.
"If you'll come this way, sir, we have some other projects you may find interesting." Dyson said. "Including at least one other that would take relatively little development work to provide another life saving device."
"Lead on then." Nixon followed the scientists out of the astronaut section, and into the high ceilinged workshops of the lunar samples laboratory.
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Im impressed! Luna, you really are changing the world!
I just cant wait till you come home!
P.S. When Luna finally does come to Earth, how about Neil, Buzz and Mike waiting to greet her, and when she sees them, she tackles them in one big hug!
You do a good job of describing the dichotomy between a scientist and a politician and they way they think.
DO NOT LET NIXON READ DUNE
He would get ideas. Like expanding MKULTRA to even worse mind-altering substances and mutagens. They don't count as drugs, since it's the Government.
It's still very early days, but they already have the beginning of something that can literally tell influenza to "**** off and die". Literally!
The lives saved by that potentiality alone are almost incalculable.
I also quite like your mindfulness when it comes to the ever-present political calculations, Nixon doesn't just look at cool magic things with a rubber stamp in hand, he's carefully weighing the impact of each initiative. Who knows, with such harsh competition perhaps the pharmaceutical industry won't have the ability to be so oppressive.
Typo*
Only issue I see is calling the the Air Force 'Security Forces'. At that point they were the 'Security Police' or more likely 'Air Police'. Security Forces wasn't a term used until much later, the 1980's I think.
Everypony happy? Everypony Sing.
I have no idea of the relative publication date of Hellraiser, and what was left in Pandoras Box, was Hope.
As for the Peaceful and Healing effects.
Oh dear.
What happens when Luna proposes an extension from her interactions with the psychologist, to the mental variations of those spell effects?
On applying it to blanket a goverment building say to protect it from, bad actors, just how many politicians would drop on the spot? Same with Area Of Effect crowd control trucks, or even the equivalent in JDAM and Cruise?
Something of a severe hypothetical that comes to mind, given certain discoveries over the years, such as multiscale recursive nonlinear structures in the alighment of the mineral crystals forming bone amongst others, is that the runes for the healing effect are likely to be discovered perfusing totally through Equestrian Dragons fluids, organs, bones etc, being traceable back therefore to the rune set being a full evolutionary trace back to the first self sustaining cellular entity, part due to chemistry and part due to thaumic self sustaining energy forms, especially in the far higher enegetic regions of molten rocks and metals but still with complexities in mineral compositions and crystaline forms?
What would a Thaumochemical equivalent of the Equestrian Mills Genesis Soup look like, and just how quickly would a self sustaining structure grow and evolve given so much energy, but generally far lower rates of change of motion, shear forces etc except within actual explosive eruption events?
As for all the addiction problems of various drug treatments? What if theres a simple rune variation on the Healing effect, that creates an Anti Addiction effect, Permanently? Comes down to the argument, Free Will to be Adicted and Buisiness wants the right to take advantage of adicted people, no matter the form?
Gordon Ramsay is gonna love this after he's been served frozen foods. Now he can serve the 'Blanket' food, fresh even after 3 years.
Nothing brings me more joy than to piss off the pharmaceutical industry and shatter their monopoly.
11672360
It was a reference to
I wonder if Navy Seal instructors make comparisons between the Bene Gesserit box test and the Navy Seal Pool Comp test, where recruits have to overcome their hardwired animal instincts and hold their breath for inhumanly long stretches while the instructors foul their gear and they have to remain calm and not panic while remembering the procedure to unfoul it.
y'know
there's a certain "je ne sais quoi" added to this story when reading all of Nixon's lines with his Futurama voice
Hmm, now this gets my gears spinning. The sudden hunger and loss of weight seems to indicate that this healing effect, in essence, accelerates and directs the various physiological processes involved in natural healing, including the metabolism of stored nutrients. Something that doesn't seem to be addressed here is thermoregulation: burning three pounds of body fuel in 20 seconds is gonna generate a LOT of heat, to say nothing of frictional heating from how fast the molecules in each cell would have to be moving to replicate DNA, synthesize new proteins, transport nutrients in and waste out, all at literally thousands of times normal speed. Without an additional temperature control component, that arm would effectively flash-boil.
