Name:
Erin Lovell
Age:
32
Gender:
Female
Species:
Myth tells of the Huygenians as the ultimate result of a series of events that start even long before the first wave of human expansion into its outer colonies. When Earth realized that its human population might soon grow beyond what it can sustain, one of the popular proposals were to expand human territory into the remaining 70% of the planet's surface that remained largely uninhabited by man. There was a really good reason why no people lived in the oceans, though: humans are generally incapable of staying alive underwater for prolonged periods.
There were, at a time, extensive surgical and genetic engineering attempts to derive a variation on the typical human that was compatible with that environment. Those events, even if existent, at least remained largely unpublicized. Also reasonably, because mankind caught onto a distraction later on, forgot about the population problem and instead spent a considerable amount of time being busy colonizing its corner of the galaxy.
Those attempts that "didn't really take off" back then resurfaced when mankind came across the watery world of Huygens IV, the third of planets orbiting a red dwarf not that far from Earth's sun. The Huygenians today are the descendants of the members of the first communities dispatched from earth.
Their most prominent difference from humans was their respiratory and cardiovascular systems: instead of the lungs and heart found in man, Huygenians had both what appeared to be lungs and gills that they breathed with - allowing for respiration both under water and in air, relying on the other when one was not available. On both sides of the neck and the sides of the torso are two series of gills, covered with flaps that are extensions of the skin. The gills were a trait that was transplanted over from the genes of a number of amphibian species of earth (instead of any kind of fish, which is the common misconception). From those species they also inherited the three-chambered heart, allowing for the regulation of blood flow between respiratory organs and systemic circulation.
Some Huygenians are born with sharp teeth - purely a mostly superficial side-effect of their engineering (this has more than once in history become some sort of a cosmetic trend, however). Huygenian skin is usually of a similar texture to human skin, with some variation in pigments that may give them a slightly different hue, most often in the green-blue-purple part of the spectrum, and also sometimes a slight orange tint.
Aside from those, Huygenian physiology is much identical to that of humans. Strictly speaking, they are a human subspecies - their genetic composition are (quite surprisingly) compatible, and mixed offspring may posses part of or all of the traits of either parent. The gills and heart seem to be but phenotypical variations, although quite dramatic ones.
A rather young society, Huygenian culture still ties heavily back to that of it's predecessor; which means language and customs are largely inherited. The Huygenian culture is notably homogenous, owing to their common origination as a handful of settlements from Earth. However, the homeworld Huygens IV now itself hosts a diverse population, with its vast surface cities at the poles and the submerged and subterranean constructions inhabited by species originating from the nearby systems and further out in the galaxy. Huygenians and humans are usually regarded by other species to be very closely related or sometimes even under the same category; although a clear distinction is usually made in both Huygenian and human communities; quite evident in the colloquial expressions of "air/water breather" with which they refer to the species, and references to the "fish-people of Huygens", which sometimes carries a derogatory context.
Appearance:
(placeholder approximate reference image.)
Position Applying For:
onboard/field medical service
Personality:
A first impression consists mostly of the observation of the stark contrast between her appearance and her composed demeanor. She is seen to be quite quiet and not unnecessarily talkative, yet also turns out to be quite a pleasant person in conversation. A friendly, cheerful attitude, and a slightly quirky but mostly enjoyable sense of humour.
It is, however, the consensus amongst most of the people who know her well that those traits make her come across more as eerie than approachable. A likely factor is how she seems to maintain that attitude regardless of circumstances. It is either an outstanding ability to cope with all levels of stress, or just an utter lack of a sense of crisis that allows for that. Only occasionally does she lose her cool: mostly that entails getting overly excited over some alien anatomy, a scenario mostly found perplexing by those around her who are less enthusiastic about similar topics. Some other times she panics. If she panics it is usually because there really is given sufficient reason to panic.
Much of her self-confidence stems from her profession, which she believes she does outstandingly well. "One of the best" are the words she'll use, but considering the blurry nature of the definitions of every word that the phrase contains it is advised to not assign any value to that claim. She also claims to adapt a strictly no-nonsense attitude towards work. That is: while she exercises the utmost caution and care and values highly the success of every single procedure she carries out, there is also nothing preventing her from trying to start a conversation about sandwiches while having her gloves soaked in blood halfway through treating a trauma wound.
Her outlook is generally observed to be a core of cynicism and gritty misogyny coated by a thick layer of a mixture of aplomb and occasional childish cheer; although another popular theory is the other way around in which she constrains her nature as a hopeless optimist by balancing it with the frequent proposals of misleadingly oxymoronic statements with the intended but thoroughly un-meant philosophical overtone.
