Dohnal stayed silent, leaning against the wall for a moment. He looked back down, then pulled away from the door, taking a few steps back as he waited for the door to open.
That came moments later when the heavy door opened, and Dohnal didn’t move an inch, seemingly waiting for it to completely open.
they’re coming. they’re coming.
That feeling again. Dohnal didn’t ignore it, but he didn’t take any action either. Instead, he continued as normal, until the door completely opened, and Dohnal could completely see the other person who he had been conversing with.
Dohnal could tell right away that this was a person who had been on their own for an undetermined amount of time. They almost seemed a bit wary, judging by the expression on his face. Dohnal, on the other hand, was a blank slate - his expression unreadable, hidden by the helmet he wore over his head.
There was yet another unnatural pause - Dohnal actually hadn’t spoken face to face with anyone for a long time. He hadn’t interacted with anything really, aside from the lone ‘Puppets’, who were few in numbers and sparse in distance.
After the pause, Dohnal finally spoke. “Finally, it was rather cold out here. Thank you for letting me in.”
Ro nodded faintly, closing the door behind Dohnal so that more of Selnu's air wouldn't get in. He could still swear he smelled something. "You're welcome. I'm Romeo Accord, xenobiologist and botanist." he introduced themself, figuring that it was, after all, the polite thing to do. "You don't need the suit in here, you know." they added after a moment, taking a breath and shifting their weight to their normal leg. "The air is the same as it always has been." thankfully. None of the life support systems had suffered any major issues, though he had had to replace a secondary air filter at one point. It hadn't been that big a deal, and hadn't taken long to do.
“Romeo Accord, nice to meet you.” Dohnal nodded. “I’ll reintroduce myself. Karel Dohnal - just call me Dohnal. Driver. Or I was.” He hadn’t found many working vehicles in some time. There was something wrong with the vehicles. At least the ones he had found - and he hadn’t bothered to check.
Dohnal paused at the mention of the suit. It was true, he didn’t need it on in here.
you only wear it to blend in.
Hesitantly, Dohnal removed the suit, starting with the helmet. What was under the suit was just Dohnal - just normal, human Dohnal. If not a bit paler than usual, though that could have just marked up to the lack of sunlight on Selnu, as a good portion of the expedition members experienced themselves the lack of light.
“Don’t know how long I had that thing on,” Dohnal muttered, though he had an estimate. A long while. He fiddled with the suit, working at removing the rest of it. He glanced around.
“Are you the only one here?”
At the question, Ro nodded a little. "My last station member left about a month ago." they replied. "He was going to go see if he could track down anyone else. I guess he failed, or he would have come back." Lindsey was probably dead; Ro knew that much. They didn't know how, or why, but Lindsey would have come back or sent someone if he had met anyone else. The fact that neither had happened meant that the man was likely dead. "It's…good to meet you, Dohnal." he wasn't sure what the proper protocol for this was. Bio decontamination?
“Hmm. I didn’t see anyone else out there when I was travelling.” Dohnal did see people, though. He had encountered one very close to the facility, actually - which Dohnal realized, was a bit worrying. Not for him, though..or at least not directly.
He tugged the large oxygen tank that had been fitted to his back on the suit. Most of the oxygen masks on Selnu were filters, meaning they filtered the air into breathable oxygen. The suit Dohnal wore on the other hand required a supply of oxygen.
As he set the tank down, relishing in the released weight from his body, there seemed to be almost a small hole by the bottom of the tank. Dohnal didn’t seem to notice. There also seemed to be something…dark surrounding the edges of the cavity. In the lighting, it was hard to tell what it was. It could just be markings on the oxygen tank itself.
Dohnal stretched. “You’ve been alone for quite a while, then.” He commented. “Must be hard.”
Ro nodded. "It's been…not great." he agreed in a quiet, matter of fact voice. "I've kept myself busy, though. I'm alright." he didn't know how many books and audiobooks they had gone through, both fact and fiction. He had learned a lot more than he had thought he would, but they had still yearned for some human company. Their eyes flicked to the tank, and his brows furrowed faintly. "Why a tank? The filters in the normal suits would have been enough, there's been no changes to the air quality in the past few months."
“Hmm, good, good.” Dohnal mumbled, then looked at the tank.
“Well, the facility I was at was kind of a unique situation where they didn’t have the normal suits..” He began. He was beginning to stretch the lie a little thin here. “This suit is not really…how do I put this…it’s not really supposed to be on Selnu, but I guess they brought it on here just in case. It’s kind of a suit designed more for planets that have low gravity and more toxic atmospheres. Toxic atmospheres that can’t really be filtered out normally,” he explained - that part was true at least.
“Anyways, the facility I was staying at didn’t have the normal suits, but they did have these, so I took one out when I travelled.” The lighting was starting to bother his eyes. He looked down, away from the lights - even if they were rather dim.