No worries about the characters having a lot to say. I found this chapter quite engaging.
I did, however, notice a typo... partly because of how prone I am to making typos of this sort when writing comments. *sweatdrop*
electronic
communication
received
be needed - 1 time to often.
been
compared
immediately
11672425 Remember the tankard cooling spell? There's probably a variation of that hidden within the spell matrix to remove waste heat, though I hadn't considered it directly. They do something similar for ki healing in 'Desperately Seeking Ranma' a fun if OP Ranma fanfic.
But thanks for the suggestion, I may reference it in passing when they actually demonstrate the cooling spell.
I can see problems whit all of the tre spell effects, thoe the healing one did show it self so they are awere that it is useing the bodys own material to heal the damage, mening to regrow say a leg you regrow the leg but is now deguerasly under wight.
the pain remover could have some seriusly dengerusly miss use, someone gos to the gym to train and has a pain remover bracelet or whatever and starts lifting wights and sence "no pain, no gain" he/she ads more wight and keep going untill musles bracke and they still dont feel any pain. need I elaborate more.
As fore the cleaner, the most insidius of them all, did you know that disendants of the black pluage survivors is resistant to the HIV/AIDS virus, do you even want to know how much of the "junk" DNA is old viruses and backteria some of which has aloud us to evolv in too what we are today?
Good chapter
11672238
I second this!
In Germany even refugees get health ensuring, in America even born people don't get health ensurance by default
Giving and letting America control it will be a desaster. I hope Luna recognize that fact.
11672238
She's gone rabid, open fire!
Did we ever find out how long Luna's been on the moon and when that auspicious date, when the stars align, is going to happen? If she's not on the moon when it does happen, will she miss her chance to return home? Will... something else from the void return in her place? Or will it grab Luna, no matter where she's traipsed off to, and the Nightmare before throwing them both back to Equestria in that opening welcome in Ponyville town hall?
...if Luna's not still corrupted when she comes back, how will the girls ever get together and find the Elements? That would be a serious disruption to that plot line right from the get-go of Season 1, Episode 1.
Never expected this story to get revived, but here we are.
Very happy to see another so soon after the first one.
Even if Luna’s knowledge of healing magic is limited. Between her basic magical knowledge and the advanced scientific knowledge of humanity given time just about anything is possible.
11672563
Dude, please try and reword your comment! I got a MASSIVE headache just trying to understand what you were trying to say! I might let it pass if you are a non-English speaker attempting to write in English, but the words are just too corrupted to truly understand. When writing, take the time to review your words before posting them!
My only comment is how wordy these chapters have been. I really have little regard for Nixon (I DID grow up in the period), even if you are merely using these past few chapters to use as exposition to develop the idea of Luna's magic effects and how they can help or destroy our technological advances.
On another trajectory, this Nixon might just become like the Nixon of the "Watchmen" universe, where he declares himself as "life-long" President (and who does that sound like IRL?).
11672732
who knows???
Luna:
"Things run smoothly and life is good."
Murphy:
America leader be like:
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camo.fimfiction.net/xzb_CPsKbTVn-ghk5o9SQLmSa5OhME7cvB_KZNaTXUs?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpre03.deviantart.net%2F3604%2Fth%2Fpre%2Fi%2F2012%2F041%2F4%2Fa%2Funlimited_friendship___by_shrubninja-d4pan89.jpg
11672837
First: Sorry I'am dyslexic and english is a second language.
Second: I was born early 90's sweden I dont care about Nixon one way or the other.
Thirdly: I was talking about the dangers of the tre spells and how they are a direckt danger to humans if miss used;
The healing one uses the bodys own mass to regrow the damaged area, this could let you regrow limbs but it would leve you dangerusly under weight.
