Chapter 79 - Rubilaya (Acclimatising)
After completing further security checks, which primarily consisted of retina scans for the whole family, Sordd escorted Mimi, T'Shahel, and Avarak to their guest quarters, which were located at the stern of Deck 5, corridor A-12-A. They had been allocated two twin cabins which were situated next to each other, with a connecting door. The standard guest quarters were not the largest quarters available, but they were sufficient for the family's needs. Each cabin consisted of a main living area, sitting area, replicator station, work station, meditation area, bedroom, and restroom.
Sordd was more than aware that both he and his children would find the Vulcan environment on the ship to be more agreeable than that found on Earth. He could not say the same for Mimi. For a number of months, she had been following a training programme to prepare her for moving to Vulcan. As part of this training programme, she had increased her already packed fitness regime; extra sessions in the swimming pool, running, weight training, floor exercises, and Vulcan martial arts. (It was just as well she had moved down to working part time!) Sordd had taken the time to teach her some meditation techniques, to assist her with breathing rhythms. Mimi had also spent time getting used to drinking larger volumes of water! The whole family had been involved with teaching her the Vulcan language and some Vulcan customs. Of course this went both ways as Mimi gave them an insight into some of the more colloquial terms humans used, as well as exposing them to aspects of human culture that Vulcans' living in the Embassy would not be exposed to under normal circumstances.
While Mimi was taking a round of saline solution, to help prevent dizzy spells and fainting, Sordd adjusted the environmental controls in their guest quarters. When Mimi moved into the Vulcan Embassy, he had programmed the environmental parameters in their accommodation to match those in San Francisco, where she had lived for a number of years. In the following months, the temperature in their accommodation had gradually increased, in logical increments, to begin to match that which was found on Vulcan. (Vulcan has no axial tilt, so there is no natural progression of the seasons from north to south and back again. Instead, the seasonal changes consist of temperatures ranging from 43.3ºC (110ºF) in the 'winter' to in excess of 65.5ºC (150ºF) in the 'summer.' Fortunately, they were going to arrive at the beginning of 'winter' which would aid Mimi a little.) He set the parameters in their cabin to pick up from where they had left off at the Embassy. As Vulcan has a thinner atmosphere than Earth, Sordd also programmed the oxygen concentration in the room to gradually decrease until it was comparable to that found on the rest of the ship, and therefore on Vulcan. As long as Mimi was on Vulcan, she would have to take triox shots to compensate for the thinner atmosphere, although in time the dose required would decrease as her body acclimatised. (One of the drawbacks of being able to travel at warp speed was that the body did not have time to acclimatise, a journey that would have taken months, now only took a few days; this was a problem every species in the Galaxy faced, not just humans and Vulcans.)
Sordd winced inwardly. He was well aware of Mimi's love for the water; she had grown up beside the sea, and in her adult life she had never been far from it. She also seemed to enjoy being out in the rain whenever the opportunity afforded, Sordd didn't understand why... Vulcan was going to be a sharp contrast to Earth. There was a short 'rainy season' where the majority of the planet's average rainfall of 655mm fell during a heavily concentrated period of time, the six weeks immediately following summer's end. At least Mimi would be arriving at the start of the rainy season, which she would find agreeable.
Sordd left the gravity setting in the room at 1.4G. It would not be wise for Mimi to have to deal with going from a 1G environment to a 1.4G environment every time they left their accommodation. The G-suit Mimi was wearing under her Vulcan robes was helping to counteract some of the effects in the change in gravity she was experiencing. She would have to wear the G-suit for some months, as opposed to the children who would only need to wear theirs for a few days. (Vulcan children wear G-suits due to the fact that they have not attained the mental disciplines required to control their entire homeostatic system. You may be thinking how on Earth could Mimi cope with wearing a G-suit as well as Vulcan robes in such a hot environment? Well the material used for making these particular G-suits was specially developed for humans travelling to desert planets. As well as assisting with G force changes, they also have a cooling effect.)
After Mimi competed taking the saline solution, she took a shot of triox to help with the lower concentrations of oxygen in the ship, and then the family made their way to the observation deck...
Notes
Thank you Kehlan, for patiently trying to teach me how to use a ;