He nodded faintly, taking in Dohnal's information. "I see. Which station were you at, and was there anyone else there?" if there were other people around, perhaps they could travel? Safety in numbers, and all that. He stepped forward, glancing around the hallway. "It might be more comfortable, too, if we moved elsewhere other than the door." he almost added "it smells", but realized it had to just be his imagination. Still. He wasn't sure. "Come on." they started walking down the hallway, limping faintly.
“I don’t remember,” Dohnal simply said, hoping that answer would be good enough. “There was only the person who helped me.”
He began to trail behind Ro, albeit slowly. His eyes traced the corridors as he moved.
“You have a radio here?” He questioned.
"What was their name?" perhaps they could look them up in the database and see what base Dohnal had been at. "Yes, I do, though no one's responded for…months." he was careful to say "I". Dohnal was still the outsider here, after all, and Ro knew better than to trust strange people who showed up or contacted out of nowhere. Knew better than to trust anyone, really. They were careful not to touch the taser, not wanting to draw Dohnal's attention to it. After a moment, he paused to give Dohnal a moment to catch up; having someone walk behind them gave them anxiety, made their hands begin to shake from too many memories building up.
“Don’t remember,” Dohnal repeated. “It..must’ve been the fall I had. Still affected me.”
Dohnal nodded slightly. “Maybe I could take a look. I’ve got some experience in operating radios. Been lucky with them. Perhaps I’ll get someone to respond.” His eyes stared ahead - he didn’t seem to be looking at anything in particular. But as he caught up, his eyes flicked over to Ro - noting the slight shake in their hands. “Cold?” He questioned.
Ro let out a quiet sigh at the second "I don't remember". It would have been nice to know, after all. He shook his head a little bit. "No." They did not, however, explain why. It wasn't Dohnal's business and he didn't need to know. "And you will not be touching my radio without me in the room." He added after taking a moment to gather himself. "I am not required to trust you, Dohnal. Please do not expect me to. I've been alone for a month and I'm quite capable of managing alone." Even with a limp, he could walk fast enough to function.
“Hmm.” Dohnal drawled. “But you know, I’m very lucky. Šťastný. My pals would call me that, back on Earth. It means lucky. The radio offer’s always there.” And I’ve been alone for months, Dohnal almost added, but knew that would completely destroy the layer of lies he’d built.
you’re not alone.
“So,” he said after a moment. “Where are we going?”
He bit back a more vicious response than Dohnal's words merited. Maybe I have been alone for too long. "I did not say you couldn't use the radio. Only that I had to be in the room. On that subject, I've locked many of the main functions, you won't be able to do more than the basics." They kept walking, not looking at Dohnal as they moved through the dimly lit halls. "And I'm leading you to the dining room. I figured you're hungry, and it's a good place to talk."
Dohnal’s eyes briefly hardened, but he said nothing, continuing to follow Ro. Knowing that the main functions were locked..well, at least it was better finding out now than later. And really..would that be much of a problem for us?
“Okay. Makes sense. Sounds good.” He didn’t say anything else after that confirmation.
Ro was quiet as he led Dohnal into the dining room, turning on the lights and heading over to where the food was kept. "Here we are." He said, pulling out something for themself. "Most of these are dry packs, you can add water if you like. Later you can use the kitchens and actually cook something if you like, I don't care."
Dohnal flinched at the sudden amount of light. He held his hands together and walked forwards to where Ro had said the food was.
He looked over them, choosing a small pack of his own.
“You said you wanted to talk here,” Dohnal didn’t look up, focusing on getting the package opened. “What about?”
He glanced over at Dohnal, considering. "Why you're here, and what I should do now that you are." They replied, sitting down at one of the tables and beginning to eat. It had been a while since they'd had company. Of any sort. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea, though he didn't know.
“How am I supposed to know either of those things?” Dohnal mumbled - perhaps a thought better off staying in his head. He walked towards the tables, finally managing to open the packet. Pausing as he flicked his tongue out and tasted it.
we can’t eat this.
Dohnal briefly pulled back, then moved to the tables - before sitting down across from Ro. “I’m travelling, put simply. Trying to figure things out, what’s going on.” He set the food down, keeping it close to him.
"I see. Have you interacted with any other people? Seen anyone other than the person who saved you, whose name you can't remember, and me?" It had been seven months and he needed to know if there were any other people, if they had any hope at all of establishing contact with other people. He ate quietly, relieved to be off their feet and no longer walking.
Dohnal supposed it wouldn’t hurt if they delved into the truth a little bit. “Well. I will admit, I saw one person. About ten or twenty minutes before I got here.” He wasn’t lying about that part. There was an individual, just maybe not what Ro was talking about. “We didn’t make contact, though.”
He sat up a little. "What did they look like? Was there a working vehicle nearby? The closest station is…a few miles away, it's a long walk. Shorter if you take the tunnels, but then you risk cave-ins and such." They took another bite of food, studying Dohnal with interest in their gaze. The idea of there being another person was…a lot, but were they coming here? Who were they? What was going on?