The pain remover is a totall removal of pain and only pain, this can make it so that a user might be in an accident and not kown they were hurt becouse they dont feel the pain.
The cleaner is dangerus becous if you constantly remove all dangerus backteria the body can not build up immunity wich can make even the common cold deadly.
Here I was also making a refrenc to that a large part of the human genome is as far as we can see, dosent do anything and has been misslabled as "junk DNA" and that up too 40% of this "junk DNA" seems to be made of bacterial and virus DNA wich can explain why some pepole have a hige resistenc or are immune too some diseases. It has been shown that pepole that are disended from Bubonic pluage survivors are resistent to HIV, how HIV and bubonic are related, I have no ide.
I hope this is better and have a good evening from sweden.
11672937
I apologize if I sounded like a snotty American. I also am Swedish in my lineage, yet i mostly tell everyone that i am English. And Irish, and Scots, with a dab of French. Ergo, a "Heinz 57."
I respect that your English is a second language. I only know just smatterings of other European languages, so I do lack in that. Oh, and if you are interested, I was born in '56 in California, so my outlook is dominated by the Seventies.
TBH, I could really care less about his medical explanations. I'd be more focused on how to bring Luna back to Earth, and how her appearance would affect normal life for us Humans here. I mean, some are saying that in IRL, us humans would mostly die off quickly if we ever met any alien species. Food for thought.
11672437
11672481
All errors have been zapped. Thanks for the assistance.
And shows how OP specifically D&D magic is. Not only does it throw medical miracles around quite casually in general (as long as the spells are on your class list and you have the requisite level), most of them also work so quickly that I suspect some real life doctors would be worried about applying those insta-fixes for fear that their patient might just go into shock from their abrupt recovery.
Granted, this particular spell from Luna’s repertoire is clearly intended more for use in emergencies than for the longer-term medical care and recovery of patients whose lives are already no longer in immediate danger; Equestrian doctors probably have gentler magical therapies available for the latter, but Luna may not know much about them.
11672922
The entity was separated from so I believe that when she gets to Earth and returns home a mere thousand years later... That's when "she" as Nightmare Moon returns... Annnnnd 😅 I don't know WHY, I guess I like tragedy so much; just imagined Celestia believing her baby sister died when the elements cured her in her inevitable return and downfall. Not really, all they did was cure a dead shell with nothing in it, while it's real inhabitant is returning home with a INTERSTELLAR fleet
And of you believe that? How about you Fox? What do you think? 🤔😏
11672778
And it WILL CONTINUE! 😎
11672238
YUS!!! 😁😂🤗
11672364
Hence the real-life "comfort food"! 😂
Oh yeah, same here! 😎 UP YOURS QUACKOS! MONEY HUNGRY MOFOS!
11672262
YEAH, F ULTRA!
Reminds me of Speed Racer TNG, and the whole Gasless Engine. Lots of people would pay big money to not lose their most valuable item to sell.
11672732
She was on the moon for eight years, by her own counting. The exact number of years remaining was not revealed, but it was stated to be close to a thousand years.
11673430
glad everyone likes this!
Okay, time to re-read this whole thing!
The discussion of a mission to mars got me thinking. . . Okay, you can hibernate and reduce consumables, but what about radiation exposure? Have we dealt with that yet, and I just missed-or-forgot it? I mean, Luna's been exposed to every kind of solar and cosmic radiation for who-knows-how-long, right?
Took me a bit to get to these two chapters, but I enjoyed them; thanks for writing!
11675036 There are two possibilities from what they already have from Luna. Luna herself is protected by her insane regeneration and passive magical defences.
1) The photothaumic panels are atonic, unlike photvoltaic panels, they by default absorb all frequencies of radiation, including gamma and X-rays. However, they won't stop Galactic Cosmic Rays which are actually particles, protons and helium nuclei for the most part.
