"Thanks Trinrst." Krii managed to reply, then doubled over again. He felt like he couldn't really speak anymore withough regurgitating his breakfast everywhere, so he simply gave the Tezcan a universally friendly thumbs up to show that he would be okay... so long as everybody asked their questions quickly.
"I'll keep an eye on him, Trinrst." Natanga added. She didn't really want to swim over to Vito with him, so sticking around to look after Krii was a much more favourable option.
"And, although I doubt that it is possible, if we think of a good solution after we hear your clues I'll come and tell you."
"Can this thing, Specimen B, walk on land?"
"Specimen B currently lacks the respiratory structures required to live on land, and even if it had such biological equipment an adult's exoskeleton is too well adapted to the high density of the ocean floor. Should it even try to walk on land it would not be long before it's legs would snap under it's own bulk."
"Specimen B's young do not have this problem, for their exoskeletons are not yet fully developed, so they are capable of walking on land... However they must still be within a body of water to breathe. A juvenile Specimen B can hold it's breathe for approximately four minutes."
Vito heard the answer but was now too distracted to object to somebody else wasting their questions. Unlike Paola he was not terrified of the water, and so there was nothing to stop his face from blushing an awkward bright red. His typically overbearing demeanour faltered, and his usually brilliant mind was stalling horribly, like a car that couldn't shift gears from 'desire for teenage romance' to 'desire to ace this impossible assignment'. That was a particularly clumsy analogy, but a good example of how suddenly terrible he'd become at thinking straight.
~... she specifically said 'I don't want to let you down' rather than 'I don't want to let the group dow- wait, why am I thinking about stuff like that? Augh, stopstopstopstopohwowshe'ssobeautifulandisstillholdingmyhan-AUGH!~
He
really hoped that there was not a mind reader present.
~... Focus! Focus! She's still talking!~
He heard most of her questions, though his responses indicated that he too was quite far from the top of his game.
"Uh, well, the, uh, plants are probably nothing important... maybe parasitic, or, er, just flowering algae... It's a good question though, I can understand why you'd want to ask it!" His ancestors were no doubt spinning in their graves over his attempt to make her feel better about such a foolish question, but Vito wasn't exactly thinking about them right now.
"Maybe the, uh, bodies is a better lookin-I MEAN question to go with..." ~Augh! So stupid! So awkward! What on Pax is wrong with me?!~ To be fair, asking about the infected bodies becoming a potential food source would be a good line of questioning, Vito was more commenting on his own response.
Unlike Paola, Vito did see Trinrst approaching, and he immediately became incredibly self-conscious. After being the most demanding member of the team he couldn't possibly be seen to be wasting his time flirting with Paola, even if she was totally gorgeo-
~Stop that!~
Okay, think. What did they know so far?
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>RECAP</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;">
SCENARIO: Nominate which of the following species will survive on mostly aquatic world where landmasses are currently forming and the oceans are receding.
- In ten thousand years a small asteroid hits this world. It contains an alien virus that wipes out approximately 90% of life on this planet. The virus is airborne in nature, and completely unlike anything that the lifeforms of this world have ever encountered, so the effects are devastating. After less than a hundred years the virus has nothing left to infect, and dies out.
SPECIMEN A: a carnivorous cetacean. They travel and hunt in small packs, focusing on taking down large prey for big meals, and they must travel up to the surface every few hours for air. In this era, they are towards the top of the food chain, though they are no match for larger predators.
- The youngest of the three species. It is deemed by CHARWIN to be 'very young'.
- Due to it's need to come to the surface to breathe it is highly likely that this species falls prey to the airborne virus and becomes extinct.
SPECIMEN B: a scavenger decapod crustacean. It feeds on dead matter that falls to the ocean floor, and uses it's pincers and exoskeleton to ward away predators. They are technically at the bottom of the food chain due to their diet.
- The oldest of the three species.
- Incapable of living on land in the adult stage of it's life.
- Capable of moving, but not breathing, on land in the juvenile stage of it's life.
SPECIMEN C: is a herbivorous cephalopod. It feeds on seaweed and various other forms of marine algae, and can camouflage when it is threatened. They are quite low down on the food chain.
- Neither the oldest nor the youngest of the three species.</div>
What could he talk to Trinrst about to make it seem like he hadn't just become a drooling moron in the presence of a pretty girl? He couldn't steal Paola's question, so he needed to think of something on his own... Specimen C was so far flying under the radar, perhaps he should ask about that? But what he really needed was a definitive answer, something more like what Krii had asked or what Paola had in mind. Natanga and Flaera had wasted their questions on pointless trivia, the age of the species did not matter and knowing that Specimen B cannot currently survive out of water long enough to make any real difference was useless. She should have asked her question in the future tense, as in '
will Specimen B
ever walk on land' - this was
evolutionary biology after all, not everything was going to happen within a single generation...
Hm, perhaps he should ask something about the mutation rate? About diet change? What if he asked a more direct question, like what the effects of the virus on Specimen B or C were? Argh, too many questions, and it was so difficult to focus when he had Paola looking at him with her exquisite silver eyes-
~No! Come on Vito, focus!~
))