“I don’t know,” Dohnal said, his answer similar to the previous ‘I don’t remembers’. It was almost as if that was code for ‘I don’t want to answer.’ He attempted to bite at his food again.
this isn’t for us.
“All I’ll say is, they weren’t..they weren’t like a ‘person.’ They didn’t act right. So I stayed away.”
They frowned, eyebrows pulling together. "What do you mean, they weren't like a person? There's no aliens here, we haven't found any evidence. I'm a xenobiologist, I've been kept in the loop about this sort of thing. There's some evidence in the deeper caves that there could have been something alive here at one point, but even if there still was, the odds of it being humanoid are…" They trailed off, thinking. "Astronomical. Humanoid shapes are not, in terms of evolution, the most…. convenient. Or strong. Even on Earth, humans were at a disadvantage in terms of our capabilities." He hadn't meant to say so much, but this was a topic he enjoyed talking about.
Dohnal decided to give up on trying to eat anything right now. He listened to the conversation - actually finding some of the things interesting. “It looked like a person.” He said afterwards. “Humanoid, human like. I didn’t get close enough to inspect it - but it definitely was a human. It moved..stiffly. Like a zombie.”
Xenobiologist. Ro had told him that before, but Dohnal didn’t think much of it. Now, though? He put forth an immediate question.
“So say that there is life on this planet. Alien life.” He leaned forwards, placing his chin in his hand. “Would it be possible for them to be..parasites?” His eyes flickered with newfound interest. Perhaps the most he’d shown during this entire conversation.
(gtg to bed soon, goodnight!)
"A zombie is not technically…scientifically possible." he said slowly, considering the things Dohnal had said, drumming their fingers on the tabletop for a moment. "As for parasitic life…it's possible, but only if there are larger things for them to feed off of. Parasites alone cannot survive. Plus, the category of "life" is a broad one; are we talking intelligent life, like you or I, or are we talking just…something living? Because microbes live, and if they are not of Earth origin they can be classified as alien life, but I don't think that's what you mean when you reference alien life. A parasite, again, requires something to feed off of, whether that's a plant, or another creature, or…or some other sort of growing thing. Parasites, by definition, cannot sustain themselves and must therefore be sustained. I don't know how parasites would have evolved on this planet, as thus far we haven't found the kind of things they would need to…to feed on, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. Very small parasites, for instance, likely could survive in this sort of planet, but they still need some form of energy source, even if it were something as tiny as an Earth snail, or even an insect. Larger parasites, such as the kind on Earth that lived inside of humans or cows or other mammals, are less likely, since there isn't anything big enough to sustain them, not that we've found thus far." they gestured slightly with their hands as they spoke, eyes alight with interest. This was something they enjoyed talking about, the kind of what-ifs and "consider"'s that their mind thrived off of.
((Goodnight! Also I genuinely enjoyed reading that))
Dohnal intently listened. He hummed to himself, having learned things he didn’t know of - and improve his own understanding of Selnu itself. He nodded, taking in the information.
“So say if this was a unique type of parasite. It grabs ahold of the brain functions,” Dohnal lifted one of his hands in a ‘grabbing’ motion, “and it is able to control the host. Is there anything on Earth that can do that?”
try not to be specific. you’ll put us in danger.
(thanks!)
Ro hummed for a moment. "Well, first that would depend on the size. Would it be a tiny parasite, perhaps, for argument's sake, the size of my thumb?" they held up their hand in demonstration. "Or are we talking about something the size of my forearm, instead?" he gestured vaguely at their forearm. "Because the responses would be very different for both. For a small one, some sort of medication would perhaps work best, just like we've used on Earth for centuries to get rid of tapeworms and the like. If that didn't work, then other things would have to be figured out that were as noninvasive as possible, since no one wants to go rooting through someone's brain in search of a parasite. If all other measures failed, surgery would be done to remove it. For a larger one, surgery would probably be the first thing done, since it would be easier to locate."
“Mm..now what if the parasite were to change? It may have entered the body with the intention of being a parasitic life-form…” Stop. “..But for some reason, the parasite changes within the host’s body. Instead, it becomes something like…symbiosis. Instead of the parasite feeding at the expense of its host, it is now both benefiting from the relationship. Would it still be removed from the body then?”
He considered that for a long moment, weighing the possibilities. "I'm not sure. I think it would depend on, ah, the host body? The human, I suppose, and whether or not they wanted it removed. I don't think that most people on Earth would welcome parasites, even symbiotic ones, with open arms." He replied slowly, tapping their finger idly as they considered the possibilities. "Assuming the life form is sentient and can communicate, I don't exactly know. Bodily autonomy and consent is important and I think that would play a role, but it would also then depend on politics and the government and what they chose to do about it."