2) Mithril - It's basically solidified moonlight, and effectively a self sustaining force field that acts like a metal on a macroscopic scale. It is a perfect reflector, of particles as well as light, so so a thin film of mithril foil enclosing the habitat section will stop everything, including GCRs, more effectively than a dozen feet of lead.
On top of this, Luna has promised to develop defensive shields against nuclear bombs. It would be three ply:
1) A radiation shield, basically a projected surface that acts the same way as a photothaumic panel, feeding power into the other components.
2) Just outside that a macroscopic kinetic force shield that would block the blast wave and debris carried along with it.
3) the outermost layer would be a microscopic kinetic absorption field that would that would slow molecular motion, robbing the air impinging on it of heat and negating the firestorm.
It would normally form a dome over a city, running at standby power, only the radiation shield partially active, absorbing anything higher frequency than ultraviolet light, and charging thaumic accumulators. By default, when the radiation flash of a nuclear explosion impacts it, the radiation shield goes to full strength and full coverage, possibly due to light intensity reaching a critical level.
It converts that into mana, which is pumped into the other two shields, supplemented by the accumulators and any other thaumic power sources. They form a spherical shield enclosing the city that absorbs the follow-up blast wave and firestorm. They could also be triggered manually to stop a warhead that was trying to get inside the shields before detonating.
Obviously, the same technology could provide shields for a spacecraft.
11675602
👩🚀🚀🌒
I’d love to see how Princess Luna and the concept of Thaumics will affect Skylab (1973-1979) or the Space Shuttle Task Group (1968-1972). Will the new scientific discoveries force NASA engineers to go back to the drawing board and start over from scratch?
FYI, the final shuttle design was decided in March 1972. Construction on the Columbia began in 1975, completed in 1979, and had its maiden orbital flight in 1981.
Oh, nice. Thought to check on this because it came up in a conversation, and I see four chapters I've not read.
I don't suppose you could update the Spacebattles thread too? I'm more active there, after all.
11677836
All of that is, unfortunately, pretty realistic and how human beings view the wealthy and popular, never mind someone like Luna who is literally out of this world. There is a little doubt that a cult of worship would sprout up around her no matter how much she would try to discourage it.
Human beings to by themselves without Grace are pretty weak and pathetic at the end of the day.
Another great chapter! Can't wait to see more of our favorite moon pony.
Thanks SSF for another amazing chapter. I just recently stumbled upon this story under another stories Related tab and I've been instantly hooked. You Grammer and writing are nice and fluid, making the story an enjoyable read. The plot and realistic take of the situation with Luna arriving during this period of time is both entertaining and enjoyable to read. I'm excited to see future enstalments and see how the world will react when Luna actually arrives on earth. Thanks again for all the hard work and time you have put into this story thus far, and i wish you luck with future installments of this story. Cheers!
knowing what little we do, that cleaning spell will become the most widely used one by far if the energy costs are as low as implied
Awesome stuff to see more of this so soon after the last chapter too.
Oh “Big Pharma” are going to be lobbying like crazy over these techniques. Nuts to them I say.
Been following this story with great interest, and looking forward to the next chapter. Please bring her safely to Earth, and soon, SSF.
And yes, I know her being here is going to throw things out of whack in more than one way, but humanity will adapt. We have to adapt. Luna will be loved, will be hated, will be more than reviled, will be worshipped; we'll have action, we'll have drama. Comedy, tragedy, and tactical espionage action. Don't miss the exciting next chapter, same Bat-hour, same Bat-channel!
Hello sir!
I L O V E this story. It is logical, detailed, consistent, and very interesting. I could not ask for a better story.
However, I do have a small, personal request:
When you get more into the diplomatic and international affairs, could you pay a nice visit to CzechoSlovakia? They were invaded by the other communist countries just 2 years before the current events, for establishing a more Humane communism with greater freedom of speech, only to be betrayed and literally rolled over with tanks by their own allies. I find that not enough people talk about it.
I would imagine Luna would have some problems with that event in the inevitable future negotiations with the commies.
11685697 I did already mention it in passing, or rather Nixon did.