Also likely worth noting is her questionable morality. Self-proclaimed "fan of the universe and all life within it", yet it wouldn't be that difficult for one to realize that her idea of the love for life differs from the general sympathy towards individuals but instead leans towards a general fondness towards anything physiologically interesting. She would easily admit that most of the reason she doesn't attempt to dissect any previously unencountered creature she sees is due to the fact that a living organism is so much more exciting than a dead one.
History:
From a young age Erin knew quite clearly that she had extraordinary talent in dealing with all things living. That is mostly because she considered herself to have acquired a fair amount of success in plucking leaves from plants and combusting critters under a magnifying glass.
That at least meant that enrolling in the specific courses that would pave the path to her later career was an easier choice for her than it was for most people. Medicine was hard enough already when you only had one planet and one sentient species to worry about. An average human body following the model of the medical education of the old days would have been long past its prime by the time its intelligence had a good enough grasp at everything. The alternatives were to specialize, or just to start at it very early.
Throughout her entire academic life she was probably best known for poor attendance and a tendency to attempt innovation under the most untimely of circumstances. Yet she actually accomplished much during her years that she now refers to as the decade-long path of trial and error: If her talent was nonexistent when she falsely believed otherwise in her younger years, a genuine one emerged in the time following. She did the hard part of the studies around as hard as everyone else, but found herself with an edge in the relative ease with which she could grasp an intuitive understanding of just about any biological system she laid eyes upon. That talent she could not be more thankful for in the two later years spent in the unforgiving forgery that is an emergency room on the local space station.
So what does one do when ones has a degree that provides proof for one's adeptness at handling the intricacies of physiology, has the anatomies of about every prominent species in one's cosmic neighbourhood crammed into one's brain; but is not content with sitting in an office and dealing with townsfolk caught colds everyday for the rest of one's life?
Why, find a spaceship and get onto it, obviously.
Strengths:
- Self-evident: medical knowledge and training. Particularly adept in the treatment of trauma wounds of various kinds.
- The reputed capability of quick learning and improvisation, and outstanding tenacity which helps greatly when operating under stress.
- Received rudimentary training in the use of firearms and other combat skills. Specifically took up practicing martial arts after being advised that it was beneficial to her health and all. An expert in no way, but she's probably picked up enough to be able to hold her ground at least for a while against less well-trained opponents, in the hope of it being enough for her to find an opening to escape things.
Weaknesses:
- Not exactly inexperienced, but she does have a shorter history of serving aboard spacecraft than most of the rest of the crew.
- Her adopting the "how hard can it be" view on many things keeps her motivated and relatively happy, with the side effect of occasionally catastrophic outcomes.
- A bit on the inherited weaknesses: the nature of their kind as a young species and a result of artificial engineering means that there are several components in their physiology that are simply not as elegantly structured as those selected by nature. Huygenians breathe both air and water, yet does neither particularly efficiently; which reflects as a generally lower capability to sustain demanding physical activities for prolonged periods.
- Also, the nerve bundles that run along and under the gills.
Other:
- As most practitioners of medicine will tell you, an extensive comprehension of the physiology of a few dozen species will leave little time for much else in your academic life. Leave out the medical training, and there isn't much of anything else within her knowledge that would come across as impressive. Even when she's not outright ignorant of it, much of her general knowledge is littered with erroneous accounts and misconceptions.
- That also applies to knowledge on the history, cultures, and mannerisms of the alien races. So while her job is to try to save patients' lives, she also has this tendency to accidentally offend them to make her job that much more difficult.
- Yes, medical knowledge means one knows about how it messes up your health, but that doesn't negate the fact that it also makes one's brain temporarily happy. She had already been smoking for at least six years by the time she was legally allowed to first do so. She stopped for a while, only because the need to maintain a good image in the face of officials that would be crucial to her graduation. Then the indulgence worsened exponentially once it was certain that the original goal no longer mattered. After a couple of years on that she has proclaimed herself on her second try at quitting, which - as could probably be noticed - isn't going very well so far.
- Much the same mindset with her fondness of alcohol, but this is much more suppressed because of the awareness that she couldn't afford to lose her fine muscle control. Currently kept at quite healthy levels.
- While she is more than happy to meddle with the organs and tissues of all kinds of lifeforms, she's strongly averse to any unnecessary modifications to her own body. As she'll tell you every time it's mentioned, "creation messed it up bad enough already". In particular, "no-one touch my nervous system, thank you".
##APPLICANT SIGNATURE!:
I, the undersigned, hereby state that all information filled in above is truthful and correct to the best of my knowledge. I understand that false information could lead to my immediate disqualification of employment and acknowledge that I am not allowed to pursue legal action against Belarus Enterprises as such.
Signature: ____
Erin C. Lovell____
Date: ___
29 September 2617____
